Tempest Rising - Diane Mckinney-whetstone [78]
She ran straight to the back of the house, screaming and praying as she went, straight to the first door she saw. Her heart went from her feet to her head when she realized that it wasn’t the back door. It was the door to the shed. And now her heart was beating wildly in her throat, trapped in her throat, like she was trapped in the shed. And she really didn’t think that it would happen this soon.
It was only Monday afternoon, just a week since Addison had slithered in here on his belly, and already he was darting his tongue in and out, in and out, making circles around her with his tall, spindly frame. He peeled her pile-lined plaid coat from her shoulders and pushed her up against the wall of the shed, right under the box of a window, chanting, “Sweet thang, sweet thang, aren’t you gonna give it up to Addison, sweet thang?” His breath was hot against her face, and the remnants of cigarette smoke stung her eyes. Her eyes were red now and tearing.
“Please leave me alone, please.” She cried and looked at the wooden planks of the shed floor. The planks had been painted a pea soup–colored green, and the color made her dizzy.
“Stop acting like such a nice girl, sweet thang. What you gonna give me, tell me, tell me, what you gonna give up to Addison?”
She let her whole body go in a loose sob. Rarely did she let her body go like that. Usually she held her muscles squeezed together. Even curled in bed with her sisters, she kept all parts of her contained and unspillable so the three would have enough space on that one twin bed. But this sob was so filled with resignation and pleading all of her muscles went slack all at once. She thought her bowels were going to break right there on the green wooden floor. “Please,” she cried again. “Please leave me alone.”
“I’ll leave you alone, sweet thang, just tell me what you got for me. Just say it and you walk. Don’t say it and I’m taking it. Huh? Huh? I don’t hear you, sweet thang.”
He leaned in to put his mouth against hers, and she spit. He threw his head back and laughed again. A torturous laugh to Shern. She squirmed and twisted her body, trying to unpin her arms.
“You got the moves, sweet thang. Awl, shucks, now, work it, baby, work it, baby. I’m coming to you, baby, you won’t tell me what I need to hear, we goin’ get naked, do the nasty, awl, yeah, awl, yeah.”
She stopped squirming then. Got stock-still. Fixed her dark eyes right on his. “What do you want me to say?”
“Awl, you know. I can hear it coming off your tongue, just let it slide on out. Tell me what you got for me.”
“Pussy,” she whispered. Her head stopped spinning once she said it. Her whole world stopped spinning as if she’d been on a merry-go-round and now it was still and she could step on off. Step on off into what? she thought. Into a world where she walked around whispering such words. What would her mother think? What could her mother think? Her mother hadn’t thought enough of her to stay well, to stay in her right mind so she could have been spared this situation that had her pinned up against this wall in this shed. She said it again. Pushed her face right up to Addison’s and shouted it. “Pussy! Pussy! Pussy!” She said it as if through the saying her mother could hear, and to hear such a word formed in her perfect daughter’s mouth, her mother might be shocked back to her right mind.
Addison was shocked. He let go of both her arms, stared at her quizzically as he did. “Damn, babes, you said that with so much fire I can’t wait till next time, till we actually get to do