Chapter 6

Wednesday afternoon, seventh period sex education class time!

As Joan had hoped while lying in Treakle's evil-smelling barn, the passage of time from then to now had helped to heal her mind and body. As Wednesday had rolled around again, most of the bruises on her ravished and battered flesh had gone away, but she still seriously doubted whether anything could ever entirely eliminate the damage done to her spirit.

She had been unable to shake the horror of her situation, and the living nightmare of all that had befallen her at the hands of those three sadistic children. And more abhorrent to her than all else was her own depraved submission and degenerate quest for sexual satisfaction. She couldn't help the constant nagging knowledge that she had not just succumbed to young Wayne's perverted streak of vengeance, but had bargained willingly, giving herself to the obscene lustings of him and his equally brutal friends with a wanton shamelessness that was unforgivable. She still was unable to feel the repugnance and self-loathing she knew she should for her own unspeakable depravities, and this was frightening her more than all the wicked acts which had been committed upon her more-than-willing flesh...

After she had finally managed to pull the tattered remains of her sweater and skirt around her naked body, she had stumbled through the empty field to her rooming house, where she'd cleaned herself up as best she could and fallen into an exhausted sleep. Luckily no one had seen her walking from the barn, and had it not been for the bruises and puffiness around her lips and eyes the following day, Joan doubted whether anybody would have known that something had happened to her at all.

As it was, she allayed suspicion with a few hastily-formed excuses, and locked the appalling truth inside her heart, there to remain forever hidden as far as she was concerned. To expose the whole hideous episode would be the same as slitting her own throat. The boys' word in a town controlled by Agnew Harrison Conroy would be all that would be needed to condemn her. In fact, as Mr. Blatherton had pointed out, since she was the teacher of the sex education class, hadn't she already been condemned?

Joan had decided, of course, that she had no alternative but to leave Montock as soon as possible, for she had truly been beaten. She had already handed in her letter of resignation to Ozgood Blatherton Tuesday, citing ill health and the strenuous demands of the curriculum as her reasons for quitting. The principal had been naturally distressed, assuming that she was going because of the "vicious rumors" the Parent's committee were supposedly spreading, never dreaming of the actual nature of her sudden decision. He had tried to calm her, but she had been adamant, and after some discussion he was forced to accept her letter sadly. But in order for her to get another teaching position elsewhere, she had to work another two weeks until the School Board acted on her resignation; it was only a formality, but a necessary one.

In two more weeks, she vowed to herself, she would pack up her bags and vanish from this horrid place. Until then, she could only pray that Wayne and his two evil cohorts would leave well enough alone and not do or say anything to make the situation worse...

Now, once again, she was hurriedly walking down the aged grey hallway of Montock High, books in one hand, a can of film in the other. Two more sex education classes, she said to herself with tight-lipped anxiety; only two more times that she would have to formally face those wretched little monsters across the room and teach them of a subject they already had passed with flying colors. Joan felt her mouth twisting into a harsh, cynical smile of bitterness at this galling bit of irony, but as she neared Room 12 again, her stomach began to knot and convulse as if it had just turned over.

When she entered the classroom, the five students were in their seats, looking expectantly toward her. She forced herself to smile, endeavoring to portray an outward calm by sheer force of will, but in doing so she unwittingly glanced at young Wayne Conroy sitting at his desk. She saw his beady little eyes rake up and down over her body with blatant lewdness, and her belly began to churn like a whirlpool. And then she saw the twisted, lewd grins on Mickey Hagen's face, and the similar one the Gerber boy wore, and she sensed the blood draining from her face. Even as she looked at them, Knuckles Gerber leaned over and whispered something to Mickey, and they body broke out into a meaningful series of suggestive snickers that brought the blood roaring back to her cheeks in a flaming blush of color.

God, how could she go through with this hour? Joan moaned to herself. How could she stay in this room and act as if nothing was the matter? Well, if she didn't, the only alternative would be to run... run right now and never look back. And then the truth would come out as questions about her strange behavior would be asked... No, if she were ever to have another chance, she simply had to find the strength. And thank heavens there was another film today, so she could hide her obvious emotional upset behind a mask of darkness...

"All right, class," she said with her chin held high and her voice unwavering, "Today we have another educational film. It's all about the different glands of the body, I understand, and how they operate during puberty to change boys and girls into young men and women. It... It isn't as explicit as last week's film, but I think you'll find it most worthwhile."

Again the three boys sniggered, as though they had some evil plan cooked up between them. Joan rapped her hand on her desk for attention, and with a crispness of tone, she snapped: "I hardly see anything funny, and I assure you, class attitude will count in the final grade you get! M-Mickey? Will you put the film on, please!"

Mickey Hagen arose slowly, still grinning. "Why, yeah, Miss Frazer. I'll be right proud to do anything you want!"

