Chapter 4
The sun had already set, but still Darcy remained high on the hill overlooking the beach, waiting for some first sign of the Devil Cats' return from whatever caper it was that had kept them from the beach since early afternoon.
Darcy had dressed in other than her usual schoolgirl attire for this invasion of the Devil Cats' lair. She wore only sandals, a thin, low, revealing bra top, and shorts that were tight enough to show a dimple on either side of her buttock-cheeks. And between bra and shorts there was only the wide expanse of her brown flesh. Darcy had chosen well. She was sure that when she made her move, her attire-especially the lack of it-would enhance her opportunity to meet the red-bearded leader of the Cats.
For a long while, Darcy rested her chin on her arms, which she crossed in front of her. Lying flat on her stomach gave her a feeling of sensuality. She enjoyed the feeling. But soon she became cramped and shifted to her side. It was then that she saw the huge colored boy with the blazing red leather jacket. It was then that she felt a quick flutter of panic in her chest, for the boy was grinning at her from less than a dozen paces away.
"Oh," she cried. "You frightened me."
"I didn't mean to, little lady," Ham answered. "Not yet, anyway. There'll be plenty of time for you to get really frightened."
Darcy tried a smile to subdue her fear, a smile that might also alter the mean, hot look in the big Negro's eyes. But it did not. He continued to sit on his haunches, staring at her. His eyes, hot coals bordered in ebony, swept her body, tickled at her breasts and thighs, spotted at her navel, then clung to her face, her auburn hair, her small nose, her bright, red and quite-wide lips.
"Who are you?" Darcy asked, rising to a sitting position.
"I'm Ham."
"Ham who?"
"Just Ham, little lady. And that's enough and you better believe it."
"You're a Devil Cat, aren't you?"
"Oh, my, you're so bright," he said sarcastically.
Darcy did not venture another word, but her eyes tried to match his in boldness. She looked at his wide, strong shoulders, at the patch of hard chest that his open jacket revealed, at his thighs-the tight look they had from the way his position caused his jeans to cling to him. And as she looked at them, she saw other things that frightened her.
"What you lookin' at, little lady?" Ham said, his voice deep and a little threatening.
"Nothing," she answered, raising her eyes to his face.
"You were looking at me; that's what you were doing," he said.
Darcy lowered her eyes to the sand, which had turned a more brown than golden color because of the sun's descent and the shadows that had come.
"Say it, little lady," Ham said. "Say you were getting a good look at me-the personal me-go on and say it."
"Where's the rest of the gang?" Darcy asked.
"What's it to you?" Ham said
"Maybe a lot-maybe I want to see Zipper."
"Oh, my, ain't you the aggressive little lady though. You want to see Zip, eh? What for?"
She grew coy. "Maybe that's just my business."
"Nothing's just your business when you're sitting in Devil Cat territory, little lady." His eyes bored into her.
Now, she felt less coy. She glanced away from Ham's steady stare.
"So what is it with the Zipper-how come you're looking for him?" he asked.
"Well, I'm not really looking for him," Darcy replied. "Not really and truly."
Ham stood up and stretched. Darcy, watching him, thought that he was monstrously tall. His black face seemed to merge with the night, while the rest of him remained in view. When he brought his arms down, he took several quick steps and was suddenly beside Darcy. Then he lowered to his haunches and stared into her face again.
"Exactly what is it you're looking for, little lady?" Ham said, his voice deep and tight, patient, but with a note of urgency to it.
Darcy did not answer at once. She could feel Ham's breath touching lightly at her face, even making wisps of her hair flutter a bit. And she could smell his breath. It was rather sweet and sticky smelling and not at all unpleasant. But more than any awareness of the big Negro, Darcy was desperately aware of his body, of the naked chest which rippled with muscles, and of his tight thighs.
"Well, you gonna talk, little lady," Ham prompted.
Now, Darcy decided upon seductiveness to diminish her fear. "Sure, what do you want me to talk about, big man?"
Ham chuckled softly. Then he reached to an inside pocket of his jacket and extracted a plain wrapper package. From it, he extracted a long cigarette. For a few moments, he let it merely dangle between his lips while he stared at Darcy with an amused expression. Then, when he returned the package to his pocket, he withdrew a lighter, lit the cigarette, then replaced the lighter inside his jacket. He dragged deeply on the cigarette twice before removing it from his lips.
