Joleen 1

Joleen

The old cigarette and rum dried hag held the six month old baby up above her face as she slouched back on the parlor couch, gazing deeply into her eyes.

"Theo," she said with a sick smile on her face, "What on earth has bad ole Henry done to you? If you could only talk, then I would know exactly how to act."

The hag's face firmed up as she lowered the baby into her lap. The hag then turned, facing me directly.

"You and Joleen should take better care," she said. "I know you both are still young and full of new energy, but innocent eyes abound.," she slurred in a rough, cigarette choked voice.

She suddenly smiled, chuckling as she did.

"Spirit eyes and ears in quiet corners tell me what they see and hear. Don't you dare think I dwell here on the edge of these woods by this field in total ignorance. I truly love this child, let me tell you."

"Your spirit must be lying to you," I told her, "cause I haven't done anything to anybody."

"Hush! Don't talk back to me. I know. I see and I hear everything that goes on over there across that road."

"Well, somebody or something is lying!," I told her.

The hag's ridgid face eased a smile across it again.

"Look, must I get specific? I mean, I know all about that liquor still in the barn over there. I know how people come and go, buying your hooch, Henry. I know about the midnight trapping runs and firelight deer hunts. Come on now! While you are away at work, I'll walk over there and spend a morning every now and again with Joleen. She's my daughter, for crying out loud here!"

"I make a living for us," I told her, while absorbed in astonishment at this woman's raw audacity as I stood there in the living room accompanying the mounting gloom of the approaching evening.

The wrinkled inflexible face of the hag suddenly shattered.

"Yeah boy, you make a living alright. Look.., don't try to play games with me. Nothing escapes my eyes. Joleen shall know. I could tell her, but I'm not saying a single word. I'm going to keep everything to myself."

She smiled as she gazed hard directly into my eyes.

"For now.."

She suddenly explodes into a near demonic laughter.

"Yeah, your little crystal ball you gaze into is lying to you," I told her. "I hear all about you too, through that same grape vine you listen through. I know all about how you dabble in the black arts. I hear you chanting around midnight when I'm out running my lines. I heard you when you called the police on me for hunting at night, but that is how I got away. There are no secrets in your house, either," I said to her.

The old hag's smiling face suddenly firmed up.

"You just keep in mind while you are carrying on with Joleen over there like you do, that you have a child to raise. Life is not all fun and games in this world now, boy! The least you could do is be a real man and adopt little Theodora here."

My thoughts were mixed up upon hearing Mary Lynn speak. I felt like she was trying to send me some sort of subtle message in her saying to me what she did. Joleen wasn't around. She had told me to walk across the paved road there to drop off some diapers and canned milk for the baby. Sometimes I caught myself enjoying my conversations with Mary Lynn. But deep down I felt there was a quiet, negative subtleness in most of what she ever said to me. I didn't really like what my intuition in all of it was saying.

"Look, awe.., Mary Lynn. I hate to run like this. I have things to do. Joleen will come back over here in a bit and pick up the baby," I said to her.

The hag smiled her ragged smile.

"There you go again, shirking your duty call, as you always do," the hag firmed as she spoke. "Don't allow your own self righteousness to blind your eyes to the reality right before your face. But you can't help it boy, I know! I've heard... Lady Climm over on Raphael Road near Sally Grinders mill pond told me everything already. Your mother is a religious idealist, and spoiled you rotten. Not facing up to reality is the best that you could ever do, right?"

"I don't really have much more to say, Mary Lynn. I must go," I said to her. " See you later in the evening," I told her as I turned and began walking toward the door.

I tried hard not to show it, but I silently and smoothly huffed out the front door, into the yard. I had time to ponder my special situation as I made my way through the somewhat scattered hard wood stand and on the narrow sandy road running around the freshly plowed field. I was calm as a body on ice as soon as I stepped across the hard surfaced road, and into the yard of the aged light blue wood framed farm house where I lived at the time, nestled in shade underneath huge live oak branches. A petite candy apple nineteen eighty Chevette was parked in the driveway in front of the screened-in porch. I was never in love with this car for its looks, but Joleen had pragmatic reasons I agreed with for liking it.

