The Outsider
Copyright 2009 by EC
EC's Erotic Art & Fiction - http://www.ecgraphicarts.com/
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(warnings: language, adult themes)

Prologue:

The written word is far more powerful than any of us can realize.  Whatever a 
person writes will produce consequences at some point in the future.  Often 
consequences manifest themselves in very subtle ways: someone reads that 
passage and is motivated to act in a way that the author never could have 
imagined.  One small event leads to another, lives are changed, relationships are 
born or die…and thousands of possibilities are eliminated so that one can become 
fact and reality. 

A single passage from “Red”, a short story penned by British author William 
Somerset Maugham, was destined to alter the lives of two California college 
students in such a manner.  It was because of just a few words, written nearly a 
century before; that the lives of Mike Sinclair and Ruthie Burns would be joined, 
that two perfect strangers would come together and the paths of their lives 
changed forever. 

Chapter 1 – Parking tickets

Mike Sinclair and Ruthie Burns were students taking classes at the Davenport 
State University, just north of the town of Santa Cruz in California.  The two 
students were among 50 others who were enrolled in a sophomore-level literature 
review class titled “British Prose 1902-1945”.  Almost everyone taking the course 
had no intention of studying literature, but the class counted to fill a humanities 
requirement and was considered an easy “A”.  The professor was old enough to 
realize that he had nothing to prove to anyone, and therefore did not make 
unrealistic demands of the students.  Show up to class, read the books, be able to 
talk about them, and you’re guaranteed an “A”.  Not a bad deal for anyone 
worried about their GPA.

Mike was beginning his sophomore year.  He was a native of California, from a 
family that had lived in Santa Cruz for decades.  Although his parents had never 
changed their residence, he had traveled about on vacation with his relatives while 
still in high school, so he was familiar with a lot of different places around the US 
and the rest of the world.  He was well-read and very knowledgeable, which led 
him to be extremely opinionated about everything.  It was very difficult to find a 
topic that he was neutral about, so he was not the sort of student who mixed well 
in casual situations.  However, if a person needed a study partner or someone on 
their side in a game of trivia pursuit, Mike was their man.

Mike normally showed up to class wearing t-shirts with political logos; usually 
with a message against corporate capitalism.  He bore particular resentment 
against the US conglomerate Mega-Town Associates.  He was active in the anti-
MTA group on campus and continuously passed out fliers condemning the 
company to anyone interested in taking one.  It was obvious that in the class he 
would be one of the students getting an easy “A” because he clearly did read all of 
the books and had comments for each of them.  Most of the other students were 
content to let Mike pontificate on the assignments, because if he was talking, the 
others could kick back and not worry about being called upon.  Because of Mike’s 
habit of commenting on everything, the professor was hard-pressed to get his 
more apathetic classmates to say more than a few words.  If a student who didn’t 
know the answer hesitated long enough, Mike would come to the rescue with a 
comment or hint.  That habit was irritating to the professor whose job it was to 
sort the students who had done the reading from those who had not, but he 
respected Mike’s command of the literature to not say anything to him about 
overshadowing his classmates.

Ruthie was a freshman who had graduated from a high school in Salinas.  She 
always sat up front near the window.  She was extremely quiet and never talked 
unless called upon.  During class she habitually stared at the world outside, but it 
was clear that she was paying attention to the lecture, because she always did 
know what to say if she was asked a question.  There was no question she was a 
very strange girl, because she fidgeted whenever someone talked to her and never 
looked a person in the eye during a conversation.  Another strange thing about her 
was her clothing, because she wore so little of it.  A pair of old tennis shoes, loose 
running shorts, and a t-shirt normally were the only things Ruthie put on in the 
morning.  When she sat down and the thin cloth of her t-shirt pressed against her 
body, it was clear that she was not wearing anything underneath.  About once a 
week she wore even less, a pair of flip-flops and a flimsy dress that was totally 
open in the back clear down to her waist.  She wore no jewelry and no make-up.  
Her black hair was short, which was good for her because usually it was not 
combed.

