Yawning Abyss

The cabbage for the coleslaw was slightly wilted; there was no crunch. Nor was there much flavor. Kaileen's French fries were soggy, the bun for her pork sandwich fell apart long before Kaileen was finished eating. Both Louie and Lisa seemed to enjoy the food. Louie confirmed; the Boar's Lair was the only barbeque restaurant for at least twenty miles.

"I think, is it still open? Lisa? Sonny's in Ten Bear? That place still open?" Louie wondered aloud.

"Think so," Lisa shrugged.

"Can you pull me the comps on other bars in the area?" Kaileen asked Lisa.

"Yes, of course," Lisa said, confused.

"Oh, and restaurants; I'm guessing where Redwood's at they are zoned do food, right?" Kaileen continued.

"Um, yes. Well, I'm pretty sure they are," Lisa agreed.

On Tuesday, Kaileen did a walk-through with Lisa and Merle. Then, with the comparable in hand, Kaileen negotiated a hard bargain with Merle, talking him down to two ninety-five for the bar, the building, and the four acres of land the bar sat on.

"Ms. Withers, you should become a real-estate agent," Lisa complimented after Merle left the Gold Standard Real Estate office.

"Uh huh, I don't think so," Kaileen smiled. "Too hard."

By Wednesday night, Kaileen was about to lose her mind. There was nothing to do in Black Hand Lake, nothing to do in Ten Bear Lake, nothing to do in Lilton since she was too young to get into any of the bars. Oxmore was nothing but oil rigs and trailers. At night, Oxmore looked almost frightening; the rigs illuminated by strong lights against the purple skies.

Kaileen did try Sonny's BBQ. In her opinion, Sonny's and the Boar's Lair were neck and neck. Neither was bad; they just weren't good.

On Thursday morning, Louie called and invited Kaileen to Red Lobster for lunch. Kaileen was grateful it wasn't the Boar's Lair again. Louie might think the lackluster food was the best barbeque around, but when compared to the barbeque back home, it was sorely lacking.

Over their meals, Kaileen and Louie came to an agreement for construction of the sixteen units and a five-acre fishpond in the midst of the four complexes. Lisa suggested a pavilion, or gazebo near the lake and Kaileen agreed on Louie's 'guesstimate' for the wooden structure and four picnic bench/table combinations.

"The Redwood? Mr. Wanate; how much to paint the exterior a bright neon pink, pull the carpets out; God! They was some nasty! Merle said they got concrete under that, and put in some good recessed lighting? Kaileen asked.

"Know how many square feet we're talking here, Lisa?" Louie asked.

Louie and Kaileen shook hands on a price to renovate the drab building. Then Louie did advise against doing anything at all.

"Fresh coat of paint, getting rid of that ugly brown carpet? That's still not going get them boys to leave Jubilee's," Louie said.

"Still, just get it done; there's going be more business coming your way come May," Kaileen promised.

Kaileen was on her way back to Arkansas that afternoon. She was tiredly looking around for a motel for the night when a thought hit her.

"And how's Louie know what color that carpet is?" Kaileen said aloud. "And that Jubilee's got them a better sound system?"

It took all day Saturday and Sunday for Kaileen to feel halfway human again. And, by Sunday night, she'd completed all of her assignments. She did wonder if she might take her final exams now, rather than waiting until May.

"Why you always got be in a hurry?" she chided herself.

Chapter 6—Arkansas in the rearview mirror.

Monday afternoon, Kaileen again wandered into Skip's small office. Lisa Knight greeted Kaileen with a smug smile. Then she showed Kaileen the small ring on her left hand.

"You, y'all got engaged?" Kaileen gasped.

"That's right," Lisa crowed.

"Oh, congratulations! Oh, well. I guess the better woman won," Kaileen said, hugging the startled Lisa. "But man! Good luck learning how spell that last name, huh?"

"Hey!" Skip protested, laughing. "Go on in; I got your email this morning and scheduled you."

"Ms. Withers, we meet again," Dr. Powell said drily when Kaileen entered his messy office.

"Steak house restaurant," Kaileen said. "High class."

"How soon?" Dr. Powell smiled, already pulling up a standard sketch.

"Before I leave this office?" Kaileen smiled, unbuttoning her blouse.

She knelt in front of the man, large breasts bobbling. His erection strained in his polyester trousers and Kaileen smiled up at him.

It only took a few bobs of her head and Dr. Powell was grunting that he was close. Kaileen pulled her mouth off of his cock with a 'pop' and aimed the head of his cock at her breasts.

