“ Help!” Little Bobby belted out, his cry piercing the silence like a white hot knife.
“ Help! Help!” Ricky and Jerry chimed in.
“ Help!” John Morgan’s loud voice added to the cadence.
“ What’s going on?” David’s mother screamed, coming out the back door.
“ Black widow, on Jimmy!” John Morgan said.
Cynthia Askew started toward Jimmy just as he felt a pinching sensation in his abdomen. David’s mother swatted the spider off his belly, then squashed it with her foot. Jim passed out. Three days later he came home from the hospital. He spent the next five years overcoming his fear of spiders.
He told Roma the whole story, omitting only the part about wetting his pants.
“ You and your sister are the only people alive that know about that,” he said, after he finished the telling. “It’s always been my deepest secret.”
“ Why?”
“ I was paralyzed with fear, no one likes to admit that.”
“ What about the boys?” she asked.
“ Except for David, who was killed yesterday, the cowboys have been dead forever. Jerry and his brother, Little Bobby, were killed in high school when the car Jerry was driving was hit by a drunk driver. John Morgan stepped on a land mine just outside Saigon. Ricky Stewart died of leukemia on his fourteenth birthday. David’s mother has been dead for years. I told Julia one night when we were swapping secrets, I don’t know why I told you, because you asked, I guess, or maybe because I’ve always loved you.”
“ But you overcame your fear of spiders. You should be proud of that.”
“ I just wanted to forget about that horrible afternoon, being afraid every time I saw a spider was no way to forget. Once I got used to not being afraid of them, I started to like them. Now I go out of my way to help them. I’d never kill one. Not now.”
“ I’ve always loved you too,” she said.
All of a sudden he was extremely aware of Roma’s bared breasts. “I’ve never been with anyone but Julia,” he said.
“ I suspected as much,” she said.
“ How did you know?”
“ I don’t know. I guess a woman just knows these things, but I’ll confess I don’t understand why. Were you afraid of girls?”
“ No. I was a good Catholic boy. I was a virgin at eighteen when I went into the service, still a virgin when I was sent to Vietnam, where God knows I had plenty of opportunity, but I couldn’t bring myself to go a prostitute, so I remained a virgin till I was captured. Not many girls in a POW camp. I was twenty-three when I got home and pretty fucked up. By the time I got it together, I was halfway through my thirties, too old and too embarrassed to start dating, so I just put it out of my mind and concentrated on making money. Then I met you and fell in love, but you went away with me still celibate.”
“ Julia never told me.”
“ Julia never knew.”
“ How?”
“ The first time we did it she was too drunk to notice my fumbling around. After that first night I was an expert.”
“ She was pretty experienced,” Roma said.
“ She once told me she made a lot of men very happy, in her own shy way,” Jim said.
“ That’s my sister. I love her dearly, but she always was a little slut.” Roma laughed. “She was always faithful to you though. After she got married she stopped her catting around.”
“ Till she met Kohler,” Jim said.
She sat still in the armchair and eyed him.
“ Take your pants off,” she said with a sly grin.
“ No,” he said.
“ I’ll bet you’d take them off for Julia.”
“ You’re not her.”
“ Pretend I am.” She smiled wider.
“ I don’t know if I can,” he said.
“ Don’t be a prude, take them off,” Donna thought.
“ Stay out of this,” He thought back.
“ Take ’em off!” Roma commanded.
“ Do it!” Donna commanded.
He stared at Roma’s rising and falling breasts and he felt Donna inside him.
“ I can feel it getting hard,” Donna thought.
“ I told you to stay out of this.” He wondered if it was possible to forget about Donna for a while.
“ Come on, Jimmy, slip them off,” Roma chided.
He moved his gaze up to her eyes and was trapped in her exotic stare. He pulled down the zipper, slipped the pants off, taking the underwear along for the ride.
“ Julia said you were big.” She eyed his erection.
“ Wow, look at it, sticking up hard as a rock. I can feel it. It’s so great. No wonder men get so horny.” Donna’s excitement caused Jim to shiver and he blushed.
“ Now the tie.” Roma laughed and he whipped it off, then the vest, followed by the shirt. Jim ignored the buttons, lifting it over his head and tossing it on the floor with the rest of his clothes, leaving himself naked, except for his socks and his cast. He lay back against the headboard and met her eyes.
“ Socks off,” she kidded.
He was speechless, but not powerless. He took off the socks, tossed them after the rest of his clothes.
“ Now it’s my turn.” She stood up, keeping Jim locked in her stare and finished unbuttoning the Levi’s. Jim tore his eyes away from hers and moved them back down to her breasts. Her nipples were hard, pointed and perfect and they quivered as she worked at her pants. His eyes roved down from her breasts and watched what her hands were doing. He smiled and felt the heat of his erection run through him, when the pale pink of her panties peeked through. He returned his gaze to her erotic eyes.
She winked and offered him her half smile, while hooking her thumbs into the pant waist and pulling the Levi’s off. She stood and faced him for a few seconds, clad only in pale pink panties, the black vee of her pubic hair clearly showing through.
“ She’s beautiful. So beautiful,” Donna offered. Jim ignored her as Roma slipped the panties off and kicked them out of the way.
“ We were made for each other.” Roma faced him, nude, with her arms at her sides and tears in her eyes. “If you only knew how much I need you right now.”
“ I need you too,” he said, meaning it like he’d never meant anything before. All his troubles seemed to fade away. At that moment he only had eyes for Roma. She was the beginning, middle and end of his life. “And I love you.”
“ I love you too.” The half smile turned full as she approached. She eased onto the bed, snuggled up next to him, reached between his legs, taking him in her hand, gently squeezing.
“ Oh my, that feels sooooo good, don’t let her stop.”
But Jim wasn’t listening to Donna. After a few minutes he rolled Roma onto her back and kissed her breasts, before moving up to her mouth and covering her lips with his. He tasted the salt from her tears and started to pull away, when she wrapped her arms tightly around him, drawing him to her. He entered her and they made love, slowly at first, feeling each other out, then gradually they increased the tempo till they turned into a runaway train.
They climaxed together, silently, holding on to each other, not like it was the first time for them, but like it was the last time for forever. When it was over they hugged like young lovers, fiercely and tenderly and Jim lay lost with the wonder of her and wondered how differently things would have turned out if he’d married her instead of her twin.
“ I’d love to stay and spend more time with you, but I gotta get next door before Edna gets back.” She laughed. “Listen to me, I’m acting like she’s my mother and I might get in trouble.” But she got out of bed and started dressing.
Too quickly he was alone with his thoughts, then he closed his eyes and the last thing he remembered before he fell asleep was Donna in his head, saying, “So that’s what it’s like for a man. It’s so wonderful.”
Chapter Seven
Hugh Washington walked through the hospital lobby with a spring in his step. Walker had surprised him. The man had given him a new lease on life. Maybe this was the shot in the arm that would put his marriage back together. He hoped so. He was tired of being a weekend father. Tired of sleeping alone. Tired of eating alone. And tired of begging Jane to come back.