Chapter 5

Mary worried about Laura Cross when she told her that she was going to a doctor’s appointment the day before. When she asked Laura if she was okay the young girl was reticent to tell her what was wrong. When she came back from the doctor’s office, she had something on her mind. She inquired again but Laura told her everything was all right. But she recognized there was something that she hadn’t noticed before about the naive girl from Iowa. It was a touch of sophistication, something she had seen for the first time. There was something else that she hadn’t seen before, circles under her eyes! She had always been a bright-eyed, morning person.

When Laura first came to work for Angus Meat Processing, Joshua Cross asked Mary to keep an eye on his niece. She knew both Josh and Beth; they were friends of her mother and father Pearl and Edgar Molnar. Ed had been an army buddy of Josh’s. They had both come to work at Angus at the same time. Both became supervisors. The Crosses and Molnar’s had been close friends ever since. Mary didn’t find out how close until after her baby was born. And she didn’t find out how good a friend Josh was to her until she and the other girls started going on their jaunts to the USO ... before Laura came to town.

It was Beth who took Mary under her arm when her husband was killed. He had gone into the army just after Japan bombed Pearl Harbor. Sig and Mary graduated a year before and had gotten married a month after graduation. She went to work for Angus Meat Processing just after having graduated and became Josh Cross’s secretary. Sig Molnar was away from home for a year before he was shipped to England to take part in the D-Day invasion. On the night of the invasion, the C-47 airplane in which Sig and twelve other paratroopers were on their way to Normandy was hit by anti-aircraft fire and exploded in midair. The baby was just approaching his first birthday.

Looking at Laura, the girl with the angelic face now with circles under her eyes, the reality hit Mary as she said to herself, “It’s Josh.” Mary had become deliciously accustomed to the frequent assignations she and Josh had been having. She realized that she was jealously afraid that Laura, now living with the Crosses might be treated to the same pleasures she enjoyed with him. They live in the same house, and Laura is cute.

Puzzled, Laura furrowed her brow and said, “What did you say, Mary?”

“I was thinking about Josh Cross Laura. I loved being his secretary, but YOU get to live with him ... and Beth of course.” Mary remembered what it was like the first time she and Josh were together in bed. But Mary had the advantage of having a husband who made love to her continuously during their short marriage while Laura was a virgin when she came to Chicago.

“He’s a wonderful man,” Mary said, not feeling as wonderful about as she would have liked. When Laura’s face turned beet-red she validated confirmation completely understanding the circles under Laura’s eyes. Josh kept her up all night. She knew that Laura was smart enough to know she was fishing. But Laura had no reason to know the depths of Mary’s understanding.

“I hope I didn’t bother you with my question Laura,” Mary said trying her best to remain cool. “Have I upset you in any way?”

“No,” Laura said, “I don’t know why I acted this way. Everything’s so new to me here Mary. And what we’re doing at the USO is so STRANGE. And um ... um ... yesterday Aunt Beth set up an appointment with the um ... doctor to have fitted for an um ... diaphragm.” She blushed.

“I knew you went to the doctor yesterday, but I didn’t know why. I was worried that something serious might have been wrong with you.” The more they talked the more she knew that Laura and Josh had been fucking last night.

Trying to cover her discomfort Mary said, “Everything’s been so strange here since we began our program at the USO. “Beth and Josh have been so kind to us. Have you seen the room in the basement?”

“Rooms Mary,” Laura said wrinkling her brow. “It looks like four tiny rooms being built around the larger room. They said when it’s finished, we won’t have to use alleys anymore,” smiling sarcastically.

“That’s what I mean Laura. Beth invited Tillie and Sandra and me to tea after our second night at the USO. We were all laughing about it. But the truth was we were all pretty shaken up. That’s when Josh volunteered to have their basement remodeled into a recreation room for entertaining the boys. Beth’s the one who told us about how she and her friends “entertained” the troops during WW1.” She giggled. “She’s the one who gave us the idea. But Josh just pitched in to make it nicer for us... and the boys. They’re both such wonderful people.”

Laura had no idea that Mary was having sex with her uncle.

The fact was that after the initial seduction Mary had a standing date with Josh every Wednesday after work. Beth encouraged it and Mary’s mother-in-law Pearl along with the other members of their swinging group knew about it as well. The women’s attitude was that Josh was helping mend Mary’s, broken heart. But Mary had more than a crush on Josh, she was in love with him. She had no problem with Beth and Josh though, Beth was his wife and approved of the liaison but had prior claim to him.

Knowing that Laura had been brought into what Mary was beginning to think of as a “harem” bothered her. She was now beginning to understand the true nature of Joshua Cross. Waiting for other shoes to drop into place as she assumed that Tillie and Sandra would be sharing Josh’s bed as well. Having read seamy stories that included the nature of prostitutes who were controlled by pimps she thought, But Josh is doing it for OUR benefit rather than profiting from it. Still, she knew she would have to be disciplined by letting it happen without jealousy when the other girls got involved with him in the same way. I wonder what Sig would have thought about him.

With Beth, it was a game. She had a crazy socialistic idea that everything should be shared. Joshua Cross more than matched that idea with his obsession for women. Early on in their marriage, she realized that Josh’s need for sex had no bounds. She alone would never be able to satisfy it. She knew if she wanted to keep him, she would have to share him with other women. Beth reasoned that if Josh was going to seek out other women for sex she might as well control the supply. Thus, the need to create the swinging club among their original group of friends was her idea.

Her plan worked out well for years until Josh entered his midlife crisis which coincided with the outbreak of WWII when so many men went away to the war. When Sig Molnar was killed Mary became a convenient prospect: she was young, pretty, and available. As a member of the Molnar family with whom the Crosses had a swinging relationship, Mary was a candidate. Laura’s arrival was uncomplicated, she was family who adored her uncle Josh. Once Mary had been seduced, she took up one night a week with Josh; Laura would take up another night. Beth would take care of one night and there were openings for Tillie and Sandra. Perfect she thought as she remembered Tillie talking about the rec room being like a bordello. Reasoning that she would be the easier of the two remaining girls to seduce she called Tillie to meet her for lunch near Angus Meat Processing.

After they had ordered lunch and were having tea Beth took a couple of brochures and laid them on the table. “As I said on the phone Tillie since we are all planning on the rec room as a group, I want each of the girls to have input into how we furnish and appoint each room. I’ve decided that you can help pick out the beds.” Tilting her head, she smiled pertly.

“Why did you choose me for the beds?” Tillie said with a questioning look.

“Josh and I discussed it, Tillie. He was tickled that you compared what we were doing to a bordello.” She giggled. “It turns out that my naughty husband had some knowledge of how a bordello is laid out.”