The Warm Afterwards

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Continued from “What’s the Matter with Me?”

She passed her Mom’s room at the top of the stairs, then Bobby’s; she was at the end of the L-shaped hall. Before turning the knob she dropped to her knees and looked through the keyhole. The end of the bed was perfectly framed. She smiled and shook her head. “And I was worried about him hearing”, she mumbled to herself.

Inside, she sat on the edge of the bed and let her eyes wander over the shelves of her stuff. That’s how she thought of it: “her stuff”. Sure, it was all middle school and high-school, but everything surrounding her commemorated a step of accomplishment in a young promising life. There were cheerleading trophies, softball trophies, student of the month certificates imperfectly framed and hanging on the wall. Her eyes burned as she thought of the bare walls and empty shelves back at her apartment. But it wasn’t like she accomplished much after leaving here.

This wasn’t helping, she thought. Her meditation sessions in this room typically rejuvenated her. She would usually leave here emboldened-with a little of the brash girl she once was awakened. Today she just felt…shitty. She lay back on the bed and allowed the tears to come-gently, sadly, without a whimper or a sob. Just quiet tears of sadness and…loneliness? Yes, that was it-loneliness. She had never felt lonely here-in this house-the reverse actually. Even though there were only three of them growing up Barbara had felt surrounded-which she of course pushed against at all turns. Today she realized she also felt protected back then.

And she knew that it was her mother than made her feel that way. All the lectures she used to hear-all the scolding-happened right here. And the spankings too. But there was a method to her Mom’s madness that maybe she didn’t realize. Slowly-in tiny flashes-a thought sparkled across her gray spirit. Not well-formed, just something to occupy her mind for a moment. She lay there and let her breathing take over as these random thoughts congealed into an idea she could grasp. Once she grasped it, she saw it-she remembered-and remembering made it real. The tears stopped, replaced by a strangely warm feeling. She rolled onto her belly.

She reached back and cupped her denim-encased backside. She heard her mother’s voice deep in her memory-“You push those pants down right now…” Her heart flipped a little as she reached under herself and pulled at her belt. “All the way down, young lady”, she heard in her mind’s ear. She relived a little of the fear she had felt-the embarrassment. She lifted a little, unsnapped her belt then stopped. Then what? she wondered. Then what?

What was she missing? Not the pain of the brush-that couldn’t be it. Could it? And not the aftercare-there was none of that-just a slamming of the door and the orders to “stay in here till you’re done crying.” No…it was later. Maybe that evening, if the spanking had happened early enough. Maybe the next day. Her mom would plop down next to her on the couch-or across from her at the table and chat. Ask her about her day-about school…And Barbara would talk-she had no problem opening up or…it was like they were almost sisters in the glow of afterwards. A screen had been torn down-a sheet dissolved.

She folded her hands under her cheek and breathed. That’s what she was missing. The afterglow…the warm afterwards….She had felt a little of that today downstairs laughing with Bobby about her spankings. And that was from talking about them! It was amazing the memories and feelings that lived in her old room.

She lay there and let her mind wander-let it race. Her vision skipped years, blew past her short-circuited marriage, her miserable relationships before and since, all the way back to when she was seventeen lying on the bed waiting for her mother to come through the door. Christ this was confusing! She groaned and rolled back over. She knew what she had to try. She got up with a purpose and strode down the hallway to her mother’s room. Would he do it?

Her mother’s door opened with a creak and she stepped inside. Barbara’s own room appeared untouched because no one lived there. Her mom’s room looked untouched because Eileen had a place for everything and everything was in its place. It looked the same as it always had and it smelled of the same Estee Lauder perfume no matter how long the room had been empty.

The hairbrush was where she knew it would be. On the dresser, centered, in front of the jewelry box. Barbara picked it up gently, as if retrieving a relic, and rubbed her hand over the smooth wood. She caught herself in the mirror and was suddenly, inexplicably to her, comfortable with what she saw.

She turned around and looked over her shoulder at her bottom. With the brush in her right hand she patted her cheek firmly, but not hard enough to be heard downstairs. Even so, there was a rush of excitement at the sting she felt. This was going to hurt! She caught her eye in the mirror again. There was a determined look reflecting back-she was going to do it. Without a further thought she was off-out of the room and down the steps.

“Hey Bobby”, she called. “You have a second?”

