by Ray Garton
She was smiling at him. She liked it.
He smiled back and said, “What have you been up to today, Kendra?”
She shrugged. “Just watchin’ TV.”
He nodded. “And… what have you been up to… lately?”
Another shrug. “Just layin’ around since I cut my finger. The pills make me sleepy, but they also make me feel real good. I mean, they make me feel all floaty, like. I never felt nothing like that before.”
“Yeah, codeine’ll do that to you. No, I meant the last few days. I was wondering what you’ve been up to. If maybe you’ve been… say… posing for some pictures?”
The smile dropped off Kendra’s face and her beautiful blue eyes popped open wide, lips parted, head tilted back just a little. She stayed that way for a long moment, frozen in place.
Reznick smiled. “I’ve seen your pictures online, Kendra.”
“You… have?”
“TrailerParkGirls.com. See, my work sorta brought me into contact with the man in unit five. What’s his name again?”
“Steven. Steven Regent.”
“Yeah, he’s the one. Steven Regent. I needed to look up his websites for a case I was working on, and I saw your pictures on TrailerParkGirls.com.”
For a moment, Kendra looked as if she were about to cry.
“They’re beautiful pictures, Kendra,” he said, almost whispering. “You’re a beautiful young woman.”
One corner of her mouth curled up into a half-smile. “Re… really?”
“Looking at your pictures… it excited me.”
“It… did?”
“Oh, yes. It made me very excited.”
His hand was still on her thigh, moving back and forth slightly, and the sensation of their skin rubbing together made him hard. With his right hand, he pressed her ankle down against his erection.
The other corner of her mouth curled up, too. Her cheeks became rosy, but that didn’t last.
“Do you like me, Mr. Reznick?” she said, tilting her head to one side.
“Kendra, you’re one of the most beautiful women I’ve ever seen in my life,” he said. “And I’ve wanted you since the first time I saw you on the roof of this trailer.”
“You’ve… wanted me?” she said, her eyebrows rising curiously.
“Yes. Wanted you. I’ve wanted to touch you, kiss you. I’ve wanted to make love to you.”
Her breath caught in her chest and she held it for several seconds, then started breathing again, her eyes wide.
Reznick leaned over to his left and put a hand behind her neck. He pulled her to him and pressed his lips to hers. He gently pried her lips open with the tip of his tongue. When she exhaled against his face, it was with a high, tremulous sigh.
Reznick put his right hand on her breast and gently squeezed. Then he slipped his hand beneath her T-shirt and found the breast again, bare this time. His fingers passed over the hard nipple. He rolled it between thumb and forefinger and she made a small whimpering sound.
Reznick said, “Why don’t we go over to my place and use the bed?”
“The… bed?” she said.
“I’d be more comfortable. We can take the dogs with us.”
She smiled. “Okay.” Her smile faltered a little, and she asked, “What’re we gonna do in your bed?”
He grinned. “Whatever we want to.”
* * * *
Reznick held the screen door open for her and she went up the steps. The little dogs followed her, their tiny claws clicketing on the steps. Reznick followed them all into the trailer and pulled the screen door closed, then closed the door and locked it.
“Do you have any wine?” Kendra asked.
“No, I’m sorry. I don’t have any alcohol.”
“Oh. Okay.”
“Would you like something else? I’ve got Diet Dr. Pepper.”
“That sounds good,” she said.
He went to the refrigerator and got her one, popped it open before handing it to her. She took several gulps, then released a long, satisfied sigh.
Reznick took her right hand and led her down the hall. The bedroom was dark. He sat on the edge of the bed with Kendra standing in front of him. He looked her up and down and realized his hands were trembling. He took the Dr. Pepper from her and put it on the night stand.
“Arms up,” he said quietly.
She lifted her arms, and he pulled the T-shirt off over her head. He tossed the shirt onto the foot of the bed and stared at her, his lips parted, his eyes wider than he realized.
Her breasts were great round cushions in taut, smooth skin, topped with rosy nipples. He cupped them in his hands and lifted them up. He pressed his face between them and inhaled Kendra’s scent.
“You like them?” she said, smiling. A little giggle escaped her.
“They’re incredible,” he said, pulling his head back and looking up at her face.
She dropped the shorts. She was wearing nothing underneath them. She kicked off the flip-flops and stepped out of the crumpled shorts. She stood before him naked and radiant. She moved around him and crawled onto the bed.
Reznick stood and quickly removed his clothes. He opened the top drawer of his night stand and removed a box of condoms, took one out, put the box back, and closed the drawer. The last thing he needed was a pregnant retarded girl on his hands. He tore the wrapper with his teeth, took out the condom. He set the wrapper on the night stand and put the condom on the wrapper where it would be ready and waiting for him. He turned to Kendra.
“You’re hard,” she said.
“Yes, I am. You do that to men, Kendra. You always will. You should get used to it.”
“Can I touch it?”
“You don’t even have to ask.”
She wrapped her fingers around it and slowly moved her hand up and down. Reznick moaned quietly.
She put her mouth on him and he gasped. He only got harder and more excited. He clawed at the bottom sheet as her head and fist moved up and down on him.
