Chapter 21: Who's Going to tell Huley?

Laura was crying when she came out of the intensive care unit. Mollie had been highly medicated and unresponsive. Further, reports from the medical staff had been vague and inconclusive.

"Want to stop and get something to eat," I asked as we started north. We were going directly to the brothel because Laura wanted to be there before 8 P.M. since she still had to get dressed for work.

"If you want," she said complacently.

Having had breakfast at the brothel and more eggs at our house after our nap I was in the mood for something more substantial. We settled for thick milkshakes which we could drink while driving.

Laura showed me how to take an alley to the back of the brothel where we could park the car out of sight from the street. We went in through the back door and made it to the upstairs office before anyone knew we were there.

"Male appendage on the floor," Laura announced to the empty hallway causing four heads to pop out of doorways. Seeing me wave at them, three of the girls ventured out in various stages of undress.

"What's an appendage?" Rachel asked. "What's Randy doing up here?"

"He'll be in the office for a few minutes while I change. He's going to help me with the books so you can get paid. I just wanted you to know he's up here," Laura explained to the girls. She led me into the office and opened the safe.

"We don't bring males up here so I am breaking the rules. Ralph only comes upstairs when the toilet gets backed up," she whispered to me.

Laura pulled the brown envelopes containing cash receipts out of the safe. I was to verify Ralph's counts which were written in the corner of each envelope along with the date. Laura showed me how to make journal entries.

"Yell when you've finished this part. I'll come back and show you the next step," she said as she left the room.

There was an envelope for each day Laura had been away. The envelopes, in addition to bills, contained a sheet of paper with the names of the girls and their take for the night. I only had to check three of the papers to learn that Kelley was outperforming the others by a wide margin. By comparison, the amounts next to Rachel's name were predominately for straight fucks, the smallest charge, while Kelley did not do them. As a minimum, Kelley sold her clients suck and fucks.

Ralph's handwriting was difficult to decipher but his counts were accurate. Some of the bills were new and crisp while others were rolled and crumpled, making we wonder where they had been. The denominations ranged from singles to 100 dollar bills. I recorded the take for each date and stacked the envelopes in date order.

"Tess," I shouted when I had recorded the last day's figures.

"Whatcha doin?" I recognized Kelley's buttery voice. She had entered the room and was taking a seat in the second chair. She plopped her butt at the front of the seat and leaned back, crossing her bare legs to show red tights under the short skirt. It was the same outfit she had worn the night before when she had bent over to show me her bottom.

I let my eyes linger on the red panties too long. She caught me staring. "See anything you like?" she said blatantly, spreading her legs wider and showing amusement when I bugged my eyes out in mock astonishment.

"Isn't Tess taking good care of you?" Kelley said in a taunting way that made me stop showing my appreciation for the brazen display of her wares.

"Tess takes excellent care of him," Laura said as she entered the room. "What are you doing in here?"

Kelley's demeanor changed to somber. She sat up straight in the chair and closed her legs.

"I want to see his appendage," she answered innocently, making Laura and me burst into laughter.

"Zip me up, will you honey?" Laura said, coming to stand with her back to me. The back of the black dress was open half way down the back. I got up and turned her around. The front of the dress was low cut and she wore a light covering of makeup.

"We'll do it this way," I said, placing my arms around her and feeling for the zipper.

"Tell her that I take good care of you," Laura said, her hands on my shoulders, keeping her cheek two inches from mine.

I fastened the top snap and patted Laura on the butt. "She takes excellent care of me," I said to Kelley who was watching us, a very sober look on her face.

Moving back from her I checked Laura's hair and makeup again. Her eyes widened and a furrow came to her brow when she saw me cock my head to the side.

"Pearls?" I asked. She was wearing the chain. It extended to the valley between her breasts. I watched her swallow, her eyes held mine, telling me not to press the issue with Kelley in the room.

I shrugged my shoulder as if to say, "Wear the damned thing if you must."

She lifted her hand to show the ring, the furrow returning to her brow.

"Can I see the appendage?" Kelley interrupted our silent conversation making Laura smile. Hurriedly, I lifted Laura's hand and kissed the ring to express my approval for her to wear it.

