Chapter 9

This was another morning that I woke up with Summer's bottom pushed into my rigid sex that was being held by Mildred. There was a fleeting thought that raced through my head about keeping both women for myself. But like I said, it was fleeting.

After getting up, letting the dogs out, and using the toilet, I emptied the ashes from the stove and under the fireplace before putting another log on the fire. I lit the stove to warm up and boil some coffee, then went into the bathroom to wash, shave, and dress in my usual cammies. Some of them were beginning to look a little ragged, so I knew I was going to have to make a trip into the big city to find an Army surplus store.

Before I went out to do chores, I decided on buckwheat pancakes this morning. I had purchased a box of mix from the store before the girls showed up in my life. I figured the pancakes and some of our own sausage patties would be good. A couple of eggs on the side would top it off.

First, I needed to do the chores. I did the milking and noticed the cow was just about dry. Another week and she would be completely dry. She was getting round in the belly. I'll bet she will want to be let in every morning the same as always to get some grain and her bag washed and massaged. I had some special bag balm for that.

The cow's milk was so rich in butterfat right now that you could almost smell the butter. I'm sure it would churn into butter within a couple of minutes.

Just as I finished all of the regular chores and was going to go down to Ben's to check on his mule, Ben came walking up the lane to the welcoming cacophony of the guinea hens. This was unusual, as he had been driving his pickup every day.

He sat down on the bench by the door to take off his boots and said to me, "The truck finally gave it up. I think it's done for but you might take a look at it before we bury it. Too bad as the body is still in really good shape and the transmission is near perfect. The clutch ain't that old either. You know what? I just put a new sealed beam on the right side. Just the luck."

"Are you thinking about another truck, Ben?" I asked, as I was still standing in the doorway.

The old man answered, "I was hoping the old truck would last me out. It's only an eighty-nine. I think I have enough for another truck, I just didn't want to spend the money on one."

I told Ben, "I'll look at it after breakfast. I'm going to run down to check on your mule right now. I'll be back in a few minutes."

The old man looked at me with some emotion. "No need, Mike. She's gone. She died last night. At least she died where it will be easy to get her out of the yard. I'd appreciate if you would help me bury her."

I sat next to Ben and gave him a one-armed man hug, "You know I'll take care of it, Ben. Just show me where and you stay up here while I fix her up."

Ben was nodding his head because he was too choked up to speak.

The girls had heard and knew the bond a man had with his animals.

After breakfast, Ben drew me a little map of where he thought would be a good place to bury his mule. I serviced the bulldozer, threw a bunch of tools into the cab of the tractor and went down to Ben's. I had to take down two areas of fence in order to get to where the mule was. I was able to gently scoop her up and carry her up an incline in the field behind Ben's place. On a little plateau, I dug a very deep hole before putting the mule in it and covering it up. I made sure the ground was well packed, and then went back down to repair Ben's fences.

A short while later I parked the bulldozer back where I was going to begin my road. I went inside to tell Ben the job was done and he thanked me. I told him that we should take my old truck, or one of the tractors, down to his truck to see what was needed to get it running.

We loaded tools into Bud's old pickup and drove down to Ben's. I didn't want to use my pickup as the electrics were too different to jump his truck if it needed it.

The first thing I did was to turn it over to see if the battery was good. The starter was working, so the battery was good. I opened the hood and pulled a plug wire. I had Ben turn the motor over and watched an arc from the plug wire end to the engine block. That part of the electrics worked. Ben told me, "I done did that, next thing to do is to check the gas but I don't know what to take loose to check."

I needed to check to see if it was getting gas. This was an old GMC that had a submerged electric fuel pump. I was going to pull a gas line open and see if it pumped gas, but before I did that, I laid down to get at the fuel tank and slipped my hand to the top of the fuel tank and put my hand on the top of the fuel pump. When I had Ben just turn on the key, I felt nothing. I really couldn't figure a way to check to see if voltage was getting to the fuel pump until I had better access.

