Fathers And Daughters (1):
Cut Finger (MF)
by DrSpin

(292 words)

They were cooking together, father and daughter, and she was describing the bitter old woman who was her neighbour in Milan, and he was laughing and not paying attention. The vegetable knife sliced into his index finger. "Shit," he said, and gripped the base of the finger to stem the fast blood flow.

She was at his side in an instant. "Here," he said. "Give it to me."

She raised his bleeding finger to her face, studied it closely, and closed her mouth over it.

She opened her lips and mumbled around his finger. "It's not cut as bad as it looks," she said. "Mother used to do this. It always worked." He could feel her tongue and the suction of her mouth.

He stood stock still, his arm raised and his finger stuck in her mouth while she held him by the wrist with both hands. Aberrant thoughts threaded their way into his mind, and he saw she was similarly aware of the symbolism. Her eyes were sharply amused and she worked her tongue in a manner which could not be anything other than suggestive.

She broke the suction because she started to smile. She took out his finger, laughing. "You're a dirty old man," she aid, "and I must be a dirty young woman. I think I know where I got it from."

She inserted his finger in her mouth once more but took it out almost immediately. "I can't do it while you're looking at me like that," she said. She let go his hand and sat down weakly on a chair, laughing uproariously now. "Go and get a bandaid," she said, gasping.

They sat at the table, laughing together, and she put her head down in her hands.