The Village

Seth’s Perspective

The barn was taking forever to clean out, there was just so much shit in there. It was about 10AM when we heard horns blaring and gravel crunching.  We walked out of the barn to see Kelly and Nathan’s Range Rover pulling up with a silver truck following behind. The doors opened and Nathan emerged from the driver’s seat and Kelli got out of the passenger side… Petunia came running in from the fields to see grandma and grandpa Hall.

As we walked up to greet them, the doors of the pick-up opened and out stepped Zach’s sister Riley and MY BROTHER, Eli. “WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING HERE?!” I yelled as I ran right past my in-laws to my brother and embraced him. I hadn’t seen him since Christmas. He and Riley met at our wedding a couple of years back and had been together ever since (I did NOT see that one coming). They were living together in Tempe, just about fifteen minutes away from Scotty and Brad, and were planning a wedding for the next summer (well, Kelly was planning it like she did ours… her and Nathan loved my brother). Eli apparently took his vacation to and visit the Hall’s in Wisconsin, then the couple drove to NC with my in-laws to help us, and were driving back to Wisconsin with Kelly so she didn’t have to be on the road alone (I was happy about that).

“Why’d you bring two vehicles?” Zach asked his dad.

“I figured I’d leave the truck for you two to use as long as you need it” Nathan Hall said.

“It just collects dust in our garage” his mom added. “Keep it as long as you’d like.”

“Earl checked it out and tuned it up before we left” Nathan added referring to the family mechanic.

“Wow. Thanks!” Zach said. “We’ve been using Brody’s” he said motioning toward Old Blue who was parked in front of the garage, “and were talking about buying our own.”

“Don’t do that” Nathan said in a fatherly tone. “You boys have enough debt to last you a while. Wait until you’re settled in and finished with the house.”

“So, this is your dump?!” Eli asked as he looked around. Riley was squatted on the ground getting attacked with Petunia kisses. That dawg had been roaming around the property for two days, god only knows where that tongue had been.

“Yup. The old witch’s house is all ours” I said.

“Oh, stop it, boys” Kelly said looking around. “It’s adorable. Oh, it’s going to be so cute when you’re finished!” With that we gave them the grand tour. We talked about the big picture vision and what we wanted to get done while they were there. Kelly mentioned that they passed BroMax on the way in and how much she wanted to see Brody and Max’s place. There was a lot of excited banter around our first house.

Eli looked around the kitchen as I talked to Kelly about stripping the cabinets down. “Hey, you’re gonna need a couple of GFI outlets installed, I can handle that while I’m here.” I was so excited to see Eli, that I kind of forgot he was an electrician… that would come in handy!

“Can I make a list of electrical shit?” Zach asked with a grin.

“I figured you would, so I brought a few tools” Eli said back with a grin of his own as he inspected the outlets in the kitchen closer. “Do you guys plan on changing out the light fixtures?” He asked as he looked up at the relics that were currently in place.

“Yup, we’ve got some picked out, but we didn’t buy them yet. Lowe’s has everything in stock.” Zach answered.

“If you pick em’ up, I’ll install them while I’m here” Eli said still inspecting everything. “Where’s your breaker box? Or does this old place still have fuses.”

“Breakers. Everything’s been updated” Zach said as he led my brother into the basement to show him the breaker box. Nathan followed Zach and my brother down the creaky old steps while I showed Kelly and Riley the rest of the house, Petunia followed right behind us. Riley held onto my hand the entire time; I was so happy they came along. Kelly ripped up a corner of the carpet in every room of the house trying to get a look at the floor’s underneath. She almost ripped the entire thing out of one of the spare bedrooms as she yelled in elation, “Oh my gosh, these are pristine under here. We can make them perfect with some elbow grease.” Then she looked up at me and said, “This house has great bones. You boys did good.” That was nice to hear because I was still freaking out about going deeper into debt and needed the positive reinforcement.

