JC: William Redman Carter Part 2: Hermit Chapter 13 By Lazlo Zalezac Copyright (C) Lazlo Zalezac, 2006 “I don’t know what to do,” William said to the wall. He shook his head thinking that he was supposed to make everything all right, but he couldn’t. There were just so many problems. He decided that the only thing he could do was to call in some help. The question was – who should he call? For the bodyguard problem, he would normally have called Ling. Of course, Ling was a problem at the moment. That was another problem. He was going to have to call his father to get him involved. Thinking about Ling and her problems, reminded him that Lucy had gone off to help her. He rolled his eyes thinking about what Lucy was doing. At least she was with the bodyguards. Of course, the bodyguards weren’t operating at their best. He decided that with Ling in trouble and the bodyguards ineffective, that he was going to have to call in additional security. There was only one person who he could call for that -- Claire. She was close enough to the business that she’d straighten out the problems with the bodyguards. Sighing, he picked up the telephone and dialed his parent’s house. When Mary Gold answered the phone, he said, “Let me talk to Ed.” Mary Gold, used to Carter telephone etiquette, realized that there was a problem by the lack of greeting. The call was immediately transferred to Ed. When Ed picked up the phone, he asked, “What’s the problem?” “Momma Ling and Betsy have been arrested in San Francisco. All I know is that two Chinese gangs were involved. Lucy has arranged for a lawyer and has flown up there to take care of the matter,” William answered finding that retelling the story allowed him to focus on the essentials of the problem. “Chinese gangs?” “That’s what I understand,” William said. Ed was silent for a moment and then said, “I’ll call Jimmy Lee. He’ll check to see if the Chinese mafia has returned to China Town. While he’s doing that, I’m going to have a little talk with Ling and Betsy. I don’t think they are going to be too happy.” “Well, I hope that’s one of my problems taken care of. I guess I better talk with Claire for a minute,” William said. “What other problems?” Ed asked realizing that William was asking for help. “I have bodyguards that are not getting along with each other, an employee that is threatening to sue me for sexual harassment, and another employee who is about to quit because I haven’t had sex with her,” William answered. He wasn’t going to add that his wife had run off to help his sister and mother without letting him know until after she was gone. “I’ll be up there in an hour. I’m going to bring Claire and Kelly with me,” Ed said. It sounded to him like things were falling apart for William and he wanted to make sure that he got all of the help available. “Momma Kelly?” “Who else would you talk to about woman troubles?” Ed asked. His history had shown him that it was best to leave the relationship problems to the woman and just go where he was told. He was pretty sure that Kelly would tell him that if a woman wanted to sleep with him that he should show up with a bow tied to his cock singing Happy Birthday. “You’re right. I guess I’ll call the lawyer about the woman wanting to sue me,” William said with a sigh. “That’s the whole reason I’m going there rather than flying off to San Francisco. Don’t do anything until I’ve had a chance to talk to her. Of all your problems, I think that is your most serious one,” Ed said. --- “William, I don’t know what to say to you,” Kelly said with a sigh. She wondered how Carter men could be so blind when it came to women. Shaking her head, she said, “When a woman lets you know that she loves you, you need to respond in some fashion. It is wrong to ignore her.” “Huh?” “What did I say that was so confusing?” Kelly asked. William’s face was a study in bafflement. One would have thought that she was explaining differential equations to a sixth grader by the expression on his face. “When did I ignore her? When did she let me know that she loved me? How am I supposed to respond?” William asked. Shaking her head, Kelly said, “I swear you inherited the Carter stupid-about-women gene.” Claire giggled at the comment. William glared at both of his mothers and then said, “That’s not helping me.” “I’m sorry, but it is true,” Claire said. “So would someone explain it to me?” William asked feeling more than a little exasperated by the conversation. “I wish Lucy was here,” Kelly said. “She’s bailing out Ling and Betsy,” William said feeling irritated at the lack of progress. He had hoped to have this problem straightened out by now. Kelly looked at William for a second. She’d never seen him that frustrated in his entire life. Sighing, she asked, “Did Lucy ever tell you that Sandra, Barbara, Juanita, Amanda, and Donna wanted to sleep with you?” “Yes, but I didn’t believe her,” William answered. “She was telling you the truth,” Claire said shaking her head. William and Eddie could have a woman show up in their bedroom naked and they’d ask if she was there to borrow