Anne and Mary drove back to the university a week before classes began. The others were due to arrive late in the day. On the way they bought beer and English muffins and stocked up on other supplies. There was a message on the telephone from Sarah.
“Mary, this is Sarah. Happy New Year. Call me.”
When she hung up after returning the call, Mary said, “Sarah knows we´re looking for a house. She said she'd just seen a For Sale sign on the house next to the stables. She knows we want to rent, but she said it´s been vacant a long time and we might be able to make a deal. She gave me the number. It´s a bank. Shall I call?”
“If you want, or you can let Saul do it tomorrow.”
Mary called, didn´t seem to get anywhere. She hung up.
“Some weird, snotty guy. Says the house is in liquidation of trust, or something. Really didn´t want to speak to me, the macho snot. I´ll get Saul to call.”
“Why don´t we ride out there and look? Nothing else to do until the rest get here.”
The house was at the end of the road, beyond the stables and almost invisible from the road. It was built of concrete, modernistic, with a sloping roof. The yard was choked with brambles, the hedges and trees wild and overgrown. In front were two stories, perhaps two or three rooms upstairs. Four wide concrete buttresses sloped from the roof to the ground across the front of the building. When they looked through the filthy windows, they saw bare walls and floors, large rooms and big windows at the back.
They scrambled around the side of the building, where the ground fell off to a huge lower yard surrounded with high, wild hedges. There was a big, empty swimming pool, partially filled with dirt and leaves that must have taken years to gather. From the back of the building the two upper floors seemed to have windows across the whole width of the building. The bottom floor was a combination of doors, windows and wooden walls. Looking in, the space seemed to have been used for storage.
“Spooky,” said Anne.
“Interesting,” said Mary. “It´s big enough. Plenty private. Let´s go see Sarah.”
Sarah hugged Mary.
“You´ve got to be Anne. You get the same treatment.” She hugged Anne.
“We took a look at the house. Couldn´t get two civil words out of the bank.”
“It´s been there forever. Empty. I heard it was built in the ‘20s, remodeled in the ‘70s sometime. Hasn´t been used since I´ve been here. Five or six years. The sign went up right after New Year´s... When you coming out?”
Mary said, “Tomorrow afternoon okay?”
“Any time. You know that. Hero misses you. So does The Bay.”
“You ridden him?”
“No. I´d rather you did that.”
“I got some ideas from my Aunt Bessie. See you tomorrow.”
.oOo.
“Kiss me, Tom,” Sigrid said. She folded herself into his arms and enjoyed a deep, long kiss.
“Now, Tom, undress me.”
“Your folks are downstairs.”
“They won´t bother us. Believe me.”
“What is this, anyway?”
“Tom, I want you to make love to me. Almost all the way. I want you to eat me. I want to make you come in my mouth. I want to do everything but what we really want to do: intercourse.”
Tom ran his hands down her back, cupping her buttocks through her jeans, feeling her breasts pressed against his chest.
“And when your folks hear us, they´ll bust us.”
“Not likely. I told them the other day I was planning this. I think Mom wants to watch.”
“You´re crazy.”
“No. In fact, Dad said, ‘Do we get to watch?´ and then Mom said, ‘If your dad does the play-by-play, I´ll do the color.”
“Shit. That´s crazy.”
“So, undress me.” Sigrid began working on Tom´s belt, undoing his jeans. “Sit down so I can get your shoes off.”
They tumbled onto the bed, frantically undoing buttons, zippers, pulling clothes off and tossing them on the floor.
“God, you´re beautiful,” Tom said.
“Come on, you´ve seen me naked before.”
“Every time is new. I can´t believe it.”
Tom´s mouth covered hers, cutting off her reply. Their hands ran over each other´s body, caressing, pressing, digging into the soft places.
“Yes!” Sigrid said, “suck my nipple… Yes and play with that one. God, I love that. Squeeze it a little harder… Oh, it goes right into my pussy.”
