The Lost Highway

"Are you good at catching rabbits?" Rick asked, ignoring what Tom had said.

Fran broke in, she had to say something. She'd show him she could be calm too:

"Tom catch rabbits?" That's a laugh. He'd avoid killing a snail out of choice."

"Well, we've got to eat otherwise we'll starve. I've only enough stock for one and that'll last me two days."

"We don't need to eat, Rick. Just let her go and we will be off." Tom begged.

Rick snarled: "Now that wouldn't be very polite of me. Shoving you off just as I'm getting to know you. Especially with your wife here. Got to sample the goods"

He turned to Fran, his eyes dropping, taking her all in.

"Well I guess when you two get hungry you will kill a rabbit or two," Rick grunted.

For the next half hour or so the threesome just squatted silently. Occasionally Rick eyeballed Fran then turned smiling to Tom. One guy to another Tom knew exactly what that smile meant and his mind was working overtime trying to figure out a solution.

"Truth is, I'm generally shy of girls," Rick announced, abruptly breaking the silence. "But with Fran here - I feel I know her. She's been in films, I've seen her. Guess she denies it because she shuns publicity."

"Fran's not even interested in acting," Tom ascertained. "She works in natural history."

"You don't have to act to be in films not in the kind of films I mean and I can teach her a lot about natural history," Rick intervened with that wicked smile again.

"Now you are insulting Fran," Tom yelled angrily. "She would never do that for a living"

Then, perhaps, Tom-tom, there's something you don't know about," suggested Rick. "I've seen her and what she did and that's fine with me."

Tom turned to Fran but she just sat quietly, putting her finger against her lips and gently nodding her head sideways. She went along with the idea that there just had to be a way out and considered she could only go along with this and wait for an opportunity to escape. She'd find his weakness then she'd pounce with all her feminine know how.

Tom was thinking on similar lines. Keep the guy calm and take it from there. But the thought of him touching Fran would be too much; he'd have to do something, even kill the guy if necessary.

He heard Fran's words in his mind concerning his reluctance to kill even a snail. Now he was thinking about killing a human being!

Fan broke the silence now. She needed to relieve herself urgently. Asked Rick what the arrangement was.

"The arrangement is for you to struggle behind the aperture in those rocks behind, and do the necessary. There's an underground stream below from which I get fresh water so it's fairly hygienic. It also avoids the shaft getting flooded at this level."

"You're quite an intelligent guy, Rick," complimented Tom in his quest to find a solution through the process of conversation. But his efforts were ignored. He noticed with some concern that Rick's head was turned facing the area where Fran had moved.

"Rick!" Tom tried again to attract his attention.

"Sorry Tom. I guess it is something to do with living out here in the wilds. Watching animals pay so much attention to bodily functions. I guess I must have Sweetie Pie now."

"You can't do that, she's my wife. You are flirting with death, fella!"

Tom was really enraged.. Standing up and trying to bend the steel canopy above him in his endeavour to find a way through.

Rick just looked at him open mouthed: "Sorry, mate. It's just the call of nature after all. Like Sweetie going for a pee. That's what got me thinking about it in fact. Look, you can either watch or go away for a few minutes because me and she are going to be busy.

"Think of it this way, mate. You had yours last night and it's been twelve months since I had a woman."

In a frail attempt to stop Rick Tom threw a large rock aiming for the head. It slammed into the steel caging and fell heavily to the ground.

Rick just stood there and laughed: "Well, you've certainly got guts, Tom-tom but I would not suggest you try that again because I may decide to be really nasty to Sweetie. I'm simply going to have a nice cosy time with her so take it easy".

"What makes you think she wants you?"

"She will, I've seen it in her eyes. A guy knows these things, you know that - or perhaps you don't. Besides she knows it's for her own good."

Fran knew the score. Knew what she must endure. If there was a way out of it she would find it. She would try. But failing all else she gesticulated to Tom just to be calm and wait. There was simply no other solution.

It was hard but he would stay. He certainly couldn't leave her now. At least he would be there.

