Chapter 3

I didn't get my shipment from Mr. Davis until that next Friday morning. I got a phone call from the air freight people out at the airport telling me that it was ready to be picked up. I drove over there, excited about seeing whether the jerky and other products were as good as he'd said. J. C. had told me that his Idaho friend made a jerky good enough to compete with Earle's, but I'd learned that there were a lot of different opinions when it came to beef jerky. So far, out of everything I'd ever tasted, Earle's jerky had been the best. J. C.'s steak pieces had been pretty good too, but it wasn't really beef jerky.

I got the big cardboard container home all right and decided to unload everything at my pick up. He'd sent me twelve cases of beef jerky, four cases of pepperoni and two big boxes of his own brands and flavors of steak pieces. In total, there were seventy two jars of jerky, twenty four canister's of pepperoni, and five hundred assorted flavors of the steak pieces.

I looked over the hand lettered price list he'd included with the shipment and started laughing. $9.00 for a jar of jerky, $6.00 for a canister of pepperoni, and $ .25 for each piece of the individually wrapped cross cut steak product. I opened one of the Teriyaki jerky jars and tried a piece. Just from that first taste, I knew I had a good replacement for Earle's jerky. The texture and the bite were nearly identical to Earle's, with what was possibly a little stronger teriyaki flavoring, and it definitely was not quite as sweet as Earle's jerky. I liked it. I opened up one of the pepperoni canisters and took out a piece of that. I tried squeezing one of the ends, seeing if I could get much grease to appear from doing that. I couldn't. When I bit into it, I couldn't detect any difference from one of Earle's pepperoni sticks.

The biggest difference I found was in the cross cut steak pieces. Jim Davis's product looked and felt like a long strip of beef jerky. I could see it was a lot different than the product J. C. had made. It had more of a jerky smell to it too. When I finally bit into it, I couldn't believe how much better it tasted than J. C.'s steak pieces had.

Sometime's, when you'd buy a piece of jerky, there is this small place along the edge where part of it is just hanging by itself, almost ready to fall off. I think it ends up taking a better cure than the rest of the piece does, or else absorbs more of the natural smoked flavor. Whatever might have caused it, that little part of the jerky piece always tastes better than the rest of it.

When I used to buy jerky in mini mart's or liquor stores, I'd always try to search for a piece that had one or more of these dangling edges. The steak pieces that Jim Davis made, the whole thing tasted like those dangling pieces did. I ended up eating six pieces of it before I did anything else. Every piece tasted the same way. I started moving some of the product up to my apartment, but I kept more than half of it in my truck, because I wanted to go right out and start selling it.

I didn't know Nancy's home phone number, so after I was ready to go out selling, I drove over to her parent's house, parked in their driveway and walked up to the front door. I knocked on the door before I noticed the button for a door bell. I ended up pressing that button a few times too. A woman who turned out to be Nancy's mother answered the door.

"Hello, is Nancy at home?"

"She is, can I tell her who's here to see her?"

"Yes, ma'am. My name is Ralph Rudd."

"Mr. Rudd. I see. You've created quite a stir in this house Mr. Rudd, I can assure you of that. Let me go get Nancy for you."

The woman's face didn't tell me much about what kind of stir I might have created. Usually, people communicate quite a bit by their facial expressions and body language. Mrs. Towns would have made an excellent poker player. She hadn't given me much information to go by at all. I waited for more than five minutes for Nancy to make her appearance. When the door opened again, it was Nancy's mom there again.

"She asks what you want?"

"Tell her that my shipment just arrived, and I needed to find out if she wanted to make that bet with me or not."

"She doesn't want to make any bets with you, Mr. Rudd. She told me this herself, not three minutes ago. Now, if you'll please excuse me?"

"Tell her we don't have to make the bet. Ask her if she wants to try out the new product for me, maybe tell me what she thinks of it?" Just then I saw Nancy move back away from where she'd been hiding, behind the half opened door.

