Chapter 3

His S-80 was careening down the wet road on the edge of 'out-of-control'. In the darkness outside the windows trees and boulders and bridge supports and buildings nestled themselves up snugly to the very side of the highway, flashing past almost too fast for recognition.

His eyes went to the speedometer and he watched the needle climb past '120'. He'd been here before, many times over the past months and when it had begun the terror had overwhelmed him. But as time had gone by and the emptiness inside had grown more pronounced, had grown more inescapable, there'd been nothing left there to birth any terror.

He'd grown very comfortable with the speed and the slick road, the sudden death so close to him. Comfortable enough to enjoy slaloming the car back and forth, testing his luck, seeing just how close he could come.

After all, what was the worst that could happen? What more did he have to lose?

But now, now something had changed and the terror was back. It roared up out of his depths and washed over him like a great wave, choking him, blinding him. He felt the car veering to the right and he knew he had seconds to correct his course or he'd never see her again and the emptiness would return and his love would be ashes in his mouth and where the light from her eyes used to warm him there'd be nothing but cold desolation and the pain and fear within him found a voice and that voice clawed its way up his throat, raping his vocal cords as it tore through and it was the sound a soul made when banished from the sight of God and his hands grabbed the wheel and tried to turn the car away from the danger but the wheel wouldn't turn as he felt his nails shatter and the tips of his fingers shred as the bone underneath pushed through from the force of his grip and there was nothing he could do and he'd never even be able to tell her 'goodbye' or how much he loved her-

"HARRY!"

-and she'd think he'd left because he didn't love her, she'd think he'd left because he never loved her and the front corner of the car hit something and time slowed so every second of his damnation could be enjoyed and the police report would say he'd run his car into 'whatever' and they'd all 'know' it was suicide and he could only cringe away from the thought of what that would do to her and now the passenger-side dash arrived like a herald announcing the nearness of the engine to come and-

"HARRY GODDAMNIT!"

-he felt his shoulders dislocate as he used all he was to turn the fucking wheel and the car was shaking back and forth in a rhythm new to the cataclysm and he wasn't going to fucking die here but he knew that was bullshit because he really was and there was nothing he could do to stop it as the dash continued its inexorable drive towards him, pinning his right hand to the wheel as it bent and began its voyage to mate with his chest and the measured shaking continued, back and forth and he'd never see her beautiful smile again and that was Hell, no matter what you'd been taught in any fucking Sunday School, that was Hell and he was going there-

As a sharp stinging pain inflamed the side of his face and his eyes shot open. Her face, as beautiful as the dawn and full of concern, floated before him.

His terror propelled his mouth into overdrive.

"Baby Girl it wasn't suicide and don't you ever think I don't love you because I do and I didn't mean to leave you I tried so hard so goddamn hard but there was nothing I could do and when they tell you it was suicide it wasn't because there's no reason for me to want to leave you ever and if I never saw your smile again I'd be in Hell and I'm so sorry I won't be here to take care of you-"

"HARRY," she shouted, "you were having a dream baby, you were having a nightmare, its ok, you're not going anywhere, you're safe, you're right here and I'm not going to let anything happen to you."

His chest gave birth to deep wracking sobs as he continued to mouth his dream's overflow. Carol drew him to her, placed his head between her breasts and stroked his hair, rocking him gently.

"Harry, baby, you're fine, it's ok, you're not leaving me. You're not going anywhere, baby, you're staying right here."

As he slowly calmed, she reached to the bedside table and retrieved great wads of tissue, helped him to wipe his face and blow his nose.

There, safe in the arms of his girl, he told her of the dream, and the history of the dream, and how tonight had been different.

When he was through, when he had wound down, she gently led his mouth to her breast.

"Harry, baby, there you go, there sweetie, that's good, yes, I like that... that's good, suck your Baby Girl's tit."

"Now Harry, you just keep sucking and let me talk for a bit." Her voice was soft and calm, implacable. "If I ever meet Angie, I'm going to put her in the hospital. If you don't want me to, you're going to have to give me express and clear orders to the contrary because otherwise, I'm gonna kick that cunt to the curb and curb stomp her till it stops feeling good to me. And that, my dear sweet Harry, could take a long time."

