Johnnie walked into Henry’s, opened the fridge, and sucked down a Smartwater. Jolene was humming at the table, making a craft. She didn’t look up.
“You smell like rain.”
“Yeah, well, I got caught in it.”
“On purpose?”
“Not exactly.”
Jolene looked up. “You’ve been to the cave.” Johnnie wiped the chalkiness from the cave floor off her shorts.
“Aren’t you going to ask about my shirt and jacket?”
Jolene continued to work on her project. “If you wanted me to know you’d tell me.”
Johnnie shook her head. “Sometimes, Jolene, you are maddening.”
Jolene didn’t look back up. “Go shower, or go sit outside and take in more wet earth. You’re bothering me.”
“Where’s Henry?”
“He went to meet with a white girl.”
Johnnie shoved off to the bedroom where she unpacked clean clothes and turned on the shower in the bathroom. The warm water felt good and she lathered the storm away, but she couldn’t wash Elaine from her mind. Once again, she was first and foremost, and Johnnie had tried not to think about her nude from the waist down. But now she thought about it. Wondered what it would’ve been like to touch her beneath the blanket. To take her mouth into hers, taste the rain on her cool skin. To hear her sigh, possibly moan as she kissed her back.
And then she thought about how Elaine would’ve pushed her away. Said no, they couldn’t. Johnnie knew how hard it would have been to stop. How it would’ve stabbed her gut to hear those words. No, it was better this way. They had done the right thing.
She killed the water and stepped from the tub. She dried quickly, dressed, and walked back to the kitchen. Jolene was out back; Johnnie could see her lit up by the fire pit. She was no doubt roasting corn. She might even be making fry bread. Johnnie pushed out the door, inhaled the energy of the fresh stars, and joined her. She sank into a chair, watched the far off lightning and recalled how beautiful and yet how vulnerable Elaine had looked when all wet. She’d been talking in the vortex, moving in circles, eyes to the sky. She’d been feeling something. And as badly as Johnnie hated interrupting her, she was about two seconds away from getting struck by lightning.
“You’re different,” Jolene said, poking at foil covered corn with a stick.
“I had a good sweat,” she said, referring to day before yesterday. She planned on having two more before she left.
“No, from today. Your energy. You’ve found it and controlled it.”
Johnnie stared into the fire. “I wish it felt that simple.”
“It never will. Words can never do what we feel justice.”
They sat in silence and Johnnie eased into the blanket of Jolene’s silent embrace. She snuggled up there and pulled up her hood on her ASU sweatshirt.
When the corn and potatoes were done, they ate. When Henry returned, he joined them, bringing out the chili beer. They sat under the bright clean sky, and watched the fire dance and sparkle with personality. Johnnie didn’t tell them about Elaine. She didn’t need to. It was her moment. Hers and Elaine’s. She knew she’d never forget it. And if she told, it might dissipate somehow.
“I’m off to bed,” she finally said. Henry nodded and finished his beer.
“I have a white woman coming tomorrow,” he said.
Johnnie gave a wave and headed off. Henry helping people wasn’t new. But he was very picky about his clients. The woman must need help and be very special. She decided to wake early and try to leave before she arrived, leaving Henry and Jolene to do their thing.