Chapter 4

THURSDAY-about three in the morning

Sheriff Rasco Zimel awoke with pain exploding between his legs. He' moaned and curled his fingers around the shaft of his cock. It felt as hard as spring steel, alive with desire, trembling with the wildest sort of need.

He wiggled his way over to his fat wife who lay with her back to him, breathing heavily, and took her awesome hips into his hands. "Fidelity," he cooed in a harsh, rasping voice as he began to grind the face of his cock against the robe that covered her fat body, rubbing it wildly against the dimpled expanse of her enormous rump. "C'mon, lover-wake up for your Rasco. C'mon, Fidelity...."

The woman moaned, raised her head a bit "What time is it getting to be?" she said wearily, and yawned. "It's still dark out, Rasco!"

"Yeah, I know, Fidelity," the sheriff said. "It's not time for me to go to work yet!"

"Then what in the world are you doing waking me up?" the woman demanded. "And why are you rubbing against me like that? Stop it, Rasco. I-I'm in no mood for a lot of nonsense!"

Rasco slipped a hand down through the opening in the front of her robe, cupped his fingers over one of her enormous, sagging breasts. He began to tug at the nipple there, rolling it playfully between his thumb and forefinger.

Fidelity slapped his hand and then shoved it away from her boob. "What do you think you're doing?" she groaned. "At this time in the morning, Rasco? Please keep your hands to yourself and let me go back to sleep. There's a meeting of the church women tomorrow and I want to look my best!"

"Don't go back to sleep, baby," Rasco cooed. "Hey, give me your hand. Cmon, there's something I want you to feel for a minute. Give me one of your hands-just for a minute or so, sweetheart!"

"Go to sleep!"

"Just for a minute, Fidelity. Please...." The woman groaned, raised her hand up into the air. Rasco grabbed her by the wrist, set her fingers down against the head of his throbbing prick. "Feel that," he cooed happily. "Feel how hard it is, sweetheart!"

"It'll go away if you get up and urinate, Rasco," the woman said, and then pulled her hand away from his cock and stuffed it inside the heavy robe. "Try not to make top much noise as you go to the bathroom, dear. I really have to look my best for die women in the morning! Goodnight again, dear. Please let me sleep!"

"Hey, Fidelity-it's not a piss hard-on," Rasco cried. "Hey, turn over and face me. C'mon, Fidelity. Hey, I'm not in the mood for a lot of nonsense, woman. Turn over and face me, Fidelity!" He grabbed her by the shoulder and began to shake her. "Turn and face me!"

"Stop that," the woman snapped, and pulled her shoulder away from his hand. "And stop pawing me like that I hate to be pawed. I won't be treated like some streetwalker-not in my own house. Keep your hands to yourself!"

"TURN AROUND, FIDELITY!"

"I am going back to sleep, Rasco," the woman said. "I have a very important meeting in the morning and I need my beauty sleep. And that's my last words on the subject!"

"In a big rat's ass, it is!"

"Go to sleep, Rasco....

Rasco grabbed his wife by the shoulder, dug his fingers deeply into the fat there and forced her over onto her back. "Enough of this bullshit," he cried. "I can't put up with this any longer, Fidelity."

"You're hurting me, Rasco!"

"Sorry," the sheriff said as he released her shoulder. "But we've got to talk about this!"

"Talk-about what, Rasco! Are you insane?"

"This-this," the gray-haired man cried as he took his cock in his hand and shook it at his wife. "About what I'm going to do with this!"

"You're disgusting," Fidelity said, and wrinkled her nose. "Put that thing back in your pajamas this very minute if you expect me to talk with you!"

"I'm horny, Fidelity. I need, to make love with you!"

"At-what? Three-thirty in the morning, Rasco?" the fat woman said. "There's a time and a place for everything. Now, this may be the place-but it certainly isn't the time. Now, will you please act your age and go back to sleep?"

"It's been six weeks, Fidelity. Six long weeks!"

"So?"

"A man my age-he needs sex more often than that," Rasco cried. "My God, woman, I-I...." He began to grind his cock up against her belly, moaning frantically. "Sweetheart, I need you so desperately!"

"Disgusting-you're disgusting!"

"Why? Because I want to make love to my own wife? What's so disgusting about that?"

"You're impossible!"

"Fidelity, I-I...." The sheriff slipped a hand back down inside the opening in her robe. "I really have to have it this morning. I have to, I-I...." He began to tug at her nipple, really jerking it!