Mike had noticed Ruthie, partly because of her abbreviated clothing and partly 
because, in spite of her lack of grooming, she was very attractive.  She had a 
petite well-proportioned figure with slightly olive skin, very large dark eyes, and a 
mouth that was sensuous in a quiet way.  He enjoyed looking at her, especially on 
the days she wore her skimpy dress, but at the same time never entertained 
thoughts about trying to talk to her.  She was too withdrawn, no doubt, to be 
interesting to talk to.

----------

The semester progressed as Mike and Ruthie pursued their lives.  They both 
fretted about their classes and their finances, had unpleasant moments with their 
respective roommates, and worked on term papers.  

Ruthie, in spite of her shyness, managed to get a job at the in the Student Center 
at the coffee shop.  Starting the last week of September, she worked from 5:00 am 
until 11:00 am, taking responsibility for the initial cash count, setting up the 
equipment for the day, receiving food orders, and opening for business at 7:00.  
Two co-workers showed up at 7:00, but during the first two hours of each 
morning Ruthie usually worked alone, which she preferred.  She took advantage 
of the solitude to listen to her favorite news show on Public Radio as she set up.  
When the newspapers arrived, she took a break to go through them.  By the time 
she actually started serving coffee, Ruthie had thoroughly informed herself about 
what had happened in the world the day before.

Mike frequently bought coffee at the store before going to class, which meant 
seeing Ruthie running about in a blue apron worn over her abbreviated clothing.  
For some reason he felt that she looked sexy in that apron, especially on the days 
she wore her backless dress.  With her bare back it was easy to imagine Ruthie 
wearing the apron with nothing underneath.  

Whether or not Mike wanted to accept it, he was beginning to feel somewhat 
attracted to his classmate.  Throughout October he still did not imagine that he 
would ever have any type of relationship with her, because she definitely “was not 
his type”.  However, he had to admit that he enjoyed looking at her.  He started 
leaving money in the tip jar, but only did so when Ruthie was working.  Mike was 
not an overly generous person with his money, but he was willing to part with a 
dollar each time he bought coffee in exchange for a slight smile of gratitude from 
her.

Nevertheless, throughout October Mike’s mind was not on Ruthie except when 
she was nearby.  When he saw her in class or in the Student Center, his thoughts 
about her were a vague attraction, and that was about it.  At that point in his life 
he certainly was not losing any sleep over her.  He still took it for granted that her 
strange, quiet personality would not suit him and that what he needed to do was 
find another political activist like himself.  Yes, that was what he needed, 
someone who understood the evils being committed by those who love money, a 
strong woman whose intellect could match his.  

----------

The assigned readings in the literature class for the third week of October 
included several stories by William Somerset Maugham, which included the 
classic “Red”.  Assigned questions requested the students to comment on 
Maugham’s attitudes about colonialism, his concept of class, his descriptions of 
interracial relationships, and his attitude towards women.  That night Mike and 
Ruthie took their respective copies of Maugham’s stories home and read the 
following:  

“And so the little wooden house was built in which he had now lived for many 
years, and Sally became his wife. But after the first few weeks of rapture, during 
which he was satisfied with what she gave him, he had known little happiness. She 
had yielded to him, through weariness, but she had only yielded what she set no 
store on. The soul which he had dimly glimpsed escaped him. He knew that she 
cared nothing for him. She still loved Red, and all the time she was waiting for his 
return. At a sign from him, Neilson knew that, notwithstanding his love, his 
tenderness, his sympathy, his generosity, she would leave him without a moment's 
hesitation. She would never give a thought to his distress. Anguish seized him and 
he battered at that impenetrable self of hers which sullenly resisted him. His love 
became bitter. He tried to melt her heart with kindness, but it remained as hard as 
before: he feigned indifference, but she did not notice it. 

Sometimes he lost his temper and abused her, and then she wept silently. 
Sometimes he thought she was nothing but a fraud, and that soul simply an 
invention of his own, and that he could not get into the sanctuary of her heart 
because there was no sanctuary there. His love became a prison from which he 
longed to escape, but he had not the strength merely to open the door - that was 
all it needed - and walk out into the open air. It was torture and at last he became 
numb and hopeless. In the end the fire burnt itself out and, when he saw her eyes 
rest for an instant on the slender bridge, it was no longer rage that filled his heart 
but impatience. For many years now they had lived together bound by the ties of 
habit and convenience, and it was with a smile that he looked back on his old 
passion.”

