Proboscis

Lydia brushed her silky black hair an applied a layer of cherry lip gloss. It was April and the cherry blossoms were in bloom. A gentle spring breeze blew in through the bathroom window. This was the time of year for drinking side cars or manhattans on the porch. This was the time of year to put lilac petals in one’s bath water. This was the time of year for love making between all creatures that inhabited the earth. Lydia knew that the seduction was soon to begin.

Lydia walked with bare feet across the red shag carpeting and looked into her tank. Lucky’s body was asphyxiated to the front of the tank. On one of the side walls the mischievous Proboscis rested next to Bogey’s lean body. Pricilla’s curvaceous body was attached to the back of the tank. Although leeches are hermaphrodites, Pricilla clearly had a figure that warranted a female name. The clitellum of all four of Lydia’s darlings was visible. They were ready and so was Lydia.

Stan would be at the apartment any minute. Lydia took the baby quiche out of the oven and dimmed the lights. She turned on the lamp with the red bulb and the fringed lamp shade. Looking through her records, Lydia could not decide what to put in. Surely Stan would be wearing his blue suede shoes for this occasion. She put on some Elvis. Proboscis slithered along the wall of the tank as Heart Break Hotel echoed around the apartment. “I feel so lonely, I feel so lonely, I feel so lonely I could cry…..”

There was a knock on the door. Before Lydia could even offer a cocktail or baby quiche Stan took her in a mad embrace and began unbuttoning her blouse. Stan’s blue suede shoes were the last thing to come off.

Two hours later Lydia and Stan lay on the red shag carpet sipping Manhattans and eating the quiche. Lydia rubbed her hand across Stan’s chest and over the horse shoe tattoos on his biceps. They gazed over at the tank where there were now two cocoons attached to the glass. Certainly the leeches were as famished as Lydia and Stan. Lydia gently pried the leeches from the walls of the tank and put them in her net. She placed Bogey and Proboscis on her right thigh while Pricilla and Lucky gently suckled Stan’s belly. Soon there would be even more leeches.