THE UNSCREWED COMPASS

“If they be two, they are two so

As stiff twin compasses are two

Thy soul, the fixed foot, makes no show

To move, but doth, if th’other do.”

n  John Donne

in A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning

While the soft earth caressed the dreamy breeze on the lawns covering the vast gardens surrounding the airport building, Tess and RJ strolled along the length of the broad pavilion outside the departure gates. Their palms locked tight, looks pensive; they walked side-by-side, silent, calm. They had been like this for the past twenty minutes. They had been like this on the train to the airport. They had been like this all that morning. Now they were closing in on noon.

The night before, the full moon had looked down upon their smooth sleeping bodies and smiled.

“Wake up, you boar!” Tess yelled as she bustled about with her dress and toiletries. “It’s 7 a.m.”

“Hmmmm...” In the mirror, behind Tess’s right earring, RJ turned over and began to snore once more. 

So, without a moment’s hesitation, she curtly picked up her pillow and repeatedly brought it down on his head till he sat up straight and wide eyed.

“It’s 7 a.m.” she repeated, glowering through shabby black hair and continuing to glare till he closed the bathroom door behind him. 

Twenty minutes later they were singing duets in their car, rolling down the highway towards the caves.

It was dark inside. Green drops of water fell from the mossy roof as they scraped their way through the series of rough rocks and climbed over boulders.

“My forehead’s itching with this tight band on.” Tess remarked.

“It smells great in here though, doesn’t it?”

“I wonder if it’s the odour of all the tufts of slimy moss clinging to the walls, preventing us from taking their support.”

“Awww, you little grumpy. Come on. This is a good spot for a picture.”

It was raining outside. The air became cooler, the earth softer. Out of the caves now, Tess and RJ sat at an adjoining cafe, grinning at each other over coffee, as they had done so often the past three years. An energetic breeze blew the rain horizontal and brought the drizzle into the cafe which only had an overhead covering and whose sides were bare. The air swung on branches and blew at leaves, hopped over drooping dandelions and rolled onto the mud before rushing into the cracks and pores of the rocks in the caves, tickling the earth’s belly.

“Now it smells good.” Tess said, winking at RJ.

He drew a long deep breath.

“Wet eyes can see clearer, don’t you think?” he replied, grinning again. “Or perhaps it’s the coffee that has mellowed you.”

“You’re a beast. Beastie.”

“And you’re Snow White’s dwarf, Grumpy.”

“Screw you!” Tess scowled.

“You bet.” RJ laughed with an amused smirk.

When all the rain had crossed over from the clouds to the earth, the air broke out in a warm, relaxed smile. The trees swayed to the melody of the chirping birds and squirrels began chasing each other once more. It was Tess’s turn on the wheel and they played Atlas all the way back to the city.

“Let’s go bowling tonight,” RJ suggested while they sat, one among the crowd of vehicles waiting to enter the city when red light retired and green light came out for her shift.

“Sure,” Tess replied.

And so it was that they found themselves laughing and challenging each other over drinks, game after game, at the bowling arena that stood conveniently beside their hotel.

“Wanna go dance a little?” Tess asked.

“Will you sing with me at the karaoke after that?”

“Nothing happens straight for you, does it?”

But the moment they entered the pub, a large room in the gaming parlor, RJ pulled Tess along to the front of a crowd gathered at a center table. Exuberant, glowing faces pressed in on them from all sides under blue neon lights. At the table were two old ladies downing shot after shot.

“What’s happening here?” Tess yelled to her neighbor, trying to reach him over the crowd’s roar and the loud trance music.

“They bet about being able to take ten shots of tequila in a minute and still stay standing. This sort of thing’s never happened before. Five shots are on the house.” The man shouted back.

“That’s a lot of tequila.” Tess yelled in reply and they both rejoined the cheering.

The minute ended with both ladies having downed six and they were being congratulated by the dispersing gathering while they got up to leave and staggered through to another table.

“I challenge this young lady here,” RJ hollered suddenly.

“Oh, no you don’t!” Tess scolded back.

“What? You afraid?”

“Huh, what... hey!”

“Well, are you?”

Tess sensed the tension. The crowd had turned towards them. About thirty eyes were staring straight at them in total silence.

“Fine. Challenge accepted. But you pay.”

“Done.”

The crowd began their cheering once again. Men pulled their chairs for them. A waiter was summoned and soon arrived with the tray of shots. For one more time that night five shots were put on the house. And the game finished as fast as it started. RJ won 10 to 7.

“For my reward,” he announced, “Tess here, who lost by three whole shots,” he paused to let the performance gather full effect, “has to sing for me You've Got Time.” Bang! He let his fist drop on the table as a dramatic finale to his speech.

Thus the evening rolled on and culminated in furious head banging to hard rock.

Tess and RJ wobbled to their hotel room at about 10 p.m.

RJ began to nervously search his pockets and the insides of his pants for the key.

“Oh move over.” Tess barked. The key had been in her purse.

“Give me that” RJ drawled, trying hard to grip the key and snatch them from Tess’s fingers.

And then he fumbled with the keys, making a very strenuous effort to place it in the key hole and turn it. Then Tess made an attempt. Then RJ. Tess again. And so on till the door, catching them unawares, swung open and both tumbled into the room.

As the earth looked up at the moon, melancholy that air had left her and flown to the sky for nocturnal refuge, the two lovers in the hotel regained their wits at the simultaneously and immediately realised they were star-crossed.

And in their shock they began to rip off each other’s clothes with great ferocity and kissed and clawed at each other savagely while climbing onto bed. There they fell to their pillows, their naked bodies gleaming in the moon light, and drifted off to sleep. 

“So, this is it then. Isn't it.” RJ said, staring into a blurred world.

He squeezed Tess’s palm a little harder; as though that would keep her with him. 

For the first time in twenty minutes, they had spoken. Tess broke away from RJ and went over to look out onto the vast lawns. It seemed the air and the earth had warred the night before. Both were still, the sky was dark. Leaves and flower petals were strewn across the ground in a colorful wreckage. The moon still watched over them. Sweet smelling springs had sprouted on all the bare branches of a tree next to Tess, despite the gloom, and dew drops rested on their waxen skin.  The rest of the world was lost to her. 

“I loved our little infinity,” she whispered to RJ’s warmth that embraced her.

“Hey” he said, and turned her around to face him. “We’re not dying. We’re only going to be an ocean away.”

“We’re an unscrewed compass. We had to be.”

Ten minutes later, Tess walked through the gates for her flight to Berlin.

RJ waved her off and walked over to the McDonald's in the waiting lounge. He needed some fries.