Hacking the Sex Chips

Hacking the Sex Chips.

Part One

       

       Carrie Bleuuwwgenes was worried. Her sister, Hester was going to arrive tomorrow night to visit her for the next month. At Twenty-one, Carrie had boldly

defied her family in general, and her father in particular, and had left the family tract in

Grand Haven, Michigan to take a job in Los Angeles. Her father had raged at her for a week about her leaving their sheltering, conservative Dutch community to take up with “the blasphemers and the fornicators” that he assured her were waiting for her in California and who would immediately drag her God forsaken body (and soul) down to the 7th Circle of Hell, never to be seen or heard from again. He even went so far as to call for a meeting of the sect’s Elders to see if they could convince not to go. They had come over to talk with her three days before she was to leave. For four hours she had sat quietly and listened to everything they said, then quietly rose and gave a one word answer.

               “No.”

       Her mother had tried a softer approach. She had always expected Carrie to stay in Michigan and marry one of the local boys and settle in to their quiet and religious life. As a teenager, she had not run wild as her younger sister, Hester, had been prone to do and so she was very startled when Carrie came to her to say that she was leaving. She had sat her down and commanded that they pray together about it. When the prayer ended, she quietly talked to Carrie, telling her how proud she had been of her when she had finished high school and then had taken the secretarial job with the church. But that her wanting to move was extremely upsetting to her. She asked her to explain why she would want to hurt her so. Carrie began crying saying that she hadn’t meant to hurt any of them but that she felt trapped in their little town and needed to get away for a while. Her mother, hearing her say “for a while”, seized on the words and believing that a glimmer of hope was nigh, hugged her closely.

       “Then you’re only going for a short while.” She said hopefully. She knew Carrie enough that once she had made up her mind to do something there was no turning back. She had her father’s stubbornness. But she felt that if it was only for a short while, then maybe after a week or two, she’d realize the error of her ways and return to the bosom of her family. Afterall, she thought, the Amish people in Pennsylvania sometimes let their young folk take a break or a “Rumspringa”, from their families to sow some wild oats before they return to their church and people. They seem to have no problem with it, so maybe Carrie just needs to get it out of her system, she reasoned. Knowing that she couldn’t talk her out of it, she wisely gave her blessings. That was the end of it, she told her. But she couldn’t convince Carrie’s father.

       As the day drew closer, he became sullen and withdrawn. The Elders had told him that there wasn’t anything they could do, she was an adult and beyond their powers. Enraged at their seeming complicity with her choice he had even stopped by the office of the County Sheriff, to see if he could have her arrested as she went to leave.  The Sheriff, an old friend, had quietly hustled him out of his office and down to the local coffee shop where he sat him down in a back table.  

 

       “Now, Amos Bleuuwwgenes, you need to settle yourself down right this minute. I’m not gonna warrant any damn fool talk about arresting that young daughter of yours, simply because you want to keep her here in Grand Haven.  That kind of talk can get you arrested for conspiracy to kidnap. And I’ve got a nose-bag of a deputy that is just looking to make all sorts of trouble for you. That worthless college graduate ain’t got a lick of common sense about him, but he does have a lot of book learning and has a number of connections that I don’t even want to think about. Connections that if he were to get his nose a twitchin’ could cost you a lot more than just a jail sentence. Yeah, you heard me right, lock you up and throw away the key forever before you knew what hit ya. You don’t know this and I ain’t ever gonna admit it, if you talk, but, well, let me tell you that the Governor herself called me personally at my home to tell me that she expected me to hire him the next day. He’s been a thorn in my side ever since, too…”

       Amos just sat there, feeling defeated by everyone he had expected to help him. He glared at the Sheriff but said nothing. The Sheriff drank down his can of pop and glared back at him. For a long moment, neither man said anything.

       “Amos, don’t you know the world has changed a lot since we was young. Things are different – all this Home Security stuff is making it a lot harder to run things the right way. But one thing is certain – Carrie maybe your oldest daughter and maybe she has to abide by what you command under your roof, but now that she’s twenty-one, she’s an adult and that means if she wants to leave your home, the most you can do is try and talk her out of it. Nothing else, you understand me. I’d hate to have to take you in. Got it?”

       “You bet”

       “Come on, go home, now – I’m gonna forget you ever came to my office.”

