Chapter 42

It would be a lie to say things were all better immediately. But the long talk Marian and Johnnie Sue had did help a great deal. It took a couple of weeks, but then things were back to normal. Bernadette got Hilda Mae and her brother together and shakily repeated some of what she had heard their mother confess. The other two were shocked as well, but it was different coming from a third person ... not quite so personal.

“Mamma needs to find herself another man,” said Hilda Mae at one point. “She needs a good man in her life ... somebody to treat her like Moses treats me.”

That thought was a little weird for her older brother and sister, and they scoffed at first. But that thought stayed with them.

Flossie continued her crusade to get Marian into college, especially after what Nathan told her when they were in bed together one night. He only told her part of what Bernadette had relayed, but she agreed immediately with Hilda Mae’s take on things. Over the next couple of days, she got together all the information that would be needed to enroll Marian as a Freshman at the University of Missouri at Kansas City. UMKC had a teacher’s program, specifically designed to supply teachers to the rapidly growing population of Kansas City. A number of veterans of the Korean Conflict, disillusioned with blue collar jobs after they came home, had sought teaching jobs as an alternative, and the University had put in place a program that welcomed older students. There was every likelihood, she insisted, that Marian wouldn’t be the only person over twenty-five if she attended.

In April Johnnie Sue practically squirted out a Caucasian baby in a labor that only lasted four hours. He was named Thomas Thorpe, after Luthor’s paternal grandfather. By the time he was born, little Thomas, had a forty-year-old Godmother who had completed almost two semesters of study toward a Bachelor’s degree in Elementary Education.

It hadn’t been as easy as any of them had hoped. Marian’s children had to help her with her homework much more often than she had ever helped them with theirs. But, as time passed, her confidence level rose, and by the time she was able to hold Thomas in her arms, she was convinced that she would, in three years, be a real, live teacher.

She was, to her chagrin, the oldest student in her class. She reminded Flossie of that regularly.

The next year, she came home one day all a-flutter. One of her professors from the previous year, had calmly informed her that her course of study would not bring her back to any of his classes, and that he was therefore free to ask her to have dinner with him.

“Too bad he probably has warts and no hair or something,” said Hilda Mae, as they gathered for one of their weekly communal suppers.

“Not at all!” said her mother. “He’s gorgeous!” She blushed. “I mean he’s a perfectly normal looking man.” She was flustered and went on. “He has that dark Mediterranean look, like he’s from Greece, or Spain or something.”

“So did you accept?” asked Johnnie Sue.

“Well, I couldn’t just dash the poor man’s hopes,” said Marian in a dignified voice.

“Is he married?” asked Nathan. When everyone stared at him he shrugged. “You know how many domestic disturbances I’ve been to where some married guy was getting a little on the side and his wife found out?”

“Nathan Wilson!” said his mother, her voice horrified. “I do not plan to ... give some man a little on the side!”

“Just make sure he isn’t married before you go out with him,” counseled Curtis Lee sagely. “Just in case.”

“In case what?” asked Marian.

Nathan grinned. “In case he’s like Curtis Lee and me. All us men are the same, you know. We only have one thing on our minds.”

Marian spluttered and blushed, while Bernadette glared at her husband, and brother.

“You two shut up!” she said forcefully. “If my beautiful Mamma wants to go out and have a good time, you leave her alone!”

“All I’m saying is that men...” Curtis lee was grinning, but Bernadette cut him off like a weed.

“We all know what you’re saying! You just hush your mouth. I’ll talk to you later!” she said indignantly.

“In the bedroom?” The hope in Curtis Lee’s voice matched the grin on his face.

The men were shouted down by the women, and dinner progressed. If the men would have heard the women talking after supper, as they got Marian into a bedroom and began instructing her on how to dress, and act, to get a man so horny that he’d be wrapped around her little finger, they would have cackled.

But they didn’t hear.

They didn’t see Marian blush as her daughters gave her explicit tips on exactly how to enslave a man in bed. She was practically panting when they finally stopped. Just talking about it had gotten them all excited, and they left to go find their men ... to have a little talk. Marian, unfortumately, not having a man, just stayed horny.

Robert Gates was not, as it turned out, married. He was divorced, and had been for five years. The turmoil of that divorce had convinced him that women weren’t worth the pain.

