Elliott

by I D Johnson

  “I’m goin’ back in there, and I’m gonna pound his face in!”

  “No, you’re not. You’re going out there,” Reggie pointed to the exit, “and drive over to Lawson’s Point to see your girl. You know he ain’t never gone down on Nancy Farr, and as far as that stupid tunnel comment? Shit. We’ve showered in the same damn locker room as Cliff Humphrey all damn season. He ain’t stretched out the hole in a Donette.”

  Elliott thought Reggie had a point. He hadn’t meant to, but he had once marveled out how a senior in high school could be so ill-equipped for the demands of manhood. They made their way across the parking lot. “Shit. I just hate that he’s talking about my girl that way,” Elliott muttered, opening up the trunk of his Monterrey and tossing in his equipment. Reggie did the same before they both climbed into the front seat.

  “I know man, but you gotta remember, this is hard for Cliff. He’s been the big man around here for so long, and then you show up and just basically tell him how it is. And he’s two years older than you.”

  “One year,” Elliott reminded Reggie as he backed out of the parking lot. Reggie was actually a true sophomore. Elliott should’ve been a junior. Sometimes his friend forgot that.

  “Right. But that don’t matter. He’s just trying to get you riled up, get you to do something stupid, that’s all.”

  Elliott nodded as he headed down the main street of town and then turned down the highway that would take them out of town a few miles to Lawson’s Point. His parents said they knew he was responsible and trusted him to do the right thing, so long as he never left town without their permission and was home by midnight. He was pretty sure Lawson’s Point was still considered part of Norman, and he also thought his parents were aware that all the kids went there to hang out. Some of them drank beer and smoked cigarettes, and some of them just talked about doing those things. Some of them drove down the road a little ways and made their cars rock back and forth for a few minutes, and some of them just watched from afar wondering if they’d ever be the ones in the back of the car. So far, Elliott had drank a few beers and smoked a few cigarettes, but he’d never gotten the courage to ask Nancy (or anyone else) to inspect the back seat of the Monterrey with him. He was under the impression that Nancy, who had to be home by 11:00 and never missed a Sunday church service, would just say no anyhow. He didn’t want to put any pressure on her. But if what Cliff said was true….

  “Hey, you’re going to miss the turn if you don’t slow down!” Reggie said, bringing him back to reality. Elliott hit the brakes and made the corner a little too quickly, causing Reggie to grab the dashboard to brace himself. “Shit, man.”

  “Sorry,” Elliott muttered. He had impeccable reflexes, always had, but that didn’t excuse him from driving recklessly.

  “No problem, man. I just want to get to the point in one piece.”

  “Why you comin’ out here anyway? Who you got your eye on?” Even in the dim light of the harvest moon, Elliott could see Reggie’s cheeks pinking out of the corner of his eye. “Who is she, Reg?”

  “No one in particular,” Reggie assured him. “Just looking to get a little tail, that’s all. Don’t particularly care from who.”

  Elliott nodded, seeing his final turn up ahead of them. “Can’t blame you there.”

  Reggie was pensive. “You… you’ve done it right, man? I mean… you… you ain’t no virgin like me are you?”

  “Me? A virgin?” Elliott asked, shaking his head. “Hell, no. I was twelve years old the first time I was with a girl, a woman. Snuck off behind the church building after service one day. Man, I’ll never forget her. Sally Tanner. Beautiful woman. Sixteen, big, bouncy breasts.”

  “That’s what I thought,” Reggie nodded, having heard the story lots of times before. He had no way of knowing none of it was true whatsoever and that Sally Tanner existed only in Elliott’s mind. “Man, you still got that farm girl down the street?”

  Another make-believe girl. “Nah. Since I’ve been seeing Nancy, I cut ‘er off. She don’t sneak out from her home schoolin’ mama no more. Shame, though. That girl sure had nice curves.”

  “What was her name again?” Reggie asked, and Elliott could tell by his tone the question was more than just for clarification. This was a test.

  “Helen,” Elliott said thoughtfully. “Never caught her last name, though. Just ran into her one summer down by the creek that runs past our houses.”

