Chapter 11

Now that the groceries were put away, Ed took a moment to sit on one of the folding chairs on the back patio while the tea was brewing. Looking out over the desert, he thanked God that John was returning home the next day. The day after that, they would move Beth into his house and life with Kelly could return to normal. He was so horny that he was now jacking off in the bathroom daily. It was a safe bet that Kelly was doing the same, but they didn’t talk about that around Beth. She got upset at any and all signs of affection.

While Ed was very anxious to get Beth out of the house, his motives were only partially selfish. He knew that John would stand a better chance of getting through to her and healing her. There were very few things that he hadn’t tried in his efforts to help her. Trying to talk to her was a failure. As soon as the topic even approached anything that she might be feeling, she would scream and curl up into a ball.

Returning to the kitchen, he removed the tea bags and poured the hot tea into a pitcher. Putting the pitcher in the refrigerator, all excuses for remaining here were exhausted. All of the windows were open to allow the house to air out overnight so that it would smell fresh when John arrived. There was fresh food in the refrigerator so that he wouldn’t have to shop as soon as he returned home. The lease and other legal materials were left on the desk for him to settle at his convenience.

Ed left the house and went across the street. The two women were at the house. Ed had agreed to watch over Beth while Kelly took a break. The weeks of watching over Beth were taking its toll so she was going to go down to the bar to talk with Shirley as one sane woman to another. It was his hope that Shirley would not provide details to Kelly about his episode with Sammy, but he knew the chances of that were slim.

He called out as he entered the house, “Girl’s night out!”

Dressed in a simple pair of jeans, Kelly came out of the bedroom with a smile. Quickly kissing Ed, she slipped out the front door without a word. He watched her scurry down the street, anxious to get around normal people for a change. It would be hours before she would return. That left him taking care of Beth and leading her through her nighttime activities.

It took him a minute to locate Beth in the bathroom. Kelly had left her standing there, knowing that he would find her and take care of what needed to be done. She had apparently finished using the toilet and was now awaiting orders. He said, “Slave, what was the last order that you had?”

“To use the toilet, master.”

“Slave, take a warm shower and dry yourself off when you are done.” Leaving the room when she started to undress, he went into her room to look for her nightwear. He would set it inside the bathroom and order her to dress once she finished her shower. After setting the clothes in the bathroom, he waited outside for the shower to be turned off. That was life with Beth, issue a command and then wait for her to finish it. Then it was time to issue another command.

The evening passed slowly. Bathing, dressing, brushing teeth, setting hair, and taking care of a myriad of details that one normally did without thinking occupied the evening. Even simple things, such making sure that Beth consumed sufficient water to avoid dehydration, had to be watched. With experience, they had generated lists of commands to execute through the evening. The fact that she had not lost any weight was a testament to their efforts.

After all of the evening list had been executed, Ed ordered her to sit in a chair. She sat there staring off into space. He had about half an hour to work on his homework from school. He opened his calculus book and struggled through a single problem. He had spent every spare minute of time reviewing algebra and trig at the end of summer and that was really saving him in this course. This subject was the hardest of the ones that he was taking and he knew from the first week of school that he was going to need help to get through it.

Nevada had been very surprised by his request to work part-time. He now worked afternoons and evenings on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays. That allowed him to take three classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays. He took two classes in the mornings of the other three days early in the morning. The schedule was about to kill him and it had only been a two weeks. When John returned, that would give him back some of his time to spend on his studies, but he wondered if it would be enough.

A knock on the door interrupted his studies. Standing, he looked around to check out the house. Seeing Beth sitting there in her nightwear, he ordered, “Slave, get into bed.”

When she had left the room, he answered the door. Much to his surprise, Shirley stood at the door with a very large smile on her face. Ed said, “Oh, hello. I thought you were talking to Kelly.”

Smiling, Shirley replied, “Oh, she’s watching the bar for a few minutes. I have a back to school present for you.”

Very surprised at being given a present from anyone, much less Shirley, Ed stood there in shock. Emotions tightening his throat and hardly able to talk, he said, “Thank you.”

