Note: This story was dynamically reformatted for online reading convenience.
 
 Series Title: Highbury Tales By: Alexander Sunshine Episode 7: Linda's
Revenge

   **************************************

   From the beginning of her sojourn at the Greenleaf mansion, Alice took
on the habit of sending out the laundry early in the morning on Tuesday-s.
She rather enjoyed this household chore.  Once every two weeks she would
gather up the dirty laundry throughout the house and load it all into a
cart.  Then she would have a pleasant walk for about three-quarters of a
mile through the nearby cemetary, the All Saints Funerary Grounds, on the
way to the washer-man's store-front.  (Despite the natural morbidity of
such a place, she found it to be a well-kept and pleasant park.) Typically,
at about the same time the next morning she would walk back to the
washer-man's and bring the clean and folded laundry back.  And so all of
the tedious work of soaking and rinsing and sorting and folding was not up
to her; she was thankful for that.

   It was such a laundry-Tuesday-morning when she walked down the hallway,
upstairs in the Greenleaf mansion, and she noticed that the door to Bill's
bedroom was ajar.  Before she could wonder whether he was in his room, she
was distracted by the sound of water dripping and moving in the bathroom
nearby.  Before she could wonder whether it was Bill in the bathroom, she
heard him sneeze and clear his throat in such a way that it was obviously
him and not Brian nor Rupbert.

   At that point Alice thought that she could take Bill's laundry too.  He
might not approve of her going through his things while he was not there,
but the opportunity proved far too enticing to resist.  Alice knew that
Bill always spent an inordinate amount of time in the bath-tub, and so
despite her better judgement, she decided to look inside.

   It was quite messy inside of Bill's bedroom, Alice had not noticed this
the one other time she had ventured inside.  There was a pile of dirty
dishes with dried up food and bones on his desk.  There was a surprising
amount of clothing strewn about, given that he had arrived with only one
suit-case.  She approached the desk to gawk at the dirty dishes when she
noticed that one of the desk drawers was opened slightly.  "I wonder what
he would keep in his desk," she thought.  "Perhaps it would give some clue
as to what he spends his time doing as he remains in here for hours on
end!" She slowly opened the desk drawer, trying not to make too much noise.
Inside she saw a few clear jars, and saw that they all had a fine white
powder inside.  Alice quickly closed the drawer.  "If I'm going to get
caught in here, I won't get caught snooping through his desk!  There would
be no excuse for that..."

   All of a sudden she heard movement just outside the door.  She quickly
reached down on the ground and picked up a shirt that crumpled up on the
ground.  After all, picking up laundry was her excuse for being in there.

   "Hey!  What are you doing in here?" Bill said as he appeared in the
doorway.  As Alice turned to him, she was almost dumbstruck by his earthy
masculine charm; she saw that he was wearing a bathrobe that exposed some
of his chest.  His wet hair was stringy and tousled, and his skin was
flushed from having been in the hot water.

   "Good morning Bill, I was just picking up your dirty laundry so I can
take it to the washer-man's along with the rest, and I wondered if you
might like it if I tidied up your room a bit-" she rambled on.

   "I don't need you 'tidying up' my room." he said harshly but
monotonously.  He grabbed her by the back of her neck and her wrist and
directed her out.  As they both stepped out of the room, they almost bumped
into Brian, who happened to be walking by at that instant.

   "Hey!  What's going on?" he said.

   Bill asked coolly: "Why don't you mind you own business?"

   "It's okay Brian," Alice said unconvincingly; Bill still held her by her
neck.  "Bill is just annoyed at me for going into his bedroom to pick up
his dirty laundry."

   "Get your hands off of her!" Brian asserted.

   At that instant, Rupbert came up the stairs and joined the fray.  He was
dressed to go to work, and he held a mug of coffee.  "Hey, what's all the
commotion up here!" he said.

   "Bill was attacking Alice!" Brian said.

   "What?" said Rupbert.

   Bill folded his arms together impatiently.  He defended himself: "I was
having a conversation with Alice, and this one here just butt-in and
started making accusations.  You've seen how he is, I dunno know why he's
got such a hard-on for me."

   "'You've seen how he is,'" Brian mocked.  "You've seen how *he* is. 
It's just like him to rough-house a young lady, he has no respect for
anyone around him.  Did you know that Bill came home very late other night,
and he brought home two prostitutes?"

   "What?  Is that true?" Rupbert asked, turning to Bill and Alice.

   Bill sighed.  He did not look so cool for once.  "Yeah, it's true."

   "Bill, I enjoy having you stay here, but that is unacceptable!  They
could have robbed us, or worse!  Last year, Dr.  Lance Avery, who lives on
the other side of the park, his son brought home a prostitute one night
while he was away.  The woman had some thief friends that she let in, and
they invaded the house and kept him hostage for days, and they robbed the
house empty!"

