by SUE FINEMAN
Jay jumped and grinned. “Ooh, baby! I can’t hardly wait.”
Laura giggled. Barbara and Jay had found a way to cut the tension.
“Light me up, Jay.” Barbara stuck the cigar in her mouth. “God, these shoes hurt already. Why do women wear these things?”
“It’s part of the image,” said Florence. “And it’s another way to defend yourself, if it comes to that.”
“Grind my heel into his foot?”
Florence nodded. “Works real well.”
Jay’s walkie-talkie crackled and Meg said, “Here he comes.”
Luke, Laura, and Florence went through the new door directly into room three. Jay kissed Barbara and whispered something in her ear before he joined them. Barbara laughed softly. Laura loved seeing them together like this, but she was concerned about Barbara’s safety. So was Luke. He paced near the door between the rooms, glancing from the door to the television. If things went bad for Barbara, Luke and Jay would both be in there in a heartbeat, and nobody would be able to keep them from attacking Earl.
Laura sat on the end of the bed with Florence and watched the television screen. Barbara stood at the back of the room, smoking the cigar, when Earl tapped on the door. “Is that you, Earl?” she called.
“It’s me.”
“Well, come on in. The door’s unlocked, and I ain’t expectin’ nobody else tonight.” Barbara sounded more like Florence or Judy than she did herself. If he recognized Barbara, this whole thing could fall apart in seconds, and if it did, Luke would go after Earl with his fists. Laura thought his anger would abate somewhat over time, but the rage at Earl simmered right beneath the surface.
Earl walked through the door and took a long look at Barbara. “Priscilla?”
“Laura promised me you’d be nice. You gonna be nice to Priscilla tonight, Earl?”
Earl came closer, gaping at her cleavage. She said, “Don’t let’s get in a hurry now, honey. I wanta see whatcha got for me before you touch me.”
“Like hell! Take your clothes off and get on down on that bed.”
Barbara pulled the zipper on her vest down another inch. “You like this?” she asked, bending forward just a little.
He reached for her, but she stuck the cigar in her mouth. Earl stopped cold.
“You like see-gars, honey?”
“No. Get ridda that thing. Now.”
“If I get ridda my see-gar, you have to get ridda your clothes. I like my men buck naked.”
He pointed and ordered, “Get on over here on the bed.”
“Not ’til you take your clothes off, honey. I want to see you first.”
Laura watched from the other room as Earl started to pull his clothes off, his eyes on Barbara the whole time. He tossed his clothes on the chair by the door, the only chair in the room.
Luke perched on the edge of the bed, staring at the television screen. Jay’s back was rigid. Both men were wound up tight, ready to sprint into action if necessary.
Barbara looked Earl up and down. “Mmm, mmm, I’m gonna like this. You’re gonna have it like you ain’t never had it before.”
When Earl got down to his shorts, he sat on the bed by the night stand, the side nearest the back of the room. She purred, “All of it, honey. Let’s see whatcha got for Priscilla tonight. Ooh, baby. I can’t hardly wait. I’m gonna make sure you don’t never forget this night as long as you live.”
Earl still wore his shorts. Barbara coaxed, “C’mon, honey, I want to see what kinda condom to put on you.” She pulled the little whip out from behind her and cracked it once. Earl jumped, his eyes wide.
“You like it rough?” she asked. “Laura said you liked it rough.”
His eyes narrowed. “You hit me and I’ll knock you on your ass, girl.”
She snapped the little whip again and her voice hardened. “Take off your shorts.”
“You can’t order me around. Get ridda that damn cigar and that whip and get on over here or I’ll beat the stuffin’ outta ya.”
“Like you beat Laura Whitfield the night you tried to rape her?”
“Damn right, and when I finish with you, I’ll take care of that little bitch, too. Now get on over here.”
She put the cigar in the sink between the bathroom and closet. “Don’t ya wanta play first, sugar?”
“Play what?”
She walked around the bed slowly, still snapping the whip, keeping her distance from Earl. He stayed right where he was, watching her closely. She put her foot on the chair by the front window and slowly rolled down one stocking, teasing him, then reached up and pulled the zipper on her vest down another click or two. “Take off your shorts. I don’t like a man who’s ashamed of what he’s got.”