something to wear completely oblivious to what was being offered. “Lucy keeps saying that they want to sleep with me, but I’ve never heard anything like that from them,” William said crossing his arms. “Well, they do,” Kelly said. “Why didn’t they just tell me that?” William asked. Gesturing wildly around the room, he said, “If there was someone that I really wanted to sleep with, I’d tell them straight out. I’d just say -- I want to sleep with you. I say that to Lucy all the time.” Claire started laughing so hard that tears came to her eyes. Every time she glanced in William’s direction, she burst out laughing again. Giving up, she rose and said, “I’ve got to get out of here. I can’t take it anymore. This is killing me.” “What’s so funny?” William asked when Claire finally left the room. Kelly looked at William for a minute and then said, “William, I’m going to go through this one more time. The women love you. They’ve told you that in everyway possible except directly telling you to fuck them. Lucy has told you that they want you to sleep with them. Do you understand what I’m saying?” “Yes,” William said. The women had never told him that they love him. He hadn’t seen any evidence that they wanted to sleep with him. Shaking his head, he said, “I understand what you are saying, but I’m not sure that I believe it.” “Believe it,” Kelly said. “So what am I supposed to do?” William asked. “Lucy is out of town. Invite Sandra to sleep with you tonight. Tomorrow night, invite Juanita to sleep with you. If Lucy is still out of town, invite Barbara to sleep with you the next night,” Kelly said. Seeing the expression on his face, she added, “By sleep, I don’t mean put your head on the pillow and close your eyes. I mean, make love to them.” “I don’t think Lucy would approve of that,” William said shaking his head. Kelly pulled out her cell phone and dialed a number. William watched as she explained the situation to the person on the other end including details about her proposed solution. It bothered him that she was talking about his problem with someone else. After a minute, she handed him the phone and said, “Someone wants to talk to you.” William held the phone to his ear and said, “Hello.” “Listen to your mother, William,” Lucy said. “Did you hear what she said I was supposed to do?” William asked. “Yes. Do as your mother says. I’ll talk to you later,” Lucy said. She had to hang up before breaking into laughter. William handed the phone back to his mother and shook his head. Kelly asked, “What did she say?” “That I’m supposed to listen to you and do what you say,” William said sounding like a little child. “So go talk to Sandra about tonight,” Kelly said. William shook his head and said, “This people relationship stuff sure is confusing.” --- “You have a very serious problem,” Ed said looking at William. He didn’t know if this problem was going to resolve itself to a positive end. Some problems required years to solve. “You’ve talked to Kelly and Claire?” William asked thinking that his problems with the opposite sex was getting announced to one and all. He had promised that he would do his best to make Sandra comfortable that evening. “No. I was talking about Vera,” Ed answered. “Oh,” William said thinking that this problem should have been dealt with fairly easily. After all, he hadn’t done anything wrong. It did bother him that his father was calling it a serious problem. Concerned, he asked, “What is the problem?” “I gather that you were rather insistent that she research the sex industry,” Ed said. “Of course I was. That’s her job and her dismissal of my request was pretty much a surprise. I can’t have a research assistant who refuses to research what I need researched,” William said. “You didn’t accept her refusal or allow her to explain way she was refusing,” Ed said looking at William. William stared at his father and said, “I allowed her to explain, but the only explanation she gave was that the sex industry was disgusting. That’s not a reason to refuse. Her job is to investigate various industries and provide me with financial data. What makes the sex industry any different than the recyclables industry?” William was telling the truth and that was a point of difference with the story told by Vera. She had been telling the truth as well. Ed said, “So you don’t know the real reason why she tried to refuse you?” “No clue.” “You don’t know why she turned it into a sexual harassment issue?” Shaking his head, William answered, “I don’t know why she did. I don’t see how it is a sexual harassment issue. All I want are figures that describe how people are spending money in a sector of the economy.” “What if I were to tell you that she blames the sex industry for the death of her father?” “Uh,” William answered at a loss for words. If there was a connection between looking up business statistics, her father’s death, and her claiming sexual harassment, he didn’t see it. He ran his hand through his hair and asked, “And that relates to sexual harassment how?” Giving William a sad smile, Ed said, “Connections don’t