Chapter 1

With his women -- - all the women from Desert High School. Jennie Madison was from premier stock and he had wanted her from the first day he saw her. Five foot five, long blonde hair that cascaded around her oval face. Bright blue eyes which seemed to set off her voluptuous mouth. But down below was where Jennie Madison had made her impression. For a eighteen-year-old, she had a body that was incredible. Her breasts were not huge, but perfectly shaped. Her belly was flat, and her hips flared gently from her waist, angling down into firm, rounded thighs. In simple words, she was a California dream.

And now Jim Haines was taking this blonde for his own. Her blouse was open, and her bra unsnapped. Her firm breasts pushed out from beneath the cotton, her nipples were red and throbbing. Jennie pulled Jim's hand from inside her jeans and placed it back on her breast. This was as far as she would allow him to go. It was their first date.

"Stay out of there, please," she whispered again. But the heat from between her legs made her words seem empty.

"Shit," Haines complained pushing his hand deeper along the smooth, hot skin and feeling the first edge of her silken muff "don't make me stop, Jennie. I'm going crazy."

Jennie moaned, reached down and gripped his wrist. She held him tightly, and used all her strength to pull him back. Her soul was crying out for his touch, but she was not so far gone on the two cans of Coors as to ignore the reality of her conscience. "No, Jim. I can't. I just can't."

Jim pulled away from her and jerked himself back across the seat and behind the wheel. He pulled the pack of Camels off the dash and lit one. From the way he exhaled, Jennie could tell that he was upset.

Slowly, the beautiful young girl began buttoning her blouse. The warm desert breeze which had felt so good only moments before as it drifted across her fiery nipples now became a cold and ominous wind. "I'm cold, Jim," she said quietly.

"Yeah, and I'm burning up. God, Jennie, you torture me."

Jennie looked at the tall, blond junior and smiled. He was the man on campus, the quarterback on the football team, the best-looking dude in the school. Any girl would have sacrificed her virginity to spend the night with him -- any girl but Jennie Madison. She was still a virgin and wanted to remain that way until she married. It was corny and out of date, and she knew it.

"I'm sorry, Jim," she said, her voice now even and in control. "But I just want to save myself.

Jim nodded. "Yeah. Okay." Then he turned and smiled at her. "I understand, Jennie. But sometimes a guy gets so hot, especially with a girl like you. It's a shitty thing."

She liked him, always had. And she didn't want to lose him. "Well," she began in a seductive voice, "I guess I can help you. I mean, without actually doing it myself."

A broad grin flashed across Jim's face. "Would you?"

Jennie slid across the seat and placed her hand on Jim's groin. What she felt beneath his levis made her gasp. "My God!" she exclaimed in a whisper.

"The first one?" Jim asked.

"Yes," Jennie blushed. And she was telling at least part of the truth. Living with her father in the town of Baker, she had seen him once only a few months ago. It had been the first time. He had been in the shower, and had not known that his daughter was home. They had met in the hallway, he standing there stark naked with his large cock hanging between his legs. Jennie had been at once fascinated and repulsed. Neither could move. She had riveted her gaze on his dark, thick meat and felt her stomach churning. A smile had passed quickly, almost imperceptibly across her father's face, and then he had turned and walked quickly back into the bathroom. That had been the only time Jennie had seen a man's penis.

But now, in the semidarkness of the pickup's cab, with Clint Eastwood gunning down another poor loser on the screen in front of them, Jennie watched with a strange mixture of eagerness and fear. Jim lifted himself off the seat and pulled down his jeans. The huge bulge in his white jockey shorts throbbed.

Jennie shifted herself on the seat, and closed her thighs tightly. She felt the muscles in her stomach tighten as Jim pulled the white cotton across his cock and released his stiff, throbbing penis.

"Touch it, Jennie," Jim said breathlessly.

"It's so big, Jim."

"I'm lucky, I guess," Jim said proudly.

Jennie placed her hand on his thigh and stayed there. "It'll squirt all over the place, won't it?"

Jim laughed. "Use a hanky or something."

"Okay." Jennie pulled a small white handkerchief out of her purse and put it on Jim's thigh. Then, taking the plunge with almost a sense of desperation, she touched the throbbing tip. A small drop of semen appeared at the hole. "It's so hot!" she said.

"It ought to be" Jim laughed. "Go ahead, Jennie. I can't last too much longer with you sitting there staring at me like that."

