Trailer Park Noir (17 page)

“What’s wrong?”

“I don’t know, I just, um ... I just feel ... embarrassed all of a sudden. I think I want to stop now. Is that okay?”

“Sure, if you want to stop now, that’s fine. But, uh ... well, maybe we can do more later. Like maybe tomorrow.”

“Uh ... well ... yeah, maybe.”

She quickly began to put her clothes back on.

“What’s wrong, Kendra?” he said.

“I don’t know, I just ... all of a sudden, I felt ... naked. It’s not you, Mr. Regent, and I’m real sorry, I just ... I just can’t right now.” When she was finished, she turned to him and said, “Can I see the pictures?”

“Sure. Come over tomorrow afternoon and I’ll show them to you.”

“I don’t know if I can. I don’t know if Mommy’ll be working or not.”

“Oh. Then I guess we’ll have to wait and see.”

“Yeah. Like Mommy says, ‘We’ll see.’” She giggled. “I’m sorry, I hope I didn’t mess anything up for you.”

“No, not at all. I want you to be comfortable with what you’re doing. You know, you’ve got money coming. A hundred dollars.”

“A hundred
dollars
?” she said, putting a flat palm to her chest. “Wow. A hundred. I’ve never seen that many dollars in one place before. Where will I put them? Mommy’ll want to know where they came from.”

“You want me to keep the money here for you for now?” Regent said.

“Yes, please. Keep it here for me. And one more thing – you won’t, uh, say nothin’ to my mommy, will you?”

“You have absolutely nothing to worry about, Kendra,” he said with his most convincing smile. “I won’t tell a soul, and I recommend you do the same.”

“Yeah, me, too. What you said. Well, I guess I should go home now. My doggy’s home alone and I – “

She looked openly at his erection, which refused to go away.

“What’s that?” she said, pointing a finger at it.

“Uh ... “ Regent had never found himself faced with that particular question before. “I have an erection. My penis is hard.”

“How come?”

“Because I was looking at you. You made me this way.”

She grinned. “I did?”

“Yes. That’s how men will always react to you, Kendra.”

She stepped forward and put a hand on it, squeezed it. There was nothing sexual about the gesture – it was a gesture of curiosity.

“It’s very hard,” she said.

“Yes, it gets hard when I get excited.”

“Yeah, I know, I read about it in an encyclopedia online. So I excited you?”

He closed his eyes a moment. “You ... excited me ...
so
... much, Kendra.” His voice was a tremulous whisper. “I want you right now. I want you here and now.”

She laughed as she turned and headed out of the trailer.

* * * *

Kendra returned to the trailer to find that Dexter had left another little puddle in the kitchen.

“Dexter?” she said, looking around for him. She saw him, finally – peering around the far edge of the couch looking terribly guilty. “I’m sorry, Dexter. I shouldn’a left you alone so long. C’mere, boy, c’mere, you’re not in trouble.”

Dexter cautiously crept from around the couch’s corner and came to her with his tail between his legs. She reached down and picked him up, and he licked her face while she held him in her arms. Pretty soon, Dexter’s guilt was forgotten, and he was wriggling in her arms, so she put him down.

As she cleaned up the puddle, she thought about what she had just done.

She’d had to stop taking pictures because she’d suddenly – out of nowhere, and very unexpectedly – become aware of the fact that she was naked. Well, she had panties on, but that was all. That was pretty much naked as far as Kendra was concerned. Suddenly, she was naked in this room with this total stranger, and she was ashamed of herself. It was like in one of those dreams she had sometimes where she found herself at school in her underwear, or completely naked. It was a feeling of such intense vulnerability that it had frightened Kendra for a moment. She’d
needed
to get her clothes back on, that was all, and as soon as she did, she felt okay again. Once she was outside, it was all gone, that feeling of utter helplessness, the chilling awareness of her nudity – she was fine.

“Maybe you’ll be more comfortable the next time we do this, you think?” Mr. Regent said at the door of his trailer.

Kendra shrugged, then nodded. “Sure. Maybe.”

“We
will
do this again, won’t we? I want more pictures of you, and then I want to get some video.”

“Really? Video?”

“Oh, yeah, I’m giving you the full treatment, sweetheart.”

After leaving, she’d looked back as she neared her trailer, and there was Mr. Regent, smiling, watching her. He’d waved at her, and she’d smiled and waved back.

Mr. Regent was a nice man, and he was very informative. He was very handsome, too. He wasn’t afraid to say
anything
in front of her, it seemed. Like talking about his erection. Kendra had read about penises and erections in what she thought of as
her
online encyclopedia. She found the very idea of them funny – imagine, living with something hanging between your legs that could, at any moment, get hard and stand up straight! It was silly. She was struck by the size of Mr. Regent’s erection. Of course, maybe
all
of them were that big – she had no idea, nothing to measure it against, and was only speculating.

She wondered how big Marc’s got when he was excited. Heat moved up her neck to her face. She wondered what kind of things excited him. Would he be as excited as Mr. Regent if
he
saw her in a bikini bra and shorts?

Kendra felt a tickling sensation deep in her belly when she thought of Marc seeing her the way Mr. Regent had just seen her, and she giggled. Would he get hard, too? Would he want to touch her? Is
that
what he wanted?

Or would the same thing that usually happened to Kendra throughout her life happen yet again – would he point at her and laugh?

There was something about Marcus Reznick – she did not know
what
, only that she had sensed it from him while lying next to him on the roof – that told her he would not do that. Whatever it was, she could see it in his eyes. His eyes were a large part of what made him so appealing. His eyes were sad. She’d considered asking him why, but had not mustered the courage yet. She had not mustered the courage to do a lot of things, but it was about time she did.