have to be rational to be significant.” “So what happened?” “Her father died of a heart attack while engaging in a little extramarital activity with a prostitute. He’d been seeing her for years. From what I could piece together from Vera’s description of how he had been found, it appears he enjoyed her services as a Dominatrix. To make matters worse, the prostitute attended his funeral and laid his favorite whip in the casket. The resulting scandal created a very negative environment for a girl who was only twelve,” Ed answered feeling her pain. There were a lot of things that Vera believed that might or might not have been the truth. A great deal of investigation would be required to get at the real truth. “That must have been rough on Vera,” William said. “You don’t understand how rough it was. Vera was young and only knew that her daddy had died because he’d had sex with a prostitute. Her mother never missed an opportunity to denigrate men or prostitutes. She doesn’t really like men. You might say that she hates men because her father abandoned her at a particularly vulnerable age. She was working for you despite your gender, but the demand that she investigate the sex industry made you nothing more than a man with one thing on his mind – having sex with prostitutes,” Ed said. “So I went from being an acceptable employer to being pond scum?” William asked staring at Ed. He didn’t see anyway to make the situation better. “That’s a good summary of the situation.” “What can I do?” Ed shrugged his shoulders and said, “She needs serious help. Even with proper help, she won’t be better for years. You have to accept that it will be years before she could be happy working for you. In fact, she may never forgive you. I’m afraid that you are going to have to let her go.” Sorry about losing a good research assistant, William said, “I’ll do what I can for her. I’ll try to set her up in a good job somewhere that she can get the help she needs.” “That would be for the best.” --- “Love.” William stared at Claire waiting for the rest of the story. She had come into his office after she had finished talking to Natalie and Nicole. Her response to his question about the problem between the bodyguards had been that one word. He rested the ankle of his right leg on his left knee and shook his foot waiting for more of an explanation. After a minute, he gave up and said, “I ask you about their problem and you tell me love. What does that mean?” “It means that you can expect a wedding sometime soon,” Claire answered. “So the problem is solved,” William said with a smile. It was nice to have at least one of his problems solved. He shifted in his chair hoping that the rest of his problems would be solved that easily. “Not at all,” Claire answered with a twinkle in her eye. Seeing the change in expression on his face, she said, “You can expect to hear some loud screaming, throwing of fragile items, and probably some major breakage when they finally get around to fighting. It’ll get a little physical, but I wouldn’t worry about that. They are all skilled fighters and know how to take a blow.” “Who is going to fight who?” William asked with a sinking feeling in his stomach. Shrugging her shoulders, Claire answered, “It is going to be a four- way melee. I imagine that Rock and Colt will go at it first. Then, it will be girls against guys when they discover what the fight was about. After that, I wouldn’t even want to try and predict the order. I can tell you one thing; you are probably going to see a real cat fight develop.” “Why will they be fighting?” “Two macho guys who both like the same women aren’t going to want to share. One of them will pick one of the women and the other is going to want her too. They’ll flip back and forth a couple of times before getting physical about it. Of course, two competitive women aren’t going to accept being shared. They won’t appreciate the guys being unable to make up their minds,” said Claire. She whistled softly and said, “It is going to be bloody.” “What can I do?” William asked wondering how he could avoid all of that excitement. Claire answered, “You could have Kelly stay here to patch them up afterwards.” “No. What can I do to prevent it?” William asked. “Oh, that. The answer to that question is simple,” Claire answered enjoying this far more than she thought possible. William sat on the edge of his seat waiting to hear the answer. Claire just watched him with a smile. Frustrated, he asked, “Well tell me.” “You can’t do a thing,” Claire said breaking out into laughter at the expression on his face. She stood up, went over to him, and hugged him to her chest. It was nice to be needed for a change. In a soft voice, she said, “Let your mothers handle this problem.” --- In the dining room of his living quarters, William pulled out the chair for Sandra and helped her into her seat. Once she was comfortable, he went around to the other side of the table. He sat down and examined the hotplate in the center of the table. Smiling, he said, “I think Peter has selected Fondue for our dinner tonight.” “Fondue? Why