by VC Angell
“I frankly don’t give a damn what people think. It would be nice to have someone to share my meal with.”
Laura sat down, and Jim signaled to the waiter to come over. He brought Laura's menu, and she ordered.
Before the waiter could leave, Jim asked, “Would you like something to drink?”
Laura said, “I’m not much for booze.” She looked at the waiter and asked, “Can I have some of your super lemonade now and a glass of milk with the meal?”
There was still genuine innocence to Laura, Jim thought.
“Why are you back in Alma?” Laura asked.
“You hadn’t heard that my brother was killed?” Jim asked.
“No, what happened? Car accident?”
“They said it was a hunting accident. Alex got shot,” Jim paused for a second, realizing he didn’t know where his brother had been shot, “The sheriff is not too sure about it, though.”
“You have got to be crazy to walk in the woods during hunting season. I like it, though. The hunters got money to spend. That and the start of the fishing season are good times for me. Right now, it is the end of the month. There just isn’t any work for me. I’m glad for the community Thanksgiving meal. I saved up enough to make it through to the Christmas meal, so I won’t have to eat at the soup kitchen.”
“I never thought of it before, but Alma is pretty small. It’s gotta be slim pickings for you,” Jim said.
“There are a lot of wives who won’t do things their husbands want. Sometimes it’s as simple as wanting a blow job. I don’t know why they wouldn’t do that. It seems crazy to me.”
“Still, there’s not a whole lot of money here.”
“It seems most guys have money either at the end of the month or the beginning of the next. The middle of the month is a pretty dry time for me. The holiday season is slow too, but I’ve learned to save some of the money from the hunters. Some will pay a hundred bucks for a fuck, and sometimes, I even get seventy-five for a blow job.”
Their talk was interrupted by the waiter bringing Jim’s meal. Jim looked at Laura and asked, “Do you want me to wait for you?”
“No, I know what it’s like to be hungry, and it ain’t no fun,” Laura smiled.
“If you are sure?”
“He brought me my lemonade so I can sip on it.”
Jim was less than halfway through his meal when the waiter brought Laura’s. She had ordered a traditional supper – a pork chop, fried potatoes, creamed corn, and a salad. Laura looked up at Jim and smiled, “I haven’t eaten today, so I’m kinda hungry.” Laura was halfway through her meal before Jim got much farther with his.
“I hope you don’t mind. I’m so hungry I don’t want to talk,” Laura said.
“No, that’s fine with me. We can chat after we eat. They don’t look too busy here, and with Thanksgiving this week, I bet they won’t be,” Jim said. Jim was fascinated by the concentration of Laura on the food in front of her. He realized she must go hungry often. Her chosen profession was not a good fit for the town of Alma.
Jim was nearing the end of his meal when Laura finished her milk. “You want some dessert?”
“Only if you’re going to have some.”
“I might. What would you recommend?”
“They have some desserts for two. We could share one,” Laura said.
“Sometimes, when I’ve been really lucky, I come here, and I order their chocolate cake for two. That’s usually all I can afford. It comes with a whipped cream topping.”
Jim ordered the chocolate cake for two. It was a good-sized portion of cake and on top of the frosting was a dollop of whipped cream. Jim cut a piece with the knife provided and tasted it. “Oh, this is good.”
Laura didn’t say anything but smiled at him.
After they finished the cake, “I don’t remember you being bad at school things,” Jim said.
“I figured out how to get through. I had trouble reading anything. It looked like a bunch of hen scratchings to me. When I got busted for prostitution, they made me see a head doctor. He told me I had displexia. A word something like that anyway.”
“Do you mean dyslexia?” Jim asked.
“Yeah, that’s it. I just can’t get my mind around that word. It kinda made me feel good. I wasn’t dumb. Something was just fucked up in my brain,” Laura positively beamed happiness.
“I can see why you had trouble with school. They didn’t know much about dyslexia when we went to school. I understand they have programs now for people with it, and people can learn to read even if it’s a bad case.”
