Chapter 6
Billy Black's convalescence was a very slow process, and Jane Conklin was with him throughout it. They took long walks down the beach when Billy was able and stayed up all night on many occasions talking, mostly about Billy and his life and his town. It was obvious to everyone, except Billy, that she was very much in love with him. She played his game well. Every conquest he talked about, she fabricated one to match it. He felt safe with her. She was a good friend. He even made a couple of passes at her, but she declined in such a friendly way that he was certain that she wanted nothing of him but companionship.
Their nightly journeys inevitably wound up at the pier. It was finished, all one thousand feet of it. In two weeks it would be open to the public, and Billy vowed that no one, at least as long as he was alive, would ever fish from it.
"How does that feel, you evil cocksucker?" he said one night as he peed into one of the pier's many drinking fountains. "Hey Jane, did you feel that?" he added excitedly. "What?"
"She shook. She trembled a little. I'm getting to her. That's right, you whore, I'm pissing down your mouth."
"I didn't feel anything."
"Oh, but I did," he said, shaking his cock dry and folding it back inside his slacks. "I'm going to make it. If there was ever a doubt before, it's all erased now. I've broken through."
"I don't understand."
"Look at it this way. Everything in the Universe is made of matter. You, me, trees, dirt, even this fucking pier, everything has atoms. And the atoms float around one another. And they communicate, or at least, they all have the power to communicate with one another. Now, people communicate with words, which is a shitty, meaningless way to communicate; because words can mean anything you want them to mean. Feelings, emotions, are the only true way to communicate. But when people feel, it scares the shit out of them; and they start talking and explain everything away.
"Now. I have a feeling of intense hatred for this pier. Every night for the past month I have come out here, and my atoms have communicated hatred to the atoms of this pier. I'm breaking her spirit. How does a cowboy break a horse?"
"I don't know. Tell me, Lone Ranger, how does a cowboy break a horse?"
"Through feeling. Through emotion. Oh, sure he rides her, and she gets a little pissed because she can't throw him, but that's secondary. Everyday he comes out he looks at her, and without speaking he says, I'm going to beat you.
I'm going to make you submit. And that's what does it. The power of one will over another. Boxers win before they get into the ring. Pitchers strike men out and sluggers hit home runs before they go to the ball park. And I'm going to destroy this bridge. I'm stronger and smarter and prettier than she is."
"And that's going to keep the funny people away?"
"Sure. Look, it isn't easy to keep any area unspoiled these days. We've got a crime rate second to none, except maybe New York's Lower East Side; and that takes a lot of work."
"I don't follow you."
"Me and my friends constantly report robberies that never happen. like I don't own a television set, yet I've reported the theft of seventeen television sets during the last year. And the dope thing. We all talk about dope, but you don't really see very much of it."
"Does Daddy know about that?"
"Know about it? He helps us. How else do you think we manage to get all of that money in reform programs from the state? Every time your old man puts on one of his Hollywood suits and makes an impassioned plea on television, our economy jumps up like a jack rabbit."
They started walking back to Billy's house. He saw Gloria near his back door and pulled Jane under the lifeguard station. "Stay here for about thirty minutes, then come around to the front door and bang on it as hard as you can." He ran to Gloria. If looks could kill, he would have dropped dead at her feet. "Gloria, darling!" he shouted, embracing her with a bear hug so she couldn't hit him.
"Where have you been, you son of a bitch."
"In Mexico, like I said. You wouldn't believe what happened down there!"
"And furthermore, I don't want to hear about it. Where's my car?"
"Your car? How can you think about your car at a time like this? I tell you, I was almost killed. I got off the main road, and these four banditos attacked me from horseback."
"Banditos? You're fucking crazy."
"I swear to you. It was just like being in a Pancho Villa movie. They blocked the road and pulled me out of the car and beat the shit out of me. Where do you think I got these scars:
"I heard you had a big fight with Nick Mykonos."
"Big fight? Nonsense. Oh, we had a little misunderstanding, but these Mexican bastards really meant business. Big fellows, all six of them, with busy mustaches and ammunition belts across their chests. First they tear off all my clothes and tie me to this motherfucking anthill with the biggest goddamned red ants you ever saw. I swear they were the size of small mice, and they just bit the shit out of me. I nearly passed out from the pain, but I concentrated on you. I thought about your beautiful face and lovely body, and I imagined we were making love." As he talked, Billy spread his hand over her tits and massaged both of her nipples at the same time. His other hand strayed to her snatch and he grabbed her and hung on with the tenacity of a crab.
