Tom vs the Volcano God

by Marilyn Foxworthy

  Sarah smiled and said, “Not exactly, but maybe a little. I’m really good at fixing things though. It’s what I do. It’s what Robby does. And now that Robby is calling for a Code Black Picnic, maybe Tommy is going to start fixing things too. Hey, I have to go freshen up for a few minutes. Will you excuse Tommy and I for just a bit? I won’t be long. Stay right here. We’ll be right back, OK?”

  The girls agreed and Sarah had me follow her into the bedroom suite. She closed the door behind us.

  She said, “Well, what do you think?”

  I said, “About what?”

  She said, “About them? Do you like them?”

  I said, “They’re really sweet. It seems like they have a story that we haven’t heard yet. They have a past that they want to share. They need someone to tell. Sarah, I kind of have this talent for seeing things sometimes. It’s like the right way to do things when you don’t have enough information for most people to see what the answer is yet. These three need something.”

  Sarah smiled and said, “From who?”

  I said, “Well, maybe from us. I don’t know.”

  Sarah said, “You do know. I know that you know. I know because when you say that you don’t know, you aren’t telling the whole truth. You know, but you don’t want to say.”

  I said, “Well, I have a guess. I don’t really know for sure.”

  She said, “Don’t you?”

  I said, “OK, I do. I think that I know, but I always leave room for mistakes and doubt, but I know what I know. I don’t really know for sure, but if we do it, we’ll see that I did know. It’s weird.”

  She smiled and said, “A poodle in a hat box. Tommy, if you say that they need help, help them. Hey, what’s your job?”

  I said, “Software development.”

  She said, “Half true. What is it really?”

  I said, “Solving impossible problems.”

  She said, “Perfect. My job is making you happy. It’s the best job in the world. Alice says that’s what Robby’s job is too. Making people happy. So, I think you should quit your day job and do this full time.”

  I said, “Do what?”

  She said, “Make people happy by solving impossible problems.”

  I smiled and said, “I do like the sound of that. Wouldn’t that be nice?”

  She said, “Then do it. Start right now.”

  I said, “Sarah, it’s not that simple. I can’t just quit my job and make people happy for a living.”

  She said, “Can’t you? I tell you what. I’ll get ahold of Miss Tiffany and she’ll tell Robby that the universe will be better if you get a new job and have a magic poodle and everyone around you wears polka dots. She gets whatever she wants. But even if she doesn’t, at least do what you can right now. Make them happy.”

  I said, “I think Diane really does want to take her clothes off. She wants me to look at her and tell her she’s beautiful and worth loving. And she wants to look at me and feel like she’s worth being exposed to. She wants to be naked and unafraid.”

  Sarah smiled and said tenderly, “Then Tommy, give her what she needs. She’s a good girl. She needs to be happy.”

  I said, “But Sarah, what if she thinks that she develops feelings for me?”

  Sarah said just as tenderly, “Then we better hope that you develop feelings for her too. I teased you about Sondra, but what if it weren’t just teasing? If it does turn out that we love them, can me make room in our house for them?”

  I said, “Sarah, we don’t do that. I am going to marry you. And a married man doesn’t have girlfriends. Not if he’s a good man and honors his wife.”

  She held my hand and said, “A normal man doesn’t marry a NORG Elf Girl. But where I come from, maybe we do have, not girlfriends, but long commitments with me and them at the same time. Tommy, I don’t know how, but you are going to marry me. And I’m going to be a real girl. So normal rules are being broken. Somehow, certain rules must not apply to us. The girls don’t work for anyone, so they make their own rules. Can’t you just do that too?”

  I said nervously, “Sarah, what if Diane wanted to have sex with me?!”

  Sarah said, very calmly, “That would be lovely. It would make more sense than anything in the world. She would be stupid not to. So, I have to want her to want to have you love her and make love to her. If I don’t, it means I want her to be unhappy and stupid. Tommy, just take one step. Give her that first thing that she wants. Her levels need to go up. But not too fast. Not as fast as mine did. She’s organic and it might break her to go so fast. And there’s no guarantee she wants to go to a high level, is there? Maybe she just wants the next one. One level at a time.”

