Chapter 2
Frieta Ingram did not get out of bed until half past twelve. When she was before the dresser in the bedroom, she removed her sleeping pajamas and sat naked on the vanity bench. The furnace had come on, due to the extreme cool weather, therefore, the room was very warm and comfortable.
Frieta heard the pounding rain, while studying her nude body in the mirror. She felt numb and unused, wishing she could find something to occupy her interest until she could find a summer job. Drive-ins weren't doing any business because of the raw and uncomfortable weather. She didn't want to be a waitress in any cheap cafe. She hated to think of herself being a two-bit hash slinger, as Alice was.
She picked up a comb and ran it through her shoulder-length, honey-blond hair. Her complexion was smooth, velvet tender skin which she felt proud of. Thank God, she thought, she'd finished Junior College. In two more years she could teach, if Alice could afford to send her off. Yet she could devote her time to her music and ballet. She wasn't going to Charley's to take any lessons today. Too bad. Anyway, she didn't feel in any mood for singing while the day was so lousy and rainy.
Frieta was somewhat identical in her characteristics as her mother. At twenty-one, she knew what she wanted to do about her love. With school out, and no more dates with Junior College boys, she'd have to find her a steady guy to date. She was contemplating marriage, yet she feared it would interfere with her career. Certainly she wanted to enter show business and become famous, and earn a fabulous salary. She could buy a great wardrobe, enjoy herself with other luxuries.
The pattern of ethics which Alice had set before her daughter was not one to be proud of. Frieta had seen her mother drunk more times than she could recall, and often heard her in the bedroom entertaining her gentlemen friends. Frieta felt as if she was old enough to indulge, and she often did. She smoked and drank, but Alice had cautioned her about going any further with her boy friends. Alice had dropped her when she was thirteen, and she did not intend to let her own daughter become pregnant and be jilted and left with a bastard such as that rogue had treated her down in Texas.
After Frieta had combed her hair, she got up off the vanity bench and entered the bathroom. She relieved herself, and re-entered the bedroom to pull her mother's nylon bathrobe round her body. They were practically the same size, only Frieta's breasts were much more developed, hanging heavier but thrusting and beautiful. The girl's hips and thighs were not quite as broad as her mother's, yet they were shapely and trim enough to beautify her body. Her baby-blue eyes were the same color as Alice's, but her thin lips were smiling, without the unsound boredom which Alice usually felt.
Being with appetite, Frieta left the bedroom, passed through a large dining room and entered the kitchen. There she opened the refrigerator, selected ham and eggs and carefully fixed herself a delicious breakfast.
The five room apartment was over an old furniture store at Eighth and Kansas avenue. The front section, a kitchenette, was occupied by Gladys Hernden and her husband, Mike. They were elderly people. Mike had been a mail-carrier before being confined to bed with lung cancer. His wife, Gladys, did not have to work since both drew their pensions, so she merely spent her days in the small quarters caring for her ailing husband. It was a very sad omen, for Mike Hernden was not expected to live more than a month or so. Every day Frieta could hear the old woman singing and praying to her husband. Sometimes their pastor visited them, offering prayers for the inflicted old man.
Upon finishing her breakfast, Frieta returned to the front room and started the record player. She heard someone climbing the stairs, walking heavily along the bare hallway until they were at Gladys's door. There was a knock, and Frieta heard the old woman admitting the doctor. The door slammed shut, and Frieta shrugged and felt sorry for Gladys and her stricken husband. After the doctor left she would visit Gladys and try to console her miserable loneliness.
The music entered her bones. She flung away the nylon robe. Nude, now, she flounced before a mirror embedded in the door leading into the dining room. The syncopation was slow and intriguingly disturbing to her sensuality. Maybe it was the raw day which had penetrated her soul. She felt herself, slowly caressed her breasts. Wishing hopefully, desirously. The pattern formed, delightfully she responded to the emotional feeling which possessed her. Gradually, she trembled, then started undulating her hips. She snapped her fingers in time. What she needed was something to relieve the loneliness she felt, something as she had often heard Alice so desperately after. She needed help. She avoided men. Had to. She knew she was sick, now foolish, and desperate. Must she wait until her marriage to satisfy her constant demands? God, how she felt for something to happen this morning. The rainy mornings and nights tormented her soul, making her desire bleed and demand instant attention.
Frieta felt her hips racing in response to the urgency of her body's demands and her thighs started trembling and she fell down to the floor, placed her legs upon a chair and making little whineful sighs to herself, undulated her hips faster and faster.
The music was unusually loud, and she was so thrilled with her own self-gratification, she failed to hear the footsteps on the stairsteps. A moment later a key was inserted into the door. The door was opened and a tall smooth-faced man stepped into the room and shut the door.
He heard the record player, but was unable to detect anyone for a brief moment.
