Frost Heaves

"She won't like that," the woman remarked. "Of course, she's spent the summer here every year for the last five, so it's not exactly earthshaking news."

"I have to buy a couple of these," I mentioned, grabbing a few from the display. "Show my daughters how big a man I am here in Darnell."

"Buy them? Heck, they're free, and half time we can't give them away. Take all you want."

I thanked them and stuck a few in our cart, while Callie started shopping. I couldn't stop laughing as we moved up and down the aisles, and Callie seemed amused by my amusement.

"I can't help it," I said as Callie started filling the cart. "I can't believe they put that in there - that I'm staying with you."

"What's wrong with that?" Callie asked.

"It just seems intrusive, that's all," I answered. 'I mean, what will your neighbors think - or your friends?"

"They already know," Callie replied. "There aren't many secrets around here, as you can see."

"I don't care what they think about me, but I didn't want you to be embarrassed about my staying with you."

"I'm not ashamed of anything, David," Callie said as toilet paper bounced into the cart. "I'm way too old to care about what people think about me. Besides, maybe I'll get a reputation as a swinging widow. What do you like to eat? Anything special?"

"I'm fine with anything," I told Callie as she surveyed the selection of meats.

"You like chicken? Burgers? Pork chops?"

"Sure. Fine. Dandy."

"You're no help," Callie said, so I picked up a package of chicken breasts and a few other things and pitched them into the cart.

"There!" I said proudly. "I like all of that. I like you too."

I don't know why I said that, because it was obvious that I did, but I wanted to say something about how I felt about her.

"I know you do," Callie said. "I like you too, or else you would have been at the Dew Drop Inn over at Starkville by now. Just don't get fresh in public, unless you want to end up on the cover of next week's Pennysaver."

"I'll keep that in mind," I answered, and wasn't sure if she was serious about that or not, but it took me a minute to start to analyze what she meant about not getting fresh in public. Did that mean I could get fresh in private?

We had managed to fill the cart in short order, and while Callie moved up to the register, I reached in my back pocket for my wallet.

"That's alright," Callie said as we put the stuff on the counter and moved it along manually. "You're company."

"I'm paying, or I don't go back with you - I mean that," I said, not willing to sponge around any longer. "Hope they take VISA."

I didn't have much cash on me, not really expecting to have been away from home this long.

"VISA? What's that?"

Callie was looking at me with a quizzical expression on her face, and after I chuckled, she continued to look at me oddly.

"You're kidding, right?" I asked, and after I took the card out of my wallet and held it in front of her, she looked at it like it was something alien. "VISA. The credit card? You buy stuff today and pay for it for the rest of your life?"

"Marie," Callie called to the cashier. "You ever hear of something called a VISA card?"

"Must be one of those fancy city things," the woman said as she rang up the groceries with a poker face.

I looked over at the front door and saw the faded decal of the credit card on the glass and shook my head, laughing at myself for falling for everybody's little joke at my expense.

"Okay, you win, I'm an idiot," I said as I handed the woman the card.

"We're in the sticks, but still part of the civilized world," the woman said as she swiped the card.

"Just barely," Callie added dryly.

"If your friend is still going to be around this weekend, you ought to get him to take you to the dance," the cashier told Callie while I signed my name.

"Is that this weekend?" Callie asked.

"Saturday night - first Saturday of the month like always, Callie," the man added as he bagged our order. "You ought to go - you never used to miss them."

"You should," the woman urged her as I tried to follow the conversation. The Stony Creek Band is playing."

"I don't know if David will be up to that or not," Callie said as she thanked the couple and maneuvered the cart toward the door. "We'll see."

"What's that all about?" I asked Callie as we pushed the cart out of the store and toward the truck. "A dance?"

"It's something they have at the Grange Hall every month," Callie explained. "See?" she said, motioning to a poster on the outside wall of the store with the all the particulars.

"Probably not something you'd be interested in," Callie said.

"7 p.m. to?" I read aloud. "The question mark is probably 10, when the sidewalks get rolled up. The Stony Creek Band?"

"Local group."

"They get ten bucks a head, so they must be great," I said sarcastically.

"You get free beer and stuff like chips and snacks are included too," Callie explained.