"Hey, Ben, do you have something we can block this up with so I can get under it better? I'll run up and get my multi-meter and be right back. If you don't have anything, we can use some of the oak we cut up. That will prop the truck up about three feet and should be stable. I think my big screw jack should do the trick."

I drove up to the house, found my multi-meter and loaded the screw jack and a bunch of miscellaneous tools to do the job I was figuring on. Back down at Ben's, we got the truck up on big chunks of log so I could get under the truck easier. It took a while, but I finally was able to siphon the gas from the tank before loosening it to drop it down so I could get at the pump. When I pulled the connector loose from the pump and measured the voltage, there was a solid twelve volts. That told that story. Of course, this is a good reason not to let your tank get too empty before you refuel. Those submersible fuel pumps aren't spark-shielded in any way, and if the percentage of fuel vapor to air in the tank drops below 7%, the tank turns into a bomb.

I pulled the fuel pump out, being careful not to damage the float valve for the gas gauge. I announced, "Come, let's go into town and get us a fuel pump."

Tractor Supply didn't have a pump, but the little auto parts store in town had one. The only one they had was with the expensive float valve already attached, but that was all that was available. We bought the pump and drove home. It only took a half hour to put the new pump in, connect the wiring, and then lift the tank to strap it tight. As I took the truck off the small logs, Ben was putting gas back in the tank.

I opened the door of the truck and held my hand out as if to welcome Ben into his truck. The man was smiling broadly as he turned the key. We both heard the pump start and fill the line. Ben twisted the key and the truck started.

"Son-of-a-gun Mike, you fixed this thing and I thought it was done for. Where'd you learn to do cars and trucks?"

"Ben, when you grow up on a farm and you've been in the Army for twenty years, you get to fix a lot of things whether it's your job or not. If you're out in the field, there are no mechanics to help you, so you learn. I can't fix the new cars or trucks with the computerized fuel injection, but I suppose I could learn."

We both drove up to the house where I put the tools and Bud's old truck away. Summer came out and informed us, "It's past lunchtime, wash up and come eat. Mom and I are hungry."

When I was finished eating, I told the three that I was going to work on the road for a while to see how it would go so I would have an idea of how much time it was going to take.

I had to move a couple of big boulders and knock down a couple of trees to get to the other vineyard and orchard. One of the big boulders was a perfect fit for the hole where one of the tree root balls had been. The mountain was soft, although roots were grown under rock in a lot of places. I had pushed all the way around the mountain to the old vineyard, apple and pear orchard, as well as the small field that had not been used since mule days because you couldn't get a tractor back there. On my way back to the house, using the new road, I could see that this was a good road. This gave me one large orchard, an old one, and a vineyard that all needed some work, but would be producing in a short time. The orchard already produced fruit, and I had to haul the grapes and apples out by hand last year. Now I was going to do some farming.

Back at the house, Ben and the girls had already finished the chores, so I serviced the bulldozer and went inside for supper. I was happy with my day's work and figured it would take me two more days to get down to the main road, then it would take more than a week to cut up all of the trees I was going to push out or cut, and blow the stumps.

I thought of Pedro and Jesus, but I called Harold, the preacher, first. "Harold, Mike here, I need to know if you know anyone in town that might need a job. I could use a couple of men for a week, maybe two, to help me clear a road and do some repairs on a vineyard and orchard."

The preacher told me, "You already used two men that are known to be good workers. They don't go to our church, but they are supposed to be good men."

"I was thinking that I should hire locals first, not undocumented men," I told the preacher, trying to get my point across.

"Mike, I know of a couple of men who are not working, but you would have a tough time getting any work out of them before noon. The corn isn't out of their system until then, and they just fill it right back up. Hire Pedro and Jesus. They both have families and will give you a good day's work."

I guess that told me how the locals felt about using Latino labor.

The phone rang only once when I called the number for the two men. A female voice answered, "Hola, help you may I?"