"You're an animal," his wife hissed as she pulled away from him. "I want you out of this room, you-you animal. I won't be treated like some whore. Now, get out of here before I say something well both be sorry fori"

"No-no," Rasco cried as he began to pull at the front of her robe. "I won't be put off again-not after waiting for six weeks. Six weeks, Fidelity...."

"You'll have to rape me, Rasco," the woman cried. "I've decided I've reached an age where I have to put all that-that sort of thing behind me!"

"You're forty-six," Rasco said. "And what's this about raping you. How does a man rape his own wife!"

"That's what it will be, Rasco-rape!"

"I can't believe what I'm hearing!"

I'm through submitting to your filthy needs, Rasco," the fat woman said. "It's as simple as that!"

Rasco slammed his fists down against the mattress. "Now, Fidelity," he cried. "I know that you've never been very interested in sex, but this...."

"This is the way it'll be from now on," Fidelity said. "The woman of the church group all agree that...."

"Oh, so that's what this is about," Rasco said. "That pack of sexless witches!"

"Those woman are the pillars of this community, Rasco," the woman cried. Sex is alright for the younger women, those who still want families, but

"Listen, Fidelity," Rasco cried. "My balls are screaming with pain. I've got to get laid. I-I'll rape you if I have to, but one way or another I'm going to get fucked!"

"I won't listen to such filth...."

"Get out of that robe, Fidelity, or ITI rip it from your back," Rasco cried. "You're going to get fucked, woman. Hear me, Fidelity-fucked, fucked!"

"Only a nigger or some cracker white trash would use that sort of language around his wife," the fat woman sputtered. "I hate the sight of you, Rasco Zimel. It makes me ill just to be next to you!"

"Fuck that noise, bitch," Rasco cried.

"Rasco, I'm your wife. How dare you use a word like that to me? How dare you? How dare you?"

"You haven't been a wife to me for more than ten years, you fat, sexless hulk," Rasco screamed. "And how dare you use words like 'nigger and 'cracker around me!"

"You are an animal...."

"Stop it, Fidelity. Stop this nonsense!"

"From now on you'll sleep in the spare room," Fidelity said. "I'll have all your things moved in there today while you're at work!"

"You're going to get fucked, Fidelity!"

Fidelity lashed out at him with her hands, slapping him across the face until he grabbed her by the wrists and held her hands against his chest.

"My sainted father didn't raise me to be a whore," the fat woman cried. "My father, may he rest in peace, didn't give me to you to-to...." She was unable to think of an acceptable word. "Oh, daddy-help me. Look down from heaven and help your little girl!"

"Oh, damn, Fidelity," Rasco cried in exasperation. "Your father isn't in heaven!"

"Don't you say a thing against him, Rasco.

"Your father was a drunk-and a deadbeat!"

"He was a man of God," Fidelity cried. "He was the most respected minister in this whole county!"

"And a chaser, too," Rasco said. "He was nothing more than a hymn-singing, pulpet-pounding, one hundred percent, tin-plated phony. Hell, he robbed his own church. He'd have ended up in the state pen if I hadn't been sheriff!"

"Lies, all lies," Fidelity cried.

"You want to know how he really died, Fidelity?" Rasco cried angrily. "Not walking home after his car broke down like I told you. I made that up to spare your feelings. Your old man died in Maude Philip's cat-house...."

"That's a filthy lie!"

"With a black girl sucking his cock," Rasco cried. "Now, if it was good enough for him at eighty-three it ought to be good enough for me at forty-seven!"

"Get out of this room, you animal!"

Rasco grabbed the front of her housecoat, ripped it apart in his hands. He slipped his fingers under the neck of the gown she wore under her robe and ripped it open clear to her navel. "Now," he cried. "Now, now...."

"Are you crazy, Rasco?"

He took one of her nipples in each hand and began to tug violently at it. Fidelity tried to shove his hands away but he simply continued to twist and jerk at those paps until she began to cry out in pain!

"You don't want my cock in your cunt-okay; let's see how you like it in your mouth!"

"You-you're frightening me, Rasco," the woman cried. "I think I'm really going to be sick!"

"Nothing will stop me, Fidelity. Nothing!"

"You can't be serious, Rasco," Fidelity cried. "You won't put that thing in my mouth!"

