Southern Comfort

by ANDREA SMITH

  “Thanks,” I replied, taking the file and heading over to the table and chairs in the corner. I sat down and immediately started going through the documents which were all two-hole punched at the top, and held to the folder with metal prongs and a sliding bar. It wasn’t all that thick, and the newest filings were on top.

  Gina took a seat beside me and started popping her bubblegum. Within moments her gum chewing was grating on my nerves as I tried to decipher the legal jargon on the decree.

  “Gina, do you mind?” I whispered.

  “What? Why are you whispering? We’re not in a damn library!”

  “I need to focus here,” I replied.

  “Okay. I’m gonna run find the little girls’ room. Be back in a few.”

  Finally, I was able to focus on what was in the file. I saw that the details were contained in the initial Motion for Divorce—filed by my father, Michael Wayne Gardner on the grounds of Gross Neglect of Duty and Extreme Cruelty. It seemed to be a pretty harsh accusation in my opinion, but then, I presumed these were more legal terms than actual behavior. I knew my mother wasn’t perfect, but I couldn’t remember her ever having been cruel or neglectful to any of us.

  I scrolled through the details, which included the date of their marriage, listing of their assets, and then something caught my eye in the next paragraph: The Plaintiff states that no children have been born as a result of this marital union with the Defendant, nor is the Defendant currently pregnant as of the time of the filing of this Petition for Divorce.

  When Gina returned I’m still numb from the shock of that one sentence. My eyes had not moved from it for the past five minutes.

  “Did you find something?” she asked, sensing my shock.

  I didn’t respond, but I handed her the open file, and pointed to the paragraph on the page that was currently showing. I watched as she read it, and saw the same look of shock cross over her face that must’ve crossed over mine.

  She looked over at me, disbelief apparent in her eyes. She shook her head. “I can’t believe this,” she said. “How is this possible?”

  I was still speechless.

  “You need to talk to your mother right now and find out what the hell is going on here,” she said, clearly pissed. “There has to be some logical explanation for this, Sunny.”

  I swallowed and shook my head. “I need to think this through, Gina. Not a word, promise?”

  “Like you need to make me promise. Of course I won’t say a damn thing to anyone but, girl, you need to find out what gives here.”

  “I know, I know,” I half snapped. “I’m just not sure if I can find the truth with my mother. Do me a favor, please?”

  “Anything. Name it.”

  “Write down Michael Wayne Gardner’s address shown on the final decree. I need to go to the restroom.”

  “Sure. You okay?”

  I shook my head as I hurried from the office, and found the restroom two doors down. Luckily, I made it inside with a few seconds to spare before I threw up my lunch.

  Chapter 15

  Avery Dawson sat at the foot of their bed as he finished putting clean socks on. Donna was still in bed, and he rubbed her leg until her eyes finally opened, still groggy from sleep and the medication she continued to take.

  “Are you leaving again?”

  “I told you when I took you to your doctor’s appointment earlier I had to go back to the church. I have a counseling session at five, remember?”

  “What time is it?” she asked, her voice laced with confusion.

  “It’s four-thirty. You’ve been sleeping for over an hour. Can I get you anything before I go? Your daughter hasn’t made it home from school yet.”

  “She doesn’t have a curfew from school, Avery. She’s a senior. Getting ready to turn seventeen in two days.”

  “Do you need anything, Donna? I need to be on my way.”

  She rolled over on her side, presenting her back to him. “Nothing, Avery. I need nothing.”

  Gloria Margolis-Sanders had rescheduled her last two hair appointments for the day. She’d been thinking about nothing but Avery Dawson since last Wednesday, when she learned her usual weekly appointment had been given to Stella Martin. At church on Sunday, she’d not taken her eyes from Stella who was sitting with her husband, Kenneth, two rows up and on the other side of the aisle. Stella hadn’t taken her eyes off of Avery the whole time he was in the pulpit preaching the word.

