Chapter 13: Jonjo's Plight

Lydia

I was sure I'd call out the safe word soon. I was torn between accepting Mark's challenge and keeping what was left of my dignity. I had a good idea that it wasn't entirely his fantasy. He knew I was very competitive so he had thought up something to challenge me, but it wasn't really thought through to the end. First of all, making me squat down like that made me look like trying to take a dump in the woods. Now that doesn't look sexy, but just silly instead.

Secondly, my darling son should have known by then that mommy likes to greet her guests at the back door. Having me take all these things in the ass would have been a proper challenge. In the end it didn't matter, because it was Mark who called out the safe-word to end the experiment. I heard him talk on the telephone while Meri removed the blindfold, handcuffs and the nipple-chain. Especially the latter had made my nipples almost hyper-sensitive. We would definitely have to try that one again.

But for the moment my attention was drawn to Mark, who was talking on the phone and I knew something bad had happened. He was looking utterly pissed off, but at the same time silent tears were running down his cheeks.

"Pack our shit, we're leaving immediately," he swore and I opened my mouth to ask about the situation. His look of unbridled rage stunned me into silence.

"Later, mom. Pack our shit now. We have three hours to get to Berlin!"

Meri and I hurriedly stuffed our belongings into the bags after throwing on some clothes. It took all of twenty minutes to hurry down, pay for the room and get into the taxi that had appeared at the entrance with screeching tires. Meri and I still had no idea what the heck was going on.

Back then in late '92 a certain Michael Schumacher had won his first Formula One race and by the look of it the taxi driver thought he was him. The ride from Magdeburg to Berlin was about a hundred kilometers and the driver made that in little over forty minutes, screaming along the unrestricted Autobahn at almost 250 kilometers per hour. By the time we arrived at Tegel airport I was ready for a change of underwear.

The taxi was directed onto the apron through a side gate and we were brought to a business jet waiting for us. We paid the grinning driver more than he could ever have hoped for at the start of the day and he helped us pack our bags into the cargo compartment of the plane. Without further ado we got on the plane. Finally sealed from the outside, the tension fell off my son and he started to cry hard.

Meri beat me to it and gathered him in her arms, rubbing his back as he wept. Something truly horrible had happened and we were still in the dark about what it was. It took him the best part of half an hour until he was finally able to tell us the truth.

"They found Jonjo this morning," he said. "He was lying in the bathtub with slashed wrists."

I was gripped by a horrible bout of nausea. Jonjo, Mark's best friend, had been like a second son to me, and, I don't know why those thoughts came at that moment, he'd always been almost flirtatious around me. Only Mark told me more often than Jonjo how good I looked. A woman really likes something like that. Pushing those unbidden thoughts aside, I asked the one question that was the obvious one to ask.

"Is he... ?"

"Last thing I was told is, he's critical but stable," Mark said. "His big bro got home from work early and found him. His dad says five minutes later and..."

He didn't get to finish the sentence, as he started crying again. I got angry and I didn't even know at what or whom. One thing was clear. Something very terrible must have happened if it prompted the boy to try and take his life. Jonjo had always been such a happy boy. There was nothing that suggested he would suddenly get so desperate.

We didn't speak much for the entire flight. Meri was the one who didn't know him much, so she spent most of the time cradling Mark or me as we cried on and off for hours.

Back in Burbank Meri told us to take a taxi to the hospital. She would make sure our bags got home.

Mark

I had never seen Jonjo's mom so desperate. Mrs. Ross normally fit every part of the cliché of "Big Momma", always happy and caring, but now her eyes were utterly empty, life-less dark orbs that conveyed nothing but utter despair. I went over to hug her, which is quite a challenge with a woman the size of a small hippo. She started to weep, as did mom when she saw Jonjo in his bed, his arms heavily bandaged where he'd done a number on himself with razor blades.

"Sorry, Mrs. K," he said weakly. "Didn't want you to have to come here all the way from home, man."

