Learning From Women

"Yes please, coffee. I've had two wines and will be driving so that's my limit. Show me where you write."

They took their coffee into the big bedroom.

She looked around and said he was tidy for a guy.

"Well I spend quite a lot of time in here and the truth is mum keeps everything tidy."

Molly stared at him and asked, "Do you have condoms?"

"Yes."

She began undressing and asked, "Well undress and put one on when we are about to do it."

Molly turned out to be one of those women who liked foreplay... little kisses, gentle stroking, only one finger inserted and she preferred to kiss a cock and just lick the head but not to suck it.

"Ohmigod," she shrieked when she'd seen the size on offer. That's not going up my ass."

Eddie muttered incomprehensibly, uncertain whether it would be accepted anywhere. But Molly actually wanted it and rolled on the condom for him. It was such a tight fit and so slow progressing up her cunt and she kept gasping and blowing hot breath over him. Eddie had a struggle to keep it up hard in such slow-motion action. But he worked her into a screaming climax and he pulled out and sprayed over her belly and smallish tits. She liked that and rubbed the stringy deposits into her skin and thanked him for not misbehaving.

Blast, she was a control freak but Eddie learned from that. They dated for three months and she finished it the night after her father received advice that Eddie's novel would be published in England in the coming March.

"I'm leaving you tonight," Molly said, breathing heavily and rubbing in semen. "You have appeared before the scholarship assessment board and now it's time for you to concentrate on studying for your finals. It's also time I found another guy, hopefully with a smaller cock. I don't wish to go steady with a guy because I'm not aiming to settle down until I'm thirty."

"You make a lot of sense in saying that. I'll miss you."

Molly was quite shocked. "Aren't you going to plead for me to stay on with you or at least visit you occasionally?"

"No. I agree with you our time together has reached it's natural end."

They went out to dinner and promised to keep in touch.

* * *

Three weeks after Eddie graduated with this BA in Arts (English Lit and writing majors) Federica called him early morning and said congratulations.

"You were at the capping and congratulated me then."

"No you idiot, you have won the scholarship and the award will be announced in the media later today. Expect a call from the administration any time soon and visits by the media. I was told the judges had some difficulty but decided your completed manuscript was truly an Australian novel and you'd said in your interview that you were keen to write fact-fiction about some of Australia's early heroes and that gave you an edge."

"Well thank you and I mean it Federica, from the bottoms of my shoes. You showed me the way and then nurtured me."

"I appreciate that. A bunch of us are meeting at White's restaurant to help you celebrate. Be there at 7:30 and I've arranged for us to sleep at the summerhouse for possibly our final time together, although it has been quite some time since we've done it. So do you still intend setting up at your maternal grandparents' orchard in Renmark, South Australia?"

"Yeah, mum says they have rarely seen me and she told me I was crazy establishing at Alice Springs out the back of nowhere and my grandparents are pleased to host me."

CHAPTER 3

Eddie stood on the porch of the old brick and sandstone house and looked at orange trees by the hundreds.

"So this is where mum grew up grandma?"

"Yes," said Annie Lorant, eyeing her oldest and favourite grandchild simply because he'd been the first of eleven to arrive. "Henry and I also have two other daughters and two sons."

"Of course. They are all younger than mum aren't they?"

"Yes."

"I think this is a beautiful location."

"Henry and I are so proud of you winning that national scholarship. Your Aunt Joan sent us a clipping from her newspaper in Adelaide of you receiving the award. As I said we were to have lunch with her today but she had to go to Port Lincoln with Daryl."

"That's okay. However I aim to catch up with my relatives in South Australia."

"Well you will as almost everyone will be here next July for Henry's 75th birthday."

"Oh is that why you are looking so old grandpa?"

"You cheeky pup," smiled Henry, a guy of few words.

"We have a lass from Scotland who lives with us, Fiona Macdonald from Sterling. She's become very lonely so if you two become close Henry and I have no problem with that."

"No chance of that, with red hair and freckles." Eddie grinned, thinking of two Scottish-born girls he knew in Brisbane.

"Why yes, how did you know that?"

"An intelligent guess."

"Ah yes. I think you will be keeping us on our toes."

"What does this woman Fiona do?"

