Chapter 40: Tuesday

It hit me in the middle of the night that I was now the Crib’s sole owner. I could quit teaching, if I wanted, and just live off the profits from the Crib.

Yeah, but would Alice be happy? Did I want our children to grow up seeing everyone as whores, users, and suckers? Would the community still respect me? No.

It might be fun, I’d get all the pussy I wanted, but it wasn’t what I should do. I was already getting all the pussy I wanted. Getting fucked to death by two women who wanted to be in my bed was a lot better than getting fucked to death by 20 or 30 women who only did it to keep their jobs.

I was willing to go to a LOT of trouble to not fuck up what I had with Alice and Melanie. And Shanda and her family. So, I could retain ownership and stick my nose in there when I had to, but the place needed a manager. One who wasn’t a whore. Being a whore does something to your mind.

I might keep Gail running a shift, but she wasn’t ever going to be management material. She’d been there forever, she was Lucy’s first employee, and she was just as fucked up as Lucy had been.

I needed to be able to separate myself from the day-to-day management so I could concentrate on my real job, trying to turn kids from the slums into productive adults. At least I wouldn’t get any more argument from my co-owner about hiring a manager. One I trusted. Well, I’d have to listen to Alice, but no matter what I said about it she would probably push it back on me. She didn’t know anything about running a whorehouse, and she didn’t WANT to know anything about it.

I’d already mentioned it to Tiny. If Lucy wasn’t going to pitch a fit about it any more, we could move on that as soon as he agreed. Or, as soon as he backed away until it was safe to turn around and then ran away from it. Which might be smarter of him, but he had a ‘wife’ and ‘the kids’ would come soon. As long as Tiny and Sandra could handle it, he’d do fine as manager.

Sandra could act as the employee advocate, if she wanted. Or she could stay away from the place. If she was wandering around in the Crib, someone was going to ask if they could fuck her instead of the whore they were with. She was better off staying away.

When it came time to get ready to go to school, the girls wanted to go with us. I offered to give Melanie another 1911 if she wanted, I had three, but she wanted something smaller. And they didn’t want to stay in that house all day, looking at the bullet-holes.

Sure. But you’re driving your mother’s car so I’m not stranded if you decide you gotta go somewhere. I had them park in the visitors’ spot and we all trooped in together. I was early this time, the way I was supposed to be.

When we walked into my office the circus was a lot smaller today, just Sandridge and Sergeant Harris, the female PPD interviewer from the day before. That was good, because I brought my own circus today. I looked at my desk, then stopped and looked at Alice, smiling.

“That would be awfully cramped down there, Larry.” Then she turned to tell everyone else. “Larry wants me to come to school with him every day, and stay under his desk naked so I can suck him whenever he sits down. Now, I don’t want to say I’m not doing it, but it’s dirty down there. I don’t understand why I have to be naked if all I’m doing is sucking, and what am I supposed to do if someone else sits there?”

Lou said “I got homework to grade, and I usually sit at Coach’s desk second period while he’s gone.”

Everybody looked at me, so I hung my head and said. “Okay, dammit. You don’t have to get naked and stay under my desk all day. We’ll figure out how much time you have to spend down there.”

The elves always have comments. Melanie said “Larry, you’re a pig.”

Shanda asked “Can we take turns?”

Me and Alice both said “No!” while Melanie was saying “Sure, I don’t care.”

Shanda grumbled “You guys have got to make up your minds.”

Those girls are going to drive me crazy. Or get me killed, one or the other, right?

I don’t know when it started, but this morning when I went to my second period history class, I noticed something odd. There was a significant drop in the amount of female attention I was getting. Not as many of the class sluts were trying to get a ‘better grade through sex’. None of the girls in the front had their blouses completely unbuttoned, none of them had their skirts pulled up and their knees apart.

It likely had something to do with the three women in my office, my wife, my mistress, and now our daughter. Any one of them was better looking than most of the sluts, and Alice was far and away put together better than even the prettiest of them. I liked full-grown women. How long had I been dragging Alice to school with me every morning?

