Sociopath?

by Vicki Williams

  “Let’s not be coy, Rafe. You are extremely skilled at the art of seduction. You and I both know it. You imply promises you don’t intend to keep and play on the vulnerabilities of girls who want to believe you.”

  “No, Professor, you’re wrong. I never lie about my intentions. The only thing I offer is temporary pleasure. I promise nothing more than that. And I think I fulfill my end of that bargain. Have any of your girls ever told you differently?” The smile was so quick, she wasn’t even sure she saw it, because she was too caught by the midnight eyes.

  “Rafe’s Riders! The very term disgusts me. It’s so utterly demeaning.”

  “How do you even know it, Ms Barnes? I didn’t coin it and I never say it. In fact, I’ve never told anyone who goes with me on those rides. They could keep it a secret if they chose.”

  “No,” she said bitterly, “that’s the worst of it - that they’re not ashamed.”

  He stirred in his chair.

  “I’m not sure what the purpose of this meeting was, Professor Barnes. I can only think of a few reasons. Maybe you just wanted to get a look at me to see if I really have the horns and tail of the devil you seem to think I am. Or, maybe you’re actually thinking of filing some kind of disciplinary action against me, but you might want to be careful if that’s the case. I know I haven’t done anything illegal and, as far as I know, I haven’t even broken any school rules. Promiscuity may offend you but it isn’t banned in the student handbook. And, besides, do you think you’d get any of your students to testify against me?” He paused, “do you, Ms Barnes?”

  She was silent, knowing he was right. If anything, they would gladly give him a character reference.

  “And lastly, maybe you thought you could prevail on my better nature to change my behavior,” the swift grin didn’t extend to his eyes,” but you can be pretty fucking well assured that isn’t going to happen. So, unless there’s something else you think we need to say, may I be excused, Ms Barnes?”

  “Get the hell out, Rafe.”

  *

  “Jesus, Helene,” Gil told her, “I can’t believe you called one of our students, whose father is one of our largest individual donors, incidentally, a sexual predator with no proof whatsoever. What the hell were you thinking?”

  “I suppose he went whining around about me harassing him?”

  “No, Helene, he didn’t. Someone saw him go into your office and mentioned it to someone else who mentioned it to someone else who told me about it. I couldn’t figure why you’d be seeing a student with whom you have no reason to have any contact whatsoever and that’s why I called you in. I knew you had strongly negative feelings toward him. What was his reaction to your lecture anyway?”

  “He was an arrogant little smart ass. He pretty much told me he was going to continue doing as he always did and he didn’t think there was anything I could do to stop him.”

  “He’s right, you know, Helene. You’re a professor, not a fucking hall monitor.”

  “He’s completely amoral, Gil.”

  “Maybe so, Helene, but that’s not our business so long as he doesn’t commit any violations of law or policy and so far as I can see, he hasn’t.”

  She was somewhat concerned now, after the fact. “Do you think his father will try to get me in trouble?”

  “No, that’s one thing you have going for you. If any kid knows how to keep his mouth shut, it’s Rafe Vincennes. I doubt he’ll ever tell his father. In fact, he’s probably forgotten all about this by now. I suggest you do the same.”

  * *

  In that last part, Gil was completely wrong. Rafe had barely cleared Helene’s door after their meeting until he was plotting his plan of attack.

  He did a little quiet research toward that end. It turned out that Helene was, in fact, a lesbian. She lived with her partner, Kaddie Lamb, a trainer at the fitness center in town. That was good, it would be easier to pull off if she wasn’t part of the college. Part of Plan A depended on just how motivated Kaddie was in her own sexual orientation. Rafe believed, from having an openly gay brother, that some people were born to be what they were. If they were single-mindedly dedicated to their own sex, then that was that. But, of course, some people could go either way. If Kaddie, was one of those, if she had even a spark of interest in men, then he was probably home free. He’d be able to tell soon after meeting her if that was the case.

