Culture Shock
By atfirstdawn

*Mature content warning
*© Keira Morrison/ atfirstdawn 2012

It had only been a month or so since we had met, yet Morgan and I had managed to spend time with one another every day since. For the most part, despite having met under such surreal and intimate circumstances, our relationship had been quite a traditional affair, for example; our conversations had been loaded with typical topics such as personal likes and dislikes, tastes and opinions, fears and fantasies and stories from our pasts…

The idea had been to travel. Travelling the country together was something that Morgan and I hadn’t done since meeting and the destination hadn’t been hard to decide on. Like our matchmaker Vincent and I, Morgan was a fond admirer of all things Asian from its food and pop-culture to its national history; and I knew of one place in England with enough Asian orientated stores, shops, markets and other establishments where we could easily pass the day just by browsing alone.

Having travelled the first few hours of the day to head deeper into the midlands of the country, our first stop had been for food, specifically sushi at a stylish all-you-can-eat bar, and then, as planned, Morgan and I spent the day hunting out shops and stores around the city which specialised in selling manga, anime and other forms Asian pop-culture.

The following hours which came and quickly passed us by were filled with the sounds of our fang-girl squee-fits as colourful manga covers and familiar anime titles caught our eyes and gave us something to constantly talk and get excited about within the walls of each store that we visited…

As early night began to fall on the winter locked city, Morgan and I made one last stop on our Asian pop-culture tour before heading home… The supermarket was close to closing, yet it was still crowded enough to give the illusion of a late Christmas shopping surge. Despite the shop being so full it somehow seemed deathly quiet and only Morgan and I seemed to be speaking above the level of a whisper…

After loading the last of our goods onto the conveyor belt of the checkout, I felt Morgan’s arms snake around my torso from behind and pull me into her. With a giggle and a smile I closed my eyes and drank in the warmth of her naturally burning body against mine and the feel of her arms and hands wrapping themselves around my chest and stomach. In those precious moments of peace and comfort, I felt Morgan’s lips touch my ear and fill my senses with the sweet sound of a soft and gentle kiss, and as I opened my eyes to turn and face her I screamed and instantly shattered the pervading sense of tranquillity that had previously filled the store.

My long, loud and deafening scream tore through the store, and even though I had closed my eyes again, I felt the world around me stop and stare with expressions of annoyed surprise and aggravated shock. I had wanted to stop screaming as soon as I had started but knew that I’d only be able to stop when I had expended all of the air from within my lungs… My chest had immediately began to tighten and my ears had instantly started to ring due to the volume of my scream, and what felt like long and drawn out minutes must have only have been seconds until I felt a warm and familiar form grab my mouth…

With Morgan’s hand over my mouth, my screaming quickly became a fading dulcet moan followed by a deep and comforted breath… My eyes were still closed but I could feel the eyes of everyone in the store staring our way. I didn’t want to move, or open my eyes; instead, I hung a hand over Morgan’s wrist as if I were ordering her to keep her hand pressed against my lips.

“Are you okay?” She eventually asked in her caring American tone.

I nodded with a whimper beneath her hand and held on tighter to her wrist as I opened my eyes to what had frightened me… Two, perhaps three, feet from me had been a tank full of water and a handful of insidious, grotesque and disgusting large black, brown and orange lobsters. Watching their slow and sickly searching movements within the water caused the muscles in my body to tighten and hold me helplessly in place in front of the tank.  

The one thing I hadn’t told Morgan about my past, the one thing that had slipped my mind during the course of the day, had been about the time where I had been left unattended at a very young age with a couple of live lobsters, and that one of my earliest memories was being face to face with the grotesque underbelly of one that had looked and had been so huge compared to me at the time. The memory was clear; a long, dark coloured, cracking and clicking creature had pulled itself towards me out of the thin white plastic bag not too far from me. It’s hard and sharp legs had pressed into me with uncertain and clumsy steps as it had pulled itself over my body, it’s one free claw clapping periodically out of my view as it’s bulk blotted out my world with its continuing ascent up and across my body, the following moments of the memory were a blur banked out by my mind; a laughable yet scarring chapter of my life and one that I had never gotten over…

“What the hell is she doing, like?” sounded an impatient regional accent from over Morgan’s shoulder as I stood catching my breath beneath her silencing hand.

“Yeah, Fuck off! She’s frightened!” replied Morgan in a tone more akin to a wild cat’s roar than anything human. “C’mon babe.” She said to me with and air of understanding while nudging my cheek with her nose as she slipped her hand away from my mouth.

“I didn’t know they were there.” I said quickly and almost apologetically as soon as her hand had left my lips…

The following moments were typical of an embarrassed text-book blur until we were stood outside of the store on the dark and cold streets of the city with bags in hand.
The unexpected shock had rattled me and brought forth a lot of memories that I’d have liked to have stayed buried, but it was the lasting sensation and glowing reminiscences of recent memories of Morgan’s hands on my body which stayed with me during the lengthy commute back home.  

As we travelled back towards our city, I did most of the talking. My words were rushed, half embarrassed, half elated ramblings as I detailed my family life in more vivid detail than I ever had done before with Morgan. It wasn’t a subject I was fond of, but one that we found ourselves talking about to better explain the pathetic lobster fiasco. Still, the only thing I caught myself thinking entirely about was the silent moment that I had spent in her arms…

After stepping through the front door and dropping the bags to the floor, I knew that there was still only one thing that I wanted. I wanted to feel as I had before; the travelling between then and now had only served to feed the desire I felt for being encased in Morgan’s comforting grip again…
She smiled at me as I approached her and offered no resistance as I took her hand in mine and gently placed her palm against my lips… wish a swift tug of my body, I exhaled into her tightened grip and closed my eyes as Morgan pulled me close and began to passionately kiss my neck…