Trust

TRUST

Joe Kramer, age 44

Ann Kramer, nee Scott, his wife, age 44

Blake and Sally Kramer, their children, ages 22 and 19.

Joe Kramer let himself into the dark cabin on a Virginia mountain. He went to the fuse box, using a flashlight, and turned on the electricity, then a light. His eyes lit on some family photos hung on a far wall. There were three - two of his children, Blake and Sally. One was of his wife Ann. He took that one down and shoved it under the sink.

Then he stowed some things from his pickup in the place, including some beer in the fridge.

Joe Kramer was a child of the system. The foster system. He was five when his father left him and his mother, never to be seen again by either. He was ten when his alcoholic mother died in her sleep. For some years before that event, Joe had been her main caretaker, before and after school. His mom, Karen Bradford, loved Joe, but loved a drink more. Joe loved her back, but not the alcohol. Karen worked as a cleaner, days when Joe could get her up and about. The money coming in was government welfare, mostly. Evenings, Karen sometimes would have gentlemen callers. She was not bad looking and liked the favors she got from her men. As many times as she promised Joe that she'd stop something - men, drinking, sleeping in - that was equal to the times she failed. Then she died at age thirty-two. Choked. A bad scene for Joe to find. He always thought that he should have checked on her before going out with his buddies.

Karen had a sister, married with four kids. They didn't have room for Joe, nor money to feed him. (But, as Joe knew, they could have been reimbursed for keeping him.)

Into the foster system he went. He spent six years with four families before he simply went out on his own at sixteen. By then, he had finished high school. That was not difficult for him. What was difficult about the system, and the families, was that no matter what was promised to him, in the end, those promises meant nothing. As soon as it wasn't to the advantage of the promiser, the promise was broken. Every time.

So, at sixteen, Joe had massive trust issues. That's what an outside observer would have said. To Joe, he was only living his life. He had found no reason to trust anyone. That was the way life was. He wasn't a fool. He could see that other people lived lives different from his own, relying on the word of others, and the promises of laws and institutions. Deep down, he felt that those people were misguided fools, like jugglers keeping many balls in the air. Sooner or later they all would come down. You always had to do for yourself.

Free at last, Joe hustled a bit, and then got a job as an apprentice plumber. He worked for Billy Brady, a real douchebag. But Joe had no problem with Bill. He was used to people like that.

One day Joe was on his own, fixing a sink in the office of a math professor at City University. The prof's name was Harold Dean, and he was a big shot. That was why he got immediate help from a private plumber, and not a guy from maintenance coming by two days later. While Joe worked, Dean was writing equations on a chalk board. And swearing occasionally.

Joe got the sink done rather quickly and was packing up his tools when Dean said, "Shit!" Joe looked at him.

Dean said, "Sorry. This isn't working."

Joe asked, "What isn't working?"

Dean gestured at the board, which was covered in symbols and numbers.

Joe said, "Well, me....usually when I'm stuck I start over from the git. Maybe if you explain it to me, you'll figure it out. Simple is better."

Dean stared at Joe. He said, "A challenge, is it?"

Joe smiled at him. "Yep. Explain it to a plumber."

Dean started talking. Joe listened, asked a few questions. He had taken math in school. Lots of it. About twenty minutes after the talk started, Joe interrupted, "Wait!"

Dean turned, "What?"

Joe went to the board with a cloth, erased a '2x' and wrote '2y.' He stood back and pointed to a line above. "You said before that this function was like that one. But the x is wrong."

Dean got excited. He went over all that he had on the board, and then sat down. He sighed. Then he turned to Joe and said, "Thanks. But....?"

Joe said, "I took all the math I could get in school."

"What school?"

"Flatburn High."

"That's it? High school?"

"Yeah. So?" Joe was annoyed. After all he had helped this guy.

"Because.....how old are you?"

"Seventeen."

"You look older. You've saved me a lot of headache. And you understood what I was saying, right?"

"Yeah."

"But you want to be a plumber."

"I am one. The guy I work for can't do anything. I do it."

"Explain to me what you thought I was doing here."

Joe explained. (Your writer cannot explain.)

