Ragamuffin Jo

RAGAMUFFIN JO

This is a story of 5128 words. It's very descriptive so if its quick action that you are hoping to read then maybe this story is not for you. Enjoy.

With a population of just four hundred people, the village sits at the base of steep cliffs with high headlands on both sides where the coastal plain is so narrow that we only have one road which runs along the drop off to the beach before climbing up the high headlands and on to other distant towns. It's an ancient town having first been settled over eight hundred years ago. The quaint shops are on the opposite side of the coast road with a wide pavement known as the terrace where during the summer we have a farmers market. At one end of the town stands St Johns Church and at the other, we have the Post Office while commanding the very center of town you find the Three Bores Inn which doubles as hotel and pub. During the summer it does a roaring trade with tourists requesting refreshment and accommodation.

I am Jane McPhee and at the age of twenty-six own the only antique book and art gallery in town. It may sound surprising that we have such a business but during the season with the town full of tourists eagerly looking for bargains we do an incredible trade. The shop has been run by my family for four generations and I took over as owner-manager when my parents died while on a fishing outing. Since then with the general shortage of employable people I have run the business with just one twenty-year-old woman helping me and this morning she announced that due to her impending engagement this would be her last summer in the town.

It can be very pleasant eating a plowman's lunch at one of the tables overlooking the beach. We call it the beach, but it really is a small cove with a half-moon gravel shoreline, but it still attracts fossickers and people wishing to sit on a hired chair by the seaside. It was one of these lunchtimes that I noticed a stranger walking slowly along the beach: she was not much taller than five feet three. As she approached the steps leading up to the village, I noticed that she was little more than a vagrant wearing what looked to be an ill-fitting multicoloured tee shirt which was torn down one shoulder which she had repaired with a stapler. Stranger, still she appeared to be wearing a black cotton dress two sizes too big for her which was tied around the waist by a discarded piece of greasy cord. The dress was long hanging well below her knees and on her feet she wore different coloured tennis shoes which were also held on by pieces of colourful cord.

Making the top of the steps she paused to roll a cigarette and so I got to observe the stranger more closely. She was of European origin and although terribly thin, I noticed a true beauty in her features. Her hair which was roughly combed being tied with another length of the same cord was black and long. Although she had tried to repair her tee-shirt it didn't hide the side of a small pale breast with a dark cheeky nipple just visible. As she stood with her legs slightly parted I couldn't take my eyes off her incredible beauty. Her face was round with a small pushed up nose and when she smiled, I noticed that although stained with tobacco her teeth were well-formed. As she was just a matter of feet away from me, I decided to start a conversation but was shocked when she replied, "fuck off cunt."

My trouble is that I am incredibly shy and so hearing her reply I dropped my shoulders huddling over my lunch. On arriving back at work, I asked my assistant if she had noticed the strange woman and she told me that there were rumors of a woman living in the big cave at the southeast end of the beach. Getting up the nerve I asked what she was doing up there, but my assistant was hesitant to reply. It was only that I was infatuated with this woman's beauty that I continued to push for more information and although my assistant was reluctant to tell me I finally broke her resolve. In a half-whisper, she said she was making money giving tourists blow jobs.

Regardless of this information, I was still attracted to the stranger so I decided to ask my assistant if when taking her evening stroll along the beach she could give the girl twenty pounds from asking that she call around to my residence at the rear of the shop. Of course, she was shocked, but I told her that all I wanted to do was help the poor unfortunate woman out of the gutter.

It was nine days before the money was given to the stranger and while taking my lunch she stopped once more to roll a cigarette but this time she shuffled closer and thanking me for the money told me that she couldn't come round to my house until eleven on account that she had a lot of work that evening. Knowing her nature of work and that the town was bursting with tourists I didn't ask for information other than saying that I would be waiting for her.

It was a spectacular evening and the twilight had just faded at ten-thirty five when I heard a soft tapping at my front door. Opening it I found the stranger dressed in more respectable clothes holding a small box of chocolate which she offered me as she stepped into my kitchen. Although she was in better clothing, I noticed that it was still threadbare. Sitting at my old deal kitchen table with a cup of tea I nervously started the conversation.

