Chapter 8

I sat in the pine-paneled restaurant and sipped a vodka martini as I watched the sun set pink and purple in the clouds over the bayou. The rays spread through the gaps in the thick growth of trees, vines and moss on the other side, and a flight of small black and white birds with yellow feet suddenly soared up, circled the bayou, then dipped back again behind the swamp-growth.

The restaurant was filled and I was immersed in polite, inaudible dinner talk and the soft sounds of silverware against plates and cups against saucers.

I was still weak from the afternoon session with Kerry, and my sexual parts ached dully. Yet when Kerry dropped me off in town, she hadn't seemed particularly affected by the session. Except for the sweat that matted her tight slacks and blouse to her body, she had no signs of my assault on her buttocks, and had talked and giggled and said we had to get together again some time.

Jamie and her father had not returned, and after showering and taking a fitful nap, I had decided it was time I did something constructive.

The little girls with their nice-girl kind of wild sex were getting to me, and I knew tonight or tomorrow, another one would come on to me, with some speciality of eroticism that preserved her virginity.

I had a vodka and tonic in the hotel bar and as I had looked out across the square, I had felt like a lamb being fattened for something I didn't understand.

And when I left the hotel and headed for my car and saw Peggy Sue and some other girl driving quickly down the street-they had obviously been watching the hotel-I knew it was impossible, even stupid to wait for Jamie's return, trying to find out what in the hell was happening.

Now I drained the martini and called the waiter over. I ordered a dozen oysters on the half-shell, trout almondine, a salad, and a bottle of dry white wine.

I stared out at a long, beaded black snake lit by the fading sun in the bayou, moving slowly along with his back-arched in and out of the water. On the stump of a tree, a long-legged white bird with big bill watched impassively, then rose gracefully and dove after something in the water a few yards behind the snake.

I decided the first thing I had to admit was that I had perhaps badly overestimated my ability to handle what ever was happening to Jamie, and particularly my ability to handle these girls. Because of my adventures with women all over the world, I had been far too contemptuous of these little girls.

But their whimpering, giggling, oh-so-proper debutante style, coupled with their way-out and obviously well-practiced sexual tastes had me off balance and sexually aroused. In a sense, I was out of my league, and they had called every tune so far.

I had been careless, and was damn vulnerable for whatever they had in mind. But what in hell did they have in mind? And except for avoiding sex with them, what could I have possibly done?

The oysters came, huge oysters on a bed of shaved ice, cold and juicy and perfect. I ate them slowly, enjoying the sensual swallowing of each oyster, followed by a sip of the white wine.

As the trout arrived and I began to eat-it was excellent-I wondered if I was making too much out of this. Perhaps I had simply stumbled into a nest of spoiled, bored, rich girls who kept their reputations spotless while playing their virginity-preserving erotic games.

I took a swallow of wine. Perhaps they were only coming on to me to get at Jamie, for some kind of spite, a joke because she was something of a sexual puritan.

Christ, there were too many loose ends. How did they keep their reputations? And why did they pump me about Jamie? And how about Jamie's letter, and her disappearance with her father?

And then I thought of the rape and the man who was electrocuted, and a chill shot up my back. These little girls were tough-perhaps deadly-and still I had no idea what to do.

I said to hell with it for the present, and finished the fish and salad and the wine. Maybe it was better to wait for Jamie after all.. . .

The two girls thought I hadn't seen them as they searched the room, and when I glanced up, the quickly looked away and took a table by the door. There was no way I could leave without speaking to them.

Peggy Sue was stunning in a short, black, low-cut dress that hugged her body, set off by a single strand of pearls at the neck. And Emily Ann wore a pair of glasses that offset her nymphet face, and her breasts seemed even larger in a low-cut striped green blouse and dark green skirt.

I called the waiter over. So the game had begun again. And again, I was going to be forced to play it on their terms.

I ordered coffee and a double Remy Martin, and drummed my fingers on the table. I was angry at being helpless to change things. I had always been a man of direct action, and believed any action was better than being swept along no matter what the danger.

'To hell with it," I muttered aloud, and an elderly couple at the next table glanced over disapprovingly.

I drank my coffee and cognac quickly, paid the check, left a couple of bills on the table and headed straight for the girls.

"Why, Carl, what a pleasant surprise," Peggy Sue gurgled when I reached the table. "And you remember Emily Ann Walters? Why don't you sit down and join us?"

"Thanks, I will," I said.

As I sat down I stared openly at Emily Ann's huge breasts which seemed ready to tear through the thin striped blouse. And then I glanced at the 14-year-old face of lovely innocence and those child's blue eyes behind the glasses, and I wondered what she did and got hot just thinking about it. I realized part of me, though sore, was no longer weak at all.

"Carl stares at a girl like that sometime, Emily Ann," Peggy Sue said, with a broad grin. "But he's really quite sweet."

Emily Ann smiled back and nibbled at her shrimp cocktail. "I knew he'd be awfully sweet, or

Jamie wouldn't have invited him down like she did."

"I just can't imagine what happened to them," Peggy Sue said, and took a sip of iced tea. "Why, they're not back yet. You know, Emily Ann, I have to say it was kind of thoughtless of Jamie to ask Carl to come all this distance and then not be here."

"But you and Kerry have really taken good care of me, for Jamie," I said. "I'm sure shell want to thank you in some special way when she gets back."

Emily Ann burst out laughing, and her breasts heaved with each laugh. "Well now, Jamie's bound to thank us her own special way, isn't she, Peggy Sue?"

Peggy Sue nodded. "Oh, I'm sure Jamie will. She's that kind of girl. But then, Carl, you don't really know her too well, do you?"

I had stormed over with the nebulous idea of confronting the girls with something of taking some action and now they were toying with me as though I were a child.

"I know her well enough," I said quietly, and ordered a martini. "But obviously not as well as you girls who are her good friends." I came close to mentioning the rape, or the scene in the garden with Millie, but something warned me to be careful.

Peggy Sue picked up her glass of tea, then paused and stared at me, her tongue licking the rim of the glass.

"You do say some funny things, Carl," she said. "It's just that you met Jamie in Europe, a year ago, and knew her a short time. Sort of like a shipboard romance, you know."

"You're trying to say the Jamie I knew in Italy won't be the same girl I see here," I snapped. The waiter brought the martini and I took a deep, lethal swallow.

Emily Ann prodded at a shrimp. "I think we could safely say that," she said. "In fact. . . " But she glanced at Peggy Sue and trailed the words off quickly.

"You mean because she's changed or because I didn't really know her, know the real Jamie in Europe?" I asked. I drained the martini and felt it.

Peggy Sue laughed and sipped her tea. "And I thought we were going to be such good friends," she said, and patted my hand. "You've got that terribly nasty and sarcastic tone of voice again, Carl. And I had thought since you're alone tonight, that Emily Ann might keep you from getting bored."

"Let's not fight, Carl," Emily Ann said, and her beautiful, nymphet-sexy face beamed. "There's no need for you to get angry because we tell you Jamie's not the same girl you knew in Europe. You'll find that out."

"Look, I've got to eat and run," Peggy Sue said. "Or I'll be late picking up Millie and getting down there and all, Emily Ann. But you can take your time, since Carl will be here to keep you company."

Emily Ann glanced at her watch. "Yes, you better hurry."