Colin’s Women

by Kellis

Fall, 2011

“The storm’s over, Nell.”  Colin said it gently to the spicy head pressing up under his chin.  Rain still hissed on the roof and tinkled in the downspouts but several minutes had passed since the last rumble of thunder.  With her back against his belly and her knees drawn up away from him, her eleven-year-old torso was just the right length to fit beneath his chin but above the erection that lay in the crack of her buttocks — presumably shielded by her sheer nightgown and his cotton nightshirt.

“I know it, Grandpa.”  Her voice was intimate, soft as his own.

He listened closely but heard no evidence of drowsiness.  “You’re not sleepy.”

“Neither are you.”

“I should be and so should you.  Tomorrow’s a school day — today actually.”  He glanced at the glowing clock numerals on the nightstand.  “It’s past three, you know.”  When she didn’t respond, he added, “How’d you know I’m not sleepy?”

She wiggled her buttocks.  Immediately his member twitched in response.

Colin took a deep breath.  “Nell …  Do you really know what that means?”

“I know if you’re asleep it’s … different.”

“How?”

“Soft and a lot smaller.”

He grunted.  “At my age I guess you’re right.  Of course it’s mostly soft when I’m awake too.”

“Unless I push it with my heinie.”

“Huh!  When did you notice that?”

“Everytime it storms at night.  Grandpa, what do you call it?”

“Call what?”

Again she wiggled her buttocks.  Again his member leapt detectably.

“Nell … it has a lot of names.”

“What’s the right name?”

He hesitated and finally heaved a sigh.  “I believe in education, sweet Nell, but at your age if you know too much it could be dangerous.”

“‘Dangerous’?” she repeated in wonder.  “To me?”

“To me. Actually to both of us.”

“Just knowing the right word would be dangerous?”

“Kids don’t usually know it, honey.  If you said it in the wrong place, they’d ask you where you heard it.”

“What’s the wrong place?”

“In front of almost any adult — or another kid who says it in the wrong place.”

“You mean it’s like a secret?”

He thought a moment.  “How much do I dare to tell you?”

“I won’t tell anybody!”

“If I could be sure of that …”  He kissed the top of her head.  “I love you so much, sweetness.”

“And I love you back, Grandpa.  My first memory — and nicest — is you reading Alice to me.”

“It’s sweet of you to tell me that, honey, even if your mother did think it was too old for you.”

“But it wasn’t.  It was so cool!”

“I’ve always tried to answer every question you asked to the best of my knowledge and belief, but now we’re getting into complications.”

“What’s that?”

“I’m talking about sex.  Do you know that word?”

“I think so.  We talk about it at recess.”

“I’m sure you do.  All kids do.  Well, this is the problem.  Your body will change a lot in the next couple years as you start to really grow up.  Most people believe children, especially girls, should be kept ignorant about sex until their bodies change, that is, until they’re fully capable of doing it.”

“Do you believe that, Grandpa?”

“No, I believe in telling kids the truth whenever they ask.  But, sweetie, most people believe it so strongly they’ll hurt any adult who tells a kid too much.”

She thought about that for a moment before saying stoutly, “They wouldn’t if they didn’t know.”

He chuckled wryly.  “Yes, but they have lots of ways to find out.”

“Huh!  I’ll bet that’s what she was doing!”

“What?  What who was doing?”

“Mama.  The last storm we had … last week, do you remember?”

“Vaguely.”

“You weren’t wearing your nightshirt, just a T-shirt.”

He swallowed.  “Really?”

“Yeah.  Anyway, Mama came in the bathroom the next morning while I was taking a shower.  She took off her robe and got in the shower with me.”

“Did she!  Does she do that often?”

“Not since I was seven, when she started letting me shower by myself.”

“Was she in a hurry or something?”

“A hurry?  She didn’t take a bath.  What she wanted was to feel my …”

“Feel you?”

“Feel my cunny.  Is that the right word?”

“Um. The lips between your legs?”

“I guess they are sort of like lips, aren’t they?”  Her hand moved over her hip.

“My god!  Did she hurt you?”

The girl tilted her head to look up at him.  In the red glow of the clock her eyes met his in wonderment.  “Could it have hurt?”

He grunted.  “I gather it didn’t.”

“Oh, no! Just the opposite.”

He said dryly, “Felt good, did it?”

“Let me show you.”  She caught the hand carelessly thrown over her belly, segregated the forefinger and thrust it between her legs.  He thought of resistance but not seriously.  She wore no panties.  His finger touched soft flesh with the impression of a dimple then unmistakably a lumpy clitoris.  Briefly she rubbed him up and down in the tiny furrow before releasing him.  “That’s what she did.  Was it to … check if I’d done anything with you that night?”

“Did it feel good, Nell?”

“Uh-huh.  Then and now.  And I know how to make it even better.  But did I guess right?”

“You know how to —”  Suddenly he leaned past her and turned on the bedside lamp.

Blinking, she twisted her torso to look at him with large, brown eyes.  Her brown hair, half-way down her back, glistened.

Having glanced around the room, he clambered out of bed, drew the drapes on the French doors to the verandah, went to the hall door, closed it and twisted the knob lock.  When he turned back to the bed, the girl had sat up and thrown back the covers.

Prepubertal legs crossed before her, pink gown streaming unbuttoned off her shoulders, she regarded him solemnly and asked, “What’s wrong, Grandpa?”

His nightshirt was caught on the obstinate erection.  He snatched the cloth free as he knelt on the bed.  “Nothing, I hope.  Lie back and show me what she did.”

She protested, “I did show you — with your own finger.”  But she obeyed, falling back willingly on the stacked pillows and splaying her legs.

“Pull yourself open,” he directed.

Her forefingers pried the pale, hairless labia apart.  He bent and studied the display intently.

She asked hesitantly, “Is it … am I pretty?”

He blinked up at her.  “In fact, my sweet little Nell, you are lovely beyond words.  Wait a sec.”

He left the bed but returned immediately with a large mirror that he stood just before the fully exposed vulva.  “Take a look.”

She propped herself on an elbow to raise her head, adjusting the mirror angle with her free hand.  She giggled.  “It looks sort of like a ketchup lid.”

“A what?”

“You know, with the hole in the middle to squeeze out the ketchup.”

“You have what’s known as an ‘annular hymen.’”  He chuckled.  “It’s called that because your ketchup hole, as you say, is in the very middle.”

“Woops!”

They both laughed.  He asked, “Were you trying to squeeze something out?”

“Not from the pee hole.  I’m sorry, Grandpa.”

“Well, you only wet the mirror.  Don’t worry about it.”

“Are you saying it’s pretty because you’re my grandpa who loves me?”

“Anyone who appreciates such things would think so too.”

“Who ap-appreciates it?”

“Boys, of course.”  He shook his head.  “But please don’t go showing it to them!”

“How about men?”

“Sweetness …”

“I’m just kidding, Grandpa.  I’ll only show it to you.  And Mama.  I guess I can’t help it if she looks.”

“No, I guess not.”  He wiped the mirror on his nightshirt and returned it to the dresser.  When he reached under the lamp shade, she said tentatively, “Grandpa …”

He paused.  “What, sweetness?”

“Will you … show me yours?”

Colin studied the guileless face.  Her eyes met his steadily, bright in the lamplight.  He sighed.  “It seems I’ve opened a door.”

“A door?”

“I looked at you first.”

Her voice, already low, became little more than a whisper.  “I squeezed it last week.  Under my heinie. When my gown rode up.  But I’d like to see it.”

He said dryly, “I thought you were wiggling a lot!  All right, sweetness, if you’ll promise me you won’t tell anyone but your husband where you saw your first one.”

“My husband?”

“No, I take it back.  I might still be here another ten years.  Promise you won’t tell anyone.”

“I promise, Grandpa.”

The mirror adventure had positioned her on his side of the bed.  From half an arm’s length her eyes fixed on his midsection as he raised the nightshirt hem.  Before he could react her hand flew up and caught the object of her interest, now dangling limply.  He trembled but managed not to jerk away.

“It’s changed!” she declared, eyes wide on his.  “What happened to it?”

“Reality set in.”

“You mean …”  She blinked at him.

“Dreaming is what made it rise.”

Gently he removed her hand, turned out the light, scooted her to the middle of the large bed and slipped under the sheet beside her.  Immediately she snuggled against him, head on his shoulder.  “Were you dreaming about me, Grandpa?”

He took another breath.  “If your mother finds you here in the morning, she’ll have a lot to say.”

“You want me to go back to my own bed?”

“No, sweetness, I don’t want you to, but it would be better for us all.  Hmm.  I have something to tell you.  There’s a book near the left end of my third bookshelf, called Woman’s Body / The Owner’s Manual.  It’s written for young teenagers, with drawings and definitions of the hard words.  Why don’t you sort of ‘stumble across’ it tomorrow?  If anybody asks where you learned what you want to know, you can tell them about finding that book.”

“Hey!  Can I go read it now?”

“No, you’d have to turn on a light and wake up your mother.  Do it tomorrow.”

“All right, Grandpa.”  She got out of bed, came around to his side and kissed his cheek lightly.  “I love you.”

“And I love you.”  He squeezed a buttocks cheek.  “You know how to unlock my door, don’t you?”

“Of course.  Good night, Grandpa.”

“Good night, sweetness.”

He could barely make out her parting words from the hallway.  “Thanks for being the best grandpa in the world.”

* * *

“Grandpa, can I talk to you for a minute?”

“I think I’m supposed to tell you to say ‘may I’ instead of ‘can I,’ but I’m not your English teacher.  Sure.  Come on in.”  Colin turned off the E-reader and laid it on the nightstand under the lamp.  Wearing only a nightshirt, his head and shoulders were propped up on pillows with the bed sheet pulled up to his waist.

She crossed the room in her nightgown, kicked off her slippers, crawled into bed beside him and giggled.  “Not English: sex!”

“Oh, god!  Well, don’t tell anybody!”

“I won’t.  What were you reading?”

He chuckled slightly.  “Would you believe a slushy romance novel?  The new ones are a lot more interesting than when I was young.”

“‘Slushy’ means sexy?”

“Oh, yes.”

She giggled.  “Is that what’s poking up under the sheet?”

He took a deep breath.  “Your mother must still be out.”  He glanced at the clock.  “Why not, it’s only two a.m.  What about you?  A growing girl needs her beauty sleep.”

“Don’t you think I’m beautiful?”

“You know I think you’re beautiful.  But you still ought to be asleep.  Else you’ll be running around here with bruises under your eyes like when you stayed up all night reading my book.”

“How did you know about that?”

“What did you do, take a flashlight under the covers?”

“Grandpa!  Did you sneak into my bedroom?”

He chuckled fondly.  “Didn’t have to.  The flashlight batteries were burned out.  Did you read all of it?”

“Cover to cover.  Twice.”

He tousled her curly hair.  “So now you know all the secrets.”

“Yeah, the big ones.  But it’s the little ones that matter.”

He grinned at her thoughtfully.  “Sounds like you’re having trouble going from the general to the specific.”

She blinked.  “‘General to the specific.’  That’s exactly right!  Grandpa, you are so smart!”

“I’m glad you think so.  What’s troubling you, sweetness?”

“Lot’s of things.  What’s a dooch, Grandpa?”

“Douche.  I’m sure Woman’s Body mentioned that, if you spell it with an E.”

“What is it?”

“It … ah, to take a douche is to flush out the vagina with water or a similar liquid.”

“Oh.  Oh, yes.  Now I remember.  To wash out the sperm before you get pregnant.”

“That’s one reason.  I’ve heard of others.”

“Yeah, but that’s the reason Mama took a douche kit with her on her date, isn’t it?”

“Nell, your mother would kill us both if she knew we were talking about that.”

The girl giggled.  “Then don’t tell her.”

“Believe me —  And don’t you go asking her questions about it.”

“I don’t have to ask her.”

“Hmm.  Of course you should have normal curiosity.”

“How?”

“Well, for example, if you saw her handling a douche kit, it’d be okay to ask her about it.”

“I did.  She goes, ‘You don’t need to know yet.’”

“That’s all she said?  I’m disappointed.  Must have been her mother’s influence.  I always answered her questions.”

“Like me?”

“Well …”

“Did she hold your pennis?”

“No!”

“It’s shrunk again.”

“It does that.  Hunff!  Nell, you know I didn’t expect you to grab it.  I didn’t touch you.”

“You did too!”

“Oh.  That’s right.  In the dark.”

“Want to touch me with the light on?”

He coughed into his hand.  “What I want to do is straighten out your pronunciation.”

“My what?”

“You’ve read all these words, but some of them don’t sound the way they look.”

“Like what?”

“Penis, for example.”

“Can I call it cock?”

“Was that in the book?”

“Yeah.  Also it’s what Jimmy Wavell calls his.”

“Who’s that?”

“A friend of mine at school.”

“He’s been discussing his cock with you?”

“Yeah. It’s lots littler than yours, even when his is hard and yours is soft.  Is that the right word, Grandpa?  He calls it a ‘hard-on,’ but it’s not really very hard, kind of like a rubber toy, maybe.”

“Good god!”

“What’s the matter?”

Colin took a deep breath.  “I gather you’ve seen Jimmy’s cock.  And felt of it.”

She looked at him solemnly.  “The way he acted, I thought we were being naughty.  We were, weren’t we?”

“Well …”  He barked a laugh.  “Yes, you were being naughty.  So were we the other night.”

“No harm came of it.”

“Didn’t it?”

“No.  Jimmy and I traded.  I guided his finger like yours.”

“What else did you do?”

“Nothing.  Talked about what grownups do when they’re having sex.  He called it ‘fucking.’  That’s in the book too, but good girls don’t use that word.”

“That’s true, not at your age.”

“Can I use it to you?”

“You can say anything to me, sweetness.  But don’t get in the habit of saying ‘fuck.’  It’ll slip out and you’ll get in trouble.  How long was it before another boy wanted to trade peeps?”

She blinked.  “Another boy?  I like Jimmy, but he’s the only one.”

“Remarkable!  Sounds like he can actually keep his mouth shut.  That’s rare in a schoolboy, especially about sex.”

“Oh, I know what you mean!  When Shelley let Tom fuck her in the basement, every boy in the class was after her.  She had to transfer to a school across town.  But Jimmy’s not like that.  He’s a nerd like me.  And I made him promise, like you did me.”

“Good for you.  As you say, perhaps no harm will come of it.”

“Jimmy wants to do more.”

“Oh, he does, does he?”

“Yeah, we sat on his porch and talked.  Can I loan him your book?”

“It has my name in it.  I’ll get you another one.  I think there’s one for boys too.  What else does Jimmy want to do?”

“He wants me to …  Can I see your cock, Grandpa?”

Colin chuckled weakly.  “Sweetness, you worry me.  You can’t just go up to a boy or a man and ask to see his cock.”

