Chapter 9

Leonard Felton opened his eyes into the grayness of a new day. His hands wormed to his head, feeling of the aching exterior. His temples were throbbing like pulsating pumps and the back of his eyes seemed crammed against his skull.

Across the room, the shadow of a door loomed huge and sinister and the clattering echo from it gouged at his eardrums. Leonard cringed and sought the protection of the covers.

Once more the vibrations rattled the walls about him and the realization blossomed in his mind that someone, or something, was trying to arouse him.

"Who is it?" he called weakly trying to sit up in bed and hoping it was all a dream. "What you want?"

The voice from the other side of the door was equally feeble. "I want to go home-will you call me a cab?"

"Huh!"

The voice was firmer this time. "I want to go home."

"Who are you?" The boy pulled the cover close about his chest to ward off the evil spirits. "What you doing here?"

"Roni Collins-I have to go home-will you take me or call a cab?"

"Collins! Collins!!" blurted Leonard trying to pull an image out of his brain. "What are you doing here?"

"I went to sleep. Open the door."

"Oh Lord!" Leonard groaned and tried to hold his head up so he could hear the weak voice through the door. "Do you have to go now? Go to bed somewhere."

"I have to go home," the voice said becoming pleading. "If mother finds me gone."

"Jesus! Can't you call a cab?" Leonard pushed to the edge and lowered a foot over the side. "No," he decided withdrawing the statement, "Don't do that. I'll call a cab myself."

"Can you open the door, I want to ask you something?"

"Coming," he said and tried his weight on the right foot, then forced his tortured body into a standing position. I'm ... I'm coming."

He shuffled across the floor toward the door, swaying uneasily and wishing he could crawl into a hole and disappear. His tongue felt thick and there was a dryness in his throat. He couldn't remember anything of last night and the burning sensation in his head gave him little desire to even try.

He pulled the door open, standing in his pajamas and completely unmindful of the appearance he made. The pallor of the beginning day outlined his figure, creating a picture of utter dejection.

Roni Collins eyed him with bloodshot eyes and blinked repeatedly. "Sorry," she murmured. "I do have to go home and don't know where to find a phone." She was dressed and looked as good as her wrinkled clothing would permit.

"I hate to bother you," she said apologizing again. "The kids must have left me." She was looking at him with a peculiar expression.

"If you'll wait I'll put on something." He backed away from the door and the girl followed into the room.

"I want to talk to you."

Leonard tugged at the tops of his pajamas and his expression must have indicated something other than what he was thinking. The girl snickered and held a hand to her lips.

"I'm sorry," she said again. " ... but you look so funny."

Leonard Felton didn't feel funny. In fact, he wished heartily this girl would drop dead so he could go back to bed.

"You wait," he said again and putting a hand to his head to see if it was really as big as it felt. "I'll put on something."

The girl laughed a low throaty laugh, walked over to the bed and sat down, her fingers working with the buttons of the blouse which sagged open in front.

"Did you put me to bed?" she asked innocently.

"Bed?" Leonard's face was a blank.

"Undress me, take my clothes off and put me to bed. Did you?"

Leonard moved his head in the negative and tried to remember what happened beyond the awful knock on his door. He couldn't remember anything beyond five minutes ago but he didn't want her to know that. "Not me," he said and tugged at the front of his pajama top to force it below the top of the bottoms and the terrible gape that insisted on coming in to being at that moment.

The girl snickered again, her eyes following the movement of his hands. "You're funny. You act like I was going to rape you."

"Huh?" The boy stared at her in disbelief.

"I want to know if you raped me."

"If I WHAT!" Leonard was finding a few words.

"The love bit, you know, boy uses girl, the real big people stuff!"

This time he was speechless, which must have appeared to Roni Collins as being even funnier than before. She burst into a loud ribald laughter which tore at Leonard's temples like the wail of a siren.

The girl quieted down and apoligized again. "You're funny," she said.

"Yeah...." agreed Leonard stroking his head. "Funny."

"Somebody put me to bed," the girl said. "Do you know who?"

"I didn't see anybody...."

"It wasn't you." The words were more of a statement than a question and implied this knowledge was an accepted fact. "It must have been some one else."

"Why?" inquired Leonard trying to wake up enough to gather his faculties about him. "Who would have wanted to?"

"That's what I want to know." She looked up at him and her expression was one he couldn't understand. "Why did some one put me to bed without ... without...?" She paused looking thoughtful.

"What?" He tried to make his eyes stand still on the front of her figure long enough to see what she was doing. The pain in the spot between them made him feel as if the eyeballs were coming right out of the sockets.

"Without...." she said and then paused. She seemed to be searching for a word to express her thought. "Without loving me," she concluded. She looked up from the bed and frowned slightly.

"Love?" Leonard was beginning to get a vague notion of what she meant. His brain was unable to grasp the full import of her intended meaning but he did understand the word love. "I don't know," he said looking at his feet so she couldn't see how bad he felt.

"You're thick," she muttered. "You wouldn't have sense enough to rock me."

"What do you want?" he blurted beginning to comprehend the direction of her reasoning. "You want me...?"

"To call me a cab," she said getting up and brushing at her skirt. "Besides," she added under her breath. "It's a lousy time to go to bed."

"I'll call the cab," he promised and went down stairs to use the phone with the blonde following along behind.

He knew that five thirty could be an unusual time for a girl in her teens to be going home from a party. Also, that it was unusual for a young man to place said girl in a taxi while dressed in a pair of pajamas covered over by a long winter coat and with hair that was overly long and much in need of a comb, but he was too sick to worry about getting dressed or combing his hair. His only consideration was to get Miss Collins into the cab and out of his life as soon as possible and it never occurred that there would be anything unusual in two people waiting on a badly scarred lawn at five thirty in the morning.

The driver did think so.

He eyed the two with suspicion while the girl crawled into the back seat. Her skirt pulled up as she settled on the cushion and she made no attempt to adjust it. The driver's expression changed to one of delight and then of intense appreciation. Leonard backed away from the cab door and out of the driver's gaze and away from the girl's reproachful look.

"'Bye," he muttered and pulled the coat collar up about his ears, "Gu'by."

"Where to?" inquired the driver glaring at Leonard. "Downtown?"

"She'll tell you." mumbled Leonard and turned away in hopes of shutting out the picture.

"The lady?" The driver crawled in behind the wheel, reached up and adjusted the rearview mirror so he could see the girl behind him. The way the mirror was hung often gave a very good view of the miniskirts. "Man what a doll!" he thought. "I bet she's really been slept with!" Aloud, he asked. "Where to Miss? To a hotel?"

"Home," Roni said slowly and told him the address. The driver's expression changed. He had been positive this dish would be from one of the hotels downtown and there was always the possibility...."Ah hell!" he said and put the car in gear.

Leonard navigated uneasily back to the front door and sat down on a step. He wanted desperately to shut his mind to the clamor of the garbage truck making its rounds. It was light enough now to see the front lawn and the litter left behind by his guests. His eyes opened wide as they followed the two black ruts across the center of the green lawn. He could only stare and fight the numbness in his mind.

"Oh God!" he moaned, "I'm but dead!"