Community by Graham Masterton Page B

beginning to seize up and his jaw was aching from keeping his mouth open for so long. But then Isobel let out a high-pitched cry, and then a snort, and her whole body quaked and shook.
    She was still for a few seconds, and then she quaked again, and again. At last, however, she lifted herself off him and rolled over and nestled herself up close, with her shoulder in his armpit. She kissed him, licking her own juice off his face, and panted, ‘You’re wonderful. You’re absolutely wonderful. If only you knew what you do for me.’
    She reached down and slid her hand into his shorts. He felt desperately that he wanted to climb on top of her and penetrate her, but she started to rub him, very hard, so hard that it hurt, and he was already so aroused that it took only a few seconds before he climaxed, and filled his shorts with warm semen. Isobel kept her hand inside there, massaging his softening penis and rolling his slippery testicles between her fingers.
    He kissed her forehead. ‘Don’t you want me inside you?’ he asked.
    â€˜Of course I do. But we need to be careful, don’t we?’
    â€˜So you’re not on the pill?’
    She took her hand out of his shorts and then she sat up, sharply shaking her head so that her hair flew from side to side. ‘I’m not allowed any medication. Only my regular shots.’
    â€˜Oh, yes. And what are
they
for?’
    â€˜Just to keep me stable, I suppose. Doctor Connor diagnosed me bipolar. I used to have mood swings like you can’t believe.’
    â€˜Don’t they sell condoms at Ray’s Food Place?’
    Isobel kissed him and laughed. ‘I guess Doctor Connor would supply you with some if you asked her.’
    She swung her legs off the bed and walked over to the door, where her bathrobe was hanging. Michael watched her as she turned around and put it on, her breasts swaying underneath it as she tied the sash. He thought her figure was amazing. He hadn’t found a woman so irresistible since …
You shouldn’t
…
    â€˜What’s the matter?’ Isobel asked him, sitting back down on the edge of the bed.
    He pressed his fingertips to his forehead. ‘I don’t know. Another flash, I guess.’
    â€˜You look like you’ve seen a ghost.’
    â€˜Maybe I have. Or
heard
one, anyhow. It’s like somebody’s trying to get through to me on a shortwave radio, only there’s too much interference.’
    â€˜It could be some memory coming back.’
    He looked at her. Then he looked across at the closet, with its mirrored doors, and saw the two of them, sitting like two strangers in another room. Isobel had her back to the mirrors and he looked so tired and puffy-eyed that he barely recognized himself.
    There was a faint click, and one of the closet doors opened a little way. Obviously Isobel hadn’t closed it properly when she had put away her doll, Belle. And there, peering out of the darkness with her black shark’s eyes, was Belle herself, as if she were watching him, just to make sure that he behaved himself.
    When Michael walked to the clinic the next morning for his therapy session, the sky was clear blue and there were only a few fragmented clouds, although it was still bitterly cold.
    He walked in the roadway, because it was only thinly covered with snow from yesterday’s snowfall, while the sidewalks were still very slippery. He had always thought that residents had a duty to clear the snow from the sidewalks outside their own homes, but apparently that didn’t apply to Trinity.
    He was less than halfway to the clinic when the little girl on the bicycle appeared, Jemima, with her frizzy brown hair and her pink windbreaker. She rang her bell as she cycled past him, and then she circled around and came back again.
    â€˜Are you staying with Mrs Weston?’ she asked, with one eye scrunched up against the sunshine.
    â€˜That’s right. I am. Only for a