What an utterly stupid thing to say. Mom just shook her head and gathered him in her arms. For the first time since I'd known him, I saw Jonjo cry. And fuck me, he was crying hard, his body rocking with violent sobs as mom held him, silently weeping herself.

The door flew open and two women barged in. One was obviously a nurse, holding an injection ready to be used like a weapon. I immediately knew she wanted to put Jonjo's lights out and I obstructed her path. The other woman, an elegantly dressed black girl, who looked about twenty-five, seemed to have the same idea.

"Put that damn tranquilizer away or I'll ram that needle in your own ass," she hissed at the nurse and the offended woman stalked off in a huff.

"Their solution to everything," the black lady grumbled, shaking her head. "Just drug them and be done with it."

"Thanks," I said. "May I ask who you are?"

"Doctor Marie Hunt. I'm a psychotherapist and I think I owe you and your girlfriend big time."

I looked at her in confusion and so did Jonjo's mom when I didn't correct the misinterpretation of mom's presence.

"He's never cried once since he came here," the shrink explained. "His suppressing his emotions was the biggest obstacle to starting his therapy. Your girlfriend seems to have succeeded in letting him go of his pain."

"She's my mother," I corrected and I heard Jonjo's mom snicker from behind, in spite of the dire situation.

The shrink looked appropriately abashed, but I waved it off. I was really used to people not recognizing us as mother and son and in a way that was a good thing, considering our relationship went far beyond that.

Jonjo cried for close to two hours and having finally released his bottled-up pain, he was sleeping peacefully by the time we left the hospital. Jonjo's mom stayed behind, but not before almost breaking mom in half with her hug.

Back home, where Meri had prepared everything, including dinner, mom surprised me even more when Meri had left.

"Mark, we should call John. We need to talk about this strange friend of his."

I nodded and grabbed the phone.

John

"I hadn't expected you to talk about this now," I said as Lydia and Mark offered me a seat in their living room.

"John, if that friend of yours can help us, I want to give it a go during the off-season, and that's now," Lydia explained. "And besides, we could really use our minds being taken off of what we've just seen."

"That bad?" I asked.

"John, my best friend tried to kill himself, how much worse can it get?"

Mark's dry reply brought me back to the reality of what they'd just experienced and I apologized for my insensitivity. They both waved it off.

"So what exactly is that business of yours all about?" Mark asked. "From the few things Meri told us, that friend of yours looks like a nutter to me. Having women required to have their eyes taped shut and be naked at all times may sound like heaven to mom, but to me it looks like a pervert living out some truly weird fantasies."

I chuckled. "He does live out his fantasies, but don't underestimate Andy. He's one of the best psychologists around and he's specialized in sexual matters. Suffice to say he has rejuvenated more marriages than all the relationship counselors of the east coast combined. Andy sells dreams, dreams people don't admit to for fear of being rejected by their partner.

"The blinding thing sounds like a weird fetish on first glance, but it serves a purpose. First of all, according to Andy, many women assume an inadvertent dominant role in a relationship, because they are the ones deciding how often sex happens and when. Making them vulnerable puts them in a different role. Saved countless marriages. And secondly, you need to keep in mind we're talking about a rich clientèle here, many guys have married their women as a trophy wife. Most of them never realize the true value of their partner until they are required to care for her around the clock, because she's helpless."

"But that doesn't apply to us," Mark reminded me. "We don't have that sort of problems."

"No you don't," I admitted. "You are a special case. You won't be required to pay for it to begin with. Your dynamic is unique, and Andy took on your case purely out of interest, and I think he's convinced that Lydia is the perfect business partner. He's been looking for an ideal candidate for years."

"The plot thickens," Mark announced in a faux narrator voice.

"Andy started the business on his own. Rhonda and I have been there. That's the reason she can read Braille perfectly. We were there for six months and we owe Andy a lot for shaping our relationship. That's how I became his business partner. But he always said he wanted to have two partners. He wants a master-mind, which in his ever so humble opinion is himself, he wants a business expert - that's me - and he wants one who's kinky and open-minded to sexual adventures. You will be less than surprised that he always had a woman in mind for that job."

