Copyright obohobo Revised 2007

"Nanny, Nanny, Nanny! I've found him! He's here! Gramps has come back. Come and see Nan. He's come back from Heaven. He's here Nan. Come and see, hurry Nanny!"

A vigorous tugging at my sleeve immediately aroused me from my reverie as I waited in the slow moving queue at the supermarket cafeteria on a hot early July afternoon. The blonde haired, blue-eyed angel with the shrill, excited voice couldn't have been more than four years old. Hopping and dancing with obvious glee, her hand found mine and she tried to tug me towards the back of the line. Bewildered and somewhat embarrassed at being the focus of everyone's attention, I turned and saw an elderly woman coming towards me. At least she had a smile on her face.

"Nanny, Grandpa's come back. He's here and I'm not letting him go away again." The little girl gestured to the woman to come quickly.

"I'm sorry," the woman apologised with more than a hint of mirth, "It's the long beard and the glasses, She thinks you're my late husband. He died over a year ago. It's not your grandpa Suzie..."

"He is, he is! I know he is!" Suzie wrapped her arms tightly around my waist and started to cry. Having no previous experience at handling young children, I had no idea of what to do but when she turned her tear stained face to mine and raised her arms, I knew she wanted to be picked up. Almost without thinking I did so. Nanny's smile left her for a moment and she tried to take Suzie back but the child hung on tightly.

Tom and John, the friends I was with, thought my predicament hilarious and further fuelled my embarrassment with their comments. "You sly old sod. All this time you told us you had never married and now we find you have a secret wife, a child and a grandchild!"

The line moved a pace forward. Only a few ahead of us now but even they and all those behind us were looking in my direction and grinning at the situation and my self-consciousness. I supposed it brightened their wait. Even the serving staff momentarily stopped work, looked at me and smiled before returning their attention to the customer and asking in a bored voice, "Beans with it sir?" I tried to pass Suzie to her grandmother but she held on tightly and made me feel a real shit by asking, "Don't you love me any more Grandpa?" What was I to answer to that? I just couldn't say, no, so I gave her a hug to at least try and reassure her. Wordlessly I tried to appeal to the grandmother for help but she seemed uncertain as to what to do. At least she was still smiling although I could see concern in her eyes.

"I'm sorry," the woman repeated several times and again tried to pluck the little girl from my arms. "Suzie, come to me," Nanny pleaded, "We'll lose our place in the queue."

"Don't you worry lady," a burly construction worker behind us intervened, "Stay where you are. No one is going to object to you standing with your long lost husband." I looked around and everyone was smiling. I wanted the floor to open and swallow me up and I think the woman did too but she thanked the man. Even the cashier wanted in on the joke. "Are you paying for your wife and granddaughter's food sir?" she smirked.

Over lunch, Suzie sat close to me, so close that I found it difficult to eat without nudging her with my elbows and she kept up an almost continuous stream of questions I found difficult to answer. How do you explain to a child what heaven is like? And when I did, it was only to receive further questions. All this to the amusement of my friends and so it seemed to Hazel, the girl's grandmother. She smiled and tried to provoke me into revealing more of my 'other world experiences'. I thought it very odd that she would allow a strange man to be so close to her granddaughter but on several occasions, when I was getting myself into deep water, she rescued me by asking mundane questions such as where I lived now and in return I learned she lived only a mile from me.

Tom and John egged her on too with teasing questions concerning our supposed previous life together. I could have easily punched them at times.

"You are coming home with us now, aren't you Gramps? You're not going to leave us again?" Again the tears were in her eyes.

"Have you got to go back to work?" Hazel asked.

"No, John is going to drop me off on his way home. Finished the job. It was only a voluntary one to help Tom out. I'm retired. Early retirement from teaching."

Hazel hesitated before suggesting, "Bert, I could give you a lift home as we are so close but I wonder if you would mind coming to my house and staying with us until Sarah my daughter, picks Suzie up. If you have other things to do, I will understand but..."

"She's picking you up Bert," Tom exclaimed, "You watch out, you'll be her real husband soon!" I ignored the remark but his words proved prophetic.

"I was going to have a shower to wash the grime away and cool off a bit and continue on my latest book but if you can put up with my sweaty body, I don't mind staying." I could see it might be a way of getting out of the predicament without upsetting Suzie.

"And he can tell me a story like he used to," Suzie piped up, "You will, won't you Gramps?" She had me in a cleft stick; I knew I couldn't refuse. Tom and John conspired with her, as they had throughout the meal. I am sure they were deliberately setting me up with a date with Hazel. They were both married and no doubt thought I should be too.

"You're going to bed now young lady," Hazel informed Suzie. I felt a little fresher having had a wash if not a change of clothes.

"Gramps has to tell me a story first." Suzie stamped her foot and spoke with tired irritability.

"Okay," I shrugged.

