. 07-08

vii.

"I want to go to the beach." Ofelia said, after the three of them enjoyed a makeshift brunch in Kenneth's living room. She was sitting in Kenneth's lap, pealing a grapefruit, laughing each time the juice squirted out in a fine, pungent mist. She had nothing on but her panties, and her hair was combed out, draped luxuriously over her back and shoulders.

"Beach?" Daniel said. He was sitting forward on Kenneth's giant couch, staring intently at the enormous television, deeply involved with a first person role playing game which allowed him to shoot alien soldiers and watch their heads explode like watermelons. He had nothing on but his Jockeys and Ofelia had enjoyed herself with his subtle paunch, putting her ear to it, asking him when their baby was due.

"Yup, beach. But not just any beach." Ofelia continued. "I mean one of those where they don't make you keep your swimsuit on."

"Are you serious?" Daniel asked her, not taking his eyes off the exploding watermelons, his thumbs jerking around on the remote. Kenneth ran his hand up the top of Ofelia's legs.

"Yes." she answered, and then swiped at Kenneth's hand, "Calmate!"

"I know of one, but it's a pretty long drive. By the time we get there it'll be time to start back." Kenneth offered. He reached down her back and ran his finger under the waistband of her her panties, enjoying the feel of her skin underneath.

"Fuck." Daniel said, tossing the remote aside suddenly. "They make these things so you can't beat them."

Kenneth smirked, "I beat that in like, 20 hours."

Ofelia swallowed a piece of grapefruit, wiped her lips with the back of her hand, "You played that silly game for that long! Oh man, you have to be crazy!"

"No, it's all told, Ofelia. Hour here, couple hours there. You keep track." Kenneth said. Ofelia squirmed and got off of Kenneth's lap, and he patted her on the ass. She went over to sit beside Daniel. She snuggled up to him and nuzzled her face in the nape of his neck. He leaned back and she brought her right leg up and over his legs, then turned her hips so that she was practically on top of him. Soon she was looking up at him and batting her eyelashes as she rubbed her knee over the front of his Jockey's.

"God, sweets, you're gonna give me a heart attack." Daniel said. "That's it, isn't it? You're planning on killing me. Then you and Kenny steal my fortune and run off together. I should have seen it all along."

Ofelia nodded, "Yup, you got it, Mister."

The three of them sat quietly for a while. It was close to noon. Ofelia curled up and tried to disappear inside Daniel's body. She felt more at peace than she had in a very long time. But she was restless also. She was full of energy and couldn't sit still for more than a few minutes. She raised her head and blinked at Daniel.

"I want to go to the beach." she said.

~

They decided to head out in Kenneth's aquamarine '67 GTO convertible, and Kenneth was even kind enough to let Daniel drive for the first half of the trip. Daniel was so enamored of the car he virtually ignored Ofelia, who put her hair in a late sixties style kerchief (which happened to be in the glove compartment) and donned a pair of expensive Oakley shades which made her look older. The beach Kenneth had in mind was San Onofre, midway between San Diego and Los Angeles, in San Diego county.

"As far as I know, it's still clothing-optional." he told them. "I used to hang out there back in the day. Let's just hope the weather's alright."

It was the last week of September, and it was still hot in the Mohave Desert, but they would just have to see how it fared out on the coast. Ofelia couldn't be talked out of it. "I don't care if it rains, or snows. I'm not letting nothing bother me today!" she shouted from the passenger seat, holding the kerchief on her head. Kenneth sat in the back and tried to relax, though that was difficult being that Daniel was at the reins of his most prized possession and was still whooping and hollering in the driver's seat, twenty five miles into the trip.

"We'll take it on the chin in gas money." Kenneth said before they left.

"It's on me!" Daniel offered, "There's no way I'm letting you finagle your way out of letting me drive this chariot!"

Along the way they stopped at a small but pricey boutique and Ofelia shopped for a swimsuit. She walked around and took her time, and the men slinked behind her. In their sunglasses they looked like body guards, and a few of the shop's clientele whispered and pointed furtively at Ofelia, who certainly looked like someone special. Ofelia selected a shiny pink micro-bikini, a cheaper knock-off of Wicked Weasel, the famous Australian manufacturers of extremely naughty, and virtually non-existent, swimwear. She tried it on but wouldn't let her "boys" see it on her until they got to where they were going. She giggled when she held it up, a tiny handful of fabric. "Man, when they see me at the pool in this thing, they're going to go crazy for sure!"

