Chapter 5

As they walked toward the gas station, Dick looked sideways at his friend.

"I hate to ask you this ... but what are we going to do?" He grinned.

Dave smiled tiredly. "Let's find out about the car first."

"Gotcha," said Dick.

That, as it turned out, didn't take long. Jimmy Joe was there, and he and a man who had to be in his eighties were trying to muscle what was obviously a motor off of a trailer, in one of the mechanic bays of the station.

"Glad you boys are here," said Jimmy Joe. "This here is your new engine. We could use a little help getting it off the trailer."

"If it's going to take four of us to move it," said Dick, eyeing the motor, "how the heck are you going to get it into the car?"

"Got a motor lift," said Jimmy Joe, wiping his brow with a filthy rag. "But it won't reach clear onto the trailer. Once we get it off, I can use the lift."

"Just for giggles," said Dave. "How did you get it on the trailer?"

The old man squinted at Dave. "Got a front end loader on my tractor," he said. "Lifted her right on there."

"Oh," said Dave.

He and Dick heaved to, and they moved the motor to the back of the trailer. Then Jimmy Joe moved the motor lift into place and attached it to the chain that was draped across the top of the motor. He used a jack handle to lift the motor off the trailer, which the old man promptly pulled out from under it. He waved as he drove off. The three men grunted to roll the motor lift into the bay, next to Dave's car, which was missing the entire front grill and both fenders.

"What happened to my car?" yelped Dave.

"Makes it easier to get the old motor out, and the new one in," said Jimmy Joe. "Don't worry. I'll put it all back together."

"When do you think it'll be done?" asked Dave, staring at his car, which looked destroyed.

"Take me the rest of the day to get the old one out, and get the new one in position," said Jimmy Joe, eyeing the mess. "If everything hooks up right, I should be able to try to crank her up tomorrow sometime."

"Great," moaned Dave, thinking about another night in the motel.

"No compliments is necessary," said Jimmy Joe, beaming. "Your money will be thanks enough."

"Great," moaned Dave again. He'd walked ten feet when he turned back around. "Hey, do me a favor. The spare's flat. I don't think it had a hole in it, but could you air it up?"

"Sure," said Jimmy Joe, still eyeing the engine. "Won't even charge you for that."

"Another night here," said Dick, unnecessarily, as they walked back toward the room.

"Yeah," said Dave, his voice gloomy.

"What do you want to do about the girls?" asked Dick.

"I'd like to put them on a bus and send them home," said Dave.

Dick blinked. "Hey! That's a good idea! Do you suppose the bus stops here?"

Dave, for the first time in twenty-four hours, felt hope flood his veins.

"We can sure find out!" he said, excitedly.

They stopped at the motel office. Again, there was nobody at the desk, and the sound of a loud TV was coming from the back. Dave walked through the curtain without a thought. He was astounded to see Mable, leaning back in a chair, her dress drawn up to her very naked waist, with Pops head moving busily between her naked thighs. Mable looked up at the movement and blanched. She pushed at Pop's head.

"Whatsamatter?" the old man whined. "I'm doin' it right!"

Mable pointed, and Pops' head swiveled.

"Don't you boys know how to ring a bell?" he complained.

Mable had recovered from her shock at being caught with the old man. She lounged, a little stiffly, in the chair. She did not cover her somewhat hairy crotch.

"Well if it isn't the Sugar Daddies," she said, leering at them. "You wouldn't help me out, so I had to call on Pops, here."

"Looks like he was doing a fine job," choked Dave. "Sorry to barge in. We were just wondering if the bus stopped here."

Mable, moved her legs in what she thought was a sexy way. She didn't just want to thrust her pussy at the men, but, then again, she had nothing to lose. "Thursday," she said.

It was Saturday.

"Oh," said Dave, feeling the hope drain out of him. "Whose minding the store?" he asked, trying to have a normal conversation, a completely abnormal situation. Everything about this stupid town seemed to be abnormal, to Dave.

"There's a sign that says I'll be back," said the woman. "It said half an hour, but I can stay longer if you fellas want to help out Pops."

"Whadda ya want?" asked Pops, fiddling with his hearing aids, and looking at his two customers. His face was shiny with Mable's juices.

"I guess you need to put us down for longer," said Dave, trying not to look at Mable's naked body. He didn't want to encourage her.

"I can't go no stronger," whined Pops. "I'm an old man. I'm licking her as hard as I can. I'm about to pass out as it is," he complained.

"Pops don't hear too good," said Mable, helpfully. "He can't get it up any more either, but he still makes me feel like a woman." She tried to strike a pose. "You boys don't want those skinny girls. They don't know how to please a man. You want an experienced woman, and I can fill that bill." She smiled at them in what was probably supposed to be a coquettish manner, but just looked like a grimace to both men.

"That's mighty nice of you, Ma'am," blurted Dick. "But my partner here, and me too ... well, we have male troubles too. Our shrink says it has to do with our ex-wives, and suggested that we stay away from women their age. Nothing personal, you understand, but we probably wouldn't be able to do more than Pops." He felt panic as he realized it might sound like he'd offered to do what Pops had been doing. "Like Dave said ... Pops looked like he was doing a fine job, from the look of it. We'll just come back later."

He grabbed Dave's sleeve and both men made a hasty exit, back through the curtain. They could hear Mable complaining as they beat a path to the front door of the office.

Both men found themselves trotting toward their room.

"I hope that door has a good lock on it," panted Dick, who hadn't run in a while.

