I woke up; for a moment I was confused. Where was I? Oh, on the
couch in the family room. Why? Gloria is in my bed. Why wasn’t
I snuggled up behind her, my erection buried where it would make
our day? Gloria not only wasn’t interested, she’d threatened
death and mayhem to the guy who tried.
I muttered to myself; all this and no morning sex! On top of
that, all this talk about saving people just for the thanks was
fine and wonderful, but having someone in the morning to talk to,
to hug, to cuddle, to make love to — was a whole lot better than
waking alone.
Was I crying in my beer? Whining? I didn’t think so, but I
suspected it wouldn’t take very much for it to be like that. I
threw on a pair of jeans, went upstairs and peeked in my room.
Gloria looked like she hadn’t moved, lying on her back, still
tucked in. I contemplated what I could do for her, decided that
my getting a warm shower was about the best thing I could manage
right then.
The phone rang while I was finishing dressing, having moved
everything I needed downstairs to the family room. This time it
was Sue Ellen. “Janey and I will come by in about a half hour
with some things for Gloria. It’s been a pretty long night.”
“I looked out the window a while ago, the car’s gone,” I told
her.
“Yeah, Tony called Darryl’s mother, told her where it was. I
told him not to be rude; I hope he was polite.”
Me too, I mentally agreed. “When you and Janey come over, I
could fix you some breakfast. Bacon and eggs, some hash browns,”
I told her.
“Gloria will probably be hungry, I’m starved,” Sue Ellen agreed.
For a moment I heard nothing; she’d put her hand over the phone.
“Yeah, Janey says she’s starved too. Long, long night…” I
laughed, and Sue Ellen did too. “I hope your mom doesn’t mind
the company,” Sue Ellen concluded.
“Ah,” there was no way they weren’t going to notice. “Actually,
Mom stayed at the hospital last night with Mary and Elizabeth.
JR and Jenny are over at Kim’s. Just my dad and I are home.”
There was a silence on the other end. “Is he going to say
anything?” she asked softly.
“Not if I ask him not to,” I told her.
“Well, we’ll be by in half an hour. Is Gloria awake yet?”
“Not yet,” I told her, “but I’ll get her up now.”
“Thanks, Tom,” Sue Ellen said, and hung up.
I turned and saw Gloria standing, nude, in the door to the family
room. “Morning,” I said to her, trying to sound cheerful. I
wondered how I could stand there and be so cool, not even have an
erection; Gloria wasn’t bad looking at all. Half grapefruit
breasts that it seemed like most girls had.
“I’m glad you didn’t say good morning,” she said, making a face.
“God, have you ever had a hang over?” I shook my head. “My
first and last. I swear to Mary, Mother of Jesus, never, ever,
again!” She put her hand to her head and pinched between her
eyes.
“Can I get you something?” I asked, thinking she really should
have a robe.
“I was wondering if I could use your washing machine, to run my
things through, so I won’t be ghastly at school.”
“Janey and Sue Ellen will be here shortly with clothes and things
for you.”
She looked at me steadily, then ran her hand down across the
thick mat of pubic hair between her legs. “I remember coming
here, last night. I remember the shower.” She continued to look
at me. “I’d know if there was anything else.”
“There’s nothing else. I put you on the bed, you were out of
it.”
“Where is everyone?” She said, waving around. “Mother, sister,
father, friend?”
“Dad’s in the shower,” I told her; I could hear the water
running. “He’s the only one here. No one else is home.”
Gloria nodded. “No one can know why I came here,” she said. “I
think I remember telling you about it last night.”
“You did. I won’t tell, my Dad won’t.”
“Could I have another shower?” She asked, and I grinned.
“Yep!”
She giggled. “I’m making you uncomfortable, aren’t I?”
“Not really,” I told her.
“Liar!” She said with a laugh. “If I walked around like this at
home, I’d be grounded for a million years, and probably would end
up in a nunnery.” She pointed up the steps. “Shower’s that way,
right?” She vanished, and I went to get some breakfast going.
Sue Ellen smiled at me, give me a little peck on the cheek, Janey
was carrying a bag of things when they knocked on the door. “We
stopped by Gloria’s house,” Sue Ellen told me, “We told them
Gloria had been at a cheerleader’s meeting and had fallen
asleep.”
“I don’t think they believed us,” Janey sighed, clearly
frustrated.
“She’s upstairs, in the shower,” I told them. “Breakfast will be
ready in ten minutes.”
They went upstairs, and then Dad appeared. “I heard voices.”
“Clothes for Gloria,” I told him. “Sue Ellen and a friend
stopped by. I told them I’d feed them breakfast.”
He looked at me, shook his head and laughed. “Somehow, you
always seem to have a roomful of girls to hand; lucky guy.”
