Chapter 5
Polly was hurt, but Dick's note made it clear that he'd stood her up this afternoon only so that he could be ready for her tonight.
That was good.
She'd be ready for him too ... and she hoped he'd handle what was coming, because she might need him to handle it for both of them She was going to fuck him tonight, and that was it. She was going to do it ... to hell with bananas, cucumbers brush handles ... she was going for the big meat tonight, and if that sonofabitch couldn't take it, well then, she'd ... she'd ... she'd slash her wrists on his front porch, that's what she'd do.
Okay, okay, that's a little grim Maybe she'd ease up on the theatrics.
But that cocksucker had better not let her down at the single most important moment of her entire life or else she'd be hopelessly and irrevocably scarred and she'd join a convent or maybe the Army or go to New York and become a practicing lesbian (she understood they were organized up there) or something equally drastic which she hadn't had time to think about but which she knew would occur to her if and when she needed it God forbid that she ever should.
Let's see ... what books for the weekend?
Algebra ... History (Ooooo that weird wonderful Mr. Randall she'd been trying to keep her thighs dry all day long and thought of him made it impossible!) and maybe her literature book (and what the hell was Ms. Perkins' story anyway. She should get together with Mr. Randall).
Wait a minute. Could it be?
Once again eerie music started to play in her brain and she felt a little dizzy, not scared, mind you, just a little dizzy, having made a connection that moments earlier would have been utterly impossible ... and now that it was made, seemed utterly logical, the brain needed a moment to readjust to the rapidly altered landscape.
She shut her locker and slipped her lock into place.
What? she wondered, annoyed, when it fell back open. She shoved it again, heard it click, but once more it refused to hold fast.
"Oh damn!" she said, angrily. This would never do. She couldn't leave her locker opened all weekend long. There were some very personal items in here, and it wouldn't do!
She tried once more ... and once more the lock refused to close. She spun the combination dial, but to no avail.
"OH HELL!! " she cried.
There was a noise behind her.
"You be having a problem, ya?" said the kindly voice of Mr. Svensen.
She still jumped, nonetheless. Her heart was pounding in her breast. "Mr. Svensen. Yes ... I ... I can't get it shut "
"Ah ya ... ya...." he muttered, spinning it. "Well, no matter, I get you a new one."
"You can do that?"
"Ya shore," he said thickly. "No problem.
You come wit me eh?" He signalled her to follow him, turned and shuffled out of the locker pavilion.
"But ... but...." she said. He paid no attention. She really didn't want to leave the locker opened all weekend. She followed him out
"One more for the road."
"Sure. How about two. Or three. Or maybe four."
"You're a damn glutton about everything, aren't you? "Randy asked Toni.
"Only the good things darling."
"Mmmmmm," he said, ambivalently.
She snorted a spoonful ... then another ... then another ... and another ... and another....
She was already so wired she could have lit Chicago.
"I really appreciate you giving me this out of your own stash," she told him "I'll make it up."
"Capitalist pig. ""You said it doll."
She begged one last toot and then gave him a kiss "Let me give you a call when I get back doll," she suggested.
"Don't bother," Randy said, starting his car.
"I'm going home and I'm going to sleep for the next week."
She smiled. "Silly boy. I'll wake you up."
He muttered something not even he could have translated and drove off. She climbed into her car and headed back the other way, cutting through the campus to get back to Copeland street. As she drove through the mostly snowbound grounds she thought about how wonderful it would be to get out of Conrad J. Sapp Memorial High School, and to get out of Sludge Falls altogether to head to New York, or maybe a good college somewhere back east. She wasn't sure. She just knew she was tired of getting her jollies with clowns like Randy, nice but limited, or snatching a moment or two with the-likes of Dick Wilson ... speaking of whom. there was his steady lady, Pretty Polly Pritikin which rolled off Toni's tongue as a single word, like the name of a doll.
Toni wondered if she had a cunt.
She also wondered why she was still at school at this hour.
And she also wondered where the girl was going with Svensen.
And then she promptly forgot about Polly, Dick, Randy, Conrad J. and the rest of the low-rents here in Sludge Falls and thought about J.R. Rodgers up at Rollins College, and his ten inch cock, and his frat house, and the fan-fucking-tastic time she was going to have.
