Seeds of Fear

he'd apparently misplaced the envelope. Yes, sad to say, it seems he had let their insurance run out.

Then there was the Turkish rug. George had bought it for Gayle and Karen at a local flea market, saying he hoped it would brighten up their apartment, which was still sparsely furnished. The women were thrilled by his kindness, but within hours of setting it up in their living room, Karen's eyes started watering profusely and her breathing became labored.

'Jesus, Karen, what's wrong?' Gayle had asked, rushing to her lover's side. By that time, Karen was gasping for air and pointing at the rug. 'Allergic. reaction. something in the rug.'

Gayle called 911 and the ambulance workers fed Karen oxygen as they rushed her to the hospital, where she was diagnosed with an acute allergic reaction to chemicals in the rug. Somehow, at some point, someone had dumped a shitload of cleaning solvent on the rug, and Karen's allergies had kicked in mightily, nearly fatally.

George removed the rug and later told the women he had cut it into small pieces and burned them in his backyard barbecue. Again he apologized profusely, and again his former wife forgave him. After all, she said, it was hardly his fault if some jerk had done that to a beautiful rug. How, she asked, was he to know?

After Karen was released from the hospital, George encouraged her and Gayle to stay at his house until the last of the rug's smell had dissipated. Besides, he reminded them, he was going out of town for a few days for a regional book-signing tour. They accepted his offer gratefully, which appeared to make him extremely relieved after his rug faux pas.

But tragedy struck again. Later they recounted to George how, during the second night they were house- sitting, they had thrown popcorn into the air popper and had let it warm up, while they warmed up each other with a double-headed dildo — a part of the story with which they delighted in torturing George. They explained how the smell and sound of popping corn had fueled their passions so that they had initially failed to notice the cord to the air popper sparking, then starting a kitchen fire that quickly raged out of control among the piles of George's old newspapers. Worse still, the windows were all stuck shut because George had painted the exterior of the house days before, and was none too fussy about where the paint stopped and the windows began. The house went up like a matchstick in a volcano, and by the time the women were aware of the blaze, their path to the front door was already blocked by hellish flames. Karen doubled over in cough spasms while Gayle, just short of panicking, picked up George's favorite lamp and threw it through a side window, then pushed Karen through and followed, tumbling to the ground outside just as the house blew itself up, a noise that shattered windows for blocks around.

Both women ended up back in the hospital, suffering second-degree burns along with multitudes of cuts from flying glass and wooden shards.

George soon arrived, in near hysteria, at the hospital, where he kept vigil in the waiting room to the Burn Unit. When she could talk, Karen apologized for the loss of his — once their — house.

'I just don't understand it,' George said. 'I just bought that air popper less than a month ago.' He clucked his tongue and shook his head. 'You just can't buy quality anymore.' He smiled at her bandaged face. 'I'm just glad you're alive.' As an afterthought, he added, 'Oh, and Gayle too, of course.'

He relocated to a tiny condo on the other side of town, and saw less of Karen and Gayle while they healed. One day he noticed he was more glum than usual, and realized it was because it was the anniversary of their divorce. One year ago, she'd left him for that brainless bimbo bitch, God knows why. What he'd ever seen in Gayle, he could no longer recall.

Just then the phone rang. 'George?' It was her, he realized, his stomach turning. 'Karen and I were just talking about how it's a special day for all of us — you know what I mean. And we wondered whether you might want to spend it together.'

Before he could spit the word «no» down the phone line, Karen got on the phone. In the same cultured tone she'd used when she'd first agreed to meet Gayle, she said, 'George, Gayle and I have been thinking. It's been a strange year for us all and, well, we were wondering if it's not too late to take you up on your offer.'

'What offer?'

'Well, we were just reminiscing, and I remembered how mad I got that time you wanted to do a menage a trois with me and Gayle. And, well, I know you haven't been seeing anyone, and, oh, George, I feel so bad about the house, and the divorce, and everything. How'd you like to.. have us both for dinner to night?'

