The Paper Route

"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.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

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?"

"Yes ma'am. Buddy Anderson."

"Well, good morning, Buddy. I'm Miss Meyer, Julie, but I guess you know that. I wonder if you have a sec. I need some help. It won't take but a few minutes."

"Sure," I said. "Just let me deliver these three more papers and I'll be right back." I grinned at her and trotted across the street. When I got back to Meyer's she wasn't there so I went up and knocked at the door.

"Come in, Buddy," she called. She was standing in the dining room off to the left through a small living room. I noticed that the shirt she was wearing, some sort of white man's shirt that buttoned down the front was open. That is, she hadn't buttoned any of the buttons and she'd tied the tails around her middle, just over her belly button. Nice cleavage. I had to tear my eyes away or I would have fallen over a stool in the middle of the room.

"I want to move this table over to the side under those windows. I almost never use the dining room for meals so I'm going to make the table my desk. But I don't want to drag it and risk scratching the floor. If you'll take that side we'll just lift it over there."

I went to the other end and she leaned forward to grab her side. That caused her shirt to gape open and I could see the insides of both her boobs. No nips, but I didn't see any tan lines either. Wow. I thought afterward that she knew exactly what she was showing me, but at the moment, I just stared.

"Ready?" I looked up into her smiling face and nodded. We lifted the table and sidled it over to the wall. The movement made her boobs sway back and forth a little, but they seemed pretty firm for an older broad. We got the table right where she wanted it.

"Thanks, Buddy. I guess you can use some extra money so here's a tip for the help." She handed me a folded bill and I thanked her. We strolled to the front door and she asked me if I ever went swimming at the nearby beach. I said I was planning to go that afternoon after mowing my folks lawn. "I go there too, maybe we'll see each other there."

Yeah, right. If I saw much more of her right then I was gonna explode in my shorts. Three o'clock that afternoon I biked to the beach and dropped my towel in the only square inch of sand left uncovered. This was a family beach so there were a lot of kids and families. But there were enough girls and women in pretty bikinis that the scenery made it worth while. I shucked my shirt and sandals and went into the water. The swimming area was marked off by a line of floats and a big square raft about twenty yards out. I swam to the raft and then did a couple of laps parallel to the long side of the swimming area. I was getting out of the water when I saw her. Mrs. Meyer. She was wearing a bright yellow two piece bathing suit. She was at the other end of the beach standing talking to a woman I didn't recognize. Another woman joined them.

I arranged my towel and stretched out to catch a few rays. A little later I looked up and she was gone, but when I stood up, I saw someone in a bright yellow suit stretched out on the raft. I couldn't tell who it was but I hadn't seen any other women in bright yellow suits so I walked toward the water. Hell, I wanted to swim anyway and if it was her, she'd sort of invited us to get together in a friendly way after I helped move the table, right?

I swam out to the raft. Two kids dove off the other side and I started up the ladder. Just then Mrs. Meyer sat up, glanced at me and sort of rolled off the side away from me. What the Hell? I looked around and her head appeared right by the corner. She looked at me and winked. "Sit down why don't you?"

So I did, then I lay on my stomach with my head hanging over the side and looked down at her face a few inches away. I decided right then she was pretty. And when I looked farther down in the water, I could see her nipples pushing against the thin yellow fabric. "I didn't see you when I got here."

"Really? I saw you. Watched you swim those laps. I was looking for you."

"No kidding? You shoulda waved." I got a little bolder and I stared at her boobs. I could have sworn her nipples got harder.

"I couldn't do that. Do you like what you see?"

"Oh yeah. You're good lookin' in that department."

"Yes, I am. So, what kind of a boy are you? Home from college, yes? Got a lot of buddies, girl friends?"

"College, yes, so far only a couple of friends, no girls yet."

She looked me in the eye for a long moment and said quietly, "Maybe I'll take a chance here. Anybody coming?"

I raised up on my hands and looked around. It was getting late and the beach was beginning to clear out a little. Nobody was swimming toward the raft that I could see. "Nope, nobody coming, I said." Then I looked back down at Mrs. Meyer. Boom! She'd pulled one breast out of the bikini halter and she was sort of holding it out to me. Her other hand was still tight to the ladder to keep her head above water.

"Wow," I said. Her pink nipple was longer than I'd ever seen. Darker too. My swim trunks got suddenly tighter.

"Shh. I take it you like what you see. Now listen closely." She moved her hand and her boob disappeared inside the yellow halter. "Don't follow me in to the beach right away and don't talk to me. I'd like to get to know you a little better. You seem like a nice boy. Maybe you could drop over this evening after supper? We could have a little talk."

I heard a voice calling Julie. "I think one of your friends is looking for you." She swam away and said, "I hope you can come over." She swam a few more strokes toward the beach then looked back at me. "Oh and by the way, the next time you come into my back yard, be sure you latch that gate." She grinned and rolled into a smooth distance-eating crawl to the beach.