"She came here as a tourist. Her mother had remarried and she found her stepfather, shall we say, was a threat to her. So she decided to try to get Australia residency if she could find specialist work. She advertised for accommodation and we took her in, a condition being Fiona helps me with my housework. She found work not a mile from here in plant propagation. She has a degree in horticulture."

Henry grinned. "You look surprised. Women from Scotland are probably higher educated that women in this country."

"I wouldn't know about that," Eddie said. "What kind of degree does she possess?"

"She has a master's in genetics and plant science."

Eddie couldn't believe it, a woman that qualified doing his grandmother's housework.

"You look surprised that Fiona does housework for me," said Annie. "Well let me tell you she highly regards our kindness to her and making her feel at home. She regards Henry and me as family. Perhaps you will find her attractive enough to romance her. You've come here to write one or two romance novels, haven't you?"

"Mum should have said action-adventure novels."

"What without romance?"

"Um no grandma. If they lacked full-on romance I'd probably find no one willing to published them."

"And I'd applaud that young man. Without romance they'd be dry as a bone."

"Where's Wonder Woman?"

"If you mean Fiona she will return late tonight. She went to Melbourne with two girlfriends on Saturday morning to a concert. That's a little over 800 miles for the round trip."

"Gee, that's a big trip to a concert. Girl's can do anything these days eh grandma?"

Annie grinned and reached up and patted Eddie's brown curls.

* * *

Eddie dimly heard the female voice with scarcely any accent say, "Are we awake Mr Major?"

We? Oh to be so lucky. He lifted up and grinned and said hi to the woman with a shiny freckled face and wearing a thick gown and with a white towel around her head.

"You must excuse me. I'm out of the shower after only four hour's sleep. I'm Fiona."

"I've heard you had a very big weekend. Please call me Eddie."

"Not Edward."

"My friends began calling my Eddie when I was four so Eddie I became."

"Ohmigod, you are naked -- please keep the covers on."

"Do you look good when you are naked Fiona?"

She looked at the floor handing him a cup of coffee. "Is that a proper question to be asking me?"

"It's rather academic because I won't receive the spontaneous reply I hoped for."

Fiona pulled her gown open and said, "Perhaps a reply is unnecessary."

Eddie cringed feeling like he'd assumed the title of the nation's Number One asshole. His only chance was to remain light hearted. "Fiona thank you. That was the most wonderful and memorable way a woman has ever introduced herself to me. You are just the sweetest lady and thank you for showing me your all. I'll keep my big mouth shut in future."

"No it's fine. Your grandmother is expecting me to have an affair with you. I thought that could be weeks away but since you gave me an opportunity to be proactive I took it. I must fly because I have work to do before I leave to get to the nursery by 7:30."

"I've enjoyed meeting you Fiona. Thanks for the coffee."

Eddie lay low until he heard Fiona shout goodbye to his grandmother and then heard the sound of a motorbike but would later find Fiona rode an aged AWD quad bike retired from orchard work. He couldn't believe Fiona had flashed for him on their first encounter -- a very long flash. There had been no sign of red hair or any hair for that matter. This had been nothing like he'd expected: Fiona appeared to be as strong-minded, over-weight and not particularly attractive. What was happening to him? He felt homesick already.

* * *

After breakfast Henry took Eddie to the old packing shed, no longer used because the irrigated-grown oranges were trucked in bulk on contract to a big company's packing depot that took care of grading and marketing.

"These days we are just growers, a cog in the process," Henry grumbled, forgetting about marketing problems in the past. They climbed the steep stairway.

"We don't use this office any more so had it lined and extended with the addition of a shower and toilet for you, completely redecorated and the lighting improved."

"Granddad, this is amazing," Eddie gaped.

The work had been completed to a high standard but he was looking beyond the newly installed big picture window to an impressive view of orchards and occasional dwellings and outbuildings that stretched for miles. Staring out of that window would incite the mind of any writer.

"What are you going to write about son?"

"Undecided yet grandpa although I have ideas chewing in my head."

"But based on history."

"Yes."

"This area is rich in history."

"I know; that was the second reason my mother gave me to encourage me to come here. It's the oldest irrigated area in Australia."

"Aye and what was the first thing that convinced you?"