“Can you help Manuel bring it in?”

Glancing out to the street, he could see Manuel standing beside his pickup truck. There was a huge desk standing in the back. He walked over to Manuel who greeted him with an indifferent nod. Manuel made his living helping people haul things in the back of his truck and usually worked with his son. Ed wondered where his son was today. The two men wrestled the desk out of the truck and into the house. The desk was incredibly heavy and the men were tired by the time they set the desk down. Manuel made a second trip to bring in the desk drawers.

With the desk sitting in the middle of the living room, Ed stood back and admired it. In a quiet voice, he said, “It’s beautiful.”

Shirley ran a hand over the surface of the desk. She said, “It’s an old teacher’s desk from the forties.”

The solid oak desk had been refinished and who ever had done it, had done excellent work. The surface glowed with the kind of shine that only a master craftsman could evoke, bringing out the rich wood grain. He looked at Shirley and said, “I’m afraid to use it.”

She laughed and said, “I have to get back before one of the drunks tries to pick up Kelly.”

With a real tear in his eye, Ed turned to Shirley and said, “Thank you very much. I really love it.”

To see such an emotional response from Ed was all of the thanks that Shirley needed. Looking around the house, she realized that there wasn’t much room for the desk. She asked, “Where are you going to put it?”

Smiling, Ed gave a little follow me gesture and led her to the third bedroom of the house. Opening the door, he pointed inside the room. Shirley glanced in and did a double take as a very slight smell of earth tickled her nose. The entire room was lined with shelves, each shelf crammed with rock samples. There must have been over a thousand rocks, each neatly labeled. There were additional boxes of rock samples on the floor. Shirley entered the room and slowly turned around taking in all of the rocks on display. She had never imagined that Ed had such a collection. There were depths to him that she had never seen before and she felt honored that he had chosen to show this to her.

As though it was a temple, Ed whispered, “I collected all of these rocks while pushing cattle on the range. I’ll remove a couple of shelves and put the desk in here. It will be a good place to study.”

Shirley nodded as she bent down to look at an example of copper, the little crystalline needles of copper so intricate in shape and placement capturing her attention. Next to it was a sample of a rock that had similar crystalline needles, but was so much plainer that it was overwhelmed by the example of copper. She straightened up and said, “This is amazing. I’ve never seen anything like this.”

The compliment meant more to Ed than he could express in words. He merely said, “I’m glad that you like it. Studying in here will remind me why I’m going through school.”

Shirley backed out of the room and said, “Thanks for sharing this with me. I never knew that you had such an interest.”

Smiling, Ed said, “Thank you for the desk.”

Shirley left shortly after that with Manuel. Ed walked around the desk admiring it. Mentally, he went through a check list of things that he would have to buy to use it. He would need a chair, a desk lamp, and protector to save the surface of the desk.

His thoughts were interrupted by another knock on the door. Surprised at two visitors in the same day, he opened the door. Sammy and his mother stood at the door. A very large gift wrapped box was on the ground at Sammy’s feet. Sammy, with a grunt, picked it up and extended it to Ed. “I want to thank you for what you did for me.”

Accepting the heavy box with a shake of his head, he had to set it down. Ed said, “You didn’t need to do anything. I was happy that things ended up as well as they did.”

Mrs. Burton replied, “You did a really wonderful thing for Sammy. He could have gotten the electric chair if you hadn’t been so calm. You kept him out of jail. We can’t thank you enough.”

Wanting to change the subject, Ed said, “Please come in. I can’t wait to open the present.”

Slightly uncomfortable, Linda Burton and her son entered the room. She looked at the desk sitting in the middle of the room and said, “Shirley really did find a nice desk for you.”

Ed ran his fingers over the wood appreciating the smoothness of the wood. He answered, “Yes, she did. It’s almost too nice to use.”

