Cassie got up and Pat saw her checking out the seat of her jeans. He saw that her seat was wet. She got a disgusted look on her face and looked at Pat. When she saw him grinning at her she began to be embarrassed. She began to walk back to where he was sitting. She sat down on the blanket and continued to stare at the water.
Pat asked her the question that was on his mind, "Cassie you've been abused haven't you?"
Cassie didn't answer him and he turned and watched the stream rushing over the rocks. He decided to give her a chance to decide whether to answer him or not. After several minutes he looked over at her and saw that she had tears running down her cheeks.
"I'm sorry that I brought that up but I had to Cassie. It's time to get it out and stop beating yourself over it. Talk to me, I'm an excellent listener and I don't judge people.
Cassie just sat and continued to cry, "Cassie, please talk to me. You have to let somebody help you. You just can't keep this inside of you forever. It's going to eat you alive."
She still didn't answer him and Pat kept gently pressing her, "You've never told anyone about this have you?"
He saw her shake her head. He let her alone for a few minutes. Cassie began to sob. Pat moved to her and put his arm around her shoulder. She immediately tensed and Pat began to talk to her softly.
"Cassie, talk to me and tell me what happened."
It was several minutes before she answered him, "My mother got married again. When I was fourteen he started touching me whenever he got the chance. At first he would just touch my arm but later he began to pat me on the rear and he would make comments about how big my breasts were getting and how boys were going to have fun with me. He never did any of that stuff or said anything wrong when my mother was around. I told her what he was doing but she didn't believe me.
My mother was hit by a drunk driver while driving to work and the driver was killed. My mother was in a coma for a couple of months and that's when he started touching me really wrong. One night I was in the shower and he came into the bathroom and he got in the shower with me and said that he had to wash me so that he would be sure that I was clean. When he tried to make me do things to him I began to fight him and he stopped.
Cassie started sobbing again and Pat let her cry until she was ready to begin again, "One night he came home from the hospital and he had been drinking. I was in bed and he came into my room and he raped me. He said that if I told anybody that he would pull the plug on my mother and it would be my fault that she died and he would tell everyone that it was my fault. After that he raped me a couple of times a month. Sometimes I could fight him off but then he would beat me. Sometimes he'd beat me when he was so drunk that he couldn't do it. He said that it was my fault he couldn't do anything because I made myself so ugly that no man would want me."
"The insurance company that insured the drunk driver gave my mother a lot of money. Pete quit his job and began to drink a lot. He said that he had to quit his job because he had to take care of my mother. The hospital let my mother come home but she was in a hospital bed all of the time and she had all of these drugs going into her all the time. We had a nurse come by every day but she was only there for a few hours. Pete would drug my mother up at night so that she'd pass out and then he'd go to the bar. When he came home he'd come to my bedroom. Sometimes he'd just sleep with me because he was so drunk but most times he'd rub his hands all over me and make me hold his thing and make him happy he said. Sometimes he made me suck him but he said that I was so dumb that I couldn't even do that right.
Cassie put her face in her hands and cried harder, "Oh God, I can't tell you this."
Pat hugged her and let her cry. He knew that this was terribly hard for her but he also knew that she had to face it or it would destroy her.
Cassie cried for a long time before she continued, "Sometimes Pete would let one of his friends rape me. He warned me not to disgrace him in front of his friends or he would beat me to death and then he'd give enough drugs to my mother to kill her. One time he told me that it was time that I had a black man. That night he brought a black man home from the bar and Pete let him rape me."
"My mother died and I really think it was because Pete gave her too many drugs one night when he went to the bar. After the funeral I took money out of his wallet when he was passed out and I signed up for this trip. He thought that he had lost the money at the bar. On the day of the trip I got on the bus with the rest of the girls, he had no idea that I was going, and I was going to get off the bus somewhere and get as far away from him as possible."
Cassie jumped up and walked away from Pat. Pat watched as she walked down the stream and cried her eyes out. He left her alone to be with her own thoughts. He couldn't imagine how she was dealing with this and still functioning.
About fifteen minutes later Cassie walked back to where Pat was sitting and sat down. They both were quiet for a long time.
Pat was the first one to break the silence, "Cassie, for the first time in my life I'm ashamed to be a man. It's hard for me to believe that a man could do that to someone else. You do know that he was mentally unbalanced and a totally evil person don't you?"
She nodded her head and Pat continued, "That doesn't excuse what he did to you. I just wish that I could get my hands on him right now. That is one person that deserved what the black hole did. Wherever he is right now I hope he's suffering like he made you suffer."
Cassie said, "Me too," and her voice was so soft that Pat barely heard her.
Cassie looked at him defiantly, "That's why I would never be one of your women. I know that some of the girls are going to have to have your children to carry on the human race but I'm not going to be one of them."
