Jarek - 5. Adele is Taught a Lesson

The meal over, they moved out to the starlit verandah. Belle and Ari took the deck chairs leaving the double swing-seat for the young men.

‘Lucky it’s been so dry, there’ll be no mosquitoes to annoy us.’

‘It’s hot though.’

‘November’s always hot, and according to the forecasts it’s going to get hotter and dryer before the monsoons arrive.’

‘I hope they hold off till after school closes,’ Jarek said. ‘Dry heat’s fine; there’s an excellent swimming hole to cool off where we’re taking the kids, but I don’t fancy trying to keep ten boys amused if it’s pouring with rain, buzzing with mozzies, and leeches come out to feed.’

‘Apropos of which, isn’t it time you both came clean about what really happened?’

‘What do you mean, Dad?

‘No High School Principal trusts a relatively new student who has only recently turned sixteen, with responsibility for looking after groups of boys at a bush camp, unless there are exceptional circumstances.’

‘Jarek’s the responsible adult, I’m just the dogsbody.’

‘Rubbish. You carry equal responsibility. I’m not saying you aren’t capable, I think you are, but I want to know what happened to cause the Principal to give you permission to study and do your exams away from the school.’

‘Nothing happened.’

‘Then, regretfully, I must refuse permission for you to assist Jarek with the camp.’

‘Dad! You can’t!’

‘I can and will if you refuse to tell your mother and me everything.’

‘And me,’ Jarek said with a frown. ‘It’s finally struck me that it’s more than a bit strange you arriving with Stephen at the last minute like that. I remember you had an odd expression as if you were escaping something, and there was that crack from Medlar when we were quitting my flat. She called you a rapist. You said you’d explain it.’

‘So you don’t know either, Jarek?’ Belle turned her steely gaze on her son. ‘How long have you two been lovers?’

‘Since about five o’clock this afternoon, if you must know,’ Zeno admitted wearily. ‘Until today we’d never spoken to each other apart from P.E. Lessons, and then only as teacher and pupil. Neither of us thought we were… you know… attracted to men, but when we discovered we had to share a bed up there, we talked it over and… suddenly it happened.’ He shrugged hopelessly.

‘So, it’s first love for you both! How wonderful,’ Belle gushed. ‘One’s first love is so exciting. I suppose you’ll both have lots of other affairs but you’ll never forget the first time.’ She sighed and beamed at them both.

‘Shut up, woman. As you well know, one doesn’t necessarily love one’s lover. However the oddities of the English language are not the issue, I demand to know every last detail of events preceding your elevation to child minder.’

Zeno recounted everything in unnecessarily lurid detail in a spectacularly unsuccessful attempt to shock his parents. Jarek, though, was clearly appalled, although he said nothing.

‘Irma Medlar,’ Belle muttered. ‘Where have I heard that name? Ah yes. Women’s War or something like that.’

‘My ex—the one who threw the mug at me, has recently joined that coven,’ Jarek remarked thoughtfully, ‘and Irma was egging her on this afternoon. Were you also a member?’

‘I was invited to join their little gang,’ Belle said with a cheeky grin. ‘I went to a couple of meetings but when they discovered I think men are wonderful creatures deserving of female adulation and servitude, they asked me to leave.’

‘Do you dear?’ Ari asked.

‘What?’

‘Think I’m all those things?’

‘You mean you hadn’t noticed?’

Ari burst out laughing. ‘Woman you’re such a fake. You decided you disliked them and set out to sabotage. No wonder I love you.’

Jarek and Zeno were looking from mother to father in confusion.

‘So… are you shocked?’ Zeno asked.

‘Of course not, you obviously suffered no more than a brief loss of face.’

‘And his virginity!’ Belle chortled.

‘And as usual you’ve landed on your feet in a better position than before. With your luck, young man, you should be cut up and sold as lucky charms.’

‘What’s so lucky about having to screw that worn out baggage?’

‘If she hadn’t trapped you, you’d not have discovered you aren’t fond of sex with females, you’d not have been angry enough to tell the Principal, he’d not have introduced you to Jarek, and you’d have had to spend the next seven weeks in that dreadful school. If that isn’t luck, I don’t know what is.’

‘I hadn’t thought of it like that.’

‘I can’t imagine another Principal acting so wisely as yours—he even appreciates you enough to let you call him Stephen.’

‘Yeah. You’re right about that! He’s great. But what about Ms Nimffo?’

‘A thoroughly nasty woman who needs to be stopped before she causes some poor kid to suicide. Her friend Medlar is probably on the phone right now informing her that you’re helping Jarek. That means tomorrow she’ll be doing her darndest to destroy the bush-camp program,’ Ari said thoughtfully.

