*Survival is not just knowing what you have, but in knowing what is arrayed against you *
"Exactly why am I digging this hole again?" I ask while standing knee deep in this pit I've created.
"It should take you about four hours to dig a grave big enough for us to bury you in," Phoebe tells me.
"But why am I digging it?" I persist.
"Because if you don't dig it, Penelope and I will have to dig it and we don't want to," she smiles. Penelope comes out in a diaphanous sundress that the cool morning breeze make dance around her slender form. She has a tray of lemonade and three glasses.
"How are you doing this morning, Bartholomew?" Penelope says in some way reminds me of my Mother. "I've brought you some lemonade. Do you want me to pour you a glass?"
"Sure, why not; are you going to shoot me if I don't drink it fast enough?" I joke bitterly.
"No," Penelope smiles dreamily, "but it should take you five minutes to drink it." Five more minutes of life; that's how I've been living this morning. A few minutes there, an hour here, and every time I lack the human dignity to tell them to fuck off and get it over with.
Phoebe is cradling what I've been told is a .223 caliber rifle. It sounds small unless it is pointed at you. Penelope has a pistol on her tray. It isn't mine. They tell me mine was a piece of trash and they've thrown it out. Daddy wouldn't have approved of something that crappy in their house. I've never prayed so hard for a guy to come back from the grave as I have for this man to come back and discipline these girls.
Penelope pours me a glass and skips over. She extends the glass to me. I step out of the pit and put Penelope between me and Phoebe. I have a shovel. Penelope has a smile. I take the glass and take a sip of the lemonade. Damn, it's the real deal.
"May I have a kiss?" I hazard to ask. Penelope leans forward, eyes closed and lips pursed. I still have my shovel. I drop it and put an arm around her waist and dip her as I kiss her. I pull her very breath into me while her hands run over my shoulders and neck. I pull her up from the dip and there is a light in her crazy eyes.
"I'll go start lunch," she pants. She flounces away. I look at the shovel and gauge the distance between her and Phoebe and me.
"We are having spaghetti, Brussels sprouts, and fruit salad for lunch," Penelope calls out.
"How long does that take to eat?" I inquire.
"Forty-five minutes, but I'm thinking you get a thirty minute shower before you get to eat with us, so dig quickly," Penelope gives her sing-song reply. I'm celebrating making it to 1p.m. I'm digging away, busting up roots and making some progress when Phoebe approaches me, gun pointed right at me too.
"Can you do what you did this morning to us again?"
"Actual, except for the shower, that's the best offer I've had all day," I respond.
"Would you like to get your hands on my body right now?" she playfully taunts me. She's in boots, sox, cut-off jeans shorts, and a calico vest that has been altered so it exposes her taut belly. Her black hair is pulled back in a ponytail.
The gun is pointed at my midsection. I put the shovel aside again and put a hand on her stomach. I make small circles and she moans softly. I step back and get to work once more.
"Why didn't you try for it?" Phoebe inquires with honest curiosity.
"You are faster than I am. I'd rather not get a hole in my guts before I've had the chance to have lunch.
"You are afraid," she states.
"That too," I confess.
"We are going to kill you eventually anyway," she admits.
"Key word: eventually," I grin.
"Oh," she says, "you are cleverer than I thought," Phoebe sounds surprised.
"Thank you I think," I respond.
"You are almost done," she notes a while later. "Can I take you to the shower?"
"Are you going to join me?" I offer.
"I would like that very much. Let's go inside and I'll get my .44 revolver," Phoebe reasons. Seeing my confusion, "It makes a really big exit wound."
Somehow my plan to wrestle her down with her rifle in hand isn't going to work out.
"I'll shower alone. I'd hate for you to slip on the soap," I remark snidely. Phoebe shrugs.
She gets her pistol, I get in the shower and she pulls the curtain aside and ogles me.
"Do you like what you see?" I inquire.
"Very much so; you are the most attractive naked man I've ever seen close up," she smiles. Since I'm the only naked man they've seen this means a lot less.
(Lunch)