Mike had plenty to say about the passage.  He was still bitter over the break-up 
with his girlfriend the previous Christmas, and he projected his bitterness onto the 
character Sally.  He berated the fictional woman for being so selfish and for not 
taking advantage of the fact that someone decent loved her, that she was 
interested only in the guy who was better-looking but totally irresponsible.  To 
that the professor responded:

“Yes, Mike, I do see your point.  But this story has two sides…maybe three if you 
want to throw in Red.  Sally, too, has a perspective, although I don’t think 
Maugham developed it very well.  Anyone want to comment?”

To the surprise of everyone in the class, Ruthie’s hand shot up.

“Yeah, when I read this it pissed me off what that creep Neilson did to her.  He 
wanted her to be his fucking toy.  That’s what he wanted.  He didn’t love her, 
because if he did, he would’ve left her alone…and he didn’t even have the guts to 
go after her himself.”

Mike moved to the edge of his seat and his hand went up, but the professor 
ignored him.

“Interesting, Ruthie.  Care to elaborate on that last statement?”

“I mean…he forced her to marry him.  And he did it by getting her family to nag 
at her until she couldn’t take it any more.  He forced her to do something she 
didn’t want to do, and then he had the nerve to get pissed off when she wasn’t 
happy.  I mean…I wouldn’t be happy either if I had to be owned by some sicko, 
and that fucking sicko wouldn’t let me have what I really wanted.”

Mike tightened his lips and kept his hand up until finally the professor recognized 
him.

“That’s why women are always unhappy!  Because they’re all chasing after crap 
they can’t have instead of being happy with what they do have!  She had a hell of 
a better deal than most women in that place!”

“So?  She didn’t want him and he forced her!  He never even gave her a chance to 
talk!  I think that totally sucked and he should have spent the rest of his life trying 
to make it up to her!  The rest of his fucking life!”

It was clear that both Mike and Ruthie were dealing with much more than a 
simple disagreement over an old story.  It was obvious that he was projecting his 
own anger (which was nothing new), but now it was obvious that Ruthie was 
projecting hers as well.  Neilson and Sally were surrogates for their own issues 
and their own disappointments in life.

For several minutes Mike and Ruthie went back and forth as the rest of the class 
sat watching them in silence.  Mike was his usual argumentative self, but Ruthie’s 
passionate participation seemed totally out of character for her.  As she argued she 
became angrier and started searching for a way to cut at Mike and get him to shut 
up.  Finally she said something that many other students in the class had felt like 
saying all semester.

“You know what, Mike?  There’s another story in the book called ‘Mr. Know-it-
all’.  You ought to read it.”

About half of the students knew what Ruthie was talking about, and of those, the 
majority laughed.  There were a few claps and a whistle.  Mike sullenly quit 
talking, because he knew that any response he could think of at the moment 
would only make the situation worse.  Ruthie quit talking as well, seemingly 
embarrassed by her outburst and show of combativeness.  Neither spoke 
throughout the rest of the class.

That night he read “Mr. Know-it-all”, even though it was not part of the course 
readings.  He cringed as he finished the story, because he realized that Ruthie had 
been right about him.  What was worse was that undoubtedly the story was dead-
on about how the other students in the class must have viewed him.  His opinion 
of her changed, because she was a much more perceptive person than her 
normally shy behavior would have one believe.

----------

The next morning Mike passed by the Student Center to get his usual cup of 
coffee.  He was an early riser, so he was one of Ruthie’s first customers of the 
day.  On that particular morning she had worn her backless dress.  She briefly 
flashed her large eyes in his direction and began preparing his usual drink, a 
simple 20-ounce cup of coffee.  When she turned around and bent over slightly, 
her apron bulged forward and he could see the side of one of breasts under her 
loose clothing.

She blushed as she passed him the cup and took his money.

“I read ‘Mr. Know-it-all’.”

“And…?”

Mike shrugged slightly.  “I guess there’s something to what you said.”

