Chapter 5
A bitterly distraught Jason, feeling like his life was at an end, decided to drive to the cocktail lounge connected to the bowling alley where he did a good deal of his drinking, particularly after he finished bowling. But this was not an occasion where he decided to bowl. All he wanted to do was get damned drunk, so sloppy stinking drunk that maybe it would at least partially ease the piercing pain he felt as a result of Ellen turning him out of her life.
Sam, the jovial, heavy set bartender was working when Jason strode into the almost empty bar, an angry scowl on his face. Usually Sam joked with Jason, but when he saw the scowl and the terse manner with which he ordered a double scotch on the rocks, the astute bartender correctly concluded that Jason wanted to be left alone. He had waited on enough customers to be able to quickly sense the mood of a customer and whether he wanted to talk or not and he could easily see that Jason most definitely did not want to talk.
Jason continued ordering double scotches on the rocks until reaching the point where his eyes became bloodshot and he had grown groggy enough to where he could ease off a little and switch to singles, but the thing that angered him the most was his inability to divorce his thoughts from Ellen even for a second. The hurts and frustrations continued to plague his troubled mind.
He had been drinking a little over an hour when he heard the sound of familiar voices. Even before looking up from the half empty glass before him, Jason Bogart knew that the two familiar voices belonged to his bowling and drinking buddies Darrell Oglesby and Charlie Wicker. He no sooner looked up before the two smiling men descended on him. Jason's expression completely gave away his feelings and the smiles quickly vanished from the faces of Jason's friends, being replaced by expressions of concern.
"Jason, you look like something's definitely bothering you," Charlie said, stopping a few feet away from Jason.
"Whatever's troubling you, maybe we can help," Darrell said.
"Damned right. That's what friends are for," Charlie said.
"Naw, there's nothing anybody can do about this," Jason replied sadly. "You guys just finish bowling?"
"Just finished two good games," Darrell nodded. "How'd you like to join us for one or two more?"
"Sure," Charlie quickly concurred. "Might be just the thing to get your mind off your troubles."
"No thanks. The only thing I feel like doing is getting drunk and forgetting and so far I can't even seem to get drunk, much less forget."
"Okay, so at least you can ease your troubled mind by talking things over with us," Darrell said. "Get it off your chest before friends."
"Good advice, Darrell," Charlie said. "I'll order a round of drinks and we can sit down at a booth over there. It'll be more private."
Even though Jason hated the idea of having to reveal anything to his two friends, and was wishing that they would just leave him alone, he was not about to express such a desire to them. After all, they were genuinely trying to help, and just maybe talking to them would, as they suggested, ease his crushed inner being at least a little.
Jason took two quick stiff gulps of Scotch before launching into an account of what happened that night. Several times he became emotional and began to raise his voice. Darrell, attired in his customary white cowboy hat, white long-sleeved shirt and clean blue jeans with his shiny belt buckle with the glittering longhorn, did his best to calm Jason down, ultimately succeeding by telling him that none of what had happened was worth getting that upset about.
During Jason's revelations Darrell would occasionally ask a question for elaboration's sake while Charlie was satisfied to sit with his arms folded and listen. Charlie wore a short-sleeved sport shirt and heavy shades of perspiration splotched the armpits of it.
As soon as Jason finished, the theretofore largely silent Charlie curled his lips in a snarl, clenched his fists, and launched into a bitter account of his own relating to his treatment at the hands of women.
"I know just how you feel, Jason old buddy, believe me I do," he declared. "You know, I've been married and divorced twice. Bet you didn't know that, did you?"
"No. You never mentioned it before around me," an astonished Jason Bogart replied.
"I didn't know it either," Darrell said.
"Of course you guys didn't, because I've hardly told anybody. But since poor old Jason feels like he's been stepped on I'll tell you about my experiences. The first one, hell, I could hardly even get her to go to bed. She was always putting me off and telling me she didn't like this or that, and she was always accusing me of being a sex fiend if I asked for it at all. That was in Tucson. So you know what finally happened?"
"What?" an interested Darrell asked.
"She sued me for divorce. Told me there was no way we could make a go of it. By then I was all for getting away from her, and so I agreed. But then she got up before the judge and told him that I was a wild sex crazy freak who was trying to get her to fuck all the time and that it was making her a damned nervous wreck. Hell, I saw red then. My lawyer told me to keep my cool but nobody was gonna stop me then from having my say. I just up and said that she was telling a damned bald-faced lie and that this claim about me being a sex maniac was just a weak attempt to cover up the fact that she was frigid, so damned frigid she'd cause a ruckus anytime I wanted to go to bed with her, no matter how long it had been since I got my rocks off. The thing finally turned into a three ring circus. The attorneys got into one shouting match after another, this damned little snippy bitch I was married to kept breaking down and sobbing, and the papers had a real field day, along with the television people. They had to clean a lot of it up, but they still had enough left that they could tell to entertain everybody. The whole thing left me feeling so embarrassed that I up and quit my job and went to Albuquerque and tried to make a fresh start."
"So what happened then?" Jason asked, his mind diverted from his own misfortunes for the first time that night.
"I worked hard at this restaurant job I had, hard enough to save me some money so I could buy me a place of my own. Small place, but nice, with potential. There was this cute little redhead, soft spoken, the kind of sweet kid you dream about taking home and showing off to mother."