She had his full attention as soon as she stepped into the room carrying the hairbrush. For a split second he wasn’t sure who it was meant for, but one look at her face crystallized her intent for him. He sat and listened to her plan.

“So you’re thinking you miss the spankings?”

“I don’t think I miss them. Not the spankings as they happened. I’m not sure I miss anything real.  I mean it could be that what I miss is the fantasy that I indulged in. I like to remember this it gave me a feeling of boundaries. That I could only go so far then something would happen to pull me back. Those boundaries kept me from veering too far off course.”

“They didn’t though, did they?”

“No-they just gave me something else to rebel against. But now, I’m looking for boundaries I guess. I can’t go back to high school. I can’t get Mr. Sadler’s detention. I can’t get busted for smoking in the lav. There are no rules for adults!”

“This from a woman who got busted not three hours ago.”

“I know, right? Isn’t that crazy? That’s why I was crying when I got here. I did this stupid-shit thing and nobody would care about it. Nobody would know about it! Nobody would care and I could just continue to fuck my life up on my own-thank you very much. “

“Somebody’s always going to care, you know”, he said with real tenderness.

She stopped and swallowed hard. “Again, I know. I find that out. I come in the house, my little brother makes one call and I’m free and off the hook. And now I just think I have to get spanked for being bad. For going over the line.”

“You have to…”

“I have to….”

He regarded her silently and looked at the hairbrush.

“I need to….” She said quietly.

He was quiet and actually tugged at his bottom lip.

“So yes, then?” He avoided eye contact probably realizing that if he looked at her, he would give her whatever she wanted. And that was what he was going to do. “You’ll do it?” she asked again, a little pleading in her question.

“Ok, Babsy. Sure. Whatever.” She was too happy with his affirmative answer to really note his seeming lack of enthusiasm in the whole endeavor. She handed him the hairbrush and undid her belt.

“Wait. Hold it! Are you taking your pants down?”

“When’s the last time I got spanked in this house that it wasn’t on the bare?”

“Jesus! Barb….”

“What’s the matter? You can fantasize about it for years-play it out in your head-but not man enough to do it for real?”

“I don’t fantasize about doing it….I do it…I mean, not with you…” She flustered him. He was looking at two people at that moment. Here was his big sister, daring him to do something. Egging him on through his reluctance. But beyond that, he saw his big sister asking him, pleading with him, for something only he could give her.

“What do you mean, you do it?”

“I spank girls…women…women I date…” he stammered. “It’s something I do. Girls have broken up with me over it. And I’ve broken up with them because they wouldn’t. But with them there is a…”

He looked away and stammered to silence as she pushed her pants and underwear down revealing a thick thatch of jet black hair blooming above her open fly. She reached over him and lowered herself carefully across his lap. “I get that”, she said settling in. “If it makes you feel any better, you won’t be the first person to spank me since Mom, so don’t worry about it.”

“That might be too much information” he said, trusting himself to look down at her bottom revealed less than completely by her hurriedly lowered jeans. “Look when Mom was doing it, there was a reason I guess. To punish you…to keep you in line…I don’t know. And when we do it with other people there’s a …sexual thing about it. It’s about that…But why are we doing it?”

“Because I want it.”

She pulled a throw-pillow close and hugged it. “Because right now I might need it more than I need anything.”

“I don’t want to hurt you.”

“You’re sweet but getting hurt like this is exactly what I want.”

“Hey, is this cutting you?” He pulled at her belt and bunched jeans which were digging into a deep band across her hips.

“Kinda”, she wriggled.

“Here, lift”. She did and he gently tugged her pants and underwear further down her thighs.

“Better.” She relaxed back into position and hugged the pillow more closely closing her eyes. They sat together in a warm silence that was not uncomfortable. That was not tense. That was relaxed to the point that neither of them really realized they had gone quiet. Bobby, his left hand gently rubbing his sister’s shoulder and his right chastely resting on the back of her leg. She, eyes closed in the pillow.

Bobby relaxed for the first time since Barb came down the steps. He had spoken the truth-all of the spankings he did with woman were sexual. It was all part of foreplay and all of them-well, the ones that didn’t lead to a woman leaving huffily-led to sex. This was his sister and he happily didn’t feel the same crotch tightening thickness with her as he did with other women held in this position. Not even the same excitement that rose in him at the memory of the vision through the keyhole.

