Chapter 8: Home Sweet Cabin

Mae arrived at the hospital to help Dolores on discharge day. Dee pushed Brandon in a wheelchair, with the cast on his injured left leg elevated straight out in front of him. Dee’s pickup had enough room in the second row bench seat for him to keep his leg flat. Mae secured his wheelchair in the pickup’s back bed, where a plastic liner protected the steel floor from scratches.

Back at the cabin, Brandon was surprised. New ramps led up to the thresholds of the front and kitchen doors, equipped with steel railings for him to grab and pull himself uphill with.

Mae heaved his chair out of the truck bed and helped Dee get him out of the truck and seated back into the chair. And then, with best wishes and a kiss on his cheek, Mae got into her own pickup and drove away.

Brandon asked Dee about the ramps.

“What? Who?”

“Lisa’s daughter is Ella, who was watching Ron for us while you were in the hospital. Ella’s husband, Mark, is a contractor, and he made the alterations. Along with the ramps, the bathrooms now have handrails, and he removed those doors for easier access.

“All this gives me the impression, Dee, that you want me to stay. Stay here with you and Ron.”

Dolores looked up at the sky, muttering.

“I’m sorry, Dee, I was teasing. I’m glad to be home. Home with you.”

“Damn right you are. I should swat your bad leg every time you...”

She trailed off. Ron had appeared at the door, staring at Brandon. Suddenly, he darted forward to come up beside the chair, planted a quick kiss on his cheek, and rushed back inside.

Dee smiled.

“He missed you. Every night, ‘When is he coming back?’ He said something really wonderful to me about you. He said, ‘Since he’s been here, you smile all the time.’ Before then, he worried about me. He said I was sad and lonely, and I missed his father. Brandon, he was right. About everything. And every time I think about you, I do smile.”

“I do too, although sometimes I have to grit my teeth due to pain, as you know. I was wondering, sweetie, if I could ask you for some special treatment after Ron goes to bed. I’d like some pain management from my nurse.”

Dee put on a fake Minnesota accent.

“You betcha, don’t cha know.”

He laughed and raised his arms for a hug and kiss. Then they walked (and rolled) into the cabin, since it was time to start dinner.

At the table, Ron kept looking at them, back and forth. One face, then the other. Dee put her fork down.

“Alright, Ron, what?”

“I thought you’d be kissing now that he’s home.”

“Ron, I already kissed him outside, after you did.”

“That’s it? But, but, he’s your Brandon, you said. You couldn’t wait for him to come home, you said. Well, here he is! Are you tired of him now?”

“No, Ron, not at all. Look, I promise, after you go to bed, I’m going to slobber all over him. He’ll be afraid that I’m trying to drown him in kisses. It’s true! Look at his goofy smile. He knows how happy I am that he’s here, back in the cabin with us.”

“I get it, Mom. That’s why you two sleep naked. Because of the slobbering.”

Brandon burst into stifled laughter that turned into coughing.

“Ron, you are the smartest 12-year-old I have ever known,” he said, still laughing.

“It’s true; we do like to kiss. However, it is probably wise to do most of it in our bedroom. Is that OK?”

“Yeah, if you want. Um, I’m glad you’re home, Brandon. Can I be excused? I’ll do the dishes later.”

“Brandon is right. Now that he’s finally back home with us, I think we want to go to bed early tonight and catch up on our kissing. So, we’ll see you in the morning. Give me a hug. Mm. Good night, Ron.”

“Good night, Ron,” echoed Brandon.

The boy fled before any sloppy kissing broke out, closing his bedroom door behind him.

“Yeah, he’s 12. I’m going to embarrass him, but too bad.”

“I think you’re a wonderful mom. But let’s talk about him later. We’re overdue for sloppy kissing, don’t you think?”

“To start, maybe,” Dee grinned wolfishly.

At Minnesota’s high latitude, early summer days included 15 hours of sunlight, and sunset came at 8:30 or later in the evening. With no neighbors, the curtainless bedroom windows provided ample natural light.

“Dee, will you do me a huge favor? Since I’m still laid up, I want to touch you all over, but instead I’m going to have to use my eyes. I want to see all of you, from top to bottom, with all the perfect parts in between. You’re my first and last black partner. Please?”

“You’re kidding, aren’t you? You’re not? Brandon, there’s nothing special about me. I could lose twenty pounds; my tits sag after nursing Ron. My belly is striped and soft after pregnancy stretched me. I’m thirteen years older than you. I never even straightened my kinky hair.”

Brandon shook his head left and right.

“I can’t tell you how little these things matter to me. The only way your belly and breasts could be any more exciting to me will be when I splash them with my come. Just thinking about that has made me hard for you.

“Help me undress so you can see that for yourself. And then I’m going to put my hand in those springy black curls on your head and put my tongue between your generous full lips. After that, I want to watch you get naked, then use my right hand and my tongue to explore all of you, top to bottom and front to back.”

“You mean?”

“Of course I do. After all, except for the hospital, you’ve had to be responsible for keeping me clean down there. If I can’t be nervous about that, um, intimacy, then neither can you be. Here, take off your blouse, and I’ll unhook your bra.