Suzie ran up the stairs, slipped off her shoes and jumped on to a bed and when I tried to sit on a chair she insisted I sit on the bed alongside her, 'just like I used to'. Hazel nodded that it was fine by her and again I wondered at the trust of the woman. In the short time I known her, my respect and liking for her sense of humour had grown, but to allow an old man, a stranger until a short while ago, to sit or more or less lie, alongside a young girl seemed a foolhardy thing to do. I knew I would never harm the girl but she didn't know that. Suzie snuggled her head contentedly into the crook of my arm.

I'm not a fiction writer but I remembered a radio interview with a storyteller who went round local schools. Her method was to get the children to come up with the characters and a plot and build the story around it. At least that would give me a starting point.

"This story is about a girl named Suzie," I started, "Is she a good girl or a naughty one?"

"If it's this Suzie, she's a naughty one," Hazel laughed, "You get started and I'll put the kettle on."

"And what's the naughtiest thing you've ever done Suzie?"

"I jumped in muddy puddles all the way down the road when I had my best dress on. Mummy was very cross."

So I began a tale of Suzie who jumped in puddles but the last one was more than a puddle, it was a deep hole and Suzie went down and down until she was amongst the fishes and mermaids who showed her their homes and the treasures they'd found in sunken ships. By then Suzie was fast asleep and I too felt very weary. The heat and being unused to manual work or perhaps my story was soporific, but whatever the reason I slid down the bed a little and with Suzie still cradled alongside me, I followed her example and drifted off to sleep.

"Isn't that just so sweet?" Vaguely I heard a strange woman's voice but I didn't open my eyes.

"Yes, and from what I can see, it looks as if I will have to keep him here." Hazel's laughing voice came through to my brain.

"Mother! I thought you were long passed looking for that."

"Of course not Sarah. It's been a while since your father left us but we did it almost up to the end and I still miss it. I'm only fifty-six and that's not old! Still I kept my eyes closed and wondered what had provoked the comments.

"We'll have to wake them now and take Suzie home so I'm there when Janet gets in from school. You'll be free to seduce him then if you want." Sarah giggled and I guessed she took after her mother. "Come on Suzie, time to go home. You can come and see Grandpa another day." Pretending to wake, I pondered on the conversation and then realised that when I slid down the bed, the legs of my shorts had been pushed up and with the heat my prick had stiffened and poked out. Hastily I pulled the legs down and, much to the amusement of the two ladies, I blushed with embarrassment. "I hope you don't think that I..." I stuttered but they just laughed.

Of course, Suzie protested about going home and we could all tell that she was afraid her newly found grandpa would go away again but her mother didn't put up with any nonsense although she did get me to promise I would see her at the weekend. Actually it didn't take much to get me to agree. I liked my new found granddaughter and her grandmother and wondered what my life would have been like if I really had a granddaughter like her. She not only insisted on giving me a kiss but made me kiss her mother too, 'just like I always used to', she was after all, supposed to be my daughter. Sarah didn't seem to mind and I caught her winking to her mother.

"I'll make another pot of tea, the one I made you is stone cold," Hazel said when it was quiet and we sat in the kitchen, "Thank you for taking it so well. I guess it was a big shock to you to find you had a family that you knew nothing of. If you're not in too much of a rush to get back, perhaps we can talk about where we go from here. Suzie was so upset when my husband died of a heart attack and now she's so happy he's come back, even if you're not really him. I'd like it if you could see your way to visiting from time to time."

"And so you can seduce me?" I grinned.

"You heard?"

"Yes, sorry. I should have opened my eyes earlier but I won't object. What surprises me though is that you allowed a stranger to go to bed with such a young girl."

"You're not the stranger to me that I am to you. I saw you when you gave the talk on spiders to the Ladies Guild, the one where you started by saying, 'Ladies, you invited me to talk to you but I wouldn't mind betting that before long some of you will wish you hadn't', and then you produced that big hairy foreign spider and let it crawl up your arm. I think some of the ladies fainted and I felt a bit squeamish. You've also gone to Highfield School, where Sarah's other daughter Janet attends, and taken them on nature walks. She gave you a glowing report."

We spent a long time talking and laughing over the circumstances we found ourselves in and my feeling for Hazel grew but with the oppressive heat and the fact that I needed a shower and a change of clothes precluded any seduction. I did agree to visit again on Saturday morning when Suzie would be there. Hazel gave me a loving hug and kiss before she drove me home.

Tired as I was from the exertions of the day, sleep eluded me. The humid, thundery weather didn't help but it was more that my mind continually recalled, examined, re-examined and extrapolated on the events of the day and the results of what was a series of remarkable coincidences. Terry, Tom's father and a close friend of mine, died suddenly and knowing I'd taken early retirement, Tom asked me to help clear his office and to sort out his effects. We belonged to the same natural history club and when John, another member of the club, agreed to assist we expected to sort out his books and his specimen collection but in addition we found ourselves removing desks and filing cabinets and other furniture into a van. Tom agreed to buy us lunch at the local supermarket but it was not the one I normally frequented because to get to it from home meant cycling along a busy main road and I don't have a car.