I was about to laugh at the Yoda of Star wars phrasing, but held back. I spoke very slowly and distinctly, "My name is Mike Grayson. Pedro and Jesus worked for me a couple of days ago. May I talk to them?"

"Only one, you may talk. English, the other cannot speak, not yet, learn he will."

There was a long pause before I asked, "May I talk to the one who is there, who speaks English?"

The voice informed me, "Pedro, I will get."

Now that was strange. She must have learned to speak English from the little guy with the big ears.

When Pedro came to the phone, I explained what I had for him and Jesus to do. He was happy to get the work. I asked him if he had a way to get to my place, and he answered, "We walk, we walk good, fast."

"Pedro, how about I pick you up in the morning about six-thirty. If you will tell me where you live, I will do that. We can get a lot more done faster that way. I'll bring you home at night so you won't be so tired the next day."

The man sounded happy and gave me directions. They lived on my side of town, so that told me how far the two had walked to work for George.

I slept soundly, even without the special put to sleep help that Mildred usually gave me. Summer didn't want to watch TV in the living room that night.

The next morning, I had the chores done and had eaten breakfast by six, so I could pick up the two men. After picking them up, Ben drove the truck with the power saws, picks, shovels, and axes down to the old orchard. I drove the bulldozer to the orchard and shut it down so I could instruct Pedro on what to do. Their job would be to cut up the trees that I had knocked down into firewood width chunks, and keep the oak and hickory separate. He was also to look for long pieces of oak, ten to twelve feet long, and about six to ten inches thick to use as posts in all the vineyards. I told the men that I would probably need at least a dozen.

While they got started, I began making a road where the path led down to the little meadow by the old Jorgenson place. That didn't take long at all. There was only one big tree that had to come down, along with several smaller trees that looked like post material.

It was only ten, so I went back to the meadow where the men were working, and began removing trees and moving rocks to make a road out of the path that led toward the old wagon road that went down to the main road from the Jorgenson meadow. This wasn't difficult at all, and again, I didn't have to knock down any big trees and only a few small ones.

Now all I had to do was take some humps out and smooth out both roads.

When I pulled the bulldozer into the big meadow again, Mildred and Summer were there with a basket of sandwiches, some apples, a thermos of coffee, and a gallon jar of cool iced tea, without the ice.

It was a mini picnic that we enjoyed. Ben said he had been coating the posts the men had cut with the creosote I had purchased so that we could use them right away. This was moving along better than I had thought. Cutting the trees up wasn't going that fast, but that was reasonable because you needed the small chainsaw for most of the work. The big one was only for the big trees and to cut up firewood chunks, and those were few.

I told Ben, "On market day, I need to see if I can trade for another chainsaw. I can see that having more than one would be good. Keep your eyes and ears open."

Ben took the women back to the house and I began leveling and smoothing the roads out. I checked my watch and saw that it was already past five, so I went back to the meadow, where I was met by Ben who had my pickup waiting for me. We put our tools in the truck and went to the house. I put the saws at the door of the machine shed as they would need to be sharpened.

It took me a minute to go into the house to get the money for the two men. While I was taking them back to their house, Pedro said, "Jesus is learning the English very much. Ask him something."

"Hey, Jesus, how old are you?"

I could see the man was a little confused, but was thinking hard at what I had asked. He began using his fingers before telling me, "Twenty-twenty."

You could tell he was proud to have answered, but Pedro put his hand on Jesus's arm and said slowly, "Twenty, twenty-one, twenty-two."

Jesus said, "Ah, si, twenty-two, twenty-three, twenty-four." He kept on right up to "Three-thirty."

I asked, "Jesus do you like to work with trees?"

The man understood and replied, "I like work on all outdoors. I like work animals too."

The man was learning. That was going to make it easier for them to work for me when I needed them.

Back at home, Ben was finished with the chores at both places and ready to eat. After supper, I sharpened the chains on the saws, put the grease equipment into the truck, and drove down to the bulldozer. It was getting pretty dark by the time I got back to the cabin.