"Let's talk about that Cassie," Pat said, "First, I would never force myself on anyone and I hope that you don't think that I would. If I ever did force myself on anyone I hope that they'd ask to borrow your knife for a while and make me a eunuch. Second, if I fathered all of the children born to the women that are left on earth the gene pool would be so small that the human race would cease to exist in a couple of generations. I think that you've seen that there's something special between Pauline and I and I won't deny it. We've discussed what lies ahead for us and some of the girls might want me to father a child. If I do father a child other than mine and Pauline's, it will be with Pauline's permission and it will be with the other person's complete consent."
"I can't see how a woman could let a man do that to her willingly," Cassie said.
Pat hugged her a little tighter, "I'm sure that you've heard the term making love. That's what sex is supposed to be; making love grow between two people. It is extremely pleasurable when both people want it and it does make love grow between the couple. Sometimes people have sex even though they are not in love but it can still be pleasurable if both people really want it and they respect each others needs."
Cassie got quiet and sat with her arms around her knees and looked out at the water. Pat laid back on his blanket and let her think about what they had talked about.
Cassie got up and spread her blanket out and then sat down and hugged her knees again. Pat watched out of the corner of his eyes to see if she was thinking about he said.
After about fifteen minutes Cassie said, "I wish that we had brought our bathing suits. I used to swim at a pool like this when I was little."
Pat turned and put his head on his hand, "You have a bra and panties on don't you?"
"Yeh, but..." she didn't finish.
Pat chuckled, "You're not wearing something from Victoria's Secret are you?"
"No!" she said emphatically.
"Well go on in then. I'm sure that what you have on is more than some of the bikinis that girls wear these days. If you want I'll turn around until you're in the water and I'll hide my eyes when you get out. You'll be under the water so I won't see anything even if I wanted to."
She looked at him trying to make up her mind, "Okay, turn around."
Pat turned around and hid his eyes. After a couple of minutes he heard her jump in the water.
"Is it okay to turn around?"
He heard her yell that it was okay. He turned around and saw that she was beginning to smile. He watched her swim around the pool area for a while and he was sure that she was enjoying herself.
She swam toward him, keeping just her head above water, "Its cold. Why don't you come in?"
Pat shook his head, "It's too cold for me."
"Chicken," she yelled and splashed water his way.
Pat stood up, "Okay, but turn around. I'm bashful."
:Yeh, sure," she said but she turned around.
Pat took off his clothes except for his shorts and dove in the water and came up a few feet from her. As soon as his head came out of the water she splashed him. He splashed her back and swam away from her. His body quickly became accustomed to the cold water.
He turned to her, "I'm not going to stay in too long, its cold."
She splashed at him again but he was too far away, "Wimp."
Pat didn't make any attempt to touch her as he was sure that she was still afraid of men and him in particular.
Pat swam to the bank, "Okay, your turn to turn around. I'm going to get out."
"Get out if you can't take the cold water," she said as she splashed at him.
Pat got out of the pool. He was turning to see if she had turned and when he began to walk out of the water the weight of his wet shorts caused them to drop to his knees. He quickly pulled them up. He looked at Cassie and she was watching him with a strange look on her face. He went to his blanket and laid down on his stomach.
Cassie got out of the pool a few minutes later. She hadn't warned him that she was getting out of the water. She walked to her blanket. Pat looked at her and saw that the water had made her bra and panties almost transparent. Cassie noticed it and dove for her blanket. Pat turned his head away from her to give her a chance to get used to him lying next to her.
After a long time Cassie said, "You're a lot bigger than Pete and his friends were."
Pat turned back to her and looked into her eyes, "That's probably why he felt he had to do that to you. He felt so insecure that he had to prove to himself that he was a man by raping you. Cassie, I know that I didn't have anything to do with you being raped but I feel so ashamed that it happened that I feel that there's something that I have to do to make it right but I know that I can never make it right."
"That's okay; I know that you had nothing to do with it."
After their clothes had dried they both got dressed for the ride back to the motel. Cassie didn't seem embarrassed any longer that she only had her bra and panties on. Pat gathered up both blankets. They walked back to the truck and Pat put the blankets in the back of the truck. Cassie was standing next to him.
Pat turned to her, "Cassie, I want to hug you, just hug you. For some reason I need to hug you to let you know that all men are not like your step-father."
Cassie nodded and Pat took her in his arms and hugged her for a long time. He felt her relax in his arms and he heard her sigh deeply. He hoped that some of the fear left her with that sigh.
He looked at the girl in his arms, "Thank you for telling me what was bothering you. I'm going to make a promise to you. Today you became a very special person to me. I'm going to make sure that you're never hurt again."
She pulled away from him and walked to her side of the truck. Pat rushed to open the door for her and she turned to him with a small smile and then got in the truck. They were quiet on the way back to the motel.
Pat pulled into the parking lot of the motel and shut off the engine. He looked at Cassie and she was looking at him strangely.
"You're different," she said and then got out of the truck quickly and ran into the motel.