Sarabande, Ch. 15
Tracy sat on his lover’s bed. His baby. Asleep right now, half in shadow, sunlight coming in through the bedroom window. He grinned, noting her thumb had crept up to her lips. She never quite sucked on it… She bit down on her thumb, in thought, as well. Oral little bitch. He stretched lazily, picked up his journal once again. Love came looking for him, in L.A. Nearly four days, they’d been together, and he’d been avoiding a lot of thinking. Or, maybe, there was no need to be thinking, not that kind of computing; of money, time… The costs of his actions with a girl he was with– Oh, lord. Thought stopped, there. Nothing seemed to scare this girl, nothing. He wrote; Karen. And drew a line through the word. I call her Stella, and I call her all the time. Old joke made new again. Holding her down is easy, my tongue on her clit and she don’t move. But she already knows so many of my body’s secrets. She’s fast but she ain’t cheap. She’ll start coming before I even touch her. But to make her happy I have to die, and I do and no faking it.
He reached over for the joint laying on the ashtray. Tomorrow he’d have to go back into tour life. He was trying not to think about that, either. Tony called from the Hyatte; It was Angel this and Angel that. Stella said she wasn’t as innocent as she looked. It had to stick, just had to. Maybe Stella could cast a spell, or sacrifice to whatever Witch Goddess she prayed to, to make sure.
Tony and me almost came to blows over her. We didn’t know it wouldn’t matter, she’d already made her choice, but she took us both, just for fun, the first night. We thought it was our idea, to double-fuck this she-wolf we saw backstage. I went after her, cause it’s well known that I talk faster than Tone, and I got to have her alone in the Limo. I had to swear on my life’s blood, to get first crack. Well that’s what it cost me. Going after her was like the movie ‘Jaws’. She went after the bait like a shark and took my arm with it. “That was easy” I thought to myself. Until I noticed that I was bleeding and she was towing me into the deep water. “I should have known” my last thought before I went under.
He reread the entry, pleased at the conceit. Through the open door, his belongings staked his claim to her home. A nice old Fender guitar with a red sunburst paint-job stood at the end of the sofa. A little Yamaha keyboard, bought yesterday, cluttered her dining room, and a small amp was tucked under her easel. Without talking about it, he had no intention of taking the instruments with him when the tour started again. His sentinels; she would have to explain them somehow, to the other lovers who came into her house. His imagination peopled her world in a flash, with magnificent men who came in, bowed from the waist or fell to their knees, and handed her to bed. There was a photo in her bedroom, and several more throughout the house, of one particular man. Massive build, extremely white skin, fiery red hair. He was a boxer, she’d said. Freakish looking dude, with a hooked nose and a grin ugly as the devil himself. –Must be twice my weight–
The first thing she did in the limo was fuck my ass with her imaginary cock. And then she told me I was fearless. I wasn’t fearless, I wasn’t in control. And then she kindly allowed me to fuck her with my cock. And then she told me my power vision. I was babbling words like forever and love and I realized I meant them. She didn’t believe me, but she let me say it.
Stella stirred, rolled onto her side, her upper leg outflung. Tracy wrote;
I’m looking at her round ass with those tigery stretch marks. Her cunt brown and closed, hiding all the pink. When she gets hot her lips fill up with blood till they turn purple. Women don’t usually want to know about themselves, but Stella digs it. I can’t get over how she was perfectly willing to step out of the car in a sheer black camisole that was nastier than nothing. Tits ass pussy and all, she paraded through a crowd of everyone, worse than naked. I was dying. I dumped my trenchcoat over her shoulders and got a smile for it, but she didn’t even think about covering herself with it. Now I know how much she trusted me. I’m learning not to ask for more than I really want. Because she’ll give it to me. Stella doesn’t stop to bargain.
