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1.
It
was just Val's luck to win his first real poker game. Val and his
friends were playing at Rudy's BB. The BB originally stood for Band
Box when the bar was a club in the 40s and 50s. The swank side of
town moved and Rudy's was now surrounded by a few junk stores calling
themselves antique stores, a Christian mission for the homeless
and a shoe repair shop. BB was short for Bar and Barbecue now though
the barbecue was only on Saturday night and was hamburgers.
Sunday
nights Rudy's was closed. The man who owned Rudy's, Tommy D., was
behind the bar cleaning. Saturday nights, with a loud band, got
a little rowdy.
Val
didn't usually go to Rudy's but his friend, Jerry, brought him over.
The others at the table, Frank, Bob, Sammy and Dave were also Val's
friends. Not close friends but they'd all grown up together, shared
the same music likes, high school rivalries, Southside against Central,
and even had some of the same girls for lovers. That was twelve
years ago. Bob was divorced, Sammy and Dave each had kids and a
mortgage, Frank was looking and Jerry had a live-in girlfriend.
Bob always talked about women as if they were slabs of meat which
was why Val never expected the marriage to last. Bob's ex was a
good friend of Nancy's, Val's girlfriend's, and Nancy didn't really
like it much when Val spent much time with Jerry, Bob and the others.
Nancy taught women's studies at the university, was at a conference
for the weekend, and Val figured she'd never find out.
Everyone
was looking at him, Bob looked like he was going to say something
but didn't, no doubt because of Jerry's elbow.
"Two
pair," Jerry said. "You take the pot and we have tradition
that the winner of the last game gets to keep the urinal for a week."
Jerry was starting to bald early, wore gold wire rim glasses and
looked like an old time bookie. Of course he had to be a CPA.
Val
looked at the mound of pennies in the center of the table. "I
don't need a urinal."
Bob
laughed, "This one . . ."
"It's
a tradition," Frank said. Frank was angular and dark; always
looked like he needed a shave. He leaned forward. "Just for
a week. It's no big deal." Bob shook his head grinning. Sammy
and Jerry were nodding. "Jerry didn't tell you?"
"No."
"He
should of." Frank turned to Jerry. "You should have."
Jerry
shrugged.
Frank
rose and left the table. He talked to Tommy D. for a minute and
came back with six beers. "Last call."
Val
took a sip of the new beer and watched their faces as they watched
his.
"It's
in the men's room," Bob said. "Need any help?"
"You're
kidding, aren't you?"
"You
haven't been in the men's room?"
Val
shook his head.
"Check
it out, man. This is a special urinal. Fancy." Bob chugged
his beer. "Come on." Bob could stand to lose some weight.
For some reason he always wore red plaid shirts.
"Maybe
he'd better see it for himself," Sammy said. Sammy was the
shortest person in the room. He was always careful in his choice
of what he wore unlike the rest of them -- he was a dapper man.
Frank
grinned as he drank from the bottle.
Val
put his bottle on the table, rose and left them. He came back a
few minutes later, sat down and finished his beer. He opened his
mouth, shook his head. Frank came back with another beer for Val.
"It's
like fucking a bowling ball. Frank shaved her head two weeks ago
and you can't hold on to nothing." Bob grinned at Val. "Better
than a bowling ball, but you know."
Frank
said to Bob, "It's strange you would know what fucking a bowling
ball is like. My dick is too big for those finger holes."
Dave
took a drink, put his bottle on the table. "God gave her ears,
Bob." Dave was a cop, a burly guy who knew how to use his voice.
Bob
glared at Frank, then laughed. "I need to take a piss."
He stood.
"Sit
down," Dave said. Bob sat.
"Well?"
Frank said.
Val
had done a lot of crazy things, especially when he was younger.
But what he'd seen in the men's room was craziest by far.
"Well?"
Frank said.
"Give
him a moment," Jerry said.
Val
had opened the door and expected a prank, a urinal off the wall
or decorated for him. Everyone would have their laugh seeing how
far they could go with the joke. Eventually they'd all go home.
