Chapter 10
He was out in the sloop and he heard Carmina calling to him and giggling in her lovable way. He jumped overboard and went far, far under water until his feet touched bottom. Up above him, churning the green water at the surface, was a pair of strong legs, slim and tapered. He paddled up like a great bird but he never seemed to be getting any closer to the top. Then the legs were suddenly there and he put his arms around them, pulling the body under.
He was horrified to see Dana, her hands on her breasts. He choked, and the water rushed into his lungs. He put his hands around her throat and she let go. He popped to the surface, gasping for air. Then there was a blood curling shriek and he looked up at the boat. Carmina was naked and Clayboro was naked on top of her. Standing in line behind him, with ugly leers distorting their faces, were Sparling and Antoine Theodore and a dozen other men whose faces he couldn't identify. Carmina cried out for help. Isabela was pounding at the men with all the fury of her fists but they only laughed.
He swam towards the boat. The sail ballooned out and the boat started to pull away from him. He swam faster and faster but the boat pulled away and out of sight. The sky was dark and threatening and the waves lifted him up high on their crests, then dropped him with a sickening lurch. He looked around for something to hold on to, but there was only Dana, her hands under her breasts, offering them to him. Then the storm burst on him in its full fury, and he felt himself going under, further and further and....
Isabela's hand was caressing his forehead. "It's all right, Vic, it's all right. You were having a bad dream." She loaned over and kissed his cheek. His body was trembling uncontrollably.
He reached for a cigarette. It took him ten seconds to get the match lit and close enough to the cigarette to get it started. Then he drew the smoke in deeply, and soon the trembling subsided. "I never want to go through that again," he said with relief. "Carmina ... is she all right?" Isabela's mouth was tight with concern. He looked around the hut. Carmina was nowhere around. He sat bolt upright, but Isabela restrained him with a firm hand.
"She's all right. She's in the back hanging some clothes up to dry." He looked out the window and caught a glimpse of her slim body over a basket. "But I don't know how long it will last, Vic. I'm afraid."
"What is it? What happened?"
"One of my waiters served breakfast to Sparling and Clayboro this morning. He overheard their conversation and he told me about it."
"What did they say?"
"Clayboro told Sparling that Dana made ... how do you say?
"Made a play for him?"
"Yes. She's very sexy, very hot in bed. She had him all night. He's very tired this morning."
"Tired, but is he happy?"
"No. He said she's a very hot number, and then he shrugged his shoulders. Sparling asked him what was wrong, and he said he has to leave the convention earlier than he planned. Sparling turned to the color of coconut milk. Sparling asked him if he was enjoying himself. Clayboro thanked him very much, said he was having a wonderful time, but still had to go back."
Vic pounded his fist in his palm. "Damn, I was afraid of that. Dana just isn't enough for him."
"Sparling says very bluntly, 'it's the women, isn't it?' And Clayboro says 'It's not your fault, Harold. I guess what I want isn't to be had.' And Sparling says 'what if you had that native girl?' Clayboro looks very shrewdly and says 'That might induce me to stay?' "
Vic loked grim. "It didn't work, then."
"What didn't work?'
"Nothing. What happened then?"
"Sparling excused himself and left the table. Clayboro smiled. He's very shrewd, that Clayboro. Very shrewd man."
Vic dragged frenetically at his cigarette. "Sparling is desperate. I've got to do something, but what?"
"Wait, I'm not through." She stood up and began pacing.
"There's more?"
"Yes. Sparling goes to Antoine and asks him where Carmina is. Antoine asks him why he wants to know. Sparling refuses to say and Antoine refuses to say also. Then Sparling tells Antoine everything." She clenched her hands together.
"Yes?"
"Sparling offers him twenty five thousand dollars if he will bring Carmina to him."
"Oh, God. That slimy son of a bitch. How do you know about this?"
"Antoine told me. He called me in after Sparling left and ordered me to get Carmina. I made him tell me why he wanted her. He keeps saying 'We'll all be rich, we'll all be rich.' How I hate that swine!" she hissed.
"You're not the only one. What did you tell him you'd do?"
"I said I didn't know where to find Carmina. He called me a liar and struck me in the mouth. He shouted he knows she is here, and for half the money Sparling offered him he said he would run down here and run back the hill with Carmina under his arm. I know he is not lying. He has done more for less money. I told him I would go. He said he would kill me if I don't bring her back."
"And he will."
"No doubt of if. Vic." She gazed at him with a look of sharp distress. "We must get her off the island."
"Yes. We must. But that isn't the answer for you or for me."
"Let him try to kill me. I've wanted to slit his throat for the longest time. Ever since ... since he killed my man. I am not afraid of him. Nor am I afraid to die. I will kill or be killed as long as no harm comes to her." Then she turned a critical eye on Vic, as if she knew too well what was running through his mind. "And you?"
"And me? I'm washed up if she escapes."
Her brows furowed. "You said you were willing to make the sacrifice. You are not going back on your word, are you?"