He sighed, and set the book down. Her journals were no longer in plain sight; she’d learned her lesson, and locked them away somewhere. He wished he could look through them. She had a nice style, pasting photos, magazine cutouts into the pages and writing around them. She drew on some pages. Words and pictures. She digs pictures. “Your words paint pictures for me.” She’d said that, sometime during the past couple days. She showed an easy familiarity with him, that filled him with elation; not fawning, nor defensively derisive. And she could, and did, slap him down, when she felt like it. It let him feel at ease with her, whilst he was learning her ways. –She doesn’t stop to bargain–
Taking Tony on wasn’t any problem for her. When I popped the question, did she say; “oh no I couldn’t” like a lady? She did not. She said “If you wanna pull a train, asshole, I’m gone from here.” I believed her. I rewrote the script, I said “we can’t live without you, baby, we wanna do it all for you” Romance and stuff like that, but when I said “We’ll be your slaves” that’s what hooked her. I could feel electricity just jump off her skin. I always thought it was my imagination. Stella says it’s real. Galvanic response, she calls it. I got her to speak consent. I would have like to get it in writing. I waited till I was sure they’d be engaged before I went back in. Stud Tony, rolling on the bed like a little freak. I climbed aboard while she did him, I could feel satisfaction filling her, like water in a sponge. And him under her mouth crying like a May virgin. That’s what she wants, my Stella. She wants total surrender. Give her that, she’ll give you everything. Tony knew somehow. I should have known.
You walk this Earth, searching for the souls that hear your call, and you get so used to the deaf ears around you that you walk right by the one that heard. Lonely voice; “Did you say something?” Shit, what? I’m hearing voices, damn! She came looking for me, she told me so. I just didn’t realize what that meant. When he spewed into her mouth I casually waited a decent length of time so no one would suspect when I kissed her that I was hunting for him and she gave him to me on her tongue. Her brown eyes staring into mine to see how I would take it. I wised up. I let her see what it meant to me. She acted like men tell her their most awful secrets every dayof the week. I don’t have to play it cool all the time. After that it all got liquid. She says Japan is sensory deprivation time. Three weeks of wham bam and Tony and me were feeling deprived, too. He meant it when he said he was gonna worship her, he was all over her. I followed his lead. She took everything we could give her and poured it out on us even sweeter. It was her gift to us, somehow she made Tony drop his fences. I could touch him, feel his hands on me, the heat of his body while we worked on her. She say she assumed we always did it like that. I’ll never be satisfied with anything less, ever again.
After awhile she got bored with bliss and went sniffing for blood. Tony’s gift to me. He taught her how to Tease me. Hugging on her from behind, hands wrapped around her whispering in her ear. Telling her how to do me. He must have known. Tony the freak was gonna live one night. Stella came looking for the freak that wrote all those nasty songs. He wasn’t willing to be that for her sake. Now me, I’m easy. If getting her off gets me the payoff, I’ll do it. If I have to open my legs like a dame, crawl after her like a dog with my leash in my mouth, that’s no trouble at all. How many women have asked me kindly but firmly to cut out the hysterics. Stella requires it. She sure don’t mind it sweet. But she’d rather hear me beg for mercy. I can beg her into a frenzy. Until she screams for help, and then I can fuck her into a state of surrender. Total surrender, that’s all she wants. Don’t have to be mine, could be hers. Or Tony’s. He came so hard into her I thought he was gonna break his spine or hers. She looked like she was ready to claim him as her territory. I had to show her I could do the studly thing, too. I gave her the pump. She surrendered pretty good for that. And then her voice saying “come in my cunt” she said ‘Tracy I can’t take any more” Victory was mine, so I let loose. And then I lost it. Fire flood freight train. It kicked my ass, I couldn’t tell if it hurt, even. Just the way she likes it. Lying bitch, she could take it, she just gets bored with bliss that’s all. Well, in surrender, victory. I could see it in her eyes, she loves me. How could she not, half of me was in there with her. Tony started rapping, made one more try, but his heart wasn’t really in it. He doesn’t want a dame who’s going to get the last word more often than not. He didn’t split the scene, though. He got under the covers, in my bed, with me and my woman. Stella. Tony. I was in bliss, in heaven. I love the bastard so much. Just to see him unlock a little. Stella did it.
His quick pen filled in further details. He was writing it for her, and he reproduced faithfully the conversations of the men when she wasn’t around. If they were still together at the end of the tour, maybe she would read it. She dug controversy, her stunts showed that. He figured there was a fair chance that she would dig the way men talk, as well.
“Watcha writing about?” She was awake and watching him. He closed the book.
“Tour shit… You ready for tomorrow?”
“Sure, I guess. I have to go over to my mom’s, tonight…” She didn’t want to say it, but the thought of leaving him behind bothered her.
Drop him off at the hotel? Leave him here, at her house? –Too much too soon– He was pulling the phone onto the bed, to call Tony at the hotel. “You don’t want to come with me, do you?
