Dave Fawcett

 

 

 

Looking at Vic from the kitchen Alice reassured herself that he wasn’t as childlike as he sometimes seemed. He had certainly been a man earlier that evening. It was just that his openness, his innocence and his trusting nature were qualities that one normally saw only in young children.

In spite of his childlike nature Vic was intelligent, articulate and handsome; so handsome in fact that Alice got an ache in her gut every time she looked at him. She wanted him; wanted to hold his muscled body against her again; wanted to run her fingers through his blond curly hair once more; wanted to lose herself in the depths of his cornflower blue eyes even more completely than before; wanted above all to feel his seed pouring into her once more.

Sadly for her he didn’t seem to reciprocate her feelings. He sprawled on the bed saying nothing; only the sound from a science programme about black holes and quasars on TV disturbing the quiet of the room. She had known instinctively that he would enjoy something intellectually stimulating.

Vic had bumped into her; quite literally; coming out of a shop that morning. Not only had she been physically bowled over, she had been struck in the heart at the same time. It was love at first sight for her.

Doing what little he could to help her to her feet he had apologised profusely and offered to buy her a cup of coffee. Harrogate was always beautiful in the spring but from that moment; that invitation; it glowed with a new richness. The daffodils on the Stray glowed with a deeper yellowness, the young leaves on the trees danced greener against an azure sky and the sound of traffic swelled to a symphonic overture.

Having swept Alice off her feet, literally and figuratively, Vic had swept her into Betty’s Café, the best known and most genteel tea room in town. There was a moment of confusion when Vic thought that he wouldn’t be able to negotiate the sharp bend into the tea room itself but his wheelchair negotiated the bend finally with centimetres to spare. Once inside though the setting was romantic. Betty’s was a cafe that she had been to a few times before in the company of friends but she had always felt uncomfortable and out of place. Today however it had felt as if the place had been especially built for her to enjoy.

They had talked of inconsequential nothings for a while. Both agreed that the weather was good. He promised to take her to the Great Yorkshire Show when it opened. Both agreed that the film ‘The Silence of the Lambs’ with Anthony Hopkins wasn’t as good as an earlier version of the story, ‘Manhunter’ with Brian Cox. They exchanged addresses and phone numbers and Alice managed to wheedle his age from him. He was nineteen. She wouldn’t tell him hers though; that was a state secret!

Following a feast of cream cakes and Earl grey tea Vic paid the bill and they went for a stroll around the town. As she walked at the side of his chair they talked and little by little they learned more about one another.

Vic had told her that he still lived at home with his mother. He hadn’t been back there very long having been away at a special needs boarding school for the pervious two years. He had hated every moment of it and had been delighted when his mother had been able to let him return home to Harrogate.

Alice discovered that Vic had found a job working with the National Trust as a gardener at Fountains Abbey. His task there was to feed and water the seedlings and plants in the greenhouses and to pot them when they were ready. He also packed cut flowers. Sometimes he was even allowed to help out in the shop selling what he had helped to grow.

Fountains Abbey was a place that she had visited as a child. It was a magical place that had captured her heart with the tranquillity and beauty of the ruins and their setting. She had always longed to go back but somehow she had never quite got round to it. Vic promised to take her there soon.

When she asked him Vic had confessed that he didn’t have a girlfriend. ‘You have now!’ Alice thought to herself.

Alice had told Vic a little about herself. She admitted that like him she had been away at boarding school for several years though she had been back in Harrogate longer than him - how much longer she didn’t want to think about even to herself - at twenty nine it was far too long. She told him of her job at a local garden centre, a fact which intrigued him. It was something else they had in common he pointed out. They both worked with plants.

He had asked her where she lived and she told him about the apartment she had in an old house out on the main Leeds Road. It could be a bit noisy there she admitted, especially at week-ends and bank holidays, but apart from that she was very happy there.

It seemed the right moment so Alice had suggested that they go back there. . Vic said he would like that but not quite so soon in the day. He offered to take her to the cinema and asked if there was anything in particular that she’d like to see. Alice mentioned that she had been wanting to see Bram Stoker’s Dracula; the one starring Gary Oldman but that she’d been a little frightened of going on her own. Alice enjoyed being frightened but she liked to have someone there to cling to if things got too scary.

The cinema was almost full but Vic got his usual place at the back. “That’s one of the good things about being in a wheelchair” he commented. “It gets me a reserved place in the cinema. Look! There’s even a seat for you”. She laughed at that as they settled down, popcorn and sweets to hand, to watch the movie. It was as scary as she had thought and she soon sought the comfort of Vic’s hand in the darkness. Soon she was cuddling him and at really scary moments she buried her face in his chest.

Such close contact felt good; really good; so after one particularly scary moment she left her head resting on Vic’s chest, face down. He stroked her hair gently, absently as he watched the film and she could feel the excitement rising in her body. She could also make out something else dimly by the flickering light of the film. A slight movement had caught her eye and she watched in fascination as Vic’s penis began to twitch and grow inside his trousers. She desperately wanted to touch it; to find out if it was as large as it seemed.

