“They are, April. They’re small-town to the core and there’s a great deal that they do not and never will understand.”
“Like me.”
“Like you.” He smiled. “Like anything outside their own specific frames of reference. Your father worries about pinkos in Washington and whether he’ll sell enough condoms to pay the rent. Your mother worries about church affairs and reputations and hopes you’ll marry a nice sweet boy who comes from a good dull family. And your brother wants to be a football hero so all the girls will lift their skirts for him. They’re square as hell, but they’re still nice people.”
He sighed, smiling still. “I’m long-winded tonight. Mind if I order for both of us? I think I know what you’ll like.”
He did. He ordered something called beef Stroganoff, which she had never had before and it was delicious. He ordered a good bottle of red wine along with the meal. Afterward he ordered brandied coffee, which somehow settled everything in her stomach and in her mind as well.
She sat sipping her coffee and relaxing in complete luxury.
“This is wonderful,” she said.
“The coffee?”
“The everything.”
“You’re happy, April?”
“Very happy.”
“Let’s get out of here,” he said. “I want to make you even happier, April.”
The Mercedes shifted down to second and the gears acted as a brake. The car slowed. Craig hit the brake and the sleek sports car glided to a perfect stop.
“We’re home, April.”
Her head was lighter than air. I feel pretty, she thought. I feel pretty and witty and bright. She stepped out of the car, looked once more at Craig’s home. At dusk the house rose even more dramatically from the landscape. He took her arm and she leaned a little against him. They walked together to the door.
Without a word she followed him inside, standing patiently beside him while he closed and bolted the door. He turned, and all at once she was in his arms, her breasts drawn tight against his chest, her eyes closed, her heart beating against her ribs like an animal shaking its cage. His arms went around her. With one hand he stroked her silky hair; with the other he rubbed the small of her back until she tingled.
He kissed her. At first—but only for a moment—her lips and his merely brushed. Then her mouth opened and his tongue darted inside, a living flame that seared the roof of her mouth and seemed to set her own tongue on fire. She moaned softly, pressing still closer, and her lips and teeth closed around his tongue, imprisoned it, sucked on it and refused to let it escape.
The kiss lasted a long time.
When he released her she nearly fell to the floor. She was limp as the dishrag her mother always carried, limp and lifeless. And at the same time she was a woman on fire, a woman with the beginnings of a desperate craving burning in her.
“Craig—”
“Don’t talk,” he said.
He took her arm and led her across a room, down a hall, through a doorway. She looked around. They were in a bedroom and no room that she had ever seen was so completely bed-oriented. There was one bed the size of three beds, one huge brass bed that dominated a room which was large in its own right. He flicked a switch—evidently the whole house was wired for sound—and music came over the hidden speakers.
Not jazz—not this time. Not music like anything she had heard before. This was weird music, weird and wild and wonderful music.
Bedroom music.
He touched another switch. The overhead light went out, and a soft pale green glow from the walls illuminated the room. He turned once more to her, reached for her, and she went to him. And again he burned her mouth with a kiss.
The green dress buttoned in front. The silk top part had buttons, that is, and the top one was between the tops of her breasts. He opened the button and the blouse burst apart a bit. She felt the cool air on her breasts and drew in her breath sharply, excited by the sensation—excited, too, by his eyes on her breasts.
He opened each button in turn. The blouse fell all the way open and her breasts were exposed. He looked at them, admiration shining in his eyes, and his fingers reached out carelessly to brush the cherry tip of each soft white mound. Instantly her nipples reacted, stiffening and jutting forward. She was so excited she could barely breathe.
He cupped her breasts in his hands now. His thumbs and fingers manipulated the globes of flesh and she shivered all over.
Then he pushed her dress all the way down.
“Naked,” he whispered. “Naked for me, April.”
She could not speak.
“Naked and beautiful, April.”
He kneeled before her and his hands went all over her body. Then he stood up, shrugged off his jacket, whipped off his tie, tore off his shirt. He had hair on his chest, she saw. And she threw her arms around him so that she could feel his hairy chest against her soft, tender breasts.
He released her again. She stood before him, trembling, and watched him remove the rest of his clothing. When he was nude she studied him, looked from his face to his feet. Her eyes locked again with his. Then, slowly, he moved closer. His arms encircled her body, lifted. He carried her to the bed and set her down gently upon a pale blue bedsheet.
He joined her there.
His hands were everywhere, touching, caressing, exciting. Her breasts tingled with the ecstasy of his touch. His mouth kissed hers, and then his lips left hers to plant a trail of hungry kisses down her throat to her breasts.
When he kissed her breasts something snapped inside her. She turned in to a hurricane, a cyclone, a whirlwind. Her hips churned spasmodically and her pulse soared. An aching need grew in her groin and spread throughout her entire body until she was aware of nothing but her need for him, of nothing but a tremendous aching void that needed to be filled.
His lips.
His hands.
Everywhere. Normal sensations withered away. The sensual music still played but she did not hear it. She saw nothing, smelled nothing, tasted nothing. She could only feel, and the intensity of her feeling was unbelievable. He touched her and she vibrated like a taut wire. He stroked her and she arched her back like a bow, ready for him, needing him too much to wait any longer.
