Chapter 3

You going to spend the night here?" Sarah asked Trask. She was sitting on the edge of the bed and he was lying on his back smoking a cigarette. "Yeah," he said. "Did you want me to stay?"

Trask shrugged. His heavy shoulder muscles moved when he shrugged that way. They bulged. He had hitter's shoulders, the kind that slope slightly and are thick rather than wide. A little hair grew on his shoulders and a lot of hair grew on his chest. He was powerful and crudely built, as though he had been roughly carved instead of fitted together. He gave an impression of being as nearly indestructible as a man could be. This was true emotionally as well as physically.

"You don't seem very interested," she said. She was annoyed. Sarah hadn't been looking for love, and she didn't expect it, but she thought the least that he could do was to pretend he liked her a little. After all she hadn't charged him for that. It had been free and there was no reason why he should treat her like a hooker. She wished that she had asked him for five dollars.

"Stay if you like," he said. , "I think I'll go."

"All right."

"You're a good lover but you sure ain't very nice to a girl afterward, are you?"

"I don't suppose I am."

"Don't you like women?"

"I sleep with them sometimes."

"Yeah," she snorted. She got up and began to gather her clothes together. He watched her with narrowed eyes, the cigarette limp in his mouth. Perhaps he really didn't like women very well. He supposed that was true. But then, he liked no one very well. He couldn't think of any man that he liked. He liked women better than men, anyway. But they bored him. As soon as he had finished making love he wanted a cigarette and some peace. He was glad that the girl was not going to stay the night.

Sarah sat on the bed to put her stockings on.

She was very conscious of his watching her. She tried to look unconcerned and sexy at the same time, She fastened the stockings and then put on her brassier and stood up to pull the low-cut green dress over her head. He still looked at her. She put her high-heeled shoes on. There was a hole in the sole of one. "See you around," she said.

"Yeah. Take ten bucks out of my pants pocket and buy yourself a dress or something." She looked at him. "Sure," he said.

"I didn't sell that to you," she said. "I know. I wouldn't have paid ten dollars for it. No dame is worth ten dollars. Just take it as a present."

"Well, all right."

His pants were over the back of a chair. She reached in and took a roll of bills out. She took two fives and put the rest back. She took the fives over to the bed and held them out so he could see that she had not taken more. He nodded without really looking at the money.

"Funny guy," she said.

"Yeah. I'll see you around town."

"Thanks."

"Sure," he said.

Sarah paused a moment longer. She wished that he would ask her to stay. Ten dollars made up for a lot of shabby treatment and lost affection. And he was a good lover.

But he smoked and looked at her and said nothing.

She went out. She stopped and smiled at the door, an unsure smile. Then she closed the door behind her.

"Funny guy," she said to herself. She went down the hall and down the stairs. She wobbled just a little because her high heels were worn unevenly. When she wobbled past the desk the clerk smiled at her very lewdly.

"Leaving already?" he asked.

"Yeah."

"Will your ... friend ... be staying the night?"

"How should I know?"

Hubert grinned. He leered. It had only been a few minutes since he had seen her naked. He watched her wobble out the door and he pushed himself more tightly against the desk and pressed his hand more tightly to himself and watched the way her bottom moved from side to side. He thought that she was very nice. Almost as nice as a dancer or a showgirl.

"Hey, there's Sarah," Belle said. "She's alone. Maybe that guy won't be coming out after all. Maybe he's going to sleep there."

"You better ask her," Fee said. Belle nodded. She opened the door. "Be cool about it," he said.

She got out and started across the street. Sarah was walking down the other side. Fee watched. He thought Belle was much prettier than Sarah. She had a better body and she took more care with her hair. He thought that Belle was prettier than anyone he knew, except maybe Deacon's showgirl.

"Finished with that guy already?" Belle asked, when she caught up to Sarah. They knew each other pretty well.

"Yeah. All finished."

"Any good?"

"Yeah, he was good. A cold guy, though. Real hard and cold. But he made it good."

They started walking together.

"He gave me ten bucks too. I didn't ask him for any money, either. He just gave it to me."

"Say, that's all right."

"I'll buy you a drink if you want to stop down at the bar. I feel generous now."

"Well ... won't he be coming down?"

"No. He wants to sleep, I guess."

"He won't be coming out tonight?"

Belle sounded so disappointed that Sarah looked at her and laughed. Sarah was not a jealous type.

