I stepped forward and in the sunlight saw the freckled face of a really pretty little blue-eyed blond girl. I waited a few seconds, watching the gold light on her head, but I wasn’t sure what to do when she wiped the cowlick off her brow, held up her skinny arms and called for me to step forward. She waved her hands, urging me on, like a tough kid on the Lower East Side.
“Come on boy!”
I took another step and the girl stopped smiling. She started a punch with her right hand but held back, slipped a leg inside mine, grabbed my shoulders threw me down and then raised her fist above my head. I kicked her foot out and she fell on top of me.
“Stupid boy you’re lucky I didn’t punch you.” She whispered as I tried to hold on to her and she pulled away and stood up again.
It had felt good to have this crazy girl whispering on top of me, but now she was back up in the light near the end of the tunnel. She stood with her hands on her hips, taunting me.
“Okay you want to wrestle, come on.”
I took some shaky steps on the round- bottom, but she sprang forward, grabbed my shoulders to toss me a second time, but I didn’t fall, and as we each threw our feet out for a grip inside the grey concrete, and held on to each other with our arms on each other’s shoulders and our legs intertwined.
There was no time to think about this girl, her legs stuck out to trip me, her hands pulling at my shirt and pushing against me. Tangled together we stood up stuck in the bottom of the curve. For a minute she didn’t move. The sun lowered and light came from her side, and lit the back of her blond hair. She took her hand off my shirt for a second, pushed her palm against the wall behind her and threw her elbow into my chest. I lost my breath and fell back but I held to her waist and grabbed her
again. We felt like one person when I hugged her by her shoulders and we grappled and kicked each-other’s feet out.
She tried to kick me in the balls, but slipped. I let her rest on my chest, and her breathing slowed. I didn’t let her go and she didn’t try to. I leaned my cheek against hers, but she yanked my shoulders with both hands, stepped back, pulled on my belt, and grabbed at my hair. I held her hand, keeping it off my face, but she pulled me close and dragged me from the shade with her skinny arms, then punched and grabbed me again. Skinny shadows on me with her every move, shadows that tangled with my own black outlines on the floor and the wall behind us.
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