Her hand captured his cock, and began stroking it. He moved down to tongue her navel, bringing an hysterical giggle, finally settling himself over her mons, where he began kissing and caressing her inner thighs, the pleasure prompting her to spread her legs wide, giving him ready access to her already swollen lips.
“Lick me, Tom. Eat me. Give me your cock.”
She took his cock deep in her mouth, her tongue washing and rubbing the sensitive places.
At the same time, Tom slipped his tongue over her hooded clit, pressing his fingers deep between her labia, reaching for her G-spot. For long minutes, they moaned and worked on each other until, finally, Sigrid´s hips began to buck and heave. Tom followed her moving target, fully conscious of the effect of her sucking mouth on this dick.
And they came, huming and moaning together.
When they had cooled somewhat, Sigrid kissed his face, his lips and probed his mouth with her tongue.
“I´m so glad you´re here. You´ve made this whole vacation work so well for us both.”
“You get the credit, too.”
“Well it´s a surprise, what I´ve learned about myself these last days. Thanks to Mom and Dad – and to you – I´ve finally got myself where I want to be.”
“Where´s that?”
“Here, naked with you. Ready to go again?”
.oOo.
When they got back from seeing that unusual house, Will was there. He´d dumped his bags at his room and was sitting outside the door of Room 350. They let him in and spent some time hugging and kissing.
Alex, Tom, and Saul arrived together. “We took the plane from Chicago together.”
They went to supper, talking about all kinds of things, telling about their holidays.
Anne asked, “Tom, where´s Sigrid?”
“Decided to stay the rest of the vacation. Talking heavy with her folks. Not sure what it´s about.”
“Were you up there?”
“Yes. A lot.”
“How´d the picture go over?” Will asked.
“Her mom and dad loved it. By the time I got there, they´d framed it and hung it on the wall. But they said it´s just to protect it until she brings it back. You know, one of those glass sandwich frames like we have in North. Sigrid said she´d been a little surprised. They were having a lot of guests over the holidays and there she is on the wall. But, she agreed to it.”
“Maybe they´re not quite as strict as she is.” Alex said.
“It´s a little confusing, but I don´t care. I like her just the same. More, probably. She grows on me.”
Saul leaned over to Anne. “Do you mind leaving early?”
“Just us, or everyone?”
“I don´t care. I just need to hold you and feel you a lot. Mary, too, now that you mention it.”
Anne spoke up. “Anyone want some cappuccino?”
“Uh, we´re already in the coffee bar, Anne.”
“Well, I got a machine for Christmas.” She lowered her voice, “I´ve been practicing making nude cappuccino.”
“I´m stupid,” said Will. “Tell me what that is.”
“Cappuccino. But you have to be nude to drink it.”
“Sounds like it´s worth trying, anyway,” he said.
“Pig.”
.oOo.
Saul called the bank, talked with someone for a while.
“He says the place is in liquidation of trust, as you said. That means it´s owned by a trust that is being liquidated, the assets sold off so they can distribute the proceeds. He agreed to show us the place, but he´s not very friendly, and obviously thinks there´s something fishy. I made a date this afternoon to go look. I say we get everyone together and all go. We may not get another chance.”
The group assembled for lunch, climbed in the cars and drove to the house. They got there early, and the men had time to prowl around the outside of the building, peering in the windows as Anne and Mary had done.
“See these concrete piers here in front? I think the whole building is cantilevered,” Tom said.
“Speak English, please,” said Will.
“The roof, the upper floor and the main floor are attached to these things, here,” he patted the wide, sloping pier. “They hang off them, and there´s nothing else that holds them up. No posts or anything. All the interior walls are non-load-bearing. I don´t know about the side walls, but they may not be load-bearing either. Really unusual.”
“Will it fall down?” Anne asked.
“It´s been here a long time and hasn´t fallen yet. I doubt if it will. These supports seem to go deep in the ground and they´re really massive.”
The man from the bank arrived, looked at them disapprovingly, and opened the door.
“We´re pricing this at $250,000,” he said, confident they were not prospects. He guessed the grounds inside the hedges were two acres, more or less, and admitted that the place had been vacant ‘for some time´.
