Dollars and Sins Ch. 01

"Bobby," she sighed as she continued fixing her sandwich, "it's disrespectful to call me by my first name. Please stop doing that."

There was no response, so she turned around to see him at the refrigerator, digging the bowl of macaroni and cheese leftovers from last night out.

"Did you hear me?" she asked louder.

"Hmm?" he pulled the bowl out and closed the refrigerator, then got himself a bowl.

"I don't want you calling me by my first name," she tried a firmer hand with him, "That is disrespectful to me. You call me 'mother' or 'mom'. You got that?"

A dollar bill appeared in his hand, which he held out to her. "I'll give you a dollar if you stop bitching about me calling you 'Madolyn'. AND if you call me 'Mr. Caldwell' or 'sir' for the rest of the day."

She just gaped at him. "You have GOT to be kidding!"

He just looked back at her.

"I am NOT going to call you 'Mr. Caldwell', buddy! Who do you think you are?" The dollar he was offering her was ... still in his hand, right there ... in front of her.

"Well, you don't want ME calling you by YOUR first name, so I think it's only appropriate ... you know, that you see what it feels like."

"And I think I have a little snot-nosed punk for a kid these days," she snapped at him.

He shrugged and left the dollar on the table as he grabbed a big spoon and a little spoon, then started filling his bowl with cold macaroni and cheese.

They ate in silence a few minutes.

"I'm ... sorry," she sighed five minutes later. "I ... shouldn't have called you a 'snot-nosed punk'."

"Mmm," he mumbled as he chewed, "you shouldn't have."

Damn, that dollar bill was still just lying there on the table. "So I'm sorry for calling you a name. I'm supposed to be the adult in this relationship. And I shouldn't ... get snippy.

He continued eating his pasta.

The dollar bill continued to sit there.

Was it SOOO bad, really? If he called her by her first name? Madolyn knew lots of families where the kids did just that. It's just that she was old-fashioned and thought it was more appropriate if ... her children didn't do that.

But in the end, it didn't REALLY matter. Not all that much, anyway. Right?

She finished her sandwich and carried the plate to the sink and rinsed it, then stepped back to the table. "Okay,"she sighed, "if it makes you feel THAT much better, Bobby, you can call me 'Madolyn'." She reached for the dollar bill.

But he moved his hand to it and pinched it and wouldn't let go of it.

She looked at him.

He just looked back.

Her look hardened into a glare. "Really?"

He just looked at her.

With an exasperated sigh, she corrected herself. "If it makes you feel THAT much better, 'MISTER CALDWELL ', you can call me 'Madolyn'."

Mr. Caldwell released the bill, and she added it to the stash in her pocket.

---

Bobby was laying across his bed reading at 2:00 when a not-unexpected call came up the hall. "Bobby, can you come out here to help me a minute?"

He ignored it.

After a minute, a flatter, more tired voice called up again, "'Mr. Caldwell', could you come out here to help me a minute?"

Bobby marked his place in his book and strolled up the hall, to be greeted by a very pretty, not-unexpected sight.

Madolyn stood there, shirtless, in just her pants and a black bra. Make no mistake, the bra was practical, no lace or frivolousness to it, but there she stood ... without a shirt ... in just a bra. For her son. For a dollar.

She flushed dark as he stared at her and grinned.

"God, you're beautiful, Madolyn!"

She just closed her eyes and nodded, and held out her hand.

"I mean, you ought to run around like that all the time. You have a REALLY pretty figure, Madolyn."

She kept her eyes shut as she endured this - if she refused to see this happening in her own living room, then maybe she didn't really have admit that it WAS happening. Her, standing here. In just her bra. For her own son. For a dollar.

"God, I can't get over how gorgeous you are!"

Yeah, yeah, just let this be over. Please, God?

"I mean, what are you, Madolyn? A C-cup?"

"Please, can I just have my dollar," she sighed, "'Mr. Caldwell'?"

She opened her eyes, and he was holding a bill out to her. She took it.

