Chapter 12: Jim's Call

While Fara was working hard, starting to learn the elements of Kòngzhì Rén, her mother was enjoying an unexpected spell of summer sunshine after the earlier rain.

“Excuse me, Ms Dangerfield,” Jim Wheeland called over the garden hedge to where Phyllis was lying stretched out on a sun lounger. “I wondered if there was any news from Fara.”

Phyllis sat up and pulled a towel around herself, covering up the bikini she had on. She understood enough about 18-year-old boys to not encourage this one.

“Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to disturb you.”

“That’s all right, Jim. It’s no problem.” Phyllis could tell it was no problem for Jim either. The way that his cock was stiffening in his shorts was somewhat gratifying, Phyllis thought. She wondered if she made it on to his list of “MILS.” She was perfectly aware that every teenaged boy had a mental list of “Moms I’d Like To Serve,” although she also knew that the more coarse version of the acronym substituted the word “Suck.”

“It’s just I hadn’t heard anything since she went off to London. And, well, college has been suggesting I should start looking at sponsorships and I’d hoped that...”

It was a problem every male faced on leaving college. He had to find someone that would accept him as their responsibility in law. With males having so little freedom in society it was almost impossible for them to function without someone to hold a bank account for them, be responsible for their whereabouts and behaviour. Either that meant continuing to be the responsibility of their parents (something few parents were willing to do), finding a place with an commercial or private employer who would take this on under a contract of service like the short-term agreement Phyllis had for Harry (a sponsorship as they were known, ) or - and this was extremely rare - to get taken as a life partner by a woman so love struck as to want to tie herself down as Marianne Higgs had done. Life without a sponsor or a life partner was precarious and often put those without a sponsorship on the wrong side of the law.

Oh, heavens, thought Phyllis. He thinks that Fara might have been planning to take him on as her partner. How could he be so naive? Phyllis understood enough about her daughter to know that she wasn’t planning to tie herself down yet, if ever. She reached over to pull her blouse from a bag beside the sun bed. As she pulled it on, dropping the towel, she could sense Jim’s conflicted response.

“Ms Dangerfield,...”

“Yes, Jim.” Phyllis was sitting on the sunbed. Her white blouse contrasted with her suntanned skin and the jet-black bikini. Jim’s gaze flicked from her bare legs to an envelope he was carrying.

“Well, I wondered. Could you get this to her? Please.” He offered her the envelope.

“Yes, of course.” Phyllis was anxious to let the boy’s hopes down gently. She was pretty sure that Fara would have forgotten all about him, given the demands of the course and the distractions of London. “You know you shouldn’t be thinking about settling down with one girl yet at your age, though. Have you thought about trying to find a sponsorship placement yet? You must be coming up to the end of college soon. If you find the right one, well, that can lead on to relationships, can’t it?”

“I guess so. And, yes, I’d thought about sponsorships. I was going to ask, well, I wondered if you might have a place here?”