House of Mei

*Author's Note: Any and all persons engaging in any sexual activity are at least eighteen years of age.

*

Jimmy Bergeron had no reason to ever return to Baylor Lake, to the greater DeGarde area. With his sister Donna gone, he had no reason to ever return to Louisiana at all.

Carmen David, the real estate broker that had sold Donna the two bedroom house did express her sympathies as she and Jimmy did a walk-through of Donna's house.

"Bergeron Jimmy, we keep this couch? It is still very new and it is nice color," Mei Ul Jon asked.

As she had asked in Korean, Carmen looked at Jimmy.

"Yes, Mei Ul Jon; I told you, just tell me what you want and we'll take it," Jimmy said.

"I uh, one of my grandson's black," Carmen offered.

Jimmy looked at her, slightly puzzled. He had no idea why Carmen would offer such an observation.

"Oh, wait, no," Jimmy smiled, realization seeping into his mind. "Mei Ul Jon is not my child; she's my girlfriend."

"Oh," Carmen said and blushed at her own faux pas.

"She is eighteen," Jimmy went on. "You should see her mother; her mother is even smaller."

Jimmy agreed on the price of seventy five thousand dollars then filled out all the forms for Carmen to sell the house without his presence being required.

Then he and Mei Tin Dae loaded everything that either Mei Ul Lon or Mei Ul Jon demanded they take with them.

He almost thought they'd have to get a larger trailer, but Mei Ul Lon showed them gaps that this or that could fit.

Then, with one last look around, Jimmy said good-bye to his sister, to Louisiana.

The large trailer made it difficult to see, but Jimmy was sure that Mei Tin Dae and Mei Ul Lon were right behind them, their minivan towing Donna's brand new Toyota Camry back to Missouri.

Next to him, Mei Ul Jon used her cell phone to study the Missouri Driving test.

"Why you do that?" she demanded when Jimmy put on a blinker.

"Need to pee; pulling into the rest stop up here," Jimmy said.

"But why you do that?" Mei Ul Jon asked.

"I am signaling to everyone behind me, or that might pull out in front of us, that I am turning, and I am turning to the right," Jimmy patiently explained.

"Oh," Mei Ul Jon mused. "Why you not just pull over?"

"It's the law, Sugar-pie," Jimmy patiently explained.

He parked, leaned over and kissed her, then got out.

"And don't call me Sugar-pie; that's so silly," Mei Ul Jon said as she wiggled out of his open door.

"Good thing," Mei Tin Dae agreed as he too got out of his van. "One more minute with this horrible woman with no break? I lose my mind."

"What? What he saying?" Mei Ul Lon demanded; Mei Tin Dae had said this in English.

"He is not happy having to drive so far," Jimmy suggested and Mei Ul Lon gave him a sharp look.

"You are not telling true," she accused and both Jimmy and Mei Tin Dae just smiled.

Mei Tin Dae stood guard over the truck and trailer while Mei Ul Jon, Mei Ul Lon and Jimmy went and relieved their bladders. Then they stood guard while he used the facilities.

While their little ballet was playing out, Mei Lon Soo was waiting for her turn to go onto the stage at Rooster Pull.

The music started up, Arnie introduced Lotus and she came out.

"That the same girl?" Chuck asked as Mei Lon Soo thrust her pelvis forward and whipped her long black hair wildly around. "Fuck! Week ago she couldn't even walk!"

Even as she took her clothing off, Mei Lon Soo kept her long black hair covering much of her body from view.

Her tips reflected the customers' enjoyment of her dancing, of her eroticism.

Mei Lon Soo checked her cell phone as she stuffed her money into her locker.

Ben Upjohn had sent her a text message; he was preparing the suit against her parents.

The man had wanted two thousand dollars up front but finally agreed that Mei Lon Soo could make payments. Mei Lon Soo was not fooled as she read his text message. What she was able to read between the lines was 'I will go ahead and file the suit and serve your parents just as soon as I have your entire retainer in my greedy little hand.'

She closed and locked the locker, steeled herself, and walked out into the bar area.

"Hi, I'm Lotus," she husked into a man's ear as Molly was out on the small stage.

"Uh huh, and I'm watching the game, Sweetheart," the man said, not taking his eyes from the large screen television.

Soon, though, she did have a customer buying her drinks and trying to get her telephone number.

She smiled, thinking of Corina Madsen, Bun Upjohn's administrative assistant. Corina had carrot orange hair, a plethora of adorable freckles on her thin face, and the warmest brown eyes Mei Lon Soo had ever seen. When she got up to show Mei Lon Soo to Mr. Upjohn's office, Mei Lon Soo had wanted to grab the woman's cute little bottom in her simple little dress, kiss Corina's pouting lips.