“I’m not sure it’s as lucky as all of that,” I told him. He gave
me a sardonic smile.
The phone rang again, this time it was Mom. “Elizabeth is much
better,” she said. Dad pushed the speaker phone button just in
time for me to hear her. “They say that if she continues to
improve, and if the tests don’t find anything, maybe she can come
home tomorrow.”
“Cool!” I said, and Dad agreed.
“How are you two doing?” Mom asked.
Dad laughed, “We’ll talk about it later.”
“Talk about what?” Mom said. Just then the three girls walked in
and Mom could hear them. “Who’s that?”
“Some of Tom’s friends,” Dad told her. “Later, ok?”
Mom laughed. “You didn’t have an orgy while I was away, did
you?”
“No, no orgy,” I told her.
Sue Ellen stepped close. “Good morning Mrs. Ferguson, this is
Sue Ellen. Tom was a perfect gentleman. He helped a friend of
mine, and we appreciate it.”
“Tom’s been doing a lot of that lately,” that was Mary’s voice!
“We all appreciate it.”
“I think breakfast is almost ready,” I told the room, trying not
to blush.
“I talked to Kim a bit ago,” Mom went on. “She’s going to take
the girls to school, even Shannon. You two worry about
yourselves.”
“You want me to bring you something?” Dad asked, “Either of you?
Anything?”
There were two no’s from the other end. “We’re just sitting,
talking,” Mary said quietly. “It’s been nice,” a pause. “At
least as nice as you can get in a hospital.”
“You better get going, Tom,” Mom told me. “Have a nice
breakfast.”
School was, well, school. A lot of kids had heard about
Elizabeth, and the word seemed to be spreading fast. A lot of
classmates, people who wouldn’t normally say anything to me, said
hello.
At lunch, I was all but dragged by Sue Ellen to the cheerleading
table; a place normally off limits to anyone not on the squad.
Not that I stayed there; Gloria asked me if I would walk with
her.
“I’m better,” she told me, as we walked out onto the school
grounds. “I feel logy; but Sue Ellen gave me some Tylenol.
That’s helped.” She paused, and then added. “You helped.”
“Gloria, one day I’m going to need something. You know, like the
Godfather did, in the movie. And I’ll have a lot of friends I
can turn to.”
She glanced at me. “I never thought of it like that. No wonder
the Godfather was so popular.” She stopped and looked at me.
“You’ve seen me naked.”
“I saw you undressed,” I told her. She smiled at the
distinction.
“Would you like to go out on a date with me?” she asked out of
the blue. “Sue Ellen says you have someone you’re seeing. I
don’t want to get in the way, but I’d like to go out with you.”
“We don’t own each other,” I told Gloria, hedging my answer; my
standing with Shannon was iffy, and that was being optimistic. I
looked Gloria in the eye. “Gloria, I don’t think we have that
much in common.”
She looked down, no longer able to meet my eyes. “I’m sorry,”
her voice was soft and sad.
“Gloria,” I said, touching her arm. She looked at me, and then
looked away. “You don’t have to be sorry.”
“Sue Ellen and Janey are having a party Saturday night. I
thought you might like to go.” She smiled slightly, “Janey says
it’s going to be an orgy.”
“Saturday, I’m supposed to be on my way to LA,” I told her.
“Oh.”
“Gloria, when I get back, would you like to see a movie with
me?”
She met my eyes again; there was a hint of something there, maybe
anger. Oh, clever of you Tom! She thinks it’s because she
offered to go to an orgy with me, and I’m having second thoughts
about getting into her panties.
“I thought we weren’t all that compatible?” Gloria asked.
I shook my head. “I said we didn’t have much in common.
“Then I was thinking I’ve talked to you more in the last five
minutes than all of the times before in my life, and maybe I
haven’t got a clue what I’m talking about; I have no idea what
you are like.”
“Thank you,” she laughed. “Of course, odds are I’m going to be
totally grounded when I get home, and not be going to any parties
or dates for the rest of my life.”
I saw Shannon walking towards me, and I glanced at Gloria. This
wasn’t going to be easy.
Shannon stopped, looked at Gloria, then at me before Shannon
spoke. “Elizabeth is probably coming home tomorrow. I won’t
need a ride tomorrow, I’m going to stay home for the day to be
with her.”
Gloria touched my arm. “Thanks for last night, Tom; for
breakfast. Everything.” She walked back towards the
cheerleaders.
There was no doubt in my mind that Shannon was angry. “Yesterday
you left me for Elizabeth. What’s tonight?” She waved at the
table were Gloria was sitting down. “Her?”
“No, not her. Her boyfriend got her drunk yesterday; she ended
up on my doorstep. I let her sleep it off at our place.” I
waved a finger at Shannon. “I was just thinking how clueless I
am about everything going on in my life right now.