He felt like raging at her single-minded obtuseness, but realized it was senseless. She had but one thing to live for. It wasn't her fault if she excluded everything else but Carmina's welfare from her purposes. But where did that leave him? With forced calmness he said "It isn't as simple as you think."
"Why is it not?" she asked sharply.
"Dana has a photograph of you and me kissing on the beach. She had it taken yesterday. She wants me to marry her after the convention, and I promised I would if she distracted Clayboro's attention. You know what happened. It didn't work. If she finds out I know it didn't work, she'll show the photograph to Carmina."
"But why? What good will that do? She knows she'll lose you now anyway. Why do that to my Carmina?"
"Simply out of spite. Sheer, bitchy spite. If she can't have me, nobody will have me."
"How low people are," she said bitterly.
"You just don't know how low," he answered helplessly.
"But what are you going to do? You haven't answered my question."
"I don't know. But I've given you my word. Do you believe me, Isabela?"
"I will have to. But remember what I said if you deceive me," she said, her eyes narrowing to blazing slits "Where are you going?"
"I want to talk to Carmina. And then ... I think I'll pay a visit to Lucas Clayboro."
"To Clayboro? What for?"
"I'm not sure I know yet. Stay here close to Carmina I don't know when I'll be back, and I don't know wha news I'll have when I return. If worse comes to worse ... '
"Yes?"
"It will be the worst ever.' He managed a smile, and she returned it.
He got up and went out. Carmina was on her tiptoes hanging clothes on a vine stretched between two trees She didn't see him coming up behind her. He put his arms around her narrow waist and clasped her stomach She settled easily into his arms.
He kissed her at the graceful nape of her neck. "Did you sleep well?"
"For the few hours we slept, yes."
"We didn't sleep very much, did we?"
"No, and I am sorry for the few hours we did."
"Why?"
"Don't be an idiot," she reprimanded, raping him on the knuckles. "You know very well why."
"No, I haven't the slightst idea. Do you mean because I wasn't making love to you while we slept?"
"That. And also because you go away from me when you sleep."
"I do? How?"
"You turn over. You turn your back to me. It is cruel. I wish you would stay awake all the time. And when you are awake all the time I wish you would make love to me all the time."
"There would be nothing left of me if I did. I have to sleep to rebuild my body so that I can make love to you when I wake up. Do you understand?"
She twisted around inside the circle of his arms and faced him, putting her head on his chest. "But why do you have to turn away?"
"I don't know why," he said. "Maybe I sleep better on that side, did you ever think of that?"
"I sleep better in your arms. You should sleep better in mine. Do you know what I like?"
"What?"
Her face turned a shade pinker. "I like when I face away from you and you put one arm under me and one arm over me and put your hands so."
She demonstrated, turning her back to him, taking his hands and cupping them on her breasts.
"You like that, huh"
"Yes. I like that very much."
"Good. I like it too. I love your breasts."
"They are not as big as my mother's."
Vic started. What did she know? He played it cool. "I wouldn't know. But I do know that yours are the most beautiful in the whole world. I would love nothing better than to go through the rest of my life with my hands around them."
Again she turned around. Evidently she had simply dropped a stray remark and had no idea of what had gone on between her mother and him. She gazed at him. lovingly. "The rest of your life?"
Again the charge went through him. Did she suspect what he had in store for her at the end of his stay? Or was she simply wondering idly about their future together? It was funny how perceptive she had become all of a sudden, as if the loss of her virginity had marked the beginning of an adult, almost sophisticated insight into the human-mind processes.
"It's nice to think about it," he answered noncommittally. "And now I must go for a while."
"Where?"
"To the hotel. I have some matters to attend to there. I'll be back later." He clasped her very tightly, burying his face in her soft black hair. The danger that crackled like electricity in the air seemed to unite them in a bond of fear. "Oh darling, darling, you're so precious to me."
She sensed his uneasiness. "What is it?"
"Why, nothing."
"It is as if you're leaving me forever."
"What gave you that idea?" He chucked her under the chin.
"You're trembling. Your voice is not sure. You're thinking of something that is not me."
"I'm thinking of everything that is you, darling, even though it may not seem that way. Everything, everything revolves around you. And nothing-nothing-has any meaning without you. I'll be back, Carmina. I promise."
"Be careful, Vic."
"What do you mean by that?"
She shrugged her shoulders. Her tongue couldn't find the words, but her heart had found the truth. All her senses had been heightened since yesterday. "I just don't like those people up there. They all have the same look as Antoine. You will be careful, won't you?"
"Yes, little flower. I will be." He brushed her lips with his and squeezed her hand. Then he turned from her and went back into the house. Isabela ws sitting with her hands in her lap, staring vacantly, like a marble lion guarding the entrance to a bank. He smiled his assurance to her. She nodded, but that was all.
As he walked out and headed down the path for the beach, he had a funny thought. "There I was," he said to himself, "Injuns to the left of me, bandits to the right of me, a prairie fire in front of me, a wide deep chasm in back of me. And what do you suppose I did?" he asked his imaginary audience.
"What did you do?" it asked back eagerly.
He paused to come up with the answer.
"I died," he said out loud. And the bitter echo faded into the trees.