“I guess, as they say, I’m a quarter short of a dollar. I kinda wished afterward that I had seen the head doctor sooner. I asked if there was something that could help me. He said there was, but not in the county jail. Things like that don’t happen in Alma,” Laura said.
“I always thought you were smart but just didn’t like school.”
“Nah, I kinda liked it. Like in history, it was all reading. The things I heard in the class were really interesting, but what was in the books I couldn’t figure out.”
“Do you remember when we dated?” Jim asked.
“I sure do. I tried everything I could think of to get you to fuck me. I wanted you so bad and wanted you to really like me.”
“I did like you, Laura. I remember you leaning over so I could see down your blouse, and you didn’t have a bra on. It had quite an effect on me,” Jim blushed.
Laura laughed. “I could see that, but you wouldn’t touch me.”
“I wanted to, but I was a virgin and not sure what to do,” Jim confessed.
“I could’ve taught you. It would’ve made me feel extra special.”
“When you’re young like that, you don’t want your partner teaching you. I knew I would act like a complete idiot if we would go beyond some petting.”
Laura didn’t respond and appeared to be thinking.
Jim said, “Back then, I thought if a girl knew that about me, I was scared of her. I would appear like a fool to her.”
Laura looked at Jim and frowned before saying, “For me, it would have been just a way to tell you that I really really liked you. It was special but not a real big deal.”
Jim didn’t want the line of discussion to continue, so he said, “Why were you here tonight?”
“I was hungry and wanted to see if any local guys I know were here so that I could earn some money.”
“I guess we both got something out of this meal. I’ve had your company, and you have gotten something to eat,” Jim smiled at her.
Laura looked at him for a moment before asking, “It’s the wrong time of the month, but I could give you a blow job for this meal.”
“You don’t need to do that. You’re an old friend, in fact, an old girlfriend. I have just enjoyed your company and appreciated your company. Friends don’t need to exchange anything but some time and a few words.”
“I still remember when you took my blouse off. You were fascinated with my tits,” Laura didn’t seem willing to let the discussion change.
“I remember them. Are your nipples as dark as they were then?” Jim asked.
“A lot of guys asked me how they got so dark. I think they’re even darker now after having my two kids.”
“You have two children?”
“I did it just fine. I have one of each, a boy and a girl.” Laura smiled.
“That’s great. You must’ve gotten married then?”
“It didn’t last long. Just long enough to have two kids. We were poor, so I was helping out. The money I earned helped us, but he got pissed because I was fucking other guys to get it. That ended it.” Laura looked down at the table in seeming sadness.
“I’m sorry about that. Do you have custody of your children?” Jim asked.
“In the divorce, he proved that I wasn’t a fit mother because of how I was earning money. He’s got them. They live over by Duluth.”
Jim was unsure of what to say, “I…I don’t think th
at’s fair.”
“At first, I didn’t think so either. If I had the kids here with me in Alma, everyone would know they were the kids of a whore. They’d be ashamed of me. They should live with their father. When they get older, maybe I can explain,” Laura said.
They continued to chat through another cup of coffee. They left the restaurant together, and Jim dropped Laura off in front of an apartment. He made sure to tell Laura that they’d have to get together again.
Chapter 3
It was Thanksgiving morning. Jim didn’t need to be at Ted Erickson’s place until one o’clock in the afternoon. He decided to try calling his mother. She lived in a nursing home in Florida. There were times when she was very lucid, like the mother he knew growing up. There were other times when she didn’t recognize his voice and would become agitated when he called. Jim didn’t know what to expect. It didn’t take Jim long after reaching her to understand his mother didn’t remember him, so he wished her a happy Thanksgiving and hung up. His mother and father had retired to Florida thirteen years ago. His father died only a year and a half after they moved of a heart attack. In the last few years, Jim’s mother was exhibiting more symptoms of dementia. Maybe it was better his mother didn’t remember his brother’s death. It seemed unkind to tell her every time she forgot. It would just bring tears to her. Jim spent the rest of the morning putzing around the motel room to kill time.
