Chapter 7

Karen cleaned off the coffee table while Connor and I pulled the loveseat over, opposite the couch. I retrieved that infamous, thick foam cushion that Karen and I had so enjoyed Monday night and a cushion off an easy chair to put on the other end of the table.

“Anyone want a drink before we start?” I asked.

“I bought rum and ginger ale like we had last time,” Karen said, “that’s what I’d like ... kind of got to like it.”

Everyone else said that’d be fine, so Connor and I got up to make drinks. I crushed a bowl of ice and Connor poured the drinks. While he was pouring, I mentioned quietly, “Your friend’s hot, pretty young. Think she will?”

He grinned, “Know she looks young, she and Nate are both twenty, a year younger than Pauli. Don’t know for sure if she will, but hope so,” then looked at me, grinning, “but not as hot as your wife. Damn! And I KNOW she will. Guess you know what I intend to do with her.”

Ahhh! Another guy just outright telling me he was going to fuck my Karen. Something I sure as hell never thought would excite me like it was. It surprised me how much real truth there was in the stories I was writing.

We carried the drinks back to the living room, passed them out and when I started to sit back down, Karen asked me, “Hon, I forgot something on the top of my dresser. Could you go get it, please?”

“Sure,” I told her and trudged off to the bedroom, wondering what she’d forgotten. There, on top of the dresser, was a small bottle of KY Love Passion. I picked it up and read the side of the bottle, ‘sensual lube for couples. It enhances the feelings for both parties’ I thought about the significance of Karen wanting lube. We’ve never used lube, never needed it. And she sure as hell wasn’t going to need it tonight ... unless... !

My heart was pounding a hole in my chest when I turned to go back to the living room with my treasure hidden in my pocket ... and saw it, the sheet of paper on Karen’s side of the bed, right where I’d be sure to find it. I thought about ignoring it and just rejoining the group, but curiosity got the better of me.

It was a note. From Karen. She’d apparently written it and wanted me to see it before whatever was going to happen tonight happened. As I read it, I realized this was probably the real reason she’d sent me in after the lube. Otherwise, she’d have just discretely tucked it in the little drawer on the coffee table, or somewhere.

Dearest Robert,

I wanted to share a few of my thoughts with you. It was just easier to write them down.

I shake my head in disbelief as I look at how far I have come in just a very short time - never imagining I would be the person I am finding myself to be right now. I was never a prude, but have never felt as sexually uninhibited as I feel in this moment. And you partaking in this journey of discovery with me has created a bond that will be hard to ever break.

I think the best way to describe what has transpired is to take a quote from my parents, “You don’t miss what you never had.” This is what my parents said when I asked how they ever lived without cellphones. We had a satisfying sex life, but we simply weren’t exposed to more than vanilla sex, until you found SOL. So, your mind started to open first, and then mine followed with your introductions to this previously unknown world. I don’t think either of us could say we were opposed to sharing ourselves sexually with others or spanking or a little dominance, we simply had not thought about it before. Some may say I “changed”. I don’t feel this is a correct statement - I “awakened”.

And I will confess, at first, I felt like I “had” to go through with the poker game. Sure, I was not comfortable with it, but I believed our marriage needed me to follow through with it. And fortunately, I enjoyed it - more than enjoyed it if I am being honest. Another man fucked me! Pummeled my pussy into a wall if I am being totally accurate! And I wanted his cock ramming me more than anything I had wanted in a long time. I had always been the same woman since you first married me; not much had changed over the years. Now, I can tell by the surprised expressions on your face and the pop-up bulges in your britches when we talk about your stories or you see what I like to wear to work now, you are rediscovering who I am. And you enjoy the mystery of not knowing exactly what I will do in each new circumstance. And I am seeing a new side to you ... and the most intense orgasms of my life have resulted.

We are about to meet with a new couple. And I am feeling completely different in this circumstance - confident and sexy. Whereas for strip poker, I was terrified and insecure. Also, I feel as though I can say “no” this time. You have seen I will try some new things for you, so I don’t feel as though I have to do “everything” now. Do you understand what I am saying?

