What Now? My Ending DYJ

Dear reader:

This story is a response to challenge by H2Owader for new authors to submit stories. What follows is my first submission and is one way H2Owader's story could continue. Some sex, but that's not the focal point.

I do have several stories planned and would appreciate your comments. As with most authors/readers I do have my biases that will be reflected in my stories. Some of these are: infidelity doesn't pay (you can't hide it forever!), I DON'T get excited with the idea of someone else with my lady, revenge can be appealing (but it is chancy, hard to control, and can get out of hand). That said, life is complex and life happens! You can hypothesize forever but until shit happens you can't REALLY say how you will respond.

BEGINNINGS

What now? I was getting angry at Beverly because she seemed to be willing to do almost anything with me to get her education. I could see the hard core of pride she has that was keeping her from going to work at the Swan, but she seemed more than willing to do the same types of things with me. I was uncomfortable with her hard, brutally frank negotiations… I guess that's why I threw out the marriage idea.

Now I was angry at myself! It would be nothing for me to help her financially – how had we got to the point of her either being my personal whore or her marrying me? I knew what she wanted, and what she was and wasn't willing to do to get it. What did I want? I wasn't really ready for marriage, let alone one that was a sham. I was uncomfortable with the thought of using her; I had no problem getting all the sex I needed. As I thought about it I realized that I admired her spunk and her goals.

I was teaching because I loved the challenge of forming young minds, the spark in too few of their eyes as they came out of their shells and started WANTING to learn. I taught history because it was really my one passion. Too few students went further that what I could give them; here was a chance to help one person do that. I knew then that I wanted to see how far she could go, and as long as she made solid progress I would help her. I needed to think it out more so I wasn't going to tell her all at once what I was thinking.

"Beverly, let's hold off talking more about it now. I want you to do the homework I asked you, and also to write a letter on your goals: why you want to be a teacher, and why history?" I added, "Don't worry about anything else now, it just confuses the issues – stay focused on what you want to do and why, don't think about the how."

Looking embarrassed, Beverly replied "okay Mr. Reed. Do I give the info back to you?"

"No more of this Mr. Reed! School is over now, you're an adult now that you are 18, and you can call me James. As I mentioned I will have a guy work with you. Call him later when you have everything ready. His name is Mark Braxton, here is his card. Like I said, he should be professional with you at all times. If he isn't, call me at once… here is my card also." With that he shook hands with her and showed her to the door.

THE PLAN

As James thought about their conversation, it occurred to him that his school might be better that the ones they had talked about. It had an excellent History program, with degrees up to Doctorate. James had attended the Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo for his Masters and came to be good friends with one of his professors, Al Trent. Al was a jovial guy, bushy beard, brilliant mind, and a total passion for history. He was still teaching in the Graduate Department of History at WMU. Al had a wife of 30 years and four daughters, ranging from 18-28. Al was one of the few persons that knew of James wealth and how he had come into it. After considering it for a few more minutes, he knew what he wanted to do.

James called Al, and told him what he wanted to do with Beverly. He had checked into Beverly's background and found out how hard she had it growing up. He passed some of this info on to Al, and without going into detail told how her passion for learning history and wanting to teach had impressed him and he wanted to help her. At the same time he told Al how he wanted to use some of his money for something useful (not to mention that donating money would make his money managers ecstatic!).

"Al, I'll be frank with you, I know it's late for the admissions process, but I think we can work something out. What I propose is to fund two professorships, one in undergraduate and one in graduate history at WMU. I will also establish 5 scholarships for new history teachers for the Western Michigan area. If they teach in a high school in Western Michigan, I will also pay them a stipend of $20,000 each year for up to five years. Finally I will fund two interns in the History department, one graduate and one undergrad. I don't want to use one of the scholarships for Beverly, but I do want her to be given one of the internships without her knowledge of how she got it. I think it's important that she earns money on her own to enhance her sense of self worth. Do you think we can make this work?"