“Now,” he said.
And it began.
His mouth was glued to her mouth, his chest pressed against her breasts. Her winding legs pinned him to her, and their bodies moved together in a rhythm that was as old as humanity. She hugged him close, her arms around him, her nails digging involuntarily into his back.
Time stopped. Space spread out flatter than the desert and wider than the world. Everything was perfect now, absolutely perfect, and everything was getting better, steadily better, incredibly better, impossibly more perfect. She felt all the forces of her body crouching together, readying themselves for the spring, and she felt the world racing by her, and she felt her body and his body and nothing more.
Then passion broke for both of them at once. They reached the top of the mountain just as someone moved the mountain away, and they fell together belly-to-belly to the very bottom of the universe.
He had lighted a cigarette. He drew on it, inhaled smoke, and passed the cigarette to her. She took a drag. No cigarette had ever tasted so good. She gave it back to him and leaned back on her pillow. Her eyes closed and she took a slow breath.
She said, “I’m a woman now.”
“Yes.”
“I wasn’t before, Craig. I was just a girl.”
“You were ready to become a woman.”
“I know. The other boys—they weren’t anything. They never happened. Nothing before was ever anything like this. I didn’t know anything could be like this.”
He did not answer immediately. She opened her eyes and saw that he was smiling. He gave the cigarette to her once again and she took a drag. Her entire body was limp, every muscle entirely relaxed. She had never been so thoroughly exhausted in her life. Not tired—she had no desire to sleep. Simp
ly exhausted, drained and used up and, strangely, fulfilled.
She reached over and touched him. “Such a wonderful thing,” she said. “Little things mean a lot, I guess.”
“Little?”
“Well—”
“If you keep doing that, you might note an increase in size, girl.”
“Woman,” she said, correcting him. “Was I good, Craig?”
“You were good.”
She sighed, stretched, yawned. “I want to be good,” she told him. “I want to be the best in the world.”
“It’s a noble ambition.”
“Am I the best, Craig? The best you ever had?”
“No.”
The answer surprised her. She raised herself up on one elbow and stared at him. “You could have said so,” she said. “Even if you didn’t mean it.”
“I don’t lie.”
“Well, what was wrong with me?”
“Nothing was wrong with you, April.”
“Then—”
“Relax,” he told her. “My God, what sort of vanity could lead you to suspect that you could be the best woman I’ve ever had? You’re practically devoid of experience. You’ve got a great deal of natural talent, but there’s more to lovemaking than enthusiasm and a passionate nature. It’s an art, April. Do you know who was the best woman I ever had?”
“Who?”
“A forty-five-year-old prostitute in Marseilles. She had most of her teeth missing and her stomach was lined with stretch marks because she’d given birth to three children in her lifetime. Some drunken sailor broke her nose once and the bones didn’t heal properly, so her nose was bent. Her face would have stopped most clocks. But she knew more about sex than all the rest of the female world put together. Do you think you could compete with her?”
“I’d like to try.”
He laughed. “Wonderful,” he said. “You’re delightful, April.”
“Was I any good at all?”
“Do you care?”
“Yes,” she said. “It’s very important for me to be good for you.”
“You were excellent. I never expected you to be as good as you were.”
“I want to be better.”
“You will be.”
“I suppose I have a lot to learn, don’t I?”
“Of course.”
She drew a breath. “Will you teach me, Craig?”
“I’ll teach you.” He turned to her, and his hand found her breast. With the tip of his finger he drew a miniscule circle around her nipple.
“It’s time for a lesson, April.”
She took a deep breath and let it out slowly.
“I’m ready,” she said.
Craig reminded her to take a shower before she went home. She relaxed under the spray of water, scrubbed herself thoroughly, rinsed the soap away. She dried herself off and dressed again. The perspiration was gone now, and the tell-tale odors of sex were dispelled. She put on fresh lipstick and studied her reflection in the mirror. There were still dark circles under her eyes, the stigmata of incandescent orgasm, but other than that she looked none the worse for wear. It didn’t show, she thought. She would have looked just about the same after an inspired evening of hand-holding in a movie theater balcony. It didn’t show.
Craig was waiting for her in the living room. She asked him how she looked. He told her she looked good enough to eat.
“Not now,” she said. “You’d better take me home.”
He laughed. The car was at the curb. She settled her behind in the bucket seat and he started the motor. The Mercedes came to life and headed down the dirt road like a greyhound after a mechanical rabbit.
“A nice night,” he said.
“The best in my life.”
“I was referring to the weather.”
“Oh,” she said. The air was cool, she noticed, and the stars were bright in the black sky. There was a refreshing breeze blowing and the speed of the sports car increased the flow of fresh air. She filled her lungs with the air, watched tree limbs sway gently in the breeze. It was autumn, and the trees were losing leaves. Yes, she decided, it was a beautiful night. A glorious night.
“You’re right,” she told him. “It’s a beautiful night.”
‘You’re a beautiful girl.”
“Do you really think so?”
“Of course. I told you I don’t lie, April.”
“What do you like most about me?”
He told her.
