All My Life by Your Side

by Claudio Hernández

  The nurse continued to write on the sheets that looked like forms, and the Gynecologist announced that she should stay in the hospital.

  And It was like that during the next long six months, where the pain and suffering of the whole family were present in their faces and in their lives, something that Laura would have wanted to avoid at all costs. This lasted from the winter of 1963 until the summer of that same year. A moment after which she returned home, still alive. And then life gave her another surprise.

  10

  Year 1963

  Laura Surrender to Adele’s Love

  She was laying there on the sand with her naked breasts pointing toward the sun that was high in the sky, getting a suntan her slender white body like a fish. She was thin, but with her marked curves that at some point attracted her. Her hair was short and blond, her eyes were closed, and her arms stretched out on the sand, resting with her palms facing down. She had no married or engaged fiancée ring. If she had worn it, it would glow and it would have momentarily blinded her eyes. Right there, nothing shone. She did not have a necklace either. Her bikini, just the bottom, that is, the panties bikini covered succinctly the line of her sex that showed what was there under the fabric. It was yellow with a few loops at the sides. Her flattened belly moved rhythmically with her breathing and Laura watched her for a long time, until she discovered that the body was physically attracting her. A libido of desire succumbed to her. The girl turned around to tan her back, and her breasts sank into the sand like two swollen balloons. The ass was the target for Laura this time. She was attracted to her, more than the naked body of her husband, Pedro.

  Something had changed in her, and she felt surprised but not scared. The girl continued to sunbathe on the beach of the Cocedores and Laura returned home walking slowly in her recovery process. Despite the few months, the Gynecologist had given her life; Laura seemed to be recovering for a moment. And how much I would do from now on.

  - "We have long time we do not make love," -Pedro said, lying on the bed staring at the ceiling. It was as if he thought aloud.

  - “The Gynecologist said to keep a time to rest.”

  - "That's a long time ago."

  - "I know." -Laura looked Pedro in the eye and took his chin with her soft hand and added. - "If God does not want me up there, we will."

  - "God has punished you!" -Pedro's voice was a scream.

  Her hand then covered his mouth.

  - "We must all die one day," -she said.

  - "But not now. It is unfair, " -Pedro's face had a grave countenance in the light of the bulb.

  - "We've suffered enough already."

  - "Especially you, my darling." -Pedro sat up in bed to kiss her cheek. - "The Gynecologist gave you a little time to live and look at you in the mirror; you're still alive. I hope they always make mistakes this way.”

  Laura was satisfied that night and got to her side of the bed, to get comfortable in a fetal position to sleep. Even though she knew it was not going to be like this. She would be thinking about the girl on the beach.

  The next day the girl was there again, lying tummy up with the two tits pointing to the sky, well, her nipples, which remained soft in the heat of the sun. Her eyes were closed, her arms outstretched in the sun. Except that this afternoon, just after eating, her skin had turned reddish.

  Laura looked out at the path that led to the Cocederos beach, for which she had gone down so many times; but this time, she used it to look at her again closer. And in doing so, something was born in her, at first as a tingling in her body and then as a desire. Her heart began to beat faster, and she blushed even knowing that the girl had not seen her spy on her. A shiver ran down the length of her back just as she felt when she met Pedro, the first time he and her were doing it ... A wind blow brought her back to reality, and her eyes shone in the sun, Suddenly, she knew that something inside her had been born. Something I'd only felt once. At seventeen.

  - "Mum! Today I see you with so well face," -said his son, Claudio, grinning from ear to ear, and his mother smiled too.

  Then, in her face appeared her two dimples, but she did not say anything. She still had soft, pink skin despite having gone through a hell with the treatment of the disease. - "It is worse the remedy than the disease," -his father had said over and over. But Laura was especially happy that day; not because she had overcome the first phase of the disease, then she still had one foot in the grave and another on the ground. If not, because she felt special. In love, again.

  Ambre, Claudio's daughter as tall as a spike, was three months pregnant. Laura noticed her small and growing belly that appears already and felt the feelings of being a mother again. She remembered when she was "pregnant" the first time.