When we were done upstairs, we went back down to the kitchen and met the others who had finished in the basement. It was too early for them to check-in to the hotel, so everyone went straight to work. Me and Zach went to Lowe’s with Eli to pick up the light fixtures and electrical supplies while the others went to work pulling up the carpet. We were gone over an hour and spent a freaking fortune! Eli had taken inventory of all the outlets, light switches, and fixtures throughout the house and picked up supplies to update everything. We were happy as hell to have him there. By the time we got back, the others had the carpet out of the first bedroom and were almost completely done with the floors. They had pulled up the pad, tackboard and removed all the staples. Kelly was sweeping all the debris off it when we walked in. “Damn, that looks great” Zach said with excitement in his voice.

“We should do a light sand and stain on them just to make them shine” Kelly said. “It won’t be difficult, but I’ll need some supplies.” So, Kelly and I jumped into Nathan’s truck and went back to Lowe’s. It was a nice truck and we were so appreciative that they drove it down for us to use. Kelly and I talked the entire trip… she was so excited about our house, our new jobs, and Riley and Eli’s wedding. She lived for her kids and both had a lot going on these days and she was in the middle of it all. She was in heaven. When we got to Lowe’s we picked out stain for the floors and cabinets and a bunch of other materials and tools we’d need. We also browsed the kitchen and bathroom sections talking about the plans for updating ours. Kelly had some great ideas; she really knew what she was doing and had good taste. When we went to check out and spend our second fortune of the day, Kelly wouldn’t let me pay. She and Nathan picked up the tab, they were so good to us. Zach and I had always been self-sufficient, so whenever an opportunity arose for his parents to help, they were there. Hell, you should have seen our wedding… Kelly got carried away because she saw it as a rare opportunity to do something special for us. We just always felt guilty taking their money, we were proud to make it on our own. On the way back homes she confessed to me that Riley had relied on them a little bit more for financial support than Zach, and they never felt like they did enough for the two of us. Oh my god! They did more than enough for us over the years.

When we got home, I noticed more carpet, padding and tackboard in the dumpster. We unloaded the truck and dropped our purchases on the kitchen counter before heading upstairs. Riley was sweeping off the floor of the second bedroom, Nathan was already sanding the floors of the first room with Dylan’s sander, and Eli and Zach were dismantling the master bedroom so we could tackle that room next. We got so much freaking done!!!! About 6:00 we called it quits for the night and decided to get dinner. Zach rode with the others and I took Petunia back to BroMax and warned the guys that we had the place ripped apart and were staying with them for the night… probably the next couple of nights. I also told him Eli and Riley had come with my in-laws and they invited us all over to their place for a cookout the next night. I put our overnight bags back up in “our room” at BroMax Farm then went to meet the others at the little bar a few miles away. Petunia was already hard at play with Zoey before I ever got out the door.

I was so happy to get to the bar and join the others, especially Eli! My brother and I had always been close, he was my protector during the “church years” when Father would punish our disobedience. Man, he stepped between me and my dad more times than I can count and took the belt to his ass because of it.

I drifted out of my head a little and just stared at him with a smile, then out of the blue Eli stopped eating his burger, looked me in the eye and sad “WHAT?! Do I have something in my teeth?”

Realizing I was staring and smiling stupidly I said, “I’m just so happy you’re here.” Kelly let out an ‘awwwwww’ then we all went back to eating and catching up. Dinner was great and it was nice to just sit and talk (Nathan insisted on picking up the check, of course). After dinner the others went to the hotel and Zach and I went back to BroMax. We had a well-earned beer and caught up with our hosts before we went up to bed. Max had talked to Taylor at work and said his interviews had gone well and he was waiting to hear back. Taylor had also set up a third interview with some restaurant all on his own, and Denny picked him up after his shift to show him a couple of apartments. Damn, he was doing it. He was taking control. My most worrisome client was making progress. GREAT! Max also interviewed the two Case Worker candidates, he loved them both, but his initial reaction was that Rodney (the younger guy from Charlotte) would be good but that he and I were a lot alike and would probably agree on most things… that may not be the best thing.  And… Robyn (the transgender woman) would be more of a challenge for me to work with but could bring a perspective that we just don’t have. There would likely be more conflict, but he also predicted better outcomes with her and thought if she and I gelled as a team we could bring The Village to the next level. He confirmed my thoughts and gave me a lot to think about. Both candidates were meeting with two more board members each, but unless anyone saw any major red flags, we planned on bringing them both in for in-person interviews and the final decision was ultimately mine. I was happy to know that things were moving forward while I was out of the office.