I couldn’t remember, so when I got back to the office I asked her. Since, you know, Lou was at my desk doing papers and Alice was sitting in a chair talking to Melanie and Shanda. If she’d been where she was SPOSTA be, she couldn’t have answered. She’d have her mouth full. I thought that Lou could find his own women, though. If he didn’t mind underage, there were hundreds of them right out in the hall.

I also noticed that Sergeant Harris was there waiting for me. Tiny was, too. Sandridge wasn’t. I looked at Tiny and said “My wife first, always. Then, I guess the official visitor. After that, you get all the time you need. Alice?”

“I’ve been following you around ever since Saturday night, a week and a half ago. If you came here last week, I was probably here with you. Why?”

“I just noticed something, in my Early American History class. There’s usually a couple of the girls in the front row trying to get my attention by having their blouse completely open, showing me they forgot to wear a bra this morning. And, half the time, when I turn around from writing something on the board, at least one of them has their knees apart and their skirt up so I can see they forgot their undies, too. I didn’t see any of that, today. It’s like they’ve given up or something.”

“Is this a problem?”

“Well, it’s distracting. Some of them are fairly good-looking. None of them have anything I haven’t seen before, but it’s hard to concentrate on the lesson while one of them is winking their lower eye at me.”

While Alice’s eyes bugged out and she tried to figure out how to respond to that, Sergeant Harris put in “I don’t think I’ve ever heard that one. ‘Winking their lower eye at you’?” The girls had been giggling at what I said, but that turned out to open laughing at her answer.

“You would not believe how many students offer me personal services if I’ll just help them with their grades. I can’t do it. This neighborhood doesn’t need more whores. I’ve got more than I need working at the Crib, too many women see that as an easy way to make a living, and we don’t need more. Either get a job and do something with your life, or get a boyfriend and push HIM to make something of HIS life.”

Melanie wanted to know “What about the boys? Do any of them offer personal services?”

“Well, none of them do it in class. That’s always in here, or somewhere that doesn’t have a whole class watching. And it’s usually not them offering their own services. It’s usually someone who wants to be a pimp when they grow up, offering to have their girlfriend do things for me. Sometimes it’s their sister. I own a whorehouse! I have to go there every couple of days ANYWAY, just to make sure that everything’s fine there. If I need something, I’ll get it there, not from one of my employees’ little sisters in my history class.”

“Anyway, I just noticed today that they may have given up. Maybe it’s just too cold to be sitting in class half-naked, but nobody showed me anything all class. Or maybe I’m just getting old, but I suspect that enough of them have seen Alice now that they’ve figured out that I may not be as desperate for attention as they thought.”

Alice finally figured out what to say. “I’ll talk to them and tell them it’s okay to tease the bull if they want. As long as all they do is raise your blood pressure some, I don’t mind. I’m the one who gets it when you get home, right?”

“Sure, honey, you do that. What do you think is gonna happen if Mrs. Thorpe or Mrs. Huffman walks in and sees one of them showing me everything she’s got?”

“Have I met Mrs. Thorpe?”

“No, she teaches History a couple classrooms down from where I just was. She’s about eighty, she’s tall and skinny, she probably weighs less than Shanda, and she’s kinda uptight about things. Mrs. Huffman would probably just tell the girl that she should make her offers in private, if she does it in public she may get more attention than she wants, but Mrs. Thorpe would probably have a heart attack. I doubt if she’s ever even seen her own, much less someone else’s.”

Melanie asked “What would Irene do?”

“Be quiet. You’re trying to stir trouble up. Irene does not do students. She only does adults.”

Sgt Harris asked “Irene?”

“Irene Sanders is our female athletics instructor. It’s rumored that she prefers female company and would rather date, say, Alice than me. If you give her attention, she’ll probably return it. If _I_ give her attention she’ll ignore it.”

