Chapter 28: Industrial Zone - Expect Traffic Interruptions

I found the rotors for the distributors and put them back in place, then started both vehicles and made sure they ran well. After that I went inside to wash off and have some lunch. The girls had made sandwiches and soup, then as we ate, they were talking about the cabin and the ranch. I wasn’t really paying much attention until both of them broke into laughter about something. I suppose it was at that point that I managed to come out of the funk I’d been in as Sandy was speaking.

“What? For gosh sakes, Carissa, how do you let him get away with that. Haven’t you threatened to cut him off until he takes the time to build on a proper bathroom?” Sandy grinned and winked broadly at Carissa.

“She’s tried to convince me and I’m willing, but we’d need to put in a septic system to do that. Until last month, that looked like it was just too expensive for us to tackle. Previously, that wasn’t something Grampa Bender wanted to spend money on,” I offered with a weak smile.

“What happened last month? I know that he’s still okay. I was in to look after him the other day and he seems to be doing as well as can be expected,” Sandy looked at me seriously. “I don’t think he’ll be coming home for a while though.”

“In all honesty, I doubt if he’s going to come back at all, except for visits, even if he does get out of the hospital fairly soon,” I sighed, finally admitting that to myself. “He’s probably going to need constant care for the rest of his life and that means someone would have to be here looking after him. The way he talks, I think he’s realized that too.”

“Well, the nurses sure like caring for him,” Sandy smiled. “When he’s feeling up to it, he has a great sense of humour, but I think you’re right. The people I’ve spoken to think he’s going to have to be moved to extended care. It wouldn’t be safe for him to live up here all alone at his age and in his condition.”

“Yeah, that’s what we expect too,” I nodded. “When he set up his will and changed the terms of the lease agreement, it was obvious to all of us that he wasn’t expecting to come back here for any length of time.”

“Since he changed things, they’ve been making a lot of improvements, like bringing in electricity and telephone,” Carissa offered. “This ranch is practically Chris and Beth’s now. That’s why they’ve been buying horses and cows so they can try to make it profitable.”

“Hey, we don’t own it. It’s still Grampa Bender’s,” I frowned at her. “As long as Grampa Bender is alive, this is his place. We’re just caretakers for the time being.”

“Well, considering that he’s probably not going to be able to live here and care for it himself, I’d say it was yours. Especially since he’s set up the lease agreement the way he has,” she smiled at me. “I know you’re not willing to admit that you have control of the place, but I’m sure your family knows you do.”

“Jeez, you mean Beth is a half owner in the place and she hasn’t raised heck about a bathroom either?” Sandy asked.

“Oh, she’s mentioned it, but since neither one of us will be living here during the fall or winter, we decided that we’d postpone that expense for a year or so.”

“Well, I know you’re going to Calgary, but where is Beth going?”

“Just to highschool in town, but she won’t be able to live up here by herself. The road becomes impassable if there’s either a heavy snow storm or a blizzard. It can be blocked for a week or more at a time and that would screw up her schooling.”

“Ah, gotcha,” Sandy nodded, then glanced around. “Looking at this place, I guess it would be a bit hard to make space for a bathroom anyway, wouldn’t it.”

“Yep, it would mean building onto the place,” I grinned at her. “By the way, do you have a bathroom fetish or something? You keep steering the conversation around to that all the time.”

“No, not really,” she giggled. “It’s just that I’ve always been able to run to the bathroom in the middle of the night if I have to. While I’m staying up here that midnight run would be a little more involved. At least it’s warm when you have to run outside in the summer months. What did Mr. Bender do in the wintertime?”

“Oh, he had a pail,” Carissa broke into laughter. “Chris rinsed it out, then hung it out back on a fence post just in case Grampa Bender came back and wanted it.”

“A pail?”

“Unh huh, a five-gallon bucket with a lid made from a plastic toilet seat,” Carissa chuckled. “He had it sitting in the back porch where Sandy has her bed set up and where you’ll be sleeping.”

“You’re kidding me, aren’t you?” Sandy wrinkled her nose in disgust.

“No, that’s what he did,” I grinned at the two of them. “I’d forgotten about the pail. If you want, I could bring it in and put it right beside your bed for the night.”

“Eww, gross,” Sandy’s face twisted into an expression of disgust.

“Well, I think a bucket is better than a bedpan,” I chortled.

Of course Carissa hooted with laughter and Sandy blushed fire engine red as she looked daggers at me.

“Did you tell Carissa all about that?” she squawked.

“Well, secrets between lovers aren’t a good thing,” I grinned.