“Uh?” He affected surprise, grinning. His thumb cut the phone off in mid–ring. “Naw.. You don’t wanna bring me home to meet the folks, really?’
“I don’t wanna go home to the folks at all, really,” she admitted.
“So, miss it, baby. I’ll take you out somewhere nice. What do you want with all that fighting, anyway?”
“No, we don’t fight!” she protested. “We all really, really love each other, really. Um. Look, baby, go somewhere. Outside, or on the porch or something. I have to make a phone call.”
“Whoa,” Tracy said, in real surprise this time. “Yes, Ma’am.” He pulled his jeans on, and padded out into the back yard, to sit on the grass. Tone of command there. Have to think about that. He fished in his pocket for a joint.
“Kathy?” Stella said. “It’s Karen. Yeah, hi. Um, are you coming over to mom’s? Um, Kathy?” Shit, her voice was shaking. “I wanted to ask you…”
“Karen, are you okay?” Kathy said.
“Um, yeah, but Kathy? I wanted to let you know…”
“Goddamn it, what!”
“I met him.”
“No.”
“Yeah…”
“And?” Kathy prompted.
“I’m in love?” Her words came out in a miserable little squeak. She waited.
“You’re in love,” her sister said at last.
“Yeah…”
“You met him and you fell in love with him.”
“Yeah, Kathy, we did… I’m sorry…”
“We? He’s in love with you.”
“Yeah. Well, that’s what he’s saying, But how do I know? I mean, I don’t see why he would, you know–”
“I thought you only wanted to fuck him–”
“Yep, that’s all I wanted. Look, Kathy, I’m sorry…”
“Yeah, I know.” Her sister chuckled. “Fuck you, Karen.”
“Fuck you too, bitch,” Stella said lovingly. “Kath? I just wanted to let you know that he’s probably going to be coming with me tonight–”
“No!” The chuckle became laughter. Stella listened worriedly. “Look, Karen, don’t tell me probably, okay? Is he or not?”
“Will you be there if he is?” she wanted to know. “You don’t sound okay.”
“Fuck, everything is fine! My sister scored Tracy Bell. I got a superstar for a brother-in-law. He’s in the family, at least–”
“I don’t know for how long, Kath! I mean…”
“Yeah, I’ll be there. I guess.”
“I just wanted to let you know. You know, so you don’t, like, die of shock when he’s in your face.”
“Very thoughtful. And so I don’t think you’re bringing him home for me.”
“Nope,” Stella said regretfully. “Nope, I’m bringing him home for me, sweetie.”
“See you there.”
The phone went dead. “Shit,” Stella said aloud, and replaced the receiver. She lay back, gazing at nothing. “Oh, well,” she said at last. In her mind she began cataloging the things she would have to pack for a week-long trip. She fingered the spiral spine of a notebook for several minutes, before she realized what it was. She sat up and opened it. It was Tracy’s journal; Notations and sums were set down in a careful hand, scraps of lyric in all capitols. The rest of the writing was in a fairly neat script; Stella read accounts of the days on busses, airplanes, the night’s shows, the women. Unabashedly egotistic, he wrote about the groupies as if they were his due. But not completely egotistical; he recorded lovingly the doings of the other members of his band, and Tony most of all. The last three pages contained her name, repeated often. He called her a she-wolf, a shark, did he really see her that way? Her heart was pounding. All she was, was aggressive and honest about her desire, wasn’t she? Why the ferocious imagery?
–Oh, Mother. Could it be? A man who loves that side of me. I told him I own him, he just said yes. He loves it that I said I own him.– She realized abruptly just how long ago she had sent him out of the house, and heaved herself up to wander in search for him.
He was in the back yard. His lips were moving, one hand tapped time on his knee. She dropped his journal down next to him.
“You forgot this.”
“Oh, thanks-” He grabbed it. “I got something going, here.” He wrote, in capitols, for a minute, and looked up at her.
“What are you looking for Trace? A she-wolf, huh?”
“Um,” he said, ruefully. “Course, you’d read it…” He threw his head back to squint up at her. “It’s supposed to be a complement, baby,” he added after a minute. “Wolves are cool.”
“Well, thank you for the complement…” Her brain whirled for a moment. “So what do you want to do tonight?” She sat down beside him and dragged on the joint he offered her. “Because I have to see my mom, and face Kathy…” And she chuckled.
