Chapter 1

After we dropped the pop-up camper off at the rental lot, and my ‘wall hangers’ at the taxidermists, Karen drove to her Dad’s house, and we unloaded her camping gear and supplies. No one was home, and she wanted me to come in, but I needed to get on to the office, and I didn’t need to get caught fucking an eighteen year old in her own house, or anywhere else for that matter.

“I’ll see you at 7:00 in the morning, and we’ll get you all signed up for payroll and insurance.” I told her.

“I’ll be there, Murphy, and thanks again.”

Jerry was the first to see me when I walked into the office; he was on the phone, and waved as I walked in.

“Yes sir, I know its short notice, but we need it tomorrow, if not yesterday. My brother gives you all of his business, because you promised him you’d ship on a days notice, and we’ve built a market for your products now.

“If you want us to continue selling at this rate, we need this truck load tomorrow, and we’ll need another one a week from today.

“Yes Sir, Murphy just walked in, as a matter of fact, and he is frowning now as he listens to my side of this conversation.

“I really appreciate this, Mr. Barrington, I see Murphy smiling already; I’ll let you go so you can get that truck loaded and on the road before midnight tonight. It’s only 300 miles to here from Nashville; we’ll expect your truck by 9:00 am tomorrow, at the latest.

“Yes Sir, we’ll transfer the money as soon as the manifest checks out; I really appreciate this, Mr. Barrington; yes, I’ll tell him. Nice talking to you.” My brother looked up at me, and grinned.

“Murphy, how was the fishing trip? You look like you sure got a lot of sun; did you see any pretty women while you there? Or were you too busy fishing?”

Jerry called me ‘Murphy, ‘ just like everyone else did; no one would know who he was talking about if he didn’t. I usually call him ‘Uh Oh’ when we are at home, or anywhere with just the two of us.

He was an unexpected child; ten years after I was born. I tease Mom and Dad, about Jerry being an ‘Uh Oh’ baby, and we all laugh about it, we are really close.

He is tough when it comes to business; and he makes our vendors walk the line, and does it in a way that they are happy to work half the night to get a load of supplies here to meet orders.

“The fishing was just great, I got some nice rainbows in the freezer at home, enough for a good cookout; and I got a new recipe, too. I’ll do the cooking one night, just let me know when.”

“Damn, did you fall and hit your head on a rock up there, or what?” He laughed, and we hugged. Even though we were ten years apart, and he was my shadow all the times I was trying to meet and get to know girls, carnally that is, we were always close.

“What was that call about with Don Barrington? I had over a load and a half, of his stainless pots, pans and utensils, in the warehouse on Saturday before I left.”

“Murphy, we got two cold calls on Monday from two different Mexican restaurants that were opening in thirty days; and Angelina caught both calls, luckily for us.

“Damned if she didn’t sell nearly all the stainless that they needed; and those guys had their brothers in Missouri call and ask for Angelina. She sold them more than we had in stock; and she told them that we would have their order by mid-week, this week.”

“Damn, I’ll need to give all of you a bonus for this. Do you realize just how much money you’re talking about?”

“Hell, you haven’t heard the rest of it, Murphy. After Angelina had such good luck with those guys, they called their friends in Arizona, and had them put the word out about our good prices and how we would deliver in five days.

“She had to get Gloria to get on the other line, to help take all the orders.”

“We had two trucks here this morning; and we’ve got two more coming Friday, besides this one they’re loading tonight, that will be here tomorrow.”

“Are all these supplies coming from Don?”

“No, the other trucks due in this week are coming in from St. Louis.”

“You bought more from McIllheny up there? I thought you were pissed at him.”

“I was, but he just happened to call at a time I needed him, and we made up, he promised that he’d get this shipment right this time; and here on time, too.”

“I better get to the bank early tomorrow, how much do we need to transfer to cover cash-flow?”

“Got it all covered, Murphy.”

“Hell, Uh Oh, you can’t get into my accounts, so how did you do it? But it looks like I need to put you in charge of inventory, as well as the bank accounts, from now on.”

“Murphy, those girls got those orders with 50% up front, with an additional 2% discount for cash, on first orders until we get their credit checked. The money was wired to our bank yesterday.”

“Damn, I need to take a break more often.” I grinned, as I ran the numbers in my head from just what he had told me. This was big time bucks.

“You had already done all the work; all we needed to do, was get our name out there to some markets, we were never exposed to before.”