"Only, that's not the way she really was, I bet," Darrell speculated.
"I was getting to all that," Charlie said. "Anyhow, I finally married her and even though I said she didn't have to work a shift as a waitress anymore she insisted on working, telling me that she wanted to do her part to get the restaurant off to a big start. She said that once it was going big that she'd quit then if I wanted her to."
"Was she a good waitress?" Jason asked.
"Too damned good," Charlie frowned. "She had quite a personality, that one did. So one night after we closed the place and were getting ready to leave she told me that she was gonna divorce me and marry this guy, this steady customer that I'd known even longer than I'd known her, a manager of a trucking company. Well, after she left me I couldn't stand being around that restaurant anymore, even though it was bringing me in good steady money. It was like she was still there and I was always seeing her, so I sold it and moved here. I can sure sympathize with you, Jason, because I had it stuck to me twice."
Darrell had listened patiently to both Jason and Charley unraveling their stories. He mopped some sweat from his red, leathery face, then began talking.
"Hearing you guys makes me think of this snotty little bitch that I just can't get to first base with," he began, speaking in a slow drawl.
"Maybe you're lucky you've never gotten to first base," Charley said, "because it would cost you too damned much in the end."
"You've got a point there," Jason said.
"But I tell you, she has my cock and balls in an uproar anytime I see her. Her name's Dawn Gerald and she's got the smoothest coal black hair you ever saw, the sexiest thick dark lashes, big beautiful eyes and a body that just won't quit. She works at a restaurant across the street from the ranch where I work as a riding instructor. She's just a young gal in her early twenties or so and one day I worked up enough nerve to ask her out. The damned little bitch, some young little waitress in a restaurant mind you, started acting like she was queen of the whole frigging universe. Damn was she nasty."
"What did she say?" Charlie asked.
"She told me I was a dumb, shiftless cowboy with horseshit on my boots. Can you imagine such a damned nasty thing to say? She told me that there was no way she was ever gonna go out with somebody like me, that she wanted somebody with plenty of dough or at least the prospects for making plenty of it so that she wouldn't have to wait tables anymore. That one crack really got me about my boots and all. Hell, I keep them clean all the time."
"Bitches like Ellen and this Dawn need to be taught a lesson," Jason Bogart snarled, finishing his drink.
Jason ordered a fresh round, and as the drinks were being served, Charlie Wicker became immersed in thought. When he finally spoke, Jason and Darrell both sat up and took immediate notice.
"I was just thinking about what Jason said," he began.
"Said about what?" Jason asked
"About these bitches needing to be taught a lesson. I've got an idea, a damn good one, if you guys are daring enough to go along with it."
"I'm daring enough to go along with anything right now," Jason said.
"Me too," Darrell nodded.
"Okay, here's the pitch, Charlie said, leaning over and beginning to speak considerably lower than before. "You remember me telling you about that old ranch I inherited from my Uncle Herman when he died a few months back?" The other two men nodded. "It's located up in the mountains off the beaten path, outside of Scottsdale. Herman was a damned strange guy, a real hermit, and he wanted to be away from everyone and everything, which this place definitely is"
"Are you about to suggest what I think you are?" the long, lean cowboy asked as the construction worker listened with rapt attention.
"If you guys are game we can fix up the barn of that place and turn it into a regular pain palace and pleasure palace at the same time, and we can get plenty of satisfaction by disciplining snotty bitches who deserve it at the same time."
"As long as you'll include that damned cunt Ellen then count me in," Jason laughed, wondering if Charlie was simply letting off steam or if he was serious.
Seeing as how your misfortune spurred all this talk and got us thinking in this vein I think it would be only proper to start by kidnapping this Ellen and taking turns on her. Now how does that sound to you?"
"You really are serious about it," Jason exclaimed.
"I am if you guys are," the muscular, soft spoken Charlie said in a determined tone. "Here's what I'm thinking. If we're clever about this we can kidnap these dames so that nobody will know what happened and then we can keep them as prisoners at this place. Wait'll you see it. I mean, it's hidden amidst those mountains so it's just about impossible to find unless you know where you're going. So I'm figuring we get a stable of girls together and then, real discreet you know, solicit some customers. Guys who wanna bang the girls."
"And meanwhile we're getting all we want," Jason said, his eyes widening with interest.
"Absolutely right," Charlie said. "As a matter of fact, we can run a unique whore house. We can give guys a chance to get even with women who have done them dirt at least vicariously by giving these bitches all kinds of hell."
"I like it. I absolutely love it," Darrell threw his head back and laughed. "I just hope that we can include this fucking little bitch waitress Dawn Gerald in our plans."
"Why not go after her after we've broken in Ellen the right way," Jason said.
"Good, it sounds great," Charlie said. "Hell, I don't give a damn about this machine operator's job I've got anyway. I'd give anything to get out of the rat race. Damn, I never thought I'd ever find a use for that old ranch out in the middle of nowhere. It'd never bring any kind of a price being as remote as it is."
"But its remoteness is just the thing that makes it so damned useful to us." Darrell grinned, warming up to the idea with each passing minute.
The trio finished off its drinks, after which Charlie ordered a fresh round and they talked quietly but with great interest about their future plans and the exquisite use they would make of the ranch that Charlie inherited from his uncle. They didn't leave the bar until a few minutes past twelve and agreed to drive out to the ranch on Saturday morning.