  So he hied himself down to the fitness center. It wasn’t a funky old gym, his preferred kind of place to work out, if he had to work out, which he’d really rather not do at all if he had his druthers. Exercise simply for its own sake always seemed like a waste of time to him when you could actually be doing something instead. Rather than horses or cars or boats that took you somewhere real, fitness centers contained stairs that went nowhere and stationary bikes (an oxymoron to his way of thinking).

  This place was called Shapes. It was all light, airy rooms and modern equipment and inspirational posters and even hanging plants, for Christ’s sake. Fortunately, the woman behind the registration desk wore a nametag that said “Kaddie”, so he didn’t have to waste time tracking her down. She was a pretty round girl. Not fat or soft, just round with strong firm legs and round melon breasts and a round face framed by bouncy blonde curls and big round blue eyes. She wore shocking pink silk shorts and a lighter pink shirt with a Shapes logo on the chest. He bet she was always on a diet, wanting to be thinner (didn’t all women want to be thinner?) but it would never happen. Her body shape was what it was.

  As, luckily for him, was his - lean and brown, with long muscular legs, narrow hips, flat belly and broad shoulders in red shorts and loose red tanktop. It required no effort on his part to maintain - no diets, no particular exercize. She gave him a frank appraisal, taking in as well, the high cheekbones and dark eyes and black hair.

  He told her he wanted to join Shapes. He told her he was more sedentary since he was in college. He told her it hadn’t started to happen yet but he wanted to be pro-active and not let himself get out of shape. He told her his name was Rafe Vincennes.

  At that her head went up sharply. “I know who you are. Helene Barnes is my partner. She really, really doesn’t like you.”

  Rafe smiled, his full-bore smile. “She has a wrong impression of me. I’m not as bad as she thinks. Are you still willing to help me get started here, in spite of her prejudice against me?”

  “I’d have to anyway. You’re a customer and we’re expected to be pleasant and helpful to all the customers.” She crinkled her blue eyes at him as if to tell him she wasn’t going to find being pleasant to him that much of a hardship.

  “I’m in,” he thought.

  She did the tests that were required before approving a new client for membership. She checked his blood pressure and his heart rate (which were perfect) and his muscle to body fat ratio (which was perfect) and measured him (6’) and weighed him (170). He professed ignorance about the dials and read-outs on the various machines, (although he’d spent hundreds of hours on machines just like them under the eagle eyes of one coach or another). She helped him devise a workout plan to help keep him fit and toned. After she left to attend to others, he quick-stepped through the stair routine and rode the bike the obligatory distance (!) and lifted the weights set out on his program. Lord, he hoped he didn’t have to spend a lot of time on this horseshit.

  And so his patient campaign began.

  He faithfully followed his workout regimen. They got friendlier as time went by.

  “I appreciate your help, Kaddie. It seems to be working.” He ran his brown hand across his cut abs. She had the urge to do the same.

  Eventually, she said, “so, tell me about Rafe’s Riders? That’s what seems to infuriate Helene the most.”

  “It’s not the big deal she thinks it is, Kaddie, and it doesn’t happen as often either. Sometimes, when I’m really burnt out on school, I take out my Corvette and just drive and then I stay at a hotel to get away from the dorm for a night. On occasion, I
take a girl with me.” The smiled gleamed. “I don’t just snatch them off the street and force them into the car. I always ask politely first if they want to go.” He shrugged. “Sometimes they say yes.”

  “I love Corvettes.”

  “You do?”

  “Yes, I do. I’d go for a ride with you if you asked, Rafe.”

  “I’m asking then, Kaddie. You name the time and place and I’ll be there.”

  Helene is going to spend tomorrow night with her parents. I get off at 7:00. Pick me up then.”

  *

  “That was just yummy, Rafe.”

  “Why are you with Helene when you seem to like men so well, Kaddie?”

  “I don’t like men so well. They’re usually too fast and too hard and too self-centered. Women are slow and soft and generous. But you’re as good as a woman, Rafe.”

