Chapter 1: The Beginning

This is something completely different from my previous offerings. It’s simply a story about young love that’s survived nearly a century. I hope you like it. If so, great. If not, that’s okay too.

September 1, 2092

The house was full as nearly five generations of Webers gathered to celebrate the 90th wedding anniversary and the 109th birthday of the two people now seen as the head of the family. Chris Weber and his wife, Chloe, maneuvered their electric wheelchairs into the front room where everyone waited patiently.

They sang happy birthday to the couple and showered them with gifts, hugs and kisses. After the obligatory birthday cake and ice cream, they sat in front of the elderly couple, who were now holding hands and wiping tears from their eyes.

“Tell us, grandpa, what’s your secret to a long life?” asked one of the young boys sitting in front of them. Chris thought for a moment before answering.

“Well, son,” he said, “first, find a damn good woman, eat right, exercise, drink a glass of wine every night, enjoy a cigar now and again ... what else, dear?” he asked, turning to face his wife.

“Lots of hot, wild monkey sex with the one you love,” Chloe said, smiling at her husband, who smiled back. Everyone laughed at that, knowing the two didn’t mince words.

“Mother!” exclaimed Marilyn, who, at 71, was the youngest of Chris and Chloe’s three children. Chloe laughed.

“Oh, don’t be such a stick in the mud,” she said. “How do you think you got here?” she asked, prompting laughter from everyone. “Maybe if you gave that man of yours a good roll in the hay now and then, he wouldn’t spend so much time out fishing.”

“These days, a fishing pole is about the only thing I can get up, Mom,” said George, Marilyn’s 75-year-old husband, laughing.

“Oh hell, George,” Chloe said. “they have pills for that, you know. Don’t they, dear?” she asked, looking at Chris, who smiled and nodded in agreement.

“Do you and grandpa still, you know, do it?” one of Chloe’s teenage granddaughters asked.

“Lucy, that’s not an appropriate question for your grandmother,” Marilyn chided. “Show some respect.” Chloe waved her off.

“That’s okay, dear,” she said. “It’s an honest question and it deserves an honest answer.” She looked at Lucy and smiled.

“Oh yeah,” she said. “Maybe not as much or as hard and fast as you young’uns. If it weren’t for my arthritis, I’d get out of this chair and show you a thing or two,” she added, winking. Lucy and the other girls giggled.

“Tell us again how you guys got together,” said Mike, another teenage grandchild. The other kids agreed. “Yeah, tell us,” they said.

“Okay,” Chris said. He began to tell everyone the story of their relationship.

“We were born on the same day in the same hospital,” he said. “I was born about maybe five minutes before Chloe. Her mother was in the room right next to my mother’s and they both went into labor at about the same time. Understand, our parents were very close and did practically everything together. Our fathers served in the military together and after their service they all went into business together doing some kind of contract work for the government, which meant they were often gone on one assignment or another. To this day I don’t really know what they did, but I know it was important.

“They bought two good sized pieces of property, right next to each other and they each became our godparents, promising to take care of us both if anything happened to any of the others. Chloe’s parents were my godparents and my parents were hers. Our mothers practically raised us together, even bathed us together when we were babies. Mom used to joke that the only way they could get us to settle down was to put us in the same crib.

“We literally grew up together, which meant that we spent all of our time together. We’d play with my trucks out in the back yard and then run to her place and have imaginary tea in her playhouse. We biked together, hiked the woods together, swam in the lake together, we were literally inseparable. Sure, we had disagreements like all kids do, but we always made up afterward.

“It wasn’t unusual for some of our parents to be gone on an assignment, so when that happened, we would get to have a sleepover with the parent or parents who stayed behind. We almost always ended up falling asleep on the floor watching television. Either that, or we’d end up in the same bed snuggling up to each other. Nothing bad or inappropriate ever happened, we just liked being together.

“We also looked alike in some respects and were so close that a lot of people thought we were brother and sister. It got to the point that our parents actually got DNA tests to prove there was no relation.

“But we thought it was kinda cute, so we started calling each other ‘brother’ and ‘sister.’ It sure made people look at us a bit funny sometimes when we’d be walking around holding hands. We still call each other that from time to time, don’t we?” Chris asked, looking at his wife, who nodded her head in agreement.

