OND

Mary remained unflawed and professional. "Mabel despite you thinking you belong in the big city high society, and your fancy clothes and car, you are every fucking bit as country as I am. We went to school together, we played together and we grew up together in the same small town. So get off of your high horse and let me explain what's going on."

I sat back down and she waited for a few moments and then began speaking again.

"The accounts that you have access to have been frozen temporarily," she said.

"I don't understand," I snapped. "That's never happened before. Why is my money frozen? Do you know how much money I have in this fucking bank?"

"Yes I do," she said sweetly. "Not a God damned dime. All of the money in every one of those accounts including the credit cards that you don't have on your person belongs to your husband, or if the information from last night was correct, soon to be ex husband."

"I don't know what is going on here," I snapped. "But Dave and I are still married. And we will be until the final decree. I'm going to get myself a great lawyer and in sixty days there will be no papers signed. Dave and I will be back together and all of you rednecks are going to spend a lot of time eating shit covered crow."

Mary started laughing. "What's so fucking funny?" I snapped.

"You should have left the last "R" out. Then we'd be eating you," she laughed.

"Okay," she said. "I've been told that if you came in I was authorized to extend you zero dollars and hand you the phone. Here's zero dollars," she gave me an empty bank envelope. And then she handed me the phone.

"Dave, I'm so sorry," I said into it.

"No you're not. Mabel you made your bed, now lie in it. Dave can't come to the phone right now," I knew that voice. It was my sister Janet.

"Janet you're not going to have my husband," I screamed into the phone.

"Why not, Mabel?" she asked. "He's going to make some woman in this town a great husband. Why not me?"

"Because you're my sister," I told her. "That's supposed to mean something."

"It means that I did call Mom and Dad in Chicago. I didn't tell them what a shitty thing you did to the man who loved you and supported you for over twenty years, the same guy who pays for all of Mom's expensive treatments there. I figured I'd let you tell them."

"Janet what are you talking about?" I asked.

"Dave needs some time away from you to get his head clear," she said. "So you're going to Chicago for two months. You can come back in sixty days for your day in court. You can also have one meeting with Dave at that time. Until then, Mabel, leave him alone. He's hurting badly enough as it is. I left you a bus ticket at the station, and a suitcase with some of your fancy clothes in it. I even left you twenty dollars to buy food during your trip. Go stay with Mom and Dad for a couple of months and think about what you did. Maybe when you get back he'll be ready to talk to you. Or maybe you'll be able to hook up with Jeff during that time."

"Thank you Janet," I said. "I really wish I could talk to Dave and work this out. But at least you've given me a chance."

"Don't thank me," she said coldly. "I'll be trying with all my heart to take him away from you."

# # # # # # # # # # #

That evening Janet made me a salad for dinner, lettuce, tomatoes and celery from her garden, with some chunks of turkey thrown in for protein.

"Great appetizer," I said. "What else are we having?"

"That was dinner," she said. "You're on a diet."

After dinner she washed all of the dishes and dragged me into the kitchen with her to rinse and dry them. Despite the fact that I fixed every appliance in town and had contracts with all of the major manufacturers, Janet didn't have a dishwasher.

"I don't want one," she told me when I mentioned it.

After that we sat on the porch and watched the stars and the night from her porch swing. When it got cooler she wrapped a blanket around us and we sat there swinging and talking. She got me to talk about everything that I was feeling. It felt really good to get a lot of that out.

She also told me a lot of things that I never knew about her. I had watched her grow up, but I guess there are things about the people we know and love that are secrets to all of us. Janet ran my computer repair division but she didn't have a computer of her own. She did have an iPad that she could use for email and internet service, but while at home she liked things to be uncomplicated. She was basically a country girl who'd been educated in the city.

Mabel on the other hand wanted every modern day convenience. She only kept things until a newer model came out. The more complicated something was the better she liked it. Mabel had never worked a day in her life. She saw herself as belonging in a faster paced modern city and thought that life here was boring. Maybe being in Chicago was the best thing for her.

When it was time for bed, I grabbed the blanket we'd used on the porch and headed for the couch.

"What exactly are you doing?" Janet asked.

