The Long Fall

by Daniel Quentin Steele

  I just shook my head and couldn’t keep smiling.

  “Thanks, Mona, but...it’s too early. I just want to do my job and stay close to my kids and...maybe heal up a little.’

  And then, before I could catch myself, I heard myself say, “Speaking of which....,”

  Before I shut up.

  I had known that kids were a sore point for both of them, but as something passed across her face I wondered if it had gotten even more sore.

  “No, Bill, I guess....that’s out of the picture now. Not in the cards for us.”

  I pulled her to me again and hugged her tight.

  Speaking to the back of her head, I said, “Kids are overrated Mona. God knows how Debbie and I survived Kelly’s growing up and I’m still not sure about BJ. Besides, you guys are young. Anything can still happen. You’re successful, you’re hot, you’re in love. You’re luckier than most people.”

  “Yeah....we’re lucky,” she said, pushing back and rubbing the corner of one eye.

  “Lucky at what?” Lew said coming up behind us with two drinks in his hand. “Oh, Bill, Mona flew in from Washington a few hours ago and when she heard we were going to get smashed she invited herself to our guy’s night out. You don’t mind, do you?”

  “She’s a hell of a lot easier on the eyes than you are. I’m glad she came along.”

  “For that, Mr. Maitland, you get the pleasure of my company,” she said, reaching out and grabbing my drink and handing it to Lew who juggled it along with the two he already had. “Find us a table, husband, and when Bill gets tired I might give you a dance.”

  He just grinned at her and glanced over at two tall blondes checked him out from the bar, adding, “Don’t worry, babe, if I get lonely I think I’ve already get two dance partners ready to go.”

  “In your dreams, you couldn’t handle one of them and if you tried for two you’d need IVs.”

  He grinned at her again and walked away, saying, “...but what a way to go.”

  There was live entertainment about four nights a week and they had a pretty good three-piece band playing 90s and current music hits. What they were playing was fairly fast, but Mona and I slow danced like two comfortable senior citizens. She fit into me like a piece of a jigsaw puzzle.

  “You think you and Debbie-“

  “Not in this lifetime.”

  “Lew won’t tell me, and if he can resist hot sex he can resist anything, but he did indicate that...what she did would be hard to get past. Did you get tapes or video of her with that professor boyfriend of hers? Is that why you can’t ever forgive her.”

  “That’s between me and her, Mona. The fact is, I can’t ever get past it, and even if I could, she doesn’t want to. The divorce was her idea. The boyfriend was her idea. When she called me to tell me she was divorcing me, she flat out said she didn’t love me anymore. That kind of puts a period on it. Why bother to try again?”

  “Sometimes people lie...”

  “People lie all the time, Mona. If they didn’t, Lew and I would be scratching for work.”

  “Mind if I cut in?”

  I looked over Mona’s shoulder and saw Sheila Simpson standing behind Mona. She was a little shorter than Mona, but not much. Why the hell did I attract the tall ones? She was dressed in a slinky red gown with a low cut top. These delicious oranges were moving up and down with her breathing. Her lips were redder than ripe Macintoshes. Oh, God!

  Mona looked back over her shoulder and something passed wordlessly between the two women. She faced me again and smiled, then whispered in my ear, “And so it begins,” and walked away.

  Sheila moved forward but didn’t touch me until I held my hands out to her.

  “You don’t mind my being so forward, do you Mr. Maitland,” she said, smiling and licking her bottom lip in a way that if it wasn’t illegal in most states, should be.

  “No.”

  She moved in close to me and we began to move to the music. Mona was more graceful, but Sheila had her own virtues, not the least of which the way she caressed my chest with those breasts and rubbed her thigh between my legs in what had to be obvious caressing, but apparently it was dark and everybody else must have been similarly involved.

  “I’m not after you because you have a lot of power in the office,” she said, staring into my eyes from a couple of inches away. Then she leaned in and we were kissing. A chaste kiss at first but it went on from there. She pulled back and said, “I just wanted you to know that. I’m not trying to screw my way up the ladder.”

