the two women were curious about anatomy—most notably their own. they had similar bodies, though not quite the same, and they sometimes wondered why pieces of clothing fell certain ways on one body but not on the other. the two women also loved alphabet soup, which was their idea of an exhilarating distraction, an occasional indulgence. they often popped a few letters in their mouths, and compared their bodies in the full-length mirror, late into the night.
***
between themselves, the two women knew four languages. they knew the languages to varying degrees—it was a delicate equilibrium. one excelled in a language more than the other; the other mastered a language the other could only read; and sometimes, as one dove deeper into a language, the other slowly drifted away from it.
this allowed them to speak in tongues.
one evening, one of them hosted a party.
the other woman asked her:
“are you happy?”
she looked around the room, and then at her.
“what does ‘happy’ mean?”
***
the two women were on the northbound bus. they were off to dinner at a james bond-themed restaurant. neither women were familiar with james bond beyond his well-known self-affirming line, nor had they any idea what a restaurant in his honour entailed. it was an excuse to get out of the house.
on the northbound bus, the two women sat and discussed various matters of the anatomy, of the heart.
a man and his date got on and stood by the exit door. the man looked like a young boy—pale, white skin; soft, dark curls—, while his date looked like an old lady—furrowed brow, parenthetical mouth, hair limp and thin. one of the two women recognised the man. she wrote it down on a small piece of paper, and handed it to the other.
i know him. i went to his apartment many moons ago. he had a book on the art of war in his bathroom. he is a kafa doktoru.
she underlined the last two words, for good measure. the other woman nodded. she had not yet met him, but she would, soon—they were all headed to the same james bond-themed restaurant, and the three of them would share a cigarette on the patio while the man’s date picked at the brackets around her mouth.