Love in Disguise

Wednesday, April 30 I had a hard time sleeping that final night. I was just so keyed up with excitement and so many wondrous thoughts about the possibilities that lay ahead for Kya and me. It seemed the night would go on and on forever as I lay on my back listening to Kya’s rhythmic breathing to my left and Rosa’s to my right. When the wake-up announcement was finally made, I was rather exhausted but too excited to care. I functioned just as well, stripping the sheets off my bed and gathering up the few things I had accumulated over the last month. “How soon do you think they’ll let me out of here?” I asked Kya as she prepared to leave before it was her turn to have her final night in the place. “Don’t know, hon.” “I just hope they didn’t screw up the date!” “I’m sure they didn’t,” Kya assured me with a laugh. “See ya,” she said with a wink. Then she was gone. Would it be the last time I’d ever see that beautiful face and body? The last time I ever heard that perky, confident voice? Would I never get the chance to learn anything more about her—the officer I’d come to love as well as lust? I tried to tell myself to think positive, but as I’d learned through past experience, sometimes positive thinking only called for more disappointment when things didn’t work out. I wasn’t about to tell myself I’d never see her again either, so I tried to remain neutral in my thinking. I hoped for the best but knew that I could very well be let down by her in the end. Not long afterward, I was released. Taking some money from my purse that had sat in the property room for the last month, I took the bus the short distance to my small studio apartment. I thought of Rosa on the way there. She and I shed some tears as we hugged each other goodbye. I promised to write real soon. Then I thought of Mary, Andy, and my pets. How nice it would be to see them! How nice it would be to sleep in a real bed, wear my own clothes, and eat whatever I chose to! And that’s just what I did, too. Mary put my rats in her car, picked up Andy, and came to my place around noon. After we talked, laughed, and ate all kinds of stuff we had delivered—like pizza and fried chicken—I spoiled my rats with all kinds of attention while I wore my most comfortable pair of shorts and a tank top. Once in bed, thoughts of Kya flooded my brain like water seeping into a sponge. “I haven’t heard from her all day,” I had told Mary and Andy earlier. “Relax,” Mary told me. “She sleeps all day when she’s on nights, remember?” I nodded. “I wouldn’t get my hopes up if I were you,” Andy added. He was more like me—a pessimist. “I’ll try not to. Meanwhile, I guess all I can do is simply wait and see what happens.” “Give it a few days,” said Mary. “Yeah, then go kick her ass if she disses you,” said Andy. “Oh, right,” I said. “I’m just going to go and make mincemeat out of an armed woman twice my size. Sure. No prob.” Andy giggled, as did Mary and I. “I’ll sure as hell wish I could, though, if she does leave me hanging,” I added. We laughed some more.