Attitude Adjustments

Kim was now a dark soul. How that could happen to a twelve-year-old, I’ll never know. She was a loving child until her father lost his job at the factory he had worked at since leaving high school.

I chose to leave for the service, choosing the Air Force over making envelopes, packing bacon, soldering condenser coils, or any number of other dead-end manufacturing jobs available.

I don’t even know if the two events were related, I mean the job loss and the personality change Kim underwent. They did happen roughly at the same time, though. He was laid off, then the plant closed and moved everything to Mexico, except the workers. The next time I saw that beautiful little girl I knew and lovingly remembered, she was different. Cold, distant.

I was Kim’s uncle. The last time I saw her was last year at a family reunion. She was dark, gloomy, sad, and generally… Did I say dark? The year before that, she was a cute little munchkin. A bouncing little girl in pastel blouses and shorts and bobby socks and Keds and all things young and feminine. My older brother was actually her stepfather, but adopted her at the age of eight, when her biological father gave up parental rights so he could give up child support payments. Not much of a trade, but that’s the real world.

Last week my brother and his wife of 8 years, Kim’s mother, were killed in a car accident. Yes, yet another in the long stream of drunk drivers plowing through a red light on a Friday night. It was a lucky coincidence, from what I understand. The roles could have been reversed. Gary and Suzy could just as easily have been the cause and perpetrators instead of being the victims. They had been out drinking, too. Thankfully, as DOS, dead on the scene, victims of a high-speed red-light T-Bone accident, caught on camera, their BAC, or blood alcohol content wasn’t measured, or recorded, during the short autopsies. A grim reminder for Kim. It happened the day before her sixteenth birthday.

I picked Kim up from the foster home with the Child Protective Service agent beside me. The foster parents were all too gleeful to let her get back to her life, somewhere else. In private, in the kitchen, they told me she wasn’t happy there, but that they didn’t see her being happy anywhere. When I approached Kim, arms outreached, she reached out as well, and she smiled. The foster mother looked at me, and shrugged, smiling. She had just told me there had been no smiles, no happiness projected. Kim and I met in a hug. Sharing grief, yes, but I felt her relax in my arms. She must’ve felt, and in my view certainly was, safe, melting into me.

“Hi, Uncle Charlie. Thank you for coming to get me. Can we go home now? I hate this place. This town.” She looked at the foster mother and said, “Not you, ma’am. I’m sorry I sounded like that. I have so many bad memories, I just want my uncle to take me away far away from this… Just far away from here and let me start over. Please understand. I thank you for feeding me and putting a roof over my head. I’ve been terrible company. Thank you for everything you did, and everything you tried to do.” She turned and walked out the door.

“Mr. Carlson, that was the first smile that girl has shown anyone in a year. I’ve been a case worker for friends of hers, and known her, and others of her friends, for that long, and more, and even when she was in your brother’s home, she’s been despondent, negative, and withdrawn. You walk in and she smiles. I hope you can bring her back. I hear she used to be a wonderful happy child.”

“Yes, ma’am, she was. She’s still in there. I’ll get her out. I’ll get her back. Thank you both. If it’s OK, we’ll leave on that journey to a fresh start right now.”

We could leave town right then, as the funeral had been held on Wednesday. I felt terrible about missing it, but I couldn’t travel that far, that fast. I didn’t find out about the accident until Monday, and it was all I could do to get my equipment back home, then hit the road to be here this morning. I knew I wouldn’t make the funeral in time when the tire on the plane gave out, damaging the wheel and putting it in the shop, so I decided to drive. I like driving and hadn’t driven anywhere cross country for a long time. It would also give me time to think on the way there and get to know Kim on the way back. It did help. I had all kinds of recordings of silly brainstorms on my phone after the trip. Maybe one would pan out.

When I got back to my truck, she was up in the front seat, buckled in, looking straight ahead. Her little bag was in the back seat. I watched her for several seconds. She wasn’t looking at anything specific, I could tell. She was in a trance, reflecting, hopefully not on something dark. We could start over, hopefully leaving the darkness behind. It sounds like that’s what she wanted.

“Uncle Charlie, please don’t go back to the house. There’s nothing there that I want.”

“Are you sure, sweetie, we’re quite a ways from home, and I have nothing at the house for a young lady.”

“I’ll survive. I’m pretty much… What do they call it? Low maintenance. Yeah, I’m low maintenance.”

“OK, it’s your call. I’m here to help you and rescue you, not make your life worse, if that was even possible.”

“Oh, it would be possible. It could be the week before last. That was worse.” She squeaked and threw her hands up over her mouth. “Oh, God, I’m sorry, Uncle Charlie. I shouldn’t have said that. I don’t… I didn’t want them gone. I wanted me gone. I just couldn’t be who they wanted me to be. Never mind. And never mind my stuff. I don’t want any of it. The clothes don’t fit and there’s nothing important there I need. I’d rather do without and begin again. The people at the church are taking everything. The will leaves everything to them, anyway. I’m sure the lawyer told you all that. Anyway, I have a couple hundred dollars for clothes and stuff, but I just need to go. I need to leave this God forsaken place. This town is hell. My birth certificate and some copies of the death certificates are in my bag. I really don’t need anything else.”

“Kim, baby, I’m glad you have those. That makes one less stop we need to make. This is going to sound strange to you, but when you were about nine, and you were teasing me about not having a girlfriend… Do you remember doing that, sweetie?” She grinned and nodded, looking away quickly, blushing. “You said that if I needed one, you could do it. You said that you would be my girlfriend. Well, I realized then that someone needed to look out for you. I was maybe a little selfish, and unthinking, toward your parents when I did it, looking out for your future without their knowing it, but I took out life insurance policies on your mother, your stepfather, and your uncle, so that if anything happened to us, you would be all right. I know it’s terrible, and the unthinkable happened, but you’ll be OK. You can buy new clothes if you like. Let’s go home.”

“Thank you. I already feel better,” she said as we left town, headed east on the highway. “Uncle Charlie, why didn’t you come around more?”

“Little one, I didn’t like my brother very much. We never got along. There is a lot of history there. It was way before he met your mother. I guess it actually started when I was a bit younger than you. Maybe someday, when you’re a little older we’ll talk about it, but let’s just say I felt like he lorded over me as a child and then he seemed jealous and never recovered from my success when I achieved it. He was an ogre as a young man, and a jealous, mean person later. I still don’t see what your mother saw in him.”

“Herself. She was a lot like him. When they joined this church a couple of years ago and gave up all their old friends, things changed. As bad as they were, they weren’t the same anymore. It got worse. Did you notice that the last couple years?”

“Not really, sweetie. If my relationship with my brother had gotten any worse… Well, it would be hard for that to happen. Hey, baby doll, we’ll need to stop for lunch pretty soon. Anything you’d like in particular?”

“Anything is fine,” she said. I looked at her, questioning that. “Really. I’ve done without for so long, I don’t know what I’d like.”

“What the heck does that mean, Kim? They weren’t starving you, evidently. I mean you look healthy. Very healthy.” She snickered at that.

“Bread, lunchmeat, ramens, granola bars. No, I wasn’t starving, but I didn’t have anything to make any decent meals with either. They spent all their time, effort and money on that damned church. Then, when he… when Gary started looking at me like he did, and hugging on me all the time,” she visibly shivered, “and mom would pull me into her lap and rub on my legs and stuff, yuchhhh. It was weird. I didn’t like them doing that. I wore heavy clothes. Like this.” She indicated what she was wearing. “Baggy black jeans with black sweatshirts. Heavy black socks and high-tops. Never mind. I’m blabbering, and I want to forget all of it. I know this. I never want to wear black again, or sweats. I wore it… I wore these clothes because of them. I wore it to hide. I’ll never let anyone touch me like that again, either. Not unless I want them to. Oh, Jeez, I hope Bethany is OK. Her parents were in it, too. We talked. They all creeped us both out.”

“Wow, pumpkin, that’s a lot to take in. I wish I would have known you were in this situation earlier. I don’t know what I could have done, but maybe something. Anything. I’m sorry I let you down, sweetie.”

“You didn’t. It’s not like I called and asked for help or anything. I never thought about that. Not something I thought my first boyfriend,” she giggled, “could come fix, I guess. Now that I find that you and Gary didn’t get along, probably even more so.”

We stopped at a Taco Bell. I just couldn’t imagine trying to get someone to decide what fast food they like to eat until they’d had a couple tacos and some beans and cheese. We got her some of those cinnamon things, too, then hit the bathroom, then got on the road. She seemed ecstatic about the choice. OK! We started with a favorite restaurant. I’m skeptical. I’ll bet the next one would be her new favorite.

I got to thinking about some of the things she had said. Some of the things we’d been talking about today. I wish I had 3 more inches, 30 more pounds, and a brother to beat the shit out of. Too little, too late. Literally. He didn’t treat this angel any better than he treated his little brother. I hope he does better where he’s at than he did here, I really do. I’m sure that’d make our parents feel better, God rest their souls, too.

It was getting late, so I told her we were going to stop at the next decent motel I could find. I was looking for a nice place to stay. Coming up on Flagstaff, I handed Kim my phone. “You any good with these things?”

