Free The Dark Place by Sam Millar Page A

and well-known surgeon.”
    “You’re not talking about Sir Paul Hannah?” interrupted Karl. “Used to be the chief surgeon at the Royal Victoria Hospital?”
    “Yes … yes, that’s him. Of course, he wanted his son, Robert – or Bobby, as we called him – to follow in his footsteps, but unfortunately Bobby had no penchant for medicine –
at the time
– and was much more interested in owning his own Hollywood movie studio or messing about with his amateur magician’s box, much to his parents’ dismay.”
    Both Karl and Naomi leaned slightly closer to Ivana, as if having difficulty hearing the words coming from her mouth.
    “Bobby was a … strange boy, a loner,” continued Ivana. “He wasnever without his movie camera, posing as a big shot director, boring the knickers off everyone he encountered. Unfortunately for me, my father forced me to play with him on weekends because he thought it would keep him in his job as gamekeeper.”
    “That must have been horrible for you, Ivana,” said Naomi, reaching out and holding Ivana’s hand.
    “It wasn’t too bad at the start, darling. Bobby was an insufferable bore, but he had lots of money and was always buying buckets of sweets and cream cakes, all of which he used in an attempt to manipulate me into liking him. He was rather plump – like his mother – and always managed to devour more than his share, and even though I had a terrible sweet tooth, his eating habits always put me off. It was like watching a greedy little pig, tiny teeth sawing into the cakes, the cream plastered to his face.” Ivana placed her hand over her mouth and coughed loudly. “You’re both probably thinking I have a cheek to talk about anyone?”
    “For fuck sake, Ivana, you’ve called me worse things than being fat and a greedy pig,” said Karl impatiently, “so let’s not get bogged down on childhood sensitivities. What else can you tell us about Bob the Plasterer?”
    “Karl’s right, Ivana,” encouraged Naomi. “We were all probably little snot noses growing up, teasing each other terribly.”
    “Thank you, darling, though I doubt very much that you would fit into that category. You’re just being your usual sweet self. Anyway, one day we were down in the basement of their large house, doing so-called filming with his camera and mucking about with his magic tricks, when suddenly all the lights went out. Fused or something like that. Suddenly, Bobby volunteers to get a torchlight. ‘Hold this,’ he said. I reached into the darkness and he dropped his magic wand right into my hand, laughing. It wasn’t his magic wand, though, but his dick.”
    Karl almost fell off the chair.
    “It was the first time I felt a real dick,” claimed Ivana. “I mean, I’d felt my own, of course – before it went for the chop – but it was the first time I had ever held another
boy’s
. It was thrilling, and like magic, it changed me for ever, releasing all those feelings I had suppressed. The lie I had been living was finally crushed, and soon I discovered that Iliked boys, I liked holding and sucking their dicks.”
    “
Ahhhhh
. That’s lovely, Ivana,” responded Naomi, almost motherly, looking as if she had just heard the greatest love story ever told. “Lots of boys go through that stage in their life, but for you it was probably a calling. Isn’t that true, Karl?”
    Karl remained motionless, sitting in the chair, fixed and hushed, momentarily undone by Ivana’s brutal honesty. He wished Naomi would stop bringing attention to him. In all honesty, the thought of sucking a dick, even if that dick had a vagina or would-be vagina parked next door to it like Ivana’s, was totally unappealing. For fuck sake, he wouldn’t even suck his own dick – not that he was boasting the possibility.
    To Karl’s great relief, Ivana continued.
    “Bobby had a secret shoebox full of photos of naked women. No one was permitted to see them. But one day, I stumbled upon them accidentally. Tiny