The Pullover
Part One — Preparation for the Cell Called Passive Obedience

Chapters 9 and 10

It was while leaving the barn Thursday night that Elizabeth and I began our first argument. She'd finished giving me my second treatment of the day, it was dark, and I was still smarting from her caning in Miss Nichols' office. The caning and the tally of numbers leading to it was the source of the argument which I started by asking her innocently enough, "Why didn't you tell Miss Nichols a number like six or even nine instead of eighteen?"

"You want me to lie?" Elizabeth's dress had one pocket for change and the stopwatch which she always carried. She handed me the key to the gate and took my hand. "I wonder who lives here?"

"There's never a light on. I think it's vacant." We were going to a movie, something silly I hoped because I enjoyed hearing Elizabeth's laugh.

Going to movies was new for us and we hadn't figured out the movie house schedule. Last night twice in a row we'd seen the same movie; I was hoping there'd be something different tonight.

"Back to the topic at hand. Why not tell Miss Nichols a nice low number?"

"Eighteen is low."

"She upped it to twenty."

"Just think what it'll be Friday and Monday?" I noted a hint of glee in her voice.

"That's why you need to give a nice low number. Like six."

"You like multiples of three, don't you? Six, nine, twelve, fifteen. How about thirty? That's a low number."

"You're making fun of me. It's no fun getting caned."

"It isn't supposed to be fun, Charlie. Not for you at least."

"Besides, it wasn't eighteen."

"Last night, let's see. I think it was six. You should know, you were there. This morning, three. Lunchtime another six."

"It wasn't that many. Not six."

"It was. Then two this afternoon."

"That's seventeen, which I don't believe."

"There's you. I don't need to count my dad and besides he didn't last night."

"It wasn't six at lunch."

"It seemed like six."

"The Dobry brothers, I remember them."

"Sam and Philip. I don't know the other guys' names."

"There weren't any other guys. I know it wasn't six last night."

"It was. You were there, remember? I don't like this, Charlie. Dot has me keep track of the numbers. I do, and there's been no complaint."

"Okay. Leave it at eighteen. Why'd you have to hit me so hard?"

"Would you rather I do it or Miss Nichols?" She stopped, pulled her hand out of mine. "You don't like me any more."

"I still like you, Elizabeth. You know that."

"I don't know that. Next thing you'll want me to lie to Dot because your cock wasn't paying attention tonight and was too quick."

"I wasn't. You said I did well."

"This is make believe, Charlie. I say your cock was quick because it was. Dot says we can't this weekend. You're mad at me because we can't this weekend and I wouldn't lie. We could still do it next weekend if Dot says we can. You think I'm happy with the way things are? I have feelings too, Charlie."

I wasn't sure what she was saying. "I want to as much, maybe more than you do, sweetheart." She turned to face me, her lower lip trembling. I could see shiny trails down her cheeks.

"I do, Charlie. More than anything."

I held her to me. "Forget anything I said. Just don't tell Dot about what we do in the ravine afterwards."

"She already knows, Charlie." Her arms pulled me toward her, her hands held my shoulders.

I kissed her; we resumed our walk.

"I can't lie, Charlie. Ever. That's why if someone asked me if I want to I say sure because it'd be a lie to say no. I want to just as much as they do."

Of course she wasn't telling the entire truth. That's something I didn't know until later.

I gave the ticket girl a dime and we went in the movie theater. We'd already seen it, could tell the feature was slightly more than half through.

The usher led us down the aisle. The choice was the back, middle or front and we'd tried all the seats. From my ass's viewpoint none would be soft enough. Elizabeth took great pleasure in telling me that what she did for me, in Miss Nichols' room and out, was for my own good. She was beginning to sound like my sister.

Elizabeth chose the middle; we took seats and relaxed to watch the film. The theater was almost empty as usual.

I was tired and would have fallen asleep except there was a tap on my shoulder. Elizabeth was facing the screen, face radiant from the reflected light and the joy she felt watching the silver screen. She'd only seen one movie in her life and it was still magic to her.

"Okay?" the usher asked me.

"Sure, go ahead." The usher was a freebie. I didn't count freebies, Elizabeth did in her tally for Miss Nichols during detention and I suspected for Dot too. That was the only explanation for why I was in hot water all the time.

