CHAPTER 1
Sarah Schmidt said to her husband Carl, "So we begin the cycle again from tomorrow. You've hired a drunk, or gambler, or mental retard, or keyhole peeper or thief and he'll last less than a month before you kick his ass and pay him off. Then the cycle begins again."
It was Sunday and Schmidt's Sunset Creek Feed and Gain Store was closed and with the late spring midday being warm, the couple was having lunch on the lawn. The kids Rita (23) and Hugo (21) had both stayed overnight with friends and weren't expected home till after dark.
Carl sipped some red wine and smacked his lips.
"Don't be disgusting."
"Drink red wine instead of that sour insipid white wine you drink and you'd also get pleasure from what you're drinking. It's almost as good as sucking pussy."
"For heaven's sake Carl, keep your voice down. I don't want our neighbors learning about your depraved ways."
"It's scarcely a secret when everyone is into it. Well I think this new guy is a cut above the usual general hand we have here. He was fired from the bank he worked at and has fallen on hard times."
"Are you crazy, hiring a clerk to do heavy lifting and someone who steals from his employer, a bank no less? God are you out of your mind?"
"He didn't steal and wasn't a clerk. He was the bank's building maintenance manager and he was fired by the chief executive for fucking the CEO's daughter."
"Is that legally a firing offence?"
Carl slapped his thigh and laughed. "He had her over a table and was plowing her when the first sitting of employees for morning coffee entered the lunchroom."
"Omigod," Sarah giggled. "I wonder if he'll want a piece of me?"
"Very unlikely," Carl said dryly. "He's only twenty-seven. Best you think of locking up your daughter before he takes her virginity."
"You fool she lost that quite some years ago. You know darling, we could be in for an interesting time."
"Funny you should say that," Carl smiled. "That was my thought. Well let's finish up here and go inside for our regular Sunday nookie."
"I wish you wouldn't use that word."
"You object to screw and fuck."
"Couldn't you be subtle and just say our afternoon nap?"
Carl snorted and said where would be the expectation if he used that daft term of inaction. We haven't done anal for quite sometime Sarah."
"Carl you idiot, keep your voice down. I want our neighbors to believe we are a respectable couple."
"What's wrong with you woman? Everyone is into anal, even those who deny ever doing it."
His wife snorted thinking some guys believed everything they said. They were not as staunch as women when under pressure.
Hugo was home first and looked a wreck.
"Have you been on drugs," she fumed.
Her son protested, "Fair go mom. You knew I stayed over night at Charlie Slate's parents' home. Well we were asleep when his sister Gwen crept into our room and had a piece of me. Several pieces in fact. She went and a few minutes later her mom arrived and she was into me as if it were her last fuck on earth."
Happy to learn drugs and alcohol were not involved, Sarah told Hugo to have a quick bath and then go to bed to sleep off his exhaustion.
An hour later Rita arrived home looking at peace with herself.
"Mom I'm so happy, I've found Joy."
That made Sarah very upset. She'd kept her children away from church to avoid them coming under evil influences, particularly those with a ecumenical bias because if the promoting body got it wrong they'd all be wrong, or churches with an evangelistic bent simply because that was a fertile ground for bigots and malpractices.
"I wish you had kept away from churches?"
"Whose speaking churches mom? I'm talking about our hockey coach Joy Simpson. Last night Joy, who is my best friends oldest sister, and I entered into a lesbian affair. Oh boy, is Joy hot."
Susan was relieved. This new meant her daughter would be out of reach of the carnal forays of their new general hand who would almost certainly have lined up her daughter as his first conquest. Sarah made a mental note to ask her daughter in the morning exactly what lesbians did to have sex.
* * *
Ben Caine had been angry when fired by the banks CEO Douglas Saunders. If his daughter hadn't been so tentative about being fucked he would have been in, out and gone before the first shift came in for their morning break.
As it was he'd just slipped into Janice's sticky opening when people began arriving. He'd not even completed the first in stroke.
"Oh god, total humiliation," Janice had groaned.
Ken sighed, "Oh fuck I'm in line for a wicked bout of blue balls."
Janice's father had been a righteous prick when he had Ben up before him and was flanked by two sneering lieutenants, both women.
"Caine I can't believe you attempted to have sexual intercourse with my daughter."
Ben knew he was about to be fired so put in the boot. "What are you jealous you didn't think of it first?"
The CEO turned purple and began to choke.
"You're fired," he spluttered. "Here's your termination check."
It looked okay to Ben but he wasn't finished. "I was ten thousand bucks to buy my silence otherwise I'll give my story to the press and you know very well Saunders you are vilified by at least half the population of this city.
"Is it only that many?" said the arrogant asshole, who was rather proud of his tough-ass reputation as a banker and as the dictatorial head of the city's Business and Professional Association and as well was the ruthless chairman of the City Council's planning and building code committee. "The press won't publish that rubbish."
"Well please yourself Sanders but say goodbye to solid customer support when news of this unfair and totally vindictive dismissal is published in our city's shit-stirring newspaper. Half of your bank's clients will take their business elsewhere."
