In this next chapter of the backwoods novella BAT IN A WHIRLWIND, Ben has his first day off from working in the café in well over a month, and on a long relaxing walk in the woods he achieves enlightenment.  Then he spends the afternoon painting the fence and mowing the lawns.

To read the whole BAT IN A WHIRLWIND, Chapter 13.  PUSH COMES TO SHOVE, left click here and select “Open,” or to download as a free pdf file to read at your leisure whenever, right click and select “Save Target (or Link) As.”  You can access the previous 12 chapters for reading or download from the chapter list on the book page.

BAT IN A WHIRLWIND

Excerpt from Chapter 13. – Push Comes to Shove

I ambled over to the café for some supper, and Margie fixed me a chickenfry.  Then over at the house again, I turned my radio on to WNOE and wrote to Betsy.  I told her right off about how after three years I’d at last fallen out of love with Annette.  While I was describing the old plowshare, the door from the living room into my room opened, and Daddy came in.  Surprised, I turned from my desk and said hi.  I couldn’t remember him ever coming in my room before.

“Hi,” Daddy said back.  “You know, I been thinking on that problem in the magazine.”

Pleased that he’d found it interesting, I said, “Oh yeh, I worked that out this afternoon mowing the lawn.”  The words were barely out of my mouth when Daddy’s face screwed up in the familiar rage.  Instinctively I ducked, but he still managed to smack me hard upside the head, knocking me and the chair over backwards onto the floor.

He stood over me shouting down, “Just see if I try and help you again, you smart-ass son of a bitch!”  With a kick in my thigh, he stomped out, slamming the door so hard the curtain rod fell off, the white lace crumpling up on the floor.  Stunned, I lay there not even feeling the hit or kick, nor the least bit like crying.  What had happened to wake up that monster in Daddy again?

I stood up slowly, furious about the injustice and determined not to put up with it anymore.  It quickly grew into a cold, hard anger.  Whatever spark of love I might have felt for Daddy this morning had just been knocked right out of me.  Clearly push had just come to shove.  Standing there with the chair on its back and the letter on the desk, I decided what to do.

From under the bed I took out my suitcase and started pulling stuff out of dresser drawers.  First things I packed were my Frankie Avalon sweater with its floppy collar, and Danny’s striped shirt that I’d never given back.  While I was choosing some other shirts, Mom looked into the room and saw me packing.  “What are you doing?” she asked quietly, pushing the crumpled curtain back with the door, but of course she knew.

“I’m going,” I said simply.  “I’m 18 and I’m going.”  Gathering up shirts and pants, my arms were full.  Mom stood by the chair lying there and cried.  Janie looked in the doorway, all scared.  For an instant I kind of faltered but went on anyway, “I’ll catch the Greyhound tomorrow and go on to New Orleans now.”  Like Fats Domino, I was ready to walk there.

Mom sniffed hard and asked, “Why do you have to go right now, Benny?”

Her tears made it hard for me not to cry.  “He hates me, and I’m going.”

“No,” Mom sobbed, “Daddy loves you.  He just doesn’t know how…”  As far as I was concerned, I had no feelings left whatsoever.  Mom stood there by the overturned chair crying while I packed the shirts.  Janie disappeared.  “Please, honey,” she said softly and stroked my shoulder, “try and understand how worried Daddy is.  He didn’t mean to hurt you.”

“What else does a fist mean?” I asked and wadded some pants into the suitcase.  “I’m not staying here and getting beat up on anymore.”  For a moment Mom stood there crying silently and then left.  I heard the front screen door close.

#

In the King Edward cigar box on my dresser I found $380 after having paid my fees and buying some clothes from the catalog.  It would just have to be enough, I reckoned.  Take the Greyhound straight to New Orleans, and until I could get into the dorm, I’d camp out down in those willow woods along the river.  A guy could do okay there for a couple weeks with all those big boats on the river and a grocery store probably not too far away.

That meant fetching my sleeping bag from the back room.  Then I started packing my journal and old novels into a cardboard box.  Maybe I should just have Mom send them to me, but I didn’t want anyone seeing all that stuff about Annette.  Then there was all my huge record collection, the books on the shelves…  I started to get really confused because I couldn’t take all that much with me now.

