The Well: Miss M

We took the truck back to town for the last day of class, left our gear and the Mustang parked at Tina and Shelly’s place. We wanted the Mustang kept as far out of sight as possible. The truck’s only unique in the engine compartment, lots of them on the road, but cherry fast back Mustangs are rare. It was getting obvious we might need an very fast unknown machine in the near future.


“You know,” I said as we hit highway speed, “I wonder if Jim was saying more than just heads up.”

Dee cocked her head. “I’ve been wondering that as well.”

“He’s definitely ex military. A fair number of pj’s are special forces re-upping, they get one whale of a bonus for being trained. You say he was using a laser pointer?”

“Yes, he’d been playing with his new toy all day. Driving several of us nuts.”

“Did he ever tag anyone but the teacher?”

Dee thought back, and said “No, no he didn’t. He’d put it on papers, books, pretty much anything else, but the teacher was the only person.”

“That says something, Dee. You have heard of lasing a target, haven’t you?”

“What? Not really.”

“Smart bombs. Several kinds find their target by looking for laser light. The special forces boys sneak in, and when they hear the birds paint the target with a laser. If Jim ever did that job he wouldn’t paint anything but a target, be like pointing a gun for him.”

“Oh, oh boy. In that case then he’d made one of their operatives, he was trying to give warning. He was talking loud enough several tables heard him, not just me.”

A few minutes later I cranked the truck around a corner, put us right into the rising sun. “I did get the feeling from Cambell this seminar is actually just the handshake before the fight.”

Dee squinted, and said “Yah think?”

I’ve heard a lot of reasons for not liking a school room, but I think ours’ tops the list. They had our places set, but we weren’t expected. He’s got game, it was only on his face for a second, but it was there. He was expecting us to be dead. Jim was at Dee’s table, grinning and clowning as before, but there were two empty chairs. Somebody had taken casualties.

Dee and I played as a pair, for the moment. We ate lunch from the food court downstairs with the kids, and spent the rest of the hour listening and wondering. Under ordinary circumstances a shooting death in a place like that is big news, you’d hear someone talking. The best we got was a campus cop, standing at the door into the hotel. He watched us walk by into the lobby, and he was wondering what in the hell was going on, but he’d been told to keep quiet. Our names were on the register, unless uncle had said very firmly not to bother we’d have been pulled out of class to answer questions. That the joint wasn’t swarmed with nosey official types put the odds at zero this was anyone’s private investigation. This was a shooting war with no uniforms, which I find disturbing. Uniforms are a nice thing, you can read ranks. I was wondering what Cambell would be wearing, wondering about Dee. I didn’t need to wonder about myself: no more than two stripes for no longer than it took to get rid of them and fake a section eight.

It turned into one of the longest afternoons I can remember, it felt like we spent two weeks in there before it was over. Everyone was tense and jumpy before we got out. We’d picked up a tightly sealed box from Cambell at the local UPS depot and were taking a back route out of town to make sure we weren’t being followed when Dee pulled a big breath, and chuckled.

“Carson, a word if I may?” she said.

“Sure, shoot.”

“If you walk in the door at the girls’ place looking like you are right now, well, expect the unusual. They’re strange, but they’re sweethearts, both of them. The one and only thing they’re hardcore about is being hedonist, they live to give delight. Do me a favor, and yourself as well. If they offer go along. They won’t hurt you and you’ll enjoy it, I promise. We’re their guests, they won’t let anything get in the way until they’re satisfied we’re going to sleep like babies. Don’t hurt their feelings, please, they really are sensitive.”

“Well, I suppose I could be noble for the cause,” I said, thinking I was doing better than James Bond. Hell, the pair he met were mean, they got off beating on strangers, not dealing delight. “How did you meet them, anyway?” I thought it was a safe question. One of these days I’m going to learn. Dee answered me, but soon enough I knew what she looks like sad.

