This is a parallel story to "Payment in Kind" Chapter 1 and involves characters established in that story but does not follow it chronologically.
I had a central idea for the story which turned out to be a bitch to execute. It has strong BDSM elements including voluntary/involuntary pegging (i.e. some Steven King-quality weird shit), so if these concepts offend, you might want to choose another story. Hope you enjoy.
Payment In Kind: Chapter Two, Deep Throat
Part One: Eunice Hawthorne
At 48, Eunice Hawthorne was a meticulous woman. Perhaps she had always been that way. The yard of her modest two-bedroom, two-bath bungalow at 416 Elm Street, Sandstone Texas, was perfectly maintained, the grass and trees were well fed and healthy, as were the shrubs, azaleas, and roses. No stray strands of St. Augustine were permitted to wander unchecked into her rose or azalea beds, or venture forth onto her sidewalk, or pop up from the cracks. She strictly supervised young Luis every week from spring to fall as he did the yard, giving firm but fair comment on his gardening. It did not hurt that Luis was young, tall, dark, very handsome, and, if Eunice judged it correctly from the appearance the loose athletic shorts he wore in the hot summer sun, hung like a horse. This made her critique both practical and recreational. Eunice had always enjoyed seeing the sweat on a man as he did his work, and she treasured her "lemonade chats" with Luis each week after he finished. She liked to think he did as well.
The inside of the home was, like the woman who owned it, meticulously kept--it had a place for everything, and everything was kept in its place. Ten white dinner plates, ten white saucers, ten small white bowls, ten large white bowls, ten large drinking glasses, ten wine glasses, ten brandy snifters, all arrayed on the shelves above and to the side of her sink, only one used at a time, as Eunice lived alone, before being briskly hand washed, dried, and returned to their proper place. Five pots and pans, their copper bottoms bright and tarnish-free, hung over an immaculately clean antique gas stove. Spatulas, large spoons, slotted spoons and the like were in the drawer on the left, meat forks, mallet and other similar items in the drawer to the right, oven mitts in the next drawer down. Eunice enjoyed order and she insisted on it.
Eunice was employed by the most prominent family in Sandstone County--the Dediers. The nearly $300,000 per-year that the Dediers paid her, not to mention the millions she had saved over her 27 years of employment, would have permitted a far more opulent style of living had she chosen to lead it, but Eunice didn't see a reason to buy things she didn't need. Her 2008 Chrysler Crossfire had only 42,000 miles on it and was in perfect condition, Eunice having found a mechanic in Silsbee who was just as meticulous as she was. Eunice's short commutes to and from the Dediers, to church, and to her very few social engagements placed few demands on the car, so there was no reason to trade it for something new.
The home was well appointed. Expensive marble topped kitchen counter surfaces covered well-crafted custom cabinets built to her specifications, the polished hardwood floors used 12" wide first growth hard recovered pine and were covered by tasteful antique rugs that made the home feel welcome and dampened sounds to keep the place quiet, the walls were painted a soothing green/gray and covered with original art that Eunice had carefully selected and whose value would have shocked all but the very knowledgeable, the generous baseboard and door trim, all painted white in the traditional style, were spotless. Every facet of the house was of high quality, but nothing excessive or ostentatious.
Eunice's one indulgence in the design of the home had been to convert the originally planned third bedroom into two equally sized walk-in closets, one tied to the front bedroom and the other to the back. She lived out of and slept in the front bedroom, which fed into the main hallway just off the kitchen. The back bedroom was reserved for guests and "other things." The front closet held one rack from which hung the business suits she wore each day to work. Five navy blue blazers, white blouses, and grey skirts, each bound together at the top with a plastic snap, five grey blazers, light blue blouses, and khaki skirts, similarly tied, and one black top, medium grey shirt, and black skirt--to be worn at funerals and when she wanted to send the message that she was particularly angry about something the Dediers had done. She had worn the black outfit and its predecessor dozens of times during the 27 years she had worked for the Dediers, and as yet the Dediers remained clueless. A dry-cleaning bag hung just to the right of the suits for easy use.
The opposing rack, however, contained a surprising variety of tops, shirts, shorts, and skirts, all colorful, most floral and in some sort of tropical theme, and some surprisingly expensive. The shoe rack ran the full height of the closet in the back of the closet. She kept her practical work flats on the three middle racks within easy reach, athletic shoes on the top two shelves, and her stilettos, which saw so little use that she found it necessary to rub leather emoluments on them at least once a year to keep the leather from cracking, on the bottom two shelves.
Her second walk-in closet--the one tied to the back bedroom--was just as carefully kept but its contents would have proven far more surprising to those who thought they knew Eunice. Unlike the first, it had no racks from which clothing hung. Instead, it held only compartmentalized shelving, all carefully designed, by Eunice, to serve precise functions. The entire left side of the closet kept her mountain climbing and fly-fishing equipment: ropes, picks, spikes, ice axe, carabiners, Crampons, tents, hiking boots, water socks, outdoor wear, compass, sunscreens, bug repellents, water purification kit--the whole nine yards were neatly and rationally displayed for easy access. The right side contained extra common household goods, blankets, throws, towels, a first aid kit, fire extinguisher, gifts she'd been given by family over the years and hadn't the heart to throw out, and the very few board games she used years before when her older sister's children had come to visit.
But what really would have drawn the interest of a visitor was the cabinet in the back of the second closet. It was unusually sturdy--constructed of 1-inch-thick finish-quality plywood, fronted by two large full-length doors, and secured in the front by three separate locks. If one were privileged to open it, and only Eunice was so privileged because only she kept the keys to it on a detachable key ring sewed into her purse and knew the required additional combinations, one would be even more surprised at its contents. Because in it lay the story of who Eunice had been, what she had become, and even what she feared.
Everyone in Sandstone regarded Eunice as a "Spinster:"
