Date: Sun, 26 Oct 2003 23:36:08 +0100 From: Pok Bepxtep <pok.bepxtep@lycos.nl> Subject: Taken for Granted 2 TAKEN FOR GRANTED written by Pok Bepxtep E-mail me if you liked the story. I can be found at pok.bepxtep@lycos.nl This story will most likely contain some provocative contents about a loving and later on sexual relationship between a young boy and a man. If you find those things offensive, then don't read them... But I don't think you do, cause you wouldn't have bothered checking out nifty's adult-youth section. Greatings Pok Bepxtep ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chapter Two: Lightening The whole lecture about children's needs also applies for adults. Grownups need love and affection, as well. Most of them are lucky to find a life partner to provide them with it. Lots of times this love and affection is expressed in sex. Whether this happens within the system of married with 1.5 children or the system of 50$ an hour, doesn't matter. Of course, with the latter, love and affection are mere relative notions. But there's also people who are less fortunate. They don't know where they can find what they seek, yet. Or, they do know where they can get their love and affection, but they can't reach it. Martin Gray belongs to the second category. The 35-year-old manager of GPD Ltd. has got all he ever wanted to have. He lives in a big mansion just outside San Francisco, with a big pool in the backyard and two big Mercedes' Benz in the garage. All that, he earned by working his way up quickly in the printing industries. After graduating as an economist at the age of 22 -something he never wanted to be- he started his own printing business, starting out with the printing of name cards and cheap ads for grocery stores and such. His company grew steadily at first, but a contract with a big multinational that wanted Gray ltd to create and print their new brochure, was a real boost. Pretty soon, Gray Ltd. became a well known name in the printing industries. After 12 years of working 24/7, Gray Ltd. bought the almost bankrupt PrinDesign. That was the birth of GPD Ltd. (Gray PrinDesign Ltd.), one of the marktleaders in the Western States. But all his achievements, big cars and his mansion were worth nothing to Gray. It made his life farely easy, but he didn't have anyone to share his good fortune with. His wealth attracted enough women, old or young, but he was never interested. He knew perfectly well what he wanted. He'd known ever since that day in Mr. Swinton's Bookstore where he earned a living during his college years. Jock Swinton, 67 at the time, couldn't run the store by himself anymore, but refused to close it down and retire. He was hooked on the little shop and would never allow it to be taken care of by someone else. But, in order to keep the shop paying, he needed help, so he hired two college-freshmen to take care of the dayly business: Martin and a chick called Valerie. Martin did pretty well at making the shop pay. He had some natural talent for selling things. He'd probably even sell sand in the desert with his skills. Valerie was envious about him cause after a few weeks, most customers would ask for Martin to help them out choosing the ideal gift for their mothers-in-law. Valerie tried very hard to pick up a few customers, too. Too hard, sometimes. On a certain day, a young boy had come into the store. He was roaming through the youth's section, probably just looking around. Valerie thought the boy'd make an easy victim. She walked over to the child and asked him if she could help him out with something. Politely, the boy had refused the help and told her he was just taking a look around. Valerie didn't like that answer, though, and persisted. She kept on trying to find a book that the boy'd like to buy. The boy first remained polite by saying no to every offer she made, but soon ignored her. Valerie got frustrated by this and started yelling at the boy. This scared the boy and he dropped one of the books he was looking in. This little accident made it even worse, as Valerie wanted the boy to pay for damaged goods. The poor little guy started crying and got really scared. Martin had just taken a break. When he got back, he saw the damage Valerie had done. The little boy was standing in front of her, with tears in her eyes and his face as white as chalk. All the other customers who were lucky to be there to witness the whole scene were shocked by Valerie's actions, and some of them were leaving to never come back. Martin walked over to Valerie and took his position between the girl and her prey. "What on Earth is going on, here? What are you shouting at that kid for?" "He's damaged one of the books and I demand him to pay for it, that's what." "I see. How did he damage it, then?" "He threw it on the floor, just like that." "He did, huh. And where's the book? Can I see the damage he's done?" Valerie picked up the book the boy had dropped and offered it to Martin. After a thorough inspection, all Martin could find was a few creased pages. He turned to the boy, knelt down to be at the boy's height and showed him the book. "Is it true? Did you threw this book on the floor?" The boy looked at the book for a while, and then looked up to Martin. "No," he stammered and started to cry again. "Hey, hey, it's okay, kiddo. Just relax and tell me what happened." With tears flooding his eyes, the boy stared into Martin's face for a while. He dried his tears and blubbered: "I... I... I was just looking around a