Chapter 10
The days that followed the fire and Jim's departure left Lee wandering aimlessly in a cold, grey world. She felt nothing, and preferred it that way. The many hours in the day which she had to fill were taken with cleaning the Motel and tending to the one or two traveling salesman who wandered into the depressing looking overnight stop.
Lee thought that because she was feeling nothing that she had finally made her way into a land which would accommodate her. If there was no feeling, she surmised, then there would be no anxiety, no pulsating feelings of being left behind. The daily chores, the routine provided her with the sense of a condemned prisoner. But at least the absolute absence of pleasure, or even the potential of pleasure, allowed her to suffer what she felt to be her own destiny and punishment in peace.
The days were growing warmer, and soon more and more people began arriving at the Motel. Most were families whose plans to stay in the larger resort towns up the coast had been thwarted due to the crowded conditions. Making due with what was available, having promised their children a vacation by the sea, they had to settle on Seaside. At least the town had an ocean, and mostly for the kids, that was enough.
Lee took one family after another into her Motel without either emotion or pretention. The wives looked at their husbands who stared wide-eyed at the beautiful blond as she walked them to the cabins. Lee always wore white slacks, and a cashmier sweater. Even though she felt empty inside, she remained ravishing on the surface. Most Men decided to stay at her place not because of the location or the rooms, but because they thought that possibly they had one chance in a thousand to make it with this lovely young Woman who lived alone. The Motel was not, therefore, the most popular spot with the Women.
One couple, in the their mid-forties, named Ed and Sue Jackson arrived near the end of July with their deck chairs and umbrellas. He was a tall, skinny Man with a shock of hair that stood out from his skull as though he had set it by plugging himself into an electric socket. His eyes were wild and darting, as though he was constantly on guard because if he let himself down for one second he might miss something. Sue was short and plump, with large brown eyes that remained passive and withdrawn. Lee thought she looked like a cow, or a dog, when she first met her. She was also afraid of her. There was something about Sue that foretold of hatred and bitterness that lay at rest like the molten lava of a volcano ... and once the eruption began, no one within her reach would be safe.
"Yes?" She asked, looking at the Mutt and Jeff couple. They seemed to be nothing more than a continuation of her own dream.
"We'd like a room, y'know? Something groovy over the water, like." Ed spoke in a slowly delivered staccato. At some point in his life he had been told that he spoke too fast, and only through elocution lessons would he regain some control.
"Well, I've got number ten, at the end of the row ... it's fifteen a night...." Lee lit a cigarette, finding this incongruous couple stimulating her interest in people more so than anyone had since Jim had left with Anne.
"We'll take it!" Ed said, fishing out the money with trembeling fingers.
Lee watched his mousy little wife, standing there glaring first at her husband then at Lee. Lee wondered what the small Woman thought was happening. Her eyes were on fire, and the sparks shot evenly between herself and Ed.
"Thank you...." Lee said, taking the money. "Check out time is two in the afternoon. If you want to swim, the path to the beach is at this end of the building. The afternoon, around three or so is good because of the tide...."
Ed watched her move to the key rack pull off the clanging metal, and throw it onto the counter. He took the key slowly, his eyes never leaving Lee.
"Is there anything else?" Lee said, smiling and not knowing why she suddenly felt like flirting.
"We'll see about that...."
"Let's go Edgar, I need a drink." Sue was pulling her husband by the hand. She was firm in the jaw, determined once again, thought Lee, to get her own way. As she watched the unusual couple walk through the door, Lee felt a great amount of pity for the tall, lanky Man. At least not everyone's normal or happy, she thought to herself.
That night, Lee sat alone in her living room, working on her fifth scotch and water. She was beginning to feel the effects of the liquor. Her system began to smoothe itself out, she began to have the almost constant illusion that maybe things would eventually work themselves out.
This was a feeling she always had when she managed to numb her mind. It allowed her other emotions, her hopes to reclaim some hold on her life. Each night, through at least a fifth of a gallon, Lee would manage to arrive at this point. The aura would remain with her for an hour, and on rare occassion even longer. Tonight, it settled in nicely, and she felt a good night coming on.
The beach outside her window was dark. She stared out into the blackness, and her mind did not move back to the times she spent with her Son because she could not see the empty cove. She was relieved at this, knowing that at least the usual thoughts were to be avoided.
