by Radclyffe
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.
HARD TO HATE HER
Kris Adams
The large house filled Carol with a mixture of envy and regret.
Once upon a time, this would have been her house, back when she was married and had no idea her husband was a snake. She honked the horn and waited for the kids to come out, ending their twice-monthly weekend with their dad and his new wife.
After two more honks she sighed dramatically and forced herself out of the car.
Three rings on the doorbell and still no kids. Then she heard water splashing behind the house—the pool. The pool that her kids raved about and that made their visits run late. The pool that she’d never be able to afford on her own. The pool her kids were probably playing in right now, only to then fill her small car with the stink of chlorine.
Following the sound of the water, Carol trudged down the pathway leading to the backyard. The huge trees concealed the magnitude of the property only from afar; from this close, it was clear that the little money Dan sent her each month was merely a drop in his deep bucket. Carol took a cleansing breath, and then pushed forward.
“Hello?” She came around to the gate that led to the fenced-in pool. It was huge, like the yard, like the house, like the gas-guzzling behemoth that Dan drove when he had the kids. “Anyone home?”
The splash on the far, deep end of the pool startled her. A woman popped up, flipped a long mass of dirty-blonde hair, and fell back into the water like a great white shark breaching with a seal in its jaws. Great, Carol thought.
Eventually the woman resurfaced and slinked gracefully out of the pool. The waning sunlight glistened on her body, blonde and bronzed, and practically naked. Carol opened her mouth to announce her presence but found herself suddenly mute. To her utter dismay, she couldn’t stop staring. The woman had an amazing body, and Carol was never one to pass up the chance to enjoy a thing of beauty.
“Um, hello.”
Caught in mid–hair flip, the woman spun around to see Carol waving at her embarrassedly. “Oh! I didn’t see you there!”
“Sorry. I honked. And then I rang the bell. I heard noises, so I thought the kids were…uh, are the kids here?”
“Dan will have them back soon, I think. Sorry he’s late.” The woman made a You know how he is face, which irritated Carol for several reasons. “I think they went for ice cream or something.” Rubbing a fluffy towel over her belly, she approached Carol with a surprised yet friendly smile. “How’ve you been, Carol?”
“Okay, I guess.” The familiarity with which the woman addressed her was a little unsettling—Carol was surprised she even remembered her name. “How have you been…Lily?”
“I’ve been good. Thanks.” Tilting her head to one side, Lily wrung water from the twist of her long hair. “I’ve been so eager to get in the pool, but the water is too cold today!”
“Hm.” Carol looked at her watch. “It has been deceptively warm these last couple of days.”
Lily nodded. “Exactly. I should have turned the pool heater on, but—”
“I didn’t mean to disturb your…swim…or anything, so I can just wait in the car.”
Lily cleared her throat and looked down at her perfectly manicured toes. “Oh. Well, I mean, who knows when they’ll be back.” She reached out, her hand inches away from where Carol’s was angrily clutching the top of the gate. “Why don’t you come in?”
“Oh, I couldn’t.”
“Or, I mean it’s kind of cold, but…you want to go for a swim?”
Carol wondered momentarily if tossing her cell phone in the pool could generate enough electricity to electrocute someone to death.
“It’ll warm up soon. It’s very relaxing!”
I know how relaxing a pool can be, Carol thought angrily. What she said, though, was, “No, but thanks.”
“If you’re sure.” Lily smiled as she laid her hand on the gate, where it just brushed against Carol’s. Carol looked down at her own hand, and wondered why it suddenly felt so warm and tingly.
“Carol? Are you okay?”
“What?” Carol didn’t think anything was registering on her face, but Lily was looking at her strangely. What the hell is wrong with me, she thought.
“Would you like to come in for some tea?”
Carol imagined her best girlfriends growling and hissing at this moment, but she couldn’t think of any good reason not to go in, save the obvious, that she, officially, hated this woman. “Well, I guess I could—”
“Mom!” Carol jumped back like she’d been caught doing something naughty. Her two kids, ice cream cone in one hand, overnight bag in the other, stared at her perplexedly from the driveway. Her twelve-year-old son Glen asked, “What are you doing?”
“Your mom and I were just having a chat,” Lily answered confidently. “Isn’t that great?”
Dani, Carol’s ten-year-old daughter, rolled her eyes. “Whatever. Can we go?”
“Yes!” Carol looked bet
ween her kids and Lily and the pool and for the life of her couldn’t think of what to say. “So, um, have a nice swim, Lily.”
