Chapter 14
Edward Tarrington paced nervously in the hospital hallway waiting for the doctor to finish with his examination of Carrie's ravaged body. It seemed an eternity before the kindly looking physician finally closed the door behind him and walked out into the hallway.
"Well? How is she?" demanded Tarrington.
The doctor stared at him silently for a moment, then guiding the professor by the elbow down the hallway to more private quarters, he said, "It's hard to tell just yet. She's been injected with a high dosage of morphine, but not enough to do her any permanent damage. It's the other problem, though."
Dr. Tarrington stiffened. "Which is.. . ? "
"She's been raped vaginally, orally and anally."
Edward buried his face in his hands and moaned, feeling sorry for himself as well as Carrie. They had yet to consummate their marriage before his innocent, virginal wife had been raped by a black man.
"Mr. Tarrington, I'm not a psychiatrist, but I've seen a lot of rape cases come through these experiences easily . . . women are naturally more resilient to both emotional and physical pain than are men. It's the people the closest to them who . . . well, can either help them through it or make it worse."
The distinguished professor looked up in disbelief at the doctor. "They've raped her every way possible and you're as much as telling me that if Carrie becomes . . . becomes frigid, it's my fault."
"I didn't say that, sir," defended the doctor patiently.
"What the hell would you do if that was your wife in there?" blasted the professor.
"If she were my wife," started the doctor, his arms crossed over his chest, "I'd go in there and say, 'I love you, Carrie. Let's not let this awful experience ruin our life together. Let me help and I'll be as patient as I can.' "
The professor watched the doctor head off down the hall to answer the intercom page. Dr. Tarrington stood there for a moment, wondering how best to handle the situation. He really did love his wife, he realized; earlier, perhaps he had merely wanted to possess her, to show her off to the academic world as a trophy to his own egotistic virility.
He cringed, thinking of what their life would undoubtedly be during the duration of their marriage. He wasn't lying to himself when he thought of her as being a frigid wife, and now after having been raped by a sadistic black man . . . well, he would have to get his sex somewhere else. Life would have been beautiful if only . . . if only . . .
There was no use in avoiding the inevitable. Not knowing what he would say, he walked down the hallway and peeped inside his wife's hospital room door.
Carrie was propped up in bed, her stark white hospital gown providing a sharp contrast to the ugly blue bruises on her forehead and cheeks where Jackson had beaten her. They stared silently at each other for a moment. The wise professor stared at her, delving into her eyes and face as if looking for some hint of how he should best approach her . . . she at him as if some wild, timid animal needing only a sudden movement on the part of the beholder to dash into flight.
When he spoke, his voice was hoarse, strained and unrecognizable even to himself. "The doctor.. . says you're okay, darling."
She nodded, just once, the long graceful lines of her throat flexing as she swallowed painfully.
Tarrington sat down on the high bed and reached out to take her hand. Odd, he thought as he gazed at her slightly swollen lips. Those bastards raped her mouth . . . came in her mouth! Someone else took her virginity, took her every way they could, and what do I feel? Abruptly, as he spotted the bruises on her neck, he felt an overpowering wave of pity and love for her again. Painfully, he watched as the tears welled up in her green eyes and she opened her mouth to speak.
"Edward . . . oh hell!" she exclaimed with a sniff. "I never liked the name Edward, it sounds so stiff and unexciting. Please let me call you Eddie . . . "
The offbeat remark threw him off balance for a moment, but he was forced to grin in spite of himself. "Call me Eddie if you like."
She gripped his hand so tightly that he could feel her fingernails biting into his flesh as she put her face on the crisp shoulder of her gown and wiped some of the tears from the corner of her eyes. Then she drew in a deep breath for courage and started to speak.
"Eddie, I want to tell you something, and I'm not sure you're going to like this. I know how you feel about . . . black people and militants and all that, but.. . " In a voice that grew stronger as she spoke, the young chestnut haired bride told him about her father beating her mother in the bedroom and the fears it had instilled in her against sex.
"When I was kidnapped, I was drugged. When I woke up, this vile man was down on his hands and knees, his face up between my legs. I was tied up. . . I couldn't do anything about it."
"Stop . . . Carrie. Forget about it," he said, looking away as if hearing about a black man's rape of his wife might hurt him more than her.
"Please listen . . . and then if you want an annulment, I'll give you one."
"Carrie . . . you don't have to . . . " The professor elided over the words, but Carrie broke in.
"Be quiet, please . . . " she whispered, smiling to take the sting out of her words.
"I felt this man's tongue licking me down there. Then he put his long hard penis up inside my vagina. I came, Eddie! I climaxed three or four times. Then he made me . . . made me . . . suck his thing . . . and he came in my mouth. I came with him. Then he took me anally and the two others . . . one made me suck him while the other took me in the vagina. . . and I begged them for more. And you must believe me; despite what the doctor says the morphine didn't take away all the pain . . . but it did give me pleasure."
Carrie saw the ashen expression on her husband's face. "I'm sorry." She sighed. "I've been wondering how to tell you." Her voice became high and strained. "Do you know how I managed to stay alive during that? I mean from going completely berserk?"
Dr. Tarrington lowered his head and bit his lip.
"Because , darling, when that tongue was licking me down there, making me come, I pretended it was you. When I.. . sucked his thing, it was you." She closed her eyes and stared down at the bedspread. "Now you know what a wacky wife you have."
At first Tarrington couldn't believe his ears, but instinctively he knew she had nothing to gain by lying to him. These were things they probably would have done together if nature had been permitted to take its course. But how could he explain it to her? Obviously, she felt ashamed and beyond redemption. Gradually, he became aware of the dull throb behind his gabardine zipper as his long thick penis stirred into eager life. You're forgiven, Carrie, he thought.
Gently the professor reached out and took her chin in his hand, forcing her tear stained face toward him. The answer was clear. "What you're saying, my dear, is that you've discovered you like sex."
Too miserable to look at him, she nodded and said, "A lot."
"Well, most girls do you know." He grinned and clutched the swelling bulge in his trousers. "I've never had any complaints, Carrie, and I doubt you'll complain either."
Carrie heard him, saw his hand squeezing his genitals and realized that she had known all along that Edward Tarrington was one of the most virile men she'd even seen in her life. . . which was exactly why she'd married him.
Instinctively, she felt her breasts tingling, her vagina moistening in anticipation and she realized she wanted him very badly right then.
"Eddie.. . ? Do you think they'd care if we locked the door for a little while?"