Chapter 8
WE ATE THE FRIED CHICKEN PREPARED BY Rita and washed it down with cold beer.
Todd had been assigned the job of keeping one ear glued to the radio in an effort to hear any reports that might come in about the escape. The hours passed slowly. I dressed King's wound again-after sending Rita out to an all-night pharmacy to get some additional medicine. The wound was deep and King was in considerable pain, although from the stoic sculpture of his face one would never have guessed it.
Joe seemed distracted. He sat constantly by the telephone. Finally I wandered over to where he was.
"I'm waiting for a call," he explained, crisply. "George Mitchell-a fellow I know who got sprung a few months back. He's got the money we need."
"Money for what?" I asked, innocently.
Joe looked at me with narrowed eyes. "For South America," he said, quietly. "We're going to fly out of here in a private plane. By the time the cops get around to looking for us we'll be in Mexico City and then Cuernavaca. They'll never find us."
"Joe-you'll be giving up everything," I protested.
He laughed indifferently. "If you mean Mason, you're damned right, I'll be giving that up."
"But it's running away, Joe. My father ... I couldn't do that to him."
He pulled his hand away angrily. "I thought you loved me. Are you going to hang on to your old man's coat-tails all your life? Grow up, Mary!"
The words stung me deeply. I stood up and walked to the bedroom and shut the door. I sat on the edge of the bed and felt tears welling into my eyes. It all seemed so completely useless! I felt that I had wasted those long months planning and sacrificing to be with Joe. I had my wish. I was with him-but now the victory was like ashes in my hands.
Joe had changed. I fought against the conviction that the man I had loved, and pledged myself to, was no longer what he had been. The prison had changed him, corrupted him. Instead of "correcting" what flaw he might have had in his character, it had merely widened and deepened it. For the first time in my life I realized that society was wrong in inflicting men to torment and slow death behind gray walls.
And I had been a fool to think I could be of any help in changing all that.
Later, when I was lying sleepless in the bed, I heard the door creak open. Joe came in, his face etched with the tension of what he was going through. He came to the bed and sat down limply. I remained motionless, studying his profile.
Finally I reached up and touched his shoulder. He turned and looked at me.
"You're all I have, Mary," he said, thickly. "Don't leave me-don't hate me."
My heart-my silly, illogical heart-melted with his plea. I pulled him down to me, and kissed him on the mouth.
"Oh, Joe," I breathed. "I want to love you, you know that. But this terrible thing you've done. There must be some way to change it, to go back and...."
"I can't go back, Mary. I'd rather die than go back. It's hell! I told you that."
His hands were tangled in my hair. He pulled my mouth up to his again and took my lips with his own. His tongue rubbed softly against my teeth ...
"Come to bed, my darling," I whispered, the blood pounding in my ears. "Let me hold you ... love you...."
Since time immemorial, I suppose, women have thought that they could change men in bed. They have thought that by using their bodies, the wiles of passion, they could heat the hardened clay of men's wills and reshape them, reform them to their own desires.
I was no exception.
For the next hour I did all that I could to make Joe want me, to make him desire me so much that he would agree to changing his mind about South America. I had little hope to offer, little plan, but I knew that somehow, someway he had to give up his scheme, to go back and serve out the sentence that society had imposed on him. Only then could he hope to lift his head in a world he hadn't made, but had to live in. And only by doing it that way could we have any kind of life together.
In the throes of our lovemaking, his mouth found my breasts and brought them to life. They pulsed with fire, the ends hardening with the greed that demands satisfaction. I opened my body to him and once more we knew the boundless satisfaction and joy that we had first experienced in the chapel.
Storm lust gathered in both our bodies and built to a throbbing climax in a crashing of thighs. I wallowed in the ecstasy of Joe's fine body. His knowing male ways made me turn liquid inside, sent spurting thrills galloping through my loins as he pumped the endless rigidity of his own aroused passion into my body.
I had never felt such shameless abandon in my life. I knew at last what I had been missing; but the joy of saving myself for Joe was compensation enough. I wanted no other man, would never be satisfied with any other. At that moment tremors of passion surged through every pore of my body. As Joe's hands touched me everywhere and his strong legs supported his masterful lovemaking, I knew that I would go to the far jungles of the world to be with him. Anything to be able to feed on his love, to be near the sweet torment of his flesh.
"Oh, Joe," I moaned as we made it once more together, spasming and throbbing pliant flesh. "Make me love it ... please me!"
His answering thrust of power plowing into the frothing depths of my body sent me into another convulsive sob of joy. He rocked slower and slower and the pleasure undulated through both of us. We were like ships bobbing on a quiet sea. And then he relaxed in my arms.
I sighed and ran my fingernails over his damp back.
And in a few moments I was asleep ...
When I awoke I was alone in the bed. Joe's absence frightened me. A racous, muted blare of music was coming from the living room. A crack of light splintered the door frame of my darkened room. I got gingerly out of bed, hugging the sheet close to my body. I tiptoed to the door and peered through the crack.
