Chapter 7
The sun was warm and it basked down on my head as I pulled my convertible into Xanadu's driveway. I drove slowly around the easy, graceful arc, even though the urgency of wanting to get back to Heather's pushed me to hurry. Still, it was only ten, and Heather wouldn't be back until two-thirty or three o'clock. I had more than enough time.
The large white house came into view, and an unexpected tightness gripped my stomach. It was as though I had swallowed a rock and it were laying in my belly, trying to pull me back down to the earth. My hands tightened on the steering wheel, and the car's speed picked up subtly.
As the roadway wound around to the right, I looked across and I could see the swimming pool. There were people around it, about a dozen or so. and I eyed the trim, voluptuous figures of the women in the bikini's. One of the women had the top of her suit off, and her breasts flapped from side to side like balloons filled with water as she ran around the perimeter of the pool. I didn't recognize the man chasing her, but I recognized his intention. The sound of laughter carried across the emptiness to me, and it seemed distant and hollow.
It's good to be home, I thought bitterly. Perhaps too bitterly for this early in the day. What was it about this place that irritated me? It was like a burr under my skin-no matter which way I moved, it stuck me.
I drove past the pool, into the parking lot. There were several cars already in it, and I noticed that they were all either Cadillacs and Continentals, and one of them had a California Official plate. The State Senate, I noticed.
At least that wasn't unusual, I thought. We were always entertaining special guests at Xanadu, treating them to special considerations, for which we, in return, would receive back other special considerations. Favors. Payoffs. Business as usual.
I braked my car slowly, noticing that my usual spot in the parking lot was occupied this morning. There was a little red sports car with black leather seats in my place, and I recognized Harvey's gaudy taste. It was his car.
I pulled into the next available spot, picking up speed, then jerking to a halt.
It didn't take him very long, did it? I thought, shutting the motor and removing the keys. Only one day.
"Good morning, Mr. Caldwell!" a voice called to me.
I looked up and saw the rambling limp-slide gait of Billy, the parking attendant, coming up to the side of my car to greet me.
"Good morning, Mr. Caldwell," he said, opening the door. "How are you this morning? Beautiful day, isn't it?"
"It's a nice day, Billy. How are you?"
"Oh, I'm busy as a son-of-a-bitch this morning, sir." Billy was always busy as a son-of-a-bitch. "They got me coming and going. Car's all over the place. So many damn people so early in the morning."
"It's a busy day." I was trying to move away from him, because once Billy got started, he forgot how to stop. And I just wasn't in the mood to do a great deal of talking today. I wanted to get in and out.
"They're having a regular party over there." He looked in the direction of the swimming pool. "Are they friends of yours?"
"No," I answered, breaking away. "They're friends of Mr. Curtis."
I walked across the asphalt drive, up the steps, and entered the backdoor of my estate. It was cooler inside, and the air-conditioning was blowing at full force even though it was not really hot outside. I walked down the main corridor, and looked in at the large room that was on the right side of the hallway. It was our central orgy room.
There were carpenters and decorators in the room, and they were in the middle of redecorating it for this weekend's party. I tried to judge from the few decorations what the theme was, but there were too few details. I closed the door and continued to walk down the hallway, moving in the direction of my office. I met a girl or two on my way, but I didn't recognize them. They knew me, and they greeted me with a good morning. I wasn't sure whether they were new girls or just old girls that I had forgotten. After a while, you stopped paying attention to faces.
I opened the door to my office, and I saw Harvey. He was sitting in my seat, talking on the telephone. There was also another person in the room, a girl, and she was on her knees. Harvey's cock was pulled from his pants, and she was sucking on it while he talked into the telephone.
They jumped when I opened the door, like criminals caught in the act. When I realized what was going on, I began to close the door, leaving them to their privacy, but Harvey motioned to me with his hand, indicating for me to come in. Still, I hesitated.
"Just a second," he said into the receiver. Then, putting his hand over the mouthpiece, he said to me, "Come on in. I'll just be a second."
He made no reference to the girl between his legs. It was as though she wasn't there. Harvey went back to talking into the telephone, and she continued to suck on his cock, as though she were giving him a shoe-shine and not servicing him sexually.
I stood there, feeling awkward in my own office, and tried not to look at them. But my eyes were drawn to Harvey and that bent-over girl in front of him. It was so bizarre that I was fascinated by it.
"Okay! Very good!" Harvey said into the receiver, stretching his legs out in front of him so that the girl could get more of his cock into her mouth. "Very good! I'll be in touch. You too! Bye-bye."
He hung up the receiver, turning to me. "Be with you in a minute."
He leaned forward and tapped the girl on the shoulder. "A little later, honey. You're very good and I'd like to finish it with you later. But I'm busy now, hon. Okay?"
