An Offer #Storytime

Recap: Daniel assumes that his friend Marcia has talked the three wayward girls into returning home until he bumps into two of them on the street. They tell him that they’d left the third girl alone with a strange Englishman who arrived in the pre-dawn hours but whom Marcia seemed to know well. When he realizes who it is, Daniel returns to the Carriage House and confronts the man. After he leaves, Daniel, exhausted from a sleepless night at the YMCA, falls asleep on Marcia’s floor as the girls call their parents and finally arrange to return home.

Daniel awoke in the predawn hours slightly hungover and starving. Next to him the girls were heaped together like a team of sled dogs united against the cold Alaskan winds. Talking to their families and being reassured that they were still loved must have helped because they were sleeping peacefully and breathing almost in union. Yes, Marcia always knew exactly the right thing to do in any situation. He rotated the bean bag chair to face the dawn and sat back down. With luck he would be able to see the sun rise over the city skyline. What a grand start to the day that would be.

The quiet was broken by the rat-a-tat of footsteps in the courtyard, like a drum beat which grew louder and louder as the drummer approached until … Before he had a chance to react, someone had entered the carriage house and was climbing the stairs. He crawled into the kitchen and cowered behind the counter. Where was the phone? He couldn’t remember.

The door flew open silhouetting two figures.

“Well, lookie there. A whole pile of bitches.”

“Them? Oh no. Those sweet young things haven’t showered in weeks. I have something much better in mind.”

The taller figure was Theron. Next to him, a much shorter man twitched like a drunken marionette tangled in his strings.

Daniel rose and switched on the overhead light. The shorter man was an albino with only a pinprick of color in his eyes. Perhaps to compensate, he wore lime green trousers, a lemon turtleneck and flashy gold jewelry around his neck and wrists. “Shut off the damned light!” He squealed.

It wasn’t that bright. Daniel thought. The man must be on drugs. “No way.”

“Daniel, old man. Still here protecting your little flock? What a noble lad you are.”

“They poured out innocent blood, the blood of their sons and daughters, whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan; and the land was polluted with blood. Thus they become unclean by their acts, and played the harlot in … ”

Theron turned to his perplexed companion. “Daniel left the priesthood because he had a bloodly crisis of faith. He couldn’t stand the thought that God loved him the best, which is what his mother drilled into him. God, in other words, is a prejudicial old duffer who plays favorites so you better be pure of thought and blah, blah, blah. Isn’t that right, Daniel?”

Before he could say anything, Marcia appeared in the bedroom door dressed only in a man’s white dress shirt, her strawberry blonde hair spinning about her face like a delicate spider’s web. “What’s going on?”

“Now you’re talking,” the albino said moving toward her. “Hi Honey. How would you like a couple thousand bucks in exchange for a quick roll in the hay?”

“Sweet Jesus!” The girl who was not a Catholic cried.

“Shut up you, fucking virgin.”

“I’m not a virgin!”

“Well then …”

Get out Theron!” Marcia said. “Take your drugged up friend and get out now.”

“But Jamie just signed a record contract, Luv. He’s got the cash. He just wants a quick shag. A thousand dollars, as you Yanks say, easy peasy.”

“Get out!” Marcia ordered.

The albino spun around like a cartoon dust devil. “That does it,” he said, turning to leave. “There are plenty of bitches in this town who won’t give me this kind of shit!”

Theron seemed to grow in size as he turned and directed his attention toward the girls … specifically, the one named Nora. “A few minutes with my pigeon and you wouldn’t have to return to Nevahda to live out the rest of your miserable life with the jackrabbits … the sagebrush, and … with that arse who got you preggers. Oh yeah, he’s a real arse.”

“Danny and I are in love. We’ll be in love –“

Theron threw his head back and howled. “Oh please, little girl … don’t say it. Forever. I’ll have to vomit all over Marcia’s carpet. You were forn-i-cating. Forn-i-cating! And you loved it. I bet she made you other girls miserable, didn’t she? You know, she never really wanted to go on your silly, little romp across country. But she felt obligated. The most pathetic of emotions. Obligation. Now, see how she despises you. Despises you because she wasn’t bloody strong enough to be honest and tell the truth.”

“Enough, Theron or whatever your name is. Get out.”

“With pleasure. Who knows, I might be able to catch up with our little friend and the night won’t be a total faff.” He slid out the door with a sharp whistle that lingered and echoed through the room.

Marcia marched over to the door, slammed it shut, and this time … locked it. They debated calling the police. Daniel argued that the albino’s life was in danger. The year before, the police had been looking for a man who matched Theron’s description, a man who’d befriended drug dealers and prostitutes and then viciously killed them. Marcia countered that they wouldn’t do anything. They hadn’t done much before. A whole year had gone by and they still hadn’t arrested anyone. Besides she was more concerned about the girl whose secret was now revealed.

“Theron must be a demon,” Nora said, massaging her rosary beads.

“You have options. If you are pregnant, you don’t have to have the baby … “

Daniel thought about the cycle they were trapped in. Hadn’t they both tried to save Connemoira so many years before and hadn’t they both failed? And they would again. And again. Fail.

It was time to go. Shore leave was almost over.