Charles Bukowski

We were in the air twenty minutes when she took a mirror out of her purse and began to make up her face, mostly the eyes. She worked at her eyes with a small brush, concentrating on the eyelashes. While she was doing this she opened her eyes very wide and she held her mouth open. I watched her and began to get a hard-on.

Her mouth was so very full and round and open and she kept working on her eyelashes. I ordered two drinks. Tammie stopped to drink, then she continued.

A young fellow in the seat to the right of us began playing with himself. Tammie kept looking at her face in the mirror, holding her mouth open. It looked like she could really suck with that mouth.

She continued for an hour. Then she put the mirror and the brush away, leaned against me and went to sleep. There was a woman in the seat to our left. She was in her mid-forties. Tammie was sleeping next to me.

The woman looked at me.

“How old is she?” she asked me.

It was suddenly very quiet on that jet. Everyone nearby was listening. "23.”

“She looks 17.”

“She’s 23.”

“She spends two hours making up her face and then goes to sleep.” “It was about an hour.”

“Are you going to New York?” the lady asked me.

“Yes.”

“Is she your daughter?”

“No, I’m not her father or her grandfather. I’m not related to her in any way. She’s my girlfriend and we’re going to New York.” I could see the headline in her eyes:

MONSTER FROM EAST HOLLYWOOD DRUGS 17 YEAR OLD GIRL, TAKES HER TO NEW YORK CITY WHERE HE SEXUALLY ABUSES HER, THEN SELLS HER BODY TO NUMEROUS BUMS

The lady questioner gave up. She stretched back in her seat and closed her eyes. Her head slipped down toward me. It was almost in my lap, it seemed. Holding Tammie, I watched that head. I wondered if she would mind if I crushed her lips with a crazy kiss. I got another hard-on.

We were ready to land. Tammie seemed very limp. It worried me. I strapped her in. “Tammie, it’s New York City! We’re getting ready to land!

Tammie, wake up!”

No response.

An o.d.?

I felt her pulse. I couldn’t feel anything.

I looked at her enormous breasts. I watched for some sign of breathing. They didn’t move. I got up and found a stewardess.

“Please take your seat, sir. We are preparing to land.”

“Look, I’m worried. My girlfriend won’t wake up.”

“Do you think she’s dead?” she whispered.

“I don’t know,” I whispered back.

“All right, sir. As soon as we land I’ll come back there.”

The plane was starting to drop. I went into the crapper and wet some paper towels. I came back, sat next to Tammie and rubbed them over her face. All that makeup, wasted. Tammie didn’t respond.

“You whore, wake up!”

I ran the towels down between her breasts. Nothing. No movement. I gave up.

I’d have to ship her body back somehow. I’d have to explain to her mother. Her mother would hate me.

We landed. The people got up and stood in line, waiting to get out. I sat there. I shook Tammie and pinched her. “It’s New York City, Red. The rotten apple. Come around. Cut out the shit.”

The stewardess came back and shook Tammie. “Honey, what’s the matter?”

Tammie started responding. She moved. Then her eyes opened. It was only the matter of a new voice. Nobody listened to an old voice anymore. Old voices became a part of one’s self, like a fingernail.

Tammie got out her mirror and started combing her hair. The stewardess was patting her shoulder. I got up and got the dresses out of the overhead compartment. The shopping bags were up there too. Tammie continued to look into the mirror and comb her hair.

“Tammie, we’re in New York. Let’s get off.”

She moved quickly. I had the two shopping bags and the dresses. She went through the exit wiggling the cheeks of her ass. I followed her.

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