“I see people like Gloria’s pond scum boyfriend Darryl, Sam
Reese, Roger, Keith — they were born just like me, raised by
their parents. Why are they the way they are? Why am I the way
I am? Sam and Jenny were from same family. Yet they are
completely opposite people. Completely. I think I know things,
then something happens, and I realize I don’t know anything, not
anything at all.
“You’re upset with me because I left to talk to Elizabeth, who
was desperate for advice. Because I helped Gloria. Why,
Shannon? Because you want to marry me and live happily ever
after?”
“Yes,” she replied straightforwardly. “That’s what I want. I
don’t like sharing that much. Not with Mom, not with Elizabeth,
not with your sister. Not with Jennifer, not with any of them.”
Shannon waved towards the cheerleaders. “I’m just not into
sharing. Particularly boyfriends.”
I was silent for a moment, and then looked at her. “Shannon, I
never wanted to hurt you or anyone else. I don’t want to hurt
you now. If nothing else, can we be friends?”
She laughed, shook her head. “Friends? How many girls are you
friends with Tom, that you haven’t made love to, or who aren’t
waiting in line?”
“You could always be the first,” I said with a straight face.
Shannon’s expression turned to a glare of anger, and then
abruptly, she laughed. “I’m the one being an asshole, aren’t I?
No, you never wanted to hurt me; just wanted to love me; make
love to me. The others aren’t a surprise, you told me about
them. I should be grateful, I guess.” She held out her hand,
and I took it. We shook. “Friends?”
“Friends.”
She smiled, then, and it was nice. Very nice. “And thanks for
my sister,” Shannon told me.
“I’d like to go visit her, after school.”
“Well, this morning, it was made very clear to me by Kim, was
special. I’m back in need of a chauffeur after school.
Tomorrow, I’m staying home with Elizabeth.”
“Not a problem.”
“See you after school.”
She turned and left, and I stood for a moment on the school
grounds, looking into the distance. What a weird life I was
having! I remembered the old woman from yesterday, the one who
called 911. Everyone I met, it seemed to me, was nice. It was
the lurkers on the fringes, the Roger’s and Sam’s and Keith’s
that weren’t. What would I have been like, if Tony and I hadn’t
been friends? A loner, I was sure. Like Sam and Roger and the
rest. Not that pleasant a thought, not any more.
I heard someone behind me, turned and saw Janey. “Hello,” I
said, trying to cover up the fact that I was startled. Startled
because for a second all I’d seen was where her legs came
together. I had an instantaneous erection.
She waved towards the picnic table where everyone was
congregated. “Gloria said you’re going to be out of town for
Spring Break.”
I nodded and Janey went on. “That’s too bad; I wanted to ask you
personally to come to the party Sue Ellen and I are having
Saturday night. Sunday morning.”
I smiled. “Gloria said you were calling it an orgy.”
“Would it bother you if it was?” she asked mildly.
“I explained that the other day,” I told her. “If there’s no
coercion, then it’s not a problem. Otherwise…” I spread my
hands.
“Well, what I did was tell people it was Sue Ellen’s and my
party, with our friends, and that no one, absolutely no one was
to tell anyone else they were invited unless it was the one
person they wanted to invite themselves and who would be as cool
about everything as the invited person is. One rule for the
party is suspended: You don’t have to dance with whoever brought
ya!”
“And the rules that aren’t suspended?” I asked, curious.
“Oh, the usual cheerleader party rules. We don’t smoke, drink or
do drugs at parties, we don’t get pregnant, and we don’t spread
disease. We have a good time, and no regrets the day after.”
“Sounds like I should try harder,” I said with a laugh, “to stay
here over break.”
“You’re invited. It’ll be at Sue Ellen’s, starting 4 in the
afternoon. She told me that any guest you want to bring, is fine
with her.”
Mary, I thought, is out of the question. Shannon? Nope. JR?
Not hardly! Jenny? That was an interesting thought.
Interesting.
“I’ll try to come,” I told her.
“Oh, you’ll come, if you come,” Janey said with a laugh. The
bell rang, and we went to the afternoon classes.
Shannon and I drove over to the junior high, we picked up JR,
Jenny and Penny; none of them wanted to go to the hospital, so I
left them at Kim’s and Shannon and I went on to park across the
street from the hospital.
“I can’t help being scared, just looking at it,” Shannon said as
we waited to cross the street.
“I’ve been in there twice before. Once to have my tonsils out,
another time when I got hurt, playing baseball. Pain, both
times. Not good memories,” I told her, not comfortable either.
We went inside, found Mom and Mary sitting in Elizabeth’s room.
Elizabeth was asleep when we came in, but woke up almost at once.
She yawned, smiled at me. She rubbed the front of her hospital
gown. “Do you know how much it hurts to yawn?”