The wide front door opened into a hall with walls and doors to left and right. Directly ahead was a ceiling-high glass wall revealing a massive wooden stairway at right angles to the entry. Behind the stairs was a rough stone wall. The door to the left led to a large, open living space. The building was cool, no heat or light. The walls and floors were filthy, but sound. The floors were wood.
“Looks like oak over a sub-floor on the concrete slab,” said Tom. “The trim is very nice, and absolutely solid, just dirty and in need of care.”
The living room had a central, free-standing stone fireplace, the back of which was the stone wall they had seen on entering. The front wall was all floor-to-ceiling windows at the edge of the slab, with another line of sliding doors a few feet inside.
“Place faces south,” said Tom. “You´d get great sun all winter. It´s cloudy right now, but it´s warmer in here than it should be. The two rows of windows hold the heat in, and the overhang looks like it will keep the sun out in the summer. Probably wouldn´t need much air conditioning.”
To the right of the entry was the dining area and kitchen, still a part of the open plan of the whole floor. There were utility rooms for storage.
“Look at that stove,” Mary said. “An old, professional range. And the whole kitchen is semi-pro. Just right for a big family.”
“What kind of heat, here?” Saul asked the banker.
“I´m not really sure.”
Mary said, “Could be gas. The stove is gas, so there´s gas in the building.”
In the middle of the living room, behind the fireplace, the wide stairway led up and down. Upstairs, two large bedrooms at each end of the building shared almost the whole frontage. At the back, each front room connected through a big bathroom to one of two slightly smaller bedrooms along the back of the building.
The bottom floor held the furnace, an old gas-fired hot-water boiler. The rest of the space was open, except for stubbed-in plumbing along the western end. A brick column supported the fireplace above.
“Alex. Look at this.”
“What, Tom? Oh. Do you think it might come out?”
Anne came over. “What´s the mystery?”
“I think this used to be a fireplace, too. It´s just been bricked up, and not too carefully, either.”
After looking around some more, they thanked the banker and left. Saul promised to be in touch. Outside, Tom went running up the nearest buttress and stood on the roof briefly before walking across to the chimney. When he reached the ground again, he said, “The roof slopes up from here to the front. Roof looks solid, and we didn´t see any sign of water damage inside, probably because the slope sheds water. The chimney has two flues. Must be two fireplaces. This thing is built like a fort.”
“I can´t believe it hasn´t been vandalized,” Anne marveled.
“Too hard to find,” said Saul.
.oOo.
“Tom and I have looked at ten houses for rent,” Mary said, “this week and before Christmas. None of them was really big enough for six of us, and most of them were disgusting. We talked to at least a dozen other people who just wouldn´t consider six people at all. Summary: Nada.”
Saul said, “I told Dad we´re looking for a house to rent. He told me to keep him informed. Okay if I call him from here?”
“Go ahead,” said Mary.
It was after supper. Anne was serving her latest specialty, café latte nudo, as she called it.
“Hi, Dad, Saul. Have you got time to talk something over?... Yes, everyone´s here. Okay, I´ll put you on the speaker.”
“Hi, Harry Katz. Happy New Year all of you. Who´s there tonight?”
They introduced themselves, and Saul began.
“Subject is housing. We talked about it while I was home. The status is this. Tom and Mary have looked at ten houses, inquired about a dozen others. None of what they´ve seen is acceptable, the rest won´t even think of taking six people.
“About what we expected.”
“Right. Now, Anne and Mary heard about a property that´s been vacant for years out east of town. It´s for sale in liquidation of trust by First Central Bank here. I called them and talked to the trust officer. He was pretty snotty, but he let us look at the place. We all went because we figured we might not get another chance. I think he regretted agreeing at all. It´s a crazy place. Built in the 1920´s, renovated in the 70´s or something. Big enough and then some. Two acres plus. Grounds are neglected. Unusual construction, but Tom says it looks sound.”
“Tom, tell me about this.”
