Gotta Pay the Piper Ch. 04

I awoke two minutes before my cell phone alarmed. I slipped out of bed quietly, careful to not disturb Robin. I walked to the kitchen naked to start the coffee pot. I returned to my room to find Robin gone, apparently already in the shower getting ready for the day. She was rattling pans in the kitchen when I came in after showering and dressing. Fringes of her hair damp. "That was great last night," she said. "I thought we'd have time to do it again this morning, but you were up like a shot and out of the room." Covering my disappointment I missed out on another romp in the sack, I told her I thought she'd be in a hurry to get to school. "I budgeted a little extra time for us." she said. She smiled warmly and now I really regretted being in a hurry to start the coffee pot.

I asked her how she wanted her eggs cooked and if she wanted meat with them. She did not care for any meat, but I made a couple venison patties anyway. Eating them elicited visions of the Hacienda. That brought me back to the thoughts I had of Lenore as I made love to Robin. I was not happy about the vision, feeling more than a twinge of guilt. Lenore was one of Derek's women. I had no right to pursue her much less touch her.

I reminded Robin she would have to take care of herself the rest of the day. I was not sure when I would get home. Derek and I had four deer to process with no help until late afternoon and after that we might hunt again. Robin assured me she was totally capable of managing on her own.

As soon as she left, I retrieved the documents she had presented me the day before and drove to Lou's office building. I did not have an appointment, but she came out to greet me shortly after I arrived. I apologized for my unannounced visit. She smiled and told me it was no problem. I could tell it was indeed a little problem. She looked a little disconcerted. I said as much. She smiled. "I'm sorry , Bas. I did not mean it was not inconvenient. I have a client in my office. I did not explain to you yesterday that you can come here anytime but you might have to wait. Derek shows up unannounced all the time. He knows the rule is he might have to sit and wait until I am free. My secretary will get you coffee or rather show you where it is. But this is your first time, so I ran out to see you. You are very important to us. I just did not want you to feel put off."

I laughed. "Lou, quit being afraid about my 'syndrome' or my feelings. I told you I am impulsive. I am not so impulsive I do not understand other's needs. Guess what? I can even wait in line to be seated in a restaurant." She looked at me a second or two and grinned, obviously relieved. "Look over these papers whenever you have the time. No rush. I am headed to the Hacienda to meet Derek. I'm staying until we finish so I'll probably see you there tonight. Bye"

As I walked to may car I reflected on what just happened. Lou wanted to please me. She was afraid of offending me. Was that because she wanted my potential business? Or because she had read a little about autism? I suspected it was more the latter. I was way up on the spectrum. A few idiosyncrasies but pretty much normal beyond that. I had been repeatedly tested. I knew where I stood and had long since adapted.

I entered the gate code and drove down Derek's drive. The house looked abandoned compared to the weekend. Most of the cars that were there over the weekend were gone. A pickup and small sedan was parked off to one side. Derek stepped out of his out building to greet me. "I heard you coming. When the gate opens it rings a bell. I knew it was you." he explained. We went inside to get some coffee. He told me he wanted to get started cleaning the tubs a little later. He was not in a big hurry. "I'm thinking you and I will do the skinning and most if not all the meat cutting before any of the girls show. Then we will pack the meat into the bags. If we have to leave it there for our hunt, they can finish up. Sound good to you?" I told him he was the boss.

Derek laughed. "Don't call me the boss in front of the girls. That is their pet nickname for me. Even though they might answer to another of the women, I am overall top dog. Supposedly." He paused to chuckle at that. "To tell the truth, the women run the show. I just have ultimate veto power. You and I are equals, friends. You run your realm. I run this place I call the Hacienda.....with the girls' permission of course." he added with another chuckle.

I commented I did not have much of a realm to run anymore. He smiled good-naturedly and told me sure I did. I just had to take it back. I was a fighter on the ropes and just had to get my head cleared enough to stand up and go for the next round. I liked this man more and more.

