Page 119 of Rhymes with Metaphor
Joel nodded.
“Don’t make any noise on my account,” said Reg.“I wouldn’t want you to ruin that lovely voice.”
Reg moved from fondling him to stroking him slowly and deliberately as Joel made soft sounds of approval, and Reg had to set his notebook on Joel’s belly while he wrote nonsensical approximations of the sounds Joel made.
“Hold on, cariad,” said Reg.
Despite himself, Joel came in Reg’s hand, and almost immediately after, succumbed to sleep.
An hour later, Joel blinked and sat up, and Reg, who had been writing a sonnet with his notebook now on Joel’s chest, laughed.
“You see?”said Reg.“You make it harder than it needs to be, sometimes.”
Joel started to speak, but Reg put a finger gently to his lips.“You’re still convalescing.”And Reg went to the kitchen and made Joel a hot toddy with lemon to sip.
“Don’t overwork yourself.I won’t charge you rent, so don’t feel you need to earn your keep on my account.”
“Icouldearn a living doing this.”Joel sipped from his mug.
“But?”
“I’m alone all day.The only person who speaks to me is the producer, and he’s on the other side of a wall telling me what to do.”
“You don’t like being told what to do?”
“I do.It gives me focus.But I feel alone.I want to talk to people—I want to work with people, in the same room as me.”
“Let me see what I can do, cariad.”
“What can you do?”
“We’ll see.”
And so, Reg put out feelers to his contacts in the MFA program and found someone looking for a voice actor for an audio play.One of the actors had dropped out at the last minute and, as they had booked the studio time already, they were desperate to fill the spot or they would have to double one of the parts.
Reg returned to the loft to give Joel the good news, but Joel wasn’t back.He was normally done at M.House by one o’clock, but Reg had encouraged him to stay and socialize or do something he enjoyed afterwards and not rush home.He was probably taking Reg’s advice.
At 5:30 p.m., Reg got a phone call from Joel.
“Can you come and get me?”said Joel.“I’m at the corner of Oxford and King Street.”
“What’s wrong?”said Reg.
“Just come and get me.”
Joel was waiting on the corner, and Reg opened the car door.Joel hopped in.His right boot was off, and his foot was wrapped in something white.
“What happened?”
“Tell you after,” said Joel, shutting the car door.
“Do you need me to take you to hospital?”
Joel laughed.“No.”He didn’t speak while Reg drove, but he was quivering with excitement.When they arrived at the underground garage, Joel said, “You’ll have to help me.I can’t walk on this foot.”
So Reg opened the passenger door, picked Joel up, hipped the door closed, and carried him to the elevator.Although Joel was smaller than Reg, it wasn’t easy for Reg to carry him over a significant distance.Once Reg was inside the elevator, he had to set Joel down.Joel stood balanced on his left foot until they arrived at their floor, at which point, Reg picked him up again.
When they got to the loft, Reg put Joel down on the settee.Joel rummaged in his backpack and opened a cardboard folder on the coffee table.“I hope you don’t mind—I borrowed it.”
