But no. I am nineteen and my first time and my only time so far has been with a woman who is in her forties. The woman owns a thrift store that is in direct competition with my mom’s store where I work. Mom’s store is called Ann’s Thrifty. I came up with the name. Sometimes I am brilliant. My mom’s name is Ann, Ann Sigmore. Yeah. I know. Shut up.
The first woman I ever had sex with is named Dottie Meweast. Like I said she is in her forties. She has her hair dyed blond. She has blue eyes and a really pretty mouth. The first time I felt her mouth on my …
___________________
Story: Murder By Theft
By Charles Peters
Copyright 2019
All Rights Reserved
This story is fiction. All characters are fiction. All characters with a sexual description are over the age of 18.
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*** 1
So I am sitting in my bedroom with my door closed. I like my privacy. I especially like my privacy when I am watching people on chaturbate and I have my shirt off and my pants down around my knees.
I am a dude and I like to look at other dudes. Now you may say that makes me gay but I have only had sex with a woman. An older woman! I tend to prefer older women. Can you imagine when I turn ninety and I am saying that I prefer older women? That thought disturbs me.
But no. I am nineteen and my first time and my only time so far has been with a woman who is in her forties. The woman owns a thrift store that is in direct competition with my mom’s store where I work. Mom’s store is called Ann’s Thrifty. I came up with the name. Sometimes I am brilliant. My mom’s name is Ann, Ann Sigmore. Yeah. I know. Shut up.
The first woman I ever had sex with is named Dottie Meweast. Like I said she is in her forties. She has her hair dyed blond. She has blue eyes and a really pretty mouth. The first time I felt her mouth on my cock it was so freaking amazing. I tell you, it was almost a religious experience.
By the way, my name is Daniel Sigmore. I stand five foot ten inches and I weigh 140 pounds. When I am totally hard my dick is around eight inches long. I’ve thought about doing a cam show on chaturbate but my DSL sucks so badly. I am not sure I could get the video quality that anyone would want to watch. I think I am handsome enough but still, even if I had decent DSL, I can just imagine I would be one of those dudes looking sad with zero viewers on the last page of chaturbate. Still, it sure would be nice to be able to make money on chaturbate. Mom’s store is not doing well and dad was just recently laid off from the auto parts plant where he works. I guess I should say worked. He had been there six years and it is hard to believe he will never work there again.
Our heat pump went out and we don’t have the money to get it fixed or replaced. Dad and I both are having to cut and chop wood for the wood stove. Being poor sucks. So yeah, I would seriously like to try making money on chaturbate.
I hear mom calling. “Supper is ready.” I guess I had better put my hard-on away and finish pleasuring myself toward orgasm later. I close my firefox browser and I pull my pants up. I fasten my pants. As I stand up I close my computer. I look down and realize my hard-on is obvious since I am wearing boxers and loose fitting sweat shorts. I grab up a large shirt and put it on. It makes the outline of my dick less obvious. I figure my dick will probably be totally shrunk by the time I go down stairs anyway.
I walk to my door. It is a normal door. It has a door knob and everything. I put my hand on the glass door knob. My dad got that door knob and others from a house that was torn down when they were tearing a neighborhood down that had been bought by the airport authority.
Have you ever seen that sitcom Bewitched with the Aunt Claire character? One of the routines they do with her is that she collects door knobs. On the sly my dad suggested that maybe if I had a hobby I would not jerk off so much. I doubt that. I would just incorporate my self enjoyment into my hobby.
So I am still looking at the glass door knob and I see some kind of image in the door knob. It is a small moving image. Though it is small. I see it. It is there. I am sure that it is not my imagination. Now I don’t see it. Maybe it was my imagination. “Oh God. Insanity is such a bitch.”
I turn the glass door knob. I open the door. I have the strangest feeling. I feel so nervous. Why do I feel so nervous? I don’t understand it. I walk through the doorway. As I am walking down the hallway I notice the shinning wood floor beneath my black socks. I wonder why is the floor shinning. It hasn’t been waxed lately. Has it? It is weird. So fucking weird. Now I am feeling dizzy. Am I dreaming? Things don’t look right. I don’t feel right. I am genuinely scared.
“Mom.” My voice cracks and is not very loud. It is kind of squeaky. “Mom.” I say mom louder. Was it loud enough for her to hear me? I am not sure.
This time I scream, “Mom!”
Mom yells back. “What is wrong?”
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“I don’t know. I am feeling weird. When was the hallway floor waxed?”
“Last week. Your father and I had bet if you would ever even notice or mention it. I won. You mentioned it.” Mom laughs. Actually she cackles. Her strange laugh is scary. I picture three witches around a giant black caldron hanging above shooting flames from a wood fire. And in the mental image I am in the caldron.
