Chapter 1

I put the phone down and turned to face Kelly. “They’ve denied the appeal. It’s over.”

She burst into tears and ran upstairs. I sat down in what was no longer my living room, lost for an idea what to do next.

It was 2010, the peak of the foreclosure crisis. People were losing their homes all over the country.

The phone rang again after a while.

“Hello?”

“Hi Tom. It Ralph.”

I was speechless; what do you say to a man who has just taken everything from you? Well, he hadn’t taken quite everything. Yet.

“Did you get the news about the appeal?” he asked.

“Yes.”

“My lawyer says we should go straight to eviction proceedings, but I thought maybe we could just get together and talk about it man to man. What do you say?”

“Yeah, sure.” I said numbly.

“What about tomorrow afternoon? I could come over around four.”

Kelly wouldn’t even talk to me. She blamed me for everything; the loss of my company, the loss of our home, our dreams, the whole economy.

“I’m not going back to Detroit.” Was all she’d say, “No way. You go, I’m not going.”

“We have nowhere else to go. We have no family here.”

“We got out of there by the skin of our teeth, and I’m not going back.” she insisted. “I tell you one thing, Tom; from now on, we’re doing things my way. You screwed things up for long enough.”

She blamed me; and perhaps she was right. She’d argued against buying such a big house. She’d argued against buying such an expensive car too. But everyone else was living this way; our financial advisor, banker, and tax consultant had all thought we were living well within our means.

At exactly four the next day, Ralph was at the door.

Kelly knew him slightly, he was a retired orderly who used to work at the hospital where she works administration. And he now owned our house.

He put out his hand. After hesitating for a moment, I took it.

“Look Tom, I understand this is about the worst thing that can happen to anybody. And I’m sorry about it.” He said. He had a slight accent, southern. Associated with racists, but of course that was just another stereotype.

His hand was white against my brown, and old against my young, but equal in strength as well as size.

He looked at me earnestly with his blue eyes, his square white face managing a convincing look of sympathy.

“Can I come in?” He asked.

“It’s your house.” I said, my heart crying otherwise.

“Jesus, it’s beautiful.” He said, looking around as he walked in for the first time.

It shouldn’t have gone to auction at all; I’d gotten refinancing just days before. The check was sent by courier, but didn’t get to the right office in time to stop the sale.

And, to add insult to injury, the auctioneers had missed a zero on the reserve price. Ralph had bought our 0.75 million dollar house for $22,000 cash on the courthouse steps. And the courts had said it was legally his.

“What are you going to do with it?” I asked.

“Live in it.” He said.

“Can you afford the upkeep?” Kelly asked from behind us.

I turned to see she’d come downstairs; in her formal silver gown, the one she’d worn to the premier.

I’d done some animation for a fairly big film a few years before, so we were at the opening with the stars and executives. Kelly looked so good in that dress, the flash guns on the other side of the rope went off like the fourth of July. With her face and figure, they all assumed she was one of the actresses. I’d married a very beautiful woman, a girl way above my class.

My wife glided past us, a vision in a dream; or in my case, a nightmare.

We were high school sweethearts, a pair of go-getters in a town with nowhere to go and nothing to get. While the other kids dodged school to get drunk and smoke dope, we worked, we studied, we hauled ourselves out of there. We were well matched then, back in our decrepit home town I looked pretty good.

We married young, and moved to California. To success. We weren’t 30 yet and we’d landed in this big house, had good jobs.

And now, failure.

“There are HOA dues, taxes, energy of course.” She said, “The pool pumps use a lot of power, it adds up.”

She threw open the sliding glass door to the garden, her arms outstretched in a grand flourish of elegance.

“I did a lot of work out here.” She said, “It was just bushes when we got the place two years ago.”

“It’s beautiful.” Ralph said.

“Thanks.” Kelly said. “Would you like a beer? Wine?”

“A beer would be great.” He said.

“Tom, get Ralph a beer, and some red wine for me.”

She looked at me sharply. I shrugged and turned to the kitchen as they went outside. I was no longer boss here, there was no use in fighting reality.

“Take your shirt off, get some sun.” I heard Kelly say.

“I sure would like to see the rest of the house.” He said.

“We have all afternoon for that. Relax a little.” Kelly said. “You’re going to have to decide whether to keep the pool, right?”

“I’ve never been much into the suntan thing.” He said.

“I can see that.” Kelly laughed, “You’re as white as a sheet!”

I came out with the drinks. Ralph was shirtless in our garden, which was certainly an odd sight. He was pretty skinny, I thought to myself. Strong though, with a hairy back and chest. That was kind of odd, because he was bald on top of his head.

