Some Problems Are Easier

Some Problems are Easier Than Others

George Wells got a job with the Commerce Department and moved down from Philadelphia right out of college. His new apartment in D.C. was rather spare. He had only a bed and two chairs when he first moved in, though it didn't take long to get a lot of other things.

Not long after that he was picked as someone worth training on computers, though why he was never sure. He was sent to classes all day, five days a week for nine weeks, and then put into another job. Later he was sent to more classes, for about a quarter of the time for the next two years.

But that first nine weeks was the longest classroom session he had, and the most interesting for reasons unrelated to computers. One of the twenty-some other people in those classes was Faith White, nineteen years old, tall and thin with very light blonde hair. She wore more makeup than was good for her, but she looked nice despite it.

Faith was two rows behind George for the classes, but they were paired for the lab-work. Students were two to a computer monitor there and were supposed to help each other work out the problems in putting COBOL programs together.

Faith put a lot of her money and time into the clothes that she wore (mostly light-colored, which made her skin look even paler than it would otherwise) and George admired them and their contents at odd moments while they were talking their way through the logic. He didn't let himself get too distracted or worked up since she had mentioned a live-in boyfriend early on. But he looked anyway.

After the first week of lab, four weeks into the classes this was, Faith asked if he knew of a place where they could go to look over the work. There were things she felt she didn't understand. George thought that she really did, but she lacked the self-assurance to be convinced of it.

They tried the D.C. public library at first, that big empty glass thing downtown, since it was easy to get to from where the classes were. George didn't think that they would be noticed among the noise that the black high-schoolers (and younger) made in there, but the library staff asked them to leave after a while anyway. Perhaps the kids were moving targets, always on to some other spot, while they were sitting and seriously talking. They went on a little longer on a bench outside, but not much.

Faith asked if they could meet before class the next day, and maybe go to his apartment after class if she still wasn't sure she understood what they had covered. George was agreeable, especially since he had advance warning to clean up the place. But he wondered aloud if her boyfriend wouldn't object to her spending time in his apartment.

She said that he would object a lot more to George being in her apartment and talking with her. If she were not there, he would only think once in a while about Faith being with another man, but if George were in sight, he would always be jealous.

She felt that she needed some help with the work, but since she wasn't getting on well with her boyfriend right now this was the best way to do it.

They were in the classroom an hour early on the next morning, but not much got done. They just got tangled up in logic. Or one should say that not much seemed to get done, because Faith was a lot better that day at working out the assignment and she could spot a number of errors as they were making them. (Mistakes don't count if you correct them before they get out.)

George suggested that they get a quick snack after work in case the study-session that night ran on for a while, and they did. All that Faith had known about where he lived was that it wasn't really far out, and she was a little surprised that it was fairly close to her place. At least if they ran late, she wouldn't have far to go.

They sat at his kitchen table and spread out books and print-outs all over the place as they worked. When they went over a point for the third time that night George got--not abusive, since it didn't call for that--but loud and strong. He expected Faith to take it in stride and smile and remind him about the dumb mistakes he had made. Instead she started crying and saying that she would never be any good at this sort of thing. She got up from the table and walked a few steps away.

George was unsettled by this. He was hesitant to hold Faith to comfort her, since he was the cause of her discomfort and it might make things worse if she worried about what her boyfriend would think.

As it was, he did end up holding her shoulders to apologize for being so harsh. He was annoyed at the erection that doing that gave him.

But she quit and went to repair her makeup. George walked her to her apartment building a couple of hours later.

The next morning Faith wore a blouse with long sleeves even though it was a warm day for October and the air-conditioning in that place wasn't very good. George didn't think anything of it at the time. She didn't want another evening session but she asked him about meeting an hour early on Friday morning, the next day.

George was agreeable. They had been going over things on the table in the front for ten minutes when he brushed against her arm in reaching to find the right page in the book. Faith gasped and drew her arm back. This got George to thinking, and cautiously glancing at her again.

When George looked down the neck of her blouse (which he mostly wouldn't bother to, her boobs were kind of small) he could see that Faith had put makeup on her skin down there. And at the edge of the makeup, where it wouldn't be visible unless you were looking down her dress, was the edge of a bruise. When she spent those couple of hours working with George, her boyfriend beat her for it.

The practice problem went pretty well that Friday. He made a point of telling Faith how much better she was doing now, and so did the instructor, which might be more important. George thought over whether he should say anything to Faith about what he had figured out, and finally only wished her luck in working out the problems with her boyfriend when he said goodbye. She looked at him a little timidly and said she was sure everything would be fine.

They were supposed to meet early again on Monday. He got there the full hour ahead, but Faith didn't show until forty-five minutes after that. She told George that she had had a big fight with her boyfriend, and he had moved out and gone back to his wife.

That last part put a whole new side on her relationship with her boyfriend, one George hadn't suspected at all. The fight was painfully obvious, because the bruises on her face were visible under the makeup.