Eddie LaRose removed a smoking cigarette from his lips as his dark eyes caught sight of Frieta on the opposite side of the room with her feet propped up in the chair. ! She had heard the door click shut and the noise had cautioned her to halt her self indulgence. She was motionless when Eddie first spied her, still she was naked lying on the floor and her thighs were apart.
Frieta twisted her head and looked shamefaced and guilty round at him. Flushed, and embarrassed, she threw her legs to the floor, reaching, snatched the thin nylon robe to cover herself. Neither of them had spoken. He was too startled to see what he had seen, and she was too shamefaced and guilty to speak.
Frieta sat up on the floor and slipped her arms into the robe, braced herself over against the chair and dropped her gaze down at the floor.
"Hello Frieta," he said. "Hope I'm not intruding?"
Without looking at him, she said, "It's okay. Come on in and rest your things. I never expected nobody. I was exercising. It's sure rainin', isn't it?"
"You bet it is," he said, removing a rain slicker and shaking the water from it. It was not the first time he had seen Frieta's naked body; several instances she had come into the sitting room where he was sitting without a stitch on, only to pretend she was embarrassed upon finding him seated there.
Frieta rose slowly to her feet. Her face was flushed as yet, and her eyes had grown fiery and tender. They appeared wildishly disturbed as she met his gaze from across the big room. The record player was still going. Frieta reached and stopped it. The silence was even more disturbing. She was thinking how it would be with him. For a long time, now, she had felt that way towards Eddie. Often she coveted him, and found herself despising her mother for having met him first. Sometimes he kissed her, only mere childish kisses, as a father would, but the kisses were enough to create a vague hollow in the pit of her belly, and she could not sleep throughout the night.
Facing him again, she eased over to a sofa chair, dropped into it and picked up a cigarette lying on the end table. A match was there and she lit the cigarette and smoked.
He smiled down at her, then crossed the room and entered the bathroom where he placed his dripping rain slicker in the bath tub to drain off.
Once again in the front room with her she noticed that he wore a new light-gray suit and new light-tanned slippers. He possessed a different air then when she had last seen him. He looked proud, as though he had accomplished something very substantial enough to make him somebody. He had a fresh haircut, and shave, and his complexion was smooth along his rounded cheeks. He had a massage. His entire body seemed to give off a pleasing sweetness, the refreshed odor of after visiting the barbershop.
"Where's Alice?" he asked.
"Working," she said, allowing cigarette smoke to curl from her lips. She blushed up at him, but he didn't notice her. He was six feet, black-haired, dark eyes, square chin and lean cheeks. He didn't have any book learning, but he seemed very romantically inclined. Eddie knew how to love a woman. She knew that. Alice had told her how nice and sweet he was. All girls knew what that meant Alice had stated that Eddie was the sweetest lover she had ever had and she could hardly stand him out of her sight.
Frieta felt that the man didn't love her mother. He was twenty-five, ten years younger than Alice. There was little doubt in Frieta's mind that he didn't have other girls on Alice. In her suspiciousness she felt that was why he didn't come round as often as he should have. Any man who was engaged to her would certainly have to see her every night when he wasn't working. Eddie came whenever he felt like it. He may not show up for a week, or even two weeks. In her opinion he did not want Alice, even after boasting about his great love and devotion to her.
Eddie, lighting a fresh cigarette, remained standing near the television.
"Alice was worried about you," Frieta reminded him. "She's half crazy, wondering why you didn't show up?"
He smiled. "I phoned, and told her I was workin'. A guy has to work, sugar."
She eyed him deeply, noticing his new garb again. "I guess so," she said. "You're all dressed up. Where you workin', Eddie?"
"Gambling, sugar."
"Three days and nights?"
"Sure. Long as there's guys with dough, and cards with aces, and dice with sevens, I win. So I keep playin', see."
"You were lucky?"
Instead of answering her, he felt into his pants pocket and extracted a huge roll of greenbacks. All Frieta could see were twenties and tens and fives.
"Was I!" he sighed proudly.
"How much you win, Eddie?" Her lips lay apart, her eyes bulged at the sight of all the money.
"Two-thousand bucks, sugar," he answered, tossing the roll upon the divan.
Frieta rose from her chair, taking pains to clasp the nylon robe so it would not flap open. The room was very obscure so it was hardly possible for Eddie to see through the thin garment. Still she felt somewhat uncomfortable before him, dressed so scantily.
She leaped over to the divan and started counting the money. He stood back, proudly smoked and watched her count.
Excitedly, Frieta counted the money for nearly ten minutes. It was every bit of two-thousand dollars, and a few dollars to add. He had bought clothes and visited the barbershop.
When she had finished counting the money, she crossed her legs and eyed him enviously.
"What you gonna do with all this dough?" she asked with a tender giggle.
"Buy a car," he said. "Buy plenty liquor, and have a ball. I might even get married."