Each time Mei Lon Soo had come in to put down a payment toward the two thousand dollar retainer, the red head had blushed but smiled warmly.

"You dance at that Rooster Pull?" Corina had whispered when Mei Lon Soo had come in that morning. "Oh! I'd be so nervous! I mean, I can't dance worth a hoot anyway..."

"I would show you," Mei Lon Soo had whispered and Corina had blushed hotly but smiled.

A few days after their trek from Louisiana, Jimmy and Mei Ul Jon were gritting their teeth as they met with their Colfax Realty agent.

Pam Hutchinson was a loud, overbearing woman that had her own opinion on everything. She did not listen very well to her clients' needs, often making decisions for them based on her own feelings.

"Really? No kidding? You're from Baylor Lake?" Pam had squealed. "Oh my God! I'm from Bender! St. Thomas Aquinas! Go Avengers!"

"I can see why Bender sent her here," Mei Ul Jon whispered to Jimmy as Pam again showed them a house that was well outside of the price range they'd established, simply because 'it has the cutest little garden; I just know you two will love it....'

"Ms. Hutchinson," Jimmy interrupted Pam's prattling. "Is there a reason we're even looking at this house, other than some crappy little garden?"

"Well..." Pam faltered.

"Eighty five to a hundred and fifteen; that's what I told you and you said you understood," Jimmy said. "How much do they want for this house?"

"Well, it's listing for one ninety five, but..." Pam said, all enthusiasm slipping away.

"St. Thomas Aquinas did not teach math?" Mei Ul Jon asked, small round face unreadable.

Pam stared down at the impertinent little slant eyed bitch, cheeks flushed with anger.

But her broker had told her, in no uncertain terms, 'make a sale or get out.'

So, Pam swallowed her anger and used her IPhone to look up some houses in the client's lower price range, lower commission range.

"Oh, hey, here's a cute one on Seymour Lane, uh, twenty four eighteen Seymour; two bed, bath and a half," she mused.

"And Seymour is close to my parents," Mei Ul Jon agreed, in Korean.

"Yes, please," Jimmy agreed, in English.

Pam drove to the quaint house, mentally doing the math; three percent of one hundred and nine thousand.

"Oh, I bet..." Mei Ul Jon said, bouncing in impatience.

Pam unlocked the door and Mei Ul Jon ran to the rear door of the small house.

"Bergeron Jimmy!" she shrieked. "It is! It is! Look! There's our garden!"

She pointed and Jimmy saw the rear of the Mei house through the chain link fence.

He kissed her and she continued to babble happily as Pam showed them the rest of the house.

"Aw, now that is too cool," Jimmy enthused when he saw the master bedroom had three walls covered in cork paneling.

"And as you can see, it's in move in condition," Pam needlessly pointed out.

"They're wanting one nine for this?" Jimmy asked.

"Yeah, the owner moved to, oh my God! You're not going to believe this! What a small world," Pam chortled. "Owner moved to DeGarde. As in, DeGarde, Louisiana!"

"Okay, offer him one nine, seller pays closing costs," Jimmy said.

"Okay dokey," Pam agreed and rapidly began the program. "And I can get you lined up with some excellent financing..."

"I'll be going through my credit union, but thanks,' Jimmy informed her.

Pam fought down her disappointment; she would have received a bonus from Atwell Mortgages for steering a client their way.

"Bergeron Jimmy, we can put gate right there," Mei Ul Jon yelled from the rear yard. "And mother and father can come and..."

"A gate?" Jimmy teased. "And a fire breathing dragon to guard the gate too, right?"

While Mei Ul Jon and Jimmy were playfully bickering over whether or not there would be a gate, Mei Lon Soo was signing the lease to her own apartment.

The apartment was in the same complex as Molly's apartment. Whereas Molly's apartment was a one bedroom, this apartment was a studio or efficiency apartment. And it rented for six twenty five a month.

"All right, you just bring me the receipt from the Utilities company and you can move on in," the manager smiled, revealing horribly tobacco stained teeth.

"Yes ma'am, thank you," Mei Lon Soo said politely.

After Mei Lon Soo dropped off the receipt to the apartment manager and established that she'd be moving in over the weekend, she walked to Ben Upjohn's office.

"Hi!" Corina smiled when Mei Lon Soo entered the office.

"Hi; it is good to see you," Mei Lon Soo admitted.

She put down the final payment and gave Corina her new address.

"O. M. G!" Corina squealed. "You are kidding! I'm in one oh four!"

"Really?" Mei Lon Soo asked, almost squealing as well.

"You get moved in, you have to come over," Corina demanded. "We'll do a pizza, all right?"

"I am moving in this Saturday," Mei Lon Soo smiled.

"Supper, okay? I'll grab a Johnny's," Corina decided. "Their 'kitchen sink' all right with you?"

