Mom and Son Work and Thrive Together

Kris shrugged, and walked out taking his papers, Louise could hardly contain her anger, she was at a loss of what to do, but walking out wasn't an option.

The meeting was all about the progress or lack of it, each had a copy of the Gantt project chart and their own individual project charts.

"Does anyone know what a Gantt chart is?" Norman asked, people, nodded glancing around the table, not wanting to speak, with Norman you always expected a trap.

"Do you know, Louise?"

"Gantt was an American civil engineer, he introduced it about the time of the first world war, it's named after him." she added, in case Norman hadn't made the connection, there were a few low-key sniggers, quickly extinguished, she'd been told all this in a casual conversation with Lewis, there was a collective sigh of relief, thanks to Louise, "anything else you need to know?".

"Yes, are the 11kv cables going to the new substation installed?" Norman asked.

"Yes."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, and whatever you do, do not question me, when I say yes I mean yes!"

"Touchy."

She immediately regretted her outburst, she'd let him get to her.

"Got the paperwork?"

"No," silence reigned, "the assistant project engineer has it."

"Lawless, you mean?"

"No, his name is Darwen, just like mine, and yes, he must have it with him."

"Why haven't you got it?"

"Not my area, it's Mr. Darwen's."

Just then there was a knock, and Louise's pager went off at the same time, the door opened and Kris stuck his head around, "sorry to interrupt," he looked straight at Louise, "Control wants you to contact them, it's about the phasing test, they want you to partner me doing the test."

Louise was on her feet and gathering her bag and papers, and with a, "sorry everyone, but I am the 'authorised person' and we don't want the project delayed, do we," she was straight out the door.

"Why didn't you ask Kris for his Gantt chart," Dave asked, looking through the window at Kris and Louise driving off.

Norman slammed his pen down, it jumped off the table and landed nib down, on the tiled floor. He looked down and carefully picked it up, he stared at the broken pen and gave a groan.

Kris spoke in the car, "Control wants you to take the readings when I do the phasing test, then check they're correct, you're to phone them from the substation."

Control were busy with another problem and postponed the test to later in the day.

They returned from lunch and Louise posted warning notices forbidding unwarranted access and locked the doors. Kris was using a car-mechanic style trolley. He lay on his back on the trolley, and held the one-metre long phasing sticks making sure he could see the 11kV meter. He pushed himself into the cubicle using his feet. He called out the readings, and Louise wrote them down.

"If you do this correctly, you just might be on for a reward," she advised him.

"I guarantee everything's perfect," he replied, eagerly, smiling.

When he emerged, Louise told him she would check them, "you're not dressed for it," he told her.

"That's just one of the reasons why I locked the door."

She took his place on the trolley and tucked her skirt under her, Kris pushed the trolley into the cubicle, her panties were on show, the suspender belt straps lifted her panties away from her body, he'd seen her pussy often but the circumstances were different, they were inside an 11kV substation.

"Am I distracting you?"

He adjusted the bulge in the front of his shorts, "you might be," he agreed. He leaned down and made sure her skirt wasn't dragging on the floor. She read out the voltages, and they agreed with his test results, "perfect the only thing now is fit the breaker, and Control can carry out a remote closing procedure."

He sat on his haunches in front of her, the view was superb, "are you going to look up my skirt all day?"

He reluctantly rolled the trolley out until she could stand-up, she felt the bulge in his shorts, "now for your reward."

"No, it's time for your reward," he sat her on the desk and leaned her back, when he reached under her skirt she raised herself up, allowing him to remove her panties, she reached for them and placed them in her bag. He moved the chair so he could sit down between her thighs, and by leaning forward, his tongue made contact with her clitoris, she helped by holding her legs by the ankles and bending her knees, this gave him a clear run. He circled his index finger around her opening, she was becoming wet. He inserted first one finger, then another. Synchronizing his fingers and tongue, he had a perfect technique, and she reached a shuddering climax.

"How do you want yours," she expected him to say from behind, but no!

"I really liked the way you placed your hands on your ankles, it was kind of kinky, and I liked the voyeuristic element to it."

