Therapist Ch. 04

It is Tuesday morning. Linda has not seen George since Friday morning. He promised her then to give her a date on when he was going to come over for dinner but she never got the chance to talk to him again Friday because she got caught up in her work.

When she got off Friday, she went to his department but one of his coworkers had said that he had just left for the day, moments before she got there. She didn't get to see him Monday either, again because of the extra work. She works the neonatal intensive care unit where four babies have been admitted since Friday.

So, as she rides the elevator up to her work station this morning, she debates with herself on whether he has been deliberately avoiding her. She tells herself no with the thought that it is probably just work. After all, he works on the fifth floor and she works on the seventh. True too, she has been very busy the past couple of days, with four babies having been added to NICU. She tells herself that she is going to make a special effort to see him today.

About nine o'clock there is a lull in the NICU so she goes to his department and asks him again if he's ready to set a date for their dinner. He is surprised to see her. He tells her to see him Wednesday that right now he has to go out to the University of New Orleans for a two day seminar on CPR. He will not be back at the hospital until Wednesday afternoon.

He gives her an excuse that he just doesn't want to set a date without sitting down and discussing it with her. He leaves glad that he did not have to answer her and hoping she will just forget about it.

George has no desire to run into Linda again. So when the seminar is over Wednesday afternoon, he does not check back at Ochsner; he goes straight to his home from UNO. But he is worried about returning to work Thursday. He is sure that Linda will hunt him down and corner him for a dinner date. He does not know what to do. He thinks of Donna; she would know what to do. Sitting at his kitchen table, he writes her a love letter.

At seven o'clock he goes next door for his usual Wednesday game of chess with Robert Pierce. They are sitting at a table in the den playing their second game. Next to them on the table there are two glasses and two empty plates with the remains of cherry pie on them. The glass next to Robert is empty; the one next to George still has some milk in it. Robert's wife Darlene is in the kitchen. Their two daughters, Alexandria and Alisa, are in the living room watching television.

"Bishop takes rook pawn, check. That's a sacrifice George. You're not going to be able to stop my attack. Your queen is out of position."

"Yes, I see that," George answers him.

"Looks like I've beaten you again. That's two in a row. What's wrong with you tonight? I don't think I've ever beaten you like this before in the two years we've been playing."

"My mind's on something else Robert. I'm not concentrating."

"No, I don't believe you are. Anything that I can help you with?"

"No, it's just a slight headache. Look, I'm going to call it a night, Robert. I'll feel better next week. Then you won't be so daring with your sacrifices."

"OK, George. Good night."

"Good night. Tell Darlene I said thanks for the cherry pie."

"I will."

No, tonight isn't a night that George wants to play chess. Nor is it a night that he wants to eat that bitch's cherry pie. Tonight George has other, more important things on his mind. He has to get Linda out of his thoughts. He hates that woman. He hates all women, especially Darlene.

"Women are only good for cleaning house and cooking and some of them aren't even good for that. Those kinds of bitches are only good for punishing for making his life so miserable." That's what George is thinking as he leaves Robert's house. That's why he has to go to the French Quarter and find himself another prostitute. Tonight he has to go out and find himself another whore to punish and to kill.

"They didn't find the first one, the one I threw into the river last week," he says to himself as he walks across the lawn between their two houses. He wonders why no one ever found it. He thinks of his mother and questions whether or not she took it and hid it like she hid his toy dinosaurs when he was a boy. Then he remembers that she is dead and laughs.

His ramblings continue, "But I won't make that mistake again. After I finish with this one I'm going to leave it on police Lieutenant Robert Pierce's front lawn. What will the bitch Darlene think about that? I wonder if she'll still want to bake a cherry pie once she seen the body? I hate that bitch."

"Come here Georgie Boy, I have a surprise for you."

"Please mother. Can't you see that I'm busy."

"Why Robert puts up with her I'll never know. Maybe he likes fucking her. I'd fuck her. I'd fuck her with a cattle prod up her pussy. See if she likes that. I hate that woman; I hate all women. They ain't good for nothing except punishing. They ain't good for anything except killing."

