Adam Fieled (Plymouth Meeting, Pennsylvania, USA): "Scorecard"

Amusing, after many eternities, to write a scorecard of
similarities & differences for Mary & Abby. Amusing,
because the one being skinny but huge, strapping, the other
abbreviated, made them obvious non-twins, non-siblings.
In many ways, & as would be expected, Mary was more
straightforwardly womanly than Abby was. Part & parcel of
Mary’s womanly wiles was the sense of mystery built into
everything she did. Mary was, indeed, difficult to fathom,
fathomless, & combinations of pointed remarks & silence
conveyed for her what she wanted, in any given situation. Was
Mary mistress of herself? Her mysterious amours worked,
then, before I was on the scene, to create a sense that
everything about her was eroticized. Did the small bust
make a difference? Not on your life. Mary actively employed

her hips, legs, flanks, & not infrequently bared midriff, to create
an impression of intrigue, womanly mystery. When she wore
midriff shirts in summertime, an occasional besotted pedestrian
would stop in the street. She had it. Yet whatever action was
there, whoever she was seen with (& she was seen with many),
all outward hints were a strain to hear, passed sotto voce. I was
later to learn, that Mary alone, even as spouse, still thrived on
the intrigue, the spookiness, of mystery, of leaving things unsaid.
Mary’s sense of drama was cloak & dagger, and the sense of
peripeteia, for her many lovers, was an engorged one. Yet Mary
was bewitchingly about parts— physical, emotional, psychological—
that knew how dances of the flesh worked, only too well.
When she was in harmony with herself, emptiness & fullness
cojoined in her in rapture, ecstasy. The painting-brain mystery was Abby’s.

© Adam Fieled 2026