Chapter 12

Wonder of wonders, I met with Mr. Watson and passed his scrutiny, but that may have been at least partially at the urging of Mrs. Watson. Liz was fitted with a diaphragm in short order, and now our only problem was in finding a place to use it. Neither one of us liked to use the back seat of my car, but our choices were otherwise very limited. We certainly did not have enough money to rent a hotel room, and there were no motels around Hampton at that time.

We were able to use my bedroom on occasion, usually on Saturday. Jimmy was very careful not to be seen during those times; he still was impressed by what Dad had said to him. Oh, he may have spied on us, but neither one of us cared as long as he did not make trouble for us. We were able to use Liz’s bed on even rarer occasions, but a bed was a bed as far as I was concerned.

Mostly, we drove to Arlington for our conjugal relations (Man, what fancy words for fucking). We explained our situation to my grandparents, and they were gracious enough to let us use a spare bedroom. Both of us looked older than we were, so we were able to get away with a lot. We managed to fuck at least two times a week, and usually more often than that.

It may have been a miracle that Liz did not become pregnant, or maybe the manufacturers of the diaphragm and the spermicide were as good as they claimed. All through the remainder of high school, we were not one of those 3% of users who had a pregnancy to contend with.

We finished our Junior year of high school and had three months to look forward to. We both wanted to make some money to help us when we finished high school and hopefully went to college. We knew that if we went to college, it would probably be Auburn (aka API, Alabama Polytechnic Institute). At the time, tuition was $45 per quarter, with three quarters making up a school year. Of course, we would have other expenses, such as housing and food, but we were sure that we could work that out.

Auburn was big on the idea of alternating quarters with work and with attending classes. The summer quarter was theoretically equal to the other quarters, so it was possible to get a 4-year education in six years in this way. We thought we might have to do that, but Mr. Watson came through with all of our expenses but for tuition. He paid for Liz and Dad paid for me. At least that was the plan. There was no problem about enrolling at Auburn—if you were a citizen of Alabama and had a high school diploma from an accredited school, you were welcomed. That was why the Freshmen Class lost about one-third of its enrollment after one quarter; they couldn’t cut the college study requirements.

It happened that Dad had been fired from his county job because it was a political appointment, and Wilcox County had a new administration who wanted their own people in office. Therefore, Dad opened a sand and gravel business with a friend as a partner, and I worked as a general worker in the office for the three months that I was out of school. The advantage there was that I got on the Social Security rolls, and so did Liz with her job as a clerk at the Montgomery-Ward store.

These weren’t great jobs, but they did pay more than most underage kids could make. The jobs did cut into our time for sex, but we took the long view and lived with that tragedy. During most of the summer, the sun did not set until after 9:00 PM, so the drive back and forth from Arlington in the evening was not too difficult. This was one of those roads that Dad had been responsible for maintaining, so I had a lot of confidence in it being a safe trip.

The summer had almost passed when I happened to run into the son of one of Dad’s friends on a Saturday when Liz and I were visiting Porter’s Pool. We were not friends, but I did know him from high school, so I was surprised to see him moping around the pool. “Hi, Jimmy, where is Shirley?”

“Oh, shit, I don’t know. We were lounging around back in the woods over there when four really big guys showed up. Shirley knew one of them, and she said hello to him. Only a couple of minutes later, I was muscled out and Shirley went off with the four bruisers. I didn’t know what to do, so I came back here to the pool. I’m afraid that Shirley may be in trouble. She’s not like a real girlfriend, but I am afraid for her. What should I do?”

Liz heard the conversation, so she knew the situation. “Liz, I think that I should take a look at this. Please excuse me for a few minutes.”

“Okay, Jack, but be careful. Don’t bite off more than you can chew.”

“Don’t worry about me. I know what my limitations are. I’ll be back in a few minutes. To be on the safe side, I’ll make a turn by our car.” She knew that meant that I was going to pick up my staff, my bracers, my pistol, and my windbreaker. “Jimmy, you don’t need to come with me if you don’t want to, but I can’t let Shirley be hurt if I can help it.”

“Shit, Jack, I’ll come with you. I would never live it down if Shirley was in trouble, and I did nothing to help her. I’ll let you lead the way, though.”

“Fine. Come on. Let’s swing by the parking lot.”

When we got to the car, Jimmy’s eyes bulged out when I slipped on my shoulder holster with my pistol. I left the walker in the car trunk and took my baton instead. I slipped on my bracers and was ready to look for Shirley. We headed to the woods along the trail that Shirley and the four men had used.

This was about 2:00 o’clock in the afternoon, and most people were resting up from their picnic lunches. Therefore, we met nobody as we walked as rapidly as I could along the trail. I was using my staff to help my balance, but I still could not walk as fast as someone without my balance problem. As it was, Jimmy was surprised at how fast I could move. “Jimmy, please don’t mention to anyone how well I can do without my walker. It gives me an advantage that I would hate to lose.”

We had moved deeper and deeper into the woods, and the trail was showing the signs of less and less use. I had walked all of these trails at one time or another as I was trying to build up my strength in my legs, so I knew that we were almost out of logical stopping places for the men and the girl. If we did not find them soon, we would have to try another trail, and that might make us too late to do much for Shirley.

We came to the end of the trail and were about to turn around when we heard a sharp, but short, shriek from a woman. Jimmy said, “That sounded like Shirley’s voice!” The sound had come from our left, so we moved off the trail in that direction after I warned Jimmy to be as quiet as possible. We had gone about a hundred feet when we spotted through the trees four naked men and one naked woman. There was no doubt who they were.

One man was holding Shirley from the back by her arms while another man was twisting her breast. This guy had hands large enough to engulf Shirley’s breast in his hand, and she was trying to bend with the twist to relieve some of the pain. The man doing the twisting said, “You better come through with those blow jobs right now, or we will fuck you in your ass hole before you blow us. Now, what will it be?”

Jimmy was about to rush to Shirley’s relief when I stopped him. Instead, I stepped into the little clearing. “Okay, you’ve had your fun. Now release the lady, and I won’t hurt you.” That brought on the laugh from all four of the men that I was expecting. I wanted to get them as overconfident as possible.

“Move on, pissant. We men are relaxing with a lady friend, and we don’t want no boys around spoiling our fun.” That was about what I expected him to say, but it also accomplished my main objective—both men released their holds on Shirley.

The moment they took their hands off of Shirley, I said in my most commanding voice, “SHIRLEY, GET BEHIND ME RIGHT NOW!” Thankfully, she obeyed with no hesitation. Fortunately, that caught the four thugs by surprise, and they made no effort to stop her until it was too late.

Instead, the thugs advanced toward me, but I had the answer by drawing my pistol. “Hold it right there. I am a crack shot. There are six bullets in this gun and I only need four of them to kill you, so you had better not tempt me. Jimmy, grab Shirley’s swimsuit and come back behind me. Just don’t get between these thugs and my gun.”