James Brown: Swap Circle

Mary looked at him oddly. 'W-what?" she mumbled, her speech thick now, probably from the booze she had drunk.

Jack felt Mr. Nolan's wrist and it was then I knew what had happened, or thought I did. I moved across the room rapidly and felt for a pulse in the man's other wrist. There was none.

"Hey, baby," Jill called to me from across the room. "Come back here and bring the others with you. Let's have one great big six-way swap scene. Everybody suck someone else. Everybody… "

"Jill," I said sharply to my swap partner. "Shut up." She looked – at me oddly.

Nora Doans crawled across the floor on her hands and knees, and titties sticking out of her dress as usual. "What's the matter?" she asked dully.

"Yeah, Bull," Mary said. "What the hell's going on with you and Jack and Mr.

Nolan?"

It was Jack who said it "The reason you couldn't get him to blow off, Mary, the reason his face was so red was probably that he was having a heart attack or a stroke. At any rate, Mr. Nolan is dead."

Everyone got to, his or her feet slowly and arranged his or her clothing. We all looked at, one another.

"The end," Jill said dully. "The end of a great scene."

I stood up straight and looked at each of them. "Jack and I will lay Mr. Nolan on the sofa. You ladies will please pull yourselves together. Mary, take Jill and Nora upstairs and give them something to wear that isn't wrinkled."

"All right, Bull," Mary said, her eyes filled with a strange look. "What else are you going to do?"

I grimaced. "As soon as we get Mr. Nolan on the sofa, I'm calling a doctor for him. After all, none of us can say for certain that he is dead. Only a doctor can do that."

"Then what happens?" Jack asked.

I shrugged. "Then we call the police. What else?"

No one seemed to have a better suggestion, but we all – knew that the swapping was over and none of us would ever be the same again.