THE IMAGES

THURSDAY 16TH DECEMBER 1976
KIRKPATRICK : EARLY EVENING
Semi solid flakes of snow fell against the window, each one gleaming like a precious jewel, twinkling with cold fire and slowly winking out. The ship on the nearby river slithered past slowly as it blew its horn in a deep, throaty moan to unseen traffic. The tiny blue curtained window looked out onto the quiet street like a blind eye, unseeing as a blurred figure passed the window, winding its way to an unknown destiny.
In the Palmer home there was an unusual sense of tranquillity that resulted from the rare moments when the family, en masse, were attending some external function together. Even in Mhic’s room there was near silence save for the ticking of the old clock, steadily disposing of time in seconds and minutes as a drifting ‘Rhapsody in Blue’ clogged the air for some continuing, heavy moments.
Michelle sat in the depths of the rickety chair, her black leather coat draped over the back of it. Her eyes reflected the hurt she still felt. Nothing seemed to have changed. Mhic lay on the bed breathing heavily, free from the chains of work for the day but not free of chains. Somehow he felt he was alone in the house even though she was with him. Discomfort hung in the air with each new tick of the clock and only the sound of the long dead Gershwin provided any form of relief.
“What’s wrong, Mhic?”
“Nothing. I just don’t feel like talking much.”
“Oh, I see.” she replied then simply carried on, trying to get him to respond. “It’s a week until the Inter-School Dance at Rose Street and it’ll be Christmas in nine days, I always think it’s odd on a Saturday.”
He sat quietly trying to think of something to say, a flame burning deep inside of him.
For a moment he felt the ugly questions he had tormented himself with for some days now, rising and demanding accountability. It occurred to Mhic that he should just stop this intransigence and alight from the train of imbecility he had inexplicably purchased a ticket for, but he just couldn’t manage to make the final effort required.
Unexpectedly Michelle stood up, her baggy jeans falling into erection, and rushed over to him. The girl was breathing hard and her eyes were filled like misty pools, willpower and determination struggling to defeat the rising tide within her. Mhic raised himself from the bed and willingly fell into her arms as she pulled his body to her, kissing him from the untapped depths of her soul.
Michelle spoke through cloudy eyes.
“Oh, Mhic, I’ve missed you. Why didn’t you see me, speak to me?”
“I…I was being stupid. I’m sorry, truly. Sometimes my head’s just…”
The girl stared deep into him with an almost cold precision as he watched the wetness in her eyes evaporating. Now she knew exactly what to do.
She removed herself from his embrace and walked away from the bed.
Mhic’s eyes opened in surprise. He sat quietly, watching as she shut the curtains and removed her little red neck scarf. Michelle’s bottom wiggled in time to the movement of her heels as she switched on the little reading lamp and dropped her scarf over it before she switched the main light off. The room had a strange, unworldy red glow to it.
The girl took a deep breath and walked to the middle of the room and began to undress, slowly and methodically to make sure she had his full attention.
His eyes followed her every move as her dark, baggy jeans fell to the floor and she stood to let him appraise her. Mhic began to shift from the bed where she had left him, he then began to move forward but Michelle simply raised a hand to signify he should remain there, saying nothing. Within herself she was nervous, uncertain, feeling mentally hesitant about doing this. She had only been half naked with one other male apart from Mhic, so it wasn’t something she felt terribly confident about as an act - never mind the pressure of the underlying schism currently between them.
Michelle stepped out of her jeans and kicked them away, standing in her black high heels, dark, hold up Aristoc stockings and long white blouse covering the underwear she had bought earlier in the week. Although very nervous she began to feel a little buzz of personal pleasure ripple through her system, felt a little sense of power growing as she kept his full attention simply by slowly popping one button open after another. The girl’s face was impassive, making her even prettier than normal, as if she had become someone else – as if she were a stranger to Mhic. She played with the last button protractedly until it too popped and her blouse fell open to reveal the brief, clinging, black underwear she would never have usually worn to school. With a little shrug of her shoulders, Michelle let her white silk blouse fall to the floor leaving her in nothing more than her luminescent skin and the blackness of her bra, pants, stockings and shoes.
It was only a fleeting thought and someone else’s words, but one that carried some truth in the here and now – ‘wearing something sexy can make you feel sexy… whether you want to or not!’
Mhic felt his mouth become rather dry and an aching tingle between his legs… he knew this was his girlfriend but, at the same time, she seemed to be someone quite unfamiliar – even her face. The girl lingered before him and he was uncertain what to do, he knew what he wanted to do but was uncertain what she demanded from this tableau. His eyes followed the long legs as they slowly approached him, watched her tightly confined breasts move with every step, savoured the firm tissue that seemed to spill over the sheer little Balconette bra whose transparency revealed the pretty and obviously erected nipples beneath as she leaned over him.
The Miss Dior perfume she exuded was pretty, feminine and very noticeable as she bent to reveal the panorama of her tightly encapsulated breasts, her eyes focussing on the next target of her attention. Michelle pushed him onto his back and tugged his belt open and flicked the button of his trousers apart. The girl stood back from him, looking at his shape before taking a pace or two back and folding her arms. The expression on her face was almost devoid of emotion, like a photograph on the cover of a magazine. Michelle looked into his eager eyes and merely nodded with the expectation that he remove his clothes before her now.
Mhic hesitated for a second or two and she simply raised her head without changing her expression, and all the time her heaving chest was beating with a savage pulse.
Mhic struggled out his clothes, throwing shoes, socks, trousers and shirt somewhere past the end of the bed, complying with her expectations in as fluid a motion as was possible. He paused with some hesitation, briefly watching her unconsciously rubbing her stocking topped thighs together as she patiently waited for him.
With Mhic now stripped to his brief, black shorts, Michelle nodded to the side and he almost shyly disposed of them in an uncertain discomfort until he lay on the bed naked and wildly erect.
The girl bit her bottom lip and raised her eyebrows as she stared at her boyfriend’s attractively engorged organ – she hadn’t seen many men’s appendages in her time and probably never had such a panoramic view of Mhic’s before. With a perverse amusement she reflected that it was a strange looking thing but still quite gorgeous.
The heaving of her breasts was a distracting sight as she gently tugged his leg until he slid round to place his feet on the floor, sitting on the side of his bed now. Michelle ran her hands over her gossamer bra and breasts and then undid the front clip, separating the cups and letting her breasts break free before shrugging the foundation wear to the floor behind her. The areola were just dark little brown circles that looked swollen with engorgement and her nipples were rigidly hard and jutting out with a wild energy, made all the more prominent as she pulled her shoulders back and tossed her hair. Now she was much less scared and more than a little excited, especially as she could see the confusion on his face… even the thought of his family returning didn’t phase her.
Michelle licked her bright red lips and slowly, very slowly knelt down between his parted thighs and moved her face to his organ letting him feel the warm breath she exhaled.
“Michelle, I want to…” his voice trailed off as he looked at her, there was something different about her - very different. With a slow movement she raised a finger to her lips and Mhic, almost modestly, complied.
Michelle ran her tongue in experimental flicks at the blood engorged flesh between his legs, using the tip to feel the softness of his penile skin and then, becoming more brazen, started to use the flat of her tongue to trace the vas deferens from base almost to the glans. The sound of his heavy breathing echoed through the redness of the room and, as her eyes flicked up, she could see the flushed look on his face.
The wide smile on her face belied her own nervousness as she opened her mouth, let her tongue tease the head, uncertain of the seeping fluid his erection was oozing, but she did so, tasting it experimentally before letting her tongue push into the hot meat beneath the stretched foreskin. Mhic made an unwilling grunt of pleasure and Michelle looked up with her darkly painted eyes. She knew the next part was a little scary for her, and she was hesitant for a second or two wondering if she knew what to do for him or if it would feel really weird. Slowly she closed her eyes and opened her mouth, feeling the heat as she took the head of his organ into her mouth.
The deep sigh of pleasure that Mhic released now clarified that issue with absolutely no uncertainty. Finally she felt on an equal footing with the man she loved.

MILNGAVIE : EARLY EVENING
Her hand was shaking as she dialled and she didn’t know why. Before she dialled the last digit her father walked into the living room where the lush quad system oozed out the sound of Poulenc’s ‘Les Chemins De L’Amour’.
“Hello, Penny, I didn’t know you were home. Have a good day at school?” he asked.
Penny almost looked away but couldn’t even do that.
“Just the usual, Daddy! What about you?”
“Evening meeting with a couple of colleagues before they go and see some new band, ‘Johnny and the something or other’ at the ‘Mars Bar’, whatever that is!”
“It’s off St Enoch Square, Daddy, tiny tiny little place but very trendy!”
“Ahh, the usual, aren’t they all? Are you going over to Hellen’s tonight?”
“Probably or I might go and see a film at the GFT, they’re showing Ray Connolly’s ‘James Dean – The First American Teenager’ tonight – I’d really like to see that again!”
Her father walked over, looking slim and healthy for a man in his mid forties.
He gave Penny a little hug before coyly tilting his head in thought.
“Are you going with some new boyfriend?”
“Daddy!” she exclaimed with a hint of embarrassed irritation.
“Well, Darling, you are looking all dressed up and even prettier than usual – if that’s possible. Usually you only wear your business suit for special occasions, don’t you?” He asked, kissing her on the head.
“I don’t have boyfriends, Daddy, just friends that are boys… I just wanted to get dressed up tonight, no particular reason. And what about you, you look very dapper these days – is this an important meeting?”
“No, not really, just taking the new chap to meet some of the local A & R scouts. He really is keen as mustard, you know!”
“Who is, Daddy?”
“Sorry, precious – the new PA, young Gerry Simms, boarding at some school outside town, very bright and keen to make an impression… I hope he’ll turn out to be something special when he finishes his education in the summer… In fact, he could be just the type of chap you might take to, I know how fussy you are and he’s very handsome too!”
Penny’s mouth fell open and she coughed quickly to cover her shock.
“I’ll probably find my own boyfriends when I’m ready to, Daddy!”
“Okay, Sweetie! Oh, here’s some money for the cinema, popcorn and taxis and stuff!” He said handing her fresh, crisp notes.
“Daddy! It doesn’t cost thirty pounds for a night out to the cinema… I’m not travelling to London you know!” Penny said forcefully.
“I know, Darling, I know – just in case the boyfriend you aren’t going out with doesn’t have enough money to get you home safely!”
