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This story is submitted for the
On The Job Challenge 2023.
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I'm a guy you might see around your neighborhood every month, a guy you forget about until next month, but I don't forget you or your house or your dog or your wife.
You see, I'm your meter reader. I move from house to house, hoppin' fences, runnin' up driveways and ignorin' barkin' dogs, to put down in my logbook the numbers on the dials that tell the folks back at headquarters how much 'lectricity you used. The job is easy on the brain. I just look at the little dials and write. And check the security tag. Nothin' more.
And that's good for me 'cause you see, I wasn't too good in school. I mean, I barely finished and I graduated, I think, 'cause Mrs. Jones bumped me up from an F to a D at the last minute. She was kinda cute for an ol' lady. How old? Well, she wasn't
that
old and I guess she was at least thirty or somethin', but she always looked good in her dresses. And tits! She had a nice set of knockers that screamed to get free every time she bent over. Too bad she kept her top all buttoned up. But she taught algebra. Shit, why is there algebra? I'm good with math, I know all my times tables and stuff but I never could understand how X can be a number. A number is a number, you know, three or seven or twenty-two but not X. X ain't a number, dammit, it's a letter. Anyways, she eased me up to a D in the class and I got out of Wilson High, barely. I even went to graduation and got a diploma. I think my mom almost passed out from pride, or maybe she was just happy I made it.
Then my old man laid down the law. After I'd been goofin' off for a couple of weeks, he started talkin' about work and earnin' a livin'. He didn't threaten to kick me out but I kinda got the idea from what he said that I might 'hafta' find work to pay my way. So, I went to the army recruiter and also the navy. They looked at my records from high school and told me to take a hike. You know, Korea was over and done with and they were dialin' back and I guess I didn't cut the mustard with them. Who knew you had to be smart to carry and shoot a gun. Hell, I'd been huntin' since I was twelve and I could handle a gun. But they said somethin' about readin' and followin' instructions and rules and they didn't think I could. Pricks!
I went to a few stores askin' for work. I figured the lumber yard would hire me but they said they'd just hired a couple of vets. Central Hardware was hirin' and I took their little test to see if I was good enough. It had a bunch of odd questions and some I just couldn't understand. Like one of them asked what I would do if the till was a dollar over at the end of the day. I figured a dollar over was gravy and I said I'd keep it. Wrong answer, I guess. I was showed the door and told not to come back.
I tried the local Burger Barn but when I went in there, I knew I couldn't work there. The smell of fryin' oil for eight hours a day would make me puke. I mean, for a few minutes while I'm buyin' a burger, it's OK, but eight hours? No thanks. I went to the county thinkin' I could hold a flag at road construction sites but those jobs were all full, believe it or not. Turns out they get paid a lot! Standin' there, turnin' a little sign around and they get a dollar twenty-five an hour! Shit, no wonder the jobs were all taken.
After a couple of weeks lookin' for work, I was gettin' discouraged. I know I'm not the sharpest tool in th' shed but I needed a job, any job would do. And just when I was about to give up, I heard about the power company from a lady who'd told me she didn't need help at her store. Seems they needed meter readers, she'd heard. At first I thought 'no way' but then I figured maybe I could do that and maybe work my way up or somethin'.
I went to the power company the next day. They were nice. Two guys had quit and they needed help right away. They wanted to know if I could read and how strong I was. Sure, I could read and I showed them my diploma. I wasn't super strong but when they asked if I could walk for six to eight hours a day, climbin' fences and goin' up and down steps 'n' I told 'em yes. They hired me on the spot and gave me a uniform. Green shirt and pants, a green hat with the power company written on it and a name tag. When I got home that night, my mom was happy and I know my dad was relieved. He probably thought I'd never get work.
The next Monday I showed up at eight. I had some trainin' on how to read the meters. It was easy as could be. Just look at the little dials and write down the numbers. The only funny thing was some of the dials were backwards, you know, like a backwards clock, and some were normal. But it took me only about five minutes to nail their little test. I was set up to go with another reader named Jim for a few days. He told me that we were paid by the day and if we finished early, we got to go home early. Sweet! I would have twenty routes per month and they had figured each route out so it would take about the same amount of time. If there were a bunch of houses, then we should be able to read more than if the houses or businesses were far apart.
"The best routes are those with a lot of houses. You can blast through them and sometimes you're even given a drink of water or a snack by the housewives."
"What about dogs?" I asked.
"Usually all they do is bark. Bring some dog bones and after a few visits, they'll leave you alone."
We went together for three days with him lettin' me do all the work by the end. It was easy but he told me my first few times through a neighborhood would be slow. "It'll take you some time to remember where the meters are at each house and how's the quickest way from one to the next. Do you go back to the street and up a driveway or do you hop a fence? Once you've got that figured, you're good to go."
My first month on the job was a killer. Twenty routes over twenty days, the rest of the month was weekends and time off. Jim was right. It took time to find the meters and figure the best ways from one meter to the next. Month two went a little quicker and by the third month I was actually finishin' each day almost on time. I could see with a little more practice I could shave more time off each day.