"I don't believe a word you say," Gloria said, panting like a winded runner, "but I sure like to hear you talk." She kissed him hard, nearly sucking his tongue right out of his mouth.
Billy felt the muscles anchoring his tongue begin to tear, and he pulled away from her. "Then, this big, wise-ass ant found my dick and took a healthy bite out of the head. He must have liked it, because he called in all his budies and they had a feast.
"I passed out, and when I woke up, they beat me with whips and clubs. Then they all took turns fucking me, and they really tore me a new ass-hole. When they got tired, one of them shoved his cold rifle barrel up my bleeding ass and was about to pull the trigger, when one of the others decided it would be a big kick to throw me off this cliff and into the rampaging rapids of the river about a half mile below. Miraculously I was washed out to sea.
"Now, here's the bad part of the story: These fishermen picked me up ... evil motherfuckers, every one of them. And they ... "
Gloria kissed him again, unzipping his fly as she explored the inside of his mouth with her hungry tongue. "Take me to bed," she moaned. "I want to examine your ant bites."
"But what about the rest of the story?"
"Some other time, perhaps."
They went upstairs, undressed and got into bed. Gloria ate him. She had a special way of applying just the right amount of pressure to his glans penis. If there had ever been a World Cocksucking competition, Billy would have entered Gloria without a second thought. But tonight, something was wrong. She pulled and sucked as usual, but his tool remained soft. She even gave him a hand job with baby oil. Still nothing.
"This is ridiculous," Billy said. He directed all of his concentration onto the head of his cock. Then, the strain of his efforts clearly showing on his face, he willed it to rise. It came up about an inch, wavered, then fell back into a completely limp state. He was worried, but made no reference to his fear that something might be drastically wrong with him.
"What's wrong, lover?" Gloria said with a frown.
"Nothing. I'm a little tired, that's all. Well screw in a minute, but first, I got this great attachment for my vibrator. Here, let me show you." He took his vibrator out of the drawer in the nightstand. It had a latex phallus fixed upon it. Billy flipped it on and nosed it into her slit and up against her clit.
"Oh, my! That's nice," she said, hunching around the buzzing machine.
"Like it?" His knees were on the floor and he serviced Gloria from that position, while secretly beating his sleeping meat with his other hand.
"It's so tingly. Nothing like you, but it ll do till you come around, sweetheart."
"You're just saying that to make me feel good." He grinned broadly, but his heart wasn't in it, since he hadn't managed to get any expansion at all out of his pecker. Where the hell is Jane? he thought.
He pushed the rubber dick into her cunt, and she screamed the scream usually reserved for rape and roller coaster rides. The damn thing was fourteen inches long, and Billy thought he should be hitting bottom; but Gloria's pussy (as though it had a mind of its own) kept reaching out for another fraction of an inch, like a young bird determined to swallow the longest worm it had ever encountered.
"Oh, yes, darling, more! Just a little more!"
"But there's nothing left but the motor!"
"That ll be fine."
"Gloria, the damn thing's hot, and it's as big as a Softball."
"I didn't ask for a list of specifications. Push!"
Billy pushed and his expression turned to one of horror as the mouth of her snatch gobbled up the small appliance. The only evidence remaining was the electric cord running out of her pussy. Ah, Billy thought, what Mattel wouldn't give for the blueprint to that one.
"That's enough," Gloria said. "Feels just right."
"Shit, is that all you can take? I was hoping you had room for me, too."
"Always willing to try a new twist. Climb on."
Billy looked down at the withered tool in his hand and wished he had kept his mouth shut. Jane bailed him out by banging on the front door. Billy ran to the front window flung it open, looked out, then ducked back in. "Oh, my God, I've got to get you out of here!"
"What's wrong?"
"No time to discuss it now," he shouted, yanking the plug to the vibrator out of the wall. "Move!"
"I can't get it out! It's stuck! Turn it back on again. Maybe I can work it out if it's moving."
"Sorry," he said, gathering up her clothes, "you'll just have to take it with you." He grabbed her hand, pulled her down the stairs, pushed her out the back door and handed her her clothes. "I'll call you in a few minutes," he said and slammed the door.
An old retired couple, taking a moonlight stroll, eyed Gloria curiously as she ran past them, the cord trailing behind her. "What in tarnation do you suppose that is, George?" asked the woman.