Dean said, "You have a talent. You should use it."

"How?"

"Come to study at this college. I can get you in. Free."

"Uh huh." Joe had heard shit like that before.

"I'm serious. Are you finished with the sink?"

"Yes."

"Do you have ID?"

"Sure."

"Come with me." Dean led him outside and across to another building, to the registrar's office. He waved at a woman sitting at a desk, and walked into an inner office. Joe followed. A man was sitting behind a desk, tall and fair haired, looking distinguished.

Dean said, "Hi, Jacob. This young man wants to enroll, full ride - on me. He shows true promise in mathematics."

Jacob looked at Joe and at Professor Dean. He smiled and said, "Okay. But we're even now."

Dean said, "No. We're even if he screws up. He won't. You'll be seen as a savant."

Jacob (Brewer) said, "Deal." He called in the young woman at the front desk.

"Janice, please take this young man's information and get him enrolled. We can set up a course of study in conjunction with Professor Dean."

And it was done.

Janice was curious about Joe. She looked at him and saw a dark-haired man, six feet, slim, dressed in work clothes, and possessed of dirty hands and nails. Nevertheless, a man who might interest a girl such as herself, especially after what she'd heard the men say about him. She gave him a smile.

Joe wasn't really used to women smiling at him. He did look older than his seventeen - almost eighteen - years. But that was a fairly recent development. He had matured late. At fifteen, he had been five feet six. At sixteen he'd grown and been awkward because of it. Now, he was biggish and not awkward anymore. Years of fighting in the foster system had made him hard and able to inflict pain, if needed. He'd always had to carry himself as if he had not a worry in the world. Even when he was small and did have many worries. So, when Janice looked at him, she saw a self-assured guy, who looked pretty good to her.

She asked him out, when they finished enrolling him. He accepted. He washed up and took her to a pizza place nearby that he liked. Janice was twenty-two, and between boyfriends. She was plump but pretty, with reddish blond hair and green eyes.

They had a nice meal, and Joe walked her back to her apartment off campus. Janice was no slut, but also no prude. She wanted to explore with Joe. But not right away. She knew he was only seventeen, from filling out the paperwork.

As they stood at her door, she said, "So, it's your birthday on the fifteenth."

"Yeah. Coming up."

"How about we go out then. This Friday. I mean, if you have no other plans."

"Sounds good. I'm open, as it happens."

They made a date for a more formal dinner.

Meanwhile, Joe told his work that he was going to school, and would be less available. He didn't want to cut ties all together, though. It was July 25^th. The new school year started in three weeks.

Professor Dean had Joe come in afternoons to 'reacquaint' himself with the math. Two hours a day, after a nearly full day of work. But Joe did very well.

He also did very well on his birthday with Janice. She was excited all week - by the thought that she was going to give herself to a teenager, only just eighteen. She took him directly back to her place after a nice dinner. When they came inside, Janice slowly pushed Joe against her door and plastered herself to him, sticking her tongue right into his mouth.

She found that Joe knew full well what to do about that. She was somewhat surprised, but gratified, when Joe picked her up and took her to the bedroom. When he put her down on the bed, she found that he had her dress undone. She got onto her knees and finished taking it off. She followed by taking off all her other clothing. Then she watched Joe strip. As she had expected, he had a very nice build and a respectable cock.

So, she sucked it. Then she let him put it into her, over and over again. She forgot all about him being so young. Instead, she was overtaken by a series of orgasms, and by a continuing lust. They went at it most of the night. Saturday morning came after only a few hours sleep. They showered, fucked, showered, and ate.

Joe thanked Janice for the wonderful birthday. The best he'd ever had, by far.

The two of them were a thing for a while. Until Ann.

Joe was introduced to Ann by Professor Dean. Dean told Joe that she was another young math student with promise and that he'd like them to study together. Ann had just arrived at school, a week prior to class starting. She was some months older than Joe, slim, tall at 5'8", and.....frumpy. She had bobbed brown hair, and light brown eyes. She dressed like a math head nerd.

Ann liked what she saw in Joe. He seemed polite, and...attractive - tall, dark and handsome, to use a cliche. She was from a religious family and had attended a private school all the way.