Jennie opened her fingers and gripped his prick. The veins seemed to pulsate of their own accord as she slowly began stroking him. She moved her hand up and down his shaft, watching it with a fascinated, turned-on expression. Her full lips were parted, and her tongue ran involuntarily across them, creating a sensuous sheen on the red flesh.

"Put it in your mouth, Jennie," Jim said as casually as he could.

"No . . . " Jennie whispered.

"Please . . . it's all right."

Jim reached behind her and gently forced her forward until her ruby lips were less than an inch away from its tip. She tightened and tried to pull away, but Jim held her strongly. "C'mon baby . . . it's nothing."

Jennie could feel the heat of his cock against her lips. She closed her eyes and opened her mouth. Jim arched his belly upwards and guided his dick between her lips. Jennie allowed him to slide five inches into her mouth.

She held him there inside without moving. Suddenly, Jim began jerking himself up against her, and his cock exploded. Jennie tried to pull away, but it was too late. Huge globs of jism spurted into her throat, and she gagged as the stuff forced its way down her pipe.

"Oh . . . Jesus!" Jim groaned as he came for what seemed like an eternity. When he finally finished, he lifted her gently off his cock and looked into her eyes. "You all right?" he asked.

Jennie's eyes were glazed. Small drops of semen rested at the corners of her mouth. "I don't know . . . " she replied.

"Here," Jim began, opening another can of Coors and handing it to her. "Drink it, it'll wash it down."

Jennie took the beer and swallowed hard. When she finished, she looked down at Jim's groin and shook her head. "I never thought I'd ever do that," she said simply.

Jim stroked her hair, moving it away from her face. "Hey, it was fantastic. I mean that. You really made me feel good."

Jennie smiled -- a wan almost little-girl-lost smile. "I guess it isn't the end of the world, is it?"

"No way," Jim laughed. "Just the beginning."

Jennie nodded. "I guess I don't know too much, do I?"

"You'll learn, Jennie," Jim said. And he meant it. Jim had been around a lot, and he considered himself a stud. Every girl in school had thrown herself at him, and he had enjoyed it. He had always wanted them in a certain way -- a kind of animalistic way which was purely physical. Jennie was the first girl he had ever wanted for more than a good lay.

"Someday," Jim began, kissing Jennie gently on the cheek, "I'm going to marry you."

Jennie laughed. "And then we can really go all the way, right?"

"Right!" Jim replied, pulling her close to him. It was a good Saturday night, the best either of them had ever had. And it was the first time that either saw a way out of the stifling little desert town of Baker, California.

For Tom Madison, the little town of Baker was exactly as advertised -- "the gateway to Death Valley." The halfway junction of small beer bars, gas stations, and one motel between Los Angeles and Las Vegas had grabbed fifteen years of the man's life. When Jennie was born, and Tom had worked at the Hughes aircraft plant in Santa Monica, life had been good. But then came the layoff, and the beginning of the journey from Los Angeles. The small beer bar called Desert Haven had been for sale and Tom had bought it. Twelve years passed, and it had been nothing more than a downhill slide.

Jennie's mother had flung herself off the nowhere track with an underwear salesman on his way to Las Vegas. The short, fat slick hustler had stopped in at the Haven for a couple of beers, and that had been it. She was gone that night.

Tom had carried on, raising his beautiful daughter and running the Haven. But it was hell. This Saturday night was no different. The usual group had sidled into the rundown bar and took their usual places. Tom stood behind the counter and opened one bottle after another, drinking along with his customers.

Elmer from the gas station, a simpleminded, horny old man, raised his bottle and grinned. "To cunts all over the world!"

Tom smiled, a sneering, almost sickly smile, and drank with the old man. It was ten minutes to two; only six hundred more seconds and he could rid himself of the pissy-ass drunks at his bar.

"Tom, you fucker," Elmer continued after downing half his bottle. "What say you and me get into that jalopy of yours and head into Vegas tonight? Time we get there, the whores'll be goin' for ten cents a crack!"

"Shit, Elmer," Tom said. "I'm bushed. Been a long fucker."

Elmer grinned. "That little girl of yours, probably been a long night for her. Eh?"

