A New Beginning Pt. 10

"I can never thank you enough. If ever I can do anything to pay you back..."

I just nodded, thinking. I needed to get them situated in a home. I figured the bank would be as good a place as any to start. I drove over.

"I'll be back in a few minutes."

Inside, I headed to Mr Willoby's office. His secretary took me straight in.

"Ah, Mr Flannery. I'm glad you're back. An armed courier just left. He'd delivered a sizable amount of cash from Mr Morgan for deposit into your account. A rather sizeable sum, I might add. Four million. Then two hundred twenty five thousand. He left a note with it.

I nodded, waiting.

He looked at me expectantly.

"Is there something else you need, Mr Willoby?"

"Uh, what would you like to do with it?"

"Put it on my account I reckon. That's why he sent it, isn't it?"

"Indeed. Absolutely. Excuse me a moment."

He got up and left. Then returned with some papers, which he handed to me. Deposit receipts. Along with the note from JT, which I folded and stuck in my pocket.

"Thank you."

"Of course. I have deposited your funds into an interest bearing account, that way it's making you money."

Nodding again, I leaned back.

"So, Mr Flannery, what brings you back today?"

"I hired a man. He has a family and nowhere to lay their heads. A wife and three young'uns. You know of a house over there by the land I bought that's available?"

"Oh, indeed I do. The bank has several homes on that end of the island it has foreclosed on. So, a four bedroom then?"

"I reckon that'll get it done."

"Then, yes, I have a Victorian four bedroom on two acres ready to move into. I had the crew put on a new roof and upgraded the wiring and plumbing. Will they be needing appliances and furniture, as well?"

"I reckon so. Can you take care of that?"

"Absolutely."

He picked up his phone and connected to a number.

"Aaron, Terrance, I need a full package delivered to the Hopewell place."

A pause,

"Yes, full kitchen, dining, bedrooms. The whole thing. "

Pause,

"Ok, then, I suppose what you have in stock. "

He looked at me and I nodded.

"Yes... Tomorrow? Excellent. Call me with the total. Ok, thanks."

Hanging up, he got up and went to a cabinet and retrieved a ring of keys. He brought them over and handed them to me. Then wrote the address and directions to the place down.'

"How's $3,500 sound?"

I nodded in agreement. He stuck out his hand, I shook it.

"Oh, by the way, Kenworth is making delivery of the first five trucks and trailers next week. The rest will follow over the next couple of weeks. They have the trucks, but are having to order the trailers."

"Good deal. You know the fishing outfits around I suppose?"

"Yes indeed. The bank holds the mortgages on the boats and buildings."

"Ok, so, i'll need access to lots of ice."

"Are you wanting to source it, or produce your own?"

I can make my own? Now that's an idea I'd have never thought possible.

"Make my own I suppose."

"Good, I'll have the equipment ordered. Just figure where you want it installed.

"I reckon by that building that's there."

"Of course. You'll also be needing docking and storage, as well."

I nodded, "Yes sir."

"My, but you certainly are a man that knows how to get things done."

"If you'll do me the favor, can you call up the Ford house? I need a truck and a station wagon delivered to my place today. Soon as possible."

He called and talked. Did the deal.

"They're preparing them right now and will send the papers over here."

"Good."

I stood up,

"Thank you, sir, I'll not take up any more of your time."

Sticking out his hand,

"Nonsense, Mr Flannery, anytime! I'm at your service."

I left, again avoiding looking at Pat's office. I had too much going on to try to figure out what she had up her sleeve.

Getting to the truck, I drove home. I felt Maybel casting her gaze at me along the way. But, I avoided looking at her. I had things to think about.

We pulled in and went inside. Jeb was finished with the garden spot and was sitting on the deck with a glass of tea.

"Jeb, can you come inside, please."

We all sat at the table.

"OK, to begin with, I bought y'all a house. It's over by the truck yard. They're delivering all the furniture and appliances tomorrow. It's a four bedroom affair. Victorian is what he called it."

There was a horn honk, followed by a knock at the door.Mama went and answered it. She came back with papers and keys and sat them in front of me.

I slid them across the table, one with the tag with TRUCK to Jeb, the other with STATION WAGON to Maybel.

"Those are yours, as well. You gotta have a way to get around. We'll get you a bill of groceries tomorrow when you move in."