She had some sexual experience, all around the time she graduated high school. She decided that she would need that when she got to college. All the other women would likely have that. So, she accepted an offer to go to her prom with a college junior from town, Brian Davis. And she let Brian have his way with her that night and many nights during the ensuing summer. Her approach to Brian was cold and calculating. Of course, she did become excited before and during the sex - and she was able to use Brian to her advantage and achieve orgasms. As long as he did what she wanted. She didn't simply order him around. But she was able to control him, nevertheless. And he didn't quite seem to understand that. She thought that was for the best. Sometimes, after they had satisfied each other, she had a small little smile. It was a satisfied smile of triumph.

Joe had his own place, an efficiency near town center. Ann was in a dorm for her freshman year. When Dean brought Ann into his office and introduced her to Joe, she shook hands with him.

Joe thought of Ann as shy. She was wearing a dress that was loose on her, and sensible, flat shoes. They worked in Dean's office, afternoons for that week, and he could see that she was just as smart as he was, or smarter.

After the first day of class, and after the afternoon math session with Dean, Joe asked her out for pizza, and she readily accepted.

As they ate, Joe established that she was from a well-off family from downstate. And Ann established that Joe had no family and had been on his own for some time, despite his young age. She had also noticed that Janice, the admin person in the dean's office was probably Joe's girlfriend, even though she was older.

She asked Joe about this.

He said, "Well, yes. We have a.....a..."

Ann said, "You have sex with her."

"Yes."

Ann looked at him and said nothing. He liked Ann, but, in the looks department, she was not in Janice's league - so far as he could tell. Also, he wondered about having sex with Ann when they were also studying. To him, sex and studying were separated.

Still, he was only eighteen. It seemed obvious to him that Ann would be open to upping their game. So, he asked her back to his apartment, and she accepted with a smile. The same sort of smile as she had after sex with Brian.

However, Ann was not smiling that same self-satisfied smile an hour after they entered Joe's place. She'd been prepared for the same sort of sexual experience she had with Brian. Instead, she'd been overwhelmed. Joe had stripped her and himself, and then he'd gone down on her. That was something that Brian hadn't done. She came as he licked, and came, and came. Then he fucked her. It was like a tornado rushing through her, lifting her effortlessly, then depositing her somewhere she'd never been before. Joe was a wizard, so far as she could see.

Joe was also overtaken. He found that Ann - naked - was an entirely different matter than the frumpy girl he'd seen. She had the smoothest skin, and she'd responded so ardently to him. She tasted great, and when he screwed her, her response was way more intense than Janice's. So, it seemed to him. The pure animal lust he'd provoked in Ann had provoked as intense a response in him.

When they finished the first time, she wasted no time at all sucking his dick, and getting him hard. She knew what she wanted. She liked it on top.

And she got that. She worked Joe hard, and had several intense orgasms before he had his own. All in all, Ann thought she'd lucked out. Once her lust had quieted, she was back to her calculating self. She felt somewhat disturbed by her lack of control in this encounter with Joe. A vague feeling of unease. But that was easily put aside for the moment, due to her new and exceptional experience with him.

Joe also felt a little uneasy about Ann. Just something he couldn't name or quantify. Still, he'd had a great time in bed with her. Better than any before, even Janice. Ann was an animal, underneath that frumpy look. An animal during the sex. Before and after - not so much. He felt like he could deal with that.

The two of them spent the weekend having sex, studying, and having sex again. Joe taught Ann some things, and found that she caught on quickly. When she did, he saw that she had a funny little smile. He overlooked that.

When the two of them came into Professor Dean's office Monday afternoon, Janice knew right away what had happened. She had seen the potential for that, but she was surprised that it happened so fast. She knew that Ann was not nearly as frumpy as she dressed.

Ann gave her a smile. Janice smiled back, and said, "I see you both had a nice weekend."

Ann said, "Very nice, thanks. And you?"

Janice had never promised fidelity to Joe, and she had entertained a young professor from the economics department Saturday night. He was okay. He wasn't Joe. But she said, "I did okay."

Ann nodded. "I'm glad, then."

