I don't often have to sit for Mr Anders. He's a single father who works from home. He says he's an author and has shown me some of the books he's had published. All I can say is that some people will publish anything. Still, he seems to do OK.
He gave me a call the other day wanting a sitter for Saturday evening. He had to do some research. When I asked where he had to go to do his research on a Saturday night he laughed and said he'd be visiting nightclubs, of all places. Sounded like an excuse to get out of the house for a while if you asked me.
I fronted up Saturday as requested and Mr Anders was all dolled up for his little excursion to the hot spots. I must admit that he comes up well with a scrub. He's quite a handsome man when he puts some effort into it. Until I met him I always had this idea in the back of my mind that authors are weedy little men. Not him. Fit with a lot of muscles. I've no idea how he gets them but he's got 'em.
He kissed the kid goodnight, waved to me and shot through. The little menace promptly started testing my limits and we had a bit of a go-around for a few minutes until she found that yes, I did mean what I said. After that things went reasonably smoothly.
It was about midnight when Mr Anders arrived home. He came waltzing in, whistling and apparently in a good mood. If he'd been out boozing it sure didn't seem to have had any effect on him. Dead sober, he was, although I did wonder about that later.
He insisted that I have a cup of coffee with him before I toddled off, as he had some questions he wanted to ask me, if I didn't mind.
So we're sitting down and having our coffee and he starts on me. One of the characters in the story he was writing was a young woman of about my age.
"You are early twenties, aren't you?" he asked.
"Eighteen, actually," I told him, unsure if I'd just been flattered or insulted.
"Close enough," he says. "Tell me, have you ever been raped?"
Not backward about asking potentially hurtful questions, was he?
"Ah, no," I answered.
"Pity," he said.
Say, what? A pity? Gee, maybe I should have gone out and found the local neighbourhood rapist?
"Sorry I can't oblige," I said, and I was surprised that icicles didn't tinkle in the air, my voice was so cold.
"No, that's OK," he said, my sarcasm passing him without stopping. "It would have helped if you'd had the experience, but it's not essential.
Tell me, if you were going to be raped would you fight or would you just collapse and let it happen?"
"I like to think that I'd fight," I snapped, "but it all depends on circumstances, now doesn't it. I'd be silly to fight if my assailant had a knife or something."
"Good point," he said, and seemed to be considering it. He shook his head. "No. It's supposed to be a spur of the moment assault. The guy wouldn't have a weapon, so Maria will probably fight."
"Who's Maria?" I asked.
"She's the young woman who's going to be raped by her neighbour," I was told. "She's also going to be the main suspect when the neighbour turns up dead. The rape will be her motive."
He was, it dawned on me, putting together one of his trashy novels.
"How long would you fight for?"
"I'm sorry?" I asked, bewildered.
"When you get jumped, how long would you fight? Right through until the end or just to the point where the rapist takes you? In other words, once he nails you would you continue fighting or would you just relax and let it happen?"
That was actually a good question. How long would I resist? It seemed to me that it would be silly to continue fighting one I've been shafted. Once things have reached that point I'd just hurt myself if I kept fighting. Better to relax and co-operate. Co-operate hard enough and I could probably make him pop his cork in nothing flat.
"I think I'd stop fighting at the point where he actually takes me," I decided.
"Would that still apply if you were a virgin?"
How the hell would he know I wasn't still a virgin? Rather insulting I thought that, even though I wasn't.
"What difference would it make?"
"Oh, a virgin doesn't really know what is going to happen, whereas a non-virgin has a pretty good idea. I'm just wondering if it would make a difference when she was struggling."
I considered the question from that point of view.
"It seems to me," I said, "that a virgin, not knowing what was going to happen, would probably be less likely to fight in the first place or, at least, not until it's too late."
Mr Anders considered the point, nodding to himself. Then he focussed back on me.
"Clothes," he said. "Wear clothes that facilitate a rape or not? You're wearing jeans right now. How easily do they come off?"
I shrugged. "It depends on the jeans," I pointed out. "Some of my jeans are so tight it takes me ten minutes to take them off. If your Maria is wearing tight jeans she's probably safe. The rapist will die of frustration trying to peel them off her. Give the girl yoga pants. They peel off a lot more easily."
Mr Anders seemed to consider this and then made up his mind about something.
He twisted his chair away from the table.