       

       Two days later, Carrie got up early and said her goodbyes. Hester had volunteered to drive her to the bus station, saving a big scene at the terminal. An hour later she was heading down Rt. 31 towards Chicago and LA. Tense and tired from her ordeal over the last two weeks, she fell into a fitful sleep, waking sporadically every time the bus pulled into a new town. Her mother had insisted that she prepare all the food she would need for the trip, so other than getting out to stretch her legs every few hours, she had a comfortable trip. Four days later, the bus arrived in LA.

       Hester was coming to visit and that was troublesome. Carrie had been in LA about 6 months now and it was clear that her mother had sent Hester to find out what was going on and maybe stir things up. She shuddered at the thought that she would be pressured to leave what she now considered to be her home.

       She could not have been more wrong.

       [Continued in Part 2]

Hacking the Sex Chips.

Part Two

       Hester practically ran through the gate towards Carrie, as the passengers from her plane disembarked at LAX. She let out a yelp as the two sisters embraced and then with seemingly boundless energy was hustling her older sister through the terminal to the luggage claim area, chattering away about how all of the family missed her and how she had talked their mother into letting her travel out here on her own. Carrie barely managed to get a word in at all. They located and grabbed her large bag off of the carousel. Carrie guided them off to the parking garage and then to her beat-up old Honda Civic. Throwing her bag in the backseat, they drove out of the garage. Hester insisted in paying for the parking fee, despite Carrie’s protesting that she was perfectly able to pay the charge.

       “Now Carrie, I know that you don’t have a lot of money to do this, so Momma gave me extra money to help out with these kinds of things. Afterall, I’m inconveniencing you a lot by coming out here for a month. ” Said Hester quietly.

       Carrie, who had been just making ends meet, was relieved that her sister had jumped in with the offer. She was glad that Hester had decided to come for a visit but she was painfully aware that it would severely strain her meager budget. She took the offered money gratefully. The rest of the trip back to her tiny apartment was uneventful, as Hester talked the entire way. Carrie learned that her father had basically written her out of the family, declaring that he had lost his daughter forever and that only a miracle could ever bring her back home.  He had taken to blaming her for everything that had gone wrong in his life and, in particular, to the most recent crisis of their failing crops. She noted, cryptically, that the farm had been slowly going under for at least 10 years, well before she had even thought of leaving. Her mother had now lapsed into a depressed state and had also resigned herself into believing that Carrie would never return, or at least not while she was still alive. She had taken to muttering that she couldn’t go on any longer now that Carrie had left them all. She would also set a place at the table for the absent Carrie, and forbade anyone entering her bedroom – declaring that she had to keep it as it had been the day she left, as, if she ever came back, she would need it preserved as it had been.

       The rest of the family was also rapidly sliding into a depression. But her younger sisters, Katherine and Mary, had thrilled to reading the bi-weekly letters she had sent home and were quietly steeling themselves to decide to leave once they came of age, like her. The boys, Joshua and Amos, Jr. wished that they could leave too, but their father, fearing their defection, kept them both on a very short leash and watched them constantly.  He refused to allow them to go anywhere unless he was present, even going so far as to demand that they give up their girl friends, so that they couldn’t influence their thoughts. Both appealed to their mother and she had forced their father to back down – but this made him even worse and he took to following them even when they went on dates.

       Secretly, Carrie was surprised at these reactions, although she had expected her parents to be very upset.  And this made her even more suspicious of why Hester had been allowed to come for a visit. Something was up, but she wasn’t sure what it might be. She concentrated on negotiating through all the heavy traffic on the Freeways and eventually she pulled up to her tiny bungalow in a older section of LA. It wasn’t poor but it had seen, sadly, better days.  But the rent was about the cheapest one she could find and her landlord, an older woman, had been pleasant to deal with, although she was rather nosey and always stared at her chest whenever Carrie went to drop off her rent check once a month. She also had the unnerving habit of just walking into the bungalow at odd days and hours. Carrie had twice been caught by her as she was just stepping out of the shower in just the last month. Her landlord, Mrs. Robertson, or rather “Miss Pamela”, as she preferred to be called, was walking back towards the tiny bathroom when Carrie looked up to see her. Dripping wet, she quickly grabbed for the towel hanging next to the shower stall, and tried to cover her self and nearly falling over at the same time. She let out a little shriek, more out of surprise rather than fear. 

       Miss Pamela at once shushed her and said loudly;

       “Oh for goodness’ sakes, child, you’d have thought that you were stripping off for a bunch of naked men. I’m just a girl just like you – You ain’t got anything different than I’ve got!” 

