Watch Yourself Around The Neighbor

Felicia Cartwright was heading home after finishing her first year of college, and while her eyes were on the road her thoughts were on getting home as quickly as possible, so she was on schedule to make the 6 hour drive in a little more than 5, so long as her shaky 11 year old Toyota kept going.

She missed her Mom of course, although their relationship had endured its share of ups and downs, but what had Felicia hurrying home was so she would arrive in time to see her neighbor workout in her basement, providing the woman still kept the same schedule she had before Felicia left last fall. That schedule had been ideal, with the basement light going on just as darkness fell.

Darkness was Felicia's friend, because it allowed her to watch Ms. Vivian Cox without being seen. Her spot at the small basement window only a couple of feet above the ground wasn't ideal, but it did afford the teen a good view of the slanted bench Ms. Cox would lay on as she lifted weights, and when the woman did her weight lifting standing up Felicia could usually see pretty well also.

The girl knew that her behavior was odd, and from a studious nerd like Felicia was, totally out of character, but she couldn't help it. She felt like she was obsessed with the lady, but was it partly because Felicia's Mom had told her Vivian Cox was a woman to be avoided. Be polite, but keep your distance, the teen was told, and whatever you do don't go in the house. What did that mean to a teenage girl? It made her want to rebel against Mom, but there was more than that to Felicia's intense interest in Vivian Cox.

Part of it was that Vivian Cox was not your conventional middle aged woman, She worked construction, and not just waving a flag to control traffic either. She did everything the men did, and while some of the guys didn't like it eventually they accepted her somewhat because she carried her weight on the crews, but it wasn't like they were interested in her otherwise.

Vivian Cox was a no nonsense woman who said what was on her mind, and her mental toughness was matched by her physicality. She had decided long ago that if she wanted to work in a harsh outdoor environment doing very physical tasks most of the year she would have to get in shape so she could not only keep up with the boys but try to outwork them.

This is what got Ms. Cox to get her body in peak condition, and that involved building up her muscles by lifting weights that would make carrying beams and work supplies easier. She became obsessed with her workouts over time but the results were clear to see from the start, turning her formerly pudgy 5'8" 160 pound body into pure muscle. That look might not have made her popular as a single woman, but even before she became a sort of Amazon, nobody was taking her to any proms.

Vivian had reddish brown hair and a ruddy complexion, something that working out in the elements did nothing to diminish, and for someone who had never been overly feminine to begin with it only served to make her more masculine. That wasn't something Vivian seemed to shy away from, instead embracing it and forcing people to deal with her as she was.

What about all this had captured Felicia's attention? Perhaps it was that as she grew up, her thinking changed as well. Those changes included things that she couldn't talk to her now-single Mom about to begin with, but after being given the warning to give the woman next door a wide berth, those conversations would never take place because the forbidden fruit was right next door, even if Felicia didn't know why at first..

So there was Felicia pulling into the driveway late in the afternoon that May day, with one eye on the home she had lived in all her life, and the other fixed on the place next door. She grabbed one of her suitcases and headed towards the side door, but almost as a gift to Felicia there was somebody next door about to carry a garbage can out to the curb, and that is where her story begins....

***

The moment I saw Ms. Cox my heart skipped, and when she saw me and smiled brightly I took that as an invitation to go to say hi.

"Hey there Felicia! Home for the summer? " Ms. Cox asked, and luckily she didn't wait for an answer and added, "Boy, college life is certainly agreeing with you."

"Yeah, I guess," I mumbled, and was it my imagination that she was staring at my chest when she said that? Why didn't I wear something a little more daring than a baggy unflattering t-shirt?

Ms. Cox was wearing her usual attire, and I have a picture of her in that same sweatshirt or one just like it. Distressed, but through use not through phony manufacturer rips. The sleeves were torn off to make it a very short sleeved top, and the rip around the collarbone permitted a peek at the thickest neck in the history of women. Her reddish brown hair was cut even shorter than I remembered something I approved of.

"You know honey, if you're ever in the mood some weekend morning, hop over for coffee,' Ms. Cox offered, and I told her I would but then we were rudely interrupted.

