Loading...I wanted to throw the phone across the room.
“Yeah… no problem Tim… I understand. No, it’s fine. Yeah, I’ll drink one for you. Alright talk to you later.”
Gently I hung up the phone.
“Well, fuck me to tears, Agnes. Just fuck me to tears!”
As I walked into the kitchen the preheat buzzer on the stove went off in mocking laughter. I turned off the oven, picked up the four slabs of ribs that I was about to season, and placed them back into the refrigerator with a shake of my head.
“Fuck!”
Glancing over I couldn’t even look at the pool table covered in a stacked tower of fireworks boxes. A thousand dollars worth of just mortars, with two hundred more spent on rockets. The massive amounts of gun powder sitting there however was not even close to the most explosive thing in the house now. Before I started to punch walls, I headed outside.
Storming out the back through the screen door I only just resisted slamming it shut behind me but it was a close thing. Going over to my grill, I opened it up. The need to cuss rose again as I saw that the pecan wood had just begun to burn good. I could tell by the way it looked that it would have been the perfect bed of coal in two hours when the ribs had slow cooked in the oven to tender.
Disgusted, I shook my head and went over to the faucet to get the hose.
“Hey, Carl,” I heard a sweet voice say.
Looking over the fence I gave my neighbor as much of a smile as I could manage.
Mrs. Sally Williams, was the friendly silver haired lady who lived next door. She had been the first one to come over to welcome me to the neighborhood the day after I got full moved in. She had rang the doorbell, the first time I had heard it ring in fact, with a delicious banana pudding in hand and a smile.
“Hey, Mrs. Sally. How’s your day starting out?” I stopped what I was doing and watched her carry her clothes out to her line in a basket. The slight breeze had her short gray hair blowing into her eyes.
“Oh not bad,” she said, brushing back her hair. “By the way happy Fourth of July. I didn’t think about you grilling out, all my clothes will smell like wood smoke. Though the wood does smell good.” She leaned the basket more into her hip and lifted her nose to take a deep smell of the air. “Hardwood?”
“Yeah, my brother brought some of the pecan wood over from where the storm brought down his tree.” I sighed. “I don’t think you’ll have to worry about your clothes though.”
“Why? What’s wrong? Oh my phone is ringing!” I watched as she sat her basket down and walked hurriedly to her backdoor.
Rolling the hose out to the grill, I went back to the faucet to turn it on. Still cussing under my breath I walked back to the grill. Just as I was about to turn the water on and drown the fire I heard Mrs. Sally’s screen door whack shut. Looking over, I saw her expression had changed dramatically. She now looked very depressed.
“Something wrong?” I asked.
“Yeah, things just went to… heck!” She gave her foot a stomp. Picking up her wicker basket, she went back to hanging up her clothes.
“What happened?”
She gave a defeated slump of her shoulder and stopped what she was doing. Sitting her clothes back down, she walked over to the fence and leaned on the rail. I moved over to join her taking the hose with me . Her eyes held a lot of sadness as I looked into them.
Her sigh sounded a lot like mine from earlier.
“Well, the seniors group I’m in… we have a big party planned every fourth. This year the senior center is having renovation work done on it so we rented a place. We pooled all our money and got everything bought up. Well Pamela just called to tell me the place we rented from had the room doubled booked. The other people were there first so we’re out of a place. She’s calling around but everything is either too expensive or booked up this late. It’s just too late.” She looked terribly dejected as she turned to go back to her laundry.
“How many?” I asked.
“What?” She turned around blinking.
“How many people were coming?” I asked more clearly.
She paused and tilted her head thinking about it. “Oh… well, it’s about twenty five of us I think.” I could see her counting names in her head, then she nodded. “Yeah, it’s twenty five.”
My anger at my friends and their last minute change of plans faded.
“Tell them to come here.” I lay down the water hose and walked back over to close the grill. When I got there, I looked back over my shoulder.
She was just looking at me blinking. I smiled at her confusion, then explained.
“I was planning a big party today with some old buddies from my college days. They all called to say they’re not going to show. I’ve got plenty of food, a ton of fireworks and a house made for large parties. Tell them to come here.” I closed the hood so the wood didn’t burn up too fast. When I glanced back over at her she was watching me with a strange look of shock.
“You sure?” she asked.
Grinning, I nodded. “Let me go put the ribs back in the oven, you go make your phone calls.”
Her face brightened like the sun. “Oh thank you, thank you Carl! Oh I could hug you! That is so wonderful… I’ve got to go call Pamela!” She all but skipped to her back door like a young girl.
Grinning, I headed back inside. I popped the ribs back out the fridge and got the oven turned back on. Rubbing on my seasoning, I was just about to set them inside the oven when I heard my name being called.
“Carl?”
I walked to the door and stuck my head out.
“Yes, Mrs. Sally?”
She huffed and stomped her foot.
“Carl, for Lord’s sake I have told you just call me Sally!”
Laughing, I nodded that I would.
“Most want to know if they need to bring anything?” she asked gesturing with her hand.
“Same thing I told my no-shows. Themselves and whatever they want to drink,” I answered smiling.
“Well, that will work well for most of them but not William. I’ll tell him that and he’ll show up here with five bottles of whiskey and spend half the night trying to get him some gray hair.”
It took me a half-second to realize what she meant, then my face split into a grin.
“I think he’s sounds like a man after my own heart.”
She blushed beautifully.
“Tell them to bring whatever they want to bring,” I said after a moment “but for the most part… meat and snacks I’ve got covered.”
“Okay, Carl. Thank you.” I noticed she was still blushing when she went inside.
Smiling, I went back inside.
Washing the spice rub off my hands in the sink, I dried them as I headed to the living room and went over to my stereo system. It sat there looking like something NASA would be envious of a truly massive monetary investment that I have at times regretted with many a shake of my head. I turned it on with a noticeable dimming of the lights.
Okay… it was a big stereo and it holds thousands of songs set up in sound files for different people. I pulled up my Mom’s favorites figuring my guests would be more appreciative of that than my own collection of eighties hair metal bands. I set it on shuffle. There was probably nineteen hours of music it could go through before it would start to repeat.
And that was just Mom’s file. Like I said NASA… envious.
I was about to go back to the kitchen when I heard my doorbell ringing. I opened it to the strongest sense of deja vu I have ever felt.
“If you say welcome to the neighborhood, I’m gonna need medication,” I told her while grinning.
She laughed,and the little wrinkles by her eyes crinkled. She held out the big bowl in her hands and I took it from her, already smelling the vanilla and bananas.
“Was planning to take this with me to the party today. I know how much you loved my banana pudding,”She shrugged clearly flattered that I so liked her cooking. “Everyone said they would come. I hope you’re ready for a house full of hippies to beatniks.”
Laughing, I gestured her towards the dinning room. My grandmother’s old wooden dining table was covered with big bowls full of unopened bags of chips, popcorn, and nachos. Small paper bowls and napkins sat in their plastic bags ready for guests.
“The fridge is filled with salsa and dips. I’ve got five bags of ice in the chest freezer. Got two watermelons chilling in ice water in my cooler. Plus I’ve got enough meat to feed an army. I think I’m ready,” I told her as I somehow made a spot for the big bowl. I had to seriously fight the temptation to go get a spoon and dig into the pudding.
She laughed.
“Well, Carl, don’t let it be said you don’t know how to prep for a party.” She looked over at my pool table and the stash of fireworks. “Good lord, you’re going to blow up the neighborhood!”
Smiling, I took her elbow turned her towards the living room.
“This place looks so different now,” she told me as we walked into the living room. Her eyes went to some of the things I had put out since she had last been here. “Clara had this room so full of lace and pink it was ridiculous. Now you’ve made it so masculine it’s not funny.”
I smiled and gestured her towards the large leather couch.
