Heart of Flesh

Sake for flesh, haiku for soul:

Sake is the haiku of the flesh

Haiku is the sake of the soul.

-- Santoka Taneda

Every 24 hours, the surface of the skin sheds a layer of dead cells, constantly renewing about every 28 days.

***

In springtime, my hearing becomes more acute, my senses sharper. My body wakes from its winter hibernation. How often, when I was a little girl, did I wish for super powers like the man in Metropolis? How often, when I sold my body to survive, did I wish for those powers again? My body would become strong to hurt those who hurt me and the people I cared about. Today I want to go back and tell those two former selves that super powers don't make you strong, they only make you lazy.

I leapt off the neighboring building, stretching my body in the warm spring air. My whip snagged a flagpole at the right moment and I landed securely on a window ledge. It was a matter of seconds before I was inside. I'd gone to case the place in the daylight hours, full of inquiries. It's harder for men to remember an inquisitive woman. They think we're programmed to ask idle questions when we can't think of anything else to say. The guard I'd talked to hadn't known what to do with his hands, he kept kneading them together and then shoving them in the direction of his pockets only to realize that his uniform didn't have pockets at all. I smiled at that memory even as I removed part of the windowpane, careful not to set off the alarm. The diamond was in a case across the room. I could see it shining in the dim light.

"I thought I might find you here, Catwoman," the voice rumbled in my ear. A ripple of excitement ran along my arms. Batman and I danced on either side of a mirror, but some nights we almost touched and that was invariably exciting.

"The night just got interesting," I murmured. I looked at him. "Oh, it's only you."

Robin's lips tightened fractionally. "Sorry to disappoint."

"Where is he?"

"You don't have the right to ask."

I considered him for a moment. He was a strange accompaniment to Batman's unrelieved black. I had always figured that he kept Robin around as some kind of wisecracking, brightly-colored decoy. More pertinent to my situation, he was an unknown quantity. "So Batman's letting you take the car out on your own these days?"

"Why don't you try me?" he replied tightly.

"Where's your little girlfriend?"

"I'm not her keeper."

I looked him up and down; making sure my appraisal was obvious. "No. You never will be either." The whole time we'd been talking, I'd adjusted my angle ever so slightly. I silently added things up. All I needed was for him to be a little off-balance, which he was already, but I wasn't sure if it was enough.

"Are you gonna come quietly, or do I have to do this the hard way?"

I fixed him with a stare and licked my lips slowly. "Hmmm, hard or soft--isn't that your choice?" I was practically purring at him. He didn't react at first, but then blinked twice. That's when I knew I had him. I put my hand on the middle of his chest and shoved. He stumbled backwards into a display case, breaking it and falling to the ground in a shower of glass. The alarm blared. I raced across the room, barely feeling my feet hit the ground, smashed the case and grabbed the diamond. I dropped it into my hip pouch where it nestled in the hollow of my thigh, banging softly as I ran. By that time, Robin had regained his footing. He came at me, but I swiped at him, scratching his face without breaking my stride. Two more steps and I was out the window, flying through the night air as if I'd been born there.

Once I'd put several rooftops between me and the jewelry store, I relaxed. The rest of the trip home was a breeze. I dawdled on fire escapes as the first slivers of light peeked down through the buildings.