Winters in Northern Iowa can get pretty brutal when the wind is from the west and the moisture is coming in from the south. The resulting blizzards can shut down everything- except, as Mandy would soon discover, Big Jake's Erotic Emporium. It is there that she finds herself the center of attention during a Midwest blizzard.
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WARNING! All of my writing is intended for adults over the age of 18 ONLY. Stories may contain strong or even extreme sexual content. All people and events depicted are fictional and any resemblance to persons living or dead is purely coincidental. Actions, situations, and responses are fictional ONLY and should not be attempted in real life.
If you are under the age or 18 or do not understand the difference between fantasy and reality or if you reside in any state, province, nation, or tribal territory that prohibits the reading of acts depicted in these stories, please stop reading immediately and move to somewhere that exists in the twenty-first century.
Archiving and reposting of this story is permitted, but only if acknowledgment of copyright and statement of limitation of use is included with the article. This story is copyright (c) 2016 by The Technician.
Individual readers may archive and/or print single copies of this story for personal, non-commercial use. Production of multiple copies of this story on paper, disk, or other fixed format is expressly forbidden.
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Amanda Crawford stared through the ice-covered windshield at the snow blowing horizontally across the road. She was trying to make out the side of the road... or see the center stripe... or see anything which would tell her if she was on her side of the road. Right now, except for the fact that her tires sounded like they were on a hard surface, she couldn't be sure that she was even on the road.
This angry and slightly fearful woman should be relaxing in a heated spa at the motel where she had made reservations for tonight, but she missed a turn somewhere in the blowing snow right after sundown and was now wandering through God knows where on roads that were rapidly drifting over.
She had always used her phone as her GPS. The maps were good even in the more remote areas she had to visit. But either the system was down or, more likely, the heavy, blowing snow absorbed the cell phone signals so badly that they no longer reached out into wherever it was that she was now driving.
She used her gloved hands to pull herself closer to the windshield. She felt like a little old lady driving like this, but despite the constant scraping of her wipers, the ice was building up on her windshield to the point where she had only a few inches at the bottom through which to see the road. Even diverting all of the heat to the defrosters did little to nothing except use up what heat was available and leave the car itself cold.
Amanda had to be little-old-lady close to see out, but now her breath was fogging what little clear glass was still available. She slumped back against her seat and let out a deep sigh. Her breath filled the cold car like a small cloud of fog. "Why in the hell didn't I check out what Iowa winters are really like
BEFORE
I took this territory," she muttered to herself.
Amanda- known to her friends as Mandy- was trying to break into one of the last of the good ol' boy clubs... farm-related sales. Specifically, she was a field representative for a large farm equipment company. Her job description said she wasn't a sales person, but in reality that was exactly what she was. Her job was to regularly visit the dealers and convince them to keep their inventory of parts and equipment at the levels desired by the company. By any definition- except her company's- that was sales.
Being a beautiful woman worked both ways for Amanda in her position. Her looks always got her in the door. She had more appointments with managers and owners than anyone else. But at the same time, because of her looks, those same people didn't take her seriously- that is, until she started talking. There was almost no question about the equipment or the business she couldn't answer. She even knew about equipment that hadn't been in use actively since the twenties.
With a little luck and a lot of effort, some day she would be a regional manager or higher up on the company's organizational chart. But for now, she was a lowly district representative who had to make monthly visits to all of her clients. And that included the winter months.
"I'm going to die out here," she said mournfully, as she scraped the frost off the inside of the windshield with her glove. She then sighed and added, "I don't mind freezing to death, if that's what's in the cards..." Her voice became loud as she slammed her hands against the steering wheel and shouted angrily, "... but dammit, couldn't I at least freeze to death someplace warm?!"
She laughed at the absurdity of what she had just said and then scolded herself, saying, "Mandy, Mandy, Mandy, you're starting to get irrational. It is highly unlikely that you would ever freeze to death on a beach back home in Florida. If you are going to freeze to death it is going to be someplace like right here in almost-God-damned-Minnesota, northwestern Iowa."
She then yelped and screamed excitedly, "But you aren't dying out here tonight. There are lights up ahead."
She wasn't sure what it was, or for sure how far away, but there were definitely lights ahead causing the snow to glow a bluish white.
It didn't appear to be a town. There wasn't enough light. But at the same time, it was too much light for a farm house. It might be a truck stop or perhaps a roadhouse or motel a little ways out in the country.
