Pictures of Houses with Water Damage: Stories by Michael Hemmingson

the hell was going on here?
    “I know this spot,” she said. “Do you want to go?”
    Oh, yes I did.
     
     
    “She takes my hand,” I said to Craig. “My hand is in her small hand, and we’re leaving the general party area. She seems to know where she’s going. She knows this place well. I’ve only been up here a few times. She’s been up here many times. She’s gotten fucked-up up here, I know, she’s drank and smoked pot and maybe even had sex with a few guys. Then she says something to me, which scares me. Like she’s reading my mind. She says, ‘Yes, I’ve been up here many times.’ We’re on the other side of the park, alone, and it’s dark, and we can see almost all of the city—at least this part of the city on this side. Helen and I sit under a tree, and we drink from the tequila bottle.”
     
     
    “It’s nice here,” I said to her.
    “Put your arm around me,” Helen said.
    I did.
    She leaned into me. “That’s nice.”
    “Yeah,” I said.
    “I know,” she said. “I’ve seen it in your eyes. I’ve felt you looking at me.”
    “What?”
    “I know,” she said, and kissed me.
    I was nervous.
    “Are you okay?” she asked.
    “Yeah,” I said.
    “I’m being abrupt,” she said.
    I kissed her. It was a long kiss. She stopped me.
    “I know what you want, David,” she said.
    “You think I’m bad,” I said. “Here I am, with you here, and I have a girlfriend—”
    “And she’s pregnant,” Helen said.
    “What?”
    She smiled. “Come on.”
    “How’d—how’d you know?”
    “Girls know,” she laughed. “And I’m psychic.”
    “Oh,” I said.
    We were silent, and both took drinks from the bottle.
    “I’ve seen her sick in the bathroom,” Helen said. “I’ve seen her eating crackers. It’s so obvious.”
    “Oh,” I said, and drank.
    “You’re not ready,” she said.
    “No.”
    “It sucks.”
    “It does.”
    “I like you.”
    “You should’ve been my prom date,” I said suddenly.
    “No,” she said. “No. And,” she said, “you don’t love me.”
    “I do love you!”
    “No.”
    “You’ve been in my dreams,” I said.
    “I know,” she said. “Because you keep thinking about me. I feel your thoughts. So I go into your dreams.”
    We drank.
    I laughed. “Are you a witch?”
    “You’re getting drunk.”
    “You’re not?”
    “Not yet.”
    “Get drunk with me.”
    “I will.”
    “And?”
    “And?”
    “And,” I said.
    “You want to screw me,” Helen said. “That’s all you really want.”
     
     
    “And?” Craig said.
    I was silent, which prompted him.
    “We’re kissing,” I said. “Man, are we kissing. Her lipstick is all over me, and her perfume. I’m grabbing at her tits and she’s rubbing my cock. I try to unzip her dress, from the back. Then something funny happens. Helen pushes me away; she has this weird look on her face. I ask her what’s wrong. She says, ‘There is much you don’t understand.’ She doesn’t seem drunk anymore. She says, ‘Look up at the sky.’ I look. And I see it. My God, I see it!”
    “The UFO?”
    “YES! It’s right there, hovering near us. Well—not at first. At first, it’s just this glowing dot in the sky, moving strangely. Then it gets bigger, coming toward us. Then it is there. Huge. Disk-shaped. Flying saucer, but really just a lot of glowing light. I look at Helen and she’s smiling. ‘I have to go,’ she says, ‘do you want to go with me?’
    “The light is intense, too intense. It hurts my eyes. I scream. I’m scared. NO! NO! THIS ISN’T WHAT I WANT!”
    I screamed.
    “David,” Craig said, “you’re coming out from the memory on the count of three—one, two, three!” He clapped his hands.
    I caught my breath. “Shit.”
     
     
    “Shit,” Anne said, “you’re bullshitting me.”
    “No,” I said, “I remember now.”
    “So there’s this UFO there, and she what?”
    “Yeah,” I say. “And she tells me, ‘I have to go home now.’ ‘I have to return to