Chapter 18: Refining the Rules

We were all apprehensive about our fate. It was 3:10 A.M. when I reached for Jerry's flailing arm and happened to notice his wristwatch and the time. It had taken 10 minutes to get us into our pants and into the car. We were already over two hours late and we still had a 15 minute drive to contemplate how we would be received at the Pettersen home.

Huley was doing her best to put herself together, giving her hair several short brushes before pushing the brush into her handbag and snapping it shut. Jerry and Petri were talking in monotones, encouraging each other to be brave.

As we approached the cul-de-sac we saw the front of the house flooded with light spilling over into the neighbor's yards. Huley dropped the five combs she had removed from her hair and groaned.

Jerry's Volkswagen was parked in back of Huley's Corvette and there was another car on the drive.

"What time is it?" Petri asked.

"3:35," Jerry reported, sounding like he was talking in his sleep.

Huley's hand went to the door handle as if she was going to jump out the minute I stopped.

"Wait, I'll go in with you," I said as gently as I could manage.

"No, you go home. It will be better that way."

"Huley, let's not argue about it. I'm coming in."

I ran around the car to help Huley but she was already out. She wouldn't take my hand on the way to the door. I followed, wanting to sing or whistle. Jerry and Petri were close behind us.

As she reached for the doorknob the door swung open and Ollie reached out to pull her inside. His right hand slashed across Huley's face sending her reeling towards the staircase. Thinking she was going to fall I dashed in front of her father to try to catch her but not in time. She had bumped her head on the banister.

For the next five minutes the entryway to the Pettersen home became a screaming tear-filled flood of insane shouting. Ollie's voice rose above the rest of us, drowning out our efforts to explain why we had arrived over two hours late.

"Stop it!" Rosita came between us, holding her arms up to protect us from Ollie who had his arm raised. He must have heard Rosita or seen her because he dropped his fist to his side and glared at me and at Huley, the blue vein in his forehead very visible.

Huley melted into my arms, sobbing. I whispered to her, saying that it was over, asking her if she was alright, and trying to comfort her. She sobbed, feeling limp in my arms. Petri joined our little huddle, sympathizing with Huley.

"I'm so sorry," I whispered in Huley's ear. She pulled her face from mine, her eyes streaming with tears, searching my face. "Thank you for coming in with me," she whispered.

Rosita was swishing past us. "We'll go in here," she said, opening the door to the seldom used front room.

I guided Huley to one of two sofas and sat next to her. She buried her face against mine. Rosita had left the room but I was very much aware of Ollie's presence. He stood over us fists clenched and although I did not look up I suspected his jaw was clenched also. I took a deep breath, trying to think of something to say.

Rosita returned with an ice pack, a warm cloth and a box of tissues. She placed the cloth on Huley's cheek and the ice pack on her forehead before turning her attention to Ollie.

"You sit there," she instructed, pointing to a chair nearest to me.

"You two sit over there," Rosita said to Jerry and Petri, pointing to the sofa on the other side of the large room.

It had become quiet. Rosita surveyed the room before leaving once more. When she returned she handed Huley a bottle of aspirin and a glass of water. Huley took two aspirin and drank most of the water before I stopped her. My head was aching from the two glasses of punch that I had consumed. I washed down one aspirin with the remaining water.

Rosita chose to remain next to her daughter, wanting to take her in her arms but Huley would not move from my side.

Ollie paced the floor, not ready to sit in the chair his wife had assigned him. He lectured each of us individually and as a group. He made accusations and leveled charges, saying that we could not be trusted and that we would all pay for our failure to respect his orders.

"We drank too much," Petri admitted. Ollie and Rosita turned to her.

"Randy took us to a motel to get cleaned up. We had been sick and messed up our jeans. He washed them and let us get some sleep but I guess we didn't wake up on time," she spoke boldly.

She went on to explain about the party being held in a small vacant house, deferring to me to tell about the cramped space and how someone had spiked the punch with a mixture of cheep liquors.

Ollie attempted to interrupt us, wanting clarification about how all four of us slept in one bed. He raised his voice when he repeated what Petri had said about our pants drying in the bathroom, making Huley shudder. But even Huley laughed when Petri said that she had slept between two guys for the first time in her life.

Petri's comment sent Ollie into another tirade but by that time he had lost his audience. It was after 4 A.M. and Rosita had heard enough to satisfy her that nothing serious had happened.

"Give it a rest Ollie," Rosita warned her husband.

But I couldn't let it rest. Buoyed by Petri's humorous remark about sleeping between two guys for the first time I became daring. I could not let Ollie off without an apology to Huley.

Removing the cloth from Huley's cheek and the icepack from her forehead I turned her head so that Ollie could see her reddened cheek and the bump on her forehead. "You struck your daughter Mr. Pettersen. It left a mark. You may as well have put a cigarette out on her butt."

"I don't think that's a fair comparison Randy," Rosita was saying but I was not paying attention to her or to Huley who was looking at me, aghast. I was more interested in how Ollie's face was drained of color, making the blue vein more pronounced.

