by Sacchi Green
Carole’s pulse was speeding. She could feel it in her throat. She refused to look at Abby as she passed by her to fetch a beer from the bar. Swallowing the cool liquid gratefully, she tried to slow down her breathing. Abby was at her side almost immediately.
“Hey, what’s going on with you two?” she hissed.
“Nothing.” Carole gave her a look that said, “Drop it or else,” so Abby did, but she gave her a look in turn that said, “I don’t believe you.”
“Okay, so it’s this Sunday, twelve o’clock,” Abby said. “I’ll find out where and look after all the details.”
On Saturday morning Carole decided to check out the location of the pending race, maybe have a look at the road. She was familiar with the area and had no trouble finding the field Abby had described. She drove around it once. It measured about three-quarters of a mile on each side, flat as a pancake like the rest of the surrounding countryside. A shallow ditch ran along both sides of the road. No telephone poles, though, and the road was wide and paved. It was gray and roughly surfaced with age—rough was okay. It was in good condition, with no major cracks or potholes. The shoulders were only about a foot wide, but hard and dry with not much gravel. It didn’t look as if traction would be a problem.
She stopped the Lexus and got out. A blast of heat hit her after the air-conditioning, even though the sun wasn’t high yet. It shone into her eyes and reflected from the pavement, making her squint. The air was still, not the slightest rustle in the tall, dark green corn across the road, and the only sound the searing buzz of cicadas. Carole wondered where they were since she couldn’t see any trees. Well, except for one that didn’t count anymore. In the distance, a bare skeleton of a once-mighty elm stood alone in the middle of the field. She hadn’t seen one of those in years, as most of them had died and been cut down long ago. Other than that, the field was empty, just a rock here and there. Abby was right; you could easily see from one side of the field to the other.
And that’s why she could see a car coming even before it turned the corner onto the road where she was standing. Her guts contracted. A black Lexus SUV, shining in the sun. Janis.
Janis pulled up behind Carole’s car and rolled down the window. “Wow, hot.” They smiled at each other tentatively. “Checking things out?”
“Yeah,” Carole said. “The road looks pretty good. Good surface. There’s a ditch all around, though, on both sides.”
Janis got out, examined the ditch, and looked out across the bare field. As usual, she was wearing faded blue 501s and a tank top. Carole admired her tight behind. She knew Janis worked out, just as she did. They often saw each other at the gym and would surreptitiously compare their buff physiques, or at least Carole did. She was pretty sure Janis did, too. All part of the competition between them, of course. As Carole took in Janis’s arms and shoulders, she suddenly felt even warmer and turned away, concentrating on the cornstalks across the road. She wiped her sweaty forehead with her arm, pushing back the damp brown curls, and with her other hand pulled her clammy muscle shirt high up on her back to get some air on her body. When she turned back, she caught Janis looking, her gaze fastened on Carole’s bare skin, her lips parted. Their eyes met, and Carole had the same reaction again as at the pool table at Red Emma’s.
A flash of scarlet broke their concentration when a red-winged blackbird landed on the fence in the cornfield.
“Well, I guess I’ve seen everything—uh, the road and all, so…” Carole cleared her throat and dug in a front pocket of her own faded Levis for her car keys.
“Okay, see you tomorrow. Should be fun,” Janis said a little awkwardly and followed Carole to her car.
But as Carole reached for the door handle, she felt a hand clasping her bare upper arm. Shocked, she turned around, and they stared at each other for a split second before she was pushed backward against her car.
“I’ve been wanting to do this,” Janis said hoarsely, grabbing her shoulders and shoving her leg between Carole’s. Carole grunted with surprise, immediately aware of her wet crotch against the friction of Janis’s thigh. Automatically she pushed her own thigh up against Janis’s sex and, hands on Janis’s ass, pulled her in harder. This was all wrong, but she didn’t care. She was too turned on. Both women groaned when their lips and tongues came together, and Carole threw her head back and arched against Janis as Janis’s hot wet mouth moved to her neck. The only sound besides their harsh breathing was the cicadas, but they didn’t hear them.
