“No,” she said.
“General Washington is the richest bad-ass dope dealin motherfucker in town. Everybody knows the General. Where you think old Frank got the powder that he used to get your boy in trouble? That wasn’t no bag of sugar. That was real stuff. I expect there’s even some in the pockets of your kid’s jeans. Frank used to be a cop. He knows how to put in the fix. You fuck up, those detectives gonna have a damn tight case.”
Lisa swallowed and looked down at her hands again. “Now,” Dooley continued, “the General is also a high class pimp. I mean he got some real foxes in the stable. No streetwalkers, just call girls. Big bucks.” Lisa shook her head. Tears began to run down her cheeks. “Don’t mean you got to join them. Jus mean Frank owe the General a favor. The General is used to the best. Frank says you learned fast. General wants to see for hisself.” Dooley filled his glass and drank. He put the glass down and placed his hands on his knees and leaned forward, “So, I supposed to take you to Ryan’s or to the General. Which is it? And don’t take all night deciding.”
“The General,” Lisa whispered.
“Good, he be glad to hear it.” Dooley picked up the phone and dialed. “Nora...this is Dooley. Tell the General we be there in about twenty minutes.” He hung up and turned to Lisa, pushing the recorder in her direction. “You gonna be nice to the General?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Frank wants me to.”
“But you ain’t gonna come?”
“No...no, I won’t.”
“Why?”
“Frank doesn’t want me to come.”
“But you gonna do the General?”
“Yes.”
“Do him good?”
“Yes, do him good.”
“Make him come good?
“Yes, make him come good.”
“Well, we best be goin.” He gestured to me. “Billy, you drive. Your wife here is gonna sit in the back seat with me, and I’m gonna tell her what she supposed to do when she meet the General.” He stood up and crossed to Lisa. He put a finger under her chin and tilted her head so she had to look at him. “And she gonna show me her shaved pussy up close. Ain’t that right, baby?”
“Yes,” Lisa said, “yes, that’s right.”
Chapter Eight
The General
As soon as we got into the car, Dooley checked to see that the recorder was running. “Billy,” he said, “you take us down to Beecher Street, number 182. The General live in a big apartment over the Beecher Street Social Club.” I started the car. Dooley continued, “And you, Lisa, that your name?”
“Yes.”
“Well, Lisa, here’s what you gonna do. First, open your coat.” He waited until Lisa unbuttoned her coat. “That’s right. Now, pull up that little red dress and spread for Mister Dooley.” In the rearview mirror, I watched Lisa do as he directed. “Good,” Dooley said. “Turn sideways. Right. Looks like I ain’t gonna see that sweet pussy cept when we pass under a streetlight, but that’s okay.”
We drove in silence for a few minutes. “Spread a little bit more,” Dooley said. “Yeah, that’s it. You like showing Mister Dooley your pussy?’
“Yes.”
“You givin Mister Dooley a hard-on. You want to feel it?”
“Yes.” In the mirror I saw Lisa reach toward him.
“That’s right. You jus keep your hand there.” We drove on in silence for awhile. Dooley began again, “Now, when you meet the General, the thing you got to remember is respect. He don’t take no disrespect from nobody. It’s ‘yes sir’ and that’s all. Jus ‘yes sir’. Know what I mean?” Lisa murmured something. “And here’s what you gotta do.” Dooley leaned toward her and lowered his voice so I couldn’t hear what he was saying.
When I stopped the car in front of the Beecher Street Social Club, I heard him chuckling, “Mister Dooley sure got a long cock, don’t he?”
“Yes,” Lisa answered.
“You been feelin it the whole way. Feel like a long black snake, right?”
“Yes.”
“Shit, woman, can’t you say nothin but ‘yes’? How you like Mister Dooley to slide his long, black snake-cock into your little white pussy?”
“Yes...I mean, I’d like it…I’d like you to.” Her voice was flat, mechanical.
“Yeah, but first things first, right? Let’s go meet the General.” I started to get out of the car, but Dooley put up his hand. “You stay where you are, Billy. The General don’t like company.” I began to protest. Dooley stopped me. “Frank say for you to listen to the tape later, at home. We gonna put a fresh one in so you don’t miss nothin.” He turned to Lisa who was shivering beside him. “And Frank say that you better speak up and talk real nice cause he don’t want to disappoint the General. He say the tape better be damn good. Understand?”