   Bill spoke earnestly, and his manner of speaking turned
uncharacteristically formal: "I'm sorry Rupee, I didn't use my best
judgement.  I was out drinking and the idea appealed to me at the time, any
impropriety did not occur to my inebriated mind.  Again, I'm sorry, it will
never happen again."

   "Hmph," said Brian.  Bill glared at him.

   Rupbert looked at them both and shrugged in exhasperation.  "I'm going
to be late for opening the bookstore," he said, and briskly walked back
down the stairs.

   "Excuse me," Bill said, and he went into his room and slammed the door
shut.

   After Alice and Brian went downstairs she followed him as he went to the
sitting room.  He sat down on the couch and stared sternly out the window.
She said to him: "Why do you dislike Bill so much?  Can't you two get
along?"

   Brian turned to her.  "Why do I dislike him?  How can you even ask that?
You've seen him for yourself!  He's uncouth, inconsiderate,
disrespectful..." As he listed each attribute he pumped his open hand up
and down emphatically.

   "That doesn't mean you have to let him get to you."

   "I suppose." Brian said.  He pressed his lips together, he knew he
should not say what his real quarrel with Bill was, although Alice was well
aware of it.  "Let's talk about something else then."

   Alice sat down across from him and leaned forward.  "Well, actually,
there is something I have been meaning to talk to you about.  For the past
few months, you know, I have reading the old manuscripts of Nicholas
Alset's.  There is one machine in particular he describes in complete
detail of how to build.  At first, I assumed I did not understand what the
machine was supposed to do because of my own incomplete knowledge, but as I
went on reading I realized he was being purposefully mysterious, and goes
out of his way to never even mention what the machine does!  And I found
that I can purchase the materials for the machine at the university."

   "Wow, that sounds exciting!" he said optimistically, his quarrel with
Bill seemed to have been forgotten for the moment.  "How long would it take
you to build the machine?"

   "I think it would only take a few days at most.  There is one problem
though, I need your help."

   "What is it?  I'd love to help!"

   She was happy to see his enthusiasm, but she sighed before she
continued: "There's one problem, the parts would cost a bit of money.  I
was wondering if you would be interested in helping pay for them.  Well, to
be honest, not just help pay for them, but just pay for them; I don't have
much money to speak of."

   "How much is it?"

   Alice sighed again.  "Five thousand pounds."

   Brian held his breath and looked away from her for a moment.  "Wow
Alice, I'd love to give you the money.  The problem is, I don't have that
much money to give away."

   "You don't?  I thought you could be able to afford it easily.  You must
be rich!  How do you pay for your expensive clothes, your college tuition?"

   "My living expenses are paid for by a trust fund.  It does have a great
deal of money in it, but I only get a stipend every four months, and my
college tuition paid for."

   "Oh." Alice had assumed that the difficult part would be convincing
Brian to give her the money.  It never occurred to her he would not be able
to.

   "Perhaps you can ask Rupbert for the money." he gently suggested.

   "I don't know, it seems like my only other chance to get the money, but
I don't want to tell him about the strange things I have been studying.  We
don't know how he'll react, or if he would be supportive."

   "What's the worst that could happen?  He could say 'no', that's it."

   "You're probably right."

   They both sat silently for a few minutes.  Alice ruminated about how she
would ask Rupbert for the money while Brian sat still and enjoyed her
presence.  Eventually he broke the silence:

   "Alice, come to think of, there was something I was going to ask you,
how would you like to come with me to university, and you could meet some
of my friends?

   *You have friends?* she thought.  As much as she admired him, she
figured his goodness and intelligence would just alienate him from the
typical blokes of his class.  She knew that expressing such a sentiment
would come across as an insult, as so she only said, "What?"

   "I was planning to go over to my friend Eddie's house.  We, us two and
the rest of the gang have a good time, it is rather casual, we just, as
Bill might put it, 'hang out'."

   "I appreciate the invitation Brian, but I doubt I could fit in with
college-kids.  To be frank, I can't stand rich people...  well, not you or
Rupbert, you two are different.  A club full of them is bound to be awful."

   "Alice, you are being too prejudiced now."

   "Admit it, rich people are awful!  And weird...  A good proportion of
them have this bizarre preoccupation with geneaology and bloodlines.  So
much 'this family is better than that one,' and marrying of cousins...  I
don't understand what that is all about, but it seems downright
pathological."

   "Just come with me one time, just one time.  If you don't enjoy yourself
you can excuse yourself from attending again."