"That was some fast thinking ... about the shrink," panted Dave, who also hadn't run in a while. "In fact, I'm thinking of seeing one as soon as we get back home."

The men, trying to get through the door, acted out an unintentional, but common slapstick routine, when both tried to go in at the same time, and their shoulders stuck, keeping either one from going inside. Dick looked over his shoulder, afraid he'd see Mable running toward them, her skirt held high. As he did so, he turned sideways and both men almost fell in through the door.

The girls were sitting on their bed, Indian style, and had obviously been talking. Both looked with wide eyes at their fathers, who were pale, scared looking, and out of breath.

"What happened?" asked Denise, excitedly.

"Mable happened," said her father.

Cindy frowned. "Daddy! I TOLD you not to go over there without me!"

"Not ... how ... it happened," panted Dave, sitting down in the chair and leaning back. "Car's ... not ... ready." He stopped to take a deep breath. "We stopped at the motel office ... and she was there," he finished.

"Well I knew she was scary," said Denise, smiling. "But I didn't think two grown men would have to run away from her." She giggled.

"She was..." Dick started, standing and just breathing. "Never mind," he said. He sat on the edge of the bed. "We have to get back in shape, Dave," he said, breathing deeply. "We only ran a fifty yards, and we're huffing like a locomotive!"

"Right after I see the shrink," said Dave, waving his hand.

"Shrink?" asked Cindy, looking confused. "What shrink?"

"Never mind that too," said Dave.

"Daddy!" There was an edge to Cindy's voice.

Dave ignored her. He got up and went to the drapes, pulling them apart just enough to peek out. He relaxed when he didn't see anybody. He turned around. "We're stuck here another night," he said. "We need to talk."

"Talk?" asked Cindy. "About what?"

"You," he said. "Us ... Neece ... all of us."

Dick perked up.

"Dave?" he said, his voice rising. "What are you doing, Dave?"

"I'm trying to save my sanity!" said Dave forcefully. "If I have to spend another day in this wacked out town, I'll go stark raving mad, if we don't get some things straight here in this room."

"Dave?" said Dick again, feeling dread. "Don't do anything stupid, Dave. Please, Dave."

"What's he talking about, Daddy?" asked Cindy, getting up off the bed and facing her father. "What could you do that would be stupid? What do you mean ... here ... in this room?"

Dave was on the edge of madness, and he knew he was going to fall one way or the other. If what he was about to say blew up in his face, at least it would be over. If it didn't ... well ... he'd probably just slip into a catatonic state of more or less permanent insanity, and end up sitting in a corner, gibbering.

"You and Neece," he started. "You're growing up. Hell you're GROWN up!"

Both girls just stared at him.

He went on. "Last night, when we went to get food ... when we were coming back..."

"Dave, PLEASE don't do this!" moaned Dick.

Dave had to finish. "We heard you talking ... about sleeping with us ... about being virgins ... about everything."

Both girls blanched, going pale, and then color rushed back into their faces. They were frozen, as if they were statues.

Had Dave just left it there, the girls would probably have thrown themselves on their father's mercy, begging to be forgiven for stupid school girl fantasies. It might, after a while, have turned into a real dialogue, about how everyone felt in their single parent households. Had that happened, they might have worked out their emotions on a more rational basis, deciding that, while it might be normal for the men to admire the girls burgeoning femininity, and while it might be normal for the girls to develop little crushes on their fathers ... and their friend's father ... it wouldn't work out. That conversation might have ended up being a learning process for all of them.

But Dave didn't leave it there. He blundered on, like a lemming headed for a cliff.

"We feel the same way!" he blurted. "You're both so beautiful, and sexy, and we shouldn't look at you that way, but we do, and we can't help it, and we don't know what to do because it's just KILLING us to see you being so beautiful and sexy looking and..."

That was when he ran out of steam. Almost fifty words later than he SHOULD have run out of steam. Think of it as worn mental brakes, trying to stop emotional momentum.

After he trailed off, it was very quiet in the room. Only the straining hum of the AC unit under the window provided any aural input at all.

"Um..." said Cindy, finally. "I think I understand about the shrink, now."

Dave wanted to cry. "Don't hate me, baby. I can't help it. I don't know when you grew into such a desirable woman, but I missed it, somehow. Well, not really. I've noticed you for a long time, but what happened here just kind of brought it all to a head and..."

"Shut up, Daddy," said Cindy. It wasn't loud, or angry. But it cut him off like a cleaver beheads a chicken.

Cindy looked at Dick.

"You too?"

Dick's mouth opened and closed several times, and then he swallowed, but nothing came out.

"I have a question," said Denise, finally speaking.

"What?" asked Cindy, who seemed to be in charge, all of a sudden.

"My question is for my Daddy," said Denise, almost like there was some formal ritual she had to go through. "Daddy, do you have the hots for Cindy?"

Dick's mouth opened and closed again, and he looked at Dave.

"Hots makes it seem so demeaning," said Dave, his face earnest.

"Be QUIET, Daddy!" said Cindy, more forcefully. She looked at Dick interestedly, obviously waiting for his answer.

Dick looked at Dave, a pleading look on his face. He looked at his daughter, but his eyes bounced off of her face like a man running full tilt into a brick wall. He couldn't look at Cindy at all.

"You were staring at me this morning," said Cindy softly. "You were staring at both of us this morning, when we were lying there on the bed and our shirts were pulled up ... weren't you ... Uncle Dick?"

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