Chapter 12
Kurt Wiley debated with himself for two hours following Laura Standard's departure from his cabin. He kept recalling everything about the love he had shared with the pretty girl. He kept remembering the change that had come over him since the realization of his love for her: His new seriousness of purpose, his new resolve to live a worthwhile life, his concern for his father, friends, even all of humanity. Laura had been the reason for his changed attitudes. And yet he knew that he must betray them, give them up just as he had discovered them, for the consequences for noncompliance with Arthur Fleming's wishes were severe and more, than Kurt could fight. And there was something else, too. Kurt wondered if perhaps everything else was an excuse he wondered if perhaps he really enjoyed the blackmail enjoyed it for the sexual benefit he might know.
It was dark when Kurt left his cottage. As he closed the door behind him, he remembered Laura's loving departure, recalled how they had embraced by the door, kissed again, and how Laura had made him promise to see her later that night. Kurt had agreed. But he knew that when the time came he would not see her, that he could not see her again once the intrigue against the accreditation committee had been completed. He loved her too much to face her once the stain of a pimp had become a part of him.
Kurt moved a few paces from his cottage, then paused and looked around the area. Then he looked straight ahead at the campus and the buildings that sprawled upon it. It seemed odd that a college should have become a part of mystery and blackmail, that the motivation for money touched even the president of a college and its faculty members. Kurt shook his head. Then he quickly reviewed the program that had been established for him by Arthur Fleming and Thelma Andrews. He was to meet them and the accreditation committee members at Thelma's farm house, where, under the pretense of an evening's entertainment he was to succeed in luring the committee chairman a woman and quite attractive, he had learned to Thelma's. upstairs bed room where motion pictures would be secretly made of her sexual cohabitation with a student. After that it would be easy to arrange for Funston's accreditation, Kurt had been told. He believed it. He knew it was true. He also knew that if he did not cooperate, his father would hear the worse about him. He smiled cynically, thinking how he had always fought with his father, yet it was for his father that he did this thing. Then, for a few minutes, Kurt considered his own weaknesses, thinking that one stronger than himself might tell Fleming and Thelma to go to hell. But Kurt could not fight it, he knew very well. He was too weak. He had to accept it. Yet, there had been the promise of strength through Laura. But soon, even that hope would be gone. He knew that the highly principled Laura could never understand his part in such deceit as he would soon exhibit.
Kurt got in his car, hesitated, started it, then hesitated again, much as if indecision still besieged him. But finally, he put the car in gear and headed it in the direction of Thelma Andrews farm house. He drove slowly, his headlights the only lighted path along the roads The night was as dark as his mood.
The lights of Thelma's house seemed like a signal, a dirty one. Kurt saw them for a full half mile before he finally braked the car in the drive at the front. Several other cars were parked around the house. Although there were no sounds issuing from within, the lights and the cars gave Kurt the impression of much activity.
After he alighted from the car, climbed the stairs and walked across the wide porch, Kurt tapped the doorknocker three times. In a moment, he heard footsteps. In another moment the door was opened by Thelma Andrews.
"Well, hi," she said, smiling brightly.
Kurt nodded and looked at her. She wore a cocktail dress that seemed more brazen than nakedness to Kurt. It dipped low at the bodice, running all the way to her navel. And the upper part of the V was wide enough to reveal the halves of her breasts. Her legs were bare. She wore high spike-heeled shoes. Kurt, looking at her, remembered that mature body and the way it had thrust and finally erupted beneath him like a grenade, sending its fragments of thrill throughout his own body like wounds. Yes, that was how it had been, he thought. But compared to the deeper thrill of true love that he had experienced with Laura, the other was like nothing.
"You're right on time," Thelma said.
"Yes," he replied.
She stepped closer and cocked her head to look into his eyes. "Kind of quiet tonight, aren't you, sweetie?"
"Yes. Quiet."
"Bet you feel sad that you have to play with somebody other than me," she declared, brightening.
He did not answer.
"But the chairwoman of the committee is darling," Thelma said. "I was really surprised."
Thelma's recommendation didn't impress Kurt.
"I think you're going to enjoy your work very much, Kurt," she said. "Her name is Rae Wilkins and you're going to love her. Also, although she seems somewhat of a prude, I bet you can convince her that she can really love a college boy."
"Is-is she married?" Kurt asked.