The usher squeezed past me, past Elizabeth, and sat next to her. I heard her giggle, the sounds of her unfastening his pants, and I leaned back and shut my eyes.

Elizabeth gave freebies to the usher since he found men for her. She gave freebies to former boyfriends because she said they didn't count, and to a teacher she was sweet on. I wasn't supposed to know about him and wouldn't have if Dot hadn't told me one night several weeks ago. I guess Elizabeth thought if I found out she liked someone else I'd get angry and perhaps beat her. I would never beat her and I believe she was beginning to see that.

Some people are born filled with jealous bones; I didn't have a one in my body. If Elizabeth left me, I'd be sad, and not just because of the huge balance due that I had to pay Dot somehow. Elizabeth was my first love, and the first person, outside of family, who showed they cared for me.

Elizabeth and the usher were finished. The only time I let go quickly like that was after one of Elizabeth's canings. It was okay then, not at all okay during proper treatments.

The usher squeezed past Elizabeth and me, sat next to me. "There's a group of college boys in the back row who expressed interest."

Elizabeth ignored us. She faced the screen, a smile on her face. Her hand took mine.

"They know what it costs?" I said.

"They know but they say, since there are so many, they should get a discount."

"No discounts." Dot's words exactly. She'd made me a firm believer in the principle.

"There are too many to do it in the theater."

"Okay. Elizabeth knows some good spots."

"I'll tell them how it is."

"Okay." I didn't really care. It was almost easier to slide into debt. "Elizabeth," I said.

"Shush. This is the love scene." She never turned from the screen.

I'd been fighting a cold all week, was cranky and tired. I wasn't stupid enough to begin another argument so I shut my eyes and pretended to be sleeping.

Two things always happened lately when I shut my eyes. First I saw Miss Nichols' face like she was in her office after school. Her face framed by her thick wavy hair, her intense stare. I tried to shut that out and immediately a vision of Elizabeth having sex with someone took its place. Once that thought had been sad, now I suffered from nervous anticipation. What would it be like? Would Elizabeth's hole be able to accept my cock? What if I didn't know what to do? What if Elizabeth didn't like me anymore because I hurt her? What if we got stuck like dogs do? Would someone have to throw cold water on us?

Elizabeth squeezed my hand, took it and buried it in her lap. I could hear her crying; she rubbed my hand against herself.

If I was no longer a virgin, I promised myself, I'd buy Elizabeth a new dress next week.

She kissed my hand, dropped it back into her lap. "Yes, you were saying?"

"College boys. You know somewhere?"

"Stupid question. How many?"

"Enough."

She nodded. "When?"

"I'll find out."

"Don't leave me." She gripped my hand tighter.

I didn't.

The next part of this episode is hard to talk about. So I'll skip ahead. We were in the alley behind the theater, it was cold but Elizabeth was generating enough heat to run a steamship from New York City to Liverpool. I held her dress as she and the college boys, there were eleven, two carloads, did what they were doing.

Eleven meant two seventy-five. It also meant eleven strokes of the cane tomorrow after school added to however many more. I didn't feel well, couldn't wait for it all to be over.

God knows how much they gave the usher. You know he was on the make too.

The men at Clancy's were rough but it was a nice rough compared to these men. Men, they were just a few years older than me. I was hoping they'd be done soon and Elizabeth and I would do the third treatment and then I could go home.

Elizabeth was on her hands and knees panting when they finished with her. It was starting to snow. Two came toward me, I thought to thank us, as the others stood around Elizabeth.

I never knew what hit me. I came to lying next to Elizabeth who was tied to a lamppost with the remains of her dress in her lap. She was okay. I had a black eye and a sore jaw. I untied Elizabeth who wept because she thought I was dead. I gave her my coat and was ready to go home, skip the treatment, go straight home, but Elizabeth couldn't find the stopwatch which meant we had to go back to the alley.

My jaw was sore and my right eye was swollen. Elizabeth held a handful of snow against my face. I wondered if Elizabeth was so happy to see me alive, and she was, if she would tell Miss Nichols about the eleven tonight. It didn't seem fair.

Of course my pockets were empty, which Dot wasn't going to like one bit.

We found the stopwatch in the alley, shattered, and I almost danced for joy. Then I thought of the added expense. "Don't tell Dot."

"I have to, Charlie. You know that."