That night I passed out when my head hit the pillow, however, Zach was up, hard, and horny. “You asleep?” he whispered in my ear as he shook me to wake me up.

“Yes. And tired” I responded hoping I’d get some sleep, but he wasn’t backing down.

“C’mon. I can’t sleep, I gotta bust a nut” Zach said in a whiny voice that was annoying when I was so damn tired.

“Just take care of it yourself” I said in sleepy desperation.

“You sure?” He asked as he reached around trying to stir my sleeping manhood. I mumbled affirmatively. He pulled the covers off himself and pulled the bottle of lube out of the drawer. I had my back to him and could hear his breathing getting heavier and the sloshing of the lube as his hand moved up and down his perfect cock. After a couple of minutes, I felt guilty… and yes, horny so I rolled over and started licking his heavy balls. “Yeah, that’s it. Lick those balls” he said under his heavy breath as he rested his free hand on the back of my head. I took in his scent… it always got me going, apparently even when I was half asleep. I inhaled deeply as I licked his hot, heavy scrotum. There was a little lube taste (which I hated) but the Zach taste outweighed the lube so I kept going. I pushed his hand away for a second and gave his cock a few strokes in an attempt to steal some of the lube. As I sucked on his ample nuts, I tapped on his hole with my slick forefinger, teasing and taunting his tight, tight, pucker. “mmmmmmm” he whimpered, “yeah. Fuck”

I kept stimulating him with my tongue and finger as he jacked himself off, his hand moving faster and more furiously. I firmly inserted my finger into his anus and fumbled for his prostate sucking HARD on his balls as I did. The old bed creaked as he grunted and kept jacking himself. He liked it when I played with his ass and got a little rough with his balls… he was getting both. We were both awake now.

I pushed his hand away from his cock and ignored the rancid taste of the lube as I engulfed his hard, aching cock. My hand moved in sync with my mouth, his shaft was slick with lube, and my saliva made it even more so. “Oh, fuck” He grunted silently as he pushed my head down with both hands making sure I didn’t stop. His grunts turned to groans and his hips pushed up thrusting his big, slick member deep into my throat. My hand twisted faster and faster on his engorged cock and my eyes watered as I took him into the back of my throat over and over. I was on a mission to make him cum… mission accomplished. His salty, sweet, intoxicatingly musky essence filled my mouth and I struggled to swallow every drop. His body shook as I continued sucking, licking, and cleaning his sensitive cock for several minutes after he shot his load.

“WHEW” Zach sighed as I pulled off him and he laid back with his arms behind my head. I pulled off my boxer briefs and straddled his muscular chest and started to satisfy my own desires as my still-slickened hand worked my rigid pole into a frenzy. I moved up a little and forced my balls into his mouth, tea bagging him. He protested for about a second then started to suck my heavy nuts, it was flipping amazing. After several minutes I shoved my shaft into his mouth and face fucked him making him sputter and gag on my hard cock. I was punishing him with pleasure for waking my tired ass up. I shot my load down his hungry throat then rolled off him and laid by his side. “what the fuck was that?” He asked with a laugh.

“That? That’s what you get for waking my ass up” I responded back. Zach laughed, kissed me and then I turned my back to him and he spooned me to sleep.

The next Morning, Petunia woke me up at 5AM whining to take her out, of course I had to stop by Max and Brody’s room to let the scratching Zoey out too. Wearing just my boxer briefs I slipped on my sliders and walked out to the new barn to let Jimmy free. When I came back in Zach was in the kitchen making coffee in his boxers and a T-shirt, he laughed as I walked in “nice outfit.”

“Shut up” I said with a smile and a kiss. I could hear the shower running upstairs, Max and Brody were up and moving around.

“My parents said they’d be by at 8:00 to help” Zach said as the coffee brewed. “I want to finish pulling all the carpet up today.”

“The one bedroom is ready to stain, I’d really like to get that done. I can do that while your dad sands the other floors and you, your mom, and Riley pull carpet. Eli has enough crap to do with the electrical.”

