Dream a Little Dream (17 page)

The car had just pulled sharply into a driveway. Beside her, Tina and Johnboy also woke. The car stopped and the three of them were dragged up the steps of an enormous farmhouse. Once inside, they were released. Two men shut and blocked the door.

The interior of the house was extravagant, to say the least. Everything looked expensive. There were wool rugs covering the floors. To the side was a living room filled with expensive toys, such as a sunken bar, a huge stereo system and some kind of TV whose images were projected onto the wall, but with no projector in sight.

“Come upstairs, Johnboy,” a man’s voice said.

They followed the voice up a winding staircase, down a hall and into a den. Once inside, a huge man sat them in chairs in front of a desk. Behind the desk was a grotesque figure of a middle-aged man. His black hair was streaked with gray and he held a tiny pipe between his teeth that looked as if it was made of ivory. Kneeling on the floor beside him was a beautiful, frail woman wearing nothing but her own hair and a G-string. She was stroking his leg.

The man puffed his pipe and leaned forward. “So, Johnboy, to what do I owe the pleasure of your company?”

The muscular bodyguard spoke up. “He don’t have the money, Charlie.”

“Doesn’t have, you idiot!”

“Sorry. He doesn’t have the money, boss.”

Charlie sent two rings of gray smoke through the bowl of his pipe. “Can’t pay, eh?”

He stood up and walked over to Johnboy, who was being held down in a chair. The woman crawled behind him, her full breasts dangling. It was obvious that this man was rich in both money and power, and poor in human decency.

He put his hand on Johnboy’s shoulder. “You know, John, we’ve been working together for a long time. I trusted you so much that I gave you one of my best jobs, a home and a new car. We were friends, you and I, and we had some good times. You remember that time when you got arrested on a robbery charge and I helped you out? Remember? They were going to kill you in that place. But I looked out for you and you were free. Then we picked up those hookers and got drunk, you remember, right?” He laughed gruffly. “We had a good time, didn’t we? You remember?”

Johnboy was so nervous that he was ready to wet his pants, but he managed to squeeze out a fake laugh, then added, “Yeah, I remember. You—you really helped me out, Charlie.”

Suddenly, Charlie grabbed both his shoulders and wrenched the fat Johnboy from his chair. “And this is how you thank me?” he yelled.

Johnboy just hung there, not responding. This wasn’t defiance, but inability. The question was rhetorical, anyway.

Charlie seemed to rein in his temper and went back behind the desk, with the woman still clinging to his legs, her hair shifting now and then to expose her buxom flesh. Nola could hardly imagine a more pathetic creature—unless it was herself. He made a quick gesture and three men came forward, releasing them from their bonds.

Charlie’s face was red and he was trying not to snarl, but he didn’t do a good job. “I treated you like my son and you took my drugs, smoked them up yourself instead of selling them like a good
boy. You promised to pay me, and now, now you come to me telling me you can’t. Now I have to punish my son.”

“B-but Charlie, I b-brought you these girls!” Johnboy stammered.

Tina burst into tears beside him. “Johnboy, how could you? I hate you!”

Charlie walked out from behind the desk again. He looked down at the lovely woman who was clinging to his leg, massaging his inner thigh. She looked up at him and smiled sweetly.

“It seems to me you’ve overlooked the fact that I
have
girls. What would I want with a couple of your sluts?”

Again, Johnboy couldn’t answer. It was obvious that Charlie was playing cat and mouse with him, and would do whatever he chose to do the moment he got tired of posturing.

Charlie looked at the woman and stroked her hair. “I’m tired of you now. Wait in your room.”

“But, Charlie, I want to serve you, you are so distressed, let me help . . .” she pleaded.

“I said get out of here, bitch!” he said, kicking her cruelly. But the woman knew better than to cry. She absorbed the blow and left, wrapping her hair tightly around her. If she had any sense of pride, it had obviously been beaten out of her long since. And this, Nola knew, was what she herself would become if she didn’t find a way to escape.

