Chapter 3

Life settled down into a comfortable routine. Lynn found she was actually enjoying herself more now that she wasn't worrying about money all the time. She avoiding going out any more unless she had to but other than that it was still pretty comfortable. She did worry that Jack was working too hard. He still had his schoolwork and the odd jobs he would pick up now and then, but he spent a considerable amount of time with the deskcomp or hooked into the net with his perscomp.

"Its research, Mom," he would tell her. "I always thought making money wasn't hard; it just takes a lot of research, timing and a bit of seed money. Most of my time is spent on research."

"Yes, but you shouldn't be doing it all the time," she complained.

"Okay," he said shutting down his perscomp module. "What do you want to do?"

"Uh, well, I don't know," she stuttered. He had called her on her whining and now she tried to think of something they could do together.

"How about we watch a 'vie?" she asked. "It's been forever since we've seen a 'vie together."

"Sounds good to me," he said with a shrug. "You want to see what's on at the plex or you just want to rent it off the net here?"

"Ah..." She hesitated. Ever since the incident at the store Lynn had avoided leaving the house as much as possible. Intellectually, she knew the chances were slight they would see anyone they knew or that anyone else would care that a boy was taking his IS out to a movie, but still she avoided the possibility as much as possible. "You wouldn't mind if we just stayed here?"

"No, I understand," he answered sympathetically. "I don't care either way. The company is the same and that's all that matters. Besides, the popcorn here is better."

"Thanks, hon," she said almost giggling. "But won't you miss the big screen?"

"I think if we can't enjoy the 'vie on our little ol' 2 meter tank then we've been spoiled beyond belief," he answered with a grin. "If you think this is so bad, then maybe you ought to take a trip with me down to the museum and I'll show you what it was like watching the old flat screen TV! I can't imagine it would have been that much better on the big flat wall screens."

"That's all right," she laughed. "I'm not complaining. Our holo tank is just fine with me, although I wish I could afford something better for you." She sounded a little sad after that. He put his arm around her and drew her in close, kissing the top of her head lightly. That tingle was back as he touched her and she shivered slightly pressing herself in just a little bit closer to keep the tingle going and make it as strong as she could.

She still didn't understand what was causing it, but she was pretty sure it wasn't just the normal operation of the collar. When she realized what was happening, she had spent a number of hours combing the net for information on the collars and the reactions of the "recipients." While there was several lifetimes worth of information available there didn't seem to be anything exactly matching what was happening to her. The feeling sort of matched the description of the controller when used on its lowest "pleasure" setting, but not exactly and even then why would it do it only when she was touching Jack? He didn't even have the controller. It was locked in the box still in her room. She knew because she had checked often enough over the past few days.

She would have mentioned something to Jack, but was embarrassed about what he might think about it. He would probably call Labor, Inc., to have a look at the collar. That wasn't really so bad, except what if they didn't find anything and it turned out to be all in her head? What would that say about her? Besides it's not like it hurt or anything; just the opposite, in fact. Maybe if it was a malfunction it was a good malfunction. Nothing wrong with getting pleasure snuggling up next to someone you love, now is there? Since it was an enjoyable feeling, Lynn decided she would just accept it as a bonus and not worry about it unless it became unpleasant or something else demonstrated there was a problem with the equipment.

"Don't worry, Mom," he said releasing her. "Everything is going just like I'd hoped it would. I'm pretty sure we'll have enough extra cash pretty soon if you wanted to waste it on a holo tank."

"It good to hear that everything is going well," she said, slightly disappointed that he was no longer holding her. "But I'm almost afraid to ask just what we are doing to earn these huge gobs of money."

"I'll sit down and show you if you'd like," he offered.

"And after about two minutes my eyes will roll back and I'll pass out from cranial overload, right?" she said looking up at him seriously. "Or even worse, it'll happen from me reacting in horror when I realize exactly what it is you've done."

"Mom," he said looking as innocent as possible, "I would never let that happen to you. Besides, no matter what I said before I think you could understand it easily. You're a pretty smart cookie when you want to be."

"What? You don't think I'm just some over-the-hill bimbo?" she said jokingly.

"You haven't even started up the hill yet," he grinned. "And while I do admit many men seem to think that a woman's intelligence is inversely proportional to her beauty, we both know it isn't true, especially for you."

"I'm just lucky I have big boobs so nobody will notice my face," she quipped.

"You know, I am kind of getting tired of you putting yourself down all the time," Jack said thoughtfully. "Maybe a little adverse conditioning is in order. How about when you make another untrue, self-deprecating remark about yourself I put you over my knee and give you ten smacks on your bottom?"

"You wouldn't dare," she said nervously, subconsciously bringing her hands around behind her to shield her butt from the threatened action.

"Just try me," he said raising his eyebrows. "While you have a very nice body, that includes your breasts, you also have a beautiful face, so stop dissing yourself."