Tom looked at the old man and then at the clock. Four hundred and twenty seconds. If he hit the old man now, it would cost him a half hour of trying to straighten out the goddamn mess before he could go home. Once before, when Jennie had come by the bar wearing her halter top and short, cut-off levis, he had slugged one of his customers. The man had reached out and grabbed his daughter's little ass. Tom had seen red, been blinded by it.

"Elmer," Tom began in a cold voice, "you're damn lucky it's near closing time. I'd knock the rest of your teeth out if it weren't."

"Shit, Tom," Elmer cried, his blue eyes watery from the beer, "I'm just piss ass drunk is all. Don't take offense."

"Don't talk about Jennie that way, and I won't. Understand?"

Elmer nodded, his face clouded over, his smile turning into a pitiful frown. "It's just a damn shame . . . I mean, she's such a pretty girl. I never had me a pretty girl before."

Tom looked at the old man, reached down behind the bar and grabbed another beer. "Here, old timer. One for the road, okay?"

"You ain't sore, then?"

"No. It's okay."

"Shit, Tom," Elmer blubbered, "you're all right. I mean that."

"Yeah. All right," Tom said as he downed his twentieth beer of the evening.

Before locking up the Haven, Tom took a bottle of Jack Daniels from the shelf. He cursed himself -- it was a hell of a way to keep inventory. But shit, he thought, if a man can't drink his own whiskey, then what good is it anyway? It had been this way almost every night, with the fifth being downed before sleep could takes its hold.

Outside, the dusty town of Baker was asleep, except for the all-night restaurant and the gas station. Tom walked down the dirt road off the main highway watched the huge freeway for a minute, then continued towards his little two-bedroom house on the outskirts. It was a hellishly hot night, being the middle of August, and the scorching desert winds seemed to make him feel even more stoned than he was.

As he walked along the dusty road, he pulled regularly at the bottle of Jack. The sweet, smooth whiskey seemed to pour gently down his throat. Each tug at the bottle gave him more energy, and life seemed to return to what he had considered a dead soul.

The lights were off inside the wood-framed little house. That meant that Jennie was home from her date. That was good. Tom would be able to sit alone in the back yard, drink his whiskey, and maybe jack off before hitting the sack. At least, for a few hours, he would find something akin to total peace.

But as he walked toward the front door, he noticed his good shovel lying on the sand beneath Jennie's window. In his cloudy memory, he recalled having taken the shovel out earlier that morning to begin digging trenches for his cactus garden. He laughed at the idea of planting a garden. It was ludicrous.

The curtains to Jennie's room were open. The moonlight streamed through the glass and illuminated the bed next to the window. Tom Madison leaned down to pick up the shovel, but stopped as his heart froze.

She lay there like a vision from heaven. The sheets were thrown back and her young, nude body was completely exposed. Her legs were spread wide, both her hands resting between them. Her mouth seemed contorted as she breathed passionately. Her breasts, the nipples large and taut, rose and fell with the rhythmical movements of her hands. Moisture had spread across her naked flesh, and glistened in the light of the moon.

Tom peered into the room and watched his daughter. He was no more than two feet from her, a matter of inches, separated from her by the glass of the window. But it seemed like a hundred miles. The woman who stroked her vagina was not his daughter, but the most beautifully exciting female he had seen in his entire life.

Tom had not seen his daughter without clothes since the girl had reached puberty. He had vowed to himself then that the blossoming beauty would not be allowed to raise the horrendous desire of sex in his mind. They had been close throughout the years, but not so close that Tom could not stand back and see his daughter as a woman. Now he was seeing her fully -- and sexually.

The bottle lay in the sand next to the shovel. Tom crouched low at the window and held his stiff penis in his hand jerking himself off slowly, matching the movements of his daughter's belly as she brought herself to climax.

Her body was white and almost spiritual. And even when she reached her orgasm, as her flesh shuddered and she raised her firm ass high off the bed, she never really seemed human.

Tom held his penis as it shuddered and spurted his come onto the dirt. He let out a small groan. His eyes never left the bed as he watched his daughter slowly moving her hands across her blonde tuft of hair. She opened and closed her thighs around her hands. Finally she rolled over onto her side without drawing the sheets across her nudity and went to sleep.

He stood outside the window and stared at her for a long time. She was incredibly beautiful. Her back was strong, and the arched line of her spine moved grace-fully, yet powerfully, into the flaring curve of her buttocks. The crack of her ass was thin and strong, and the muscles of her buttocks seemed to flex with every breath. Tom held his limp cock and leaned down for his bottle. He swigged at the soothing whiskey, then swigged again.