In a daze I picked up random things on my desk and then scribbled on the letter to Betsy, “Change of plans.  Will write from New Orleans.”  While I was addressing the envelope, Daddy appeared in the doorway again.  I stepped away behind the overturned chair.

“I’m sorry,” he said with a choke, his eyes pained.  “I don’t want you to go.”

“I’m going,” I insisted and wary of more blows, put some pens into the suitcase.

Daddy very slowly bent and picked up the chair.  “But for your Mom, just stay till you have to go, like we planned, please.”  His face turned very pale, and he looked away toward the door.  “She’s all torn up about this.”  When he turned back to me, Daddy’s eyes were wet.  His next words came in a rush, “I really am sorry.  I just wanted to do something with you, for you, I mean, because I…”  I stared, and when he took a step toward me, I backed away.  Covering his eyes, he mumbled, “Don’t go yet.  Please.  I… I do love you, Benny.”

If he wanted me to say I loved him too, I couldn’t lie.  Inside, I didn’t love anybody anymore.  My heart was empty without Annette or Danny or anyone.  As Daddy wiped his face, our eyes met, and I saw despair there, more than just the grief of this moment.  “When you sell this place,” I said, hoping sincerely, “things will get better.”  And even better without me.

Daddy’s pale eyes looked real sincere when he said, “Look, Benny, I really do appreciate all the work you done, the fence and all.”  Again he moved toward me, but I was near the bed and couldn’t back away, so he managed to get his arms around me, squeezing hard.

I stood there thinking we were really the same size now, and there was that distinctive smell he had.  I hadn’t felt his arms around me since I was a tiny kid, and that lost look in his eyes.  And he was actually asking me instead of ordering.  So what were a couple more weeks?  It would be a lot easier just to stay on, and it didn’t really matter now I knew how I truly felt.  “Okay,” I conceded.  Besides, the money from two more weeks’ work would come in real handy when I’d at last be on my own in New Orleans.

Daddy squeezed me again and much to my relief, let go.  Surely my smile was as weak as his.  “I’ll go tell your Mom,” he said.  “She’ll be happy.”  With that, he turned and left.

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In this next chapter of the backwoods novella BAT IN A WHIRLWIND, Cousin Lew sets Ben up for his first time ever to go “parking” with a girl.

To read the whole BAT IN A WHIRLWIND, Chapter 12.  SOME TAIL, left click here and select “Open,” or to download as a free pdf file to read at your leisure whenever, right click and select “Save Target (or Link) As.”  You can access the previous 11 chapters for reading or download from the chapter list on the book page.

BAT IN A WHIRLWIND

Excerpt from Chapter 12. – Some Tail

Good old Margie and I had that unspoken bargain that in the slack afternoons I’d cover for her to read the paper or embroider, and later on she’d handle it while I’d catch forty winks.  Round about three I lay back on the seat of number one napping in the rosebush-filtered sun.  Suddenly Margie called, “Your dad’s home.”

I peeked through the rosebush and saw Daddy and Joe Ray getting out of the Desoto over by the mailbox, and Ox was pulling up right behind in his pickup.  I trotted across the highway to see what was up.  In the bed of Ox’s truck was the hugest goddam catfish anybody ever saw, maybe nine feet long, lying there big as that walrus in the New Orleans Zoo.  Daddy said he got it off folks who netted it out of the Little River, and he’d butcher it up to serve in the café.

Joe Ray declared, “That mouth is easy big enough to swallow a full-growed man.”

They backed the truck up under a good-sized black oak off to the side of the café, and hoisted the fish up by its tail from a branch.  They got to work with big knives, and I stayed to watch the guts glob out into the tub.  But I had to get back to work.  In another lull in business I checked on the fish butchers who had it all skinned but were hacking with hatchet and saw trying to cut off the monster head.

Ox exclaimed, “I bet this fish is at least a hundred years old.”

“Was,” I corrected him and cautioned, “Don’t go telling any customers their catfish steak’s a hundred years old.”