"Ick! The floor's all wet." said Polly, hanging back.
Svensen turned around, chuckled, muttered something that might have been Swedish or it might have been Martian, for all Polly could understand.
He waited. Then, getting impatient he said "You be here! Ya!" He stamped his foot and pointed to some vague space beside him. She walked through the shallow pool of water.
"God is there another stairway?" she asked. "Where are we going?"
"You get lock--lock ... eh?" He chuckled, a deep rumbling kind of sound that made her nervous.
They were moving now through a realm she'd never known existed. She'd never thought about Svensen, where he worked, what he did. She'd never cared. She was more than annoyed that she was having to confront it now.
There seemed to be more and more pipes running overhead.
It was warm and humid down here as well. "Are we there yet?" she asked, not bothering to mask her impatience.
He turned around. The kindly old smile was gone. In its place was a pinched look and anger and annoyance.
"You complain a lot," he said, forming phrase that was a lot closer to real English than she'd ever heard him speak before.
"Look, this is absurd! I don't even think you have locks down here," she said. "I think you're just leading me on a wild goose chase."
He chuckled again. "Ya? That is yours to think, little girl. "He turned and walked on.
She stopped, waited, and then, turning around and not having the faintest idea which way was out, followed him
They descended the last stairway into shadows and increasing heat and humidity.
"It's awfully warm down here." she said to him.
"Ya ... it is warm down here." he agreed, shuffling on ahead of her.
There seemed to be strange noises now ... rumbling sounds ... blowing sounds, as if a mighty wind.
"What is that?" she asked.
"Der boiler. " he replied. He turned to look at her. "What did you think? This is my place.
There was a strange look in his eye. As if he wasn't quite willing to focus on her.
"Look, what are we doing down here? This must be at least two floors beneath the school. I don't think you have any locks. You're just playing games with me."
"Oh? Is that what old Svensen's doing with the pretty young girl? Is he just playing games?"
There was a sarcastic tone to his voice, one she certainly had no desire to humor.
"Excuse me, but I'm leaving. This is absurd. And you can just bet that I'm going to report this the first thing on Monday morning. And my parents are going to hear about this as soon as I get home."
He looked puzzled, hurt.
"You be what?" he babbled, again falling into tortured phrases that meant nothing.
"You heard me. You're playing games with me. I don't believe you even have a lock down here for me. What are you bringing me here for anyway?"
He stared at her. His thick eyebrows arched into a frown.
"So go." He waved her away with his hand, dismissing her as if he were one of her teachers
What do you mean, "go"? " she asked, now annoyed at the casual, almost insolent tone he was taking with her
"Easy to translate. Go. Leave. You bother me."
He turned away. "Just a second!" He kept walking.
"Do you know who my father is?"
Svensen turned around. "Ya. He's a man cursing fate for sending him a daughter such as you."
"Why, you insolent, ignorant moron," she sneered.
Svensen walked back to her.
For a second, she thought he was going to hit her. She wasn't afraid of him As are as she was concerned, the man had already lost his job. This was unthinkable!
"You leave now." he said, softly.
"How come you don't have as much of an accent some times, as other times?" she asked.
"GO! GET! You bother me. You waste my time. Svensen has much to do."
"What about my lock," she asked.
He stared at her, and said "You want lock? Svensen give you a good lock. Ya. He has many fine locks. You like, ya?"
"What are you talking about?"
And then, seized by a fit of anger, or perhaps fear, or maybe a combination of both she whirled on her heels and said "NEVER MIND!" and stalked back up the steps.
She found herself amid a maze of pipes, dimly lit. the light growing more and more faint by the second.
It must be late. It would be dark soon. She was frightened all of a sudden. She didn't know how to get out of here.
"HELP!" she cried.
No answer.
"HELP! MR. SVENSEN. EM SORRY! PLEASE HELP ME!! "
She listened. The roaring sound she'd heard earlier was no longer. The flame of the boiler, in a down cycle, no doubt. All she heard was the creak of the building settling around her. A dripping noise from a leaky pipe ... and nothing else.
