Oyeur, a Duppy Story

Melanie couldn't be fussy. The job offer was too good, came too fast for her to make careful arrangements for a great place to stay. So she found something close. Okay, the neighborhood was a bit shady. There had been some flooding there and a lot of people had moved out in a hurry. But the big old Victorian had a lot of space. The landlady, Miz Louella, who lived two floors below, was quiet and polite and offered a really good price for the loft on the top floor.

"Does it have AC? I know it can get hot here in Bayou Goula midsummers."

"I have a window unit I can rent your for ... five dollars a month, what the hell. I only use it when my son visits, and he doesn't really come here...in person... much ... anymore."

"That's harsh."

"Yeah, well, he dated the gal who used to live up there where you will be staying. Nice girl, if a bit moody. Kept the place neat. Yeah. They were really into each other before the flood."

"Whoah, that could be a game changer. Does it flood here often?"

"Not any more. They did a whole thing with new dikes on this side and natural flood marshes instead of fields on the other. Should be fine now."

"That's good. That's good, though I can't be fussy. I need to start work, like tomorrow, and I mean tomorrow."

"Good, good. And ... Melanie, is it? Yeah. Well, the place is basically furnished; like I told you on the phone. Table, chairs, beautiful old four poster, with canopy. Old leather couch my son got for .... a steal. Those stained glass kinda lamps ...other stuff, kitchen stuff. You let me know and I will see if I have anything in the garage you need, or where to get it at the Goodwill, or the pet shelter charity thrift. I even put a few basics in the fridge, as how you were coming in late. Oh, here's the key. Stair's over there. Anything else? I'm sure you're pooped after your trip. Oh, oh, there's an old codger, Mr. Bemis, lives on the second floor. Plays that music of his. Too old to bother anybody, but be nice and don't stomp around a lot after midnight. What else? Uh, that's pretty much it; except, of course, this is an old house and it creaks and burps and makes some funny noises, especially in a storm. But that's just Mabel's way. I call her Mabel 'cause I boughter from Mabel Jackson, Geechee woman, come down here and did readings and things. Left, just like that. Oh, nevermind, I'm blabbin'. I'll see you ... when I see you. G'night."

Melanie took the keys and headed for the stairs. They creaked. There was a very slow old, old blues tune coming from behind the second floor door.

The stairs up to the third were a little narrower and made of less fancy wood. Melanie unlocked the door at the top of the landing. It looked like there used to be a row of doors to smaller rooms, but they had been walled in, even though the door frames were still there. A very narrow stair at the far end probably led down into the kitchen. So these had been rooms for ... servants, probably, when rich folks lived in this neighborhood.

She opened the door to 'her' room. It creaked too. Of course it did, and the darkness inside was very...what...sort of...thick. She flicked the switch. It took two tries and there was a little spark inside the switchplate. She'd have to ask Miz Loella about that. Sure she didn't want any unexpected fires.

The room was...nice. Unexpectedly nice. The bed was big. Must have been a trip getting the big four poster piece by piece up those stairs. Firm mattress. Pretty homemade quilt with lots of colors in kind of a silver and black floral. Nice old vanity with a triple mirror. Sweet curtains on the windows in the dormers with a butterfly pattern. No, wait, surely those weren't bats? Pink and yellow and blue bats? Still, pretty. Nice view of the purple sunset through the live oaks and Spanish moss trailing down into the bayou. Big old tree right outside the window. Comfortable old leather wingback chair and wow, a tiffany lamp. Hmm, not so shabby.

Hmm, the bathroom was not en suite, not attached through a door from the room. Where was it? Surely she didn't have to go all the way downstairs? That might be a good reason to find another place. She peered out the door and down the slim hall. There were other doors. Ah. At the far end of the corridor there was one partly ajar; and she could glimpse...yes...a tile floor. So....

She crept down the hall and reached inside the door. Yes! Not only was it a bathroom, but it was a big bathroom with a mirror on one wall, a giant tub with lion's paw feet and an old fashioned 'commode'; the kind with the tank near the ceiling and pull chain. She flushed it just to hear the sound of the tank emptying. What the hell; a perfect time for a bath.

