There was a slight whirring sound in the air behind her and Stella started to turn around.
She didn’t make it.
The heavy base of the lamp caught her on the skull just an inch or so away from the spot where Susan had struck her the other afternoon.
And, for the second time in as many days, Stella was knocked unconscious.
Maria worked very quickly and economically.
First she took a bedsheet from the linen closet and cut it into strips with a straight razor she found in the medicine chest. She laid Stella down on her back on the bed and used four of the strips to tie her hands and feet to the four posts of the bed.
She took another strip and placed it in Stella’s mouth, tying it around the back of her head so that it would act as a gag and prevent Stella from making any sounds whatsoever.
She was very thorough. All of the five strips were tied very securely. The knots were quite tight and it would be impossible for Stella to move at all.
Then Maria sat down on the edge of the bed and waited for Stella to wake up.
Stella was not unconscious long. After what seemed to Maria like just a minute or two she opened her eyes and stared up at Maria.
Maria stared back. Then she started to giggle, because her Mummy looked very silly all tied up like that. Now she couldn’t punish Maria anymore. She couldn’t hurt her with the palm of her hand or the belt or the cigarette.
Not anymore.
Stella tried to say something, but Maria couldn’t figure out for the life of her what it was her Mummy was trying to say. The gag stopped her from saying anything at all, and that was funny too.
Maria giggled again.
“Hello,” she said. “Hi, Mummy.”
Stella didn’t answer, which was natural enough when you come right down to it.
“I was a bad girl, Mummy,” she said. “I was a very bad girl. I got my clothes dirty playing in the sandbox and I said sassy things to my teacher and I broke Billy Rumsey’s shovel. Wasn’t I bad, Mummy?”
She giggled again. Oh, this was fun! Why, she was having a marvelous time.
“Mummy? Are you going to punish me, Mummy?”
Silence. Why, how nice it was of Mummy not to interrupt her. But Mummy wasn’t answering her questions, and that wasn’t especially nice. Why, it wasn’t even polite, and Mummy always told her how important it was to be polite and answer when somebody asked you a question.
Maria let her hands wander over Stella’s body. Mummy certainly had a lovely figure, that was for sure. Her breasts were especially nice, and Maria stroked and caressed and kissed her breasts over and over, hoping that her Mummy would enjoy what she was doing to her and what she was going to do. She took the nipples of Stella’s breasts in her mouth one at a time and sucked them like a little baby girl until they grew hard and rigid.
Maria giggled.
“Mummy,” she said softly.
Silence.
“I hate you, Mummy.”
Why, what a horrid thing for her to say. That wasn’t nice at all, and now Mummy would punish her for saying that. She was supposed to love her Mummy, wasn’t she?
“I hate you, Mummy.”
Now why did she have to go and say it again? It wasn’t nice at all, and she certainly didn’t want Mummy to punish her again. Mummy punished so hard and hurt her so much.
“Mummy,” she said a third time, “I hate you.”
And she giggled again.
Then she picked up the straight razor. She opened it and held it up to the light so that she could see it very clearly. The metal reflected the light and was very shiny, and the edge was very sharp.
Maria bent over again and kissed each of her Mummy’s nipples in turn.
And then she cut each of them off with the razor.
Ralph sensed something was wrong the minute he saw Susan’s door open. He rushed into the room. She was lying on the floor naked, her chest heaving and a cold sweat covering her forehead. He knelt down beside her and took her in his arms and she grabbed him as if she were drowning.
“Darling! What’s the matter?”
For a few moments she couldn’t answer. All she could do was remain in his arms and tell him how much she loved him. He held onto her and stroked her like a little kitten until finally her breathing went down to normal and she could speak again.
Then she told him.
She told him first how she had gone to see Stella the afternoon before. She told him the whole scene that had taken place between the two of them, with Stella trying to make love to her and attempting at last to rape her until she finally knocked her out and escaped.
Then he interrupted her.
“Baby,” he said, “why didn’t you tell me this before?”
“I don’t know.”
“I mean—”
“I suppose I was a little bit ashamed of myself, Ralph.”
“That’s ridiculous.”
“I guess so.”
“You don’t have to be ashamed of anything, darling.”
She kissed him and continued, telling him this time about the scene with Stella that had just taken place. His eyes went wide as she recounted what the woman had done, and several times he was at the point of interrupting her, but he let her finish.
“I knew she was sick,” he said slowly after she had finished.
“Very sick, Ralph.”
“Sicker than I realized. My God, she almost killed you!”
She nodded.
“What an awful woman,” he said. “To think I was actually living with her.”
“The painting’s completely ruined, Ralph.”
“To hell with the painting.”
“But—”
“I could paint it again blindfolded. It’s you that I’m worried about. She might try something like that again and there won’t be a painting for her to slash up by mistake.”
“I don’t know she will. She thinks she killed me.”
He shook his head. “I better call the police,” he said. “She ought to be put away.”
He started to stand up.
“Wait, Ralph.”
He turned and looked at her.
“The police can wait.”
“But—”
“Let them wait, darling. There’s something I want you to do for me first.”
“Anything.”
She stood up and came into his arms. She was still trembling slightly, but her trembling was not from fear this time.
“I want you to make love to me, Ralph. All the way.”
He took off his clothes again and put them on the chair. When he was naked and ready for her she was already lying on the bed. He lay down beside her and took her in his arms, kissing her.
She was not afraid.
He kissed and stroked every square inch of her body. He touched her and kissed her and caressed her until she turned into a woman on fire with love, a thing of passion writhing on the bed beside him.
She was not afraid.
And then he took her. He took her slowly, gently, and at first it hurt but a second later she didn’t notice the pain at all because it was all so good and so beautiful, all so perfect and so wonderful, all so absolutely excellent and so unlike the way she had imagined it.
Their bodies moved together. She was on a gigantic seesaw going up and down, up and down, up and down, and she thought that it would never end because it kept getting better and better and she was going wild, wild, and it was so good, so unbelievably good.
And then it was over. Their bodies melted apart and she knew a peace that she hadn’t believed existed. She laughed and then she cried and then they were both very still.