“Oh, I know that!  But you’re my grandpa.”

“I hope you also know that what we do and say to each other you must never tell to anyone!”

“I know it.”

“Not even Jimmy.”

“Can I bring Jimmy home some afternoon, Grandpa?”

“If you wish, but don’t take him up to your room.”

“I was thinking of your room.”

“Well, sure; that would be okay, though I guess you ought to ask your mother.”

“She’ll be at work.”

“True.  So what did you want to know about my cock?  I’m afraid it’s not in the best shape just now.”

“You mean it’s soft.”  She sighed.  “Then it probably won’t help much.”

He stared at her.  “What kind of help did you want?”

“It’s still bigger than Jimmy’s.”  She pulled the sheet down to his knees.  Her hands separated the mostly unbuttoned halves of the shirt.  “Oh, yeah, plenty big.”  Her face turned up to him.  “Jimmy saw his sister take one in her mouth.  He wanted me to try it.  But I was afraid it might hurt.  The book says the first time can hurt a girl.  If I have to be hurt, Grandpa, I want you to do it.”

He sighed deeply.  “Nell, that’s the sweetest thing I think any girl ever said to me.  But you don’t quite understand.”  He thought a moment.  “Your ‘ketchup hole’ isn’t large enough to pass a hard penis, and your boyfriend will push very hard.  Can you imagine what happens?”

“The book says it tears.”

“Yes.  That can hurt.  And bleed.  If it’s done right, it doesn’t have to hurt very much, but few boys know how to do it right.”

She stared at him, thinking intently herself.  “How do you do it right?  Isn’t it just … pushed in?”

“True.  By right I mean arousing the girl so much she wants sex very strongly.  When I came back from the army, a girl named Marcy …  I don’t suppose it will hurt anyone to tell it now — let me have sex with her.  She was a virgin too, like you.  Ah, did you notice that word?”

“It means to have an untorn ketchup hole.”

He chuckled.  “That’s cute, but what are the right words?”

“An intact hymen.”

“Right. Very good.  By that time some of the German girls had taught me how to arouse a woman.  Marcy said she felt so good the sting was hardly noticeable.”  He chuckled again and shook his head.  “Marcy turned out to be quite a girl.  She bagged herself a cop lieutenant.  Good thing too, else she might have been your grandmother.”

Nell’s eyes showed fascination.  “I’d love to hear all about Marcy, but first …  I don’t understand something.  My hymen is down here.”  She touched her groin through the nightgown.

“So it is,” he agreed encouragingly.

“So how can it hurt you when the first time is in your mouth?”

“Well … I don’t think it does.  A long one can gag you, I gather, but that doesn’t exactly hurt.  Of course in the mouth it doesn’t feel that good either — at least I suppose it doesn’t.”

She declared, “I’m sure yours could gag me!”

“But it won’t.”

She took a breath.  “Because you won’t … do me?”

“Right.  You’re my beloved granddaughter, Nell.”

“I know you won’t ever hurt me, Grandpa.”

He grinned.  “I might spank your bottom if you annoy me too much.”

She jumped out of bed, eyes bright with withheld laughter.  “If you can catch me.”

His grin softened to a smile.  “There is that.”

She flung herself back into the bed, pressed against him and threw her arms around his neck.  “Oh, Grandpa, I love you so much.”

He kissed her pink lips.  Immediately she thrust her tongue into his mouth.  He tolerated it briefly, noting the flavor of spice, and pushed her shoulders back gently.  “Was that in the book too?”

“I don’t remember.  Jimmy thought of it.”

“Did you ask him where he learned it?”

“From his big sister.”

Colin made a face.  “Big sisters are not usually so cooperative.”

“He’s like, ‘She just came in from her date.’  Do coptails make people silly?”

“It depends on what you do with them.  What did the sister do?”

“Drank them.”

“I think you mean cocktails.”

“Jimmy wasn’t sure.  Cocktails sounds silly.  Cocks don’t have tails.”

His eyes twinkled.  “But they can have tales, with an E.”

“Huh?  Oh, stories, like yours tearing Marcy?”

He cleared his throat.  “You may not have noticed cocktails.  They are iced drinks made of whisky and flavorings with fruit to decorate the glasses’ rims.  Fruit may be where the tail came from, who knows?  But, yes, if you drink too many cocktails it can make you silly.”

“Jimmy goes, ‘She kissed me with her tongue and pulled out my cock.’”

“I see.  Did he go on to admit the rest of his luck?”

“Luck?  She kissed it but wouldn’t put it in her mouth.  She’s like, ‘I’m so sorry, Jimmy.  I must’ve come home too soon.’  What did that mean, Grandpa?  Jimmy and I couldn’t figure it out.”

“How old is his big sister?”

“Twenty-eight.”

“I expect she was sorry for taking such liberties with an underage boy.  They could put her away in this crazy state.”

Nell made an impatient gesture.  “Too soon for what?”

Colin smiled.  “Too soon to get what she wanted from her boyfriend.”

Nell thought it over.  Her eyes were intent.  “I think I know what she meant now.”

“Of course it’s just a guess.”

“Believe me, I know what she meant!  Grandpa, will you … let me …”

He was not to find out what she wanted, though he suspected.  The house timbers transmitted the rumble of the automatic garage door rising.

Nell scrambled backward to her feet.  “That’s Mama!”  She fled towards the door, calling behind her, “I’ll kiss you tomorrow.”

Colin smiled thoughtfully, shook his head and murmured while retrieving his E-reader, “Unlike Jimmy’s sister, Nell’s Mama did not come home too soon.”

But in another way perhaps she had.  Nell had left his bedroom door open.  Colin heard footsteps, surprisingly heavy in the carpeted hall.  His daughter sailed through the doorway, slamming the door against the stop, and flounced to a seat in his recliner.  She was a buxom woman of 36, wearing slacks and a ruffled blouse, brown-headed and brown-eyed.  Nell greatly resembled her as she had looked at puberty.  Her eye-shadow was smeared and lipstick remained only on the corners of her mouth.

Colin asked, “Problems?”

She took a deep breath.  “I’m not sure.”

“Not too serious, perhaps.”

“I did something tonight that I ought to regret.”

“But you don’t.”

“I do and I don’t.”

He studied her briefly.  Her eyes did not flinch.  Slowly he smiled.  “I recall you saying something like this before.”

She nodded.  “When I gave that bastard Harry my cherry.”

“Um, yes.  I’ve often wondered why you chose to tell me of it.”

She grinned.  “You’re cool, Pop.  You gave me good advice.  Mama would’ve been all haywire.”

“And you knew that much at fourteen?”

“Sure.  I always knew that about you and Mama.”

He nodded.  “You were always perceptive.  Do you need advice tonight?”

“Maybe.”

“What happened?”

She took another deep breath but delivered her bombshell in matter-of-fact tones.  “I fucked four guys tonight, three of them at the same time.”

He sat up straighter in the bed, swung his feet off the side and peered at her.  “How do you feel?”

“You mean, besides feeling like a slut?  I’m still coming down.”

“Janey …”  He sighed.  “If we have a medicated douche in the medicine cabinet, now’s the time to use it.”

She grinned sourly.  “I’d need two.  And a good mouthwash.”

“Well, do we have them?  I have some germicidal —”

“Oh, Pop!  I took all that before I left Chuck’s place.”

“This happened in front of Chuck?”  A month ago she had spoken of her enchantment with Chuck, a roadhouse operator, though omitting the name of the place and all details of Chuck, saying, “You have my cell number if you need to reach me.”

Now she said, “Oh, yes.  But it’s partly my fault.  I fucked him together with another guy last night.”

Again she bore up under his scrutiny.  He asked, “And you liked it?”

“You know about a Greek sandwich, don’t you, Pop?”

“Yes, I know about it.  I never trusted another guy enough to try one.”

She blinked.  “Another guy?”

He nodded.  “So I never looked for a woman who’d take two.  How did you like it?”

“It was heaven.”

“‘Heaven,’” he repeated.  “How drunk are you, Janey?”

She sniffed.  “I had a glass of wine with dinner and a scotch on the rocks later.  I’m not drunk at all.  And I wasn’t last night, either.”

“Then why did you do it last night?  Was that the first time?”

“The first time with two men, the first time in a Greek sandwich.  Chuck licked me while Barry slipped it up my ass.  That combination was …”  She shook her head.  “I never felt anything like it.”

“That statement can be interpreted two ways.”

She nodded.  “And that’s how it felt.  Strange at first but immediately thrilling.  And warm.  Two men’s arms around you is incredibly warm.”

He studied her.  “And tonight you found four waiting at Chuck’s place.”

“Yeah.”  A grin touched her lips.  “A surprise.”

His eyes narrowed.  “Is Chuck the domineering kind?  Did he order you to take —  You said three at once.  Who didn’t play?”

“Chuck started out just watching.  Then he merged into the flow, so to speak.  By that time I wasn’t thinking at all.  It must be the testosterone.  With that much of it in the air …”

He said dryly, “And no doubt a mouthful of jism.”

“Huh!”  She giggled.  “Don’t tell me you’ve tasted it!”

“My own, certainly.  So on balance, tonight was very pleasant for you, is that right?”

“‘Pleasant’ is too mild.  It blew my mind completely.  I thought I understood what that meant.  Now I know.”

“You passed out?”

“Not quite.  What I did was stop caring about anything in the world but the cocks sticking in me.”  She sighed.  “It’s a good thing men run out of steam — and that Chuck didn’t call for more men.  I could’ve died.  My pussy is still tingling.”

He nodded.  “You’re drunk, just not on alcohol.”

Her eyebrows rose.  “You know about this effect in women?”

“I’ve heard of it, though the female involved is usually very young and ignorant about life.”

She frowned.  “Young?”

“A sophomore girl in my high-school took on half the boys one weekend.  I know because I was one.  When it was my turn, she was panting and bitching because my pegged pants wouldn’t go over my shoes.  I fucked her with my britches half-way down and got jism on my knees.”

His daughter laughed.  “On your knees?”

“Yeah.  I must’ve been her twentieth or thirtieth.  She didn’t smell drunk and this was before drugs were a problem.”

“What happened to her?”

“They said she was okay the next day.  When somebody asked her why she did it, she used your words.  ‘It was heaven.’”  He shrugged.  “Of course she moved away.  They hushed it up.  But I’m told it’s not such a rare occurrence.”

“I never heard of anything like it.”

“Ask any big city cop.  One thing surprises me, Janey.  Why are you telling me about your little adventure?”

“Hell, Pop, you’re my father.  Can’t a girl confide in her father?”

“You know you can.”  He smiled slightly.  “I think this is about the third time.”

“The fourth.  I checked with you before I let Nell be born.”

“All right.  Tell me about this Chuck.  What’s he like?”

She raised a shoulder indifferently.  “He has a fat cock that sets me off.  It was the first one up my ass.  That was like opening a door for me.  He is very persuasive, overcomes my inhibitions, makes me like whatever he wants.”

“Do you love him?”

“Love?”  She laughed bitterly.  “He’s not a man to love.  To fuck, yeah, but that’s all.”

“I see, I guess.  It’s for sure no one has to love his partner to fuck.  Here’s something you ought to consider: he sounds like a pimp.”

Her eyes narrowed and she nodded slowly.  “He might be.  A lot of girls work at his place.”

“Do you?”

“Do I what?  You know I don’t need money, Pop.”

“This weekend — had you previously met your three new partners?”

“No.  They’re Chuck’s friends.”

“Or his customers.”

“I’m his customer…  Pop, do you mean …”

“I mean he may very well have charged admission to your voluptuous person this weekend — particularly tonight.  To some people such entertainment would be worth a pretty penny.”

“Oh, Pop, I can’t believe that!”

“You don’t want to believe that.”  Colin cocked his head.  “Does Chuck know you as Janey?”

“Well, as Jane.  It’s my name.”

He nodded in relief.  “That eases my suspicion a little.”

“But he introduced me last night as Bel, short for Belinda.  Tonight he added a last name: Belinda Touez.  It’s Latino.”

“Two-ways.”  He sniffed.  “I’m surprised it wasn’t ‘three-ways.’”

She grinned and nodded.  “They were joking about that.  I didn’t care.  I could probably do it four ways.”

“Janey, he’s a pimp.  I’ll bet he got a large one from each of your lovers.”

She sighed.  “Not that much.”

“You suspected it — or did he tell you?”

She shook her head dolefully.  “Not a word.  I thought of challenging him, but …”

“He might react violently?”

“That’s not it.”  Her expression was stricken.  “What if he didn’t let me come back?”

He studied her.  At last she looked away.  He said reasonably, “Not even heroin can addict you in two trials.”

“This is stronger than smack.”  She twisted her hands together and took a deep breath.  “But that’s why I’m sitting here.  What do you recommend?”

He paused in thought before answering.  “Well, as an obvious first, you need to quit patronizing that roadhouse.  Your good friend and lover, Chuck, is making a whore of you, a more promiscuous one than most, whether or not you get a cut of the take.  Avoiding him will give you a chance to recover your state of mind two months ago, before you even heard of him.”

Her mouth twisted.  “I’d heard.  Pauline introduced us.”

“Pauline is not our problem.  Second, if after diligent effort you find that you can’t live without your heaven, I might be able to help you.”

“You!  You’re my father.  That would be obscene.”

“Don’t jump to conclusions.  I know of a sex club downtown that can give you what you want, where you can be reasonably confident of maintaining your health.  It’s expensive — but not for you, of course.”

“Why not?”

“Because you would be one of its reasons to exist.  The men pay.”

She grimaced.  “Hooking in more genteel circumstances?”

“By appointment, on the premises.  And the men like each other.”

“My god, Pop, do you make appointments there?”

“Now and then.”  He grinned.  “I’m still healthy.”

“Why didn’t you remarry?”

“One reason is sex is better at that club.  A stronger reason is that you and Nell take good care of me.”

“Nell.”  Her eyes were hooded.

“Oh, yes.  Nell brings me breakfast in bed most mornings.  But you know that.  No one ever had a sweeter granddaughter.”

The woman nodded.  “She loves you.  More than me.”

“Now, Janey …”

“But you won’t hurt her.  I’m sure of that.”

“No, I won’t hurt her.”

She sighed.  “Pop, one night when I was about Nell’s age, I looked over the banisters and watched you fuck the babysitter.  I still dream about your cock.  Chuck’s is no fatter.”

“Janey …”  He sighed deeply.

“But doing anything with it would be obscene.  Good night, Pop.”  She got to her feet.

“Don’t go yet.”

She grinned.  “Aren’t you sleepy?  It’s going on three a.m.”

He ignored her question.  “That babysitter was a dish — a fox, as the kids say today.  She seduced every father in the neighborhood then made them contribute to her college fund.”

The woman laughed.  “Smart girl!”

“And she loved to suck cock.”

“She wasn’t sucking it when I saw you.”

