Fortune

She rocked me to a quick orgasm and collapsed on my chest purring her pleasure. We fell asleep like that. I was awakened in the middle of the night looking at a sea of stars in the moonless night. Gayle was quietly riding me again in the dark and I could sense her body outline as it blocked out the view of the stars.

I rolled her to the side and we continued to fuck side by side. I nuzzled against her head and whispered at her to look at the stars as we rocked once again to completion. And once again we drifted into the tranquility of the night.

Early in the dawn I woke and saw a heavy fog blanketing us in a sea of light grey clouds. I looked at my lover peacefully slumbering and I lightly kissed her. A faint smile appeared on her face as she went through a series of motions before she finally opened her eyes and a bigger smile appeared as she kissed me again.

We were soon making love again. This time I was sitting on the sand and Gayle was sprawled in my lap as we quietly rocked away. Another blanket covered us as we became lost into our rhythm. When her soft gasp signaled her climax she bathed me in kisses of appreciation.

She got up and spread her arms apart holding onto the blanket as though she was an earth mother displaying all her finery for the world to see. The world consisting only of me as we were still encapsulated in our small world of grey. I watched her walk to the edge of the sand bar to the safe eddy of water beside the bank. She carefully waded into the water and continued to acclimate to it sinking more of her body into the still water.

I had gotten out the iron skillet and placed it on the fire I had prompted again. Rashers of bacon were soon ready as I collected them out of the skillet and substituted eggs to be cooked. She must have sensed the food was ready because she slowly walked out of the water to me and suddenly my hunger was for something else as I watched a goddess of nature approach me.

She touched my cheek and promised me she would sate me. But first, we would eat. She fulfilled her promise and afterwards we walked hand in hand into the water and gently bathed each other.

By mutual consent we began dressing as the fog began to burn off leaving us in warm glowing sunlight. I packed up everything including the tent and air mattress and sleeping bag that we never got to use. Well, that would serve as an excuse for another trip I thought as we motored back to our launch ramp.

Things progressed along nicely until I started getting unsolicited messages from Stella, my ex wife. As I said at the beginning I was adamant not to put myself in a position where she had any power over me so I ignored everything. Finally, I got a call from my divorce attorney saying that Stella wanted to see me about a proposition. He assured me that meeting her in his office would not violate any court order in effect.

I asked Gayle what she thought and she said I might as well find out what it was Stella wanted to talk about. So that is why I found myself in my lawyer's conference room when the door opened and Stella walked into the room.

The last few years had not been kind to her. I heard after her marriage, Ted had impregnated her with twins. I guess tending to four children was a little too much for Stella from the extra weight on her frame, bags around her eyes, frown lines on her face.

Stella sat down and asked me how I was doing? I decided, FUCK THIS! I wasn't going to idly chitchat with her.

"What the fuck do you want Stella?" I coldly stared at her.

She was thrown off balanced and started stammering why she was there. I couldn't make any sense from her and told her to stop talking in her native tongue of bitch and start speaking English or I would leave.

She closed her eyes and said, "How would you like to have the children?"

"Ok, Stella, what is the catch?" I asked warily.

"There is no catch, John. If you want to have the children I will have custody awarded to you and I will have visitation."

"Alright Stella" I responded, "you better explain to me why you are doing this at this stage of the game."

She snapped back, "Look, do you want the children or not?"

"Listen bitch, before I decide to do this you are going to answer some questions. First, I don't care why you divorced me, but, why did you go nuclear on me telling all those lies about hurting you and the kids?"

She sighed, "That day you almost caught us embarrassed Ted. All he could think about was you telling the whole city how he ran off from you. He decided that to take me and the children away from you would be your just desserts. Then it wasn't good enough, Ted wanted more revenge, so I placed that call to have you meet me when you got arrested. That placated him for a little while. Then he decided to turn the children against you by buying them everything under the sun and grant all their wishes. Presto, Ted had an instant family and you were left with nothing."

"Ok Stella, now the real reason why you want to give me custody."

Stella looked like she was going to cry.

