Chapter 4

It took me a second to process the fact that Crys had walked out but that there suddenly was a capital C Chance. I went to the door and opened it. A large – VERY large – man of semi-dark skin was standing there, scowling. His eyes were brown, of that I'm sure, because they were staring at me with the most intense look I can ever remember. It was worse than when Jerry Harbiston and his friends took my lunch money in the third grade – previously the most dangerous experience of my life.

Slowly he extended his arm, and his hand grabbed a fistful of my rented uniform. Foolishly, and pointlessly, I tried to move past him. "Crys, WAIT! I..." I shouted over his shoulder toward the retreating form of my Goddess, who was fast-walking down the corridor in a mini-Catholic schoolgirl outfit.

The mountain in front of me tightened his grip. "What did you do to her?" Oh shit! His voice was pitched very low and very soft, which was kinda amazing, I thought, considering how angry he was. He looked angry, sounded calm, an intimidating combination. I remembered Crys saying something about mashing my balls and feeding them to me. Oh double shit.

"NOTHING! I didn't do anything. I sat on the chair and she gave me an amazing lap dance." He must have been watching on the closed circuit TV, because he appeared so quickly at the door. "You saw it, right? I didn't do anything. I mean, except where I licked her and she stuck money on her chest and..." My voice trailed off. It occurred to me that I wasn't helping my case.

"You did something. She's given lap dances before and she's never upset." He shook me like a rag doll. "What did you do?" I instantly decided to keep the fingering of her pussy area to myself. He'd pulled me close to his face, and I could smell his breath. It wasn't alcoholic and he seemed perfectly in control. That was bad.

"Look," I started, "She was upset. Maybe it was because I knew her from regular life. We're students at UNLV and so maybe..."

He paused. "Student? Not in the Air Force?" I shook my head: NO. "So ... fake ID?" I nodded. "Get the fuck out of here. GET THE FUCK OUT!" And he dragged me out of the room by the front of my shirt. I could barely keep my feet under me. Out through the main room. Apparently somebody getting thrown out was a fairly regular occurrence, because nobody even noticed. I was walking – or trying to – sideways, stumbling over my own feet. He was walking fast, until we got to the main door. "Don't come back. You won't like it if I get mad."

"Yes sir. Right. Sorry about the ID, but I wanted..." The door shut in my face. " ... to see Crystal and..." not much more point in talking to the closed door. SEE? I'm a genius and I could work that out. I was glad I wasn't eating puree of testicle and my balls were in one piece. I was so much of a genius that I had fucked up my first, last, and probably only relationwhip with a Godess-who-even-noticed-me. 'Relationship.' Who's kidding who? What the hell good was a 195 IQ?

I took the bus back to my dorm room, skinned out of the rented uniform and flopped down on the bed. I actually cried. I tried to tell myself that it was post-adrenaline-rush caused by my encounter with the guy. He really could have hurt me bad. But I knew that was a lie. My fantasy Woman was gone. I replayed everything I could remember about all the times I'd spent with her, until I fell asleep.

Four hours later it was 7 am. And my roommate, Mark, was shaking me awake. "HEY ... HEY ... It's the phone. For you. A girl again."

I cracked an eye. "Hmmmph? Wha??" Then it clicked. Crys had called me at various times over the weeks we'd been 'together'. So ... she'd thought it over. Was calling me to...

"You gonna take the call or just sit there and think about it?"

"Oh ya. Sure." I staggered to the phone. Put on a smile – they say a smile can be heard thru a phone call. Don't ask me why that random thought popped into my head at that moment. But I was genuinely happy to hear from her. "HI! " I beamed into the phone.

"What happened? Where is she? Nobody came home last night." Why was June calling me? "And then I get a phone call from the police but they won't talk to me, 'cause I'm just a sitter. And then they said that Social Services is coming. WHAT HAPPENED?"

"Huh? I don't know. The police? Social Services?" I tried to think, but couldn't formulate even the simplest hypothesis to explain anything.

