Joe was on cloud nine for the first few days after his weekend with Corrine. Yea, he knew she was only half his age but she seemed to fit with him and her body was a dream riding his cock and seeming to demand more from him even before she had finished the climax she was riding. In the two days before their hot and heavy time together, they had driven a hundred mile diameter circle around his home in Chowchilla. She talked and he listened. He learned she had lots of conflicts inside her. She worried about not being educated, not knowing what she wanted to do with her life, not yearning for kids and family like her friends did, not having interests and just having the sense of being aimless and not being able to get ahead of her bills. Still, Joe saw her as a delight, with energy, health and passion.
His enthusiasm waned over the next week or two. Corrine did not come back to see him the next weekend when he felt she could. They talked but his teasing and excitement with her was not echoing back to him over the telephone. Each of his thousands of healthy, nut filled almond trees seemed to tell him the same thing, "It was a great weekend, enjoy that, you are twice her age, boring, be happy with what you got, don't expect more."
Joe was still hoping the next weekend when he invited her to the county fair. "Joe, my car died. I don't have the money to get it fixed right now. I can't make it this weekend but it was a nice thought."
"I'll come pick you up. Don't worry about driving."
"No, I think I'll just stay close to home, hang out at the mall, maybe take in a movie and just have a quiet weekend."
He felt rejected, stupid for reading too much into their great weekend, dumb for expecting more and embarrassed for almost begging her to spend time with him.
Sunday his telephone rang. "Joe, this is Alice. I know you have way too much on your plate right now with harvest coming up, but I need to ask a favor of you." "Sure."
"You know the top of the house I'm renting is flat."
"Yea, it's the typical box built by the millions after World War II all over California. I know how every nail goes into such a structure."
"Well mine is leaking from the roof in the corner of my bedroom and I need a tarp or something put over that area before it rains. My asshole landlord didn't have it fixed last year, the rains will start in a couple of months and I don't want a moldy house with two little ones."
"Your roof is mostly tar and rocks. I'll stop by and look later today and we'll decide what to do."
"Great, maybe you can visit for a while. I'm getting retarded only talking to Bobby and Ryan. We'll have some wine and crackers or something."
"Make it ice tea and you have a deal. I quit drinking alcohol about six years ago. I'll tell you the story so we boring farming people have something to talk about."
That line struck Alice as odd coming from the playful man she knew.
About four-thirty, Joe arrived in his white utility truck with the sun faded "Sherman Construction" logo on each door. By five, the hottest part of the day, they settled under her massive mulberry tree in the old rusty metal chairs. Both wanted to visit and talk but business first.
"You want the good news or the bad news first?"
"Good news."
"With some felt, a couple of cans of tar roofing and a gas heat gun, you will be ok for this year."
"The bad news?"
"Much of the corner of your house needs to be rebuilt because of dry rot and carpenter ant damage." He held out his hand full of very fine saw dust like material. "Seen this around your bedroom?"
"Lots of times."
"It's difficult to know how much damage there is until the ripping and tearing starts. My guess is that your landlord has never had a pest control contract and knows that most or all of this structure has problems. He has kept the cosmetics up pretty well but I'm sure you've noticed the black mold in the bathroom and under the kitchen sink."
"Sounds like it is time to move into an apartment somewhere. I like the space and freedom of a house but I can't find anything else I can afford. I've looked and looked."
I think you'll be fine for another year or two. Don't let anyone walk on the roof and just keep a good watch on things."
"If we have a strong windstorm, could it let go?"
"It's possible but you don't have trees and such overhanging the house."
"But that corner of the roof could fall in or blow off?"
Joe did not respond, he had said enough. The structure was really not worth repairing. Her landlord had maybe forty acres of old played out almonds that he did little to care for and just sold on the spot market each year. The houses were probably built on agriculturally zoned land long before permits were required. Current land prices and housing needs because of the ever expanding prison on the other side of town, would justify going for a zoning change to build several nicer houses along the rural road but her landlord was nursing his old houses year after year for cash flow and was dodging all the expenses and effort he could.
"Well on a better note, how are you and my sister doing?"
"That's not really a better note. We talk on the phone, but she seems to have lost interest in me. I expected that. She is a city girl and so much younger than me. I've tried to entice her to spend time with me a couple of times but she has excuses that say our time has come and gone."
