irrepressible tears.
'Don't bother to make dinner,' he'd said, 'I'm picking Rick and MaryAnn up from school this afternoon… and we'll eat out and take in a movie!'
It had been the first night since their wedding that they hadn't made love, and Laura felt overwhelmed by the implications of this depressing fact. The beautiful dream she'd created of her marriage seemed to be bursting before her very eyes like a giant soap bubble.
Don felt very unsure of himself as he left work early to go pick up his stepchildren. He regretted having been so blunt with Laura, but it really seemed the only way he could get through to her sometimes… and even now, he was certain that she didn't understand a word of what he was saying. Doubts plagued him about the wisdom of his decision… maybe Laura was right after all, and he should just let the whole thing drop… but on the other hand, the memory of the kid's faces as they demanded answers to their questions that night at dinner haunted him, and made him hold firm. They needed some kind of guiding hand all right… there was no doubt about that. Otherwise one day he and Laura might have real trouble on their hands. Better to nip the whole thing in the bud! As the idiomatic phrase ran through his brain, for some reason Don visualized the twin young buds of his young stepdaughter's breasts, as they had presented themselves to him three quarters bare across the table at Il Faro's. She was going to have some build when she was fully grown, considering that she was only fourteen now!
He tried to dismiss the thought from his head as he approached the school, but he started wondering again about just how much experience MaryAnn had had… was she seeing boys? He recalled the odd pressure on his knee the other night at the restaurant, and although his mind told him it had to have been a mistake, his dormant penis leapt to semi-erect state.
Don was sure that it was because he had gone a night without making love to his wife's lusciously responsive body. His own body had grown accustomed to the luxury of their daily lovemaking, and he was surprised at how much he felt its lack.
As he arrived at the school block he saw hundreds of children of various ages swarming around, and he drove slowly looking for his. He had knocked on their doors that morning telling them first that they'd better get to school that day no matter how they felt, and second, that he was going to pick them up afterwards. Now, after several minutes had passed and still he didn't see them, Don worried that his invitation had sounded more like some kind of punishment than anything else. Suppose they just didn't bother to show up!
Just as he was getting ready to drive off, the side door of the Chevy opened and a sultry young voice inquired, 'Looking for me, handsome?'
He jumped and turned to see MaryAnn getting into the car beside him.
'Where is your brother?' he inquired, looking around.
'Oh, Rick has track practice and he was sure you wouldn't mind just taking me out anyway. They're finishing up the season… you know only a few more weeks of school before vacation.' MaryAnn adjusted her short miniskirt across her thighs and reclined against the car seat.
'Oh…' Don answered. This wasn't quite what he'd had in mind, but he supposed there was no reason why he couldn't try to make friends with MaryAnn by herself.
'Well, where would you like to go for dinner?' he asked, starting up the car. 'And I thought we might take in a movie after… would you like that?'
MaryAnn looked sideways at her stepfather. He really wasn't bad, she thought… and a movie would be fun… she knew just the one she wanted to see! She was prepared to enjoy herself. Something about her newly acquired womanly status made her feel very sure of herself, very superior. Now she really knew what it was all about, and her sweet young genitals reminded her almost constantly of their most recent plunder by sending little sparkles shooting through her from time to time. She gazed out the window as they headed for her favorite Chinese restaurant and thought lovingly of her brother, and of his expanding knowledge of her body and its secret pleasures.
As she and her new father walked into the restaurant, she was sure that the people who turned to watch them walk past thought they were lovers, and she giggled at the thought. When they sat down and Don asked her why she'd giggled, she told him, and he said, 'Don't be silly… you're just a child!' He almost bit his tongue after he said it… why he was beginning to sound just like Laura, for crissakes! Why was he always letting MaryAnn get the better of him? Obviously, she wasn't quite the child either he or Laura thought she was, as he gleaned from her answer. Batting her long silken eyelashes as she had seen her mother do, she replied.
'I'm not a child, Daddy,' she called him for the first time, '… I'm a woman. Can't you tell?'
'Fine…' Don answered gruffly. 'Now what do you want to eat?'
MaryAnn smiled calmly to herself and glancing at the menu, started to order.
It was pitch dark by the time they reached the movie theater and Don was glad. He felt somehow safer in the dark with his young charge. And what a charge she was!
He couldn't quite believe what had gone on under the table of the Chinese restaurant, but his earlier suspicions had been definitely confirmed. MaryAnn had taken every opportunity to brush her knees against him, and once she had even dropped her fork and bent low to pick it up, letting her fingers trace a few inches up his pants leg. He still felt a little shaky about the whole thing, and didn't even bother looking at the billboard outside the theater to see what movie it was that MaryAnn had insisted upon seeing. He noticed that she nodded to the ticket taker who seemed to know her and also noted that the same fellow gave him a very curious look.
But once they were inside the large movie theater, he was caught up in the coming attractions that were flashing on the screen, and looking forward to munching the candy and popcorn he and MaryAnn had bought, he pushed all the embarrassing events of the early evening to the back of his mind. A great picture was coming next, one that he was sure his wife would like to see and made a mental note to mention it to her. He settled into the comfortable seat that reclined slightly under his weight and resolved to make up with Laura that very evening. It was too lonely being angry with her.
It was just possible that he was exaggerating things anyway… maybe the way MaryAnn and her brother were reacting was normal for their ages. He'd have to get a book on adolescents and find out. Meanwhile, he intended to try to relax and enjoy the movie.
MaryAnn began munching on her popcorn. This was her favorite movie theater… the one she always came to, where they thought she was over sixteen. She recalled how a couple of times men had sat down next to her during the movies and started to push their legs annoyingly against her thighs. She had always jumped right up and changed her seat. It was funny, she thought, to be here for the first time with someone else. A cartoon came on, and she impatiently waited for it to end, the main feature being a film of special interest to her. She had already seen it twice, and now she was very interested to see her new stepfather's reaction to certain scenes. She wasn't quite sure why it was happening, but she was feeling very strange tinglings whenever she looked at Don. After all, she had actually seen him making love to her mother and heard the incredible things he made her feel. Now that she had had such delightful experiences with her brother, she found it hard to stop imagining what it would be like to be made love to by a grown man… by her own daddy!
Kiss my yellow flower.
The title of the movie scrawled over the screen beneath its original Swedish name and then superimposed over a woman's naked belly and navel came the credits.
While Don watched, in astonishment, the oversized shot of the woman's stomach began to twist and turn slowly beneath the changing credits.
'What kind of movie is this anyway?' he thought… but before he could even complete the thought, the answer was clear, for the camera moved upwards on the woman's lean and lovely torso until it panned fully upon her firmly pointed breasts. Two enormous nipples stared out from the screen in full Technicolor and as the credits slowly disappeared from the wide screen, two black hands reached out from behind the woman's body and grabbed a full rounded white breast in each palm.
Don jumped and was visibly disturbed. He looked around him sheepishly, wondering what people would think of him for bringing his young stepdaughter to such a movie. But all eyes were riveted to the screen and no one seemed the least bit interested in what was going on around them. Don turned uneasily to MaryAnn.