"James, it won't be easy, but let's give it a shot. Setting up the scholarships and funding the professorships will take time; I suggest that you also throw in a fairly sizeable, immediate non-qualified donation to the school. That shows good intentions while we work everything out."

"Here's another suggestion, given what you have told me about this young lady, I think it would be a great idea to have her stay with us for the first year. We have plenty of room and it would be good for her to spend time with my girls. It would keep her from being by herself and getting too lonely and would give her an immediate circle of friends. The girls can kind of keep an eye on her and I could guide her in the right classes, etc. Maybe she could come over for a few days in about two weeks and we can see how it might work out, and my wife can help her walk the paperwork through. Remember, Sara volunteers for the Dean of Students. As you know there is a bus that would make it fairly easy for Beverly to go back and forth. I think it's about a three hour trip".

"Al, that's a great idea. Why don't I come over next week, take you and your family to dinner and talk it over. You can set me up with some meetings and we can get the ball rolling. I agree with the immediate donation thought – how about $100,000 to kick things off. I think you have a great idea with Beverly; I'll set it up for her to visit. I got the idea for this from talking to her, but it does give me a chance to return some of what you gave me. I didn't have the money while I was at school and it was really a challenge. Without both your challenge and inspiration driving me, I don't think I could have finished.

BEVERLY

Leaving the meeting with Mr. Reed, Beverly was mortified. First was the way she had acted: she had talked to James like she was some kind of slut. Reflecting on what she had said, she blushed furiously. Then when he abruptly stopped the discussion at the end and sent her off to do the research, Beverly felt rejected, that she wasn't appealing to James. This hurt her vanity even though she knew she was being foolish. She had become more attracted to him, really a crush, with each class she took. He treated her with respect and encouragement; he gave her faith in herself: that she could overcome her background and become someone. Now she had blown it.

Feeling she was wasting her time she went to the school to pull the data together for her meeting with Mark Braxton. The cost information was easy to get from the schools' web sites. She also did a comparison of their history programs hoping this might impress James. In looking over the results of her research, it became clear to her that her goals were too fuzzy – getting out of Baldwin and having pride in her accomplishments should be byproducts of what she wanted to do. She realized that she really loved history; the stories of people and places fascinated her. She felt compelled by the thought of giving to others what she had received from James.

As she started to put down these thoughts into the goals James had asked her for she drifted off thinking about how hard her life had been. Her dad had worked for a small logging company that went to pockets of hardwood left over from the huge forests decimated in the 1800's. Occasionally he would have to further north to harvest white pines. He was out of work a lot, and when he did work he was away for several weeks at a time. She remembered her mom as being slight and very pretty. As she grew older she realized her mom was drinking all the time and when she was about ten her mom started bringing men home. This terrified Beverly and she locked herself in her room whenever her dad wasn't home.

One morning her dad came home unexpectedly. He found his wife passed out on the floor with a man asleep in his bed. He exploded in anger and started savagely beating on the stranger. Beverly heard her dad shouting and left her room… when she saw her dad beating on the man she started screaming. Her dad turned in horror and grabbed his daughter and led her back to her room. When he returned the man was gone. He called the police and his wife was arrested for child endangerment. She was given 90 days in jail and given a court order not to see her husband or child. Beverly never saw her again. The man was a transient her mom had picked up – she never even knew his name. Being a relatively small town there was a lot of talk about it for several years. From that time on Beverly was somewhat afraid of men. Her dad got a low paying job at a local lumberyard to be home more for his Bev.

She turned very shy, and when she started high school she tried to stay away from boys. The two times she dated, the boys became fresh as soon as they had her alone. Both times she jumped out of the car and ran home. She never dated after that. Part of the reason was her clothes, they didn't have much money and she had to make most of her dresses. They were nice, but plain compared to what the others girls wore. She did keep herself neat and clean at all times. The one man who was kind to her was her history teacher, Mr. Reed. He was the only man that seemed to respect her.