“It’s okay Sandy,” Carissa said with a chuckle. “Actually I think it was a darn good idea and a lot smarter than the way Corinna and I managed to get to see his wienie.”

“Wienie?!?” I griped, making both of them laugh, then I grinned. “I’ll have you know it’s at least a sausage.”

“Yeah, we both know,” Sandy giggled. “Although I’m still envious of the fact that she knows so much more than I do.”

“Oho, so I’m ‘she’ now am I?” Carissa stuck her tongue out at Sandy.

“Of course you’re ‘she’ - can’t you tell that I’m jealous,” Sandy grinned.

“I think it’s about time to change the subject before you two get all riled and come to blows,” I chuckled as I pushed back from the table. “Should I offer to do the dishes.”

“No, you and Carissa go lay down,” Sandy hopped to her feet, then began to pick up the empty bowls and plates on the table. “I slept well last night while you two were getting rid of that damn dual menace to society. Just for that, I think you two deserve a break, so you guys have a rest while I wash up. After that, I’ll go out and look around outside so I don’t bother your sleep. Oh, and don’t worry, I promise I’ll be careful, so I don’t get into trouble.”

Neither Carissa nor I had any real arguments with that idea, and it was only moments before we’d flopped onto the bed. Since the bedroom was so warm that afternoon, we stripped down to our underwear and lay on top of the bedding, not cuddling, just touching each other gently.

I don’t think I’d slept for more than an hour, but when I awakened I found that I was feeling much more relaxed. Carissa was still sleeping, so I slipped out of bed slowly and quietly, then pulled on my clothes and went out into the kitchen. I quickly checked the back porch to see is by any chance Sandy was lying down, but she wasn’t there. After sleeping in the heat, I was a bit thirsty and after I’d gotten a drink of water, I stepped out onto the front porch. Glancing around, I saw Sandy sitting on the railing of the corral watching the horses, so I walked down to see how she was doing.

“Hey, gal. How ya doin’,” I called quietly when I was several yards away, intending to let her know I was up and around.

“Oh, hi,” she turned to look at me and blushed. “You caught me.”

“I caught you?”

“Yeah, I was being naughty and watching your horses when they were having fun,” she giggled. “The stud is doing his best to make another colt, but the mare is being a tease.”

“Oh, is that all,” I laughed. “Don’t worry about my catching you watching that. It’s just part of farm life. I’ve been watching that sort of thing since I was a little shaver.”

“Yeah, I know,” she sighed. “The thing is town kids like me just never see that sort of thing. Well, maybe we see a couple of dogs, humping away or stuck together, but even then our parents try to make us look the other way, treating it as if it’s dirty or something. Did you know your sister taught me more about sex than my mother or even the nurses at the hospital did?”

“Oh, I can imagine. Beth has been a rather astonishing person from the time she was a little kid. I can just imagine her asking Mom questions about sex when she was five or six years old,” I grinned, then tried to speak in a high squeaky voice. “Mommy, what are those horses doing and what’s that big long thing hanging out of the daddy horse’s tummy?”

Of course Sandy looked shocked for an instant and then she started laughing so hard that she almost fell off the pole fence of the corral. She managed to hang on, but I moved closer so I could catch her if she did fall.

“You almost made me fall and I think you did it intentionally,” she giggled.

“Now would I do that?” I chuckled. “It’s a good thing Beth wasn’t here though, she’d have killed me for trying to imply that she ever sounded like that.”

“Well, it wasn’t a very good imitation of her voice,” Sandy slipped down off the fence, turning toward the house and changing the subject. “You didn’t sleep long, did you?”

“No, all I needed was a nap. Carissa was still asleep when I got up though.”

“Do you think she’s going to sleep for long?”

“I don’t know, why?”

“Oh, I was just thinking that since you had your Jeep running, you could maybe take us for a drive around the ranch a bit. I didn’t realize it was so big until I was sitting here a while ago and I’d like to see some of it. If you do though, I think Carissa should be along, so...” she paused and blushed.

“What, are you afraid that I’d hit on you if she wasn’t there?” I frowned at her. “You ought to know by now that I’m not like that.”

“Of the two of us, it wasn’t you that I was worried about,” she laughed uneasily.

“You’re worried about yourself?” I turned my head and stared at her as we walked side by side.

“Yeah, in a way,” she sighed. “I know that you and Carissa are heavily involved, but I still have feelings for you.”

“Sandy, I’m afraid that the way things have changed, it just wouldn’t work between us,” I shook my head. “You see, Carissa and I have gone through a bunch of things together that have drawn us closer to each other. On top of that, we’ve lived with each other for the last couple of months and each day has added to our care for the other. It’s almost as if we were in a trial marriage or something. I don’t want to lose that.”

