It was a warm sunny Thursday and the Beatles were singing, "Lucy in the sky" on the oldies station. I was working on old Matt’s combine in my shop when I felt someone standing beside me. I glanced down through the framework of the machine, it was easier then trying to back out, and discovered bare, brown feet firmly planted on the floor. I studied the feet for a moment, noting a few tiny white scar lines that told me this person went barefoot most of the time. Suddenly I realized I hadn’t seen those feet in four years. It was odd that Lucy was on not only the radio, but also standing in my shop. Slowly I pulled myself out of the machinery and stood up.

"Hi," she spoke first, a bit shy and wanting to get it out.

"Hi, yourself," I said with a grin as I glanced around looking for hubby. She noted my search with a puzzled glance.

"What are you looking for?"

"Your husband."

"No husband, we broke up before it happened." Somehow she sounded both sad and pleased at the same time.

I just nodded; not sure if I wanted to hear the story.

"Coffee?" I asked I wiped my hands on a rag.

"Sure."

I motioned toward the door. Lucy hadn’t changed much, thin, tall dark, black hair and dark eyes. She was dressed almost exactly the way she had been the last time I’d seen her, barefoot, cutoffs--very short cutoffs, and a simple piece of cloth tied around her chest covering her small firm breasts. We met in fourth grade and when the time came, we went to an alternative high school. Public school had been a hell for her, but high school where they didn’t mind if she went barefoot to class was heaven. The summer she turned 16 and I turned 17 we became lovers at a school sponsored camp. After high school, she had gone off to college with the promise of staying touch. I went to a vocational school and became a mechanic. Within six months I got word that she was getting married and I never heard from her again.

In the kitchen, my father built the shop first and when the shack we called home burned, he put an addition on the shop and we moved in. After my mother ran off and he died I rebuilt the place and now it was a nice comfortable home. I put the coffee on and turned to her. She had parked herself on the window seat where my cat often slept in the morning sun.

"How have you been?"

"Good. It’s nice to be back home." Lucy spoke while she stared out the window.

"Are you living in your folks' place?"

"Yes, I couldn’t give it up so I bought it from the estate. My sister didn’t want to live there and only wanted the money."

I nodded and poured the coffee. Her sister Grace had been a bitch in school and I was glad I hadn’t seen her since graduation.

"And you Randy -- how are you doing?" She was watching me, the yard ignored.

I handed her a mug of coffee.

"Fine, I guess. I don’t think about it much -- life you know. I guess I’m just to busy working."

"I’ve missed you," she paused and studied her coffee as if it could tell her what she wanted to say next. When she looked up I saw tears in her eyes. "I loved you -- hell I still love you, but I had to get away and I knew that if I didn’t go to college I’d never get out of this town."

"But you're back." I ignored the love part, yeah I still loved her, but I was still pissed at how she'd left me. I had to agree that the town didn’t offer her much. She is smartest person I’d ever know. I guess when you came down to it I didn’t have much, beyond myself to offer. I did like my life. I didn’t earn much money, but I got to help people and there always seemed to be someone stopping by to talk.

"Well I guess people change and grow up. I started a small business, but I found I missed the farm and after mom died I knew I had to come back," Lucy went on.

"Is this a social visit or can I help you?" I was having trouble figuring out my feelings for this beautiful woman. As I said, I still loved her, but could we make it work, did I want it to work. I could’ve had my pick of any of the single women in town. Oh, it wasn’t because I’m good looking or rich, it’s just single men are few and far in-between around here. But none of the women got to me the way Lucy had.

Lucy pulled a piece of paper out of her shorts, got up and laid on the kitchen table. I looked over her shoulder as she smoothed it out.

"What is it and what does it do?" It appeared to be a hollow cone with some sort of screw threaded in the top and four L shaped wires in the bottom. I guess the best description I can use is to say it looked like a large old fashion cork puller. You know the kind you put over the top of a wine bottle. "Yeah I think I can build it. What do you want me make it out of?"

"Do you have any aluminum?"

"I’ve got a couple of pieces kicking around. How soon do you need it?"

