Is it love or lust? This is the romantic tale of a young woman caught up in the world of COVID-19. It includes voyeurism, self-gratification and other explicit acts of sex.
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Chapter One
This Corona virus really sucks. I'm Felicity, although most of my friends call me Phil, which sometimes leads to some surprised looks. I've just turned twenty and I was in my second year of college studying Architecture. I'd rather be going to Art College, but my Dad said I had the grades, and it would be foolish not to get settled in a solid profession first. However, I had just met this really cool guy, Jason. I did not have any illusions he would be my one true love, but he has a great sense of humour, isn't clingy, and has a good uncomplicated attitude to our having regular sex.
For ten days at the end of February we thought with this new virus we would all have to stay on campus, which could work out OK. Then my parents who are both doctors insisted I should come home, and I have had to stay in virtual lockdown for over two weeks.
Now my parents are planning to send me to the country to stay with my Uncle Rob. I guess it's OK, but it's the way out in the sticks for fuck's sake. I haven't enjoyed going to the farm since I was eight, young enough to enjoy riding ponies and learning to milk cows with a bucket. It was mostly a beef cattle farm and they only had four or five dairy cows at a time.
Uncle Rob is my real uncle. He was married to my mum's twin sister, Jill. The last time I saw him I was fourteen. I had not been present at her funeral two years ago. I doubt he'd even remember me. And it's not like he was thrilled at the idea. I overheard a bit of the phone call and I guess my mum pretty much guilted him into agreeing. My Mum's certainly good at that.
I asked Mum what she expected me to do up there, and she said: "stay healthy". Ha, fucking ha!
She also pointed out I knew the syllabus; I had the books and now I would have plenty of time to focus. Yes, but what if the university got its act together and started sending me assignments. After all they were still talking about arranging a way to complete end-of-year examinations.
She said I had a pretty fancy-dancy laptop and your Uncle Rob has a very high-speed internet connection.
"What will I do for intellectual stimulation up there in the wilds?" I asked, knowing I was being a pig.
"It's not the wilds, although with this pandemic it might not make much difference. Rob might surprise you. He has had three or four books published. Anyway, you should be able to get out in the clean fresh air and you can always stream or download movies. Just don't get hooked on video games and ignore your studies."
I felt like that fucking eight-year-old again.
The farm isn't half bad. My Uncle Rob built the main house himself from logs felled right on the property. I thought it was bigger than I remembered. It used to be an L shape with a large open area that included a spacious sitting room, a kitchen, and an open dining area. I remembered thinking it was very grand. The only rooms in the main area that were closed were the bathroom and an office where my aunt did the accounts. The wing of the L comprised a corridor with the bathroom and two bedrooms off it. One for my aunt and uncle and the other for guests, like my Mum and me on that occasion.
Since then, he had extended the kitchen area to include a large island and snazzy six burner stove. He had added another wing turning the L into a U. Like the first one it contained two more bedrooms linked by a corridor, one with an adjoining bathroom. At the north end was a laundry and mud room and a stair to the only second-floor room, a studio with 360-degree view of the countryside. He built that for my aunt when she took up painting.
When we first arrived, he showed us around. My room was to be in the end of the original wing. It had a lovely queen-sized bed with a nice firm mattress and, nice surprise, he had added an extension, which, although it did not have a shower, had a wash basin and vanity and a separate loo. Pretty sweet!
When I finished unpacking and looked out, I realized the U surrounded a well-landscaped pool and patio area with what I guessed were a barbeque, a large firepit and a permanent table and benches, all made of stone. It looked as though you could easily seat a dozen people. However, right now they were pretty much buried in snow.
Uncle Rob had also changed. I didn't even recognize him when we drove up there. I remembered a big mountain man with a full beard, and always in plaid shirts, a hangover from his logging days. I guess he was in his early thirties then like my mum, but they all seemed old to me. Now the beard and the plaid shirt were both gone. He still wore jeans but with an open-necked pale blue shirt and leather lace-up shoes, at least when he met us.
After dinner, Mum and Rob did a lot of reminiscing about her sister. I just got acclimatized, but she was right about the speed of the internet. As we had not left home until after lunch, Mum stayed the night in the bedroom next to, but not as well appointed as, mine.
If I had trouble recognizing Rob, I really think he was expecting some gawky creature barely out of her teens, not a fully developed young woman of twenty. After Mum got on her way in the morning, we were a little awkward around one another as he showed me around the outside of the property. The barn, cowshed and stables and other outbuildings looked pretty much as I remembered, but there was less equipment around.
It turns out that after my Aunt Jill got sick, he sold off most of the property and all the beef cattle to his neighbour and just kept a few dairy cows and his favourite five horses, three mares, a stallion, and a gelding. The sale gave them plenty to invest and live off, and he also got an income from the sales of his books, five as it turns out.
Uncle Rob may no longer dress like a mountain-man, but he is still built big. At least six four with a lumberjack's chest and shoulders. I'm five eleven so I am comfortable with big men.
