Contrasts

by Charles Arnold

  They sat in silence for a few moments then Paul asked, “You wouldn’t hurt her would you....I mean physically hurt her?”

  Darnell thought about it, “Long as she do what I say, she be ok.” He paused, “I like to get her off her high horse though, bring her down to where I’m at. She need a taste of what went down with them slaves she always runnin at the mouth about.”

  “Humiliate her,” Paul said.

  “Yeah, that’s it. She need that. She too fuckin uppity.”

  “That’s what Wells does, isn’t it? That’s how the NWS operates?”

  “Uncle Gordy ain’t no dope. I’m tryin to get him to give me your wife jus for me, jus so she be my personal bitch. I’ll teach my fuckin teacher some shit then.” He frowned and Paul could see anger in his eyes. He’d had a lot to drink. Paul knew the boy would be a mean drunk.

  “Has he agreed?”

  “Not yet, but I’m workin on it.” He drank and sat back closing his eyes, “Yeah, that be real good. My homies see me with her all the fuckin time. They come to my place and see her there lookin sexy. They see her bringin us beer and chips and shit and them knowin she in my bed every fuckin night.”

  “Do you think she’d agree to that?”

  He sat up, “Hey, Paulie, the bitch ain’t got no choice. Hell, I might even pimp her out once in awhile. She could bring in a little extra cash.”

  They heard her heels in the hall then she appeared in the arched entryway. Both Paul and Darnell were struck dumb for a moment. She looked radiant. Her pale skin glowed. The dress was black and shear. It buttoned all the way up the front. The scooped neckline revealed the swells of her breasts as well as the spade tattoo. The fact that she wore no undergarments was obvious. On her feet were stiletto pumps with four inch heels. Her hair was brushed to a high sheen. She’d carefully applied dark mascara to her eyes and the bright red lipstick and gloss to her lips. She carried a small overnight bag.

  Darnell nodded, “Did you get yourself off in the shower.” She shook her head. “Is your pussy wet?”

  “Yes, honey. It’s been wet all day.”

  Darnell stood and put his empty glass on the coffee table, “Hard to believe, ain’t it, Paulie, that sexy wife of yours is goin home with me and wantin me to fuck her.”

  Paul nodded, “You’re very lucky, Darnell.”

  Darnell looked at the bottle of Jim Beam. “You got any more of that?”

  “No.”

  “Anything else”

  “A few bottles of wine.”

  “Get two of them.” Paul went to a cabinet in the corner of the living room and took out two bottles of Merlot.

  Ann stepped into the room and took her cell phone from her purse, “Do you want me to call a cab?”

  Darnell shook his head, “Nah, Paulie here’s gonna drive us.”

  “What about the BMW?” Paul asked.

  “We put in a parkin garage. Can’t leave it on the street in front of my place all night. You got the Lexus, right?”

  “Yes.”

  “You drive, we sit in back. I’ll tell you where to go.” He handed the wine to Ann who put it in her travel bag.

  They waited while Paul backed the car out of the driveway. Darnell indicated that he should open the back door for them. Darnell got in first, then Ann. Paul closed the door, got in the front and followed Darnell’s directions out of the neighborhood.

  Darnell tapped Ann’s knee. Obediently she pulled her skirt back and parted her legs. He put his arm over her shoulder and slid his hand down the scooped neck of her dress to cup her breast and squeezed her nipple. He noticed Paul looking in the mirror just as the taxi driver had. “Yeah, Paulie,” he said, “I’m gonna fuck her, fuck her all night and maybe all day tomorrow. Jus sleep a little and fuck, sleep a little and fuck, my long black dick in your white wife. That’s how it ought to be. What do you think?”

  “If you say so, Darnell.”

  Darnell turned toward Ann, “You think Paulie is a perv?”

  “No.”

  Darnell frowned. “Rona tell me he cleans her apartment, scrub the fuckin toilet, does the dishes, washes her car. Shit he even does her fuckin laundry. Ain’t that right, Paulie?”

  Paul nodded, “Yes.”