The first flash went almost unnoticed. But when the second flare appeared like a huge match being struck somewhere on the beach, Lee jumped. She glided across the room, planted her face against the cool glass of her window, and waited. Soon, down near the cove, a huge bonfire exploded into the night air.
The two figures hunched around the leaping flames were indistinguishable to her blurry eyes. After staring at the powerful flames, even those became nonexistent. The only visual phenomena she saw was the energy, the surging pulse of the fire itself. Even though she knew that no firemen would come to fight the blaze, Lee felt her thighs warming up and her prickly pubic hairs rubbing against the silken lining of her panties.
She walked through the darkness towards the inferno. The alcohol had invaded her completely now, and her senses swarmed as she came closer and closer to the flames. The orange glow became a blur, the heat stretched itself and penetrated her light clothing. Lee no longer wondered why she was heading in this direction or even what she would encounter once she arrived. The pull, the invitation which the fire itself had issued to her was enough. Anything more than that was not needed on this warm summer night.
Ed and Sue Jackson knelt quietly before the fire, staring into the teething inferno and looking like savages from an uncivilized tribe seeking warmth and security. Neither one spoke, and the drinks they held in their hands teetered on the brink. Lee stood fifteen feet from them and watched. They had become as much a part of the fire as she had. Their eyes glowed with the reflected orange light, and their skin darkened and shone according to the pulse which ebbed and flowed before them.
Lee took her place next to Sue. The small woman glanced cruiously at her, then returned her stare towards the center of the bonfire. The heat was terrific, but it felt more real than anything she had felt in a long time.
"Welcome...." Ed did not turn away from the center of the pit. He took a long, hard swallow from his glass and shifted position.
"Thank you" replied Lee, feeling as though she had walked into some private ritual. But she did not feel as though she was invading their domain. Instead, a vague feeling swarmed through her, one that told her that she belonged. Lee knew that these people were infected with the same disease that had plagued her throughout her life. It suddenly occurred to her that throughout the world there were people who held the same infatuations as she did with fire; people who were brought to a strange kind of life through the pulsating energy of flame. She felt closer to home than she had ever felt in her lifetime.
"We knew you were...." Sue said, still holding firm in her coldness.
"I've always been this way ... had it analyzed, talked about and even cured ... or so I thought. "Lee had never discussed herself with anyone before, and she felt a little ashamed revealing this to a Woman whom she had disliked on first sight.
"It's never cured, only transferred into another realm. Most firemen are pyros by nature. They just fight it off and use it."
Ed turned to his wife and glared. He took another swallow then softened when he looked at the beauty which sat next to her. "My wife was about to tell you that I was once a fireman. It held me together until I couldn't stop myself anymore. I guess it's like any narcotic."
Lee looked more closely at the gangly man. It seemed impossible that at one time he had run through the fires of Men like Ben Grant had. The image of his tall, skinny frame leaping through fire, trying to control the burning force, almost made her laugh.
"I know the idea seems idiotic" He said, looking back into the fire with a lost gaze, "but it worked. And I was good."
Sue fell back onto herself, resting on her elbows and watching the conversation that swelled around her. She seemed to relax a little now, and Lee felt a tinge of friendship grow between them.
"What do you do with this?" Lee asked, now wondering what the ritual was. It was not like her own private scene where the fantasies played the major role. This was a realistic fire which remained under control. There was no submission to the ability of the local fire departmmnt here. No test of her creation against the forces of society who would fight to their death to attempt to put it out. The fire remained a link between them, but after the initial surge caused by its presence, there seemed nowhere to go.
"I don't think you'd be interested ... let's just leave it at the fire, okay?"
Sue was trying to warn Lee of something with her eyes. Lee took the hint and back to the flames. But the existence of Ed began to grow on her awareness.
"My wife exagerates, Lee. You see, when the fire has completed its cycle within us, then we engage with each other. It works wonders...." He smiled know, not sure he had made his point.
"I see...." Lee said.
"No you don't" continued Sue, "you don't see."
"Sue, shut-up!" Ed was angry, and his mood struck Lee with a certain apprehension.
"No, she has a right to know." Sue turned her back on her husband, and began playing with the sand as she spoke. "You see, normally, Ed and I take off our clothes and dance around the dumb ass fire like a bunch of savages. When we're really hot, then we do whatever comes naturally.
Sue was grinning up at Lee. Her teeth were straight and slightly pointed. Lee was reminded of a wild animal inviting the tame to engage in battle.
"That sounds like it may work...." The invitation, combined with the challenge from Sue had made her decide to go along with them.