I shook my head, not sure what she meant. Worse, my damn eyes
were staring at the front of her hospital gown, wondering what
her breasts looked like.
“They call it the gift of life,” Mary said quietly. “People who
have CPR or worse, those defibrillation paddles… those actually
leave permanent scars, most of the time.”
“I have bruises,” Elizabeth agreed. “But you are forgiven,
Tom.”
“Very forgiven,” Mary added.
“I don’t remember much,” I admitted. “I heard Elizabeth scream,
saw her fall.” I shook my head. “The next thing I knew a
fireman was trying to get me to let them do it.” I met
Elizabeth’s eyes. “I’m glad you’re okay.”
Elizabeth nodded.
Then there was a knock on the door, and the world turned upside
down one more time.
Mom went to it, and two men I recognized at once as policemen,
were there. “Mary O’Leary?” One of them asked.
Mary stood up. “I’m Mary Leary,” she corrected him.
“Could we talk to you for a minute please?” the other said, more
politely, and added. “Outside, if you don’t mind?”
Mary got up, and I saw Mom’s eyes go to Elizabeth and Shannon. I
stood up, and followed two steps behind Mary.
“This is private, young man,” the surly cop said.
“Please,” the other added.
“I’m a friend of Mary’s,” I told them bluntly. “If you have
something to say or ask, let’s get on with it.”
“This isn’t pretty.” The surly cop glowered at me.
“So, why don’t you get started?” I replied, amazed at my
response. Why had I been helpful to the detective the other day?
To Officer Moss yesterday? And today I wanted to spit in the
face of this surly cop?
“This morning about 6 am a man fishing on Saguaro Lake saw a
woman dump some trash bags into the lake. Four or five large
black ones.” Surly stopped and looked at Mary coldly.
“I was here all night, my daughter had a heart attack yesterday
afternoon.”
“Do you know a Yolanda Menendez, Mrs. Leary?” The polite one
asked.
“I’ve never heard the name before, no,” Mary answered.
“She worked with your husband,” Surly informed Mary, taking the
tag from the other policeman. “The fisherman called the Forest
Service, they called the Sheriff. Dumping is a problem at the
lake.”
He looked at Mary, and then said it. “On examination, the bags
contained the dismembered remains of your husband, William
Leary.”
“Preliminary autopsy results show that he died yesterday
afternoon around 4 pm,” the polite one added.
I very nearly had a heart attack of my own.
“Where were you?” Surly asked Mary.
“At work all day,” Mary said, her face now deathly pale. “Until
Tom called his father to tell me about Elizabeth, a little after
four yesterday afternoon.”
I’d been about to blurt out what Elizabeth had said yesterday; I
remembered Mary saying Elizabeth was sure her father was dead
when she recovered last night. I bit my lip, said nothing; not
hard to do. My mind was racing; it took a special effort to keep
my jaw off the floor. Odd prickles marched not only up and down
my spine, but literally from my toes all the way to my scalp.
“Ever since then, I’ve been here,” Mary said, realizing that they
were thinking she was the woman.
“This woman, Yolanda Menendez,” Surly spoke again, “Were you
aware your husband was having an affair with her?”
Mary shook her head. “Were you having any affairs, Mrs. Leary?”
asked Polite.
“No. I reported my husband missing on Monday.” I wanted to
cheer, because Mary looked right at Surly. “Am I suspected of
anything?”
“No,” was Polite’s reply. “This Menendez woman; this is the
third time she’s run off with someone’s husband after he cleaned
out the family savings; she reappears and the husband doesn’t.
Except for your husband.” He made a deprecating gesture. “We
have to ask these questions; they’re routine. So we don’t
overlook something.”
“Perhaps then,” Dad said from behind me, “if you don’t think Mary
has done anything, you can let her get back to her daughter, who
nearly died yesterday. If you have any substantive questions,
you can arrange another interview through her lawyer.” He handed
them a business card, which Surly took.
“And you are who?” Polite asked.
“David Ferguson,” Dad told the detective, “a friend of the
family.”
Surly smiled. “Odd, his coworkers said the Learys have no
friends.”
“William Leary, perhaps so. Not Mary. Nor Shannon or
Elizabeth,” Dad said without heat. He waved at the card. “I
know what giving you that card means, legally. If you would
like, I will have her say the words.”
“You a lawyer?” Surly snarled.
“No, an engineer. I employ lawyers, just as Mary Leary does.”
Dad turned to Mary. “Just say the magic words: I have nothing
further to say until my attorney is present.”
Mary parroted the words, and the two police detectives turned and
walked away without another word.
“I’m sorry, Mary,” Dad said softly.
Mary gave an abject laugh. “A week ago, I loved him. Five days
ago, I wish I’d never met him. Now all I feel is numb.” She
looked at Dad, at me. “And now I have such friends! Friends
like I never imagined! I think, in spite of everything, the
luckiest thing in the world that ever happened to us was Tom.”
