Chapter 11

And the lonesome sound of the outward bound

made me a slave to my wandering ways...

“Mr. Merle, if I’m ever going to grow up, learn to be a man and take on some responsibility, I reckon now is as good a time as any to start. I have never taken over anything, but if I’m to take over being the man of this family and the head of this ranch, I need you to teach me what it is I’ll need to do, during this next month. Will we still have talks like this so you can help me? I don’t know shit about what your women will need from me. I mean, I was taught how to kiss a woman and even caress her body, but I don’t know a lot about a woman’s personal feelings inside her head, her heart or her body.”

“Let the three Peters women teach you that part, Joss. They will make sure you are totally knowledgeable of all their needs. Don’t run from them, Joss. Run to them when they hold out their arms to you, just as you did with the first eight women you’ve been intimate with. When I was a young man, no one was in my life to school me in the art of loving a woman ... I have never even kissed my wife the way you’ve described. To this day, I know none of the finer things about a woman, the feelings in her heart, and her body. I feel that I have failed Ruby, especially now that I am less than half a man. You are wrong about not having anything to offer a woman. You are a man way beyond your years, Joss. Take my word for it and take my family to love. Do this for a dying man, Joss Wayward. If you can’t stay this time, just tell me that you will come back. I need to know that they will be loved, not just cared for. I need to know now, while I’m here to help you learn...

“My daughters have never kissed a man. You’ll have to teach them all about kissing and being intimate with a man. Once they learn that you’re experienced in kissing and caressing a woman’s body, they will never let up until you have schooled each of them in all the ways a man can touch and kiss a woman. Do this for me as much as for them, Joss. If I had a son, I’d want him to be just like Joss Edmon Wayward.”

“Mr. Merle, you’ve just talked me into giving it my best go. If you’ll help me learn what I need to know and they’ll take the time to teach me what they need and expect of me, I’ll give you my best try at being the man in their lives for the next month...

“I’ll tell you right now to your face, Mr. Merle ... when my drifting days are done... I will return - you have my word on that.”

“You’re a man, Joss ... and you’re the man of Windy Ridge now. You’re the man in my womens’ lives. You’re the man of the house and you’re the man who will sire more heirs for this huge ranch. How does it feel to be a man at fourteen, and know you have what no other man on this earth would have ever been offered?”

“To tell the truth about it, all of a sudden, I feel sort of itchy – like I could use a bath.”

“I feel the same way, Joss. Cut off right up here and head down this little trail to your left. They’ll see us and by the time you and I get there, the women will be waiting for us to join them.”

“But we won’t do any that other stuff out here today will we? I mean, this being my first day here and all.”

“Would you be willing to let Ruby start teaching you to swim today, after you’ve helped them get me safely in the water so they can bathe me?”

“What do your women wear when they swim?”

“Nothing.”

“Do you expect me to swim with them wearing nothing?”

“That’s the way we’ve always done it. You’ll get used to it.”

“OH HELL NO I WON’T EITHER... I’ll never in my life, get used to seeing any part of a woman naked, much less seeing three women swim naked.”

“Joss, just let them have their fun. They love to swim and play in the water. When Ruby teaches you to swim, you’ll have just as much fun as they do.”

“Will she show me how to swim in shallow water, so I won’t drown?”

“She’ll stand beside you and hold you up with her arms while she teaches you to use your arms and legs to swim. Just like she did with Jamie and Jonnie.”

“Mr. Merle, you’ve got to understand ... I mean, well, to be honest and speaking man to man ... I get hard just seeing a woman with her clothes on. When I see a woman naked, it hardly ever goes away. Even after three or four of them in a row, it never completely goes away!”

“Somehow, I just knew you’d be that much of a man. Just relax, Joss and let Ruby teach you to swim. When we get back to the barn, she’ll probably want you to get in the big stock tank out behind the barn with her, Jamie and Jonnie, so she can give you some more lessons.”

“That would be better, wouldn’t it? The water’s not that deep in the stock tank is it?”

“No, it isn’t over waist deep ... Now then, I want you to forget about the women being naked. Help get me into water and while my daughters bathe me, let Ruby teach you to swim.”

“I’ll give it my best go.”

“If you’ll figure out how to build a seat in the water that I can sit on safely and still exercise my legs, you’ll have more time to spend with Ruby, Jonnie and Jamie as they teach you to swim. When you learn to swim, they’ll be the ones who’ll need your attention the most.”

“When I see your swimming hole, we’ll come up with something to make it better for you.”

“Thank you, Joss.”

“Thank you, Mr. Merle.”