Looking at Jeb,

"We got you some new clothes in my truck. A few sets for work, a suit of dress clothes, and dress shoes, then new boots. Anything else y'all need, we'll get as we go along."

He just looked at me with a look of disbelief on his face.

"Sir, there's no way we can ever make good on that debt to you."

"Well, just do me a good job and we'll worry about it later."

"You have my solemn word on that, Jacob."

He looked at his wife. She had tears coursing down her narrow, homely face again."

"May, I don't know..."

The words broke off and he turned his face.

Elsie came in with the kids carrying a sack of groceries. Tommy and Sophie on her heels. She looked around,

"Who's motor cars are them out there?"

I looked over at her,

"Theirs." I gestured to them." I imagine they'll be staying for supper and then the night, as well, if they've a mind to."

I looked over a Jeb and May,

"Y'all come out."

I lead the way. They looked at the brand new motor cars, uncertain what to say. Not that I expected anybody to say anything.

"Y'all go look 'em over. See if they suit you."

They did just that. Then put the clothes I'd bought in the back of the station wagon. May kept out everybody a change of clothes. She looked over at Jeb,

"We staying here or headed back to Sally's after supper?"

"What you want to do, woman?"

"Well, I'd just as soon stay here. I like looking out over the water."

Jeb looked at me, I just shrugged,

"Well, if it don't put them out, one night won't hurt I don't suppose."

I spoke up to change the subject.

"Let's go look at the house before it gets dark.

Jeb and May got in his new truck, I in mine. Getting out the paper, I followed the directions. Arriving, it was about a half mile to the yard.

The place was clean. House was white with light blue trim. Big wrap around porch. Two story. Picket fence all around it. We headed in. I found the light switch and flipped it. The room lit up. Downstairs was the kitchen, dining room, living room, bathroom and a room with lots of built in shelves. Upstairs were four bedrooms and a bathroom.

I stood back and let them look it over. May finally looked at me and walked over. She pulled me down and kissed me again.

"Thank you, Jacob. Somehow I'll make this all up to you."

I just nodded, trying to ignore my pecker that was starting to wake up. This certainly wasn't the time.

I pulled away and went downstairs then out back. There was a big shed of sorts. Might near big as a small barn. I headed out to see it. As I approached it, I saw Mabel on the porch, watching me. I just turned and went inside.

I saw light fixtures on the ceiling, so I hunted the switch by the door. Locating it, I flipped it. The entire building came alive with light. I stepped in, looking around. It was a big one. Probably 20 x 40 maybe? Along one wall was a big workbench made of oak. The opposite had shelving and cabinets. I went to them, opening them up. Whoever built this was a skilled tradesman.

I heard the door open. I turned around to see Maybel coming in. She was staring at with a strange light in her eyes as she came closer to me. I turned fully facing her,

"Everything alright, m'am?" Wondering where Jeb was.

She just nodded as she came closer. A few more steps placed her within easy arms reach of me. Now this situation unsettled me a bit.

"Something I can help you with?"

She just continued to look up into my eyes. I saw many things flitting in this housewife's face. Fear and uncertainty, coupled with something I'd seen in other women's faces. Desire. Pure wanton desire, I think it was called. At least according to some stories I'd read in some magazine or other.

She stepped up, closing the distance. Her arms wrapping around my neck. Pulling me down. Her thin lips coming to meet mine. I felt her tongue trying to find its way past my lips.

I gently pushed her back,

"Maybel, now this just ain't a good idea. You better get on back to your husband before this turns into something we both regret."

Her face was flush with fear now.

"But, I thought you wanted to use me. I just th..."

Her words broke as she spun around and hurried off the way she'd come in.

I just stood there in wonder and confusion. I certainly didn't think I'd done anything to give her that notion. Then again, I thought, sometimes there just ain't no figuring a woman's way of thinking.

I looked around. I'd seen enough. I walked out, starting to close the door, then remembered the lights. I stepped back in and turned them off. When I turned around, I saw nothing of Maybel, but Jeb was walking towards me. We met in the midfle of the yard by a pair of mature peach trees, loaded down with ripening peaches.

I pulled up to a stop as he stared off in the distance. A sad look flooding his face.

When he looked in my eyes, I saw the pain that resided there behind what was once the face of a man filled with pride and confidence. Full of dreams and hopes. Now all gone. Replaced by the things that will break a man when he realizes the essence of that which he defines himself by has been ripped from him. I'd seen it before when men go out on a limb, taking on debt, betting it all on one hand, just to watch their crops fail, or the markets fall, leaving them destitute and broken.