She rushed back to the room and retrieved her big bath sheet, the sleeping shorts and oversized T she liked so much. Soap and shampoo. And some lavender bubble bath. What the hell. At some point she would invest in a bathmat or fuzzy little rug, unless maybe the landlady had one. This was so, what? Rare. Yes, to be able to just hang out in her own bath and literally let her hair down. No roommates to worry about; their stuff on the sink or the floor. And the damn bathroom had a chandelier! Big and globelike and filled with glass droplets that caught the light and threw it everywhere, echoing from the mirror and landing on her. Bare skin all sparkly. Wow.

The water rattled into the deep tub; hot enough to steam. Yeah. She liked it that way. Hot enough to turn her skin a little pink. Slowly she lowered herself into the steaming water until it covered everything but her nipples. The thick pontoons on her chest insisted on floating. The pink buttons insisted on perking up as the cool air touched them. Wash some warm water over them sizzling with bubbles. Take a warm forearm and press the soft pillows to her chest. Rub the taught skin just softly.

Interesting how a warm spark appeared somewhere deep. Tender flesh inside grew tight, pulsed, fluttered. How nice to enjoy all these sensations; the mystery of the new place, combined with a sense of being home; worry and excitement about starting the new job, perhaps meeting someone. Her favorite fantasy arose—a man with impressive shoulders, a very slim waist and hard abs. A simple golden-brown treasure trail descending from his navel. Warm brown eyes seeing her and lighting up, growing soft. Large hands moving as though to clasp her waist. A subtle stirring in the fabric of his tight navy boxers.

Melanie gave a little cry; the smallest childish moan. No. Wait. She held her breath; literally bit her tongue. The sound was coming from somewhere else. Could it just have been air in the pipes? A radiator bleeding a bit of steam? The beams of the old house subtly settling. She listened.

There! There it was again. And again. A simple rhythm. A moan. A silence. A moan. A silence. Ah. It had to be pigeons, doves. Courting on a windowsill. "Uhooh,...uhooh,...uhooh." Yes, that had to be it. But funny how those simple coos seemed to be growing more urgent. The sound had the power to touch her; to create a small ache that needed... Or was it just the warm water and her own hands that had found that one spot at her center that triggered feeling in so many other places.

Was the sound getting louder? It seemed that way. Somewhere on the other side of the wall next to the tub with its pattern of birds flying above Chinese willows. But that was not an outside wall. Her fingers were beginning a regular dance. "Uhooh...uhooh." She was matching the dove cries with her own breath, her own voice. But that pressure on the second syllable seemed to be getting stronger. And yes, yes there was a second sound now, between each coo, a rasping voice, lower, more...urgent. "Uhaah...uhaah...uhaah."

She couldn't help it; she found herself tilting up her hips to meet each rasping tone and moan out the responding notes. The water began to plash in tiny tides against the high walls of the tub.

She laughed. Of course! The horny old bastard downstairs must be watching a porno. She would have to ask Miz Louella if the man was trouble. Would she get an honest answer? Right this moment she didn't care. The sounds of the invisible couple were strangely clear, as though the old fart's speakers were right against the wall between them. And the feeling in her inner thighs and tight in her core was growing strong enough that she knew she couldn't stop, even if they did.

Now there seemed to be actual rattling and squeaking of a bed!

Maybe Miz Louella's kids sneaked up to this floor to get down. Shit! The water was getting cold, almost, but not quite killing her buzz.

"Fuck it." She pulled the plug and let cold water drain out while whipping on the faucet and blasting hot water into the tub. Maybe the landlady would cuss her for wasting water, but this very second she didn't give a shit. And a happy accident had happened. When she pulled herself forward to turn off the faucet she managed to get her sensitive bits right under the jet and the feeling was exquisite. Lying in the empty tub, feet high on the tub rim, soft parts tilted perfectly under the thrum of falling hot water; she just opened.

And somehow the lovesong of the phantom couple was louder, echoing into the great tub around her, fierce, even above the slapping of the water against her hungry skin.

And she couldn't be quiet. The sensations just dragged the sounds out of her: long, stretched out moans, hard, fierce panting growls, whining, cooing. "Who is the crazy bitch?" She thought to herself. "What the fuck is going on?"

And then for a long, long, long moment she couldn't make a sound, though her mouth and throat were wide open. And her vulva, red from the hot water and the excitement, opened too. Her belly was rigid. The magic water was jangling everything it touched.

