The following is a transcript of a fifty year-old reel-to-reel tape I found in the basement of an old house I was renovating. It was among some others of off-key school band concerts and a graduation commencement speech given by an articulate high school girl. I couldn't tell her name, as the introduction was obscured by applause and a train horn. The speaker of the monologue here is male, middle-aged, and has a heavy, north Jersey-sounding accent in contrast to the emotional nature of his narrative. His voice does go an octave higher when quoting his daughter. It's not known who his audience was, possibly a 'true crime' pulp sleaze publisher. There are no proper names mentioned.
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[Rustling noise, a glass clanking, tapping on the microphone]
"I jus' gotta tell somebody this, or I'm gonna bust. I don't know if youse can use this for ya magazine or not. I knows I'm goin' ta hell for what I'm doin'...very sick things ...I just can't help myself."
[Soft sobbing, sniffling and throat clearing]
"My little princess, it was just the two of us for a long time, ya see, her mutha died, and my baby got put in that hospital. I visited whenevah I could. Finally they sent her home, walkin' on those crutches, but really
walkin'
, more than she could do before she got sick. I guess her growth was stunted by the years of sickness. But it didn't stop her one bit. Smartest one in her class, she was. She showed 'em all. She was all smiles, up there at that podium, givin' her gradua-shun speech. I was so proud. Just the tiniest, most pretty little thing just like her mutha, a dark Tuscan beauty. "
[Deep breath and sigh, the sound of sipping liquid]
"I musta cleaned the house three times before she came home. I painted a bedroom for her, pink like the one she had when she was little. I was glad when I got the letter that the state was not lettin' her stay at that home for disabled children any longer, since she wasn't a minor no more. I was happy she was comin' to live here, but I was a little scared. A boy, sure, we could go to the fights or a ball game, but I didn't know how to keep a girl entertained. I did ask the ladies at church, and they said she should learn cookin' and sewin'. Things I knew nothin' about, other than heatin' a can of beans. They gave me some donated dresses and stuff for her, since I ain't rich.
So's I got her moved in. I guess all this is my fault, 'cause I was stoo-pid and didn't shut my bedroom door one mornin'. Habit after livin' alone so many years."
[Sob, choking]
I was naked in my room, gettin' ready to showah for mass, and turned to see my daughta, leanin' on her crutches in the hall with her eyes wide and jaw open. Had WCBS radio on so didn't hear her comin'. I could tell she had seen my swingin' meat, still kinda hard from wakin'up, ya know. I said good mornin' and covered up, but it was too late I guess.
But nothin' was said, so's I fahgot about it. We was kinda like quiet but polite strangers for a few days, until I put on some old Frankie 45s after dinner one night. Her little face just lit up. 'Dance with me Papa.' she says. I was able to hold her waist high, sittin' on one of my arms, her legs danglin' as we spun around the livin' room, her arms around my neck. She couldn'ta weighed more than ninety pounds. And those big brown eyes! Smilin' like the cat who swallowed that canary, she kissed me on lips as the last song on the stack ended."
[ Sipping liquid, ice clinking]
"The kiss was a little long for a daughta and fatha, but I didn't think nothin' of it at the time. I was glad she was happy livin' here, but I wished she had a mutha to teach her things. I had a few lady friends from time to time, ya know, but most I met at bars, and they wasn't the motherin' type. I worked long hours. I'm what they call an ex-convict, and only a janitor at a factory, and I do odd jobs, handyman stuff, see, and didn't have much time for dates.
It was a hot summer. One night this thunderstorm came through, loud as hell. I was on the sofa. Thunda woke me up and the TV was still on the late show. My princess came limpin' into the room in a little nightgown, a short thin one it was, one of the donations. It was the first time I seen her like that, a woman, ya know, without a dress and ladies' undawear and stuff."
[ Loud sip and ice clinking, deep breath, and a sniffle]
"I ..saw..."