Todd was sprawled in a chair by the radio. He had a bottle of whiskey beside him and a half-filled glass in his hand. The radio was shouting dance music. The station swerved in and out of frequency, as if it had been a longtime since Todd had bothered to adjust the knob. He was watching something, taking deep, loose sips from his glass.
I looked at what he was watching.
King and Rita were dancing. At least it probably had once had some semblance of a dance. They were now merely glued to each other, legs thrust together, arms entangled in a snare of wanton indifference to Todd's hungry stares.
I searched the room frantically for some sign of Joe. I could see him nowhere.
The music found itself momentarily and a tricky blast of wicked cornets and drums rippled the air. Rita responded by sliding her hips voluptuously against the huge body that held her captive. King shoved his mouth down to her ear and seemed to cup it, whispering to her, his tongue making thick, probing trips against her lobes. She giggled deeply, throatily, and her head fell back, the orange earrings clicking like castanets.
I was still standing in the darkness of the room, the sheet draped loosely around my naked body, when Todd pushed up from his chair. His lithe young body seemed brimming with energy, a tightly coiled spring ready to snap. He drained the glass and moved suddenly away from his chair.
He was coming toward the bedroom!
Sucking in my breath fearfully, I stepped back and fumbled for the cheap lock. I found it just in time, shoving the bolt secure. I was trembling when I heard Todd twisting the doorknob. He tired it for several seconds and then his fist thudded on the thin wood.
"Hey," he breathed. "Hey, open up, sweetheart."
I waited, not daring now to breathe. I hoped he would go away. I wondered again where Joe wa show he could have left me alone with these people!
"Hey! I said, open the damned door! I ain't gonna eat you!" Todd growled, and then a low coarse laugh punctuated his remark, and I heard him add in a drunken whisper, "Yet!"
Still I waited, shuddering in the darkness.
"Listen, baby," he called, his fist pounding on the door again. "If you don't open this door, I'm gonna open it for you, savvy?"
My mind raced. I knew that if I didn't think of something-do something-I might unleash whatever psychotic drives lurked deep in his twisted lustful young mind.
I took a step to the door. Raking in a deep breath, I whispered, "I was asleep, Todd-you woke me up. What do you want."
"You," he snapped. Then he added in a kind of honey whine, "I mean-I wanta talk to you, baby. Just talk, that's all."
"Where ... Where's Joe?" I asked, trying to be as casual as possible.
"He's out ... don't worry about him, sugar. He won't be back for hours. Time for a little fun. C'mon, open up. I just wanta...."
"All right. Just a minute. I'll be right out."
"Okay ... but hurry it up, will-ya? It's lonesome out here."
I stumbled back across the room and switched on the little lamp by the bed. I found my uniform and dressed as slowly as I could. I had to kill time. I had to delay!
Twice while I was dressing, Todd's impatient fist slapped against the door. Twice he demanded that I get a move on.
At last I could tarry no longer. I opened the door, but before he could shoulder his way into the room I was out of it, walking quickly right to the center of the living room. I rationalized that at least with King and Rita in our presence, I might have more protection. Not that I could rely too deeply on their moral integrity.
Todd followed me, and stood swaying slightly just a few inches away from me. He was very drunk. I decided his condition might work in my favor. But his eyes were glazed with a hard eagerness that turned the natural blue of them into a steely frost.
His hands come out and locked around my waist. His fingers felt like bands of iron. It was incredible how strong he was-how youthfully strong.
"C'mon, baby," he husked. "Let's you and me kiss and get acquainted. Let's...."
"Let's have a drink, Todd," I said, trying to push his hands away.
He stared at me, then dropped his hands and grinned. "Okay ... little drink first. Little drink to get us all loosened up." He laughed a kind of twisted adolescent laugh. I tried to imagine what kind of boy Todd might have been, if, in some time past, in the dark corners of his distorted life, he had been given some kind of love, some chance to be a decent human being.
He splashed whiskey into a glass and handed it to me.
"You drink, too," I said. "No woman--likes to drink alone."
He winked suggestively, grinning. "That ain't all you don't like to do alone, is it, sugar?" His eyes ran over my body, undressing me in his mind. "I heard those bedsprings squeaking while ago. Sounded like you and old super-hero were gonna screw right through the floor." He leaned closer tome, his breath hot on my cheek. "I want some of that, too. I can make you think it's Christmas, doll. There's more than one cunt can testify to how good I am."
"I'm-I'm sure of that," I breathed, ignoring his lewd stare. I took a sip of my drink. It was violently strong. It was obvious that Todd intended to get me drunk in a hurry-which was fair enough, because that's exactly what I had in mind for him.
"Your drink," I said. "You haven't made yourself one."