Charlie motioned to his bodyguard, who pointed a revolver at Johnboy’s temple. Tina sat on the opposite side of him, with Nola next to her. Both girls were too frightened to say a word.

Nola was afraid that if she pleaded in Johnboy’s favor that it just might get him shot sooner and herself as well. But Tina, despite what he had done to her, still cared for him. “Leave him alone! I’ll get you the money!”

“Shut up, you walking social disease! This is between me and my son.”

Charlie stepped forward and leaned close to Johnboy. “As my daddy always said to me, ‘This’ll hurt me more than it’ll hurt you.’ “ Charlie leaned closer and kissed him on his forehead.

“No!” Tina cried.

Nola had a really ugly feeling about this. “Tina, I think we’d better keep quiet,” she said urgently.

“No!” Tina repeated, staring at her wild-eyed. “He’s going to—”

Nola rose and turned away, trying to draw Tina along with her. Tina hung back.

The gun sounded, deafeningly loud. Nola whirled, shocked.

Johnboy’s head had been pushed to the side as the bullet ripped through his skull. Blood and small pieces of flesh and hair spattered Tina’s face and blouse. Johnboy’s tear-streaked face was twisted into a look of horror, going slack as his head dropped down.

Tina’s scream echoed forever in Nola’s mind as everything slowed down. Both girls were in a state of shock and terror. They were easily led downstairs. Though she was numb, Nola’s mind still functioned, and she knew Charlie had done the murder in their presence for a reason: to impress upon them the likely penalty for defiance. So that they could be more expeditiously reduced to the nude girl’s state, without bruises.

Nola’s eyesight was double as she tried to fight off her heart palpitations. She was in what seemed to be the basement of the farmhouse. It was dark and musty, except for moonlight streaming in from a small window high on the brick wall. She held on to Tina’s hand after the men left, locking the door behind them. They both sat in silence for a long moment.

“Are you okay?” Nola asked, still staring into space.

“Where are we?” Tina asked as the shock wore off.

“I—I think we’re in the basement or something,” she replied, looking around.

Then Tina’s awareness rushed back in with a vengeance. “John-boy!” she cried, putting her face in her hands.

Then she looked up and seemed to stare at a vision of him in her mind. “All the better for ya, you dumb bastard! How could you? How could ya do this to me?” It was much the same reaction she had had when leaving Kras the worm king.

Nola wasn’t sure what to do. Should she console Tina or should she shake a fist and curse as Tina had? She decided that neither would help. She had to try to keep her friend’s mind occupied. It was obvious that Tina was teetering dangerously back and forth between grief and rage. Neither emotion was likely to be much help right now.

“We have to find a way out of here,” Nola said calmly. She looked around. There was the door, but when she tried it, of course it was locked. The floor was concrete and the room was empty, except the window.

“There ain’t no way outta here,” Tina sobbed bitterly. “I been here before and believe me, there ain’t no way.”

Nola got an idea. “Were you alone when you were here?”

“Yeah. So?”

“Well, I think we might be able to reach that window up there,” she said, pointing.

“You know, I think it’s wortha shot.” She looked at Nola, then back at the window. “But how we gonna do it? I ain’t that strong, ya know.”

“I think I can boost you up. Here, stand on my hands.”

Nola locked her fingers together. Tina stepped onto them and Nola lifted her up. She was somewhat shorter than Nola herself, and therefore lighter despite her fuller figure.

“The window is barred on the outside, but the inside is unlocked,” Tina said as she opened it.

At that moment the door was opened and a man came in with a
shoe box. “Aha!” he exclaimed. “I see the boss was right. He thought you might try that.”

Nola sighed. She let Tina down.

“What’s he gonna do with us?” Tina demanded.

“He don’t want you two to die yet. He’s got some internationals coming in and he needs you two to do a job,” he said with a wry smile. “He told me to show you this.”

