Pin (16 page)

“Hey,” I said, standing in the doorway, “you getting up today, or should I call Miss Spartacus and tell her you're not feeling well?”

“No, I'll be getting up,” she said wiping her eyes. She just continued to lie there, thinking.

“You sure?”

“Yes.”

“Oh,” I said casually, as I turned to go back downstairs, “that voice you heard last night?”

“Yes.” She looked at me with great anticipation.

“It was Pin all right. He just told me. He wanted to talk to you and he was hoping you were still awake.” She didn't say anything. She continued to stare out at me. “I told you it was probably Pin, didn't I?”

“And what did he want to talk to me about?” she asked after a few moments of silence.

“How should I know? You know the way Pin is. If he had something to say to you, he wanted to say it to you. You'll have to ask him yourself.”

“Well, why did he keep calling me? Once I didn't answer, why didn't he stop?” she said quickly, as if she had found a hole in my story.

“He thought you were probably in my room or in the bathroom. He still doesn't believe in that intercom anyway,” I said. “He can't imagine his voice traveling through it well. You'll have to tell him how well it works.”

“Yes, I'll have to,” she said. She turned and looked up at the ceiling. Then I left her.

That night she brought Stan home with her. She had obviously described to him what had occurred the night before. He very quietly and unobtrusively inspected the intercom outside of her bedroom door. Then he asked me where the other one was located.

“I don't see it in the living room here,” he said.

“No, it's in Pin's room.”

“Can I see it?”

“Pin doesn't like anyone going into his room. He doesn't even let the cleaning woman in there.”

“Oh? That's a wireless set you've got there, isn't it?”

“Yes. I didn't want to have wires running all over the place.”

“I don't blame you.” Ursula called to say that supper was ready, so I went into Pin's room to get him.

“She told him all about last night,” I said.

“Didn't you expect that she would?”

“He was snooping around.”

“No question, he's going to be trouble. We've got to work fast.”

“Yeah, well, don't be surprised if she has him stay overnight tonight.”

“If so, we'll have to wait. Don't take any chances with him around.”

“Right,” I said, and we went to dinner. Everyone was pleasant to everyone else, but I knew what they were hiding behind those phony smiles. Pin was cordial, but not really friendly. Only I could notice the innuendo, the intimation, the subtle strain in his voice and glances. Ursula was too busy doting on Stan to notice anything else. After dinner Stan asked me if I had any more of the poem done. I couldn't
see the harm in letting him hear the new verse, so I went up and got it. We all sat around the fire again, only this time Pin sat further into the shadows.

“As you might remember,” I began, “Testes was about to rape a woman.”

“Oh, yes, I remember,” Stan said shooting a glance at Ursula. I could see she was suppressing a giggle, but I ignored it.

“Well,” I said, “something stops him for a moment, makes him hesitate.”

“What?”

“You'll see.” I began.

Closer, closer, closer she came to him, moving, it seemed, in silent motion. He thought to kiss the lips between her thighs. His heart beat steadily within the caverns of his bosom, driving hot blood thick down, down into the depths of his loins. He thought he caught the odor of a familiar perfume. And then, like the predator he had become, he lunged from the deepest darkest passions in us all. She turned without a sound and faced him. He stopped abruptly. It was as if a knife had performed instant castration. He was looking into the eyes of his sister.

I set the manuscript down and took my seat. Both of them were quiet. Pin, of course, had heard the verses before. We both waited for their reactions, but they were slow in coming. Ursula stared at me with a look of confusion on her face. Stan acted as if he were seeing me for the first time. I cleared my throat and lifted my glass to my lips.

“Well,” Stan began, looking at Ursula first and then turning back to me, “that's a surprise twist, all right.”

“Yes,” I said, “it is. Now I have to decide whether he retreats back into the darkness or continues on his course.”

“And rapes her? His own sister?” Stan said.

“Why not?” I looked at Ursula when I said it. She looked away. “Of course, he probably would kill her as well.”

“This thing's getting a bit too deep for me,” he said, smiling.

“Yes,” I said, “it can get deep, very deep. You don't have a brother or sister, do you, Stan?”

“I had a younger brother, but he died from a blood disease. He only lived to eleven.”

“I didn't know. Ursula never told me.”

“I don't talk about him much. It was sad.”

“I understand,” I said. “Were you close?”

“As close as two brothers could be.”

“He doesn't want to talk about it, Leon,” Ursula said.

“I'm sorry.” There was a long silence, so I got up and put on some music. “Why don't you two dance?” I said, pretending to have forgotten all about Stan's leg.

“Good idea,” Ursula said quickly. He could do the slow things all right, but the fast ones made him look pathetic. I sat there smiling, occasionally looking over to Pin and nodding. He was very patient and very satisfied with the way things were going. We all had another drink. Then Pin said he was tired, so I took him to his room. I figured he just wanted to talk to me alone.

“Good night,” Pin said, but neither of them
replied. “Quickly,” Pin said as soon as we closed the door, “I want to hear what they say.” I opened the door slightly and we listened. Their voices were low, but clear.