#

In a couple hours Lew got back from the peach orchard and was so happy to be done with the work at last.  He marveled at the giant catfish head with its long whiskers and sat for the last while of my work with a nice cold Dr. Pepper and the funny papers.  As soon as Daddy showed up, we ran out to feed pets.  After a quick supper together in number three, we bummed around, chasing each other across the pasture and fighting a pine-burr war out by the gravel pit.

Come evening, Lew and I sat on the terrace in the cool under the pines and played canasta, constantly having to shoo the cats and dogs away from our cards.  I asked when we were going to take care of the problems in our pants, and Lew chuckled wickedly.  “Not yet—we gonna get us some tail tonight!”

I was too surprised to squeak.  He pulled some Trojans out of his pocket.  “A guy down at the orchard got me some,” he explained, handing me a little packet.  Staring in disbelief, I took it.  Lew explained, “Iris says she wants to do it tonight.  You know, before I go away.”

I certainly understood that but brandished the rubber and squeaked, “With me too?”

“No, no!” Lew laughed.  “She’s got a date for you too, Cuz.”

“Who?” I squeaked again, but Lew wouldn’t say.  When I reminded him that I didn’t know how to do it with a girl, he said you just had to warm them up first with some kissing and playing with their titties.  Then you reach down there and feel them up some before you slip it in real slow.  I got a bone on thinking about a girl, any girl, spreading her legs for…

The evening wore on with us playing pinballs.  It took forever, and all I could think of was me actually having a date.  By nine o’clock I was really nervous when Iris showed up, followed by Liz Butler.  What a relief that she was going to be my date, my old friend and dance partner, real cute in a tight white blouse with her light brown hair up in a ponytail.  As I sat down beside Liz in number four, I became acutely aware of the Trojan in my shirt pocket.

Iris was very intent on Lew as we all chatted about nothing in particular, and I got to feeling the same sort of affectionate attention from Liz.  She was all smiles and kept touching my arm.  Pretty soon Lew suggested we go for a little ride in Iris’ car.  Liz took my hand and sighed, “I always wanted to go riding with you, Benny.”

Lew saw my concerned expression and whispered, “You and I can make like going home and meet up with them outside.”  We got up with casual farewells to the girls, said goodnight to Daddy at the register, and walked out the door.  Once outside, Lew and I waited by Iris’ car.  Suddenly I got excited, in both ways, to be going out riding with a girl like other guys do.  Thank goodness Liz was nice-looking and we were such good friends.  After a bit the girls strolled out of the café, and we got into the car.

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In this next chapter of the backwoods novella BAT IN A WHIRLWIND, Ben and Danny have their own private senior party.

To read BAT IN A WHIRLWIND, Chapter 9.  GETTING NAKED, right click here and select “Open,” or to download as a free pdf file to read at your leisure whenever, select “Save Target (or Link) As.”  You can access the previous 8 chapters for reading or download from the chapter list on the book page.

BAT IN A WHIRLWIND

Excerpt from Chapter 9. – Getting Naked

            I told Daddy right away about Danny coming up and renting a cabin and us having our own private senior party.  He actually chuckled, “Well, you make sure Ed Norton signs in the register and pays his three dollars.”  He even agreed that I wouldn’t have to work till one o’clock so maybe we could go for a hike tomorrow morning.

However, this evening Daddy had to take Mom to an ice cream social affair over at the Belcher place, so I had to work for him.  It was fairly busy, keeping me running, and I figured it was a good trade-off for tomorrow morning.  It also kept me from watching the clock and thinking about my friend’s arrival.

He showed up right at the promised time, and I rejoiced to see him in a brief moment between customers.  We registered him in the motel book as Mr. Ed Norton from Brooklyn for number five, the nice one out by the woods.  I told him it was the honeymoon cabin, and he gave me a wicked wink.  Then, while I kept working, Danny hung out happily with the pinballs.  In passing I’d peek in at him every chance I got, just for his smile.

#

            The folks got home shortly before ten from their party, and it was time for ours.  Danny carried some Cokes and ice down to number five, and I ran over to the house for my cards and radio.  Going down to the cabin, I trotted along through the pine shadows from the low half-moon and suddenly felt as though I was in some other reality.  The window of the cabin glowed with the lamp through white curtains, an almost magical place.