  “You seen him kiss her fuckin feet. Rona say he eat her pussy. He probably toss her salad.” He leaned forward, “Hey, Paulie, you toss Rona’s salad?” Paul felt his face grow red but he said nothing. “Ha!” Darnell shouted, “I bet he does. I bet old fuckin Paulie gets his tongue in Rona’s black ass crack! What you think, Mrs. Gardner?”

  Ann’s cheeks were also burning, “I....I...don’t know. I don’t think he’d do that.”

  “I’m gonna ask Rona next time I see her. I think Paulie’s a perv. Yeah, in my book your husband’s a fuckin perv.”

  Five minutes later they were pulling up to his building. All of the lower windows were barred, in most, the shades were drawn. The sidewalk was littered with garbage bags that had broken open, beer cans, whisky bottles, discarded furniture. Someone had shot the bulb out of the street lamp. There was a figure in a hooded sweatshirt pissing against the apartment wall. Paul got out to open the door. A large rat next to a garbage bag ignored him and continued eating. The fetid odor was oppressive. The man in the sweatshirt had finished pissing and turned to watch them, his black cock hanging out of his fly. Ann got out first. The man grabbed his flaccid cock and waved it at her, “Goddamn!” he shouted, taking a step forward, “my fuckin prayers are answered. Look what I got for you, Miss!”

  Darnell ignored him and started toward the front door. Ann hurried after him. Paul waited until they were inside before driving away. Ann looked around feeling the tears begin to well up in her eyes. ‘My God,’ she thought, ‘how can I possibly be here? And he wants me to stay here for days at a time, maybe weeks. I can’t. I simply can’t.’ She wondered if she could convince him to let her pick up her car and go home if she promised to bring him another three hundred dollars tomorrow. But she knew if he demanded she return with more money tomorrow she’d have to bring it anyway. She was in no position to make deals. She had only two choices, go to prison as a child molester or become Darnell’s unconditional slave. He’d mentioned the possibility of pimping her out. When the three hundred dollar payments weren’t enough, she was sure he would. She thought of the homeless drunk pissing against the building.

  Darnell had become quiet and sullen. The only light in the kitchen came from the single bulb in the living room. The kitchen smelled like a garbage dumpster. She had decided to refuse the wine, but he didn’t offer any. He finished most of one bottle. “You ever into kinky shit?” he asked.

  “No,” she said. “I don’t think if two people love each other or even if they are physically attracted to each other, like us, then that sort of thing is unnecessary.”

  “You sayin we is physically attracted to each other or we is in love or what?”

  “Not in love. Physically attracted.”

  “Yeah, maybe but we need somethin to juice up that physical attraction shit.” He stood and took her by the arm and led her into the bedroom. There was a small table lamp with a torn shade on the floor by the bed. He lit it. “Take them clothes off, all of them even the shoes and get up on the bed.” She hated him. She hated the way he ordered her about. She hated how easily he’d trapped her. She hated how he puffed up with pride before those lowlifes in the bar; she hated knowing she had to do what he wanted her to do. Yet under all this hating there was something else; certainly not love, …some dark attraction she couldn’t explain that was more than physical. She removed her dress and shoes, and sat naked on edge of the bed.

  He was rummaging around in the closet. “If you want fucked again, get up on the bed. You know what doggie is?”

  “Yes.”

  “You ain’t gonna watch me fuck you this time. I’m gonna fuck you like a dog. You want to be fucked like a dog?”

  “If that will please you.”

  “Answer what I a
sked, and I ain’t heard no affection in a long time.”

  “Yes, honey, I want to be fucked like a dog.”

  It was the most submissive position; her head pressed against the soiled mattress, her back lowered, her ass raised, her two holes vulnerable. He’d taken some things out of the closet that rattled like chains. She looked up, frightened.

  “The guy across the hall is into serious kinky stuff. I borrowed this from him just for you.” He placed on the bed a contraption she couldn’t figure out. “It’s a spreader bar with cuffs,” he said. He moved behind her and spread her legs apart.