“Well, it´s a reinforced concrete structure on a sloping lot facing south. The roof, upper floor and main floor are cantilevered from massive piers set in the hillside. The bottom floor is a slab. No load-bearing walls, as far as I can tell. Interior is dry, no sign of water damage. Wood floors, sound wood trim and interior walls. Semi-pro kitchen, gas-fired hot-water heat in the floors.”
“What about living accommodations?”
“Four bedrooms, two baths up. Main floor has a living room, dining area, kitchen, storage space and lavatory. The front of both upper floors is glass with an air space and another wall of glass. Very energy efficient. Bottom floor is basically open. There´s a free-standing fireplace with hearths on the main and bottom floors. Bottom one is closed up.”
“Very concise. Very complete. Thank you. Now, what do you want from me?”
“Advice, dad. Should we just keep looking, should we try to make some kind of a deal with the bank for the house, how should we proceed?”
“I agree the outlook for a rental looks tough. Let me talk to the guy at the bank and see what kind of flexibility he has. In a way, I understand his reluctance to show it to you, you aren´t really a likely purchaser. But on the other hand, First Central is a subsidiary of my bank, and it´s worth looking into. Let me have his name and number, and I´ll get back to you in a day or two. Meanwhile, keep looking. Can´t hurt.”
Saul gave him the information, they all said thanks and goodbye.
.oOo.
From: [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Subject: Info
Hi,
My dad wants the phone numbers of all our folks. Says he´s working on something about the house with the bank and needs to contact them. Please reply with info and tell me if it´s okay for him to do this.
Saul
.oOo.
Every day, Mary worked with her two mounts, fitting in house-hunting with Tom.
With Hero, she worked hard on show routines, preparing for the new season coming in the spring. Patiently, she taught The Bay new cues, new commands. With gathering effectiveness, they worked out a system of communication, building one success upon another.
One day, she saddled The Bay, turned him loose in the ring. She picked up a lasso and took it to him. He was nervous, not afraid. She opened a loop and slipped it over his head and neck. He didn´t react. Taking the rope off, Mary stepped away and started building a loop, twirling the rope in the air. Immediately, The Bay took flight, running around the ring. Carefully, keeping the loop in the air, Mary followed him, keeping him aware of her. When he began to indicate submission, Mary turned away, still keeping the loop moving. It took several tries, but finally, The Bay was able to walk up to her and ignore the rope. She put it away and took him for a run.
Will worked with Sarah, learning the basics of horsemanship. Mary found him a pair of boots. She bought him a good Stetson hat he could wear anywhere.
.oOo.
“Hi, everyone here?”
“Yes, Dad.”
“Good. Anything new on housing at your end?”
Mary said, “Harry, we´ve seen four more houses. All with rat droppings or rot. One that smelled of cat piss. Called five others who didn´t want to talk to us.”
“That´s Mary. Hi. Thanks.
“Okay. I´ve talked to First Central. They´re in a bind. The trust they´re liquidating has been rather badly mismanaged, at least in my opinion, and they need to unload that property at almost any price. I´ve talked with them quite a bit, and I´ve talked with your folks as well.”
“Who did you talk to at my house, Harry?”
“I talked to your father, Mary.”
“Just curious. Thanks.”
“Here´s my idea. I´ve got First Central to agree to a reasonable price on the property, with them taking back the mortgage. I´ll buy the place, make a contractual agreement with your parents to continue contributing what they do now. You live there and fix it up. When you graduate, we sell it.”
“How come you´re buying it, Harry?” Alex asked.
“Who´s that?”
“Alex Jefferson, Harry.”
“Good question. When Tom described the place, it rang a bell. There was a French architect who worked in that area back between the wars. World Wars, that is. You´ve been looking at one of his buildings, and once it´s restored or renovated or made livable, it´s going to appreciate substantially. So, it´s a sound investment to begin with, and I´m getting it cheap because the bank doesn´t know what they´ve got. I did tell your folks about this, however, so they´re in the picture.
“Now, I´m going to need more than Tom´s evaluation of the place. I need a professional opinion on the structure and the property. And a survey.”
