Zeke (16 page)

Sue was flattered. Truthfully, she
hadn’t ever noticed the flame until she met him. But she thought she could see
it now. He had a way of bringing it out.

“Inside you there’s a sharp edge,
like a piece of broken glass. Whatever it is, it cuts into me and makes me
crazy sometimes. It’s a beautiful thing, though. It’s like you don’t even know
the power you have.”

Zeke’s voice was melodic and Sue
found herself silently agreeing with him.

“I want you to cut your hair. Short
and punky. And it should be red; it should blaze,” he pronounced.

“Okay. I guess I can do that.”
Still, she felt an instant of sadness. She had always had long hair. It was
just who she was, something that defined her.

He sensed she wasn’t a hundred
percent behind the idea and continued to cajole. “It’ll be so sexy, babe. A
whole new look. Then your outside will match your inside. You’ve been like a
dormant volcano most of your life, calm on the outside, while inside there’s
all this energy and fire just waiting to erupt.”

Sue liked that image, and the idea
of changing her hair grew stronger. At the next stop, she promised she would
get some red hair dye.

“Let me cut your hair for you,”
Zeke said, excited. “I’ll make it look nice. We’ll cut it before we dye it,
keep it, so we can always look back on your natural color and remember how
restricted and dull your old life was. How’s that sound?”

“I like it,” she said shyly. She
thought of Zeke with the scissors, sculpting her new style. Leaving his
signature on her, like an artist. She found the idea thrilling. She couldn’t
put this feeling into words, so she hugged it to herself secretly. But somehow,
he knew.

“It gets to you, doesn’t it?” Zeke
asked, intuitively. “Almost like getting my name tattooed on your body or
something. It’s sort of the same thing.”

“Yes,” she breathed. “Can you cut
it now?”

“I don’t have any scissors,” he said
with regret. “Wait…I can use Big Ben. That’ll work better anyway, then we can
get a real funky look, all uneven and shit. But let’s go inside to do it. Grab
a plastic sack to put it in.” Zeke didn’t intend to leave any evidence of their
presence, especially a lot of Sue’s hair. But he kept this to himself.

Sue took Zeke’s cigarettes from the
bag they’d just gotten and climbed from the van. Zeke followed her and pushed
her jacket into her hand. The morning sunlight was weak as water, and the cold
air slashed through her clothes like a scythe. They hurried through the weeds
into the back door of the school. She hoped he would be quick about it, because
she already missed the warmth of the van.

He led her through a corridor with
gaping holes in the plaster walls and clusters of ceiling tile scattered on the
floor. They passed several small dark rooms before reaching a large classroom
with a wall of windows, most of which were broken. Zeke kicked an old rusting
trashcan over by the windows and flipped it upside down so she could sit. Once
he got her settled, he sucked gently on her neck for a moment, raising a light
hickey. He breathed deeply, then unsheathed his knife. He grabbed handfuls of
her hair and started hacking, handing her the locks to place in the bag on her
lap. When he was finally done, he stood in front of her and studied her
appearance.

“Perfect,” he announced, and pulled
her to his chest. “I wish we had the dye right now. It sucks to have to wait.”

She felt his heart beating against
her breast, the warmth of his embrace. She hugged him, but he didn’t hug back,
just stood there with his arms loosely draped around her.

“We’ll get the dye next time we’re
in town,” Sue said. “Zeke?”

He’d fallen into a moody silence.
He stepped back from her and slipped the knife into his coat pocket. Instantly,
her heart sank; worry crept into her gut. Did he not like her hair now that it
was short? Did he regret doing it? Or was something else wrong?

“Everything okay?” she asked
timidly.

“Why wouldn’t it be?” he snapped,
his eyes cool and distant.

“I don’t know,” she said. “Just
wondering. Don’t you like my hair?” She raised a hand and explored her new
haircut. His hateful tone brought her to the edge of tears.

“Hell yeah, I like it. That’s the
problem.” He glowered. “I think I did too good a job.”

