Chapter 4

"Strangers in the night, exchanging glances..."

I was on disability, so the military was no longer an option. This was disappointing for me, since President Reagan had started pumping a lot of money into the Department of Defense. "President" Reagan, I thought to myself, shaking my head. I remember him being governor of California when I was younger, and I sighed, thinking about the years that I had missed.

Since I hadn't gone to college, I didn't have any degrees to qualify me for most white collar jobs. I wasn't averse to sweating for a living, but my body was still out of shape, having done very little exercise in the last dozen years except my PT training sessions at the hospital. I might be able to go to school on the GI bill, but being in my mid-thirties (again, this was hard for me to accept!), I felt that I'd be out of place. Besides, I had already rejected college before and wasn't really in the mood to give it a try now.

I did have the stipend from the government and a hefty savings account, which did give me the ability to just spend as I wished, but that ran counter to my desires to be productive and not a drain on society.

My parents had passed away while I was in my coma. The last that I had remembered of them was the disappointment in my father when I enlisted in the service. He had been in the marines, and couldn't understand my entering the army. I didn't know if they ever visited me in the hospital, but if they had, they had probably met Mary. I do know that before the accident that took their life, I was supposed to be the executor of their will. Instead, they apparently added language to their will that named their lawyer as executor in the event that I was incapacitated. This lawyer basically liquidated their assets, took a small cut for his services, and put the rest into a trust fund that was managed by a financial services firm for me. I didn't exactly know the current extent of the fund, but it must have been a lot, since during my big sleep, interest rates had been skyrocketing.

Then there was Mary.

She had really impressed me; she seemed devoted to me. She also didn't think that I was nuts due to the weird dreams. That always counted for something.

The day after our first night together, Mary had taken her car to work, but she had left me some bus schedules for mass transit near where she lived, along with the admonition that I would need exact change (What? Bus drivers don't have that change-making device on their belts any more? Was I turning into Rip Van Winkle?).

I filled my pockets with a few dollars of loose change, idly checking the dates on the money to see how many had been minted since my sojourn in the hospital (more than I would have liked to have seen, actually). I had a rough idea of the layout of the town, and I was going to meet Mary at a mall near the bank where she worked.

The trip to the mall wasn't too eventful. Kids had changed quite a lot in the time that I had been away. Long hair wasn't "in" any more (thank goodness!), and teenage girls seem to be alright wearing pretty slutty outfits that I had to admit that I would have liked to see on girls when I had been in high school. In any event, the kids tended to leave me alone.

I wandered the mall, doing a lot of window shopping. Clothing styles had changed quite a bit, and I wasn't very keen on the new styles yet--at least for the males. There were more fast food places than I had remembered, and I was amazed about how much they had started to specialize. Imagine going to a shop that only sells French Fries! (Yes, my curiosity got the better of me, and tried them. They weren't anything to write home about.)

About an hour before I was scheduled to meet Mary, something very disturbing happened. I had a jarring sense of hollowness that I had felt previously when my out of body "presence" had been penetrated by a living person. The feeling was so startling that I dropped my fries, stopped walking immediately, and looked around me. There was nobody near me... and I was starting to question whether I was really at the mall at all... or having another of my out of body dreams.

I dismissed it being entirely a dream quickly. I had, in fact, interacted with other people. That was something I never was able to do (except with Mary during her dreams). That feeling was so identical to that feeling from when I was comatose, that I had an eerie sense of deja-vu.

I picked up my fries and found a litter container for them. I sat down, and tried to figure out what that feeling meant.

Obviously, there wasn't anything physical that had gone through me. There wasn't anybody around at the time. Could I be detecting somebody else "dream walking" in the mall? Would that be too far fetched?

I was then reminded about one of the first times that I had ever ventured outside my body, when I was in the base hospital. It was the time that I first looked at a newspaper, and I felt an invisible presence (and even heard it say "Sorry, guy!"). I had mostly forgotten about that strange incident, but something inside me told me that this sensation that I had felt had something to do with that experience.

I started to think about the situation.

First, when I was comatose, I was able to walk outside my own body.

Second, when I was outside my own body, I was able to "invade" Mary's dreams, and even re-shape them, using it as a way of communicating with her.

Third, when Mary and I slept together the previous night, we seemed to have shared our dreams, although Mary never specifically mentioned it this morning. In fact, we even went so far as to experience each others feelings during sex this morning. Mary hadn't mentioned that either, though.

Now, I had just felt a disquieting presence in the mall that was very similar to a presence I felt one time at the base hospital when I was in a coma.

What did these add up to? I wasn't sure.