Janice said, "It was never...you know...going to be a permanent thing."

Joe was at first confused by this exchange, but that last sentence clued him in. He agreed with it, when he gave it some thought. He and Ann went into Dean's office.

The professor was not quite as quick as Janice in perceiving the new relationship. But after some time, he caught on. In some ways he had expected that, except that Joe had Janice, and Ann maybe wasn't as.....what? Sexy. Later, when he considered it, he admitted to himself that he was not really clued in on modern romance, or even modern sex. He'd been faithfully married for thirty years. He certainly found Janice attractive. Ann? Maybe, when he thought about it. That night his wife, Aileen, had a good time with him. She did wonder, but didn't complain or question. She knew he was hers. Who cares what he's thinking in bed?

Ann and Joe basically lived with each other all year, studying and screwing. They put some effort into screwing, by studying the Kama Sutra. The academic approach to sex.

Going into the arrangement, both had had some doubts. Ann wondered if some better looking woman would come along and snatch Joe up. Women did come onto him, right in front of her. But he never wavered.

Joe wondered about Ann's apparent detachment, at times. It was like she was experimenting with him. But he believed that that faded. And, she began to dress less like a nerd. So, guys came on to her. And she gave them the breeze, every time.

Two years passed. That's what it took for each to earn their degrees. They were both twenty.

Professor Dean offered both of them a chance to get their doctorates in two more years. They both accepted. At the end of those two years Ann was pregnant. It was a planned pregnancy. Joe had an offer from the government to work on high end things. It was enough money for a house and for Ann to take some time.

They were married quietly as Joe began his job. Ann's family, Professor Dean and his wife, a couple of his work friends. Then they moved into a largish townhouse near campus, and also near Joe's new work. Young Blake came along. Ann stayed home with him for a while, but then started doing some piecework for a computer company. It was work she could do at home.

Joe was basically an entrepreneur. He liked his government job, but also did some programming, and some lab work in the chemistry building at the college. That side work morphed into quite a money maker, when he patented and sold some mixed chem and computer material that was useful to a big industrial chemical company. In the deal he retained the patent, and licensed it to the business. It was steady income, which he socked away in a private account. He also built up a cash stash. It wasn't that he actively mistrusted Ann. He simply mistrusted everyone.

Sally came along thirty-three months after Blake. An accident, as far as Joe knew. Ann wanted a daughter, and she got one. There would be no more accidents.

Life moved on for the family. Joe found that he was.....happy. He and Ann still had hot times in bed, quite often. She had bagged all the baggy clothes, and now looked very fetching, despite having the kids. The family had a caretaker for the two children, freeing Ann up for gym work, and for part time work for the computer programming firm.

Joe took up adult baseball in the summer, and basketball in the winter months. It kept him in shape. He had a small gym in the basement of their home, with weights and a heavy bag. He and Ann were both very fit, very sexually attractive, and very sexually active with each other.

Of course, Joe still had trust issues. And Ann had her calculating core, which was always there, except maybe for when she was with her children, or in bed with Joe. But the two of them were intellectually and sexually suited to each other. They could speak about their respective work, and each understood the other.

When both children were in school, Ann went to work full time for the software firm, and then went with a start-up that had emerged from the old firm. Joe invested in that and owned 26%. There were three main participants - Ann, Larry Gooden, and Will Notting. They made very little money to start, but things got better and more profitable in about two years. This all happened when the kids were in junior high and high school. Joe was by then totally self-employed, working from an office on the top floor of their house. He had amassed a very large fortune, and a lot of it was well hidden. Trust issues. He loved Ann. Really, he did. But he also knew that she had that cold core. He knew what her little smile meant. He stood for it, because he thought that her idea that she was in control helped keep a smooth house.

Ann, on the other hand, was wrapped up in her business. She found it fascinating, and it had become quite profitable. She knew that she had been shorting her family - mainly the kids. But Joe was home with them, and saw to their needs when Ann couldn't.

Ann knew that Joe, with his background, would always hold back. He would never fully trust her. Yet here they were. Married, kids doing well, and basically well off. She and her partners had paid Joe off for his part of the business. She was making money, and had some put back for herself. Just in case.