Spencerville

didn’t you?”
    She looked into his eyes and thought about that. In one way, she thought she knew him, knew how crazy he was, but never did she think he was capable of this. Yet the thought haunted her that she did know.
    “You knew, didn’t you?
I
knew, so you must’ve known. So if you knew this was gonna happen someday, you must’ve wanted it to happen.”
    “No!”
    “You love it—”
    “No! You bastard—” She swung her fist at him, but he caught her by the wrist and slapped her across the face. She rocked back, then slumped on the floor.
    He stood. “Get up!”
    She buried her face in her hands, curled up into a ball, and began sobbing.
    “Get up!”
    “Leave me alone! Leave me alone!”
    Baxter didn’t like it when she became hysterical because he couldn’t get her to do anything he wanted, couldn’t get her to listen to him, so he just had to wait it out.
    Annie lay on the floor, curled into a protective ball, her face still buried in her hands. After a few minutes, Baxter said, “If you’re through with your bullshit, I’ll let you wrap the blanket around you, and I’ll let you get something to eat. I’m waitin’, but I’m not waitin’ much longer before I get the horse whip. Fact, you got ten seconds. Nine.” He began counting backward.
    Annie uncurled herself on the floor, then slowly got up into a kneeling position again.
    “That’s good. Listen, darlin’, this can be as hard or easy as you want to make it. The quicker you understand that I’m in charge here and that you got to learn to shut your wise mouth, and that you got to do everything I say just like I say it, the easier it’s gonna be on you. There ain’t no way out for you, sweetheart. You’re gonna cook, clean, wash me, suck cock, fuck, and kiss my feet. The better you get at that, the better it is for you. Understand?”
    “Yes, sir.”
    “You know, all you Prentis girls has always been stuck-up. You think I don’t know you look down on me and my family? Who the hell do you think you are? What I’d really like is to have your bitchy sister here, too. Look at me, whore. I’m talkin’ to you. How’s that sound to you? The two bitches waitin’ on me hand and foot with no clothes on—”
    “Please, Cliff… I’m not feeling well… I’m going to pass out… I don’t want to get pneumonia… I have to have something to eat… I’m going to faint…”
    He looked at her closely, then said, “Yeah, we don’t want you gettin’ sick. I don’t want to take care of you.”
    She didn’t reply.
    “Okay, first you get that medical kit and change my bandage. Don’t bother to stand, sweetheart. You’re a St. Bernard now.”
    Annie moved on all fours across the room and got the medical kit from a wooden storage chest, then, without him reminding her, she hung the canvas bag around her neck by its strap and went back to where he was now standing beside the sofa.
    Baxter lowered his pants and his undershorts, then lay down on the couch.
    Annie opened the canvas bag and took out a pair of blunt nose scissors made for cutting surgical tape. She put the lower blade beneath the tape that was wrapped around Baxter’s left thigh and cut through it. She noticed that there was still blood on the tape, and when she peeled the gauze away, she saw that the wound wasn’t healing properly, but it wasn’t infected. She wondered if there was a way she could infect it.
    She took alcohol and cotton and washed away the blood around the wound. He winced. She put iodine on the two-inch cut, and this time he let out a small groan. He lifted his thigh, and she ripped off the old bandages, which also caused him pain, then she reapplied fresh gauze and began rewrapping the wound. He never said a word, she noticed, about the wound, or about his eye. His silence on the subject was his way of trying to convince her and himself that everything in the motel room had gone his way. In fact, she knew that Keith had put up a good fight and had almost succeeded in cutting Cliff’s femoral artery. At first, she’d almost believed Cliff when he said he’d castrated Keith, but it was obvious, by his unresolved rage, that he hadn’t.
    She noticed that he had his eyes closed, and she glanced over her shoulder at the end table beside his chair where the holster lay.
    He said, “Lookin’ for somethin’?”
    She turned back to him.
    “Now here I am, layin’ down with my drawers around my ankles, and you’re wonderin’ if you can get to