Naked Portraits Pt. 12

A dim light fell on me allowing me to see my arms. A few feet away, I saw me standing with arms stretched out. Clearly, I was looking into a large mirror. I stepped toward the mirror. Oddly, my reflection seemed a half step too slow.

I dropped my arms and took a step to the side. My reflection followed suit, but a whole second late. My reflection glared back at me with her goth eyes, clearly displeased with me.

"No give ME the stink eye!" I said. "You da one late."

A titter of laughter came from the darkness around me. I smiled, pleased that I had made the darkness laugh. Anger flared in the eyes of my reflection. "Sorry," I said. Not wanting to upset her any further, I stood absolutely still.

I saw I had a tattoo on my upper right arm. It was an angel with an elaborate set of wings. Nowadays, whenever I see angels, I think of Aly. The angel's face was clearly Asian, her wings and hair jet black. I twisted my arm to get a better look. Aly would like it I was sure. My reflection gave me a dirty look again. Apparently, she didn't like me looking at the tattoo. I straightened my arm and sent her a psychic apology. Without moving my head, my eyes drifted down my reflection's sleek body and stopped short when I saw two faint one inch long parallel lines on my right thigh.

"Betty?" I asked, totally confused.

Years ago, my former best friend Betty got that scar when she, Misty and I had jumped a barbed wire fence at the Fernandez farm to escape a charging cow. Betty didn't clear the fence and had scratched herself badly. No ... wait, if that's my reflection then I must be Betty I thought logically.

"Gwen," my reflection whispered barely moving her lips.

Okay ... I'm not Betty ... but how come I'm reflecting ... Betty? I thought, foolishly trying to find the logic in my implausible dream. Stupid yeah?

"Take off your top you idiot," my Betty reflection said and pulled her her bustier thing over her head. Totally confused, I followed suit. Not wearing a bra, I stood facing my reflection topless. Betty's breasts were pretty, they were always pretty. For years I always thought Betty and I could be mirror images if only I would workout more.

My eyes welled with tears. "I missed you," I told her.

She frowned, my tears seem to alarm her.

"You ready for the kiss?" she whispered.

Her request shocked me. She closed her goth eyes and leaned in. Not knowing what else to do, I followed suit. The kiss was perfect, reminiscent of the one we shared in San Francisco all those years ago. Our breasts squeezed together and that felt totally amazing too. But as delirious as the kiss was, it also felt very wrong. Plus, anger at her for shunning me all these months swelled in my brain. It was time I had it out with her, never mind that we were topless and kissing in some weird dark void surrounded by whispering shadows.

My eyes fluttered open to bright daylight. I stood in the shade of a patch of banana trees looking into the exotic, beautiful face of Alyson Reese barely a foot away. Her long blond hair flickered with a small gust of wind. I frowned trying to recall if we had kissed or not. I was pretty sure we had. This could mess up our friendship, I thought aimlessly, even as I leaned in to get another kiss.

"Stop! Don't move a muscle," Aly cautioned.

I stopped, confused, not to mention embarrassed by my impulsive behavior. Overcome with a compulsive need to apologized, I said, ''I'm sorry for feeling you up at the portrait sitting." Neither of us had spoken about the incident from a couple of weeks ago.

Aly's blue-green eyes looked right at me, yet, at the same time, she seemed not to see me at all. Was I not here? Aly puckered. I giggled for it made her look a lot like Marilyn Monroe down to the crinkly smiley eyes. I puckered too anticipating a friendly peck. She blew out a puff of air and crazily, something crawled onto her face, it was a black and yellow spider near the size of my hand. If this were anything but a dream, I would have screamed and scurried back, but all I could think of was how much it looked like Neffie's drawing on my bulletin board. My eyes made an adjustment and I saw that the spider was in it's web and not on her face. Aly had kept me from blundering into it.

"Is it poisonous?" the girl next to me at the bus stop bench asked.

"Is what poisonous?"I asked the girl.

She didn't answer so I looked around to see where Aly and the spider had gotten to. All I saw were darken streets lit by orange halogen lampposts. I knew this stop for it wasn't far from Ala Moana Beach Park. I looked at the girl on the bench and saw she was dressed in my bedclothes from Dr. Lings dream study. And stranger still, Dr. Ling stood a few paces away from the bench looking at me and the girl. The girl was me of course. I pushed her hair away from her sleepy face and touched the sensors on her forehead.

