Lucky's Girl (17 page)

She seemed to relax.

Lucky nodded in approval. “What do you think, Kenny, can Christie be one of us?”

Kenny looked nervously from Mary to Christie, his mind a storm which alcohol and marijuana hadn’t calmed. Part of his mind said this was wrong, but his body was that of a teenage boy.

Lucky prompted, “Well?”

Kenny nodded, agreeing because he didn’t know what else to do, and Lucky’s will was
so
strong now. “Yeah, yeah man.”

Lucky pulled Mary on top so that she was straddling him, kissed her long and deep. She rocked back and forth in his lap, everyone seeing that she was wearing no panties.

Lucky stood up and deposited her in Kenny’s lap. He couldn’t help it, his erection pounding into position instantly as her lips locked around his.

Lucky said, “Now, Christie, come sit next to me again.”

Christie’s mouth hung open. She couldn’t process what she was seeing at all. Lucky held out a hand for her and she took it, so he pulled her over to him and kissed her. Then he held her face close to his.

“Now go kiss Kenny.”

Kenny coughed out his beer. “What?”

But it was weak and half-hearted. He was a seventeen year-old boy. When he was alone, he masturbated thinking about the next time Mary would be sent to him. He never even dreamed about girls like Christie, much less Christie herself. That wasn’t a dream because there was no point.

Christie looked around, stunned.

Lucky laughed. “We all share everything. I can’t be selfish. Kenny isn’t selfish. Mary isn’t selfish, are you Mary? She can do it, can’t she Mary?”

Mary reached over and gently stroked Christie’s hair. “Do it.”

Lucky prodded Mary. “Show her how.”

Kenny couldn’t speak, his mouth hanging open stupidly as Mary pulled Christie down in front of him between his legs. Mary kneeled on the couch next to Kenny, taking him by the face and kissing him gently, then more passionately. She gently took Christie’s face in her hands and pushed her toward Kenny. He couldn’t resist, his mind was gone. He was an animal, no longer human, just a creature of lust and taking.

When their kiss was through, Lucky lit cigarettes and they all smoked. He exhaled a cloud of smoke and looked to his Tribe. “Christie, you’ve done fantastic. You’ve come so far from where you were when I met you. We’re going to be liberated. We
have to be
if the Tribe is going to complete our God’s mission here on earth. Our work is to remove the barriers between him and us, between ourselves and each other. How can you feel if you won’t touch?”

Lucky looked like he just figured out the answer to a riddle. “Put on that CD that you played for me. That English band.”

Christie grinned stupidly. “Depeche Mode.
Violator
. It’s new, I got it because I read about them in Rolling Stone.”

Christie walked over to the biggest stereo Lucky had ever seen. There was a rack of CDs there. He’d never actually seen a CD before, only tapes and vinyl records.

She started the player and Lucky said. “No, play that Jesus song, I love that.”

Christie pressed a button, and the CD skipped to a new song. Kenny and Mary had never seen this either. It just skipped to play songs. No fast forwarding, no moving the needle of the record player.

Lucky looked to them with a raised eyebrow. “Neat, huh?”

Christie was about to walk back when Lucky stopped her. “Now turn the lights down. Check this out guys.”

She went to the light switch and turned a circular knob that made the lights go dim. They’d never seen anything like it either.

Kenny managed to slur out, “That’s fucking awesome.”

Mary whispered, “Yeah.”

Christie stood like a good servant waiting for instructions. He took his hand and made a spinning motion, telling her to turn in a circle and face the other direction. Just as he had days before with Mary.

“Kenny. Is Christie’s ass a work of art or what?”

Kenny actually stuttered. “Yeah man. It’s…”

He couldn’t finish the sentence. Her ass was like something out of a magazine he wasn’t old enough to buy.

The music poured out of the speakers. This was also something they’d never heard before. Dark, hypnotic and sexy with sounds they couldn’t place. This wasn’t rock and roll. It was something else: something seductive and subversive, evocative of dark angles and glossy colors.