               

But she made sure that she watched Carrie towel herself off and start to

brush her hair. After a couple of minutes of being watched while only in her towel, Carrie finally worked up the nerve to ask Miss Pamela the obvious question of why she was there so early in the morning. 

 

       “Oh, well to tell you the truth, Pumpkin, I got a notice from the Water Department swaying that there had been excessive water use here and I wanted to see for myself if you were wasting water or not. But seeing that you took such a short shower, I guess my fears were for nothing. By the way, why was that shower so short? I’m surprised you could get clean in that little time, much less wash that beautiful hair of yours. So,

come ‘on, time to fess up…”

       “I’ve always taken short showers, Miss Pamela,” said Carrie quietly. “Ever since I was a little girl, I guess. Momma said that my body was the Lord’s Temple and that I shouldn’t touch myself exceptin’ to rub soap on me and my hair – and then spray it all off. Anything else and I would be like a harlot and hurting Jesus”…

       “Holy Sh-t, Pumpkin, what the heck did they put into your head back there in Michigan? That is just so wrong, that is just so wrong…”

       “I need to keep myself pure for my husband. My Church taught me that and I don’t want to make them mad by doing bad things.” Carrie told Miss Pamela in a tone of voice that meant she was done with this conversation.

       When she had first met with her, she had confessed to the older woman that her leaving her family was the worst thing she could have done and she was sure that Jesus was weeping up in heaven. Miss Pamela had gently told her that she shouldn’t be so hard on herself, that it was okay, and that Jesus couldn’t be upset or else how could she explain the job she had gotten with her church’s west coast headquarters. That surely had do be the Lord’s doing, she added, and therefore he was happy she had come to California. Carrie finally agreed and soon felt better about having moved here.

       But she hadn’t said anything to Hester as they drove to her home. She wanted to tell her, but no time seemed right to bring it up in conversation. Maybe she wouldn’t burst in, she worried, and maybe that was just a coincidence that she came over in the mornings. She pulled into the tiny driveway and parked the car,

       Before she could say “Here we are!” Hester leaped from the car and ran around to the front porch. She started jumping up and down frantically, squealing in excitement. Carrie thought she was just excited about seeing her place for the first time but then a groan came from the porch. She knew what that meant.

       “Hurry, Carrie – I can’t hold it anymore… Please… I have to go really, really bad…”

       Carrie quickly dragged Hester’s large bag from the backseat and pulled it up the tiny walkway and onto the porch. She fumbled for her door keys and then quickly let her sister rush in.

       

       “It’s towards the back of the house. Go through the bedroom and it’s right there.”

       She heard the door bang shut and then a faint “Thank You!”.  She drug the large suitcase back to the bedroom and with great effort managed to get it on the bed. Dropping into the large, overstuffed chair next to her tiny desk, she closed her eyes and let the breeze from the window gently waft over her. She heard the toilet flush and then the faucets run. Then with a rush, Hester burst out of the bathroom and into the bedroom. She looked around but Carrie was sitting in the only chair in the room. Shrugging her shoulders she clambered onto the bed, stuffing a pillow behind her so she could lean back comfortably against the head board. The two sisters just sat and enjoyed the cool breeze from the window for a while.

       Hester spoke first.

       “Well, I like what you’ve done with the bedroom but I’d love to see the rest of your place, Sis”

       Without opening her eyes, Carrie said:

       “I’m glad you like it. I put a lot of work into it. It’s nice to have someone to show it off to, finally”

       “You mean no one has come visit you at all since you came out here?” Hester was staring at her wide eyed. “Why I don’t believe that, Carrie Anne. You were one of the most popular girls in all of Grand Haven.”

       “Yeah, well, Hester, my job runs me six days a week and between rent and food and gas, I don’t have anything extra to do anything at all. And I don’t get a chance to meet anyone as the few young people at work just stick to themselves and don’t include me at all. So I have decided to make my work my life. Now, for the tour you wanted of the bungalow, if you look back towards the front door, you can see what serves as my kitchen and dining room, on the left side. On the right side is my couch, where I’m going to be sleeping while you’re here, and my fancy second hand coffee table and thats my living room. And that’s all there is.”

       “Carrie, I don’t want to take your bed from you. I’ll take the couch.”

       “Hester, I can’t do that – the bed is yours. And that’s my final word on it.”

       “Carrie, you know I can’t take your bed for a month. Look its big enough for both of us, if you don’t mind sharing it with my big old Klompen feet”.

       “Now Hester, you know that that is just not right. Nor is it proper. What would Momma say, if she found out?”

