Her aim was outrageous. She tried to move herself off of him, but
Bidden had just turned around and she froze. He laughed and said
that she should remain like that, it would be a funny photo if they all
sat on each other’s laps. Off-balance, she fell back down, both of them
gasping again. Once again, she tried to free herself from Roy’s
influence, but Bidden jumped over and sat on her lap, his weight
driving him deep inside her.
Bidden hadn’t set the timer properly and had to try again, but by
now, Ellie had succumbed to something alien, something she would
have previously imagined beyond her. As Morris stood with his back
turned only a meter away they continued to move in quick shudders.
By the time his drunken, waterlogged fingers adjusted the timer
correctly, it was almost over. As he sat on them for the second time,
Bidden mistook her cry of release for an exclamation of camaraderie
and yelped along.
The photo was hung a week later in the hallway by the front door.
Bidden thought the picture hilarious, their contorted facial
expressions a result of his savage bulk crushing down upon their
disadvantaged, weaker frames.
Later, when they were out of the water and Roy was too drunk to
drive home, she led him to one of the guest rooms and tucked him in.
She growled, nearly shaking with anger and confusion, “Why did you
do that?”
Roy felt a surge of smug pleasure. “Maybe you’re right about the
rainforest,” he told her, “Selfish, grand and tragic,” he answered. He
tried to kiss her and she pushed him away. He held her hand and
pulled her in towards his heart.
*
A few weeks later, Ellie Bidden drew her husband’s attention to one
of his company’s promotional brochures.
“Here it says that you support fair treatment of coffee farmers,”
she said, “Honey, what does that mean?”
“It means exactly what it says. We want to see the little guy
benefit from our success too.”
“But what exactly are you doing to protect them?”
Bidden leaned back in his overstuffed chair. “Ellie, Ellie, Ellie,”
he moaned, “Did Roy put you up to this?”
ABYSSINIA
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