When Janis wedged a hand between their bodies, fumbling with the buttons of Carole’s fly, Carole suddenly came to her senses. “Un-uh,” she said, and with a heave threw Janis off and switched positions. Janis laughed breathlessly as Carole pressed her back against the door with her whole body, rocking her thigh between Janis’s as she moved her hips slowly back and forth. This time it was she who trailed her lips and tongue down Janis’s throat toward the breasts she’d fantasized about.
“Oh god,” Janis said, and then, “I’ve never done this before,” as she reached once more for Carole’s buttons. This time Carole let her and moved back just enough to undo Janis’s at the same time. As she touched smooth warm skin, Carole realized that she’d never unfastened a woman’s fly buttons before either. Her femme girlfriends didn’t wear Levi’s with buttons.
Carole reached down Janis’s belly to slick, swollen flesh at the same time as she felt a hand sliding through her hair and between her own labia. She leaned one arm against the car to keep from collapsing against Janis, leaving just enough room for their stroking. By now they were both moaning. Again they found each other’s mouths, and their tongues glided together in the same rhythm as their fingers. After only a few seconds, Carole felt the first flutter of her muscles tightening into orgasm. She thrust farther into Janis’s wet heat, and Janis cried out as they both came.
Limp and sweaty and still breathing hard, they leaned against the car side by side, hanging on to the door handles. The sun beat down on them, reflecting from the metal. With trembling fingers, they each did up their own buttons. They didn’t look at each other. When Carole got her strength back, she got into her car and looked up at Janis through the open window. Janis’s disheveled hair was a corona with the light behind her.
“You know I’m going to beat you, don’t you?”
Carole blinked at the sudden change of direction. Janis’s face was in shadow so she couldn’t see it very well, but she sounded serious.
“Really. And why are you so sure?”
“Because I’m a better driver and my car’s a lot faster.”
Carole laughed. “Don’t try to psych me out. It won’t work. Not after this.”
As she drove away, she watched Janis in the rearview mirror just standing there, looking after her, hands in her back pockets. Carole’s hand on the steering wheel was damp. It must smell like Janis’s cunt. She resisted the temptation to find out, not wanting to be aroused again, and wondered what the hell was going on with them. It was the heat, and they were both between women and extremely horny. It could have happened to anyone. She flushed and cringed a little inside. But with another butch?
The next day, Sunday, was even hotter. By noon it was already ninety-five in the shade; the sun was a weight pressing down on them. A small crowd had gathered. Carole counted eight cars (including both Lexi), three motorbikes, one scooter, and a bicycle, all parked well away from the actual raceway, the road encircling the empty field.
“Okay, listen up,” Abby yelled in her official voice, raising a hand high. Then she said something into a squawking walkie-talkie. Apparently the woman at the other end was in the middle of the field under the dead elm, an observer with binoculars.
“The race will start in twenty minutes at the drop of the traditional green flag. It will begin here.” Abby pointed at a white line spray-painted across the road. “It will proceed counterclockwise around all four sides of the field and end here at the drop of a rainbow flag.” Everybody cheered and whistled at tha
t. “For safety’s sake, stay off the racetrack and well clear of the starting line and the finish. Competitors, come here, please.”
Carole and Janis shuffled up to her. “A coin toss will determine your position. Heads or tails?” The drivers mumbled their choice, and Abby tossed a shiny coin spinning up into the air.
“Carole in the gray Lexus gets the inside; Janis in the black Lexus gets the outside. Now shake hands, and may the best woman win.” They shook, grinning sheepishly, their hands clammy from heat and nerves; more cheering and whistling from the crowd.
As they sat in position in their softly purring cars, waiting behind the start line, Carole and Janis looked at each other for a long moment through the half-open windows. What passed between them at that moment Carole couldn’t interpret, but somehow it felt good. She suddenly relaxed and wasn’t nervous anymore. She stared straight ahead, focusing on the road, thankful that the sun was directly above and wouldn’t shine in their eyes.
