Shane and Carmen: The Novelization Ch. 09

Gradually, he drifted back out of sleep, vaguely aware that somewhere a woman was talking. No, not a woman. A girl.

For some reason he turned his head and opened one eye. He looked toward his computer desk, where the talking seemed to be coming from. His one eye vaguely captured the fact that Jenny's face was on his computer monitor, and she was talking to the camera, wherever it was.

"My name is Mary. And I'm fourteen years old, and I'm a virgin. My pussy's never been touched by a big cock before." That was what Jenny said into the camera, in the voice of a much younger girl.

It simply didn't register, and Mark rolled toward Vanessa and went back to sleep.

For about four seconds.

He woke up, one hundred percent alert.

What?

He flipped over and looked at the computer monitor.

"...and I want you to fuck me. Here's my pussy. I want you," Jenny said, speaking directly to the camera.

Mark sat bolt upright. How could she be speaking at and looking into the camera when she wasn't supposed to know there was a camera in her room?

" ... to take your big cock, and I want you to shove it up my ass. A boy has never seen my tits before."

Mark flew out of bed and ran to the computer. He turned off the monitor and turned down the speaker volume before it woke Vanessa. On second thought, he turned the computer off entirely. He glanced around, saw that Vanessa was still sleeping soundly. Quickly he grabbed his pants and climbed into them, commando. He found his shoes and slipped into them and quietly but quickly left the studio and ran into the house, and down the hall to Jenny's door.

***

Clad only in a pair of black panties, Jenny stood in front of her dresser mirror with a marker in her hand. She wrote on her own chest, "Is this what you want?"

Mark knocked urgently on her door. "Jenny?"

"Come in," she said calmly. She turned toward the door and puts her hands on her hips. The door opened cautiously, and Mark began speaking before he got far around the door.

"Jenny, you have no idea what's --" He stopped when he saw her topless, with those words printed on her chest. "No, this is not what I want," he said, closing the door behind him. "Jenny, you have the wrong idea about this, please."

Jenny ignored him. She put the marker down on her dresser and began to get dressed. Mark saw that his video camera was sitting on the edge of the dresser, and that's what Jenny had been talking into.

"Is that my camera?"

"Yeah," Jenny said, "and I'm gonna use it now."

Mark saw the Shane/Carmen Love Confession video sitting on the dresser. "And that's my tape of Shane and Carmen."

"I don't really think that's your tape," Jenny said, pulling on a pair of pants.

"Look. I know what you think of me right now. I know that I don't have a very good track record with things I've made but I wanna make a documentary --"

"You have violated us," Jenny said quietly. "You are violating us."

"I know," Mark said. Jenny's utter calm had him totally spooked. By rights this woman should be screaming at him. She should be hysterical. Instead, she sounded like that Whatshername chick, the one in The Exorcist. Linda Blair.

"You have crossed every line of trust," Jenny said. "And don't you dare tell me this is for the sake of art."

"Please. Watch my documentary. You know me. You'll understand. It's not what you think it is. I know that I crossed the line. I know that I went too far with this."

Now that she was dressed Jenny picked up the video camera and started to film Mark as he pleaded his case.

"Look, when I moved here, this was just something I did, you know, but, you have to know --"

"Do you have any sisters?"

Mark was caught off guard with the question. "Yes, I have two younger sisters."

"Okay. I want you to ask them a question." Jenny put the camera back down on her dresser. "And the most important thing is that you really listen to their answer. I want you to ask your sisters about the very first time that they were intruded upon by some man, or a boy."

"What makes you think my sisters have been intruded upon?

For the very first time Jenny showed a little bit of emotion, a little anger. "Because there isn't a single girl or woman in this world that hasn't been intruded upon and sometimes it's relatively benign, and sometimes it's so fucking painful."

Mark had nothing. He looked at the floor.

"But you. Have no idea. What this feels like."

Mark swallowed. He truly did look sorry. Jenny was inclined to believe she was making points, but wasn't about to let him off the hook. Oh, no.

"For what it's worth," he said, "I had already begun taking down the cameras and I will finish taking down the rest of them today. I'm gonna go tell Shane now what I've done, and you guys can --"

"No," Jenny said sharply.

" -- you don't ever have to speak to me again, I'm gonna pack my shit --"

"I said no."

