A Carpenter's Carol

"Excuse me? Ride? Sir it is hardly a long ways to the barn, come on." She was persistent and obviously a woman who got her way. They began walking to the barn across the field and toward the large road that led to the barn and air strip area.

"You the new grounds keeper?" She asked.

"No ma'am I'm the Carpenter,"

"Oh, you build things. How quaint," she slighted him a smile then continued walking in a fast paced manner. Jake's eyes fell to her very alluring rear which showed greatly with her tight riding pants. She whacked the crop against her leg in a steady march all the way to the half painted barn. Scaffolding and paint equipment were scattered about. The sun rested on the tree tops hinting night fall was setting in. Jake didn't realize he had been out of it for that long but finding an excuse to get on home was stirring in his mind.

She swung the half opened barn door and entered into the darkened interior of the stabled barn. The smell of livestock reeked strongly. Jake went into the barn behind her and looked about.

"See," the lady spat as she pointed to a metallic ring tie that had been pulled from the boards on the wall near the tack cupboard.

"I can fix that in a jiffy," Jake snickered." Simply replace those dry rotted boards. Then I'll have the welder replace the ring with all-thread."

"I don't want a quick fix. I want all this wall replaced and made sturdy. Can that other tie hold a horse's pulling weight?" Robin Hardwick pointed to another tie as she opened up the tack cabinet and scrounged around it's interior.

"Well, let me see," Jake reached up and gripped the tie ring with two hands and pulled hard. Placing a foot on the wall he gave it a hard jerking pull and it didn't budge. "I think so..."

"Click, click...click,"

"Hey!" Jake blurted as a pair of shackles was placed on his wrists quickly then fastened to the ring. Jake pulled hard and the strain bit into his wrists. "What the fuck!"

"You men are way to easy, I use to do the same thing to the slaves. Dumb animals they are, too!"

"What?" Jake angered and kicked at the wall hoping to pull the boards from they're nailed studs. But the pain of the metal biting into his wrists was to great.

"Now ... Jacob is it? You'll get a lesson in the here and now!" Jake wasn't really listening to her, his focus was on a way to get free.

'Wack' a slapping sting came across Jake's back.

"Ouch," Jake yelled. "Hey! You fucking bitch that hurt." Jake became enraged jerking at his binds.

"You feel that, brings life to the body. There is nothing in your mind but the feel of the flesh." She rared back with the crop and slapped at his rump. 'Wack.'

"Lady, when I get out of..." Jake kicked at her while trying to pull free.

"Wack." She lashed at him again. She then took a rope from the stall and swung it quickly around his legs and cinched it up binding his legs. Jake struggled trying to pull his legs from her wrappings to no avail. With his now tied legs he then settled into the wall for balance.

She ran her hand along up his shirt along his muscular back then around his front to his chest and twisted at his nipple hard. Jake squirmed but his position didn't allow for much movement or his body would fall and the shackles would bite into his wrists with an enormous amount of pain. She reached down and unfastened his pant's button and pulled them to, open up the flap a bit.

"I bloody enjoy taunting men, the blimey slaves would hate it when I come to visit. But I really liked teasing my dear sisters best. Nothing like the feel of a woman, don't you agree?" She asked as she stuck her hands in his pants and wrapped her fingers around his cock and pulled it upwards.

"What? Your sisters? Slaves? Lady slavery has been abolished for a long time. You some kind of master, slave bitch or what?" Jake was confused and trying to understand what she was saying while still yanking at the old dry wooden boards.

"Oh yes, I would trick my sisters the same way I tricked you and strip them bare and have my way with them. I love the taste of a woman. But men will do too." She snickered then stepped back from Jake. She began unbuttoning her blouse sensually. As Jake settled and watched her for a second she lashed out with the riding crop again against his back. 'Wack.'

Then she dropped the crop and removed her top. Hanging it on the stable gate. She tucked hard at her boots till they pulled free, then turning slightly she peeled her pants off till she was bare.

"What the fuck's wrong with you?" Jake spat.

"Me? I enjoy bringing people to the here and now. People are so entranced in their dreams, wishes and daily lives they rarely realize their is an element of ... NOW!" With an open and she slapped at Jake's bottom, slapping him mildly. "You feel that?"