"I knew she would, Sue ... I knew it!!!" Ed was on his feet now, tearing the shirt from his chest.
In a moment, he was naked. Lee let her eyes roam to his cock, which stood out hard and erect from his body.
"He has no class" moaned Sue, now feeling something akin to jealousy surging through her, "he's always hard before anything ever happens. Never gives a Woman the chance to show what she can do...."
"Take off your clothes, Lee...."Ed stood above her now, his eyes glowing with expectation. He had wanted to see Lee in the nude since the first moment he had laid eyes upon her luscious curves.
"Okay...." Lee stood up with her back to both Ed and Sue, and began taking off her clothes. As she slid her panties down across her thighs and then off, she shook with feelings of excitement that shot through her like electric currents.
Sue lay on her back and slid all her clothing off from that position. When she was naked, she spread her legs and began rubbing her dark triangle vigorously. Her body was fleshy and plump, but Lee could see where she was sensual. She had no tan lines, and obviously sunbathed in the nude. Her breasts were almost all nipple, and were very small. It was something about her softness, her total seething sensuality, Lee supposed, that probably made her desirable to Men.
Ed stood no more than a foot away from Lee. His eyes moved up and down her body, from her erect nipples to the blond tuft of hair between her thighs. Lee waited and watched, feeling his stare on her skin like a thousand little hands touching every inch of her.
"You're perfect!" He said, taking his penis and moving close enough to her so that he could rub the head against her belly.
"Your wife, Ed, she's doing it to herself...." He grinned at Lee, then forced his prick up along her crack. Lee did not, would not move. She let Ed move his cock up and down through the jungle of her cunt, but kept her thighs tightly closed.
"Open up baby ... I'm ready for you...."
"I can see that!" There was something about the Man which Lee detested. She looked at his wild eyes, his open mouth and then down at his pink rod moving slowly up and down against her. She had first assumed that fire was the ingrediant of the evening, the force which each of them would use to get off on. But Ed was not playing the same game. Lee now knew that Sue was her real counterpart, the only one who really understood what it was like. Ed was nothing more than a sex fiend who had learned to use fire as the old alchemists had to stir the emotions of his potential victims.
"Dance for us" Lee suddenly ordered, feeling a strange kind of playfulness overtaking her, "I want to see your sex in all its glory. Your're so big and strong...."
"Yes darling," Sue added bitterly, awakening from her private domain of pleasure, "dance for us. We'll both sit here and watch you ... watch until we can't stand not having you inside us anymore!"
Sue grinned up at Lee, and returnd the secret signal with a wink. Ed withdrew his penis from Lee's pubis and began walking slowly around the burning pit.
"Yeah baby" shouted Sue, taking Lee's hand as she lay down beside her, "start real slow and then give it all you've got!"
As Ed roamed around and around the circle o fire, Sue reached over and took Lee's nipple between her fingers. She squeezed the ripe bud gently, and smiled. "We both know ... when you let someone into your fantasy make sure he's for real."
"Is that what happened with you and Ed?" Asked Lee, feeling her breasts being moved around in small circles.
"Yes ... but it's too late for me to change." Then Sue brought her mouth down onto the large, milky white breast. Lee felt her sharp, pointed teeth bite her nipples, then felt her tongue stab and encircle her round, silver dollar tissue.
"What about Ed?" Lee asked, as Sue pulled her head away from Lee's naked chest.
"He'll wander around for awhile, then we'll get him, too."
Sue pushed Lee back so that she was lying flat on the sand. She kissed the area between her breasts, licking each piece of skin lavishly and with great smoothness. Then, she followed the ridge down to Lee's belly, and when she arrived at the soft blond hair, she puched Lee's thighs apart.
"Oooooh...." Moaned Lee as she felt Sue's tongue dive between her pink, warm lips and deep inside her vagina. Lee brought her thighs together around Sue's head and tried to pull the girl even deeper inside.
"What the Hell!" Shouted Ed, bringing Lee suddenly back to the reality of the moment. He stood holding his prick in his hand above the two girls. Sweat poured down his chest, and his whole body glistened.
"Let me in ...!!" He knelt behind Sue, drew her legs apart and guided himself up into his wife's anus. Lee felt Sue flinch as he began stroking her, pushing further and further inside her.
Lee reached down and held Sue tightly against her cunt, trying to keep her from panicking and then withdrawing. Sue continued to lick and suck on her moist cunt, while Lee watched Ed's contorted face as he drove his prick deep inside his wife's ass.