  “Ain’t that this creek? Settler’s Creek?” Reggie asked as Elliott pulled in next to an old beat up pickup truck and another older model Ford.

  “Hell, I don’t know how the water ways work around here,” Elliott said, backhanding him in the shoulder. They got out of the car and headed over to the point, which was nothing more than a rock overhang that jetted out over Settler’s Creek. They called it Lawson’s Point because it sort of came to a point, and old Mr. Lawson had made a point of telling all of the kids to stay off of his property. They never listened, though, and the cops stayed away for the most part because they had better things to do than harass members of the high school football team, especially the first team in as far back as anyone could remember that actually had a winning record.

  Somewhere around a dozen kids or so congregated in groups sitting on the rocks or the ground. Some held bottles, others were smoking. The trees here were scraggly, and many of them were covered in moss. There was a thick section of wood down the private lane toward Lawson’s homestead, the direction most people drove if they wanted a few minutes of privacy, and every once in a while, some kid or couple would come back telling tales of seeing glowing eyes in the trees. Elliott didn’t believe in ghost stories. He’d learned a long time ago the scariest monsters in the world are all human.

  Nancy was there, standing next to her friend Linda Smoot who had buckteeth, but other than that, was fairly pretty herself. Linda looked up at him and smiled in admiration, her red hair catching the light of the full, harvest moon hanging above in a cloudless sky, but it was Nancy who caught his attention. She was no longer wearing her cheerleading outfit but was, instead, wearing a pink dress that buttoned down the front and flared out at her narrow waist. She twirled a lock of her dark hair around her finger as he approached, and he couldn’t help but lick his lips, his heart pounding out of his chest. Maybe tonight would be the night he asked her to join him on down the road a bit.

  Until recently this had been Cliff’s hangout point of choice, so some of the other kids were still a little standoffish as Elliott approached. He knew he could likely persuade them that his presence over Cliff’s was an improvement, but he didn’t want to pull his eyes off of Nancy long enough to do so. For now, they’d just have to be uncomfortable if that’s the way they felt.

  “Hi, there, Nancy,” Elliott said, shoving his hands deep into the pockets of his jeans. It was a little cool outside, and he had on his letter sweater, but he was pretty sure he’d be draping it over her shoulders soon enough.

  “Hello yourself, Elliott,” she said in that seductive voice. She sounded like the cigarette pack in her hand had been there her whole life. “You sure did play good tonight.”

  “Thank you,” Elliott beamed. “And you sure did cheer good, too.” He hadn’t really noticed her at all during the game, but he imagined she hadn’t fallen down or anything, so that was probably about as good as a girl could get for cheerleading. It wasn’t like it was hard, like football.

  “Oh, Elliott,” Nancy cooed, batting her long eyelashes. “Do you really think so?”

  “Of course,” he smiled, brushing a strand of hair back behind her ear and letting his fingertips brush against her cheek. Her smile brightened. “I could hardly keep my eye on the ball, I was so busy watching you.” He stared into her eyes, and she blushed, dropping her eyes.

  “You sure did keep your eyes on that other quarterback,” Linda chimed in, and Elliott nodded at her for a moment before looking around for Reggie. Maybe he could take Linda away for a bit, but he was off with anothe
r group of kids closer to the creek telling a story in a voice so loud old Mr. Lawson could probably hear it clean up at his house. Elliott never understood how some people could like the sound of their own voice so much that they never stopped telling tales nobody else cared to listen to.

  “You know, Elliott, I was thinking, I’ve only been in your Monterrey once, and that was on the way home from the homecoming dance. I’ve sort of forgotten how nice the interior is. Do you thing I could take a ride with you?”

  Elliott stared at her for a moment, double-checking he had her meaning. She looked up at him from beneath those long lashes, and he had no doubt in his mind what she was saying. “I’d love to show you my car,” he said, his voice deep and a bit breathless.

  “Oh, can I come?” Linda asked, clasping her hands together. “I’ve never been in your car before.”