‘She must be stopped, and soon,’ Belle stated firmly.

‘Before she gets to school tomorrow,’ Jarek added nervously.

Ari smiled at Jarek. ‘Right on the nail, young man. What a shame we’ll be sitting up late playing cards with you and Zeno so you won’t have time to do anything about it yourselves.’

‘What could we do?’ Zeno grumbled.

‘No idea, my son. But while Belle and I set up the cards, why don’t you and Jarek go and have a lie down. You must be tired after such an exciting day. It’s half-past ten. Most people are in bed by now on a Monday night, but as it’s your last with us for a while we’ll make a party of it. We should be ready to play in an hour or so, wouldn’t you say, dear?’

‘At least an hour, darling,’ Belle said sweetly, giving both young men a push towards Zeno’s bedroom.

‘Your parents are amazing.’

‘So am I.’

‘You are.’

Zeno grinned wickedly. ‘So how about showing a little appreciation of my amazingness.’

‘How?’

‘Bastard! Give us a kiss and I’ll explain.’

Jarek felt as if he was dissolving. Could scarcely speak. All evening the doubts had been creeping up. It was too good to be true. ‘Oh Zeno,’ he whispered. ‘You can’t imagine how glad I am to hear you say that. I know we’ve told your parents we’re lovers, but we aren’t really, are we? We haven’t actually done anything and I was worried it was just a game you were playing—I’ve seen how you like to lead your parents on and…’

‘Jarek, I doubt if it’s love, but it sure the fuck is lust. I could hardly keep my hands off you all evening. I’m just about coming in my shorts looking at your sexy arms, butt, face… come here!’ He grabbed his new partner and the kiss carried all the pent up lust, frustration, hope and friendship that had been building since they first took a good look at each other in the gymnasium that afternoon.

When they broke apart Jarek’s eyes were wet. ‘That was the kiss I’ve always dreamed of but never experienced. Can we do it again?’

‘Greedy bugger, just the one, and then I think we have other things to do.’

A mud spattered ute without driving lights drifted silently to the kerb at the beginning of the lane leading to Ms Nimffo’s cottage. Two lithe shadows emerged and silently made their way unnoticed to the house, then through the gate and round the back.

‘That light’s on in her bedroom, perfect.’

They pulled stockings over their heads, flattening their faces to unrecognisable masks. Up the rickety steps to the back door. Locked.

‘These old places were made of hoop pine, soft as cardboard. Support my back.’

The slightly taller shadow leaned against the other’s back while he raised his leg and smashed his boot against the lock. One sharp crack, the door swung open and they were racing across the small sitting room to the lighted room beyond. Their quarry only had time to squeal, ‘What’s that noise? Who’s there?’ before the two avengers burst into the room.

The teacher was sitting on top of the bedspread, a book clutched to her breast in fear.

The taller assailant grabbed her ankles and dragged her down the bed while the other leaped onto the pillow behind her, dropped to his knees, clamped her head between his thighs and thrust a handkerchief into her mouth. Then grabbing her flailing wrists he spread her arms wide and held them firmly while the tall, lean one dragged her legs apart and lashed her ankles to the frame.

Eyes wide in shock, Adele Nimffo’s body belatedly kicked into frenzied life, twisting and writhing in a vain effort to free her arms from the vicelike grip of her captor.

Satisfied the legs were secure, the man removed a sharp knife from his pack and calmly cut the flimsy night dress to shreds, tossing the strips onto the floor. Then with rubber-gloved fingers he softly explored, gently pinched and played with her vulva until it was swollen and open like a flower, just like he’d seen on internet porn sites.

Stepping back to admire his work, he picked up a video camera and had just started filming when a guttural wail of fear announced a fountain of sour-scented urine. Her tormentor stepped back in disgust, focussing on the display. Then. after placing the camera carefully on his pack on the floor he joined his accomplice at the woman’s head and pressed the blunt side of the knife against her throat.

‘I am going to remove your gag,’ he said in a hoarse whisper. If you move, scream or call for help I might accidentally cut your throat. Do you understand?’

Ms Nimffo nodded wildly.

He removed the gag and she gulped at the fresh air.

‘You’re a filthy tramp,’ he whispered menacingly, ‘wetting your bed like an infant. You need to be taught a lesson.’ With his free hand he pulled down his partner’s tracksuit and freed the penis so it hung only centimetres above the woman’s face. She closed her eyes. He pressed the knife. ‘Look up!’

She stared up with wide, terrified eyes as the man with the knife stroked the engorging flesh. She twitched but remained staring up in terror.

