Chapter 10

After her second beer Billie began to feel lots better. Sam, the big man next to her, was awfully funny and the way he talked made her giggle. Hanson tried to make her drink some whiskey from a short glass, but she didn't like the way it tasted. Then he poured it into her beer and it wasn't so bad that way. She was so relaxed that she didn't even mind when Hanson left her to go play something on the jukebox. But while he dropped coins and punched buttons a slender, dark-brown girl curled close up beside him and put a sensuous arm around his waist. Billie tried to figure out what they were talking about, but couldn't.

"Why don't you finish this beer and I'll order you another one?" Sam told her.

"Huh? Oh, sure..." She gulped, almost choking on the cold, bubbly stuff. Hanson was coming back... but he had the brown girl with him.

"This is Billie-Ann," he told the girl. "Billie, this is Alicia."

Alicia gave Billie a look that made her feel strangely uncomfortable. "I knew Hanson liked his girls young, but I didn't know he liked 'em white," the black girl said.

Billie felt the booze she'd been drinking... it made her feel reckless. "I'm not really very white--look." And she held out her tanned arm.

This made Alicia smile and gave Hanson a shove. "Where'd you find her?"

"She's my cousin," Hanson said. He sipped his beer and touched Billie lightly on one shoulder. She was glad he was so close. A frown spread slowly across Alicia's face. Then her hands flew out and caught at Billie's dress.

"I bet her tits are white... and her cunt, too!"

Billie felt the girl's fingers tugging at the thin cotton dress.

"Come on, let's see."

Hanson yanked the brown girl around. "I said leave her alone!"

"Sho, Hanson, sho." When Alicia put her head close to Hanson's so she could whisper, Billie pretended to be interested in her beer glass, but she couldn't help overhear the girl's sultry-sounding voice.

"Honey, you just gotta come back in a room with me. I'm burning up for that big cock of yours! You hear me, Hanson?"

"Okay, Alicia," he said, patting her round bottom. "Now, go on. I'll see you in a little bit."

As Alicia slinked back through the crowded tables, Billie watched a man pull the giggling girl onto his lap and she turned away with a shudder. Alicia Shelton scared her something awful. She'd never known anybody like that in her whole life.

"Thanks for making her leave me alone," Billie said to Hanson.

But he just gave a laugh and drained his beer glass. "Oh, Alicia don't mean no harm. She could be friends with you if it wasn't for me sittin' here."

"What do you mean?" She wrinkled up her nose at him.

"Why, she's just jealous," he laughed.

Sam was laughing at all this, and when Billie looked over at him he shook his head and flashed his big gold tooth "Sho 'nough, Alicia's had a burr in her pants ever since you came in. It's a holy wonder she didn't strip you down for sure right here, just to see what makes you tick."

Hanson started away from her towards the back of the room.

"Wait!" Billie slipped off the Stool and clutched his arm frantically. "Don't leave me here!"

She saw Hanson flash Sam a grin and then cock his head at her real sassy-like. "I'm going to pee, baby. If you want to come hold it for me, well that's all right, too..."

Billie wiggled back onto the stool and chewed her bottom lip. A full shot glass of whiskey sat before her and without hesitating she put it to her lips and swallowed. Everything was making her so nervous and frightened.

"He'll be back in a little," Sam said. "And don't be bothered, 'cause I ain't gonna let any of these young studs get to messin' with you."

Elsie drifted up and set down two more beers. She gave Sam a stern look. "Now, don't go lettin' this child get drunk, hear?"

The way the big woman said it tickled Billie for some reason and she broke into a long fit of laughing. The room swirled around her and she had to hold onto the edge of the bar to make sure the stool stayed under her bottom. Elsie was staring at her.

"I'm just fine, Mrs. Shelton," she mumbled. Sam's face grinned into hers. He was so close and black and shiny-looking. Something. Something she wanted to talk to Elsie about. Billie hiccuped and tasted bile in the back of her throat.

"Don't be drinking any more," Elsie ordered.

"... have to talk to you..." Billie-Ann closed her eyes but that made it worse.

"What do you want to talk to me about?"

"Baby... how stop a baby..." Something hit Billie hard on the forehead and when she focused her eyes she saw that it was the edge of the bar. She was lying across it.

Elsie's voice came to her through the fog. "Let's get her out of here. Come on, Sam, give a hand."

Strong hands went under her shoulders and back. Music and laughter rolled around her. They were laughing at her; Billie knew they were... laughing. Then she was in a small room and felt a thin mattress under her back. A door closed and the laughing and music were only a muffled rush of sound now. Billie wondered what had happened to Hanson. A big warm hand touched her thigh and rubbed her there.

"Get yo' hands off, Sam!" Elsie bellowed. "Go on back out now."

The door opened and closed. Billie tried to see, but her eyes wouldn't behave. "Everything's spinning."

Elsie poured water from a pitcher and Billie-Ann felt a cold rag against her forehead. "You was drinking that booze too fast. If I'da knowed you didn't know how, I'da stopped the whole thing." She pushed her face close enough so that Billie could see her wrinkled features. "Why you come here anyway? What you want from me?"

"I think I'm... pregnant. I gotta know for sure."

A breeze from outside blew into the room and the fresh air made Billie feel a little better. Elsie wrung the rag out once more and came back to put it on her head.

"What makes you think you'se pregnant?"

"A boy I know... We... He..."

"Just one time, I bet," Elsie said.

"Uh-huh," she said, nodding.

"Just one time and you think you'se gonna have triplets." The big woman made a face. "Why, you barely look old enough to be bleedin' much. How old was this boy who humped you?"