"You thinking about hustling him?" she asked.

"No, no. I just wondered...."

"Want that drink?"

"All right. I'll have to tell Ken, though. I'm supposed to meet him later. I'll see you at the bar in five minutes."

Sarah walked on and Belle came back and got in the car beside Fee. She looked very crestfallen.

Fee swore.

"He isn't coming out," she said. "He's going to sleep there."

"Ain't that just my luck!"

"I guess that means we can't go to the night club?"

"Yeah."

"Can't you go in the hotel and do it?"

"Are you crazy?"

"I don't see why you can't."

"Too dangerous."

"Well, if you really wanted to take me out you'd take the chance. It would be all right."

"No." he said. He swore again. It was a shame, after he had got his courage all built up, to lose the chance.

"I'm going down to the bar. Sarah said she'd buy me a drink. I'll see you later." He frowned.

"Well, it don't seem right to sit in the car because you can't get any money, either. I'm very disappointed about that. I'm going down to the bar."

Fee wondered if he should hit her. He weighed it in his mind. Sometimes hitting them had the right effect, but sometimes it just made things worse. And now he saw that she was very determined. He didn't think that hitting her would change her mind. It would just make her mad and then she might even do something to get even. Like going home with some other guy. Just out of spite, just to hurt him.

"All right," he said. "You wait for me at the bar. I'll get the money."

"I'll wait there."

She got out and closed the door. She smiled at him through the window. Then she went down the street. He waited for a few minutes and then he got out and slammed the door angrily. It would serve her right if he got in trouble, he thought. It would serve her right if he got arrested.

But he was going to take a chance.

Hubert looked up eagerly when the front door opened. Then he saw that it was only a man and he looked unhappy. Fee came over to the desk and leaned on it.

"What room has that big guy got?"

"Who?"

"The guy that came in here with Sarah. You know who I mean. That long-legged girl with long hair."

"Oh. Yes."

"Well? What room?"

"Are you a friend of his?"

Fee reached over the desk and grabbed Hubert's collar in one hand and pulled him half across the desk. Hubert squealed and squirmed. Fee slapped him across the face and dropped him and Hubert collapsed against the desk.

"What room?"

"Three-one-nine," Hubert said. He was terrified. It was almost as bad as the time the man had caught him looking through the keyhole.

Fee went toward the stairs.

"I hope there won't be any trouble...." Hubert said.

"If there is, you didn't see me come in. Under stand? You don't know who went up."

"All right," Hubert said.

"And fix your pants," Fee told him.

He walked up to the third floor.

"I don't know what you see in that Ken Fee." Sarah was telling Belle. They were sitting in a booth at the bar. They were the only girls in the place. A few men were drinking beer. One man was trying to look up Sarah's skirt and two men were trying to look up Belle's skirt. Neither girl cared much about that. Belle kept her legs a little closer together than Sarah, but that was just because her skirt was tighter. She admired Sarah's low neckline, though, and wished that her pink dress was made that way. She knew that Sarah didn't have a steady boy friend but she didn't suppose that the girl was jealous.

"I just like him, is all."

"He's a punk," Sarah said. She wasn't trying to annoy Belle, she was just honest.

"No, he isn't really. He's just unlucky."

"Haw!"

"He's going to get some money soon. You'll see."

"That will be the day."

"Oh, no, Ken is really pretty clever. And he's brave, too. He'll be taking me to The Golden Parrot later."

"That's a clip joint," Sarah said.

Sarah was much harder to impress than Belle. She was probably more intelligent, too. Not that she was any genius.

"I've never been there," Belle admitted. "But Ken will be picking me up soon."

"Sure," Sarah said.

Fee walked as quietly as he could down the hallway and stopped at the door of Trask's room. He waited there for a long time. It was a lot harder to do it this way, to walk right into the room, than it was to smack someone over the head in a dark alley when he walked past. He was determined to go ahead with the plan but he was worried. He thought about Belle, then, and imagined what might happen if he failed.

He imagined her letting another guy have her just out of spite. He could always cut the other guy later, but that wouldn't really make it better.

No. He had to rob Trask.

He got down on his knees and looked through the keyhole. He could see the bed. Trask was on the bed. He wasn't moving and-it looked like he was asleep. That would be fine. Maybe Fee would be able to rob him and get away without having him wake up. That would be even better than smacking him over the head in the alley. He held his breath and quietly opened the door.