“When I bought the house I had planned on it being the party get together place for all my friends to come to. Now it seems they are all too busy to come see me.”
She grimaced.
“Y’all used to get together a lot?” she asked, sitting back in the sofa. The soft leather hugged her.
“When I was in college we would get together every weekend. Parties would start Friday afternoon and run all the way to Sunday night. After college, we maybe got together every other weekend. Then it got to be once a month. Then every New Years and Fourth of July,” I sighed. “Then it got to be where less could make it. Seemed every year we would lose one more. Our last really big party was five years ago. For the most part all of us were there and had a great time catching up.”
“So what happened this time?” she asked.
Sitting back in the chair I shook my head. “I started calling people and planning this three months ago. Figured I maybe could get enough of us together to, I don’t know, maybe get the old traditions going again.” I shrugged, my disappointment clearly showing.
She reached over and patted my knee. My eyes dropped to her hand when she left it resting there.
“I hate to be the one to break this news to you, Carl.” I looked up to see her smiling. “You’re getting old.”
Laughing, I nodded.
“And it will get worse,” she said smiling, and patted my knee again. “Soon they won’t be able to come to the party cause they’re dead.”
It was not really funny but I chuckled, understanding what she meant.
“So who all is coming?” I asked after a moment.
* * * *
We sat and talked about mostly nothing for maybe an hour. Then I got up and went to turn the ribs in the oven. While I was still in the kitchen I heard Sally at the front door. She called out as I was closing the oven.
“Over here, Pam!”
I stripped off the oven mitts and went to see my first guest.
“You said next door, Sally; you didn’t say which side,” I heard a slightly nasally voice mildly chastise my neighbor. “Oh, thank you. Yeah, I’m good. I’ve got the rest.”
Stepping into the living room, I saw a woman who kind of reminded me of Mrs. Ouiser Boudraeux in Steel Magnolias. She was carrying a huge stack of Tupperware boxes. I went to help.
“Oh, you must be Carl! Sally said she had the most wonderful young man living next door to her. You must be him. Oh, thank you,” she said when I took the top boxes off the stack. “That’s deviled eggs and olive cheese balls.”
“Pam, you didn’t have to go to that trouble,” Sally said as she took one of the boxes off the top of my stack and sat it on the table. “Carl, this is Pamela. Pam is the single most organized person on the planet.”
“Sally, if I didn’t know what your house looks like I would take that as a compliment.” She gave Sally a light swat on the shoulder.
“Good to meet you Pam,” I said with a smile. She took the last of the boxes from me and sat them on the table.
“Thank you. We were all in such a tissy after that place called. Now you’re sure this isn’t going to be too much trouble for you?” she asked looking around at the house.
“I already had a party planned for today. None of those people could show up so you are all very welcome.” I opened one of the boxes and seeing something that looked good, popped a cheese wrapped olive into my mouth. The taste of bacon, cheese and olives flooded my mouth. “Damn, those are good.”
Pam smiled and patted my arm
Leaving them to talk, I went back outside to check on the progress of my coals. They were nearly there, and I walked to the back porch to get the cooler with the hotdogs and hamburger patties. A man with a gray Irish flat cap on came walking out the back door. He gave me a grin. “Hey there. I’m Marcel,” He held out his hand to me.
“Carl.” I told him, taking it.
“Thank you for the use of your home for today.” He glanced around my backyard. “None of us really have a place made for parties. Here let me help you with that.”
He took one side of the cooler as I bent down to pick it up. The gray in his mustache must not affect him much as he lifted the other side of the heavy cooler with ease.
With his help I got the hotdogs, hamburgers, and chicken out on the grill. As I took a pack of hot dogs from him, I noticed his hands were stained all kind of colors.
He saw my eyes and smiled. “I’m a painter. Landscapes, nudes, portraits.”
I chuckled “I was a painter for awhile. Cars,” I said.
Marcel laughed. “Haven’t done cars,” He tilted his head then a smile split his face. “Although I did do the side of a van back in about eighty four. Was doing airbrush work at the mall. T-shirts, car tags, that kind of thing. Guy paid me two hundred bucks to put Conan on the side of his black van.”
“Blond or black haired?” I asked, grinning.
“Black! No SwartsaConan. Straight off a book cover. One of Boris Vallejo’s, I believe.” He leaned towards the grill and smelled the growing scent of meat over the wood. “That’s going to be good in no time.”
A dishwater blond with waist length hair walked out the backdoor and looked towards us.
“Marcel, don’t bore him to tears out there. He’s being a wonderful host. We don’t need him crying on the coals,” she called from the porch.
“Oh, go cluck with the other hens!” he yelled to her, smiling.
I heard Sally from inside the kitchen . “I heard that, you unemployed house painter!”
Marcel’s face split into a huge grin.
The lady on the porch smiled back.
“Calvin’s here,” she called to him and turned to go.
“What?” he called after her.
She turned and was about to speak then she stopped and gave him a hard look. After a second, she stuck her tongue out at him and went back inside.
I looked at his grinning face. Seeing my expression, he laughed.
“Our friend Calvin is deaf as a post. I tease Willow that I’m losing more of my hearing every time I’m around him.”
“Willow?” I looked towards the door when he pointed.
“Yeah… that was my wife just there.” He looked to the door and waved when an older looking man with a long white ponytail came walking out. As Marcel spoke to the man, I watched him clearly pronouncing his words.
“How are you doing, today? This is Carl,” he pointed to me with his thumb.
The man looked over to me and smiled.
“Pleasure to meet you Tarl. I’m Calvin,” he held out his hand to me smiling.
I couldn’t help but laugh “Nice to meet you.”
Over the next two hours I was introduced to over two dozen people. Sally finally took matters in hand and led me around making introductions. I got a running play by play from her on the people just before I met them.
Marion and AnneMaude. Two little ladies with walkers who fussed and clucked at me just like a pair of hens. That was what Sally called them in my ear anyway. She made sure they had pillows behind their backs and something to drink.
Then the little group that I met for all of five seconds before they were asking me to go to church with them. Jan and Sandy, the two sisters, Bob and Margie, their mom and dad, and a cousin Teresa.
Then it was the pot heads, again Sally’s description, Edina and Silvia. If they were not lovers I was blind. Then I met Chloe and Andrew, also pot heads.
Sally tried to introduce me to Lamar but he was asleep on the couch.
There were several among the group with caps on that had things like Vietnam vet, or a ship’s call numbers. They were all friendly for the most part.
Then I met William. Oh, good lord.
He appeared like a balding tornado of energy. He scooped Sally up and spun her then danced away and gave Pam a kiss on the side of her neck that had her shivering and swatting at him. He shook my hand, grinned, and handed me a brown bag with two bottles of Jack Daniel’s.
“Damn glad to meet you, Carl. We’ve been needing to get some young blood in this group of old fuddy duddies. Lamar, wake the hell up!” He gave the sleeping man a shake that startled him awake. A woman in a very short skirt and a very tight top came over and started swatting at William with one of my couch pillows.
“Will…you…settle…down!” she popped him for every word.
“Hey, hey, hey.” William dodged away from her, grinned, and winked at me. I saw him head over towards the churchgoers.
The woman with the pillow watched him go, shook her head, then looked over at me.
And I mean, looked!
I got this piece of meat feeling after about a second. She licked her lips like a snake tasting its prey in the air.
“Sally, you naughty girl. You didn’t tell me you have this hunk of a man living next to you.” She moved a step closer to me. “I would have come over more often.”
“That might be the reason why. Carl, this is Karen. Ever heard of a dirty old man? She’s the female version.” Sally rolled her eyes.
The woman huffed. “So I like me some young flesh. Last I checked that wasn’t a crime. Oh lord, let me go stop William before he kills Curtis!”
I watched Karen go hustling off towards where I saw William pouring a drink for an older man in a beige sweater.