"Wow!" I said, chortling loudly. "They play both kinds of music too, I'll bet. Country and Western. Does the band play behind chicken wire too?"

"Like I said, it's not really anything you'd care for," Callie said without a smile, pushing the cart over to the back of her pickup and dropping the back down.

"Maybe I could get a pair of those bib overalls," I continued. "Find myself a jug that I can blow into and jam with the band. Maybe I could..."

"You've made your point, David. I get it."

I was on a roll and feeling pretty full of myself as my comedy routine went into full gear, so I was a bit shocked when Callie was not bent over in laughter, but instead rather pissed off. Worse than that, her expression showed another emotion along with the anger, and that was the last thing I wanted to see.

As Callie went around the side of the truck and got in, I hustled back into the store. I took care of the business I went in for and hurried outside, hoping that Callie hadn't taken off on me.

"Uh... we forgot your friend's detergent," I said cautiously, holding up the yellow plastic jug of Tide before getting into the truck alongside Callie.

"Oh, right," Callie said. "Thanks."

"Look," I said as Callie pulled back onto the road and headed back home. "Sometimes I think I'm a helluva lot funnier than I really am. Bad habit of mine. It helped make a wife an ex, I think."

"We've all got bad habits," Callie said curtly, not taking her eyes off the road.

"It's not one I want to hang onto. I'm fond of blaming Jane for our marriage failing, but I deserve a lot of credit for that as well," I confessed.

"It must get old after a time - having somebody answering you with wisecracks instead of answers. I also have a habit of making fun of things I don't understand, and things that I don't feel a part of. I guess it's more a case of my being jealous of other people. People with lives - lives that have a purpose and a reason. It's been so long since I've had that pleasure, that seeing other people happy brings out that in me. I was wrong, but I really didn't mean anything by it. Feel free to kick me in the ass if I do it again."

"Now that will be a pleasure," Callie announced in a more chipper tone, and a bit of a smile appeared on the side of her mouth.

"This dance," I continued, holding the two pink postcard-sized tickets that I had bought in the store. "I have to warn you that I'm not much of a hoofer. I've got two left feet."

"We'll do fine," Callie replied, now smiling for real.

....

Chapter Fourteen: Harmonizing.

After another amazing dinner - the taste and texture of actual mashed potatoes making me giddy after years and years of dried flakes mixed with water - we made another team effort of doing the dishes.

This night was a little bit different, and it wasn't just my imagination either. Callie was more bubbly than usual, and we made more incidental contact around the sink. It may have been just a brief touch or the slight bumping of our hips, but each time we grazed against each other I felt a rush of adrenaline surge through me. Could I be growing on her like she had on me?

"Done!" Callie announced as the last of the silverware went back into place.

"Another great meal," I proclaimed, and impulsively leaned over and kissed Callie on the cheek. "Thank you chef."

I wasn't sure how that was going to go over. Callie seemed a bit startled at first, but as a touch of color rose on her cheeks, she reached up and kissed me back. On the lips.

"Thanks for eating it," Callie replied.

It was just a peck, but it was the most wonderful kiss I could remember since my first one decades ago. After looking at each other for a minute, Callie tossed the dish towel over the handle of the cabinet.

"You like music, don't you?"

"Sure," I answered. "Who doesn't?"

"We'll see how you feel after we get done," Callie cackled as we headed toward the porch.

We had spent each evening outside on the porch, and I relished the time out there. Just watching the daylight fade, and experiencing the ensuing blackness of these country nights, was so cathartic to me that I found myself not even noticing that I hadn't gone near the television since that first day here.

I no longer cared who was getting thrown off what island, or what the score of the Mets game was. Just being out on that spacious porch and breathing the fresh air, and enjoying the sounds of the nocturnal creatures, was way more entertaining than any game show could be.

"You could sit out here without clothes on and nobody would notice," I had mentioned to Callie earlier, because it was such a rarity for a car to go by or a bicyclist to sail past, especially after the sun began to set.

"Maybe we'll do that some night," Callie suggested. "If it gets really muggy, we'll come out here naked."

I had prayed for muggy conditions since that conversation, but tonight was very pleasant, although while we were eating Callie said that she thought it would rain.

