darn, elephant, handlebar, heck, flan, narwhal, warthog, hippo, tiramisu, cheesecake, walrus, horseshoe, shoot, pencil, fudge, mousse
Ko was back on the darn savannah, or some hallucinatory version of it. On the far side of the watering hole a warthog and a hippo lowered their mouths for a drink. That might have been a plausible juxtaposition – Ko wasn’t actually sure – but the jagged rock jutting from the middle of the pool didn’t look right, nor did the walrus draped on top of it. Even more ridiculous, a narwhale – the tusk was unmistakable – briefly broke the surface of water that should have been far too shallow, hot, and saltless for it. In the mid distance a small herd of elephants was silhouetted against the purpling sky.
Af was decidedly male-presenting this evening, in a wide-brimmed black hat, a dark pinstripe suit, and twirling the end of a handlebar mustache. They — he — looked slightly absurd, but sexy as heck. “Well, shoot, Ko” Af said, affecting a drawl as cartoonish as his outfit. “Aren’t you a sight to put lead in a feller’s pencil?”
Plates of dessert were arrayed around Af in a horseshoe pattern. Ko saw flan, fudge, a pinkish mousse, and a slab of tiramisu.
“What,” Ko, quipped. “No cheesecake?”
Af grinned hugely. “Darlin’. You’re the cheesecake!”