As Rick started to kiss her gently and find the zip of her top Fran tried all the things women do to avoid an unwanted union. This was looking as though it was pure rape yet he was so gentle, so tender with her that is did not seem like that at all. But she noticed a rapid change in his mood when she did try to resist and felt he was on the edge of being much worse than a gentle lover: forceful but gentle. She conceded she'd have to submit and asked him to be kind to her.

"Like this?"

Tom cradled his face in his hands, hardly daring to look at the predicament that Fran had got herself into. If only she'd waited for him earlier before coming inside of this spooky place.

But the sounds were apparent and the end could not come quickly enough. Tom was almost in tears; his frustration was driving him mad. Poor Fran, what did she do to deserve this.

"Are you alright, Fran?" Tom yelled afterwards. She just put her fingers to her lips again and nodded, as if reassuring him she was okay.

"You have chosen well in Sweetie, Tom-tom," Rick blurted. "She is a delight and I look forward to sharing many more with her. You've read the Kama Sutra, Tom-tom?"

For a brief moment Fran and Tom exchanged glances again and there was just a hint of a stupid idea in his mind that maybe she enjoyed it. But it was crazy thinking. Fran was in a catch 22 situation and so, he reassured himself, she had to simulate the part. She was obviously playacting. He admired her for taking it so calmly. But she was always philosophically endowed.. But he was relieved to know that Rick had taken her kindly.

He figured that for Fran, the only way she could cope was by turning off. Not to think about it. She too was relieved Rick was gentle after the punishment he had earlier dished out. She

Just loved Tom and sex was relative to her love for him. Without love it was irrelevant for her. It was like just going through the emotions of a physical unemotional act with another guy.

"Okay, Rick, you've had your way with Fran so now you can let her go. You must know she loves me; there is absolutely no future for you with Fran. Isn't that right, Fran?"

Tom was reasoning with Rick, hoping she would give the message to him and that he would now see sense.

But Rick was adamant that Fran had feelings for him, kept on muttering that she had come deliberately come for him, knowing where she could find him.

The guy was crazy, irrational and needed urgent treatment. Fran knew it and Tom knew too.

The rest of the day passed slowly. Some conversation came from Rick. Tom used all his know how attempting to find out what this guy was all about. Was he on the run, what were his plans and so on?. But not much information was coming out of his mouth.

Tom figured that as the evening closed in, perhaps an opportunity for rescue and escape may arise. When Fran felt it was alright, he went back to the car to get some food and drink and, to see if there was anybody around out there. But no luck, he could not see another soul.

He returned and pushed some tucker through the bars for Fran to pick up. When she did that, when she came so close to him, just the other side of the bars; she whispered that he should not be concerned, that she would find a way to catch him off guard and then they could make for their escape.

After they had eaten Rick threw a blanket out to Tom saying he would need it, that it got mighty chilly in the night that he could spare one of his anyway because he had Sweetie to keep him warm. Then he dowsed the light.

But Tom knew he would not sleep very well.

He was stirred several times during the night by the familiar sounds given to copulation and he remembered Rick's reference to the Kama Sutra. Once more he felt sickened by the whole situation. Frustrated that he was a stone's throw away from Fran, yet unable to do anything to ease her burden and worrying about what all this would do to her. Okay they had been living together for two years before they were hitched but he knew her desires, her likes and dislikes.

But they loved each other; everything between them had been shared under the cloak of a very deep and meaningful loving relationship. Here was a complete stranger taking his wife, taking something which was his.

During the latter part of the night he heard those familiar sounds again. But it was different now, not like before when Fran was obviously under duress - telling Rick she did not like doing this or that: going through his mind constantly the thought of what that might be. There were certain things that he knew Fran disliked.

But now the quiet protests were absent but he could still hear the sounds. He was imagining it all, that's it. Yet the sounds of pleasure came not only from Rick but from Fran too.

He heard the sounds she made during their oral encounters, when she sucked him so fervently, Fran made no secret about how she loved to suck cock, it was divine, soothing and a great way to get primed for the ultimate fuck. In fact once she started it was hard to get her to leave off, so that he had enough erection left to finish the love in.

Those sounds were obvious and he knew she was enjoying him right now.

Tom recognised the sounds given of Fran only too well. This was too much. He shouted out and ignited his cigarette lighter: "What are you doing, Fran?"