What do you want, girls?" the barman asked.

He had come over to the booth to take the order. He had a towel slung over his shoulder. It was debatable which was filthier, the towel or his shirt. His neck, however, was filthiest of all. He was big and ugly and he usually made people order at the bar, but he was in a good mood tonight because he had won three dollars in the crap game. He was the only one, besides Trask, who had been ahead. It had been a good day for big, ugly men. The barman wasn't as big as Trask, but he was uglier.

"Belle?"

"Oh, anything."

The barman looked down Sarah's low-cut neckline where the line of cleavage disappeared.

"How about some gin? I like gin."

"Sure," Belle said. She held her breath and pushed her chest out so that the barman would notice that she had breasts too. She really had to alter that dress.

"Two gin and sodas," Sarah said.

"You just turn a trick?" he asked.

"It was a present."

"Sure it was," said the barman.

He glanced at Sarah and then back down the dress.

"That big guy that you left with don't give no presents away," he said. "I know. I just been shooting craps with him. He only smiles when someone goes broke."

"Someone should have hit him," Belle said.

"Nobody wanted any part of him."

I hope Ken doesn't get in trouble, she thought. She hadn't known that the guy was bad news. She felt sort of responsible for pushing Ken into it.

The barman went to get the drinks.

Oh, he'll be all right, she thought. Ken knows how to take care of himself.

Fee closed the door behind him very softly. He stood there with his back pressed against it for a long while. The room was musty. It was very still. The big figure on the bed did not move at all. He didn't even seem to be breathing. He must have really got worn out on Sarah, Fee thought. This should be real easy. Like taking candy from a baby.

He advanced one step.

The neon light flashed. The figure on the bed went red, gray, red.

He sure is big, though, Fee thought.

He came up to the chair. Trask's pants were hung over the back of the chair. He took them and felt in the pocket. He felt a wad of money and drew it out. It was a pretty good wad and he felt his heart thump with success.

Real easy, he thought.

"Find something interesting?" asked Trask, as he slowly got up from the bed.

"He won't show up to take you anywhere," Sarah said. "I'd bet on that. If he did get any money he wouldn't be thinking about taking you out. That's how men are. When they got empty pockets they come around and when they got plenty of money they look for something new."

"Not Ken. I don't think...."

"Don't bet on it. Men are all the same. It's enough to make a girl turn Lesbian sometimes."

Sarah was still disappointed that Trask had not asked her to spend the night. But when she said that about Lesbians she saw that Belle gave her a funny look. She wasn't at all sure what the look meant, though.

"Don't get up!" Fee said.

He had the knife out. It opened with a clink. It was a big knife and he held it well in front of him with the sharp edge facing up. It flashed red in the neon and it looked very deadly and very large.

But Peter Trask got up.

"I've got steel!" Fee said. "I need this money. If you try to stop me I'll cut your eyes out."

Trask was smiling. He reached down and took the pillow from the bed and held it in his left hand. His left hand and his left foot were forward, like a boxer. He came toward Fee. Fee backed away.

"I'm telling you...."

"This game is faster than craps," Trask said. "This is a bigger game, man."

He held the pillow out and he carried his right hand open at shoulder level.

"All right, keep the money," Fee said.

"Oft, I will."

"Here, take it!"

Fee tossed the wad of bills toward Trask. They hit the pillow and fluttered to the floor. Trask hadn't tried to catch them. He hadn't moved at all. Fee had planned to strike then, but there had been no opening. Now the money did not look so important. Even with a knife, he couldn't be sure. Trask was big. And he was smiling.

"I'll leave," Fee said.

"Oh, no," Trask said. "You'll have to finish what you've started now."

Fee was at the door but he didn't dare turn to open it. He reached behind him with his left hand and tried to find the doorknob. He kept the knife pointing at Trask. Trask stepped in and feinted with the pillow. Fee didn't go for it. He had the doorknob now and he turned it. But the door opened in and he was too close to swing it past his body now. And he was scared. Fee was very frightened now.

"Are you crazy?" he asked.

His voice quavered.

"A little," Trask said. "Maybe a little...."

"You never really thought about turning Lesbian, did you?" Belle asked Sarah. She looked down at her drink.

"You sound interested," Sarah said.

"Oh, I ... just wondered...."

