The Sycophant – Part Two: Mowgli, Cruella, Lover Boy And Mary Ann

Mowgli Meets Cruella and Mary Ann

Catch up here – Part one – Introducing The Players

I didn’t put this scenario together immediately, there was a progression here. The situation emerged into my awareness as I observed events and the behavior of the various players.

When it came time to go public with our relationship and I was going to meet his friends and co-workers, I thought it was just that. I don’t play these type games so a situation like this was the last thing on my mind.

When I embarked on a relationship with this man my heart was in it, though admittedly led by my lower urges. I don’t think this was negative, it was just the immediate connection we made. What might develop from it was wide open, but as it came to light that things might be a little crowded, I detached some and became an observer. I hoped my read on the situation was wrong and that what they were both telling me was true.

“Who? Me? Him? Her?” *Laugh. “Oh, Elsa. How silly. How positively quaint of you…” Peels of laughter.

I was not wrong though. Here’s how it played:

This gal, Cruella was not pleased when I came on the scene. She meant to capture him, I am going to call him, “Lover Boy”. Cruella was obsessed with acquiring him and via her background, she was accustomed to getting what she wanted.  You only need grease the right palms. This was her reality.

She had Lover Boy in a vacuum; he had her in same. My appearance on stage complicated things but not overly so. She initially underestimated me, this is common enough. I play cards, and you’re not supposed to show up at the table appearing as if you understand anything.

Cruella didn’t look deeper. She didn’t know how to look deeper so she made a surface judgment of me and I was written off as an unfortunate and mildly annoying irritant who could be easily dealt with.

She felt she understood, Lover Boy and she did to an extent. She knew he had an intense desire to penetrate her privileged world and she was loaded for bear on this account. She could see very plainly I was not. I was wearing clothes from Goodwill for chrissakes so she expected to dominate and swiftly, kind of like swatting a fly with a truck. This would have worked, if not for two problems.

Number one, she was oblivious to the concept of a deep sexual bond. If she were aware of such a thing she may have noticed that I had Lover Boy, quite literally by the balls. This was plainly apparent to anyone who cared to check it.

Secondly, I don’t intimidate very easily. Well actually I don’t intimidate at all.

Now the reason was not because I have a secret power, it’s opposite that. The reason was because I was twenty-three years old and stupid as an eggplant in a garden, hangin’. My sister had me pegged as Mowgli in Jungle Book. Like him, I did not know I didn’t belong. I didn’t know I sucked. I didn’t know my skin color was inferior, my pants were too yellow, or that people who have more money than other people feel superior in the world. Very simply, no one ever told me any of this. I was raised “yoga” where none of this exists. I was taught to be good to people, all people, every people. This, or leave them be.

As a matter of fact, this includes Space People if they were to show up, and that’s no joke. I was specifically taught that “Space People Are Our Friends”. This other stuff could not possibly have been more foreign. Now back to Cruella….

We met and she immediately moved to get rid of me. How? Like an attorney. She made a motion to dismiss.

“Your honor, the woman is a colored maid. We need not waste valuable court time on this frivolous matter…”

::smirks::

Do you wonder what I mean? Well, she addressed him as if I was not there. “What’s your name again?” she’d ask me and then chit, chit, chat with him. There was lots of conversation and all of it dealt with things that I could not relate to. Things at work, situations they shared, people they had in common… anything as long as it did not include me.

Occasionally, she became my big sister in a head-patting sort of way.  She would explain she and Lover Boy were close. How they go back a ways and all that. It’s all a long story, every bit of it so best I just sit there while they laugh.

I didn’t say much, I absorbed. I told you I play cards and Cruella was showing me her hers, so why interrupt? Instead I listened and let them talk. I have to gauge this, don’t I?

And I could feel his undertow. I knew he was bored which meant she was ineffective. He wasn’t laughing, he was being polite. What he wanted to do is screw, and who he wanted to screw, was me. That was it, right there. This is my read, I liked it and it left me feeling Lover Boy and I were in accord.

An hour we spent with her felt like four. Oh well. I thought we were there for charity anyway. Lover Boy told me that Cruella was lonely. She was about thirty, if you wonder. He said she liked to spend time with him and he went out with her on occasion because she didn’t like to go out alone. He told me she was rich. In hindsight, I think he felt that explained everything but it didn’t. He would have to spell it out for me eventually.

We got home and he was a different man. No more superficial mindless head-nodding out of him. No more feigned interest and polite laughter. We connected on a different level, and I forget all about this gal. What the hell. She was so “zero charisma” I didn’t imagine we would be seeing her again anytime soon. Boy was I wrong about that.

The other gal, Mary Ann? Well like I said, she was married. She had some kind of problem too, though I wasn’t sure what it was. It was like some vaguely sad, heavy-type thing that was too complex and cumbersome to try to convey to me. She had two children. Was one of them ill? I didn’t know. Something was going on though.

I met her at a large party in a group of people, but I didn’t form an opinion of her. Outside of saying hi, we didn’t interact directly. She greeted me warmly but seemed preoccupied. That was the extent of my impression outside of what I have already stated. Any man in the place would have gone out with her given the opportunity.

I had the idea that her life was complicated and she didn’t especially want to muddy it further by bringing new people in (like me). I respected this. I’ve said repeatedly, I don’t chase men and I don’t chase women either. That said, this one was mysterious. She looked simple on the outside, but there was something more going on, damned if I knew what.

It could have been nothing. It could have been everything. It could have been any thing and I decided to let it go. I didn’t feel drawn to her beyond mild curiosity and besides. Cruella was busy building a bonfire. I thought it prudent I determine just exactly what it was she planned to cook.

Skip to Part Three: Invited Left, Invited Right, Sideways and Upside Down