Finally I thought of something. June didn't panic easily, and I hoped she could pull this off. Actually, I had no idea if June panicked easily. But she was a fairly level headed girl. Maybe I should stop thinking of them as 'girls' and start thinking of them as 'women.' CRAP! I was getting sidetracked – again. "Tell them I'm coming right over. I'm her half-brother and I'll take responsibility for everything. I have no idea what happened."

"Make it quick, Jimmy. They said they were coming RIGHT OVER."

"How can they be 'right over'? It's 7am on a Sunday. I know they have emergency procedures, but things have to be running slower on a Sunday morning and..."

"JIMMY! You want to discuss city services scheduling NOW?"

"No. Of course not. I'm coming." I turned to my roommate. "It's an emergency. I need your car. Just a few hours. I promise."

Mark gave me a look. "Half-sister, huh? I knew it had to be something like that." But he tossed me the keys and I was out the door in a shot.

I got halfway down the hall and realized that I didn't have any money ... or shoes ... or shirt ... or pants. So I ran back into my room.

"Figured you'd be back." He said with a grin.

I pulled on my jeans, a clirty (half clean/half dirty) shirt, grabbed my wallet and grabbed my sneakers. Didn't even take the time to put them on.

I regretted that omission when I got to the parking lot, which was loose gravel and sharp, pointy blue stones. I took one step and decided to put on my sneakers. And then I realized that I had no idea where the car was. How many dark blue Tauruses could there be? At least 13, turned out to be the answer, 'cause the one that opened with the key I had was # 13. I peeled out of the lot and looked at the clock. It had been 11 minutes since the phone rang -- Not bad, considering that I was a wreck.

It was about 15 minutes to Crys's place. I made it in 10, and had some things figured out on the way. The police would not have called if her absence was something fatal – probably. I had seen enough 'Law and Order' and 'CSI' to know that they would have showed up in person – if the TV shows were accurate. The fact that Social Services was involved meant that the authorities knew about Tess. I wouldn't let her go into 'the system.' 'Law and Order: SVU' gave me the impression that Foster Care was something to be avoided. I didn't know, really: that was a TV show and everybody knows that TV was almost all lies. Not all of it, though. SHIT! Who cared?! It was bad enough that Tess's mother was in jail – probably – but she wasn't going into a foster home with some God-knew-what situation. She'd be better off with me.

And exactly how was I going to accomplish that? I'd go with the half-brother argument and try to get Crys to agree to let her stay with me. Or rather let me stay with Tess. I could finish my classes while she was in school. How much longer would school go on anyway? I didn't know, but I could find out. My classes ended well before the first grade ended anyway.

What the hell could have Crys been arrested for, anyway? She didn't drink, didn't do drugs. Got in a fight? Unlikely. Prostitution? Totally unbelievable. Maybe she'd had some drinks after she walked away from our 'encounter.' That's how I was thinking of it. 'Encounter.' Not 'Fucked up disaster because I was horny.' Not even 'Hot fantasy where I got to finger my Goddess' pussy.'

I finally arrived to find a cop car and a dark sedan parked outside Crys's apartment. When I got to her door, I could barely hear June from down the hall: "I'm sure he'll be here soon. Any minute. He's her brother for God's sake. You can't take Tess now. And her mother is not dead after all."

That got Tess screaming and I could easily have heard her from blocks away, "DEAD? Mawwmee isn't dead. She can't be. She'll be home any minute. She can't be dead. I don wanna go with you." And so on.

So when I opened the door, there were four heads turned in my direction. Tess broke free of June and launched herself toward me. I knelt down and braced for impact. "JAMES! (sniffle) The policeman said there was a ax-dent. And the woman said I had to go with her. (sobbing little girl) I don't even know her. I'm not uh-posed to go with strangers. And then Ju-uune said Mawmee and DEAD and..." she buried her face in my chest and was hugging me. She just sobbed and sobbed.

I picked her up and glared at the policeman and the social worker. I cuddled and made comforting sounds at Tess. Finally she quieted. "I thought you people" I said in a quiet voice to the social worker "would be better at dealing with a child than this." Then I turned to June, "Thanks for being here and keeping the Philistines at bay 'til I got here. You got a ride home?" I smiled at her.