- •I dumped a can of cat food into her bowl, then stumbled toward the bathroom, her official feeding ground. Needless to say, there was a nearly full bowl of food already there.
- •I pulled up my pants leg, fully exposing the scar. Only then did Joanne drop her hand.
- •I looked into my coffee cup, but no answers were there. “Yes,” I finally said.
- •I looked them over. Danny was right, well, not quite. “Danny said you were hot. She didn’t say molten,” I let out.
- •I bowed to her as the first soft notes of the music began, then her hand was in mine and my arm around her waist.
- •I laughed, caught happily by her confidence in me and the lift of the music.
- •I walked with them, still puzzling about Cordelia’s toast.
- •I waved it away. I was unnerved by Cordelia standing so close.
- •I didn’t really mean to, but she was standing over me, with that damned slit halfway up her thigh. From my floor perspective I could see way beyond thigh level. So I looked. And she caught me looking.
- •I heard voices from the lawn.
- •I shuddered at the common horror of it. “Can you find out?” I wanted to know this women’s fate, the final details. Knowing, no matter how brutal, would be better than imagining.
- •It doesn’t count, Alex, I silently said to the disappearing car. This morning doesn’t count. It wasn’t a rough act of passion, adultery, if you will. It was the only way to stop my hands from shaking.
- •I gave up on reading, not feeling much wiser.
- •I nodded. Nuns lied, I was sure, but only if they thought they were doing it for God.
- •I stood up and extended a hand.
- •I nodded my head, remembering some of the older nuns I had met. I wondered why Sister Ann had decided to answer my questions.
- •I nodded. I would ask Bernie about it.
- •I remembered the letter from the ones Cordelia had shown me. It was to Peterson, r.N., and commented on her insatiable sexual appetite, accusing her of sleeping with a different man every night.
- •I gave her directions, glad that she was interested.
- •I nodded.
- •I wanted to get up and hit him. He was good. But only if you were on his side.
- •I stood up. Joanne walked over to Cordelia and put her hand on Cordelia’s shoulder.
- •I was awakened a few bare hours later by the phone ringing. Joanne answered it.
- •I stuck my head out to observe, but didn’t move to interfere. Millie could probably handle him better than I could. Another figure in white came up behind him.
- •I got up, motioning Cordelia to her chair. I perched on a window sill behind her, looking protectively over her shoulder. She needed to be sitting for what o’Connor was going to tell her.
- •I finally turned from the window when all the footsteps had ceased echoing in the hallway.
- •I suddenly felt tired, letting myself lean against my car, enervated by the day. I didn’t feel up to parading around Danny’s house with Alex there, pretending I wasn’t sleeping with Joanne.
- •I got in my car. Joanne appeared at my window, leaning on the door.
- •I fell back asleep.
- •I headed for the clinic. Since it was Thursday they had evening hours. Cordelia should still be there, I told myself as I turned into the parking lot.
- •I sat down on the edge of the bed, keeping my clothes on.
- •I borrowed a note pad from Bernie, on which I made up a list of probable license plate numbers.
- •I draped my arm across her shoulders. “Alex, if Joanne is insane enough to throw you over for me, then she’s too crazy for me to want to be with.”
- •I shrugged. I didn’t care to tell Aunt Greta anything about Cordelia.
- •I wondered why Cordelia, as upset as she was with me, had chosen to tangle with my Aunt Greta.
- •I caught sight of Cordelia over Emma’s shoulder. She’d obviously heard the last part of our conversation. Her face was somber.
- •I stood, brushed off my knees, and without saying anything, let myself out of her office.
- •I heard the door open behind me.
- •I looked at Elly, wondering what she wanted from me.
- •I didn’t reply, knowing that he wanted me to ask.
- •I stood still, taut, sampling the air.
- •I entered Cordelia’s office, aware of o’Connor’s eyes on my back. I paced as I waited for her, unable to be still. About a minute later, she entered.
