Berkley furniture was a manufacturer of fine hand made wood furniture and
Alec Conyers was one of those who did the making. He was fifty years old,
tall, strong with big hands that looked clumsy but were in fact very delicate
and skilled with wood. His speciality was work on hand carving table and chair
legs and much of that work began with placing a long square piece of exotic
wood on the lathe to be turned down to the approxamate roundness and thickness
of the leg Alec was working on. With the length of wood turning at high speed
on the lathe Alec would use his chisels and gouges to shape the pleasing curves
and smooth sweeps of the leg, then he would remove the leg and finish the hand
work details on it– carve the claws at the foot or the leaf patterns that ran
up it or the gargoyle faces at the top where it connected with the table.
One of the things that Alec loved about his work was that the raw wood had
the most delicious aromas as it was worked. The smoke from the chisel held
against the turning wood in the lathe was sweet, and the saw dust and chips
from the carving held an intoxicating and sensual aroma that could almost make
Alec’s head spin like opium fumes. He was so addicted to that aroma that he
would even take his coffee breaks sitting beside his lathe to smell the
wonderful mixture of strong rich coffee as it mixed with the sweet resinous
aroma of worked wood.
There was another reason Alec took his coffee breaks at his lathe.
At the Berkley furniture company the plant was down stairs and the offices
were on the floor above. There were two ways to reach the offices. There was
a steel mesh stairway inside the plant which lead up to an office door, but
that stairway was always covered with saw dust so those people who worked in
the office and wore nice suits and dresses seldom entered by that stairway.
Instead they entered via a steel mesh stairway which ran up the outside of the
building. That stairway made a diagonal crossing of the large window situated
right behind Alec Conyer’s lathe, and it just so happened that his morning
coffee break fell just at the time when the seceretaries, three of them, were
reporting for work. Each day Alec would sit behind his lathe, beneath his
window enclouded in the resinous aroma of worked wood and strong coffee and he
would look up as the secretaries climbed the steel mesh stair case to the
office. Each day he would see flashes and glimpes of smooth legs, shiny
stockings, and white and pink and red and black lace panties, and he would sigh
at the loveliness of those velvet thighs and imagine himself kneeling between
them. Imagine the feel of them against his rough but skillfully delicate
hands. Imagine the silky touch of them against his cheeks. Imagine the salty
sweet taste of that flesh on his lips and tongue.
The secretaries either did not know or did not care that Alec was there
beneath the staircase for they never moved to the other side or held their
dresses tight against their legs when they climbed the stairs, but neither did
they take even a momentary pause as they went up, only climbed up to their work
showing Alec only flickers of themselves as they passed. And life went on like
that for years until Betty came to work for Berkley furniture.
Betty Parsons was not a young girl. She was 43 but she kept herself well
and dressed nicely. She did not wear much make up, mostly just a little around
her eyes to bring out the color of them. There was an unconscious magnitism to
her. When Betty walked into the a room men’s eyes turned toward her even
though there were other, younger women at hand.
Alec felt that magnatism from the first day he set eyes on Betty. She
walked up the stairs alone on her first day and Alec glimpsed her long shapely
legs from his place behind the lathe. They gathered all his attention, making
him forget where he was. Until then he had always been discreet, only looking
for the short length of time the secretaries were in his view as he sat, but
with this woman he felt he had to see more. He stood and put his face against
the window to look longer at Betty. She walked up the stairs with deliberate
steps and as she lifted her knee to take the next step Alec could see a
tantalizing flash up her bright yellow skirt that kindled a fire in his
middle, Fingers of that fire reached down into his loins, causing his manhood
to swell, and up into his throat causing his mouth to go dry. This Betty was
so beautiful! Her legs were long and slim and she wore high reach stockings
rather than panty hose. Alec could see the darker tops and just above those
tops the white flesh of her legs, and all beneath the skirt was tinted with the
sunny yellow aura of light filtered through the yellow cloth the skirt of which
it was made. Alec let his eyes carress those thighs all the way to the top —
to the triangle of lace that swelled as it covered Betty’s treasure.
At the top of the stairs Betty turned a little to look back and down and
her eyes met Alec’s for a second. Alec was both electrified and petrified by
those eyes. Having his eyes locked to them sent a shock down him that exploded
behind his testicles. His mouth went dry and his knees went weak. It was as
though Betty were looking into his guts and seeing all the blood in him flowing
toward his engorging manhood.
And then she smiled a smile all full of rich promising sweetness that was
gone in an instant and she went into the office.
For several days after that first day Alec did his best to be waiting
behind his lathe when Betty came in each day and when she came out for lunch
and on many of those days Betty was as accomodating as she had been that firsrt
day. She wore beautiful cloths that allowed Alec to study her body as though
he was studying an artist’s model. Her underclothing, which she always made
sure Alec had a chance to study, was always frilly, lacy, and heart breakingly
feminine. It made Alec want to rush out onto the stairs and bury his face
between those cream white thighs and worship that barely hidden treasue with a
thousand kisses. But at the same time he was afraid that if he made some move
to actually meet Betty it would destroy the fantasy they had built for
themselves, so he contented himself with worshipping her through the window.
One day Alec was working on a piece of oak which would become the curved
and clawed leg of a table. The piece turned in his lathe and he applied his
rough chisel to begin the shaping process. The chips and sawdust flew from
the spinning piece of wood and the aroma of cut oak rolled up to encloud him.
“I love the smell of worked wood,” A deep female voice said.
Alec looked up to see Betty dressed in a dark gray business suit standing
on the other side of his lathe. A pearl gray satin blouse with a high collar
showed beneath the open coat.
