Chapter 10

I went home arriving just minutes before Mom and Dad showed up with a large sausage pizza. Mom and I ate mostly in silence while my father regaled us with his (boring) work stories of the past weekend. I could see the looks they were giving each other during the meal so I excused myself after my last slice asking permission to go out. I knew that they wanted some time to themselves. Monday was a poor peeper night. It was still too light out to attempt it anyways. Normally I would have headed over to Glenn's house for a couple of hours but after this afternoon's display of jealousy and temper I didn't want any more of Glenn for a while.

When I got to the corner I went left towards the grammar school and beyond. It wasn't my normal route but I needed to kill time until dark. I wound up on another street with two story houses that didn't fall into my peeping criteria. There was a woman with her back to me bending over picking up a pile of leaves. Nice tight ass lady, I thought to myself. I continued on until I heard. "Jimmy Reardon, is that you?"

I turned to look at the woman from the front lawn. I almost didn't recognize Ms. Baker, my math teacher. When at school she always had her blonde hair up in a tight bun, her dark rimmed glasses framing her blue eyes and a jacket and skirt combo not showing off any of her womanly charms. The typical "schoolteacher" look stereotyped in all the current television programs. This was a new to me Ms. Baker. She was wearing a Boston baseball cap with her long blonde ponytail flowing from under it. Tight jeans and a loose fitting flannel shirt ideal for yard work this time of the year.

After she put the leaves in a large paper bag she walked towards me. Even though her shirt was loose I could see she didn't have a bra on. Her breasts were moving as she walked making the front of her shirt sway back and forth in a mesmerizing display. The way she dressed at school gave me no indication that Ms. Baker was hiding a pair of good sized melons.

"What are you doing here Jimmy?"

"I just live two streets over Ms. Baker, on Elm Street"

We chit chatted for several minutes before she asked. "You're not looking for work are you Jimmy?" She explained how the yard work was getting ahead of her. She was willing to pay for some part time help.My classmates and I had attended Ms. Baker's husband's funeral just last summer. He had died in an automobile accident leaving the thirty year old school teacher alone. I was sure that this big house kept her very busy with the maintenance.

"Sure, I could use the money. I will be getting my drivers license soon and need to save to pay for the extra insurance on the family car."

"Let me show you the back yard. It's a mess." She led me down a narrow sidewalk between the house and some six foot high bushes. I glanced in the windows as we walked by. Living room, bedroom and kitchen. Must be a spare bedroom. Most of these houses in this neighborhood had master bedrooms on the second floor "Here's the mess." It was a fairly large back yard with many trees and bushes. There were leaves and dead branches everywhere. "You can see I haven't accomplished much back here. Luke used to take care of the outside stuff. He even built that fire pit to burn all the branches." She was pointing to a well made stone pit with a chimney. "Sometimes this time of the year we would sit out here," indicating a bench in front of the pit, "on a Friday night watching the fire, talking and sipping wine." She had a wistful look on her face as she remembered better times.

She came back to reality and started showing me around the yard explaining what she needed done. There was a shed halfway back to the end of the yard. Her husband had put together a fine collection of yard tools. "Everything I will need is here Ms.Baker. When should I start?"

"Anytime you want. Put in the hours when you can. I will pay you $10 per hour. Just keep track of your hours and stop by on Sunday mornings after church around nine to get paid. You can bag the leaves and put them in the driveway. Every Saturday morning I will take whatever fits in the trunk of my car to the town dump."

"How about the branches and twigs? I could just stack them by the fire pit for burning if that's O. K. with you."

"Sure Jimmy. I'm just not sure when I will get around to building a fire."

Getting a little bolder I said "How about I come by one Friday after school and start a fire. I can keep you company while you relax with a glass of wine."

She blushed and smiled just a little. "That is so sweet of you Jimmy. Pile the wood there and we will see about a Friday fire."