“Daddy, how many times…”
“Just take it, Darling! I’ll see you if I’m not back too late. Have a lovely time and be careful – it’s a dangerous world you know!” he said kissing her tenderly on the cheek and heading out the immaculate and palatial lounge. Mr Cross stopped at the door and looked back at her with a strange look in his eye. “I love you, Penelope!”
She looked back at him curiously, it was something he rarely said in that manner.
“I love you too, Daddy – very, very much.” his daughter replied sincerely, feeling quite upset now.
It was hard not to think of him, doing ‘that’ to the young man… that young boy!
Her father was quickly gone and Penny waited until the big silver Jaguar XJ6 had pulled out the drive before she returned to her phone call.
Falling back on the modern chrome and leather seat, Penny listened to the ringing tone until someone eventually answered with a tired “Hello?”
“Hellen, it’s Penny – how are you?”
“Fine, tired! Too tired to go to that film about the dead guy tonight, sorry!”
“Good, well, not good but I was calling to tell you I wasn’t going anyway so don’t worry! Are you still seeing that Sto guy?” Penny asked.
“No – dumped him next day… No, wait, Yeah, I called him back yesterday and we’re meeting at the weekend. Why? Fancy him, do you?”
“Eh, no – I mean he’s very nice but you did see him first didn’t you? Actually I was wondering if you could do me a favour, could you ask Sto for his friend’s number?”
“Which one?”
“Eh, the one with the little jacket and brown hair, I can’t remember his name offhand.”
Hellen laughed with a derisive tone.
“Can’t remember his name? You wrote it all over your Maths book on and off all day Monday!” the other girl accused with a hint of vindictiveness.
Penny was glad they were on the phone otherwise she’d have seen how brightly flushed she was right now.
“Don’t think so, Hellen!”
“Do think so, Penny – Jonn, Jonn, Jonn, over and over!”
“Oh, he spells it the same way as Jonn Karranovitch, the Polish film director who made ‘The Hour of Silence’? I didn’t know that!”
“Mmmm!” Hellen said with an annoyance borne of the cultural ignorance which quickly diminished her certainty about Penny’s attraction. “Yeah, well they all spell their names like infants in Europe don’t they?”
“Yes, Yes they do, Hellen! So, could you get Sto to give you his number because I lost it and he wanted me to get my Dad to do something for him – I hate to let him down because I was stupid enough to lose his number…typical careless me!”
“Yes, you are!” Hellen retorted unkindly. “Sure, I’ll ask him but why don’t you just go and see him?”
“What do you mean?”
“Sto said they were running some dance next Thursday in Rose Street – a big school bash for Christmas. Just go and you can see him there!”
“Yes, that’s quite a good idea – I might do that!”
“Hell, you can have my ticket – the last thing I want is to head towards Christmas at a booze free bash!”
“I thought a free bar would appeal to you, Hellen!”
“Not a free bar – Booze free! No Booze sold or allowed, you know like primary school! God, you can be so dense sometimes, can’t you?”
“Yes, Hellen, yes, I can be – but will you get the number for me anyway, in case I’m tied up that night?”
“Yeah, sure! Has Daddy introduced you to the Osmonds yet? Are they taking you back to Utah to be Donny’s – no, little Jimmy’s wife?” Hellen asked giggling at her own wit and perspicacity!
“No, but he is taking me with him to the Apollo to meet Bryan Ferry when he comes back in February – I think it’s the twenty third… so that rules out my Osmond fest really, doesn’t it?”
“Ohmygod! Ohmygod! – you’re kidding? Oh, I’m so much in love with Roxy. Could you get me in too, to come with you?”
“Well,” Penny mused thoughtfully. “It’s really Daddy’s thing, but…”
“Tell me yes, please, please, please!”
“Maybe if I had that number, I could tell Daddy how helpful you were so he could speak to Jonn himself!”
“Penny, you are so bright – what a great idea! No wonder you’re the brain and I’m the beauty. Don’t go anywhere – I’ll call you back in two minutes, got it, two minutes – bye!”
Penny almost laughed aloud, Hellen really was the kind of friend you wait a lifetime for! Thirty seconds later the phone jangled and Penny let it ring eight times before picking it up.
“Hello?” she inquired as if uncertain as to who was calling.
“Hi, Penny, Sto says Jonn would go insane if he gave his number out…”
“That’s a pity – Daddy will be disappointed! It was good of you to try anyway, thanks!”
“Wait, wait, wait! I don’t give up that easily… I told Sto if he didn’t give me the number then I wasn’t going out with him this weekend, or ever again. He pleaded and I told him, no number – no fuckee! So, do you have a pen?”
“Yes I do, Hellen – go ahead!”
“It’s Danbray, whatever the area code is, 2474 but you cannot, and I mean cannot tell him Sto gave it to you!”
“Don’t worry, Hellen, I would never say that… because he didn’t, you did! Now, did you tell him who it was for?”
“Do you think I’m that stupid?”
“Did you tell him who it was for, Hellen?”
“No, I told him it was for some friends from school who saw the posters for the dance and wanted to get their own done, so if they spoke to Jonn he might be able to make some money out of them. Okay?”
“Perfect, see – sometimes you’re the brain!”
“Are you being funny?”
“Hellen, you know me! Anyway – must dash, I’ll let you know about the Bryan Ferry thing as soon as, okay?”
“The very minute, Penny, please! God I would adore to fuck Bryan Ferry!”
“I’m sure he’d be very flattered, Hellen. Thanks again for the number, speak soon ‘Bye!”
“Bye, Penny – thanks for ringing. Call me!”
Penny dropped the slimline phone back in its cradle, shaking her head – if Hellen had a brain in proportion to her bust she’d be a genius… but a big bust was better than nothing, she supposed, with only the briefest gaze down at her own modest bosom!

LEVENVALE – THE LEVENVALE GENERAL HOSPITAL : EARLY EVENING
It was a small but efficiently compact office that was functional as a location that he could take relatives to explain the type of traumatic news that was inappropriate for hospital corridors. The couple in their late fifties sat ashen faced as they waited anxiously, silently hoping and praying with all their hearts. Beside them, the bandaged girl’s constant discomfort was suppressed to the point where she could sit still in her suffering, ignoring the walking frame she needed to use to ensure safe movement. The man in the white coat walked round the desk and seated himself before removing his glasses and placing them on the closed green file before him. He didn’t need to refer to the patient notes contained within, the prognosis was tragically simple… or as simple as such harrowing situations can be. The man behind the desk’s face was less than impassive and his expression involuntarily revealed to the people facing him what they probably already knew was coming. The doctor’s voice was genuinely sad as he stared down for a moment before looking up into the wounded faces and addressing them.
“Mr and Mrs Valentine, Miss Kerr, there’s no easy way to say this, but the last CT and ECG scans have simply verified all our previous tests. Mr Valentine’s spinal injury is permanent, the swelling has subsided to reveal a clear break in the spinal column’s neural pathway resulting in a quadriplegic state and unfortunately it is also now quite apparent that he is in a consistent vegetative state!” The short, grey haired consultant said softly.
“What does that mean?” Mrs Valentine asked in confusion looking to her husband then at Janice before leaning towards the white coated man behind the desk. “I don’t understand, what does that mean?”
His fiancée and father realised all too well what it meant but they just couldn’t voice what they knew to be true.
Once again the grey haired man spoke.
“It means, Mrs Valentine, your son cannot possibly recover – in layman’s terms he’s… both completely crippled without the possibility of any movement below the neck and categorically brain dead. Basically the only thing still keeping him alive are the machines he is connected to. I am so deeply sorry, we hoped our diagnosis was wrong and tried everything available to us, but sometimes…” his voice trailed off as the woman began to sob hysterically and her husband pulled her close to him as if his own tears weren’t there.
Janice’s face was like stone, apparent even in the few places where the bandages exposed her skin. Her eyes were cold and distant, no longer the fiery and lively green eyes that Bob had adored gazing into. There was no emotion detectable in her voice as she coldly asked, “When do you switch him off, let him die?”
Mrs Valentine’s uncontrollable sobs became tragic, pitiful wailing as the harsh reality came crushing down on her and Mr Valentine’s tears flowed unabated as he looked at the girl they saw as their own daughter. He had no vindictiveness for her brutal words because none of them could ever imagine the nightmare ordeal she must have went through with their son – she would never be the same again, but he desperately wished she was.
The consultant himself was taken aback at what appeared to be a frighteningly callous reaction but he was quite aware that after her ordeal and catalogue of injuries it would probably be a very long time, if ever, before normal emotions would manifest in her.
“You can think about what you want to do, but… probably sooner rather than later.”
Janice stood up slowly, her limbs and body still shattered as they would be for a long time to come and perhaps forever – certainly none of the things she anticipated for her life would ever come to pass now. “Thank you, Doctor!”
Both Bob’s parents were now sobbing uncontrollably as Janice simply turned away and left the utilitarian office, pushing the little grey walking frame before her. Mr Valentine only glanced as she left, knowing that there were no words to be used that could help and he, himself, was stranded in the ugliness of the loss that would be with them all forever.
Outside, in the long hospital corridor where others, who still had lives, continued in blissful ignorance of the fact that real tragedy was playing where they passed, Janice ignored the stream of salty liquid running into her scarred and bandaged face as she walked to a window of the Levenvale General Hospital. Looking out into the darkness her gaze turned to the direction of Danbray for a moment as she mentally swore to see each and every one of those evil bastards dead – no matter how long it took and no matter how much it cost - and if she couldn’t do it herself then she’d pay to have it done. Her mind coolly reflected her thoughts and plans for how to bring this, the only thing left in her existence that mattered, to life as if completely unaware that Janice herself was crying and wailing uncontrollably, slumped on the hospital floor.

KIRKPATRICK : EVENING
Mhic felt the blood pulse round his body frantically. Beneath him, the girl twisted and ground her body, striving to reach gratification. The room echoed with the sounds of their unity, a squishy syrupy sound of the repetitious pounding as they coupled. A sweet sheen of sweat covered them both reducing the friction of their bodies as they intertwined and twisted against one another, their moans becoming a single, indistinguishable unity of hunger. Tossing her head to the side and letting him bite into her neck, Michelle was ready to climax for the second time – all thoughts of her previous discontent completely dismissed as his grinding manipulated her swollen clitoris with an inconsistent repetition that made her gasps come faster and longer. The sound of rushing blood was audible to them both. Mhic too felt himself reach the point of no return sooner than expected, frighteningly excited by her moans and abandoned sexual ability… he could feel the immanence of one final burst of spasm. The girl’s bright lips opened wide and screamed as she felt his ejaculate explosion within her, quite unhampered and automatically firing her own orgasm – neither willing to stop before the other’s pleasure was completed. Even when spent, their hips still made little alternating thrusts at one another.
