SK01 - Waist Deep (22 page)

39

Once it was dark, I drove back to LeMond’s block.
With darkness came a stillness to the street
. N
o one was outside in the cold.
There were three streetlights on the block, but the middle one was out, either from a burnt bulb or a well-thrown rock.
Lights blazed in many of the houses, but some were shrouded in darkness.

I found a place to park just about two houses away from LeMond’s and walked to his house.
The porch light was off and the drapes were drawn, though I could see that there was a light behind them.
I cut across his lawn and tried quickly to peer through any cracks in the drapery.
There weren’t any.

There was another window on the side of the house and light poured through this one.
I leaned into the light far enough to see that it led to a kitchen.
It was clean, except for some dishes in the sink and an open bottle of wine on the counter.

A fence began at the corner of the house and ran straight back about ten feet and then made a sharp right angle, marking the end of the driveway.
The gate was just beyond the portable carport.

I stood still for a moment, trying to decide how to proceed.
I’d seen a fence on the other side of the house on my approach, so I knew that his back yard was completely fenced in.
There were no other windows to look through, so I had to make a choice.
Either go in the back yard and look for other windows to peek through or call it good and leave.

Going over the fence posed several problems.
For one, it was light in the back yard.
Second, LeMond might have a dog back there.
Third, going into someone’s fenced back yard was just as much a burglary as breaking into their house.
Right now, the police might consider me a suspicious person, but I hadn’t
necessarily
violated any laws by walking up LeMond’s driveway.

I mulled it over.
It was getting cold and my windbreaker wasn’t doing much to keep me warm, so I needed to make a choice quickly.

As I stood shivering next to LeMond’s car, I became aware of a humming sound and after a bit, the smell of chlorine.
I crept closer to the gate and heard the bubbling and sloshing of water.

LeMond had a hot tub.

I tried to find a crack in the fence, but it was built with altern
ating boards inside and out,
tightly woven for privacy.
Finally, I settled for putting my foot on one of the cross beams and boosting myself up to see over the top of the fence.

LeMond was there and so was the brunette girl.
Their bodies were intertwined in the hot tub and they were intensely occupied.
The water
sloshed as they kissed deeply.

The girl was on top of LeMond and the water was above her waist.
In the light, I could see the side of her breasts as she glided up and down on LeMond’s lap.
His arms were wrapped around her lower back and rose above the water with each stroke they made together.

She broke off a kiss and rose slightly in the water.
LeMond buried his face in her breasts.
A sharp moan escaped her lips.

LeMond stopped.
“Shhh, baby.”

She slowed her rhythm, but didn’t stop.
“I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay,” he said, nuzzling a nipple with his lower lip.
“But if the neighbors hear, they’ll start wondering what’s going on.”

“So what?” she asked, still rocking.

“It’s none of their business, that’s what.”

She smiled, then bit her lower lip and leaned back, closing her eyes.
“Mmmmm,” she said, “I don’t care what they know.”

LeMond snatched her by her upper arms and pulled her down close to his face.

“Gary—” she protested.

“Don’t you ever say that again,” LeMond said, his voice low and cruel.

“I was just—”

LeMond gave her a shake.
“You better care who knows about us.”

The girl started to cry, first with silent tears and then soft, pitiful sobs.
LeMond sat up in the hot tub and drew her head to his shoulder.

“I-I’m s-sorry,” she blubbered.

LeMond stroked her wet hair.
“Sshhh now.
It’s okay.
We just have to be careful, baby, that’s all.”

She cried softly and he kept stroking her hair.

The crying slowed down, turned to snuffling, then stopped.
She lifted her head from his shoulder and looked at LeMond.
“Why’d you have to yell at me like that, Gary?
And grab me so hard?”

“Slide down in the water,” he said.
“Get warm.”

She slid down into the hot tub to her neck, but kept her eyes fixed on him.

LeMond reached out and touched her cheeks.
“Yvette, honey, you’ve got to understand something.
The world is a bullshit place.
It’s full of people who don’t understand anything about love.
People who are full of prejudice and hypocrisy and who are hung up on bullshit things.”