“Her program was to suck you off, then fuck till she came and suck you off again if you didn’t.  She was a remarkable young lady.”

Janey looked thoughtful.  “I heard she had an abortion.”

“Yes.  The neighborhood paid for that too.”

The woman laughed and began to undress, tossing her blouse to his work table and unzipping her pants.  “Are you bragging about that girl?”

“I think she was my only underage lover since the time I was underage myself.”

“You know I don’t care about that, Pop.”

“I didn’t know.”

She shrugged, toeing off her high heels before bending to push down the tight pants legs.  “Why are you telling me?  Do you wonder if it hurt me to see you splooging the babysitter?”

“Did it?”

“Well, yeah, I was jealous of her.  I had my hand under my nightgown wanking away.”

“You knew about that at eleven?”

She grinned as she stepped out of her panties and displayed fully shaved pubes.  “You want to know who showed me?  It was Mama.”

“What?  Deliberately?”

“I saw her rubbing herself beside the pool when I was eight and immediately understood what she was doing.  Do you think I got my sexual instinct from your family or hers?”

He sighed.  “I always suspected I failed to satisfy her.”

“Everybody wanks, Pop.  You ought to know that.”

He grinned.  “I suppose so, although it’s hard to accept of women.”

“I think that’s just prejudice.”  She unsnapped and shrugged out of her brassiere.  Large, heavy breasts fell out, tipped with brown nipples that lengthened under his gaze.

“What are you doing, Janey?”

“Getting ready for bed.  I’ve got a dildo fatter than Chuck and I need it.”  She frowned.  “Don’t pretend showing you my boobs is an insult.”

“No.”  He sighed heavily.  “I’m not insulted.  Quite the contrary.  Didn’t you just imply that my cock standing for you was obscene?”

“Is it up there, Pop?”

“You want to see it?”

“Sure.”

“Go to bed, Janey.”

She laughed, deep in her throat.  “All right, Pop.  I’m mostly an obedient daughter.  I was just thinking of my babysitter with your big cock in her throat, swallowing your jizz.  She did swallow, I’ll bet.”

“What makes you so sure?”

“She was a neatnik, afraid of a mess.  You thought it was because she loved you.”

“She said she liked the taste.”

“So do I, but I never tasted yours.”

“It’s the same jizz that created you.  Don’t push your luck.”

She smiled fondly.  “All right, Pop.  But tell me: will you come to see me if I join your sex club?”

He hesitated.  “No one would know of our relationship.”

“You and I would know.”

“Yes.”

“So would you … what do you say: make an appointment with me?”

“Circumstances might arise …”

When his voice trailed off, she said, “Don’t you like me, Pop?”  She assumed a hip-shot pose, leaning forward enough for her breasts to dangle low.

He took a breath and said earnestly, “I think you’re about the loveliest thing I ever saw.”

“Well, that’s better!  Lovely and I remind you, obedient.  If you’d said, ‘Suck my cock,’ instead of ‘Go to bed,’ you’d be white-washing my tonsils about now.”

“You don’t have any tonsils.  Get out of here, Janey.”

Smiling, she gathered up her clothing from the table and padded out of the room, breasts swaying like pendulums.

* * *

Nell whispered, “Are you asleep, Grandpa?”

Colin opened his eyes.  She stood beside his recliner, wearing her school clothing.  He said,  “No, dear, just dozing.  I heard you come in.”

She smiled in relief.  “I need to talk to you something awful.”

“About something awful?”  He worked the chair’s lever and rose suddenly to a sitting position.

“About something super!”

She climbed over the arm of the chair, thrust her knees down beside his outer thighs and finally faced him in his lap.  He was suddenly aware of the maturing vagina hovering over his manhood.  Her face pressed against his shirt-covered chest and her arms encircled his shoulders.  “Oh, Grandpa, I love you.”

His hand stroked the back of her jumper.  “And I love you.  Did you get another A in pre-algebra?”

“That’s not super.”

“Oh, yes, it is — or would be.  Hmm.  Did you paint the boys’ toilet seats with red motor oil?”

“Huh?”  She blinked several times.  “You think that’s super?”

“I did when I was your age — the girls’ seats, that is.  My god, forget I said that!”

She giggled shrilly, regarding him with awe.

He took a breath.  “So tell me what you think is super.”

She grew solemn, biting her lip in hesitation.  “Is it okay to talk about sex now?”

He considered the question.  “Why shouldn’t it be?  If you listen closely, you can hear Morell in the kitchen making supper.”

“No.  I mean …  We always do it late at night.  In your bed.”

He smiled.  “I told you: you can discuss anything with me.  Though actually I’d prefer not to talk about sex in front of other people.”

“How about Mama?”

“She’s your mother.”

“But she won’t talk about it.”

“Really?  She hasn’t told you about the birds and the bees?”

“The who?”  She looked completely baffled.

He chuckled.  “That’s how my parents referred to sex.  Most animals and plants depend on it, you know.  But yes, it’s okay to talk about anything with me, even sex, any time when it’s just you and I.”

“Good.”  She raised her head to stare into his eyes.  “I did it today.”

Suddenly he felt a chill but managed a smile.  “Robbed a bank?”

“No, silly.  I made out with Jimmy.”

“You … made out.”

“Yes.  They said the bus was going to be late.  And it was, a whole hour.  Jimmy and I went to his secret place and made out.”

“Tell me what ‘made out’ means.”

Her eyes widened.  “You don’t know?”

“I know one interpretation.  What does it mean to you?”

“We had sex.”

He took a breath.  “Show me.”

“Show you what?”

“Your hymen.”

She frowned.  “Why do you want to see that?”

“To make sure you’re all right.”  Her expression gave him pause.  He raised a hand.  “It’s all right if you don’t want to.”

The frown became a smile.  “But you said it was pretty.”  She rose to her feet, raised the school skirt and lowered her white cotton panties.  He noticed only a slight yellowish stain.  Deftly lifting one foot at the time, she stripped the garment off and squatted on his chest with knees splayed.  Her hand parted the hairless lips.  “Is it still as pretty?”

“I don’t see how …” he began but trailed off.  It was unchanged.  “Yes, just as pretty.”  He tilted his head back to study her face.  “How exactly did you ‘make out,’ Nell?”

“In our mouths.  It didn’t hurt a bit.  Well … only a little at the end.”

His hands closed on her sides and restored her to her original position astride his lap.  “What did you do?”

“I sucked on his cock and he sucked on my clitoris.  Grandpa, what’s the kids’ word for that?”

“For sucking?”

“For a clitoris.”

“I don’t remember one when I was little.  I’ve heard it called a ‘nub.’”

She nodded.  “That’s what it is, a little nub.  Did you know it sort of swells up?”

He smiled.  “Sometimes.”

“Not nearly so much as Jimmy’s cock.  Or yours.”  She wiggled her buttocks experimentally and frowned when nothing leapt in response.

“So you took his cock into your mouth.”

“Oh, yes.  It tickled the back of my throat.”  She smiled reminiscently.

“Do I surmise that you rather liked it there?”

“At first it tasted like pee, but in a jiffy it was fine.”

“I presume Jimmy has been circumcised.”

“He has?  He never told me about it.”

“No, he probably wouldn’t.”

“I don’t know why not!  If I was in the circus, I’d tell him.”

“Not the circus.  A natural cock has skin to cover the knob on the end.  Most little boys nowadays have had that skin removed: that is, have been circumcised.”

Her eyes were large.  “Wouldn’t that hurt?”

“It’s done when they’re newborns; they don’t remember the hurt.  Does Jimmy’s cock have extra skin that you can pull over the knob on the end?”

“I didn’t see any.”

“I think you would have noticed if you had it in your mouth.”

“Why do they cut it off, Grandpa?”

He smiled.  “One reason might be to make cocks taste better to girls.”

She shrugged, wrinkling her nose indignantly.  “He said I tasted like pee too.”

“You probably did.  A girl has to take a sit-down bath to get all the pee out of her folds and crevices.”

“I wipe really good!”

“I’m sure you do, sweetness.  I’m surprised Jimmy knew where to suck.”

She giggled.  “I took hold of his ears and moved him to the right place.”  She shivered.  “Oh, Grandpa, that was awesome!”

“Did he give you an orgasm?”

“I think so.  It was what the book said, a climax, but words can’t tell it.”

“Did you do as much for him?”

She giggled again.  “He was quick!  He squatted over me while I sucked on him.  That was so interesting!”  She giggled.  “His mouth fell open and he sort of grunted two or three times.  I could feel his cock jumping.  Then he backed off and just sat there.  He said something funny.”

“Funny?”

“Odd, not ha-ha.  He said, ‘We’re bad people.’  I thought it was a good thing I made him suck me first.”  She sighed.  “That’s what I wanted to ask you, Grandpa.  What made him say that?  He left the bushes and wouldn’t talk to me on the bus.”

“I expect he’ll be all right tomorrow.  Is that his secret place, the bushes?”

“It’s a hollow in the boxwoods under the library windows.  He found it.  I don’t think anybody else knows about it but him and me.”

“‘But he and I.’”

“Huh?”

“Did he … come in your mouth?”

“Come?  I guess he had an orgasm too.  How do you tell in boys?”

Colin shook his head.  “I suppose the signs are subtle in boys, but believe me, you can be certain in men.”

“How?”

“Have you read about seminal fluid?”

“Oh.  I remember it in the book.  Boys don’t give it?”

“Not before puberty.  I expect Jimmy will start pretty soon.  It will surprise him.”

“No, it won’t; I’ll tell him.”

“It’ll still surprise him.  You too.  Where does Jimmy think you’re learning all this?”

“I told him about the book.”

“I hope you didn’t let him take it.”

“No, I figured you wanted me to keep it.  So tell me: will Jimmy stay mad at me?”

“No.”  Colin chuckled.  “There’s even a Latin phrase for Jimmy’s condition: post coitum tristitia : disgust after sex.  The experience is so overwhelming that boys often feel upset the first few times.”

“Disgust?”

“Or sadness.  It’s the same word.”

“That’s terrible.  It felt awesome to me.”

“And you still think so?  I guess that’s one of the famous differences.”

“Between boys and girls?”

“Right.  So, Nell, what do you think of oral sex?”

“I want to try it again.”

He sighed.  “I was afraid of that.”

“With you.”

“Nell …”

“Your cock gives out that seminal stuff, doesn’t it?”

“Yes, but —”

“What does it taste like?”

“Well, it, ah …”

“I couldn’t find it in the book.  Shelley told me it tastes good, kind of like soup without enough salt.  Tom was held back a grade.  I guess he’s old enough to give seminal stuff.”

“Wasn’t Shelley the girl who had to transfer?”

“Yeah, for fucking Tom in the basement.  Is there a kids’ word for that stuff?”

“I guess ‘spunk.’  Though actually when I was young we called it simply ‘come.’  You produced come when you came.”

She blinked.  “That’s how Jimmy says it.”

He chuckled.  “Are you checking up on him?”

“It sounded silly.  Will you let me taste?”

“Nell, you’re my blood granddaughter.  My only grandchild.  Besides, you don’t want to fool with an old man’s equipment.”

“I guess I could suck Tom.”

To his surprise Colin experienced an almost irresistible urge to slap her.  In her life until this moment he had never punished her beyond a frown or a sharp word.  He took a deep breath.  “Nell, I would really hate for you to do that.”

She frowned.  “What’s wrong with it?”

“This Tom: I’ll bet he bragged on having sex with Shelley in the basement.”

She nodded slowly.  “Jimmy said he did.  That’s how the principal found out.”

“Do you want Tom bragging that Nell Heath sucked his cock?”

Eyes enlarged, she bit her lip.  “Is that so bad?  Beth is bragging about it already.”

“Beth?”

“Beth Harper.  She says she sucked his stuff twice in a closet in their church.  I don’t go to church, but I could use Jimmy’s secret place.”

“Why don’t you ask Beth how it tastes?”

“I guess I could.  But you know, Grandpa, smells and tastes are hard to tell of.”

“Some people are better at it than others.”

Her eyes twinkled.  “You didn’t ask me how I knew what pee tastes like.”

“I can guess.”

She nodded.  “On my finger.  I was curious.  Weren’t you ever curious?”

“Everybody is curious, honey.”

“Then tell me how your come tastes.”

He stared at her.  After a moment he chuckled.  “I’ll admit — to you — that I tasted it when I was only a little older than you.  I can remember it wasn’t at all unpleasant and being surprised at how little flavor it had.  I expected it to taste like milk.”

“It didn’t?”

“Not at all.”

“You never tasted anybody else’s?”

“No, dear.  I much prefer women’s juices.”

“Do women make juice like men?”

“No, not like men.  But yes, they get juicy when they want sex.”

“They do?  I don’t.”

“You’re pushing.  Give yourself another year.”

“Enough to stain their clothes?”

“What?  Not from sex juice.  It’s a clear liquid.”  He studied her guileless face and grinned slowly.  “Of course.  That’s what all this is: pure curiosity.”

She thought about it, grinned and shook her head.  “Not all of it, Grandpa.  I got a warm feeling in my middle when I sucked Jimmy’s cock.  And when he sucked me, it was the best thing I ever felt.”

His eyes narrowed.  “You said it hurt at the end.”

“Well, yeah.  He kept on too long.”

“Girls have told me the clit is too sensitive for sucking.  You should have him lick instead.”

Her eyes fixed on his.  “Then you think it’s all right, what we did.”

“Oh god, Nell.”  He looked away.  “What worries me is that you’ll go too far with it.”

“Too far?  You mean with more boys?”

“Or throw your cherry away.  It still has value, even in today’s world.”  He chuckled sourly.  “I guess I’m just old-fashioned when it comes to my own women.”

“Am I one of your women, Grandpa?”

“That’s how I count you.”

“Thank you, Grandpa.  You’re the greatest.”

“Stick with Jimmy, Nell.”

“If he’ll speak to me again.”

“Don’t worry about that.  He’ll get over his tristitia .”

“Can I bring him here tomorrow?”

“Tomorrow is Saturday.”

“He only lives a couple blocks up the street.”

Colin shrugged.  “It’s okay with me, though you really ought to ask your mother.”

“She’ll probably be in bed with a hangover.  But we’ll be quiet.”

“Don’t bring him too early.”

“Okay.  We can try a way to fuck that won’t break my cherry.”

“You already have.”

“No, I mean real fucking, not in the mouth.  Beth and Celia were talking about it at recess.”  She frowned.  “Why doesn’t your book mention sex in the butt hole?”

The intercom on his side table beeped and the maid’s amplified voice sounded.  “Suppertime, Mr. Redfield.  Nell, if you’re in there, you come too.”

Colin pushed the button.  “Thank you, Morell.  We’re on our way.”

“Oh!” muttered Nell.  “I need to use the bathroom.”  She slipped out of his lap and vanished, leaving him with several concerns to mull as he carefully descended the hall stairs.

