Chapter 10
'It's – incest,' Sally said hesitantly.
Doris set a plateful of eggs and toast in front of her.
'Eat,' she said. 'Jerry's prowling around looking as though his headache's gone. Better eat while you have the chance.'
Meekly Sally scooped up a forkful of eggs, took a bite of toast, finding she was very hungry.
'But,' she said, a few bites later, 'Doris, you and – your brother – '
Doris poured freshly made coffee into two cups.
'Do you take sugar and cream?'
'Just black, please…'
Doris set one cup beside Sally's plate and sat down across the table with the other.
'Incest,' Sally said weakly.
'Technically, I suppose,' Doris agreed. 'Or maybe not technically – it depends how you look at it.'
'I don't – understand.'
Doris said levelly: 'I don't let him fuck me. I don't let any man fuck me. Even without getting raped that time, I don't like to make it with men. Doing other things – is that incest?'
'You know the only real argument against incest, other than moral taboos? It's the possibility of concentrating unfavorable genes in the children. If there's family weakness, then a sibling mating may mean that both parents are contributing the same gene that carries the weakness, and if that gene Is usually recessive, getting It from both sides increases the chances of the weakness showing up. That's all. No fucking, no kids. Didn't you play around with your brother?'
Sally shook her head. 'Don't have one.'
'Mm. Well – Tod and I have always been – close. In fact – well, we were brought up kind of isolated, slap in the middle of one of the biggest cattle ranches in the country – had private tutors, and no one much to mix with – so we mixed with each other when our adolescent juices started flowing. Only I couldn't stand to be flicked, even then – he tried it once, and I couldn't stand it! And he – shit, I don't know the ins and outs of It, but he has trouble getting it up if I'm not around… '
Sally stared, trying to comprehend.
'You know, I hardly ever saw another woman, an-other girl, till I left the ranch. Our father had this weird idea about kids contaminating each other or something – that's why we never went to school or anything. But what I saw on TV really turned me on – I mean, I knew that what I wanted was to make it with others of my own sex. But there were none around, except for our housekeeper who was maybe sixty and weighed about two hundred pounds – and Tod was there, and horny – hell, we just sort of drifted into things, and never really drifted out!
'Then when we were nearly twenty – I was nineteen, he was eighteen – the old man kicked off, and we got what money there was – seemed he'd been playing games with the tax people for the last few years, so they came in and grabbed quite a lot of it – we headed for life in the big city.
'I got raped the second night – not used to being on my guard. Hadn't gotten through my head I couldn't walk through a park at night alone. But that just kind of fixed it – if I'd ever thought I'd try to make it with men, that just about wiped it out completely.'
She grinned at Sally.
'I went and took karate lessons, instead. Then went to art school – a painter is what I am when I'm not frying eggs for crazy hoods – and – well, Tod and I just stayed together, pretty much – only he kept getting into the dumbest kind of trouble, and I kept getting involved because I tried to fish him out – and christ, this one's a real beauty,' she added. 'I'm damned if I want to take off to South America for the rest of my life the way they plan!'
'But can't you tell them that you're not doing this of your own free will? If you don't go with them – '
Doris sighed. 'You know, I've been turning that over and over in my head… At times it seems quite reasonable. Then other times, I think about the fuzz mad as hell because the others have gotten away, so they decide to throw the whole works at me – bail I couldn't make, for a start, and I can't stand the idea of being shut up in some stinking prison – anyway, there's Tod.
Sally stared at her more intently.
'Could he get past the dogs?' she asked.
'I guess so.' Doris shrugged. 'They're not guarding any of us, only you.'
'Then – if Tod doesn't want to go along with them – if he went and gave himself up – said he'd turn state's evidence – told them you were involved against your will – '
Doris was silent. Then she said:
'I wonder if that would work? I'm pretty sure Tod would like to get out of this – and if the other three make their getaway as they've planned, they can't implicate him in any of the things they've threatened to make him go along this far… It's the house, you see,' she explained. 'They wanted to be able to hole up here while they wait for the chopper to get them out – so Tod and I had to be involved. I didn't realize they were kidnapping along with the robbery,' she added ruefully. 'Originally I think they just planned to leave you there after they'd threatened to kill you to get the coins and things handed over – but then Jake, I guess, realized that he needed the added security. So – here you are.'
Sally swallowed the last of her eggs.
'I can be a witness too,' she said. 'I guess they'd believe me if I said you and Tod were being – well, pressured.'
'Maybe. I'll talk to Tod and see – '
The kitchen door burst open.
'Okay,' Jerry yapped, 'so that sneakin' fuckin' Tod got at you before I did – I'm gonna bust his skull open when I catch up with him, but right now, teacher baby, you're comin' in the other room an' I'm gonna plow your ass but good! I ain't takin' no more of this motherfuckin' stalin' an playin' around.'
He grabbed Sally's arm and roughly jerked her to her feet.
'An' you keep out of it, dyke, or I'll shove a bullet through you,' he snarled.
He shook Sally's arm and steered her towards the door and through into the living room.
'Hey,' Willy greeted them, 'here she comes, huh? Hey, Miss Avalon, Tod tells us he'd saved us the trouble of bustin' your asshole open – so now you're real nice an' loose for us, huh? We can really get down to some serious butt-pluggin', huh?' 'That sneaky shit,' Jerry was muttering. 'Jeeze, I was lookin' forward to gettin' it all nice an' tight an' never been used before – '
'Ah, quit moanin',' Jake said. 'He can't have loosened her that much.' He snapped his fingers. 'Bring that fat ass over here, cunt, an' let me take a look.'
Reluctantly, Sally went to where he sat and he crudely shoved a finger into her assecrack, found the puckered hole, and jammed his finger inside.
She cried out at the rough pain.
'Nah,' Jake said. 'She's still plenty tight, Jerry. She'll give that rod of yours a good hot ride.'
'Hey,' Willy said, 'when we gonna get her cherry? Oughta do it tonight, in case Miles shows up tomorrow, huh?'
'Yeah,' Jerry said. 'An' if he don't – well, we got ourselves three holes to keep us happy. Don't do to save things for too long, huh, Willy? Use 'em while you got 'em!'
'Guess we draw lots again, huh?' Willy suggested.
'Only without that fuckin' dyke this time,' Jerry declared positively.
'So get on an' luck her ass if you're gouna,' Jake said, and turned up the volume of the television.
'Yeah. Oh yeah,' Jerry said, licking his lips. 'C'm'on over here, teach, an' let's take a look at what we're gonna do with that cute little rear end, huh?'