I walk down the steps from the upper floor and down into the entry room. My brother Tom is watching television. That might not seem weird to you but my brother Tom died last year in a car wreck. Tom vanishes.
“Oh my God.” I feel certain that I am losing my mind. I am going crazy. That is what this is. Did I mention that insanity is a bitch?”
I go into the kitchen. I look at mom. She appears normal. I see no black caldron. “You said supper is ready?”
Mom doesn’t say anything back to me.
“Mom.”
She still doesn’t say anything.
I turn and see Tom walking into the kitchen. Tom says, “I am going tomorrow to put flowers on Daniel’s grave. Do you want to go with me?”
“No.”
“You need to forgive Daniel. You know he loved you.”
“I can’t forgive him. He stole from me. He caused me to lose my store.”
I may not be a saint but I would never steal from mom. The very idea that she would believe that is insane. I don’t know what kind of dream that I am having but this has to be a dream. I am not dead. Tom is dead. I am certain this has to be a dream. Aren’t I?
Dad walks into the kitchen. He opens the refrigerator to get a beer. He talks to mom. Dad says, “Go with Tom to put flowers on Daniel’s grave.”
“Not even if hell were freezing over.”
Mom hates me. She thinks I have stolen from her. This is so weird. It can’t be real. It just can’t real. There is no way this is real.
My dead grandfather walks into the kitchen. I ask him, “Am I dead? Am I dead like you are dead?”
Grandfather smiles. “It was you in the car wreck. Not Tom. It wasn’t an accident. You killed yourself.”
“No way. I wouldn’t do that. I would never do that.”
Suddenly I wake up. I look around my bedroom. “Thank God that was just a dream.” I feel a chill and I shiver with goosebumps on my arms. I glance in the mirror across from my bed and for a seeming eternity of endless moments, I see me sitting up in bed and holding my severed head. Blood is spewing from my neck and washing over my pale white ghostly hand gripping tangles of my hair and washing over the disembodied head that is my head. Looking at that awful site I stare into my own eyes and I see death looking back. Then the image vanishes and I see myself sitting in bed appearing almost normal except for the sweat of fear running down my forehead and face. I am soaked in the sweat of fear.
What is real? What is not real? What is just a dream, night or day, and in this day that I am waking into what will be my reality. There is a part of me that does not want to crawl from the bed that I now feel is my refuge but I know that I must.
I said crawl. But crawl, no. I muster my courage and I stand like a man and I will walk like a man. Whether the verdict of this day is life or death I will not crawl.
***2
I get dressed and I walk out of my room. The wood floor of the hallway does not have a shine to it. It has not been waxed. I walk down the stairs and I go to the kitchen. I kiss my mom on the side of her face. She smiles.
“Breakfast is almost ready,” she says.
“I had the most strange dream last night. Tom was in it. I guess I am missing him.”
Mom nods. “Yeah. It has been a year since he died. Been a year. It is hard to believe it has been that long since he died in that awful wreck.”
“I am going to put flowers on his grave today. Do you want to go with me?”
“I would but I am filling in for Mr. Bud all this week at the school.”
“So, are you going to have the store closed all this week?”
“You can open it up during the hours you like and maybe try to do some ebay sales. But business sucks. I don’t know how much longer I am going to keep it open. At this point I am mainly keeping it open for you. I know not keeping regular hours probably does not help us any but sitting in that store day in and day out and not making any money is painful. I reached the point where I could not stand being in that store hour after hour with no customers and I don’t expect you to sit there all day either.”
“We are normally closed today but I will try keeping it open four hours a day. Since dad is laid off he can work some hours. We will make it work.”
“Your dad has got at new job at Brisky Auto Parts.”
“I didn’t know. That is good.”
Now I am wondering if I am still dreaming. This doesn’t feel right. Mom has not worked as a substitute teacher for several months. I could have sworn dad had said Brisky Auto Parts is not hiring.
“I thought dad said that Brisky Auto Parts is not hiring.”
“Yeah. That is what he said. But then he got a call from the manager and whatever the dude’s name is said that the human resources dude must be totally fucked in the head for not hiring Barry.”
“Cool. So I guess I should plan on working in the store eight hours a day. I guess the store is my baby now.”
“Well yeah, but if you don’t start earning an income there I am going to have to shut it down.”
“I understand. So with you working and dad working I guess we can get the heat pump fixed or replaced.”
Mom said, “There is nothing wrong with the heat pump. What are you talking about?”
