Many things were now extremely clear to Gabriel Scott. He settled back in his favorite chair nursing his gin tonic, promising himself that, tonight, he wouldn't get sloppy drunk. Hell! He had waited too damned long! After having read the note his wife, Dottie, had written to her daughter, Charity, revealing the truth of her paternity, Gabe's memory went back to years ago when he and Dottie were married.
How had it happened? He hadn't understood it then. He hadn't understood why or how it was that Dottie had ignored him… then, suddenly, before he knew what was happening, he was married to her. He had had Dottie out on a couple of dates, but he hadn't been able to get a third one with her; meanwhile, he knew, she had been dating some of the Redfern College men. Christ! He hadn't had time to ask himself what was happening. She was just there… and available. He had taken her to a drive-in movie and was pleasantly surprised when she allowed some heavy petting.
… But, on their next date, that same week, she had pleaded not feeling well and didn't want to go skating.
"… Maybe, we could just go for a ride, in your car… Gabe…" she suggested. "If you don't mind…?"
"Okay."
He had been driving his old Mercury station wagon, the car on which he had, painstakingly, restored the wooden body to its original condition. He was proud of the car and liked to show it off. Naturally, he wanted to show Dottie off, too. He cruised the streets of Redfern, stopping at a drive-in hamburger stand that was a favored hangout for the high school crowd. They ate burgers, fries and drank Cokes. Gabe felt just a little proud to be seen with the girl who was, undoubtedly, the most beautiful in their senior class. She was by far the most popular, too, and he didn't question why she chose to go out with him. The fact that she was there with him was enough… and there seemed to be a promise of more intimacy to come. Damn! She's beautiful! I wonder if I've got any chance at all… of getting next to her…? Christ! I'll bet she's a damned good lay!
It hadn't taken very long to find out. As they drove away from the hamburger stand, Dottie had slid over close to him. "Let's drive up into the mountains, Gabe… where it's nice and quiet… okay?" she asked.
"… And private…?" he added.
"Real private!" Dottie affirmed.
With a worried look at the fuel gauge, he made a quick estimate of the distance and a mental calculation of the money he possessed. He couldn't do it, he decided, but he could find that privacy. It was not very far away. He laid it on the line to her, honestly, "I don't have enough gas… or money, Dottie… but I know a place where we can park… and have all the privacy we want…"
She snuggled her face into his shoulder and murmured, "Go wherever you want to… we don't have to go to the mountains."
Damn! Her talk of privacy had his mind whirling, already. Was she thinking about what she was saying? Some real privacy could lead to real lovemaking, not just the heavy petting she had allowed him the last time. Christ! I'm getting hot, already… just thinking about the possibility of getting it into her!
Gabe had driven out the avenue past the turnoff to his own home. The whole area was planted in citrus, the groves bordering the avenue thickly with only an occasional house standing tall and Victorian amidst the trees. He turned onto a dirt road to the left, stopped at a locked gate, got out of the car, produced a key to the padlock, opened it and drove the car through. As he got back into the car, Dottie asked him, "How come you've got a key…?"
"We're on the back side of my old man's property," he told her, "and our house is just down this road a ways…"
"Oh…"
He became expansive, then. "It's all going to be mine… someday!"
"Do you want to raise oranges…?"
"Yeah… I guess so," he said, "My granddad planted the trees, my dad inherited the place… and it looks like I'm expected to carry it on. Soon as I graduate I'm supposed to go to work for Dad, full time!"
She was impressed. "Not very many boys know exactly what they're going to do!" she observed.
"I guess not…" He was nonchalant. He had parked the Mercury in a little cleared area where agricultural implements were stored. There were barrels of oil, lubricants, fuel and pesticides stacked about. When he turned off the car's lights it was almost pitch black and very few sounds penetrated through the thick foliage of the orange trees.
"Is this private enough?" he asked, reaching out for her.
Dottie had come easily into his arms, her face lifted to him for his kiss. He kissed her tenderly, at first, and as her lips parted he thrust his tongue, hungrily, into her mouth to probe, taste and savor her. Her avid response surprised him.
With a little moan, she had pressed against him, the mounding hemispheres of her breasts crushing up warmly between them. He felt the slight tremor in her body that seemed to signal desire. In the darkness, he pulled back from her, slightly; he could barely see the outlines of her face. Her eyes were closed; her mouth still parted. Christ! She's got hot pants!
His hand reached out to her, found and encompassed a breast, his fingers kneading and massaging as his lips found hers, again. He found himself mumbling, "God… you're beautiful, Dottie!"