"Tell Miss Nichols about the eleven tonight. I don't care, even if I don't think they should count."

"Of course they should count." She was cute when she was indignant.

"But please don't tell Dot about the watch."

"Why not?"

"It costs money, sweetheart."

She hugged me. "I love it when you call me sweetheart."

"I'll buy you a new dress, somehow."

"Don't worry about it."

"Let's go home. I think I'm sick."

She stepped away. "You're not going to let a little setback stand in the way of your treatment and this weekend, are you? Remember what's to happen Sunday?"

It almost didn't seem worth it. "Of course I remember, but I think I'm sick."

Elizabeth took my hand. "I'll nurse you. Plus I have a surprise for you."

I sneezed so hard my jaw and eye ached twice as bad afterwards. I let her lead me to the barn and frankly I didn't remember too well what happened there or afterwards, except I left Elizabeth's with money she gave me to make up for tonight, five fifty in all, from her share she was saving.

I was the first time anyone had ever done anything like that for me and, frankly, I cried. Not in Elizabeth's presence, afterwards.

I loved Elizabeth and now I was frightened of losing her.

Chapter 10

I was asleep on the floor curled up as much as I could be with my hands tied to the bed. I was cold, I hurt and wasn't feeling good at all. What woke me was the touch of a bare body pressing against mine and Elizabeth's voice in my ear. "Surprise."

I must have made some sort of noise because she answered, "Don't worry, Dot knows."

I wasn't fully awake yet and was wondering what Dot knew.

"Stretch out some, lie on your back and I'll keep you warm."

I rolled onto my back and she lay on top of me. She was heavy but it was an utterly delightful heaviness.

"Feel better?" she asked.

"I think so."

"Remember what I said," Dot said above us.

"Oh, all right." Elizabeth said to Dot and then said in a whisper to me, "Dot doesn't want to you slip by accident."

"Slip in where?" I said.

"You're cute. You know that?" She touched my face. "Does that hurt?"

"Only when I smile."

"You must be feeling better if you're joking. I worried about you."

That made me smile. Dot had shown almost no concern. "Learn to duck," was all she had to say about my being beat up. She added, as she counted the money I gave her, "Elizabeth will be perfectly fine at Sally's without you there. We can put off Sunday's festivities until some other month. May is a nice time to lose one's virginity." Dot looked up at me. "Don't you dare sneeze on me."

"Warm now?" Elizabeth asked.

"I think so."

She rolled off me. She was a combination of an impossible to describe softness and elbows.

When I had my breath back, she was curled against me, with busy hands.

"Charlie needs his sleep, Elizabeth," Dot said from the bed.

"Oh all right." Elizabeth didn't let go of me, she just stopped moving.

I dozed off. Looking back on this, my first night sleeping with a girl, I wonder what the hell I was, or wasn't, doing. Elizabeth was a beautiful, vibrant, bouncy, for want of a better word, girl who'd do anything, at least anything Dot permitted, to please me.

My response was necessarily limited because my hands were tied, I was groggy and didn't feel well, and of course Dot was right above us on the bed and could hear everything we did.

Because I was groggy I was saved from the anxiety of worrying what Elizabeth's or my parents would say. The implications of our first night together were totally lost on me.

"I love you," she whispered, which woke me up. I wasn't sure how much time had passed since I last shut my eyes.

"Did you hear me, Charlie?"

"I love you too."

She gave my cock a furious rub.

Dot sighed loudly overhead.

"Damn," Elizabeth whispered in my ear.

I was okay, I was used to putting it off. I began to doze.

"Charlie," she whispered.

"Yes."

"I want you to know that if something happens and we can't be together for some reason, how much this time with you has meant to me. No one else has been as nice to me as you. Just so you know."

This was the second intimation of loss I'd had.

"It scared me tonight, you lying there. I thought you were dead or in a coma, maybe a vegetable because your brain got knocked. Is what I'm doing okay?"

I nodded.

"If I work at Sally's, I'll be a real whore, Charlie. You'll still like me, won't you?"

"Of course."

"Because if you don't, it'll still be okay. I know women like me aren't the kind of women men stick with for long."

"What are you talking about?"

"Charlie, in case you haven't noticed, I screw around a lot with a lot of different guys."

"So?"

