I couldn’t wrap my mind around what I was seeing. The girls were…holding Jody captive? That didn’t make sense. We’d helped these girls, hadn’t we? They wanted us to take them away from those crossroads.
Of course they did, I realized. If they didn’t ride with us, they wouldn’t have gotten back here in time.
“Go ‘head ‘n drop that gun.” Goober’s voice. I wasn’t surprised when I felt something poke me in the back. Felt like a large blade. Maybe a machete.
“Damn,” I said.
Goober laughed. “The girls told me ev’rything. If only they’d been a bit quicker gettin’ here, maybe Lemont wouldn’t be deader than shit.”
Lee shook her head. “Better him than Paw.”
“Mackey’s your paw,” I said to Lee, already knowing. Lee’s smile confirmed it. “Damn.”
Lee laughed. “I guess you’s him after all, huh?”
21
Jody
“Get,” Mackey said, opening the tin back door of the shack. There were spots where it looked like something had chewed its way in.
The girls went inside first. I followed them with Seth behind me. Behind him was Goober. When all of us were inside, Mackey came in, slamming the door. Darkness dropped over us like a net. I blinked many times to get my eyes used to the sudden change. After a few seconds, I could vaguely make out a couch, woodstove, a couple of folding chairs.
Matches flared, lighting candles throughout the room. In the flickering orange spread, I also saw a butane stove sitting on top of a sagging counter. A tin tub had been placed on top of a coffee table. A hose, fed inside through the window above it, hung down into the tub.
Their sink, I realized, and probably the bathtub.
“Goober,” said Mackey, “take our tough guy to my room.”
“Yes, sir,” said Goober in a chipper voice.
“Girls, take yore new friend to your room. Use the rope to tie her to the bed.”
“Okay, Paw,” said Lee.
“Don’t do this,” said Seth. “Let her go, keep me.”
Mackey laughed. “Don’t waste yore breath. None of you’s goin’ nowhere.”
“I love you, Seth,” I said as little hands gripped my arms.
Though the Wilsons erupted with laughter, I still heard Seth say it back. I didn’t fight the girls as they pulled me toward two doors with a small section of wall between them. Della ran ahead of us, opening the door on the right. Before I was pulled inside, I gave Seth a quick glance. Goober, gripping Seth’s arm, was leading him to the other. Seth looked sad, worried.
“Be there in a minute,” I heard Mackey tell Goober as I entered the girls’ room.
Something like cold slush swished around my insides. I could hear Goober hooting through the thin wall.
“Get the lantern goin’, stupid,” Lee said.
“I’m tryin’,” Ruth snapped back.
There was a squeaky click, then a soft golden light spread around the room. The lantern was on the dusty floor, a mattress beside it. Two other beds had been made out of newspaper and rags. Even though these girls were probably going to partake in my murder, I still felt bad for them since their living conditions made my old single-wide look like the Hilton.
The walls looked flimsy and unsafe.
“Get on the bed,” Lee said, jabbing my side with the gun barrel.
“Which one?” I asked.
Hot pain blasted my side from a harder poke with the gun. “The middle ‘un,” Lee said, shoving the barrel even harder against my side, raking me through my shirt.
“Okay, just stop doing that.”
Snickering, Lee did it two more times, harder. “Why not?” She jabbed again.
Before I realized what I was about to do, my hand shot up and gripped her throat. Lee’s mouth snapped open, eyes bulging. I knew I could easily put some pressure on her tiny throat and crush it. I felt my hand tightening…
Then I remembered Seth in the other room.
“What’s she doin’ to you?” I heard Ruth say. It must’ve been too dark for her to see. “Lee?”
I let go. Lee stumbled back. Bending over, a hand to her throat, she said, “Get her on the bed.”
“What happ’ned?” Della asked.
“Do it!”
“It’s okay,” I said. “I’ll do it myself.”
I walked over to the bed, dropping down. My knees hit the padding. There was no bounce, no comfort. Poofs of dust hit me. I crawled onto the mattress. Just as I was about to turn onto my back, a kick on my ass knocked me forward. When I landed, I rolled onto my side and looked back.