"Just a feeling," Callie had said at the time, but it seemed like her forecast might be a bit off.

I was out on the porch when I realized that Callie was not behind me, but was still in the house. When she emerged, she was carrying an acoustic guitar, and blowing imaginary dust off of it.

"You said you liked music, but I'm going to change all that," Callie announced as she sat on the sofa next to me.

On the sofa next to me. I had taken to sitting there a couple of nights earlier, in hopes that she would join me, but Callie had kept going over to her favorite chair in the corner, until tonight.

"Oh wow, a Martin," I said in awe.

"You a musician, David?" Callie asked.

"Up until my accident, I was, but now with my wrists all damaged..." I said in jest, waving the fading scars in the air. "No, I used to tinker around but I'm no musician. I do know a nice guitar when I see one though."

"Carl bought this for me when he got out of the service," Callie explained, strumming and trying to get the tuning right. "Had a little money so he bought me this for my birthday, because he liked to hear me play. I'm not a good player, but I like to hack around with it. Been awhile though."

This was how the most amazing evening of my life began. Callie strumming and me watching. She played 'Greensleeves', and quite well all things considered, and when I told her how good she was, she kept going.

Maybe I wasn't the most objective listener in the world, but as I watched Callie's hands glide over the guitar I was captivated. She just kept playing, going from song to song, and started singing as she got more into it. Her voice had a raspy and comfortable tone that blended nicely into her playing.

I joined in when she came to a song that I knew the words to, dropping out when my memory failed me and then rejoining at the chorus. We sounded ragged but right together, and while we weren't likely going to hit the stage any time soon, it was more fun than I could remember having in a long time.

Me and Bobby McGee was my favorite, as Callie did a nice Janis turn on the Kristofferson tune, and when I applauded at the end, she fell into me, her head resting on my shoulder for a second that I wanted to last forever. I inhaled the sweet freshness of her strawberry blonde hair while allowing my lips to graze against it for a brief second, before backing off a bit.

"Let me give you a break and show you how it isn't done," I said, taking the pick and guitar from Callie, who flexed her fingers and rubbed some feeling into them.

It had to be more than two decades since I had touched a guitar, and it showed. I groaned as I tried to make something remotely musical from this glorious instrument, but Callie stuck with me as I searched my memory for something I could remember.

"Surprised you haven't mentioned something about this being like an episode of Andy Griffith," Callie chided me, and although the thought had crossed my mind earlier, I wasn't going down the wise guy comedy road again.

"I suspect it's quite a walk to the service station for a bottle of pop," I did say, and it occurred to me that I hadn't had a drink since leaving my daughter graduation party. The thought of going almost a week without alcohol was unheard of in my recent life, and now I realized that I hadn't missed it. Callie's lemonade was all I needed to get by.

Finally, something came into my mind - a song that I might remember half of the words to. My guitar playing was primitive and my singing forgettable, but I was happy when Callie not only recognized what I was playing, but joined in.

"Yesterday a child came out to wonder," was the first line of the Joni Mitchell song, and Callie was harmonizing by the time I got to, "Caught a dragonfly inside a jar."

Joni would have cringed and so would Tom Rush and anyone else who had covered it over the years had they heard our rendition, but to my ears it sounded magical. We both botched a line a couple of times, but it mattered little. By the time we had come to dragging our feet to slow the circles down, we were in tune.

As we ended, with Callie's hand clutching my thigh, I noticed the gentle sound of raindrops on the porch roof, and looking beyond Callie I could see the drops hitting the railing.

"It's raining," I noted, and judging by how damp the ground was, it had been raining since the beginning of The Circle Game.

"Told you," Callie said, her eyes as dewy as mine felt like.

I set her guitar safely on the other end of the couch, and when I turned back around to face her, Callie was already moving toward me, doing precisely what I had planned to do. Her arms came up around my neck as mine came around her. This time when our lips met, it was nothing resembling a peck.

We practically devoured each other - our hands clutching and grabbing as our tongues slid around one another. It was so primal and so feral that it was almost frightening in a way. We were two people so starved for affection - for release - that this was nothing remotely resembling some love scene in a Lifetime network movie.

