"How'd it go?"
"Fine. I didn't miss anybody and I didn't break any windows and I only had to retrieve one paper from a garden. It ain't rocket science, ya know."
My friend Larry grinned and handed me a pair of pliers. It was the summer I turned nineteen. I was in the backyard of my folks home repairing my little sister's bicycle. I'd just started my new temporary summer job, delivering a paper route for the guy next door who was away until fall. He was two years ahead of me in college. My best high school buddy, Larry, was attending a different college so we'd missed our times together all year long. Being a freshman in college had messed up my social life something fierce. Now I really had to do this summer paper route to have a little extra money for school.
"So, how's Janice?"
Janice had been my main squeeze in school. One of the cheerleaders. Nice girl, bright, funny, but she never let me get into her pants. I let her in mine a couple of times but she wouldn't go down on me and seemed upset when I came in her hand after the big spring dance. "How the Hell should I know? She didn't come home from college and her parents are gone the whole summer a neighbor told me.
"Too bad , buddy, but maybe things'll work out for you anyway."
"Yeah? From where I sit, my summer dating is gonna be pretty lame."
Larry smirked and said, "Well, y' know I carried that route for a couple of years. You just keep your eyes open." He whacked me on the shoulder, said he'd call me later, and wheeled out of the yard on his beat-up old bike.. It was looking like the summer was gonna turn out okay. Life was pretty good except in the sex department. I was still a virgin and had a lot of growing up to look forward to. Maybe this summer I'd get lucky, even if Janice was out of town.
Next morning I was out as the sun came up walking my route and delivering papers to front porches and beside front doors. There were a lot of subscribers on my route but the city neighborhood meant the route was compact and I could cover it in a little more than an hour and a half if I didn't waste time. It was already heating up the second morning and I had a fine sheen of sweat on me. Walking up High Street I folded and sailed the papers onto front steps with a nice thump. My accuracy was improving. Then the Pierson's yappy little dog met me at their front door. This was a house where I had to put the paper in a box beside the front door. That meant I walked from the street up to the house and stuffed the paper in the box instead of tossing it to the door.
The dog was pressing itself against the screen door and hopping up and down, giving a rapid bunch of yips at me. Just as I got to the door, the dog backed off, probably because I was a lot bigger. The front door was open and I saw Mrs. Pierson in the hall. She leaned over and picked up the dog. It was dim in the hall but I could see she was only wearing a loose nightgown of some sort. So when she bent over to grab the dog, I got a quick shot right down her front. Her boobs were fat and dangly. Whoo.
I didn't say anything. I was sure she knew I was there at the door but I didn't want her to know I'd seen her naked chest. I remembered what Larry had said about keeping my eyes open. Was this what he'd meant? Ack!
Well, when I thought about Mrs. Pierson later on Cross street, I couldn't exactly picture her. I knew she was about my mom's age. I'd caught a peek or two at my mom's boobs. Not bad. At the corner of Cross and High there was a really small house on the corner lot. It was built catty-whompus to the street so it faced the corner. There were a lot of trees and bushes close to the sides and the grass was weedy and sometimes it didn't get mowed very often. There was a high wooden fence around the whole back yard, except where there was a garage. I knew that because me an' Larry and some of the neighborhood kids had played in the alley years ago.
I was getting near the end of my route and I tried an overhand hook shot with the folded paper. Which demonstrated why I never tried out for the basketball team in high school. The paper sailed way too high and fell over the fence beside the house. Oh, shit, now what? I dropped my sack of remaining newspapers and trotted up to the front door. No bell. I knocked. Nothing. I opened the screen door and knocked again. Still nothing. I thought about writing a note. No paper and no pencil. Crap.
I went down onto the lawn by the fence and discovered something new. There was a gate. Made sense when I thought about it. For all sorts of reasons, folks might need to get to the back yard without going through the house. I tugged and discovered it was latched but I could reach the latch over the top. Neat. I'd get in, find the paper and put it on the front stoop and everything would be cool.
Well, I went in found the paper and stood up to leave. But then I looked around the corner of the house so I could see more of the yard. And there she was. My customer. Naked as the day she was born. Her name was Meyer. Mrs. Julie Meyer. She was lying face down on one of those aluminum lawn chairs in the morning sun. Wow, what a sight. Not a stitch on her. Fortunately for me she was facing away, so what I saw was mostly her bare back. She was lying on her front with one leg drawn up under her. Her fanny was pointed right at me and I could see the suggestion of hair in her crack. I guess she was asleep. I sure hoped so. On the other hand, I thought, as I turned around and crept back to the gate, if she wakes up and looks at me I'll get to see a lot more.
I'd also get fired or she'd call my folks and complain. So I slipped on out of there. That was a fine looking woman there. But I couldn't remember what her face looked like, or her figure, right at that moment.
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A week went by and we were having one of the hottest summers ever. I was delivering papers every morning and keeping my eyes open. Generally things were good, except I still didn't have a love life. None of the girls I knew in the neighborhood were in town. Larry was up north with his folks. My little sister was giving me hell whenever she could get away with it. Saturday morning, earlier than usual, I walked my paper route thinking about going swimming at a nearby lake after I finished.
I got to Cross and High Streets and there's my customer, Mrs. Meyer, sitting on the front stoop. She's wearing a shirt and shorts. Showed me a fine pair of legs. I guess she saw me looking. "You're Buddy, my paper boy, right?"