“I better get back home. I shouldn’t have stayed this long.” I was suddenly terrified that Bernie had crept into Carla’s while I was here.
“Owen, don’t worry,” Hazel said, reading the look on my face. “We would’ve heard the alarm.”
She was right. I’d forgotten about the alarm for a second. Or I didn’t trust it on a subconscious level. That was the most likely explanation.
“I know, but I’d feel better if I could see what was happening.”
She put down her yarn and stood with me, though it took her far more effort than it did me. She walked with me to the door.
“If you need anything, you let me know. Don’t hesitate,” I told her as she hugged me. I meant it. I hoped she knew I meant it, and wasn’t just being polite.
“Oh, I will, but I don’t see that there’s anything I’ll need. Same goes for you. And don’t worry yourself sick over all this. Everything happens for a reason. You can’t save everybody. And don’t do anything crazy. Let nature take its course.”
I wasn’t sure what to say to that. What was nature’s course? Who could say? What if it was nature’s course for me to go over there and slit his throat in the night? What if it was nature’s course for him to do the same to me? Or to Carla?
I returned to my porch where I kept watch over the residents of Hewitt Street.
56 Jill
I ate nothing more than a granola bar and a small glass of milk for breakfast. Still keeping it light, taking no chances.
I was dressed and ready for work. Well, that’s not entirely true. I was dressed for work, but hardly ready. I didn’t feel like going. I was tired. More precisely, I was exhausted. But it would be nice to keep my mind off missing Andy.
I locked the door behind me and headed outside where it smelled like rain.
I was already in the car when I noticed Owen. He was on his porch, asleep in his chair. It looked radically uncomfortable. His neck was back and to the right at an angle that would be sure to leave him with a crick.
I got back out of my car and walked over to him. I hated to wake him. I knew he hadn’t been sleeping well, but I couldn’t leave him out here like this.
I touched his arm. “Owen. Owen. Wake up.” After gently shaking him a little, his eyes opened slowly. I waited for him to focus and realize what was happening. “You need to go inside and go to bed.”
He sat up and rubbed his neck. I stood up and waited for him to go inside.
“I’ll be okay out here.” He yawned.
“Owen, go inside and go to bed. You can’t stay out here like that. It’s not comfortable. But you know what is? Your bed.” I sang the last part to make it sound more appealing to him. All it did was make him laugh.
“I’m okay.”
“Look, I’m not leaving until you’re in bed. Now do you want to make me late for work or what?”
“You know I can just wait until you’re gone and come right back out here.”
“Yeah. Since you know that, why are you still sitting here arguing with me? Get up and get in there.”
He laughed harder at me now, but he got up. He looked at Bernie’s, then at Carla’s, and then he went in the house. I followed him all the way upstairs.
“Really?” he asked, referring to my following him.
“Yes. Now take off the shoes and whatever else and get in the bed.”
“What if I need to pee?” he asked with a smile.
“Then we’ll go to the bathroom,” I said without one.
He chuckled. “You drive a hard bargain.”
“Yeah. You should see me buy a car.” I watched as he took off his shoes and shirt, but I looked away as he unfastened his jeans and slithered out of them.
When I sensed he was in bed, I looked back. “Now isn’t that better than a chair on the porch?”
He nodded. “Thanks.” He yawned and folded his arms behind his head. “But I’ve got to get to Carla’s.”
“No, you don’t. She’ll be fine for the day. You don’t think he’d do anything in the middle of the day, do you? Besides, she has an alarm. She’s locked in a virtual fort over there.”
He didn’t look totally convinced.
I thought for a moment. Assessing the situation, I knew what I was going to do. I think I’d known when I’d gotten out of my car and walked onto Owen’s porch.
“I’ll tell you what. I’ll stay with her today while you sleep.”
“You can’t do that. You have to get to work.”
“I won’t go today.”
“What?” he asked, not believing me. He had reason to be suspicious. I very rarely missed work. “You won’t miss work.”
“Oh, yeah? Well, just for that, I’m not going tomorrow, either.”
“Whatever!” he exclaimed.
“See, now I’m taking off the rest of the week.”
He threw his head up and laughed loudly. “You’re killing me.”
“Alright. That’s it. I’ll never work again. Satisfied?”
He stopped laughing. He stared at me with sleepy eyes, a worried expression on his face. “Are you serious?”
I shrugged. “Yeah. You just kept pushing me.” I smiled at him and changed my tone to one more serious. “I didn’t feel like going in today anyway. This just gave me a reason not to. Then I realized I may not go back.”
“What? You like your job.”
“I know. But there’s so much going on. I haven’t made my decision final yet, but I’m thinking about it. You go to sleep now. I’ll go sit with Carla today. Don’t worry about anything. You need to rest.”
He yawned again and I left him to sleep.
I would tell him later that I wasn’t kidding about not going back to work. With all that was happening and changing, I felt my time would be better spent at home. I wouldn’t tell him that now because I wasn’t telling anyone anything until I’d talked to Andy.
57 Bernie
I lay on my back with my head hung off the bed and stared at the room from this upside-down angle. I was frustrated. In every possible way.
I’d been jacking off almost constantly. Not because I wanted to so much as I had to. No sooner did I get rid of one boner than another one popped up. My arm was tired. My dick was sore. My balls ached. My ass itched. I stunk. The bed stunk and was covered in my dried cum. But who cares?
I sighed heavily. I knew without looking or feeling that my dick was hard. I didn’t understand why. I didn’t know it was possible to have a boner for so long.
I blamed the whore next door. My dick had been hard since the moment she moved in. I’d thought that screwing her would’ve fixed the problem, but it seemed to only have made it worse. Now, all I could do was think about what it had been like to do her and how nice it would be to do her again.
Damn.
I got up and walked to the bathroom, kicking dirty clothes out of my way as I went. The bathroom stunk more than I did. I kept forgetting to flush the toilet. It didn’t matter. I was getting ready to add to it.
I sat down and started dropping my smelly load.
Unable to stand it any longer, I picked up one of the porn magazines I kept on the floor. I thumbed through the pages, but each broad had the same face. It was the face of the whore next door. I threw it down and picked up another one, but it was the same thing.
I wanted to scream, but it wouldn’t help.
I turned to the fold-out picture in the center of the magazine and laid it on the floor between my feet. I spread my legs far enough apart to see it clearly and began pounding my flesh, once again.
It was growing increasingly difficult to get rid of a hard-on. I had to use more force and it was taking much longer. By the time I was finished, I was sweating and breathing hard.