"Of course. That's one of the advantages to our little scheme. If she ever thought her hubby, who, incidentally, is a professor at an eastern college, would see those films well, she'll cooperate."
"Did it ever occur to you people that she might not want to play?" Kurt said.
"Yes, it occurred to us," she answered.
"So what happens if that's the way it turns out?"
"We've thought of everything, precious," Thelma said. "We've provided for that possibility with a little bottle of liquid."
Kurt looked at her curiously.
"A drop or two in Rae's drink will take care of everything," Thelma continued. "After that, she'll probably haul you off to the bedroom herself."
"An aphrodisiac?" Kurt questioned.
"Yes, darling. And we've decided that you shouldn't take any chances. Use it. Definitely, use it. The bottle's on the book shelf directly in back of Romeo and Juliet."
"Nice touch," Kurt said.
"I thought so. But come, now you have to meet the committee and the chairwoman."
Thelma gripped Kurt's hand, then led him toward the living room. They paused at its entrance, the purpose, Kurt guessed, was to give him a chance to view everyone and everything before he took the step forward into an act of whoredom.
Kurt glanced at all those who filled the room. There was Arthur Fleming, drinking, who Kurt only briefly viewed. And there was also Penny Smith and Rodney Madden who Kurt only glanced at before viewing the three members of the college accreditation committee.
As he looked at them, Kurt wondered how they would respond if they knew they were about to be drugged and blackmailed in order to know their influence. The man was dignified looking. But he was drinking from a tall glass and smiling as he talked to Fleming. One woman was older than the other by about ten years, Kurt guessed. She had a school teacher look about her. She was attractive and had a good figure. The other woman was in her mid-thirties and exceptionally pretty, but in a shy, passive, quite self-conscious way. Her body was extraordinary. Her dress was not daring, but it could not help but reveal her soft lines and willowy strength. Her hair was blonde; her eyes, blue, her mouth, thin but not at all stingey looking.
"Which one is Rae Wilkins?" Kurt asked Thelma.
"Which do you think, darling?" she said, glancing at him.
"It really doesn't matter," he said, his despondence showing in his voice.
"The choice is quite different," Thelma said, teasing.
"Probably not," he replied.
"Oh, come, sure it is," she continued. "Just look at the little blonde isn't that a real little piece for a college man?"
Kurt glanced toward the woman. Then he lowered his eyes to the floor.
"Don't feel badly, sweet," Thelma said. "The blonde is Rae, so you'll have a ball."
Kurt looked across the room at Rae Wilkins and felt a stab of pity for the woman.
"And now, the introductions." said Thelma. slipping her arm through Kurt's and urging him forward.
Thelma introduced Kurt to the man, to the other woman, and finally to Rae Wilkins. And then he took the first step toward her seduction.
"May I get you a drink?" he asked.
"Yes, that would be very nice," she said pleasantly.
"Suppose you come with me to the bar," Kurt suggested. Then he glanced around and grinned as he said, "Someone as sweet as you shouldn't be around all this nasty influence."
Thelma giggled. So did Penny Smith and the other woman. And Arthur Fleming, Rodney Madden, and the male member of the accreditation committee smiled and nodded.
As if he were a knight of olden times, Kurt crooked his arm and held it out for Rae Wilkins. She took it. Kurt escorted her to the bar in the corner of the big room.
"What can I fix you?" he asked.
"Anything. Perhaps just a little whiskey and water. And, please, I do mean little."
Kurt made their drinks. He made a great show of how little liquor he used in Rae's highball and she acknowledged it with a radiant smile.
Kurt suggested that they enjoy their drinks in a lonely corner of the room. Rae acknowledged this with a smile, too. Once seated, Kurt bumped his glass toward her in a silent toast, then drank a good portion of the liquor, knowing that he would need it and much more before the night was over.
"You're a very handsome young man," Rae said when she finished with a sip of the highball.
"Thank you. It doesn't mean much, however."
"What do you mean by that?" she asked.
"Nothing. I usually don't make much sense," he told her.
Suddenly, as he looked at her he became very curious about her life.
"You're married to a professor, aren't you?" he asked.
"Oh, yes. For eighteen years as a matter-of-fact. I married him as soon as I finished high school and I've never been sorry." She said it all in a way that told Kurt that she was happily married.