“Does it live up to your memory?” She asked back over her shoulder. “Is it all that you remembered?”

“What, the ass that ruined me for all other asses?”

She pinched his ankle.

Her bottom of course was magnificent. The vision and the memory had been sweet; a young girl’s pert, lean bum. This was different though-this was a woman-and that bum had fully bloomed into a voluptuous ass with a deep crease splitting two fulsome milky white cheeks.

“There it is” he said.

“What?” she tried to look back but her hair cascaded over her face. She felt him poking gently on her right cheek.

“That freckle. Still there. Funny what a boy’s mind will focus on but after I saw it that day through the keyhole, every time you walked past and I copped a look at your butt, I would think of this little freckle. Like it was a little secret we had just between us.”

“I wish…”

“No, I mean back then.”

“So do I”, she said.

He slapped her on the cheek and she yelped, surprised. “So bad”, he said.

He watched his handprint develop and darken, mottling her creamy skin. She felt the warmth spread across her cheek.

“I guess we should get on with it…” she said.

“Yeah”, he said but not moving to pick up the brush.

“This is going to hurt you know…”

“All I need right now is for you to hurt me like this…You’re good with that, right?”

“Are you going to cry?”

“I don’t think I’ll be able to help that” she said as his hand continued to rub her back.

“Go on Bobby. Do it. I trust you…”

She exhaled slowly to bring her heart rate down and stared through lidded eyes at the living room that she knew so well-seen now from a new perspective. His hand stopped rubbing and settled on the small of her back. The other hand disappeared and was presumably picking up the brush. She neither twitched nor clenched, but closed her eyes. Bobby lifted the brush and brought it down, snapping his wrist as if he was throwing a ball.

“OW!” she yelped feeling a burn unlike anything she’d felt in years.

“If you say STOP, I’ll stop.” He said. “Anything other than that, I’ll spank till you’re done.”

“K”, was all she could manage before the next swats landed full on her bottom-SPLAT on one cheek, then the other, then back again. She held her tongue through four then began to cry between yelps. She cried, she yelled, “OUCH! OW!” “It hurts Bobby…Ouch, ouch OW”. She said a lot, but managed to avoid the word “stop.” He felt her thrashing then settling. When she stopped moving but for the jumps and jolts with every swat, he put the hairbrush aside and slapped her fully with his hand. “Oww!” she said surprised. He like the feel of the hand against her bottom-the warm connection and the jarring contact that resonated all the way to his shoulder. After a few smacks at the top of her legs and a few more at the bottom of her bottom where the smacking sound echoed through her chasms he slowed.

One more whack and he was finished. He kept his right hand cupping her bright pink right cheek. It radiated heat. Her tears slowed and the loud sobs were over. But she was in no hurry to get up and he was not pushing her.

“I bet Mom never spanked you like that…” he said finally.

“No she didn’t. That was a grown-up spanking….hand me a Kleenex would you.”

He pulled a couple out of the box on the table and handed them to her. She dabbed at her tears and wiped her nose.

“What would you think if I moved back in here?” she asked.

“Mom and I were wondering why you were living alone in that crappy apartment.”

She wriggled a bit pulling the pillow tighter to her face.

“You know me, I want to be an independent woman” she said with all the sarcasm she could muster.

“It’s easier to be independent when someone has your back”, he told her, rubbing her back again.

“Or your back-side?”

“Yeah…that too.”

“I gotta get up” she said after a few more moments. He averted his eyes so he wouldn’t see anything she didn’t want him to see as she got up but she was less concerned about that than he was. She stood and kneaded at the small of her back, her glowing bottom on display, her pants and underwear still at her knees.

He poked at her butt one more time. “You can put that thing away now…”

She laughed and sniffled as she rolled up her underwear then pulled up her pants. “Don’t go shy on me now, kiddo. I might need your services again when I move back.”

“Not if you behave”, he said jokingly.

She turned and bent to kiss him on the cheek. “What are the chances of that, do you think?”

He caught the warmth in her eyes and complete comfort in her smile.

“Whatever you need Babsy. Whatever you need.”

(If you liked this, try Angie’s Workout…)

Fled the Bed!