"Filly!" Mom's shrill voice echoed at all the neighborhood, calling me the nickname that I despised and fortunately nobody else used, and her happiness to see me was strong enough to almost ignore who I was talking to.

Hugs and kisses galore followed, and then after looking me over like mothers do, she nodded over at her neighbor, saying rather coldly or so I thought, 'Viv."

"Good to fill the empty nest again, huh Ellie?" Viv said far more nicely, and then she nodded at us so Mom could herd me into the house.

I managed to endure Mom's breathless recap of everything that happened since I was last home for the holidays, and after I excused myself to go to the bathroom I took a deep breath because mothers are exhausting sometimes. As I sat there relaxing I thought of Ms. Cox's invitation of coffee some morning, and I closed my eyes and used my imagination to picture that scenario......

I imagined myself walking through the dewy lawn to Ms. Cox's back door, and after I knocked the door opened and my neighbor greeted me with a big grin wearing a sheer yellow nightie that only went halfway down her thighs, which were thick and bulging with muscles and glistening with a reddish brown down that continued all the way down her rippled legs.

Higher up, the nightie hid little, and I could see the outline of her breasts through the gauze, nipple poking into the fabric. Her neck was fully exposed as were all of her shoulders except for the thin nightie straps, and her biceps and triceps were bulging and seeming to throb. Below the shadow of a thick dense triangle of hair between her legs completed the imaginary package.

"Have some coffee Felicia," Ms Cox offered, and as she poured the cup her bicep grew even larger as she raised the pot. "I hope you don't mind me dressed like this. I just woke up."

"No, and your nightie is sensuous," I declared. "I've always wondered what you would look like wearing something like that, and it's amazing that you look exactly like I had envisioned. You're stunning!"

"And you my dear," Ms. Cox said as she pirouetted across the room to return the pot to the burner. "Look at you, not only have you lost weight, but I swear your breasts seem to have gotten bigger."

"It's true!" I gushed. "I still have 15 pounds or so to lose but I'm getting there, and your are right about my breasts. I used to be a homely nerd who wore 34B bras, but now I'm a homely nerd who's gone up to a D cup!"

"Amazing!" Ms. Cox exclaimed as she undid my pajama top, pulled it open to cup my boobs and gushed over them. "My word! They're so big and full. Let me take you to my bedroom so I can get a better look at them, and you'll find out why your mother warned you not to come over here."

"FILLY!!!" my mother screamed from outside the bathroom door, apparently having tried a couple of times before to contact me, but I was apparently too lost In Felicia's Fantasy World. "Did you fall in?"

"No. I dropped off for a second. Told you I was tired."

"Well dinner is ready, and then you can go to bed," she said, and that got me up on my feet, with my butt sticking to the seat because I roosted there for a while.

An unnecessary flush, a wash of the hands, and I was off the eat, with a ready made excuse to go to my room and sleep, a ruse I had used a whole lot of times. As far as my fantasy went, it was so bizarre on every level but showed how fascinated I was by the lady next door.

While eating and nodding as Mom carried on she suddenly changed the topic from the church bake sale to something more relative to me by saying as off-hand as she could, 'What did Vivian want?"

"Ms. Cox? She saw me get out of the car and so she stopped and said hello. Asked me how school was," I said with a touch of annoyance. "What the problem with you two anyway? You used to be friends."

"We're still - you know - she's a busy woman and I've got my job and the church committee. You don't always stay close to people," Mom said. "Nothing wrong with us. I just never wanted you to be a bother to the neighbors. Speaking of friends, have you talked to Kimber?"

"Last time we talked she said she got selected to go on this trip to France will her college group, so if I see her it will be right before I go back," I said, giving Mom a mental tip of the cap in avoiding the Vivian Cox question, but that made me think of Kimber.

Kimber, formerly Kimberly before she saw some girl on an MTV show that shortened her name, was the one who set me straight about our neighbor during one of our sleepover. Kimber was a lot more aware of things than I was, but I hope I;m not as naive as I was in high school. I showed Kimber this picture I took of Ms. Cox in the backyard carrying a sack of top soil on her shoulders. Considering ms. Cox didn't know I was taking it and I was trying to be real stealth-like with the camera it came out good so I showed it to my friend.

