After she had left Lee off, Laura Lyon proceeded to her coffee shop, Java Juba Lee, arriving at her usual Saturday arrival time of 5:45. There was a bundle of newpapers sitting at her door and Lontrell Phillips was waiting for her. Lontrell was a student at J.G. Cherry College who had not left town for the summer, having obtained employment from the college for the summer and supplementing that work with part-time work with Laura.
Lontrell was a young, short, and small black man, an obviously gifted student who wanted to study classical Greek history and literature. She had seen his ID before hiring him and knew that he was nineteen years old, but his size, hairless face, and nonmuscular build made him look four or five years younger, she thought.
Laura had forgotten that Twyla had convinced Lontrell to cover this shift for her. Laura had noted that this was a request almost certain to be granted, that Lontrell seemed eager to get as much work as he could get and that he seemed to be infatuated with Twyla. Laura suspected that Twyla was taking advantage of the young man, but figured that as long as the work was done by somebody she could work with that it was not any of her concern. He might as well learn that women will take advantage of men whenever they can while he was still young, she thought to herself.
Lontrell was early, also, she noted. He wasn’t supposed to be there until six, but she knew that he was never late. At first she thought that his earliness was from a desire to suck up to her, but lately she was beginning to think that he just had a good work ethic and a good sense of timing. One of his professors had told her that the young man was also early to every class and once had apologized for being less early than usual when a previous class had run overtime.
She unlocked the door and entered, putting her purse in her locker. She went back to pick up the bundle of newspapers which had been delivered by a news agency out of Blacksburg, containing one or two copies of several regional and national newspapers for her customers’ reading, but saw that Lontrell had already picked it up. She thanked him and went about the business of setting the coffee shop up for its 6:30 opening. Even though it was not yet 6:00, Lontrell started helping her.
With pastries having been delivered shortly after six and the kitchen cleaned and prepared, she unlocked the front door about two minutes early. Clyde was waiting to enter.
Clyde was always the first customer every Saturday. Nobody seemed to know exactly where he lived, what he did, or what his last name was or even if Clyde was really his first name. He was tall and always wore the same red flannel shirt and overalls which often seemed unlaundered and were sometimes quite offensive. He always ordered the largest espresso and sat at the same booth, reading the newspapers provided. He never tipped. If anybody chose to engage him in conversation, he would always give his input into any topic he was an expert in and that seemed to be whatever topic was brought up.
“Good morning, Laura,” he said as he entered. After he receiced his coffee, he grabbed his seat and began reading. He looked up at Lontrell and asked Laura where Twyla was.
“Don’t know,” Laura answered. “She’s off today.” She was sure that Clyde was disappointed, that he would rather look at Twyla than at Lontrell.
Customers were arriving slower than usual and Clyde, finding nobody else to talk to, spoke across the room to Laura, asking, “You going to have your staff working naked next week?”
Laura felt like answering, “NO! No, you creep,” but kept her cool.
“I don’t think so,” she replied. “I’m pretty sure not. There are too many legal things not worked out yet and, besides, I want people to come here for the coffee and the food.”
“You might want to think about it again. You’d bring in a lot more people if you weren’t covered up in that uniform. And if a couple of your girls went along, it would help you too.”
“Well, as I said, I don’t want the staff to be the attraction.”
“What about the customers, then? You gonna let us in naked?”
Laura started to blanch a bit at the thought of a naked Clyde. “I don’t know. I want to learn some more and think it over. It may be that I don’t have any choice, but I think I do.”
“Well, you’re just about out of time.”
“Yeah, I know,” Laura sighed as she stepped into the back room. She really did not wish to continue the discussion.
She looked out a few minutes later as Alicia Bowman was coming in and watched as Lontrell took and filled her order and Alicia took a seat at a table far removed from Clyde. She decided to come back out and greeted Alicia,
“Morning, Alicia? Tim coming in this morning?”
“Don’t think so. He’s got a store to run and Harley’s not around. Had to go to Michigan. His sister’s pretty sick. He’s supposed to be back tomorrow.”
“I’m sorry. I thought he went back there a couple of years ago because she had passed away.”
“This is another sister. I’m not sure how many he had, but I guess he has at least one left in Michigan and I know he has a brother in Indiana. Some families were a lot bigger back then, you know?”
“Who’s watching the kids?”