She pressed against me. "I want to be the first woman you fuck, Charlie. No matter what. You know? In case your feelings about me change."

I was having a hard time keeping up with her since my mind kept on slipping away. "Nothing's going to ever change, sweetheart."

"Ahem," Dot said.

"Climb on top of me. That feels nice, Elizabeth. I need to sleep."

She settled on top of me. "Now don't accidentally slip in," she whispered.

Fat chance, I thought. I'd be lucky if I didn't kill her accidentally on Sunday. I could see the headlines, "Teenage Boy Kills Girlfriend. Claims it was an accident." "I love you, Elizabeth."

"Dot said you could stay home until detention tomorrow."

I think I was snoring before she kissed me.

She was kissing me when I woke up. "Good," she said. "I'm to give you your treatment."

"I need to pee first."

"There's no time." She stood above me in her old dress. Of course I looked up it.

She gathered the blanket from the bed and laid it over me, arranging it so it covered me like the shroud in the barn. I felt her lips on my cock which was the only part of me not covered.

Being under the shroud was slow time. Everything Elizabeth did felt like it took forever. By the time a few minutes had passed I was deep in an inner world. I supposed if I could have moved it would have been different. Perhaps, also, the fabric touching my face helped alter my state of mind. This morning I think I fell asleep.

When Elizabeth was done with me, I hadn't come. She whispered, leaving the blanket over my face, "Think of what it will feel like Sunday."

It was impossible to imagine. What I knew was my jaw hurt, my eye was stuck shut, I had to pee and Elizabeth had left the room without untying me.

Dot came to my rescue before leaving for school. She pulled back the blanket from my face and untied my hands. She studied me, turned my face to the left and gave a frown. She turned my face to the right and asked, "Does it hurt?"

"Only when I laugh." I grinned at her to show I still had all my teeth.

"Elizabeth said there were only two of them. You are pretty pathetic, Charlie. What made them want to hit you? One of your lame jokes? Or did you try to show them a card trick?"

"I need to pee."

"I could sort of tell by your boner." She sat on the bed.

I wrapped the blanket around me and hunted for clothes to wear.

"It's all worked out. Elizabeth can stay here and keep you company."

"She said she was going to school."

"Next week." Dot showed her concern for my condition by not adding lamebrain.

"You see my underwear anywhere?"

"Just put on your pants and go do it."

"Okay." I sat on the bed next to her.

"Want me to come by and check on you at lunch time?"

"Keep an eye on Elizabeth."

"She's not going anywhere."

"You know what I mean."

"You two were so touching last night."

"She laid on me. That's all we did, Sis. Honest."

"You know what I mean. She really likes you."

"I like her a lot too." Somehow it's harder to tell your bossy older sister that you love your girlfriend because there's no indication the sister would understand.

"You watch yourself the next few weeks. You'll have plenty of opportunity to do something really stupid and lose her. She's stood beside you."

My socks and shoes on, I looked for my shirt. "How'd you get Mom to let her stay?"

"I made it a fait accompli."

I turned and stared at her wondering what in the world she meant.

"You've buttoned it wrong."

"Doesn't matter. It's coming off when I go back to bed. What did you make it?"

"I told them it was going to happen anyway, they'd be much better off if they accepted it with grace."

There was something I wasn't understanding but as long as it sounded like it was going my way I wasn't going to rock the boat.

"I'm off to school," Dot said. She blocked the door. I've never known anyone who could move so quickly. "You have to go to detention. Be there on time. I'll meet you afterwards." She saw my face, grinned, and continued. "We'll go straight from there to Sally's. Anything you want to take, roll in your blanket and leave the blanket on the bed."

I wanted to sit down.

"Got that?"

"Yes. I'm not feeling well."

She moved out of my way.

I had to use two hands on the banister as I went down the stairs. Mom and Dad looked up from the table as I passed. Mom smiled, it's hard to say what Dad did.

Go on to read the next two chapters.

The Pullover Page
Chapters 1 and 2 | Chapters 3 and 4 | Chapters 5 and 6 | Chapters 7 and 8
Chapters 9 and 10 | Chapters 11 and 12 | Chapters 13 and 14 | Chapters 15 and 16
Chapters 17 and 18 | Chapters 19 and 20 | Chapters 21 and 22
Chapters 23 and 24 | Chapter 25

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