The two bodies exuded their warmth and lay quivering to a euphony of breath, still locked in coupling for long minutes until his organ slowly began to release its blood engorged rigid form to begin the transition back to normal. Michelle sighed as he gently moved off her, feeling for the very first time a sudden vacuous emptiness within herself. The girl was relieved that she hadn’t had to deal with the ‘rubber’ which made her so repulsed and which had hidden the pleasure of him from her. Mhic lay against her, quietly nestling his head against her still heaving breast listening to the slowing of her heart – unconscious of the balances of life and uncaring about the future.
Michelle gave thanks that the past was now mercifully past. Tomorrow’s worries were tomorrow’s worries, she thought, as she felt his semen slowly slither out of her own insides as her vagina resumed its normal shape once more.
Almost inaudibly she whispered, “I love you, Mhic!”
In response he kissed her chest and giggled a little saying, “No, I love you, Michelle!”
The dark haired girl found that his words made her heart beat faster. Her eyes flickered to look at him as she felt an excited tingle of danger and newness from the warm fluid running out of her own sex, before she looked up to find her gaze transfixed on the plaque Harris had made for his friend years ago - it was delicately hand painted and read, ’If you’re here - you’re lost!’ She knew she’d never forget tonight and somehow she felt she wasn’t going to forget those words either!

HELLENFORD – THE WATERFRONT BAR : EVENING
“So… do you think it’s really nice?” Pam asked him.
The Waterfront bar was busy despite it still being early evening and the sound of Hunter & Ronson’s ‘Who Do You Love?’ was keeping a kicking heartbeat in the garish premises. The flock of American sailors on leave from the Naval base 20 miles up the coast filled the place with their incessant chatter and prowling eyes seeking any and every suitable female conquests on the horizon.
Dave smiled at her, acknowledging how her new haircut changed her face entirely… she was always pretty but now she was undeniably attractive to all and sundry with her almost boyishly cropped hair and dark magenta rinse.
“It’s great, Pam – it makes you lovelier than ever, if possible!” he said, noticing the sailors staring back at her time and again. Even her wild clothes looked racier, the tight little black pencil skirt which adhered to her like a cotton sheath and semi-transparent dark blouse set off by the silver necklace demanded attention as did her shimmering breasts which moved seductively with every move of her torso – unencumbered by the tight little bras she usually wore.
Pam, oozing the scent of Nina Ricci, leaned forward and kissed him on the cheek and then grabbed his face and kissed him again with a deep passion.
“You’re a charmer, Dave, and the best looking guy here! I wanted to look nice for you tonight…”
“You always look nice, actually… you always look great – sometimes I can’t get you out of my head!” the tall youth replied with a sincere grin.
The girl took another gulp of her second double Martini and Lemonade, rubbing Dave’s leg with her free hand slowly and methodically, moving further up his thigh with each stroke. The bright eyes flickered around as she began to caress his genitals.
“I’ve wanted to do that all night. Is it making you uncomfortable – I could stop?” Pam giggled.
“No, I can live with it!” Dave said, pretending he didn’t feel just a little uncomfortable with the small group of middle aged customers clearly watching them at the nearby table.
Pam finished the drink and clunked the glass down on the dark wooden surface.
“Guess what?” she asked in a rather loud whisper. “My parents are out tonight and my hideous big sister’s staying at her friend’s or something… so what does that make you think?”
Dave was almost reluctant to think anything, the last two similar occasions had led to a lot of hope, expectation and anticipation only to result in an inexplicable argument and the need for a long cold shower afterwards.
“I don’t know.” he said almost monotonically. “We need to watch out for burglars at your house?”
Her abandoned laughter made him wonder if she was on some medication.
“No, Dave, you’re silly!” she laughed, leaning up against him. “No… it means that we… you and I… can go back to mine and do what I’ve wanted to do for the past month but couldn’t!”
“Couldn’t? Have you been okay?”
“Oh, yeah – guess why I couldn’t?”
“Aliens? The influence of the moon? I have no idea.”
As she leaned over, staring threateningly at the observers from the other table until they turned away, she breathed the scent of alcohol into his face and her eyes seemed just a little far away.
“Do you want to know why, Dave?”
“You don’t know how much I’d like the answer!”
“Because I’m now a girl who’s on the pill and ready to f-u-c-k my big boyfriend without having to worry about getting pregnant. You can call me Martini now!”
“Call you Martini? …would you like another?”
“No, you silly thing… Now I’m just like Martini – ‘Anytime, Anyplace, Anywhere’!” she giggled loudly. “Do you want to take a walk along the shore and see how many times we can, you know, without anybody catching us? I’m very, very horny tonight and you’ve been very, very patient when I’ve been such a bad girlfriend.”
“Maybe you should just take ten minutes to relax a little, have a Coke or something?”
“No – I want more booze!” Pam said rubbing his crotch aggressively. “Then I want us to go… go out or to a hotel or my house and we can… we can f-u-c-k for ages and ages and… did I tell you? I’m not wearing any underwear – no bra and no pants, totally knickerless… will I show you?”
Dave pulled her towards him, vaguely hoping she might reduce the volume of her confessions just a little since now it appeared that the only person who didn’t know she was devoid of underwear was the old boy with the big ears and gigantic hearing aid – everyone else was fully appraised of Pam’s unconventional clothing arrangement. The sailors especially seemed impressed as they let out a single ‘Yeee-haa’ in honour of Pam’s loud confession.
“Pam…” Dave began.
“David…” she replied.
“Shall we go?” he asked with a gaze round the bar.
“Only if you are going to…”
Dave kissed her before she could spell out exactly what they would probably be doing for the next few hours. She licked her lips as they separated from each other.
“That’s better, that’s the kind of attention I like… not all lovey dovey – I like sexy. I like you when you’re not all grumpy and sad and serious. I went on the pill for you so that we could ‘haa humm’ all the time, anywhere, you and me. That means s-e-x, ‘haa humm’, just in case you didn’t know that. Can I have another drink?”
“Sure – or we could just go and… ‘haa humm’!” Dave said quietly making Pam burst out laughing aloud, very loudly indeed.
Pam stood up abruptly, her breasts shuddering as she rose, and then tilted to her rear a little as if in danger of falling back before he caught her and gently helped her negotiate the way out from the bar. Dave questioned how much ‘haa humm’ she’d be capable of with the amount of booze she’d consumed already. Pam was wobbling like a ‘Weeble’ as she briefly tried walking unaided before reaching out for him again. Finally guiding her to the exit Dave rolled his eyes as he wondered how long she’d be in this state and then again as the sailors gave a final rousing cheer in their honour. As the door swung behind them he sighed as he thought of Willie Dixon’s timeless words – ‘If it wasn’t for bad luck, I wouldn’t have no luck at all!’

MILNGAVIE : EVENING
Her fingers seemed to shake a little as she punched in the numbers on the slimline phone, wondering if she could really do this, after all she hardly knew him. But it was already too late the line was ringing. Four, five, six rings and then - “Hello, who’s calling The Golden Shot?”
With an effort she tried to talk but nothing came out.
“Hello – anyone there? You’ve reached the Psychic Institute but we’re not reading you! Last chance – Hellooooo!”
The phone slipped out her fingers and back to its holder. It was something she rarely did - but she cursed aloud, sometimes she was just too shy!
Harris listened to the empty tone and replaced the black receiver, shaking his head – eight twenty was a bit early for heavy breathers he smirked and walked back to his room where the unfolding pleasure of Television’s ‘Little Johnny Jewel’ single was gently sending out an exciting new sound he had already begun to adore. But before he could even close the door the phone rang again and he picked it up with a prompt response.
“Yup – want to talk this time?” he asked.
“Is that Jonn?”
“Speaking – what can I do for you?”
“This is Penny, I’m not sure if you remember, but we….”
“I remember quite clearly, smart, petite, blonde curly hair, round glasses, pink dress, good dancer, knows about music…yup, remember pretty well, thanks!” Harris laughed. “How are you, Penny?”
“Emm, I’m… pretty good, thanks! How are you?” she said a little self consciously.
“Well, you know – still hating the world and looking for Xanadu, but apart from that I’m feeling pretty tip top, thanks. What’s new with you?”
“Not much, school - all that. I was wondering…. Em, I wanted to ask…” Penny said cursing her nervousness, this was most unlike her but she really wasn’t used to asking boys out never mind a guy she didn’t really know very well. Again she felt herself move off from what she wanted to ask.
“The dance, Hellen mentioned something about a dance next week and I wanted to ask about the tickets!”
Harris laughed a little, making her feel foolish suddenly.
Before he could say anything she nervously chattered on, “I know I shouldn’t really bother you at home, sorry about that, but I… I just..”
“Wanted to know about the tickets?” Harris asked without sounding sceptical. “Well, they’re about four and a half inches by about three, printed on a nice sturdy, pale blue card and if it’s for you then you can just come to the door and I’ll already have put your name on the guest list plus one in case you’re bringing a boyfriend or whatever. That okay?”
Penny hesitated, searching for something to get back on track with what she really wanted to say.
“Thanks, thank you – that’s kind but I only need one, I don’t have a boyfriend and… I’ll pay, I’m not trying to…eh, oh God!”
“Was there something else, Penny, because you don’t sound too sure about any of this, if you don’t mind me saying. Penny?”
At the other end the girl sank back into the chair, feeling her little two piece suit as staid and conventional as her conversation.
“Sorry, Jonn, I… sorry, this was a bad idea. Didn’t mean to bother you, thanks!”
“Whoa, you took the trouble to call, I’ve finished all my neurosurgery for the day. I’m not trying to get off the phone. Just say whatever it is… is it more tickets?” Harris said with a little laugh that clearly indicated he was unconvinced by her ploy.
This time she laughed too. “No, obviously not a very good cover story. I just wanted to talk to you because, well, I don’t really meet a lot of boys and don’t meet a lot of boys I like – In fact not that many who were as nice to me as you were at Joanna’s and… I’m just babbling now!” Penny said trying to compose herself and just ask what she wanted.
“Well, you just babble on, I’ll soon stop you if it gets too much for me!”
“You don’t know how much I can babble when I’m nervous – a lot, that is loads – like this, now!”
Harris laughed gently before he spoke. “Well, it’s nice to hear you babbling, your babble is executed delightfully! So, what have you been doing this evening or are you off out somewhere?”
