Message-ID: <52168asstr$1128676203@assm.asstr-mirror.org> Return-Path: <news@lani.pathlink.com> X-Original-To: ckought69@hotmail.com Delivered-To: ckought69@hotmail.com X-Original-Path: extra.newsguy.com!newsp.newsguy.com!enews4 From: D Gooes <dgooes@dbuffalo.com> X-Original-Message-ID: <Xns96E7BED9BF0EEdirtybuffalo@129.250.170.84> User-Agent: Xnews/L5 X-ASSTR-Original-Date: 6 Oct 2005 22:41:18 GMT Subject: {ASSM} Maggie's Apartment Ch 14 (A Cousin Maggie story) Lines: 476 Date: Fri, 07 Oct 2005 05:10:03 -0400 Path: assm.asstr-mirror.org!not-for-mail Approved: <assm@asstr-mirror.org> Newsgroups: alt.sex.stories.moderated,alt.sex.stories Followup-To: alt.sex.stories.d X-Archived-At: <URL:http://assm.asstr-mirror.org/Year2005/52168> X-Moderator-Contact: ASSTR ASSM moderation <story-ckought69@hotmail.com> X-Story-Submission: <ckought69@hotmail.com> X-Moderator-ID: hoisingr, dennyw This story contains sexual acts. It is intended for adult reading pleasure. Feedback ALWAYS Welcome! dgooes@dbuffalo.com The original "Cousin Maggie" stories were written by Joby (joby@dirtybuffalo.com) - contact him regarding those. Denise *** Maggie's Apartment (Chapter 14) by Denise Gooes (Cousin Maggie series characters created by Joby) (Recap: Maggie got an apartment on her own against her mother's wishes. "...be CAREFUL - and don't talk to strangers!" Beth said as she left and then mentally challenged Maggie went off to meet her new neighbors!) At 8AM, Uncle Mike held back tears as he moved his nephew Mike into apartment 403. Uncle Mike did all the work and Mike just sort of ran around all excited, shaking hands with everyone he met, "Nice to meet you, sir." Mike said to a man on the first floor and again to a lady in the elevator. Each trip to the truck and back was the same. He shook hands, was several times told to fuck off but got a hug from a transvestite who felt him up while searching for a wallet to lift that Mike rarely carried. Strangely, that gave Mike a minor chubby. And Uncle Mike continued to move in the bed, dresser and boxes while Mike jumped up and down about being on his own in his new apartment. Another reason that Mike was excited was that he even knew someone in the building and he hoped to make her, Maggie, his girlfriend. Maggie woke up and decided not to go to work. She would spend the day watching her new cable TV and meeting more people in her building and going to Broadway Market for some frozen pizza. Yum. Maggie made her own schedule at the hotel where she worked. It didn't matter how many hours a week she showed up - she still got paid! What Maggie didn't know was that it wasn't a real job, just something arranged by her mother and an old friend of Maggie's dad to give her something to do and make her feel productive. So, when she didn't show up for a day or a week or even a month - nobody cared too much. She was an extra on the work schedule, not particularly fast and more a joy to have around than any actual help. Maggie's dad's friend and some of his buddies had gotten some great sex out of Maggie in the time since her relationship with Joby ended. Man can Maggie suck dick! But, if anyone there was hoping for a hummer today - they'd be disappointed - for hour upon hour, Maggie's eyes were glued to her TV and the cartoon Popeye who was fucking Olive while she gave a BJ to Brutus. Cartoon cum was dripping everywhere and filling the screen - covering the toon. Next cartoon was the Smurfs - they were having a gangbang! A big smurfy orgy. And their cum was blue!!! Maggie loved the new channels that Sammy had hooked up. When the Transformers started humping, Maggie got bored and turned the channel and was surprised to see a girl that looked like her sitting on a toilet in a bathroom that looked like the one at Cousin David's campground. A close up zoom let Maggie see the pee coming out of the girl that looked just like her. Then, the girl wiped and got up and left. The next person that came in was a woman that looked just like David's sister Lily - she peed, too and started cleaning the bathroom -- which was Lily's job at the campground. Maggie wondered how the TV people found people that looked so much like real people. Maggie flipped the channel again and watched as a girl used a sword to cut off the head of an older woman. The head rolled on the ground and for a second, Maggie thought she remembered something. She looked down at her lap, but there was no head there. Suddenly, Maggie had a headache and she shut off the TV and left for SaveALot to get her frozen pizza. Just before leaving her apartment - she punched her door so hard she hurt it and she didn't know why and seconds later would have sworn that she never did it at all! Outside in the hall, Maggie noticed that she was naked and she had locked the door behind her. As she didn't remember punching the door - she didn't remember shutting or locking the door! She wasn't as worried about someone