I walk the streets. Rampart Street. Bourbon Street. Toulouse. The night grows dark. I walk in the glow of neon. Pitchmen stand in front of strip joints trying to coax people in. Music blares out from behind the open doors. The crowds keep pushing by me. I don't see any men who interest me. I think about the handsome black waiter, but the seafood house is blocks away. I decide to stop somewhere for a drink and rest my feet. And maybe go later to the seafood place.
I see the bar where I first met Armand and go down the half flight of steps and inside. It is more crowded than the first time I was there. Most of the customers look high. The music from the back room is loud and hurts my ears.
I am surprised to see Lorraine sitting alone at a table in the corner. She waves for me to come over. The waiter brings us a drink. We chat about nothing in particular. I don't really know her very well. I've only seen her a few times at Armand's. Our knees bump beneath the table. Her leg seems to linger against mine. I am surprised when a man suddenly comes over and sits down next to her a boy really. I'd thought she was by herself. I feel left out of it as he nuzzles up to her and begins planting kisses against her cheek and neck. I am about ready to leave when Lorraine's friend excuses himself and gets up and walks through the bar to the room in back.
Lorraine laughs. "He goes back there every few minutes to take a look at the strippers," she says. "I think he -"She interrupts herself. "Shall I get rid of him?" she asks. She stares at me, her eyes intense.
I don't know quite what to make of her question but I say yes. She keeps looking into my eyes until I have to turn away.
The young man comes back. He sits down and starts drinking his beer.
"How are the girls doing?" Lorraine asks sarcastically.
"… girls?"
"The ones in the back room. The dancers. The ones you go running back every few minutes to see? Do they reach out and grab your prick? Shall I…?" I see her hand reach beneath the table. "… like this?" Her eyes tease him. I can tell that she is working at his zipper. He looks bewildered.
I hear the zipper slide open. I can tell when she grabs his cock by his sudden wide-eyed look. I see her arm start to pump. Her date or whoever he is doesn't seem to know what to make of it. He looks as if he wants her to stop but can't help letting her go ahead. We are in a dark corner of the room and I don't think anyone else notices.
The boy leans forward, grips the table as she pumps him. His eyes are glazed, his lips drawn taut and thin. I can't help glancing beneath the table. I see that his prick is all the way out. It is huge and erect. It looks very swollen above the dark material of his trousers. Lorraine's hand is working at it furiously. But when I look above the table again,,the upper half of her body and her face are relaxed and innocent looking.
She keeps taunting him as she jerks him off. Her voice is barely a whisper. A coarse whisper. "Does my hand feel good on your prick? Do I rub it as well as the strippers? You have such a nice big hard one. You should let everyone have a turn feeling it. Maybe Carrie would like to. Oh well, more chance for me then. Nice, juicy, big prick. Mmm it's going to feel nice when your warm cum shoots all over my hand. Let it go, big boy. Don't hold back. Fuck my hand. My hand is a cunt… fuck it."
He doesn't last long. I can tell when he starts spurting. His face gets very red. His body tenses. For a moment I can only see the whites of his eyes. Then the color leaves his face. He turns ashen. He slumps forward over the table.
Lorraine withdraws her hand. I can see her wiping it methodically on the leg of his trousers. "Well, that takes care of you, big boy. You. won't be needing me for anything else tonight, will you? Why don't you go watch the girls in the back room again?" she taunts. "Maybe if you look long enough you'll be able to get your cock hard again."
Lorraine laughs and keeps laughing as he gets up and stumbles away from the table, trying to cover the big wet spots on his trousers with his hands. He hurries into the men's room. Lorraine turns to me. She is still laughing. "How do you like that for getting rid of a creep with a dozen easy strokes?"
"Wasn't it rather cruel?" I can't help saying.
"Cruel…? He got his rocks off. That's all he wanted. That's all any of them want." She leans toward me. Her elbow presses against mine. "I'd just as soon leave here… why don't we go to my place? Have a drink there. Okay?"
I nod. "All right."
"First I've got to go wash off my hands. He must have shot out a gallon of the stuff. Be back in a minute."
I watch her walk across the carpet to the ladies' room. She has a sexy figure and the men at some of the tables turn to stare at her as she goes by I don't enjoy it much being with her. She is too harsh. I don't really want to go with her now but I feel committed.
The decor of Lorraine's apartment startles me when we go in. The furniture is mod and there are lots of clashing colors. There are all sorts of gadgets scattered about, and mobiles hanging from the ceiling begin to move as she turned on the rather dim lights. A tall, thin totem pole with a dozen eyes seems to leer at me as the eyes keep opening shutting. There is a barber's pole with stripes of many colors that goes slowly around and around. A stereo comes on and plays dissonant music.