‘Gaze in awe, woman,’ her tormenter whispered. ‘This magnificent mature organ of desire is what a normal woman lusts after, not the innocent bodies of adolescent boys. Your hatred of men has led you to despise their beauty and try to destroy their future.’

Returning to the foot of the bed, he again took up the camera, ensuring the face was included in the shot, but not the hands that held her wrists.

‘Be a good girl and smile for the birdie,’ he whispered menacingly.

Her mouth twitched.

He slapped her thighs. ‘I said smile, whore!’

The camera caught both the erection and the smile that became a whimper as she whispered hoarsely, ‘Why? Why are you doing this to me?’

‘You didn’t seriously imagine the boys you raped wouldn’t tell their fathers, did you?’ asked the engorged captor in a rasping croak. ‘We’re here to teach you a lesson. To inform you that your man-hating feminism is destructive and immoral, and to ensure that you will never abuse boys and young men again.’

‘With a few editorial tweaks here and there,’ the camera operator whispered, ‘we will have an excellent video of Adele Nimffo enjoying some kinky sex. If you ever return to the High School, or are still in town tomorrow night, stills of the best bits together with a list of the forty boys you’ve abused will be posted to the families of every child you teach, to the local news reporter, to the radio and TV station, to every high school teacher and the Education Department, and the video will go viral on every social networking site. Do you understand?’

‘You’re wrong!’ she wailed desperately. ‘There weren't forty, there were…’ Her voice trailed off as she realised her mistake.

‘More like fifty or sixty, I imagine.’.

‘No! Only... And they all wanted it and…’

A sharp slap silenced her denials.

‘I don’t think you appreciate the seriousness of the situation,’ the video operator whispered menacingly, standing on the bed astride her and casually drenching her in the urine he’d been desperate to offload since entering the house. ‘If you were a male teacher screwing his female pupils you’d be put away for life and raped every day by the other inmates because everyone hates child molesters.’

‘I’m not a…’

‘One more word from you,’ he whispered, shaking off the last drops as he stepped off the bed and picked up the knife, ‘and I’ll widen that sloppy slit of yours.’

‘No, no, no,’ she whimpered through tears, cringing as he wiped the flat of the blade over her belly. ‘I will not return to school and I will leave town tomorrow.’

‘I hope you realise you are being let off lightly, Ms Nimffo? We are giving you a chance to start again and reform your ways instead of being prosecuted and spending years in a women’s prison where tonight’s little dalliance would be nothing compared to what some of those hardened women can dream up.’

She nodded wildly. ‘I do.’

‘A little thanks are in order, I reckon.’

‘Thank you.’

‘For?’

‘I don’t understand.’

‘You must say, thank you for pointing out the error of my ways and giving me a second chance! And say it as if you mean it!’ The command was reinforced by another slap. She whimpered pathetically and repeated the apology.

‘Tomorrow you will arrange for all your possessions to be packed and forwarded, and you will drive away, never to return.’

‘Yes.’

The woman’s wrists were released and the gag shoved back in her mouth, secured in place with one of the strips of her nightdress. After ensuring her phone was not in reach and they’d left nothing incriminating behind, the slightly taller intruder turned at the door and rasped, ‘Fuck it stinks in here! Makes me want to puke. Still, each to her own. Have a pleasant night; it’s been a pleasure to do business with you.’

They left the way they arrived and ten minutes later were pulling into their driveway.

‘You reckon she’ll have freed herself by now?’

‘Doubt it, those knots round her ankles will take a fair while.

‘So, there you are, did you fall asleep?’ Ari asked. ‘I listened at your bedroom door but all was silent so we decided to let you rest a little longer’

‘Yes, Dad. We intended to just lie down for a minute, but fell asleep. Must have been more tired than we realised.’

‘All that fresh air. So, are you ready for a rubber of bridge?’

‘You’ll have to teach me.’

‘Delighted, Jarek. The game is divided into two parts, bidding for a contract, and playing it. You work with your partner to either make the contract or take the others down. Everyone is dealt thirteen cards that are….’

Belle burst into wild laughter. ‘Look at the pair of you; dying to get to bed and have fun, and here we are forcing you to play cards. Be off with you and make as much noise as you like; we’re down the far end of the house and anyway I think Ari’s going to make me scream tonight.’

‘Mum! We don’t need to hear this!’

‘Yes, you do!’ Ari said with a smile. ‘We all need reminding that our parents are as human as ourselves. I imagine, from the self-satisfied aura surrounding you both, that you’ve something to celebrate, so go and do whatever it is that makes you both happy.’