Earl slipped off his shorts and tossed them on the chair on top of his other clothes. Barbara stared. “That’s all you got? I ain’t even got a condom small enough to fit that little bitty thing!”
Earl looked down, his mouth open in shock, his manhood wilting, while Barbara grabbed his clothes and slipped out the door. He started after her, but stopped at the door.
Laura wiped away tears of silent laughter. It was the first time she’d ever seen a naked man, but it was the astonished look on Earl’s face that broke her up. She had to put her hand over her mouth to keep from screaming with laughter.
Jay, grinning like a fool, met Barbara at the door to room three. Barbara slipped inside and Jay quietly closed and locked the door. Luke sat on the bed, shaking his head as if he couldn’t believe what he’d just seen.
Earl frantically searched for something to put on, swearing and muttering about killing Laura Whitfield. He pulled the heavy spread off the bed, but there were no sheets. He ran to the bathroom, but there were no towels, so he grabbed a pillow off the bed and held it in front of him. He went to the door and cautiously opened it.
Jay pointed to the other TV set in room three, the one hooked up to the camera he’d installed outside.
They watched as Earl ran toward Laura’s apartment, his bare, white behind glowing softly in the outside light. Laura’s apartment was locked and dark, so he turned and ran back to room five, but the door was locked there, too, thanks to Luke. Earl peered around again, then ran out toward his car.
Meg screamed right on cue. Laura immediately called 911. “There’s a woman screamin’ at Queenie’s Café. Please hurry!”
Jimmy Wallace, who worked part time as a Kingston police officer and part time as a mechanic at the Texaco station, answered the call. Meg’s act was perfect. She seemed hysterical, going on and on about the naked pervert peering in the window at the diner. “I was just finishin’ the cinnamon rolls when I stepped out for a smoke and saw him. He was actin’ crazy and his thing was just hangin’ out there for God and everybody to see. I’ve never been so shocked in my entire life!” She had her hand on her chest and her eyes were huge.
“Who was it? Did you recognize him?” asked Jimmy.
“Well, I wasn’t lookin’ at his face, if that’s what you mean. I saw him go out on the highway, out that way.” She pointed. “Maybe you’d better call the state patrol so they can pick him up before he hurts somebody.” She reached in her pocket and pulled out a little piece of paper. “I wrote down his license number.”
Jimmy called the state patrol on his radio. “This guy’s naked and actin’ crazy.”
“We got two cars in the area. We’ll get him,” said the dispatcher.
Meg still stood outside talking with Jimmy Wallace when his radio crackled and a voice said, “Suspect apprehended. The car’s registered to Earl Windsor, but this guy doesn’t have any ID on him. Shoot, he doesn’t have a pocket to put it in, but he looks a little like that guy on the TV.”
“Who does he say he is?”
“Says he’s Earl Windsor.”
“What’s Earl Windsor doin’ drivin’ around without his clothes on?”
Jimmy Wallace reassured Meg that the pervert had been caught, then he left and Meg came into room three with the ot
hers.
Barbara kicked her shoes off. “Well, that was fun.”
“Sure was,” said Meg.
Jay turned off the video so they could watch TV. “We should hear somethin’ soon,” he said, grinning. “You gals was somethin’ else.”
Laura rubbed Luke’s shoulders and felt the tension slowly ease from his muscles. He sat on the bed watching the news station. Every reporter listening to the police radio would undoubtedly be at the station when they brought Earl in. Because of his many TV commercials, Earl was well known in the state.
Luke pointed at the TV. “Here it comes now.”
They showed Earl Windsor standing in the station wearing a blanket and a red face. Reporters shoved microphones in his face, but Earl kept saying, “No comment. No comment. I don’t have no comment.”
The motel room filled with hoots and laughter. Barbara’s plan to embarrass Earl had worked beautifully, and no one got hurt.
“Ooh, girls, we done good,” said Florence.
