After all, right about the time Mary Alice's little bus, coming down the turnpike-no, they called them freeways here, didn't they?-had blown a tire and rolled over sue times, crushing the top of the little van in on her, she, Nan, had been rolling in Myra's arms, having the time of her life. She'd betrayed her friend-and so soon!-and she didn't want Myra there to remind her of the fact…Shuddering, she tipped up the new glass and let the raw gin burn its way down her throat
God, she thought now, how much did it take to put you out of your misery? She'd put away the best part of a bottle of ninety-proof gin already, and showed no sign of being able to relax into comforting and consoling oblivion. She drank again, shuddering at the vile taste of the stuff. Then she gagged a little as she swallowed it down. God, she thought, she was going to vomit it all up before it got her drunk enough to go to sleep…
Cursing hoarsely at it (she'd cried so long, so hard, that she could hardly talk now), she held the glass up and poured it full again from the bottle, spilling it all over her dashiki. Then she dropped the bottle, letting it roll away across the uneven old floor. "Damn," she said. "Damned filthy…thing…" And she ripped the dashiki np the middle, crushing the thin cloth into a ball and heaving it disgustedly into the far corner of the room. The place was a shambles already, it seemed; and that after she'd worked so hard to get it clean today. God! God! She didn't want it all spic and span right now. She wanted…she wanted to burn the place down. She wanted…
"My," said a low, harsh voice from the door. "That's quite a sight"
The voice was so deep and impersonal that it could have been either a man's or a woman's. Nan, in her sodden and uncaring state, didn't bother to look up for a moment
When she did it was to see the caller stepping into the room. She blinked in the dim light; the figure looked familiar from somewhere-lush, ample curves tucked tightly into jeans and a close-fitting jersey, braless breasts of perfect and voluptuous conformation, their nipples sticking pertly through the soft cloth, a dark unsmiling face with die bone structure of a great beauty only slightly gone to seed through ten-maybe twenty-years of hard living.
"Hey," the newcomer said. "Did I interrupt a party? Where's Mary Alice?"
"She…she's in the hospital," Nan said, not rising. "She had a bad accident today."
"Jesus," the girl said. What was the name? Nora? Zora? That was it, Zora. The dancer. "Wow. And you're her friend that's staying here, right?"
"Yes, I…" Nan tried to sit up straight, but only succeeded in spilling her glass.
"Hey, look," the girl said. "You feel pretty bad, right? You better stay away from that stuff, honey. You need something that'll soothe you, not that junk. That'll just make you feel worse. Look, hon, I know what's in Mary Alice's medicine cabinet. I ought to, for Christ's sake. Let me fix you something that'll make you feel great, huh? You just sit there."
Nan sat looking after her, watching the firm globes of her incredibly expressive buttocks working under the tight pants. God! she thought, a sudden twinge of sexual desire breaking through her gloom. How she'd love to get her fingers on those things! What amazing thighs! What…
"Say," said the girl's matter-of-fact voice through the door, "my name's Zora. I teach the belly-dance classes here. What's yours?"
"Nan," Nan said. "Mary Alice calls me Annie. We used to be friends in school when we were kids." She was beginning to come alive a little now.
"Annie, huh? I think I heard about you. Mary Alice was saying somebody was coming to visit" She came back in, holding up two glasses full of an odd-colored liquid. "Mama Zora's original pick-me-up," she said "Enough there to kill a horse…or cure whatever ails you. I hope you don't mind: I fixed myself one too. God, I could use a pickup. I've had a hell of a day." She handed Nan a glass and kicked off her own shoes before sitting down.
Nan looked down at herself. God, she was naked! She couldn't remember how she'd got that way. Well perhaps it didn't matter. She looked at the strange girl, blinking.
"Come on there, honey," the girl said. "Down she goes. Here's lookin' up your kilt" She touched glasses with Nan, who sat there stupidly looking at her. "L'chaim"
Nan watched the girl shudder wildly at the first drink. Then she took a sip of her own. It was…terrible! She shuddered and made an equally awful face. Then…then…even this quickly…the strangest feeling came over her. Her head reeled. "I…my God," she said.
"Yeah, it's good stuff, isn't it? It's the old Zora Zap-per. I used to give it to Mary Alice when she was feeling low. Gee, that's terrible about her getting hurt Tell me about it huh?" She turned up the glass again. "Zowie. Oh, God, that makes me feel marvelous." She put the glass down and, oblivious of Nan's shocked stare, pulled her jersey up over her breasts and began to massage her big-nippled bosom.
It was…strange. That was the only word for it.
Nan took another drink, shuddered again, and let the strange-heavenly!-feeling steal over her again. She looked again at Zora. She had her eyes closed and was twiddling her long nipples between her fingers, obviously enjoying every bit of it "M-my," Nan said, her voice corning out sounding positively unreal. "You…you're gorgeous." She was, too. Those were the most perfectly formed breasts she'd ever seen. And the strange girl knew it, too. A smile of recognition went over her face, breaking through the look of mindless semi-ecstasy that accompanied her single-minded kneading of her breasts.
"Yeah…" she said. "Best old bod in town. Still is. Oh, wow, that's good stuff…Oh, Jesus, baby, you don't mind if I get comfortable too, do you?" And, not waiting for an answer, she stood and jerked the sweater over her head. Her upper torso was sensational. "Drink up, sweetie. That's good for you." Her hands went to her pants. Then she stopped. "Christ, let's get some music in this joint." She went over to Mary Alice's hi-fi set in the comer and turned it on; when the carrier wave came up she twirled the dials until a pounding, snarling, animal rock band came on, deafeningly loud, almost oppressively sensual. "God, that's good. Oh, my head's spinning." But she showed little sign of it; there was not only a sinuous grace in her funky animal movements as she slid into a sexy bare-breasted dance to the dark and mindless music, but a complete control of her actions.
Nan drank another draught God! That was strong stuff! She stood up herself. Strange: whatever it was it did little to make her dizzy, the way the drink she'd take in before would. She could almost not feel the gin now. Only the strange new mixture-heady, exhilarating…
"Hey, kid," Zora said. "You're kind of cute." Her rounded hips shook with savage abandon under the tight jeans. She reached out now and touched Nan lightly on the nipple; then she went back to the wild dance. Midway in a series of gyrations she stopped and wiggled the pants down her legs to step out of them, naked now except for a gold stomacher. From the stomacher hung a strange medallion, dangling just above her rich curling bush of pubic hair.
And, as Nan watched, the voluptuous belly of the girl began to quiver with a rich and primitive rhythm; the stomacher shook, its gold chain links traveling across her rich belly in ecstatic ripples. And on the silky surface of her belly, above the lush forest of her dark-haired pubis, the medallion danced hypnotically. "There…" the girl said, her voice low and mesmeric. "There…isn't it something now…Don't you want it, baby…look at that big luscious cunt there, sugar…you never had anything tike it, baby…it tastes like Mama's milk…and I can wiggle it inside like I can wiggle it outside…I can twist a man's cock off with that thing, sweetheart…I can write my name on your tongue with my clit, cookie…just try me…now drink it down, sugar…just tip up the glass…it's good for you…it's good for you…it'll get you hotter than a pistol…and then we're going…in the bedroom…you and me…and you're gonna eat