Chapter 4

Ed was driving fast on Interstate 15, about ten miles west of Baker, when he suffered a blow out of his right front tire. He fought the car as it careened crazily to the right, off onto the soft shoulder of the road. By the time he got the car back under control again, the front wheel had come off, and the exhaust system had been knocked off as well, when the car passed over a large rock. The Highway Patrol radioed into Baker for a tow truck, and Ed and Maria were forced to get a motel room for the night, until a mechanic could look at his car and give him an estimate for the repair costs.

The blowout, and the subsequent aftermath of bringing the car to a stop, had shaken up Ed's whole nervous system. He'd never come so close to dying. Had the tire waited another hundred yards before blowing, they would have ended up in a steep ravine, undoubtedly flipping over as they slid sideways into it. The incident could have just as easily ended in a fiery crash. Sitting on one of the motel's double beds, Ed waited for Maria to finish cleaning up in the bathroom. When she finally came out, he went in to wash his face and hands, and to change into a different set of clothes. They had decided to walk over to the hamburger joint that was a part of the motel complex. Maria hadn't seemed much affected by the near crash. She appeared to be somewhat amused by Ed's strong reaction to it.

Inside the restaurant, both were seated and quickly placed their orders. Upset or not, Ed found himself hungry. Ed got the Bun Boy Burger Special while Maria ordered a bowl of chili and some French fried potato's. Both ordered Diet Cokes.

"How long you think it will take to get your car fixed?"

"Not long if they have the muffler and the pipes we'll need. The exhaust manifold seems fine, so it shouldn't be that hard to fix the rest. The tire and wheel might be harder, but we can use my spare and take our chances to get to Las Vegas. It's less than a hundred miles, and the spare is almost new anyway."

"The TV doesn't get any channels hardly. One of those UHF ones, and the one that's all fuzzy, that's it. This town doesn't have anything to do either. I hope we can leave here tomorrow."

"If they have everything, it shouldn't take more than an hour or two to fix it."

They ate their meal in relative silence, although, towards the end of it, Maria did strike up a conversation with their waitress. Maria had started the conversation by asking whether a Greyhound Bus stopped in Baker on the way to Las Vegas or not. The girl didn't know it they did or not. She claimed she'd only been in town herself for less than a week.

Listening as the two girls talked, Ed found out that their waitress had gotten into a big fight with her boyfriend a few days before, and he'd just driven off, heading back to Los Angeles, leaving her stranded and broke when he did so. She said she was only working at the restaurant until she found someone to give her a ride back home. The people who ran the motel and restaurant fed her, and gave her a room at the motel. A room she shared with another girl, in a similar situation, who now worked as a maid for the motel. Whatever tips either woman made were what they earned over and above the room and the meals provided to them.

After they left the restaurant, Ed went over to the mini market on the other side of their motel and bought himself a twelve pack of beer. He didn't drink a lot, but he decided he could use a little something to make sure he could get to sleep that night.

At nine o'clock, Angie, their waitress, came knocking on the door of their room. Maria had told her what room they were in. She had gotten off work scant moments before, and was still wearing her waitress uniform.

Angie had told Maria that she was twenty years old. She looked about the same age Maria did, about fifteen or sixteen. She too was Hispanic, with dark hair and brown eyes. She was taller than Maria, and seemed overweight, but in a muscular way. She didn't look soft.

When Maria let Angie into their room, Ed was laying on his bed, drinking a cold one, his fourth, and watching a travelogue of India and Pakistan on the UHF channel. The beer was having its intended effect, and he was beginning to relax a little. Maria had been pestering him for a beer, but he told her she was too young to be drinking. As soon as Angie came in though, Maria came over by his bed and snagged one of his beers for her new friend. Ed didn't say anything to her. The two girls sat back on Maria's bed and shared the beer between themselves.

Five minutes later, having finished the drink they had been sharing, Maria came over and grabbed two more from the cardboard container. Again, Ed didn't comment on it. He did reach over, after she did that, and pick up the remaining beers in the container, putting it on the side away from Maria's bed.

The girls started whispering together and laughing after he did that. It was only a few minutes later before Maria got up and announced to the room that she was going to take a shower. Angie got up, saying she'd be leaving, pointedly thanking Ed for the beers.

"Don't go, Angie. I'm not going to be that long. You can talk to Ed while I'm taking my shower. I'll be out in just a few."

Angie looked over at Ed, waiting for him to say something. Ed smiled at her, and took out a fresh brew, holding it towards her. He didn't know why he'd do that, it just seemed like he was helping Maria keep her friend there. He wasn't thinking anything about possibly having something develop between himself and Angie. He opened his fifth can of beer, returning his attention to the TV program.

After about fifteen minutes, Maria came out of the bathroom. She staggered a little, and when she looked over at Ed, to see if he'd noticed, he saw that her eyes seemed glazed and glassy. Ed wondered if she'd gotten into those drugs of hers again, but he didn't say anything. Maria was wearing a man's tee shirt, over what Ed assumed were her panties. She got back up on her bed, and the whispering and laughter continued. At ten thirty, now out of beer, Ed decided to turn in for the night. He left the TV on and turned out the table lamp on his side of the room.

The only light remaining came from the TV screen and from the light that escaped through the partially closed bathroom door. Ed took off his trousers and hung them on the back of the chair. He took off his shirt and his socks, electing to sleep in his undershirt and boxers. He got under the covers and said good night to both Angie and Maria.