Penny drew a breath and knew if she didn’t simply ask then he would think she was some silly little girl who still sounded as if she were in Primary school. The girl took a deep breath.
“You know what, Jonn? I was going out to a film tonight with a friend but I, eh, I really wanted to ask you if you’d like to come with me, out, to the film or something. I know it’s short notice and you’ll probably have better things to do but I just wanted to inquire, that is ask if, maybe that…I…God! I should just stop talking now!”
“Well, you don’t really seem to need me at this end, you’ve done a great job at filling all the blanks in, haven’t you?”
“I’m sorry – I’ve never, ever asked a someone out before and obviously I’m not making a very good job of it!”
“Hey, Penny, I was just joking with you. Actually, I’m rather flattered, I don’t really get asked out very much! But, unfortunately…”
“Look, Jonn… Sorry, just… forget it. I shouldn’t have bothered you…”
“As I was saying, before I was so rudely interrupted …but unfortunately for you, I’d very much like to go somewhere with you. Do you want to meet up tonight?”
Penny was uncertain she’d heard him correctly. “You would like to go out?” she asked with some hesitation.
“Yes, that’s what I said - unless you’ve completely lost interest since speaking to me!”
Penny laughed with a relaxed giggle.
“No, not at in the least – not a bit! There’s a film on at the GFT at nine thirty, I’m not sure if it’s your kind of thing – anyway, it’s a James Dean biography…”
“The First American Teenager? God, that’s one of my absolute faves. Good choice! Cute and with good taste? Perfecto mundarius!”
“Wow!” Penny replied as she felt an excited tingle within herself. “So, shall we meet at the cinema?”
“Well, only if you’re embarrassed to be seen driving with me – other than that, why don’t I come and pick you up? Where do you live?”
“Gosh! That would be great – Do you know Milngavie, Hillfoot, Bearsden at all?”
“I lived in Milngavie for twelve years, so – yeah, where?”
“It’s the Bearsden road just across from the Kilmardinny Riding School and it’s a big white house on the main road!”
“Not the Art Deco house?”
“You know my house?”
“Are you kidding, I used to love that place when I was a nipper - totally fascinated! It’s fabulously gorgeous – very nice place to live!”
“Thanks, so how long do I have to get ready?”
“I’ll be there by nine – is that okay? And informal dress code? No ballgowns or tuxedos I assume!”
“Okay!” she laughed as she began to consider what she was wearing. “Thanks – see you soon! ‘Bye Jonn!”
“See you, Penny!”
The girl dropped the phone, got up and did a little dance. Before it was done Penny wondered what she could wear tonight – so little time and so much to do. He’d said yes, the first time she asks a guy out, a very cool guy actually, and he said ‘yes’ …maybe she was too self critical? Or maybe not!

DANBRAY – BELLSTREE : EVENING
Bill sat by the phone, letting the sound of his stereo seep out from his bedroom to mask his conversation and trying to keep his voice down so his family wasn’t privy to the call.
“Look, I don’t want you to go!” he said down the phone with an urgent passion in his voice.
There was no reply.
“Mandy, you could get another teaching post up here. Once school’s done we could, …we could get a place together!”
The voice was mature, polished and very strongly English. “Bill, that’s unrealistic. God, I’d love to stay, but I have to go home. I just called to say I’ll miss you, and I know we said I wouldn’t call again after we said our goodbyes last night, this morning - but… I’m going to miss you and just wanted you to know and hear your voice again.”
“I’m going to miss you… loads! You don’t know how much! Can’t you leave after the weekend?”
There was a deep sigh at the other end of the phone. “I wish I could but the van’s already packed and my lift leaves in the morning, there’s no other way for me to get all my stuff home. It’s now or never!”
There was a long silence and Bill thought he heard her make a little sob.
“Okay, Mandy! That’s it then, I suppose. I’ll miss you too - have a safe trip! Bye!”
There was a brief silence before Mandy’s sobbed goodbye and then she hung up.
Bill held the phone for a few seconds and then placed it back forcefully as he gritted his teeth in anger before stomping into his room again.
The old Slade album he still loved was surrendering ‘One Way Hotel’ to him, but Bill was far away. He was already pacing about his room when his father knocked and entered. He was average height, dark, receding hair and a gruff but benign face.
“So, what’s going on, William?”
“Nothing!” his son replied.
“Doesn’t seem like it. Are you in trouble, boy?”
Bill laughed to himself, smiling at his father. “No, not in any trouble, just… stuff, y’know?”
“Oh, clearly! That explains the moodies and all the stomping about.” his father replied sarcastically as he sat down on the edge of Bill’s bed. His son said nothing but simply stared out the window gazing into the yellow neon lit street, only now wondering if he could still catch the last train.
“William, are you there? I hope you haven’t done anything stupid. You’re too young to be making bad mistakes. Look - whatever it is that’s going on, just remember what I always said ‘You make your own bed and you lie on it, son!’ If you can live with whatever it is, then that’s fine! But if it’s something that you have to pay for down the way then you’d better think long and hard, because you’re the one that has to get yourself out of it… or pay the price!”
Bill turned to him and thought for a moment, interpreting his father with his own message. He nodded and grabbed his jacket. “I have to go out – right now! I’ll see you later, Dad!”
His father shook his head with a little experienced exasperation and slowly rose from the bed.
“You just take care, son! Don’t get yourself into trouble - you know?” Mr Rosser said with a fine balance of harshness and tenderness.
The man walked over to his son, stuck his hands into the trousers that had seen better days and pulled something out. Bill tried to stop him as his father jammed the fiver into his jacket because he knew it meant no Friday night beer with the other unemployed, time served men - the only highlight of their empty week.
“Emergency money! Good luck, son – whatever it is. Get on your way!”
Bill smiled and nodded back with a grateful look that stated quite clearly what was unsaid. In less than a minute he had flagged down a private cab and was on his way to the train station.

GLASGOW – WEST NILE STREET : NIGHT
Dino’s on West Nile Street, closed at around half past midnight, allowing about twenty minutes for the couple to finish up and leave. It was clean and only really memorable for the company who frequented it. The food was simple and well prepared, the staff were pleasant if anonymous and the music was from another era. It was the type of place that Doris Day could have been expected to hang out in when she was just starting her career in dance bands. The sound of Henri Mancini’s ‘Moon River’ subtly filled the almost empty café and, for a moment, it pleasingly reminded Harris of the type of music his Mum listened to on the BBC Light Programme when he was a child. It was an incongruous and unusual backdrop to a completely unexpected conversation.
Harris nodded, sitting beside her at the rear of the café where everything taking place elsewhere could be observed. There was a little guilt in his heart as he listened to the strawberry blonde Penny explain what she had seen her father doing. He found himself unable to stop consuming the captivating image of her surprisingly sophisticated and rather sexy appearance, because tonight she bore no resemblance to the petite little wallflower in pink he had been presented with at Joanna’s. Her leather dress was striking and quite original in design, making him doubt that it was off the peg from anywhere in Glasgow. With an effort he tried to pay more attention to her words and less to her pretty little breasts pressing out from the dress’s cleavage. The scrutiny he was placing her under, however impressed he was, merely incited yet another pang of guilty discomfort until he consciously drew himself back to concentrating fully on what she was now repeating.
“…and now I still don’t know what to do, or think even!” Penny said running her hand through her hair again as she reached out for her bottle of Coke.
“Well, as I said, if you don’t have a big anti-homosexual attitude then you have to, maybe, appreciate his right to follow his own sexuality. None of us think of our parents as having their own lives like we do - but it’s so stupid, because they were probably just like us once… and for a lot of people they’re destined to become just like their parents. I know it might not be your ideal choice for him, but if he wants to follow that path and his partner is past the age of consent, then you probably have to make an allowance or simply accept it and still love him for who he is and not what he does. I mean, Penny, do you think your Dad cares about you and what you do. Does your Dad love you? Has he looked out for you? Does your wellbeing and happiness actually matter to him?”
Penny turned to her left, facing Harris almost angrily before pausing and nodding her head in sudden awareness at his real point.
“Yes. Yes, he cares.” she said, a little choked up. “My wellbeing matters immensely to him, maybe too much. And I’ve always felt loved and cared for - I’ve been pretty lucky with most of the important things… and I see what you’re getting at, Jonn, but, it’s just - hard!”
Harris’s eyebrows condensed and his brows furrowed as he spoke. “I know it’s hard, well, can imagine it is anyway. If it was me I’d be as freaked out about it as you, maybe much worse… but I’d always remember he was my Dad - the guy who just knew what was a cool toy to get for me, allowed me to do what I felt was right for me, made me like books, always made me feel secure, encouraged me to be independent, talked to me instead of talking at me - tons of things. I’d remember all that because the things he’s sacrificed and done for me to this very day… will always matter much more to me than what he does in bed!”
Penny said nothing, just leaned forward and sipped on the diagonally striped straw in her bottle of Coke again before sitting back and just staring ahead. Her eyes were blinking and her chin trembled just a little before she slid against Harris as if she was more fragile than Dresden China. He put his right arm round her and she pulled in tightly to him, clearly upset. Penny just stayed against him for a minute or two in absolute silence until Harris raised her chin with his finger so that she was looking up at him through her cloudy eyes.
“Penny, you’ll be okay - maybe you have to give it, and yourself, a bit of time. And if it still bugs you and you need to blow off steam, then just call me, have a chat, anything!”
Her voice was quavering and uncertain. “Yeah, sure! After dumping all this on you, you’ll be wishing you had just…”
Penny’s chat was stopped short by a girl’s voice calling out. “Harris?”
Harris and Penny looked up as one at the little group of four glamorous girls walking in the door and looking down to where they were sitting. Penny looked to him with an uncomfortable exasperation. “God, no! It’s ‘Moira and her Monsters’ from school - they hate me! Do you know… them?”
“Sadly!” he said almost under his breath.
Harris now heard Casino Royale in mid swing as he watched the little group of very pretty girls striding down the aisle as if choreographed and he suddenly felt like he was watching a film.
The striking blonde with her flowing overcoat breezing behind her, revealing a short white dress that highlighted her legs with each and every pace of her stilettos. At her side was a smaller, dark haired girl with beautiful Eurasian features and a dark geometric bob cut that moved in absolute harmony to the rhythm of her walk. Behind them, like Femme Fatale body-guards, came the two others with almost interchangeably provocative bodies that both wore short, dark bomber jackets, high waist blue jeans and cascading brown hair in tight bubble perms. They were all, at the very least, appealingly pretty to stunning. Their heels and platforms all seemed to hit the floor in perfect rhythm, making a choral, percussive sound like the handclaps on an early seventies pop record – it was a truly cinematic moment.
