Eric Courtney - The married sister

Gail stared up at her husband filled with a dread of what was coming. He was standing in front of her, drinking, gulping. She knew his pattern. If he kept on like this, he would soon be drunk. A premonition, a sudden flashing sense of what was going to happen: a presage of doom. Rod drunk, smoking marijuana and Lee urging him on, biding his time like some smiling predatory animal. Lee sitting in the background until Rod is too drunk and too drugged and passes out. Then?

"Rod, please don't drink too much," she said in a soft, plaintive voice.

"'Sallright. Look, honey, we used to drink night 'nd day over there," he said with an extravagant wave of his arm. "Fly one of them choppers smashed, can do anything."

Lee came into the room, grinning shyly at Gail then looking self-conscious in front of Rod. "Look, remember that girl Kim I told you about last night? Well, she's got some and she's got the night off. How about if I ask her over?"

"Sure! Why not? 'Sallright, honey? Sure it is! What the hell!"

Lee left, grinning at Gail, borrowing the car keys to go pick Kim up. Gail was left sitting on the couch, her face a mask. Calmly, she said, "Rod, you're mixing scotch with martinis. Do you think that's a good idea?"

Rod, sitting across the room slumped in a chair, made a face. "Ah, come on," he said, his lips twisting, "You're not going to be a nagging wife are you?"

She looked down at the empty drink in her hands. "No," she answered in a small voice.

"Better not," he muttered, staring into his glass. "I didn't come home to listen to somebody bitch me 'cause I felt like having a drink or two." His voice and manner were sullen and he stared down at his drink before suddenly gulping it down and getting unsteadily to his feet and heading for the kitchen to pour himself another drink.

An anger blazed in Gail. If her own husband didn't care, why should she? She held her drink aloft. "If there are any more martinis, I'd like another."

"Thatta girl," he said, grinning at her and taking her glass. "Gonna be an interesting night."

"And how," she answered with a bitter sarcasm in her voice that Rod ignored, thanks to his numbing drinks.

She got Rod to help her to the bedroom where she checked her a appearance and brushed her hair then got into bed. She was working on her third martini when the doorbell rang.

With the bedroom door open, she could see a portion of the living room. Gail's heart stopped when she saw who Lee's girl friend was: it was the dancer they had seen together what seemed so very long ago! Lee was more diabolical than she had thought.

The girl stood in the middle of the room, wearing an Indian headband and a fringed buckskin miniskirt. Her bare thighs and legs were tanned. She was tall, well-shaped with dark almond eyes that flashed suggestively as she looked around the apartment and into the bedroom where she saw Gail sitting erect in bed. A slow lascivious smile spread over her thick shapely lips, as she shifted her weight, thrusting out one hip and putting a hand on it. She lowered her head, her smile all-knowing. "Hi," she said in a throaty voice, "I'm Kim."

Gail closed her eyes and nodded. Women have a way of understanding each other far better than men do. A look, a word, a gesture, an intonation, can say so much. Men tend to make little of such scenes, putting it down as jealousy, as petty vain rivalry. Women know better: Kim had just told Gail that she knew all about her and Gail had accepted and silently pleaded for mercy.

They all came pouring into the bedroom with introductions and explanations all around about Gail's accident. They sat on chairs with Kim sitting on the edge of the bed with a newly poured drink in her hand, smiling down at Gail. "Your brother didn't do you justice."

"Oh?" Gail looked at Lee who was busy stuffing a long pipe with a thick gummy substance.

"You're much more beautiful than he said," Kim said in a cool way.

Gail tried to wince out a smile. "Thank you."

"Damn right," Rod said, looking at Kim. "Hey!" he said loudly, "What is that, Lee?" he asked, turning to watch Lee.

"Something better. Hash. Seems Kim had some and wanted to donate it."

Rod turned and grinned at Kim again, his eyes taking in her smooth bare thighs and her heavy pointed breasts under her dress. Damn, he thought, I don't think she's wearing a bra.

Gail knew she wasn't. Having her sitting there, shifting her weight, she could gee her breasts move freely under the buckskin. She had seen Kim naked and knew how high-riding her breasts naturally were.

"Say, are you really Indian?" Rod asked, obviously fascinated by her exotic beauty and excited by what Lee had told him about her. He crossed his legs and sipped at his drink, feeling his cock growing thick between his thighs. "I mean, do you have Indian blood somewhere in the family?"

Kim gave him a dazzling seductive smile. "Yes, my mother was a full-blooded Cherokee, my father was a red headed Irish policeman in Coffeyville, Kansas. I'm what they call a half-breed."

Rod laughed and patted her on the shoulder. "What a combination. Couldn't be better."

"For what?" Kim asked in a low seductive voice, flirting with him over the edge of her drink.

Rod's face colored and he drank from his glass before answering, "Oh, anything, I guess."

Lee interrupted with the pipe. He lit it expertly and quickly handed it to Rod who puffed and rose to sit on the bed next to Kim. He exhaled and handed the pipe to Kim. "Pass the peace pipe, huh?"

Again, Kim smiled at him with an inviting look. "Depends on what you mean by 'peace'," she said, accenting the word.

Lee and Rod laughed as Kim took the pipe into her mouth slowly, closing her lips over the stem with a loving, "Mnnnn."

They passed the pipe around, crowding closer on the bed. Gail looked to see their smiling faces watching her as she puffed on the pipe. The hashish was having an effect and she felt like she was on a celestial elevator, zooming up so fast she felt as if she had left her body and reason far down below. This, she thought, is what they must mean by getting 'high'.

The room was suddenly very quiet and thick with a pungent sweet smoke and everything seemed to be moving in ultra slow motion. It seemed to Gail she had accepted, puffed on and passed the hashish pipe hundreds of times, that they would never smoke it all. She stared absently at the faces around her. Rod had taken on a glazed look and might be some child watching a movie or TV. He didn't seem conscious of anyone around him until he started, rubbed his face and said, "Wow!" in a soft voice and look at Kim with his eye slitting and growing hungry.

Lee seemed bemused, his fist propping up his chin as he watched Rod and Kim, ignoring Gail. Kim straightened her shoulders, thrusting her breasts forward toward Rod so that her nipples pressed against the soft tawny buckskin. Her dark Indian eyes slid slowly to Gail and wandered over her body, taking in all she could see.

Lee slapped his hands on his knees and said, "Let's have a little music and some more to drink."

Rod tore his eyes from Kim and said, "Hey, that's a great idea." He got to his feet and went into the living room after collecting all the glasses. Kim, with a lazy smile, said, "Let me help you."

Gail was left looking at Lee who was staring off into space, that wolf-like smile on his face again. "Lee, don't, please don't. In God's name, don't."

He turned innocent eyes to her. "Don't what?" he asked then chuckled to himself and got to his feet and walked to the door, his hand on the knob. Looking over his shoulder, he gave a cruel wink. "You gotta rest. I'll tell Rod. And," he whispered, closing the door, "I'll be back."

The door closed slowly and firmly and Gail leaned back on the pillows and closed her eyes. There seemed nothing she could do to stop what was happening. Nothing, in her drugged state, she wanted to do. With an anguished thought, she realized that there really was nothing she wanted to do. She drained her glass and wished for sleep.