Oh my God. This is so freaking weird. I did not imagine the heat pump being broken. It was broken. Dad and I were having to cut up wooden pallets and firewood to put in the wooden stove. I have to still be dreaming. This has to be a dream. Still, I don’t confront mom on what she has just said. What would be the point?
Mom began to put the breakfast on the plates. “So has dad already left for work?”
“Yeah, the human resource department was not happy with Barry being hired and so they are making the paperwork as aggravating as possible. He had to go in early to deal with the them but he will not normally have to go in this early.”
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***3
I go to our store where we have some silk flowers. I am not very good at arranging flowers but I am not totally awful either. I figure I can fix the flowers for Tom’s grave without earning an F from Tom in floral design. Yeah, I can picture him in heaven looking down with a grade book. He was going to be a teacher like mom.
When I go into the store I do not lock the doors or anything. Dottie Meweast comes into the store. “What are you doing?” she asks.
“I am fixing some flowers for the cemetery.”
“Let me help you. I am better at that than you are.”
I grin. “Everyone is better at this than I am so don’t be patting yourself on the back.”
Dottie laughs. She begins pulling some flowers out of the boxes and arranging them in the green floral foam. “I’ve been thinking about you a lot. I like when I dream about you.”
“I’ve been having some weird dreams lately.”
“I feel guilty on how I used you and toyed with your feelings.”
“You were the first woman with whom I had sex.”
“I know. And that you will never have sex with another woman breaks my heart. You were not a bad lover. You were just inexperienced.”
“My dick got plenty hard for you. I am not gay.”
“I don’t want to fight. I don’t like when I dream that we are fighting. I like when I dream that you are holding me in your arms with your soft, young lips against my lips. Ohhh such a tingle. I like that in my dreams. Kiss me. Please kiss me.”
I ease around and I put my hands on each side of her face. She stops working on the flowers. I hold her face in my hands and I look into her eyes and she looks into my eyes. I see there is such a sadness there in the way she is looking at me. Still, I put my lips to her lips and I taste the taste of “Big Red” chewing gum. I move my tongue deeper into her mouth and I feel the chewing gum against my tongue. I move my tongue around her mouth. Then slowly I part my lips from her lips, with a taste of her lips against my tongue. We both sigh as we both know that even such a sweet kiss as that will not lead to sex.
Dottie goes back to working on the flowers. She says, “I bumped into him yesterday. He doesn’t know about us. No one knows about us. He said your mom hates you. I wish I could talk to Ann but I can’t.”
“You bumped into who?”
Dottie hands me the floral foam to put in the vase. She has done a good job of arranging the flowers. She turns and walks from the store.
That was so weird. Who did she bump into that would tell her that mom hates me. Tom?
I run her after her but when I exit the store she is no where to be seen. It is like she has vanished.
Standing there outside the store and watching the cars drive by I have the most awful feeling. I turn and go back inside the store. I want to cry. I want to cry like I’ve never cried before. What I am thinking can’t be true, can it?
***4
I park in the cemetery. Tom’s grave is kind of in the middle and I sometimes have trouble locating it among the other graves. I see someone is sitting at one of the graves. I think it is in the area where Tom’s grave is.
I take the flower arrangement from the passenger seat and get out of the car. Holding the blue and yellow flowers I walk toward the grave. As I approach the grave I realize Tom is sitting at the grave. I take a deep breath. I think I am seeing a ghost and yet still at the same time I am wondering if I am the ghost. I wonder if Tom can see me.”
I walk up to him sitting with his legs folded. The headstone is in front of him. I feel nervous. Though I have come to wonder if I am dead, still, in my mind it is Tom who is dead. I don’t want to think that I am the one who is the unworldly soul walking in the shadows and so in mind I feel as though Tom is the ghost. And there is something about ghosts that are scary, even if when they were among the living you loved them. I guess that fright comes from the fear of death itself and perhaps even the fear of the unknown. What awaits us? Heaven, hell, hades, purgatory or perhaps just prancing around as a ghost.
Afraid or not I love my brother. Outside my fear I am thrilled that he is sitting there. I speak, “Hello Tom.”
He doesn’t look at me. He doesn’t acknowledge that I am standing there. I don’t think heard me.
I hear him talking and I realize that he is talking to me even though he doesn’t seem to know that I am standing there. “Daniel, I miss you so much. I wish I had quit college and come home to be with you. When I left, I knew you needed a friend. I knew it.”
I remember the day that Tom left to go off to college. After he left with mom and dad to drive up to UGA, I cried. It was stupid. I know.
