Body Rides (43 page)

Neal gave her a quick kiss. In the dark, his mouth found a peculiar part of her face. He didn’t know what he’d kissed. ‘Where’d I get you?’ he asked.

‘My eye.’

‘What was it, open?’

‘Yeah. I think ya blinded me.’

‘Hope not,’ he said. ‘Where’s the stuff?’

‘I don’t know.’

‘Okay. No problem. Stay put for a second.’ He turned away from Sue and hurried in the direction where he’d seen the red glow.
He shuffled along with his arms out, expecting to crash, but was still on his feet when he triggered the lights of the buzzard exhibit.

He glanced to the left.

No sign of the angry father or anyone else.

He checked to the right.

In both directions, the corridor vanished into darkness.

He turned around. Sue, prancing forward naked except for her shoes and socks, waved a hand at him. Her skin was rosy in the crimson light. Her breasts jiggled. Her nipples looked purple.

She halted over the big plastic sack, dipped down and snatched out her sweatshirt. She flung it high and seemed to dive up into it. An instant later, she was shoving the sleeves up her forearms. She bent down and grabbed the sack. ‘Let’s go!’

She went to the right.

‘Where’s your skirt?’ Neal asked. The sweatshirt hung only to her waist, leaving her naked from there down to the tops of her socks.

‘I got it in my bag,’ she said.

‘Gonna put it on?’

‘No time.’ As she said that, the sweatshirt shook free from around her hips and dropped the rest of the way down – falling low enough to cover her buttocks.

Neal hurried after her. The lights went out.

‘Wait up,’ he said.

Moments later, they found each other in the darkness. Neal took hold of her hand.

He hardly noticed the remaining attractions of Custer’s Spookhouse. He was too nervous and excited – too stunned by Sue’s wild behavior.

Amazed by her audacity.

Enthralled.

An angry-looking man was waiting on the midway just outside the spookhouse exit. No sign of the wife or kids, but Neal supposed this had to be Tom.

He was bald on top, wore glasses, and had a soft look about him as if he never got exercise. An expensive-looking Minolta camera hung from a strap around his neck, and rested on the slope of his belly. He glowered at Neal and Sue as they strolled down the ramp. His fists were clenched by his sides.

Terrific, Neal thought. The guy’s going to cream us. And then we’ll probably get arrested for disturbing the peace, or something.

Neat play, Sue.

Worth it. Man! She’s fabulous! Nuts, but fabulous!

Sue suddenly clutched Neal’s arm. ‘The
bastards
!’ she blurted, and looked up at him with hurt and rage in her eyes. ‘We oughta call the cops on ’em! Bastards! What d’they think they’re doin, jumpin out and yellin like that! Scared the pants offa me!’

Tom’s scowl faded as they approached him. ‘Did somebody bother you in there?’ he asked.

Sue nodded, her lips pursing out. She looked like a kid about to burst into tears.

‘Us, too,’ Tom said. ‘They scared the hell out of my kids. I’m gonna grab them when they come out and fix their wagons. Did you see what they looked like?’

Sue shook her head. ‘Too dark. All I know, there was six of ’em.’

‘
Six
of them?’ Tom didn’t appear to like the sound of that.

Neal shook his head at Sue. ‘I thought more like five.’

‘Nope, six. I counted.’

Tom grimaced. ‘Well . . . thanks for the information.’

‘Yer welcome,’ Sue said.

He glared toward the exit, then shook his head. ‘Aah, I can’t wait around all night for them.’ He turned around and walked off.

Sue tugged on Neal’s arm. ‘Now what?’ she asked, grinning up at him.

‘I think we’ve done enough here.’

She laughed. Then she asked, ‘What time
is
it, anyhow?’

‘Five after ten.’

‘Guess we better get, ’fore they throw us out.’

This time, of all times, they weren’t alone in the elevator.

