By his side was someone dressed exactly the same, except that it was a full foot or more shorter and, for its sake, I hoped it was a girl. Later events were to bear out my fond hopes.
We stood aside as they came trooping in, chattering among themselves like a bunch of women at an outdoor market. Almost incidentally, Trudy turned to Amy and me, waving her hand.
“Kids, these are the Bradys. Good folks. You'll like them. Mr. Brady, Mrs. Brady, this is Johnny and”- she pointed at the small one-"that's Mary Ellen.”
“How do you do,” Amy replied, her nose going up in the air. She was mirroring my feeling, for neither of us had planned on something like this. We'd wanted some private action. But now… well.
I nodded, closing the door behind them. “Come on in. We're having a little pool party.” Then to Trudy, I went on, “I don't suppose your friends will be able to stay.”
“Oh, sure,” she chirped. “We brought them along because they wanted to see your groovy place. Hey, bathing suits. Too bad we didn't remember ours.”
Buddy giggled behind a massive hand. “Maybe after a little while we won't need them.”
I cleared my throat, shooting glances at the newcomers, trying to remember their names. “I'm wondering… That is, we hadn't counted on…”
“Oh, don't do anything special for Mary Ellen and Johnny. They're just ordinary guys. They'll like whatever you've got in the house.”
“Damned white of them,” I muttered.
Alexander came bounding into the room, his tongue hanging out a foot, and the young people called to him and lavished attention on the dog.
“He's a neat dog,” Trudy exclaimed, her eyes wide as she showed him off to Mary Ellen and Johnny. “I spent two nights with him.”
“I had a night with him, too,” Buddy chimed in. “He's a funny one. There's a long red thing that sticks out under his belly.”
I sighed, rolling my eyes, and Amy turned pale, her knuckles to her teeth.
Johnny, looking at the dog and then staring possessively about the front room, blurted, “Hey, you guys didn't mess around with him, did you? I've heard it can be fun, doing it that way with mutts.”
Trudy shook her head. “Besides, Alexander isn't a mutt.” She turned to my wife. “Mrs. Brady, you don't have anything to eat, do you? We're starving. Haven't had a bite since breakfast.”
“Come over here, little girl,” Johnny was intoning, a leer on his bumpy face, “and I'll give you a bite.”
Amy waved vaguely toward the back yard. “You'll find everything you want out by the pool, a whole table groaning with good things to eat and drink.”
“Hot dog,” Mary Ellen cried, racing for the back, her tail wagging in her tight bell-bottoms. Johnny followed and then Buddy. Trudy paused, looking at us from under shining blonde bangs.
“You don't mind, do you?” she said, her voice soft. I looked at Amy, who shrugged, and then I turned back to her. “We hadn't counted on your friends coming along. I thought we were going to have a nice private visit.”
“You mean you were ready to fuck around some more?” she asked, voice loaded with innocence.
Amy and I shuddered as the harshness of her language hit our ears. “Well, let's just say we were prepared to resume our social exchange of last night.” “That's what I mean, fuck the afternoon away.” Amy set her jaw, hissing her words. “Call it what you will, little darling, we'd rather your friends had their soft drinks and sandwiches at once, so they can leave shortly.”
Trudy blinked and I found myself looking her over, my groin filling out again. She was wearing a T-shirt that outlined her breasts, and, I thought, if she was wearing a bra I'd eat her. Maybe I would anyhow. She also had on short shorts that hardly covered her crotch and, knowing her, I was willing to bet she didn't have any pants on, either. She did have on sandals.
She caught me looking. Somehow they always do. Smiling, she said, “I think you won't mind too much if Mary Ellen and Johnny stay around a while. They're good kids and loads of fun. If you two want to stay in here we'll take over the yard. Don't worry, we won't make the neighbors mad. We know enough to keep things quiet.” She tilted her head. “After all, there could be trouble if anybody found out what was going on around this place, right?”
As she finished Alexander planted himself before her, sniffing at her crotch, his nose close. He moved it closer, tucking it between her legs and lifting his head. For a moment Trudy took it, a strange light in her eyes. Then the long, rasping tongue licked one thigh, and then the other. She pushed him away, giggling.
“Lordy, he is horny. Don't you ever take him somewhere to be serviced?”
Amy shook her head. “He was just a puppy until now.”
Trudy laughed aloud, and, calling to Alexander, she hurried out to the yard, her bottom doing the shake and shimmy for us. Alexander came close on her heels, his drool spotting the carpet.
We stared after them and then looked each other in the eye. “Do you get the feeling we've been given the brush in our own home?” I muttered.
“Even worse. Didn't you hear the threat of blackmail in what she said about the neighbors? More than a threat, she used them as a reason for all four being here to eat us right into the poorhouse. If we were to give those newcomers the heave ho, Trudy and Buddy could make trouble. That's the feeling I get.”
I blinked, my mouth tightening. “You mean we're hooked on them in more ways than one. It's more than just sex.”
Amy nodded. “We've led them astray.”
“Like hell. They did the leading.”
Amy closed her eyes patiently. “Under the eyes of the law we're contributing to their delinquency. We've whored with them and paid them money for it. If Trudy becomes unhappy with us, she can go to the juvenile authorities and they'll have us in court before you can say 'virgin soiled.'”
“She's forgotten the meaning of the word,” I complained.
Amy shrugged, the packages inside her bikini bra bobbing in agreement. “Like I said, the law protects the young.”
“Since when do you know so much law?”
“Since Dr. Pratt told me how he got into trouble, quite by accident, when he gave an underage girl hitchhiker a ride. She screamed rape and hauled him into court when he refused to pay blackmail. He was almost ruined.”
“Yeah?” I thought about old man Pratt, Amy's boss who is a dentist, with new interest. “Tell me really, did he try to get into her pants?”
She looked shocked. “I'll have you know that child was fourteen years old, but she had the body and scheming mind of a twenty-one-year-old.”
“I repeat the question.”
“I should say not,” my wife snapped, but she looked thoughtful. “At least, I have no reason not to believe the doctor. He'd never been in trouble before.”
I sighed, looking toward the yard. Amy followed as I crept to the sliding doors and looked at the pool area. They were all there, sitting around, eating, drinking and sunning themselves. Trudy had rolled up her T-shirt until it was knotted just below her breasts and the two boys had removed their shirts, showing their hollow, white chests. The other girl, Mary Ellen, was fingering her shirt as though she was considering taking it off.
Amy pulled me away from the glass. “Come on, lecher, no matinee for you today.”
“Why not?”
“Because they didn't invite you, remember?”
I got mad, wringing my hands as I stalked the house. My God, it was our home and those punks had burst in like storm troopers, helping themselves to anything they wanted, which would probably include Amy before they were finished. I went to her as she stood quietly in the kitchen, her head in her hands.
Taking her in my arms, I murmured, “Let's go on out there. They can't push us around this way. I'm not frightened of a bunch of kids.”
“There's nothing deadlier than youngsters. Remember, the neighbors? Blackmail? Delinquency?”