* * *

He heard the garage door motor and looked at the clock: 11:25.  On a Friday night!  He chuckled and asked himself before returning to his ebook reader, “When did Janey get so obedient?”  At least she was home at a reasonable hour.

From the corner of his eye he saw her pad through his doorway wearing a strange dress in a flowery print.  This time she had removed her shoes and walked quietly.  She sat in his recliner, turned it toward the bed and regarded him expectantly.  Eyes on the book, he pretended to ignore her.

“What’s so interesting?” she asked after awhile.  “You’re even grinning a little.”

“Oh?  Where’d you come from, Janey?  You do know it’s customary in civilized society to announce yourself, at least by knocking at the door.”

“Civilized!” she repeated scornfully.  “What are you reading?”

“One of Rachel Thorpe’s slushpiles.  Her heroine has carefully tied up a loop of ribbon and practiced tonguing it over a dildo in her mouth.  She’s planning for her lover to withdraw his cock decorated the same way.  But already the man is curious about the funny way she talks, before she can get his britches open.”

Janey’s eyebrows rose.  “Another ruined plan, is it?  About like mine with Chuck.”

“Well, it’s too soon to tell if this one’s ruined.  What happened with Chuck?”

“Not too soon to tell for Chuck.  I told him I wouldn’t be in this weekend.  He said …”  She took a deep breath.  “He implied he’d hurt Nell if I didn’t show.”

“He what?”  Colin put down his e-reader and sat up.

“I was … surprised and upset that he even knew about her.  Of course I didn’t know it when I went down there tonight.”

“What happened?”

“He had three guys waiting.  You were right.  They paid Chuck to use me.  I don’t know how much.”

“And did they?”

“Use me?  Oh, yes.”  She shuddered, though apparently not with pleasure.  “It was different, Pops.  Chuck scared me.  They hurt me.  Chuck slapped me when I complained.”

He studied her unmarked face.  Either she had worn no makeup or it had rubbed off.  “Do you have bruises?”

She shrugged.  “I’m sure — internally.  My anus bled a little.”

“What did you do — slip out while they weren’t looking?”

“Exactly.  I had to leave my shoes and clothing.  The first three guys were fucked out and Chuck went to get three more.  He locked me in the room but I worked the latch with a hairpin.”

“Did they rape you, Janey?”

“Not exactly.  I knew what was going to happen when I went in there.”

“Did you tell them no?”

“After they twisted my arm behind my back, but Chuck made me shut up.”

“Then it was rape.”  His voice firmed.  “Go to the bathroom and wash yourself out with whatever you can find.  A torn anus can be seriously infectious.  Let me make a phone call or two and I’ll come in to help you.”

“What if Chuck comes after me?”

“I hope he tries.  Go on.  I’ll take care of the external problems.”

She sprang out of the chair and fell beside him on the bed, arms tight around his neck.  “Oh, god, Pops!  I feel so much better already.”

He disengaged her gently.  “Go clean up, honey.  And close my door behind you.”

When she had left, he consulted a number in his notebook and punched buttons on the telephone.  On the fourth ring a man answered.

Colin said, “Stude, I know it’s late, but I need help.”

“Is this Judge Redfield?”

“Yes.”

“You need help that bad?”

“I’m afraid so, old pal.”

“Who you want rubbed?”

“It may come to that.  Do you know a place on Meredith Drive they call Chuck’s Roadhouse?”

“Yeah.  Smooth looking but rough acting, like its operator.”

Colin took a breath.  “My daughter, Janey, has got herself tangled up with this Chuck.”

“Romantically?”

“Sexually.”

“I hope she’s not in his stable.”

“That may be the problem.  He thinks so.  She doesn’t.”

Stude paused before asking, “How does that work?”

“To get her to service his clients, he’s threatening harm to her daughter.”

“Who?”

“My granddaughter, Nell Heath.  He’s researched Janey enough to know about the kid.”

“Huh!  You’d think the Redfield name would slow him down.”

“She still uses her married name.  Chuck hasn’t actually hurt Nell yet, though he’s hurt Janey.  I take this very seriously, Stude.  I’d appreciate if you’d deliver him a stiff warning.  He could be charged with rape, kidnapping, assault on a female and coercion by threat.  Tell him if he comes near my granddaughter, I’ll see him dead.”

“I’m putting my shoes on, Judge.  I take it you want Janey left alone too.”

“Janey is very much her own woman, but she can’t handle that crowd.  See what you can do.”

“I can do a lot.  What’s the limit?”

“Your best judgment.  Thank you, Stude.”

“You’re welcome.  Like old times, eh?  I’ll call you when I have something to report.  Or get arrested.”

“Please do, either way.”

Colin got up, slipped into a cotton robe and slippers and went down the hall to Janey’s bedroom.  He closed her door carefully behind him and locked it.  The light shone from her bathroom, whose door stood ajar.  Inside he found her bent far over, naked, peering between straight legs into a mirror propped upon the toilet seat, probing her anus with a cuetip.

“Let me,” he said, turning her buttocks closer to the light.

“I’ve douched in front,” she volunteered, holding the cuetip towards him.

“First an inspection.”  With thumbs gouging close to the anus, he pried it open side-to-side then vertically.  Her flesh glowed wetly crimson with a faint seminal odor.  “How many took you here?”

“All four.  They swapped around.”

“I see two tiny tears.  They are not bleeding.  What did your lovers put in here?”

“Just cocks.  The first one tried it dry.  I think it hurt him too.”

“Bastard!  These will heal up in a few days if you keep foreign objects out.”

“How long?”

He chuckled grimly.  “You sound disappointed.  How can it feel that good in an asshole?”

“By it itself it’s not so great — though it has its moments.”

“What you want is all holes plugged, is that it?”

“Ooo!”

“For your information, Janey, you can take two cocks at once in your pussy.”

She regarded him wide-eyed over her shoulder.  “I never thought of that.  Wow!”

“You might even like it better.  I’ve heard of three at once.”

“Huh!  How would you arrange the men?”

“I have a picture of three in the same pussy on my computer.”

“I’d like to see it.”

He stood up, looking at the open medicine cabinet.  “Did you use the last medicated douche?”

“No, I bought a box after Pauline introduced me to Chuck.”  She chuckled humorlessly.  “For a librarian I suddenly had a fast life.”

“And you loved it,” he accused.

She nodded.  “Chuck has a little lecture on that subject.  It goes, ah, ‘Most women don’t have the least idea how great their superb equipment can make them feel.’”

“He’s probably right.  Women can reach the absolute extremes.”

“You want me to wash out my asshole?”

“You might even take an enema.  I see a Fleet.  Then apply the medicinal douche.  Those little tears are dangerous as hell.  That’s how queers get AIDS.”

“I don’t think these guys were queer.”

“Don’t you?  Normal guys are leery of showing each other their cocks.”

“Oh yeah? How about your sex club?”

“Some of its members swing both ways, I believe.  It’s what you get used to.  Speaking of that, I’ll give Matie a call tomorrow.”

“About me?”

“I’ll tell her I’ve got an orgy girl for her.  One named … what was it, Belinda Touez?  After that it’s up to you.  But give those abrasions at least a week to heal.  You shouldn’t hear any more from Chuck.  Let me know immediately if you do.”

“Matie is the madam?”

He grinned.  “More like the head mistress.  You’ll see.”

“Don’t tell her I’m Belinda.  That was Chuck’s name for me.”

“Then pick another.”

“You pick it.”

He reached in the cabinet, withdrew an enema box and handed it to her.  “Get going.  You want my help?”

“No.  This’ll stink.”

“Holler if you need me.”  He started for the door.

“You’ve got a hard-on,” she accused.

“How could I?  That would be obscene.”

* * *

The house telephone awoke him.  A light sleeper, he sat up clear-headed, turned on the bedside lamp and raised the receiver.  The clock indicated 2:17.

“Yes.”

“Judge Redfield?  It’s Stude.”

“Go ahead.”

“I’m in my car in front of the roadhouse.  It’s crawling with cops.”

“I hope they put it out of business.  Who called them?”

“Oh, it’s out of business, all right.  Somebody skewered whatever it was Chuck used for brains.”

“Ah, did what?”

“I’ve still got pretty good contacts in the squad room.  Somebody wearing a lady’s pump with a needle heel ran the needle into Chuck’s head more than once.  They’ve even got a shoe with the rubber tip missing off the heel.”

“Making it look like a woman killed him.”

“Yeah, one named Belinda.  They got a customer who says Chuck raped her first, so maybe she’s not in too much trouble.  But just in case, Judge, this is a head’s up.”

“Thank you.  Did you have the chance to talk to Chuck?”

“No.  They think he was killed no later than midnight.”

“I see.  What have you told your squad-room friends to account for your interest?”

“Just passing by.”

Colin took a deep breath.  “Good work, Stude.  Check with them in the morning and let me know what else you find out.”

“Call you at home?”

“Right. Anytime, day or night.”

After the click Colin waited.  As expected he heard a second click.  He hung up the telephone, got out of bed, thrust feet into slippers, threw on a robe and hurried down the hall to Janey’s room, where the light was already on.

She was sitting up in bed.  Her eyes were huge.  “I didn’t do it.”

“I want to believe you.”

“I didn’t.  I really didn’t!  I told you: Chuck was rounding me up some more men when I left.”

“Where did he go for the men?”

“In the bar.”

“All right.  Do you have any idea who killed him?”

“I’d bet on Shartruz.”

“Chartreuse?  Who’s that?”

“She’s his main squeeze.  I heard she’s part owner of the club, but I don’t believe it.  She’s too young.”

“How young?”

“In her twenties.  And she’s a lush.”

“According to Stude, Belinda killed him.”

“I heard that, but it wasn’t me.  Maybe they found my shoes and somebody said they were Belinda’s.”

“Maybe your heel made the hole in his head.  Did it have a rubber tip?”

“They all do.”

“Hmm.  Is a woman’s pump heavy enough for the heel to penetrate a thick skull?”

“It would if somebody stood in it and stomped.”

“That would need Chuck’s head on the floor.  Did somebody knock him down first?”

“I wouldn’t know.  But they’d have to, wouldn’t they?”

“If that’s what happened, a girl or woman must’ve done it.  How would she knock him down?”

“Why are you so sure it was a female?”

“I never knew a man who could wear a woman’s high heel.  Men’s feet are too big.”

“Some men have small feet, don’t they?”

“Maybe.  Why do you like Chartreuse?”

“They had a fight last night.”

“Chuck and Chartreuse? Over what?”

“Me.  She has high-heels even sharper than mine.”

“Well, at least you — we — don’t have to worry about Chuck hurting Nell.”

“But …”

“Yeah.  Now we have a new worry.”

She took a deep breath.  “I’m sorry, Pops.”

“Do you think the law will come after you?  Should I get you out of town?”

She chuckled humorlessly.  “Didn’t I hear you say running is evidence of guilt?”

He sighed.  “Indeed it is.  All right.  When was the last time you saw Chuck?”

“Um.  You want the time or the circumstances?”

“Both.”

“Well, it was just before eleven.  The other guys had splooged and left.  Chuck was the last.  He jizzed in my ass and made me clean him up.  Then he said —”

“With your mouth?”

“You know it.  Why do men love to make you taste your own shit?  Not that I did.  Three or four splooges is a pretty good butt bath — not to speak of the enema I took before I went out.”

He muttered sourly, “You did say you expected it.”

“I didn’t expect them to treat me so … so contemptuously.”

“That’s a downside of whoring.”

“Why is that?  Which is another question for you.  You’d think men would be glad to only need money.”

“Some of them are.  Probably most.  So you sucked Chuck clean.  Then what?”

“He pushed me back on the bed, told me to stay put while he found me some more ‘friends.’  I jumped up and told him I was leaving.

“‘No, you aren’t,’ he said.  ‘You’re just getting started tonight.’

“‘You son of a bitch,’ I said.  ‘You and I are through!’

“He sort of nodded.  ‘You only like young studs, is that it?  Well, you can’t always get what you want.’

“‘Neither can you,’ I said.  ‘I mean it.  I’m leaving and never coming back.’

“‘Yes, you will — if you don’t want that cute little daughter to get hurt.’

“That shut me up.  He went out, taking my shoes and clothes with him.  I heard him turn a key in the lock.”

“Go on.”

“I found a dress in the closet and a hairpin.  It was an old two pin lock, nothing to pick.  I opened the door a crack —”

“It’s hard to believe you picked even a two-pin lock.”

“Because I’m a woman?”

“Where’d you learn how?”

She chuckled.  “Just last week I read a book on locks.  Somebody had put it back on the shelf out of order.  The section on keyless operation was especially interesting.”

“Wonderful!”  He shook his head.  “You need a job that uses more of your talent.”

“Like an orgy girl?”

“That takes no talent!  Did you have any trouble escaping the roadhouse?”

“I slipped out the backdoor.  Nobody saw me.”

“How’d you start your car?  Or did you?”

“Chuck didn’t notice my purse.  It was still under the bed.”

“So the last time you saw him he was hale and hearty.”

“Huh!  His dick was still hard.”

“Did you catch the names of the three other guys?”

“First names. If you can believe them.”

“Would you recognize them if you saw them?”

“Oh, yes!”

“How long did you entertain them?”

“Um.  I got there about nine.  Chuck pulled me straight into that bedroom.  They were waiting.”

“The same guys as the last time?”

“No.  Older.”

“Older and meaner?”

“Like I said: contemptuous.”

Colin thought over her words.  He took a deep breath.  “All right.  Go back to sleep, if you can.”

“Do you still love me, Pop?”

“I’ll always love you, Janey.”

He returned to his own bed.

* * *

When Nell, still in her nightgown, woke him with coffee, cereal, fruit and the newspaper on a tray, the sun had risen and the police, to Colin’s relief, had not.  She put the tray on his desk, handed him his nightshirt and waited while he went to the bathroom.  When he returned and took a seat at the desk, she tucked the big cloth napkin into his collar and hovered nearby.

“The only trouble with this,” he groused after sipping the coffee, “is that I don’t get to see you eat.”

“Well, I did already: orange juice and Alpha-Os.”

“Hmph!  What did you spell?”

She giggled.  “Penis was easy.  I couldn’t find the G for cunnilingus.”

“Imagine that: no G!  You can spell it another way — without a G.”

“You can?  Cunni -line-us?”

“Cunnilinctus.  I don’t suppose your mother’s up.”

“No.  Her door is still closed.  What was all the excitement last night?”

“Excitement?”

“Mama came home early.  The telephone rang a little after two and then I heard you and Mama talking in her room.”

“You understood us?”

“No, your voices were low, like for a secret.”  She grinned expectantly.  “But you can tell me.  You know I keep secrets.”

He sighed.  “So do I, Nell, and this is your mother’s secret, I hope.”

