Stan
Sometimes, this place is like running an adult day care. Not that I don't love these knuckleheads, but five men in one house can get pretty rank. Not to mention rowdy. Tim and Tom have this thing where they like to chase each other down the stairs, daring each other to fall and break their neck. Neither one has managed to succeed so far, but I suppose there is always a chance.
Charlie is a pain in the ass in his own way, with his nerdy fascinations and what he thinks is a secret collection of rocket paraphernalia. I'm not kidding. Rockets. He used to make models when we were younger, until we teased him into stopping. But I know for a fact he has got a crate under his bed.
Then there's Hank, who thinks he's a mystery. He's just a softy, really. He's all hard shell on the outside, with a gooey sweet center.
Way back when we tried to have a woman around the house before, Hank was the one who fell the hardest. Not just head over heels, but ass over teakettle. Chin over elbows. Just rolled up like a ball and sent himself on down the emotional hill.
So when Mandy came to her senses and decided she was ready to go to college, Hank was shattered like a glass figurine. You can’t tell by looking at him — on the outside he's your average muscle man. He is thick as a tree trunk. Perpetual stubble. A scowl that puts off anybody who doesn't know him personally.
But he was broken, I'm telling you. Mandy took his heart and stomped on it.
And she didn't even mean to. I don't think she understood at all. She was probably just having a lark, marking time until college started. We certainly didn't talk about it explicitly, though we should have. I know that now. We’re just a bunch of dumb farmers, so we thought it was understood.
But, really, who would've thought the head cheerleader wou
ld want to stay holed up with all of us in the orchard, when she could do anything in the world she wanted?
It goes without saying that we've tried to be different with Vanessa. We've been honest, we've been open. I think we've explained pretty well what we expect from her and what we need from her. But the clock is ticking. She hasn't come up with an answer yet.
Which I can only assume means the answer is going to be no.
It'll be heartbreaking to see her go. I've never met anyone as perfect as she is. Intelligent and beautiful, with an adventurous spirit. Her strength is startling, both emotionally and physically. Even the sound of her singing voice touches me in unexpected ways. It's all one perfect package, wrapped up in this curvy blonde beauty that I can't get enough of.
But at least we will have to be moving. That'll distract us. Setting up a new orchard, getting all the business stuff in place, learning how to work in a new country, even learning the language. All of that will be a welcome diversion from thinking about what we will be leaving behind.
And maybe Hank is right. He mentioned that maybe we should just all find our own way in the world. Find our own partners, make our own families. It'll be the end of us, I know it. I can barely think about it without choking on sadness. But if that's the way it's got to be, we might as well get on with it.
“Hey, Charlie,” I say, shuffling over to the dining table. He looks up from his laptop with his eyebrows raised.
“Hey, Stan,” he answers. “What's up?”
“Yeah, so I was thinking,” I start, “Portugal? Or Germany?”
He raises his eyebrows. He takes a few seconds to answer, probably because he knows the same thing I know: that we’re going alone.
“Well, I think Germany has the better weather, that's for sure,” he says with a weary sigh. He looks down and away, shielding his expression from me.
“And we’re just about ready?”
“All I have to do is wire the money,” he shrugs. “It's practically a done deal.”
“Good job, man,” I smile weakly. “It's amazing you put all this together.”
He smiles sadly, glancing up at me momentarily. And then his eyes shift as there's a sound at the front door. Hank walks in, holding Vanessa by the hand. She's pretty in a longsleeved pink dress, her hair tucked back behind her ears, her cheeks and nose pink and glowing from the brisk morning air.
“Hey, everybody,” Hank smiles. He looks awfully proud of himself. “Tim and Tom around?”
“Yeah, they're here somewhere. Good morning, Vanessa.”
She smiles at me, dipping her chin shyly. I love how she looks at me with a little bit of girlish modesty, still, even though I've had her thighs around my ears so many times I could draw a picture of her perfect pussy from memory.
Suddenly there's a helluva racket coming from the stairway. It sounds like somebody's dropping boulders from the second floor. Tim lands on his feet in the foyer, throwing out his arms like he just completed a gymnastics routine. Immediately after, Tom shoves him from behind, nearly pushing him off balance.
Vanessa rolls her eyes, grinning.
“You guys are going to kill each other one day,” she scolds them.