Gecko (11 page)

“
Naw, if he did, he’d come let us go.”

“
Not Rex,” Little Bobby said, sniffling, “he’d go home and leave us here till dark.”

“
He’s right,” John said, “that son of a bitch would leave us here till dark. We’ll burn red as beets.”

“
My mom’s gonna be pissed off,” Ricky said. That was the first time Jim heard Ricky swear.

“
We gotta get outta here,” Little Bobby said, looking at his brother.

“
Okay, okay,” Jerry said, “can anybody get loose?”

“
I think I can,” Jim said.

They all turned their eyes on Jim. If anybody could slip out of the ropes, he could. He was the skinniest and most agile. They watched as he twisted and turned, grunted and groaned, but after fifteen minutes of sweating and struggling he was no closer to loosening his bonds than when he had started.

“
I can’t get loose.” He was breathing hard.

“
You’re turning red, Jimmy,” Little Bobby said. Jim had fair skin and sunburned easily. He should have kept his shirt on. Rolling around in the grass made him itch like crazy and now he was starting to feel the burn. He tried again to squeeze his hands through the rope, but still he couldn’t.

“
I’m gonna get into the shade.” He rolled across the yard to the shade offered by the garage. Once out of the sun he relaxed and caught his breath. He still itched, but at least he wouldn’t burn anymore.

“
Jimmy, maybe if you sit up by the corner of the garage, you can cut through your ropes,” Jerry said.

Jim scooted over to the corner of the stucco garage and sat up with his back next to where two walls met and he started rubbing his hands up and down in an attempt to fray the ropes.

“
Black widow,” Little Bobby screamed.

Jim stopped his rubbing, his companions were silent. “Where?” he asked, quietly.

“
By your leg.”

Jim looked down and saw it. Big, black, marble shaped and it was crawling up onto his leg.

“
Don’t move,” Jerry said, a tremor in his voice.

“
Yeah, stay real still and maybe it’ll go away,” Ricky said.

“
I’d roll over and squash it,” John said.

“
No, don’t do that, you might piss it off and it’ll bite,” Ricky said, getting used to swearing.

“
Not if it’s fucking squashed,” John swore.

Jim froze, hoping his Levi’s were too thick for it to bite through, but not sure. He felt the sweat rolling of his sunburned back as it climbed up and sat on his knee. His comrades were mute, holding their breath, eyes glued to the spider.

It sat there for several minutes, holding the boys spellbound. They were quiet, keen and aware. The only sounds, their shallow breathing and the breeze rustling through the tall tree in the corner of the yard. Jim was paralyzed.

The spider began to move back the way it had come.

“
When it gets on the grass, roll away from it,” Jerry said.

“
Yeah, get away from it,” Ricky echoed. “That’s what I’d do.”

“
Roll over and squash it. Smash it dead,” John offered.

As if hearing John, the spider stopped and climbed back up on the knee, sat for a second, like it was surveying the situation, then started a trek up Jim’s pant leg.

“
Do something!” Little Bobby squealed, his tears forgotten.

The spider stopped and sat atop Jim’s groin.

“
It’s on his dick,” John Morgan said. “Better do something quick.”

Jim’s bladder gave way.

“
He pissed himself,” John Morgan said and Jim knew, scared as he was, he would never live it down.

The hot urine welling up around the spider startled it and it scooted away from the source of the wet in a sideways movement coming to rest above Jim’s bare belly button.

“
That’s bad,” Little Bobby said.

“
Shoulda rolled over and squashed it,” John said.

Jim remained paralyzed, with his back against the garage and once again the boys turned silent, waiting with bated breath and wide eyes. The spider remained rock still, rising and falling with Jim’s quivering breath.

“
Help!” Little Bobby belted out, his cry piercing the silence like a white hot knife.

“
Help! Help!” Ricky and Jerry chimed in.

“
Help!” John Morgan’s loud voice added to the cadence.

“
What’s going on?” David’s mother screamed, coming out the back door.

“
Black widow, on Jimmy!” John Morgan said.

Cynthia Askew started toward Jimmy just as he felt a pinching sensation in his abdomen. David’s mother swatted the spider off his belly, then squashed it with her foot. Jim passed out. Three days later he came home from the hospital. He spent the next five years overcoming his fear of spiders.

* * *

He told Roma the whole story, omitting only the part about wetting his pants.

“
You and your sister are the only people alive that know about that,” he said, after he finished the telling. “It’s always been my deepest secret.”

“
Why?”

“
I was paralyzed with fear, no one likes to admit that.”

“
What about the boys?” she asked.

“
Except for David, who was killed yesterday, the cowboys have been dead forever. Jerry and his brother, Little Bobby, were killed in high school when the car Jerry was driving was hit by a drunk driver. John Morgan stepped on a land mine just outside Saigon. Ricky Stewart died of leukemia on his fourteenth birthday. David’s mother has been dead for years. I told Julia one night when we were swapping secrets, I don’t know why I told you, because you asked, I guess, or maybe because I’ve always loved you.”

“
But you overcame your fear of spiders. You should be proud of that.”

“
I just wanted to forget about that horrible afternoon, being afraid every time I saw a spider was no way to forget. Once I got used to not being afraid of them, I started to like them. Now I go out of my way to help them. I’d never kill one. Not now.”

“
I’ve always loved you too,” she said.

All of a sudden he was extremely aware of Roma’s bared breasts. “I’ve never been with anyone but Julia,” he said.

“
I suspected as much,” she said.

“
How did you know?”

“
I don’t know. I guess a woman just knows these things, but I’ll confess I don’t understand why. Were you afraid of girls?”