Mei Lon Soo did not know what a Johnny's Kitchen Sink was, but if this beautiful red head liked it, she was sure she would love it.

"Perfect," she agreed.

Then she ran back to Molly's apartment to change clothing for another work night ahead.

"God damn, what fucking time you get up?" Molly complained bitterly when Mei Lon Soo burst into the dark apartment.

"I have been up since nine; the apartment office opens at nine," Mei Lon Soo said. "Why? What time did you get up?"

"Who says I'm up?" the attractive blonde asked, staggering back down the hall to her bedroom.

Mei Lon Soo prepared herself a light lunch and washed it down with a protein shake. Her cell phone chimed and she read the latest text message from Ben Upjohn; her parents would be served that afternoon.

Her stomach knotted up; Mei Lon Soo dearly loved her mother and father and knew that they would be hurt by this law suit. Worse yet, she knew her father would see this as a betrayal.

"But if you had not disowned me..." she said, allowing herself a few moments of self-pity.

Later that afternoon, Mei Ul Jon and Jimmy were happily discussing their plans for the home. Pam had let them know the owner had accepted their bid and Mei Ul Jon wanted Bergeron Jimmy to get started on building the gate between the two back yards immediately.

"And I can come see you when my parents go to sleep," she whispered.

"You! Out!" Mei Tin Dae ordered his daughter.

"And you! Work! We not here play kissy-kissy!" he barked at Jimmy.

Mei Ul Jon laughed and scampered back to her station near the front door.

"Hey Sugar, a uh, Me I Tin Dah here?" a burly man in a cheap suit asked Mei Ul Jon after his eyes adjusted to the dimly lighted interior of the restaurant.

"It is 'Mei Tin Dae,'" Mei Ul Jon politely corrected the man's pronunciation.

"Oh, okay, he here?" the man asked.

"What now? I got no time be bothered," her father barked, but followed Mei Ul Jon out into the dining area.

"You Mei Tin Dae?" the man asked.

"I am," Mei Tin Dae agreed.

"Okay, here, you been served," the man said and handed Mei Tin Dae a large envelope.

Jimmy took over the bulk of the cooking and preparing the dishes for their lunch crowd as Mei Tin Dae and Mei Ul Lon pored over the confusing documents. Mei Ul Jon helped with the more difficult words; neither Mei Tin Dae nor Mei Ul Lon had ever had any formal education.

"She is suing us?" Mei Tin Dae shouted, stunned. "Our daughter? Our own daughter is suing us?"

"She is not your daughter, remember?" Mei Ul Jon quietly reminded her parents. "You said she is not your daughter."

"This is too much," Mei Ul Lon burst into tears.

She suddenly slapped her husband across his face.

"This is too much!" she shrilled. "You foolish man, you stubborn man! You pay, you take money and you pay her go to school!"

Dinner at House Of Mei that afternoon was a quiet affair. Even the bubble-headed Rebecca knew to keep her mouth shut.

On Saturday, Mei Lon Soo directed the two men from Consolidated Outlet where she wanted the futon and the two tall stools and small tall table. Then she slipped each man a five dollar bill and declined an offer for drinks, or a meal. Then she took her clothing and organized her closet.

Pots, pans, glasses and plates had come from another outlet store and she happily stacked all into the miniscule dishwasher.

Then, Mei Lon Soo very carefully showered, shaved her underarms and legs, and then rubbed a lightly scented lotion into her skin.

Using the bathroom's aged and dull mirror, she very carefully, meticulously applied her make-up. She did not put it on as heavily as she did for work; she wasn't trying to look like a hot slut.

Then Mei Lon Soo sat on her futon and watched the hands on her dainty wristwatch slowly drag toward six o'clock, toward when she would see Corina.

At precisely six o'clock, she put on her four inch heels and walked out of her apartment. She carefully locked her door then walked three steps to apartment 104 and knocked on the door.

"Hey! Perfect timing!" Corina squealed happily when she yanked open the door. "Pizza just got here!"

"Oh good," Mei Lon Soo smiled, entering the dark apartment.

Corina had a small twin mattress shoved up against a wall. The flimsy foam padding rested on the floor and the sheet looked quite stained. The only other furniture was a bean bag vinyl lump that sat next to the mattress.

In the opposite corner, a small television blared loudly. Earlier, Mei Lon Soo had wondered where the source of the grating noise was coming from. Now she knew.

Corina grabbed two paper plates and whistled as she handled the piping hot pizza slices.

"What you want to drink? I got fruit punch, um, oh hey! I can make us some lemonade, or, um, yeah, right here I got some wine or beer."

"What will you be having?" Mei Lon Soo asked.

"Beer," Corina said.

"Then I would like beer as well," Mei Lon Soo said, even though she did not really care for the taste of beer.