If this new woman seems nervous or inexperienced, I will be able to relate. I was her just a short time ago. Has it only been a week? Hard to believe, isn’t it. I have learned I can’t really say for sure what I will or won’t do until I am in a particular situation, but I don’t “think” I would want to dip my toe in the lady pond ... if you know what I mean. However, I have thoughts of you, me, and her having some private time. If she doesn’t have Pauli’s dominance and self-assuredness, I might feel a little motherly towards her and could see myself stroking her, relaxing her, while you bury your face in her possibly reluctant pussy. My panties become wet thinking of you coaxing out those same feelings Connor drew out of me - and me being closely connected to them when it happens.

We shall see how this night plays out, but I am no longer afraid. And I think the most important lesson from all of this is, “You need change to grow.”

Wow! My Karen wrote that? Who’s sitting out there, waiting to play a sex game - now, with a tube of lube for ... what? And her mention of the ‘lady pond’; she doesn’t ‘think’ so? And ‘burying my face in Alyssa’s reluctant pussy’? God!

I needed to calm down just a bit before I could even think of walking back in the other room with the stick I had, poking a hole in my pants. I went in our bathroom ... and smelled Karen’s perfume. Hell, besides that, the damned brownies, I think, were doing weird things to me. I felt ... like I was about to explode, so damned horny. I splashed cold water on my face and looked at myself in the mirror, wondering how a normal, average-looking guy like that guy in the mirror could even possibly be in this kind of situation.

There wasn’t any way that this ‘stick’ was going away, but I guessed that every guy out there probably had a hard dick, too, so I sucked it up and just walked back out and sat down on my cushion as if nothing had happened. But I couldn’t help but give Karen that look, that she’d know...

They’d waited for me to get back to even unwrap the game. There were questioning looks why it took so long, so I explained, “Had to use the bathroom.”

Connor deferred to me to open it, but I told him that it’s his game, so he peeled the cellophane off and opened it. The box is half-round, so it made sense the game board was, too. He unfolded it, giving us a round game board about eighteen-inches or so in diameter with a spiral face, leading to a big ‘WIN’ block in the center.

Karen and I were sitting on the cushions at each end of the table with Connor and Pauli on the love seat, Alyssa and Nate on the couch. There were two packs of cards, green and yellow, one to go on each side of the ‘win’ box.

Connor unfolded the little instruction page and began to read through it to himself. “Okay,” he started, “there’s suggestions to make the game more fun. First, it says to not look at the cards ahead of time.”

Okay, that’s not hard. I unwrapped each and put them in their places on the board. I won’t say I wasn’t curious as hell what might be on them.

“Next, it says for couples to not sit together.”

We looked around and Connor and Nate got up to change places, so that we were; me on one end, Pauli on my left, then Nate, Karen on the opposite end, Connor and then Alyssa on the love seat. None of us sitting next to our partner.

“Third, it says for anyone with limits on what they might want to do to say so before the game starts.” Again, we all glanced around, waiting for anyone else to speak up. I could only think of one thing that I absolutely wouldn’t do, “Umm, I’m not going to do anything with any other guy. Absolutely!” I said.

The girls pouted, thinking that that didn’t seem very fair, but we three guys were unanimous. It just plain wasn’t gonna happen! Then Pauli said, “Okay, girls, since the boys don’t want to play with each other, are we going to say the same thing?”

After Karen’s note, I assume she’d insist on it, but what came out of her mouth had my dick straining my pants even more, if that was possible, “Umm, no, I don’t think we should rule that out.”

What?? I wondered ... the brownies? And I won’t say that the vision of Karen’s face buried in Alyssa’s pussy didn’t cross paths with my mind.

“Ookay,” Connor said, “guess girls are fair game for each other. I like it!” Understatement of the fuckin’ century!

“Anything else?” I asked Connor.

“Says to number our seats, doesn’t say why.” Okay, we decided that I was at the head of the table, number-one; that made Pauli two, Nate three, Karen four, Connor five and Alyssa six. We assumed we’d find out why later.

“Those were the four big suggestions it made.” He scanned down through the instructions some more, mumbling to himself as he read. “Here’s something interesting, ‘whenever a person lands on a space already occupied, the new person becomes married to that person for that turn and must kiss them for thirty seconds.’ And it says it has to be a good, kiss,” He looked around, “Guess that means no peck on the cheek.”

“Ooh, I like that rule!” my sweet wife said.

I chuckled, “Thirty second peck on the cheek, that’s good.”

“ ... then they lose that turn, not drawing a card,” he finished.