The girl got up, holding something blue and gauzy in front of her breasts. It was only then that I noticed that she was naked from the waist up, and she was hiding her nipples under the blue material. I recognized her. It was Patti Marshall, the new girl, the girl with the magic mouth.
Her face was flushed, embarrassment, I hoped, and she smiled uncomfortably at me. "Good morning, Mr. Caldwell," she muttered, eyes downcast.
I nodded back, not trusting my voice, and she slipped past me, heading for the door.
"Brian," Harvey said, "that girl is really fantastic. I mean Ian-tastic! What a mouth. She's going to go far, that girl. Far!"
Patti closed the door silently behind us, and I knew Harvey's speech had been for her benefit. I'd heard it too many times before to believe he was sincere. He didn't even remember her name. He referred to her as "honey" and "that girl." She wasn't even a person to him.
"Well, Brian! Where've you been?" With his silk handkerchief, the same one I watched him mop his brow with yesterday, Harvey was wiping his cock, cleaning it of Patti Marshall's saliva. He wiped his cock dry and stuffed it back in his zipper with no more self-consciousness than if he were blowing his nose. He stood up and shook my hand, transferring the handkerchief to his left hand.
I shook my head in disbelief. "Around," I answered cryptically. "Around."
Harvey laughed obscenely. "Yes! But 'around' with whom? That's the question."
I looked through the clutter on the desk, but it looked the same as when I'd left, yesterday morning. There were papers, notes, heavy reports, and Harvey's open copy of the Wall Street Journal.
"I've been staying with a friend," I finally added, hoping that this would satisfy Harvey's perverse curiosity.
Harvey laughed; really, it was more like a cackle. "A friend? Really? Is that what they call them now-a friend?"
He seemed pleased with his joke, and he cackled a few more times. All the while his eyes were leering, with the look of an emotional vulture, ready to pick to the bare bones anything I might tell him.
"How is she?" he wanted to know. "This friend of yours? Your little piece on the side? Good pussy?"
I ignored him, sitting in the chair across from him, as though our roles had suddenly changed, and I was the hired help and Harvey was the employer.
"Would you let me have a try at it someday?" he asked.
It was pathetic: Harvey had to have everything I had. He couldn't be satisfied with his own life, he had to live off mine too. He was like a sponge or a shadow or an official taster.
"No, no, Harvey. This is something special. I don't think you would like this ... person." Heather was a person, wasn't she? She wasn't just a cunt or a pussy, or even just a girl. Heather was a person.
"Why not?" Harvey asked. He looked hurt, as though Heather had somehow rejected him without his ever knowing her. "She is a cunt, isn't she?"
I was tired of Harvey's personality, so I changed the subject. "What has been happening around here since yesterday?"
Harvey was not ready to make the switch, and I saw the fight his emotions were making inside of him.
His puffy red face was like a television screen, registering everything. His lower lip twitched until he finally took control of himself. Harvey Curtis, the businessman, emerged slick and well-oiled, the obvious victor.
"Things have been going really well, Brian," he said. "The money is still rolling in from every avenue open to Xanadu. I told you how you personally stand, didn't I?"
"You mean about my being a millionaire?" The word sounded uncomfortable on my tongue, like a cruse or an obscenity. "Yes, you told me."
"I made the selections of next month's orgies." He tried to hand me a single typed sheet, but I ignored him. "I came up with some pretty original things. I worked on it with Diane."
They were certainly a team, I thought. My two most loyal and dedicated employees. Between them there was enough greed to last a lifetime, even if I never saw them again. They pretended that they were my friends, but all they cared about was money and power. If they ever married each other, they would spend the rest of their lives watching the other, afraid to turn around, afraid of the inevitable knife in the back that would come the moment their insurance policies grew too large. Diane and Harvey: the dynamic duo.
Harvey flapped the theme paper in my face. "Don't you want to look at it?"
I shook my head. "No. I'm sure Diane and you must have come up with something. It's not necessary for me to check on it." I paused purposely. "I trust your judgment, Harvey, you know that."
He accepted it at face value because there was no reason for him to suspect that I meant it in any other way. The change that had come over me (There was a change, wasn't there? It was the first time I had admitted it to myself) was something that had become much more serious since I met Heather. It was like a tear in my life. It was as though I had become a different person.
He smiled, obviously pleased with himself. "Thank you, Brian."
"How are things going with Prentiss?" I asked. I got up from my chair and walked around the office. I didn't want to look at Harvey any longer than was necessary.
"He's here, you know. Prentiss, I mean."
"Yes, I know. What's he doing here?"
