Caroline Fricke was not swayed by the gentle chiding she received from her mother concerning Tommy Bledsoe. Maybe the man wasn't another Lennie Small from "Of Mice and Men", but there was certainly something suspicious about how he had waltzed into town and insinuated himself into her parents' life. Not to mention he had seduced a number of town women. Maybe, she thought, he was another Charles Manson, the crazy eyed guru just arrested a few days ago for being involved in the murder of actress Sharon Tate. Actually, Manson did fit better, because Manson also had a bevy of mesmerized women doing his evil bidding.
The Monday morning after her party, Caroline borrowed her mother's car and drove to the library to talk with Ruth Silverman about it. She chose the librarian, because Ruth was a sophisticated and educated young woman who was not likely to be swayed by the charms of some cowboy drifter.
Ruth listened to Caroline's concerns and nodded understandingly as the younger woman expressed her misgivings. She could sympathize with Caroline's feelings, as she ruefully recalled her own assumptions about Thomas.
"I understand what you are saying, Caroline, and I know all too well your qualms about Thomas. I had them myself when I first met him. However, your mother is absolutely right about him. He is the nicest, sincerest and sweetest man I've ever met. Yes, he is emotionally underdeveloped, and yes, he sometimes acts immature. But I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing, because Thomas doesn't have a big ego or a legion of bad habits and misconceptions. When he tells me he loves me, I know he is telling the unconditional, unvarnished truth."
As a way of example, Ruth related to Caroline her date with Tommy on Friday night. She left out her trip to the feed store. Caroline smiled at the story; that's exactly how she felt a man should act if he truly loved you. However, she was still skeptical on several points.
"What about the other women I saw him with? That's a strange way to show you he loves you," Caroline argued.
Ruth smiled and shrugged her shoulders.
"Tommy loves those other women as much as he loves me, that's the way he is. He is sweet and tender, and he makes us all feel special without stifling us with demands. As a matter of fact, we have to be careful what we say around Tommy, because he would literally give us anything we wanted or do anything we asked. What more could we want? Besides, we are all close friends and there is no jealousy between us."
Caroline thought it strange that four women would so happily share one man, but her mind was at least at ease about Tommy being a danger to her parents. Her worries were suddenly replaced with curiosity. She did not like it that there was something about him the other women saw and she didn't. Her naturally inquisitive mind set about solving the Tommy problem as soon as she walked out of the library.
Tommy had fun the ten days leading up to Christmas, as he shopped for gifts for his friends and participated in community events that celebrated the holidays. Tommy delighted in volunteering for everything. He sang in the church Christmas program, acted as one of Santa's helpers at the VFW Children's Christmas Party, and rode on a fire truck dressed as an elf for the Elk's lodge parade. He rang a bell and watched over the donation kettle for the Salvation Army in front of the Piggly Wiggly for six hours, and collected gifts for Toys for Tots. Tommy also made two shopping excursions to Brownwood, and one all the way to Dallas to find gifts for his friends. By now, there were a lot of people who considered Tommy a friend, and Tommy wholeheartedly returned the sentiment.
While they had been at Caroline's homecoming party, one of those friends invited Tommy to dinner for the following Tuesday. So as soon as he was finished with his day at the feed store, Tommy zipped home, showered, threw on some clean clothes and drove out to Connie's. He arrived at Conchita Delgado's Happy Endings Ranch at six-thirty on the dot. Tommy prided himself in always being on time.
Conchita had been as nervous as a new bride as she carefully followed the recipes that Rita and Betty Lou gave her. Conchita Delgado was a lot of things, but a good cook wasn't among them. Still, she was motivated and determined, so armed with three times the quantities of the ingredients called for by the recipes, she had slaved away in the kitchen all afternoon. When Tommy rapped his knuckles on her door, she was just sliding the biscuits out of the oven. She quickly flopped the cookie sheet up onto the stove top, turned off the oven and dashed to the door.
Tommy gave her a big smile when she threw open the door. He gave her a kiss and complimented her on how nice she looked. Conchita returned his smile and thanked him for the compliment. She was wearing a nice knee-length dress that flattered her figure without showing a lot of skin. She had two inch heels on her feet and her hair was loose and brushed until it shined. It was, however, a completely different story underneath the demure frock. Connie was loaded for bear in a Fredrick's of Hollywood bra, panty and garter belt set in hot pink satin. She was determined that tonight would be the night.