  I sighed and said, “Sarah, I love you. I don’t need anyone but you.”

  She said, “Of course not. But it might be that I’m not the only one who needs you. Please. Make her a little happier and help her past her past.”

  I said, “OK. I hope this works.”

  I went to the door and opened it and saw that the three girls were still sitting where we had left them.

  I said, “Girls, um, Diane, do you want to come here for a second? Into the suite for a second? I have a question for you. Um, it won’t take long. We’ll be out in a few minutes.”

  Diane stood up and walked to the rear of the plane. She looked nervous, but not really afraid. I let her through the door and closed it behind us.

  I sat on the edge of the bed and Sarah sat beside me and I asked Diane to sit in a chair facing us.

  Sarah smiled and said, “Diane, I like you so much and I just want to give you some kind of a present and make you happy. I love Tommy and trust him absolutely and whatever he says to you is fine with me. I like you so much and everything is perfectly fine.”

  Diane said, “OK. What can I do for you?”

  I said, “Well, not for me exactly. I want to do something to make you happy. And I don’t have much that I could do, but you said that you wanted to take your clothes off, and if you really want to, then I could let you do that. I really like you, too. I want you to be happy. If somehow I can help you be happy, I want to do it.”

  I didn’t know what Diane would say or how she would react. What she did was smile.

  She said, “OK. I will. I already said, let’s just go for it, so I’m going to just go for it. OK, here goes.”

  She hesitated for a minute and then closed her eyes and quickly undid the zipper at the side of her dress and pulled it off her shoulders and dropped it around her ankles. She didn’t open her eyes but reached behind her back and unclasped the see-through lace bra that she was wearing and dropped it on the floor at her feet as well. She had already ditched her panties earlier, so now she was fully naked. She just stood where she was and breathed. A minute went by and she opened her eyes.

  As soon as she opened her eyes, I immediately said, “Diane, you look beautiful. My goodness. You’re stunning! Forgive me if I say something I shouldn’t, but it’s like your lips bring out the beauty of your skin. It’s like it all points to your face. I mean, you have the prettiest feet and ankles, and the beauty runs up your legs, over your waist, around your navel, rushes up your breasts to your neck, and then lands on your lips where it kisses you in the most wonderful way. Sweetie, please, promise me something.”

  She smiled shyly and said, “What? I want to promise you anything you want me to. What do you want?”

  I said, “Diane, I can see you. I don’t know all of you, but I want to. I want to hear all about it, and I want to take in your story and make it all make more sense for you. But even if I don’t know the story yet, I see you. And you are so wonderful and beautiful. You said that you don’t have a boyfriend.”

  She said, “Yes Sir. I don’t. I’m not dating at all right now.”

  I said, “Diane, the man that you need will be very special. He’ll be kind and generous, and he’ll be filled with grace and real love. He’ll be easy to be best friends with, and erotically, when he’s the right one, you
’ll be drawn to him, ‘balls to bone’, as they say. What I want is for you to promise me that you’ll wait for your Prophecy to be fulfilled and that you will never give up on finding the Chosen one that you joked about.”

  She smiled and said, “OK. I want to promise that so much.”

  I said, “You just met me, so to promise me something might be weird, but I can’t bear the thought of you being unhappy anymore. Is that OK? That I said all of that?”

  While she stood there, I considered what I had just done. First, I waited for her to open her eyes. I wanted to wait and compliment her and make her feel reinforced for having her eyes open when she talked to me. I hoped that because it had been a positive interaction associated with opening her eyes that she would always feel a bit of a positive rush when she knew that I was looking at her. Secondly, when I complimented her, I tried to be very specific, picking out something about her that might not apply to every woman. I had focused on her lips but had touched on, verbally and visually, how her feet, ankles, legs, waist, navel, breasts and neck were all part of the special beauty of her lips. And then I had asked for a commitment of a long-lasting trust relationship between us by asking for a promise about her future actions and feelings. It was very deliberate. Oh, um, I’m not some player who thinks he knows about seduction at all. Sorry, maybe it sounded that way. I basically learned some of that from animal training. Dogs and stuff. And a lot of it from having been married for many years. But it gave Diane what she needed right now.