Harvey smiled and sat back in my chair. He was very pleased with himself. "I invited him."
"Why? I thought he was willing to go along with us on the bill."
"He is. But I just wanted to have a little extra. An ace in the hole, if you will."
I didn't quite grasp the subtleties of Harvey's metaphor, but I was sure he meant it to be appreciated obscenely. "What do you have in mind?"
"I gave Prentiss one of the special rooms. The private suites. I have everything on tape, in living color, with sound to match. And I'll tell you one thing, that Prentiss is wasting himself in politics. He should go in for acrobatics. What that man can do ... And not just with boys, either. Our Senator Prentiss is a very versatile man."
Harvey's laugh made my stomach feel queasy. He was about to go into details when I cut him off.
"Where do you have the tapes?"
"I locked them in the safe. Why?"
"Who else has seen them?"
Harvey's stare grew hard and guarded. "Just Diane. Why; is there something wrong?"
I shook my head. "I'm not so sure we're going about this in the right way..."
"What?"
"Let me finish, Harvey!" I said the words firmly, reasserting my old role. For a moment, I was in command.
Harvey buckled with the pressure, and his face looked like a deflating balloon. "Sure."
"As I said, I think we might be going around this in the wrong way. A State Senator is a powerful man with a lot of powerful friends. I'm not so sure that blackmail is the way to get something out of him."
The bitterness was clear in Harvey's voice. "Which way do you suggest?"
I thought for a moment. "I'm not sure. I haven't decided. But until I do, I don't want you making any more tapes of Prentiss or his friends. And the tapes you do have, I want them locked away in my safe. No one, under any circumstances, is to be allowed to see them. Is that understood, Harvey?"
Harvey glared at me, but I knew he was too afraid to do anything more than that. In Harvey's own terms, he knew where his bread was buttered.
"Sure, Brian," he said, but the words were empty of conviction. "Anything you say."
For some obscure reason, it made me feel good to exercise my authority over Harvey, and I savored the pleasure the feeling gave me.
I had changed, hadn't I? Two weeks ago, Harvey and I thought alike. Now, I was almost gleeful because I had cut him down. What was happening to me, and where would it end?
Since I had made the one move, and I felt confident, I decided to make another. A clean break.
"I also want to tell you that I've decided to take a vacation after all. I'll probably be gone for a week or two. I want you to hold things down for me while I'm gone. All right?"
Harvey's voice broke, and that mercenary, gleeful glint came back to his eyes. I had given him the one salve, the one balm, to soothe his injured feelings. It was like asking a man who was dying of thirst if he wanted a cold drink. Harvey would drink. He would drink until his belly burst.
"Sure, Brian," he said. He looked numb, like a kid at Christmas who really did get a pony. "If you think I can handle it."
"I'm sure you can, Harvey. Who but you knows all about this business? I know that you'll handle Xanadu as if it was your own. As well as I. Better even."
I could almost see his head swelling. Well, let it. For now I needed Harvey. I had to get away from this place. I had to get back to Heather so that I could breathe again. So, if that meant that Harvey had to run things for a while, let it be. Money was all that mattered to Harvey. Money and power. It was a fair exchange. Harvey got what he wanted and I got what I wanted.
The shock finally broke, and Harvey came back to life. His feet touched ground again. "Do you want to leave a number where I can reach you? In case of an emergency?"
I considered this for a moment. "No. No number. I'm on vacation. Period."
This time Harvey did protest. "But what if something happens? Be reasonable, Brian."
I was being reasonable, I wanted to tell him. More reasonable than I've ever been in my entire life. What Harvey really meant was: be practical. Don't do anything that might jeopardize your money.
"All right," I conceded a small point. "I'll call you. Every couple of days. How's that?"
He wasn't pleased, but it would have to do. Besides, he had no choice. "I guess that will be all right."
"Thank you, Harvey." I turned to leave, then turned back to leave him with some parting suggestions. "And remember what I said about Prentiss. No more tapes. I know you're only trying to do what you think is best for the company, but I have to do what I think is best, too."
Harvey smiled and stood up, extending his pudgy, thick-fingered hand across the desk. The palm of his hand was wet.
"Whatever you say, Brian," he said, shaking my arm off. "You're the boss. You're the boss."
Yes, I was, I thought. I was the boss.
I pulled my hand free. "Take it easy, Harvey. I'll keep in touch."
Harvey stumbled around the side of my desk, walking me to the door. He was trembling with ecstasy, as though he were experiencing something sexual. He pulled the door open for me, but blocked my exit.
"Just one thing, Brian," he said. "Before you go on vacation." He stumbled over the last word.
I waited for him to continue, and he did.
"I assume that you'll be staying with this friend of yours. Am I right?"