“He’ll have trouble doing anything in private now,” said Luke. “Those reporters won’t leave him alone anytime soon.”
Barbara pulled off her wig and horns and mask. “Can’t remember when I’ve had such a good time.”
Laura said, “I thought Luke was going to rush through that door and help.”
“I had my trusty little whip.” Barbara cracked the whip in Jay’s direction.
Jay grinned broadly. “Ooh, baby.”
“You like that?” asked Barbara.
“Not in front of the children,” he teased.
They were having a good time now, but they’d infuriated a dangerous man. He might not come back soon, but he’d be back someday.
And Laura dreaded it.
<>
Laura wanted to spend some private time with Florence before she went back to Ocala. She not only wanted to know her mother better, she needed to hear why Florence left her when she was a baby.
In the apartment Florence was staying in, the two women sipped soft drinks and talked about Dad and Luke, and about the alligators at the fishing camp. When the small talk ran thin, Laura changed the subject. “Florence, will you tell me about your life before you met Dad? How old were you when you married your husband?”
Florence leaned back and sipped her drink. “I was just a kid, but I was runnin’ wild. My poor folks was goin’ crazy tryin’ to make me behave myself, but I wouldn’t listen. Then I met Hank. He was older and kinda wild himself. He talked to my daddy ’bout marryin’ me before he asked me. I think Daddy was glad to get me off his hands. Mama cried, but she went along with what Daddy wanted. She always did. I was so young, I had to have my folks sign for me.” Florence sipped her drink. “I thought my life was gonna be wonderful, but it wasn’t. Hank was lazy and real mean when he drank, which was most of the time. I grew up in a little town near Tallahassee, just a wide spot in the road, kinda like Kingston before they made it a town. First thing me and Hank did was leave there, so I didn’t have nobody around me I knew.”
“How did Hank know Earl?”
“They was buddies down in the Keys before I met Hank. They got in trouble together, spent time in jail, both of ’em.”
“For what?”
“Theft, pullin’ scams on old folks, takin’ their money, bait and switch, pickin’ pockets, whatever they thought they could get away with. Neither one of ’em would work if they could get money another way.”
“Did you know that when you married Hank?”
“Some of it. I thought Hank lived such an excitin’ life, but the excitement wore off real fast. He taught me how to pick pockets, but I wasn’t very good at it. Then he and Earl got drunk and suggested somethin’ else. Hank made me do it with Earl a couple times, when he lost at cards or somethin’ and couldn’t pay him. I didn’t want to have sex with other men, but they didn’t give me no choice. Hank hit me when I didn’t do what he said, and I knew Daddy wouldn’t let me come back home.”
Laura sighed deeply, saddened by her mother’s life. “Tell me about when you came to Kingston.”
“Hank and Earl done somethin’ wrong and the law was after ’em. They left the state for awhile. Went to Texas to work on an oilfield or somethin’. I never did know exactly what it was they did there. I was livin’ in Melbourne at the time. The rent was due and I was broke, so I packed what I could carry and took the first bus that come along. It stopped here, at Queenie’s Café. There was a help wanted sign in the window, so I asked Queenie for a job.” She sipped from the can. “Queenie seemed real glad to have me there, said she and Bruce was gonna try to have a baby and she didn’t want to work so many hours.”
“But Dad said—”
Florence flapped her hand, brushing away the thought. “She was dreamin’. I didn’t know it at first, but Bruce filled me in a few days later.”
“How long were you here before you and Dad—”
“Queenie was already living in that room behind the café, and Bruce was fixin’ to leave. He was sendin’ out resumes, tryin’ to find himself a job somewhere else. We’d sit and talk in the evenings when Queenie was doin’ the dinner shift. One thing led to another and things just happened. I didn’t mean to fall in love. I don’t think he did either, but it happened, and I got pregnant. I’d had one abortion, when I was fourteen, and didn’t want to have another one. Shoot, I didn’t want the first one, but my daddy insisted.”
Laura stared out the window at Jay and his men unloading lumber from the truck. “Queenie found out about you and Dad?”