He made a big deal of it later-about me “leaving the bed.” That’s the way he put it-I left the bed. More like fled, is what I did. But you know how he gets, so freaking dramatic. “You left the bed!” Christ, it was hot, the bed was wet with his bourbon sweat-the room reeked…It was too much. You bet I got the hell out of there.

It was oppressive on the porch too. You would think the screens would let the air circulate a little but maybe there are too many trees around. I don’t know. At least in the bedroom there was the ceiling fan keeping the mosquitoes at bay but I no sooner step onto the porch and ZAP! little bloodsucker gets me right on the shoulder…right here. And I could hear them buzzing…

Outside though, on the patio, was a breeze-I could hear it in the trees-so I stepped out there. It was a warm breeze of course, but it kept the little buggers from landing on me. That’s the thing about walking around naked, there is a lot of open real estate for mosquitoes. I had no idea what time it was-there were no lights-there was no one in the cabins around us-it was the middle of a work week.

No moon, but it really wasn’t dark. There were enough stars to light up the whole valley in this soft blue glow. Can you imagine? Enough star shine to see by? You never see that here. The river though, it looked like a big speckled snake-pitch black but littered, I mean covered-with stars. I’m looking at it from the deck and I…I’ve never seen anything like that. These stars….I guess I was star-struck, right? I wanted to touch them-to feel them. I had to get in there-into the river with them. I couldn’t go up-couldn’t fly into the night sky and touch them but I could slip into the river and let them cover me that way, right?

So I slipped on my Teva’s-the rocks are a bitch-and scampered down over the hill. I’m like a kid-can’t wait to get in there and be covered by the stars. I can still hear him snoring through the open window so I’m by myself totally…

I step in. The water is warm sure, but feels cool next to the air. Not cool enough for goosebumps. Like a bath. River’s only four or five feet deep in front of the cabin so I’m walking slowly, watching the stars swim and swirl around me. As I go further out it’s crawling up my legs-that’s what it feels like, crawling-this thick black blanket alive with all these blue speckles. I’m heading to this rock that I know-that I’ve played on since I was a kid-out near the middle.

Then-as I get deeper-the water reaches right…there. You know? Right here? Oh my, that was something-a little rush. A little tingle. I actually stopped and bent my knees-kind of moving into it-up and down? The current isn’t strong, but I can feel it you know? Just like it was laying on me. Not pushing-just laying.

So as I get deeper into this sparkling darkness, of course, it gets higher on me. The warmth of that blanket crawling up my hips, oozing up and filling the crack of my ass-I mean it! I could feel every inch it moved up my butt until it wrapped around my waist like a bath towel then up to here…then there was the rock. So I turn around and sit up on it.

It’s a big old rock, covered with all kind of river stuff…it’s rough on my butt, you know? It doesn’t hurt-but I can feel it. And it doesn’t feel bad, right? Not at all. Kind of like the roughness of it. I’m facing upstream and this little current is rubbing against me-of course-right at my nipples. Right there. Upstream is nothing but star-shine glitter and if it wasn’t for the black ribbon of the mountain you couldn’t tell where the sky ended and the river began. Took my breath away.

Then…then…I opened my legs a little to feel the current…There were these little minnows bumping into my legs so that felt weird and tickly. Then tingly. Suddenly my nipples are hard from the water lapping at them and I open my legs a little wider. Hmmmm….So I put my left hand on the rock to steady myself, reach down with the right…I was going to go at it gently you know? I wasn’t completely committed…I mean now, looking back it seems like that’s why I went out there in the first place. But it wasn’t. It just happened.

I touched the inside of my thighs you know…nice…soft…easy…around the lips-What’s the matter? You know what I’m talking about. Don’t laugh. Anyway, I slide in, just a little and got my finger on her and, BANG! at the first touch she was standing there stiff as a soldier ready for maneuvers. Sounds stupid to say I was wet-being in the river-but there’s wet and there’s wet. I was so freaking ready for this I couldn’t believe it. All subtlety is out the window-I’m rubbing like I’m trying to start a fire.

