I kept quiet the rest of the evening, just watching these strange people. When Cal had warned me that his buddy at the car park was a swinger, I imagined he'd be one of those black leather-jacketed creeps, especially with the name Boots. But Boots Silvers was something else. He wore sharp clothes in the latest Mod styles. His long black hair hung down slightly over his dark eyes, and to top it all off he wore a pair of expensive English riding boots. All in all he acted super-smooth, and I remembered he'd even had some college... until he was kicked out for sneaking in the girls' dormitory!
Laughing as he caught sight of me staring at him, Boots said to Cal, "You ought to give your chick a drink." Cal coughed and ordered a pitcher of dark beer from the short-skirted waitress. I only took a sip of the strong stuff, but Cal slopped it down like water.
Over the course of the next hour or so I started to get the picture. Slowly but surely Cal was beginning to imitate his idol Boots, his words and actions. When Boots dropped his muscular arm about Neva's bare shoulder and gave her a squeeze which I thought too intimate in public, I was shocked to feel Cal doing the same thing a moment later. I glanced up at him with anger in my blue eyes, and I saw that Boots had noticed. A little smile curled about his sensuous lips, and I believe he actually blew me a mocking kiss!
Very soon after that the evening ended and we pushed our way out of the den of vice. All the way home we didn't speak, but we both knew the evening had done something peculiar to our love. Somehow it represented a bridge - a bridge into a new kind of life that Cal wanted to cross but I didn't. Cal only called in the following two weeks to tell me he was working overtime and he couldn't take me out.
Even before we were engaged he'd never treated me like this - I guessed that the real trouble lay in his job, where he was getting nowhere fast. When he talked to me on the phone he spent his time griping, and one night he even blurted out, "Why I didn't even have enough money to buy your ring!" I snapped back with, "So how d'you get it?" but he cut me off with a quick, "Nevermind!" Something was going wrong, and fast.
Just how wrong though I was never prepared for. It was one Friday night, and I sensed it from the start - his kiss when I greeted him was cold, and I was surprised at the odd smile that never seemed to leave his lips. His long brown hair had fallen over his eyes, and when I playfully brushed it back he slapped my hand away! "I'm sorry Betty," he mumbled, "I'm just not with it tonight. I got real troubles. I hate to tell you this, but we'll have to delay our wedding plans even longer. You see, I got fired today... for driving a new Caddy into a post!"
Everything was just falling apart. My heart sank and my whole world began to dissolve into a sea of confusion. Cal was an expert at handling cars and he'd never had so much as a scratch before. "Oh, don't worry darling," I said, "it's not the end of the world, and maybe now you'll find a job worthy of you." He gave a bitter laugh and I saw his clean-cut face had become haggard. "There's nothing worthy in this crummy world, baby! It's dog eat dog, and you've got to stick the knife in first, or you've had it!"
Suddenly I felt sick as I recognized thos horrible words. They had come from the foul, sneering mouth of Boots Silvers. I suddenly found Cal's new paisley shirt and tight cord trousers offensive, for they were a copy of that leering cynic, and I gave a sigh of disappointment as I saw a pair of English riding boots on Cal's feet. "Come on, let's go to the movies to take your mind off your lousy day," I suggested, but he shook his head, making his lank shaggy hair swing.
"Uh-uh, Betty, no phoney illusions tonight. We're going to a real blast. Boots is leaving town tomorrow with his old girlfriend Myra, the dancer at The Purple Trip. Neva Hunt is so crazy about him she's throwing a party for him at his apartment." My feeling of nausea only increased when I saw the eager light in Cal's eyes, and I wanted to jump out of the car and tell him to go enjoy his weird friends alone. But I'm a fighter, and our romance was worth fighting for. So in that determined, seething mood I arrived with Cal at Boots Silvers' run-down apartment over a deserted liquor store.
Seeing the Purple Trip was enough of an eye-opener for me, but this place threw me even more. It was jammed with people in odd clothes, and the smoke-filled loft was filled with colored lights and brilliant posters. I looked back over my shoulder and Cal had already disappeared. Then a hand touched my shoulder and I looked into the sad face of Neva Hunt, the girl Boots had thrown over for the far-out Myra. "Hi," she said nervously, "you're Cal's girl, right?" I nodded and she led me by the hand through the bearded young men and girls in tight miniskirts, finally reaching a liquor table. "I saw Cal duck into the kitchen with boots, probably looking for a little lift. So what'll you have?" I asked for a soft drink and the short red-haired girl gave me a frowning look. "You're kinda square, aren't you Betty?"
"Yes, I suppose by your standards I am," I replied, half-angry, half-amused. She shook her head and mumbled, "Then what you doing with a guy like Cal?" Before I told her to mind her own business I remembered that she'd just lost her own man to sexy Myra. I saw the big blonde by a stereo speaker, putting on a wild go-go for thre benefit of a number of drooling young men. "Oh, I guess I'm just the kind of girl guys marry!" I said, restraining my snideness to that extent. Her mascara'd eyes blnked at me with discomfort. "Yeah, I guess you are, sweetie," she sighed. Then she walked away, suddenly singing some crazy song at the top of her voice.
Everyone I came across while I was looking for Cal confused me. One big muscular brute broke into a silly girlish giggle when I touched his hairy arm and asked to pass. A girl with shiny black hair down to her hips actually hissed at me like a snake, and broke into a frantic hysterical laugh at my startled reaction. And all the time while the clanging guitars and screeching laughter pounded in my ears, giving me a pain that threatened to burst my head. By the time I reached the kitchen and found Boots Silvers, I was ready to scream myself!
"Ah, the little goody two-shoes!" slurred Boots. I asked him where Cal was. "I've got a headache and I want him to take me home." He nodded and took a big slug out of a whisky bottle. "Home! I had a home once, little blonde beauty. It wasn't any trashy flat like I bet you live in. It was big Georgian house, filled with the finest antiques my old lady could buy. And every chance I got, I kicked and broke that expensive junk! And do you know why?" I shook my head, trying to keep from looking at Boots' penetrating eyes. "I didn't know why either, little beauty. That's why I ran away five times when I was a kid. Here I am, twenty-two.... and I'm still not finished running!" I'd had enough of his strange ramblings. I turned to leave, but when I passed his chair he reached out and grabbed me by the wrist. "No need to leave, honey," he growled. I saw the liqor was making him surly.
"Hey, get your hands off me!" I shouted. He didn't, instead pulling me towards him. I could smell the booze on his breath. "You baby, you're the kind of chick I never could figure. You've got all the right equipment, and you've obviously got fire - and yet you play the virgin to the hilt. I know, 'cause you're driving Cal out of his mind!" I felt my face flushing with anger. "Leave Cal out of this, you know nothing about him!" But my heart felt a chill as his eyes narrowed meanly. "I know more about him than you do, pet. I know where he got the money for that corny ring you're wearing... and why he got fired today... he stole it! Because I told him to!" My eyes widened as I remembered Cal's little slip of the tongue when I hinted he hadn't enough money for the ring. "And do you wanna know something else?" By this time I was dreading what was coming next. "your precious Cal is in the back bedroom now.... and he's taking a little TRIP!"
CLICK HERE FOR THE FINAL INSTALMENT!
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