Painting Pearls

"Okay, let me read you what I got," Carrie said when Priscilla got off the phone.

"Post it," Priscilla agreed. "And get dressed; we're going to take a look at that compressor you got."

"Ten minutes," Carrie begged and resumed her frantic slashing with the charcoal.

"Now, Carrie," Priscilla ordered after fifteen minutes had elapsed.

"You know, if you got a van, I could put your logo on the side," Carrie said as they drove to see the air compressor.

"And I'm going to need..." Priscilla mused. "Get on it."

"You know, you sure are bossy," Carrie teased. "Carrie do this, Carrie do that. Carrie get dressed, Carrie get in the car, Carrie get me some employees, Carrie, Carrie, Carrie."

"Carrie get out," Priscilla replied, lightly tapping the brakes.

"You wouldn't dare," Carrie laughed happily.

"How you know?" Priscilla asked.

"You didn't kick me out when I wouldn't shut up. You're not going kick me out now that we're lovers," Carrie affirmed.

"Hate when you're right," Priscilla smiled and pulled up to the address Carrie had punched into the GPS.

"And there's a two thousand four Chevy cargo van, one hundred ninety four thousand miles, oh! You're not going to believe this," Carrie said, looking up from her phone.

"What?" Priscilla asked, turning off the car. "It's free?"

"I bet that's it, right there," Carrie said, pointing to a white Chevy cargo van.

Priscilla drove the van home while Carrie followed in Priscilla's compact car. Priscilla parked on the street while Carrie pulled into the garage. Priscilla walked up then watched as Carrie lowered the garage door.

"Carrie, I, you got my keys," Priscilla yelled through the garage door.

She went to the front door and knocked.

"Who is it?" Carrie called out.

"Open this door, right now," Priscilla ordered.

"Open this, I don't know anyone named 'open this door right now,' what are you selling? We don't need any," Carrie said.

"Damn it, Carrie, open the door," Priscilla laughed. "Come on, I got to pee."

"I swear to God, you, I don't, you," Priscilla said, striding quickly to the door of the bathroom.

"By the way, we got four applications; when you want to interview them?" Carrie yelled through the bathroom door.

"Good God; we just, you just posted that, didn't you?" Priscilla spluttered.

"Hey, there's a lot of college students out for the summer semester," Carrie said as Priscilla opened the door. "Now, you get naked? I got an idea I need to sketch out."

"You, you want to paint me?" Priscilla asked.

"Why not? You're the most beautiful woman I know, oh, put on them pearls, okay?" Carrie enthused, dashing to the office.

"No, Carrie, you, you're the most beautiful woman I know," Priscilla said, unbuttoning her blouse.

"Handy Sandy, what's the word?" Chad smiled when Priscilla walked into the store the next afternoon.

"Okay, I need twenty gallons of Marble blue," Priscilla read from her small notebook. "Give me eight, shit, make it ten of the angled scrapers, five of the skinny ones, I'm going need some more coveralls, um, a dozen ought be enough, the painter's caps, interior paint, what would you recommend? Oh, and I got some cards in case any of your clients ask you who you'd recommend do some painting."

"What?" Chad asked.

"Pearl Painters, in business," Priscilla smiled. "Chad, coming in here was the smartest thing I ever done. And I promise you, I won't buy my paint from anyone else, hear?"

"We shake on that?" Chad smiled and hugged the woman instead.

Priscilla got three of her crew busy on scraping the weathered old paint from 216 Conway Road. Then she drove the other two young ladies to the new construction site. Under her supervision, the two attractive girls prepped the area for painting.

"Carrie," Priscilla said into her cell phone. "Get dressed and run over to Chad's and get that Honda generator he's got. Yeah, there's no juice here for the compressor."

"Get dressed?" one girl whispered to the other.

"That tape flush? That tape don't look flush," the other girl commented.

