Simon was a simple soul. And so too was his mind.
School for Simon was both painful and embarrassing for him and so it was that he dropped out after just four years. It wasn’t him who made the decision but his mother and father who, realizing it was nothing more than a waste of time for him and whoever tried to teach him, agreed with the school principal that they would pull him out.
“It’s better for all concerned,” he’d said gravely.
Simon was relieved! No more teasing and no more beatings from his classmates. No more interminable days of listening to the teacher go on and on about stuff that he just didn’t understand. And no more scurrying home from school looking over his shoulder for sign of anyone chasing him.
Yes it certainly was better for him!
His education from that day forward consisted of following his dad around on the odd-jobs he did for some of the wealthier residents on the other side of town. Theirs was a pastoral community, far away from the noise and hustle of downtown.
The gated mansions looked like castles to Simon with their ten and twenty-room homes surrounded by two or three out-buildings housing anything from car collections to gardening equipment to private saunas or bowling alleys. One home even had its own indoor tennis court.
And of course there were swimming pools at virtually every home. And every one of them needed to be cleaned and maintained.
His father, Bill, William to his upscale clients, took care of all their maintenance needs from mowing lawns to cleaning pools to flushing out eaves troughs. It kept him busy upwards of ten to twelve hours every day, even weekends.
In fact, Simon couldn’t remember his father ever taking a day off. And neither did Simon after that last day of school.
Over the years he learned the ins and outs of the proper care and maintenance of every one of his dad’s clients. They smiled at him whenever they spoke. Their smiles were those that you used when speaking to a small child.
He didn’t mind. They were mostly kind to him, in a distant and condescending way, but still kind.
One day he learned the downside of their patronizing kindness.
He was trimming some enormous hedges that closed in the pool area of one of the swimming pools.
He was hidden from view and he heard some female voices approaching. He knew without looking, it was the teen daughter of the homeowner with some of her friends. Her name was Jennifer. He didn’t know the names of any of the other girls.
She was a pretty girl whom Simon had watched over the years as she grew. She would lounge around the swimming pool dressed in skimpy bikinis, knowing full well that both Simon and his father could see her clearly as they worked. She and her friends were all developing into beautiful women. He couldn’t help but admire them from afar. He knew better than to try to talk to any of them though, or even to nod in their direction. Working with his father had taught him that there was a great gulf between “his kind and their kind”.
The girls were laughing amongst themselves and splashing up to their knees in the cool water when the girl’s mother came out.
“I know it’s very private back here and it’s very hot,” the woman said, “but William and Simon are on the property doing some work today. So no topless sunbathing please girls!”
The girls burst into uproarious laughter and Jennifer said, “Yeah right! Like Simple Simon would even know what he’s looking at!”
The girls laughed louder at that.
“Now Jennifer,” her mother said, “He can’t help being the way he is.”
“He’s a half-wit!” Jennifer said, “He wouldn’t even know what to do with a set of tits!”
Her mother frowned and gave up. She knew better than to try to get into a battle of wits with her daughter. She knew Jennifer’s cruelty knew no bounds. She might even trot out some embarrassing facts about her mother when provoked.
As for Simon, his face burned with shame at the nick-name Jennifer gave him. He was immediately drawn back to his school days and the teasing he suffered at the hands of his classmates.
He was almost twenty-two years old then, but his emotions and intellect were still that of a child. Her words scarred him like a lash.
He ran off, the job of trimming the hedge unfinished.
He didn’t care right now. All he cared about at the moment was getting away. He ran as fast as his legs could carry him.
After running for almost five minutes he found himself in one of the outbuildings belonging to the same property. It was the furthest shed from the main house and was used to store the gardening equipment his father used to maintain their lawn.
Simon threw himself down on the ground inside and wept. His tears flowed without stopping for several minutes.
When he was all cried out, he sat up and took in his surroundings. The barn was dim and small motes of dust drifted lazily in the air. He watched them for a while and began to smile. He put the experience with Jennifer out of his mind and thought about the things he liked. His dad, his mother and the dinners she prepared for them when they returned home from a long day at work. Simon was indeed a happy boy who loved his mother and father very much. And they loved him.
When he stood up he realized that his clothes were filthy. The dirt from the barn floor had stained his pants and his shirt.
Simple he may have been, but his mother taught him that cleanliness was next to Godliness. Being a well-behaved boy, he stripped off his clothes and wandered out the back door of the barn. There was a stream about twenty paces away from the doorway.
He carried his clothes to the water and cleaned the mud and dirt away. When he was finished he laid them flat on a large rock by the waterside to dry.
It was so hot! The humidity had the sweat pouring off his skin. He waded back into the water and dove in head first. He splashed around to his heart’s content and eventually climbed out of the water and onto the shore.
When his feet were back on dry land he stretched and gazed up at the sun. He smiled and sat on the rock beside his damp clothes.
Suddenly there was a loud rustling in the bushes.
He looked up startled to see Jennifer staggering through the undergrowth with a look of amazement on her face. She was still wearing the bikini she had on earlier but had pulled on a pair of white denim shorts over the bottoms. She was staring down at his midsection with her eyes wide and her mouth hanging open.
“Oh my God!” she said, “Where did you get that?”
“What?” Simon said, being too surprised to take in what she was saying. What was she saying?
“That!” she said, pointing deliberately at his penis, “That thing is huge!”
“Really?” Simon asked, “It is?”
“How did a half-wit like you end up with such a huge cock?” she exclaimed.
Simon frowned and stared at her angrily. He grabbed his wet clothes and stalked off to the barn.
When he was inside he was surprised to see she had followed him.
“You shouldn’t be in here,” he said, “You could get hurt with all this equipment around.”
“Never mind that!” she said dismissively, “I want to know more about your cock!”
“What about it?” Simon said.
He’d never really thought about it much. He used it to piss and he sometimes had trouble fitting into tight shorts or pants. Other than that, it wasn’t something he spent much time thinking about.
“I mean it’s huge!” she said.
“It is?” he said.
“How big does it get?” she asked.
“What do you mean?” he asked in confusion, “Is it supposed to get bigger?”
“Yeah!” she said, “When you’re horny, you know? It grows when it gets hard, doesn’t it?”
“Hard?” he said, “I don’t think it’s ever done that.”
She looked up at him in shock, tearing her eyes away from his penis for the first time since she saw him.
“Are you saying you’ve never had a hard-on?” she asked incredulously.
“What’s a hard-on?” he said.
“Oh my God!” she said, “You haven’t! Your cock has never been hard? Even while you’re watching me and my friends sunbathing?”
“No,” Simon said.
He was beginning to feel uncomfortable with this girl staring at his penis and talking so much about it. He couldn’t figure out what the big deal was. She seemed to think it was big. He’d never considered it big. As far as he’d given it any thought, he’d just assumed that every man had the same as him.
“Don’t you ever touch it?” she asked.
“Yes, when I have to piss,” he said.
“So” she said a little more quietly, “You never rubbed it? Never ran your hand up and down on it?”
“No,” he said, “Why would I?”
She looked back up into his eyes once more and he could see something in her face changing. Gone was the cruel tease. The expression on her face was one he’d never seen before. She looked almost, hungry.
“Can I touch it?” she asked with a smirk.
“No!” he said and drew back from her, “Don’t touch!”