I told him I had dropped off some paperwork at Lou's office on the way over. He said she would make sure I was taken care of. I relayed how she reacted and my thinking why. I assured him she did not have to jump through hoops to keep from hurting my feelings. I knew it would get back and reassure her. "Oh, yeah, she does not want to offend you because you are a friend.. She is just not used to you yet. If you were a stranger or a client she would not be as hesitant. Both Lou and Sarah are tough bitches. I gotta add my wife Wanda to that. They tell me like it is, but still defer to me out in the open. They won't let me make a big mistake. Not in public, anyway. In private, they do then use it to point out how much I need them, like I'd ever forget." I said I had barely met Sarah, not much contact at all. "You will as time goes on. She is the business genius. She owns an interest in almost every activity I have. Someday you will hear the story. Just be aware, if Sarah tells you she has a good business opportunity and offers you a share, get onboard if you have the money, . These women like you. And they are tough hard core business women."

"I've only really talked to Lou and Lenore." I said. "Sarah and Wanda seemed busy with the kids." He explained Sarah, Wanda and Lou were mothers first and business women second. Lou saw the need to break away from that role this weekend to see what was going on in my case. I told him I appreciated her concern. I would have been lost without her. "You and me both." he grinned. "Do you know why women have so much control?" Derek asked. I told him no idea. "Because they own half of everything and ALL the pussy." I could not help but laugh along with him.

Abruptly he asked, "What is your impression of Lenore?"

I could not help myself. I stammered. I tried to say she hit me as a concerned business professional and a friend. He openly laughed at me. "I saw your interaction. You are as interested in her as she is in you. She is smart as a whip. Use her. Well, let me rephrase. Use her expertise. But I will tell you she likes you. And in more ways than being an accountant, if you get my drift. She asked about you to check you out. And I'm sure by now she has done a full online search to see what was there." I looked at him in surprise. "She joined our group because she needed a place to be. She needs structure in her life. She has had to work all those issues out. I have collected some ...well, I'll call it an eclectic group of women. The slaves cannot go anywhere on their own. I've told them if they ever meet a person they want to buy their ass, I will sell them. The free women are different of course. If they want to leave all they have to say is they want to go."

"Lenore likes you. At least she is interested in REALLY getting to know you. And by that I mean sexually. DO NOT fucking tell her I told you so. She will want to kick my ass." Derek chortled. "But please don't lead her on and drop her." I told Derek I would never do that. After some hmming and hawwing, I said, 'I like her too.' He smiled warmly and said, "Let's go skin us some deer."

We got to work. Having seen the process the day before made it easy. We were an efficient deer processing machine. We had tubs filled with meat when the first of Derek's women began to filter home. One of the first was Lenore. "Did Wanda send you home early?" Derek called out when she announced she was home. He looked at me and grinned widely and winked. She responded she finished her assigned accounts. Derek told her to change clothes and come pitch in. Lenore smiled warmly at me before she disappeared. I felt my penis begin to harden a little at seeing her.

When she returned dressed in jeans, Derek put her to work fleshing meat off bones to be ground into burger. He and I began to put steaks and roasts into bags and then into a machine that sucked the air out and sealed them. More women began to arrive.

One young lady came up to me and said. "I noticed you keep looking at the turbines up on the poles. I'm guessing you know what they are." I said I had read about the new home based wind turbines but had never seen them in use before. I wanted to learn more about them. She giggled. "Well, I guess you came to the right place. They are my invention." She laughed at my astonishment. "Well, not just mine. Derek had some ideas how a turbine might work but no idea how to make it happen. I was already working on it before I got enslaved. My sister got involved. Now we have those things." She waved in the general direction of the 'wind farm'.

As we worked, she introduced herself as Clarice and began to expound on how the turbines functioned. When she mentioned the algorithms that regulated the magnet fields according to the spin speed, I asked if I might take a look at the code. I loved algorithms and computer code and said she knew that and would be happy to show me. There were a few computer chips in the controller. Each with programs. Although she knew what was needed and some of the parameters they had to outsource the programming itself.