They'd have something to smile about at work on Monday, the whole
week maybe.
The
men's room was large, tiled in white with black banding. The floor
was a black and white checkerboard of smaller square tiles. In the
center of the room was a painted cement basin, about three feet
by three feet, lowered into the floor with a chrome drain cover
in the center. The cement looked newly painted, shiny brick red,
the chromed eyebolts at the corner of the basin were bright, unlike
the chrome on the sink fixtures which was beginning to show brass
in spots. Chains went up from the eyebolts to a steel collar where
they were locked to the loops on the collar. The collar looked homemade,
of gray iron with weld spatter where the loops were fastened and
already getting rusty. No one had bothered to paint the collar.
The
collar was around a woman's neck. The first thing Val had seen when
he walked in the room was her smile, she shorn head, and tattoos.
Val
was still seeing in his mind what he'd taken in with a glance. She
was kneeling, naked, slender, not skinny, small breasts, the smile,
red lips, green eyes, bald but with a blondish fuzz. No jewelry.
Her pubic area wasn't shaved and the hair was dark like her eyebrows.
She
opened her mouth, stuck out her tongue which was covered with white
goo. Her body glistened with moisture and she smelled strongly of
urine. She popped her tongue back in her mouth and swallowed. She
showed her clean tongue and settled back on her heels.
The
girl gave an unearthly moan and that's when Val shut the door.
"Well,
will you?" Frank asked.
"Look
guys. I really, really need to take a piss." Bob left them.
"It's
just for a week," Jerry said. "You can bring her back
here in the evenings."
"For
her . . ." Sammy began.
"Shut
up, Sammy. Look, why don't you guys go join Bob and I'll talk to
Val."
Val
watched Tommy D. join them in the rush to the restroom. He turned
to Jerry. "What's . . ."
"Look,
Val. We have this girl who," Jerry paused. "She's someone
Bob knows. She wants this, but don't ask her, she won't say a word.
Not a word. Frank and Bob have been taking care of her, they're
not married or have girlfriends, and it's the only way she'll do
this. She made a commitment; we have to match that commitment. You
know how it is? We couldn't just let anyone, you know, just pass
her along. Shirk our responsibilities. That wouldn't be right. None
of the rest of us can. Take care of her during the week, you know,
except for Bob and Frank and they're going out of town for three
weeks. They're going to miss her."
"What's
her name?" Of all the questions Val could ask, he asked this
one.
"No
name. I'm not even sure Bob knows her real name. You see her tattoos?
Bob takes her to a parlor and trades, her for, you know? He wants
to get her done all over. She likes it, Val. You gotta believe that.
Otherwise none of us would be doing, you know?"
"And
if I say no?"
Jerry
leaned forward. "You're kidding. You wouldn't say no, would
you? We need your help, Val."
Val
could hear muffled shouting from the restroom. "Why not Tommy
D."
"Married."
"Why
not leave her here?"
"She
can't be left alone. She gets lonely." Jerry was ready to go
on but Val stopped him.
"This
is crazy."
"We've
been lucky sons of bitches the last few weeks. It'd be a shame to
have it end. Besides, what's going to happen to her? What if someone,
who didn't care for her like we do, got their hands on her? She'll
do anything, as long as she's, well, you know." Jerry waved
his hand to the restroom. "You know?" He smiled.
Val
shook his head. "Nancy is coming back to town tomorrow."
"But
you two don't live together."
"Just
about."
"Tell
her you're sick. Something communicable." Jerry smiled. "It's
easy."
"You're
crazy, they're crazy, this whole thing is crazy. She's . . ."
"Val
if you don't take her, it's not like it's 24/7, you can drop her
off here in the evenings, someone can even bring her back to your
apartment at two. If you won't, we'll have to discard her. Give
her to whoever we meet. Some pimp or a group of homeless men. You
know what happens then. Six months from now you open the paper and
read about some woman's body being found and you'll know it's her
and you'll feel like a shit."