“No, but what do you need?”

“Tap on the chrome logo, the red, yellow, and green ring, then type in Marriott Flagstaff, with two ‘r’s and two ‘t’s.”

“Silly, there’s no Rs in Flagstaff!” That got us both laughing. She went on, “There’s a couple. Springhill and Courtyard.”

“Tap on the Springhill, then on the phone number. It’ll call them. We want two kings, adjoining.”

“I’ll try. Oh, Hello. I need a room. Two rooms. Kings? Adjunct…” I interrupted her.

“Adjoining.”

“Two kings, adjoining. (pause.) Yes, ma’am. (Pause.) Charles Carlson. (Pause.) He’s actually driving, and according to that last sign only about 30 miles from there. Can you look it up by his name? He travels a lot, he’s probably got one of those frequent stay accounts or something.”

I cracked up. I had a new personal assistant and didn’t even know it. This kid was bright.

“Yes, ma’am. Like I said, about 30 miles. A little less now. (Pause.) Thirty to forty minutes? About that, probably. Oh, here, he handed me a card with a number on it. (Pause.) Yes Ma’am, it’s 22237844. (Pause.) Yes, Charles Carlson. (Pause.) Platinum Elite room, only one, a king. (Pause.) OK, I’ll ask. Uncle Charlie, there’s a sports thing going on and they have exactly one room left that they save for a platinum traveler, which is obviously you. Is that going to be OK?”

“We’ll take it. It’ll be crowded, but we’ll be fine, won’t we?”

“Yeah, we will be. I’m sure of it. Ma’am, yes, we’ll take it. He’s wanting to dock this boat.” Giggles. I was so happy she was able to laugh. Totally different than back there in Bakersfield. “Thank you.” She looked at the phone.

“Go ahead and tap the red phone circle at the bottom. That will hang it up. Thank you, sweet pea, you did wonderful.”

“Thanks. That was fun.”

“I’m glad you thought so. I need to get you one, so we can stay in touch. I travel quite a bit, and when you can’t be with me, I’ll need to be able to talk to you. We’ll have to work something out, but you’re old enough to be by yourself with a little supervision. At least I hope you are.”

“You’re buying me a phone?” I nodded. “Uncle Charlie, I’ll do everything I can to be good and make you happy you came to get me. I promise. Whatever you need me to do.”

“I need you to be my niece and grow up big and strong and tall and make me proud of you. Prouder. I’m already proud of you.”

“Uncle Charlie, you’re funny. You know I’ll never be tall. My mother was short, and my real father wasn’t very tall either. Not like you and Gary. I doubt I’ll ever be over five feet two. And I don’t want to be big and strong. I want to be pretty.”

“Good, then. You’ve met all of your life’s goals. You’re already short and very, very pretty. We’re here, doll. Grab your bag and we’ll check in. We’ll get farther tomorrow.” She met me at the front of the truck, and I put my arm around her shoulder, hugging her to me, and walking into the hotel.

We checked in and went up to the room. It was actually a suite, so if Kim wanted, she could sleep on the sofa. It might even be a pull out. I hated sofas and sleepers, and it wasn’t going to be me. Not that I was being a jerk, but a 16-year-old girl at five foot and a hundred pounds, maybe only ninety-five, would handle it easier than a six two, two fifteen, guy. And I didn’t want the back ache that might happen. Nope! Her choice. It was a king. Lots of real estate.

It wasn’t that late yet, so I asked if she was hungry. “I don’t have to be. It’s up to you, Uncle Charlie.” Jeez, I didn’t believe this. I sat on the bed and called her in to me. She approached a little hesitantly.

I held my arms out and wrapped her up as tight as I could. I couldn’t tell if she was scared of me, or the future, or the past, or what was happening. “Kim, baby, please don’t be afraid of me. Please. Look, we need to talk, and get this all out in the open. I need to know what you were thinking when you hesitated to come over to me. Were you… Did somebody… Have you been molested?”

She nodded, but said, “A little.”

“Kim, I know this is going to be tough, but we need to clear the air so that we’re aware of what we’re dealing with. OK?” She nodded. “Alrighty then. Are you hungry?” She was hesitant to answer. “There are two answers to that question, maybe three. Yes, no, or ‘I could eat’.” She giggled. When I heard the giggle, I wrapped her up again. “That’s my girlfriend. Come on, I’m going to feed you at that Red Lobster across the street. Anything you can’t eat?”

“Seafood.”

My face dropped. I was looking forward to a good mix of ocean-going novelties and a salty baked potato.

She saw that my face dropped and squealed. “I’m so sorry, Uncle Charlie. I’m sorry. I was kidding. I have no idea if I’m allergic to anything. I thought I’d say that ‘cause they’d have seafood. Just my silliness. I need to work on that. I haven’t been able to joke around with anyone, and you just… You were there. I’m so sorry.”

She hugged me and kissed my chest. I held her close, and she kissed my chest again. Then I pulled her head up against me and just held her for a minute.

“It’s fine, sweetie. There’s a time and a place for everything, and I guess it was my time and place to get my leg pulled. No harm, no foul. Let’s go eat.”

She looked up, squeezed one more time, and nodded. We walked across the highway, it was only a block, maybe two, and I didn’t see any reason to get back in the truck. She looked pretty healthy. Very healthy, actually. At the restaurant there wasn’t a line or anything, so I asked to be seated in the bar area, back in a corner. It was definitely not crowded, but there was enough noise that we could talk, and no one would listen in. Hopefully. We ordered and things started coming. In between I asked her again. “You said, ‘A little’. Were you molested, and is that why you’re afraid of me?”

“It’s not that easy, Uncle Charlie. Yes, I was, a little, and no, I’m not afraid of you. I’m not afraid of you molesting me. I’m more… I’m afraid… Oh, God… I’m afraid you won’t love me anymore.” She was heaving her shoulders a little with her crying, and I was afraid I’d draw a crowd, so I went to her side of the booth and hugged her to my side.

“Sweetheart, number one, you’re right. I’m not a person you need to be afraid of bothering you, molesting you, hurting you. But, regardless of what you may worry about me thinking of you, I love you and, believe it or not, I always have. With all my heart. You were a little girl when your mother married my brother, but I remember the wedding and this little red-haired girl that looked at me with a little freckly smile, and I… I fell in love with her. She was special. Do you remember the dance, standing on my feet? There always has been, and always will be, a very special place in my heart for my favorite niece. One other thing, baby girl. You can drop the ‘Uncle’ if you want. You’re not a baby, even if I call you one, and it’s just wasted syllables. Just call me Charlie, for now.” She seemed OK, so I disconnected and went back to my side of the table.

“OK, uhmmmm, Charlie. Charlie. That sounds weird. Maybe not weird. Different. OK. Here it is. A little. Your brother, my stepfather, my mother’s husband, started to touch me places that… Please don’t get mad at me… Charlie. He touched me places that didn’t feel bad, but I didn’t want him to. I didn’t want him to be the one to touch me there. I call that, ‘a little’. My mother didn’t stop him. She would do stuff, too, I think to make me want Gary to touch me, but that wasn’t happening. She’d rub my back or my legs or kiss me and stuff. It was weird. Anyway, a little. I started dressing in baggy clothes, black mostly. I found them at Goodwill or the Salvation Army. Everyone thought I was going goth. I was just trying to put lots of cloth between me and them. No piercings, no tattoos, no weird stockings, or high heeled boots. Just cloth, in layers, to protect me. Uhmm, Charlie, one other thing.” I looked at her and raised my eyebrows. “I’m your only niece.” Again, with a beautiful giggle.

“And therefore, my favorite. Kim, darling, why would you think I wouldn’t love you because of this?”

She looked at me, then looked at her salad, and mumbled, “Because I wanted it to be you.” The tears started rolling again. Back to the other side of the table. I put my arm around her and drew her in close. As quietly as she could, she heaved and cried and told me that ever since she was touched the first time, and it felt good, she wanted it to be me that made her feel good. Not them. Me. She read about sex and touching and fondling and masturbation and fingers and toes and the more she read, the more clothes she put on hoping she could hide until I came back to visit. To talk to her. To make her feel normal. She was planning on coming completely clean that summer and asking me to take her with me, even if she had to report her parents to the authorities to make it happen.

Our conversation, once the crying and tears slowed down, solved two problems for me. Number one, I no longer felt guilty about disliking the shit out of my sibling. Number two, I no longer had a guilty feeling about having a little crush on my niece. It was a bidirectional, reciprocal, crush. But I had to remember, my main goal was to get her back home, in and through school with an education, and with an intact mind. So far, I was swinging at a lot of strikes, and missing.

It also solved two problems for her. Number one, she was no longer being groped by an asshole and his assholette. They were dead. Number two, she was with her life long, as short as it was, love. Me. Neat. No… Oh, shit. A million thoughts, pure and impure, raced through my mind. This was going to be interesting. To say the least.

