Chapter 7

There was an old dog sleeping on the boardwalk leading to the two-room shack built over the water, at the edge of the bayou. He thumped his tail on the boards but never made a move to get up when Heck stepped over him to rap on the door.

Leona came to the door with a smile on her face and a gleam in her eyes. Heck’s smiling too - at her huge titties about to burst through that t-shirt - and her sexy ass cheeks hanging out of her cut-off short-shorts.

“Heck Johnson, what in the hell are you coming out here for? You don’t need a washer-woman, with all the women you got chasing your ass.”

“How do you know me, or know anything about my women? We’ve never met, have we?”

“No, but everybody who wants to be somebody in these parts, knows who Heck Johnson is.”

“Take a break from your chores and come out here to sit with me on this bench. I need some help, and you’ll fit right in with my plans.”

“Before I sit beside you on that bench, tell me straight-up, you’re not another one of those white-boys who wants to offer me a job, just to put a personal lock on my pussy, are you?”

“No. If I wanted your pussy, I’d have asked you out on a date, taken you out to eat and go to a movie ... Maybe five or ten times, before I asked you to spend the night with me.”

“You’re lying like the best of those horny ass rich white-boys, now aren’t you?”

“No, I’m not lying. Besides that, you talk with better English than I do, when you’re not trying to act like you’re poor bayou trash.”

“Heck, I have never met a man or boy I couldn’t out talk, and get rid of his lying ass in less than ten minutes. Tell me what you have to offer me that will make me a living, better than being a washer-woman.”

“Working for me at the hardware store, and the laundromat I’m planning to build next door to the hardware store.”

“Heck, are you still shittin me?”

“No, and I never was shittin you. No one knows washing clothes like you do, and with you running that business, we would have hundreds of regular customers each week.”

“What’s in it for me?”

“You get paid a regular salary each week, plus I’ll even give you a commission when you build the business up.”

“I’m listening and I’m running numbers about my future through my head ... I don’t have a vehicle and I can’t even afford a room over in colored town, until I get some money saved ahead.”

“Would you live with me above the store until you make enough money and decide you want to move out and leave me lonely?”

“NOW! I GOT YOU - NOW! We’re getting back to your other, real offer to put your claim on my ass, right?”

“No, I didn’t ask you to sleep with me, I asked you to come work with me, and one day become a part owner in your own business. You will be the one drawing all the customers, and you will tell all those young momma’s who don’t know shit about washing baby clothes or their own undies - how to wash them ... Oh, and you’ll have your own bed and your own room, unless you get so hard up for a man you may slip into my room, along with my other women who will work and live there.”

“Your other women who work there? Are they employees or simply bed warmers?”

“Both. Does that bother you?”

“Not unless your bed warmers happen to let their sex stuff spill over on my bed.”

She’s smiling now, and Heck knew right then, he has just hired the right person to run his laundry.”

“As long as you don’t get that sex stuff on you - are you agreeing to come to work with me and help me put that business on the front page of Maplewood Times Gazette?”

“Heck, please tell me you’re not shooting a line of shit at me. I’m twenty-five and I still dream daily of one day owning my own business. I’ve given up on having a family, since I don’t own shit and never will. If this is a scam to get me naked with you, just tell me now and I’ll get naked with you so we can get our sex stuff of the way before we start.”

“This is no scam and if you ever want to get naked with me for real, you’ll have to ask. You’re a tall, sexy, beautiful woman of Creole ancestry, and when you get that store up and running, you’re going to get your ass hit-on by every man, boy and some women, until you cannot refuse.”

“So, you don’t want me? Is that what I hear?”

“Leona, I wanted your sexy ass naked in my arms before I met you, just from the description of you by my momma. I know I have a bad reputation of screwing around, but some of that’s not true. Most of my women come see me, I don’t chase them down.”

“Heck, tell me the truth, did you chase me down?”

“Yes and I hope you want to see what you and I can do together, to make this last for both of us - for years to come.”

“I want kids one day.”

“I would love to be their daddy. They will be brothers and sisters to my other kids I’m planning to have.”

“Heck, you’re fucking with my head for real now, and I can’t even think straight, I’m so damn messed up thinking about what you have said in the few minutes you’ve been here.”

“I hope we have a little girl first, who looks just like her hot-ass, sexy momma.”

“You need to get the fuck out of my head for a few minutes at least. I need to deliver these clothes ... on my way to town, with you. You better not be lying about one damn word of this either or I’ll skin your cock and sell it for baloney.”

“What about your dog?”

“He’s not mine, he belongs to that young lady up the road. If we can get him in your truck, we can take him home when we deliver her clothes.”