"I'm going to sleep," I said.

"Our bedroom is upstairs," she snapped.

"Janet I've already taken advantage of you, far more than I should have," I began.

"God what a moron," she smirked. "Okay last night we slept together. True, you were drunk, but I wasn't. You've already fucked me more than once. If you don't want to have sex with me that's fine, but why do I have to suffer?"

"What do you mean suffer?" I asked.

"Last night for the first time, I got something that my sister has had for half of her fucking life. I went to sleep wrapped in the arms of someone who cares about me. I was so happy that the first thing I could think of to do this morning was to...Well you remember. Anyway, I know that you didn't mean what you said last night and I'm not holding you to it. But I'd really like to sleep with you at least next to me for a few more nights. There's no need for me to be here alone in my little house, while you're rambling around in that supermarket you and Mabel called home, alone too."

She looked over at me and smiled, "I won't bite ya, unless you want me to. I won't put any pressure on you. We'll keep things casual, we'll just be friends. I promise."

I followed her up the stairs remembering what her body looked like without the clothes. As I lay there that night listening to her breathing as she snuggled up beside me, I tried to compare sleeping next to her with her sister. I don't know what I came up with because when I woke up the next morning she was pulling me out of the bed.

"Come on sleepy head, it's time to get up," she said.

"Whuh," I said. "What's for breakfast?"

"Dirt," she said smiling."We're going out to exercise. No breakfast until we get rid of some tummy."

I got out of bed and she had a pair of sweat pants and a t-shit laid out for me. I dressed as she sat there smiling at me.

"Don't forget your running shoes," she smirked. I bent over and pulled the shoes on. I noticed that she had on flip-flops.

"How are you going to run in those," I asked.

"I'm not," she smirked. "I'll be riding my bike. I'm going to work out with you but I don't need as much as you do. You already like my legs and my ass so I'm fine there."

We got out of the house with me complaining all the way. It was barely light out. "We're going to run down to the diner for breakfast. You get a glass of freshly squeezed juice, two strips of bacon, a half a piece of lightly buttered toast, and a half of a grapefruit," she said.

"That's all," I growled.

"That's not the bad part," she smirked. "It's six a.m. your breakfast will be there until six-twenty. The diner is two miles away. If it takes you longer than twenty minutes to run there you don't eat."

"What happens when I get there?" I asked.

"Then you and I have a nice breakfast together, then we run back home, do our morning exercises then we take a shower and go to work. You have a short day planned then we come back here to start that other thing."

"What other thing?" I asked.

"We'll talk about it when we get to it. Get your ass in gear or you don't get breakfast," she smiled.

I started running. Ten minute miles were fairly easy, so she had a good plan. Every week we'd shave off a minute until I couldn't keep up with it. That meant that every week I'd have to get faster by thirty seconds each mile. That meant that by the end of the fourth week I'd be at the fastest I'd ever run, eight minute miles. I didn't know what would happen then but for now I just wanted my breakfast, so I ran.

Any time that I lagged or tried to relax Janet would get ahead of me. Just the sight of her delectable ass in those shorts made me want to run faster. When we got to the diner, Rose, the waitress there smiled at us and pointed to our table. She looked at the clock on the wall and we had thirty seconds left before we'd have starved.

Janet told me how proud she was of me. She kicked her flip-flops off under the table and ran her bare feet up and down my sweaty legs. She seemed to enjoy touching me any chance she got. That was so different from Mabel and the way she only touched me if we were having sex.

I noticed how all of the guys in the diner stared at Janet in her workout clothes. The strange thing about it was that when Mabel dressed up she did it so that people would notice her and she had to prance around and make sure everyone saw her. Then she had to point out to me that there were people looking at her. Somehow Janet made sure I knew that I was the only one whose opinion mattered to her.

We returned home a lot slower. When we got there and I was ready to drop, she looked at me and said, "Oh no cowboy, we're not done. Sit ups and pushups, we've got to get that upper body in shape too."

Janet's concept of sit-ups was bizarre. I lay down on the floor and bent my knees. She straddled my legs sitting on my feet and holding my legs to give me leverage. As I made it up each time she kissed me. I only made ten that first time then I fell out.

