Imogene stood in the semi-shadows, just outside the illumination of the spotlights, and felt a rush of cool air flowing over her hot, bare skin. Her loins throbbed with the insistent urgency of her desire. The music had stopped, and the den was deathly still. Archie was on the couch, motionless, laying on his back, with his feet on the floor. His arm was thrown across his face, shielding his eyes, and she thought for a moment that he might have dozed off.
"Archie?" she called out softly so as not to startle the boy.
"What?" he replied tersely, without looking up.
"Are you alright?"
"I guess."
"Are you mad at me?"
"No. Why, should I be?"
"Oh, I don't know; maybe a little."
"How come?"
"I thought you might be mad at me, cause I ran out on you like I did."
"Forget about it."
"So, you were mad?"
"It don't matter."
"It matters to me, Archie; that's why I came back."
"What'd you come back for?"
"To say I'm sorry for the way I acted, and to make it up to you."
"You can't."
"What can't I do, Archie? Apologize?"
"Naw."
"What? Make it up to you, then?"
"Yeah."
"Sure I can, if you want me to."
"It's too late."
"It's never too late to say you're sorry, Archie; to start over."
"I can't start over."
"Why not, Archie? Don't you want to?"
"Not now; it's gone."
"What's gone?" she asked apprehensively; she had gone through too much this afternoon, she reminded herself, just to be rejected by some petulant child with his nose out of joint, who couldn't find it in himself to kiss and make up.
"It," he replied matter of factly, like he was having to explain the obvious to her.
This is weird, she thought, like someone she should have noticed had left the room and everybody but her knew it. She glanced around uncertainly for a minute, but found nothing amiss.
"I'm missing something here, Archie," she admitted, "tell me what's gone, please."
"It!" he repeated impatiently, still without moving.
She studied him for another minute, keenly aware that her opportunity was in danger of slipping from her grasp. Well, she reasoned, he was about as communicative as a two year old, his mother got that part right, at least... She gasped in sudden recognition, "it," of course, "it." She stepped toward the center of the room, padding silently on bare feet till she was standing about in front of the boy. His bare legs were slightly parted, and his member, deflated now like a punctured tire but still impressive, was snoozing inertly between his thighs.
"Oh, you mean, your, ah," she groped to recall his expression, "your `meter,' don't you?"
"Yeah, that's `it.'"
She smiled, touched by his unexpected backwardness. "It's OK, Archie, I can fix it; it'll come back."
"How do you know it'll come back?"
"Cause, Archie, I know what to do. I know how to make it feel good, so it'll come back good as new."
"It won't."
"Sure it will," she cajoled patiently, "if you give me a chance."
"It don't hardly ever," he said with disappointment evident in his voice.
"What?" she replied, a little perplexed.
"It don't come back, hardly ever," he repeated.
"You mean?" She was trying to feel him out, as it were.
"When it goes away, usually it's gone for two or three days before it'll come back."
"Archie?" she began. She was becoming suspicious. Most boys his age, she remembered, didn't take days to recover; heck, she could drain Billy dry, and he'd be right back in ten minutes, begging her to do it again. "Archie, you didn't do anything while I was gone, did you? You know, like touching it to make it go away?"
"Naw," he denied flatly.
"Are you sure?"
"Yeah, I'm sure. That's kid's stuff; mom made me stop doing that stuff a long time ago." He was pretty convincing, but he still hadn't looked at her.
"You do what your mama wants, don't you, Archie?" Her voice was gently soothing; she was trying to keep him calm. She had almost no practical experience in the matter, to speak of, but she, along with the rest of the universe, had heard enough from Bob Dole about "E.D.," to have a general idea about Archie's predicament.
"Yeah," he responded, brightening some.
That makes her proud of you, doesn't it?"
"Yeah," he acknowledged.
"You told me that it comes back sometimes, is that right?"
"Yeah, sometimes."
"What would you say, Archie, if I told you that your mama wanted me to help you get it back, right now, so you don't have to wait two or three days."