"Okay," and leaned back, she obligingly lifted her legs as requested. Kris shuffled forward, he could see her opening between the labia and guided his penis inside her without using his hands. He came quickly just as there was a loud knocking on the door.

They were both hurrying, trying not to panic, he had trouble putting his still erect penis back into his shorts.

"Don't open it yet," she urged, "I need to put my panties on."

Kris took them from her, and she leaned back while he maneuvered them over her shoes, she grasped them and pulled them up.

She could have remained commando, but as it turned out it was a good job she didn't.

As soon as she was ready, Kris opened the door to renewed knocking. It was Norman and Dave, "what's the problem, we've been knocking for ages?"

Louise responded, "Making everything safe, what do you want?" There was nothing friendly in her tone.

"We've come for the progress report, you were supposed to submit it this morning."

"Well, if you remember I had to leave," he reminded Norman, smiling at Louise. "It's in my van, I'll get it after the testing is finished and leave it on your desk."

Norman gave a grudging, "okay."

Kris laid himself back on the trolley, he checked that the safety shutters were unlocked and would open when he fitted the 11kV breaker. Dave went to stand outside, but Norman stayed, bent at the waist to see inside the cubicle.

Louise had sat back on the desk her feet on the chair when the phone rang, it was on a shelf above her head and she had to reach and stretch, in doing so she splayed her legs to keep her balance, she showed the thigh above the stocking tops and the crutch of her panties.

Norman from his position, was the right height to see both into the cubicle and with a sideward glance, see right up her skirt, Louise was aware of this but could do nothing about it, and to avoid a scene pretended she was unaware.

Kris lined up the breaker to push it into the cubicle. Norman brushed him aside, "this is a job for a man not a trainee," Kris shrugged and looked to his Mother, she gave a knowing smile back and held her finger to her lips. Norman gave a push and almost went over the top, it hadn't budged, Norman hadn't properly tensed himself and appeared to be hurt. Kris pushed the heavy oil-filled-circuit-breaker in place making it appear effortless, "we need to stay well back in case it blows up, not that it will," he added.

Control operated the remote closing procedure, and it worked as expected, they repeated it twice more, and that was it, done!

Hearing the noise of the breaker opening and closing Dave looked around the door and piped up with, "we'd best be going then." Norman gave a nod and left holding his stomach.

"Kris, make sure you have a copy of your report and progress chart, Norman will probably hold on to it, and I'll get that memo back."

He recognised the sense of this, "will do, have you a copier in the school?"

"Not sure if it's been fully equipped yet, but it's worth a try, and I've got a set of keys," she drove off and he followed.

At her office she gave him the keys to the school, "I'll get the memo out of the waste-paper bin before the cleaners empty it, and I'll wait in Norman's office for you, if there's no copier drive back to my office in the Electric Division and use that," she gave him a further set of keys.

Louise found the memo still on Norman's desk, he'd placed it in an ashtray, apparently intending to burn it. She put the memo in her purse, the desk was covered in papers, Norman was unlikely to notice the memo was missing at least not straight away. She sat in his chair wondering what was keeping Kris. She decided to while away the next few minutes by looking through the drawers, there was three different bottles of spirit, all had been opened and were in various stages of emptiness.

Kris found the copier in a back office, he switched it on then went to search for paper in the stationery cupboard.

Louise had exhausted her search of Norman's desk drawers and was at the far end of the office looking at the large progress chart. She heard the door open and turned, to her horror, staring at her was Norman Barbour, "what are you doing here," she asked stupidly?

Norman looked at the door and pointed to the sign bearing his name, "what the bloody hell do you think I'm doing, it's my office, more importantly, what are you doing, I told that useless son of yours to bring the report not you."

Louise kept her temper in check, and tried not to respond with too much aggression.

"It turned out the report was in my car, not his van, when I realized I told him I'd bring it."

He looked at his desk "so where is it?"

She took a deep breath, "as it happened I couldn't find it, I was going to leave you a note, letting you know."

Norman mulled this over, he checked the car park, he couldn't see Kris's van, parked out of sight behind the training school.

Kris checked his watch, the copier machine was taking ages to warm up, suddenly it gave out a welcome ping announcing it was ready, he gave a sigh of relief, Louise would be wondering what was taking so long.

