Chapter 72
“Go ahead and look.”
“Hi, Lucas,” Marla said, smiling from ear to ear. “Don’t you look nice today.”
“Thank you,” he said shyly, almost embarrassed.
“Come on in. Breakfast is on the table. I hope you like hot cakes, eggs, bacon, and toast.”
“Yeah.” Lucas smiled. “I’m starvin’ too.”
“Well, there’s plenty. If you want more, I’ll be glad to make it for you.”
As they walked to the kitchen, he couldn’t help noticing how nice Marla smelled. Her perfume was intoxicating, and the way she smiled at him gave him a jackhammer erection. He’d seen Marla three times now. Each time he saw her he wanted her all the more. He fought the temptation to cop a feel of her shapely derriere, but stared hypnotically at it all the way into the kitchen.
“Lucas, I know you’re staring at my ass.” The tone of her voice was lighthearted and encouraging.
“Huh? No, I’m not,” he said, wondering how she knew.
Marla looked over her shoulder and smiled approvingly. “Go ahead and look. I like the way it makes me feel when you look at me, Lucas. It makes me feel beautiful and desirable.”
“I do?” he asked, more innocently than surprised. “Ummm. It smells almost as good as you, Marla.” Shit! What the hell did I say that for?
“Dig in.”
“Ain’t you gon’ eat?” he asked, looking at a table full of food.
“No, it’s all for you.”
“Marla, I can’t eat this much food,” he told her with wide-eyed wonder.
“Nobody says you have to,” Marla smiled. “Would you like some milk and O. J.?”
“Uh-huh,” he said, pouring syrup on his pancakes.
Marla took two large glasses out of the cabinet and set them on the table. She watched Lucas devour the food as if he hadn’t eaten in a month, and it pleased her.
“Say when,” she said as she poured the beverages into the glasses, one container in each hand. She sat in the chair across from him and watched him eat. “So, are you afraid of me, or what?”
“What do you mean afraid?” Lucas asked, playing dumb.
“You know what I mean.” Marla had a serious look on her face. “I know you enjoyed what I did for you the last time you were here. And I know you can’t get it out of your mind, can you?”
Looking confused, he said, “What’s the deal with you and Napoleon?”
“What do you mean?”
Lucas curled his lips and sucked his teeth. “You know what I mean. How come you and him don’t get along? And how come y’all bothering with me and my girl? Are you tryin’ to get back at him, or what?”
“If I tell you, will you answer my question?” Marla bartered.
“Yeah, but you go first.”
“Well, Napoleon and I have been together for twenty years. I married him right out of high school. We’ve had good times and bad. Mostly bad, relation-shipwise. As far as material things, I’ve had it pretty good, never wanted for anything. Even when he went to prison, he saw to it that me and the children were well taken care of. I don’t fault him for that. I guess our relationship started to disintegrate when we moved down here to New Orleans.”
“What happened when y’all moved down here?” Lucas asked, listening to every word, still shoveling food into his mouth.
“You know, as much as I’d like to put the blame squarely on his shoulders, the truth is I was just as much to blame as him. It’s never just one person when a marriage goes bad. It takes two to tango. Anyway, I guess we just lost interest in each other. At first, we had sex all the time. Anywhere, anytime.”
Lucas blushed from the open sex talk. Like most men, he thought that women basically had sex with men because men wanted them to. If a woman were the aggressor, she was a whore. Marla sensed what he was thinking and said, “I can see you’ve been brainwashed.”
“Brainwashed? What do you mean brainwashed?” he asked, dumbfounded.
“Basically, it means to continuously fill a person’s mind with information that you want them to believe. Pretty soon, whatever information was in their brain is replaced by the newer information, even if the new information is bogus. Understand?”
“Yeah, but why do you say I’m brainwashed?”
“Tell me something. Have you ever heard the cliché ‘good girls don’t put out’?”
“Yeah. I’ve heard it.”
“Do you believe it?”
“Yeah. I guess.”
“Why do you believe that?”
“I don’t know. I just do.”
“That’s my point exactly,” Marla said forcefully. “Somebody told you that, and now you believe it, yet you don’t know why. That’s how brainwashing works. The victim never knows what’s happened to him.”
“Well, my mother is one of the people I heard it from.”
“No offense, Lucas,” Marla said sincerely. “I’m not putting your mother down, but women have been brainwashed too. You see how this thing perpetuates itself? Women tend to put each other down for doing the very thing they fantasize about.” Lucas sat there listening, amazed at her candor. “Do you remember me asking you if you’ve ever had a woman and not some teenage girl who doesn’t know her own sexuality yet?”