Alec was caught speechless for a moment. He swallowed hard and managed to
say, “Yes, so do I.”
“I envy you being able to be around it all day,” She said and turned
away. She was out of ear shot before Alec could think of anything more to say.
He began calling himself an idiot and fool and tried to get up the courage to
go after her, but he could not do it. He was so afraid the fantasy, which was
so perfect, would collapse if he pushed the reality of his life into it. As
things stood the fantasy was perfect.
At last he gave up thoughts of going after her or of speaking to her any
more. He contented himself with worshiping her through the window, but
thoughts about what she had said danced through his mind. The smell of worked
wood. . . .
A few days later Alec sat behind his lathe at lunch time and when Betty
came out onto the stairs and sat down he almost dropped his coffee. Betty was
wearing the same yellow skirt she had worn that first day, and she wore the
same high reach stockings, but the triangle at the top of the thighs was not
covered with any man made material. At the top of those thighs Betty’s Delta
of Venus was covered with nothing but silken pubic curls. The sight drove the
very breath out of his lungs! Her feminity was completely exposed to him and
it was so beautiful it made him want to cry. The shapely swelling of the
outside lips were like the folded flesh of a delicate orchid, open to the touch
of butterflies. The coral pink inner lips were a little swollen and they
pushed the outer lips open to show themselves glistening with feminine honey.
The Clitoris was like a rare pink pearl set atop a wrapping of rose petals.
And all, all was gilded with the golden light shining through Betty’s yellow
skirt.
It was so beautiful! She was so beautiful! The sight of her opened sex
was so worship inducing, so awe inspiring that Alec had to close his eyes for a
moment to let his mind absorb the sight, but when he once again opened his
eyes she was gone. Like a goddess showing herself for only an instant before
returning to paradise Betty had shown him the deepest most mystic secret of her
worship and disappeared.
The glimpse of the valley of paradise Betty had given him was a gift more
precious than any Alec had ever recieved, and it called for some return
offering worthy of it. But what? What? Then he remembered. She had said she
loved the smell of worked wood. That would be his gift!
Alec spent days looking for what he wanted. At last he found it. A piece
of aromatic sandelwood. A wood so precious that it’s scent was used in
perfumes, so precious it had almost been destroyed by greedy men who wanted the
aroma so much that they cut down forests of it to ship it to the far corners of
the earth. Alec found a piece in a small art shop. It was not very big but
big enough for what he wanted.
Alec spent hours hand turning and carving and shaping and rubbing the
sandelwood so that it would be smooth as glass. And what should be its shape?
What shape would be perfect for worship of the goddess? He made it into an
aromatic carving of an erect male member.
When the carving was finished Alec made a special case of heart cedar and
lined the case with deep scarlet velvet cloth and wrapped the box in expensive
gold paper.
The next day Alec went up the inside stairs to the office before any of
the office workers had come in. He found Betty’s desk and left the gold
wrapped box sitting in the middle of the desk blotter. He left no note or
signature. He swallowed hard, wondering if he was doing the right thing but
the sweet ache in his heart told him that for good or ill this was something he
had to do. He hurried back down to his lathe and went to work.
When the buzzer for early coffee break sounded Alec got his coffee and
returned to his lathe. He was just in time to watch Betty climb the stairs.
She did her characteristic pause to let Alec admire her legs and he smiled wide
knowing what was waiting for her. She went in and Alec could only stand with
his loins throbbing and his mouth open looking up toward the door. When the
buzzer that signaled the end of coffee break went off he was still standing at
the window enraptured by the memory of Betty.
He waited impatiently for the lunch break and when it came he seated
himself in his usual place to wait for the goddess of the stairs to come out to
her worshiper. . . .but the minutes ticked by and Betty did not come out. Soon
the lunch break was over and Betty still had not come out.
Oh god I have offended her Alec thought. She’ll never come out and let
me look again!
He was crushed. How could I have been so stupid! Why didn’t I leave things
alone?
After a few moments of waiting he opened his lunch box, unwrapped the
sandwich in it and without taking his eyes off the stair case he began to eat.
The other secretaries came out and three or four men came out with them but
Betty did not come. Alec was heart broken. His sandwich lost all taste and he
looked down to begin to re-wrap it. Some sound called his attention from
wrapping and he looked up to see another secretary from the office coming down
the inside stairs. She was carrying the gold wrapped package. She made her
way to the lathe by the window and when she reached it she extended the box to
Alec. “Betty sent this,” she said.
Alec took the box. “Did she say anything? Send any message?” he asked.
“No. Just said to bring this to the guy at the lathe by the window.”
“Oh. Well, thank you,” he said.
The girl smiled at him and turned away.
Alec sat down on his stool and looked at the package. It had been opened.
He could tell because the paper was a little torn and wrinkled. He sighed and
tore the paper the rest of the way off then opened the cedar case, and when he
did the aroma of sandelwood rose up, but that heady aroma was mixed with an
aroma of ancient seas and crushed violets more mouth watering than the finest
cavier. Tied to the sandelwood phallus with a white silk ribbon was a folded
piece of paper. He unfolded it and found the words, “This is wonderful, but
flesh would be better.” It was signed Betty and inside the folded message was
a tiny curl clipped from her Delta of Venus.
When the end of the work day buzzer sounded Alec busily shut down his
lathe and prepared to go home. There was a glow in his middle as he thought of
Betty and his gift and it took his mind off what he was doing.
“I do adore the aroma of worked wood,” a well recognized deep feminine
voice said. Alec looked up to find Betty standing across the Lathe from him.
She held out her hand to him.