"Your top is cute," sleepy me said. I looked down to see that I had on a tight leather vest thing with no sleeves. Below I wore faded jeans and shiny leather boots that looked expensive. "You look like one of those goth chicks from photography," sleepy mumbled.

The headlights of a bus washed over us as it pulled up to the stop. The door hissed open. I stood and helped long-hair to her feet. I pulled a day pass from my faded jeans that I knew was there and squeezed it into her hand. On her own, in her Hawaii flag t-shirt pajamas, she managed to ascend the stairs of the bus, I noticed she was barefoot.

"Be nice to her," I said to a distressed looking Dr. Ling standing nearby. She nodded jerkily and followed sleepy. They sat together in the middle of the bus and sleepy me rested her head on the doctor's shoulder. The door closed and just as the bus was about to pull away, a woman stepped up and slapped at the door. The bus stopped, the door hissed open and the woman stepped on. I walked the length of the bus tracking the woman as she moved down the aisle and sat one seat behind sleepy me and Dr. Ling. As the bus pulled away, the woman turned and looked right at me. It was Li Hong! Her hair was long and a total mess and it looked like someone had scratched her right cheek. I can't say why, but it freaked me out and I let out a scream.

"She cannot harm them," my forest goddess said. She was at the bus stop too. Oddly, she was no longer made of wood and seemed cast from bronze.

Her new look didn't surprise me, it seemed fitting. I nodded and tried to calm myself.

"Do you understand your task?" Wahinelani asked. Her eyes gave off a golden glow.

"I didn't know I had a task?" I informed her.

"You are phasing and you need to center yourself or foolishness will distract you," the bronze goddess said.

Dark brown bronze suited her Hawaiian features and her figure was kicking. She would give Aly a serious run for her money with that bod, I thought.

A spider skittered from her hairline and stopped in the middle of her forehead. With a rueful smile, she nudged the spider with a finger. The thing zipped down the side of her head, halted for a second the way spiders do, and then continued down her neck. It scurried over her right shoulder and finally settled between her metal cast breasts were it held still like it were a piece of jewelry. Aside from an occasional leg twitch, the thing was quite pretty.

"You have lost focus again," Wahinelani said sounding weirdly like Professor Kang.

Then just like that, we were in my campus art studio. I saw me on my knees, naked performing fellatio on Matt sprawled out in the loveseat. My long dark hair cascaded over my shoulders and down my back ... I missed my long hair. Matt wore a t-shirt and shorts, with the shorts down around his ankles of course. I watched my head bob up and down for a few seconds.

"Is that what I look like giving head?" I asked with a frown.

Behind the intimate act of fellatio was a painting of a red hand splayed out surrounded by a black circle.

"I thought I had cut that up?" I said absently.

Matt looked up. He seemed to have heard me. He took in a harsh breathe, he was close to coming. I stepped up to them, stopped and looked behind me. Did I come from the mirror? I saw myself in all my goth glory, the bustier thing was back and I couldn't help turning sideways to look at my tits and admire the tattoo. Long hair spoke so I turned to listen.

"I'm in the mood to do something dirty. Let's finish this in the hall."

Matt looked alarmed at the suggestion. "You off your nut?" he said. "Someone could come along any second."

With a crooked bad girl smile, she stood up, gripped him by his convenient handle and led him to the door. Matt hiked up his shorts and held them in place with one hand up front. Both Long hair and I giggled at how freaked out he looked. I stepped aside to give them room to slip out the door. For some reason, I was positive she was thinking about Shelly's New dance.

The hall was empty, but like Matt had said, that could change. In the middle of the hallway, Long-hair dropped to her knees bold and naked before him. She gripped his big erection with both hands, but just as she leaned in to take him into her mouth, Matt ejaculated. Long-hair squealed as a burst of white splashed her right cheek and gobbed into her hair near her neck. She grabbed the spewing thing and pointed it at her bare chest as lines of white stuff erupted all over her perky B cups.

Then I saw someone standing at the other end of the hall. Matt didn't see because his back was turned. It was clear that longhair saw the person but kept quiet about it. Was it someone who had just come along or did she arrange this like she had at the main gallery months ago?

"Come inside and close the door, Gwen, "Wahinelani said from inside the studio. I wanted to see who was standing at the other end of the hall, but as asked, I stepped back into the studio and closed the door.

"Is this my task? To watch me do dirty things to Matt?" I asked a bit annoyed.

