Velvet V

Lazily turning her face sideways on her pillow, Beatriz reads the digital clock.

It is 2:12 PM.

She counts.

Was it ten or twelve? No, it was twelve, she is almost sure. Those were twelve orgasms in a stretch of 2.5 hours. A record set.

Putting her reading aside, Beatriz then grabs her purse to light up a smoke - no matter that her room is starting to acquire that distinctive cigarette scent as of late. She expels the smoke out in little, controlled puffs which create an array of little doughnuts in the air.

Feeling lethargic, she uses her coffee cup to collect the falling ashes, only then she does she attend her constantly vibrating cell phone. There are several missed calls, voice messages, and texts pending.

She searches down her contact list to find Carmen’s number. She must pass by a dozen others contacts, some of which she thinks that she must delete. Mostly from one night stands which promise a dour forecast for development.

-“Hello Carmen? Hi, listen I really very much need to talk to you. Today if you can….let’s meet at the mall in an hour….okay at the food court…see you soon.”

Collecting her aching body off the bed, Beatriz ambles to her closet for something to wear that day. This resembles the Los Angeles dumpster. Mounds of orphaned shoes are piled in disarray, the matching pair lost in the chaos.

Excavating through the rubble to eventually reunite a pair, she then wonders what on earth to wear.

Too much stuff to choose from, yet there is nothing remotely interesting. Seeing that she is out of clean underwear, she makes a mental note to shop for more of those, as she goes commando for the day.

She avoids looking at the pile of pending laundry. Way too daunting a task, as far as it has accumulated.

She then decides that a good project will be to convert a small room into a walk-in closet, or at least carpet the flooring with matching pairs of shoes, in not such a steep pile.


Embracing Carmen, Beatriz asks if she is hungry.

-“I could use some coffee if you’d like, I’m okay. Girl, you reek of cigarette smoke! I didn’t know you smoked.”

-“Oh, it’s fairly recent. I go out a lot with some friends, and they smoke, so I just kind of copied them to sort of fit in…you know?
To seem cool and sophisticated I suppose.
Oh, but I don’t smoke a whole box of them. It’s just a passing fad I guess.” Beatriz said wearing a weak smile.

-“Hmm last time I saw you, you were crying about a broken heart, and I gave you directions to that witch doctor. You looked heartbroken then, but girl now I have to say you don’t look much better off. There is something almost haunted in your eyes. Are you okay?” Carmen asks with concern.

-“Let’s walk to get some coffee, I’m starved!

Perhaps the mall is not such a good place to talk at Carmen; it is too noisy and crowded, and even as I walk by the window stores I feel the urge to consume more.
If I find a pair of shoes that I fall in love with – shoes specially, I will even forgo making a payment on other things, in order to acquire those.
It is as if I had no will to resist them!” Beatriz said in a feverish note.

-“Since when has this smoking and compulsive shopping has taken over?” Carmen asks with curiosity.

-“Hmm…I don’t know…just about the last time we’ve seen each other, a month I suppose. Carmen let’s step outside for a smoke, what I need to tell you is something of a delicate sort. It’s too noisy here!” Beatriz urges as they walk rapidly to a bench outside of this mall.

-“What is it Beatriz? Tell me everything.” Carmen asks with genuine concern.

-“Something is constantly watching me.

Often I wake up and I feel something pressuring me down, and my body feels immobilized. I wasn’t sure at the beginning, but lately I’ve taken to sleeping with the lamp on. In the dark, as I was falling asleep, I felt chills run down my thigh, as I felt the weight of something on my side- seating on the bed.” Beatriz said with desperation animating her face.

-“Besides the smoking and the shopping, are you having any other strange impulses?” Carmen inquires.

Looking downcast, Beatriz confesses. –“ Well,I drink, and party a lot, and frankly can't summon the will to clean up my place. In fact I need to shop for new underwear now to have something to wear.

But, also I’ve become a nymphomaniac. My body takes over with an overpowering need to copulate. It’s like a drug I must consume, and the more I get, the more I want!

I’ve become…an orifice - a receptacle without will or reason of any sort.

But last night, something truly scary happened; I called you because I am truly scared.”



To be continued…