On the back-roads of upstate New York, there are a lot more things going on in some of those sleepy rural areas than meets the eye, or at least that was the way in was back in the 60's. Take the Brennan farm in Trenton Falls, for example.
...
This was going to be the third time that I had driven up Neversink Road this afternoon. The first time that I had gone past the Brennan farm, Jenny had been sitting in her lawn chair behind the table of produce, and she waved when she saw me approach. Jenny seemed disappointed when I changed my mind at the last minute, waving back at her and stepping on the accelerator.
The second time I went back the Brennan farm, there was a beat up Studebaker parked off the road next to the stand. I didn't recognize the car, but since Jenny wasn't at the stand I knew where the driver was. In the barn with Jenny.
I felt a twinge of jealously as I sped past, wondering what the guy was doing with Jenny. Judging by the shape of the car, I was pretty sure he was going the cheap route, but then again you never know. Here I was driving a rusty Ford Falcon and I was planning on going top shelf with Jenny. What I was going to get nobody else even knew about, I reckon.
The Ernie Charles Special, I called it. It wasn't on the menu, that was for sure, and when I had suggested it Jenny had to ask her father how much to charge for it. Ten dollars came the verdict from Daddy.
That's a lot of money for a 63 year old retiree living on Social Security and a skimpy pension, but then again, it isn't like I have a lot of vices. A nightly snort or two of bourbon, a cigar on special occasions, and Jenny. That's it.
As I made the long loop around Trenton Falls, I thought back to how I had found out about the Brennan farm, and about Jenny. The roadside stand had been around for many years, and I had never paid it any mind. Back then I thought it actually was a vegetable stand. Of course, up until my wife Clara passed away, there wasn't any need for me to know about it.
Jenny was the youngest of the four daughters George Brennan had. I suppose that the elder three had flown the coop, most likely the first chance they got. Farming isn't easy, and when you add on the responsibility of running the vegetable stand on weekends, let's just say that it wasn't the ideal situation for a young lady.
I barely remember Jenny's older sisters, except that they were all tall and pretty girls with rosy cheeks, golden hair and butts that filled out their Wranglers to capacity. Jenny was sort of the runt of the litter in the Brennan family.
Oh, Jenny was tall alright, probably near six foot tall like her sisters, and she had the same strawberry blonde hair that they did, but that's where the similarity ended. Jenny was rail thin, built sorta like Olive Oyl on the Popeye cartoons, and not very pretty either. Some might even say downright ugly, but not me. I thought she looked real fine, and who am I to complain about looks? I'm a 63 year old guy who looks every bit of it.
It took about ten minutes to make the long circuit back to the Brennan farm, and that was plenty of time for the last guy to finish his business and leave. You weren't supposed to stop if there was another car at the stand, I had found out. Daddy didn't like that, according to Jenny.
And you didn't take longer than five minutes either, I had been told. Much longer than that, and Jenny said that Daddy got angry and would sometimes come in and find out what was taking so long. That didn't appeal to me, and besides, I was so revved up and horny come Saturdays that I never lasted long anyway.
There she was. Jenny was alone at the stand, and this time I pulled over onto the side of the road. Jenny got up out of the bent lawn chair and assumed her usual position as I slowly made my way up to the stand, my legs creaking a bit from sitting in the car for so long.
"Afternoon Mr. Charles," Jenny said in her drawl that sounded kinda dumb for a northern girl, but maybe she was trying to imitate Ellie Mae from the Beverly Hillbillies TV show. "Thought maybe you weren't going to stop by today, seeing how you went by before."
"Forgot something at home," I lied, and although I had told myself that I wasn't going to stop today, I knew that I would eventually. Rain or shine, I knew I would stop every Saturday and be pulling my wallet out of my back pocket while looking at the produce on the table.
Tomatoes, potatoes - hell, I had plenty of that stuff at home. It was Jenny I wanted, or at least as much of her as I could afford, and as I nervously fiddled with a tomato I didn't want, Jenny did as she always did, reaching up and holding onto the rail above her head.
I did as I inevitably did, raising my eyes to follow Jenny's movements that exposed all of her that you could see for free. The red and white checkered shirt would open slightly, exposing the inside parts of Jenny's titties. You could call it cleavage except Jenny's breasts were so small that there wasn't any valley between them to speak of.
My eyes strayed to Jenny's arms, long skinny limbs that were bronze up to the bicep in what we knew of as a farmer's tan. In this shirt, with the sleeves torn off, Jenny's pale upper arms were exposed, along with her bony shoulders, and as she posed there my eyes took in the wild sprays of strawberry blonde hair that sprouted out of the deep recesses of Jenny's armpits.
"Daddy don't think women should shave anything," Jenny had told me when I had first commented on the abundant hair under her arms. "He says that we should be natural."
George Brennan was probably the worst train-wreck of a father that a girl could have and deserved to rot in hell, but he was right about that. Every time I saw Jenny's armpits I was reminded of my Clara and how she would enjoy how I would play around with hers.
"So what looks good today, Mr. Charles?" Jenny asked, breaking me out of my daze.
I smiled and fished around my wallet for the right bills. A ten and a five. When I pulled the bills out Jenny smiled.
"The Special," I said as I handed Jenny the money, and her freckled hand came down and took the bills, stuffing them into her jeans pocket and nodding for me to follow her back to the barn.
...
Jenny Brennan had a price list for the produce, but the menu for the other stuff wasn't written down. I knew the prices by heart, and they hadn't changed since I started stopping here last year after first getting wind of it.
"Jenny's her name. She's no beauty queen. Nothing like her sister Jill was, but still better than doing it yourself," Chester Hood had whispered to me one time during one of my rare stops at the South Trenton Pub, or STP to the locals. "Tell her that you don't see anything you like on the table, and she'll give you the score."