       “How’s Momma gonna find out unless you tell her, ‘cause I sure ain’t gonna say nothing” Hester shot back at her, a loopy grin on her face. She wasn’t about to make her sister have to give up her bed, just because her mother might find out about it. And who cares if she does find out, she thought. After a few minutes when neither sister said anything, Hester cleared her throat…

       “So, Carrie, what’s fun to do around here on a Saturday night?”

       “I don’t know – like I said, I’ve never been out at all on a Saturday night, since I got here. Remember, I don’t have a lot of money to spend on such things.”

       “Carrie, you silly old thing, we don’t need any money to have a good time. Let’s go out tonite. I want to see just how bad this city really is! But first, can we get something to eat? I am like starving to death, I swear the food on that plane was worse than the Dutch Kitchen back in Grand Haven, remember how awful that place was??”

       “Well, I bought a few things thinking we could eat in tonite, as I thought you might be tired from the flight. I can heat that up, if you like.”

       “Sure, whatever – that would be fine – then lets get dressed up and hit the town.”

       “Hester, I have no idea of any place we could go to – I’ve just never been out at all.”

       “That’s okay, sis, I think I know of a place we could go hang out at. It’s supposed to be really cool and very hip.”

       “— And just how do you know of a cool place. You’ve only been here a couple of hours, for goodness sakes.”

       “Ahh… , well… , uhmm… , I met this guy on the plane and, well, he was pretty cute, he sat next to me all the way out and we just talked and talked… and he said that he knew some pretty hot clubs where we could meet up. He gave me his number and said to call him if we wanted to go out. He gave me his card and everything…” Hester grabbed her purse and started to rummage through it. Not finding what she was looking for, she suddenly turned it over and emptied its contents onto the comforter.  Then after spreading everything around, she suddenly seized a cream colored business card and held it up to Carrie.

       “Here, this is his card. His name is Derek Stone. He’s the head of Marketing for this computer type company. He was really sweet.”

       “Hester, how do you know he’s really who he says he is?” Carrie said a bit annoyed with Hester’s enthusiasm about some guy she met on a plane. She had always had this wild streak when it came to boys and she hadn’t ever changed.

       “It says it on his card?” Hester giggled and then looked up to see Carrie’s stern face. The giggling stopped and she frowned at her older sister.

       “Carrie, I did check on him, when he fell asleep for about an hour, after we had that awful lunch they served us. I know I shouldn’t have but I opened up his brief-case and read some of the reports that he was carrying. And I also watched him do stuff on his laptop, when he thought I was asleep.”

       “Sis, that is not right, you know you shouldn’t spy on someone like that. I don’t approve of this at all and I think we should just stay in tonite.”

       “Carrie, this is my first night here in California, surely you wouldn’t want me to have to spend it in a tiny little house, would you?”

       “No, I guess not… But, well, I don’t know if this is the wisest thing to do – I mean you only just met this guy. He could be one of those criminals that murders women like you. I’m not sure it’s safe to go meet him…and besides, do you know where this club is located… I don’t want to be driving all over LA at night on a, a wild goose chase, you know?”

       “Carrie, would you just chill out? Derek said all I had to do was call him and he’d tell us where to go. It couldn’t be any simpler – so, let’s do this, Okay?”

       “I don’t know…”

       “Good, that’s settled – I’m calling him… Derek? Hi, it’s Hester – you know, from the plane…oh, good, we finally got to Carrie’s house … yeah, it’s pretty cool and she has been so nice to me ever since I got here, so I thought it would be fun for us to get out and party with you… What, you think that would be cool too? Great! Oh, and do you know any cute guys for my sister, you know the one whose picture I showed you on the plane? Yeah, that’s right, the ‘Hottie’… Oh, you have a friend for her – Trevor de Alembert? From your office? Sounds a bit cheesy, don’t you think? Ha! Ha! – No, I’m just joking with you…, no, really, he sounds perfect for her.  Yeah, she’s agreed to do this – I’ll get her there, I promise…Now, quick send me the address of Club Z so we can race over there….Cool, got it… can’t wait to see ya, bye!”

       Hester folded up the cell phone and slipped it into her bag. She looked over at Carrie who was just staring into her lap while squeezing a small throw pillow like she was trying to choke it. She did not look happy.

       “Hey Carrie, sis, we got to get ready – Derek is expecting us by 9:00 PM and we have to figure out how to get there too.”

       

[Continued in Part 3]