“Uh OH, your name has been officially changed from this day forward. You are now Mr. Jerry Lee Murphy, Vice President, of Cooking with Murphy Enterprises, LLC.”

“Damn, Murphy, are you sure? I mean, I’m happy as hell the way we’re doing it now, and I am flattered that you think I deserve this, but I still have two more years of school left.”

“If you can’t handle both the school and the job, quit school. You’ll make more here anyway. And in two years we’ll sell this business, and I’ll give you a third of the net.”

“Murphy, are you sure about this? I mean ... Hell, I don’t know what I mean.”

“Jerry, I am as serious as Mom was when she told Dad she was pregnant with you.

“And if all goes according to plan, and we continue to grow as I see us doing; when we sell to the big boys, that want us out of their way we will net at least 4 million, 5.5 tops.

“Then this deal with River Silvers, Inc. will bring Harry Silverstone and me three million plus, to split between us. Harry even thinks it could be a lot more, but I like to be conservative.”

“Murphy, damn, I never knew you had all this happening. Are you saying stay here this fall, and work?”

“Yes, we’ll put you on a 50K annual, with a vehicle. We’ll go talk to the accountant next week, and make sure about what we’re doing. But you can make big bucks, and then still get a third of all I make when we sell out.

“Hell; I may even get them to let you stay on as manager of this division, with a big jump in pay. That is if you still want to work when we sell out.”

“You did hit your head; I need to call 911 on your crazy ass.” Jerry laughed, and hugged me; we even shook on the deal.

“I have more good news; and I guess it turned out just right on this too. We’ve got a new employee starting tomorrow to help Gloria and Angelina.”

“Damn, I was going to tell you that we needed to add another girl; we have been staying here until 10:00 at night, loading pallets with orders, so all we had to do the next day was load trucks, and get them in the road.

“Who did you hire, and how did you hire someone from way up there in the hills?”

“She’s a local girl; she’s just out of high school, last spring, and Gloria and Angelina know her.”

“Dang, you have been busy; what does she look like? If I know my brother, she’s a winner.”

“She is a winner; just wait until you meet her; she’s as tall as you, and she weighs maybe 125, no more than 130, and she likes to run, and camp, and she’s got long hair, and a very nice smile.”

“Damn, who is it?”

“Karen Blackwell, do you know her?”

“No, I guess not. She’s only two years younger than me, huh?”

“Yep, and she loves to run; she’s got long slender legs.”

“Is she married, is she dating?” Jerry was getting excited. He had always been shy around girls, because of being tall and skinny.

“No ring; and no beau. If you ask her out, just be sure she knows where she stands, and where you stand. We need good help, and she’s a good kid. You’ll see; hell, Jerry, in a month she’ll have you turning cartwheels in the warehouse.”

“I already do.”

“See; I just knew it, and you haven’t even met her yet.” we both laughed; we were having fun. Things were looking up more and more for us, every day, and it was paying off, after all the hard work that we’d done for over two and a half years.

“I met someone up there; she lives in Memphis, and she has a fourteen year old son.”

“Damn, Murphy, you met someone that you actually think enough of to mention?”

“She’s special, Jerry; I’m supposed to meet her and her son, Robby, at The Pier tomorrow at 5:30.”

“You want me to teach you how to do cartwheels?”

“I could probably do a half dozen, already!”

“No shit, that good huh?”

“Very, VERY nice; you want to go with me tomorrow, and meet her?”

“Hell, no. Bring her over here; and we’ll put her and her son to work.” He laughed.

“I plan to invite them over, one day soon; that is, if she’s agreeable.”

“Who is this man sitting here, and who kidnapped my brother? My brother would NEVER have any doubts about a woman.” We were sitting in my office, and he was behind my desk; hell, I was still off work.

“Where are Gloria, and Angelina, aren’t they about caught up?”

“Yes; they were going to clean up the warehouse before the new shipments came in this week, they’ll be in here any minute and gang bang your ass, right here in the office.”

Right on cue, Gloria and Angelina came bursting through the door, from the warehouse, and I was glad to be home all over again, as I looked at them.

“Murphy, you’ve never looked so good to me, how was your trip?” Angelina was the first to reach me, and we hugged like the friends we were, instead of employer and employee.

“Murphy, give me one of those big hugs, my titties have missed you.” Gloria laughed, as she hugged me to her.