"Mom said you and grandma were the only two people she knew of who'd love me to stay with them for two years."

Henry laughed and nodded. "We see a lot of your mother in Fiona -- not your mother you know but when she was young and lived here growing up wild. Have you read 'The Grapes of Wrath?"

"Yes when I was sixteen and my studies at university included John Steinbeck."

"Your grandmother and I have different reading tastes but during the two years we were courting we read that novel together, laying under the trees on a blanket. Young couples of your generation don't court for two years and what you do on a blanket under trees is nothing like reading to one another aloud and slowly amid the sounds of birds, bees buzzing overhead and the noise of distant tractors."

The image gripped Eddie.

"Your grandma thinks you should think of 'The Grapes of Wrath' and do something like that in this setting."

"Oh yeah," Eddie grinned. "and has grandma suggested a title?"

"Yeah," Henry said, shuffling slightly. "It's a bit girly...'Love Amid Oranges'."

"Good one," Eddie smiled and looked out at hundreds and hundreds of orange trees, heart pounding.

Eddie heard Fiona arrive just after 4:00 and was surprised he felt no interest; she had a pussy didn't she and had shown it to him? His indifference made him curious. He hadn't had sex for eight days... was he into his twilight years, still two months short of his 24th birthday? He didn't believe that... when he was seventy-four perhaps!

He worked on, preparing a plot and smiled, relieved, when he thought Fiona had nice tits.

Eddie heard a gong at 7:00. Annie had said at lunchtime Fiona would bang the gong at 7:00 warning everyone to wash-up and be seated at 7:15. He'd asked his grandma what she did all day and his grandma replied she worked every other day for most of the day at the town library, repairing books, registering new books and de-registering books withdrawn from circulation.

"You should come with me tomorrow and look around the town and the library. We are rich in historical resources. You'll need to research before you write your oranges novel."

"Er gran, I'm not sure..."

"Just tell him. Start the story Henry."

Swallowing a gulp of chilled red grape juice, Henry began...

"My father Joseph Lorant arrived in Australia in 1896 from Hungary as an orphan, aged two and in the care of an aged great-aunt. They came here to Renmark where his uncle Karl worked on a riverboat. Karl was married with four children but when his sister and husband died in a climbing accident he wrote for Joseph to be brought to him..."

The story unfolded, holding Eddie's interest, particularly so when Henry reached the part of his birth....

"My father had never married, having no trouble finding women ranging from maidens to those seeking a husband to married ones not content being in the rigidity of marriage. But that changed one day when my mother's father Stephen Wilshire caught Joseph seducing her under an orange tree. There was hell to play. You see my father was forty-four and my mother Hope had just turned nineteen. Her father and his two brawny brothers were set to take my father, already trussed up, gagged and with a sugar bag tied over his head, to the river and weight him down with a bag of bricks. Fortunately for my father Hope pleaded to her mother and her two older sisters. The four women forced the men to back-off, freed my father and declared there would be a marriage. Faced by angry women brandishing pitch forks and a shotgun Hope's father agreed when Hope declared that's what she wanted."

Annie said, "You see Eddie, your grandfather and I am suggesting you write a novel based on that story. Joseph and Hope had the one child who was Henry and I was the youngest of three children of Hope's oldest sister who held the shotgun on her father on that harrowing day."

"So granddad and you are first cousins and your mothers, being sisters, were connected to that incident?"

"Yes. Quite a complicated plot don't you think?"

"It sure is. Um history. Do you have photos and letters and documents?"

"They are at the end of the wine cellar, several cartons of them."

Eddie leaned over and hugged Annie. "You're a little beaut grandma."

"So you will write a novel about Joseph and Hope?"

"I think so, a novel based strongly on fact."

"And name it 'Love Amid Oranges'?"

"Probably my working title will be 'Love Under the Orange Tree'."

"Oh I think that's the better title."

Eddie came up behind Fiona in the kitchen and cupped her breasts. He was pleased to feel they were very firm. She turned her head to be kissed and he kissed her gently on the lips.

"I would think you are an artful seducer."

"Artful can suggest deceitfulness. I seduce with integrity in my intent and hopefully the action on both sides becomes swept up in passion."

"Oooh."