"Wait! Wait! Please! Could you ... tuck it in your bra?"

"Gawwd!" she rolled her eyes. Then ... folded the bill and tucked it in the bra cup, just to shut him up.

"That's great! Thank you! I knew you could do it! I'm proud of you, Madolyn!" Then he headed back to his room to continue reading.

And Madolyn was so very disappointed in him. Even more in herself, for doing these things for him for money - but it was easier to dwell on being disappointed in her son.

She pulled the bill back out of her bra cup, and added it to her stash as she headed back to the kitchen to think.

Seven now. Seven dollar bills.

---

Madolyn sat at the kitchen table, staring at her seven dollar bills. Could she? Could she bear to do this?

She ... thought so.

She could ... offer one of these back to Mr. Caldwell, to stop all this shit and to behave himself. She thought she could bear to part with one of her seven bills for that.

And speak of the little bastard - "Madolyn," he called from his room.

Sans blouse, she stood and walked back to his room. "Yes, uhm ... sir?"

He shook his head and grinned when he looked up at her shirtless self. "God, you look great, Madolyn!"

She nodded and endured it.

"Hey, could you go get me a cold beer?"

Because ... his legs must not work as well as hers. So she got to trot and bring him cold beers so he didn't have to walk up the hall.

Or maybe he just wanted to gawk at her bra-clad C-cups. Which ... should SOOO not be on display for the little bastard.

"Yeah, anytime now, Madolyn. Thanks."

With a sigh, she turned and headed back to the kitchen. She got him his damned beer. And she pulled one of her seven dollar bills out, then folded the other six and tucked them into her bra cup.

Then she walked "Mr. Caldwell's" beer back to him.

She handed it to him, then stood there. Bracing herself and hurrying forward in case she had second thoughts, she held the one dollar bill out to him. "Mr. Caldwell, I will ..." she swallowed involuntarily and bludgeoned ahead, "I'll give you a dollar if you stop all this ... stuff ... you're doing and behave yourself." There! She'd done it. "Hmm?"

Mr. Caldwell looked hungrily at the bill like he was seriously considering it. Like he almost couldn't resist doing it. Like she suspected she looked when he made this improper offers to her.

And she'd just turned the tables on the little bastard. She'd KNOWN there was something wrong with these dollar bills! There was something about them that just made people ... DO things. To earn them. They were downright EVIL! But it didn't matter how they worked, she'd figured out how to turn them against-

"Nah," he said and went back to reading.

"H-hungh?" her voice cracked.

"Yeah," he nodded with a tight little smile. "The bill - I don't need it. I'm good."

"But ..."

"Hmm?"

"But I'll ... give you this dollar if you ... if you just behave yourself," she tried again.

"Yeah, I got that," he nodded, then shook his head, "But naw, I'm good."

"But ... but ..." It wasn't working on him ...

"Tell you what, though," he reached for his wallet on the night stand and pulled out a dollar bill. "I'LL give YOU a dollar bill if you sit your bra-clad ass in my lap, Madolyn, and we make out for twenty minutes."

Madolyn ... chewed her lip.

That was how Madolyn came to be sitting in her son's lap, her bra-clad breasts on display for him, while her tongue wriggled around inside his mouth and her hands played around in his hair as sighs occasionally overflowed out of her mouth.

At least the little bastard kept his hands off her bra cups. She'd been afraid he was going to try to get fresh with her like that. But he was being - well, not a perfect gentleman, but at least a non-gropey perverted son.

Of course, she wasn't about to admit that she was ... well, getting sort of ... you know, a girl can't ... neck for that long without ... getting a little ...

Aroused.

Dammit, kissing WAS foreplay, okay? And so maybe she WAS just the slightest bit aroused. Okay?! It was just a physical reaction! Like getting gooseflesh when someone scratched the back of your neck, like ... Mr. Caldwell was doing to her now. And even if her nipples were a little ... perked up - well all that was completely hidden by the practical bra that she had picked out specifically because it covered even more than a bikini top would.

And ... another sigh leaked out of her mouth.