Chapter 5

Ray Pinsky might be a miracle worker in a hospital ward, but he'd had lots of time to get acclimated to his possession of that remarkable talent.

But he found himself overwhelmed by all this praise of his sexual prowess. How would any man feel? Probably, more guys want to be Superstud than want to be President.

And Ray had no illusions. His past sexual history had been in the "A" category up until now: "A" for "adequate." He had not rocked many women's worlds in his young life.

But the idea that he had been a potential Sex God for most of the past two years - and hadn't even known about it? Well, it was less disturbing to Ray than one might expect.

For one thing, most of his current focus was on the more immediate past, which had been truly extraordinary (especially for his partner).

And Ray's remaining focus was on the immediate future — which is to say, the next thirty minutes or so. He was expecting that his newfound self-confidence (along with his now-less-urgent personal need to get off) might reward both of them with some truly memorable moments.

Sure enough, in very short order he was back in prime condition and ready to begin Round Two. Carolyn was, if anything, even more eager than he. It seems that Ray had created a miniature monster.

"Don't forget," he warned her as he gently slipped his unremarkable organ into her welcoming center, "the 'safe' word is 'meadowlark.'"

"Meadowlark," Carolyn repeated, but her next words were, "Oh, help me Jesus!"

Ray wasn't exactly without sensation at that point himself, but he remained mistrustful of Carolyn's extravagant claims about the ecstasies she had experienced earlier.

As a result, he was doing his physical best but also was holding himself a little aloof from it all, trying to observe Carolyn's reactions. He wanted to gauge whether she was truly being raised to new sexual heights by his efforts.

Evidently, she was! Her face was distorted with something that resembled pain — even agony. Ray worried about it. Once again though, he dismissed it. Surely her facial expressions couldn't mean very much. After all, he wasn't doing anything he hadn't done before with other women over the years.

He had given himself every benefit of the doubt about his newfound improved sexuality, but Ray Pinsky had always been an objective fellow. His self-assessment was that, at best, he had been only an okay lover in the past. Sometimes his partners had gotten off, and sometimes — perhaps more often than not — they had not. And Ray knew that probably fewer had gotten off with him than had claimed they did.

Women lie about such things. Quite a lot, actually. It's a kindness, Ray supposed. At least, most women think of it as a kindness.

"Oh, yeah," they'll sigh blissfully. "It was wonderful!"

But, hey, you never know: Some of those women might have actually been thinking, "Jeez, Needledick — if you couldn't get me off, could you at least just get off me?"

But now, it really wasn't possible for Ray to have much doubt. Carolyn Maxwell already was back in the throes. My God! She was so responsive! She was writhing there under him in their second consecutive Standard Missionary coupling.

Ray did what he would have done in any comparable situation — he tried to respond to his partner's movements and to match her level of enthusiasm. When Carolyn stepped up the pace, he did likewise.

This went on for quite a while. Longer, by far, than had Round One.

"Mockingbird!" Carolyn shouted out at one point.

Mockingbird?

Earlier, straining against Ray's body and once-again seemingly trying to wedge all of it inside her vagina, she had said some of the more-usual things.

"Oh, God!" she'd said. And "Gimmie it!" and "Yes! Yes!" He'd even heard a little of the one the old eighties porn queens always seemed to employ: the rhythmic "yeah ... yeah ... yeah."

But now he was getting... "mockingbird?"

What the hell?

Then it hit him. She was trying to say the "safe" word! She'd warned him that she might forget "meadowlark," and now, she had.

Immediately, Ray responded by holding himself completely still, suspended above her.

"Stop!" she hollered, but when he tried to pull out, her entire lower body followed him right up off the bed - maintaining maximum contact with his penis.

"No, no! Don't stop-stop!" she muttered, pulling him forcefully back down over her. "Just do it ... slower."

Ray did it slower.

Much slower.

"Oh, my Sweet Jesus!" Carolyn said.

They were going to have to have a discussion about religion, once this was over.

The loving couple struck a new, much less frantic rhythm now, and Ray began to understand what was happening. Carolyn was coming on his eager cock with every stroke. She was treating him like the World's Best Vibrator.

No more sermonizing. No utterances at all. She was intensely concentrating on the continuous chain of orgasms she was getting.

It felt pretty good from Ray's side, too. It was a maelstrom there inside her, and her tight little organ was playing Ode to Joy on his own.

Finally, after what seemed like fifteen minutes of crescendo, Carolyn muttered "mockingbird" again. This time, when Ray stopped and pulled out, she raised no protest.

"Oh, God, John ... Ray!" she said. "Oh, listen - I'm sorry - but I gotta sleep now!"

