The Nearly Complete Works, Volume 3

by Donald Harington

  Every at that same moment was rummaging among what few belongings of Latha’s he could find. There wasn’t a chest or a closet, just pegs along the wall from which garments were hung. The largest clothes apparently were Barbara’s, the lesser ones Mandy’s, and the least one’s Latha’s, although there was no longer much difference between the size of Mandy’s and the size of Latha’s. There was a kind of dressing table that had three drawers in it. The bottom drawer was Latha’s and contained some of her underclothes folded neatly, as well as her hairbrush, a comb, some hair ribbons and barrettes. Every wondered if he could get away with stealing a pair of her panties. He held them to his face for a moment. Then he stuffed them into a pocket of his overalls.

  There was only one bed in the room, and Every assumed rightly that all three sisters slept together in that bed. He attempted to determine which spot was Latha’s. He sniffed the three pillows, and the one nearest the wall definitely smelled like Latha. So he lay down on the bed in that spot, his body feeling and fitting the indentations of hers. He closed his eyes and imagined that Latha was beside him. Pretty soon he was fast asleep.

  Eventually Latha came home. She washed and dried the few dishes she had used for supper. It was getting dark now. She felt a little lonesome, but she was looking forward to having the bed all to herself without her sisters, who still whispered only to each other. So in the dim remaining light she climbed up to the sleeping loft and as was her custom on summer nights took off all her clothes. Then she discovered that there was somebody in her bed! Her head spun and she thought she might faint, and all that kept her from screaming was the realization that no one would hear her if she did.

  Whoever was in her spot in the bed was sound asleep, and even snoring a little. She was reminded of the Goldilocks story: somebody’s been sleeping in my bed, and there he is! She could tell it wasn’t a full-growed man. Was it maybe one of Rindy’s brothers who had learned from Rindy that Latha was alone?

  She heard thunder in the distance, and soon there was a flash of lightning, long enough to illuminate the sleeping person. It was Every! What was he doing, sleeping in her spot of her bed? She realized she was naked, and took up one of the bed’s coverlets and wrapped it around herself, and then she said, “Every.” Outside the rain was coming down hard and she could hear the steady splatter of it on the roof of the house. She said “Every!” a little louder but he didn’t wake. A bolt of lightning flashed nearby and then a huge boom of thunder, and that woke him up. He rubbed his eyes and sat up. The lightning was coming in steady flares, so they could see each other clearly.

  “Latha?” he said. “They’s too much of you there to be just a dream.”

  “I’m here,” she said, sitting on the edge of the bed. “But why are you? I thought you’d gone to Swain with them.”

  “I thought you’d gone with them,” he said.

  “I thought you’d gone with them,” she said.

  “I gave up my seat for you,” he said.

  “That was nice of ye,” she said. “But I decided to stay home, because I don’t care much for funerals.”

  “Me neither,” he said.

  For a long minute they couldn’t think of anything further to say. The lightning continued to flash and the thunder to boom.

  “That’s sure some storm out there,” Latha observed. “I hope they all got to Swain before it started.”

  “Cozy in here,” he observed. “Listening to the rain on the roof.”

  “Of course you can’t go home in this,” she said.

  “Course not,” he said. “You reckon Mandy would mind if I just had her spot in the bed?”

  Latha laughed. “How would she know? I don’t plan to tell her.”

  That almost sounded like an invitation for him to stay. It was really all that either of them needed to say. Without another word, Every unfastened his overalls, and then took off his shirt. In just his shorts, he scooted over to Mandy’s spot, and Latha reclaimed her own spot, which was still warm from Every’s body. Too warm, so she unwrapped the coverlet that was around herself.