She calmed down a bit, so we ate, and continued to talk. She wanted to know about home, so I told her about the property and where it was on a hill overlooking a pretty ravine with a creek running through it and down into the Mississippi River. We were only about a mile from the river across the flood plain, but up on a high hill that will never see the brunt of any “hundred years” flooding. She was questioning the thought of living in the country, but I told her there would be neighbors within a few miles, and if she found friends around anywhere, she could always drive one of our vehicles or ride one of the 4-wheelers to go see them. I also told her that we’d make sure to get her anywhere she needed to be, one way or the other. She seemed happy with that.

After dinner, we walked back to the hotel. Not far from the restaurant, I felt her shoulder bump my elbow, and her hand reach for mine to hold it. She looked up at me at the same time, and I just couldn’t do anything other than grasp her hand while looking into those needy, loving, troubled, and beautiful bright green eyes. Kim was a very pretty girl. Her perky nose, freckles, full little lips, and those eyes, just made for a wondrous little face. Hard to look away from. But I had to so that we could cross the street without getting flattened by a rogue vehicle. We held hands all the way up to the room.

“Kim, honey, do you need anything from the store or anything. There has to be a Walmart or something around here somewhere.”

“No, Unc… No, Charlie. I’m fine. We can wait until we get to your house, or if you’re in the country, and it’s easier, maybe we can stop somewhere tomorrow. I’d just get some personal bathroom stuff, maybe some… Uh, girl stuff, and some panties or something. I have a couple pairs of shorts and t-shirts for the trip. I’m OK for now, but I may need some other things. Girl things? In a few days. Closer to a week, I think.”

“Oh, your aunt coming to visit?”

“My aunt?” she asked.

“Yeah, your Aunt Flo?” She tilted her head, questioning. “Your period?”

“OH, OH, yes. Aunt Flow. Oh, Gross!!! Yes, my period. Can we pretend like that conversation never happened? Please?!?!?”

“No. I’m your mother and your father now. And your uncle. I have lots of jobs, don’t I? We need to be able to talk about things. I have to get used to it, too, you know. When you need some Aleve or Advil for pain, you should let me know if it’s because of your breasts aching from growing, or cramps from your period, or maybe just a headache. Believe it or not, it’s important for me to know. Just like you would have told your mother, if you would have trusted her with that information. Sounds to me like you wouldn’t have. Anyway, we need to be able to talk to each other.”

“OK. If you insist. Charlie, I need some tampons, some mini pads, and a small pack of period pads so that…” I interrupted her.

“Got it. No need to go overboard with it, but I will ask, do you normally have problems with your periods? Pain, cramps, all the things that make guys happy they aren’t girls?”

“No, not normally, but I can be irregular. Charlie, do you think you could get me put on the pill or something. That’s supposed to even them out and make them easier to live with.”

“Sure, sweetie. We’ll get you to the doctor when we get home, and we’ll get that taken care of. OK, so, we need to make a major feminine products run sometime tomorrow!!” She giggled and nodded. I smiled. Hopefully she would correlate those two things and do the first to keep the second happening. Her happiness was now my first priority. I pulled out a book and sat up on the bed reading.

A few minutes later, I heard, “Charlie, do you have a computer or anything with you?”

“Yeah, sweetheart. In the bag over there. You good with a tablet? An iPad? I have one of those, and a Surface in there if you like. What are you looking for?” I was just laying back on the bed reading the book I had with me.

“Oh, a Walmart along the way. We had both types of tablets that we used in school.” She played with the iPad for a while, then the Surface. “That’s nice, being able to use the computer without the popups coming up and bothering me all the time.”

“Your computer had popups bothering you? You had a computer at home, I take it?”

“Yeah, an older one. Belongs to the church now. I guess there’s no problem telling you about it. We’re gone. They’re gone. There were always sex things popping up on it. I had to do a report for social studies, geography, whatever, and I had to look up Ibiza. You know, in the Mediterranean Sea. It’s a part of Spain.” I rolled my hand to tell her to go on. I knew of Ibiza. Very much so. “Anyway, a bunch of sex windows popped up,” she giggled, “with all sorts of people doing sex things, and a few nudist things. I guess Ibiza has nudist beaches and stuff, so when I looked up Ibiza, they started popping up all over the place. I guess you could say I’ve seen a lot of sex on the computer. Seems it was always there. My mother just said to look at what I wanted, then close them and do my work. I really think they wanted me to get interested in it so I wouldn’t avoid them. It’s weird, though. It made me feel… It made me feel bad, I guess. I didn’t want them to think about me like that. I wanted someone else to do that.” Quietly, just above a whisper, she continued, “I wanted my boyfriend to do that.”

“Oh. You OK now, you think, honey?” I was pretty sure she meant me, but you never know. Maybe, if I was lucky, she was talking about some future young man who would be her knight in shining armor.

“Absolutely. I’m fine. Amarillo. It’s right off the interstate. We’ll be on 40 through Texas going to Missouri, right?” I nodded. She didn’t seem to look up. Maybe she heard my head rattle and took that as a yes. And maybe she just has really good peripheral vision. I’m hoping for the latter. But with the thoughts of her, and thinking of what she may be thinking, maybe it was the former and my brain is breaking loose a little.

“Kim, sweetheart, if you need to talk about anything, please remember, I’m your mom, dad, uncle, and if you want, within limits, I want to be your friend. I still have to raise you, but I’d like to think we can be friends while I do that.”

“Charlie. We can and we will be. I want that, too.” She powered the tablets down, then put them back into the bag’s pockets, just like she found them, then climbed up on the bed and laid her head on my thigh. She put her hand on my leg, just by her face, took in a deep breath and shuddered. It scared me a little. I thought she was going to start crying again. “Charlie, can you just hold me a while. I haven’t had a cuddle that I wanted in a long time. I’d sure like one now.”

I laid my book down and took her under her arms, picking her up and placing her in my lap. When I grabbed her, I got a little “Eeeeep” from her. She must’ve been surprised that I’d just grab her like that and pull her close to me. I did, and I’m glad. The smile she had was gorgeous. I’m pretty sure I didn’t touch her inappropriately, as my thumbs were on her back, and my fingers were just on the sides of her chest, maybe the softness was the edges of her breasts. I don’t know. I wrapped her up tight and kissed her on the forehead. She wrapped her arms around one of mine and hugged me tightly. I just rocked her like that for about 5 minutes, then heard her purring. I kept her there, with the news on quietly for about an hour, then laid her down. Going to the other side of the bed, I pulled down the covers, reached over for her and lifted her over to her side of the bed. She didn’t seem awake, but a small smile touched her lips when I slid my hands under her. She had her shoes off, so I just covered her up, kissed her nose, and went back to my side of that big king. I thought to myself, ‘You know, Charlie, you could get used to this.’ She’s lovable. Lights off and TV on timer, I laid there on my left side and looked at her. So innocent. Why did that jerkoff of a brother of mine treat her that way? She said something about the church and another friend. I think I’ll try to get some more information about all this tomorrow.

Then the alarm went off and something was very wrong. My chest was wet and… There was a little pixie drooling on my left nipple. WEARING NOTHING BUT A BRA AND PANTIES!!! Oh Crap. Too late now. Damn, she’s got a nice body. Much, much more developed than I thought. The sweatshirt and baggy jeans did exactly what she wanted. It hid her beautiful, and quite substantial for her age, bust, her little hourglass waist, and nice hips. Beautiful long legs, too. My niece is a looker. CHUCK, STOP !!

I shook her a little to get her attention. She looked up at me and smiled, then felt the spittle on her cheek and my chest. “OH MY GOD, NO!! NOT NOW!!! Charlie, stay there, I’ll get a towel.”

I grabbed her and wrapped her up again. “Baby, stop. It’s fine. You just drooled in your sleep a little. No problem. Stop worrying.” I rocked her for a bit, and wiped my chest and her face with the edge of a pillowcase. “It’s fine, baby, let it go.” She relaxed a little, then apologized again and pushed away a little.

“I’m sorry, Charlie. I gotta go pee. I’ll be right back.” She jumped up and scurried to the bathroom. I sat up and waited for her. Sorry, I’m an ass, but I wanted to see her again. Damn she’s pretty. She came back out, not in the least worried about me seeing her. I just stared. “You OK, Charlie? Here’s a wet washrag for your chest. I’m so sorry. I thought I had quit doing that.”

“Baby cakes, you can drool on me anytime you want. What’s with the naked little girl running around the room, though? I thought you were trying to hide yourself.”

She looked down. “Not from you, Charlie. You’re the one I’ve been saving myself for.” It was subdued, but I heard every word. The tone of voice, the way she said it, the inflection sent a chill straight down my spine. Oh, my Lord. “Charlie, will you cuddle me before we leave? Just for a little bit? I know we have to shower and get on the road.”

“Yes, Kim, come here.” I was in just my boxers, but I took her into my lap, which along with my legs was covered by the sheet, set her there, and just held her and rocked her gently. She was looking up at me with those beautiful eyes. “Baby, I need to know what you’re thinking. You know I’m a little older than you, and I’m your uncle, and it’s something we need to talk about.”

“I know, but Charlie, I’ve loved you since I was a little girl. I’ve never thought about anyone else. Even when bad things were happening, and I should have been pulling back into a little ball and rolling away, I thought of you coming to save me. Before they died, Charlie. Even before they turned into preverts. I’ve always thought it would be you that came to take me away.”