He let her sleep. Ray learned then how legions of women must have felt when their male partners, immediately after getting what they'd come for, had dropped off into dreamland.

When it was almost noon and Carolyn was still sleeping, he called the desk and told them he'd be staying over for another night.

Ray Pinsky, World's By God Greatest Lover, had a girlfriend.

He didn't want to go out and see how many women there were to whom he could deliver shock and awe. He wanted this one. This woman: Carolyn Maxwell of Somewhere Around Douglasville, Georgia, just west of Atlanta.

He had rocked this young woman's world. Of that much, he could now be confident.

It wasn't pride Ray was feeling, either. He knew it hadn't really been just ol' Ray Pinsky who'd brought her to these heights any more than it was his personal triumph to have cured a couple of thousand people of their assorted maladies.

It was a gift he had received. Sender unknown.

Judging by the smile on Carolyn Maxwell's sleeping face, it was a gift that kept on giving.

Ray was facing a classic approach-approach conflict. He wanted — he needed - to keep on traveling, bringing good health and (he hoped) happiness to hundreds of people.

He also wanted to be with Carolyn Maxwell, twenty-four/seven, for the next century or so.

Carolyn's cell phone rang at one point. It didn't seem right for Ray to answer it, so he didn't. Not for quite a long time. But it kept ringing, so Ray finally picked up.

"Who's this?" the man on the line said when Ray answered. "Is this Carolyn's phone?"

"It is, yes," Ray said. "She — ahh - can't come to the phone right now. Can I take a message?"

"This is her dad. I didn't see her this morning after her shift. Is she still at the hospital?"

"No, sir. She's not. She's here at my ... house. I'm a friend. She was very tired, and she's just taking a little catnap. She'll call you back soon."

"She's okay, though?"

"She's great, sir. Don't worry. She'll be calling you back within an hour or two."

"Have her call me on my cell," her father said. "I'm on my way to the doctor's office."

"Everything okay?" Ray asked.

"Everything's just fine, thanks," he said. "Better than that, even. Thanks for asking. Who is this, anyway?"

"We haven't met, sir," Ray said. "I'm just a ... a colleague of Carolyn's, from the hospital."

"Okay. Tell her I called, please."

"I will."

Carolyn slept until almost three that afternoon. She woke up, smiled at Ray sitting in the chair near the window, and said, "meadowlark!"

"Want some breakfast?" Ray asked. "Cracker Barrel serves breakfast anytime."

"Is it late?"

"Almost three," he told her.

"Holy moley!"

"Yeah."

"John ... I mean, Ray. That was ... jeez! Amazing!"

"Yeah."

"I feel like such a cliché!" Carolyn said. "I keep wanting to say, 'I never knew it could be that way!' and that's so ... such a Harlequin Romance kind of thing to say!"

"I'm thrilled that you feel that way," Ray told her, "but don't give me much credit for it. It was as new to me as it was to you. I've never — ever - had that kind of ... success in bed before."

"It's your gift," she said. "Boy, that's some nice gift you got!"

"I'm staying over for another night," he said.

"Goody!" Carolyn said. "I'm off tonight! Maybe I could ... stay over, too? Would that be all right?"

"More than all right," he said. "But your dad called. He wants you to call him on his cell. Said he was headed for the doctor's office."

"What did you tell him about ... where I was?"

"I told him we were colleagues from the hospital and that you were napping on my couch. Well, I said you were napping. The implication, I hope, was that it was on my couch."

"You didn't happen to mention you'd fucked my brains out all morning long?"

"That seemed a bit on the delicate side, for a conversation with a parent."

"Yeah, I guess. I think I want to tell him, though. Dad and I have been pretty close. He'll be pleased to know that I have gotten well-and-truly laid."

"Tell him what you like," Ray said amiably. "He's your father. But call him. He's probably had time to have seen his doctor by now, and my guess is he's eager to tell you what the doctor said about his diabetes."

"I know that doctor," she said. "He'll want to interview Dad at length, so he can write a paper. This might be his shot at the New England Journal of Medicine."

"Your dad's going to be investigated in connection with the hospital mass-cure incident," Ray told her. "It's bound to happen. His doctor will see the relationship immediately."

"I guess that means you shouldn't just hang around town indefinitely," she said.

"I was planning to leave when you left tonight for work."

"I don't have to work tonight."

"Yeah, I know that now," he said.

"You getting nervous?" Carolyn asked.

"Well. I don't feel as if there's exactly imminent danger of discovery. But over the next few days, they're going to be looking at this whole incident very hard. The hospital staff, other physicians. Even the police."

"They'll want to question me some more," she said.

"No doubt."

"Should I lie about you being at the house?"

"Somebody might have seen me come in with you yesterday morning," Ray said.

"Yeah."