Baby
Skye Battles
4.7.15
It was the summer of 1979 and the desert was as hot as disco. I was visiting my kooky aunt, Amy, in her summer home just outside of Palm Springs. She was loaded and since I didn’t have any cousins, or siblings, she spoiled me. Every Sunday, she would host a pool party brunch where everyone would get extremely silly and solicit sex. I was usually left unattended so I would venture out into the desert with two water bottles, a camera and a magnifying glass. It was the first Sunday of the summer and I was watching TV on aunt Amy’s bed as she got dressed. She crossed the room to her vanity that was beside the sliding glass doors leading to the pool. The carpet was a pale khaki that contrasted her sun kissed legs. She was wearing a blood orange bathing suit with a mesh lounge cover up draped over. I turned the volume down on the TV as she put metal and gold bracelets on,
“You look beautiful.”
“Aw, sweetie,” she paused to clear her tar ridden lungs,
“Thank you, some day you’ll be able to wear stuff like this.”
I watched her fix her make up and then go out to the pool for a smoke. No one was here yet but she looked anxious. She was stunning in the parched wind, legs dangling in the cool blue. I turned the TV off and took a seat beside her. She turned to me, blowing smoke into my virgin hair,
“Have I ever told you about my friend Bertha’s disgusting half dressed baby?”
“No, I think so.”She took another drag,
“ Oh, I just thought of it because she’s coming today, but not with the baby of course,” she took another drag of her cigarette,“God is that child ugly.”