"Look Lady, your crossing the line here. You can go to jail for what you are doing." Jake twisted back and forth trying to find a good stance with his legs bound, it wasn't easy.

"Jail?" She scoffed, "Sir, I have gotten away with murder for a long time now. You can't jail the dead."

"Dead?" Jake felt like a knife at gone through him as he considered the fact that this was all a dream or she was telling the truth and she was a ghost or he had died and this was hell. He didn't have the answers but he knew his situation was dire.

She run her hands along his chilled body, her nipples perked from the cold as she pressed her body against his and lightly hugged him. "Does the warmth feel good to you?" She asked as she purred a bit and reached down and fondled his cock. Playfully she toyed with it pulling and stroking till it began to swell. "Mmmmm..." she delighted in his erection.

"See, touch is a part of the now, not the past, not the future. But can only be experienced now. Sure you can recall this later and it will excite you, but nothing like the touch of the now." She gave his cock a really hard yank and Jake jerked back the best he could. She pulled his pants down to his knees as she knelt before him and took him in hand again.

Jake wasn't fighting near as hard, for it had been way to long since a woman touched him so. He couldn't deny the wonderful feelings she was filling him with but still didn't approve of her methods. He melted when he felt her warm, wet mouth envelope his cock. She sucked and stroked him with long sensual strides along his girth. Pulling back she took him in hand and pulled lightly. trailing her fingers along his cock till it was so hard he was about come.

She got up and slapped at his protruding cock and gave out a laugh. It twanged back and forth only for a second then stiffened into it's erection. She reached down and grabbed the crop and slapped at his cock. Jake tried to turn from her but that only encouraged her to slap at his exposed ass.

She stepped up behind him and pulled his ass cheeks apart licked her finger and started teasing his ass hole. He went to turn around and she slapped at his cock.

"You want this," she said as she slapped at his hard cock again. The pain made Jake jump back the best he could with tied legs. "Or this," she said as she ran small circles around his ass's opening. "My sister didn't like the way I played. She threatened to tell so I had to eliminate her. Down by the creek. I kissed her just before I hit her in the head and she became unconscious. Which made it easier to hold her under the water." Jake's eyes lit up realizing he was at the whim of an insane person. Unable to do anything but squirm.

Just then Robin pushed the end of the riding crop into his ass and he jolted forward. The crop entered his being as she toyed with his ass for what seemed like an eternity. Pushing it in then pulling it out. Then she pulled on his cock gently. Then slapped at it. Jake twisted away and she would ram the crop's handle deeper in his ass. The room began to get darker as the sun was setting and night was making shadows black and the room dim.

"Victoria was the shy one," Robin said as she stepped back and left the crop in his ass. Jake tried to wiggle hoping it would fall out but the handle had a larger round end and it was stuck. Robin came to Jake's front and she began trailing a finger down to his cock and lightly run her fingers down his penis that had lost it's luster and hung half swollen. The attention revived it as she pulled and tugged it back to hard and pointing once again.

She hiked a leg up and fixed her self to settle upon him. Her wet pussy felt good and they both moaned with a certain pleasing tone. She wrapped her arms around Jake and began fucking him. Bouncing slowly but steadily, faster and faster. Jake preferred this to the alternative. Her firm breasts pressed into him fully. Her tight grip around his neck strained under her thrusting bounces.

She sank her teeth into Jake's shoulder with a half chopped bite, and Jake yelled out from the pain. This only fueled her fires and she moved her mouth around biting him here and there while pumping herself fully on his hardened muscle. She wrapped both legs around him and humped madly.

"Yes," she rang out as Jake felt her sloshing wetness form around his cock. She wrapped her arms tighter and quivered slightly while resting for a moment. She pressed onto him slowly and Jake could feel her depths.

Then she slid off of him placing her feet back on the ground. Gripped his nipple with her fingers and twisted hard. "Thanks lover," she said as she stepped away from him. His cock was rock hard and the riding crop still in his ass.

"NOW! Didn't that feel good? You'll remember this the rest of your life. But nothing will ever be as good as the real thing. The time here and now. You may forget your grade school teacher's name, but you will never forget me."

