Chapter 12

Life is sometimes made more difficult by events beyond our control. But usually ... again... usually ... it is our own thoughts and decisions that cause us the most problems. In some cases, we let greed shape our choices. In others, we may bow to social pressure. Sometimes it is a lack of faith in our own abilities that causes us to turn away from some (wiser) course of action. On occasion, it is a combination of many things.

For multiple reasons, even though the activity they had engaged in together was happy and fulfilling for all of them, the three protagonists in this tale did not immediately rush into more sexual adventures together. There could follow a long and detailed analysis of the behaviors of each person, but this is not some stuffy scholastic journal. Rather, let us compare them to the three bears of fairy tale legend. Bobby was like Pappa Bear, who was gruff and dour and who might very well have said, “No sex! There are more important things to pursue here!” Of course there is relatively little that is more important than sex, as we all know. Most likely, Pappa Bear would have been covering up for the fact that he needed Viagra, which hadn’t been invented yet. For Bobby, it was because he thought his disability extended to not being able to please a woman in the long haul.

Mindy was, of course, Mamma Bear, voluptuous and warm and delightful to cuddle with, whose hugs were magic and who loved life, but who had gotten used to going without sex, and whose memories and fantasies had sufficed for a long, long time. Have you ever been back to the neighborhood and looked at your old stomping grounds? It never looks the same, does it? In fact, it can be downright disappointing. Mindy was worried that trying to resume an active sexual life might be the same way.

Which leaves us with Jennifer. And since Baby Bear was a boy, we certainly can’t use that analogy. Now, had Goldilocks been about sexual curiosity and the exploration of lust and passion, rather than a simple search for food and a place to sleep, the tale might have been a lot more interesting. And had Goldy done some exploration with the male organ of Pappa Bear, his need for Viagra might have been a lot less. I mean what man can’t get a boner for a fifteen year old blond cutie who wants to lose her virginity ... right?

And that analogy was at work here, though not precisely. Jennifer wasn’t thinking intentionally about her virginity, or how to lose it. But she was most interested in exploring further this fascinating thing she had been exposed to. Her only problem was that Pappa Bear wasn’t cooperating, and while Mamma Bear had been most helpful thus far, her help suddenly vanished.

For the next two weeks Bobby spent most of the day at his place, digging, raking, hauling ash and trash away, and generally trying to ready the site for rebuilding. His stamina was prodigious, and once he started a job, his single-mindedness drove him to complete it. Part of that might have been because, while he worked, he didn’t think, and while he wasn’t thinking, he wasn’t remembering the warmth of Mindy’s mouth on the tip of his penis, or the taste of soft lips.

He worked very hard.

The women tried to help at first. Let us forgive them for resisting ending the day looking like coal miners who had worked a double shift.

And at the end of the day, when Bobby stumbled out of the shower, while both women looked at him longingly, both knew that all he wanted was to eat something, and collapse onto the couch to fall almost immediately into a deep sleep. He was usually up, dressed and gone in the morning before either woman woke.

But it only took him two weeks to clean the place up. True, he probably spent over two hundred hours working, but it was all within those two weeks.

And he still hadn’t chosen which kit to get, to replace the burned A Frame.

Part of the problem was that he had trouble envisioning the future. When he joined the Corps, the future became whatever the Corps planned for him to do. When he got back to the world, he had no future, really. Living on his uncle’s property was a way of life ... but it didn’t cause him to think of what might be some day. Had all this happened before he met the Franks women, he would simply have rebuilt the A Frame exactly as it had been, and gone on with his life, such that it was.

Now, though, there were the misty beginnings of hopes and dreams, involving two women. It was complicated by the fact that he felt attachment to both of them. It was complicated even further by the fact that both women returned his affections.

In effect, he had a different kind of episode, in which he couldn’t make up his mind about anything.

He took a week off from working on his place to take care of all the repairs and chores around Mindy’s place that they had been unable to do themselves. Most weren’t technically difficult. One of the women often helped him, or was there, watching him work. He saw them ... smelled them ... talked to them. His attraction to them bothered him so much he had to find time and places to disappear to so he could masturbate.

Basically this new kind of super-slow episode just went on and on as he tried to decide what to do.

Finally, in what a psychiatrist might have classified as regression, he went back to patrolling the forest again. He felt that, if given the time to be alone and think about things, he might finally be able to decide what to do. Because he was attracted to the women, he rose before they did, and left to walk for miles.

For Mindy, this was mildly frustrating ... but she could live with it. She knew she couldn’t force him into anything, and she was still ambivalent about it all, anyway. He did not really affect her daily routine, and some unconscious evaluation of things was whispering to her subconscious mind that he needed the time and space to work things through.

But Jennifer was another matter. She had teased, and flirted. She had made suggestions that would have made any other man drool. But it had been like trying to get an erection out of a tree. At least from her viewpoint. Actually, unknown to her, he had an almost constant erection. But he also had the self-control not to act on it.

She knew, though, that on his walks he would always check in on his property. She knew him well enough that she just knew he would.

