"Bennie! Hey, Bennie! Can you come here so I can talk to you?" I looked up, Mrs. Jarvis was at the fence between my Mom and Dad's house and the one she and her husband Henry owned.
I walked over there, figuring she wanted me to mow her yard, cut brush, carry something. I did odd jobs all over the neighborhood and knew everyone, of course. Being barely eighteen and strapping from being on the wrestling squad, I could manage a lot of work so they all called me.
I liked Mrs. Jarvis, she was pretty for an older lady, she had to be at least in her 30's. Always well dressed, her hair nicely brushed out, she often wore those women's business suits since she did something in an office someplace.
"Hi, Mrs. Jarvis. Is there something I can help you with?" I was sort of hoping, I only needed to save up another $300.00 and I would have enough to buy Jack William's 1966 Chevy Nova.
+++
That old car had sat out in Mr. William's back yard just three blocks over for as long as I could remember, it was jet black and beautiful, even with four flat tires. He had a big canvas tarp over it nearly all of the time. I doubted he would ever really do much with the car, he had to be close to sixty by then.
And it ran, I knew it did since I was over there mowing right next door and he had uncovered it and fired it up. It sounded great, he was telling me all about how he had taken the original 230 cubic inch six cylinder out and stuffed in a 327 cubic inch V-8. There were some funny looking exhaust manifolds, I could see where he had cut holes into the fenderwells to get those in there.
It sat there idling with a healthy sounding rumble, I wanted that car so badly I could taste it. With it all cleaned up and shining, I could probably date any girl in our town, no problem.
It already had chrome wheels and some pretty fat looking tires on the rear. And it sounded like it was really fast, there were three two barrel carbs under the hood, and Aluminum valve covers, man!
That is what was in my head, of course, dating girls. With that car I knew I could get dates. I even sat in the old car, noted it had only 34,000 miles on the odometer.
So we talked about the machine, I mentioned that I wanted to buy my first car, then he asked me if I might like to buy the Nova. It was a feeling out process, something I already was getting good at from negotiating prices for doing work all over our neighborhood.
His sort of fat wife Betty came out about then, there was some discussion about it being a "collector" and worth a "fortune" and Mrs. William sort of talked her husband down from the $5000.00 he wanted to $2000.00.
He protested at first but she insisted that it was just sitting there and a waste, time to get it out of their yard.
"Bennie is such a nice boy, and he has helped us so much, why not help him back, honey?" Then she reached out and rubbed his arm, and he kind of melted.
"This car is where you and I first made...?" He glanced at me and blushed.
"We have lots of places where we can do that, honey." She smiled, rubbing his arm more briskly.
"Oh, all right!" Mr. Williams was looking at his wife's cleavage, she nearly always showed the tops of them. I figured she used that to get what she wanted, and I think I was right about that.
I was thinking I just might be able to handle that $2000.00, we shook hands and the car was mine!
Well, as soon as I came up with the money, anyway. I had $1647.00 in a envelope under my bed, and suddenly I was seriously looking for jobs instead of just waiting until they showed up.
Now here was Mrs. Jarvis, with probably some work.
+++
"Can you come into the house, Bennie? I want to ask you a question." She looked around like she was flustered or something, I had no clue at all what was up.
"Sure, Mrs. Jarvis." I told her, opening the side gate and stepping through. She looked at me and I saw she was slightly red faced, but then she smiled and turned towards her house. Inside, she went and got a couple of cans of soda, handed me one.
"How old are you now, Bennie?" Mrs. Jarvis asked, as she sat down at the kitchen table with me.
That question surprised me, I was looking around at her place, since I had never been inside before. It was really nice, everything put away,
and everything was sort of.. expensive appearing?
"I.. I turned 18 back in August." I told her.
"Good! I thought so." Then she took a long sip of her soda. I waited to see what she wanted, this was a little bit different.
"I have a request, a proposition really. You are a very nice looking young man, so.. muscular and with that nice long hair and all..." Her voice trailed off as she looked down at my arms, then my chest. I was suddenly conscious of the snug T-shirt I had on.
"Errr.. Thanks." Now it was my turn to blush.
"Anyway, to get to the point, a few of my girl friends are having a party here next Saturday, and since it's just us..? I mean Henry will be gone on business all week, so no worries there.. " Now she was acting all flustered again and I had no idea at all what in the hell she was talking about.
"A party? Do you need me to help move some furniture or something?" I asked her.
"No, Bennie. I would like you to come to my party, entertain." She flashed a smile at that.
"OH. Ok. And do what? I don't sing or play any musical...?" Now I was hopelessly confused.
Mrs. Jarvis broke out laughing.
"Oh, Bennie! You are so god damned cute!"
I just stared at her.
"We would like you to come over and dance for us. There will be just six of us there, and we could pay you." She took another sip of her soda.
"Dance? Oh, like dance with the ladies, like at a club or something? I can dance pretty good, at school we had those during our lunch break..."
Mrs. Jarvis almost choked on her soda, then when she got control of herself, she looked right at me. Her previous flustered attitude was gone, now she seemed to be.. in charge?
"What we want, Bennie, is some adult entertainment, and you would be perfect. Plus no one will ever know, just me and my girl friends. What do you say?"
It was beginning to register, I had heard of things like that. They wanted one of those girl's night out things where guys came over and danced and wiggled and things like that.
"You said you could.. pay me?" I was still thinking of that Nova sitting over at Mr. William's place. If they could give me maybe.. $50 or something like that it sure would go a long ways to help pay for the car.
"Yes, each one of my girl friends will chip in $50.00. Plus they like to have fun so I bet you will get some tips, too." She gave me a big smile.
She said there was six of them? That would be...? I gulped, and almost fell out of my chair.
$300.00!! Maybe even some.. tips?
"I.. Wow. OK, Mrs. Jarvis. I will. Do I need a costume, or something like that?"
Her eyes narrowed, then she smiled again.
"Oh, show up like you look right now. We can do the neighbor boy fantasy, my friends will love that." She giggled at that.
+++
Saturday evening I showed up right on time, dressed in my best slacks and a T-short under a nice dress shirt. I had scrubbed myself until I turned pink, and I slipped on a black bathing suit that I sometimes wore to the beach.
I had already figured out they would probably want to see me dance like that. Plus I had been to the beach many times like that, so I wasn't real bashful about it.
Mrs. Jarvis said she had music, so it was just me. I really had no clue as to what to do, except try and dance and tease, I was thinking I would strip down to my bathing suit.
Mrs. Jarvis answered the door, beamed. I could see Betty, Mr. William's wife sitting on the couch. There was an older lady, she was the fattest one, bigger than Betty even, and three others were sitting around with drinks.
It was strange, all of them were older than me by quite a bit.
They began hooting and hollering when I walked in, which made me blush. Mrs. Jarvis introduced me to them, which I close to instantly forgot.
"Oh, my goodness, Helen! You have outdone yourself this time!" One of the women exclaimed. She got up and came over to me, first rubbing my chest, then squeezing my bicep.
I glanced around the room, they were all wearing dresses, or skirts and blouses, and they all looked nice. Betty of course sat there with most of her boobs showing, but I had seen that many times.
It soon hit me that they all looked to be a little drunk, too. There was a brief moment where I came very close to running away, then I thought of the money and I could get that car.
"Let's get this show on the road!" One of them yelled, to cheers from the others.