Overhearing our conversation, Derek told me to go with her so she could show me. It did not take me but a few minutes to declare the code inefficient. "You can read it that fast?" she asked in surprise. I nodded and told her to me it was like reading a book. I saw several redundancies at a glance and some broken sequences. Then I offered to do a more in-depth analysis and clean it up if she would like. She was obviously thrilled and gave me a copy of each of the programs used in the controller. I put the memory sticks in my pocket and we went back out to join the others.

Sarah was as enthused as Clarice if not more so when she heard my offer to look at and possibly revise the controller codes. I was happy to do so. These people had been more than gracious. I sincerely wanted to give back something. I relayed that to Derek as we sat on the porch for an after hunt beer before I headed home. "I know what they are hoping." he said. "They hope your revision will increase yield from the turbines and make them even more efficient. That would be a great selling point. To be honest it would help around here, too. We have one Hell of a lot of electricity usage with all these people. And the grid goes down all too often."

I agreed, telling him my solar array barely kept my refrigerator and freezer going plus a few light bulbs burning the last time the power went out. Let alone being able to cook or have enough hot water. I wanted to upgrade my whole system once I got out from underwater financially. He smiled and said he foresaw good things on the horizon in that regard. I smiled as well but was not as optimistic.

When I got home, I checked on Robin. She was busy studying. She told me she had two exams this week. I left her alone and went to my old study. For the past few years, I had only used my computer for light internet searches and sending a few emails to colleagues around the country. Tonight, I had a mission. I barely realized the time when Robin poked her head in the door to tell me it was late and I needed to go to bed. I snapped out of my reverie. I had been so entranced in the code I had no thought of time and place. Robin's words were mildly reminiscent of Christine's when she pulled me away from my work to remind me there was a real world outside my computer and it needed my attention. I saved my work and went to my room.

I wondered briefly if Robin would come in and sleep with me. I laid down and fell asleep within minutes. I awoke the next morning to my cell alarm. I was alone. Robin had prepared the coffee pot the night before so I just hit the start button and went to get dressed. After our deer butchering and us shooting and gutting another couple animals I showered to rid myself of the clinging smell last night. I started a light breakfast. Robin appeared. "I'm surprised you did not come in last night." I said.

"Sorry, Bas. I have an exam this morning and another Friday morning. We aren't going to have sex every night. But we will on occasion." she said with a little smile. I read between the lines. We would have sex when she was ready and wanted it. I wondered how she'd react if I shut her down the next time she "wanted it'. Yeah right. I thought. How often will a man turn down sex with a beautiful young woman?"

I told her that since she had an exam I would rinse the dishes and put them into the dishwasher this morning. I had a project myself writing computer code. She gave me a quick look which I ignored. Leave her guessing. She is a roommate, not my boss. I knew she and Joanne shared a different opinion about that.

I was busy on my computer when my phone rang announcing Lenore was pulling into my drive. I almost fell over myself, trying to get my shoes on and outside to greet her. "Lou sent me to take a look at whatever financial documents you have." she said. "She also said if you can either take her or give me any papers about your trust, she will look them over."

"You don't have to go to work?" I asked. She told me this WAS her work assignment. She had cleared her files at the Woodward Agency. Lou, Sarah, and Wanda all wanted her here. I had no clue why I was getting all this attention, but was not one to look a gift horse in the mouth. "Sure, you can use this office." I said, showing her Christine's old office. "The computer is not password protected so use it if you need the internet. Also there is a copier and printer if you need them. I am almost finished revising the first of those programs Clarice gave me." That surprised her. "Already?" she asked, obviously astonished. "It's not like I was writing it from scratch. I could see what they wanted to do. I just rewrote it my may. I'm running it now to check for flaws."

"Can I call Clarice to tell her?" Lenore asked. I had no problem with that. An hour later Clarice arrived to see for herself. I showed Clarice what I had done saying I could change parameters if needed after testing. I said this program would run more efficiently than the other anyway. She rocked me back on my heels when she grabbed me and hugged me. She took the revised code back to her factory to evaluate it on some kind of static testing platform.

Robin was a little put out when she got home at noon to find Lenore working in 'her' study room. I explained that Lenore was going over all my finances, not just the current bills. Robin was obviously not happy but let the matter go. She said she would study at the dining room table.

