Chapter 3

I got back from Hartford late and went straight home to get some sleep. I now had almost three grand saved up just from four months of wood deliveries. I'd paid my father back and had my Uncle Donald looking out for a second truck for me. My old truck had a twenty eight foot bed, and it was just about ideal, size wise. If I could get myself another truck I was going to get Cousin Lenny working for me in the Fall through the Spring. He was still the Caddymaster at Shennecossett, but there wasn't any work there for him after Labor Day. He was a good driver and I figured Clara, his wife, could go with him on deliveries and keep everything straight as far as money and expenses was concerned. I would handle all the orders and keep everything running smooth with Billy, but I couldn't grow without a driver or two.

I called Ellen after I got up and had breakfast. She sounded like she was real happy to hear from me. I asked her if she was still upset about the other night, but she said she'd thought it was funny too, after she'd had a good cry and stayed locked in the bathroom for over an hour. She told me that her father had taken quite a shine to me and had told her to make sure and invite me over to dinner. I told her that I'd like to do that some time. She asked what was wrong with doing it that night and I told her that I hadn't seen her for awhile and was kind of hoping that we could spend some time together that evening.

"Jackie, come on over for dinner tonight. We'll have time after dinner to take a walk or something and be alone together, I promise." I guess I should have known she was up to something, but I was lulled because we'd be at her house with her whole family there with us, what could she do in that setting? In any event I agreed to go there for supper. I put on some nice clothes and I'd even gotten a new hair cut, losing the sideburns and the longish hair for a more traditional style with only a single part on the left. My father got home right before I left to go over to Ellen's, and he was thrilled to see me looking like a 'normal person', as he put it. He had just gone over twenty years in the Navy and had started thinking about possibly retiring on half pay and doing something different with his life.

"Jackie, come in, come in, I almost didn't recognize you with the new hair and the different clothes. Ellen is in the kitchen helping her mother get dinner ready. Can I offer you a little drink before dinner? I'm having a scotch, but I can build you almost anything." I settled on a beer and thanked Mr. DePaul when he brought it to me. "You've got to call me Tom, Jackie, I insist. So, Ellen tells me you have your own business, Jackie, selling firewood around the state. Can you make any money doing that? If you don't mind me asking that is?"

"No Tom, I don't mind at all. Right now I'm only clearing about nine hundred a month, but I'm pretty sure I'll be adding another truck and driver soon and then another one in the Spring. I hope to be clearing at least thirty thousand a year by the time I'm old enough to vote."

"Really? I had no idea. Ellen made it sound like you were just helping out a relative, temporarily, and that you planned to go on and finish your education in the Fall."

"That's exactly what I was planning four months ago, Tom, but the opportunity arose and I thought I'd better jump on it when I had the chance. I was planning on going to school so that I could get a nice job and make a good living to support a family. I'd want to be able to have them live in a nice house like this and wear nice clothes and have a little extra to take vacations and things like that. My mom and pop both work, and they've had to work hard just to get by and raise four kids. I'd like to do a little better than they have, financially speaking at least, and have enough income so that my wife could stay at home and make things better for all the family. If thirty thousand a year isn't enough to do that, then I guess I'll have to hire another driver and get another truck then."

"Jackie, I have an advanced degree and have worked sixteen years for the same company, and I don't make anything near thirty thousand a year. If things go according to your plans, well thirty will be more than enough to do what you want. I'm glad we had this talk Jackie, I've come away with a vastly different impression than when we were first introduced. I think Ellen is fortunate in having you pay her court."

"Thanks, Tom, so is it OK if I really do jump her bones?" Tom broke out laughing, and he didn't stop until he had tears in his eyes and his youngest daughter came in to find out what was so funny.