"Beats me, Martha," answered the old fellow. "I told you would've renewed our subscription to Screw. The world is passin' us by."
Billy slipped on his pants and let Jane in, laughing hysterically. "What in the world was going on in here? It sounded like a herd of stampeding cattle."
Billy explained what he had done and after enough time had elapsed for Gloria to get home, he fell on the floor and did about fifty pushups, then dialed Gloria's number. She answered.
"Hey, baby," he said, huffing and puffing, "this guy's going to put my lights out. No! No, don't! Baby, he's got a gun in one hand and a whip in the other, and he's beating the living shit out of me! You got to help me out."
"What can I do, Billy?"
"Look, now, don't get jealous, but I balled his old lady a couple of years ago, and she just told him about it this morning. Well, she also told him that she had lent me some bread and I didn't pay her back, which was true. It had slipped my mind. Anyway, he's beating me 'cause he's hot about me making it with her; but if I don't come up with the money, he's going to kill me!"
"How much?"
"I gave him everything I had, but I'm short."
"How much?"
"Glo, you don't know how it hurts me to involve you in this thing, sweetheart. I'd cut off my right arm to keep from having to ... "
"For God's sake, Billy, how much does the man want?"
"Uh, five hundred."
"I don't have that much. Ask him if he will wait till the bank opens in the morning."
"He doesn't look like he's in a waiting mood. I swear this man has the meanest eyes I've ever seen."
"Plead with him! Beg him!"
"Okay, hold on." He didn't cover the receiver as he talked to Jane. "Hey, man, this chick will come up with the bread; but she can't get it until tomorrow morning. Give me a break, huh? I'm begging you. Oh, goddamn! Son of a bitch, don't hit me again!" He got back on the phone. "He said he'd wait. Which bank is that?"
"First National. The one on Culver Boulevard."
"Right. See you in the morning. Sleep well." He hung up, very pleased with himself.
"She didn't go for that string of bullshit, did she?" Jane asked.
"Hook, line and five-hundred dollar bill. I'm going to quit fucking with Gloria's mind one of these days. It's getting too easy." He grinned like a little boy who had just stolen a box of rubbers from the drugstore. "But it sure is fun."
Jane laughed. "If you can get away with it, more power to you. She must enjoy it."
"Oh, she does. Her old man worked himself to death and left her more money than she knows what to do with. If she'd think about that call just now, she wouldn't believe a word of it. But she wants to believe that she is of some value in this world. Every once in a while I help her out and let her do something nice for me."
"Under that veneer of rudeness, you're really an evil son of a bitch."
"I know. I've known that for a long time." They both laughed until their sides hurt. "I like you," Billy said after their roaring had subsided.
"I like you, too."
There was a pause. "Let's ball."
Jane's mood switched like a bolt of lightning. She sat up in her chair and glared at him. "No way, Charlie!"
"Not because I like you. Just for fun."
"Yeah, I've heard that one before. Let's do it just for kicks. Then come the flowers and the phone calls and pretty soon this goon is slobbering all over himself just for a chance to smell your armpit. Who needs it? Not me."
"Some cat must have hurt you real good."
"Wrong. Look, I was born selfish, grew up selfish, and I'm still selfish. No man can give me what I want, because I want everything. If you don't believe me, just ask my father. He's paid plenty."
"Now, now, seriously. I really don't like you that way. I like you like a sister."
"If you had a sister, would you want to ball her?"
"Probably. Incest can be fun. We used to call it 'rolling your own'. " Jane laughed and Billy kissed her, catching her off guard. It was their first kiss; and Billy who had only wanted to give her pleasure, got a lot more than he bargained for. He felt as though he were falling into a deep, dark well, and he pulled away from her before he hit bottom, then quickly covered his feelings by saying, "See, that wasn't so bad, was it?"
Jane slowly pulled his head back to her and kissed him. In a moment they were both as high as dope fiends. The next thing either remembers was Billy entering her with great tenderness. How they got out of their clothes and how they got from the couch to the floor were questions that would forever remain a mystery to them.
Simultaneously he worked his tongue inside her sweet mouth and his cock inside the hot, gripping satin of her vagina. His mind wasn't so far gone that he didn't have a chance to concentrate on his erection. It was so hard a cat couldn't have scratched it, and that fact brought him all sorts of gratifying reassurances.