Conchita sat Tommy down on the couch with a Lonestar and some peanuts, then swayed back to the kitchen to put the meal on the table. She was gratified that everything had turned out so well, until she saw the biscuits she'd just baked. Instead of light and fluffy perfection, she had created golden brown hockey pucks. Resourceful Conchita had been prepared for that eventuality, however. She dumped the flat, rock hard biscuits into the trash and deftly opened a package of Merita brown and serve rolls. She threw the rolls on the same cookie sheet and popped them in the oven.
Conchita put the food on the table six quick minutes later, and fetched Tommy to the dining room. Tommy was probably the first person to ever have country fried steak and lumpy mashed potatoes by romantic candle light with a beautiful movie star. Tommy enjoyed the heck out of the meal, and went to great pains to make sure Connie knew that. Conchita acknowledged his compliment, then went about subtly seducing him. It was probably Conchita's most outstanding performance ever, as she acted the part of a perfect soubrette. It worked, though, so for dessert, Tommy had himself a heaping helping of hot Hungarian.
How they ended up in the bed together was educational for Conchita. It was educational, because of the way Tommy orchestrated the event instead of vice versa. She was very pleasantly surprised when Tommy took charge and pulled her into his lap as he sat on the couch. Somehow he nimbly removed her dress while she wriggled on his lap. When she was down to her pink lingerie, he stood up with her in his arms.
"Where's your bedroom?" he growled.
She shivered and fluttered her hand weakly toward the hall.
"Last door on the right," she cooed.
In Conchita Delgado's actress mind, she was the stunningly beautiful Scarlett O'Hara, and Tommy was a most handsome Rhett Butler.
Tommy adroitly maneuvered them through her bedroom door and gently laid her on her bed. She watched with wide and wild eyes as he started stripping off his clothes. When his shirt came off, she avidly took in how his broad shoulders and chiseled chest tapered down to a washboard stomach and narrow hips. She quickly sat up and twisted her hands behind her back to unfasten her bra. Tommy gave her a look and shook his head.
"Uh-uh," he said forcefully. "It's too close to Christmas to let someone else unwrap my present."
She fell back on the bed with a smile on her lips. Tommy wasn't smooth or suave, but his sincere honesty made her tingle all over.
Soon enough, Tommy was naked and working on making her the same way. Conchita was a very sensual and highly sexed woman. She discovered masturbation at the age of eleven, and shortly after she turned twelve, she found that boys could make her feel even better. Conchita loved to fuck, and she was multi-orgasmic. Until she met Tommy, she had used and discarded men as if they were expendable sex aids. Her husband Beau had known about her nature and let her find satisfaction where she could. She became the predatory queen of one-night stands, and directed each encounter to suit her needs.
Conchita's body was constructed in a manner that was a perfect compliment to her supercharged libido. Her clit was larger than normal, extending from its protective hood in a way that allowed it constant stimulation during intercourse, and yet it was not overly sensitive. Consequently, it did not take a Casanova to get her off multiple times.
Her tried and true methods did not seem to work with Tommy, however, because instead of climbing on her and riding her hard and fast as she wanted him to do, he took his time and made slow gentle love to her. He took her to the very edge of an orgasm and then did just enough to keep her hanging on the precipice. Her groans of frustration soon turned to keening wails, though, as Tommy finally took her over the top. She could not remember ever coming that hard. Yet before she could really savor the moment, he started on her again.
Two Trojans and forty-five minutes later, Tommy hopped out of bed and fetched her a glass of ice water. By then, she'd cum so much and so hard, her stomach muscles hurt. Her hair was plastered to her sweaty face and her body was limp as boiled spaghetti. She sat up and gratefully gulped the water, as Tommy used a warm, damp hand towel to gently wipe the sweat off her. She handed him the empty glass and fell back on the bed with a contented sigh.
"You aren't leaving are you?" she asked hopefully.
He smiled and took one of her large firm breasts in his hand.
"Are you kidding? The night is young and we're just getting started," he replied.
She looked at him incredulously and gasped as his head dipped down between her legs. After the second swipe of his tongue, she moaned and reached for his head to pull his face tighter to her core.
"You are going to kill me," she hissed.
Tommy popped his head up and gave her a grin.
"Maybe, but you'll die happy," he said.
