Across the Ages 01: 1979 Peggy

Jack looked out through the wide picture window at the pretty stretch of desert separating his house from Peggy's, streaked with yellow light from the setting winter sun. As long as he could remember Jack had been picking his way through the prickly pears to visit the sprawling compound where Peggy and her mother lived, with its guest house for her great grandmother and its grand pool overhung by old eucalyptus trees. Peggy was home for Christmas and Jack was looking forward to seeing her after the social complications of his first semester at the local university. He had fallen in with a crowd of medical students, and fallen in love, or so he imagined, with one of them.

But while they enjoyed each other's company and conversation at the parties he was included in, and although he thought he had made his feelings clear and thought he perceived some reciprocation, they hadn't moved to what seemed to him to be the logical next step, having sex. And he wasn't sure whether the hesitation came from him or from her. Although generally a talkative and gregarious person, Jack didn't know how to talk about sex, or how to initiate a conversation about it. Any move that came to mind seemed crass and at odds with the demands of friendship. He was, in fact, thoroughly confused about the relationship between friendship and sex. A confusion that was understandable because Jack, to his embarrassment at the age of 19, was a virgin.

These were the thoughts that occupied his mind as he made his way out the back gate and followed the winding path through the saguaros to Peggy's house.

"Jack, lovely to see you, here, help me with these cheese crisps," said Peggy's mother Ruth as he entered the kitchen door.

"Take this tray and pass it around the guests in the living room."

Every space in the kitchen was occupied by cutting boards piled with raw vegetables, plates of cheese, bowls of tortilla chips and guacamole, trays of filo dough triangles ready to be put into the oven, loaves of crusty French bread, large glass jugs of eggnog--the usual provisions for the Barron's annual holiday party. Ruth, a short woman with sharp eyes and a brisk, friendly manner, was head of the psychology department. A crowd of her colleagues was already emitting a buzz of conversation from the living room as they milled around the bar where Peggy was serving wine. Jack and Peggy had grown up serving as waiters at these parties, enjoying the occasional sip as they got older and joining the lively intellectual debates. It was a world that Jack felt comfortable with.

Peggy ran across the room to greet Jack as he entered. He put down his tray to hug her, registering in the back of his mind the warm press of her breasts against his chest.

"Vivian, Kay, and Lowell are coming over later for the after party in my room," she whispered. "Lowell is bringing some dope."

"Great, we can all sit around listening to Bob Dylan and getting stoned."

"Not likely. You know how I feel about Bob Dylan."

"One of these days I'll change your mind."

The old familiar argument was interrupted by Ruth. "Peggy, get back to your post! Jack, come in here and get another tray!"

For the next few hours the tide of the party surged from living room to pool to kitchen and back to living room, whirls of conversation spinning up and dying down, the flotsam and jetsam of empty bottles and food scraps accumulating at the margins.

Later that night, after Ruth had gone to bed, the five friends were sitting in Peggy's room, drinking wine, smoking dope, and listening to Bob Dylan. Peggy was sitting on her bed next to Lowell, Jack was lying on the floor with his head in Kay's lap, and Vivian was sitting at Peggy's desk, chair swiveled around to face the others.

Jack has been holding forth on the subject of Bob Dylan's qualities as a singer and poet.

"He can't sing worth a damn. He's always out of tune," said Vivian.

"Oh no," said Jack, taking another hit of the joint that was being passed around, "he has complete control over his voice. And his lyrics are a sort of abstract poetry, beautiful and mysterious."

"Fucked if I can see it," said Vivian.

"Speaking of fucked... " said Kay, grinning.

"Oh no, not another orgy," Vivian groaned.

"When did you guys have an orgy? And how come I wasn't invited?" complained Jack.

"Last weekend," said Peggy. "A bunch of us were hanging out around my pool. You were studying, remember?"

"Yeah, well, nobody told me there was going to be an orgy."

"It wasn't planned. People just sort of started doing stuff. I stayed out of it."

"What sort of stuff? You mean, full sex? Why did you stay out of it?"

"I don't know. It just seemed too impersonal, I guess."

"Poor Jack," said Kay. "But really, I don't think it would have been good for your first time."

