Hosea’s cell phone rang once more in the distinctive ring and Tinsley brought it out of her purse and fumbled to get it open before the call flowed automatically to voice mail. Hosea was on stage fulfilling the duties of a guest MC. He had a gift with words, able to take the most mundane material and twist it into an exciting excerpt. He was returning to their nearby table amid a few handshakes and pats on the back by some appreciative audience members. He had heard the distinctive ring just slightly above the hum of the excited crowd. He downed another delicious drumette, spiked a mouth watering barbequed meatball, and with his mouth half full of diet-soda tried to speak, “OK, that sounded like Theo calling with more of his “sex-ploits”, am I right?”, he mumbled, jaws still working the bolus in his mouth.
Tinsley, responded with mumble, “Uh-Hum!!!” and then her attention was focused toward the stage, her friend was asking for assistance and she was busy with several other thoughts on her mind. She felt rushed and had to leave.
Hosea had more questions, “So what did Theo claim, more women – I know he didn’t bare any sordid details…”, he interrupted himself. “This is strictly guy talk, so don’t feel as if you’re left out. Because of the code, I will not be at liberty to reveal any significant facts surrounding my clients’ confessions. You do understand?” He teased gulping more soda and almost swallowing whole another drumette.
Hosea flashed a sequence of “Theo’s sex-isodes” across his memory bank. He often referred to Theo as a “pretty lucky bastard,” most men would die for the chance to be in his shoes with a beautiful woman on each arm if he desired. To be honest most women would lie about their marital status, steal from their sister-gurl or kill off an associate for a date with this handsome hunk. Their protocol had developed with him getting a call from his sea pal about once a month. Theo would describe adventures, minus any sordid details he’d yield information about his sleeping habits, on each cruise he seldom slept alone. Amazing conquests were reveled and revealed, to his friend.
His attention refocused on the moment at hand and he queried Tin again. By now, she was short on time and spoke in a choppy fashion, responding with another wise, “Uh-Hum” and a quickened smile.
“So alright”, Hosea prodded, “What did he have to say, he met another vivacious woman?” He sputtered chewing on his last few words and swallowing the punctuation with another slurp of diet soda. Licking dialect with his tongue
“Hey slow down, and chew your food before you choke to death.” She had to get to the stage area or the program would have a snag.
Tinsley handed him the phone, and with hardly another thought, gave him the gist of Theo’s statement, “He was very excited and in a bit of a hurry but said he wanted YOU to be the first to know – he met a “Man”, said to call him back as soon as possible”.
Hosea entire body went into arrest from Tin’s powerful statement. As his eyes went West, his thoughts raced ahead of him east of the Garden of Eden. He tried to gasp, but his throat swelled with a bolus of food and a blend of soda and saliva blocked his air passageway. He could not swallow, and he could not suck down another breath of oxygen. The choking reflex…had him in its grasp; the seconds were a blur of streaming consciousness. His life was indeed flashing before him. He felt faint and grew weaker with each moment. The room noise drowned in comparison to the deafening sound of his heart.
On the verge of collapse, the edge of panic and at the end of his breath, he tried to flail and scream but could not. With his diminishing strength, he pointed his finger at his throat. He gave the universal sign of choking and waited. More scenes from his childhood flashed onto the darkened screen of his tightly closed eyelids…the lost dog, his first double promotion, seeing Tinsley’s legs, observing her posture as she alighted the Michigan Avenue bus (#34) at 101st street, the birth of his son/daughter. Then he seemed to be stuck on stupid. He saw in his minds eye a fluttering butterfly and a vision of pigs in a blanket.
He drifted into the remnants of a two way, one-sided conversation he had with his brother in law several years ago. Phillip had questioned his logic on something and finished by saying, “you’re too damm intelligent to be so f’ing stupid”. He choked himself over reacting to Tinsley’s exclaim. He was not homophobic, he had taught himself to be tolerant and he was philosophically diverse.
It seemed like a day and a half passed but it was mere seconds. From the time Tinsley passed him the phone and saw the look on his face, she knew something was happening, inside of him. Hosea was absorbed with the interpretation of Theo’s claim. For the moment his autonomic inclinations and nervous system urges jumbled together. He was choking and she had to do something fast.
Hosea drifted now floating several feet above the crowd. He could see his own panic-stricken body shaken, stirred, and about to collapse. He saw Tinsley and knew if anyone could save him, she could.
**
Sailing on the other side of the world, Theo was on board the ship destined to dock at the pier of a foreign harbor, sleeping on his side of the bed. Next to him, was a muscular, skimpily clad body basking in a sound sleep. Theo was in dream mode and moaning faintly.
Within the dream, his wife had taken him fully into herself and was feeling him. After every few strokes he’d swirl his manhood, swiping against fleshy throbbing walls and ask, “Is it good to you, babe?”
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