   "Rich girls are the worst!" Alice continued as if Brian had not said
anything: "Priggish, concerned only with shallow pursuits like dressing up
and throwing stuffy cocktail parties.  And they all keep diaries, they are
all brightly colored even though they are supposed to be secret and
private, where they probably only ramble on and on about the existential
angst of being utterly spoiled and pampered for their entire lives, cradle
to grave.  Why do they even bother sending these girls to college?  All of
that time and money wasted on individuals who will never use or appreciate
the education.  I'd love to have so much money!  I could build my
machine..."
"Umm...  well..." said Brian, taken aback by her tirade.  "I think the
girls I know from the college are all-right.  Why don't you just come and

see for yourself?" he said, trying to sound positive.

   "Fine, fine, I'll go.  I must admit, I am curious." Alice sighed and
returned the topic she was much more concerned about: "I was so sure you
could give me the money.  I have been worried about whether I could build
the machine correctly, but now I'm afraid I won't even get far enough to
even try!  I can't take this, I'm going to go to the bookstore and ask
Rupbert if he'll give me the money right now!  How about you come with me,
and then we can go over to your friend's house."

   "All right.  Let's go," Brian said.

   ****************************************

   When Alice and Brian arrived at the bookstore, she turned to the latter
and said: "Wait out here, I think it's better if he and I discuss the
matter alone."

   Brian nodded.  "I'll wait right here."

   Alice went inside the store and saw that Rupbert was filling up a
half-empty bookshelf with some thin books that had colorful covers on them.

   "Hello," he said.  "I've decided to put a shelf of children's books
right here in front.  It pains me that more serious books are not better
appreciated in comparison, but I find many customers love to find the old
books they had read to them when they were children.  People love to buy
them and read them to their own children."

   "Oh," said Alice.  "For a while now, I've loved reading the old Nicholas
Alset manuscripts you have."

   "Really?  I'm glad someone is enjoying them.  They have been sitting
there forgotten for too long."

   "In particular, there is this one manuscript that describes how to build
a machine.  I'm very interested to see if I could build the machine
myself."

   "Oh really?  So what does the machine do?" he asked, putting down the
books he was holding and giving Alice his full attention.

   "To be honest, I'm not sure what it does."

   "If you understand how to build it, you must have some idea of what it
does."

   "Well, its not that simple.  The machine does something with electricity
and magnetism, it is not extremely complicated but it is difficult to tell
what the result it."

   "Electricity and magnetism!  That sounds extremely complicated to me!"

   "Anyhow, I was wondering if you would be willing to give me money for
the parts."

   "I suppose...  How much would it cost?"

   "There's a shoppe at the university that sells the parts.  I asked them
about their prices....  I totaled the cost of all of the parts together,
and it all sums up to...  five-thousand pounds."

   "Five-thousand quid!" his voice was high, but then he continued on in a
low tone: "Alice, I don't think I'm comfortable giving away that amount of
money."

   "Well, five-thousand pounds is indeed a fair sum of money, but you must
admit that for you, Rupbert Greenleaf, that is a piddling amount you would
never miss."

   "Even if that is true, there is the principal of the matter!  I can't
just give someone five-thousand pounds."

   Alice was starting to feel quite discouraged.  "It's not just someone,
it's me."

   Rupbert crossed his arms thoughtfully.  "This project of yours doesn't
seem very worthwhile.  If the machine was so wonderous, or if it worked at
all, someone else would have built it already and it would be famous."

   She folded her arms together and scoffed.  "You are so ignorant and
naive!  What an ignorant thing to say!"

   "What?" Rupbert frowned.  He noted that he had never heard her speak to
him in a such a way before.  "Where is this attitude of yours coming from
all of a sudden?"

   "It's just..." Alice stammered.  Realizing the error of her previous
remarks, she decided to switch tracks: "Why can't you support me and my
interests?  It's not that much money for you!"

   "Apparently, I can't support your interests because I am so 'ignorant
and naive'."

   "I'm sorry, I did not mean that.  Please Rupee, isn't there some
arrangement we can agree upon so that you may feel comfortable giving me
the money?"

   "No.  I am not giving you money to build the stupid machine!  And that
is my final word!"

   "Fine." said Alice.  She hurried out of the store.

   ****************************************

   "I take it he did not agree to give you the money?" Brian shouted.  He
struggled to keep up with Alice, who strode away from the store briskly. 
He grabbed Alice's shoulder and she finally stopped.

   "That's correct," Alice said flatly, staring at his shoes.

   "What happened?" he asked, his hand on her shoulder still.  He wanted to
hold her and comfort her.

   "I don't want to talk about it now, let's go over to your friend's
house."

   "Sure, let's go."