  She felt him attach a cuff to one ankle. She turned halfway around, but in the semi-darkness couldn’t see clearly. “Please, Darnell, don’t do this...what are...”

  He brought the flat of his hand down hard on her ass cheek. “Shut the fuck up,” he said.

  She felt a cuff tighten around her other ankle. Each cuff was attached to the end of a wooden bar, much like a broom stick. She couldn’t draw her legs together. Darnell came around to the front of the bed and cuffed her wrists. Attached to the wrist cuffs were short chains. Quickly moving behind her again he pulled the chains under her body toward her feet. He attached the cuffs to eye bolts on the spreader bar drawing her knees to a kneeling position and lifting her ass. Her hands, arms, and legs were immobilized. She couldn’t lift her head.

  She pleaded with him, “Darnell, don’t please...I’ll suck your cock again...suck it for a long time, suck your balls...please, Darnell.” She felt him twisting the butt plug, “Oh God, Darnell, honey, no...no....you can’t.....Watts will have us both killed. He will Darnell, you know he will!”

  “Fuck Watts,” he muttered drunkenly. The plug came out. He pushed the KY nozzle into her and squeezed. She felt the cream in her anal passage.

  “Darnell, don’t...I’m begging you don’t...”

  He held his stiff cock with his right hand and eased the head into her opening. “I was the fuckin first to make you cum. I’m goin be the first in your asshole. You ain’t never gonna forget me.” He pushed forward.

  Ann screamed. She could feel something tear as he pushed harder driving his long cock deeper and deeper into her. She screamed again and for a moment behind her eyes everything went white then red. She thought she would pass out. The searing pain increased as he began to pump her. She pulled on the chains that secured her wrists to the spreader bar. He grabbed her hips and pumped faster. She screamed again. He continued to pound into her. The searing pain wracked her body. When he came, he grunted and collapsed over her back. His cock, coated with the KY, gradually slipped out of her. She felt a warm trickle of blood on the inside of her thighs. She lay there sobbing until almost dawn. Darnell had fallen asleep at the foot of the bed.

  When he woke up, he looked over at her and thought about fucking her ass again, but blood had dried around the opening and on her thighs. He smiled to himself and poked her leg, “You really my bitch now. I fuckin broke your ass cherry!” He pulled on his jeans before unlocking the cuffs.

  Ann’s legs and arms were cramped. She moved them slowly fearful that any movement would cause her to start bleeding again.

  He stood at the side of the bed looking down at her, “How was it? How’d you like my cock in your ass?” She turned her head away from him. “I asked you a fuckin question, bitch!”

  “Oh God, Darnell, I’m scared. Your Uncle will be furious. I’m afraid of what he’ll do.”

  “He don’t have to know.”

  “He makes me go to his special clinic every Friday to see if I’ve caught a venereal disease and to check on the plug.”

  “Shit! Why the fuck didn’t you tell me that?” She heard the fear in his voice.

  “I tried to make you stop. I told you Watts would probably have us killed.”

  Darnell threw her clothes at her, “Fuck it. It’s your problem. Tell him someone else done it or maybe you got me drunk and wiggled your ass at me and begged me to fuck it.” He grinned. “Yeah, that’s what happened.”

  “I have to say that or else you’ll go to the police and say I molested you? I don’t think they’d believe you, Darnell.”

  “Not at first. They never believe you if you’re black. But when I play them phone sex tapes and show them the pictures and the book you wrote in, they got to believe me.”

  She dressed. Walking was painful. She used her cell phone to call a taxi. When she was about to leave, Darnell said, “I’ll let you know when I want you next week. Be sure to bring the three hundred.”

  When she arrived home, she was glad to see that Paul wasn’t there... She phoned the school to say she wouldn’t be in the next few days. Then she took a long hot shower. As she watched the dried blood swirl in pink circles before going down the drain, she began to tremble. Someone would pay dearly for what happened and she knew it would be her. She fell into bed exhausted and slept soundly until late the next morning. Paul still wasn’t home. There was a text message for her. “Am at Rona’s. P.”