"I apologize if she insulted you. Just know she told me what she was gonna do, and I agreed to it, damn my eternal soul. I just went along with it. Thinking it was the least I could do, after what you've done for us. Please don't hold that against her. We've been through a lot as of late and it's got us all a little off our balance. I know she ain't much to look at, but she's a good woman, through and through."

I just looked at him. My heart filled with hatred for those men that did this to hard working families. Playing their games with that there stock business.

"Look, Jeb, I get it. It ain't nothing about her looks. To me, she looks just fine. We all got things about us, we just see things different, is all. Now, truth be told, and I don't know much about speaking anything but, I did look at her a time or two today wondering what she'd feel like. I only don't want to cross a line we can't step back across. I'm working on a plan here that I ain't got a clue about. I just got the notion to see it through. I hired you because you're a man of experience. I bought all this because you're a family in need and we have to depend on each other to get by in it all."

He looked off for a bit, soaking up my words. I saw May standing at the corner of the house, looking at me. Jeb turned back to me.

"I'll say this as the truth and, by god, stand by it to the grave. But you surely beat anything I ever saw. When we were out there, grubbing out as much of a living as we could, a few bosses hinted around as to how they'd do this or that if she'd spread her legs for them. All they was offering was a few cents to feed the kids. I'd take what we could scrape up and move on. Truth is, we were close enough to scraping the bottom of the barrel to say we were about to go in for it. Now here you are, doing for us and only asking an honest day's work out of us."

He looked off into the sky. It was building up to a pile of clouds. You could smell rain on the air. He went on,

"Jake, my hopes and dreams may have been stripped from me, but my pride is still intact. So, believe me when I say this. I've been through enough over this past while to teach me some things I never understood before. But, she's been a damned good wife and even better mother. Stood by me through thick and thin, not asking for a goddamned thing but to be loved. Now, you've got her all worked up. If it'll make her happy, I'll swallow my pride and go along. All I ask is you don't take her away from me. Just don't let the kids see it. Truth be told, I probably deserve it anyways. Time or two, I'd traded a go at the wife of a few young guys needing a word from me to get that promotion or position. Never hurt nothing. So, hell with it, shoes on the other foot now, I suppose."

He stuck his hand out,

"We still got a deal?"

I just grinned slightly, taking his hand.

"Yep. Reckon so. What say we go eat supper?"

It was starting to rain as we got back to the trucks and headed home.

Pulling into the drive, we got parked. The rain had blown over, leaving a clear sky as it moved into twilight. Summer was all but over with now. Which suited me just fine. My birthday was coming up fast. I'd be 19 this year. I thought about my brother and sister. Wondered where they were. Well, they made their own choice, same as the rest of us.

I was dragged out of my thoughts by May. She came up to me.

"He told me you'uns talked it over."

"Yes m'am, we did."

"And?"

"And what?"

"Well, what did you decide?"

"About what?"

"About me."

"What about you? You need something else?"

"About having sex with me."

"Why would I want to do that?"

"Well, because, uh... Well, that's what men do."

"I see. So, a woman speaks and a man just hops to it?"

"I, uh, look, I shouldn't have brought it up."

I just chuckled a little and went inside for supper.

We had fried chicken, mashed taters, gravy, and biscuits.

I eased away from the table and walked down to the beach. I was thinking of that bracelet, or whatever it was, and wondering how it came to be washed up on the beach here.

Looking out over the water, the wind had died down to a gentle breeze. The moon was up bright and full. Casting it's light across the water. It reflected off the waves peaks, looking like a field of glistening diamonds. The wind caressed my face. It seemed if I closed my eyes, I could here the whispering voices of the spirits of the Old Ones. Telling their long forgotten stories to those that will just listen.

I heard soft footsteps crunching across a small patch of crushed shells. Turning, I expected to see mama, but it was Maybel. I grinned inwardly. That woman just won't give up.

She stood beside me, looking out over the water. Her hand slipping into mine unexpectedly.

"That's a beautiful sight." She said quietly.

"Yes m'am, it most certainly is. Makes a body think. I wonder who stood here like we are, on this very spot, a hundred, hell, a thousand years ago. What were they thinking. What were they doing?"

