Hot Water Music by Charles Bukowski

Shit !”
    Eddie’s mother was lying on the bed in the bedroom and she was drunk. Her legs were up and her dress had fallen way back. Eugene grabbed my arm. “Jesus, look at that!”
    It looked good, my god it looked good but I was too scared to appreciate it. Suppose somebody came in and found us there looking? Her dress was way back and she was drunk, those thighs exposed, you could almost see the panties.
    “Come on, Eugene, let’s get out of here!”
    “No, let’s look. I want to look at her. Look at all that showing!”
    It reminded me of the time I was hitchhiking and a woman picked me up. She had her skirt up high around her waist, well, almost up around her waist. I looked away, I looked down, and I was scared. She just talked to me as I looked through the windshield and I answered her questions, “Where are you going?” “Nice day, isn’t it?” But I was scared. I didn’t know what to do but I was afraid that if I did it, there’d be trouble, that she’d scream or call the police. So now and then I just sneaked a look and then I turned my eyes away. She finally let me out.
    I was scared about Eddie’s mother too.
    “Listen, Eugene, I’m leaving.”
    “She’s drunk, she doesn’t even know we’re here.”
    “Son of a bitch left,” she said from the bed. “Left and took the kid, my baby…”
    “She’s talking,” I said.
    “She’s knocked out,” said Eugene, “she doesn’t know what the hell.”
    He moved toward the bed. “Watch this.”
    He took her skirt and pulled it further back. He pulled it back so you could see the panties. They were pink.
    “Eugene, I’m leaving!”
    “Chicken!”
    Eugene just stood there staring at her thighs and panties. He stood there a long time. Then he took out his cock. I heard Eddie’s mother moan. She shifted on the bed just a little. Eugene moved closer. Then he touched her thigh with the end of his cock. She moaned again. Then Eugene spurted. He shot his sperm all over her thigh and there seemed to be plenty of it. You could see it running down her leg. Then Eddie’s mother said, “ Shit !” and she suddenly sat up in bed. Eugene ran past me out the door and I turned and ran too. Eugene ran into the icebox in the kitchen, bounced off and jumped out the screen door. I followed him and we ran down the street. We ran all the way to my house, down the driveway, and we ran into the garage and pulled the doors shut.
    “You think she saw us?” I asked.
    “I don’t know. I shot all over her pink panties.”
    “You’re crazy. What’d you do it for?”
    “I got hot. I couldn’t help it. I couldn’t help myself.”
    “We’ll go to jail.”
    “You didn’t do anything. I shot all over her leg.”
    “I was watching.”
    “Listen,” said Eugene, “I think I’ll go home.”
    “All right, go on.”
    I watched him walk up the driveway and then cross the street to his place. I walked out of the garage. I walked through the back porch and into my bedroom and I sat there and waited. Nobody was home. I went into the bathroom and locked the door and I thought about Eddie’s mother lying on the bed like that. Only Iimagined I got her pink panties off and I got it in. And she liked it…
    I waited the rest of the afternoon and I waited all through dinner for something to happen but nothing happened. I went to my bedroom after dinner and sat there and waited. Then it was time to go to sleep and I lay there in bed and I waited. I heard my father snoring in the other room and I still waited. Then I slept.
     
     
     
    The next day was Saturday and I saw Eugene on his front lawn with a beebee gun. There were two large palm trees in front of his house and he was trying to kill some of the sparrows who lived up there. He’d already gotten two of them. They had three cats and every time one of the sparrows fell to the grass, wings flopping, one of the cats would rush up and scoop him off.
    “Nothing’s happened,” I said to Eugene.
    “If it hasn’t