“Well, Deanna’s with Tim. She likes to help out and I guess he has something she can do there. Derek slept over with Ron over at Carla’s. Brittany stayed with us and is going to the store with Tim until Carla picks her up. I’m sure glad that we were able to get our kids the same gender and so close to the same age and that they get along so well. This is just Mom’s morning off. But I’ll have to get the groceries before long. After all, a woman’s work is never done.”
“Good point.”
“Tell me, Laura, what are you going to do on Thursday? The TV and papers are starting to call it N-Day, you know.”
Laura noticed that Clyde was starting to leave and hoped he had not heard that question, that she wanted him out of earshot before starting this discussion and did not want him lingering. She told Alicia in a soft voice that she would be back in a minute and made a quick trip to the back. The maneuver worked and when Clyde was gone she returned and grabbed a seat across from Alicia.
“I don’t know,” she answered. “I’m darned certain that I’m keeping my clothes on and I expect my crew to do so too. Edna and Donald have suggested that some nudes in hospitality businesses might help the city’s economy, but if I was working for somebody else, I would not want my employer to ask me, even politely, to take my clothes off, so I won’t ask anybody to do it. Besides, I’m not sure that I would want any of them to do it anyway. You work for Davis and Mays. What have you heard?”
“Well, I’m not really in the loop. But I know that Bill had the paras and a couple of the attorneys working on the angles, of course the laws are still in process and that makes it tricky. I understand what you said about what Donald and Edna want. But if they want me to sit behind that desk naked they’re kidding.”
“Well, Gordon said that it would certainly not be allowed for an employer to require employee nudity and I kind of imagine that they wouldn’t even want to do anything which could remotely put themselves in jeopardy, but they sure seem to have their hints to us.”
“That is a relief, you know. I just wish it was one of the partners saying that. You know, I’m not really a prude,” Alicia replied. “I may make use of this new freedom, my Bear rights, even though I didn’t ask for it, but I’m certainly not go to go around naked as a condition of employment. It is too close to prostitution for me. It certainly would be pandering. I know it’s not quite the same, but it’s too close. Besides, I’m chubby enough that I won’t help anybody’s business, anyway.”
“You know how many times I’ve heard ‘I’m not a prude, but . . .’ said in the last few weeks?” Laura asked, proceeding to reply to her own question, “I don’t have a count, but it happens a lot, and a lot of times with just those words. There is no doubt that the court got a lot of people talking.”
“Do you hear a lot of answers?” Alicia asked.
“Well, I am surprised by how many people indicate that they might want to try it once, but still think it’s not all that good of an idea. I suspect that we all have a bit of an exhibitionist tendency somewhere in our heads, but that most of us lack security to actually do it and that we are insecure in several ways.”
“Like what?”
“Well, I suspect that most people are not secure about how they look. Men, women, probably children too – maybe even especially older children, but I don’t hear them most of the places I am, nobody really feels all that secure about their looks. And even those who do feel that good about their looks aren’t all that sure that they want their bare flesh and all their warts and strange bumps and pockets of cellulite observed by anybody and everybody. They’d like some control over the audience. And they are scared that their nudity will be perceived as an invitation to sexual overtures. Most people get horny and start looking once in a while, but they want to control who they advertise to. We all want control.”
Alicia had heard a few things about her hostess and wondered how many men in the area could testify about the truth of the last part of that comment.
Speaking in a softer tone as to indicate that she was discussing something which was best not generally circulated, she said to Laura, “You know, when Deanna was a baby, we left her and Derek with Susan for a few days and went camping in Illinois and there was this nice, clear stream so isolated from everything else around there that we actually went skinnydipping a couple of nights after it got late. It was fun. Tim compared it with going to Anderson’s Beach with your brother, but said it was more fun looking at me than at Albert.”
“I bet you thanked him for that compliment.”
“Well, I appreciated the comment, although it really didn’t tell me much. If I had of thought he was the kind of guy who figured that Albert was better looking than me, I never would have married him. You know, part of the fun was the unconventionality of the whole thing, but part of it was that it just felt so good, so sensual. We went back on the third night, but others had found the place that night and we just went back to our tent. They were older and somehow we just didn’t want to join them. We didn’t know what kind of people they were and didn’t want to take a chance.”
“You didn’t ask them if they minded your joining them?”
“Never spoke to them. We don’t even know if they knew we had come by.”
“If you could have passed by them and they didn’t notice, wouldn’t it be possible that somebody came by while you were there and you didn’t notice?”