The car had one hundred eighty eight thousand miles on it and was running like it was brand new. Pulling the old motor, building and dropping in a brand new one, was no problem for me. I could do this and totally replace all the moving parts for less than a thousand dollars. Like me, the car did what it needed to do, I whispered in silence as I paused upon the porch steps, turning the hexagon glass knob. I stepped inside the screened in porch, pulled off my brogans, then opened the door toward the den area on the inside of the house. Joleen was milling around in the kitchen by the stove, the sink, the cupboard, and the soup pantry when I stepped inside. She seemed to ripple all over as she labored along. Every time she took a single step her breasts and thighs would visibly display the shock from it. She turned around all of a sudden as I stepped inside, heading toward the refrigerator.

"I was wondering where you were. Where have you been, Henry?" she said to me as I opened the refrigerator door, removing a frosty dark brown bottle of Coors beer.

I ripped the cap away with the handy opener on my Swiss Army knife, tipping back the bottle of ice cold Coors, then swallowed and sighed.

"Where do you think I was? I was fetching the milk and diapers over to Mary Lynn's for Theo, like you asked me to do earlier, remember?." I replied to her.

"Yeah, I remember," she admitted." It's true that I wanted you to carry that over, but it could have waited a while more."

I walked up toward her from behind as she continued laboring along, rubbing her fluffy tush with my right hand as I commenced kissing her hard upon her neck on the left hand side.

"Why? What's up?," I asked as I munched along.

"You know, cousin Marcie is coming over in a few," she said to me. She turned around, kissing me deeply. We eventually backed away. " Maybe it's a good thing that you've dropped the milk and diapers off." Her breathing picked up slightly but noticeably. "Mother's general contentment should be maintained for an extended period now."

"Marcie got a new camera, I recall hearing you say not long ago, eh?," I asked her.

Her eyes widened, and glinted. She smiled an obvious yearning smile as if she was attempting to veil the fact of it.

"Yeah, a Fujinon, Black Magic Design twelve thousand. She has a tripod to go with it."

"Sounds damned expensive to me," I replied back with a chuckle.

"Oh, it is mega-whopping expensive, like eighteen thousand dollars worth," Joleen told me.

"Ole Marcie must be turning some damn money doing what she does!," I say with eagerness in my voice.

"She definitely does," Joleen said, "she works professionally, for big name companies at that, and herself besides."

"How much do you reckon she turns?," I asked.

"She makes over two hundred thousand dollars a year doing what she does. She makes even more in hard cash. She edits and all, and does damn good work at that. She dances too," Joleen continued, " You knew that, didnt you?"

"No, where does she dance?," I asked her.

"At the Peach Petunia Cafe and the Rear Entry Saloon over on the Isle of Palms," Joleen tells me. She smiles suddenly. "From time to time she jets out and dances at the Palomino Club in Vegas." She kisses me deeply again. "She's really become a big name in what she does now."

"She does photography for high ranking professional companies?," I asked her.

"Yeah, she's contracted out with Cinema Vita Films and Braziers. She makes well over six figs a year with them alone,"

"Wow!, "I gasp. "Maybe we should consider alternative career options."

" Then she does her own stuff. She films birthday parties, high school and college graduations, weddings, and...," she smiles and shrugs hard, " you know, baby birthings. Matter of fact, she did Theodora's for me. You saw that clip not long ago."

"Yeah, I saw it. I wasn't crazy about watching that stuff, but I saw it. Marcie's on her way here now?," I ask.

"That's right. She has a nice set of classical style Venetian theater half masks." Joleen smiles. "She selected some especially for us tonight, Henry."

I wrap both arms around her body, kissing her deeply, artfully thrusting my tongue down her throat as I do. My left hand barely grabs my right one. She commences breathing heavily on my neck and directly in my face.

"How much did the last gig we do turn online?," I ask.

"We had over a thousand downloads during the last month alone, at two dollars a pop," she tells me. "Marcie keeps a third anytime she paints and drops for somebody like that."

"I'll admit that last one was truly professionally done, in every sense of the word," I remind her. "I liked the way I'm driving down the road out here, with her filming from the passenger seat in the car there. My face was still slyly veiled from the side shot and my sunglasses. In the video all one may see are my hands as I walk up the porch steps here and unlock the door. When I gently step inside, one can hear a slight bathtub splashing from the bathroom in the background. Then my hands cagily and quietly open the door..."

