Pier Pressure
Early Fall
My home is empty, dark and depressing. I am Janey Woodhall. I celebrated my 49th birthday last August. My kids are yuppies who are doing well in their careers. I am a chemistry teacher at the local high school. My husband Bob is an independent business consultant, who saves formerly profitable organizations that are experiencing difficult times. His consultancy is very successful, and my salary is steady. He is in Atlanta this week working on his specialty, a manufacturer who is still profitable, but is losing sales. We had hoped to have fun this weekend, but if you're independent, you can't turn down contracts. Our marriage is great. He is a considerate lover, and I jump at the opportunity. We have a house in an upscale neighborhood in a St. Paul suburb. We also have a house at one of the Minnesota lakes about an hour and a half away.
It is the Thursday of the first weekend of autumn. The weather is unseasonably cold. It will dip below freezing tonight, and barely get out of the thirties tomorrow. I have decided to go to the lake house tomorrow. It will probably reach the sixties on Saturday, and I need a change. The lake house pool has a heater, so the sixties are sufficient for swimming.
The lake has brightened my outlook. Thursday's freeze has put some color in the trees. Saturday, after an invigorating swim, I walked along the shore to leaf peep. Teddy VanDyke was doing the same. Teddy is a rich young man who is his father's assistant in the family business. People think he lives only by the luck of his birth. But he convinced his father to let him make some small eccentric changes. These alterations didn't seem like much, but in the first year revenue increased by one percent. As the workers became comfortable with his ideas, revenues increased by five and then ten percent. Teddy is however happy to have you think he lives on nepotism.
Teddy and his wife Belle, both in their late twenties, had just celebrated their first anniversary. He invited me to join them on his yacht this evening for a barbecue. I baked an offering for the dinner. Then I called my husband, asked about his contract, and told him of my evening's activity. Our lake cul-de-sac has eight houses. Only three were occupied this weekend, because of the weather. The owner of the third, Jimmy Leary, was the other guest.
When we bought the lake house, three years ago, we met Jimmy at our first community barbecue. His first words to Bob:
"Your wife is beautiful. If you don't mind, I will take her home and love her. My bedroom has windows on the lake."
"Why shouldn't I do the same. We also have windows. Why do you think you will be better than me?"
"Everyone thinks women want better. What I can give is different."
He turned to me.
"Have you ever been loved from the rear while chained to the ceiling?"
Back to my husband.
"I will be having breakfast tomorrow at 10 at the town diner. If you can look me in the eye and truthfully say, "I made love to her last night and didn't think of chains," I will give you $50, and buy your breakfast."
Jimmy then went off to challenge another couple.
We had been warned about Jimmy, so our conversation was not confrontational. His first conversation with any new woman at the lake is a proposition. He memorized the Kama Sutra, so the ceiling position was just for me. Every woman has a new position. My husband grumbled:
"Damn, his $50 is safe. I would have loved to take his money."
Jimmy is a project manager for a security firm. He deals with everything from tornadoes to riots. If the atomic bomb didn't land within twenty miles, and Jimmy directed the job, you would be fine. The only computer security he does is keeping pornography out of the workplace. Others in his firm deal with hackers.
The steering on the VanDyke yacht is on the top deck. The lower deck has 2 bedrooms, each with its own head. Surprisingly, you cannot walk from one to the other. There are two separate entrances to the lower deck.
Jimmy had brought several bottles of Sancerre for the barbecue. I baked some sugar cookies. Sancerre is his favorite white wine. He discovered it while touring the Loire valley. He said that he read that all wines had the same alcohol content, but Sancerre seemed stronger. I think red wine is a bitter drink, but I love whites.