  Jean at age seventeen was fooling around with a girl with red hair and lots of freckles on her face. She was a good girl. And then there was Ana, the youngest of the family, until the one inside Ambre, that was to be born, who was ten years old. She was dark and thin and had inherited her grandmother's blue eyes.

  Her parents were also there, walking between the living room and the kitchen, crammed into the small space of the house. They were all in the family. Something that Laura did not specify in that letter sent to the sea in a bottle. Things had changed now. And instead of a large “bundle” blond hair wavy around her shoulders, she had a handkerchief over her head, her hair shorter than a soldier in the army.

  - "We're going to have to eat on the street," -Pedro said, raising his voice as if it were a party. He saw it like that. The whole family united and living in peace. Although the wolf's ears still lean out behind the couch. There was happiness, yes, but it had to be cautious.

  Laura began to see from that day the ageing face of her parents and started to think in the worst. In what she had written in that letter. But the fear drawn on her face became joy on any day, thinking of that girl on the beach.

  It was at the end of August when Laura finally dared to approach the girl with her eyes, she still did not know. The long shadow of her alighted on the tanned body of the girl who quickly opened her eyes. Grays! She had grey eyes, Laura noticed, accompanied by a sweet aftertaste from her stomach. Suddenly the scent of the sea flooded her. That girl's look was of extraordinary beauty. Her long, dark eyelashes marked her elongated eyes, and her look were deep, full of vitality, unlike those of Laura that had been turned off in the past six months, except when she saw her.

  - "Do I know you?" -The woman asked in a French accent.

  - "No" -Laura said. - "I'm Laura, and I live next door." -She pointed over the dirt road.

  - "Oh!

  - "I've always come to this beach to sunbathe and bathe," -Laura continued, crossing her feet until her knees touched. Her heart began to beat in his neck and temple.

  - "This is rare. I've never seen you here ..."

  - "This year, has been a bit different for me," -Laura said, cutting her off.

  The woman looked into her eyes in the distance and said.

  - "Lie down beside me."

  Now Laura discovered a strange mixture of feelings, something that happened to her once, with Pedro, but now it was more intense.

  Laura took the towel from the back as if by magic and lay it on the sand leaving it inert like the skin of an octopus tanning in the sun. Laura was wearing a dark blue bathing suit that did not suit her at all, and she wore the handkerchief on her head, even though her hair had grown an inch longer. She sat down on the floor with a cracking of bones and made herself comfortable on the towel.

  - "Forgive my rudeness," -the gray-eyed woman suddenly said, stepping on her towel until she sat down. Her nipples were still straight in respect of her belly. She was young, but she had not them like “fallen tits”, as her husband said jokingly more than once - and Laura felt an unusual desire in her in recent months. - "My name is Adèle."

  Laura noticed that she had been holding her hand out for a moment.

  - "My name is Laura," -she said, shaking her hand, and th
en the sensations became more intense and confused. Her fingers touched Adele’s thin skin, and she felt something good fill her belly. Momentarily, it seemed that her fingers caressed the palm of her hand and she felt a shiver. And suddenly she took her face closer to Laura's cheek, and her lips brushed against her skin in a sweet, soft kiss. Then she did the same with the other cheek.

  Since when did a woman introduce herself like this? Was that a greeting? From what custom? But Laura liked it.

  Adèle moved away her face, looking into her eyes, and Laura saw in her beautiful grey eyes a particular desire she had not yet seen in Pedro.

  - "You're not from here, are you?" -Laura asked, all trembling with emotion.

  - "I do not".

  - "Tourist?"

  - "Right!" -Adèle was lying on her back, and her round breasts turned to look at the sky. - "I'm French."

  - "I've been living in France for a long time!" -Laura gasped open her mouth.

  - "Where?"

  Laura was nervous as when she was seventeen and met Pedro.

  - "In Toulouse and then in Paris."

  - "I'm from Perpignan."

  - "That's very close to the border," -Laura said quietly now.

