by Sex, Nikki
"Then the Union Soldiers came and took over early in the Civil War. That house on the corner was used by General Burnside as a headquarters. You know him, the guy they named sideburns after."
Jack was having trouble following what Laura said, while he watched the street around them. He resorted to the time-honored male trick of smiling and nodding whenever the woman next to them was talking.
It seemed to be working, for now.
Jack jumped slightly as a couple jogged by, the reflective tags on the backs of their running shoes, twinkled in the lamplight.
"That famous writer guy, you know the one with the sweet and kind of sappy romance novels? He lives around here, too."
Jack was about to give up his search, to chalk up his unease to another case of post war jitters, when he caught a brief glimpse. A furtive man stepped out from the shadows, into the orange circle of light beneath a streetlamp.
He was rough looking, in torn jeans and a dirty work shirt. Unshaven, his beard was no more than a few days old. It looked as unkempt as the rest of him.
They locked eyes for a second, and Jack could see malicious anger in him. Instantly, Jack knew that this was who'd been watching them and following them.
What was worse was, he realized the dangerous asshole knew. Jack had noticeably recognized this stranger as a threat.
The man looked away, then turned the corner and walked off in another direction. Jack didn't buy the ruse. He'd be coming back.
It didn’t matter.
When he did, Jack would be waiting.
Chapter 28
Dinner was incredible—not the food—although the food had been good. It was the company.
Jack had the best night he could remember having in a long, long time. The restaurant was set out on the river. Their meal was accompanied by soft, intimate lighting and the romantic sounds of the water lapping on the pylons below.
He felt no malevolent presence in or around the restaurant.
Jack finally began to relax and let his guard down when Laura went on about the last time she’d been out to the movies—she’d seen some sort of quirky, yet thoughtful indie piece. He was a bit of a movie buff, as well, so this really endeared her to him.
They spoke of their favorite activities—music, books and movies.
It may have been the wine that made him so candid. Or the fact that it was a balmy night in a romantic setting. Or just sitting with a pretty girl. Perhaps it was the fact that they’d already been talking about the important things by mail for months.
Whatever the reason, they got along as if they’d known each other for years. Jack felt so comfortable with her. From time to time they’d both have tears running down their cheeks from laughing so hard, while listening to each other’s stories.
He asked her about her family. Laura said that she didn’t know who her father was and openly spoke of her mother’s attempt to sell her virginity. Even though it was shocking and upsetting, she made him laugh the way she told the story.
“You should've seen it,” Laura snickered. “It was like a B grade sit-com. There we were—the three of us, crushed together in our small, ramshackle trailer. My mom’s saying to me, ‘Honey child, you don’t mind doing this one little ‘ole thing for mama, do you?
“I’m using every evasive maneuver possible in a place where everything's within arm's reach—moving around a chair to avoid Ricky’s grasping hands. The guy wasn’t even forty, but he was a smelly, toothless drunk. I’m screaming, “No way!” and “Fuck off!”
“Meanwhile, Ricky—who lived two trailers down from us by the way—is there complaining at the top of his lungs, "I done paid for a virgin! A virgin! I already paid!”
Horrified, yet fascinated by her terrible story, Jack took another sip of wine without breaking her gaze.
Laura’s eyes sparkled. “I was angrier than I’d ever been in my whole life. It might’ve been from fear, I guess. I was way more furious than afraid just then.”
“So what did you do?”
“I picked up the first thing I could put my hands on—which turned out to be my junior high school swimming trophy. I was pretty skinny back then, but tall—as tall as Ricky was. I took a swing and hit him on the head as hard as I could.”
Laura started laughing. The more she laughed, the louder she got.
Doubled over, she said, “Ricky”—she whooped—“he went down hard, like a sack of grain hitting the concrete, after falling off a moving truck.”
Jack laughed because of the funny way she told the story, and probably because of how hard Laura was laughing.
“I grabbed my purse, shoved a handful of clothes in a bag—then I lit out of there like my butt was on fire, as you can imagine. The whole time I could hear my mama’s pitiful sobbing, feeling sorry for herself and saying, “But I need money! Now what am I gonna do?”
Jack could envision the scene, Laura made it easy. It wasn’t funny at all—it was tragic, except the way she told it, made it seem hilarious.
She sighed. “I never went back.”
Stunned, Jack said, “It’s incredible that a mother would do such a terrible thing. Where does a fifteen year old go when they find themselves on the street?”
“I went and lived with my best friend’s family. They had a nice house and were good to me.”
“Well, at least that worked out OK.”
Laura smirked. “Yep. Right up until her dad started wanting me to sit on his knee and kiss him goodnight.”
“No!”
“Out of the fry pan, into the fire. Do you think it’s the blonde hair? Men seem to go crazy over that.”
“I love your blonde hair,” he said.
Jack was pleased when Laura snickered.
“Anyway, my girlfriend and I quit being friends over it. Actually, she hated me. I didn’t let her dad do anything, but he felt ashamed of himself—or maybe he was afraid of getting caught. To cover his tracks, he told her that I’d been coming on to him.”
“What a bastard.”