Her gaze was speculative.  He met it resolutely.  She grinned brightly.  “I guess you can’t tell me, then.”

“No.”

“And I know Mama won’t.”  She shrugged.  “Okay.  I’ll go watch the cartoons, but I’ll come back for your tray.”

“Thank you, sweetheart.  You take good care of me.”

“The same as you do me, Grandpa.  I love you.”

“I love you too, sweetness.”

She kissed his cheek before scampering out of the room.

He unfolded the newspaper and found the article buried in local news.

Roadhouse Owner Slain

Charles Edwards, owner and operator of Chuck’s Roadhouse on Meredith Drive, was murdered not long before midnight last night, according to police sources.  A roadhouse employee found him in an upstairs bedroom, where he had been slain with an unusual weapon.  The needle heel of a woman’s shoe had pierced his skull twice.  An arrest is expected today.

Mr. Edwards bought the business, previously operating under the name Valley Dale Roadhouse, two years ago.  Under his direction it grew in popularity.  According to David Arkness, the assistant manager, it is now closed until further notice.

Janey, wearing a negligee and slippers, brought her own breakfast tray into his bedroom, set it on the writing table and sat down silently with lowered eyes.

“Good morning,” he said.

When she didn’t answer, he added offhandedly, “Your friend Chuck made the paper.”

She looked up at last and said bitterly, “I guess they made him the poor victim.”

He folded the paper around the article and sailed it within her reach, saying, “They didn’t offer him much sympathy in only 18 lines.  Our newspaper has little regard for roadhouse operators.”

“Snobs!” she sneered, spreading the paper beside her tray.

“After last night I didn’t think you retained much respect for him either.”

She sniffed and began to spoon her cereal, reading quickly.  After a while her eyes again found his.  “They’re sure it was a woman’s shoe heel.  Wouldn’t it be coated with blood and … brains?”

He nodded slowly.  “Certainly ought to have traces.”

She straightened slightly.  “That lets me out.  My shoes wouldn’t have them.”

“Unless somebody wore your shoes to stomp him.”

Suddenly her eyes were stricken.

He asked, “Did one of your shoes have a missing heel tip?”

“No.”  Her voice firmed up.  “No.  It feels different if you lose a tip.  Mine were both present.”

“Of course the missing tip might be found in Chuck’s brain.”  He added thoughtfully, “If someone wore your shoes, the killing was likely premeditated.  Who might’ve done that?”

“I don’t know.  Other women were there.”

“Any who hated Chuck?”

She shrugged.  “I still bet on Chartreuse.  I heard her fighting with him while the three guys were fucking me.”

He took a breath.  “If you keep on, you’ll say that word in front of Nell.”

Janey grimaced.  “Don’t lecture me, Pop.”

He grimaced.  “I take it last night you weren’t concentrating on the testosterone.”

“Last night was no fun.”

“Because they forced you?”

“Not really.  Thursday night they were young guys, tickled pink with themselves and with me.  They couldn’t toot my horn enough.  Last night they called me ‘whore’ and ‘slut’ and slapped my boobs.”

He nodded slowly.  “I thought they must’ve hurt you more than you’d say.”

“Not so much what they did, Pops, as how they did it.”

They ate companionably.  At last he said, “With that attitude I think you’d fit in very well with Matie.”

“Who?”

“Didn’t I mention her?  The madam of my sex club.”

Her face brightened a bit.  “What attitude?”

He quoted, “‘Not so much what they did as how they did it.’  Believe me, Matie’s guys will treat you with great respect!”

“Oh.”  She smiled in contemplation.

“That is, if we can keep you out of jail.”

“Oh.”  The smile vanished.

* * *

The Saturday morning overcast cleared up after noon and Colin moved his ebook to a rocking chair on the screened porch rock.  The autumn air was balmy, filled with bird chirps and the rush of distant traffic.  While he read, the telephone rang in the house but soon quit.  Janey had obviously answered it.  If he was wanted, she would notify him.

After a while children’s voices drew closer until Nell and a boy of similar size pushed through the neighbor’s bushes into the small backyard.  Both children were dressed alike in short sleeved blouses, backpacks and shorts.  The lad wore socks and sneakers.

“You’ll just trip up again,” said the boy in warning tones.  “Why do you want to wear them anyway?”

Nell said, “They make me feel grown up.”

He did not share her attitude.  “I never understood why grownups wear them either.”

Colin studied the girl through the screen.  Her stumbling gate revealed the subject: a woman’s pair of high-heeled pumps into whose fronts her stocking feet were thrust.  The boy proved prophetic.  A heel sank into the turf and pitched her forward onto her hands.

“Damn!” she said distinctly.

“They’ll hear you,” warned the lad further.  He stood back and let her stand up alone. 

Stubbornly she persisted until she reached the porch and opened the screened door, saying over her shoulder, “Everybody’s upstairs.  Come on in.”

“Hello, Nell,” said Colin as the children entered.  “Who’s your friend?”

“Oh!”  She recovered her poise and continued, “Grandpa, this is Jimmy that I told you about.”

“Pleased to meet you, Jimmy,” said Colin gravely.

“How do you do, Mr. Heath,” said the lad, obviously well taught.

“It’s Redfield, son.  Heath is Nell’s name.”

“Oh.”  Jimmy blinked.

The girl’s eyes widened.  “I didn’t introduce you right.  Excuse me.  Judge Redfield, my grandpa, this is Jimmy Wavell, my friend from school.”

The man smiled.  “Very good, Nell.  Jimmy, do you live nearby?”

“In the next block.  You’re a judge?”  The boy’s eyes had also widened.

“Retired.  Nell, are those new shoes?”

“No.”  She giggled.  “Jimmy found them in his trash can.”

“I see.  I also see they suffer from the usual problem with second-hand shoes.”

“Dirty?” she guessed.

“They don’t fit.”  He craned his head.  “But that heel looks dirty.”

She took off the right shoe and passed it to him.  It was a royal blue in shiny patent leather.  The left heel that he recalled tripping her was marked with wet mud but this one was smeared with a dried brownish stain.  As a curiosity he noted that both heels retained their rubber tips.

He addressed the lad.  “Do you know who owned them?”

“My sister,” Jimmy answered promptly.  He frowned.  “I meant to ask her.  Do women throw shoes away that just get dirty?”

“They might have another reason,” Colin suggested, “like cramping toes.”

“Oh.  Yeah, I guess so.”  He grinned.  “I showed them to Nell and she had to put them on.”

“Did she!  Nell, where are your sneakers?”

“In my backpack.  Grandpa, why do women wear high heels?”

He studied her thoughtfully.  “I gather it’s meant to attract men.  It makes women’s legs shapelier and their hips swing when they walk.”

She said to the boy, “You see?  My grandpa gives real answers.”

“You’re lucky.”

Colin grinned.  “What’s the matter, Jimmy?  Won’t your sister answer you?  I take it she’s grown.”

“Oh, yeah.  She’s 28.  But she sleeps all day and is gone all night.  You don’t go to work, do you, if you’re retired?”

“Work is what you retire from.  Your sister works all night?”

The lad looked away.  “Mamma says working on your back isn’t real work.”  He looked up inquiringly.  “What kind of work can you do on your back?”

After a moment’s thought Colin said, gravely again, “You know the little pallets with coaster wheels that mechanics use to slide under cars?  You could say mechanics work on their backs.”

“Oh.  Oh, yeah.”  The lad frowned.  “But she doesn’t know anything about cars.”

“You sure about that?”

“Yeah.  When hers broke, she had to call a real mechanic.”  He added reminiscently, “That was odd.  I go, ‘What were you sitting on his bumper for?’  And she goes, ‘To pay him off, of course.’  She gives answers, Judge, but they usually don’t make sense.”

“Apparently not.  Where does she —”

Eyes large, Nell interrupted.  “I bet I know!  He was standing in front of her, wasn’t he?”

Jimmy blinked.  “The mechanic?  Yeah, when she said she paid him.”

“That’s how she paid him.  She …”  Her eyes swung to Colin.  “Is it okay to say that outdoors?”

He understood her only too well.  “Nell … you have to consider if what you’d say would embarrass anyone.”

“Oh, it wont embarrass Jimmy!”

“But it might me.”

“You?”  She blinked.  “I don’t understand.”

“Jimmy and I just met.  You can’t speak too frankly with new acquaintances.  You have to learn each other first.  I was about to ask you, Jimmy, where does your sister work?”

The lad shrugged.  “Mamma said she goes to a house on a road.  But aren’t all houses on roads?”

“I believe they are.  Nell, can I have your new shoes?”

“But, Grandpa, I wanted to show them to Mom.”

“I’ll show them to your mother.”

“Well, all right.”  She stepped out of the left shoe, passed it to the man and developed a smile.  “They’re too small for you, Grandpa!”

“I know.  What they really fit is what’s important.”

She blinked.  “You mean Wilma’s feet?”

“Who’s Wilma?”

“Jimmy’s sister.  She’s the one who wears them to work.”

“On her back!” said the lad with disgust.  “Who needs shoes to work on your back?”

Colin stood up, holding both shoes in one hand and his e-reader in the other.  “You kids will have to excuse me; I’ve got to make a phone call.  Nell, put your sneakers back on before you go outside.”

“Yes, Grandpa.”

Upstairs in his bedroom he soon reached his man on the telephone.  “Stude, I’ve got another piece of work for you.”

“Rush job?”

“Sort of.  I want you to swing by here and pick up a woman’s shoe.  It has what looks like mud on one heel.  I want it DNA tested.  I need the results before the cops get busy.”

“Mud on the heel? Uh-oh.  You sure you don’t just want me to lose it?  Does it have a rubber tip?”

“Yeah, it has the tip.  No, I don’t want it lost.  The stain may in fact be only mud, but just in case …  Have you heard any more about the murder?”

“A lot of material has been developed, Judge.  They interviewed all the workers and girls and half the customers that didn’t run.  But nothing major has turned up.  The forensics guy is out of town and won’t be back till tonight, so he’ll do the autopsy Sunday morning.  A DNA test, eh?  Does your daughter know?”

“It’s not her shoe, Stude.”

“Aha!  That’s different!”

“And I believe it’s connected to the roadhouse.  I’ll call Dr. Mitchell and tell him to expect you.”

“Okay.  I’ll be there to pick it up in twenty minutes.”

“Be thinking about this: we need a sample from Chuck Edwards to match the DNA — if that’s what’s on the shoe.”

“That’s gonna be tough, but I’ll think about it.”

“Good.  See you soon.”

Colin went down the hall and knocked on Janey’s door.

“It’s open,” she called through it.

She was leaned back in her recliner with her cell phone to one ear, still wearing the negligee and slippers without makeup.  Her nipples were evident under the sheer cloth.

She peered up at him and at the shoes in his hand.  “Here’s my Pops with something important on his mind.  I’ll call you back, Bertie.”  She closed up the phone.

“Those aren’t my shoes,” she said definitely.  “I wouldn’t wear blue.  They look like …”

“I’m wondering if you’ve seen them before.”

“They’re the right color, and the rhinestones on the toe …”  She took a breath.  “They look like what Chartreuse was wearing last night.  Where’d you get them?”

“Jimmy Wavell’s 23 year-old sister threw them away recently.  He found them in a trash can.”

“Who’s Jimmy Wavell?”

“You ought to pay attention to your daughter’s schoolmates.”

“I see.  I’ll bet Nell couldn’t resist them.  She loves jewelry but doesn’t understand colors yet.  How did she get them from Jimmy?”

“Probably sucked his cock.”

“ Wh -what?”

“I already said you should pay attention.”

She sat up, eyes blazing.  “I’ll kick her little round ass!”

“No, you won’t.  Not on mere suspicion.”

“What made you say that about her?”

“Because Jimmy knows about cocksucking.  Wilma pays her bills with it.”

The woman relaxed back into her chair and said thoughtfully, “Sounds like Chartreuse.  She loves to suck cock, dogged half the bar last week.”

“‘Dogged?’”

Janey grinned sourly.  “New one to you, Pops?  It means taking on all the guys, one after the other, usually by head.  They say she does it when she gets half drunk.”

He cocked an eyebrow.  “I hear an odd note in your voice.”

She shrugged.  “Chuck was out.  He raised hell with her when he came back.”

“That’s not why you envied her.”

“Who said I did?  What’ll you do with those shoes?”

“It’s suggestive that Wilma threw them away last night.  I’m having this one tested for DNA.”

“That looks like mud.”

“It might be.  We’ll know before long.  But you’re sure they belong to Chartreuse.”

“Or shoes like them, if you can find some.  Those little Vs on either side of the jewels … exactly like Chartreuse’s.”

“Well, then, if it tests out, you’re off the hook.”

She sprang to her feet and enfolded him in a fierce hug.  “Pops, you’re the greatest!”

“And you may be luckier than you expected.”

Downstairs the doorbell rang.

* * *

The cannon-like report of a close lightning strike awoke Colin early Sunday morning.  He listened carefully for any sounds of falling, especially bricks from a chimney top that might have attracted the bolt, but heard only rain drumming on the roof — and someone else’s soft breath adjacent to his ears.  He was aware of a weight on his chest and his thighs.  Warm skin.  His nose registered shampoo.

Another bolt flashed.  Now with eyes open he saw Nell’s face on his shoulder, her eyes a-glitter.

Several questions arose in his mind.  He said, “Nell, where is your nightgown?”

“Up around my neck.”

His hand found the garment then ran down her back and over naked buttocks sweetly rounded.  “How did it get bunched up there?”

“I thought skin on skin would feel good.  It does too, especially the hair on your chest.”

“Yes.  Skin does feel good, but …  Darling …”

With torso shorter than his, her feet cupped the outside of his calves.  He decided it was her softly folded vulva that compressed the top of his pubic hair.  With a pulse his cock began to rise.

“Am I too heavy, Grandpa?”

“I can’t believe you got on me without waking me up!”

“When the storm began, I came in and lay down beside you.  I found out you didn’t wear your shirt tonight and … got the idea of getting on top.  Your book says the girl often gets on top.  I moved slow.”

“That I believe!  I spilled beer on my shirt and took it off.”  He sighed heavily.  “But, Nell, you can’t stay on me.  If I had a dream I might rape you.”

“Would that be so bad?”

“It’s not the right way to lose your cherry.”

“What’s the right way?”

He said impatiently, “You read the book.  Didn’t it tell you?”

“Not exactly.”  Her hips moved on him gently.  “But I can guess.  This is what’s supposed to do it, right?”

His hands clasped her hips and lifted her to his side while leaving her head on his shoulder.

“Oh, Grandpa!” she protested.  Settling against him, her small hand caught his burgeoning erection and held on to it, perhaps as compensation.

He said, “What are you doing, Nell?”

“It’s growing, Grandpa!  I like to feel it growing.”

“God!  I suppose you tell Jimmy all about how you and I play.”

