Chapter 22

“Babies are so beautiful,” sighed Trudy as she rocked Lance in her arms.

“Aliens have abducted my mother and replaced her with one of their own,” said Chastity.

“What are you talking about?” asked Trudy, who tried to sound injured, but couldn’t, because she was staring into Lance’s eyes happily. “I’ve always loved babies.”

“Since when?” asked Chastity. “All I ever remember you saying about babies was for me not to have one.”

“I was your mother, then,” said Trudy. “And I was ill. I’m better, now.”

Chuck stared at Trudy and then at Chastity.

“All true,” said Chastity to Chuck, sotto voce.

“Having Chima changed me,” said Trudy. “Chima turned something ugly and awful into something precious and beautiful.”

“I’m glad,” said Chastity. “We’ll see how you feel now that there’s going to be another baby crying in the middle of the night.”

“That doesn’t last forever,” said Trudy, using baby talk, with her nose almost touching Lance’s. “Does it? No it doesn’t! You won’t scream at night forever. No you won’t.”

She took Lance to his mother and handed him back.

“Here. Take him. If I hold him any longer I’ll start wanting another one of my own.”

“Mom!” said Chastity, her voice rising. “You’re too old to be having more babies!”

“Don’t you think I know that?” said Trudy. “Why do you think I’m giving him back to you? He’s just so darling.”

Chastity took her son, who immediately started squirming and turning his head.

“You want to eat again?” asked Chastity in mock horror. “You just ate twenty minutes ago!”

“We’ll just go so you can have some privacy,” said Chuck.

“Ohhh, Chastity, I did something so stupid,” moaned her mother. “I got weak and I danced for him.”

“What?” asked Chastity, who sounded both confused and alert. “Danced for who?” She looked at Bob, who held up his hands and mouthed “Not me!”

“Chuck,” moaned Trudy, drawing out the “uh” sound. “I was dancing for him when Bob and three of your study group friends came in.”

“You were dancing ... for Chuck?” Chastity’s astonished gaze bounced back and forth from her mother to Chuck. She knew most of the study group had hung around at the hospital while she was in labor. Bob had told her who was in the waiting room. She’d noticed Chuck’s name wasn’t listed, but hadn’t thought anything of it. She was surprised the others stayed there while she grunted and groaned her way through having a baby. Now, it appeared that while she was doing that, Trudy and Chuck had stayed at home ... otherwise engaged.

She looked at Chuck and then Bob.

“You two leave. I need to talk to my mother.”

Lance was happily slurping milk from Chastity’s left breast. Trudy was pacing. It had sounded like Chastity intended to interrogate her mother when she chased the men out, but after they left, she simply gave Lance her nipple and then waited.

“I don’t know how it happened,” moaned Trudy. “When you left, he stayed to help with the children. This morning we took the children to daycare after breakfast and we were walking back, just talking. I started to remember things ... ugly things ... and I think I broke down. I break down around him a lot. I don’t understand that, either.”

“So he stayed the night?” asked Chastity.

Trudy stopped pacing and looked at her.

“Yes. But nothing happened. He slept on the couch.”

“I didn’t say anything happened,” said Chastity. “I meant to ask you about the cookies. You made him cookies.”

“Yes,” said Trudy, who started pacing again. “That was because I broke down another time and was racist towards him. They were an apology.”

“Okay,” said Chastity. “So he stayed the night and you took the kids to Janet’s and then you broke down and ... danced for him?”

“I know!” squealed Trudy, loudly enough that it startled Lance and he jerked. “It makes no sense at all!”

“Maybe if you gave me some more details,” said Chastity.

“He’s just so sweet,” moaned Trudy. “I’ve treated him awfully, but he’s so patient. Most men would have run away by now. When I broke down this morning he held me, and helped me get back to the house. I wanted to thank him. And I know he’s interested. You know, like a man. We’ve even talked about that. So I guess I thought dancing for him would be like the cookies.”

“We’ll get back to that in a minute,” said Chastity, who looked down at a baby who had lost interest in her breast, completely. He was full, his tiny stomach gorged with mother’s milk, so all he was doing was enjoying the warmth of her skin. “Tell me about the part where you two talked about him being interested in you as a woman.”

“That was part of the first time I insulted him,” groaned Trudy. “He kept inviting me for coffee, and I finally went, thinking that would get him off my back. And while I didn’t mean to be friendly, exactly, I didn’t intend to insult him, but that’s what I did. I accused him of wanting to have sex with me. And I realized I was projecting on him what other black men had done to me, and that’s racist, and I broke down. He had to take me to my car that day and sit with me until it was safe for me to drive.”

“Why did you accuse him of wanting to have sex with you?” asked Chastity. “Did he make a move on you?”

“No! He just wanted to talk about Africa. He was asking me what it was like and what the people were like. It was just two people talking during coffee. Then we went for sandwiches and I broke down and accused him, and the people in the sandwich shop asked us to leave because I was making a scene. That’s what I mean. Most men would have walked away and said I was crazy, but he stayed and helped me.”

“Okay. Go on.”

“Well, after I gave him the cookies, and you went into labor, and he stayed to help me with the children, we talked some more. And he said that because I accused him of wanting to have sex with me, he’d started thinking about that. He said he couldn’t help it. He said I was a ... miff ... or muff or something like that. But he wouldn’t tell me what it meant.”

“A MILF?” asked Chastity, her eyes wide.

“Yes! That’s what it was. But he wouldn’t tell me what it meant. I told him I’d been out of the country and that I wasn’t up on slang. He got uncomfortable and kept babbling about me being old, but still interesting. What does that mean, anyway?”

