“Would you like to know why I’ve been going to the city so often?” she asked.
He watched her warily. Too often, she set traps for him, and he was sorry later.
“Would you like to know?” she asked again.
“If you’d like to tell me,” he said cautiously, and poked his fork at the food.
“To protect you,” she said.
“Protect me how?”
“To save your life,” she said.
“Sure,” he said, “to save my life.”
“Eat your food, Santo.”
“I’m eating it.”
“Or don’t you like what I prepared for you?”
“I like it fine.”
“You don’t seem to like it.”
“I’ll eat it. I said I’ll eat it, and I will.”
“Now,” she said. “While I’m here.”
“All right, while you’re here.”
“I don’t want you flushing it down the toilet, the way you did with the liver that time.”
“I don’t like liver.”
“Yes, but I didn’t know that when I prepared—”
“You knew it. I told you I didn’t like liver. You made it on purpose. You made it because—”
“If I did, then it was because you displeased me somehow.”
“I always seem to displease you somehow.”
“No, that isn’t true. You please me enormously. Why would I keep you here if you didn’t please me?”
“To torture me, that’s why.”
“Have I ever tortured you?”
“Yes.”
“That’s a lie, Santo.”
“The needles...”
“That was punishment. And you were asleep, remember.”
“They were in me when I woke up!”
“Yes, to strengthen you.”
“How did you expect them to...?”
“I don’t like to talk about sex,” she said.
“You’re a fuckin sex fiend, but you don’t like to talk about it.”
“I certainly don’t like to talk about what was becoming your inability to—”
“My inability, shit! You beat me, you torture me, you drug me, and then you expect me to get a hard on every time you walk in the room.”
“Yes,” she said, and smiled. “That is what I expect, that’s true. Eat your food, Santo.”
“I don’t want any more,” he said, and pushed the tray away from him. “I’m full.”
“All right,” she said.
Her voice was oddly mild, it frightened him. He watched her. She was standing just inside the door, one hand in the dog’s leash. She was dressed in black from head to toe, black slacks, a black silk blouse, black boots.
“I’ll give it to the dog instead, would that please you, Santo? Giving your food to Clarence?”
“If I’m not hungry—”
“Tomorrow I’ll prepare food for the dog instead. I’ll prepare your food for Clarence, would you like that, Santo?”
“Look, I really enjoyed what I ate, I really did. But I’m not hungry anymore, you can’t expect me to—”
“Yes, I can, Santo. I can expect you to.”
She dropped the dog’s leash and walked to the coffee table. She picked up the tray, carried it back to the door, and put it down before the dog. He sniffed at the tray but did not touch the food until she said, “All right, Clarence,” and then he began eating.
“He’s better trained than you are,” she said.
“I’m not an animal,” Santo said.
“I should let you die,” she said. “Instead of going to all this trouble.”
“What trouble?”
“In the city,” she said vaguely. “Here. All this trouble trying to save you.” She watched the dog eating. “How do you feel about C.J. not coming here anymore?” she asked.
“I like C.J.,” he said.
“Oh, yes, how you like C.J.,” she said, and chuckled.
“Why isn’t she coming anymore?”
“Perhaps she doesn’t want to.”
“I thought...”
“Yes, she seemed to be enjoying herself, didn’t she? But perhaps she was getting a bit tired of your behavior. Not everyone has my patience, you know.”
“My behavior? You were the one who—”
“Anyway, I don’t want to talk about sex. You know I hate talking about sex. I thought I could trust C.J. Are you finished?” she asked the dog. “Are you finished, darling?”
“What do you mean? Why can’t you trust her?”
“She was very young, too young, in fact. Young people don’t seem to realize—”
“Was young? What do you mean was young?”
“I’m going to explain something to you, Santo. Come here, come undress me.”
“No, I don’t want to. Not now.”
“Yes, now. Do as I say.”
“I just finished eating, I don’t feel like—”
“No, you didn’t finish eating, Clarence finished eating for you, didn’t you, darling? And I’m sure you don’t want to annoy Clarence further by not doing what I’m asking you to do. I would hate to have Clarence...”
“All right,” he said. “All right, goddamnit!”
“Especially since you seem so very sensitive about scars and bruises on your glorious body.”
“Yes, very sensitive.”
“Even when they’re for your own good.”
“Yes, my own good, sure.”
“Unbutton my blouse,” she said. “Yes, your own good.”
“The cigarette burns...”
“Slowly, Santo. Button by button. Yes, that’s it.”
“—were for my own good.”
“Yes, to teach you to quit smoking. Do you like me without a bra, Santo?”
“I enjoyed smoking.”
“Yes, but cigarettes were bad for you. Do you like my breasts, Santo? Kiss my breasts. Kiss my nipples.”
“Burned me all over my body.”
“Yes.”
“Drugged me, and then—”
“Isn’t it better that you’ve quit smoking? Let’s not talk about things that had to be done to make you a better person, Santo. You’re a better person since you stopped smoking. You’re healthier, you’re—”
“You didn’t have to burn me with those fuckin cigarettes! I’m your prisoner here, all you had to do...”
“No, no.”
“...was quit bringin me cigarettes, that’s all you had to do! Look at these scars all over me! You burned me all over my body! All over me.”
“No, not all over you,” she said, and smiled. “Finish undressing me, Santo. I want you very badly.”
“When don’t you want me?”
“Hush, now. Carry me to the bed.”
“Fuckin sex fiend,” he said.
“Don’t say that.”
“It’s what you are. A fuckin female rapist.”
“No,” she whispered, “no, I’m not, really. I want you to do what C.J. loved to do.”
“C.J. loves to do nothing. She’s a whore who gets paid for whatever she does.”
“Yes, she was nothing but a whore. She didn’t understand, Santo. If she’d understood, she wouldn’t have told.”
“Told? Told what?”
“In the beginning, no one knew. Not even the man who changed the locks on the doors. I told him I wanted to lock my dog in here. I told him I had a vicious dog.”
“You do have a vicious dog.”
“Gently, Santo, you do enjoy it, don’t you? Tell me you enjoy it.”
“What’d she tell? What’d C.J. tell?”
“About us, I’m sure. Her experiences, she said. Can you imagine? Told me in the boat going back last Thursday. A whore’s experiences. Mmm, yes, Santo, that’s very good. I’m not even sure about the man who changed the locks, anymore. Do you think he suspects? Do you think he’ll tell the way she did? I just don’t know, Santo, oh, God, that’s delicious. I don’t want anyone else to know about you, ever again. I’m not going to make that mistake again.”