Chapter Eight

It was Wednesday. As usual, Charlotte was doing the dishes after herself Deborah, David and her husband. She new she had to take care of them at least once a week. As usual, they had piled up during the week, so that she had to fill and refill the sink about eight times when doing it. She stood there thinking about the young boy who's eye she had been caught having an affair with a few months ago, asking herself why that boy didn't ever see in himself that he was into something he shouldn't be.

She on her hand, had it in her to feel that it wasn't for everyone to see as the good thing they would like to be having, something they shouldn't represent themselves as, because she and she had thought he too, were actually better than that such a relationship was there in being oneself. But the boy had started to brag, or at least sort of, about her 'eagerness' about him, which she had put on for a show of that she was happy; but decadence wasn't her thing to be called “eager” about! Her happiness was not deep, since she appreciated the life of fidelity, and therefore the love story shouldn't have been talked about, she thought.

She felt that perhaps she should be scolding him by saying that she faked it all, saying that her pretension was total apart from the weakness in her – from being left alone so much in her apartment – and that this pretension had been used by that horny slut of a man who was he in order to pretend she was a bit like him, even. On the other hand, she had enjoyed herself with him, and therefore wanted to show that she could appreciate the sort of friendship he had offered. She wished for a while that she could be like the men around her, unappreciative of discretion, or what to call it.

It came to her how her daughter had been into thinking such a way for a day or so, after she had told her about her father's and brother's words about infidelity and such. She wondered to what extend, and if so how, that could lead her daughter to be assaulted by that lesbian in school, that very next day. ... I wonder, she thought, if thoughts about being filthy sends out vibes, or whatever, that they (the sexual predators) can sense, somehow.

She decided to try to ask Deborah herself what she thought about that. She would usually be home two hours earlier than her father, which was a few hours away, so she expected to have finished her dishes, at least, by then. In that she got to work a little bit harder.

As she had expected, her daughter arrived at three thirty. She had just eaten a very late lunch, and felt relieved that the timing seemed perfect. Therefore she called out:

ـِـ Debbie!

ـِـ Yes mom?

ـِـ I need to talk to you.

ـِـ Something the matter, mother?

ـِـ Eh, ehm. Debbie, I want to ask you something. ... It's about that girl, the filthy one, that you talked to me about ... Was she about being filthy all the time or sometimes?

ـِـ Usually, mom. Why do you ask that?

ـِـ I mean did you admire her for being filthy? Or was that just for catching the boys attention that you did admire her?

ـِـ Always for the boys attention, only, mom!

ـِـ So there was nothing like that you want to seem to be like that bitch?

ـِـ No, of course there isn't!

ـِـ I wonder then, are you really into boys that much, or are you just fantasizing that there are good boys to be had if you were?

ـِـ I'm into boys, but I'm also fantasizing, mom, to the extent, at least, so that they can seem to be what there is for there to be taken as what I want to have!

ـِـ What do you mean by that?

ـِـ I mean I don't know what I want from them, so until I find out I really want to imagine they are what I dream of them as!

ـِـ Are you completely sure about this?!

ـِـ Positive, mom!

ـِـ Then why do you seem to be into caring about really taking them for granted as the ones that you really do appreciate?

Deborah hesitated.

ـِـ I think it's because I want them to be worthy of me once I get there, so that we can be together, one of them and I, or so.

ـِـ Or so?!

Her daughter giggled.

ـِـ Yes, or so, because I feel that I don't know if they care about me otherwise. ...

ـِـ Sure? I feel that you should be very unsure even so!

She giggled again.

ـِـ No, I disagree!

Her mother sighed before interrogating her further:

ـِـ But where you or weren't you trying to seduce the blokes around you before that Sylvia hit on you?

Deborah both sighed and giggled when saying:

ـِـ Mom, I was, ... I was figuring on a prank on that teacher, to make that filthy dick of his stand up in those no-underwear pants of his. Somehow it occurred to me, but that was two days later, strangely, that Sylvia could have been of use for this prank! But then she was already the one that I resented so much that I forgot about the idea of the prank. ...

ـِـ OK, her mother said. I'll settle for that!

Chapter Nine

At his job in the bank, Charlotte's husband Richard was sweeping floors. This was his usual evening job there and had been since he was sixteen, for two thirds of his life.