Lisa nodded. Without looking back, she followed him to the door of the Club. It opened immediately and closed behind them. I waited for almost an hour. Since there was no heater in the car and my jacket was thin, I quickly became very cold. Gusts of wind rocked the car and the snow came down. I was huddled in the corner of the front seat, shivering, when the door of the Club finally opened again.
Silhouetted in the entrance were Lisa and Dooley. He turned her toward him and said something. She opened her coat, then reached her arms up around his neck. He pulled her into him. They kissed and parted. Then, he pulled her to him again and kissed her a second time. He said something else before she hurried out to the car and climbed in beside me. Dooley laughed and waved as he closed the door and went back into the club.
As we were pulling away, Lisa reached into her coat pocket for a Kleenex and used it to rub vigorously over her lips. She took the recorder out of her purse and checked to see that it was off. “Billy!” she cried, “I can’t take it much longer. It’s driving me crazy. I’m so ashamed...I’ve done things that...”
“I know, I know.” I could feel tears of sympathy welling up in my own eyes.
“It’s horrible,” she stared straight ahead. The snow was coming down hard. “The filthy, degrading things I’ve done...things I couldn’t even have imagined three weeks ago.” She slid over against the passenger door and pulled her coat tightly around her. “And Billy, the worst of it is I’m always so...so wet down there. Right now between my legs I’m gushing. I try so hard to stop feeling, to control it, but...”
She leaned her head back and closed her eyes, and didn’t speak again until we were in bed. Keeping space between us, she lay still, staring at the ceiling. After awhile, she reached over and clicked on the tape recorder. “Billy, I’m supposed to describe the General to you, then rewind the tape and replay the whole thing before we go to sleep.”
“Okay,” I said. I could feel my cock begin to stiffen.
She took a deep breath and began. “Nora, his housekeeper, let me in. Dooley stayed at the bar downstairs. The apartment is like something you might see in the movies. There’s thick white rugs and modern leather furniture with lots of silver and glass. Nora is maybe fifty, thin with high cheekbones and these dark eyes that look right through you. She never smiles. I think she could be very mean. Before we went into the General’s bedroom, she took my coat and told me some things the General would like to hear me say when...when...”
Suddenly, Lisa shut off the recorder and quickly whispered, “Billy, I can’t listen to it. It’s...it’s so...I just can’t. After I tell you about the General, you take the recorder into the living room and rewind it, and listen to it there by yourself. I don’t think Frank will know we didn’t listen to it together.” Before turning the recorder back on, she looked at me for a moment, “Billy, the things on the tape, the things I say at the end. They aren’t true. Both Dooley and the General’s housekeeper told me what I was to say.”
I nodded. She clicked it on again. “The General is a big man, bigger even than Frank. It’s hard to tell, but he’s probably between fifty and sixty, closer to sixty I think. His hair is very thick and curly. It’s all white and he has a white mustache. He’s almost as black as Dooley. One of his front teeth is gold. On his fingers he has about four or five gold diamond rings. His voice is deep, you’ll hear it on the tape. Very deep.” She paused as if remembering. “When he talks he seems nice, but underneath you can hear a difference and see in his face that he could be meaner than Nora. A lot meaner.” She glanced at the recorder, then continued. “He was sitting in a big black leather chair beside the bed. It’s a huge room. Beside his chair a single light was on. He wore a white silk robe and leather slippers, nothing else. Nora told me to stop about ten feet in front of him and wait.”
She punched the rewind button on the recorder. “The rest is on the tape,” she said, motioning for me to take it into the other room. As I left, she turned over and I could hear her sobbing into the pillow.
I sat in the dark and switched on the recorder. My cock was so hard I knew if I touched it I’d come. The General’s voice was as Lisa had described it, a deep powerful bass that sounded almost hypnotically persuasive but carried with it the undisguised message that requests were, in fact, commands.
“Ahh,” he said, “what’s this you’ve brought me, Nora?”
“Her name’s Lisa. Frank sent her.”
“I see.” There was a pause. “And why did Frank send this pretty little thing to the old General?” Nora started to speak, but he interrupted her. “No, Nora, let her tell it.”
Lisa’s answer was too low for the recorder to pick up. “Speak louder, girl,” Nora whispered harshly.
“Frank wants me to...to...please you,” she said. I could tell by her voice she was afraid.
“And how do you propose to do that?”
“I...I...don’t know,” Lisa stammered.