"Now, Ms. Withers, how many square feet are we looking to get?" Dr. Powell wheezed as Kaileen blotted up his semen with a tissue from her purse.

"Two thousand dining area," Kaileen said. "But it needs to have bi-fold panels that can cut it down to a thousand, and down to five hundred if we need to."

"Why?" Dr. Powell asked, typing in a string of commands.

"These rough necks? They're all steak rich on Friday, bologna poor by Monday," Kaileen explained, wiggling into her blouse again. "And the few can afford steak on Tuesday? They don't need see big old empty place. They'll think maybe something's wrong with the food or something."

"And where did you get that information?" Dr. Powell asked.

"Sociology's my minor," Kaileen said.

May first, Kaileen informed her landlord that she was tendering her thirty days' notice; she intended to vacate the premises on May 31st. As usual, the man's eyes never went above Kaileen's breasts, but he did nod that he heard her.

May 23rd, Kaileen had all mail forwarded to Unit 303 in the Withers Condominiums. May 24th, the movers backed up to the apartment and emptied the small, clean apartment out. The manager and Kaileen did a final walk-through and the man grudgingly agreed that the apartment was clean, and she could expect her deposit returned.

Driving from Arkansas to North Dakota, Kaileen received a call from an agent of a different real-estate office. Kaileen winced as the woman bombarded her eardrums with a high-pitched false squeal of friendliness.

"Ms. Bertha? Ma'am, I don't mean be rude, but I'm driving in some pretty heavy traffic," Kaileen said, looking around at the empty miles ahead of her truck. "So, if we could just get to the point, please? So, I can get back to driving here?"

"Oh, sure, sure, I know how it is. When I lived in Bismarck? Sometimes? Traffic? Enough make you want to pull your hair out," the woman said.

"Jesus Christ Almighty," Kaileen muttered as Bertha continued to talk about the traffic problems in the capital city.

"Anyway," Bertha said, drawing out each syllable. "Those Withers Condominiums? I just love the floor plans, and using Wanate, I mean, I don't know why you didn't go with Roughriders; they're so much more professional, but still..."

"Ms. Bertha, Roughriders didn't want to give me a quote; neither did Lilton," Kaileen sighed. "And, no, they weren't very professional in telling me I was wasting their time."

"Wha-aa-at?" Bertha said. "You sure? That doesn't sound like Hank at all!"

"And right now? You are wasting my time," Kaileen said. "I asked you to please get to the point and you ain't done it yet."

"Oh. Well. I have a client that's interested in renting number four, in the front building," Bertha said, her irritation evident.

"Not for rent, Ms. Bertha; I'm sure Mrs. Doucet done told you that," Kaileen snapped.

"She did, she did," Bertha agreed, trying to sound pleasant again. "But I said, 'Bertha! Lisa's just the agent! Go to the owner,' so..."

"Once again, Bertha, the condominiums are for sale. For sale, not for rent. Don't call back wasting my time, hear?" Kaileen snapped.

"You know, you catch a whole lot more flies with honey than you can with vinegar," Bertha snapped.

"And catch a whole bunch more with a steaming pile of dog shit," Kaileen snapped. "I'll keep that in mind I'm ever in the fly catching business. Goodbye."

Lisa answered on the second ring. She and Kaileen shared a giggle over the phone call Kaileen had received from Bertha.

"Told her. I told her," Lisa crowed. "Oh, but she's been in the business longer than I've been alive. I don't know what I'm doing. She'll just give you a call and talk you right into it."

Kaileen again spent the night in Ten Bear Lake Motel. Her furniture wasn't scheduled to arrive until the morning. Again, she amused herself with the broad selection of pornography available. This time, though, she had thought to bring a vibrator and tube of lubricant with her.

"Uh, oh yes," Kaileen hissed, driving 'Big Ben' into her bowels.

In the morning, the old woman behind the counter smiled and wished Kaileen a good day. Then her forehead wrinkled.

"Withers. Withers. I know I've seen that name before?" the woman asked.

"Condominiums?" Kaileen suggested.

There were two billboards advertising the new development. Kaileen and Lisa Doucet had also made sure there were signs announcing the development scattered throughout Lilton, Oxmore, and Black Hand Lake.

Pulling up to the new development, Kaileen couldn't help but pause. The four grouped buildings looked exactly like weathered old barns clumped together. The exteriors were even the rustic red colors of barns of old. The roofs were tin roofs, bright and silvery looking now, but would weather and gray over time.

The garage door of 303 went up; Louie had pointed out it would be impossible to have the door slide open to the side. Kaileen's truck fit inside of the sixteen by twelve garage. And Kaileen nodded; there would be room for a modified Harley Fat Boy she had admired in Myndee, Arkansas. She didn't know for sure, but she was willing to bet there would be a Harley-Davidson dealership in North Dakota.