- •I walked out first, followed by Cordelia, then o’Connor. I wanted to protect her, at least deflect the staring gazes.
- •I was hearing a confession, I realized.
- •I sat, trying to read Dante, and waited for the phone to ring.
- •I waited while Bernie turned off the lights and locked up. It was after six.
- •I savored the forbidden bourbon I found in her mouth, thrusting my tongue deeply inside to find the hard taste of it.
- •I got in bed. She stood, watching me, then swung a leg over me, sitting astride my stomach.
- •I lay still, rigid, as her fingers moved in me, trying to feel as little as possible. I knew that somewhere there was a Joanne who would be appalled at what she was doing.
- •I rolled over to her side of the bed, then sat up. I reached out my hand to her.
- •I had to look away from her before I could answer. “Yes. Yes, he did.”
- •I instinctively tightened my arms about her, holding her close.
- •I nodded and he continued.
- •It was my turn to look at Sister Ann oddly. “Besides,” I continued, “I doubt Cordelia prefers the company of women.” I didn’t think she would like me coming out for her, particularly to a nun.
- •I nodded, suddenly wondering what it had been like for Cordelia to struggle against what everyone thought she should be, those generations of expectations.
- •I’d supped and showered and was sitting reading when the phone rang. About time, I thought, wondering which of my long-absent friends had finally remembered my existence.
- •I just let her cry. As she had no words for my pain, I found none for hers.
- •I was caught for a moment, looking into her eyes, then I had to glance away. My stomach had just done a very complicated somersault and I didn’t want her noticing.
- •I sat on the side of Elly’s chair and put my arm around her shoulders. “You want to do some forgettable things?”
- •If this was what morality and celibacy did for you, I was glad I had done such a good job of avoiding them both.
- •I jerked against my bonds, more in fury than in any real hope that they would come undone. He calmly ignored my struggling. Even if I got loose, I wasn’t likely to get past him to freedom.
- •I jerked and pulled at the ropes holding me, unable to stay still and let the horror of my death sink in.
- •I galloped across the parking lot as he got out of his car.
- •I did as I was told. The door opened. Cordelia stepped in.
- •I took off my jacket and gun and put them on a chair. Then I stood still, waiting for her to move. I realized I needed her to want me enough to come to me.
- •I stared at Cordelia, “How did you…?”
- •I moaned softly as she covered me.
- •I kissed her again. Thoroughly.
- •I defiantly kept my hand where it was.
- •I knew she didn’t expect an answer, but I gave her one anyway.
- •I nodded. I knew that.
- •I stared at her, completely nonplused.
- •I was still unable to look at Danny. Or Elly. I turned away, leaning onto the counter.
- •I noticed that Danny had wet streaks down her cheeks.
- •I looked at this pink-faced man in a wheelchair, wondering how he was going to kill me. Then I glanced around, sure Frankenstein was going to emerge from one of the doors in the hallway.
- •I extended a hand to help her up.
- •I started to turn to her, but Bernie edged between Elly and Millie.
- •I stared at him. He could have said, “She was my second grade guppy,” for all the remorse in his voice. “Your girlfriend?” I shot back incredulously. “Did you plant her in the clinic?”
- •I roughly pulled him up. “I’ll tell you what went wrong. Betty really was pro-life. She started asking questions. And she realized your answers weren’t her answers.”
- •I gave her an as-delicate-as-possible version of my meeting with Randall Sarafin.
- •I looked at her. Nuns weren’t supposed to approve of lesbians.
- •I shrugged. It was too hot to get into all this.
- •I stopped, taking a drink of the unlabeled juice.
- •I nodded yes.
- •I made an angry gesture.
- •I didn’t tell anyone. I knew they wouldn’t understand or approve.
- •I nodded agreement. I could think of several encounters I would have enjoyed more had I been eating oyster dressing instead of a woman.
- •It was, Joanne said, an ugly conjunction of hatreds.