“It stands for Mother I’d Like to Fuck,” said Chastity. “He said you were a MILF? He said that to your face?”

“He said I was sort of one, and that was part of why he’d been thinking about what I said. He confessed that now he did think of that, sometimes, having sex with me, I mean. He said it wouldn’t be onerous!”

“He did not!” gasped Chastity. “He actually used those words?”

“Exactly those words,” said Trudy. “He said it would not be onerous to have sex with me.”

“But he never told you what MILF stands for?”

“No, and now I understand. He was embarrassed! He’s such a sweet boy, sometimes.”

“But you danced for this ... boy. Tell me about that.”

“I borrowed some of your undies. I hope that’s okay.”

“Most moms and daughters share blouses and dresses, not undies,” said Chastity, dryly.

“I know, but I didn’t have anything right. I used your black garter belt and the red and black satin bustier and panties.”

“Mother!” gasped Chastity. “You let him see you like that?”

“It was worse,” groaned Trudy. “I took the bustier off.”

“Oh my,” said Chastity.

“And he was behaving himself, sitting there, obeying the rules, and that’s when Bob and the others came in and saw me.”

Chastity was speechless. Trudy went on.

“I broke down again, and hid in the bedroom, but he came and found me and put a quilt over me and he was so sweet.”

“What did Bob do?” asked Chastity.

“He left us alone. We talked some more. I don’t understand how it happened, but I pushed the quilt off of me and ... I sort of finished the dance.”

“You sort of finished the dance,” said Chastity.

“I got naked for him.”

“Oh my,” sighed Chastity, who remembered getting naked for Bob ... in private. “What did he do?”

“Nothing! That’s what I’m talking about. Of course I told him the rules, you know, about how he couldn’t touch me. But I felt him, and he was as hard as a rock, but he didn’t try to make me do anything. He was drooling, but he didn’t treat me like a slut. I was about to do something even more stupid when Bob interrupted us again and told me you’d had the baby.”

“And you came here,” said Chastity.

“Of course I came here!” said Trudy.

“And Chuck came with you.”

“Yes. I don’t know what to do. He’s practically a baby himself!”

“Mom, he’s as old as I am,” said Chastity.

“Yes, but...”

“And I’m old enough to have had three children, Mother,” said Chastity, her voice now stern.

“Well, that’s true, but...”

“He’s a man, Mother. He’s a grown man, who wants what all grown men want. He is no baby, and he’s not a little boy, either.”

“Okay, that’s true, but I’m old enough to be his mother!”

“I don’t think that bothers him,” said Chastity. “From what you’ve described, I don’t think your age is the primary thing he’s thinking about. I think he likes you.”

“I know he likes me,” groaned Trudy. “I just don’t know what to do about that.”

“Do you like him?”

“I don’t want to like anybody!” yipped the older woman. “I have no business getting involved with another man. All men have done in my life is make it harder.”

“Did Daddy make your life harder, or did you make your own life harder?” asked Chastity.

“That’s not fair. I was ill.”

“You’re not ill now. I’ve seen how normal you can be.”

“Getting involved with a man half my age isn’t normal,” argued Trudy.

“You didn’t answer my question. Do you like him?“

“You’re supposed to be on my side,” moaned Trudy.

“I am. I didn’t used to be, but I am, now. You need to figure out what you want, and stop worrying about what other people think.”

“What if it’s not good for me? What if I get crazy again?”

“This isn’t Africa,” said Chastity. “You have a support group, here. And it would be good for you to have a normal relationship with a man.”

“This isn’t helping,” groaned Trudy.

“Well, I can’t believe I’m saying this, but it sounds to me like you need to get laid,” said Chastity.

Trudy stared at the young woman lying in the bed. Both her breasts were uncovered, and there was a sleeping baby in her arms. The same urge that had made her womb tingle when she was holding Lance fluttered in her belly again.

“That’s not helping me, either,” she said.

Chuck and Bob had gone to the cafeteria after being kicked out of Chastity’s room.

“I didn’t think she’d tell Chastity about that,” said Chuck, as they pushed dollar bills into the coffee machine.

“Trudy is enjoying having a daughter again, and Chastity is enjoying having a mother,” said Bob. “They’re making up for lost time. I’m actually kind of glad about it.”

“You’re a forgiving man,” said Chuck. “Chastity’s told us about the divorce, and what happened to her and all.”

“Trudy and I were in lust, back in the dark ages,” said Bob. “We shouldn’t have gotten married at all. Young people make mistakes like that.”

“That’s one reason I’ve resisted getting into a committed relationship,” said Chuck. “I wanted to wait until I wasn’t stupid anymore.”

“I wish you well,” said Bob. “Though, it looks like you may be courting disaster, if you’re courting my ex-wife.”

“I’m not courting her,” said Chuck. He frowned. “At least I didn’t think I was courting her. This has been a strange relationship from the beginning.”

“When was the beginning?”

“I think it started with Chima. I asked Chastity about his name and she said I had to ask Trudy about that. So I did and she rebuffed me. Well, she told me what it means. I think she was trying to push me away. She told me she was basically a sex slave when she got pregnant with him.”

“Yeah,” said Bob. “Life wasn’t going her way, back then.”

“Anyway, I wanted to know more. I’ve always wondered what Africa is really like, and I thought she could tell me. So I kept asking her to coffee, and one day she agreed. Things got weird from that point.”

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Dancing For Daddy

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