This is a continuing story. The story is called Drywood for no apparent reason whatsoever. If you want a presentation of the characters and start of the plot read the first parts. Now things move along.....
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Autumn grinded on, rain, rain and more rain. The silence in the house was different now that the two girls had left. I did a lot of all kinds of strange work. Temping at a local College, helping struggling students regain their footing. Doing some work with a Taxi company, driving a big bus strange routes around the countryside shuffling groups of people from A to B. Doing a big photospread of the newly appointed political majority, boring but well paid. Not much time left over anyway.
Some new contacts on the net asking about photo work, and I was looking into a few of them. One was from a town near where I had been teaching College, among those students Helen. The assignment was a company sewing clothes for theatre, drapes for decoration of the rich and mighty, and other textile specialties.
Apparently, a company with a lot of money, a lot of ideas, a lot of design people but not with the skills to do a photo documentation. Anyway, it sounded like fun so I gave them a fair price and when they accepted we booked a suitable day for me to get there.
I decided to give it a few days of just feeling free also and booked a nice hotel for a few nights. I loaded my small car with things I might need and got going very early on a Monday morning. Three hours' drive later I was there and met a nice young man In a pink designer shirt and a lot of gold links around his neck. He/she told me that the boss was coming in about half an hour and he would show me the premises. It was a really nice place, big as a basket arena, and with lots of fabric of all kinds and colors.
For me who is a jeans and black shirt guy with a house without curtains it was just a mass of colors and fabric, but sure enough as a photographer a lot of nice backgrounds for pictures. He was chatting nicely about the things they did and sewed and so on and I let his cascade of words fade out, along with all the extra hand waving's, and concentrated on imagining backgrounds and angles. We ended up in an office, nice clean and full of showcase clothes and curtains. The nice young guy asked if I wanted some coffee and was very disappointed when I wanted a plain cup of normal brew and not one of the fancy strange variants that the space age machine probably could make.
Like a whirlwind the boss storms in, a lady that for some strange reason I seem to find familiar, yet not really know. Tall, lean and very blond. Dressed in a pair of tight-fitting pants, a white and red shirt in some kind of slinky material and a scarf in flowery pattern. Lots of clattering jewelry and a pair of big black rimmed glasses.
All in all, a striking appearance. She started talking before the door closed, piling instructions on the poor boy/girl and sending him/her running away. Then she concentrated her laser eyes on me and started to tick off a long and very specific list of pictures and places she wanted done, and things and people and such and such. Apparently not a lady of pleasantries, chitchat and small talk, organized and efficient, just what I needed.
Said and done I got her list on a piece of paper and told her where I wanted to start. Didn't take long to get my things from the car and set up what I needed in the center of the vast arena. During the day people and things and dresses and whatnot passed before my lenses, and by midafternoon I was feeling faint of hunger and concentration and had to take a break to go and get something to eat.
When I came back half an hour later the dragon lady boss was all over me asking how much I had left, and what she needed to do, fix and so on. I got some good pictures of her being just the busy boss, and pretty (and even sexy) as hell with it.
Around seven in the evening I was finished, ending it out with a series of evening pictures in nightlight of fabric and dresses in the yard. She was by then sitting in her office working, and I got three good pictures of her concentration, before I told her I was finished and wrapped everything up. She invited me to a late supper at her favorite restaurant in town and I gladly agreed, but told her I had to go change in my hotel first.
The restaurant was walking distance from the hotel, so I locked all my equipment away in the hotel safe, changed into a fresh shirt and a jacket, and walked to the place. She was the perfect host, knowing everyone in the place Cook, waiter and boss, and ordering off the menu and a wine of her choice. A lovely dinner and some enjoyable talk finished a long day for me.
She asked a lot of questions and drew a bit of my life story out of me. I learned that the company she had was an old one but that she was expanding and doing more and more work, hence the need for more marketing material. Walking back to the hotel, along the water, in the dark I counted myself lucky just to be. The room was nice, on the fourth floor and with a balcony overlooking the small fishing harbor of the town.
Tired after a long day, and evening, I left everything to morning, just undressed and went to bed, not even closing the drapes. letting the light of the harbor shine into the room. Next day was all my own.
The knock on the door came quite unexpectedly, and I grabbed a towel and wrapped around me, as I had nothing on, and opened the door just a fraction to see what was wrong at this late hour, in a hotel. In the dimly lit corridor stood a smiling Helen and pushed me inside as she out of breath asked:
"Can I come in?".
"You already are, but of course you can."
I had time to breathe before she closed the door behind her and kissed me, so my knees shuddered.
"Come! I am cold -- hold me." she said,
In three seconds flat she was lying in my bed beside me, and yes, she was cold, as ice. Drawing blankets around us I tried to warm her up as I asked her how and why and so on. How did she know I was there? And how did she find the hotel? And how did she know....
Shuddering and laughing she said,
"You have been spending the day with my mother, and it's all my fault, so of course I know."
Then I understood why she, the dragon lady, had seemed familiar, but not as someone I really knew.
"How much have you told her?"
I asked wondering if this smiling dame had known that I had been sleeping with her daughter. I wondered about how much she knew all day when we were talking and working.
"Only that you have been my teacher, and that we were there taking pictures, and I have shown her only part two of your pictures. Not the juicy ones, and now when she was complaining about the work that the other guy did, I talked her into hiring you, and when I heard you were coming, I stalked you out and tonight I waited until you were finished at the bar and followed you here, that's why I am so cold, as a surprise. I love to surprise you."
"And a pleasant surprise it is!"
I said and kissed her again, caressing her body that was beginning to thaw out.
