"Not this kind--only the kind with stuff in it stings."
"What stuff?"
"Chemicals," Emma said. "Perfume, unnatural shit, other stuff." She was rubbing the lotion on his penis; it didn't hurt, but he couldn't stop crying. "You gotta get hold of yourself, honey pie. Beating off is no big deal."
"I'm not beating off. It's Mrs. Machado," he told her.
Emma let go of the little guy in a hurry. "Mrs. Machado is touching you, Jack?"
"She does lots of things," Jack said. "She puts Mister Penis inside her."
"Mister Penis?"
"Mrs. Machado says Meester," he told Emma.
"She puts you inside her where, baby cakes? In her mouth?" Emma asked, before he could answer her.
"In her mouth, too," he said.
"Jack, what Mrs. Machado is doing is a crime!"
"A what?"
"It's wrong, honey pie. I don't mean you--you haven't done anything wrong. But she has."
"Please don't tell my mom," the boy said.
Emma put her arms around Jack and hugged him. "Honey pie," she whispered, "we have to stop Mrs. Machado from doing this. We have to stop her."
"You can stop her," Jack suggested. "I bet you could stop her."
"Yes, I bet I could," Emma said darkly.
"Don't go!" he begged her. He held her as tightly as he could. He knew she could hold him much tighter, but Emma went on holding him as before. She rubbed his back, between his shoulders, and she kissed his eyelids, which were still wet from crying, and she kissed his ears.
"I've got you, baby cakes. You just go to sleep, Jack. I'm not going anywhere."
He fell into one of those dreamless sleeps, so deep he almost didn't wake up for the argument. "He had a nightmare, for Christ's sake," Jack heard Emma saying. "I was just holding him until he went to sleep. I fell asleep, too. What do you think I was doing? Fucking him with all my clothes on?"
"You shouldn't be in bed with Jack, Emma," Mrs. Oastler was saying. "You were under the covers, not to put too fine a point on it."
"I think it's all right. I think Jack is fine," Alice was saying.
"Oh, you think he's fine. Well, I'm so fucking relieved to hear that!" Emma shouted.
"Don't you use that tone of voice with Alice, Emma," Mrs. Oastler said.
"Jack, are you awake?" Emma asked.
"I guess so," he said.
"You have any bad dreams, you just let me know," Emma told him. "You know where to find me."
"Thank you!" Jack called after her as she was leaving.
"Emma--" Mrs. Oastler started to say.
"Let her go, Leslie," Alice said. "I can tell that nothing happened."