Chapter 6
"OOH, WHAT A TIME I HAD!" ANNOUNCED Pam as she stood in the kitchen doorway and stretched voluptuously. Her short peignoir was nearly as transparent as the nightie she wore underneath it, and the dark tips of her tits showed plainly through the two layers of nylon.
Clarisa, seated at the breakfast table, just stared. Fred looked up from his grapefruit, and a wave of warmth came over him. He grinned broadly.
"Sit down, have some coffee and tell us about it," he invited.
Clarisa still didn't say anything, but she fetched Pam a cup.
"That guy you introduced me to was something else," Pam said as she seated herself, and her round titties bounced in their flimsy covering.
"Pam...." Clarisa cautioned as she poured the coffee.
"Well, why shouldn't I talk about it?" she challenged. "We're all adults and are married, or have been. Sex isn't a subject we have to shun."
"That's right," Fred agreed. "So old Dick Sparks proved himself a good stud, hm?"
Clarisa shot her husband a sharply reproving look.
"Did he ever!" Pam lifted her cup and took a sip. "Oooo! Hot."
Clarisa said, "Pam, what you do with your evenings is your own business. We don't care to hear about it."
"Well ... it's up to you." She glanced at Fred.
"Go ahead. Tell us, honey." He set his grapefruit aside and reached for a box of cereal.
Clarisa was staring daggers at her husband.
"Well, I went home with him, of course," Pam chattered on, not looking at either Clarisa or Fred directly. "And you know ... that horny bastard hadn't had a woman in his place for over a month. He told me. Anyway, he got me down on the bed right away and..." She giggled and put her hand to her face. "First he ate me as if he was half-starved ... which I guess he was."
Fred looked at Clarisa. Her cheeks were flaming, and she looked away.
"After that, he got on top of me," Pam said, "and he still had his pants, shirt and boots on-boots, mind you-and he just gave me a ride like I haven't had in a hell of a time. I came twice before he was through."
Twice, Clarisa thought. And I didn't come at all last night.
"He's really hung," Pam continued. "These mountain people must cross-breed with horses."
"No, it's the clear fresh air and the exercise that make us grow," Fred said with a chuckle.
"Well, we did everything before the night was over," Pam went on. "He took me dog fashion and I...(giggle) ... ate his bone..."
She has to be out of her mind, Clarisa thought, to talk this way ... and in front of Fred, too.
She looked at her husband and noted that he was hanging on Pam's every word, his eyes alight, his jaws arrested in mid-chew.
"I'm simply pooped today," Pam said gaily and flung her arms in a gesture of helplessness.
Clarisa got up from the table and strode into the living room. The other two stared at her back. Pam looked at Fred, then got up and followed her erstwhile friend.
"For Pete's sake, honey," she said, "there's nothing to get upset about. Sex has no secrets around here, does it?"
"There's such a thing as decency," Clarisa snapped.
"So, what's indecent about a good time in the sack with a man?"
"Oh, you're impossible!" She turned her back.
Fred joined them. "Let's all forget it, shall we?" he suggested. "No harm's been done."
"I'm not so sure," Clarisa said, turning to look at him directly. She transferred her gaze to Pam. "And I don't think we should forget it, either. As a matter-of-fact, Pam, I think you had better leave today."
"What?"
Fred watched the women and didn't say anything.
"You heard me," Clarisa said. "You and I have different values. We have nothing in common any more."
Pam turned to Fred. "Do you want me to go?"
"You heard the lady of the house," he told her. Clarisa felt a little better.
"Hm!" said Pam. "All right. If that's the way both of you want it."
She turned and went to her room. Fred and Clarisa looked after her, then gazed at each other, their expressions guarded. There was a tense uneasiness between them for the rest of the morning, and Pam remained in her room. After Fred left for the tavern, Pam came out, fully dressed but without her suitcases. Clarisa looked up from the magazine she had been trying to read.
"Ready to go?" she asked calmly.
"Now look, Clarisa ... we've been friends for a long time. I'll leave if you want me to, but I don't want it to be on a sour note. If I was out of line this morning, I'm sorry. You know how I am-outspoken. I've always been that way."
"You didn't use to be," Clarisa said.
"We've all matured a little, I suppose." She eyed the other woman. "Haven't we?"
"Meaning, you think I haven't."
"Well, the way you acted..."
Clarisa put down her magazine and stood up. "I have a marriage to think about. Fred's every inch a male, and he's as susceptible to suggestion as any male is. You could have talked like that to me alone, but with Fred here it wasn't right."
"Fred doesn't give a hoot for me," Pam said.
"I'm not so sure."
"You know what your trouble is? You lack confidence in yourself."
"Don't be ridiculous."
"No. That's it. You think that any woman who comes along is a threat, and you react defensively. The reason you feel that way is because your little ego has gotten atrophied from being locked up here at home for so long. You've forgotten what an attractive girl you used to be-and still are, if you would only let yourself swing a little."
"Please don't get on that again."