"Oh. There was a story about this woman in the paper," Kimber told me. "She works construction and they made a big deal about it because she's a woman."

"Well, it is a big deal," I responded and pointed out her bicep which had slipped up just before I took the picture. "Look at her muscles."

"Big deal. She's a dyke."

"What's a dyke?" I asked.

"A lesbian. You know what that is right?"

"Yeah but how do you know Ms. Cox is one?"

"It's obvious. Short hair, muscles, tries to look like a man," my friend informed me. "That's a lesbian. You know, like some of our gym teachers at school? Miss Treadway? Miss Larsson? Miss Blount? All dykes."

"You don't know this for sure. It's just rumors. Zena has muscles too."

"Okay, don't believe me," Kimber said, and before handing me the picture back said pointed at my neighbor, "Look. You can see her pit hair. More proof. she's a dyke. Zena doesn't have hairy armpits but I'm not sure about her so she gets a pass. Your neighbor, I'm sure of."

"That's dumb. We have hair under our arms."

"Yeah, but we shave it like we're supposed to," KImber concluded. "You don't even know what dykes do, do you?"

"Sure I do," I lied but my best friend stared me down. "So I don't. So what?'

"I know," Kimber said in a soft voice. "My aunt. She's a dyke, but nobody knows it but me. I had to spend a weekend at her house last spring and - well - she showed me."

"Really?" I replied and Kimber hushed me in case her parents could hear me.

"Yeah. It's kinda fun too," she confided. "When we go to bed and turn out the lights, I'll show you."

The rest, as they say, is history, but she didn't KNOW Ms. Cox was a lesbian, and in any event I didn't care because I liked her, and as I helped Mom with the dishes I was already planning to watch her workout.

***

It was already dark when I finally broke free and went to my room, supposedly to turn in. Once there, I looked for my stealth clothes, a black t-shirt and shorts, which was an outfit I wore especially for sneaking around in the dark. At one point I had considered putting make-up on my pale face and wearing a black ski hat to cover my light brown hair but thought that might be a bit over the top. It was dark enough out there, I figured, and where I crouched Mom would have to come outside to see me.

Of course in my absence everything ended up out of place, although I did find my black shorts, which to my delight were a little loose on me now, a testimony that I had lost a little more weight. The black t-shirt was nowhere to be found though and the clock was running. Ms. Cox worked out for long periods but not all night, so I grabbed a black sweatshirt which would have to do. As I zipped it up I noticed my nipples were trying to pop through my sports bra, a sure sign that I was psyched for this reunion.

Getting out of the house was as easy as ever, since Mom had the TV on loud like always. It was a bit muggy outside, making me dread the sweatshirt decision, but when I saw the light on in the basement next door, the rectangle shining on the grass outside of it, I hurried over. The grass in that area I stood and sometime knelt in was still worn in comparison to the lawn around it, something I tried not to make worse once I had noticed it.

I scrunched down, looking into the basement, and discovered that things had changed. Gone was the slanted bench and free weights, although those weights were now off to the side. In place of the bench was a shiny new gym set, one of those things that you sat in and grabbed the bar and the hand grips to do the lifting, and instead of fumbling with loose weight plates all you did was adjust the levels by moving these pegs from hole to hole. I had seen these things at the exercise center at school where I visited sometimes, not so much to workout but to check for any girls who looked like Ms. Cox, a futile but fun effort.

There was a problem though. The seat on the machine was empty and there was a towel hanging on one of the handles, something Ms. Cox always used to dry herself occasionally. One of my fantasies was to be in there drying her off, getting her to shed that ragged shirt so I could do a better job, but that towel had been used and it looked like Ms. Cox was done working out.

"Damn," I muttered to myself as I shifted my stance to make sure my neighbor wasn't in the corner, but there was no sign of her which made me mad because this new set up was ideal since I could see perfectly now.

"You like my new toy?"

A familiar raspy voice behind me, combined with a hand on my shoulder, froze me in place as I stayed crouched over while my mind raced in search of a plausible excuse for why I was out there. Thankfully Ms. Cox didn't shove my face into the ground and instead let me straighten up to face her.