Once inside, I saw that Ben had gone home, so I told the girls that I was going to take a shower and get ready for bed.

I was scrubbing my head with my eyes closed when hands began washing my chest with soap. I thought it was Mildred at first, because the hands went down to my sex and gently touched it from the base to the tip, but very different from Mildred's more aggressive grasp.

That made my eyes pop open. Oh shit, this was Summer. She was fixated on my dick, but slid her hand below to my balls and gently squeezed them. She looked up at my face and smiled. She said, "Is this where the stuff comes from that makes babies?"

Tell me how you scold someone who asks such an innocent question. To give her the idea that bathing was what we were there for, I put her under the water and began shampooing her hair. She wouldn't stand under the water with her back to me. She faced me so she could keep hold of me. This was very disconcerting.

I used a washcloth and washed her thoroughly before handing her the cloth and soap. She didn't want to take her hands away, but finally took the cloth and soap to wash me.

As we were rinsing, Summer pressed her body to mine and looked up at me, "Can you do to me what you do to Momma?"

"What do I do to your momma?"

Summer didn't look embarrassed at all. She said, "You know, you do the sex thing. You push yourself into her and make her feel good."

"Oh, Summer, I thought we were going to talk about this before we did anything. Can we do that?"

The girl looked at me, "But I have that funny feeling in my stomach and I itch down there where you will fit. Momma says I can do this now and not have babies. Push into me, Mike; make me happy like Momma."

I was weakening as the slender young woman with the small tits pressed her bullet hard nipples into my chest. I suggested, "How about we do this lying down on the bed. If we are going to do this, we should do it so it is easy and gentle for you."

Summer screwed her mouth up, "I don't think I need gentle, I just need you inside me. Momma says that it will make me even more excited and will help my itch and stomach."

I shut the water off, "If we're going to do this, it will be in bed, and only after I make sure your mother approves."

Summer smiled now, but sounded disappointed when she said, "Momma sent me into the shower with you. She thought you would do it to me very quickly. She was wrong; you didn't do anything."

I dried her off and was going to put some clean shorts on, but Summer took hold of them, "You don't need those. Just ask Momma, then we can do it. Hurry, my stomach is very nervous and I itch a lot."

If I give in to this, it is a very big step, a huge step that I can't reverse. I need to have a longer talk with both of the women. If the only way to have this talk was with me naked, so be it. I was going to talk to them before I did anything with Summer.

I walked out to the chairs in front of the fireplace and took the remote from Mildred to turn the TV set off. I sat in one of the chairs and faced the two women. Summer got the idea and sat next to her mom. She told her mother, "Mike didn't do anything to me. He wouldn't touch me and wouldn't put his thing into me. He just wants to talk."

Mildred had an amused look on her face. She asked me, "Why wouldn't you make Summer a happy girl. She is a woman by many years, and would welcome you into her body. You heard the preacher; you should give yourself to her as she gives herself to you. It is in the Bible."

I wish the preacher was here to listen to this shit so he could get me out of what was happening.

"Summer, Mildred, you have come to live with me, share my home with me, share food with me, and share the work to make us happy. Mildred wanted to share her body with me and we did that. I have to be honest and tell you that lying with Mildred is very enjoyable."

Summer said, "You did more than lay with her. You put your sex into her and you gave her the stuff that makes babies. The only reason she isn't going to have your baby is it was not her time. It's her time now, but it's not mine. It's my turn to enjoy you inside me. I want your sex and your juice inside me. Momma says that it is making love. I love you, Mike. You have made us a home with you. You have made Momma and me happy again. We both love you and want to make love with you."

Oh man, this was difficult, "Summer, I am a lot older than you are. I think I'm near your mother's age. When you make love to a man, it should be one who you will live with for the rest of your life and who you will have babies with. You should have a young man of your own, your age, to make a life with."

Summer sat in her chair and thought about this for a long while. I got up and poured all three of us a glass of my good wine. This was my good stuff that was made from grapes that were turning a little sugary when I made the wine. The wine was still slightly bitter, but was a little sweet.