“Don’t do that”, Vic’s whisper startled her. “It doesn’t feel right, not here” he continued as he removed her hand gently from his crotch. Alice felt disappointed; somehow cheated. Vic sensed this and took away the hurt with kisses, first on the cheek then on her lips. “I’m sorry” she whispered.

“It’s not your fault” he responded quietly. “It’s just that I’ve never done it before and I’d like it to be something special, not just a furtive grope in the dark”.

“I understand” Alice replied and she thought that she really did. At Vic’s age she had never done it either, at least not all the way. She told him so. He simply smiled gently and kissed her again.

“It will be a first for both of us then” he observed, knowing instinctively that asking was no longer necessary; that permission had just been given.

By unspoken agreement they had stayed until the end of the film not wanting to rush the moment, but neither of them had much interest in what was happening on-screen. Finally the credits rolled and they left the cinema’ moving out into a balmy spring afternoon.

It was far too pleasant to get a taxi and anyway, rushing home seemed so inappropriate. Alice wanted to build the excitement slowly and she was sure that Vic felt the same. They had decided to take another stroll across The Stray - it was in the general direction of Alice’s flat - and take time to talk and get to know one another even better. As they walked they passed other people enjoying the late afternoon sunshine; families picnicking on the turf, children and young people playing ball games and other young couples courting.

Alice knew that they made a fine looking couple themselves. She could sense that they were being admired and commented on and she felt so proud to be walking by Vic’s side. She knew that they were making heads turn as they moved sedately across the Stray. Once or twice she squeezed Vic’s hand or stopped to give him a kiss.

At last they had arrived at the house. Turning in through wrought iron gates Vic saw the house for the first time. Once it had been an imposing dwelling; detached, spaciously proportioned and sitting in its own extensive grounds. Now it was dilapidated with peeling paint at the door and windows and ivy threatening to envelop the entire façade. All but the driveway itself had been sold at some time and modern bungalows stood sentinel in front of the mansion as if guarding the faded beauty of an old dowager duchess.

Negotiating the front door with some difficulty Alice and Vic eased their way along the dark hallway to a door on the left at the rear of the house. The door smelled of beeswax and gleamed shaming the surrounding woodwork and the magnificent staircase which stood dusty and cobwebbed in the gloom. Underneath the smell of wax Vic thought that he could detect something else; a very faint sickly sweet smell. He couldn’t be certain though. ‘Probably a dead rat behind the skirting board’ he thought to himself.

“Doesn’t anyone else live here?” he asked, looking round in puzzlement.

“Not now” Alice admitted. “There were a couple of other people here when I moved in but they were students and I suppose they must have finished their courses and gone back to wherever they came from. I’m here all by myself now and I like it that way. No one bothers me and I can make as much noise as I want!”

“What about the landlord”? Vic asked, intrigued by the set up. “Doesn’t he ever bother you”?

“Oh I don’t have a landlord” Alice replied, tossing her hair from her face and laughing gaily as she turned the key in the lock of the bees-waxed door. “ I own the house! My father left it to me when he died”. The door opened. “Come on in” she invited him. “It’s a lovely flat”.

Alice was right Vic thought. It was a lovely flat. He hadn’t expected anything so smart and tasteful in such a dowdy and run down house. The floors were parquet and were strewn with richly decorated Persian rugs on which he left tracks as he crossed the room. The chairs and sofa were upholstered in hide and the walls were covered in prints, original paintings and sketches. The whole room was light and airy, decorated in shades of blue and gold and Vic felt at home immediately.

“Would you like a cup of tea or something”? Alice asked him, fussing round to make sure that he was comfortable .

Vic accepted the offer. “Tea. Two sugars please. I’m quite thirsty. We’ve been out in the sun quite a long time”.

Alice made two cups of tea and took them through, making sure that he got the right one. She didn’t have a sweet tooth herself and couldn’t stand tea with sugar in it. After a few minutes small talk she suggested that they move through to the bedroom. He accepted with alacrity and she couldn’t help but notice the rising tent in the crotch of his trousers.
The bedroom had French windows and overlooked a huge overgrown wilderness of a garden at the back of the house. Vic moved across to close the curtains noticing as he did that a small patch of ground had been dug over quite recently. He was about to ask her what she intended to grow when she forestalled him.

“I’m going to spend the summer digging the whole thing over” she had told him as if reading his mind. “It’s got into a bit of a shambles since dad died. I’ve got no idea what I’m going to put in though. Most of it will probably be lawn. It will be wonderful for sunbathing when it’s done. It’s very private out there. No-one can see in at all”.

They had made love on the bed with sunlight glowing against the closed curtains and the sound of birds in the garden. Now he lay there, sprawled on the bed, eyes open staring sightlessly at the screen. The lovemaking had been perfect; so perfect in fact that it could never be equalled. It would never be equalled. She had strangled him at the moment of climax. Soon she would have to drag his lifeless body upstairs to join the others. The wheelchair would have to be buried in the garden alongside the other three once darkness fell.