"Now, roll over on your back and let me please you, help to wash that horrible dream out of your mind and fill it with happier thoughts, ok?"

Continuing to nurse at her breast like a man possessed, Harry slowly and carefully rolled over, scooting backwards on the bed into a sitting position.

She reached down and behind her to find his cock, fully erect, straining to meet her hand. Throwing a leg over him, she guided him in.

His dick penetrated her wet heat effortlessly as she lowered herself onto him, her eyes locked on his face. As her hips began their dance, tears flowed down her cheeks as she reflected that if every bad experience of her life had been necessary to bring her to this room, this time, this man, then they were worth it. They were all worth it. She'd found her place in the world.

It would be wise for those who might hurt Harry to reflect that pets will fiercely defend their Masters.

Harry's mind, still unsettled from the nightmare, found solace in the act of sucking his Baby Girl's tit. It was if he was nursing at the breast of tranquility, calm running down his throat in a never-ending stream. Oh, his dick might be anything but at peace at the moment, and his body might be yearning to join it in its rigor, in its vigor, but his mind and his soul, those were finding that quiet center of nirvana. He knew without thinking that Carol was meant to be a part of his life. It was not a rational thought, it was an acknowledgement of what was; true, irrefutable and carved into the granite of his being.

Together they found their pace and moved as one, gently surging in unison, an act of love that was not a race to an orgasmic finish line, but rather a laying-on-of-hands, a holy healing of two people that life had had its rough way with.

"Harry," she gasped, "I want you not to think, don't think of anything at all. Don't even think about what I'm saying, just let it flow into you and then flow out of you. Everything you sense, however you sense it, is not to be thought about, it's to be felt. I'm not speaking words, I'm making pretty sounds. What you see with your eyes is not a woman riding her love, it is shapes and colors and pretty designs, floating before you solely to delight your senses. All your nerves, all your senses tie into your cock, Harry. They all feed into your beautiful cock. They don't feed information to the brain; they feed sensation to your dick."

Harry's mind, relaxed, tranquil and safe, found it easy to follow her instructions. He identified, quantified, qualified nothing; he merely experienced it and all the experienced sensations were good and they all began to trickle through his body like the beginnings of mountain streams and the streams grew and all the streams led to his cock, buried deep within the source of his peace and as he let go of the rational, she left words behind and began to sing to him, pleasant notes without meaning, it was as if a circuit was completed and it ran from his extremities to his cock and from there to her cunt and then out to her extremities and back across to his. Their bodies were fused and jolted as if from a great surge of electricity and they sang together as the seconds stretched to infinity.

As Anna Pessino approached Harry Grimes' house, she reflected again on the will of God and how it somehow seemed to demand that bad things happen to good people.

She had kept house for Mr. Harry's parents and for Mr. Harry and his wife Ms. Angie when they were together, and she had never liked that Ms. Angie, or trusted her, but now she was working for Ms. Angie five days a week, and was sneaking over to clean house for Mr. Harry on one of her two days off and praying Ms. Angie never found out or she'd lose her position with her.

Bad things happening to good people. Ms. Angie happening to Mr. Harry. Ms. Angie happening to Anna. Maybe it wasn't so much that God had bad things happening to good people, maybe it was that God had Ms. Angie happening to good people.

She had spent the months following Mr. Harry and Ms. Angie's separation watching Mr. Harry's house reflect his slow sinking into a pit she was afraid he'd never be lifted out of. She had hurt him bad, that Ms. Angie, and it seemed that the living breathing man was dying, being replaced by a ghost that could live in the house from week to week and scarcely leave a trace. She never saw him, just a check on the table every week and a note that always said the same thing, 'thank you Anna'. She never stayed late enough to see him, as she had her own family to tend to, but she thought that perhaps tonight, she would stay late, talk to him, try to talk some sense into him, try to talk some life into him, tell him what that Ms. Angie was doing in that house they used to share in Crockett Heights. Maybe if he got angry, he'd come alive again.

