The Executioner's Song (18 page)

                He helped. They were using a big pair of scissors, and being careful, and smiling a lot. Nicole felt bashful, but also thought it was the thing to do. She was not so much afraid of cutting the hair off as of what it might look like afterward.

                He carried her from the bathtub to the bed and for the second time she had an orgasm with Gary. She knew it had something to do with being a 6-year-old pussy once more. Even as her memory had its quick flash of Uncle Lee, so was Nicole carried over the place where she slammed into the wall and stopped.

                That shaved little old tooty certainly made a hellion out of Gary this Sunday morning. Ever since the thing with Pete, he had been adoring her twice as much. It was like he was truly mad about her now.

                That night, Laurel came over with her cousins and a friend named Rosebeth. Once Gary and Nicole came back from their drive, Laurel's duties as a baby-sitter were over, and she went home. But Rosebeth stayed on. She would sigh just looking at Gary. Nicole laughed. Rosebeth was so young and so cute, and had such a crush on Gary. Next night, she came over all by herself, and before Nicole knew it, she invited Rosebeth to give Gary a kiss. Then they all laughed and Nicole gave Gary a kiss. It got to the point where they had their clothes off, and lay around in bed.

                You couldn't call it an orgy exactly. Rosebeth remained a virgin. She was ready, however, for anything else. It got sweet. Nicole really liked the idea of giving this gift to Gary.

                Over the weekend, they did it more and more. Once, Rosebeth came over in the daytime, and Gary closed the doors and windows. Since the neighbor kids were used to hanging around, you could feel them getting restless outside. God knows what the neighbors heard. It wasn't all that quiet. Nicole began to feel a little paranoid. If it ever came out that Gary was fooling with minors, he could blow his total case. Then it occurred to Nicole that she wasn't in such a good spot either. They might take her children away.

                She began to think of Annette. Nicole didn't have any doubt that Gary might have been having a few thoughts when he gave Annette that peck on the cheek. He did love young girls. But Nicole was also sure he would never have done anything, physically speaking. So from Nicole's point of view, Pete was still out of line. Anyway, Nicole didn't feel ready to stop things with Rosebeth.

                In fact, she loved the way everything was new to the girl. Sex had never been new to Nicole. How beautiful if she'd been introduced to the subject like Rosebeth. It was exciting to watch Gary make her blossom. Of course, Gary also could get very demanding with the girl and order her to suck him good, stuff like that. It just turned him on the way the girl had this tremendous crush.

                Then Nicole had to face another problem. During the week, when Gary was at work, and Rosebeth came over, Nicole still wanted to get it on with her. She wondered if she was moving into that side of sex a little deeper.

A couple of days later, Gary stopped off after work to pay Val for the Mustang. He had already missed the first installment and Val was upset. Of course, it was no big incident. Half the people Conlin sold cars to were sooner or later delinquent in payments. It just part of the ongoing hell-of-a-success-story that was Val's life.

                In the last fifteen years, Conlin had gone from being manager of Orem Buick-Chevrolet to owning the dealership. Then he got into a big dispute with the Ford company and another with his partner, and before the litigation was over he had gone from being the largest new-car dealer in Utah County to being the smallest used-car dealer. One hell of a success story. Conlin Motors sold very old cars more often than not-so-old cars, just drive them off the lot for a little down. The rest when you could get it. People on welfare or picking up a little alimony, ex-cons, who couldn't get credit anyplace else. Those were his clients.

                Val was a tall slim guy with eyeglasses and a keen and face. He had the build of a golfer—relaxed shoulders and a paunch. He was dressed this day in polyester red-checked pants and a pale yellow sports shirt. Gary was grubby with insulation whose powder coated his face, his nostrils, and his clothing. Kind of a yellow to match Val's shirt.

                Conlin now gave Gary a lecture about missing the payment. Since V.J. Motors occupied what was once a hole-in-the-wall restaurant, its showroom wasn't large enough to show cars. It just had a couple of desks, a dozen chairs, and anybody who was there. You could hear everything Val Conlin had to say:

                "Gary," he now stated, "I don't want to go out and start knocking on doors. I told you how it works. We try to set a rate you can handle. We agreed you could bring in fifty bucks every two weeks. Don't give me any manure that you're going to pay a hundred next week, or two hundred next month. You got to start bring money in on time."

                "I don't like this car," Gary said.

                "Well, it's not a real slick car," said Val.

                "It gets left at the intersection by every other heap. It's a bad . . . "

                "Partner," said Val, "let's get it straight. When you buy a car here, I'm doing you the favor. You can't buy from anybody but me."

                "What I really want is a truck."

                "Get the payments in on time. Once you pay this off, we can swap for a truck. But I want my fifty, Gary, every two weeks. Otherwise, you walk."

                Gary cashed his paycheck and gave him fifty dollars.

That night Nicole and Gary had a bad one in bed. It went on too long and once again he was three-quarters erect, half erect, it finally went all bad. Gary got up, got dressed, stomped out of the house, Went to sleep in the car. It made Nicole mad as hell that he had walked out, and it didn't help that he woke the kids up en route.

                She told herself that if she was going to mellow him out, she'd have to calm herself. There had been other times, after all, when he blew out of the house and sat in the car. Usually when the kids' noise was drilling him. She knew from what he told her that the level of noise in prison was always high, and his ears were oversensitive. Somehow with all the years he had put in, he could never get used to the sound.

                Now she managed to get the kids together, gave them warm milk, tucked them in, and went out to his Mustang. He was sitting behind the wheel silent as stone. She did not talk for ten minutes. Then she slipped a hand over.