Harris gave us a bunch of faces as she considered that. Or, as she pretended to consider that, for our entertainment. I saw her flush, though. Shit. If she started dating Irene, and discovered Cunt Two in her apartment ... Nope, THAT couldn’t end well. Best to take her mind off that.

“So, Sergeant Harris, what can we do for the PPD today?”

“There’s another hearing scheduled for the Larkin children, this afternoon at three, down at the courthouse. We understand that you don’t teach any classes in the afternoon and should be able to attend.”

“Yeah, fall semester I’m too busy being a coach. I usually teach a history class fifth period in the spring semester, though. Sure, we can be there. All of us?”

“Yes, of course. The whole Wilkins family should be there. I should point out that there is a rumor down at the courthouse that you would never allow your female prisoners to enter a courthouse where they could be taken from you. So, how do you handle this?”

I looked at Alice and smiled. “Here’s your big chance, honey.”

“Larry, what do we do? If they’re going to try to separate us, we shouldn’t go. Ma’am, is this a serious concern? To you people I may look like a captive, but I don’t want to be freed. Even with everything that’s going on, I’m much happier with Larry than I ever was with my husband. As far as I’m concerned Larry is my husband and I belong with him.”

“Alice, a lot of people are having trouble with that. You shouldn’t be, excuse my words here, slumming with a nigger. You should be with your own kind. As for me, you’ve convinced me that you’re serious, but then I have to admit that what you’re saying is that you’ve been unhappy for a long time. Are you just clinging to the first man who was nice to you?”

“Well, that may be, but he IS good to me. Why would I leave him and hope I’ll find something better? I made a horrible choice the first time. None of us care what color Larry is, we’ve seen what he’s like on the inside, and he’s who we want for a husband and father.”

Melanie solemnly nodded. “What my mother said. I was raised to be racist and never even thought about it, but we want to stay with Larry. There’s a lot of bad people out there, and Larry keeps us safe. I can’t see me ever feeling safe without him around.”

“Would you be afraid of him, if you left him?”

“It’s not that. If we left he wouldn’t chase us. It’s just that, well, with Larry here I’m not afraid of anything. Like this here, you’re trying to get us to do something we don’t want to do. With Larry here, I can be strong and confident and tell you what I really want. What I really want is for Mom to leave so I can have Larry, but I’ll settle for calling him Dad if Mom keeps him. I bet if you get to know him better you’ll want to move in with him too and try to get your turn.”

I butted in, there. “I don’t think so. Sergeant Harris would rather move in with Irene.”

Melanie turned red. “Oh. Never mind, then.”

Lou had been quiet until now, but “Man, this is better than anything on the TV.”

Everybody laughed, but Melanie turned to him and said “You be quiet or I’ll sic my Dad on you.”

He held his hands up and told the PPD officer “You gotta admit that people who threaten his family have a bad habit of turning up dead. You’ve gone about as far as it’s safe to go. You’ve raised an objection. You’ve been overruled. Alice had the real question. If they all go into the courthouse together, are they going to be allowed to leave together? Or are they going to be separated ‘for their own good’? Is this really a custody hearing, or is it just an excuse to get them all to where the police can separate them?”

Sandridge, the bastard, must’ve been listening just outside the door. He poked his head in and sighed loud enough to get everyone’s attention.

“We really don’t need some local militia taking on the local police. Sergeant Harris, if it comes to that your police force will NOT come out on top. Mr. Wilkins has the backing, if he needs it, of a hundred thousand black army veterans. And, probably, quite a few white army veterans, too. Whoever is pushing that racial separation agenda needs to drop it. This nation has tried that and it doesn’t work. We need to go ahead with integration, no matter how painful it gets. Larry, if you want, the FBI will provide the Wilkins family with an armed escort, and we will ensure that the local police do not interfere with you as long as you are going about your normal lawful business. If they catch you in the commission of a felony, though, the FBI will have to side with them.”