“I know that in my head, I’m just not so sure about it in my heart,” she sighed as we got to the porch.

“Would you like a coffee? I think I can be quiet enough to make one without waking Carissa,” I suggested as I reached for the screen door.

“I don’t think you can,” Carissa laughed from inside. “You woke me when you went outside.”

“Oh, sorry,” I grinned at her. “I guess I wasn’t as quiet as I thought I was.”

“Oh, you were quiet, I was just waking up myself,” she smiled at me and held out her arms for a hug. “I was thinking of rolling over and waking you up, then you left.”

“I guess I missed something, did I?” I grinned as I hugged her tightly.

“Not really, I was just going to suggest that we make some coffee and take the Jeep for a drive up to that hill you showed me when I first came to see you. I think Sandy would love to see the whole ranch spread out below her.”

“Hmm, she suggested something like that earlier. Since it doesn’t look like we’re going to get much work done today, that might be an idea.”

“Well, it’s either that or since it’s so warm, we could go for a swim,” Carissa chuckled.

“Oh, but I don’t have a swim suit,” Sandy sounded apologetic.

“Well, I was going to warn you about that. We don’t use those things,” Carissa giggled. “I thought you might like to show off that gorgeous bod of yours to this big brute.”

“Carissa!” Sandy squawked, blushing bright red.

“Oh come on now, be honest. Wouldn’t you like to tease him a bit?”

“I don’t think that’s a good idea myself,” I sighed softly.

“I do,” Carissa answered just as quietly. “If we do decide to rent that duplex together, you two are almost bound to see each other in various stages of undress anyway. This would just get it over with sooner.”

“Dammit, Carissa,” Sandy snapped. “Don’t you realize I’ve still got a crush on Chris?”

“Yes, I do and Chris probably has a small one for you too, but I’d sooner face any problems head on, rather than hiding from them and having them sneak up on me,” Carissa slipped out of my arms and grasped Sandy’s shoulders, staring her in the face. “I also know that I have to be able to trust the two of you to be together without my being nearby, because that’s bound to happen if we live in the same house. I want you to know how I feel about Chris and how he feels about me too. You also need to know that we aren’t skin shy, but at the same time we know that being naked makes us react and we get horny, of course at our age that’s perfectly natural.”

Carissa pulled back and grinned at Sandy then. “Actually, I can see that you’re reacting just having me talk about it.”

“What do you mean?” Sandy’s voice was a whisper.

“You have little tents on your blouse,” Carissa grinned. “But, so do I and I’ll bet Chris is growing hard right now, unless he’s already grown to full size and can’t get any harder.”

“Dammit Carissa, what are you up to?” I asked as my face grew red.

“I’m facing the biological reality of our situation head on,” she said flatly, her humour now gone. “You’re a representative of the male of the species while Sandy and I are both females. All of us are just entering the prime of our reproductive years. The hormones in our bodies are attempting to induce us to bear young. Both Sandy’s body and mine have decided that you are the best example of male flesh around. Since you’re male, you’re naturally polygamous, being female, Sandy and I would prefer just one mate, but we want the best mate possible to protect and provide for each of us as well as our children. On top of that, society has ingrained into our psyches that we should be monogamous. Right now you seem to both of us to be the best potential mate around, in short, since only one of us can have you, Sandy and I are in competition for your genetic material.”

With that she walked over and flopped down on a kitchen chair. “For some stupid reason it seems that our mothers have gotten it into their heads to throw us together and let us fight it out. The problem is that the fight is mostly between Sandy and me, but I really don’t want to fight. I like Sandy and I love you. Now, just what the hell are we going to do about it?”

I stared at her in astonishment, not knowing what to say or do. Somehow I had the idea that even though she said she loved me, at the moment she was angry with me for some reason. I was still standing there with my mouth open in astonishment when Sandy cleared her throat.

“Well, spit it out. What do you have to say?” Carissa snapped at her with a glare in her eyes.

“I was just going to suggest that perhaps you were right before. Maybe we should go swimming,” Sandy blushed, then seemed like she was going to start to giggle. “I think both of you are a lot smarter and stronger than I am, so if it came down to a fight, I’d lose, but before I lose out completely, I’d like to see what I was losing and what I was losing to.”

“Huh?” I managed to grunt, wondering just what she meant for a second.