"No."
"Look,
Val. Try her out, at least. And she's cheap to take care of. No
clothes, nothing. You don't have to do anything. She lives on cum
and piss. Literally. If you don't want to, there are plenty that
will feed her. What do you say?"
"No."
Val was thinking about the girl and cum and piss and what Nancy
would say. There was no way he'd take her.
2.
Val
was surprised at how easy it was to walk the naked girl, her hands
bound, out of the bar and to his car. She sat in the front next
to him, never saying a word, stinking only a little. Tommy D. had
hosed her down.
Bob
squeezed the girl's shoulder, said to Val, "You won't starve
the bitch, will you?" laughed and shut the door.
Sunday
night, after eleven, the streets were quiet. Val watched his friends
walk away, the lights at Rudy's go out. He was stuck with her which
was a little exciting and a little frightening at the same time.
He started the car and pulled out onto the street.
Val
had known sure things when he was younger, girls who always said
yes. But none of them had affected him so strongly. It wasn't the
girl's looks, which were okay but she wasn't near as pretty as Nancy.
It wasn't the girl's nakedness or the smell she gave off. It wasn't
watching his friends and the girl earlier. Val thought it might
be the collar on her throat, crude, heavy and beginning to rust,
riveted shut. The collar and the key to the locks that bound her
in the restroom and in the car seat. The key was in his pocket.
She
never said no, never said yes. At most she gave that weird nasal
moan or used her hands to point at what she wanted or where she
wanted it. Bob could be crude and she didn't care, leaned into him
after he slapped her and called her every name possible, all of
them watching.
"What's
your name?" Val asked. He heard nothing and looked over at
her. She shrugged.
"No
name?"
She
shrugged.
"You
don't mind? What Bob and them did to you?"
She
smiled, shrugged.
"You
like it?"
She
nodded, said, "Ummmm."
"Are
you happy?" Val wasn't sure he wanted to know. If she wasn't
he'd have to do something. "I can get clothes for you tomorrow.
You can go. We'd get that silly thing off of your neck first."
He looked over at her while stopped at the light. "Tomorrow.
Okay?"
She
touched her collar, hung her fingers from the welded loops. "Ummmm."
Val
looked away. "Are you hungry?"
She
made that moan. He looked over at her and the car behind him honked.
The light was green. He drove through the intersection as she moaned
next to him. The sound sent shivers up his spine.
He
felt her hands in his lap, glanced quickly over, saw her face, and
turned back to the road. He heard her seatbelt click.
She
fumbled at his pants, head under his hands on the steering wheel,
bare ass in the air where anyone could see it.
"Stop
that." He tried to push her away. "Stop that." He
drove into an empty, too well lit parking lot and lifted her away.
She didn't resist. She knelt in the seat next to him, moaning and
poking her finger into her mouth.
"No,"
he said. She looked crazy to him. No one could want it that much.
"No."
She
slumped against the seat, said, "Ummm."
"I'm
not going to, with you, understand? I'm just keeping you for a week.
I have a girlfriend, understand?"
She
nodded, twisted slowly back down into her seat and looked to her
right out the window.
Val
realized he was going to have a crazy woman in his apartment. He'd
be at work during the day, he'd drop her off at the bar in the evenings.
Maybe he wouldn't. Nancy would be back in the morning and he could
talk to her and she'd know what to do. A shelter or something.
Val
started the car and drove to his apartment. He parked in front and
realized he could go up, find something to cover her, or brazen
it out. He wasn't sure he should leave her alone.
The
apartments were built in the late fifties, single story, and meandered
across a well kept yard. His was near the front, down a walk, past
the Anderson's and Chin's whose lights were out. He chanced it.
He
pulled her into the apartment and shut the door behind them. He
felt her stumble, turned on the light and saw her down on a knee.
It
was entirely different seeing her here in his own apartment, kneeling,
head bowed, quiet, her bound hands on the floor in front of her.
He saw the tattoo on her upper ass for the first time. All of the
tattoos were crude, most were incomplete, several were just words.