“You didn’t ever know it but after you thought I had left for college I came back into the house to get something. Your door was partially opened and I looked inside your room. I was going to say something to you. I don’t remember what. But I saw you laying on the bed and crying your eyes out. I actually smiled. It pleased me that you loved me that much and that you would miss me that much. Now I am missing you. I miss you that much. Why didn’t I say anything to you when I saw you crying? I wish I had but I know that my seeing you in that state would have embarrassed you. Wherever you are Daniel, know that I love you.”
I look at the writing on the tombstone. I first see the name Tom but the name changes before my eyes. The name reads, “Daniel Sigmore.” I can’t make out the date of death on the tombstone.
I put my hand on Tom’s shoulder. “Tom.” I wish he might hear me. “Tom, you were a good brother. I love you.”
I look around the cemetery. I see an elderly woman walking toward me.
Tom says, “I don’t know what happened. I don’t know if you stole the money or not. I wish to God mom had not called the law on you like she did. She was maintaining the store for you and the money was money to operate the store. It does not make sense to me. I know in her heart that she still loves you. You were her favorite. I don’t know why she would say that she hates you.”
I have no idea what he is talking about. I don’t even know if I am dreaming or if this is real. Am I really dead?
The elderly woman reaches where Tom is sitting and I am standing. I am not sure if she sees me or if she sees Tom or if she sees both of us or if she sees neither of us. Then she takes my hand.
“My grandson is a policeman. He is the one who shot you in the arm and you ran. He is so sorry for what happened. Can you find it in your heart to forgive him. I think if you forgive him, it will help the both of you. He is standing over there at my grave and watching your brother. He wants to talk to your brother but he is afraid.”
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“Am I dead? Am I really dead or is this some weird dream?”
The elderly lady hugs me. “In this realm, it is confusing, isn’t it dear. But yes, you are dead. Do you not remember dying?”
“No. How did I die?”
“Your mother called 911 and reported that you had stolen $20,000 from her bank account.”
“I would never do that.”
“How do you know if you don’t remember dying?”
“Mom and dad were always good to me. Mom and I were running the store together. The store was not doing very good. We were losing money. There is no way I would have taken any money.”
“My grandson, Officer Carl Frost, was sent to investigate. He talked to you. You denied writing the check. When he was checking your computer and trying to figure out what you had done with the money he found gay porn on your computer. My Carl is conflicted as well.”
“What do you mean conflicted?”
“He likes men and women. I guess the word is bisexual but he doesn’t like that about himself. When he found the gay porn on your computer he told your mom that you are queer and that someone may have been blackmailing you.”
“I don’t remember what you are talking about.”
“Carl also told Officer Shagdales that you are queer and that he thinks that is why you stole the money. Officer Shagdales convinced your mom that she should have her queer son arrested for stealing the $20,000 from her. She agreed for charges to be filed in the hopes you would do a plea deal and reveal what you did with the money so that maybe it could be recovered. Later, after the charges were filed, Officer Shagdales picked you up from the store and told you that he was taking you down town to be questioned and formerly arrested and booked. He took you out in the woods and he raped you.”
“That didn’t happen.”
“Then when he was finished he dumped you back at your house and reported that you had escaped when he was trying to arrest you. Back at your house you confronted your gay fantasies with what Officer Shagdales had done to you. You went down to your basement to your gun collection. You considered killing Officer Shagdales. You considered killing yourself. You did not like what had happened. While you were thinking you began cleaning your guns. You were down in the basement when the law arrived to arrest you. You did not know that Officer Shagdales had reported that you had escaped while he was arresting you. Two officers came down the front stairs and my grandson came through the basement door. My grandson thought he heard a gunshot and saw you were holding a gun. He fired his gun and he shot you in the arm. There was a window behind you and you jumped through the window. You got to your car and you sped off. My grandson and other officers rushed to their cars. There was a car chase and a truck pulled out in front of you. You stopped but then you hit the gas. You intentionally drove up under the truck. Your head was decapitated. You killed yourself.”
“That does not make sense. What ever Officer Shagdale did to me would not have driven me to kill myself.”
“Your mom had accused you of stealing from her. She hated when my grandson told her that you are gay. She had rejected you. She had told you that she hates you. She filed charges against you.”
“No. That is not real. She would not do that. I would not kill myself.”
I see Officer Carl that the the elderly lady had been talking about. He is walking toward where we are standing.
“My grandson is a good boy. He feels awful that he told your mom that you are gay and that she filed charges against you. He doesn’t know for sure what Officer Shagdale did to you but he suspects something is not right about Officer Shagdale’s report of your escape. Also, your gun was not fired but he and the other officers know they heard a gunshot. Your death is driving him crazy. He now doubts that you stole the money. Please try to forgive him.”
I watch as Tom looks up at Officer Carl. Tom says, “Man, what are you doing here. I do not want to talk to you.”