"Oh, hi Ms. Cox," I chirped somewhat more merrily than I felt. "I happened to glance this way and I saw your gym equipment. That looks great. Wish I had one of those myself, because I've always wanted to lift weight and stuff."

"That right?" the still smiling neighbor replied, not flinching when I told my fabrication, since my only interest in lifting weights revolved around watching her.

"Yeah."

"Don't know if you noticed, but I cleaned the inside of the window so you could see in better," Ms. Cox said calmly. "I noticed you had cleaned the outside of it for me a while back."

"Well uh," I managed, hoping my embarrassment wasn't showing on my face because I was clearly busted and any further bullshitting was futile and insulting to the woman's intelligence besides. "I saw you lifting weights a while back and I couldn't get over how a woman could get so well built. I'm really sorry Ms. Cox, I know it's got to be creepy having a kid looking through your window at you but I was interested in getting involved in toning up myself and I was sort of trying to get up the courage to ask if you would help me.."

After I spun that nonsense I was about to promise to never peek in her window again and could only hope that since Ms. Cox and Mom weren't talking perhaps this little perverted act of mine would never come up, but my neighbor interrupted my babbling.

"I don't mind Felicia," Ms. Cox assured me, the hand on my shoulder moving to my neck and gently pinching it. "If I had a problem with it I would have said something when I first saw you watching. To tell you the truth, lifting weights is boring. Even more boring than running long distances because at least with that the scenery changes. Down there all I see are concrete walls or my reflection, so having you watching was actually an inspiration, keeping me going when I wasn't really in the mood to be down there."

"Oh."

"That's why when I didn't see you out here before I was kind of let down," Ms. Cox concluded, "I would love to help you get started in a weight program. Would you like to come in and check out my equipment? Need to check with your Mom first?"

"NO!" I said way too loudly, and as she led me into her house I realized I had really dodged a bullet here.

"One thing I do mind is you calling me Ms. Cox. Makes me feel older than I am, and trust me 52 is old enough," Ms. Cox told me. "Please call me Vivian, or Viv. Okay?"

"Okay," I agreed happily while it hit me that she was even older than I thought, older than my mother although she sure didn't look it, and then I tried it out. "Vivian."

"Much better. I realize that if your mother is around you might feel more comfortable being formal. It's things mothers insist on as I recall, and since your Mom did such a wonderful job raising you by herself I understand."

"Did something happen between you and my mom, Vivian?" I asked timidly.

"Well, let's just say that your Mom's reached a point in her life where she's a little conflicted," she told me while leading me down the short flight of stairs. "I like Amy very much and have no problem with her. She'll come around in time and we'll be fine again."

"Oh. That's good," I replied, the answer only confusing me more than I was before.

In the basement for the first time I got to see a world that I had only observed from the outside, and the musty basement scent blended with the aroma of perspiration to form something that for some reason I did not mind. Opposite the gym set-up and around the peeping window were mirrors that allowed the woman sitting on the equipment to observe herself while working out.

"Let me show you how this works," Ms. Cox told me while taking the jacket that she wore outside to catch me, and when that drab navy blue thing came off my heart skipped wildly because what was underneath was not one of the distressed t-shirts or sweats that I was used to.

Like wearing nothing at all. That was my first thought as I saw the skimpy yellow top that looked painted on Ms. Cox's upper torso, looking a little like some kind of Olympic uniform hiding no more that necessary. A thin strap that came around her thick neck to keep the front of it up and also bared all of her incredible arms and shoulders and much of her rippled back made it even sexier than nothing at all to me, but Ms. Cox seemed to not notice my jaw on the floor and just sat down on the machine.

"The beauty of this thing," Vivian explained as she wiggled her neck around before grabbing the handles of the device, pulling them together and then bringing back out, like she was clapping her hands. "Is that I don't have to mess around with the plates, Just moving the peg up and down to increase the weights is a lot easier."

I nodded while watching her arms, which already seemed pretty well defined, grow bigger still. Since it was early in the spring Vivian's skin was not bronze yet, but she had a little tan coming in, not enough to hide the galaxy of freckles on her shoulders and back though, something I always thought made her look cute despite her physique.