"When I got pregnant with the twins, Ted shifted his affection from Carol and Steven to his kids. I kept begging him to continue to love them, but, he started seeing his raising your children was a form of cuckolding him. And he resented it."

Stella began sniffing and looked at the box of tissues near me. Fuck her, if she wanted a tissue she can get her whore's ass up and get one. I continued to wait.

"Steven and Carol both reacted badly to Ted's rejection. All they knew was they used to get everything and now their half brothers are being spoiled with Ted's time and money. Steven is running with a bad crowd and Carol is claiming she has a twenty two years old boyfriend. If you don't take them John they are going to be totally lost."

I tried to imagine my fifteen years old son, Steven as a juvenile delinquent and then my thirteen years old daughter, Carol with an adult boyfriend. I thought back on the beautiful children they were. What the hell had happened to them?

I knew the answer. They had served as a prize in the game of divorce and once Stella and Ted had won they had shifted their attention elsewhere confusing Steven and Carol. And the kids were lashing out for attention in a desperate attempt to find love.

"Stella, why now? You've kept them from me for five years, why the big change of heart?"

She looked to the floor and said, "I'm pregnant again."

Well don't that beat all? For a bitch that complained about me wanting to keep her barefooted, pregnant and in the kitchen; she was doing a stellar job winding right back into that position.

When I asked her when she wanted for the custody change to take effect, she continued to look away from me and said immediately. I knew right then she would never make a single visitation to see Steven or Carol. She was planning to abandon them just as she had abandoned me. I just felt utter disgust from this creature I couldn't even recognize anymore. I wanted to get away, take a shower, and then just spend the rest of the day in Gayle's arms.

We discussed the final logistics of changing the custody by mutual decree. When we finished we both stood up from the table. Stella hesitated as though she expected me to come over and hug her. When I didn't, she stuck her hand out for me to shake. I just continued to stare at her until she dropped her hand and walked out the door.

The mutual decree for changing custody sailed through the court without any problem. Nobody raised the issue that the alleged child abuser now had custody. The exchange took place at the site of my visitations. I watched two sullen kids enter the room with their suitcases packed with their belongings.

I thought what a crime it had been to have stolen five years of seeing my children grow up. I went to hug them and neither seemed too enthusiastic over that. I realized that I would also have to overcome five years of constant denigration by Stella and Ted about me. This would not be cured overnight.

As I loaded up the vehicle with their luggage, Steven fished a cigarette out of a pack and lit it up. I reached out and snatched it out of his mouth and ground it under my foot. "When you are an adult, you can smoke all you want, but, right now you are living under my rules."

I made him give me the pack and I threw them away as he sneered at me. Then Carol said, "I thought Mom was a bitch!" Before she knew what was happening she found herself across my laps receiving licks.

"Get this straight, you two, you WILL respect your mother at all times in front of me!"

I allowed Carol to get up and the shock of having been disciplined for the first time in five years had stunned her. She and Steven meekly got in the truck wondering what was going to happen next. I told them that when we got home they would be meeting someone very special in my life. They didn't seem to be too impressed with that either.

I kept trying to keep a running dialogue for the trip back. All I got was heavy silence or sarcasms. During one of the heavy silences, a phone rang and Carol answered it and put it on speaker phone. I quickly gathered this was the twenty two years old boyfriend as he kept talking vile comments and suggestions to Carol.

She got the phone a little too close to me and I snatched it and simply tossed it out the window. Carol turned around and saw it bounce three or four times before it was flattened by an 18 wheeler. She screamed at me that she would buy a new phone. I asked her with whose money and on whose plan? That shut her up.

We got to my grandparents and I could tell that the kids had trouble accepting the unconditional love from their great grandparents. Grandma kept reminding them of all the happy times the kids had visiting the farm as young children. Out of the blue, Carol smiled and said, "The ducks!"

Grandma smiled back and said, "That's right, the ducks, you kept calling them your babies and you had names for them all!" Then she turned to my son, "And you Steven, you would hop up to go fishing as soon as you got here till it was time to leave!"