I savored the forbidden bourbon I found in her mouth, thrusting my tongue deeply inside to find the hard taste of it.
Her hand ran down the length of my body, going directly between my legs. I gasped as a finger entered me. She had to work it in, since I wasn’t very wet. I shifted slightly to open my legs more to ease her way in.
“I didn’t think you would say no,” Joanne muttered in my ear.
“It’s cooler in the bedroom,” I said, trying to ignore the harshness in her tone.
“By all means, let’s be comfortable,” she answered, sarcastically, pulling her finger out. She led the way to my bedroom.
Joanne took off her jacket, throwing it carelessly across a chair, then hastily finished undressing, throwing the rest of her clothes on the chair with her jacket.
“Lie down,” she ordered.
I got in bed. She stood, watching me, then swung a leg over me, sitting astride my stomach.
“I haven’t taken a shower. I probably stink. I hope you don’t mind,” she said, looking down at me.
“What the fuck is your problem?” I demanded, suddenly angry. “Do you want to do this or not?”
“My problem? A fifteen-year-old girl was drugged and spent yesterday slowly bleeding to death. Why should that be a problem?” she yelled savagely.
“What’s that got to do with us?” I yelled back.
“Nothing. You’re right. Not a fucking thing. Do you want to do this? Yes or no?”
She moved down on me until her crotch was over mine, then she pushed into me. She bent over and kissed a nipple, still slowly rubbing her groin into mine.
“Yes or no?” she repeated, blowing on the wet spot her mouth had left, making my nipple almost painfully erect.
“Yes,” I said finally.
She straightened up and stopped moving.
“Typical Micky Knight. Rub her cunt a little bit and she’ll do anything,” Joanne said callously.
“Goddamn it, Joanne!” I exploded, furious at her. I tried to sit up, but she easily pushed me back down. Then I abruptly twisted, trying to roll over and get her off me. But she went with me, letting me get all the way over until I was on my stomach, then she put her weight back down, pinning me under her.
“What did I do to deserve this from you?”
“Nothing. What does anyone do to deserve what they end up with? What did that wino do to deserve to be made into a human torch? What did that girl do to deserve to have her uterus shredded?”
“That doesn’t give you the right—”
“You said yes, didn’t you?” she cut me off. “You wanted to be fucked, didn’t you?” Her knee forced itself between my thighs. “Don’t say yes if you don’t mean it.”
“No wonder Alex is afraid of you,” I taunted her. “What’s the matter, can’t you get it any other way? Don’t think you’re some tough butch, you don’t hold a candle to some of the women I’ve slept with.” I was angry, trying to hurt her, to get her back.
“It’s hard to compete with the number of women you’ve slept with. They sell road maps of your cunt, so many women have been there.”
“Goddamn it, bitch, you want to fight…” I shouted, thrusting up, trying to dislodge her. She grabbed one of my arms from under me, and shoved her weight against my shoulders, roughly forcing me back down. Still holding my arm, she twisted it behind my back.
“We’ll fight,” she finished.
I was clearly defeated, but I wasn’t about to admit it. I strained with the arm she had pinned, trying, with brute strength, to get it free. I struggled under her, bucking and twisting. But I didn’t have the leverage or the power. She slowly pushed my arm toward my head.
“Joanne, you’re hurting me,” I said, finally forced to stop fighting.
“Bitch, huh?” she said. “Come on, Mick, let’s be friends. Spread your legs.”
“No,” I retorted.
She had already forced one knee between my legs, now the other one pressed on the inside of my thigh, catching the muscle, until I had to move it away to escape the pain. She had my legs open. A finger went up me, another one started stroking my clit.
Somehow the pleasure made me struggle more than the pain. I didn’t want the two linked. I finally stopped, realizing that my fighting only made her fight back. She had forced my arm almost to my neck and it hurt. She released a bit of the pressure when I stopped struggling.