Hallie

"All I wanted to do was sing... is that too much to ask?"

Hallie shook her hand loose from Martin's grip and looked at him sulkily.

"Yes, Hallie, that is too much to ask. You know I hate karaoke bars. I don't know why I convinced you to let me go to one."

"I was going to sing 'My Heart Will Go On'."

Martin inwardly groaned. They had heard that selection twice in the hour that they had sat in the bar, once from an overweight Hispanic man and once from a forty-five-year-old woman who would never be convinced how terrible her voice was. She acted like she was a far better singer than Celine Dion and sang like cats wailing on a fence while scratching their claws on chalkboards.

"Why do you always insist on embarrassing me?"

"I'm embarrassing you?" asked Hallie, incredulous. "You are the one that made that huge scene when you pulled me out of the bar. I had the mike in my hand, for God's sake."

"Don't sing."

"Don't order me around."

Martin sighed. This happened every time they went out.

"Hallie, you can't get mad at me just because I don't want to be made into a fool."

"Make you into a fool? How do you think I feel?"

"Please, stop getting so mad."

"If you can't take the heat, give it to someone else."

"That's not a bad idea."

"What?"

"We're over, Hallie."

Martin looked at Hallie, but she just stared at him. When his expression didn't change, she said, "Fine. Be that way, then," and walked away, leaving Martin alone in the street.



Two months later, Martin found himself on a blind date.

He hadn't dated much after Hallie. He was "over" her, sure, but he hadn't met someone he wanted to ask out, and anyway that wasn't really his thing. He was always uncomfortable asking out anyone he found attractive, and of course he didn't want to date someone he couldn't find attractive in some way, which left him to go on blind dates more often than not.

Hallie had been the exception. She had come up to him in a bar where he had been with his friend Tom and said, "Hi. I like your style. Will you go out to lunch with me sometime?"

Martin wouldn't have agreed, either, if Tom hadn't said, "He'd love to."

Hallie had handed over a napkin with her number on it and melted back into the crowd.

Martin had looked at Tom, almost angry, but Tom had said, "You need to get out there. You haven't been on a date in a month. She was cute. Just give it a chance."

And from that point on there was no getting out of it. Other men may have simply not called, but Martin was of a chivalrous sort and refused to go back on his commitment.

It's only one lunch, he thought.

But the lunch had been fun, and so had the next three dates been. Suddenly, Martin found himself in a relationship with this bold, eccentric girl. For one thing, she wore too much red. Martin never liked that color of clothing. And she wore long, flowing skirts one day and short shorts the next. One day her shoulder-length wavy brown hair was left down, the next wrapped up in a punk-style bandanna, the next in a ponytail bedecked with rhinestones. Martin could never figure her out. In the beginning that was sort of what was fun about her. At the end it had stopped being fun and started being tiring and embarrassing in public.

Martin turned his attention from his past to the conversation with Linda, this evening's date. "Do you have any pets?" Linda asked.

"No. I hate cats. My girlfriend had seven of them." Linda looked at Martin strangely. "Ex-girlfriend," he said, catching himself. "Those cats drove me nuts."

"I hate cats too," Linda said, and laughed.

Score one for Linda.



That night Martin woke up from a terrible dream. Not a nightmare exactly, but it was so confusing that Martin's logical mind retreated from it in puzzlement. Beside him, the covers rustled, and Linda turned over in her sleep. Martin, too baffled to go to sleep, sat up, and Linda awoke and looked at him.

"What is it?" she asked.

"I had this weird dream."

"One of those 'once upon a time, in a land far, far away' dreams?"

"I guess so. I didn't recognize the time or the place."

"Want to talk about it?"

"Are you one of those people that think dreams can tell the future or something, are you?"

Linda scoffed. "No, of course not."

"Okay then. There was something about a cow with stripes and a river and a leaky boat and a pair of normal cows."

"What?"

"I was one of the normal cows and I was on one side of the bank with the other normal cow and I knew I wanted to go to the other side of the river but the boat was leaky. How weird is that? I was a cow."