I’m squeezing my butt cheeks-they’re scraping on the rock-and that’s a thing too now, the roughness-I can feel it building…and I take my hand that’s balancing me on the rock and start to rub my nipples one then the other, a pinch here, a pull there, head back looking at the sky….then BAM! It’s there…it hits quick like a lightning bolt-all at once, runs up my spine, my butt, down my legs-shoots out my toes, my head’s back I’m looking at the sky- I’m fucking the stars man! I barked! I guess it was a bark-couldn’t keep the sounds inside. I know I moaned out loud. Then I lost my balance-the current isn’t strong-like I said- but I’m sitting there with my feet up my hands all over myself-SPLASH! I’m ass over tin cups off the rock and into the river.

Could still see them though….nothing but blackness around me…Bubbles going up cause I’m laughing-but the stars are twinkling up there, winking down at me…They know what I’m up to. Jesus I felt so good. Best underwater orgasm ever!

Then BAM! It’s all gone in a flash. Everything’s blinding white! It was him…he got up and turned the deck floodlights on-you can read by them across the river. I think he’s secretly afraid of the dark or something; I don’t know. But the stars are gone, the black blanket is gone. It’s just me laying at the bottom of the river.

I stand up-not easy my legs were shaking-and put my arms out like…What the fuck? I think he’s surprised to see my tits looking up at him.

“WHAT ARE YOU DOING?” He screams. Nobody around for a mile-no sounds-I could hear a frog fart and he’s screaming!

My first impulse is to yell back something like “I’m rubbing one off in the river you fuck!” No really, I almost did. Wouldn’t that have been a thing? But I took a breath-modulated-asked him to please kill the lights as I’m enjoying a little swim. I said it like that-my clit’s buzzing, I’m still squirting, my heart’s racing and I’m speaking like I’m on Downton-freaking-Abbey-“I’m enjoying a bit of a swim.”

I don’t know what he saw…Don’t really care. But that’s when he says it-for the first time, “You can’t just leave the bed like that…” Jesus. What am I gonna do with him?

You mind if I smoke?

“What’s the matter with me?”

 

by Ebsen Bog Jensen

Barbara sat in the driveway and rubbed the tears from her eyes with the heels of her hands. “Christ”, she said aloud looking at herself in the rear-view. “Bobby’s here…could I just straighten up a little?” She picked the summons off of the passenger seat and jammed it into the glove box. What the hell was the matter with her? She slammed the car door and walked past her brother’s beat-up Jeep and in the side door.

“Bobby?” she called from the kitchen.

“In here”, from the living room.

He was sprawled on the couch with a thick textbook balanced on his chest. Bobby was her “little” brother in years only. He set his book face down carefully on the coffee table and pulled his six foot two inch frame to full height to give her a quick hug. “How are you Babsy?” he asked calling her by one of the names he used to tease her with as kids.

“I’m good, I’m good…”

He looked at her shining eyes and mottled face.

“I’m not sure that’s true…”

She waved him off and asked about their mother. Barbara hadn’t been to the hospital in a couple of days but was planning to go later. Bobby, living at home now that he was finishing community college, obviously saw her much more often. Eileen was doing fine and would be home within the week.

“So you?” He asked. “What’s your problem…And don’t wave it off.”

She told him the story-she had been hanging around with some sketchy friends-one of whom was sipping from a can of beer. He handed her the beer to slip inside to use the bathroom and, quick as that, a cop had driven up. No amount of pleading would convince him that it wasn’t her beer and it wouldn’t have mattered anyway. She was holding it. Her “friend” who had handed her the beer saw what was happening and never came back. That would be a $200 fine that she didn’t have.

Bobby shook his head. “What are you, sixteen?”

“I know, I know…”

“It’s a good thing Mom isn’t here. She’d give you the brush.”

“No doubt,” she answered with a smirk. “Then I’d be grounded. Which might not be a bad idea-the grounding I mean. Keep me away from the assholes.”

“She should have grounded you when you turned twenty one. Would have kept you from marrying the dick-head.”

“Ex-Dickhead.”

“No, ex-husband. Probably still a dickhead.”

She laughed and relaxed a little. She didn’t know how it was in other families but this was a “no judgment haven”-no matter how often she got over here. Since the divorce she had been spiraling a little-keeping a waitressing job, just getting by- but made it a point to come over here every couple of weeks or so just to kind of reconnect with herself.

Sometimes Bobby was here, sometimes not. She’d visit with her mom, then go up to her room which had remained almost untouched for the last five years-and sit. Reflect. Plot her next move or rue her last one. Actually more of the latter these days. Bobby went to the kitchen to make coffee and they continued the conversation-with louder voices-across the rooms.