Wow, I thought. Double wow. I rolled onto my back and took a couple of deep breaths. Who knew where this might go? I stood up then and surveyed the beach. Out of one corner of my eye I caught the flash of a bright yellow bikini disappearing around the beach house where the life guard equipment and the snack shack was located. Then I dove in and stroked lazily to the sand.

When I got home I discovered my sister was gone to a sleepover with friends and my parents were going out to play cards. My evening was my own and since I had a key, even if I didn't have a car, I was on the loose. I showered and decided I didn't need a shave. I put on clean underwear and shorts and a blue tee-shirt. My cross-trainers with golf sox. Money and keys in one pocket, took three deep breaths to calm the flutter in my gut. Why was I so nervous? This wasn't exactly a date, was it? I'd been on first dates. I'd kissed and felt up several girls. Some of them had even felt me up. Yeah, right. Face facts, buddy, you're a novice, a virgin. Hell you got some book learning but you're pretty short in the experience arena.

I locked up and turned on the porch light. It was getting dark enough that I couldn't recognize people I saw across the street on the sidewalk. It was still plenty hot and lots of window air conditioners hummed into the night. I wanted to run the four blocks to the Meyers place. Her house. But I didn't want to arrive all sweaty either, so I strolled. When I got to her corner, I looked up and down and the street was empty. So I walked up her walk to the front door. The house was dark. Maybe she wasn't home. Maybe she'd changed her mind. My heart was pounding. This was nuts! What did I think was going to happen? She was so hot for me she'd rip off my clothes, throw me down and take my cherry? Ha. Fat chance! I knocked on the screen door. Then I realized that the front door was open. No sound. No voice. I knocked again. I almost called her name and then thought better of it. Wait, was that a sound?

Yes I heard kind of whispery sound like bare feet sliding on a floor. "It's not locked," whispered a voice. "Come in." I went in and Julie—Mrs. Meyer sort of materialized in front of me. "Come on. We'll go into the other room." She tugged my hand and we went past the dining room where the table was and into a room at the back of the house. It was cooler there. She turned on a lamp on a table. It didn't give much light and she had me sit on a small couch.

I sat and she asked if I wanted something to drink. Did I ever! My mouth felt like a desert. She went away, I guess to the kitchen, and brought back a big cold glass of lemonade. "I suppose you drink, but I'm not going to give you anything. But I'm having some wine."

I took a big slug and said, "I guess I can live with that." My voice sounded a lot steadier than I felt.

Mrs. Meyer took a sip from her wine glass and stared at me. Then she asked me a bunch of questions, about school, about my girl friend. I explained Janice was probably no longer my girl friend because we were in different schools. And about politics and sports and other stuff I was interested in. It was almost like a job interview.

Then she said, "So, Buddy, how far did you and Janice get?"

"Excuse me, I'm not sure what you mean."

"You know, how far did she let you go? In the sex department? Did she fellate you? Did you copulate?"

"Uh, I'm sorry, Mrs. Meyer. I'm not comfortable talking about Janice. I don't think it's any of your business." I was beginning to think she was some kind of perv. I wasn't even sure what some of the words she used meant.

"Good. Buddy, I like you a lot. I'm attracted to you, probably in ways you can't even imagine. But even without knowing what may happen between us, I can't have you talking to anybody about us—about me. Do you understand? Nothing we talk about or ever do can go beyond us. That would ruin it." She grinned at me and took a gulp of wine. Then she shook her head. "I really don't understand myself what's happening here."

I didn't either. But I'm not dumb, so I took a chance. I set down my glass and took her hand. "Mrs. Meyer. Look I can't continue to call you that, except in public. Julie, I don't know what's going on here either. But I'm really really attracted to you, too. You have no idea what you just said means to me. The thing is, I better tell you this up front." I gulped and took a deep breath. My voice was getting wobbly. "I've never gone all the way with a girl. A woman. I'm nineteen and I'm still a virgin. Oh sure, I've played around a little, feeling a girl up, having her put her hand in my pants. Ja—one girl even kissed my penis. But that's it. So maybe you need someone with more experience."

Julie Meyer drained her glass and grabbed my other hand. "Oh, baby. You are exactly what I want, what I need right now. We're going to have such fun together. But there is one other thing. I will probably fall in love with you and you might fall for me. That's okay but this thing we'll have is finite. Understand? I'm going to teach you to be the best lover in the world, but I'm more than twenty years older and you're going to move on eventually, probably even at the end of the summer. We'll be sad, for a while, but I'll be glad to turn you over to some younger woman, knowing you have had a really good education. Now stand up."

I did and she came close to me. Actually, she was an inch or so taller. She looked into my eyes and took my hand. Then she slid it into her shirt and I grabbed her breast. "Ah ah. No grabbing. We don't do grabbing except in horseplay. This is going to be about caressing, about gentle, about soft and slow. Understand?"

I relaxed my fingers and she moved my hand around and over her breast three times, all while we stared into each others eyes. And so began my summer of sexual enlightenment.