  - "Yes, quite."

  - "Are you going to be here long?" -Laura's heart flipped as if thousands of butterflies struggled to get out. I expected a good response.

  - "It depends."

  - "What do you mean?"

  Adèle laughed.

  - "Why do you came from France?" -Adèle asked, looking at her now with her dark gaze.

  - "It was the year forty. The war broke out at that time ..."

  - "I was not yet born!" -Adèle waved her right arm, indicating a small height.

  - "How old are you?" -Laura asked, glancing at her breasts.

  - "Nineteen." -Adèle lifted her arms, and her breasts moved upward, and when she lowered her arms, they returned to their places. Laura was obsessed now with her breasts. She had had them that way when she was young, but she could not complain at forty-nine. And a whole life ahead!

  Laura nodded under the unshakable rays of the sun.

  And for a moment she remembered her letter and the turn that had given her life, but suddenly she returned to Adele’s grey eyes and slender breasts and felt something beautiful was going to happen. Something that soon began, because it had already begun ...

  - "I see you are so well, Laura," -Pedro said as she sat down in the chair to eat lunch that late August afternoon.

  - "Yes?" -Laura's blue eyes shone.

  - "That glow has returned to your look, darling. All this time you have been very muffled and I even thought that the color of your eyes had been erased.

  - "It was suffering, sweetheart. The operation, the chemotherapy and all of you suffering at my side ...”

  - "But I find you so well," -interrupted Pedro, taking her by the hand gently. Laura felt the tips of her fingers but did not feel anything special to touch them.

  - "Maybe the gynecologist was wrong with me," -Laura explained, offering her what she knew best and did not do for several months, her smile.

  - "I feel like making love to you Laura ..."

  - "When I recover later," -Laura said in a fatal attraction.

  Something had changed in her when she was about to die. Or maybe not.

  At noon, after lunch, Adèle lay there with a British punctuality. Her bare breasts were now tanned by the sun, and they no longer showed a shrimp-like color, but a brown that suited her perfectly.

  Laura spread the towel next to her as usual, by now. They had become good friends even though the difference of age and Laura was talking more easily. Adèle, had, that noon, to ask a few more questions to Laura.

  - "Are you married?"

  - "Yes."

  - "Have children?"

  - "Two," -Laura said, showing her two fingers as if it were a sign of victory.

  - "And how come your children do not come with you?"

  - "They live in the center of town. They also prefer the beach of the Delicias or the Colonia."

  - "Where are those beaches?"

  - "Over there," -Laura pointed out with her index finger that seemed to draw the path in

  the air.

  - "Where is your husband?"

  - "At home. He is lying on the couch, taking a nap as every day.

  - "And why are you wearing that ridiculous handkerchief in your head?"

  Laura frowned and wrinkled her lips as she stared into Adele’s eyes as she was laughing. A perfect row of white teeth shone in the rays of the sun. Laura liked her smile.

  - "Hey, you're asking me many things!"? -Laura forced her voice as if she were a child and put her arms in a jug as she shook her head in the gentle breeze of the sea.

  - "I'm very outgoing," -Adèle said.

  - "I see it already!" -Laura paused and asked her something very personal. - "Do you like life?"

  Adèle opened her elongated eyes as she rested her elbows on the sand. A deep uneasiness encouraged her to respond with another question.

  - "Don´t you like life? do you?"

  Laura answered with a silence only broken by the waves of the sea that formed little foam in its tired and rhythmic route.

  Finally, her lips moved.

  - "If you want to know more, I have three grandchildren, and my parents are still alive, and I'm recovering or not." -This last statement stuck like a dagger in her heart.

  Adèle pointed to the handkerchief that Laura wrapped around her head.

  - "Do you want to tell me why you're wearing it?"

  Laura looked at her once more.

  - "Because I got a seriously disease. Well, I had cancer, I was emptied, got treatment, and here I am until God calls me, late or too soon.

  Adèle watched her with her eternal sweet smile that did not disappear from her face no matter how much the world changed or death was present in front of her.