“Harry,” Tom said, “I know a guy here at the university, he´s Assistant Professor of Structural Engineering. I could ask him for a structural opinion. Probably do it for nothing just to see the place. You may know my dad´s a builder, he could take a look at it, too. I´ll look for a surveyor.”
“I talked to your dad, he´s willing to go take a look at it. As for the professor, I´ll send you a Non-Disclosure Agreement for him to sign. I don´t want him telling the bank or the Architecture Department what we´ve got and he´s sure to recognize the style when he sees it. Get in touch with your dad, Tom, and get him down there, then have him call me. Wait a little on the surveyor until I have a contract they can´t get out of.”
“Right.”
“And get the professor out there as soon as you can. That jerk at the bank will be a little more cooperative now. I had a little talk with him.
“Mary?
“Yes, Harry?
“Keep on looking for a rental. This still has about a 20% chance of not going through.”
“I will. Got another appointment tomorrow.”
“That´s it. Thanks for everything. Keep in touch.”
.oOo.
“Anne Stilwell.”
“This is Lucinda Travis, Anne. Mary´s mother. Is she there?”
“Yes, ma´am. Just a second.”
“No, wait. Anne, I want to thank you for taking care of Mary at Christmas. It was generous of you and your family and I really appreciate it. I guess you know I´ve been out of it for a long time. Thank you for helping her.”
“You´re welcome, Ms. Travis. I´d do anything for Mary anyway, and mostly I´m really glad you´re feeling better. Here´s Mary.”
“Mom?”
Anne went into the bedroom and read and fidgeted while Mary talked. After a while Mary came in, lay down and put her head on Anne´s shoulder. Her eyes were wet, but she wasn´t crying.
“She told me how much she misses me, how sad she is that it all happened. She said her shrink thinks the fantasy was her way of getting out of her depression, it just held on longer than they usually do. We had a good talk. I´m glad she´s better and I know we´ll be all right.”
“Oh, Mary. I´m so glad.”
“I talked to Dad, too. He said... Well, he apologized to me. He said he´s spent all these years worrying about Mom and just really didn´t pay much attention to me and he´s sorry. Said that Bessie was so good at looking after me, he really spent all his time trying to handle Mom.” She shivered, went on.
“You know what Mom said? She´s been looking at my picture, the one Will did? It´s just a small copy, but it´s good.”
“That´s the first nude he did of you?”
“Yes. She said she´s glad I´ve grown up so beautiful. She said she hopes I enjoy my good looks and have a happy love life.”
“That´s a little hard to believe, Mary.”
“What she said. I´m not arguing.”
They hugged each other for a long time.
.oOo.
Tom came into the Union. “Sigrid´s back. She´s got a car!”
Sigrid followed soon after. She sat with them for supper.
“Will, I brought my picture back. Since I´ve got the car, I left it in the frame. Thanks for letting me take it.”
“Oh, you´re welcome. Welcome back.”
They talked about the possibility of the house. She told about her vacation.
“… And dad had this 9-passenger van he used for the pharmacy. It was fully depreciated, and he needed another, so he gave it to me.”
“Tom says your folks had your picture hung in your living room all through the vacation.”
She blushed. “Yeah. Really a strange thing for me. Dad said, ‘You pose nude, you will get looked at.´ We did a lot of serious talking. But the funny part was when my old boyfriend saw it. He nearly fell over. He said, ‘You still going with the virgin thing?´ I told him ‘Yes, no change. Promise is a promise.´ You should have seen his face. I really felt sorry for him.”
“You could feel sorry for me, too, you know.”
“Oh, Tom, I do. But it won´t change anything.”
“I know, damn it.”
“Sigrid,” Anne said, “I got a coffee machine for Christmas. We´ve been experimenting with nude coffee lately. Want to join us?”
“Thanks, no. But maybe I can get Tom to keep me company with some full-dress instant. And Anne? Can I get together with you and Mary tomorrow?”
“Classes tomorrow, and I´m posing at four. How about after supper tonight? Maybe we´ll try the coffee machine out on you. Okay?”