“I’d known Shelly forever. I met Tina at school, I introduced them ten years ago. They took one look at each other and have been joined at the hip ever since.” She paused, and I glanced over. I wish I hadn’t, her voice didn’t change, but her face did. “When the chaplains came to tell me about Jack I fell apart pretty badly. The girls took me in tow, God bless them. I don’t know what I’d have done without them. They moved in for a month, the kids think they’re my cousins from Alaska.”

Cousins from Alaska. Somehow that sounded like something they’d cook up.

They are sensitive, and not just on the inside. We hadn’t been in the door ten minutes when Tina looked at Shelly and said “Now?” Shelly looked us over, shook her head and said “Nah, later. Get business out of the way first, and then dinner. I don’t want to try and move ‘em afterwards.”

I opened the box on the coffee table with the girls in the kitchen. The box had a set of apartment keys, a lease I hadn’t signed but would never be able to prove I hadn’t, it was a damn good forgery, and another thick wad of cash. Everything else was in manila envelopes with Cambell’s private symbol that means your eyes only. I put those in the valet pack. When I got back Shelly was talking.

“Look, Dee. This thing you’re caught up in is ugly, way ugly, I just know it. I always knew sooner or later that Cambell character would get you into something this nasty. Hells bells, you can’t even talk to me about it. So I don’t know what it is, but what I do know is we’re on your side, and so are a few others. We’re hot to launch for anywhere on two hours notice, and the Rickies are good to go on twelve. I didn’t even tell them your name, just that it’s righteous. I wasn’t lying, was I?”

I really thought Dee was going to spill a tear. She got up and put a hug and a kiss on Shelly before she answered. “I can tell you no, you weren’t lying. But Shelly, I don’t want you guys messed up in this. There’s no telling what could happen next, how long it might go on.”

Tina harrumphed. “If it gets to the point we’re needed it will be way past the cloak and dagger stuff, just an open firefight. Face it, Dee. You’ve got three veterans and a well trained rookie backing you. Don’t you dare get yourself hurt hesitating to call us, I’d never forgive you for that.”

I cocked an eyebrow, wondering. Tina put a look on me that made me shiver and said so softly you knew she knew what it meant and meant it to the bottom of her soul, “Semper Fi.”

After dinner and a drink apiece the girls did rock paper scissors. They made it a compliment to me, Tina won, and took me by the hand as Shelly collected Dee. “Come, warrior man,” she said, “you’ve had food for the body, now it’s time to feed heart and soul.” They took us in the playroom, shrugged out of their clothes, and scolded me when I tried to undress myself.

I had a massage that good, once, it only cost me half a paycheck. When Tina was done with me an hour later there was only one part that wasn’t relaxed, and that was a bit embarrassing. Tina did the flickered eyebrow thing, stroked it, and smiled. “Tonight this pretty boy belongs to Dee,” she said, and then looked at Shelly working the muscles in Dee’s legs. “She’ll be ready for you here any minute.”

I guess I must have looked confused or something, because she laid down on an elbow beside me, getting close and rubbing my belly. “We like boys too don’t you know, it’s just that we love each other,” she said, getting a grin on her face. “We’re what started the legend. Every now and then we go find some lonesome boy and bring him home blindfolded, so he won’t know where we live, and make a game of seeing how many times he can, well, you know. It’s fun, we help all we know how.” I thought about it for a bit, enjoying the float. Legends, I could believe these two as becoming legends.

“So who holds the record?” I asked. I figured her answer would split the bullpen stories into possible and not.

“To a true and full wet climax? Belongs to a little cowboy, barely five foot tall, maybe a hundred and ten pounds dripping wet.” She chuckled, got a twinkle in her eye and soft admiration in her voice. “But good lord was he spunky. Being as how he was a cowboy, and so small in a world where size matters so much he had this attitude thing that just would not quit. There’s two of us, we’re half again his size, but he didn’t care. He was such a noble little stallion he’d run himself to death if you asked. Nine times he mounted up and brought one of us home. We finally called it off and sang him to sleep, we were afraid he was going to hurt himself.”