At the counter she went for her bag, and both men stopped her, pulling out their wallets and flashing plastic. Kenneth waved Daniel away, "You're getting the gas, remember? Trust me, this still leaves me way ahead of you."

"Alright, but."

"Aw, my boys are fighting over me." Ofelia said, glancing at the girl at the register, who couldn't have been more than sixteen. An older woman was hanging around who was probably the girl's mother. Ofelia grabbed the tiny plastic bag and headed back for the car.

The weather was lovely at San Onofre, and it wasn't terribly crowded since the summer was technically, if not officially, over. Ofelia found a bathroom and went inside with her little bag. Daniel and Kenneth unloaded the towels, an umbrella, a small cooler containing beer, hard lemonade for Ofelia, and a few subs they picked up from a deli back home. Each with his arms full, they stood and waited for Ofelia.

"Oh good Lord." Daniel said, as she came out of the squat building. She had her kerchief and the rest of her clothes under one arm, and her hair was secured with one of her ever-present, ubiquitous, hair-ties, of which she seemed to have an inexhaustible supply.

"Dude." Kenneth said. Her bikini bottom, what there was of it, was in place, but she was holding the top half of the scant outfit in her free hand. She had a big smile as she walked over to them, her naked breasts shaking a little bit with each step. People were walking to and fro, mostly older couples, and no one paid any attention. With a joyful whoooop she threw the piece of fabric towards them, but since neither of them had a free hand, they watched it flutter to the sand.

Daniel managed to bend down and get the thing between his fingers. He and Kenneth trailed behind Ofelia as she sallied down toward the water. The closer they got, the more they saw that she wasn't the only half-naked person there. There were a few young ladies who were topless, and way down the beach to the south there were some people playing hackey-sack in the altogether. Daniel and Kenneth set up the towels, the umbrella, the cooler, while Ofelia continued down to the surf. The waves were coming in high, and there were a few people on boards. Ofelia spun around and waved at Kenneth and Daniel as she stood and let the water roll over her feet. It was obviously colder than it looked because they heard her squeal as she jumped out of the way.

In her bikini bottom she was virtually naked already, especially in the back where there was what one might call a strand of filament which was, for all intents and purposes, negligible. The front hardly covered her, and went a fair ways up and into what it was supposed to be covering, so essentially it served no purpose that Kenneth or Daniel could determine. Ofelia played around in the surf for a long time, and the men sat down and enjoyed the good weather, the escape. Kenneth was more jaded than Daniel, who gluttonously ate up the visions around him. His eyes followed two young ladies who were walking along hand-in-hand, wearing nothing but their matching hennas.

"It's totally fucked up to stare like that." Kenneth said, wearing an unbuttoned short-sleeved shirt and roomy trunks. "Jesus."

Daniel followed Kenneth's eyes and there was Ofelia, coming towards them again. She was walking along with her hips swaying, and they could hear her singing. She was holding the bottom of her bikini in her hand. She waved and said a bright, enthusiastic hello to a pair of college aged youths who passed by her, heading down to the water. They looked back when they passed her and shook their heads in obvious appreciation, still displaying their blinding white teeth.

"Um, Ofelia," Daniel said when she was close enough, "Your bikini fell off."

"Nope. I took it off, senor." She said, and tossed the useless second half of her expensive Liberation Day present at his feet. She stood in front of them with her arms out, feeling the warm breeze up against her back. "I love this place!" she told them. "I want to live here! I don't want to go home!"

"You're not even drunk yet!" Daniel said to her, looking at her bare breasts, her flat belly, her chiffon-smooth genitalia. Ofelia laughed and turned around to look back at the ocean, and the men admired her bare butt. She fetched a bottle of hard lemonade out of the cooler and was about to walk off with it when Kenneth said, "Ofelia, I don't think we're actually allowed to have bottles on the beach...so...I don't know, don't go wandering too far with it."

"Stay here anyway." Daniel said, feeling a spark of protectfulness. He looked at Kenneth. "She looks too young. Do they walk around and card people here, anything like that?"

"Take it easy." Kenneth said, "You're on the coast. You're in the twenty-first century. Be one with the naked people."