Ben sighed in assumed defeat and began walking out. The two vice-presidents were talking urgently to their CEO.
"Stop Caine. I have had a change of mind. I'll have a muzzling document prepared for you to sign within the hour and you can have that payment to buy your silence."
Ben returned to the desk and returned his check and said he waited all the money in cash.
"Agreed," the CEO spat.
As soon as the cash was paid over Ben prepared to leave town. His parents were distressed that he was leaving the city but were even more distressed when he revealed the reason for his dismissal.
"Christ son are you loco?" his father said, shaking his head. "As a manager you ought to have known the unwritten rule you never have sex at the office."
Eleven months later Ben was running low on money, having purchased an elderly pickup and had been successful in finding casual work, although it was low paid. He drove into a new city and passing the feed and grain store saw a notice stating, 'Help Wanted.'
He stopped and a middle-aged guy chewing a straw and wearing a checked blue and black shirt under bib overalls and cowboy boots greeted him.
"Howdy son, practicing your reading or are you really looking for work?"
"Yeah permanent work mister."
"Pleased to meet you son. I'm Carl Schmidt. Why don't you come in for coffee and we can talk about what you can and can't do, what is your attitude to work and what are your weaknesses and pay expectations?"
"Sure Mr Schmidt. The name is Ben Caine and I must say I'm most impressed at the way your store looks. Most feed and grain stores I've seen look as if they haven't had a dollar spent on them in forty years."
"That's very observant of you Ben and what you say is the truth. So do you chase married women for sex?"
"No sir."
"Well that's a big plus because my wife works in the business. On the other hand what you do with my daughter if I hire you is none of my business, er within reason."
"You wife will be safe from me sir, but the question is will I be safe from her?"
Carl looked at Ben dubiously.
Two hours later Ben was booked into Greta Young's rooming house and he had a job doing the lifting and dirty work at Schmidt's Sunset Creek Feed and Gain Store. He sold the pickup at a loss and brought new clothes.
Sunset Creek and hinterland were large enough to support four feed and grain stores and many of the other businesses appeared to be thriving. Somewhat crossly Ben noticed the city had at least seven banks but no way did he desire to work in any of them.
Another thing of great interest to him when shopping and even when selling his pickup was the younger women he'd come across had either looked at him boldly or glanced away smiling. There was none of that eyes-cast-down shit.
* * *
Monday was always a busy day as rural people tended to stock up on Mondays and then return on Fridays to buy things they'd forgotten and hope to meet people they knew in one of the restaurants when taking late lunch. Sarah was placing the 'Open' sign outside the side entrance when she noticed a dark-curly haired guy with big white teeth, a big chest and narrow hips approaching. At least that's what Sarah thought she saw but she had on her reading glasses.
"Hi Mrs Schmidt."
Omigod it was him, the new guy. Carl had said he was only twenty-seven.
"Good morning," she smiled, pulling in her tummy and moving her breasts slightly forward. "You look normal to me."
"Excuse me."
"The general hands Carl hires usually have deficiencies or abnormalities or both."
"I can see Carl didn't pick a woman with abnormalities and deficiencies for his wife Mrs Schmidt."
The surprise of that compliment and its magnificence almost caused Sarah to wet herself. Oh god the kid was Mr Smooth.
"What is your name boy?"
"It's Ben Caine but please call me Ben ma'am."
"You may call me Sarah," she said and wondered why the hell she'd said that. Carl and the kids would be cross with her in encouraging that air of familiarity."
"Thanks Sarah. May I say you have lovely skin and breasts."
Sarah wet herself. Fortunately it was just a wee release.
"You may but don't allow my family to hear that familiarity with me."
"I understand. And I know that Carl would not want me to chase you."
Sarah wondered chase her for what and then she visualized him with his dick in his hand running hard at her and she was hit by palpitations but breathed deeply and steadily and relaxed and was soon over that over-run.
"Carl I would appreciate you not having such intimate conversations with me. Just limit your conversations to "Am I doing this right Sarah' and 'what do you wish me to do next Sarah?"
"Yes ma'am."
"Good boy. Go inside and find the place just beyond the office where we eat. You'll find coffee ready."
"And I guess you'd like one as well Sarah?"
One of what? Omigod her mind wouldn't get off sex.
"No thanks, I limit my coffee intake," she lied, not wanting him close to her while she was aroused like this.
Carl arrived with his daughter Rita who managed the office and Hugo who took orders along with Carl from clients and Carl also ordered supplies. The kids eyed him up, Rita pausing over Ben's zip for longer than necessary before looking at his boots. It was also Carl's job to check in supplies against the documentation on arrival. Sarah did the books, helped at the counter, answered the phone, accepted payments and when orders were received from waiting customers called on the sound system what to load and for whom.
"Ben two bags of minerals lick for Mrs Phelps. You'll find it in bay 16."
"On my way. What is Mrs Phelps' vehicle?"
"The black Dodge pickup."
Ben emerged with the two bags on a trolley and Mrs Phelps who was in her early thirties said, "Hi Ben, I'm Rhonda. I call most Mondays."
