Almost every man has a moment of weakness - a time when he ends up doing something that he wouldn't ordinarily do.
For Warren Pierce, a 54 year old father of two who had been a faithful and devoted husband for all of the 31 years he had been married to his wife Elsie, that moment of weakness was shortly after 4:00 on the afternoon of May 19, 2009.
****
At the sound of the bell...
The jingling of the bell attached to the front door of his framing shop startled Warren Pierce, who had been on the verge of nodding off, as he usually did late in the afternoon.
The girl that walked in wasn't a customer, which was too bad, because business had been off for the last month or so. Warren forced a smile when he saw his niece Kelly bouncing toward him
His younger brother Victor's only daughter had always been one of his favorites, but in recent years Kelly had changed quite a bit. Her playfulness had taken on a decidedly more adult form, and a couple of times her comments and actions had been very bawdy.
He had attributed much of that questionable behavior to the raging hormones of youth which, along with the raunchy stuff that passed of entertainment on TV and in the movies,seemed to be having a derogatory effect on the kids today, if some of the ones that he saw around town were any indication.
"Hi Unkie Warren!" Kelly chirped as she came up to the counter and leaned over with her lips puckered.
"Hello Kelly," Warren said, giving his niece a peck on the cheek instead of meeting her lips, which Kelly had seemed to be expecting. "How's tricks?"
"Trix are for kids," Kelly responded, answering his usual question with her usual answer.
That repartee hadn't changed since Kelly had been a toddler, as she had always taken a liking to that old cereal commercial, but Kelly certainly had changed over the years.
Oh, Kelly was still a tiny little thing, probably no more than 5' tall and very slightly built, but she was becoming a woman, and judging by the provocative way she was dressed, seemed to delight in flaunting it.
Kelly was wearing shorts that were as short as they were tight, and if the skimpy pink tank-top his niece had on wasn't revealing enough as it was, it was plain to see that she was wearing nothing underneath it.
"Does my kid brother know you walk around town dressed like that?" Warren asked the little mop-top who had brazenly planted her butt on the counter and was enjoying making him feel as uncomfortable as possible as she thrust her chest out as far as she could.
"I don't think he notices anything I do," Kelly said matter-of-fact.
"What about your mother then?"
"I think she's too busy trying to seduce her personal trainer at her health club," Kelly suggested.
"Don't be silly," Warren said, doing his best to try and ignore the way that Kelly's nipples were sticking out against the thin fabric of her blouse.
"Thanks for the birthday present," Kelly said, changing the subject.
"Oh - uh sure," Warren said.
"How come you guys didn't come to my party?" Kelly asked.
"Your Aunt Elsie - she had been sick all week," Warren responded, and while it was true, Warren was planning to beg out if Elsie hadn't come down with something, and it was precisely because of the way Kelly had been acting around him lately.
"Bet you don't even know what you gave me," Kelly said, leaning over the counter to try and get him to look down her blouse.
That was something she had caught him doing years ago - a purely accidental glance that he had dreaded doing - and ever since then Kelly had done her best to get him to repeat his mistake.
"Um... you're right," Warren admitted, since Elsie always took care of things like that.
"Eighteen dollars," Kelly chided him. "You guys have always given me a dollar for every year of my age. Can't wait till I'm 100!"
"You're 18 already?" Warren said, scrunching his face as he tried to figure out how the years had flown by so fast.
"Yep! I can vote, buy lottery tickets and smoke, if I wanted to," Kelly said as she snapped her gum. "I can do a lot of other things too."
****
Closing time...
Warren felt a trickle of sweat roll down his spine as he prayed for a customer to come into the shop, even if it was almost closing time, but after the government workers left downtown became a ghost town. That was why he closed at 5 on weekdays, and as he counted the meager proceeds of the day, he wished that Kelly would leave.
"Five o'clock!" Kelly chirped as she looked at the clock over his shoulder. "Closing time."
"Guess so," Warren said, and was about to come around the counter when Kelly jumped down and ran to the door, her little butt jiggling as she move, and after flipping the OPEN sign to read CLOSED from the outside and turning the lock on the door, she came back to the counter.
"There," Kelly said proudly. "Anything I can do to help? Sweep the floor or something?"
"No, that's okay. Don't you have to be home?"
"Nah," Kelly answered. "Dad works late every night and Mom doesn't give a shit what I do."
"Kelly!" Warren said, recoiling at his niece's crude language.