The whole of the way back to the Apache Inn after leaving Custer’s Spookhouse, Neal had been conscious of little else except Sue walking near him in the bulky new sweatshirt, a sweatshirt that hung down just barely to the tops of her thighs. She hadn’t put her
skirt back on. She wore nothing at all under the sweatshirt, and Neal couldn’t get it out of his head.

In the elevator, he intended to slide the sweatshirt up to her waist.

My turn to get a little wild
.

In the elevator mirrors, they would see repeated reflections of Sue – back and front at the same time, over and over, receding.

She’ll get a kick out of it, too, Neal thought. Hell,
she’ll
probably pull the sweatshirt off completely.

In his fantasies as they walked through the night, they both ended up naked in the elevator, making love surrounded by their reflections.

But as they stepped into the elevator, a couple of women came rushing out of the casino area toward the open doors. Women with tall, stiff hair, too much makeup, western shirts bulging across their busts, big silver belt buckles, and blue jeans so tight that neither woman could walk properly. Or maybe it was the cowboy boots that made them walk funny. Or maybe their intoxication. Or a combination.

They each carried a big plastic tub of coins in one hand, a clear plastic tumbler of beverage in the other.

‘Hold that door f’r me there, darlin!’ called the woman in the lead. Her enormous fluff of hair was snow-white, with pink highlights.

Sue thumbed the button to make the doors shut.

They began sliding. ‘Shoot!’ Sue blurted. ‘I pushed the wrong button!’

The pink/blonde sidestepped in. One foot inside the elevator, one foot out, she rammed her ass against the door behind her. Both doors stopped closing. She stayed where she was, running interference for her friend, but stumbled backward as the door retreated from her rump. Though she managed not to lose any coins from the tub she carried, her other hand leaped, flinging a glassful of ice and cocktail into her own face. ‘Bwah!’ she gasped.

Neal took one of her arms, pulled, and helped her stand up.

As the doors slid shut, she said, ‘Thank y’there, darlin. Yer a gennleman ’n a scholar.’

‘Glad to help.’

‘Name’s Myrna,’ she said, and winked at Neal. ‘This here’s m’pal, Lola.’

Lola, her brunette pal, pushed the button for the fourth floor, then gave Neal a little salute. ‘Whatever Lola wants,’ she said, ‘Lola gets.’

‘Ain’t she a hoot?’ Myrna asked as the elevator started to rise.

‘Did y’all win much?’ Sue asked.

‘Nah,’ Myrna said. ‘The more y’win, the more y’lose. Ain’t that so, Lola?’

‘I done all right,’ Lola said. ‘I play that electric poker?’ she said, her voice rising at the end as if she were asking a question. ‘Takes some smarts, but y’got better odds ’n the damn slots. Them slots, they’re the shits.’

‘I like ’em,’ Myrna said.

‘Then y’oughta not complain bout losin all the time.’

‘Well, y’win a few ’n y’lose a few.’ Myrna tried to take a drink, found her tumbler empty, and frowned. ‘Where’d m’vodka ’n tonic go to?’

‘Up yer nose, the most of it.’

‘Well, poopy!’

The elevator stopped at the fourth floor, and the doors rolled open.

Sue pressed the button to keep them that way.

Lola stumbled out.

Myrna scowled into her empty plastic tumbler. ‘I reckon I’ll go on back down ’n get me a refill.’

Sue and Neal looked at each other. Sue smirked. Then they both stepped out of the elevator, into the hallway with Lola. The doors shut.

Lola gave Neal and Sue a lopsided smile, said, ‘See y’laters, alligators,’ then strutted/stumbled her way down the hall. She turned a corner and vanished.

‘Lordy,’ Sue muttered.

‘Relatives of yours?’ Neal asked.

She blurted out a laugh, and elbowed him. ‘Shame on you,’ she said.

They walked toward their room, Sue holding his arm with one hand and swinging her sack with the other.

‘I had big plans for inside that elevator,’ Neal told her.

