“Welcome back, Arnold.” Doris said as Arnold came into the dorm building.

Arnold walked over to her and around her desk as she stood up. “Thank you.” He said and gave her a kiss that lasted for several seconds.

Doris moaned a little into his mouth and then she caught herself and broke the kiss. “I'm sorry, I shouldn't be enjoying this so much.”

“Why not?” Arnold asked. “You said I could kiss you any way that I wanted.”

Doris blinked her eyes for a moment, then she chuckled. “You're right. I shouldn't be overthinking things too much.” She reached up and cupped the side of his face. “A few people called looking for you during the weekend.”

“Who?”

“They wouldn't leave their names.” Doris said and let her hand slide from his face and down his chest. “They did say that they were concerned about you and to give you hugs the next time I saw you.” She said and put her arms around him briefly, then stopped and did it again, then again. “There. Three hugs for three anonymous women callers.”

“What about you?” Arnold asked.

Doris smiled and quickly opened the top three buttons of her blouse, then she pulled him down into a hug and buried his face into the warm softness of her chest. “I think you like this feeling as much as I like giving it to you.” She said and ran her hands over his head. “You had your buzz-cut freshened up.”

Arnold nodded into her cleavage and she chuckled and let him go.

“Did you have fun at home?” Doris asked.

“Some.” Arnold said. “I think Kelly's going to ask me for sex soon.”

“Oh! That's wonderful!” Doris said with fake enthusiasm, because she assumed her fun with Arnold would end when that happened. “You two must have made some progress last night, hmm?”

Arnold nodded again and told her what he had done and that Kelly held his hand all day.

Doris let out a womanly laugh. “That girl is definitely a little high strung right now.” She said. “I think you're right. She's getting close to the point that she won't resist her urges.” She pat his chest. “Make sure you take your time when she does ask. If she's never had sex before, you know she's going to have some resistance down there.”

“Mom told me about some of it and one of the biology books Professor Crenslav loaned me had all of the details.” Arnold said. “Kelly has a traditional circular opening, so there won't be as much tearing in the mucous membrane when I put my penis inside her. She's very sensitive there, which means she will feel things more than normal.”

Doris blinked her eyes and looked at him with her mouth slightly open. “W-well, then... you should be extra slow at the first penetration. The last thing you want is to cause her extra pain for her first time.”

“Extra pain?” Arnold asked.

“For most women it hurts a little, even with preparation beforehand.” Doris said. “Sometimes it's just a pinch, like it was for me, or it could feel like getting stabbed, like I heard my daughter Cissily tell Fareena.”

“I'm going to hurt Kelly?” Arnold asked and his face went blank.

“No, Arnold.” Doris took him into a hug. “You're not hurting her. It only happens the first time. Even then, some girls don't feel any discomfort at all. After that first thrust, you stay still for a little bit and any possible pain fades... then it feels really good.” She said. “If Kelly's sensitive like you say, then she's going to get a lot more out of having sex with you than other women will.”

“She will?” Arnold asked.

“Since you played with her a little and she reacted like she did, well... when you finally have sex, I think you're going to blow her mind.” Doris said with a reassuring smile. “So, don't worry about it for now. If you have any more concerns, you can come and talk to me, okay?”

“Okay.” Arnold said.

“Go on upstairs and go to bed. I'll see you in the morning.” Doris said, then pulled him down to give him a kiss. “That's for the morning.” She said and kissed him again. “Goodnight.”

“Goodnight.” Arnold said and went up the stairs. He didn't go directly to bed, however. He spent some time searching the internet about hymens, the pain reactions, and about alleviating pain or removing the cause. It didn't go well.

Every solution that he found had severe drawbacks, especially surgically cutting or removing the hymen, which could sometimes cause complications with other bodily functions like urination and getting pregnant. It could also take weeks to recover and still have months of pain and discomfort because of it.

The easiest things he found were wrongly inserted tampons, slightly strenuous exercise, bike riding, falling on objects, or masturbation could tear the hymen. None of those things happened to Kelly, since hers was still intact. He didn't want to cause her harm, so even if he did manage to get her to do any of those things, there was still no guarantee that they would work. They were only possible causes and not actual causes.