“And he swore he was game to go again,” Shelly said, holding Dee in her arms looking like she had strength to spare. Tina sat up, leaned over me to help Shelly, and with Dee rag doll limp they turned her over, lined everything up and slid her down on me. Shelly pulled a long and rather interesting looking toy for them out from under the pillow and they did their thing curled around under our legs, hugging us between them. I was pretty well pinned, I couldn’t move much, but I didn’t have to, not the way they were moving Dee with their hips. They like to help, after a bit I lost track of which hand belonged to who. Every time Dee started getting close they were both kissing on her, cooing smiles and stroking her back, tearing up like grandparents at a wedding when she made it, and then they’d turn into cheerleaders for me. Like the bottle says, rinse and repeat. Several times. Legends, and yes, voyeurs as well, they got off twice apiece for each of ours, but then that goes with being hopelessly hopeful romantics. Sweethearts from the strange side of life.

When everyone finally quit panting they rearranged us between them, a breast apiece for our pillows, and started talking. Sharing sex with them is a treat, but the best was yet to come. I’m sure they had us hypnotized. Tina had said food for heart and soul, and she meant it. It must have been poetry they’d written, I’d never heard any of it before, I haven’t found it anywhere since, and I’ve looked. It wasn’t really singing, but so close. We left from Xanadu, had lunch in Shangri La, visited Atlantis and then slept in Eden, voices and warm bodies to make the afterglow seem it could last forever. I don’t know when they put us down, when they arranged us in each others arms and put the covers over us. I just know I woke up give or take ten hours later feeling better than I can ever remember.

The breakfast table turned into a serious place. Dee was helping Tina cook, leaving Shelly and me parked to nurse mugs of coffee. “So you’re heading out today?” Shelly asked. She’d been looking at Dee for a good bit before she spoke.


“I am,” I answered. “I don’t know about Dee. She gets her orders on a different channel.”

Dee said “Late today, most probably, or first thing in the morning,” on her way to the table with a mountain of pancakes.

Shelly considered, she’d been thinking about something since first light. “Hmmm, ok. Do you guys have any guesses as to how long you’re going to be there?”

I owned up to not having a clue. Where I sleep doesn’t matter, no one is looking for me to be home for supper. “I’m thinking no more than a month,” Dee said over her shoulder. “That’s what I told the folks when I bumped their vacation drafting them to take care of the kids.”

“We’ve got a month,” Tina said, stacking plates along her arm. As a waitress she’d be a wonder, a full meal for a six top would be easy working load.

“Yea, it’ll be a month before they start harvest down in Texas,” Shelly said. “After chow we’ll get started.”

While Shelly and I policed up the kitchen Dee borrowed the truck, taking Tina with her. I’d figured for a grocery run, we’d been hitting the pantry pretty hard. I was right, but only in part. Dee came back alone with a good size pile of sacks in the bed. The last sack hadn’t hit the counter when I jumped at the sound of a major league diesel engine coming to idle outside the door. Shelly perked up. “I think Miss M is here,” she said.

Think it through. Where in the world can a pair of gals like those have a hope of fitting in? What kind of things are built for people six foot four? Where could a pair like them earn a living and not have to worry about the boss giving them hell for the fact they’re mated like a pair of swans? Yes, of course. Peterbuilt trucks fit people like them.

In truck years Miss M is the same age they are, and she’s a pretty girl: tall chrome stacks and tall chrome wheels, her top sky blue blended down to a mural of blue green ocean water and a tropical beach scene on the apartment sleeper. She’s like they are, big and pretty with a heart of gold, just idling she rumbles in your chest. She had on a floating fourth axle lowboy, the frame rails the same ocean green. Of course. What Miss M usually pulls is heavy iron, the harvest machinery that feeds the world.