"You just watch me, you silly cunt," the sheriff cried as he crawled on top of his wife and straddled her body. He set his knees down into the fat of her enormous arms, pinning her to the bed. "You watch real close.

"Please, Rasco-no, no!"

Rasco grabbed his cock by the root, and began to slap its head against his wife's face. "Cmon, Fidelity-pen those lips so that I can feed you this thing!"

"You animal, you white-thrash animal...."

"I warned you about that word, bitch," Rasco cried as he released his grip on his cock, grabbed his wife by the top of the head and brought his free hand smashing down hard against the side of her face. Fidelity began to scream-and once she started she was unable to stop!

"Shut up," Rasco cried. "Shut up, shut up...."

He was about to slap her again when the door to the room burst open and sixteen-year-old Amanda came rushing into the room. "Mother, daddy-what's wrong?" she cried, and pulled up short. "I-oh, my God...." She hesitated for a long moment, her eyes big as saucers, and then she turned on her heels and raced out the room, Rasco cried out in rage, rolled over on his side. "Mandy, Mandy," he cried as he leaped from the bed, grabbed his robe and took off after his daughter. He found her at the bottom of the stairs, her face buried in her hands.

"Baby," Rasco said as he sat down next to her and set his hands tenderly on her shoulders. "I know that it must have looked-ah, strange, but it's not...." '

"Don't say anything, daddy," the girl said.

"But, baby...."

Amanda turned to face her father. She buried her face against his chest and put her arms around his waist. Rasco cuddled her close.

"I'm sorry you saw that, baby-girl," he said. "In fact, I'm sorry I did it. Your mother, she ..

"I know, daddy," the girl said. "It kills me sometimes the way she treats you!"

"Hey wait a minute now," Rasco said. "Your mother may be a bit old-fashioned, but she's also...."

"Selfish, Uncaring, and afraid of sex," Mandy said.

"Don't talk like that, baby," Rasco said. "It's not always easy to-ah, to-to ..

"She treats you like dirt, daddy," the taffy-haired blonde said. "And that really kills me."

"It's just her way, Mandy," Rasco said miserably. "She's not a mean person. Really! I mean, she's not actually aware of the way she does things!"

"That's not true, daddy," the girl said. "She knows, she knows exactly what she does! She's always telling me how I have to learn how to keep a man under my thumb. She says that all a man really wants out of a wife is sex-and that a woman has to take that need and turn it to her own advantage!"

"She's wrong, baby," Rasco said, and slowly shook his head from side to side. "Dead wrong. Sex-when it's right-is just about the most beautiful thing that can happen between two people. Really...."

"I know, daddy!"

"Ah-what is it you know?"

Amanda pulled away from her father, and smiled as she looked up into his eyes. "Is that a left-handed way of asking if I'm still a virgin?" she said.

"No-that is, I-I don't think so," Rasco said.

"Would you throw me out of the house if I wasn't a virgin, daddy?" the girl said.

"What kind of silliness is that?"

"Please, daddy-it's an important question," Amanda said. "I asked mother and she said-well, she said she'd send me to a home for wayward girls!"

"She didn't say that?"

"Yes-she really did," the girl said. "You wouldn't let her do that to me, would you, daddy?"

"Nothing like that is going to happen," Rasco said as he kissed each of her eyes, the tip of her nose, and finally her full, ripe lips-lingering there just a trifle too long for comfort. "Don't worry about anything like that!"

"If I told you I was a virgin would you believe me? Would you take my word for it?"

"Well, of course...."

"Mother made me go to see Dr. Llewellyn before she'd believe it," the girl said. "I had to sit there with my legs spread and let that smelly old man poke around inside my-my vagina!"

"I-I'm sorry, baby," Rasco said. "I had no idea that any of this was going on. I don't know what to say!"

"She said that I must be thinking about doing it or I wouldn't be talking about it," the girl said. "She said that I had a mind like a-like a..

"Don't, baby," Rasco said in a voice that trembled with rage. "Thinking about sex is the most natural thing in the whole world, Mandy. Your mother is a sick woman, full of hang-ups about sex, and I don't want what she's been telling you to mess with your mind!"

"Are you telling me to do it, daddy?" the girl said. "Are you saying it's okay to have sex with a boy if I want!"

"No-I'm not, but I'm not telling you not to, either," Rasco said with a sheepish grin. "It's not the sort of thing that can be answered yes or no!"

"That doesn't make sense, daddy!"

"Yeah, it does-in a way," Rasco said.