“No, I don’t, either.  Jimmy tells me.”

“Tells you what?”

“How he plays with his sister.”

“Video games?”

“I mean grownup games.  She got him to scratch her back then she rolled over and let him play baby.”

Colin grunted.  “She let him suckle?”

“Is that what you call it when it’s nipples instead of cocks?”

“I suppose.  Why do you call that a grownup game?”

“Jimmy says men like to suck girls’ boobs.  I mean suckle.  Then she felt of his cock and giggled when it was stiff.  She’s like, ‘You’re growing up, Jimmy.’”

“Drunk again, was she?”

“He didn’t say.  He’s worried about her.”

“He’s worried?”

“She came home late Friday night, packed a suitcase and left.  She never did that before.”

“And changed shoes, presumably.”

“Threw some out, at least.  What did you do with them, Grandpa?”

“Sent them downtown for some tests,” he answered without thinking.

“You mean they might have been real?”

“Real?”

“Real diamonds.”

She was referring to the rhinestones.  He said, “Wouldn’t that be a blast.”

“Yeah, and she threw ’em away.  Wait’ll I tell Jimmy!”

Oops!  Colin said, “Don’t tell Jimmy till I get the results back.”

“Oh.  Okay.  They’re probably just fakes.”

“Probably.  Nell, don’t tell me you’re still afraid of lightning.”

“Isn’t everyone?”

“Yes, but not so afraid they have to sleep with grandpa.”

“Oh.  Well, yeah, I guess that’s so.  But it makes a good excuse.  Um, I’ve been meaning to ask you.  Why doesn’t Mom want me to get in your bed?”

“She told you that?”

“Yeah, a couple years ago, I think.  She ought to know you won’t hurt me.”

“Well, my dear, hurt comes in a lot of guises.  Your mother probably fears exactly what you’re doing right now.”

“You mean … jacking on your cock?”

He caught her arm and gently separated hand from member.  “That and worse.”

“Worse?  You mean sucking on it?”

“Nell …”

“What’s wrong with playing with your cock?  It’s such a nice toy.  Only cocks have that slippery skin.  Jimmy’s felt kind of good in my mouth.  I’ll bet yours would really be awesome!”

He took a deep breath.  “That’s called ‘sex play,’ Nell.  You don’t normally do it except with someone you trust absolutely.  I know, you trust me like that.  But society has rules.  A major one is that you don’t have sex play with your relatives, especially those related by blood.”

She sighed.  “Yeah, I knew that.  You sort of figure it out from what people don’t say.”  He heard humor in her voice.  “But like Jimmy says, it’s fun to do it anyway, to suck your sister’s tits.”  She added after a moment, “And jack on grandpa.”

“Dangerous fun, my dear.  Apparently the storm has moved on.  You need to get back in your own bed.”

“Why is it dangerous?”

“Mainly because it’s against the law.  Go on back, Nell.”

“Oh, Grandpa, let me sleep with you!  It feels so much safer than my room way down the hall.  I won’t jack you any more.  Please?”

Unable to deny her, he said with a sigh, “All right, my darling, but move over so we don’t touch.”

“Thank you so much, Grandpa!”  She kissed his cheek soundly before obeying.

His hard-on, now almost painful, had thrilled to her touch.  He strongly missed her hand, along with the spicy head on his shoulder.  He sighed, which she noted.

“Grandpa, did I wake you up or was it the thunder?”

After a moment he said, “Thunder.”

“I’m glad it wasn’t me.”

He slipped a hand under her neck, pulled her head back on his shoulder and said reassuringly, “The truth is, I like having you in arm’s reach.”

“Oh, Grandpa!  I love you so much.”

“And I you.”

“May I ask you a question?”

He thought he should refuse if they were to get any sleep, but found that what he wanted was the return of her hand.  “Go ahead.”

“Well, uh …  Jimmy wanted to …”  Her voice grew plaintiff.  “Grandpa, why didn’t the book explain about doing it up your ass?”

“Probably because the idea rarely occurs to young women.  Did Jimmy actually want to do that?”

“Uh-huh.”

Colin reached out, turned on the bedside lamp had studied the girl’s guileless face.  “I recall boys talking about that practice but I’m surprised one would mention it to a girl.  What did he tell you?”

“That it was a grownup thing to do.  I go, ‘It’ll hurt.’  He’s like, ‘No, it won’t.  You’ve shit bigger than me.  Just relax and push out.’”

“Hmph!  I wouldn’t think a sister could teach that to a boy.  Did you let him?”

“I was going to.  The idea made me tingle.”

“You were ‘going to?’”

“His mom called him to run an errand.”  The girl giggled.  “He couldn’t find his briefs, had to run it without them.”

“Where were you?”

“In his bedroom.  They’d fallen under the bed.”

“Why weren’t you in school?”

“This was yesterday — Saturday.”

“How close did he get?”

“You mean to fucking me?  Is it still fucking if it’s up your ass?”

“Indeed it is!”  He sighed.  “Do I understand that Jimmy did not quite succeed in sodomizing you?”

“‘Sodomizing?’  Is sodomize the right word for ass fucking?”

“One of them.  Did he get it in?”

“No.  He pushed it against my asshole but it wouldn’t go in.  He’s like, ‘Oh, yeah, we need Vaseline.’  Then his mom called him.”

“Saved by the bell!”

“‘Saved?’  I wanted it!”

“You’re just curious.  Nell, forgive me for asking, but I’m more than curious; I’m your grandpa.  How much sex have you had with Jimmy?”

“Only with our mouths. And fingers.  He licked my nub and I sucked his cock.”

“I’m glad to hear that was all.”  He thought a moment.  “Tell me about Jimmy.”

She shrugged.  “He’s just a boy — like I’m a girl.”

“Who does he live with?”

“His mother and his sister.”

“Where’s his father?”

“He doesn’t have one — like me.  He’s a bastard too.”

Colin’s hackles rose.  “Who called you that?”

“Nobody.  Jimmy and I talked it over.”

“All right.”  Colin shook his head.  “Who do you suppose showed him how to perform sodomy?”

She understood.  “I don’t know, Grandpa … unless it was his sister.  He found her diddle.”

“Her …  Do you mean her dildo?”

“Is that the word for a fake cock?  She might have sodomed him with it.”

“Sodomized. Or herself where he could see.  Someone certainly has either shown him or described it in great detail.  Nell, my darling, you need to be careful.  Jimmy may be too advanced for you.  And here’s a definite warning: be very careful whom you talk to on these subjects.  You already know too much for a preadolescent girl.”

“I do?”

“I’m afraid so.  You’ll get us all in trouble if the wrong person hears these words in your mouth … or if a child repeats them to an adult and says you told her.”

“I’ll be careful, Grandpa.”

She fell into a reflective silence.  He thought to admonish her further but hugged her tighter instead while turning off the bedside lamp.  When he awoke in the morning, she was no longer in his bedroom.

* * *

At lunchtime Colin went down to the kitchen, hoping again for a warm afternoon and dressed again for the porch swing.  He found Nell and Janey there in conversation while eating sandwiches.

“Want your usual, Grandpa?” asked Nell, springing up with a bright smile.

His “usual” was ham slices and delicatessen pimento cheese, grilled with butter on a hot plate.  “If you don’t mind,” he said, pouring a cup of coffee from the pot on the stove.

While the girl worked, he sat at the table and said to her mother, “Good afternoon, Janey.  Just as a matter of curiosity, what time did you get in this morning?”

“I don’t know,” she said indifferently; “fourish, I guess.”  She cocked an eye.  “Did you enjoy your company?”

“My company?”

“I try to always check on Nell.  Her bed was empty.”

“We had some powerful lightning last night.”

“I noticed.  It woke me up even across town.”

He wanted to ask about that but forbore for the sake of the girl’s opinion of her mother.  He said instead, “Did you hear any news while you were out.”

“I hit a couple of bars.  People talked about it in both.”

“Anything new?”

“Just rumors and guesses.  What your friend told you is generally known.”

He nodded.  “The incentives are wrong for the cops to keep their mouths shut.”

“What do you mean?”

“It’s good for them to see their names in print, or so they think.  They’ve even been known to ignore gag orders from the court.”

“Everybody talks too much,” she said disparagingly and took the last mouthful of her sandwich.

The house telephone rang.  Janey answered on the cordless that had been beside her plate then handed the instrument to him.

“Yes,” he said.

“Judge, this is Stude.  The autopsy is finished and Kramer is writing his report as we speak.  Chuck was killed by two strikes through the skull at the left temple, by a sharp penetrating instrument with a wide base, like a woman’s high heel.  And a rubber heel tip was found in his brain.”

Colin sighed.  “About what we expected, in other words.”

“There’s more.  The suspected shoe went to Kramer with the body.  The tip came from its heel, all right, but … he says it wasn’t broken off, it was cut off with a knife.”

“Cut off?”

“There’s still more.  That heel had Chuck’s DNA on it.”

“So … it was definitely the weapon?”

“Definitely a weapon.  And Mitchell called me early this morning.  The ‘mud’ on your blue shoe was also blood and flesh, so I went to the roadhouse, stole one of Chuck’s hairbrushes and took it to our doc.  The DNA on both shoes are from Chuck.  And get this: in the crack between the tip and heel of the blue shoe he found brain tissue, also with Chuck's DNA.”

“Good god!  Does that make sense?”

“It might.  And I have one piece of bad news.  The cops got into Chuck’s books and found Belinda’s real name: Jane Redfield Heath, at your address.”

Colin sat in stunned silence.

Stude asked, “You there, Judge?”

“What are they waiting for, Stude?”

“You mean, why haven’t they come to arrest her?  I don’t know, but my man says they’ve known who she is since yesterday afternoon.  I can get her out of town.  Just say the word.”

“No, that won’t work.  I guess we have to face the music.  Stude, you’ve done me a real service.  I’m very grateful.”

“I still owe you.  I’ll be in touch if I learn anything else.”

“Thanks.  And I’ll call you if I think of anything further.”

Colin pressed the button that hung up the phone line.

Janey said, “What music?”

He stood and said to the woman, “We have to talk.  Let’s go out on the porch.”

Nell called from her spot at the stove, “Sit at the glass table, Grandpa, and I’ll bring your sandwich as soon as it’s done.”

“Thanks, Dear.”

Man and woman sat at the small table, fetching their drinks.  A breeze made it cooler than yesterday but still tolerable.  As he finished relaying the conversation with Studebaker, Nell appeared with his hot sandwich and waited for his first bite, smiling at his exaggerated appreciation.

Janey said, when the girl had returned inside, “Do the cops work on Sunday?”

He nodded.  “They’re the original 24-7 crowd.”

“Then I guess I’ll be going to jail today.”

“I’m surprised they haven’t already come for you.  Since Chuck’s killing was premeditated, getting admitted to bail will be tough.”

“How do you know it was premeditated?”

“Because he must have already been on the floor for someone to stomp his head, or so it will be argued.”

The woman sighed.  “I don’t care what was found on my shoe, I didn’t kill him.”

“I believe you, but a jury might not.”

“What about this other shoe, belonging to Nell’s friend’s sister?  My god, could she be Chartreuse?”

“It’s very unlikely that two women stomped him.  And he must have been stomped.  I don’t believe a woman’s hand could swing her shoe that hard.  As to who the sister is …  Would you recognize Chartreuse?”

“Of course I would.  She was Chuck’s assistant.”

“Janey, I had another reason to talk to you.  The cops don’t know about the sister’s shoe.  If I turn it over to them, I’ll have to tell them why I was interested.”

“Huh!  If they can make two and two even add up to three, they’ll know that already.”

“So you have no objection?”

She shook her head.  “Holding it out will do me no good.  At least it involves Chartreuse.  But how can it?  How can both our shoes have his brains on them?”

“I can think of a way.”

“Tell me!”

“The killer may have dipped the other shoe into Chuck’s head afterwards.”

Janey’s eyes flashed.  “To make me the patsy!”

“Or, as the cops will reason, to do it to Chartreuse.”

“But … but … she left my shoe there to be found!”

“The fact that Chartreuse’s shoes were found in a dumpster far from the murder is the best argument you’ve got so far.  Hand me that phone.”

Janey had brought it outside with her.  She passed it to him and he dialed his friend.

“Stude, sorry to bother you again.  Did Dr. Mitchell give you a written report?”

“Printed on his computer.”

“But signed?”

“Yeah.  It’s got his signature.”

“Good.  Take it and the shoe to the police and tell them what you know.”

“Are you sure?”

“Also tell them the shoe belongs to …  Hold on a second.  Janey, would you call Nell out here?”

The girl did not know Jimmy’s house number, but mentally counting houses, they figured it out.  Colin said, “The shoe belongs to Wilma Wavel of 475 Mellon Street.”

Stude asked, “Did she have something to do with Chuck’s place?”

“We don’t have any real evidence but suspect she worked there under the name, Chartreuse.”

In the telephone Colin could hear the man’s pen scratching paper.

“Got it,” said Stude.  “All right, Judge.  I’ll take care of it right now.”

“Thanks very much.  Let me know what happens.”

“Will do.”

Pressing the Off button, Colin looked up at Nell.  “Can you see Jimmy’s house from here?”

“From our front stoop, yeah.”

“If you watch you might see something interesting there in 20 or 30 minutes.”

Her eyes lit.  “I’ll go tell Jimmy.”

Colin shook his head.  “No.  Stay here until after it happens.”

“But Grandpa —”

“I mean it.  You can talk to him later.”

“All right,” she said grudgingly.

* * *

He didn’t see Nell again until supper.  Sunday was Morrell’s day off.  As customary, Janet made sandwiches for them.

When finished eating, Colin put down his coffee cup and said to Nell, “What did you see at Jimmy’s this afternoon?”

She shrugged and swallowed before answering.  “Nothing.”

His eyebrows rose.  “Didn’t the cops show up?”

“Well, yeah, but they didn’t stay long.  Jimmy said they were looking for his sister.  She’s been gone since late Friday night.”

Janet nodded slightly.  “That’s not surprising.”

Nell cut her eyes around at her mother.  “It isn’t?  Jimmy said it’s the first time she’s left without telling them.”

Colin said, “You said they didn’t stay long.  How long?”

“About 15 minutes, I guess.  Jimmy said they had a ‘such wearing.’  What’s that, Grandpa?”

He chuckled.  “I think Jimmy meant ‘search warrant.’  I’m surprised they didn’t stay longer.”

“They looked through her room and took some stuff away with them.”

“Like what?” asked her mother.

“He said it was in bags.”

Janet said dryly, “Efficient cops!”

Colin said, “They must have found something significant.”

“Like what?” she asked again.

“Like a check stub from Chuck’s Roadhouse.”

“If that’s how she got paid.”

“Or blood-spattered clothing.”

She opened her mouth to respond further but desisted after glancing at Nell, who was listening avidly.

