finger on just what made me feel that way.
With the blanket on her lap Ruth got her hand into my pants almost before the car was on the road. I wondered what her other hand was doing, but it wasn't running under the girl's dress the way I half expected it to be doing. I saw it moving under the blanket when she hitched her own dress up. And that was the way we drove to the movies.
The first thing I saw in the town, and the only thing about it that I really liked, was the state liquor store. There were a lot of things in there that I wanted, but I was afraid about leaving much in the car. I finally bought two bottles of Scotch whiskey and a quart of apple brandy, and I put those under the seat of the car. I mailed my letters and then we picked out one of the two movies in the town and went in.
I had seen the picture before, but it's a pretty good picture and I didn't mind seeing it over. Jane liked it a lot. She happened to be sitting between Ruth and me, and once during the comedy she grabbed my hand as though she had forgotten who she was with. When the picture was over I asked her how she liked it. She looked at me as though she didn't quite understand what I had said. The idea of people not liking a movie had never occurred to her, I suppose.
Some of the people who had been to the movie house were going into a little restaurant across the street when they came out, and I thought we had better follow their example because I wanted to get this done right. We went in and had sandwiches and coffee.
“This makes five times I've been in here,” Jane said.
That was all she said. “That's fine,” I said.
I thought that the girl would fall asleep on the way home but she didn't. She sat up very straight and looked at the road in the yellow light of the headlights.
When we got to the house and I had put the car away I turned on the radio to see if I could get some jazz. The radio was not very good and I could get the station that it was supposed to be on so faintly that it couldn't be appreciated, so I turned on the local country station. Jane went into her room and Ruth came into the room carrying a tray with three drinks on it.
“I don't know how to treat the girl,” she said. “I never had a girl working for me.”
Ruth mixed pretty good drinks. I tasted mine. She had used the brandy.
“You can ask her,” I said. “She might not take it, I suppose.”
Jane came back then, and she said thank you and took the drink and sat down.
“That's liquor, you know,” Ruth said.
“It tastes good,” Jane said.
She might have been drinking lemonade. When she saw that we still had most of our drinks she held her hand around the glass to hide it and pretended that she still had some.
“I'll have another,” I said.
I went to the kitchen with Ruth.
“Shall we get her tight?” Ruth said. “You could jazz her if we got her tight. She's really pretty, and she'd be prettier if you got those awful clothes off her.”
“Balls. We have to live with her.”
Ruth pushed her ass against me.
“I'd rather you laid me anyway,” she said.
She made the third drink with little brandy, but I took the bottle and put some more into the glass.
“If you're going to give her a drink, give her a real drink. But I think two are all she can take.”
I must have put more brandy in that drink than I thought. The girl drank that one slower, and she started tapping her hand on the chair with the music. She had no more sense of rhythm than most women, and she was off the beat most of the time.
“Could I have another?” she asked when the drink was gone. “I'd like another.”
Did she want another, Ruth asked. Ruth told her that it was pretty strong stuff.
“I'd like another.”
“It might do things to you.”
“For Christ's sake, give her a drink,” I said. “And shall I get your knitting?”
“I'll give her a goddamned drink!”
“Is she mad, or something?” Jane said.
“No,” I said. “She talks that way late at night sometimes.”
The drink Ruth brought back for the girl was strong; I could see that just by looking at it, because it was dark. Ruth gave it to her and we both watched her drink it. I was waiting for the girl to fall out of the chair.
“I guess I'll go to bed now.” Jane stood up, but she sat down again. “My leg has gone to sleep.”
“Which one?” I said.
She stretched her legs out in front of her and looked at them. She moved her feet; just her feet. She hit her feet on the floor.
“Both of them,” she said.
Ruth sat on the edge of my chair.
“Go after her,” she said to me. “Now's your chance if you're going to jazz her.”
“I think I want to lie down,” the girl said.
She managed to get to the couch and fall onto it. She lay on her stomach with one leg off the couch. Her dress was pulled up on that side. Her stocking was rolled above her knee and her thigh was bare almost to her hip.
“Try it,” said Ruth, “and if she fights too much you can give her another drink. She'd pass out with another one. Why don't you go on and fuck her, Bill?”
“For Christ's sake, be quiet,” I said.
The girl started to slip from the couch and then pulled herself back onto it. Ruth crossed her legs and pulled her own dress up on her thighs.
“How can you sit there when she's lying there that way? She's too far gone to mind,” Ruth said. “Pull her dress up and make her wiggle! I dare you to fuck her!”
“I must be drunk,” Jane said.
She giggled. Ruth slid off the arm of the chair and ripped open my fly. She stuck her hand in and grabbed my prick.
“Why don't you jazz her, you bastard? Don't say you don't want to: Look at the hard on you've got. I'll put the damn thing in myself!”
Jane said something into the pillows of the couch. I stood up. Ruth looked at me.
“I knew you would,” she said. “Give her the works, Bill. Rip off her pants and slam it into her! Jazz the jelly out of her!”
I put my hand on Ruth's face and pushed her on her ass. I didn't push her hard. I just toppled her over, and then I went past her into the kitchen.
She was still sitting on the floor when I got back with the two water tumblers that held straight brandy, and she was shaking her head as though she couldn't believe what had happened. I offered her one of the glasses.
“You can go to hell,” she said.
But she took the glass and gulped down part of the brandy.
“That's fine brandy,” she said.
She hunched back against the wall and sat there with her knees up and her dress around her waist. I looked over at the girl.
“She shouldn't stay there, I suppose.”
“You told me to give her that drink. And you can't blame me for thinking you wanted to fuck her. You can worry about her now.”
I shook Jane's shoulder and she sat up very suddenly. She clutched my arm to steady herself.
“You'd better go to bed,” I said.
I helped her up and walked behind her to her room next to the kitchen. Ruth came after us with the two tumblers of brandy.
“I'll go along as chaperone,” she said.
Jane undressed automatically, not seeming to notice that we were there, keeping her eyes closed most of