  She drew in her breath and said, “Yes Sir, I will sir. I promise.”

  I said, “Oh, thank you. And Diane, you look really good naked.”

  She said, “Do I? Really? I try to stay in shape.”

  I said, “Diane, can I ask a very stupid question? How old are you?”

  She said, “I’m thirty-six.” Then with a grin and a slight pose, she said, “I’ve never been married and don’t have children. My likes are mature men who know how to make a woman feel like she’s loved and long airplane rides. My dislikes are overcooked vegetables, phonies, and dreadlocks on men. My turn-ons include well-timed compliments, sexy undergarments, skinny dipping, and exposing myself to a man who makes me feel adorable. I’m five foot five, and a perfect thirty-four, twenty-four, thirty-five. And all this can be yours, if the emotional price is right.”

  I laughed and said, “That’s a pretty perfect package. Diane, I hate to ask, but do you want to see me naked? I can’t imagine that you would, but Sarah said that I should ask you. You don’t have to. It’s silly. I’m not trying to flash you or anything. It’s just Sarah made me say that I would offer to let you make me show you mine if you showed me yours. I’m sorry.”

  Diane said, “Oh, that’s OK. Don’t be sorry. That’s actually really nice. That’s a really nice idea, and I kind of really would, but I kind of don’t want to right now. But if I don’t, I’ll never get another chance, so I guess so, if that’s OK?”

  I said, “No, we should wait. How about this. I’ll give you a free pass. Use it any time, but not today. We’ll make sure that you get a chance someday, when it’s what you really want right then. How’s that? That’s OK, right Sarah?”

  Sarah said, “I think that’s splendid.”

  Diane said, “OK. Maybe I should get dressed. The girls will be wondering what we’re doing.”

  Suddenly, Diane stepped forward and hugged me. I didn’t have time to stand up, and she held my face to her breasts, my lips very close to one of her nipples. She let me go just as suddenly and hurriedly stepped into her dress. She didn’t bother with her bra, but asked Sarah if she could hide it in the room for her. When she had herself arranged, she thanked me and opened the door.

  But as she stepped out of the suite, she said loudly, “Ashley, he wants to see you now,” and walked to sit down next to Sondra on the sofa. I looked at Sarah with surprise, but she just smiled and shrugged.

  Chapter 10 - Arriving in Wonderland

  Ashley walked in and closed the door behind her.

  She smiled and said, “You wanted to see me, Sir?”

  I said, “Um, Ashley, um, not exactly. I didn’t tell Diane to say that at all. She just said it.”

  Ashley smiled and asked, “Why did she say it? What was she thinking?”

  I said, “Well, I guess she doesn’t mind you knowing, or she wouldn’t have said anything. See, since Diane had said the things that she did earlier, I told her that if she really did want to take her clothes off that it would be OK with me. I didn’t ask her to, but she kind of wanted me to tell her she looked good, you know. Like no one had in a while or something and she wanted me to because I was safe or something.”

  Ashley kept smiling and said, “Oh. So, it wasn’t so much that you wanted to see, me as to let me let you see me. Is that it?”

  I said, “Well, I didn’t really want anything.”

  Ashley said, “You know what, what the hell? Let’s do it,” and she quickly undid the zipper, dropped her dress, and pulled off her bra.

  She stood with her hands out to her sides and turned in a circle.

  She smiled and said, “Well, what do you think?”

  I said, “Ashley, You’re beautiful. And I especially like how happy you look. You have the nicest smile. And you’re tall, aren’t you? What are you, five eight?”

  She said, “Five seven.”

  I said, “There’s a boldness about you that I didn’t expect. It’s very attractive. Do you really feel as open as you seem? You look so absolutely comfortable that way.”

  She grinned and said, “Nope. I’m faking every bit of it.”

  I said, “Well, I’m not faking anything. You have a very lovely body to go along with the very lovely person that you are. Can I say something very personal about how you look?”

