Jessica Surely

I finally knew how it felt.

Home… was with Daddy, wherever we may be. And the Body Shop was the only home… away from home… that I have ever known.

Shimmer was back. She’d parked her chair in the doorway, and I almost bumped into her as I stepped in off the sidewalk. 

“Hey Justice. I was wondering if you’d still be here.” 

She was playing it humble and sweet, after such a long time away. She’d put on a little weight… which she explained was because she stopped smoking cigarettes. She was only smoking pot now… and that was working better for her. She was doing what she could to stay chill.

“Wow. He’s cute!”

Natalie looked pretty cute herself… sipping her humongous watermelon daiquiri… and I was happy she gave Daddy a high score. I played it cool and waved to him through the window… but once he made his way inside to our table, I jumped up pretty darn quick.

“Come on, you guys. We should go back to the club.”

I wanted him to see my stage show… badly.

We all have our own ideas about perfection… and that day, for me… well, it was.

Daddy was sitting at the end of the stage. The girls were gathered around him, Sunny was practically in his lap… and when I stepped out, I heard her say, “I love it when she dances to this song!”

He hadn’t been to the club in a while. It was my world, he let me have it… and we shared it together at home. I’d seen so many men and women… come and go from that very spot. A rising tide of smiling people… moving across the velvet chairs. And there he was. The boy I’d known and loved, since I was just sixteen. 

The girls were yelling my name, cheering me on… and when I looked at him, I saw sparkles in his eyes. In that moment, I was ageless, weightless… flawless. My wings simply unfolded… and my flight over the stage had all the awesome power of a wild creature set free… in her natural world. My energy was magic, my movements were smooth… and when I rolled up onto the counter, naked… I was the sexiest I’d ever been. 

He was blown away… and the girls were cool enough to get swept up in the sweetness of it. There were a few clusters of other people in the club, but they could see we were having our own  party and they stayed out of it. I saw their smiles glowing from the dark, distant corners.

We were all riding my high. We kinda hung on Daddy and sloshed around the room together… laughing and saying shit too loudly. Sunny sang him my praises… and there was a beautiful chorus of agreement… and I kissed her on the mouth, because I wanted to and I could.

It was fucking awesome… and I live with those visions. He can see them and we both can feel them and for ever… they are ours.