Sarah smiled. She saw that Belle was a little embarrassed, and it was amusing to see a girl like her show embarrassment. Sarah said, "Everyone wonders about that sometimes."

"I suppose they do."

"Sure. Haven't you?"

"I ... guess I've wondered what that was like. But I've never done anything like that. Have you?"

"Sure," Sarah said.

"Really?" Belle asked. She had forgotten her embarrassment by now.

Sarah sipped her gin. She turned a little on the seat and the men at the bar had to get down a little lower in order to look up her dress.

"Never much," Sarah said. "I used to fool around a little with a friend when I was a kid. And when I was in jail last year for smacking a guy with a bottle there was a little Lesbian there that used to get all the girls. But that was just because there were no men there."

"Was it fun?"

"Oh, it was all right."

"What do girls do?"

"Oh, lots of things. It used to be more fun with my friend than it was with the girl in jail. That was because we were friends and liked each other. In jail it was just a question of getting kicks. And all the other girls were waiting their turn. It's all right, though."

"Aren't you ashamed to tell people about it?"

"Why should I be?"

"Well ... isn't it wrong?"

"Isn't everything?"

"Yeah. You don't have to feel ashamed telling me, though. I didn't mean that."

"Sure. You're curious." Belle finished her drink. "You'd probably like to try that."

"I don't know."

"Just to see what it's like?"

"I guess so."

"You probably will, someday."

"Maybe. Someday when I ain't going with Ken any more. If it just sort of happens."

"We'd better have another drink," Sarah said. She looked toward the bar. Everyone looked back toward her. And Belle looked at her across the table and thought that it must be nice to be so experienced and not to be ashamed about things.

She also thought that Sarah was pretty.

But she was waiting for Fee.

He would be along any minute, she knew.

Fee lunged.

Like a trapped rat, he struck. He pushed the knife before him and stepped in, but Trask was fast. As big as he was, he was fast. He had a minimum of motion, no wasted effort. He took the knife in the pillow, raising his left hand and then shoving it hard to the side. The sharp blade cut though and stuck and Trask twisted pillow and knife and Fee's arm at the same time.

Fee hit with his left hand toward the head. It landed high and bounced off. Trask put his right hand into the belly and his fist went deep, crushing Fee's stomach in and driving him against the door. His mouth jumped open as he fought to get his breath and Trask gripped his arm and twisted the knife away from him. Fee tried to raise his knee but Trask caught it with his foot and hit Fee in the body again. Fee fell to his knees.

All the fight had gone out of him. There hadn't been very much to begin with. Trask took him by the hair and twisted his face around and smiled at him. He had the knife now and he showed it to Fee, holding the point right up against his eyeball.

"What was that you said about cutting eyes out?" he asked.

"I didn't mean it...."

Trask pulled him to his feet, holding him by the hair. Fee looked as though he were going to cry. He held one hand up in front of him like a shield.

Trask laughed.

He threw the knife aside. It clattered on the floor and went under the bed.

"I wouldn't really have cut you...." Fee was saying.

Trask hit him in the solar plexus.

Fee couldn't fall. Trask was holding him up by the hair. But his body stopped working and his legs collapsed and he hung like a rag doll from Trask's hand, like a puppet on many strings. Trask looked at him for a while. He raised him higher and turned him. Trask seemed to be amused.

Then he hit Fee again.

And again.

Fee blacked out then. Trask let him fall. He lay down and after a moment he vomited. Trask frowned at this and kicked him in the ribs. Then he picked him up by the collar and opened the hall door. He dragged Fee down the hall in the opposite direction from the stairs. Fee was conscious, he understood where he was and what was happening, but he was powerless to move. Those body blows had paralyzed him. He gasped and sobbed for breath and Trask dragged him to the end of the corridor.

There was a window there. Trask opened it wide. Fee tried to speak. The only sound he could make was a wheeze. Then Trask began to shove him out the window. He didn't throw him out, he just put him out carefully.

He put his head out and then his shoulders. Fee began to struggle and squirm. But he was helpless. He looked down. There was a dark alley below. They were on the third floor and the window faced an alley. Fee wondered, with a strange clarity, whether the alley was paved or not. It mattered a great deal. Trask had him all out now and was holding him by the ankles and at last his voice came back.

"You'll kill me!" he said.

"Ha, ha," Trask said.

"Don't!"