“You, too! I mean, uh, have a nice…oh…whatever. Bye, kids!” The children made noncommittal noises and waved without looking back. Lily looked down, like she wasn’t really expecting a proper good-bye, but it would have been nice to get one anyway. Carol felt a strange twinge in her gut.
“Well, bye, Lily.” She walked a few steps away before she heard a soft, “It was nice talking to you,” from behind her.
Carol’s local grocery was okay, but sometimes she liked to visit the gigantic, super-green food emporium that just happened to be in her ex’s neighborhood. She walked around, looking at everything that was supposed to be so healthy, and yet was so expensive. After buying a pack of gum, she proceeded to pick up her children. Two hours early.
She rang only twice, then perked her ears toward the back-yard. It had been hot, so it was a likely assumption that anyone home might be taking a dip. When she heard splashing, she assumed the whole family was in their backyard, enjoying the late spring evening. It was an easy guess to make, so she didn’t hesitate to walk to the backyard gate and take a good look.
She was right in guessing that the great white would be there, terrorizing the pool with its predatory breaches. What Carol hadn’t guessed was that it would be doing it in the nude.
It took Carol a second—at first she thought Lily was just wearing a very small, flesh-colored bikini. Then Lily turned to float on her back, arms and legs spread gracefully on the water, wide and glorious, and Carol could see very plainly that there was no bikini, no embarrassment, no shame.
“Shit!” Carol tried to run away, but she somehow got tangled in the low-hanging vines of the killer trees surrounding the house. And then a watering jug’s handle somehow ended up on her foot. Carol’s mortification was complete. “S-sorry!” she screamed over her back and with eyes squeezed shut. “I didn’t know you were here…alone…and with no…sorry!”
“Carol, hi!” Carol squealed again when she felt Lily right behind her, tapping her shoulder. “Oh, dear! You okay?”
“No, I…got…caught…your trellis or whatever.”
“Here.” Lily, now in a short white terry-cloth robe tied loosely at the waist, had slipped out of the gate and was helping to remove a wayward stick from Carol’s hair. “I think you’re free now!”
“Yeah, thanks.” Carol turned around, opened her eyes and unintentionally caught a glimpse of cleavage and flat belly exposed by the gaping robe. “I’m sorry, I know I’m early. I thought—again—that the kids were here and…I think I’ll just go.”
“But why? By the time you get home, you’ll just have to drive back to pick them up, right?” Before Carol could answer, Lily was nodding and pulling her by the elbow. “Come on in. They won’t be back for a while, and…uh…you can keep me company.” She closed the gate behind them and sauntered over to the deck table and chairs, which looked more expensive than Carol’s indoor dining room set. “Have a seat. Relax.”
“No. Thanks. I shouldn’t have interrupted, I can just—”
“Please sit, Carol.” Lily wrapped her robe around her a little tighter and then pointed to the pool. “Why don’t you take a dip? It’s so hot.”
“Yeah, it is hot.” Carol nervously rubbed her hand through her hair. “No, but thanks.”
“Are you sure? You can borrow a suit.” Lily smiled innocently, like she had no concept of dress sizes and square pegs in round holes.
“No, I’m fine. You, um, go ahead. I didn’t mean to…disturb you.” Carol’s eyes helplessly darted to the glass of wine already on the table. Lily looked too, then smiled and headed toward the house.
“I’ll get you a glass.”
It was definitely weird, sitting by the pool, drinking wine and talking about the weather with the woman who stole your husband. And yet, as much as Carol hated to admit it, Lily was… not so terrible. They’d only been in the same space a handful of times, at the kids’ band concerts and dance recitals. Lily had always been lovely to her and the kids, which pissed Carol off. It would be so much easier to hate her if she was the conniving, backstabbing hussy that Carol always imagined.
“Penny for your thoughts?”
“What? Oh. Um, do you swim…naked…all the time?”
Lily giggled and lay back in her deck chair. “Oh, I don’t walk around the house naked when the kids are here, if that’s what you’re asking.”
“I know you wouldn’t—I mean, I hope not.” Carol shook her head at herself. This was not the knock-down, drag-out fight she assumed she’d be having if she was ever alone with Lily.
“I mean, the yard is soooo big, and with all the foliage and stuff, none of the neighbors can see, I promise.”
“I believe you,” chuckled Carol, now on her second glass of wine.