"Be a dear. Go downstairs and see if Ralph has the front door open. Tell him I'll be down in a few minutes," Laura said to Kelley.

On her way out the door Kelley paused. "I still haven't seen his appendage."

Laura gave me accounting paper and showed me how she calculated each girl's pay. They had not been paid for the three weeks that Laura had been away but Mollie had given them advances which were to be deducted.

An hour later when I was finished checking and double checking the pay envelopes I went down stairs to find Laura, wanting to tell her that I had locked everything inside the safe. But she was too busy to talk to me.

Ralph told me the four girls were entertaining gentlemen in their rooms and there were more guys waiting in the front room. One of the doors opened and Ralph took four giant steps to take the bills from the extended hand. I went out the back door with Laura's pay envelope in my pocket.

I was starving and wondered how Laura was going to make it through the long night with only the milkshake on her stomach.

At home I made a sandwich and listened to the messages on the answering machine. In addition to a call about painting, Nadine had left a message for Laura wishing her well, Mr. Waite wanted me to call him and Huley had left two messages. She sounded angry on the first and frantic on the second message.

I returned Mr. Waite's call first. Wanda said that Harold was out but he had wanted an update on Miss Foster's condition. I had anticipated the nature of the call. Mr. Waite would surely want to know about his madam but hearing her last name for the first time threw me for a loop. Wanda, the meek little grey haired lady who was not much younger than my grandmothers was asking me if Mollie would be able to resume her duties in Mr. Waite's whore house.

I stumbled through the latest medical status of Mollie Foster as it had been told to me by Laura after our visit to the intensive care ward. Wanda listened intently to what I had to report and even sounded like one of my grandmothers when she chucked. "Did you enjoy your breakfast this morning Randy? I've never seen inside the place. Is it as exciting as it sounds?"

I relaxed and spent the next five minutes relating my experiences from the previous night to my new friend, Wanda Waite. She laughed and giggled like a school girl when I told her how philosophical the girls had been when speaking about the bad choices they had made. I did not mention their curiosity and the obvious envy they had expressed about the relationship that Laura and I enjoyed.

While listening to the two messages Huley had left I stripped Laura's bed. "Where are you? You didn't call last night and you weren't in school today. Call me as soon as you hear this."

I hadn't called her on Monday night but she knew not to expect a call. I had told Rosita that I would not be able to call.

"Where have you been? Call me. It's important. Call me, please."

Ollie Pettersen answered the phone and told me in a cold boorish voice that it was too late to talk to Julita. I heard a second receiver lift from its cradle and Ollie's voice screech, "Julita hang up the phone!"

"You hang up. Randy? Is it you?"

"Hi," I said, wondering why I had dialed the number. Ollie was right; it was getting late and I desperately needed sleep.

"Julita, hang up the phone. Mister Tucker, you're not permitted to talk to my daughter."

"Papa, let me talk to him. I haven't seen him since Saturday night."

"As I recall it was Sunday," Ollie corrected her. Quite right, I thought. It was Sunday morning when we had last seen each other.

"How's your eye?" I asked Huley.

"It's not her eye. It's her cheek," Ollie corrected me. Quite right, I thought. Two for two, Ollie is on a roll.

"It's better. Thank you for asking. Where were you? I waited all lunch hour in the cafeteria and I didn't see your car in the parking lot," Huley's voice sounded sad and distant.

"It doesn't matter where he was. End this conversation right now." Ollie screamed into the phone, making me decide it wasn't worth it. I would do as Ollie was demanding.

"Hey Tess, I'll see you tomorrow. We can have a long lunch if you want."

"Stop calling her that," I heard Ollie shout as I hung up the phone.

If the phone rang again I didn't hear it. As I got into bed a dozen things were on my mind, Was Laura alright? Was she able to keep order in that mad house? When would I find time to study? How were Jimmy and the crew doing? Had my calling Huley "Tess" caused her trouble with Ollie? What did she have to tell me that was so important?

Not having Laura next to me gave me an empty feeling. I had grown accustomed to her tits on my chest every night. Somehow I slept through the night.