"Won't Alice be happy."
"Maybe we three can celebrate," he said. "She can lay off the job a week and rest. Alice needs rest. She works too damn hard for a few lousy bucks at that goddamned tavern. What time does she "get off?"
"At six," she stated. She looked up at him and blushed. "You hungry, Eddie? I'll fix you some ham and eggs, if you are."
"Nothin' doin', sugar. I'm gonna take me a drink and sleep myself away." He removed his coat, felt into one pocket and extracted a fifth of whisky. He tossed the coat across a chair and dropped down on the divan beside her and the money. He unscrewed the cap off the whisky bottle, handed her the bottle.
"There, Frieta, take a drink on Eddie LaRose."
She took the bottle and raised it to her lips and took a nice drink with him. She felt the burning sensation as the whisky cut into her belly and stirred her insides into warmer emotions. She handed him the bottle back, watched him a moment, as he tilted the fifth to his lips and took a gulping drink. Then she rose and keeping the robe tightly round her body, she crossed over to a side window and looked out at the darkness and the threatening rain. Lightning flashed now, and thunder rumbled. The old apartment building was jarred. Frieta dropped the curtains and turned back to the record player. She started the same record she had played before. The music went through her. Haunted by desire again, she crossed back over to the divan and sat down beside Eddie, drawing her legs underneath her body so she would not be to blame for his emotions becoming disturbed.
He was studying her, now. His dark eyes penetrated the front of the nylon robe, and it wasn't the yellow color of the material which had beset his eyes. It was the coned shape of her thrusting breasts. The very bulge of her nipples showed plainly, and he parted his thick lips, lusting after her.
He looked down at the money, and grinned. Then he took another drink, and still another. He wasn't talking, now. Just watching the money and drinking. Frieta smoked again. She eyed the money with all kinds of thoughts created in her mind. With all that money she could make Vivian and Stella and Beatrice, her school chums insanely jealous of her. She could buy the kind of clothes which she had always wanted. She could become even more beautiful than she was. What would Charley Boyles, her voice teacher, think of her if he saw her wearing patent leather high heels and a white satin dress and her hair marcelled? God, she'd be the envy of Kansas Avenue. All the poor suckers would stare and stare like lustful puppies.
When the fifth of whisky was nearly half empty, Eddie placed it on the table to the right of the divan and reached for the money. He gathered all the greenbacks up and held them between his long fingers. Suddenly, he looked at Frieta, and said, "Come here, Frieta."
She edged over beside him. He took her into his arms and kissed her lips. Then she pulled back. She eyed him carefully, trying to imagine just how serious he was, or if it was merely a loving caress as he would a child. Her breath intensified, and her lips trembled. She had to escape him before she acted indecent. She was already dressed indecent before him. She wasn't intending to become an easy woman for any man. Not like Alice. Alice gave and gave, openly, freely, easily. She was definitely a push-over.
The whisky stirred Frieta again. The burning created an unfulfilled desire in her flanks. She stirred uneasily beside Eddie. Still she watched him very carefully, especially his dark lusty eyes.
Whatever was on her mind he seemed to be able to understand. He smiled again and peeled off five hundred dollars and tossed it into her lap. She looked down at the money and back up at him.
"What's that for?" she asked quickly. Her own voice betrayed her. Hers was a foul tone, anxiously excited.
He dropped his bottom Up, then reached and caressed her left knee.
"Just try to imagine, baby," he said, and lifted his stare at her Ups again. Her Ups trembled.
Frieta stared down at the money again, then looked back up at him. She blushed, felt her breasts quiver, and her throat was dry. Her heart throbbed. She was uneasily excited.
Her gesture was involuntary. Quickly, she brushed the money away. It fell over against the divan cushion. She looked at him, then dropped her gaze as she very well realized what he wanted from her, by now. She wanted to get up and leave, enter the bedroom and slam the door in his face. He was Alice's beau, and she dare not betray her own mother. Alice might find out some way, or would she?
He realized what her drawback was. He meant to console her, to remedy her puzzled expression. "Listen, Frieta," he said, leaning towards her. "I love you, sugar. For over six mouths I've wanted to tell you, sugar. Please, it's the truth. I'm not lyin'. Alice, why, she's too old for me. You know that I'm just twenty-five. Don't you reckon she's too old for me?"
She didn't answer. Her lips were parted, and her mind was befuddled and confused.
"I'm tryin' to think of how to break it to Alice," he went on, speaking very bluntly, though his words were stilted, as the liquor was working on his system.
"Honest, I'm sorry," he went on. "My God, she's gonna nearly die when I tell her, but that's th' way it is. I can't marry her. I can't I just can't I wouldn't be faithful, I wouldn't be true."
"You've got to marry her," she blurbed. "You're engaged."