I was sitting down, lost in my thoughts, when I "heard" somebody think "Life is grand, isn't it?"

I knew that thought-voice. It was Mary's! I looked up and around, and finally saw her about 200 meters away from me. I got up and walked toward her.

When she saw me, she rushed toward me and gave me a big hug. I had to agree with her. Life was indeed grand.

We ate lunch at the food court in the mall. I picked out a couple of familiar burgers at McDonald's, and Mary went to some place with a salad bar.

"I wish to thank you for the wonderful wake-up gift this morning," I told Mary, with just a hint of wickedness, talking in a crowded mall.

"What do you mean?" she asked.

At first, I figured that she was just shy, but her face showed a definite questioning look.

"The way... the way you woke me up this morning!"

"Oh, Jim! I'm so sorry. I tried not to make noise while I was making you breakfast..."

"No. I mean... before that..." I studied her face. She seemed genuinely confused.

"If I woke you up this morning, it was probably because I'm... I'm not used to sharing my bed..."

What was she talking about? She performed oral sex on me, and she didn't remember it?

I slowly exhaled my breath. Was I really dreaming of that encounter? Strange. I never had any erotic dreams while I was in my coma, or if I did, I didn't remember any of them.

Mary changed the subject. "Anyway, Jim. How do you like the mass transit system in our little city? Much different than you remember, isn't it?"

I nodded absently, and Mary looked at me, concerned.

After a pause of a few minutes, Mary asked me, softly. "Is there anything wrong, Jim? Is this too much activity too soon? Do you want me to call Doctor..."

"No! No! Don't call any doctor. I was just a bit... disoriented." I decided to explain about my "Rip Van Winkle" feelings. "It's just that there's so much for me to absorb. For example, did you know that a Big Mac costs more than a dollar now? I used to be able to get one of those with fries and a coke for that much money!"

Mary looked at me, still concerned, but then her features crinkled up into a smile that must have lit up the entire mall.

"Oh, Jim! You are just so strange!" She leaned toward me and kissed me. I not only let her, but I actively participated in return.

"You want to know what else is strange? I went into a toy store, thinking that I'd get you a GI Joe doll--something for you to think of me by. I couldn't find too many. Instead, they had all these Return of the Jetty things, which are the weirdest things I've ever seen..."

"Wow. That's right. You've never seen Star Wars, have you?"

I admitted never hearing that term before, except on the news regarding some policy of the president's.

"It was a movie. The last episode was a couple of years ago. It's 'Jedi, ' by the way. Not 'jetty.'"

"Whatever. Kids movie, I guess."

"Lots of adults like it, too," she told me.

We talked on and on about things that have changed.

After a bit, I noticed that we had both finished eating, but we were still talking in the food court. A glance at my watch told me that we'd been talking for a couple of hours.

"Mary. What do you do at your bank where you can take a two hour lunch break? Do you rob it?"

I was rewarded with another of her golden smiles, and her cheeks even dimpled.

"No, silly. My boss understands about my needing some time off. I have two weeks vacation time, and he said I could even take sick time, if I needed it."

"Must be a very understanding boss." She seemed to have a great job, actually.

"So, what's your plans for this afternoon, then?" I asked her.

Her smile turned into a wicked grin. "How about a rematch of last night's performance?"

I looked at her, pretending to be shocked. "You mean, here?"

Mary gave me a grin. "If you insist, but I think we'd shock the others. Would you mind waiting until we get back?"

"Of course!" I agreed.

Mary took me back home to her place, and as soon as she got inside, she started to disrobe immediately.

"Come ON!" she said, nearly screaming. It was obvious that she was hot for me.

She pulled me into her bedroom, and by the time we reached the bed, she was completely naked. I hadn't even slipped off my shoes yet.

As I struggled to remove my pants, Mary came over and kissed me, passionately. Normally, I don't have problems working the button or the zipper, but for some reason, my fingers weren't cooperating. My body had simply decided to feel the desire that she was creating inside me.

I gave up trying to take off my pants, and as soon as my hand went down, one of Mary's took its place, and unfastened my pants expertly. Before long, she had me completely undressed, having sacrificed one or two of the buttons of my shirt in her haste.

Mary pulled me on top of her as she collapsed onto the bed, still kissing me passionately. I finally figured out how to work my fingers, and started playing with her breasts. I was rewarded with her pulling me even tighter toward her.

My left hand was near Mary's thigh, and I felt around and found that her legs were spread wide. My finger touched her pussy, and I found it was extremely slippery. Mary was more excited than I ever remember experiencing with a woman.

She wasn't alone in her excitement. My cock was hard enough to tamp a 60 millimeter cartridge.