Forget Faust, and his bargain. I’m Mephistopheles’ sister, and here’s the deal: Sleep with me, and you’ll get what you want. Not to live forever, because who really desires eternity except some tech nerds, losers putting their heads in deep freeze for some unknowable future, and failed poets. Most of us understand that everlasting life isn’t a great bargain. But sex is. We don’t want to live forever fleeing the Minitour, lost in tangled, black-mold mazes. We’ll all die. Before then, in exchange for all your gold, stocks, bonds, pennies in pickle jars, I’ll give you the first time again, and for the sex to be what it should have been, grand, explosive, incandescent. Those who were hurt the first time, who were duped or rejected, or worse— I know there’s worse in this world, and I’ll weep over it when I have time—sleep with me. My bargain isn’t Mephistopheles’ eternal life and wisdom for one man; this sweet deal, available for all, is about a new first. It’s about tucking you in the crook of my arm; it’s about tenderness and tendering to you what’s due; it’s about a memory that will grow wild and free like roadside kudzu; it’s a swarm of senses sharp as your best kitchen knife; and let me put this in the simplest terms for you: it’s about sex, for the first time, jeweled, cherished, eternal.

About the author:

Caroline Bock writes stories—from micros to novels. Her novel, THE OTHER BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE, will be published by Regal House Publishing in the summer of 2026. She has short fiction forthcoming in SmokeLong and the Hopkins Review. She is the co-president and prose editor at the Washington Writers’ Publishing House. She lives in Maryland with her family. Find her on Instagram at CarolineBockAuthor, X @cabockwrites, and here at www.carolinebockofficialauthorsite.wordpress.com

Part of our Fall/Winter 2024 Issue. New stories, poems, and essays now through December 2024.

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