That morning Hazel's shopping trip was delayed by the gas men checking the boiler in her rented council house and she decided to get a late lunch in the cafeteria instead of making sandwiches at home. So the fact that we were there at the same time in itself was remarkable and then for Suzie to 'recognise' me as her dead grandfather stretched the coincidence further. To cap it all, I'm known as Bert and so was her grandfather, albeit I'm Albert and he was Herbert. Was fate intervening and bring Hazel and I together? As an ex science teacher, I didn't really believe in supernatural forces but I had to admit to half considering some unseen force was behind it.

Hazel was attractive enough to my eyes. A pleasant, down to earth, slightly dumpy brunette with hair starting to grey and only a couple of years younger than me, made me feel as though someone above was playing matchmaker. Suzie was an added bonus. A precociously cute young child that almost anyone would love for a granddaughter. But what was I to do now? I'd agreed to go round on Saturday but for how long could we keep up the pretence of my being Hazel's husband? From the indications so far, Hazel appeared to like me and in the short time we were together, an agreeable rapport had created a bond between us. She appeared willing, even keen, to go along with the deception and I even had the feeling we could have had sex together had not the energy sapping weather and weariness thwarted it. Did I want to fuck her? Like any normal male, of course I did. It had been several years since I'd had a woman although I knew I could still perform. I masturbated enough. Did she want to have sex with me just because she'd glimpsed my prick or because she was lonely after her husband's death? For a long while I lay awake gently wanking until sweat covered my body and I had to have a quick shower.

"Are you going to give the game away?" I asked Janet when I was introduced on Saturday. Suzie had already shown her delight at my being there and then disappeared to 'go potty'.

"Mum says she will send me to school with a silent order of nuns if I do!" The ten year old had a wide grin so I guessed a sense of humour was an inherited trait.

Looking her up and down, I held her at arms length and tried to keep a straight face, "You'd probably look very attractive in a penguin suit!"

"About as handsome as you in a priest's frock! They'd probably call you Gandalf!" More seriously she added, "But I can't call you Gramps. May I call you Bert? I can't call you Sir, like when you visit us at school."

"Call me what you like if it is not too rude! And no, I don't think Gandalf is appropriate either!"

Janet and Sarah left for a swimming lesson and Suzie decided I was to be her playmate. Having absolutely no experience of playing with young children, overnight I'd thought about things I could do and decided to try doing what I knew best, natural history. "We're going to play garden detectives," I said when asked, and handed her a large magnifying glass. For an hour we looked at flowers and ladybirds and even a snail until she tired of the game but for that time she'd been excited at seeing these creatures larger than life. We went inside and I had to make up a story about a snail fighting off an attack by a bird.

"Looking after a three and a bit year old is exhausting, isn't it?" Hazel commented. I had to agree, Fortunately Sarah returned and took her home.

"Does Sarah have a husband?" I asked because no one had mentioned him.

"Divorced. He left Sarah for a college girl a few months before Suzie was born. Usual story I suppose. At least he has to pay child support so Sarah doesn't have to work full time."

I spent the rest of the day helping Hazel with some of the jobs her late husband would have done including clearing the small greenhouse. She'd given it almost no attention and was full of pots with dead or dying plants hidden amongst weeds that grew amazingly well in the hot arid conditions. "My Bert tried to grow all sorts of exotic plants and more or less kept me out of here. After he died I still didn't go in until I wanted to plant a few seeds for bedding plants and by then it was in such a state that I went to the nursery and bought plants instead." Helen's personality impressed me even more during the time we worked together. We kept up a lively banter with sexual innuendos, which, combined with amount of tit she was showing, caused my prick to stiffen several times. I'm sure she knew and did her best to provoke me. By four o'clock we were both dirty and soaked with sweat. "Husband, I think we'll need a shower before dinner." Her eyes and the tone of her voice told me she wanted more than a shower! "I'll bung our clothes in the washing machine and in this heat, yours should be dry enough for you to wear to go home... if you decide to go home tonight!"

"Wifey, are you trying to seduce me?"

"Of course. Why else would I make us work in this heat?"

Without a trace of shyness, she undressed in the utility room and I did the same, both of us glancing at each other as we shed what little clothing we had on. "You can't go home for at least a couple of hours now, not unless you are prepared to cycle in the nude." She closed the machine door and started it going. "And I doubt it would be very comfortable and with that lance of yours sticking out like that you'd be a danger to other road users. But maybe we can find a way of curing that problem." We stood staring unashamedly at each other, she at my hard and ready prick, me at her large tits that had begun to sag and at the luxuriant bush of black hair that adorned her mound and still retained its colour. I definitely liked what I saw especially the way her fulsome breasts moved when she laughed. Unquestionably she was a fun woman and a horny one at that. With unexpected speed, she grasped my prick and pulled me to her. We hugged and kissed for a few minutes until she whispered, "Let's release the tension from this sausage and shower after."