That day's material was difficult and the project that applied it wasn't any better. Faith asked George if he would be willing to work on it with her tonight, at her apartment. She offered to cook dinner for him in payment for his help.

This was certainly the best offer George got that day, not to mention the only. They went there after the lab, and while she started on the meal he made the acquaintance of her little dog and looked around her place. Most of the furniture and decorations were rather feminine, almost frilly, but there was a small cabinet in one corner which had been broken and had all of its contents stacked beside it.

Faith asked George to look at it and see if he thought it could be fixed. He looked it over and told her that he doubted it very much. It looked like either a very heavy weight had been placed on it, or, more likely, it had been picked up and thrown. There was a mark on the wall that looked like it might match the cabinet.

They worked on the COBOL problem after dinner until about eight. Then a key turned in the lock and the apartment door slammed hard against its chain. Faith's dog started yapping and the door chain was yanked again and again.

A voice came in from the hall talking about hearing George's voice in there and calling them both quite a number of names. Faith jumped up to go to the door and George followed her. As he half expected, it was her ex-boyfriend. He didn't expect him to be a big and nasty-looking black man.

The language got worse, and the man started pounding on the door after they closed it again and put two deadbolts on. Most of his insults were racial. But he kept calling George a homosexual (in which case he wouldn't mind George being there, one would think). And the comments about Faith's sexual practices--well, he'd only know if he liked them also, if which case what's he complaining about?

The neighbors up and down the hall threw comments out their doors. A lot of the people were black and they were embarrassed by his ethnic comments. It seemed that they liked Faith and had never cared for him at all. One woman said she was calling the police, and sure enough they showed up for once. The cops just took the man outside and made him leave the area.

After all that, they didn't get much more done on the COBOL that night. George went home about ten. Faith asked him back the next evening.

On Tuesday they stopped at a hardware store after the class and George changed the lock on her door while she fixed dinner. The ex-boyfriend came by one more time while she was gone, but he gave up when his key wouldn't work.

George spent every evening that week studying with Faith except Friday, when he had other plans.

After Monday Faith wore short-sleeved blouses in the apartment and he could see the bruises fading fast. George also convinced her to take off the makeup, and she looked better for it.

George learned a lot more about Faith that week. He learned that Larry, that ex-boyfriend, was the fourth man she had lived with in the last year and a half. Always in this apartment, which was in her name only. Larry was the only married one, but one of the others had a child by another woman. Larry was a bus driver, another was a freight handler, another never worked at all in the time he lived with Faith. All of them were black, and three out of the four beat her.

George could understand, or let's say he knew of, the attraction that black men would feel for a blonde white (hell, pale) woman. That's one of those things you run into in this world. Why Faith would be attracted to them was harder to figure.

He in a way didn't understand inter-racial sex at all. He could sort of see Faith being involved with what were years later called buppies, black urban professionals, but the men she had picked were all losers or close to it.

George found a way to delicately ask if she felt any attraction to men of her own race. Faith said, yes, she had dated several. But that was back when she was still living at home.

They were in the seventh week of the classes now, and the work was still sometimes difficult, but they didn't need the sessions afterward nearly as much. However, both of them liked having them, so they kept on. They went to his place half the time now and George fixed the meals.

If the straight-out work on the programs was less now, they spent as much time together. Things work in the back of your mind, and they rethought the programs a couple of times an hour. But this meant they talked more about other things, and even watched a little television. This second week of spending evenings together began with him deciding to take a chance and kiss Faith goodnight when he left her apartment. She reacted well, even with enthusiasm.

That developed a little as the week went on, though not much. The next Sunday they spent the afternoon together, working ahead of where they were supposed to be. The last week of the nine was all lab-work, and if they finished it early they didn't have to come in at all. Or go back to work, even better.

For the eighth week they hit the books again in preparation for the final written test. The physical affection held constant, except for the night that George got annoyed at her for misunderstanding something and yelled at her. Faith seemed to want more that night... The test itself was easier than they expected, and they both did well. That was Friday morning, and they spent the afternoon in lab.

In the lab, about a half-hour before the end of the day, George decided to take another chance, though not much of one. He asked Faith about going to a restaurant for dinner and then going to a movie with him.

She said: "Gee, aren't you seeing enough of me?" but followed that with a yes. It was a very nice evening and Faith held on to George for a while when they got to her door. They spent most of Sunday planning out the remaining work. Half the errors would only be caught on the machine, but they could still try to get rid of the other half.

This was the longest he had spent with Faith, and he found that his mind began wandering to wonder what she would look like with that white body spread over a white sheet, and if her pubic hair was as pale blonde as that on her head. He struggled to get back to logic.

Two-thirds of what they had left to do was done on Monday, and they spent Monday night going over the rest. They stayed at it until fairly late, too. Faith spent as much time looking at George as at the papers and printouts.

Tuesday morning they started in the lab a little early, and finished everything in time to go to lunch. George suggested that they eat in a fancy seafood place nearby, his treat. (It doesn't cost much to be lavish at lunch.)