Amanda didn't care what it was. The blizzard was rapidly closing the roads and any port in a storm meant exactly that- any port in a storm. Whatever it was, it was where she would stop. She would hunker down there and tomorrow- or the next day- or perhaps even the next- she would continue on. If there was any phone service, she could reschedule her meetings and appointments tonight. Otherwise, she would have to wait until the storm cleared or until she got out of this middle of nowhere.
The glowing snow ahead was gradually becoming a circle of white snow globes. Those globes were formed around yard lights which surrounded a strange looking building that could only be described as a round pyramid. It was a shed of some sort that was round at the bottom- actually eight- or twelve-sided- with a roof that started at the ground on each of the many sides and then peaked at the top. One side was taken up with a huge door.
The pyramid was surrounded by a dozen or so orange snowplow trucks. One truck, parked in the cavernous door, still had its yellow flashers on, adding a little color to the glow. The other trucks, from the misty smoke coming from their tailpipes, were obviously running, but their flashers were off while they sat waiting to be filled with salt.
On the opposite side of the highway from the round pyramid was a small, run-down motel. Alongside it was an even more run-down looking building with a purple neon sign on the front which said, "Big Jake's Erotic Emporium." In front of those words was a pink champagne glass with a bright red cherry in it. The red cherry blinked on and off at about the same speed as the flashers on the trucks across the street.
"That must be a popular place,"
Mandy thought to herself as she noted a dozen or so four-wheel-drive vehicles parked around the building.
"Or they must have one hell of a show planned for tonight,"
she added as she noticed the many snowmobiles parked among the drifts further out in the parking lot.
The lights from the buildings and parking lots barely added to the glow given off by the salt storage facility. Had it not been for the state or county facility across the road, she might not have even noticed either building as she drove past.
The parking lot for the motel hadn't been plowed. There were no snowmobiles, but it appeared to be full of cars, most of which had obviously been there since before it started snowing. They weren't much more than car-shaped bumps in the deep snow. The chances of a room being available were obviously pretty slim.
"I don't care if I have to sleep in the lobby," Mandy said loudly to herself. "I'm getting inside out of this blizzard."
She turned the wheel hard and prayed that the car would bounce over the snow plow ridge which blocked the entrance to the motel. There was a soft scrapping noise as the front of the car ramped over the ridge and then settled back down. Had she been timid about it, her car would have been left teetering on the piled up ice and hard-packed snow, but she approached that roadblock as she approached life, full speed ahead.
The car bounced into the soft, deep, snow in the parking lot and began to skid in a wide, slow arc. Mandy turned into the skid and regained control... more or less. The car was now slowly skidding nose first toward the front of the motel... and into one of the few remaining open parking places in the entire lot. There was no real chance of stopping, so Mandy took her foot off the brakes and let it go. She gave a loud "umpfff" as her front tires hit the parking block and the momentum threw her against the steering wheel.
"Any landing you can walk away from," she said with a laugh after she regained her breath. Then grabbing her purse from the passenger seat, she opened her door and stepped out into the more than knee-deep snow.
Her lower legs felt like they were on fire as they rubbed against the cold snow, and the cold wind blew up under her coat as she forced her way through the snow toward the office. Her short skirt did little to protect her upper legs from the wind's icy breath. A miniskirt seems like a poor choice to wear in her profession- especially in the middle of winter, but it showed off her shapely legs, so for Mandy, the miniskirt was just one more sales tool. Her long legs often got her in the door. And if her legs got her in the door, then she could show the owners and managers that she knew her business... and theirs.
Several times sales managers- or general managers- thinking to embarrass her, had asked her to come with them out into the fields or had indicated that there was something under the equipment they wanted her to see. Their look of disappointment when she pulled a set of coveralls and boots out of her trunk always brought a smile to her face.
There was no time to retrieve the coveralls tonight. Besides, she wasn't sure the trunk wasn't frozen shut by the snow and ice. She pulled her coat more tightly around her slim body and trudged through the snow to the dimly-lit office. Her heels slipped in the deep snow, but her "field shoes" were in the trunk with her boots and coveralls. If necessary, she would walk the rest of the way barefoot.
The clerk glanced up at her for just a second as she stepped into the motel office. "We're closed, ma'am," he said without really looking up.