Having long since lost the exuberance of youth, we could take our time over the fucking and being mature, I could keep thrusting for a long time before releasing my sperm, not that there were any eggs left in her ovaries to fertilise. From the way she thrust her body at me and from hearing her plead for me to fuck harder, I knew she was as aroused and as horny as me. I pumped hard and deep and tried to vary the pace and angle of my thrusts. In turn she moaned with pleasure and orgasmed several times before I finally shot my load into her and, soaked with sweat, we collapsed together and lay in each other's arms. Lethargically we kissed and I suckled her tits. The phone rang but neither of us moved. "Thank you Hazel, that was wonderful," I whispered between kisses and was pleased to receive her thanks in return.

For a while we lay quietly side-by-side, cooling off a little and getting our breath back. My thoughts ran over the events of the last few days and especially to the wild fuck we'd just had. "None of your younger partners have showed the enthusiasm Helen did. I wonder if she is into other forms of more adventurous kinky sex?" I mused, recalling one girl I'd known in my twenties.

"We'd better shower." Slowly we disentangled ourselves and with a great deal of merriment soaped and washed each other. Of course, I had to make sure her tits and cunt were properly clean and she spent more time washing my prick than was really necessary.

"They're in the shower Mummy! Both of them." Suzie's shrill voice came through the open bathroom door.

"You get back down here young lady, they won't want you in there as well." We could hear the laughter in Sarah's voice.

Hazel opened the cubicle door a crack and yelled, "Put the kettle on, we'll be down in a minute." My mind visualised me meeting them stark naked but Hazel whispered, "I'll find one of Bert's dressing gowns for you." In fact she found a pair of his shorts that more or less fitted when I pulled a belt tightly around my waist and we went down to 'face the music'. Janet grinned as we entered the kitchen so I guessed that even at her young age she had some understanding of the facts of life.

Suzie jumped on to my lap when I sat at the kitchen table but after a few minutes of pouting because I wouldn't tell her a story, she went to her toy box and, despite her mother's insistence that they were only going to stay a few minutes, began scattering its contents on the floor. This time I was dragged down to help unload a Noah's ark. It was fortunate as it shielded me from Sarah's questioning. "I was worried when you didn't answer the phone." A statement but also a question.

"We cleared the greenhouse. You can check if you like and it was hot and dirty work."

It was obvious from the way she said it that she didn't expect her daughter to believe her. And she didn't. "From the state of your bed and the smell in the bedroom, it was more likely you were consummating your marriage."

"Well that too. Even us older women get horny at times"

"What's horny Nanny?" I almost laughed out loud when Suzie piped up.

"It's when I feel the need for a cuddle dear." Both Sarah and Janet grinned.

"So when I want Gramps to give me a cuddle, I'm horny?" We all burst out laughing.

Hazel seemed bemused that I helped prepare our meal. "If my Bert were here now," she told me, "He would be in the lounge reading the paper or watching telly. I don't think he ever lifted a finger to help in the kitchen." Of course it was different for me, I'd lived alone for most of my life and I wasn't into buying ready pack meals. An hour later, as we sat down to our meal, through the window we could see the sky darkening and hear the thunder of a slowly approaching storm. We rushed out and grabbed the washing from the line before the rain started.

Not long after the heavens opened and, after the lights had flickered a couple of times, the electricity went off but we had the forethought to find some candles and had them ready to light when it became dark. They created a romantic atmosphere. At least the storm gave me an excuse to spend the night with Hazel. Most of the evening we spent cuddling and talking about our lives. More and more I began to like the woman. She was fun and down to earth and made no secret of the fact that she liked sex in a variety of ways although she did wonder sometimes if that was what brought on her husband's heart attack. The storm continued and with the power still off, we decided to have an early night and another fuck. "I guess the cycling you do keeps you fit," she commented when I finally withdrew, "My Bert would have been puffed out long ago but we didn't realise he had a heart problem until it happened." I let her reminisce about Bert and the variety of ways they fucked and I looked forward to trying out some of them.

"He's here Nanny. He's in the garden!" I turned to greet the blonde bundle running full tilt down the path towards me. Before she crashed into my legs, I scooped her up, swung her around three times and laughing, cradled her in my arms. "I thought you'd gone back to heaven," she blubbered.

Hazel arrived. "Sorry she apologised, "I rang the doorbell. When you weren't in my house she thought you'd gone away again and got very upset when you weren't in the supermarket either so I came round to see if you were at home."