I chuckled. “Kim, baby, they were perverts.”

“I know, Charlie. I just wanted to see you smile.”

“You little… You little heathen!!” I rolled her over and smacked her bottom twice, very softly so she’d know she was being smacked with playful love and not spanked out of anger or discipline.

“OWeeee, child abuse, call 911! OWeeeee. You have 30 minutes to stop before I call the police!!!”

We both laughed at that, then I hugged her, telling her, “Sweetie, we have two days in the truck to talk. Let’s do that and figure out where we’re headed.”

“OK, Charlie. You’re probably marginally freaked out right now, but please, don’t do anything rash. I love you so much, and I’d die if you came to save me and then I lost you.”

“Honey, regardless, that’s not going to happen. Remember, baby doll. I. Love. You. Too.” Each word followed by a kiss on her nose. We showered, separately, her first, then when I was in there with the water running over my head, I played back what she said. ‘You’re probably marginally freaked out.’ ‘Don’t do anything rash.’ This is not a child with a fantasy. Those are fairly mature words, thoughts, coming from a young lady. I decided then, as I was washing my otherwise dirty little self, that I was going to let her plead her case. God, I hope I didn’t wind up in jail.

I came out with a towel around me, got my clothes and went back in. She was wearing a light tight t-shirt and a pair of cotton spandex short shorts with a pair of sandals. I got dressed and came back out.

I asked, and she said a friend gave them to her, hoping they’d fit. They almost did. Almost. The t-shirt was about two sizes too small, or it fit just perfectly, depending on your taste in clothing… and women. The shorts looked painted on. Yes, I was impressed. Kim was a beautiful young lady. I guess I should be thankful it was summer, early summer at that, so that the heavy clothes weren’t really needed.

We went to a diner for breakfast on the way out of town, and looking around at the other girls, women, ladies, she was dressed about the same. Was I that much out of touch? I hadn’t dated in years. I got shafted by a woman looking for money, a real gold digger, and haven’t been back to the watering hole since. There were a couple of clubs, and I did have some lady friends, but not relationship material. They were nice enough people to understand that, and it went both ways. Two of the prettiest women I know, loved to dance, and go out with me, together, to have fun. Then they went home. Yes, one of ‘those’ relationships. Them was lebinese wimmin. I actually counted them as stop a bullet friends. The real ones. The kind you’d step in front of a bullet for. They wanted nothing from Chuck but Chuck, and I wanted nothing from them but Liz and Beth. Don’t ask. Not now. Later. But yes, Liz and Beth. Same middle initial, too. A. For Anne. One with an ‘e’ and one without. When they get married, one is going to have to do something, but what? Who knows?

In any case, I had no intimate relationships in progress. ‘Til now. But I did tell myself to give it a chance. See what it was like. A courtship. I also decided the trip to Walmart would include some… Not so tight clothes. Unless she really wanted them, and in that case, I’d suffer. For her. Tough job, but someone has to do it.

“Charlie, what’s wrong? Your mind, your eyes, your body language is telling me something I’m afraid I don’t want to hear.”

“No, darling baby. It’s not about you. Well, it is, but it isn’t. I need to be careful. You’re beautiful, by the way. You need to know that. Truly a work of art. You just turned sixteen and can and will turn heads. I’m not complaining, trust me. You are a feast for the eyes of an old, single, celibate, tired man…” she interrupted.

“You mean celibate, as in… None…? Ever…?” Then I interrupted her.

“Oh, gosh, no, sweetie. I’m not ‘anti’, I’m just a lonely guy. Kim, how much do you really know about your old Uncle Charlie? I mean seriously. How much?”

“I know you’re my stepfather’s brother, and you’re handsome, and you have a nice truck, and nice clothes, and you never complain ‘cause some son of a bitch did this or that to you, and… Come to think of it, I don’t know much about you at all, Charlie. I think we should talk.” She stuck out her hand to shake. “Hi, my name is Kim Carlson and I’d like to get to know you. I’m the adopted daughter of one Gary Carlson and the daughter of Suzi Carlson, formerly Suzi Chapman. I just turned sixteen a week ago. I’m going to be a sophomore, or more hopefully a junior, at whatever school you try to get me in to. I’m ahead a grade where I was, and I can make it happen if I need to take tests to get there. Not bragging, but I could probably test out of everything in high school except social studies. I just haven’t read enough. How ‘bout you, mister? Yer awf’ly cute, and I need a boyfriend.”

“Well, Miss Kim, I’m thirty-five. I own a couple of businesses that keep me busy, and I like to travel. I’m single, never been married, and I’m looking for a girlfriend. I’ll be honest though, lil’ darlin’. Two days ago, I wasn’t. Kim, I attract the wrong kind of women. Do you really think I’m worth keeping, just the way you see me?”

“Yes. You are kind, loving, warm, real, not a jackass or boisterous, don’t put people down or blame things on them. That’s not from the last two days, Charlie. I’ve been watching you for years. You’re different than all the other uncles, parents, whatever. If you get six guys together in Bakersfield, there are seven different companies or bosses dragging them down, keeping them from making it big, yada, yada. You just seem to do your thing without complaining. I’ve seen you get up and walk away from those conversations. You know they’re just blaming others for their own problems, made… By them. Go figure. You and I both know, since I love you, and can’t do any better than you, in this world, or this lifetime, and we can’t get caught up in the whole 23andMe thing, there is no other choice but for me to pursue you until I wear you down and you accept me.” She broke into a sing song little girl voice, “I wanna be your girlfriend! I wanna be your girlfriend!” She laughed. “Think about it, Charlie. I’m not the ugliest girl to ever kiss you. Don’t look so shocked. Yes, I kissed you before I laid down on your chest. Yes, you kissed me back. I know it was stolen, but it’s mine now and I’m not giving it back.” She looked at me and smiled the smile of a truly happy girl. “Charlie Carlson, I love you.”

Thank God breakfast came and there weren’t a bunch of people listening.

“Baby, Kim, do you understand the age thing here?”

“Sixteen will get you twenty? Yeah, I understand it all too well. To the extent that I’ll wait for you until I’m seventeen, if I have to. I can get legal help then, you know. Emancipation would be hard, ‘cause I don’t think my guardian slash uncle is going to beat me or abuse me, at least not without my permission.” Giggles. My heart fluttered with that little joke. “Charlie, if you go to jail, it will not be because of me or something someone thinks about you and me. Period.” She was determined, and all of a sudden very direct and adult. “Speaking of periods, we need to get on the road and get to Amarillo. Walmart, you know, and all the feminine products I can carry. Right?” We both laughed at that, and we both did it in a very restrained way. She had hit home. She knew the risks. This is not a spur of the moment thing.

“Yeah, honey, we need to finish up and go. One more question. You ever seen my house? Pictures? On the web?”

“No, why?”

“Just wondered. Do you want to know why I drove to pick you up?”

“You mean instead of walking? Too far? Bus schedule wrong? What are you asking, Charlie? You’re scaring me?”

“I’m sorry, sweetheart. Do NOT be scared. Please!! I just have a problem with my other ride, and it’s in the shop. A tire issue that happened when I landed to come get you. I put the thing down a little rough in a windstorm and the tire blew, kind of taking the wheel with it.”

“Landed? Oh Jesus, Charlie. No, stop. I’m smart enough to know you’re either pulling my leg or your brother had no idea how badly he screwed up.”

“Number two. Finish your juice. We need to go. If it’s ‘Amarillo by morning’, we’re running way late.”

We mounted up and hit the road. I fired up the hot spot on my phone, laying it on the console. Hopefully we could get this out of the way before we got out to the ‘no cell zone’. “Kim, you don’t know much about me, yet you still want my love. You want me to want your love. Are those true statements, honey?”

“Yes, but I just know I love you. I don’t love the truck. I was teasing about that. I do love the guy that walked away from the table at that one big party I remember, though. He didn’t blame anything on anybody. He just went and talked to the people who weren’t complaining and had fun at an old party. There were a couple of guys and their wives, come to think about it, and you were the only nice ones there. My point, Charlie, is that I may not know you well enough, but I don’t care. I want to.”

“iPad in the bag. Grab it.” She pulled it out. “Get the Surface while you’re there.” She leaned back and got it, too. Fuck! Oooops... Damn, she had a pretty bottom. I have got to keep my act together. “iPad, Safari, or Chrome. Pick one. Carlson Technology, ‘About’, check that out, then ‘Contact Us’. Check out buildings and the address.”

“Charlie, that’s your company?”

“No, Baby, that’s our company. Now the Surface. Open Word. Open the Stratford Project, Stage Two. Go to the bottom of page two.”

“Charlie, I didn’t know any of this. That’s not why I love you. You have to believe that. I had no idea. I actually thought you were a field engineer or something for a computer company. Oh, my. I had no idea.”