His thoughts are interrupted when he puts his hand into his pocket and realizes that he has left his keys on the table in his next door neighbor's house. He walks back across the lawn only to see Darlene coming out her front door with his keys in her hand.

"You'll need these won't you George," she says with a warm smile.

"Yeah, thanks Darlene," he smiles back.

"Robert said you weren't feeling well. Can I get you something? An aspirin maybe?"

"No thank you, all I need right now is some rest. I'll feel better in the morning. I'm going to bed early tonight," he lies.

"OK, good night. Hope you feel better."

"Good night," he answers, giving her another smile. He watches her go into her front door and then he heads for his side door around the corner and is glad he has gotten into the habit of using it instead of his front door. He has the corner house and using the side door prevents her and Robert from seeing him come and go.

Two and a half years earlier Robert and Darlene Pierce moved into the house next door to George Hoover. For two of those years he has been playing chess every Wednesday evening with Robert while Darlene does whatever she does to make herself happy and their two children do their homework or watch television or something.

He doesn't care what they do; he just enjoys beating Robert at chess. Robert is easy to beat. He's just a pawn pusher. But he hates that bitch. That bitch, that's how he has always referred to her in his thoughts. He hates the way she wiggles her ass when she walks, the way she talks, the way she combs her short cropped hair, the clothes she wears. He hates everything about that bitch.

Her blonde hair reminds him of his mother's short cropped blonde hair, another bitch. Also, Darlene is taller than him by at least four inches, just like his mother.

Why did his mother have to make him kill Donna? It was all his mother's fault. They were supposed to get married and raise a family. But she had to go and fuck everything up. She had to insist that they break up. She had to insist in having everything her way.

"You're not going back to that school to fuck some whore who'll only give you some kind of disease," he hears his mother scream at him for the millionth time.

"She's only a friend mother. We haven't had sex."

"Don't you talk back to me, you little bastard."

Oh Donna, Oh Donna. I had a girl Donna was her name. Since she left me I've never been the same, my mind is not the same.

Why didn't his mother just leave them alone? Why did Donna turn out to be just another whore?

"Someday," he laughingly says to himself, "I'm going to do that bitch Darlene just like I did those other whores. And my first one is still buried in her own precious flower bed along side the house."

He shakes his head in disbelief, "Imagine that, my mother the bitch is buried right under Darlene's bedroom window and that bitch doesn't even know it."

He gets into his car and drives toward the French Quarter so that he can get himself another whore to kill, so that he can forget about Darlene and his mother and Linda. On his way there he thinks about his mother. He wonders why no one ever questioned her disappearance. He does not care.

Oh mother, Oh mother. I had a mother who I killed one day. Since I killed her I've never been the same. Cause I killed my mother. Mother where can you be? Where can you be?

It is Thursday morning a few minutes before six. As he does every Thursday morning, George is putting out his garbage when he sees Robert come out his front door. The New Orleans police lieutenant seems to be in a rush. George ignores this and asks him why he is out so early. He knows that Robert rarely leaves his house before eight unless he is on a call.

"Some kids found a body in the river in the back of Audubon Park. From what the attending officers tell me, it looks like she's been in the water for about a week. But that isn't the worst of it. He beat her and tortured her before he killed her. I've got to go. Talk to you later."

"Yeah, I'll see you later Robert. Good luck."

"Thanks I'll need it."

"Is that my whore," George asks himself after the lieutenant has gone. "Is that the bitch I did last week? No, it can't be. I can't be that lucky that they've found my whore in such a short period. But then Robert said that she had been beaten before she was murdered. Oh, I hope it's my whore they found," he says ecstatically. "I'll have to ask Robert more about her when I see him again this evening."

In his excitement George forgets all about the rest of his garbage and goes back inside. He goes to the punishment room where his newest victim is handcuffed by her wrists to the cable running across the ceiling. Her ankles are shackled to the ends of the three foot long wooden poll which is attached by a chain to the nearby baseboard. Theodora Haggard is naked and gagged; her torn clothing is lying in a heap in the corner.

