Chapter 7
Baby, I itch. Scratch for me."
She reached along him and her fingers searched and rubbed.
"Not there. Further along. Riglit at the end. Ah, you got the place." He laughed. "Now kiss me."
He watched her draw closer in the dark. Her lips were gentle. That was what bugged him about Sarah. She was too gentle. He had made a lot of progress with her. He had gotten her to the point where she would have crawled across the floor for him, but he hadn't made her hard. Still he had done a good week's work in three days. He'd punched holes in her, and he'd even begun to turn the screws.
"Get me a cigarette, honey."
Obediently she crossed the room, and extracted a cigarette from his pack. She lit it, but this time she didn't choke on the smoke. She was used to it.
"May I have one?" He shrugged.
Boy-O looked at Sarah's body as he watched her cross the room to him and lay down close to him on the bed. Hers was a beautiful body, a beautiful womanly body. He'd had all of that he wanted and more was his when he wanted more. So why should he spend most of his time thinking about Jeanni Jensen? Just because she hadn't wanted him? Ridiculous. Boy-O wasn't the type to go in for races. Maybe because she had outsmarted him. That was more like it. Boy-O was the type to bear a grudge. Or maybe because he had sensed that Jeanni Jensen knew what life was all about, and small boobs don't matter when the technique is there. Maybe that was why he thought about her so much.
And why he had never gone back to the Jensen's after that night.
Boy-O got out of bed and prowled restlessly around the room. He looked out of each window and handled each piece of bric-a-brac. Then he said, "What time is it?"
"I don't know."
"Then find out." He snapped his fingers impatiently-
Sarah hurried to do his bidding. He frightened her. He frightened her because she was afraid of what she felt for him, and what he could make her do because of that.
"It's eleven-thirty."
"Gimme five. I'm going out."
"Shall I come too?"
"No. Stay here and wait up for me. I mean that. You be waiting in the parlor when I come back."
She fetched five dollars from her purse and brought it to him. He smiled as he took it from her. Then he slapped her across the mouth. "That's so you don't forget to wait up." He dressed quickly and left the room, clattering down the stairs moodily.
"Please. Don't be mad at me," Sarah called down the staircase. "I didn't mean to ... "
Boy-O's grin was visible in the grayness of downstairs. "What's the matter sweetheart? Afraid you're beginning to bore me?"
Boy-O hooked his thumbs hi his hip pockets and slouched his way down the street. Eleven-thirty and the whole town was shut up tight. The local bar was good for another half hour and then nothing. Absolutely nothing. Swanik's Landing where the good folk get up at six and bed down by nine. It was a repulsive way to grow old. He'd do better to finish his business here in a hurry and head for some city. Maybe New York would be next or maybe New Orleans. Any place where there were lots of people and lets of action.
Something very important was going wrong in Boy-O's plans. He didn't know why revenge tasted so bitter to him. Sarah had been so easy. He had scandalized the neighbors by moving in with her and living off her. She would let him do anything he wanted to her, and he would do everything. Sam Revere was probably revolving in his grave at the loss of everything he'd held dear-the money she was giving him and the reputation she'd thrown away on a Carter. All of it was down the drain. And Boy-O's pride should have rested, at peace. He should have been gratified.
Instead there was only this gnawing restlessness in his stomach. This unceasing desire to go back to the highway and beat it the hell across the country.
Don's Place again was quiet. Thursday night and no high school kids. The town drunks sat soppily at one end of the bar. Some farm hands from nearby talked noisily at a table. And the driver of the only cab in town was bending Don's ear about the price of gas.
"Give me a beer." Boy-O let one foot rest easy on the bar rail.
"Coming up, buster."
"The name is Boy-O, mister. Remember it or I'll ruin your face."
"Okay, take it easy Carter. Take it easy."
Boy-O drank the beer in one quick gulp. "Again."
The tramps were missing. Martha and Esther, both of them must have customers. Boy-O looked around. He wondered who the big livers were who could afford a girl on a Thursday night in this forsaken hok of a town.
"I want my money back."
All heads turned in the direction of the shout. It had come from the men's room. The room got suddenly very quiet, making the sound of the television eerie, like a lonely voice in a ghost town. As the patrons of Don's Place listened hopefully, the thud of a body falling against the door rewarded them. They sat in their places waiting to see the winner-and the loser.
