Family Affairs Ch. 21

Passion In James County XIX: Family Affairs

Chapter twenty-one

Ricky heard about that Matt's parents had been killed in the plane crash near the end of the school day. The news upset him so much he did something he'd never done in all the years he'd been playing basketball; he signed out of school early headed home. He didn't care that he was missing practice. He drove home a lot faster than he should have, and ran into the house.

"Mom!" he yelled.

Mary appeared from the laundry room. "Ricky, what's the matter," she asked. "You look upset."

"You...you aren't going to believe this," her son said.

Mary was puzzled. "What happened, honey?" she asked. She couldn't remember the last time she'd seen her son look this upset.

"Matt...his...his parents...they...they were...they were killed in a plane crash!" Ricky exclaimed, then he burst into tears, wrapped his arms around her, and began to sob.

Mary couldn't believe what her son had just told her. It couldn't be true. Other people, not people you knew, got killed in plane crashes. "Ricky, are...are you sure about this?" she asked her son, who was still clinging to her and sobbing.

"Y...yeah...I...I talked to...to one of the teachers," he sobbed. "He...he said the principal had...had told them." He leaned back and looked at his mother. "Mom, what's Den gonna do?"

"I...I don't know, dear," Mary said. "Do...do you know where he...where he is?"

Her son looked stricken. "I-I never thought about that," he said. "I-I really don't know. Reverend Garber was in school, maybe...maybe Den went home with him."

"I think I'll call the Williams house and see if there's anything we can do," Mary said. She struggled to contain the urge to burst into tears herself. Part of the pain she felt came from the fact that she and Matt were lovers, but another part of it came from the fact that Matt's mother, Fran, was a good friend, one of the few close friends Mary had. She released her sobbing son, who sat down, then she walked to the phone and dialed the Williams' number. The phone rang and rang, but nobody answered.

"I wonder if Reverend Garber took Matt to his house," Mary thought. She looked up the number of the parsonage and dialed it. Mrs. Garber answered and, in response to Mary's questions, explained that Matt was there, and was doing as well as could be expected under the circumstances. She explained that the young man's aunt and uncle were due in the next morning, and that they would be staying to take care of Matt at least through the funerals.

"Is...is there anything I can do?" Mary asked.

"I'm not sure at this point, Mary," Mrs. Garber said. "I'll let Matt know you called, though, and I will pass on your offer of help to his aunt and uncle."

"Please do that," Mary said. "I-I really do want to make sure Matt knows we're thinking about him."

"I'll be sure and do that," Mrs. Garber said. "Thank you so much for calling."

Mary put the phone down and sat there, staring at it. "I-I don't believe this!" she thought. All of a sudden a thought that caused her overwhelming guilt swept over her. "Could...could what happened be punishment for what Matt and I have been doing?" Finally, the reality of what happened sank in and she began to sob.

When she'd cried herself out temporarily, she got up, went out to the kitchen, and began making dinner for Ricky. She wasn't sure she'd be able to eat, and wasn't sure her son would, either, but she wanted to make sure there was something made in case he was hungry.

As it turned out, neither of them felt like eating. "Mom, why does stuff like this have to happen to nice people like Den's folks?" Ricky asked as they sat at the kitchen table.

"I-I don't know, honey," Mary responded. "I'm not sure there is a real explanation."

"God, it all seems so unreal," Rick said. "This morning Den was talking about his folks coming home, now he...he'll never see them again. I-I can't imagine how bad he must feel."

"I can't either, honey," Mary said. "I wish I could see Matt and tell him how sorry I am," she thought.

"You...you never really know what's gonna happen, do you?" Rick asked.

"No, honey, you never do," Mary said.

"I-I think I'm gonna go to my room and listen to some music," Rick said. "I-I gotta do something to...to keep from thinking about this. It...it kinda hurts, you know?"

"It does hurt, and it will for a while," Mary said. "The...the only thing that will help is time."

Rick got up, gave her a fierce hug, then he went to his room. Mary cleared the table and, not knowing what else to do, went upstairs, got undressed, put on a nightgown, and laid down in her bed.

"I can't believe this," she thought as she lay there. "This morning, things looked like they were going to be so wonderful. Now..." Tears began pouring out of her eyes and she began to sob.

There was a gentle knocking on the bedroom door and Mary, thinking it was Ricky, said, "Come in."

The door opened and, instead of Ricky, her husband Tom walked in, a look of distress on his face. "Did...did you hear about what happened to Lee and Fran Williams?" he asked.

Mary sat up and nodded. "Ricky came home from school and told me," she said.

Tom walked over and sat down on the bed. "I...I was on my way to the airport when I heard it on the news on the car radio," he said. "God, I can't believe it!"

"I can't, either," Mary said. "It seems so unreal."

"Yeah, it sure as hell does," Tom agreed. "What was it, a couple of months ago we were over to their place for dinner?"

Mary nodded and said, "I think so."

"Damn," her husband said, shaking his head. "Man, you just never know what's going to happen, do you?"

"No, you never do," Mary said. "Ricky is really upset."

Tom seemed surprised by the idea his son might be upset, then he shook his head and stood up. "Yeah, he and Den are pretty close," he said. "I can see where he might be shook up. Maybe I ought to go talk to him, huh?"

"It might not hurt," Mary said, although she wasn't so sure. After all, Ricky was still trying to sort out his feelings about their impending divorce. On the other hand, Tom and his son had always been close, maybe Rick needed Tom tonight.

