Dirty Old Town

"Exactly," Terry said, and for the first time since he'd run off to the kitchen he looked almost happy. "You get it, Louisa. Most of my fans don't."

"Thank you," she said. "But I wish I knew why someone who always stands up for other people's rights won't let anyone love him."

"Who says I won't?"

"Everyone. Or at least everyone I've talked do."

"I don't know who that is besides Bridget and Meg," Terry said, and Louisa was delighted to feel him tightening his embrace. "But whoever it is, they're probably thinking of girls who've thrown themselves at me like I'm Eddie Fisher or something, like it's all a popularity contest. It's not. It's a matter of life and death and finding your self-respect. I just haven't met anyone I was sure got that in a long time."

"Gosh." Louisa felt deliciously shy all of a sudden, and she looked down into the crevice where their bodies were pressed so pleasantly together. "I don't know what to say."

"You don't have to say anything." Terry leaned down and pursed his lips, giving Louisa plenty of leeway to pull away if she wanted to. Though her friends' reminders rang out once again in her ears, she lifted her head and her lips met his.

With only the buzz of the phonograph and the occasional car horn from down in the street for a soundtrack, Louise welcomed his gentle hands rubbing her back to accompany the long first kiss. She responded in kind and lost no time in playfully untucking his shirt from his trousers. She leaned her head back as he followed the kiss by nuzzling her neck, and let out a gasp of pleasure as he nibbled it.

She felt his hands up around the nape of her neck, and expected to find herself undressed any moment now, but he left her dress clasped and drew both hands down to cup her buttocks. She squealed as he squeezed them. "You naughty boy!" she quipped.

"Are you a virgin?" he whispered tentatively in her ear.

"No." Those Saturday afternoons in David Blumberg's basement seemed like a lifetime ago -- and already she was thinking what Terry could teach David -- but just now she was grateful for the practice as she confidently slid both her hands under Terry's shirt and t-shirt and rubbed his chest.

"Good for us both then," Terry replied, and she felt him lifting her skirt up.

"What do you mean?" she asked.

"I like a woman with some experience. That's how I learned what little I know about a woman's body, you see."

"I don't have much," Louisa confessed, feeling butterflies in her stomach as she felt him pulling her panties down.

"I'm pretty rusty myself," Terry said with a tender look in his eyes as he left her panties at her knees for her to wriggle them the rest of the way to the floor. "It's been five years, if you want to know the truth of it. So we'll both understand any mistakes, huh?"

"Sure...ooh!" Louisa had but an instant to ponder that before she felt his agile fingers in her bush. "Ohhh, heavens!" She leaned up and kissed him again to let him know he was free to proceed, and proceed he did. While her lips were still locked on his, his finger found a sleeping beauty -- her clitoris. "Oof! Oooh!" Neither David nor the two Columbia guys she'd let under her skirt had ever touched her like that! "You're not too rusty!" she exclaimed breathlessly as she enjoyed his delightful teasing all around her sweet spot. She busied her frenzied hands unbuttoning his shirt.

"You're pretty up to date yourself, I think," he quipped, giving her clit a final gentle brush and then burrowing his finger further still, all the way inside.

"OH!" Louisa gasped, and she pushed his now-unbuttoned shirt all the way off. His undershirt was on to stay for the moment because she didn't want his hand going anywhere, so instead she unbuckled his pants and shoved them down vigorously.

"Let's get you out of this, too," he said and, withdrawing his finger, he pulled her dress up with both hands. Louisa had just enough time to reach back and unclasp it before he pulled it over her head. With that out of the way, she also reached back and undid her bra, and welcomed his hands and lips on her breasts as the garment dropped to the floor.

She had just enough time for a few playful tugs on his hard cock before he swept her up in his arms. "You haven't seen the bedroom yet," he said. "I'm warning you, it's tiny."

"But big enough for us, I'll bet," she quipped as he carried her past the Christmas tree and the disheveled kitchen into the narrow room beyond. It was dim, but she could make out a double bed that took up most of the space. He lay her gently down in the center of the bed and gazed down happily at her body as he pulled his shirt off.

There was a lamp on the lone end-table, but he didn't turn it on. There was also a clock, which reminded Louisa of her dormitory curfew, but she couldn't have cared less about that just then. There was also a photograph, but Terry tossed his undershirt over it before Louisa could make out who or what was in the picture. He had just told her he hadn't had sex in five years, she reminded herself as she gazed back up at her hero in all his vulnerable glory, and spread her legs wider to welcome him.