do you say that?” Sandra asked nervously. Now that William had expressed an interest in making love to her, she was terrified that the evening wouldn’t turn out well. There was often a large gap between reality and fantasy. She wondered what would happen if she backed out and returned to her suite. “He’s set up a hot plate in the center of the table. The only time he does that is when we have Fondue,” William answered avoiding at the last moment mentioning Lucy. “I’ve had Fondue before,” Sandra said struggling to make conversation. It was hard to believe just how nervous she felt being there with him. He looked down at the place setting. Puzzled at seeing chopsticks, William wondered which of the many variations of Swiss Fondue Peter was going to serve them. It dawned on him that they weren’t going to have Fondue. He picked up the chopsticks and said, “It looks like he has something else planned for this evening.” Peter came into the room at that moment carrying a large pot filled with soup stock. With a small flourish, he set it on the hot plate. While his two assistants loaded the table with plates containing thinly sliced meats, vegetables, mushrooms, and condiments, Peter posed at tableside, ready to explain the history of the dish and how to eat it. Standing up straight, he announced, “Tonight, I have created for your enjoyment an ancient dish called Mongolian Hot Pot.” William interrupted, “I heard that the Chinese stole this dish from the Swiss.” “No. It is Mongolian Hot Pot; sometimes called Chinese Steamboat. It was invented over a thousand years ago in Mongolia by the Mongols,” Peter explained, thrown somewhat by William’s interruption. “Nope,” William said, “The recipe was stolen from the Swiss in 1973. It was a massive operation involving thousands of Chinese spies who signed up for classes in cooking schools across all of Switzerland. They were after the recipes for Cheese Fondue, Meat Fondue, and the particularly valuable and elusive Chocolate Fondue. Despite having their best agents assigned to the mission, the only recipe they successfully stole was the one for Meat Fondue.” Peter groaned and held a hand to his forehead. He wondered how every special meal that he presented ended up with him being frustrated. “The agents involved in the effort smuggled the recipe back to China in a box inside a box inside a box inside a suitcase. The suitcase was guarded by a hundred soldiers. All of the soldiers were masters of Fu Manchu Mustache Fighting. I bet you didn’t know that was a Kung Fu fighting style,” William said looking at Sandra for confirmation of his last sentence. She giggled and that was confirmation enough. “You see, it was an evil conspiracy to undermine the Swiss economy by mass producing Fondues. Of course, it didn’t work out that way. It’s a shame what happened after they got the recipes back to China,” William said. He crossed his hands over his heart as if in suffering some great sorrow. Laughing at the stunned expression on Peter’s face upon hearing the fabrication, Sandra didn’t want the story to end. She asked, “What happened? Shaking his head, William adopted a very sad expression. With a long sigh, he said, “The assistant to the agent in charge had smuggled out digital watches. Manufacturing them covertly in Taiwan, they were successful in undermining the Swiss economy. He ended up getting promoted and his former boss, the poor agent in charge, was fired in disgrace. “After being fired, the poor man tried selling Swiss Fondue on the street corners in Peking, but it wasn’t a very popular item. You see, the Chinese don’t really like the Swiss except for their chocolates and, to tell the truth, they prefer Belgium Chocolates over Swiss Chocolates any day. He just barely made enough to feed his family, but not to clothe them. “His naked wife, after a bitter divorce, got the recipe for the Fondue. She set up a competing shop on the opposite side of the street. Once the novelty of being served by a naked woman wore off and she was able to afford clothes, her business started going downhill. As a marketing ploy, she stopped calling it Swiss Fondue and started calling it Mongolian Hot Pot. Well, she made marketing history and it wasn’t long before her shops were found all over China. Of course, her ex-husband went bankrupt and spent the rest of his days drinking rice wine.” Horrified at what William had done to the history of an ancient dish, Peter looked down at William and said, “I’ve never heard anything so pathetic in my entire life.” Nodding his head in agreement, William said, “I know what you mean. That guy was really a pathetic loser. You see, he could have renamed it Chinese Steamboat and put his ex-wife out of business. It was a later competitor who coined that name for the dish.” Sandra had giggled through the entire story like a schoolgirl talking to her crush. Listening to the story, she relaxed thinking that the evening, at the worst, was going to turn out to be very entertaining. She felt a tingle between her legs at the idea that it might turn out for the best.