by Jack
He jumped up to look at Jill, to hold her in his arms … but she was gone. "Jill? Jill?" He ran to the house and searched for her amongst the party guests. He called her name over and over. He grabbed one woman from behind who had hair the color of Jill’s hair. She screamed.
Eric caught him and said, "Hey, hey buddy. What’s happening? Jill said goodbye and left. She asked me to tell you goodbye and it was nice to see you again."
Jack tightened his grip on Eric’s arm. Eric glared at him. "What is wrong with you?"
"Did she say anything else?" Jack demanded.
"No, she didn’t." Eric laughed and teasingly feigned a punch to Jack’s stomach. "From the looks of her when she left, I’d say you broke her heart. Congrats old buddy. Even Steven, if you ask me."
* * * *
Love waits for no man.
Jack plodded up Fantasy Hill the next morning. Valentine’s Day wasn’t his favorite day of the year any longer.
He saw couples smiling and chasing each other in and around the trees in the natural park on Fantasy Hill. It disgusted him. All these couples out here on Valentine’s Day. It’s like any other day. What’s the big deal? He tromped around a meadow of grass. The ground was laden with couples lying in each other’s arms. Giggling, laughing and teasing one another. He tried not to look but his eyes were drawn to their love and happiness.
Face it, old man, you blew it. It wasn’t like he’d done it on purpose. He’d fallen down the rotten hill, right here on Fantasy Hill.
Coming out of the meadow and through the grove of trees, he came upon a confectionery stand selling coffee and condiments like hot dogs. His nostrils curled in disgust at the scent of the food, but he decided coffee would be good. He should take a rest. His head hurt so much. He hoped he wasn’t headed for another coma.
An old man at the food stand smiled at him under his bushy mustache. "What can I get for you, son?"
"Coffee, please, strong and black."
"Whoa, you must have a serious problem. Black coffee is only for the desperate." He poured some into a paper cup. "Are you sure you can handle it?"
"God damn it. I’ve got the most serious problem of all."
"Lost your lady love, did ya?"
Jack looked at the old man with a scowling face. "How’d you guess?"
The old man’s chuckle was soft and friendly. "Don’t get your shorts in a knot, young man. That’s a world wide problem."
Jack realized how rude he had been. "Sorry." He took a big gulp of his coffee. "You see, she didn’t wait for me. She said she loved me but she didn’t wait. I loved her and still she didn’t wait."
"Hey," the old man pointed a crooked finger at Jack. "There are no guarantees in life, especially with women. Haven’t you learned by now that you have to fight for your woman? Fight hard. Constantly convince and prove your love?"
"Yeah, well, I was sick for 4 months."
The large guffaw turned the heads of some lovers walking by hand in hand. "You don’t look sick to me. What kind of man are you anyway … a sissy?"
His accusation made Jack puff his chest out. He could feel his determination rise back up inside like the dawn of the bright yellow sun.
"I’m a grown man, responsible for my own actions, and the woman of my dreams, my soul mate, is not getting away. I know she loves me. I love her. So why am I feeling sorry for myself?"
"Atta boy." The old guy was grinning from ear to ear and handing him another coffee. "Drink another one. You’re going to need it, son."
Jack grabbed the second coffee. "Thanks." He squinted his eyes to endure the heat of the coffee in his mouth.
A sweet female voice said, "I’d like a hot dog please. Double mustard and one scoop of sauerkraut."
Jack spit out his scalding coffee, saw Jill standing before him.
She screamed as she brushed coffee off her light spring dress. "Eeek. You spit coffee all over me, slob. Look what you’ve done to my dress … you jerk." She lifted her eyes to Jack. "Why am I surprised you’d do such a thing to me? You made a mess of my life and now you’ve made a mess of my dress."
He thought her eyes were magnificent when she was angry. Her voice reached a higher pitch than he’d ever heard from her--but he loved it that way too. He grinned like a fool, he knew, but he couldn’t help it. She was awe-inspiring. He wanted to paint her portrait, sculpt a statute of her, erect a building. Maybe he could plan a city and call it ‘Jill.’
He blinked and realized she was walking away from him at a brisk pace down a wooded path.
"Got get her, young fellow." The old guy yelled. "Remember you’re a man and she’s a woman. Good luck."
Jack ran after Jill.
The vendor continued to watch as Jack caught up to Jill and grabbed her by the arms from behind.
He laughed loud and long and slapped his knees when the woman did a few fancy moves and flipped the fellow over her shoulder to the ground in front of her.
It was obvious the fellow was in shock because he didn’t move. The woman screamed and fell to the ground in her pretty little dress. She cooed and patted the face of the fallen man.
"Excuse me. Could I get an ice cream bar, please?"
The vendor chuckled some more as he turned to serve the customer. He got to see the darndest things in Fantasy Hill Park.
