If Asha Hennessey, in all of her big hair glory, is like a lion, then Priscilla Wilder, or Pia, as she is known in her most intimate of circles, is her tamer. Without the slightest intonation of her voice, she commands and orders, exudes her strength and her domination over Asha and anyone else in the room in little more than a whisper.

I watched the two stare each other down at the long end of my dining room table.

“All I’m saying is that we need to make sure that she keeps her mouth shut,” Asha arched her eyebrows.

“What makes you think she won’t?” Priscilla asked.

“Pia, I’ve known her for twenty years! She’s got a vendetta against me and I think she sees this as perfect opportunity to do some real damage. She wheels and deals. How else do you think she got to be mayor? Because of her admirable civic sensibilities? Hinton’s bullshit!”

“Pia, if I can just chime in here…,” I interrupted.

“Priscilla,” Asha corrected me. Priscilla adjusted her monocle.

I glared back at Asha. “Sorry…Priscilla…I know for a fact that Mayor Hinton is only involved in anything if there’s something in it for her. She’s proven herself to be a liar to me personally and I wouldn’t trust her to save my life. I have to agree with Asha on this.”

Priscilla’s head took a good, long three seconds to turn and face me. “Personally, you say?”
“It’s a long story...but Hinton’s shown herself to be an ass on more than one occasion and I just think it’s a bad idea to give into her demands. I just don’t trust her.”

Priscilla pulled the monocle from her eye and slowly turned back to Asha, asking, “Pico, is it?”
“Yes, that’s Pico,” Asha responded, nodding in my direction.

Priscilla plopped the glass back by her eye. “Pico,” she says, turning slowly back. “I have no interest in your personal stories."

I could see Priscilla’s teeth grit behind her blank stare and I could feel Asha's eyes watching me.

            "I have no need for emotional testimonies or whining," she continued. "What I’m interested in is facts. This Hinton has found herself in a bind and in order to get out of it, she’s willing to give up some potentially damning and certainly incriminating information about one of my dearest friends. It’s obvious you have some affection toward Asha and concern for her well-being, which is understood, but unless you have something else to offer, I’d prefer if you did not interrupt our conversation again. I’ll excuse you this once.”

I sat there not knowing if I should laugh.

"Never mind, Pico. Tell me what you think I should do?" Asha finally said. Priscilla's one eye never turned from me although she engaged Asha in more conversation.

Pissed off and pouting, I decide to become as annoying as little siblings do when they are not invited to play or as much as a much-swatted-at gnat. So I kicked the heels of my big boots onto the table so that they landed with a loud thud. Asha jumped at their sound and rolled her eyes at me, but Priscilla never flinched.

I took out Zee Phone and turned the volume up to its loudest and jazziest ring and switched on the vibrate function. I set the phone bomb to ticking. I texted Veronica, who was somewhere in Europe, and asked how her shows were going, if the fans adored her as much over there as they did here and if she missed me. Then I set the phone on the hardwood table and waited for a reply.

Thirty seconds later, it exploded into a dizzying cacophony of tectonic melody and buzz as Veronica texted back to me that she was in London where she had just finished a set for the Queen, Her Majesty and that the only difference between the fans here and there was that there she couldn't really understand what they were saying. "Yes, terribly," she wrote at the end.  

By the time I looked up from the screen after texting Veronica another one, Asha and Priscilla were staring at me.
"Oh, I'm sorry," I fake smiled. "Am I interrupting you?"

Asha blazed, but Priscilla still wouldn’t flinch. They continued on without me.

This time, after receiving Veronica’s text, I responded by calling her back, our conversation on full blast taking over the room and ruining any talk at the other end of the table.

“No!” I shouted as loud as I could. “No, you’re kidding! He didn’t, did he?...you’re lying!...stop fucking lying, you know you’re telling stories now!...well, I don’t believe that!....no, you!...no, you!...okay…okayokayokay! Just this once….what do you want to hear?...no, I’m not gonna do that one!...no!...because I said so, that’s why!....that one’s embarrassing!...okay…okay…listen careful because I’m not gonna do it again…” I started to sing the lines of my favorite songs off of Veronica’s Wish You Were Here album.

Before I had gotten to the second verse, Asha was escorting Priscilla to the door. By the hook, the tamer was gone.
“Hang up the phone!” Asha roared.

I ignored her and continued singing.

he ripped the phone from my hand and threw it across the room. I couldn’t see where it landed, but I heard it splatter into little pieces onto the floor.

he pointed to the bed. “Get over there and take your clothes off!”

I decided I better.

She went to the bathroom. I pulled off my shoes, my shirt and my pants. I got all the way down to my skin and situated myself underneath a blanket there. I waited. I could hear the toilet flush and then the faucet run.

“I’m completely naked…” I started to say, as she re-entered the room. But she came rushing toward me, undressing herself just as quickly and landed on top of me, kissing and thrusting in a matter of seconds.

In a few more, she was pushing inside of me so deep that my legs went to quivering. My whole body shook and quaked. I buried my face in the crook of her arm, outstretched and strong. She pushed deeper still, strong and forceful. And despite her earlier show of deference to the one-eyed Priscilla Wilder, she and I both knew her power and her might still ruled here. 

Tags: Cereal