They were working together as though they had invented fucking. Jane's moans were soft, little releases of pent up emotion. She imagined herself back on ship, looking at Billy through the glasses. This was the biggest fantasy of all: to have him inside of her, holding her, kissing her, giving pleasure to and (maybe most of all) getting pleasure from her.
Billy couldn't account for the inordinate amount of sweat pouring from his body. His life juices seemed to be flowing into the tall, beautiful girl in his arms. He knew he was having her, yet he wanted more. He could feel his cock expanding to an even greater size, drawing his skin so tight he was afraid it would tear. And he could feel her responding to him, bearing down against his thrusting weapon with adrenalin-fed, super-human pressure.
They reached the edge of climax at the same time, and Billy stopped moving. He wasn't holding back as he had so often done to prolong the experience. He stopped moving so he could devote his full attention to what was about to happen. Everything froze: time, space, Jane; and he savored all that was about him. He reveled in his own excitement, he enjoyed the glassy-eyed look of total contentment in Jane's eyes. He noticed the way her hair flowed around her shoulders and the scarlet flush building up in her cheeks. He was aware of her heartbeat, her long fingernails on his arm and the magnificent sculptured quality of her mouth.
"Oh. Ohhhh. Oh, Billy. OHHHHH!"
Billy moved a fraction of an inch and upset the delicate balance between this world and the other. In getting their rocks off they created an avalanche and clung to one another in desperate fear of losing their lives. Billy, crushing Jane with a bear hug, rolled her over on top of him, screaming at the top of his lungs as his rod exploded again and again. He feared a chain reaction had been set off, and his machine gun would never stop firing.
Jane had been told by experts that the woman never feels semen shooting into her body. As Billy's bullets of come riddled the waiting walls of her cunt, the thought flashed through her mind that these same experts had never been properly fucked. She felt every drop of him as vividly as she would have had he gone off in her mouth. She was being ripped apart by orgasm after orgasm, each one more exciting and stronger than the last. All systems screamed go! Her sweat glands, her salivary glands, and her bowels all let go at the same moment and she collapsed upon Billy's chest.
They lay motionless for a long time.
"See, Virginia," Billy said, "there is recreational value in sex."
"Do you think it will ever replace night baseball?"
"No, but leap frog is in jeopardy. Nobody I know has been able to complete their jump lately."
Jane stood and gave the room a minute to stop spinning. "You do this sort of thing pretty well, Billy Black," she said, damming the small river of come running down her leg with a Kleenex.
"Pretty well? Shit."
"I think I can give you a B-plus."
"Bring me the cat who made an A, and I'll kiss his ass."
"Oh, there have been a few. I had to deduct from your score because you forgot to say thank you."
"Dig this," Billy said, reaching for the phone and started dialing.
"Who are you calling?"
"Listen. Hello, John? Billy Black." Pause. "Same to you, fella. Listen, I'm sending Jane home to get her shit." Pause. "Yeah, she's here." Pause. "Nothing much. Just fucking around." Pause. "You moronic cocksucker, if I've told you once I've told you a thousand times, the word is pervert, not prevert!" Pause. "Shut up and listen, you old fart. We're going to get married!" Pause. "What do you mean you're not surprised?" As Billy listened, his expression changed to one of intense hatred, and he glared at Jane and hung up.
"What ... what did he say?" Jane said nervously, wishing she had pockets in which to put her hands. "He said he knew all about it."
"All about what?"
"He said you told him you were in love with me."
"It's a lie!"
"I don't think so. All that shit about how you didn't give a damn about men. That was a lie, wasn't it."
"What the fuck does he know?"
Billy jumped up and grabbed her by the hair on her head and yanked. "Wasn't it?"
"No, I don't give a shit about any of you bastards! And that goes for my old man! Stop! You're hurting me."
"Tell me you don't love me."
"Don't be ridiculous."
"Say it!" He yanked harder. "I don't love you!"
He released her and she started crying. I don't believe you, Jane. You've been making a fool of me."
"You hardly need any help from anyone for that."
"Take a walk."
"No cat ever had to invite me out of his pad twice."
She dressed in silence, fighting back the tears. She looked like a little girl whose dog had just been run over. Without looking at him, she ran toward the stairs.
"Wait!" Billy shouted. She stopped. "You want to stay?"
"Yes."
"And you still insist that you think of me only as a friend?"
"That's right."
"Want to prove it."
"How?"
"Let's have another couple over. Sort of a toy orgy."
