The Horse is Dead by Robert Klane Page B

in love. What a girl. There was something about her. He would marry her and have children with her. Maybe it wasn't too late after all. He wondered how many times she had wandered into the bar and he hadn't seen her because he was too involved listening to Marshall's bullshit stories. But that didn't matter. Tonight he saw her. She would even make him forget Miss Booe.
    "You're beautiful," he said.
    "Fuck off," she ordered, not even looking up at him. Nemiroff fell deeper in love. Nemiroff pulled up a chair beside her. She couldn't have found out he was Jewish already. God, he thought, what was that smell? He leaned closer to the girl. The smell got stronger. So what? he told himself. What's a little smell if you're really in love. You can get used to it, the important thing for now was to win her over. Say something cool.
    "You know, you smell," Nemiroff stated. That got her attention. Nemiroff was pleased. Now to keep up the pace. Don't lose your rhythm. Timing man, timing.
    "If you don't mind," she said, "I don't feel like company."
    "I'm not really company." He studied her. "What are you doing out here?"
    The girl hit a chord on the guitar. "I was visiting some friends for the summer."
    "What do you mean 'was'?"
    "I got tired of them." Another chord. "They're stiff, you know what I mean. They got to do everything by the book."
    Nemiroff nodded his head in agreement. "Yeah, I know what you mean." He didn't.
    "So I just took off. Been running back and forth to the beach."
    Nemiroff looked concerned. "Where you been living?"
    "Around." She hummed a little piece of something. Nemiroff stared at the bouncing breast "I don't want to have to follow any rules."
    Holy shit, Nemiroff thought, I've stumbled onto it. This could really be something. Maybe blind luck had led him to the right girl. Maybe he didn't have to join the great masses with their asinine traditions, after all. Maybe all you had to do was find someone else who didn't give a shit and start your own little world. Take her home, give her a bath, who knows what she might look like if you cleaned her up.
    "My name's Rena," she said, interrupting Nemiroff's thoughts.
    "Mine's Nemiroff," he told her.
    "Don't you have a first name?"
    "Yeah," he started to explain, "but let's just let it go at Nemiroff."
    "O.K." She strummed on. "Any way you want it." She watched Nemiroff staring at her. "You like to talk dirty?" she asked.
    "What?"
    "Do you like to talk dirty?" Rena stopped strumming.
    "I guess so," he said.
    "Talk dirty to me." She didn't blink an eye.
    Nemiroff thought for a moment What kind of a nut was this? Then he thought of her in his own little dream world, just the two of them. "Fuck," he tried.
    She screamed with delight. "Some more."
    Nemiroff thought again. "Dirty fuck."
    She went into hysterics. Nemiroff thought she must be crazy, but he wasn't about to let that break up a beautiful marriage. He leaned over and whispered in her ear. "I want to screw you," he said very slowly. She nearly went out of her mind. Nemiroff was enjoying himself.
    "Listen," Nemiroff said, "why don't you come back to my house."
    "What for?" Rena asked.
    "I talk better there." Nemiroff leaned over to whisper in her ear again. "You can take a bath."
    Rena thought about it for a moment "O.K., let's go."
     
    Nemiroff opened the front door of the house and let Rena step through. It was just like they were married. This was perfect
    He could try it out and see if it worked. "Hurry up and get in the bathtub," he said, "and leave your guitar."
    Rena ran to the bathroom and began to undress. Nemiroff could hear the water running. He thought about maybe rushing in and taking her in the bathtub, but he wanted to make sure she got really clean first. He'd wait until she got out.
    Nemiroff listened at the bathroom door. "Fuck," he yelled, and smiled a deep smile of satisfaction when he heard her scream. At least he hadn't lost his touch. This was going to be easy.
    Rena came out of the bathroom