"Why should I want to help you, Ralph?" Nancy didn't bother trying to hide her belligerent attitude towards me. Seeing this, her mother's face began reflecting that same belligerence.

"I don't know why you should be mad at me, Nancy. All I did was propose a little wager to you. You never had to accept it. I just thought you might be interested in trying out some of these products, and let me know how you think they compare to what your uncle makes. I've got some right back there in my truck. I didn't think you were going to accept the bet anyway, but I didn't know if you wanted to see how the new product sells or not."

"Did you already try it?"

"I tried some of it when I unloaded the shipment. The Teriyaki flavored jerky is as good as your uncle's. The steak pieces are a whole lot better than what J. C. was making. All the prices are better than what your uncle or J.C. were giving me too."

"I'll try the Teriyaki jerky if you want me to. I don't know much about the jerky that J.C. was making."

"You should try a piece of this new stuff anyway. Hold on, and I'll get some for you. Do you want to try some too, Mrs. Towns?"

"This is jerky from Jim Davis's plant? He's over in Idaho now, is that right?"

"Yes, and yes. Let me go get some for you both to try."

I went to my truck and got a handful of the individually wrapped steak pieces and the open jar of the Teriyaki jerky, hurrying back before Nancy changed her mind about trying any of it. They both liked the Teriyaki jerky, but, like me, the steak pieces blew them both away. Neither had experienced any smoked meat product they liked as well, and Nancy knew exactly what I meant about it tasting like those dangling edges on regular jerky pieces.

"You're going to sell quite a lot of these, Ralph. How much are you going to sell each piece for?" Nancy was getting a bit excited about my new product I could see.

"I'm going to buy a bunch of those clear plastic boxes they sell over at Walmart for two dollars each, and I'm going to put fifty pieces in each box. I'll sell the filled cartons for twenty five dollars to the commercial accounts. If they sell each piece for one dollar, they'll be pretty happy, I think. Out at my other sales places, I'll bundle them up in roll's of twenty five, and sell them for $12.50 each roll."

"You can do that and still make enough profit?" This was Mrs. Towns asking that question.

"I can. It would be my largest profit margin if I sold them that way. Better than the jerky I sell for fifteen a jar. There are four different flavors too. The regular comes in mild or spicy, and there is a jalopeno flavored one too. These could turn into real big sellers at the commercial accounts. I was going to talk to Nancy about helping me out with my commercial deliveries. I can pay her $50.00 a day, and let her use my truck to deliver for me on Wednesday's. In a month, I should have enough new commercial location's opened up for her to work two days a week. Eventually, I'd expect it to be full time for her."

"I can't go to work for you, Ralph. Uncle Earle would have a stroke it I did that."

"Okay, I understand. I didn't think that through, I guess. I can find someone else, but they wouldn't be able to relate to the store people like you do. People on the route used to always ask me how you were. They miss you. I missed you too."

"I'll bet."

"No, really. They did, and I do."

"No, I meant I've decided to take your bet. Give me a few minutes and I'll be ready to go with you to make sure you don't cheat."

"Nancy Rose Towns, you'll do no such thing. No daughter of mine is going to make such an outlandish wager. What would people think?"

"I'm twenty two years old, mother, so I'm free to do whatever I choose to, besides, I don't care what people would think anymore. Wait for me Ralph, I won't take too long." She took off then, presumably to change into whatever clothing she thought she needed to. I was left alone with her darkly glaring mother.

"My husband and I will not be happy if anything of a violent nature should happen to our daughter, Mr. Rudd. You can no longer say you haven't been warned."

"Nothing like that is going to happen from me, Mrs. Towns. I like Nancy. The furthest thing from my mind is hurting her in any way. I would never attempt to force myself on her."