When he was done, Connor put the instructions down. “Pretty simple, actually, we use the six-person part of the spinner, move our game piece however many places and follow the instructions on the space where we land.

There were the two piles of cards. At the beginning of the spiral, it mostly called for using the green cards and then gradually transitioned to the yellow, so they’re all yellow by the end.

There’s a timer that we had to put a AAA battery in, so I jumped up and found one. It had settings for thirty seconds, one minute, two minutes, or four minutes, a spinner with several sections: A section for the four time periods and other sections for four, six or eight players. “We use the section marked off with six spaces and ignore the others,” Connor said, “we use those spaces for our seat numbers, too.”

“Okay, we ready to start then?” Alyssa asked. Good, she’d been pretty quiet. I was afraid she might have regretted coming.

Then we had a short discussion on who starts. We agreed that the youngest, Alyssa, can spin the spinner and the person it points to will start. Wouldn’t you know it, it pointed to - herself.

Connor laughed, “That means you get first choice of the moving token.” He cut the plastic bag, letting them fall out in the box; four naked women and four naked men, all ‘anatomically correct’. She giggled and picked up one of the ‘men’ by the you-know-what, giving him a little twirl.

“Wish I could do this for real!” she said, laughing, turning it over and bouncing it on its head.

Karen laughed and said to Nate, “You sure this game’s going to be safe for you? Think that’s your head bouncing on the table.”

Alyssa put her man back down on the ‘start’ space and flicked the spinner again, four. She grabbed it by its quarter-inch long penis and laughed again, “About the same as my husband,” pulling it along four spaces to a green box.

“Land on green, you pick a green card,” Connor said.

Alyssa took a deep breath and picked up the first card ... and laughed, reading it aloud, ‘Get on all fours on the floor, purr like a kitten while the person on your left rubs your tummy for one minute.’

That’s me!

She climbed off the loveseat, down on the floor on her hands and knees. “That rubbing over or under the top?” I asked, knowing damn well what I thought.

Her husband reached across the table, looking at her card. “Doesn’t say,” then asked Connor, “the instructions say anything about that?” He shook his head no, so Nate decided for us, “Well, it says tummy so I think that’d have to be ‘tummy’, not top. So ... under.”

Naturally, a husband eager to see his wife horny would say something like that. I knew for damn sure that I would have. And I wasn’t about to argue, either, so I climbed down beside her and Connor got ready to start the timer. Alyssa began her purring, ‘Mmmm’ and I reached underneath her top to rub her tummy. Her ‘Mmms’ turned much more sensual as I rubbed, venturing just a bit higher, my thumb brushing against the bottom of her little tit, confirming ... no bra. As we went, her little purrs sounded more and more real.

I felt like purring, too. Damn, her tummy skin felt good. A minute wasn’t nearly long enough. But it was long enough that Alyssa was breathing hard when the timer dinged.

Whether it was that brownie or not, I don’t remember my body tingling with sexual excitement like it was then. Maybe the little fact of the last few days without sex or those brownies? Whatever, I didn’t remember being that excited before, even different than last week. I wondered if Karen was feeling the same as I was, sitting there in that sexy blouse and skirt, not much underneath them.

I sat back down, glad to be able to sit in order to hide my raging, hard erection. My whole body was on fire from that little episode, how good her skin ... and that little bit of ‘accidental’ tit ... had felt. I tried to hide how I was feeling, to no avail, I was sure.

The spinner came to me. I was kind of hoping for a four to land on Alyssa’s space. After that little bit of touching, a kiss would be damn nice. I flicked it hard with my forefinger, crossing the fingers on my other hand for a four, Alyssa’s square. It landed on five, another green. I picked up my card and read, ‘crabwalk for thirty seconds’.

That wasn’t bad, until I realized the implication. If there’s anything that would put my erection on a very uncomfortable display, that would be it. I backed away from my sitting spot, “Okay, ready,” I said, leaning back and lifting my rump off the floor. Sure enough, the tent in my pants was on stark display.

“Nice,” Alyssa said, getting a bit of a scowl from me, “I did that?”

Karen laughed, “I think you did, sweetheart, he obviously liked what he felt.” Thanks, love, I needed that!

I felt five sets of eyes on my mid-section the full thirty seconds. Don’t think I was ever so happy to be able to sit back down.