As if this were a Bergman film, Wahinelani shook her head slowly raised her arm, ominously pointing a finger at the mirror on the back of my studio door. The mirror didn't reflect the room anymore, and instead, gave off a dull purple glow.

"The dusty mauve place," the other me said. I thought her voice was coming from the mirror, then I realized she was probably still kneeling naked in the hall on the other side of the door. The glow scared the shit out of me for some reason and I was glad the she and Matt were safe in the hall. I turned away from the mirror to ask a question but found myself face to face with redheaded Venus from Betty's painting and short-hair me standing next to her. Venus was stark naked, her galaxy of freckles pleasing to the eye. Short hair was totally decked out in goth splendor in shiny bust enhancing spandex vest, black biker shorts and the black calf high suede boots. Her figure was totally awesome. I looked for the scar on her thigh to see if it were me or my Betty. I couldn't tell for I was suddenly very sleepy and it was hard to keep my eyes open.

I pushed my hair out of my face and was stupidly pleased to see that it was long again. Also, I was back in my Hawaii state flag pajamas, the sensors were there too. Short-hair took Venus by the hand and they stepped toward me. Through my heavy sleepy eyes I managed to find the scar proving that it was Betty. They walked passed me. It was clear that they planned on walking into the mirror.

Alarmed, I said, "You don't want to go in there Betty!"

"Understand your task," Venus told me.

"What fucking task!" I barked at her.

My outburst seem to sadden her.

"Sorry," I said feeling bad for yelling.

She reached out and tenderly touched my face. Her touch soothed my anger. She smile warmly. I smiled back and then I started to cry.

"Don't go in there," I begged through my tears.

She gave me a puzzled look. "I'm not going to let her go in there alone," she said gently as if I were being silly. She pointed back toward the room. Mat and I sat naked, snuggling on the ratty loveseat. Mat seemed asleep but the other me was clearly wide awake watching me talk to Venus. Venus brushed her hand through my hair and seemed fascinated by the length.

"I'm easily distracted too," Venus said with an amused smile. She leaned in close and I was sure she was gonna kiss me. I closed my eyes happy to let it happen. Her warm mouth met mine. The kiss was awesome ... just the way a goddess should kiss, I thought. I opened my eyes and found myself looking into Li Hong's beautiful pale face.

"Li ... goddess of the sea," I whispered.

"Watch out for her," Venus said ominously.

I wondered which of us she was talking too and was it a warning or a request to be vigilant? Venus stood inside the mirror holding hands with Betty.

"I'll find you!" I shouted after them pushing away from Li and approached the mirror. A huge shadow obscured my view of them. I stepped back and saw that it was a spider the size of large dog clinging to the other side of the mirror blocking the opening.

In a frightening wheezy voice, the spider said, "You are the night."

I screamed and sat up in the dream study room.

Breathing heard, my eyes flickered to all the corners of the room expecting to see the giant spider clinging to the walls or ceiling. Needing to pee like crazy, I swung my legs off the bed but pulled them back up quickly. After tentatively peeping under the bed to assure myself there was no spider under there, I got up and quick stepped to the bathroom, turned on the light and did my business. As I washed my hands, I looked at my sweaty face in the mirror to take stock: sensors on my forehead, hair long, Hawaii state flag t-shirt. I lifted the t-shirt to assess my panties: leopard and zebra ... no biker shorts. lowered my shirt.

"If a spider jumps out at me like in one of those stupid Nightmare on Elm Street movies, I'm gonna be royally pissed," I said aloud.

Nothing like that happened ... thank goodness.

Confidant that I was fully awake, I went back to my bedside and related my stupid pointless dream into the little recorder thing. At least there wasn't too much embarrassing sex this time.

Chapter 57 Goddess of the Sea

"You're going to have her sorting your laundry next," Hawk said from Aly's kitchen sitting at a bar stool working on something on his laptop.

"She's already doing that," Matt said at one end of Aly's sofa, his face hidden from view by the Honolulu Advertiser. Aly occupied the other end of the sofa with her feet resting in Matt's lap.

"She is not!" I said. "Neffie was just returning a work shirt I loaned her." I sat cross legged in the comfy lounge chair near the front door with my big Van Gogh book book in my lap. After seeing my portrait of Matt in the Van Gogh style, Meka had suggested I do a nude using Van Gogh's crazy swirls. I liked the idea.