"Hey, guys, they're pretty girls. I bet you seen pretty girls before," Donnie Wright, the second in command yelled at his laborers. "Come on, heads out of asses, let's go!"

"But when Carrie came in, wheeling a heavy generator and Priscilla and Carrie kissed, Donnie was the one that walked into a half-opened door. Carrie laughed and gave Priscilla another kiss before dashing out of the building.

"And..." Priscilla said, cranking up the generator and starting the air compressor.

"Mrs. Trussaud, twenty four twelve Powell Street wants to know if we stain outdoor decks," Carrie said when a bone tired Priscilla entered the home that afternoon.

"Chad, how hard is it to stain an outdoor deck?" Priscilla asked into her phone. "Yes, the generator was perfect. What kind of wood, Carrie, what kind of wood is it?"

"Dinner's ready; I'll call Mrs. Trussaud and ask her," Carrie said, putting the dishes onto the table.

"Oh, I love pork chops," Priscilla enthused.

Four days later, Priscilla entered her home and smiled. A nude Carrie was pushing the vacuum cleaner around the living room. Her cute little buttocks wiggled and waggled as she pushed the noisy appliance.

"I had some dreams, they were clouds in my coffee, clouds in my coffee and..." Carrie warbled horribly, then screamed bloody murder when Priscilla reached out and squeezed a buttock.

"You know, I bet people would pay..." Priscilla said as Carrie pulled her ear buds from her ears.

"I almost had a heart attack!" Carrie screamed.

"...good money to have a naked girl," Priscilla mused, walking into the kitchen. "You go to the store like I asked you to?"

"You heard me?" Carrie screamed. "I just about had a heart attack!"

"Well, it my fault you had your ear buds in?" Priscilla asked, washing the apple in the sink. "Thanks for going to the store."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, Carrie do this, Carrie do that," Carrie grumbled, grabbing a second apple from the bowl.

"Carrie give me a kiss," Priscilla ordered.

"Mm," Carrie cooed as Priscilla's tongue entered her mouth and Priscilla's hand squeezed Carrie's buttock.

"Pearl Cleaners. The girls are naked," Priscilla suggested.

"No. Absolutely not," Carrie said, biting the apple. "Priscilla, you're busting your butt getting Pearl Painters up and running and you want to add even more stress?"

"Shut up," Priscilla said, which let Carrie know she was right.

"I sold one of my paintings," Carrie casually announced. "The 'Big Red?'"

After Priscilla left to go to another job site, Carrie felt the sting of tears. Priscilla was pulling in thousands of dollars each month; at present she had four jobs. Yet, Priscilla's happiness over Carrie's sale of one painting for a few hundred dollars had been genuine, Priscilla's praise had been enthusiastic.

"Pearl Accounting," Priscilla announced, coming home from the offices of Childress, Couvillion and Cohen Accounting.

"Problem?" Carrie deduced.

"They shove me off onto Mindy Cohen. Why? Because she's Asian. Damn it, yes, I'm Filipino but really?" Priscilla yelled. "And that bitch, Cheryl Couvillion? Lives right across the street? Right there, right across the street, sitting there giving me the stink eye whole time."

"Why you didn't just let me take it in?" Carrie asked. "Uh? Kind of why I'm here?"

"Get dressed; we're going to Carlisle's tonight," Priscilla ordered.

"No. You get naked; I've got a rib roast in the oven already," Carrie ordered.

"I, that's, God! Wonder what she wants?" Priscilla asked out loud when her mother's phone number popped up on her phone.

"Know how you can find out," Carrie said, moving on to another easel. "You seen my pastels? Damn it, Priscilla, Sweetheart, don't be moving my stuff, huh?"

"Yes?" Priscilla asked, pointing to where Carrie had put her pastels.

"Priscilla? I, the transmission on my car blew up," Carmen said, close to tears. "And then termites? They all up in my house; I need..."

"You go to college?" Priscilla asked.