“We are seriously cranking this shit out” Zach said turning to pour the still dripping coffee. He was right, we had gotten a lot done. We talked about our game plan, and I started to question our light fixture choices. Ugh, it was just so overwhelming and I didn’t really have a vision for our home yet. I looked around Max and Brody’s kitchen; everything worked so perfectly together… the whole house flowed so perfectly from the second you turned into the driveway and all the way throughout the house and the property. BroMax Farm was one perfectly appointed masterpiece. Our house just felt like rooms cobbled together with no real purpose; I was just picking stuff out to get the job done, I didn’t have a vision.

As we were talking and doubting ourselves, Brody came into the kitchen with his iPad Pro in-hand, laid it on the counter in front of us, and said “I got y’all a housewarming gift.”

“What’s this?” I asked. There were several pictures of a house, each pic was the same house with a different color pallet… all of them painted ladies.

“Your house. I worked up some color options for the outside. With all that paint peelin’ y’all are gonna hafta paint it before the winter” Brody said as he poured himself a cup of coffee and Zach scrolled through the pics with me looking over his shoulder. Until Brody told me, I didn’t even realize it was our house. All of them were OUR HOUSE. We scrolled a little further and saw another house with a bunch of options, it was Harris and Terrance’s place right across from ours. “If all three of us do the painted lady thing this road will be gotdamn amazing (he pronounced the word “thing” as “thaaaaang” with his accent making us both crack up).

Zach was all in, “I fucking love this! Can you email me the pics?”

“Yup” Brody said with a huge smile, he had an amazing eye for color and design and loved this sort of shit. “I put the paint color names and numbers at the side of each pic so Y’all can just go to Lowe’s and pick up the paint if ya find somethin’ ya like.”

“I love number one” Zach said. It was a faded looking green with cream, yellow, and purple trim colors.

“Me too” I added.

“Y’all got that gingerbread border around the porch and on the peak, that mulberry color will make it pop, you could even do a couple rows of the cedar shake at the peak in the same color…” quiet Brody was a damn talking machine as he grabbed the iPad add added some color. He had a great passion for design and it showed. The little guy just sparkled.

“Damn, that’s tight” Zach said with a brilliant smile.

Max entered the room dressed and ready to go to work, his red hair still damp from the shower and asked, “What is?”

“I’m showin’ em’ my ideas for paintin’ The Witch’s House” Brody said.

“Go with number one!” Max yelled. He obviously had seen them already. We talked through the options then Max blurted, “Hey, we cleared our schedule for Sunday to help. Put us to work.”

“Be careful what you wish for” Zach said with a laugh. I made us a quick breakfast then Max and Brody went out to the barn, and Zach and I took a quick shower and drove Nathan’s truck over to the house. We got there about 7:00 thinking we’d have an hour to figure things out before the others showed up, but the Hall’s Range Rover was already parked by the barn when we showed up. Petunia jumped out and ran right to the backyard, we followed her and found Kelly, Nathan, and my brother all hard at work pulling weeds. “Damn y’all are early” Zach bellowed (Yup, “y’all” seemed to have officially entered his vocabulary).

Kelly looked over at us and said, “Do you know you have a brick patio?!” Um… no I didn’t.

“Where?” I asked scrunching my face in disbelief.

“Right here” she said. It was right outside the back door and covered in weeds. They were uncovering it brick by brick.

“It’s fucking huge” Eli said as he walked to the edge to show us where it ended.

“Eli! Language” Kelly said with a scowl. She loved my family but always said we all swore too much… hey what did she expect with five young guys living together.

“Sorry, mom” Eli said. I called her mom too but had never heard him call her that before. I liked it. “But seriously, look at this. It goes from here” he stood at the corner of the hidden patio, “to there” he added as he walked a good twenty paces, “and all the way to the house” which was probably fifteen feet away.

“Well that explains why that old picnic table is sitting on the middle of the grass” I said.

“Hey, let’s go borrow Brody’s weed whacker” Zach said then he and Eli got in the truck and headed back to BroMax.

“Where’s Riley?” I asked.