It was two o'clock when they left the restaurant, and they just started walking. It was some distance to the area they lived in, but they didn't have anywhere else to go--for the rest of the week, really. When they got to George's apartment building, they just kept going to hers.

They sat on her couch and talked for a while. When George tried to kiss her, she responded. Quite a bit. Soon Faith got up and told him that she was going to remove her makeup and change.

When she came back, Faith was fresh-faced and wearing beige slacks and a sheer light-green blouse. He stood up to kiss her as she came back to the couch, and this time their tongues met and she let George hold her tight for a while.

As his hand drifted to her front and George touched his fingers to the bottom of one breast, she dropped her hand to cup his growing erection. Faith dropped her head back and looked into his eyes.

"They say that black men are big in that area, but you have about as much as any I ever heard of. You have all any woman would want," Faith whispered.

George found that when she had changed, she had removed her bra. Faith's nipples were so light in color that he might never have noticed through the clothing, but it was plain to his fingertips when he touched one hard little nub. It was also plain to his ears, because of her sigh as he contacted it and the way Faith shifted her body to press harder against that hand.

Faith had definite ideas of where she wanted to go from here, and George was inclined to agree with her. But she seemed to have a number of possible psychological problems, and he was reluctant to be involved with someone like that.

He yielded to temptation, the temptation to feel the walls of her cavern yield before his hard shaft.

George had seen her bed before in the evenings he had spent studying and working with Faith in her apartment, but time she had a much fancier bedspread on, all pale pink with little hearts and arrows. And either this morning or a few minutes ago Faith had drawn back the covers to show an expanse of white sheet and two pillows, with another smaller one on the side.

They stood beside the bed and George put his hands up the back of her blouse as he kissed her. As he pressed her breasts against him, Faith sighed again and she gasped a little when he brought his hands around to cup her little but nice mounds.

George took her blouse off and she trembled under his hands. But Faith worked on his shirt and when he had helped her remove it they stood and pressed their flesh together again, now with nothing in between them above the waist.

Her slacks and his went quickly, and their shoes. They lay across her bed and his hands roved her body. Faith made little noises whenever he touched a sensitive area, and it seemed like all of her was sensitive. She had removed her stockings (pantyhose?) when she changed, so now she was wearing only panties. George moved to take them after he had caressed her upper legs for long enough to enjoy her reactions.

Her legs were thin all the way up, and her body was just as pale in the areas that were covered in public. Faith was the palest woman George had ever seen.

She was totally naked now, and she reached to cup his erection again. Faith slid the shorts down and made him equal with her--or maybe one should say congruent. Yes, that sounds better.

"Like what you see?" he asked, bracing himself on his elbow as he lay across the bed.

"Oh," she gasped, "you've gotten a lot bigger!" And she ran one hand up and down him.

"So what are you thinking about?" she asked, impishly.

"I think I would like to see what you are going to do with that," he answered.

"Is this what you had in mind?" she asked, squeezing and releasing her grip as she stroked him.

"It'll--it'll do for starters," he choked out.

"Ummm..." she murmured, dipping her head to his lap, her tongue flicking and retreating, hardening him to steel. She hovered over George on her knees. Her hands reached and her mouth opened and she proved that one thing Larry had called her was accurate and she was damned good at it too. That thin face looked even thinner with her cheeks hollowed with the force of her mouth's action.

His right hand touched her between her legs and the little noises came from Faith again. They were more intense now and sounded louder even if her mouth was not as free to let them out.

He seized her hand on a groan of pleasure, bringing her palm up to kiss it, then lick it, the look in his eyes hot and electric.

"I want to bury myself inside you," he said. His kiss was deep and possessive, thrilling her, making clear the claim he was staking.

"Oh, yes," she whispered, her breath warm, her voice trembly against his ear.

Soon Faith rose up and lay back down and he rolled over. He kissed her nipples and pulled on them with his lips. When he began to move downward, to give her the most intimate kiss of all, she pulled him back and said: "George, I'm ready now, I want you very much."

Her legs were raised as he made the first contact and Faith moaned "It's so wide!" as he entered her. And every movement that he made after that made her moan again, or sigh, or gasp.

The sweet friction of her inside inspired him to try to give her all the little variations of finger-pressure and spreading and penetration that he could think of. Faith seemed startled that a man would try to do anything for her, and he wondered just what sort of men she had been dealing with.

She built quickly to a climax, and she seemed to reach another every minute for a while. George tried therefore to prolong his love-making and give her as many orgasms as he could. That last one of hers matched his, well over a half hour later, and he drove deep in at the best moment of all. "Faith!" he cried out, drowning her moans as she collapsed against him, breathing hard, shuddering with an ebbing orgasm.

They lay entwined for long moments, contented, happy, spent.

They dated for a while and slept together, but whatever had sent Faith to rough and violent black men sent her back again.

******

When George saw Faith White again after a lapse of ten years, she had aged more like twenty-five. Faith had two foul-mouthed mixed-race boys with her, and those thin bones seemed to have been broken several times.