His first thrust was slow and leisurely and delightful, and Louisa's joyful moan rang out through the tiny room. "Oh, do that again! Nice and slow!" And so he did, several more times before picking up his pace. Louisa's eyes were wide open in wonder and admiration and disbelief as he pushed her closer to the edge with every thrust. "Oh, yes!" She wriggled in rhythm beneath him as she welcomed each push within, and egged him on with playful slaps on each of his hips.

David had managed to get her off a couple of times. But that was nothing like the immense burst of joy Louisa now felt welling up from deep within her vagina, as uncontrollable as it was beautiful. "Oh, Terry...oh Terry!" Louisa threw her arms around him and pulled him down onto her as she came. "Ohhhhh..." she exhaled, seeing stars as she opened her eyes again and slid her arms down. "Thank you."

"Ever do that before?" he whispered.

"Not like that! Now you! Come for me."

"Come again with me."

"I'll try."

Now he went at it harder than before, and Louisa enjoyed the faster pushing as her satiation melted into fresh arousal. She couldn't have guessed she'd be ready for another orgasm so quickly after that earthshattering one, but now she found herself grunting and humping as intensely as ever. This one arrived too quickly for her to feel it coming, but come it did.

And so did Terry, with a joyful shriek of his own. He came to an abrupt stop and lowered himself gently atop her for a triumphant kiss. "Thank you, Louisa," he whispered.

"Thank me for what?"

"Bringing me back, among the living, among the loving. It's been too long."

"Heavens, Terry, just what happened to you?" Louisa asked. "Always pouring out your heart for the common man and woman, and never letting anyone in? Why?"

"Are you hungry?"

"Terry, come on!"

"Let's get washed up and let me take you out for dinner somewhere. I'll answer your questions later. For now, let's just enjoy this, okay?" On 'this', he gave both of her breasts a gentle caress, and once again Louisa couldn't say no.

Louisa had never taken a shower with anyone else before, but his pleasant soapy touches all over her body had her never wanting to shower alone again. She'd never held hands with a gentile in public, never mind a minor celebrity, but she found it so pleasurable as to be almost embarrassing. She'd never been out to eat so late, but that only left her feeling even more positively grown-up than Terry had already made her feel in bed. He insisted on a nightcap at a bar with live music, and Louisa sang until she was hoarse and impressed Terry with her knowledge of folk music. "My roommate last year lived down here on the weekends," she explained as they finally walked home through the half-deserted streets. "She had a phony ID and everything. Oh, heavens, that reminds me again, I've missed curfew!"

"If you get in trouble, I can talk to Dean Hockfield tomorrow," Terry reassured her.

"You know him?"

"I've done him a couple of favors. Helped out with some girls who needed a hand. Doesn't matter what. Just...don't worry, Louisa. Stay with me tonight, huh?" As they'd reached the corner of his block, he took her in his arms and swung her around once playfully. "Please?"

"Terry, I'd love to, but --"

"Eddie, Louisa."

"What?"

"My name is Eddie Dawes. Stay with me tonight and I'll tell you everything in the morning."

Louisa was too surprised to say anything, but she let Terry -- Eddie -- guide her back up the block to his place.

Owing to the unfamiliar bed, Louisa awoke at the crack of dawn, only to find her beloved already awake and busy out front. She got up and looked around for something to wear, then decided it would be more fun to greet him naked. She stepped out into the kitchen wearing nothing but a smile, to find him ironing her dress. "I washed it in the sink," he explained. "Your underwear, too -- they're drying on the radiator." Louisa looked over to see they were indeed. "Go ahead and take a shower, your clothes will be ready when you're done. How do you like your eggs?"

"Scrambled. Like my heart, Terry. I mean Eddie." She laughed and kissed his cheek, and padded off to the bathroom.

Fifteen minutes later, clean and dressed, she sat down to a plate of scrambled eggs, toast and coffee. "I also have some pork sausage," Eddie said. "But I figured you were kosher."

"Thank you," Louisa said, opting not to explain that he probably shouldn't have assumed she would eat the eggs. She took a bite, and then a sip of the coffee. "Now then. Who is Eddie Dawes exactly?"

"Right." Eddie stood up and picked up his plate, and began pacing nervously around the tiny kitchen. "Eddie Dawes was a spoiled, entitled jerk who thought a woman's place was in the home and unions ought to be banned, and he probably didn't think about the plight of the Negro at all because he was from Maxon Cove, New Hampshire, where everybody's white."

"Maxon Cove," Louisa repeated. "I've never heard of it."