“That’s Curtis. He’s not allowed to drink alcohol. It messes with his heart medication. Come on, I’ve got a few others for you to meet.” She took my arm and went back to leading me around making introductions. Several of the people didn’t really stand out to me all that much at that first glance. The guy with the old faded blue tattoos on both arms wasn’t one I would likely forget soon.
Then I met Fay. I knew her and she me. I could see it in her face for a half second then recognition hit us both.
“The Golden Lady,” we both said at the same time, then grinned at each other.
I saw Sally look back and forth between us.
“Do you know him, Fay?”
The woman nodded.
“I used to. About fifteen years ago he was one of those young men that helped me get my retirement fund together.”
“Carl! You naughty young man.” Sally looked at me with mock horror. “Hanging out in strip clubs.”
The three of us laughed. It was cut short when William came sliding back into the middle of us with my pizza pan being used as a serving tray. He had also found my shot glasses I saw.
“So Fay, we getting you to dance tonight?” he asked, handing her a glass.
“I’ve told you, William I’m retired.” She took the glass and eyed it suspiciously. “Got tired of stepping on my own nipples when I danced.”
Sally turned twenty shades of blush red and I about choked on the half drink I took.
“I’ll hold them up for you,” William offered.
Rolling her eyes heavenward, Fay walked off, shaking her head. Grinning, William turned to Sally.
“How about it, Sally?” he wiggled his bushy eyebrows at her. “You up for a bit of bump, grind, shimmy shake?”
“William, you are an incorrigible nuisance you know that? No, I’m not going to dance. Not with my clothes on, let alone with them off!” She looked over to me. “This poor young man has to live next to me. Imagine the irreparable harm it would do him to see an old lady like me naked.”
William leaned in and started to bump my elbow over and over. I had to shift what was left of my drink to keep it from spilling.
“See, that’s the problem with women. They get over fifty and they think no one wants to look at them anymore. Come on Sally, you could give him the thrill of a lifetime.”
Sally shook her head and wandered off. I saw his eyes follow her. His head gave a tilt to the side.
“Still got a damn nice ass for her age.” He looked over at me and winked. “Carl? Where is your bathroom?”
“Down that hall. First door on your right.” I told him pointing.
“Thanks.”
The racks of ribs went out just as all the other meat was coming in. I noticed that two of the older guys seemed to have taken over the working of the grill. When I carried the ribs out they started thanking me for the party then asked me about the type of wood I was burning. Somehow I ended up in a discussion about the merits of nut wood versus fruit wood till I was forced by a full bladder to go inside.
When I stepped into the bathroom I could smell the hint of pot smoke.
“Gods, this is just like college,” I muttered to my reflection.
As I was washing my hands I heard a tap on the door. When I opened it I felt a hand on my chest and was pushed back a step. Karen’s lips were on me in a half-second.
Somehow I found myself with my arms around her back and her kissing me with a fury. She slowly turned us around till my back was to the door. I felt her tongue lick my lips as she broke the kiss.
“Oh yes I need to come over here much more often. Now out cutie pie I’ve got to turn the water a different color,” she said and gave me a little push out the door.
As she closed the door in front of me I just stood there, my lips still tingling a bit.
“Yeah, just like college.” I checked the mirror in the hall and cleaned lipstick off my lip and cheek. Passing through the hall I saw several of the guys were moving the fireworks off the pool table.
“Mind if we play on your table?” the guy with the old tattoos asked just before he got a stick down off the rack on the wall.
“Not at all, that’s what it’s here for. Let me get those out the way.” I moved to gather up some of the fireworks.
One of the guys with the Vietnam hat already had an armload and headed towards the garage ahead of me.
“Look out, clear the way, explosives coming through,” he warned loudly.
“Oh good lord, who let Dennis around explosives?” I heard from one of the side tables. I think the woman’s name was Margie. Yeah, she asked me to go to church with her.
Lord I would never keep all the people straight!
When we got to the garage I hit the light switch with my elbow and gestured with my chin towards my truck. Opening up the back we layed the fireworks on the tailgate and in the bed.
“Man this is going to be a fun lot to set off,” he said, grinning. “I can see you like mortars. I got to shoot off the real things about probably the time you were being born.”
“Look behind you,” I told him, also grinning.
On the wall, when he turned around, he could see the custom-made launch system my friends and I had put together a few years back. Okay, five years back. The tubes spread out in a big zigzag about ten feet long and two-foot wide.
“Oh my. How many will that shoot?” I could see him start to count.
“About ten at a time. A friend of mine took engineering and electronics. He rigged it up so you hook the fuse into an electronic igniter. One person with a remote can shoot ten mortars at a time from a safe distance.” I grinned at the look that came to his face.
“Oh yeah, that’s going to be fun!”
As I walked back towards the kitchen I looked into my living room and saw Fay. I stopped and just watched her. I grinned a bit when I saw her swaying with the music. I took in and enjoyed the still beautiful curves of her hips and ass. She looked up, caught the expression and shook a finger at me. I saw her mouth the words, “Naughty boy.”
I was about to walk over to her and talk when I heard my name from behind me.
“Carl, do you have any paper plates?” Sally asked when I turned around.
After a second I nodded. Going to the cupboard I found them but realized that they were one of the things I left off my list. I pulled out the maybe half stack of plates and handed them to her with a apologetic shrug, then started to point to where I kept my dishes. She stopped me.
“I have some more at the house. Let me go next door and get them,” she said, giving my arm a pat. “Wait. Can you come help me? I’ve got a couple of jugs of unsweet tea I want to bring over as well. A few of us don’t need to be drinking this sugared soda.”
“Sure.”
I heard my stereo switch to a newer song than I knew was on my Mom’s list. I looked around the corner as we went towards the front door and saw William at the helm of my system.
“Red alert! Red alert! Battle stations all hands to the bridge.” He was turning knobs and sliding the tuner in a way that made me cringe. “We are under attack by Klingons!”
“William, leave his stereo alone before you break something,” I heard Pamela say in a huff, hustling the man away. “Carl, can you fix this back to what it was on?” she said when she saw me.
I looked to Sally chuckling. “I’ll be just a second,” I told her.
“I’ll head on over,” she said as she turned away. I watched her head out the door then headed over to the stereo. I quickly moved the knobs back to where they normally are then switched tracks.
“That’s a hell of a system, man. Reminds me of a sound board I used when I traveled with Sly Stone and the Family.”
I looked at the man standing next to me. In him I saw that the hippie hadn’t fallen far from the pot plant. I gave him a grin when he adjusted a dial just a bit.
“I’ll be damned that sounds better.” I told him after a second of listening.
“Oh yeah man, I was good at this kind of thing once. Here, let me take a look while you go do what you got to do,” he shooed me away and started to look things over.
I saw Pamela and nodded towards the guy at the stereo. She kind of gave me a ‘He’s harmless’ kind of look.
Stepping outside, I took a deep breath as I crossed to Sally’s house. I realized as I crossed my driveway into her yard it had been a while since I had been around a large group of people I didn’t know. When I poked my head in through her open front door, I called out, “Sally?”
“In the kitchen,” she answered.
Walking through, I saw that her house was made kind of similar to mine. It took me only a second to find the kitchen. When I walked in I was greeted with the sight of her bent over in a cabinet. She does have a nice ass for her age.
She stood up with a groan and rubbed her back. “Carl could you get those plates? They slid into the back of the cabinet.” she said.
“Sure.”
I moved over and dropped to my knees next to her. I leaned in and fished my arm into the back till my fingers found them. When I sat back up, I noticed I was on level with Sally’s breasts.
Nice. I’m mean for a lady her age… no to hell with that, they were nice.
She saw my eyes and looked down. She sighed and shook her head.
“Men! You’re all worse than boys,” she said, giving my shoulder a light pop. “Come on help me get the tea out the pantry.”
