All subjects are over 18 and fictional.
*****
Tom backed his pickup behind an old doublewide trailer. The yard was neat and had a small well tend garden. The trailer was in excellent condition for its age. Just as he dropped the tailgate Mandy came out from the back door.
"Hi Tom." She said cheerfully.
The woman was in her mid-thirties, light skin with sandy hair over her shoulders and tied back, and warm brown eyes, soft plump lips. She was wearing cut-offs that came to mid-thigh, flip-flops and a light blue tank top. The shorts showed off firm sturdy legs, the top a set of large breasts. And Tom noticed that her ribs showed. When she saw what was in the pickup bed she exclaimed;
"Oh God, Tom, what is this? How..?"
"How did I know your propane bottles had been taken back? See that from the alley Mandy."
He smiled an easy smile. He had light hair, broad shoulders. He wore jeans, a blue-collar shirt and a denim jacket, with low-cut work shoes.
Mandy stopped;
"Tom we cannot, we don't..."
""Don't worry Mandy. Let me hook these up, then can we talk about this and some other stuff inside?"
Just Then Mandy's daughters came outside. Toni who was twenty, and April, who had just turned eighteen.
"Hi Tom," April chimed in, "thanks, I mean thank you for the help with the babies."
Tom had given her, or them, four hundred dollars when April's twin babies were born. It bought formula for months.
"Sure, I hope I didn't wake them."
"No, they'll sleep through anything!" Good Tom thought.
And how are you Toni?"
"Okay"
Toni has always been bitchy at times to Tom. Not they ever gave her reason, not yet. She was wearing nursing scrubs and work shoes. April was in what looked like pajama bottoms and a bottom top, no doubt from a flea market, that gave Tom a good view of her tits swinging as she moved.
Tom took out a pair of large slip joint pliers and connected the bottles to the twin manifolds.
"Good," he pronounced as he opened the valves, hearing the muted hiss of the gas filling the empty line.
"Okay Tom, come on in," Mandy lead all of them back inside.
They went through the kitchen/ dining area into the living room. The women had done wonders to this place when they bought it owner contract from Tom. They had ripped out the ratty carpet and painted the under floor, then used area rugs. They place was clean and fresh and tidy as Tom had always found it, not that he was there too often. Mandy and Toni sat on a couch covered with a tie-dyed sheet. April sat on the floor in front of them, her auburn hair reaching to her waist. Tom took an old rocker, a family heirloom he had been told.
"Tom, we cannot afford the propane. You helped us too many times." Mandy said, her voice quavering.
"Well, I got a deal on the bottles, and they were full. Should last you."
"Can we work something out?" asked Toni.
"Well, that is the other stuff we can discuss."
Now Toni's eyes sharpened. Mandy sat looking attentive, and April seemed somewhere else. Tom brought out some papers from a satchel he had brought in with him.
"First, your three months behind..."
We know that!" Snapped Toni.
Tom looked at her and smiled. Unlike her kid sister, who was busty like their mom, Toni was tall, lean and strong, but with smallish breasts, thin lips, high cheekbones, and red hair cut short and green eyes. She certainly was not wearing a bra, instead a T-shirt under her blouse. An almost complete shortage of bras for As, and even Bs was something few understood. In office settings it gave males a chance to cheek out co-workers tits, because "professional " standards had clerical women working in thin shirts.
But it was part of how the 1% was handling the population since the great crash. Another was the change in age of consent; 12 for girls, 25 for boys; any boy caught ended up with six years in the "military" or work camp; a third never made it. Drinking age was the same. There were other mandates all to appease the male population; rape prosecutions were never heard of; this included incest. When this started folks still called the cops, but the women or girls were just raped by them.
"Toni, Tom has helped us more than once, a god send, so, please..." She turned to him;
"It's okay Mandy, this is tough stuff. I understand. So let me get through it. Our contract gave you a sixty day grace period, but under new standard contract laws," twenty years after the 2008 recession all laws favored owners, etc. "I can exercise an option of thirty minutes, due to the amount you owe, and allow you to only take one bag," grocery sack, "of possessions."
"What!" from Toni.
"But, but Tom, you wouldn't..." Mandy almost was crying. April was now paying attention.
"I have the papers, but I said, let's work this out. There is a job down on Western Avenue, Ed's."
"The whorehouse!" from Toni. Girls went missing from that joint, and the others like it, all the time.
"Strip joint, Toni. You all are working jobs, even April," who nodded, her eyes on Tom. But the truth was only Toni had a good job, nursing, and she worked a second one besides.
"And we still cannot come up with three payments Tom." Mandy pleaded.
"Okay, I give you a minute to make an offer. Then I call the cops and you are out, including the twins. And the cops will get theirs." His eyes bored on each of them. Mandy looked at her girls then;
"Okay Tom."
Okay what Mandy?"
"I, I'll fuck, fuck you." She stood up.
"MOM!" From Toni. Then to Tom, "FUCK YOU!"
April was crying.
"Okay, I take that as no deal." He took his phone out.
"NO, no Tom, come on, we can go to my bedroom..." Mandy got up. Tom shook his head, and then looked at April.
"How long has your water heater been without gas April?"
"Awhile."
She had a face both sexy and innocent; thick pouty lips, full checks, dark brown eyes. Her flesh was clean and clear, with tiny nutmeg dark freckles.