On her ass was a dick and balls, drawn like he'd seen on lavatory
walls, drops arced from the penis head across the cleft of her ass
onto the other cheek.
No
swimsuit would ever cover what had been done to her. She might pass
with a long sleeved blouse and jeans.
He
couldn't talk to her, turned on the TV and walked to the kitchen,
turning on lights. She could sleep on the couch. He filled two glasses
with water, carried them back to the living room. "Here,"
he said, handing her one.
She
lifted her eyes, smiled and shrugged. She lowered her eyes and said,
"Ummm."
"Here,"
he said. He gave up, left the glass on the table by her and sat
on the couch. He sipped his water, set the glass on the table, changed
the channel to something with movies and left her.
He
came back with sheets, a pillow and a blanket and she was gone.
For a moment he thought she'd left, then he heard her weird moan
coming from the bathroom.
She
knelt in the bathtub, hands outstretched, the chain and locks between
them, taut. The girl's mouth was open. She smiled and stuck her
tongue out, waiting.
He'd
seen her do this earlier and what happened. Each of the guys. His
mind stopped. There was no sequence. Bob's fingers held her ears
as he shoved his cock as far as it would go into her mouth. Tommy
D. painted her with piss, finishing in her mouth. Jerry barely less
rough than Bob and Frank.
He
left her, came back into the bathroom and splashed the glass of
water in her face. She wiggled her tongue at him.
"You're
sleeping in here?" She nodded. "Good." He turned
out the light and shut the door. He'd use a coffee can in the kitchen.
The
coffee can in the kitchen made so much noise she heard him and he
had only just enough time to cover himself with his robe. She fell
to her knees, lifted the can, moaning open mouthed. She bent her
head back but he took the can from her before she poured. He dumped
it in the sink.
She
struggled to get past him and he struggled not to feel her body
against his. He grabbed the chain between her wrists and tugged
her.
"Come
on," Val said. "Back to the bathtub. Time for nighty night."
As
he wrapped the chain around the tub's cold faucet and locked it
he had the strange feeling that he was watching himself do something
evil. He tried to ignore the feeling, touched her shoulder to say
goodnight and felt her shiver. That shiver jolted his hand away.
He said nothing and left her.
In
bed he tried to imagine what she was feeling or thinking. His imagination
ran wild but he wasn't sure her dumb articulateness meant a little
or a lot. He needed to call her something and the names that popped
in his head ranged from Anne, his older sister's name, to Fuckslut
or something similarly stupid. In the morning he'd ask her her age,
saying numbers until he saw a meaningful smile or nod. That could
be her name. He was sure, mostly sure, she was over eighteen, and
younger than him. He was also sure calling her something like twenty-three
wasn't going to be satisfactory.
He
woke in the morning hearing the apartment door close and Nancy saying,
"Hello? Val?"
He
sat up in bed. "You're early. I needed to call you."
"I
need to pee. Be there in a . . ."
Val
said, wait, wait, wait, but no sound came out. He heard the girl's
moan.
"Valentine
Demitrios Stanos. You have an explanation, don't you?" By the
sound of her voice, Nancy was walking away.
"Wait."
He stood in the doorway to the bedroom, saw Nancy at the apartment
door, opening it.
"You
don't, do you?" Nancy closed the door.
Val
was incredibly angry with himself, his friends, at Nancy for not
listening. He slapped the girl in the tub, backed away, shut the
bathroom door.
He
sat on his bed, the alarm rang too loudly and his hand still stung.
He slapped the alarm off. He was someone he didn't know.
Go
to next two chapters.
Part
1
Chapters 1 & 2 |
Chapters 3 & 4 | Chapters
5 & 6 | Chapters 7 & 8
Chapters 9 & 10 | Chapters 11
& 12
Part 2
Chapters
13 & 14 | Chapters 15 & 16
| Chapters 17 & 18 | Chapters
19 & 20
Chapters 21 & 22 | Chapters
23 & 24
|