* * *
Ted Erickson’s home was just a block and half from his brother and Sally’s home. There had never been a large, rich section to Alma. Ted’s home was a large Victorian mansion. There were massive chimneys at each end of the house, with several others rising from the roof at intervals. The front door was made in two parts to fit into a gentle sweeping arch. The doors dwarfed Jim. Ted invited him into an entranceway with deep red carpeting that reminded Jim of the old movie theater's curtains in town. Both the curtains and the carpet looked like they were velvet. He noticed a couple of steps into the house on his right-hand side was a small reception area with a small circular table and a bench-like couch.
“Let’s go into the living room,” Ted said.
The living room was quite large, with a massive fireplace at one end. There were several good-sized logs in it, but there was no fire, although it looked used. Flanking the fireplace were two floor to almost ceiling height windows with heavy brown curtains. Brown seemed to dominate the room with all the dark stained wood. Jim said, “This is a remarkable house.”
“It was built right around the start of the 20th century by a lumberman named Kerry. It’s listed on the National Registry of Historic Buildings, but it’s a pain in the ass for many reasons,” Ted said.
“It’s a beautiful house. It’s got almost a museum-like quality to it.”
Ted laughed, “It feels like it too. There’s no way my wife can take care of it. We have to have help just keeping it clean. We were able to modernize certain things. Just getting it listed as a historic building doesn’t restrict what we can do, though. I don’t know if you noticed the bronze plaque outside the front door, but we even had to buy it ourselves. Just listing it in the historic registry sometimes doesn’t seem to provide any benefits.”
A young woman walked into the living room, who looked vaguely familiar to Jim. Ted said, “I don’t know if you remember Pam, our daughter.”
“I knew she looked familiar, but it’s been a few years since high school,” Jim turned to Pam and asked, “You weren’t in my class. How far behind me were you?”
“My class was four years behind yours,” Pam walked over and stuck out her hand.
“You turned into a woman since the last time I saw you,” Jim shook her hand.
“Pam, would you please keep Jim company. He might even want to explore the house a bit,” Ted said.
“Sure, dad.”
“I’m going to go check on how our dinner is doing. Please excuse me, Jim,” Ted said.
“Thanks, Ted,” Jim said.
Ted smiled and winked at Pam, which Jim could not see, and left.
Pam asked, “Would you like a little tour of the house?”
“Yes, this house fascinates me,” Jim said.
“We would get in the way in the main dining room and kitchen, so let’s go look at the breakfast room,” Pam said, leading the way.
The breakfast room surprised Jim. No carpeting on the floor. Instead, it was tiled with large square light green colored tiles. There were windows on two sides of the room, starting just above the wainscoting and almost ceiling. The third side had a door opening to the outside and only one window. There was a small table with four chairs around it, sitting on a brightly colored floral rug.
“Let’s go upstairs next. The bedrooms are up there,” Pam led him to a staircase done in the same dark wood as the rest of the house.
Jim asked,” Do you know what kind of wood this is?” Pointing at the staircase.
Pam shrugged, “I’m not sure. It’s the same wood everywhere. I probably shouldn’t show you the master bedroom. I’m not sure what shape it is in. I know my bedroom is in good shape and is very much like the other bedrooms.”
The door was open to a bedroom. The wood in it had been painted white. The floor was wooden but done in light-colored wood. There was a line of windows on one side of the room, giving it a bright, cheery feeling. The bed was on the opposite wall. It fit the decor of the house. It was a four-poster bed, much too large for one person. Opposite the door entering the bedroom was the entrance to a bathroom.
Pam walked over and opened another door, “This is my walk-in closet. I wish it were a bit bigger.”