Well, of course she didn't die, unless you count the ten or twelve 'little deaths' he coaxed out of her. At midnight, she slipped on her robe and walked him to the door. She had asked him to spend the night, but he reluctantly turned her down.
"Next time, I'll bring a change of clothes so I can go to work from here, okay Connie?"
She kissed him passionately and held the door for him.
"You have no idea how happy that will make me," she said.
The trichotomy between Tommy Bledsoe's natural intelligence, physical age and emotional age, put him in some awkward predicaments. Sometimes it was just some funny embarrassing statement that slipped out of his mouth. However, other times, Tommy's reaction to something that an adult would know how to handle, caused him more serious problems. That was one reason everyone looked out for him. Thursday of the week before Christmas was the first of two incidents that proved the point.
Tommy did not have any experience to draw from on how he should conduct himself, so he formed his values from reading and observing people around him. He read westerns, of course; he loved stories of the old west. He also read biographies of great men. In his choice of reading material, the story's heroes were brave, kind and resolute. They were protective of their friends, treated women and children with respect and kindness, and were loyal to a fault. Harold Fricke, Ben Crawford and Ramon Salazar, all of his adult male role models acted like that too. Tommy thought that if he could live his life half that well, he'd never be unhappy. So when the first incident took place at the Brantley Savings and Loan, Tommy acted in the manner he thought any of what Teddy Roosevelt's 'true men' would.
A second cause for Tommy's behavior was the inability that most teenager boys have in understanding the consequences of foolish actions. For a time, many boys and young men think they are invincible, and that nothing bad could possibly happen to them. Tommy Bledsoe was one of those boys.
On Thursday afternoon, Tommy took off from work a few minutes early and drove down the block to the savings and loan. He pulled up to the bank right before closing time to deposit a check from the Fort Sam Credit Union into his normal checking account. He needed more Christmas shopping money, because he still had a few gifts yet to purchase. He parked behind a nondescript, mid-sixties beige Impala. He rolled down his window and turned to Rex who was sitting in the passenger's seat. Tommy took Rex to work with him, now that he had a way to get him there.
"Stay here boy, I'll only be a few minutes," he ordered.
Rex woofed as Tommy slid to the ground and closed the pickup door behind him.
Tommy grabbed the handle of the frosted glass front door of the bank, and grunted in surprise when the door refused to open. Tommy peeked around the door frame and through a gap in the drapes, saw a frightened Betty Lou walking towards the door. Behind her walked a man wearing a clown mask. The man was prodding Betty Lou along with a sawed off shotgun he held in his right hand. In his left hand was one of the bank's canvass money bags.
Tommy hissed in alarm and flattened his back against the wall to the left of the door. Someone fumbled with the door lock for a second, then the door slowly swung inward and Betty Lou cautiously stepped through, the man in the mask peeking over her shoulder. When the robber didn't see anyone in front of the bank, he encouraged Betty Lou out onto the broad sidewalk. He was holding the door open with his left hand and the shotgun was at his side, semi-concealed by his leg.
"You are doing real good here, missy. Keep your cool for ten more minutes, and this will all be over," the masked man said in a calm and reassuring voice.
Betty Lou jerked her head up and down, bird-like, and took another tentative step.
Meanwhile, Rex saw Betty Lou and started thumping his tail on the truck seat. Next to Tommy, Betty Lou was his favorite human. Seeing both Tommy and Betty Lou outside of the house was something new for Rex. Forgetting his last order from Tommy, Rex hopped out the open truck window to greet her.
About the time Rex's feet hit the pavement, the masked man stepped through the door. When he did, Tommy grabbed the shotgun with both hands and yanked the man towards himself.
"Run Betty Lou!" he yelled.
Betty Lou screeched and lurched a few feet forward, just as Rex loped up. He barked a greeting, his tail wagging a mile a minute. Then Tommy struggling with the masked bandit caught his attention, and he growled deep in his throat.
As he wrestled for possession of the shotgun, Tommy caught sight of Rex out of the corner of his eye.
"Bite him Rex," he commanded the yellow dog.
Rex was not a big dog; he only stood about 20 inches at his shoulder and weighed maybe forty pounds. He did, however, possess a full set of very strong teeth. At Tommy's command, he leaped up and grabbed hold of the masked man. Unfortunately for the robber, the anatomy Rex grabbed was of the reproductive nature. The man screamed and dropped both the moneybag and the shotgun as he tried to wrest his family jewels out of Rex's maw.
