Chapter 11
Alice found herself trembling and giving herself to him. The contact was not altogether reality for her, but vague and hollow, more like a forceful aggression of love. If she could have gotten her purse from underneath her shoulders she would have taken out the gun and shot him to death in the very emotional contact which he was in.
As the feeling grew into her soul, she kicked her legs and pressed herself back against the door. He was whining, making quick grunts as the thrill poured into his warm veins. She was working her thighs anxiously, pressing herself towards him, seeking the sweetness. She wanted it now. Yet she hated it. However she could not defeat the sweetness. Her lips were drawn back. Her eyes were closed. She could vision all kinds of luscious feelings in her confused mind.
Alice was pressing herself away from him. She had determined to dissuade his complete fulfillment. No release on her part. She would kill that effort if nothing else. She'd cheat the sonofabitch when he reached the stage of utter and savage release.
As she pressed away, he fell down upon her. He was breathing heavily, more like a sex maniac. He put fear into her soul, more than the sensation of love which he might have thought he was doing.
Suddenly the door on her side flew open. She had already felt the five ten's seeping out loosely from her bosom where she had placed it earlier. Evidently the door had not been locked sufficiently when she closed h.
As the door opened, rain and wind licked at her face and she felt the coldness of her nakedness. Looking up at Eddie, she could see his lusty face, absorbing her as he always had, only he was taking her against her will this time. Other instances she had given her body to him.
The money was suddenly sucked up by the wind and rain, and she noticed it fluttering over her head and out the car. Rain caught hold of the greenbacks and hurled them into the watery gully beside the gravel road.
With the door open she had a chance to pull herself away from his contact. He was holding her, taking her fully. His undulations were more energetic. He was racing towards the complete satisfaction. She could hear him snorting.
Alice disregarded him altogether now. Hers was not near exploding. The feeling was sweet, but it was, also, bitter. She reached over her head, her fingers seized the car chassis. Her face was flushed, greatly dismayed and frustrated. She saw the animal expression he wore. It was about to happen. His eyes were closed, envisioning the tense pleasure.
As she saw his lips part to taste the final outcome, she gave a savage jerk with her arms and body. His contact was instantly broken. And he looked to see her tumbling out the car upon her head and shoulders.
Her naked thighs were still exposed as she landed head-on against the rain-soaked earth. However, she scrambled to her feet, pulling her skirt and coat over her body, adjusting her blouse. Brushing straggling hair from her face. In doing so, she nearly slipped over into the gully beside the road. Only a sudden leap prevented her from falling into the gully.
Gasping and brushing rain from her face, Alice staggered impotently to the car's rear fender and paused, looking through the right side window at her puzzled and disappointed attacker. She still clutched her purse. She thanked God for that.
"You dirty sonofabitch!" she screeched. "You're no good. Eddie, I hate you ... oh, I hate you....You dirty dog ... you raping hoodlum!"
It was difficult to reason whether it was her taunting curses, or the fact that he had been so dully cheated from his kicks, which spurred his mad actions. Actually, he had been so pleasantly devoted to his sensual release, until he was nearly stunned when she had sprang away from him. He had never thought a woman capable of breaking such a sexual contact when his was about to happen.
The rain was nearly blinding. Thunder growled. Alice was getting soaking wet.
Eddie LaRose jerked his head round first, then twisted his entire body, leaning forward in the seat until he saw where she was standing. Then a savage impulse sent him bounding out the car.
As the man leaped out the door and his feet struck the soggy ground, his left foot took a nasty slip. He lost his balance and went sliding on his rump, over into the deep gully which Alice had managed to avert.
That pleased Alice. She laughed, taunted him more with curses. In all the amusement she had actually forgotten about the gun inside her purse. She did not feel that she wanted to kill, anyway. No matter how cruelly she was dealt, it seemed that she got somewhat of a thrill from it The pains she suffered from her lovers meant something to her. After all, he gave her fifty dollars. Was that why he felt that he was cheated so badly, and actually took her against her will. Maybe she was to blame for his uncouth actions.
Eddie's curseful oaths explained just how mean and vicious he felt. He made an effort to climb out of the gully, but each time he slipped back. His fingers could get no firm grip against the muddy side of the bank.
Alice did not wait to see how he was going to get himself clear of the gully. She tucked her rain coat snugly about her body, pulled the hood over her head and started walking fast along the water-puddled gravel road back northwards, towards Highway-32.
