Days later, when I can finally lay on my back and most of the bandages have been taken off, I insist on going back to work in the mines. Since hunting is now obviously off the table, I must work to make sure my family gets by. My mother, being reasonable agrees. So it's a rare occasion that I get to see Madge in the following week, but I have something planned that will require time.
The only good thing about the stricter head Peacekeeper is that he keeps Madge's father far more busy than previously. So on Saturday afternoon, I easily sneak into Madge's strange, pre-decorated room with a bag. I'm proud of the contents. It's two bottles of Madge's favorite wine (stolen from her father's stash I discovered while covertly exiting the house from the backdoor), a bag of strawberries I managed to pick from a wild bush that few know about that grows near the fence in the meadow, and a piece of coal.
Madge is lying on the carpeted floor of her bedroom, flipping through some Capital magazine. She doesn't even startle when I walk in and close the door after myself. She's learned the sounds and pace of my footsteps so she keeps her focus on the magazine in front of her when she speaks.
"Hawthorne, who said you could come over?" she asks without the trace of a smile, but her voice is dripping with her playful sarcasm that used to confuse me.
I don't even answer but instead toss my bag onto her bed, grab the magazine from her grip, handling the pages of it like they contain some disease before dropping it again to my feet. Madge is still sprawled across her floor, looking up at me with a smile, clearly enjoying my energetic presence. I had been tired and grumpy the past few times we had met up.
I'm kicking off my shoes when she decides to stand, walking over to my bag to investigate what made the clinking noise when I threw it onto her predictably made bed. To my amusement, she immediately takes out one of the bottles of wine, holding it up to examine.
"Did you steal this from my house⦠and then bring it back to my house?" she asks, glancing up at me. "You're doing it wrong, Gale."
Free from my coat, which I draped across her rocking chair, I move over to her and reach forward to grab the bottle away. She laughs as I hastily open it and take a few large sips from it. Without letting me down, she takes it from my grip once I've finished, drinking from it as well. She moves with the bottle to her bed, sitting back against her pillows. I join her and we switch off drinking in relative silence for a while, neither of us saying anything until we've finished half of it.
"What's the occasion?" she asks between more sips. "The last time you came over, I couldn't even get you to stay awake long enough to pay attention to me."
"So sensitive, Undersee," I say with a grin in her direction, but I place a kiss to her forehead to substitute as an apology. She must accept because she hands the wine back to me.
By the end of this bottle, she's giggling and squirming around the bed and I'm thankful she's such a lightweight still because the second bottle is mostly mine. As I sit with my back against the headboard of the bed, she's cooing over me, kissing up and down my jaw. I wouldn't be a male if I didn't love the way she becomes overly affectionate with a few drips of alcohol. Soon enough though, I'm feeling more than buzzed and returning most of her kisses. I pause these actions for a moment though, dragging my bag up to where we are both situated.
I pull out the coal piece that is wrapped in cloth. I had to hide it in my pocket during my shift and when I left the mine on Friday. Stealing coal is strictly prohibited and even though this was a small, unusable piece, I didn't feel like making another trip to the town square to be whipped almost to death. When I open it up and show Madge the black, chalky, but somewhat glittery piece of coal, she laughs. Looking slightly confused, she takes it in her hand, holding it on her palm as she peers closely to investigate it.
"Thank you. This will warm my house for days," she says in jest and I laugh before having a chance to explain.
"You gave me your diamond, so I'm giving you coal," I say. "Because you're more than just pretty to look at and more than the useless girl I condemned you to be. You're more than you think."
I worry for a moment that comparing her to a piece of coal is offensive because she doesn't react for a minute or so. She's running her fingertip over the small piece of coal, no doubt get black on it, but she starts to smile.
"Thank you, Gale," she says, finally looking up at me.
She gets up off her bed, stumbling a bit due to the alcohol but manages to make it to her dresser without losing the coal. She takes out a golden locket from a small jewelry stand and opens it up, placing the piece of coal inside. After closing the locket, she puts it around her neck and rejoins me on the bed. I offer her the last few sips of from the second wine and she accepts, letting the green glass bottle roll off her bed once it's emptied.
She's lying on her back and reaches a hand forward, indicating she wants to me to come to her. I move closer, still sitting up on the bed, my fingers tugging gently on the strands of her hair that frame her face. She's gazing up at me, her lids somewhat heavy from the wine, but she looks perfect. I lean down enough to press my lips to hers and she takes advantage of this, wrapping her arms around my neck, pulling me down completely to her.
We've been kissing for a while when I move from her mouth, instead pressing my lips to her jaw and her neck, pushing the fabric of her shirt away so that I can kiss to her collarbones. I suck lightly on her skin there, and she makes a soft noise of appreciation. I take that as a sign that it's okay to lift up her shirt more so that I can let my hands roam freely along her torso. She surprises me though when I feel her smooth fingertips pulling up my shirt. I help her rid my body of it and resume pressing kisses along her neck. The feeling of my skin against the part of her stomach that is exposed makes me stop soon enough though, taking off her shirt as she aids me with the action.
While we are parted enough to actually look at each other's faces, she smiles at me, her blue eyes looking brighter as they reflect the setting light of the sun through her window. She looks completely at ease with me and I know I'm about to put myself in position that will make it very hard for me to stop. But she doesn't protest when I slide the strands of her brassiere off her shoulders and reach behind her to unhook it, ridding her body of it. Her smile remains and a small laugh escapes her lips as I release an appreciative sigh, my gaze definitely reflecting how thankful I am that someone managed to make a girl as perfect as this.
But before I can look too long, she has pulled me back down to her and we're kissing again, fast and forceful like that day in the lake. We didn't even eat the strawberries yet, but when her tongue greets my own, she tastes better than any fruit in existence. It's only a few moments later that I'm permitting myself to unbutton and slide off her skirt. Madge wiggles, helping herself out of it. Nearly completely bare under me, that is when Madge decides to speak.
"Hawthorne, did you get me drunk just to have sex with me?" and I'm scared for a moment until I look to her face, which is an indicator that she definitely doesn't mind.
I don't bother answering but instead kiss down the length of her body, placing a few chaste kisses to her bellybutton, which she squirms in reply to. It's not much long after than we're both naked and I'm about take her that I respond to her question, our eyes locked intently.
"I didn't want it to hurt, baby," I say and once again the baby just blurts out but I think I'm starting to like it and Madge murmurs an accepting noise after. "Tell me if I need to stop."
But she doesn't. And I wake up in her bed Sunday morning, underneath her covers, my arms gripped tightly around her waist, keeping her pulled close to me. Her bare skin is my reward for awakening so early. But my eyes remain closed, not wanting to battle the bright light that is no doubt radiating through the windows. I blindly kiss the back of her ear and down the side of her neck, grinning when my lips brush the gold chain of her locket. The one that contains part of me inside.