"Say please," Trask said. "Please, please, please."

"Ha, ha," Trask said, and he dropped Fee out the window and leaned out to see him fall.

He was quick to anger, this Peter Trask.

Trask looked down at the dark figure in the alley and nodded to himself and went back to his room to get some sleep. He picked the money up but he left the knife on the floor. He put the money back in his pants pocket where it was safe. He soon fell asleep.

"I wonder where he is?" Belle said, looking at the clock that rotated behind the bar.

"If he's got money he's out chasing some blonde," Sarah told her. "But that punk never had any money. You want to have another drink in this dump?"

"I don't care."

"Let's go somewhere else. I'm sick of letting these guys look up my dress."

"I told Ken I'd wait here."

"He won't be here. He ditched you."

"Maybe he did."

She looked at the clock again. The hands hadn't moved since the last look.

"Let's go back to my place. I've got a bottle there. That's cheaper than drinking here and it's more comfortable. Not much more, but a little. I just live around the corner. If you want to, that is...."

"Well, all right, if I can stop at Ken's car, maybe, and leave a note or something."

"Sure," Sarah said.

They left. The men all turned and faced the bar and looked bored and waited for some more women to come in.

In the alley Fee gritted his teeth in pain. Every thing was turning within his head. He had turned over as he fell and landed on his back and he knew that he was lucky to be alive. He was not at all sure but that he might die yet, however. He couldn't tell how badly he was injured. The alley had been dirt and gravel and stone. Fee knew that his left leg was broken because it was doubled up the wrong way. He was pretty sure that his ribs were broken, too. That might have been from the punches or the fall or both. But he couldn't tell what else was wrong and he stayed there, afraid to try to move. He was afraid he might just fall apart.

"He isn't in the car!" Sarah nodded.

"I'll just run in the hotel for a minute. I'll be right back out."

Belle crossed the street and went into the hotel. The clerk smiled at her and pushed against the desk. His clothes were fastened now. He was too nervous about what was going on upstairs to get much pleasure from his memories and his dreams.

"Did Ken Fee come in here?" she asked.

Hubert blinked. He knew this was Fee's girl. She must have come to test him, he thought. To see if he could keep his mouth shut.

"No, he hasn't come in all night."

Belle went out. She looked disappointed. He hadn't even tried to get the money. Hadn't even tried. He had lied to her about it, he never intended to get it.

I'm through with him, she thought. Sarah is right about him. She's right about, all these men.

And thinking that, she looked at Sarah standing by the old Ford waiting for her.

And she began to think other things.

They walked down to Sarah's and went in. It was three flights up a dark hallway staircase with a crooked banister. But it wasn't too bad inside, as far as apartments in this area went. Belle thought it was comfortable.

The two windows in the apartment, one in the kitchenette and one in the bedroom, both faced east and caught the morning sunshine, but by afternoon the sun had passed over the building and it wasn't too hot in the living room. It was just a little humid and the air smelled like stale coffee, cigarette butts, dust and age, but that wasn't so bad. A lot of places smelled worse, as both girls well knew, in their neighborhood.

Sarah turned on a lamp that had a cream and maroon plastic shade with the melted part turned toward the wall. The hole made a round spot of light on the wall, and the maroon part of the shade made striped light patterns on the brownish pink walls. It was an absurd lamp. The base was a crockery maiden in a Statue of Liberty pose, naked except for a garland of posies draped, constrictor like, about her buttocks and breasts. Belle noticed the lamp, but reserved comment. She thought it was awfully odd of Sarah, in view of their previous conversation, to have nude statuary decorating the living room.

The couch was in bad shape and was covered with a metallic bedspread of an indeterminate violet shade. It was stained with spills and whatnot, but not so's you'd notice unless you looked closely. The wing chair was brown and morose, and the fireplace had been blocked up with fiberboard and that had been covered with color photographs cut from men's magazines. One was of a girl being whipped across the breasts, another of a naked girl in a bear trap, and so on. Belle didn't ask about the pictures, either. She wondered, though, whether Sarah had pasted the pictures up, or whether the previous occupant had done it. But she didn't suppose that it made a great deal of difference.

There were various odd tables and chairs stuck in corners to fill up the empty spaces. This had been done on the part of the landlord with the mistaken idea that a full room looks more inviting than an uncrowded one. It also saved him paying storage for what wasn't in use.

