Her voice was raspy, like she had a cold. She came up to me and grabbed my arm. Her fingers hurt the muscles. I could smell her perfume. She came close to me. I thought I knew what she wanted. I tried to kiss her. She jerked away.
“No.”
“I'm sorry.”
She slapped me. She was strong; my cheek stung. She moved in, swinging both arms. Now she had her fists closed. She hit my arms and my chest. I tried to hold her.
“Hit me!” she said.
It was goddam queer. I held her arms, but she got loose. She struck my chest.
She said: “Hit me.”
I hit her easy on the ribs. “That's right I That's right!” She hit me a couple of hard blows. Her eyes were wild. She hit me a hard punch on the neck. I hit her in the belly. I heard the breath go out: ouf! It didn't stop her. She kept coming in, punching hard.
I gave her one over the kidneys. She grunted and clinched with me. She bit my arm until the blood came. I slapped her. She put her knee in my groin. It hurt. I lost my balance, grabbed for her, and we both went down. We rolled around on the dirty floor of the shack, both panting. She was hard to hold, and every time she got loose she'd hit or kick or bite me. I got over her, holding her down on the floor. She looked beautiful and wild. She bit my arm again and I slugged her in the ribs. She moaned, and then struggled free. My hand caught in the scarlet shirt. The silk tore to her navel.
“Yes,” she said.
I got the idea. I ripped the shirt off her, she fighting all the time and liking it. I ripped at her clothes, not caring how much I hurt her. She squirmed on the dirty floor, panting. There was blood on her mouth. I don't know if it was mine or hers. It tasted sweet. Suddenly she stopped moving.
“Now,” she said. “Now, goddam you. Now!”
Later we lay on the floor.
“I don't understand you,” I said.
“It's fun, isn't it?”
“Yes.”
“Then what do you care?”
We had a time getting the clothes to cover her. I had torn them all to pieces. We didn't have any pins. I found some fish-hooks and fastened the black pants to the shirt. She helped me. Then I put the hooks through the worst tears in the shirt. I backed away to look at her. There was a bad rip over her right shoulder. I fastened it and then I kissed her neck. I would have kissed her mouth, but she wouldn't lei me.
“What's the matter?”
“I don't want you to.”
“All right.”
I backed away again. From a distance you wouldn't have known anything was wrong.
“I should take up dressmaking,” I said.
“You should take up wrestling,” she said. “I feel as though I'd been through a mangle.”
“You asked for it, baby.”
“Sure. I love it.”
“I love it too.”
It was bright outside. The sun was well up in the sky. There was no wind; the lake looked like dark glass. Some reeds grew near the shore. We walked to the car.
“Where are we going?” I asked.
“The Vineyard.”
I started the engine and backed around so I would be heading for the road. The tyres bumped over something. I saw it was the pile of bailing wire and the rocks. That gave me a shock. I'd forgotten how close I'd been to the lake. I wondered how many other guys lay under that slick water, bound with wire and held down by rocks. I drove to the road.
“To the right,” she said.
She settled down in the front seat, watching me through half-closed eyes. She smiled a little. Suddenly I felt scared of her. I don't know why, but I got a feeling. There was no sense to it. She couldn't do anything to me. But there it was.
I drove along the road, passing a few cars. The electric clock in the car said it was seven o'clock. I saw the Vineyard on the hill to the left, the sunlight strong on the big red buildings. From here I saw how big it was, the vines and the fields stretching out for miles. The dark green vines looked cool.
We came to the big gate of the Vineyard. I started to turn in. “No,” she said. “Straight ahead.” We went on, to a small lane. She told me to turn up that. A hundred yards up from the road, in a clump of bushes, the lane ended. She got out.
“Come on.”
I followed her. We went through the bushes. I saw a path that led to the back of one of the big buildings. She halted.
