Is it love or lust? This is the romantic tale of a young woman caught up in the world of COVID-19. It includes voyeurism, self-gratification and other explicit acts of sex.
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Chapter One
This Corona virus really sucks. I'm Felicity, although most of my friends call me Phil, which sometimes leads to some surprised looks. I've just turned twenty and I was in my second year of college studying Architecture. I'd rather be going to Art College, but my Dad said I had the grades, and it would be foolish not to get settled in a solid profession first. However, I had just met this really cool guy, Jason. I did not have any illusions he would be my one true love, but he has a great sense of humour, isn't clingy, and has a good uncomplicated attitude to our having regular sex.
For ten days at the end of February we thought with this new virus we would all have to stay on campus, which could work out OK. Then my parents who are both doctors insisted I should come home, and I have had to stay in virtual lockdown for over two weeks.
Now my parents are planning to send me to the country to stay with my Uncle Rob. I guess it's OK, but it's the way out in the sticks for fuck's sake. I haven't enjoyed going to the farm since I was eight, young enough to enjoy riding ponies and learning to milk cows with a bucket. It was mostly a beef cattle farm and they only had four or five dairy cows at a time.
Uncle Rob is my real uncle. He was married to my mum's twin sister, Jill. The last time I saw him I was fourteen. I had not been present at her funeral two years ago. I doubt he'd even remember me. And it's not like he was thrilled at the idea. I overheard a bit of the phone call and I guess my mum pretty much guilted him into agreeing. My Mum's certainly good at that.
I asked Mum what she expected me to do up there, and she said: "stay healthy". Ha, fucking ha!
She also pointed out I knew the syllabus; I had the books and now I would have plenty of time to focus. Yes, but what if the university got its act together and started sending me assignments. After all they were still talking about arranging a way to complete end-of-year examinations.
She said I had a pretty fancy-dancy laptop and your Uncle Rob has a very high-speed internet connection.
"What will I do for intellectual stimulation up there in the wilds?" I asked, knowing I was being a pig.
"It's not the wilds, although with this pandemic it might not make much difference. Rob might surprise you. He has had three or four books published. Anyway, you should be able to get out in the clean fresh air and you can always stream or download movies. Just don't get hooked on video games and ignore your studies."
I felt like that fucking eight-year-old again.
The farm isn't half bad. My Uncle Rob built the main house himself from logs felled right on the property. I thought it was bigger than I remembered. It used to be an L shape with a large open area that included a spacious sitting room, a kitchen, and an open dining area. I remembered thinking it was very grand. The only rooms in the main area that were closed were the bathroom and an office where my aunt did the accounts. The wing of the L comprised a corridor with the bathroom and two bedrooms off it. One for my aunt and uncle and the other for guests, like my Mum and me on that occasion.
Since then, he had extended the kitchen area to include a large island and snazzy six burner stove. He had added another wing turning the L into a U. Like the first one it contained two more bedrooms linked by a corridor, one with an adjoining bathroom. At the north end was a laundry and mud room and a stair to the only second-floor room, a studio with 360-degree view of the countryside. He built that for my aunt when she took up painting.
When we first arrived, he showed us around. My room was to be in the end of the original wing. It had a lovely queen-sized bed with a nice firm mattress and, nice surprise, he had added an extension, which, although it did not have a shower, had a wash basin and vanity and a separate loo. Pretty sweet!
When I finished unpacking and looked out, I realized the U surrounded a well-landscaped pool and patio area with what I guessed were a barbeque, a large firepit and a permanent table and benches, all made of stone. It looked as though you could easily seat a dozen people. However, right now they were pretty much buried in snow.
Uncle Rob had also changed. I didn't even recognize him when we drove up there. I remembered a big mountain man with a full beard, and always in plaid shirts, a hangover from his logging days. I guess he was in his early thirties then like my mum, but they all seemed old to me. Now the beard and the plaid shirt were both gone. He still wore jeans but with an open-necked pale blue shirt and leather lace-up shoes, at least when he met us.
After dinner, Mum and Rob did a lot of reminiscing about her sister. I just got acclimatized, but she was right about the speed of the internet. As we had not left home until after lunch, Mum stayed the night in the bedroom next to, but not as well appointed as, mine.
If I had trouble recognizing Rob, I really think he was expecting some gawky creature barely out of her teens, not a fully developed young woman of twenty. After Mum got on her way in the morning, we were a little awkward around one another as he showed me around the outside of the property. The barn, cowshed and stables and other outbuildings looked pretty much as I remembered, but there was less equipment around.
It turns out that after my Aunt Jill got sick, he sold off most of the property and all the beef cattle to his neighbour and just kept a few dairy cows and his favourite five horses, three mares, a stallion, and a gelding. The sale gave them plenty to invest and live off, and he also got an income from the sales of his books, five as it turns out.
Uncle Rob may no longer dress like a mountain-man, but he is still built big. At least six four with a lumberjack's chest and shoulders. I'm five eleven so I am comfortable with big men.
As I say things were a little awkward. His appearance was not the only thing that had changed, I remembered a big jovial man always smiling who threw me up in the air as though I were a feather; not that I wanted him throwing me in the air now. But now he was withdrawn, silent almost shy and frankly also more than a little scary.
When we came back in, I became aware of two things. First, Rob did not appear to own a television. Perhaps like me he was comfortable watching whatever he wanted in a computer. Secondly, he had replaced his old chesterfield with a modern four seat sectional. We ate our lunch mostly in silence punctuated by predictable conversation.
Him "What are you studying, Felicity?"
Me "Architecture with a minor in English Lit."
Him "Sounds good. I never went to college, always too busy."
And then more uncomfortable silences. I know he felt it as much as I did, probably more.
It turns out Rob never went to college, but is an auto-didact, someone who educated themself. He was self-conscious about this, although I found out he had read more widely than anyone I had met. I was to find out it was almost impossible to find a subject on which he did not have a surprising level of knowledge, including art and architecture.
He excused himself to go to his office after lunch. I brought my computer into the main living area and logged in to the latest news. Apparently, the WHO has declared the Corona virus a pandemic. Although the case count in Canada is low, cases in Europe are going crazy. The universities are all closing in class instruction, so it seems my parents were right. My school says it is working out its arrangements for online studies. It doesn't exactly inspire me to keep working right now, so I log on to Fortnite.
During what started as an almost equally awkward dinner Rob asked me more about my architectural studies. We got on to talking about art and painting. I was surprised to learn he had visited not only the Louvre and other galleries in Paris, but also many other famous European galleries including the Prado in Madrid and the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. Then I remembered that Aunt Jill had a keen interest in art.
However, it was clear that Rob shared her interest for he proved to have ready answers for all my questions.