"- and I'll move out --"

"You're not gonna talk to Carmen. And you're not gonna talk to Shane. You're not gonna wreck their vacation, which starts tomorrow. They are going on that cruise with Dana and Alice, and you're not going to put a damper on it, or upset them, or give them any reason to cancel. Quite simply, you're not gonna fuck with their lives anymore. And I'm gonna decide when you can take those rapey cameras down."

Mark stared at the floor and nodded.

"Now get the fuck out of my room," she said in that same quiet, cold voice that scared the shit out of him. He half expected her head to do a 360 on her neck. After a moment he realized they were done. Without looking at her he turned and left her room.

***

An hour later Jenny sat cross-legged on her bed, with Mark's video camera pointed at her. She was surrounded by old books, old notebooks, and dozens of very old black-and-white photos of her family back in the Old Country before World War II. Jenny put down a photo she was looking at, and looked into the camera.

"Hi, mom," she began. "As you can see, I have all our family pictures here and I'm videotaping this because I have a couple of questions for you about Zayde," the Yiddish word for one's grandfather.

She picked up one of the old photos of an old man in a long, white beard. An older woman stood at his side. Jenny rubbed her thumb over the picture of the old man.

"I would like to know if Zayde lost his mind when he began to transcribe the Torah by hand, or did that cause him to lose his mind. Do you remember the day they took him away? And then I wanted to ask you questions about Grandma."

She picked up another old photo, this one of a middle-aged man and woman with an infant between them. She held it up for the camera, then looked at it. "Or Grandma, if you're watching this, I wanted to ask you questions about your experience in Auschwitz. I wanted to know if, when you arrived in Auschwitz, did they separate you from your daughter?" Jenny's voice broke with emotion and she had to gather herself for a moment before she could proceed. "And I wanted to know if you remember the name of the Unterscharfuhrer who took your arm and branded you with that tattoo. Do you remember his eyes? Do you remember if he used a steel plate for the number --"

There was a knock at her bedroom door, but she continued, "-- or did he use a needle?"

She looked sadly at the photo in her hands. Her bedroom door opened and Carmen came in.

"I'm - I'm really sorry to interrupt. I heard you talking, making a tape or something. I just... wanted to say hello to you, but you know what, I can come back at another time if, um --"

Jenny never moved, and didn't even turn around to face Carmen. "No, it's okay," she said quietly.

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah. I'm just working on a project about my family."

"Wow." Carmen said, noting all the books and photos. She found an open corner of the bed and sat down. Jenny smiled and handed her a large photograph.

"This is my family."

"Oh, my goodness."

Jenny pointed to the camera, which was still running. "And I'm making a tape for my mom. Mom, say hi to my friend Carmen."

Carmen smiled, looked into the camera and made a little wave. "Oh, um, hello, Mrs. Schecter." She giggled.

Jenny handed Carmen another photograph. "And that is my mom."

"She's beautiful," Carmen said.

Jenny nodded, but her smile seemed to fade.

Carmen thought it might be a good idea to change the subject. "Um, have you packed for our cruise?"

"No."

"Do you want me to help you start or something?"

"No. I totally forgot. I've just been so engrossed in this project. And I'm really into it, so I've decided I'm not gonna go on the trip." She made a faint sniffling sound.

Carmen wiped away the tear that rolled down Jenny's cheek. Jenny looks at her photos.

"I want you to go away with Shane," Jenny said.

"What?" Carmen asked, more alarmed than surprised.

"Yep."

"With Shane? Wha --"

"Because I think you guys will have a blast together," Jenny said, wiping her nose and blotting her eyes with her hand.

"Jenny, absolutely not! You are not going to pull out of this!"

"You know --"

"No excuses!" Carmen cut her off. "No. You're coming."

"This is not an excuse," Jenny said. "When Burr Connor fired me last week, he just - the best thing that came out of that experience was, he was like, you gotta tell the truth about your life, and you have to be truthful about your work, and that's all I wanna do is just tell the fucking truth and I --"

"All right, all right, all right, okay, okay, fine, fine," Carmen said, getting upset herself. "Well, here's a truth. I would like to go with my girlfriend on that cruise. So, you know --"

Jenny looked at Carmen for the first time. "Who's that? Who's your girlfriend?"

"It's you," Carmen said firmly. She and Jenny both heard someone come into the house from the back yard.