About fifteen minutes later, Tom walked back into their bedroom. "He says he's going to be OK," he told Mary. "He's listening to music." He sat down on the bed again and looked at Mary. "How are you doing?" he asked. "You and Fran were pretty good friends, weren't you?"

Mary nodded and gulped a little to keep from sobbing. "We...we were," she murmured. Then she burst into tears. "Oh, God, Tom, she...she's dead! I can't believe it!"

When Tom saw his wife burst into tears, he wasn't sure what to do. Finally, he put his arms around her and she pressed against him. He began stroking her back, initially intending it to calm her down, but he quickly realized that touching her wasn't doing much to calm him down, in fact, just the opposite was happening. "Hey," he thought as he continued to hold his sobbing wife and caress her back, "this might just be the chance I've been looking for. If I handle this right tonight, maybe Mary see how much she needs me and will cut out that divorce crap."

Tom continued gently stroking his wife's back and holding her in his arms, but while he did, he began to slowly widen the area which he was caressing. He knew he had to be careful, to try and get Mary to the point where she was turned on before she realized what he was doing, but she was so upset he was pretty sure he could manage that. His caresses expanded, centimeter by centimeter, from a small circle in the middle of Mary's back out to her sides, and down to her bottom.

Mary wasn't aware of what her husband was doing at first and, when she finally did calm down enough to realize how intimate his caresses had become, she was already halfway turned on. "Oh, God!" she thought as wonderful feelings evoked by her husband's tender caresses spread slowly through her. "I need to be held and touched to much tonight. I need to know I'm real. Why...why can't Tom be this gentle and loving other times?"

Tom somehow managed to get Mary lying down and, when he did, his caresses became even bolder. He began working her nightgown up and his hands began moving over her bare skin. At the same time, he started removing pieces of his clothing, bit by bit, but he was careful not to let his wife know what he was doing at first. He could feel Mary trembling, and knew he was getting to her. "Damn!" he thought as his fingers began moving over one of his wife's breasts, teasing the rigid nipple. "She's really hot! I bet she'll be begging me to come back when this is over."

Mary was powerfully aroused, and even though second thoughts about what was happening kept trying to assert themselves, they had little effect on her body, which was now twisting and turning as her husband's hands moved over it. Tom had never, ever, in all the years they'd been married, been this gentle and loving. And she'd never been this aroused by him!

Finally, Tom, who was just as aroused as Mary, couldn't wait any more. He rolled on top of her and plunged his rock-hard penis into her, groaning with delight as he did.

Mary was startled when her husband plunged his erection into her and was also surprised by how powerfully her body was responding. She felt his naked flesh against hers and was puzzled. When had he taken his clothes off? "Oh, God! Oh, God!" she thought as her husband's erection probed deep into her, giving her wonderful feelings. "This...this is so wonderful. Tom, he's...he's making me feel so good. He's...he's almost making me feel as good as..." She realized she was comparing her husband's love-making to Matt's and when she did it was as if someone had poured a huge bucket of ice water over her. Arousal vanished almost immediately, and was replaced by guilt and confusion. She didn't understand why she felt guilty about cheating on Matt when the man who she was with was her husband, but that's exactly how she felt.

Tom continued to pound down against her. She could feel his hips moving faster and faster and knew the action signaled his imminent coming. "Thank God, it's almost over," she thought.

"Oh, God! Oh, God! Jesus! Damn!" Tom Forrester groaned as he exploded into his wife's body. When, at last, he was finished, he rolled off and lay next to her on the bed. After giving himself a few minutes to calm down, he rolled on his side and looked at his wife. "This...what happened, it make you feel any different about what you're doing?" he asked.

"What on earth are you talking about, Tom?" Mary asked. Feeling dirty and used, and angry at both herself and Tom, she tugged her nightgown down.

"This divorce shit," he said. "Doesn't what happened to Lee and Fran make you think that, maybe, you're making a mistake? And admit it, what just happened to us, it was fantastic, wasn't it? We still have the old magic, right, babe?"

Anger surged through Mary when she heard her husband's words. How dare he take advantage of her when she was upset, then compound the insult by trying to use the death of their friends to manipulate her into changing her mind about divorcing him? It was all she could do to keep from screaming at him. "Tom, do you ever think about what you say before you say it?" she asked, clenching her jaw to keep her voice down.

"Mary, what the hell are you talking about?" her husband asked. He looked puzzled, and a little hurt. As far as he was concerned, he'd just screwed her better than he'd ever screwed her in his life. She ought to be thanking him, not acting pissed off.

"You don't have the slightest idea, do you?" Mary continued. "You don't understand how despicable what you just did was, do you?"

"Jesus, Mary, you aren't making any sense?" Tom replied. "All I did was ask if you wanted to reconsider getting a divorce. What the hell is despicable about that?"

"No, Tom, that's not all you did," Mary replied. "What you just tried to do was use the Williams family's tragedy to manipulate me into doing what you want, that's what you did. And the really sad thing is that you don't have the slightest idea that you did it, do you?"

"Mary, that's not what..." her husband began.

Mary held her hand up to stop him and said, "It doesn't matter, Tom. I'm not going to reconsider. I am going to get a divorce. If anything, what happened to Lee and Fran makes me see how important it is to take the chances that are offered you to be happy. That's exactly what I'm going to do. Now please, Tom, get out of here. I'm afraid of what I'll do if...if you stay."

Tom stood up and looked at her as if he'd never seen her before in his life. "I sure as hell don't know what's gotten into you lately," he said. "Maybe you are doing the right thing. You sure as hell aren't the woman I thought I was married to, that's for sure."

"You're right, Tom, I'm not that woman, and I never intend to be again," Mary said.