Prolific: Farm Life Multiplied

Yee didn't understand, so Ann explained to her about the small towel, and then said to me, "That's not love, that's lust."

I shrugged and said, "It CAN be love. I do _love_ to watch butts. And... other things, I guess."

Just as soon as I said it, I realized I might have overstepped my bounds, so I walked it back a little with, "Sorry. I shouldn't have said that."

They both laughed and Ann changed the subject and we finished cleaning up the kitchen, into our new dishwasher.

So much of everything was unsettled around the house, it all had to be cleaned. Yee had found some of the utensils hadn't probably been washed in a long time, and the cookware, so it all had to come out of drawers and cupboards, in order, and notes put on the cupboards that had been cleaned so they wouldn't clean them twice.

Ann pointed out that Yee had noticed the spices weren't anywhere close to fresh and they'd have to find replacements in the garden or in the store. There were hand-labeled jars in the cupboard, she showed me, that said, parsley, sage, thyme, rosemary, mint, and other stuff I didn't recognize the names of.

She said, "Obviously home-grown. Smell!" I did, and those were smells definitely worth sampling.

Leaving them to their process, I went to the bedroom and started bringing out Agnes' clothes in trash bags. Problem was, it didn't feel right to put them in the trash or donate them.

Ann suggested I just put them upstairs on the third floor since maybe we'd have a better idea later, so I did. We had the storage space, thank goodness.

It seemed to me that in some sense Agnes was still in the house with us and always would be. I liked that, and maybe having her things stay there might keep that feeling going.

We still needed cleaning products for the bathroom. Ug.

I fell into bed about 9:30 pm, dead tired after so much work that day.

== Chapter: Surprise-Happy ==

Sometime during the night, I half-woke and moved, and felt another movement near me, maybe, but I was so asleep I it didn't really register.

Later, I half-awoke again, but this time I felt someone hugging me from behind.

It felt nice. It felt 'comfortable'. That word, it stuck. After, or as part of the ritual, I'd said that we'd "all feel comfortable with each other", and I felt that way, in bed like that. I didn't even know who was in bed with me, but it didn't matter. I felt comfortable.

I wasn't stupid. I wasn't going to turn around and look - that might make it stop!

I fell asleep again.

Later, I awoke again; I wasn't used to having someone near me in bed, even if I was only barely awake enough to notice it. The tertiary question was, 'which girl is it?'

I somehow doubted it would be Yee. She seemed more conservative than that, getting into bed with me without even talking or kissing. We weren't Doing Anything, but it was still really intimate, spooning like that.

So, that meant, probably Ann. Warm legs touched mine and curved up behind me to match my position. A warm chest against my back, but... not all of it. Just mostly the chest, not the stomach. So, if it was a larger chest, that would be another hint it was Ann?

I doubted any random person off the street would be spooning me.

Ann's lower hand felt like it was down, between us right near my butt. I thought, "Huh, lucky I wore underwear to bed," since sometimes I didn't. I then wondered if I would be more lucky if I stopped wearing underwear to bed.

The idea that something sexual might or might not happen because the girl didn't want to move past underwear, that somehow seemed important in that moment, but the more I thought about it, the more 7th-grade-stupid it seemed.

Sleep was very close, though, still - and I was warm and cozy and hugged... sleep...

== ==

Shifting with a start, I heard distant plates clinking from the kitchen, and opened my eyes. I was being snuggled, still, and as I came awake I got a tighter pulse-hug. Ann's voice was close to my ear. "Good morning, sleepyhead."

"Hmmmm...." I turned over slightly to be on my back. She shifted to be up against my side, a leg over mine and her arm over my chest.

I said, "Good morning back to you. I've - I've never woken up next to a girl before."

She looked at me like I was crazy. "You're... Oh. How old are you?"

"Just turned 18 in June."

She laughed, surprised, "You said you were a junior - did you mean in high school?"

"No, uh, yeah, I mean... Technically, I'm a year from my bachelor's, so that makes me a junior. But, I'm probably just going to go straight for a doctorate. Not sure."

She shifted, moving up my side and propping herself up on elbow so we could look each other in the face better. Her expression was confused. "Doctorate? In... what?"

"Double major in chemical and mechanical engineering. I thought about adding pure math or applied physics, but it's hard to make a living doing research, and I like making things."