Louise had more on her mind, it was Norman's threatening approach, she moved back until she was against the wall chart.

"Well Louise, thanks to you we're quite alone, what do you say, should we take advantage?"

"Come on Norman don't do anything silly, move out the way."

"I don't think so, in fact, I think you came here for sex, that's what I'm going to tell everyone Louise, it'll be your word against mine, and also, where's the report?"

"I've just explained, now let me go."

Norman looked across the desktop, "where's the note explaining about the report, there's nothing here." Louise was beginning to feel trapped and desperate, Norman was a strong man, a brawler in his youth who still used his fists on people.

'Finally', Kris thought to himself, gathering the papers and stacking them neatly, hole-punched them and placed into a file. He locked all the doors as he left. He felt like whistling, so far it had been a perfect day.

Norman grabbed Louise by her wrists and held them above her head, "I won't ask for a kiss Louise,

I think we should just get on with the main act, don't you?"

"Norman, stop, think what you're doing."

"Shut up Louise, you've been a thorn in my side ever since I've known you, now it's time for me to get my own back, only I'll give you a prick, not a thorn," he laughed. She was about to scream but he put a hand on her throat, the other on her back pulling her on to him.

She managed to get a few words out, "this is physical assault, you leave me with marks it'll be the end for you, now stop and let me go."

He released his hand from her mouth and place them both behind her lifting her skirt, running his hands up past her stocking tops, "scream, no-one's going to hear you," he was caressing her through her panties. No matter how much she struggled it made no impact, his weight against her left her no chance, he paused and Louise thought 'thank God, he's seen sense, but to her horror she found he was releasing his penis, it pressed against her.

He had no trouble hooking his thumbs in her panties and pulling them down, she dreaded him finding her so wet from her earlier fucking with her son.

She felt his penis pushing against her vagina, she tensed her muscles but to no avail, it was forcing her labia apart, she closed her eyes, despairing.

Norman suddenly found himself unable to see then CLANG! Kris had upended the waste-paper bin over his head and was using a large solid-glass ashtray against it, Norman's penis subsided, no longer a threat to Louise. He let her go and attempted to turn towards, his assailant, the ashtray was causing dents to appear in the metal walls of the bin, he managed to lift it up, at last he could see, and saw the ashtray a fraction before it hit him in the forehead, it caused an injury which spurted blood, he couldn't see clearly with all the blood and the pain didn't help.

Kris held him by his collar and threw him across the desk, paper flying everywhere, Norman came to a halt with his head on his chair and his body on the desk, he'd momentarily lost consciousness.

"Are you okay?" Kris asked, his Mother was looking terror-stricken and mumbled she was. She was desperately pulling her panties up, "did he," even as he spoke she was shaking her head, "I'm okay."

Louise was shaking with anger and the adrenaline, "it was close though, he was going to rape me, oh God, look at the blood."

"We need to call an ambulance and put a story together," Kris placed his report on the edge of the desk, he noticed the mess of paper work on the floor.

"There's been an accident, there's a man unconscious," he gave the office number, "let's hope he comes around, and when he does he says nothing," he said to Louise.

Kris wiped his fingerprints off the ashtray, "I'll say I found him as I was delivering the report, you saw nothing, Okay!"

Louise nodded her agreement, "only one problem, his penis is out of his trousers."

"What's that got to do with us," Kris reassured her, "he was probably screwing someone and the husband found them, and he ended up like that," pointing to the semi-conscious body on the desk. Norman gave out a groan which was a reassuring to them both.

"Do we know what happened? No of course not, after all, I found him, you were in your office and saw nothing,"

Louise nodded, she was starting to go into shock, "go and sit in your office, I'll tell them you're upset and need to go home."

She agreed and silently shuffled off.

Kris turned to go back to Norman's office and breathed a sigh of relief when he saw Norman make an effort to stand up, his flaccid penis slipped back into his trousers, 'that's one problem solved' he thought to himself. Just then the ambulance arrived and they took over, Norman was able to walk into the ambulance.

"I think he tripped and banged his head, he was semi-conscious when I found him," he said it loud enough for Norman to take it on board, even in his befuddled state.