Harris felt Penny shifting uncomfortably as the girls approached and he simply held her close to him, turning briefly with a little sparkle of encouragement.
The girls stood on the other side of the table, smiling like predators.
“Ladies! Moira, Tina, Anne, Linda - how are you? What a… surprise!” Harris grinned with a supercilious tone.
Moira, all curly blonde hair, perfect face and make up, smiled as she began talking, revealing perfect, brilliant teeth.
“Just thought we’d come over to see who you were cosy with now!” she stated in a well defined, neutral accent.
“Well, that was… most thoughtful of you!” Harris said a little too sincerely making the dark haired, Eurasian looking Tina giggle for a moment until she realised the others didn’t even get it.
Moira gave her a filthy look and then turned and held out her hand to Harris’s companion.
“I’m Moira and you’re..? Oh - my – God! I don’t believe it! Penny? What on earth are you doing with him? And all dressed up like… like one of us!”
Moira was incredulous and took a little too long to look at Penny’s almost adult sophistication, lingering as she gazed at the expensively designed black leather dress which was clearly a radical departure from her normal garb.
Harris chipped up immediately. “Well, not exactly dressed like one of you – If you’ll notice, Penny doesn’t have her business rates emblazoned in big neon letters.”
Anne and Linda looked at each other briefly in terse anticipation and some apprehension.
“Do you mean you’d sooner go out with her… I mean, ‘her’, than me?” Moira said in an angry but well spoken tone.
“Actually, Moira, I’d asked Penny out on a number of occasions and she kept refusing - until tonight! And I must say it’s really great to be with a girl that doesn’t leave me with a bad taste in my mouth!”
Tina tried to suppress a smirk but just couldn’t quite manage it, making Anne and Linda
glare at her with death ray eyes.
Moira tried to resist losing her temper. “You’ve always had poor taste in women!”
“Yeah!” Harris nodded with a smile, staring back at her, “I used to, until fairly recently, present company very much included, Moira!”
Penny said nothing and appeared as if his holding her was the most natural thing in the world.
“You loved being with me, Harris, at least I wasn’t one of your little charity cases – there was nothing for you to fix with me!”
“You’re right there, Moira, you were one of the very few people I’ve spent time with who was truly beyond repair!”
This time Tina giggled aloud and Moira’s face was seething with anger as she flashed a vicious look at the Eurasian and then turned back to Harris, leaning forward on the table.
“I’d only have to snap my fingers and you’d be all over me.”
Harris laughed with enthusiasm. “Not without some serious medication and a bio-hazard suit for protection!”
There was a sudden dead silence, Penny looked from Harris to Moira and back again.
Harris played with the cheque on the steel plate on his table before he stared right into Moira’s eyes as she stood back and folded her arms.
“Moira, I’d rather nail my genitals to the Bullet Train or stick my head in acid than go out with you. You are, and let there be no mistaking it, without doubt, one of the most odious, surreptitious, obnoxious, sly, insincere, unscrupulous, duplicitous and manipulative human beings I have met and, tragically, gone out with, to date. And those are all your good points. Now, don’t say another god-damn word unless it’s either ‘Linda, did you know I slept with your boyfriend for the entire week you were in Paris this summer?’ or ‘Anne, did you know I tried it on with your father just to see if I could make him come on to me?’”
Instantly the two girls turned angrily on Moira, screaming and cursing, clearly manifesting the ugly doubts even they harboured about their friend and Fuhrer.
Tina moved aside and laughed, waving to Harris and Penny. “I’m off now – this is too loud and… obnoxious for me! Beautiful dress, Penny!” she said with a sage warmth and just the right amount of jealousy to be sincere.
Penny smiled and nodded back, enjoying the shouting match performance as it escalated to bring the Manager down.
“And that’s our cue to go as well, I think, Penny… “ Harris said, leaving money with the cheque.
“ …always leave them wanting more!”
Harris slid out and took Penny’s hand as the Manager descended on the three screaming girls who now began to become quite physical, immediately having to pry them apart from one another.
Penny took a few steps past them before she turned and stated politely, “Good night, see you in school, girls!”
The couple sauntered along the aisle listening to the hysterical shouts like a lilting melody drowning out the real lilting melody of ‘Theme from a Summer Place’.
Moira frantically broke free of the melee, eyes blazing with anger, and venomously shouted to the thin figure with Penny.
“You utter bastard, Harris!”
“Goodnight, ladies! It’s been an absolute pleasure… as ever!” Harris replied, holding the front door open and ushering Penny out, seeing the shining sparkle return, glowing in her eyes once again as he followed her and they disappeared into the night like intangible shadows.

GLASGOW – CHARING CROSS : LATE NIGHT – EARLY MORNING
It was probably about ten to one in the morning when Bill was passing the Thomson designer furniture store at the corner of Woodlands Road and Saint George’s Road. He had walked from the quiet of the subterranean Charing Cross station, over Sauchiehall Street where people were still coming and going into Tiffany’s Dance Hall, staggering home from the pubs and shouting outside the chip shops. It was cold and traffic still flowed regularly through the main artery on this side of town. Bill wrapped his leather jacket around him and felt a swarm of butterflies in his belly - he could face the Hill or Chimes thugs without his pulse raising much but this scared him, he was going to lose something important for the first time in his adult life and it didn’t sit well.
Just past the small ‘Charing Cross Cars’ showroom he turned left at the next corner and saw the blue Commer van sitting outside her flat. The streetlights cast lonely shadows in the quiet as he stood outside the tall tenement door, pressing two or three random buttons - waiting for an answer.
A man’s voice answered and Bill just said, “It’s me!” and the door magically opened - he wondered who the ‘me’ was that the voice was waiting for. Inside he made his way up the carpeted stairs to the second floor where he heard Mandy and some man saying goodnight. As Bill arrived on the landing he gazed hard at the passing stranger who was in his early thirties, very well groomed and wearing a dark weatherproof jacket. The man ignored him and he, reluctantly, did the same.
Bill paused outside her door staring after the ghostly trail the stranger left from this very flat - with a little too much force he knocked three times.
As it opened he heard Mandy’s voice say “Did you forget something… ? Bill? Bill, what are you doing here?”
“Watching the Phantom Stranger leaving your flat!” he said quietly but with a sharp hint of venom, remaining outside despite her body language and visual invitation to enter.
“Come in. Come on in, Bill! If you were here a minute or so earlier you could have met Alan - he’s the guy who’s driving me down South tomorrow!”
With a little huffiness, Bill went into her flat which now looked much more anonymous with all her personal bits and pieces packed and loaded. The sound of the Burt Bacharach music in the background also disturbed him, it was something she played almost every time they had been together. He scowled sullenly and plunged his hands deeper into his pockets.
“I’m sure he’d be delighted to have any chance to ‘drive’ you!” He suggested with a clear overtone.
Mandy was in her late twenties maybe early thirties, a shade heavier than she probably was in her college days but still possessing a very good, voluptuous figure. Her eyes were an icy pale blue and she had a Charlotte Rampling sharpness to her nose and mouth that made Bill wonder how he had charmed her just about a month ago. Wearing a light green pencil dress and turquoise mohair cardigan she looked the way the French teacher in a Saint Trinian’s film should look.
Before he knew it she was hugging him and kissing him warmly, quickly realising Bill was still very rigid and cold in his response.
“Bill,” she sighed, still with her arms wrapped around him “he’s gay! He’s dropping me and all my worldly goods off at mother’s in Sussex only because he’s going on to Brighton to spend the Christmas holidays with his boyfriend Jerome. Now kiss me, stupid!”
The sound of her relaxed laughter, the warmth of her against him and the scent of her Balenciaga perfume that was so singularly her, thawed his intransigence.
“Well, admittedly, he did look like a bender!”
“So urbane, Bill” Mandy replied with a little giggle before he kissed her.
Mandy and he wrapped themselves around each other and kissed deeply and long.
“How did you manage to get here so late at night? Won’t you get into trouble at home?” she asked him but only saw him raise an eyebrow and shrug his shoulders.
“I wanted to see you again before you go, needed to actually. If you don’t want me here I can soon leave!” he offered with a little reluctance.
Mandy kissed him, slowly and gently, then shook her head negatively.
“I’m glad you came. Really glad! I leave in just over six hours… I’d like to make every minute left worthwhile!”
Bill smiled and crushed the sadness he already felt - she was the first one to make him happy and none of his friends knew anything about her existence. She started to unbutton her dress as he flicked his jacket off, moving to the little fireplace where they kissed and fell onto the sofa, undressing one another.
‘Tick Tock!’ Bill thought to himself.

MILNGAVIE : LATE NIGHT – EARLY MORNING
Harris’s black Celica pulled into the driveway of the Art Deco house at precisely one thirty AM, the house was in darkness and only the outside lights reflected any form of occupancy. He switched off the engine, released their seatbelts, then turned and lent back against his door so he could look at Penny. She had ranged from chatty and effusive to periodically silent as they had driven back from town. Harris assumed there was something on her mind but he wasn’t sure it had much to do with their conversation or events during the night.
“Are you okay?” he asked her.
Penny’s leather dress made cute squeaks as she moved, turning to him. The little pony tail that sat high on her head, making her look very adult in this light. The pretty face now much more attractive with her hair swept back to highlight her beautifully proportioned features as her big eyes glowed behind her glasses.
“Mmmm,” she said softly as if half distracted, “I’m fine, thanks. I had a great time tonight!”
Harris raised an eyebrow and furrowed his forehead.
“I’m sure you’ve had less traumatic nights out, Penn!”
They both laughed and she awkwardly moved towards him a little.
“No Jonn, I don’t mean it that way. I really needed to talk to someone about my father and you were… really good to listen to it all. I didn’t have anybody I really trust that might not, well gossip about it. I hope I can trust you not to say, well ..”
“Someone tells me something in confidence - I keep my mouth shut, that’s why people tell me things!”
“Thanks!” she said, her eyes flicking on and off his own. The car stereo was halfway through Eno’s ‘Another Green World’ oozing a lush, ethereal atmosphere into the warm vehicle. Harris leaned forward to her and she once again looked a little nervous.
“Jonn, I had such a good time and I’m so sorry it was probably a bit of a… chore for you, but I really do appreciate it. And you were just amazing with Moira! God, it was worth five years of sly little jibes to see that - she was raging, ballistic even! It was almost as good as the James Dean thing. I’ll bet she won’t turn up for the last day tomorrow… I’ll never see her the same way again!” Penny nervously giggled in a rat-a-tat machine gun chatter.