Thunder roared. The earth trembled. Streaky flashes of lightning illuminated the sky. Rain poured down in a raging torrent. The old road was a stream of watery gravel and sticky grey clay. Alice's high-heels sank over her ankles, and her feet were soggy wet. It was a burden as well as a hindrance to her. She realized that it was over two miles back to the highway. She wondered if she could make it all in one part.
Her thoughts were a jumble of discomforts. Things which, she assumed, were part of the cruel moments of life. In no imaginative dream would she have seen herself having another affair with Eddie LaRose. Still it had happened. She felt unclean and foul. How rotten could she get. After what he had done to Frieta, her own daughter. Murdering him was not the solution. If Frieta had the baby, at least if he was alive he could help support it. Yet the thoughts of Frieta having his baby was the bitter pill which nauseated her. How could she prevent it without destroying a life? Could Frieta lose it, someway? Something had to happen. The bold sense of all was so unpleasant to think.
She was hurrying along as fast as she could walk. Oftentimes, she stumbled, her feet slipping about the watery road, but she managed to maintain her pace.
Suddenly she heard someone directly behind her. The hard rain and constant thunder had been so violent until she had failed to notice anyone behind her. Not that close.
Wheeling, she confronted Eddie LaRose!
He was just about fifteen feet away from her. How senseless was she to allow the brute to sneak up on her until he was that close on her. She had turned a slight curve, and during that interval she had not had a chance to see him.
So startled was she, until she lost her step while making a quick motion to flee away from him. Her high-heels tripped her and she tumbled over into the middle of the filthy roadbed.
As he approached her with a naked grin, she noticed the long shiny-bladed knife which he held in his waist. It was jammed through his belt loop, so that it showed plainly. He was soaking wet, his trousers all besplattered and soiled with slimy grayish-brown mud and clay. His shoes were caked with clumps of mud. He looked a hideous madman.
"Get up," he snarled, catching hold of one of her arms. "We're goin' back to the car."
Slowly she staggered to her feet, clutching her purse. She looked into his cold-blooded eyes. There was no consolation in his cold defenseless stare. At that particular moment she hated herself for ever thinking of finding him again. How could she have ever imagined that this man had a forgiving and kind heart such as hers. Being so loving, she trusted everyone. Forgave them, as well. Not this brute. He was one who could never be forgiven. One must hate and detest him forever, eternal. There was no good in him. McShane's diagnosis of his case had been solidly true. He was a criminal who could never reform. He had a bewitched mind of contaminated evil. It was the mind of the ruthless infidel.
"Let me go, Eddie!" she demanded. "I don't wish to go back to your car. Let me go home, please!"
"We goin' back and finish what I started," he threatened. "Come on!" He shoved her along, back towards the car. She went a little ways and stopped again, crying now, afraid of him. He had never showed himself so outright brutish before, only when he had jumped on her. And she had been to blame for that. She had struck him first when he had merely been trying to kiss her.
"Eddie, please," she begged. "I don't want to go back. I don't want to do it. You've already hurt me. My legs are crampin' th' hell outa me. I'm wet and cold. Look at my feet. How do you think I feel? Don't you have any kind of mercy for me, or even yourself. Let's go back home. We can dry ourselves out there. Maybe then, it'll be better."
His expression showed no remorse. Before she could speak again, he slapped her, knocking her to one knee. She dropped her head and sobbed. He caught one arm and yanked her up to her feet.
Without a word he gripped her arm and started shoving and pulling her brutally on back down the road, back towards the parked Ford.
He wasn't talking as he jerked and yanked her along. He was walking very fast, as if something, in particular, was tempting his mind. She was half running, stumbling in order to keep up with him.
"Eddie, please ... please!" she begged. "I'm really sick. I'm 'bout to die, I feel so bad."
He looked cruelly at her. "Didn't I tell yuh to drop it!" With a gesture he slammed his fist against the side of her head. She staggered again, and fell. Roughly, he yanked her back to her feet.
She was crying hard and could hardly see or think of what she was doing, and certainly not where she was going. If she ever got out of this alive, she swore she would never again take up with drinking hoodlums. Eddie was drunk for one thing, and he was murderously angry for another. She had to get away from him. She felt that his intentions were to strip her all the way down this time, and take her right. Make her pay dearly for the devilish manner which she had cheated him before. She wondered what he would do to her after he had finished with her. Would he actually cut her throat? He had the knife. It frightened her, and made her want to obey him until she had her chance to squirm out of the mess.
When they arrived back at the car, he opened the back i door and shoved her inside. She sprawled on her face upon the seat, and he climbed in behind her and shut and locked the door.
He watched her a moment, very carefully, while she pulled herself erect and started wiping her wet face on her skirt. She kicked off her wet shoes, and adjusted her rain cape from over her head.