“
No. I was a good Catholic boy. I was a virgin at eighteen when I went into the service, still a virgin when I was sent to Vietnam, where God knows I had plenty of opportunity, but I couldn’t bring myself to go a prostitute, so I remained a virgin till I was captured. Not many girls in a POW camp. I was twenty-three when I got home and pretty fucked up. By the time I got it together, I was halfway through my thirties, too old and too embarrassed to start dating, so I just put it out of my mind and concentrated on making money. Then I met you and fell in love, but you went away with me still celibate.”

“
Julia never told me.”

“
Julia never knew.”

“
How?”

“
The first time we did it she was too drunk to notice my fumbling around. After that first night I was an expert.”

“
She was pretty experienced,” Roma said.

“
She once told me she made a lot of men very happy, in her own shy way,” Jim said.

“
That’s my sister. I love her dearly, but she always was a little slut.” Roma laughed. “She was always faithful to you though. After she got married she stopped her catting around.”

“
Till she met Kohler,” Jim said.

She sat still in the armchair and eyed him.

“
Take your pants off,” she said with a sly grin.

“
No,” he said.

“
I’ll bet you’d take them off for Julia.”

“
You’re not her.”

“
Pretend I am.” She smiled wider.

“
I don’t know if I can,” he said.

“
Don’t be a prude, take them off,” Donna thought.

“
Stay out of this,” He thought back.

“
Take ’em off!” Roma commanded.

“
Do it!” Donna commanded.

He stared at Roma’s rising and falling breasts and he felt Donna inside him.

“
I can feel it getting hard,” Donna thought.

“
I told you to stay out of this.” He wondered if it was possible to forget about Donna for a while.

“
Come on, Jimmy, slip them off,” Roma chided.

He moved his gaze up to her eyes and was trapped in her exotic stare. He pulled down the zipper, slipped the pants off, taking the underwear along for the ride.

“
Julia said you were big.” She eyed his erection.

“
Wow, look at it, sticking up hard as a rock. I can feel it. It’s so great. No wonder men get so horny.” Donna’s excitement caused Jim to shiver and he blushed.

“
Now the tie.” Roma laughed and he whipped it off, then the vest, followed by the shirt. Jim ignored the buttons, lifting it over his head and tossing it on the floor with the rest of his clothes, leaving himself naked, except for his socks and his cast. He lay back against the headboard and met her eyes.

“
Socks off,” she kidded.

He was speechless, but not powerless. He took off the socks, tossed them after the rest of his clothes.

“
Now it’s my turn.” She stood up, keeping Jim locked in her stare and finished unbuttoning the Levi’s. Jim tore his eyes away from hers and moved them back down to her breasts. Her nipples were hard, pointed and perfect and they quivered as she worked at her pants. His eyes roved down from her breasts and watched what her hands were doing. He smiled and felt the heat of his erection run through him, when the pale pink of her panties peeked through. He returned his gaze to her erotic eyes.

She winked and offered him her half smile, while hooking her thumbs into the pant waist and pulling the Levi’s off. She stood and faced him for a few seconds, clad only in pale pink panties, the black vee of her pubic hair clearly showing through.

“
She’s beautiful. So beautiful,” Donna offered. Jim ignored her as Roma slipped the panties off and kicked them out of the way.

“
We were made for each other.” Roma faced him, nude, with her arms at her sides and tears in her eyes. “If you only knew how much I need you right now.”

“
I need you too,” he said, meaning it like he’d never meant anything before. All his troubles seemed to fade away. At that moment he only had eyes for Roma. She was the beginning, middle and end of his life. “And I love you.”

“
I love you too.” The half smile turned full as she approached. She eased onto the bed, snuggled up next to him, reached between his legs, taking him in her hand, gently squeezing.

“
Oh my, that feels sooooo good, don’t let her stop.”

But Jim wasn’t listening to Donna. After a few minutes he rolled Roma onto her back and kissed her breasts, before moving up to her mouth and covering her lips with his. He tasted the salt from her tears and started to pull away, when she wrapped her arms tightly around him, drawing him to her. He entered her and they made love, slowly at first, feeling each other out, then gradually they increased the tempo till they turned into a runaway train.

They climaxed together, silently, holding on to each other, not like it was the first time for them, but like it was the last time for forever. When it was over they hugged like young lovers, fiercely and tenderly and Jim lay lost with the wonder of her and wondered how differently things would have turned out if he’d married her instead of her twin.

“
I’d love to stay and spend more time with you, but I gotta get next door before Edna gets back.” She laughed. “Listen to me, I’m acting like she’s my mother and I might get in trouble.” But she got out of bed and started dressing.

Too quickly he was alone with his thoughts, then he closed his eyes and the last thing he remembered before he fell asleep was Donna in his head, saying, “So that’s what it’s like for a man. It’s so wonderful.”

Chapter Seven

Hugh Washington walked through the hospital lobby with a spring in his step. Walker had surprised him. The man had given him a new lease on life. Maybe this was the shot in the arm that would put his marriage back together. He hoped so. He was tired of being a weekend father. Tired of sleeping alone. Tired of eating alone. And tired of begging Jane to come back.

He’d been separated a long time. He’d changed. The gray moods were gone. Mostly he owed that to Glenna and her perennially positive attitude. Amazingly, she handled the rape and shooting of her attacker much better than her parents had. They blamed each other. She lay all the blame on the doorstep of the dead rapist.

Maybe it was the superb counseling, maybe it was just her make up, but whatever it was, she hadn’t gone through the period that most women go through after a rape. She never blamed herself. Even though she had lied to her parents about where she was that day. Even though she had invited the young man into her home. Even though she should have known better. Even after all those “even thoughs,” she had no blame left over for herself. As far as she was concerned the incident was closed. The guy got what he deserved. Justice was done. Life was living for the present and the future. The past was dead and gone.