Sensing an opportunity I asked the kids if they would like to go on the pontoon boat tomorrow as I searched for timber. Plenty of opportunity to fish or watch for wild ducks I suggested. The sad reluctance on their faces as they both said no reminded me how this was going to be a long hard road.

It was starting to get late when Steven mentioned that it might be time to stow away his and Carol's belongings. "Where is your trailer?" he asked thinking that he and Carol would share the small ratty trailer together with me.

"I'm afraid, I'll have to disappoint you Steven. I bought the old Andrews place and I live in that house now. Gayle is there fixing up the rooms for y'all right now." I explained. "Why don't we get started that way. Grandma and Grandpa are coming over for supper and you're also going to meet Gayle's grandfather, Robert Lambert, who is my business partner along with Gayle.

All I heard on the trip to my house were snide comments about "this Gayle person" as Steven mentioned her. I tried to ignore his rudeness. "So, you boinking her?" he sneered.

I cut a glare at him as I continued to drive, "You remember Carol's lesson earlier when she disrespected your mother? Are you trying for the same thing? Because if you are, I can accommodate you right here and now on the side of the road." I said coldly. "Both of you better understand right now, Gayle is just as worthy of respect as your mother is and I will not tolerate any rudeness to her."

The large ranch came into view and Carol and Steven were stunned at the size of the house along with the adjoining acreage. They became excited seeing the horses roaming in the fields and the large swimming pool in the backyard. Then they remembered they were suppose to be cool, disaffected teenagers and became quiet again.

Never had I seen a teenager so predisposed to utterly hate someone as Steven was as he stepped inside my house with his luggage. Never had I seen a quicker turnaround when Gayle walked into view beamed a smile at him and gave him a hug. "Hi Steven, it is so nice to finally meet you!" I thought he was going to melt as it dawned on me that he was lovestruck by Gayle instantaneously. Well, I couldn't fault him with that.

Gayle turned to Carol and gave her the same measure of love and attention. Then she led them to their rooms. Large spacious rooms, complete with computers, TV's, stereos and private baths. Both Steven and Carol mentioned the beautiful furniture and Gayle explained the wood was black walnut that we had dredged up in our business operation. An artisan had negotiated building the furniture in exchange for several logs for his own use.

It was then that the kids understood why we were doing our operation. It also gave them an understanding how I could afford this large house. Gayle had another surprise for Carol. Carol had always wanted a dog, but, Stella refused to ever consider it. On Carol's bed was a Labrador Retriever puppy with a red bow on it. As soon as Carol went into the room and saw the eager puppy trying to get to her she ran to it and scooped it up as the puppy began licking her face.

"Oh my God, what is her name?" Carol excitedly asked.

"Well honey, it is your puppy so you get to name her." I explained.

That earned both me and Gayle a big hug as she excitedly talked to Steven about a name.She decided on Pepper after their consultation and Pepper showed her approval by furiously wagging her little tail and licking Carol's face. As Gayle and Carol discussed crate training the puppy, I called Steven outside to accompany me to the large shop building adjacent to the barn.

As I opened the large overhead door I told him that I hoped he would like it. Inside was a 1964 Ford Mustang in need of refurbishing. I told Steven that I hoped we could work together on bringing the car back to glory. He just stared there battling the duality of wanting to hate me and to love me. I just left him there to study his vehicle.

We all enjoyed the barbeque out in the backyard. Carol was listening to Grandpa explain how to make Pepper obey commands. Steven was hovering around Gayle listening closely to her every word and kept trying to impress her. Gayle knew what was going on and continued to show him polite deference instead of ridicule.

When everyone left, and Gayle and I said an early goodnight to Carol and Steven as we went to our room it answered a lot of questions. I saw a hard grimace on Steven as we left the room. The next day, we spent enrolling them in their new school. That night, I started asking them questions about their day.