“Oh,” he said, “oh, oh, oh.”
He did not want to come, so he reached down and closed his hand on her upper arm, made her stop, then tugged on her to come up with him. She moved up to join him and they kissed again, her right hand on his chest. She bent her right knee and moved her leg across his, pressed his erection down with her thigh. Her skin was soft as summer clouds as it moved over his.
Reznick reached down and found her center, ran his fingers through the downy curly hair, slipped his fingers between the moist lips and moved them, manipulated her.
Kendra pulled her face away from his and gasped.
He found her clitoris and she cried out, her mouth hanging open, eyes closed.
“You like that?” he whispered.
All she could do was nod jerkily.
He pulled away from her and moved down her body, then nestled his face between her legs. He reached up and massaged her breasts as he licked her.
Kendra’s body wriggled as she moaned and cried out. She was feeling sensations she had never felt before, and it was getting the best of her. She cried out so loudly at one point, she frightened him. She kicked her legs, squeezed them together on his head for a moment, then spread them as wide as they would go. He worked his tongue on her as he pinched her nipples.
Kendra started crying. Not just crying out, but crying real tears.
Thinking he was hurting her, Reznick sat up and said, “Are you okay?”
“Don’t! Stop!” she gasped.
He went back to it, smiling now.
After awhile, he crawled up her body, stopping to nibble and lick and kiss her here and there, finally stopping to kiss her on the mouth. Her eyes were puffy and wet. Reznick reached over to the night stand and got the condom.
“What’s that?” Kendra asked, her voice breathy.
“It’s called a condom. I put it on my penis and it keeps you from getting pregnant.”
“Oh. Can I put it on?”
He smiled. “Sure.” He
rolled over onto his back and his penis jutted into the air.
Kendra crawled down to his penis and he handed her the condom.
“Do you know how to do it?” he said.
She frowned as she inspected the condom, then her face softened as she inspected his erect penis. She put the condom on the tip of his penis.
“It’s upside-down,” he said. “Turn it over.”
She did.
“There you go. Now just unroll it down my penis.”
And she did.
“And it’s on and ready to go,” he said.
“And now can we do it?” she said.
“Now we can do it.” Regent grinned as he took her in his arms and rolled over on top of her.
“Careful of my finger,” she said.
“Okay.”
She spread her legs and wrapped them around his waist and he slipped inside her with a gentle, tremulous sigh.
Twenty-Three
As morning turned into afternoon, the hot breeze that murmured through the trees overhead picked up and became a blistering wind. The dry, rustling trees crackled and shushed as the wind whipped them back and forth. Blossoms blew from the silk trees and fluttered through the air like a pink snow, skidded over the ground, bounced and spun. By noon, the temperature was one hundred and eight, and by two it had gone up another four degrees to one hundred and twelve.
The temperature reported on the radio and television and in the paper was always five or six degrees lower when it was that hot so as not to scare off tourists. The official temperature came from a thermometer at the airport, suspended over a cool, well-watered lawn in the shade, and it was deceptive.
All the swamp coolers in the Riverside Mobile Home Park hummed and rattled and dripped. Fans whirred and some swept slowly back and forth.
In unit nine, there was a lot of laughter.
Reznick and Kendra lay on the bed together, naked and with no covers on. They had been going at it all day.
He scooted down on the bed and rolled over on top of her. He put his face between her breasts, squeezed them together on his head, and said, “Now I can die happy.”
Kendra giggled.
He pressed his mouth to her rib cage and blew hard, making a loud farting sound, and she burst into raucous laughter, saying, “That tickles!”
He propped himself up on his elbow and kissed her. They’d kissed so much that day, his lips were numb.
“You tickle me,” he said.
“I want some more screwdriver,” she said, handing over her glass.
“Sure.”
Reznick took the glass, then sat up on the edge of the bed. The pitcher was on the night stand, next to a bowl of melting ice. He put some ice in the glass, then poured the mixture of orange juice and vodka into the glass. The ice cubes cracked and popped as he handed it back to her.
The mixture was mild, but it was working.
That morning, Kendra had said, “I want some wine. Steven gave me wine.”
“Oh, he did, did he?” Reznick had said.
“Yeah. I liked it. It made me feel… goofy.”
“Well, I’m sorry, but I don’t have any wine.”
“Can’t we go get some? We could go to Handi-Spot, couldn’t we? Just up North Street? Sometimes Mommy goes to Handi-Spot for cigarettes and beer.”
Reznick had thought about it. He’d never had much taste for wine. Vodka had always been his drink.
“Ever had a screwdriver?” he’d said.
“No. What’s that?”
“It’s orange juice and vodka, and if you think the wine made you feel goofy, you should try that.”
“Okay, let’s go get some orange juice and vodka and make some screwdriver!” she said.
“You’re feeling adventurous, huh?”
“Yes, adventure… ous.”
A year of sobriety down the drain, Reznick had thought then. But when he looked at the naked girl lying in bed beside him, as he moved his eyes slowly up and down her pale, milky, voluptuous body, he was overcome with a desire to celebrate. He’d decided then that he would make the screwdrivers mild. He wouldn’t overdo it, for his own sake and hers.
