Stephen Dixon - 14 Stories

“You don’t know if he’ll let you live after that.”

“I’ll take my chances with him. Don’t do anything. Let him do what he wants.”

“No,” he says. “No hot water. I was only kidding. She’ll be of no use to me later on with burns. Get out of there.” She steps out of the shower. “Dry me.” She does. “Especially my thing.” She does. “Dry yourself” She does.” Now back in the bed. And you step a few steps aside,” he tells me. I do. They go back to bed.

“You,” he says to me. “Get on the floor and lie on your stomach right at the side of the bed. I want to make sure I see you when I get on top of her.”

I stand where I am.

“Do it, Tony,” she says. I lie down parallel to the right side of the bed.

“You get on your back this time,” he says to her. She does. He gets on top of her. “And you keep your arms under your head and your eyes on the floor and don’t move from there,” he says to me. I look at the floor.” Now make me big again,” he says. I don’t see anything. I hear him getting excited. “That’s nice. You really do a job,” he says. I hear the bedsprings. I hear them both making noises. Pants and groans. He screams. She doesn’t “Move it some more,” he yells. I hear the bedsprings rattling louder. Then they stop. He says “That was good. First class. You’re really good. You’re really a piece I wish I had always. I wish you was my girl for a long time. I’d do it to you all the time, baby, I mean all. You’d never have complaints.”

She doesn’t answer. “You all right, Della?” I say.

“I’m okay. I’m getting sick of this though.”

“You want me to jump him?”

“Hey, where’d you put that club?” he says. “Look up.” I look up. “I’m so stupid. I forgot about your club. Where is it?”

“I left it in the bathroom.”

“Tell him the truth,” she says.

“Under me.”

“Throw it out,” he says. He has the knife on her throat.

“I can also use a lamp. One of the other table legs. My hands.”

“Throw it out.”

I throw it under the bed.

“Now you get up and come here and make me big and strong again,” he says.

“No thanks,” I say.

“I was kidding again. You think I’d want a man touching me there? You’re crazy. But if I said your girlfriend dies if you don’t, you’d do it.”

“I wouldn’t.”

“Your girlfriend dies if you don’t.”

“Do it, Tony,” she says.

“You see, she wants you to.” I stand up. I grab him. It’s like my own. I know what to do. He stays soft.

“Put it in your mouth,” he says.

“Nothing doing.”

He puts the point of the knife to her Adam’s apple. “Do it,” she says to me. “Soon it’ll be over.”

I do it. I close my eyes. He gets hard. “This isn’t bad,” he says. “Never did it before with a guy, but not bad. Now you run it up and down with your hand while he’s doing it to me.” She does that. I feel her hand brush against my lips every now and then. As if she’s trying to comfort me with her touch. Brushing up against my lips and under my nose and against my nose. I know her touch. I concentrate on that. “Hey, this is even great.” he says. “What kings had I bet. What every man should have at least once in his life. You should have it too. Except I’d never do it to any man. Except if my girl was being threatened with a knife. My girl or baby. Only then.” He comes. “Oh crap. I meant it for her. You did it too well. Both of you. My congratulations, but that’s it.” Her hand stops. I spit on the floor several times. “Can I go in the bathroom?” I say.

“No, just stand there.”

“Let him go,” she says.

“All right. Go because your girl asks for you to go. But I’m watching, so no tricky stuff in there or she gets killed.”

“I know.” I wash myself in the bathroom.

“Take off all your clothes and come on out now,” he says. I take off all my clothes. I come out of the bathroom and he motions me to stand by the bathroom door. They’re still in bed. Knife against her throat. “I suppose I should go now,” he says. We say nothing. “You’d like for me to go of course.” Nothing. “Well say it, goddamnit”

“Yes,” she says. “We’d like you to go.”

“No reason to stay here anymore,” he says. “Three times. In how many minutes do you think? Not that anyone’s counting. But it’s enough anyway. But maybe I can get hot once more if you two do it. I’d like four times. I’d like five but I got to be realistic. But with four I can say it’s really been worth it. Go on. You two do it.” He gets off the bed, stands by the bed with the knife at the side of her neck. I get on the bed. “Do it with you on your back,” he says to me. “That way I’ll have the advantage.”

“I don’t feel like doing it,” I say.

“Neither do I,” she says.

“I said do it.”

“I can’t just do it like that,” I say. “I’m not like you. I have to want to and I don’t feel like it.”

“Neither do I. Just go,” she says to him. “Please?”

“I said to do it,” he yells at me. “Now do it. Try. Get big. Do it to her. Then if I’m big I’ll take over for you.”

“But I don’t feel like it.”

“Rub him,” he tells her.

She rubs me. Nothing happens.

“When he doesn’t want to he can’t,” she says. “I know him.”

He grabs me. Rubs me. Nothing happens. He puts it in his mouth, the knife against my penis. Nothing happens. “What do you expect?” I say. “It’s impossible. Nothing, you see?”

“If I didn’t have the knife it wouldn’t be nothing,” he says.

“Then put away the knife,” I say.

“You do what I did,” he tells her. He gets up, holds the knife to her neck. She does it. Nothing happens. He rubs me while she’s doing it. Nothing.

“Say nice things to him,” he says.

“Tony, I love you. Tony, I love it. This. What we’re doing. What I’m doing. Do it. Get big. I want you to make love to me. I’m going to do it again now, so get big.”

She does it. Nothing happens. “It’s impossible,” I say.

“It’s impossible,” she says. “Believe him.”

“If you don’t get that thing going I’m going to cut it off,” he says to me.

“I’ll try.” I concentrate. Nothing. “Maybe it will. Wait.”

“Get hard,” she says. “He’ll kill you if you don’t. Then he’ll kill me. Put your mind to it.”

I concentrate. I shut my eyes. Nothing. “I’m sorry,” I say to him. “I can’t. But don’t do anything rough. Maybe I can. Just wait.”

“Don’t do anything to Tony,” she says. “We were nice. We did what you asked. We won’t make any charges against you to the police. We won’t even call them.”

“Bull,” he says.

“You’re right,” she says. “Of course we’ll call them. But don’t do anything now. Tie us up. Then leave.”

“I want to do it once more,” he says. “Four’s my lucky number. Not my lucky, just a good number. And I’ve never done it four times in a row in so short a time. And I feel cheated. That one with him doesn’t count. So I haven’t even got my three yet. And three’s my minimum. The absolute must. And I can’t get big either. Make me big,” he says to her. “Do what you can.” She tries. “Everything.” She tries everything she used to do to me. Nothing happens. “Both of you try on me.” We both try. Things I’ve never done before. Knife at her neck. Nothing happens though. He stays the same way. “You’re both screw-ups,” he says. He stands up. “You come with me.” She stands up. “You stay there,” he tells me. I stand up. “I said stay.”

I walk towards him. He has the knife at her back. I bend down and stretch under the bed and get the table leg. “I don’t care about her life anymore,” I say. “I just want to beat your brains in.”