“You load the clothes, I’ll get the dog ... Leona, do I get at least one hug with your titties mashed against my chest, for trying so hard to get next to you?”

“You’ll be the first man to ever hug me, and only the second person since my momma died. Be careful with me, Heck. I may seem like a hard-nose bitch at times, but I am so fuckin fragile right now, it scares me at times like this to even let a man like you get close to me.”

“Hug me and let me worry about the rest. I take care of my friends, and from this day until our spirits leave this earth, you are my friend, Leona.”

“I believe you with all my heart and soul, but it’s going to take some time for me to turn loose of that knot in my heart, and let it happen.”

“I have time, and so do you. Let’s go, we have work to do and plans to make.”

They were almost to their first stop to deliver the laundry when Leona told him.

“You need to go inside with me. This young woman lives alone on welfare, her husband was killed in a car wreck and she’s even more fragile emotionally than I am. If there was a way, and I had the means, I would help her myself.”

“Does she actually rent this rundown shack.”

“No, she told me that the old woman who’s the mother of her late husband, lets her live here rent free.”

“Hire her, and tell her to get her clothes and get in this damn truck, that you have a job for her. I hate seeing women, kids, and old folks struggle just to make a life.”

“YOU WANT ME TO HIRE HER?”

“You’re my partner, and you’ll need help cleaning out that old building next door to our hardware store, so we can get started on remodeling.”

“Heck, you are getting way too fuckin close to wearing down my resistance, with all this shit you keep throwing at me.”

“What’s her name, and do we need to notify anyone when she leaves here with us?”

“Connie, is all she’s ever told me. Her mother-in-law’s last name is Chandler. I do her laundry too and when we take her laundry to her, I’ll tell her that Connie is going with us.”

“Does it make you feel good, to help someone, though you have even less than her?”

“I swear Heck, it’s all I can do to keep from hugging your neck and screaming out to high heaven, just thinking about me telling Connie we’re going to help her. She hugs my neck each time I bring her laundry. I never charge her but two dollars. I could love that young woman, if she would even wink at me.”

“Be her best friend, and if there’s ever anything I need to do to help, let me know.”

“If she wants to hug you, will you let her?”

“Yes, but only if you’ll let me hug you and her, at the same time.”

“You make me feel shit I have never in my whole fuckin life felt before today.”

“I can just look at you, and feel the same way. Be careful with those feelings, Leona”

“Heck?”

“Go knock on the door Leona, I’ll get the dog out of the truck, and bring that clothes basket.”

“Connie, I want you to meet a really, really good friend of mine, Heck Johnson. Heck’s just offered me a job to help him start up a laundromat business in town.

“Come over here and say hello to him. I’ve got some really good news for you too, if you’re still interested in getting out of this little run-down shit-house shack, like you told me the other day.”

“Hi Heck. I’ve heard your name many times before and I had to wonder about a man named Heck. You’re not at all like the women gossip about when I go clean Ms. Chandler’s house.”

“Connie, you are exactly what I had pictured in my mind when Leona told me about you. I just knew you would be a very pretty woman who never dresses up so the men and boys will take notice when you pass by. To tell you the truth, I’m glad now that you haven’t let them see the real you ... I hope you will accept that job offer Leona has for you.”

“Thank you Heck. I suppose I do dress down quite a lot, but I can’t even look twice at those young men who only want what’s between my legs. They never care how they get it, as long as a woman let’s them have some. As for the older men, they disgust me even more with their offers of money and fake jobs...

“Since Leona is the one true friend I have left, I’ll gladly accept her job offer, no matter if it’s scrubbing floors on my hands and knees ... I do have one question, if you don’t mind me asking.”

“Sure. I hope you do accept, and if there’s something we need to make changes on, let us know. Leona thinks a lot of you and though I have just met you and her today, I’m planning to have both of you not only working for me, but I want you to be my friends, too.”

“Is there anyway I can live somewhere other than this stinking

shit-shack, if you do hire me?”

“Would you be comfortable living with me, above my hardware store? I have plenty of room, though I do have other women who live there too. They will love both you and Leona, and you will have your own bed, if you prefer sleeping alone.”

“And those other women work for you too?”

“Yes they do ... though I do have some women friends who come visit and stay the night, at times ... when I need a bed warmer...

“I really hope you will come to work with Leona and me.”

“I really want to, and I need that job ... May I ask both of you a personal question?”

“You can ask me anything,” Heck told her.

“Me too Connie. I hope you’ll let us take you with us right now on our way to town. You can ask me anything since you and I have talked about nearly everything, though we’ve never talked about sex...”

“Have you and Heck ever done it together?”