  She continued grinning and said, “I wish you would.”

  I said, “OK, here goes. I shouldn’t, but Ashley, I can’t hardly keep my eyes away from your nipples.”

  She looked surprised and said, “My nipples? Why?”

  I said, “They’re so beautiful. So large, and the areola are such a wonderful color and shape. They complement the rest of you so perfectly. It’s like the rest of your body was built as a showcase for your chest. And your chest was built as a showcase for your nipples. I have never seen anyone so attractive in that particular way, other than Sarah. You make it hard to think straight.”

  She said, “Because of my nipples?”

  I said, “No, because of the beauty of your open heart. Was it my fault that I didn’t see you until you undressed, or do you seem different all of a sudden?”

  She said, “I didn’t show you who I was until I decided that I wanted to. This is nice. I don’t think that I ever did anything close to this before. Tom, can I ask you for something?”

  I said, “Sure. What?”

  She said, “Can I sit down?”

  I said, “Of course.”

  Instead of sitting in the chair the way that I expected, she moved toward the bed where Sarah and I were sitting.

  Sarah quickly moved to the side and Ashley sat down between us. She turned her body slightly more toward me and put the knee closest to me up on the bed, with the effect that her legs parted several inches and I had a clear view of her crotch as she adjusted herself. I didn’t stare and Ashley grabbed my hand and Sarah’s and looked into my eyes.

  She said, “Mr. Jensen, here’s what I want. I just met you, but I know that this is right. It just has to be. I need help and I want you to be the one to help me. I never wanted this from anyone before, not even your brother. I don’t even know if I’ll ever see you again, but I know that I will. Help me. I want you to promise me that you won’t let me give myself to the wrong man. I know that you can’t stop me, but I want to promise you that your opinion of any man who is ever interested in me will be really important and that you will promise to tell me if you think I should be with him or not, and that if I tell you that I don’t care what you say, that you will r
un him off for my own good. That’s what I want you to do. Just tell me you will, whether you really will or not.”

  I said, “Ashley, I would be honored to do that for you. I would be heartbroken if you ever sold yourself short and was with a man who wasn’t worthy of you. If you promise me that you’ll try to make sure that you don’t, then I swear that I’ll do anything I can to help you stick to it.”

  She said, “Really? That’s what I want. I’m afraid.”

  I looked in her eyes and said, “What are you afraid of, Princess?”

  She said quietly, “I’m afraid of ending up with a jerk who can’t see what you said you see. But I think this can be the way. If I make a pledge to someone I can trust and um…love, then, I can’t get weak and throw myself away like trash anymore.”

  I said, “Sweetie, have a lot of men taken advantage of you?”

  She said, “No. Well, yeah, but not like I was a tramp or anything. I’ve had boyfriends and they were always jerks and it never lasted long because I didn’t find them attractive enough to have sex with. I was in the military. Air-force. And served overseas. I’ve broken guys noses twice and a hand once, and a few guys found out what a hit to the groin really feels like. You want to hear all about it? One night, my pilot and I had been shot down and before the extraction came for us, we went a bit crazy and I had sex for the first time. We were rough and stupid and there was no tenderness the way that there should be, and it was really all pretty stupid and painful and ugly. And he died before morning.”

  I said, “Oh…Ashley, you killed him?”

  She laughed and said, “No! Oh, I see why you thought that. That’s funny. No. We didn’t know he had been injured and he died of his injuries before they got to us. So, the only guy I’ve ever been with was a bad decision and he’s dead and I didn’t really even like him. There might be a bit of trauma here, you think? So, you’ll do that for me? Or at least say you will?”

  I said, “I absolutely will. Can I ask how old you are?”

  She said, “Thirty-eight. Um, there’s one more thing. OK, this might be stupid. And Sarah, this is up to you. I like you and you’re the luckiest woman on earth, just like everyone in Robby’s family, but there’s this other thing and I want to ask you if it’s OK. If not, that’s fine, but somehow, I think you’ll understand. I don’t know you, but I feel like you’re my best friend, except for Diane and Sondra.”