Cage Girl
Chapters 13 and 14
Chapter 13
I guess everyone assumed things would settle down after Liz disappeared. I had to believe she was still alive, was more important to them alive. Who them could be was still uncertain. Junior and the man who Liz called step dad but maybe others, and the mother. I didn’t know a thing and the police seemed to treat the whole mess as a mystery rather than a crime.
The Chief was kind but my impression was he was a bumbler who thought one less sixteen year old might make life better for the people who mattered.
Work at the shop went on though I was preoccupied. The new girl, Debby, was who we’d needed all along. Leroy was fixing cars, customers and the guys were happy, and Debby kept things bright and cheerful.
Amy and Bobby made an effort to keep me occupied but I don’t think anyone realized what Liz meant to me.
Derek and Mary Sue did have an idea. Though I was on the phone with one or the other of them daily, we didn’t get a chance to sit down together and talk for almost a month. Derek believed a crime had taken place, had been taking place for years, but he had no jurisdiction.
The weekend Derek and Mary Sue came down they were surprised I expected everyone to stay upstairs. They asked for the key to the basement because they wanted to bring up some gear.
Mary Sue came back up and sat with me in the living room. “Jesus, Andy, it’s a tomb down there. Dishes on the table. Clothes on the floor. Spoiled food in the refrigerator. Did you just leave it and lock the door?”
I was thinking about when I got out of the hospital, going down there and seeing the unmade bed. I could still smell her.
“We’ll clean up. How are you doing?”
I shrugged.
“We’ll find her, Andy. She’ll be okay.”
On foot this small town would take a day or two to walk every road and alley. That says nothing of the houses, sheds and garages, businesses, whatever. The country was too big. The people who had Liz could be anywhere and they’d be moving. I had told Liz she was safe and I hadn’t protected her.
Mary Sue patted my knee and went back downstairs.
I didn’t join in the fun that weekend and everyone was subdued. I felt as if I’d poisoned the mood and was surprised at their generosity when they called the next day after returning home.
I did make an effort to be more outgoing but it was easier to sit at home with the huge video catalog from Chicago – foreign, art and old black and white movies. I could buy or rent by mail and that’s how I spent a lot of evenings.
What saved me was I was never much of a drinker. A beer now and again and that remained true now. I started smoking and even that didn’t last. I was too depressed to get addicted to cigarettes.
Winter turned to spring. Liz, somewhere, was celebrating her seventeenth birthday.
Mary Sue over the months talked a little about Liz. How Liz had tried to kill herself in desperation. How Mary Sue explained to Liz that I needed to be cuddled. That made me smile, Mary Sue doing her best to push us together. I told Mary Sue how Liz thought I was sad. Mary Sue just nodded, said, “Sadder now.”
Mary Sue told me how happy Liz had been with me. I’m not sure that helped at all.
So in spite of everyone’s good intentions and my own black cloud, I made clumsy attempts to climb out of my shell.
For some reason I fixated on Debby. There were several ties with Liz – Liz had liked her and Debby was too young like Liz.
I had a crush on her, stared at her, began to imagine us happy together. I’d be the father of her child, though I didn’t know the name of the kid. I imagined her kindnesses as signs of reciprocal feelings. Before I made a total fool of myself Boo invited himself in my office and shut the door.
“Andy,” he said, “you know that Little Andy likes Debby? Likes her a lot. Mark and Leroy and I were hoping you could figure out a way to nudge them a little closer. Play cupid. He’s too shy to do anything by himself.”
He left the office and I had a mission.
Debby was maybe as tall as five feet and maybe weighed a hundred pounds soaking wet. She had a decent figure. She wasn’t a beauty but that didn’t matter with her personality. She made people feel good.
Little Andy was built like a brick shit house. It was too easy to miss the fact that he was smart and considerate. He wasn’t an easy talker but what he said was worth hearing.
I figured if Little Andy could relax enough to just talk to her that was half the battle. I had to do things so she’d see his qualities and not just his size.
I tried to get them talking together in work situations, telling her to ask Little Andy and telling him to ask Debby.
The shop had a picnic and she brought Susan, her child. Little Andy was great around kids, had no problem holding Susan, giving her a bottle. Leroy looked over at me and winked.
That week I called Debby to my office and we talked for a bit about shop stuff before what was important.
“Debby, how do you feel about Little Andy?”
She looked at me and I could see something click in place.
“He’s a nice guy.”
“Nice enough to date?”
She nodded.
“I can take care of Susan for you.”