* * * *
"Jack, speak to me. Oh! What have I done?" She patted his face and dipped her skirt into some of her cold bottled orange juice to wipe across his brow. "Please wake up." Tears formed in her eyes as she looked frantically around for what to do.
A young boy on a bicycle braked beside her. The dust from the path where he stopped flew in her face. She waved it away. Jack coughed, but he didn’t open his eyes.
"Gee, ma’am, your boyfriend isn’t looking so good. Is he dead?"
She threw a desperate look at the boy. "Oh, of course he isn’t dead." Her voice pitched an octave higher. "He coughed. That should count for something." She stood up and looked back at the entrance to the pathway. "Could you please do me a very big favor?"
"Sure. Do you want me to get help?"
After the boy left in haste to find help, Jill fell back down on her knees. "Jack, Jack, please speak to me. My darling, I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to hurt you. I didn’t know it was you. Don’t worry. Help is on its way. I’ve taken care of that."
She pulled Jack’s head on to her lap and stroked his forehead with the wet hem of her dress. The aroma of oranges was therapeutic, she thought, and hoped it helped to revive him.
Why had she been so cruel to Jack? Could she ever tell him she loved him and would for the rest of their lives? The thought of his weak condition, with his head in her lap, started a flow of tears. "Oh Jack. I was so wrong. Please come back to me."
Jack raised his hand with eyes still shut. In a weak voice he said, "Is that you, Jill? I can’t see you. Hold my hand."
She grabbed his hand and kissed it several times with passion and happiness. "Oh thank God. Can you move?"
"No." His voice seemed weaker to her now. "I can’t move my body. I can’t seem to feel anything."
Jill moved her hands all over his body. "Can you feel this?" She grabbed his thick upper thigh in the tight shorts. Now was not the time to admire the hard muscles on his legs.
"Mmmm. No. Try somewhere else," he whispered loudly.
She thought he sighed happily, but that could be the stress from the way he hit the ground after she threw him over her shoulder. How could she do this to him? First she deserted him in his hour of need while he was in a coma. Now she’d thrown him and nearly put him in another coma with her karate.
"Try the other leg." He groaned.
She leaned over his body to reach the other leg, and he put both arms around her.
She froze for a second, turned to grasp his arms and squealed. "Jack, you can move both arms." His arms felt so good around her, and God help her, but even in his weak condition she felt so attracted she wanted to rip all their clothes off
and take him deep inside herself. Her whole body grew hot and wet with desire for him. She could feel his heart beating faster.
Jack grabbed her tighter to his reclined body, crushing his mouth against hers.
Anger at his faking burned out the burgeoning desire and fanned her strength to push hard away from him. She jumped to her feet, glaring down at his smiling face, willing the taste and feel of him from her mind.
"You jerk! I thought you were dead, or at least dying. You could have at least had the decency to go into a coma. Then I could take the blame again. This whole thing about you, me, us...." She swept her hand to wave at them both. "It’s done--over with. Don’t you understand? You will always be angry that I didn’t wait for you to come out of the coma, and your mother will always be reminding me that I’m not good enough for her precious boy."
Jack managed to gain his feet and stood watching as she ranted, glaring at her with disbelief in his eyes. He moved his eyes to the sky in open exasperation. "You’ve really got it tough, haven’t you? Aren’t you forgetting? It was me who was in the coma."
He jabbed his finger at his chest in anger, drawing her attention to his body. She could still feel him beneath her, all that sculpted muscle. She thought about what he used to look like before his coma when they were together and couldn’t keep their hands off each other. He looked even better now. She liked what she saw and didn’t really hear what he said. Her ears roared with the sound of her own heart beating out of control. She fantasized about what it would be like yielding to his lovemaking in a soft bed with red silk sheets, sliding with him in contortions that she would love to try on him.
"Excuse me, sir."
Jack and Jill turned to see a man in a white uniform running towards them with a large bag in his hand.
"Did someone here need medical assistance?" He pointed at the logo on his shoulder. "I’m a paramedic. I received a call that someone saw a dead body with a woman hovering over it."
"Oh. You’ve got to be kidding."
Jack laughed, but the paramedic failed to see what was funny and frowned at him. "I never kid, sir."
Jill stepped between Jack and the paramedic. "Wait a minute. There’s been a mistake. We’re sorry you had to come out here for nothing. You see…."
After she finished charming and telling the paramedic about the mishap of her throwing Jack over her shoulder, and about the kid on the bike she sent for help, she stopped and took a deep breath. The paramedic stomped off, mumbling something about crazy people everywhere, especially in Fantasy Hill Park.
Jack and Jill watched him disappear over the horizon.
Jack grabbed Jill’s hand. Together they ran down the path towards the woods, the breeze blowing in their hair and their laughter floating like bubbles above the trees.
There was a whispered promise in the air. Jill could feel it. Maybe Jack did care for her. But had he really said he loved her? Could they overcome their disappointment in each other?