“Honey, I am. A field engineer or something for a computer company, kinda. It’s all good. I didn’t show you that to show off. I need you to know the life you are in now. You are my niece, and now my daughter, and well, we’ll talk about the other later. I travel. I have a job. I have to do stuff and build stuff and meet people and go places and you may be doing some of it with me, but a lot of times, you’re going to have to be alone, taking care of yourself. Do you think you can do that, and go to public school, or do I need to send you to a private boarding school in the city where you meet some charming man who will take you away from the misery?”

“Charlie,” She whimpered, tears forming, “please don’t send me away. Please. I’ll do anything. You’ll never cook another meal, never wash another dish, or vacuum another floor. I’ll do anything to be with you. Please don’t send me away.” Her eyes were getting wet again.

“Kim, I was only teasing a little. But I need you to think about our lives. You’ll be… You’ll need to be responsible. You’re going from one form of abuse to another. I want you to be a kid. Be a little girl if you want. Be a young lady. I think you missed that. Are you going to be OK? You lost what, a year?”

“I’ll be fine. Love me, and I’ll prove it. You’ve given me an attitude adjustment. Let me show you how much of one. The bratty kid they told you about was scared. I was acting out to keep people away. I don’t want to keep you away. Not you. I don’t want to get into it again. You know. I told you. I want to move on. I’ll show you. I can cook, Charlie, I just never had anything to work with. You wouldn’t send me to boarding school, would you? I would’ve thought that was a joke a half hour ago. Thirty-three million for one project? I’ll bet you could afford to send me to school in Switzerland. Please don’t, though. Please!!!”

“I won’t, sweetie. I just need you to think about what we’re gonna do. You’ll be getting on a school bus in a couple of months, or driving to school, depending on where you’re at with that skillset.”

“I don’t care about that. You think I care about riding a school bus? Jeez. One of the safest places in Bakersfield was on a school bus, and a couple of the drivers got busted for kiddy porn. Still safer than at home or at church.”

“Speaking of that, you need to tell me about your friend and that church and all that was going on. Is your friend going to be OK? Should I call someone?”

“It won’t matter. A couple of the leaders are cops. There are lawyers and all kinds of people involved. Charlie, I don’t think it’s a church. I think it’s much worse than any church could be. I don’t know if Bethany is going to be OK or not. She’s got nowhere to go, that I know of.”

“Does she have a phone number?”

“Her parents do. Sure. I remember it. We’re best friends. What are you thinking?”

“Kim, honey, do you want her out of there?” She nodded, quite actively. “How do the church people feel about money?” She shrugged. Then her eyes opened wide. “I have a plan. Is she a good enough friend to take risks for, or is she an acquaintance?”

“If I could save her, I would. Is that what you’re asking? She’s a wonderful person. She’s a snotty brat to everyone else, like I was, but if you get her away from them, she’ll be so happy. She’s smart, and bright and cheerful around me and away from home. Is this a possibility, or are you just…? What…? Blowing smoke?”

“No, I have a plan. It’ll be a little bit, though. I need help with this one. Honey, think hard. Is there any reason to believe that Bethany’s parents use drugs, or anything illegal? Do they drink a lot?”

“A lot of the people smoke weed. There was also, I think cocaine. White powder anyway. It could have been something else. Bethany’s dad was like Gary. He always has a beer in his hand. Her mom drinks vodka and anything. And everything.”

“Tonight, from the hotel, I want you to call her, if you can. Speaking of hotels, you need to make reservations. It’s like vacuuming floors, and you told me I didn’t have to do that anymore. Chrome. Marriott Amarillo. Pick the Residence Inn. Get a double. Queens. They don’t really cater to one-night stays, but it’s better than the others. Plus, we’re going shopping so we can have coffee and breakfast in bed. Now we have to decide who makes breakfast and who gets it in bed. I think I remember a cute little girl saying I’d never have to cook another meal. MWAHHAHAHAHA.” I grabbed her knee and shook it. I love the sound of her laughing.

From Flagstaff to Amarillo is a long haul. Nine hours flat out, ten counting the time change, and eleven or twelve counting the fact that we needed to get out once in a while to keep the embolisms way. We stopped at two rest areas to ‘rest’ and in two towns for snacks. Checking in to the hotel got us a leg stretching for a few minutes, but we jumped back in the truck and headed several blocks south to the big supercenter to shop. I just wanted her to have familiar things for herself, and some clothes she could be comfortable in until we could really pull off a shopping trip in a couple of weeks. She’d need school clothes and all, but right now, she just needed to be comfortable, non-bulky, and non-black. I think that was depressing for her. She’s already more up, more happy, happier, in the light colors she wore today.

We were in the girl’s section. “Sweetheart, what size is your bottom?”

“You are soooo bad. If you see a one or a two, in juniors, it should fit.”

“My Little Pony or Hello Kitty?”

“Oh, my gosh, my uncle, my mom, my dad, my (she whispered ‘love’) is such a dufus. Hello Kitty, of course. My Little Pony is for LITTLE girls!” She giggled. I got both three packs and threw them in the cart.

We got her a bunch of toiletries and pads and paraphernalia for her female issues, then hit the grocery section for a six pack of beer, a big bottle of Pepsi, a bag of Lay’s chips, and a couple of frozen breakfast things. She opted for a couple of Marie Callender’s TV dinners instead of a night out at a restaurant, so I figured what the hell. So much for having a spoiled rotten kid on my hands. Meatloaf and turkey. Mix it up!!

Back in the room, it got serious. I was making dinner when she called her friend to make sure she was OK. She didn’t say anything specific, just asked a few pointed questions to make sure Bethany was OK, and then, the zingers. “Do you promise to keep something secret? Do you know if your parents are using drugs? Would you want me to help you get free? Could you be away from your parents?”

Four yesses later, I was getting on the phone to one of my girlfriends back home. I was hoping she could help me with this. Then I had an absolute mental stoppage and quit dialing.

“Kim, baby, what happens to your feelings for me if Bethany is around?”

“Nothing, babe, she knows how I feel about you. I need to tell you, Charlie. Bethany and I cuddled to keep each other company and to keep each other sane.”

“Define cuddle.”

“Define define,” she said, then smiled.

“Mr. Clinton, did you have sex with that woman?”

“Define have,” she said, then giggled.

“You little rug rat. I’m going to whip your butt. Get over here and park it on my lap.” She went to lay over it, but I just pulled her up and hugged her.

“Bethany and I touched each other, some, and kissed. We are fifteen… We were fourteen and fifteen-year-old girls that needed to know what was going on. Oh, and we do love each other, but as friends. I’m not marrying my friend Bethany. I’m saving that for someone special (she whispered) ‘named Charlie’.”

THEN I pulled her over my lap, “I heard that you sneaky, conniving little tart,” and love patted her ass twice. Saying out loud, “SMACK. SMACK.”

She laughed. “Forty-five minutes and I’m calling the cops!”

She stood, turned, held my cheeks in her hands, and kissed me on the lips. I thought I had died and gone to heaven for a minute. It was the most precious, soft, intimate kiss I’d ever had, and it was from a sixteen-year-old girl. Holy shit.

“So, Bethany is not going to spoil your plans to take over your uncle’s life?”

“Not in the least. If we can do something to get her away before they turn her into a little sex toy, I would really appreciate it, Charlie.”

“OK. Let me see what I can come up with.”

I called my friend Liz back home. She was my lawyer of choice, in corporate law, though. She might know something about what I can do or who we can call. She wanted to help. When I mentioned I had Kim with me and why, she let me know she was perturbed that I didn’t let her know earlier, but when she heard about the schedule and how hectic everything was with the plane’s tire and wheel and all, she let me off the hook.

“Chuck, let me run with this for a couple days, and I’ll get back with you. This isn’t going to be cheap, I can guarantee. Can I spend five to ten K on a P.I. really quick to get things rolling? I have to set them up in a bad light for this to be able to work. We also have to be careful to stay on the correct side of the legal line. You said Bakersfield, right?”

“Yes, to both, Liz. Your Beth knows of one of my discretionary fund accounts she has access to. It’s nice having one of my lawyers and one of my accountants under the same roof.”

“One of? Should we be jealous?”

“Knock it off, Lady. You’re the one that sent me to the Blotch Firm because of that stupid accusation down in New Mexico. If you’d do Criminal Defense as well as my corporate and estate work, I wouldn’t need anyone else in my life.” She giggled. Even older women giggling made me smile. “And, speaking of estate work, Kim is going to need to be protected if anything happens to me. Can you help me start working on that?” I can’t believe I just thought of a thirty-something-year-old lawyer as an older woman. Having Kim around is changing my reality.

“THAT, Mr. Carlson, I can do. Let me run with this. (She yelled to someone else ‘It’s Chuck!’) Beth said to say ‘HI’.”

“Hi, Beth.”

(She yelled again, ‘Chuck says Hi. He also said I need your help with something’.) Let me talk to her and call some people. See you in a couple days?”

“Yeah, we’re talking and getting to know each other in the truck on the way. We should be home in a couple of days.”

“OK. We can’t wait to meet her. Tell her ‘LizBeth say Hey’. You can explain all that on the way. We’ll see you when you get here. Drive safe.”

“Thanks, Liz. Will do.” I thumbed the call off.

“Who was that?”

