Chapter 16
Sunday morning Becky sat alone at the kitchen table, drinking coffee.
Outside the sun was shining and the day promised to be not so hot as usual-but her thoughts were black. On many Sundays in Spokane, before Rudy's rise to managership, they had driven over into Idaho to Lake Ponderosa. In weather like this they had gone swimming or boating.
They had been close and in love, and the future had seemed very bright. She had ignored the glances of other men, who apparently thought it a little odd that she was with a balding man at least ten years her senior. They had been happy.
There had been no hesitancy in her complete surrender when they were alone in bed. She hadn't minded his shyness, his reserve. Doing it at night with lights out had been fun enough. Most of her basic needs to be held and kissed had been fulfilled, and when she hadn't been able to climax with him she had been pleased that he could find his joy in her, that he wanted her....
The memories seemed to hurt more keenly this morning. She knew a hiatus was developing.
When Rudy appeared, looking glum, his robe awry, his eyes bloodshot, she steeled herself for the words she had to say.
"I'm not doing any more switching, Rudy...." Her voice trembled. "I just can't."
He fell limply into a chair. He shook his head. He touched his hair piece in the old unconscious gesture.
"You're just hung over," he answered sourly.
"I mean it!"
"Hell! I thought you were having fun. Why didn't you say so before?"
She knew he had a point. "All right, I thought I'd go along-I tried. It's just no good...."
His face went white. She realized he wouldn't want a divorce. The Crest Stores liked to have their rising stars married, established ... She could get one herself, but it would injure his career, maybe they could still paste together some kind of association that would pass for a happy home life.
"We'll talk about it later," he said grumpily. He left the kitchen and walked into the living room.
The old pattern. So many words left unsaid. She was sure he felt some kind of guilt about his recent behavior with Tina and Janet-and maybe others. Obviously he didn't want to change. He liked his new role of dashing young man about town.
They were no longer close. They couldn't talk things over reasonably, as they had the first years. The wall between them seemed to widen.
Then she had her own guilt. She wasn't at all sure she could resist Tina in the right circumstances. And Rudy had caught her in a very embarrassing situation. Not that married girls didn't ever relieve their own tensions-Kinsey and others had found the practice existed. It was simply that he had found her out.
Then there was the ugly mystery of who had sent her the pictures. She wouldn't tell anyone about that. But she wanted to know-if possible. She wanted to stop it before someone else saw them.
I've already sunk into a girl-and-girl association and those photographs make me feel even worse about it. Who knows my secret? Who suspects I have lesbian leanings?
She followed Rudy into the living room. He was sunk in the morning paper. She wanted to say, Why can't we start all over, Rudy? Why can't we be like we were?
He looked up, scowling. "What were you going to say?"
His coolness knifed her deeply. "Nothing, Rudy. Nothing at all! I hope you had fun with Tina!"
He flushed. "Hell, she was too drunk...."
"I was too drunk for Hal, too," she answered, bitingly.
He rattled the paper and went back to it, hiding his face behind the front page. "Is that why you came home and got your jollies out in the living room-alone?"
She wanted to strike him. A new flood of shame and humiliation washed through her. She turned and left the room. He would use that as a goad now.
Fine people we are-discussing a drunken switch party!
She sat down at the kitchen table and poured fresh coffee. It tasted like sour mud-sharp and bitter in her mouth. Outside the sun still shone and a few birds sang. She was barely conscious of them. Her thoughts had never been darker. She felt used and tired and degraded....
Monday morning at eleven o'clock Rudy's secretary called on the intercom and said a young woman wanted to see him. He shoved papers aside and stood up. He told the girl to have his visitor come in. Could it be Tina, with some new business? He smoothed his hair piece, checked his appearance and watched the office door open.
He had to admit that things hadn't gone too well Saturday night. He had had one hell of a time getting Tina even halfway satisfied. She did a lot of pretending. She knew all the little arts of displaying her body and how to act passionate, but he hadn't been in his best form.
One of these days he would catch her sober and give her a good roll.
Becky would be all right in a few days. She and Hal hadn't hit it off. She seemed to get along better with Gene. Well, if she wanted to hold back and miss all the fun, he could get out a few nights a week and hunt up something. Plenty of it around....
He felt a jolt of surprise when the young woman entered his office. She closed the door firmly.
"How are you, tall and handsome?"
"Irene!" he said. "I thought you'd left town...."
"No-not yet. Still convalescing, you might say. And I'm bored...."
Her bright red hair was waved to perfection. She wore a modest summer dress that couldn't hide her abundance of curvy charms. She looked sleek and ripe and desirable. She drifted up near his desk. Her perfume hit him right in the middle.
"I wanted to see you before I took off," she murmured, moistening her rich fleshy lips.
His chest tightened. He had danced with her at the party and he remembered the restless roll of her hips, the way she had swiveled her bottom there on the carpet....