"The shirt was folded and wrapped in plastic," Matt said from behind his newspaper.

"It's because one of her sisters owns a dry cleaning business you dipshit," Aly said, coming to my defense.

I bent over and picked up a rubber slipper and threw it at Matt's newspaper but my angle was bad and it rattled a side table full of Aly's collection of angels.

"Hey!" Aly snapped at me. "Don't you hit my angels!"

I gave Aly an apologetic look then said to Matt, "It's not my fault the crazy little chick has declared herself my personal assistant and all around gofer."

"Your own personal house maid? How colonial of you," Hawk pipped in without looking up from his laptop screen.

"You want a slipper to the face too surfer boy?" I threatened.

"You throw like an artist," Hawk mocked.

I picked up the second slipper and proved Hawk's point as the thing went sailing way off the mark into the kitchen.

"Stop that!" Aly barked.

"Did you always get picked last in playground sports?" Matt asked.

"Stop being mean," Aly said to Matt and kicked a foot up to crinkle his newspaper. "Neffie's super sweet."

"You're defending her because Neffie's sister gives you the family discount at her dry cleaner," Matt said.

"Be that as it may," Aly said. "Neffie's done something the rest of us seemed unable to do. She's got Gwen organized."

"Enough about Neffie," I said with a roll of my eyes.

Nefertiti Margarita Ulamat has become everyone's favorite subject lately. But I have to admit that Aly was right. Neffie has amazing organization skills and with her help, my life in general has been moving along smoothly. Before Neffie, I would come up with these grandiose ideas for paintings, but was too busy (or more accurately, too lazy) to go to the library to follow up. Neffie's little laptop put all of the art world at my literal finger tips. I gotta get me one of those, I thought. Maybe I will after Li Hong's final payment. Anyway, Neffie is an excellent proof reader and has improved my class papers tenfold. And the girl picks up skills like seashells on the beach. A week ago, she watched me stretch raw canvas on wooden stretcher bars and prime it with gesso. The girl now stretches and primes canvas better then I ever have. I do my best to pay her back by telling her everything I know about painting. Using my clout as a top graduate student, I get her insider tours of all the art facilities.

"I have to go and meet Li Hong for her portrait," I said, closing my Van Gogh book.

"Call little Neffie, she'll do the painting for you," Matt said.

I reach for another slipper.

Aly leaned in and yanked it from my hand. "Don't you dare," she warned. "I'll do it for you." She fired the slipper at Matt on the other side of the sofa. The slipper smacked the newspaper out of his hands crumpling it against his face.

"Hey no make! I ain't George Bush!"

I got up, grabbed my bag and the keys to Hawk's Bronco.

"Be back here tonight to watch the game at the big house," Aly said. "My landlords are out of town and we got the pool to ourselves the whole weekend."

"Okay," I said and left.

**********

Earlier in the week, I had wrangled Neffie to assist with Li's painting. I could have easily done the whole thing myself but the thought of being alone with Li for such a long stretch of time freaked me out. Her brief appearances in my freaky dream from the other day didn't help at all. The warning from Venus still rung in my head ... watch out for her.

Hawk and Matt teased me, calling me homophobic. I argued that Li was very intense and a little aggressive. Gallantly, both Hawk and Matt volunteered to be there to back me up. I knew they just wanted to see Li naked so I settled for just Neffie's presents. Besides, I didn't want to scare Li off, the chick still owed me two thousand dollars.

It was Saturday and I had procured the empty figure-painting studio for the session. After my struggle with Aly's portrait in my tiny studio, I decided I needing more room.

And it would be harder to corner you there, my logical side added.

Chicken shit, lizard brain chimed in.

"How long do we have the space?" Neffie asked, ending my annoying internal argument.

"We have to be out by six, an open figure drawing class comes in at seven. My model will be here at eleven. That gives me plenty of time to do the hard stuff. Background and details I can deal with later."

"Aly's painting was amazing," Neffie said as she locked in a thirty by forty inch gallery wrapped canvas on my easel. "It was so cool you painted me in like that." Neffie had stretched and primed the canvas herself yesterday. I brushed the canvas with my fingers. It was sanded smooth ... just the way I liked it.

"Surface okay boss?" she asked.

She had taken to calling me boss lately. "Don't call me boss," I said mildly irritated. All I needed was for Matt or Hawk hear her calling me that. I'd never hear the end of it.