Waiting...waiting....

And then the dam burst.The couple through the wall was reaching their climax together. Her bugle-like moans; his ferocious growls, the sounds inside her now, jamming and flexing again, and again...and again, as the hot love just flowed endlessly out of her, leaving her limp on the porcelain, the water beating a tattoo on her exhausted belly.

When she was strong enough she turned it off.

The house was silent except for the gurgle of the water escaping. She was shaky as she stepped from the tub. The fluffy towel brushing her tender skin made her catch a breath. The cloth of her sleeping shorts and T made her aware of her sensitive nipples and delicate lower lips. She was so sleepy. She tiptoed back to her room and collapsed without even toweling her hair dry. She was going to have a wicked bedhead in the morning.

Just before she blanked out she managed to set her phone for a wakeup. Then she dove deep into her dreams.

She found herself wading through a deep, warm swamp, naked, with water just up to her nipples. She should have been afraid, but she wasn't. It was as though this was her place and she was free to go anywhere in a lively forest lit by a huge full moon and lots of fireflies. All kinds of creatures sang and chirped around her as she slowly moved through the thick water. The water was filled with little fishes, and she could feel them swirling around her, slithering across her skin and darting, very intimately, between her legs. She felt herself slowly growing aroused. Her skin was warm and her nipples tight and somehow...leaking. And the little fishes with wide, soft mouths kept swimming up and latching on to a nipple and sucking some cream from it. Every time this happened she felt a tightening in her womb and had to stop for a moment; listening to the crickets, and the peepers, and the fish as they churned the water.

It seemed as though the school of fish was pushing her gently along until the water became shallow and the bottom covered with the softest silt. She lay down in the shallows on the slippery bank as the fish seemed to go into a frenzy, competing to see who could take the essence from her breasts. And others now swarmed up between her legs, wriggling and wrestling against her tender tissues, rubbing against her swollen hot bead. Suddenly one swallowed it in its firm but tender mouth, tugging, twisting, and fluttering. She could hardly breathe.

She left her body.

High above herself she watched as the ripe young woman with the slick body shining in the moonlight, thrashed the water until the ripples ran far into the distance. An arching moment when she saw herself strain upward to meet the sky, both mouths open wide and spilling water.

Then she dove into deep darkness. But just before she disappeared she had an indelible sense that someone had watched it all.

...

"Ohhh!" She woke, staring into the dark. Curiously, the sensations of her dream were still on her. "Ohhh!" Wait. Was that her own voice or.... "Ohhh!" It came again in both senses of the word. She could feel the woman's voice in her chest, in her womb, as though it were her own. Was it her own?

She sat up. "Ohhh!!" She was over there. But where? Somewhere beyond the far wall. Was it Miz Louella herself? Did she bring a fancy man up here and frig him hard in the hall? But no. The sound was coming from over there. Small closets tucked under the sloping eaves of the roof. Perhaps it was the pigeons courting on the rooftop above. Tomorrow she would have to investigate; peek out the thin windows above the cupboards to see if....

But sleep was descending on her hard. Had she set her phone alarm? Not good to be late the first day.... Gone.

...

"Dee doo! Dee doo! Dee doo!" The phone was right on her ear. But coming awake was like rising from sixty feet deep. And something...?

"What the fuck?" Grabbing the phone she realized she had fifteen minutes to get ready. At the same time she realized she was sopping wet. Not just the back of her neck or between the boobs, as if the room was too hot. (She really needed that air conditioner.) But, no, it wasn't just hot room wet. Her belly was slick, yes but below it....Damn! She was soaked! And aching for some kind of touch. That session in the tub had really primed her. Now, when she was supposed to be concentrating on what would be required of her as a new junior CPA, in a brand new job....

She touched herself and almost cried out. Her labia were swollen and her clit was painfully stiff. She just needed to....No. Not now. "Oh, please, now." No. As it is she would have to skip breakfast and start the first day of work with almost no makeup and a rough pony tail. "Just a little...." No.

She forced herself to clamber out of bed. Swiped herself with deodorant, and put on two pairs of underwear. Pants? Skirt? Pants? Skirt? What the hell, skirt. Sports bra. "Ooh, that right nip needs a little...." No. Soft blouse. Ah, a soda from the mini fridge. And, what the fuck? Miz Louella had left some danish. Yes. Okay, okay, get the hell out. "Rub one out when you pee?"