  He laughed. “I guess, considering the source, I’ll take that as a compliment.”

  “Oh, yes, I meant it as a compliment.”

  “And I have a cock too,” he added meaningfully.

  She giggled. “Yes, and that’s an added bonus if a man knows how to use it.”

  “I know how to use it, Kaddie,” he said, showing her.

  “Yes, Rafe,” she breathed, “you certainly do.”

  *

  “Where were you last night, Kaddie? I tried to call until late but you never answered.”

  “Oh, there was a going away party for one of the trainers who is leaving Shapes, Helene. I guess I got carried away and had a little too much to drink. I didn’t think I was safe to drive so I stayed over with one of the other girls.”

  That wasn’t like Kaddie. It made Helene nervous. Kaddie was lots younger than her. She had never loved anyone else so much. It worried Helene that she might be attracted to one of the pretty little girls who came into Shapes. Maybe she’d better think twice about leaving her alone again all night.

  *

  Kaddie was a sweet girl. He felt a little bad that she was going to end up being, what term did the military use? Oh, yes, collateral damage, that was it. But sometimes that happened in times of war.

  *

  “Kaddie,” he crooned into her ear. “Let’s go to your place.”

  “Oh, no, I can’t do that, Rafe. It would be such a betrayal of Helene.”

  “Yes,” he thought, “and that’s exactly what we’re going for here, a betrayal of Helene.”

  “She’ll never know,” he said, “aren’t you familiar with her schedule?” (He himself knew her fucking schedule backwards and forwards).

  “Yes, but….”

  “Come on, Kaddie. I’ll be gone long before she gets out of class.”

  “Well, okay, but we’ll have to watch the time really carefully.”

  “We will.”

  *

  And they did watch the time very carefully on that occasion and the next and the next.

  *

  “Kaddie, I don’t want to leave you yet. Let me stay just a few minutes more?” His hand was between her legs, his lips were nuzzling her neck.

  “Just a couple more minutes, Rafe, then you’ve really got to go.” The couple turned into a few.

  She didn’t hear the door knob turn but he did because he was listening for it. And she didn’t hear the steps coming down the hall but he did. When Helene came through the door, his mouth was on Kaddie’s breast.

  “Oh, my God!” The cry was anguished. She doubled over as if she’d been kicked in the stomach. Kaddie sat up quickly, pulling the sheet over her nakedness. Rafe got up and started slipping his clothes on. (He always wore what he thought of as a “quick get-away” outfit in situations that could turn dangerous, such as liaisons with married women….or the possibility of outraged lesbian lovers - running pants with elastic waistbands and no pull-over shirts, which gave you that moment of blindness when you slipped them over your head.)

  When Helene straightened up, tears were flowing down her face. The same with Kaddie.

  “Kaddie, how could you, how could you? Not with him….”

  “Oh, I’m so sorry, Helene, I never meant for this to happen!”

  Helene looked toward Rafe. She got the message his black eyes were sending her - “I did, though, Helene. It’s exactly what I meant to happen.”

  He didn’t seem to be hurrying but he was almost to the doorway now.

  “It’s my Times Ten rule, Professor,” he told her, as he headed down the hall.

  * *

  Helene forgave Kaddie. Not only forgave her but exonerated her. But in order to give Kaddie a free pass, she had to impute to Rafe more power than he actually possessed. She had to make him virtually invincible to explain away how he’d been able perpetrate this monstrous invasion of her very being, coming right into her home and plundering the possession she prized most. She sold her grandmother’s antique bedstead. She didn’t think she could ever stand to lie on it, or even look at it, again, without thinking of him being there. She replaced it with a brand new bed with a headboard that looked like it was made of metal pipes, not at all like what usually appealed to her.

  Unwittingly, Kaddie made it worse.

  “I bet he even could have got to you, Helene, if he’d put his mind to it.”

  “Don’t be ridiculous, Kaddie.”

  “I bet he could have,” the other woman insisted.