"But it's the solution to your problem. Don't you see? If you were to go out and have yourself a hot affair like I had last night, it would revitalize your whole life-your belief in yourself, your enjoyment of your husband, everything."
"Pam, you will pardon me if I say this, but you are full ... of ... shit!"
Pam laughed merrily. "That's the girl! I've already loosened you up a little. But that's nothing compared to what I'm going to do. You don't want me to leave. I've got great fun in store for us."
"Listen, I couldn't have any fun, as you call it, around here if I wanted to. This is a small town. Everyone would know, and the word would get right back to Fred. That isn't to say I would do it anyway, but the practical considerations alone ought to make you shut up about it."
Pam's eyes twinkled and she slowly shook her head. "A gal can find just as much action in a small town as in a large one. All she has to do is pick and choose her playmates. For instance, I know a guy you could meet who would show you a damned fine time and wouldn't say a word to anyone about it."
Clarisa stared at her. "You don't mean..."
"Sure. The guy I was with last night. And is he a stud! Christ, he could take on both of us in an even-mg.
"Pam, you're insane," Clarisa said in simple wonderment.
Pam laughed. "I think I'll set up a date for tonight. We can both sneak over to his cabin."
"No! Absolutely no!"
Pam studied her. "You really want to. You know you do. Be honest with yourself for once and admit it."
"You're out of your flipping mind."
"No, I'm not. I've touched your secret, most vital nerve." She paused. "Baby, you're not getting any younger. The time to have your adventure is now. If you decide you don't like stepping out, okay ... you never have to do it again. But you owe it to yourself to try it once. Everyone does. And it's better sooner than later."
Pam's sheer audacity couldn't help but have its effect on Clarisa. Try as she would to attack Pam's arguments and to throw up every manner of defense against them, Clarisa was weakening.
If it weren't true that she possessed inner doubts, Pam's ploy wouldn't have succeeded. But those doubts were there and were now reinforced by her unhappy sex experience of last night. She knew, as well as she knew her own name, that had she been with Pam's sawmill worker, she would've climaxed like a Fourth of July fireworks show. Hadn't she been thinking of that guy (whom she didn't even know) all evening, and imagining Pam with him?
Clarisa's conscience wouldn't let her agree openly to Pam's scheme. However, there was no more talk about
Pam leaving today, and Clarisa inwardly titillated herself with visions of herself and Pam in the sawmill worker's cabin, taking turns underneath him while the other sat aside and watched.
When Fred came home for dinner that evening, he was hardly surprised and even less displeased to find Pam still there. It had been his idea to ask her to leave, but he hadn't really wanted her to go. Now she and Clarisa seemed to have patched up their differences, at least to the extent that they were talking to each other in calm tones.
During dinner, the conversation was pleasant and non-sexy. Pam paid him no special attention. He kept glancing at her, however.
Ever since she had arrived for the visit, and even before that-from the time he had first learned she was coming-he hadn't been able to keep her out of his mind. The deepest and most-male part of him knew that he wouldn't rest easy until he had her again. Just once, perhaps, would be enough, but there would have to be that one time.
He returned to work in the evening feeling better than he had when he'd left the house earlier in the day.
Pam and Clarisa worked on the dishes together, and nothing more was said about Pam's suggestion that they step out that night. But Clarisa was still thinking about it, though she had no conscious intention of going along with the idea.
After they had put the dishes away, Pam said, "I'm going out for a walk. You want to come with me?"
A little tingle went through Clarisa. "Just a walk?"
"Sure. What do you think?"
"Well, after the way you talked this morning..."
"Oh, that. Well, don't give that another thought. You said you weren't interested. If a person isn't interested, they're just not, that's all."
Clarisa gazed at her as she left the kitchen.
"Are you coming?" Pam called.
"I ... guess so."
Though the air was nippy, they didn't take coats, because they surely wouldn't be out for long. Pam led the way along the lighted path. When it intersected with another path, unlighted, she turned to the right.
"It's too dark up there," Clarisa protested. "We didn't bring a flashlight."
"We don't need one. You can keep your bearings by the lights in the cottages."
They didn't say anything for awhile as they moved slowly along the path, straining their eyes to avoid walking into tree trunks.
"I think we'd better go back," Clarisa suggested finally.
"Nonsense. It's just a little ways farther." The tingle returned. "What is."
"Dick's cabin."
Clarisa froze in her tracks. "Pam, I told you..."
"So we're just gonna say hello. Have a cup of coffee or something. That's all."
"You're trying to rope me in..."
"I'm trying to rope you in on nothing," Pam stated firmly. "You don't have to do one goddamned thing you don't want to do. It will be just hello, nice to meet you and good-bye, if that's the way you want it."
Clarisa looked around. It was pitch black in every direction, except for the few lighted windows which were visible through the trees. It was getting chilly.
She thought of leaving Pam right there and making her way back to her cottage alone. But that would be silly, wouldn't it? It was true that she didn't have to do anything she didn't want to do. Good Lord, she was a mature person, fully capable of taking care of herself.
"All right," she said to Pam, if a bit grudgingly, and continued with her toward the lights which marked Dick's crude cabin.