   It was not far to their destination.  When they arrived Alice saw that
this Eddie lived in a well-kept mansion that was right in the city and near
the college.  It was an impressive house, but it was neither as large nor
as charming as the Greenleaf mansion.  Being a town-house, it had a small
yard with tall bushes that lent the grounds a little bit of privacy.

   A servant let them inside and led them downstairs to the den which was
right by the wine-cellar.  When Alice stepped into the den, where ten or so
young men and women sat about, she took one look at the crowd and urgently
wanted to run out of the house as fast as she could.

   The men were reminiscent of all the awful men she had come across while
working as a maid: neat, proud, stiff starched collars, creased trouses,
short slick hair.  There always seemed to be at least one man in a
household who would sexually harass her.  And if she rebuffed his advances,
he would turn nasty, cruel, or superior.  Even if she did not rebuff him,
he could turn that way anyway.

   The young women were segregated from the men, sitting across from them
on separate couches.  All of the girls wore heavy makeup and very frilly
and fluffy *haute couture* dresses, in contrast to Alice who was dressed as
she usually was (a brown jumper over a faded greyish dress).  So many
times, she had overheard such girls laugh at one of their peers for daring
to wear an out-fit that came from a shop with a store-front.  Alice was
almost consoled by the idea that they would consider her so pitiable they
would not even bother commenting.

   "Hey everyone, look, the Princess Brian has arrived." a tall, thin,
mischievous-looking young man with sandy-brown hair said.

   "Hi Eddie," Brian said.

   "Princess?" said Alice.  For a moment she thought he was referring to
herself, but he was looking at Brian.  She turned to him.  "Why do they
call you that?"

   "Ha ha!" said Eddie.  "You've never heard that story..." The other girls
giggled coyly into their hands at the allusion.

   "Eddie...  you don't have to tell her that story.  I'll tell it to her
later..." Brian said, blushing.

   "Back in boarding school, Jake, myself, Neddie, and Spuggie, we played
this great prank on poor Brian here.  Ha ha!" He laughed.

   "I wish I had gotten there earlier," another boy said, laughing.  He was
tall and thin and had black hair and a beak-like nose.  "I barely got to
see him in-"

   "Wait, let me tell her the story..." Eddie interrupted, "we were doing a
dress rehearsal for some play, I forget the name..."

   "Kings of Kingsland" a heavy-set bespectacled ginger young man said.

   "Oh yes, that's right, 'Kings of Kingsland'.  Brian had a small part as
court noble.  At the end of the rehearsal, while he was dressing back into
his regular clothes backstage, we stole his clothing!  Ha ha!  And we left
him there alone...  meanwhile the only clothes backstage he could find
was," he could not hold back his laughter for a moment before he continued:
"the only clothes he could find was a princess costume." The boys guffawed
and the girls tittered as he continued: "So...  apparently he put that on
and tried to sneak back to his dorm room.  But then he got caught by Mr. 
Margolis in the hallway, who somehow figured Brian was up to no good.  So
while he scolded and questioned Brian about why he was going through the
halls dressed up in such a way, a nice crowd gathered around and got to see
Brian in his very fashionable, baby-pink princess-gown.  Eventually he did
manage to explain to him what happened.  Spuggie and I got a month's
detention...  oh well."

   Alice looked at Brian compassionately but found that he did not seem
very embarassed by the retelling of the story.  He blushed profusely and he
was at a loss for words, but he smiled genuinely.

   "Those were the days, eh Brian?" Eddie said, punching him in the side.

   "Ow," Brian said, rubbing his shoulder.  "That's right...  those were
the days" he added.

   "So, pardon my manners, who is your friend here?" Eddie asked, looking
at Alice with a wide, smug grin.

   "This is my friend Alice, she works for my uncle Rupee."

   "Hello," Alice said shyly.  Eddie nodded to her, and Brian and Alice
both sat down at the far end of the room together.  Eddie went around the
room introducing each person, but the names did not penetrate far into
Alice's memory.

   After that the conversation moved on to different people and happenings.
Alice expected that perhaps the group would be too formal, instead she
found them to be quite the opposite.  Eddie and another young man dominated
the conversation with loud boasts of their academic and extracurricular
achievements, and savoringly gossipped of other, absent, young men's
misfortunes.  The young women were mostly reserved and barely spoke out
loud, mostly they would whisper something into their best friend's ear and
then they would both titter.  One girl who was tall and had white-blonde
hair would interject into the men's conversation occasionally.  Brian and
the other young men mostly stayed quiet also.

   As Alice listened to their conversation, she easily perceived the
familiar impression that she had no chance of fitting in with them.  She
had nothing in common with them.  Alice imagined Eddie and the other boy
standing there repeating: "I'm better than them, better than him, better
than her, better than you and you!" *ad infinitum*.  There would be little
difference, she mused to herself.