For answer, another little moan escaped her lips, and she tentatively snaked her tongue into his mouth, searchingly. He sucked it, gently, for a few moments, then, voraciously, as she became bolder, her tongue, searching and teasing the inside of his mouth.
Below, the hot blood surged, quickeningly, and his tumescent, erect penis throbbed and jerked against the confining fabric of his pants. He shifted, uncomfortably, in the seat of the car, his hand going to his crotch to move his aching cock to a more comfortable position; then that same hand drifted to her warm, smooth thigh, moving up under her skirt to the wisp of nylon panties that encased her loins.
"No… p-please, Gabe… I'm not…" she mumbled up into his mouth, pulling back only slightly, her objection not entirely convincing, as his hand continued to wander, searchingly, over the warm smoothness of thigh and hip.
"I've got to… have you… Dottie! God! I'm so hot…! I've got to… to fuck you! I love you… so very much!"
She pulled away from him and smoothed down her skirt. "I-I like you, too… Gabe… b-but love… a-and sex… are for marriage… and…" She turned her head away from him.
"Couldn't you learn to love me…?"
Facing him, again, she said, "Y-Yes… maybe… but we can't… well, you know… we couldn't do it… before we…"
"Before we get married…?" He finished her unspoken sentence.
"Yes…"
"… But… if we were sure…?"
"How could we ever be sure?" she asked.
"God, Dottie! I've loved you for months… already… ever since you came to school the first day after you moved here!"
His confession of love for her came from a youthful heart, a heart brimming over with sentimentality, but in truth, it was the virile member, aching for carnal knowledge of her that throbbed out its message there below. His was a common confusion, the misunderstanding of the meaning of love, which is the substitution of sex for love.
Gathering her into his arms, again, he kissed her with brutal force, then more tenderly as she melted against him, her breath beginning to come in short panting gasps; while his hands moved on her, she responded to him more and more until, finally, his searching hand, below, slipped between her thighs… and her legs parted, slightly, to allow him access. God! He almost went insane with desire. Now, he knew that she was aroused… ready to be laid! And, he could hardly wait, as he stroked and massaged the moist warmth of her cunt through the thin nylon barrier of her panties.
"Oh, Gabe… n-no… we mustn't…" she gasped, but in his highly aroused state, there was no stopping him, as with a boldness born of desperate need, he reached up for the elastic band at her waist and pulled her panties down over her curvaceous hips and thighs. Again, her voice told him no but her actions said plainly yes. He hadn't had to work very hard to get her panties off; she had helped him and he hadn't been aware of it. "P-Please, Gabe we mustn't… I-I've never…"
"I love you… Dottie! I've got to…"
He was clumsy and inexperienced; she managed to guide his finger to her clitoris, and when she was ready, she helped him to get his erect and pulsing penis into the proper position, after he had, himself, tried… and missed. With proper surprise, she remarked his size and virility.
"Oh, Gabe… i-it's so huge… it'll hurt me! N-No!"
Blinded by passion, proud of his virile cock and sure that he was the first, he had gone into her with a rush of youthful vigor, jackhammering his virgin cock into her like a young, rutting bull, concentrating on his own enjoyment and his great need to cum to the exclusion of all else.
… But, had he been aware, he would have known that he could not possibly have been the first. She was not virgin, although her cunt was tight and firm around his rampaging cock… and she was too knowledgeable, even though she had tried to hide her experience behind a facade of demure maidenliness. He had been too callow… too raw a youth, and he fell into an ages-old trap.
Dottie exploded into orgasm under his pounding cock, screaming out her pleasure to the stygian darkness of the orange grove. "Ohhhhh! Oh, God! Gaaaaaaaaabe! I'mmmmmmmm cuuuummmmmiiinnnggg! AAaaaaggghhh!"
His own ejaculation was not far behind her soaringly rapturous ecstasy. The liquid fire of his sperm shot from him deep up into her belly. Christ! He had never felt anything like that before. It was wonderfully new and strange… and he loved her for it! "Oh, God! I love you, Dottie!"
Then… it had been two weeks later – there had been other nights of clandestine sex, wild, carefree and careless, in the back of his station wagon parked in the orange grove – when she had told him, "G-Gabe… you keep s-saying you l-love me… a-and I-I love you, too… but now w-we've got to do s-something about it…"
"What do you mean…?"
"We've got to g-get married… I'm going to h-have a b-baby!" she told him in a rush.
"My God! How do you know… for sure?"
"I'm sure!" she said. "N-nature doesn't lie!"
Within another two weeks, Gabe and Dottie were married. There had been the usual family recriminations, but in the end Dottie had moved into the Scott house where the newlywed couple set up housekeeping.