He walked toward the doorway, and
stopped with his back to her. “Wait here for a minute,” he said without turning
around, then slipped out the door. She could hear his shoes crunching on the
broken glass and debris as he walked down the hallway. Soon, she caught the
sound of the van door slamming shut. Hugging herself for warmth, she paced a
few times near the windows, feeling spooked by the press of the overgrown weeds
outside, their tangled stems and branches forming a barrier between her and the
world. She hoped Zeke wouldn’t stay away long. There was a deep and persistent
coldness in this place, like it had always been freezing and would never be
warm again. She shivered.

Time passed, and still Zeke did not
come back. Finally, Sue could wait no longer. Her teeth were chattering and her
disappointment over his bad mood had turned to outright fear. She walked
outside to the van and opened the door.

“Zeke?” she called quietly. “Sweetie,
I’m cold. Are you coming back? I’ve been waiting like you told me to.”

His head popped up from behind the
seat, eyes sleepy.

“Oh, damn.” He yawned. “I fell
asleep. I’m sorry, baby. Come back here and I’ll warm you up.”

Sue was shocked and hurt that he
left her waiting inside that cold empty building while he took a nap in the
nice, warm van. How could he just forget about her like that? Fury at his
thoughtlessness fought against relief that his dark mood had apparently passed.
Relief won the battle, and she swallowed her anger, but it wasn’t easy. She had
to remind herself that Zeke was not an ordinary man. He was creative and
artistic, which explained his eccentric behavior. Pasting a smile on her face,
she pulled the door shut behind her. Twisting a knot in the top of the sack,
she carefully placed the bag of her hair on the back seat before joining Zeke
on the mattress. He pulled her under the blanket and started undoing her
clothes. She lay still and compliant, her hands and fingers too cold to participate
as Zeke undressed her.

“Let’s talk about you and your
English professor,” he whispered. His words took her away, again. He painted
delicious and sensual pictures of her having sex with a scholarly, bearded
teacher over his cluttered desk in front of the entire class. She found it
enjoyable, so much so that she didn’t even bother to tell Zeke that her English
teacher was actually a rotund gray-haired woman on the verge of retirement.

Ernie the Truck Driver

“It almost looks like it could snow,”
Zeke exclaimed, looking out the windshield at the lowering sky.

It had been two days since they
broke into Doris’s house. Since then, they traveled steadily, stopping only
when something of interest caught Zeke’s attention. After they’d left the
country school, they had spent a lot of time taking photos in the quaint little
town of Belle Springs, before stopping at a campground somewhere south of
Nickel, New York to spend the night. In the wee hours, Zeke had pried open
several vending machines to relieve them of their cash burdens while everyone
slept, sneaking out before the theft could be discovered.

They drove aimlessly that day, Zeke
making many side trips off the highway to check out small towns and gawk at the
Adirondacks, seemingly going in circles. They had parked behind a warehouse in
Wilkes that night, leaving in the cold pre-dawn hours and picking up breakfast
at a McDonald’s drive-through.

Now sitting in a rest area, Zeke
plugged his laptop into the cigarette lighter and hunched over the keyboard.

Sue slumped in the passenger seat
chewing a hangnail. “Are you online?”

“No, I’m looking through my files.
Why?”

“No reason. I just wondered how
you’d get the internet way out here.”

“Well, I can’t. You have to a
service provider for that, and I don’t.”

“Shoot. I was hoping I could check
my email.”

“Oh, Susie. Who’s going to send you
an email anyway? I’m right here beside you.”

Whatever.
“So, what’s our
plan?”

“We need to start heading back
south. There’s this old abandoned asylum in West Virginia I want to explore.
Rumor has it a troll lives down in the basement.”

“Trolls aren’t real,” Sue said
dully. She continued to worry her fingernail.

“Maybe not,” Zeke said playfully.
“But, maybe they are. Let’s go find out. Wouldn’t that be a trip? Exploring an old
mental hospital?”

“It does sound kinda cool,” Sue
agreed, wanting to do something besides sit in the damn van all day, every day.

“Okay, hospital it is.” Zeke stared
at the screen.

He must have planned this trip,
must have made up some sort of agenda to which Sue was not privy. She suspected
their travels were not as random as he pretended. He closed the laptop and
glanced at her.

“Take off your pants,” he said as
he started the engine. “I want to feel you while I’m driving. Turn sideways and
spread your legs for me.”