Pauli’s turn. Maybe I’d luck out and she’d spin a five. NOT! A one, a damned ONE. She drew her card, ‘Act out horny, two minutes.’

“Ooh, I like that,” she said, “I can do that,” and got up off the couch. She stepped out in the living room and began gyrating, pulling the hem of her dress up, running her hands over her tits and moaning. No way in hell that she was acting! She’d been doing her little dance for probably a minute before Karen remembered to set the timer.

We all watched Pauli, in fascination. Hell, she should be working in a strip club. She could make a fortune doing this. Her hands reached underneath the waistband of her skirt, down her front between her legs. The buzzer went off but she didn’t seem to notice and the rest of us sure as hell weren’t going to interrupt.

She humped her hand, her eyes opening in a glassy stare as she began to moan when Karen said, “Time’s up.” When Pauli didn’t stop, Karen more forcefully said, “Now, time’s up!”

That time got Pauli’s attention and she quit her little ‘horny’ routine, breathing heavy. Like I said, she sure as hell wasn’t pretending. When she got herself back together a little, she sat back down.

“Damn, girl, you’re missing your calling,” Karen said.

Pauli’s face turned a little red and she admitted, “Think I got a little carried away.”

“Ya think!” Connor agreed, “think we all liked it, too” he went on.

“Next,” Pauli said, pushing the spinner to Nate.

Nate flicked it and wouldn’t you know, it stopped on five, my space. He looked over at me and I said, “No, absolutely, unequivocally NO! We already agreed.” He and I were NOT going to kiss.

He moved his girl alongside mine and Connor said, “Seems fair that if he doesn’t get a kiss, that he should have to draw a card, though.” Okay, the rest of us agreed.

He drew his card and read, “Describe your first kiss.”

He laughed, “Okay, it was my eighteen-year-old birthday party. My nineteen-year-old sister. She...”

“Ooh, yuck!” Karen interrupted, “your sister? That can’t count.”

He gave another little chuckle, “Well, to be honest, she was my step-sister ... and it wasn’t exactly at my party, it was in her bedroom a little later ... and it was a really good kiss.”

“Eighteen? Seems a little old for a first kiss, doesn’t it? Connor asked him.

“I was shy,” he explained, simply.

“Didn’t seem so shy first time you kissed me,” Alyssa said, quietly. Then went on, “I never heard this story. Tongue?” she asked him.

He looked over at his wife, “She taught me. It wasn’t the only time, either ... and she let me play with her tits, too,” he said with a grin on his face.

“This Jasmine?” Alyssa asked him, an incredulous look on her face.

He nodded, “She wouldn’t let me anymore after she started going steady with some jerkwad.”

“Poor baby,” Alyssa said, “guess I should thank her for all that experience, though, huh?”

He pushed the spinner over to Karen. This, I had been anxiously waiting for. I looked at the board, making note of where everyone was. Karen flicked it - four. My heart started pounding, Alyssa’s space. The rules. Kiss. Alyssa!

Karen’s face turned white, realizing. “I-I can’t. The boys. They didn’t.”

“It’s what we agreed to before we started ... You were the one that said okay to girl-girl,” Connor reminded her, “ ... we’re waiting.”

Karen looked around the table, almost like in a panic. It reminded me of last week, the look on her face when she realized she had to take her panties off. My heart was pounding, anticipating seeing my wife kissing a girl. Dipping her toe in that ‘lady pond’. And according to the rules, it had to be a good kiss. I was going to insist on it.

When Karen realized she wasn’t going to get out of it, she got up and walked to the loveseat. I hadn’t even given a thought to poor Alyssa. She stood

“I’ve never done this before,” Karen admitted, still looking scared to death.

“I have ... you’ll like it,” the tall, lithesome Alyssa said.

I glanced over at Nate, he didn’t look at all surprised by that little statement.

Karen was quite a bit shorter. She tilted her head and Alyssa kissed her. Damn, this was something I had never expected to see! It was a little like that first kiss with Connor; Karen was stiff at the beginning and then began to loosen up. Again, no one thought to set the timer. I sure as heck wasn’t going to.

I’d never seen two girls kiss, much less my wife. I’ve seen hot. Last week was hot. This was H.O.T. Alyssa’s hand cupped Karen’s breast and she moaned. That moan must have alerted Pauli to set the timer. Dammit. Karen and Alyssa were grinding their lips together when the timer buzzed. Karen backed off, her lips still slightly open, eyes closed.