Tina was swinging down out of the cab, one look said the move was reflex. “What do you think?” she said, grinning. She’s proud of Miss M, the paint job was her work, a three year labor of love.

“She’s awesome,” I said. “She fits you.”

“We’re going to crate up the Mustang and haul it to Cordlin for you. That way no one will know it’s there unless it’s needed.” I nodded, it made good sense. The Mustang sitting over the trailer axles would almost be enough weight to keep the trailer pinned down. Miss M wouldn’t notice, the difference between full tanks and empty equaled the weight of the car.

“We don’t bring her home often, she’s really to heavy for these little streets,” Shelly said, walking up from behind. “We’ll build the crate down at the yard and then jump the ‘stang up. That’ll take a couple of hours, but we’ll be ready to roll out by the time Dee’s ready to leave. We’ll take the scoot for us.” The scoot is a dune buggy with a Porsche engine, it goes on harvest with them riding over the fifth wheel.

We held conference at the kitchen table, and the girls were not taking anything resembling no for an answer. They were going to be within thirty miles of Cordlin whether their friend Dee wanted them there or not. I was actually happy about the idea. As it came out in the conversation Tina was indeed Marine, she’d driven a tank hauler in the first desert war, and some later. She’d taught Shelly to drive, and shoot, her unit had wandered into hot spots on more than one occasion. They told me about the Rickies, another pair of gals, friends from the days in uniform who drove hot shot freight based out of Tulsa. When I asked if they shared anything in the philosophy department Tina shook her head.

“No, not so much. They’re strictly monogamous, kind of closed in. If you meet them don’t take it personal, they’ve forgotten how to be nice to a man. To many tries, to many scars. Some bad times in the Corp. But they’re loyal to a fault if they ever once accept you.” I didn’t need to ask, pairs like that are the terror spitting opposites of girls like Tina and Shelly. Single men run from that sort if they like to live very long. On the other hand, so long as the bad guys were guys calling them was calling in shock troops in stiletto heels. Scary thought.

I had some heavy reading to do, and I needed privacy to do it in. We traded all pertinent contact information, including my new number in Cordlin, and I loaded out. I’d swing Dee by Stillwater on my way out, the Mustang wasn’t going back to the house. If they hadn’t seen it yet we didn’t want to take the risk. After the girls held a confab in their private language they opened the arms locker, and came back with an honest to god, full out illegal M16 and four clips already loaded.

“It really doesn’t fit either of us,” Shelly said as she handed me the weapon, “and God forbid you need it, but I’d rather you had it if you do. Just bring it home when you’re done.”

“That I will,” I said, and then added “girls, thank you. I don’t know what a simple boy like me could ever do to repay your generosity, but I’ll try.” I meant it, it ended up changing my life, but I don’t regret it. They closed on me from both sides, and it was a full minute before they were done kissing me.

“We want you back,” Tina said, “with or without Dee. Last night was therapy, we’d really like a chance to play, and maybe something more,” she said, and that sparkle was in her eye. “Warrior man, we like you.”

There wasn’t anything I could say, I just grinned. I do that when I blush. We drove to Dee’s house, and it was a pretty quiet ride. It always is when you’re going out for real. Just before I left Dee’s house I asked if she had any clue what the sparkle was all about. She laughed, and got a conspiratorial look on her face.

“Well, yes, I think I do. But I’m not going to tell you, that’s for them. They’d spank me if I did, and they spank hard.” The way Dee clenched her butt made me think it might have been more a memory than a turn of phrase.

Dee gave me a sweet kiss, and said “I’ll be in town, but we can’t talk in person till this is over. Carson, be careful up there. I’m kind of fond of you as well.”

It was a long lonely drive. Any good woman can do that to you, they’re addictive, but Dee is in a class all her own. The sergeant in my dream was right, her eyes had gotten me. The girl’s innocent lust just made it dig a little deeper.