Listen to a podcast of Joly Herman’s “Closer.”
He pulls and she rolls away. He smells like leather. He pulls her back. She’s not convinced that she wants him. He pulls at her again. Sandpaper sobs next door. She stiffens herself against him. He strokes her arms; he puts his knees between her legs. She lets him have her and then she falls asleep.
She is climbing out of the shower when Sylvia walks into the bathroom, naked, a toothbrush crammed into her mouth.
“Ciao, Josie.”
“Ciao.”
“You sleep good?”
“Si.” Josie covers herself with a hand towel.
“You go today to Napoli?”
“Yes,” she says. She picks her night shirt off the floor.
“I don’t go,” Sylvia says, leaning over the sink. “Stefano doesn’t allow me.” Sylvia rinses her mouth, dries her lips on a corner of Josie’s towel. “You want me to go to Napoli?”
“Of course I do.”
“I know it.” She gazes at Josie’s face. “You are very nice girl. Why you hang out with Finn? He is a bit of a bastardo, you know? Like Stefano.” She kisses Josie on the cheek. “I like to cut your hair. You let me?” She turns Josie to face the mirror. “We can cut it really short, like shaving it.”
“No,” says Josie. She squints at her reflection. “I don’t think so.” Sylvia closes her arms around her. She presses her face against the back of Josie’s neck. Josie strokes her hands. “I should go,” she says. “They’ll be waiting.”
About the author:
Joly Herman has been writing professionally since 1998. She has been writing otherwise since she was seven years old. She has been published in various magazines, such as Poetry Motel, Folio, Spork (upcoming), and Media Magazine. She was a guest on the Living Poet’s Show on WCBN, Ann Arbor, and was featured on Smelling Salt Amusement’s Hear Hear segment, recorded in Berlin, Germany. She received an M.F.A. in Creative Writing (Poetry) from the University of Michigan in 1995 and attended the New York State Summer Writer’s Institute in 1992. She currently works as a film reviewer for commonsensemedia.org.