Harry had released Carol's breast from his mouth and she had collapsed onto him. He held her head to his chest and she nibbled and bit her way back and forth across him, lost in the taste of him. Harry's head was thrown back, his mouth wide open as he lost himself in the perfumes that wafted about the room, most strongly the smell of her and her desire.

They throbbed together as one, their incoherent moans filling the room and blending into a song of desire and longing and satisfaction and completion. They danced at the edge of their climaxes as if, in their mindlessness, they somehow knew that past that point they would become two again.

As Anna's car rounded the corner, she saw that Mr. Harry's car was in the driveway.

Perhaps he was sick, or was finally taking some time off to deal with what Ms. Angie had done to him. Whatever the reason, it would give her a chance to talk to him. She could run to the grocery for him if he needed anything.

She pulled into the drive and parked, got out and went to the front door, letting herself in. Her mouth opened, about to announce her presence, when she heard sounds she knew well.

She looked around the living room as she quietly crept through.

It was a disaster area. Boxes and bags and clothes were everywhere, chains and leather straps and metal things she couldn't identify.

Her heart sang. These were the signs of life! Life was messy and no ghost moved through this house now. This, with the sounds she was hearing? There was life in this house! Mr. Harry was back from the dead!

The two lovers felt the strain building in each of them. The inevitable could only be delayed so long before it would no longer be denied.

The avalanche began deep inside Carol and as it slowly cascaded down, its joyous answering echoes were heard inside of Harry.

Anna eased to the edge of the bedroom door and slowly moved her head around the door frame.

The young woman on top of Mr. Harry was beautiful, a full-bodied, wide-hipped girl who looked like she might well have come from the same village as Anna. She heard the song of their moans and their cries and heard the love that echoed throughout it.

The dimness of the room gave a cast to Harry's complexion and looking at the two of them, Anna was reminded of herself when she was younger riding her husband, Emiliano. Oh, the love they had made! She had been surprised the walls had not crumbled around them sometimes.

The young girl rose up on her arms and gently eased her body upright. She arched her back and continued backwards, catching herself on her arms yet again, her head hanging down above Mr. Harry's knees.

Anna watched, a smile on her face as this young girl brought life back to Mr. Harry in a way Anna had not considered.

Well, perhaps if she was 30 years younger... and not married to Emiliano... or maybe even if she was.

But she wasn't 30 years younger and she thanked God and the Virgin Mary and all the saints that this girl had come into his life.

Then she noticed the girl's face, upside down, eyes open, staring at Anna and smiling. The girl winked at her.

Anna jerked her head back and began to ease back towards the door.

As Carol leaned back, Harry could stand it no longer. He erupted inside her and it felt for all the world as if the brain he had turned off was flowing out of him with his orgasm. The inside of his skull was a great mass of wires, all short-circuiting at once.

Carol rode out his orgasm, her arched position keeping her clitoris away from contact as he bucked and started like a man possessed. She ached to come herself, had had to force herself to back away from coming and was still so close that she could taste it but felt something holding her, restraining her, as if she was awaiting some signal.

A part of her mind thought with pleasure on the look of approval she had seen on the face of the woman she assumed was Harry's housekeeper. She hoped her arrival did not prompt Harry to fire the woman. She never meant to be the cause of anyone losing their job, but if Harry wanted her to keep house for him she would. She would do anything for him.

Harry's convulsions calmed to twitches and his eyes opened to see his love stretched out in front of him, her breasts riding high in the air, her generously fleshy hips snugly sealed to his. As his mind slowly began to come back online, he ran his hands up those thighs, then up to her waist, pulling her back over and down to him.

"Baby Girl, why haven't you come yet?"

And with his question came her answer.

"Because sir, I feel that I have abused you and your privileges. Many owners consider it their prerogative to give and withhold permission to orgasm from their property. I do not wish to abuse you."

"Fair enough. Then listen; unless I explicitly state differently, you are to orgasm whenever and however while we are making love. I will not withhold that from my Baby Girl without a reason."

