Three Novellas
Page 13
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“Hell will freeze over before that girl loses her precious virginity. First of all, she wouldn’t know how to do it and second of all, what boy would want her? and third of all, Henry would never permit it.”
Robert hadn’t been sure what to make of Mary until Mary developed into a woman and then he knew what to make of her, casting her in his lewd fantasies. He talked about his fantasies sometimes to Houston because Houston seemed to enjoy it.
Sometimes when Robert was in the neighborhood he would stop by Henry’s place and say things to Mary and laugh because she didn’t understand and he would talk about her to the Baker boys who were the only young folks who ever really listened to Robert. The Baker boys laughed, knowing Mary was retarded and couldn’t even talk and not thinking of her that way at all. But Robert was nothing if not patient and proud of it. He could walk and watch and talk endlessly, waiting for something to happen, something he knew all along would happen.
Robert had never had a sexual encounter with a woman. He’d thought about going to a prostitute in Charleston but he was afraid he’d get a disease and then his mother would find out. But he’d seen plenty. He liked to watch. He sure did like to watch. Houston seemed to know this because he teased Robert about being a virgin himself even though Robert would describe all kinds of encounters based on his observations, but then Houston would always want to know who with and if Robert said he couldn’t say, Houston would say it was because it was no one, that’s why he couldn’t say, and if Robert named someone he’d seen, Houston would laugh and say no way would that good-looking woman have let Robert near her with a ten-foot pole and then Houston would make a big sorry ass fool of himself laughing about the ten-foot pun he’d made at Robert’s expense.
So Robert stopped talking to Houston for a while and visited instead with the Baker boys who were too stupid to make fun of Robert. And they didn’t care if the old fart was a virgin or not: who cared about the sex lives of old farts?