Shelton Family Saga

Chapter 21

Too Hot
February 1978

Vaniti decided she'd had enough of the bullshit with Madam Lottie. She didn't know who was more ruthless, Madam Lottie or her son Big Star. Following that night at the motel and witnessing what Big Star did to Charlene, she knew a change had to be made. Things had gotten so far out of hand. Vaniti swore she would never forget it. To make matters worse, when they had gotten back, Big Star was telling Madam Lottie all about it. Vaniti just knew Madam Lottie wouldn't stand for it. Madam took very good care of her whores. They were her money makers and she didn't tolerate ANYONE messing with her paper, but Vaniti was wrong. As Big Star gave his mom the most descriptive account of what had taken place, Madam Lottie just laughed. It was the same nefarious laugh Big Star used when he threw lye and malt liquor in Charlene's face as she screamed. Vaniti couldn't stand it. It made her nauseated to her stomach witnessing how ruthless Madam Lottie had become. She knew right then and there things were about to change forever. She just needed to find a way out of that hellhole way of life and quick. She went off to her room and took a Valium drifting off into a hazy sleep. She couldn't recall much after that, and didn't know if it was late night or early morning. All she knew is she was in the car with Big Star and he was driving as fast as his Cadillac would go. He was pissed off, and she had never seen him so irate. They came into some little town, but Big Star had the Caddy rolling so fast, she didn't get to read the sign. They drove out to a wooded area, and although Vaniti didn't know what state they were in, she did know they were at another one of Madam Lottie's whorehouses. When Big Star parked the car and they stepped inside the rustic old cabin through a side door, she was sure of it. She couldn't believe her eyes as this was some different kind of material. She wanted to turn and run out of there, but she knew better; yet, the sight was unbearable. An unbelievable train wreck of a hot mess. What the fuck is going on here, she screamed inside her own head. Is this a bootleg theatrical play? Why are all these men and women dressed like this? Why are they twirling horsewhips? The place was filled with naked men who were oiled from head to toe with their bodies covered in Lard. They slithered across the floor with whip marks all over their bodies. There were so many of them and they were all wearing different styles of dog collars. Peering down hard, she could see some of the collars were spiked and others were blinged out with big gaudy rhinestones, but they were all attached to chain link leashes with a few of the men even wearing muzzles. At the end of the leashes were their masters, which were a variety of Madam's whores dressed in occupational garb. Some of the women were dressed as doctors, others were pilots and some were auto mechanics. They not only dressed the part, but carried along the accompanying props. It was a barbaric sight. Vaniti felt like her eyes were singed from the sight of it, and she blinked hard to keep her eyeballs from erupting right out of their sockets. She hurriedly looked in a different direction across the room of the small cabin. She eyed some massively thick and dirty brown cobwebs that dangled down from up above. As she began to walk in the direction she was viewing, she gradually began to make out that the weird looking cobwebs dangling in front of her were actually two ropes tethered from the wooden beams that ran along the rafters. The two ropes extended all the way down from the rafters to about two feet from touching the floor, and they had not one, nor two, but THREE naked people sandwiched together through a double lasso at the bottom of it. As the trio wildly engaged in a ménage à trois, Vaniti noticed the only thing the female of the three wore were impossibly tall iridescent silver stilettos and white lace g-string crotchless panties. She was vivaciously riding the guy on the bottom as she was being penetrated from behind by the guy on top of her. The voyeuristic sight of it was something like a three ring circus. Vaniti peeled her eyes away to look in a different direction, and started walking as quickly as she could away from what she had just seen. This time, off to the side in the corner, were two middle aged men that were naked and hog tied together with bruises all over their upper torsos. They had bandannas tied around their head with the front portion of it running across their mouth and between the top and bottom row of their teeth. They were blind folded with oversized pink glittery eye masks trimmed in pink maribou ruffles, and another old man was standing over them, naked and spewing his urine across their bodies. Vaniti had seen enough. She felt even more nauseous than when she had first stepped inside the cabin. Without hesitation, she spun around toward the door and found herself standing uncomfortably close to someone. Charlene! It was Charlene. She quietly giggled with happiness as she hugged her gently swaying their bodies side to side and letting out a sigh of relief. She was so happy to see Charlene again, especially since she hadn't seen her since the night at that seedy little motel when Big Star had fucked up the girl's face and left her for dead. She started to ask Charlene what was going on, but the most awkward thing happened. Charlene dissipated as a vapor right into the thin early morning air just as quickly as she had appeared leaving Vaniti dumbstruck. It was beginning to become too much. Am I fucking hallucinating, she screamed inside her head. She had to be certain she wasn't, so she turned back inwardly toward all she had witnessed to make sure it was all real. Everything she had seen was still taking place, but on an even more rambunctious level, and while still peering back, she caught a glimpse of Big Star as he grabbed a whip from one of the women in costume. Without hesitation she hurriedly turned back toward the door without waiting to see what he would do with it. She eyed the door, viewed a clear path to it, and took a step in that direction, but tripped over her own two feet. Down on the cold wooden cabin floor, it seemed as if she had been struck by a time warp, causing everything to stop. It seemed at that moment time had been encapsulated in a futuristic cylinder of titanium and lost in an abyss of infinite nothingness. It took everything in her to summon enough energy to pick herself up. When she finally did get back up as steadily as she could muster, she again proceeded toward the door. Tick tock, tick tock, tick tock went the large raggedy clock lopsidedly positioned on the wall behind the door. This time Father Time himself was mocking the hostage like nature of the situation as she realized the tick tocking of the clock was a substitute for the ringing of the bell she anticipated to hear. Time had taken a sabbatical, and the universe was at a standstill with the world no longer orbiting in freeform.  Armageddon had arrived and all by herself, Vaniti was there in the flesh to witness it. During her moment of apocalyptic exchange, she attuned her mind enough to block out the external distraction and finally made it across the room over to the exit, where she struggled to get the doorknob to turn. Once she accomplished getting the knob turned, she ran out of there through the same side door her and Big Star had entered. She knew better than to run, but she would just take her beating whenever he caught up to her. She ran and ran and ran. She didn't know where she was running to or in which direction, but she didn't stop until she saw the glint of city lights in the near distance. The Valium she had taken before they left Albuquerque was so strong, it still hadn't worn off causing her mind to dance in a slow circle and reminisce. Well, I did take three of them. Or had it been four? Shit. She couldn't recall, and the images in front of her started to ripple, causing everything to sway in slow motion. She felt herself starting to sway with the ripples that bounced up and down in a slow frequency like the sound waves to a bad melody.  Then she collapsed.

When she regained consciousness, she still didn't know where she was, only that it was hot. Way too hot, especially for February. The atmosphere around her was thick and smoggy, and the scene looked fiery. She could feel the warmth all around her, and she could see the cinders, too. She started to smile in relief of  reaching the promised land. In her mind, life was perfect.