Justice

Her feet were long and narrow for such a small woman; her toenails had been painted, bright red. "You have such nice toenails, Lucy, can I paint them?" I said while leaning over to the mouthpiece.

"That would be nice, can I do yours too?" she purred, leaning forward to run her fingers through my hair.

I kicked off my boat shoes, "Can I nibble on you little toe before we paint our nails?"

"Sure, nibble away, Lucy would like that," Annie cooed into the phone.

"Oh, Lucy, that's nice."

"Your big toe is sooo....can I suck your big toe? Annie smiled down at me. I reached up to bring her down for a short kiss.

"Only if I can suck yours later," I stammered, then, "Lucy."

Mike was saying something but we paid no attention. I lay on my back on the floor and in short gasping breaths, "An...I mean.... Lucy, suck my.....suc.."

Annie joined me on the floor, I felt her weight on my chest as our lips came together in a long passionate kiss. Squawking coming from the couch interrupted us.

"I'm quite OVERCOME," I shouted to pacify our unwelcome intruder.

Annie chimed in, "did you like that?" she asked, her voice dripping with seduction as her body pressed into mine.

But the trespasser on the couch would not yield, more babble disturbed our reverie on the floor and that was a good thing.

We jumped to our feet when we heard a car pull into the driveway. We watched as it parked behind my truck. Annie took her boots to the bedroom and was soon back, wearing a pair of loafers with no socks. The red cloth still hung from her back pocket. My shoe laces were still untied when a young couple came in.

Annie introduced me, "Paul, this is my son, Bobby and that's his friend, Karen."

We shook hands and they told us that everything was going to be fine with the car; it had been towed to a nearby garage. I wondered how such a small woman could give birth to this big, strapping kid.

"Who's there?" came from the phone.

"I'm sorry, Mike, I thought you could hear me introduce my son and his girl friend to Paul," Annie said loudly as she went to pick up my phone. "Would you like to say hello to them?" Of course he would, she handed the phone to Bobby who looked puzzled, "Who's that?"

"He'll tell you," Annie said, smiling up at her son.

We talked with Karen while Bobby spoke, at length, to Mike. She is a tall girl with nice features and a quiet disposition. We told her of the lengthy telephone conversation and had her laughing by the time Bobby handed her the phone and insisted that she speak to Mike.

"He needs to talk to you sir," Bobby told me, "says it's something important."

"Okay, thanks Bobby, I'll talk to him on the way home." I said, giving Annie a knowing look. She nodded, grinning. 'Such a nice smile," I thought.

"Where're your boots, Mom? And who's Lucy? What's this about a foot fetish?"

Annie reddened, not quite knowing what to say.

"My friend Mike has a run away imagination and we were just trying to humor him," I explained. "We may have gone too far because apparently, he bought it."

Karen, finished her conversation with Mike and came to ask Bobby if he was ready to go. He thanked me for bringing his mother home. As they went out the door my phone rang.

"Oh, my God, Karen must have hang up on him?" Annie laughed.

I answered the phone and explained to Mike that Karen must have thought the call was over.

"What's happening? Did they leave? Say, what were you doing all that time?, I've got to tell you something, is she there?" Mike fired one question after another at me.

"Yes, she's right here and I've got to go," I said, hoping he would shut up long enough for me to say goodbye to Annie.

The sun was setting and a light rain was coming down when I kissed Annie goodnight. I was glad to have someone to talk to on the ride back to Justice.

"Sorry we didn't get to go out," I apologized to Mike for the third time.

To my surprise, "I'm not, I wouldn't have missed that for anything."

He insisted on my coming by the boat, that he would wait for me. We talked about everything except what was on our minds until I reached the dock. We sat on the boat deck with no shelter from the light rain that, at times, increased and talked more while we finished the six pack. Mike didn't seem to notice that it was dark beer that we were drinking; he was on such a high over the evening we had shared.

The urgent news, which he withheld until I arrived at the boat, was that my wife was trying to get in touch with me. In her attempt to reach me she had spoken to Marian who had relayed the news to Mike. My wife was filing for a divorce.

"Did you get her number?" Mike ask as we parted.

"Get her number? Why, did it change?" I ask, thinking he was speaking of my wife on the other coast.

"Annie's number, did you get it?

"No, I didn't," I answered honestly.

"You idiot, I wanted to meet her," Mike said, totally disgusted with me.

I didn't tell him that Annie was not ready to meet him. "Not yet," she had said, "and I don't want to do that 'toe thing' again with him, ever!"

"Paul," he said as we reached my truck. I turned.

"What's with the red cloth?"

"Don't know," I admitted, waving goodnight to a very disturbed man.

Nor did I tell him that Annie and I had arranged for me to deliver the beer and cigars to Harmon Way at 5 P.M. the next day, after which we would spend the evening at my cottage on Justice.

"With No Mike, No Phone and No Toe Games!" as Annie put it.

'Now that's Justice,' I thought to myself.