"Well, you have some kind of hidden desire that you can't achieve," Linda said, jokingly, "or so the dream-ologists would say. But where does the striped cow come into play?"

"I have no idea," said Martin. "That must be a symbol for the desire, but what it means, I don't know."

That was a lie. Martin did know. Hallie had a lamp with a base that was one of those collectible cows like the statues that were touring major cities, set up in parks and on street corners and whatnot. It was purple with pink stripes. "The Cheshire Cow," she called it, and she loved that stupid lamp. The cow in the dream had looked just like it.

"Well, we should get back to sleep," said Linda chuckling. Martin lay down and Linda draped her arm over his chest, snuggling into him. He felt the warmth from her body, but still the darkness crept upon him like roaches in an all-night diner. He felt alone, even with Linda right there next to him. He lay still, listening, watching the darkness. A howling noise shook his window. Was that the wind? Martin thought. But it sounded more like the cat/Celine Dion woman from the karaoke bar, that last night with Hallie. My heart will go ahwwwwwwwwwwwwwwn and ahwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwn!

Suddenly, Martin got up, shaking off Linda's touch as though it were poison. "I have to go," he said, rooting around in the dark for clothes.

Linda sat up and stared at him. "What?"

"I'm sorry. I don't normally do this. It's caddish of me, I know, but -"

"The cat ex-girlfriend?"

Now it was Martin's turn to be confused. "What?"

Linda half-smiled at Martin. "Go," she said, and in a moment, Martin was dressed and he went.



It was a fifteen minute walk from Linda's apartment to Hallie's, but Martin was almost sprinting and made it in twelve. He walked up and rang the bell, hoping she would let him up.

"What?" asked Hallie's voice over the intercom. She didn't sound tired, even if it was after two in the morning.

"It's Martin."

She didn't answer or ask what he was doing there. She just buzzed him up. He pulled the door open quickly and took the stairs two at a time, hoping she wouldn't have changed her mind about talking to him by the time he got there. Her door was open when he approached it, and she stood in the half-open doorway. From her pink fuzzy bunny slippers to her leopard-print pajamas to her tousled hair, she was exactly what Martin had remembered. He peered behind her and saw the Cheshire Cow lit up, reflecting fuchsia light throughout the room. He also noticed that she was up to her old annoying habit of watching two TV shows at the same time. A football match and a baseball game filled up opposing sides of the television.

"What are you watching?" he asked.

"It's fourth and nine, and the bases are loaded."

"It's after two."

"ESPN plays reruns of games." Hallie shrugged. "Go figure."

"You don't watch sports."

"I had to have something to do without you." Hallie smiled, and her green eyes lit up. Martin couldn't help but smile back. "So what is the matter?"

"I -" Martin paused, thinking, and continued. "I wanted to apologize for that last night, in the karaoke bar."

Hallie looked at him and said, "Well, you didn't have to smack my hand with that tuna."

"What?"

Hallie stuttered to say what she was thinking. "That tuna thing, the tuna roll, I had a hold of the mike and you smacked my hand with the tuna roll."

Martin laughed with Hallie, who was already covering her face with her cupped hands. "I was just grabbing whatever I could. I wanted you gone."

After a moment they both settled down. "Well, we had some fun times, right?"

"The best," said Martin.

Hallie looked at him, more relaxed than before. "Apology accepted," she said.

They smiled at each other for a moment before Hallie said, "Well, goodnight."

"Goodnight," said Martin. The door clicked closed and he started walking down the hall. Suddenly he heard the door creak open again.

"Martin?" asked Hallie.

He went back to her doorway. "What is it?"

"I like your style," she said. "Will you go out to lunch with me sometime?"

Tom was nowhere to be found, so Martin smiled and said, "I'd love to."





NOTE: The green is for a contest, "Invalid Item" . The contest requires that certain quotes be incorporated into a story and that those quotes be highlighted in green.

And it won second place! Thanks, dingolord!!!