Strega

wearing a black silk camisole over a pair of matching tap pants. The whole outfit was held up with a pair of spaghetti-straps-they made a hard line against her slim shoulders. The redhead had a pair of black pumps on her feet-no stockings that I could see. She was all black and white, like the room.

'You want a drink?' she asked.

'No.'

'Nothing? We have everything here.'

'I don't drink,' I told her.

'A joint? Some coke?' she asked me, an airline stewardess on a flight to hell.

'Nothing,' I told her again.

She crossed in front of me, like a model on a runway for the first time, nervous but vain. She sat down on the couch, crossed her long legs, folded her hands over one knee. 'We have a deal?' she asked.

'Where's the money?' I said in reply.

'Yeah,' she said absently, almost to herself, 'where's the money?'

She flowed off the couch and walked out of the room again, leaving me to my thoughts. I wondered where her kid was.

The redhead was back in a minute, a slim black attache case in one hand. She looked like she was going to work. In a whorehouse. She dropped to her knees next to the recliner in a graceful move, crossing her ankles behind her on the floor, and put the attache case on my lap. 'Count it,' she said.

It was all in fifties and hundreds-crisp bills but not new. The serial numbers weren't in sequence. The count was right on the nose. 'Okay,' I told her.

She got to her feet. 'Wait here. I'll get you the pictures,' she said, turning to go. 'Play with your money.

As soon as she was out of the room I got up and took off my coat. I transferred the money from the attache case to a few different pockets, closed the case, and tossed it on the couch. Lit another cigarette.

She was back quickly, her hands full of paper. She came over to the same place she'd been before, kneeled down again, and started putting the papers in my lap, one piece at a time, as if she was dealing cards.

'This is Scotty like he looks today. I took this last week. This is Scotty like he was a few months ago-when it happened. This is the drawing he did-see the swastika? This is me and Scotty together- so you can tell how big he is, okay?'

'Okay,' I told her.

She handed me one more piece of paper, covered with typed numbers. 'These are the phone numbers where you can reach meand when you can call. Just ask for me-you don't have to say anything else.'

'Any of these answering machines?'

'No. They're all people, don't worry.

I took a last drag of my smoke, leaning past her to snub it out in the ashtray, ready to leave. The redhead put her face next to mine again, whispering in a babyish voice, more breath than tone, 'You think I'm a tease, don't you?'

I didn't say anything, frozen there, my hand mechanically grinding the cigarette butt into tobacco flakes.

'You think I'm just teasing you, don't you?' she whispered again. 'Dressing like this.

I pulled back to look at her but she hung on, coming with me. 'You do what you want,' I told her.

'I will if you close your eyes,' she said in my ear. 'Close your eyes!' she said, a baby demanding you play a game with her.

I was still so cold. Maybe it was the room. I closed my eyes, leaned back. Felt her stroke me, making a noise in her throat. 'Sssh, ssh,' she murmured. She was talking to herself. I felt her hands at my belt, heard the zipper move, felt myself strain against her hand. I opened my eyes a narrow slit; her red hair was in my lap. 'You promised!' she said in the baby voice. I closed my eyes again. She tugged at the waistband on my shorts, but I didn't move-she was rough and clumsy pulling me through the fly, still making those baby noises in her throat. I felt her mouth around me, felt the warmth, her tiny teeth against me, gently pulling. I put my hands in her soft hair, and she pulled her mouth off me, her teeth scraping the shaft, hurting me. 'You don't touch me!' she whispered, the voice of a little girl.

I put my hands behind my head so they wouldn't move. And she came back to me with her mouth, sucking hard now, moving her mouth up and down until I was slick with her juices. My eyes opened again- I couldn't help it. She didn't say anything this time. I opened them wider. The redhead's face was buried in my lap, her hands clasped tightly behind her back. My eyes closed again.

I felt it coming. I pushed my hips back in the chair, giving her a chance to pull her mouth away, but she was glued to me. 'Just this!' she mumbled, her mouth full, a little girl talking, a stubborn little girl who made up her mind and wasn't giving in. My mind flashed to a girl I met once when I was on the run from reform school. This was all she'd do too-she didn't want to get pregnant again. Somehow I knew this wasn't the same.

It was her choice. She shook her head from side to side, keeping me with her. I felt the explosion all the way to the base of my spine, but she never took her face away-never reached for a handkerchief-I could feel the muscles in her cheeks work as she took it all.

I slumped back in the chair and she let me slide out of her mouth but kept her head in my lap. Her little-girl's whisper was clear in the quiet room. 'I'm a good girl,' she said, calm and smug. 'Pat me. Pat my head.'

My eyes opened again as I brought my hand forward, stroking her red hair, watching her hands twist behind her in the handcuffs she'd made for herself.

Her head came up. She was licking her lips and her eyes were wet and gleaming. Her hands came forward, taking one of my cigarettes and lighting it while I pulled myself in and zipped up. She handed me the lit cigarette. 'For you,' she said.

I took a deep drag. It tasted of blood.

'I have you in me now,' she said, in her own voice. 'Get me that picture.'

I had to get out of there. She knew it too. I put on my coat, patting the pockets, putting the pictures and the other stuff she gave me inside.

'Come,' she said, taking my hand, leading me back to the garage.

The Mercedes had a regular license, but the one on the BMW said JINA. 'Is that the way you spell your name?' I asked her. 'I thought it was Gina-G-I-N-A.'

'They named me Gina. I didn't like it. When I have something I don't like, I change it.'

'Who's Zia Peppina?' I wanted to know.

'Me. Auntie Pepper, you capisce? When I was a little girl, I was a chubby, happy child-always running, getting into mischief. With my red hair, they used to call me Peppina. Little Pepper. But when I got older, when I got to be myself, they stopped calling me that baby name. I only let Scotty call me that because he's special to me.'

'People call you Jina now?'

'No,' the redhead said, 'now they call me Strega.'

The side door slammed behind me and I was alone.

I drove too fast getting out of her neighborhood, cold speed inside me, rushing around like cocaine. Even the twenty-five grand in my coat couldn't keep out the chill. Strega. I knew what the word meant-a witch-bitch you could lust after or run from. You could be in the middle of a desert and her shadow would make you cold. And I had taken her money.