Andres D.S. Wilson

We sat on her bed, together but alone. She put the photos back on the nightstand --
a scrapbook from right-to-left, deserts and smiles, Israel, Russia, IDF uniforms and girls with dark curly hair. I paused and soaked in something new and exotic, taking in whiffs of her own dark curly hair and trying to guess which shampoo she used. There weren't any pictures of him, certainly a good sign. Enshrouded in pillows and posters of cute things, I coyly took my chance, pulling her hand into mine, lost in its softness, leaving a peck on her palm as an open promise. No visible response, but I held those tiny hands tighter and tighter, making my plea without squeezing, gazing out the window as if any other kiss were as far away as the moon or one of those constellations that I always mix up.

She went for it,

punching with her lips, her mouth closed but her eyes wide open, asking in eyelashes. Chris Martin's falsetto acted out my smiling silence, let it expand toward those very stars that seemed so distant. She slipped a smile but caught it right away, perhaps nervous it would become a hardy laugh. From what I knew of her, it seemed really out of character. Then, we leaned back on her bed, kissing but hardly knowing where it would lead, hardly caring, just being.

Andrew W. Turner

I was Perseus, son of Zeus. She was Medusa, the infamous Gorgon, cursed by Athena to go through eternity with a nest of hideous snakes atop her head.

My first kiss was during the rehearsal of a junior high school production of "Medusa's Tale," a feminist retelling of the classic Greek myth. In the play Perseus hears Medusa's side of the story. He realizes the Gods have cruelly manipulated her. He comes to see the humanity beneath the snakes. He closes her eyes and gives her a tender kiss.

Then he realizes he's not acting like a real man and chops her head off.

"Perseus," our director, Mrs. C, intoned woefully. "I'm going to need a little more from the kiss."

More what? I knew what a kiss was in theory. I knew it involved a mashing of lips. I knew the tongue, like an earthworm after a heavy rain, sometimes made an appearance, eyeless and flapping. But angles, pressure, penetration… these were all variables I was completely unclear about.

There was also the matter of the mechanical snakes atop Medusa's head. They had been wired by Vern, our resident trailor park techie, and gave off flammable-looking sparks.

Our second kiss was even worse than the first. The third and fourth even moreso. Our supporting cast (Athena, Zeus, and Poseidon) snickered in the wings.

"Let's move onto the next part," said Mrs. C after what seemed like an eternity.

Medusa and I breathed a sigh of relief. Then I unsheathed my sword and chopped her head off.