blog alive.
treat. One i will
some point.
Jane checked her watch, and then tapped on the door of the room that Andy and Will were sharing.
“Are you two boys ready? We’re meant to be at Snowdrop at eleven.”
The reply was a little muffled for some odd reason, but she got the gist. Andy and Will were rather tied up just at the moment, but they would follow her as soon as possible. Jane raised an eyebrow for a couple of seconds, then shrugged and went downstairs. Ten minutes later she was closing the front door behind her.
About an hour earlier JoJo had awoken, though he had still been rather tired. Well, it was to be expected after last night.
When Carmel had parked the Mercedes next to Snowdrop the previous late afternoon, she noticed that Kat had pulled in behind her and was getting out of the Nissan. JoJo had barely opened his door when Kat linked his arm and said, “Carmel, you don’t mind if I just borrow JoJo this evening, do you? Don’t worry, you’ll get him back safe and sound.” And with that, a stunned JoJo was whisked off in the direction of the pub, leaving an equally bewildered Carmel to mutter something like, “OK, dear.”
Since then, JoJo had lost a succession of virginities. Apparently, it had occurred to Kat that a bi girl might do worse than someone like JoJo, and, whatever happened, it would be an experience (or several) for both of them.
As it happened, it had proved that Kat’s idea had been inspired. Just because it was Joe’s dream to look like an attractive young woman, it didn’t mean that he found women unattractive. But neither did he object to taking the female position.
While JoJo was surfacing, he realised that Kat was fully awake. “Hey there! Girlfriend!” she said. “Time to think about getting you home. Your mother is going to want you there when Jane arrives.”
“Will you come with me? I think she might need some support.”
“Sure, if you think she won’t mind. In that case, we’d better get you ready. I was thinking about this. You were very keen on it yesterday at HotHouse.” With that she held up a stunning latex dress, narrow waisted and barely mid thigh.
“O, yes. That’s just what I need,” breathed JoJo.
Carmel had hardly slept all night. Sure, it was partly the warm summer weather that left her tossing and turning, naked and covered in nothing but glistening sweat. But it was also nerves.
Jane was due to visit them at 11am., with her tight shininess and her heely stabbiness, her total comfort in her own hyper sexuality and her complete fetish-friendly persona. Carmel had never encountered anyone remotely like her, and the prospect of where the conversation would lead was thoroughly intimidating.
And ‘visit them’ was hardly an accurate term at the moment. Since JoJo’s ‘Don’t wait up’ text at about 11.30 last night, she’d heard nothing. She assumed that JoJo was with Kat, but couldn’t be certain. And what would ‘with Kat’ entail? And who was with Kat? Joe or JoJo?
There again, she’d always worried about Joe’s isolation, his lack of friends. But did that really matter now that JoJo seemed to have three new friends, Andy, Will and Kat? By comparison with them, JoJo was almost vanilla.
But wasn’t that why they’d never settled too long in one place? Carmel had been so scared that Joe would be ‘discovered’, bullied. She’d do anything to protect him, assist him. And she owed it to her grandmother as well as to JoJo.
She pondered how to prepare for the visit. In the end she opted for a bold approach, and unwrapped the beautifully soft knee length leather skirt which she had been surprised to find at HotHouse, given that, sexy as it was, it could hardly be classed as fetish. But she’d always had a thing for leather, (not to the same extent as Jane, but she was in a class of her own), and which JoJo had inherited from the earliest times he’d dressed, and she’d decided that she deserved a treat. A couple of minutes later she was admiring herself in the mirror.
At the stroke of eleven, Jane’s elegant finger pressed the doorbell at Snowdrop Cottage and, after a somewhat longer than expected delay, Carmel slowly opened the door.
“Why, Jane. Do come in,” she said, as though she was almost surprised at Jane’s arrival.
“Thank you, my dear,” said Jane, and made her own way into the front room, where she began to look around the interior. “You’ve got this place looking really nice,” she said. “A lovely mix of old world and modern.”
“I’m so glad you like it,” replied Carmel. “I studied design for a time, before Joe came along. And may I say how elegant you’re looking?”
“These?” said Jane, “why, they’re just an old pair of Freddy’s. I must admit, I do love them, but they are just my fourth or fifth best pair, although I do get Andy to help me to keep them properly polished and supple. He’s so helpful around the house.
“Anyway, I’m here to welcome you and Joe to the village. I believe you’ve been otherwise engaged when other visitors have called,” she added diplomatically.
“Erm, yes. I do remember a couple of times hearing the door when Joe and I were busy.”
“But now we’re here. By the way, where is Joe?”
“He, erm, he’s out. With Kat. They became quite friendly when they went shopping with Andy and Will yesterday.”
“Ah, yes. The boys told me something of yesterday,” Jane said, though in truth she’d only seen them for a minute or two before they’d taken themselves off to their room. “Kat’s a lovely girl, don’t you think?”