   Alice looked down, her eyes naturally fell to one of the girls dresses.
It was yellow and had fine embroidery of white and gold.  She considered
how for the price of that custom-made dress, she could build all the Alset
inventions she wanted, twice-over.

   There was a lull in the conversation, and all of a sudden Eddie turned
to her.  "Hey, why are you so quiet?"

   "Umm...," Alice was not sure how to answer that politely.

   "Don't be shy!  Tell us, do you come from Vindhya?"

   "Yes, I grew up there."

   Eddie smiled and looked around at everyone else, and then back to her.
"So, tell me, did you wear a 'sari' every day?"

   "Umm," Alice hesitated.  She thought the way he asked the question was
rather suggestive and wondered what he was getting at.

   "Were you a sari-girl?" another boy blurted out, before she could answer
in the affirmative.

   The girls all giggled.  Alice looked to Brian, who looked a little
confused.

   *This is so humiliating,* Alice thought.  Thankfully the attention was
taken away from herself as they all heard and felt that some people had
entered the house and were walking on the floor above.

   "It sounds like my mum is home," said Eddie.

   "Linda saw me taking a sip of the two-hundred year Chataeu Vigneronne."
the beak-nosed boy said.  "I think she hates me now...  where shall I
hide?" he said jokingly.

   When Alice heard the name "Linda", her heart raced like never before. 
He could not mean Linda Barton, could he?

   As if to answer her question, they heard the door open and Linda Barton
herself came down the stairs.

   "Good evening," she said, standing at the base of the stairs and looking
around.  "I hope you kids are being good."

   Alice froze, doing her best to not draw attention to herself, even
though she knew that was impossible.  She tried to gaze at the floor as
casually as she could.  When she finally dared to look up at Linda she
found that she made no outward reaction to her being there.

   "Don't worry mum, I'm keeping everyone in line down here.  I only opened
two wine bottles, and I picked the oldest ones, so we can save the newer,
better ones." Eddie joked.

   "Oh, you are so clever," Linda said with only a hint of sarcasm.  She
want back up the stairs.

   When she left Alice decided it was time to escape.  "Excuse me, can you
show me to your rest-room?" she asked Eddie.

   "No problem," he said.  Just go back up the stairs and go further down
the hall, the bath-room is behind the second door on the left.

   "Thank you," said Alice.  She stood up and went up the stairs with no
intention of using the bathroom, instead she was determined to escape as
quickly as possible.  She went back toward the front door, encountering no
one along the way.  She breathed a sigh of relief as she stepped outside
into the moist and mild morning air.  Her relief proved premature, as she
found herself face to face with Linda Barton all of a sudden.

   She seemed to appear out of nowhere, Alice was suddenly confronted by
her glaring visage: "How dare you show up at my house?  You have Rupbert
all to yourself, and now you have to come here to rub it in?"

   "I'm sorry," Alice said in a low voice.  "I didn't know..."

   "You'll pay for this." Linda said confidently.

   Alice hurried off, running at full tilt until she was out of view.

   ******************************************

   When Alice arrive back at the house, she was at a loss of what to do. 
She did not want to face Rupbert or Bill, or even Brian.  The weather was
mild again and so she sat behind the house in the patio and read.  She went
over the Alset manuscript wistfully.  She went for a walk around the
grounds and went back to the patio and read more.  Soon it was even getting
dark, and Brian appeared.

   "There you are.  I was looking for you." Brian sat down next to her.  "I
haven't even seen you since you excused yourself to use the rest-room at
Eddie's house!  What happened?"

   "I was tired of being there, so I went straight home." she said
matter-of-factly.

   Brian crossed his legs and leaned back into the bench.  "Oh, well, that
was a fun time though, wasn't it?" he said.

   Alice looked at him incredulously.  She put her book-mark between the
pages of her book and set it down.  She did not know where to begin: "You
call that a fun time!  It was a disaster!  You did not tell me that was
Linda Barton's home I was going to!"

   "What?  What do you mean?"

   "I would not have gone there if I had known it was her home!  She
absolutely despises me!"

   "Oh, does she?  But why?"

   "You don't know?" Alice sighed.  "She wanted to marry Rupbert."

   "Oh..." Brian said, sitting up straight.

   "And those so-called friends of yours were mocking us the entire time.
They call you 'Princess Brian"...  I can't believe that boy asked me if I
was a sari-girl!"

   "I suppose it is juvenile, but it is not all that offensive.  I mean,
Vindhyan women do wear those dresses called 'sari"s'."

   "You are so naive!  You don't understand.  It *is* offensive. 
'Sorry-girl' is slang for a Vindhyan prostitute!"