"No big rush, maybe by the weekend if you can do it?"

"Sure, I’ll work on it tonight."

"Thanks, I owe you." She got up and put the empty coffee cup in the sink.

"Ok, I’ll have to think of a way you can repay me. Do you want me to call you or stop over when they are finished?"

"I don’t have a phone yet. Will it be ok if I stop in?"

"You’re welcome anytime."

With a wave she pushed open the screen door and stepped into the yard. Her feet kicked up little puffs of dust as she walked. It had been a dry summer so far. When she reached the fence line, she climbed over the stile into Teddy’s cornfield.

I didn’t have time to work on them Thursday, but Friday I spent a few hours working on them. I wasn’t sure what I was making, but the blueprints were great. Saturday morning she walked in around 8 and I gave them to her. She didn’t say much and seemed agitated. She did give me her new phone number, said "Thanks," again and walked out.

Around 10 I stopped for coffee. I was working on an old New Holland bailer that had been dumped off a trailer. Like most of my customers, the owner wasn’t rich so I couldn’t charge him what the job was really worth. The phone rang and I picked it up. I was Lucy and she seemed more agitated then she had been earlier and without preliminaries she asked;

"Larry? Please come over, I need some help."

"Sure, how about lunch?" I though I could hear tears in her voice.

"NO, please come right now."

"Ok, I’ll be right over." I couldn’t figure out what the rush was, but I’d soon find out. It was a five-mile drive out to her place.

Lucy’s family had lived on the farm for several generations. It was a beautiful place set part way up the side of a hill over looking a river valley. The house was weather beaten and showed its age. A wide porch ran across the front of the house. I parked my VW bug -- what did you expect, a pickup? Well the bug is more then 30 years old and I like it. Oh, I do have a work truck. Anyway I walked up to the front door and knocked. The screen door was closed, but the front door was open. A voice called for me to come in from somewhere in side. Lucy called again directing me to the kitchen. I was shocked by what I found! She was nude except for a collar and cuffs around her ankles connected by a chain. I couldn’t see her hands they were hidden behind her. On her breasts were the cones I’d made. Her eyes followed my every move as I walked over to inspect how they were attached. She had hooked the wires into her nipples and then screwed the shaft out pulling her nipples away from her breasts. It sure looked painful and judging by the tears in her eyes it clearly was. I looked behind her and found her hands were cuffed behind her.

In a soft voice she said. "Please take them off."

I could have played dumb and made her wear them longer, but I didn’t and quickly removed the cones.

"Thanks," she said with a sigh, "I dropped the keys."

Lucy pointed with her toe towards the register over the hot air duct in the floor. I pulled up the register and reached into the air duct. It took a minute to find them. Pulling them out I held them up for her to see. She gave me a wonderful smile.

"Thanks. I owe you again."

"You’re welcome. Where do you keep them?"

"On the hook over the sink."

I hung them up and checked the clock, "How about lunch?"

"Sure, but you are going to have to make it." She gave a shrug to indicate that her hands were still cuffed behind her back. "There are some cold cuts and other stuff in the fridge."

I dug around and found making for sandwiches.

"So what’s with the cuffs?"

She gave me a quizzical look and said; "It makes me feel good. I can’t really explain it, but I always knew there was something missing in my life. When I started college, I had to use the internet for research. I kept turning up self-bondage sites and the idea really fascinated me. So I started collecting gear, ideas and began to experiment. Today is the first time I’ve ever been totally stuck."

"This stuff is on the net?"

"Of course, how could you miss it online?"

I laughed; "I don’t own a computer and I’ve never surfed the net. Lunch is ready."

I carried a plate of sandwiches and two beers out to tree in the yard. A rickety table under the tree sat in an angle formed by a small stream and the river. Lucy followed me out to the table. I was surprised how well she was able to walk in the leg irons. Of course, I had to feed her. Between bites, we talked about old times and the things that had happened to us. After we finished I picked up the dishes and put them in the sink.

"I’ve got a few things to," I told her, she was still sitting at the table, "at work. You going to be ok?"

"Yeah I should be ok." She gave a great smile.