“Oh,” she said. “I mean next to that. I’m not counting that.”
“Why not? It’s the best part of you, April.”
She giggled. “But you’re the only person who knows about it. What do you like next best?”
“Your hands.”
She had been expecting him to say that he liked her breasts next. His answer was a surprise. She looked at her hands. As far as she could see, they were just hands.
“My hands?”
“They’re neat and dainty and very pretty.”
A boy like Bill Piersall would never have noticed her hands. He would have noticed only those parts of her body intimately connected with sex. Craig was different, she thought. Vastly different.
“Thank you,” she said.
“Don’t thank me. You were fishing for a compliment, weren’t you?”
“I suppose so.”
“A compliment for these.” He let go of the steering wheel with his right and hand and tapped each breast in turn. “These were what you had in mind, weren’t they?”
She giggled.
“Well, they pass muster, little girl. In case you didn’t know already.”
Craig pulled the car to a stop in front of her house. He told her it was only midnight and she could not believe him at first. She felt as though she had spent at least ten hours in bed with him. He opened the door for her and walked her to her front door. She took a key from her purse and fitted it in the lock.
“I’ll see you soon,” he said.
He did not kiss her. She smiled and he turned and walked back to his car. She pushed the door open, stepped inside, and closed the door after herself.
Her mother was knitting in the living room.
“You’re home early,” she said.
“Not so early.”
“Well, early enough. Sometimes older boys don’t respect a young girl’s curfew. They don’t understand, being accustomed to keeping late hours themselves. But this Craig seems like a very thoughtful young man, April.”
“He is, Mom.”
“Your father likes him,” Mrs. North went on. “Says he has a good head riding on his shoulders. And I must say he gave me the same impression, April.”
She kept her smile back. So her father liked Craig.
God, maybe he’d offer him a job in the drugstore. That would be just the place for Craig Jeffers. She could see him now, filling prescriptions carefully and methodically. Well, she thought, there was something else he had filled, and he had done a magnificent job of it.
“Did he buy you dinner, April?”
“Yes, Mom.”
“Where?”
“The Coachman,” she said, naming a popular middle-class restaurant in Xenia. If she told her mother about Kardaman’s, Mom would never believe her.
“That’s a fine place, April. Did you enjoy your dinner?”
“Yes, Mom. It was nice.”
“Well, it’s a nice place. I hope it didn’t cost him too much money?”
“Not too much.” She smiled inwardly. Craig had placed two twenties and a ten on the table to cover the bill plus the tip. But there was no point in telling her mother about that.
“Although he seems to have quite a bit of money. That car he drives must have cost a pretty penny.”
“Well, his parents left him some money.”
“Of course,” Mrs. North said. “Well, money never hurt a good man. Your father used to say that it was as easy to fall in love with a rich girl as a poor one. Of course, he married a poor one in the en
d. But just the same—”
“Yes, Mom.”
It was getting good, she thought. Now the old lady was hearing wedding bells in the distance. She could hardly wait to tell Craig.
“April? You didn’t kiss him goodnight, did you?”
“Why? Did you watch, Mom?”
The woman blushed. “Of course not,” she said crisply. “I wouldn’t spy on you, April.”
“I didn’t mean—”
“I just noticed that your lipstick wasn’t smeared. My, you used to come home from dates with other boys with your lipstick smeared all over your face.”
“Oh, I see.”
“But you didn’t kiss Craig?”
“No, Mom.”
“Did he try to kiss you?”
It was very hard to keep from laughing. The whole idea of a long discussion about a goodnight kiss with a man who had just taken her to bed for several hours was ridiculous in the extreme. But she managed to keep a straight face.
“Not on the first date,” she said.
“My,” her mother said. “Your Craig really is a gentleman, isn’t he?”
“Yes, Mom. He is. I’m pretty tired, Mom.”
“Well, you just run along to bed, April.”
She started for the stairs. She was tired—that was true enough. And she did want to get to bed. But more than anything else she wanted to end what was becoming the conversation of a lifetime with her mother. If this bit went on much longer she was simply going to crack up laughing and that was all there was to it.
“April—”
She sighed. “Yes, Mom?”
“I was concerned about your going out with an older man, you know.”
“I thought so, Mom.”
“I’m not concerned now. Older men are more settled, April. They don’t feel compelled to prove themselves. I think you’re probably—well, safer with an older man, April.”
This time, as she ran headlong up the stairs, she laughed hysterically. It was just too much, just too funny.
6
APRIL focused her eyes upon the small leather-bound hymnal and sang the words to the song in a small clear voice. She did not really have to study the words, since the congregation sang God Bless America each Sunday in an effort to prove that a theory holding Protestant churches to be a hotbed of communism was markedly untrue as far as Antrim, Ohio, was concerned. Still, by looking at the hymnal she could avoid looking elsewhere. Elsewhere took in a lot of ground. Elsewhere included the minister, and April North was young enough to have trouble looking steadily and soberly upon the steady and sober countenance of a minister of God just a few hours after a night of scintillating sin. That the minister would have approved of April’s conduct was highly doubtful. And, although she hardly suspected that he could guess her conduct from the expression on her face, she preferred not to look at him.