At that point, I should have gotten back in my car and driven away. Instead, I followed him inside and slipped off my coat, hanging it on the familiar row of hooks behind the door. I was surprised to see that a worn sweater of mine still hung there.
The interior of the trailer was tidy and newly furnished. Decorations and touches of color had been added. It looked neat, comfortable, and inviting. I sat on the new couch, which was good quality and very comfortable.
"Where's Cheryl?" I persisted.
Mike rummaged in the refrigerator and brought out two cans of beer. "She's gone. She tried to trap me into marrying her."
"Trap you?"
"She quit taking her birth control and didn't tell me. She made me fuck her until she was pregnant. She thought she'd trap me into marrying her."
"She made you have sex with her?" I would have said 'fuck' a year ago, but I no longer felt comfortable talking that way around Mike. "You always wanted to have your...I mean, you know what you always wanted."
"Oh, I remember. I remember real well. But she wasn't any good at it." He handed me a can of beer and took a long swallow of his own. "She complained and choked all the time--"
"I don't really want to hear it," I said.
"Fucking was the only thing she knew how to do."
"So she got pregnant and you kicked her out."
"Her parents took her in. They said they never would, but they're her parents, right? Now I'm on my own. In a month, I'm off to basic training, but there'll be no one at home waiting for me."
"Why did you fix up the trailer if you're going away soon?"
"I hoped I could talk you into coming back and living here. You know, when it was good, we had it really good. It can be that way again."
I didn't remember it being good. Perhaps for the two or three months after we were married. After that, it was a pervasive sense of entrapment and sometimes terror. Not to mention a daily mouthful of Mike's jizz.
"Mike, I've got to go."
I moved to get up, but he went to his knees in front of me so I couldn't help but look into those brilliant eyes. But their challenging gaze had been replaced by a shadow of fear. I remembered how I sometimes loved the hold he had over me, even when the results were tearful and even painful, I remembered how strong he was and how he once dominated my every action.
"RoseAnn, I want to win you back. But I'm going away and I might be killed. I might end up like Don Whitten. Will you give me something just one more time?"
"I...I...don't know." I hated myself for weakening. This wasn't fair to Craig, and it wasn't fair to myself. But Mike's eyes made it impossible to refuse him outright, or even to look away. "What do you want?"
"Anything. But what I really need is what you were so good at. You know what I mean."
Yes, I knew what he meant. I wanted to say no. But my mouth opened and no words came.