I made lunch for the three of us, telling Robin she could eat the leftovers for supper or make something else as I had a deer hunt planned with Derek. She agreed saying she had a lot of studying to do. I asked her how she felt about today's exam. She shrugged and said it went 'okay'. I suspected she was a little miffed about the small ripple in the household dynamics and her inability to do anything about it.

That Tuesday evening was a turning point in my life in several ways. I followed Lenore out to the Hacienda. Lou asked her immediately what she found. Derek, his wife Wanda and Sarah came over to hear the conversation. Lenore handed her copies of my trust documents, then gave her an initial analysis of my financial status. I actually had more money than I could spend in several lifetimes, especially given my small allowance. The fund itself was growing exponentially.

"How do you feel about only getting a small allowance each month, Bas?" Lou asked. I told her honestly Christine wanted us to have a little challenge in life. My allowance and her pay gave us an ample income for what we needed and still allowed us to play a bit. But not just indulge ourselves to excess. That would lead to our moral decline in Christine's opinion.

"Christine worked, teaching at the university. I did a few programming jobs, mainly for the social media guys. But beyond that, I worked around the house. I kept busy doing the cleaning, maintaining the grounds and working in the garden with Christine. We were happy. We had Joanne. Christine wanted her to learn to work and be productive. Not just spend money like some dumbass entitled debutante rich kid. We intended to instill a good work ethic in her." I explained.

"What would you think about meeting the two ideas halfway?" Lou asked. I asked her what she meant. "You do some work. That will keep you occupied. But we also get your allowance increased. You get out of debt and have more freedom to enjoy life." The way she said it sounded great.

"Clarice, did you have the chance to test the program Bas revised?" Lou asked. She obviously had already been told I had finished the code revision of one of the controlling programs.

Clarice nodded. "Using all the same parameters, but with Bas' new code as the only variable, we got a 4.5% increase in yield." I did not think that was much of a gain. "Oh no Bas! That is great! We had already thought we tweaked the system to its full potential. When you get the other programs up and running, we will revisit ALL the parameters and maximize them."

"We have a proposal for you Bas." Sarah said. "We want you to come on board with us at Robichaud Energy. I am talking both the wind turbine manufacturing company and the one that constructs the control units. You will get paid of course." I protested and said I would be happy to help for free. Sarah shook her head, but Lou said it aloud.

"Oh no, you won't!!" Lou said sternly while at the same time, grinning. "As your lawyer and your friend, I insist you be fully and fairly compensated" I began to protest that I wanted to help them as all of them had been so helpful to me.

"Remember what I said about the collective wisdom, Bas?" Derek asked. I nodded. "Well this is where the collective wisdom is going to take care of you. These women have been formulating a plan. They haven't told me their plans either. I just got asked if you were gonna come out tonight. Let's listen to what they have to say." I shrugged and agreed.

"Okay Bas, first of all, Clarice says your program is golden. Now she is wondering if she doesn't need to do some tests to see if she can't get better data to make the end product even more efficient." Sarah announced. I told her the program I wrote would allow for new figures to be added easily. "Great. The second thing you have to offer is your name. We want to bring you on board and say we have Bastien Landry working with us. Your reputation means a lot. You will get stock in the company plus be paid well for your efforts." I shook my head. I said I would have given them the same effort for a good meal or maybe a t-shirt if they had one. I honestly did not need the money.

"Like I said, Bas. We are gonna take care of you." Lou said. Lenore told me I needed cash flow. I quipped I had that already. My cash flowed away from me. Lenore smiled but Sarah and Lou laughed out loud. I thought maybe Lou was loosening up a bit.

"We are going to help with that situation." Sarah said.

By the end of the conversation I agreed they could use my name in their advertising and I would rewrite the programs and they could pay whatever they figured was fair. Lou shook her head at that comment. Everybody seemed happy. I definitely was. Their happiness pleased me. I was content with my new friends. Derek and I trekked out to the deer blinds. "Ya know Derek, the money really does not mean much to me." I said. "And this might sound stupid to you, but what I am getting out of this is a good feeling. I like you all. I feel like I am accepted."