Carl says, “I know you don’t. I understand that. I was visiting the grave of my grandmother when I saw you here. I guess it must be fate that you and I are here at the same time.”
“You shot my brother and he killed himself by driving under that truck because of you.”
“I think I have located the $20,000 that was stolen from your mom. It was hard to trace because it was moved through five bank accounts before landing in the sixth bank account where it remained. The sixth bank account is controlled by CaCaCandy Inc.. That company is owned by RaRaRandy Inc.. That company is owned by DaDaDottie Inc.. Dottie Meweast owns DaDaDottie.”
“Daniel gave the money to Dottie.”
“I don’t know if he gave the check to her or if his name was forged to the check. But listen, there was the sound of a gunshot in the basement. I don’t know where that sound came from but I did not imagine it. All the officers in the basement heard it. Most realized it did not come from the gun that Daniel was holding but I did not realize it. I think someone caused that sound because they wanted Daniel to be killed.”
“You think my mom caused the sound. You think mom wanted Daniel dead.”
“She is the one who file charges against him. She is one who told him that she hated him.”
“Mom loved me. I love mom. There is no way that she would have wanted me dead.”
Tom said, “There is no doubt that mom now professes to hate Daniel but I can’t believe she wanted him killed.”
“Your parents collected a $1,000,000 life insurance policy on Daniel.”
“No they didn’t. We are poor. Hell, we can’t even afford to get the heat pump fixed. Dad and I are having to cut wood for the wood stove.”
The elderly lady takes my hand and we appear in the home of Dottie Meweast. The elderly lady tells me, “The way to communicate with the living is to get into their dreams when you are dreaming about them. Understand.”
“I think I do.”
“Good. Remember.”
The elderly lady vanishes. I walk to Dottie’s bedroom. She is laying in bed with a man who I recognize. I have watched him on chaturbate more than once. He and I had chatted and I had almost hooked up with him but then I chickened out. Now there he is laying with Dottie Meweast. When we had chatted he had described himself as bisexual. We had not revealed our real names to one another. I had not told him about Dottie. Is this real that he is laying there with her?
The elderly lady had suggested I get into Dottie’s dreams and try to communicate with her. I climb into the bed with Dottie and the man. I drift off to sleep.
***5
I wake up in my own bed. Have I been dreaming. I don’t know. I get out of bed. I get dressed. I open the door to my bedroom. I go down to the kitchen. Mom is cooking breakfast.
I speak to mom. “Mom.”
“Yes dear.”
“Do you like dreaming about me?”
“No. Yes. Some of the dreams I have are good and some of the dreams are bad.”
“What about this dream?”
“What do you mean?”
“You know what I mean. You are dreaming and I am in your dream. Or maybe I am dreaming and you are in my dream.”
Mom smiles. “That is silly. We are both awake.”
“Are we? I think you are dreaming. Am I Tom or am I Daniel.”
“You are Tom.”
“No. I am Daniel. You are dreaming about Daniel. You are dreaming about me.”
“I don’t want to dream about you. I hate you. I hate you. I hate you.”
“Why do you hate me?”
“You stole money from me and we desperately need that money. You gave that money to your queer lover. Maybe it was blackmail or maybe you wanted him to have my money.”
“Speaking about money, what about the million dollar life insurance policy that you had on me?”
“I wish.”
“Call Officer Carl Frost. Talk to him.”
Suddenly I leave the kitchen and I find myself in the dark bedroom of mom and dad. Mom wakes up from our dream in the kitchen and she turns the light on next to the bed. She kicks my father so that he will wake up. He wakes up and flips over to stare at my mom.
Father asks, “What is wrong?”
“Did we have an insurance policy on Daniel?”
“Tom asked me the same thing today. He said that Officer Carl told him that we had collected a million dollar policy on Daniel. There is no such policy. I plan to call Officer Carl in the morning and make clear to him that he is wrong. Officer Carl told Tom something else.”
“What?”
“The $20,000 that was stolen from you went through several bank accounts but ended up in an account controlled by Dottie Meweast. Either Daniel wrote her a check or she had someone forge his name to a check.”
“Are you shitting me?”
“No. That is what Tom told me that Officer Carl told him.”
“I will kill the bitch. They can give me the death penalty. I don’t care. I am going to kill the bitch.”
Mom and dad got out of bed. Mom told dad, “I should tell you before we go over to confront Dottie that after you had your little affair with that bitch down at the grocery store that Dottie and I had a lesbian fling.”
Oh my fucking God. Did you hear that? Mom and I both have had sex with Dottie. I think now knowing that may be worse than now knowing that I am dead. But if she is bisexual, why was she judging me so badly for being bisexual. That doesn’t really make sense. Does it?