"What? Priscilla, I'm your mother," Carmen snapped. "I got no time you play..."

"You go to college, maybe they teach you not to be big bitch to your daughter," Priscilla snapped and disconnected the call.

"Go take a bath," Carrie said softly, seeing the bitter tears in Priscilla's eyes. "I'll come get you when the roast is ready."

"Leave the phone," Carrie ordered as Priscilla silently got up from her desk.

After a not very soothing hot bath and a delicious meal, Priscilla pulled Carrie into their bedroom. Carrie didn't complain as Priscilla bit and pinched and even slapped her. Then Priscilla collapsed in tears and Carrie held her until Priscilla fell asleep.

In the morning, Priscilla went out onto the back patio and did her yoga. When she came in, Carrie was up and preparing a breakfast of yogurt, granola and fruit.

"Baby, I, I'm sorry I was so..." Priscilla tried to apologize.

Carrie silenced Priscilla's words with a kiss. She silently guided Priscilla to sit down at the kitchen table.

"Your mother will be here at nine," Carrie said. "I invited her to stay in the guest room until her house is ready."

"She, you, Carrie, you did what?" Priscilla screamed, outraged.

Carrie placed the breakfast in front of Priscilla. Priscilla swept the dish onto the floor where it shattered. Carrie shook her head and silently began to pick up the shards.

"You, you get out. Get out of my house!" Priscilla screamed at Carrie. "You, you had no right, Carrie."

"She's your mother," Carrie said quietly. "You, you'll only have one mother."

"Did you hear me? Get out!" Priscilla screamed.

"You know how to get in touch with me," Carrie said, dropping the pieces into the garbage can.

"You had no, you had no God damned right," Priscilla screamed as Carrie silently left the kitchen.

"You keep saying this is my house too," Carrie said, now dressed in her customary long sleeved tee shirt and baggy jeans.

"It, I, not, God damn it, Carrie, yeah, yeah it is, but still!" Priscilla sobbed. "You had no right, you had no right."

"Maybe I didn't," Carrie said, pulling Priscilla into an embrace. "But, Sweetheart, Sweetheart, you, this is your chance to mend the broken lines."

"You can show that silly, stupid, unreasonable mother of yours that, even without college, you are a success," Carrie whispered into Priscilla's ear.

"How would you like it if I invited your dad to come here?" Priscilla asked.

"I'd love it. But, since you're nothing but a dumb cunt, who in the fuck would trust any animal that bleeds for seven days and doesn't die, he'd never come. I'll never get to show him, even though I'm this ugly kid, I managed to get someone to love me, I'm managing to make it just fine without him or a man just like him running my life," Carrie said.

"You, you're not ugly; you're the most beautiful woman I've ever seen," Priscilla whispered.

"And you're the most wonderful woman I've ever seen. And every minute your momma's here? All she's ever going hear out of me is how wonderful and perfect and smart and beautiful and wonderful you are," Carrie promised. "I swear, by the time she leaves here? She'll be sick of hearing about you."

"I'm still mad at you; you had no right," Priscilla said.

"Want me to make you breakfast?" Carrie asked.

"I ate yours," Priscilla admitted.

"Bitch. Go to work; how is Ms. Fullilove's deck coming?" Carrie asked, digging an apple from the bowl.

""God! She, that woman's nuts, you hear?" Priscilla said. "But I got Kelli and Joanne out there getting it taken care of."

Priscilla walked into the home at six thirty; she'd put off coming home as long as she could, and heard giggling and laughing coming from the kitchen. She could also smell pork chops cooking.

"You Pearl Painter? Why you not tell me you Pearl Painter?" Carmen demanded.

"Ms. Perez, I already told you," Carrie said firmly. "She tried to tell you. She tried to tell you but all you wanted to hear is she was going to college."

"Yeah. What she said," Priscilla agreed.

"And she say you hire all college students; they all come work for you, my daughter," Carmen continued.