"See that you don't." With that final warning or admonition, she slammed her door in my face. That was a first for me. If she was like this to me before I'd done anything at all to deserve such treatment, what would she be like if all of this ended up badly? Something for me to think about. Before I'd gotten started on contemplating the different possibilities, Nancy opened the door and stepped outside. She was wearing the same dress she'd had on that day she'd leaned into my open truck window. She wasn't wearing a bra this time either. I might have groaned, but I'm not one hundred percent sure about it. Whatever I did, it brought a big smile to Nancy's face.

"Before you start selling, let me show you the truck I want you to buy me if you lose."

"I never said that you get to pick out the truck. I said I'd buy you a truck at least as good as your Datsun was, if I lost. We both know I won't lose, right?"

"You should trust me more, Ralph. This truck is only three hundred dollars. It runs too. I drove it around all day yesterday, when I was out looking for a new job. My Uncle George owns it. He offered to give it to me, but I told him I could probably afford to pay for it."

"How many uncles do you have, anyway?"

"Three on my dad's side, and four on mom's. Plus a bunch of people who are close friends with our parents. People that mom or dad told us we should call uncle. Like Uncle Jimmy. Uncle George is one of my real uncles, he's mom's oldest brother."

"If you'll come to work with me, I'll buy you the truck right now, as a bonus, just for agreeing to do it."

"I can't do that to Uncle Earle. I already told you that. He's family. We might fight among ourselves, but we do stick together when it comes to doing important things."

"Will you at least call him and ask him if its okay? He's going to find out soon enough that I'm not going to just give up and move away. No reason you should lose out on a job, just because he and I can't get along."

"I can't work for you, so quit asking me to."

The truck was an older model GMC. The body looked a little hard used, but the truck ran fine. I gave Nancy the three hundred to pay her uncle for it. She gave him the money without asking me any questions, then she and I drove back over to her parent's house.

After she had parked her truck she came over and got into mine again. I'm sure she expected that we'd go out to see who would win our bet.

"I think I've got a sudden case of that call reluctance thing you were telling me about before. I don't really feel much like selling right now. You win the bet, I guess. Go ahead and hop out of the truck. I need to go somewhere and get a postal money order for your Uncle Jimmy to pay for all the product he sent me."

"You knew you were going to do this when you came over to my house today, didn't you?"

"Actually, I didn't. I came over to see you, expecting that you would refuse to take that stupid bet I offered you before. When you took it, you kind of forced my hand. I know that it wouldn't be good for you, right now, if I ended up winning it. Also, your mother kind of let me know that she and your father would be mad if anything like that was to happen between us."

"I don't want to win the bet this way. I'll take the truck back to my uncle and get your money back. It isn't a bet if you don't even try."

"You can do whatever you want to. As far as I'm concerned, that truck is yours now. I won't take the money back from you. Besides, you won it fairly anyway. I really don't feel like selling anything right now."

"I'll just leave it parked on the street until they come by and tow it away as an abandoned vehicle then."

"Sounds like a plan to me. I think I'll start heading back down the coast in a couple months, selling this new product until I get back down to LA again. I can sell this stuff anywhere that has an airport that has flights from Boise. People like good beef jerky all over the country. I might end up setting up territories, and then selling the franchise to the kind of people who have money, but don't know how to set up their own businesses for themselves."

"I made the bet expecting to lose it. If you go through with what you're planning to do now, we're just going to have to find a new bet to make."

"I've already thought up a new bet. I'm going to be leaving here in two months. Let's say the first of October is the deadline. I'll bet you a thousand dollars that you'll come over to my apartment before I leave, and insist on taking all your clothes off and getting into bed with me. You want to take that bet?"

"I would, but I don't have a thousand dollars to pay you in case I lost."

"That isn't what you'd have to pay if you lost. I know you don't have that much money. If you lose, you have to leave with me when I go, and travel with me down to Los Angeles. It might take a month or more, because I'll be stopping off to sell product all the way down there."

"No way. I'm not leaving here for anything. I'm not like my brother. I like living up here."