  For a while, they just lay holding hands. By and by the rain stopped pounding on the roof, although there was still a flash of lightning and a peal of thunder now and again. Eventually with his other hand Every reached over and felt of her breast, his fingertips playing with her tiny but hard nipple. Latha shivered from the thrill of it but did not know for sure what to do in return so he took her free hand and felt of his breast. She was sorry she had decided never to ask questions again, because she wanted to ask him, “Why do boys have nipples?” She knew why girls have them. In fact there was more than one reason, and right now she was enjoying one of the other reasons.

  Before long, his nipple-twiddling fingers had moved on down her body to her navel and then below it. She was just beginning to grow a kind of dark peach fuzz in the place where Mandy and Barbara already had hair like the hair on their heads. Every’s fingers glided through that and reached the blister which Rindy had told her was the girl’s equal of the boy’s dinger although it’s just a fraction the size and you don’t pee through it. Every’s touch there caused her whole body to quake, but he just dawdled there an instant before going on down to the opening of her notch, which was already seeping and then sopping. She didn’t know if Every would be bothered by that. But apparently not; he got his fingers thoroughly wet. She again felt the need to match his maneuvers, so she reached down for his dinger, but he was still wearing his shorts. She gave the waistband a tug and pulled them down his legs, and he finished the job by pulling them off. A flicker of lightning revealed his dinger as it stood pointing at the ceiling and her hand discovered how very stiff it was. He squirmed beneath her touch but she held on and took pleasure in the feel of it. She knew that smooth taut skin would feel even better if there were some way to get it inside herself.

  She turned her head and kissed him a big one on his cheek. He turned his head and kissed her a big one on the mouth. Then he threw a leg over her leg, knelt, and rose above her. She spread her legs. He tried to line up his dinger with her notch. In the dark (it had stopped lightning) he could not see where he was going, and had to try it by feel, and neither his dinger nor her notch possessed sufficient feelings. She put a hand on his dinger and tried to steer him, despite being so nervous with a mixture of thoughts: she wanted him inside her very much but would it hurt? What was she supposed to do? Was it going to be like some kind of dance? What would happen if he made her come over the mountain? Would she bawl like a calf? Would she pass out?

  After much trial and error he got the tip of his dinger, which seemed to be shaped for that purpose, inside the vestibule of her notch, and he pressed and pressed but could not get the dinger in. She was trembling with uncertainty, and he was trembling with effort and frustration and desire. Suddenly her vestibule was thoroughly coated with something thick and warm and wet, and Every collapsed beside her. Rindy, who didn’t know, had never explained to her what happens when boys come over the mountain, but Latha was smart enough to figure it out. She and he each produced a lot of liquid, but hers was at the beginning and his was at the end. She sighed.

  He lay on his back panting, and she wondered if it was all over. For a moment there she had felt herself rising against gravity as if she had no weight, and it was wonderful, but now it seemed to be all over. She reached over to feel his dinger, which was still very taut and very stiff. She climbed up over him and placed her notch down on top of that firm dinger, and lowered her bottom so that his dinger went through the vestibule to the place where it could go no further. Rindy, who still had hers, had explained to Latha what a “maidenhead” is, and Latha figured out that was what was keeping Every from going any deeper. Latha took a deep breath and bit her lip and dropped her weight down upon the dinger, and abruptly it was all the way inside of her, up to the hilt, and Every gasped and grabbed both her hips with his hands and began thrusting upward, his buttocks rising from the bed. Latha was in pain, but she was also i
n paradise, with an overwhelming sense of lust and urgency, and she rose and fell with Every’s movements until she felt that sense of the loss of gravity flooding over her, and the most incredible frenzy from top to toe.

  She woke in the early dawn to see that Every was sound asleep but had one arm and one leg draped over her. Gently she rolled out from under his limbs and got out of bed. There was a good bit of blood on the sheets and also some starchy stains. She would have to do some laundry today. But first there was breakfast. She put on a nice dress, not her dress-up dress but a pretty one, and went downstairs to the kitchen. There was a dull ache, not truly painful, in her groin. She let her mind live over again what they had done. She wondered if Every drank coffee. She didn’t, herself. But she put the pot on the stove, and then the skillet, and put a few chunks of wood into the stove and lit it. Then she took the butcher knife and went out to the smokehouse and carved off some bacon. There were already eggs that she had gathered in the eggbasket. And her mother had left behind several days worth of biscuits, too many in fact, so she threw one to Rouser and then threw another one to Fancher. She took a wet washcloth with her to the outhouse and after peeing she wiped the blood from her legs.

