The Criminal by Jim Thompson

only I felt her more, and I thought about Dad and what he'd said, but I couldn't pull away. She held onto me, with our faces pressed together, and she kissed me on the ear a few times and I guess I did, too, I mean I kissed her on the ear, and now and then we kind of whispered things.
    "Bobbie…"
    "Yeah?"
    "This is kind of like that day over at your house, isn't it? When Daddy raised all that big fuss over nothing."
    "We weren't doing anything," I said. "We weren't doing a darned thing."
    "He's crazy," she said. "Anyway, well even if we had been, what difference would it've made? He does it, he and Mama. if it's so bad, why-"
    "Josie," I said. "For gosh sake, are you crazy? You know good and well that's-well, it's not the same."
    She said, all right, if that was the way I felt, if I was going to get mad every time she opened her mouth. So I said what the heck was wrong with her, who was getting mad, and I kissed her again to prove that I wasn't.
    "Bobbie… did you ever?" she said.
    "Huh-uh," I said.
    "If I… promise you'll never tell anyone if I tell you something?"
    "Well, sure," I said.
    She hesitated. Then, she put her mouth real close to my ear and whispered.
    "Aw," I said. "You're kidding."
    "All right," she said. "I don't care if you don't believe me."
    I swallowed. My mouth seemed kind of all full of spit all of a sudden. "W-Who-when, Josie?"
    "Last summer. When I was going into town one Saturday. I was almost to the station and this man, I don't know who he was, but anyway he had a big car, and he asked me if I didn't want a ride. So…"
    "Gosh," I said, "you hadn't ought to've gone with him, Josie. He-why, he might have been crazy or somethin' and-"
    "Pooh." She shrugged. "People just make those stories up to scare their kids."
    "The heck they do," I said. "You read about guys like that in the newspapers all the time. They get a girl in their car, and then they- after they've done it they get scared-and they, well, you've read about 'em yourself, Josie."
    "Well," she shrugged again. "Well, anyway, I did. He did it to me."
    I didn't say anything. I couldn't right then because I had to keep swallowing.
    "He was sort of playing around," she said, "and after a while he drove off the highway and pulled up behind a big sign board. H-He"- she shivered and pulled me closer-"it hurt awful, Bobbie."
    "Gosh," I said. "For gosh sake, Josie."
    "I… I thought I was going to bleed all over everything. Even the second time when, well, you know, I shouldn't have..
    I swallowed again, hard, and she ran her hand through my hair. Then, she took her hand away and I could feel her fumbling for something down in her pants pocket. She, found it, finally, the thing she was looking for, and squeezed it into my hand.
    "B-Bobbie… You know what that is?"
    "Yeah, I guess so," I said.
    "I copped it out of Mama and Daddy's bedroom. I. are they all alike, Bobbie? I mean, will they fit anyone?"
    "I guess so," I said. "Gosh, how do I know? I guess they will."
    "Would they, you? W-Would that one?"
    "I-Josie!" I said. "Josie, what-d-do you-"
    "Wait," she said. "Wait a minute, Bobbie. Someone might see us here."
    She pushed me away and stood up, and then she looked down at me kind of drowsy-like, her eyes narrowed, and held her hand out to me. I stood up, and we went back toward the cliff a little ways, where some bushes grew out of the base of it and there was a kind of little cave.
    I got down on my knees and spread her sweater on the ground, and it was like a dream, me with that thing still clenched in my hand, and her getting down on the sweater and lying back. It didn't seem real at all and my head was pounding like sixty, and I was so choked up I could hardly breathe.
    I sort of turned my back so she couldn't see when I put the thing on, and my hands kept fumbling and jumping, but finally I did it. I turned back around and there she was, just taking her time like it wasn't anything, unzipping the side of those goofy-looking shorts, and pulling