*************************************

When you get right down to it, Teddy, as all her friends call her, is really a victim of her father's hypocrisy. He is another right wing fundamentalist hypocrite who believes in American family values for everyone except himself. He is a deacon in his local church in Athens, Alabama. A little hole-in-the-wall town just west of Huntsville or Cuntsville as Teddy always calls it. She hates small town living; there is never anything to do.

Her dislike of Athens increased when she was thirteen. Her father took the family to New Orleans for a vacation. They stayed on a luxurious hotel right on the river. She loved the French Quarter. Even its name is exotic, the Vieux Carre'.

When the family got back off the vacation she started to read all about New Orleans and Mardi Gras on the Internet. She had never been to Mardi Gras; her father said it was debauchery and decadence at its extreme with all the fagots and drunks taking over the city.

But she discovered that just as the City That Care Forgot proclaimed, it was the greatest free show on Earth. She discovered that Mardi Gras is for the young, the old, families, straights, gays, lesbians, singles; Mardi Gras is for everyone.

She told herself that as soon as she got old enough to go on her own she was going to go to Mardi Gras. She couldn't wait to see the drag queen contests on Bourbon Street on Mardi Gras day.

Teddy's father never beat her, her younger sister or her two brothers, one older and one younger. In fact, life at home was fairly easy. When she was in high school she didn't even have a curfew like all her friends, although her father frowned on her if she came in after midnight.

The only reason she ever came in before midnight was because all her friends had curfews and she didn't like roaming around Athens or Cuntsville all by herself.

Nor did her father preach his brand of politics to her other than to repeatedly warn her about not having sex outside of marriage and going with the wrong crowd. But he never did tell her what the 'wrong crowd' consisted of other than those kids who take drugs and smoke marijuana. In these two admonishments lay her father's hypocrisy.

In the beginning of her senior year in high school she fell in love with Richard Chaney. They even talked of marriage after her graduation; he had graduated the year before. Although she hated Athens, she resigned herself to stay there with him and help him manage his father's local feed and hardware store.

Richard's father, looking towards retirement, told Richard that he would give the store to his only child when he got married. His father was 62 but married to a woman 25 years his junior.

Then just two weeks before her graduation Teddy's father was arrested for indecent exposure; a state policeman caught him having sex with a young man in the back of the family van.

The two of them were parked along the side of Interstate 65. The policeman handcuffed them both, brought them to jail and had the van towed to the police station. A search of the van produced four bags of marijuana and some drug paraphernalia.

The charge was increased to include possession with intent to distribute. A urine test proved positive for drugs. The local district attorney also wanted to charge him with driving while under the influence of a controlled substance but her father's lawyer got that charge thrown out since he wasn't driving at the time of his arrest.

He also got the intent to distribute charge dropped. But that didn't help her father's reputation one bit.

The Huntsville and the local newspapers had a field day with the story.

Richard's father -- a strict conservative himself -- told his son that he would not allow the daughter of a 'godless queer,' as he called Teddy's father, to inherit his feed and hardware store; he even refused to allow her to come into his store. He told Richard that he had to choose between marrying Teddy and inheriting the store. Richard chose the store.

It broke her heart. Her father broke her heart. The day after graduation she loaded her clothes and her few possessions in the back of her Jeep Cherokee and headed for New Orleans.

After two months her savings ran out and she turned to prostitution in order to pay her bills. Although she got arrested once for prostitution and had to pay a fine, she was making money and doing pretty good. For three years she enjoyed Mardi Gras and the sights of New Orleans. She fell in love with Professor Longhair's song, Go To The Mardi Gras.

Then she met George.

*************************************

Teddy's feet are shackled to the ends of a three foot long wooden poll. The poll is attached to a chain that is bolted to an eyebolt in the baseboard in the near wall. She is handcuffed at the wrists. The cuffs are looped through a large D ring which is attached to a cable. The cable is run through an eyebolt in the ceiling above her head and then across the room through a second eyebolt. From there the cable runs down the wall and is attached to the baseboard near the closet door.