He had a bottle of liquor again, raising it to his lips, taking a big drink. When he had satisfied himself, he offered her the bottle.
"No ... no, I don't want a drink," she whined. She continued to cry, silent tears which showed how hurt and dejected she was for having ever trusted Eddie LaRose a second time.
"I said drink!" he threatened.
In order not to get another mauling against her head, she took the bottle of liquor from him and slowly raised it to her lips. She did not drink enough, so he reached over and gave her a nice shove to remind her that he wasn't kidding.
She drank her fill and returned the bottle to him. Then he drained the bottle and lowered the window and hurled it out into the gully.
"Eddie, can I talk to you?" she whined. "Let me say somethin' to you, please?"
He raised his hefy head and leered at her. "Say it, then," he told her. "And after you say it start shuckin' down. We gonna finish what we started. I mean it, Alice."
"Are you really mad at me?"
"I could kill you!"
"Why, Eddie? What have I done to you?"
"You givin' me a brush-off. I don't go for no goddamned brush-off from no lousy broad, see!"
"No I'm not. Eddie, I love you. I want you, but not here. Not like this!"
"Strip down. All th' way. I'm gonna take you all night I'll teach you to run out on me, givin' me a damn brush-off." He started removing his jersey and kicked off his muddy shoes.
Rain was beating down on the top of the used Ford, making a deafening racket. It was dusky dark, now. Nightfall was very near. To the right the corn stalks waved and bowed their tassels under the heavy pounding of rain. A dense mist lay in that direction, obviously coming from the river. Far away, towards the west, came the mournful whistle of a streamliner. The hills to their left were gushing torrents of muddy water, which whirled down deep crevices along the hillside.
Alice gave a hard blow, watched Eddie's hairy chest as he slung his jersey aside.
Slowly, she started undressing in the back seat. Nauseated pangs drew her body together. She choked, swallowing hard, biting her lips. Tears ran from her eyes in her prolonged nervousness.
Slowly her thoughts turned towards religion. Something the minister had said at Mike Hernden's funeral. 'While living the soul bears the strains of a meager purgatory, but in death such a purgatory reverts into a bounding and heavenly glory.
Alice looked over at Eddie again. That part of him which she had so humbly cherished in past days did not seem like flesh at all to her. While the liquor had stimulated his passions instantly, it had only created a deep feeling of frightful animosity for him in her.
"Eddie, please, don't make me," she whined. "At home, yes. Even a hotel room. Not here. Not this barbaric insensible way!"
In response to her, he reached over and tore her blouse down and yanked her skirt along her legs until he had it clear of her body. She could smell his foul breath, the vulgar sneering of his parted lips.
"Shuck down, I say," he growled.
An involuntary motion of his part to get another bottle of liquor off the floor gave her the chance she had been half expecting. He was crouched over towards her, feeling beneath her legs for the other two bottles of liquor. The moment he took his eyes off her, her left hand reached quickly, frantically desperate, for the doorknob. In a swift gesture, she swung the door open and flung herself out upon the ground, bringing her dangling skirt and her purse along with her.
In the rainy mud she staggered to her feet. Her skirt sagged along her lower limbs, so she kicked it free, and fled only in bra and girdle and her bare feet. In her fanatic haste, she still clung to the purse. It was her weapon of defense. Her only means to save herself if Eddie should not control himself.
Alice ran towards the right side of the road, her objective was the corn field. Once over there she could hide from him. Maybe she would die of pneumonia after the effects of the soaking which she would surely get, but it might save her the trouble of having to murder Eddie.
She leaped the gully, fell to her knees in the mud, dropped her purse, then picked it up and staggered on, her feet sinking half the length of her limbs as she trudged into the thick slimy mud and water.
Behind, she heard him splashing through the mud after her. This time he was bedeviled with rage and furious murder.
Within a matter of seconds, Alice was dripping wet, her cold body shivering like a freezing dog. Her hair soggy wet, dangling to her shoulders. Her teeth chattered, and her nerves were near collapsing.
Before she was twelve feet from the corn stalks, she turned to see where he was. He was just skirting the gully beside of the road. But he was coming with great leaps and bounds. He was desperate, fierce and murderously inclined!
She wheeled to run into the corn stalks. The moment she turned, she stepped accidentally off into a deep gully, overflowing with rain water. It had been to dark for her to notice.
As she fell down, she gave a curt, wild scream, and felt herself sinking to her knees. Slipping and trying to steady herself, she climbed out on the other side of the slimy pit, and fell weakly upon the ground in the mud and water. There she lay like a crippled female animal, unable to budge, too tired, too frightened. She waited for him to deal out the punishment to her which she knew he would give her for her rebelliance and repulsiveness.