"May we kiss every time we greet if we remain friendly... er like a close brother and sister if you wish?"

"Yes but do not regard that as a softening up process towards seduction. I only submit to seduction when I'm comfortable at being in such a position with a man."

"Of course."

"Please sit at the table with your grandparents. I'm ready to bring in the food."

Eddie walked out thinking she hadn't given him opportunity to state which positions she preferred in being with a man who she trusted and when she said yes did that mean yes they should kiss each time they greeted one another or did she mean yes like a close brother and sister or did she mean both? Possibly she knew what she meant and expected him to also know. That was why women could be so difficult to understand at times. He began to think of her tits, having had them in his palms.

When Fiona was seated and Henry began serving the casseroled chicken as the diners handed him their plate in turn before serving themselves vegetables, Annie told Fiona, "Eddie has as good as said he'll write a novel based on Joseph and Hope."

"Oh I'm delighted to hear that. Have you mentioned Mrs Charles?"

"Not yet. There is so much to tell him. Eddie Mrs Charles lives in town with her youngest daughter and family. Mrs Charles was a flower girl aged twelve at Hope and Joseph's wedding and after Joseph was killed several years later by a kick to the head in the flooded Murray attempting to rescue a horse Mrs Charles lived with Hope until her own marriage when she was thirty-four. She has a wonderful memory and has photos and memorabilia from those times."

"Oh god, I don't believe this," Eddie said, looking half-stunned.

Sipping red wine Henry said, "This chicken dish is delicious Fiona. Well done." And equally as casually he said, "After my father's death my mother supported us on the small payment Amelia Charles or Amelia Hastings as she was then provided for her room. It was common knowledge in the town my mother raised a good level of income from being the most highly paid prostitute in the district. Men had high regard for her and for her bedroom expertise and yet the community in general had high regard for her because she was such a fine example of a mother and homemaker."

"Are you telling me this because you wish me to exploit that side of the story?"

"Your mother said you were a bright boy Eddie."

"God, I can't believe I'm hearing straight."

Later when drinking with Eddie, Fiona put down her wine glass. "Your grandparents and I talked through the various issues including that one about how his mother supported the family pending your arrival Eddie. Henry led the charge, saying it must not be buried away, that it's part of family history."

"You call my granddad Henry?"

"Yes and that was Annie's suggestion. They said I had become like a daughter to them but it didn't seem right for me to call them mom and dad."

Eddie nodded. "The truth is Fiona I have only been here twice before and my grandparents have visited us in Brisbane once so I cannot say I know a great deal about them apart from mom speaking about growing up here like a tom boy. But already on this visit I'm finding my grandparents don't think like old people."

"They are orchardists, that's why," Fiona said. "Like farmers orchardists have to think both conservatively and progressively. It's a requirement of the business they are in. By the time this is over you'll be a mine of information about your grandparents and their parents."

"Yes of course. I have the feeling this sojourn is going to be one of the most influential periods of my life."

Eddie helped Fiona clear away. His grandparents wandered off to watch TV.

"You don't have to help."

"I want too be with you. I'm attracted to you."

"That is the way with men. Have you thought of reading?" she grinned. She sighted his dropped bottom lip and cheered him by saying, "Do you wish to have a couple of drinks with me and my girlfriends Carole and Gina on Wednesday late afternoon?"

"Are they the women you went to Melbourne for that concert?"

"Yes."

"Will they mind if I accompany you?"

"No."

"Okay, it's a date."

"It's an invitation to join three women socially Eddie, not a date. My two friends will be interested in you."

And there were, especially the lively brunette Gina, who worked as an assistant to her mom who was a self-employed physiotherapist. The extremely attractive Carole was a schoolteacher. By the end of the rather pleasant couple of hours chatting over drinks Eddie had the clear impression Gina was the ringleader.

"What did you think of my friends?" Fiona asked, driving Eddie home in Henry's old Holden sedan.

"You all were excellent company and a well-balanced group. You are the intellectual one, Gina steers you guys along and Carole steers you guys back into feminine conversation when conversation loses its way."

"Oh yes, when we diverted from you to talk about movie stars and fashion it must have been boring for you?"

"No, I've spent most of my life in feminine company. I was never one to run with the guys."