   Brian crossed his arms and was flabbergasted for a moment.  "Oh, I
didn't know that." he said quietly.

   "If you listen closely, you hear that they are not saying 'sari-girl",
but 'sorry-girl'.  It's a sort of *double-entendre*, where it refers to
Vindhyan prostitutes with saris since thats what all Vindhyan women
traditionally wear, and 'sorry' because of their pitiable and degrading way
of life."

   "Perhaps that wasn't nice, but they were just joking around."

   "You don't get it, your friends are probably a little less oblivious
than you, and so they definitely know I'm the Vindhyan girl who lives with
Rupbert.  They were not just joking, they literally see me that way."

   "I think you are reading too much into it."

   "Forget it!  Obviously you refuse to believe anything negative about
your fake-friends!" Alice stood up and walked toward the house.

   Brian jogged forward to catch up with her.  "Hey, don't be mad at me. 
I'm sorry.  Perhaps you are right, I don't know.  Just don't be mad at me.
Alice?  Alice?"

   She went back to her seat but gave him the silent treatment.  Brian sat
back down as well.  After a few moments, Alice's expression seemed to
soften, and so he dared to speak.  "Are you still mad at me?" he asked
gently.

   "No, you didn't do anything wrong." she sighed.  Noting the dour
expression on his face, she smiled and added: "Hey, don't be so dramatic."

   "But you had such a bad time!  I was so hoping you would get along with
my college-friends."

   Alice shook her head and smiled some more.  She was not even going to
bother emphasizing how completely unrealistic his hope had been.  "I knew I
would have a bad time.  But it's over so it doesn't matter anymore.  Like
you said before, if I did not like it I do not have to go again."

   "All right, well, I'm glad that you are not upset about it then."

   Brian grasped her hand in his.  Alice looked into his eyes and he
blushed.  He wanted the gesture to seem only friendly but immediately
realized he had failed in his attempt.

   Alice pulled her hand away.  "It's such a beautiful night.  How can I be
upset?  It is so nice sitting here alone with you." She gazed up into the
night sky.  The moon was a pure shining silver coin, she thought, and the
stars like silver confetti.  When she finally looked at Brian again, she
suddenly realized that he was acting strangely.  He fidgetted and looked
quite distracted.  "Brian?  Is something wrong?" she asked.

   "Alice...  there is something I want to talk about."

   "What is it?"

   Brian sighed.  "I want to talk about it...  but I'm afraid that if I do,
I'll regret it, perhaps we'll both regret it."

   "What could happen that one of use could regret?"

   "That we won't get along so well anymore."

   "What?  Are you saying you have done something that could make me angry
at you?"

   "No!  No, nothing like that."

   "Oh, you are being dramatic again!  Just out with it already!"

   "I just want to talk about...  our relationship."

   "That's it?" Alice giggled.  "No, I shouldn't say 'that's it', whenever
a man uses the 'r' word, it must be a serious matter."

   "I told you already...  we were married!"

   "Well...  that was another life...  we probably said 'Til death do us
part'...  and then we died." she said, smiling.

   "From the moment I saw you, I knew that we were meant to be together!"
he blurted out.  "But I understand...  that you love Rupbert?" His last
statement oddly morphed into a question near the end.

   "I do love Rupert." Alice said.  "Many of the qualities that I love
about him are qualities you share with him.  I want to be with him, it
feels right, if that makes sense.  What do you expect me to do?  Just run
off with you somewhere?  I think he needs me, I don't know how he got along
without me.  If I left he would be so lonely, especially now since he's
been ostracized by his secret-society friends.  And that is all my
fault..."

   "I think you met Rupbert for reason," he said slowly, but then he
blurted out: "I just want you to stop sleeping with him.  I must admit,
it's killing me!  And do you know how he really feels about you?  He didn't
seem to mind what happened that other night...  with Jeremy." Brian seemed
to wince at his own mentioning of Jeremy's name.  "And besides, what you
are doing is adultery, you and I are already married right now, in the way
that matters the most."

   She found his last statement to be confusing, but she glossed over it:
"What is it that you want exactly?  Do you expect me to just stop sleeping
Rupbert's bedroom and sleep in yours instead?"

   "I just want us to be...  closer.  The way we interact with one another
is so...  casual."

   "Listen Brian, I understand we have this history together, I believe
you, but I don't remember it.  How can I decide about something like this,
when I feel like I don't even know you?" Alice was pleased with how
credible that sounded.

   Alice gazed at Brian for a moment.  She did like him.  Like a small
child, looking sad just made him look even more cute.  Nevertheless, there
was something inside of her that mandated that there was a line that she
should not even consider crossing.  It said "No!  At least, not now!" It
never said anything else, it did not offer any reasons why.  But just then
it also said, "Leave now, before the conversation can get worse."