Ofelia smiled, "Yeah, be one with us naked people!" She upended her bottle and took a big pull from it. She only made a little bit of a wince, and stared at the label with her eyebrows together while she tied to decide whether she liked it or not. After taking a few more gulps, she set the bottle back in the cooler and headed back towards the water, wearing nothing but a white scrunchy on one wrist and a few hair-ties on the other. When Ofelia had sashayed about ten yards, she turned and shouted back, "I want to get a tattoo!" then continued on her way.

The men tried to relax and leave her alone. Ofelia wandered all over, up and down the beach, and struck up a conversation with a few people here and there. At one point she was talking to the same pair of young men she had cheerfully greeted before, and after a while one of them wandered off, leaving her alone with the other. Together they waded into the surf, talking and laughing. Daniel's cheek twitched as he kept a close eye on the pair.

"What are you worried about?" Kenneth asked Daniel, "That kid's already seen more naked chicks than you and I will for the rest of our lives, combined. Relax. Let her enjoy herself. Why else are we here?"

"Yeah." Daniel said.

Ofelia and her new friend splashed around in the surf for a while, and then headed off together, up the north end of the beach. Daniel watched them until they were out of sight. He fidgeted for a few minutes, then decided to just forget it. Leave her alone, he thought to himself. She's an adult. He and Kenneth had small talk. Daniel looked at his watch. What the fuck does she think she's doing? Does she ever think of anybody else? Is she out of her fucking mind, wandering off - bare-ass naked for Christ's sake - with a complete stranger? How dumb can you possibly be? After about fifteen minutes Daniel huffed and started off in the direction she had gone. Kenneth was behind him soon enough. "Danny, where you going?"

"I'm taking a walk."

"Come on, let her be."

Daniel stopped and shook his head. "You know, I don't need this at all. When I called you last night, and you told me, I was relieved. I really was. I can't handle this. I'm too old." He continued walking, and Kenneth was behind him. They were walking at a slow pace. Kenneth's shirt flapped behind him like a cape in the wind. He received many an admiring look from people they passed.

"And speaking about last night," Daniel went on, "Can I ask you something? I mean, did you even stop to think twice about it?"

Kenneth looked sharply at him, "Of course I did. Ask her yourself. I stopped, I was going to take her back home. She wouldn't let me."

"Forced you against your will, then? All ninety pounds of her?"

"Forget it."

"It's not like you cant fucking get laid." Daniel growled. "It doesn't matter. I can't do this. I told her that on the phone. I told her."

The two men continued walking, until they caught sight of Ofelia and the young man she had befriended. They were coming back down the beach. The young man was trying to keep up. Ofelia was running in and out of the surf, her hair flying in the wind that was gradually getting stronger. The sky was getting darker, as gray clouds started to drift in. It was nearly six o'clock.

"We should be heading home soon." Kenneth said, when the two of them started back towards their former spot. He looked at his watch. They both cast the occasional glance over their shoulders, needing to stay satisfied that Ofelia was making her way back to them. They sat down and each had a beer. It was a half hour before she finally came back to the blanket. The young man had rejoined his friend. Ofelia was smiling, humming to herself. She had sand stuck to various parts of her body. Her feet were caked with it. It sparkled on her breasts, on the dark coronas of her nipples, which were standing up hard.

She held her hand out to them proudly, with a big smile. "He wrote his number on my hand!" she boasted, "Just like in the movies! Look!"

"Please don't tell me where he kept the pen." Daniel said, and Kenneth laughed. Somehow it was still funny even though the young man had been wearing trunks.

Ofelia was looking at her hand. "We got one from a nice lady way far up that way." she said.

"Sweets, we need to be going, very soon." Daniel said. "Unless you want to catch hell from your mom."

Ofelia's eyebrows came together, those familiar little lines between them deepened. She was looking at her palm, where the numbers were. "His name is Devin. Did you see him? Oh, he's so pretty! And he's very sweet."

"That's nice." Daniel said, finishing his beer. "We need to get going. You need to get home, and we both have to go to work tomorrow. Okay?"

"Oh man!" Ofelia whined. "Just let me go in the little building again so I can shower and get dressed." She was staring at her hand, and the side of her mouth curled up into a smile. She would shower, but she had no intention of washing off Devin's number.

viii.