In the beginning, it was the only thing he did for them. Nowadays, he also managed some business deals. Because this was a small bank and it's owner, who had gotten to know him, really learned to trust him after about four years. Before that, he had talked to the bank's chief clerk and its owner about that he knew much about some of the banks consumers, and said that he would perhaps be better at handling them than the others on the staff, eventually pointing to that his father and his older brother were doing much business with them. These clients were mostly parts of some fairly criminal networks that were pretty much appreciated in the area. Upon this the manager himself checked this out and he concluded that he was especially wise at treating certain criminals in very suitable way for the bank. They therefore taught him some basic skills of accounting and had him work as a clerk sometimes.

The criminal networks that Richard had been used to dealing with due to his older brother's business were a bit different from those of his father's. Richard had learned to deal with either of them in a their-kind-of-polite manners. It was a mixture of criminal-appreciative and chauvinist attitude that, not too surprisingly, turned out to be fairly easy to adapt to other new types of criminals as well.

He therefore eventually was given very low rents on some bank loans, one for a car and for a summer house. This he was able to use to present himself while trying to finally get a wife, when he was twenty-four. This was Charlotte, who who had then just barely turned nineteen. The troubles with her had not begun until long after their two children were born.

Today Richard had been managing some business with a fairly rich female criminal, which was almost not unusual for him. As usual with females, he mostly tried to treat her like one of the guys in her business, which usually worked fairly well.

She had turned out to be very secretive of what she was up to. It had taken all week to get her to really appreciate his bank's type of money laundering, but today he was finally done. She had viewed him in the eye and signed a contract on a loan that would make her not seem rich without reason. For this she had paid them under the counter almost half of the money that the loan was on.

So, quite satisfied with his efforts, Richard rather happily finished this days work. He was sure to get the extra money under the table that he usually got after this type of a deal. This he planned to use for having a friend of his family renovate their summer house, probably.

As he drove home he suddenly came to think of his wife's infidelity and wondered if he should be into that she didn't deserve that the money went to both of them. ... In this he resented that their children in that case would also be depraved of his help if he saw to it that his wife was. Feeling that this was a rather difficult dilemma, he decided to discuss this issue with his son.

He parked his car in his usual slot, a few blocks away from his home. He had a free parking slot there, which was almost protected from rain by some big brashes of a tree that stood there. He was aloud to park there because a Mr. Lacrazzi, who owned a fairly empty yard where these trees stood, was appreciative of his and his banks business with him and his coworkers.

He walked home and took the elevator to third floor where he and his family lived. Entering the door to his apartment, he called out his son's name. No one answered.

Then, as he hung up his coat, he called his daughter's name. While he was untying his shoes, she came out of her room and asked:

ـِـ What, dad?

ـِـ Do you know where your brother is?

ـِـ No, why should I?

He sighed.

ـِـ No. I didn't mean that.

ـِـ Why do you want to talk to him?

ـِـ Oh, it's just this little business of mine, something that he and I should be talking about, something that I don't want your mother to get into! And probably not even you! That is if you can't keep a secret from her!

ـِـ Oh, I can be secretive.

He looked at her.

ـِـ How can I be sure about that?!

ـِـ I'm not sure, dad. Wouldn't it depend on what secret it is?

ـِـ Of course, he said.

Then he sighed and added:

ـِـ It's about how to build a house well!

She thought for a while.

ـِـ What? As a present for her?

He looked nonplussed, sighed again and said:

ـِـ No, by all means no! I want to keep it a secret from her, because feel like there shouldn't be interference of someone who goes that much behind my back!

ـِـ Oh, OK!

ـِـ you know what I'm talking about?

ـِـ I think so. It's that infidelity thing again, right?

He sighed once more.

ـِـ It's worse than that, Debbie.

ـِـ I'm sorry, dad.

ـِـ It's sort of about that I want to make our summerhouse look good in a way that would be a payback for me, and at best you two as well, I mean you and your brother! ... But not for her!

She looked intriguingly at her father.

ـِـ OK, dad.

ـِـ For me, it would be good if you appreciated that you and other women could be there, but not she, so she could be envious and hopefully even jealous of them! ... I mean envious of you and them and jealous of them is what I'm hoping for! ...

She looked at him. At length she said:

ـِـ Yeah, dad! I think I can see now!

Chapter Ten

Charlotte was thinking. She had overheard the conversation between her daughter and husband. Now she sort-of wanted to take back her application for divorce. But to take that back, she would have to appreciate her husband on the surface at least, and she wasn't quite sure if she would after all. In a sense, she felt, she could be having to have a conscience about his feeling against her. But at the same time she felt that she had a reason to believe that she never could have been happy in this marriage without any love affair beside it.