“So where did your latest ‘crime of the century’ happen?”

“Wilkins Mall.”

“The mall?”

“Yeah, why?”

“Real cop or mall cop?”

“Mall cop. Why?”

Bobby came back into the room, looked at the clock and grabbed his cell phone. “Chubby guy? One of those strawberry patches here, on his neck…?” he asked dialing.

“Yeah…you know him?”

He held up his hand.

“Hey Rick”, he said into the phone.

Barbara sat back and listened to one side of the conversation. Apparently mall-cop was only a part time gig for this guy who was in some classes with her brother. They seemed to be friends and exchanged pleasantries about school until Bobby got down to it.

“So Rick…you busted a girl today? Yeah…Open container….What? She was hot, huh?” He winked and listened for a few moments then smiled…”Yeah-yeah-I know.” Barb raised her eyebrows, mouthing “What?” Bobby held the phone away from his face-“You have nice tits”, he mouthed back. She covered her eyes and shook her head. Then, just like that, it was over. The cop couldn’t have known she was Bobby’s sister because she still was going by her married name. There was some laughter, it was a misunderstanding. “Sure”, said Bobby. “I get it…and we really appreciate it.” He hung up and that was that. The summons was history.

“So there-I got you out of a spanking when Mom gets home”, he teased.

“Oh Christ, don’t tell her about this cause I wouldn’t put it past her.”

“My lips are sealed.”

“I can’t believe you brought that up. You know…I used to get so embarrassed with you here in the house when I was getting spanked. We were in my room I know-you couldn’t see anything-but you hearing that? It was mortifying.”

“You were loud, that’s for sure…”

“It hurt like hell! I couldn’t help myself from crying…She was tough. And the frustration of knowing there was nothing I could do about it! That was the worst! When she said it was going to happen, it happened. Sometimes the waiting was the worst. She would call from work about something I did-like the time she found out that Jim was over here when she was over at grandma’s when he wasn’t supposed to be. She told me I better be ready because when she got home….Jesus, I cried waiting for her. But you wouldn’t know anything about that, would you? She wouldn’t spank the baby.”

“Maybe I was just a good kid!”

“You weren’t that good-just had her fooled. But I think it was a boy/girl thing-she figured you were a guy, you’d make it on your own and figure your own shit out. Me? She figured I needed some…guidance.” Barb shrugged. “Maybe she wasn’t wrong.”

“When was the last time? That she spanked you. Weren’t you like a senior?”

“Yes”, she remembered. “I was still 17 though. She made a thing of saying I wasn’t an adult yet.”

“That one was special.”

“Special?”

“That one was different.”

“How do you mean?”

Bobby thought about it for a second…then another. He was trying to weigh how much to tell and how much to keep.

She leaned toward him. “Bobby? How was it special?”

Oh, the hell with it, he thought. “When Mom spanked you, usually, she would make you lay on the bed and she’d stand beside you with the hairbrush…”

“Yeah…Wait. How do you know….? Did she tell you?”

“No, God no…”

“Then how…” She froze. “Did you spy on me?”

“Not really spying…Spying infers extraordinary measures. All I did was look through the keyhole.”

“The keyhole?!”

“Sure, it was easy to see-but the way your bed is, I never could see much. Could hear everything but all I could see were your feet. Sometimes your calves-kicking with every swat…Sometimes Mom’s leg where she was standing…”

“I can’t believe you spied on me!”

“Like I said-I didn’t see much. Heard a lot-and I have a great imagination.”

He laughed gently as she held a pillow over her face.

“But that one time…when you were a senior…”

She looked up from the pillow, in wide-eyed horror. “Mom sat on the end of the bed…”

“And made you lay across her lap-you were perfectly facing-well, not facing-exactly the opposite of facing-actually…”

“My ass was pointing directly at the door.”

“Directly.”

“Oh my God…” her cheeks flushed.

Her brother’s smile cracked his face wide open and his eyes danced with the memory.

“That was the most amazing….It was probably the highlight of my boyhood.” He pointed to his head-“All locked up here for a lifetime of viewing pleasure….”

“Oh, maaaaan…”

“That’s why I don’t drink”, he teased. “I can’t chance losing the brain cells that might rob me of that vision.”