  She knew that the counseling Avery was providing to Stella mirrored her own and she didn’t like that one damn bit. She had half a notion to clue Kenneth in on what his wife was doing, but quickly realized that by doing so, that would put her own therapy in jeopardy, and she wasn’t about to risk that.

  Kenneth Martin was a pig farmer in the county. One of the biggest spreads around. Stella was barely thirty, and Kenneth was probably the same. He was a big man, with a large belly and, in a way, Gloria could understand how he might not do it for her.

  Gloria had no such excuse. Eddie was fit and handsome. His manhood was lacking, that much had been evident when she’d compared him to Steven, and now with Avery. She’d only been with a few men, and only two of them in a loving relationship. At thirty-eight she wasn’t sure if that was really something she should be proud of or not.

  In Avery’s eyes, she was sure that it was a good thing. How he ended up with Donna Gardner was beyond her. Donna Smith Wilkins Gardner Dawson had had more dicks inside of her than what you could shake a stick at for sure. She’d always been loosey-goosey and Gloria wasn’t sure what the draw had been, but the woman had never had problems attracting the men. The good ones, too.

  She pushed Donna from her mind. They’d been friends once, but they never would be again. The fact that Gloria enjoyed screwing her husband didn’t bother her one bit. Maybe in a way, she was settling a score. After all, he was a man of God, so anything they did together was sanctioned by the highest power of all. There was no need to be ashamed or feel dirty about it. Avery made her feel the way every woman wanted a man to make her feel. And in no way was she ready to give up her counseling sessions anytime soon. Even if it meant she resumed relations with Eddie. She wouldn’t necessarily have to let Avery know that part of it. Whatever it took for her therapy to continue and for Eddie to support it, she was willing to do.

  Right now her main focus was on Stella Martin. She just had to find out if Stella pleased Avery more than she did during the therapy portion of their counseling sessions. She knew Avery would never confide another member of the congregation’s personal business. She would never dream of even asking him. She would have to observe firsthand in order to get the answer to the question that was turning her inside and out.

  But how?

  She contemplated it for several minutes as she drove out to the church. Avery always scheduled his sessions involving therapy at five o’clock, and made sure his part-time assistant, Bonnie Lowry, was gone and that the church office was locked up.

  His counseling room was located at the very back of the newer addition to the church. There was nothing but wooded land behind it. The room was a corner room, and had two windows. One behind Avery’s desk, and the other one behind the sofa. If she could position herself outside of that window, there was a chance she might be able to hear inside the room.

  She felt her adrenaline pulsing in anticipation of her mission. While she wouldn’t be able to visually observe, she knew enough by now that the sounds of lovemaking were worth a thousand visuals—if it were any good, that is.

  She drove past the church at five minutes after the hour. She saw Avery’s car and Stella’s car parked in the lot. There were no other cars around.

  Gloria pulled her car into the cemetery located next to the church, and drove to the back where she could easily park so it was out of sight for those passing by the church. It would also make it easy for her to trek across the cemetery and position herself outside the window over the sofa in his counseling office.

  There
was a row of shrubs along the back of the newer addition, which would at least keep her out of view should someone else drive through the cemetery. She certainly couldn’t afford to have loose lips talking about seeing Gloria Margolis-Sanders crouched down outside the window of Reverend Dawson’s office quarters. No, that wouldn’t do at all.

  She was glad she’d worn summer slacks and flats as she closed the distance between the cemetery and her perch under the window. She crept silently up to it and then crouched down, folding her legs underneath her in the mulched area, and trying to get comfortable for the wait.

  She checked her watch. Five-fourteen p.m. If Avery’s sessions with Stella were similar to her own, then the discussion portion usually lasted about twenty minutes before they got down to the nitty-gritty, so to speak.

  Gloria leaned in, allowing her right ear to rest against the vinyl siding of the building. It was quiet in the country, but she still strained to hear something—anything. But there was nothing.

  Several more minutes of silence passed. She checked her watch again. Five twenty-two.

  More silence.

  More waiting.

