I Had A Goat With No Nose

Worthy Opponents (part 3)

Tasha climbed into the junker, trying to put as little weight on the floor of the car as she could, afraid she’d fall through to the street. As he walked around the back to the driver’s side, she noticed that his door was locked, so she leaned over to unlock it for him. It was only polite. For as tall as he was, there was a sort of grace about him as he folded himself into the front seat, picking up a pair of gloves from underneath him and throwing them into the back. She liked his car, she decided. It was well worn and felt like an old soul, with its dark, ratty interior. She ran her hand over the cracking leather of the front seat, liking how it continued all the way over to his door. Tasha reached down to find a seatbelt, but came up empty handed. She looked over at Connor, who had been quietly watching her search.

“Yeah, there aren’t any seatbelts, you’re just going to have to trust that I’m not going to drive us into oncoming traffic.” He put the key in the ignition, then grabbed a few wires hanging from the steering column, twisting them together before turning the key.

“Comforting,” she responded, turning a little and folding her left leg under herself, trying to cushion her ass against the spring threatening to escape from the seat. They had been sitting quietly in the rumbling car for a few minutes, and Tasha started to fidget nervously, wondering why they weren’t still going anywhere. She pulled her phone out of her back pocket, checking the clock on the front. Connor noticed and turned fully to face her, pulling his right leg up against him, wrapping his arms around this knee.

“We have to wait a while for the belts to warm up. If I go too soon they’ll get ripped to shreds. BUT. In the meantime…” He reached across Tasha’s lap, causing her to start a little bit, to grab something from under her seat. He started flipping through an extremely worn black CD case, grabbing a plain silver disc, slipping it into the portable CD player taped to the dashboard. He grinned as he pressed play, obviously waiting for her response. The sound of guitars filled the space, and she smiled, leaning her head against the window and laughing a little as Jeff Mangum told her that when she was young, she was the king of carrot flowers. She quietly sang along, eyes closed and a look of sheer satisfaction on her face.

“You know the words. Like all of them.” Tasha opened one eye and looked at him.

“And?”

“I don’t know. I just… None of my friends have even heard of them. And you know all the words. It’s just… nice.” He shifted himself on the seat back to a suitable driving position and shifted the car into gear. It roared and protested a little as he let up on the clutch and pushed on the gas, moving into second as they continued down the street. Track two faded in and Connor absently leaned over and pressed “Next,” then looked over at Tasha.

“Sorry, do you mine if I skip? This one’s my favorite.” Tasha felt ridiculous smiling as much as she had tonight, but she pulled up the side of her mouth and nodded, telling him it was her favorite, too.

“Not gonna lie, we’re kind of freaking me out,” he laughed. She chuckled to herself and watched his profile passing under the street lights. He wasn’t conventionally handsome, really. His nose was a little big and round, his cheeks fuller than would seem appropriate for his body, curls gently framing very noticeable ears. For some reason, though, it just all seemed to fit with his easy personality.

“What,” he said, realizing she was staring at him.

“Nothing.” She turned back to the front, pretending to be interested in the houses they were passing.

“No, you were staring at me. You were drinking in my rugged features, imagining what our children would look like. Hopefully they’d have your nose, though. I wouldn’t wish this on any other children.” She turned to him in mock horror

“I was not. I was memorizing your face so I could describe it to the police sketch artist after they find me tied up in a basement in Excelsior.”

“I’m hurt. Really. I would never leave you in a basement in Excelsior. I’d kill you and drag your body to Lake Minnetonka. I’m not dumb enough to leave you able to give a statement.”

“How do you think you’d do it?” she said, bringing her right leg up to rest on her left knee.

“Well, there’s always blunt head trauma, ritualistic decapitation, gunshot wounds, but those are boring…” She laughed as he counted them off on his fingers, keeping his left hand on the wheel, fumbling a little as he made a turn. “And then there’s my personal favorite, poisoning. Preferably with Iocane powder.”

“Well, it is tasteless and odorless.” Tasha laughed when he tried to look over at her and ended up veering into the next lane. “Watch it there, Earnhardt.” She pointed to the road ahead of them. “I’d rather not die on a quest for fast-food Tex-Mex.”

“Well, what kind of quest would you prefer to die on? We can try it out after we get our food, I can merge on the expressway in the path of a semi or something.” As odd as their conversation was, there was something about it that just flowed, felt completely natural to both of them.

“Hmmm. I wouldn’t mind dying on a quest for calamari.” She tapped her chin and tilted her head towards the ceiling.

“Fried squid? You’d die for fried squid? I expected something more decadent, like strawberry bisque, or the world’s best chocolate chip cookie or something.” Tasha sat straight up in her seat and glared at Connor.

“NO! No. No cookies. I would die on a quest to avoid the world’s best chocolate chip cookie.” She crossed her arms over her chest and turned back to the road, looking out the corner of her eye at Connor, who had gone rigid, his eyes wide and a nervous frown on his face. He took his right hand of the wheel and licked his pointer finger, making a check mark in the air, moving swiftly into his best Joan Crawford impression.

“Note to self: no chocolate chip cookies. No more chocolate chip cookies, ever!” Tasha laughed, glad the potentially uncomfortable situation had been diffused.

posted by emily @ 1:49 AM