Chapter 14

Angel awoke first, about 15 minutes or so later. She turned her head to look at her sleeping lover. She watched him sleep for a few moments, then carefully disengaged herself from him. Collins' eyes opened when she moved and she kissed him, sucking his bottom lip. With her wig off and her makeup mostly gone, in the dim light, Angel was once again the small beautiful man Collins had met in the alleyway a few months ago. Angel's delight in her wigs and pretty clothes made Collins smile, but he secretly relished moments like these when Angel was just Angel, without artifice. She broke his reverie by leaping to her feet.
"C'mon, let's go."
"Go? Angel, where are we going? I'm naked."
"I noticed." The diabolical smile was back. "Let's go for a swim. We can go naked."
"Angel, I can't swim."
"What? Who can't swim? Everyone knows how to swim."
"Me. I can't. I never really learned. And the ocean kinda. . .well. . ."
"Well, what?"
"It scares me." Collins finished lamely.
"Aww. . .my poor baby." Angel snuggled back into Collins' arms, laying her cheek on his chest. "He's scared of the water. . ." He kissed the top of her head.
"Well, there are all those. . .fish and things in the ocean. . .and I saw Jaws a long time ago, when I was pretty young and, well. . .I'm just scared."
"Will you come and watch me? I'll bet the sight of me playing naked in the waves will change your mind about the water fast."
"If anything could, I'd say that would do it." Collins laughed. He pulled his pants back on and Angel took off her t-shirt and skirt. Wrapping a towel around her waist she picked up her backpack, and hand in hand the two of them descended the rock face to the sand below. Collins took the backpack and sat down just above the tidal line. Angel dropped the towel and momentarily danced naked for him. He laughed and appreciated his private show, but when he stood and reached for Angel, she laughed and ran toward the sea. He decided not to follow just yet, but to watch her frolic for awhile. She was a good strong swimmer and she took on the waves like an old pro. He realized that she had probably been swimming in these waters since birth, and he wondered about how she had known about the cave above. He made a mental note to ask about that later as he watched her body-surf like an otter, the water sliding over her strong thin body. She played for about ten more minutes, then ran back to him, laughing and shaking the water from her short hair like a dog. She sat down next to him, took his hand in both of hers and leaned happily on his shoulder. Her body was completely covered in sand and there were some seaweed bits stuck in her hair. Collins reached over and carefully picked them out. They sat silently like that, watching the waves for several minutes. Soon she was ready to go again. She stood and pulled him to his feet.
"C'mon, play with me! It'll be fun! I'll protect you from any nasty old fish."
Reluctantly, he allowed himself to be dragged a few steps toward the surf.
"Wait! No pants allowed." Her quick fingers untied his drawstring and pulled his pants off, then tugged him toward the water again. He was more or less ok with the water until he got in more than waist deep. That had always been his threshold. Again, she plied him with kisses and got him in up to his chest. There he stopped and wouldn't be cajoled any further. She really couldn't have forced him in any more because the water was just about over her head. She tread water a little, bouncing on the balls of her feet and holding his hands. He smiled, despite his fear, at his beautiful lover, brimming with energy. Angel kissed him, pulling his tongue into her mouth, and swam backwards, trying to get him to come into the deeper water with her, but he simply could not. She swam around him, splashing and slapping at him playfully, and getting him to play back, but his feet would not leave the sandy bottom.
"Oh, c'mon then, you loser! We'll go beach combing, if you won't play with me."
Angel waded out of the water and Collins followed. She handed him a pair of swim trunks and put on a pair herself from the backpack before she headed off down the beach.
"Ang, wait for me!" he called out, tripping over the swim trunks. She was running again, in and out of the surf. 'What the hell,' he thought, pulling up the waistband, and ran after her. His longer legs soon overtook her and he grabbed her around the waist, clumsily knocking her to the ground. She sat up, laughing and spitting out sand.
"You ok, Ang?" She laughed some more.
"Perfect. You?" Collins smiled, then pouted.
"I think I might've bit my lip."
"Awww, poor baby. Let me kiss it better." She did, and what a kiss. It was one he'd have called to tell his best friend about, if she hadn't been sitting right here delivering it.
"Maybe it wasn't my lip. I feel a little sore right here." He pointed to his cheek. Laughing, she kissed his cheek. "No, wait, I think your elbow hit me here." He pointed to his collarbone. She kissed him there. "You know, I'm not sure where I'm hurt."
"Then I'd better kiss you everywhere, just to be sure." She pushed him off her and rolled him onto his back in the sand. She proceeded to kiss every square inch of him. He lay back and looked into the sky, just relishing this moment, the warm sun on his skin, the hot sand at his back, and his lover's lips softly caressing him. He was amazed that this was his life, when only a few months ago he had been so frustrated, depressed, and bored. She stopped kissing and crawled up to lay in the circle of his arms, her head on his chest. A pair of seagulls flew high above, looping and riding the warm air currents. They watched them in silence together.
When the birds were out of sight, she sat up. "I'm hungry," she announced.
"No wonder," he replied. "You've been really busy today. I'll go back and get the bag."
He returned a few minutes later with her backpack. It had gotten a bit wet around the edges. Collins unpacked it completely to see what had gotten wet.

