Bobby is forty-seven. He is tall and has gotten heavy over the years. This is especially true of his thighs and behind. His clothes no longer fit. He wears glasses, has a beard, is bald and gray, and suffers from a skin condition -- his scalp is inflamed and sheds little white pieces of skin. It is a form of eczema. Bobby is an accountant and works at the LA county accounting office. He is a supervisor in one of the departments.

Bobbi is sixty-five. She is tall for a woman and has gotten very heavy in her old age. She used to be truly beautiful in her youth -- slender, with fine English bone china features. Now her face is bloated and badly wrinkled. It is crisscrossed by fine lines. Deep lines also go down from her nostrils to her chin on both sides of her mouth. They look like knife stabs in a pile of dough made by someone in an uncontrollable fit of rage. Bobbi’s former beauty still shines through the mounds of flesh and the network of wrinkles on her face however like the outline of a human figure through thick fog. It seems it could step out of them any minute. Bobbi owns a detective agency. Its unique feature is that it employs only detectives who are girls that are exceptionally beautiful. The name of the agency is GGG -- Gumshoe Girls Galore. The agency is very successful. This is so because of its detectives having a significant advantage over the male counterparts of its rivals, for obvious reasons.

Bobby and Bobbi are married. They have been married for almost ten years. They have a good marriage. They are happy together. The age difference between them does not constitute a problem. On the contrary, it is this that binds them together. Bobby has always been unable to relate to younger women. He has always been attracted to mature ones. He never thought he would be able to find one that would marry him however. He was very glad when he finally found one in Bobbi. Bobbi on the other hand never had any problems with men’s age. She had been married twice before. The first time she was married to a much older man. He died about ten years after they got married. Next Bobbi married a man her own age. They were married for twenty years, at which time the man died. Bobbi has not had children from any of her marriages. She kept miscarrying. She miscarried a number of times. She married Bobby about five years after her second husband’s death. They had know each other for three years prior to that and had lived together for two years.

Bobby and Bobbi own a condo. It is situated in a marina. It has two stories and consists of three bedrooms, two bathrooms, a living room, a dining room, a kitchen, and a garage.

On this particular day Bobby comes home at 2:30 in the afternoon. He has taken a couple of hours off to play a game with Bobbi. They often play games like this. They have agreed on it the night before. Bobbi is waiting for Bobby. She is in the living room. She is sitting in one of the armchairs, knitting. Bobby stops in the hallway on coming home. He has left there in the closet some clothes he will change into. They are little boy’s clothes he can fit into -- short pants with suspenders, a short-sleeved shirt with a teddy bear design, a pair of sandals, and a red plastic school bag with a yellow duck on the flap. There are children’s books and school notebooks in the bag. Bobby tries not to make any noise when he comes in. He wants to make it look as if he came dressed in the clothes he will be wearing when he comes into the living room. He quietly puts his briefcase down on the floor, takes off his office clothes, and hangs them up in the closet. He then puts on the little boy’s clothes. They are very tight on him. This is especially true of the pants. His heavy thighs fill them to capacity and it looks like they will burst at the seems. The seat of the pants is also in danger of splitting. Bobby doesn’t try to put the school bag on his back. It is too small. He carries it hung over his shoulder.

Bobby pretends he has come home from school. He opens and closes the outside door. Bobbi hears him and calls from the living room: “Hi, sweetie! Mommy’s in the living room! Come on in!”

Bobby shuffles pigeon-toed into the living room, rubbing his knees together. This is affected -- he doesn’t walk like this normally. Bobbi is dressed in a long skirt. The armchair she sits in is under the window. She faces Bobby. She doesn’t lift her eyes however. She goes on knitting. Bobby comes up to within about five feet of the armchair and stops. He stands still pigeon-toed, with his knees touching, looking anxiously at Bobbi. The little boy’s clothes are way too tight on him and it looks like he will burst out of them any second.

Bobbi goes on knitting for a few seconds and then stops and lifts her eyes. She says: “Hi, honey? How was school?’

Bobby hangs his head down and says barely audibly: “OK.”

Bobbi had cast her eyes down after asking the question and gone back to knitting. She didn’t expect this kind of answer from Bobby. She instantly stops knitting, lifts her eyes, and asks in a concerned voice: “What’s wrong, Bobby? What happened in school?”

Bobby hangs his head down even lower and doesn’t answer.

Bobbi is more concerned. She speaks to Bobby firmly: “Now, what’s wrong Bobby? What happened in school? You have to tell mommy!”