  - "You will be cured," –said Adèle as if she had taken the cards and could see her future.

  Laura smiled broadly, and her eyes shone as they had never done before.

  And after the coming and going of the waves the two lay tummies up, while they continued with their chatter.

  - "You'll have to take off that ridiculous handkerchief because for sure you're very beautiful without it. – “Are you blond or brunette?”

  - "Guess!”

  And they surrender to the rays of the sun, to the surf and the absolute calmness in their spirits.

  Suddenly Laura felt Adele’s fingers searching for hers. His fingertips caressed her palm in a soft, rhythmic manner, and Laura began to breath with a gasp. Then her long, thin fingers tangled with hers and clutched in her hand like the tentacles of an octopus. A strange sensation ran from hand to chest through her arm. Her heart began to beat faster but rhythmically and her breathing deepened. Laura did not withdraw her hand and then tilted her head to see Adèle, who was watching her with her greyish eyes. And suddenly she wanted it. A moment later the two of them burst out laughing at the bottom of the sea waves.

  Peter once again on that same night asked Laura to make love, and she evaded the question.

  - "For what can happen to you." -There was a lapse of silence and continued. – “You know what the oncologist told you. - "It's a matter of luck that you're alive and I wanted to make love to you one last time before you farewell me." -Pedro's eyes flushed suddenly.

  Laura stared into his eyes, squeezing his jaw with one hand and told him that she did not think to die, but later. She did not tell him the truth. That she was in love with him, but that she did not feel nothing when his fingers touched her, but she felt something stronger for Adèle.

  The next day Laura returned to the beach of the Cocedores where Adèle was waiting for her. This time Laura threw the towel on the floor and lay on her back, and her hand looked Adele’s hand quickly, and squeezed it with all her strength. Energy and strange feelings flowed into her. She was falling in love.

/>   - "I like you," -Adèle confided, staring at her without letting go her hand.

  Laura felt a tingle in her guts and the same sensations she had felt with Pedro when she was seventeen or perhaps more intense and stranger.

  -"Do you worry about the age difference?" -Laura asked, looking up at the sky.

  - “I do not. That's not a problem,” -Adèle confessed, taking her hand gently until it reached one of her breasts. Laura felt under her fingertips the delicate skin of her breast, erect and formed with a soft halo and her nipple flaccid for the heat. And she felt as if an electric shock flowed from Adele’s chest to her heart.

  Laura saw into her eyes. She did not take her hand away from her breast and then began to caress it gently, with the tenderness that caresses a baby, but this time with sexual intentions. She was livid and felt her inside. Adèle groaned as she smiled and showed her grey eyes. Laura continued to experiment with her chest, with the emotions and knew that she was in love. Now she knew it and ignore it, and did not find it unclean.

  Adele’s hand went to Laura's handkerchief and with gentle movements took it away. Laura then showed her short but prominent blond hair. And Adèle showed her what she knew to do best. Her sweet, bright smile.

  - "You look so pretty," Adèle said.

  - "You too," -Laura said, her hand still on her chest.

  Then Adele’s head came closer, slowly to Laura's face, searching for her mouth and lips. Laura bent slightly and opened her mouth ready to receive it. Adele’s lips brushed Laura's, and a human symbiosis burst into them both at the same time. Adele’s tongue sought hers and Laura offered it to her. A warm, deep kiss took place between the two of them, in real state, wishing each other, there under the sun as a witness. They kissed for a long time while Adele’s hand searched for Laura's breast under the bathing suit. And that was when the ecstasy occurred in Laura who felt again the love, the passion and the desire to live.

  11

  Year 1970

  The death of Adèle

  September followed the wake left for the month of August. The best without doubt, already at this point, of Laura. Pedro had already noticed her a little strange and far from him. He supposed they were the last death throes of her illness, but her eyes radiated joy, and that did not coincide. On more than one occasion, Pedro, with doubts and jealousy, asked Laura if she had met a man outside the house. She told him no. That it was just the belly pains.