Chapter 1

Once again I want to thank my editor "Wires" for his assistance with this story. His work made the final product much more readable. As always, however, any errors remaining are mine. I did tweak this one a little after he returned it.

Garrett Mans came slouching into the kitchen of his mother's house late once again for supper. The 19-year-old well-built boy was completely unable to keep to a schedule and it drove his mother into fits of anger that sometimes threatened to become uncontrollable. Wilma Mans was not an easy woman to live with at any time and when she was angry she was totally impossible to get along with. Many years ago Jerome Mans, Garrett's paternal grandfather, had completely cut his ties with the woman his only son, George, was once married to. He still managed to keep in touch with his grandson, but did not get to spend the time with him he wished he could. In fact, Garrett's tardiness this evening was because of a visit with his grandfather. They had, once again, held a clandestine visit while tromping through the woods along a stream in which they were fishing. As with many fishing and hunting trips, this one consisted of a small amount of actual fishing and a large amount of drinking and telling of lies. As happens many times the fishermen lost track of time as they depleted the stock of beer in Jerome's cooler. Thankfully to Garrett, Jerome felt he was old enough and mature enough to drink in moderation when under adult supervision, no matter what the damn law said. Of course, this did not endear him to Garrett's mother, but then nothing probably ever would.

Garrett's only father figure was his grandfather because his biological father died after he and Wilma divorced almost 16 years ago. If not for economic necessity his mother would have kept him as far away from his grandfather as she could. Even letting Garrett visit his grandparents galled her considering their mutual feelings about each other. She allowed the continued contact because she initially needed the free childcare as well as the occasional cash infusion they provided to her finances. She deeply resented the fact she had to go to work when she divorced her husband. She never admitted it was her cheating with one of the lowlifes (well, more than one, but she was only caught the one time wasn't she?) from the country club that caused the divorce. She blamed Jerome for supporting Garrett's father in the proceedings and helping him arrange things so she ended up with almost nothing from the divorce. Never mind that she got her standard fifty percent of the marital assets, she felt she was cheated. How could she know both cars and the house really belonged to Jerome and his company instead of George? He always referred to them as "our house" and "our cars". Hell, she didn't even receive any alimony because her salary was actually higher than George's. She even blamed Jerome for that. After all, he owned the business they both worked in didn't he?

Wilma managed to convince the court she was the better parent and should have custody of the children so she did receive a pittance of child support, but Garrett's stopped over a year ago when he turned 18. Now, he was just an empty hole into which she was still forced to throw her hard earned cash. She held the same job for the last 16 years and had received no raises, again, in her mind, Jerome's fault. No, it was all that asshole Jerome's fault things went to shit when she got caught cheating. She never let Garrett forget that opinion, either. After all, he was a man as well as a Mans so it was partly his fault, too, wasn't it?

Before she ever got into high school, the beautiful Wilma was known as a stone cold, calculating bitch. George was advised not to marry her by all his friends and his parents but he was in love with her beauty. Of course the fact she gave him the best pussy he ever sampled didn't hurt her case either. She managed to hide her personality well enough from him that they were married and had Garrett before he found out he had truly married the bitch his friends told him he was marrying. He took her abuse for almost four years before he had enough. Even then, he only filed for divorce after he caught her cheating.

If anything, Wilma became even more demanding and shrewish when her husband George began the divorce proceedings. She felt she was due a life of luxury and plenty because she was one of the beautiful people. In her mind anything she wanted she was entitled to. Just because her husband, the breadwinner of the family, felt otherwise was no reason for her to have to work longer or do without. After all, he promised to endow her with all his worldly goods when they married. Since he reneged on his promise to support her she decided the family could just step up and provide the living she expected George to provide. Unfortunately for her, Jerome did not choose to do that.

Many times over the past years Wilma thought she should have known she would be left out in the cold. After all, that was a family trait. Hell, during the depression the Mans owned a small bank in town. Garrett's great grandfather was killed during a robbery attempt and his Great Great grandfather just closed the bank in sorrow. He was supposedly so broken hearted from the death of his son that he simply locked the bank after the police were through inside and never opened the doors again. He made arrangements for the deposits to be transferred to another small bank in a nearby town if the customers didn't make other arrangements. Well, actually, what he did was sell the bank, less the building and contents. The successor bank only purchased the depositor accounts and liabilities. The end results were the same, however, he just closed and locked the doors and walked away from the business leaving the employees out in the cold with no job. In Wilma's mind, however, he just closed the business and walked away just as George did to their marriage. She knew the family had money, yet they refused to step up and provide for her as they should. She took her anger out on Garrett and Jerome every chance she got. Even her parent's refused to support her claiming they just did not have the money to do so. She knew better, but what could she do? At least both sets of grandparents made sure little Garrett and his younger sister Beatrice were taken care of. All she had to spend her (to her) meager salary on was herself and a few of the household bills.

It had been 15 years now since his father left home and Garrett hardly remembered him. His mother still believed George was hiding from her but Garrett knew the truth from his grandfather. George Mans did, indeed, leave home after the divorce but he did not desert his family on purpose. He died in an accident while moving to another state for work. Because of his grandchildren, his grandfather chose not to completely desert Wilma in spite of her personality. He just continued paying child support per the court order as if it came from his son. Garrett knew, if not for his grandfather he probably would not have any memory of his father, or at least no pleasant memory of him. His mother spent much time trashing both his father and grandfather. She trashed his father for daring to divorce her and then disappearing. She trashed his grandfather for forcing her to work to support herself after George was killed. She thought she should receive the money from the insurance policies instead of having it placed into trust for the children. After all, she was their mother and needed the money so they could live well while they grew up.

Garrett was, truthfully, not the young man he could potentially have been. His intelligence was almost off the charts on the high side, but his motivation to succeed was almost off the charts to the other end of the spectrum. In other words, he was supremely happy to wallow in the muck of mediocrity. Hunting, fishing and camping were much more important to him than school and work could ever be. Of course, chasing women rated right up there with the other three, as did eating (and drinking when he could find someone to obtain the alcoholic beverages for him). He was attending the local Junior college and making what was once known as "Gentleman C's". He would, in time, move on to a nearby four-year institution for some kind of degree. He readily admitted his attendance at college was to keep his mother and grandparent's quiet as well as to keep him from having to find a full time job.

Garrett did work part time as a clean-up boy and "gofer" for a local building contractor to earn most of his spending money. He enjoyed the work he did for them. It didn't take any mental effort and little hard physical effort. He liked the work all right, but had no idea if he wanted to do that kind of work for a career. He even enjoyed being allowed to do some of the simpler work normally done by a carpenter or one of the other building professionals. He was learning a lot from his job and found the work fascinating—especially the remodel jobs.

In any event, this evening when Garrett entered the kitchen a screaming bitch more formally known as his mother once again confronted him. Just as he once again allowed the door to slam shut his mother rushed up to confront him as she yelled, "Garrett, where the hell have you been? You were supposed to be home before I got off work and it's obvious you weren't. None of the jobs I left for you to do have been done. You haven't even begun preparing supper as I told you to do. And just look at you! You're filthy and, if I'm not mistaken, that is water and river mud on your clothes, not dust and mud from some construction site. You snuck off and went fishing again didn't you? And you smell like a brewery. I suppose you managed to find some beer to guzzle while you were screwing off again. What am I going to do with you? Garrett, if you don't stop this loafing around no decent woman will ever look seriously at you. No woman worth having is interested in someone who can't give her the finer things in life. Now get upstairs and clean up."