The pool had been finished for a week; it was finally full and the sun-warmed water no longer totally frigid. Anne and Saul had started doing morning laps almost immediately, the rest tested the water and decided to wait.
They had finished the summer term in good shape and were about to start the second term of their sophomore year.
They held the Friday meeting beside the pool. Sigrid reported the business going well. Anne had signed several franchises for Still Waters Graphics outlets at other campuses.
“We need to organize training, you know. Alex, can you and Heather put together a day of training so we can discuss it next week? I´d say they´ll be ready to get started before the end of October.
“How´s it going with Virtual Jewelry, Heather?”
“Good. Turns out there´s a backing we can use that releases the color when it reaches body temperature. Actually, the color sort of changes when it releases. If we use that, it´ll indicate when you can remove the backing: that the color is set. I´m working now on what designs and images and stuff to offer when we go public. A lot of things, like stars and small designs, I think we should sell individually, not on large sheets. Maybe ten or twenty in a pack, but so you can put them on one at a time, easily. Anyway, as soon as I can show you what I have in mind, I´ll get estimates and make a proposal.”
“You´re great, Heather. You´ve really run hard with this,” Anne said.
“Hey, it´s a dream for me, you know. A new application of graphic design to the real world.”
“Tom, the pool is great. Thanks for the hard work.”
“You´re welcome. Glad you´ve got somewhere to do your laps... The contractor did a good job, so I got him to give an estimate on a hot tub and cold plunge outside the sauna. He says it can go right on the slab, it´s strong enough. I think we should go ahead. Pretty soon it will get too cold for the pool.”
“Did he give you any ideas on how we can use the pool in the winter?”
“Well, that´s either a rigid enclosure or an air-supported structure. Pretty expensive either way, and not really simple. I think we should wait until we have more budget or a better idea.”
“I´m not really looking forward to having to use the gym again. This is a real luxury.”
Mary spoke up. “Sarah called this morning. She told me that someone´s bought the land on the other side of the stables, between her and the highway. It´s a five-acre parcel, and whoever it is has also bought the land behind the stables. You know, the woods and where the corn fields are, right behind us.”
“How big is that piece?” Saul asked.
“She said they bought 50 acres altogether. Don´t know who, and don´t know what it´s going to mean as far as our riding space is concerned. Worst thing would be a housing development.”
Saul said, “I think I´ll check the survey report on this property, just to be sure where we sit.”
.oOo.
Mary and Sarah drove the horses to the State show. They parked and unloaded both of them, gave them water and settled down to wait for things to start.
In the ring, on Hero, Mary experienced the same increased sense of confidence she had felt in him since he had gone to Colorado. He knew what to do almost before she asked him, yet never anticipated. He was always ready. Her marks in the first event could not have been better. The Bay stepped out in the ring as though he were born to it.
At the end of the day, Mary took first in all her events. Her usual opponents with their cow ponies were well behind her. And, first place carried some attractive prize money as well.
As they drove home, Sarah broke a long silence.
“Mary, I want to make a deal with you.”
“What do you mean, Sarah?”
“I´ve been thinking about this, and waiting until you won your first big show. Now, you´ve done that. I want you to buy Hero and The Bay from me.”
“How much do you want?”
“You can have Hero for what I paid for him. You know I got The Bay in a package deal with another, good horse? Well, you can have him for half what I paid for the two of them.”
“You might as well give them to me.”
“No. I can´t and I wouldn´t. I can´t because I run a business and it would make the bank yell bloody murder. I wouldn´t because you need to feel you´ve paid a fair price for them.”
“You haven´t set me a fair price yet. They´re both worth more than that.”
“Yes, they are. But the reason for that is that you´ve trained them up to it.”
“Hero was good to begin with, and well trained. And you paid me while I was working with both of them.”
“I paid you to teach my students. You did that, and you trained my horses. You made Hero from a rather difficult stable horse into a horse who could win. He won today. You trained him for the show ring. As for The Bay, you took dog food and made a champ out of him. It´s a fair price.”
“No. And I won´t take them at that price.”
They wrangled about it all the way home, but by the time they drove into the stable yard, they had struck a deal. When they had unloaded and bedded the animals down, they shook hands on the deal, then hugged on it.
“Steve coming tonight?”
“Yeah. Watch out, he likes you.”
“Aw, he just gets off on it when I sit on his cock and tickle him with my hair.”
“I probably would, too.”
“Maybe I´ll try that.”
.oOo.
Steve and Sarah spent the weekend, and on Monday, there was a barbecue by the pool. There were lounge pads and chairs around the pool and a waterproofed double bed. Sometimes they made love outside or slept out in the warm summer night. No one had yet worn a bathing suit. They had solid, all-over tans, but there was still a scent of sun preparations in the air.
“Sarah, what have you heard from parents about our idea for the girls?” Mary asked.