“Well, now, that ain’t like Frank. I mean to send me a woman who don’t know how to please a man.”
“I’m sorry,” Lisa said in a small voice, “it’s just that...”
The General cut her off, “You make old Frank happy?” he asked.
“Yes sir...yes, I think I do.”
“Why don’t you just stand there and while Nora takes your dress off, you tell me some of the things you do for Frank.” In my imagination, I saw the stern black woman slide the thin straps of the red dress down and slowly push it over Lisa’s small breasts and over her hips until it fell to the floor.
“I...I...make love to him,” Lisa paused.
“How?” the General asked. “You tongue kiss him?”
“Yes, when he lets me.”
“What else?” There was a trace of impatient anger in the General’s voice. “Damned if I heard you say anything yet.”
“I...I...suck him.”
“How?”
There was a pause before Lisa began, “On my knees. I do it slow. I...I...kiss his...balls and lick them.”
“He shove that white cock all the way down your throat?”
“He’s so big I can’t take all of it.”
“You tease him with your tongue?”
“Yes sir. He says I am good at that.”
“He come in your mouth?”
“Yes.”
“Sometimes or all the time?”
“All the time.”
“You take some of it or you suck him dry?”
“Suck him dry.”
“He fuck you?”
“Yes.”
“He make you come?”
“Yes, he makes me come a lot.”
“When the last time you come?”
“Over a week ago.”
“You must have a wet pussy then?”
“Yes...yes sir, I do.”
“Show me.” There was a pause.
“Ah, yes...yes indeed. I can see from here. Why you shaved?”
“Frank likes me this way.”
“Frank say you ain’t supposed to come tonight?”
“Yes, sir.”
“So, how you fixin to please me if I ain’t gonna fuck you?”
“I...I’ll...suck.”
“You say Frank teach you good?”
“Yes sir. I never did it till he made me...till he taught me how to do it right.”
“You see this big black cock I got in my hand?”
“Yes sir.”
“Tell me what you want to do with it.”
“I...I...want to...to...suck it.”
“A long time?”
“Yes sir.”
“Come in your mouth?”
“Yes sir, in my mouth.”
“Take off your shoes.” I could hear one shoe and then the other drop to the floor.
“Jesus, Nora,” the General said, “look at them little white feet. Ain’t never seen no black girl with little feet like that. And she got a fine lookin ass and high titties. Now, let’s see if old Frank taught her anything. Come over here between my legs and get on your knees.” After a moment, he said, “Nora, bring that tape close. Put it on the floor there next to her. Frank wants to hear her kiss my balls and everything else she say and do.”
On the tape was the click of Nora’s heels crossing the bare floor and then the sound of her placing the tape beside Lisa. “Good,” the General said. “Stand over there by the door.” I heard Nora’s footsteps receding.“Now,” he continued, “since you’re my little present, get in here real tight between my legs. Look up. Let me see that sweet red mouth.”
“Yes sir,” Lisa said, her voice still devoid of emotion. She was trying to distance her feelings, to play the part but not permit herself to enter into the experience.
“You like these big black balls?”
“Yes sir.”
“What you want to do with them?
“I...I’d like to kiss them.”
“First, rub your nice titties on my cock and tongue kiss my belly.” I heard Lisa shift her position. After a moment, the General sighed. “Ahh, that’s good. You got a hot little tongue.” There was a muffled sound on the tape for about a minute, then the General grunted, “Now my balls, do it so Frank can hear.” The soft, wet sound of Lisa’s kisses continued for a long time. “Ah, that’s right,” the General said. “Look how hard you’re making my cock.” He paused. “What you want to do now?” he asked.
“Suck, “ Lisa said, “suck your cock.”
“Look up at me,” the General ordered. “Where’s your husband?”
“Outside in the car.”
“It’s cold sittin out there?”
“Yes, sir. It’s snowing.”
“Your car got a heater?”
“It doesn’t work.”
“Well, you can make me come in a hurry or you can take your time, do it slow, make it last. What’s it gonna be?”
“Slow,” Lisa said.
“Husband out there in a car with no heater freezin his ass off.”
“Slow,” Lisa repeated. I thought I could detect a slight difference in her voice.
“Good. Do me like Frank taught you.” For the next fifteen minutes there was nothing on the tape except for the General occasionally sighing and grunting. I could sometimes hear the small sounds of Lisa kissing his cock and his balls.