"I'll go wash off all this sand while you get our lunch ready." Angel volunteered.
"Ok, love." Angel kissed him and started toward the fresh water spigot a few hundred feet away. When she returned, Collins had their lunch laid out neatly in the sand. She hung her skirt over a nearby rock and handed part of the still damp blanket to Collins.
They spread the blanket and sat down with their lunch. They ate, took their AZT, sharing a bottle of water, then Collins sat with the rock at his back and pulled out his midterms while Angel washed the dishes. When she returned, she repacked the picnic things.
"What're you doing, lover?"
"Gotta finish grading these midterms."
"Why didn't you do that on the plane? I want to play with you some more."
"Couldn't concentrate on the plane, Ang. You go play."
She placed her head in his lap, in the middle of the papers, and looked up into his face.
"See why you shouldn't give tests, Professor?" He smiled, despite his annoyance at her impeding his work.
"I know. It's mean. Get off my papers, your hair's still wet."
"Every party has a pooper." Angel sat up, kissed the tip of Collins' nose, and ran back to the surf. He watched her for a few moments, chuckling a little to himself, then returned to his midterms. He got through three more, and part of the fourth, before Angel returned, dripping and exhausted. She collapsed next to him, pressing her back against his thigh. He traced her shoulder absently with the tips of the fingers of his left hand. He finished the fourth test, put it down, and looked at her.
"Did you wear yourself out?"
"Just about. I'm gonna lie here and relax for a little while, then I think I'll be ready to go. Are you ready?"
"Whenever you say. You feeling ok?"
"I'm fine."
"You'd better be. I don't want to have to face your grandmother and tell her that you're sick again because you overdid it today. I have a feeling she'd hurt me."
Angel laughed "She might."

Chapter 15

Back at Abuelita's, they showered together, singing and washing each other. Angel started singing "Oh Susannah," Collins followed along, singing loudly in his deep baritone, drowning out Angel's higher, thinner voice. She changed the song halfway through, and began singing "I'm in the Mood For Love." Collins continued singing the original song for several bars, before he realized that they sounded like a pair of music boxes, started at different times, and he stopped, perplexed as to why Angel was no longer singing with him. This made Angel laugh every time. He always fell for it. It made her think of Lucy's trick on Charlie Brown with the football. Still giggling at the image of Collins' puzzled face, Angel climbed out of the shower and wrapped a towel around her thin body. Collins followed her.

"Honey, have you lost more weight?" He sounded concerned.

"No, baby, I just got tanned today. It makes you look thinner. See?" Angel let her towel drop from her butt so that Collins could see her tanlines. Collins turned her around and took the towel away completely, sweeping her into an embrace. He looked into her eyes and kissed her.

"You certainly did get tanned today," he said, holding her hand out, comparing their skin tones. "If you get any more sun on this trip, they'll have a hard time telling us apart when we get back to New York."

"You should have seen me when I was a kid. I was darker than you."

"No way."

"We'll have to ask Abuelita to pull out the old pictures tonight."

"Aww. . .baby Angel. I can't wait to see that!"

"Angel! Collins! Are you here?"

They looked at each other and Angel giggled. Connie!

Angel opened the door and called out "We're here, Connie. Be there in a minute!"

Chapter 16

Clean and dressed, Collins and Angel came to the kitchen hand in hand. Angel kissed Connie and the cousins sat down at the table, chatting rapidly in Spanish. Collins wished again that he understood what they were saying.

"I think I'll make some coffee. Anybody want any?"

"No thanks, darling." Angel looked into her lover's face and saw that he was feeling left out. "Oh, Connie, we need to remember to speak English. Poor Collins will get a complex, thinking we're talking about him if we speak Spanish." Angel put her arms around Collins' chest from behind and squeezed him.

"Well, we were. . ." Connie began

". . .so he might just need to get over it." Angel finished and both laughed. They had finished each other's sentences as children too. "No, really." Angel said seriously, releasing Collins and turning to her cousin. "We're resolved. . .English only around Collins. . .unless we're talking to Abuelita. . ."
". . .or if we're talking about his butt." Connie continued.

Angel and her cousin burst into fresh peals of laughter and Collins blushed slightly.

"You two deserve each other," he muttered.

Chapter 17

That evening, after dinner, they convinced Abuelita to bring out her photo albums. It wasn't difficult. There were literally hundreds of pictures of Angel. Along with being the first grandchild, and her namesake, Abuelita admitted to having adored Angel from birth.