  “I never thought you were, Sheila. But you’ve been at the office for a year. There was never a hint that....you know?”

  “I...never thought about you...that way. You...”

  “You don’t need to explain. A friend told me I had the charisma of a turnip. Fat, balding, middle-aged...not every girl’s secret dream. But, I’m still too old for you. What are you, 25? 26?”

  “Twenty four.”

  “Jesus H. Christ. I could be your father, if I’d gotten started a little early. You know how old I am, don’t you?”

  “Forty one. But you’re not my father.”

  She rubbed me with her knee again and she smiled as I throbbed against her soft flesh.

  “No, you’re definitely not my father. And some girls like older men.”

  “I shouldn’t ask, but I have to. You’re a gorgeous young woman. I know there are guys your age that would crawl across an office full of tacks on their hands and knees to be here with you. I’ve lost some weight and I went completely bald, but I’m no pinup or stud. If you weren’t interested then, why now?”

  “A couple of things. You’ve changed so much. You look younger. You’re not flabby anymore. You always move like you’re in a hurry to get somewhere. Your...ass looks more like a young man.”

  She blushed a little.

  “I know that sounds crazy, but women notice that. And...you’ve....got a hard edge. I don’t know any other way to describe it. You were always such a sweet guy. You’re not sweet anymore. I think your wife dumping you did you good.”

  “And that’s a good thing? That I’m not a nice guy anymore? “

  “If I wanted you for a mentor or a boss, yeah I’d like sweet. But...right now, rubbing myself all over you, I’m...you’re exciting.....exciting me....if you know what I mean.”

  As she started rubbing herself against me harder I started pushing back and a little purr started in her throat. I made a quick decision and drew back from her. I tried to be as casual as I could. She looked at me with a question in her eyes.

  “I’m sorry, Sheila. You can tell that you’re got me very excited. If...if you weren’t working at the State Attorney’s Office – and if this wasn’t the night it was, I’d be tempted. I’d probably wind up in bed with you. But I just lost my wife of nearly 20 years. It hasn’t been 12 hours since I was a married man. I – it’s just too soon.”

  “I’m not throwing myself at you because you’re who you are at the office, Bill.”

  “I’m not saying you are. But I’ve been watching people in offices for nearly 20 years. And a supervisor having a relationship with a subordinate almost never works out well. We couldn’t keep it secret. And people would be jealous of you, and pissed at me.

  “And if it didn’t work out....if you dumped me I probably wouldn’t be able to treat you fairly and if I dumped you, would you want to have to stay and be evaluated ultimately by me?

  “Even if we just went to bed for one night, we’d still know what happened and it would change things between us. So, I’m tempted. And if we were to meet sometime in the future and you weren’t working for the State Attorney, who knows. But you have to know it’s not because I don’t want to.....”

  She stepped further back and was about to head back toward a gaggle of girls her age when she stopped herself and licked her lips again.

  ‘Okay, Mr. Maitland, do the right thing, but....if I’d ever gotten your dick in my mouth, you’d have been the one crawling acro
ss tacks to get back to me. I am very, very good.”

  As she twitched away from me I said to myself more than anybody else, “I don’t doubt that, Ms. Simpson, I don’t doubt that one bit.”

  After that I drank a few more Bloody Mary’s and at least two straight Bourbons and one Brandy, after which I should have been hurling on general principles, but somehow I managed to throw up only once after being helped to the gentleman’s room by Lew.

  I danced with Mona, who flirted with me gently enough to make me feel good but not enough to make me feel guilty about Lew. And I danced with a tall blonde and a short brunette and two redheads who said they were twins working in a lawyer’s office two blocks away from our office.

  Some of them knew who I was. Some of them, blessedly, had no idea that I was anybody other than a short, bald, middle aged guy who worked somewhere around the courthouse. Even looking like a refuge from a bad boxing movie with a patch over one eye and fading yellowish bruises all over my face didn’t scare off a lot of them. They still danced with me. That made me feel good.