I followed her into a walk-in pantry and she clicked on a light. Then she went to lift down two heavy gallon jugs of tea.
“I’ll get that,” I told her as I held out the stack of paper plate towards her. “Here, you carry these. I’ll get the tea.”
I moved forward and as I went to slide past her I found myself looking down into her eyes. Her face was upturned towards mine. For a half second I saw a look of surprise cross her face as my eyes lingered. Then she smiled, patted my chest, and headed out the pantry.
My house was rocking hard when we got back.
“Tommas! Were all going to be deaf as Calvin if you don’t turn that down!” Sally called out as we passed through the living room.
The old hippie gave a wave and turned it down a bit.
“George Carlin,” I said softly.
“What? George Carlin?” asked Sally, looking back at me.
“I’ve been trying to place who that guy reminds me of. The guy at the stereo.”
“His name is Tommas,” she kind of looked at him for a second then nodded. “Yeah, I can see it. Pam, we found the plates.”
Following her with the tea, I found my kitchen being run by three ladies like it was a restaurant on the strip. Food was moving out to people at a furious pace. Setting the tea by the cups of ice, I moved out the way, then took the plate that was handed to me with a hamburger and two hot dogs. I was then pointed to my side table where I saw every condiment I had in the house, plus a few, arrayed in easy order.
I jumped when a hand caressed my ass in passing. I saw Karen wink at me with the tip of her tongue between her front teeth.
I could taste the wood smoke on the meat and the bun I noticed had been toasted.
“Okay… better than college,” I said under my breath, going to get some chips and something to drink. Pam handed me a napkin and a soda with a smile. I fished a couple more of those cheese wrapped olives onto my plate and went back towards the living room. Somehow I found a seat.
Nodding his head like a rave DJ, Tommas gave me a thumbs up.
Grinning, I dug into my food.
I was feeling so very miserable by the time I was done eating. I had a helping of the ribs when they came off the grill, as well as the burger, hotdogs and chips. Then, foolishly, I had a bowl of Sally’s banana pudding.
“I want to shoot something off,” I heard Dennis say from near the garage door.
“That’s what I’ve been trying for, for most of the afternoon,” I heard William call from by the kitchen.
Chuckling and groaning at the same time, I went to find the bag with the barbecue lighter and headed towards the garage. When I stepped through the door, Dennis was following me almost like a puppy, so eager it was almost scary. The big outside door rolled up and I grabbed down the home made rack.
“Oh good lord, what is that?” I heard Sally ask when I carried it to the bottom of the driveway. Looking at my front door I saw a few of the people had come outside to smoke. She was standing there talking with some of them while fanning her face with a paper plate.
“Don’t know but Dennis looks far too happy,” said Fay from next to her. She stubbed out her long thin cigarette then blinked as several of the pool players came out past her and the others to help with the fireworks.
I showed them once how to set the fuses on the mortars and they seemed to instantly know how to do it better than I could. Leaving them to it, I went to get a pipe from the garage and drove it into the ground for the rockets.
When the first ten mortars shot upwards, firing within seconds of each other, I heard a shriek from behind me. Then a loud “ooh… ahhhh” With half of them doubles and at least one triple, the sky lit up with more than twenty huge star bursts overhead.
I watched the display for a second too long and the control of the rockets ended up in the hands of the old biker guy. I stepped back near the others and just watched as a rocket screamed out the tube heavenward, to be chased by at least five mortars. They exploded within moments of each other in a huge display that fell like purple, red and blue rain. The people behind me clapped and cheered.
Suddenly feeling sad, I walked back into the garage to my truck and gathered up some of the various empty packaging. I looked with a grin to these people I had just met having a wonderful time because of me. I turned the slightly sad feeling over in my head and wondered if it was because my friends had missed out on what had become one of the better parties I had been to in years or if it was something else…
“Carl?” I heard Sally say behind me. Turning, I saw her looking at my face. The mortar popped behind her. “Damn it! That thing scares the hell out of me. Carl, are you alright?” she asked, coming up next to me.
“I’m fine, just…”
“Missing your friends?” she asked with an understanding that was near perfect. ” I understand how that is. There should be about five more of us here… but they can’t enjoy parties any more.” I saw a sad look cross her face then she looked at me and smiled. “Come on, you’re still young, no moping… oh, leave that. Us old hens will help you clean up before we leave.”
Sally took my arm and pulled me back out to watch the rest of the show. I didn’t turn loose her arm, nor she mine. Her fingers clutched at me every time the mortar rack launched. I smiled when I heard her gasp in wonder.
“This is just as good as any professional show I ever saw,” she said quietly next to me between rounds.
About to say something back I looked up when I saw one of the people leaving the party. He walked towards his car parked in Sally’s driveway with Pam walking next to him.
“That’s Jackson,” Sally said softly next to me. “I’m really surprised he stayed as long as he did after the fireworks started. He has trouble with loud noises.”
Glancing to my left I watched Dennis walk over to him just before he could get into his car. The two old men talked quietly. I saw Jackson flinch when the biker guy whose name I had yet to learn set a rocket off. After a second, Dennis was walking back towards the mortar rack with Jackson at his side. I watched Calvin, who had been standing closest to the fireworks all night hand Jackson the remote.
I felt Sally’s hand tighten on my arm.
The old man’s hands trembled, then went steady. When he pushed the button all ten tubes sounded out like Gabriel’s trumpet. When the display began a few seconds later I knew that they had loaded it with all triples. The thirty sky flowers erupted in every color of the rainbow lighting the sky in a huge pattern of star bursts. Looking around, I saw that every yard nearby was crowded with people watching. I also saw a red and blue light in the distance coming closer.
“Oh shit man, it’s the fuss.”
Tommas went almost running into the house. Dennis and the other vets grabbed up the launcher and hustled it inside. The garage door rolled quickly down. By the time the police pulled up the only fireworks going off were bottle rockets out the pipe.
I had to keep the smile off my lips as Marcel and several of the others spun a tale of horrible young teenagers with mortars being shot from the back of their truck, and how they had been scaring the old folks here trying to have a little… cotillion.
When Calvin moved forward claimed to have gone deaf from all the noise, Sally turned into my arm and just started to giggle her head off into my sleeve.
The officer took tons of notes about what type of truck they were in, what color it was, what they looked like, and how long ago they left. He then went tearing off to look for them. As his lights disappeared, the seniors bust out laughing like a bunch of naughty school children.
Tears running down her face, Sally pulled out the front of her top and fans her breast with the paper plate. She stopped when she saw William trying to peek over the top. With a shake of her head she turned and took my arm again.
When we got back inside I found that a few of the people were gathering up their coats and wishing everyone a good night. Several of the ladies were in the kitchen shuffling plates and dishes around. There was a large garbage bag quickly getting filled with empty paper plates and plastic cups. Pam had people moving in every direction.
Sally left my arm and went to help.
Stepping through the ordered chaos and out into the backyard I found the pair of old ladies with walkers, sitting next to the grill. I watched them holding their hands out to the warm drum.
“You haven’t come to turn off our heat, have you young man?” asked the one closest. I think her name was Marion.
I smiled.
“No, mama. I just wanted to see if you two beautiful ladies needed anything to drink,” I asked grinning. They both cackled with laughter.
The older of the two then turned to me, grinning.
“Now young man, don’t you be teasing an old lady. If I was forty years younger I would be casing you around your bedroom tonight for that kind of talk.”
“Forty? Hell, AnneMaude, thirty years younger,” said Marion grinning.
“Nope, forty. I’m ten years older than you.”
“You are not!”
Grinning, I walked back to the house just listening to them cackling.
Into the kitchen I was assaulted by a dozen questions from all sides. Then Pam and Sally took over and through them I showed people where things normally go. My haphazard system of organization was put to rights, then improved upon in a matter of minutes. I heard a vacuum cleaner running in the other room.