“I told you I was going to talk to Jerry Pinski? Well, he went for it hook, line and sinker. Jane´s been away this summer; that´s why we haven´t seen her. He said they sent her to a riding camp for girls, but that she´s been miserable.”
“I would be, too. They´re probably each trying to out-snot the other,” Anne said.
“That´s the impression I got. But what really sold Jerry was that Mary´s doing the teaching. Several of the parents have said that, Mary, if you´re doing it, they´re for it. The few times you worked with them, the girls didn´t forget... The real point is, I named a good price to Jerry and the others, based on the stuff you and Saul suggested, and they said it was a fair price. They agreed. I´ve got about 10 girls, I´ll probably get another five. That will let me do better than break even.”
Saul said, “Now we´ve got a problem. Mary says she can teach twice a week, maybe still keep up her adult class on Saturday. And of course, you pay her for that. But how do we handle the supervision? We haven´t talked about that.”
“Yes we have, Saul,” Sigrid said. “Heather and I are going to trade off afternoons. We´ll be there while the girls are there. Might be able to get some homework done, too.”
“Now, wait a minute. Heather´s up to her neck in Virtual Jewelry. She won´t have time.”
“I´ll make the time, Saul. You just might not get to bounce my buns quite as often. That´s too bad, but I want to be a part of this.”
Tom interrupted. “Look, you two. You´re going to work with Mary on this even if it cuts into our social life...”
“You mean screwing, don´t you?” Heather corrected.
“…Yeah. You´ve got this set up as a Lady´s Aid for Little Girls. Did I hear you say that Anne´s going to act as backup when one of you can´t do it?”
“What´s your problem, Tom?” Sigrid asked, concern in her face. “This is the first time I´ve heard this from you.”
“All summer long, you´ve all planned this as an all-girl affair. The first time Mary brought it up, I said, ‘What about using guys in part of this?´ What about father figures as well as mothers? I thought I´d been part of every conversation you´ve had, but I must have missed at least one. And you never heard me, or you aren´t interested. What is it?”
“Tom, I´m sorry. We´ve really hurt your feelings.”
Mary said, “Tom, I´m sorry, too. And you´re right, we´ve set this up as a woman´s thing. You may also be right that it isn´t really, or doesn´t need to be. What do you have in mind?”
“Mary, I don´t know one end of a horse from another...”
“Like me a while back,” Will said.
“…and girls that age scare me. But I think what you´re doing is worth doing. I want to be a part of it, if I can. Who knows, maybe we´ll even find a way to do something like it for boys.”
“That´s not the point right now,” Alex said. “The point is that Tom and I are willing to do what we can to help out. You tell us what.”
“I´m not really sure they know,” Steve put in. “So far, what I´ve heard is that the big girls are going to hang out with the little girls and try to be understanding. That´s a nice idea, but I´m not sure it´s enough.”
“Why not?” Sarah asked.
“These girls – I´d say all kids that age, male or female – are going through a major crisis. The girls are in Hormone City, their parents haven´t a clue, the boys are all over them and they don´t know what the hell to do. They hate themselves, they hate each other, and don´t even mention the rest of the world. What you need out there is a team of juvenile psychiatrists.”
“No, you don´t, Steve,” Mary said. “Not that you aren´t right about the girls. They have some heavy problems and not much is going for them. But I think what they need is what all of us grew up with. Someone to talk to, someone who´s been where they are, but someone who won´t let them get away with foolishness, sloppy thinking or, what do they call it? ‘Avoidance behavior.´ Counselors are probably the worst people to choose for that.”
“Okay,” Steve said, “I walked into that one, and good counselors are hard to find. But I´m serious that whoever does this needs more than just good will.”
“I agree,” Sarah said. “But they also need someone they can identify with. That´s why we´ve been thinking of women. But they also need guys to be involved who aren´t going to be chasing them around and feeling them up. They need to learn to trust men. Some of their fathers, I wouldn´t trust as far as I could throw them. Or else they´re too busy to even see these girls.”
“Steve,” Sigrid said, “we haven´t got much else beside our own experience and our own limited amount of common sense. If we think we see trouble, we need to call for help. I think we need to go ahead, keeping that in mind. Tom, how about taking one afternoon, maybe double up with Heather or me until you get a feel for it? Take it a day at a time.”
“Just tell me when.”
“Don´t forget me,” Alex said.
“Put us all on,” Saul said. “Let´s make this a Still Waters thing, something we all work on to help out. Can we agree to that? My ulterior motive is that if we´re all in it, we can schedule better so the girls, school and the business don´t conflict more than they have to.
“We may have a big-time thing going with the campus franchises for Graphics, and Virtual Jewelry looks like it could be a winner. We need to handle all of that, college and the riding thing as one big project. What do you say?”
There were no objections.
“Sarah, Sigrid, whoever,” Steve said. “Put me on the duty list, too.”