“The little princess made a spa appointment; Eli will pick her up later” Nathan said. “Speaking of which…” Nathan added as he put his arm around me. “I don’t think I ever officially told you how happy we are that you and your brother are part of our family.”

“You two are both so perfectly matched for our kids” Kelly added as she took a break from weeding and sat back on her knees. “And our families just blend so nicely.”

I hugged Nathan, then bent down and hugged her, “what a nice thing to say… you made my day” I smiled. “I love your family; Zach and I appreciate all you two have done for us.”

Nathan scoffed, “We haven’t done crap. You two are so damn self-sufficient.”

“And then there’s Princess Riley” Kelly said laughing. “Graduated three months ago and still no job. Thank god she’s got Eli. He’s so good for her.”

I laughed, “she’s good for him too. I like them together” I responded and both my in-laws agreed. We talked about the couple and their upcoming nuptials a little bit longer before Kelly asked what our plan was for the day. I filled her in on what Zach and I discussed. “Oh, look at this” I pulled out my phone and showed them the e-mail from Brody with the house mocked-up with different color schemes.

“Oh my god, these are amazing!” Kelly said. “Is this BroMax Farm?” She asked, they hadn’t been there yet.

“No. that’s OUR house. Brody did some color mock-ups” I said excitedly.

Kelly and Nathan both scrolled through the pics, “I love these… all of them.”

“Number one seems to be the favorite” I said as I grabbed my phone and scrolled to the right pic.

Kelly almost squealed, “Yes. YEs. YES! I love it!” Nathan looked at the pic, then the house, then he walked around to the front and found the vantage point where Brody took the pic and looked up again.

“Wow. It’s amazing what a little paint can do” Nathan said with a whistle as we compared the mock-ups to reality. We were still looking at the front of the house when Eli and Zach came back.

“We got two of em’” Zach yelled as the jumped out of the truck and pulled the weed whackers out of the bed. “Harris loaned me theirs too. I freaking love having neighbors!” Both machines were gas powered so the guys revved them up and went to work. Eli started on one side and Zach on the other. Nathan grabbed a broom and was ready to sweep as they uncovered the brick. The noise was too much for Petunia so she took off into the field.

Kelly and I went into the house, I showed her the light fixtures we had bought the day before and shared my doubts. She wrinkled her nose, “I’m sorry honey, but these are ugly as sin” she said without apology.

I laughed out loud “Gee thanks, mom” I said, then added with a sigh, “But you’re right. I just don’t’ have a vision for the place yet. Brody’s pics helped me visualize the exterior, I have so many ideas for the landscaping now. But I still can’t see the inside.”

We stood in the kitchen and she pulled up some light fixtures on her phone. They were a galvanized metal and kind of industrial looking, “If you did something like this, you could do like a gray countertop and…”

“Maybe cement” I said and she loved that idea. “What about staining the floors and cabinets like a gray?”

“Or maybe a whitewash to give it a weathered look” she said as we brainstormed.

“Could we do the floors the same way or would that look stupid with the other floors being darker?” I added.

“No! That would look amazing, Seth. Kind of old barn meets industrial” she laughed in excitement and the ideas were flowing. There was a pantry with no door on one wall, someone had taken it off the hinges, it was probably in the basement “oh my god, you could put a barn door here on a sliding track and stain it to match the cabinets.” She pulled up another pic on her phone to show me what she meant.

“Yes” I yelled and hugged my mother in-law. It was all coming together for me now. “I wonder what it would cost to replace all the interior doors with French doors and frost the glass?” I asked

“Ooooo! I like that, Seth” She looked them up online and started adding up the costs. “I can frost the glass for you, it’s easy” She added. Pretty soon we were going from room to room talking paint colors, then discussing where our furniture would go, and what we could do with some of Old Lady Jones’ pieces to make them work with the rest of the house. I jumped with excitement… I could finally visualize our home; it was all coming together for me. Then Kelly surprised me and said with a huge laugh, “Seth, you’ve never looked gayer!” She was cracking herself up. I laughed back… I was so excited that I was finally getting a vision for the house. OUR house… scratch that, make that OUR HOME!

 To be continued…