Before I could ask anything or protest, I was shooed out the door and into the front yard where the guys were standing around talking. William welcomed me in and put an arm around my shoulder. I looked over and saw Jackson was still shaking and looking towards the sky. He would every once in a while catch Denise’s eye and make himself stop.
“Carl, this has been wonderful,” Marcel said with his soft voice. “I haven’t had this much fun or…” he placed his hand on his stomach, “so much good food in ages. Thank you.”
I looked up to see his wife Willow come walking gracefully over to us.
“Alright boys, I need to steal my husband from you. He’s got a painting to do tomorrow if we are going to pay the bills this month.”
“But Willowy, you never even got naked!” said William with a hurt tone. “What kind of nudist are you that you can spend the whole night in clothes?”
“The kind that doesn’t encourage sixty year old adolescents. Now good night, gentlemen.” She linked her arm with Marcel, and with him grinning, pulled him towards their car.
“Fay!” William went running from beside us over to where the woman I knew from a few years ago, but almost didn’t recognize because she had clothes on, was leaving. “Fay, come on. The night is young. Dance for us! We can get enough bills together to make it rain.”
“William, like I told you, I got smart enough to get out the rain a long time ago. You give it a try and you might learn to do it before you’re seventy.” She looked over at me. “Carl, would you walk me to my car?.”
Going over to her side I gave William a smile, and with my arm to give her guide, I walked her down to her little coup.
“Carl, it was good to see you. With my clothes on for once!” I smiled with her at that. “I want you to do something for me. I remember you from back then. You always had a joke that could relieve my boredom. A lot of the times I would look down and you would be looking at my face. With almost everything else on display you looked at my face. I’m going to take that as a sign you like older women. I mean, I was no spring chicken even then.”
I gave a hesitant nod remembering the kissing assault from Karen earlier.
“Help Sally. She has been god awful lonely since her husband passed away two years ago. I can see it when she’s sitting by herself. Just… keep her company whenever you can. I know a young man like yourself will have a lot of things to do but when you can see to her. Maybe invite her over to dinner once in a while.”
I looked then at this woman who I gave so much money too and I saw her for the first time. After a few seconds, I gave her a nod of promise.
“Good. Now if you want a piece of advice, go get Dennis to get William out your house before he’s here all night.” She gave me a smile and stepped into her car.
To get William to leave in the end took the combined efforts of Dennis and the biker guy who I finally learned was nick named Yank. He didn’t say what his real name was and no one seemed to know. They convinced him to go with them to a strip club up the coast a ways.
Finally it came down to Sally, Pam and myself. When I walked back into the house after receiving a goodbye grope from Karen, I saw the two of them sitting at the kitchen table resting. Looking around I didn’t think my house had been this clean since I bought it.
“Definitely not like college,” I said under my breath.
“We drove you so crazy you’re talking to yourself now Carl?” asked Pam with a smile. I saw the stack of Tupperware boxes next to her were empty. She smiled seeing my eyes on them. “I left the last of the olives in the fridge for you to enjoy.”
“Well, thank you. They will not be there long though They were delicious.”
She smiled, and looked to Sally.”Well Sally, I’ve got to scoot. Been a fun day but I’ve got to get some work done before I put this day under my eyes.” Pam hopped up with an energy that was unholy. She crossed over to me. “Carl, thank you for turning disaster into one of the greatest parties we have ever had. I do hope we didn’t drive you crazy.” She patted my arm and walked by me, got her purse from the counter, grabbed up the boxes and gave Sally a hug… somehow!
When I got back from opening the door for her, I saw Sally getting up.
“I guess I need to be going as well,” she said softly.
“What’s your hurry? Long drive home?” I asked plopping down onto the kitchen chair Pam had been using. “Stay awhile.”
“I can’t… I need to get home,” she said after a second. “I’ve imposed on your hospitality enough for one day with all my crazy friends.”
“Sally, I’ve had the best time I’ve had in years.” Looking over at the fridge, I licked my lips. “Do you drink? Beer, I mean, or wine. I have both.”
“You might want to check your beer supply. I saw William with a couple tonight. Actually…I used to like Jack Daniel’s and coke though it’s been ages since I had one. I think William forgot one of his bottles. Pam put it in the cabinet.”
Getting up, I went to where she pointed and found my liquor cabinet not only organized but wiped clean. I got out the half full bottle and grabbed two cans of cold coke from the fridge. The glass sweated when I poured the soda in. I watched her expression when I added the Jack and stopped just when she gestured. Mines was a little stronger.
“Want to go to the living room? The chairs are more comfortable?” I asked handing her the drink.
I followed her when she got up. She tried to sit down into one of the leather chairs but I caught her elbow and directed her to the couch. I dropped down next to her.
“Carl, why do I suddenly feel like your trying to seduce me?” she asked, looking first at her drink then at the distance between us.
I swallowed my third sip. “Because I’m trying to seduce you,” I said with a hint of a grin.
She chuckled and took a sip. “Well that’s flattering but bull…. Carl, I’m old enough to be your mother,” she said with a dismissive wave of her glass.
“And I’m old enough to know that’s not old,” I told her, looking at her face.
She looked at me and slowly a smile appeared. “Good answer but still, bull… shit.”
I smiled and sat my glass down on the table behind the couch.
“Sally, I’m in my mid-thirties. My days of chasing teenyboppers in bikinis around the beach, then getting hammered till two in the morning are long past. What I looked for in a woman when I was twenty isn’t even close to what I like now. I want someone I can talk to, have fun with, sit and hold on cold nights and walk on the beach with on a summer morning. A body like a swim suit model holds about as much appeal to me as a Barbie doll. I want a lady with curves and soft places to kiss…. and tickle,” I said with a grin. “A beautiful face without a wonderful person behind it isn’t worth the time to remember her name. Now you…”
“Be kind,” she said with a smile. “I own a mirror but I’m still lady enough to not want to hear about the sags and droops.”
“Please,” I reached over and took her left hand.
Her fingers moved under mine. I saw the faint line where her wedding band was once worn. How many long years must it have been there that two years hadn’t tanned it away.
“Sally, you have a gorgeous face, a wonderful smile, a naughty sense of humor lurking under those sexy eyes and a body…”
“Watch it,” she said in mock warning.
“I would love to,” I answered, grinning. Tightening my fingers, I pulled her up from the couch with me.”Dance with me,” I asked softly.
Reaching over, I picked up the remote and raised the volume a bit. Not too much… just a soft undertone of sounds.
“Carl, I…”
“Come on. One dance.”
Her eyes went from my face to my chest over and over as I slowly pulled her closer to me. I offered a smile when she finally looked up and kept focused on my eyes.
“I’m a terrible dancer, Carl,” she said as I felt her body touch me down the length of my chest. “I always was…”
“So am I. Stop worrying and just hold me.” I pulled her a little tighter as I moved us just a bit to the music. More like swaying than dancing, I felt her slowly give in. She leaned forwards a bit and I felt her head come to rest against my shoulder and chest.
“You smell nice,” she said softly.
“I don’t see how. I’ve been barbecuing, setting off fireworks and running around like a head with my chicken cut off all day.”
She chuckled against me and pulled me tighter.
“That’s why. You smell… very… male. It’s a wonderful smell.” I heard a slight sniffle. “I’ve missed it.”
“He must have been a wonderful man.” She looked up at me. “He attracted a wonderful woman to him after all.”
She smiled and laid her head back on my chest.
“Smooth,” she said with a slight chuckle.
‘Thank you,” I whispered.
We slowly danced to the end of that song and into the middle of the next. The long day slowly got to the both of us and we begin to more just stand and hold one another. Only our bodies moved ever so slightly. A soft rubbing against each other. I felt her snuggle her face into me and pull me tighter.