"Yeah!," Joleen sighed in recollection, "there were some hard rocking, killer scenes in here.., in the living room there on the couch, in the bathroom on the floor, up against the wall, on the floor, in the tub again... Both our faces are just out of reach from the audience's eyes. The feel of such a raw rocking thrill from not ever knowing exactly what important person might be watching; and yet remaining barely out of reach like Aesop's grapes were to the fox crossing the stream, simply can't be beat, Henry. Don't you agree?"

"I do it all for you, baby," I reply back to her, " for the little bit of money and the sheer hell of it."

"Well dear," she says to me, " tonight I'm using a crystal ball trying to conjure up a genie spirit. I'm really desperate, ripe for the picking, and red hot as a Cayenne pepper! Well, the genie who appears is going to conjure you up for me. Won't that be nice? I'm gonna make three wishes, but then the last wish will be for three more, and so on, and on like that."

"That sounds nice," I reply to her as I kiss her deeply again. We finally backed away.

" And it's a no holds barred, all-in night, and I want everything done exactly like I want it," she informs me.

We both kiss deeply again as I reach way down and rub her parted tushy again with my right hand. My middle finger feels to slide precisely in, all the way down and underneath, like a wooden tongue does inside a perfect board groove. She smiles broadly while slightly giggling.

"Are you up to it for me tonight?," she purrs with a smile.

"No problem here," I chuckle and say.

"Don't you dare play slouch on me tonight, Henry boy," she reminds me. " I fully know servicing my needs can be very demanding when I have an eager audience to please. But the steamy head rush drives me really wild like that! It's all like a drug to me."

A car crunches on the stony sand into the driveway as evening gradually settles in. We both hear a heavy knock at the door.

"Who knows, we might even get the pleasure of playing creative carnal games with the genie when the heat really gets hot. I have no problem with that, if you don't."

"Whatever it takes," I say as I tip back another ice cold beer. "How much are you paying her to do this gig here tonight?"

"A grand," she says in earnest.

"A gra-!," I caught myself, covering my mouth with my right hand.

Joleen rather laconically and casually walks over toward the door, opening it. Inside steps a business-like smiling, hourglass shaped, firm figured early middle aged brunette wearing a fashionable dark purple Givenchy open backed crepe style of evening dress. Another much more plain woman accompanied her who seemed to be her porter, since she carried a black leather camera case and tripod stand. She struck me as having a rather masculine manner about her.

"Hello! Hello!," smiled the woman as she spoke. "It's been a while, but I knew Joleen couldn't hold out for long. She gets a real kick out of my special brand of livelihood. I try to get her to go professional, but I haven't succeeded as of yet."

"I'm not yet free enough with myself like that," Joleen explained. " Here, with the one I'm with, is completely different."

Marcie stepped up so the lady following her with the equipment could enter. A rather butch appearing woman smiled broadly as she paused by Marcie's side inside the farmhouse foyer.

"I want both of you to meet Hellen, my kind assistant," said Marcie. "She helps with the camera, but she also is going to be our handy genie tonight, among other possible things, I shall suppose."

"Nice to meet you, " Joleen and I smile and say.

"So this is our plot for tonight," Marcie said. "Joleen, you are going to be in the tub using this little buzz tool I have with me on yourself."

She holds up a pink finger sized rubber vibrator with a curved tip.

" Hellen will get a few fine shots off of you removing your clothes, settling down inside the tub, then buzzing yourself with our tool. Then you'll arise from the tub and saunter out into the living room here. Remember the other day a week or so ago when you were with me buying the crystal ball? Well, we got snaps of that, remember?

"Now Joleen, you are going to sit here and speak into the ball, saying that you wish you could have a man who would do any and everything you ever desired. We'll work on our skits later on. Our genie here is gonna appear in the room, and tell you she'll give you three wishes. You will say to her what you said into the ball. Then Henry will walk into the living room there, from the den in the back of the house here."

She turns to face me.

" Of course you'll be totally nude. Once we get the best snaps and our speaking parts down, then we will work on shots of the really good hot stuff. A hard professional edit will make it all stand out far beyond casual perfection. Is everything clearly understood?"