  (Helene had made a conscious decision to become a lesbian in college in rejection of a male-dominated society but she wasn’t completely inexperienced with men, as Kaddie knew).

  Could he have, she asked herself? There was a time she would have said absolutely not with complete confidence in her own strength of will and in the values she held. Now her self-esteem was in tatters and the charge carried a tiny pin prick of doubt.

  Everyone noticed how subdued she was. She was no longer the confident, out-spoken, even argumentative woman, she used to be. They wondered why.

  “Do you think it’s a health problem?” they asked one another.

  “I heard it had something to do with Rafe Vincennes,” said another, “but I don’t know the whole story.”

  No one ever did find out the whole story, not even Gil, who usually had a sensitive finger on the pulse of the Princeton grapevine. All anyone knew was that Rafe Vincennes had somehow got Helene Barnes, got her bad judging by the consequences. Helene never told anyone what happened, and Kaddie never told, and of course, it would never have occurred to Rafe to tell.

  *

  He heard about the changes in Professor Barnes but he didn’t feel sorry for her. He thought if people wanted to go swimming, they ought to find out how deep the water was first.

  * *

  Christmas came and went again. Everyone made it home except Wyatt. He was in Iraq, but Belen came with their baby, Wesley. All three cribs in the nursery were filled this year. In addition to Wesley, there was Mariel’s blond little Victoria Grace and Jocey’s, Kianna Marie. Magdelene thought they were single-handedly starting their own little family version of ethnic unification as she fondly considered her three newest grandchildren, Wesley with his dark Hispanic hair and eyes and Gracie, their little blond British princess, and mocha-toned Kianna, strikingly beautiful as the combination of black and white so often is. Magdelene could look fondly at these babies because all she had to do was look and maybe hold them now and then…. as long as they were being good.

  *

  Renny and Magdelene didn’t take a trip this year. Lane was bitterly disappointed that she and Rafe wouldn’t have free run of the house and she couldn’t spend the whole night with him but she tried to make the most of the time she had.

  *

  “Hi, Ren.”

  “Hey, Gil, how’s it going?”

  “Doing good. One reason I called. I’m taking two week’s vacation in February, spending it at our Mobile place. Cindy and I thought maybe you and Maggie could join us there. It would be fun, Ren. Like old times, just adults. I love these kids, Renny, but sometimes I just need a break from
them.”

  “I can relate to that, Gil. Just let me know when you’re going. I’m all but retired now so my schedule is flexible.”

  “I’ll let you know for sure soon. In the meantime, a progress report on Rafe. I take it you decided against talking to him about graduating in three years as I suggested?”

  “Yeah, you know, I thought about it but mostly life comes pretty easy for Rafe. He doesn’t have to struggle for grades or to do well in sports or, it sounds like, to get more than his share of women. And I spoil him myself in some ways, buying him the Corvette, for instance. So, I figured it would do him good to face a less than ideal situation and have to work his way through it.”

  “You don’t think he’d ever quit before he finishes, do you?”

  Renny laughed. “There isn’t the remotest possibility in the world of that happening. Rafe is my most independent one but not even he would dare to take me on, Gil. Why do you ask? Do you think he’s struggling more than I realize?”

  “No, nothing like that, Ren. I was just curious. In fact, he seems more accepting this year than last. He’s still carrying an A in all his classes. He did really well in baseball again. Most home runs, most RBIs. Now it’s football, of course. Coach loves him. Says he’s the most unique player he’s ever had. Says he just gives Rafe a play and then sits back and watches it happen. Says if he praises him for it, Rafe just looks at him like, “what are you all excited about, it’s what you told me to do, isn’t it?”

  We did have one little incident. I’m still not clear on what took place.” He laid out what he knew had happened between Helene and Rafe. “That’s all I know. The rumor mill says he got back at her somehow but no one knows what happened. She’s not telling and neither is he. She’s a different person though, from an opinionated feminist to a whipped pup, so whatever it was, it must have been devastating to her.”