"Children?" Kurt asked.
"Three. All in school. All wonderful children," she replied.
"You sound happy," he said.
"Oh, I am. Charles is a wonderful man. I respect him, love him everything about him is just great."
Kurt thought how nice it would be to be a husband who was held in such high esteem by his wife.
Rae took more of her drink. Then she said, "What about you, Kurt? Do you have a girl."
"No."
"Oh, really, you're kidding."
"No I'm not," he said. "I just play the field."
"Oh."
"You said that as if you were disappointed in me."
"No. It's just that you don't seem like the type of boy who 'plays the field' as you call it."
"I don't."
"No."
"What kind of guy do I seem like to you?"
"Rather serious. Perhaps not about everything, but about girls and love you're serious."
He laughed. It sounded cruel. Then he let his eyes rake impishly over Rae Wilkins body, much as if to convey the thought that he was not serious about anything but the sensual things of life.
Rae finished her drink. So did Kurt.
"Another?" he asked.
"No. Thanks anyway."
A thought struck him. "Did you get mixed up with this college accreditation work because of your husband?"
"Because of him and our children." She paused, then leaned forward, obviously embarked upon one of her favorite topics. "You see," Rae continued, "it's so terribly important today that the right schools are accredited. If the wrong schools are given the same status and privileges of the right schools, well, higher education will eventually get to mean nothing. Already there are some degrees that can be earned that are valueless once any degree meant years of hard work and study and achievement. So, I became involved in the work because I want our colleges to be as good as we can make them. It's the only way we'll progress as a nation or as a world, for that matter."
"You're very sincere about it, aren't you?" he asked, admiring her anew.
"Very," she said.
"Is-Funston College going to be accredited?" he asked.
She glanced to the side. She did not speak. "Well, is it?" he asked again, his voice rising a bit.
She looked directly into his eyes, then said, "That's something that I cannot answer it's confidential material until it's presented to our superiors. But let me ask you something, Kurt."
"What's that?"
"Do you think Funston should be accredited?"
Now it was Kurt's turn to remain silent. He did.
"I've been asking as many students as possible that question," Rae went on. "It's surprising how they've responded."
"How have they answered?" he asked.
"Oh, some, naturally, have played the con game with me," she said. "You know, the old razzmatazz; Funston's the greatest, nothing but work, all the things that I know aren't true. But some of the students here have shown amazing insight to the problems of accreditation."
When she paused, Kurt nodded.
"Several have impressed me a great deal," Rae Wilkins said. "It makes me feel pretty good to know that some young people can look beyond their own situation and see the more important aspects of accreditation and its effect upon future generations."
"Some didn't recommend their own school, eh?" Kurt said.
"I wouldn't say it that way. Some particularly one little girl, was as honest as anyone I ever talked to."
Instinctively, Kurt knew that it was Laura Standard who had impressed Rae.
"She worked in the registration office, didn't she?" he said.
Rae looked surprised, then said, "Well, that's confidential, too, of course, but--"
"And her name was Laura Standard," Kurt added.
"Yes, it was," Rae admitted. "Do you know her well?"
"Quite well," he said. "Or at least, I did. I don't I mean, we'll not be seeing much of each other soon."
"Oh," was all Rae said. It seemed that she restrained herself from asking more.
Kurt glanced toward the others. He saw Thelma Andrews looking at him, giving him a meaningful look that said he should get progressing with the committee-woman. He turned toward Rae.
"Come on, change your mind and have another drink. I'll make it small," he encouraged.
She hesitated, then said, "All right, Kurt. One more small one."
"Good. But first I'm going to get a new book from Thelma's shelves it's something I thought you'd be interested in."
"Wonderful," she answered brightly. "Then we can have the drink and talk about the book."
"Exactly," he replied.
Kurt stood up, then walked to the far wall that was one, large book case. He ran his eyes over the title. When he came to a section that held all of Shakespeare's work, he lifted out the copy of Romeo and Juliet. He pretended to glance through it, then replaced it, at the same time working his hand behind the book to pick up the bottle. Unnoticed, he slipped it into his pocket.
Back at the bar, Kurt made two new drinks. Keeping his back turned to all occupants of the room, he managed to slip a few drops of the aphrodisiac into one of the glasses. He hesitated, then added a few more drops. He felt heavy and tired and he knew that it was a symptom of the role he played, of the deceit he was about to commit.