She kept her eyes tightly closed for a moment then…”Wait. Do not tell me you beat off to the memory of me getting spanked.”

“OK. I won’t tell you.”

She threw a pillow at him. “What a little pervert you were!”

“I was a fourteen year old boy! All fourteen year old boys are perverts!”

“Perverted boys grow up to be perverted men.”

Setting the pillow aside, he cracked “I’ll give you that.”

She scrunched her eyes afraid of the answer to her next question. “You didn’t tell anyone about it did you?”

“Come on! Nobody beats off to my sister’s bare butt but me!”

She roared with laughter and attacked him with another pillow. He covered his head and laughed under the onslaught. After a few whacks she rubbed the pillow on his face and collapsed onto the couch beside him as the laughter subsided replaced over the next few moments with a warm smile.

“Haven’t laughed like that in a while…”

“Glad I could provide the service.”

She nodded at the book. “You have a test tomorrow? “

“Later this week. Just trying to stay on top of it.”

“Well”, she said getting up. “I’ll leave you to it. I’m going to go upstairs for a bit.” She leaned over and kissed him on the forehead. “Thanks for that-getting me out of that. Even if you’re a perverted spanking spy. I’m not going to have to date that cop or anything am I?”

“I’m thinking you’re in the clear…”

He stretched out back on the couch with his book and Barbara headed for the stairs.

Lifted from Rollin Hand

Not to be confused with the Faerie Keyhole, which is another thing altogether

Continued…

How do you know when it’s time?

You’re standing there, nude, at the mirror;

Red, scrubbed and powdery fresh from the shower.

I’m sitting on the edge of the bed not wearing much.

To me, you look the same as you always did-

Nothing’s fallen, nothing’s spread.

This moment used to lead to others where we would come together,

Slide, slip, push, grunt, scream and collapse.

Again and again.

Now you’re curling your hair telling me what I need to

Pick up at Costco.

(Was I supposed to be taking notes?)

I’m not really listening;

Busy trying to get sports talk through the static on the clock radio.

I let my eyes wander to the fullness of your bottom-imagining the dark secrets enveloped there;

The sleek firmness of your gym-toned legs.

Why imagine? I wonder. You’re right here. Just reach.

Not like I haven’t before.

For a moment I imagine my tongue like a frog’s-

Flicking and diving deeply between your bum-cheeks from over here.

A test.

I asked if you wanted to come back to bed.

We had time, after all.

Your reflection froze and said “Sure, if you want” with the same enthusiasm

Put into listing produce.

“Shhh, wait!” I said, holding up a finger, finally getting the station clearly.

“No, then?” the curling iron high-in a holding pattern.

“I’ll go make coffee”, I said. “It’s getting later…”

“Okay.” You said, getting back to the hair.

“And don’t forget it’s the frozen strawberries we want.

Not the mixed berries you got last time.”

Let’s Try This Again…

Continued from “Poor Mikey”

It was a quiet Friday night at The Club; too early for anything to really be happening. Mike, at his post in the alley, was leaning back, his chair up on two legs, his shaved head resting lightly against the cool brick wall. There was finally a breeze giving short respite from the damn heat wave that was raising mosquitos even this far from the river.

His eyes were closed but he heard the tac-tac-tac of her high-heels and knew it was Kim even before he caught the lemony sage of her perfume.

“Not sleeping on the job are you?” she asked smiling. He hadn’t seen her since the morning after, a couple of weeks ago. Even in the weak light she was a vision-immaculate skin, perfect ponytail, bright smile, tight black jeans and a red silk t-shirt accented by a single petite gold chain.

“Not me”, he said settling the chair back down onto its front legs. “Ever vigilant.”

“Isn’t that the Coast Guard motto?” she asked.

“Probably should be.”

She had slipped closer when he sat down, her legs almost between his knees. She was positively radiant but there was something about her that Mike sensed more than saw. He couldn’t put his finger on it but there was something.

“You almost got me in trouble, there Bub.” She said wagging a finger playfully at him.

“Oh? How did I do that?”

“He saw it”, she said.

“Saw it…?” He wasn’t following.

“That bruise…the one you left right here?” She twisted and pointed to the spot on her lower right cheek-where the bum meets the leg. “Right there? Remember? That stroke where I pissed you off and you…”

“I remember…I told you I wasn’t really pissed. It was the…heat of the moment…”

“Yeah, you said that…”

“What he do? How’d he find it….?”