Harris leaned further over towards her, tilting his head as he watched her bite her lip and he now clearly knew that she did so when she was nervous about something.
“Is this babble?” he asked.
She nodded in reply.
“Because?”
“Nervous!” she said and coughed a little. “I’m a bit shy sometimes. That’s just me, sorry!”
Harris leaned back just a little. “Nothing to be sorry about there, Penn - I didn’t mean to make you nervous!”
Penny looked a little shocked. “Not you - you don’t make me nervous, it’s just that I… It’s me! I, eh… want to…”
Harris leaned over and gently put his arm round her as her voice trailed away, pulling her a little closer without making a move until she was relaxed. He smiled at her, finding her shy behaviour really endearing.
Penny looked into his eyes without distraction this time. “…I want to kiss you!”
Harris leaned forward, gently bringing her forward as he softly kissed her for a moment or two, noticing she didn’t close her eyes. He smiled at her and her eyes sparkled a little brighter. This time he moved forward and wrapped one arm round her shoulders and another round her waist as he firmly kissed her soft lips in a long press that made her give a little moan as she opened her mouth to him and slipped her arms under his jacket to hold him, pull him closer.
Harris found her kiss strange, almost reminding him of when he was much younger and kissing girls who had yielding lips not purely from their softness but their uncertainty of what they were doing. Penny kissed that way, a very soft, very sweet way of kissing. As they stopped she pulled her head back to look at him, she liked his face, his eyes, his lips, the way he kissed. This time her eyes were closing before she pulled him towards her, gently grasping upwards to hold his head and suddenly becoming much more passionate and forceful almost, experimentally flicking her tongue to taste his and feel the smoothness of his teeth. Her chest was heaving a little as she pressed it against him and he responded to her more confident passion. The tape ran out before she finally pulled away from him.
“Wow!” she breathed, oblivious to Harris noting her breasts rising and falling a little more deeply than at any other time during the evening. “That was… really nice, Jonn!”
“Yeah, I love that album! Would you like to hear the other side?” he asked obliquely.
Penny laughed and stroked his face, staring quite intently.
“Not the music… you! Kissing you! Really… really nice!”
Harris felt her slide towards him again but she gazed at him and stroked his face, down his neck and inside his white shirt with black stitching making a couple of the shiny black buttons pop open as she stroked his hairless chest. Penny pulled her knees up onto the seat, pointing them at Harris.
He leaned forward to kiss her neck and shoulder, biting her neck a little and making her emit a little moan before he whispered into her ear.
“I like the way you kiss, too!”
She pressed her mouth to his, running the tip of her tongue over his lips before she kissed him again, their tongues competing to stimulate one another. Harris felt his hands stroking her sides, feeling the exposed skin of her backless dress, slowly dragging his hand along the underside of her thighs and bottom. Her fingers hesitatingly unbuttoned his shirt further and she ran her hands over his surprisingly soft skin, unconsciously making little moans as Harris stroked her bottom and teased her spine with his long fingernails until she shivered with pleasure. Penny pulled back and looked at him, keeping her hand in his shirt cautiously touching his hard prominent nipples.
“Well, I see you’ve clearly conquered your nervousness, Penn!” Harris laughed as she moved to his other nipple.
With a little flush of her cheeks, she too giggled quite unselfconsciously. “I might never get a chance like this again. I’ve never really had a boyfriend, in fact never really kissed a guy properly before… well, before you, not really. So now you know, shy and nervous and not very…em, not too…?”
“Articulate?” he offered with a laugh as he played with her hair.
“Experienced, clever clogs!” she responded almost uncertainly before sticking her tongue out at him.
“Well, Penn, I wouldn’t have guessed, you’re a great little kisser! But you’ll end up here all night at this rate and I don’t want to get you into trouble with your Dad or even have him come home with your hands in my shirt because he may get the wrong idea!” Harris suggested gently.
“More likely to be jealous of my good fortune!” Penny giggled and wondered whether she should take her hands off him.
“Ooooh, bowl of milk for Miss Kitten here!” he laughed. “Good for you, better to laugh than cry!”
Penny smiled, nodded and then fell silent for a few moments. She turned her face to his and dropped her hands on his lap as he made a little nod as if to inquire what was on her mind.
“I don’t want you to go home, Jonn. Would you like to come in for a while?” she asked putting her hands round his neck and moving forward to kiss him before pausing to ask, “or have you had enough of me?”
“Well, Penn, I’m a bit of a night creature anyway but I don’t want to get you into an ‘ouch’ situation with your father - In my experience male parents rarely see their daughter being alone with a strange guy in his house at two in the morning as a cause for celebration!”
“So, is that a yes or a no?” she asked.
With a little grin he pulled her towards him and they kissed again until she began to kiss his neck and whispered, “I love it when you call me ‘Penn’ - no-one else does! Don’t go home yet, Jonn!”
Penny let out a sharp yelp as he slapped her on the bottom for a distraction.
“Right, if we’re going in for a while, let’s go - otherwise we’ll be here all night!” Harris said as Penny felt a little tingle of pleasure where he slapped her bottom. This time she blushed and was glad he was walking round to open her door, allowing her enough time to regain her composure. It also afforded her the opportunity to watch his bottom moving through little tears of his jeans, watching the light flesh shine through the rips.
“Shall we?” he asked, holding the door open and watching her unfold herself and stand smiling at him like a much more mature woman than her girlish impression less than a week before.
Straightening her dress a little she took his hand and led him to the door of her house.
“Welcome to my home, Jonn Harris!”

DANBRAY : LATE NIGHT - EARLY MORNING
The three youths slipped through the shadows along the little alley, adhering to the wall that defined the perimeter of the large detached houses. The one with dirty blonde hair led them to the back wall and spoke quietly, “Right, that’s the house! Get in and find the key. It’s supposed to be in the office at the very back, on the left from the back door. Only take the key and don’t touch anything else, got it?”
The small wiry youth in the black zipper top looked at Fox strangely, saying nothing and then glancing at the other Hill boy.
Fox leaned forward, “Have you gone fuckin’ deaf? Do – you – understand – me?”
The boy spat to his left and merely nodded his affirmation.
“Fine, and don’t fuck this up or they’ll be findin bits of you all over Levenvale.”
The other thug, Bennie, leaned over too. “Aye, all over Levenvale!” he repeated.
The blonde turned to him slowly. “Is that an echo? When I want you to say something I’ll pull your fuckin’ string – so shut it!”
The black zippered youth pulled on his gloves, wiggling his fingers before he flicked the little hood up.
Bennie chuckled, “Man, you’re like something out a Bond film – it’s no’ Fort Knox you’re doing, just a house!”
Fox turned to him again, “What did I just tell you?”
“I’m just saying, he’s making it seem like the crime of the century!”
The hooded youth leaned forward, “They’re all crimes – and if you get caught, you get time… That’s why I’m careful and you’re just back out of Borstal!”
“You’re asking for it!” Bennie said moving forward to the other who just stood still.
Fox grabbed Bennie by the hair. “Shut the fuck up, do you want to go in and do it?”
“No!”
“Then keep it shut, we’re wasting time here! You right?” he asked the dark figure.
“No, but I’ll do it, Fox! I’ll get the key and that’s it, nothing more – you get off my back and stay off it after this… or you can go in and do it yourself, if you think you can get past the alarm!”
“What fuckin’ alarm?” Fox asked as Bennie sulked.
“See the box above the door? That fuckin’ alarm, the windows will have magnetic pressure pads and conductive tape to stop dumb shits like him getting in. Now, I do this and we’re done, because I’m getting nothing out of this.”
Fox leaned forward, a little alarmed now. “You’re getting to walk about!”
“Do you remember Big Jake, and what happened to him?”
Fox stuck his face right into the burglar’s. “He got shot, so what?”
The youth shrugged, “Could happen to anyone, couldn’t it? Just walking round a corner, Big Jake with his handful of gear and …bang! All done!”
“Are you threatening me?”
“Course not, Fox, just sayin’ none of us live forever – know what I mean?”
Foxy grabbed him by the black top. “I’m beginning to take a dislike to you!”
“Put a fuckin’ finger on me and you’d better do me here and now – then get in and get this key… because whatever it’s for, it’s no’ for you! You’ve no’ got the brains to use your talents for anything but the small time… and fuckin’ people up Go ahead, do me!”
“I don’t have to do you, cunt, just mess you up!”
The other one shrugged, “Fair enough, no skin off your nose if I have to go in damaged and get caught… is it? Even if I grass on you, you’re clear unless somebody round here’s watching all this shite going on! You just won’t get the key and, since this is your idea and nobody’s gonna be on your fuckin’ back to find out why you fucked up a simple job… there’ll be no problem, will there? You’ll just be able to toddle off home and bang the bird for the rest of the night, eh?”
Fox stared at him, trying to work out if he knew something or was just making some stupid guesses. He let him go and nodded. “Do the job and we’re done – stay out of Danbray and stay out of my way after it, coz if I see you again after this… I’ll fuck you up!”
The other one shook his head, “Like fuck you will, I’ll go where I want and you’ll make sure nobody touches me or else the cunt that owns this house will find out who wanted his key – whatever it’s for!”
Fox swallowed hard, there was something weird here, the thief never had balls before… and the little bastard was bang on the money.
“Maybe you’ll have a fuckin’ accident like Big Jake?”
“Only if it happens right after I come out with the key and hand it to you, coz after that I’m going to phone the Golden Shot and let them know so that if I disappear, they can pass the good news onto this cunt here!”
Fox stood back, smiling. “You know, it’s a pity I hate your fuckin’ guts, because you’re smarter than you look!”
“I’ll get your key, you go your way and I’ll go mine… nobody bugs me again and nobody hears anything from me – okay?”
Fox shook his head and smiled. “Fine, whatever you say – just get the key sometime to-fuckin’-night!”
“I’m ready to go, get the fat man to bend down till I get over the wall!”
“Ho, who the fuck are you callin’ Fat?” Bennie almost shouted.
Fox whacked him across the back of the head.
“What’s that for?” he asked
“Shut the fuck up, Foghorn Leghorn, we’re doing a house not selling the fuckin’ Evening Times!”
The dark burglar stood against the wall, “Can I get on with this now?”
“Aye! Fuck off, Jonesy and get back here sharp!”
Jonesy looked at them both, as if finally trying to decide on something.
Bennie cursed silently and bent down. Jonesy stood on his back, peered over the wall and then just seemed to disappear like smoke. The other two hardly heard him move over the grass and through the shrubs as he glided to the back of the large house.