                Once in a while, Gary would talk about a dream. On this night, sitting in the car, he spoke of it again. He believed that once, in another life, he had been executed. Had his head chopped off.

                In the dream, there was something about Oldness. Something ugly, old and moldy. As he talked, she had a chill. She was thinking of how he would wake up often in a real cold sweat. Once he had talked about another dream where he was put in a box, then put into a hole in the wall. It had a door like an oven.

On the next weekend, Gary ran into Vern. They stared at each other. Good Lord, Vern said to himself, he is giving me one dirty look. "Don't think I'm much of a man, do you?" Gary asked him.

                "Maybe I don't," Vern said and turned and left. Afterward, he felt bad.

                Same day, while Toni was visiting Brenda, Gary dropped by. Toni certainly didn't know what to say. She wasn't about to accuse Gary—the poor guy had been accused of enough things in his life. On the other hand, she didn't think it was right to let it all go unspoken. Annette was a beautiful young lady and Gary could have had intentions.

                She went into the kitchen to get a cup of coffee, and Gary chose to come out of the bathroom then. They were obliged to each other.

                Gary said, "Toni, you haven't mentioned this thing with Annette." She answered, "Gary, if there's something to say, I'll say it." He took hold of her hand and said, "Hon, I'd never hurt your family." There was a silence. Toni believed him. That is, she believed she could accept what he said. Still, she also felt she wasn't going to let Annette be alone with him. There was always the other possibility. "Gary, I go along with you," she answered at last, "but, just not her, I'm a mother first." He smiled and said, "If you weren't, I'd be disappointed in you." He gave her a kiss on the cheek, and went back to the front room.

                Brenda tried to amuse Gary by telling a story about Val. In the old days when Val had the Lincoln-Mercury he always acted like a big shot at the Riverside Country Club. The type to snap his fingers at the waitresses. Brenda was working his table once and thought Val kind of brusque, so she said, "How'd like me to drop this soup on your head?"

                "How'd you like me," Val answered, "to get you fired for that remark?"

                "I'd tell my boss you were lying," she said.

                Gary laughed. He hugged her and lifted her up in the air with no trouble. Considering that she was 155 pounds at that point in her life, he was awfully strong. How had he ever lost the fight to Pete?

                Gary must have been sitting in her brain. "Brenda," he said, "it's not through yet. In prison you don't leave things like that undone."

The following Saturday, Gary and Nicole still planned to take a trip the canyons, but now both Mustangs were giving them trouble. It made Nicole wonder about their luck. All last week, Gary's car had been dead every morning in a row. Having to get it pushed made him late for work. On this Saturday he even decided to visit Spencer McGrath, who might know what was wrong.

                Spencer said right off he probably needed a battery. "There's nothing wrong with the old one," Gary told him.

                Spencer said, "How do you know?" Gary said, "Well, it looks all right." Spencer laughed, "You can't tell by looking."

                Spence went over to the shop, got a meter, checked it out. It was awful low. "The battery," he said, "has a dead cell in it." Gary said, "Well, what am I going to do?" Spence said, "Buy yourself a new one. They go for twenty to thirty dollars, along in there." Gary said, "Gee, I don't have it." "You got paid just yesterday," Spence said. "I know," said Gary, "but I made the car installment, there's not much left." Spence said, "How will you last till Friday?" Gary said, "I probably can make it. Just don't have enough to buy a new battery." Spencer loaned him thirty.

                Gary was back in half an hour. At K-Mart he found a honey for $29.95. With tax, it was thirty-two. Spence said, "I guess you had to take a couple of dollars out of your pocket?" Gary said, "Well, yes."

                Spence said, "Gary, how are you going to get through this week?" Gary said he didn't know. Spence gave him another five for gas, and said, "Pay the car off. Then we'll work it out."

                The $32 for the dead battery was the beginning of a real run of rotten luck. Monday night, thinking he would surprise her, Gary went to pick up Nicole at driver's training school, and found his lady sauntering down the hall with four guys in tow. As soon as she saw Gary, she rushed right up, gave a big smile, and tried to let everyone know that she was his. But she could feel how the sight went through. On the way home, he said, "I won't tie you down." She knew he was thinking of Uncle Lee, Jim Barrett, the three-day party, a couple of other dudes, and her life.

                He told Sterling about it. "She's free. I don't want to lean on her freedom," he said. He crossed over to the cemetery that faced all the houses on Sterling's street, and Sterling went with him. There was one grave that had no flowers. A little boy's grave. Gary went around and took a flower from each of a number of other graves and put them in a rusty little vase by the boy's headstone. Then they got on to some good pot. Right away, Gary had to get out of there. Told Sterling he was seeing himself in a tomb.

                One night soon after, Rikki was at Sterling's and Gary was needling him to arm wrestle. Bragged to Nicole of how he had beaten her brother. They got into it.

                Nicole didn't know if Gary was worn out from the night but Rikki took him this time. That is, was about to win, but Gary cheated something obvious, and even lifted his elbow off the table.

                Now Gary wanted to try with the other arm. Rikki really got him. That left Gary giving dirty looks. On the way home from Sterling's he dropped by a little store that was open all hours and stalked with two six-packs.

                It was risky to steal from that small a place, but he had technique. Picked up two six-packs, not one. No hesitation in his walk. At the same time, he managed to make his face look unpleasant. Not for too little would you break into such thoughts to ask if he had the beer.

                In the beginning it had been fun. By now it was getting on her nerves. Whenever something bothered him, he got brave. Nicole always been ready to boost if she needed something, and once they got together, she might even have been the first to do it, but Gary showed her how to really walk out with something. It had been a joke for a while. By now she had to notice that if anything went wrong, he'd steal to cheer them up.