"I'm flattered, Irene!"
"You're special, Rudy," she whispered, coming closer. "Can you slip out on your little wife tonight?"
"Hell, yes!"
He slipped his arm around her pliant waist. She made a little cooing sound, raising her mouth. He leaned down to take it-and suddenly she made a cat-like move that was so unexpected he could only stand there, frozen.
She reached up and snatched away his hair piece!
She walked quickly to the door, shoving her stolen merchandise into her handbag.
His anger rose and burst in a stream of vindictive epithets. His fists clenched. He had not felt so naked in years.
"Damn you, come back here-with that!" he bellowed.
She laughed coldly. "You tell your little wife I'm getting even. She'll understand. I spotted your imitation mop the first time I saw you."
She went swiftly through the door. He plunged after her-then just as he found the doorknob he realized she had him. He couldn't chase her through the cluster of girls out there who had probably already heard him yelling!
He stood there, rigid, cursing. The dirty bitch! Getting even for what?
He ran his hands across his naked scalp, still sticky from the goop he put there to keep his patch in position.
He trembled. He hadn't been so worked up in years. He tramped back to his desk. Then, changing his mind, he returned to the office door, locked it and returned to the desk again. Well, the bitch didn't know everything. He had a spare at home. It had cost him plenty to buy two hair pieces but the salesman had told him it was a good idea. How true!
Sweating, he dialed his home number. His left hand kept passing over his bald spot. The whore ...!
Becky sat in the Finch living room talking to Tina.
Despite what she knew about the lovely blonde and what she had done with Rudy-and herself-Becky was glad to have company. There was a kind of naked honesty about Tina that was utterly disarming. She seemed less tricky and underhanded than most girls, all of whom learned deception at an early age. After all wasn't it the very essence of a woman to be a little mysterious?
Tina, like herself, wanted children. But Tina would never have any of her own. Perhaps she was more involved with "fun" because of this inadequacy in her physical being. She was denied the normal function of a wife-motherhood. From what Becky had overheard, perhaps Tina had difficulties in other areas of marriage....
Did she, too, have trouble finding everything she needed in her hubby's embrace? Was this why she had veered away from the norm toward other girls? Becky still could find no excuse for lesbian activities but every person was different. Maybe Tina couldn't help being partly that way. She looked so extremely and totally feminine....
Today Tina wore a simple white housedress, but she filled it out very attractively-and of course her skirt was very short. Sitting in a chair directly across from Becky with her legs apart, Becky could see the frilly border of her slip and the soft roundness of her thighs....
If she's wearing panties at all, they're very thin, Becky thought guiltily.
The phone rang, interrupting her disturbing observation. She slid along the sofa and took the extension on the end table. Her own skirt worked back along her legs, and she didn't bother to push it forward. It was a warm day, and after all Tina had looked at her thighs before....
"Yes?" Becky said.
"This is Rudy," came startlingly in her ear. He was angry, his voice tight with emotion! "What's the matter?"
"I lost my hair piece. I'm here in the office. You know where my spare is ... Get it and bring it down to the store-fast!"
Her first impulse was to burst out laughing. The fool! Was it that important? His ego had been shaken ... She savored the irony of the situation a few seconds before answering. People around Pender would probably discover his secret sooner or later, anyway. Why couldn't he go without his wig for part of a day?
"You can wear a hat home," she said, dryly.
He fumed. "You know damn well I never wear a hat, especially in August. Will you kindly do what I tell you?"
I hate that thing he wears, she thought. I didn't at first, but I do now!
He sounded as though his very life depended on restoring his precious patch, on covering his natural baldness.
"Okay," she said.
"Well, make it snappy!"
She hung up the receiver.
"What was that all about?" Tina asked.
Becky burst out laughing. She couldn't help it. The whole thing was so funny. She was glad he had been disarmed, so to speak-glad he had been jerked down to reality!
"This is too much!" Tina said, giggling. "Tell me."
Becky realized she couldn't keep Tina in the dark any longer. Perhaps the cute blonde had guessed, anyway....
"Rudy lost his hair piece," Becky exploded, still quaking with amusement.
"His what?"
Becky took a deep breath. "His toupee, honey. Didn't you know?"
Tina shook her head. She giggled. "Well, he didn't want me running my fingers through his hair. But what's so funny?"
"He worries about it so much!" Becky said. "He didn't want anybody in town to know. He's locked in his office, afraid to come out, so he wants me to bring down his spare. Isn't that ridiculous?"
Tina smiled. She couldn't grasp the whole picture, of course. She couldn't understand that Rudy had changed so much since he had started wearing artificial hair.
Becky left the sofa and went into the master bedroom. She opened the lower right-hand corner drawer of the vanity, where he kept his other wig. She looked at the parcel Rudy felt was so important. She opened it.
The hair piece was gone....