Kurt took the drinks back to where Rae Wilkins sat waiting for him.
"What happened to the book?" she asked.
"It wasn't there. Thelma must have loaned it out. It doesn't matter anyway."
Kurt handed Rae her drink, making sure that she received the glass that had been laced with aphrodisiac. Then he sat opposite her again.
For several moments they were quiet. Occasionally, Rae sipped from her glass. Kurt watched her, wondering what the signs of the aphrodisiac's effect would be.
Soon, after they had talked of casual things, Kurt noticed Rae's eyes narrowing. He noticed also that her eyes played upon his body as they had not previously done. She looked at his shoulders and chest, at his legs, and especially at that area around his waist. She looked like a woman suddenly on the make.
Kurt felt like looking away from the work that he had done. He wanted to turn forever from the sight of a happily married woman and mother who he had created as a bitch. He did not look away, however. It was as if he was held by the awesome thing he had done.
Rae took more of her drink and smiled. The smile was different this time. So were the lips. They had bloated, looked full and ripe and hungry. And Kurt saw that her body had undergone a change too. Her breasts were more lifted, much as if they had risen for attention. He could even see the hard ends indenting their mark against the material of her dress. And she crossed and uncrossed her legs a great deal.
Kurt lifted his glass and drained the liquor from it. In a moment, Rae, looking meaningfully over the rim of the glass, did the same.
"So, how did that one taste?" Kurt finally asked.
"Oh, that was great," she answered. "It does make me feel a little funny, however."
"Funny?" he questioned.
"Yes."
"In what way?"
She glanced at the carpeting.
"How does it make you feel, Rae?" he asked, pushing for an answer.
"It doesn't matter," she said. "Besides, I can't describe the feeling."
"Drunk, maybe?" Kurt asked.
"No. Not drunk."
"Sexy?" He could not keep himself from using the expression and he knew that it was one more sign of his degradation.
Rae did not answer.
"Do you feel sexy, Rae?" Kurt asked again, hating himself for the way he now insisted upon an answer.
"I feel very strange," Rae said very slowly. "Very, very strange."
"Perhaps you should he down for a bit," he suggested.
"Perhaps."
Kurt stood up and reached his hand out to Rae. "I'll show you where to go."
"Yes, do that, please," she said in a voice that seemed very far away.
Rae took Kurt's hand. He squeezed it. She returned the touch. Then he pulled her upright. She leaned slightly against him, not in a way that suggested drunkenness, but rather in a manner that conveyed she wanted the feel of his body near her.
As Kurt led Rae to the foyer and the stairs that ascended from there to the second floor, he looked back at the others. Thelma and Fleming were smiling. Their look was also one of approval for the work he was doing. Kurt felt ill and very near to vomiting. But he continued to lead Rae from the room.
As they started up the stairs, Rae wound one arm around Kurt's waist. By the time they reached the top of the stairs she was clinging to him. And when they were midway down the hall in the direction of Thelma Andrews' bed room, Rae stopped, turned, then dramatically crushed her body against Kurt.
He felt the stab of her breasts. He felt her hot thighs lurching and grinding at him. He felt the breath from her half-open mouth. And he knew the dig of her fingernails at his shoulders and neck as she clawed for him to jam against her. Kurt felt it all and was without sexual response. But then she cried a painful call, jammed closer, brought one hand to his waist while she forced her mouth upon his, he knew response. He knew, too, that it was merely physical, that the love part of sex was gone for him, had disappeared because he could no longer be a part of Laura Standard.
Rae's kiss was torrid. So was the grind of her thighs against him. But after a full minute, Kurt forced her to release him. Then he led her to the bed room.
When they were inside Thelma's room, Kurt glanced around, looking for, but not seeing, any sign of the movie camera that was to do its dirty work. But of course he couldn't see it or the operator, he told himself. Such planning as that made by Fleming and Thelma also planned for concealment.
Rae spun out of his arms and hurried to the middle of the room. She turned and faced him. Then she began tearing at her clothes, doing it obscenely, muttering obscenities of urgency, too. Kurt watched her. The image she now conveyed was that of a wanton bitch, not a college professor's wife and devoted member of an accreditation committee.