But meanwhile her husband was thinking about seeing to it that the divorce was done with. He figured that he should take a stroll, during his lunch hour, to try to talk to the man who was their divorce counsellor. And so he did.

It was almost not possible for him to see him in such short notice. But the man was, though not easily, able to appreciate a conversation after his lunch with him. So, after hearing this from him, Richard took a hamburger, while waiting for the man to finish his lunch.

When twenty minutes remained of an ordinary lunch hour, Richard spotted him leaving rather exclusive restaurant of choice. He quickly walked up to him.

The man turned around and said:

ـِـ OK. I think I can take the few minutes we need, then.

They went to his office, and he handed over a few papers, some already signed by his wife. Richard read them for five minutes, and then signed them all. He smiled.

ـِـ Finally done, then. Finally I'm free form her – and she from me!

The man laughed and ordered him to pay the hundred dollars it cost for the extra meeting.

ـِـ I think I will soon enough.

He cleared his throat.

ـِـ How do I know that these papers really do work for us?

ـِـ Please trust me on that.

ـِـ Can you write another paper, that you have signed, which says that the papers we have signed actually mean that we have an already finished divorce.

The man giggled.

ـِـ OK, he said.

ـِـ Good, meanwhile I'll go out and take out that money!

Five minutes later he was back. He received a piece of paper that thoroughly stated that his divorce with his wife was now complete and paid the man the hundred bucks that he had received from a cash dispenser nearby.

Chapter Eleven

David was with another one of his female customers. He was seducing her into signing a contract for him to work on her boat for quite some time. She readily accepted his hopes for a engaging for the long time it stood in making the vessel crafty and insinuated an invite for to have a romantic evening with her now and then on that boat.

But what he didn't know was that this woman – or girl, rather – knew his sister very well from school. She had talked there – more than at home – about him being the empty shell of a man to have as a role model. She therefore thought thoroughly about how he could have tricked her into finding him too attractive to be wanting other men besides him. At the same time, though, she felt a deep attraction from him, something saying that he would be appreciative of her attitudes if she only did give up all other men.

She handled the contradiction by stating:

ـِـ You and I should be into getting laid as easily as anybody!

He smiled at her.

ـِـ Oh, sure. I beat we can really make them appreciate that if we have it!

She smiled back, now scornfully certain that he was a playboy and not the fake idol his sister had described him as.

ـِـ It's fine with me, he said, if we do have some summer's romance. But what if you and me somehow eventually get married?

She looked at him in amazement.

ـِـ Oh, wow!

He smiled again, but without knowing why he suddenly had gotten that idea.

She smiled back, now knowing that he even would appreciate her for being absolutely cunning about him.

At that moment, a male costumer entered his workshop. They both turned their heads towards him. He was tall and almost handsome, but a little too skinny to really be that.

ـِـ Hi, is this the place to have one's car painted?

David gave a shrug and said:

ـِـ I can hardly keep it here, but OK, I'll go to your house and take care of it.

He smiled inwardly before adding:

ـِـ That is if you pay me, of course!

ـِـ I was going to, of course.

The tall man smiled awkwardly when saying it.

The girl in the work-shop looked around for a while. She didn't say anything, but seemed to be feeling somewhat attracted to all the work going on there. The tall man said nothing.

David now turned to her and said:

ـِـ We should finish our business for now! If you like we can sign the first contract already.

She looked at him.

ـِـ Wow, you're really a good-looking man!

The words sounded more like a dumbbell than an appreciation.

David looked puzzled. The tall man stood and looked at him and was puzzled as well.

ـِـ Well, David said, we'll either sign it now, or we can work on it later – whichever you want!

The tall man giggled.

ـِـ Why are you talking to him about him being handsome and not about the contract you were talking about?

She almost laughed out loud at the misplaced repetition of the words talking and about. But she settled for saying:

ـِـ It's all about friendship, isn't it?

Then looking at Dave:

ـِـ You and I should have to appreciate one another during that summer job on my boat.

She indicated with her hand that she wanted to caress him.

David looked annoyed.

ـِـ Either way we have to finish our contract! Either that or I can't be working on it!

She was startled.

ـِـ OK, she said at last.

Chapter Twelve

Deborah sat and listened to her parents quarrelling after dinner.

ـِـ Do you know what, her father asked. I've finished the divorce papers you were filing. I can't appreciate you having to be here all the time!

