and lay down to rest before Lonny came.
She looked at her face in a hand mirror. Her face had changed. What was it? She held the mirror at various angles but couldn't pin it down. She knew she had changed inside, for she was feeling things she had never thought of before. She squeezed her eyes shut and refused to think of anything but her good qualities.
Chapter 5
Lonny Lamont, the sheriff's son, was right on time with his hair combed and a clean shirt on. They drove off in the camper sitting together up front. Lonny gave directions and turned off the highway where he told her and kicked up dust on a dirt road for a few miles then turned off on another road and still another.
As the sun went down and twilight came one, Beth switched on the headlights. They had made so many twists and turns, Beth had no idea where they were heading except up and the roads were getting more weed-strewn and seldom used. 'How far did you says she asked, peering ahead apprehensively as the dark was coming on fast.
'We're almost there,' Lonny said.
They swung around a curve and creeped up another slope then around on another trail down into an arroyo. Up ahead was a car sitting in the road and Beth braked and looked at the car. 'We can't go around.'
'We're not going to go around.'
Something cold in his voice made her look at him. He was smiling, but it wasn't the same as before. A panic in her made her hopefully suggest, 'Maybe we can move it?'
'Nope.'
'Then we'll have to go back,' she said with an uneasy laugh, shifting the camper into reverse.
'Nope.' Lonny reached over and grabbed the keys in a lightning swift move and threw them out the window into the shrubbery.
'Young men…!'
He leaked at her with a strange expression on his face. 'We ain't going anywhere.'
Suddenly, as if by signal there were boys all around the cab. Beth tensed and stared at them, trying to keep her composure. There were seven of them, all the same age or slightly younger and all of them were looking at her with a gleam that she didn't like. She decided to brazen it out. She turned to Lonny Andes smiled coolly. 'All right, we've had our little joke. Now may I please have my keys back and well forget this ever happened.'
Lonny looked at her for a second before laughing out loud. 'Oh, wow, are you too much!' he mocked her, looking regal. 'May ah pu-leese have my keys back.' They all laughed and opened both doors to the cab, crowding in and causing Beth to cringe back and be jammed between Lonny and a boy she would come to know as Mike. Mike grinned at her as she got a whiff of alcohol on his breath. 'Hiya, baby!' he said.
Beth tried to look away, holding her chin high. 'My advice to all of you is to stop this immediately before you find yourselves in serious trouble.'
'Such as what?' another boy demanded belligerently.
'Such as some of you… all of you drinking under age.'
They hooted and laughed at her, Mike pointing across her, rubbing her breasts with his arm. 'No worry with old Lonny here, his Dad won't do anything. Tell us another, schoolteacher!'
They laughed at her and Mike pulled a bottle from his pocket and shook it in front of her face. 'Little drink, come on.'
'No thank you!' Beth's voice was cold as she turned her head. These kids were crazy and she couldn't allow herself to be rattled by them, she had to get the upper hand. 'I'm going to report you all,' she said in a cold fury.
'Why?' Lonny asked in a cool calm voice, slinging his arm around her. 'Because we offered you a drink of white lightening? Look, we know you drink it.'
Beth froze at the words and her eyes widened. She gradually went numb as Lonny went on talking in a quiet insinuating way and all the boys grinned at her and leaned closer. 'Why all I'd say to my Dad is: 'Pa, we was just being neighborly 'cause we know this lady here likes white lightning. Why we saw it happen right up in Wilma Gans' house.''
Lonny was leaning his young face closer, a tight lewd grin on his face. 'Why, we stuck around and saw all kinds of interesting things.'
Beth wanted to scream, to fight her way out of the cab and run. Instead, she swallowed hard and tried to sound calm. 'I… don't know… what… you're… talking about.'
Lonny grinned at his friends then right at Beth, pushing his face up close. 'Oh, no?' he asked, his eyes rolling. 'Maybe this will help you remember?' Then, with his friends smirking and leering at her, Lonny lasciviously rolled his tongue around his lips and wiggled it in the air.
Beth had to look down. She had never been so ashamed or humiliated in all her life. She brushed at her hair with a trembling hand. 'What do you want?'
'Just to talk. Just sit and talk and maybe have a drink or two.'
'No!' Beth said as she stiffened and Mike held the open bottle under her nose.
Lonny sighed. 'I'll ask you once more in a nice way. Have a drink. It's being offered to you country-style. Don't hurt our feelings, ma'am, or else we're going to force it down your throat.' He punched the headlight button off with a vicious movement. They sat in the darkness pressed together and Beth thought of the threatening tone of his voice and she was afraid. Drunk, the boys might get very rough and hurt her. She had to have time to reason with them. Slowly, she took the bottle after her eyes got accustomed to the dark.
The boys murmured their approval as she sipped at the whiskey, taking just a little and making a face. She handed the bottle to Lonny but he motioned it back to her. 'You gotta do better than that.'
She took a second sip and a third at Lonny's insistence before he would accept the bottle and take a gurgling swig, smacking his lips and handing the bottle off. 'That's the only way to drink white lightning: get it down fast and sit back and wait.'
Beth watched the bottle going around. By the time it got back to her it would be near empty or gone. At the most, she only had to take one more sip. Perhaps they would get too drunk and she could control them. When the bottle reached Mike, next to her, he tossed off what remained and reached, to her heart skipping dismay, into his coat and pulled out a fresh pint, pulling out the cork and offering her the bottle.
'Drink up,' Lonny urged, 'You got some catching up to do.'
Beth sipped at the whiskey again and had to sip three times before Lonny, with a sneer, snatched the bottle from her hands and suddenly strong young hands were grabbing her roughly, pinning her arms at her sides, forcing her head back. 'Ill scream!' Beth yelled.
'Go ahead,' Lonny said kneeling on the seat and looming above her with the bottle. 'Nobody wild hear you. Ain't nobody around for miles.
She lashed out with her feet but only succeeded in kicking the steering column. 'Wooo-eee! She's got spirit! I like 'em with spirit.' He had her head brutally locked in the crook of his arm and forcing it back until she thought he would break her neck. His other hand was trying to pry her mouth open. She bit his finger hard and he yelled and twisted it free. He sucked on it a second before slapping her hard in the face, hard enough for her to see stars. 'Fucking bitch!' he spat and Beth didn't know which stunned her more: his slap or his language.
She didn't have any time to think about it. Lonny was splashing white lightning ad over her mouth and face and some of it seeped in her mouth and down her throat and she opened her mouth to catch her breath and Lonny turned the bottle upside down as the whiskey gurgled out.
Beth gagged and started and they let go of her neck so that she could cough and catch her breath. She finally heaved a sigh and fell back, her eyes closed. Enough of this white lightning found its way down her throat for her to feel it already and it was with a dulled sense of resignation that she let them pull back her head once more and pour more whiskey until she gagged and choked.
Then they sat in silence for a few minutes, watching her catch her breath and then lean back in the seat, her eyes closed. Those that were holding her arms felt them relax and they let go. She opened her eyes and saw all the young boys smiling expectantly at her. She could feel the alcohol beginning to take effect and she tried to focus