Durin' my fourth month I was feelin' pretty good. I was makin' good money, even more than the flag turners, and because I was still livin' at home, I was savin' some, too. I got together a few times with some of my high school buddies who were still in town. We were still too young to go to the bars but we were able to sneak booze out of our houses and have parties and picnics where we could drink. Somehow the parties weren't very fun, I mean, it was usually all guys and there weren't no broads around. The girls from high school who didn't get married right away had gone to college or tech schools and were actin' all high and mighty. One girl, Bobbie, even told me when I ran into her and invited her to one of these parties, she'd rather go to a party with a guy with a 'real' job. That made me mad. I had a real job. Someone had to do it and I was helpin' her and her family get electricity. Without it, she couldn't use her fancy, new damn hair dryer, now, could she? I just turned my back on her and walked away. The last thing I was gonna do was beg the bitch to go with me.
Work started to get more interestin' in the fall. I had been on the job for four or five months and since the days were gettin' shorter, we ended up startin' earlier to finish before it got dark in the late afternoon. I was on my route number seventeen that went through Ridge View, a new area in town built right after World War Two. The houses were all about the same and fences were usually just three-foot chain link. I like those because I could easily climb them and go straight b'tween houses and not have to run down to the street and back.
On this one late afternoon it was already cloudy and kinda dark and lights were on in the houses. As I went across the back yard of 236 Maple Street, I glanced at the house and could see right in the window. Maybe they didn't expect anybody to be in the back yard but I could easily see a man makin' out with this woman. They were standin' and huggin' and I could see him kissin' her neck. But his hands were all over her butt and were even pullin' up her dress. I stood there, not movin' and just watchin' them. I watched her dress get pulled up slowly until I could see the tops of her stockings and the little strap things that held them up. Bare skin, I could see bare skin above the stockings and I figured if I waited, I'd see her underwear, maybe more. Just about that time they broke apart and she reached back and pulled the curtains closed. Damn! So close!
But that was what got me to open my eyes and start lookin' around when I was by the houses. Two months later in another neighborhood I had another shot through a window. It was early in the mornin' and still kinda dark and cloudy. As I went by this one house, I looked in a bedroom window and saw a woman gettin' dressed. She was sittin' on her bed and was pullin' up her stockings and snappin' them to her garter belt. But the most amazin' part was, well, she was nekkid from the waist up. I could see her tits! They were the first I had seen in real life.
Now, I knew what tits looked like 'cause I found my dad's stash of dirty pictures hidden in the garage. I don't know where he got them but there must have been about twenty pictures of nekkid women. Most were of tits but a few showed their butts, too. And one almost, almost showed her front down low. I mean, you could just see the very top of her fur. There wasn't any pictures of pussies but still, they were pretty excitin'. I must have jacked off a hundred times in the garage when Mom and Dad were gone and I could sneak out there.
Anyway, there she was, gettin' dressed. When she leaned over to pull up her hose, man, those titties hung there and swayed back and forth a little. Beautiful! I must have stood there for five minutes watchin' until she got all the way dressed. When she put the bra on, I figured it had to hurt. I mean, she was stuffin' those sweet tits into a torpedo bra and they went from hangin' down a little to pokin' straight out. Once she was dressed, I quietly went on my way and finished my route early. Once I was home, I told my mom I had a headache and went straight to my room. I was able to close my eyes and think about the lady with the tits. It didn't take any time to get a hard on and with a little spit and some wrist action, I was able to rub one out in record time.
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After that episode, I took a little more time when it was early mornin' and late afternoon. Sometimes I'd see a little skin, but nothin' like that mornin' when I saw that lady's tits. Winter faded and in late spring, when I'd been workin' almost a year, I ran into someone I knew. It was a hot Thursday in late May. I was hoppin' fences and gettin' thirsty when I decided to take a drink from someone's hose in their backyard. As I was bent over 'n' drinkin' from the hose, I suddenly heard, "Charlie, is that you?"
I mustuv jumped a mile before I turned around to see Mrs. Jones, my old teacher, on a beach towel. She was kinda sittin' forward a little with a big smile on her face. But let me tell you, she had on a bathin' suit. A nice one with thin cloth. It wasn't one of those bikinis but it fit her tight. And none of those fake little skirts, either. Near the bottom on the front there was a piece of cloth that kinda ran cross her belly and pretty much hid her snatch, but, man, did she have a classy chassis.
"Uh, Hi, Mrs. Jones. Yeah, it's me."
"Are you my new meter reader?"
"Uh, yeah, since last summer."
"Really? I guess I've always been at school when you've come by before."
"I guess. Uh, why aren't you at school today?"
"Promise you won't tell?"
"Yeah."
"I'm skipping work today. It looked so beautiful I called in sick and decided to hide out and enjoy myself."
"You mean you're fakin' it?"
"Yup. Surprised?"
"Well, yeah, you being a teacher and all."
"You think teachers are superhuman and can't bend the rules now and then?"
"Uh, never thought about it."
"Well, I'm just a girl who wanted to try my new bathing suit on a sunny day and didn't want to wait until school was out."
"So, you broke the rules...?"