“Yeah? What’s up with that?” Tracy said, and went back to his original thought. “Listen, Stella? I just see how strong you are, baby, and you know? I’ve been blessed with strong women in my life. I can’t be happy with nothing else, baby.” He gave her his melting look and added; “I’m very happy right now…”
“Cut it out,” Stella said and leaned against him. “Come with me, then, meet my mom. And my sister.”
“Hmmn? What’s up with that?”
“I probably shouldn’t even tell you.” Stella plucked grass. “Feed your ego… Kathy was supposed to get you.”
“Huh!” Tracy shot upright.
“She wants your baby, all that– I just wanted to fuck you… So I had to tell her, you know…”
“That I’m in love with you,” Tracy said, his voice shaking. “Baby… Would you give me up to your sister?”
“Don’t know… No. I can’t. Not yet, anyway.”
“Not yet anyway? Too much.”
“So, just to let you know, okay? So, let her know she turns you on? If she does, you know… “
“What’s she like?” Tracy said, warily.
“You could get into her,” Stella assured him. “She rates. She’s younger than me, that’s all, so I gotta be careful with her. Like, if you do fuck her, it has to be your idea, not mine.”
“What you’re saying,” Tracy said after a moment; “Is I gotta fuck your sister for you before she’ll talk to you again.”
Stella smiled benignly at him; “Good boy!” Her coo disguised her panicky heart. “I knew you’d understand, is that weird to you?”
“No,” he said honestly. “Happens a lot.”
“Good, ‘cause it happens to us, too.
Another hillside house. Less steps, this time, but more jungle. Stella paused and pulled something off a tree rustling in the evening half-light. She bit, and spat; “Here,” she said and put it to Tracy’s lips, who ducked away.
“What are you trying to make me do now?”
“Just taste this,” she insisted. He sucked at the hole she had bit in the fruit. His mouth was flooded with the juicy pulp, a haunting, unfamiliar flavor.
“Guava,” she told him, and plucked one for herself. “Like it?”
He picked another one himself and followed her upwards, through the whispering twilight, to where yellow light poured out of an opened door, spilling the smells of paint and food alongside. Tracy blinked; His eyes had just become accustomed to the dark outdoors, and it was hard to see through the yellow haze, but he got an impression of willowy grace, as a woman drifted toward him.
“Hi honey!” Stella cooed. They exchanged hugs. “Tracy, I want you to meet Kathy…Kath? this is Tracy.”
Kathy’s driftingness became more pronounced as he got closer. She lifted embarrassed eyes to meet his, and essayed a smile. Tracy was astounded. Kathy was, in fact, the prettier of the sisters. She was blond, or light brown, the light made it hard to tell. Her eyes were grey, delicately lashed under strong eyebrows, her mouth wide and generous. He dropped his gaze, seeing a slender body, clad in jeans and a t-shirt, that moved with the conscious grace of ballet training. It was easy to let his mouth fall open in a slow smile. Stella, behind her sister’s back, hung out her tongue at him, grinning.
“Lord,” Tracy said involuntarily; “I should have known– It’s a pleasure to meet y’all.” His eyes said volumes more, as he captured her diffident hand. “Damn,” he half whispered. He meant it as a promise. Kath blossomed. Stella breathed a sigh of relief.
“Karen?” It took Tracy a moment to remember who that was. Stella took after her mother, he could see. Maggie Doman McKayne was a petite woman, with Stella’s coloring. Her flyaway, bobbed hair was a dark walnut, flecked with silver. Stella’s brown eyes smiled out of a face that showed its half century well, and the effects of an outdoor life. Maggie was having none of anything as formal as an introduction. She greeted her daughter’s lover as an old friend, and herded the whole group into the house.
“And you are Verden Bell’s son, isn’t that wonderful! The girls are big fans of yours– And I was always a fan of your father. Oh, yes,” she added. “I raised ‘em on the blues. I have a pretty good collection on vinyl. I saw Verden’s Bell-Tones every chance I could, in my younger days.”
“Yeah, I been hearing my dad too, at Stella’s,” Tracy grinned. “Karen, I mean,” he added. “Oh, man, Missus McKayne, I can’t tell you– Thank you for letting me come on tonight!”
“Missus McKayne? We call her Maggie,” Stella said, grinning. She dumped a pile of dishes into his arms, and he followed Kathy to the table. A steaming casserole flew to the center, mis-matched flatware. He was eating almost before he realized it. The Rolling Stones on the record player. Maggie was an old-time rocker. There must have been four, five hundred vinyl albums lining a living room wall.