Thus, just by loosing the chain attached to the wooden poll and then pulling on the cable, George can raise the woman he has chained up in the punishment room, or he can lower her and take the slack out of the chain, leaving her stretched across the floor and unable to move.

Teddy has been lying naked on the floor stretched out since George brought her here the previous evening, powerless to do anything except struggle against the cable and shackles.

When he enters the room she lets out a muffled scream. He ignores her.

He loosens the chain, walks over to the closet and pulls on the cable that is running across the ceiling, forcing her to stand up. He continues to pull on the cable until only her toes are touching the wooden floor. He hooks the cable in place. He walks over to her and grabs her by the hair, staring blankly into her face. She looks back at him bewildered and imploringly.

He punches her hard in the stomach several times. She squeezes her eyes shut, groans and gags, nearly vomiting.

Then he goes to the other side of the room and picks up the new leather whip. He beats her with it. She grimaces in pain and tries to turn away from the blows. But the shackles and cable prevent her from escaping his torment. He hits her again and again until she surrenders and hangs motionless and crying.

All the while he is beating her he curses his mother and Donna. He curses his mother for taking his precious Donna away from him and he curses Donna for being a whore.

Oh Donna, Oh mother. I had a mother Donna wasn't her name. Since she left me my mind's not the same. Cause I love my mother. Mother where have you gone? Donna where have you gone?

When he finally stops whipping Teddy, there are deep red welts all over her naked body, on her back, her buttocks, her legs, her arms, her breasts, her sides, her stomach and her vagina; several of them are bleeding. He throws the whip across the room and inspects the prostitute's wounds.

Then he picks up the ten inch piece of broomstick that he left on the floor and rams hard it into her vagina. The pain brings a muffled cry from deep within her throat. He pulls it out until only the tip is still within her and then he rams it hard back into her again. He watches her squirm in pain.

Again and again he rapes her with the wooden dildo, ignoring her muffled cries. He continues torturing and raping her until his arm is tired. Then he backs away from her, dropping the broomstick on the floor in front of her.

He hears his mother calling him, "Come here you little bastard."

He is suddenly filled with fear. He knows that his mother will 'cut it off' if she catches him with the naked prostitute. He calls to Donna to help him.

"I'm here George. Don't worry; I won't let the Snake hurt you anymore."

The prostitute moans weakly and George inspects her wounds again.

"You'll live," he tells her. Then he leaves the room and goes into the kitchen to fix himself some breakfast. He wonders whether or not he should cook up a bowl of oatmeal for the whore. He decides against it. She won't be alive long enough to enjoy it.

He fries himself some eggs and sausage. When he finishes he carefully puts the dirty dishes in the sink and goes to work.

He is a physical therapist at Ochsner Hospital. It does not take him long to get to work; it is only about a fifteen or twenty minute drive from Airline Park where he lives. He enjoys helping people learn how to reuse their limbs after an accident. It gives him a sense of accomplishment to see them succeed, to see them walking again or writing again.

George believes his job would be perfect if it were not for that bitch Linda. He hates that nurse. She's a few years younger than him. He's not sure but he believes she has only been employed about six weeks. But she is always putting her ugly nose into everybody's business, especially his business. Why she doesn't leave him alone he does not know.

"If that bitch doesn't leave me alone and keep her nose out of my business, I'm going to kill her too," he says to himself as he pulls into the employee parking garage.

About midmorning Linda goes to his department to ask him if he would like to join her for lunch. She wants to find out if he is avoiding a dinner date with her or is it her imagination.

George asks her where she would like to go to eat. He is hoping that maybe she will forget about asking him over to her house for dinner if he goes to lunch with her. She tells him that anywhere is OK and he suggests that they go to a nearby fast food restaurant. She agrees and they have lunch together.

At lunch she tells him that she has been divorced for about two years and is looking to fill a void in her life. She tells him that she hasn't dated since her divorce; George ignores the hint.