"Can you put that so that I can understand it?"

"I'll try, baby," Rasco said. "Sex, when it's right, is beautiful. And even when it's wrong-well it ain't bad. Look, Mandy, I'm old-fashioned enough to like the idea of you remaining a virgin until you're married. I'm not sure it was ever a good thing-healthy, I mean-but in this day and age the chances of it happening are about one in ten thousand. There just aren't many eighteen-year-old virgins anymore. And maybe that's not such a bad thing!"

"In the abstract," the girl said, and grinned.

"Yeah, well-you aren't making this any easier for me, sweetheart," the sheriff said. "Your mother was a virgin when I married her. Her folks had beat it into her head that sex was evil, the work of the devil. She-" he paused, sighing against a memory. "-She use to undress in the closet because she didn't want me to see her in the nude. It was four days before I actually-ah, deflowered her. She was physically ill for a month!"

"Poor daddy...."

"I honestly think that one of the reasons she let herself get so fat is because she thought I'd desire her less if she were," Rasco said. "She's really gone off the deep end lately. I was about to rape her when you walked in on us!"

"Daddy, maybe it's not mother's fault that she acts like she does, but this morning wasn't your fault, either. You have nothing to blame yourself for!"

"You can carry sex too far, baby!"

"You mean like a girl who just hands her body over to anyone who wants it," the girl said. "Like Alma Fletcher or Nancy Meeks or Mable Waterman!"

"I was talking about myself, baby," Rasco said. "And be a little careful about how you judge those women you mentioned. If I had my druthers, I'd rather your mother was like anyone of them rather than some frigid, sexless mound of fat!"

"Well, I don't think you have to worry about me being frigid, daddy," the girl said, and laughed. "Sometimes I get so bubbling down in my vagina that I have to-to ... oh, you know what I'm trying to say!"

"You masturbate, huh?"

The girl's eyes grew tight for a moment but then she smiled and began to relax. "I-I have to do something, daddy," she said. "I think I'd go crazy if I didn't!"

"I wonder if your mother ever masturbated?"

"Hey, we were talking about me-and my problems!"

"I don't know what else I can say, baby," the sheriff said with a shrug. "I just don't have the words to cut through all the flack and set it out in front of you all nice and neat and easy to understand!"

"Please try, daddy," the girl said. "It's really very important to me that you do!"

"Well, I guess the main thing I'm trying to get you to see is that sex is only partly physical-and that's a jim dandy part, too. But the rest of it, the bigger part, is emotional-and that's the really great stuff. The more that sex is a shared experience the more beautiful it is!"

"That's pretty clear," the girl said.

"One more thing before I climb off my soapbox. Sex takes a lot of practice to make it right-with the same person, I mean!"

"I had no idea you were so liberal, daddy!"

"Hey, don't let some of the voters around here hear you say that," Rasco said. "To most of the people of this county anyone to the left of Herbert Hoover is a communist!"

"Gee, its ten minutes after four already!"

"Yeah, I think I'll stay up and go into work a little early today," Rasco said. I've got a mountain of paper work I need to catch up on!"

"Can I fix breakfast for you?"

"Sure," Rasco said brightly. "Three eggs and lots and lots of ham. Toast and coffee, too!"

"It'll be on the table by the time you're done with your shave and shower," Amanda said, and kissed her father on the tip of his nose. "Thank you, daddy...."

The bathroom was on the second floor. Rasco paused for a moment at the door to his wife's bedroom and looked in on her. A wave of sadness rose up in his gut as he saw her lying there. He very nearly walked into the room with the idea of apologizing to her. "Fuck it," he cried aloud, and then continued on his way to the bathroom.

Rasco was finishing his second cup of breakfast coffee when the phone rang. Amanda picked it up, listened for a moment, and then quickly handed it to her father. 'It's some man," she said. "He sounds as if he's been crying!"

"Sheriff Zimel," Rasco said into the phone.

"I-I think I really done it this time, Rasco," a thin, quivering voice said. "Better get out here quick. I've been sitting here for hours and hours ... and I feel like running. Hurry, will you?" ' .

"Who is this?"

"It's me-Billy Meeks," the voice said. "It's Nancy, Sheriff. I-I think she's dead!"

'I'm on my way, Billy," Rasco said. "And listen-don't touch anything until I get there!"

"I hit her, Rasco. It was hours ago. She's dead. I done it good this time!"