“Do you think he’ll get it?” Bennie asked.
“He’ll fuckin’ get it alright! One way or another!”
“Are we talking about the key?”
Fox sighed and shook his head, mentally promising never to take family on a job again… unless it’s not from the retarded side. “Aye, Bennie, the key, that’s right, that’s just what we were talking about, you fuckin’ Munchkin! That shifty little bastard’s good at this, he’s probably in by now.”
“Are you gonna get him to do the Chemist’s?”
“Do you listen to anythin’? Aye, fuck, yeah… The Chemists’s, the big one near the Post Office in Hell. ya fuckin’ Retard… Why don’t you do the Chemist’s? I mean, you’ve been out for, what, nearly four days – you must be missing it by now!”
“The Chemist’s?”
Fox shook his head and looked up and down the dim alley, checking the overlooking houses for lights or movement. He glanced at his watch suspiciously then crouched down. Bennie did the same, leaning over and whispering.
“Do you not think I could do the Chemist’s? Like find the good shit and nab it?”
Fox looked up and down again, “I don’t think you could find a whore in a brothel, Bennie! What happened the last time you did a shop?”
“What do you mean? What, because of that big colour TV I nicked?”
“Aye ‘because of that big colour TV you nicked’! Only you’re stupid enough to get into the TV shop and steal a fucking set that was in to be repaired, cunt!”
“How was I to know? It wasn’t like it had a big sign on it saying ‘this is fucked’!”
“No, it didn’t, just a big note saying the tube was fucked, ya dick!”
“Well, it made a good bang when I dropped it off the bridge!”
“Bennie?”
“What, Foxy?”
“Gonna shut up?”
“Why?”
“Just… shut the fuck up for a wee while, eh? Let the batteries charge up!”
Bennie shrugged and leaned against the wall as his cousin crouched, looking round all the time.
Fox and Bennie sat silently as the minutes ticked slowly past.
The blonde youth kept checking his watch, every minute.
The time kept ticking away as Fox became more nervous, knowing that Bell had made clear just how important this was, how he was being trusted with a job that could do him a lot of good – if it was done right, all he had to do was be smart.
Fox spat at the wall opposite – he’d been smart, kept his cool, let Jones have his big talk and he was still waiting. Something was wrong, this was taking too long… unless the key wasn’t there or hard to find or something. Fuck, that bastard Jones was smarter than he thought, he’d have played all this differently if he’d known that sooner – made him a deal, got him a load of blow, some smack, let him nail some of the Hill bikes, any fucking thing to get the little cunt on side. If he could replay it like a Floyd album he’d do it differently. But it was too late to change that now, maybe Jones was just having to search everywhere, carefully, knowing what he’d get if he couldn’t find the key. But if he didn’t find the key then he could fuck the little shit good style, couldn’t he? No, he fucking couldn’t because he could just tell the Key man that someone was trying to nick it, tell them who was trying to nick it. Fuck, what if this cunt in the house had something to do with Monaghen’s crew! Fuck, they were truly evil – when they did someone, they didn’t get found in the park like that couple, not with Monaghen’s lot… people just disappeared, after a lot of pain, and were never seen again. Fuckin hell, what if it is the Monaghen’s, what if Dinger was just sending him in so that if they were nailed then the only cunts on the chopping block was himself and the other two? He knew he should have thought this out better. What was the time now? Fuck! This was taking too long. What would Dinger do? What will Dinger do if the key isn’t found? Dinger, Monaghen, tortured, disappeared, …Nicky? Why hadn’t that crossed his mind before, Nicky – fucking Nick getting done by those evil fucks. Nah, there was no reason – nothing he knew about, nothing at all. But then, Dinger hadn’t told him what this was about tonight – could that have happened to Nick? Not likely, the Headboys were like the Mafia and looked out for their own, it would never happen… apart from in the Godfather, they were Mafia and they offed some of their own as it suited. Why hadn’t he thought about any of this instead of the things like… Nick met some cool bird, some real shagpump like Anita, except without the squealing fuckin’ Muppet… but what if Nicky wanted one of those stupid squealing brats, wanted to start a new life… leaving his family? No way! Not him, he’d never do that to them, not to his Ma anyway… but that was better than being chopped up by Monaghen’s lot. This was pointless. What was the time now? Jesus, what should he do? Go in – that was stupid, if Jones was there and someone else made a noise then it’d be blown… and he couldn’t trust the retard to do anything but use his muscle and keep his mouth shut because he was in the family. It clicked – all he had to do was wait for Jones, get the key and take the cunt with them, tell Dinger about Jones’s threats and then he could have the wee cunt offed – it was flawless, all it took was some proper thinking, taking time. What was the time now? Jesus, it was taking too long, much too long, the cops would be passing at the end of the alley soon or maybe the beat blues would be patrolling. Wait, that was what to do – just wait and he could nail Jones.
Fox looked over at Bennie and did a double take then smacked the fat youth on the head as he went to light a Capstan cigarette.
“Why not just shout ‘We’re here to tan this house?’ Are you for fucking real? Get a grip! If you weren’t family I’d fucking…”
But the other youth didn’t find out the full extent of the threat as a loud bell suddenly rang like a searchlight in the night.
“Fuck’s sake, Foxy! What’ll we do?” Bennie asked as he looked up the alley.
But Fox was already jogging briskly down the alley, away from the scene of the crime.
“Guess, shit for brains!” he muttered angrily, already from a distance.

MILNGAVIE : LATE NIGHT - EARLY MORNING
“Jeeze! It’s a beautiful house and impeccably decorated, Penn! Must be a nice place to live!” Harris said as he sat on the black leather sofa.
Penny walked over to where he was sitting, her bare legs shining with a glow in the subdued lighting. The black leather dress clung to her, coming down to just above her knees, the steel clasps and buttons adding a sophisticated relief from the soft black material. Her ponytail jiggled with every step and the little steel chain which ran from shoulder blade to shoulder blade was dulled only by the resonating glow of the vibrant skin of her exposed back. Penny nodded and placed the glasses of orange on the table beside them while the high end stereo quietly played Erik Satie, filling the room with crystalline Quadraphonic clarity.
“Mummy… my mother co-ordinated it all. It’s all we have left of her really!”
“Well, you still see her - don’t you?”
“Yes, I stay with her in San Francisco during the summer and spent last Christmas with her… but it’s not the same!”
Harris nodded, “Hey, it could be worse… she could’ve moved to Aberdeen or Alaska!”
The girl giggled, “Can’t see my mother fitting in there, not enough glamour as you can see!”
Harris followed her finger as it indicated the large framed photograph on the wall to their left.
“That’s your mother?” he inquired with a reverence as he gazed into the image of the photographic beauty in the white silk dress. “Wow, she’s a bit of a stunner. Is she a model or something?”
Penny nodded before she sipped her drink. “She was and she still looks like that, well it is only from three years ago! Actually this is her dress - she left me some of her favourite clothes and said I’d grow into them. This is the first time I’ve worn anything she left because I wanted to dress a bit more… well, I didn’t have anything quite… right in my own wardrobe!”
She noted once more how cool he looked in his little torn jeans with an American star stitched to the rear, his black button down shirt and dark deck shoes… he vaguely reminded her of a contemporary Jimmy Dean type - rebellious.
“Clearly your mother has excellent taste as well as the good looks that run in the family!”
Penny’s face flickered with a flash of irritation for a brief second.
“I know I’m not a glamour girl like Moira or my mother - I might be plain, but I’m honest and try to be the best me that I can!”
Harris felt an ugly pang of discomfort at his inadvertent trespass on her sensitivity.
“You’re not plain, Penny… far from it! Your mother is stunning and you look so much like her it’s astounding. I don’t say anything I don’t mean - so to clarify, you look great because you’re attractive not because of that superb dress and, so far, I like who you are as much as I like how you look… Miss overly sensitive who doth protest too much. So no more fishing for compliments - I can only manage one or two per year!”
Penny looked astounded, “Fishing for compliments?”
“Pretty girls questioning their own good looks, hmmm - maybe, just a little!” Harris said gently with a disarming smile.
“I’ve never thought I was pretty, Jonn, in fact the only times I hear something like that is from my mother or father!”
Harris raised an eyebrow.
“That’s what happens when you spend all your time with Stevie Wonder and Ray Charles!”
Penny giggled and moved a little closer to him.
“Am I pretty?” she asked.
“As a picture!” he replied staring into her eyes and stroking her arm softly.
Penny’s face flashed a strange look of determination as she moved forward and kissed him on the cheek and then moved her lips to his ear, whispering.
“I thought about you all week since Joanna’s. I don’t think Daddy’s coming home… I’d love to go to bed with you, Jonn!”
Harris pulled back from her a little, eyes shocked for a flash.
“Are you serious, Penn?”
She had moved back a little, suddenly appearing to be the shy and nervous little girl again. Penny could only nod her affirmation.
Once again he felt badly but still a little uncomfortable.
“That’s… just about a first for me! I can count on two fingers the number of times I’ve been surprised by anything in my life - but this… this is a surprise!”
“Sorry!” she whispered, pulling back from him. “I knew you didn’t think I was pretty like Moira but I thought you might have liked me enough to… to want to…”
Harris put his arm round her and pulled her a little closer again.
“Penny, this isn’t about attractive - you hardly know me and yet you want to sleep with me. I could be anything for all you know. It’s flattering, I mean really flattering, and I’m enough of a bastard to know part of me would like to just go ‘oooh yeah, let’s go!’ But in my own demented world… I’d feel I was taking advantage somehow, bearing in mind the things we talked about earlier - I’m not sure you’re doing this for the right reasons or have really thought this through!”
Penny bristled a little.
“I’m not stupid, Jonn. I know what, well, that I… God! I just feel stupid and so embarrassed now. I’d like to know what it’s like to… go to bed… sleep with a guy, but boys don’t bother with me except as friends… and not even many of them. I liked you when I met you, even when I was watching you at Joanna’s and then after tonight you were so kind and understanding - I really thought you found me… attractive and liked me enough to… maybe want to… be my, you know, first!”
Harris stared into her eyes and saw she was a little misty eyed, for a second it made him uncertain and he looked away. There was a brief silence only filled in by the momentary distraction of Prokofiev’s ‘Romeo and Juiet’ automatically beginning. Harris rubbed his face and furrowed his brows in reflection. He glanced back to her.
Penny sat back again.
“Sorry, Jonn! I’ll bet the girls you’ve been with are all like Moira, I mean look like her, gorgeous, well dressed… sort of cool!”