Darcy watched the slow grin sweep his face as if it were a small wave approaching the shore, growing larger and finally bursting. When Ham dragged on the cigarette again, then expelled the smoke in Darcy's direction, she smelled the sweetness of the tobacco. It, like Ham's breath, was not unpleasant. But it seemed to sting her other senses, alerting her more positively to everything around her, the beach, the lake, the shrouding night, and the boy who sat hunched only inches away from her body.
"What are you really looking for, gal?" Ham suddenly asked. His voice had changed, was sharper, a little angrier.
Darcy sensed that further banter was useless. She sensed, too, that Ham had to be her entree to Zipper Hardy.
"I want to see Zipper because I want to join the Devil Cats," she said, shooting the words out fast and sure.
Ham chuckled again. Then he said, "You little high school girls are just going crazy for the Cats, ain't ya-just like crazy, little lady. What's your name?"
"Darcy Williams."
He dragged again on the cigarette, repeated her name softly, then said, "Seems I've heard that name before."
"You probably know Dottie and Terry-they're new members of the Cats. Maybe they mentioned me."
Ham nodded. "They mentioned you all right." His expression changed, grew hotter and more urgent looking. "Hey, if you're anything like those two little Janes, well, hell, little lady, I'm prepared to interview you for membership right now-and, baby, I mean right now."
Darcy started to rise, pushing up to one knee and readying to push fully to her feet. "Look, I think maybe I'd better just-"
Ham's hand shot out like a serpent's head. He gripped her hard on the forearm and pressured her to resume her sitting position.
"You're goin' no place, little lady Darcy, no place that ol' Ham don't want you to go."
Darcy settled back on the sand. She felt annoyed now, more than apprehensive.
"You don't have to be quite so rough," she said. "After all, I'm practically a member of the Cats just like you-you don't want to treat a fellow member so rough."
"Don't I?"
"You shouldn't," she said. "Goodness sake, if every-"
"Shut up," Ham ordered.
Darcy exhaled the breath she had prepared for more wordage. Her breasts, which had risen high, so high that the outer rims of her flesh showed, expelled to smaller size. But the movement had drawn Ham's attention. He peered at her breasts, and Darcy knew that the light had still not faded sufficiently to prevent him from a sensual view of her, particularly of her hard nipples, which pressed erotically against her bra-top.
Ham released his hold on her arm. Then he dragged on the cigarette, took it from his mouth and handed it to Darcy.
"Go ahead, take a little drag," he said.
Darcy lifted her chin a bit. She took the cigarette and held it daintily between her fingers, striking a pose that she hoped would convey a familiarity with cigarettes that was not exactly true.
"Drag, Darcy, drag," big Ham instructed.
She placed the cigarette between her lips, thinking at the same time that it was like a kiss being bestowed upon the big Negro boy, that his lips had been where hers were now, that they had made this subtle joining. She dragged deeply, held the smoke within her lungs a second or two, then slowly expelled it. Then she dragged again. It was then that she felt the effects of the cigarette from the strange, unmarked pack. Her senses alerted to a terrifying degree, one that made her think that she was aware of every sound, every smell, every taste and feeling of all the world at the same time. She dragged again. The feeling increased and with it there came a light-headedness, an abandon of both spirit and body that she had never before experienced. Darcy acknowledged that she had known much abandon in her young life, especially the abandon of her body, but never had she felt the crush of desire, of carelessness, of passion and not-give-a-damnness that now coursed through her body.
She took a new, deeper drag on the cigarette, let it play within her lungs for a long time, then exhaled it so slowly that the smoke stream crumbled, fell apart and pushed out in almost indistinguishable willows. She raised the cigarette to her lips again.
"Hey, girlie," Ham laughed. "Give that back to me before it's only a butt."
He reached his big black hand out to her. Darcy finished her last drag on the cigarette, then handed it to Ham.
Ham finished the cigarette silently. Darcy remained quiet, too, although she churned within her chest and belly and loins. But it was a gentle churning, the kind that whispered that she had all the time she wanted, all the time in the world for everything that she wanted.
Ham crunched the cigarette butt out in the sand. Then he grinned at Darcy.
"Were you kidding or can you really interview me?" she asked, smiling, her eyes wide with wonder and the effects of Ham's cigarette.
"Sure I can interview you," he said.
"And will it be as good as if Zipper Hardy had interviewed me?" she asked, leaning forward a bit so that her breasts peeked more alluringly from her bra-top.