ـِـ It all comes down to me, huh?! And now I have to go after managing your house hold for two decades.

He was silent for a while. Then he answered:

ـِـ I appreciate you having taken that into you that it's almost helping me out. But it's worse than you're admitting! It's less than twenty of the full twenty-four years we've been married.

ـِـ Stop that, his wife retorted. You know as well as I that there was laundry and dishes and stuff even during the first four years.

He looked at her, now slowly pondering on if he should keep scolding her back or try to do something else in order to insinuate that she would be better of without the young men she wanted.

ـِـ Charlie, he said at last, you don't know what you're into. When you're fucking those young men and scolding me for after all being, and for having been your husband.

She giggled.

ـِـ How come you don't think so?!

Now he looked at her with new eyes. The room was silent for almost a minute.

ـِـ Because I feel there's not any notion of sense to seeing in them the caretaker of the home you've been living in!

She looked at him with a very scornful glimpse, and shrieked:

ـِـ Ha!

She was still looking the same way at him when saying:

ـِـ I don't ever see you doing the laundry here do I!?

Now Deborah broke in and said:

ـِـ So what? Mom, you haven't ever tried to let him do it! At least I don't think that you have.

Charlie looked chocked now. After a while she began sobbing. Deborah's eyes wondered between her and him.

No one said anything. After ten minutes, Richard said:

ـِـ I don't know if there can be room for us to sleep in the same bedroom anymore. ...

His wife looked at him.

ـِـ No, I don't suppose there can be after all of this!

While they were talking someone turned the key to the outside door. Deborah went up to greet her brother. But he wasn't responsive at all for her greetings now.

ـِـWhat's the matter, she asked.

ـِـ What have you been saying to me, he asked back.

ـِـ Nothing you didn't know!

He looked at her sternly.

ـِـ I just found out that you've been talking to all the girls in school that I appreciated being the idol that was to be adored by my little sister, whom I supposedly tried to fool into thinking I was a role model!

ـِـ But I have said that to you as well!

He examined her.

ـِـ Sort of, he said at last. But I haven't been told how they would appreciate that as a comment on my business, which can be sort of ruined because of you!

ـِـ No it can't!

ـِـ What do you mean by that?!

ـِـ I mean that it's not to be seen as a comment on the business you're doing!

ـِـ What do you mean?!

ـِـ How can you ask that?

He stared at her. At last he answered:

ـِـ I ask that because I don't have anything that says to me that there's no business in the women that want my art.

Richard broke in with:

ـِـ I don't think it's really worth it to ignore them, Deborah! At the same time I think you're right in that they're not the important part of it!

ـِـ They are the important part of my business! They are the most appreciative, up until now at least, of my customers!

ـِـ They are?!

Richard sounded very surprised.

ـِـ Yes, dad! Yes, they are!

ـِـ They are?!

His mother sounded almost as surprised as his dad.

ـِـ They are, mom, he assured her.

ـِـ Then how come, his mother asked, you don't feel like telling us about them. ...

ـِـ It never occurred to me to talk about them, he answered.

ـِـ Then do now, both his parents retorted at once.

ـِـ No, I don't want to talk about it, he said, and left for his room.

Chapter Thirteen

The next day in school, Deborah was in cooking class. Her teacher in that class was a woman of about fifty. Deborah new what she was doing in her class. So she decided to prepare a meal rather fast, and then ask if the teacher could possibly come and share it with her.

ـِـ Oh, I'm not sure yet. I mean what is there so say you've cooked something good enough for me.

But that she had made an effort to do.

ـِـ I think you could taste it, and then say if it is. I apologize if it isn't, but at least I need to talk to you!

She looked thoughtful.

ـِـ OK, I'll come and taste your meal. But I hope what you have to say doesn't take all day.

She sat down with her and let her serve her beef with onion and vegetables. After tasting it she said:

ـِـ It's OK, but what is it you wanted to talk to me about?

ـِـ It's about my brother, Deborah said.

ـِـ Oh, his cooking was fairly excellent!

Deborah sighed.

ـِـ It's not about that! I'm sad to say that he is the big playboy brother of mine that I really have to be careful about admiring and stuff! I hope you can realize that he is almost into being a real nasty womanizer nowadays!

She looked chocked.

ـِـ I had no idea!

ـِـ It's about his art business that I need to say something. It is that it's about his business that it's been said to be, when he's actually a playboy that screws around much worse worse than even mama has!

ـِـ Your mama?

ـِـ Oh, uhm, yeah! My mama.