“That, my dear, was Liz and Beth. LizBeth. Your only competition for my heart at this point, and I say that in a joking manner, so take it that way. They are a couple that I know very well, socially and professionally. They are a lawyer and a bean counter that work for me. By a couple, I mean a couple, as in they live, love, and laugh together as a family. They are gorgeous, wonderful, friendly women that I love to spend time with and dance and party without worrying about my wallet being lifted. They are good friends. I’m hoping they can help us save your friend Bethany. Eat. Before your dinner gets any colder.”

We ate, did the late night getting ready for bed thing, only this time, she came out of the bathroom smelling like strawberries, dressed in a short T and panties. My Little Pony. Hilarious. The tease.

Again, I was reading, sitting up, legs covered with the sheet. She came over and laid her head on my thigh, watching the TV. The news was on. Once again, she fell asleep on my leg. This time, I didn’t even pretend, though. I put my book down, set the TV timer, shut off the lights and carefully laid down, pulling her up and snuggling her to me. She didn’t really wake up, but after we settled, she started purring again, which put me to sleep. Thankfully, or more so hopefully, without her feeling anything poking her down below.

The alarm brought us the new day, once again, her head on my chest, but this time free of drool. My hand was on her bare back, though, as her t-shirt had worked its way up. Her skin was soft and warm on my hand. I patted her a couple times rousing her.

“Mornin’, Charlie.” She kissed my chest, then got up and went into the bathroom. I heard flushing and water running in the sink, then she returned, crawled up on top of me, laying her head on my chest, just under my chin. “I feel so much different, now, Charlie. I feel safe. I feel happy. I feel… I feel. If you were me that would make sense.”

“It makes sense, sweetie. You aren’t afraid. At least, I hope not. That can change everything.”

“No, I’m not. Afraid. Not at all. Totally the opposite. Go shower so we can get this train out of the station.” She kissed my chin and rolled off me and went on about her business. What a girl!

We gathered our stuff, most of hers was still in shopping bags, got it all in the back seat of the truck, and headed out.

“Wanna do the reservation thing now or wait for a bit. I think Joplin is the right answer.”

“I can do it now.” She held her hand out for my phone, getting it, then did her thing. “Yes, I need a reservation for tonight. One night, a double with queens, if you have one. (Pause.) Yes, 22237844. (Pause.) Not exactly sure, but probably before 5 or 6. (Pause.) Thank you. See you then.” She ended the call and handed it back to me. Residence Inn, Joplin. Just a little off of Interstate 44.”

“You’re getting good at that.”

“Thanks.” Things were quiet for a while. “Charlie, thank you for holding me and cuddling me. I really do feel better now than I have in a long time. Maybe forever.”

“You’re welcome. I want you to feel that way. I want you to be comfortable. This thing with us, you and me? Sweetheart, it’s going to be very tough for me, but I’m going to have you control things. I need you to be in charge, so that I don’t push you, or pull you, into something you’re not ready for. You’re only sixteen. Just turned sixteen. I’m just being careful. OK?”

“That’s fine, Charlie, but if I’m in charge, that means you have to kiss me back when I do this.” She crawled carefully to me over the console and kissed the corner of my mouth. She was being very careful not to block my vision or anything. Very astute. I did what she told me to do. I kissed her back. A real honest to God kiss, except my eyes were open. We touched tongues, licked lips, became one through that kiss. Even better than the one before, that I thought was the best I ever had. I’ll bet, if I can do that without being distracted, she’ll knock my socks off. Note to self: Don’t be driving, take off shoes, THEN kiss Kim again.

We made it to Joplin, checked in, stretched a bit in the room, then talked about dinner and the rest of the evening. “Sweetheart, do you have a swimsuit?” She shook her head. “Let’s go get you one, and stop for dinner. Then we can come back and relax and take a swim and jump in one of the hot tubs they have. Do you want to eat now, or maybe after we swim?”

“I can wait if you can. There’s an Olive Garden just down the block. I’ve heard of those, but I don’t think I’ve ever been to one.” I shook my head. “What?” she asked.

“Did they ever take you anywhere?”

“Church, and church stuff. Church picnics, church parties. No, I guess they didn’t. Not to worry. You can take me anywhere you like, now. I’m yours. Even have papers to prove it!!” She smiled.

“OK, let’s run to Walmart and get you some kind of swimsuit. When we get home, we can worry about other things. Walmart’s handy and they’ll have something that will fit you. We’ll set you loose in the mall in St. Peters or something back home and get you clothed completely.” We took off and found it in about 5 minutes, then hit pay dirt. A really cute choice of suits. She asked for two, a one piece and a bikini. I didn’t have an issue with that, so she bought a blue one-piece tank, and a green bikini that made her hair shine!! Being a red head, the green suit just set her hair and eyes totally off. She let me see it briefly when she tried it on. I thought the clerk at the changing rooms was going to have a kitten, but she got over it. She also asked if she could get some sandals to wear around the pool, then getting a nod, went off to look for some. I grabbed a suit off the rack that I thought would fit, then we met back up, I paid for the goods, and we left for the hotel.

She took her bag into the bathroom and came out a few minutes later, the image of beauty. She was in the bikini, and the ‘sandals’ she bought were actually strappy little mules with what had to be a little more than a three-inch heel. She looked twice her age. I’m sure that’s what she was trying for. It worked. She threw a scarf-like cover up she bought around her waist, and off we went. The pool was perfect. It was cooling off outside, but it was still warm enough to enjoy the cool water. We swam, she jumped on my back, playing a couple times, but acted very maturely, not bringing too much attention to us. We went over and got in the hot tub for a bit and talked about dinner. We were both good with Olive Garden. She looked at me and smiled. A mischievous smile, evidently, because after she grinned at me, she came over and sat on my lap, taking my arms and wrapping them around her. I didn’t resist very hard. She kissed me, then reminded me I had to kiss her back.

I said, “Baby, grab your towel and dry yourself off. We’re headed to the room to change for dinner.” She pouted a bit, then saw my smile and the gleam in my eye.

“Oh. Dinner. Yeah. Come on. OK.” She jumped out, handed me a towel, and slipped her little mules on. Damn she had nice legs in those heels. She had nice legs without, so… Oh, man. We started off for the room.

“Trust me. Right now, I want to kiss you as badly as you want to be kissed by me, but I am so scared right now.”

“Don’t be, Charlie. It’s just a kiss. We’re just starting out. The kiss in the truck today was just a kiss, but that was nice, wasn’t it?”

“Yes, baby, it was. Very nice.”

“Good, take me to the room, kiss me, then feed me.”

We weren’t five feet inside the room when, as we were looking at each other, we heard the door close and latch. I reached down, wrapped my arms around her, leaned down and into her, and kissed her as lovingly as I knew how. She returned fire. THIS was the best kiss, ever. We stayed joined at the lips for about a minute and, speaking for myself, enjoyed it thoroughly. From the sounds of her moaning, I’m thinking she did too. She also pushed herself, her crotch mainly, into my thigh. That was an experience. She was dry humping me, probably by instinct, more than by choice or decision. I enjoyed that, too. I was falling, head over heels, for my niece. I’ve never felt a kiss like that, and I’ve been doing it off and on for twenty years. We were half naked, in just our swimsuits. I could feel flesh, warm, soft flesh under my fingers. I needed to break this up, or we were going to have a problem on our hands. She did it for me.

“Oh, my God, Charlie, that was wonderful. Like in the movies, I felt the earth move. You are a good kisser. You made me feel, uhmm, warm.”

“Honey, you did the same to me. We need to slow down a little and go to dinner. Kim, thank you for that kiss. I will treasure it always. And, no, I wasn’t giving it back, I am keeping it. I was giving you a different one.” I smiled and hugged her, hearing,

“You are a funny man, Charlie, you dufus. I love you.” She pecked me on the cheek, grabbed a couple things off the end of her bed, and ran in the bathroom.

I waited until the door was closed before I whispered. “I love you, too, Kim, my darling.”

We got changed without incident and walked down the street to Olive Garden. It was a nice part of town, so I really wasn’t worried about anything happening, but we did walk past a couple of not so ‘honest citizen’ looking guys standing off to the side of the walkway. They were in a darkened area by a store that was closed. I pulled Kim over to the other side of me, placing me in between her and them. When one of them moved toward us, I pulled my shirt up over the butt of my gun, got a grip on it, and told them to please stay where they were. They were smarter than they looked. Kim and I kept walking, and I called the local police information number, not the emergency line, as soon as we got into the Olive Garden. I let the cops know exactly what DIDN’T happen and just mentioned that they might want to send a cruiser by there, just to take a look. When we were seated, about 3 minutes later, a cop drove by and floodlighted the guys. The blue lights came on, then another cop car pulled up. We avoided quite a bit of a hassle with that one. I guess that just goes to show that things can happen anywhere.