They all knew that Jack was a virgin. It was something they had discussed endlessly on drunken evenings in their last year of high school. The truth was that Jack, much as he wanted sex, also shied away from it when the opportunity stared him in the face, as it had on more than one occasion. He had a private core that opened up under the warm glow of easy friendship but retreated when the air was crackling with the lightning of sexual desire.

Kay understood this, and bent over Jack with sweet enigmatic smile, her long brown hair drooping further and further, until their lips met, as if by chance, a gentle hint.

"Maybe we should give Jack an early Christmas present."

Peggy looked longingly from the bed, shivering at the thought of those lips touching. She held a secret desire to be Jack's first, but saw the sweet binding chemistry of reciprocity building between Jack and Kay. They kept kissing, their stoned hands wandering over their bodies as their buzzing lips remained locked together.

"Yeah, that's the sort of stuff they were doing," said Peggy. She shrugged her shoulders wistfully and then turned to Lowell with a wicked smile. "Want to try?" She put her arms around his neck and pulled him down on to the bed, on top of her.

Kay lifted Jack's head off her lap, swung herself over him, pinned his arms to the ground and rubbed her crotch against his. Jack was liminally aware of his stoned state, that Kay was a childhood friend, the way they had wrestled together as kids, this new thing that was happening as he raised his lips to hers and felt his cock harden against her crotch, the sighed "oh yes" that left her throat, his tongue probing her open wet mouth, her tongue responding.

Vivian's gaze was soft and bright. She stared at the two couples grinding against each other, still clothed, thinking the unthinkable, and moved her hand between her legs.

"Um, guys, you're not really going to do it, are you?"

Lowell and Peggy stopped their grinding and looked around sheepishly.

Kay said, "Give me a few seconds, I'm almost there," and continued moving on the hard bulge in Jack's jeans until she arched back with a deep groan. "Oh, that was a good one. I needed that. That's a nice big cock you've got there Jack." She looked over at Vivian, eyes still veiled with lust, and answered her with a little shake of her head.

"Actually, I can't give Jack his present now, at least it would be a bit messy. I'm having my period."

"I can," said Peggy.

"But what about me?" asked Lowell, desperation in his eyes.

Kay looked at the four of them and decided to take charge. She had always been the one to teach them new things. It was she who had decided they would all learn to cook when they were in middle school, commandeering Ruth's kitchen for the lessons. She had a talent for quiet command, a curious impassive quality that betrayed no personal expectation, as if what she was suggesting came not from any particular desire on her part but was merely an expression of the reality of the situation, a reality inconsistent with any thought that people might disobey her. This quality would stand her in good stead in her future career as a school teacher.

Kay flashed one of the rare brilliant smiles that she dispensed at critical moments to reassure her students, a glimpse into the guarded privacy of her soul.

"I learned a few things from my landlord last summer. I think it's time to pass on my learning. Lowell, you come over here and lie down where Jack is. Jack, you go and sit next to Peggy and watch. Vivian, come sit here on the other side of Lowell."

The room was saturated with potentiality. They all knew something new was about to happen, and they felt safe in the knowledge that they would be among friends, with affection binding them and trust sealing their circle off from any intrusion or knowledge of the outside world. They were moving in their own little universe.

"OK, let's start with you, Lowell."

She expertly removed the clothing from the lower part of his body, yanking out his belt and throwing it across the room with a flourish of the wrist, pulling off his underpants to reveal his semi-erect cock. She took it reverently in her hands, much as she might hold up a piece of prime meat in a cooking demonstration.

"This, boys and girls, is a penis. Or, as I like to call it, a cock."

She inspected it carefully.

"Good, I was afraid you might have come already. Vivian, take off your panties and show everybody your pussy."

Vivian, having no idea what possessed her, complied, as if in a dream, revealing her swollen pink valley amid luxuriant black hair.

"This, boys and girls, is a vagina. Or, as I like to call it, a cunt. Aren't they both beautiful? They are the most wonderful things we humans possess, and we should learn to make good use of them."

She looked over at Peggy and Jack, who were making out on the bed, oblivious. "Oh well, never mind them, they can learn later. Now, Vivian, come and sit on Lowell's face while I suck his cock."

