That's why it was safe with Ben. How could anyone her age imagine making love to an old, ruined man like Ben Wright? And that was the reason for her friendship with the older man and perhaps also the reason she had so stupidly blown up when Penny had made her disturbing remark about Ben's… condition. Victoria didn't want anyone reminding her about that other aspect to Ben's maleness that she had carefully screened from her mind.

These thoughts were still running through the confused young girl's head as she approached the dormitory where she and Penny lived with some twenty other girls, a small wooden building in a eucalyptus grove. To get to her room it was necessary to go around to the back of the building. She and Penny had been lucky enough to get the most secluded room in the dorm. Not only did they have a private entrance but the whole back wall of the room was made up of sliding glass doors that opened out onto a small lawn ringed by trees. Victoria noticed as she passed that the drapes were drawn over the windows, which was strange, because Penny was something of an exhibitionist and would often undress with the drapes wide open, saying that no one ever came back behind the building anyhow, so why worry. Penny seemed to be home, since there was the dim glow of a light shining through the curtains.

The young blonde entered an outside door and stepped into a narrow hall that made two sharp turns before it finally ended before the door of her room. She was just reaching for the knob, trying to decide how she would act with Penny when she suddenly froze in shock.

My God, was that a moan she had just heard inside?

The startled girl stood for a moment, frozen into immobility, then suddenly heard it again.

"Oooooohhhhh," the tortured sound floated out from behind the door in front of her, and it was unmistakably Penny's voice! Lurid images of her good friend injured, raped, stricken by some horrible illness flashed through Victoria's mind and she had just broken her reverie and was starting to rush into the room when she heard Penny's voice once again.