"Come on one more," she crooned. "I'll make it worth your while." I looked up at her.

"I can't do it Janet," I said.

"Come on," she said. "You'll like it."

I started pulling myself upwards with my gut straining all the way. I was going to give up until I looked at Janet and noticed that she'd taken her shirt off. My eyes got bigger and I pulled myself through the last bit just to ask her why she'd done that.

When I was almost up she grabbed me and pulled me the rest of the way. "I knew you could do it," she said. Then she kissed me but this one wasn't just a peck like all the others were. She stuck her tongue in my mouth and held me against her breasts. "You can do anything you set your mind to, Dave," she said. "I really believe in you."

I was feeling warm all over.

"Push-ups," she said. "I need ten."

Janet's push-ups also involved kisses. I got in pushup position over her and every time I had to lower my body down until our lips made contact. Then push up away from her. As out of shape as I was I only made six but she was still proud of me.

"Wait til you see what you get when you can do twenty," she said.

I was even more exhausted. "But you didn't work-out," I said.

"I got all hot and sweaty watching you, honey," she smirked.

Then I went up to her bathroom to take a shower. I was getting ready to soap myself off when the shower door opened and Janet stepped in.

"Relax, you don't have to do anything you don't want to," she said. "I'm just saving time and saving water."

After our shower we went to work. Over the past few years I'd had meetings with all of the staff every morning anyway. That way we'd know what we had to do about staffing and check to see if any of the areas like Farm equipment repairs or appliances or computers needed more people or were not busy and could possible help someone else out.

I generally handled anything weird and there were a couple of customers that liked me to handle their repairs personally. After the meeting I thanked everyone for handling everything while I was off the previous day. They were all very supportive and let me know that I should take more time off. I got ready to pick my repair and found that I was already scheduled. My repairs were on a machine that was already down in my shop. I went down there and before I could turn on the lights, the door slammed closed and I was pushed up against the wall roughly.

# # # # # # # # # #

When I got off the bus in Chicago, I was beyond pissed. Janet had a hell of a sense of humor. None of the clothes that she put in the suitcase would work together. In the bus station's restroom I'd opened the suitcase and tried to change into another outfit to replace the wrinkled dress I wore. I found several pairs of casual slacks that would be perfect for the bus ride. Unfortunately she hadn't included any tops that would match them. The few tops that she did put in were great tops but went with skirts or under other tops. The other problem was that they were all very loud colors. Then she didn't pack any stockings for me only socks. None of which matched any others. The same thing with shoes, she gave me six shoes, four of which there were no matches for, and the last two were ridiculously high heeled and very un-sturdy. They were perfect for a cocktail party or a theater opening night, but for any occasion where walking might be necessary they sucked.

So I got a pair of loud yellow pants that were too tight, with an orange and purple striped shirt. I wore no stockings or socks with them and shoes that in this context made me look like a hooker. My bus was leaving soon so all I could do was to quickly try to dab the bird shit out of my hair. That meant I didn't get a chance to do anything to my make-up and wouldn't you know that Janet somehow forgot to send me any make-up anyway.

So I'm dressed like a circus clown come prostitute, with smeared Joker/transvestite makeup and the remnants of dried bird shit in my hair as I got on the bus. Guess what, it still didn't give me any privacy. As soon as the bus pulls out an old geezer gets up walks down three seats and plops his ass down next to me.

"How much for a blow job?" he asks so loudly that I was sure everyone on the bus heard him.

My life couldn't get any better. It was an eight hour bus ride. The only window on the bus that wouldn't open was the one that I was sitting by. Still the bus seat was even more comfortable than my bench had been, so I quickly fell asleep. I woke up to find that the old geezer next to me was pawing my boobs. I slapped him so hard he fell off the bench and then he started muttering to everyone that I was the only hooker he'd ever met who wasn't friendly at all. And I was over-priced. He also confided to the guy he sat next to that I wasn't worth it because my titties were squishy. The man really needed to learn how to whisper, because everyone on the fucking bus heard him.

