With a Danish
by DeMisty Bellinger
It wasn't hidden, exactly, but kept in a place where she wouldn't be expected to look: a photograph of Roger, naked and supine, looking at the camera without surprise. Who is this young man, displayed with a head full of thick hair? His body is almost hairless, save for the pubic area, where rough hair embeds his penis (neither soft, nor erect). His untrimmed beard and his eyes, framed with horn rimmed glasses, contrasted sharply with the pale, hairless skin of his chest and arms. He's not round yet—doesn't have that pouch that Roger pats every time he bares it—but she can see it forming.
Holding this picture, she realizes that someone else not only snapped it, but she or he took it to be developed. This is before digital cameras! The person who developed this had to see Roger, too, with his one knee bent towards the sky, the other flat against the rug, in someone's house she did not know. His penis was not hard, but appeared to be getting there. Did the idea of the picture being took arouse him? Of it being developed?
Holding the picture slightly away from her face, because her eyes were aging, she noted that it was rare for her to see Roger fully nude. Sometimes, she'd catch him in the shower, but those moment were brief. Roger always wore something. But here he was, reading comfortably without clothes, eating a Danish from a saucer.
She put the picture back.
What an amazing piece. The narrator poses only two questions, but you have to go away from this story asking a million questions about the million questions that are not being asked.
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I agree with JLD, and I sympathise with the fog of new motherhood. Been there! Fave
such an interesting moment that you captured here!
Wonderful work, especially from a sleep deprived new mom!
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