As she sent in her scholarship papers, she realized that she would have to have a job. The only place that seemed to have jobs available was Sam Bly's bar, The Swan. When she met with Sam he showed her around, had her watch some the girls dancing, and how they dressed more accurately, undressed!). Back in his office he asked if she was interested. As this was the only job available, she hesitantly said yes. Sam asked her to take her blouse off so he could evaluate her "charms". Knowing that he went into the women's dressing room all the time and would see her anyway, she slowly unbuttoned her blouse with hands shaking. Filled with sudden lust Sam asked her how badly she needed the job. When she replied she didn't have any other choices, he said that there was just one step left in the interview. She started putting her blouse back on with relief, when Sam said "wait!" He pulled his cock out and said "suck it and the job is yours". Beverly turned white and ran from the room with Sam laughingly shouting after her "come back when you are ready, bitch!"

This took her to her interview with Mr. Reed. She resolved that she would do whatever she had to do to get him to help her find a job. She was scared, but rationalized that at least he was attractive, he had always been nice to her, and that she "kinda" liked him. As much as it terrified her, by this time she felt she had no choice. Though he was nicer than other men she had known, he was a man and she knew what all men expected: what she had to give to Mr. Reed.

She shook her head and realized she had been sitting there for an hour. She focused and shortly finished her task.

Later that night she called Braxton to meet with him for lunch the next day. A little after that, James called and told her about Western Michigan and the trip to meet with the professor and his family. He told her about their history program, some about the professor and his family.

Beverly was overwhelmed… and worried. What was this going to cost her! Remembering James' reaction earlier, she hesitantly asked "James, what do you expect from me, sex?"

He replied "Beverly" and was quiet for a moment. "Beverly, sex is something that should come from love. You don't love me and I don't love you. If this changes, we can talk about it, but for now I respect you and want that respect back. I only ask two things: you really commit to your studies and that at the end of each semester you and I will meet for lunch to review your progress and discuss your on-going goals. Mark called and said that you have lunch set up – he will give you all the information and funds you need. Work with him through the year letting him know if there is anything you need. Okay?"

"Okay… thank you James" she almost whispered as she placed the phone down.

The next day she met Mark Braxton and he immediately made her nervous. He was very handsome and impeccably dressed. He didn't do anything outright, just a lot of touches, sitting/standing close, accidental touches. Mark for his part was enchanted with her and started thinking how he could get her in his bed.

The lunch was nice and Mark covered all that she needed to know. He gave her $500 for clothes and another $500 for expenses: bus, dinners out on her visit to Kalamazoo, etc. Beverly thought it was too much but Mark insisted he was just following his orders. Mark gave her general info on the plan, to talk to Al about the intern program, she had to minor in a foreign language, and she had $5,000 limit in a credit card as a reserve fund. She was to mail the credit card receipts to Mark for filing.

Beverly did make the trip and it went wonderfully. The professor and his wife treated her very nice and his daughters (two living at home and two married, but living close by) took her out shopping for clothes and to several informal get-togethers, including a pool party. She had to buy a swimsuit and of course chose a conservative one piece. It didn't make any difference, the boys still flocked around and she was constantly blushing. Sara walked her though filling out paper work and was able to get her enrolled for an intensive summer French program.

She moved to Kalamazoo a week later. Bev (everyone in Al's family immediately started called her that) had difficulty with the French but Sara with her fluent French helped her out and she wound up with an A- for the summer. She went home for a couple weeks to visit with her dad and then returned to WMU and started her new life.

James

At the next monthly meeting with Braxton, James asked how it went with Beverly. Mark told him everything was set up and she had already moved. James was impressed that Beverly was taking the summer intensive French course – it wasn't a requirement, but would give her a good head start learning French. He knew that she had taken four years of Spanish in high school.