"Suits me. Who do you want?"
"Dolly Horton. How about you?"
"I have a choice?"
"Sure. What else are friends for?"
"All right. I want Nick Mykonos."
"So be it."
Jane took a shower while Billy made the phone calls. She didn't see or hear him slip in behind her. He started to lather her back, and she pulled away as though touched by something unclean. "Get them?"
"Yeah." He laughed. "I don't know what's gotten into Nick. He acted as though he didn't want to see me. I told him you'd meet him at his house at three a.m."
"Fine. And what did Dolly say?"
"She said yes. I didn't even have to work or. her."
"Must be nice to be so irresistible."
"It has its good points."
They dressed and Jane left, passing Dolly on the front porch. "My, business is good tonight," Dolly said.
Billy took her coat and threw it in the corner. "Look, do you want to talk or fuck?"
"You sure are a romantic son of a bitch!"
"I took your coat. What the shit do you want, a 'hello' kiss?"
"Nope. I just want to get laid." She was out of her costume in a flash and struck a Playboy centerfold pose. "Do you think you can handle it?"
Even Billy was impressed by Dolly's custom-made tits, but he didn't show any appreciation. He liked her trim waist and the roll of her belly. This was just what the doctor ordered. "Does a wild bear shit in the woods?" was his delayed answer.
Nick was a bit more gracious. He mixed Jane a drink and they talked trivia on his couch for a few minutes. "Was she over there?" he said, when the conversation lagged.
"Who?"
"Dolly. She's a well-built blonde."
"Yeah, she was there. Why?"
"No reason." He downed his drink. "Someday I'm going to kill that son of a bitch."
"Why didn't you when you had the chance."
"You can't say I didn't give it a whirl." There was a pause. "You ready."
"Sure."
They went upstairs and undressed, looking forward to what was about to take place with the excitement of condemned prisoners going to a double hanging. They lay on opposite sides of the bed for a long time before Nick put his arms around her and kissed the soft hollow between her breasts. She became tense. She was still trembling from Billy's kisses; and she tried to imagine that these new lips were his, but it didn't work.
"Jane, would it be all right if ... if I just held you?"
"Give me a few minutes, Nick. I can make it. I know I can."
"I wasn't talking about you. It's Dolly. I'm so strung out on that chick, I don't know my own name."
Jane hugged him tightly. "You think you've got problems. I'm in love with Billy."
Nick shook his head in sympathy and returned her embrace. "Oh, you poor, poor soul. And I think I've got problems. Jane, you're a beautiful girl. You're intelligent, from a good family. How did you manage to get your head so fucked up?"
"There's a good side to him. I may be the only one to have ever seen it."
"So what? I understand Hitler was very good to his dog. Put him out of your mind. He'll kill you."
"Maybe. But there is a chance. He responds to me, Nick. I know he doesn't want to, but he can't help it."
"He will! And you can bet everything you own on that."
"Where did he come from? Have you ever seen his parents?"
"Nobody knows. As far as his parents are concerned, it is unlikely that he ever had any. He just appeared on the beach one day, wearing that T-shirt and those funky red trunks. I was playing volley ball, and he asked if he could join us and I said sure. He's a flawless volley ball player, the best I've ever seen. I asked him where he learned to play so well, and he said here in Venus, that this was his home. I hadn't been here very long at the time, so I let it pass. Came to fine out later that no one had ever seen him before that morning.
"We played most of the day. I wasn't married at the time, but I was pretty serious about this sharp-looking coed from UCLA. She followed me around like a puppy dog. She was so love-sick I dated her for a while out of pity, and we had planned to make it for the first time. Anyway, I noticed something happening between them. You know how you can tell when something's in the air. You can pick up on the vibes when somebody's getting zonked. I didn't think anything bout it, but I turn around and they're gone. I asked this guy what had happened, and he said Billy offered to let her take a shower at his place, and they went off together. That's the last time I ever saw her. The boy has talent. I've never doubted that for a minute."
The phone rang and Nick picked it up. "Hello."
"Nick, can I come over?" It was Dolly.
"What for?" he answered coolly. "You want to bust up a few of my lamps?"
"No. I want you, Nick. The girl doesn't have to leave or anything. I won't get in the way, I promise. Please, let me come over."