"Go get changed; dinner's just about ready," Carrie ordered.

"Sorry I'm late," Priscilla mumbled to Carrie.

"No you're not," Carrie smiled. "I knew you'd drag it out as long as you could."

Over dinner, Priscilla listened as her mother told Priscilla all about Priscilla's successes as an entrepreneur. Carrie had even made a cheesecake for dessert; a rarity in the home. Over dessert, Carmen continued to sing the praises of Priscilla and Pearl Painters.

"I'm sick of me," Priscilla whispered into Carrie's ear as they lay in their bed. "How long is she going to be here?"

"She lost her job at Roselawn Furnitere last week," Carrie replied. "Then her car blew up and there's all kind of termites in her house; thank God it's a rental. But, Priscilla, she's got nowhere to go."

"That didn't answer my question," Priscilla sighed. "How long's she going be here?"

"Two oh eight's up for rent again," Carrie suggested.

"What? What happened to...?" Priscilla asked.

"Skipped," Carrie said.

In the morning, Priscilla felt someone near her. She concentrated on her movements, concentrated on her breathing.

"You're very good at this," Carmen said when Priscilla finally stood up.

"Had a great teacher," Priscilla smiled as Carmen also got to her feet.

"Oatmeal," Carrie announced when mother and daughter entered the kitchen. "By the way, Priscilla, your mother needs a job."

"We're starting on the bank job this morning, just prepping it for when their ready," Priscilla agreed.

"Thank you," Carmen said sincerely.

"Thank you, Sweetheart," Carrie agreed.

"Why she call you Sweetheart?" Carmen asked her daughter when they got into the cargo van.

"Because we're lovers," Priscilla said and started the van.

"You, you a gay?" Carmen asked, mouth open in shock.

"Yes, I am a gay lesbian woman," Priscilla agreed, smiling.

"I am too!" Carmen squealed, laughing happily. "I know for years I'm a gay, but I'm thinking, 'oh no, how I tell my daughter? How I let her know I'm a gay?'"

"Wait a minute," Priscilla laughed. "Wait one stinking minute. You mean, you and Miss Lisa? You were..."

"Yes!" Carmen said happily.

"Oh my God. Oh. My. God!" Priscilla laughed.

"Pearl Painters," Carrie answered the phone. "Bringing color to your life."

"Hey, just wanted to say 'I love you,'" Priscilla admitted.

THE END

**Author's Note: I write these stories for my pleasure; I post them here for your enjoyment. I thank you sincerely for reading my stories. I especially thank those that take the time to leave comments, good and bad. I also thank those that take the time to rate my works, and those that 'Favorite' my words.

Leroy Burns is a minor character in 'Eyes like the Ocean' in the Anal category.

Paula Kim, the nurse is a character first introduced in 'The Garbage King' series in Novels and Novellas category.

Carrie Hebert is a minor character in the 'Edge Of Breaking' series in the Lesbian Sex category. She is the younger sister of Nancy Faye Hebert, now Nancy Taylor.

Zeke and Henry, Priscilla's neighbors in 208 Conway were briefly mentioned in 'Cast Adrift' in the Incest/Taboo category.

Cheryl Couvillion, the unfriendly blonde neighbor that won't even wave to Priscilla and then gives Priscilla the stink eye when Priscilla is in the office of Childress, Couvillion and Cohen Accounting is a main character in 'Eyes Like The Ocean' in the Anal category. She is unfriendly to Priscilla because Daniel Couvillion, Cheryl's husband has a little bit of an Asian Fetish.

Austin Childress of Childress, Couvillion and Cohen Accounting is a character from 'Escaping Curtis Brown' in the Transgender & Crossdressers category.

Mindy Cohen, Priscilla's CPA is a minor character in 'Bryce In The Park Bathroom' in the Transgender & Crossdressers category.

Have a swell day. And some of you, have a swollen day.