When we got to the first stop, the driver made everyone get off the bus. I begged him to let me stay on the bus and sleep but he wouldn't. He told me we'd only be at the station for twenty minutes and I could sit on the bench out front and he'd pull right back up in twenty minutes and wake me if I fell asleep. So that's what I did. After my ordeal that night I was more tired than I'd ever been and my legs ached badly. I got off the bus dragging my suitcase with me and sat down on the bench right in front of the station. Sure enough I drifted off to sleep and the bus driver woke me a few minutes later. He was smiling at me when he woke me.

"Did another bird shit in my hair?" I asked.

"Nope," he smiled pointing down. Suddenly I noticed that someone's small dog was pissing on the leg of the bench I was sitting on and it was getting all over me. I moved my leg and he pointed to the sign I'd just sat down next to. When I first sat down I'd seen the sign, I thought it was the name of the station we were at.

In my condition I didn't feel the need to read anything that didn't say Chicago on it. The sign read, "Wet Paint."

I tried to get up only to find that my clothes were stuck to the quickly drying bench. The driver pulled me up tearing my shirt in the process. I didn't care anymore I just wanted to get to Chicago and start planning on how I'd get back with one of my men. The driver wouldn't let me sit down on the bus. He got a bunch of newspapers and put them on the seat to protect it from my paint splattered clothes. Then we got under way.

When we got to the station in Chicago, I got up, only to find that the newspapers were stuck to the back of my clothes. I just got up and got off of the bus. My mom and dad were there waiting for me. From the expressions on their faces I could tell that they were wondering what had happened to me.

My dad came over to me and then quickly backed away.

"Mabel you smell like cat pee," he said.

"Actually Daddy, it's dog pee, but it's a long story," I said. People at the bus station were smiling and laughing at my clothes and my face and of course the newspapers stuck to my back. My mother didn't say a word. Mothers always know. My dad was his usual self. He was laughing and smiling and trying to make conversation.

We were all shocked when the old geezer I rode part of the trip with came over and told my dad, "Hey buddy, I'd find another whore if I was you. Her blow jobs are too expensive, her tits are too squishy, she's mean and she smells like cat piss. I think she may have a disease. If you're that desperate for pussy there's plenty of whores around here, let that one go."

He walked away leaving my dad standing there with his mouth open.

Once we got into the car my dad asked me what the man was talking about. "Just a misunderstanding Daddy," I smiled.

Then my mother took over. "Mabel, what did you do?" she asked, looking at me like she could see sin.

"Mother, how do you know that I did something?" I snapped.

"Mabel if someone had done something to you, you would have told Dave first and he'd have handled it. That man loves you. He'd never let anyone hurt you for any reason. If Dave had done something to you, you'd have called your sister and then called us. Janet called us and told us to pick you up at the station. When I asked her if Dave was okay and if she was, she said that she was fine, and that Dave was hurting pretty bad but he'd be okay eventually. All of that adds up to you doing something. Now what did you do?" she asked.

Even my dad was looking at me. "Is it so bad that you can't fix it?" he asked.

"I'm not sure I want to fix it," I said. "Dave is boring, so I found someone else."

My dad jammed on the brakes so hard that I almost flew through the windshield. "What?" he asked. He just glared at me like I was stupid. Over the next few days I settled into life at my parent's house. They made sure to mention to me several times a day that they weren't exactly happy with me being back in the nest, even temporarily.

Their house was a three bedroom colonial. There was their bedroom, which they slept in. There was a second bedroom that they had turned into a gym or workout room. And there was the last bedroom which they'd turned into their home theater and media room. I slept in the living room in a sleeping bag on the floor because they'd spent eleven hundred dollars on a couch and Dad didn't want me ruining it.

On the third day I finally got in touch with Jeff. He answered the phone tentatively."

"Hello," he said in a very quiet voice.

"Jeff, baby it's me," I squealed. The line went quiet. Then someone else came on the phone. "Who is this?" she asked.

"This is Mabel Forrester," I said.

"Oh, the whore," she snapped. "This is Jeffrey's wife, or possibly his ex wife. I haven't decided whether or not I'm going to forgive him one more time. Did you know that Jeffrey is unemployed, has nowhere to live and doesn't own a car?"