Free Dolorosa Soror by Florence Dugas Page B

have to pierce the cartilage." "Go ahead," I said.
    Just a little more painful. She grimaced, then quickly recovered.
    "There."
She got up.
"And don't forget," added the salesman, "that you must rotate the studs regularly, for several days, so the holes don't close."
    We paid for our purchases, including the little operation, and left. I was in a hurry to see her naked, laden with these dark and excessive jewels.
    The idea struck me several hours later, after having made love to her. We were lying spoon-fashion; she had her back to me, and her buttocks were against my belly. I had my left arm around her and was playing with her nipples.
    I raised myself up, leaned on my right elbow, kissed her neck, the roots of her hair, behind the ear. She purred.
    I looked at her ear. A little blood had crystallized behind the lobe. I took the heads of the studs, one after the other, and turned them gently. She jerked her shoulders slightly, then let me do it.
    Two rings of different sizes, long hoops usually reserved for necklaces, which would show off the pale blond of her hair and the mother-of-pearl of her neck...
    Why just the ears? I suddenly thought.
    I returned to the boutique. The salesman recognized me, of course. Hurried over.
    "Tell me, with your ear-piercing gun, what else can you pierce?"
    "The nostril," he proposed. "Or anything, provided I can pinch the flesh. However, on certain areas, it's better to have recourse to ancient methods, or else the wound heals over too readily. And then there are places where it's not easy to rotate the studs, no?"
    I did not want him to get lewd.
"The nipples, too?" I asked.
"Of course. That's done very often, you know."
Did not want him to entertain me with other people's fantasies.
"Very well. Until tomorrow, then." "I'm closed tomorrow." "Monday, then."
    I had told her to wear a black sweater and a skirt. She arrived at around three o'clock.
    "No, don't take off your raincoat, we're going back out."

There were two tourists in the boutique, and we waited like good girls for them to leave. Nathalie seemed both surprised to find herself there again and intrigued by the situation.I wore the blank, absent expression I reserved for the times I mistreated her.
"Come back here," said the salesman. He had us go into the boutique's back room, and went to close the shop's front door.
    "We won't be disturbed here," he said.
    The space was cramped and badly lit. He flicked a switch; a lateral spotlight came on, illuminating the center of the bunker's tight perimeter.
    "First the nose," I said. "The left nostril."
    He again used the little pistol. Nathalie looked at me intently. The odor of alcohol was even more stifling in the airless corridor.
    The man was deft but, whether due to apprehension or greater sensitivity, she was in much more pain this time. A drop of blood pearled, rolled down the curve of her nose, and stopped at the edge of her hp. God, she was beautiful like that!
    After this was done, I said, "Take off your sweater, please."
    My voice was dry, tinged with a moved coldness. She obeyed without commentary. Underneath, she was wearing a push-up bra made of black and silver lace, and I asked myself briefly, for the thousandth time perhaps, where in the world she found the money to buy herself such trinkets.
    "The bra, too."
    Her breasts seemed to burst forth under the track light's glare. The salesman trembled in his immobility. He turned around, got something from behind him, and returned to us.
    He was holding in his hand a sort of small bulb at the tip of which shone a needle. He pushed on a button. In three seconds, the needle was red hot.
    I leaned towards the executioner: "Pierce both breasts, please. Just behind the nipple."
    Nathalie started; the man hesitated. I slapped her gently. She quieted herself.
    The salesman passed a soaked cotton over her breasts, and her nipples hardened in front of us.
    "That will make it easier," he said. "Keep very still, miss."
    There