But Robert Gates was a man, and both Nathan and Curtis Lee had not mispoken. When Bob heard that sybilant Southern accent that flowed from Marian Wilson’s mouth in his class, he felt his nuts tighten. She had fascinated him the whole semester. She had a presence about her that made the young girls in his class seem like puppies, scampering about with no idea of what life was all about, and not caring. Her maturity was so refreshing that she captivated him. She wasn’t hard on the eyes either. She wore her hair in an older style, and dressed the same way, but her clothes couldn’t hide the lush figure under them. When he compared that to the relatively flat-chested young women he had been surrounded by for years, his fingers itched to see what she would feel like under them.

He was further taken by her stubborn intent to do this thing she was trying to do. That it was difficult for her was obvious. She hadn’t been in school for decades, and she was far behind the times, but, with dogged determination, she did what it took to pull herself along. On the other hand, her life experiences gave her the edge over her younger classmates. She understood real pain, and real love, and all the other emotions that the eighteen-to-twenty-four crowd just flirted with. She understood sacrifice. She had character, and he found her irresistible.

Somewhat unconsciously, he had kept himself in shape, as his subconscious mind tried to compete with men half his age for the nubile young things that surrounded them all. He’d had an almost-fling or two with his younger female students, but they always left him feeling like there had to be so much more. His wife had been self-possessed and opinionated in that way that didn’t require rational support for one’s opinion. She felt that way, and that was good enough for her. She had also been a ladder-climber, constantly harping on him for not seeking a higher rung on his own scholastic ladder. She wanted to be married to the President of the university, not just a professor. When he found out she was fucking the Dean of Students, he cut her loose, and had been more or less bitter ever since.

It was for all these reasons that he was astonished to find that, when Marian Wilson glided into his classroom, his prick misbehaved badly.

It was, in fact, misbehaving badly now, as she sat across from him, in a dress that showed way more creamy cleavage, and was way more up-to-date than anything she had ever worn in his class. In addition to looking positively ravishing, she also looked distinctly uncomfortable.

“I’m sorry,” he said instinctively. He had been looking at her breasts. “I find myself having difficulty behaving like a gentleman.”

“Oh, never mind,” she said, looking surprised that she’d said it. “I’m just not used to men paying any attention to me.”

Bob knew, from looking at her records, that she was a widow, and had been for more than a year. “I find that incredibly hard to believe,” he said, meaning it.

They hadn’t even ordered yet.

She fanned her face with her hand and blushed. “Dear me,” she said in that gorgeous Southern drawl. “It appears that my children might have been right.” The look in his dark eyes ... the naked desire there ... made her feel faint.

“Your children?” he asked. His ex-wife had hated children. She’d have had her perfectly healthy uterus cut out if she could have found a doctor who would do it.

“I have three,” she said, feeling a little less light headed. “They’re all grown now. I have grandbabies!” she said.

“I’d like to hear about them sometime,” he said. “What did your children say?”

“My son,” Marian blushed at the fact that she was actually going to tell this man, “reminded me that all men are alike, and only want one thing.”

“Your son is a wise man,” commented Bob.

Marian felt her eyes open wide, and her stomach do flip flops. He was so open about all this! A Southern man would never have been so blatant!

Bob saw that he had shocked her.

“I apologize again,” he said, leaning back. “My only excuse is that you fascinate me.”

“Me?” she squeaked. She was ... fascinating? “Why, you hardly know me!”

“Which is why we are here,” he said smoothly. “I want very badly to get to know you better ... much better.”

Marian felt her nipples start to tingle. What he had said could be taken in so many different ways. No man had ever told her, in so many words, that he wanted to make her squeal in bed. In all the things she had ever done with Harvey, never had they talked about what to do, or why to do it. It had just progressed, each able to see, in some mysterious fashion, what the other needed.

“I’m making you uncomfortable,” he said, looking downcast. “Perhaps we should do this another time?” It was obvious he meant just being together on a date, rather than anything intimate.

Marian felt panic. She didn’t want to leave this man’s presence. She liked how open and honest he was, even if it made her feel wiggly inside.

“Nonsense,” she said, getting control of her voice. “We’re both adults.” She had a thought. “Even if I’m only a helpless Sophomore,” She smiled tentatively. “Are all Northern men as ... comfortable as you are with a woman?”

He laughed, and Marian felt her insides melt at the beauty of it.

“I don’t know that I’d characterize myself as comfortable with you. You make me feel things that are definitely not appropriate for a first date ... with a Sophomore or any other woman.”

Marian was only mildly shocked to feel herself becoming ... damp. It made her feel naughty, somehow.