I had no idea why I was being so honest with her. I don't think I'd had this kind of conversation very many times in my life. I usually limited it because people looked at me differently and I didn't like that. It was an odd thing to have a secret about, but I had lots of secrets, secret shames, and this was just one of the things I stuck away.

With Ann, though, I didn't think I'd have to worry, and that was kind of new. Unlike some of my Murphy Hall compatriots (the ones that were stuck up asswipes) and some idiot b-school dudes who were Just More Important Than You, I tended to steer clear of full disclosure.

Ann was different, though. Of course, we were rubbing legs and curled up together.

She thought for a moment to consider what I'd said, I think.

Feeling her naked body against mine, the skin just so delicious it was beyond my normal sense of what could be this good, I was overwhelmed and hugged her to me. Her skin under my fingers? So soft... so beautiful.

Getting lost in that was sooo possible... but soon my brain caught up again. Interrupting her reverie I asked, "I have a question for you... Why are you here? I mean, did I just win an invisible lottery somewhere? Things this good never happen to me."

Smiling, she moved to get her face closer to mine, looking between my eyes happily, but confused at me, too. She shook her head, no and amusedly rolled her eyes with a long sigh, then leaned in closer. She kissed me, at first a hesitant peck with eyes open (as mine were), but then more relaxed and languid, an exchange of emotion more than being the simple action at the start.

The kiss kept going, just calmly, we enjoyed the feeling of being together, our bodies getting some better-than-hugs. I'd been initially self-conscious about bad breath, but she didn't object, and I didn't have reason to.

We broke to have a breather and she lay against my shoulder. She said, "We should get up. Tons to do today."

I signed, "Some deliveries, I hope."

She started, jerking a little against me and I felt renewed happy-skin, her bare legs next to mine, every new movement of her skin against mine sent tendrils of beauty-sensation through me. The movement was delightful, but the words were just, "Oh! Yeah! The ... TV, and ... microwave, and... range hood?"

"Yep. I have no idea where the power for the range hood is coming from. No outlet nearby."

"Best get up." She turned around and pulled herself out of bed. As she did, her shirt rode up, and I could see a butt-crack and no panties.

Some parts of my brain went wonky. I blinked. Coming to my senses, I got up, too, realizing I very definitely had morning wood just about the time I stood up. My underwear - tightie-whities - bulged out in front and a bit of the top of my penis was poking out, so I had to try to pull them up farther, but it didn't work.

Ann noticed and tilted her head with a smile, but kept walking around the bed. "Morning wood I see. Huh. I'll take the bathroom first, give you a chance to calm down a little."

She went into the bathroom, but didn't shut the door completely. I hated that. I'd had a girlfriend who, when I went over to her place and we were kissing for a while, she went to the bathroom and didn't shut the door. It just seemed so low-class. I was disgusted and I think it showed when that girl had come back into the room.

That wasn't my only problem with that girl so I generally regarded that incident as a good thing.

Being a little older, though, instead, I just said, "Hey, so, Ann? From now on, if you're going to ... uh, tinkle... can you shut the door? It's ... kind of ..."

She said, "Oh, no! I'm so sorry. I grew up in a house full of girls. We didn't. I'll ... shut it, okay?"

The last part was actually a mis-formed request for me, so I did, and then went over to my newly-filled drawer of drawers and re-endrawered myself, then added shorts and a t-shirt.

After a flush and sink-splash the door opened again with Ann grinning up a storm. She walked out past me to a pile on the bedroom floor that I'd missed - her clothes, fresh, folded.

Some parts of this I filed away as, huh, she thought ahead, and other parts as, this wasn't an inspiration, it was deliberate. The concept of deliberate thrilled me because it meant I might have some appeal beyond the transitory jump-there-now concept of a fleeting affection.

Thinking this, I shut myself in the bathroom and did the required things, though when I was done a few minutes later, she'd exited the room so I dressed and followed.

Coming into the kitchen, I found that Ann was standing by the sink next to Yee. She had not, in fact, dressed. Or, she'd dressed and undressed.

Both of them were wearing relatively short t-shirts, kitchen aprons, socks, and shoes. And, that was it. No pants or panties! Two bare butts, slightly clenched in both cases with legs together, appeared under the back-ties for the aprons.