"Dolly, I told you in the bar that there was only one person on the face of this earth that would cause me to turn sour on you, and you picked him. I'm busy. Why don't you go back to your party? "
"There is no party. Lover boy couldn't get it up. Not that I could have done him any good if he had. Please forgive me, darling. I'm just a stupid, stubborn little fool."
"Put Black on the line!" Nick said with a grin.
"He's gone."
"Where?"
"I don't know. He said he had a date with a pier."
Jane ran all the way from Nick's house, and when she got to the pier, Billy was nowhere in sight. She ran up and down the full length of it several times, calling his name. It was still pitch black and she sat on the sand, waiting for the sun to come up.
About an hour later, just as the dawn was beginning to break, she saw something move in the water and ran toward it, forgetting to take off her shoes. It was Billy, wearing a black rubber suit, stringing wire to one of the posts.
"Billy, what are you doing?"
"Go home, Jane," he whispered, running the wire to a plunge-type detonator. "The old girl is tired. I'm going to put her out of her misery."
"No, you can't! They ll put you in jail!"
"How? There's a boat waiting for me about a hundred yards out there. I'll be in Mexico in the morning."
"Take me with you."
"No."
"Please, Billy."
"Forget it. There might have been a chance for us. Slim, but a chance. Then you had to go fuck things up. Broads! Who the shit needs them?" He pushed the plunger, and Jane held her ears. Billy laughed. "You idiot. Do you think there would be a bite-sized piece of you left if this thing went off?"
"I wouldn't care. And don't tell me I'm being dramatic. I didn't lie to you when I told you I was selfish. I love you, Billy Black. I'm going to follow you to Mexico, and I'll rip every hair out of the head of any woman who makes a pass at you, or you try to take to bed with you."
"You're going to wind up with enough hair to start your own mattress company."
"But you need me. I'mthe only friend you have left in the world."
He laughed. "Tell me another one. But hurry, showtime is in ten minutes."
"You love me."
"You should see a doctor, you know that?"
With tears streaming out of her eyes, she put her arms around him. "Okay, it's your turn. Tell me you don't love me."
"Get away from me, Jane!"
"No, I'm not moving until you tell me!"
"Hey, this thing is going to blow!"
"So let it blow! Who GIVES A FUCK?! "
He hit her with a hard closed-fisted right, and she fell. Blood gushed from her lip, and she smiled at him.
"Jane, I ... " Billy took one step toward her, got his feet tangled in the wire and fell, striking his head on the base of the last post. He didn't move. Jane slapped him to revive him, but he was unconscious. She took the two wires running into the detonator, shut her eyes, gritted her teeth and pulled! It was over. She opened her eyes very slowly and saw four guards running toward her.
A few minutes later, a doctor came and examined Billy Black. "What happened?"
"He hit his head on that post," Jane said.
"There's no blood. Not even a bump."
"It was just a glancing blow. Hell be all right."
"Lady, this man is dead." She didn't speak. "Look, I have to make out a report. What's his name?" She couldn't answer.
"That's Billy Black," said one of the guards. "Everybody knows that son of a bitch."
It was a beautiful day for the ceremony.
Fingers, dressed in new clothes, kept pulling at the bow tie that irritated his throat. With the new front and all new fixtures, no one recognized his store. He had just rented Dolly and Dick's apartment to newly weds, but he was so swamped with business he couldn't take a break to see how they were doing. Several times that day he spat on the floor in disgust and quickly bent over and wiped it up with his handkerchief.
"Ladies and Gentlemen, this is indeed a great day for our little city." Mayor Conklin, dressed entirely in white, spoke through his best smile into the television cameras and to thousands gathered around the pier. "This is the beginning of a new Venus. One that can stand shoulder to shoulder with any decent community in the world."
He took the oversized scissors and placed them over the ribbon stretched across the entry to the pier. "This will certainly be a day we shall remember for a ... " He froze. The ground began to shake. "What's that?" he asked Fats.
"Just a tremor."
The tremor stopped, but the pier kept vibrating. The men jumped to the ground as the mighty structure crumbled and collapsed into the ocean.
All hell broke lose on the beach. Women screaming "Graft!" hit the city fathers with their purses. A religious cultist group chanted the world was coming to an end, stripped off all their clothes and swam to meet their maker. Irish Bob was almost trampled to death as he snapped pictures.
Jane Conklin kicked off her shoes and started walking North, following the shoreline. Although tears were rolling down her face, she smiled and kept walking. She walked all day and all night. Around noon of the next day, she sat down on the sand to rest and fell asleep.