She sat on the bean bag contraption while Corina sat on the mattress.

"Yeah, Monday through Friday," I got to dress all nice and stuff, bastard don't even give us a 'Casual Friday,' believe that?" Corina chattered, indicating her shorts and tee shirt. "So, minute I get home, I'm in jeans and tee shirt before I do anything else."

Mei Lon Soo did not indicate her disappointment that Corina had not bothered to dress nicely for this, their very first date.

The pizza, however, was good. The sauce was rich and meaty, the cheese was a good quality, and the crust was cracker thin.

"And this is a Kitchen Sink, right?" Mei Lon Soo asked, indicating the pizza.

"Yeah, it's got everything but the kitchen sink," Corina giggled.

Then she looked up, embarrassed. Mei Lon Soo was wearing a short pleated sailor style dress. From Mei Lon Soo's position in the bean bag chair, the dress had risen slightly and Corina was suddenly looking at Mei Lon Soo's lightly furred crotch.

The short black hairs did not completely cover the cleft and Corina, in that brief moment, had seen the inner lips beginning to peek out, slightly moist.

"Want another beer?" Corina nervously asked.

"No, no, I'm not quite finished with this one," Mei Lon Soo said and took another sip of her beer.

"Or I got some vodka; sometimes I think I might be drinking a little too much, but what the hey, right?" Corina nervously stammered as she got to her feet.

"I am not much of a drinker," Mei Lon Soo admitted as she discarded her paper plate into the small wastebasket.

Corina prepared herself a drink, using the fruit punch to mix with the cheap vodka.

"Do I make you nervous?" Mei Lon Soo quietly asked, resting a hand on Corina's thin arm.

"What? No, no, don't be..." Corina stammered, then blushed hotly.

"Yeah," she admitted in a small voice.

"But why?" Mei Lon Soo asked, gently running her hand up and down Corina's arm.

"I uh, I, you're the first dancer I've ever met, I mean, I've never..." Corina stammered.

"I'm not a dancer," Mei Lon Soo laughed. "You see me dancing? You say 'what? That is not dancing; that's just shaking.'"

She looked around the apartment. The television was still blaring.

"You have music?" she asked.

"I uh, yeah, the TV's got a DVD player; I kind of use that," Corina said as she fiddled with a remote control.

Some folk music came blaring out and Mei Lon Soo stood in the middle of the apartment.

Corina took her drink to the mattress and sat while Mei Lon Soo gently swayed to the music.

Then she pumped her pelvis a few times toward Corina. With a wild swing, she whipped her hair around and covered herself with a blanket of hair.

Corina watched, fascinated as the petite Asian beauty gyrated and spun. She blinked as Mei Lon Soo's dress suddenly lay on the floor; she'd not even seen Mei Lon Soo unzip the garment.

And the song came to an end and Mei Lon Soo stood, completely nude in front of her.

"See?" Mei Lon Soo whispered as she squatted down, legs spread. "There is no dancing to it."

A more danceable tune came pouring out of the thin speakers and Mei Lon Soo pulled Corina to her feet.

"You just..." she husked, standing behind Corina, bare breasts pressed against Corina's thin back.

She guided the nervous, giggling girl through some basic steps. Corina suddenly squealed as her tee shirt joined Mei Lon Soo's dress on the floor.

She moved to cover her small freckled breasts but Mei Lon Soo held her hands, waving them in the air.

"And then you..." Mei Lon Soo husked, bending Corina forward.

"Work your legs, work them like you are climbing stairs," she enthused and slid the red head's shorts over her bony rear end.

While Mei Lon Soo was brazenly attempting to seduce her next door neighbor, Aaron sat behind the dumpster of the T. Dayton's Hair Salon. He'd managed to break into an accounting office; one of their employees, a smoker, had carelessly left the back door unlocked the last time they went out for a smoke. The three desktop computers had netted him three hundred dollars from the Cash For Gold Pawn Shop.

They'd already sold his beloved bass guitar; Aaron was broken-hearted about that. But he did not dwell on it as he carefully prepared his rig.

'It may be a sin,' the sister sang.

'It is a sin,' the brother sang.

'But if love is a sin,' she sang.

'Then let's sin again,' both brother and sister harmonized.

With the music swirling in his head, Aaron noticed that the heroin was beginning to burn. His arm ached at the site of the injection. And that aching feeling was spreading. His arm burned and his fingers felt numb.

Slowly, the tainted heroin robbed Aaron of his music and he died behind a dumpster. Because T. Dayton Hair Salon was not open on Sunday or Monday, it would not be until Tuesday that an employee of the exclusive salon would discover his dead body.

On Sunday, Lunch at the Mei house was a fairly quiet affair. Even with Mei Ul Jon interrupting the silence every now and then to ask about the house, the four sat and ate quietly.