[Pause for several seconds]
"Even with the TV the only light in the room, I couldn't help but notice her ...her little titties. They was like fat gumballs inside that nightgown, jumpin' 'round an' tryin' to push their way out, it seemed like. I felt like a sick bastud for even noticin', but she was right there close and afraid of the storm. She snuggled up next to me on the sofa, legs curled up, jumpin' every time it thundered, grippin' my arm. She finally fell asleep next to me after the rain and I carried her to her room, tryin' not to look at those, um ...grown up...parts of her.
The dancin' and cuddlin', I guess youse call it, got to be a bit of a habit. It was really nice havin' someone there to come home to and talk to and she's very smart. She can talk about anything, even baseball. Then one Friday night, everything changed. We was watchin' the late news, and my pigtailed daughta kissed me goodnight, or so's I thought. But at the same time she grabbed my dick under my robe, outside my boxers. I jus' couldn't believe it! This wasn't no accident, she was queezin' and gropin' it. I jumped up off the couch in shock.
I screamed and cursed at her, which I know now was the wrong thing to do. She hopped fast to her room on the crutches. She could really fly on those things when she had a mind to. My angel was cryin' and screamin' through the door that I didn't think she was pretty and that I didn't love her, which hurt to hear. If I love one thing in my miserable life, it's her."
[Clicking cigarette lighter sounds, coughing, sipping liquid]
"The next mornin', I sat her down and told her that I knowed she was curious about boys, well, men, but grabbing
down there
was a thing fathas and daughtahs
don't
do together, because it's not God's plan. I told her someday we would find a nice young man for her, prob'ly at church, and then they could do that after they got married. She shoulda learned all this in whatever church she had in that insta-too-shun. She pouted but seemed to agree, and things got back to normal, but only for a few days.
On the sofa durin' Bonanza, she did it again, and damn near got her fingers into the fly of my boxer shorts. This time I yelled again, sent her to her room, and told her no TV for a week. She cried again. The next night, I had to work late, and was beat when I got home. To my surprise, she had made a nice dinner, beans and weenies and cabbage, and I ate two helpins' and fell asleep on the sofa watchin' TV. She was in her room bein' punished, so's I was thinkin' I had solved the problem until I woke up. So help me, she was unzippin' my work pants! I never seen such a one-track mind in a girl. I began to wonder just what kinda things she saw goin' on at that instah-too-shun.
'Please Papa?' she says. I raised my hand to slap her, but then looked at her in her little plaid dress and pigtails, with those scared big brown eyes, and I just couldn't hit her. I hadda pry her fingas off my zippa, then sent her to her room again. No TV for the rest of the month. It was July the third, so that was pretty mean, but I had to do
somethin'
. I was gettin' to the enda my rope."
[Sipping liquid, sniffling]
"I thought about takin' her to a shrink, not that I could afford one, but they would think one or the other of us was crazy and separate us again, me going to the pokey or her to a...nuthouse. I heard that's where they send girls with nam-full-main-ya, I think it's called. I couldn't see myself tellin' this to no priest neitha. They would send her away to a convent outta state. I just got her back and liked havin' her around. I didn't wanna lose her again. I read my Bible, prayed and tossed and turned all night.
The next mornin' was of course the July Fourth holiday. I slept late, 'til eight thirty, and my princess brought me the paper. She came back into the room as I was readin', it, and sure enough, there she was again, diggin' under the covers for my dick. I dropped the newspaper and saw she had took off her bathrobe, and was in white panties and a little girl's white undashirt, the kind with lace straps and a tiny pink bow at the center of the front. It was easy to make out her little titties undaneath, so much that I could see them gumball nipples was dark brown, like her muthas had been...Here...is where my sins with my own flesh and blood is, where I failed. Instead of pushing her away, I just sat there and let it happen. It all started so...fast."
[Sobbing, sniffling]
"My dick was stiffenin' itself up at the sight of her. When she let go of the crutches and climbed up on the bed and onto her knees next to my hip, I saw dark hairs was stickin' out past her panties nearly everywheres near her crotch. Then I felt her fingers on my penis skin for the first time. Maybe she just wants to see it up close, and that'll be all, I told myself."