Without words, we worked our way inside the house, with me having the sense to grab her guitar to keep it out of the dampness. I ended up setting it somewhere inside, but where I don't remember.

We never let go of each other as we worked our way down the hall toward her bedroom. Flushed and sweating, our clothes were coming off, and that didn't necessarily mean in the conventional ways. The sound of buttons bouncing on the wood floor added to the atmosphere, and almost as if on cue, thunder clapped loudly as we reached her bedroom doorway.

"No!" Callie gasped as I tried to move us into the room, and before I could react, I felt her moving me further down the hall, to the spare bedroom I had been using.

By the time we got into the room we were almost naked, having left a trail of garments in our wake. Our bodies were hot and dripping with perspiration as we got to the side of the bed, and once we had gotten rid of her panties and my briefs we fell onto the mattress.

I knew that I was ready, my erection had been throbbing ever since our hallway dance had begun, but I was concerned that Callie wasn't. My concerns were answered when she seized my cock and pulled it toward her, and the rest of my body followed.

I felt the head of my cock slide between her lips of her sex, and from then on it was simply two people acting like animals. My cock drove into her pussy - so wet, yet so tight it was almost like taking a virgin. Callie grabbed my ass cheeks and pulled me all the way inside her, crying out as I fully penetrated her.

Nothing sweet or tender - this was two people thrusting themselves into each other with all of their might. I felt her contract around my cock as she came the first time, and fought back the urge to join her as Callie clawed at my shoulders.

Lightning lit up the room and the thunder that followed shook the house, and the power seemed to go out just as nature let loose outside. Maybe we were causing it, because I had never experienced anything like this. Suddenly, we were somehow sitting and facing each other, still joined and still grinding.

Callie's breasts were in my hands, nice full globes with nipples that were thick and hard against my palms as I kneaded them roughly. Callie's hands covered mine - pushing them as if to tell me to squeeze them harder.

It was pitch black except for the times when lightning flashed, filling the room with an eerie glow for a few seconds at a time. It was like making love under a strobe light, albeit a slow one.

Callie pushed me onto my back, somehow managing to keep us enjoined as she slid up on top of me, and she began to ride me slowly, her body undulating as her pussy inhaled my tool.

The lightning flashed, and Callie was silhouetted in the brilliance, her hands clutching at her breasts as her mouth opened wide, letting out a guttural howl as my cock got savagely crushed again by her vaginal muscles. It felt like the roof was leaking, as Callie's sweat flew all over me while she rode out her orgasm.

Now it was my turn, as I rolled Callie off of me and mounted her once more. She was no longer tight when I re-entered her, but still very wet. I knew I couldn't last much longer, so I just thrust into her as hard and as fast as I could. Callie's hands squeezed my butt cheeks, imploring and encouraging me, and when my orgasm surged through me, I stopped moving, making the sensation last as long as I could, before crying out as my cock erupted inside of her.

....

Chapter Fifteen: Secrets out.

We stayed together for as long as we could, just wrapped around each other drenched in our various fluids, nibbling on each other's necks and shoulders. When my deflated member finally wormed out of Callie, she made a sad little sound.

"I like sex," Callie said after several more moments of silence, broken only by the faint claps of thunder now in the distance and the staccato of rain still peppering the roof. "A lot."

"Your secret is safe with me," I assured her.

"Been a long time," Callie said softly. "Just not the same when you're having it alone."

"I've been doing it alone for longer than you," I informed her. "Nothing worse that making love with someone that isn't there."

"I suppose," Callie said, leaning on an elbow, facing me as her hand reached down and found my very flaccid member. "I like this guy here."

"He isn't much, but he tries," I said, enjoying the attention and affection my tool was getting.

"He's perfect," Callie said, leaning down and kissing the head of my dick.

"Much more of that, and he'll get back at attention."

"I hope so," Callie answered. "Much as I like talking to you, I've got someone better to do with my mouth, if you don't mind."

Callie's lips slid down my flaccid and gooey member, pulling it upwards while her tongue danced around the tender opening. How I wished I was 30 years longer. Back then I would have been ready instantly, and now I hoped I could recapture some of those rapid recovery skills, because there was nothing I wanted more than to be inside of Callie once again.