Lucky instructed. “Okay, Christie, now you’re going to show us how you dance.”

Christie began to sway to the music, stiffly at first, then with more fluidity. She was wasted, but not yet to the point of being clumsy. Her arms moved up and down, and her eyes were closed. She was right where she was supposed to be on Lucky’s map. The song switched to the next one. A further, darker landscape, and Christie’s body moved in time to it.

“Mary, do you think Christie’s doing well. Has she convinced you yet? What else does she need to do?”

Mary was caught off guard. She was mesmerized by Christie’s seductive ballet. She didn’t know what to say, so she just looked back to Lucky.

“Mary, turn back to her and don’t you dare take your eyes off her. We need to know everything about Christie – and she’s trying to show us who she is. Isn’t that right, Tonto?”

Kenny was also entranced. He gulped. “Yeah man, that’s it right there.”

“I think it’s time you showed us who you really are, Christie.”

But she was completely in her own world now. She didn’t speak, she just unhitched her long dress in the back. It slid off her frame and she stood before them in her lacy black bra and panties.

Mary gasped. She began to stand but Lucky pushed her down on the couch and kissed her, subduing her again. He reached over her and pulled up her mini skirt so she was completely exposed. He parted her legs to show the black patch of hair and expose her pink lips. He began tracing his finger across them. Mary looked back and forth between Christie and Lucky. She was aroused and confused but couldn’t figure out which one was more important.

A third song came on, quiet with no drums, just a repetitive structure of chiming sounds. Christie rubbed a finger across her mouth, and the sides of her breasts swayed while she kept her eyes closed.

Lucky stood and stilled her motions, then held her by the elbows, walking her over to Kenny on the couch.

“Stand up, Tonto.”

Kenny was eye to eye with Christie smiling back at him.
She was a completely different person from the person she was.
Their lips connected again and she pulled him into herself, running her nails up and down his back just as she had done earlier with Lucky. In her mind they were one and the same.

Lucky said that I could be lucky too
.

And he laughed, satisfied. “Now sit down, Tonto.”

Lucky then walked Christie over to where Mary sat with her legs spread. In her intoxication she was tracing a single finger up and down her labia. She opened her eyes to see Christie kneeling between her knees, smiling and flushing a hot crimson red.

Lucky whispered. “Now you know what I’ve brought you, Mary. We share
everything
.”

Kenny didn’t understand what he was seeing, and neither did he understand what his body was telling him. Christie was rising up on her knees, Mary was leaning forward with her mini skirt hiked up around her waist. Their lips touched and their tongues began exploring as their hands followed. Then Christie was on top, fingers buried inside as Mary’s hands greedily tugged away their clothes.

They were
fucking
. He hadn’t even known it was possible. Both girls who’d kissed him tonight were
fucking
as he and Lucky were watching. He’d never seen anything like it. Was it wrong? He couldn’t tell in this state. So many things had happened in such a short time. But his mind, his
self
, his doubts were all gone. He was
lucky
.

***

Jerry Kaminsky didn’t get
this
at all. What the hell were those stupid kids up to?

He smiled, laughing at himself. What the hell was he thinking? Elton was a lot of things but hardly a nexus of conspiracy. There just wasn’t enough going on here. And it wasn’t Detroit, a fact he was infinitely grateful for. Here, it boiled down to employed people drinking and doing the tragic things… and figuring out if a single teenage boy was up to no good.

All he had to go on was a good-looking boy, wildly charismatic and fucking everything with a pulse. And a not-so-sinister suspicion of pot-smoking. Not exactly headline news. And he had to admit, he’d be doing all the same things if he was his age.

Then what about him did Frank McCord find so bad? Was it merely Lucky’s outsized presence? It was easy to see why Frank would find that hard to tolerate. Frank simply couldn’t tolerate much. He’d wanted to discuss it more with him but Frank had shut down. Pushing him was pointless. So he was back to nothing more than shapeless dark suspicions.