Laura made an accepting, kind of ‘oh well’ gesture with her hand. “Her dad could’ve been much worse. I guess he expected payment for letting me stay there. It doesn’t much matter. When I finally lost my virginity it was on my terms, by my choice with a nice boy my age.”
Confiding that her first time was when she was almost seventeen, Laura explained that she’d been passionately in love with “Andy.” Fate interfered when his parents divorced and Andy moved out of state with his mother—thus ending what was without doubt, “the love story of the century,” she explained with facetious good humor.
“It broke my heart,” she said bringing her hand dramatically to her chest. “I think I cried for two weeks straight.”
Jack impulsively reached over and took her hand, giving it a sympathetic squeeze. “Teenage crush or not—that had to hurt. I hate that you had to go through all of that. One’s first love and first break up hits everyone hard.”
She gave him a speculative look. “Did it hit you hard?”
“Like a freight train,” he admitted, putting on an overly pained expression.
Her snicker turned into an inelegant snort she quickly covered with her hand, but he’d made her laugh, which had been his intention.
“Did you cry?”
“Don’t tell anyone, but I did.” He shook his head sadly and added, “Just like a little girl.”
Green eyes sparkling with humor and mischief, she laughed out loud and the joyous sound of it was like Thanksgiving dinner, Christmas morning and summer vacation all rolled into one.
The woman awed him.
Laura had a beautiful, open smile and a loud, uninhibited laugh. They matched her personality.
Jack squeezed her hand once more and let it go. “You’re amazing, Laura. I don’t understand how you can be such an upbeat and balanced sort of person with an upbringing like that.”
“It’s how you look at it, I think. Pretty early on I decided everything doesn’t have to be s
uch a tragedy—just because it is.”
Her words were profound.
Jack couldn’t think of one appropriate reply to that.
“Besides,” she giggled happily. “I’ve got my share of imbalance. You don’t want to be around when my temper’s running hot—especially if I have something heavy in my hand.”
“I’ll take my chances.” Jack grinned. “What I really don’t want to do is to ever meet your mother. I might end up breaking my rule about hitting a woman.”
To his delight, she stretched out her neck and pulled the ribbon out of her ponytail, setting her lovely hair free. Tossing her head back and forth, Laura made her golden mane cascade around her shoulders.
She smiled at him with those two front teeth set slightly apart and in front of the others. Her heart-stopping smile dazzled him, and all he could think of was running his hands through her beautiful, silky hair.
“That feels better,” she said.
Mind suddenly blank, Jack said nothing.
“Anyway.” She shrugged. “My mother was a good role model, really.”
“What? How can you say that?”
“Everything my mama did, I decided to do the direct opposite.” Her lips kicked up in a sardonic smirk. “You’ve got to admit, it’s a pretty good recipe for success.”
He grinned and his eyes met hers. “It’s certainly working for you. You’re amazing.”
The slight pink tinge to her cheeks made him realise that he’d embarrassed her, but she continued to meet his gaze. “That’s a nice thing to say, Jack,” she said quietly.
“It’s a true thing to say.”
It was another compliment that Laura wholeheartedly deserved, but Jack wondered how she’d take it. The sound of water lapping on the pylons, and soft murmurings of other guests seemed loud in the sudden silence. She appeared to be thinking.
“My mom wasn’t a bad person,” she added. “I think she just made the wrong choices and became bad. It’s like she screwed up, and then did it again and again—repeating the same mistakes over and over. She had no self-discipline. I swore that I’d be different.”
Jack figured that she had a point. The thing with her mother shocked him, but clearly Laura had moved past that, to a large degree.
It explained why she had no photos. This beautiful girl spoke of her childhood circumstances so easily. She laughed about it all, turning tragedy into comedy.
Quite a skill, Jack mused. Quite a woman.
Jack knew her mother’s betrayal had to have wounded her deeply. The woman whose job it was to protect her, had actually tried to sell her daughter’s innocence for a drug fix! How could that not hurt? It had, but somehow Laura had pushed herself past it.
The experiences Laura had been sharing had to be only the tip of the iceberg. Poor kid. He could picture her as young and vulnerable—yet with innate inner strength.
Laura had gotten herself out of some hideous and scary situations, rising above it all. She'd even gained productive life lessons from experiences that would have destroyed the character of most people, leaving them bitter and unhappy.
It was a testament to who she was. Not bitter, not unhappy and not a victim. She was kind. Funny. Strong and independent. How had she managed to turn out this way? Life had knocked her down many times, but she stubbornly kept getting up again.
From Laura’s very first letter, Jack had felt a powerful attraction to her. Seeing and talking to her had only strengthened her fascinating appeal.
Feeling that it was only fair to reciprocate with personal stories of his own, he told her about his childhood, family dynamics and his love for his sister. Laura heard about his sister’s girlfriend and their successful business in California. Jack also told her about his first love.
“So there I was,” he said. “Seventeen years old, in the bedroom of the woman of my dreams.”
Laura sat forward, her green eyes glittering brightly in the low lighting. “Yeah?”