Ruthie handed him the change.  “More than something...”

“You really think I’m that bad?”

Without looking up, Ruthie opened a carton of half-and-half and poured it into a 
metal pitcher.

“You’re not that bad, but sometimes you need to know when to shut-up.  You 
know…I hear people in class talking about you, making jokes…because you’re 
always talking.”

Mike blushed at both her comment and the embarrassing memory of having 20 of 
his classmates laughing at him.  “Well, you didn’t exactly help me yesterday.”

“Why should I?  I thought you were wrong and I told you.  Why shouldn’t I say 
what I think, just like you?”

“You really felt that strongly about it?”

“Yeah.  I did.  I wouldn’t have said anything if I didn’t.”  She handed him the 
pitcher of half-and-half.  “Could you do me a favor and set this out on the 
counter?”

Mike reached around the corner of the stand where there was a shelf full of 
condiments and napkins.  He set down the pitcher.  She turned around to dump a 
filter from the espresso machine and replaced its contents with new coffee 
grounds.  Mike admired the girl’s bare back as she worked and suddenly was hit 
with an overwhelming urge to run his hands over her smooth skin.  Against his 
wishes, he realized that his feelings about her had dramatically intensified.

He decided to change the subject and see if he could get to know her better.  He 
felt that the fact that she had asked him to do her a favor was an opening, however 
slight; a hint that she might be willing to talk a bit more about herself and move 
beyond the unpleasant encounter from the day before.

“So…how do you like it here?  Working in the Student Center?”

“It’s OK.  Better here than the cafeteria or the pizza place.”

“You don’t mind opening?”

“No.  I don’t mind.  I like it.  I’m used to getting up early from when I was in high 
school.  I get here, and things are quiet.  It’s nice, actually…the first part of my 
day I get to relax and get paid for it.”

Mike hesitated, trying to think of what else to say or ask.  A group of sorority 
girls showed up, chatting loudly and ordering expensive complicated mocha 
drinks.  A co-worker of Ruthie’s came rushing in and threw on his apron.  She 
gave him an unpleasant look, presumably because he had come to work late.  The 
moment to converse had passed.  Mike put his usual dollar in the tip jar and left 
for class. 

----------

After leaving the Student Center, Ruthie rushed back to her dorm to have lunch.  
She got off work at 11:00 and had her first class of the day at noon.  It was 
imperative that she get something in her stomach after work because her schedule 
did not allow her to eat breakfast.  Going to class with nothing but pastries and 
coffee in her stomach didn’t cut it.  She rushed into the cafeteria, grabbed several 
pieces of fruit, a glass of orange juice, and some rice, and filled a salad bowl with 
vegetables.  She snuck the fruit into her backpack and ate the rice and salad.  She 
washed everything down with the juice.  As always, she ate alone and was out of 
the dining hall within 10 minutes of sitting down.  A quick trip to the bathroom on 
her floor to piss and brush her teeth, and she was on her way back to central 
campus.  She made it to class just as her professor was about to start lecturing.    

At 1:30 Ruthie got out of class and for the first time all day had some time to 
relax.  She had a favorite spot on campus: a tree-covered area that separated the 
Economics Building from a large parking lot full of parking meters.  In theory the 
lot was for campus visitors, but students filled it up early in the morning and 
stayed parked at the meters all day.  There was a rush in the area in the early 
morning and late afternoon, but in the middle of the day it was totally quiet and 
very rarely was anyone around.  

During her first week at the university, Ruthie had realized that if she went into 
the shade under the trees, it was very hard to see her from either the parking lot or 
the sidewalk leading to the Economics Building.  As for the building itself, the 
foliage completely concealed the ground from the windows.  If anyone came from 
either the parking lot or the building, a person sitting under the trees could see the 
passerby long before the passerby noticed anyone was sitting under the trees.  
That detail was important for the way she planned to spend her afternoon.

After making sure no one was in sight, Ruthie laid a towel on the ground and took 
off her dress.  As was normal for her, she wore nothing underneath the flimsy 
garment.  She totally hated having to wear clothing, and had it not been illegal, 
she would have spent her life in the nude.  The light dress was the next best thing, 
because it covered her enough to keep her within the confines of the law but did 
not feel suffocating on her skin.

