Chapter 22

John stared at the cream colored envelope as if it were a serpent about to strike. He knew the gist of the contents. It was an invitation to spend the night with one of the staff. The only question remaining concerned the identity of the individual who had sent the invitation. Each staff member was allowed to issue an invitation once a month to one of the family members. Since the extended benefits program had gone into effect three months ago, he had not received an invitation. This was his first.

John opened the envelope. Waiting wouldn’t lessen the significance of the contents. He pulled out the paper inside and stared at it. To his surprise, it was from quiet little Ling, the one staff member that seldom looked him in the eye. She was the last one from whom he had expected to get such an invitation. Of the whole staff, he knew her the least well. Her invitation was for tonight at seven and included dinner.

It was now the middle of the afternoon and he was alone in the house. Ed was at school working on his research. Beth and Kelly were at work in the hospital. He didn’t have anyone to ask for advice on how to handle this evening. He walked around the house. Rover didn’t follow him around, recognizing perhaps that it was more of a nervous pacing than preparation to go somewhere.

He wandered around until he encountered Bob working on the plants in the atrium. He stopped and watched for a minute. He said, “Hello, Bob.”

“Oh, hello, John.”

“This atrium looks really great. You’re doing a good job on it.”

Bob stood up and faced John. He said, “Thank you, Sir.”

John looked puzzled at the use of the word sir. He had never insisted on the use of formalities like that. He thought about the relationship that he understood existed between Bob and Ling. Perhaps he could help him make the evening nice for Ling. He frowned and asked, “Can I ask you something?”

Bob nodded and answered, “Sure, is there something that you would like me to do?”

“Nothing like that,” replied John. He continued, “I just need some advice.”

“You are asking me for advice?” Bob was rather surprised. Everyone went to John for advice. As far as he knew, John never sought out advice. He didn’t know how John interacted with his family, but John stayed out of the staff’s lives more than anyone else. He didn’t know that John regularly sought out advice.

“Yes.”

“I’ll try.” Bob sounded doubtful.

John nodded and said, “Um, someone invited me to their room tonight. I, um, haven’t done this before. What should I do to help make them comfortable?”

Bob knew that this was John’s first time to be invited by a staff member. The entire staff had discussed who would be the first to invite John. They felt bad that no one had invited him for two months and decided that ignoring him for three months would hurt his feelings. For the most part, the staff was rather intimidated by John. It wasn’t anything that he did. He was extremely considerate and always concerned about their needs. It was that none of them felt secure enough in their sexuality to give him something special. Ling eventually was selected because she was the least adamant about not inviting him. She actually seemed indifferent about it. He shrugged and said, “Just show up.”

“Bob, you don’t understand. I’m very concerned about hurting this person by accident. I don’t want to do anything wrong.” John looked at Bob.

Bob was rather taken aback. He hadn’t thought that John could possibly be insecure about visiting the staff. He said, “Ling likes Lilies.”

“You know who invited me?” John wondered how Bob would feel about Ling inviting him for the evening.

Bob laughed as he answered, “Everyone knows that Ling invited you.”

“Everyone?”

“Yes, everyone.”

John felt there was something significant in that. He asked, “Even Ed, Beth, and Kelly?”

“Yes.”

“Oh, I didn’t realize that.” He was really out of the loop on this invitation stuff. He wondered if the staff didn’t feel comfortable around him.

Bob asked, “What are you worried about?”

“She seems so emotionally fragile to me. I’m afraid that I’ll hurt her.”

Bob frowned as he said, “As far as I know, you’ve never hurt anyone. There’s something else going on here. Tell me about it.”

“I just feel like we are taking advantage of you guys. I worry that you are doing this out of fear for your jobs or as an obligation. I just want to make sure that everyone is doing it for the right reason ... that they want to do it.” John wanted to kick himself. He wasn’t putting this into words very well.

Bob looked incredulous and asked, “Out of fear? No, if you remember we asked for it.”

John nodded and said, “I know. Never mind me, I’m just slow to accept this.”

Bob licked his lips nervously. He was about to take the plunge. He said, “We worry about how you view us. You are so perfect, considerate, and capable; that we feel insignificant next to you.”

John stepped back with his mouth open in shock. He realized that they were actually intimidated by him. He wondered how they could feel that way. He had never criticized them about how they did their jobs. He thought he had always accepted them as they were. They were all good people. He pursed his lips and blew a puff of air in a near whistle.

He asked, “What have I done to create that impression?”

“It’s more like what you don’t do. You don’t make mistakes. You never get angry. You never criticize. The rest of us make mistakes, get angry, and get critical of each other. We’re human and you’re not.”

“I swear I am human!”

Bob laughed as he challenged, “Well, you need to fuck up big time to convince us!”

John thanked Bob, “Thanks, I needed to hear what you had to say. I can appreciate how difficult it was for you to tell me this. Now I need to think about it.”

Bob recognized that John was truly appreciative of his comments. He said, “You’re welcome.”

John went to the swimming pool. He slowly stripped off his clothes and dove in. The cool water was a shock to his system, but he immediately began swimming. He swam laps working out his frustrations while trying to decide what to do to fix things. After a hundred laps he felt tired and stopped in the shallow end of the pool. He stood there a minute as water drained from his hair and beard. He pulled himself out of the pool.

He looked at the clock on the wall and saw that he still had four hours before he was to show up at Ling’s room. He wondered what he could do between now and then. He decided to go to a florist and get some Lilies, stop at a jewelry store and pick up something nice, and then get dressed up for the evening. On second thought, he decided that buying her jewelry would set a bad precedent.

