A week after his return Drew was allowed out of the hospital for an afternoon. Janice brought him to the first floor lounge in our dorm, where many of us had gathered.

Charlene greeted them for the group and said “Seth and Nate’s room is yours to use uninterrupted today until you leave. Nate insisted and Seth doesn’t get a vote.”

Most of us treated him like a delicate flower, afraid even to shake his hand. Mike went to Drew and punched him hard on the shoulder, then tackled him, wrestling him to the floor. Regina was yelling at him that Drew had just had surgery.

“Regina, if Drew and Janice aren’t fucking each other’s brains out in the next 30 minutes I’ll die from shock. Let’s find out now if he’s going to survive the experience.” Mike turned to Jay and pointed at Drew’s crotch. “Kick him in the nuts.”

Jay started to move forward when Mike tripped him. “I’m joking, dick head. Seth stocked the room with almonds, bananas, figs, chocolate and honey. He’s the biology major and studied which foods help both men and women achieve orgasms. Regina put bottles of champagne, tequila and beer in the room. She’s the horny drunkenness and drunken horniness double major and knows forward and backwards which kinds of booze will get you hot.

“We’ve all seen you two. Now, go to Seth and Nate’s room, get naked, and fuck. In whatever order you deem appropriate.”

They went to the room and came out two hours later. They were both naked and laughing hysterically. Drew embraced me and kissed me on the cheek. Then he punched me in the nose.

“The hug and kiss are because you probably saved my life. The punch in the nose is because you should have stopped me sooner.” Drew let me know he had been kidding about stopping him sooner.

I kissed Drew on the cheek and hugged him as well. Then I grabbed his balls and squeezed pretty hard.

“The hug and kiss are because we’re all really glad you’re here. The sore testicles are to remind you that we have a business to run, and I expect you to start busting your balls as soon as you’re medically cleared.”

Sylvia suggested that the couple tell Drew’s doctor in great detail exactly what they had done sexually that day, then ask when Janice can start spending the night in Drew’s room.

“Got it,” said Janice. “Blow by blow description of the sex followed by blow by blow by blow by blow by blow session every night.” Actually, nobody laughed because it sounded about right to us.

They got dressed, sort of, and took a taxi back to the hospital. Drew’s visits became more frequent and longer over the next week, until he was officially discharged.

When Janice and Drew moved into the cottage they announced that every part of the building except their bedroom could and should be used for our business. He wanted business cards made up, with a business name incorporating my name, his name, the words “business” and “university.” Charlene asked her roommate to make up something in the graphics lab.

Oops.

She tried using all the words but that didn’t work, so she used initials only. We had 2,000 business cards for “D.U.M.B. Company” with the address of the cottage. We then compounded the error by throwing them all in the trash. Soon they were popping up all over town. That wasn’t the worst part.

Three days after throwing away the business cards Sylvia and I had gone to the cottage one morning to talk to our friends. It was raining (it was always raining in early November), so as soon as we were in the door Sylvia and I took off our wet clothes. We called out, and Janice and Drew emerged naked from the bedroom. Drew was sporting morning wood, and Janice was sporting a grin.

We decided to toast the couple, and had a drink. Then another one. Then we took full notice that everybody was naked and tipsy.

Janice started it by running her tongue down my body to my dick. Drew was kissing Sylvia, who pulled back. “As carpenters say, never let a good piece of wood go to waste,” she announced before she engulfed Drew’s rod in her mouth. Janice skipped the rest of the foreplay and pretended she was a vacuum cleaner on my cum gun.

It took only a minute and a half before we had formed a square on the floor. My mouth was on Sylvia’s cunt, Sylvia’s mouth on Drew’s dick, Drew’s mouth was on Janice’s pussy and you’ll never guess where Janice’s mouth was. The familiar term for this, of course, is “daisy chain.” It should be called “butterfly pea vine chain.” The technical name for that flower is “clitoria ternatea.”

As if on cue we all swiveled about. We wound up with Sylvia sucking my dick, me sucking Drew’s, Drew eating Janice’s pussy, and Janice eating Sylvia’s. This is a “common stinkhorn chain,” of course. That flower’s technical name is phallus impudicus.

No sooner had we changed from clits to phalluses that the door opened. A group of people in their early sixties walked in, talking among themselves. The Village Community Church’s Thursday morning devotional and hiking club had found one of our business cards and wanted to find out what sort of place called itself Dumb Company.

I disengaged myself from Drew’s member and asked if we could help them. I’ve never seen old people move so fast in my entire life. And I didn’t even get to ask any of them if they knew who Lucy was.

Of course, we didn’t let a good swap go to waste. Even before they had finished leaving we were back to the daisy chain, then gave it one more swivel before breaking off to fuck.

Later that afternoon the four of us were trying to come up with a better name for our company than “Dumb.” No luck. Then Jay and Valerie walked in complaining about the precipitation. “Fucking rain,” complained Jay.

“That’s catchy,” noted Sylvia, “but not much better than dumb.”

“Liquid autumn,” complained Valerie. She nearly jumped out of her skin when the four of us started shouting.

“That’s it, that’s our name!” Thus was born Liquid Autumn.