I was a blind, stupid fool… any son-of-a-bitch could have figured it out! Dottie trapped me… made me think that Charity was my kid…! And, she fooled me… for all these years! Of course, Donnie's mine… there's no doubt about that!
He nursed his drink and waited. She would have to come back, he told himself; Dottie's little bastard daughter would have to come back, because she had taken nothing with her. She had merely left for a few hours… But, when you get back Charity, baby… I'm going to give it to you… but good!
All his hate, his frustrations and his failures were concentrated in a warped plan for revenge… against his wife's daughter, Charity.
Don Scott and Ray Donahue had skipped out of school. They lounged on a grassy mound on the downtown shopping mall, their conversation centering around possible ways of raising their stake before they split for the streets.
"We could hit a liquor store or a service station…" Don suggested. So far he had avoided telling Ray about the robbery of the salesman; he had no intention of telling him. Hell! He might want a split… because I used his gun!
"It's too risky, Don!" Ray told him. "I don't dig that! They really lay you out on that kind of a charge… if you get caught!"
"You got any better ideas…?"
"Whatever we do it's got to be safe!"
Ray looked off down the street to where a vaguely familiar figure was seated near a fountain. "Hey, man… isn't that your sister…?" He pointed.
"Yeah… it sure as hell is!" Donnie's heart skipped a beat. What the hell is she doing downtown?
"Man… is she built! I'll bet she's a real mink… when she's turned on!"
Without thinking, Don reacted to his statement with an affirmative, "Yeah, man… she's something else…"
Ray looked at him in disbelief. "Like… are you saying you've laid her… your own sister…?"
"I didn't say any such thing!" Don barked.
"Don't try to put me on, man… I heard you, and I saw the way you looked at her!" Ray said. "You must've fucked her!"
"… And, what if I did…?"
"You trying to save it all for yourself?" Ray leered.
"What are you driving at…?"
"Christ, man! It's right in front of you! Spread a little bit of her sunshine around… Don!"
"And…"
"And we've got that bundle of bread!"
"Hell no! That'd be just like…" He caught himself before the words were out of his mouth, as he realized that he was going to say: our mom! He finished the unspoken part weakly, "You know… like making a whore out of her!"
"You meant to say something about like mother, like daughter, didn't you?" Ray grinned.
"You really lay it on, don't you?" Don snapped. "Where'd you get that idea?"
"Hell, Don… this town's too small! The word gets around pretty damned fast!"
Don sighed and turned away. "Yeah… and we're the last to find out about it!"
"… But, that's your mom's bag… right now, we're talking about that gorgeous sister of yours," Ray went on. "I know I'd sure as hell like to lay her!"
"Cry your eyes out… because you'll never get the chance!" Don retorted.
"Why not? If you turned her on… I sure as hell can, too!"
"How?" Don queried.
"I've got a way… believe me! It hasn't failed yet!"
"Bullshit!"
"Can I try?"
"Like you know, man… she's got a mind of her own! But I don't think you'll get very far!"
Don told him. He was sure in his own mind that Charity would not be taken in by anything Ray could tell her.
"I asked you can I try it!"
"Yeah, man… go ahead!" Don said, airily. "But I'm going to watch you work!"
"But no interference!" Ray warned.
"Okay! No interference…"
"Split… and meet me at my house… my folks are gone… some kind of meeting in Chicago…"
"When?"
"Oh, like an half hour."
Don rose to his feet and ambled down the picturesque mall toward where he had parked his motorbike next to Ray's enclosed van. Christ! This is crazy! I'm going to be watching… while he tries to get Charity into the sack! That's what I want, myself…! And, I didn't want some other guy in on the act! Come to think of it, though… there's a lot of sharing, like that… when you're on the street!
No really straight thinking about any of her problems had come to Charity. To say that she was confused and hurt would be a gross understatement. The anguish she experienced was almost unbearable. Within a short space of time, she had undergone shock, extreme shock that had shattered her whole existence. Her sense of having been betrayed was an overriding feeling within her. First: she had seen her mother with another man, discovering that her mother was a prostitute. This had been made clear to her by her mother's participation in an obscene sex act… for which she had been paid; secondly, she, herself, had been a party to incestuous sex with her brother, Donnie. When she had gone to him for solace, he had offered her something different than she had expected or wanted. Much against her will, she had progressed from joining him in smoking a marijuana cigarette to full-blown sex. It was her first, but she had vowed to herself that never again would she be so weak as to allow Donnie that intimacy, again! It was wrong… so terribly wrong!