Carol brought herself forward, grasping him with both hands by the sides of his head and pulling him up to kiss her as she ground her crotch into his, her clitoris caressed by his pubic hair. Their lips locked and even with the post-orgasmic tenderness of his prick, he began to move under her once again as she fiercely pounded herself onto him.

Harry broke from the kiss and whispered "Come for me" into her ear.

Carol's body seemed to contract, as if she was shrinking away from everything and then she began to shake violently, a high-pitched moan voiced with every breath.

Harry held her as her orgasms rolled on and on, kissing her face and neck, and bathing in her glow. Just when he would think she was done, she would arch herself down on him again and her orgasms would thunder on.

Harry could think of no place in the world he'd rather be.

As she finally began to tremble down to a stop, she crawled up his body to place her head near his ear.

He listened, smiling, expecting a lover's endearments.

"Harry, what's your housekeeper's name?"

Harry's face had the look of a bull hit between the eyes with a two-by-four.

"Anna. Anna Pessino, why?"

"She come to clean on Thursdays?"

"Yes."

"What day is it?"

"Holy shit, it's Thursday!"

"Yeah, you'd better get ready to formally introduce us. We've already met somewhat more informally."

Anna let herself back out, praying that the girl didn't tell Mr. Harry that Anna had been spying on them.

She paced outside for a time, worrying if she was giving them enough time to finish. Finally the Texas heat drove her back to the door.

As she opened it, she yelled into the house. "Hello, Mr. Harry! It's Anna Pessino!"

From the bedroom she heard "Be with you in a minute Anna" and then, well, it sounded like someone was getting a spanking. She thought she heard Mr. Harry say "I told you this was coming".

A few moments later, out of the short hallway that led to the master bedroom came Mr. Harry in a bathrobe, hand-in-hand with the young girl she'd seen earlier, wearing a large t-shirt. She was rubbing her bottom.

"Hello Anna, it's been so long since I've seen you. How are you? How's Emiliano? How're the kids?"

He hugged her and her heart sang as she felt the life coursing through him and knew this was one that Ms. Angie had not destroyed.

"I am good and they are all fine, Mr. Harry, although Emiliano, he doesn't get around too well anymore. And who is this lovely young lady?"

"Ah, Anna Pessino meet Carol Riley. I believe the two of you met more casually just a bit ago, and you do need to get to know each other. Anna, Carol is now the lady of the house-"

Carol leapt up, throwing her arms around his neck. Her t-shirt caught on the belt of his robe so she hung there, her bare ass covered in reddened handprints before Anna, as she whispered in Harry's ear.

"Oh God sir, I love you so much."

Harry gently disentangled her and lowered her to the floor.

"As I was saying, Carol is now the lady of the house and therefore I want the two of you to get to know each other. Carol, Anna has kept house for my family for the last, let's see, eighteen years I think."

Carol took Anna's hand in both of hers.

"Anna, from what I've seen, you do a superb job and I think that the best thing for me to do will be to stay out of your way, unless you want my help."

"Ms. Carol, help I don't need, this house is no trouble at all. But company, company would be nice sometimes."

Carol's face lit up. "Harry, don't you worry, Anna and I will get along just fine."

Harry took Anna's other hand in both of his.

"Anna, the last six months have been hard on me and I want you to know that I've appreciated your efforts to brighten up the house with the fresh flowers and fruit. I was too messed up to appreciate them, but don't ever doubt that I appreciate the effort you went to. I know you know that my parents loved you and appreciated you. I feel the same. I hope I can show you how much."

"It was nothing Mr. Harry. You are a good man. Much better than that Ms. Angie deserves- "

"Anna, do me a favor, please don't mention that person again."

"Of course Mr. Harry, of course."

"Now if you'll excuse us, we'll get out of your way. We have an appointment this afternoon that we need to get ready for."

"Of course sir, you and Ms. Carol go ahead and get cleaned up and out of here."

It took longer to get out of the house than they had planned as the rest of the in-stock items from Madame Cornelius showed up promptly at noon and they checked them in and signed off on the shipment.

After a very late breakfast at a nearby bistro, Harry and Carol headed for the doctor's office.

