Jean-Jacques Tibor - The loser_s wife

She felt the anger boiling up in her. That bastard! He had told that disgusting man everything!

Without even thinking, she threw her drink straight at Deke Vito and stood there watching it dribble down the front of his jacket. A moment later her mind reeled with the force of his blow and her face stung painfully.

"Laura, baby, you just made a big mistake. Yeah, a big mistake!" He wiped the drink from his coat with a handkerchief and spoke, trying to keep the anger out of his voice.

"Now, you just sit down over there. I'm going to make you another drink… and you're gonna drink it and listen carefully to what I say!"

The room was silent for a moment except for the clinking of glass and the girl's soft, frustrated sobbing. The gambler handed her another drink and then sat across from her, crossing his legs and carefully tugging at his trousers so that he wouldn't ruin his crease. Then he spoke, "Part of the bargain, kid. That's what you've fulfilled… just part of the bargain. I mighta been a little easier on you, but you just did a very stupid thing. Nobody throws a drink at Deke Vito, right Harry?"

"I wouldn't think so, Deke. It just isn't very nice. Doesn't show the proper respect," the other man answered, a slow furtive smile curling around his thick, liver-like lips.

"Yeah, respect, that's it. You see, Laura, I had plenty respect for you…" he chuckled… "so much, as a matter of fact, that I even told old Harry here how much I respected you." Then the gambler's voice became very hard, "Yeah, when we made out little bet I never figured you to be as good about holding up your end as you were. But, you did a pretty good job, as I told Harry here, and I figured…" he paused to sip at his drink… "I figured I'd give you the contract and the money just like I said I would." He brushed at his coat again, holding it out as if he wanted her to see it.

"But then you did this." He paused, thinking to himself how perfectly she'd fallen into his hands. Her anger fit his plans exactly, now that she'd thrown that drink at him he even began to feel a little self-righteous.

"Yeah, when you did this, you broke off our bet completely." He was interrupted by her heaving sobs. She'd started crying aloud as soon as she realized what he was going to say.

"Shut up!" he shouted at her. "You ain't got nothin to cry about. You ain't hurt, I'm the one with the ruined coat."

He came over and grabbed her by the shoulder. "You listen to me, and I'm going to tell you how you can get outa this."

He pulled her out of the chair and led her over to the couch where Harry Goldman was sitting.

"Sit here, Laura, baby, with old Harry while I explain what you're gonna do."

She sat down wordlessly several inches from the fat man but he put his arm around her shoulder and pulled her closer. She tried to move away from his suffocating grasp but it was as if she had been trapped in a vise.

"Just sit tight, kid, Harry ain't gonna hurt you. He likes you as much as I do." The gambler laughed softly and continued.

"Yeah, I was gonna let you go tonight with the contract and everything but that drink changed that. Now, I gotta figure out what the insult to my integrity is worth. Whaddya think, Harry?"

He turned to the huge round man on the couch. "You know what the deal was, Harry, what do you think I oughta do with little Laura here?"

Harry Goldman squeezed her a little tighter and chuckled. "Well, I wouldn't be too hard on her, Deke. She was probably just a little upset. Still…"

Deke Vito laughed, and continued. "Yeah, but Harry, remember what you said about respect. She oughta have a little more respect for a guy what was going to be so generous to her, don't you think?"

The fat man just chuckled softly. It was like a great bowl of jello, Laura thought with inward disgust. His whole body ripples when he laughs.

"Deke, baby, I have an idea," the man at her side said in that high, funny voice. "An idea about respect."

They were both laughing now, and Laura felt like a ping-pong ball being batted back and forth between them.

"Yeah, Deke, maybe I could teach her a little respect one night, and I'd even buy you a new jacket." The girl shivered and let out another helpless, broken sob. The shame and degradation they were subjecting her to was too much for her tattered nerves. The fat man reached over with his other hand and patted her on the knee. "Don't worry, beautiful, I wouldn't hurt you. We'd just have a little fun, you and me, and maybe I can talk old Deke here into giving you what you want. I gotta lotta influence with him."

The fat man looked at the gambler. "Whaddya say, Deke? We can work out something for little Laura here, can't we?"

The gambler laughed, and walked over to the bar, seeming to consider it for a moment. "Yeah, I guess we probably could at that."

"No! No! I won't do it… I won't." The girl's cry broke the sudden silence between the two men. "I won't do it! You can't make me!"

Deke Vito turned from the bar. "Laura, baby, we're not trying to make you do anything." Laughing, he turned to Harry Goldman. "Are we, Harry?"

"Why, hell no, I was just trying to help."

Deke walked back over to the couch and took her hand, lifting her. And as he pulled her up she felt the man behind her pat her on her buttocks, letting his hand linger and then squeezing her.

"Tell you what, kid. Let me get your coat for you, and then you can go home and sleep on it. How's that?"

She felt herself being led to the door. In a daze she accepted her coat and heard the door close behind – still able to hear the lewd, triumphant laughter of the two men as the bolt clicked behind her.

The girl didn't even remember coming down in the elevator or walking through the casino. She had crossed the crowded streets almost by instinct alone and it wasn't until she passed an all-night diner just before her corner and saw the clock inside that she realized it was almost two in the morning. God, she had spent hours there on that horrible bed… and, she vowed… "I'll never do it again!"

Occasionally a streetlight would reflect against the streaked tears on her face and the softness of her crying would hover in the night darkness.

She wondered if Johnny would be waiting up for her, and if he was, what she would be able to tell him. The whole thing seemed like a terrible, unreal nightmare that had been dreamed up by a mad man.

She stumbled along, her eyes half closed – the dark sides of her eyelids acting as a screen where she projected the terrible scenes of the night before.

Her mind was flooded with contrasting feelings of self-pity and anger. She tried to blank out the memories of Deke Vito and what she had done but they kept forcing themselves into her consciousness. The realization of everything that happened, the landlord, Deke Vito… Black Jack… the repulsive leering of the fat man… how had she done it? What had caused her to lose complete control of herself and accede to their wishes? Two days ago, she had been almost a virgin, untouched by anyone else but her husband, and now… now, she had taken on three other men in quick succession… three men she didn't even like. And they had fucked her, not made love to her, but fucked her like some whore off the streets, without love, without respect, with nothing but animal lust burning in their loins. God, where was it all going to end? tumbled through her tortured thoughts.

She opened the door into their apartment, hoping that her husband was asleep, and tried to still the soft sobbing that still shuddered her body.

She put her coat away quietly but the darkness was shattered by the click and sudden brightness of the lamp by the bed.

"Laura, honey, where have you been?" She turned to face Johnny who sat up in bed wide awake.