"Thank you for dropping round."

"I should be the one thanking you after calling you a fucking cunt I'm amazed you want to see me let alone talk with me."

"Listen I have forgotten that so let's forget about it. What I want is to get to know you then I may have something to offer you."

"If you want a fuck then you have to pay three hundred pounds like everyone else."

"I may hope that one day in the future we may fuck but I am not going to pay you. Making love is a thing between consenting adults. For now, let's talk and get to know each other then if I feel confident, I may have something to offer you."

"What do you want to know?"

"How about I start then once you know who I am you can tell me about yourself."

"I am Jane McPhee and I am twenty-six. My family have lived here ever since the first houses were put up: we were fisherman back then."

"Shortly after completing an arts degree my parents were drowned in a fishing tragedy and as the only child, it means that not only am I an orphan but having no known relatives I am alone in this world. I have been managing this shop ever since."

"Will you marry?"

"Not as we know it because I am lesbian something that although the townspeople are okay about, I know that they would never accept me having a relationship with a woman from this village."

"Well that's my story so what about you."

"Hmmm! My story is a little more involved I'm afraid."

"Okay, how about you start tonight, and we set a time for you to explain the rest."

"Well my name is Josephine Jacobs although I am known as Jo and as you can see, I have fallen on hard times ... but it wasn't always like that. I was born in Thailand where my father was heavily involved in trade and so we travelled a lot. As a child I had everything a Kid could want but all this fell apart just after I had turned eighteen: I am also twenty-six. When my parents died, I had a boyfriend who was five years older than me and he promised to help me manage the fifteen million Euros my parents left me. He sure managed it right from under my nose and into his fucking Swiss Bank Account. After that, I had three other short-term relationships all which ended in betrayal and worse: the last man raped me forcing me into bondage servicing people he owed money to."

"Finally, I met a woman and I fell deeply in love with her. The following two-and three-quarter years were the best in my life until she met a girl who was celebrating her eighteenth birthday ... she actually convinced me to enter a three-way with them but of course, it wasn't long-lived and one evening last winter I arrived home to find the locks changed: I lost all my possessions and so here I am in your little village."

"I have been told you are making a living as a prostitute."

"Does that offend you?"

"Well, considering the clothes you get around in you can't be doing too well."

"That's mostly a camouflage because the less people know about my real life the better. I am actually doing very well. My plan is to work at it for one year and then take stock of where I stand. I would love to go into business: say a café or seafood restaurant."

"But running your business in that old cave? Surely it's musty smelling of rotting seaweed with a damp sandy floor."

"No one around here knows how perfect the cave is you see it has a hidden land entrance that leads down to a naturally lit cave with soft moss-covered floors. I wash in a small freshwater stream which enters some miles further inland. Maybe one day I will show you."

"Oh, fuck it's already two why don't you spend the night here I have two small guest bedrooms so you will be very private. Then early in the morning just after breakfast you can make your getaway: by the way I have some fresh clothes for you and if you can use them a pair of shoes."

"You are so kind I would love to spend the night just as long as there's no hanky panky."

"I have told you Jo that I may have something for you but not yet. Also, sex is not part of my immediate plans. Maybe if we really get along, we could change that agreement but not yet."

"Jane you are way too good to me I really don't deserve it. Especially after calling you a cunt."

Not replying to her last comment I pointed to her room saying that she will find a new outfit of clothes then turning on my heel I walked up the narrow creaking staircase to my bedroom. It was still dark when I went downstairs the following morning to find Jo cooking eggs and bacon looking incredible in her new outfit.

We didn't have time to continue our discussion setting a time for the following Tuesday evening. As she walked quickly down towards the beach, I watched the dress I had given her. On Jo, it was just below the knee and every step made it sway. Going back to my kitchen I sat realizing that for the first time since my parents died, I had entertained a visitor.