Otto Mills came rushing out of the bank just then, a big 45 caliber Army surplus pistol in his hand.
"I have him covered, Mister Bledsoe, so call off your dog." Mills said.
Rex obeyed Tommy's order to 'drop it', but he took his time about it, administering one last squeeze before he let go. The robber fell to the ground moaning, both hands cupping his gnawed nads. Betty Lou composed herself and went back into the bank to call the sheriff's office. It took five minutes for a sheriff's patrol to arrive.
That night, Betty Lou would not let Tommy out of her sight.
"When I walked out of the bank and saw your truck, I knew you would rescue me, Tommy," she said, as she sat in his lap with her head on his shoulder.
The Heart of Texas Weekly, McCulloch County's newspaper, bumped the Manson story off the front page of Friday's edition to report on the bank robbery. The headline read: 'Local Man and Heroic Hound Thwart Bank Robber'. There was even a photo of Rex and Tommy playing in the back yard that a reporter had finagled from Bucky and Regina. Tommy was embarrassed by peoples' reaction to the episode; after all, he was only doing what was right. He was happy for the attention Rex was receiving though. Rex's new found fame was more proof to Tommy that he owned the best dog in the world.
Also on Friday, a pair of suit clad FBI agents took a statement from Tommy and told him that the man Rex had bitten was wanted for questioning in over twenty other bank robberies with the same MO. They called the man the Gentleman Bandit, because he was so unfailingly polite to his victims. In each robbery, the man took a hostage and promised to set the person free if the rest of the bank employees did not raise an alarm for ten minutes. He had always kept that promise. They also told him the shotgun had been a prop and was not loaded. Seems that the Gentleman Bandit had no intention of ever hurting anyone. The agent went on to relate that the desperado was still in the hospital, as Rex had put a serious hurting on his privates. He concluded the interview with a warning.
"What you did was dangerously foolish, Bledsoe. You might not be as lucky next time."
As it turned out, the agent was more correct than he could imagine.
No one else took Tommy to task about what he had done, not even Mama Rita. The reason they didn't, was because everyone knew that it was probably impossible for Tommy to act any other way, especially if one of his friends was in danger. Caroline Fricke thought Tommy's actions were brash machismo, but she kept her mouth shut about it to avoid irritating her mother. Caroline had seen Tommy twice at her parents' store that week and both times he'd been polite but distant. Seeing Tommy at work, seemingly reveling in his menial labor, certainly did not raise her opinion of him.
Tommy was toting a couple of one-hundred pound feed sacks on his shoulders, as he prepared a pallet for Juan Luna to deliver, when Becky Dierdorf came through the side door of the warehouse late on that same Friday afternoon. Joe Bob and his boys had the entrance to the sales area and offices blocked off as they were paneling the new dividing wall. Tommy saw Becky, effortlessly tossed the sacks onto the pallet, and walked to where she was standing. Becky looked pensive and uncertain, but visibly relaxed at Tommy's big welcoming smile. She felt even better when Tommy picked her up off the ground and kissed her right on the lips.
When he sat her back on her feet, breathless from the kiss, Becky shyly said, "I came by to tell you I'm home for the holidays."
Tommy was happy that she was back, and asked her if she'd go Christmas shopping with him the next day.
"Mister Harold only needs me until ten tomorrow, so we can go early. We can catch a movie at the Cineplex while we are there, so it will be a real date," he said.
Becky flushed crimson at that statement. Her heart was pitter-patting that Tommy was actually taking her on a date. She nodded her head and started to leave. Tommy gently grabbed her arm and stopped her. He leaned down and whispered in Becky's ear.
"You can't leave until you show me some freckles," he said teasingly.
Becky blushed even redder and glanced around to make sure they were alone. When she saw they were, she slowly lifted her sweater. A promise was a promise, she rationalized. Tommy stared raptly as she stood there with her sweater under her chin. She was wearing a very pretty bra with little blue flowers on it, but the bra was really just a formality, as her small A-cups needed no support. Becky had not exaggerated when she said she had lots of freckles. Tommy reached out his hand and put his finger on her chest, just below her right breast, then slowly traced his finger downward towards the waistband of her skirt.