  When he came downstairs, Every was blushing, as if he had done something terribly wicked. Well, come to think of it, he had, hadn’t he? They both had. “Good morning,” she said happily. “Did you sleep good?”

  “I aint a virgin no more,” he declared.

  “Me neither,” she said.

  “Are you okay? They’s a right smart of blood on the sheet.”

  “I’ve got to wash it,” she said.

  After breakfast she built a fire under the black iron wash-kettle, and Every filled it and a tin rinsing tub with water, and she got out the scrub-board, and they really worked on that sheet, taking turns, but they never could get all the pink out. She should have soaked it in cold water for a while, but it was too late now. She hung it on the clothesline.

  Naturally Every wanted to do it again as soon as possible, and so did Latha, but she was too sore down there, and told him they’d have to wait. And besides, there was only that one bottom sheet for that bed, and it had to dry first. Every suggested they go to his house and use his bed.

  Chapter ten

  But she was still too sore at bedtime to contemplate another go at it. She hoped Every would understand, and she told him so. At least they slept together, and he was able to come before sleep by thrusting his dinger between her clinched legs, not once but twice, and the second time he did the play-like sex, the rubbing of his dinger on her notch made her come too and they both slept in each other’s arms until dawn. Latha fixed breakfast in Every’s mother’s kitchen, and cleaned up afterwards. They spent the day together, she helping him with his chores, he helping with hers. They decided to go down to Swains Creek for a swim. They didn’t dare swim naked in broad daylight since it was bold enough for a boy and girl to swim together fully clothed. She ran home and fetched a swimsuit that belonged to Barbara and covered her whole body, arms and legs included, in the fashion of those days, and Every’s swimsuit covered his torso. They changed in front of each other in his room. So the whole day was still daring and a lot of fun. Apparently nobody saw them together in the creek. In the water, they hugged and rubbed together and by late afternoon had a great desire to get home and get out of those wet swimsuits and frolic in their birthday suits. They were almost home when a covered wagon came up the road behind them.

  “How’s the water?” Every’s dad remarked.

  “Is that my bathing suit you’re a-wearing?” Barbara asked her sister.

  “Why, I never!” exclaimed Latha’s mother.

  Latha’s dad said, “I figgered you’uns would find some way to git together.”

  Mandy pointed at the conspicuous bulge in the crotch of Every’s swimsuit. “Looks like you caught a fish.” Several of them thought this was funny and laughed, but the general mood was of anger.

  When they got to the Dill’s cabin, Latha’s mother said, “Where’s your clothes, girl?”

  “In Every’s room,” Latha said.

  Mrs. Bourne marched with Latha into the room, where Latha’s clothes and Every’s were jumbled together on the floor. The bed had not been made, and those starchy stains which were probably from what came out of Every were all over the sheets, and Latha’s mother scowled at them. “Did you sleep here?” she asked.

  “No, I didn’t,” Latha said.

  “Don’t you fib to me!” her mother hollered.

  Mr. Dill drove them the rest of the way to Latha’s house, where he said, “My boy is going to get his hide tanned.” Latha’s mother saw the sheet still hanging on the clothesline. She might never have noticed the faint bloodstain that didn’t wash out unless she was looking for it. But now she was looking for it.

  Latha did not see Every again. Mandy reported that she was a witness when Mr. Dill took a leather strop for sharpening razors and clobbered Every with it until the blood was running down his legs. Latha’s father took a common hickory switch and sliced up Latha’s legs until she begged for mercy. Her mother said, “I don’t want ye to even look at that boy ever again!”