I stare at the mobile in the center of the room, watching the balancing bodies of naked men and women more slowly about. The woman's breasts are huge, their cunts gaping. The men's cock jut out almost grotesquely. The walls of the room are covered with large posters, most of them sexual. Naked women. Naked men. Feeling each other. Fucking each other. Two of the women are eating each other. I see two yellowish posters with the naked man in one reaching across the wall to rub the widespread cunt lips of the woman in the other.
"… like it?" Lorraine asks.
I laugh tightly. "Which…?"
"All of it?"
"… it's interesting. I've never seen anything like it."
"I wanted to have an apartment that was something special. Something I could show off to my friends. And it gives me a kick when I feel down. This one over here is my favorite…"
She is pointing to a sculpture in the corner of the room but it is too dark to see it clearly. I step closer. Then suddenly a spotlight comes on and shines on it. There are three figures. At the base of the sculpture a woman sits with her hair fanned back over her shoulders. She is leaning back slightly, supporting herself on her hands. Next to her stands a man. The tip of his erect penis is only an inch or so from her mouth which is turned toward him. Between the woman's legs kneels another woman, her head bent just above the first woman's cunt. The whole thing is done in some kind of greyish clay like material but it lights up in brilliant changing colors as the revolving spotlight shines on it.
"Watch this," says Lorraine. She presses a button at the base of the sculpture. I hear a whirring noise. The woman sits up a little more and the cock of the man standing enters her mouth. The two figures move back and forth as she sucks him. The kneeling woman bends forward farther and starts eating the first woman's cunt. The figures are each about eighteen inches high. They look very strange moving under the colored lights. I stare at them. The music from the stereo plays.
"That's me on the bottom," Lorraine laughs. "I've got both of the others just as I like them." She gestures about the room. "Everyone says it's weird but they're all crazy to come here to turn on. Shall we have a drink? Or smoke a joint?"
I don't want any grass. The odd room affects me strangely but I have no interest in turning on with Lorraine. "A drink would be fine," I say. "Bourbon maybe…"
"I'll get it. You look around at everything. Tell me what you like best."
We sit opposite each other on sections of a big green circular davenport. Lorraine crosses her legs so that her skirt hikes up her thighs almost to her pussy. She drinks her drink slowly, all the time looking at me. I start to feel uncomfortable being alone with her.
She must. read my mind. She asks if I'd mind if she invited over a couple of her friends. "They live in this building," she says. "On the next floor up. They're very nice."
"… sounds fine to me," I say.
She makes a phone call and in a few minutes there is a knock at the door. Lorraine goes to open it. I am surprised that her friends are women. And disappointed. The first to enter is a rather nondescript blond. She vaguely resembles Lorraine but is not nearly as pretty. The other is a tall striking willowy girl with lovely features and flaming auburn hair. Lorraine introduces us all around. The tall girl's name is Rae. I don't catch the name of the blond.
We all sit down. Rae sits next to Lorraine. I am with the blond. I find this arrangement vaguely irritating. We exchange small talk about this and that. I gaze across at Rae. She crosses her legs. She isn't wearing stockings.
Lorraine laughingly tells about jerking off the boy at the bar.
The blond laughs coarsely with her.
Rae only smiles.
I don't laugh or smile at all. I find myself staring at one of the nude posters on the wall. The strong smell of the blond's perfume annoys me.
"Let's pass a joint," Lorraine says. She goes to another room and comes back with one.
"Aren't we going to change first…?" the blond says. She turns to me. "Lory has these way out costumes. Have you seen them?
I shake my head.
"I'm comfortable this way," Rae says. "Let's just stay dressed as we are."
"Okay… whatever you say," Lorraine says.
The blond sulks a little. I wish she wasn't sitting next to me. I wish I was next to Rae. I try to keep from staring but my eyes keep going back to her. She has unusually smooth beautiful skin.
Lorraine lights the joint, takes one deep puff and gives it to Rae. Rae holds it for a moment, watching the smoke rise. She brings the cigarette slowly to her lips. They part, pink and moist. She puffs lightly, exhales in a natural easy breath. She brings the cigarette over to me. Her legs are slender and tan under a light blue skirt.
She hands me the joint. Our fingertips brush. I feel a strange tingling inside me. Rae smiles. "It's strong," she cautions. "Take just one puff." Her voice is even, smooth.
I smile back. "Thank you," I say. I puff the joint just once as she suggested. I realize suddenly that Rae is sitting next to me now. She has done it so smoothly I hadn't even noticed. I hand the cigarette to the blond. She sucks in deep on it several times, then takes it over to Lorraine and sits down next to her.