Now that I had gotten to know Jo, I found myself dreaming about her almost every night while every day found me taking lunch just back from the steps down to the beach. It was the Friday that I next saw her noticing that she still wore her usual ill-fitting threadbare clothes. When she stopped to roll her customary cigarette, she shuffled a little closer and after lighting up she winked before saying I cannot wait for Tuesday. Hearing this I felt my pussy twitch.

It was just gone six-thirty when I heard Jo's familiar light tap on the door. This time she gave me a lovely bottle of Burgundy suggesting we share it over dinner. One thing that I have quickly recognized is that Jo, being very intelligent is easy to be around and our conversation over dinner ranged across many different topics which I found most refreshing. Due to being lesbian, I have always steered clear of inviting any local women into my house knowing that if I did my life in the town would be destroyed and I would lose everything: sometimes the world is so nearsighted.

Once dinner was over, I asked the question that had been haunting me: "Jo you walk up the beach at exactly the same time every day: why?"

"It's how I organize the game. Sorry, I refer to my kind of work as a game. I suppose it's an easy way of getting around the guilt complex. You see Jane I happen to be very religious. My parents brought me up by the teaching of the Catholic Church and since their passing, I have found myself relying on the Church more than ever."

"I walk up the beach at that time because I have a bus to catch. As you are aware the next town is quite large, and it has a library which has computers for public use. I log into my Facebook page which is dedicated to my kind of business where people contact me. I email these people and book them into my work schedule for the following evening. Having completed that I catch the evening bus home arriving in time for the first booking that evening."

"Aren't you worried about things like AIDS?"

"Every three months I go into the city where I have my old family doctor. She does all the necessary tests and gives me a new certificate of health. I can assure you that I am STD free."

"Most impressive. You have a good business head."

"I take after my father in that field: he taught me everything."

After hearing all about Jo's 'Game' we relaxed together watching an old black and white movie on television. I was secretly hoping she would stay the night, but she felt it more prudent during the early days of our friendship that she walk back to her cave so it was with tears in my eyes that I hugged her farewell.

That evening I lay in bed crying because I missed my new friend. It's crazy because in the village she's known as 'The Ragamuffin' and here I am a respectable businesswoman falling in love with her. Thinking about this made me laugh wondering what the village gossip would be if it got out that I was giving 'The Ragamuffin' meals at my place.

I was beginning to enjoy the weekdays because like clockwork Jo would stop to roll her cigarette as I ate lunch giving me a wink when she moved off to catch the bus.

After a couple of weeks, I began to wonder about her cheeky wink asking myself if she was falling for me just as I was for her or was it just her way of saying 'Hi.'

Of course, the other thing that changed my week was waiting for her soft tap on my back door every Tuesday evening hoping that she would accept my invitation to stay the night. I found myself thinking about her reluctance to stay the night which at first hurt me. Then as the weeks went by, I understood her reasons. Afterall at this time if the village got wind of what was going on, I could easily find the artists in town taking their work into the larger centers which would seriously affect my business.

It was four months after Jo had tapped on my door for the first time that I began to think about how I could offer her the position of full- time assistant at the shop. The summer was over and with Autumn already three weeks old my assistant was beginning to pack her bags for her new life in Paris where she was engaged to a man working for the European government. Okay during the Autumn and Winter trade dropped but I still needed an assistant so that I could take my lunch relaxing in the pub or travel to the city in order to view new books or artists. Jo would be just the person but how do I get around her moniker 'The Ragamuffin' knowing that it needed almost military planning.

The following Tuesday I put my idea to Anny. At first, she was silent thinking the possibilities through carefully until with a deep sigh she stunned me by asking how we could make it work. We talked all evening without solving the puzzle the stumbling block being how to bring her into the business without causing a riot. At last, we gave in sitting with a bowl of popcorn between us watching Hitchcok's film Rebecca on television.

When the film was over Jo got up to walk back to her cave but as she went to open the door she turned back and hugged me.