Florence nodded. “At first, she told me I had to leave, then she tried to talk me into giving the baby to her. She wanted kids in the worst way. She said Hank would kill me if he found out, but he’d been gone for a year by then. I figured he was gone for good, and Bruce was real anxious to get away from this place. He was worried ’bout money, but I told him we’d find a way.”
Dad always worried about money. “You were both broke?”
“I was and he’d spent the last of his money buryin’ Queenie’s father. Queenie collected some life insurance, so we was gonna take that. Bruce said she owed it to him. He wanted enough to start over somewhere else, and we had a baby on the way.” Florence stopped talking and walked to the kitchen counter with her soft drink can.
Laura twisted to face her. “Don’t stop there. Tell me the rest of it.”
“I can’t, honey.”
“What did Queenie do to make you give me up?”
She shook her head. “I can’t tell you that part, honey. I want you to know I loved you even before you was born, and I wanted to keep you, but I couldn’t. Gettin’ pregnant was a surprise, but we never once considered gettin’ rid of you. I want you to know that.” Florence’s eyes filled with tears. “It nearly broke my heart to walk away, but I knew you’d have your daddy and he’d take good care of you. It was the best I could do for you.”
Laura walked to the counter beside Florence. “But you left me with Queenie.”
“No, honey, I left you with your daddy. He did his best to keep you away from her when you was little. You’re the one who insisted on helpin’ her in the café. Bruce never let you two get to know each other, or bond as they call it now. You went over after school one day, then purty soon it was ever’ day. Bruce didn’t like it, but he couldn’t make you understand why you should stay away.”
Laura leaned on her elbows on the counter. “I thought she was my mother. I wanted her to love me, but she didn’t even like me.”
“I don’t think it was that so much, honey. She wanted kids of her own. Bruce had you, but she didn’t have nobody.”
Queenie wasn’t mean, she just wasn’t friendly or even nice. “She never hugged me like other mothers hug their kids. She didn’t even touch me, Florence. I thought there was something wrong with me. No matter what I did for her, it wasn’t good enough. The older I got, the more demanding, the more critical she was.”
Sadness filled Florence’s eyes. “I’m so sorry,
Laura.”
“I don’t blame you. I used to blame myself, then I blamed her.” Queenie’s life was as miserable as anyone’s, but she did it to herself. If Laura had known the truth, maybe things would have been different between them.
But Dad lied to her.
They sat quietly for several minutes. Florence wouldn’t tell her any more, not now anyway. Whatever happened back then, it shaped Laura’s life. She’d drop it for now, but they would talk again. And again. Until the whole story came out. Good or bad, she deserved to know the truth. The whole truth.
Laura turned the conversation to something more personal. She needed advice, and she couldn’t ask Barbara or Dad about this. “Florence, there are things I need to know about, but I don’t even know what to ask.”
“About what, honey?”
“I’ve never... you know... been with a man.”
“You’ve never had sex?”
“No.”
“And you’re askin’ me?”
“You’re the expert. And you’re my mother.”
“Oh, honey.” Florence rubbed Laura’s back. “I can’t believe you came to me.”
“Who else? Dad? He’d probably tell me to stay a virgin until my wedding night. I had those classes in school. It’s just...”
“Honey, do you love Luke?”
“I think so, but I’ve never been in love. I don’t know how I’m supposed to feel.”
“Do you want to be with him all the time and want him to touch you and kiss you?”
Laura felt a smile tug at her mouth. “I think about him constantly and I have these strange feelings inside me, like... like nothing I’ve ever felt before.”
Florence leaned back against the counter. “That’s the way I feel ’bout your daddy. Oh, I had sex with other men, but I never cared ’bout nobody else but him. I wish he’d been my first. I wish we’d met before he married Queenie, before I married Hank.”
Laura played with her empty cola can. “How old were you the first time?”
“I wasn’t more than nine or ten when my daddy’s friend touched me the first time. I didn’t know what he was doin’ at first, but he gave me presents and he didn’t hurt me. He just touched me and kissed me and made me feel special. Nobody ever made me feel that way before. He played with me off and on for several months before he told me I was big enough to be his woman. He hurt me then, the first time.”