After dinner, he settled himself to investigate them and covertly watch the three women interact. He approved of close families, his own, though larger, being the same way. Having made his choices, he loaded the old record changer and wandered into the kitchen. Maggie was drying dishes, alone. A door stood open, the smells of damp earth blowing in.
“The girls are outside,” Maggie said. He ventured out, onto a wooden deck. Stella and her sister looked up, their faces picked out in an angelic mixture of moon and porch light. “Hi” he said and came to join them at the railing where they stood looking over the little valley. Lights, obscured by the many trees, twinkled faintly from the few houses below. They sniffed sage, jasmine, dirt, listened to the rustling of trees and a night bird calling nearby.
“I dig this,” Tracy said.
“I keep moving back in,” Kathy said. “You wouldn’t believe how many different fruit trees there are back here, and Mom’s studio faces north.”
“Paradise,” Stella agreed. “You ought to go down there. Let’s see… Figs are ripe, and the tangerines, and maybe some peaches, if Maggie didn’t eat them green like she does.”
“And guavas,” Kathy said. “Probably some apricots left, too.”
“Ooh, apricots!” Stella said, yearningly. “Bring some up with you, okay?”
“Uh. Which one is the apricot tree?”
“I’ll take him down,” Kathy pushed herself away from the railing.
“I’ll bet.”
Tracy watched Stella start to grin, and bit his cheek to keep his own expression innocent. He followed Kathy down a set of wooden stairs, turning back to look questioningly at Stella, who urged him on with a rude and expressive gesture. “Be back in a while” he said, inadequately. “Wait for me!”he added, plaintively. “Don’t lose me, okay, girl?” He hurried down the stairs and caught up with Kathy on the dark path. He put his hand on her shoulder as a link. Kathy covered it with her own, as he traveled into her hair to her neck. Like her sister, she had not even a pretense of prudery. She inclined her head frankly enjoying the caress, and as the path leveled out, turned to face him. Her lovely eyes studied his face, seriously.
“Tracy,” she said, and he gathered her slender body against his. When she broke free of the kiss, she pulled him a few steps farther and opened the door of a little garden house, where a hammock awaited them.
Stella perched on a paint-splattered model’s chair in her mother’s studio. She breathed in the smells of her childhood, cooking and turpentine. In this house, Stella, who after all had been in existence less than a week, gave way once again to Karen. She watched her mother potter around, wiping brushes and carefully drying them, while she gave Kathy time to be alone with Tracy. The northern skylights showed only the mauve L.A. night. Her mother followed her gaze upwards.
“When we first put them in,” Maggie said; “We had stars at night. The whole Milky Way. I’m sorry I never tried to paint it, now.”
“My house smells like paint again,” Stella said. “I did a canvas yesterday, Tracy bought me materials.”
“Yeah? What of?”
“Um. Color field, sort of, for the background, and some big, ugly flowers– You know, decadent rotted jungle things, and… Well, sort of a shadowy panthery animal. You can’t see her too well, she’s there by not being there. Or anyway, that’s what I tried for. Dark and hot.”
“Really!” Maggie stopped and stared at her daughter. “Honey, that sounds interesting. Oh, I’m glad to hear you talk about painting again.”
“It’s sort of an illustration to one of his songs. Mom… He’s talking about putting me through school. So I can get my degree.”
“And high time, too,” her mother said firmly. “All your talent. If you must treat it as a hobby…”
“Mom, I’ll be his protege. I’ll– I don’t know, I’ll owe it all to him, or something, I’m not sure-”
“Honey, you’ll have to wait till next semester to start anyway. That should give you time to think it over, and work on your portfolio… Where were you thinking?”
“I’m not thinking, yet. I mean… He’s never lasted more than a year with any girlfriend. I’ve been seeing three different guys, for the past four years– and they weren’t always the same three guys. I’ve only known him a week– and Kath was supposed to get him.”
“Where is Kath?”
“screwing her brains out, I hope. She has forty minutes.” Stella-Karen replied, grimly.
“You girls,” her mother said. “I really wish we’d spaced you two further apart, maybe there would be a little less rivalry between you. I wish you’d grow out of it.”