Five minutes to go. About fifteen feet up ahead, on the cornfield side of the road, Cindy appeared in pink halter top and short-shorts. She stood facing them, legs wide apart, holding up in one hand, as high as she could reach, what appeared to be a fluorescent lime green thong—the green flag for the start. There was no time to laugh. Carole glanced at the clock on the dash. Her heart rate picked up. Two minutes to go. They both revved their engines. She reveled in the sound—rrrrum, rrrrum.
Down came the green thong! They were off! Cindy was just a smudge in the landscape as they passed her, tires squealing, smelling of burning rubber, clouds of dust and grit following in their wake.
Carole stomped on the gas pedal. 0-60 in 7.9 seconds said the specs. She’d never tested that. It felt like 5 G’s, forcing her backward against the seat. The SUV’s specs said 0-60 in 6.8 seconds; she’d looked it up. She glanced over: neck and neck, and halfway down the first stretch. Two-thirds of the way, her speedometer read almost ninety mph. She sat in a tunnel of sound, wind whipping by the half-open windows, tires eating up the road, engines roaring. She had to slow down with the first corner coming up. The black SUV was pulling ahead. It must be that 0-60 in 6.8 takeoff, still an advantage in the first straightaway.
As Carole slowed down to forty to take the corner, Janis was almost a car length ahead of her. Janis took it wide, increasing the distance by another half car length as she zoomed over to the inside, cutting the gray car off but allowing Carole just enough room to stay in control directly behind her. They picked up speed again going into the second stretch. Relentlessly, Carole closed the distance between them to a half car length and then, just before running up the black car’s bumper, she moved over to the outside, still closing.
Again they were abreast, burning up the road at almost a hundred. It was the same situation as in the first stretch, but with positions reversed. This time the gray car moved ahead, so gradually that they seemed to be standing still, side by side. Carole wasn’t aware of the blur of the passing cornfield on her right, only of the straight road ahead and the black car on her left, which disappeared from her peripheral vision as she pulled ahead. Nearing the second corner, Carole was leading by at least a car length. Time to slow down again. Like Janis before, she took the outside corner wide and then swooped across to the inside, cutting Janis off but not giving her quite as much room as Janis had allowed. Maybe Janis hadn’t decelerated as much when cornering.
Carole accelerated again, rapidly picking up speed down the third straightaway. Elated, she glanced in the rearview and right-side mirrors, needing to know the black car’s exact position. She saw only dust. Puzzled, she looked again, losing speed without thinking. She knew the dust wasn’t thick enough to hide a car close behind her.
Where was Janis? Fear clutched at her chest. She took her foot off the gas pedal and stepped hard on the brake, still glancing in the rearview mirrors. The gray car fishtailed wildly as she slowed it down to do a U-ie with one twist of the steering wheel. Big as it was, the old Lexus could turn on a dime. Carole raced back the way she’d come, peering apprehensively through the dust, eyes scanning the road, back and forth. After what seemed like eternity, suddenly, through the dust cloud, she saw the black car up ahead on her right, lying angled on its driver’s side along the edge of the ditch. One wheel was still turning slowly and the front passenger-side door was sprung open.
“Oh, god, oh, god, no!” Carole’s heart began to pound with dread. She skidded to a stop beside the SUV and jumped out. The car was about six feet wide, a little high to climb into from a ditch, especially if you added in having to climb over the seat, so she crawled frantically up the side of the hood to the open passenger door. She stuck her head in. Janis sat there, still buckled into her seat. But of course she wasn’t actually sitting; she was lying on her side, on an air bag. A side air bag. Her eyes were closed, and she was making little groaning sounds.
“Janis! Janis! Are you okay? Are you okay? Oh god…” Carole’s voice was hoarse and shaky.
“Not fucking okay…went into the ditch…you fucking cut me…off…oh shit,” Janis muttered, and groaned again, eyes still closed.
“Look at me! Can you move? Can you turn your head? Please open your eyes!” Carole was almost crying. Bending from the waist, she let herself down farther into the interior, anchored by her lower torso and legs outside the car. Distractedly, she heard a motorcycle pull up outside, then the squawk of the walkie-talkie and Abby’s voice, but from her position she couldn’t see anyone.