“Like what?”

“Like age, for one thing,” he said.
“That, and their puritanical, ultra-conservative repressed bullshit about sex.”

“But I thought you said we shouldn’t care about that,” Yvette said, almost whining.

LeMond let go of her face and reached for the wine glasses on the edge of the hot tub.
He handed her one and took a sip from his own.
“What I said, sweetheart, was that we shouldn’t buy into society’s bullshit.
Just because my parents or your parents go along for the ride doesn’t mean we can’t break free of it.”

“Yeah,” she said, nodding her head.
“That’s why I don’t care if the whole world knows about us.”

“But you should,” LeMond said.
He motioned to her wine glass and she took a swallow.
He gave her a winning smile.
“We’re in the minority, those of us who have broken free of society’s restraints.
And every minority in every nation in the history of mankind has been oppressed by the majority.
That’s reality.”

“But—”

LeMond waved her objection away while he took another drink from his wine glass, then replaced it on the side of the hot tub.
“It becomes a paradox, really.
You have to break free of the bullshit conventions of society—those regarding sex, alcohol, relationships, all of it.
But at the same time, you have to maintain an outward appearance of keeping within these artificial parameters in order to protect yourself from oppression.”

“It’s not fair,” she pouted and finished off her wine.

“No, it’s not.
But it’s not forever, either.”

“Why not?” Yvette asked.
She slid back onto his lap and wriggled her hips.

LeMond let out a small sigh.
“Ah, that’s nice.”

She began a slow
rhythm
again.
“Why isn’t it forever, Gary?”

LeMond leaned his head back on the edge of the hot tub.
“Never mind.
Let’s make love.”

Yvette continued her rocking, then slowed to a stop.

LeMond opened an eye and looked at her.
“What?”

“I want to know,” she said, more than a hint of a girlish whine in her voice.

“Know?”

“You said it’s not forever.
I want to know why.”

LeMond reached up and caressed her breasts.
She let him continue for a moment, then brushed his hands aside and slid beneath the water again.
He smiled.
“Okay, first the end of the lesson.
Then we make love some more.”

My calves trembled from standing on the small cross beam.
My triceps also ached from the strain of holding my upper body flush to the fence.
Not to mention that I was feeling a mixture of disgust and envy for LeMond and a sense of voyeuristic shame for watching this whole scene play out in front of me.

LeMond reached for his wine and polished off the glass.
“It isn’t forever, because it always ends,” he said simply.

“What is that, a riddle?”

He shook his head.
“It’s a universal truth.
Whatever is taboo eventually ends, one way or another.”

“I don’t get it,” Yvette said, moving away from him and reaching for her glass.
When she realized it was empty, her pout returned.

LeMond gave her an indulgent smile. “Of course you do.
I’m just not doing a good job of explaining it.”
He set down his wine glass and leaned back.
“Look at it this way.
What would your parents say about us being together?”

“They would totally and completely
freak
.”

“Exactly.
And what would society say about it?”

“I don’t care.”

“But you should, remember?
For self-preservation, y
ou should care what society would say.
Which is…?”

Yvette slid toward him, her neck at water level.
“That’s it’s wrong.
But that’s bullshit.”

“Of course it is.
But that’s the party line that they all march to.
That it’s wrong.
That it’s taboo.”
He reached out and stroked her hair.
“But in another year, no one will look twice at us.
It won’t be taboo anymore, because your age will have changed.
The taboo will have ended.”

“People will still stare.”

LeMond nodded.
“Yeah, some will.
But that’s all they can do.
They can’t call the police.
They can’t call your parents.
All they can do is wrinkle their nose at us.”
He smiled.
“Besides, some of the men that notice would t
hink I was a lucky bastard. T
hey’d wish they were me.”

“You
are
a lucky bastard,” she said and shifted
her position
in the water
, reaching for him
.

LeMond gave a
mild s
tart, followed by a smile.
“Yes, I am,” he grinned.
“Luckier than Solomon.”

There was a moment of carnal silence as they leered at each other.
Then LeMond broke it, saying, “Of course, the opposite can occur, too.”