"I'll speak to her. I'll tell her that I'm in love with you. Alice ain't no fool. She'll understand. She's got to understand!"
She started to get up, to leave him, to order him out of the apartment, but he caught her arm and detained her action. She waited, tenderly gentle to his touch.
Slowly Eddie picked up the five hundred dollars, and to this amount he added another five hundred, making it a thousand. He tossed it into her lap, and watched the expression come over her face.
"What's that for?" she swallowed again. "Eddie, that's a thousand dollars! You givin' it all to me?"
"Sure."
"What do I have to do?"
"What do you think?"
"No....no! Alice might find out!" She looked at him, hoping he would not agree with her. And he didn't "Who's goin' to tell her?"
She looked into his hard eyes, but could find no answer. She dropped her gaze again at the money, thinking how easy it was to earn. So easy, so enjoyably easy. So sensationally easy, so heavenly, so sweet, so deliriously soothing to her soul. To be paid over a thousand dollars just to pleasure him, to pleasure herself as well. He would be the one cheated, not her. Only her conscience to disturb her, after. And such would hardly hurt, since he had said that he wasn't going to marry Alice anyway. That would be their fight, not hers. After he had broken with Alice, she could have him all to herself. After all, wasn't he the man she wanted, desired, and was thinking about a moment ago when sex self-stimulated herself?
Slowly her right hand reached for the money. Then both hands gathered up all the greenbacks. She looked at him as she lifted the sofa cushion and thrust the money underneath it. He was taking another drink. When he finished the drink, he looked at her and placed the bottle back on the table.
Frieta pushed herself back on the divan, waiting, her lips parted, her heart throbbing.
He saw that she had fallen for his enticement. Any girl would. He knew what their bait was. Money. She was m his web. So young and tender, so ripe, so innocent. She would go crazy about him, and he would certainly become a lunny about her. Frieta was beautiful, very graceful and enticing. Madly he moved over towards her.
As he came over to her, his right hand slipped away the nylon robe and peeled it off. Her eyes were frightened and nervous, at first. She watched him remove his clothes, shuck down, until he was stripped just as she was. The music was still playing. She blinked lustily when he stood before her and she saw the shape and size of him. She gasped, fell back on the divan and waited until he was upon her. She parted; one leg he lifted upon the back of the divan. She sneered as he pressed, feeling her with one finger. She was no virgin. A high school boy, whom she had been dating during her junior year had taken her virginity one night in the bottom hallway when he had brought her home after a basketball game.
"I needed someone!" she moaned, as he kissed her left breast and the sensation surged through her body. She clutched at him, inhaling his masculine body, feeling his hot lips sulking her, slowly her flanks crawled higher and higher.
"You're a hot blooded little bitch!" he sighed sensually. "Now?" he said.
She flattened herself against his body, feeling his scratching hairs of his chest against her breasts. Her own fingers slid down between them, past his stomach until he felt her fingers grip his hard flesh. She gave a rigid soothing rasp of her lips as she pressed herself and twisted up gradually until he had her. Her body stiffened, and flushed as waves of contraction gripped her. Her legs tightened on him.
"Take me!" she cried. "Do it fast, Eddie....make me hurt ... make me cry...." She demanded in a tone contrary to any he had ever heard admitted by a girl ia the position she was in.
He pleasured her until she felt herself undulating her hips wildly and uncontrollably. In dripping perspiration, her flesh dimpled and burned to his endless heavenly torment.
At last her body made several wild convulsions, and she threw her arms to both sides and screamed in his face and he screamed in her face. Then they fell against one another and kissed and caressed each other until he had fallen asleep.
A moment later Frieta was under the shower, when the phone rang. With dripping water she ran into the front room to answer it. It was Alice. She wouldn't be home until after two. One of the waitresses didn't show up for work, so she had to work two shifts. Upon inquiring whether Eddie had been there, Frieta lied, and stated that he hadn't.
When she had dressed and pulled on a rain cape, Frieta entered the front room and looked down at her drunkardly sleeping paramour. She fetched a blanket from the bedroom and covered him up on the divan. Stooping, she placed a firm, sincere kiss on his lips.
"Eddie, honey," she sighed contemplatively. "I love you, honey. I love you! I love you!"
His feet were resting on the divan cushion, but she lifted them, removed the cushion and retrieved the thousand dollars. As she crammed all the money into a scratched, worn black purse, one which Alice had loaned her to use, she sighed with anticipation of all the wonderful things which she was going to buy herself.
She kissed Eddie again, then turned towards the door. She would not have to worry about Alice returning home and finding Eddie asleep on the divan, since she wouldn't be coming home until after two A. M. Right now, she was going downtown and buy herself a lot of pretty clothes, and then flounce herself before the whole town!
Frieta opened the door and left the room. She was not interested in visiting Gladys Hernden, now. She was far too entranced in her vanity pleasures to visit the sick, old woman.