Sarah went into the kitchenette and opened the tiny refrigerator.

"There's a couple of cans of beer in here and some Scotch in the cupboard," she called in to Belle who had arranged herself on the couch.

"Oh, Scotch for me, Sarah. My, I think you have a nice place. Very comfortable. My place is so small. If I could find a nice flat like this one, I'd move right away."

Sarah got out some ice cubes and put them into a bowl. Then she got down two juice glasses from the cupboard and poured them a quarter full of the brown liquid while Belle chattered away in the other room. She took down a cream pitcher and filled it with tap water, then took the whole load in to where Belle was sitting with her legs up and her skirt high.

"This is real elegant," Belle said in a high, silly voice, not meaning to sound silly.

"Don't be silly," said Sarah.

"I mean it. It's real nice of you to invite me up here like this. Just us two girls. Who needs old Ken Fee? Not me."

"You're right there," said Sarah, shaking her head with a fed-up look on her face.

"Did you like that what I just said? Ken Fee, not me ... rhymes," she twittered brightly. Her eyes were a little too bright, like someone with a fever.

"Cheers," Sarah said, lifting her glass. Belle did the same and they both drank, then lighted cigarettes. Belle studiously posed herself like a vamp of the thirties. She stretched her legs out and arranged her short skirt above her knees, crooked her arm and rested her pointed chin in her hand while the other, the hand with the cigarette, trailed languorously along the back of the couch. Her blue eye-shadow-smeared eyelids dropped seductively and she looked smolderingly at Sarah.

"Don't tell me," said Sarah, drily. "You're trying to win my heart, aren't you?"

"How did you guess?" answered Belle in a voice that she thought was very sexy, sort of like a foghorn.

She was a little drunk. She wasn't used to drinking much. Ken never had enough money, and the guys that bought her drinks in the bars weren't all that generous.

She was testing Sarah, too. She didn't think Sarah would actually do anything out of desire, and she was a little curious, though she didn't want to mention it. She wanted to try what it was that girls did without having to suggest it herself. She was afraid she would be embarrassed, or that Sarah would say she didn't feel like it. And she was feeling sensual after what she had done for Ken in the car, and from talking to Sarah, seeing those pictures on the board in front of the fireplace.

"You're looking very tempting, Belle," said Sarah kiddingly. "Is that for my benefit?"

"You'll never know," said Belle tritely, laughing and showing her teeth. Her laugh erupted in short spurts that sounded slightly hysterical.

"I'll bet," Sarah said and put out her cigarette.

"Well, we don't have to do anything," said Belle looking suddenly disappointed and wishing she hadn't said anything in the first place.

"Oh, that's it," Sarah said as if it were a complete surprise. "Honey, I don't mind at all. It's up to you."

"Oh, in that case...." Belle blushed a little and looked pleased once more. "Do you suppose you could come over here a minute, Sarah?"

The other girl got up and went over to her. "What can I do for you?"

Belle thought it would be a good idea to have some sort of excuse, just in case Sarah changed her mind, and then she wouldn't be embarrassed. And besides she wasn't sure if she approved of such things, and an excuse would help things to just sort of happen.

"Do you think we could remodel the neck of this dress?"

Sarah looked at it, looked at where Belle's breasts pushed at the material, and nodded her head.

"I suppose so," she said. "What did you have in mind?"

"Oh, something like yours. You know, so it would show that I've got boobs, too. It makes me seem so flat to have the neck way up here." She made a slashing motion with her hand where the neckline rose to.

Sarah put her hand on Belle's shoulder and turned her around.

"It's not impossible, I guess. Wait a minute, I'll get the scissors and we'll experiment."

"Don't wreck the dress, will you?" called Belle fearfully, thinking perhaps she had gone too far.

"Don't worry, I won't."

Sarah came back with the scissors. "It's going to be hard because of the zipper in back but we can fix that, I bet. You want it low in the back, too, don't you?"

"Well, not below where my bra comes, because I've only got this one. I'm going to get one of those strapless ones pretty soon, though. They've got some that are like half moons, that just go underneath your boobs and hold them up and don't cover the tips, you know?"

"Yeah. I haven't got a strapless either. If my bra shows, I just take it off. Nothing looks messier than having your dirty old straps sticking out of your dress. Hold still and let me try something."