His imaginings seemed to be correct, confirmed in the yellow glow. He saw Fran's head rise as if in a trance. They were both naked on a mattress sprawled across the floor. He saw Rick's head rising and falling and then hers. How could she do that!

How could she be so benevolent to him?

Yet the flickering flame of his lighter was casting many shadows which were constantly moving. It was as if his mind was delving and emerging into the shadows, conjuring pictures that could be false. Could she be drugged? He speculated. That's it, that's why she's acting that way, the bastard has drugged her, that can't be the real Fran. She has to be devoid of her true senses. His mind was working overtime again. But this was the only feasible explanation. Several times during the night, when he managed to doze, he had been stirred. But now this: it was ugly, it was unbearable. He begged with Fran to pull herself together, did she not know what she was doing with a complete stranger.

But there was no reply.

Tom was relieved to see the light of dawn, sending beams of sunlight through the top of the mine shaft. He saw Rick stirring and told him it was unfair to have put Fran through all that, something she had never gone through before.

But Rick ignored Tom and turned to Fran: "Your Tom-tom, he's so naive isn't he? And he's supposed to be your lover?"

He turned to Tom now: "Of course she has done it all before, tell him, Sweetie Pie, She's done everything. You are a really sad guy. I can tell you she is a really experienced girl. Nothing we have done during this wonderful night was by instinct alone so you'd better face up to that, Tom-tom. Better go off and play your drum elsewhere. Can't you tell? She prefers me. I make love to her like no other man does. I make her feel like a real woman, knowing how she likes to be dominated. She has whispered all those things into my ear which makes me believe you have been nothing to her. Better go off, Mr nearly man, go and check your masculine attributes. Are you a real man for instance? Not from what Sweetie Pie tells me."

"Fran, Fran: what is this idiot saying?"

Fran looked up only when Rick pulled away from her, as if still in a trance: pulling a blanket over herself. Tom saw how she grabbed Rick's arm: attempting to hold him there. Almost, almost as if she was pleading her assailant not to leave her. Like she was unaware of her husband's presence.

"Has he given you drugs, Fran? I cannot accept what he is saying is true. If this is a ploy, darling you really don't have to go to these extremes.

But Fran remained silent, her eyes half closed.

"Of course she hasn't been drugged," Rick contended, "at least not by me. I don't need drugs

But from what I hear, you bloody well do: just to love a woman the way she needs to be loved. And you saying she's innocent of what she has enjoyed with me. I told you about those films didn't I? Well, you ought to talk to Sweetie Pie about her past. How she made porno's in Canada, how surprised she was to discover they were on sale here when she was assured they were only intended for the Japanese market. Her thinking that nobody over there would recognise her. But it's a small world. I remembered her and the wild frantic fantasies I then had started to come true."

"When did she tell you that? I can't believe that of Fran, not Fran" muttered Tom.

Rick added; "Little whispers in my ear, during the night? Right, Sweetie Pie?"

At last Fran spoke. She issued her words carefully and told Tom it was all true. That she never wanted to tell him for obvious reasons. When she met Rick, she felt love for the first time, Real love and no way did she want to risk losing it.

"I guess I haven't changed. Tom. It would have come out eventually. Already I have my doubts about you. Your interests are not my interests as you always assume. Rick here is no maniac. I feel I know him and he is not a bad guy. He has simply escaped from the rat race out there and this is how he has chosen how to live. I can help him gather himself again. He needs me much more than ever you will need me, Tom. I'm sorry but that's how it has to be."

"Good for you, Sweetie Pie. That's telling him. Got the message, Tom-tom? Get on your way, mate and don't return. She and me need more time to ourselves. We have got a lot of learning to do about each other and a lot more of what we have already been doing, right, Sweetie Pie?"

Fran lifted her head to reach Rick's and kissed him passionately, slipping her hand around the back of his neck, pulling him down...

Rick looked up ate Tom, reached to lift something from a drawer in his locker and threw a small brown envelope out to Tom.

"Perhaps these will convince you, Mr nearly man."

