Please note: The following content is very violent. It's fictional. Do not do these things. (Except for the sex things--those are fine to do.)
* * * * *
When I first entered Hollis' house, I was unsure how to react. Was this a bizarre joke? Did anyone actually live here? I mean, the mess was human-made, but it wasn't a way anyone lived day-to-day, was it? It looked like dozens of transients were in and out, leaving their trash behind for the next group who wouldn't care, either. As he'd done in my tidy apartment I asked him, "Do you live alone?"
He guffawed outright, like that was the most ridiculous question. "What's it look like?" he replied when he'd recovered.
"It looks like more of a mess than one person could make, even if he is a man." Okay, that was rude, but he needed a reality check. Plus, it's domination that I adore, not condescension.
He looked around with fresh eyes, which fell on some of his drawings. Every third sheet of newsprint tacked to the grungy walls depicted some nightmare that would have Hieronymus Bosch scratching his head. The rest were Medusa as rage personified. Her facial features were specific, recreated in every image. She was someone.
"I guess it is pretty bad, especially sober." He opened his mouth like he was about to promise to fix it, but abandoned that idea, realizing he wouldn't. Maybe he couldn't. "You don't have to sleep here tonight."
"I wasn't sure you'd want me to."
"But I thought you were gonna take care of me," he said, holding up his arms and making his eyes look sad. I don't care if it was put on, kind of a joke, but I never wanted to see that look on his face again.
"Sure. I will," I said seriously, not letting him off the hook. I don't like when people can only say what they mean in a jokey way, however, I sensed it pained him to tell someone directly that he wanted or needed them. "Where should we stay?"
"I think the rain's passed. We can sleep out. I got a tent, sleepin' bag that sleeps two," he said with a grin. "I'll make sure you're warm enough on the mesa."
I smiled back at him. I don't usually like camping, but that's because I never liked the company; the few times I've gone were with people who, like me, didn't know anything, but also didn't handle frustration well. It was physically uncomfortable and there was usually a guy acting like a big baby to make things worse.
I did suspect that the aforementioned sleeping bag had never been washed and was full of other girls' cum. I'd push that thought from my mind. Hollis undoubtedly knew how to live out in these canyons and I sure as hell didn't want to see his bedroom. "Yes. If you want to do that, I'll camp out with you. You sure?" I asked, not wanting to put him out of his house. Maybe he felt at home here, despite how it looked to me.
"Yeah. I shouldn't be here, anyway. I just wanted to pick up some things," he said.
Things... I'd almost forgotten my new Owner was a drug addict. Oh well, so was I in my way. My way was just safer. My sexual compulsions were not, as I'd decided they all now revolved around this swaggering timebomb. Hollis went through into what I assumed was his room, and quickly returned with a backpack, as if it had already been packed. In his hand was the fattest wad of cash I'd ever seen outside of a till. He peeled off three hundies for me.
"What is this for?" I asked in disbelief that it could be an attempt to pay me for room and board.
"Gas money. Other stuff. I drank all your vodka."
"Please, I offered it--" I began.
"Nah, you 'please'," he snarled. "I don't wanna owe ya. I just can't have it be that way."
When he pressed the bills into my hand, I took them without another word after "thank you." I realized he's the kind of man who is more comfortable paying for sex. That's what it was to him: Women are duplicitous. When they made eyes at him, danced with him, felt him up, or whispered in his pretty pink ear he wasn't going to be the fool who thought otherwise.
We changed his bandages in his filthy bathroom from which I probably picked up an infection even without open wounds. One clean thing he did have was a stash of first aid supplies, probably because most of his injuries involved something criminal and Holly was prone to injuring himself, I'd learn. This time it had just been worse.
We found his truck hidden in some brush, which he'd done in case anyone had been watching the house in his absence--no one would see it missing and know he'd returned, clever boy. We parked mine in its place and drove out off the main roads.
"Can I use your phone?" he asked.
"Sure," I said and handed it to him as he drove.
He dialed like it was the most familiar number. Childhood.
"Hugo. Yeah, yeah, I know. I fuckin' know, all right?"
I could hear a male voice shouting at him though I couldn't make out the words.
"Yeah? Well, maybe Kevin can do it next time now he's back. Or Reyna?" he said, laughing bitterly at that idea. I recalled Kevin was his brother. Reyna was Kevin's wife? A sister? And the next part I will never forget because of the way it made my heart feel sick.
"I'm your son, too, shithead! I can't even cook for a while because my hands are fuckin' burned to shit. They say they can't tell yet if I got nerve damage. I might be fuckin' damaged, Hugo, ya hear that! Damaged goods!" he screamed. He hung up and handed me my phone.
"Fuck him. Fuck this shit. I'm done this time," he muttered as he reached in his shirt pocket for his tin. He dipped a finger in and slathered powder on his gums. I knew two things: He wasn't done with this shit. Also, I'd see what he was like high on meth. I was on a desert camping trip in the middle of nowhere with a meth head. And I was falling in love with him. Another fine decision in my history! Not that it had the feeling of a decision as much as a decent into hell in a handcart.
We arrived at one of the mesas and got out to stretch and take in the 360-degree view. It was staggering. And such blissful quiet! There was no sign another person had ever been in any direction of this place. I admit I was moved to tears that rolled peacefully down my face. It was like an afterlife. It had everything to do with Hollis, but I wasn't thinking of him. I wasn't thinking of myself, either. I was experiencing pure life, just being held by the silence and the vastness of this indifferent landscape.
I felt arms around me, too, warm and male. My first thought was that he was going to throw me off the edge into the canyon below, yet I relaxed into his embrace.
"Hey." I said it just to connect. There was no follow-up.
"Hey, darlin'. Never seen anything like you before."
That sounded so strange to my ear--surrounded by nothing at all and everything to see at once, how could he be the least bit impressed by me?
"Surely not, sweetheart," I purred in his arms.
"Ya ain't the first person I brought here. Not just girls, women, either. Ya know..."
"Friends?" I offer.
"Yeah, somethin' like that. Friends. No one would ever just shut the fuck up. No one saw this place. I mean, really looked and saw where they fuckin' were. They got bored with it because there's nothin' to do here."
"I bet there's not nothing to do," I said, ever the helpmeet.
"Yeah, like what?" he breathed into my ear.
"We can watch the sunset. We can see stars away from light pollution. We can fuck under the night sky," I said.
"I gotta wait until dark? Nah," he chuckled, "that ain't happenin'."
When I turned around in his embrace, I saw the tent had been set up, a small fire pit dug. "When did you do all that?" I asked.
"Ya been standin' here in a trance for almost an hour, girl."
"No way! Really?" I hadn't been lost like that in ages.
"Guess ya needed to get away from it all. That's why I usually come here. And bringing other people has been a mistake... 'til now, maybe."