“She’s certainly forthright,” said Carmel
“But you’re happy for her and JoJo to get close?”
“JoJo? Ah, yes. We’ve finally reached the real subject. Jane, I feel I can be candid with you. You’re not one of those judgmental types.”
“I certainly hope I’m not,” said Jane.
Carmel took a very deep breath. “Very well,” she said finally, “but the story isn’t straightforward.”
“It begins just after the War, with my grandmother still at school, and her elder brother, Walter, about to go to University. One day, my great-grandfather found Walter dressed in his mother’s underwear and shoes, together with a poor attempt at make-up. To say he exploded is, apparently, an understatement. He laid into Walter with his thick leather belt, then gave him five minutes to pack a small bag before throwing him out of the house. His name was never mentioned again at home. He died, homeless, a couple of years later, and my grandmother never got over not being able to help her brother. So, she brought up my mother to be as broad minded and liberal as possible, and this was passed on to me, though I never expected to have to put it into action.
“But then I made a similar discovery with Joe, though he was a little younger.”
“Joe was terrified when I caught him, and you can imagine my shock. But I remembered my mother telling me of her mother’s grief for Walter. What else could I do? If my son was my daughter, or wanted to be my daughter, or to look and live as if she was, that had to be OK with me. But it didn’t stop me being terrified for both of us.”
Jane’s eyes had already become moist as Carmel had let her in on this very personal story, and now the tears flowed as she walked across and wrapped Carmel in a silent embrace.
Kat, dressed much as she had been the previous day, but incorporating the boots she’d bought thanks to Jane’s generosity, was walking hand in hand with JoJo when she suddenly altered their course in order to intercept the vicar, whom she’d seen approaching the vicarage.
“Kat, my dear, how are you? And it’s Joe, isn’t it? Aren’t the pair of you looking good?”
“We’re good, vicar. Very good, in fact. JoJo will be joining me as a barmaid at the Fullerton Arms next week.” she smiled. “He and I are just off back to Snowdrop. Jane is calling on Carmel, as you requested.”
“Oh, that’s so good of her, so kind. We’re lucky to have her in the village.”
“In that case, vicar, why don’t you tell her?”
“I beg your pardon? Tell her what? I don’t quite understand,” said Mayfield.
“Vicar, I do believe that you’re the only person in the village who hasn’t noticed that Jane has a huge thing for you. You need to speak to her, instead of the pair of you just orbiting each other like a pair of shy teenagers.”
“Oh, no. I’m sure you’re wrong.”
“Vicar, I don’t do the ‘w’ word. Jane fancies you as much as you fancy her, so get in there.” With that, she took charge of JoJo again and they set off toward Snowdrop, leaving Mayfield immobile, looking shell shocked, outside the vicarage.
“D-do you think that was a good idea?” asked JoJo. “You seem to have left him in a state of shock.”
“Girlfriend,” replied Kat, “I do believe that’s my calling in life.”
“What about JoJo’s father? Is he still around?” asked Jane.
“Ah, Glen. Yes. Yes, he is, after a fashion. I should hate him to hell and back, but I just can’t, not really.”
Jane’s raised eyebrow was sufficient to propel Carmel forward with her narrative.
“To put it simply, he left me for an older woman. But it’s another complicated story. Even when we were students, me design, him computer science, he was the practical one, setting up little businesses, supplementing our income. Then one day he sold a program that he’d written and trademarked to a big company in California. These days we’d call it app development. He got several million for it. Things took off after that. He was over there more than he was here, and seemed to become Silicon Valley’s King Midas. I only discovered to what extent when he broke it to me that he’d be moving permanently to Palo Alto, but that he’d met someone else. Joe was only a few months old, and we’d been talking of getting married not long before, but now that was all over.
“He said that he’d make sure that Joe and I never lacked for anything. My first reaction was to tell him where to stick his money, but that wouldn’t have been fair to Joe, so I read his offer and nearly fainted. An eight figure settlement for me, a huge trust fund for Joe, and percentages of his future successes.
“And he’s been as good as his word. We’re seriously wealthy, for what that’s worth. And those future successes show no sign of letting up, and with them his generosity to us.”
“In that case,” said Jane, “I think you should just be grateful, and get on with your life. You have a lovely home, financial security, and a lovely son who has all the makings of an attractive daughter. Be happy.”
“You really think it’s as simple as that?” asked Carmel.
“My dear, I truly do. O, look who’s finally turning up,” said Jane, staring out of the window. Carmel looked across and saw JoJo, Andy, Will and Kat, having arrived from opposite directions, rendezvousing on the front path of Snowdrop, with much hugging, kissing, laughing and sharing of compliments.
“Jane, thank you. Thank you so much. I think JoJo and I have found a place where we can finally be ourselves and put down roots. I think we’re going to be very happy here.”
“Carmel, dear, I’m sure you are. And the village will be pleased to have you among us.”
With that, the two women went out to join the youngsters in the front garden.
********************