It was eleven-thirty-five when Ofelia came through the door. She had noticed Manuel's bike in its usual place - locked to a post down in the parking lot - it was the first thing she looked for when she walked up the stairs to her apartment. Daniel and she had taken the back seat together on the long drive back. Ofelia thought he felt cold and distant. She knew she was expecting too much from him. Too bad for him, she thought to herself, he missed a good opportunity there. She would have taken him in her mouth the whole way back.

Before going to her bedroom Ofelia jotted down Devin's number on a slip of paper in her bag, then washed her hands in the kitchen sink. It took a good scrubbing to get the ink off. As she rummaged through her little leather purse she realized she had about fifty slips of paper with names and numbers on them, names she had collected from dances, parties, at work, or wherever, over the past few years. She stayed true to at least one promise she had made to herself that morning: she wasn't going to let anything bother her. So Daniel was distant, oh well; so she was a randy little troublemaker who loved being in the company of men and had her own personal telephone book in her purse: so what.

As for her other promise: she would have to call Leonard tomorrow. She kicked off her sandals and headed for the bedroom. The door was ajar, the hall light on. Dominga's door was closed. She saw Manuel's shape in their bed, and she felt a flock of butterflies flutter at once in her tight little belly. She took off her ring, her hair-tie bracelets, earrings, blouse, pants, panties, everything. She knew her brother was awake. Who the hell was he trying to fool, anyway?

Ofelia shivered and felt her skin break out with gooseflesh as her butt found the mattress on her side of the bed and sat down on it. She twisted, gathering her share of the blanket over top of her, and lay on her back. Ten seconds later she turned onto her side and lifted herself up. She made her little finger-man and walked him up Manuel's arm to his shoulder, then made him jump up and down. Manuel made a grunt of protest. Ofelia smiled and looked at the clock. It read 11:43. She didn't care, however, because she had hatched another plan during the drive home from San Onofre. She was going to call in sick to work. It would be her first time ever. She would use the time to see Leonard.

Ofelia reached under the blanket and slid her fingers over until she came in contact with Manuel's rump. Good boy, she thought, discovering that he was naked. His skin felt hot to her and suddenly he looked over his shoulder at her, "Damn, girl, you're freezing. You take a trip to Alaska or what?" he hissed in his mock-tired voice.

Ofelia laughed and pinched his nalgas playfully, once, twice, three times, moving closer to the middle. She pushed herself up so that she was leaning on her right hand. Then she took her hand and slid it over Manuel's hip and down his groin. When she found what she was looking for she whispered, "There.....that's what I want..."

Manuel rolled onto his back and gave up playing coy. The truth was he had been waiting for her, hoping that she would be in the mood when she came in. She obviously was. Ofelia stroked his penis affectionately, feeling it thicken and harden in her hand. "Don't you know you can't fool me, Ese?" she asked him softly, "Why do you even try?"

"You're a Bruja." Manuel said, seeing her breasts in the faint light.

"Do Brujas do this?" she asked him, and he saw her bend down and felt her tongue rolling all over the head of his cock. She licked the head, then licked it up and down the front and sides, making it wet, her tongue sloppy with spittle. Manuel croaked and held the top of her head as she took him far into her mouth. She was getting better at it, and could take it nearly to the top of her throat without gagging. She loved to run her lips all the way down quickly, then take her sweet time coming back up. Manuel had the double blessing of being not only beloved to her but also her practice dummy and guinea pig. And Manuel's stamina was building and building as a result. They were very much like a newly married couple, in that when they went to bed at night they almost always had sex, especially on weeknights when they usually retired at the same time.

One thing she had learned over the past week was that she couldn't take Manuel's come in her mouth unless it was the second or third time. The first was too much. He spurted too forcefully. But she always started out by taking him in her mouth. Now she looked up at him in the faint light, and she said very softly, "I'm not going to work tomorrow. So I want you to relax and enjoy this. I want to do it for a while, okay?"

"You don't have t..."

"Papi, I want to! Got it? Okay, now close your eyes, relax. Think of Shakira or something. Don't move. And be quiet! Let me have my fun..."

Manuel did close his eyes, but he had no one else's face in his mind. There was a young lady who was paying attention to him during his visits to his cousin Jose's house. Her name was Graciela. She was a second cousin to Jose, but was not related at all to Manuel. She was twenty years old, very slender, very pretty. She reminded him somewhat of Ofelia. But so far he had not acted upon any of the overtures she had made to him, and he had not mentioned her to Ofelia.