“Is this better?” he said, rolling on his side to face her, look in her eyes. “Better than the first time, when we were together?”
“Charlie, this is wonderful, but we only had one night. It was wonderful then and it’s wonderful now. I knew I loved you then. I love you now.”
“Me, too,” he said. He touched her jaw, smiled. “But is this body, you know, am I better now?”
“It doesn’t really matter what I say, I’m not going to stop you from being jealous of yourself, am I?”
“I’m sorry. I guess, yeah. I just feel so lucky to be here, with you, to not be, you know, like before.”
“I loved you then, too,” she said. “But this is nicer. It’s okay to say that, right?”
“I guess. But some part of me will always just be a little reptilian monster following his penis around.”
“I know that’s how I always think of you,” she said.
Again, the tickling, and they were off again.
On their second night together they learned just how close Charlie was to W.C. They were making love, slow and sweet and without the slightest worry of getting anywhere, just being there, when there came a scratching at the door. For a second their eyes went wide, then the scratching began again, then stopped, and having been brought back to the world outside themselves, they finished, and Audrey got up and padded naked over to the bedroom door.
“Oh no!” she said, when she opened the door.
Charlie looked over to see Wiggly Charlie lying on the floor, as if he’d been leaning against the door and had rolled in when she opened it. He just lay there, a motionless lump.
“Is he . . .” Charlie sat up. “Is he dead?”
Audrey knelt, reached out, and gently touched W.C. on his wizard robe. He lolled to the side.
“Oh no. That’s not right,” Charlie said.
Then Audrey lit up, looked back at Charlie over her shoulder with a smile. “No, look, it’s okay. He just has an erection.”
She picked up Wiggly Charlie by his enormous erect willy and turned to show Charlie. The little unconscious monster jostled limply like a puppet on a stick. “He’ll be fine.” She bounced W.C. on the end of his stick.
“Wow, you were right ab
out the echo. It’s like we have some kind of psychic connection.”
“Right, this used to happen to you, remember?” Audrey said, swinging W.C. by his dong to make her point. “As soon as it goes down he’ll be back.”
“Which is never going to happen if you keep yanking him around by it.”
“Oh. Good point. Sorry.” She carried Wiggly Charlie back to the doorway and carefully set him outside in the hall—rolled him on his side and patted his little shoulder. “You rest, little guy.”
She palmed the door closed, then turned, leaned on the door, and looked at Charlie. “I’m glad he’s okay.”
Charlie lay back on the bed, looked at the ceiling. She joined him and found a spot between his chest and shoulder that seemed to have been built to lay her head upon.
“He was eating some out-of-date cat food this morning,” she said. “I hope you don’t have any ill effects from it.”
They lay quietly for a moment, considering the situation, pretending they didn’t hear Charlie’s stomach growl. There was the noise of something stirring in the hall and she smiled and kissed his chest. “See?” she said. “He’s fine.”
“Before, when I was—you know—when I had Wiggly Charlie’s body, did you ever pick me up like that? I mean, it seemed like a pretty automatic response for you . . .”
She nuzzled into his chest. “You mean, pick you up and swing you around by your huge unit? Spray furniture polish on your wizard robe and dust under the bed with you? Like that?”
“Uh, yeah.”
“Of course not.”