“Carole! Is Janis hurt?”
“I don’t know! Call an ambulance! Janis!” Carole reached down to touch her shoulder. “Please look at me!”
Slowly Janis turned her head and opened her eyes to look at Carole. “See…can move my head,” she croaked. At the sight of the familiar blue eyes, Carole’s filled up, and a couple of drops fell down onto Janis’s shoulder.
“Can you move your arms and legs?”
Janis moved the arm closest to Carole. “Other stuck…” Her left arm was imprisoned between her body and the air bag she was lying on. But she wiggled both hands and feet.
“Does anything hurt?” Carole managed to unbuckle the seat belt. Gravity pulled it down to fall on the air bag.
Janis didn’t answer right away, as if she were checking for aches and pains. “Not…much…’m okay. Get me out.”
Janis turned her upper body toward Carole, and Carole grasped her shoulders. Janis reached up her right arm and grabbed the outside edge of the passenger seat, and together they managed to pull her up enough so that she was kneeling on the air bag. They paused to get their breath, and Janis tested her left arm. “Hurts. I think it’s broken.” She spoke slowly but normally.
All that gym work paid off. They were both strong women and, with some help from Carole, and from Abby waiting outside, Janis was able to climb out of the car and down. But when they were back on the ground, she collapsed on a dusty strip of grass beside the ditch, moaning a little, her face white. “Arm hurts like fuck.”
Carole sat and gathered her in her arms, cradling her head and shoulders against her chest as Janis closed her eyes and seemed to pass out.
Carole looked up at Abby. “It’s all my fault. It’s my fault. She could have died,” she sobbed, as more tears tracked her grimy face.
Abby bent down and patted Carole’s head sympathetically. “I don’t know exactly what happened here, hon,” she said soothingly. “We didn’t see it up close, but she’ll be okay. She’s in shock. We’ve called an ambulance. We’ll get her checked out.” She moved away, and spoke into the walkie-talkie again. Carole heard her say, “She’s okay.”
By this time some of the others had gathered at the accident scene. They regarded the two women curiously, but discreetly kept their distance. Carole took no notice. Hardly knowing what she was doing, she buried her face in Janis’s neck.
“Hey, it’s okay,” Janis whispered in her ear. “I’m okay, just tired.” Her good arm came around Carole’s neck, pulling her closer.
/>
“I almost lost you.”
“I’m not going anywhere.” Carole could feel her smiling. She pulled away slightly, looking into Janis’s face. Janis’s eyes were clear.
“I’m so sorry. It’s all my fault. I cut you off.” Carole’s eyes started tearing up again.
“Maybe. But I didn’t slow down enough around that corner. When you passed me, I couldn’t control the car and she went across the road, heading for the cornfield ditch. I yanked the wheel and she went for the other ditch, too fast to straighten out. She slid on her side along the ditch forever. That was scary.” Janis shuddered “I bet the grass in the ditch is all flattened out.”
Carole looked. Indeed it was, flat for maybe forty feet.
“Good thing about the side bag,” Janis continued, rambling a little. “Sure scared the hell out of me when that exploded. Probably broke my arm. Better than my head. Is my car okay?”
“I think it’s fine. The side might need a paint job. We’ll get the wrecker to pull her out. I’ll call them after the ambulance picks you up, then find you at the hospital.”
“Good,” Janis said. “I’m so tired.” She pulled Carole close again and closed her eyes.
In the distance they could hear the faint wail of a siren. Abby’s walkie-talkie squawked again.
“Attention, please,” she called out to the women milling about. “Here comes the ambulance, so before it gets here you’d better all leave, in the opposite direction. This was just an ordinary traffic accident, right? We’ll all meet at Red Emma’s later.”
The women dispersed quickly. As the last few were leaving, Carole heard one of them say in a shocked voice, “Carole and Janis? Are you kidding me? Those two butches? No way!”
Way.