I jumped in the VW and headed to work.

About four, the phone rang for the fifth or sixth time. "Hello?"

"Larry, its Lucy."

"Oh hi again." I smiled into the phone. "How are you doing?"

"Ah, not so good."

"You didn’t put the cones back on again?"

"No, I’m not ready to try that again. I can’t reach the keys. I wasn’t thinking when I told you to hang them up."

"I see, well I’m too busy to run over to your place right now, but if you want to come over here for dinner it should be ready in an hour or so."

There was dead silence on the line. I waited a few seconds.

"Lucy?" I asked into the phone. "Are you still there?"

"Yeah, but, but you want me walk all the way over there like this?"

"Sure, why not? You said you were really into this sort of thing. It’s only a mile and half if you take the shortcut."

There was a deep sigh. "Ok, I guess there isn’t anything else I can do. Thanks."

With a chuckle I went back to work. Sure I knew people were into bondage--even self-bondage, but I’d never run into anyone that was. I didn’t know where this was going with Lucy, but it would be interesting to see what happened.

An hour later I saw her coming across the yard nude and bound as expected. For the hundredth time since she had come back I marveled at how beautiful she was.

"Hi," she called from the doorway, she turned and opened the door. "The steak smells good!"

"Thanks, that is one of the few things I learned from my mother before she disappeared. Your timing is good; it’s ready."

I set the table for one, poured a soda, and pulled a chair next to mine -- I would have to feed her again. We sat and chatted, it was if we had never been apart. After dinner we watch a World Rally race on TV. I had was having a hard time dealing with a beautiful nude woman who insisted on snuggling up to me.

"Well it’s about 10 and I’m headed to bed." For some reason I’d always gone to bed early and gotten up early. "Are you going home or are you staying?"

"Can I stay?"

"Sure."

I went to the wall of the kitchen and took down an old dog leash. The dog was long dead, but I’d never tossed the leash. She gave me another one of her patented puzzled looks and I snapped the leash onto her collar. She was even more puzzled when I gave it a tug. There wasn’t much she could do except stand and follow me. I led her out the front door and across the yard to a small barn my sister had kept her horse in. I flipped on the lights to reveal a nearly empty barn. On the right side was a 12x12 stall with shavings on the floor. Bars ran from the top of the walls to the ceiling. With her hands cuffed behind her back she couldn’t reach thought the bars to open the latch. I led her into the stall and unclipped the leash.

"I’ll get a bucket of water. You should be comfortable here tonight." It was all I could do to hide my smile. Her look of astonished confusion was priceless. I did notice that her nipples were hard and she was breathing faster then normal.

Lucy didn’t say anything; I think she was in shock, as I fetched a bucket of clean water. After hanging it up in the stall, I closed and latched the stall door. I shut the lights off, closed the barn door and went in the house.

"Night," I called.

I waited an hour and went back out to the barn. Quickly I slid open the door and flipped on the lights. I heard her get up as I walked to the stall door.

"I figured I’d check on you one more time before bed. How you doing?"

"This isn’t the way I figured I’d spend the night."

"Oh, and how did you figure you would spend the night?"

"I own you a debt and I planned on..." Lucy hesitated for a second. "I figured on working it off so to speak."

"I see. Were you thinking of some sort of barter? All you got on you is cuffs and chains. Hell you don’t even have the keys for them." This good old boy can be a bit dense when he wants to be.

Lucy looked at the floor and shuffled her feet in the shavings. There were shavings in her hair so she must have been laying down. I studied her bare feet too. They sure were beautiful -- dirty brown, with high arches and strong nails. No nail polish, I hate nail polish.

She looked up at me. "The only thing I have is, she paused, glanced up at me and then went on, "my body. We used to be lovers. Do you still love me?"

There were tears in those big brown eyes. I never could bear to see her cry without good reason; I gave in and opened the stall door.

"Let’s go to bed."

She gave me a great big smile. "Did you get the keys?"

"Why? You claimed to be into this bondage thing. I ain’t driving all the way over there tonight; we’ll get them tomorrow night. Or maybe Monday, who knows."