A whine seeped through the cracks around the door. "Don't hit me again. Please don't."
Boy-O was the only one in the room to recognize that voice. For a moment he considered going into the men's room and rescuing Lewis Jensen from the attacker. But before he could do anything, the men's room door swung open and Lewis was hauled out by a hired hand who held him by the collar. Lewis's eyes was already closing with the bruise and blood trickled from the side of his mouth down his throat.
"Hey, Don. Since when do you let this dead beat in?"
"What did he do to you, Ed?"
"He conned me out of a whole week's pay." Ed hurled Lewis at the front door but the boy slouched to the floor. "You make me sick. You college crumbs! You lazy bums!" Ed was getting ready to kick Lewis in the stomach when Boy-O surprised himself by stepping between them.
"If you want to fight, try me."
"Hey, Don," Ed shouted. "Is this another college punk?"
Boy-O smiled. "That's funny. You've a sense of humor, friend. Repeat that." He squared off for the fight. A little excitement was just what the doctor ordered. But something in his manner intimidated Ed.
"Forget it. I've had my exercise for the night." Boy-O picked Lewis up and sat him on a bar stool. "You all right, kid?"
"No. I think I'm going to throw up."
"Not on my new bar, kid."
"Shut up and give him a shot of something. Make it brandy."
"Sure, sure. On the house."
Lewis leaned weakly on the bar, blotting his ripped mouth with a handkerchief.
"Thanks, Boy-O. He would have killed me if you hadn't been there." Boy-O listened to the phony eastern accent disappear from Lewis's speech. He was much more a scared nineteen-year-old kid now.
"You ought to know better than to try and con one of those guys. From now on, stick to the ones who don't earn their money."
Boy-O lit a cigarette and passed it to Lewis. Then he lit one for himself. "Can you make it home all right?"
"Sure. I guess so."
"Are you sure you don't want to call your sister and ask her to pick you up?"
"Huh?"
"One good turn deserves another."
"Sure. I get it. Sure."
The boy got up and stumbled to the telephone booth. Boy-O watched him in the mirror of the bar and, affecting a natural pose, strained to hear the interchange. The television got in his way. He almost shrugged, but realising nobody was around to pretend for, he stopped the shrug in mid-air and slugged down the rest of his drink.
"She's on her way."
"One more question, kid. Know any Lesbians in this town?"
"Are you kidding?"
Boy-O shook his head.
"What do you want to know for?"
"My business."
"Sorry I can't help you out. I don't know anybody in this town any more " He added, "Obviously."
"You want to know something, kid? You want to know what the trouble is with small towns? Even the town tramp has scruples. No, I'm not putting you on-that's the truth. Pros in small towns get infected by the thinking of righteous majority there. They'll only take their love a certain way. The nice way. Now what kind of an attitude is that for the local madam?"
Lewis laughed, more to join Boy-O in something than in appreciation of the joke.
"Hey. Tell me something, Lewis." The thought of Jeanni was making Boy-O expansive. "Why are you the way you are? You ever earn a buck yourself?"
"God, no. Work scares me to death. I don't know how that happened. I guess I just got used to the folks putting out for me, always coming through with a little more to get me out of scrapes. But summer vacations are strictly terrible. I mean, how bored can a guy get, when he's supposed to be on his good behavior?"
"Drop it, drop it. I didn't mean to ask you for the story of your life."
"Hey, here comes Jeanni." Lewis and Boy-O both turned and watched the yellow convertible streak to a stop in front of the bar. She had come in a hurry. Lewis started to get up and go for the door, but Boy-O laid a restraining hand on his shoulder. "Let her come in and get you."
Slim Jeanni came racing into the bar. Her hair was flowing down her back and she carried a glow with her that reminded Boy-O again of the feel of her against him; he remembered how much she knew and what she'd done to him that night. Now he knew why he couldn't get her out of his mind. Jeanni was his kind of woman.
She looked at Lewis, her hand went to the side of his face and stroked him gently. "Are you all right?" Her voice was soft and affectionate, a caress for her brother, and there was no room for condemnation nor any pretense of surprise.
"Almost." He smiled wanly, and Boy-O thought he might not have been able to make it home on his own after all. Or maybe the consolation of female sympathy made him weaker than he had been before.
"Can you walk to the car?"
