She walked out into the hall and went to Terry's door. She was going to knock, but she knew it wouldn't solve anything. She went back to her room and dried her hair. Why wake up Terry? What could he tell her that she already didn't know? She was caught, he was caught, in a web they had helped spin themselves. The same web her mother had been caught up in till her suicide.
Lindy took a sleeping pill and waited forty minutes. Nothing happened. She grabbed the gin and put down a glass, and then took her sweater and went outside. The sun was just starting to come up. She walked around the grounds of the hotel for a few minutes, and then she started feeling sleepy and went back into the hotel.
As she crossed the lobby she happened to look into the keno parlor. The place was empty except for two people, a handsome guy with fairly long hair and a beard, and a beautiful woman dressed in a simple, lovely gown. They were laughing and giggling as if they were the only two people in the world. The keno caller watched them with a smile. The woman lit up a cigarette and said, "Last game unless we win."
They watched the numbers being called off. The guy yelled, "Kecky, we did it!"
The woman broke up completely. "We won a whole ninety cents! What are you talking about, we did it?"
"One more game," the guy said, and ran up to the keno counter.
Lindy watched as the woman watched him. There was the look of love in her eyes, and when the guy came back and sat next to her, he put his arm around her, and they sat waiting for the next numbers to come up. They were oblivious to the world. They were together, connecting, alone in a Vegas hotel. Lindy almost had forgotten such things could happen. If only she could find someone…
"One more game!" the guy shouted.
"Tom, you're crazy!" the woman said, opening her purse to find the last of their change.
They're probably more happy being broke, Lindy thought. She was rich and what did it do for her? She started to walk away and glanced back again. She envied the couple, not so much because they looked so good together, or because they both had a kind of class about them that she'd never had. She envied them because of the simple fact that they were happy – happy together.
Lindy walked down the hall. The picture of the couple in the keno parlor haunted her mind. Maybe, just maybe, she and Terry could take another try at it. Maybe the sexual part would happen after a while, maybe it would work out… She passed her door and walked to his room.
She tried turning the handle – she didn't know why she didn't knock, she had the feeling the door would be open – and opened the door slowly. She heard a voice and a groan. She opened the door all the way.
"Who the hell?" a voice said.
She recognized the voice.
She focused her eyes. There on the bed was Terry Peerce, lying bare naked, face down, his legs and hands spread wide. Kneeling between his legs, with his thick cock embedded in Terry's asshole, was Gerry, his face looking flushed, startled.
"My God, Lindy," Terry moaned.
They all froze. Lindy by the door, Terry and Gerry in the light coming in from the hallway. Lindy finally blinked and took a step back.
"Lindy, I didn't…" Gerry started to say, but there was nothing to say. He stopped himself and let his body fall down on top of Terry's. Terry closed his eyes as the door closed.
Lindy went to her room and downed another sleeping pill. She had many things to do the next day, and she needed some sleep. The sun was up now, the new day had begun. It was just like the times with her mother – Susan would stumble in drunk at seven in the morning and Lindy would help her into bed, give her a sedative. Now she had given herself a sedative. But the difference between mother and daughter was that mother had always had someone to take care of her.
Lindy Travis had no one.
Ron Feldman, at that moment, was sleeping between a young hippie-type guy and his chick in a trailer at the edge of the city.
Julie was cuddling Sally, the showgirl, in her bed.
Gerry was fucking Terry, wildly, brutally, taking out all the frustration he felt because of Lindy's unwanted and unplanned entrance to Terry's room.
Lindy was alone. She looked out the window. There was her name. She'd become what she wanted – to be more than her mother.
In all ways.