Finally, he groaned and shook. Sue rested her mouth against Lee's vagina while Ed shot his load. Then, he pulled out and walked down to the water to wash himself.
"Is he always like this?" Asked Lee when Sue had finally stopped and rested her head on Lee's chest.
"Yes ... always in the same place. I haven't been screwed in the right place for so long I can't even remember what it's like!"
"Okay, little girl, you're next!" Ed stood above Lee, his cock rejeuvenated. He held the rod in his hand, waving the head around and around to make sure Lee would take notice.
Lee felt the surge of panic rush through her. She drew her thighs together, suddenly regretting the fact that she was naked.
"Oh come on, baby, uncle Ed won't hurt you. Bet you never even had it there, right?"
Sue lifted herself into a standing position. Lee watched her little naked body, the way she tried to stand but leaned forward just a little because of the pain she had suffered. It would be the same pain that Lee would encounter if she allowed Ed to penetrate her.
"No, you bastard! Leave her alone!" Sue was furious.
"You bitch! you've had your fun, now it's my turn!!!"
Lee began to shake. She felt as though she were in the presence of crazy people, a husband and wife who were using her body for their own particular perversity.
"I won't let you touch her! Sue screamed.
"Yeah and just how are you going to stop me, you fat little whore?"
"Goddamn you!!!" And then Sue reached down and took Ed's prick. She held the long staff firmly, then began squeezing harder and harder. Ed tried in vain to slap her, but she twisted her grip during the flight of his hand and halted him in mid-air.
"You little slut ... oh Christ, stop it!!!" He was red in the face, clenching his teeth tightly as the anger swelled along with the pain. There was no defense for him against the stronghold Sue now possessed.
Lee realized that her moment had come. She gathered up her clothing and began running down the beach. She stopped once and looked back. The fire was dying, the shadowy figures of Ed and Sue were silhouetted against the soft glow. Lee could tell that they were naked, and almost laughed at the thought that anyone looking at them from this distance would think that they were young lovers caressing each others' naked body.
When her house was securely locked and bolted, Lee managed to settle down enough to pour herself a drink. As the alcohol spread its soothing arms across her trembeling flesh, Lee began to relax. Out there, on the dark sand, she had felt momentarily on the verge of something. She didn't know what it was, or even if she had gotten closer than the night of the fire. But that edge, that feeling of the end of a journey had been there. She wondered what would have happened out there if Ed hadn't been such a bastard. If he had really been there, Lee mused, would she have made it?
She listened with fear as she heard Ed and Sue walk past her front door towards their cabin. She wondered about Sue, what kind of life she would live. Then, she heard their car engine turn over. The screech of the tires told her that Ed had given up on her as a potential victim. Sue, on the other hand, thought Lee, was just going along for another ride to another place and another time. Lee wondered if the small, spiteful girl would ever turn on Ed and murder him. Or, if she would be content to just cut his balls off.
As Lee moved her hand between her thighs, she remembered the pleasure she had felt when Sue had licked her there. As she relived the moment in her mind, she tried to emulate the movements of Sue's kind and knowledgeable mouth with her own fingers.
But as she pulled apart her lips, and felt herself, the image of a naked Sue working feverishly between her spread thighs disappeared. Instead, the same glow, the same pulsating ball of energy invaded her skull and replaced all images. And once again, as it had done so many times, the orange, fiery ball began moving steadily down her body.
She was working intensely inside her vagina now as the ball moved into her pubic hair and slid down into her spread crack. The energy erupted and set her on fire. The flames leaped wildly within her mind, and her cunt burned with a pulsating fever.
The banging at her door came as usual. The axe splintered the wood and Ben Grant walked through the shattered wood into her room He held his prick in his hand and slid his hand up and down the length with a slow and easy motion. He smiled.
Lee waited for him to come. She waited for the white, soothing liquid to spurt from his penis and extinguish the flames which burned so violently between her thighs. But this time, the fireman just stopped. He withdrew his hand and allowed his erect penis to droop into a state of flaccidity.
"This time" he said in the slow manner of speech familiar to all dreamers, "you must ask. You must show me...."
And then he turned and walked from the room. Lee awoke with her hand between her thighs, trying to call her dream back again. But only the bare darkness of her bedroom remained.
Lee began pacing, and continued through the rest of the night. Only when the dawn broke, and the two empty fifths lay on the floor of the bedroom was she able to sleep.