… But, she had enjoyed it. The rapture, the ecstasy of the moment was more than she had ever dreamed! She had soared to bursting orgasm under him, but still that sense of right and wrong was with her, strong in her to the point of disgust. After all… sex activity between brother and sister was one of the strongest taboos of civilized man, and she had violated it! Dear God! It'll never happen again! That's one thing I know for sure…! I'll never let Donnie know that we're only half-sister and brother! Heaven only knows what he'd do!
That had been the third and worst blow of all! Their mother had run away… copped out on them, unable, apparently, to face the consequences of her own actions; however, before leaving, she had written a note to Charity, the words of which still burned, indelibly, into her mind. It was this terrible knowledge that had pierced her heart like a cold-bladed dagger, a knife that had been twisted in her, for good measure. GABRIEL SCOTT IS NOT YOUR REAL FATHER. HE DOESN'T KNOW THIS, AND THERE WOULD BE LITTLE POINT, NOW, IN TELLING HIM. THERE IS ALSO NO NEED FOR ME TO TELL YOU HIS NAME… EXCEPT TO TELL YOU THAT HE WAS A FINE AND GOOD MAN, A MAN WHO GAVE HIS LIFE FOR HIS COUNTRY. HE DIED IN KOREA. HE NEVER KNEW THAT OUR LOVE HAD RESULTED IN THE BIRTH OF A BEAUTIFUL DAUGHTER, YOU… MY OWN CHARITY. YOU'LL NEVER KNOW HOW DIFFICULT IT WAS TO MAKE THE DECISION TO GIVE YOU UP… A DECISION I SHOULD HAVE MADE BEFORE YOU WERE BORN! INSTEAD, I PRACTICALLY FORCED GABE TO MARRY ME… AND SUCCEEDED ONLY IN BOTCHING UP ALL OF OUR LIVES…
There was more; her mother's letter had been full of recriminations, confession, outpourings of love and some irrational reasoning… But, dear God… why did she run? Why did she cop-out… when I need her the most? Oh, God… I want my mom! I've never felt so alone… and lost! What can I do? I know for sure… that I can't stay at home! Ugh! The way Dad… er Gabe… looks at me… I just know he wants me… lusts after me… that's what it really is! It's pure animal lust!
In her own mind, she was sure that she had done the wisest thing in getting out of the house where she would be safe, because almost anywhere else – the street especially – would make it impossible for her mother's husband to get at her. She was not sure just how she would make sure it was safe to return; it would be safer, she had decided, while Donnie was there. Perhaps, she would telephone, disguising her voice and pretending that she was a girl friend of her brother's. If Donnie came on the wire, she would explain it to him… but if Gabe answered, she'd hang up.
She had walked, disconsolately, along the shopping mall, looking into store windows, wasting time that only seemed to drag itself, limpingly, along and finally buying and drinking a Coke for its nutritional, sugary lift. She had made the Coke last a long time as she had sipped at it, slowly, and observed the many shoppers, mentally cataloging their various and eccentric ways. Hers was a good eye for character and for action that revealed that character, her interest in and training in drama standing her in good stead, as she played this little game by herself.
Later, as she tired, she found a comfortable seat near the central fountain and watched its changing patterns. It was a restful release from her own emotional anguish, and she lost herself, momentarily, in the cooling display of the shimmering columns of water.
The adolescent voice interrupted her enjoyment. She glanced up at the speaker and recognized him as one of Donnie's acquaintances.
"So, Charity… you split from school and went truant…?"
She answered too quickly, "I-It's the first time… really… I just couldn't s-stand to go to school, today…"
"That's all right. I'm not a hookey fuzz!" he grinned. "I was just kidding…"
"You're a friend of Donnie's, aren't you?" Charity asked, regaining her confidence, somewhat.
"Yeah…" He sat down beside her, lounging easily.
"Have you seen him, today?"
"No!" he lied.
She heaved a deep sigh. "I wish I could see him…" Then, she went on, "What did you say your name was…?"
"I didn't… but it's Ray… Ray Donahue!"
He leaned back watching her, narrowly, a half-grin still plastered on his face. It was going to be something else, he told himself, when he laid it on her. Christ! I'll bet she can't get into the sack fast enough when I'm through with her!
"I'm glad to know you, Ray," Charity said, turning back to watch the water. "I just love to watch…"
Ray cut in, fast, "You're going to get to know me real well!"
Turning to face him, quizzically, puzzled at his statement, she said, "Oh… how come…?" She was completely innocent of his intentions.
He lowered his voice but said with firm steeliness, "You and I are going to have a little party!"
"Wh-What do you mean…?"
"A little sex party… you're going to crawl into the sack with me… for some fucking!"
Charity jumped to her feet, instantly, ready for flight. "You're d-disgusting!" she spat. "I'll do n-no such thing!"