   "I have to go.  I'm going to go pick up food we can have for breakfast
tomorrow morning.  I have to go before the restaurant closes."

   "Alice, wait-" he said.

   ***********************************************************

   Soon Alice was in the city again.  The weather had gotten much colder,
and it was drizzling.  The street seemed unusually empty.

   "Hey sorry-girl!" a male voice said, echoing down the street.

   Alice turned around and saw that it was Eddie.  Two other young men were
with him.  They were close behind her.  Had they been following her?

   "Why don't you hang out with us?  You ran off so suddenly this morning.
We just want to hang out with you." he said, affecting the exaggerated
manner of a whining child.

   "No, I don't think so.  I'm out running an errand.  I think I shall
excuse myself now..." She tried to run away, but soon the three young men
caught up with her and and grabbed her.  She started screaming but one of
them forced her head back and covered her mouth.  They all but dragged her
to a nearby building.  As she walked in she barely saw it was a dingy
motel. No one intervened as they forced her up the stairs and into a room.

   When she walked in she was even more intimidated to find that there were
already some other young men there, they seemed to be waiting for them. 
There may have been ten to fifteen of them in total.  The room was rather
plain, with only a bed, a night-stand, and a table.  The bed had been
pushed into the center of the room.  At first the fact they were all men in
there seemed odd to her, but then that fact quickly grew ominious in her
mind.

   "What do you want from me?  Let me go!" she shouted.

   "What do we want?" Eddie said slowly and loudly.  He looked around at
his friends and raised his eyebrows mischievously.

   "Let go of me!" Alice cried, as one bloke grabbed her from behind and
held back her arms.

   "Don't worry sorry-girl, we'll pay you good." Eddie started unbuttoning
her blouse.

   "No!  Stop it!"

   "We're going to have to shut you up." he said matter-of factly.

   As the rest of the boys held her down, he took out a fancy yellow
hankerchief and stuffed it into her mouth.  Apparently he came prepared,
for he also had a roll of masking tape, of which he ripped off a bit and
put firmly over her mouth.

   She squirmed but could not move much as he put his hand up her skirt and
groped at her crotch.  He returned back to her blouse and finished
unbuttoning it.  He cut the shirt underneath it up and down, revealing her
bare breasts.

   "Mmmm..." he said as he cupped them in his hands.

   "Maybe she has venereal disease.  My uncle told me about how two of his
friends caught syphilis from sorry-girls." someone said.  Alice could not
see him from her restrained position.

   "Probably not, she's been boffing the Greenleaf fellow, I doubt he would
be stupid enough to take her without having her examined by a doctor
first." someone else said.

   One boy held her from behind and forced her to stand up on one leg, the
other leg held up over his arm.  Someone else or more than one person
helped hold her arms immobile.  Alice almost felt embarassed for the young
men, for most of them stood about looking meek and uncomfortable.

   "I'll go first." Eddie said.  He unzipped his pants and Alice closed her
eyes.  She barely struggled for she could barely move an inch.  Soon she
felt him enter inside of her.  He grunted dully as he thrust in and out. 
The awkward angle made it painful for Alice, and so she groaned.

   "Oh, see?  Listen to her, she likes it!"

   "Yeah!" A number of the boys said together in unison, nodding their
heads and giggling.

   "Open your eyes...  look at me!" Eddie said.

   Alice reflexively obeyed him and saw that he stared into her eyes
mockingly.  "Oooh!  Ha ha!" he said.  She looked around the room and saw
innumerable eyes staring at her.  She saw that a few boys were wanking
themselves off with blank-stares on their faces.  A few stared at her
wide-eyed, not quite innocently.  Some of them smiled embarrasedly and
could not bear to make eye-contact with her.  Alice closed her eyes again
and vowed to keep them shut.

   "Oh, we should all cum on her head, by the time we're all done she'll
look like a melted candle, ha ha!" said Eddie.  Soon he was approaching
climax: "Ohhh, oh yeah." he said.  "I'm going to cum, I'm going to cum and
pump you full of my premium Redchild-family seed.  You'd better appreciate
that!"
After he was done, the tone of his voice changed, he spoke in a more

business-like manner: "Everybody gets their turn...  who wants to go next?"

   A different young man eagerly approached.  He thrust into her only a few
times before he came.  The other boys did not laugh at him for too long.

   "Everybody gets their turn.  Everybody gets their turn."