Early the next morning I awoke from a heavy sleep. Joleen was still out. The intense action the night before had both of us worn to a crisp. I grab my single shot twelve gage shotgun and step out the porch door. For some reason I expected Marcie's van to still be parked in our yard, but it wasn't. The bizarre crimson crescent moon was still out. I eased outside toward the old horse stable and barn in the back. Shadows cast by the moon made the area around the stable and the surrounding area appear black as charcoal. A moonbean sliced the gloom, falling directly upon my two welded together pressure cooker, forty gallon liquor still.A battery and a hot plate kept the thing cooking and the thump keg bumping exactly as I liked it. A fresh batch had recently been cooked and was ready to be stashed. Suddenly I hear a rustle in the bleakness and the hay to the left.

"You bastard!," a roaring female voice sprouted in my direction. At first I didn't recognize it.

"Yay!," I said toward the sound.

"You filthy rotten pig, you!," the female voice raged.

I finally recognized this voice. It was Brieanna, Joleen's first cousin from over in White Crossing.

"You said you were going to meet me by the roadside last night, but you never showed up by the roadside for me to pick you up."

"I was in a tangle last night Breanna."

"Yeah, I saw your tangle, you dirty filthy pig, you," Breanna growled. "I wondered what was up with that van in your yard. I saw the two sluts with the camera, Henry. I was peeking through the window and saw the whole goddamned show."

"Well, it's me and Joleen, ya know. She gets her kicks like that. You know all about that. Come on now!"

"You were gonna dump Joleen. You said so just last week!," Breanna raged "You claimed you loved me, Henry. You lying scoundrel," she sobbed, " like all the others, good for nothing!"

"Come on now! Breanna!," I said to her as I approached her thin, pale, ragged figure up close, putting my arms around her waist.

For reasons I can't explain she always appeared to have greasy, dirty blond hair with a sour smell about her. But she really loved what daddy could do for her in an enticing way causing me to jettison aside any complaints about her that I might entertain otherwise.

"Get your filthy rotten hands off me!," she screamed as she lashed out at me with both hands. "Don't ever come near me again. You think you're so sly, do you? I know things about you!," she raged.

"Like what?," I asked. "Tell me Breanna, I wanna know," I spoke to her in a rather seductive tone.

"You think I don't know, don't you?," she continued raging as she pushed back on me when I attempted to approach her. "I know all about it, and you don't want me to tell you what I know."

"Come on now," I crooned to her as I approached her again. "Did you like the show I put on just for you last night?"

"Shut up to me! You let me tell you something..," she raged as she gasped for breath in between heavy sobs. "I know your dark secret, Henry. The other night it was warm, October warm. You and Joleen had the windows open for the attic fan to run. I was standing by the window and could hear you two getting it on hard across the bed there beside the window, loud and clear. I mean, it was really loud, Henry, so loud anybody across the field at one o' clock in the morning could have heard. You went hog wild on her like the damn animal you really are at heart, didn't you? And she was loving every minute of it!"

I attempted to repress a chuckle, but I didn't have much luck with it.

"Well, I stood there in the shadows by the window. I knew nobody anywhere could see me there. I watched you two making love through the window. You thought you were safe just because it was one in the morning, did ya?."

"Yeah, O.K.," I tell her, "So what? What of it? It's all in a life well lived," I say to her. "Honestly Breanna, I really enjoy the fact of you being around to watch us in action like that."

"Well, Joleen's sister-in-law, Wendy, steps out of the house across the road. She must have woken up for some reason, and wanted a shot of white lightning out on the porch or something. I knew she heard that same endless heavy smacking noise you and Joleen were making, and since her old spent up man, Nickolus, was fast asleep, decided to ease over right fox-like and spy whatever she could spot. She walked over here across that field in the night so damn quietly, right over to that same opened window. You and Joleen were worked up good and hard by then, in the heat of action without ever knowing you had such uninvited company."

"O.K., so what about it?," I asked her again. "I am turned on by the fact of it."

"Well she walks up to the window, standing there just outside your line of sight, that is if you ever bothered to look, watching you two and the grand steamy show you both were putting on. "

"I hope she enjoyed it," I said to her. "I mean, what else might be said now, at this point?"