He tried to go to sleep, but was unable to manage it. Both girls were still whispering back and forth, laughing, and these periods were followed by long stretches of silence. Ed kept his back to Maria's bed, but his mind was working overtime, coming up with lots of interesting possibilities about what the silent periods might mean.

Half an hour after he had bid the girls good night, Ed started hearing moaning coming from the other side of the room, then some whispering, and more quiet laughter. He could sense rather than hear some movement, followed by louder groans and more hurried whispering. It took all of his will power for him not to turn around to see what was taking place in the bed across from his.

This went on for at least another forty five minutes. Both girls had started moaning by then, and Ed no longer had to wonder what was happening in the room. He could hear them more clearly now, and they weren't taking any precautions to try to cover up what they were doing. The room was beginning to have the smell of female arousal and the sexy smell of sweat mixed with bodily fluids.

It was after midnight when Angie left their room. Maria walked to the door with her to lock up after. Ed could make out her naked form, and see some drops of sweat on her neck and arms. Ed had been hard for most of the time since he first began suspecting that Maria and Angie were fooling around. Maria walked back to her bed.

"Are you still awake, Ed?" Maria whispered the words, but loud enough for Ed to hear her easily if he was awake. For a few seconds, Ed debated with himself about whether or not he should answer her.

"I'm awake. It's hard to sleep with all that going on in the same room with me."

Ed tried hard to not make it sound like he was complaining. He didn't feel angry or upset. He just didn't want her believing that he didn't have a pretty good idea of what has just taken place.

"You could have joined us, you know? Angie said she was cool with doing things with you too. You would have liked her. For as big as she is, she really is very tiny down there. She could make a lot of money if she wanted to turn a few tricks. She likes girls too. You'd be surprised at how many John's like to watch two girls going at it. Those kind of dates always pay good too."

"I don't think she paid you. Seems to me I heard you moaning too."

"I'm not used to doing without for so long. You could have helped me out, but you wouldn't. You still can if you've changed your mind. I didn't really get off with her. It was fun, but I'm more into dick's than pussies. I could use some of yours, if you'd want to now?"

"You're still only fifteen, Maria. I don't have any rubbers anyway."

"I do. I have five or six in the front pockets of my jeans. You want me to get them?"

Ed thought about it. He thought about what he'd been listening to, and he felt his dick signaling him that it could use a little sex. Part of this was from all the beer he'd consumed, but even more of it was from the earlier scare he'd had. No matter how safe a person tried to play it, you could never predict when it was your time. He could have ended up dead out there by Zzyzx Road earlier that day. If he had, what advantages would all of his earlier caution and control have gained for him? None. He knew that. Sure, she was young in years, but he knew she had far greater sexual experience than he did.

If she had been a typical teenager, he rationalized, this situation never could have come up. He turned over so that he was resting on his left elbow, facing her. She had a smile of satisfaction, from watching him looking at her naked body. She even moved her legs apart further, allowing him to get a good look at her glistening pussy lips. Her pubic hair was all matted and wet, testimony to the use she had already put it to that night. Ed lifted up the covers on his bed, silently inviting her to join him. She needed no more invitation than that.

Before another word was spoken, Maria had his prick in her hand, pulled expertly through the opening in his boxers. She quickly examined it before placing it inside her mouth. Ed could easily count on one hand the number of times someone had given him head. Always before though, except for his first time, back in high school, it had been a strictly commercial transaction. To Ed, this time seemed somewhere between those two polar opposites. He hadn't given her any money to do this, but he had provided her with something she probably valued more than money. He'd given her shelter, and had helped her to escape. Maybe this was just her paying for his help? He didn't know. As she sucked him to a quick and powerful cum, he didn't care. It was enough for him that he was finally getting some relief from all the tension he'd been under.

She kept sucking him, swallowing his spend until he had shrunk down to relaxed limpness. After she released his dick from the wet warmth of her mouth, she moved up, trying to nestle in his arms. Almost instinctively, he drew her nearer, wrapping his arms around her in a welcoming embrace. Had he been trying to provide her with the one thing she'd welcome most, he couldn't have picked a better response to give her. Maria had rebelled against a too controlling mother, after spending her whole life without any father around to lavish the kind of loving acceptance on her that she both wanted and needed.

By the age of twelve, Maria had started going out looking for love and acceptance on her own. From the first, she was perfectly willing to trade on her physical assets in order to attract the male attention she was so starved for. She had started with boys her own age, but that hadn't yielded her the emotional satisfaction or the feeling of love and acceptance she'd been seeking. She enjoyed all the attention that her willingness to put out had made possible, but she soon realized that what she was getting out of doing that wasn't what she wanted or needed.

Meeting Ted Forrest had changed all that for her. He showed her a different way of making herself important to people. At the parties, she got more than the instant lust response she'd know with young boys. She felt appreciated. Often, with the older John's she met at some of these parties, she felt like she was really special to them. She felt appreciated, and she would often end up feeling cherished.

Before the actual sex began, Maria would play a little game with herself, seeing how long she could delay the sexual parts to pretend that these men were like her father would have been to her. Aside from the money she earned, Maria got emotional nourishment from being fawned over and appreciated for her youth and attractiveness to them. To the young boys she'd let use her, Maria hadn't seemed all that attractive, but to most of the older men, her youth alone made her seem much more desirable.