NEW STORY TITLE: FARM (EROTICA)
A middle aged man finds love with an unexpected young woman.
Enjoy as always. Comments and / or feedback appreciated.
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“She’s fucked, Bruce.”
I removed my hat and wiped the sweat from my forehead. The heat was sweltering out in the country. I looked around and could see the heat haze rise up from the ground, the only sound that of the occasional fly or mosquito, and the chorus of crickets and cicadas in the distance. I turned back to look at Mick, the man I trusted most on the farm.
“Is there anything you can do?” I asked, more in hope than expectation.
He pointed as he spoke. “You’re going to have to replace that entire block and that alone would cost a small fortune. Thing’s fucked, mate. Add to that, this thing is what? Thirty, forty years old. You need a new one, mate.”
“You know I can afford it but…” I paused, having to swallow down what I wanted to really say. “You know…”
“I know, mate, I know. But there comes a time when you have to let things go.”
I looked at him and chuckled. “Going soft on me, Mick?”
“I’m an old man now, Bruce. You know that.” He removed his hat. “I remember looking in the mirror and seeing jet-black hair.”
“I’m getting a few grey’s myself.”
“Everything’s getting old and worn out, it seems.”
I sighed and slammed the bonnet of the truck, swearing again to myself. “Come on, we’ll hitch it to the tractor and drag the fucker back to the garage.”
It was going to be a long drive back. The only reason Mick could even find me is that every vehicle had GPS. The farm I’d inherited from my father upon his passing was enormous. I’m a man in my early 40s, single and happy with my life. To call me a farmer would be too simple. I did own an enormous farm, breeding cattle and sheep while also raising crops and fruit. In the outback, life was hard, the days were long but also rather simple. My father had left the farm to me in his will when he died when I was only 22. Mum had died a decade before, my father and I watching her waste away from a terminal illness.
I didn’t exactly live alone on the farm, I had numerous people helping me during various times of the years, and there were half a dozen other homesteads dotted around the landscape. Mick was one of those people, my dad’s best friend and the man I still relied on most. He lived with his wife and son a couple of miles away from my house. I lived alone, both parents gone while my sister had left the farm when she was sixteen and had only ever returned twice, both times when I’d put our parents in the ground. I had next to nothing to do with my sister. We barely spoke. Not because I didn’t like her, I just had little in common with her. I knew she had a couple of kids, a nephew and a niece, a different father for each, and I knew enough to know she was always in a different relationship. I’ve seen the kids more often than my sister as both had been sent to visit me by their mother a few times over the years. That would be a hard journey for any kid, as I live at least a thousand miles from the city they lived in and the nearest large town is a half hour drive away.
Back at the farm, we parked the truck outside the garage, running a hand along its side and over its bonnet. I knew it was dead. One of the last links to my dad. I’d been with him when he’d bought it. The truck had been one hell of a workhorse, but it was now dead and I knew I’d just have to sell it for scrap. Mick just stood beside me, laying a hand on my shoulder.
“It’s the last link, isn’t it?”
I looked towards the house and nodded. “It is except for that. I’ll get online tonight and start looking for a new one.”
“Online? You mean that internet thing?”
I laughed. “Yes, Mick. You know that phone I gave you? That’s got the internet thing too.”
“I don’t understand all this new-fangled technology. I thought a phone was just a phone. I barely understand that text messaging malarkey.”
“I’ll have to sit you down one day, Mick, and go through all this with you.”
He dismissed that with a wave of the hand. “I’ll never understand it. My wife does one have those iPad things though. She loves it. Tried to get me to use it but I think I almost broke it.”
“You’re a man out of your time,” I stated with a chuckle.
We headed towards the house, Mick’s truck parked outside. The sun was getting low and the work day was over. A couple of my farmhands walked by, sharing a quick goodbye before they’d head home. Some lived close by, others lived in the nearest town.
“Want a beer?” I asked.
“Sure. I could do with wetting my whistle. Been a bloody hot one today.”
“It’s always a hot one, Mick.”
“I’m sure the weather is getting warmer.”
“You’re just getting old.”
“Son of a bitch,” he muttered through laughter.