Arnold didn't know what to do about it. He had gained a lot of knowledge about it and out of everything that he had searched for, just inserting a penis seemed to be the best solution. No matter what happened, there was sometimes pain and sometimes blood. After a bit more research, he found that even if somehow the hymen was broken or torn beforehand, there was still the chance that it would be painful when sex happened.

He sat back in his chair and thought about what Doris said about not worrying about it until it happens, because he wouldn't know if it will happen until it does. He won't know if Kelly has pain until she does, which means he has to have sex with her to find out. Since she has to decide for herself when she wants it, she must know about the potential pain as well. If she doesn't, then he would have to tell her. Arnold made up his mind on a course of action and went to bed.

*

The rest of the week passed by for everyone.

Arnold worked in the mornings and learned in the afternoons while also working, then in the evenings he would read books from both Professor Crenslav and Professor Power, then help Professor Power masturbate after lessons. Doris would occasionally enlist his help to 'move things' for her when he wasn't too busy with other things.

Detective Tanner worked her normal cases and in her spare time, obsessed over Arnold and his connection to everything. Under pressure from the police chief, she had reluctantly closed the investigation into the alleged rape and murder case involving Brad Willowby. The supervisor refused any and all attempts to get the real story out of her. All she would say was that she had felt something hit the side of her head and then everything went black.

Brad's father was devastated at what happened to his son and everything was hushed up. No one outside of the responders to the scene knew what really happened and the news story that was buried on the second last page of the paper was trimmed down to 'local boy tragically loses life' and all speculation about how that happened was removed.

The funeral home was like a beehive of activity, because they had three funerals to handle. Two during the week and one on the weekend. Brad's funeral was first and came and went just as quickly as the news story, because only friends and family attended. Jake's funeral was next and quite a lot of people gathered for that one, since it was a tragic death and everyone felt bad for the family.

The last funeral was for Gerald Strickland on Saturday.

*

Arnold rode the bus wearing his black suit, a black shirt, a black tie, and even his socks were black inside of his black shoes. He had left his backpack at the dorm, because he had to work the next day and wasn't staying at home.

Everyone that saw him knew that he was going to a funeral and his blank face told them that it wasn't going to be a pleasant experience, so they left him alone. Arnold arrived at the bus stop and stepped off the bus when it came to a stop.

“Arnold.” Annie waved to get his attention and he walked over to where she had parked. She took him into a hug and tried not to cry. She leaned back and looked into his eyes. “Don't be upset if I cry, okay? It's a funeral. It's kind of required that I cry.”

“Me, too.” Kelly said and Annie let her son go and Kelly hugged him. “It's all so sad.” She said and held him tightly for several moments, then she let him go. “I don't think we've ever had three funerals in one week before.”

“Three funerals?” Arnold asked.

“Yes.” Annie said and took his hand. “Arnold, please stay calm when I tell you this.”

“Okay.” Arnold said.

“Brad's dead.” Annie said. “The paper wouldn't say what happened, only that his supervisor was involved and he died tragically while under her care.”

Arnold was quiet for a moment. “Is the other funeral hers?”

“What? No, she's alive. She quit her job because of it, though.” Annie said.

Arnold looked confused.

“The other funeral was for Jake, one of Brad's friends.” Kelly said. “They said he was drinking, tripped and fell, then died.” She shook her head. “I didn't think something like that was possible.”

The three of them stood there and didn't say anything for a couple of minutes.

“We should go.” Annie said and didn't elaborate and say that they had the service first, then the gathering, then the burial to get to. It was going to be a full day.

They arrived at the funeral parlour and quite a few people showed up. It was a closed casket, of course, and the service lasted for an hour with both Annie and Kelly crying the whole time. After that, they moved to the display room. The casket was kept closed as food and non-alcoholic drinks were served.

A few people from his work were there, as were a few of the bar patrons, most of which were his friends. There was no other family besides Annie and Arnold, which meant they met and greeted everyone as they paid their condolences.

Even the reporter showed up and gave Annie a hug and told her that she was strong and brave, then she hugged Arnold and thanked him for being there for his mother. She hugged Kelly last and told her to be there for Arnold and Annie, because that's what good friends do.