   Alice kept her eyes closed, but she could feel that a new boy was taking
his turn.  His hands felt cold and sweaty compared to the previous one.  He
thrust into and out her in short awkward bursts, like a broken machine.  He
did not utter a sound, but Alice could feel his breath fast and shallow
against her neck.  He was like a possessed being, possessed by the spirit
of the situation, not fucking her because he liked it, but because he had
to for all of the peer-pressure.  The room was silent for a few minutes and
then someone said:

   "This is too slow...  Why did you put that gag over her mouth?  Now I
can't put my prick in there, let's take it off.  The rest of us can have a
go at her two at a time."

   "No, we planned it this way so that she wouldn't scream, remember?"
someone said.

   "When we take the gag off, do you promise not to scream?" Eddie asked.

   "Mmm-hmm," she managed to hum resignedly, and she nodded her head.

   "That's a good girl.  Of course she won't scream." He pulled her plaited
hair painfully.  "If you scream, we'll kill you." He showed her a long
pocketknife, put it close to her face and flipped open the blade.  "We'll
slit your throat wide open so you can't scream, and leave you in the
alleyway there." He pointed toward the window, which showed the brick wall
of the adjacent building.  "The police won't even care who did it, Highbury
is better off with one less mongrel whore taking up our space."

   "I'd like it if she screamed..." she heard someone mutter.

   Suddenly someone ripped the masking tape from her mouth.  She would have
cried out, but it was muffled by the hankerchief.  Someone pulled it out.

   They directed her to lie on her back on the bed.  Someone knelt over her
head and directed his erect shaft into her mouth.  Someone grabbed at one
of her breasts, and someone else grabbed her other one roughly and pulled
at it.  The guy kneeling over her slowly began pushing his dick deep into
her mouth and toward her throat.  But then he suddenly pulled out, and then
she felt that now two of the boys were trying to put their cocks into her
mouth at the same time, and then one of them started to smack his penis
against her face.

   "Get away for a second...." she heard Eddie say.  The boys obediently
pulled themselves away from her face.  "Say you like it..."

   Alice could not fathom how she would say such a thing.

   "Say you like it!"

   "I like it." she said flatly.

   "Ha ha!  Oh, you can do better than that.  Say you like it!" he said,
pulling her hair.

   "I like it!" she cried out in pain.

   "Ha ha!" she heard Eddie laugh again.  She was beginning to find his
laugh tormentingly repetitive.

   The other blokes went back to groping her and taking their turns in her.
She kept her eyes shut and tried to block it all out: teeth biting down on
her breast, a tongue in her nose, another in her ear, warm seed on her
stomach that grew cooler, trying not to gag.  Eventually, after another man
came inside of her and no one else was next.  Suddenly no one was touching
her.  Alice almost opened her eyes, but decided to just wait.  She could
hear movement.  Then she could feel that someone was inserting something
long and very narrow inside of her.

   "We should hurry out of here.  All of us together in one room doesn't
look good.  Even here, someone might have heard us and called the police."

   And even quicker than it had all started, it ended.  It was suddenly
very quiet.  Alice opened her eyes and sat up and saw that they were all
gone.  They had left the door open and so Alice quickly closed it before
someone could walk by.

   After they left, she gazed down at the dirtied hankerchief, which lay
forgotten on the floor.  It had a special insignia of a lion in one corner.

   She reached down and pulled out a rolled-up piece of paper out of her
vagina, which turned out to be an ten-pound note.  She flung it across the
floor in disgust.  She wiped off her face, and stomach with the bed-sheet.

   Her leg still felt sore from being stretched in that awkward position
for so long.

   She put her coat on and buttoned it all the way up to hide her torn
clothing and hurried out of the motel.

   *******************************************************

   As Alice walked down the cool deserted streets, she could hear hear loud
footsteps against the cobblestones.  She was not afraid of the footsteps
because it sounded like the well-heeled footsteps of a lady.  Nevertheless,
she stopped and turned to look at who was behind her.

   It was Linda Barton.  As she grew closer Alice could see her face more
clearly.  She was surprised that Linda looked so happy to see her.

   "Good evening Alice.  How are you tonight?  I'm surprised you ran off so
quickly this morning."

   "Oh, well...  I wasn't much in the mood for socializing," she said,
unable to summon the energy to come up with a polite excuse.  She crossed
her arms and pulled her coat tightly around herself.

   "Oh, is that so?" she said in an affected tone.  "I have been telling
everyone about what a party-girl you are.  I told the boys they should
throw a party for you there at the motel."

   Alice felt a deep chill.  "What?"

   "The party at that *fancy* motel.  I set up that little party for you. I
hope you enjoyed it."

   At those words Alice instantly turned and strode away.  She finally
realized she was dealing with a hopelessly inhumane enemy.

   *************************************
   Next Episode: Rich People Can't Dance