Chapter 7: Tessa Can Do Whatever A Man Can Do
"You can do anything a man can do," Dad told me again and again and again. He told me in that almost-subsonic voice of his. He whispered it like a breath of sorrow or shouted it like a sonic boom every single time I failed to be perfect. Every single time I failed to be the son he knew he deserved. Every single time my body betrayed me. Every single time I did something stupid to remind Jim Gregg that his only child was born with the handicap of not having a penis. To Dad telling me I could do "anything a man can do" wasn't encouragement, it was judgment.
"I know men, Tessa" he said one Daddy Daughter Saturday. The bass of his voice slammed into my chest like his big 16-pound blue-swirl bowling ball as it arced like a cruise missile towards the paralyzed pins.
"Strike," he said solemnly with the confidence of Nostradamus. He didn't even look. He just closed his eyes and tilted his head and listened like he was listening to music. And a second later that wide, bright charmer's smile spread on his face. The smile Mom called
"The Devil's Smile" in a voice pitched somewhere between terror and pride.
"Men are wolves," he snarled. "Can you trust a wolf, Tessa?"
He took a swig off his beer. He palmed the pink 6-pound "Little Girl's" ball and brought it over to me.
"No . . . *uff* . . . no, of course not, Dad," I huffed as he dropped the ball in my hands. I searched for the right holes for my small fingers. I wished I could be big like Dad. I wished I could be the wolf he wanted me to be. I wished I could make him proud.
"Wrong. You can trust a wolf," he said and I saw that sparkle in his green eyes. "You can trust a wolf to be a wolf, you understand what I mean?"
I had no idea. I nodded my head anyway.
"You ever hear a woman asking 'How can I ever TRUST men again after what he DID to me?' after some guy breaks her heart?" he asked.
I didn't. I was 11. I nodded my head again anyway. I didn't want him to think I was a stupid girl.
"Most women the mistake they make is they confuse expectations and trust. They expect men to be dogs. They expect men to be fucking Pomeranians. To be loyal and adoring and to piss themselves with joy when she comes in the door. But men aren't fucking Pomeranians. We're wolves," he said as he helped me set my feet on the arrows exactly like he'd taught me. "We're wolves and we're gonna act like wolves and
we're going to think like wolves and we're going to hunt like wolves. You expect a man to act like a MAN and you can trust him all day because you're not being stupid. You're not making yourself vulnerable. Only an idiot or a victim gets mad at a wolf for being a wolf is what I'm saying."
I held the pink ball in front of me. I took a deep breath. I prayed I'd do it like Dad taught me. I prayed I'd do it right.
"I know men, Tessa. I know what goes through our minds. I know the urges we have. I know how hard it is to keep those urges in," he said while sliding his eyes along the tank tops and shorts of a pack of sorority girls ironically bowling two alleys over. I saw the hunger in his eyes. I saw how to him their long limbs and flat tummies looked weak and vulnerable. They looked like prey.
"Men are weak, Tessa," he said. "Most men don't even try to be strong."
He stared down at me and I hated how small I was. I set my jaw and stared up at him as defiant as I could. My green eyes locked with his. Our eyes were the only thing we seemed to have in common. I swore I wouldn't look away.
"You can only trust a man to be a wolf, Tessa. You can only expect a man to be a man. You can only trust a man to be weak. Men are hungry wolves just waiting for the right moment to tear you apart. Even good men who try to be strong are just a moment away from losing control. Which means you have to be strong, pumpkin. You have to be smart. You always have to be in control because if you lose control for even just one second you're nothing but prey."
I took a deep breath. I walked three steps to the foul line just like Dad had taught me. I let gravity guide the pink ball down and forward. I let the angle of my wrist add just the right amount of spin. I watched the ball slide into the gutter just inches away from the pins.
"You can do anything a man can do, dammit," my Dad swore as the red-necked pins stood in lockstep formation and mocked me. I bathed in my father's familiar, comfortable disappointment.
"I wonder if he'd be disappointed in me now?" I think as I look over my handiwork. I check the leather again (for the fourth time at least.) I check the ankles. I check the wrists. I memorize every vulnerable inch of the naked, panting blonde woman bound and helpless before me. I inhale her excitement, her anticipation, her fear. I feel a growl hum in my small chest as I crawl between her legs. I bring my cock to her wet, hungry pussy. I shift my hips and watch lovely wanting agony on her face. I grit my teeth to keep from howling.
****
I tore at my lemon-yellow yoga top. I pushed and scratched at my deep-pink tights. I clawed at the stain with my fingernails trying to dig the wound and the evidence of my guilt out. I wriggled. I squirmed. I cried and sobbed.
I felt ants crawling all over my body. I felt spiders in my brain. I prayed to God this was all a nightmare. A nightmare or a joke.
"I'm a slut," I spat and sobbed with something between disgust and pride. I dug my fingernails into my palm SO HARD. SO FUCKING HARD I thought my fingers would break.
I squeezed harder and harder anyway until I clawed through my own skin like an animal.
Until a tiny stream of blood dripped from my fist. Until I punished myself for what I did. For what I said. For what I wanted.
"I'm a slut," I said again and I remembered That Man behind me. I remembered howhis hard cock felt between my legs. I remembered the panicked safety of his fingers around my throat.
"What do you look like?" That Man had asked as he held me so tight against him. As I begged him to let me come.
"What do you taste like?" he'd growled and I'd licked myself off of his fingers like an animal. Like a dog.
"What are you?" he'd asked and I knew the answer. I knew the answer he wanted. I knew the only answer that would make him happy. The only answer that would make him loosen his grip. The only answer that would give me permission to grind my pussy against him like a whore. The only answer that was true.
"I'm a slut," I'd said like I was saying my name. And then I'd proven it. I'd rutted against him. I'd shaken like an animal. I'd screamed and rubbed against his cock and humiliated myself and touched myself until I shattered into a million orgasmic pieces writhing in mindless ecstasy, moaning and screaming and crying like the slut I was.