I guessed they’d set the standard for what these ‘thirty-second’ kisses were going to be like. If I had been a wet noodle when that kiss started, I would have been stone-hard when it ended.

Karen sat back down, not saying a word, her face flushed, her toe well dipped in the ‘lady pond’. She just pushed the spinner over to Connor.

He spun it, landing on a two. He picked up his card, got a big grin on his face, ‘move forward two spaces and draw again.’ No wonder he was grinning. That put him on the same space as Alyssa and Karen. He was smiling, I was frowning. It wasn’t fair!

He was already on the couch beside Alyssa and turned toward her. Karen was just on the other side of him, licking her lips, in anticipation? I wondered if this was weird for Connor and Alyssa, they’re friends, had been a long time. They put a hand on each other’s shoulders and then their lips were together. No one else did, so I grabbed the timer and set for thirty seconds. It was a little stiff, kind of like kissing your sister might be. Well, apparently not Nate’s sister. But after a very little bit, the stiffness had gone away. And then the timer dinged, all too soon.

Connor and Alyssa pulled away from each other, both smiling. Nate’s eyes were wide, probably the first time he’d seen his wife kissing another guy. I knew the feeling.

Then Connor turned toward my wife. Their kiss was anything but stiff. Both knew what they wanted and were taking it, tongues traveling, lips working. My body was shivering, watching this, knowing where it would lead before the night was over, where I knew damned well that Karen wanted it to lead. I heard the timer. No idea who had set it. They backed away from each other, lust in both sets of eyes.

No one said anything, just pushed the spinner in front of Alyssa. I was hoping for a one. She wouldn’t be getting a ‘sister’ kiss. It wasn’t, it was a six. The first yellow space. She pulled her man ahead by the penis, drew her card and her face went white, apparently not quite as ‘chaste’ as the green cards had been.

‘Spin the spinner,’ she read aloud, ‘whoever it lands on will remove one piece of your clothing, their choice.’

She stared at it, seemingly willing it to say something, anything else. But, apparently, it never did. She put it down, face-up on the yellow card discard pile, the first on that pile. I decided I liked those yellow cards!

She crossed her arms over her chest, “I have to?” she squeaked out. From the look on her frightened face, she’d never ‘disrobed’ in mixed company before. Her husband, Nate’s, face was completely different. He was looking at her, expectantly. I could relate.

Nobody answered her, just waited. Then Karen suggested another rule, “I think,” she said, “in something like this, her husband is disqualified. It needs to be somebody else.” The rest of us agreed.

Alyssa waited, then finally gave in, looked down at the spinner again and her fingers were shaking when she flicked it. Round and round, slowing and stopping on ... the thin line between one and two, me and Pauli. I couldn’t freakin’ believe it! The three non-involved players studied the damn pointer and decided it was a tiny bit more on Pauli’s side. Crap! I wanted that pointer! You couldn’t have measured the difference with less than a micrometer.

Pauli got a big smile on her face, like she’d just won the lottery, climbed up off the couch, and said, “Come here, Lyssa.” Apparently, that was her pet name for her friend, ‘Lyssa’.

Alyssa got up off the love seat and took the couple steps over to where Pauli was standing, more like the last steps to an electric chair. All the rest of us were watching intently to see what was going to happen. This game had suddenly become exciting!

Pauli toyed with the bottom of Alyssa’s tank top and we all heard the soft, scared, “Please, no,” so Pauli moved her hands down and started to unbutton her shorts.

“Better?” Pauli asked.

She squeaked out a “No ... shoes?”

Pauli laughed, “But Lyssa, what fun would that be?” and suddenly lifted her tank top up above her breasts. “Arms up,” she said and Alyssa obeyed, letting Pauli lift the tank top up over her head. We got a brief peek of Alyssa’s small, firm tits with the pink nipples before she crossed her arms across her chest.

When she sat back down beside Connor, topless, her face was red, her arms crossed, hugging herself over her tits and her pretty, flat tummy on display. “Alyssa, you’re beautiful, you don’t need to be ashamed even a little bit,” my wife told her. I was proud of Karen right then, she knew how Alyssa was feeling. None of the rest of us teased her because she did look genuinely scared out of her wits.

