more, pushing up her dress. He pushed her legs up, pulled off her shoes and sent them clunking back into the living room. Rough fingers tickled her belly, plucked at the delicate elastic band, then peeled off her pantyhose. Speechless, Helen watched the hose sail away into surreal darkness like some gossamer bird. “Slow down, slow down,” she whispered, but Tom didn’t hear her, nor, by then, did she even want him to. Her panties, then, were hauled down and left to dangle off an ankle. God… Oh, shit… Suddenly she felt like a woman in a pornographic film, half-stripped and hauled down to be spread open and humped. The fantasy titillated her. Coarse breath resounded in the dim light. A belt buckle clinked, a zipper rasped. Then her knees were pushed back nearly into her face. She didn’t have time to touch his penis or even see it; she was simply folded in half and entered. The minor discomfort of the position, and the floor beneath her, retreated after only the first few thrusts. He’s so hard, she thought. Then the thrusts stepped up, deepened. Helen’s breath expelled through pressed lips, her eyes seeing only through slits now: Tom’s pent-up, determined face, his still shirted chest hovering over her.
He moaned once, then uttered, “God, I love you, Helen…” but the sensation of being so deliciously skewered forestalled any reciprocal reply. Her breasts, large to begin with, felt twice their normal size, filling up with tingling heat. Her sex flooded onto the floor. “Harder,” she caught herself imploring, “Do it harder.”
Tom obliged.
Sweat dripped off his face onto her bosom. No, this wasn’t lovemaking… He’s fucking my brains out! came the crudest thought, and again she considered her earlier surmise. Sometimes the pressure of their jobs—which could often be grim at the very least—built up like steam in a cooker. Now, it was being released. Their intercourse chased away the images: Dahmer’s bruise-swollen face, the crustlike mask of blood, the stiff body, as well as every other ghastly thing she’d ever seen. Only now did she fully realize that this was what she needed. It was what they both needed.
His hips pummeled her. His erection felt larger than she ever noted, and it was kindling her right now to the point of something close to mania. Helen had never been particularly orgasmic—once in a blue moon was about all—but that never bothered her. In the best of moods, the feeling was enough, along with knowing that her body could give Tom pleasure. Now, though, an abrupt climax seized her. It felt like something belting out of her. She moaned so loudly she feared the neighbors would hear. The pleasure bloated her face, knocked more breath out of her. Christ Almighty—
Then another climax tremored and burst.
And then…
“Oh, honey,” she murmured. Her hands ran up and down his sides, feeling flexing muscles through his shirt. The intent thrusts, however, began to slow, while the look on his face crumbled. What…happened? She knew he hadn’t climaxed yet—she would’ve felt it. Then that undeniable male fullness seemed to abate, shrinking right in the midst of her feminine flesh.
“Honey, what—”
“Aw, damn it,” he spat. He looked flustered, even pained. His penis seemed to retract like something being expeditiously reeled in. Don’t stop! she wanted to shriek. But next he was mumbling, getting off of her.
“Sorry,” he said.
“Tom, what’s wr—”
“It’s not you. Christ. I don’t know what’s wrong with me tonight. I’m sorry. I feel like an idiot.” Then he was getting up, shuffling to the bedroom.
Helen was waylaid. She lay there, like an astonished idiot herself, with her skirt jacked up and her panties still hanging off one foot. Her emotions clacked together like the steel balls on a desk curio. Confusion, embarrassment, then hostility. Just get up and leave me lying here on the floor, you asshole. She felt infuriated and used, until she counted to ten as Dr. Sallee had taught her, and thought about it. In actuality, how could she feel used? It was an illegitimate response. I came like a freight train, she reminded herself. Twice. Yet he hadn’t come at all. If anything, I used him… “You think too much of yourself,” Dr. Sallee had told her at a long-past session shortly after her divorce. “We all do. But keep in mind that a relationship involves a drastic set of human dynamics. It involves two people, not one. Anger, hostility, rage? These are useless emotions, and selfish ones when you let them come into you without sufficient reflection. Think about the other person too.”
The other person.
Tom.
She sat up, sluggishly pulled her panties back on. Christ, he lost his erection. Think how embarrassed he must feel.
Dr. Sallee was right. Consider other people’s feelings for a change. Tom had problems too, Tom was subject to the same kind of stress as Helen, yet how often did he go out of his way to coddle her own plethora of bad moods and bitchy outbursts? Too many times, she realized. And after what he’d had to do today? Autopsying Jeffrey Dahmer?
Who in their right mind wouldn’t be bent out of shape over something like that?
She buttoned herself back up, then went the bedroom. Tom was lying on top of the covers, eyes closed, a hand on his forehead. He sensed her entrance.
“Sorry,” he repeated. “I don’t know what to say.”
“Don’t worry about it,” she nonchalantly replied.
“I mean, that’s never happened to me before.”
Helen sat down next to him, stroked his chest. “Tom, it’s just something that happens sometimes. No big deal.” How else could she console him? “You don’t have to be a stud every night,” she joked.
“Some stud,” he sputtered. “Somebody get me some Geritol.”
“Stop it, will you?” She leaned over and gave him a peck. “You make me feel guilty.”
“Guilty?” One eye opened. “Why?”
“You made me come twice,” she said slyly.
“Oh, yeah?” That seemed to perk him up. “Well, at least I did something right tonight.”
She kissed him once more and left. It was easy to tell when men wanted to be left alone, and this was definitely one of those times. He’ll be back to his usual jokester self soon enough, she felt sure.
What to do now? She moped around the kitchen, then realized she wasn’t hungry. And it was too early to go to bed. In the den she contemplated turning on Tom’s computer and trying one of his CD-ROM games, but discarded the idea. At work, she putzed around with computers all day, and hated the blasted things. Why putz with them now? Instead, she idly picked up that day’s edition of the Madison daily, the Tribune, then groaned when she caught an article on the front page: DAHMER’S DEATH SAVES STATE TAXPAYERS $1,000,000.
Taxpayers may wish to thank Tredell W. Rosser, the alleged murderer of Jeffrey Dahmer, for reducing the fiscal corrections deficit by $1,000,000. “That’s how much money the state of Wisconsin would have to fork over to keep America’s most notorious mass murderer alive in order to reach the age of 74, the statistical average lifespan of state convicts sentenced to life imprisonment,” said Dr. William Beierschmitt, a University of Maryland sociology professor. “The ticket comes to about 26.5 grand per year—”
Then— Oh for crying out loud! Helen thought.
Yet another front pager read: PRISON OFFICIALS DESPERATE TO THWART DAHMER “CONSPIRACY” THEORY.
PORTAGE— Bizarre rumors leaking out of the Columbus County Detention Center continue to proliferate as prison director James Dipetro and his staff struggle to quell them. Multiple sources, who have asked to remain anonymous for fear of retribution, have told the Tribune that the November 28 bludgeoning murder of Jeffrey Dahmer may have been the work of more than one man, and not just other inmates. So far only a lone inmate, Tredell W. Rosser, convicted of murder in 1990, is being regarded as the assailant, but our sources claim that even detention officers may have taken part in deliberately arranging Dahmer’s janitorial detail in the prison’s
