The driver, dressed all in grey, stepped out of the car and adjusted his belt.听He was a serious looking man, tall with a pencil-thin moustache on a sturdy and blemish free face.听Law enforcement was a serious business here and I doubted that Janis could sweet talk her way out of trouble.听 Just four years earlier, a Kentucky state trooper by the name of Delano G. Powell had been shot dead while serving a warrant in nearby Breathitt County and it unnerved me to see a gun around the waist of the man in the rear-view mirror of Janis' Lincoln.听He wore a pair of sunglasses and a wide-brimmed uniform hat and standing in the afternoon heat, looked the very picture of the archetypal American car-cop.听Janis gave me a wink and stepped out of the car to greet him.听She was either brave or very stupid; had I been driving, I think I would have stayed put until the man with the gun told me exactly what to do.听The police officer spoke first.听"Miss, the state of Kentucky police department takes a very serious view of speeding offences.听Do you have any idea of how fast you were going?" "Yes sir," replied Janis.听"I was exceeding the state speed limit by quite a stretch.听You have my apologies, sir." As she spoke, Janis continued moving towards the man, neither flinching nor losing eye contact.听"Sir, I realise I have made a serious error of judgement."听 She kept moving.听Her apologetic, but firm manner seemed to have some sort of effect upon the driver.听He moved back towards his patrol car and the conversation continued out of my sight.听'What is she up to?' I wondered. I craned my neck to get a better view, but could only see them from the waist down.听 The police officer's hands hung stationary upon his belt loops, while Janis' were both out of sight.听All I could do was sit and wait.听A couple of minutes passed and things seemed to have progressed no further than the two of them talking by the side of the grey patrol car.听I would have given anything to know what Janis was saying; was she spinning some elaborate tale or weaving her undoubted charm around his resolve?听 I leaned forward to have a nose into the glove box of the car, wondering what someone like Janis carried with her on her travels around the country.听A couple of packs of gum, an empty hip flask and a well-worn copy of Jack Kerouac's 'On the Road,' were all I could find.听I leafed through the book.听It was an American first edition. I smiled to think that I was now living my own small-scale version of Sal Paradise's adventures in the west.听For a brief moment, I forgot about our current predicament and basked in the glory of what was becoming an enjoyable jaunt across the middle of this great land.听I looked once more in the mirror, but the door of the patrol car was in the way; I got out and walked to where I could see. My jaw near-enough hit the ground.听Janis was on her knees, with her bare feet behind her and her face nestled in the groin of the police officer.听His trousers, the gun still in its holster, were sitting around his ankles in the dust.听He was sat side on in the car, his face the very picture of enraptured delight.听I could see Janis' head moving rhythmically back and forth, guided by the left hand of the man, his fingers entwined in the mousy mop of her hair.听His other hand disappeared up inside of Janis' tee shirt, pawing eagerly over her small breasts. A combination of disbelief and astonishment raced through me, mixed liberally with nausea and fear.听My fear was a purely selfish one, petrified as I was about where my involvement in this little rendezvous would land me.听There was no way, I thought to myself, she was going to just get up and walk away from this; no way at all.听There had to be some comeback, surely.听Had she really bought us off of a speeding offence by going down on a lawman?听'No way,' I thought again.听It just couldn't be happening.听I had been with a couple of girls back home and this sort of stuff just didn't happen; not with a policeman, for Christ's sake.听Yet, here was Janis, one-on-one in fellatio with a complete stranger; in broad daylight, by the side of the road too.听I picked my jaw up from off of the roadside. For a brief moment, as my disquiet abated slightly, I went to jump to assistance, fearing that Janis had been coerced into this, but then, just as quickly, it hit me; she really was as hard as the hob of hell and it didn't matter whether the sun shone or not, she was going to get to Port Arthur, come hell or high water.听I watched for a moment.听 Janis' head moved quickly and then without warning would slow down again to a deliberate, drawn-out movement.听My anxiety levels were sky-high.听 Would she take this any further, I wondered?听Would they be climbing into the car?听My unease not withstanding, I couldn't help but watch.听For a moment, she wasn't even Janis; I was sucked into the theatrics of the physical act.听I imagined myself in the car.听 Her hips and thighs thrust backwards in sync with the motion of her head.听Her hands moved quickly in rhythm, direct and authoritative. Then, I caught sight of the gun again.听Suddenly, it was real once more.听I became aware of how swiftly my shock had turned into voyeurism.听Full of apprehension, I sat myself back in the Lincoln, moving the paperback from the seat as I sat down.听I held my head in my hands.听I didn't remember this happening in Kerouac鈥檚 book! |