As Kelly took her drink from the tray, she reached out her other hand, as if to steady herself; and put it on Ralph’s naked back.

She was standing on gravel in high heels; but the move was blatantly flirty.

Keeping her hand there, her tight silver evening dress totally in contrast with his half naked body, she steered him over to the pool area as I followed behind, wondering what the hell she thought she was doing. Her hand looked black against his white skin, and it bothered me a lot to see her touch him.

We were both virgins when we got together. I know this might sound unlikely, but I’d never been with another woman. And as far as I knew, she’d never been with another man.

Not that we’d had a perfect marriage. We’d had our rough spells like everyone else.

Ralph looked a bit uncomfortable, but went along with her. Well, what man could resist flirting with a woman like Kelly?

Five foot seven, with long legs, a tight rear, slim waist, and generous breasts. Her exposed shoulders wide and thin, her dark brown skin even and unblemished, a long elegant neck, her throat crying to be kissed. Her noble jawline pronounced, a slightly pointed chin, high cheekbones, generous lips, big clear laughing eyes, high forehead, thick curls of black hair to her shoulders.

Did I mention that I was still in love with her?

“Tom has no work at the moment, but I’m still earning ok.” Kelly told him, “We have no family around here, and like I keep telling him, I’m not going back to Detroit.”

“So ... What are you going to do?” he asked.

Kelly was silent for a moment. She stood there next to him, her hand still on his back, holding her wineglass like a vision of Hollywood.

“I want to stay here with you.” She said.

There was a crash of breaking glass; I looked down to see my beer glass shattered on the patio tiles.

But I didn’t take her seriously; this was just her way at getting back at me.

She’d done it before; it was her power. I earned [used to earn] the bulk of the money. As a man, I’m physically far stronger than her of course. But Kelly had her beauty; and if we had an argument, or she was mad about something, she would openly flirt with someone afterwards, just to rub it in that I shouldn’t take her for granted.

“What about Tom?” Ralph asked.

“Oh, he takes me for granted.” Kelly said. “He thinks I’ll follow him right back to the slum we grew up in and move into his mother’s apartment with him. But I won’t.” So I cleaned up the mess and let her have her fun. I pushed away the natural jealousy I felt; she wasn’t really going to “stay” [hand on his naked back] with him.

“The sun is pretty strong.” Kelly said, “Should I rub some lotion into your back?”

“I’m all right.”

“You’ll get burned. Here, I have some we keep for our white guests. We’re not so sensitive to it you know.”

“Well, all right.”

I pretended not to care. She wasn’t going to get a reaction out of me this time, no matter what she did. This was serious, this man owned our home! It was no time for pranks.

I found a mop, broom, and dustpan, and came back outside. Ralph was face down on a sunchair, while Kelly rubbed sun cream into his back.

“I’m a little worried about my dress.” She said, standing up, “It cost half as much as you paid for the house!”

They laughed as she washed her hands at the outside sink. But it made me think; she complained about the cost of my car, but we spared no expense for her wardrobe, her jewelry, and cosmetics. She spent as much as I did.

“Tom!”

“Yes dear?”

“Would you unzip me please?”

What she really meant was would I please be enraged; yell and scream, make a fool of myself.

“Sure.” I said, and left what I was doing to help her out of her expensive gown.

“Thanks, honey.” She said, stepping out of it and handing it to me, “Hang it in my closet in the bedroom.”

She was in her underwear and heels; a lacey white bra that contrasted sharply with her brown skin, panties that rode halfway up her tight round rear. Her bra cuddled her large dark breasts, holding them up for the world to admire.

I took a breath; I was not going to flip out. I was not going to lose my temper.

“Yes dear.” I said.

When I came back down, my wife was rubbing his chest; he was lying face up. And she was ... sitting on him!

Sitting on his lap, her dark breasts hanging in her white bra; his hands were resting casually on her thighs. I stood rooted to the spot, staring.

She was smiling at him, laughing at something he’d said. His cock had to be stiff, and pressing up against her rear.

This was too much; now I had to ... do what?

Could I be actually losing my wife? No, I thought. No, we had been together through worse times than this. She was just having her fun, a last laugh before admitting the truth. We had to go back to Detroit. We had no home here, our credit was shot, we probably wouldn’t even be able to rent if we had the money.

She couldn’t actually be attracted to him. He was an old man, bald with silver hair around his head like a wreath. Ok, he had an impressive build for a man his age, but aside from that, Kelly was a woman who was impressed by success. Ralf was definitely not a successful man.

