“Still want to play Goldeneye?”
“What?” Jimmy asked, his mind returning to the basement. On screen the credits for That 70’s Show were rolling alongside an ad for South Park, which the two did not care for.
“Still want to play?” Alan was holding a controller.
“Oh. Sure.”
“What’s wrong?” Alan asked while the two set up the Goldeneye battle.
“Nothing?” Jimmy lied while scrolling through the weapon selections for the proximity mine setting. “Um, where do I get a tux?”
“Wow, I don’t really know. There’s gotta be a place in town somewhere or maybe up in Haddonfield. You could always ask in the office at school. They would know. Not many kids have their own tuxes.”
“Okay.”
Alan knew his brother would not ask. Instead he would search around town until he found a place, even if it did take him two hours longer. That was his way.
Jimmy clicked on the character selection screen and the two scrolled toward the right until they each found their favorite characters. From there Jimmy hit START.
“We doing minutes or points?” Alan asked. He hadn’t been watching when Jimmy selected.
“Ten minutes,” Jimmy said. “I don’t want the game to last too long since I was planning on going on a bike ride tonight.”
“A bike ride?” Alan couldn’t remember the last time Jimmy (or he for that matter) had gone on a bike ride. Would their bikes even be big enough for them now? “Which bike you using?”
“Dad’s old one. I fixed the seat and pumped some air into the tires.”
Alan hadn’t known this. “When did you do that?”
“Last week. I’ve been riding every morning.” He hesitated. “Didn’t you know that?”
“No. When do you leave?”
Jimmy let his breath out and thought for a second. “About five. I guess no one can hear me.”
“Nope. Can’t hear a thing all the way down there. That’s why I want the room. I could listen to music all night and no one would care.”
“Well,” Jimmy started. “Too bad there aren’t two rooms down there.” He shrugged. Nothing else followed.
The statement irritated Alan. He didn’t think it was fair that his older brother could have the only basement room just because of his age, but that was always the reason his parents gave.
The game loaded up.
Right away they both went for the boxes of proximity mines and then began tossing them in all the starting locations, which they had memorized years ago. Once they had done that they went in search of each other, both of them randomly tossing mines all over the level while trying to find the other player knowing that whoever died first was going to have a huge disadvantage since they would start several times in mined locations.
Alan was the unlucky one this time around. He saw Jimmy at the bottom of a stairway and tried to charge him. Jimmy, however, pulled out a pistol and shot him in the leg and since they had set the battle on the ‘license to kill mode’ it killed him right away. “Bastard!” Alan shouted as his character fell to the ground. It was no contest after that. Jimmy kept replacing the mines in the starting locations while Alan went through them and racked up kills. Eventually Jimmy did get too close to one and died himself, but the cycle of starting location death he went through wasn’t enough to close the gap and he won.
“Play again?” Alan asked.
Jimmy glanced up at one of the darkening windows and said, “No, I think I’ll head out on my bike ride now.”
“You sure?”
“Yeah.” He couldn’t wait any longer. He had to see her.
“Okay,” Alan said while wrapping up his controller. “Well, have fun.”
“I will,” Jimmy said, a nervous ring once again present in his voice. With that he headed up the stairs and out into the garage.
Alan followed a second later but continued all the way to the second floor and then looked out a window. Sure enough Jimmy was heading down the street on their father’s old bike. He watched until his brother disappeared into the darkening landscape, and then went into his bedroom where two hours of homework waited.
Samantha had actually just started drifting off to sleep when the sound of the door opening jolted her awake. All the pain came back, along with the fear.
Jimmy walked in.
Samantha stared at him as he closed the solid door and then turned to look at her. This time he was wearing gym shorts rather than jeans, and poking against them was an erection.
He’s going to rape me.
Jimmy looked up at the rope and then back at her. “Is it tight?” he asked.
Samantha didn’t know what to say.
“I asked you a question. Is it really tight?”
“Yes,” she said dryly.
“Well I’m going to lower you a little, but first you have to promise to do something for me.”
Anything to be let down.
Samantha tried to pretend it was her boyfriend Steven who had reached up her shirt and was now fingering her nipples and squeezing her breasts, but no matter how hard she tried, even when closing her eyes, she knew it was Jimmy and this made her feel sick.
Just tolerate anything he does to you and then spend time on the ground, Samantha said to herself. Don’t say anything.
Her body nearly shook with the thought of being free from the ropes and she couldn’t even begin to image what it would feel like. She had only been tied up for half a day, but already it was all she knew. This, now, was her life.
Jimmy’s hands stopped and pulled out from beneath her shirt. They were shaking.
“Let me down now?” she asked.
Jimmy nodded and then said, “But remember that there is more, and if you refuse to do it then I will hang you so high your toes won’t touch the ground.”
Samantha nodded silently, which was awkward with her arms pressing into her head, and said, “I know.”
Jimmy turned and walked over to the rope and began untying it.