She held her purse in both hands, savoringly. She sobbed hysterically. Vaguely she saw him skirt around the bog hole which had tripped her. She knew her left ankle was slightly sprung. That was the reason she couldn't get to her feet to avoid him.
He paused ten feet from her with his naked body off balanced, and undoubtedly cold and uncomfortable from the rain. In his right hand, he gripped the handle of the long blade.
At that moment, lightening flashed. Thunder rumbled. The ground trembled. Alice bowed her head and prayed. She sensed that she must either kill or be killed. She had no other alternative. Reasoning with Eddie LaRose was entirely out of the question. He appeared hopelessly insane. It was much too dark now for her to see his face, but she could still see his dim form lingering there, as though he was waiting for her to rise, so he could plunge the sharp steel into her heart!
"Eddie, honey," she pleaded. "Eddie, do you hear me, honey. Oh, please, don't do this to me!"
He didn't reply. His stalk silence added more horror to the ghastly scene.
"I'll go back to the car with you, honey," she pleaded. I'll do anything you want me to. Honest. I won't run away no more. You can have me, honey. You can have me. Don't you understand what I'm sayin' t'you?"
He made no movement, neither did he make any sound. Then he started moving slowly towards her, and she could sense the murderous intention which he possessed.
"Take me, Eddie. Right here. It don't matter. Don't dare kill me. Eddie, I'll do it. I will. I will, honey!"
"You dirty whore!" he snarled contemptuously. "I'm gonna rip it outa you. Givin' me th' slip. Goddamn you!"
She cowered back. The rain nearly made her blind. Yet she cowered back, pulling herself along the mud and wet weeds. She kept her purse in her hands. Possessed with strangling fear, she dare not make a motion to open it. One movement and he would lunge down upon her, and start jabbing away with that sharp blade.
"Eddie, you really gonna kill me, aren't you?" she bellowed. "Takin' Frieta. You took her. Didn't you know she told me that? She's knocked up. You give her a baby. She's got it. How do you think I feel by you doin' all that t'me? That's why I'm actin' so crazy, honey. I keep thinkin' how you tricked me in order to go to my little girl and enjoy her just because she's sick and can't help herself. Eddie, God, have mercy on me. I don't wanna die. I don't. I don't! Let's stop it. You can have me, I told you that. I'll be real gentle with it!"
"Beg you bitch!" he growled. "Beg for your stinkin' life. See if it helps."
"Listen, I'm freezing like this. All this water fallin' on us. Can't we go back to the car. We can talk inside the car, Eddie."
He had paused again. She was so nervously upset until she didn't know whether she had stalled his deadly intentions or not.
Before she knew it, she found herself on her feet. That was why he had been waiting. For her to rise up to her feet. He couldn't kill a female while she was on the ground. He was low, but not that low.
The moment Alice stood, he lunged at her. The blade struck her right shoulder. She felt the thrusting throbs of pain, then she saw him slip as he made another effort to bring the blade towards her throat. He fell over to the left, while she sank on one knee. Her shoulder bled profusely.
"Takin' my little girl, knockin' her up wasn't 'nough, was it?" she groaned. "Beatin' me nearly t'death for practically nothin' after that. Why that, Eddie? Bringin' me out here to this deserted corn field, tryin' to rape me. All that dirt, and it makes you better than me. You're drunk, but you're not too drunk to kill me. You want my blood for my love, not for what I've done to you. You can have me all you want, but God knows you'll never touch Frieta again. I'm gonna die tryin' to save her from a dirty dog as you, Eddie."
He had found his legs underneath his body again. Upright, he made his murderous way towards her a second time. Only his form could she see, but he was certainly there. Ready to finish her off.
Alice finally gathered her courage and tumbled frantically with her purse. Eddie kicked her over, then stood back. She was dazed, somewhat, yet she was revived by the cold rain, and did not pass out entirely.
She did not know when the gun had come into her hands. Anyway it was there, suddenly. He was coming at her again, unaware that she was even armed.
She had leaning over on her elbows with the gun pointed up at him. Obviously, he made out the weapon. He made a quick motion to reach her with the knife. Then she fired!
As the bullet struck him, Eddie paused. Then she fired again. He staggered. Gun smoke drifted around them, forcing it's way though the heavy rain. Then Alice dropped the gun. She watched Eddie staggering away from her. Something thudded against the mud at his feet. The knife. Rain beat down heavier, ridiculously. Alice covered her face and screamed hysterically.