Almost dancing in place, Sammy looked impatient for Ed to open the present they had brought over. Ed went over to the present and slowly removed the wrapping paper to expose a desk chair that matched the desk. He would have to assemble it, but the picture of the chair on the box showed that it was a perfect match for the desk. Smiling he turned to them and said, “Wow, this is outstanding. You must have arranged this with Shirley to get such a great match.”

The pair lit up at the clear appreciation for their gift. Mrs. Burton, having learned a little of the story about the death of her husband, was thankful for the actions that Ed had taken for her husband. Their marriage had been a sham, but she still cared for him in her own way. To know that Ed had done what he could to salvage her late husband’s reputation had touched her more than she could express. That he had saved her son from jail was more than she could ever repay. Softly, she said, “I’m glad you like it. We had better go now.”

As the pair left the house, Ed stood there looking at the desk and chair touched very deeply. He wanted to share his happiness with someone, but Beth was not in a state to feel emotions. He opened the box and started to assemble the chair. It was very easy to put together. The chair matched the desk very closely.

Checking the clock, he saw that it was nearing ten and time for Beth to be ordered to sleep. He opened the door of the bedroom and said, “Slave, get to sleep.”

Watching Beth roll over, he was amazed to see that she could sleep on command. The sight always amazed him. The woman was beautiful, even in this state, but so emotionally detached that it was hard to find her sexy. He wondered what she was waiting to have happen before she would snap out of it.

Closing the door, he went to the living room and admired the desk and chair. He would treasure these gifts for a long time.

Two hours later, Kelly came home to find him sitting on the couch still admiring the desk and chair. Smiling, she joined him on the couch and said, “You like them?”

“I love them. I couldn’t believe my eyes when she brought the desk over,” replied Ed with real emotion making his voice rough. He cleared his throat and asked, “You knew?”

Leaning her head on his shoulder, she answered, “Yes, I knew. Shirley had suggested that she use the money from the tip you left on the night of your famous party to buy you a present. I think that she was going to get you a briefcase until she saw what you did for Sammy. That touched her much more than you may realize.”

Ed replied, “I was so scared that day. Sammy and his mother brought over the chair.”

Kelly put her head against his chest and relaxed as he put an arm around her. She said, “You have no idea what you did for them, do you?”

“I did what I thought was right. He’s still just a kid and didn’t deserve to go to jail for the rest of his life. Besides, at his age, I would have done the same thing.” Ed had tried very hard to put that day behind him. Most of the people had believed the story that he had known it was a starter pistol, but a few who had been there and seen the gun still looked at him funny. He didn’t like being the center of attention like that, and had now begun to understand how John felt.

A weary Ed returned home after a long day at school and at work. They’d had an auction tonight and while he was busy, the work wasn’t that bad. Tired, he entered the house expecting to see Kelly commanding Beth through her evening program. Instead, Kelly was sitting naked upon a blanket thrown over the desk. Her hips rested on the edge of the desk. Without any real word of greeting, she said, “Cowboy, get naked and come over here and fuck me.”

Time with Kelly had given him a little more control over his fingers when presented by her naked body. He quickly undressed and joined her at the desk, walking towards her as if led by his erection. He bent over to kiss her, but she had other ideas. Grabbing him by his cock, she led him into her, foregoing all foreplay. She wanted it, and she wanted it now!

With his feet on the ground, his cock slipped into her ready and waiting passage with ease. Her legs wrapped around his hips, pulling him into her even deeper. For both of them, this was a moment too long in coming. Nature drove to them to a hard and fast coupling, complete with grunts and groans. Ed thrust into Kelly with the kind of need that comes from a month of closeness, without the ability to express desires. Lying on her back, her breasts moved in counter tempo to his thrusts, jiggling towards him when he thrust into her. He found the motion extremely erotic and he started to thrust even faster.

Looking down at her face, Ed could see that her desire for a quick release was as strong as his. Guiding his hand down to her cunt, he put a thumb just above the clit. His thrusts, pushed her clit enough to just touch his thumb. The effect couldn’t have been better! The slight teasing sensation drove her rapidly to orgasm. She let loose with a scream, announcing her pleasure and satisfaction to the world.