As I say things were a little awkward. His appearance was not the only thing that had changed, I remembered a big jovial man always smiling who threw me up in the air as though I were a feather; not that I wanted him throwing me in the air now. But now he was withdrawn, silent almost shy and frankly also more than a little scary.
When we came back in, I became aware of two things. First, Rob did not appear to own a television. Perhaps like me he was comfortable watching whatever he wanted in a computer. Secondly, he had replaced his old chesterfield with a modern four seat sectional. We ate our lunch mostly in silence punctuated by predictable conversation.
Him "What are you studying, Felicity?"
Me "Architecture with a minor in English Lit."
Him "Sounds good. I never went to college, always too busy."
And then more uncomfortable silences. I know he felt it as much as I did, probably more.
It turns out Rob never went to college, but is an auto-didact, someone who educated themself. He was self-conscious about this, although I found out he had read more widely than anyone I had met. I was to find out it was almost impossible to find a subject on which he did not have a surprising level of knowledge, including art and architecture.
He excused himself to go to his office after lunch. I brought my computer into the main living area and logged in to the latest news. Apparently, the WHO has declared the Corona virus a pandemic. Although the case count in Canada is low, cases in Europe are going crazy. The universities are all closing in class instruction, so it seems my parents were right. My school says it is working out its arrangements for online studies. It doesn't exactly inspire me to keep working right now, so I log on to Fortnite.
During what started as an almost equally awkward dinner Rob asked me more about my architectural studies. We got on to talking about art and painting. I was surprised to learn he had visited not only the Louvre and other galleries in Paris, but also many other famous European galleries including the Prado in Madrid and the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. Then I remembered that Aunt Jill had a keen interest in art.
However, it was clear that Rob shared her interest for he proved to have ready answers for all my questions.
When we had finished, I helped him clear the table and load the dishwasher. Later he persuaded me to put on my warm parka and boots and go out for a walk with him a little way away from the lights of the house. Tonight, the sky was clear and filled with stars.
"You don't see a sky like that in Toronto." He said, and I agreed. I liked the feeling of standing by this big man with the gentle deep gravelly voice. He made me feel more feminine somehow, petite almost, not a way I was used to feeling. We stood there looking at the heavens in silence. He asked me if I knew any of the constellations and I pointed out the North Star, Orion's belt and the Big Dipper, all part of The Big Bear. The only part of the sky I still found easy to recognize all these years after guides and brownies.
Rob pointed out, Gemini, Castor and Pollux, the Milky Way and Andromeda and Cassiopeia and asked if I recognized any planets.
I took a shot at Mars and pushed my luck trying Venus.
"That's the space station" he said, laughing. We stood for a minute or two more and then went back in silence.
"Thank you!" I said, as we were approaching the house. Then I noticed a separate building bout fifty yards away.
"What's that?" It wasn't either the barn or the cattle shed or anything he had shown me earlier.
"That's a sauna, we put it in after we visited Scandinavia. There's also a hot tub and showers. You are welcome to use them. You can turn them on from the main panel in the house. You just have to do it about half an hour in advance."
My uncle excused himself and gone back to his office after we returned. I read for an hour or so then I went to my bedroom. I left the curtains open and the light off, so I could look up at the amazing sky. I was not that tired. As I sat there looking out, I saw the light go on in Rob's bedroom. I could see him hanging up clothes and then going into what must be the adjoining bathroom. I looked back up at the sky for a few minutes, but the light from his bedroom interfered with the view.
When I looked back, there was my uncle standing naked in front of the full-length window. Not right in front of it, further back, but fully on view. He turned away before I could appreciate what I was seeing and now his back was towards me as he folded back the cover on his bed. Then he turned again and came back to the window, which he opened slightly before closing the blind. I was glad I had stepped back from the window because I found myself standing there staring at him, my uncle, buck naked and full frontal.
He was only the third or forth man I had actually ever seen naked, and he was on a whole different scale to the others. No wonder I could not stop staring like a fool. I hoped he had not seen me. It was only ten thirty, but I guess that's late for someone who'd been running a farm for most of his life.
He was probably used to getting up early so I decided I better go to bed too. I shut my curtains, washed my face, and brushed my teeth in the basin in my room and got undressed. I imagined Uncle Rob as I climbed into bed naked, but with a robe close at hand. I lay there and the image in my mind as I closed my eyes was not of the amazing sky but the naked body of my uncle. He's my uncle, but all I could think was "Boy, was he built!"
Chapter Two
I was surprised how long I had slept. It was a quarter to nine and there were smells of good food and coffee from the kitchen. I pulled on my pyjamas. They were red flannel not baby-dolls, so don't let your imagination run wild.
Uncle Rob said "Good Morning, Felicity. Don't expect a cooked breakfast every morning unless you cook it yourself."
"Thank you, Uncle." I said, "It looks and smells delicious."