She reached back behind him and yanked the crop from his ass, ripping pain through his body. He flinched and tightened with a death grip around the shackles. His eyes squinted closed and his teeth gritted. His body went limp with submission that he was at her whim. He couldn't do anything but except that she was going to do what ever she wanted with him and he could do a 'Damn' thing about it, right NOW anyway!

Jake opened his eyes, the darkness filled the barn. There was nobody there. She had disappeared while his eyes were closed. He didn't know if she walked out or was just gone for the moment. But she wasn't anywhere around to be seen. Jake listened fully, but didn't hear a sound. Not even her steps walking away. Hanging there with his pants down to his knees, legs tied together and the shackles around his wrist, held him to the metal ring tie against the wall.

The cold was beginning to set in and shivering took his body uncontrollably. The hair on his body raised from the chilling, slight wind that came through the barn's half opened door. He closed his eyes and imagined what he would tell them when they found him like this. Jake tried to relax, realizing nobody would becoming to the barn till Monday for all he knew. The paint crew was a bunch of drunken misfits that showed up when they felt like it. It maybe several days till anybody came to his rescue.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Click...click," Jake felt the shackles release. He had no idea how long he had been there and startled that she was back he jumped. His eyes shot open and saw a beautiful blonde woman pulling her hands from his wrists. His arms dropped like dead weights. She looked at his nakedness with a half snickered smile then walked away. Never saying a word.

She appeared to be in a long white night gown with a white wrap around her body to shield the cold. She went straight out the barn door without a word. Jake wrenched his wrists to get the blood flowing from his needle pricked, sleeping arms. Reached down and pulled up his pants and untied himself. "Wait!" He yelled and he tried to walk only to find his legs had fallen asleep as well.

He got his footing and stumbled out the barn door glaring around in the darkness. There was no moon and no lights. Just pitch black darkness. He looked back up towards the Mansion and saw one small light was still on in one of the rooms. As he went to walk towards the Mansion he noticed the white gowned blonde woman was walking up a hillside in another direction.

His first instinct was to go to the Mansion and call the police but another thought ran through his mind to follow the mysterious lady that rescued him. The later won over so her headed up the hillside. He saw her descend over the other side. At this point he began getting his legs to move faster and half jogged up the grassy mound that led to the woods.

As he crested the hill he saw the woman in white down by a cemetery just standing there. He quickly went to her side with a million questions filling his mind. He blurted out, "Thank you."

The woman never moved, she just stood in front of a row of head stones, gazing blankly at them.

"I don't know what I would have done if you hadn't come along." Jake blurted as he stood next to the silent lady. He looked down at the head stones and could barely make out the names. Cassandra, Robin and Victoria. "Huh!" Jake's confusion mounted.

"I don't understand," Jake's mind soaked up the names as he looked at the woman and she looked at him. She didn't smile, but she still had a very pretty face. A seductive quietness with wildly flowing long blonde hair. "Your Victoria?" Jake asked somberly.

The woman never said a word as tears fell from her face. She reached an arm out and showed Jake a very large and deep scar that ran across her wrist. He looked into her face again and a tear fell from her cheek. It looked like silver dropping from a molten pot.

"My sister Robin had a passion for Cassandra," she said lightly in a light mumble. "Robin killed Cassandra down by the creek while they were swimming. Cassandra had fallen in love with a suitor from town. Robin's deranged love for our sister caused her to take her life in the heat of anger. Kissed her then hit her in the head with a rock and drowned her."

"What?" Jake listened with curiousness and felt the woman's sorrow in her words. Her hair blew lightly in the dark night but her white dress seemed to glow slightly.

"I killed Robin, she was a bad seed. A disgrace to the family, father said that many times. Then I couldn't live with what I had done." Her tears flowed fully now. As she raised her wrist higher. "I went to her while she slept and stabbed her in the heart with my fathers saber. Then cut my wrists while her blood was still wet on the blade." She pointed to the head stones again. Jake didn't look, he had seen the names. He reached and laid his hand on the woman's shoulder.

When his hand touched her, it was as if he felt her pain and she pulled away. Knowing he may feel the depths to her pain even greater than he'd be able to handle. "Do you know where people's futures lie?" She asked lowly.

Jake didn't really understand the question as she reached up and placed her hands on his face and turned his head to look at the head stones that he had already seen. But he pacified her and looked again.