Swaggering, he took the can and went to the projector at the rear of the room. Then, hidden by the large machine, he reached down to the enclosed shelf of the metal cart and switched the educational reel of film for another one! As he threaded the celluloid strip of this second movie through the projector, he looked over at Wayne and gave an obscene wink to his buddy. Wayne had supplied the new reel, having stolen it that morning from his father's private pornography collection in his basement den!

Unsuspecting, Joan requested Lucy Hamilton to switch off the lights as before, then hastily went to sit down in the front row of seats, unavoidably close to Wayne's own chair. Then, thankfully hidden in the dark, the teacher took her first breath of relief and sat back to watch. She heard a quiet shuffling of chairs and the patter of feet, and she glanced back just as the silver screen lit up, and saw through the dim light that Mickey Hagen had gone to sit beside Sharla Gronsworth, while Knuckles Gerber was now leaning close to full-breasted Lucy Hamilton. She frowned momentarily at this strange behavior, but then her thoughts were jerked back to the film as the sound-track began to play the opening theme...

The scene Joan viewed on the screen before her was of an idyllic country setting. Unlike the meadow of Farmer Treakle's pasture, however, this glade was more sheltered with tall clumps of trees and thick, lush bushes, and the ground was covered with spongy dark green moss. Joan could hear the faint trickling of a babbling brook running through the small, sunlit glen off to one side. She felt puzzled and more than a little nervous, for though she hadn't seen this particular film on glands before, she had been led to understand it consisted of a professor lecturing with a series of diagrams and slides.

As the teacher watched, another soft noise could be heard, and then she saw that a young woman was entering the clearing close to the stream. She was a dusky, coffee-with-cream-colored black girl about twenty-two years of age, and as she walked to the middle of the clearing, Joan suddenly felt more surprised than ever!

The extremely beautiful Negro girl was almost completely naked, wearing only a sheer diaphanous gown! Beneath the nearly transparent gown, her dark-hued breasts were full and pointing slightly upwards like an adolescent girl's budding young globes. The camera concentrated on them and the graceful fall of her long, black hair, then slowly panned down her sides to the gentle swell of her belly, pausing at her indented little navel which dotted the high center of her abdomen before rolling over the sweeping roundness of her tawny hips to lovingly freeze at the downy apex of her thighs. There, only partially hidden from total exposure, lay her silken, curly-haired pubic mound, soft and inviting to every devouring eye. Even her light, pinkish vaginal lips could be seen quivering slightly.

Joan shifted nervously, unsure what she should do. Not enough film had passed for her to be positive that somehow she had gotten hold of the wrong can of film, but if she had, it might still be better to let things alone as they were. To stop the movie now would mean she would have to stand up in front of the students and struggle through an hour of unbearable teaching, and she realized instinctively that she was still in no mental condition to do that. God, what should she do? What could she do? Palms moist with perspiration, Joan continued to watch the screen...

The camera was now focusing on the young Negro woman's sensual face. Her features seemed almost slack, her pink tongue moistening lush, full lips as she looked down at herself in the gossamer covering and then longingly at the cool, refreshing stream nearby. The youthful audience could almost hear the thoughts in her head as the girl pondered whether or not she should take a dip in the water. There was another moment of indecision, and then her mind was seemingly made up. She slowly began to unbutton her translucent gown, dropping it to the soft moss beneath her bare feet. She looked pleased by her daring decision as she stood proudly naked in full view of the camera lens, her dark-pointed breasts jutting out fully from the mild- chocolate hue of her body. Naked and deliciously relaxed as though she were all alone in the middle of the woods, she softly padded to the stream and sat down on the sloping bank before it. She dipped one dainty foot experimentally in the clear sparkling water, spreading her long, slim thighs and exposing the quivering pink lips of her light brown pussy innocently as she did.

Joan bit her lip with trembling agitation as she viewed the black-skinned girl slowly turn her attention from the stream to her own naked flesh. Up there on the screen the girl casually lay back on the warm softness of the moss, brilliant sunlight bathing her voluptuously inviting body as she began to drag her long red fingernails up the sides of her thighs and waist, her face smiling with anticipatory excitement. Her fingers curled higher along her skin until she began to tease small circles around one of her upraised breasts, pulling at her tanned little nipple until it responded eagerly, rising to an unashamed tautness between her prodding fingers. As she rubbed the hardening nipple between her thumb and forefinger, she began to languidly open and close her legs just enough to reveal the trembling slit of her vagina again, glittering with beginning moisture between her scissoring thighs. The camera moved around in position until her toes were pointed directly at it and the watching audience, and then she dug her heels into the thick carpet of green beneath her, a gleaming flicker of rising passion obvious in her ebony eyes.