Kim asked me what that was all about, so after I got her inside and called the gendarmes, I explained what I thought was happening, and what actually happened. The fact that two cop cars pulled up tells me that this was not the first time it’s been an issue or been called in. She understood right away and thanked me for keeping her safe. When she asked how often things like that happen, I told her not often, but it does, in fact happen. “I’ve had two occasions, including tonight,” I was telling her, “that I felt threatened enough to reach for my weapon. The other was in New Mexico, not too awfully long ago. Again, that time, I didn’t shoot, but I was accused of brandishing a weapon after someone pulled a knife on me. A security video showed what happened, thankfully. Without that, I might have been in a lot of trouble.” She looked at me funny and mouthed ‘brandishing’ in a questioning way. “Waving it around like a crazy person and threatening people with it. That’s not what happened. I drew on the guy and he put his knife in his pocket and walked away. Pretty simple, but some silly old lady saw me, but not the knife, and called the police. Anyway, Liz had a friend in the lawyer business help me take care of it.”

She nodded and kept a somber look on her face for a bit. Then she smiled. “I’m not letting you go. You saved me from… Whatever. But you did, just the same. I know, I realize that we wouldn’t even have been there, but for circumstances, but you were there, trouble was there and left me alone because you were. Good enough for me. Mom, Dad, Uncle, Boyfriend, Knight in Shining Armor. His resume keeps getting longer, and longer.”

She laughed, I chuckled, bringing a smile to our server who wanted to know what we were drinking. I wanted to splurge, so after she ordered just water, I asked for a tall Bud Light, a bowl of dipping sauce, some mushrooms, and breadsticks. I knew we’d have at least salad and breadsticks, so that got her started.

Dinner was grand. I love their sausage dishes and always go for anything like that on special. If they don’t have one, I get some Italian sausage on the side. Tonight was scampi with sausage on the side. She had chicken fettucine alfredo. We split a piece of Tiramisu, and walked back to the hotel.

The street was eerily quiet. Thinking back, we should probably have walked a different way back to the hotel, but then again, the thugs may have just moved. Six of one, half dozen of another. In any case, we got back to the room in one piece. While we were getting ready for bed, my phone rang. It was the police, thanking me for the tip. They were able to identify one of the guys as having jumped bail, and the other was a paroled felon, knowingly associating with another similarly experienced fellow. Not good. They were both going to be in the Graybar Motel for a while, thanks to us. They signed off and I let Kim know what was up. She was really happy we helped, too. Good for her. Civic minded.

I climbed into bed with my book and held an arm out. I figured she’d take up the same position lying on my leg, but she scooched over under my arm, up against my chest this time. She draped an arm over my stomach and just relaxed into me. She was wearing just a short little girl cut t-shirt, not big and baggy like one of mine would be on her, and a pair of panties. Hello Kitty tonight. She looked up at me, in askance, and puckered her lips. I obliged. I leaned down and gave her a chaste kiss.

“You OK, doll?”

“Yeah. Just thinking. About being lucky and just how lucky I am. Also thinking about being unlucky and how unlucky I am, or was. It’s a dichotomy.”

“What does a sixteen-year-old beauty queen know about dichotomies?”

“Charlie, don’t pull my leg like that. I know how lucky I am that you came for me. I know how unlucky I am, or was, that you had to. I want to cry right now, but I can’t. It’s hard to feel bad. They called it grieving or going through mourning. But, because of everything that led up to the accident, I can’t just break down in sadness and grief. I want to laugh and smile because I’m with you. That’s easier, but my heart hurts because they did what they did and now they’re dead. It’s messed up.”

“Baby, the last one will take time, and that’s the only way it will get better. The only way. I’m not pulling your leg on the other thing. Kim, sweetie, you are the cutest girl I’ve ever seen, let alone met and gotten close to. You truly are beautiful. I’m blessed to have your looks and brains in my life. Blessed, I tell you. And as far as smiling and laughing with me: please do, and don’t feel guilty. You are a young lady. You deserve not to have fate’s poop stains all over your life.” She smiled. Two points for Charlie. I put my book down, set the timer for the TV to go off in an hour, and pulled her up on top of me. No sheet. Just a girl on a guy’s chest. I put my hands on her back and rubbed a bit. I did a little massage. She kissed my chin then laid her head down.

“Charlie, I love you.”

“I love you too, doll. I really do. I’m going to say something now that’s going to sound weird, but I mean it with all my heart. If you’re mad, hit me. If you’re sad, cry. If you’re happy, smile. Then after you decide, cry your eyes out. Scream, yell, and holler about how unfair life has been to you. Get it out. Hit me, go crazy. Do what you need, but I know you’re holding it inside, and it needs to leave before you can move on with me.” I felt the tears start. I just held her. When it got to the point that she was heaving with the crying, I moved my hands to her butt so she couldn’t move down any farther. I did not want that thing to be noticed right then. As she calmed, I moved first one, then a few minutes later, the other hand to her back. “Are you OK, sweetheart? I love you and I want you to get through this.”

“I’m fine. Please put your hands back down there. Please.” I did. I just squeezed a little and massaged. When the purring started, I pulled the sheet up over us and fell asleep under my love, my girlfriend, my niece, my daughter… I hated to say this, but… My everything.

She fell off during the night. When we woke up, her head was on my chest, drooling a little. So cute. Her hand was on my… Crap… Her hand was on my dick. And yes, it was hard. Maybe she was asleep. Nope, she squeezed it.

“Baby, can you let go, I need to pee.”

“Oh, crap. Sorry, Charlie. I didn’t… I shouldn’t… Oh, God.” Maybe she was asleep.

“Chill, girl,” I said on the way to the bathroom, “You were sleeping and held it. No big deal.”

“Yes, actually, it is.” Giggles.

“Be good or I’ll ‘smack bottom’,” I said, trying to use a British accent.

“Half an hour, then I call the cops, remember? Charlie, come hold me when you’re done. Please.”

“Yes, baby girl. Be there in a bit.” I came back out, seeing her laying in the middle of the bed. She held her arms out for me and asked me to lay on top of her. She said she just wanted to feel me on her, then I could roll over and hold her for a few minutes. I did. I lay down on her, and I got ever just so slightly harder than I’d ever been before. She giggled but didn’t say anything. She moaned, though. My penis was laying in the valley between her legs, the tip about an inch or two from her crotch. I let go all of my weight down on her, slowly. Got a moan and a groan, then put my hands on her shoulders and rolled over, taking her with me. She stayed on my chest, moving her legs, knowing it was exciting me.

“Charlie. Don’t move. Whatever you do, don’t move.” She moved around, reached in my shorts and wrapped her hand around it.

“Baby, we’re about to have a mess.” She nodded and held her hand up to keep me still.

“Just let it go, Charlie. I want to see it anyway. Then we’ll clean up and take off.”

“Oh, Kim. Baby, here is comes.” I hunched my butt up and shot all over my chest and a little on my stomach.

“That was neat. Thank you.” She leaned down and kissed it just on the bottom of the crown. Hell, I thought I was going to cum again. “Stay here. I’ll get a hand towel.” I lay there thinking about what had just happened.

“Kim, please understand what we just did will get me in a lot of trouble if anyone finds out.”

“No one is going to find out, and if you’re worried, I’m not going to hold it over your head, either. I love you, but I only want to be with you and keep you if you want me, too. Nobody wants to be where they aren’t wanted. Not even a crazy in love little girl like me.” Her eyes were getting a bit wet. She wasn’t throwing a fit, or acting out, she was just genuinely concerned. She wiped my chest and stomach off.

“Kim, I do. I do want you. I want to be with you. I want you to be with me. We’re going to be together as long as you want me.”

“Come with me. Let’s shower and get on the road. Come on. Don’t be shy.” She held her hand out. “Don’t be scared. I won’t bite… Hard.” She giggled. I let her take my hand and pull me into the bathroom. She started the shower and grabbed all the little bottles and stuff taking them in with her. “Come on in. Water’s nice. Lean down so I can shampoo your hair.” I was at boob level with my nose. It felt really good with her doing my hair. I chanced it, leaning forward and kissing a nipple. She giggled. “Stop, we’ll never get done. We’ll be home tonight, and you can do anything you want. OK?”

I nodded. “Anything?”

“Yes. I belong to you. Lock, stock, and barrel. Anything. Just be careful. I’m young, impressionable, and haven’t had anything bigger than a small dildo in there. It was a bit larger than my hairbrush handle, but not much. Seems the rumors are true. Girls do really use them for that.”

“A dildo?” I asked, as she finished rinsing out my hair.

“Yes, a small one. Found it in my mother’s nightstand when Bethany and I were home alone snooping. We found lots of neat stuff. Ever seen one with a harness? I was surprised. I don’t know if she was doing Gary with it, or a friend or maybe Bethany’s mom, but it was right there in the drawer. It was about your size. At the time, I thought it was huge. Now I KNOW it was.”

“Kim, look, I’m nothing out of the ordinary. Probably closer to average than not. Thank you for what you did. It eased my pressure a little bit, and I feel better. I can relax now.”

“Good. It’ll remind you now and again to keep me. I’m good for relaxation.” She giggled. I chuckled.

“Hand me a washrag and that bar of soap.” She did, but then she shocked me.

“If you want to have some fun with a little girl that has hungry skin you can just use your hands, but I’d really like to feel what it’s like when you wash my hair. It’s nice when someone else does it, don’t you think?”