She smiled at me, and I smiled back.
“Tom, please go and ask your mom to come out. Give Mary a chance
to tell Shannon and Elizabeth,” Dad said quietly to me.
“Elizabeth already knows,” I murmured. “I think that if we were
to check, he was stabbed in the heart after being taken out into
the desert in the trunk of a car, tied up. That’s what happened
to Elizabeth; it wasn’t her heart that stopped, but her
father’s.”
They both looked at me, and I held their eyes. “That’s too
strange,” Dad said, obviously unsure.
“I thought she was just imagining things,” Mary said quietly.
“My God!” She looked, I thought, as pale as I felt.
I went inside, beckoned Mom to come out, she did and Mary went
in. “What?” Mom asked us.
“They found Mary’s husband’s body,” I said, editing out the
graphic details. “He’s been murdered. The woman he ran away
with, most likely.”
There was silence in the hallway, before Mom sighed. “Well, I
think this is the final straw for the trip to LA. Mary has been
through hell this week; so has Jennifer.” Mom shook her head.
“We need to do some serious de-stressing; LA probably wouldn’t
work.”
“Probably not,” Dad said. “Let me see what I can do.” He
paused, “And speaking of things I can do; Fallon told me today
that he was going to terminate Mary for attendance. I told him
not to be daft; this was a temporary thing that could happen to
anyone. He got on his high horse, and was going to insist.”
Dad smiled weakly. “This whole thing with the company was a
stupid idea; I should never have talked myself into it. Fallon
is a moron, who shouldn’t be allowed to run a hot dog stand, much
less an engineering firm. I told Herb Roosevelt that I was
invoking the ‘not so silent partner’ clause of the contract. And
that I wanted to replace Fallon. I meant it one way, he took it
another. I’m Fallon’s replacement.”
Mom laughed, shaking her head. “I never thought you’d be able to
endure it for this long. Just what you need: more
responsibilities.”
“I’ll manage. But I’m now the Executive Vice President for
Engineering Operations and Fallon’s looking for a new job.”
Shannon came out and told us Mary wanted us back. Mary put her
hand around Shannon’s shoulder, held Elizabeth’s hand. “I want
you all to know, we couldn’t have faced this without you,” Mary
said, talking to all of us.
“Tom,” Elizabeth spoke to me, and I went over to her hospital
bed. She took my hand, and joined it with Mary’s. “Yesterday,
you understood. You didn’t think I was a freak; too weird.”
“No, I didn’t think you were tooooo weird,” I said with a laugh,
drawing out the one word, anything to lighten the mood. “Just
enough.”
Elizabeth smiled slightly. “Shannon says you and she are going
to be friends.” I nodded. “Can I be your friend too?”
Elizabeth asked.
“You have always been a friend,” I told her. “Ever since I met
you.” She nodded, and then a doctor came in, some nurses. “More
tests,” Elizabeth grumbled.
Out in the hallway, we stood together. Mom and Dad, Mary,
Shannon and myself. “I’m sorry I’m so bossy, Mary,” Mom said,
apologizing. Mary just shook her head. “Dave, take Mary and
Shannon to their house. Let them get cleaned up, have something
to eat, maybe take a nap. Along about eight, Dave will bring
Mary back here. When you get here, Tom and I will go home. I’ll
talk to Kim; maybe Shannon can stay there again.”
“I’ll be fine by myself,” Shannon said.
“What about Roger and Sam and Keith?” I asked, “Does anyone know
what happened to them?” I didn’t want any of my friends running
into those clowns, without help close to hand.
Dad smiled. “Threw the book at them, million dollar bail on Sam,
half a million on Keith and Roger. Maybe they’ll have it by the
weekend, they didn’t have it today.”
Dad left with Mary and Shannon, Mom and I waited outside
Elizabeth’s room, until they were done poking and prodding. A
couple of times Mom made calls on her cell phone; it was, I
thought, a lot more convenient than a pay phone.
I waved at her purse when she sat down after talking to her
brother. “I think JR and I ought to have cell phones. Jenny,
too.”
I was expecting resistance; instead, I got a nod. “That’s a good
idea. A family plan isn’t that expensive. I’ll talk to Dave.
Probably next week.” She looked at me fondly.
“Dave said you had a friend over last night.”
I shook my head. “She’s a girl I know, just a little,” I
explained in more detail and Mom nodded.
“You did good, Tom.”
“She asked me out on a date. Saturday; I told her I couldn’t
because we were going to LA.”
“Well, we’re not going to LA. Maybe LA can come to us; their
spring break is two weeks from now. We’re still going to go
someplace, just local. I asked Craig about it.”
“Going someplace?” I asked, curious.