They had dressed and gone to the Handi-Spot Market in Reznick’s car. In the store, he’d told her to go find herself an ice cream bar while he got the liquor. On the way home, she’d reached over and squeezed his crotch as he drove.
“Has anybody ever sucked on you while you drove your car?” she said. She took a bite out of the ice cream bar, licked ice cream from her lips.
“Yes, and it nearly got us killed, so thank you, but no thank you.”
Kendra was adventurous. She’d been insatiable in bed, wanting to try everything. She had exhausted him, but at the same time invigorated him, so he was able to keep going back for more and more.
Now they sat up in bed with their backs to the headboard, and Kendra held up her glass in a toast.
“To, uh… to… “ Her face brightened. “To fucking!”
“All right. To fucking.”
They clinked their glasses together, then took a drink.
“This is the last, though,” Reznick said. “You need to take a shower and sober up before your mommy comes home from work.”
“Don’t worry, I’ll eat some peanut butter to hide the smell.”
His eyebrows popped up. “How’d you know about peanut butter? That’s an old alcoholic’s trick.”
“Steven told me about it.”
“Oh. Good old Steven.” Reznick remembered the sensation of stuffing the weights into Steven Regent’s abdomen and tried to eject the memory immediately. It did not eject so easily, though. It was not what he wanted to think about right now. It made him frown, darkened his mood. He swung his legs off the bed and stood. “I’m gonna go check on the dogs. They might want to go outside.”
He stepped into his shorts and pulled them up, then went down the hall to the living room. The dogs were napping side by side on the couch.
“How you guys doing, huh?”
They lifted their heads.
“Outside? You wanna go outside?” He opened the door, then the screen. “Huh? You wanna go outside?”
They stared at him sleepily, then put their heads down again, uninterested.
“Okay, suit yourselves.” He closed the doors, then went to the kitchen, filled a glass with water, and drank it.
He thought of all the noises of opening up Steven Regent and stuffing his abdomen with weights.
The damp whisper of cutting him open.
Reznick turned on the faucet again.
The wet smacking sounds.
He filled his palms with water.
The farting sounds.
He bent down and splashed the water on his face and scrubbed his hands up and down a few times.
He closed his eyes and saw the body lying before him in the beam of the flashlight that Anna held. It had been opened up, its dark guts glistening, milky eyes staring, mouth yawning open.
Reznick put both wet hands on the edge of the counter and leaned forward, let his head dip low between his shoulders. He felt nauseated. Part of it was the booze. It had been awhile since he’d had any. Yeah, that must be part of it.
But part of it was also those images on the backs of his eyelids, the memory of what he’d done the night before.
His temples began to throb. An ache developed behind his eyes. He frowned as he rubbed his eyes with his knuckles, then rubbed hard circles on his temples with his fingertips.
“Marc?” Kendra called. “Where’d you go?”
Suddenly, he did not want to go back to the bedroom. He’d had his fill for now. He felt far away from amorous. A shadow had fallen over him, a deep, dark shadow that had obliterated his desire.
He sighed and went down the hall to the bedroom.
“Time for you to go home, Kendra,” he said.
“Aw, c’mon, not already,” she said. Her whiny voice made her sound like a little girl, and it rubbed him the wrong way.
“No arguing. You need to get cleaned up and sober for when Mommy comes home. Eat some peanut butter, make sure your breath’s clean.”
“She might go dancing tonight. Can we get together then?”
“Maybe. But for now, you need to go home.”
She sighed as she got out of bed slowly. She came around the bed and pressed her body against his. “You sure.”
He put his hands on her shoulders and gently pushed her away. “Positive,” he said. “Get your clothes on.”
“But I thought we were – “
”Get your clothes on,” he shouted.
Kendra flinched and her smile shattered and she stumbled backward.
Reznick immediately regretted snapping at her. He stepped over to her and put his hands on her shoulders again. “I’m sorry,” he said. “I’ve got a bad headache. I didn’t mean to bark at you like that. Get dressed and go home, and we can get together tonight while your mommy’s working. Okay?” He tipped forward and kissed her forehead.
Her smile slowly returned. “Okay,” she said. “I… I had fun today.”
“So did I. You’re a beautiful, incredible girl, Kendra.”
She smiled and bowed her head in embarrassment. “I’ll get dressed now,” she said in a whisper. “Hey,” she said as she dressed, “you wanna coupla my pain pills for your headache?”
Reznick nodded. “Yeah, I’ll take you up on that.”
Kendra carried Dexter home and Reznick followed her. He got a couple codeine pills from her, then went back to his own trailer. He drank them down with a glass of water, then went to the recliner and stretched out, turned on the TV.
He frowned the whole time. His lips were pressed together tightly. He couldn’t get those images and sounds out of his mind. All the blood. The smell of the blood. The reek of fecal matter. Those milky, staring eyes and that yawning mouth – as if it were trying to scream one last time but had no voice, no breath.
Reznick got up and paced for a while.
He went to the refrigerator, took out a cup of blueberry-flavored yogurt, and ate it. He tossed the cup into the garbage, washed the spoon, then paced for a while.