"As good!" Ham exclaimed. "Well, honey, it'd be a hell of a lot better to my way of thinking. 'Course, naturally, all us Cats are pretty egotistical. But I don't know many of 'em can compare with ol' Ham, ah, really don't."
His words sounded very fuzzy to Darcy, very 'way-out' and loaded with hidden meaning. But she really didn't care, didn't care at all. As a matter-of-fact she was delighted with his words, with the soft, purring sound of them and with the kind of sexual overtone they carried. She laughed.
"Is that little chuckle of yours with me-or against me?" Ham said.
She leaned far forward, braced her hands in front of her and looked directly into his face. "It's with you, big man, with you," she declared.
Ham shot both hands out and brought them around Darcy's throat. She leaned her head back, intensifying the feel of his fingers circling her, making the pressure tighter by her own will rather than by his.
"I could squeeze you to death, little lady," he mumbled, looking into her eyes.
"Sure you could," she said. "Do it, big man, I don't give a damn."
He laughed, then said, "All of a sudden you don't give a damn about anything, eh? Man that ol' weed's really got you cruisin', ain't it?"
"Yeah, cruisin', big man, cruisin', " she breathed slowly into his face.
Slowly he pressured her closer. He stopped when her face was nearly touching his, when their breath mixed together, spun and transferred from one to the other.
Ham kept his hands around her neck, and he began to shake her lightly back and forth, saying, as he moved her, "You know, little lady, I could squeeze the life right of you if I wanted-I really could-and I kind of feel like that, too, kind of like I'd like to make a little ol' rag doll outta ya, real limp and swishy and able to do any ol' thing I wanted, if you know what I mean."
"I can do anything you can think of, big man," she said, not even thinking now of her desire to join the Devil Cats, nor of their leader, Zip, whom she had determined to encounter.
"Oh, my, but you're the brassy one," Ham said, grinning, continuing to shake her.
Suddenly, he brought his hands away from her neck. For a moment, they were poised in front of him. Then they flashed forward, caught at her bra and ripped it from her body. Her breasts bounced as they were tumbled to exposure. The nipples puffed, hurt-looking and awake.
"There," Ham breathed. "How's that for a starter?"
"That's just great," Darcy answered, throwing her shoulders back and stretching her breasts outward. "But I bet you can do a lot better than that, big man."
His right hand lashed out and he gripped her by the hair. He jerked her to his lap, held her there, face upward and looking at him as he imprisoned her in that position. Then he laughed, softly and slowly. When it ended, he brought his free hand down to her shorts. Although he had ripped her bra from her brutally, he was now gentle. He unhooked the single button at the side, then lowered the zipper and paused. He grinned at her, then locked his fingers within the waistband of the shorts and pushed them downward. Darcy arched against the strong hold of her hair, and in a moment the shorts were pulled from her ankle and tossed to one side.
Ham looked at the nudity that he had created. Darcy grinned, much as if she could sense the delight that met his eyes, the long, bare body, which, surprisingly, was absent of panties, her breasts, full and firm and hard nipple topped, her flat belly, moulded thighs and calves and sleek legs.
"Man-but ain't you somethin', " he said, his tone one of wonder. His body tensed, then he jerked her face toward him, bent and kissed her riotously upon the mouth, biting at her lips, parting them with the dynamic thrust of his tongue, then lolling it within her mouth in a heavy, lazy circle that made her body wrench, caused her arms to fly around his neck, where she dug her fingernails deep into his flesh.
After a long kiss, Ham abruptly pushed Darcy away from him. The movement surprised her, but only for a moment. Then he reached out and caught both of her breasts with his hands. He squeezed them hard, so hard that Darcy stretched her head in a deep arch, that caused her neck muscles to strain and bloat in a picture of tense, hurtful passion.
Then he released her. She arched deeply, cupped both her breasts and presented them to his mouth. He made no move to take them. But Darcy did. She lurched, thrusting hard, forcing her flesh upon his lips, crowding, crowding, crowding, pressing, demanding their rupture.
Ham gasped, shot his arms around her back and pressed her close. His black mouth became a cavern where one breast became lost. Ham mouthed her furiously, shaking his head from side to side and all the time gathering more and more of her to him.
Darcy's hands ripped at his head, pressing him tighter to her. She gasped. She uttered a little cry of pleasure, then a louder cry when Ham brought his teeth to bear upon her flesh, causing, Darcy could tell, the leakage of her blood. When Ham finally drew back and looked at her, she saw what the pain did not fully tell. The big Negro's mouth was rimmed with droplets of blood.