This was something they had forgotten that I used to do. I insisted on knowing what my kids learned every day and having been absent for five years was not going to be an excuse. Each night they would have to be prepared to let me know what was going on and we would discuss their lessons. I also told them that I already signed up in the Parents Teachers Association and would soon be meeting with all their teachers to see what I could do to ensure a quality education for both of them.

After we ate, I asked Steven if he wanted to start working on his car. He quickly told me no. I had to chalk it up to his unrequited feelings for Gayle. I mentioned it to Gayle when we were in bed and she said she was working on a plan. I told her that I hoped it was a good one.

Time marched on, I would cherish my little victories and agonize over my little defeats with my children. Then events occurred that finally shifted the balance. It was time to start baling hay from the fields to provide fodder for the livestock. I kept using a small baler that made rectangular bails weighing around 50 to 60 pounds instead of the large round bales which are in vogue around the country.

The problem was the bales would have to be stacked in the barn. That meant it would be necessary to stack the bales on my grandfather's flatbed trailer, transport them to the barn and offload them.

I enlisted Steven to help me. He and I would load and unload the bales as my grandfather would drive the truck through the field to each bale. What I hadn't counted on was him raiding my stash of beer the night before and being hungover in the morning. When I saw his condition I just dragged him to the trailer and told my grandpa to start out into the field.

I made him haul in the heavy scratchy bales despite all his protests in the heat of the day. He quickly became sick and threw up the remains of the beer he had drank. He insisted he couldn't do anymore.

I threw him a bottle of water to hydrate and I violated one of my major maxims. "So, you going to quit on me Steven? You going to quit on me, just like your mother quit on me?" Without waiting for any answer, I hopped off the trailer and walked over and lugged the closest bale toward the trailer.

Off in the distance, Steven was walking to another bale to collect. For the rest of the day he worked like a man possessed. He carried three bales to every one I did and when the last bale was in the barn, he turned to me; hot, perspiring, dusty and said, "Fuck you!" as he walked to the house to take a shower.

That evening, he continued to glare at me as we waited out in the backyard for Gayle to arrive so we could start grilling steaks. I was at a perilous brink with Steven and I couldn't think of anyway to survive the precipice we were perched on.

Gayle arrived carrying groceries and to my puzzlement a passenger was similarly laden with sacks. As they got closer I was amazed to see a younger version of Gayle! They stopped in front of Steven and Gayle said, "Hi Steven, I want you to meet my niece, Betty. She and her family have just moved back here." Steven was transfixed as he looked at Betty and I knew the desire he once held for Gayle had just transferred to the lovely teenager.

"Hi Steven, could you help me carry these sacks?" Before Betty could finish the question, Steven was on his feet to go to her and relieve her from her burden. As the three of them walked toward the house I could only shake my head at the miracle Gayle had produced.

All during the grill out, Steven and Betty ignored everything else and focused on each other. Steven asked her what she was doing next weekend. Betty mentioned that her father was having to bale hay next weekend and she would be busy with that. Steven immediately volunteered his services and I told Betty that she couldn't find a better worker than Steven.

Steven looked at me with gratitude for the compliment I bestowed.

"Oh Steven, that would be fantastic! We could certainly use the help and as big and strong as you are it won't take long to finish that work!" She hugged him in appreciation and I thought, Damn, he had gotten it bad for her.

I saw Gayle looking at me and realized I was no better. There was something about Lambert's women that proved to be kryptonite to Perry's men.

They continued to chatter and then Betty wanted to go look at Steven's Mustang and begged him for a ride when he had it fixed. That I knew was all the incentive it would take for Steven to want to refurbish his car. As they left to go look, I held Carol back so Steven and Betty could have some private time.

Later that night in bed, I proclaimed that Gayle was a genius and she insisted I show my gratitude.

With the advent of Betty coming into Steven's life things became smooth with Steven. In his desire to please Betty he transformed into the son I knew had been hiding under the pain and rejection.

For Carol it was a different matter. She kept insisting on her love for her twenty two years old boyfriend. I tried to explain that nature physically rejected that age differential since she had just turned thirteen. Later in life, when she matured it wouldn't matter, but, now it was morally and legally wrong.