“Or anything else.” Ruby added. She slipped an arm around the waist of the much shorter, older Tom. Jay was still getting used to the idea that the two were married. He’d never met an inter-racial couple in his young life, or one with such an apparent age difference. Though the closer he looked at Ruby, the less certain he was of her age. She looked back at him. “You look like your father, Jay. Though I didn’t know him at your age.”
A pretty girl with jet black hair came around the corner, calling, “The paint booth is ready, folks. Sorry I’m late.”
Jay and Robin stared. Even on this unusual day, the girl was a unique sight. Below her chin, her body was a chaotic swirl of colors, more like an abstract version of Van Gogh’s Starry Night than anything else Jay could come up with. Blues, black, white, and lots of spiraling bright yellow covered every inch of her body. It was obvious through the thickly applied paint that she had shaved off all her pubic hair. A smiling Cliff lagged behind, paint covering his hands, his body sporting several smeared spots of color.
The painted beauty smiled at the open-mouthed newcomers before focusing on one of them. “Jay!”
She almost leapt toward him, arms wide, before skidding to a stop inches from him, backing up a step. “Oops, forgot. Wet paint.”
“Raven? Oh my god. Raven! Didn’t you move to California?”
He turned to Robin. “Robin, this is Raven Fogle. She used to live across the street. We were best friends until fifth grade, when her family moved.”
Robin couldn’t keep a straight face, the rush of jealousy changing to amusement. “You’re lucky she has a bird name, mister, or I might not be so accepting of that paint on you.”
Jay followed her eyes. Raven’s skidding stop had not been quite in time. One swirled yellow breast, smaller than Robin’s but not by much, looked smeared, and a roundish patch of yellow paint was centered on his sternum.
“Bird name?” Raven was looking from Jay to Robin in confusion.
He explained, at least the basics. “I’m Jay, she’s Robin. The answer to the riddle was a bird. We’ve been joking about birds all day. We dubbed Tom Merlin, it’s a lot like a peregrine falcon, before he introduced himself. You’re Raven, so you’re in the club.”
“Riddle?” Raven gave Robin an appraising look. “You are the red riddler, aren’t you? Didn’t recognize you without the name tags. Good job, Jay. Looks like all your book reading paid off. If it’s okay, I’ll catch up with you both later, I gotta watch the colored folks. Multi-colored that is. You give these supposed adults finger paint and the right canvas, anything can happen.”
She headed back the way she had come, but not before giving Ruby an exaggerated wink. The tall dark-skinned woman pretended to take a swat at Raven’s painted posterior. “Colored folk, my ass. Your backside is going to be a deeper black and blue if you don’t watch it.”
A smiling Ruby tugged on her husband’s long beard. “Merlin, huh? You must have cast a powerful spell, to land a keeper like me.”
“I deny nothing,” he quipped back at her. “Though that perpetual beauty charm I conjured up on our house seems to have worked better on one us.”