The Strapford Wives
Sunday, September 30th, 2007The Strapford Wives.
© 2007, by Patty
Prologue….
Leatherwood Heights, was a high end planned community situated northwest of San Antonia TX in the beautiful rolling “Hill Country” region of the state. It was the last of three interconnected yet individually self sufficient and distinct planned communities that collectively nestled into well over 100,000 acres of the rough and beautiful landscape. Hickory Trails, with its 2,800 – 4,000 foot homes sprawled back into properties reached via quaint rolling back roads and each was the first to complete. The man with the master plan remarked regularly that in five years, not one of the first families who bought in had yet chosen to move on, and many had turned down lucrative opportunities in favor of staying put. Birch Terraces, a meandering blend of town houses and 2,000 square foot cottages that surrounded a small natural lake and wound their way up into the hills along the grades established over centuries by run off creeks was second, and it was also fully occupied.
Shortly after his stellar performance selling concept communities to the tired suburbanites of Newark New Jersey, Colin found himself transferred to San Antonio. That’s where he met Jerry Breedlove. The man with the vision to create rural communities with all of the natural benefits of quiet, privacy, enriching surroundings and each with a small carefully planned ‘pseudo’ city center accessible on foot or very short drive to all residents.
In his vision, flexible grocers could stock the best produce and bulk items and through cruise ship like contracts easily obtain the most exotic of specialty items overnight. A hardware store stocked the usual and could get the one-of items within 24 hours. Each city center offered cozy a book store café/diner where friends and coffee clutches could meet and greet. And then there were a select few specialty clothing and linen outlets. To satisfy the residual nomadic habits of the suburban dwellers each phase of Breedlove’s plan offered some shops the others could order from overnight, but didn’t specialize in. It didn’t take long al all for residences of Birch Terraces to know that their milliner could obtain and produce the same quality available at the store front in Hickory Trails.
These communities had only two levels of school; Kindergarden through 8th grade and then high school. Initially this was a volume consideration. Attracting the best teachers was primary, keeping classes manageable was essential – Several systems including Canada had always used this two school model, and history documented well the success of the one school model. The two school model suited Breedlove’s ideals. Keeping the 6th through 8th graders with the K through 5th together without question, eliminated the significant reactive disciplinary issues middle schools were prone to, and keeping the older kids with the youngsters had the unexpected effect of fostering pride in leadership and respect. Nearly nil drop out rates in the Breedlove community schools had recently begun to draw the attention of the state. Colin brought home all the brochures for Gabby to peruse. Some things appealed to her, but coming to TX from Jersey had already been a bit of a shock.
She felt the Castle Hills townhouse they were in now was insular enough. She was already pleased with the trendy clothes, trendy food, the most accommodating grocers & hardware store’s ever, and yet if she wanted to have variety without knowing what she really wanted, there was downtown and the North Star Mall. “This place is fine honey,” she pushed the plush sales folders away the first few times Colin brought them up.
For Gabby the move from Jersey to TX had been a frightening adjustment. At first she’d feared she would have to give up her job, but as it turned out the company that owned her paper also owned The San Antonio Express News, so transferring was relatively easy. Still, the culture was so different. Every day women would come up to her and touch her face and long strawberry blond hair then make the sign of the cross and mutter something. At first it freaked her out and then someone sweet explained “the evil eye and coveting” to her.
“Unless they touch you and confess to God, their envy could bring you harm. When they admire your looks, your hair, your, intelligence, anything, even your outfit, owning their envy and asking for God’s understanding, is considered courtesy. Touching you is less an invasion as it is a blessing.” Gabby took a while to absorb that, but had finally come to terms with it. It was the handling of her lithe tow headed 7 and 9 year old kids that freaked her out most at first. The kids were in school now and the unexpected touching of their hair and arms had become less frequent.
