Bill and Tom grinned at each other.
“I’m scared,” Bill said. “Are you scared?”
“I’m petrified,” Tom said. He raised his open hands and fluttered his fingers and said, “Ooooooo, I’m so scared! Look at me! I’m shaking!”
Bill, the skinny one, didn’t seem so amused. He said, “What’s your friend’s name? Helen?”
“Herman.”
“And he’s, like, your riding companion on this two-seater?”
“That’s right.”
“Well, shit. I don’t see him.”
Tom broke out laughing. His huge belly shook and wobbled. He slapped Bill on the back a couple of times.
“Knock it off,” Bill told him. To Charlie, he said, “How big is this Herman of yours?”
“Real big. He’s almost seven feet tall.”
“That is big. So how come I can’t see him?”
“Because.”
“Oh, because.” He glanced at Tom. “That explains it.”
Tom laughed some more, but he kept his hand off Bill’s back.
“Nobody can see him,” Charlie explained.
“Oh, I get it. You mean he’s invisible.”
“That’s right.”
“Now I’m really scared.”
“I’m so scared I’m gonna shit!” Tom blurted, and did a little dance as if he were trying to hold it in.
“You won’t think it’s so funny if you try anything with me. He’ll rip you guys from limb to limb.”
“Oh, yeah?” Bill looked at Tom. “You stay here, I’ll take care of him.” Then he came forward, strutted past Charlie, and halted beside the second set of handlebars. She twisted around to watch him. “All right, Herman, give me your best shot.” He stuck out his chin.
Charlie said, “Herman isn’t there.”
Looking at her, Bill lifted his eyebrows. “Really? You wouldn’t be kidding me, would you?” He reached out and patted the leather seat. “You’re right. Darn! I was so looking forward to meeting him.”
“Me, too,” Tom said.
“So, where is this Herman of yours?”
“He got off when we stopped.”
“You mean, he was here but now he’s not?”
“That’s right.”
“Where is he?”
“Close enough to take care of you guys if you don’t leave me alone.”
“How do you know that?” Tom asked. “You can’t see him?” He sounded pleased, as if he’d outsmarted her.
“I just know,” Charlie said. “He’s right here, and he’s waiting for you guys to try something funny, and then he’s gonna lambast you like you wouldn’t believe.”
Bill shook his head slowly from side to side. “Aren’t you kind of like too old to have a make-believe friend?”
“He isn’t make-believe.”
Behind her, Tom said, “Betcha it’s that Snuffleupagus.”
She faced Tom and said, “His name is Herman.”
“Yeah, right.”
“And he’s gonna rip us limb from limb if we try to mess with you?”
She twisted around to face Bill again. “That’s right. He’s not just my best friend, he’s my bodyguard. And you’d better let me go right now. All I’ve gotta do is give him the signal, and...”
“So give it,” Bill said.
“Don’t make me. You’ll regret it. I’m warning you. You’d better just go...”
Bill rammed his hand against the front of her left shoulder. The blow twisted her toward him and knocked her clear backward. She gasped, “Yah!” and tried to hop clear off her bicycle. The saddle caught the back of her left thigh. Crying out and flapping her arms, she fell. She slammed the pavement. The bike crashed down on her right leg.
She yelled “Ow!”
“Ooo, nasty fall,” Bill said.
He hurried around to the other side of the bike, grabbed one of Charlie’s arms, and dragged her clear. Then he hoisted her to her feet. “Get rid of the bike,” he said to Tom.
“Don’t you dare!” Charlie snapped. “Leave it alone, you big ox!”
“Fuck you, babe.”
“You won’t be needing it,” Bill told her.
“What’m I sposed to do with it?” Tom asked.
“Take it off into the trees. Throw it someplace. Just so nobody can see it from the road here.”
“Right.” Tom hitched up his drooping jeans, then bent down and lifted the bicycle-built-for-two onto its tires. Holding the front set of handlebars, he rolled Speedy to the edge of the road and into the woods.
Charlie watched it go.
When it was out of sight, she tried to break free from Bill’s grip.
“Knock it off,” he warned.
She kicked him in the shin.
He decked her.
She was still sprawled on her back, moaning, when Tom returned from concealing her bike.
“What’d you do to her?” Tom asked.
“Gave her a taste of my famous knuckle sandwich.”
Tom scowled. “You gotta not do that sort of stuff when I can’t watch.”
“Don’t worry, you didn’t miss much. Tell you what, I’ll pull the car off the road, and you can stay with her. Maybe take her into the trees over there.”
“Hey, great.” He clapped his hands a couple of times, then headed for Charlie while Bill returned to their Mustang.
Stopping by Charlie’s hip, Tom gazed down at her. “You gotta boyfriend?” he asked.
“Maybe.”
“Huh? Do you or don’t you?” He tapped her with the toe of his cowboy boot.
“Maybe Herman. But...”
He kicked her. “Don’t give me this Herman shit. I mean a real boyfriend.”
“Herman’s real,” she muttered.
“Yeah, right.”
“He is. And you guys are gonna be sorry you were ever born by the time he gets done with you.”
“Sure.”
“He’s right behind you!” Charlie blurted.
Tom glanced around.
Charlie flipped from her side to her belly. As she scrambled to get up, Tom stomped her on the back. His boot slammed her against the blacktop. Her breath whooshed out.
“Think I’m an idiot?” Tom asked.
Bending over her, he grabbed the neck of her T-shirt and the waistband at the back of her shorts. He lifted her off the road. The T-shirt stretched and ripped, but its shoulders held. The waist button popped off her shorts. The zipper skidded down a little bit at a time as she was carried into the woods.
When Tom got her where he wanted her, he let go of the T-shirt and used both hands to shake Charlie out of her shorts. She fell headfirst toward the ground, but caught herself with her arms.
On hands and knees, she scurried over the forest floor.
And halted when Tom pulled the elastic waistband of her panties.
“You ain’t going nowhere.”
“Leave me alone!” she gasped.
He tugged the elastic and let it go. It snapped her across the buttocks. He laughed.
At the sound of footsteps hurrying through the dry pine needles, Charlie raised her head and saw Bill striding into the clearing.
As he approached, he pulled his T-shirt off. His jeans hung very low. The brass buckle of his belt looked like a skull. At the right side of his belt hung a knife in a brown leather sheath. Charlie hadn’t noticed the knife before.
He was very skinny and bony and white. He looked as if he had never before been out in the sun without a shirt on. In the middle of his chest, directly between his nipples, was a cluster of bright red pimples.
“Let’s see what we got,” he said to Tom.
Tom’s broad, oily face grinned. He stepped behind Charlie and slipped his fingers under the drooping shoulders of her T-shirt.
“Don’t,” she said, her voice shaking. “I’m warning you.”
He jerked the T-shirt, stretching and tearing it. As he dragged it down to her ankles, she clutched her breasts and called out, “Herman!”
Bill, an odd smile on his lips, helped. “Herrr-mannn?” he called in a lilting voice. “Yooo-hooo, Herrrr-mannnn! Where arrrrre you? Charlie neeeeeeds you.”