He looked at her for a long time. Darcy saw the change in his expression and knew that some new sensation had come to him, a new feeling that was no doubt made up of the taste of blood.
He grasped her shoulders and held her at arm's distance. Then he mumbled, "You like to be hurt, don't you, little lady? You like it and that's good, 'cause, little Darcy, ol' Ham is just the gent to hurt you all kinds of ways."
"Then do it," she said boldly. "But first get out of that goddamn crummy red jacket-get out of that and those horrible jeans."
There was silence for a long time, and the silence made Darcy re-hear her words as if they had come from another, as if they had been uttered by the devil, and not herself. Yet it was her voice; it was she who had spoken. And she knew that if she had the words to say again, she would not alter them, that the night and the big Negro and the strange tobacco she had inhaled all merged to make her venture anything-even love-making with death itself if need be.
Ham continued to look at her. He remained silent. But he pushed upright to his knees, then in a quick motion stripped his jacket from his body. His body was bubbled with perspiration. Darcy explored it with her eyes and felt excitement.
Ham bent a bit, then shot his hand out again and grasped her by the hair. He held her at arm's length, then said, "Now, little bitch girl, now we'll see if you get kicks out of my kicks."
He waited a full ten seconds. Then he crashed his open hand hard against the side of Darcy's face. She spun, stopped, then collapsed in a sprawl upon the sand. Ham was at her within an instant, jerking her upright again, slapping her again, spinning her to the ground, then yanking her to her tiptoes while he waited another long tick of seconds before slamming her with his closed fist against her breasts, crushing one into the other, making them bob and jiggle, then bend hurtfully.
"Ugh!" Darcy groaned.
He hit her with his other hand, crashing from left to right, swiping one breast to the other again. She did not fall. She groaned again. And when she clutched her body with her arms crosswise in front of her and bent forward a bit, Ham brought his knee up hard between her thighs. They parted. She staggered. Then she fell. She rolled to one side, then to her back. She stared at Ham but saw beyond him, and there, as if he had come out of the night, as indeed he had, stood Zipper Hardy. His expression was one of disappointment and hurt, and it was laced with shock.
Ham paused, then twisted around. He looked at Darcy and grinned. Then he turned, following her eyes again to where they rested upon the image of Zipper Hardy.
"Well, I'll be goddamned," Ham breathed. "You must have arrived just in time for the finale, eh, Chief?"
"Just in time," Zipper said sternly.
"Well, man, I'll tell ya, Zip, we got ourselves a real little recruit here-a real one, man-one that really goes-"
Darcy straightened, twisted her feet beneath her buttocks, then, quite shyly, crossed her arms in front of her naked breasts.
Ham looked at her and laughed. "Man-what a time for her to be embarrassed."
"Yes, what a time," Zipper said, looking straight at Darcy and showing some disappointment, unhappiness, and disgust in his eyes that frightened her, made her feel sorry for all that had happened.
Ham, looking from Darcy to Zipper, said, "Well, Chief, this was a real little preview. I don't rightly know if this little lady is up to our initiation tonight, but, man, I want to be her sponsor, I sure do."
"No, not tonight," Zipper said, not wavering his eyes from the hold they claimed on Darcy. "Not tonight, because we want to give this little broad the full treatment-yeah, the full treatment-and some of the Cats aren't here."
"Didja hear that?" Ham said, turning to Darcy. "You're going to get the full treatment. That ain't happened for an awful long time around here." Then he grinned at Zipper and added, "Hell, Chief, guess you really are taking charge of things-guess you really are."
"You still want to join the Cats?" Zip asked, addressing Darcy for the first time.
She hesitated a moment. It was a moment that made her know all the circumstances that she might face at a Devil Cats' initiation. And it told her, too, that there would be something new and horrible added to even the horrible, for, she was sure, Zipper, seeing her with Ham, had been moved to surpass himself in the creation of the most preposterous kind of ceremonies. But she did not care. She longed for Zipper Hardy and for any means that would bring her to him.
"Well?" Zipper prompted.
"Yes," she said.
"Friday night then," he said. "See that you're here-if you're not, we'll come and get you."
He turned and walked away.
Darcy stared after him until he faded into the darkness, feeling lost, hurt, and fearful.