Mom said, “I am sure when we confront her, she will tell you.”
Dad said, “I knew about your lesbian affair.”
Mom and dad finish getting dressed.
“She already told you.”
“No. I read your emails when I got concerned you were going to divorce me. Did you know that Daniel also had an affair with her?”
“I did not.”
Mom and dad went into the kitchen. Mom began fixing coffee. Dad sat down at the table.
“One night when Daniel was working on inventory in the store I was going to surprise him. I thought I would pop in and help him finish up and then we would go get a beer. When I went into the store he and Dottie were in the warehouse area. She was sucking his cock.”
“I always assumed Daniel was gay the way he would sit with his legs crossed. And every time he would talk with his hands and flip his wrist I would seriously want to put a plastic bag over his head. Then when I thought he had given our money to his gay lover, I lost it.”
“He really was prissy. And I would not have been shocked if I had walked in on some dude sucking him off but no, it was Dottie down on her knees. I quietly left without them knowing I had been there. When we confront her, she probably will tell you about her and Daniel. She probably will tell you that Daniel wrote her that check and he may have.”
“His signature was on it.”
“It could have been a forgery.”
“I want to kill Dottie. I am going to kill her for stealing from me. She really did not suck my pussy well enough for me to give her $20,000.”
“But honey, killing her will not get your money back. It will not get the million dollars she may have collected on life insurance she took out on Daniel when pretending to be you.”
“So how could we get the money back and get the insurance money?”
Tom walked into the kitchen. “I thought I heard you two. What is going on?”
Mom said, “We are planning on killing Dottie. She used me for sex. She used Daniel for sex. She stole $20,000 from me. She probably pretended to be me and collected on a million dollar life insurance policy on Daniel. I want that woman dead.”
***6
I am back in my room. I am back in my dream where I think I am alive but I now know that I am dead. I now know how I died. I know who is responsible.
Laying in bed I consider that I need to get up and face a new day. But a new day of what.
Dad comes into my room. Laying in bed I look up at him. I wonder how this works that I can be both dead and alive. I smile at this dad who can see me and who seems to think that I am alive.
Dad says, “Your mom and I are going to the grocery store. Do you want us to pick anything up?”
“A chocolate cake would be cool.”
“We will see. The grocery store charges $15 for those cakes.”
“But mom is teaching. You’ve got a new job. We can not afford a $15 cake?”
“We will see. Are you going to open the store today?”
“I guess that I should. It is draining us, isn’t it?”
“If you can’t get it turned around, your mom is going to have to close it down.”
“I know. I understand.”
“The store was also her dream but now it is your baby. Whether the store makes it or doesn’t make it is up to you.” Dad closes the door.
In this world, this dream, this whatever the fuck this is, no money was stolen from us by Dottie but still the store is losing money. Mom has gone back to teaching as a substitute teacher. Dad had lost his job but has gotten another job. In both worlds Dottie and I have had sex. I wonder if mom has also had sex with Dottie. In this world has dad seen Dottie sucking my cock.
I get out of bed. Through my boxer shorts I rub myself. I wonder how long that it has been since I have jerked off. That is how discombobulated I am.
I take a shower. While I am in the shower I think about maybe instead of going into the store I might stay home and view some cam shows on chaturbate. But I need to make that store work. Still. I know I will be lucky if even three customers walk through the door.
Then I consider that I have better DSL at the store that we are still paying for. I can’t get good DSL at home but I can get good DSL at the store. I consider that I could actually stream myself at the store but I had always decided against that for fear of being caught. Of course I would lock the doors.
I get dressed. Realizing I don’t even know what day it is I look at my phone to check the date.
Oh my God. Today I need to pay the rent to our landlord. Son of a bitch! I grab up the checkbook and head into town where our store is. Driving, I feel the checkbook in my pocket. I don’t always take the checkbook to the store with me. I only have the checkbook with me on rent day. It had to have been on a rent day that Dottie stole a check from me.
I reach the store. I park. It is an odd thing but I look at my shirt. I could have sworn that I put a solid blue shirt on this morning. My shirt has red and blue stripes. That is so odd. Oh fucking hell. What is going to happen next. I may be going crazy. That is probably a better explanation than thinking that I am dead. I mean how can I be dead and still be in this world that seems so real. It doesn’t make sense. I am so confused.
I get out of my car. I feel the checkbook in the pocket of my shirt. The shirt may have changed but the checkbook is still there.
Our landlord is Duke LeDuke. I know, what a weird name. Really. His family is rich. He is grown but his parents still give him an allowance of $5,000 a week. Sometimes he has good looking women with him. Sometimes he has good looking dudes with him. I’ve never been sure whether he is straight or gay.