"Do they keep going?" he asked softly.
Becky bobbed her head up and down.
"All the way to my toes," was her whispered reply.
Becky Dierdorf was not as unattractive as she thought she was. True, she was no raving beauty, but her features were nice enough. She had a cute nose, and her eyes behind her thick glasses were a clear bright blue. She had a small gap between her two top front teeth, but otherwise they were straight and pearly white. Yes, her bottom was larger than normal, but it wasn't huge by any means. It appeared larger because her chest was so small, both in circumference and breast size. Becky was working on her hips with a couple of her classmates in the nursing program. The three of them walked a couple of miles every evening, and were gradually increasing their distance and speed. She was thrilled that she'd lost an inch in her hips in only a couple of weeks.
Tommy thought that Becky looked just fine the way she was. To him, she was beautiful on the inside and that made her pretty on the outside.
Later that evening, Tommy took Ruth to the weekly art cinema presentation at the Majestic Theater up in Brownwood. Ruth loved the movie that was scheduled, and wanted Tommy to see it as part of his 'socialization'. Ruth took the duty of expanding Tommy's horizons very seriously. The movie was a 1946 French version of Beauty and the Beast. The dialog was in French, but it was subtitled in English, so Tommy had no trouble following the plot. He thought the movie was interesting, but Ruth thought it was terribly romantic.
The movie was one reason that Ruth couldn't keep her hands off Tommy on the way home. The other reason was that she was flying up to New York the next day to spend ten days with her parents in Manhattan. Her family didn't celebrate Christmas, but they did take the holidays. She was already missing Tommy and she hadn't even left.
Once at her house, Ruth practically dragged Tommy inside. Tommy slowed her down long enough to grab the gym bag with his clothes for tomorrow in it, then let her urge him along.
"Hurry up, Slow Poke," she hissed. "You have to love me enough tonight to last me for almost two weeks."
Ruth did not quite know how to handle her newly found sexuality. She had trouble understanding why she was a completely shameless strumpet where Tommy was concerned. She wondered if it was something about her that had changed and Tommy was just her available outlet. She doubted if that were the case, but based on her conversation with Caroline, had decided to test that theory while she was visiting the Big Apple.
Tommy arrived at work right on time Saturday morning, even though Ruth had kept him up half the night. Tommy shook his head in wonder at his friend, the once virginal and reticent librarian. Since she began taking birth-control pills, she had become a sexually adventurous dynamo.
Tommy only put in two hours at the feed store that morning, before dashing over to Becky's parent's house to pick her up for their date. Tommy really liked his former tutor. She was a great friend and lots of fun to be around. Just like with Connie, he loved to make Becky laugh.
The mall was crowded that Saturday afternoon, but with Becky's help, Tommy put a serious dent in his list of gifts remaining to buy. Thanks to their good luck shopping, they were able to catch the one o'clock movie at the Cineplex. Only one of the four theaters was showing a matinee not oriented toward children, so they ended up watching a Jerry Lewis comedy titled Hook Line and Sinker.
Tommy had held her hand the entire time they were shopping, and that had made Becky as proud and happy as she had ever been in her life. The movie could have been anything and Becky would have still been happy. She wasn't planning on seeing much of the movie anyway, as she led Tommy to the far left side of the very last row. The theater was nearly empty and except for the emergency lights in the aisles, almost totally dark.
Becky did not let Tommy watch much of the movie, but she kept him entertained, nonetheless. She did that by spending most of the movie's ninety-two minutes with her lips somewhere on him. She also let him play connect the dots with her freckles to his heart's content. As a bonus for Tommy, Becky was majorly talented when it came to using those lips. When she unzipped him and slurped his rod into her mouth, Tommy thought he'd died and gone to heaven.
Tommy could not repay Becky's oral homage, but he did use his fingers to turn her to gasping Jell-o. For Becky, his making her climax was a huge event, because until that afternoon, she was the only person who could do that. Becky had the exact opposite problem from Conchita Delgado, in that her clitoris was small and not prominent. Tommy was the only man who had ever taken the time to find it and figure out how to treat it.
Tommy had a great time with Becky that afternoon, and was really sorry he had to take her home so early. He had to though, because he had the annual VFW member's Christmas party to attend that night. Becky was also sorry they couldn't be together longer, but she was thrilled to death when Tommy asked her for another date.