Chapter One Hundred and One (alpha)
A/N: This chapter is dedicated to @WilsonGill. Recent chapters in this story have been heavyweight with details of energy recapture and environmental issues that are deserving for implementation in our real societies. @WilsonGill passed a comment expressing his wishes for the story to spend more time on the seamier side of Bamptonville. Harold, this is for you!
Discord in the Camp.
"No Felix! I ain't doin' it. You cain't ask me to do that. It's askin' too much. I cain't. I told you a hundred times already never, never fix me again with that ... that goddamn bear. He ain't human. You promised me you wouldn't. Why'd you go and fix me with him? ... I won't do it."
Felix heard Kyler's outraged protests with amused disdain. They were uncharacteristic of the usually over-confident boy, his evident deep, underlying wretchedness gave the man a sadistic burst of pleasure. The youth flopped heavily on the motel room bed, his body language confirming the depth of his misery; hiding his face by holding his head low between his knees and wringing his hands.
Felix sat at the side table facing the bed in No 5 chalet at Gran Grindlay's motel; picking his teeth with his legs crossed casually whilst enjoying the spectacle of Kyler's distress. This didn't happen often, and making the boy squirm was ample payback to Felix for the boy's earlier sassy remarks as much as it was essential for the business in hand. The man breathed deeply, basking in the power he held over Kyler. The youth's cringing, pleading and weeping brought on escalating waves of excitement in Gleitner which showed in his highly pitched voice as he continued to torment the boy, rejecting the youth's pleas and adding to Kyler's suffering.
"Promises! What promises? The only promises I made to you my pretty boy was to bring in business that puts cash in yer pocket, a car in the yard an' gas to put in it. Thought you could do it all yer own way did you, asshole? Thought you could spread stoopid rumors about Mitchell helpin' out at a kids Summer camp without checkin' with me first; rumors that could land us in jail? Next you thought because of Jess's bad leg you could ignore my orders an' go soft on him? Dumb peter puffer. Let this be a lesson to you."
Felix raised his voice to a near shout. "Now get outta here an' go pick up your client fer the night. He's waitin' on you at the Truck Stop. Go do the business like yer hired and paid to do. Make sure you give him a good time ... an' don't forget to bring yer toothbrush."
"But you promised me Felix ... after last time. You said you'd never put me with him again. You promised." The boy's usually firm and confident voice came across between sniffles as a childish wail. Kyler couldn't bring himself to look into the set of Felix' face, and remained sat on the bed with his face lowered to gaze at the dirt ingrained floorboards.
Felix laughed before making his reply, a harsh, guttural sound, asserting his superiority over the youth.
"Get real asshole! Mickey Stovic brings us in a lot of business from the Roadways crews. He deserves the best from us in return. Cain't you get it through your head you dumb stoopid faggot – this is work, an' its work that pays the bills. You want an apartment in Lincoln when you go to college? Well this is how you get it."
Felix moved swiftly to stand over Kyler, his face reddened by anger, fixed in a mask of contempt. He swiped Kyler around the head, heavy enough to push him flat on the bed and stood over the cowed youth, shouting at him in a shower of spittle. "It's work that pays rents an' buys cars, fancy clothes an' all those goodies you get. I s'pose you thought I growed 'em on the trees outside the trailer at Plaisance. What a dummie." Felix lowered his head next to Kyler's and bawled in the youth's ear. "It's work that pays fer it all. This sort of work. The kinda work we do, so get real and get at it. Do you get it now?"
Kyler eased himself along the bed on his elbows, away from Felix. He half sat, shaking his head at the man. From somewhere inside he found the strength to come back at his tormentor.
"No Felix, not this time, not with him ... don't make me do it, pleaaaase! I ... I ... I cain't do it. Not with him. Not fer all night.''
Kyler was crying. Tears dribbled down his face, reddened by upset. This was not the stalwart right-hand lieutenant upon whom Felix depended. He saw in front of him a little boy who couldn't get his own way, and it angered him.
"Shut up howlin' like a two year old fer Chrissake an' get a hold on yourself; if you could only see yourself now. Ain't you got no shame, as well as no backbone?" Felix threw his hands in the air and shook his head with misgiving. "And to think I have to rely on a goddamn mattress muncher." Felix hurled the toothpick angrily across the room and rushed over to Kyler, grabbing his hair to pull the boy's head upright to look into his face.
Kyler cried out. "What you doin'? You're hurtin' me."
"Hurt you? Hurt you. I should goddamned well kill yer. How the hell did I let myself get tied in with a goddamned cry-baby who gets the vapors 'cos he has to do the business this time with a guy that likes him fer cryin' out loud." He pulled Kyler's head upwards and shook it, making the boy grasp hold of Felix's hands and cry out.
"Stop it – please. That hurts real bad, Okay, Okay I'll do it, but not fer all night, Plee-ase Felix not fer all night." Kyler broke down, howling without restraint, tears streamed from his eyes; his body shook and twitched. "Not all night Felix ... Ple-aase. I hate that man. I've never let you down before an' I always deliver fer yer an' I always will. You can trust me on that. But not with that man ... Ple-eease?"
Kyler buried his face in the mattress to hide his sobs. Felix threw his hands in the air in exasperation and yelled at the boy.
"What the hell's the matter with Mickey Stovic fer Chrissake. He's a human bein' like the rest of 'em ain't he? He's got two eyes, two arms, two legs and a dick. What's so different about him that puts him in the Adams family?
Kyler turned his head towards Felix, who waited hands outstretched, impatient for an answer. The boy wiped his eyes and sniffled.
"You don't know him. He's got real bad habits. He stinks like he's not showered fer a month an' he don't get tired. He wants to go all the time. It's too much fer all night. Please don't make me do it."
"Come on, that ain't no crime. So the guy wants his money's worth, an' if he stinks so bad, take him a deodorant."
Kyler shook his head, "That ain't all. He's got real scary habits and his body's covered all over with hair so thick it's like bein' with a big shaggy dog."
Felix chuckled lightly as he gently shook the boy's shoulder. "What yer worried about? Are you scared you'll get fleas or maybe he'll lift his leg an' piss all over yer?" Felix laughed and his manner became lighter. "If he does, you can charge him fer extra's. His money's good and it don't carry no hairs. This'll be a walk in the park fer you. How many guys you been with now – forty, fifty, sixty maybe more since we started you off two years ago. This is just one more trick an' it's one you know already. ...It's yer own fault he wants you. You shouldn't have pleased him so much last time to make him want you again. Returning clients . . . you know what Kyler? That's the best sort of business, you don't have to go out an' find it; it comes straight to you. Returnin' business, I love it! And that's all it is – business, put everything else out of yer mind an' go get it over with; get doin' what you do so well fer 'im."
Kyler did not reply directly. He rolled over away from the man to bury his face in the mattress and mumbled. Felix could not pick up what the boy said.
He chuckled to convey his lighter mood. "What was that Kyler, I didn't catch what you said. You was chewin' the mattress at the time and you know what the mom's all say. Don't talk with yer mouth full." He ended with a forced, tinny laugh to maintain the easier atmosphere he hoped he'd set in the room.
Slowly, Kyler rolled himself over to sit on the bed.
"I said, 'That's it then, I'm through'." By the firm set of the boy's jaw and the determination blazing in his eyes Felix knew this was serious. All traces of bonhomie dropped from his own countenance to be replaced by the contemptuous sneer the boy recognised as the prelude to the man losing his self- control. Kyler knew what the man was capable of doing in that condition, but stuck to his guns and steeled himself for a tongue-lashing or the prospect of immediate physical violence.