Then to my astonishment, Carissa started to laugh and jumped to her feet, rushing to Sandy and wrapping her in a hug. All I could do was look on in surprise because I wasn’t sure what was happening. Somehow, this situation seemed as if it was leading up to a repetition of the night when Corinna had climbed into bed with us.

At that moment, the major question in my head revolved around the apprehension of what sort of trouble we were getting ourselves into, but I didn’t have any answers. Instead of coming up with answers though, I was just standing in the kitchen of the cabin, watching two gorgeous teenaged women hug and I was getting a boner. I admit I was turned on by what was happening, because it seemed that I was about to have an opportunity that I’d never even dreamed of. It seemed that I was going to go skinny dipping with two women that turned me on.

I’ll also admit that I was apprehensive, because I’d already lived through a somewhat similar situation that had turned out badly. However, being a sixteen-year-old guy and having the normal excess of hormones that went with my age, I certainly wasn’t going to turn down the chance to see another nude woman. The thing that astonished me about that state of affairs was the fact that my girlfriend seemed to be in favour of the idea that we go skinny dipping with another gorgeous gal.

For the life of me, I couldn’t understand her reason for being willing to do that.

I think Sandy had been as surprised by Carissa leaping up to hug her as I was, at least at first, because her face showed a flush of embarrassment. Then Carissa whispered something I couldn’t make out and both of them broke into giggles as they shifted and turned to look at me.

“See. I told you he really likes the idea,” Carissa chortled.

Sandy just looked at me and broke into giggles, her face flushing bright red. To be honest, since both of them could clearly see the swelling in my jeans, I was embarrassed.

“What do you think, big boy?” Carissa was trying to sound like Mae West. “Do you think you can handle both of us?”

I couldn’t help it, I broke into laughter because I thought it was funny, even if it was embarrassing. I think that took her by surprise.

“Nope,” I snorted through my laughter. “Heck, I don’t even feel confident about handling you.”

“Hah,” Carissa rolled her eyes as she grinned at Sandy. “I might almost believe him, if I didn’t know him as well as I do.”

“You mean in the biblical sense?” Sandy giggled, shocking me that she’d say something like that.

I was trying to think of a quick comeback when the phone rang. That made me jump because I was standing next to the darn thing. I grabbed it in reaction.

“Hello.”

“Chris, it’s your Dad. You might have Sandy give her father a phone call. He’s about ready to go on the warpath.“

“Who’s he angry with and why is he upset?”

“Well, it seems that leaving Sandy there with you was the women’s idea. Sam thought she was catching a ride back to town with the Coulters, because his car was full since Beth went along with the twins.“

“Oh, cripes,” I sighed heavily. “Just what the heck is going on anyway?”

“I’m not sure you’ll believe the whole story; it’s so weird.“ Dad sighed heavily. “The three women decided that in order for you and the girls to really understand what living together would be like, you should be isolated and under pressure of some kind. They actually asked Wil to take the rotors out of your cars. For some reason they felt you’d get their point if you were all under stress and unable to avoid each other. Ann and Wilma talked your mother into going along with it, but now she’s upset because you were so angry. Of course, Sam is worried that Sandy could get hurt in some way.“

“Dad, none of this makes sense to me,” I sighed.

“It doesn’t make much sense to me either.“ He admitted. “Right now, Sandy better call her dad before he comes back out there on the warpath and you get hurt.“

“Yeah,” I sighed again. “If necessary, we’ll take her into town and calm him down.”

“Okay, have her call right away though, would you? I’ll talk to you later.“ Then Dad hung up.

“What’s going on?” Carissa asked, a frown on her face.

“Well, from what I can gather, our mothers arranged this little party so that we could feel the pressures of living together in a small place. They even talked Wil into pulling the rotors from the cars, so that wasn’t really his fault. I’m guessing that they thought we’d end up fighting and not want to live together in Calgary.”

“So what’s going on now?” Sandy asked, frowning as much as Carissa had.

“Well, you need to call your Dad. He’s all set to call out the marines to rescue you from my clutches. He thought you were catching a ride back to town with Carissa’s folks because his car was full or something. Now I think he’s worried about your safety. If he’s really worried, we can run you into town.”

“Oh for cripes sake,” Sandy grabbed the phone. “First, he wants me to grow up, then he’s afraid I will. I’ve got to live with his crap all the time, and I swear it gets worse every damn day. He makes me so mad sometimes that I just want to spit.”

Sandy looked livid, which surprised Carissa and me. We were left staring at her in surprise, then Carissa grasped my hand and pulled me toward the door.

“She doesn’t need us hanging on every word while she has a fight with her dad,” she said as she closed the door behind us.