"That's preposterous, I would never do a thing like that," Ollie labored to say before rising to his full height and announcing to me, "you're no longer welcome here."

"Don't pay any attention to him Randy," Rosita was quick to say. Then to her husband, "apologize to your daughter for hitting her. You should have given them a chance to explain why they were late."

Seeing that Ollie was not inclined to apologize Rosita ended the meeting, ushering us out of the room into the entrance way.

Ollie was heading down the long hall towards the rear of the house as the rest of us said our goodbyes. Rosita and Petri were steering Huley to the stairway when I said, "Goodnight Tess, I'll call you tomorrow."

Ollie turned when he heard me call his daughter Tess. There was a mixture of bewilderment and shock on his face. He stood motionless as I pulled the door closed behind Jerry and myself.

Driving home that night I could not help feeling satisfied with the progress I had made toward settling the score with Ollie Pettersen. I only hoped that I had not gone too far by saying goodnight Tess. I would never forgive myself if it resulted in any harm to Huley.

Laura let me sleep most of the morning and when I got up she didn't pester me to tell her why I had gotten home so late. Like a zombie, I spent the day doing as little as possible.

Huley would not take my call. Even Rosita suggested that it would be best it we didn't talk that day. But when Petri called back she was in a talkative mood. She said her father had seemed unusually quiet that morning, having gone someplace after lunch. She told me that they had tried to comfort Huley who had stayed in her room all day. We laughed about the expression on Ollie's face when Petri had bragged to us that she had slept between two guys for the first time.

While talking to her I realized how different the two sisters were. Petri showed concern for the way her father had treated Huley and she praised me for the actions I had taken to get us away from the party before the police arrived.

She was serious but laughed at the right times. We joked about what would have happened if the police found that my companions were under age.

"Next time we sleep together we'll be sober, okay?" Petri laughed as we said goodbye. We had talked for over an hour.

Sylvia and Laura ganged up on me. "That was a long party," Laura kidded me. I gave them a short description of the house and the conditions that had led up to our going to the motel to get cleaned up. I told them about the stench in the room and how funny the four of us must have looked sprawled across the bed without pants.

Naturally I avoided saying anything about the scene at the Petterson home or Ollie's reaction when I compared him striking his daughter to putting a cigarette out on her butt. I was still savoring the way he turned when I said goodnight to Huley, calling her Tess.

Laura had that calculating look on her face that I knew so well. "All four of you in one bed, does that mean you didn't, you know, you didn't..."

"Have sex?" Sylvia finished the sentence.

A smile crossed my face. I was thinking about Huley's condition the night before. Even if we had been alone it would have been impossible to get her attention. Having sex had not entered my mind. I was also remembering how Petri's body had felt next to mine when I awoke that morning.

"That's going to make it easier for me to win tomorrow night," Laura said mischievously, looking at Sylvia to make sure she understood the point.

"Tomorrow is the big night. I take it you're going to play restraint," Sylvia chimed in.

Laura looked my way dreamily, then became serious, "I forbid you to do anything to increase your staying power."

"How will you know if he doesn't obey you?" Sylvia asked, clearly having fun with Laura's order.

"I'll know," Laura answered, locking her eyes with mine. I believed her.

'What if I have a wet dream tonight?" I teased them.

"I'll know, I'll be watching you every second," Laura warned.

"She makes it hard for me," I lamented to Sylvia. "She sleeps with her tits on my chest and talks about how horny she is. It's been that way every night. 'I'm so horny, I'm so horny, '" I mimicked Laura for the benefit of Sylvia who was turning red.

Laura, seeing how red Sylvia had gotten, could not resist making her even redder. "No wonder I'm horny. It's been over three weeks since I had him in me. We played whack that night in the hotel before my hospital appointment."

We watched Sylvia. She had hidden her face but we could see by the way her shoulders were shaking how embarrassed we were making her. Laura wasn't finished.

"As you know, whack is a very stimulating game, especially to the female partner. The constant spanking of the buttocks really gets the juices running but... ," Laura stopped and grinned at me. We watched Sylvia shudder and heard her moan.

"Sylvia, I can't see your face. Should I continue? You're going to have to look at me."

We waited silently, watching Sylvia's form bent to hide her face, which was buried in her hands. Minutes passed. We could hear her choke and gasp, trying to regain her composure. When she was ready she threw her head back, swishing the single braid over her head and smoothing it with both hands. She smiled through tear drenched eyes, bravely acknowledging she was ready to hear more.

"Now where was I? Oh yes, we were playing whack in the hotel room. It makes my ass sore just thinking about it. I love that game but there's one thing wrong with it. Do you know what that is?"

Laura and I watched as Sylvia strained to keep her head upright. She swallowed hard and shook her head, no.

Laura leaned forward to come within a foot of Sylvia's face. "Whack is fun to play but... there... is... no... pen... e... tra... tion,"

Sylvia was blindly stumbling toward our back door, shaking her head and wringing her hands. I got up to turn on the outside lights and navigate her through the two construction projects. As we made our way across the back yards we could still hear Laura. "I've got to have some pen... e... tra... tion."