"In that case, it sounds like an easy way to pick up an extra thousand dollars. All you have to do is accept the bet and then stay away until I leave. I'll stop by your house and leave you the money on my way out of town."

"I don't want your money."

"Wouldn't matter if you wanted it or not. You couldn't win that bet, and you already realize it. If I hadn't come to see you today, You'd have come up with a reason to come see me and accept the bet I just lost. We're both teasing each other, and we have been from the start. Sooner or later, we're going to wind up naked in a bed together. You'll end up accepting and losing this bet too, but that doesn't mean I'm going to give you what you want. I may never give it to you. If you want me to be inside you, you're going to have to put it in yourself."

She sat there for a minute, unwilling to say anything more to me. I knew she hadn't expected me to say what I'd just pointedly said. We both knew it was true that we'd almost certainly end up in bed together. Whether she'd take it upon herself to put my cock in her pussy, or not, only time would tell.

She finally opened the door to my truck and got out. I had a bet with myself that she'd find a way to bend over and lean into my truck window, so she could flash me another look at her unfettered boobs, but she didn't. I could see she was deliberating about something though. For a brief minute or so, I really thought she was going to accept my bet.

"Even if I do come over and get into your bed, like you say I will, I won't put it in me. If you want me, you'll have to take it. I might not fight you much, but I wouldn't ever do what you say I will either."

"If you don't, you'll be as safe in my bed as you'd be in your own. We both know all the rules of the game now, and we've both indicated that we're ready and willing to play. If I end up raping you, you win. If you put it in you, or if we end up not doing it, I win. If I don't rape you, and you cum, whether I fuck you or not, I still win."

"You can't win if I decide not to come over to your apartment, and I probably never will."

"You'll come, and when you do, you'll cum. The more you think about it, the more exciting it will seem to be to you. In the end, like a moth drawn to a flame, you won't be able to resist the lure of it."

As soon as she started to walk away, I started up my truck and backed out of her driveway. I sold my twenty fifth jar or canister, forty minutes after I started selling my new products. Fat Frank bought two hundred of the steak pieces for one hundred dollars. I was feeling so good about how the new product was selling that I decided to give him five "free samples" to share with his friends or family. He was so grateful for my gesture that I was afraid he'd try to give me a hug. He finally settled for giving me a simple, but heartfelt, thank you.

By the time I ran completely out of the product I'd brought with me. I'd made back more than the three hundred I'd spent on Nancy's new truck. I went to the post office and bought two postal money orders to send to Jim Davis. The total amount I sent was $977.00. I'd added an extra sixty dollars to pay some of his freight costs, even though he'd written that he'd pay the freight charges on his price list.

I put in a note to let him know about the freight money, and to ask him to send me three more of those big containers, each filled just like the first one he'd sent. I told him to call me to let me know the best method for me to pay what I'd owe for the next shipment of product. After I'd mailed off his payment, I remembered that I could phone in my order too. By then it was after four P. M., but he still answered the phone, after the third ring.

"Jim Davis."

"Hi, Jim. it's Ralph Rudd. I just wanted to call you to say I got that shipment of product you sent. I sold most of it today. I just put two postal money orders in the mail to you, before it occurred to me that you might have some better way I could pay you for the product."

"I use Bank of America. I could give you my account number, and you could stop by any branch and make a deposit that will get to me in a day or two. That would probably be the simplest way."

"Listen, I wanted to help out some with your freight costs, so I added an extra sixty to what I owed you. If you can send me triple my original order, I can make a deposit for the full amount of the order into your account from here. There's a B of A branch a few blocks down from my apartment."

"I get special deals on air freight, and I had already included that cost in the price list I quoted to you. If you were to start moving around the country, that might change things some, but for now, just to PDX, you don't owe me anything for freight. It will take me a couple of days to get things ready for that big of a shipment. I'd need to smoke up a lot of meat to fill that much of an order. Just out of curiosity, what did you think of my steak pieces, and what did you end up selling them for?"