"HELP!! " she cried again "I'M LOST! ! "
She peered down the long room through which they'd just come, but she could see nothing in the shadows now. The pipes above her head receded into the darkness and vanished.
She cried out one more time.
"HEEEEEEEEEEELLLLLLLLLP--! "
A hand clamped over her mouth.
"You're disturbing Svensen," said a voice. It was a calm voice Lightly accented. Calm collected ... in control.
"You must stop disturbing Svensen."
Polly was at first so hopeless startled she went limp. Fear hadn't even struck her yet. Simply a glaring incomprehensibility.
His callused skin rubbed like steel wool over her tender lips and cheeks. His Fingers were hard, strong, firm.
He closed her mouth off completely. No sound could escape. She could scarcely breathe.
"You disturb Svensen," he said, softly, though his breathing seemed labored now. "You all disturb Svensen. You ignore him, don't you? You pay him no heed. He plays your game and acts ignorant he performs to your expectations does he not. You have no idea what Svensen really is, do you ... do you? You have no way of comprehending do you?"
It was the voice ... but the words. They were incredible. Svensen could scarcely speak at all. And yet....
She started to feel the black bile of fear filling her stomach. Her legs went limp.
She was afraid she would wet her panties in panic.
"You have no respect for Svensen, do you? No ... heh, heh. You don't even see him ... unless you need something. Clean this up, fix that, get me a lock. Well, my sweet little thing ... I'll get you a lock. I'll lock you good and tight and no one will ever think to look for you down here because old Svensen, he's just a doddering fool, isn't he? He doesn't know a thing. Does he? He's just a clown, who can't even speak the language. You all think that. You're all wrong. "
He's crazy, thought Polly to herself. He's mad as a hatter.
He started to drag her back toward the stairs she'd just ascended.
That was the trigger that sent her muscles into furious if futile, reactions.
She screamed, uselessly, into his powerful hand.
He carried her one hand clamped over her mouth, his other arm slipped underneath her own, lifting her right off the floor.
Legs kicking viciously, she managed to connect with his shins on at least one occasion ... but it had as much effect as one pair of hands in a stadium of applause.
"You think I don't see? Is that it? You think I don't know? You think I'm invisible? Well I'm not. This is Svensen's lair. He lives down here, little girl. You never bother to wonder. You think, surely he must go home at night. Well, you're wrong. Someone else goes home at night Svensen stays. Svensen stays right here and waits for me. Svensen is a friend of mine ... useful ... but not me. Svensen is like a shirt ... and now, you see me without my shirt, little girl. And you think I'm afraid of you? Nonsense. I fear no one. They've tried to catch me for years, decades, but they've failed ... and you know why? Because they would never think to look for doddering old Svensen. That's why."
She listened, disbelieving.
It was a nightmare, of course, one that certainly had to end. Didn't it? Didn't children always hear that at their mother's knee ... it's only a dream ... it's only a dream ... you're awake now ... you're safe
Polly wanted to wake up.
Unfortunately, it was becoming all to clear to the terrified girl that this was real, she was doomed to endure whatever this twisted mutant refugee from God knows what planet felt like giving her.
He tossed her to the floor.
She screamed. It was a long gut-wrenching scream one the kind you feel will turn your insides out.
He laughed ... he kept laughing and finally his laughter overpowered her fear, causing her to stop screaming
"Why are you laughing?" she asked him He laughed some more.
Then he said "Because you think someone might hear you. Down here, there is nothing and no body but Svensen. No one comes down here. No one wants to come down here. It's just me."
He grinned hideously at her.
"You're sick. You're sick and deranged, and you're crazy!" she yelled at him trembling.
"Ya ... you are right. I am sick. I'll tell you what Svensen is sick of. He's sick of little tiny sluts like you. Ya, he's sick ... sick of watching you bounce your bobbling breasts in his face ... sick of your pathetic, disgusting lack of morals ... ya, he's sick all right! Ha! You know nothing of true beauty, true erotic beauty. You only know the filthy gutter. That is all. Where is the life? Where is the mirth? Where is the sensuality!? "
She thought to herself, "And obvious lunatic"
"You can't know of these things, because in order to appreciate them you must know something of self-control. You must know something of the strength of denial. You people, you TRASH! You know nothing but mindless gratification ... and I watch ... and I see ... and you never suspect because you think Svensen's invisible. You think because you cannot see me that I cannot see you! Ha! That is your mistake!"
