Chapter 18

We arrived back in the merged town at 3AM. I was a little surprised that they expected to get into The Haven at that time of the night. The judge assured me that it wouldn’t be a problem. And he was right.

Alison and I waited just to be sure. Then she drove back to my place. I’m sure she had decided to stay before we arrived. She had obviously developed a coping mechanism for the small bed. I can’t say that I minded her company at all. She had actually developed some seriously soothing talents. I tried to reciprocate, but she wouldn’t allow it.

“Just my way of saying thanks,” she answered. I definitely did not argue.

I did take her to breakfast even if it was in her own car. We ended up at the lake with biscuits and coffee. It was a good way to start any day. After a lot of small talk, she told me she had to go her apartment and write. At least that is what she said to me. She might have just been tired of me.

She dropped me at the door. One long kiss and she was on her way. I used the next couple of hours to wind down from the trip and do my laundry. The laundry had reached the critical phase, since I still hadn’t replaced most of my clothes lost in the house fire.

Without Agnes, it just didn’t seem like a worthwhile task. If I had more than a single washer filled with clothes, I figured it was a waste of time and water to do another.

Alison had been gone long enough for me to get my laundry through the wash cycle when the knock came on the door. I saw her through the small window in the door. It was Thia.

“Is anything wrong?” I asked.

“I should be asking you that. I hadn’t heard from you in days, so I drove over and the placed was empty. Then last night you were gone again until god knows when. When I came by after work there was a car in front of the house. Since it is gone now, I will assume it was a woman,” she said.

“Assume anything you want,” I suggested raising my voice a little.

“Tell me what is going on,” she demanded.

“I have a lady friend. She is a retired school teacher. She is the woman who wrote the screen play for Murder Of Eve.” I said.

“Tell me you worked all night,” Thia said.

“We worked all night,” I said. “Feel better?”

She sat down heavily on the sofa. “I can’t believe you did that. Mom’s only been gone a year,” Thia said.

“That is true, and I feel bad that I’m so weak. But I’m not sure she would want me to be alone. Well not completely alone. I think she would want me to be there for you, and the boy, but you can’t take her place Thia. It’s lonely out here in this world all alone.

“Dad, I just may not be able to get past this,” she said.

“It’s okay honey. I’m glad you loved your mom like that. No matter what people say, she was absolutely worth being loved like that.” I suggested.

“Is this new one?” she asked.

“I certainly hope so,” I said. “She is absolutely different.”

“I’m off tonight. Do you want to take me to lunch?” she asked.

“You know I do always,” I said wrapping her in my arms for a long moment. She was a little more hefty than Alison more like a cross between Louise and Alison. Even though she was my daughter, I could appreciate her for the woman she had become.

“I have some clean clothes in my bag. Would you mind if I took a shower here to save time?” she asked.

“No not at all,” I said. “I’ll just be in the kitchen making fresh coffee. I know you are like your mom. She couldn’t stand stale coffee. I on the other hand adore it.

“Make the fresh coffee,” She agreed. She was also walking through the door to the bedroom, as she pulled the scrub top from her suit bottoms. It left her with a much too fancy bra to wear under scrubs. I noted it, but promised myself not to ask.

I went through the door to the kitchen to make her some fresh coffee. While I was in the kitchen, I glanced back into the bedroom and bathroom. I could see her standing in front of the mirror. It gave me the same view I would have had if I was standing in the room with her. She was probably thirty pounds too heavy but it was almost gorgeous on her. Her beasts were heavy even for an amazon Warrior’s Body. I had to force myself to stop admiring her. It took several more minutes for my mind and body to return to my normal state. I admit that I am a weak man. Hell I would also admit it to her, but I was afraid she would read something evil into it.

I carried the coffee out to the living room and sat it on an end table. That table did not give me a clear view of Thia’s body. I had to be careful what I thought about her. It tended to show up on my body very quickly, and very visibly. I was definitely battling my devils all of a sudden. She had always teased me playfully, but I wasn’t sure what her motives were that morning.

We sat and drank the coffee while everybody calmed down. She from her anger at me and me from my random lust incited by her.

I rode my scooter to the fancy restaurant in the motel located in the downtown of the larger of three merged towns. It was one of those fancy places where I usually make an ass of myself. That day I figured I had done enough of that for the day. That being the case, I totally ignored their pretentiousness. I mean it was a tiny backwater town for god’s sake. Those people just played to the worst of the well to do folks, who enjoyed making the working people, like me, feel interior. Of course those feelings didn’t bother Cynthia at all. Even when she was a child, she liked new and unfamiliar things. I on the other hand reveled in the familiar things in life. You could even say in the mundane things of this world.

When we finished dinner I rode the scooter back to the Car Wash. My intention was to take my heavy duty electric weed whacker and cut the small amount of grass I had. Most of my yard was broken pavement, which is really bad for grass. It made doing the grass easy though. I had the weed whacker out in the parking lot when she drove up.