No. No, come on.

She sat there on the cold porcelain, twisting her full hair up into a scrunchy, and .... Damn it! If whoever had a secret trysting place wasn't squeaking the bed again this morning. Just, just, just so she could barely hear it but.... Was that a little cry? Stop, stop, stop. She made herself ignore the sounds, her body, even her breath.

Get. To. Fucking. Work.

Thank the gods for the super simple commute. A pretty view of the river off to the left and here she was in the office park. Easy peasy. The receptionist smiling and giving her the intake packet. A sassy co-worker named Abigay showing her to...really? Not just a cube, but her own office. Okay, it was tiny, but it had a window looking out to a green area under some live oaks. And state of the art equipment. Wow. Whoof. Here she was. She had done it!

"How do you like your coffee?" Miz Sassy at the door.

"Just a splash of milk and...is there any chance there is a touch of cinnamon in the house?"

"Ooh, a woman after my own taste. You bet there is. Coming right up."

It would have been the easiest of starting days. Her boss, Miz De LaTouche was respectful of her skills. The other staff accepted her as an equal and were helpful about how things were done. Lunch of po' boys at the place across the street was delicious, and a chance to get to know the crew. But. But her body wasn't letting her alone. That 'itch' that had been there when she woke up was still there, aching to be scratched. What could she do? She sat on her foot as she worked. But no, she couldn't very well rub one out in the Ladies. So while her head was cool and almost totally focused on getting the new routine, her body was screaming, "Do me!" She could only hope it wasn't too obvious in the way she walked, or smiled at the more attractive men (oh, and women!)

This was impossible. But she did her best to ignore the throbbing, and the sound of the pigeons on her window sill spinning in their mating dance, and the too sexy song in the elevator, and the dark eyes and curly hair of the waiter at the lunch place. And, damn it, don't watch the clock, waiting for the work day to end so she could rush back to her place, and tear her bra off, and .... Shhhhhhh!

It was just possible to get work done. But she had to glue herself to her chair and make sure she didn't walk past D'Shawn in sales or spend more than a second checking out how his crisp white shirt stretched across his back, and...nice belt with some turquoise studs on it and...below the belt when he bent over to talk with Shirleen, he....Stop.

She tried not to rush out of the building at the end of the work day, but somehow it seemed to be very important to get to her car by 5:17. And she tried not to rush through traffic. She kept her hand off her horn, even though everyone seemed to be going wherever so slow. But when she got to the house she tried to get right upstairs without any chitchat. Only there was Miz Louella who wanted to know how her first day at work went, and whether her commute was tough, and if she wanted a cup of tea. And so she couldn't really brush the woman off, and the cookies were delicious and it was a chance to ask about the noises. Only, how was she going to put it?

"Um, I had a little trouble getting to sleep because...how do I put this? I mean, I don't want to offend...maybe you had a guest...."

Miz Louella shook her head over her cup of tea.

"Well, someone...maybe it was Mr. Bemis...was...making quite a bit of noise. I don't know, maybe it was a show or a recording. But it was...sort of ...racy."

"Why, what do you mean dear?"

"Well, I heard a woman, and maybe a man too, and they seemed pretty...excited. Just on the other side of the ...wall."

Miz Louella was shaking her head and 'tutting'.

"Mm-mm-mm. Well, we do have some lively neighbors, and the walls are pretty thin in these old places."

"So, you heard them too?"

Miz Louella's eyebrows went up.

"I have heard some carryin' on, now and again when I was having a little ...nap on that comfy bed of yours...or once or twice while taking a long hot bath...like you did last night...."

"Oh I'm so sorry! I knew I was using too much water. It just took a while to get it really hot like I like it when I'm trying to relax, and yesterday just went on and on...and I was..."

Miz Louella was patting her hand. "Now you don't fuss dear. I know it sometimes takes a little extra to get as loose as you need to. I use that tub now and again when I don't have a tenant, and indeed it is a fine place to...relax after a long day. Now you just run along. I'm sure you will want to unwind by yourself after this stressful day. Nev' mind the ghosts."