"There's not much to hear of, not anymore. There used to be a big textile mill there, but I hear the owner's moved to Georgia."

"Leaving the whole town unemployed, no doubt," Louisa said. "No wonder you grew a conscience."

"I wish it were that simple." Eddie paused to gobble down the last of his eggs, and set his plate down. A long drink of coffee, and he continued. "I mean, leaving the whole town out of work would've been bad enough. It was already a dirty old factory town to begin with, and that would've made it worse."

"Would have?"

"Would have. What he did do..." Eddie set his coffee cup down and swallowed hard. "I'm sorry, Louisa. Five years and I still can't really talk about it. "They -- I mean, well, let me show you that picture I tried to hide from you yesterday."

Louisa watched silently as Eddie went over to the table with the record player, and picked up the photograph that had fallen behind it. "Here," he said, handing the frame to Louisa without looking at it himself. "I want you to have a face to go with the name."

Louisa looked at the demure young woman with the French eyes in the photograph. Though faded, it couldn't hide her vivaciousness. "She's beautiful," she said.

Eddie stood in the doorway and leaned his head against the doorjamb. "Therèse Lanier, was her name. Is her name. The one bright spot in Eddie Dawes' pathetic life. His forbidden older woman. My forbidden older woman. I was twenty-one, she was...older. She worked in the mill. Any halfway intelligent thing you've ever read from Terrence Wooler, I got it from her. She's the one who taught me women have a mind of their own, they're equal at the very least, and that the working man -- and woman -- they deserve a fair shake in this world and they hardly ever get it. I was too stupid or stubborn or young -- oh, all three, really -- to see at the time, but she opened my eyes a little too late."

"Too late?" Louisa stood up, the last of her breakfast forgotten, and put her arms around Eddie. "What happened?"

"She was organizing the girls at the mill. Unionizing them. But before that got done, she got a ticket out of Maxon Cove. San Francisco. She was going to move out there, and I was going to finish up at Harvard and elope with her. But Old Man Blanchette..." Eddie stopped to catch his breath.

"Her father?" Louisa asked.

Eddie shook his head. "Her boss. The factory owner. The big man in town. He found out what she was up to, trying to unionize the girls, and..."

"And he fired her?"

"I wish." Another deep breath. "He killed her, Louisa. He killed them all. He blew up the mill."

"Good heavens!" Louisa threw her arms around him and welcomed his cathartic sobs now that the secret was out.

"Got off scot free, too," Eddie said. "Convinced the cops it was a gas leak, or at least convinced them to say it was. And my old man, he supported the bastard. He actually wanted me to take a job with the murderer!"

"Didn't he know about Therèse?"

"Christ, no! He would've disowned me. The night he told me there was a job waiting for me with Blanchette -- here I'd been going around like a zombie for three days since the explosion, acting like everything was fine, and he and Mother didn't even notice -- typical, really -- yeah, the night he told me that, that's when I knew I was never going back to that godforsaken town."

"Did you run away?"

Eddie shook his head. "I wasn't about to get most of the way through Harvard and walk away from it. I got on the train and went back to Boston in September, and buried myself in my books and finished my stupid degree. When Mother and Dad came down for commencement, I told them I was driving down to Florida with some of the guys and I'd see them back home in a month or so. Soon as they were gone, I bought a one-way ticket to New York. Eddie Dawes got on the train in Boston, Terrence Wooler got off the train here. And that was that."

"Terrence for Therèse, I take it?" Louisa asked.

"Right," Eddie said. "Her last name, Lanier, means 'wool worker' in French. So, Terrence Wooler. If I wasn't worth a damn when she was alive and in love with me, at least I could dedicate my life to making sure her sacrifice made a difference. Sometimes I really wonder if I have, though."

"Eddie," Louisa said, pulling back. "Or Terry, whichever you prefer. Can't you see the difference you've made with me? And so many of your other readers?"

Eddie's face broke into a slight grin. "Yes, now I do." Once again he took her in his arms. "So, Louisa, now that you've brought me out of my five years in hiding, are you going to join me on my crusade or what?"

"Am I joining Terrence or Eddie?" Louisa wondered out loud.

"Both, I guess," he said. "Law school if you want, or you can join the Observer...oh, but first, we've got to get you back uptown, haven't we?"

"Yes."

"Right, let me get some change for the subway," Eddie said, looking around the living room for his wallet.

"No, Eddie. I mean yes, I'll join you."

For the first time in five years, Eddie Dawes laughed, and he tackled her on the couch in his arms. "Happy Hanukkah, Louisa."

"Merry Christmas...Eddie."