"Oh, thank you Jane I hope we can make it work." She then kissed my lips, or should I say brushed her lips against mine. Then opening the door, she walked away through the cold dark night.

That night I lay thinking about Jo knowing that I was in love with her. The night was long, and I got very little sleep thinking about how to bring her into the business. The following morning, I awoke with a blinding headache as my whole body seemed to sway with exhaustion. As business is slower during the Autumn and Winter, I lock the shop door in order to take my usual lunch and as today had a weak sun I decided to sit at my usual table outside.

Like clockwork, Jo arrived and stopping to roll her customary cigarette giving me her usual saucy wink but this time she dropped a folded piece of paper on my table before walking away quickly. Too nervous to read her note I shoved it into my pocket sitting back with whirling thoughts. Having completed my lunch, I almost ran back to my shop and closing the door behind me opened Jo's note.

"Jane I am not working tonight. I have an exciting idea. Love Jo xoxo."

Being too nervous to work I placed a note in the window saying that I had a migraine. Entering my house, I couldn't settle finding myself walking up and down the old sandstone floor of the kitchen waiting for Jo's familiar tap, tap, on the back door. As the twilight began to fade, I finally heard Jo.

Opening the door, she quickly entered and sitting on her chair at the kitchen table began to talk.

"Jane I hardly slept a wink last night because I couldn't stop thinking about our conversation. At last, as I walked up the beach to catch the bus it came to me."

"Is this is why you are not working tonight"

"Partly but to be honest I was knackered after losing a night's sleep so before setting out I had already decided to take the night off."

"Jane, I have never told you about an aunt I have. Actually, she's not an aunt rather she is an old friend of my mother's, but I have always called her aunt Hettie. I also didn't tell you that each day I take the bus to the library I have carried the previous night's earnings. I don't know if you are aware but next door to the library there's a bank where I have an account. So far after the summers work, I have nineteen thousand pounds saved."

"Our problem is how to make the villagers forget who I am. Now that it's offseason I am making very little money for example last weekend I made just four hundred pounds which amount to three blow jobs on Saturday and one on Sunday. When you consider I have almost no overheads it's not bad takings but Jane you are aware of how I feel about this work so to me four hundred for a weekend is almost a slap in the face."

"I have decided that enough is enough, so I am packing up and taking a holiday with Aunt Hettie two hundred miles north of here. I am going there until mid-March when I will return south."

"Fuck that might just work."

"It will work. First I must put on weight and cut my hair: I was thinking I restyle it to just below the ears and dye it alight brown."

'I should buy a pair of glasses from the pharmacy which will also help with my disguise."

"Jo, that's brilliant. You should email me two weeks before leaving so that I can plan to meet with my contacts in the city. I will make it known in the village that I am closing the shop in order to go on a purchasing week in London. I will introduce you to my contacts and leave you to make arrangements to have our purchases brought down here."

"Wonderful and when you arrive back here you can tell about how you have found the very person to take over as your assistant."

We decided that so she can get the word out that she was closing her business she should leave her cave in two weeks' time. It was also agreed that she should return to the cave this evening so seeing that it was fully dark outside Jo got up to make her leave. This time as she stood by the door, we kissed properly for the first time. Hugging each other we kissed deeply feeling our tongues play and it was with moans of frustration that we pulled apart in order that Jo could walk back down the dark beach.

Although Jo and I kept in touch by phone and email it was the longest six months of my life. And then on February twenty-eight, I received an email from her telling me that she planned to take the train in two weeks' time and so began the busiest two weeks since my parent's passing.

I was a wreck standing at the Station waiting for Jo's train to arrive. Pacing up and down stopping to read newspapers or grab an evil flavored coffee from a vending machine I didn't know whether to laugh or cry and then the announcement came over that the train would be arriving in five minutes time. It was the longest five minutes of my life only to be made more frustrating as I stood amongst the crowd waiting for the sight of Jo walking towards me. I really don't know how it happened but suddenly I felt a woman fling herself at me and through my tears of joy I saw her.