Charles wanted to know if Laura and I were able to get caught up on our sleep. He stopped short of inquiring why we had not slept the night before. I told him Laura would get the message that Nadine had called, knowing that once they talked Nadine would tell Charles about Mollie and why we had been up all night.

I tried to say something to each of my instructors about my being away the day before. Two of them gave me a brief outline of what I had missed. The third dismissed my concerns as if I made a habit of being absent.

"Don't look at it," Huley said when I studied the cuff mark where Ollie's hand had bruised her face just below the cheekbone.

Over a ribbed turtleneck sweater, she wore a vest with a short skirt, both pinstriped, dark gray. Her hair was held together at the back of her head by a large clip. "You look good," I said, making her blush and smile.

It was the first time we had eaten lunch together since the previous Tuesday, the day before I had blown up our plans to spend the afternoon together in her room. Instead, I had taken Laura to lunch and shopping for clothes. I could not blame Huley for ignoring me the next two days and was surprised that she invited me to go with her to the party on Saturday night and Sunday morning that turned into a disaster.

The cafeteria was crowded and noisy. We could not really talk. I wondered what it was that she wanted to tell me. Huley fingered the clip at the back of her head. "Do you want me to take it out?"

"Yes," I said, trying to think how I was going to handle the situation. She was removing the clip to let her hair flow loose. She would expect me to want to run my fingers through it. She had afternoon classes, I needed to study. "Let's go to the parking lot," I suggested.

We walked past Huley's car. She stopped and looked my way but I shook my head, preferring that we sit in my car because the seats were more comfortable. The Vet had once been Laura's car. I preferred to remember it that way. And, I didn't want to just talk and I didn't think she did either. After all, she had removed the clip from her hair.

"What was so important? What did you want to talk about?" I asked once we were seated and I had a strand or her hair in my hand. It even smelled as light and soft as it felt.

Her mouth was open and close. How long had it been since we had kissed? We had danced together at the party on Saturday night but had not kissed. I had been with her sister more than with Huley that night and she had danced more with Jerry than with me. Thinking of Petri made me recall waking up next to her in the motel room. How soft she had felt next to me. How she had snuggled against me and how she had called me the next day. Petri and I had talked for an hour.

"Aren't you going to kiss me? It's been forever," Huley was saying.

"That's exactly what I was thinking," I said as our lips came together. We were soon lost in the rapture, our bodies compressed, oblivious to the world around us.

"Get a room," someone shouted, causing us to break the lip-lock to see who it was. Two kids turned to wave at us.

"You're going to be late for class," I warned Huley.

"He has a point," she said, referring to the kid's advice for us to get a room. She watched me, expectantly waiting for me to commit.

"I want to but... ," hesitating as I felt Huley push away from me, beyond my reach. She was out of the car and walking fast, almost running back to the front door of the school when I got myself presentable to get our of the car. My prick was still stiff when I walked into the school library to study.

The afternoon was a waste. I tried to concentrate, reading the same page in the history text three times before I looked around to see if anyone was watching me struggle with my emotions. I was in another place.

It was the same motel room we had been in the Friday night we had skipped the football game, the same night Jake Trainer had been injured. I heard Huley giggle as I stretched the neck of the turtleneck to lift it over her head, getting her hair tangled in the process.

Some movement out of the corner of my eye distracted me. A blond across the open library room watched as I pictured Huley shake her head, making her hair swish from side to side before settling against her bare shoulders. She grimaced when I kissed the bruise her father had made on her cheek. I kissed her shoulder as I put my hands behind her back to find the catch that held her bra together. The bra was white, no black. The blond was getting up. What color was the fucking bra?

I read the page again and turned to the next one. "White, it has to be white," I mumbled into the history text, reasoning that the sweater was off white. The vest was grey pin stripe. That would not be reason enough for the bra to be black. Finding the clip I unfastened the bra and uncovered her... the blond was back in her seat. She had caught me staring. She was staring back at me, glaring really. Couldn't she tell that I was not looking at her? I dropped my eyes. What page was I on? A bell rang. It was 3 P.M. Two hours wasted. I had accomplished nothing.