“Don’t wake me,” she said into my chest.
I chuckled and placed my hand on the back of her hair. I felt a slight stiffness to her silvery hair from the hair spray she used. My fingers found the softer curls underneath and I gently massaged the back of her head and neck. She moaned lightly against my chest.
“You think you can sleep there?” I asked teasingly.
“I already am. I have to be. I’m dreaming,” she snuggled more tightly. “I have to be asleep. I have a man twenty years younger than me making a pass at me.”
Smiling, I leaned in just a bit and filled my noise with the scent of her hair.
“In this dream of yours… this younger man, does he kiss you?” I asked after a second.
“Well, he hasn’t yet. I think if I was to turn my face up to his he might… but I’m to nervous too do that,” she told me after a moment.
“Why are you nervous?” I asked.
“I’m afraid of where this could lead,” she said. Her fingers are making gentle circles around my back, her finger tips running along the muscles by my spine.
“Where do you think it could lead?” I felt her bra strap under her shirt as I slid my hand down her back.
“Maybe… maybe to a bedroom.” She rubbed her face against my chest, and her hair moved under my cheek.
“And that would be a bad thing, why? Because he’s younger than you?”
“Yes.” Her voice was a soft feeling of feathers through my shirt.
“Why would that matter?” I pressed my face deeper into her hair the scent of her shampoo, perfume and a mixture of other very feminine scents were my reward.
“Several things,” she said, taking a deep breath. “I….”
After a moment of silence, I stepped back just a bit and looked down. She didn’t look up.
“Like what?” I asked, my hand coming around the side of her neck. When she didn’t answer, I placed my finger under her chin and ever so slowly made her look up at me. I could see her eyes were wet with a blanket of unshed tears. “Like what, Sally?”
She swallowed and tried to look down, her eyes focusing on my chin. She blinked hard, and a single tear ran down her cheek. I felt it stop against my finger.
“What his reaction will be … when… when he sees what I look like.” She shrugged a little. “The last time a man saw me… other than my husband… was a long time ago. I’m afraid… afraid he wont like what he sees.”
A smile lifted the corners of my eyes. I could feel the beginnings of my own wrinkles there. The smile tugged my lips into a quirky grin.
“Ever think he just might be afraid you won’t like what you will see? He’s not one of those young men on the beach anymore.”
She scoffed.
“Oh please! I’ve watched him cutting grass this summer. Those shorts, that tank top? I have a good idea of what he… you look like under this.” She gave my shirt a tug. “My god, you’re a gorgeous man. I look like a…”
What her opinion of herself might have been, I won’t know because the sight of those upturned lips was too much for me at that moment. Leaning in, I placed a firm kiss upon her mouth and pulled her in tighter to me. Her hands came up and went around my neck holding my head in place as my lips worked against hers. Her fingers dug into my hair and pulled me deeper. I felt her tongue touche my lips and I opened up to receive it. I tasted the Jack Daniel’s and coke on her tongue and I knew she could taste the same on mine.
Against my chest, her breathing quickened to a near pant and I felt her warm and soft breast pressed into me. My hands went further down her back till one rested on her hips and the other just above the waistband of her pants. The tips of my fingers were touching cloth. I hesitated then, my own nerves getting the better of me. If I had been younger, I knew my hand would have been filled with the ass of any woman I was kissing. Now it seemed… not time yet maybe? I hesitated.
I felt her lips quirk into a smile against mine. Her hand came down from my neck around behind her back to my wrist and lifted my hand. She placed it onto her ass with a slight smack and a giggle.
Smiling and kissing her smiling lips back I ran my hand across the plump softness of her ass cheek.
She pulled her mouth from mine and pulled herself into my chest just holding me again.
“Sally?”
“Carl, I… I want… I don’t know what I want.” She looked up at me and I saw those tears were now flowing free. She blinked at me when a smile slowly touched my lips. “I just…”
“Sally, may I make love to you? May I take you to my bedroom and slowly undress you? May I hold you naked to me and kiss… every… part of you? May I give you as much pleasure as I know how and learn how to give you even more? I truly would love to do that.” I lifted my hand to her face and brushed back a tear from her eyes.
She leaned her face into my hand slightly as I caressed her wet cheek. Her wet eyes looked to mine
“Carl, I’m old… I’m getting fat, I’m wrinkly, I’m… gray down there. I’m not… not wild in bed. I wasn’t raised that way. I don’t do certain things… things guys like. I’m…”
“Giving away secrets I would much rather learn about from exploring the woman in front of me.” I slowly grinned. “What you just told me could have been hours of fun to find out.”
She blushed a bright scarlet.
“I also want to learn what makes you do that more often,” I said with a grin.
She smiled and gave my chest a little pat with her hand.
“You are an impossible young man.” I could see the decision being made even before she slowly gave me a nod. “It’s been a while so I might be a bit out of practice, but… I would love to make love to you, Carl.” She looked up at my eyes. “I can’t see how you would want to be with an old biddy like me but if you want me that badly… I won’t say no.” She began to grin. “Hell, you could be the wicked memory I take into the nursing home to keep me grinning to the grave.”
I laughed and shook my head.
“You are a long way from either one of those places.” I pulled her into me a little tighter my hand again filled with her hip and ass. “But I will tell you a secret for your memories. I’m scared to death myself. You’ve got me trembling like my first time.”
“Why?” she asked, smiling up at me.
“I’ve never had a woman that was as…” I stopped before the words spilled out my mouth but I could see she heard them all the same. A grin took years from her features.
“As old as me?” she asked, snickering a bit at my sudden shyness. “Was that what you were going to say?”
I shook my head no.
“I stopped because there’s not really a good word or group of words for it. Your age is part of it though yes. Like you said you’re my mom’s age. While I truly don’t care about that,” I said quickly, and she grinned. “It kind of gives me this naughty little boy feeling.”
“That’s because you’re being a naughty little boy, Carl, seducing old gray-haired ladies.” Her eyes were sparkling.
“I knew that a sense of humor was under those eyes,” I said with a smile. “I didn’t want to say experienced or worldly or… old. None of those fit what I’m thinking.” I shrugged.
“I think the word you were looking for, Carl, is knowledgeable. Knowledgeable about life and about real feelings.” Her hands started playing with my buttons a bit. I saw her eyes go to my chest. “Take me to bed Carl, before I chicken out.” She looked up at me and grinned. “Show me how naughty a little boy you really are.”
Grinning like the schoolboy I felt like, I took her hand and lead her through the house to my room. The master bedroom was lit dimly from the light in the attached bath. I let that be the source of light but turned on the ceiling fan.
I suddenly felt like it was a hundred degrees in there.
“You wanted to undress me, Carl? That’s what you said. Would you… please?” she asked, looking very shy.
Taking both of her hands, I placed a light kiss on her lips then ran my hands up her arms. To her face. Pulling back, I looked down and one by one begin to undo buttons. Her blouse parted just a bit more with the opening of each. Her skin, freckled lightly to her neck, soon turned a paler white. When the tops of her breasts became visible I could make out the slightly darker veins where they crossed the skin. The white lace at the top of her bra just hid the edge of her nipples almost the second they came into the light. I could see her nipples were pressed up against the cloth.
Button after button down to the end of her blouse; the last one opened and the two sides peeled away to slip down her arms to the floor.
I saw the slight flaws to her skin, the places that weren’t perfect, that time had done its work on, but to me they were nothing but a part of her. No more or less than a piece of a beautiful woman. I hesitated when my fingers went to open the button on her pants.
“What?” she asked after a second.
I undid the top button of her slacks and took hold of the zipper.
“I was deciding whether to take your bra off before your pants. I’m kind of teasing myself here with what I want to see first. You nude or nearly nude.”
“I would go for the nearly nude. The full nude is not all that nice to look at.”
