Free The Dark Descends by Diana Ramsay Page B

green around the gills."
    "Am I? It's no wonder. Here I've been thinking of the courts as my ace in the hole and now—It's like a sick joke."
    "Only not very funny. When you're a nobody like Joey or you or me, appealing to the law gets you about as far as appealing to the Lord. But don't just take my word for it. Check out the legal procedure. Maybe there's some angle Joey didn't find out about."
    "Maybe. It doesn't seem very likely, though. Thanks for cluing me in, Anita. I appreciate it."
    "Don't mention it. I know how you must feel." Anita's eyes narrowed, calculated visibly. "You know what I'd do in your place? Try getting a little of my own back. Not that it's any skin off my nose, but I hate to think of the bitch getting away with stuff like that over and over again. Why don't you put a good scare into her?"
    "That's a laugh. I'd like to know what would put a scare into Charlotte Bancroft, I really would."
    "You could get her rounded up on a narcotics charge."
    "Oh, come off it, Anita!"
    "Nothing easier, if you're interested. I've got a friend who could arrange it. For love. He's the quixotic type. Doesn't like to see people maneuvered into positions where they can't fight back, so he offers a big strong arm. Want me to start things rolling?"
    "No, of course not. What on earth do you take me—"
    "No need to get all uptight. It's not such a big deal. A question of planting a small cache of pot in her pad, that's all. Nothing much would happen to her. She'd probably get a suspended—"
    "And what do we do for an encore? Leave a calling card to let her know that Zorro will strike again if she doesn't watch her step? Forget it, Anita. It's out of the question."
    "Suit yourself. It's your headache." Anita's jaw was tight. “A word of advice, Joyce. When you live in the jungle, you have to do like the other animals do. You have to be flexible. If you're too rigid, you break. Keep that in mind."
    ...
    Childhood: the most hackneyed topic under the sun. Groans of protest when Kitty threw it into the ring. In response to a request, she said. Whose? Looking around the room, Joyce was unable to guess. Ten faces, all but Kitty's showing disdain. Somebody was faking. Somebody was absolutely dying to hear about everybody else's thumb-sucking and toilet training, unless Kitty was lying, which didn't seem likely.
    Veronica volunteered to lead off. No special problems with the toilet, but she had been a prodigious thumb-sucker until she discovered the more adult gratification of playing with her clitoris ("my ding-a-ling"). A couple of years of pure bliss ("didn't miss a night"), and then she was "caught wet-handed. Daddy came into my room one night to close the window—it was starting to rain—and I was too absorbed in bringing myself off to hear him. The next thing I knew he was screaming the house down, calling me a pervert, degenerate, and God knows what all else. The words were Greek to me, but he scared me out of my wits. I was sure I was such a monster the earth would open and swallow me up. My punishment was gruesome. I had to wear this huge bandage between my legs when I went to bed, and during the night my mother would make surprise inspections to see that it was still in place. Well, it didn't slow me down too much, but the psychological effect—You can imagine. By the time I had to make the Kotex scene I was a veteran of confinement, and I was pretty well brainwashed into believing that wearing all that uncomfortable gear over my privates was the only chance I had to preserve God knows what so I could become a decent woman. You know, when I first started wearing Tampax, I felt
guilty
."
    This last prompted a bit of discussion. Six of the other women said that they, too, had felt guilty about starting to wear tampons—an open admission that they weren't "nice girls" anymore, despite what the ads said. Rebecca confessed, in a small, shamed voice, that she had not begun using tampons until after she was married, and this