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| Stories Bingo’s Home Bingo’s Lair |
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Wren |
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| Chapter
Six
In 1948, when Wren was thirteen, her brother was home from the army like lots of boys. He didn't seem particularly eager to get a job which bothered her parents; didn't bother her one bit. She liked her brother even if he called her a pest. Dave, her brother, and two friends Sal and Hawk were working on the jalopy in the garage behind the house. The jalopy didn't run and it was driving Dave crazy. Having his kid sister underfoot being a pest didn't help his mood any. Dave set his beer on the workbench. "Why don't you go somewhere and do something?" She gave her sweet innocent look. "I want to help." "You're underfoot all the time. I can't think." "I'm staying out of your way like I said I would." "You think the battery's dead?" Hawk asked. Dave was tall and broad chested, sandy haired, brows almost white. Hawk was shorter and rounder and didn't dress well. Wren thought his clothes stank. Sal was skinny and had a huge Adam's apple. Sometimes he drank too much. They all drank too much; the dustbin was filled with empties. "No, the battery's not dead, stupid." Dave pushed off from the wall and leaned into the engine compartment. They could hear him mutter. "Think you could get us sandwiches?" Sal asked Wren. "No sandwiches," Dave said from the engine compartment. "Until we're done here. It should run." "Sure the battery's not dead?" "Want me to turn the key?" Wren asked. "Hey don't," Sal said. Wren turned the key and Dave shouted, "Damn." He jerked her from the driver's seat. "Who said you could do that?" "I'm just trying to help." "Out of here. Take her and shut her up, will you." Dave finished his beer. "I can't think with you in here." "Come on, kid," Sal said, taking her to the room in back. When the garage had been a carriage shed, the room in back had been a stall for a horse, with a feed room attached with a door to the outside onto the alley. Hawk grabbed a couple of beers. "Convince her," Dave said. "We don't want her around here anymore." Hawk winked at him. "I still think it's the battery." It was close to an hour later when Dave found the broken wire, spliced it together and started the old Ford. He turned off the engine and waited for Hawk and Sal and when they didn't come, went to the back. Sal was holding Wren down as Hawk fucked her. Her dress was torn and thrown up and open, she lay on her back, legs spread, a rag stuffed in her mouth. Hawk stood as he thrust; she lay sprawled on a stack of old tires. "Jesus Christ, that's all I need," Dave shouted. "That's my sister you're getting pregnant." "Sorry, sarge." Hawk withdrew. Her thighs were smeared with blood and come. "Shit, Hawk. We're not overseas anymore." "Hey," Sal said. "If she gets pregnant, we'll put her in a bag and drop her off the bridge. Problem's solved." "Cute, wiseguy. I got the car running." "We heard." Hawk used Wren's dress to wipe himself. He patted her leg with the fabric ineffectually. "I didn't get to finish, sarge." "You're fucking stupid, Hawk. Whose idea was this?" Hawk and Sal shrugged. Dave left and came back with a beer. "Shit, Wren. You should never have been in here in the first place." She looked up at him, rag in her mouth. "You've grown some, haven't you?" "Big for her age. Sixteen?" Sal said. "Thirteen. No, Wren. You stay right there. Shit. If you assholes got her pregnant I don't know what I'll do." "In a bag, off the bridge. Easy. She's thirteen?" "Thirteen." "Do they get pregnant at thirteen?" Hawk asked. "They do, just as pregnant as when they're sixteen." He tossed the empty bottle in the corner. "Fuck, Wren. If you get pregnant, I'll kill you. Understood?" She didn't move. "And if you tell mom and dad I really will put you in a bag and toss you off the bridge. Well. I'm going for a drive. Anyone want to join me?" Sal said, "We were hoping we could, you know?" Dave pulled the rag from her mouth. "Not a peep out of you. Not one word or you're fish bait. And you two," he turned to Sal and Hawk, "don't get her pregnant." He left them. Sal and Hawk turned her over and tossed a coin to see who'd first fuck her butt. Sal won of course. He always won. * * * The next day they had the front tire off, trying to figure out what caused the shimmy. They'd been drinking and Dave was jumpy, had been jumpy all day. He jumped when there was a knock on the door. "Pretend we're not here," he said. The door opened and Wren came in. "Shit. You scared Dave." Hawk said to Dave, "You been having those dreams again, Sarge?" "Shut up, stupid." He turned to Wren. "Why are you here?" "I want to help." "Jesus Christ. Don't you have anything better to do?" "Let the kid stay," Sal said. "You okay?" "Sure," she said. "I can take it. I want to help." She was nervous, her fingers twisted around each other, she couldn't keep her hands still. "You didn't tell anybody?" Dave asked. "Of course not. Why should I?" Sal elbowed Hawk. "Keep out of our way." She stood by the workbench. "Hey, kid," Sal said. "I need a beer." She looked for the bottle opener. "Fun and games after we get the shimmy figured out." Wren handed Sal an opened beer. She raised her eyes to his and smiled. "We-oh." Sal said. "Your sister is a cute one, Sarge." "After we're done, you two." Dave slapped her arm. "You shouldn't have come back." "Why not? I'm not stupid, you know." "You're stupid for coming back." "Lay off, Sarge. She's here and there's nothing we can do about it." "Don't get her pregnant." "We got that worked out, don't we kid?" She stared at Sal. "And you, Wren, over in the corner. Not a word from you until we're done." "She can bring us beers and tools and stuff if we ask nicely, can't she, Sarge?" Dave threw his hands at her and walked back to the jalopy. Sal gave her nose a squeeze as he walked by. She sneezed. * * * 1951, Dave was dead and who knows whatever happened to Sal and Hawk. They were all assholes and shits. Still, she wouldn't have gone back if something hadn't happened, pleasure, pain, humiliation, all jumbled up -- nothing she could ever recapture with boys her age. Not that she wanted to, really. What she wanted couldn't be explained except as a hankering. From Georgia to Texas when she was hitching to New York. Obviously a wrong turn somewhere. Not accidental, Coq had told her there was someone she needed to see in Texas. She had a name and a town. Texas was a big state and so far no one had ever heard of -----------. She was thinking of stopping somewhere, finding a waitress job or something. An apartment even. Maybe find out where ----------- was. But the idea of spending weeks and weeks and weeks in nowhere Texas was impossible to consider. That day six years ago was filled with a jumble of impressions she'd never sort out. They were layered and interwoven and just thinking about it would bring something fresh to mind and she thought about it often, especially when she was younger. The windowpanes thick with dust, the taste of the rag in her mouth, how big Sal and Hawk were. They were physically much bigger than any of the boys she knew. How their minds seemed to be off elsewhere while they did those things to her, took all her virginities. They hurt her carelessly, handled her casually. On that stack of tires so the bands of black were indelible on her back and front and legs for days. The blood, the taste, the feel of them in her. Part of the time she was outside watching. Part of her was thrilled at the idea of being in a bag, carried about, dumped in the back seat of a car, exposed but seen by no one, and not knowing if they'd really do it. What made her go back was the inability to not go back. She would have died if she couldn't have gone back even if they'd never done anything more to her. Which they did, for a while at least, Sal and Hawk and then their friends and eventually the boys at school too and then just the boys at school though it wasn't the same. If her parents had found out, if they'd forbidden her, she'd have run away or something. Killed herself, not out of shame, but because she'd not be able to discover and be who she was. Plus the way it felt was indescribably good, and for a moment sometimes she had all of their attention. Go
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