Chapter 3

"Jackie, I want you to think for a minute before you answer this question. Okay?"

"Sure hon, what's your question?"

"What is it exactly that you think might happen if I went to this diner with you to see this girlfriend of yours?" This wasn't turning out very well. Here I was trying to avert a catastrophe in my marriage, and Ellen could only focus on the negative aspects of the situation. I had explained it to her as clearly as I could. I'd even told her about my father having the same reaction, and about Ray not being affected by her. I'd started out by telling her that she was many times more attractive than Cindy was or could ever hope to be. I told her I was just interested in the mystery aspects of an unexplained phenomena. I'd had a physical reaction that had taken me by surprise. That didn't mean that I was hoping to jump into bed with this girl.

"Her mother suggested that I bring you over there. She said that it's the type of thing a woman might understand easier than a man would. According to her mother, this kind of thing happens routinely with both of her daughters. She told me the same thing happened to her when she was younger, and that her sister had whatever it was, even stronger than she did. Please stop calling her my girlfriend, I hardly know the girl. I thought you might be interested in finding out more about it. I guess I overestimated your natural curiosity about strange things like this."

"I'm awful sorry Jackie. I guess I overreacted when you told me that there is this girl that makes your big old dick get stiff every time she walks into a room you're in. I've been looking closely at your pants for the past half hour, and I haven't seen any sign that I'm making you hard just by being in the same room with you. If I'm going to go investigating something, it won't be all the way over in Norwich. I'd suggest that you confine yourself to almost anywhere else on earth but that damn diner. You hearing me? And another thing, what kind of a mother invites the wife of the man who is looking to screw her daughter to come over for lunch? She sounds a little loopy if you ask me. You sure they aren't all from the state hospital over there?"

"You know Ellen, now I'm sorry I ever brought it up with you in the first place. I should have known you'd just find some way to turn this all around and make it look like I'm being a bad guy with this thing. If I had any interest in pursuing this thing with that girl, would I have come to you and asked you to look into it for me?" I left the kitchen and went into my living room and tried to get a handle on a deal that Ray had been pitching to me. I'd read everything he'd given me at least twice and I still couldn't see where the land was going to be worth so much more in a little while. After a frustrating hour of spinning my wheels looking at the same things, I got Ray on the phone and started asking him about the deal.

"Jackie, how many times do I have to tell you? This little piece of land controls that whole area of future development. Anybody wants to do some building west of there, has to deal with us first. It might take two or three years, but the potential is really good for us to make a real killing here. We should buy it and just sit on it and see who comes after it first. Besides, it's only fifteen thousand dollars. Right now it's got to be worth $20,000.00 at the very least. You make your money in land by buying it right. This is priced under the current value and has a lot of potential to increase from here."

"All right, let's do it. Can you meet me over in Trumbull tomorrow morning, and we'll sign the papers and open escrow. Maybe about ten o'clock?" As with most of Ray's real estate deals, I was coming to just rely on his judgment. He was on a good run and I'd stick with it until he faltered on something. Having come to a decision, I stopped worrying about the deal. Now it was Ray's turn to worry for both of us.

A week later Ellen startled me at supper when she told me that she'd gone over to Norwich with Theresa and her kids and had some lunch and gotten a look at her competition. "Jackie, it was truly weird about both those girls. Just from them walking around in that diner you could feel that energy rolling off of them. It was like watching two big tigers at the zoo, only a different kind of raw power. Theresa felt it too. We both got tingles from watching them. I'm really sorry honey. I should have listened with a more open mind when you spoke to me. I guess I was pretty jealous from what you had told me. Threatened by it too."

"Well, what do you think it is? It sure isn't their looks."

"It's some kind of sex signal they give off. Maybe like when a dog or a cat comes into heat? You don't know exactly what it is you're reacting to, but it's there and it affects different people differently. Theresa told me that she got wet just from sitting there and eating her burger. Believe me, it wasn't because that burger was that good either. I didn't get wet, but my nipples popped out and I could feel myself starting to get in the mood just a little bit. I wish I did know what it was, I'd make a bunch of it and put it in tiny bottles and become rich selling it to women. Jackie, I want you to just stay the hell away from there. I don't want you deliberately going somewhere and being tempted."

Two days later I'm sitting in that diner and having my first real conversation with Cindy. I told her about being married, and then I told her that I wasn't going to be able to let it go until I'd taken her somewhere and made love to her. Her reaction was fatalistic about the whole thing. She told me that she didn't want any trouble from me or from my family. She said I had to take her someplace nice and treat her to a good time before and then treat her nice after too. I told her that I'd set something up and let her know when. I was afraid a hundred times that I'd give the whole thing away to Ellen before it even happened.