“Crystal’s,” Mom said, a bed and breakfast we had a part interest
in, up in the hills near Sedona. A very pretty spot. “Crystal’s
is really too far, but I talked to her a bit ago. She says they
make reservation swaps all the time, between other places like
hers. There’s one out near Pinnacle Peak that could put us up
for a week or so.
“Kim says she still wants to go to LA.” Mom heaved a sigh. “I
told her to go, not to worry about us.”
We want back into Elizabeth’s room after a bit, and she and I
talked about all kinds of things; she really was smart. A lot
smarter than me, and her interests ranged all over the place.
She was animated and interested, right up until around seven when
she smiled and said she was falling asleep. A second later, she
was out like a light bulb.
An hour later Dad was back with Mary. We talked a bit, then Mom
and I went across the street and got in my car; the drive home
was silent.
That didn’t last past pulling into the driveway. I saw Melinda
Carter, the newswoman, get out of a car and walk up to us. I was
surprised, looking around for her cameraman. Evidently she
didn’t keep him chained up all of the time after all.
“Evening Mrs. Ferguson, Tom,” she said when we stopped for her.
“No camera tonight?” I asked, and she shrugged.
“No. I think, as a story, you’re on your last legs. Unless you
save someone else.” She shook her head. “My editor thinks you
and I are cooking this up between us for publicity.”
Mom bristled. “He thinks you’re faking rapes, beatings, heart
attacks and murder for publicity?”
Melinda’s eyes narrowed. “Murder?” She swung around and looked
at me. “Who got murdered?”
“William Leary, the husband of Mary Leary, father of Shannon and
Elizabeth,” I explained to her.
Melinda snorted. “No wonder I was told to take the afternoon
off.” She faced Mom directly. “Having a little time on my hands
got me to thinking.”
Mom smiled then, and I remembered the interplay between the two
women. “Would you like to come in, Melinda? And my name is
Ellen, by the way.”
I grinned to myself; Mom had said we were going to spend Friday
night together, evidently she was holding to the schedule.
Inside, standing in the family room, Melinda was talking to me,
but her eyes were on Mom. “I’ve been thinking it was time for a
change of scenery. Phoenix is a big market, not many larger.
But San Diego is almost the same size.”
I nodded; I’d read it somewhere in the papers last fall.
“Phoenix passed San Diego in population just last year.”
Melinda nodded, looking at Mom.
Mom reached out and touched her arm. “We are a very private
family. What happens inside these walls stays here.”
Melinda nodded. I wasn’t sure how they had ended up face to
face, now a few inches apart, when a moment before they’d been
much further away from each other. I was just a little curious
about who was seducing who here, then I realized that, in that
way, I was a lot like Mom; it was mutual or it didn’t work.
For a second, I was distracted, remembering things. Jenny
reaching out for Mom; the two of them going off. I hadn’t seen
Mom and Mary when they went off together on Sunday; I was
suddenly sure it hadn’t been Mom tugging Mary’s hand. Another
epiphany, I thought; much more mutual than I had thought. Is it
possible to learn something from someone where you never ever
talk about it? Never knew to ask? Never saw it demonstrated?
Here and now, Mom and Melinda kissed, a seriously hot kiss, even
if it started out mild and sweet. I had a raging hard on; so
hard that I had to reach down and shift things around.
Melinda pulled back a bit, looking at Mom, but this time talking
to me. “No one believes it, but reporters do have rules and a
code of conduct that you only break if you want to crash and
burn. One of the most important rules is that you never sleep
with someone you report on. Someone close to the story; that’s
different. But when you do that, best if you hand off the story
to someone else. Well, this story has moved on. I’m moving on.
No harm, no foul.”
She kissed Mom again, this time their hands were ranging up and
down each other’s backs.
I expected to get sent from the room, then I was wondering if I
was supposed to make that decision myself. Then Mom brought up
her hands between them, caressing both of Melinda’s breasts at
once. The kiss had been passionate, now Melinda was going full
bore; mouth wide open to get her tongue deep into Mom’s mouth.
I took a deep breath. If I was a woman making love to another
woman, would I want someone, a guy, standing a few feet away,
watching? Jerking off like I so much wanted to? I snorted
quietly. Not! Another epiphany. What had I said the other day
to Shannon about watching? Maybe if that was something I
explicitly knew was okay with all parties; now I decided that
when in doubt, leave.
I turned and went up the steps, stopping only at the top for one
last look. Mom had Melinda’s blouse undone, her bra unhooked.
Melinda’s breasts were the most pendulous I’d seen unbound,
slumping across her chest. I watched Mom lean down, heft one in
her hand and feed the nipple into her own mouth.
I stared for another second, then finished my trip upstairs. I
decided that sex is sex. If you wanted to make love to someone,
things like minor imperfections weren’t important. I went down
the hall to my room, flipped on the light.