"Baby Girl, I hate to bring up bad subjects and worse memories, but I need you to tell me all you can about Rick Cox."

"Harry, I've been thinking about that. There's really nothing at Rick's that I can't live without. I have you. There's nothing else I need. I don't want you to go to Rick's."

"Baby Girl, you're about half a heartbeat from a name change to 'Little Cunt'. Eddy and I are going to Rick's; we're getting your stuff. That's settled. Now, what can you tell me?"

"Yes sir. Rick is a small-time middle-man and drug dealer who likes to pretend he's big league. He thinks sticking metal through every part of his body he can makes him hard-core. His shipments generally arrive on Wednesday night and usually it's all been moved out or sold by late Thursday night, early Friday morning. He keeps a gun in his bedside table, but he's just as likely to be sleeping on the couch in the living room as in the bedroom, especially after a long night. He's a pretty deep sleeper. He is convinced he's a much meaner son-of-a-bitch than he is. The apartment complex is pretty dead during the day, most of the people who live there keep night hours, so a lot of noise will attract the wrong kind of attention and while I doubt they'd help Rick, no one much likes him, some of them might conceivably try to take you and Eddy for whatever you're carrying. It's apartment #257, Terra Nuevo Apartments, right off of San Jacinto."

"Charming neighborhood. Alright Baby Girl, the doctor I'm taking you to, Margo Wohler, well, she's an old friend. I trust her with you, the most precious thing I possess, so you shouldn't be nervous. You'll be fine. Do you want me in with you while she examines you?"

"No sir. I imagine she's going to ask me how I got some of these injuries. I don't think you need to hear that until after you've come back from Rick's."

"As you wish, Baby Girl, but when I'm back, I am going to want to hear everything."

"Yes sir, you will. After you're through at Rick's you have only to ask."

They pulled into the parking lot and made their way upstairs to Margo's office.

The receptionist smiled at them. "You must be Mr. Grimes. Dr. Wohler-Sapperstein had me clear the rest of the afternoon for the two of you. Go right on through, first door on the right."

When she saw them come through the door, Margo stood and made her way around the desk. She hugged Harry and it seemed to Carol that perhaps her hug was a little hungry and a little long and that both of their hugs were a little loaded with desire.

"Harry, you haven't changed a bit, still as handsome as ever."

Harry looked at Margo. She had changed.

Tall, with long limbs and a longish face, she had always reminded him somewhat of a newborn colt when they were in school together. Not that she was horse-faced by any means, Margo was a very pretty girl, and had grown into a lovely woman. With maturity her figure had filled out although in a longish fashion. Lots of voluptuous padding was there, it was just stretched out a bit. She had been beautiful and exotic when Harry had seen her last.

Now it seemed a weight was bearing down upon her, a sadness, and it was taking its toll upon her. As her soul slumped under the strain, so did all the rest of her.

"Margo, you look great. I see marriage agrees with you."

From the wince that barely flickered across her features Harry knew he'd found at least part of the problem.

"Yeah Harry, it does. Two years now, Dr. Benjamin Sapperstein, cardiologist. He's a good man Harry, we're happy."

And if that's true Margo, Harry thought to himself, I'll eat my own head.

"I'm sorry Margo, Carol, I'm being rude. Margo Wohler-Sapperstein, Carol Riley. Margo, Carol means more to me than words can express. I - I - I know that a complete physical takes a lot of time Margo, so why don't I get out of the way, let you get started. I'll be outside in the reception area."

Harry went out and exited into the hall, dialing the cell as he did so.

"Eddy, yeah, Harry here. You still in the same place? Yeah? Ok, I'll be there around eleven tomorrow morning, we'll take your truck, and I'm thinking we'll be in and out in about an hour, hour and a half. I need you to pick up some supplies for us, untraceable. Yeah, I'm thinking it might get a little messy. Here's what I need..."

When Margo called him back into her office, Carol leapt up to hug him. She seemed chastened, frightened.