"He was the tiniest little thing I had ever seen, only 4 pounds. They put him in an incubator. They weren't sure he'd live, but he's always been a fighter. The doctor said he had come early. He was born only 7 months after the wedding." Collins covered his mouth and snickered a bit when Angel interpreted that. Angel swatted him and everyone laughed.

"Abuelita, show Collins that picture of me and Jason at the beach." Abuelita flipped straight to the right picture, of a 13-year old Angel, tanned browner than Collins himself, with his arm around a fair blonde boy's waist. The boy, Jason, had his arm around Angel's shoulders and both of them were smiling happily into the camera. Collins recognized the rock formations that they had seen this morning; the picture was taken near the cave.

"Damn, you weren't kidding when you said you were darker than me!"

"Well, with Jason standing next to me, I do look darker." Angel smiled.

"Who was he?"
"My first crush. I kissed him at the Christmas dance. "
"Ahhh. . .your first kiss?" Angel nodded. "How cute! Did you guys go out?"

Angel averted her eyes a bit in an embarrassed gesture.

"Uhhh . . . no, actually. He's happily married with a whole houseful of kids now."

"Ohhh . . ." Collins nodded, sympathizing. "Nothing worse than falling in love with a straight guy."

"Well, it wasn't love anyway, just a crush. But my heart was broken at the time. It was awkward as hell for awhile, but we managed to stay friends." Collins shook his head in disbelief.

"Do you have any enemies at all, Ang?"

"There are one or two skinheads in New York who don't want to see me again," she replied demurely. "I've had to school a few bigoted assholes in my day." She batted her eyelashes and smiled sweetly.

Collins thought about the night of Maureen's protest and the riot, how Angel had fought off three cops to free him.

"I wouldn't cross this Angel," he said to Connie.

"I wouldn't either," Connie replied

There were pictures of Angel having birthdays, riding his bike, playing Little League (only one or two of that variety). 'You could make a flip book and just watch his whole life from these pictures,' Collins thought to himself.

Collins got into the habit of searching every photo for Angel's face. Angel and Connie, playing the piano, going out hiking, playing with walkie-talkies, dancing. The two of them appeared inseparable. As Collins watched his lover age in the pictures, he began to see that the femininity which was such an integral part of her had started quite young, but also ever-present in the photos was her clear sense of herself. Few children have that kind of confidence at the age of 13. However, there was no indication of her preference for women's clothing. Young Angel appeared to be, on the outside anyway, all boy.

"When did you start doing drag, Ang?"
"Almost as soon as I got to New York. I was outside this club with some friends one day when I was 15, and this guy walked past and looked right at me, straight into my face. 'You need a job?' he asked me. We were broke, so I said 'yeah.' He took me inside. They did a drag show three nights a week and they needed some 'new blood' as he put it. I took one look at all those nasty old wigs and torn up fishnet hose and knew it was for me."

"You were dancing in drag in a club at the age of 15?"

"I sang too." There was mock offense in her voice. Collins laughed. Angel smiled. "I lied; I told them I was 18. I don't think they cared anyway."

"What did your parents say?"
"I told them I got a job as a waiter. But about two years later, when my dad found out. . . Oooh, there was hell to pay. He threw me out of the house for a few days, but then my mom's pleading and the fact that he didn't have the money I brought in convinced him to let me come home. It was a bad scene. I can't remember him actually talking to me again after that. He screamed at me from time to time, stuff about how worthless I was, how ugly, what a 'poor excuse for a human being' I was. . . He finally did kick me out for good."
"God, Ang, that's awful. What did you do?"

"I rode around on the subway for awhile . . . I didn't know where else to go. The first time he kicked me out, I stayed with my boyfriend, but that ended badly and I didn't have anywhere to go. These skinheads on the subway started picking on me, and I stood up to them. Somehow I managed to scare them away, and once they were gone, I noticed this little Latina sitting there. She was impressed that I stood up to those big guys, and said she needed a friend, could we be friends. Guess who it was?"
"Mimi!"
"Mimi, right. I moved in with her, and the rest, as they say, is history."

"Angel, you are amazing."

"Guilty." Angel smiled. Collins pulled her to him in a hug.

Chapter 18

"Ang?" Collins asked once they were alone in Abuelita's bed that night.

"What?"
"How did you know about that cave?"

"Everybody knew about it. It was a high school make out spot. Probably still is."

"But you left here way before high school."

"Jason had a big sister who was in high school. He took me there."

"I thought you said Jason was straight."
"He is. He was . . . but umm . . . I guess he must've been curious." Angel nipped Collins collarbone lightly and he could see her smiling mischievously in the dim light. "Good night."
Collins was still laughing at that when Angel woke up the next morning.