After the furniture arrived and the men had been tipped quite well, Kaileen drove to Redwood Bar. Louie Wanate had done a fantastic job with the exterior. The high gloss enamel shone brightly, certainly grabbed a person's eye in the sparsely wooded surroundings.

Inside, Kaileen's sneakers slapped loudly on the concrete floors. Looking around, she squinted. Even with the new lighting, it was still far too dark in the empty building.

"Ms. Withers, how are you?" Louie answered his phone cheerfully.

"I'm good. You done great so far with the Redwood, and the condominiums; that's exactly what I was wanting," Kaileen enthused. Now, need do a little more to this bar, hear?"

Louie must have been 'in the neighborhood' as his Jeep crunched onto the gravel parking lot twenty minutes later. He entered and looked around the drab interior.

"See how loud it is? And there's just the two of us," Kaileen said. "Now, imagine there's thirty, forty people and they all trying get heard and they got waitresses trying get heard."

"Ms. Withers, I'm not trying to be disrespectful, but you'll never get thirty, forty people in here," Louie said. "Hell, you'll be lucky to get three or four people in this place."

With misgivings, Louie agreed to what Kaileen ordered. When she took him to the rear of the building and pointed where she wanted a smokehouse constructed, what she wanted it constructed of, and how she wanted it vented, though, the grizzled man's features morphed into a smile.

"You know what, Ms. Withers? Forget I said anything. You might actually get thirty or forty people in here," Louie agreed.

"Do you know anyone that can draw, Mr. Wanate?" Kaileen asked as she locked up the building.

"I d a little myself," Louie admitted. "Why?"

Kaileen posed nude for Louie. Her smirk as her nubile body gave the man no physical reaction was the look Louie sketched.

"On both left and right sides of the building, on the door, and on the lighted sign going up mouth of the parking lot," Kaileen smiled as she put her clothes back on.

Louie managed to anthropomorphize a pig, giving it long blonde hair, large, ripe breasts (with the nipples and areolae absent in the outline, as well as no discernable crotch or pubic hair) and Kaileen's smirk. He did shake his head at the name of the barbeque restaurant, though.

"The Nasty Pig? Ms. Withers, I thought you graduated with a degree in business?" he asked.

Summa Cum Laude," Kaileen agreed. "Oh, and Lisa just sold the last unit today."

"Surprised it took this long," Louie smiled. "We had people offering us money while we were doing the pouring and forming."

"Oh, you had any time look at them drawings I got you," Kaileen asked as she rapidly typed out an advertisement, posting it to Facebook.

"When have I had time?" Louie laughed. "Good Lord, Ms. Withers! I don't think I had your energy when I was a kid!"

"Oh, I bet you gave your momma all kind trouble," Kaileen smiled.

"Yeah. Yeah, I did," Louie smiled sadly.

While Louie and his men did the work on The Nasty Pig, Kaileen bought two box trucks, had 'Withers Sno-Cones' painted on the sides, and outfitted each with an ice shaving machine. Twelve bottles of heavy flavored syrup, a few thousand Styrofoam cups and several blocks of ice.

"What the... Hey! Guys, what the hell's going on?" a foreman screamed as his men left the rig and approached a large truck. "Guys! It's not lunch yet!"

Three girls, in brightly colored bikinis served sno-cones to the crew: three dollars for a medium, four dollars for a large.

Another rig also saw the same thing happen. And when those two rigs had been served, the flap went down, and the girls drove to another rig.

The next day, the same phenomena occurred. Three sexy, smiling girls in skimpy bikinis served sugary iced treats to the hungry and sweaty men.

On the third day, each truck also had a sign that announced that 'The Nasty Pig' was coming. The outline of a sexy 'nasty' pig smirked at the crews.

"I don't know," each girl admitted. Miss Kaileen just put it on there, told us leave it."

Applications were handed out at the new restaurant. Lisa's assistant, Kathy Simmons sat behind the old bar, stoically tearing off pre-printed application forms and handing them to the laughing, squealing, giggling young woman. She didn't resent these women for flocking into The Nasty Pig in hopes for employment. There weren't many opportunities for a woman in Children County or the surrounding area. She did resent the girls for their youth, their beauty, their slender physiques.

"Fill this out, put it in the basket when you're done; Ms. Withers will contact you if she wants to interview you," she droned as each girl came to the counter.

(Those girls that did not have a pen of their own, Kathy put a small 'x' in the corner of their application form.)