“She got her degree. She’s got the academic credentials. Okay, I’m impressed, she did her homework all through school. I got the chance to travel, as a model, and she hates me for it! She thinks I must be prettier than her, she thinks it’s glamorous. It’s a dead end. I’ll be lucky if I make thirty grand this year. And no health insurance. Plenty of leisure. I’m not that pretty, but she has this thing about it-”
“All right, all right!” her mother snapped. “Shut up, Karen, please, I get exhausted.”
“I’m sorry.” Stella drummed pensively on her thigh. Had Tracy been there, he would have grinned to see her thumb make its way to her mouth; her mother snorted, irritably and pointedly. “And now Tracy Bell… He’s a real superstar, Mom… I mean, the show the other night filled the Colosseum. Twenty thousand people. Their fourth show in the area and all of them were sold out. You can’t imagine how many women want this guy. And he’s talking about forever, I’m going on tour with him– putting me through school– He could meet the very next love of his life tomorrow. He could decide he likes Kath even better than me. I need more sleep than he does.”
“So, you don’t feel certain about this, honey?” Maggie said gently.
“Yeah, I do,” Stella said. “I feel so certain about him… When you met Daddy, how long did it take?”
“Oh, honey. Not long. I pretty much knew when I met him–.”
“You couldn’t do it without him?”
“Certainly not!” Her mother snapped. “Oh, I could have done it. Everything I’ve done, I could have done on my own. Had my children, raised them. I could have fought for my standing with the academics. Hell, Charley’s out in the field so often, I did do a lot of it alone. Only, it’s been so much more fun doing it with him around….”
“Yeah. That’s kind of it.”
“He has a lovely voice,” Maggie said thoughtfully. “He reminds me of a young Nat King Cole.”
“Yeah,” Stella sighed. “When I think of all the men who’ve been dragged into that summer house…”
Tracy settled himself into the Jeep, chuckling.
“Proud of yourself?” Stella turned the key in the ignition.
“Ain’t you afraid I’ll leave you for your sister?”
Stella snorted. “No, I don’t think so.”
“But it could have happened,” Tracy persisted.
Stella shook her head. “No… See I had to let you two have a shot, so you wouldn’t say I never gave you a chance at her… But she isn’t right for you the way I am.”
“Oh yeah?” Tracy said, challenged. “Kathy is one stone fox, baby. I could keep her happy.”
“She couldn’t keep you happy.” Stella shut up. Privately, Tracy agreed with her, but he wanted to know what her reasoning was. It took ten minutes of pestering before she said;
“You’re Tracy Bell. She thinks you’re almost perfect, right? Almost. She thinks she could change a few things… You’d be respectful of her, all the time, you’d be faithful. She wants Tracy from “Freedom’s Way”, or “Couldn’t We Fall In Love”. Not “Subway” or “Hot spot” or probably not even “Tease Me”…
–No, not that one– “Stella-” he began, but she cut him off.
“Did you diss her?”
“No, baby! We made lo–ove,” he said in satisfaction.
“Yeah? you didn’t tell her she was an evil bitch? You could have. She would have gone for it. Shit–” She wrenched the wheel to negotiate a tight curve and a careening sports car at the same time. “Goddamn Hollywood drivers.”
“It just didn’t come up.” Tracy released his grasp on the arm rest. “It’s a good thing I met the right one first, ain’t it?”
“You better believe it,” Stella said smugly. They slowed to a stop at the foot of the canyon. Civilization suddenly echoed around them again. “Come here, you brat.” Instead of sliding across the seat to her, he opened his door and jumped out. She watched in alarm. And realized that he was racing around to her side of the car. He wrenched her door open, dove in to kiss her. “Stell’,” he said huskily, and slid out of her arms.
“Stella!” he shouted. She looked down at him, on his knees in the street. Reaching up to her, grinning, he shouted it again, with all the strength of his stage-trained lungs; “Hey, Stella-a-ah!”
Stella carefully shifted into park. “You’re really cute,” she said, inadequately. Horns honked as cars passed by the spectacle. “Say yes!” someone yelled out their window as they swung around them.
“Tracy, baby, Don’t get your legs run over, okay?” She tapped on the steering wheel. “Trace… Get up, goddamnit.” She waited, grinning at his grin; “Seems to me,” she said thoughtfully “You like being on your knees. It happens a lot, doesn’t it.”
Tracy hopped up. “You got me down the hill alive. So now I owe you my life. Nya, naa, naa…”
“Get in the car, before I kill you.”