“I’d never had sex before—barely even kissed a woman. I was a complete virgin but I was still a teenage boy, you know? All sorts of things ran through my mind and my body. I had so much testosterone and so many images going through my brain that I honestly had no idea where to start.”
She snickered and he did too.
“Like a kid in a candy shop—there were way too many possibilities. I just froze, total and complete vapor lock. Like most teenagers my age, I’d seen movies—heck, we had cable for a while. I’d memorized probably every sexual position possible, or at least I thought I did.”
“Really?”
“Of course.”
“I never did that.”
“Why not?”
Laura shrugged. “I honestly didn’t think of it.”
“Seriously?”
“Maybe women are different. I was. Maybe it was because of some of the creepy guys’ mom brought home. I wasn’t interested in sex until I had some. Then, it was like opening Pandora’s Box, you know? I mean, I lived perfectly well without it until then.”
Jack laughed. “It’s different for a man for sure. Living without, isn’t an option.”
He flushed; surprised that he’d brought up the subject. How much had he been drinking? He looked over and found they hadn't even finished the bottle of red wine between them.
As a doctor and a man, he was well aware of natural male biological functions; like wet dreams, blue balls and the physiologically imperative need for regular masturbation.
Women didn’t seem to have these problems—they had biological issues of their own, like menstruation.
However, why would he be discussing any of this with Laura? As close as he felt to her, Jack didn’t know her well enough for that.
Chapter 29.
“So what happened with the woman of your dreams?” she asked, thankfully changing the subject.
He cleared his throat. “You have to understand. I was blindly in love in that weird do or die way only teenagers experience. It was obsessive and all consuming. I'd have given up Christmas for the rest of my life just to see her breasts.”
Laura cracked up laughing.
The sight and sound of her uninhibited, irrepressible laughter, filled Jack’s senses. For a long moment he just watched her, enjoying seeing her so happy.
Wiping her eyes with both hands, she said, “Sorry for the interruption.”
“No problem.”
Her breath hitching in short gasps, she added, “That just really tickled my funny bone. I can see the whole scene so clearly.” She flashed a huge grin at him. “Did you get to see her breasts?”
“I sure did—Gabriella Kowalowski was buck-naked.”
Laura smiled and nodded expectantly.
“So, there I was with all of my dreams coming true. She was an experienced sort of girl, a woman who utterly embodied my every fantasy. I'm lying in her bed and right off the bat, she goes down on me.”
“Good for her.”
He chuckled ruefully. “Oh yeah. I lasted all of thirty seconds I think.”
This pronouncement finished them both off.
Together they giggled and sniggered like loons. Hysterically laughing, Laura’s shit-eating grin only made Jack laugh harder, and then she laughed because he was laughing.
It took a long time for them both to settle down. By then Jack’s stomach muscles were aching.
Finally, Laura choked out, “So ah… the thirty second thing—” She sucked in deep gasping breaths, evidently still trying not to snicker. “—was that a problem for Ms. Kowalowski?”
Jack shook his head, frowning thoughtfully. “I was embarrassed to come so fast, but it didn’t seem to bother Gabriella. In fact, I think she was pleased. I’m lying there, feeling all loving and loved. A happy man, you know? The woman of my dreams smiles at me and I feel like a god. Then she looks at me with her big, dark eyes and do you know what she says?”
Laura shook her head. Clearly captivated, she was following Jack’s every word.
“Gabr
iella says to me, 'So Jack, now will you introduce me to your brother?'”
“No! She didn’t!” Laura laughed, probably more from shock and horror than humor.
Jack was laughing too. “She did.”
“I don’t believe it!”
“True story. I swear.”
“What a terrible blow to a young man’s ego.”
Jack shrugged. “I got over it. I only told you that so you’d understand the unusual relationship I had with my older brother. Tommy’s OK. He just had too much given to him too young. The world was too easy for him. So when he was confronted with his first real challenge, he wasn’t prepared, you know? He suddenly had to face the cold, hard fact that life can be difficult and doesn’t always go perfectly. He wasn’t as special as he’d always been led to believe. He couldn’t walk on water after all. I think it broke him.”
“Why do you say that?”
“Because, now he’s an alcoholic.”
“Bummer.”
“Tell me about it.”
“Well, he can always change,” Laura said. “But there’s a lesson to that tale, you know that, right?”
“Oh?”
Spreading her arms to include them both, she said, “Just look at us. We’ve been through miles and miles of crap.” She slapped the table loudly, making their desert plates’ jump. “Forget miles, we’ve been through acres. Maybe when you measure it all up, I bet we’ve been through entire continents of shit.”
They both bent forward, holding their stomachs and giggling madly at her highly illustrative parallel.
“To my way of thinking, with all that experience, you and me—we should be able to handle anything that comes at us from now on, know what I mean?”
“Amen to that,” Jack said and raised his glass for a toast.
“Amen.” Her grin beguiled him as she clinked her glass against his, toasting him back.
Jack couldn’t recall ever speaking so candidly to anyone before that night with Laura. He'd even spoke to her about the war and his life overseas. By the end of their dinner, they talked about everything except the details of Bob’s death—and whoever the Hell that man back in the street was.