When I handed Summer her glass, in order to justify her position, she said to me, "The Bible has many men with more than one woman. Those men had babies with all of their wives, so you can be like those men."

She paused long enough to take another sip of wine, then added, "I think I want an older man who is kind and generous like you, and not someone who doesn't know how to treat a woman like me. You know how to treat a woman; I want you to treat me like one."

Mildred wanted to help Summer's cause. "It isn't bad that you would make love with Summer. I still don't think it was bad that I made love with my man, Summer's father. We were born together and if I had been with him that day, we would have died together. I was spared to raise Summer. If my union with my man was good and is in the Bible, why can't you have more than one woman?"

I took a deep breath in an attempt to calm myself and try to think of a way out of this. "Mildred and Summer, I was raised differently than you. I had but one mother and father, and they had three children, which included me. I did not have what you call a union with any of them. I was taught to only have one woman."

Mildred was smiling sweetly, "Then this is easy, I have already had a baby and raised her. Summer should have that opportunity. Summer will be your woman."

"But, Momma, I know how you have enjoyed being with Mike. I can't take that from you."

I interrupted both of them, "Girls, or rather ladies, I am very tired this evening and I'm going to bed, alone if necessary. We will talk about this more, but right now, let's just do nothing that will harm our happy time together."

As I got up and was leaving the room, Mildred was comforting Summer by telling her they would enlist the aid of the preacher and his wife so I could understand my responsibilities to both ladies.

As I drifted off asleep, by myself, the thought crossed my mind that I was probably a little addled for my thinking, but I really didn't feel comfortable about fooling around with both of them.

Morning seemed to come fast, and I was in between the ladies of my life. I extracted myself from between them, let the dogs out, and used the toilet. While the stove heated up, I dressed for the chores, but was met by Ben who told me he would do them this morning. I helped anyway, so we were done in a short time so we could eat breakfast. I brushed my teeth and took off to retrieve my two Mexican laborers.

We were back at it by seven. The sharpened chains on the saws helped out, and I noticed that it looked like the men had cut close to eighteen of the posts I would need for the vineyards. As the two men worked their way down the new road to the logging road from our old orchard and meadow, I worked on the road between the Jorgenson orchard, vineyard, and meadow to the hard road. I was able to follow the historic wagon road all the way and only had to knock a few trees down, and dropped the blade a few times where the earth had closed in on the deep ruts the wagons had created so many years ago.

When everything was leveled and passable, I went down to the bottom at the hard road and looked for an easy access from that road to my roads. When you stood out on the blacktop, you really couldn't tell there were two roads going uphill. I could see the bulldozer track marks, but you would have to be looking for them to see them.

On the far side of the huge blackberry patch, there was an opening of more than fifteen feet. That would provide a truck or tractor with an avenue to go in and over to one of the roads that went up to their destinations. Just for fun, I knocked down a small tree and laid it across the road. It was small enough that I could cut it and use it for a gate. That should keep trucks from easily driving in. The problem would be this fall when hunters swarmed the area. I might have to put signs up and add a gate, although that didn't mean much to most of the men around these parts.

I made the trip up the mountain and came out at the meadow. Ben had both men over in the vineyard replacing posts. He was showing them how to use the big gas powered post-hole digger. While one was digging a hole, he was showing the other one how to prune the vines. This was going fast.

Lunch was a repeat of the day before, but Mildred cornered Ben to ask him something.

After lunch, the two men and I went down the two roads, cutting up the trees that I had knocked down, getting the wood ready to split for firewood and stove wood. All of the green chunks would have to cure or be split and stacked to cure for a year. We tried to make a few brush piles with the small limbs for rabbits to hide from predators. We kept the brush piles away from blackberry patches as bears were known to enjoy rabbit on occasion and would find it no problem to dig through a brush pile for a tasty treat.