Sarah inserted the scissors in a seam in the shoulder of the dress and began to snip. Belle liked the feeling of Sarah's hands on her. She shivered.

"Hold still. I've almost got it. You know how to sew?"

"Not too good. Don't matter," mumbled Belle.

"Well, can you turn the edge over and stitch it after I get it cut the way you want it?"

"Yeah. I can do that. I worked in a laundry once. You have to be able to do that in a laundry."

Sarah's scissors snipped down over the right breast to where Belle's cleavage was, then the scissors went up the other side. The result was a long V with one side not quite even with the other. It was low enough, though, and Belle's cleavage showed dark between her medium-sized breasts.

"I'll have to even up the sides," said Sarah. "Looks pretty good, though. Better than before."

Belle looked down the front of her dress and was pleased to see how much of her breasts showed Nobody would be able to say she didn't have anything now. She felt much more confident. She took a deep breath so Sarah could see that she really did have a good figure after all, in spite of the dress.

Sarah began snipping away at the back. She cut it in a V, too, then she decided it would look better rounded a little, so she snipped away at the sides until they were as nearly even as she could get them. She cut right through the zipper.

When at last she was finished cutting, she took Belle into the bedroom and got them two more drinks to celebrate the new dress. Belle looked in the mirror and was astounded. She hadn't known how much Sarah was taking off the top of her good second-hand dress, but she couldn't have been more pleased. She though! she looked positively ravishing.

"You're a dressmaking genius," she chortled. She put her hands under her breasts and lifted them ... they bulged over the newly cut top of the dress. "You can sure see them now. Look, Sarah, don't they look nice?"

Sarah looked at the white mounds. "Very lovely,' she said. "Why don't you take your brassiere off. I think it holds you in too much."

"Do you?" Belle giggled. "All right. Do the back for me, will you?"

Sarah reached inside the dress and unhooked the bra. Her fingers followed the straps up and over Belle's shoulders.

"Do the straps unhook here?" she asked as her fingers dipped inside the size B cups. Belle nodded and gulped and Sarah unfastened the straps and pulled the bra out of the dress without Belle having to take it off.

Belle's breasts stood out and the nipples were growing rigid from having the material of the bra pulled across them. They held the front of the dress out nicely. Belle beamed.

"Sure looks nice, honey," Sarah complimented. "Look here, this is what you should do to finish off the edges."

She began folding the edges over in front and rubbing her hands over Belle's breasts while she did it. The nipples were hard knots pushing through the material. Belle watched Sarah's hands, fascinated, and fearing to move lest Sarah stop.

"You got any straight pins? To pin this and show you how it should go? Then you can take the dress off and we'll sew it. Sure makes a big difference, those inches taken off, I mean. And the bra, too. It makes you look real nice, being able to see how much you've got."

Belle's eyes were shining and her cheeks were bright with the flush of success and the beginning of passion. She took a deep breath and held her breasts out while Sarah rubbed her hands on them. She said she didn't have any pins, only hair clips, and pulled one out of the intricate tangle that her hair had become. Sarah took the clip and tried to fasten the material with it, but she dropped it down the bodice of the dress and reached in after it.

Belle bent over so her breasts would fall against Sarah's searching hand It felt good to have them touched and stimulated in that accidental way. So much nicer than the pinching and squeezing that men were so sure you liked. She held Sarah's hand against her breasts and began to move her body from side to side. She shut her eyes and felt the warmth of desire filling her insides and making her head whirl.

"Maybe you ought to take your dress off so you don't make the edges ravel," Sarah said. Her voice was hoarse and her breath was coming quickly. She opened and closed her hand on Belle's breasts and the other woman sighed.

"Yeah, maybe." She looked dreamily at Sarah and kicked her shoes off.

"Want me to help you?" Sarah put her arms around Belle and fumbled for the zipper that was in the back. The two women were face to face and Belle's mouth was pink and moist and open. Her tongue moved slowly over her lower lip and her eyes were half shut. She was wishing Sarah would kiss her. Just to see how it would feel.

Sarah put her mouth against Belle's and tightened her arms around her. Belle returned the embrace. Their mouths lay together lightly at first. The feeling was strange ... soft, somehow, and very nice. More so than with a man. Then it was just lust and very seldom any tenderness, just passion.