As the zipper reached the bottom my finger brushed the front of her cotton panties.
“Sally.”
“Yes, Carl?”
“Would you please let me be the judge of that for the rest of the night?” I looked up at her face, my tone more serious than I had meant it to be, but saying it exactly the way I meant it. “You look beautiful. I want you to see yourself through my eyes from now on.”
She swallowed then slowly nodded. “I’ll try.”
“Thank you.”
I knelt down till I was level with her belly button. I placed a hand behind her ankle and she lifted her foot out of her shoe as I pulled. Then the other foot was bare. Reaching up, I hooked my fingers into the tops of her pants. My fingertips slid across the soft cloth of her panties to the softer skin of her thighs. Down those white thighs her pants slid, reveling more and more of her to my eyes.
“My god, you’re beautiful,” I said softly, more to myself than to her really as she stepped out of her pants.
“You’re just young, male and horny,” she said with a soft snicker. I looked up at her face. I saw her expression change at the look on my face. “Sorry,” she said softly.
“You are an incredibly beautiful woman.” I held my hand out to show her that is was shaking slightly. “Undressing you has me nervous as a cat. I wouldn’t be feeling that if I didn’t like what I was seeing.”
As I stood up, she covered her bra with her arm and held her left elbow. I could see the discomfort.
I pulled Sally to me and just held her then, feeling the smooth soft skin of her back under my hands. After a moment I felt her move against me a little. Then she did it again.
“Are you hard already?” she asked surprised.
I chuckled.
“Sally, I was hard when I started to undo your first button. I’m so hard it hurts!”
Her eyes softened, then a new look crossed her face. It was a look I loved. A look of growing lust. Her hand left her side and came to my chest. It slowly followed the line of hair under my shirt down to my belly then after a pause slid out onto the hard bulge in my jeans.
“Oh my, you are hard. I’ve done that to you?”
“Yes, you have.”
I smiled when I saw her slowly begin to grin.
“It’s been a long time since a young man had that reaction to seeing me in a bra and panties.” She looked almost girlish, a flirting little tease. “I want to make it worse. Take my bra off.”
I felt goose bumps under my fingertips as I moved them up her back. The bra was old the hooks well worn. They come loose easily. I followed the straps up to her shoulder after I unhooked it. I looked down her chest as the cups slid down and came to hang pinned underneath by the weight of her breast. They jiggled just a bit when I pulled it free. Her nipples, large circles of dark pink, were standing tall out from her skin. As I let the bra join her shirt I saw the small bumps rising around her nipple.
“Do you like them, Carl?” she asked me after a moment.
“I like them because they are a part of you and because you are beautiful.” I rubbed a soft hand along the side of her breast then my thumb underneath. The warmth of her skin there was incredible.
She smiled and shook her head.
“Again, smooth. You can stop trying to charm me out of my panties, Carl. You’ve already got me down to just them. I promise they are coming off.”
I smiled and looked up at her again.
“Would you prefer it if I had just said nice tits? Then I would sound like William. You didn’t seem to like his kind of advances.”
Sally pressed herself up against my chest. Her fingers started to undo the buttons of my shirt. “I kind of like them sometimes. What he says can make you feel flattered but yeah at other times, he can be a bit much.”
My shirt opened and I felt her press against my chest, her skin warm and silky.
I could hear the stereo change songs out the living room. I saw her smile hearing the first guitar strings of ‘White Rabbit.’
“I love that song,” she said, swaying a bit to it against me. Her nipples moved across my chest, brushing through the hair.
I leaned over just a bit to my nightstand and picked up the little black remote. A click turned on the speaker here.
As The Alice in Wonderland lyrics began to drift out, I looked down into her face. Her eyes were closed. I smiled, seeing her softly saying the words along with the song. I dropped the remote into the chair by the table and slowly slid down to my knees before her. Leaning forward I placed soft kisses on the little bulge of her stomach, then lower down till my lips touched the white cotton.
Her hand came to rest on the top of my head, her fingers fluffing the soft curls.
I ran my hands up either side of her thighs till my fingers crossed her panties to her waist. I hooked my fingertips over the elastic and began to slowly pull down. As they slipped lower and lower, so did my lips, placing kiss after kiss onto the skin. I could feel where her skin was indented by her clothes. I stopped when my lips hit a long scar. I looked up to see her eyes looking down at me.
She ran a hand down over the back of my hair. I saw her swallow.
“A surgery when I was forty two. Had to have a few things taken out.” She softly brushed her fingers in through my hair. “I can’t promise you a rose garden down there if you keep kissing. I really wasn’t planning on having a man…. do… anything to me tonight. Hell, maybe ever again. I…”
My eyes dropped back down as I slid her panties even further down. I looked with a slight smile at the thick patch of curly gray hair that came into view then. Leaning in, I placed a kiss into the thick curls. There was a scent there but it was not at all unpleasant. Simply a mixture of her body’s normal scents blended with a growing smell of sexual need. I placed kiss after kiss in the wiry hair. my lips going further and further down till I felt the puffy outer lips almost kissing me back.
“Carl… why… why don’t you come back up here?” she said then. “I think I would rather you did that sometime when I was right out the shower.”
Looking up at her, I gave her a grin, and leaning into her again I placed a kiss where her thigh met the side of her hip and belly. That soft little valley that I find so utterly irresistible.
And almost universally ticklish!
Giggling and trying to get away from me, she proved to be no exception. Sally tried to step to the right a bit, found her movement hampered by her panties, hit her legs against the sided of the bed, and found herself suddenly tumbling into the soft folds of my bedding. The sheets were cool under my hands when I followed her. I again took hold of her panties and peeled them the rest of the way down her legs. Dropping them to the floor I stood up and looked down on her… totally naked laying in a bit of a sprawl on the bed. She was sexy as hell looking.
“My god, you are beautiful,” I said after a moment of just enjoyment at the sight.
She blushed a bit, then smiled. I saw the start of her arm moving to cover her breasts, then she stopped.
“Thank you.” She bit her bottom lip, then gave it a lick. “I … I want to see you now.”
Stepping back a bit, I caught the buckle of my belt and gave it a tug to loosen it. The snapping sound of my jeans was hidden under the growing strains of the ‘Doors’ The stereo ran on uncaring that the party had ended for all but her and me.
My jeans dropped to the floor in a puddle of black denim. When I stepped out of them I saw she had raised herself up onto her elbows and was watching me with an appreciative smile.
“I’ve spent most of my life seeing men in tidy whitey underwear. I never knew just how hot a guy could look in something else.” She looked at me with a grin. “Very nice, Carl.”
I scoffed. “I’m hardly a Calvin Klein model.”
She gave her head a shake.
“Would you please let me be the judge of that for the rest of the night?” She gave me back my own words.
I nodded and reached down to hook the sides of my underwear. I paused for a half second to find the courage then pushed them down past my hard as hell cock and off my legs. When I stood back up I stuck out lewdly, my cock pointing at her.
Her eyes were on it, just looking. She leaned back and opened her legs when I moved forwards. I slid up between them feeling the soft warm skin of her inner thigh run up my sides till I bumped against her. Her hand slid down my chest between us and I inhaled sharply when I felt her fingers tighten around me.
Then the head of my cock was sitting in a pool of warm liquid.
She squirmed under me a bit and I slipped into her an inch or so.
“I don’t think I’ve been this wet in a long time. Oh… oh my.”
I felt another inch or so slide forward, then a bit more. Then a slow thrust slid the rest of me home.
When I started to give a thrust, I felt her hands push against my chest.
“Softly…please. It’s been awhile since I felt a man inside me. I want to enjoy it for as long as I can.”