“I was in the shower and he came in. Not into the shower-he likes to wash me sometimes…him on the outside” She was speaking a little too fast. “So he had me turned around and was washing my shoulders and rubbing my back then he started soaping my rear and rubbing the washcloth between my cheeks…” She caught herself and took a breath. “Anyway, he saw it. I had forgotten about it but when he stopped soaping I knew he saw it. There I was with my hands on the wall and he was rubbing his finger over it. It was faded-almost gone-but still a little yellow and blue. This was a couple of days ago. It might be gone now.”

“What did he say?”

“I acted surprised-told him I didn’t even know there was a mark there. Then I told him I had fallen on the trailed-slipped on a rock and fell on my ass. That I’d forgotten all about it.”

“Quick thinking…”

“It wasn’t really a lie, you see? Because I was running up the trail-just like we did-a couple of days before.”

“But you didn’t fall…”

“OK, it was…somewhat of a lie.”

Then he saw it-what was a little off with her tonight. He saw it in her quick on, then gone, smile. She was trying. The barrier between the two of them-which always had been her force field-was now emanating from him and she was trying to slice through it.

“So I stepped out of the shower and he dried me gently and lay me on the bed. It was sweet-he kissed it- but then he was like Sherlock Holmes-looking at every part of my body…he went over every inch…and I started worrying. I never looked at me that closely. What if there was another mark? What if something else still lingered.” She paused waiting for Mike’s input. If he had been a smoker he would have taken a deep drag and let the smoke billow, tellingly. As it was he just stared up the alley-not as impressive an image. “Anyway”, she went on when he wouldn’t rise to the hook, “There was nothing…You were very judicious. Except for that one.”

“There is a reason”, he said “That I have a rule against messing with married women.”

“Well”, she said. “It’s not so much a hard and fast rule…”

“Moment of weakness” he said. Then nothing more. She wasn’t looking for silences.

“Look. I used you, I know. I apologized for that. Again-I’m sorry. I needed what I needed and I was climbing out of my skin. I’m better now…a little more under control.” He smirked and looked up at her. Was she really as beautiful as he thought, or just exotic? She waited an instant to see if he was going to say anything then pressed on when his gaze settled back up the alley.

“Would you see me again…?” She asked. Then, before he could answer-which wasn’t going to happen too quickly because he was deeply mulling the question he knew she would aks since he first heard her footsteps. “What about if we started fresh? Have the date you wanted-not the one I wanted. Nice dinner, expensive restaurant, drinks, coffee….conversation…I can do that.”

There was nothing stopping him from saying “yes”. There really was no rule he adhered to, there was no lack of desire. In fact, he leaned forward a little to disguise a slight rise he was beginning to feel. She was beautiful, she was smart, and key in the current situation, she wanted him. Which was….odd maybe…but he wouldn’t dwell on it.

“You go away now,” he told her. “Come back at 10:20 and I’ll give you my answer.”

Her eyes flashed. “What if I’m late?”

“The answer will be no.”

“Early?”

“Stand up the street and time it right. I have 8:07.”

“Me too. Good watch.”

“What do I do for two hours?”

“Have an adventure and tell me about it.”

She smiled at him-not the overly radiant fluorescent thing that he had been seeing but a smaller one; more relaxed and contained. She suddenly had a warmth in her crotch that wasn’t there earlier.

“10:20 then”, she said.

“See ya” he said, turning to card a young looking couple who approached the door.

Kim tac-tac-tac’ed up the alley.

 

 

Watching the River Flow

“Hey, how you doing?” she asked flopping heavily onto the broken recliner next to his unstuffed overstuffed lounger. She pulled an old greasy, afghan off the ground and over her shoulders, the night fire long dead.

“I’m alright”, he said, breath puffing frostily before his face, then gone. He seemed to pause, as if to say more. She waited for him to continue as he stared out at the river. It wasn’t a blank stare; more a pointed, searching stare as if what he wanted to say could be plucked from the thick green water. Not finding anything, he crumpled further back into the worn cushions, deflated by the effort.

“I’m alright”, he repeated with a resigned sigh.

She reached out to take the hand which he wouldn’t extend and followed his gaze out to the river.

“Me too”, she said.