“We always spent our birthdays and holidays together and we would take our allowance money and buy each other a silly little something for Christmas. One year, I think we were just nine years old at the time, I found this long t-shirt sleepwear thing that had a goofy-looking rabbit on it with big floppy ears. It said ‘Snugglebunny’ and something about it reminded me of Chloe. So I bought it for her.

“You should have seen the look on her face when she opened it. Her whole face lit up with the biggest smile. She held it up for us all to see and asked, ‘am I your Snugglebunny?’ Of course, I said yes. She came over and gave me the biggest hug and kissed me right on the lips. It was my first kiss. ‘I love you,’ she said. Of course, I told her I loved her too, which was the truth.

“I opened the present she got me, and it was a pair of pajamas with teddy bears all over them. All the bears had ‘CuddleBear’ printed under them, so I held them up and asked if I was her cuddle bear. She smiled and said ‘yes,’ so I gave her a hug and a kiss in return. We spent the rest of that Christmas snuggled up under a blanket together in our new pajamas, watching old movies on television. I’ll never forget that.

“We grew up and matured, and so did our love for each other. Fortunately, our parents were smart enough to see that, so they gave us all the lectures about love and sex. Remember, things were quite different in those days. It’s not like now, where sex and nudity is all over the television. We promised that we would wait until after we were 18 before having sex, and we would only do it with someone we really and truly loved. Our parents suggested we date other people for a while to make sure our feelings for each other were real.

“Personally, I hated it. We dated a few other people, but it just felt wrong, at least to me. We never did anything, but it still ate at us.”

Chris paused for a bit to collect his thoughts. As he did so, Chloe began telling them her side of their story. He listened to her for a moment but soon, his mind wandered back to the day they first made love.

...

September 1, 2001

It was late that Friday when Chris walked into his house. The day before, he, his parents, Chloe and her parents celebrated their upcoming 18th birthday with a nice dinner at the local Olive Garden. The next day, their parents would leave to go back east for one of their assignments and would be gone for at least a week. So they decided that Chloe would stay at the Weber’s house that week.

As he walked in, he saw Chloe sitting on the couch, still wearing the short black dress she put on for her date with Mike. She had taken her shoes and her pantyhose off and her bare feet were curled under her. She looked up as he walked in and he saw the sadness in her eyes, which matched the sadness in his heart. He could tell she wanted to talk.

“Hi, Chris,” she said.

“Hey, Chloe. I’ll be right back, okay?”

“Okay,” she said quietly. Chris went upstairs, changed out of his jeans and put on a pair of running shorts and an old worn t-shirt before heading back down. He sat down next to her and she leaned in, putting her head on his shoulders.

“Did you have a nice date?” Chris asked. Chloe shrugged.

“Not really,” she said. “Mike broke it off with me.”

“How come?” Chris asked.

“He’s been after me for a long time to have sex with him, but I told him I couldn’t,” she said. “So he got pissed off and drove me back. How about you? Did you have a nice date?” Chris shrugged.

“So-so,” he said. “It was okay, we had a nice dinner, but I guess she thought I kept comparing her to you. I didn’t mean to, it just happened. She’s a nice girl and all, but she’s just not my type. I can’t talk with her the way I can with you.”

“I know what you mean,” she said. “All Mike ever wants to talk about is football or sex. Personally, I’m really tired of dating other people. It just doesn’t feel right, know what I mean?” Chris nodded his head.

“Yeah, I do. I hate being away from you and I just feel lousy,” he said. “Almost like I’m cheating on you.”

“I feel the same way,” she said. Suddenly, she got up and sat in Chris’ lap, her legs straddling his. He thought he caught a glimpse of her bare ass, but he wasn’t certain. He could tell she had taken her bra off. Facing him, Chloe held out her hands with her little fingers extended. He knew what that meant, so he wrapped his little fingers around hers.

“Truth time,” she said. It was one of the little games they made up where they would tell each other their deepest secrets, holding nothing back. She looked into his face and he could see tears starting to form in her eyes.