“You could?”
“Sure. I raised a son. Not very well, but a couple of hours with me shouldn’t ruin her.”
She just smiled.
“So I can let Little Andy know you won’t say no?”
“Tell him I’d like it. I haven’t been out since the day my daughter was born.”
She was making it sound like she was in worse shape than me, which I didn’t believe.
“Thanks,” I said.
She left and I called Little Andy in.
“You and I are going out for lunch together in five minutes. No, put a smile on. This is good news.”
Poor Little Andy was a wreck by the time we reached Arby’s by the highway. We sat outside with our sandwiches.
“So, Andy,” I said. “I’ve asked the other guys and they said no. I’m counting on you. You know Debby?”
He stopped eating and put down his sandwich.
“She hasn’t been on a date since Susan was born.”
He nodded, still chewing.
“I think she’d be happier if someone took her out. I’m her boss so that’s out, right?”
He nodded.
“So, how about you?”
He stopped chewing.
“Dinner. A movie. Some adult conversation and a break from the kid and her parents. Could you do it?”
He nodded and resumed chewing.
“I know she likes you. Maybe you’ll even start liking her.” I was laying it on thick, but he didn’t seem to mind. “But this is just a date. I don’t want her pregnant, understand?”
He nodded, picked up his sandwich.
“Any ideas where you’d take her?”
Our town is small and in the country. There isn’t much when it comes to fancy dining. Little Andy named it. I thought, She’s going to like this.
“Okay. And the movie?”
He suggested one girls would like. I think this had been on his mind for a while.
“Think fifty would cover it?” I took out my wallet.
“You don’t need to . . .”
“Andy, I’m asking you to do this. You shouldn’t have to pay. Here.”
He took the bill, folded it and put it in his shirt pocket. “Thanks, Andy.”
“Thank you, Andy. You two bring the kid over to my house and have a good time.”
The next night Little Andy carried Susan and a basket with her things. “You need to . . .”
“I can do this, Andy. You two have a good time.”
When they came back after eleven they were in the middle of a conversation when I opened the door. They both stopped and turned to me.
“She’s sleeping.”
“Okay,” Little Andy whispered. “You want to drive and I’ll hold her?” This said to Debby. I think he won her heart at that moment.
She smiled at me as she walked into the house. They walked out, he carefully holding Susan.
“Bring her over any time. She’s a darling.”
“She is,” Little Andy said to the sleeping child.
A month later Debby and Susan moved into Little Andy’s house.
Chapter 14
It took at least six months for my libido to begin to return and it came back slowly with ebbs and flows. I began noticing women, to take pleasure when I saw an attractive one. While I didn’t go into the basement with Derek and Mary Sue, I did spend time with her more and more, alone and with Derek upstairs.
Because of Debby and Little Andy, Mary Sue no longer performed her antics at the shop after hours on a Friday they were in town. Instead, the rest of the guys were invited to drop by my house on those weekends. The guys never went into the basement, didn’t know of its existence.
Mark began seeing a girl who liked to swing and sometimes he brought her over when Derek and Mary Sue were in town and the five (or more) of us had a grand time. Somehow Little Andy and Debby knew I was unavailable those weekends for babysitting Susan.
In spite of being able to luxuriate in Derek’s Mary Sue or Mark’s Alice, no one had Liz’s writhing laughing form like that last night when I trapped her in the sheet. Nothing compared. I had fun but somehow it didn’t feel like the real thing.
Derek and Mary Sue still took me to parties in state and out of state to places like Chicago. We once spent a weekend in New York City. While I was mostly a bystander, I wasn’t always. Being a bystander wasn’t bad, there was plenty of company and I did talk to people. I wasn’t totally a lone wolf.
At home Bobby and I still worked on cars together, though he was starting to go out with girls and we had less time than before. His urgent need was learning to drive and getting a car.
I found him something safe and augmented his driver’s ed class with lots of road time. Once he had his license and wheels Amy and I barely saw him.
In December, a year after Liz disappeared, Derek called and told me Junior had died in LA. He wasn’t able to give many details and I let him handle the arrangements for the body. When they were next down we sprinkled Junior’s ashes in the snow around Cindy’s grave.
That was that. I had photo albums filled with photos of him when Cindy was alive and I looked through them one last time before packing them away. I couldn’t believe the little kid had become the man he’d been.
In early spring, at a party with Derek and Mary Sue, I met Jane, or Jehane as she liked to spell it. This was at a group event, I guess you could call it that. Maybe thirty guys participating, fifteen naked women on their hands and knees in the center of the room, in a row with Mary Sue first, of course.
