Once out of the bar we were probably safe from immediate trouble. I didn’t figure that the bartender was going to call the cops on us. Half the stuff that went on in that joint was illegal so he wasn’t going to want to call attention to his establishment by bringing the authorities in. It wasn’t one of the paying customers that had been injured. It was only a drugged out bouncer that had suffered in the fight and the goon had started the fracas anyway.
I ran my arm over her shoulder, pulling her tight against me as we walked. She didn’t resist the move, but I felt her shiver lightly. I knew it wasn’t just from the chill San Francisco breeze. I looked at her and asked, “What are you going to do now?”
She replied, “Oh I don’t know. Something will come up.”
We walked in silence for a few minutes before she suddenly stopped and began fumbling around in her purse. She finally pulled the pack of cigarettes from her bag, shook out a smoke and with shaking fingers tried to strike a match to light it. The match lit for a brief second before guttering out in the stiff breeze. She tried again with no better results. Frustrated after a third try, she tossed the book of matches to the sidewalk and kicked at them. I reached into my pocket, fired up my Zippo and lit her Marlboro. She took a deep drag, exhaled shakily and said, “You know I’m really screwed now.”
I responded, “If it is any consolation to you, I don’t think Al is going to be bothering anybody for a few days. He’ll live, but I think that he’ll be spending a couple of days in the charity ward of some hospital or other.” I paused before continuing, “A gal like you, with your obvious physical attributes should have no trouble finding a better job in this town. I don’t think you have anything to really worry about unless it is the lost wages from tonight and I’ll be more than happy to make those up to you since it is my fault that you lost your job.”
She put the cig between her lips and pulled her light jacket on before replying. “I don’t think you get it. I share a house with the ass hole you just beat up and he has friends there that’ll make my life hell once they hear about you kicking the snot out of him and why you did it. I’m going to have to move out pronto and I don’t have any place to go right now except the street. I don’t mind living on the street for a night or two till I can find another place to live, but my little girl can’t.” She took a puff from her smoke, pulled it from her mouth, looked down at it between her fingers and asked, “Do you think we could stay in your hotel room for the night?”
My dick started to get hard with the thought of spending the whole night with this temptress. I hoped that I didn’t show too much eagerness as I responded with a quick, “Sure, no problem at all.”
Relieved, she smiled wanly at me. “I don’t think you know how much of a relief it is to hear that. I was afraid that you’d just put me on a bus or simply walk away after all the trouble you had back there.” She stepped up to me, planted a big wet kiss on my lips, picked up her bag and started down the street. As she walked she called back over her shoulder, “Hurry up, we have to get a bus fast so that I can get back to the house and get my kid and stuff before word gets there about the fight.”
As I rushed to catch up I asked, “Where do you live?”
“In the Haight.” She replied.
I chuckled at her response. I should have known she would be living in one of the many communes in that area of town. I looked at my watch and was surprised to see that it was only eleven, it felt that it should be much later, time was running slow tonight that was sure.
Quickening my steps I caught up with her and said, “It’s going to take forever to get a bus going that direction this time of night. I have a better idea.” We rounded a corner and I saw two cabs coming down the street toward us. The first pulled over about half way down the block to let some partygoers out while the second continued on toward us.
I waved at one cab, but it was occupied and continued on past us. The next cab pulled out from the curb heading our direction. I reached into my pocket, pulled out a twenty and waved it at the cab. The cab driver brought his vehicle to a halt next to the curb. I opened the back door and let Kathy slide in before getting in myself. The driver asked, “Where to folks?” Kathy gave the driver the address, crushed her cigarette out in the ashtray and we settled back in the seat.
Kathy put her hand on mine and said, “I really want to thank you for letting us spend the night with you.” She squeezed my hand lightly, gave me a peck on the cheek and said, “You’re sweet.”
If she could read my thoughts right then she wouldn’t have thought me too sweet. I was mentally reliving the fuck that we had in the bathroom. Her hand on mine, her shoulder against mine, made me want her again. She moved her hand from atop mine and casually ran it up and down my thigh. I didn’t know if she was doing this intentionally but the effect on me was immediate and dramatic.
My penis seemed to spring up, no slow growth, and no interlude of semi-softness. One minute it was flaccid, the next it was rock hard. It was like my cock was a junkie and this Kathy was a drug that it had to have more of.
Kathy noticed the sudden tenting of my jeans. She smiled and nuzzled in close to whisper in my ear, “Not in the cab.” Her hand stopped moving on my leg and once again we held hands like young lovers
She kissed me on the cheek, laid her head on my shoulder, and sat there quietly for a minute before saying, “I kind of lied to you when I said that I dropped out of college because my grades dropped. The real reason was that I got myself knocked up.” She watched the city lights go by for a moment before continuing, “Sure my grades dropped. It’s hard to keep them up when you’re missing classes because you’ve got morning sickness. But the real reason was that I simply couldn’t go to class looking like some sort of fucking balloon. I just stopped going to classes after the seventh month but I didn’t tell my folks that. They kept sending me the money, thinking I was getting a good education when I was really getting ready to have their grand daughter.”
“Did you tell them about the kid?” I asked.
Kathy responded, “Yeah, after she was born I took a trip up to Sacramento to introduce them to their new grandkid.” She paused, “But they just couldn’t seem to accept her.”
“Why?” I asked. “Was it because she was illegitimate?”
Kathy chuckled and nestled closer. “No.”, she said, “If only it was that simple. It was because she is half black, or ‘Negro’ as they described it.” Her voice dropped even lower as she continued, ”They wanted me to put her up for adoption. They said a suitable colored family could probably be found for her and then I could go back to school like nothing had ever happened. I just couldn’t do that to my baby though. I haven’t seen or heard from them since then.”
“Oh, I get it now.” I said, and I did ‘get it’. It was easier in those days to accept an illegitimate child than to accept a racially mixed child. I could understand how they were hesitant to embrace their bastard mulatto grand baby. I could understand it, but that didn’t make their attitude any more right in my eyes.
As we rode on Kathy continued about how she had been the liberal white suburban princess and he had been the black revolutionary from the inner city. They had met at some sort of protest against something or other. A couple of dates later they had dropped some acid together and spent a wild interlude of sex and debauchery in his off campus apartment.
They had continued to see each other, but when she was late for her next period, he began to come up with vague excuses as to why he couldn’t see her or she couldn’t come to see him. When her worst fears were realized, that she was pregnant, he disappeared from her life entirely.
