Chapter 7

For some people, the first of May is just another day of the year. For communists, it was a day to show off their weapons to the world. For pagans, it is a religious holiday celebrating spring and a renewal of life. For Glen, it was his birthday and he always made a big deal out of birthdays. His thought on the matter was that it was one of the two most important days of a person’s life. The other being the day of their death and one didn’t get a chance to celebrate that. One might almost say that it was the one day that one didn’t want to celebrate.

Glen planned to spend the whole day relaxing. The trio had to work early shifts, but that meant they would have the evening off. They had told him this morning not to make any plans for the evening. He had no idea what they had planned, but he was sure that it would be fun.

There was a knock on the door and he went to answer it. It was the postman and he had another large box of books. The postman nodded at Glen and said, “Here’s another box from your publisher. So how many does that make?”

Glen glanced over at the bookcase and stated, “This is number fifteen. I’ve got one more just about ready to submit.”

The postman asked, “So how did you get started writing?”

A melancholy expression came over Glen. He stated, “My wife loved romance novels. When she was ill in the hospital, I read them to her all of the time. One day, I didn’t have a new one to read to her so I made it up. She told me it was the best romance story she had heard. Well, we spent the next couple of days typing it up and embellishing it here and there. It was probably the most fun we had during the entire time of her illness. Then I read the finished product to her. She convinced me to send it into a publisher. I did and they published it. The money from the book really helped to pay for her hospital bills. I just kept on writing them after she died.”

The postman looked at Glen in awe. He said, “That’s an amazing story. Wow, I don’t even know what to say.”

Glen just nodded. He accepted the box of books from the postman and set them on the floor. He said, “Well, I think my days as an author are almost over.”

The postman frowned and asked, “Why? Don’t you realize that what you write gives a lot of people great pleasure?”

Glen answered, “My stories are starting to get stale. It is time for me to move onto something else I think.”

“I guess if you don’t have the story in you, then it makes it tough to write one.”

“That’s true.” Glen realized that the reason he was having a difficult time writing was that he was happy. All of his books reflected how he would have liked things to have been in his life, but that was when he had been unhappy. Now that he was satisfied with his situation, his inspiration was gone.

The postman left while Glen removed a single copy from the box and put the other copies into three stacks. He would send them to the hospital and the old folks home. There were many women in both of those places that needed the escape that his books would provide. The last stack was for the hospital where his wife had stayed. He remembered how much his wife had needed them.

It was slowly moving towards noon and Glen was getting hungry for lunch. He went in the kitchen and made a quick sandwich. It didn’t take him long to consume it. Now he was left with about six hours with nothing to do. He smiled and went to the mud room to retrieve his fishing gear. He decided that today would be a good day to try fly fishing.

He went to the stream and waded into it. He started casting the fly using the simple ten o’clock to two o’clock movement Henry had taught him. It always took him a few minutes to find the right rhythm, but once he found it he settled right into it. Having placed the fly in approximately the place that he had intended, he let it float on the water for a few seconds. He was about to move it when a beautiful trout broke the surface and took the fly. He smiled as he worked the fish in closer and then captured it in the net.

He held up the fish and removed the hook from its mouth. This was a very nice sized brook trout. He put it in his creel and went back to fishing. The time progressed nicely with him catching four of the lovely fish before three in the afternoon. He stopped at that point and took the fish up to a little cleaning table that he had set up. He cleaned the fish and then took them up to the house.

In the house, he wrapped and froze the four fish. One evening, he and the others would have a nice trout dinner. Until then, they would keep in the freezer. As much as Glen enjoyed fishing, it was nothing compared to Cliff. The kid was a fishing maniac and had progressed to very advanced methods of fly casting. Cliff did not keep many of the fish that he caught. He kept only the largest of the fish. Many of them were several pounds.

He went to the living room and glanced at the clock. He saw that it was close to four and he only had two more hours to wait. He decided to watch a movie on the porno channel. Much to his surprise, it was a movie with a strong bisexual theme. He watched and wondered why Cliff had not yet approached him. He guessed that Cliff was afraid of outright rejection or that others might learn his secret. Well, at least he hadn’t been faced with having to react to such a request.

He watched the movie with interest. It wasn’t half bad and the sex was pretty hot. Glen realized that part of it was that all of the scenes in the movie included women and that the men not only were with each other, but also with the women. He continued to watch the movie and making mental comments about the action. A few times he actually thought he could do some of the things that were shown.

He shrugged and changed the channel to the news. The world was still in a rotten shape. The Middle East was still a powder keg waiting to blow. The politicians of both parties remained shallow. European nations were attempting to form the European Union, but couldn’t agree on monetary issues. It looked to him like Great Britain wasn’t going to adopt the Euro. It was funny, but you could watch the news about once every year and see the same kinds of stories. The individuals involved differed, but the scandals were all similar.

Looking at the clock, he realized that it was time for him to get ready for the trio to come home from work. He stripped and took a shower, enjoying the feeling of warm water cascading over his body. He started to get erect trying to imagine what the twins might have in store for him tonight. They had hinted at something special, but he couldn’t imagine them doing anything with him that he hadn’t already done before.

He got out of the shower without taking care of his erection. It would go down in a minute on its own. It was more fun to masturbate, but he wanted to stay a little on the horny side for the evening. Who knew what he might miss if he couldn’t get it up enough times tonight. He quickly toweled himself dry and hung the towel on the towel rack. That had been one of the last things that he had installed in the house and he still forgot at times that it was there.

He went into the living room and went through his wardrobe looking for the appropriate attire. He finally found a pair of dress pants that still fit. He also found a shirt that wasn’t too small. It was amazing how much his body had changed over the past year as a result of his work on the cabin. Lifting the logs had really developed his upper body. Today he was thirty-seven and he had wash-board abs. He wondered how many men his age could say that.

