"Just a Kiss"
by
Paloma

"You must remember
      this...a kiss is just a kiss..."

until it became a silken
      web,
encasing Starsky to his core.

**********************************************
Rain,  a billowing curtain
across the window,
He stands,  his breath,  distressed,  fogs the pane,
cold air wraps around him and stays.

Palms massage eyes,
      parched and hungry for sleep.
************************************************
How did it come apart?
Like a random thread unraveling his
striped sweater...once started...impossible to stop..
"Was I a random choice?"

Her laugh, a Christmas
      handbell,
singing in his ears,
Her scent, hidden in the brown, polished skin,
a rush of faint cinnamon

Late shifts, supper at
      midnight
Rendezvous by the shore at daybreak

He needing, wanting to
      touch,
Her scheming to be one....
Murmured endearments,

"No...when I do...I
      want to make love to my wife"
A tempest across her features

"Hell hath no
      fury..."

now shrieked accusations,
      tears, apologies,
words pelting him, he bleeds
"Who are you?"

She is....
dangerous notes at his door,
 ringing phone...hangups,
calls to his Captain...
cut tires,
every imagined shadow...her silhouette

Hutch's
      counsel..."let it go"..."let me handle it"...
"You're too close"

"When a lovely flame
      dies, you must realize,
smoke gets in your eyes..."

Starsky could not see...
A scene as ancient as Joseph and Potiphar's wife...torn white gown,  a revealed
breast...rape...she said...he said...
department suspension

********************************************
Palms once again push against his eyes...headlights...
his partner is here

*******************************************
Best friend,  his strength during the upheaval,
the attack on his character,  when Starsky was trapped in
the eye of her storm...
"Hutch,  my rock" ...his lifeline as he spiraled downward,
unable to stop,
unable to get a foothold

Determined devotion,
background checks.... overseas calls....
Brazil,
deportation...colossal paperwork

************************************************

A slight rap on the door,
      Hutch, walks in,
soaked shoes squeak on the linonleum,
a compassionate hand on a chilled shoulder,
"It's over, buddy, she's gone"

The  web is cast off.

Proverbs 18:24
...there is one who sticks closer than a brother