The choice of words Elsie used made Billie blush. "He's ten, I think... maybe eleven."

For a long time Elsie Shelton rocked back and forth on the mattress, laughing until the tears rolled down her fat cheeks. Billie still felt woozy, but she was able to see better now and the uneasiness in her guts was gone. Why was Elsie laughing so hard? she wondered. It wasn't funny at all to her.

"Listen, honey," the black woman finally said, "if that little piece of pecker was able to squeeze out a drop or two of jizzum I'd stand up and shout hallelujah for him."

"But he said--"

Elsie took her arm and squeezed it, "Even if he did manage a little it won't amount to nothin'."

"You mean... you mean it won't make a baby in me?" Billie was almost afraid to believe what Mrs. Shelton had told her.

"Shee-it, no!" Elsie took both of Billie's shoulders and studied her face. "You came all the way out here with Hanson to ask me that?"

"I guess... I did."

She felt her face being turned first one way and then the other while the colored woman studied each detail.

"You a mighty pretty little thing," Elsie said. "Ain't got much lips but still awful pretty."

Her daddy had always told her that she had lips like plump berries, but Billie smiled and dipped her head shyly. "Thanks for sayin' so."

"Your monthly started yet?"

"Almost... there was a little on my panties about a month ago."

Elsie nodded slow-like. "You look to be about fourteen, that right?"

Billie nodded. "A little late then," Elsie went on, "but lotsa gals is."

The rag on her head felt good after hearing what the big colored woman had told her, Billie felt a million times better. She looked around the room and saw that it was much smaller than she'd imagined at first. A faded picture hung crooked on one wall and a naked light bulb dangled from the middle of the ceiling. A single moth circled and darted, throwing flitting shadows over the floor.

"You ever fuck Hanson?" Elsie asked. She was still wiping Billie's head with the wet rag.

"No..." She knew she'd gone all pink.

"Now there's a boy that could get a girl in trouble. So if he ever waves that big old black snake in your direction you'd better jump or Christmas'll find you with your apron all up under your chin."

What Elsie was saying made Billie wonder how Alicia kept from getting knocked up. She probably did it with men all the time and still looked as slender as a rail.

"I'm not going to be naughty any more," she said, feeling lucky that she'd escaped this time.

The big woman shook with laughter. "Well listen to you now! Who says you'll he able to stop when that brown buck Hanson grabs you some night?" Elsie looked up at the ceiling and smiled. "Only wish I was young enough to take him on myself. Best-lookin' black in the county, that Hanson is."

Elsie's words reminded Billie. It was true that she'd gotten awfully careless at Basset's Pond. And she hadn't really thought about it while it was happening... she couldn't. It had felt too nice. Billie watched the heavy woman lumber across to the door.

"Tell Hanson I'm in here, could you?"

Elsie turned. "He's a mite busy now, but don't you fret. I'll tell him soon as I can." Then she turned off the glaring light and left.

For a long time Billie-Ann just lay there in the darkness resting... thankful that Lonnie's little cock hadn't gotten her in trouble. But after a while, Elsie's last words began to haunt her. Hanson was busy somewhere and couldn't be bothered. All she could think of was Alicia's whispered invitation and the intimate look Hanson had exchanged with the chocolate-colored girl.

The noises in the big room came to her in waves. Laughing people and clinking glasses and loud music. Billie liked the music but felt lonely in the strange house without someone to talk to. Restlessly she turned over on the bed and for the first time saw light streaming through the cracks in the wall next to her. Curious now, she held her breath long enough to hear voices in the next room.

Moving nearer, Billie put her hand out and felt why she could hear so easily. The wall was made of rough lumber laid edge to edge and nailed in place. There were chinks and cracks up and down it... some even big enough to see through. She shoved her eyes close to the largest chink and when she'd focused on the two forms her heart plunged. In the small cubicle next to hers Billie saw Hanson and Alicia standing naked together, their arms hugging... faces pressed together.

"What you want to go messin' with that Billie for?" Alicia simpered against Hanson's cheek.

He kissed her full lips then and Billie's ears burned as she watched Alicia's hands caressing and fondling the muscles of Hanson's strong body. She could see that the room they were in was almost exactly like hers... even to the narrow cot and washstand by the window. And she could guess, too, what Hanson and Alicia meant to do in there.

The brown girl's round bottom shivered and pressed against Hanson when he dug at her asseheeks with his fingers. Billie knew what it felt like. She remembered from the time at Basset's Pond. Hot tears welled into her eyes but she shook them away. No, she couldn't do those kind of things again anyway. Especially not with Hanson.

Alicia laughed and pushed Hanson back onto the bed. He leaned on his elbows and watched her fingers wiggle his cock playfully.

"You smell like you're ripe as a black banana," he said.

"I'm slick for you, honey," Alicia said, sticking out her pink tongue and curving it up at the tip.

The cot they were on was so close to the wall Billie was peeking through that she felt uncomfortably near... almost as if she were in the same bed. It occurred to her that she could yell, or cough loud enough to make them stop, but instead she bit her tongue and stared. Afraid of seeing what might happen and too warm with eager fire to look away.

She could see the gentle curve of Hanson's thigh and the way Alicia touched his cock and stomach with her long-fingered hands. Her head dipped and swayed just above the crowned head of his cock and once she put her tongue out and let it tickle across the top. Hanson stiffened and grabbed her braids.

"So you want to play, do ya?"

"Now, honey," Alicia cooed in mock tones of despair, "You not gonna make me put that in my mouth!"