Harris turned to her decisively, his brows twisted into a strange little frown.
“Words aren’t really working here, are they?” he asked almost rhetorically as he slid towards her, removed her glasses and pushed her flat onto the large, lush sofa.
Penny’s heart was beating quickly now, uncertain and confused as he lay alongside her stroking her back and cradling her neck in his prone arm.
Harris smiled a little as he gently kissed her, slowly, delicately grinding his lips to hers with little flickers of his tongue until he felt her entire body relax and she opened her mouth to him. His fingers pulled her pony tail free and their lips forcefully locked as if hermetically sealed. Penny ran her fingers through his hair as her other hand clutched his long neck, a soft moan resonating from her throat. His hand ran down her back, touching the bare skin and leaving little electric trails behind, fingers running beneath the edge of the dress and slipping beneath the elasticated top border of her white pants to touch the upper mounds of her bottom making her tense a little as he stroked the well defined valley between her buttocks.
Her lips moved over his face and caressed his neck with a little damp trail as he ran his hand over the leather clad bottom to draw her hips to his own. Penny moaned aloud as he gently pressed himself against her and began to kiss her neck and then her shoulder, pushing the soft leather strap aside so that it fell on her arm. His teeth gently teased her rounded shoulder as he moved his hand over her dress, stroking her thighs and hips, ribcage until he caressed her breast with the back of his hand.
Penny rolled her head back and stared up at him, pleasure and a flicker of uncertainty in her eyes. Harris cupped her breast through the leather and shifted the underlying tissue with a softly rounded movement. It made her moan aloud and she sought the security of his lips once more, forcefully kissing him and finding her tongue to have a life of its own within his mouth.
She was a little uncertain with her hands, stroking his chest and moaning into his mouth as his caress made her feel a little thrill of pleasure. Harris felt her pause momentarily as he began to press and grind his hips against hers, feeling the heat of his crotch even through the dress. It made her feel good but a little tense.
Harris broke away from her kiss, watched her eyes and smiled inwardly as she bit her lower lip to quieten the little moans she made as he pushed at her hips with his own. Harris began to unbutton Penny’s dress, seeing her rounded little breasts oozing just a little as the garment released its grip on them. The resonance of her ‘Moonglow’ scent still lingered on her chest, pleasing him. He kissed the soft flesh that rose and fell with each and every deep breath of uncertain pleasure that she took. Never did his hips stop pressing hers, making her insides tingle with a damp glow.
Penny raised her face to his again but he pulled back just enough to frustrate her as his fingers stroked her swelling breasts and then cautiously began to move under the lace appliqué of her strapless little Berlei bra. Harris saw her eyes flicker down and a little flash of her body stiffening as he moved to unfasten the two little hooks and eyes at the front of her bra and allow him unhampered access to her pert breasts. The girl’s bright eyes shimmered with a hint of unexpected alarm and she suddenly grasped his hand to stop him.
Harris smiled and stopped moving, removed his hand and, taking hers under his own, moved her uncomprehending fingers down to his crotch. He paused as he watched her eyes unconsciously widen before he pressed her hand to his swollen member as it distorted the shape of his jeans.
Penny was shocked and instinctively raised her hand a little without any resistance from Harris’s own. He moved her hand to his hips and he slipped back from her a little.
“That was to make categorically clear that you are absolutely desirable and unmistakably prove I find you attractive, sexy, fun, charming and smart!” He said quietly and with a soft tone to his voice.
She looked pleased and uncertain at the same time, making no move to initiate intimacy with him again.
Harris nodded before he spoke, a disarmingly friendly, knowing smile on his face.
“Very smart, as smart as you are pretty, Penn! Maybe smart enough to see the difference between what seems like a good idea late at night in bed and what is a little scarier when it’s a bit more real.”
Penny was a little defiant as she tried to casually redress her exposed bra and breasts a little.
“You don’t think I could go through with it?” she asked.
Harris pulled away from her and shifted the shoulder strap of the dress back into place.
“Go through with it?” He asked with just a hint of astonishment. “It’s not an exam, Penn! Sleeping with someone should be something you want to do, when you feel you’re ready to do it and preferably with someone who means something to you - especially the first time you actually have sex, because it’s one of the occasions that you’re definitely going to remember for a long time!”
Penny looked pensive.
“You don’t think I’m ready?”
“Do you?” he asked disarmingly.
The girl looked into his eyes, there was no anger or irritation or resentment or expectation there. She shook her head.
Harris smiled and kissed her on the forehead.
“Take your time and go out with a few people, any guy would be lucky to go out with you - you’re doing them the favour… so they should have to come up to your standards.”
Penny smiled and touched his neck and hair, her little mouth full and moist.
“That’s sweet, thank you! I just wish I was a bit more… glam, a but racier. I’d love to wear jeans like that and for them to look as if they should be on me - I look… kind of dull!”
He leaned forward and sighed.
“I’ve been with a few girls, Penn and you are every bit as pretty as anyone I’ve been lucky enough to go out with. If you don’t like the things you wear then just go out and change your image - they’re only clothes! You look great, stunning - but that’s not because of how great the dress makes you appear… it’s because of how wonderful you make the dress look!”
Penny blushed and moved closer to him again.
“If this is your technique for not sleeping with someone, I’d love to hear what you say when you are pursuing a girl!”
Harris grinned a wide mouthed laugh. “Actually I thought I was lulling you into a sense of false security and you’d suddenly throw your clothes off and demand to be ravished in a wide variety of questionable ways, but you don’t really seem to be buying into that do you?”
Penny put her hands round his neck and pulled his face to her own.
“I really like you, Jonn, and I trust you, maybe you’ll be my first… someday, maybe not - but you’ll always be the one I’ll remember. You listened to all my woes when there was no-one else, absolutely devastated Moira and made me feel great all night - I won’t forget any of that in a hurry. Oh, and you are pretty gorgeous!”
Her lips adhered to his and she kissed him in a long passionate kiss, opening his mouth with her tongue. Harris responded as she rolled towards him again a little, their bodies gently pressing together.
Eventually Penny slowly and reluctantly pulled away from the kiss.
“I’m sorry about all this, Jonn! I’m usually a lot more rational and sensible about things. I wasn’t trying to… put you in an awkward situation - I really do think you’re pretty great and you do know I wasn’t trying to lead you on… I’m just a bit at sea just now. Sorry!”
Harris nodded with a relaxed smile.
“So, that’s my cue to push off, I take it?”
Penny shook her head.
“No, just because you made me see that I was a bit… over enthusiastic? It doesn’t mean you have to go - I like kissing you and I really like it… well, when you touch me, really like it. We could stay here and… be together for a while?”
“And what’ll my parents think?” he asked with a serious tone.
“Will you get into trouble, is that what you mean?”
“No, when they find me in the fridge in the morning trying to cool off!” he smiled.
Penny giggled and dropped her head a bit as she stared up at him.
“You’re crazy, Jonn!”
“It’s a curse!” he replied melodramatically. “But I’d better make tracks, unfortunately, because that sounds like a car pulling in, Penn!”
Harris stood up and took her hand as she followed then began straightening herself up, quickly finding her hairband and tying her tresses back into a demure ponytail again. She smiled widely at him but was swiftly puzzled as he nodded at her chest.
“Buttons!” he said conspiratorially.
Penny’s pert breasts and the pretty white bra disappeared behind the leather and steel clasp dress.
“Such a shame – Oh, the pain, the pain!” he chuckled in his ‘Zachary Smith’ voice.
Penny slapped him playfully on the shoulder as they heard the front door open.
A moment later, hearing the sound of Prokofiev, her father tapped the door as he whispered her name before entering.
“Hello, Daddy! This is Jonn, we were at the film tonight and got back a bit late. Jonn, this is my father!”
Harris walked forward to shake his hand, he was a tall elegant man with an almost 1930’s styled haircut that made him look rather artistic, strong sharp features and expensive casual clothes.
“Hello, Jonn, nice to meet you!” her father said shaking Harris’s hand with a firm grip.
“And you, Mr Cross. Sorry to have kept Penny out so late but we ran into some mutual friends after the film, I really didn’t mean to impose so late!”
Her father smiled. “Well, my hours are a little irregular as well but it’s always nice to meet one of Penny’s friends - even at this hour!”
Harris smiled at Penny and then back at her father. “A pleasure to meet you, maybe next time at a more civilised hour? Now, If you’ll excuse me?”
“I’ll see you to the door.” Penny said as her father looked a little distant, staring at his daughter in her mother’s dress.
Her father cocked his head to the side a little. “Is that your mother’s dress, Penny?”
She and Harris stopped and he felt her tensing a little. “Yes, Daddy!”
“You look as beautiful as she did in it!” he said sincerely, smiling.
Penny swallowed hard before she replied. “Thank you, Daddy, that’s very kind!”
The man walked to the other end of the room and stood before the picture as the couple left him alone. “Good night, Jonn! I hope to see you again!”
She and Harris paused at the door.
“Good night. It’s very nice to have met you!”
They walked out to the front foyer, Penny pulled the large black door to the house behind her and made her way to Harris looking at the gaping flesh glowing from inside his ripped jeans.
“I don’t know what to say, Jonn, except thanks for listening to the stuff about Daddy - you gave me a lot to think about. You were really understanding and very considerate for not taking advantage of my… you know - but most of all thanks for giving me a great time. I really loved tonight - all of it, especially the last hour or so!” she said with a little, almost embarrassed, grin.
Harris put his hands round her waist and pulled her towards him.
“No, thank you! I had a lovely time with you!”
Penny slipped her arms round his neck and kissed him gently, uncertainly. Moving back she looked at his eyes, checking to see his reaction but he merely raised an eyebrow and then kissed her properly - the way she wanted to kiss him. Penny was unwilling to let him go without the type of embrace she’d remember as her hands slipped down his back and she hesitatingly grasped his bottom, waiting to ascertain if he would find her too invasive again. Harris merely pulled her closer and kissed her back a little more passionately as he held her to himself, enjoying the feel of her fingers slipping into the rips on the rear of his favourite jeans, touching the soft flesh of his buttocks. They kissed and caressed until a symbiotic intuition separated them.
Harris eyed her methodically, smiled widely as he made a little wave with his left hand at just about hip height and slipped out the door without a word.
Penny stood with arms folded in the chilled night air, outside the door, watching his tight bottom as he walked to the black Celica, got in and drove away with a cute smile and wave. Only then did she go back inside and lock up. It had been a great night, truly a night to remember!