I was sitting on the small couch in my office, and the sisters piled in on top of me after we had hugged.

“We want to know all about your fishing trip, Murphy. Did you get bored up there on the river, by yourself?” Gloria asked.

“Did you get our message we left on your phone? We were in your bed, and we were missing you.” Angelina said.

“Yes I got the message, and yes, it was a fun trip, and I caught some nice fish. I took two to the taxidermist, to get them mounted, they were really nice.”

“Did Jerry tell you we have been very busy, and we even got lots of new orders, too?” Angelina asked.

“Yes, and I am proud of all of you. You three will have a nice bonus coming at the end of the month, too.

“By the way, I hired a new girl while I was up there. She said she knows you two; Karen Blackwell.”

“OH MY GOD Murphy; you hired Karen? But where did you meet her?”

“She was camping with her cousin up there; and they got into a fight, and her cousin left her stranded; Karen drove my pickup back, even.”

“I cannot believe you hired her. Gloria and I went by to see her this week, and her Daddy said she was out of town. We were going to tell her to come see you, when you got back.”

“I was telling Jerry about her, and how she looks. I think Jerry, will like her, don’t you.”

“OH YESSSS, Jerry, she is very tall, and so thin, and has long hair, and she is pretty too; you will like her, she is a good girl.” Gloria told him.

“I told her, to be here at 7:00 in the morning. You two can show her all about what we do, and hopefully, with all the new sales the three of you have brought in, we will have enough to keep us busy.” I smiled. I knew they had been working a lot of overtime, getting all the orders out on time.

“Karen will be really good help, we will help her learn, and she is smart. Jerry, we will help you too, she will be a real good friend for you.” Gloria said.

“Gloria, please don’t say, or do anything, that will embarrass me, or her.” Jerry said, and his face was already red.

“OK, we will just tell her that you are single, and that you are a very nice young man.”

“Thank you, Gloria.” Jerry smiled.

“I say we close this place up, and get some rest, I still have to unpack my gear, and clean my truck out. I have phone calls to make and I will see all of you tomorrow morning, early.” I told them.

“Thank you, Murphy, we will see you tomorrow, you need to get rested up, so we can come see you soon. Gloria and I, have a softball game in two hours, or we would be there tonight.” Angelina smiled.

“We will plan on that, real soon. See ya tomorrow, Jerry, think about what we talked about; we’re going to need you here full time, if you can swing it; if not, we will have to hire some office help, and train them.”

“OK, Murphy, see ya.”

Now that I’d caught up on the happenings of the past week, I felt like I could rest my mind once more about the business.

Still, not letting myself take anything for granted; I was really pleased at the way things had taken off, in just a few days.

We’re talking ten truckloads of goods that were above and beyond our normal sales for a month.

Though I knew the business had potential, I would never let myself even dream of a sales growth of this sort.

Most of our sales are ‘start-up’ sales. Once we make the initial sales and deliveries, we only get growth sales from our customers. This is the reason I came up with the idea for new equipment, and additional electric cookers that Harry Silverstone had designed from my sketches.

He has some of the best metal works in the business, and when they built the first prototype, he called me for a demo.

As soon as we saw the cooker at work, we both knew we had a winner, and he called his attorney, to have the patents applied for.

We had placed ten of the units with our largest customers, and they were all raving over the way these new units performed.

We already had orders for one hundred units, with just one company at all their franchise locations.

If I could talk my brother into becoming a drop-out, I was going to put him on the phone, and on the road with this product; and we were taking ads with all the publications to get these units out in the open.

I came out of my business reverie, as I pulled into my driveway; one luxury I did afford myself, was my home. It wasn’t anything ritzy, or overbearing, but I did build it with room to move around.

My accountant told me I needed write-offs, and a new home was one of the best.

I had bought three lots before they went out of sight when the building boom hit a few years ago; and now had as much seclusion as you can get, living within the city limits of a town this size.

The one ‘toy’ I let myself have was my in-ground swimming pool; though not the largest of the ones I looked at, it wasn’t the smallest either.

Gloria and Angelina and I, had spent some fun times in the pool. They were actually the only ones I would let come here other than Jerry, when he and I would kick back, and drink a few beers.

When I parked my truck, I just walked right through the kitchen, grabbed a beer, and right on out the back door. By the time I got to the pool I was naked.

