“Don’t look out there,” Todd said.
“Why not?”
“Just close the drapes. Please.”
She obviously wasn’t quite quick enough for him, because he sprang out of bed, scattering dirt far and wide. His sudden movement startled her a little. It wasn’t that she was afraid of him exactly; but if death emphasized people’s natural propensities, as it seemed it did, then there was a good chance he’d be wilder in death than he had been alive. He took the drape from her hand-snatched it, almost-and pulled it closed.
“I don’t want to see what’s out there,” he said. “And neither do you.”
She looked down at his groin. How could she help herself? He was as hard as any man she’d laid eyes on, his dick moving even though he was standing still, bobbing to the rhythm of his pulse.
It would be ridiculous, she thought, not to mention it. Like his standing there with a pig under his arm, and making no reference to that.
“What’s that in honour of?” she said, pointing down at the pulsing length. “Me?”
“Why, would you like it?”
“It’s covered in dirt.”
“Yeah.” He took hold of the lower four inches of his dick and began to brush the soil off the top four, twisting his dick round (in a manner that looked painful to Tammy) so that he could fetch out the particles of dirt in the ridges of his circumcision scar.
“I didn’t think I’d see you again,” he said, as he worked. He let his dick go. It thumped against his belly before settling back into its head-high position. “I was beginning to think this was my only friend,” he said. He knocked his dick sideways with a little laugh.
“I’m sorry,” Tammy said. “I wasn’t feeling well enough to come before now.”
Todd wandered back over to the bed and sat down on the edge of the mattress. More dirt fell onto the floor. He folded his arms, bunching the muscles of his shoulders and chest.
“Are you mad at me?” she said.
“A little, I guess.”
“Because I didn’t visit?”
“Yeah.”
“I wouldn’t have made very good company. I thought I was going crazy.”
“You did?” He was interested now. “What happened?”
“I locked myself up in my house. I wouldn’t see anybody. I was just about ready to kill myself.”
“Oh shit,” he said. “There’s no reason to do that. All the bad times are over, Tammy. You can go off and live your life.”
“What life? I don’t have a life,” she sighed. “Just that stupid little home filled with Todd Pickett memorabilia.”
“You could sell it all.”
“I’m going to, trust me. Maybe take a cruise around the world.”
“Or better still, stay up here with me.”
“I don’t think — ”
“I mean it. Stay here.”
“Have you been downstairs?”
“Not recently. Why?”
“Because this house is going to fall down, Todd. Very soon.”
“No it isn’t,” he said. “Did you know there are dozens of small earthquakes in California every day? Well there are. And this place is still standing.”
“It doesn’t have any bottom floor left, Todd. Katya’s guests dug it all up.”
He turned to the bed, and started to pull armfuls of the dirt off the sheet.
“What are you doing?”
“Persuading you to stay,” he said, still pulling at the earth. When he had almost all the dirt removed from the bed he pulled the sheet out and went around the other side of the bed, throwing the corners of the sheet into the middle, and then bundling up both sheet and dirt. He pushed the bundle off the bed, and got up onto the clean mattress, sitting with his head against the board, and his legs crossed. His balls were tight and shiny. His dick was hard as ever. He gave her a lascivious grin.
“Climb aboard,” he said.
Here, she thought, was an invitation in a million. And there would have been a time, no doubt, when she would have swooned at the very idea of it.
“I think you should cover yourself up,” Tammy said, keeping the tone friendly, but firm. “Haven’t you got a pair of pants you can wear?”