Lee was at the foot of the mattress, still holding her throat. The gun was pointed at me.
“I ought’a shoot yore ass,” she said.
“If you think that’s best,” I said. “Go for it.” I knew she wouldn’t. Her daddy had told her to tie me up. But I didn’t want her to think she’d forced me into submission, either. I figured I could say whatever the hell I wanted to her. She might hit me or something. But she was twelve. How hard could she really hit?
Lee used her thumb to twist back the hammer.
I flinched at the cylinder clicking into place.
Maybe the dumb bitch was going to shoot me after all.
“Lee,” said Ruth. “You’s cain’t shoot ‘er.”
“Watch me,” said Lee.
“Paw’ll kill you,” said Della. “If’n you shoots ‘er…” Della let the pregnant pause finish her point.
Lee kept the gun trained on me a bit longer, then slowly lowered her arm. I heard a soft clacking as she lowered the hammer, disabling it. The girl knew how to operate a gun.
“Tie that bitch,” said Lee.
Ruth and Della got on the bed. Each of them had a bundle of rope. Della wrapped my ankles while Ruth worked on my wrists. When they had them tied, a long line of rope trailed out. Della took the rope on my right ankle, Ruth took the one on my left wrist. Then they walked toward a wall.
I felt the ropes tighten. My wrist and ankle were stretched. My leg slid outward, spreading me open. Seeing where Lee was standing, I knew she might get a good view under my skirt if she looked. So I angled my free leg toward my other thigh. The denim sunk down, somewhat covering me. Lee wasn’t looking down there anyway. Though her eyes were dark smudges, I could tell she was looking at mine.
My leg and arm felt as if they were about to be torn from my sockets. Gritting my teeth, I hissed to keep from screaming. I looked at Ruth. She had crouched at a metal hoop jutting from the wood floor. Feeding the tip of the rope through the eye, she wrapped it around the hoop, making the rope stretch my arm even more. When I checked on Della, I saw she was doing the same thing, but lower.
The hoops looked like the kind people tied their dogs to. I wondered how many others had been strapped down here before me. Did this room double as the girls’ bedroom and Wilson torture chamber?
After they’d finished looping the rope into the rings, I couldn’t bend my arm or leg.
“Lee,” I said. “I thought you wanted us to help you.”
Lee laughed as Della and Ruth came back to the bed. “We don’ need no help.”
“But your father…doesn’t he…?”
I stopped talking when Della and Ruth grabbed the other ropes and went to the other side of the room. My body was pulled the other way, but the half of me that was already tied kept me from moving much. Tightness spread up the center of my body. I pictured myself ripping like a piece of paper.
Seth yelled in the other room. The walls were so thin; he could’ve been beside me, on the bed.
“Untie me, you fuck!”
Mackey cackled. “Let’s see how tough you is when I’m ready for you!”
I heard a punch, skin smacking skin. I jerked as if I’d been hit, but it was Seth who cried out.
“Make him stop,” I said.
Lee shook her head. “Naw. He gets what he gets.”
Another blow—this one had a dull sound to it, probably a jaw sh
ot. A couple quick muffled punches followed. Most likely Seth’s stomach. Then there was a lashing sound of something cutting air, ending with a deep whack. I heard Seth drop to the floor.
He didn’t groan this time because he was coughing too hard.
“Get ‘im up, Goober!”
“Shit, Mackey,” said Goober. “You damn near kicked his balls out his throat!”
They both laughed really hard at that.
I felt cold and sick inside. “Make them stop,” I said again.
“If’n we could,” Ruth said, “we don’t wants ‘em to stop.”
Though all three girls laughed, it wasn’t loud enough to stifle the repeated thwacking sounds coming from the other room. Seth’s screams got louder and louder. I started to cry, which only made the girls laugh even more. I probably would’ve laughed if I was on their side, because I sounded pathetic and weak.
The girls laughed as if I’d said something funny. Lee, unable to stand anymore, sank to her knees. She held her stomach with the hand that didn’t have Seth’s gun.
“He shore is bleedin’,” said Goober.
“Damn,” Mackey said. “I just thought of something!”