We worked hard until six. I was dragging, and I think both men were also tired. I looked at them both and said, "Let's go home. It's time for supper."

The two men were very happy with the money I gave them. I was going to have to go to the bank to get more cash soon. Tomorrow was going to be the last day of the week for us, since I needed to go to market early Saturday morning. I had an idea and wanted to see if it was possible.

Supper was all leftovers and was barely warm. The biscuits were left over from breakfast, but were still delicious under more beef stew. The two women were quiet this evening, and even Ben was a little evasive. We talked about Saturday market, and I told Ben what I wanted to do.

"Ben, I want to see what I can do about trading for another cow. It will have to be giving milk now, or there would be no reason to buy her. I would think if the cow was ready to breed, that would be a good time. She would milk for another six months before going dry. I know I bred our cow late, but I didn't know I could get the vet up here to do artificial insemination. I thought I would have to take her somewhere to get bred."

Ben said, "There's a man that is going to sell out his place over on the other side of town. He wants to sell out his stock, and that includes a good Jersey cow. He has a couple of Holsteins too, but I think you only want the milk with heavy butterfat. If George is smart, he'll buy the Holsteins. You know, you might even be in the market for his pigs. I think they are all near shipping weight. Can you get a bunch of bacon and some more hams in the smoke house?"

"What do you think I'll have to give for the cow? If he's going to sell his farm, he won't need anything I could trade him."

Ben thought about it for a while, "Charlie likes his shine, and I know he used to come all the way over here to get some of Bud's wine. I'd say if you were to do some work for him, he'd make you a deal. He needs some things done around his place to make it right to sell. Make your deal by helping him fix up his place."

I explained what I wanted to finish up tomorrow, and how I was going to use the two men the following week. I also figured on making a trip into Pine Ridge to sell wine Saturday afternoon. I was getting fifteen dollars a gallon for the wine I didn't think was that good, and twenty-five for Bud's good wine and the good stuff I had made. If I could get a few hundred dollars for the wine, I would have the cash to pay the men.

After Ben left, I went to take a shower, not knowing if I was going to have company or not. Summer joined me and was sweet the way she handled me so gently. She really liked me washing her hair and leaned up against me with her small chest poking me with her diamond hard nipples. She didn't try to start anything, and didn't complain. She washed me as I washed her. When she began to get out of the shower, I was going to turn the water off, but she said, "Momma needs a shower too."

Hmm, why would momma need help?

Mildred got into the shower, and I gave her the shampoo treatment and a thorough body wash. She leaned into me with her slightly larger breasts, and held her face up to mine for kisses. She was stroking me as we kissed. Mildred said to me, "I am here to give myself to my man. Summer and I have been stingy with you. Let me do for you and we will talk."

There was no hesitation while she went to her knees and between her hands, lips, and tongue, I quickly basted her tonsils. Mildred rose to her feet and kissed me. "I enjoy doing that for you. It makes me feel important to you to be able to do that."

I'm no dummy, I won't tell her any different.

When we were dry, with them dressed in their gowns and me in my boxers and T-shirt, we sat in our chairs in front of the low fire. Summer had poured us all some wine and we sat in our chairs with the big TV off.

Mildred began telling me about their day, "Summer and I had Ben take us to see Martha, the preacher's wife. We had a long talk about how we live and what Summer wants to do with you. We thought she would know best how we should think about our happiness together."

Summer said, "Martha even had Pastor Harold come to talk to us. She said there were many places in the Bible where men had more than one woman, but today, in the time we now live, it is not common. The pastor showed us passages in the Bible about men with more than one wife, and who had children by many wives. Again, he said that later in the Bible, it says there should be only one man and one woman."

Mildred continued again, "But Martha told us that didn't mean that it would be wrong if we were all to be together. It would just be something that others wouldn't understand and shouldn't know about. He did say that if we were to get married, you could only be married to one of us. We talked about all of that for a long time. Both of them were very nice and wanted to make sure we came back to church Sunday. We told them we would be there and Ben was coming with us."