‘You and me both.’

Stopping in front of their door, Neal said, ‘The best laid plans . . .’

‘Least we won’t have nobody trippin over us when we’re in here.’

‘Sure hope not.’

As he entered the room, Neal turned on the light. Sue came in, swung the door shut, leaned back against it, and dropped her sack to the floor. ‘C’mon over here,’ she said.

He stepped closer.

She clutched the front of his sweatshirt and tugged him against her, wrapped her arms around him and kissed him on the mouth. Her mouth was open and wet.

Neal’s hands roamed up and down her sides, feeling her warmth through the thick fabric of her sweatshirt. Then he lowered his hands to her bare legs. He moved them up the backs of her legs, under the hanging sweatshirt. Her buttocks filled his hands, firm and cool, smooth as satin.

She raised one of her legs as if she wanted to climb him. He ran his hand under it. Just when he was almost to the back of her knee, she hopped and brought up her other leg. Hugged between them, Neal clutched her buttocks.

She was heavier than he expected.

What am I supposed to do now? he wondered.

Get her to the nearest bed before you drop her
.

He began to stagger backward.

Sue broke contact with his mouth – almost. Her slippery lips moving slightly against his, she whispered, ‘Giddyup, horsey.’

‘Navigate for me?’ he asked.

‘Just keep on goin back.’

He kept on going back. ‘Say when,’ he told her.

‘Keep goin.’

He kept going, but suddenly his legs were stopped by the bed. Gasping with surprise, he toppled toward the mattress. Sue rode him down. She didn’t mash him, though; she caught herself with her hands and knees. Looming over him, she smiled. ‘Yer a good ride,’ she said. ‘Wanta do it again?’

‘You were supposed to say when,’ he pointed out.

‘When.’ She bent her arms, leaned down and kissed his mouth.

As they kissed, Neal rubbed and squeezed her buttocks, then made his way up her back, sliding her sweatshirt higher and higher. Sue stopped kissing him and pushed herself up slightly to let him
work the sweatshirt over her shoulders and head.

When he had trouble getting the sleeves off her arms, she knelt above his belly, raised her arms, freed them from the sleeves and tossed the sweatshirt off the bed.

Neal gazed up at her.

She smiled down at him. ‘Whatcha starin at?’

‘You.’

‘I’m kinda scrawny.’

‘You’re beautiful.’

‘Thanks.’ She lowered herself onto him again and kissed him.

The feel of her breasts and belly and groin were muffled by Neal’s sweatshirt. But she was all bare skin on top. He savored the warm sleekness of it, his hands sliding down the curves of her back and rump, then up along her hips and sides, and over her shoulder blades.

She lifted her face enough to talk. ‘Looks like I’m the only one butt-naked ’round here.’

‘So far,’ Neal said.

‘Reckon that’s a good deal for one or the other of us.’

‘I can’t take my clothes off with you on top of me.’

‘Well.’ She raised her head a little higher and studied Neal’s eyes – glancing from one to the other, back and forth. ‘I’ll take ’em off ya,’ she said.

‘Okay.’

She kept studying his eyes.

‘What’s wrong?’ he asked.

‘Just . . . nothin.’

‘What?’

‘I just . . . I’ve got me a case of the squeamies, that’s all.’

‘The squeamies? What’s that? Diarrhea?’

She made a mock scowl. ‘
No!
I’m fine. I’m
scared
, that’s all.’

‘Scared?’

‘Last time . . . I got hurt. I got hurt pretty good.’

‘When?’

‘When those guys done me . . . when I, you know, like I told ya on the rollycoaster. The five guys in the school john.’

‘Huh? That really happened?’

She suddenly sat up and frowned at him. ‘Did ya think I was
lyin
?’

‘No!’ he blurted, confused. Then he said, ‘I don’t know. Not at first. But then when you had me touch your
wound
and it turned out to be your . . . you know . . . I just figured maybe the whole thing was a story.’