“Come on,” Hogg was saying, whenever he could get his voice back. “Come on, nigger! Get off her … Come on!”

“I’m comin’,” the nigger said, on his knees, his hips working. “I’m …” and then, suddenly, he rocked forward, grunted, let go her head, and rocked back, staggering to his feet. “I just came …!” Grinning, he staggered back again, and nearly tripped on a paint can. Which just cracked Hogg, Jimmy and the wop all up.

The nigger pushed his glistening cock inside his pants.

The girl lay on her face, gagging and gasping and swallowing, trying to get back her breath.

“All right, now let’s get out of here!” Hogg said. He was still grinning and rubbing his belly. I wonder if it was from laughter or because it still hurt from when the wheelchair handles had first hit him. “We got other things to do this evening!”

Flat on her stomach, the girl turned her face to us, all scrunched up like a white raisin. “You motherfuckers …” she whispered; the nigger must have hurt her throat, because she was all hoarse; one side of her chin was shiny with something clear and wet—“You motherfuckers are annoying as hell!” Which must have taken a lot to get out, because she gasped again, and turned her face almost onto the floor. Really, I don’t think she was fifteen.

Hogg looked back. Bemused surprise filled his green eyes, hollowed his unshaven cheeks, creased his dirty, sunburned forehead behind the strands of greasy blond. He raised his hands—I thought he was going to go hit her again. “Sweetheart,” he said, “that’s why we’re here.” His hands dropped. “Hey, cocksucker, get up and come on. The rest of you bastards come on too.”

The nigger hefted himself, stepped by the wheelchair. With one finger between the spokes, he gave the wheel a spin, and started for the door. You could hear the bearings hiss around the axle.

I stood up.

Jimmy came forward. He had to step over the girl’s ankles.

Denny had started shucking again.

Digging a finger in his ear, the wop turned toward the door.

Then there was a crash from the back.

I looked around. So did Hogg.