"Did you sleep well, James?" Vicky then asked.
"As well as can be expected in a large empty bed," James shot back at her.
Vicky merely smiled. "I sleep in a large bed too, but I find it most agreeable to me. I'm sorry you don't."
"Yes, I'm sure you are," James retorted. "You don't have human needs like the rest of us."
"You knew that when you forced me to marry you," Vicky replied, "or at least you should have. What did you expect? A loving and adoring wife?
You can't make someone do something against their will and expect them to thank you for it. That is, unless they really wanted to do it all along."
As she made her last remark she looked right at Beatrice.
"Sometimes," Vicky continued, "you start off by forcing someone to do something, and then you find out that they wanted to do it all along.
They just needed a little push in the right direction. Isn't that right, Beatrice?"
"I imagine so."
Beatrice still kept her eyes lowered.
Vicky smiled and looked back at James.
"Beatrice and I are going on a little trip," she then said. "We decided this last night on our way to bed. Has she told you by any chance?"
James looked at Beatrice and then at Vicky. "And just where did you decide to go to?"
"Why, to the races of course," Vicky replied. "Beatrice and I are going to go and see Jocko run his first race. I thought she might like to see that. I know I would."
"When are you going?" James asked.
"Today as a matter of fact," Vicky then said. "We're going to drive down to the track, find a room in a hotel, and stay a few days. Then after we've seen a few races, we'll come right home to you. You'll hardly know we've been gone."
"I don't suppose I can talk you out of it, can I?" James said, very matter-of-factly.
"I wouldn't even try if I were you," Vicky snapped back at him, angered by his indifference.
"Well, I'll leave the two of you to make your plans," James said, getting to his feet. "I have business to attend to."
With that he walked off leaving the two silent females alone. Beatrice looked up from her coffee at last and looked right at Vicky.
"Is this Jocko one of your favorites?" Beatrice then asked.
"Oh yes," Vicky replied. "And he'll be one of your favorites also."
"You think I'm just like you now, don't you?"
Vicky laughed. "Well, you are, aren't you?"
Beatrice bit her tongue and choked back the tears.
"I don't want to be," she sobbed.
"What you want to be," Vicky added, "and what you are, are apparently two different things. You better start remembering which is which. I don't want you going through life confused the way you seem to be now."
"Why are you so wicked?" Beatrice demanded.
"I'm wicked because people like you made me wicked," Vicky shouted at her. "Because people like you want me to be wicked. And you know it."
Beatrice was silent for the longest time, and then she said, "When are we going?"
"In another hour or so," Vicky replied. "Pack some things."
Vicky drove the large black car, and Beatrice sat over on the far side of the front seat. From time to time the two females would exchange brief glances. Beatrice was lost in her thoughts about what she had done the other night. Vicky had forced her into it, and then Beatrice's own lust had taken over. Now, it was this same lust that was making her go with Vicky to the track.
Beatrice had a feeling that there was something special about Jocko, and that was why Vicky was rushing to be near him. There just had to be something special about him. Something that Vicky hadn't said in words, but which was definitely implied in her manner. It was there all right, and Beatrice could sense it.
There were a lot of things that Beatrice could sense about Vicky.
Things she had sensed right from the first when she first saw Vicky in that tub. Vicky was like her in so many ways, and so unlike her in so many other ways. They were the two most alike/unalike people in the world.
Vicky pressed her foot down harder on the gas pedal and the car sped forward. She loved speed all of a sudden, and the faster they went, the better she liked it.
"You're in an awful hurry, aren't you?" Beatrice asked.
"Yes," Vicky responded simply. "I am. There's no time to lose."
"This Jocko must be something."
Vicky smiled. "He is."
"I've felt this way about other women, and you feel this way about an animal."
"It still seems strange to you, doesn't it?" Vicky asked.
"It seems very strange indeed," Beatrice replied.
"Does what you did last night seem strange to you?" Vicky then asked.