She lay on the towel under the shade and pulled out two textbooks and a 
notebook.  She had about two hours to prepare for her next class, so she’d be 
relaxing and studying under the pleasant shelter under the leaves with the breeze 
caressing her bare skin.  She pulled out a pear from her backpack and munched on 
it while she took notes.

After she had been studying for an hour, she heard the whirr of a bicycle coming 
down the sidewalk.  She looked up, but did not bother to get dressed.  Bicyclists 
always went by so fast that they had no time to look towards the trees.  Still, just 
to be sure, she always kept her eye on any bicyclists until they were out of sight.

This time the bicyclist was someone she knew; her classmate Mike Sinclair.  He 
was wearing the uniform of the Campus Parking Department and was loaded 
down with ticketing paraphernalia.  She watched as he dismounted from his 
bicycle, pulled out his ticketing machine, and approached the first car out of 
several hundred that were parked at meters that had not been paid.  He typed the 
car’s information into his machine, pulled out what looked like a small receipt, 
stuffed it into a red envelope, and placed the envelope under the windshield wiper 
of the car.  Within 30 seconds he was done and had moved onto his next victim.

Ruthie watched Mike with concern.  The students had been taking advantage of 
the lot to park at the meters all day without paying, which meant that no one could 
get a spot after classes started and the area was deserted after 9:00 am.  If the 
freeloaders were chased out and the meters used by people who actually paid 
them, there would be a lot more movement in and out of the lot and she would 
lose her private spot to lie out naked.  What could she say to Mike: don’t do your 
job so I can lie here in the nude?  That probably wouldn’t work.

Mike went up one row of cars and worked his way down the next, ticketing each 
and every one.  A frat guy yelled at him:

“Hey, parking Nazi!  How’s it feel to be paid to be an asshole?”

“Feels great!  How’s it feel to be born an asshole?”

Ruthie smiled at Mike’s comeback.  She continued to watch as he came closer 
and closer to where she was sitting.  She decided to put on her dress when she 
heard the faint rattle of the ticketing machine’s printer.  It was close to the time 
she had to leave anyway.  She packed up her books and walked out to where her 
classmate was working.

“Still working on trying to be popular?  I don’t think this is the best way to do it.”

Mike understood that Ruthie was trying to make a joke.  He was not a humorous 
person, but tried to play along with her:

“Well, if I can’t be famous, at least I can be infamous.”  

Ruthie smiled slightly.  She asked Mike how the ticketing machine worked, since 
she had never seen one up close before.  The device looked like a very large 
calculator with a roll of receipt paper on the end.  Mike allowed Ruthie to look 
over his shoulder as he used his finger on a touchpad to type in information on the 
car he was ticketing: license plate, description of the vehicle, violation, and if it 
was present, the student parking permit number.

“Here, you can push ‘print’ if you want.”

Ruthie pushed the “print” prompt and the ticket was printed out.  Mike tore it off 
and stuck it into a red envelope.  He looked the fanny-pack that contained his 
ticketing supplies and quietly said: “shit”. 

“What’s wrong?”

“I’m running out of envelopes.  I’ve hit pay-dirt in this lot and now I have to go 
back for more envelopes.  I didn’t realize I’d need so many.”

“Pay-dirt?”

“Stats.  Management pays attention to how many tickets we write each month, 
and it looks like it hasn’t occurred to anyone to come over here to this lot.  It’s 
just meter tickets, but they’ll add up.”

“So…you’re gonna be ticketing here?  Permanently?  Not just today?”

“You bet.  This’ll be my new home.  All these violators…I didn’t realize these 
meters weren’t getting paid.  This’ll be great for my stats.”  

Mike noticed the disappointed look on Ruthie’s face.  “Are…you…OK?”

“Yeah…I’m fine.”

Mike was puzzled by his companion’s expression, because she didn’t look fine.  
She looked very depressed.

“Ruthie, I mean…if you’ve got your car here, just tell me what it looks like and I 
won’t ticket it.”

“I don’t have a car.”

“Then, what’s wrong?”

