TATTOOS — JAMY BOND
/We didn’t tell anyone. Not our parents, not our friends, and Jethro cared only about the cash in our pockets, not that we were 14.
We lived in a Florida port town where heat was like a second skin, a bear suit you had to wear. In August, the humidity could mess with your head, make you think you were drowning.
Our moms drank Tab and did Jazzercise and worried that we might be gay. They didn’t want our lives to be difficult. They had no idea that on weekend nights we slipped from our bedroom windows and walked to the Club Detroit on 2nd street where we drank rum and Cokes and danced to Psychedelic Furs songs. Sometimes, we French-kissed the sailors on shore leave. Most of them had wives; they just wanted our tongues for a few minutes. It never got scary or real.
And then one night your Dad cornered me in the backyard while you were inside playing Frogger. We used to laugh at him, how he’d come home from a 10-mile run and crack open a beer, sweat streaming down his face. He was like a cartoon character. A Dad who did dumb Dad things.
Suddenly your Mom had a boyfriend named David and you were moving to the other coast and it felt like our lives were ending, our hearts exploding, the adult world closing in.
We picked two Siamese cats and Jethro fired up his ink gun. It sounded like a chainsaw. I wanted orange eyes; you wanted green. It would be our little secret, forever hidden beneath the rim of our pants.
I went first.
Does it hurt? you asked.
It feels like a bee sting, I said, wincing. Sun blisters.
And I remembered your Dad watching us from the kitchen window while we sunbathed on green jelly chairs, our bikini tops untied to avoid tan lines, baby oil to soak up the rays.
Jamy Bond’s stories and essays have appeared in a variety of publications, including Pithead Chapel, JMWW, The Forge Literary, Barren Magazine, Wigleaf, The Rumpus and The Sun Magazine. She earned her MFA from George Mason University where she co-founded So To Speak Journal. Her work has been listed on Wigleaf’s Top 50 2022 longlist and nominated for the Pushcart Prize, Best of the Net, Best American Short Stories and Best American Essays. Find her at www.jamybond.com or on Twitter: @bond_jamy