"Let him walk." Boy-O's voice was firm. "Come on, kid. Get up and walk out of here with some self-respect." He couldn't stand to see Lewis babied like that. Tough broads are always suckers for parasites he commented to himself. And then he slowly admitted to himself that he was jealous.
Boy-O walked out of the bar with them and helped Lewis in beside his sister. Then he let the door slam shut. "Good night, all."
"Hey! Aren't you coming?"
"No. You're all right now. Think I'll walk home."
She didn't even look at him, just turned the motor over and streaked off in that yellow car, leaving him standing in the dust of the road for the second time.
Boy-O smiled at himself and turned toward Sarah's house. For the first time since he could remember, he was hung up on a woman and he didn't stand a chance in the world. Boy-O Carter had been around long enough to know that a man's chance of success with a woman faded the minute his interest was more than bedroom oriented. Once things like feelings got in the way, everybody was the same sucker. Funny, he'd come home to square the ledger and he was going to have to leave with all sorts of imcomplete desires.
He was even beginning to feel a little sorry for Sarah.
There was only one thing to do. First thing in the morning, he'd decide what to do about his old man, and when that was over, he'd split. He'd get the hell out of a bad luck town like Swanik's Landing before he got stuck by it forever.
The streets were quiet and empty. And silent. There was nothing to do but think and walk, and nothing to think about but bitter things. And no one to watch him swagger.
The yellow convertible drew up alongside him. He was almost surprised.
"Let me drive you home."
He looked at her, checking on the invitation. It was real all right, even though she was smiling. Was she going to pay him off for keeping her little brother's hide intact?
Boy-O smiled at the sour taste that left in his mouth. One thing about Carter, he got endless delight in his stupidity. It was something the rest of the world really didn't understand.
"If you're going to drive me home, don't bother. But if you want to take a ride somewhere outside of this town, thanks."
"I told you...."
"Forget about that. I want to ride fast. I want the feeling of going somewhere. That's all."
"Okay. Get in."
The car started moving before he got the door closed. It roared in a U-turn down the street and back toward the highway. Boy-O threw his head back and watched the stars, but their action was too slow for him so he turned his head slightly and caught the lacy blue blur of trees flying against the wind. He held one hand outside the car and felt the wind push at it and stream through his spreading fingers.
They rode like that for miles, neither speaking, each of them waiting. For what? For the first insult.
"What happened back there?" she said finally.
"Didn't he tell you?"
"No."
"He told you. You may know a lot about men, Jeanni baby, but you're still a lousy liar."
"So he told me. Thank you. I was just trying to lead into the gratitude casually. Thanks for helping my little brother out."
"Forget it. I didn't do it for him any way. I just felt like a good good fight tonight, that's all. I didn't get it either. The jerk backed down."
"Do you often feel like fighting?"
"Look, Jeanni. Don't come on with me like you belong in this town. I mean, I know better and you know better, so you can stop lying and relax for a minute."
She laughed. "Got a cigarette?"
He gave her the pack and waited for her to ask him for a light. He was curious to see how far he could let himself go in the wooing game. It wasn't his style to light women's cigarettes. But he'd never met a girl like this one before.
She pushed in the lighter on the dashboard.
"You've had a whole three days to tip my parents off."
"Have you been counting?"
"Why didn't you?"
"That's not my type of revenge, sweetheart. If I wanted to do you in bad enough, I'd find some public way of doing it, so you could watch them suffer while the nice people turned their backs on the Jensens."
"I see. That's real smart of you."
"But don't worry. I won't. I owe your parents a favor."
"For what?"
"For not spitting on me when I was a kid."
"Why did you come back to this place if you hate it so much? Did you just get bored with bumming around the country? Or did you run out of lonely ladies?"
"You're cute. You're real cute."
"Sorry."
"I came back to...." Why didn't he finish? Why didn't he tell her that he had come home to pay off the lousy crumbs? Why did it seem suddenly like a gigantic waste of time?"
"When I was a kid, this town was mean to me. Man, this town was a closed door to me. And it was Boy-O this and Boy-O that, and fetch this and do that. They spit on me every way they knew how to and all so righteously, it makes me want to throw up. You want to know something? You want to know what my old lady said to me just before she kicked it?" The anger was coming stronger and he wasn't going to hold it back this time. "My old lady turned to me and said, "Don't feel bad, sonny, this is the luckiest thing that ever happened to me.' Can you beat that? My old lady was glad to die. Glad! She was delighted! They rubbed her nose in it. And they did it through me. God, they knew my old lady had too much guts to let them make her feel like dirt. So they had to hit me to get at her. And when she died she actually thought she was doing me a favor."