“It’s nothing…really…”

“You got friends parking here?”

“I don’t have any friends…uh…I mean…I don’t have any friends who are 
parking here….that’s what I mean.”

Ruthie blushed; not just because of the slip, but also because her correction was 
not convincing and she knew it.

“Look, I gotta go to class.  I’m running late.”  She turned to walk off.

“Ruthie!”

She stopped and looked back over her shoulder at Mike.  “What?”

“Are you working tomorrow?”

“Yeah.”

“I’ll see you then.  Jo as always.”

“OK.”

Mike watched her as she walked towards the Econ Building.  The late afternoon 
sunlight shined through her dress and made the cloth almost transparent.  His 
heart stopped as he studied her attractive figure and realized that she was not 
wearing any panties.  He wondered if she was aware of the extent to which her 
body was visible under that thin cloth.

----------

As soon as Ruthie disappeared around the Econ Building, Mike mounted his 
bicycle and sped off to the Parking Enforcement Office.  He put a fresh battery 
into his ticketing machine and grabbed several fist-fulls of the infamous red 
envelopes.  

He returned to the lot to continue ticketing at the spot where he had left off.  
There were hundreds of cars, stretching out in every direction.  Mike knew that he 
would only get to a fraction of the violators that afternoon, but the following day 
he would be on the lot right at noon and work it non-stop until his shift ended.  He 
was very efficient with the machine, being able to write about 80 tickets per hour 
if the violators were parked in a small area.  If he stayed out all afternoon the next 
day and the machine held up, he calculated that he would be able to write around 
400 tickets.  That would be a new record for the department and one that would 
be very hard to beat.  He would come back day after day until the students got the 
message that a meter was not a “free parking” sign.  October was going to end 
very well for him. 

By 4:30 students began returning from their classes to leave for the day.  As soon 
as the violators saw the dreaded red envelopes on the windshields closest to the 
sidewalk, some of them started running to their cars.  Around the lot there was 
swearing and insults directed at the parking officer, but he was used to that.  
Working for the Parking Department had its advantages, but popularity was not 
one of them.

The truth was that Mike was totally unconcerned what the students he was 
ticketing thought of him.  He hated the people he ticketed every bit as much as 
they hated him.  For the most part they were irresponsible rich types: spoiled pot-
heads, fraternity guys and sorority girls, and student athletes.  They were a varied 
crowd, but they all had several things in common: wealth, privilege, attitude, and 
a feeling of entitlement.  They drove expensive cars that had been given to them 
by parents or sponsors: BMW’s, Jeeps, even a few Escalades.  Mike delighted in 
taking a dig at the elite crowd and their fancy cars whenever he could.  His 
uniform and his ticketing machine gave him the power to harass people who 
otherwise would be untouchable.  Yes, the elite crowd hated Parking Officer # 
036, just as much as he hated them.  Mike wanted them to hate him: he wanted to 
make their lives miserable and make himself worthy of their hatred.  

As 5:00 approached, he picked up the pace, trying to squeeze as many tickets in 
as possible before the lot opened.  The last ticket he wrote was at 16:59, on a 
bright red BMW with sorority stickers.  Yes, maybe it sucked having a ticket on 
one’s windshield that was written one minute before the lot opened, but even with 
only a minute to spare, the sorority bitch could not argue that it was not a valid 
ticket.  

----------

A few minutes later Mike returned his ticketing machine to the dispatcher.  He 
announced that the next day he would need an extra battery and 400 envelopes.  
The older woman looked up.

“Four hundred?  What are you gonna do with 400 envelopes?”

Mike smiled:  “Stuff tickets in them.”  He handed over his radio and added:  “can 
you keep a secret?”

“Hun, d’you know how many secrets I’ve heard?  C’mon, you know I keep 
secrets.”

“No one’s been paying the meters over at Econ-A.  It’s all cars with student 
permits and none of them are paying.  Tomorrow they’re gonna be mine.  There’s 
400 spaces out there and I’m getting them all.”

The dispatcher smiled sarcastically:  “You know you’re a real jerk, Mike, but we 
still love you.”

Mike forced a smile, not sure how to take the dispatcher’s final comment.