Duke has an office in the back of a convenience store that he owns. It is around the corner from our store. I step into the convenience store. I ask the clerk, “Is Duke in?”
The clerk is a good looking dude who I had never seen in the store before. He has no idea who I am. The clerk asks, “What do you need to see him about?”
“Rent day dude, rent day. I’ve got to give him a check.”
“You can give the check to me and I will give it to him.”
“I have no fucking idea who you are. I will give him the check in person and he will give me a receipt. I don’t want to hear some shit that I didn’t get the check to him on time and that our lease has been broken.”
The clerk dude laughs. I don’t see the humor and have no idea what he is laughing about.
Duke LeDuke steps out of his office. “Hey Daniel, I heard you. Do you really think that I would do that to you? You really need to chill out and stop giving my new clerk grief.”
“No grief sir. Drama queens make me laugh.” Then the clerk winks at me. “My brother is gay. He is the one who got me this job.”
I write out a check to give to Duke. “I am sorry. I’ve just been going through some weirdness lately.” I put the checkbook back in the pocket of my shirt.
Duke says, “No problem. Your mom told me that things have been rough. She told me that she has gone back to teaching. When your father lost his job that scared her. I am glad he is back working.”
“Yeah. If I can not get the store turned around, she is going to shut it down.”
“She told me. I tell you what, I own a storage company where people rent storage units. Several have missed rent for a few months and I am going to have to empty the units. What if I rent some space from you to put items from the units in and let you sell the stuff for me. And you get 10% commission per sale. What do you say?”
“I could move some stuff out and create the space for you. How much space do you want?”
“I will pay you $500 for 500 square foot. So that will bring your rent down to $1200.”
“I am agreed regardless and if you say no it doesn’t matter but I am going to ask any way. Would 20% commission be unreasonable?”
“No. I tell you what. I will give you 30%. But don’t tell anyone other than Jed here and his brother Ted. He and his brother will be the ones helping me work the booth.”
I reach out my hand to Jed. “Nice to meet you Jed.”
Jed shakes my hand. “Just to be clear, my brother is gay. I am not.”
“Okay.”
Duke says, “Dottie tells me that you, Daniel, are also straight.”
Jed said, “I am sorry. I thought…”
“No. That is fine. You aren’t the first and you will not be the last. And the truth is, these days, I don’t know what the hell I am.” I turn to Duke. “So Jed’s gay brother Ted got you to hire Jed.”
Duke laughed. “Yeah, I fly either way.”
“I probably do as well. I just never have. So how soon do you want the space empty to begin moving stuff into your booth and does it matter where in the store the space is located.”
Duke said, “I tell you what, the warehouse space is fine. How soon will you be able to get it ready?”
“That is much simpler. I will have it ready by this weekend.”
Duke said, “Cool.”
“Well I better get out of here and get busy.”
As I was walking out the door I heard Jed and Duke talking. Jed asks Duke, “Are you planning on fucking him?”
Duke laughs. “I don’t know. Maybe he is a gift for your brother.”
***7
I open my store up. I double check that the checkbook is in the pocket of my shirt. It is. Thank God. I call mom who who is still in the grocery store with dad.
“Yo mom.”
“Yo black son of mine who is a honky. What be happening down in the hood.”
I laugh at my mom. I tell her, “I paid the rent. While I was talking to Duke, he said he would rent 500 square feet for $500 from us in the warehouse. He is planning to set up a booth where we will sell stuff for him that he will be pulling from some unpaid storage units. I agreed without even thinking to consult you. I am sorry.”
“No. I am back teaching now. It is okay for you to make those decisions. It is up to you now to whether the store makes it or fails. Reducing the rent to $1200 a month is a good starting point.”
“I will still want your advice on stuff. But anyway, if I can actually get some customers in he will also pay us a 30% commission.”
“30% commission. Hell yeah. That is a good deal if you can get someone to buy the stuff he puts in the booth.”
“Yeah. I am going to have to run some ads.”
“At least for a few months, since you got the rent down for me you can spend that $500 a month in ads but no more than that.”
“Understood. So yeah. I do need to consult with you.”
“Yeah, when it comes to spending money, I guess we need to stick to you asking me for advice and though I hate to say it, permission. But I really do want to give you enough decision making power to show what you can do.”
“I understand. I understood. The quicker the cash burn the quicker you will have to close the store. I love you. Please don’t hate me if I fail. Please do not think I would ever betray your trust.”
“Honey, we are good. I just had to get back to making money. I love you also. I could never hate you.”