She looked around at the redecorated building. Of course, when it had been the Redwood Bar, Kathy had never been inside of the place; she wasn't a gay man.

The padded linoleum flooring did absorb some of the noise level. The Native American style blankets that draped over the freshly painted cinderblock walls absorbed some more of the noise. Louie and his crew had also installed thick acoustic tiles into the ceiling.

"Ma'am?" Kathy heard.

She looked around. There were at least ten girls scattered around, in various stages of filling out the simple forms. There was no one in front of her.

"Ma'am? Are you, ma'am! I'm down here," Kathy heard again.

Kathy leaned forward and could just make out the top of a blonde head. Leaning slightly more forward, she saw two large blue eyes looking up at her.

"I, yes?" Kathy asked, startled.

"I'm here fill out an application," the small girl said.

"Beat it, kid," Kathy snarled, embarrassed at not seeing the small girl at first. "Ad clearly says you must be at least eighteen to work here."

"I'm twenty-one," the girl said.

"What? In dog years?" Kathy sneered and smiled as a few girls giggled.

"Ma'am, I'm here to fill out an application," the girl said firmly. "You can either let me fill out an application, or it'll get legal."

Kathy tore off an application form and slid it to the front of the bar. She smirked and pulled the form back, just out of reach of the small girl. She again smiled when a few girls giggled.

After the four posted hours had elapsed, Kathy waddled to the door and locked it. She then waited for the last three girls to finish, letting them out one at a time.

That evening, Kaileen went through each application meticulously. Those with an 'x' in the corner were placed aside first. Then she read the ones that did not have an 'x' in the corner.

"Hmm, this is interesting," she mused aloud, reading McAllister Hebert's application.

Many of the girls had left 'Position' blank. Some had written 'waitress' in that blank space. Some had even spelled 'waitress' correctly.

Kaileen again separated the applications into three distinct piles. The ones that left 'Position Applying For' blank went into the third pile. Those that spelled 'waitress' incorrectly went into a second pile. Those that spelled 'waitress' correctly went into her first pile.

And McAllister Hebert's application went on top of that first pile. In the blank of 'Position Applying For' she had written 'Sous-Chef' in very concise handwriting.

"Hello?" a small voice squeaked when Kaileen called the number.

"Ms. Hebert?" Kaileen asked. "This is..."

"Oh my God! Where you from? You even pronounced it right!" the girl squealed.

"Myndee, Arkansas," Kaileen giggled. "Had a Debbie Hebert in my Micro-Biology one oh one class. Man! She got some mad you pronounced it 'He-Bert' let me tell you."

Kaileen asked McAllister to come in for a face to face interview the following day. She smiled at the girl, the woman's enthusiasm, reconfirmed the time of the appointment and ended the call.

Kaileen first called the eleven girls that had spelled 'waitress' correctly. When she told the girls what their uniform would consist of, seven told her she would not be interviewing them. Out of the eighteen in the second pile, eight agreed to come in. The nine in the third pile, the ones that had brought their own pens, but had left the 'Position Applying For' blank, two declined when Kaileen described the uniform they would be expected to wear.

The next day, Kaileen unlocked the front door, donned the waitress uniform and waited. One girl came in, looked at Kaileen and blushed hotly. But she did not bolt. A group of four girls came in, laughing and squealing. When they saw Kaileen, two smirked, two looked uncomfortable.

Each girl, however, denied being McAllister Hebert. Kaileen looked at the clock and saw that nine of the twelve girls she had scheduled for the eleven to twelve slot were there. The three that had not made it by five after eleven, she crossed off of her list.

"I'm here, I'm here. Miss Withers, I'm here," Kaileen heard just as she got to her feet.

Kaileen looked around, then looked down at a midget, or dwarf.

"You're McAllister?" Kaileen verified.

"Yes ma'am, sorry I'm late, ass hole brother was too hung-over drive me; had get my next-door neighbor give me a lift," McAllister squeaked.

"That going be a common problem?" Kaileen asked, walking to the door and locking it.

"Why I want this job. Need get my own place, my own car," McAllister explained.

Kaileen took McAllister into the kitchen. There were two chairs set up and Kaileen took the first chair. She watched as McAllister hopped into the second chair.

"I need to dress like that?" McAllister asked, indicating Kaileen's uniform.

Kaileen was dressed in plain white cotton bikini briefs, long white knee socks and black and white saddle oxfords. Her 32D breasts and flat tummy were on full display, nipples crinkled tightly in the chilled air-conditioning.

"Only if you want to," Kaileen smiled. "You'll be back here, in the kitchen with me."