The girl said, “Blood-spattered?”

He looked away.  “As an example.  The cops are always interested in blood.”  His eyes settled on Janet.  “You’ll note we’re still undisturbed.”

“That’s a good sign, isn’t it?”

Chin in hand, he mulled her question and said finally, “Hang in there.  They might be waiting to see what we do.  If we’re still okay tomorrow, I’ll give Stude another call.”

Nell looked from man to woman.  “Is something wrong?”

He shook his head.  Telling her was not an option.  “That remains to be seen.  Janet, my dear, that was a good sandwich.  Just the right amount of onion.”

“I’m glad you liked it.”

He rose from the table and turned away.  Behind him he heard Nell ask, “What’s going on, Mama?”

“Nothing that concerns you, Honey.  Do you want a cookie?”

* * *

Monday was rainy and cold.  Janet went to her job as a librarian and Nell went to school.  Morrell had arrived early enough to fix everyone’s breakfast and his luncheon sandwich then departed until time to prepare supper.

At nine o’clock Colin dialed the phone.  “May I speak to Stude?”

“Hold on.”

A few seconds later another voice said, “Studebaker.”

“This is Judge Redfield.  Do you have further news?”

“No, I don’t, Judge.  But something has happened.  They’ve all clammed up.”

Colin thought for a moment.  “That’s interesting.  Do you know if they arrested any of the girls at the roadhouse on Friday?”

“A couple, I think.  Of course they’re all released by now.”

“I’m sure that’s true.  Stude, thanks for all your favors.”

The distant man grunted.  “Judge, I’ll owe you favors the rest of my life.”

Colin sighed.  “No you won’t, Stude.  Other jobs were available.”

“Not jobs that paid as well as a bodyguard’s, which no ex-con could get without a judge’s recommendation.”

“As it turns out, your gratitude is very good for me.”

“As it should be!”

Colin spent the day reading further into his download of Grisham novels.  In midafternoon he heard the front door slam and a rapid patter of feet on the stairs.  Nell and Jimmy appeared at his bedroom door, still strapped into their backpacks.  Nell had the grace to knock on the open door.

Colin looked up with a smile.  “Hiya, Sweetie.  And hello, Jimmy.  Did you get wet coming home?”

Jimmy smiled in response.  Nell said, “Not much.  The bus driver stopped right in front of my house.  Grandpa, can we play in my room?  It’s wet and cold outside.”

In view of her recent midnight disclosures, he wondered what games they would play but said only, “All right but leave the door open.  Jimmy, when does your mother expect you home?”

Still smiling, the lad said smoothly, “Nell asked that too.  I’ll call Mama and tell her to pick me up here on her way home from work.”

“Come on,” said the girl, grasping his arm.  They disappeared down the hall.

A few minutes later the Line Busy indicator lit on the base unit of his cordless.  He nodded, appeased, and returned to his novel. He was soon immersed again in the gripping courtroom drama.  Grisham’s hero had just won a witty interchange of objections with the prosecutor when Colin sat back to reflect and became aware of a distant whimpering.  It sounded like a worried puppy at the other end of the upstairs hall.

A puppy?  Had Nell sneaked in a dog?  He laid his e-reader aside, got to his feet and slipped silently down the carpeted hall, not wanting to alert the source.  Nell’s door stood virtuously ajar.  He came to a halt in the doorway, his mouth falling open.

On the single bed, counterpane drawn back, the two children reposed, naked except for socks.  One — only too obviously the lad — lay on his back, miniature erection upstanding at a 60 degree angle with his belly.  Nell crouched over his face, knees spread beyond his shoulders and ankles pinning his arms, sitting up straight with her head thrown back and long brown hair dangling almost to his navel.  She was the whimperer, face contorted in an enduring orgasm — or perhaps a series of them.  Even after 60 years’ experience Colin was unsure about specifics of the female sexual response.

Riveting his attention was the perfect little cock, upthrust in its surround of creamy skin, hairless and unblemished.  It looked to be the length and thickness of Colin’s forefinger, perfectly straight and crowned by a carmine knob that was kidney-shaped from this angle.  Colin’s mouth watered and his own cock twitched.  Dumbfounded, he felt a surge of lust to suck the pretty thing.  He froze but emitted no sound.

Fifty years earlier, while hitchhiking back to college, he had submitted to his benefactor’s lingual attention but had not returned the favor.  He had enjoyed the experience, not least because the man had made admiring noises after swallowing the entire effluent, but it had been his only homosexual moment.  As he grew older, he sometimes wondered how a cock would feel in the mouth but never sought the reality.  Until now.

Nell’s feet flopped around in front of her and she collapsed backward onto the lad’s torso, body shivering and fists clenched.  Her neck lay against the perfect cock.  With a deep sigh she visibly relaxed.

The boy’s hands caught her hips and shifted her off his wet mouth.  He lifted his head to peer around her side and said urgently, “Now do me!”

Still atop him, she twisted her torso, bent slightly and audibly slurped the eager erection into her mouth.  After a few head bobs she straightened her hips, slid off the boy’s shoulders and aligned her head with the cock in her mouth.  Now it disappeared completely.  She began long strokes that alternately exposed all but the head then concealed the whole shaft.  Colin decided that here was evidence the prepubescent throat grows faster than the prepubescent cock.  His own organ, painfully harder than it had been in years, impelled him to join the duo.  He actually took a step forward before his senses returned like a dash of cold water.

Jimmy either heard or saw the motion from the corner of his eye.  His head turned toward the door, horror showed on his face and he cried, “Nell!  Your grandpa!”

The girl’s head and shoulders rose with a jerk.  Similar horror flashed briefly on her face before a very different expression replaced it.  Colin thought it was pride.  She said accusingly, “Grandpa, you didn’t knock!”

He heaved a sigh, stepped well into the room, turned the straight chair away from the desk and sat in it, facing the bed.  He saw the direction of the girl’s gaze and wondered if she had noticed the tented front of his slacks.  Each child rose to a crouched position on the bed, facing him.  Jimmy’s hands concealed his genitals.

Frowning uncertainly, Colin considered what he should say to them.  Jimmy may have misinterpreted the expression or also noted the tented slacks.  His horror changed to calculation.

He said, “Judge, you don’t have to slam us, do you?”

“He won’t hurt us,” declared Nell.

Colin said, “How old are you, Jimmy?”

“I’ll be twelve next month.”

Colin nodded.  “You look it but don’t act it.  No, I don’t have to condemn you, but what do you think I ought to do?”

The lad hesitated, shrugged then turned face-down on the bed, elevated his buttocks and spread the cheeks with a hand on either.  Colin stared into a circular crimson anus that opened out upon smooth pale skin.  A small dark scrotum puffed out beneath it.  He had never been interested in pederasty except to deliver punishment as required by the law.  But now …  A picture flashed into his mind of himself playing with two boys together, one at either end of his torso.  He clenched his fist.

“What are you doing?” asked Nell of the lad.

Colin wanted to answer, Corrupting an ex-judge, but took a deep breath before saying instead, “Jimmy, please tell me what makes you think I’d be interested in that.”

Head bent to the side, the lad answered, “Uncle Chuck is.”

“My next question is where did you get the idea?  From your uncle Chuck, I gather.”

“Well, he’s not really my uncle.”

“Then who is he?”

“My sister’s partner.”

Colin felt a frisson.  “Do you know his last name?”

“Not really.  He and my sister own a bar together.”

“Chuck’s Roadhouse, by chance?”

“It might be.  I’m not sure of the name.”

“Turn around and sit up.”

“You’re not gonna do me?”

“Do you?” exclaimed Nell.  Her mouth gaped in wonder.  “You want Grandpa to do you in the butthole?”

As he obeyed the judge, Jimmy explained casually, “Chuck said to keep anybody from telling, you have to get something on them too.”

Colin said, “What I want from you, Jimmy, is the whole story.  How long have you known Chuck?”

“Wilma took me to see him in the summer.  Their place is for adults only, so we had to go in the back door and upstairs.  I never saw into the bar but I heard the noise of it.”

“What happened when you got upstairs?”

“Wilma showed me to Chuck — I mean ‘innerduced.’  He gave me some pizza and asked me if I wanted to know anything about …”  The lad took a breath.  “Can I say fucking?”

Colin nodded.  “Tell it like it was.  I take it he was friendly with you.”

“He asked it I knew what my … pecker was for.”

“And then he showed you one use, eh?”

The lad blinked.  “He sure did!  More than one.”  Smiling reminiscently, the boy continued, “I’m like, ‘To pee with.’  He goes, ‘That’s nothing.  Undress him, Wilma.”

“Your sister stayed with you?”

“That first time.  She left me alone with him later on.”

“So he told you all about sex?”

“Mostly he showed me.”

“How?”

“Well, that first time he sucked my dick and let me jack him off.”

“Wow!” said Nell, eyes alight.  “Did you taste it?”

The boy blushed but nodded.

“You didn’t tell me that!”

Colin considered putting her out of the room but shrugged mentally.  “What else did you do?”

“Everything, I guess.  Chuck was what Wilma called a swinger.”

“Did you see him often?”

“She took me up there several times in the summer but not after school started.  When I asked why, she said because I might forget and talk about it to other kids.”

“Which you are,” said Nell.

“But not really to kids.”

Colin said, “What exactly did he show you?”

“How to suck his dick.  Boy, his is big!  And how to fuck a girl.  He fucked Wilma to show me how.”

“From your display a moment ago, I gather he sodomized you.”

“Sodom—  What’s that?”

“Fucked you up the ass.”

“He called it ‘in the backdoor.’  Oh, yeah, he did, said he liked that the best.  He did Wilma in the backdoor first, then me.”

“What did you think of all that?”

The lad shrugged.  “I guess I liked it.”

Nell asked, “Didn’t it ever hurt?”

“The backdoor hurt some until I learned how to relax my hole.  Wilma said it was because his dick was so big.”

“Oh, wow!” said Nell in an awed tone.  “You are so lucky.”

That declaration by his granddaughter displeased Colin, but he was at a loss to detect a suitable response.  He said, “Just a couple more questions, Jimmy.  Did Chuck share you with anyone besides Wilma?”

The boy’s eyes widened.  “No, not even Wilma.  She’s my sister!”

“Then no one else witnessed his meetings with you.”

“I never saw anybody.”

“Good.  Now, how much of Chuck’s instruction have you demonstrated to Nell?”

“Well …”  The lad looked elsewhere.

The girl answered for him.  “We’ve done oral sex to each other, like the book calls it.  And sodomist.”

“Sodomy,” Colin corrected.  “In your backdoor?”

“Uh-huh.”  She smiled.  “It’s fun and doesn’t hurt a bit.  I’m glad you have a little cock, Jimmy.”

The man said, “I’m curious why you haven’t tried it vaginally.”

She grinned.  “That’s really another question.”

“But for you, not Jimmy.”

“Because you don’t want me to lose my cherry yet.”

Colin approved of her logic, but he shook his head.  “You kids are so damned young!”

Jimmy stared.  “What’re you gonna do with us?”

The judge nodded.  “Yes, that is certainly the right question!  Everybody claims the issue is to make kids learn.  Mine is just the opposite.  How do you make kids forget?”

He sighed.  “I’m tempted to separate you, to forbid you from meeting each other, but I’m not sure how that would improve anything.  The problem is not so much what you might do but who you tell about it.  And not only that.  If the wrong person overhears you discussing these things or using these words, then the cat will be out of the bag and you kids will be in a mountain of trouble.”

Jimmy frowned thoughtfully.  “Does that mean you won’t punish us?”

“I’m not a hypocrite.  I won’t punish you for doing what the adults around you, myself included, have taught you.  But for god’s sake, be careful what you say!”

The lad visibly relaxed.  Colin noted that the perfect erection had subsided to a thumb-sized nub.  He looked at his wristwatch.  “Jimmy, when does your mother leave work?”

“She gets home about six.”

“Put your clothes on before that, please.”  Colin nodded to the clock on the nightstand, got to his feet and turned toward the door.

Jimmy asked hesitantly, “Will you … play with us, Judge?”

Colin’s head snapped back.  “Play with you?”

“Yes, sir.  It’s better with a grownup, more … interesting … and fun.”

“God, don’t tempt me!”  The judge hurried from the room.

* * *

At supper, enjoyed with Janey’s participation, Colin and Nell carefully failed to mention Jimmy’s visit, but the daughter noticed a difference.

“You’re awfully quiet tonight, Nell.  Did something happen today?”

The girl’s eyes dropped.  “Nothing to speak of.”

Janey grinned.  “What’s not to speak of?”

Nell looked at her grandfather with pleading eyes.

He said, “She’s right.  It’s not to speak of.”

Janey’s eyebrows rose.  “I remind you: she’s my daughter!”

“Nevertheless.”  He found that he wanted some discussion with the mother preliminary to revealing the girl’s progress — if that’s what it was.

The woman bit her lip.  “I guess I have to accept your judgment.  But what about school?  Did something happen there?”

The girl said, “No.  Well, yeah.  Margie slapped Dunston.  He jerked back and knocked his desk over.  Ms. Crocker took them both to the principal.”

“Ms. Crocker is one of your teachers?”

“Yeah. Science.”

“Why’d she slap him?”

“He pinched her boob.”

“Oh?  I guess some of you sixth graders have them.”

“Yeah.  Margie’s are big.”

Colin sat back, listening to the developing discussion of pubertal changes, smiling internally and noting that Nell had certainly learned to divert her mother.

He was sipping his after-dinner coffee when the doorbell rang.  Morell appeared in the dining room.  “Two men to see you, Judge.”  Her voice dropped.  “Said they’re from the FBI.”

“Thank you.”  Colin exchanged a speculative look with his daughter, wiped his mouth, rose to his feet and went down the hall to the foyer.

Two suited men waited under the portico lamp, just outside the front door that the maid had left ajar.  Colin stopped before them.  “If you’re FBI I’d like to see some identification.”

“Of course,” said the first smoothly.  Both presented folders with photographs and FBI superimposed in red letters.

Colin stood back and motioned them to enter the adjacent living room.

They stood across the coffee table from him.  One said, “I’m Special Agent Towers and this is Agent Pinter.  You are Judge Colin Redfield, retired after ten years on the superior court bench, is that right?”

Colin acknowledged it and shook hands with both.  “Please take seats, gentlemen, and tell me how I can help you.”

When they were seated on the couch, Colin took the facing lounger.  Towers took out a notebook and said “We’re in a hurry, Judge, which is the reason for interrupting your supper.  We’re nailing down our case against a suspect and need to fix the evidence trail.  We believe you know an individual named Wilma Gail Wavell.”

The man waited, expecting confirmation.  Colin said, “I’ve never met her but, yes, I know of her.”

“How do you know of her, Judge?”

“My daughter was sometimes a guest at Chuck’s Roadhouse, where Wilma worked, I believe under the name Chartreuse.”