He had just sat down when the trio drove up in their truck. The twins ran into the house without even bothering to say hello. They went into their room and emerged naked. As they ran into the bathroom, Sandra shouted, “We’ll be done very quickly.”

Cliff entered the house with a little slower pace. He stopped and looked at the expression on Glen’s face. He laughed and said, “They wanted to take a shower before getting dressed. I do too, but it doesn’t take me as long to get dressed.”

Glen laughed and replied, “That’s okay. They looked like they were moving pretty fast for a change. I bet they’ll be done in less than an hour.”

Cliff laughed as he answered, “They promised me that they would take less than thirty minutes to get ready.”

Glen shook his head at the news. He didn’t believe that they could accomplish that to save their lives. Cliff went into his room and undressed. He was actually in there for a very short time before two wet women ran out of the bathroom and into their room. Cliff came out of his room naked. Glen just watched the comings and goings with amusement. He was trying to think of the comedy that had a similar feel. It came to him in a flash, the Keystone Cops. He chuckled at the image and wondered who would be chasing who.

Cliff wasn’t in the shower long before he came out. He was significantly drier than the twins had been. He walked confidently to his room. Glen watched him walk and realized that Cliff had filled out some over the course of the winter. His upper body was a little more developed as a result of working on the house, but his lower body showed the benefits of many hours spent cross-country skiing. All in all, Cliff was not a bad looking man.

Glen was very surprised when the twins emerged from their room all dressed and with make up on their face. He was about to comment when Wanda said, “I told you we could put on our makeup without a mirror.”

Sandra laughed as she answered, “Who needs a mirror when you can watch your twin sister?”

Glen was confused by the exchange and asked, “Pardon? Did I miss something?”

Sandra said, “We decided to try an experiment. We sat across from each other and put on our make-up as though the other twin was our reflection in the mirror. It was so much faster this way since we didn’t have to share the mirror.”

Glen tried to picture how they could do that and gave up. Sometimes the twins were just spooky. Cliff came out of his bedroom dressed and was shocked to find that the twins had been ready before him. He asked, “Has the world stopped spinning?”

Wanda playfully hit him on the shoulder and said, “No, it hasn’t stopped spinning.”

Sandra looked anxiously at the clock and said, “We need to get going if we are going to be there on time.”

The twins dashed out the door leaving the two men behind. Glen followed them out in time to see them pile into their truck and start it up. Cliff came up behind Glen. He said, “They wanted to talk on the way there.”

Glen, puzzled by their behavior, only shrugged. He said, “Well, I guess we had better follow them.”

The two men got into the truck and headed out. The twins were long gone. Glen had no idea where they were headed and had to rely on Cliff providing directions. It was a pretty long way to their destination and it was almost 7:30 before they arrived. Glen got out, not recognizing the place. He followed Cliff into the restaurant. The twins were already seated at a table and waved to them when they came in. When the men were close enough, the twins called out, “Hello.”

Glen seated himself at the table and looked around. It was a very nice restaurant. The staff, all black, was dressed in civil war era servant garb. The attire surprised Glen more than anything about the restaurant. Once seated, a very attractive black woman in a dress with petticoats and apron came to the table carrying a basket of hot buns. She curtsied and then proceeded to put a bun on each side plate. She left after giving everyone a bun.

A young black man in equally fine dress came to the table with a pitcher of water. He filled the water glasses and then left. He returned a moment later with a pitcher of iced tea. Glen watched in amazement as the staff, in a very professional manner went about their business without intruding in the least bit.

Wanda and Sandra were smiling at Glen. Finally, Wanda said, “Isn’t this place amazing?”

Glen nodded. He said, “I have a hard time believing that the staff agrees to the costuming.”

Cliff smiled and answered, “They are all a family. They got the idea from an uncle who used to work in a really fancy restaurant in Savannah. He was always complaining about how the place had changed in the late sixties to a more modern and politically acceptable attire. When that happened, tips went to hell and he had to quit to take a different job to make enough money to support his family.”

Glen was amazed that Cliff knew so much about this place. He asked, “How did you find out all of that?”

Cliff smiled and answered, “Well, the owner came into the grocery store. We started talking and he told me all about this place. They’ve only been open for a month, but business is great. He said they were making more here than they had made in all of their other jobs combined.”

Glen hadn’t even noticed when one of the servants set four plates of food in the center of the table. There was a plate of crab piled high with a spoon next to it. Next to it was a plate with boiled shrimp, already peeled. The third plate of food contained raw oysters on the half shell. He glanced down at his setting. He saw that a small stand with a lit candle held a pot of melted clarified butter was situated just to the left of his plate. There was also a container of cocktail sauce. There was a fourth plate with a pile of lemons and horse radish. He was very impressed. He looked around before saying, “The service here is outstanding.”

Sandra and Wanda were pleased that they had been able to arrange an evening that impressed Glen. They had been at their wits end trying to come up with some appropriate way to celebrate his birthday. When Cliff had mentioned this place, the three of them had driven down and talked with the owner. This was everything that had been promised and more.

Everyone took a little of everything off the plates in the middle of the table. They started to eat. Somehow, the atmosphere seemed to scream out that they were not to rush. It was easy falling into a nice slow pace. When Glen had taken the last boiled shrimp off the plate, he turned his attention to the oysters. When he looked back, the plate for shrimp was full again. He was really impressed.

After a while, the plates were finally emptied and not refilled. A moment later they were all removed from the table by the same person that had delivered them. Everything was smoothly done.