  Latha washed the blood from her legs and put some mercurochrome on the worst places. For three days she couldn’t walk, but then she managed to limp off up to her playhouse. Rindy was there, pouting because she hadn’t seen Latha for days and also in a foul mood because of the favoritism her mother always showed to her younger brother Lewis, giving him extra dessert and pampering him. She paused from listing her grievances against Lewis to notice Latha’s legs, and asked, “What happened to you?”

  So Latha began at the beginning and told Rindy the whole story. Latha wanted to avoid boasting but she couldn’t help noticing the expression of awe and envy on Rindy’s face when Latha described how she had lost her virginity, and then Rindy was full of questions about the whole thing. At length Rindy observed, “S’funny, but you don’t look no different…except for them cuts on yore legs.”

  From then on, there were two major topics of talk at the playhouse: the thrill of sex and the botheration of Rindy’s kid brother, Lewis. One day, out of the blue, Rindy said to her, “I double-dawg dare ye to do it with Lewis, just to prove you aint a virgin no more.”

  Latha had always accepted Rindy’s dares. Her experience with Every was becoming a distant memory, of which she dreamed at night and daydreamed about too frequently. This challenge struck her as a chance to have some sexual pleasure again, so she accepted it. Lewis was only ten, but being one of the Whitter boys he probably had a really useful dinger. One Saturday afternoon Rindy asked her brother if he’d like to stick his thing into a girl’s twitchet, and he was more than willing, practically drooling, so she brought him up to the playhouse, blindfolding him with a bandanna for the last quarter of a mile so he wouldn’t know the route to their secret hideaway. Latha was waiting for this first male ever to be in their playhouse. She was eager to do it, and impatient, and they lost no time in getting Lewis to take off his overalls. He might not be capable of coming but he sure had an erection. Latha lifted her dress and pulled down her panties and lay on the pallet, and Lewis climbed atop her. But during the time he fumbled and fidgeted and poked and prodded without managing to enter her, the thought struck her that in a way she was being unfaithful to Every, even if she had been forbidden ever to see him again. So she squirmed out from under Lewis and declared, “I’m sure sorry, but I reckon I just caint do it.” Lewis threw a tantrum and called her a whore, and threatened to go tell his mother. Rindy stopped him and said, “Oh, hush, Brother. If all you want is a hole, you can have mine.” And she took Latha’s place on the pallet, and they were both unmindful that Latha just sat watching them. Latha was fascinated, and reflected that maybe watching it is more of a delight than doing it. She wondered if she and Every had made the noises that these two were making. Once again Lewis was probing and poking and prodding without getting it in, and Latha was about
to suggest that Rindy should get on top, but at that instant Lewis grunted hard and Rindy hollered and he was in.

  Of course he couldn’t come, at that age, but he sure tried, although the pallet was getting bloody and Rindy came more than once. Lewis could have kept it up for the rest of the afternoon, but Rindy pushed him away, saying he was commencing to hurt her. Lewis wanted to try Latha again, and she had become so heated up just watching them do it that she almost consented, but thoughts of Every entered her mind again and kept her from it.

  Rindy asked Latha to come with her and back her up when she went home and showed her mother the blood on her legs and told her mother that Lewis had raped her. Latha wasn’t going to tell a lie even for her best friend but Mrs. Whitter never came right out and asked her. Maybe her presence was enough. Mrs. Whitter said, “I just knew it was bound to happen, but I’m right sorrow it was Lewis.” Simon Whitter, Rindy’s dad, took a strop and clobbered Lewis senseless although the boy yelled his head off, protesting that Rindy had put him up to it.

  Rindy reported to Latha that Lewis wasn’t able to do anything for a week. Latha learned a new word from Rindy: revenge. That is when you get back at someone for something they did to you. It was a fearsome word, and Latha spent some time wondering how she might get revenge on her father and mother.