Tom opened the envelope and pulled out some photographs. They were clearly pornographic but no way could he ascertain the girl was Fran. A certain likeness, yes but it wasn't Fran doing those gross things. Then, seeing the third picture Tom realised: .the girl had a scar on her right thigh. It wasn't Fran and he immediately denied that it could be Fran.

"You should see the videos then. They be a little clearer, you can see her moles too. But you will have to visit the local pub for that. The George it's called. We have a special viewing in the back room every Friday evening. But with me here having the real thing I don't think I'll bother this week. If you want further proof, just mention my name to Dave the landlord on Friday. He'll show you."

Rick turned to Fran once more, telling her to say out loud the things she was whispering in his ear during the night.

"No need," Fran assured, Rick. "You have got me now; you have no need to prove anything to him just to keep me. That comes voluntary, darling."

It was as if Rick had changed her. She was no longer the woman he knew or even wanted to know. It had all been a big mistake. It was Just one big horrible mistake. But he knew it would still be hard to get over her.

Tom could take no more. Either he had gone completely berserk or Fran had. He still had his reservations and had no intention of giving up that easily.

"I'll be back, make no mistake. I bet the police want to know your whereabouts and what about you kidnapping Fran?"

"What's he on about, Sweetie Pie.. You did come to see me didn't you? You know where your bread's buttered and who will treat you the way you want to be treated."

Tom could take no more. He made his way back to the exit. He had a lot of thinking to do. He needed time and space to work it all out.

Tom's eyes stung as he reached the exit of the mine shaft, the strong rays of morning sun now beaming through. He tried starting the car just in case, but there was no response and anyway, the battery was flat. He looked behind him - imagining it had all been a bad dream

And there was Fran scurrying after him.

But he needed to be positive. He started walking.

He needed help to get to Fran. . He walked on for a mile roughly, still occasionally glancing behind, just in case Fran had got away and seen the note he'd left on the windscreen, saying which direction he had taken. In the starkness of the day he was now convinced that it had all been part of Fran's plan, to make out she was in love with Rick.

But still there was no sign of life, it was a baron place.

An hour later he was relieved to see a dust cloud rising in the distance. He soon made out that a Land Rover was heading his way. He started to run, sweating profusely under the hot sun. When the vehicle arrived it stopped abruptly and four men in army uniform jumped out. One, a sergeant was ahead of the rest and wore an angry expression.

"What the hell do you think you are doing trespassing on Ministry of Defence Property? This is listed as a dangerous restricted zone and any moment now all hell will let loose when the army commence manoeuvres."

"Manoeuvres. Restricted property? That explains all," Tom yelled.

"You are under arrest," the sergeant advised, "we need to know what you are doing here, didn't you see the sign?"

"All In saw, sergeant was a sign indicating Brickspan Highway."

"He's right," a corporal broke in, "I've got it over the radio. We seem to have had visitors over the weekend that have dispelled with the MOD sign and replaced it with the one he saw: Brickspan Highway."

"That's what the yanks nicknamed this place during the war," the sergeant recalled, "someone's idea of a joke no doubt. Well, sir, it seems my apologies are due. You're not a yank are you?"

"No, I'm a Canadian, visiting Britain on honeymoon."

"Honeymoon?" the sergeant queried. "So where's the wife. Broken up already have we?"

Tom explained what had happened and said his wife was in crucial danger.

"Double crucial danger, sir. They are about to blow up that mine any minute. Corporal, get on to HQ. Stop the missiles!"

"Too late, sergeant they are on their way."

"Firkin hell!"

"Then let's get the hell out of here. We are not in the immediate vicinity but we have to scarper at the double. Come on, sir, jump into the vehicle quickly."

Tom was stunned as the Land Rover sped away. Then they heard the explosions behind them, clouds of surging black dust and smoke belching up in the distance.

The vehicle stopped at a safe distance and the occupants turned to take in the scene.

"That was the old mine just went up, sir. You sure your wife was in there?"

Tom was not afraid to hold back the tears. The sergeant didn't need an answer.

"Sorry, sir but this other guy, the one you said was holding your wife. What was he like; can you give us a description? ... All in your own time, sir. It could be that after you'd left the mine he pulled out too, if he knew what was good for him. Let's look on the bright side, sir shall we. Now what about this guy's description?"