The gathering ended and Arnold helped five appointed strangers as they carried the casket out of the funeral parlour and loaded it into the back of the hearse. He rode with his mother to the graveyard and then helped carry the casket to the grave site. When he saw that the huge hole was already dug, he felt sad and it showed on his face.

“Oh, Arnold!” Annie exclaimed and hugged him as she cried. Arnold held her and stared at the grave and regretted that he didn't do it himself. The priest said a few sentences as the casket was lowered into the ground, then he motioned to the mound of dirt that was discretely covered in a green cloth.

“As a symbol of saying goodbye, you may toss some dirt into the grave and send this lost soul on its way to heaven.” The priest said and the mound of dirt was uncovered by two men with shovels.

Everyone that wanted to do it passed by and grabbed a handful of dirt and tossed it onto the coffin. When it was only Annie, Arnold and Kelly left, Kelly did it first. Annie did it next and they both looked at Arnold.

“I need a shovel.” Arnold said and held a hand out to the two men.

“Go for it, kid.” The guy with slightly grey hair said and handed him a shovel.

Arnold nodded and started to shovel. Most people started to walk away until they heard the digging shovel. They turned and looked to see what was going on, then they all came back. Arnold worked like a machine and the people around the grave site were astonished as he kept going, especially Annie and Kelly. They had never seen him work that hard before and after ten minutes, the second guy with a shovel joined in. They had the grave filled twenty minutes later and both of them were sweating heavily.

“Damn, kid.” The slightly grey haired man said. “I'd hire you right now if I thought you'd accept the job.”

“I work at the college during the week and usually have the weekends off.” Arnold said. “I'm working tomorrow, though.”

The guy laughed. “We usually only work the weekends anyway; but, that's one hell of a commute to come back here every weekend just to dig dirt.”

“I visit my mom and my girlfriend every weekend.” Arnold said.

The guy looked at Annie and Kelly. “Well, they need you a lot more than dirt does, so get to it.”

“Yes, sir.” Arnold said and handed him the shovel back, then Arnold, Annie, and Kelly left. The crowd dispersed as well after seeing Arnold's performance.

“He really needed to say goodbye to his father.” The second guy said.

The slightly grey haired man nodded and smiled. “You're not even out of breath.”

“The kid did most of the work.” The second guy said with a chuckle. “I think he could out-shovel you.”

“In your dreams, pal.” The slightly grey haired man said and they both laughed.

*

Detective Tanner had stood off to the side and slightly behind a nearby tree as she observed the whole thing. He kept up with a professional grave digger? She asked herself in astonishment. How long do people train for jobs like that? Months? Years?

She tried doing a quick search online with her cell phone and all that as required for the job was a willingness to dig. Of course, once she started looking at shovelling, she quickly found out that it was one of the best overall full body workouts that existed. It worked practically every major muscle group in the body. Sometimes even the face had exercise, because you grunted and strained while working or talked to a companion or to yourself.

That's amazing. Detective Tanner thought, then put her cell phone away and walked over to her unmarked car. She hoped in and followed Annie Strickland's car all the way back to their home. She parked at a discrete distance from the house and watched the three of them go inside, then she let out a sigh. She had more work to do at the station and she couldn't waste all of her day while waiting for Arnold to leave.

Detective Tanner's cell phone beeped and she read a text message that said her forensics had come back from her time at the Jake murder. Goddammit, it's all negative. She thought and didn't let her anger get the better of her. She would find something on him eventually, she just knew it. All she had to do was wait for it to appear and then she would get the confirmation on her hunches that she so desperately wanted.

She hung around for an hour, then couldn't wait anymore. She drove off to head back to the station and as she did, Arnold, Annie, and Kelly stepped out of the house to take Arnold back to the bus stop. They had given him a tour of the house and now he had to go back to the college and prepare for work the next day.

Annie drove back to the bus stop and they waited there for twenty minutes for it to show up. Arnold quickly kissed his mom goodbye and then kissed his girlfriend goodbye, then the bus left to bring him back to work.

Both women wished they could have gone with him.