Jennie started to roll over, and Tom ducked. He held his breath as he crouched low beneath the window. Suddenly a deep sense of shame flooded his senses. Quickly he stuffed his cock back into his Levis and moved quietly towards the front door.

Once inside the living room, it was almost impossible for him to believe it had actually occurred. The house was the same, the overstuffed couch, the old television, the high school photo of Jennie hanging above the couch. The reality of the home seemed diminished, replaced by the reality of what had happened outside.

Tom moved slowly and quietly to his bedroom. The small room with the dresser and the single bed in the corner seemed oppressive and constricting. Quickly, he shed his clothes and sat down on the edge of bed and began drinking from his bottle.

Tom stared into the darkness. His cock stood up from his belly like a pole, throbbing and aching for release. The hot winds of the desert night caressed his naked body. The empty bottle of whiskey lay on the floor next to the bed. And the vision of the beautiful naked teenager in the next room singed his brain.

It was impossible to stop himself. Like a zombie, Tom rose from the side of his bed and walked directly across the hall and into his daughter's bedroom.

Jennie lay naked on the sheets, her face turned towards the window. Her body was inviting and cool -- her thighs spread slightly, revealing the slit between them. Her breasts, rising firmly and upright from her chest, rose and fell with her even breathing.

Tom moved towards the bed and stood above her. His cock stood out from his belly. He touched it and felt it throb.

As he dropped to his knees, Jennie moaned, shifted herself on the bed, and turned over, facing him. Tom leaned forwards to her and put his mouth against hers.

Jennie groaned, threw out her arms and held his neck, pressing her lips firmly against his. Her tongue darted out to meet his, and she sucked in slowly, making a soft whistling sound.

Tom moved his hand lightly across her breast, feeling her nipple rise beneath his touch. His hand moved down across her flat belly and to her thighs. She spread her legs and groaned. Tom moved up between the firm appendages and pushed the side of his hand gently against her warm slit. Jennie clenched her thighs tightly around his hand and held him there.

Tom continued to caress his daughter as he raised his leg and lifted himself onto the bed. His huge, throbbing cock was plastered against her cool belly. He reached down, took her hand and moved it to his groin. Jennie grasped his penis and began stroking him easily.

"I can't wait," she said sleepily. "I can't wait "

Jennie took the initiative now. She pulled Tom onto her as she rolled over onto her back. Her thighs spread easily. She reached down between their bellies and held his penis. Arching herself upwards, she directed the tip of the throbbing meat against her clitoris and began rubbing herself with it.

"It's now . . . I won't wait . . " she said over and over again.

And then Tom felt himself slip between her strong, firm labia. Jennie cried out in soft sobs as inch after inch penetrated her sweetly moist cunt.

"God . . . fuck me . . . put it inside me . . . come inside me . . . ! "

Tom was now moving out of instinct. The woman beneath him was a dream. His daughter was not here any longer. He pushed himself hard, and drove his cock deeply inside her. When he was all the way in, he stopped. Jennie pulled her thighs together and locked him in.

"I've wanted you there . . . always . . . . " Her voice was hushed and distant, like a sleepwalker's. She continued to kiss him feverishly, then finally released her grip on his penis.

"Fuck me now!" she said.

Tom began pumping quickly into his daughter. She responded vigorously, throwing her pelvis hard against his belly as his cock penetrated her deeply.

"God -- harder -- harder!! ! " She was crying now as she threw her head from side to side. Her lips were moist and swollen and her tongue moved almost uncontrollably across the flesh.

Tom could not hold himself. He grunted, then cried out as his cock exploded inside her. The semen spurted forth like an eruption. Jennie pushed herself against him, and took his come.

"It feels so good!" she cried.

Jennie did not scream until two minutes afterwards. Her panting, drunken father lay against her like a sick animal. The dreams of Jim Haines disappeared into the reality of her waking nightmare. She felt like vomiting, but even with her gagging, nothing would come up.

"Jennie . . . Jennie . . . Jennie!" Tom cried over and over again. She scratched and cried and pushed and kicked. Finally, he fell to the floor like a bag of cement. Jennie stared down at him with wide, shocked eyes.

"My God!" she cried.