“Yeah, I mean I really liked it. Hold on.” I poured some shampoo out in my hand and worked it through her hair. It came down to the bottom of her shoulder blades in back, and about at her nipples in front. Oh my, she was naked and wet, and I was gazing at perfection in this little girl. Just beautiful. I worked the lather through her hair for a while then had her lean back into it to rinse. I was in front of her, holding her under her arms as she leaned back. My dick decided to come out and play some more.

“Feels like someone’s getting excited again. Hold that thought, though, I need to do the conditioner now, unless you want to do it.”

“I’ll do it, sweetie. I’ll do it. Stand over here.” Her eyes were still closed, so I moved her out of the spray and poured some of the little bottle out on top of her head, and the rest in my hands, then worked it in really well. She said to wait for a minute, then she’d rinse it out. This time, she was facing the showerhead instead of having her back to it, so when she bent over, her ass bumped into my otherwise firm and throbbing cock. This was going to be an endless problem, I could tell.

“Charlie get close to me. Closer. Put some soap on it and rub it on my back. Hold me to you. Yes, higher. You can hold those. They’re yours now. I hope that’s OK. It’s all yours. There you go. Like that. Yes.” I saw her hand drop to her front. She had one on the wall, and one on her pussy. I could see her rubbing it. “Yes, Charlie, my love, cum for me. Come on your little girl’s back. Shoot your cum on me. Cum for me. My big, strong man, cum for me. Yes, push. Squeeze my tits. Push. Push, Daddy, Push. Cum now.” I lost it. “Uhnnnnnnnfffuuugggggggg. Uhhhhmmmm.” She did, too, I’m pretty sure. I think it was the Daddy thing, but I don’t know. I couldn’t tell which one of us was making which noise or if we were drowning each other out. My semen surged up her back, getting a little bit in her hair, and a lot on her lower back, all over me, and her ass. It was all over her beautiful rear end.

I took the bar soap, rubbed it in some water with my hands, then starting on her neck, I cleaned every square inch of her including the lips of her pussy, which she gasped but spread her legs a little when I touched, and her anus, her cute little dark pink pucker, which made her squeal when I touched it. I more circled it with my soapy finger than anything else, causing her to lean way over and stick her ass out. My little girlfriend has a world class ass, let me tell you. I was finding it hard to believe that a sixteen-year-old girl, just recently sixteen, mind you, could have a beautiful pair of what had to be B or better cup sized breasts on no more than a twenty-eight or thirty-inch chest, and a bubble but to die for. It was round and full and gorgeous, but there was no crease between her butt cheeks and her thighs, just rounded, pretty, beautiful body parts, smoothed together by Mother Nature. And boy, did she do a good job. I kept going down, literally as well as figuratively, and while I was washing her knees, calves, and ankles, I stuck my nose in her ass and licked from her pussy to her tail bone. She was enjoying the shower as much as I was. I could taste her excitement. I had her lift her feet one at a time, which opened her pussy to me even more, washing each one, then turned her around, had her lean back a little and proceeded to eat and lick her pussy ‘til she came again. Turnabout is fair play.

“Two to Two. I say we quit keeping score right now, or we’ll never get anything else done, Charlie. Oh God, I love you. You have taken such a chance with me. And you’re taking such good care of me. I love you.” She hung on to me, barely able to stand on her own.

“I love you, too… Kimberly.” That broke her. She let the rest out. All the grief. All the confusion about her feelings. For her mother. For Gary. For me. They all came pouring out of her. It was a cleansing, an epiphany, and an illuminating revelation, all rolled into one. She could let go of her past, completely, and reach out to her future. I just showed her that was me. I called her “Kimberly”.

“Thank you. Sweet, dear, loving man. Oh, Lord, I’m so lucky. Thank you. How did you know?”

“I just remembered. A few years ago or so, at the reunion before last. You were standing between my knees. You were eleven or twelve. Before you went dark. I was getting ready to leave and you said that you loved me and couldn’t wait to see me again, and you said goodbye and asked me not to forget you. I said ‘Kim, I wouldn’t do that’. You kissed my neck, bit my ear softly, and whispered, ‘If you loved me, you’d call me Kimberly’. I said to you just before I left, I said ‘I love you, Kimberly’. You almost cried, and I had to leave before I did. Shit, baby, I should have taken you with me. I just remembered all that. Oh, Kimberly, Kimberly. Oh, I love you. I’m so sorry I forgot that.”

“You didn’t forget, Charlie, you remembered. You remembered. I love you. Take me home?”

“Yes, baby, let’s rinse off and try to stop getting messy. I’ll take you home now.” We finished. We packed up. We loaded the truck. We started a new life. Together. Right then.

We were driving up Interstate 44 on the way home when I got the bright idea to make conversation. I asked, “Sweetheart, what do you want to be when you grow up? I don’t mean that in a derogatory way, I just want to know what you’re looking at, if anything, as a career.”

“I didn’t take it wrong. I want at least an EE Masters, preferably a PhD. I want to invent something important, and before any of that, I want to do something no other woman has ever done.”

I shrugged, “Cool, what’s that?”

“Before any of that happens, I want to be your wife.”

I should not have been sipping on my breakfast coffee when we were talking. I would watch that in the future. It smells and tastes funny when it’s in your sinuses. I blew a sip straight out my nose. My future wife just laughed her little bubble butt off as I pulled to the side of the highway and held my hand out for some napkins.

“You have a half hour to spank me before I call the police.” We both laughed as I cleaned off the steering wheel and the dashboard. Back on the road, she apologized, however admitting it wasn’t her fault, but as the good wife, she’d take the blame for the misfortune of her man. We both got a chuckle out of that.

“Kimberly, baby cakes, what are we gonna do then? Can you finish high school in a normal setting like you mentioned earlier, then go to school, college, and whatnot?”

“My love, Sir Charles, we have a couple of years to figure all that crap out, excuse the language, but we have much bigger fish to fry right now than which AP classes will give me the best chance at a BSEE in three years of college. Right now, I don’t care if my degree takes 10 years. In a year that may change. I’m worried about you, and me and our new… Our new dimension? I can’t be a drain on your work. I can’t be a drain on you. I need to fit in, immediately. Now. We have about 4 hours to decide what the next week is going to look like. You’ve been gone a week. What does your fridge look like? Maybe I should ask what it smells like. Will we need to go shopping after we get home? Or before we get there? All kinds of things need to be taken care of before that. Talk to me, dear. What say you?”

“I say, we hit Dierberg’s up for one or two of everything you need, want, desire, can pronounce or describe, and get it home as quickly as possible. Dierberg’s is a big grocery on the way home. Last big one, actually without getting way off the beaten path. You said you want to cook, but never had the stuff. Here’s your chance. Whatever you want, we’ll get. I will let you know what I think we have at home, and you’ll decide if you trust my answer or not. You’ll know. If I say ‘we have a 5 pound Boston Butt Pork Roast in the freezer’, it’s there. If I say ‘there may be a whole frozen chicken in the freezer’, there may be one there, and if you need a chicken really bad, you might get one, just because I may be wrong about it. And… If I say ‘I think I used to have some basil somewhere’, buy some, ‘cause I’ll never find the stuff at home. Make sense?”

“Clear as mud. I’m on my own leading you around. That’s what I just heard. I can work with that. I love you. I’ll make do. When we get home, are you going to let me loose, or be a control freak like…” I interrupted her right then.

“Let’s not bring them up until we need to, OK? I’m not a control freak. I don’t want you going 20 miles to the store on a 4-wheeler, but I can get behind you leading shopping expeditions. When you have a license, we’ll get you a car. Until then, I will take you where you need to be, or we can get a cab or something if there’s an emergency. Control freak? Not on your life. Oh, one exception. If you make liver, either beef or calves liver, the next time your new phone rings will be my lawyer asking where you want to move to… Alone.”

“Got it. No liver. AS IF!!! Crazy dufus. I fell in love with a crazy dufus. Thank you, you wonderful man. If you had told me to make you liver, and you would have had to TELL me to do it, the next time your phone rang, it would be your friend Liz asking if it was OK for me to stay with them for a while, ‘cause I wasn’t gonna be with you!! Oh, this is too much. I don’t like the thought of liver and onions, either. We got the drama out of the way?”

I was laughing at her antics by then. “Yes, sweetheart. No more liver drama. Let’s get through the city in one piece, then we’ll stop at the grocery in St. Peters and buy everything you see and some beer. I want a beer. You like beer?”

“Yeah. A little. I don’t want to be like… I don’t want to get carried away, but I like lots of stuff. A little at a time. Very little. Bethany’s dad had an 18-year-old bottle of Scotch that was… Never mind. Old days. Yes. I like light beers, not the dark heavy stuff. I haven’t acquired that taste yet. We’ll get beer for the man of the house, and the little lady of the house will sneak a sip now and again while he’s looking.” She smiled at me. “Hon, if you’ll buy me some meat, some veggies, and some potatoes, I’d like to start playing. Later I’ll play with sweets, but I just want to be able to make you a meal first. Sound good?”

That was a preview of Attitude Adjustments. To read the rest purchase the book.

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