2018-08-26 Cincinnati
Happy Anniversary Part 7
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Our Romance Part II: Courtship, beginning 19 August 1977
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Norton House Suite 1A
11443 Juniper Road
Cleveland, Ohio
August 20, 1977
Lawson awoke first, and let himself out to explore the neighborhood. He returned, having propped the doors open with his shoes, and climbed onto my bed murmuring the names of nearby streets, Juniper, Mistletoe, Marigold, Hazel, Magnolia, Bellflower…
“You live in a garden!” he exclaimed.
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Lawson wanted to read aloud to me. He produced from his backpack a well-worn copy of my favorite book, Loren Eiseley’s The Immense Journey.
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My life had been in muted color, a toned-down version of the rainbow’s delights, definitely better than black and white, but not much. I was seeing everything in vibrant, vivid color.
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The suite’s bathroom opened into my bedroom. I happened to be in bed when it came time for Lawson to take a dump (Lawson has always been very regular in the defecation department). Lawson merely entered the bathroom, dropped trou, sat on the toilet, and kept on talking.
Are we all ok here?
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And lest I think he was anything but fully content with his genitals, Lawson had me check out his epididymis that first morning! As I recall, he had had some swelling on the left side of his scrotum,[1] and his doctor had examined him and done some tests and ruled out epididymitis, and sure enough whatever it was vanished as quickly as it had come. I felt his epididymis, and it felt ok to me. (What did I know?)
It was an unusual way to be introduced to what would become the source of private intercourse, intimate exploration, and exquisite pleasure over the next 41 (at least) years.
To be continued…
[1] My attraction to Lawson’s scrotum led me to call it something that expressed its paradoxical combination of power and delicacy. I renamed it “abilia,” almost an anagram of labia, its embryologic counterpart in the female anatomy. The woman’s labia majora and labia minora, like the male scrotum, are simultaneously forceful and gentle.
VicWulsin 