“Yeah, I remember.”
“Good. What I didn’t tell you was that often women don’t really blossom sexually until they’re around thirty-two or so. That’s when we have sex on our minds all the time. Kinda like you do now.”
Frowning, he said, “I don’t have—”
“Don’t even bother denying it. I know that sex is almost always on your mind. You don’t have to admit it for it to be true. The bottom line is when a woman reaches a certain age, being a good girl loses a lot of its luster. We become more like a teenage male in our thinking.”
Lucas blushed again. “So, you sayin’ women your age want to do it as much as men do at my age?”
“Uh-huh. Hard to believe, huh?”
“Yeah. And why are you tellin’ me this?”
“I’m trying to teach you something about women. For example, you ever notice how women call each other sluts and whores and the like?”
“Yeah.”
“Because we’ve be socialized to only want sex when it’s socially acceptable. But at the same time, when we go to a rock and roll concert, we scream our heads off and often throw our panties on the stage. Why? Because the performer’s bigger than life. But if the same guy we saw on stage was just another guy walking down the street and women chased him, that wouldn’t be socially acceptable—hence the brainwashing. Understand?”
“Man, Marla. You smart.” Lucas grinned, feeling a little more relaxed, dropping his guard. “You know a lotta big words. Did you learn how to talk like that in college?”
“No. I learned to talk like that by reading books like Lady Chatterley’s Lover. It’s one of D. H. Lawrence’s best. It’s been banned in the United States as pornographic, but through some of Napoleon’s Chicago connections, I was able to procure a copy.”
Having no idea what she’d said, Lucas nodded.
“Books help shape your thinking,” she went on.
“You mean brainwashing?”
Marla laughed. “Kinda, but different. Reading opens your mind to different views. In other words, when you read, you get to determine what goes in your brain. You basically brainwash yourself with ideas you never thought about until you picked up a book and started reading. Understand?”
“Not really. But it sho’ do sound good when you say it.”
Marla laughed again. “Are you finished eating?”
“Yeah. I’m full, thanks. It was delicious.”
Marla cleared the table then asked, “Is your girlfriend a good girl?”
“Yes. A great girl.”
“Have you had sex with her?”
“Well . . . yeah.”
“And she’s still a good girl?”
“Yeah. I think so.”
“Okay. Are you her first and only?”
Lucas frowned. He thought about Earl and how he agreed to put up with their sexual liaisons. Anger began to mount and it showed on his face.
“Judging by the look on your face,” Marla continued, “you’re not, are you?”
“No, I’m not,” he grudgingly admitted.
“Well, is she still a good girl?”
Lucas hesitated. “Yeah. I guess so.”
“Why is she still a good girl?”
“I don’t know. I guess because I like her.”
“So, let me get this straight. Your girlfriend can have two lovers or more and still be a good girl?”
“Well, I guess two or three is okay, but not many more.”
“Okay, so is five too many?”
“That’s pushin’ it, but okay. Five and that’s it.”
Marla smiled. “So, anything less than five lovers and you won’t consider your girlfriend a whore. Is that a fair statement?”
“Yeah. Five or less is fair.”
“Okay. Well, I’ve had less than five men. Am I a whore?”
“How did we get on this subject anyway?” Lucas asked, exasperated.
“Answer the question, Lucas. Would you consider me a whore if I’ve had less than five lovers?”
“I couldn’t say you’re a whore if both of you had less than five men.”
“So, then I’m a good girl too, right?”
“Right,” he said with a laugh. “Are you happy now?”
“I’m not finished with my questions. After I finish, maybe then I’ll be happy.”
Lucas shook his head. “Ain’t we supposed to be runnin’ some errands?”
“Don’t worry. Well get to that or we won’t,” Marla told him. “Now, when you first did it with your girlfriend, who was the aggressor?”
“You mean who made the first move?”
“Uh-huh.”
“I did,” he said.
“So, you seduced her?”
“Huh?”
“You know. Got her in the mood and she surrendered?”
“If you mean did I make her wanna give it up, I sho’ did.”
Marla laughed. “Yeah, that’s what I mean. You did what was necessary to get what you wanted, right?”
“Yep.”
“So, what’s wrong with a woman doing the same to achieve the desired result?”
“Marla, you sho’ do talk pretty.”
Feeling in control of the situation, she said, “Come here, Lucas.” When he didn’t move, she went over to him and kissed him. “You like that?”
“Yes,” he heard himself saying, and the jackhammer came alive again.