Chapter 7

Soon, she heard the band strike up. It wasn't exactly music that they were playing, but she could see how it could pass for a reasonable facsimile. Staring upwards, she realized that Breeze had left the bottle of coke on the counter.

Hot damn, she thought, and tried to sit up.

To her surprise, she was weak. She must have exerted herself more than she realized.

It took her several minutes to regain her bearings enough to get organized. She'd been worked over well, and she was just coming to realize that.

Suddenly, there was a faint knock on the door.

My God, I'm naked, she thought, and called out "Just a minute."

Then the knock came again, even fainter this time, and she thought she heard someone call her name.

Cindi!

She realized all at once just how disoriented she must have been, for she'd completely forgotten about her sister.

She quickly ran to the door, oblivious now of the fact that she was naked and opened it. What she saw sickened her.

Cindi staggered into the room, her fur coat wrapped around her.

Her faced was badly bruised and there were cuts on her arms.

"Cindi, are you all right?"

"What's it look like?" she answered.

Suzy was relieved to hear the edge in her voice. However badly she might be hurt, she was still able to get angry, which was all that it took, as far as Suzy was concerned, to be totally normal.

"Come on over here and sit down," she said, helping her sister into a chair. "What happened?"

"The bastards ... they raped me, all of them...."

"Who? The guy that was with Breeze."

"Who's Breeze?" she asked, still short of breath.

"The guy that looked like a rooster."

"Oh yeah ... him. You mean the one with the Mohawk cut? Nah, he split, and I don't know where he went. At least I think he did. But he turned me over to all these roadies."

"You're kidding?"

She shook her head, and then, she opened her coat.

Suzy gasped.

"I don't believe it. My God, we're getting you to a doctor."

"I'm all right. At least I think I'm all right. They didn't hit me too hard."

"You couldn't prove it by looking at your body...."

"Yeah, well they just did it so much, is the thing."

"What'd they do with your clothes."

"I guess they ate them. That's the kind of animals they were."

Then Cindi noticed her sister's condition.

"Uh ... speaking of clothes...."

"Hmmm ... oh! Yeah, I forgot," she said sheepishly. "I kind of got involved."

"I can tell."

"I thought I had it bad. All he did was fuck me with a knife."

"What."

"I'll tell you about it later."

"You'll tell me about it right now. Maybe we should get you to a doctor."

"No, I'm all right, really. He did it with class."

Cindi stared at her sister like she'd taken total leave of her senses. "Let's just get out of here," Suzy then said.

"No. I want revenge on those bastards."

"How do you propose to do that? You don't have any clothes on, and your body's battered and bruised. I say let's get the fuck out of here."

"I want to get even with them."

"How?"

"Don't keep shooting me down ... think of something."

She reached around and picked up the bottle of coke. "Well, aside from snorting up the rest of this coke, I really don't know what we can do."

Cindi stared at the bottle, her eyes growing wide. "Well, that's a start."

"All right, I'll cut out a few lines."

And while their brains sizzled into high gear and then roared on into overdrive, they plotted. And then, they began to laugh.

"Roger," said Jill, "what do you say we go dancing."

Roger was stuffing the last of Jill's eggplant parmesan into his mouth.

"Hey, that's great, Jill. A very innovative torture. You make me obese with your cooking, and then you make me dance till I throw up or die. Very good."

"What did you think, we were just going to hop back into bed and start fucking again?"

"Well, to tell you the truth, it had occurred to me."

She gave him a kiss as she took his plate away.

"Me too, honey, but I just got to thinking that it would be nice to go dancing."

T don't think I remember how to dance."

"Nonsense. It's like riding a bicycle. You never forget."

"I never learned."

"You're kidding."

"Well, not very well. I just kind of moved around, but I always felt stupid."

"So, that's all you do today."

"What, feel stupid."

"No, stupid ... you just move around."

"I'll move around in you if you let me fuck you again."

"Hmmmm ... you drive a hard bargain."

"You don't know the half of it."

"I know some of it. I know a lot of it, if you want the truth. My clit's still tingling."

"A mere taste of feasts yet to come."

"Great. But first I want to go dancing."

"I think this is where I came in."

"Please...."

"Where do you want to go dancing."

"There's a great new rock club that just opened up."

"You mean that New Wave place I read about?"

"Yeah."

"No."

"Why?"

"Because I'm too old. I'll feel like a dinosaur."

"Nonesense. You'll look fine. Just wear a coat and a tie, and muss up your hair ... better yet, use Brylcream on it."

"What! I haven't used that since 1955."

"It's the rage. You be glad you came back. Come on, I'm gonna make a punk out of you yet."

"Can't we just make love."

"Later."

"I won't have time later."

She looked hurt. "How come?"

"I've got to get home."

"Oh yeah ... gee. I was kind of hoping you'd stick around here. You know, like spend the night."

Roger marveled at her openness.

"Where were you in the days when I was getting turned down by every girl I met?"

"Turning down nice guys like you, the same as all the other girls I knew. It takes a while before we catch on."

"I'm flattered, but I still need to get home."

"Why."

"I've got to check on my girls."

Silence.

"What girls?"

"Holy shit! That's right. I never told you, did I?"

"What girls?"

He realized that suddenly she was advancing on him, looking a little like her Genghis Khan instincts were rising to the surface.

"Roger Stoddard, if you've got children you never told me about I'm going to cut your cock off."

He started to laugh, and realized that she wasn't laughing with him.

"Look, I've got children I didn't even know about."

"What!? "

"They're my nieces, and they came to live with me last week."

"No shit?" Her relief was evident. "Really."

He briefly told her the situation.

"And you just let them take off and go out on the town?"

"Well, they're big girls. They can take care of themselves."

"Roger, they're sixteen! I'm not sure, but I think you can be put in jail for that."

"Nonsense."

"Well look, why don't you call home and find out if they're there, and if not, then you can take me dancing, and you can keep checking up on them until they are there. How's that sound."

"Like I'm going dancing against my will."

"Smart boy."

She gave him a big kiss.