too. "'She's with him,' Steve said. 'It'll be worse,' he
predicted.
"Now my heart was really pounding, but in a
different way. It was more like a thump, a deep drum
vibrating my bones. I had a cold chill up and down my spine. I wasn't quite finished dressing when the door crashed open and Steve's father stood there,
wobbling and looking in at us.
"He was a big man, four or five inches taller
than Steve and probably forty pounds heavier, with
large facial features and a balding head His eyes were
a familiar bloodshot red and I thought to myself, all
drunks look alike. He had that same slobbering lip,
that same dazed, unsteady stance, that same stream of
madness running through his brain like a polluted
stream.
"'Well now, lookie here,' he declared. 'The boy
got himself some action.'
"'Shut up,' Steve told him
"His father laughed and then a small, buxom
woman came up beside him looking drunker than he
did, her hair down, her pearl white blouse open so that
her bosom was visible almost to the nipples. She had
dark freckles over her caramel cheeks. She was
attractive enough that I was surprised she was with
Steve's father. Steve had apparently gotten his good
looks mainly from his mother.
"His girlfriend laughed.
"'Well, let him be,' she said. 'He needs all the
experience he can get.'
"'That's for sure. It's about time he had a
girlfriend. I was beginning to think he wasn't all right,'