Chapter 8: Sticks and Stones

“Oww!” she cried out, picking herself up off the cold hard ground—for the umpteenth time, “Why do you have to be such an asshole?”

I smirked in the dark and taunted her, “Would you like some cheese and crackers to go with that whine?” I laughed at my enraged ward as she swung her magic stick around furiously.

She screamed in frustration and charged me again, swinging wildly. I smoothly turned into her swing, grabbed her attacking arm, and sent her sailing by me to land roughly in the dirt again. She threw the baton aside in anger and began crying harsh gasping tears of defeat.

“Do you want to learn or not?” I asked sharply, without a trace of pity in my voice as I looked down at her crumpled form.

“I wanna fucking kill you!” she wept.

“No,” I corrected, “you just want to be mad.” I knelt before her and lifted her dirty chin to gaze evenly into her reddened eyes. Her face was a tragedy of mud, scrapes, and one or two telling bumps that would likely bruise. “Now stop being mad for a moment and tell me what you are feeling.”

She jerked away from me and slapped my hand. “I feel like a fucking idiot and my body hurts everywhere!” she sobbed, “God I fucking hate you right now!”

“What hurts the most?” I asked letting her struggle to get to her feet, “Think, before you answer.”

“What do you care, fucker?” she snapped back at me, “you just beat the shit out of a seventeen-year-old girl! Does that make you feel better, Prick?”

I frowned back at her. “That’s how old I was when I went to a supermax,” I said softly, “do you think that crying and whining did me any good while I was being held down in the showers and gang-raped?”

She sniffed miserably and shook her head, “I didn’t know, I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be,” I rebuked, “now answer my question ... what hurts?”

She shrugged her shoulders dejectedly, “I don’t know,” she paused, “my ass hurts here,” she touched her left hip and butt cheek, “and both my shoulders,” she winced. “I think I broke my fucking back, too!”

“Good,” I told her earning a hateful glare. I held up a hand placatingly and gestured to the house. She turned towards it and I tapped her on the arm, handing her the baton that she dropped. “Now I want you to think on this,” I said standing beside her, “I never once struck you in any of those areas.” I had only slapped her across the face a few times to piss her off as I disarmed her.

“You didn’t have to,” she grumbled, “the ground did a great job of that.”

“Exactly!” I grinned triumphantly, slapping her on the shoulder painfully. “Lesson for tomorrow is to teach you how to avoid letting the ground kick your ass!”

She stopped on the porch and looked at me like I was mad.

“Watch,” I said and stood before her with my back to the clearing, “I want you to hit me as hard as you can,” I said, “with your fist.” I corrected. “No tricks, let me have it. I won’t defend myself or retaliate.”

She just stood there and gawked at me.

“Remember that trust thing?” I added gently, “I will always let you know what you can...”

Her face was her tell as a look of wanton vengeance flashed through her features. With a scream, she launched her little fist at me and slammed it painfully into my chest. True to my word, I let her connect and the blow was strong enough to knock me backwards off the porch. I stepped back, missing the stairs, and toppled towards the dirt. Rather than collapsing in a heap, I turned my body and curved my head and shoulders inward so that when I hit the ground I tumbled away, smoothly rolling back onto my feet to stand once more. Ow! In the light she might have seen the pain on my face as I strained my cracked ribs and bruised ... everything.

“You are going to learn how to land and roll. You will use the leverage of your momentum to tumble away from the danger and return to your feet once more.” I stepped back onto the porch and led her back inside. “Now come on. I’m going to introduce you to the wonders of Epsom salts.”

In the back, I started a hot bath for her and poured several handfuls of the salts into the steaming water.

“You just soak here a while and let your muscles relax...” I turned to find her standing completely naked behind me. I gaped at her body for a second and looked up at her dirty face. She was oblivious to my gaze as she roughly pushed past me and stepped into the tub eagerly. I could hear her moan as I stepped out and closed the door with a shake of my head.

I turned to my laptop and opened it up to find several emails waiting for me. One troubling note was from the Department of Interior, suggesting that my recent acquisition of Dynamite and its subsequent loss in transit, would henceforth preclude me from being able to order future supplies. Instead, I was provided with a list of locations where I could directly purchase my demolitions and, naturally be photographed and co-signed, doing so.

Rachel also sent me an image of a calendar page that looked to have been ripped out. A big red circle was drawn roughly around the date of March, 17^th. She added a note: ‘Try to stay alive til then, okay? I expect you to be at my delivery.’

‘Oh, Hell no!’ I snorted as I scrolled down to find another curt message.

‘I mean it Carter—You will be there!’

The bathroom door opened a few minutes later and I turned to see Trinity disappear in the bedroom with a towel wrapped around her slender frame. “Tub’s all yours,” she called back.

I awoke to find myself spooning her with my morning wood pressed firmly against her naked ass. My upper arm was draped over her waist with my hand cupped tightly over her small firm breast. She had her arms wrapped around mine possessively and I could feel her moving her pelvis rhythmically against my hard-on. Thank God I had shorts on!

I delicately extricated myself from her grip and made my escape to the kitchen. Travis politely sat staring at the door until I released him to attend to his needs. Soon the strong aroma of coffee teased me fully awake. After my first cup, I put on my shoes and stepped out into the brisk cool air to begin working on the calisthenics that I had been neglecting for some time. It felt good to test my range of motion and balance as I slowly performed the circular dancelike motions of Tai Chi.