bit... and then she came to help me... But I didn't want help... And then she... she yelled at me... I... I... just dropped the book... I didn't mean to... She just... scared me... " And then, almost begging, he said: "Please... Don't make me pay... I don't have enough money." Martin listened patiently at the boy's version of what happened. The boy seemed almost terrified. This child wouldn't deliberately damage books. Martin took his hanky and offered it to the boy to dry his tears. "It's okay, buddy," he spoke soothingly. "You don't have to pay anything. I believe you." Martin rose to his feet again, patted the boy's frail shoulders to comfort him and turned back to Valerie. "If there's anyone who should be paying for this damage, it's you," he said. "What?! But the kid damaged it?" "Not on purpose. You have no right to yell at a child like that. Or any of our customers. There's no sign saying they have to buy something when they come in." "But... but..." "No buts, Valerie. Thanks to your little scene, here, we might have lost some of our good customers. I'm gonna tell Jack about this." "No need to, Martin," a heavy voice sounded from behind them. Martin, Valerie and everyone else turned around to see Mr. Swinton standing there. He didn't look to happy. Valerie just took her chance. She snatched the book from Martin's hands, holding it open at the creased pages and showed the man. "Look at what this little criminal has done." "I see, Valerie." Jack nodded. "But let's go in the back room to discuss this." Jack invited Martin, Valerie and the boy to follow him to the back of the store. Once the door was closed behind them, Jack said; "I overheard the boy tell Martin what happened, and I agree with Martin. It's you who should pay." "What? You believe the kid?" "Of course I do. My grandson wouldn't do anything like that." "Your grandson," Valerie asked, knowing she'd made a big mistake. "Indeed, Valerie. And you've just called him a criminal, you've shouted at him as if he were a dog and scared him to death. No one does that to my William." "I'm sorry, Mr. Swinton," she tried to save her ass. "It won't happen again." "No, it won't. You're fired, Valerie." Valerie just stood there, nailed to the ground. She tried to say something, but knew it wouldn't help. She walked out of the room and grabbed her stuff, marching away, mumbling something like: "Stupid kid!..." Martin wasn't sad to see her leave. Then Jack came standing next to Martin. Martin wasn't very sure he was off the hook. But Jack reassured him by shaking his hand: "Good work, Martin. At least one of you has some sense in him." Martin just nodded. He took the book back from Mr. Swinton, flattened the creased pages as good as he could and then turned towards Jack's grandson. "What's your name again?" he asked in a friendly tone. "William," the boy answered, still a bit pale from the emotions, but clearly relaxed after seeing his grandfather. "Pleased to meet you, William. I'm Martin," Martin introduced himself, reaching out his hand. William looked at his grandfather for approval. The man just nodded, with a trusting smile. "Pleased to meet you too," the boy replied a bit puzzled, and shook Martin's hand. "Well, now, William. I don't think your grandfather will like this, but Valerie actually wanted you to have this book." He presented the book -Roald Dahl's "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory"- to the boy. The boy didn't move a muscle. "Take it, it's yours. It's on the house. It's my way to apologise for Valerie's behavior." William again sought confirmation in his grandfather's eyes. Again, the man just nodded, now with a big smile of satisfaction on his face. The boy carefully took the book from Martin and smiled at the man. "Thanks," he said, almost whispering. The smile the boy wore at that moment was something Martin would never forget. Not just cause of the whole scene that'd been played, here, but cause of the intense feelings it gave him. He'd made a young boy happy, after he'd been treated cruelly. That was more satisfactory than anything he'd ever done before. Later that day, Jack gave Martin a raise and thanked him for what I'd done for his grandson. The boy was to come and live with the old man, after his mom had died of cancer. Martin offered his sympathies to the man as well as his help with taking care of the boy, if needed. Jack welcomed the help and said William would appreciate having a friend. This was the start of a brilliant friendship between William and Martin. For the following three years, the two grew closer and closer to each other. Friendship became love, love became affection, affection became sex. When Martin graduated, Jack decided to retire and to spend the rest of his life taking care of his grandson. They moved out to another town. William and Martin stayed in touch for a while, but the friendship died out. That's when Martin founded his company and tried to forget his feelings, tried to forget William, by working day and night. It didn't work one bit. Now, 12 years after William had left, Martin was a lonely, rich man. But the ad in the paper the local paperboy threw on his porch would soon change that. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- pok.bepxtep@lycos.nl P.S.: This chapter has been rewritten. This after people told me my writing wasn't very easy or appealing to read. I also changed the history a bit, here. I hope this version is better than the previous. Do keep watching out for the following chapters.