“Yeah, we’ve wondered about that sometimes, but I guess there’s not a lot to do about it now. But we’ve wondered if they were wife-swappers or something like that and we weren’t into that. Still aren’t.”
Lontrell was a young, short, and small black man, an obviously gifted student who wanted to study classical Greek history and literature. She had seen his ID before hiring him and knew that he was nineteen years old, but his size, hairless face, and nonmuscular build made him look four or five years younger, she thought.
Laura had forgotten that Twyla had convinced Lontrell to cover this shift for her. Laura had noted that this was a request almost certain to be granted, that Lontrell seemed eager to get as much work as he could get and that he seemed to be infatuated with Twyla. Laura suspected that Twyla was taking advantage of the young man, but figured that as long as the work was done by somebody she could work with that it was not any of her concern. He might as well learn that women will take advantage of men whenever they can while he was still young, she thought to herself.
Lontrell was early, also, she noted. He wasn’t supposed to be there until six, but she knew that he was never late. At first she thought that his earliness was from a desire to suck up to her, but lately she was beginning to think that he just had a good work ethic and a good sense of timing. One of his professors had told her that the young man was also early to every class and once had apologized for being less early than usual when a previous class had run overtime.
She unlocked the door and entered, putting her purse in her locker. She went back to pick up the bundle of newspapers which had been delivered by a news agency out of Blacksburg, containing one or two copies of several regional and national newspapers for her customers’ reading, but saw that Lontrell had already picked it up. She thanked him and went about the business of setting the coffee shop up for its 6:30 opening. Even though it was not yet 6:00, Lontrell started helping her.
With pastries having been delivered shortly after six and the kitchen cleaned and prepared, she unlocked the front door about two minutes early. Clyde was waiting to enter.
Clyde was always the first customer every Saturday. Nobody seemed to know exactly where he lived, what he did, or what his last name was or even if Clyde was really his first name. He was tall and always wore the same red flannel shirt and overalls which often seemed unlaundered and were sometimes quite offensive. He always ordered the largest espresso and sat at the same booth, reading the newspapers provided. He never tipped. If anybody chose to engage him in conversation, he would always give his input into any topic he was an expert in and that seemed to be whatever topic was brought up.
“Good morning, Laura,” he said as he entered. After he receiced his coffee, he grabbed his seat and began reading. He looked up at Lontrell and asked Laura where Twyla was.
“Don’t know,” Laura answered. “She’s off today.” She was sure that Clyde was disappointed, that he would rather look at Twyla than at Lontrell.
Customers were arriving slower than usual and Clyde, finding nobody else to talk to, spoke across the room to Laura, asking, “You going to have your staff working naked next week?”
Laura felt like answering, “NO! No, you creep,” but kept her cool.
“I don’t think so,” she replied. “I’m pretty sure not. There are too many legal things not worked out yet and, besides, I want people to come here for the coffee and the food.”
“You might want to think about it again. You’d bring in a lot more people if you weren’t covered up in that uniform. And if a couple of your girls went along, it would help you too.”
“Well, as I said, I don’t want the staff to be the attraction.”
“What about the customers, then? You gonna let us in naked?”
Laura started to blanch a bit at the thought of a naked Clyde. “I don’t know. I want to learn some more and think it over. It may be that I don’t have any choice, but I think I do.”
“Well, you’re just about out of time.”
“Yeah, I know,” Laura sighed as she stepped into the back room. She really did not wish to continue the discussion.
She looked out a few minutes later as Alicia Bowman was coming in and watched as Lontrell took and filled her order and Alicia took a seat at a table far removed from Clyde. She decided to come back out and greeted Alicia,
“Morning, Alicia? Tim coming in this morning?”
“Don’t think so. He’s got a store to run and Harley’s not around. Had to go to Michigan. His sister’s pretty sick. He’s supposed to be back tomorrow.”
“I’m sorry. I thought he went back there a couple of years ago because she had passed away.”
“This is another sister. I’m not sure how many he had, but I guess he has at least one left in Michigan and I know he has a brother in Indiana. Some families were a lot bigger back then, you know?”
“Who’s watching the kids?”
“Well, Deanna’s with Tim. She likes to help out and I guess he has something she can do there. Derek slept over with Ron over at Carla’s. Brittany stayed with us and is going to the store with Tim until Carla picks her up. I’m sure glad that we were able to get our kids the same gender and so close to the same age and that they get along so well. This is just Mom’s morning off. But I’ll have to get the groceries before long. After all, a woman’s work is never done.”