As soon as Rae stripped the last article of clothing from her body, she lurched toward Kurt. She whimpered and raised her mouth to his while her fingers tore at his shirt, popping the buttons, shredding the cloth, making him look as if he had been raked by a jungle cat. Rae fought for closeness. Kurt did not allow it, not immediately. He braced his hands against her shoulders and held her away, but suddenly, with a wild twist of her body she was within the circle of his arms, panting, stammering her plea for sexual attention, muttering words that Kurt did not believe possible from a woman such as Rae. Kurt laced his arms around her naked body. He held her close, but it was an embrace of solicitude more than it was one of passion. Kurt knew that from some unseen place a camera ground and very probably a tape recorder ran, taking the vile sounds and words of Rae's sexual craving down for reproduction. Kurt knew all of this, but it did not move him. Not one way or another.
"For Crissakes, take me take me now or I'll die," Rae pleaded.
Kurt's mind filled like a potato bin being filled from a dump truck. Jumbled thoughts swamped him. He thought of his father and illness, of Laura and love, and he thought of the evil people of Funston College and his own part in blackmail. And he also had hot thoughts of the flesh for Rae Wilkins was mad with desire and driving her body hard.
Kurt kissed her hard. Her tongue filled his mouth, her breasts flattened against him, but even in this position the nipples were hard and scorching hot, burrowing into his chest, working their way between the shreds of his tattered shirt. And there was also the activity of Rae's hand, low and between their bodies.
"Now, you bastard, now," Rae exclaimed, twisting him hard as she spoke. "Now, now. NOW!"
As she cried, Rae pushed hard against Kurt's chest. He took a step backwards, then another one, and then one more, the final one before he tripped over a chair and fell on his back upon the floor.
His position was the entree that the wild, wild Rae wanted. She leaped upon him. She clutched at his sides with her knees. She raised and posed and hesitated while she cupped both her hands beneath her breasts, exciting them as the lower half of her body was already excited. And then she undulated and started to lower.
Kurt looked into her eyes. On his back, fully clothed except for the one exposure that Rae had caused, he felt as if he were in a world of hell's goblins!
Rae gurgled some eerie sounds as her thighs tensed for the meeting they were about to know. And then she did know it, but only slightly, for Kurt, suddenly with a vision of Laura Standard in his mind, pushed hard against Rae's shoulders, then tore himself away from the tight clamp of her legs.
"No, no, no, no don't leave me," Rae panted.
Kurt spun on his side, then shot to his feet. He stood looking downward at the pathetic, sex crazed Rae Wilkins.
"Don't, Rae. Don't, for God's sake, don't. Just stay quiet I'll get you some help."
Rae panted another obscenity and rolled on her side. She drew her knees up to her stomach and hugged them close to her breasts. Her face twisted into an expression of pain.
Kurt looked at her once more, then turned and headed for the door. He ran down the corridor, took the stairs downward two at a time, then, slowing again as he prepared to meet the others, he walked into the living room.
All eyes turned toward Kurt as he entered the room. Thelma's eyes turned angry looking. Fleming seemed frightened. And the other members of the accreditation committee seemed aghast at Kurt's appearance.
Kurt walked directly to where they all sat in a semi-circle. He stopped before Fleming, then glanced at Thelma, and then, in a voice that was low and concerned, he spoke to the woman.
"You'd better go upstairs. Rae she needs some help. I'd suggest you call a doctor and
"Kurt!" Thelma blurted, trying to stop him.
He glanced at her, then continued, looking at the male of the accreditation committee, saying, "Handle it any way that you want, but I've just slipped your colleague an aphrodisiac."
"A what?" the man hollered.
"An aphrodisiac," Kurt repeated. "It was part of a plan Fleming and Thelma cooked up to blackmail you into accrediting Funston when it shouldn't be. There's some business about a camera you know, to get her filmed making love to me. Since she's the chairwoman of the committee, it seemed she was the right subject, but.. . . ....,"
"Goddamn you, Wiley," Rodney Madden said, pushing up and confronting the offender.
Kurt ignored him. "I-I couldn't go through with it. She Rae is a good woman. Go up to her and help her."
The woman leaped from her chair and flew out of the room.
"You bastard," Fleming said to Kurt, obviously unable to restrain himself any longer.
"Yeah. Bastard. That describes me pretty well," Kurt said.
He turned and slowly walked out of the room.