Tonight, unfortunately, Gene was feeling somewhat more reckless. Impatiently he slumped in his chair, watching the pro game from Saint Louis which was boring him stiff. Suddenly it occurred to him that he might like football a little better if he tried watching it stoned, and before his scruples could intervene, Gene had a marijuana cigarette dangling between his lips.
Ah, look at those funny little men chase that funny looking ball around, he thought, feeling his mind slip comfortably out of gear. This is going to be a terrific night!
"Well, I can't make any promises, and I assure you that I don't like being threatened and blackmailed like this," complained Agard with a hurt tone of voice. "After all, there was a time when we meant something to one another, Lynn."
Lynn was surprised to find that there was no sensation of triumph inside of her, despite the fact that she had expected to feel relieved and happy at finally having had the courage to stand up to this man and lay her cards upon the table.
"Well, what do you think you've been doing to me all along," she counter-attacked. "If threatening to tell Matt wasn't blackmail, what is?"
"Oh, surely you never took me seriously, sweetheart," Agard purred, making an effort to turn on the charm. "You know that your happiness is very important to me! It's just that I think you might be just what the doctor ordered. Come on, honey, fess up. Is Matt any good in bed?"
"How dare you ask that question?" she snapped back at him, feeling tears come into her eyes.
"That's all the answer I needed," Phil nodded. "A fine fellow, Matt, but short on imagination… I would say. You need more than one man to keep you happy, lovely, believe me. I understand girls like you."
"Oh, I hate you!" she hurled at him, somehow feeling that this double talking monster was once more getting the upper hand.
"Now you don't mean that," Phil kissed her chastely on the forehead. "Come on now, love, get into your costume. We've got a nice gentle love scene with Rick arranged and when you see how lovely you look on tape, you'll want to sign a life-time contract with us."
"Just remember what I said, Phil Agard," she sobbed as he gently maneuvered her into her dressing room. "If you don't let me go after this picture, I'm going to call the police!"
"Sure, sure, honey," he calmed her. "Don't worry about a thing."
Closing the door behind her, a frown immediately creased the producer's features, and he hurried down onto the set, his eyes busily sweeping the room to make sure everything was in order. The scene they intended to shoot involved a torture chamber and the studio's technicians had assembled a terrifying collection of whips, ropes, chains and other implements of torment. In the center of the set stood the largest man any of them had ever seen, gazing stupidly at the cameras and lights with an idiotic, bewildered expression on his face.
"How are you doing, Freddy?" asked Agard, craning his neck to look up at the monster.
"Uh, okay Mister Agard," drawled the mentally deficient youth slowly, turning his massive frame around to face the man who had promised him money for the privilege of being able to make love to a beautiful young girl. Freddy liked girls, but in his twenty years of existence, he had never succeeded in getting even close to one, much less into bed. Built like a gorilla and not bright enough to hold down a steady job, the poor unfortunate had been digging ditches outside the studio when the TV producer had made this stunning offer.
"Good, now I must explain something to you, Freddy," said Phil carefully, speaking slowly to allow his words to penetrate the idiot's thick skull. "You know Kelly, the nice lady who always talks to you?"
"Yeah!" affirmed the giant stupidly. "Freddy fuck Kelly?"
"No!" corrected Agard hurriedly, wanting to be absolutely sure he got everything straight.
"No, Freddy fuck girl named Lynn, but Freddy must obey Kelly. Lynn will pretend to be afraid, Freddy and she will tell you to stop and go away. But you must not listen to her. Listen to Kelly. Kelly is the boss. Understand?"
Freddy shook his head slowly, and Agard ran his fingers through his hair in desperation. A few years back the doctors had done an operation on Freddy's brain to render him completely docile and unaggressive, accurately guessing that someone with his massive strength and low level of intelligence could be a potential menace to society. After the operation, Freddy had become extremely gentle and lacked any capacity whatsoever for anger or violence. Agard realized that if Lynn began screaming for help, the big but sensitive jerk might become frightened and stop, which was precisely what they had to avoid. He decided to make one more stab at explaining.
"Freddy, listen to Phil," he tried again. "We are going to play a joke on our friend. Lynn really likes to be fucked by big boys like you, in fact she told me so just a few minutes ago."
"Lynn like Freddy?" the giant asked in surprise.
"Lynn really likes Freddy," confirmed Phil evilly, "but Lynn will pretend she doesn't like Freddy. Kelly will tell you what to do and you must do it, even if Lynn says no, because Lynn won't really mean it!" This speech did not make a great deal of sense even to Agard himself, but it seemed to satisfy the gorilla who nodded happily.
"Okay now Freddy, you take your clothes and stand over there," Phil directed.
"Freddy take off clothes?" questioned the imbecile, who had received many a lecture on this subject at the home for mentally deficient children where he had been raised. They had always told him to keep his clothing on in public.
"It's part of the joke, Freddy," urged Agard convincingly. "It won't be funny if you don't take off your clothes."
Freddy nodded dubiously and began removing his pants, clumsily attempting to balance on one leg. In the end he had to sit down on the floor to deal with the complicated problems of his shoe laces, and Agard shook his head in amazement.
"Ready to go?" called Lenny, already perched behind a camera.
"I'm set," chimed in Kelly, emerging from her dressing room. The older actress was dressed in a bizarre costume featuring riding boots and tight, form-fitting pants, topped by a man's shirt, tie, and coat, all tailored to emphasize her voluptuous figure, but conveying the impression of a woman who enjoyed cruelty and perversions, with just a hint of lesbianism thrown in for effect. In her hand, she carried a whip.
"How do I look?"
"Great, but you're going to scare the shit out of the waitress when we go for pizza later," commented her husband. "Where's Miss Lynn?"
"Here I am," responded the girl calmly, appearing at his elbow, dressed in an attractive white robe which covered her from shoulder to ankle. The young wife was under no illusions about being able to wear this pleasant garment much longer, but for the moment, it gave her a warm and comforting sensation of being protected.
"Who's that?" she asked in sudden alarm as she caught a glimpse of Freddy, who had removed one shoe successfully and was now attacking the other one with fierce concentration.
"Oh, just an extra," Phil reassured her hastily. "We thought it would be amusing to have a naked giant in the background."
"Oh," mumbled Lynn, not totally convinced. "Well, what do I have to do?"
"Okay, now we want your reactions spontaneous, as usual, so just walk on to the set with Rick and follow his lead from there."
Lynn nodded and turned to link arms with Rick who appeared dressed in a normal business suit. He looked particularly handsome, and the young wife found herself becoming excited ahead of time at the prospects of being able to make love to this sexy muscular man. They exchanged winks and stepped off the set to await their cue.