seeing her as she was about getting back inside to get her card - the one that her mom told her she could use once a day. Maggie knocked on her own apartment door, but of course no one was inside to let her in - she lived alone! She went to 401 and then remembered that Walter was still missing. She hadn't met anyone in 402 yet, they never answer the door - even though she could sometimes hear someone inside. Maggie knocked anyway. Randy, who had a sizable amount of cash in his pocket from a "job" last night, could finally answer his door because he could finally afford to pay his rent. But, since he was up all night and had his pillows over his head - he never heard her knocking! What a sight he missed out on! Maggie didn't know that anyone was moving into either 403 or 404 - so she skipped knocking on those doors. Mike would have loved to see her naked, again. He hadn't seen or touched Maggie since he and Denise had broken up. He was glad to be rid of Denise. She had freaked that one time when he hit her. She didn't even let him say that he was sorry. He still saw her nearly every weekend at the Super Flea Market, but she wouldn't talk to him and one time she had a security guard pull him away and warn him. Now THAT was embarrassing. Fuck her! He hoped that Denise hadn't told Maggie about him hitting her - that might mess up his plans to make Maggie his girlfriend! Anna was in the hospital or dead. Maggie couldn't remember. Josh was fucking at his sister's house. Fucking his sister, in fact - not that he was that great a fuck -- as Maggie had discovered last night. Dr Lee was dead, so he couldn't help her open her door. That left Mo, the lady who liked cats to lick her pussy, and Maggie tried her door, too and all she got was a meow. No Mo! For the first time in the 4 days living in the building, Maggie noticed another apartment on her floor - 410. It was past the storage room -- near the staircase. She knocked on the door and noticed the Superman sticker in the center of the door. Maggie correctly guessed that the apartment belonged to Super Stan the apartment manager. He wasn't home - he was probably downstairs at his desk. Maggie entered the elevator and headed down to the next floor and headed for Sammy's apartment. Downstairs, on the first floor, Uncle Mike and Mike brought in the last load of stuff and waited for the elevator. They saw it pause on the dial at the 3rd floor before completing it's journey and opening for them. "I love this building and this elevator," said Mike. He and his mom had lived here for most of his childhood and he had always wanted to move back. Now he was and in his old apartment, too. The elevator held many fond memories for Mike. The first time he broke his leg was trying to climb up through the top of the elevator when he was seven. He first stitches were when he was eight and got up on top of the elevator and cut himself on a cable. He'd told his mother that he'd fallen in the back alley. He saw his first blow job being performed after school in this elevator when he was about 10. By one guy on another. He hoped to get Maggie to suck his dick in this elevator - he'd think back to that time when he saw the long dick going in and out of the skinny man's mouth and Mike was sure he'd quickly shoot his own load. He also remembered watching his mom accidentally pee her pants in this elevator just a few months before her car accident. The elevator always opened and closed slowly for seniors and by the time it made it to the fourth floor that day, Mike's mom hadn't made it. Mike still remembered the smell of her piss. "Damn," said Uncle Mike as they got off on the 4th floor, "this elevator smells like piss! You know - it always smelled like piss. I bet they never clean this elevator. I'm surprised it doesn't smell like shit, too. You know - our house doesn't smell like piss -- I really wish that you'd stay there with me..." "I'm 21 - I'm not 12!" Mike had come to live with Uncle Mike when he was 12 after his mom had died. Uncle Mike was protective and took great care of Mike, but it was time to be on his own - so Uncle Mike put down the last load and reluctantly left - taking the elevator back down. Mike found a glass in a box on the kitchen floor and rinsed it out and drank 2 full glasses of water. Then, he farted in his new apartment. He started laughing and then ran out of the room when it started to stink really bad! In the bedroom, Mike pulled out a dirty magazine that he had once stolen from Joby's house. That old pervert had so many - he wouldn't miss one. Mike wondered if Maggie had gotten any of the porn movies when she and Joby split - probably not -- porn magazines are guy's stuff. Mike took out his penis while he looked at a picture of a naked black woman peeing in a litter box. He would love to see something like that for real! All of a sudden his dick spurted all over his pants and he had to dump out a box of clothes