  Assuming Linda was clueless and not proposing something Elliott had only heard about happening in French novels, he only stared at the toothy girl for a moment before Nancy said, “Uh, Linda, I have some things I’d like to talk to Elliott about in private.”

  “Oh.” Linda’s tone dropped. She still didn’t seem to have the full picture. “I’ll just go hang out with my brother then.” She moped over to where a young man Elliott didn’t recognize was standing with a few other people, and Elliott only assumed that must be her brother because his teeth were even more assertive than hers. A few more cars pulled in to park, and Elliott checked to make sure Cliff wasn’t among them before he took Nancy’s hand and led her over to his car.

  “You don’t have to worry about him, you know,” she said her hand sliding up to his bicep. “You’re so much stronger than he is. Besides, he’s all talk.”

  “I know,” Elliott assured her, being honest. He wasn’t afraid of Cliff, even if the warning he’d shouted in the locker room was a little more foreboding than any he’d made in the past. “I just… don’t wanna mess up my fist on his face. I gotta catch quarterbacks with these hands.”

  Nancy chuckled and they climbed into the car. Elliott started the engine and headed up the road a bit beyond a curve that left Lawson’s Point behind some trees. He pulled the car over to the side of the road near a thick section of woods and turned the ignition off. “So what did you—”

  He didn’t get any more words out before Nancy’s tongue was in his throat. “Oh, Elliott,” she breathed, once she’d pulled herself off of him. “I’ve wanted you since the moment I first laid eyes on you. I don’t care if my daddy says you’re nothing but trouble, I need your hands on me.”

  As he stumbled for a response, she launched herself at him again, her own hands everywhere as her mouth met his and then began to trail its way down his neck. He had no idea her dad thought he was trouble, but if that’s what it took to get this sort of response, he was all for it.

  She was pawing at his clothes, and his sweater came off in one swoop while she fumbled for his belt. “Nancy, baby, why don’t we climb into the back where there’s more room?” he asked. He was a big guy, and the last thing he needed was to tear up part of his dashboard or get himself wedged beneath the steering wheel in such a way he’d never be extracted.

  “Anything you want, Elliott,” Nancy replied, and before he knew what she was doing, she’d climbed over the back seat. Her hand shot out and grabbed the neck of his shirt, pulling him over the seat head first. It was awkward, but he somehow managed to land with his back against the seat, and as Nancy returned her attention to his belt, he decided to figure out whether or not the bra she was wearing was padded.

  “Nancy,” Elliott whispered as she began to pull his jeans down, “I don’t have any… you know….”

  His girlfriend looked up. “Condoms?” she asked, her breathing labored. “That’s okay. You don’t need any. I’m not on my period.”

  “Huh?” Elliott asked as she continued to pull on his jeans. “What do you mean?”

  “You do know how it works, don’t you?” she asked, stopping long enough to look at him with her head tipped to the side like she wasn’t sure of his intelligence. “It’s just like a dog. You can tell when a woman’s in heat because she’s bleeding.”

  He was pretty sure that wasn’t the case at all, but by then, Nancy had him bare from the waist down, and he wasn’t about to argue with her. She muttered something about how she wasn’t sure that was going to fit, but then climbed on top, and Elliott wondered when she’d taken her panties off.

  It didn’t take nearly as long as he had hoped, but it wasn’t his fault. Nancy might not be as loose as Cliff had described her, but this was not the first time she’d climbed into the back seat of a car. The girl knew how to use those shapely hips of hers, and even though her dress had stayed on the whole time, there had been enough unbuttoning and unhooking to answer Elliott’s question. The boobs were real.

  She climbed off of him, but it took him a few moments to regain his orientation and begin to search for his missing britches, which he found shoved beneath the front seat. Nancy was buttoning up, a smug smile visible on her face in the moonlight. “That was great, Nancy,” he said, wiggling into his boxer shorts and then his jeans. “But next time, I’m going to be the one in control. You can just sit back, and let me show you the time of your life.” He was pretty sure he had two shoes when he came back here, but now he could only find one.

  Nancy pulled one boat sized brown loafer out from behind her back and handed it to him. “Here you go, darling.”

