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too. "'She's with him,' Steve said. 'It'll be worse,' he

predicted.

"Now my heart was really pounding, but in a

different way. It was more like a thump, a deep drum

vibrating my bones. I had a cold chill up and down my spine. I wasn't quite finished dressing when the door crashed open and Steve's father stood there,

wobbling and looking in at us.

"He was a big man, four or five inches taller

than Steve and probably forty pounds heavier, with

large facial features and a balding head His eyes were

a familiar bloodshot red and I thought to myself, all

drunks look alike. He had that same slobbering lip,

that same dazed, unsteady stance, that same stream of

madness running through his brain like a polluted

stream.

"'Well now, lookie here,' he declared. 'The boy

got himself some action.'

"'Shut up,' Steve told him

"His father laughed and then a small, buxom

woman came up beside him looking drunker than he

did, her hair down, her pearl white blouse open so that

her bosom was visible almost to the nipples. She had

dark freckles over her caramel cheeks. She was

attractive enough that I was surprised she was with

Steve's father. Steve had apparently gotten his good

looks mainly from his mother.

"His girlfriend laughed.

"'Well, let him be,' she said. 'He needs all the

experience he can get.'

"'That's for sure. It's about time he had a

girlfriend. I was beginning to think he wasn't all right,'