Chapter 9

The Graystones pulled into the church parking lot and parked in one of the few handicap parking spaces. Charlie hated it when his parents parked in them, but didn't say anything, knowing they didn't want to walk any further than they had to. As he exited the back seat of his parent's car, he saw Jenny walking towards him, her smile telling him she was very happy to see him.

"Hi," he said, returning her smile.

"Hi, Mr. and Mrs. Graystone," she said, acknowledging his parents as she took his extended hand.

"Good morning, Graystones," Pastor Scott greeted them enthusiastically, extending his hand to grasp Steve's hand.

"Pastor," Steve said, shaking the other man's hand.

"Tracy and I were wondering if the two of you would join us for lunch after the service." the Pastor asked. "Since our children are getting to know each other better, we thought that it would be a good thing for the four of us to do the same."

"That sounds like a wonderful idea," Linda replied, looking to her husband for confirmation.

"Good, we'll meet out here when service is over," the pastor told them.

The service started with two hymns, which were followed by a few announcements of upcoming events. Then an older gentleman went to the podium and had everybody stand before he offered prayer for offering that was about to be received. When he sat down, a young lady stood, and with a slight nod of her head, the soundman started an accompaniment tape, and her beautiful soprano voice filled the sanctuary a few seconds later. After she finished, the pastor waited for her to find her seat before he entered the podium and organized his notes.

Linda's participation in the service was lukewarm at best. She usually enjoyed the Sunday Services, but she just could not get her mind into it this morning. It had been a week since she and Steve had invited Charlie into their bedroom, and the desires to have him in bed again been playing in her mind. Now the Pastor and his wife invited them to lunch. She and Tracy had chances to become friends over the summer, but had somehow only remained acquaintances. "Maybe now is the time that will change," she thought to herself.

Her eyes moved to the right front pew in the sanctuary where she knew she would find Tracy Scott. Linda thought she was in her mid-thirties, but was not certain. "She is very pretty," she thought, just as Tracy turned her head and smiled at her. "What would she think of us if she knew about our sex lives?" was her next thought. "I hope she can't read minds!"

Tracy looked at her husband who had just finished reading scripture and was starting on his first point. One of the things she appreciated most about her husband's preaching style, was that he always maintained that the human mind could only absorb as much as the human butt could endure. Consequently, he kept his sermons short, sweet, and to the point. In earlier days, she listened to his sermons carefully, but when he started repeating old sermons, she found her mind wandering to other things.

This morning, she found herself thinking about the conversation she had with Jenny when she returned home from her date with Charlie a week ago. Howard had gone to bed early so he would be fresh and well-rested to preach the next morning. She was sitting in the living room, reading a book, and waiting for Jenny to come home. When the front door quietly opened, she rose to her feet and met her daughter in the foyer. By the look on her daughter's face, she knew that something had happened, but it was not what Jenny had wanted. She took her daughter's hand, guided her back to the living room, and sat her down on the sofa.

"Why the long face?" she asked, tenderly.

Jenny sat silent for several long moments. She appreciated her mother's presence, but she appreciated her silence more. She needed these moments to decide if she was going to tell her mother everything.

"You can tell me, Sweetie," Tracy soothed.

Jenny took a deep breath and slowly let it out. She dropped her chin to her chest and began to speak. "We went to the park and took a walk. We found a nice place to sit and talk. It was really nice, you know?"

Tracy nodded her head and smiled gently at her daughter.

"We started kissing and..." Jenny paused and took another deep breath, "We got undressed and he was on his back. We were about to do it when two cops stopped us."

It was probably the most difficult thing in Tracy's life to suppress the laugh that threatened to destroy the moment. "Oh, uh, oh," she finally mumbled.

"One of them was Mr. Gunther."

"I see," the mother said, understanding the embarrassment her daughter was feeling.

" ... That whosoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life." She heard her husband say.

However much she tried to not to think about the rest of the conversation, she could not get it out of her mind. "Mom, Charlie told me what happened when he lost his leg."

"About the accident?" she asked.

"What happened before that," Jenny paused, and shifted her position so she could look directly into her mother's eyes. "He and his aunt and his mother, ah, did what we did."

"Oh," Tracy said, as the realization of her daughter's words filtered through her mind. "Oh, my God."

"You aren't going to say anything to Daddy about it, are you?" Jenny asked.