And the bathing pool was still there, all clean again, now that the running water had finally washed all the ash and scum off its surface.

Which is why, only three weeks before she had to go back to school for her senior year, Jennifer Franks was frolicking naked in The Hermit’s bathing pool, when his patrol brought him close enough to hear the splashing.

Of course he investigated.

“What are you doing?” His voice was mild.

“Oh!” She feigned surprise. In fact, she’d been about to give up for the day and get out. The skin on her fingers was getting pruny.

So she got out then, amazed that she didn’t feel odd at all standing in front of him stark naked.

“I was taking a bath,” she said.

“You have a shower at home,” he pointed out.

“This is different,” she said. “It feels good on a hot day.”

“You’re naked,” he observed. She noticed his voice sounded higher ... tighter.

“Yes. You’ve seen me that way before.”

“Not all of you.”

“What’s the difference? You’re obviously not interested.”

He started to ask her why she thought that, getting out the “Why -” before stopping. He suddenly understood.

“You’re teasing me!”

“Why would I do that?”

“I don’t know. Why would you do that?”

“I have a better question. Why won’t you pay any attention to us?”

He knew what she was talking about. It was the elephant in the room, every time they ate together. He had managed to avoid them as much as possible, but he still lived there, and they still saw each other constantly, if only for short periods of time.

“You know why. I like you both, and that just won’t work.”

He blinked. He hadn’t meant to say it quite that way. He’d been trying to hide the fact that he was attracted to them both. He had tried to play the part of The Hermit, even if he didn’t feel like a hermit any more.

“Why do you think that? My mom is the one who started things. She didn’t mind me getting involved too.”

“Come on. You know it doesn’t work that way. How many girls do you know who have two boyfriends? How many girls do you know who look forward to being girlfriend number two or three in the group?”

“None,” she admitted. “But I don’t think of it that way. I just like you. I like being around you. I like kissing you ... and other things. I don’t mind that my mother likes that too. In fact, I’m kind of proud of her for being brave enough to come out of her shell a little bit. You too, for that matter.”

“Put some clothes on,” he said.

“Why? Am I ugly?”

“Of course not,” he snorted. “You know that.”

“Do I? All I know is that I got to see what it was like to feel really close to a man ... a nice man ... a man I really like, and then it was all taken away from me.”

“You’re too young,” he argued.

“I know two girls younger than me who have babies,” she said, her face serious.

“Are they happy about it?” he asked.

“I don’t know. I don’t actually know them. But I’m not too young to do that kind of thing.”

“Just because you can do it doesn’t mean it’s a smart thing to do,” he said.

“I know that too. But I can’t help what I feel. I want to touch you again. I want to feel your skin again. I want to kiss you again. I want to try so many things. And you’re the only man I trust ... the only man I want to do anything with. I know everybody says that will change some day, though I don’t quite believe it. You and Mom would say I’ll grow up and meet a man and fall in love and have sex and babies and all that. And I hope that’s true, except I sure can’t imagine it right now. But I do see you, standing there right now. I could walk over and kiss you right now ... but you won’t let me.”

“You’re naked,” he said again. She was aware that, before this, his eyes had primarily been on her face. Now, though, they roved over her body. She suddenly felt naked for the first time since she’d exposed herself to him. And yet, all that did was make her belly tingle.

“You could get naked too,” she said softly.

“That would be a very bad idea,” he replied.

“Why? Because you have a hardon? I hope you have a hardon, silly!”

He looked up into the trees. This was so outside his frame of reference.

“I might attack you!” he groaned.

“Don’t be stupid,” she snorted. “You’d never hurt me.”

“I might want to,” he argued.

“I just want to see it again ... touch it again. I want to rub it again and hear your voice. The sounds you made when Mom was rubbing you ... and then when I did it. I never heard anything like it. It made me feel ... I don’t know... important, or something.” She frowned. “I know you like it. I know you like us. So why won’t you let us make you feel good?”

“I do like you both!“ he shouted. “Don’t you get it? I can’t have you both!”

She crossed her arms under her breasts, which seemed to perch on those arms like two playful puppies.

“I know what you said about how the world says that’s wrong. But I don’t care about that. It’s none of the world’s business what we do! I like you. My mother likes you. She deserves to have a nice man in her life. I do too! And if I don’t mind sharing you, then why do you care so much?”

“Because the last time we had this conversation, and I said I wanted you both, and that that meant I probably couldn’t have either of you, your mother agreed!“

“That’s not the way I remember it,” said Jennifer. “The way I remember it, you two just stopped talking.”

“Well, that’s what that meant,” he said. “It means she agreed with me. I can’t have you both. And I won’t hurt one of you by choosing the other.”

“So,” she said. “You’re going to build your new house, and go back to being a hermit.” Her voice was flat.

“I guess you could say that,” he said.

“And I won’t be welcome any more.”

“I didn’t say that at all!” he objected.

To read this story you need a Registration + Premier Membership
If you have an account, then please Log In or Register (Why register?)

Support the author's future writing by purchasing this book from Bookapy

The Hermit of Scarecrow Valley

Lubrican

$4.50