She stood in front of the mailboxes for a while, thinking about that man from unit five, the man who’d stared at her the whole time she’d walked down there. She turned around and looked for Dexter. He was a few feet away, sniffing at a rock embedded in the ground. She called him to her and he darted to her side. She picked him up. She didn’t trust him so close to Park Way, which got a lot more traffic than the little road inside the trailer park.
Kendra did not know if she could bear the weight of his stare all the way back to the trailer. Maybe he would say something to her this time. That wouldn’t be so bad, if he’d say hi, how are you, instead of just staring at her like that.
She peeked around the old cinder block wall and down the road into the park. The man was gone. With a little sigh of relief, she started back toward her trailer. Once she was back in the park, she put Dexter down again, and he trotted along beside her.
From the corner of her eye as she came upon unit five, she saw him standing there, leaning back on the rear of his SUV.
“Hi, there,” he said with a big, friendly smile.
Startled, Kendra stumbled to a halt, then turned to him, unaware that her mouth hung open. She unconsciously ran her tongue around her lips.
“I’m new here,” he said, still smiling. “My name’s Steven. Steven Regent. Who’re you?”
She looked down at Dexter for a moment, feeling embarrassed, although unsure of why. She lifted her eyes and looked at him again, and his arms were folded across his chest again.
“My name’s… Kendra,” she said.
“Well, Kendra, it’s nice to meet you. I guess I’ve been kind of rude, staring at you like I have, but you know what? And this isn’t some kind of line. You, Kendra, are maybe the most beautiful girl I’ve ever seen. And I’ve seen a lot of beautiful girls, because I’m a photographer. I photograph women. And you, Kendra, you are absolutely stunning.”
Along with the heat of the summer came the heat of a stinging, embarrassed blush as it worked its way up her neck and throat and up her face. She did not know what to say. No one had ever said such a thing to her before and she had no clue how to react.
“Kendra?” he said. “That’s a beautiful name, by the way. It suits you.”
Dexter pawed at her calves.
Kendra finally lifted her head and looked at him again. She was still blushing. She smiled and said, “Thank you. Nobody ever said that to me before.”
“You’re kidding. No boys have ever told you that?”
“No.”
“Well, then you are surrounded by blind men, Kendra, because you are a young woman of exceptional beauty. You should be modeling, or acting, or something. I’d like to photograph you.”
“You… you would?”
“Yes, very much.”
“What kind of photography do you do?” she said.
“All kinds, really.”
“And you wanna photograph me?”
“Yes.”
“How come?”
“Like I said, you’re beautiful. How could I not want to photograph someone so beautiful?”
She was unable to suppress a little giggle.
“Where do you want me to… where do you want – “ She giggled again, stumbling over her words nervously. “Where would you photograph me?”
“I’ve got everything set up in my trailer right now. We could do it in there. And I’ve got central air, so it’s nice and cool in there. What do you say?”
“What, right… right now?”
“Yes.”
“Dressed like this?”
“You look incredible dressed like that.”
“Really?”
“Yes, you do. The all-American girl.”
“Wow. Nobody ever called me that before. What’s it mean?”
“What’s it mean?” he said. “Well, uh, it means you are a… an ideal. When you think of a beautiful American girl, it’s a girl who looks like you. But that really doesn’t do you justice. You’re something more than that.”
“I… I don’t think Mommy would like it.”
He frowned a moment and said, “Mommy?”
“Yeah, my mommy, I’m not sure she’d want me to.”
“Where’s your mommy now?”
“She’s at work.”
“When does she get off?”
“Four-thirty.”
“Then we’ve got plenty of time to do it and be done long before she gets here, and she’ll never know a thing about it.”
“That would be naughty, wouldn’t it?” she said with a sly smirk, her head tilted forward slightly.
Steven Regent chuckled and nodded and said, “Yes, that would be naughty. Is that what you’re looking for? Something naughty to do while you’re mommy’s at work?”
Kendra giggled, then said, “I’ll have to go put Dexter in the trailer. I’ll be right back.”
Regent went into the studio and looked around to make sure there were no offensive pictures out in the open. He did not want to scare her off.
He could not believe it – a retarded teenager who was that beautiful. It didn’t seem right. Of course, if he could get her too keep her mouth closed – though even that looked somehow sexy on Kendra – she wouldn’t look retarded in the pictures.
He straightened up the bed. He’d already started thinking how he’d work her clothes off.
“Naughty, she says,” he muttered. “If she wants naughty, I’ll give her naughty.” He turned on all the cameras and aimed them at the bed.
This would be more than just another shoot. He had to do everything just right, he couldn’t blow this. He had to have her. He wanted her more than he’d ever wanted any of the other bimbos that marched by in an endless parade. She stood out like a gorilla at the opera. She put all the others to shame.
When he’d first seen her, he couldn’t take his eyes off of her. Skin like milk around bedroom eyes and lips that promised so much. The swing of her hips, the slight sway of her breasts. He’d never seen anyone quite as beautiful as Kendra. He wanted a lot more than just pictures of her – he wanted her.
She knocked on the side of his trailer as she stood at his screen door. He pushed the screen door open and let her in.
“You said what I was wearin’ was okay,” she said, “so I didn’t change.”
“No, I don’t want you to change. You’re perfect.”
That made her smile. He closed and locked the door, then led her down to the studio.
He went to the desk that faced the wall in a corner and opened a drawer, removed the necessary papers.
“Kendra, I need you to sign your name to some papers.”
“Papers? What kinda papers.” She came over and stood beside him, looked down at the forms.
“Well, this one, for example, says that I can’t take your picture unless you’re eighteen. Now it’s up to you what you want to do, just remember that if you don’t sign this paper, I can’t take your picture. It’s up to you.”
He handed her a pen, then waited, hoping he’d made the right move.
A cloud passed over the girl’s face – for a second, just an instant, her eyebrows came together as her mouth curled up in a smile, and she looked like a parody of villainy – and then it was gone. Then she signed the paper.
“Very good,” he said. “This next paper gives me permission to post your pictures on my websites.”
“Websites? You never said nothin’ about no websites.”
“Oh, is that a problem?”