"Uh, no, no. It's none of his business," Tracy said, as she squeezed her legs together as the tingling feeling she was feeling down there quickly developed into a strong quiver of excitement.

" ... If we confess our sins, he will forgive us," the pastor said.

"But we must be willing to change our habits. Change the things that put us in the path of temptation."

"That's the thing," she silently said to herself. "All my life I lived a clean, goody two shoes life. What happens if I want to experience the other side?"

Linda Graystone gave up trying to listen to the sermon. Instead, she started thinking about her sexual actions over the past several months. Sue had sparked a flame in her that, even if Linda could extinguish it, she did not want to. She knew that Charlie would join her in her bed again, but that wasn't what was bothering her this morning. What was bothering her was how hard she had to squeeze her legs together when she thought, "I wonder what it would be like to have her between my legs?" while she looked at Tracy Scott.

She was trying desperately to put these thoughts aside when she felt Steve get to his feet. She quickly stood up as she realized that the pastor was giving the benediction.

" ... May the peace of God be with you and may his grace shine upon you. Amen."

Linda and Steve made their way to the door, shaking a few hands and greeting their fellow parishioners. They waited patiently for the pastor and his wife to finish doing the things pastors do after church. Thankfully, the wait was short, and after a short discussion, it was decided that they would meet a nice restaurant that was just around the corner from the church, and Charlie and Jenny would find some place else to eat.

"You've been members of the congregation for quite awhile, haven't you?" Howard asked, once they were seated.

"We've attended off and on, but we have tried to be more faithful in our attendance lately." Steve offered.

"Did Charlie's accident make you want to attend more?" Pastor Scott asked.

"Yes. He also met this girl and, well, if he wants to attend, why shouldn't we?" Linda said, with a smile that did not give away the uneasy feeling she was having sitting across from Tracy.

"We would like to talk to you about that," the pastor chuckled, as did his wife.

"I hope Charlie hasn't made a pest of himself." Linda said, with concern in her voice.

"Oh no. He is a nice kid, we like him, and so does Jenny," the pastor assured the parents. "Let me tell you what I told him."

Linda and Steve briefly glanced at each other and braced themselves, not knowing what the pastor had said.

"I told him that, over the summer, I have come to like him, come to trust him, and because of that, allowed him to go out with my, our, daughter."

"He is a good kid," Linda said, feeling proud of her son.

"I also told him to respect the standards we raised her with, meaning, not to touch her in any way that I wouldn't," the pastor explained.

Linda smiled graciously at the pastor and his wife. She looked quickly to Steve before she spoke. "That's fine. You wouldn't mind me have the same conversation with Jenny then?"

When Pastor Scott just stared at her with a slight confused look on his face, Linda continued. "In the past, boys have been the aggressor, but we know that, more and more, girls have become much more assertive."

"Well, uh, yes," the pastor stammered.

"After all, we have raised Charlie with certain standards as well." Linda said, smiling, as she looked the pastor in the eye.

"We think that would be a wonderful idea," Tracy said, laying her hand on her husband's forearm.

The conversation shifted to more neutral subjects and they found that they had more in common than either couple would have imagined. Steve and Howard discovered a mutual love of fishing, golf, and the outdoors in general. Linda and Tracy discovered they enjoyed fitness, reading, and crossword puzzles.

Pastor Scott insisted on paying when they finished their lunch, and as the Graystones started towards their car, Tracy handed Linda a slip of paper.

"Call me."

Linda looked at the paper in her hand and realized it was her friend's cell phone number.

"Maybe we could work-out together." Tracy said.

"I usually run early in the morning, before work." Linda said.

"That's perfect. I start at five o'clock. What about we meet in front of your place?" Tracy asked.

Linda was careful not to wake Steve the next morning because, although, she was a morning person, he was not. She quietly walked to the master bathroom and closed the door before turning the light on, then slipped out of her pajamas and looked at herself in the mirror. "Good morning, you gorgeous thing," she whispered to the reflection.

After washing her face and brushing her hair into a ponytail, she put her sports bra on and then a t-shirt followed by her panties and running shorts. She glanced at her reflection one last time before turning the light out and stepping into the bedroom.

"Have a good run," Steve said groggily, and went right back to sleep. Linda stepped outside and took a deep breath of the cool early morning air. She considered this time of day hers. There was nobody around to bother her, nobody plying for her time. Nobody to...