ـِـ I don't know about either of them, she said thoughtfully.

ـِـ Well, my parents are recently divorced because my mother slept around with kids.

ـِـ Children?

ـِـ Well almost kids, then. Very young men, you could say.

ـِـ How young.

ـِـ I'm not sure, Helen.

ـِـ What's it about?

ـِـ It's about that I have a brother who seduces girls and women into paying for stuff they wouldn't be having if it wasn't for his charms. It's just the other day that we found out, I mean me and my dad, who are the only decent people in the family!

ـِـ Oh my!

ـِـ Yeah, and there he tried to tell me not to talk to even my girlfriends about how he has seduced both our parents into thinking that he should be my permanent role model or something!

ـِـ I see. And that's where I have to be their substitute, then?

She sat thoughtful before answering:

ـِـ I guess I sort of meant that. ... But what I didn't mean is that you should have to be talking to me all the time! Rather, I would like you to appreciate the fact that I warned you! And perhaps the word can be passed around!

Her teacher answered with a sigh. After a while she said:

ـِـ If that's what you've had to talk about, then I'll settle for that he is a bastard and that we shouldn't appreciate men like that! It's horrible that they all probably catch HIV and spread it!

ـِـ Yeah, even that.

Deborah shuddered. It was silent for a while, then Deborah decided to say something about her family:

ـِـ Daddy is the one that always insisted on having us know better than to sleep around. He, and mother too, said that if we do, we should always, very much always, use condoms – and even then it's not quite safe, they've said.

Helen thought for a while.

ـِـ Even so, I imagine your brother – if he is the playboy you say – either has caught it, or he will sooner or later. ...

ـِـ Yeah, it's horrible!

ـِـ Yes it really is! ... I'll be trying to pass the word around about him, then, Debbie!

ـِـ Thanks Helen!

Chapter Fourteen

Today David was late to his studio. He had been at a sleep-over with two of his most appreciated female customers. When he arrived there, he saw a woman standing outside it and looking fairly impatient.

ـِـ Hi, he said. I'm sorry I'm late for you.

ـِـ Hi, she said to him.

As he was unlocking the door, he said:

ـِـ What do you want me to work on?

The woman, who was Spanish-looking and in her mid-twenties, answered that she wanted him to fence for her.

ـِـ What kind of fence, he asked her.

ـِـ A fence for my chickens.

ـِـ Chickens?

ـِـ Yes chickens.

ـِـ How tall do you want it?

ـِـ Actually I would like it like a cage, which should be about five feet tall. A fence with a roof that is.

He thought for a while.

ـِـ What if I make it a chicken fence with a smaller roof than the fence itself. Would that be a probable luck for you and ... ?

She giggled.

ـِـ It really might be lucky for me to just have you around in my house! You see I've heard so much about you! All women in town seem to know about it!

He looked startled. After a while he asked:

ـِـ What is that you've ben saying about me?!

She giggled again.

ـِـ They've told me you were so much of a lover that there is no limit to what there could be for a pleasure for anyone who catches your fancy well enough!

He looked solemn for a while. then he said:

ـِـ How come you've all been talking about me when there isn't even the first thing to know about being a womanizer about me?

She looked straight at him, fixing her eyes on his.

ـِـ They've been saying that you're the womanizer that is the first bastard son of Peter Ebanes, which makes me think you must be at least as exciting as he was!

He looked surprised.

ـِـ Why would they think that I'm a bastard child and then fancy me as the womanizer for their health?

She stood silently for a while.

ـِـ Why would you not be at least half the womanizer he is, and then also more than half of what that mother of yours is, a womanizer but with an edge of sarcasm against the womanizing she's into?

Now he looked startled.

ـِـ What?!

She giggled once more.

ـِـ Yes, like that!

ـِـ What if I'm not the womanizer type they're after?! Then what would they be into saying abut me after that they realize it?!

She kept on giggling.

ـِـ It's not true that you're not into womanizing me!

He stared at her.

ـِـ No, he said at last, I don't appreciate me as the womanizer you think I am!

Her giggle became a smile as now as she said:

ـِـ Then aren't you into tricking me like that mother of yours, into thinking about the ordinary man in you as being the womanizer instead, and then of the womanizer as being the ordinary person, that we all have inside ourselves?!

He looked at her in astonishment.

ـِـ What do you want me to take that as?!

ـِـ As an invitation for you to do me as well as most good-looking female customers you've had!

He froze inside as he said:

OK, I'll do you honey!