When I walked in, I got a huge surprise to find Danny with all his clothes off, buck-naked, lounging on the bed with a Roi-Tan and a water-glass of brown drink.  He laughed, “I like to be comfortable when I get drunk.  Have a rum and Coke, good buddy.”

He went over to the dresser and poured me a drink.  Meanwhile, I shucked out of my clothes too and told him how I always like to get naked, roaming out in the woods and even swinging on vines in trees like Tarzan.  Danny handed me the glass and brushed the hair on my chest, laughing, “Benny of the Apes.  But Tarzan wore pants.”

“Only in the movies,” I insisted.  “I bet Mrs. Gorilla didn’t sew him any lace panties.”

Danny laughed and raised his glass.  “Drink up, Benny-boy.”

I took a good slug of my drink.  It was sweet and sneaky at the back of my nose.  Danny sprawled out on the bed again and left his cigar to go out in the ashtray, which I silently appreciated.  He remarked, “I’ve never been naked outside.  Oh, yeh, skinny-dipping at the river, but not just walking around.”

I plugged in the radio and got up on the bed with my drink and the deck of cards.  The music came on with “The Happy Organ,” quite a circus-y way to start off a party.  Sitting tailor-fashion cross-legged, I took another sip and started shuffling the cards.  The drink tasted even better now that the fumes up my nose weren’t so strange.  And it felt so natural sitting here with Danny like this, just the two of us with nothing on and nothing else to do.

We started out playing blackjack poker, and whenever you lost, you had to take a huge slug of your drink.  After several rounds of winning and losing and as many slugs, the both of us were in mighty relaxed moods, chattering and laughing and carrying on over our cards.  When the radio started that really silly old song “Purple People Eater,” we commenced giggling hysterically and scattered cards all over.

With yet another drink, maybe our third, we gathered up the cards and switched to gin rummy.  After a few hands and still another drink, I got up for the bathroom and felt happily blurry, so light, not really connected to the floor.  Back on the bed, I found Danny had dealt.  While I arranged the cards in my hand, he remarked, “I wanna get my rocks off pretty soon.”  I called him a sex-fiend, and he asked, “What else am I supposed to do with a boner on?”

“Just ignore it,” I said.  “When I get a hard on out in the woods or whatever, I ignore it.”  To be truthful with him, I added, “Most of the time.”

Danny leaned back on the pillows at the head of the bed and considered his cards.  Then he looked down at his crotch and sighed, “Show me how to ignore that.”  His prick was slowly quivering and lifting, growing, that secret head slipping out of its hood, peeking at me like a little animal.  I couldn’t ignore it.  It was hypnotic.

He tossed his cards aside, laughed, and asked, “And what about that?”  He pointed at what was happening to me too.  He grinned guiltily, looking cuter than anybody should.

Leaping up off the bed, I babbled, “Just don’t touch it!  Don’t look at it!  Or think about it!  Do something else!”  Feeling dizzy from the booze, I marched back and forth looking at the ceiling and got more and more confused.

Danny jumped up from the bed and said, “I know what.  We can go outside.”  It sounded like a good idea to me.  Even though the soles of my feet were tough as leather, I’d learned from experience to wear shoes outside at night in case of stepping on things you can’t see.  So we looked plain silly all naked in just shoes, no socks, and I could hardly stop laughing.  Even so, our erections weren’t discouraged.

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In this next chapter of the backwoods novella BAT IN A WHIRLWIND, Ben stays over with pal Mickey for senior play rehearsal, much to Danny’s dismay.

To read BAT IN A WHIRLWIND, Chapter 8.  PLAYING AROUND, right click here and select “Open,” or to download as a free pdf file to read at your leisure whenever, select “Save Target (or Link) As.”  You can access the previous 7 chapters for reading or download from the chapter list on the book page.

BAT IN A WHIRLWIND

Excerpt from Chapter 8. – Playing Around

            Before long we went over to Herb’s drive-in where the parking lot was a flurry of cars parked around and kids getting their orders from the pickup window.  We gobbled a hotdog each, and while Mick took off to drag-race with Buck, who had a souped-up brown Ford, I went over to talk to Don and Patty, the most glamorous couple in our class, who were sitting in her red Thunderbird convertible.  Everywhere I was reminded sadly of my beloved Annette.  I’d recently read in Teen magazine that she had a white Thunderbird.