No, this was about punishing me. Her actions were not about her pleasure, or even his. It was about my pain.

I finished sweeping up the broken glass, as if nothing was going on. Partly, I was accepting my punishment while pretending to ignore it. I didn’t want to play her game. Let her do whatever she wanted, to hell with her I thought.

“Hey Tom.” Ralph said, “Is this really ok with you?”

I looked at them. My heart roared, and oddly, my cock twitched.

“Yeah, sure.” I said. “Kelly is her own woman, she can do as she likes.”

“Oh.” He said, “It’s like that.”

I went inside to put the glass into the garbage. Like what? Of course, now he must think we have one of those “open” marriages. In that case ... he would be “right” to do anything. Even go all the way with her!

I looked through the window, and saw him reach his hands up to her neck. That long thin neck I loved to kiss, and he pulled her down against himself.

She could have resisted. She could have gotten off of him. But she didn’t.

She kissed him!

His hands were roaming at will now, caressing her back, her hips, her ass. She was holding his face! They were kissing, kissing like she had never [as far as I knew] kissed anyone but me!

My blood was pumping into my head, rage was building within me; but what should I do exactly?

Pull her away, slap her face, tell her to get some clothes on and ... do what?

It was his house. She was her own woman. I owned nothing, I was nothing.

Oh, there were still some formalities to go through. We were still the residents of the place until evicted. But we no longer owned it. Some might say we never did.

An emptiness grew suddenly in my belly, as if a black hole had formed there and had begun to swallow me from the inside, sucking my guts into its icy depths. The strength [what little I had left] went from my body, and my knees buckled. Holding myself up on the polished granite kitchen counter top, I looked through the window at my final destruction.

His hands on her naked back, fingers pressing into the indentations of her spine, stroking her smooth brown flesh, holding her fertile young body greedily.

Was she really dumping me? For him?

She could do better than me. I was broke, but a woman like Kelly always had a choice, so why him? He was nothing; all right, he was attractive in a way, the way an older man can be sometimes. He was in his sixties, yet still in good shape; and that’s impressive.

But he was still an old man, and she was a young woman. She still had her job, and if it didn’t earn much compared to what I used to make, she still earned more than he did I was sure.

He owned the house though; the house she’d made our home, the garden she’d toiled in. He’d bought it for nothing, he just happened to be there at the time. Well, he was there to buy a house at auction, but he never thought he could get one like ours. He was just lucky.

He lifted himself up, rolling my wife onto the sunbed deftly. She looked up at him, her big eyes waiting, her succulent body exposed to the sun, the air, and his lustful stare. He kicked off his trainers and unbuckled his belt. He pushed his pants down over his ass, dropping them to the ground as he stepped out of them, naked. His cock stood in front of him, white, shameless, big, and ready.

Luck; yes, he was a lucky bastard. Was luck attractive in itself? I mean if a woman thought of a man as lucky, would that be thought of as a type of reproductive fitness? Was my hot young wife really turned on by the old guy?

He hovered over her, and her hand took his cock as he bent to kiss her again. Her hand was on his penis, his big old white cock. That was crossing a line; a look, a touch, even a kiss could be forgiven. But fondling the genitals was defacto sex. Acceptance, agreement, an undertaking of satisfaction.

Ralph looked about the same size as me, eight inches give or take. Her brown hand held it, pulled it, stroked it, as I stared in a weird state of paralyzed shock.

What should I do? I knew my life was being eroded by my inaction, my last treasure being taken from me. Yet I stood rooted to the spot, staring, helpless. And perhaps the worst of it, the most shameful thing, was my erection. What was that doing there? My life was going down the sewer, and I was ... turned on?

Kelly was pulling down her underwear. Ralph pulled them down her long shapely legs, and threw them to the side. I had an odd impulse; to go pick them up before the wind blew them into the pool. As if a pair of underwear in the pool would be a problem, but an old man fucking my wife wouldn’t be.

He stood with his feet on either side of the sunchair, stooped down and wrapped his arms under her legs, lifting her bottom from the bed with his elbows under her knees. She reached for his cock, took it in her hand, and she ... looked up at the window. Looked at me there, watching.

Then she turned her face back to him, and put it there, at her open vagina. She held his stiff white penis there, and I could see it, and she knew I could. I could see her rub the blunt white thing up and down, and I was sure it would stop, she would push him away, tell him sorry but it would never happen how could it?

She looked at him then, into his eyes. His stinking blue eyes. And I could see as he pushed it easily into her sweet brown body. It slid into my wife, my girl, my woman. His old white penis slipped right in without any trouble at all.