Lowell was now feeling adequately compensated for the loss of Peggy, as Kay's warm wet lips enveloped him and his tongue probed Vivian. "Make your tongue stiff, Lowell," said Vivian, as she started to move herself around on him, discovering that she could get exactly the right pressure and movement on her clitoris.

On the bed, Jack moved his hand down, reached under Peggy's dress and found the tangled swamp of her pubic hair and then the ripe wet flesh hidden inside. This was new territory for Jack. He didn't quite understand the geography of those parts. But he knew that if he reached into his own pants and pulled out his cock and started searching with it he would find the most wonderful accepting place to put it in. Suddenly the body beneath him became Peggy, his childhood friend, and with a start he looked at her. Her eyes were wide with surprise and narrow with desire. Knowledge and acknowledgment passed between them, amplifying the moment in a way that mere lust could not: this is us and we are going to do this. Peggy reached down and fished Jack's cock out of his shorts and guided it inside her. Jack felt the smooth tight slickness around his cock, like nothing he had ever felt before, stunned at the the newness of it, that Peggy, his old friend, could have such a place.

"Hold still for a moment. I want to show you something Kay told me about, that she learned from her landlord." She also was marveling at firm piece of Jack's flesh inside her, at the soft look in his eyes, which widened when she contracted her vaginal muscles around him. "Can you feel that?"

"Yes. Oh yes."

"Isn't it amazing, you being in me?"

"Yes. Unbelievable. I dreamed, but didn't know. Thank you."

They looked affectionately into each other's eyes, sharing the trusting vulnerability of penetration and being penetrated, exposing their most intimate parts to each other.

"I don't think I'm going to last very long."

"Go for it. Kiss me."

They sighed into each other's mouths, tongues plunging as Jack started thrusting. He came quickly, furtively, holding his breath and not wanting to make a noise, the way he had done so often when masturbating into his pillow, thinking of this very moment.

"Sorry, I should have tried to last a bit longer. It's just that it was so wonderful, so nice being inside you, and we were kissing and your tongue was inside me and I wanted it to last forever but I also just wanted to come so much and then suddenly I was coming like mad and I... "

Peggy fit a finger over his lips.

"Shoosh, you think too much. Just relax and enjoy the moment."

She pulled his head down on her breast and stroked his hair, looking up at the ceiling, enjoying the way her body encompassed and accepted his thickness. And secretly thinking that it really would have been nice to go a bit longer.

Across the room came sounds of completion, Lowell spurting into Kay's mouth as Vivian spasmed on his thrusting tongue. They fell asleep in a triangle, head to lap, to the sound of gentle snoring from the bed.

Some time later, Jack awoke, needing to pee. He picked his way through the bodies on the floor to go to the bathroom. Standing at the toilet, he remembered as he finished the magical moment of fucking Peggy, and his cock started to swell. He removed his clothing, planning to return naked to her bed, rub against her bum, caress her breasts, give her what she needed. But as he was returning, Peggy came out of the room, determination and desire in her eyes. She looked at his erect cock and hanging balls.

"You unwrapped your present too quickly. Now I want mine."

She drew him in and kissed him then, enveloping him in a warm fleshy welcome. This time Jack was fully aware of her generous breasts against his chest, her round bum cheeks in his hands as he grabbed her, their tongues twisting and chasing each other in their conjoined mouths. Peggy stood back, pulled up her dress, lay down on the hallway floor and spread her legs wide apart, showing her copper colored bush, crinkly dark rose flaps, and wet red gash.

"Come and take me now, take me hard. I want you all the way in."

Jack got down and entered her in one thrust. They fucked hard and loud this time, rocking back and forth in perfect synchrony on Peggy's fleshy bum and Jack's knobbly knees. They climbed the mountainside together, until Peggy threw her head back and cried out her orgasm as Jack gave a full throated groan, his spurting cock buried in her spasming cunt. They came back to his world, staring at each other.

"Better that time?"

"Oh yes, perfect. Merry Christmas, Jack."

"Merry Christmas, Peggy."

They spoke at the same time.

"Best present ever."

Down the hallway, behind her closed bedroom door, Ruth lay in bed, awake to the sounds, thrusting her dildo deep again and again as she reached a silent orgasm.