The girls were giggling up a storm and whispering to each other.

I stopped cold, open-mouthed in awe, and said, "In my entire life, I've never seen two bare butts... female ones, that is. I ran track, but that doesn't count. They were never... pretty ones..." I'm pretty sure my voice reflected the appreciation I had for the beauty in front of me.

They burst out laughing, falling over each other, but in the process, they stepped sideways slightly, then back again the way they'd been.

That movement made their legs step apart, and I caught a glimpse between their legs, and... it was pretty there.

Ann's butt, as she stood up again, trying to regain some composure, was shaped beautifully with convex-concave wide curves in the cheeks that belied nice muscles. More than that, though, as she stood there, I could see below that, a diamond-shaped open area at the top of her legs where her sex had some kind of mound-like presence... maybe. I couldn't be sure without going up behind her and looking closely, and I wasn't going to get creepy and ruin possible other side-stepping glimpses.

Yee broke first, loosening up and turning around, her apron-front covering anything that I wanted to look at. My free view of her was over, and so too was Ann's.

I said honestly to their faces, "I've dreamed about this."

Yee waved to the table, "Sir. Sit, please. Eat." She added, tilting her head down and her voice quieter, "And be loved."

I turned to look at her, and I don't know what came over me, but I bowed. I bowed deeply at her, and stayed that way for a moment. I don't know if it was the right thing to do, culturally, but it felt right. She'd said the previous day that it would be right to do that as long as I meant it as real respect. I definitely did.

She came up to me after we straightened up and gave me a hug, and then a kiss, a soft one, and it lasted as she pulled into me in a tiptoe-hug since she was shorter than I was.

We broke the kiss and I sat down. "Any more of that and I'll have the same problem I had this morning."

Yee wanted to know what I meant, so Ann explained 'morning wood' as a phrase, and I had to pretend I wasn't there so as not to offend anyone. Yee said there was a phrase in Korean for the same thing, but it was, Morning Tree. She shrugged as she said it but Ann and I both thought it was funny that the metaphor was so similar.

Breakfast was cantaloupe (fresh from our garden), hash browns from potatoes we'd grown, and an omelet with onions, chives, carrots, and who knows what else we had grown.

That morning, I tasted a pear. That is, I'd had pears before, but only from a can. This pear was what pears were supposed to taste like. I had no idea.

We all wondered at the bounty of the garden.

The windows were open (there was no air conditioning), so we heard the delivery truck rumbling down the lane before we saw it out the window.

Ann and Yee got up quickly and giggled as they both went through the butler's pantry door and I figured they might be going upstairs via the spiral staircase.

Instead, they came out just a minute later (I heard giggles in the meantime) with shorts on and carrying shoes and socks. They were prepared.

I had found some smart ones.

The TV delivery guy came in and looked around, then wanted to know where the cable hookup was. When he found we didn't have one, he said that was too bad since the picture was so much better. In those days you could only get cable in the city, so we just had to connect a wire that led from an 'aerial' (antenna) on the roof, or somewhere.

The ornate-wooden-TV we had worked, but the new TV was a LOT nicer. Sure, it was the same channels, but at least the static was clearer and somehow less obnoxious.

The installer guy wanted to know what the deal was with the house, and I just said in my best spoiled-teenager voice, "Yeah, dad's out hunting, so I'm stuck here with my sister and our exchange student. House is falling apart, gotta keep fixing shit, and no money to do it."

He couldn't see Ann, who looked at me oddly, but I played my best irritated-teenager role. I wasn't sure if I trusted him yet, and life with my mom meant not trusting anyone unless I chose who they were, instead of the other way around.

Installer guy just said, "Yeah. Hear ya! Still, you got an extra bedroom, you could rent it out, lots of students will pay good money around here. Hell, my niece is staying in our basement, an' she's driving my wife crazy. We have a little one at home, and the garage door wakes the baby up. That, and she's eating us out of house and home."

Ann asked, "What, no money to get her own apartment?"

He chortled, "Pffft! Money? Life plan? She's smart as all get-out, but no focus. Changed her major 3 times last semester, at least. Linguistics, then piano, then biochem... I can't keep track. I think she might end up as a vet. She loves animals. Can't have 'em, wife is allergic."

He was done by this time, but as we talked I got a much better vibe from him than at the start.