I gave a nod, my brain too focused on the warmth of her encasing me to form words. At least for that moment. I pulled out of her inch by slow inch then went back inside at the same pace. She pulled me down till I was resting on my elbows and forearms. Her body was a soft cushion under me. Her legs slid up and down my thighs and calves in a silky caress as I slowly moved in and out of her.
“Carl.”
Focusing on her face under me. I smiled. “Yes Sally?”
“You can go a little faster now. Oh my… oh my god!” She dug her nails into my shoulders.
I didn’t so much as go faster as I pumped in a bit harder.
Leaning in, I must have placed a thousand kisses against the side of her neck as I thrust those few inches that brought me closer to heaven by miles.
Her hands were on the back of my neck, holding me close. Her breath was hot by my ear. Soft pants, with my name an almost prayer-like whisper being said under each breath. After a few minutes I noticed a soft almost humming coming from her. I realized after a moment that she was softly humming along to the song now playing. I smiled when I heard it was ‘Nights in White Satin’. One that my mom and I both have on our files.
She opened her eyes and saw me looking down at her. I had slowed the pace to a gentle rocking thrust. Hardly even moving within her but enjoying every twitch of her along me. She smiled, seeing the look on my face. It must have been pure lust and need.
“I remember when I last made love with a man to this song.” She gave me a slight grin. “I was so stoned, but god it was wonderful.”
I chuckled at the thought of this sexy lady being a young woman having sex to the Moody blues while stoned!
“When was that?” I asked, holding myself up a bit more and sliding further out, then back into the slick warmth.
“Summer of 71. That’s what, ten years before you were born?” she asked with a chuckle.
“More like five. I was born March of 76.” I chuckled a bit when I see her roll her eyes up a bit and shake her head.
“I am so cradle robbing right now,” she said after a moment.
I had to laugh at that. I pulled back and gave her a harder thrust that took her breath for a second.
“Feels good though, doesn’t it?”
“Oh my, yes.” She rocked herself under me a bit driving me further into her. Her fingers tightened and held me still as far in as I could push. I felt her wiggle herself under me ina way I’ve never felt a woman do before. She gave a giggle at the look of surprise and wonder on my face. “Feels good?”
I let a breath out I didn’t notice I was holding.
“Oh, yes.”
She grinned then I felt a sudden tightening along the length of me. A contraction that rippled down the length of me, then back.
“How are you doing that?” I asked, just holding still and enjoying it.
“I’ll never tell. I give away a secret like that and what would happen? You would go find you some hot little teenybopper and train her how to do it. With that tight little body and this trick she would soon have you as her sugar daddy. Before you knew it, she would be spending you into a dept you would never get out of and then dump you for a richer guy. I can’t let that happen to you.”
I joined in laughing with her.
“Well, thank you for looking out for my well-being,” I said after a moment.
She stopped laughing and looked up at me. A slow smile took ten years off her looks.
“No, thank you.”
“”For what?” I asked, sinking back down till our lips were just inches apart.
“Making an old lady feel young again.”
She ran her hands down my side, her nails lightly scratching. Her hands cupped my ass and hips and she pulled me forward. I eased into her till I was all the way in. I felt her breath hot against my face. Our eyes were so close it looked like she had only one in the middle. Tilting my head a little I placed a soft kiss on her lips. Her tongue came out to meet mine and with her pulling me forward, I started to rock again.
After more than a few minutes I had to break the kiss to get more air than I could catch through my nose. Her hands left my hips then and came to the back of my head. She pulled me down fiercely, kissing me with an almost angry aggression. I felt her rocking up to meet my thrusts now, driving herself up the length of me as I pushed down. Unable to take it, I pulled away from her mouth and buried my head beside her ear. She held me tight to her as I sucked in air.
“Are you close, Carl?” she asked them “Oh, please cum for me… please.”
“I’m close, Sally. I’m so very close. It just feels too good. I can’t seem to get…” I said panting.
“I know, Carl…I’m there too. Oh my god, harder. Oh please… oh please.”
Pushing up a bit, I started to drive myself into her with all that I had. I felt the whole length of my cock nearly come, out then I hammered it back it her. Her hips curled up to smack into me with every thrust.
Opening my eyes, I looked down into her sweaty flushed face and saw her shivering. I watched her tilt her head back and a low deep moan started to come out of her parted lips.
Seeing her begin to cum took me that last step. I felt it start like a hot surge, a tight gripping at the base, a clenching even further down, then an animalistic sound ripped its way out my throat. I had no control over how hard or fast I was pumping, the rhythms of need and nature were driving us both.
I knew that I would at some point in my life catch a breath again, but at that moment I wouldn’t have put money on it. I felt shudders of pleasure making my body twitch as I poured cum into her. I felt surge after surge leave me. A warm wet feeling covered me as I continued to thrust into her. The slick feel of her along me now was almost painful but I couldn’t make myself stop.
She pulled me to her and held me with an incredible strength as she shook and shivered under me. Her legs twitched on either side of me and her fingers dug into my back, I knew leaving deep scratches.
Panting, I did my best to hold my weight off her but I’m not sure how she was able to stand it.
Then her hands were softly caressing the back of my neck through the sweaty hair. I lifted up and looked down into her eyes. A gentle smile was on her lips. Leaning in I placed a soft kiss upon that smile. Her hands brushed the hair out my face, then I saw that she was trying just as hard as myself to catch a breath.
“Not bad for a thirty something year old man,” she said after a moment.
I chuckled
“Well, for a fifty something year old woman you’re incredible.”
She laughed then.
Even growing softer, the feeling of her laughter was amazing along the length of me.
“Carl, I’m sixty one! I told you I was cradle robbing.”
Her laughter sent tight caresses along me that had me nearly halfway hard again. I give a half thrust that popped her eyes open wide in surprise.
“Well, I hope you’re up to robbing it again,” I told her with what I knew was a wicked little boy grin.
She pushed up against my chest a little and looked down the length of us to where my cock felt like it was getting harder with every half thrust.
“Oh dear lord, what have I started?” she asked after a second.
I eased back down onto her a little more feeling the slick warmth of her breasts against my chest.
“Hopefully something that will last a long time,” I said after a second.
I caught a half look then, a moment of sadness, and then it was gone. It was gone from her face but I heard it moments latter in her words. “So do I Carl.”
Sally moved herself up to meet me, clutching herself to me. I felt her lips next to my ear. Her words were now a whisper of air that I just hear. “…so do I.”
Settling into a slow easy rhythm I moved into her and felt the deep warmth of her against me. We moved with a familiar motion now the awkwardness of the first time fading as we learned what each liked and how the other’s body differed from past lovers.
I heard a soft moan under me, then a sound that was almost exasperated. I opened my eyes and looked down at her.
“Carl? I hate to ask you to stop but I have to go pee.”
Chuckling, I eased myself out of her and sat up on my knees. I caught her leg as it lifted up to clear me and I placed a soft kiss followed by a lick on the backside of her knee. I heard a purring from her.
“Umm… stop that, I’ve got to go.”
I turned her loose and watched her get up. I could have watched her just walking naked all night. The way her hips swayed and the little dimples that winked at me from her ass with every step.
The room went dark as she closed the bathroom door.
I slipped out the bed and went to my desk. In the dark I found the lighter there and ignited it with a click. I lit several candles moving around the room. I stopped by a bowl of sand and lit the four sticks of incense stuck in it. I paused and looked out the window down into my back yard. A chuckle left me then.
Just then the toilet flushed and the bathroom door opened.
“Oh candles! Nice touch.” She clicked off the bathroom light, I heard her walk up behind me, then she was pressed against my back. Her hand came around my stomach and rested in the soft curls just above my cock. “What are we looking at?”
I gestured out the window with my chin. I heard her chuckle when she saw what I saw.
“Bless their hearts.”
The backyard was alight with blinking fireflies giving almost no light to Marion and AnneMaude asleep in their chairs out by the barbecue grill.