His left eye began to move up into the top of his head while the right eye slowly wandered to the left.
He paused, seemingly taken aback, then, realizing why things looked strange, he slapped his head hard against the side, slapped it again, muttered something that she couldn't understand ... slapped the side of his head again and suddenly, his eyes opening wide, a look of child-like bliss crossing his face, he snapped his boot heels together shot his right arm out at a slightly raised angle and said "MEIN FURHER! I CAN SEE!! ""
He almost at once snapped out of the strange trance he seemed to have fallen into and looked around furtively. "You didn't hear that, he said to Polly."
"Oh course not," she said, more confused than ever."
He scratched his chin.
"Mmmmmm hmmmm mmmm yes mmmm ach," he muttered "no, I cannot allow it. You heard. You must be disposed of."
"What? Christ, you're out of your fucking mind. Let me go. I promise, I'll never tell anyone. Please ... let me go. Please. Please...." she said knowing she was pleading shamelessly now. Tears rolled down her cheeks.
"What does the little slut take Svensen for eh? " he asked, still stroking his chin furiously, trying to put it all into place for himself, looking like he was having a difficult time of it. "What does she take Svensen for? What kind of fool, eh?"
She suddenly bolted to her feet and was up and gone, bounding once more up the stair .
He was a lot quicker on his feet than she'd have given him credit for being.
His hard hand fell around her shoulder and jerked her to an instant halt
For a moment she felt like a Warner Brothers cartoon character legs working furiously, making no progress. Too bad there were no laugh lines up ahead. No magical implausibilities to save her. This was the real world, and the demons meant business. Here, if the powder keg goes off in your face, you don't come back in the next scene, face blackened but ready for action.
She felt a tug at her dress.
Material ripped, a sickening sound, symbolizing in her mind far more than the loss of an article of clothing.
"No ... Oh GOD please ... no don't ... please, don't, don't, don't...."
"You ... you play a game with old Svensen, eh? No., no ... my little darling, it will not be permitted. We will stop you."
She noticed a peculiar V sound creeping into his speech whenever he articulated a "W.
"YA!" he shouted now. "Ve vill stop you. Ve have vays ... ! "
Eyes out of focus again.
Hands gripping her arms, the torn fragment of her dress falling around her breasts.
Breathing hard now, he dragged her back. "I'll see to it. my little darling, that you're not so quick to bolt like the frightened deer next time, eh? Don't be so anxious to leave old Svensen, eh? He has so few friends. So little opportunity to indulge himself in a bit of conversation with an educated mind. He has to take precautions you know. They're after him. All of them ... they're after him For thirty-five years ... but Svensen's always been a step ahead. They'll never find him ... and you must disappear ... you must never be permitted to talk, because you will betray Svensen, like the rest of them, they betrayed Svensen ... they BETRAYED THE FATHERLAND AND THEY VILL PAY!"
Again the clicking of the boot and the arm shooting out in front of him
"My God, you're a Nazi," said Polly, aghast.
"Seig Heil!! ! " he shouted.
Then he shook his head, once more waking up. "Oh...." he said. "So ... you think you can trick me, do you? It is very difficult to trick me I am the one who does the trickery around here, my sweet little slut."
He pushed her back towards the rear room.
"Let me go...," she begged once more.
"I regret that will be utterly out of the question. I have, however plans for you."
She leaned back against him felt his throbbing cock pushing into her buttocks and in the center of her stomach, a pit open, a yawning, gaping pit bottomless, black with fear black with the nothingness that it offered her.
He threw her to the floor and her head cracked against it hard enough to daze her for a few moments.
And when she regained her wits about her, enough to roll over and look around, she saw the man standing over her rope in hand, once more grinning ... grinning like a skull, like a death's head. She screamed again, knowing it was futile.