to find another pair to wear. Maggie knocked on Sammy's door and his wife Kayla answered in her robe. Sammy was at work. Maggie explained why she was naked and Kayla laughed. Maggie frowned because she thought that Kayla was laughing at her, but Kayla explained that she had done it several times in her life - a few of them stark naked, too. Kayla gave Maggie a key, "Don't tell anyone that I have this master key - it works on all the apartments in the building. Just bring it back!" Kayla gave Maggie a kiss on the lips and it should have went further, but Kayla was getting ready for work and could not afford to go in late again. Her asshole boss wouldn't let her fuck him to keep her job 'cause he was a flaming faggot with a live-in boyfriend. "Hey, Maggie," Kayla said as she slipped off her robe and stepped into her panties, "Would you like to go for a ride tomorrow? Sammy and I have to go pick up our sister and it is a beautiful drive there and back." Kayla spritzed some deodorizing spray on her pussy, before pulling the panties all the way up and into place. "OK," said Maggie and she skipped out of the room and out the front door, before Kayla could even lend her a robe. The elevator opened and there was Josh. "Hi, Josh," said Maggie as she got on the elevator naked - fuzzy blond pussy hair first and jiggling little butt last. Josh noticed, but he really liked women HUGE like his sister. Big rolls of flab - lot's more jiggling than Maggie! "Hi, Maggie - I took my medicine today." Josh would spew filthy words and act all violent (at least in his own mind) if he didn't take his pill every morning. "Is this a new way to meet the neighbors?" Josh was the building gossip and source of news to Maggie and a few others. It seemed that he was always lurking somewhere and listening to everyone else's business. "Walter is still missing and there are new people moving in on our floor - although it won't be my floor much longer. I'm still moving out. They wouldn't have had time for that much of a conversation in any other elevator only going up one floor, but this seemed to be the city's slowest and stinkiest elevator. "Whew! It smells like piss in there again," said Josh "Yeah - don't you love it?" said Maggie, who had a fondness for the smell. The two of them exited the elevator and Maggie immediately saw Mike and ran naked to him, jumping up in his arms. "MIKE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Mike caught her ass cheeks as her long legs wrapped around him and her semi-wet pussy ground into his stomach. His shorts, that were a bit too large fell down to his ankles and his dick and balls swung freely - just under Maggie's ass. Josh just shook his head. There hadn't been any sex or nudity around here before Maggie. Josh, himself had been a virgin just playing with himself and thinking about his older sister. Now, he felt he was a player! He had fucked his sister a dozen times in the past couple days and he had fucked Maggie just yesterday. Maggie gave Mike a great big kiss and then climbed down. When she saw that his cock and balls were out - she went further down. Maggie kissed each ball and also the tip of Mike's dick. When she tasted cum, she just had to ask, "Did you just jerk off, Mike?" "Yep. That's why I have these old shorts on - the elastic is all stretched out. I haven't unpacked, yet." Mike smiled and showed his filthy unbrushed teeth - fuzz and all! "How have you been, baby? Did you miss me?" "No," said Maggie, "I almost forgot all about you." Then, Maggie pulled back and punched Mike right in the mouth. "That's for Denise! You aren't supposed to hit girls! I should tell your uncle!" "No....don't...." Mike stammered, "How about being my girlfriend?" Mike thought he could change the subject and Maggie would forget. "I don't think so. I might suck you off once and awhile and let you fuck me silly, but I don't want a boyfriend - I'm having fun right now making friends!" Maggie gave him another kiss - this time on the cheek. "This is my friend Josh - he's not my boyfriend either. Be careful - sometimes he's dangerous!" Mike pulled up his shorts and approached Josh. Mike looked at the man behind Maggie who was barely 18 and about half his size. He had no muscles. No weight behind him. He looked like a short white version of Steve Urkel minus the glasses. "Ok - if you say so, Mags. I'll be careful." He held out his hand to Josh, "Nice to meet you, sir." Josh took it and shook it. Maggie just stood there naked with her hands on her hips, smiling a goofy smile and without a care in the world as to who might see her. Josh pulled his yoyo from his pocket and showed it to Mike. "Want to try it?" Mike grabbed it and tried to do a simple up and down and couldn't. Josh took it back and did a zipper, a shoot the moon and a hop the fence. Josh handed it back to Mike and Mike tried again and couldn't get it to do anything. Mike then unraveled the string and