{"id":5991,"date":"2014-01-21T18:51:47","date_gmt":"2014-01-21T18:51:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/solaceinabook.com\/site\/?p=5991"},"modified":"2014-01-21T18:51:47","modified_gmt":"2014-01-21T18:51:47","slug":"rochelle-distelheim-the-kiss-me-quick","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/solaceinabook.com\/site\/2014\/01\/rochelle-distelheim-the-kiss-me-quick\/","title":{"rendered":"Rochelle Distelheim “The Kiss-Me-Quick”"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Kiss-Me-Quick<\/strong> <\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/em><\/strong>I visited my friend and we talked about shoes instead of about dying. I wanted to talk about dying, but she\u2019s the one who\u2019s dying and she wanted to talk about shoes. We looked at the three shoe boxes lined up on the carpet next to the couch where she was. The boxes were open and I saw the tips of three new pairs of shoes.<\/p>\n

There was that faintly sour smell new shoes have that reminds me of going with my mother into a shoe store, with her holding my hand and telling me, all right, all right, you can have a new pair of Buster Browns.<\/p>\n

I wanted to tell my friend anything that would sound to her the way Buster Brown<\/em> used to sound to me. But we\u2019re grown women, with grown children and mothers who are dead. I can\u2019t take her hand and say, \u201cListen, don\u2019t walk out on me, not yet.\u201d<\/p>\n

I used my excited voice. \u201cWho bought these?\u201d I picked up a shoe box. My friend hadn\u2019t left her house in two months. I knew she hadn\u2019t gone to the shoe store, but it was a way to get into the conversation without saying, \u201cWhy do you need so many new pairs of shoes?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI called Macy\u2019s and told the sales woman what I wanted, and asked her to send them. I said I had parties to go to, a wedding, I was too busy to shop.\u201d She shrugged.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou are<\/em> too busy,\u201d I said.<\/p>\n

<\/em><\/strong>She looked pretty. Her dark blonde hair was fluffy and long, and flattering bangs fell like a soft curtain across her forehead. But it wasn\u2019t her hair. I couldn\u2019t say, \u201cI like your hair,\u201d so I said, \u201cThen you\u2019re going out. That\u2019s great.\u201d<\/p>\n

I took out a pair of black patent leather shoes. They had narrow grosgrain bows across the instep, and low heels. They looked like a little girl\u2019s party shoes. Once they walked out of the house and into the world, wonderful things would happen.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis isn\u2019t your kind of shoe,\u201d I said. \u201cYour shoes have heels like skyscrapers.\u201d I<\/p>\n

outlined two high, narrow shapes against the empty air, as though I had to show my friend what kind of shoes she wears.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot anymore. High heels are bad for my health, like wine when I take my pills.\u201d She was smiling; her mouth was, her eyes were sad.<\/p>\n

<\/em><\/strong> \u201cWell…\u201d I held one shoe up and squinted at it like a jeweler checking a gem. \u201cWhat\u2019s so wonderful, anyway, about walking around on stilts? I hate them.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSo who says you\u2019re the perfect woman?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI do,\u201d I said, and brushed my hand against her cheek. \u201cYou\u2019ve got some of your lunch on your face. How about a cup of tea?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody who comes here,\u201d she said, \u201cwants to boil water.\u201d<\/p>\n

I lifted a pair of beige silk pumps from another box. They were perfectly plain, with square heels. I wore this kind of shoe in college. \u201cMy God,\u201d I said, \u201cremember these? Remember how we wore white gloves and had to sign in at twelve-thirty?\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/em><\/strong> \u201dTen-thirty,\u201d my friend said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean on Saturday nights.\u201d<\/p>\n

I put a hand in each shoe, and walked them across my lap. \u201cCan you believe how green we were?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat did we know?\u201d She leaned her head against the back of the couch, and closed her eyes.<\/p>\n

\u201cKiss me quick!\u201d I said.<\/p>\n

My friend sat up and stared at me.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was the name of that little foyer inside the front door of our dorm, don\u2019t you remember, the kiss-me-quick, because that was all the time we had for necking after a date? Remember how the damned bell always went off, and the housemother came down the stairs hollering, \u2018Time, girls!\u2019 just when we were warming up?\u201d<\/p>\n

We both laughed; laughed so hard, we began to cry, and had to wipe our eyes on our sleeves. Then she made a face, and I knew her ribs hurt.<\/p>\n

\u201cTry this on.\u201d\u00a0 I pulled her house slippers off and tried to slip her foot into one of the beige shoes. It didn\u2019t fit. The shoe was too small, or her foot was swollen, or I was trying too hard.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s no good,\u201d she said, \u201cwe can\u2019t make it work.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMy God, oh, my God,\u201d I said, \u201cnothing the hell works anymore!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s the difference?\u201d my friend asked. \u201cIt was a crazy idea, I don\u2019t need new shoes.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cJusr push,\u2019 I said, forcing her foot downward, and the shoe upward, gripping her ankle so hard, my fingers left red marks on her skin. <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00a9 Rochelle Distelheim, 2008 <\/strong><\/p>\n

This story originally appeared in Visiting Hours<\/strong><\/em>, an anthology published by Press 53<\/strong><\/a> in October 2008.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Rochelle Distelheim<\/strong> has had short fiction published in The North American Review<\/em>, Nimrod<\/em>, Confrontation<\/em>, Other Voices<\/em>, StoryQuarterly<\/em>, The Mississippi Valley Review<\/em>, Salamander<\/em>, and PersimmonTree.<\/em> Her fiction has also been published in anthologies, such as Jane Stories<\/em>, West Side Stories<\/em> and Visiting Hours<\/em>, as well as in the Chicago Tribune<\/em>, She has been awarded The Katharine Anne Porter Prize in Fiction, Finalist in Press 53’s Open Awards, Finalist in Pirate’s Alley Faulkner Society Short Story Competition, Illinois Arts Council Literary Awards and Fellowships in Fiction.<\/p>\n

Her novel Jerusalem as A Second Language<\/strong><\/em> was awarded 2012 William Faulkner-William Wisdom Creative Writing Competition<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n

Most recently she has been\u00a0 nominated for a Pushcart Press Prize<\/strong><\/a> for her story \u201cO, Thou, Whom My Soul Doth Love\u201d\u00a0 which appeared as fiction finalist in the latest issue of Salamander<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Kiss-Me-Quick I visited my friend and we talked about shoes instead of about dying. I wanted to talk about dying, but she\u2019s the one who\u2019s dying and she wanted to talk about shoes. We looked at the three shoe boxes lined up on the carpet next to the couch where she was. The boxes […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1945,12,990,1944,70,265,1943,1946,7,16,1941,1947,32,1942],"class_list":{"0":"post-5991","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-guest-posts","7":"tag-dying","8":"tag-ellen-wade-beals","9":"tag-friendship","10":"tag-jerusalem-as-a-second-language","11":"tag-press-53","12":"tag-rochelle-distelheim","13":"tag-salamander","14":"tag-shoe-shopping","15":"tag-solace","16":"tag-solace-in-so-many-words","17":"tag-the-kiss-me-quick","18":"tag-visting-hours","19":"tag-weighed-words","20":"tag-william-faulkner-william-wisdom-creative-writing-competion","21":"entry","22":"has-post-thumbnail"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/solaceinabook.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5991","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/solaceinabook.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/solaceinabook.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/solaceinabook.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/solaceinabook.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5991"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/solaceinabook.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5991\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6025,"href":"https:\/\/solaceinabook.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5991\/revisions\/6025"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/solaceinabook.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5991"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/solaceinabook.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5991"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/solaceinabook.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5991"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}