Kris spoke to Louise, "I'm going to tidy up the office, there's reports and Gantt charts all over the place."

"Is that wise?"

"Yes, I came to add my report, I'm just helping by tidying up." Kris cleaned the place with cotton-waste absorbing the blood, then he found Norman's keys and locked up.

He drove home in Louise's company car, leaving his van at the back of the school. Louise was eerily silent all the way back, clutching her arms around her, Kris figured any words of comfort would go unheeded so decided silence was the best medicine.

He walked Louise into the bungalow and sat her down on the sofa, he'd just made her a cup of black coffee when the company phone rang.

"Hello Control," he responded, it could only be Control but he knew all calls were recorded and maintained the formality.

"We have a call from Mr. David Hill, he's in the club, he's concerned about an accident at the new project site, he wants to see you."

Kris's heart was in his mouth, "Norman Barbour, he's had an accident, in fact I called the ambulance when I found him, is that what Mr Hill phoned about?"

"That's what Mr. Hill wants to talk to you about, can you meet him at the main gate?"

"Tell him 5 minutes, thanks Control."

He checked Louise was okay, she hadn't responded to the distinctive ring of the company phone which wasn't like her.

He told her about the call and she nodded an okay, "drink your coffee."

"I'll be okay, make out you know nothing and see what information you can get."

Kris cheered up at her comments, she was getting her act together.

The instruction to meet at the main gate was a euphemism for we'll talk about it over a beer, no personal messages were allowed over the company phone.

Driving and drinking wasn't the big no-no in the eighties, especially in Zambia where breathalysers were no longer available to the police. Kris walked into the main room and sat down at Dave's table, he reached for the beer Dave had bought him.

"So how is Norman?"

"There doing tests on him and I wasn't allowed to see him, good job you were working late, you and your Mother, he could have been there all night, you may have saved his life."

"Bloody hell, Dave, don't tell that to people, I'll be the most unpopular bloke on the mine, and another point, 'Mother' wants people to refer to her as Ms. Darwen or the Head of Department, Special Projects, though seeing as it's you, I'll allow HoD."

Dave took this in good humor, "it's our secret, but it's bound to get out, there'll be an accident report submitted and you'll be interviewed."

Kris exhaled noisily, "yeh, I suppose you're right, oh well, I'll tell you what though, that memo was from Norman, I don't know why he wanted to embarrass me or my," he was about to say Mother, but paused, "my HoD."

"Hasn't your M... strewth, I'm doing it now, your HoD told you?"

"No, and how about we refer to her as Louise, I do when we're not at work."

"Good compromise," Dave agreed, "Louise was two years ahead of Norman, and the graduates had to do classroom work with trainee artisans and technicians, it was to familiarize them with the abilities of their future workforce, Louise's job was teaching Maths, she was good at it too."

"You were in the same class as Norman, I take it?"

"Yes but I doubt if she'd remember me, I enjoyed the lessons too much to mess about, anyway it was our final year and the powers that be wanted people to be trained to a really high standard, higher than necessary, and that was Norman's downfall."

Kris took advantage of the pause to ask Meshach, the barman for two beers.

"Any way we all struggled, especially when it came to Calculus, we'd heard so much about it we were scared stiff, but, Louise put us all at ease and we started to get the hang of the simpler stuff, it helped our confidence no end." Dave took a sip of his beer.

"After that we did trigonometry and it was a doddle," he sighed, "except for Norman."

"So, all this hatred for Louise comes from his poor Maths?"

"No, not quite, Louise knew the rest of us were fully conversant with the subject, so Louise concentrated on helping Norman, but he took it the wrong way, and thought she was interested in him, he got a bit pushy and made inappropriate advances which were noticed by someone in the training school management, who reported him, what with him failing his exams and that on his record he was held back a year and moved to the mining side."

"Was that so bad?" Kris asked.

"No, he was in his element also it kept him away from other women employees, women aren't allowed to work underground."

Kris looked at him incredulous, "but the Zambia government is always going on about gender equality, how come?"

Dave drank from his glass and said, "no toilets."

Kris spluttered into his beer, laughing, "I didn't know that, I've never worked a full shift underground, just familiarization visits, I'm glad you told me."