“Your daughter’s name is Jane Redfield Heath?”

“That’s right.”

“Were you aware that Charles Edwards, the operator of Chuck’s Roadhouse, considered your daughter to be an employee also, under the name Belinda Touez?”

“He may have done, yes,” Colin conceded, “but I don’t believe they had concluded any kind of formal arrangement.”

Towers waved a hand deprecatingly.  “Your daughter is not a person of interest, except that one of her shoes was apparently used to implicate her in the murder of Edwards.”

Colin shrugged.  It was inconceivable that the FBI had not heard Studebaker’s tale.  “I knew about that.”

The man made a check in his notebook.  “From the reports of your friend, William Logan Studebaker.”

It was not a question.  Towers continued with a dry smile, “I suspect your friend didn’t tell you that your daughter’s shoe was wiped clean of fingerprints but not of Edwards’ blood.  The extreme unlikelihood that a murderess would wipe off her fingerprints but leave the weapon beside the body is why the police have not already questioned your daughter.”

Colin showed his interest with a nod.  “I wondered about that!”

“And the clincher was the fingerprints of Wilma Gail Wavell on the shoe Studebaker furnished to the police, along with Edwards’ DNA in the residual blood and brain tissue.  Now then, Judge, we want to know how you came by that shoe.”

“My granddaughter came home wearing it as ‘dress-up’ a couple days ago.  Her friend, Jimmy, who is Wilma’s brother, found it and its mate in the trash.”

“Why did you take an interest in castoff shoes?”

“Because the heel of one contained what might be dried blood and my daughter recognized them as identical to a pair worn by Chartreuse, said to be part owner of Edwards’ roadhouse.”

Towers wrote at length and looked up at last.  “Will your family testify to these events?”

“Yes, if necessary.  Would you please tell me, however, why the FBI is interested in a local murder?”

“Because a woman’s fingerprint on the shoe you supplied matched one on an opera mask worn during a bank robbery, as well as others on objects taken from the home of Wilma Gail Wavell.  For your information, she was arrested this afternoon after her plane landed at Las Vegas.”

Colin blinked.  “Fast work!”

“Thanks to your contribution, sir.”  Both men stood up.  “The federal prosecutor will be in touch.”

* * *

When Colin told Janey the news, her relief was obvious.  She sprang toward the stairs.  “I’m going out to celebrate!”

Half an hour later the closing garage door had hardly ceased to rumble behind the car before Nell joined him in his bedroom.  She stared at him in wonder.  “Why’s Mama so excited?”

“She’s off the hook?”

“What hook?”

“It’s a complicated story, but you helped get her get off it and deserve to hear all about it.  Has Morell left?”

“Ten minutes ago.”

“Then come here and sit in my lap.”

She skipped across the room, jumped onto him with a sideways twist, threw her arms around his neck, kissed him solidly on the mouth and said when she withdrew, “Oh, Grandpa, I love you so much.  You got me off the hook!”

“Temporarily.”

Her eyes widened.  “What do you mean?”

“Your mother is responsible for you.  She needs to know what you’re up to.”

“Oh, Grandpa!” she cried, now in a very different tone.  “You won’t tell her?”

“No.  You will, after I preface a few exculpatory remarks.”

“Excu— exculp—”

“Explaining that you aren’t guilty alone.  Are you interested in your mother’s problem or not?”

“Oh.  Oh, yeah, I’m interested.”

“She was almost framed for murder.”

The girl’s eyes enlarged hugely.  “M-murder?”

“You’ll note I said, ‘Almost.’”  He went on to tell the whole story, omitting only Janey’s indulgence of multiple partners and concluding with, “So, you see it was the shoes you and Jimmy found that unhooked your mother.”

“Oh, wow!” breathed the girl.  “But it will be bad for Jimmy, won’t it?”

“Not with the law.  Maybe about the shoes with his mother and sister.”

Her eyes enlarged.  “Will he think I ratted on him?”

“On his sister, you mean.  He might, but you really had no choice, because of what his sister did to implicate your mother.”

“Oh.”  She blinked.  “That’s true.  She did try to make Mama the fall guy.”

Colin grinned.  “Your slang is suddenly aging.”

The girl grinned back, not too concerned about Jimmy’s attitude.  “Tell me something, Grandpa: how long did you stand at my door?”

“I don’t know.”  He studied her twinkling eyes.  “A while.  Why?”

“Your dick got hard, didn’t it?”

“You think so?  It could have been a wrinkle.”

She shook her head.  “I might believe that of Jimmy’s but not yours.  It’s too big.  What made it hard?  Did you want me to suck your cock, Grandpa?”

He took a deep breath.  “I wonder how many girls have ever asked their grandpa such a question.”

“I would love to do it, you know.”

She was wearing the workout clothing she had worn to supper.  She smelled of soap apparently after a shower.  His hand on her buttocks detected no underwear beneath the flannel.

He shook his head.  “Nell, we have to quit this.”

“Quit what?”

“Being so intimate.  I’m convinced it’s not good for you.”

“You are?”  Oddly she giggled.

“What’s funny?”

“Something Jimmy said that he heard from Chuck.  ‘Anything that feels good is bad for you.’”

“I’m not surprised that Chuck was a cynic.”

“‘And the better it feels, the worse.’”

He sighed.  “Honestly, my dear, sex itself is not bad for you.  How it’s done can be bad and what others think of you for it can be terrible, but you can control both if you’re careful.”

She cocked her head.  “How do you be careful about it, Grandpa?”

“The best way is to avoid it.”

“Unh-uh.  I’d have to tell Jimmy ‘No.’”

“Obviously you don’t want to do that.”

“No, I don’t.  He’s a cool guy and he thinks I’m a fox.”

“Well, you are — but a very young one.”

“He’s the only person, besides you, who knows much about it.”

“How about your girlfriends — no!  Forget I mentioned them.”

She blinked.  “Why?”

“They’re the worst for you to talk to.  They’ll tell everyone else.”

It was her turn for a reflective pause.  Slowly she nodded.  “Yeah, they would.”  Mercurially she changed the subject.  “Jimmy heard somewhere that what Chuck did to him will hurt his brain somehow.  Do you think it will?”

“His brain?”

“I don’t know just how to say it.”

“He had several sessions with Chuck, didn’t he?”

“Once or twice a week for the last half of summer.”

“I heard him say he liked it.  Do you suppose he was telling the truth?”

“Hmm.  He said it hurt his asshole at first.  Yeah, I think he was.”

“Else he wouldn’t have admitted it hurt.”  Colin paused thoughtfully and continued, “Most of the pedophiles I’ve seen were charged after the victims grew up and claimed their personalities were damaged.  Yet reasons other than forceful rape were often apparent for the so-called victims’ animosity, reasons such as envy or love of notoriety or even abandonment.  In many cases the victims’ real complaint was that the accused had stopped molesting them.  If Jimmy was truthful about liking it, I’d say he’s undamaged.  Except for one consideration.  Now he wants to do those things, but according to our society, he’s too young.  If society learns about him, its reaction is pretty sure to hurt him one way or the other.  And with his sister shown to be a promiscuous bank robber, you can be sure the government will take a close look.  I wonder if anyone besides Wilma ever saw him going upstairs to see Chuck.”

“He said not.”

“He may not have noticed.”

“What’s ‘promiscuous’ mean?”

“Having lots of sex partners.”

“Oh.  Hmm.  What can I do to help Jimmy?”

“Tell him to be very careful and not to talk about it with anyone else.  And don’t you talk about it.”

“Except with you.”

“You and I need to be more careful too.  The government knows you’re Jimmy’s friend.”  Colin shook his head.  “You must quit coming to my bed, my darling.”

She heaved a sigh.  “I was afraid you’d say that.”  Suddenly she leaned forward and kissed his lips before climbing out of his lap and standing solemnly before him.  “You never told me that before, Grandpa.  I’ll do it, just for you.  You’re the world’s best grandpa.  I love you with all my heart.”

“I love you too, Nell.”

She turned around and left the room, leaving him to wonder what conclusion she was reaching.

* * *

That evening Janey came home before eleven and soon knocked on his open door.  “I saw your light.  May I come in?”

“Of course.  I’ve got a matter to discuss with you, if you’re sober enough.”

She shrugged.  “A couple beers is all.”

She entered and sat in his recliner, wearing the dressy skirt, blouse and jewelry she had donned to go “celebrate.”

Propped up in bed, he turned to regard her.  “Problems?”

“Yep — that I’d forgotten about while I patronized Chuck’s Roadhouse.”

“Meaning you didn’t have them there, such as no bread for your Greek sandwich?”

She blinked.  “I only did that a couple of nights.  No.  I mean no hot guys.”

“Nothing but old wife cheaters?”

“And sleazes.”

He grinned sourly.  “I have a hard time believing you found handsome, single, rich guys at Chuck’s Roadhouse.”

She nodded with a matching grin.  “Well, no, besides Chuck himself.  I mean at first.”

“Honey, I’ve discovered that Chuck was hotter than you suspected.”

She blinked.  “How could that be?”

“Not only did he like to share his women, he particularly enjoyed immature male assholes.”

“He … he what?”

Speaking at length, Colin told her of Jimmy’s report.

Her reaction was incredulity.  “A kid’s dream!  Jimmy’s full of shit.”

“I think not.  He told me in person while I watched his manner.  And I could testify — though I won’t — that he has a fetching little anus, not to speak of a perfect little cock.”

“‘A perfect —’”  She chuckled, still dubious.  “My god, Pops!  Now it sounds like an old man’s dream.”

“Yes, and maybe it is.  They are.  But it’s not just a dream.  I saw both items today in this house.”

Beginning to believe, she said, “He came to your bedroom?”

“Not my bedroom.”

“What?  You don’t …”  Her eyes widened and she rose partially from the chair.  “You can’t mean Nell’s!”

“I said I had a matter to discuss with you.  So sit back down, relax and listen.  Actually, Nell has a matter to discuss with you, but I want to preface her remarks with a few of my own.”

The woman sagged back into the chair and said dolefully, “She’s fucking Jimmy and you want to excuse it.”

“Using her words, I don’t intend to ‘rat on’ her.  Instead I mean to rat on myself.  As you know, she’s been coming to my bed during thunderstorms and we talk about many things.  She’s been very curious about sex, as you’d expect in a pubertal child.  I confess to answering her questions without really consulting you first.  That last I regret, though I would merely have informed you, not requested permission.  Then Jimmy came along, knowing too much.  If blame is to be apportioned, Chuck and I are the blameworthy adults, in my opinion.”

Janey’s eyes narrowed.  “What have she and Jimmy done together?”

“Nell will tell you that.  I have only one thing to say about it: I believe she has retained her maidenhead.”

The woman laughed mockingly.  “Why do you think so?”

“I also asked her why.  She said, ‘Because you want me to.’”

Janey nodded slowly.  “I know she loves you.  It may even be true.”

“As I said, I believe it is.”

“You would.”  She thought it over and shook her head.  “My god, she’s still only eleven.  How old is Jimmy.”

“The same.”

“And Chuck, that son of a bitch, reamed his, ah, ‘cute little anus?’”

“So Jimmy said.”

“Which means Jimmy probably reamed Nell’s.  What size is Jimmy’s ‘perfect little cock?’”

“About like my forefinger.  When erect.”

She smirked.  “Which you won’t testify to.”

“If a pedophile, at least I’m not active.”

“My god, Pops; what am I going to do with you?”

He snorted softly.  “In Nell’s words, will you turn me in?”

Her eyes showed interest.  “You haven’t quite earned that, have you?”  She sighed.  “I guess you’ve taught me a bit of tolerance.  The real question is what should I do with Nell?”

“Hear her confession, advise her to keep silent and put her on the pill.  Unless you want to send her to the equivalent of a nunnery, which would likely make a lesbian of her.”

After a moment’s reflection she said, “Mama would’ve half-killed me.”

“Which is why I never mentioned Buckley Harget’s visits to your bedroom.”

“What?  How did you know about that?”

“I saw his monogrammed sweater left on your dresser.  And made sure your mother had put you on the pill.”

“Did you ever meet Buckley?”

“As a matter of fact, he appeared before me on a using charge.  He was a lout.”

She nodded.  “Yes, he was, and wanted me to sniff too.  But I knew what it might do to you, Pops.”

“Thank you for both of us.”

She smiled reminiscently.  “But he was a bulgy jock and the other girls had taught him what to do with his big dick.”

“What’s he doing now?”

She shrugged.  “Who knows?  Who cares?”  She continued after a sigh, “So I wait until Nell comes by to lecture her, right?  In the meantime, you offered to help me with my problem.”

“Of acceptable men?”

“That’s the one.  Guess I’ve lost some idealism.  They don’t have to be single or pretty or rich, but they have to be civilized and clean.  I would think the members of your sex club at least fit that prescription.”

He nodded.  “Oh, yes.  And they tend to be affluent too.  But Janey, this isn’t the frontier.  If you ever want to marry you’ll hardly find good prospects in a sex club.”

“The frontier?”

“When women were scarce, men frequently married whores.  And said for the most part they made good wives.”

She dropped her eyes.  “Maybe a hot prospect will come to the library for a little research.”

“With the Internet out there?  I’m surprised public libraries are still in business.”

“It’s declining,” she admitted.  “What do you recommend?”

“A lot of married couples claim to have met in gyms.”

“Yeah — other people’s spouses.”

He chuckled.

“In the meantime,” she continued, “I have a powerful itch to scratch.  Will you speak to your madam, ah, what’s her name?”

“Matie.  She’s not exactly a madam.  It’s the New Fox Recreational Association, not a brothel.  You don’t just drop in.  Patrons are notified by email of scheduled meetings.”

“How often?”

“Once or twice a week, depending on interest.  Of course the girls can make other arrangements and often do, but they’re supposed to restrict their favors to club members.”

“How is that enforced?”

“It isn’t, but if a girl is proven to stray she’s dropped.”

“Like fired?”

“Like that, though the girls are contractors, not employees.  They’re responsible for their own taxes.”

“Will you speak to Matie?”

“Yes.  Tomorrow.  I’ll let you know.”

“You’ll tell her I’m your daughter?”

“Of course not!”

She giggled.  “I’ll be her new fox.”

“You certainly will be a fox!”

“Oh, Pops!”  She crossed the room, leaned over his bed, kissed his lips, straightened up and regarded him thoughtfully.  “Nell has the right idea.  I should talk to you more.  If Matie takes me on, I hope you’ll visit me.  At the least I’ll tell you everything that happens there.”

He smiled.  “I’ll admit I’d enjoy hearing of it.”

“Then good night.”

She left him with food for thought.  A latent pedophile as proven by a hard cock, he was about to become the pimp of his own daughter and no doubt next an incestuous father.  At the idea his cock stirred again.

END
Contact: kellis@dhp.com