Bobby waits a few seconds and then answers barely audibly in a little boy’s voice: “Bobby’s been a bad boy.”

Bobbi tilts her head to one side, as if in order to see better. She says: “Bobby’s been a bad boy? What did Bobby do?”

Bobby remains silent, standing as before. He would like to melt into the ground. Bobbi insists: “Now, Bobby, you have to tell mommy. What did you do in school?”

Bobby answers so softly you can barely hear him: “Bobby annoyed the teacher.”

Bobbi has heard him however. She wants to know more. She says: “Bobby annoyed the teacher?... What did Bobby do?”

Bobby shakes his head. He is afraid to tell what he did.

Bobbi wants to know the whole truth however. She insists: “Now, what did Bobby do? Bobby has to tell mommy.”

Bobby throws the school bag on the floor and runs in little steps to Bobbi. She sits with her knees pressed together. Bobby falls down on his knees, embraces those of Bobbi, and presses his forehead to them. He bursts out through tears: “Bobby’s been naughty!”

Bobbi is unmoved however. She looks down on Bobby from under her eyelids and asks sternly: “Now, what did Bobby do? Bobby has to tell mommy everything!”

Bobby squeals like a stuck pig in a voice so high you can hardly understand him: “Bobby peeked under the school teacher’s skirt?”

Bobbi is shocked, but she controls herself. She asks calmly: “Why did Bobby do that? What did Bobby want to see under the school teacher’s skirt?”

Bobby squeals again like a stuck pig, this time so high, you can’t understand him. Bobbi asks Bobby again what he wanted to see under the school teacher’s skirt.

Bobby is silent for a few seconds and then squeals: “Bobby wanted to see the school teacher’s pussy.”

Bobbi is shocked. She says: “The school teacher’s pussy? That’s very naughty. Bobby has been a very naughty boy! Very naughty!... Bobby has to be punished for that.”

“Right?” Bobbi asks.

“Right,” Bobby answers reluctantly and barely audibly.

“How should Bobby be punished?” Bobbi asks.

After a brief silence Bobby answers almost inaudibly: “Spanked.”

Bobbi hears him again however. She asks: “Spanked? Like this?” She presses the knitting needle she holds in her right hand firmly against Bobby’s behind so that it sinks in its ample flesh. She then repeats this a few times while asking: “Like that?”

“Yes,” Bobby answers and then bursts out in an ear-piercing squeal: “Bobby’s scared, mommy! Bobby’s scared! Bobby wants to hide!”

“Wants to hide?” Bobbi asks. “Where?”

“Under mommy’s skirt,” Bobby replies, still squealing and pushing his head against Bobbi’s knees.

“How?” Bobbi insists. “Show mommy.” She keeps lifting the knitting needle and pressing it firmly against Bobby’s flesh.

Bobbi’s skirt reaches to the floor. Bobby detaches himself from Bobbi’s knees, lifts the edge of the skirt, and crawls under it. Bobbi’s knees are pressed together. Bobby pushes against them until they open up. He pushes his head in between them. Bobbi moves the needle faster and actually gently strikes Bobby’s behind with it. Bobby squeals like a stuck pig that he is scared. He pushes his head in between Bobbi’s thighs. Bobbi is naked under her skirt. She opens her thighs, lifts her feet, and puts them on the edge of the arm chair. Bobby pushes his head as far as it will go against Bobbi’s body. He moves it back and forth there, doing something.

Bobbi asks: “Is Bobby still scared?”

Bobby’s answer is muffled by flesh, hair, and fabric. It is most likely “Yes,” however.

Bobbi asks again if he is still scared, bringing the needle down on Bobby’s behind. Bobby answers in the same fashion while moving his head back and forth under the skirt. Bobbi stops striking Bobby with the needle. Her hand drops down along the side of the armchair. The needle slips out of it onto the carpet. Bobbi throws her head back and closes her eyes. She spreads her legs wider and makes herself comfortable. She sits there entranced with her mouth partly open. Barely audible moans come out of it. Bobby keeps on moving his head under her skirt.

There are seven glass jars filled with alcohol, with fetuses in them, arranged in a row on the windowsill behind the armchair. They distort the outlines of the boats in the marina outside the window and the pure blue sky above them. The world has lost its form.

Yuriy Tarnawsky is a bilingual English/Ukrainian writer, author of nineteen collections of poetry, seven plays, eight books of fiction, and numerous articles and translations. His novels Meningitis and Three Blondes and Death were published by Fiction Collective. He resides near New York City.

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