“You want to know a secret?” she whispered across the table, suddenly feeling free to be naughty. “My ... thoughts are not so pristine either.” She leaned back to see how he dealt with honesty that was completely out of line for a dignified Southern woman.

His dark eyes glinted, and his smile was feral. She recognized that hungry smile, and was astonished to find that it didn’t bother her. She felt desirable for the first time in a long, long time.

“Do they have hamburgers down there in ... wherever you came from?” asked Bob.

She giggled. “Of course they do. It’s not a foreign country! It’s called Catfish Hollow.”

He only raised one eyebrow. “I have to hear about that too,” he said.

He looked around. He had chosen this place because it was posh, and they let you take your time. He hadn’t wanted to be rushed through dinner. He felt differently now.

“You want to get a burger?” he asked.

“You sound like you’re in a hurry to get this over with and take me home,” she pouted.

“I can’t take you home. I don’t know where you live,” he said.

She had been unsure about whether seeing the farm ... or the people at the farm ... would get things off to a bad start, and had therefore driven into the city to meet him there. His next comment interrupted her slight feeling of guilt at hiding who her children were.

“If we got this over with, as you characterize it ... the only home I could take you to would be ... mine.”

Marian fanned her face again, blushing furiously. “Oh, my dear!”

“Of course we could stay here and spend the next two hours dining peacefully, if you prefer,” he said gently, realizing how flustered she was. He didn’t normally behave this way. He blamed it on how he reacted to her mere presence.

Marian realized she was making a fool of herself. If she stayed here, like this, for two more hours, they’d have to throw out the chair she was sitting on.

“A hamburger would be delightful!” she blurted. She wanted to cover her face with her hands.

Before she could, though, he was out of his chair and pulling hers back as she stood automatically. She resisted the impulse to look at the seat of her chair. She needed to change her panties. They had been unashamedly supplied, along with the matching bra and garter belt she was wearing, by her younger daughter. They were lacy in the extreme - you could actually see through them - and the panties were of the new bikini style, that rode high on the hips, and covered as little as the bra. When she’d first put that on, she had to tug and pull to get it to completely cover her nipples, and the brown circle of flesh around them. The undergarments were black, too, which made her honey-colored hair seem to gleam in the light. Still, when she’d stared at her reflection in the mirror, her thought had been “Not bad for an old girl!”

His hand, in the small of her back, pressing gently as he guided her toward the front of the restaurant, made her feel like she was running a fever. When they stepped out into the evening air she welcomed the cool breeze. Spring came late around here, at least by her reckoning. He took her to their cars, which were parked side-by-side. He had been standing negligently beside his, leaning on the fender, when she pulled into the parking lot and parked beside him.

“Yours or mine?” he asked. His was probably only three years old. Her dusty old station wagon looked like a mongrel dog next to his, but he was sweet for asking.

“Yours,” she said. “I’m practically a stranger here. I had to have them draw me a map to find this place.”

“Ahhhh,” he sighed, heavily. “You tempt me to get you hopelessly lost. Then you’d be dependent on me and I could have my way with you.”

He grinned to show he didn’t mean it, but it didn’t do any good. Marian felt almost panic as she felt the urge to throw herself on this man who made her feel so attractive and ... yes ... even sexy!

“I, sir, am a Southern lady, and as such, am reserved and proper at all times,” she almost panted. “You would be a cad of the worst stripe to take advantage of little old me under circumstances, such as you have described. I must warn you, Sir, that I have my limits.” She waited for the faint look of disappointment to register on his face, and there were more flip-flops in her belly. Then she went on. “And if you keep talking to me like that, I will not be responsible for any indelicate behavior I may display. Now, I must really insist that you buy me a hamburger before I throw myself at you like a hussy!”

The disappointment flashed into a wide smile.

“A hamburger for the Lady, most quickly!” he barked, as if he were yelling at an invisible fry cook. “Then...” he paused dramatically and twirled imaginary moustaches, “I shall let you ravish me most thoroughly ... heh, heh, heh.” His eyes slowly dropped, plainly with full intention, to the deep cleavage below her chin.

In the car, Bob intended to be the consummate gentleman. As he calmly negotiated through traffic that terrified Marian, he peppered her with questions about her children. He approved volubly when he found out Nathan was a policeman. He got out of her roughly where Catfish Hollow was, and was disappointed when she didn’t know how it got its name. Then he volunteered that he had been raised in Massachusetts.