costume. We’d agreed that the most original and daring interpretation would win the prize which was double what I’d won in the limbo contest.”
I listened poker-faced. I could see why the police refused to refer this case for prosecution.
What Mindy recounted wouldn’t play well in front of a jury even in liberal Berkeley. It would, however, spark a sensational feeding frenzy in the press that would probably attract reporters from the world’s most sleazy tabloids.
“I did my belly dance and I guess all the booze got to me as I swirled and did my turns. I started to get real dizzy and I almost passed out.”
“Did you finish your dance?”
“Yeah, I kinda pushed myself at the end because I wanted to win the prize.”
“The sequence of events after your dance is very important. Try to remember every detail,” I instructed her. I didn’t want to coach her or cue her to the elements of the crime – forcible compulsion, threats or intimidation. So far what she’d recounted appeared to lay a foundation for a clever seduction rather than a rape.
“I remember getting all woozy and faint when I finished the dance. Barry helped me stay upright when I started to stumble to my knees. He helped me over to the sofa and sat me down. I remember sinking into the soft leather. He was whispering and trying to sooth me. He was saying, ‘You just need to lie down and rest a bit. You’ll be fine. Don’t worry, I’ll take good care of you and see you get home.’ Stuff like that.”
“Do you think they slipped something into your drink?”
“No, not really. I’m sure it was just the booze. I’d had too much to drink and all the swirling and whirling I did in my dance made me dizzy. I should have stopped drinking after the beer.”
“Did you pass out on the couch?”
“I don’t know; I’m not sure. I must’ve passed out for a while because when I came to, I was lying down on the sofa.” Mindy paused, sucked in her breath and let out a long sigh.
“Were they holding you down?”
“No, it wasn’t that. It’s so hard to explain what was happening to me and what I was feeling. I tried to make my body turn off what was happening, but my head was out of it. I just couldn’t turn off the sensations. I tried to make my body turn over, but I couldn’t.”
“Were they touching you?”
“Yeah, I finally got hold of myself even though I was real woozy; I remember saying, ‘Please stop.”’
“Did they stop touching you after you asked them to?”
“No, they just laughed.”
“In a menacing way?”
“No, like it was a joke. One of them said, ‘Look, you’re all wet. You’re creaming all over my fingers. Just relax and enjoy yourself.’ They just kept at it. They never stopped touching me. They were touching me and pulling at me all over my body. Their fingers just pulled and tugged at my breasts and sex faster and faster, harder and harder. I know I must have come. Suddenly, intense sensations swept through my body like I’ve never felt before. Somebody laughed and said, ‘She’s coming.’ I tried to protest again to make them stop, but I just didn’t have the energy. I felt strung out and powerless to resist. I was just too drunk to overcome the waves of sensation I was feeling.”
Mindy toyed with her empty can of Coke; she was trying to crush it in the palm of her hand. Her eyes were locked on the floor. “They just wouldn’t stop. After I came, it started all over again – the pulling, tugging, stroking – only faster. It was like my body was going through a car wash; you know, like all those big brushes were stroking every sensitive part of my body all at once. My head was whirling; I felt engulfed and powerless to resist the waves of sensation that kept surging and getting more intense. When I tried to get hold of myself, they laughed and changed the rhythm of their stroking.”
Mindy threw me a sheepish, concerned look before continuing. “One of them started licking my sex while another held me by the ankles and spread me open. The other guy was tugging at my nipples, pulling them in opposite directions. It was just too much. I wanted it to stop before they went too far, but I couldn’t force myself to physically resist. Can you understand what was happening to me?” Mindy pleaded with her eyes for understanding and reassurance.
I gave her my best college smile and nodded for her to continue even though I didn’t understand why, in spite of being drunk, she couldn’t have yelled her head off for those guys to stop touching her.
No is no in my book.
“I didn’t even have time to catch my breath before they made me come again in the guy’s mouth. Then they turned me over and one of them took me from behind.”
I did a double take. “Didn’t you protest when they turned you over?”
“It all happened so fast. I was in a fog. I was so high from the booze and stimulation that I just couldn’t resist anymore. I was more scared by what was now happening. It was out of control.”
“Were you scared they would hurt you? Wasn’t the sex getting rougher?”
“No, they were laughing and joking about how much I liked what they were doing to me and whether I would come again. It was weird. It was like they were testing me to see how much I could take.”
“Do you know which one took you from behind first?”
“No, it was all a woozy blur. All those fingers just kept touching me – pulling, tugging, pinching and probing me. It was all happening so fast, but also like in slow motion in my brain. The next thing I knew my butt was up in the air, and my legs straddling the armrest of the couch. One of them had hold of the back of my thighs and pushed me open, then someone just pushed himself up my butt. They kept doing it until I passed out.” Mindy was crying again.
I tried not to show my astonishment at Mindy’s frankness. “Had anyone ever penetrated you there before?”
“No, but they’d been touching me there all along. The nurse who examined me said they had used some kind of lubricant. My whole insides burned like hell the next day.”
“When did you come to?”
“I woke up in my dorm room. I was sore all over and really felt bad. My head felt like it was going to come off its socket, it was pounding so bad. My nipples hurt from all the pulling and my butt felt like someone had dropped it on a fence post wrapped in barbed wire; when I wiped myself, there was blood. I got real scared, then angry when I remembered how I’d been duped and that all those guys had me.”
“How did you get home?”
“I didn’t know. I learned later from Ernie, the night watchman at the dorm. It must have been Barry who drove me home. He told Ernie that I’d got loaded at a friend’s party, then got sick.”
“Wasn’t Ernie suspicious of foul play?”
“I guess not. He said I smelled and acted like I was drunk and passed out and my clothes weren’t messed up.”
The intercom light on the phone console had been blinking