It was my turn so I pulled the spinner over. Alyssa was the only one in front of me and as much as I wanted to, I hoped to not land on her space to let her recover just a bit from being the only one topless at the table before anything else happened to her. There was one yellow space within six spaces of me that I could land on.

I flicked a three, another green. I picked it up and was sure my own face might have changed color a little, ‘Describe your most surprising sexual encounter.’

Karen got a big smile on her face, “Yes dear, you have anything like that you’d like to share?” I glared at her. She knew. If she hadn’t read that one story, I could have faked - used last week.

I took a breath, trying to think how to keep this at least a little short. Besides, Alyssa sitting there topless was just a bit distracting. “It was when I worked for the City, I was twenty-six. We were doing a housing survey. I’d gone to this one apartment several times and finally, 6:30 in the evening she was home, think she was a few years younger than me. She met me at the door in this little red baby-doll, tiny little red panties.” I rolled my eyes, remembering, “God, she was sexy, nice firm boobs, practically nothing covering her. I had this list of questions. She sat beside me on the couch, snuggling up, reading the questions with me. Sexy perfume. We didn’t even get to all the questions, I just made up some of the answers later.

“I actually did resist her ... until I was leaving. I turned around at the door to thank her for answering the questions. She kissed me when I turned and I’ll never forget how soft those lips were.” I closed my eyes, breathing and remembering some more. My eyes were still closed when I went on, “Her arms were around my neck and I followed her back to the couch. Her panties and baby-doll were off and so were my pants.

“I didn’t even realize what was happening until I was sitting on the couch sucking her tit and she’d sat down on my lap with my cock inside her.

I opened my eyes, nobody was saying a word, “I came inside her, really hard.”

“Wow, every guy’s dream I guess, you tell Karen?” Pauli asked me.

“Tell them, hon, when you decided to tell your wifey about that little adventure,” Karen said.

I took a breath, “I didn’t ever tell her, I was afraid to.”

“Ha, no lie, Charlie Brown!” Connor said, “survival instinct.”

“Yeah, exactly,” I agreed, “Karen found out last Wednesday ... because about a year ago, I decided to write about it, put the story on SOL ... and she found it Wednesday.”

Karen smiled, “But I still remember how damned horny my husband was for a long time, I just didn’t know why.”

“I think it’s your turn,” I told Pauli, handing her the spinner, hoping to change the subject. She took it and flicked it; landed on two.

“Crap, I’m going to be so far behind I’ll never catch up!” she complained, moving her little man to another green space. She started to pick up a green card, then said, “Fuck that!” and picked up a yellow one, instead. “That’s better,” she said, then read it, ‘Spin the spinner to point to another person, then spin again for the timer. Each to remove one piece of clothing from the other, then kiss for the allotted time. Hands allowed to wander.’

“I like that, much better than those stupid green ones,” she said, then flicked the spinner to see who the other lucky person was. It stopped right in the middle of the five - Connor.

“Nope,” Karen said, “not legal. Spin again.”

This time - four, Karen! Yes! Well, except it could have been me. I watched Karen, when she realized her face turned a bit crimson. Pauli, on the other hand, looked over at her new friend with a big smile on her face. I thought back to that kiss with Alyssa a little earlier. I was looking forward to this!

Pauli spun again for how long to set the timer ... and stuck her finger right in the middle of the four. The girl apparently is not averse to cheating!

“Yes, I get four minutes with Karen!” she acted all surprised.

I wondered if Pauli had done this before, the ‘lady pond’ thing. Either that and she liked it or it was something she wanted to try out pretty badly.

Karen stood up from her cushion, stepping back from the table a couple steps and Pauli stood behind her, “I liked it when your husband did this last week,” she whispered, just loud enough to be heard, as she began unbuttoning Karen’s blouse. Pauli’s fingers were working much better than I remember mine as she went from button to button, nibbling on Karen’s ear. “I’ve thought about doing this all week,” she went on.

Karen had closed her eyes and her mouth was slightly open when her blouse fell open and Pauli cupped her breasts in her hands. “I like this,” she said, referring to Karen’s thin bra, “I might even wear one like it ... but right now...” she went on, slipping Karen’s blouse down her arms, “I don’t think you should be wearing one at all,” unsnapping Karen’s bra in the back.