I nodded. "Yes."
He shook his head in admiration. "She really must be fantastic," he remarked, using the same adjective he had used to describe Patti Marshall. "I mean for you to leave all of this! All these beautiful cunts you have here! This girl must be really fantastic."
I couldn't help but laugh. "She is, Harvey. Fantastic is what she is."
I pushed past him, and he closed the door behind me. I could almost hear him clicking his heels in joy once the door was closed. Today was a big day in Harvey Curtis's life. Today he reached the top.
I walked down the hallway to my rooms. The door was closed, and I pushed it open, preparing myself for the confrontation with all my puppet-like reflections.
But the room was crowded with carpenters, and the walls were stripped bare. All of the gaudy decorations were ripped down, and stark white walls stared back at me.
The redecoration, I told myself. I'd forgotten about it.
"Everyone out," I yelled, holding up my hands. I wanted to pack in privacy. "I'm going to need the room for a few moments. You can all come back when I'm finished."
I waited patiently at the door for the workmen to file out. There was also one or two girls, Diane Miller included, in the room, but I chased them out with the carpenters. They said hello and good-bye to me at the door. When the room was finally empty, I closed the door, and began to pack my suitcase.
I took just the barest minimum, sensing that I wouldn't need very many external things to fit into Heather's life-style. A few shirts, a pair of jeans, and a couple of changes in underwear. Everything was reduced to fundamentals, I thought, remembering the food. All natural, organic needs.
It was odd, yet I felt a thrill of excitement running through my veins while I packed. I was really excited. I was looking forward to being with Heather again. I couldn't remember when I'd looked forward to something so much. I was so excited that I felt a knot of anxiety tightening my muscles, and all I could think of was that something was going to happen to prevent me from going. What was it? I wondered. What was it that made me feel so excited? So happy?
But that was easy. It was Heather.
"Where did everyone go?"
I turned around. There was a tall, breathtakingly beautiful redhead standing in the middle of the room, looking lost. She had on a hot pants set, in blue, and it was striking against her pale flesh. Her breasts were pert and firm even though it was obvious that she wasn't wearing a bra.
"Where did everyone go?" she repeated, coming towards me. Her body glided from side to side, as though she were carrying something explosive, and was afraid to juggle it.
"I sent them all away."
She stared at me for a moment. "I know you! You're Mr. Caldwell."
"Do you work for me?" I didn't remember her.
"Sure! Well, I mean, you probably don't know me. I'm sort of new..."
Weren't they all new? "What's your name?"
"Violet. But you can call me Vi. What are you doing?"
She was close to me now, almost leaning on my arm with her nearly naked breasts. She was trying to be seductive, as all good Xanadu-girls are trained to be.
"I'm packing, Vi," I said, trying to ignore her. "Can I help?" The tip of her breast brushed against my arm. Purposely.
"No. Thank you though."
I could feel her breath on my neck, and the musky, sensual odor of her perfume tickled at my nose.
"Are you going away?"
"Yes. I'll be gone a week or two."
She pouted, puckering her thick red lips, and blew me an imaginary kiss. "But I just met you. Now you're going away. That's not nice."
The feeling of anxiety that I had experienced moments before came back in strong, gripping waves. Could this new girl possibly have anything to do with the way I felt?
"Please. I'm in a kind of hurry..."
But Vi wasn't the meek type. She enjoyed playing the seductress, and wasn't about to take no for an answer.
"But how about a good-bye ... kiss, then?" She ran the moist tip of her tongue across her top lip as she slid her hands down over her hips.
I turned away from her, feeling almost panic. There was a challenge in this, wasn't there. A challenge that I was afraid to face.
"Some other time," I told her, fighting to control my voice.
She tickled my ear with her long fingernail, running it up and down the back of my neck so that it bristled my hair. A shiver went through my body.
"What's the matter?" she asked. "Don't you like me?"
I wanted her to be out of here. She was disturbing me, and I couldn't think.
"Don't you like me?" she persisted. "Or are you afraid of your sweet Violet?"
Was that it? I wondered. Was I afraid? Afraid of her, and what she'd do to the way I felt about Heather? Was I afraid to take a close look at that very frail thing I had shared with Heather? Was it too delicate? Would it not withstand a comparison?
"Why should I be afraid of you?" I said, laughing off the idea.
But I saw now I was afraid. Afraid of losing that special moment, that communion of minds, that I had experienced with Heather. I was afraid to test it; afraid to see if it would crumble. All of a sudden, I had something to lose.
Fighting back my fear, I laughed again. Bravely.
"All right, Vi," I said. "You win. Take your clothing off."
She stared at me, wide-eyed.
"I'm going to fuck you."