So. Lucky seemed more than just charismatic, he seemed to
bend
people to his will. But that wasn’t a new thing on planet earth. Elvis and the Beatles had driven teenage girls to throw their panties at them on stage. And this had happened in the 50’s! Maybe Lucky’s cut out to be a rock star. Maybe he’s cut out to be the president. Maybe you’ve just never met anyone like that before.

So what are you doing here?

He had parked down the street from Mary’s, hoping Lucky would tear around in that old pickup and spin his tires like a stupid teenage boy. He’d pull him over. Probable cause. Search the truck, maybe find some weed…

But what exactly would that establish? That Lucky is in fact a seventeen year-old boy?

What are you doing here?

Soon Mary walked out, dressed like some kind of MTV hooker, hair teased up, mini-skirt showing off the crack of her ass, and high heels she could barely walk in. She hopped in her dad’s pickup truck and drove away.

Jerry followed. To say this attire was unlike Mary would be an understatement, but he’d seen teenage girls dressing scandalously since he’d been a teenager. They wanted to be sexy. They wanted to be provocative. They wanted to be bad, and Mary looked all of those things. She looked fine, so fine, so dirty.

Jerry sprouted a boner.

He eased off the gas pedal, Mary’s tail lights pulling further into the distance.

What’s this whole thing really about, Jerry?

The principal criminal law concerns in Elton Township were driving while intoxicated and alcohol-related domestic violence. Teenagers smoking pot and dressing like rock video hookers shouldn’t be high on his list of priorities.

Are you just going through some kind of midlife crisis involving a deep-seated resentment against a teenage boy who got laid more than you did at his age?

That would be so pathetic.

His speed fell off and barely idled down the empty roadway. He had to decide. Follow his instincts or go back to the highway and hand out tickets. Jerry knew Elton like the back of his hand. He knew there wasn’t much here to be suspicious of. There just wasn’t much going on. Maybe he was seeing things that weren’t there because of that.

But one thing he’d learned in Detroit, no matter how badly he’d failed there: follow your instincts and investigate.

He followed, and it was a long drive, and though he suspected that he really knew where she was going he couldn’t accept it.

No, couldn’t be.

He turned off his headlights. Mary didn’t see him as she pulled into Ted Tellefsen’s driveway, parking next to Lucky’s pickup truck.

What the hell are they doing?

There wasn’t a hint of anything illegal so he had to tread carefully. He was technically outside his jurisdiction here anyways. Ted Tellefsen was one of the few employers in this county. He was a power in this part of the world, a power Jerry couldn’t afford to cross.

And there was Christie’s white Acura.

She’d attended the Rev’s church that morning, and afterwards had driven past the building a few times. Wrong side of the tracks. Lucky had been furtively looking out at the highway, trying to act nonchalant. He was probably fucking Christie Tellefsen on the sly. But if that was the case, what the hell was Mary doing here? Would there be a tear-stricken confrontation in Ted Tellefsen’s front yard? Ordinarily he’d say yes, but this cast of characters wasn’t fit for a country lyin’ and cheatin’ song.

At least not the Tellefsen girl.

Were they going to smoke pot and listen to heavy metal? That scenario was more plausible except for Christie Tellefsen. Some rich girls go slumming, but they don’t bring the slum home with them, and Christie Tellefsen didn’t go slumming. That did not happen. There was no way Ted was here either. Ted and his wife wouldn’t let these kids in their house. Their daughter was off-limits to the hoi polloi.

Jerry’s instincts got the best of him. He had to know what Lucky was up to.

He snuck through the shadows to the front door. He smelled weed from out here. Probable cause or not, and even with Ted Tellefsen clearly out of town, it would burn bridges to roust these kids. It would be an embarrassment to Ted and his wife.

So he went with plan B.

He peeked through the window.

When he left he was sure Ted Tellefsen would have preferred he arrest every one of them, including his own daughter, Columbia Scholarship or not.

CHAPTER 7