"Please, just tell me the truth."

Shane came down the hall and stuck her head in Jenny's doorway.

"Hey, Shane, c'mere," Jenny said, her mood suddenly changing and lightening up.

Shane came into the room and leaned against a bureau. Her antennae were furiously gathering data, and she knew she'd interrupted some sort of conversation, some ... moment, and it didn't seem to be a happy one. The noise level in her head started climbing. Jenny: Had been crying. Was trying to make it seem happy. Lot of stuff on the bed. Camera. Camera red light on. Carmen: Nervous. Not embarrassed, exactly, but caught in the middle of something. Not romance, not anything like that. Had they been talking at all about Carmen's conversation from the other night? Carmen looking delectable, as always. Her face tight and concerned. God, she looked so kissable when she was worried or concerned about something. Made Shane want to comfort her. Lot of stuff to process. Data coming in. Body language. Inflections. Noise.

Carmen turned to her. "Okay, um, I have something to tell you. This one right here" -- she pointed to Jenny -- "she doesn't want to go on the cruise."

"What?"

"Not going," Jenny said quietly.

"You're going on that cruise," Shane said. She very seldom used any sort of command voice, but this was a close as it got. It was a statement of authority.

"I'm not going."

"Yes, you are."

"No I'm not. I don't want to. You know why? I'm actually working on something that's important to me and I just don't want to fuck around anymore and I want to be serious about my work."

A great deal of the noise in Shane's head died down, now that she had a grasp on what was going on. Without knowing it, her brain shifted into one of the things it did best, because it was instinctive: people handling.

"Okay," Shane said, shrugging and changing her attitude entirely to one of casual acceptance. "If you're not going, I'm not going."

"What?" Carmen exclaimed.

Shane moved to head for the door.

"Uh!" Jenny said.

"Wait a minute! No! Come back!" Carmen called.

"Come back here!" Jenny echoed.

Shane had reached to door and was halfway into the hall when she stopped and turned around. Slowly she came back into the doorway, and leaned against the door jamb.

"If you don't go," Carmen began, talking to Shane, "and you don't go," talking to Jenny, "then I'm not gonna go, and I wanted to go! And - and - and - I guess Dana and Alice are gonna have to be pissed because no one's gonna go!"

"Oh, my God!" Jenny said, burying her face in her arms.

"I'm not gonna go!" Carmen repeated in her own command voice.

Jenny knew when to give up. "I'm gonna go! I'm gonna go!" she laughed.

Shane stepped forward and gave Jenny a high-five.

"We're gonna be a fucking threesome, man!" she laughed.

Carmen smiled and joined in the rejoicing, but in the back of her mind there was hesitation over this threesome business. She hoped the term was just a figure of speech.

***

Shane had almost completed packing for the cruise and was on the verge of getting undressed and going to bed earlier than her usual night-owl bedtime because of the early pickup tomorrow morning when there came a knock on her door.

"Come in," she called out, and the door opened. Mark stuck his head in tentatively. Shane continued packing, and Mark cleared his throat. Shane turned around, expecting Jenny. She twitched in surprise when she saw who it was.

"Hey."

"Hey," Mark said.

"Hmph. You scared me."

"How's the packing coming along?"

Shane knew he didn't come to ask her how her packing was going. "What's up with you?"

Mark hesitated, then launched into what was obviously a prepared speech. "You're liable to hear shit about me while you're gone, and since I won't be there to defend myself, I just ... I don't want you to think I'm a total asshole."

"What'd you do?"

"Can't tell you. I'm sorry. I promise you you'll find out eventually, though."

"You're being really intense and cryptic right now."

Mark shrugged. "Yeah, well, it's my style -- really intense and cryptic. It's how I get all the ladies."

Shane smiled, and returned to her packing.

"Yeah. Shane ... I just want you to know that ... that I'm your friend."

Shane turned back to him again, surprised and trying to figure out what the hell he was saying. There was a lot of information coming in, body language, tone of voice, his appearance, his eyes, which tended to avoid her.

Finally she figured out something to say. "I'm your friend, too."

Mark nodded, smiled faintly. He made a casual hand gesture, sort of thanks, or good night or who knows what.

"'Night," he said, adding at the last moment, "Bon voyage."

"Thanks," Shane said. "'Night."

She stared at the door after he'd left, wondering what that was all about.