Chapter 8
"He's out cold," Barb said. "What're we going to do with him? Did you get both those vodka bottles filled with water?"
"Yes, and I stuck them in back of the other bottles. Dad won't find them for months." Joan touched her little tits and smiled. "Oooh, did he feel good when he got that big pecker all the way up me. Who would think a skinny guy like him would have a dong like that?"
"He was wild, wasn't he?" Barb went around the bedroom, picking up scattered clothes. "We can't just leave him here, Joan. We've got to do something."
"But what?" Joan whined.
"All I can think of is to move him to Lisa's room. We sure can't leave him here in Mom's room."
Joan clapped her hands to her cheeks. "What if they find him in the morning? He'll never be sober enough to walk out of here at eleven."
Barb sent a worried glance to her wristwatch. "It's already after eleven. Oh, Christ. We shouldn't have given him that much to drink. He was half plastered after he had only one."
Joan stamped her foot on the floor. "He can't do this to us! He crapped out on us. Can't we throw cold water in his face or something? Then give him black coffee?"
"I guess we'll have to. Go get a glass of cold water from the bathroom."
Joan returned and threw the water in Twidell's sleeping face.
"Now you've got the bedsheets all wet!" Barb scowled.
"Well, you told me to!" Joan snapped. Twidell's face sputtered. The dreamy expression changed to distaste. His eyes slitted open. But they didn't seem to see anything.
"C'mon," Barb said. "You have to get up. Lisa wants you. Lisa's waiting for you in the other room." She threw clothes onto a chair and stepped up to the bed to tug at his arm.
Joan came around the other side to grab his other arm. They got him into a sitting position, but his head lolled around like a rag doll's.
"George!" shouted Barb. "You have to go to the other room!"
"Room boom," he muttered. "Love you, Lisa. My darling. My tenner sweethard. Tenner love."
Somehow they got him to his feet and half shoved, half carried him to Lisa's room. Joan yanked the pillows from under the covers and they threw Twidell onto the bed, raised his legs and covered him. He was fast asleep again.
Barb said, "I'll get his clothes." She brought his clothes in and threw them onto the closet floor.
Barb grimaced. "Lisa's not going to like this. She'll come in here and find this guy in her bed. She doesn't even know who he is."
Barb flopped down in a chair. "We'll just have to wait up for her to come home, and tell her."
"What if she doesn't come home till three or four? She knows Mom and Dad will stay out that late, so she will too. I'm going to bed." Joan tightened the belt on her bathrobe.
Barb rubbed her closed eyes with her forefingers. "Joan, we're stuck. He's out like a light again. We'll just have to leave him there and try to sneak him out tomorrow morning. I'll go downstairs and get his books."
"There's no way we can sneak him out tomorrow unless Mom goes to the stores. And she just went yesterday. He'll have to stay in Lisa's room all day and sneak out at night. Anyway, it's your problem. It was your idea to give him all that booze. I'm going to bed."
Barb gritted her teeth. "You're just as much to blame as I am."
"No, I'm not." She danced saucily from the room and slammed the door.
Barb rolled her emerald eyes to the ceiling. Then she pushed to her feet and went downstairs to get the French books. She couldn't even imagine what would happen if her parents found George in one of the bedrooms. On top of that, she knew she was drunk herself and wouldn't be able to stay awake much longer.
Jerry stood on the ladder beside the garage and got his foot on the ledge below the kitchen window. It was just before midnight, but he could hear the TV blaring, so he knew Ma and Pa were still up.
They got back into their room with little noise. Then they stripped into their underwear and slid into their beds.
"Woweee," Morry said under his breath. "The tape recorder ran out, and still they didn't catch on."
Jerry snapped his fingers and got out of bed to shut off the recorder in the closet. The end of the reel of tape was slapping against a tiny metal post. "I wonder what time it ran out."
"Don't worry, they probably thought we went to bed."
Jerry listened. The TV was still thumping with a cowboy-and-Indian war. "They're acting funny, you know that? They usually go to bed just after the news. Morry, they're both acting weird. Pa's got loot, and they're going out twice as much as they used to. They never tell us where. Where the hell do you suppose they're going?"
"I dunno, but Ma said they're going out again tomorrow night early, and we'll have to make our own dinner. She also said the neighbors'll be watching our house to see if we go out, and if we do, we'll get hell."
"Yeah, bullshit. The neighbors haven't spoken to them for five years, ever since Pa started those property disputes. Listen, I want to know what they're up to, going out all gussied up like that."
Morry said, "We can't just follow them. They'd recognize our car in the rear-view mirror."
"I know a way. You just wait till I show you tomorrow. You've been bitching about me spending money on junked computer boards. But it's going to pay off."
"This I gotta see," Morry snickered.
Jerry padded back to bed. "You'll see. Where's that old soldering iron?"
"Down the basement somewhere."
"We'll need that." Jerry pulled the covers up.
"Going to stick it up Pa's ass?"
"Only if it's plugged in. Black out."
"What if your gadget doesn't work?"
"It'll work. If it doesn't, I'll think of something else. We could puncture their gas tank with an ice pick, and their car would leave a little trail."
"Oh for Chrissake," Morry muttered. "You're crazy."
"Like a fox. You know something? I have a funny feeling, like the tide is turning, or something. Like we're coming into our own."
Morry said, "Keep dreaming. What in Jesus' name was that chopper doing up there on Gilles?"
"We'll find out about that, too. I promise."
"I know, you'll think of something. Roger, wilco, and out. Let's bug out for S.F. tomorrow."
"Later, we'll do that later. Now shut up or they might hear us." He rolled onto his side.