"Well, I..." she choked back what she was about to say. He may have been kidding about spanking her, but then again he may not have been. It was better to play it safe with Jack sometimes. "Ah, thanks. I'm glad you think I'm pretty, although it seems kind of strange coming from my son."

"I may be your son," he said with a smirk, "but I'm still a man. Believe me, I've noticed and admired. Anyway, I think you could understand what I'm doing if you want me to explain it. At its simplest, I'm using other people's greed and their attempts to rip us off against them. Kind of like taking the loans from the consortium at less than market rate because they think they will be getting you for a bargain price. It's a little more complicated than that but it's perfectly legal and even moral, if you ask me. Do you want me to show you what I'm doing?"

"No, I don't think so," she said and made a dash for the door calling back over her shoulder, "I don't want my bimbo-head to hurt from thinking too much!" When he dropped his feet off the table she shrieked and took off for her room. He just chuckled and got a couple of packages of popcorn ready for the oven.

"This is nice," she said later as they snuggled up on the couch watching the 'vie. "Maybe we could do this more often?"

"Yes it is and yes we can," he said. He was wearing a pair of shorts and a t-shirt with his feet propped up on the table in front of them. His arm was draped casually around her shoulder as she leaned into him with her feet tucked underneath. She again felt that tingle where his arm touched her bare shoulder. It still wasn't much and certainly not overwhelming, more like the slight buzz one would get from a glass or two of wine than the euphoria of a THC-enhanced marijuana cigarette, but it still felt nice.

"I feel like I've been neglecting you lately," he said. "It's such a cliché to say the work needs to get done, but I think everything is pretty much set up now. I feel comfortable in backing off a little now. Actually I'm a little tired of it, to tell the truth. I can't understand how someone would want to do this day after day and not want to take a break from it now and then."

"You're still just a kid," she said patting him on the chest. "You shouldn't have to worry about this kind of stuff, although I'm glad you do. I don't even want to imagine where we would be if you didn't. I guess your dad and I didn't do very well by you, did we?"

"You did great, Mom," he said leaning over to kiss the top of her head causing another little shiver to course through her body. "And I'm sure Dad did the best he could. It's not like he expected to die or anything like that. Although sometime I would like to look over everything he left us, you know, the trust and such."

"Sure, if you want to," she said with a shrug. "It's all on my perscomp. I'll get it for you whenever you want it, although I suppose you could get it any time you wanted," she said giving him a dig in the side.

"Mom!" he said, trying to look and sound innocent. "Surely you don't think I would break into your perscomp without your permission."

"Since you already have, I wouldn't have to think it," she answered. "No, No. Don't say anything. I wouldn't want you to strain yourself coming up with some outrageous, but technically true, story. Save it for when you really need it."

He just chuckled and settled down to watch the show.

+ + +

She was fussing over the placement of the dirty dishes in the cleanser when she heard the front door chime announce Jack's arrival home. Looking at the clock she grunted and swore to herself. He was right on time but she was running behind. She'd been fussing with that damn machine for the past few hours trying to get it to work correctly. It was old and probably due to be replaced but as with everything else in the house, she had made do since there was no money to fix or replace everything that needed it. She had just about come to the conclusion she would have to do them by hand when she felt his arms wrapping around her waist, pulling her back into him. She snuggled back and sighed. It felt so good to have a strong pair of arms around her and a hard body behind. It made her feel safe and protected; something she hadn't felt for a long time.

"What are you doing, beautiful?" he said, nuzzling the back of her neck and setting her off into giggles and shivers as his nibbling lips tickled her sensitive skin. Wriggling rather than struggling, she tried to avoid his tickling lips until finally she begged him to let her go before she peed her pants.

Still giggling she turned back and leaned into him and sighed as he wrapped his arms around her comfortingly again. Standing up on her toes she went to give him a kiss on the cheek right next to his lips but at the last second he moved and their lips met. Her eyes flew open in surprise but instead of jerking back she looked up and into his eyes as their lips still pressed together. To her it seemed like they were locked together for hours but in reality it lasted only a few seconds until he slowly pulled back and smiled down at her.

"Well, thank you," he said. "I'm glad to be home too. Now what is going on here?"

"N ... nothing," she stammered until she realized he was now looking at the cleanser. "Oh, oh, well, the damn thing doesn't work. That's the problem." She put her head down and gently extracted herself from his arms, clearly flustered. "You know how much of a problem it's been lately. Well now I think it's finally completely dead. I guess I'll be doing dishes by hand from now on."

"I don't think so," he snorted. Patting her casually on the butt he gently pushed her out of the way and squatted down to look at the arrant cleanser. Grunting, he pulled his hand-com and started tapping on the miniature screen with his stylus. Lynn stood back watching her son as he worked. Still flustered she began to wonder if maybe she had read more into that kiss than was actually there. He was acting like it was nothing, or at least like there was nothing special about it, no more than a normal greeting. Maybe that's all it was.