The whole episode with Beverly, and the talks he had with his old prof, Al, got James to rethinking his life. He enjoyed teaching, but was there more he could do. He thought about it for a few weeks and then called Al and asked if he could come down for dinner. That weekend he made the trip. He met with Al early in the day for a couple of hours and then took him to lunch.

They kicked possibilities around and Al asked a number of probing questions. Over coffee, James said "let me see if I can tie all this together. I think it's clear I'm going to give up the teaching. I'll focus on two things: enabling more history teachers and for them to be more effective, and to see if I can make an impact on the quality of teaching materials available. The first I can do by continuing what I have started, but add several other Michigan Universities. I can set up some sabbatical programs, so more research and publishing can be done. And I can set up programs to encourage more History classes in the high schools and make it more interesting. One thought I had would be to have grad students go to the high schools and share some of what they are working on – it would be fun both for them and the high school students. All this I see focusing primarily on the Western Michigan area. I don't want to take on the world; I just want to make a difference where I can. The second idea would focus on the publishing part. I know through a friend of a small publishing company in Detroit that mostly does history textbooks and specialty history publishing that is for sale. I want to buy this company and have my friend run it. How does this sound, Al?"

"It sounds great! I would suggest you go ahead with the publishing company. Also start a foundation to coordinate donations, scholarships, etc. You should run this yourself. I would be happy to recommend some names for an oversight panel to proved general direction and make recommendations. This board would include teachers from all levels, students, and a couple key legislators." "Great Al, let's do it!"

With that James set out to change his life! That night he ate with Al's family. Beverly sat across from him. At first she was quiet, almost embarrassed. But everybody was laughing, teasing each other so much that she came out of her shell and joined in. After dinner, James asked her to take a walk with him. Not much was said until they sat at a bench in a nearby park. "Beverly, I think we got off on the wrong foot. I like and respect you – I will never ask you to do anything you don't want to do. I just want you to have a good life. I do know what happened with you family years ago – I needed to know more about you before I could do this. I'm sorry I had to look into your background. I want you to take this history education as far as you want; I know you can do it." With that James stood up, kissed her on the cheek and walked her home.

Later that year James went to a party hosted by Mark Braxton. He didn't really want to go, but didn't see a graceful way out of it. At the party he met a lovely Swedish girl, Marita. She was tall, looked slim with long blonde hair. As James danced with her he found she wasn't that slim, her breasts were firm and felt wonderful. He "accidentally" had his hand on her ass a couple times, and it was clear that Marita was very athletic. At the end of the evening she openly invited him to her apartment.

Marita was an intern with a law firm in Grand Rapids. When they entered her apartment, James found it very austere, somewhat cold… and he hoped she wasn't like that. She wasn't! As she showed him the bedroom, she sat on the bed and started removing her thigh high stockings. When her skirt all the up way James was instantly in love with her long legs, and instantly erect. "James, could you come give me a hand with these?" He walked over and kneeled in front of her and slowly rolled the stockings down. He followed each roll with a kiss to her leg until he had kissed both feet. Slowly he worked his way back up her legs with kisses and frequent pauses for licks. By the time he got to her panties, she was laying on her back with her eyes closed. He figured he was safe with taking her panties off without asking. James started running his fingers through the soft golden hair. As he started licking around and up and down the soft slit Marita started moaning and moving her hips around. He leaned back a little and slowly moved his finger up and down watching as she became more and more wet. He wet a finger in his mouth and gradually pushed it in. He repeated this several times: licking his finger and slowly pushing it all the way in. He inserted two fingers and started fucking her with his fingers more rapidly. While he was doing this he locked on her clit with his mouth. He moved his tongue around in a circle very slowly and then sucked her clit into his mouth and rapidly vibrated his tongue over it. By the time he did this several times she started to buck her hips and he had to grab her ass with both hands. She suddenly moaned and erupted in a huge orgasm. After a bit she relaxed and just lay there.