Desperately, she looked around, trying to decide which way to go, run, if necessary, to escape his blatantly open proposition. Oh, dear God… he's revolting! If I have to I'll run to the nearest store… and call for the police!
He reached for her wrist and jerked her back down beside him, his grin still in evidence. "Don't try to run!" he ground out. "Stick around and listen to the reasons why you're going to do what I say!"
Eyes blazing, she said, "Why? Wh-Why should I-I…?"
"To stay out of Juvie! You ever been there… it's just like a jail… you know?"
Curious passersby eyed them, but Ray kept his voice low so that words could not reach them, as he held her tight, the pressure on her wrist painfully firm. "… And, don't make a bad scene! Just listen!" he finished.
"You're hurting my wrist! Let me go… p-please…!"
Ray relaxed his steel-fingered grip on her wrist, slightly, saying, "I don't want to hurt you! Just stay put and listen to what I've got to say! Then, you can make up your mind what you want to do!"
It was completely unreal to her. She was sitting near the middle of the beautiful downtown shopping mall, near the fountain, in the midst of a sunshiny afternoon with hundreds of people walking about, shopping and chatting… and she was being held, against her will, to listen to the vile mouthings of this gangly youth, Ray Donahue… a supposed friend of her brother's.
It couldn't happen! It just could not be!
As he relaxed his grip, she sat forward, poised for flight, like a game bird. All right, she would listen… for a while. She was curious, now, to know what it was all about.
Picking up his remark concerning Juvenile Hall, she asked, "Wh-What are you s-saying about Juvie? I-I've never done a-anything b-bad to be sent there!" Unconsciously, she also kept her voice low, not wanting anyone in the passing crowd to hear the crazy conversation in progress.
"All right," he said, leering at her, "I'm going to lay it on you! Now, listen close! Donnie's been laying you… and I know it…"
Charity gasped, her face draining of color, "N-No… no! That isn't t-true!"
"Don't try to lie! I know it for a fact!" he snapped. "Now… our hung-up society doesn't like that sort of thing… and one word from me… and they'd be coming to take you away from that lewd and unsavory environment… and you know where they'd put you…? In Juvie!"
Dear God… how could he know? Nobody would know… unless… u-unless D-Donnie told…!
Unbidden tears began to flow unchecked. "N-No… no… oh, my God… n-no!" she sobbed, her heart breaking once again with the realization that, somehow, she had been betrayed, yet another time by someone she loved dearly. "I-It's impossible! Donnie w-wouldn't do that…!"
"What?" Ray shot back. "Lay you?"
"N-No… t-tell anybody… about it…?" she murmured.
"Then… he did! You just admitted it, yourself!" he pursued, relentlessly.
Suddenly, she realized his entrapment of her. She had been so confused, her thinking twisted and her emotions so turned inside out that she had fallen, innocently, into his snare.
"N-No… that's…" she stopped, aghast, her mind a turmoil. Dear God! What could she do?
"It's no good, baby doll! I've got you right where I want you!" he rasped. "Now, by God… we'll play by my rules! You know what I want… don't you…? And, if I don't get it I drop a few hints to the fuzz!"
All of her resources of resistance seemed to drop away from her. She couldn't fight back, any more. There seemed to be nothing but the bleak prospect of doing as he demanded. Her body slumped into a pose of abject defeat.
Then, as if to clinch his argument, Ray added, "… Of course, they'll pick Don up, too… and it's bound to get into the papers!"
"I-I don't believe y-you…" Charity said, forlornly, trying, again, to find some chink in his argument.
"All right… you want to try? You want to get up and split, right now… and see what happens? If you do… go ahead…! But, you'd be in what they call protective custody, tomorrow! They'll take you out of that nasty, immoral home… and lock you up in Juvie! Public morals have to be defended!" He piled words on her, snowing her under the deluge of lies and half-truths.
Charity was silent for long moments; finally, she said, "… And, if I d-do what you s-say… y-you won't b-bother me again… and y-you won't tell…?"
Ray's eyes lit up. He had won! Christ! It was like taking candy away from a baby! Easy, man… easy as pie!
"Whatever's fair… if that's the way you want it!" he chuckled.
Her voice was full, flat, "Y-You don't g-give me much choice…"
"We're going to split, now!" he directed. "We're going to walk down to my van… and get into it! Man! You and me are going to have a real ball… with some real nice goodies!"
He rose to his feet, reached for her hand and raised her to her feet, slipping an arm, casually, around her small waist. He went on, "Like, why don't you dry up your tears… and smile at the nice, square people… you look like you're going to your own execution!"
"You've s-said it… exactly! That's the way I-I do feel!" Charity told him.