“Good point.”
“Tell me, Laura, what are you going to do on Thursday? The TV and papers are starting to call it N-Day, you know.”
Laura noticed that Clyde was starting to leave and hoped he had not heard that question, that she wanted him out of earshot before starting this discussion and did not want him lingering. She told Alicia in a soft voice that she would be back in a minute and made a quick trip to the back. The maneuver worked and when Clyde was gone she returned and grabbed a seat across from Alicia.
“I don’t know,” she answered. “I’m darned certain that I’m keeping my clothes on and I expect my crew to do so too. Edna and Donald have suggested that some nudes in hospitality businesses might help the city’s economy, but if I was working for somebody else, I would not want my employer to ask me, even politely, to take my clothes off, so I won’t ask anybody to do it. Besides, I’m not sure that I would want any of them to do it anyway. You work for Davis and Mays. What have you heard?”
“Well, I’m not really in the loop. But I know that Bill had the paras and a couple of the attorneys working on the angles, of course the laws are still in process and that makes it tricky. I understand what you said about what Donald and Edna want. But if they want me to sit behind that desk naked they’re kidding.”
“Well, Gordon said that it would certainly not be allowed for an employer to require employee nudity and I kind of imagine that they wouldn’t even want to do anything which could remotely put themselves in jeopardy, but they sure seem to have their hints to us.”
“That is a relief, you know. I just wish it was one of the partners saying that. You know, I’m not really a prude,” Alicia replied. “I may make use of this new freedom, my Bear rights, even though I didn’t ask for it, but I’m certainly not go to go around naked as a condition of employment. It is too close to prostitution for me. It certainly would be pandering. I know it’s not quite the same, but it’s too close. Besides, I’m chubby enough that I won’t help anybody’s business, anyway.”
“You know how many times I’ve heard ‘I’m not a prude, but . . .’ said in the last few weeks?” Laura asked, proceeding to reply to her own question, “I don’t have a count, but it happens a lot, and a lot of times with just those words. There is no doubt that the court got a lot of people talking.”
“Do you hear a lot of answers?” Alicia asked.
“Well, I am surprised by how many people indicate that they might want to try it once, but still think it’s not all that good of an idea. I suspect that we all have a bit of an exhibitionist tendency somewhere in our heads, but that most of us lack security to actually do it and that we are insecure in several ways.”
“Like what?”
“Well, I suspect that most people are not secure about how they look. Men, women, probably children too – maybe even especially older children, but I don’t hear them most of the places I am, nobody really feels all that secure about their looks. And even those who do feel that good about their looks aren’t all that sure that they want their bare flesh and all their warts and strange bumps and pockets of cellulite observed by anybody and everybody. They’d like some control over the audience. And they are scared that their nudity will be perceived as an invitation to sexual overtures. Most people get horny and start looking once in a while, but they want to control who they advertise to. We all want control.”
Alicia had heard a few things about her hostess and wondered how many men in the area could testify about the truth of the last part of that comment.
Speaking in a softer tone as to indicate that she was discussing something which was best not generally circulated, she said to Laura, “You know, when Deanna was a baby, we left her and Derek with Susan for a few days and went camping in Illinois and there was this nice, clear stream so isolated from everything else around there that we actually went skinnydipping a couple of nights after it got late. It was fun. Tim compared it with going to Anderson’s Beach with your brother, but said it was more fun looking at me than at Albert.”
“I bet you thanked him for that compliment.”
“Well, I appreciated the comment, although it really didn’t tell me much. If I had of thought he was the kind of guy who figured that Albert was better looking than me, I never would have married him. You know, part of the fun was the unconventionality of the whole thing, but part of it was that it just felt so good, so sensual. We went back on the third night, but others had found the place that night and we just went back to our tent. They were older and somehow we just didn’t want to join them. We didn’t know what kind of people they were and didn’t want to take a chance.”
“You didn’t ask them if they minded your joining them?”
“Never spoke to them. We don’t even know if they knew we had come by.”
“If you could have passed by them and they didn’t notice, wouldn’t it be possible that somebody came by while you were there and you didn’t notice?”
“Yeah, we’ve wondered about that sometimes, but I guess there’s not a lot to do about it now. But we’ve wondered if they were wife-swappers or something like that and we weren’t into that. Still aren’t.”
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