Ellen came in then to say that dinner was ready. Their dining room was really nice. All the chairs were matching and the table was of real wood and had a matching buffet and china closet. The place settings were very nice and the table had a large porcelain centerpiece hand painted with delicate roses. Ellen's parents sat at the head and foot of the table, with Ellen and I on the outside, and the three younger children on the inside. There were more leaves by the sideboard and Tom told me that the table could comfortably seat twelve and that they had that many chairs. He kidded that they'd expected to have ten children when they'd bought it. I saw his wife look in the parlor at the piano and at "Eddies Shrine". Dinner was beef brisket with all the trimmings. I ate a good helping and then let Ellen convince me to have some seconds. We had home squeezed apple cider with dinner and it was very cold and good.There was a peach cobbler for dessert that Ellen's mother swore Ellen had made herself from scratch. It was very good as well. The girls had excused themselves after they were through eating, and rushed off to do their homework. When Ellen got up, I stood too and thanked her mom for a lovely meal.

Ellen grabbed my hand and led me into the back part of the house, where the bedrooms were, and straight back to her room. At first I thought she was teasing again, but she shut the door after we were inside and gave me a kiss. Not just a kiss, but a KISS. It only lasted a minute, but, when it was over I had no doubt that she wasn't teasing anymore. She looked right into my eyes and slowly began to unbutton all the buttons on her blouse. Once the last button was undone, she took the blouse off and put it on the back of her vanity chair. She reached behind her and unclasped the eyelets on her bra and shrugged out of it. she had small breasts, but beautifully formed and delicate looking. "You're falling behind Jackie, shake a leg, we don't have all night you know." She had her skirt off in another few seconds and stood there in only her panties. They were white cotton and not ornate or fancy, but she looked good standing there in them. I still only stood there and stared at her. When she started rolling down her panties, I just watched as her dark pubic hair came into view and she turned her back to me and I saw her ass for the first time, hell it was the first time I'd really seen anything private of hers. She stepped out of one leg of her panties and flicked quickly with her other foot and the panties went sailing across the room. I didn't turn away to see where they ended up though. "Your turn Jackie, I'm done already."

"Ellen, don't move an inch from right where you are. I'll be back in a minute." I went out into the hallway, shutting her bedroom door behind me, and went looking for Tom. I found him in the kitchen helping his wife put things away and stacking dishes in the sink. "Tom, can I see you for just a minute please?" He nodded at me and led me into the study where we'd earlier had our talk.

"What is it Jackie?"

"Tom, Ellen is in her bedroom right now without a single stitch of clothes on. She's made it very plain to me that she expects me to get out of my clothes too. I don't want to impose on your generous hospitality here, but I'm pretty sure that she expects me to make love to her, in her bedroom, tonight. Now, to be brutally frank with you, I'm not opposed to complying with her expectations. I thought, as a courtesy though, that I should first check with you since it's under your roof that we'd be uh, well, doing stuff, you know." I knew I sounded like a horse's ass here, but I couldn't figure out a better way to proceed.

"Jackie, take a minute here and think. This is just Ellen's way of topping you for the other night. She may be willing to get naked in front of you to do it, but, unless I don't know my own daughter, she has no intentions at all of actually surrendering her virginity to you tonight, with her whole family right here in the house? I don't think so. I say you just march back in there and call her bluff."

"Suppose you're wrong Tom, suppose she really wants to go through with it? Then what? I'm not that strong in my resolve here if she really means it. I just want you to be aware of that one little important fact."

"Well, do you love her?"

"I don't know, and right now I'm not able to sit down and try to decide if I do or I don't. I like the hell out of her and I like it when we're doing things like talking and eating together. If I don't love her right now, I probably will after."

"Jackie, you're too damn honest for your own good, too damn honest by far. If you get in there and she wants you to do it, then ask yourself if you could see yourself married to her someday. If your honest answer is no, then I'd appreciate it if you'd put your pecker back in your pants and go home before you do something the both of you will regret. If your answer is yes, or even maybe, then I say it's balls to the walls, and let the devil take the hindmost." He actually smiled then and stuck out his hand for me to shake. I took it, not unmindful of the possibility of being sucker punched, but we just shook and I went back to her bedroom. I more than half expected her to be fully dressed again and ready to have a good laugh at my expense. When I opened the door, the light was turned off and I heard her call my name softly and tell me to shut the door, get undressed and get into bed. Which I did.