As he was headed out carrying the trash out with him, I asked him, "Say, there's just so, so, so much work around here - needed stuff! - and we're all going to be super-busy with classes. If your niece wants to come over, maybe, a couple of days of paid labor, like, washing windows and dusting and stuff, my family has enough money to hire her, and Wow could we use the help. A couple of days, at least."

He considered this, still carrying the boxes out, Yee holding the door, and we went out to his truck with him.

He said, considering, "Yeah? Huh. Might be an idea. She's always begging me for money, I got nothin, I got this job, and a baby, got no cash."

I said, "Send her by. I looked at Ann and we traded eyebrow raises and nods, "About 9 am, tomorrow, maybe? Dressed to work. Dad always pays us twice minimum wage because we're family, but we have to work 'twice as hard', he says. Plus, maybe a bonus if we're efficient. Up to her."

He left the empty TV box against the fence where I told him to, thanked us, and left.

Ann immediately wanted to know why I'd done that!

I said, "Windows. See all those? Takes me 10 to 20 minutes per, including storm windows, and we have a house full. Some of the first floor ones are super tall - way too big to do fast. So, if she can help, great, we'll get a headstart. I'm not trying to diss you."

Ann shook her head. "NO, silly. More the merrier on the work front. I'm asking, why'd you lie to him?"

"My mom... Uh. Fine..." I considered it. What should I tell them?

Yee was standing there, we were all under the front yard tree by the side of the house and I figured, fuckit, I'll tell them. "Mom was... is, an alcoholic. She had men over sometimes, I had to lock my room, I don't trust random guys unless I'm the one picking them from a crowd. Even then, if they ask too many questions I usually invent something fast to ward off the bullies."

They kind of nodded.

"My go-to idea has always been that I've got a dad that likes guns - I'm making that up, of course, I don't really have a dad. But, the idea of, 'don't fuck with me my dad's armed' made bullies back off and made me feel a lot safer."

Yee wasn't getting that, but I knew Ann would translate later.

I continued, "If she works out, if this gal is nice, and personable, and anywhere close to reasonable, sure, we'll entertain the idea that she could live here and trade work for rent, like either of you. But, if we, and that's any of us, get a bad vibe from her? I'll pay her and she'll be gone."

Yee asked, "Vibe?"

Ann explained, "Feeling," and waved her hand around like it was vague and spiritual. "About, honorable or not. Vibe." Ann had a knack for translating for Yee in very few words and I envied that skill.

We went back in and started on the day's activities, only to get interrupted again by the stove hood installer.

His process took all morning and generated a hole in the plaster wall that was only mostly hidden by the cabinet. That hole let him push new romex down the wall into the basement, and across the basement ceiling to an already overloaded fuse panel.

Watching him? The age of the setup just freaked me the fuck out.

The fuse panel looked pre-historical. I knew with our having just gotten more modern appliances, it'd be even more under strain. I had to do something about that, but there were too many other things to do, and I didn't know jack about houses. I'd mostly lived in apartments.

Ann and Yee came down with me and looked at the fusebox. I explained that, from what I knew, this was a desperate safety hazard.

I'd told them that the inheritance was a surprise, but not the details, so they knew that I wasn't ready for home ownership, hell, I was barely old enough to not be in high school anymore.

Still, this wasn't quite 'my house' at that point, it was 'Agnes' house' and I was just caretaker. At least, that's the way I kept talking about it until Ann pointed out that, if I'd inherited it, it was my house after all.

My house? Fuck no, it's Agnes' house. Except, it's also... my house?

That didn't feel quite real, no matter how much my brain cogitated on it.

Ann, Yee, and I came back upstairs via a cellar door that led to the outside. SPIDERS!

(Lots of spiders hang out in cellar-walkout stairways. Things to remember).

Coming out into the bright sunlight, I realized we hadn't really walked the property, or all the buildings yet, or any of that.

Our idea for doing that 'right now' was put on hold, though, by the arrival of another set of deliveries.

We got a new microwave (replacing the tiny one I had from my old place), the boom boxes (we'd let them deliver those), and some of the smaller items we'd gotten but decided they should deliver because why not.

I was depressed about the yard, and the electrical boxes, and the hole in the kitchen wall, and everything else.

On top of that, someone else drove in the lane. I was almost sad until I saw who it was.