"Harry, while overall she's in amazingly good health, you got to another one just in time. It'll be awhile before all the lab work gets in, but from the physical exam and the x-rays, this Rick character was slowly beating his way up to doing life-threatening damage to Carol. It's blind luck or the grace of God that he hasn't seriously injured her because he's come within a hair of it more than several times. There's evidence hidden in her body of torturous, systematic abuse."

"Harry, if she isn't screaming gibberish at you, I am."

Carol sat, looking confused, but Harry just nodded sadly.

"She did Margo. And we're going to."

Tears started to leak from Margo's eyes. She put her arms around Harry's neck and kissed him fiercely on the cheek.

"You're a goddamn good man, Harry Grimes, and don't you ever forget it; Eddy too."

She stepped away, wiping the tears away.

"Stupid Texas allergy season."

Harry smiled. "You gonna give Eddy a hug and a kiss like that if you see him?"

"You're goddamned right I will, Harry."

"I'll tell him. Have him come by and collect."

"Go right ahead. I owe him that."

"I will. Margo, I cannot thank you enough, and we'll be waiting to hear from you on the test results. I assume the receptionist will tell me how much I owe you?"

"Harry, there is no charge. And there won't be any argument. It's settled. Carol, it was a joy meeting you. Thank you for all you're doing for Harry. He deserves someone like you and I believe you deserve him. Be good to him."

Carol took Margo's hand.

"Dr. Wohler," she said, blatantly leaving off Margo's husband's name, "I will be good to him. And if you won't take money, will you please come for supper one evening, whenever it's convenient for you? Please? It's really the least I can do to thank you, and I'd insist on it if I thought I could get away with it."

"Carol, I'd love to but finding a night when Benjamin and I are both free is so difficult-"

"Dr. Wohler," Carol interjected, "I didn't invite you and your husband. I invited you."

Margo looked startled, taken aback by the breach of etiquette, but slowly she smiled.

"You're right, you did Carol, I'm sorry for assuming you meant the two of us. Let me see what I can do, I have Harry's number."

They left the office. After they had gotten into the car, Harry turned to Carol.

"Little Cunt, what the fuck was up with you slighting Dr. Sapperstein. She's married to him for heaven's sake. You were very rude."

"Sir, do you truly want an answer to that?"

"I wouldn't have asked otherwise."

"Very well sir. How did I put it? 'She's screaming, not verbally, not audibly'. Sir, she's in a lot of pain and you know as well as I do that her marriage is about as unhappy as they come."

"Alright, I'm with you so far, but what does a dinner invitation have to do with any of that?"

She turned to look at him somewhat quizzically.

"Harry, it's silly questions time again, I see. She wants you. I believe that deep down you want her too. I know that I want her. I think she can handle the truth of you and me."

"Little Cunt, even if you were right, and I think you're dead wrong about her wanting me, although you may be a little right about my wanting her, she is a very attractive woman, that still doesn't absolve you of your rudeness."

"You're right sir, it doesn't. And I stand ready to accept any punishment you see fit to hand out. I will apologize to Dr. Wohler-Sapperstein the next time I see her, sir."

As Anna stopped at the table to pick up her check, she noticed it was in an envelope. Opening it, she pulled out first a folded piece of note paper.

"Anna,

Sometimes it takes time in a hell where you don't feel you have anything to appreciate to remind you how much you truly do have.

The first check represents your new weekly pay.

The second is another of my crude attempts at thanking you.

Thank you again,

Harry Grimes"

Anna reached in the envelope to pull out the first check. Another fifteen or twenty dollars would be a good addition to the $150 a week he was already paying her.

The check was for $300.

Anna was in shock. Surely this was the second check, so she pulled out the other check.

$1000. It was a check for a thousand dollars! So the three hundred was the first check; he was going to be paying her three hundred a week for one day's work!

Sometimes, she reflected, God's will was that good things happened to good people. Or maybe it was God's will that Carol Riley happened to good people.

The two of them were quiet through the grocery and drug store runs, Harry lost in thought, Carol following behind him, doing the shopping.

As they made their way home, Carol broke the long silence.

"Sir, what was the doctor referring to when she said 'you got to another one just in time'? What did she mean about 'screaming gibberish'? Why does she owe you and Eddy?"