Night Chills

and upright freezer. A microwave oven. A television set was suspended from the ceiling in one comer and angled toward the big round table by the window.

Jeremy was at the table, eating eggs and toast, facing the hall.

To the boy’s right, Emma sat with one elbow on the table, drinking a glass of orange juice. Her hair was as golden and full as he remembered it. As she turned to ask her husband who had rung the bell, he saw that her lovely face was still soft with sleep — and for some reason that aroused him.

She said, “Bob? Who’s this?”

Salsbury said, “I am the key.”

Two voices responded.

At 8:55, making the weekly trip into town to lay in a fresh supply of perishables, Paul Annendale braked at the end of the gravel road, looked both ways, then turned left onto Main Street.

From the back seat Mark said, “Don’t take me all the way to Sam’s place. Let me out at the square.”

Looking in the rearview mirror, Paul said, “Where are you going?”

Mark patted the large canary cage that stood on the seat beside him. The squirrel danced about and chattered. “I want to take Buster to see Jeremy.”

Swiveling around in her seat and looking back at her brother, Rya said, “Why don’t you admit that you don’t go over to their house to see Jeremy? We all know you’ve got a crush on Emma.”

“Not so!” Mark said in such a way that he proved absolutely that what she said was true.

“Oh, Mark,” she said exasperatingly.

“Well, it’s a lie,” Mark insisted. “I don’t have a crush on Emma. I’m not some sappy kid.”

Rya turned around again.

“No fights,” Paul said. “We’ll leave Mark off at the square with Buster, and there will be no fights.

Salsbury said, “Do you understand that, Bob?”

“I understand.”

“You will not speak unless spoken to. And you will not move from that chair unless I tell you to move.”

“I won’t move.”

“But you’ll watch.”

“I’ll watch.”

“Jeremy?”

“I’ll watch too.”

“Watch what?” Salsbury asked.

“Watch you — screw her.”

Dumb cop. Dumb kid.

He stood by the sink, leaned against the counter. “Come here, Emma.”

She got up. Came to him.

“Take off your robe. ”

She took it off. She was wearing a yellow bra and yellow panties with three embroidered red flowers at the left hip.

“Take off your bra.”

Her breasts fell free. Heavy. Beautiful.

“Jeremy, did you know your mother looked so nice?”

The boy swallowed hard. “No.”

Thorp’s hands were on the table. They had curled into fists.

“Relax, Bob. You’re going to enjoy this. You’re going to love it. You can’t wait for me to have her.”

Thorp’s hands opened. He leaned back in his chair.

Touching her breasts, staring into her shimmering green eyes, Salsbury had a delightful idea. Marvelous. Exciting. He said, “Emma, I think this would be more enjoyable if you resisted me a bit. Not seriously, you understand. Not physically. Just keep asking me not to hurt you. And cry.”

She stared at him.

“Could you cry for me, Emma?”

“I’m so scared.”

“Good! Excellent! I didn’t tell you to relax, did I? You should be scared. Damned scared. And obedient. Are you frightened enough to cry, Emma?”

She shivered.

“You’re very firm.”

She said nothing.

“Cry for me.”

“Bob… ”

“He can’t help you.”

He squeezed her breasts.

“My son…”

“He’s watching. It’s all right if he watches. Didn’t he suck these when he was a baby?”

Tears formed at the comers of her eyes.

“Fine,” he said. “Oh, that’s sweet.”

Mark could only carry the squirrel and the cage for fifteen or twenty steps at a time. Then he had to put it down and shake his arms to get the pain out of them.

“Cup your breasts with your hands.”

She did as she was told.

She wept.

“Pull on the nipples.”

“Don’t make me do this.”

“Come on, little animal.”

At first, upset by all the jerking and shaking and swinging of his cage, Buster ran in tight little circles and squealed like an injured rabbit.

“You sound like a rabbit,” Mark told him during one of the rest stops.

Buster squealed, unconcerned with his image.

“You should be ashamed of yourself. You’re not a dumb bunny. You’re a squirrel.”

In front of Edison’s store, as he was closing the car door, Paul saw something gleam on the back seat. “What’s that?”

Rya was still in the car, undoing her safety belt. “What’s what?”

“On the back seat. It’s the key to Buster’s cage.”

Rya squirmed into the back seat. “I’d better take it to him.”

“He won’t need it,” Paul said. “Just don’t lose it.”

“No,” she said. “I’d better take it to him. He’ll want to let Buster out so he can show off for Emma.”

“Who are you — Cupid?”

She grinned at him.

“Unzip my trousers.”

“I don’t want to.”

“Do it!”

She did.

“Enjoying yourself, Bob?”

“Yes.”

He laughed. “Dumb cop.”

By the time he reached the edge of the Thorp property, Mark had found a better way to grip the cage. The new method didn’t strain his arms so much, and he didn’t have to stop every few yards to rest.

Buster had become so upset by the erratic movement of his pen that he had stopped squealing. He was gripping the bars with all four feet, hanging on the side of the cage, very still and quiet, frozen as if he were in the woods and had just seen a predator creeping through the brush.