Jim surveyed the other furnishings in the bedroom. There was a low couch at the end of the bed. There was a writing desk, another sofa, a large chest of drawers with a mirror. As you entered the bedroom, there was a small table with another attached mirror on the other side. The final piece of furniture on the same side of the door was a tall chest of drawers. Jim pointed at it and asked, “Can you even reach those top drawers?”
Pam laughed and said, “I can if I take the chair from the desk and stand on it. When I was a kid, I used to hide the things I’d didn’t want my mother to see in those top drawers.”
Jim wondered what a teenage girl would want to hide from her mother. He asked, “What’s on the rest of this floor?”
“Not counting the master bedroom, there are four more bedrooms pretty much like this one. Two of them we just use to store things. You know, furniture and other stuff. Let’s sit down,” Pam pointed at the coach at the end of the bed.
After they sat down, Jim asked, “Shouldn’t we be joining the rest for dinner?”
Pam scowled, “I dearly love my dad, but there are times I’m sure he couldn’t find his ass using both his hands. He asked me to use my “feminine wiles” on you to find out what you’re thinking or what you were going to do.”
“I don’t understand. I just got back here. The only thing I know is I have to run the paper. Let me correct that. There are two things I need to do. Run the paper and find a place to live since I’m moving back here,” Jim said.
“That makes two of us. I am not sure what dad wants me to find out. You are a good-looking guy, so let me ask you what every single woman my age would like to know about you – are you married?” Pam smiled at him.
Jim couldn’t help but smile back at her. “No, I’m not married. I have spent the last few years in Europe working as a foreign correspondent. I was too busy to do any dating, plus I often had a language barrier. Say I was in Germany and saw a good-looking woman, I didn’t know how to ask her for a date or even if she was married.”
“I could see how that would slow you down. Seen anyone you like since you’ve been back in town? I know it’s tough.” Pam shrugged her shoulders and looked at the floor.
“I haven’t even been back in town a full week.” Jim thought he might tease her a bit, “Are you volunteering?”
Pam looked up and directly at him, “I don’t k
now if I want to start looking for a man again. I was married. He was great in bed, but that was the only thing great about him. I caught him screwing our neighbor, who was old enough to be his mother. I guess he was into milf’s. I’m no milf!”
Jim was surprised at the ferocity of her statement. He decided to change the subject. He asked, “Did you go on to college after high school?”
“Yes, I did a double major in history and English. I thought I would marry a rich man and have to be cultured.”
Pam’s reply was delivered in a very sarcastic tone. Jim was unsure what to say next because the last two topics had gone south. Jim thought a moment before asking, “If the pickings are so limited here, are you thinking of leaving?”
“No, my mother thinks she has to oversee all my male friends since I screwed up picking such a bad one the first time. She seems to think I will marry the first man who tries to feel me up or puts his hand up my skirt,” Pam was still in the sarcastic mood.
Frustrated, Jim thought. He decided to be honest with Pam. “I’m looking at a beautiful young woman. You’ve got great physical features. You seem to have a great wit about you if it is a bit on the sarcastic side.”
Pam seemed to soften and said, “I shouldn’t take my troubles out on you. You seem like a nice guy. I’m just frustrated living here in this house, this town, and with expectations, I fully don’t understand.”
Jim reached out and touched the back of her hand, “You have my vote being a good and honest person. That’s all we can ask of others.”
Pam frowned at him. “What do you mean?”
“You were honest with me about your father’s expectations for you. You were honest about your failed marriage. Plus, I have a strong sense there’s a very good person inside of you, Pam,” Jim smiled at her.
“Thanks for the vote of confidence.” Pam stood up, “I guess we should go back downstairs before my mother thinks I have bedded you, and my father thinks I’ve learned all your secrets.”
Jim had to laugh, and Pam smiled as she led the way back downstairs. They had barely reached the living room when Ted walked in. “You timed that right. We’re just about ready to sit down to our Thanksgiving dinner. Follow me to the dining room.”