We sat on the veranda, sucking down a couple of cold ones before Mick shook my hand and headed home in his truck. I wandered inside, cooked myself a simple meal before sitting in front of my computer. I did the usual things of checking my mail, reading a few bits of news before connecting to a messenger service. Once I was signed in, I noticed my niece was online so thought I’d say hello.
BruceAlmighty: Hey Em.
xxEms95xx: Hey Brucey
BruceAlmighty: How’s your day been?
xxEms95xx: Oh, you know, another day in paradise. *sigh*
BruceAlmighty: More problems with Mum?
That wasn’t unusual. I was left with the feeling mother and daughter had never really got along, and their relationship had been deteriorating for years. I just dreaded each time we spoke as I knew it was getting worse.
xxEms95xx: Not just her. Her new deadbeat boyfriend. I forget what number this one is.
BruceAlmighty: I could say something but I’ve heard so… She’s my sister by blood but… What’s wrong?
xxEms95xx: He’s disgusting. He keeps trying things on with me and Mum just laughs.
BruceAlmighty: What do you mean by ‘trying things’?
xxEms95xx: I think he wants to have sex with me. I feel trapped. I can’t leave as I can’t afford it, but Mum just says ‘Well, you’re of age now so why are you saying no?’ Ugh, she’s disgusting and he’s worse.
I had no idea things were getting that bad. We talked all the time, my niece and I. She had turned 19 a couple of months back but I’d watched her grow up for at least the past few years once I managed to get online. She would send me the occasional picture and she grew up from slightly awkward looking young girl into what even I’d to say was a beautiful young woman. Even though I hadn’t seen her in person now for a few years, she was still family and I certainly didn’t like hearing someone was trying to take advantage of her.
BruceAlmighty: What about your brother? Where is he now?
xxEms95xx: Other side of the country. He was smart and got out of here as soon as possible. He doesn’t even speak to Mum now.
I would have asked about her father, but neither my niece or nephew had anything to do with their fathers, both deadbeat guys in what sounded like a long list of deadbeats my sister decided to get with.
BruceAlmighty: The offer to come here still stands.
xxEms95xx: I know, Brucey, but I’m a city girl. I don’t know what I’d do on a farm.
BruceAlmighty: You’d be safe, that much I do know.
I remembered the precocious little girl that visited me when she was only about five or six years old. Having next to nothing to do with kids, having two of them around the house was a real change but we bonded immediately. She spent two weeks running under my feet, which I didn’t mind, as she showed an interest in nearly everything I did. Even at that young age, she seemed to see her mother for what she was as I remember the tears when she finally had to leave. It was one of the few times I’ve ever cried when the car carrying her drove away.
She’d been back every couple of years until about three or four years back. I could understand why she’d stopped coming, but I missed her and my nephew’s presence, even if only for a couple of weeks a year.
xxEms95xx: Let me think about it. Okay?
BruceAlmighty: Of course. But my door is always open, to you or your brother anyway. You need me, you give me a call. I’ll organise transport right away if necessary.
xxEms95xx: Enough about me. What about you? Everything okay?
BruceAlmighty: Can’t complain though the old truck has finally upped and died.
xxEms95xx: Grandad’s truck? Oh, I’m so sorry, Brucey.
BruceAlmighty: I’ll go tell the old man tomorrow and share a shot of whiskey with him as we celebrate thirty years of service.
xxEms95xx: lol. Are you serious?
BruceAlmighty: They’re here on the farm. I go see them sometimes, particularly when I want advice.
xxEms95xx: They speak to you?!?!?!?
BruceAlmighty: Of course not. But I know what he would say. And I know what he’d tell his granddaughter.
xxEms95xx: And what would that be?
BruceAlmighty: You’ll always have a home here.
We talked a bit longer before she disappeared offline, saying she had an early start the next morning. As usual, I then looked up a bit of porn, had a five-knuckle shuffle before heading to bed myself. I lay back and thought about what it would be like to have someone else around the house. I had lived with others before, in one or two relationships that eventually fizzled out. If I was after some companionship, I’d head into the nearest town and one of the pubs. I knew nearly everyone as the population was only a couple of thousand or so. That sometimes made finding a partner for some horizontal Olympics awkward, though I’d generally find a woman willing to stick my dick in them. Not exactly a romantic way of putting it, but at the end of the night, sometimes a man and woman just wanted some no strings attached sex.