Tom lay on the floor, tried to adjust himself. There was nothing he could do or say. His head spun from the whiskey. "Please . . . " he begged.

Jennie reached for the sheet and wrapped it around her body with a violent tug. "Daddy -- no!"

Tom tried to get to his feet, but collapsed to the floor. He hit his head on the hardwood. And blackness, almost mercifully, came to him.

Jennie stared at the naked hulk on the floor beside her bed. She could tot believe it was her father. But the gnawing truth would not leave her; the nightmare would not end.

Slowly, she climbed from her bed, stepped around him, and went into the bathroom. She waited a moment for the hot water, then began washing herself. The warm towel was not hot enough as she pushed the corner up between her legs with powerful thrusts. She would not, could not look at her reflection in the mirror.

Finally, she finished washing herself. She took the deodorant from the cabinet and wiped the sweet smelling paste across her flesh, then down between her legs. Then she took the bath talc and dumped huge amounts over herself. When she had finished that, she brushed her teeth three times, gargled with mouthwash, and brushed again. Then she took a ten-minute shower.

The traffic on Highway 15 between Las Vegas and Los Angeles is not too heavy at four o'clock in the morning. The early losers from Vegas are trying to make their way back home, and even a beautiful young blonde standing on the freeway is not enough to stop them, if they even see her in the first place.

Jennie had been standing on the edge of the highway for fifteen minutes. Three cars had passed, and none had stopped. The wind which had been blowing earlier had now stopped, and it was a beautiful, starry night in the desert.

She waited. Her mind was not functioning. She was there, on the highway, and needed a ride. That was all there was to it. Nothing more.

A late model Buick appeared, screeched on its brakes, and finally came to a halt a hundred feet down the road. Jennie picked up her little suitcase and ran the distance.

"Well, well, what've We got here?"

Jenny peered in at the balding, fat driver who leered at her obscenely. The green lights of his dash provided his face with an eerie, sickening hue. "I'm Jennie. I need a ride to L.A."

The driver nodded. "Of course you do. Just slide your pretty little behind in here and I'll take you anywhere."

Jennie climbed into the car, closed the door and leaned back against the plush seat. "Thank you," she said coldly.

"My name's Al," the driver said as he pulled onto the dark highway.

Jennie nodded at Al, then turned to watch the highway.

Al was silent for five minutes, occasionally turning his glance away from the road and towards the teenager. Finally he spoke. "You need money?"

"Yeah, I guess so," Jennie replied.

"Well now," Al grinned. "We could take care of that. How would you like ten dollars?"

"That'd be fine," Jennie said.

Al laughed. He couldn't believe his luck. Twelve hours sweating his fucking brow off in Vegas, losing his marbles at the damn roulette wheel. He'd have to get another loop running within a few days. And he didn't want to. He was tired of getting together with the damn models, watching them fuck and suck all day, and listening to them complain. He needed a vacation. He had hoped that he would be able to parlay his twenty-five hundred into some reasonable figure and take a few months off. But no, he blew it.

"All is not lost!" Al chortled as he comforted him-self with his latest find.

"Huh?"

"Nothing, Jennie;" Al replied. "Just thinking to myself. You know, a man gets real lonely out here on this road. Starts talking to himself."

Jennie nodded. This was a strange man talking to her. She didn't know him, nor did she really care. She was feeling nothing, thinking nothing. All that mattered was that she was traveling at sixty miles an hour away from Baker.

"Listen," Al continued, "about that ten? Why don't you just take off your clothes and we'll see what develops?" Al laughed.

"Okay," Jennie said. Quickly, almost mechanically, she pulled off her tee shirt, then raised herself off the seat and pulled down her jeans. She kicked the levis off and sat with her hands in her lap.

"Goddamn! You're built!"

"Thanks," Jennie said simply.

"Hey," Al began, "spread it a little for me, huh?"

Jennie looked at him, a quizzical expression on her face.

"I mean, spread your legs. Let me look at that sweet young beaver of yours."

Jennie turned toward him, leaned against the door, and threw her left leg across the back of the seat. Al reached over and turned on the dome light.

Her cunt was beautiful. Her labia were firm and pink, with barely a shade of young fuzz around them. Her pubic hair was so light and so sparse that it barely covered anything. Her little clit grew erect as Al stared at her.

"I think I'll pull off the road," Al said, slamming on his brakes and bringing the 'car to a lurching stop.

