She let herself out the back door and walked down the alley, thinking vaguely that she would catch a bus to the downtown, and merely float around window-shopping to kill the time until school would be dismissed. Her purse, she found contained enough change for the bus and a Coke. At least I'll he out of his reach! It's just horrible to think that I can't t-trust him. Ugh! His eyes when he looks at me… just like he was mentally undressing me!
Gabe returned with some gin. He didn't like the stuff, especially, but he bought the cheapest he could get for the money he had, just for the temporary drowning of his troubles.
Looking into their bedroom, a sort of automatic assurance that he had read the situation right the first time, he spotted Dottie's box of stationery. Idly, he opened it. The top sheet had the impression of writing on it. Damn! This sheet was under something she wrote!
He took it to the light and searched it carefully, but he could not make it out. Carrying the fancy sheet of paper into the dining room he found a soft pencil and scribbled across it. Words came up on the sheet… readable words!
MY DEAREST DARLING DAUGHTER, he read, I'M GOING TO BE LEAVING YOU, IN A FEW MINUTES. THE REASONS ARE HARD TO PUT DOWN ON PAPER, BUT THERE ARE SOME THINGS I WANT YOU TO KNOW BEFORE I LEAVE.
There was nothing more on the sheet. It was as though she had realized she had two sheets, removed the bottom one and, unthinkingly, returned it to the box.
God damn! There was a note! Charity lied to me!
Angrily, he strode to her door, bellowing, "Charity! Are you in there?"
There was no answer. He opened the door and walked into her bedroom. She was not there, nor was she in the bathroom.
She must have hidden it!
He looked into every possible hiding place, sure that there was a note, and that his daughter had hidden it.
With a shout of triumph, he found it, after almost twenty-five minutes of diligent searching. He recognized the envelope, instantly, as belonging to the same box of stationery. He had found it on the inside of Charity's English book.
He read, avidly.
"Christ!" he said aloud to himself. "It's good to know the truth… the real truth, after all these years!"
His eyes lighted up with a quick thought. "… And, it's a whole new ball game! This puts a different light on things!"
His imagination began to work. There's no reason now! Christ! After all this time of wanting her… and thinking that I couldn't have her… and now this… this confession of Dottie's makes everything different! Charity, baby… you've had it coming… for a long time… and now I'm going to give it to you… good!
He could feel his erection building down below, beginning to bulge in his pants. Reaching down to it, lewdly, he caressed its length. "It won't be long, now!"
Gabriel Scott didn't get drunk, after all. He limited himself to three drinks, because he wanted to be sober. A sloppy drunk man doesn't perform as well as one who is relatively in possession of his wits… and his senses, and above all, he wanted to be in complete command of all his sensations when he got into bed with young Charity Scott, his wife's daughter!