She raised her legs, stretched them out, tried to squeeze them closer together… and came nowhere near the bathtub's faucets.
So much for great ideas.
There has to be a way. There…
"Get off me!" she shrieked, and fought the body. It was rigid with rigor mortis. It felt even heavier than before. Finally, exhaustion made her quit.
There is no way, she realized.
I'm gonna be trapped under this goddamned stiff until Harold gets home.
After that, she spent a long time crying. Later, she dozed. When she woke up, her butt and legs were numb again, but she no longer felt the horrible desperation. She felt resigned.
"When rape is inevitable," she muttered, "relax and enjoy it." What asshole thought up that one? she wondered.
This isn't the end of the world, she told herself. It may be the end of my marriage, but that's no great loss. Harold will come home tomorrow and get me out of this.
It's awful and disgusting, but I'm not going to die from it.
Later in the day, the stench got worse as her own excretions joined Ken's.
When darkness returned, so did her terror.
She lay motionless, hardly daring to breathe, waiting for Ken to stir. Or to speak.
Joyce.
What?
I'm hunnnngry.
She imagined his head turning, nuzzling down against the side of her neck, biting.
When she finally did feel him move, she shrieked. She screamed until her throat felt raw and burning.
Later, she convinced herself that Ken hadn't come back to life. The motion had probably been caused by something natural. Like decomposition. Shifting gases. Tendons or muscles turning soft. Gross. Disgusting. But he wasn't coming back to life. He wasn't going to start talking to her. He wasn't going to bite her. He wasn't going to start humping her.
Just make it through the night.
Later, as she was starting to drift off, Ken moaned.
Joyce gasped. She went rigid, goosebumps squirming over her skin.
It's just escaping gases, she told herself.
He did it again, and she whimpered.
"Stop it," she whined. "Stop it. Get off me. Please."
She exploded into another frenzy of struggles, then lay sobbing under his bulk and prayed for daylight.
When the first gray light of dawn came into the bathroom, Joyce's panic subsided and she closed her eyes.
It's Sunday.
Harold will come. He'll be here around seven. Before dark.
There won't be another night under Ken.
Exhausted, she drifted into sleep.
The jangle of the telephone startled her awake.
Who is it? Maybe someone had heard her screams in the night and was calling to check on her. When I don't answer. .
Fat chance.
Nobody had heard the screams. Probably just a friend calling to chat. Or a salesman.
The ringing stopped.
Or Harold. Harold calling to say he'd missed his flight, or he'd been bumped, or he'd decided to stay on another day or two in New York to meet with his agent, his editor.
"No," she murmured. "No, please. Harold, get back here. You've got to."
I can't go through another night.
It's all right, she told herself. He'll come. He'll come.
A few more hours, and he'll be here.
She wondered if Harold would be able to get her out from under Ken. Probably not. Such a weakling. He might have to call the fire department. I hate to bother you folks, but I'm afraid my wife is stuck in the bathtub. It seems she was screwing this muscle-man and the fellow pitched a coronary or something.
The idea of it made her laugh. The laughing made her chest hurt. Worse, it jostled her insides and jiggled Ken's penis.
She groaned.
There's nothing funny about this, she thought.
But if Harold can't get me out, the fire department will. It'll be a little embarrassing, but so what? I'll be free.
She imagined herself running down the corridor, buck naked, the firemen gaping in shock and maybe just a bit turned on. Running to the other bathroom, the one with a shower.
First, she would drink cold water. Fill her parched mouth with it. Drink till her belly bloated. Then she would take the longest shower in history. Sudsing and scrubbing until there was not a trace left of Ken's foul dead touch. Douching, too. Getting rid of his death.
Afterward, cocktails. Vodka and tonic. Ice clinking in her glass. A twist of lemon. Drinking until her head was full of soft, cozy cotton.
Then, a steak dinner. A thick slab of rare filet mignon, charcoal broiled.
I'll have to broil it myself, she thought. Harold isn't likely to be in any mood to cook for me. If he sticks around at all.
Thinking about the steak, her mouth watered. Her stomach growled.
I'll be eating soon, she told herself. In just a few more hours… if that wasn't Harold on the phone, calling to say he wouldn't be home.
It wasn't.
Please, it wasn 't.
He'll be here. He'll come.
He came.
Joyce, lost in daydreams about his arrival, heard nothing until the bathroom door swung open.
"Harold!"
"Joyce?"
She heard his quick footsteps. Then he was gazing down at her, at Ken. His face turned a shade of gray almost the same color as Ken's back. His mouth drooped open.
"Get me out of here!"
He frowned.
"My God, quick! I've been pinned under him since Friday night!"
"You can't get up?"
"Would I be here if I could?"
"Jeez, Joyce."
"Get your thumb out of your ass and get me out of here!"
He kept staring down into the tub, shaking his head slowly from side to side.
"Harold! Get me out of here!"
"Uh-huh. Right."
He turned and walked away.
"Ciao," he said. The bathroom door bumped shut.
Harold flew to Maui and spent a week relaxing on the beach, reading horror novels written by his friends, dining at fine restaurants. He ogled some beautiful women, but he stayed away from them. He didn't need any more traitorous bitches in his life.
Upon his return, he stepped into the house and called out, "Joyce, I'm home."
She didn't answer.
Grinning, Harold trotted upstairs.
The smell was not good. It made him gag. It made his eyes water. With a handkerchief over his nose and mouth, he hurried across the bedroom and entered the bathroom.
He went numb.
He dropped the handkerchief.
He stared.
The tile floor near the bathtub was strewn with body parts.
A bloody orb that he recognized as a head. Part of a head, anyway. It was missing its jaw. The ragged stump of its neck looked chewed.
He saw an arm. Another arm. Big, muscular things. So much missing from around their tops. The knobby ends of the humerus bones looked as if they'd been licked clean.
The floor was littered with other pieces. Curving slats of rib bones. Chunks of flesh. Slabs of stringy muscle. Slimy gobs that might have been interior organs — parts of lungs, maybe, or kidneys — who knows?
Harold did recognize a heart among the assortment of litter.
Over the rim of the tub hung coils of intestines.
Harold threw up.
When he was done, he approached the tub, careful not to step on any mess.
Joyce wasn't in it.
Her boyfriend was. Some of him. From the ass down, he appeared to be in fine shape. Excellent shape.