Part 35 (1/2)

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE.

Melanie dug a hand into a pocket of her corduroy pants. The hand came out with two pills in its palm. 'I knew they weren't aspirin,' she said, her voice flat. She stared at Pen with blank eyes. 'You gave me sleeping pills. So you could have the night with Bodie. So you could seduce him.'

'Oh, man,' Bodie muttered.

'That's not the reason,' Pen said. 'I was afraid you'd sneak out and go after Harrison.'

's.l.u.t,' Melanie said calmly.

'Mel!' Bodie snapped.

Her head turned slowly toward him. 'What?' she asked.

'Don't talk that way. She's on your side. We both are.'

'You want me out of the way.'

'Don't be crazy.'

A placid, humorless smile curled Melanie's lips.

My G.o.d, Pen thought, what have we done to her?

Bodie turned to Pen. 'We'd better leave,' he said. 'I don't think we should wait for morning. I'll take her back now.'

'Yeah.'

'We can't leave,' Melanie said. 'You haven't f.u.c.ked her yet. You have to f.u.c.k her. Everyone has to f.u.c.k her.' The mild way she said it, smiling, made goose-b.u.mps crawl up Pen's back.

Bodie stood up. He stepped around the coffee table, pa.s.sed in front of Melanie, and picked up the two suitcases he had left near the wall after bringing them up from the van. Melanie, standing motionless, followed him with an empty gaze.

Pen got to her feet. She removed the chair from under the k.n.o.b and opened the door.

Bodie looked at her with such agony that she wanted to throw her arms around him. 'It'll be all right,' he said.

'I don't think so.'

'She'll get over this once we're away.'

Will she? Pen thought. I won't, and neither will you.

'Come on, Melanie,' he said gently.

She walked toward him, her dead eyes staying on Pen. 'First came love,' she chanted in a low voice, 'then came marriage, then came Penny with a baby carriage.'

'Bye,' Bodie said.

She nodded.

Then they were out the door. Stepping onto the balcony, Pen watched her sister follow Bodie to the stairs and down. When they were out of sight, she heard the courtyard gate squeak open and shut. She folded her arms over her b.r.e.a.s.t.s for warmth against the night chill. She pressed her bare legs together. She clamped her teeth shut so they wouldn't click.

Then came the faint sound of Bodie's van starting up.

That's it, she thought. They're going.

'Hey babe, I'll warm you up,' Manny called out his door.

She didn't feel annoyed or threatened. She felt nothing about him. He didn't matter.

Stepping inside her apartment, she closed the door. She slipped the guard chain into place and looked at the chair she had used earlier to brace the door shut.

Why bother?

She wasn't afraid. She thought vaguely that she should be pleased she was no longer afraid, but she just didn't care.

She plugged her kitchen telephone back into the wall.

Let the b.a.s.t.a.r.d call, she thought. He can't hurt me. Sticks and stones can break my bones, but wordsa Pen and Bodie sitting in a tree, k-i-s-s-i-n-g.

Words can never hurt me.

How could everything have gone so wrong?

They're gone. I'll never see Bodie again. Melanie hates my guts. She thinks Ia she's right.

Bodie. Oh, G.o.d, Bodie.

She wandered into her bedroom and turned on the light. She wanted to lie down, to sleep, to forget.

Not even nine o'clock .

Nine. They'd missed visiting hours at the hospital.

She had hardly even given her father a thought, today.

I'll go see him tomorrow, she promised herself.

In the bathroom, she brushed her teeth and washed her face. She returned to her bedroom. She took off her clothes, her panties last.

Sitting on the edge of the bed, she held the panties in her hands.

n.o.body took them. All in my head.

We have nothing to fear but ourselves.

She dropped them to the floor, turned off the lamp, and crawled between the sheets of her bed. The sheets were cool at first on her naked body, then warm.