ripped it out of the yoyo "The stupid thing is broke! No wonder it doesn't work!" Mike grinned as Josh looked on in horror at his broken yoyo "Let's do something fun." Mike walked toward his apartment. Maggie, who loved fun followed him. Josh walked along, too - trying to come up with words to express his feelings about the destruction of his toy. "You are going to have to fix my yoyo you know!" Josh finally said as he entered Mike's place just behind Maggie. Mike sat down on his couch and Maggie went off to use the bathroom. "You are going to have to fix my yoyo you know!" Josh said a second time. Maggie shouted from the bathroom, "There's no toilet paper!" Mike and Josh went running and both stopped quickly at the door. "Sorry, I had to poop and you don't have any toilet paper." "Nope. I don't have any toilet paper." Mike went back out into his living room. Christ, he thought, when girls aren't sucking your dick - they are a lot of trouble to have around. Mike wondered what he should do for Maggie and then decided that it was her problem. That left Josh... "I'll run over to my apartment and get a roll," he told Maggie. He would also bring back some air freshener. As he walked through Mike's living room, he handed his yoyo to the jerk, "Fix this while I'm gone - if you know what's good for you!" Josh slammed the door and wondered what he would have done if Mike had come after him and pounded his ass. Then, he thought with a smile - I'd have my sister sit on him while I kicked his ass GOOD. When Josh returned, his yoyo was sitting unfixed on a box. Maggie was still on the toilet and Mike was standing in front of her, holding his nose and getting a blowjob. Josh handed the toilet paper and spray to Maggie and he went off to tend to his own yoyo Maggie swallowed the little amount of cum Mike was able to spunk out and then started wiping her poopy asshole. Mike went back to the living room and Maggie kept wiping until she felt done. Then, she joined her male friends. "Can it be fixed?" Maggie asked. She knew nothing about yoyos. She watched as Mike took it from Josh again and pried it apart with a screwdriver. Josh grimaced again, although none of them even knew the word grimaced. It was getting worse! "Hey," said Mike, "Now we are getting somewhere!" Mike ran off and started tossing boxes here and there and opening one every so often and dumping it on the floor. Josh wondered why Mike had so many car parts in his apartment, but he didn't ask/ "Do you want a blowjob?" Maggie whispered in Josh's ear. Josh shook his head no which seemed to depress Maggie. Just then, there was a knock at the door and Mike stopped to answer it. There were two men dressed in suits carrying books. They smiled and Mike smiled and Maggie in all her naked glory smiled and Josh just stood there pissed off. "Have you found Jesus?" one of the suits asked. Then, they noticed naked Maggie. "Is there a problem here? Can we come in?" They started to enter, but stopped when they noticed the screwdriver Mike still held in his hand. Mike was getting a little antsy with all the people in his space and since he had just gotten his nut off - he just wanted to fix the yoyo and send them all on their way. So, Mike was waving the screwdriver around. Maggie approached and got so close that her nipples brushed on the young men's suits. She smiled and looked down at their crotches. "Do either of you need a blowjob?" Maggie had no idea that these were Jehovahs Witnesses or that she might offend them. They quickly decided to leave and Mike slammed the door shut behind them. "I didn't even know Jesus was missing." said Mike and he went back to his looking. Josh would have explained that Jesus was dead and that he died for our sins, but Josh just wanted his fucking yoyo fixed. Mike was tossing spark plugs and other wires and stuff all over his floor when he finally shouted, "I found it!" Mike produced a small coil of wire and started tying a piece to the inside peg of Josh's yoyo Josh knew it wouldn't work. Meanwhile, the Jehovahs Witnesses were knocking on Mo's door. She opened it filthy and stark naked and with a cat pressed between her legs lapping as hard as it could on her clit and what looked like dripping cat food. One startled Jehovahs Witness dropped his book and when he stood up, he saw that the woman was licking on a second cat. He vomited his McDonald's breakfast and at least 20 cats came running to eat it all up. Both men ran to the elevator where the piss smell nearly made the other one vomit. They would report this and hopefully everyone in their group could make it better through prayer. Maggie was getting bored. Mike had said they'd be having fun. Sure, she had sucked his dick and got a small taste of cum, but right now the guys were just arguing over the yoyo Maggie sat down and put each leg up on a box and started rubbing her clit. THAT made her feel better!!! "That's not going to work!" said