When I drove the buggy down to the swimming hole, he pointed to where they’d been parking the buggy next to the bluff above the crick. There was a boom pole mounted on a post with a rope leading down to a wooden seat that was resting on some boards. The boom pole had a big sack tied on the opposite end from the seat to balance a load, and I could tell it was filled with sand. I had no idea how they controlled the boom pole when Mr. Merle was in the seat.

As I looked at it, I remembered seeing men loading a flatcar using a winch with a long rope that wound up on the spool when the two-man hand crank was turned. They had another hand crank that turned the gears which swung the boom pole out over the flat car and back again, loading bundles of fence posts at once, instead of one post at a time.

That would be a lot better that a sack of sand and three women swinging naked on it to get him in the water and back out again. I’d like for them show me how they did it though, now that I’ve thought about them being naked when they swung on that thing and lowered him to the water.

“I see you studying that apparatus, Joss. Have you got it figured out yet?”

“I know of a way which will make it safer for you and easier for us ... and them too when I’m gone.”

“Tell me what you have in mind.”

“I’d use a winch with a rope that pulls you up and lets you down. I’d want a crank that turns a gear and swings the boom out over the water and back. I’d build a table under the water for your seat to rest on so you could swing your legs in the water.”

“I think I know what you’re talking about. I’ve seen men using a larger apparatus of the type to load and unload ocean ships at the ports and on the riverboats over at St. Louis and Kansas City. You’ll have to go to town with Ruby and order what you’ll need at the hardware store. Could you build it with the help of the women?”

“I’ve no doubt that we could build it. Your women aren’t a bit afraid of work, from what I’ve seen.”

“Joss.”

“Yes Sir?”

“Before you step down and help me off this buggy, you need to be aware that my wife and two daughters are standing behind you without a stitch of clothes on. You may as well get used to it, because they’ll never change when it comes to bathing here at the pool in decent weather.”

“Like I told you already, I’ll never get used to it. But I got to tell you this too, Mr. Merle, I’ll never get enough of looking at a woman’s body ... clothed or unclothed ... Now the three of them are naked already, did you say?”

“Look for yourself, Joss.”

I turned to look at the three of them standing there next to the buggy, smiling with the sun shining on their wet hair and wet, naked bodies. All that come to mind was something my Ma always said when something happened unexpected...

“Lord Have Mercy!”

Miss Ruby, Jamie and Jonnie walked around to the front of the buggy, as if being naked like that meant nothing at all to them. It sure meant something to me though. Miss Ruby has some of the finest breasts I have seen. They’re not as big as some I’ve seen, but damn do they ever look good on her chest. Jamie and Jonnie have some damn fine young titties coming along just like momma. I’ll never be able to strip off butt naked out here and not have a hard cock for anyone to see if they look my way.

Before I could step off the buggy, they were working with this contraption they’d built to lift Mr. Merle out of his wheeled chair and swing him around to lower him into the water.

I still had my boots and clothes on, but I helped them get Mr. Merle into the sling that would carry him out over the water, then let him down so they could bathe him.

I almost slipped into the water a couple of times and I knew if I was going to be responsible for him staying alive, I had to get in the water with them. I walked around to the other side of the horse and buggy, then stripped off naked, putting my clothes, boots, hat and gunbelt in the buggy seat.

Holding both hands over my hard cock, I bent over and walked around to where they were waiting. They were smiling up at me as they stood in waist deep water.

The first step I took off the bank, I went up to my nuts in cold, spring water before I knew it.

“HUAGHGHGH.” SHIT, I thought I was going to drown and nearly fell in over my head as I thrashed around.

Finally, I grabbed Mr. Merle’s sling and he told me to let go, before I drowned him too.

Miss Ruby came around to where I was and took my left hand. She led me real slow back around to where Jamie and Jonnie were standing. My foot hit something in the water and I realized it was a table leg of some sort. Then I knew how they bathed him. They lowered him down in the water to sit on the table built underwater.

“Joss, while Jonnie and Jamie bathe their daddy, come over here to the shallow part and let me teach you how to swim.”

“You won’t let me drown, will you? I’m telling you, Miss Ruby, I’m afraid of deep water, and this water is moving really fast.”

“Have you ever been in water this deep before?”

“No, but I’m afraid of it anyway.”

“Stand real close to me and put your arm around my neck. Then lift your feet. You’ll see how easy it is for your body to float that way.”

I did as she told me and sure enough, even as heavy as I am, my body felt light in the water.

“Joss, do you trust me?” she asked.

“Yes, I trust you ... Just don’t let me drown.”

“I promise, I won’t let you drown. Just relax and let me lift your body so you’ll be in my arms. Then I want you to stretch your legs out while I hold you in the water.”

“You mean belly up?”

“Yes, just to show you that I’m not going to let you go under. Then we’ll turn you over and let you start kicking and moving your arms.”