  Maybe she’d been wrong about the counseling Avery did with Stella. The thought that she had been wrong, made her belly tingle with delight. Maybe Avery counseled her because her issues were different than Stella’s?

  What an idiot she had been to presume that all of his counseling with the female members of his clergy involved sexual issues. My God, there were so many reasons married people required counseling aside from that. Gambling, drinking, drugs, financial problems, abuse, and infidelity to name a few.

  She started to get up from her spot, and brush the pieces of mulch off her slacks when noises from inside halted her movements.

  She placed her ear back against the side of the building.

  “Do as I said, Stella!” Avery’s voice boomed. “It’s time you help yourself, woman!”

  “I want to,” she whined, “I really do, Avery, but I’m afraid. Your penis is larger than my husband’s—much larger. I’m afraid it might…hurt. I’ve…I’ve never been with another man. I guess I didn’t expect that there was that much of a difference in size, you know?”

  “Stella,” he said, his voice calmer now, though still authoritative, “you trust me, do you not?”

  “I do,” she confirmed.

  “Then right now is when you need to trust me the most. I want to show you that relations between a man and a woman—a husband and a wife—can be a beautiful and a pleasurable experience. You told me that both you and Kenneth were virgins when you married. Though that pleases the Lord, it does limit both of you in the experience arena. Let me show you how a man can pleasure a woman, and then guide you on ways you can pleasure your husband. This is strictly between us. It is private and it is sanctioned by the Lord to save your marriage.”

  “I understand Avery, and I thank you for your understanding and your patience. I trust you with all of my heart, I truly do.”

  How sweet, Gloria thought. What an idiot. She probably didn’t know how to give good head.

  “That pleases me,” Avery answered.

  “Uh…what about protection?”

  “I’m sterile. You have no worries about me impregnating you.”

  “No—that’s fine. I’m on the pill. I meant for…well, STD’s,” she said uncertainly.

  Gloria clamped a hand over her mouth to keep from howling. Did the stupid bitch even realize the magnitude of the insult she’d just delivered to their minister?

  “I totally understand your concerns,” Avery said. “You have no way of knowing if your husband has strayed since you’ve not been having relations with him for more than a year. I appreciate your concern for my well-being. Let me get a condom.”

  Gloria’s mouth dropped open with that one.

  It was a few minutes later that Gloria heard more from inside.

  “There, that’s a good girl,” Avery said, and moments later, she heard Stella babbling, “Oh God. Oh God. Is it in all the way, Avery?”

  “Almost,” he gritted, “Relax your pubic muscle, sweetheart.”

  Sweetheart?

  “There now, I’m fully inside of you. Does it hurt?”

  “No Avery, it doesn’t hurt at all. I like the way it feels.”

  “Good. Now I’m going to start moving. This should bring you pleasure, but if there is any pain, I want you to tell me and I will stop immediately.”

  “Thank you, I will,” she responded.

  There was silence for another couple of minutes, and then Gloria heard Stella moaning.

  “Does that hurt?” Avery asked, concern evident in his voice.

  “Oh…no, not at all. It feels really, really good.”

  “Good. I’m going to pick up the pace, Stella. You’re tightness is pleasuring me as well, so this may not take long at all.”

  “Keep going, please,” she said, her voice now desperate with passion.

  “Oh yes, yes,” she moaned. “Fuck me Avery, fuck me!”

  Gloria was horrified at the language Stella used so freely. She waited for Avery to call her out on it, but she heard nothing but his grunting and her moaning continue.

  “Oh God that feels so good. I’m coming!” she screamed. “Oh my God, you’re making me come!”

  “Keep going, Stella. Keep fucking me just like that,” he ordered, his voice lusty with passion. “I’m not going to last much longer. Your pussy is so tight.”

  Gloria stood up quickly. She ran to the edge of the property, and before she could think it through, she found a rock near the edge of the road in the cemetery. She grabbed it, ran a few yards back towards the building and hurled it as hard as she could towards the building.