Like a dagger through the heart he began to cry as he looked at the three head stones. The names read Jacob 'Jake' Randle, Nicole Ann Randle, and a smaller head stone that read Tiny Tim Randle. Tears filled his eyes and he knelt before the graves. The years of shoving and packing the pain deeply inside came flooding out. He fell to the earth with nothing left in his soul but the hurt that drove him to keep his mind off those thoughts were staring him dead in the face this night.

She knelt beside him and placed a hand on his shoulder for comfort. It felt like a suction pump pulling the pain from him so that he could breath again. He took a deep breath and looked at the head stones again and they were back to reading Cassandra, Robin and Victoria. Jake jerked back a bit and settled into a sitting position.

"Your future while your alive is not set. But your death will come one day. It's what you do till then that matters and how your remembered by the ones you love." Jake tried to listen but his mind was still swimming in the memory of his wife's passing and the child that took her life that he shoved away because every time he looked at his son, he thought of his wife.

"You will be given a gift. I give to you a gift of choice. You can choose to live in misery and the misery will spill into your child's life, or your can rejoice in a Christmas Carol."

"Huh?" Jake looked up with a puzzled look but the lady in the white gown was gone. He looked around the cemetery but there was no sign of her. He looked back at the head stones and sank into his thoughts. His night was over whelming and he pulled his flannel shirts collar up around his neck and sat there in a fixed stare. The memories, the anger, the past and the hatred warmed him, but didn't fulfill him. He felt more empty than he had ever felt before.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The sound of a vehicle woke him up. He opened his sleepy eyes and stretched slightly and crawled to his feet. Stood up and stretched fully. The sky was hinting, day was coming. A small car had shot passed him on the main road to the air strip. He didn't recognize it but since it was just breaking daylight he figured it was a worker showing up for work.

Jake made his way to the air strip and saw someone go into the hanger then open the big double doors. His tired and strained body felt every step with a heavy thud. Walking up to the quanson hut he tucked his shirt into his pants and tried to make himself slightly more presentable. Brushed his fingers through his hair and wiped his face with his hands.

The loud roar of the cesna rang out as they taxied the air plane onto the open pavement. Jake waddled up to the air plane as the door opened and out stepped a very attractive woman. Her blonde hair was pushed under a baseball cap. Wearing sunglasses and a smile.

"You my ride," she asked smiling. Reaching her hand out in a friendly manner for a hand shake.

"Huh, no. I'm the Carpenter."

"Oh, I'm supposed to meet someone here and give them a flight," she said smiling. Jake shook her dainty hand.

"You seen any one else around here?" Jake asked curiously while looking around for signs of one of the sisters he had met the night before.

"Nope, your the only one I've seen. I don't suspect you'll see to many people about this morning, it's Christmas." She said as she reached into the air plane that still had the motor running at an idle. Pulled out a paper, read it and said, "I got a call about 5 am this morning. I'm supposed to pick up a Jacob Randle and fly him to Vicksburg this morning."

Jake's eye's lit up then his forehead crinkled with shock. "Huh?"

"I'm sorry, where's my manners. I'm Carol ... Carol Hardwick."

"Carol? Hardwick?" Jake's thoughts were like putty with confusion.

"Yeah, I'm one of the family. We'll if this guy don't show up soon I'm going back home and bury myself into my novel I'm writing. Well, trying to write, I got writers block right now, can't seem to come up with a good story to write, right now. Hell, there I go rambling again. I'm sorry what did you say your name was?"

Jake looked up and down the woman's frame. He wanted to pinch is arm to see if he was awake yet, or still dreaming or was he really dead. The prop wash from the propeller reminded him that feelings had nothing to do with being awake or not this night. "Huh, I'm Jacob Randle. Who called you?"

"Oh, your my ride? A woman called this morning and said she had a job for me. To fly a Mr. Jacob Randle, that's you, to Vicksburg. Is this not correct?"

"Well, yeah I could use a ride. My son lives in Vicksburg." Jake scratched his head. Still entranced in this pilots cute and charming smile. "Did you say your name was...Carol?"

"Yep, that's me. You going to see your son for Christmas? The lady said round trip, so I'll be bringing you back too. I hope the airport restaurant in Vicksburg has good food. I'll wait for you there till your visits over."