Josh. "Just watch..." said Mike. Finger in. Finger out. Lick finger. Maggie wasn't watching, just listening to bits and pieces and rubbing and rubbing and thinking about Joby's beard all wet from her pussy juices and how Sammy's muscles felt as hard as his dick under her hands and how great the cat tongue on her pussy really felt. Lots of things were going through her head and she remembered the cartoons this morning and wished the guys would take her from both ends like Popeye and Brutus took Olive Oil. Maggie licked her finger again and kept in in her mouth. She started playing with her other hand - that always gave her a different feeling. Like when someone new did her. Maggie was just starting to cum when the boys noticed her panting and her whimpering and a trickle of juice running down her leg. When she did - a giant fart escaped and the boys decided to take the yoyo out in the hall for testing. The girl with the knapsack was on her third apartment since moving to Buffalo and she was trying to work and go to school and live all at the same time - and all by herself. Recently, she had met her oldest brother for the first time in PA and lost her virginity to his friend on her 18th birthday. The guy was a sweetheart, but took off right afterward and she didn't know how to get ahold of him. She thought of him every time she masturbated. She bought a dildo that was closest in shape and color to his penis and when she used it - she thought of him. He brought a smile to her face every time she thought of him and now she couldn't wait to get up to the 4th floor to he new apartment so she could touch herself and think of him again. Then, it would be time to sleep, then work and 2 classes in the mid-afternoon tomorrow. All she had to her name was in the knapsack, she'd be starting new here. The elevator opened and closed so slow that the girl thought at first it was broken. Then, she saw a notice on the wall that it had been adjusted for the safety of seniors - Be Patient. She had never seen an elevator that timed it's closing, but she did remember a few that nearly closed on her. She pushed the button for the 4th floor and as the door shut, she noticed the smell of piss. She'd tell Stan and hopefully he would care. He'd told her that he had lived in the building for longer than anyone else and had been the fix-it man for years before taking over as apartment manager. He also lived on the 4th floor and he reminded her just a bit too much in some ways of her step-dad (may he rot in hell) - to ever go to his apartment. The elevator arrived on the 4th floor to a strange site. It appeared to be three mentally challenged adults having a yoyo competition. A tall blond girl was totally naked and watching and the tallest of the two men was showing off with the yoyo and swinging it around. It nearly clocked the girl right in the forehead. Years of having to duck punches saved her. They didn't even notice. She walked across to her apartment, which appeared to be right next to the apartment where at least one of the three lived - they had the door open. Inside the apartment, she set down her knapsack and went off to pee. Josh was begging for his yoyo back and Mike was teasing him. Maggie was recovering from her tremendous orgasm and just sort of watching. Mike had the yoyo high and instead of a string - there was a wire. He was swinging it around, mainly to keep it from Josh. They barely noticed the girl exit the elevator and enter her apartment. The elevator sat for several seconds as it was supposed to do. Josh was jumping and grabbing at his yoyo and Mike was enjoying himself - 'cause bully was always a role he liked. The girl slipped on her headphones and started dancing to Backstreet boy music. It drowned out the noise from the hall. Little did she know how much noise that would be. Josh finally jumped up and just barely did his fingers touch the wire. It startled Mike and he jumped back a bit - just enough to throw the yoyo off balance and it swung out and around his neck and it entered the elevator at the last possible second as it closed. The elevator headed for the first floor and it quickly reeled Mike along with it. He had a second to scream out and Josh had a second to jump out of the way. Maggie had a second to move closer and the wire tightened and Mike's head was cleanly severed from his body and it landed right in Maggie's hands. Great catch girl!!! Blood began to spurt and Mike took a step and his body fell down. Josh curled up against the wall and started keening and rocking himself. Maggie held the head for a second and a tremendous amount of memories flooded back and very briefly she remembered another severed head - her real mom's as it landed in her lap after the car accident. That was the last thought Maggie had way back then and the last thought she had now. For a few seconds, it her body swayed and if anyone had looked - they would have thought she