The water was warm, and I felt like I was not only back home, but back in my secure little world once more.

At 5:00 in the afternoon, the sun was just about three hours from sunset, and I fell back to relax, after I had swum my usual lazy ten laps.

I had a phone call to make that I had been itching to make all day.

“Hello,”

“Robby, this is Murphy, how are you.”

“Hey Murphy, we’re great; HEY, MOM, ( he nearly busted my eardrum, ) it’s Murphy. Did you get home yet, Murphy, tell me about all the trout you caught.”

“I’ll show them to you, as soon as the taxidermist gets them mounted; and I’ll tell you all about them when I see you tomorrow. How have you been? Are you about ready to start school?”

“Yeah, I’m kinda looking forward to it; er, Murphy, I need to ask you a couple of things, tomorrow.”

“Sure, Robby; is there something wrong, or do you just have a need to talk?”

“Just a need to talk, Murphy, some pointers from you about a couple of girls that live close by and go to my school.”

“Sure, Robby, we’ll be sure and have us a little talk tomorrow. Listen, you’ve got my cell number, office number, and home number. Call me, anytime.”

“I will, Murphy, Mom’s getting me a cell phone tomorrow, I’ll call you, and try it out.”

“Great, I’ll be waiting.”

“Here’s Mom, and she’s smiling, Murphy, keep her happy.”

“Hello, Murphy, are you home?”

“Yes, I stopped by the office after dropping the camper off at the rental place. I got caught up on all that has happened while I was off playing. Just got home, got naked, and got in the pool.”

“Murphy, that’s not fair; telling me you’re naked by the pool. You never even mentioned you had one.”

“I guess it never came up. You and Robby will have to come over and swim; I’d like to see that black swimsuit on you again anyway.” And I thought I’d like to take it off of her!

“I bought two more, when we went shopping the other day. I hope your pool is fenced, because I’d hate for your neighbors to see these.”

“Oh, yeah?”

“Yeah. I bought them to wear when I lie in the sun, but I’d wear them for you.”

“We’re secluded here; big lot, tall privacy fence, and I swim naked every day that I can.”

“Wow, I can hardly wait to see your place. You’ll have to come see me and Robby one day too.”

“I’d love to. Maybe we can all do something this weekend; that is, if you don’t have plans already.”

“No, we don’t have plans; we were waiting to see if you were going to ask; if not, we were already planning to kidnap you. If you’re free, we want to look for that RV, we talked about.”

“You really want one?”

“Yes, we are both excited about seeing you again tomorrow, and we want to show you the brochures on the ones we like the best.”

“Great, we’ll just plan on doing that. I can be there early, and we can make a day of it, if you like.”

“We like! Robby and I were kind of talking about, maybe, going on a short three day trip on Labor Day, if you would go with us, and drive the new RV the first time.”

“Heck, yes; that sounds like fun; I just didn’t realize you actually wanted to get one this soon, so count me in.”

“Great; Robby, Murphy’s going to take us on a three day trip for Labor Day.”

“Murphy, he’s high-fiving me, and pumping his fist in the air; we’re both ready to get away again. This has been a trying week for us, and we need to get some things behind us now for good; for both of us.”

“I’m glad that both of you are thinking positive thoughts and not feeling sorry for yourselves; we’ll have fun, and check out your new RV, and just get away for a few days.”

“Thanks, Murphy. I’m excited, and thank you for calling; we both needed to hear you talk about fun things and we’ll see you tomorrow at 5:30.”

“I’ll be there; say ‘bye to Robby for me. Uh, Meghan; uh, ‘bye for now. I am glad I got to talk to you. ‘Bye.”

“Me too, Murphy, ‘bye, and we’ll see you tomorrow, ‘bye for now.”

“‘Bye.”

“‘Bye.”

Why was it that I hate to hang up when I talk to her? The same thing happened when she left the camp grounds the other day. I was saying goodbye, and wanted to say, ‘don’t go’.

Well, she is a very attractive woman; and we had some fantastic fun. I still have to shake my head, when I think that less than an hour after we met we were drunk, and fucking.

Hell, I have to stop and shake my head when I think of all the pussy that was smeared on my dick, in just a week.

Damn, I bet I’ll never have another week like that again in my lifetime.

I had spilled some beer on my belly, and couldn’t believe how dark I was after just one week on the river. Hell, I was naked a lot here during the summer, but never for six or seven days in a row.