Jenny smiled at me from the bed. “I ran away again,” she said
with a smile. “Joanna and I both decided we’d rather sleep here
tonight. I thought you might be lonely.”
I undressed, and she saw my erection. “You are lonely!” She
giggled, and held the covers up, so that I could see that she was
nude. “Me too.”
I slid under the covers, hugged her to me. “I’m so glad
Elizabeth is going to be okay,” Jenny whispered, her hand on
mine.
“Me too. I think now, maybe, we’ll all be okay.”
Jenny reached between us, finding my erection easily. “Rub this
on me, like you did the other day,” she asked softly.
I obliged, rolling over on my back, and I started rubbing my
erection along her clit. Jenny was hovering over me on all
fours, a look of blissful pleasure on her face. She gave a
little sigh, and opened her eyes and smiled at me. “Are you
close?” she asked, and I nodded. This time it was Jenny’s
fingers that took over the rubbing. She moved my erection a
little harder against her clit, not so hard across the entrance
to her vagina.
On one of the trips from her clit down her pussy lips, to her
vaginal hole, she pushed me further, and I felt the tip of my
cock brush that other hole. When she rubbed it across there
again, I knew it was deliberate. I spasmed, shooting my load up
her backside.
Jenny giggled. “You liked that.”
“It was unexpected,” I said. I didn’t shoot early often, I
wondered if there was a common thread? I considered that, not
what had just happened.
“Tom?” Jenny asked after a second. I realized her fingers were
still on my perpetual boner, still rubbing it over the same spot,
now greatly lubricated. “If I want you there, does it make me a
pervert?”
“No,” I told her simply, “it doesn’t. A pervert is someone who
gratifies themselves at the expense of others.”
Jenny nodded, leaned down and kissed me, moving my turgid member
away from where it had been. “If I wanted you that way?” She
asked, “Would you?”
I’d done it accidentally with Penny; if asked then I’d probably
have said no way. “You would have to be very, very sure,” I told
her.
“Scoot over a little,” she said in a matter of fact tone of
voice. So I did. Jenny moved, lying now next to me on her
stomach. “Please, Tom, I want to try it.”
I blinked, wondering where she had gotten the idea. Kim, Penny
or JR I thought. Which?
I moved to straddle her legs, looking down at the target area;
Jenny obligingly pulled her cheeks apart, so I could see what she
wanted clearly. I wasn’t certain if I was repelled or attracted;
of course my erection didn’t care. I lowered myself, aiming for
the red rosebud, slid the tip across the spot, and then slowly
pressed down.
I remembered it hadn’t been as easy to enter with Penny; it was
true for Jenny as well. Still, my prick had no conscience and my
judgment centers were fried; I pressed on, going slow even so.
Eventually, I was deep inside her, until I felt her ass cheeks
against my groin. That, I decided on the spot, was the sexiest
thing I’d ever felt in my life. I began to move, and Jenny began
to buck her hips against me, moaning lightly into her pillow. If
I hadn’t just spent myself, I doubt if I could have held back for
even a minute; the feeling of her buns pressing against me was
wild, exciting. Jenny began to pant, quickly to the Oohhhh!
Aaaahhhh! stage of her arousal. I smiled at the familiar
sounds, then shot off.
Jenny twitched, “Don’t stop! Not yet, Tom! I’m so close!” It
was hard, but then, I was too. I managed to keep going for
another few seconds, then Jenny clamped her legs together and
squeezed her cheeks; in spite of the fact I’d shot off twice in
ten minutes, I twitched and added another dribble to the mix.
I collapsed down against her, glad that Jenny wasn’t JR, because
I’d have mushed JR. “Mmmmm,” Jenny murmured. “Nice?”
“Yes,” I said simply, reveling yet again at the feel of her ass
cheeks against my groin.
“We have to clean up,” she said, pragmatically. “This isn’t the
most sanitary of things.”
“Nice, though,” I told her.
She clenched her cheeks again. “Do you want to do it this way
again? Not now, but some other time?”
“Yes. Seriously hot,” I said, wishing I had something left to
shoot.
She giggled, “Get up and we’ll wash up.”
We did, and like Penny before her, Jenny washed me herself.
She stood, when we’d finished, looking at me, in the light of the
bathroom. “Sam wanted a masturbation toy. Suck him off or
spread my legs. He never cared about me, about anything. Just
getting himself off.”
I reached out and stroked her cheek, and Jenny smiled. “When I
went to the camp last year, Anna… ” She shrugged, “She wanted
to make me come. It was a new feeling, even if I wasn’t sure if
she was more like Sam than I liked. But she was sweet and nice
and I liked it, I liked it when I came. And even if she didn’t
know about Sam, she understood it would take a while before I
could love her the way she did me.