Patty thought it was great that I was out “on the town” at last, and I jokingly sang like Burl Ives, “John! John! The grey goose is gone, and the fox is on the town-o, town-o, town-o!”  They looked at me strangely and then got my humor.

Turning serious, Patty said, “Benny, I been wanting to ask you something.  Can I?”  I shrugged assent.  “Do Catholics believe in Jesus?”

Recalling the lines of the Apostle’s Creed about His Only Son J. C., I said, “Sure.  He’s part of the Holy Trinity.”  Here I recognized another opportunity to explain my faith and went on, “It’s God the Father, God the Son or Jesus, and the Holy Ghost.  They’re all one.”

Patty and Don both said, “Oh,” and shared a skeptical glance.  Frankly, I wasn’t very clear on it myself and was glad they dropped the inquiry.

Soon I moved over to sit in a car with Jackie and a couple other guys.  They were smoking cigarettes and talking about girls and who’d done it with which one.  The way I was so quiet, they probably thought I was a real stick-in-the-mud.

A flashy foreign sports car with Texas plates pulled up, and a young man got out.  He was dressed stylish with tight pants and much ducktail on his haircut, looking a lot like Ricky Nelson.  Jackie said offhandedly, “He looks queer.”  I didn’t think so.

Then another guy, Claude from eleventh, said, “I hear there’s one in Texarkana that sits in his car outside the movie house.”  I was about to ask one of what when Mickey and Buck came roaring back in their hot cars.  Mickey had won their race.

We hunted up Bonnie from the cars all over the place and headed back to Alleene.  Mickey exulted in his victory, carrying on about how Buck just didn’t know how to drive that heap of his.  I remarked that going so fast must be more like aiming a car than steering it.

#

            After dropping Bonnie off, we got back to find Mickey’s parents at the kitchen table.  It warmed my heart how his father hugged him hi, and his mother too.  I shook hands politely and noted with surprise that Mr. Wiley was drinking beer.  He had a big belly over his belt.  Mrs. Wiley, also pretty fat, offered me a Dr. Pepper and got us some pineapple upside down cake.

Mr. Wiley said, “So I hear you’re going to Tulane, ain’t it?”  I described the scholarship they gave me and told about my plans to go to New Orleans and see the place soon as school was over.  “Too bad our Mick here hasn’t got such brains!” he lamented.

Mickey winked at me as we sat down to have our cake off real china plates.  His mother patted his head and said, “He’s going to Henderson State, you know.  That’s exciting too, isn’t it, honey?”  The closeness and warmth here in this kitchen was even newer and more wonderful than the whole dress rehearsal, dance, and socializing at Herb’s.

We went into Mickey’s room to hit the sack.  It had real nice furniture and curtains, very unlike my own.  When I undressed, I laid my clothes on a chair and made for his big double bed, naked as a jaybird.  I never wore underwear or pajamas, and apparently Mickey didn’t either.  His body was very nicely built, his prick about the same size as mine.

“Boy!” he exclaimed, “You sure are a hairy guy.”  Then he looked straight down at my prick and exclaimed, “I’ll be damned!  You’re cut.  So Danny lied, that fucker!”

“Lied?” I wondered as I climbed onto the bed.

“Yeh!  To win our bet.  He didn’t think I’d find out.”  Suddenly I understood better why Danny had sounded so serious telling me to keep my pants on.  Climbing onto the bed too, Mick paused thoughtfully and then flopped onto his pillow laughing.  “Now he owes me two!”

“So you already paid up?”

“Yep—because I believed him.”  He sounded pissed off.

“What did you guys bet?”

He lifted up on an elbow and looked at me with a question in his greenish eye.  “Oh, nothing much.  Never mind.”

Having heard the same thing twice, I was now even more intrigued.  But if it was their secret…  Of course, I couldn’t help getting a mite jealous about Danny having a secret with Mickey, and them not wanting to let me in on it.

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