He opened the box and withdrew a yellow butterfly, wings pinched between two fingers. He let go, and the butterfly immediately flew toward the light of the window. It struck a bar and tiny sparks flew from it as the life was zapped out of it. The butterfly fell to the floor.

“Isn’t the symbolism deep? The boss just loves doing that!” Then the smile on his face vanished and he nodded. “There’s no way out, unless you do the job.” He turned and walked out. They could hear the clicking of the lock.

Nola sat on the floor, all hope gone. “He’s going to kill us, isn’t he?” she asked, picking up the dead butterfly.

“Soon as we finish the job, unless he figures we’re worth the effort.”

“What did he mean by that? “ Nola was pretty sure she knew, but hoped to be refuted.

“He ‘ll take us to meet some foreigners and make us turn tricks for them.”

“Turn tricks!” Nola exclaimed, anguished by the confirmation. This was no slow brainwashing effort, but a fast action. Like a mugging—or a rape. “I’m no—”

“Better learn. Charlie can really make you hurt, if he wants to. At least you get taken care of, as long as you perform well.”

Nola sat for a time staring at the butterfly in her lap. She thought of Mich and of Kafka, and of what Esprit had told her in her dream. As she stared at the lifeless little body she realized that, like the butterfly,
she’d end up dead very soon unless she was careful. If she ever got free of this prison she knew she could find a way to save Kafka. It was up to her. What a burden it was to save a world, and more so to save two worlds. If she ever got out
of
here alive, maybe . . .

A tear fell onto the bright wing. She wiped it off, removing some of the brilliant pattern. She felt a hand on her shoulder. “It’s okay, Nola,” Tina said, sitting down beside her. “You got a prince who loves you. It’s like a fairy tale. It ain’t right for a fairy tale to have a sad ending. It just ain’t right.”

Nola could only nod her head. This wasn’t the way a fairy tale was supposed to begin either. She hoped Mich was okay, but somehow, she didn’t believe he was. How could he survive being shot in the gut, in a foreign world? The people they were dealing with played for keeps. This was no longer the adventure she had thought it would be. This was the ugly reality of the world. She couldn’t even imagine what kind of chaos would come if people lost their dreams. And what of poor Tina? Nola really couldn’t blame her for losing her hopes and dreams. She was beginning to lose her own.

Tina was no better off. She put her head in Nola’s lap and silently wept. At first she had been sad for the loss of her friend and the cruel way that he had been killed, but then she realized that her love for him was false. He had brought her nothing but misery all her life.

Sure, he was good to her, not taking too much of the money she earned, but whenever he owed someone money, he used her to pay. Well, this time he had been the one to pay. She was glad for having made new friends. But now she was sad for getting them into this mess. Nola and Mich could, indeed, have a fairy tale relationship if it weren’t for her. Why did they care so much about her? She was nothing but a worthless slut.

“I’m sorry,” she murmured. Unable to say anything else, she closed her eyes and slept.

Nola understood. She knew that Tina must be ravaged by guilt, but what could she say? It’s okay? It wasn’t okay. So she just stroked her hair.

Dawn was coming, and soon Charlie would come for them.

Tina stirred in Nola’s lap. Nola was glad that she was able to sleep. She wished she herself could get the same rest, but her heart and mind would not let her.

Tina sat up as she was wakened by the sound of a motor and of a loud zapping. The two girls jumped up. The sound came from the window above. They watched as the metal bars were pulled away from the wall. Large sparks shot out in every direction and the bars fell away. A rope ladder was lowered through the window and then a smiling face appeared.

“Mich!” Nola cried. “You’re alive!”

Tina was aghast. “You’re alive!” she echoed.

“Yes! Now come on, before the dogs come again!”

Tina climbed the ladder to the window. The window was small, but she was able to fit now that part of the wall had been torn away with the bars. Mich helped her out, then he helped Nola.

Mich was overcome by her touch on his arm. He had been so worried that something was going to happen to her and he ‘d never get to touch her again. When she was through the hole, he pulled her into his embrace. He held her close and kissed her.