  She’d almost forgotten that Paul was indentured to the hateful black girl. She wondered what he did there: scrub the toilet. He probably did all the things Darnell had mentioned: vacuum the rug, water the plants, walk the dog, empty the garbage, wash the windows, kiss the bitch’s feet? It didn’t matter. She planned to divorce him as soon as possible. She’d have to get permission from Watts, but she was sure he’d give it and might even arrange for her to have a quick divorce, that is if he didn’t kill her first.

  She was taking a carton of orange juice from the refrigerator when the house phone rang. She looked at caller ID and was shocked to see Dan Morgan’s name. She picked up the receiver.

  “Is this Mrs. Gardner?” His voice was as she remembered, deep and a bit hesitant.

  “Yes, Mr. Morgan. I’m surprised and....and flattered.” Remembering how they met she felt the color rise to her cheeks and had a feeling the same thing might be happening to him.

  “Well, I guess you know that Rona and me...we broke off. In fact a couple days after...after...”

  “After my lesson,” she laughed trying to put him at ease.

  “Uh...ah...that wasn’t my idea. I agreed in a weak moment and said I would. I try not to go back on my word....but...

  “It’s ok,” she said. “I’m sure Rona told you my situation. It was something that had to be done and I’m glad it was with you.”

  “It’s nice of you to say that. I’ve been feeling guilty ever since. Mr. Watts told me about you before Rona did. In fact, that’s why I’m calling you. He and I had dinner together last evening and he suggested I call you. He thinks...well, he said he thinks we might have a lot in common.”

  “Then you’re not calling to...to...?

  “No, no nothing like that. Mr. Watts has been good to me, but I don’t believe in that reparation stuff or the NWS. “

  “I’m happy to hear that, Danny.” There was an awkward pause. “Hey,” she said, changing the subject, “you’ve suddenly become famous. I watched the game last Sunday.”

  “I’m glad you did. I don’t know about famous. It’s a team sport.”

  “I’ve even saved some newspaper clippings. I’ve heard they are doing a feature about you in Sports Illustrated.”

  “Well, yeah. Someone interviewed me yesterday afternoon. That’s why Mr. Watts invited me to dinner. He wanted to know all about it. He’s been like an uncle to me.”

  “You’re not the only one.”

  “What?”

  “I’m joking.”

  “Anyway, maybe we could go out some night. A nice place for dinner. I don’t want to seem pushy. You are married, right?”

  “Not really. I’m starting divorce proceedings this week. Things have not been well in the marriage for some time.”

  “That’s good news,” he said, “for me.”

  “There is my situation. Mr. Watts isn’t exactly my uncle.”

  “The man is powerful and he has an ugly temper, but he’s always been good to me. He ki
nd of hinted that if we...if we...hit it off he’d maybe change your situation. Ah, that sounds like a condition...I didn’t mean it to and it isn’t.”

  “So if I accept your invitation it won’t be because I see it as a way out of a terrible situation.”

  “Yes, I hope so. I hope it’s because you like me.”

  She laughed, “It is and I do.”

  “When?”

  “I have a doctor’s appointment on Friday. I’m supposed to meet with Mr. Watts on Saturday. You have a game on Sunday. It’s an away game in San Francisco.”

  “You’ve been checking the schedule.”

  “Yes, I want to come to the next home game.”

  “We play San Diego the following Sunday. We’re staying out there for the week rather than fly back and forth. So it will have to be in two weeks.”

  “That’s fine.”

  “I’ll call you.”

  “I’ll be watching both games.”

  “Stay well.”

  “Don’t get hurt.”

  Ann put down the phone and smiled. It was the first time she felt good in a very long time. Then she remembered Watts and tried not to think of what he might do when he found out that she’d lost what he had been saving her for. There was no way she could insert the plug. She was still bleeding slightly. At her examination on Friday the doctor would know and would inform Watts. Even before he raped her ass Darnell knew he could force her to take the blame. He had the photographs, the tapes, and the book. She had to convince Watts she was responsible for what happened. She felt certain Darnell would carry out his threat and report her to the police if she didn’t. Darnell was off the hook.