Jennie lay on the seat with her legs widespread and watched as Al struggled with his pants. Finally, he managed to get them down around his knees. He moved out from behind the steering wheel and hovered above her. His penis was bright red and throbbing.

"Take it in your mouth!" Al demanded.

Jennie nodded, reached out and grasped his cock. She pulled him towards her and parted her lips. Mechanically, she began bobbing back and forth along his shaft.

Al came instantly, small drops of semen drooling from the end of his cock. He pulled out of the girl's mouth, and knelt down between her legs. He parted Jennie's labia, looked at her sweet pinkness, and began kissing the evenly folded flesh of her cunt.

Jennie stared at the ceiling and wished that they were moving again.

Al continued eating her, pushing his tongue as deeply as he could into her not-too-moist slit. Finally, he tired and sat up. "Goddamn," he began, his face flushed, "what the hell's wrong with you?"

Jennie threw him that quizzical look again. "Nothing," she said.

"I've been giving you the best lick job since tongues were invented and you just sit there! Shit!"

"I'm sorry," Jennie said. "But couldn't we get moving?"

Al shook his head, looked at the beautiful nude teenager, and cursed. He'd seen some like her before, aged before their time. Young girls running from home, drugged out into space on one thing or another, moving through life like zombies. As he pulled back onto highway, he remembered one girl in particular. Her name had been Sandy, and when he had found her, she was only eighteen. But she was a beauty. Her breasts were barely visible then, and just the merest shade of hair had begun flowering around her tiny slit. But the girl had beep big in other ways. World-wise and almost world-weary, she was much older than her years. Al had found her hitchhiking on the Sunset Strip, had brought her back to his cheap Hollywood apartment, and had fucked her. Sandy had seemed to feel nothing.

Al had worried about that, considering himself to be a stud. But then he discovered Sandy's habit, a forty-dollar-a-day habit. She had gotten hooked in high school, and the track marks were not yet visible. Al had helped her keep it going while he used her in his movies. Those fifty films had made him a lot of money, and had bought Sandy a lot of horse.

But then one day Sandy had decided to see just how much heroin her body could stand. She wanted the highest high of all time. If death was it, then she had made it.

And now, as they approached the San Fernando Valley on the outskirts of Los Angeles, Al wondered what this girl's "high" was. She had not spoken since dressing back there in the desert. She had sat there throughout the entire trip, looking straight ahead. But Al would not dump her. She was too good looking. The perfect blonde. The high school cheerleader with the incredible body who would do anything. If he could raise enough cash, he figured he could clean up. Like Deep Throat. It was just a matter of playing it right.

The sky to the East was pink as Al drove the San Diego Freeway across the broad valley towards Hollywood. Jennie had never seen Los Angeles before, and she looked from one side of the freeway to the other like a small child.

"You like it here?" Al asked.

"It's green," Jennie replied.

"Yup. Good town. Lot of fun, too."

Jennie continued watching the sprawling valley. "It looks clean," she said.

"Oh no!" Al chuckled. "Just wait till you see the smog. Shit, the place is poisoned!"

"That's too bad."

Al looked at the girl. In the early morning light, she looked even younger. Her blue eyes were clear and sharp. Her face had the creamy complexion of the healthy outdoors type. Perfect.

"Listen, Jennie," Al began, "I don't know why you're coming down here. But you seem to be a little out of it, you know?"

"I'm just trying to keep moving," Jennie replied.

"Uh-huh. Listen, how about staying at my place for a while? I could get you some work, make you some money."

"I guess I don't have a place to stay, do I?"

Al laughed. "You do now -- if you want it."

Jennie nodded. "I suppose it would be okay. I mean, I've just got to keep moving, you know?"

Al nodded. When he reached the Vine street turnoff, he pulled off the freeway and drove down into the cross section of Hollywood and Vine. He continued on down until he came to a small motel apartment building with a tennis court on one side and a parking lot on the other.

"Well, here we are, Jennie. Home."

Jennie picked up her suitcase and stepped from the car. She stood for a moment before the large building and stared at it. Sudden images seemed to flood her mind. First of Jim. Then of her father lying crumpled on the floor of her bedroom. A huge, paralyzing swell of emotion gripped her.

"C'mon, baby," Al said, breaking the images, "let's go take a bath together."

"Sure," Jennie replied, following him up the stairs to his second floor apartment. The images were gone.