Lydia snickered, but Mark didn't look too convinced.

"And just how did he come to the conclusion that mom is the right woman for the job?"

"Because she's almost pathologically competitive and the job comes with a challenge. Your first meeting with him will be bizarre to say the least. Andy will ask a sexual favor of Lydia and it will be taped. Both you and he get to keep a copy of the recording to ensure that neither side will feel inclined to engage in blackmail."

"Bizarre but effective," Lydia said. "So I have to fuck the guy for the camera?"

"It's up to you," I explained. "Blowjob, intercourse, whatever you want. But considering a request you made of me recently, I thought you might be interested in the fact that Andy decided the first woman to take him in the ass is going to be the third shareholder."

"That's an awfully creative way to choose your business partners," Mark said sarcastically, while I could see I had definitely stirred Lydia's competitive spirit.

"Indeed," I agreed. "That idea came about after a whole host of rich women had offered to invest, but when it came to matters of sex they weren't even remotely as open-minded as he expected, so he decided to choose a partner who could actually prove it."

"I guess he isn't exactly small?" Lydia asked. "Else, what would be the challenge?"

"No, he's certainly not small," I admitted with a chuckle. "Andy runs a beauty clinic and he is his own guest every year. Penis enlargement is a long tedious process that takes years, but unless he's been missing appointments, you better practice with a baseball bat."

"How big?" Lydia asked.

"I guess we're talking ten inches and probably around six and a half in girth."

"Holy shit!"

"So, if I get this right, John, you want mom to let this guy fuck her in the ass with what sounds like a donkey cock and as a reward she'll get 33% of his business? That sounds like a mightily immoral offer."

"I want nothing, Mark. I only told you what to expect. From personal experience I can tell you that he can change your relationship in ways you can't imagine and Andy will not try to woo your mother. She's yours and that's what he'll work with. He'll work out your deepest fantasies, but in the end the ultimate goal is to make you a happier couple, not to break you up."

"He certainly has a unique way to go about it," Lydia said with a chuckle.

Mark

The talk with John kept replaying in my mind. For me this all sounded bat-shit crazy, but then, unless John had lied to us, he'd been to the guy's hollowed-out Volcano or wherever else his hideout was, and he and Rhonda certainly looked like a happy couple. Was I being selfish not to consider the offer? The being blindfolded thing sounded weird to me, but for mom it would be a flat-out sexual ride for days. She'd probably be permanently wet. The subject of my thoughts was lying in bed next to me as we prepared to sleep off the jet-lag. In between worry over Jonjo and the talk with John, we'd been up for over twenty-four hours since leaving Germany.

"You seriously consider doing it, don't you?" I asked and I felt mom's nod against my skin. She rolled on top of me. She always did that when we talked in bed. I certainly wasn't complaining. The sensation of her small nipples pressing into my chest was supremely pleasurable, even if we didn't plan on having sex afterwards.

"Mark, I think the guy can help us. You know I would have gone for the blindfolding alone. I've called Rhonda and she promised me that for all his quirks the guy is really good at working on peoples sex lives. John and Rhonda wouldn't be together anymore if it wasn't for him."

"Let me guess, Rhonda was far more adventurous than John ever was," I stabbed in the dark and mom's giggle proved that I'd nailed them to a tee.

"That's the thing; it's not all fun an games," mom continued. "While they were there Rhonda got to live out some of her dreams and John basically went to school. Apparently he was completely hopeless at eating pussy before they got there."

"So you want me to take pussy-eating lessons?" I asked, only half-joking.

"Oh, you're a natural talent at that," mom said, giggling. "But I could use a few lessons, Mark. You would never say anything, but let's face it, I'm not exactly the best at blowjobs."

"I only have a short one from Rhonda for comparison," I admitted.