“What?”
“We should’s be recordin’ this!”
“Aw, shit, Mack. I didn’t even think ‘bout that. I’ll get the cam’ra.”
“You knows what’d be funny?”
Goober was silent, waiting for Mackey to tell him.
“If’n we used the old camera…the same one we’s used when we fucked his maw!”
Goober’s laughter was wild and high-pitched. “Good one, Mack!” More laughter, then Goober spoke again. “You know where it is?”
“Girls!” Mackey screamed.
Lee was still on the floor. “What?” she shouted back.
“One of you go outs to the shed, get that black case. Looks like a small suitcase.”
“Yessir!” Lee called back, then looked at Della. “You heard Paw. Go.”
“I don’t wanna…”
“Go, dammit.”
“But it’s gettin’ dark, and I’s skeert of dark…”
Lee groaned. “Goddamn baby.”
Della lowered her head, ashamed of herself. I might’ve felt sorry for her had she not assisted Ruth in trussing me to the floor.
“I’ll go,” said Ruth, stepping forward.
Lee shook her head. “Ever’time the baby’s skeert, you step in…”
“It’s what a good big sister’s s’posed ta do, bitch.”
Lee’s head was still shaking. “The baby and ‘er mama.”
“Shut up,” I said. “Why don’t you go get the case? Scared of the dark too? Or are you scared I might get loose and snap your sisters’ necks.”
“You’s best shut your fuck-hole, or’s I shuts it fer ya.”
“Watch your filthy mouth,” I said. “I dare you to untie these ropes and try it.”
Lee set the gun on the floor and crawled onto the bed between my legs. For a moment, I thought she was actually going to do it. But she stopped, sat up, and raised her arm. I watched her hand ball into a fist.
Then she slammed her fist down on my belly.
Air blasted out of my lungs. Heat spread through my bowels. I tried to sit up, but the ropes kept me on the mattress. Being unable to move made the pain worse. I thought I was going to die. Tears filled my eyes, making my vision blurry. Each time I tried to breathe, I only tasted dry air.
I don’t know how long it took me to catch my breath. But when I finally did, Ruth was gone. I coughed up a hunk of goo, then spit. The back of my throat tasted like copper.
Mackey was in the background, shouting. Trying to understand what he was saying was impossible through the ringing in my ears. I felt movement on top of me. Lee’s head appeared below my tits, her long brown hair hanging around her head like a shawl. She no longer had the gun. Now she had my knife. Pulling my shirt up with one hand, she stuck her other arm underneath. The blade ripped through the fabric, gleaming like a metal shark fin. It sawed a line through my shirt, the knife bobbing as if the shark was slowly swimming with its prey in sight.
My shirt fell open, draping my chest like a vest. Next she cut my bra. On instinct I tried to cover my breasts, but my arms wouldn’t budge. The rope was tight and itchy around my wrists.
Lee held the knife back, the blade’s sharp tip pointing off to the side as she flung back the halves of my shirt with her free hand. Sweat made my skin look coppery in the lantern’s light. I tried to tell her to stop, but my voice was gone. I could only make raspy moaning sounds. Each breath sounded like it was coming through a thin straw.
Then she worked on my skirt next. The thick denim was harder for her to cut. I felt a hot jab on my inner thigh and suddenly found my voice again.
I screamed.
“Oops,” Lee said. She held up the knife. The tip was slicked in my blood. “Saw-ry. This shore is a big knife…that were an ax-er-dent…”
I took deep breaths to calm myself. Sure, I hadn’t been stabbed very deep, but where the knife got me was a tender spot. Almost at the crease between my leg and…well, you know. It didn’t get me there, but it was close enough to damn hurt.
I heard the door bang open. Lee, on her knees between my legs, jumped. The knife swung at my stomach. I sucked it in, hoping to avoid a slash. Lee stopped just before the underside of the blade sliced my navel. A single bead of sweat trickled into the chasm of my belly button.
“What in hell you’s doin’ to ‘er?” I heard Goober say in a winded voice.
“I didn’t means to poke ‘er, Goob. It were an ax-er-dent!”