“We kept seeing each other after we got back, for a few weeks,
then I met Penny. I liked Penny a lot, we became friends, real
friends, not just two people who did it because it felt good.
Penny was the first friend I ever had. And one night Penny was
having her period; Penny gets real bitchy during her period. She
snapped at me, leaving me in tears.
“Kim tried to explain… I’m not sure how it was, but I got this
idea in my head, that she was a woman; she could be like Penny
and me. I swear, I had no idea she had been for years and
years!” I saw the smile on her face; this was a new Jenny, much
more like Mary than I’d ever seen her before. Happy, content.
Normal.
“I thought I was seducing her, I was a little ashamed that I was
doing it to someone who maybe didn’t want to, my best friend, my
very best friend’s mother. It was nice, and Kim knew a lot I
didn’t. And later there was Joanna; that was a surprise when
someone at school told me I shouldn’t be friends with Penny
because she and Joanna were lovers. I laughed.” She sighed.
“After that everyone knew.”
She looked at me, and then hugged me. “And you, you showed me
something that I never expected from a boy. Love, respect. You
wanted me, I could see that. Oh, how I could see that!” I
smiled; I wanted her again, now. She glanced down and smiled.
“Like that!”
“At first, it was, I don’t know…” She shrugged. “It wasn’t
teasing not at first, although after a bit, I was teasing you.
Pushing the envelope to see if you really were like that. Cuddle
and hug, but no sex. I started to feel bad, because I knew I was
being mean to you. It reminded me a little of Sam.
“And like I told you the other day, I realized that if you made
love to me, and I liked it like I like making love to Kim, Penny,
Joanna, your Mom, Anna; it would mean I was normal. So I did.
And I did like it; it didn’t remind me at all of Sam. Tonight, I
wanted to do something different, special. Something most girls
would never do for a boy. I wasn’t sure if I’d like it, or if
you would… but I wanted to. And it was new, different, nice.
It was me wanting things, and you sharing them.” She looked at
me, her eyes bright. “I love you, Tom.”
“I love you, Jenny.”
We hugged, kissed. “Now,” Jenny said, reaching down and cupping
my balls, “I want to go back to bed, have you put this in me, and
go to sleep. We can wake up as many times as you like tonight,
and do it.”
I laughed, “We might not sleep.”
“Cool,” Jenny said.
I lightly stroked her face. “Jenny.” She looked at me. I’d
thought about this earlier, hadn’t thought it was possible. Now
it was possible. Was it a good idea? “Sue Ellen and Janey
invited me to a party at Sue Ellen’s this Saturday. I told them
originally that we were going to LA, I couldn’t go.”
She nodded. I took a deep breath, there was no easy way to say
it, and I decided that I just had to say it. “They told me it
was going to be an orgy. A lot of people having sex. People who
want to do it with each other. Maybe someone besides who they
came with. All kinds of people doing it. As the spirit moves
them. Their choice. They were very specific and firm about
that.
“I’d like to go,” I said it baldly. “Not because I don’t love
you, or I don’t love other people. Because I’m curious. About
me, about some others.”
She looked at me for a long second. “You want me to go with
you?”
I nodded. “If you want. This is no pressure, Jenny. None.
Only if you want to. And if you decide that you want to come
home, or want to be with just me or me just with you, that’s
fine. That’s what we’ll do.”
She smiled slightly. “I told you I wanted to be with your dad.”
I nodded, “He told me, you and Ellen have plans for tomorrow. I
told him in that case, I had plans for him.” We both traded smug
grins.
Then Jenny looked at me, a different expression on her face.
“Tom… ” She leaned close and hugged me, then pushed back.
“I’m not as smart as Elizabeth. Not quite.”
“I remember you reading my dad’s Economist magazine, the first
afternoon you were here,” I told her. “I’ve tried to read it,
but I keep falling asleep.”
Jenny smiled, nodded. Then her face turned very serious. “After
Sam killed my cat, I knew one of two things was going to happen.
I was going to run away… or I was going to kill him.” Jenny
said the words coldly and in a matter of fact tone. “I thought
about it and thought about it. I decided to run away, because I
never want to be anything like Sam. Ever.”
“You aren’t like him, even a little,” I told Jenny.
“If you were different, if I hadn’t proved to myself that you
really meant the things you say, I’d wonder.” Jenny looked at
me. “I’m not up to taking on all comers; in fact, if I’m there,
I suspect you will be the only boy I’m with. But you won’t mind,
will you?”
“No. Not if you don’t mind I’m with some girls who don’t usually
go with boys.”
Jenny giggled again, no longer serious. “I can tell them for
you: if they haven’t been with you, they are missing a treat!”
A few minutes later, we were tucked into bed, and my erection was
tucked into Jenny’s pussy; our arms around each other. Sleep?
Don’t be daft!