  “Thank you.” He slipped his foot inside, smiling at her. “And I don’t just mean the shoe.”

  “What can I say?” Nancy asked, a glint in her. “I’m not like all the other girls from Norman. I know how to give my man a good time.”

  “You certainly do.” He leaned over to kiss her, but as his lips connected with hers, something moving outside caught his eye.

  The windows were steamed up a little, so it was hard to tell if he’d actually seen something or not, but as he continued to kiss his girlfriend, he wiped at the glass with the back of his hand and then turned his head to see that there really was something moving in the trees.

  Elliott pulled away. “What the hell is that?” he asked her.

  “What’s what?” Nancy sat up, turning her gaze out the window.

  “Over there. In the trees.” There was an outline there, the form of a person, and behind it something else, maybe two people. Or three. Except, they didn’t exactly look like people. He couldn’t quite put his finger on it, but it seemed like there was something different about them. “You see them, right?” Elliott asked, still hovering over top of her.

  “Yeah, I see them. What the hell?”

  “Do you think Cliff and some of his friends are out there just trying to scare us?” Elliott asked as the person—or creature—in front moved slightly to its left, it’s hunched shoulders moving in a way that seemed too quick for a human. Its arms seemed elongated slightly.

  “I don’t think he’d do that,” Nancy whispered. “He’s… a little bit afraid of these woods.”

  “Why is that?” Elliott asked, turning his head away from the window for a second to look her in the eyes.

  Nancy swallowed hard. “He saw something here once, too.”

  Elliott’s eyes were on the trees again, and as they form shifted once more, coming closer, he realized he could see their eyes. The whites of them were nearly glowing in the moonlight, the irises dark, and beneath them, an eerie red. “Okay. That’s it. We’re getting out of here.” He was just about to climb over the seat when a pounding on the window behind him had him jumping up, screaming, and Nancy let out a shriek, too. How could he have been so foolish to put all of his attention on what was in front of him and leave his flank exposed?

  Only the sound of laughing followed, and he realized it wasn’t a creature from the trees sneaking up on them, it was Reggie.

  “Son of a bitch!” Elliott exclaimed, turning back to the woods. Whatever it was staring at them before was gone now, and he beg
an to think he might have imagined the whole thing. Shaking his head, he popped open the door. “What the hell are you doing?”

  “Sorry, it’s just, Cliff showed up a little bit ago and was all pissy. We told him that you’d decided to drive Nancy home, so he headed back into town. I thought I’d warn you. What the hell is that smell?”

  Elliott ignored the question, assuming he was picking up on whiffs of their lovemaking. Nancy climbed out of the back passenger side door and hurried to the front of the car, sliding inside. “That’s probably what we saw,” she shouted as Elliott opened the driver’s door. “It was probably Cliff and his friends messing around.”

  “Yeah,” Elliott agreed, though he doubted that was the case. He was done for the night, having accomplished more than he’d set out to. “You wanna ride back to town, Reg?”

  “Are you kidding? You want me to ride back there? It smells like ass. I’ll hitch a ride with Linda and her brother Marv.”

  “Be careful. Marv likes to get plastered and drive anyway,” Nancy called. “Tell Linda to be careful, too.”

  “It’s better than riding in the back of a car that smells like—”

  “Okay, Reggie, we heard you,” Elliott said, rolling his eyes at his friend. He figured Reggie was just jealous that Elliott had gotten some and he hadn’t.

  “Be careful going back to the point, too,” Nancy insisted. “You just don’t know what people will do.”

  “You seem awfully concerned about his welfare,” Elliott mused, sitting down behind the wheel.

  Nancy’s shoulders shifted up and down. “I’m not. I just…” her eyes flickered back to the woods. “I just don’t want anyone getting hurt.”

  “See you on Monday,” Elliott called to Reggie and closed the door. Reggie waved and took off running back toward Lawson’s Point. He was fast as lightning, one of the reasons he made such a good cornerback, and Elliott figured he’d be back with their friends by the time he got the car turned around and moseyed on back down the gravel road, careful to protect the sage green paint on his baby.