She laughed at her own joke when George considered the offer. No fucking way would he — but wait a minute. Yes. This could work nicely after all. 'Sure,' he answered, putting as big a smile in his voice as he could fake. 'Come on over at seven. I'll make your favorite meal: blackened redfish.'

As he marinated the fish with poison, he reflected on what a lousy year it had been. All of his acts of revenge had failed to achieve their common goal: to pay back Karen for her betrayal of their marriage. Slitting the brake lines, adding the chemicals to the rug, even fraying all the wiring around the house in hopes they would start a fatal fire in his absence. It was a bit desperate, he admitted, but no less than both of them deserved. The sluts.

Well, tonight's plan was foolproof. True, he'd prob ably have to leave town before their bodies were discovered, but with Karen out of his life, there was nothing for him here anyway. He'd take the royalties he'd made off his books and live well in Mexico, or South America, or one of those places he never tired of reading about in the travel sections of the newspapers he loved.

Yes, he nodded to the empty room, he'd teach these twats a final lesson and then skip town. He was ready for a big change.

He answered the doorbell and was momentarily stunned by Karen and Gayle, who were dressed to thrill, Karen in a skintight minidress that showed off her lean legs to best advantage, and Gayle in even less than Karen. She wore jeans that were cut off so that the bottom of her rump was displayed, and a sleeve less T-shirt that showed much more of her breasts than it concealed. George felt his dick stiffen involuntarily as they both kissed him on opposite cheeks, giggling as they let themselves in.

'This will be fun,' Karen whispered as she brushed her hand against the bulge in his pants.

'I have wine,' Gayle said cheerily. 'Want some now?'

'Sure.' He shrugged. No reason he had to rush things. He had to admit, he'd had no initial desire to touch either one of them. But their scars had healed nicely — the visible ones, anyway — and he was undeniably horny after a year without sex. After his experience with Gayle, the idea of paying for sex had been abhorrent to him.

Karen handed him a glass of Cabernet and asked, 'Honey, where's that video you shot of me and Gayle? Let's all watch it. It'll put us in the mood.' To accentuate her point, she grabbed at his crotch, giving it a healthy squeeze. 'I can see you're in the mood already!'

He laughed and downed the wine. He was touched that Karen remembered that Cabernet was his favorite choice. He pulled the tape out of a bookshelf case and popped it into the VCR. He hadn't watched this tape in over a year; it pained him too much to view it.

In moments he was riveted. He'd forgotten how erotic it was to watch the two of them together, especially through his own eyes, as seen through his camcorder angles. He was especially fond of close-up shots of the most private parts of their bodies, he noted with mild embarrassment.

'You like to watch, don't you?' Karen said as she poured him more wine. He shrugged and guzzled it down, waving the real-life Karen aside so he could better see her image on the twenty-seven-inch monitor. But the picture seemed out-of-focus, fuzzy around the edges. Cursing, he stood up to fiddle with the TV controls and fell flat on his face on the condo's threadbare carpeting.

He grunted, tried to raise himself up and failed, hitting his cheek on something sharp. It was the metal toe of Gayle's cowboy boot, resting next to his face. He was momentarily angry at Gayle and then at himself for his failure to hold his liquor.

Karen crouched next to him, lifting one of his eyelids. 'You won't be able to watch much longer, I'm afraid.' He tried to speak and spittle drooled out the corner of his mouth.

'No, don't bother talking. Just watch and listen.' Karen poured the rest of the wine over his body. 'It's poison, of course. Hopefully it won't hurt too much; I understand it deadens the nerves as it destroys them.' She turned to Gayle. 'Better get the videotape.'

George blinked; even through the drugged haze, he was beginning to comprehend what was happening.

'I know you think I'm a bimbo,' Gayle addressed his prostrate form. 'Karen told me so. But it doesn't take a rocket scientist to see that you were trying to kill us. Although why you would burn down your own house to do it, I can't understand. You are one sick piece of shit, George. And by the way, all those times you paid me to sleep with you? I never thought you were sexy in the slightest, you fat fucking pig.' She used her metal heel to kick him in the