“I’m cold,” Sue said, but she undid
her jeans and removed them.

“I’ll turn the heater on high.”
Zeke pulled back onto the highway.

Sue turned in her seat and opened her
legs, goose bumps making the little hairs stand up. She hadn’t shaved in days
and felt embarrassed. The gloomy weather wasn’t helping her mood either. Didn’t
the sun ever shine anymore? Dutifully, she tilted her pelvis to give Zeke full
access. He reached over to touch her, keeping his eyes on the road.

“You like that, don’t you, baby?”
he asked, his breath coming quicker.

“I love it,” she replied. But, the
truth was she could hardly feel it. They had been doing it so much lately that
it seemed like she was desensitized.

A semi-truck pulled loudly
alongside them in the other lane, and Sue leaned back so she could look up at
it. She was shocked to see the driver staring down at her with a smile on his
wide face. She threw her hands over Zeke’s probing fingers, attempting to cover
herself, and turned to him with a look of horror. “He can see right into the
van!”

“Good.” Zeke winked at her
,
nudged
her
hands aside, and spread her legs wider.

A rush of heat coursed through her
at the idea of exposing herself to this stranger. In an instant, she felt
mischievous and wanton, a sensual free spirit.

“Let him watch,” Zeke urged, his
eyes darting from the road ahead and back to her crotch. “Here, turn around and
let him see you.”

Sue’s heart pounded inside her as
she opened her blouse and turned in the seat so the driver could get a better
look. She scooted onto the ice chest between the seats, leaned back into Zeke’s
shoulder, and raised her hips, giving the trucker a wide-open view. The nerve
endings in her skin were going crazy. The driver signaled excitedly for them to
pull over.

“Let’s do it. Okay, babe? Let’s
give him a taste,” Zeke said, rubbing his crotch.

“What? No!” Sue sat back down in
the seat and pulled her blouse over her chest. “He’s old and gross. I don’t
want to do anything with him. It was fun letting him look, but I don’t want him
to
touch
me.”

“Then do it for me, sweetie,” Zeke
pleaded. “Please. I need this. It’ll be wild.”

The trucker stayed right beside
them, still gesturing for them to stop.

“Won’t you be jealous?” Sue asked,
voice shaking.

“No, I know it’s me that you love.
Remember, we talked about this. I want you to do it,” Zeke insisted. “I want to
watch. You’re so sexy, baby. You’ll be like a movie star. You don’t have to do
it if you don’t want to, but it would mean so much to me. And, think about it,
here’s an adventure just presenting itself to us. We don’t want to let this
chance pass us by. Please?”

“Fine. I’ll do it, but I won’t like
it,” Sue finally said, hoping Zeke was just testing her loyalty and would
change his mind before anything happened. She signaled to the trucker to follow
them, and Zeke sped up and swung around the semi, looking for an exit ramp.

They passed a sign telling them the
next exit, a mile ahead, had no services. That’s what they think
,
Sue
thought bitterly. She shrank down inside her shirt, but didn’t button it up.
What was the point?

Zeke pulled onto the exit ramp and
the semi stayed close behind. They turned right at the end of the ramp. There
was a small town off in the distance, but nothing but gray country roads and
dead fields at this point. Zeke parked on the side of the road and the semi
pulled in behind them; its brakes wheezed and locked. Sue watched through the
rear window as a squat roll of a man climbed down from the cab, hitched his
jeans, and waddled toward the van. Zeke opened the door and got out. The two
men conversed for a few minutes, then Zeke came back to talk to Sue.

“We’re gonna go up into his truck.
He has a sleeper,” Zeke said. “Put your jeans and shoes on; don’t bother with
your panties.” He reached back behind the seat and grabbed his camera.

“Pictures, Zeke?” Sue was uneasy,
but she began pulling on her jeans.

“No one will see them but us,” he
promised. “I really appreciate this, babe. I mean it. I love you so much.”

She hesitantly followed Zeke to the
truck. The door popped open and a chubby grizzled face looked down at her with
what was probably supposed to be a sexy look but came off as a perverted leer.

“Come on up here, little lady,” the
trucker said. “Your fella, too. There’s plenty of room.”

“It’s warm in here,” Sue observed
as she climbed inside. Zeke followed her.