She giggled again. It was a black little giggle that bubbled up out of her. It sounded more aggressive than simply mischievous – it sounded almost
ominous
. It sounded almost like a threat.

Then a bad thought occurred to her, a thought that struck her mind like a bolt of lightning. Big, flaming words rose up in her mind’s eye: WHAT IF MOMMY FINDS OUT?

That would be bad, very bad. Kendra could not even imagine how Mommy would react if she learned she’d posed for naked pictures. But she trusted Mr. Regent not to tell her, because he’d probably be in trouble with Mommy, too. He’d promised it would be their secret – why would he lie?

But what if Mommy saw the pictures online? Would they be on a site where Mommy might go? She would have to ask Mr. Regent.

If Mommy found out ... well, it would be awful, that was all. But Kendra told herself Mommy
wouldn’t
find out – simple as that. And she stopped worrying about it. Simple as that.

Kendra went to the kitchen and took the jar of peanut butter from the cupboard. She got a spoon from the drawer, opened the jar, and scooped some peanut butter out with the spoon and licked some of it off slowly, wondering if it
really
hid the smell of alcohol.

Dexter went to the door and sat there with his body facing it, his head turned to look at Kendra. When she finally noticed him, she said, “Do you need to go out?”

He stood and hurried around in a tight circle.

She opened the door and screen door and let him out. She watched from the door, licking peanut butter from the spoon, smacking her lips, as Dexter went to the fruitless mulberry in the front yard and urinated on its base. Then, happy with himself, he trotted back up the steps and into the trailer. Kendra sat down Indian-style on the floor and Dexter hopped into her lap.

“Oh, Dexter, I’ve been
such
a
naughty
girl,” she said. “If Mommy ever found out, she’d be ... she’d be ... “ Kendra giggled. “She’d ex-
plode
.”

Fourteen

Ever since lunch, since Mo Carey had left, Reznick had been toying with the idea of leaving work early. The very phrase “leaving work” hardly applied to him – he simply would be leaving an empty office.

At least he had one client, and a job to do that evening.

He decided, at three-seventeen that afternoon, to go home. His sleep had been restless last night and he could use a nap before following Mrs. Carey around.

Reznick stood behind his desk and stretched his arms above his head. He took his suit coat from the back of his chair and slipped it on, picked up his briefcase. His tie drooped and his top button was loose. He turned everything off – the coffee maker, the fan, the air conditioning – then grabbed a handful of business cards and left the office.

“How’d those ribs sit?” Leroy said as soon as Reznick entered.

“Maybe the best barbecue I’ve ever had, Leroy, I’m serious. Lunch was so good, I came by to get some chicken for dinner, the same sides.”

“A man of discerning tastes, you are,” Leroy said. He turned and went about wrapping half a chicken in aluminum foil. “Business any better this afternoon?”

“Oh, I’ve got one case. More than I had this morning.”

“And who knows where it might lead.”

“I suppose.”

Leroy chuckled as he put the sides in a bag with the chicken. “I had a very optimistic momma and grandma. From them, I learned to always look at the bright side. It don’t come as easy for everyone as it does for me, I know. Some find it ... annoying. But sometimes, it’s the only thing you can do ‘sides goin’ insane.”

“Here are my business cards,” Reznick said, putting the cards on the counter. “You show mine around, I’ll show yours around.”

He chuckled. “You gotcheself a deal.”

The barbecue chicken’s aroma filled the cab of his car on the drive home and made him feel prematurely hungry. In the trailer, he put the chicken in the refrigerator – he would heat it up later for dinner.

He quickly changed into T-shirt and shorts and flip-flops and stood underneath the swamp cooler in the hall for a while.

The heat clung to his body like honey. It seeped into his lungs like honey, too, humid and thick.

Reznick took a shower, then, with a towel wrapped around his waist, he stood in the hallway, under the air of the cooler a little longer.

When the heat was humid, the swamp cooler was little help – it just made it more humid
indoors
. Furniture became damp, once crisp and dry paper became limp. Most of the trailers in Riverside Mobile Home Park had swamp coolers – some had only fans – because it was the best they could afford.

He was still standing under the cooler when there was a knock at the door.

Reznick opened the door and looked out through the screen. Kendra stood on the other side holding a tiny tan dog.

“Hi, Marc,” she said through a big smile. There was a wealth of enthusiasm in her simple greeting.

“Hello, Kendra,” he said. “You have a dog?”

“Yeah! Ain’t it great? Mommy took me to the Humanity Society, and – “

”The Humane Society.”

“Yeah, that’s it, and we picked out little Dexter, here. I couldn’t
wait
to show him to you.”

“Then let’s get a good look at him. Step back.”

As Kendra stepped back, Reznick pushed the screen door open. She stepped inside and bent down, put her little dog on the floor.

“Now, watch,” Reznick said.

Conan and Dexter took turns cautiously sniffing each other’s butts, then their noses. Less than thirty seconds later, they were standing on their hind legs playfully boxing at each other with their front paws.

It was a moment after he’d said,
Now, watch
, when Reznick realized she was wearing only a bikini bra and very short denim cutoffs. She stood leaning forward with her hands propped on her thighs, and his eyes passed over all that smooth, creamy flesh.

“It looks like they’re gonna get along,” Kendra said, standing up straight. She turned to him and he lifted his head and smiled.

“Looks that way,” he said. “That’s good. They’ll have someone to play with besides us.”

Kendra giggled. She walked into the living room and said, “How did you house-train Conan, Marc?”

“Didn’t take much at all,” he said. “He got the idea real fast.”

“I think Dexter did, too. He let me know that he had to go out today.”