“I don't like it,” he said. “That poem suggests a violent mind. I don't believe you're safe here with him like this.”

“I don't know. I just don't know. I mean, you're right about him, but …”

“You can't even get him to come out with you on a date. You said so yourself. You've got to face up to it before it's too late for him.”

“I will,” she said. “I'll give it more serious thought. I promise. But let's not talk about it anymore. You want to go upstairs? Now's as good a time as any to make our little exit.”

“Sure,” he said. We heard them get up and leave.

“No question,” Pin said. “He's a dangerous influence on her now.”

“I hate him. I wish we could speed things up a little.”

“No. We've got to move carefully. Looks to me like he's going to be here for quite a while tonight, but maybe he'll have to leave because of his mother.”

“Yeah.”

“Just be patient, Leon.”

Pin was right. It was uncanny the way he could predict the outcome of things sometimes. I used to believe he possessed some sort of supernatural power. I never told Ursula, but a few days before our parents were killed, Pin had this feeling something tragic was about to happen.

Anyway, about an hour after Ursula and Stan went upstairs, the phone rang. I picked it up in the
living room, but Ursula had picked it up in her room too. It was for Stan. His aunt was calling to tell him that she had just called the doctor for his mother. She was in a bad way, having great difficulty breathing. I heard the whole conversation and hung up after he did. Then I went in and told Pin. A great look of satisfaction came over his face.

“Oh, this is perfect,” he said. “This is good. This will leave Ursula in one of her frightened states. You know how she gets when anything serious like this happens.”

“I'd better get up to her.”

“No, just wait. Wait in the living room. Let her call to you. Let her need you.”

“Yes,” I said. We heard Stan rush out the front door and pull away in his car. Then I walked back into the living room and sat on the couch, waiting. Moments later, Ursula called down to me. I walked to the foot of the stairs and saw her standing naked at the top.

“Come up, Leon. Please, come up.”

“Why?”

“I want to talk to you. Stan's mother took a bad turn.”

“Oh, I'm sorry. Just let me put out the lights,” I said. I watched her turn and go back toward her room. I waited at the stairs for a moment, and then walked up, leaving the lights on deliberately. It was part of the plan. She was sitting in a lotus position on her bed. It was dark, but the glow of the hall light made her skin shine. I walked over to her slowly and sat on the bed.

“When he left, he said this was it.”

“That's too bad.” I took her hand and we sat there in the dark for a full five minutes without speaking. I
could feel the throb of her heartbeat growing faster as she pressed her wrist against me.

“His mother's going to die,” she finally said.

“I understand that.”

“I can hear the sound of the dirt hitting mother's coffin.”

“Don't start thinking about that now. You know what it does to you.”

“Sometimes I wake up at night hearing it. I remember your face. You were standing so still. You looked … you looked like Pin.”

“I don't want to talk about it.”

“The nights … the nights were always so quiet afterward, weren't they, Leon?”

“Not any quieter than they were before.”

“They were. You know they were, just knowing we were alone in this house. You used to come and stay with me all the time.”

“You want me to stay with you tonight?”

“Yes, just for a while, until I fall asleep. Will you?”

“Sure,” I said. I got up and put out the hall lights. Then I came into the room and closed the door behind me. There was a little light coming in from the moon reflecting off the snow and ice outside. She was on her back looking up at the ceiling. I sat beside her and I gently stroked her hair. Some time passed. We didn't say a word to one another. I heard him first. That was only natural because I was waiting for him to call. We had planned it that way. I turned quickly.

“What's the matter, Leon?”

“Pin's calling, don't you hear?”

“No, I didn't hear him. What does he want?”

“He wants me to come down.”

“No, he doesn't, Leon,” she said gently. She turned toward me and touched my face, pressing her breasts against me. “Stay with me.”

“I'll be just a minute. I've got to see what's the matter.” I got off the bed and walked to the door.

“Are you sure he's calling? I don't hear him now,” she said. She was really pleading for me to stay. She slipped off the bed too and took a few steps toward me. I opened the door.

“Something's up, all right.”

“Why?”

“The lights are on downstairs. Pin had to come out for some reason, and you know how difficult that is for him.”

“What?” She came to the door. The light from the living room threw liquid shadows up the ceiling by the stairs. “Maybe you just forgot to put them out,” she said. I could hear the note of hysteria building in her voice.

“Don't you remember?” I said, turning. “I put them out right after you called to me. Don't you remember me going back to do it?”

“You're scaring me, Leon.”

“There's nothing to be frightened of, Ursula. I'll just go down and see what Pin wants,” I said and pulled away from her. She called to me again, but I moved quickly down the stairs and to Pin's room. He was waiting at the door, right where I had left him.

“Everything's all set,” I said.

“Good,” he said, and I lifted him out of the chair.

D
ESPITE HIS HEIGHT AND APPEARANCE IN FATHER'S SUITS
, Pin was always very light and easy to carry. I never had any trouble lifting him. We went right to the stairs. I knew Ursula would be waiting right at the top, right where I left her. Although Pin was light, I moved up slowly with ponderous steps. She stepped back, her hand at her mouth, the moment she saw us begin to climb.