I turn to Rae. "I've smoked pot before," I say, "so it's really nothing new to me."
She smiles. "I know… but the ones Lorraine gets are strong. Too much at once and you won't know what you're doing."
"Can you feel it yet?" Rae asks.
"Yes… a little I think."
"These take a minute. Then it all comes on you at once." She places her hand on my shoulder. I flinch instinctively and she draws her hand quickly away. "Are you a straight?" she asks, surprise in her voice.
I hesitate. "Yes… I guess you'd call me that. But leave your hand there. It's all right. I didn't mean to jump."
She doesn't put her hand back on me. "I'm sorry," she says. "I thought that what with you being here with Lorraine and all that" She pauses. "You know what I am, don't you?" she says.
"Yes… I think so."
"And you don't mind my touching you like that?"
"No."
She smiles beautifully. Her lips part and show the pink of her tongue.
"Is Lorraine like you?" I ask. "I've seen her with men too."
Rae laughs. "She's a bi. She goes for anything really. Haven't you looked at the things she's got in this room?"
"Most of them… don't you care for men at all then?"
"Occasionally. Sometimes when I'm on a trip. I took acid once last year and ended up with a man. It was so good with him I decided I'd been all wrong about myself. But the next time he didn't do anything for me. I haven't tried it with a man since."
"That's strange."
"What?"
"That a person could go back and forth like that."
"I don't really. I'm not a bi or anything. That was an exception. The way I feel right now, I don't think I'll ever want a man again."
"It still seems strange… ooh it's beginning to hit me now… the grass. You were right, they are strong..I can feel it flowing all through me. It makes me want to laugh and laugh. Look, Lorraine and whats-her-name are starting to make it with each other already. I've never watched two women. Shouldn't we ask them for the joint back now?"
"Not yet," Rae says. "Let's just sit here. I feel like I'm floating, don't you? Grass always makes me feel that way."
"Yes, floating. I guess that's it in a way. It makes me feel larger too… very tall, as if it would take me only a few steps to walk across the earth… Aren't you going to put your hand back on me?"
"If you want me to."
"I do… yes."
Rae places her hand lightly on the bare skin of my forearm, moves it slowly up to the crevice of my elbow, rests it there.
I feel a shudder… no, not a shudder really, just a sudden warmth flooding me. I look at Rae's face. Her features are just as fine and lovely from close up as they are from a distance. Everything about her is smooth and soft. The touch of her fingertips feels like gentle pinpricks at my skin.
"You've never been with a girl… a woman, have you?" she says.
"No… You can tell?"
She laughs. "Mmm hmm… that's easy. Have you ever thought about it? Are you thinking about it now?" Her voice is smooth, silky, seductive. I love to listen to the sound of it. I am high from the grass and her voice seems to come from far away. But at the same time she seems to be whispering in my ear, kissing me there. And then I realize that she is. I can feel her lips light against my ear lobe, pressing gently on it. Her hand is still on my arm. Her other arm is draped over my shoulder, her fingers hanging just above the curve of my breasts. I can hear my heart starting to beat faster, and feel a throbbing in my head. But I haven't answered her question and she repeats it.
"Yes… how could I help it," I say. She looks beautiful to me sitting there. I love the touch of her mouth against the lobes of my ear… my cheek… my hair. It is a strange new exquisite feeling. Her lips move against my neck. I feel the pressure of her hand on one of my breasts through the thin material of my dress. My nipple feels as if a needle has been stuck in it: But there is no hurt. Instead just a jolting, thrilling shock.
"You're not wearing a bra," Rae says.
"I didn't feel like putting one on," I say. "This dress feels so much nicer against my skin. Clings to me. Mmmm, I like your fingers to touch me there. I never knew another woman's hand could make me feel this way."
"Shall we take it off… your dress?"
"I don't know… Not here anyway. Not with them over there." My head is spinning from the grass and my breasts ache for Rae's touch but I don't want to do anything in the same room with the others. Lorraine and the blond are naked now. Eating each other. It repulses me to look at them.
"We could go into the bedroom," Rae says.
"Yes…"
Rae leads me into the bedroom. I don't look down at the others as we pass them. She flips on the light. The bedroom isn't at all like the other rooms. There are no posters, no sexual objects, no revolving lights. The bedspread and drapes are blue. The room is spotless, almost radiantly clean.
Rae steps toward me and unzips my dress. She pulls it slowly over my head and lays it neatly on the bed. I am naked now except for my thin white panties. She gazes at me.
"Aren't you going to get out of your things too?" I ask.
"If you want me to…"
"Yes."