The challenge for the guys was to fuck all the women, no more than three strokes each. If it was longer than three strokes, you had to stay with that woman until you finished. Mary Sue took all thirty and several stopped at her and enjoyed what she had to offer.
A couple of guys had video cameras going, set up on tripods. There were two referees. Each woman had a number painted on her back from one to fifteen. The crowd took an active interest at first, hazing the guys and counting strokes, but as the event dragged on people wandered off, leaving only the cameras, a few dedicated devotees, and those still waiting their turn. The women at the less busy end of the line were involved in a complex discussion about something. Women at the busy end of the line were verbally coaxing the men in their cunts with moans and cries or were resting until the next one.
When it was my turn I didn’t know what I’d do. My heart really wasn’t in this. I think I would have stayed with Mary Sue except she bumped me out and I had to go to the next one.
I did my three strokes and moved to the next. Each was different, something I already knew, but couldn’t really appreciate until sampled this way. At number thirteen I stayed. She gripped me differently from all the others. If I’d gone on to fifteen without cumming, I’d have to start the row all over again. I had nothing to prove anymore.
Thirteen was a good fuck. I wasn’t thinking about anything else and when I was done I heard her say:
“What’s your name?”
“Andy.”
“Maybe I’ll see you later. My name’s Jehane.” I didn’t hear the extra e and h in it.
“That would be nice.”
I left her and I went to where I’d set my clothes.
Derek came up. “Mary Sue’s going to think you don’t like her.” He was smiling.
“She has plenty of friends.”
“What’s her name?”
“Jane something.”
“I don’t know her.”
“You should join in.” I already knew what he was going to say.
“So many women here are crazy for black cock, I’m worn out.”
“Where’s the whips and chains contingent?”
“Try room two thirty-six.”
I left as a woman was coming up to talk to him.
I sat in a corner of two thirty-six which was fairly crowded. After a while a woman joined me.
“I think you’re Andy. I’m Jehane.”
Maybe early fifties, nice looking.
“From downstairs. Number thirteen?” she said.
“I well remember number thirteen. Thanks for a good time.”
“I was thinking we could go steady this weekend. Unless you want to spend your time with someone else.”
“Steady is fine.”
She smiled. “I feel like a teenager again. At a dance, finally getting up the nerve.”
“I wouldn’t think you’d have any problems.”
“I’m not like the popular ones.”
“I’m not looking for youth.”
“So do you want to get to know each other better? Your room or mine?”
“Mine’s fine. It’s a single.”
“So just us. That’s fine.” She took my hand. “Shall we?”
I led her to the elevator. “So, did many make it to you?”
“Eight? Twenty? I wasn’t keeping count.”
I was hoping she’d ask me something. I’m not much good at small talk.
“What’s your room number, in case we get separated.”
“Three twenty,” I said.
“I’m three fifty-eight.”
“Three fifty-eight. I’ll remember.”
“Just like being teenagers, isn’t it?”
“I don’t have to worry so much about getting to first base.”
She laughed. “You press the button.”
I did and she squeezed my hand.
We lived an hour apart so weekends and some week nights weren’t impossible. Jehane taught special education, was dedicated. I never asked her what or who had brought her to the party. She never asked me. On weekends when Derek and Mary Sue were here she didn’t join in the general frolic with the guys from the shop, or with Alice if she came by.
Things began falling apart on April twentieth, Liz’s birthday. Liz would be eighteen, wherever she was. Maybe LA, but looking for her would be like looking for a needle in a haystack and no one knew if she was actually still there.
I canceled our date for that weekend and things just petered out, died a fairly painless death for Jehane, I hope.
Looking at myself in the mirror when I shaved I couldn’t decide if I liked the guy I saw or not. I knew I had no choice about living with him, but it wasn’t much fun.
I liked it when Derek and Mary Sue came by. They didn’t care if I was an avid participant. I knew they were checking on me but I genuinely enjoyed their company and they seemed to enjoy mine.
Little Susan was becoming the bright spot in my life. I looked forward to her visits, worked so her time with me was worthwhile. I tried to have books to read to her and bought toys that had some educational value. Jehane had set me on the right track, the rest I had to do on my own when she was no longer around.
So that was my life. The shop, eating and sleeping. Susan was the glimmering moment. Derek’s and Mary Sue’s visits. Not a bad life by any means. I wished I were happier.
Cage Girl 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 | Chapter 15