  I only thought about Debbie a half dozen times, wondering what or who she was doing

  About 1 a.m. I told Lew and Mona that it had been fun, but I had to get to the gym. My cases and my divorce were cutting into the important things in my life. Lew reminded me that I’d already been once and then I reminded him there were plenty of days when I made it by twice. Besides, if any of Carlos’ boxers were available, I might go a couple of rounds. I hadn’t been by there in awhile, maybe a week or two.

  Then Lew rather logically pointed out that I couldn’t even walk a straight line, much less handle weights and a cycling machine, or get into the ring with a strong, young, sober boxer.

  I very logically pointed out in response that you didn’t have to be able to walk a straight line to ride a cycling machine. The discussion went here and there but I could never remember the gist of it and the next thing I remember I was waking up, alone, in my bed, with the backlit clock by the bed reading 3 a.m. and I was crying like a baby about something.

  Then the world went away again.

  Friday, August 19– 9 P.M.

  “Hi, Clint.”

  She put the DVD player on hold.

  “You okay?”

  “Yeah.”

  “How did it go today? Is it done?”

  “Yeah. It’s done. 18 years of marriage and 20 years of knowing him, and we’re through.”

  “How come you don’t sound like you’re celebrating?”

  “I don’t know. Maybe because a guy I thought I’d grow old with let me and our marriage go? And I cheated on him. And now his life is fucked up and I should be happy and looking forward and instead I’m sitting here looking at DVDs of our life and wondering how everything went to shit.”

  “Would you like to go out for a drink? Just get out of there. Strictly friends.”

  “No. Thank you, Clint. But I need to be alone. I go out drinking with you and we’ll wind up back in my bed. I know I can because I’m single again..but...I can’t put it into words. You’re the word man. But I don’t feel right about it...tonight.”

  “I had a Jewish girlfriend once. You’re ‘ sitting shivah’....It’s the Jewish expression for mourning someone’s death.”

  “We’re both still around.”

  “But something real died today. You can hate the guy, or want your freedom, and still miss him. You had each other’s back for 20 years. You don’t walk away from that with no hurt, even if it’s your choice.”

  After a long silence she said, “I’m sorry Clint. You’re a good friend, but I just don’t feel like talking right now.”

  “Have a good night. Don’t get too drunk. And remember, it’ll start getting better tomorrow.”

  She sat back and clicked the DVD player back on again.

  They were standing against the railing with the Pacific sun sinking into the sea below them. It was fairly cool but she wore only an ornate low cut blouse showing off her twin splendors along with a low cut back, and he wore a tuxedo. It had been the night of the Captain’s Formal Dinner and Dance the 9th day out from Los Angeles en route to Oahu.

  The female cruise director who handled the video cam said, “Intertwine your arms and you sip from each other’s glass. And then you toast.”

  They followed her direction and she sipped champagne while he slurped his with a goofy expression that made her laugh and the bubbles went up her nose.

  She coughed and choked, “Don’t do that, dammit Bill. This is for posterity. We’ll show this to our great grands on our 50th golden wedding anniversary. Shit. You got me cursing. Can you go back and re-shoot that so we can cut out the curse words?”

  “Don’t bother,” Bill told the unseen shooter. He leaned slightly up and forward and caught her lips and they tongue wrestled for a long moment. Then he pulled away and looked into the camera. And she thought he looked so heartbreakingly young.

  ‘I want them to see us as we were, babe. We weren’t plaster saints. You were a hot piece of ass, the hottest on planet earth, and when you’re 70 and old you still will be. And I’m the goofball that swept in and won the hand of the Fair Princess against all the odds. We’ve lived a fairytale and when we’re old and wrinkled and the great-grands won’t be able to imagine us burning up the sheets, I want them to know we were young and in love once.”

  She shut the DVD off and wept.

  Saturday, August 20 – 2 A.M.