She looked up to my eyes. Hers were shining in the moonlight. I pulled her around to face me. Tight up against my body. I felt her breathing quicken, coming deeper. I felt her large nipples harden against my chest.

I leaned down and kissed her gently. My lips caressing hers ever so softly. My tongue lightly outlining her lips as they parted in surrender to me.

Her breath was hot on my face as she spoke,

"God, I want you so bad right now. Jacob, please, I'll do anything for you. Anything you want. Just take me. Take my body."

My hand slid up her flank to grasp her breast. She melted into my arms then. I led her off the sand to the soft sea grass. She quickly undressed and laid down, her legs spread.

I undressed and mounted her. Her hand wrapping around my hardness. Her breath catching in her throat when she discovered my size.

Guiding my cock, the girth as thick as her wrist, she placed it against the opening to her married wetness. I started pushing into her. Forcing her pussy to yield to me. She was gasping and whining as I forced myself deeper into her body.

Finally feeling my cum heavy balls resting against her splayed ass, I started thrusting into her. Slow and easy at first. Building to strong, punishing thrusts. Slamming my cock head into her cervix, pushing it up into her uterus.

I fucked her with abandon. Unmercifully. She was cumming, one soul wrenching orgasm after another. Her heels slamming into my driving hips as I pounded my twelve inches into her destroyed pussy. Her creening cries became whimpers of surrender as her body gave out from the force of my unyielding assault on her loins and the energy sapping orgasms that drained her.

Her breath was now gusting from her lungs with my every powerful, pounding thrust.

My balls drew up tight. My cock swelled. The sperm coursing up out of my balls, spewing into her tortured, swollen cunt in ropy jets. Spraying into her womb.

I collapsed on top of her to let my balls finish dumping my sperm deep into her fertile body.

Sated, I climbed off of her and got dressed. I walked back up to the deck and sat in my chair. Elsie brought me a glass of iced tea. She leaned down and whispered,

"Was that Maybel I heard carrying on down there?"

"Yep."

She giggled, "After this baby comes, you got lots of making up to do on your woman's pussy. I'm tired of everybody else having all the fun."

She thought for a second.

"Oh shit, she ain't but what, maybe 35 or so? I bet you just knocked her up."

I just shrugged.

"What can I do about that? She's married, with a family. If she was worried about getting pregnant, she shouldn't be spreading her legs like that."

"I guess you got a point."

May came walking back up. Her steps were stiff and uncertain. Walking up on the deck, she collapsed into a chair. Elsie brought her a glass of tea and sat down.

I looked around.

"Where's Jeb?"

"He went over to get their stuff at her sister's. Your mama's up bathing kids. Getting everybody a place to bed down. Oh, and you need to call JT. He called and left a message while you were down there getting her pregnant."

Maybel dropped her tea glass at that. She was staring at Elsie.

Elsie just laughed,

"I know everything he does, dear. He has no secrets from me. We've had the understanding that no one woman can ever satisfy his sexual hunger. I've understood that, and accepted it ever since he took me and my children off the streets up in Dallas and made me his woman. I may share his dick, but his heart belongs to me, and you'll do well to keep that in mind."

May stared at her, eyes wide, full of emotional uncertainty. When she broke the silence, it was like she had devolved about twenty years.

"Don't you understand what he did to me down there? How can he fuck a woman like that and not expect her to react in a certain way? Then he filled me plumb full of his sperm. Like you said, what if I'm pregnant?"

She looked at me then.

"Well?"

I just shook my head. I knew she was just over emotional right now. She'd calm down soon enough.

"You recall back over yonder? When you came to me? What did I tell you? Go on back to your husband before we did something we'd both regret."

"Yeah, but..."

"May, there just ain't no but here, just the one you're sitting on. You're a smart woman. A good wife and mother. You just been through quite a spell here lately. Things such as that'll make folks not think something through on occasion. You came to me over yonder after I warned you off about it. Now, you're all growed up. Able to think for yourself, make your own choices. Old man said one time when he dressed down a hand that showed up to work after a night of drinking. We were pulling a crosscut and swinging an axe all day in a hundred degree heat with the humidity so thick you could boil an egg in it. That old man told him, 'Son, you gotta pay for that play, so man up and make a day, or go to the house'. He didn't like it none, but them folks what you owe money to, well, they just purely ain't interested in your problems you create for yourself."