* * * *
The view from the top of Fantasy Hill was breathtaking. Climbing with determination and speed had left both Jack and Jill breathless.
"Do you remember this spot where we are right now?" Jack gasped and took another deep breath. "This is the spot where I had my last memory of you and I together exactly a year ago today."
Looking closely around her, Jill adjusted her glasses, and the memory she had blocked in despair returned in vivid color. "You were chasing me. Yes, I was playing the helpless little female, running away but not running fast, so that you could catch me. You were the big Bad Wolf and I was little Bo Peep." She smiled to herself, sitting on the grass and feeling like little Bo Peep again. She eyeballed Jack. "You were extremely frisky trying to catch me. I think you got a little too excited and leaped at me--over there at that ledge." Moving towards the cliff slowly, she looked down below it. "When you lunged for me, I stood aside and over you went down that hill...."
"Yes, and I hit my head on that rock there, right?" He stood beside her and pointed accusingly at a large boulder below them.
"I was horrified when I saw you fall and then you were lying there, not moving, with blood pouring from your head over the rock. You can still see some blood stain." Jill shivered at the sight and hugged herself.
"Don’t worry. I’m all right now, my sweet." Jack took her in his arms.
It was a shock for Jack when Jill pulled away and growled at him. "Now you’re kidding. Don’t worry? I worried for months about you. I worried and worried until I felt like the old witch your mother is."
"Honey, I know my mother can be difficult. But really she’s okay once you get to know her."
"Impossible. She was horrible while you were in a coma. She drove me away, promising to make both our lives miserable if I didn’t leave you. She berated and threatened me. I finally had to leave. I nearly had a nervous breakdown but figured it was better to go than be tortured by your precious mother all my life." She shuddered. "She’s the reason I couldn’t stay with you. Now I know it was for the best. Now I know unless you become a man, a real man coming out from under your mother’s control, our love will die forever. I can’t love a man I don’t respect. And I can’t respect you as long as you let your mother run your life. She drove me away from you. Don’t you understand anything?"
Running as fast as she could, Jill stopped on the other side of the grassy mound opposite Jack.
Jack stood where she had left him, as still as a statue.
She was tired and sat on the grass. What a view. What a wonderfully peaceful hill, this Fantasy Hill. For her it still held that extraordinary ambiance and feeling of tranquillity. She wanted to share that with Jack, but perhaps it was too late for them.
After a few moments of sitting and contemplating the view, she turned her head towards Jack. He was gone.
She let the tears fall from her eyes on to her spring dress. But she didn’t make a sound.
"What’s this. Is the woman I love, and will always love, crying? Did I make you cry?"
Jack stood behind her and leaned down to take her face in his hands.
"It’s okay, honey. I’m here for you. I didn’t fall down the hill again." He sat and hugged her.
She stared at him, a smile and tears on her face.
"I was a little boy then. I’m a man now." He pushed her hair back behind her ears. "You’re right, of course, about my mother. I’ve been blind and weak about her." He kissed Jill’s nose. "It’s you and me, baby. Ma has retired to her comfortable home in the country, with her cats and her knitting."
Jill continued to gaze at him.
"Am I forgiven for being such an idiot? I love you and I want to marry you. I want to make you happier than you’ve ever been before. I want to share my life with you. Is there any chance for us?"
Jill’s growl came as a surprise to him. "What do you think? You’re my man and I want to be with you." She grabbed him pulling them both down to the ground.
Their bodies and mouths joined in a passion they’d never known before. The heat ran through both their bodies, and they could hardly wait to undress each other, and join together, sealing their promise and love for each other.
They would pledge with their bodies and souls in the bright sunshine on Fantasy Hill.
Jill reveled in the feel of his muscles, silken steel pressed against her, melting her resistance. She felt like she was burning alive, lit aflame by his hot, hungry mouth, his callused hands roaming her curves. He parted her thighs and moved between them, gliding inside with one smooth, liquid stroke, building a tempo that hummed through her.
She’d wanted him this way for so long, it hurt to have him. Her heart clenched with the knowledge that he was hers, forever.
"Jack." She whispered breathlessly into his ear as he stroked inside her, letting her feel the swollen, rigid length of him. She gasped as ecstasy climbed over her, carrying her to peaks unimaginable. Her body rocked with the bliss, closed around him tightly, thrilling to the feel of his loving.
/> With gentle love, he pulled one of her rose colored nipples with his teeth, flicking his tongue across the hardened bud. His breath was hot against her breast, pulling shivers from deep within her to race across her skin.
"Yes, my sweet Jill?" he asked, his voice a muffled murmur as he trailed kisses up her chest and throat. He groaned as her muscles clutched him with desperate pleasure.
Jill moaned as ecstasy shattered her, too much pleasure to keep from crying out. "Please…" she gasped, closing her arms tight around him, body quaking around his length, "…be careful … not to fall down the hill again."
The End