I hung up with mom. I go to the back warehouse space and turn the lights on. I look around. I hope telling Duke that I would have it ready by this weekend is not too optimistic. I feel for the checkbook in my pocket. It is still there.
I figure cleaning the space out in the warehouse was going to be long boring work. I pull a large desk out from the space that I am cleaning. I go to the front office and get my laptop computer. I take it back to the warehouse. I set the computer up on the desk. I pull a large monitor from the floor of the store. I remove the price tag. I set it up and configure the computer and the monitor where I can view the different security cameras to know if anyone comes into the store. I set up a different window where I can watch a chaturbate room. I put on some wireless earphones where I can listen to the chaturbate room that I have chosen. I can glance at the chatroom window on either the computer or the monitor. When I flip to the monitor though it closes some security cameras from being viewed.
I get a cart to load things on to move from the space that I am cleaning out. As I am loading the cart I am also watching the cam model and the chat window.
The cam model is a dude. He is fully clothed and talking to the guests in his room. Someone comes into the room and the chat topic changes to where people talk about living dangerously. One of the people in the room tells how he fell a great distance while rock climbing. The cam model tells him that there is no way. He tells him that there is no way that anyone could fall that distance and survive. But the man insists that he did. I flip to another room and the cam model is talking about all the bad luck he has been having. He was in a car wreck. He says it was a miracle that he survived. And while the man is talking, I swear I see a ghost in the room. I turn chaturbate off. Dead people on chaturbate who don’t know they are dead. I wonder if I am the only one who can see their channels.
As I continue pulling stuff out of the warehouse space I feel like I am making headway. I feel my shirt pocket for the checkbook. It is still there.
I see Dottie on the security camera. She has come into the store. She begins calling out for me. “Daniel. Are you around?”
I call out to her. “I am in the warehouse area.” I am not sure my scream was loud enough. I scream out to her again. “I am in the warehouse area.”
Dottie walks to the warehouse area where I am. She looks at me. I look at her. She asks, “What are you doing?”
“I am cleaning space out for Duke. He is going to rent the space from me.”
“He is going to rent his own space from you. That is funny.”
“Shut up. It amounts to a reduction in rent. Plus I get 30% commission on any items that I sell. I think it is a pretty good deal.”
“He does know your store doesn’t get any customers, doesn’t he?”
“Shut up.”
“What do you say you close the store up. We can get naked. We can fuck. I am so horny.”
“Who is watching your store?”
“My hired help. When you are successful you can hire people. You don’t have to do everything yourself.”
“Yeah. Sure. Bitch, just brag.”
“So what do you say? Do you want to have sex?”
“I do not think we will ever have sex again. I am pretty sure you have turned me gay.”
Dottie laughs. “You loved having sex with me. You know that you did.”
“I tell you. That mouth of yours on my cock turned me gay.”
“Turn you gay. So with what man have you had sex.”
“None.”
“Yeah. Turn you gay. I didn’t think so. No man could give you a better blow job than what I gave you.”
Dottie kisses me. She massages me with her hands. She rubs my crotch. She pinches my nipples. She nibbles on my ears. Then she backs away and quickly turns. She starts walking to leave the warehouse.
She calls back to me. “Well. If you are gay then you are gay.”
I check for my checkbook. It is not in my pocket. I chase after Dottie. I catch her. I grab her. I pull my checkbook from her hands.
I scream at her. “Yeah. You are not going to steal the $20,000 from my mom. You are not going to collect the $1 million life insurance policy on me. If you ever try to hurt me or my mom again, I will kill you. Do you understand.”
Dottie asks, “How did you know?”
I don’t say anything. Dottie turns and leaves the store. Suddenly the elderly lady that is the grandmother of Officer Karl Frost appears in front of me. “Thank you son. You not only saved your own life but you saved my grandson’s life. He couldn’t live with knowing that he had killed you. It eat him up inside to the point he began planning to kill himself.”
“But this is a different world.”
“No son. You have changed time.”
“Is Tom still alive or dead. I am confused.”
“Tom also changed time. He avoided the accident. He is also now alive.”
“Is mom really now back teaching. Did dad get another job? Or was that just part of some dream.”
“Your mom is back teaching. Your dad is back working. This is the real world. And now you are no longer dead.”
The elderly lady vanishes. I feel confused. I am not totally sure I changed anything or was just mixing dreams and reality while having some kind of nervous breakdown. But I do think I am alive now. The question is, was I ever dead.
I get back to working in the warehouse. My brother Tom comes in and starts helping me. As we are working he winks at me. He says, “I heard you talking. Being dead was weird, wasn’t it?”
I nod. I have to agree. “Yeah.”