“So why another move. so soon?” she resisted, when Colin brought moving into a Breedlove community up again a week later. She thought she’d made sure Colin understood, and even let herself ease into comfort that he’d accepted and agreed with her reasoning.
Leatherwood Heights was very high end. “3,200 – 5,800 square foot homes wound up, around and over several hills. Each enjoyed babbling brooks (creek run off) and landscape plans that almost exclusively used local growth embellished minimally and seamlessly with imported trees and shrubs. Gabby worried they would get in over their head.
Most of the lots and completed units were already taken. The offer Colin eventually put in front of her seemed surreal. A 5 bedroom, three bath home, 4,000 sq ft. A built out patio with gas or charcoal grill, lap pool with hot tub and marked connections to 26 miles of hiking trails - his commissions already exceeded the required down payment and applied enough equity to reduce the mortgage to a fixed rate 15 year term that was less than they now paid in rent.
“How?” she stammered when he calmly laid out the possibility.
“What, you have no faith in me?” he bristled.
“No! That’s not it at all! I have complete faith in you. It’s just how do we rate such luxury so cheap? That’s all,” she thought her response was fair.
“Do you know how much money I’ve made this company on this project and the new one they’ve just started in Austin? They can pay me in salary that we can bank, or they can let me invest the added salary in tax deductible property. You tell me? Do we buy a dream home and gain significant tax savings or just take the raise and give it all to Uncle Sam? Colin moved in close to cuddle.
“What if we looked around and bought a house nearer here? Wouldn’t we still save in taxes?
“Not on the property and school tax deductions though honey. This is more house than we could get on our own,” Colin soothed her hair back and pulled her cheeks so he could kiss her face.
“It just feels off Colin.” Gabby tried to relax into her husband’s embrace.
“We’ve worked for it Gab,” he kissed her cheeks.
“You have. Will I get to keep my job?”
“Absolutely, that’s the benefits of journalism and the internet. You write lifestyle articles right? What better lifestyle to write about than the new wave ‘self contained’ planned community, especially these three? Wind, solar and water power have effectively taken the community off the power grid. Local producers keep our grocers in strawberries, peaches, nectarines, aloe, an unrivalled variety of veggies. Warm up to it Gab. Get to know the cheese & wine makers, eat with the spring lettuce folks, and press some of the wild olives from your own front yard. You’re so good at that stuff already. You write about it already,” he cut off discussion taking her mouth with his tongue.
What could she say? It was a big step up for their family. Only an idiot would argue the intelligence.There was an edge to the sex that night. For the first time Gabby felt taken. Colin took the lead and maintained it. He made her come. Not an unusual thing at all, but it was the way he went about it. She felt like he owned her.
A part of her reveled in it, and part of her trembled behind the secrets his overtures tickled and woke up. “He’s mine” she smiled, but a more powerful unspoken undertone was, ‘I’m his.’
As their nuzzling progressed to lovemaking, her questions about money were answered with spicy slaps to her bottom, and then something brand new between them evolved from there. Her questions about the changes all of them were going to face were answered by a much firmer spanking.
“It’s not going to be impossible Gabby, your boys will manage just fine, you’ll manage. Put- your- mind- to- making- it- work- and- we’re- all-in- good- shape!”
“We deserve this Gabriella and I’m asking you to help make it work!”Colin had played with spanking before this was the first time he’s tried to bring home a point with it.
Gabby’s mind spun. Part of her wanted to rebel against having been worn down, tricked to acquiesce to decisions about their lives that she now sensed were made before she’d even agreed to move to TX. A larger part of her wanted to trust the man she loved, and then there was a niggling secret sliver of her being that felt something nameless – something more than anticipation, something akin to thrill.
****
In three weeks the movers sealed the last carton of their family’s worldly possessions and Gabby herded two excited boys into the SUV with the few items they insisted had to be brought in person to their new home and what was to become a new life in the planned community of Leatherwood Heights.
To say that Gabby’s world was about to change was an understatement….
