Cold as ice

"You're as cold as ice

You're willing to sacrifice our love

You never take advice

Someday you'll pay the price"

Foreigner, 1977

Mary1 likes ice. She is very grateful for it. As was her great-grandmother when she took possession of her first freezer in 1913. Mary1 likes ice in her gin 'n tonic and to put it on her children's skin when they injure themselves. Mary1's son and heir was a regular ice user; after every rugby match Mary1 recalls. And cricket match; those grass burns. She does also have a further slightly negative memory of ice; when she had her various caesarian sections she was not allowed to consume anything but ice for an inordinate length of time post-procedure. And she was starving. Mary1 has, however, moved on so to speak. Her ice associations are purely pleasurable nowadays.

Until she met John64. Eskimo. Inuit. Cadaver. Outer Siberia. John64 could be likened to any of these nouns.

John64's eyes were dead. He smiled without his eyes changing expression. He did not smile often though. His skin was pale and translucent. Like a dead man's. He was stern. He was scary. He was divorced; twice Mary1 found out when doing her due diligence exercise. He omitted to mention the initial marriage. Quite a regular trait of Johns. He had custody of the offspring. Of course he did; his ex-wife was "mad" as all ex-wives are reportedly these days. He did allow them to visit their mum on occasion. How very kind of him.

Mary1 had to put on her cashmere cardigan half way through her coffee date with John64 albeit that it was February in the southern hemisphere. She had to. She had a need. This need was a primal urge, reminded her of the time she visited a mortuary in the city to identify a recently deceased body. Before she walked into the mortuary Mary1 had put on her sweater; it was a sweltering hot day she recalls but she got the chills. Mary1 got the chills sitting with John64.

Fortunately, Mary1 has a short lunch break and had an easy exit clause; she just had to dash back to work. Where she ripped off her cardigan and grabbed an ice block from the office freezer and cooled herself down.