At seven sharp, a very nervous John stood outside Ling’s door. He carried a bouquet of Lilies. Ed, Beth, and Kelly had watched him leave his room with smiles on their faces. Bob, Bill, and Marguerite watched with a feeling of concern as John made his way there. They would have bet that he would be right on time, and no one would have taken the bet against it. He was exactly on time.

He knocked on the door, holding his breath and halfway hoping that she wouldn’t answer. He held the flowers behind his back, but the size of the bouquet made it a pointless exercise. She slowly opened the door and then gestured for him to enter. “Please come in.”

John looked around for a second and then stepped through the door. Ling closed the door behind him. John turned to her and said, “Here, these flowers are for you.”

She looked at the flowers. “They’re Lilies.”

John nodded and said, “Yes, Bob told me that you liked them.”

“Oh,” Ling replied as she accepted the flowers. She had hoped that he would try something different. She added, “Let me put them in a vase. I’ll be right back.”

“Okay.” John looked around the room. She had decorated the room with Victorian style furniture. There were actually lace doilies on the furniture. It didn’t fit with his image of her. He was expecting something a little more oriental, rather than British. She came back in the room, carrying a vase containing the flowers and set it upon a table. John said, “You have impeccable taste. This room is beautiful. I can imagine you sitting in here in a Victorian style dress, with your hair up in bun; maybe drinking a cup of hot tea, and sitting here very properly reading a novel.”

Ling blushed. He had identified exactly how she spent her evenings. She asked, “How did you know that?”

“Pardon?”

“I asked you a simple question. How did you know that?”

John was surprised and said, “I just said that I could imagine you doing that.”

Ling was embarrassed. It seemed to her that John could read her like a book. She gestured to a chair and said, “Please, take a seat.”

“Thank you.” John sat down on a chair. It looked nice, but was actually rather uncomfortable. His discomfort paled beside the discomfort that Ling displayed. He smiled at Ling and said, “Relax, I’m not an ogre.”

His comment only served to make Ling a little more uncomfortable. With a weak smile, she said, “I’ll try.”

He suddenly laughed and said, “I feel like a teenage boy on his first date. My palms are sweaty and I have no idea what to say. I keep wondering what I’m supposed to do next.”

His comment made Ling realize that he was just as uncomfortable as she was. She giggled and agreed with him, “Me, too.”

John got a sudden idea. He stood up and walked over to Ling. He bent down and gave her a gentle kiss. He straightened up and said, “Now that we’ve got the first kiss out of the way, we should be able to relax.”

His action had Ling completely by surprise. She found herself responding to his kiss despite her nervousness. When he had stopped, she was just getting ready to respond. However, it did release a lot of the tension in the room.

She laughed and said, “Oh, that’s a novel approach to breaking the ice.”

John smiled and said, “You’re very pretty when you laugh. Your eyes sparkle.”

A shiver went through Ling. She had waited a long time to hear him compliment her. She shyly looked down. “Thank you. Do you like Sushi?”

John was surprised by the question. He said, “I’ve never tried it.”

Ling smiled and said, “Well, I hope you like it. I’ve set it up so that we can make our own. It’s kind of fun.”

John said, “Sounds like fun. Have you made Sushi before?”

“Once or twice. A friend of mine had a party and people made their own rolls. It was one of the best parties that I ever attended.”

John laughed as he thought of the party that he had thrown here one night. That was a blast. Maybe they should do things like that more often. He asked, “Do you think we should throw some parties here more often?”

“Definitely. I really enjoyed the last one. Did you know that the owner of the store added some gifts in the packages for the staff?”

John was surprised. He asked, “No, what did he add?”

“He added some body jewelry. It’s very pretty.”

John shook his head, “So that’s where Marguerite got the stuff she was wearing. I had wondered about that. Not that I was complaining.”

“So you liked?”

“Well, I noticed and liked it a lot. She has a classic female body type that men find very desirable. It was hard not to say anything.”

Ling burst out laughing. She remembered the number of times that Marguerite had come back furious that John and Ed so effectively ignored her outfit. “You have no idea how frustrated you and Ed made her. That day of the great raid, she came back to the kitchen and threw pans around in a fury. She kept saying, not even a twitch in your cocks.”

“We were both so nervous that day that we couldn’t have gotten an erection if our lives depended upon it.”

Ling said, “Let’s go into the dining room and try to make some Sushi.”

Twenty minutes later, John had fingers completely covered with sticky white rice. He held out his hands like monster claws and growled, “Watch out, little lady, the rice monster has risen from the paddy!”

Ling laughed. She couldn’t believe how funny John could be. He made jokes almost the whole time they were fixing the Sushi. She retorted, “Does the rice monster think the little lady is going to run?”

“He’s hoping she will. The chase is part of the fun!” John finally got one of the rolls correctly fashioned. He looked at it for a second and realized that it might be a very good camping food. One small fish could make several rolls and become a filling meal. He was going to have to check into it and find out some more. Rice was relatively easy to carry in a backpack. He stepped back and said, “A masterpiece.”

Ling looked over at it. She said, “Wow that looks great! Mine looks like a cigar.”

He took the knife and cut his sushi roll into six pieces. It joined the lopsided pile on his plate. He looked at the plate and decided that was more than enough to eat. He looked at her Sushi and said, “If I were to light that up, it would give a new dimension to the term smoked fish.”