  It landed against the side of the building, not through the window as she had hoped, but it made a sound whack against the vinyl. She ducked into the cemetery and sunk down behind a monument just in case he looked outside.

  Her heart was pounding and she felt the heat of anger rising up within her. How dare he use that kind of language with Stella and not with her?

  She trembled with her anger and finally, once sure that it was safe, she made her way over to where her car was parked and left the cemetery, taking another road back into town so she wouldn’t have to pass by the church again.

  She had a session with him tomorrow.

  And Gloria was going to make damn sure she got some dirty talk from Avery Dawson or hell wouldn’t have him again!

  Chapter 16

  “Mama,” I said once I returned home. “Are you awake?” She was still bedridden, and I had never seen my mother so immobile. She’d taken sick leave from her job for a week, and then her doctor had cleared her to go back. It had already been five days since her accident.

  “Yeah, hun,” she replied weakly, “I’m just dozing. Those pills make me loopy.”

  “How long are you supposed to take them?” I asked, glancing over at the nearly empty bottle of pain pills on her bedside table.

  “Till they’re gone, I guess.”

  “Well, Mama, maybe you should try to wean yourself off them now. I mean, how do you know if you still need them if you keep taking them? Maybe the pain is gone by now.”

  “The pain…the pain won’t ever be gone,” she murmured softly. “What is it you need, Sunny?”

  There was no way I could hit her up for the truth right now. I’d figured maybe the whole emotional thing she’d been going through with the miscarriage might have served to motivate her to come clean with me. I now realized that was flawed logic. I wasn’t going to add to her pain.

  “Mama—I don’t need anything. I was just checking on you. Are you feeling well enough to come on downstairs? I can fix us something to eat. How about some soup?”

  “No—I’ll wait and eat with Avery when he gets in. What time is it darlin’?”

  I glanced over at the clock on her dresser. “It’s going on seven.”

  “Okay. He should be back any time now. I’l
l wait. Can you go ahead and put the soup on the stove?”

  “Sure, Mama.”

  “And maybe get stuff out to make some grilled cheese sandwiches, too?”

  “Got it,” I replied heading down the steps.

  Thirty minutes later Avery came in. He helped Mama down the steps and they sat in the kitchen eating their soup and sandwiches. Avery looked pleased to see that Mama was finally up.

  “Got a letter from Jamie today,” she said, sipping her soup from the spoon.”

  “Oh? What did he have to say?” Avery asked with no hint of interest apparent.

  “Says he’s getting a thirty-day leave next month before they transfer him to California. He’s looking to stop here for a few days on his way out west. He’s driving cross-country. Isn’t that something?”

  “Yes, it is. Having the opportunity to see the country coast-to-coast doesn’t come around too often. I certainly hope he stops along the way to see points of interest.”

  “Oh, I know my Jamie. I’m sure he will. I’m going to write him back tonight. Let him know what’s new around here. Remind me to do that, won’t you Sunny?”

  I looked over and saw Avery watching me. “Sure, Mama. I will. Maybe I’ll write Jamie a letter of my own. I think I owe him one come to think of it.”

  “That’s a nice gesture,” Mama mumbled, her eyelids fluttering as though it was difficult to keep them open. “Avery, will you help me upstairs, please? I want to get a shower and then go on back to bed I think.”

  “Certainly, my dear,” he replied, getting up and helping her do the same. “You’re getting better every day. Praise God your fall wasn’t worse.”

  Chapter 17

  Avery Dawson was at his desk in his back office when he heard the pounding on the outside door. Bonnie didn’t come in on Thursdays, so it was just him in the building. He glanced at the clock.

  Five o’clock.

  Gloria Margolis-Sanders was right on time as usual. He got up and opened the locked exterior door to allow her entrance. It was a sunny fall day, and Avery couldn’t help but notice she was wearing shorts and a sleeveless low-cut top. It was still very warm in Layton, so shorts were appropriate weather-wise, but he was a bit taken aback that she’d dress so casually for an appointment with her minister.