  She rolled in the bed, her heart racing. Something terrible, utterly terrifying was in the room with her. It was one of those nightmares where you know you have to wake up or you will die, but you can’t make your eyes open. And worse, she knew in the logic of dreams mixed with consciousness, that she was utterly alone in the house. Everyone was gone. Except her...and whatever was in the house with her.

  And then she was on her knees on rough cement and the smell of piss around her. She blinked and the slab of cock filled her vision and it’s male smell filled her nose and then it was pushing against her lips. She opened her lips and it slid in. It was big, hard and its owner pushed it in so hard and fast that it bruised the back of her throat before he was pulling it and then quickly fucking her mouth with it.

  She would have fallen but strong male hands held her shoulders and were keeping her upright. She found her hands filled with cock and she was squeezing and running them up and down their hardness. It was like riding a bicycle, she thought inanely. You never forget how to jerk a guy off. Hands were placed over hers and helped her rub harder and faster.

  “Oh, God, that feels good, bitch. I want her mouth.”

  “I want that cunt.”

  “Are you fucking crazy. You have any idea what kind of bugs she could be carrying. Fuck that. You get off in her mouth. That’s safer.”

  “Keep watching the damned door. I don’t want anyone coming here to take a crap until I get off.”

  “Dammit hurry up. I don’t want to come with her jerking me. Let me at her fucking mouth.”

  “Well, come on up. We’ll alternate. She’s got a pretty big mouth. She might be able to take both of us.”

  Then there were two of them, and she tried to open her mouth wider, but they wouldn’t both fit. Her head rocked back with the force of the open handed slap and she would have gone over if the pair of hands on her back hadn’t kept her upright.

  “You fucking slut, open wider or I swear to God I’ll knock your teeth out. I think they’d both fit then.”

  She tried and for an instant they managed to wedge one all the way in and the tip of the other could get inside and then there was a sudden gush of warm fluid and she was choking and gasping as the bastard who was coming started plunging it in even faster.

  “Goddamn,” one of them screamed.

  “What?”

  “Look at my dick, you fucking idiot. It’s bleeding. The bitch scraped it raw. Goddamn stupid fucking old cunt.”

  “Sorry man, I think I just gave her a cupful.”

 
“Yeah, you got off, you stupid selfish bastard. I’m fucking bleeding and you got your rocks off. I oughta fuck your ass.”

  ‘Hey...”

  “Shut up both of you. We got to finish and get out of here. The wrong person walks in here and we’re toast.”

  There was another smashing slap and she went down to the floor and hit her head hard on the cement.

  “Alright, dummie, get down there and grab her head.”

  “Why?”

  “I got to cum but I also gotta piss before leave. Why not take care of both at the same time.”

  “I’m not going to grab her head. I don’t want your piss all over me?”

  “Just hold her head and stay back. You can wash it off your hands. You don’t and I swear to God I’ll screw you over bad. You don’t wanna be looking over your shoulder for the next six months. Just get down there, grab her head and hold her mouth open. I don’t want to waste a drop.”

  Then she was being dragged to her knees and male hands held her head back and forced her mouth open.

  A moment later thick ropes of white cum were spraying all over her face, her naked breasts, her hair. So much hot white cum.

  “Whew...I needed that. Now get ready, honey, cause I’ll gonna fill your stomach.”

  A moment later she closed her eyes an instant too late and the burning yellow piss blinded her and filled her nose and went down her throat. She tried to close her mouth but the hand handing her hair yanked so hard she tried to scream but just gulped as the piss pouring down her throat swallowed the sound.

  “Hold her good, I got more.”

  And more and more. Her stomach rumbled as she swallowed involuntarily. She felt it coming back up and vomit and piss met and another hard yank on her hair made her scream, with that scream swallowed as she re-swallowed the upcoming vomit and more piss.

  They let her fall to the cool cement and with her head turned she could finally vomit and she hurled so hard her chest muscles screamed in agony.