“Aw shee-it,” Goober said. “She’s done bleedin’ on yore bed!”
“I can clean it, Goob. I praw-miss!”
“What’d you do to ‘er?” he asked.
“Uh…” Lee gulped. “I…ax-er-dently poked her with this knife.”
“Dammit, girl!” Goober’s odd-shaped head appeared above me, like a large fishing weight against the lantern’s dim flutter on the ceiling. His eye was a pale dot, the other a dark mass from the eyepatch.
He got down on a knee. His skin looked like old candle wax in the dim light. Looking me over, his thin lips tightened. He rubbed my leg. When he raised his hand, I saw my blood on his fingers. He sniffed them, tapped his tongue against the trickling crimson.
“She’ll be aw-right,” he determined. “You’s lucky you didn’t get ‘er in that there main vein. You’d done that, she’d bled right out.”
“You shore I didn’t?” Lee asked.
Goober gave her a look that was the epitome of all sitcom dads. Placing a hand on her shoulder, he said, “Conferdent.”
“Saw-ry,” she said.
“No harm no foul!” Laughing, Goober patted Lee’s back. Each whack knocked her forward. He lowered his hand. “D’you get what Mack wants?”
Ruth entered the room, holding a dark case with both hands in front of her. The plastic body gleamed dully.
Seeing her, Goober’s smile split his ugly face. Minuscule teeth were like yellow shards embedded in his gums. “That’a gurl,” he said, taking the case. He set it down on the mattress beside me.
“What’s in it?” Della asked from somewhere I couldn’t see.
“You knows that cam’ra we’s like to use?”
“The dee-ju-tal thing?” Ruth asked.
“Right,” said Goober. “Well…” Poking a wedge of tongue through his mouth, Goober flicked back the latches. Then he raised the lid.
I couldn’t see what was inside. But Ruth’s wrinkled nose and squinted eyes told me I wasn’t missing much.
Goober’s arms vanished behind the lid. I heard a ripping sound, like Velcro being pealed back. “This here’s how we’s did it in the ol’ days.” He needed both hands to hold the massive camera. The lens was like a miniature satellite dish on the front. On the back, the viewfinder was a long arm, capped with a hood of rubber.
“It’s gi-normous,” Lee said.
<
br /> “Ev’rything back then was,” Goober said. He looked proud, holding the camera. As if he’d discovered some ancient relic that might tell him the meaning of life.
“Where you s’posed to put the mem-ree card?” Ruth asked.
Goober threw back his head, laughing. “Silly gurl,” he said. “It don’t needs a mem-ree card.” He braced the camera on his shoulder, reaching into the case again. He tossed something at Ruth. Gasping, she threw up her hands, just barely catching the oblong object. The cellophane wrapper had yellowed like old tape. I recognized what it was as soon as Ruth held it up.
A VHS tape.
But to Ruth, it might’ve been the key to the universe. She held it out, slowly turning it over to look at the other side. She made a face as if Goober had just tossed her his dirty underwear.
“What’s this do?” she asked.
“That’s like a mem-ree card,” he said. “But it’s a tape.”
“Tape?”
“Not what we use to hold up our curt’ns. This here’s a vid-yo tape.” He brought the camera down, balancing it on his thigh. “You’s put it ‘n here.” He pushed a button on top.
Nothing happened.
Goober pushed it again for the same result. His smile slowly dipped. Then he suddenly smacked his forehead. “I’s forgot!” He laughed, making clucking sounds in his throat. “Cam’ra needs chargin’ first.”
“For the bat-tree?” Lee asked.
“Right.” He put the camera on the floor, then clapped his hands. “One of you runs out yonder and crank up the general-raider while a-nudder gets us the extension cord.”
“I’ll crank,” said Lee, hurrying to her feet.
Della made no comment, so Ruth said, “I’ll gets the cord.”
“That’a gurls,” said Goober.
Lee and Ruth ran out of the room, leaving the door open. Goober watched them go. He turned back to look at me. His smile now looked lecherous. Threads of drool hung down from the corners of his mouth. He used the back of his hand to wipe it away.
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