Their lips pressed closer together, Belle's lipstick tasting like raspberries to Sarah. Their mouths open ed against each other more, their tongues touched together, and an electric current seemed to pass between them. Then their tongues moved whipping each other with the lash of desire.

When they parted, they were both a little breathless. Sarah unfastened the damaged zipper on her friend's dress and helped her to get out of it. She lay it over the high bedstead and went back to Belle. She took the elastic top of her half slip and pulled it slowly down, watching Belle's face for any sign of apprehension. She saw nothing but the glaze that dulled Belle's eyes now, and the brilliant color of her cheeks.

Belle stepped out of the blue nylon garment and stood patiently while Sarah unsnapped her garters and slid the black nylon stockings from her legs.

"Take off your garter belt, honey," Sarah said softly. "Then you can help me. Okay?"

Belle murmured that she'd love to and dropped her blue garter belt on the floor. She helped Sarah squirm out of the tight dress and hung it on the end of the bed with hers. Sarah didn't wear a bra and her breasts hung just a little from their weight. Her nipples were pinkish brown and the centers were beginning to bud. The outside wasn't raised yet. Her breasts looked soft and full, and Belle couldn't take her eyes from them.

Sarah took off the rest of her clothes including her bikini panties. She stood naked in front of Belle and drank the little bit that was left in her drink.

Belle was squeezing her legs together in impatience.

"Sarah?" said Belle softly. "Are we going to do anything? Like you said?"

"Do you want to?" asked Sarah.

"Oh, yes. I want to right now." Belle's hands came up from her sides and pressed against her stomach. She was yearning for Sarah. Her breasts tingled to be touched again.

Sarah sat down on the edge of the bed. It squeaked and sank under her weight. Belle came over and perched beside her. Sarah put her arm around in front of Belle and put her hand on the girl's waist, gently pushing her back until they were lying side by side on the sway-backed bed. Sarah lay on her side and Belle, after a nudge from Sarah, turned to face her.

Their lips met again, not gently this time, but full of passion. Sarah put her hands on Belle's breasts and Belle put her hands up and began to rub her palms along the contours of Sarah's swelling cones.

"Yours are nice, Sarah," she said, her breath coming in little pants.

"Would you like to kiss them?" Sarah said. "It feels good that way."

"If you want me to."

Sarah raised herself up a little and held out her breasts to Belle who moved her head close to them. Belle's kiss lashed against a nipple and she could feel it swell as if it might burst. Sarah was beginning to move her body against Belle's leg.

"That's nice," she said. "Don't stop."

She moved her hands to Belle's buttocks and began to stroke them in a circular motion. Belle moved closer to Sarah. Her legs felt warm and damp. She held herself against Sarah as Sarah moved, their bodies meeting and separating. Then Sarah held Belle tight to her and moved in a circle. Belle put her hands where her kiss had been and held Sarah's breasts against her own.

Sarah put her hand on Belle's legs and touched her gently, knowing that her touch brought desire. Then she rolled over onto her back and pulled Belle to her.

"Kiss me," she said.

Their mouths met in a frenzy of darting, lashing tongues. Sarah put her hands in Belle's hair, loosening it so that it fell down with a shower of clips and pins about their faces. It smelled like perfumed hair lacquer, and the sweet smell filled their quivering nostrils like an aphrodisiac.

Their hands roved over each other's bodies with abandon, touched all the secret places, setting forth passion and desire. Sarah arched to meet Belle's body. Her arms came up over the other girl's back and encircled her, forcing their bodies as close together as was possible. Belle's hands clasped on Sarahs buttocks and held her. They moved together. They began the long climb together, spiraling upward, the thrill seeming to flow from one to the other, as though there were no barriers between their bodies.

And then their bodies, together, yielded to their need.

A little later, Belle said, "I'm glad that Ken didn't show up for me, Sarah. I never knew how good that was, this way. I don't care about him any more at all. I don't care what he does or where he is."

The policeman, strolling past the alley beside the cheap hotel, banging his nightstick along the wall, heard a moan. He stopped. He heard the moan again. He peered down the alley, loosening his gun and holding his stick ready.

"Help!" Fee called, feebly.

"Obviously a trap," said the cop.

He walked on. It was understandable, because this was a bad section for cops. Perhaps, later, he might tell his relief to look but he wasn't going alone into an alley. He walked along and his stick drummed on the walls and the fences, and if he drummed until the sound went beyond the stars, this cop was not going down that alley.