I looked up at once. “What?” I was caught by such complete surprise that I didn’t know what to say.
“That’s right. You going to deny it?”
“No,” I answered after thinking about it for a moment. It did not really matter at this point. David obviously knew something, and I was more interested in how he knew about it rather than how much he knew. “I’m not going to deny it, but what do you know about it? You were working.”
“Yeah, well, Kyle wasn’t working.”
“You bastard! You had your brother spy on me?”
David threw up his hands, feigning innocence. “He was just stopping by to see me. He didn’t know that I was called in to work. He did see an Indian hanging around here last night. He was seen leaving the apartment. What of it?”
“I still don’t have to tell you anything,” I continued to search for the Kachina doll.
“No, you do not. But I can find out.”
“I’m sure you could. Just how long have you been having your brother or one of your other state trooper friends watching me?”
“Maybe not long enough,” David said. He was holding his trooper hat, which he reached inside and pulled out my Kachina doll.
“Is this what you’re looking for?” he said like a stage magician to a guy whose missing wallet he was holding up during a performance. He was not going to get any applause from me. I was the one who was preparing a disappearing act.
“Is this a gift from your Indian lover?”
“I bought it,” I told him, even though Kenny would not accept payment and gave it to me.
“This must be my Christmas present, then.” David smiled smugly. “Is that why you made sure to hide it in the back of your underwear drawer?”
“So first you had your brother spy on me, and then you go snooping around in my panties.”
“Yeah, well, maybe I wouldn’t have to snoop around in your panty drawer if you let me into your panties once in a while instead of fucking some freak Indian professor.”
“You don’t know anything.”
“I know one thing; it’s your fault that we couldn’t have kids. You’re infertile, and no matter how pretty you are, you’ll never be a complete woman. You can fuck all the Indians you want because you’ll never be able to have a baby.” Then he just turned away from me dismissively.
It felt like all the oxygen in the room had been sucked out and I literally couldn’t breathe. I had always thought that David felt that way, but to hear those words come out of his mouth completely stunned me, if only because I never thought he could be so heartless and cruel.
Looking down with revulsion at the doll he was holding, David said, “What the hell is this thing supposed to be, anyway, some kind of Voodoo doll? Did you get your medicine man to make this so you can stick it with pins and make me suffer? It doesn’t even look like me, it’s too damn ugly.”
I forced myself to breathe somewhat normally and settle my nerves just enough to be able to speak a few words. “Give it back to me.”
David just sneered at me, and he raised the Kachina in his left hand. “Why don’t we test it out? See if it really works.”
“Give it back to me,” I repeated.
He slowly brought his right hand up and grasped the colorfully painted head of the Kachina.
“Don’t, David.”
He ignored me, and with a sinister laugh and a quick jerk of his wrist he snapped the head off the doll.
I let out a silent scream and felt a sharp jolt in my neck that ran the length of my spine, as if it was a Voodoo doll, and the spell was on me.
David snickered as he tossed the decapitated doll at me. The head and body struck the side of my left arm and both pieces landed onto the top of my open bag. “Ain’t that a kick in the head,” he began. “Now, I figured you might have gone lesbo because you never want to fuck me anymore, but after all these years, I never would have thought you were just a common slut.”
I was so upset that I was shaking, but I did not want to get emotional in front of David and give him the satisfaction. “You know, David,” I managed to say as I tucked the broken doll into the bag and zippered it closed, “I’m glad this happened because now I know the kind of person you really are. I guess I was blind all this time, and I couldn’t see you the way other people did, but now that I see your true colors, I’m glad we didn’t get married. And as devastating as the miscarriage had been, maybe it was a blessing in disguise that we didn’t have a child together. I know that when I do get married and have a baby, it will be in a better situation, with the right person.”
I lifted the bag off the bed and walked toward the bedroom door, my legs wobbly and weak. David stepped aside to let me pass without saying anything.
“I’ll come back at some point for the rest of my stuff,” I said.
I made it outside without falling down or crying, and I was very proud of myself for that, but once I got into my car I could not hold back the tears any longer. I sat there for several minutes openly weeping. With my tears, all the pain and anguish inside me drained out as well.
I felt better, and I knew I did the right thing, but as I dried my eyes and started the car, I was not sure where to go. Moving back home and living in the same house with my father and sister may not have been ideal, but it was my only real option.
I was about to put the car into gear when I caught movement out of the corner of my right eye, and I pivoted my head sharply toward my bag resting on the passenger seat. I could not believe
what I was seeing. I blinked several times, but the image remained. Something inside the overstuffed bag was moving rhythmically, straining against the pile of clothes inside and making the outer skin of the leather bag bulge. It was in the place where I had placed the Kachina doll, but the outline of the object was clearly that of a phallus, a very large one. It appeared as if a huge vibrating dildo had been turned on inside the bag. The only problem was that I did not own a vibrator, not since I moved in with David, when I threw them all away.
I reached over to unzip the bag, opening it in one swift motion and exposing not a fake penis but my Kachina doll, its head somehow, magically, attached to the body once more.