It was a long time before we actually had sex, but we were making love as soon as I slipped into bed and under the covers. We touched each other there in that darkened room and gently explored all the places that we each had wondered about. I tasted all of her, from top to bottom. Her hair and her toenails, and it all tasted good to me. I had been in her bedroom for over an hour when I heard her mother sobbing and complaining as Tom led her off to her own bedroom for the night. I had spent the better part of the past ten minutes making my tongue acquainted with a small mole I'd located about three inches above her pubic hair, to the right of her belly button. It seemed to be an erogenous zone for her and her breathing was no longer measured and controlled. When I slowly dropped downwards, kissing her as I went, she started to tense up and I was afraid she'd bolt out of the room. Knowing I had to do something, I spoke up in my best falsetto voice in what I hope was a credible French accent. "Relax, mon cheri, it is I, Suzette, here to show you the full pleasure of zee Sapphic way of amour." That did it. Her giggles filled the room and she relaxed and, in a matter of seconds, I can guarantee all her thoughts of fleeing had deserted her.

I may be bragging, but not exaggerating, when I tell you that we made love all night long. When we both got up and went out in the hall and walked into the bathroom, with me wearing her robe that came down only to my knees, it was after seven in the morning, and we were both sated and sore. I'm positive I heard her tell me that she loved me sometime in the hours before we got up, but I waited until after we were both taking a shower, my arms around her and soaping up her breasts. I leaned down and put my lips to her ear and pressed myself against her and whispered "I love you, sweetheart", and then she put both her hands on mine and squeezed them softly, turned around and gave me a kiss. When she was done kissing, she stepped back, and screamed at the top of her lungs, pushing me away.

"You're not Rodney Harrington! What have you done with my Rodney?" By the time her mother rushed in and pushed aside the shower curtain her daughter and I were laying in the tub laughing and tickling each other in sheer joy. Ellen looked up and saw her mother's face staring down at her, it was obvious that she was wondering why Ellen had screamed like that. "Mommy, guess what, Jackie has a big one, and it's hard, really hard, and he's been putting it in me all night, and now, he's leaving me to go stick it in ALLISON MACKENZIE!!" Her mother made an awful face and ran out of there, not even bothering to re shut the bathroom door. I had pretty well resigned myself by then to the fact that I wasn't going to ever be invited back for another dinner. But that wasn't nearly my greatest fear. Not by a long shot. I'd just started wondering what my mom and dad were going to make of my new fiancee.

As it turned out, I needn't have worried. Ellen was the soul of discretion until she and my mother and sisters were alone together. After that I could hear the four of them laughing and howling and undoubtedly making jokes at my dad's and my expense. I didn't mind though because my dad and Ray and I were sitting in the kitchen, having ourselves a drink or three, Ray's was Nehi Grape soda though, and celebrating my engagement, my dad's retirement from the Navy, and the fact that Uncle Donald had found me another surplus truck with the same exact dimensions as the other one. He was checking it out for the rest of the week, but was sure he could have it running in great condition and delivered to me for about $500.00 total price.

My Uncle Donald was a very good man, but something of a loner. Of all the family he was the hardest to get to know, and he preferred it that way. He had eight children left, having lost one who asphyxiated in an abandoned refrigerator several years before. He and my father had been in several knock down brawls against each other many years ago, and though they treated each other civilly when it came to family gatherings, there was certainly no love lost between them. They would each do the other favors though in their respective areas of expertise and influence. Two of Uncle Donald's sons and one of his daughters were working at Electric Boat due to my father interceding on their behalf. When one of his other sons, my cousin David, got into a serious scrape with the law over in New London, my father called in a lot of favors to get the case dismissed on a suddenly appearing technicality. Uncle Donald could be counted on to assist us with anything involving trucks or automobiles. He was also someone who would help anytime there was heavy manual labor to be done, and could produce any or all of his sons on a moments notice. He was also good with most electrical wiring problems around a house.