While he poured himself an equally generous drink I glanced again at King and Rita. They were lost in some delirium of sensuality. Still swaying together, their two bodies were crushed close. One of King's massive hand was rubbing her buttocks with teasing explorations. His other hand was somewhere inside her blouse. Periodically, she would make little moaning sounds of pleasure, grinding her thighs harder against the column of his leg that rode between hers, thrusting her tongue deep into his throat.
Todd was back, clinking his glass against mine.
"Here's to a good screw," he breathed heavily, winking again at me. Before I could stop him, one of his hands had cupped my breast, the fingers going instinctively for the nipple. Once again I slithered out of his reach. He followed me, eyes afire with lust.
"C'mon, baby, let's go into the damn bedroom." He whispered, "I'm dying to get between your legs. Watching King dry-hump that piece over in the corner-and listening to Joe lay you, springs creaking like crazy-it just about drove me out of my mind. And the thing is, I got more to offer than those two bastards put together. Baby, five minutes with me and you'll be lickin' my chin to get more!"
I thought I might faint. The brutal assumption he was making, that any female was fair game, that any woman on earth could be talked into wallowing in his lust was sick, disgusted me. Todd was a sick young man, and a dangerous one. What Rita had told me about him hummed in my head like a frenzied alarm bell.
I couldn't help feeling frightened, but above all I couldn't let him get me in that bedroom.
I had to stall until Joe got back!
His hands came at me again, squeezing my breasts, toying with the nipples he found easily enough beneath my limp uniform.
"Let's., .let's dance, Todd," I said, my mind reeling with every possibility for delay.
I slid my arms around him and drew him close to me, hoping to keep his hands at my back. His body cemented itself to me and we spun crazily around as the radio blared it's idiotic static-music. His leg immediately wedged itself between mine and I felt his violent male erection grow like a muscle inside his pants. He licked at my neck and my throat. I tried to resist, but he was too strong for me and he pulled my head back and planted his mouth on mine. His tongue forced its way into my throat, lashing and sucking with animal greed at everything in its way.
His hands roamed over my hips, pinching, teasing, demanding satisfaction.
The few sips of the strong drink sailed around in my head, inflaming my senses. Despite myself, I felt a rabid sensuality crawling through my body. I couldn't help it. Every inch of my flesh was at his mercy, and his leg relentlessly rubbing against my thighs kindled something of the recent madness I had experienced with Joe.
Wanton thoughts fluttered through my head like witches, like demons of lust.
If only I could get out of his arms, I knew that I would be all right. And yet I was a prisoner. The irony of it did not escape me. Yes, a prisoner has little choice about his fate!
Without realizing it, Todd had maneuvered us to the sofa. Suddenly with a savage push I lay sprawled there with him on top of me.
"No, Todd," I pleaded, my better self struggling to the top of my senses again. "No ... we can't ... King and Rita...."
A low chuckle escaped from Tod's throat. "Ain't you noticed? They crawled off to the bedroom a long time ago."
I stared. It was true. The door of the bedroom was shut. King and Rita were doubtlessly behind that door, in the darkness on the same bed that Joe and I had made love on. And no doubt their own lust was being savagely fulfilled.
I tried again to escape from Todd's grasp, but I was pinned helplessly under him.
"Now this can be easy or hard," Todd rasped, his mouth circling my own. "But come hell or high water, baby, I'm gonna split that juicy cunt of yours, so you might as well enjoy it. We're gonna screw like a couple of ducks I"
His hand rode under my skirt and yanked at the flimsy barrier of my panties.
"No, Todd ... no!"
I was powerless to stop him. His hands seemed made of steel. His fingers made bruising lunges up my skirt and clamped against my leg.
His other hand pressed along my throat, cutting my breath to a thin stream. He held me down, bending his sweating, inflamed face close to mine. His mouth was a gash of lust.
"I think I know what you want," he said in a hard whisper. "Yeah, I'm sure I know what you want!"
I couldn't speak. His fingers slid higher to the edge of my panties, and began to inch under the straining elastic.
"I think you want me to rape you!" he husked, his breath scalding my face. "Say it! Say you want me to do that to you!"
I struggled-wildly in his arms.
His fingers ripped now at my panties. He had done this before, I realized, and probably many times! I fought against him with all my strength. But it was no use. He tore my panties free with one savage pull.
I gathered breath in my lungs to scream-but I was too late. His mouth plunged against mine, cutting off my cries. The hand between my legs worked quickly to bring me under his power. His knees dug between my legs and wedged them open.
His hand left the damp snarl of hair between my legs and fumbled with the buttons of his fly.
God, I thought, he's going to do it-he's going to rape me!
I struggled now like a tiger. The thought of rape rampaged through my brain to bring back all the dark terrors the female has been repressing since time began.
Violation by the male animal-cruel, brutal, merciless!
When he crawled over me, crushing his body against mine, I suddenly found my mouth free at last from his madness.
I obeyed immediately my feminine instinct to scream.
The sound shattered the room!