He clenched his fists and looked for someone to hit. Then he drove his hand home against the dashboard. The pain was pleasant.
"What happened then?"
"Nothing. Everything. What does it matter?" He smiled. , "It matters to you. They won, you know that as well as I do. You do think of yourself in their terms. Dirt." She laughed. "You see that, don't you?" She looked at him. "Oh, you sell yourself for a high price, I bet. Well why not? But studding for you is just proving that you are what they think you are, and that you like that. But you don't; you're not cut out for that."
"Tell me more, doctor."
"If you were what you pretend to be, you'd have taken a free punch at the guy back there. Instead of playing Sir Galahad."
"Are you a Lesbo?"
"What?"
"Come on, answer me?"
"Not me."
"Then why do you get such a kick out of putting me down?"
"Is that what I've been doing?"
"Are you going to pretend you don't know it?"
She shrugged.
"I'm going to tell you why you do it. It's because you want me, Jeanni baby, every bit as much as I want you. But you're afraid to admit it. For some reason you don't want to make out with a man you dig.
You're frightened. That's it. You're scared stiff. FH bet you've never made out with a man. I mean really made out. I bet that's only a business for you. Uh-huh. You know every trick in the book. Because that's good business."
"Don't be silly."
"That's why you put me down. Cause that makes you feel safer." He laughed, because he knew he would have her sooner or later, and knowing that, he could wait.
He watched her driving the car. Her hands curled casually around the steering wheel, but he felt them around his neck, felt those long thin fingers run down his back. He looked at her long slender neck and resisted an impulse to sink his teeth into the white flesh and feel the skin quiver beneath them. And he knew that she felt his glance on her body like a kiss. She shifted a little on her seat. His eyes swept down to her legs. They were strong muscular legs, and her hips were lithe and trim. This was going to be one hell of a ringding. He decided that he would leave the lights on, when he made her, so he could watch her face when she found how good that was.
"You want to drive a while?"
He wasn't going to fall for that. She wanted him to drive so he'd have to keep his eyes on the road. She liked having him look at her, but not too much. She was afraid. It was as simple as that.
"No."
"This is all a game, isn't this?"
"What?"
"This. Us. You and me. Oh, Stephen, why must...."
"The name is Boy-O."
She refused to notice his correction. "Why must we play games. Why can't we just trust one another. All right, I want you. Does that make you happy? And I am afraid. And I have never made out with a man. I always thought I was too wise at-you know-how to make them make out. Now you know all that and what are you going to do?"
"There's a motel two or three miles down this road. I passed it coming into town. Drive."
"And are you going to make me suffer because I told you that? Are you going to hate me like you hate that poor stupid girl you're living with? Is this going to be just another victory, in just another place?"
"I don't know. But with me, there's only been one rule. If you want something go after that, and if you're afraid of wanting that, go after that twice as much. Cause fear stinks. And it makes you a slave. Hey, dig me," he laughed. "Well, why shouldn't I come on like the old man of the mountains. That's true. There's nothing like being afraid of something to ruin it all."
"You didn't answer my question. What will you do afterward?"
"I don't know. How should I know? All you can do is take your chances and play it by ear. I do what I feel like, and I never know what I'm going to be feeling."
She turned to look at him, one searching glance to see if he was making fun of her. She couldn't tell. She had no way of knowing. For a minute she thought of Manelli. He'd have a god-awful laugh at the way she was carrying on; she was acting like she was eighteen again, and a virgin and not one of the most expensive pros in the country. And the funniest part of this was that someone from her home town had made her feel this way. That was the funniest part of all.
She pulled the car into the motel. Boy-O got out and winked at her. "Don't drive away while I'm inside there, you hear? Cause if you do, that won't change anything. This will happen anyway, and I'll be waiting."
She smiled at him. "We're running out of cigarettes. Get some more?"
He pointed his finger at her, and smiled again. Then he disappeared into the small office. Jeanni played with the dial on the radio. All the local stations were off the air except one, and that was playing mushy junk. She humed a sweet trumpet tune and looked at her hands. She was nervous and jumpy. She could imagine him with her already, and she knew she was going to Kke him.
"Number eight. The one at the end." He sat beside her again.
