SmokeLong Quarterly

Island girls—Gauguin could find no finer—wear bones in their hair. Like me, they have painted-on smiles.

Their bone necklaces are painted on too. Their green hula skirts do not lift: Jimmy tried.

Ethnic Lego girls sometimes come with quivers and bows that can hit a target two Lego blocks away (if you have good aim).

Pocahontas has two long braids; two feathers in her hair. She has two quivers and one bow.

“You be Pocahantas,” Jimmy says. “I’ll be the cowboy on the horse.”

The horses come in shades of brown and black. Jimmy’s horse is black like me. His cowboy’s Lego yellow. He’s white like Jimmy is.

Jimmy puts his cowboy on the saddle to ride.

Ba da dum ba da dum ba da dum dum dum. Jimmy’s cowboy rides to a Lone Ranger tune.

“Run,” he yells in a cowboy voice to my ethnic Lego girl and not me.

“Run,” he yells, “I’m gonna getcha.”

My ethnic Lego girl runs two strides at a time. She has no song. She darts behind the fort I’ve built with blocks of red and blue and green.

Then my ethnic Lego girl with both quiver and bow takes aim.

“You missed,” Jimmy says.

He grabs my ethnic Lego girl and smashes her up against his cowboy. Aaah-aah. Aaah-aaah. They fight.

They mash up against each other’s armor. Hers is the turquoise amulet painted on her chest. His is the plastic gun (sold separately).

“Now they’re kissing,” I say.

“No, they’re fighting.”

“No, they’re kissing.”

The ethnic Lego girl and the cowboy fight and kiss and kiss and fight. I hope it ends on kiss before Jimmy has to go home.

Jimmy smashes the forts. It’s clean-up time. He rakes his hand through the loose blocks.

“Bye,” Jimmy says, leaving all the Lego blocks in a heap on the floor.

“Bye.”

Scooping up the blocks into the Lego box, I save Jimmy’s cowboy and my ethnic Lego girl for last.
I close the lid and stand them on top, wedding-cake style.

Jimmy’s cowboy’s yellow hand clamps around my ethnic Lego girl’s. Kiss. Fight. Kiss.