were going to pass out. Consciousness returned to Maggie, but a different consciousness. A disassociated consciousness. A part of Maggie that was Maggie - but at the same time wasn't. A clinical diagnosis would have been D.I.D. or even M.P.D. This "new" Maggie hadn't picked a name for herself, but she knew that she'd have to be around to help Maggie deal with her memories and what had just happened. What this "new" Maggie didn't know was that she was, in fact - the real Maggie, having hidden away for years just watching and trying to be safe while letting the mentally-challenged "auto-pilot" Maggie wander through the life. She didn't know how long she'd be around or what she'd do or even what she could do - but she was finally ready to find out! The girl with the knapsack had a name, but it was a secret. Her whole life was a secret and it was a secret that she meant to keep. It was a painful secret that her sister had died for and during which a monster had finally also died. Now, she went by a name that was almost hers - Pretty Gooes and she lusted after a guy she only knew as Joby and she didn't know that he was there in Buffalo or she would have run to him. She also had no clue that there was a dead man outside her door and that his head was been held by Joby's onetime fiancee. Talk about coincidences she didn't realize! And the girl known now as Pretty Gooes wasn't the only one on the floor with secrets. If only certain people knew who Mo the cat lady was or Randy - but Pretty hadn't met either of them yet, either. Pretty was using her Joby dildo to fuck herself and when she finally came - the sheets were soaked from her gush. She slipped into sleep and never learned of the hallway incident until the next morning. The "new" Maggie tried twice to put the head back on the man named Mike. Had she been the "auto-pilot" Maggie - she would have kissed him goodbye and patted his head. Instead, she just set the head down near Josh and went back to her room to shower off his blood. The paramedics and police questioned Josh and got most of the story. In Josh's mind, the yoyo and wire and elevator all had to do with Mike and his death and since Maggie had no part - he never mentioned her. Uncle Mike was called and Josh's story didn't surprise him, either. At school, Mike had sometimes been the bully and there had been other yoyo incidents. It was a clear cut CASE CLOSED in under 2 hours and the cops celebrated with donuts (and a couple joints in one patrol car). The new Maggie walked around her apartment and looked through the other Maggie's things which were by proxy her things, too. Maggie couldn't read, but the new Maggie could - she had watched and learned when the other Maggie had just been on auto-pilot. She could count money, too and lots of other things that the other Maggie couldn't do. She just needed a name to give herself a sense of identity. She really wanted to call herself Maggie and give a different name to the auto-pilot Maggie, but that one had used the name longer. She didn't like the name Margaret and didn't want to use the middle name Ann or even Annie. For some reason, the name Annie scared her. Was there yet another inside the body with that name? Very possible!!! So, in the end - she settled on the name Meg. Having finally done that and with the shower and exploring done - Meg retreated and let Maggie back out. Maggie didn't remember anything of the accident with her mother and she didn't remember the incident with Mike, either. The biggest difference was that Meg was now watching everything Maggie did and she had a sense that another (perhaps Annie?) was doing the same! At 8PM, Uncle Mike held back tears as he moved his nephew Mike's belongings out of apartment 403. Stan aka SuperStan repainted the bloody parts of the hallway. Orange cleaner lifted the blood from the rug and Josh's sister came and got him and took him back to her place to keen and rock. ..and Maggie dined on frozen Pizza that she didn't remember shopping for and watched her new cable TV and she wondered where all the hours in the day had gone? *** ..thanks for reading this story. Comments and email are always welcome... dgooes@dbuffalo.com For previous Cousin Maggie stories, contact... joby@dirtybuffalo.com -- Pursuant to the Berne Convention, this work is copyright with all rights reserved by its author unless explicitly indicated. +---------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | alt.sex.stories.moderated ------ send stories to: <ckought69@hotmail.com>| | FAQ: <http://assm.asstr-mirror.org/faq.html> Moderators: <story-ckought69@hotmail.com> | +---------------------------------------------------------------------------+ |ASSM Archive at <http://assm.asstr-mirror.org> Hosted by <http://www.asstr-mirror.org> | |Discuss this story and others in alt.sex.stories.d; look for subject {ASSD}| +---------------------------------------------------------------------------+