I’m sitting in a favorite restaurant in Philadelphia waiting for Teena. She is late to work and the staff is worried about her. Suddenly I get a text mail from her. It says, “I have been tied to a tree in the park close by. You only have an hour to find me then they take me away back to Singapore. Help.”
I run out the door without paying for my food. Shannon follows and says, “Are you going to a movie? Can I go?”
“You’re boyfriend will be mad,” I say.
She says, “Teena has a boyfriend too, you know.”
“I know, she finally told me. I have an hour to find her,” and I run off across the street. I am worried because the park is big and there are so many trees. I ask people if they’ve seen a beautiful girl tied to a tree and they just laugh at me. I keep looking at my bracelet to tell time, like a sundial since I have no watch. I worry that I’m in the wrong park. A guy is playing bagpipes and it sounds horrible but I notice he is playing a song by Dave Matthews.
It is starting to rain lightly and I worry that time is going quickly. I think, “I barely got to know her now she will be in Indonesia.” I am very sad but running from tree to tree looking for her. I ask a park ranger who is wearing a tie-dye shirt and top hat and big, clown shoes if he has seen her. He says, “Maybe she’s in line to see the Liberty Bell.”
I scream, “No, you idiot, she’s tied to a tree.”
Suddenly, I hear a little kid say to his mom while the pass by, “Why is she naked, mom?” and I know he’s talking about Teena so I run in the direction they came from. I see yellow ropes in a BIG bowknot like a huge shoestring on a giant tree and when I run around to the other side, there she is. She is naked and I stop for a moment and just stare at her. I’ve never seen anything this sexy in my life. I walk up to her slowly and she has tears coming down her face but is smiling her incredible smile. “I knew you would find me Renaissance man. I knew it.”
“I need a knife to cut these ropes.” I look around but there is nothing and no one around. I look at my watch and there is only fifteen minutes left.
“Wait,” she says. “Now you can kiss me.”
“We don’t have much time,” I am looking under a bush for something sharp to cut the rope.
“But if they take me and we never kiss I will forever regret it,” she says softly.
I walk to the tree and put my hands on her hips. Her skin is so very soft. Leaning in, I whisper in her ear, feeling her sweet-smelling, silky hair against my lips for the first time. “I have waited so long for this…I am so nervous.”
“Kiss me,” she sighs softly and I look in to her eyes and my heart just races. I slowly find my lips moving toward her open mouth and she is the most beautiful woman I have ever seen. A press my wet lips slowly against hers and she tastes so sweet, deliciously soft, and she leans into me against the ropes as I press my body to hers and suddenly I notice the ropes have fallen to the ground and her arms are over my shoulders as I wrap mine around her.
We are not in the park any more and I am carrying her in my arms up the stairs at her restaurant. She is wrapped in one of my big, soft shirts. There is a hidden room behind a curtain that I somehow know about and I walk through there.
I sit her down in a big bathtub full of warm water and silky bath oils that smell of springtime flowers. Only candles light the room and I feel someone sitting in a dark corner watching us. I slowly wash Teena’s face and arms, back and chest in the candlelight, watching the water slide down her body and shoulders, hearing her breathing quietly as if she is very content. I lean in and softly kiss her neck. She stands and I sponge bubbly warm water all over her. She balances with her hand on my shoulder. “My turn,” she says and I climb into the tub with all of my clothes on and she cracks up. So does Shannon whose laugh I recognize from her seat in the dark corner watching us. Teena begins to unbutton my now soaked shirt and over her shoulder I see Shannon stand and slowly walk towards us and then I wake up!!!”
