Candy from strangers
Pearl is very upset about her children taking licorice from the blouseman. She’s so concerned that she scolds her children and confronts the blouseman – deterring the consumer and the supplier. To bad Pearl doesn’t heed her own warning. This is first of many times Pearl’s moral standard doesn’t match what she expects of others.
Pearl makes a “date” with the blouseman, feigns a headache and waits for his bus like a hooker under a streetlamp. She was giddy as a school girl picking out her outfit, put on make up and fixed her hair for this “date”. But it’s not a date, it’s a booty call. Like a hooker and her John, the evening is all about the business of sex. No dinner and barely a conversation. humping on the dirty bus floor and an early morning drop-off at the streetlight. Ah romance.
When Pearl first met Walker he was warm and chatty, he complemented her looks, told her how smart she was and gave her free shirts. Now that Pearl is in his bus Walker drops the charm and is acting creepy. Walker is somber and distant, talking in a quiet monotone.
Walker stops the bus and Pearl asks him were they are. Walker ignores her. Oh my God, is Walker going to kill her and dump her body? Is he going to lock Pearl in a room and make her his sex slave? Pearl knows nothing about this guy. Is he married? Does he have kids? For God’s sake she doesn’t even know his name, and now she’s alone with him in the middle of nowhere and no one knows she’s there. Lillian thinks she’s in bed at the cabin. Everyone will tell the police the last time they saw her she left the moon landing with a headache.
Walker brings Pearl to the back of the bus to show her a small TV tuned to the moon landing – the reason for this get together. Do you want to know why Pearl’s with Walker? The reason for her betrayal? She explains it: “Usually Marty’s here on the weekends, but... he had to fix a lot of sets.” That’s it. She fought off Walker’s advances and her attractions until her husband couldn’t make it to the camp, and Pearl was not going to be alone.
Walker parks the bus and immediately makes his moves on Pearl. Her blabbering about her husband could have been awkward to someone who gave a *beep* about such things, but it doesn’t bother Walker in the slightest. Pearl pulls away from Walker’s roaming hands and he he asks her if she want’s him to stop. Whew, so he’s not a pervert. He’s actually letting Pearl control the situation. She let’s Walker undress her and soon Pearl has two notches on her bedpost. Pearl experiences cunnilingus and learns that Marty is a bad lover and everything changes.