Without looking at him, she gunned the motor and threw the car into gear. She started and the tires dug into the gravel. She drove too fast for the short distance and the stop she made nearly threw them both through the windshield.
"Take that easy, Jeanni baby," he hollered. "You don't want to kill me before I have you, do you?"
"That would be a nice way out."
"Man, but wait till you know what you would have missed." He laughed again, and taking her hand helped her out of the car on his side.
The room was small. But the bed was nice and large. The owner obviously knew his clientele.
Boy-O turned on the lights and locked the door. He drew the curtains on the windows and then he turned to face her. She was standing just where she had when she came into the room. Her eyes were on the floor and a faint redness colored her cheeks. He walked over to her. One arm circled her waist and the other fell lightly on her rounded buttocks.
"Kiss me Jeanni baby, will you?" His voice was gentle.
She looked up at him, at his smiling lips. Carefully she ran her fingers through his hair. Then, closing her eyes, she let her mouth find his.
His lips were gentle as they traced the outline of her mouth and touched the soft opening of her lips. He glided slowly across the outline of her mouth and then kissed her deeply, teasing her to play with him. She sighed and pressed closer to him. Then she responded with her mouth.
He pulled her even closer to him. His hands teased their way under her sweater and unsnapped the clasp on her bra, then they ran freely on her back, feeling the smooth skin under them dance with the touch. She shivered in his arms.
He caught her up in his arms and carried her to the bed. He laid her on that fully dressed and sat beside her, looking at her body. She waited for him, smiling like a fat cat at what she knew was going to happen.
"Take off your sweater," he said. "Let me watch you."
She undid the buttons slowly, taunting him and laughing happily. His hand swooped down onto her breast and felt that quiver beneath him. He didn't want to wait any longer and he didn't want to have her yet, either. He tore at her skirt and her pants and her hands aided his, unbuttoning and unzipping as he pulled. And removed.
She was warm. His hands and his lips liked the feel of the soft skin. She cried out at his touch.
"Love me. Lie with me."
He stretched his body beside hers and his mouth bit at her pointed shivering breasts. They seemed to grow larger with each of his touches, growing and blossoming.
Her thin fingers circled and squeezed him and one of her arms wound around him, helping her to be closer against his body.
"Oh Boy-O, Boy-O." Her lips at his ear begged for what he wouldn't give her. Yet. "Yes, you're good. You're good."
"Sh, Jeanni. Quiet. Not yet. Make this last."
She grew quieter. He rolled onto his back and she kissed her wandering way along his body. He ran his fingers through her softly flowing hair.
"Go on. Don't worry. Oh, I won't yet"
"You don't have any hips," she laughed as her lips traced.
She was good, almost too good.
He pulled her to him by her hair and kissed her lips, her red full lips with all the force of denying her. Still denying her.
They rolled over and over, pressing their taut bodies against each other. He raised himself slightly, and smiled into her face. Her eyes were closed, her mouth slightly open and her breath fast as she gulped air. For a silent while they both waited, listening to the sounds of heartbeats. Then he took her and she sighed and her hands streamed through his hair. He watched her hard-breathing face, her smiling face, and then he too closed his eyes and moved again.
"Don't ever stop."
She worked with him and played every moving trick with him she'd ever learned, but with more pleasure than ever before, because that was good for her. That was better than that ever had been for her.
They found their rhythm together, each as good as the other, together and mounting and climbing, they pleased each other and faster and faster.
Until she screamed with the pleasure of that and then they hit the moon together and still not stopping worked through the vibrating fury. And. And still. A-gain. And again.
"Boy-O, kiss me. Don't ever stop. Don't ever leave me."
"Jeanni, baby. This is what this is supposed to be like. This is what they sing about."
"Sing to me, sing to me."
He sighed as she held him. He didn't leave her but held quietly, waiting for that to start again. As that would. As that had to.
When they left the motel the sun was up.
He drove her car like the wind to the edge of town. "I'll get out here. No sense in giving them more scandal about the Carters than they already have." He looked at her. She was more beautiful than ever. There were the softest circles under her eyes, the kind women get when they haven't slept the whole night. He kissed her on the tip of her nose.
She smiled. But she was holding her breath to see if he would say something about seeing her again.
"Don't worry, baby. It's all right. I just have got to finish off some things here. That's all. I've just got to finish my business."
"See you around."
"Sure. See you around."