“Are you sure you don’t want to borrow something to swim in? The water’s great tonight, perfect temperature.” Lily sat up and reached over to pat Carol’s arm encouragingly. “Come on.”
“No, but…don’t let me stop you.” It was the opposite of what Carol was thinking, but then Lily shrugged and started for the pool, and Carol suddenly didn’t know what to think.
It was hard to tell if the graceful way Lily discarded her robe was for show or not. Carol tipped her glass to her face and looked over the rim as Lily descended into the pool. The lights inside and above the pool reflected on the ripples in the water—it was a perfectly marvelous nighttime sight, and Carol knew right away that she shouldn’t have had that second glass.
“So, um…how’s this book?” Carol reached over to Lily’s chair and picked up the must-read hardback of the year. “Is it as good as the one before it?”
“I haven’t read the first one yet. They only had it in paperback at the store, and I hate reading paperbacks.” Carol felt perversely satisfied at Lily’s snobbery, at least she did until Lily paused, leaning on her hands on the side of the pool, and added, “Hard-back books feel more like real books, like those thick, dusty ones that your grandparents gave you, you know? And the text is bigger, easier to read. And paperbacks are so easy to misplace. And you can’t donate them to the library when you’re finished—”
“Right, right.” Carol wanted to pout.
“Have you read this one yet?”
“No, but I’m like number sixty-five on the wait list at the library. I should get it some time around 2011!”
Lily’s brow wrinkled in the middle. “Why don’t you just buy it?”
Carol refused to blush, even though her face craved the blood. “Well, it gets expensive to buy books all the time, and…they get new books at my library really quickly.”
“Oh.” Lily smoothed her long hair out of her eyes. “That’s actually a good idea.”
Right, Carol thought, like you have to economize. When she thought of the lame settlement she’d agreed to three years ago, when she’d wanted to be independent, and before Dan’s huge promotion, it made her livid. It was only with the “extra” cash he sometimes sent her that she could afford little luxuries, usually for the kids.
“Did, um, Dan say when they’d be back, exactly?”
Lily frowned. “Um, no. Sorry.” She swam away still frowning a little. Carol figured no one had ever rejected her company before. Good.
“I should probably just go.”
“Sure,” Lily murmured as she floated, on her back, her eyes up at the night sky. Carol kept her eyes on the house.
“Well, I guess I could—” Carol was thankful she didn’t have to finish her admission. The sound of the triple garage doors opening quieted Carol and sent Lily swimming frantically over to the side of the pool.
“Shoot! Can you hand me my robe?”
“Yeah!” Carol picked it up from where Lily had casually discarded it and rushed to the pool where Lily waited, only her head above water, her face bright pink. When she got there, Lily quickly emerged, eyes big and bright and embar
rassed, long hair just barely covering bouncing breasts and hard—
“Ooph !”
“S-sorry!” In the haste to get Lily covered before the kids saw her and hit puberty right then and there, both women pushed forward and ended up knocking foreheads a little. They giggled as they rushed to get the now damp robe open. Carol finally had to hold it while Lily slipped her arms in, her wet hair brushing Carol’s nose and dripping down the front of her blouse. She doesn’t smell like chlorine at all, Carol thought miserably.
“That was close!” Lily turned around, and they were suddenly standing so close that Carol had to step back.
“I should go. I’ll just…could you tell them that I’ll be in the car?”
“Sure.” Lily tied the robe tight around her waist, which was pointless. It was short and white and clung to her wet skin. Carol pointed toward where she thought she’d parked her car—she really couldn’t remember anything at that moment.
“I’ll just…yeah.”
Lily smiled and waved a little sadly. “See you around?”
“See you.” Carol turned and practically ran to her car.
The next Friday, Carol stopped Dani just as she was leaving the car. “Here, give this book to your step—to Lily.”
“Why?”
“She asked to borrow it,” Carol lied. She watched the children rush down the side pathway to the backyard, to the pool, where their stepmother was probably waiting to do tricks for them. “Shoot.”
“Mom, we’re home!”
Carol trudged downstairs as she wondered why the kids were bothering to announce themselves. She almost dropped the water glass in her hand when she saw Lily right outside the front door.
“Hi,” she squeaked, waving at Carol, who wanted to cringe in her cutoffs and stained sweatshirt.
“Hello, Lily.” The front door was swinging wide open, letting the cool night air rush in, but Carol wasn’t about to step forward to close it. “Thanks for bringing the kids home.”