Free Fall in Crimson by John D. MacDonald Page B

sleepers. They made a lot of money, considering what they cost. Maybe you heard of them. One was called Chopper Heaven and the other was Bike Park Ramble. It was all a kind of realism, you know. He used real tough bike people and handheld cameras. And they were sort of tragic movies. The critics raved. I saw one of them, I can't really remember which. It was too loud and there were too many people getting hurt."
    She sat straight up and combed her dark hair back with her fingers and smiled down at me.
    "Dear, I'm getting chilled. Can you reach the fan switch?" I turned it off. She reached down and got the end of the sheet and pulled it up over us when she stretched out again.
    "You said Kesner is Josephine's weird friend."
    "He came to Stamford with her when Ellis was in the hospital the first time. That's when I met him. He's big, maybe about your size, and from what I could gather from Josie, he's been on every kind of pill and powder and shot ever invented. He was treating Josie like dirt, and she didn't seem to mind a bit. It's hard to carry on a conversation with him. I can't describe it. It's just ... frustrating. And he's weird-acting. Really weird."
    She kicked at something, then ducked under the sheet and came up with her discarded briefs.
    She held them to the light and said, "One of my romantic little plans for the good doctor." They were white, with a regular pattern of bright red hearts the size of dimes.
    "Glad he didn't get a chance to appreciate them."
    "You didn't appreciate them. I got shuffled out of them too quickly."
    "Protesting all the way?"
    "Well-not really. Did you notice how fat her face is?"
    "What?"
    "The bride. A fat face and piggy little eyes."
    "I didn't particularly notice because I was watching you, Annie. I lay there in my trundle bed in the Groveway Motel last night and thought about your pretty legs hiked up on that porch railing until I had to get up and take a cold shower. And then I came dashing down here in my domesticated Mitsubishi. Meyer had told me you had eyes for the doctor, but I didn't want to believe it."
    "Come on! Really?"
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    "Cross my heart. Hope to spit."
    "You know, that makes me feel a lot better about this whole-uh-happenstance."
    "I've really enjoyed happenstancing with you, Miz Renzetti."
    "Always before I felt squeamish about big tall men."
    "And little dark women have not exactly figured large in my erotic fantasies, kid."
    "They might from now on?"
    "Front and center."
    "You said enjoyed?"
    "I did."
    "Past tense?"
    "My dear lady, it is quarter past three in the morning."
    "So?"
    "My ramparts are breached, my legions scattered, my empire burned to the ground, my fleet at the bottom of the sea. And you would-"
    "Hush," she said softly.
    And so in time the impossible became at first probable and finally inevitable. As before, I found that through her response she led us into the way she most enjoyed. She was not, as I would have guessed, one of the twitchy ones with tricky swiveling, kinky little tricks and games, contortionist experimentations. What she wanted, and got, was to be settled into the unlauded missionary position, legs well braced, arms hanging on tight, and there exercise a deep, strong, steady, elliptical rhythm.
    She lay sweat-drenched and spent, small face bloated and blurred, mouth puffed and smiling.
    "There!" she said. She pulled my mouth down for a sisterly kiss. "Everybody to his own bed, darling. Be sneaky, huh?"
    By the time I was dressed she was snoring softly. I pulled the sheet and the thin blanket over her and turned off the light. When I went out the door, I made certain it locked behind me. I walked out to the edge of the water, where the small waves lisped and slapped against the sand. A seabird flapped up, honking, startling me.
    The hours before dawn are when the spirits are supposed to be lowest. That is when most hospital deaths occur. That is when the labored breathing stops, with a final rattle in the throat. I tried to heap