Bring Out Your Dead Valentine

"It's right there in front of the boxwood hedge. I can feel a pull. Is that where I'm supposed to go?"

I nodded.

"There's nothing to be afraid of, most people see someone they love when they get close."

I pulled ahead to the glow.

"Tell me when to stop."

"Stop here," he turned to me, "who are you and how do you know so much? Are you Death?"

I shook my head.

"I'm a guy who drives a Jetta. I possess a strange talent that helps people going through a very jolting experience."

"So this is your job?"

"Nope, I'm an accountant."

He gazed at the invisible bright light.

"Well, this should be your full time job, you helped me a lot. I'm the CEO of Danforth Industries. I was in the middle of negotiations with a large multinational corporation who are going to buy me out. They've proposed a four for one stock swap to keep the investors from voting down the sale. You could make yourself a tidy bundle if you buy every bit of Danforth stock that you can."

"Thank you."

He shook his head.

"No, thank you. I would have wandered around a long time before I figured out what I had to do."

With that he got out of the car without opening the door and glided across the lawn. At one point, he chuckled.

"Mom? Is that you?"

With a wave of his hand, he disappeared from sight.

The first thing I did was call my broker and instruct him to sell everything and buy up all the Danforth stock he could. Two weeks later I was well off. Inside a year of letting ghosts help me, I was getting rich enough to never have to work again.

**********

I dozed a bit. I was laying on my back with Amy asleep on my shoulder. Her long leg lay across my thighs and an arm lay across my chest. Her shampoo had a lovely apricot scent, it wasn't Rita's scent. She was about as tall as Rita, but much more slightly built. She still looked sexy as hell naked, but she lacked the abundance of curves that Rita possessed. I inhaled deeply her cleaner, less florid scent; I could get used to it. Where Rita had intensity, Amy had endurance. They were both remarkable lovers. Their touch was exquisite, their affection total.

**********

I met Rita at a hospital administrator's conference. Yes, they are as boring as they sound, and that's why they're in places like San Diego and South Beach. They're easier to come to if you can slip off to the beach or the nightlife. I sauntered into a hospitality suite of a linen supply company looking for a Manhattan made with Maker's Mark when I stopped in my tracks.

"Wow."

Rita dressed in a nicely tailored charcoal suit over a scarlet blouse smiled back at me. The blouse matched her lipstick and fingernails which complemented her dark Mediterranean good looks. A head full of curly, glossy black hair cascaded down her back. Her slacks were tailored so nicely that they practically hugged her amazing ass.

"That's the best reaction I've gotten all night."

She smiled parting her full lips revealing a generous mouth and a thousand watt smile.

I was smitten.

We talked over our drinks. She was a records administrator for a hospital in the Detroit area. We learned each other's ages, and martial status. From there we moved on to movies we loved, then books and favorite restaurants. I invited her to a world famous Italian restaurant in South Beach.

I was fearless that night. That, by itself, was strange. I'm not shy, but I've been rebuffed so many times romantically that I had given up. I'm not a gym rat. I don't have the six pack or the killer abs. I'm a big guy built along the lines of a lumber jack. A late growth spurt in high school left me over six feet and a little awkward. I wouldn't call myself handsome, but I don't scare little kids either. People simply did not pick me out of a crowd unless they were looking for a big, dumb looking guy. Rita saw something different, and for that I am eternally grateful.

Our affair continued back in Detroit. Our dates evolved into weekends together as Detroit tumbled from glorious autumn into sullen winter. One snowy December Friday, I looked out the window at the wet snow painting the world white. We had been enjoying each other's company on the couch and I was a little flushed and out of breath.

"It looks pretty messy out there. I'm sure the roads will be cleared by tomorrow," I hinted.

"Are you trying to get me to stay over so you can have your way with me, puppy?"

"The thought occurred to me," I replied, "though I was thinking more of playing a friendly game of point and giggle. We could save the ravishing for later."

She pouted.

"I'm not sexy enough to be ravished tonight?"

"If you want to be ravished, I can ravish. Do you want your bodice ripped like the hero does in a romance novel, or should we save the clothing?"

"Let's save the clothing. I put on my cutest bra and pantie set. Please admire them before you rip them from my milky white flesh like an impetuous pirate captain."

With that I picked her up and carried her down the hallway into my bedroom. I sat her on the bed and fumbled unbuttoning her blouse and hung it on a hanger.

Why are women's button's backwards? It makes no sense. I repeated the process with her slacks and hung them on a hanger too.

"I've never met such a fastidious ravisher," she smirked as I reached behind her looking for the clasp on her bra, "the clasp is in front, big guy."

I disposed of her bra and panties in short order. They were pretty, by the way. I did notice. She was prettier without out them though.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" she asked covering her breasts with her arms.

"I'm in awe of your beauty, I can't look away, you're captivating."

I slid out of my clothing leaving them in a pile on the floor, and leaped onto the bed.

I kissed crushing those amazing breasts against my chest while stroking her sides. Her breasts made an enchanting bulge above her ribs that I caressed lovingly.

"M-m-m, I've been thinking about this ever since we met," she reached down and stroked my erection.

"You should have told me earlier."

She shook her head.

"The male's pursuit is more important than his conquest. Had I been too welcoming, you would have gotten the wrong impression. I'm not that kind of girl until I find the right kind of man," she smirked at me, "winner winner chicken dinner. I've found the right kind of man."

I kissed her pushing my tongue into her lips, she eagerly let me in and we explored each other's mouth. When she pulled back she gently bit my lower lip.

"I want to eat you up, puppy."

I lay beside her and stroked her breasts, tummy, and hips.

"I love your touch," she said with a smile, "I tingle wherever your hands wander."

"And I love touching. I want to cover you in kisses."

I continued pleasuring her, noticing that each time I stroked across her hips, she spread her legs a little further apart. I took that to mean that she was ready for more intimacy and began to give her thighs and groin more attention with my hands as I explored her breasts with my lips. I wasn't trying to penetrate her yet. As she told me earlier, the pursuit was as important as the conquest, and for once I had listened.

I continued to kiss and caress her amazing breasts. They were full and warm and her nipples hardened beneath my tongue.

"You're driving me crazy."

She squirmed beneath my attentions. When I stroked her hips, she thrust them up against my hand. I slowly dragged my hand the length of her slit collecting her moisture on my finger tip before stroking around her clit. She moaned and wiggled.

When I slid lower to tongue her clit and outer lips she stopped me.

"I want you in me right now, puppy. I can't take anymore teasing."

How could I say no? I slid between her legs, bearing my weight on my hands and knees while she lined me up and I slid into her without resistance stopping when our hips nestled together like they were supposed to. The stars aligned and suddenly I knew my destiny. It was to spend the rest of my life here in perfect union with this fetching angel. I was home. I had never had that feeling before. I've felt elated that I finally had entered a woman. I've felt turned on, I've even felt disappointed, but I have never felt that I was home.

She wrapped her arms around my neck and pulled me to her.

"Let's stay like this forever," she sighed into my ear, "I feel full, and warm and loved."

I couldn't think of a single reason why we couldn't. She adjusted to my presence, making our union a perfect fit. I stroked into her slowly maximizing sensation. She responded by arching her hips to meet me and pulling my face closer to kiss me.

"O-h-h-h, I like this," she murmured in a breathy voice.

I picked up my pace and watched her grimace with pleasure.

"That's amazing, keep doing that."

She wrapped her legs around my waist and bit my shoulder as her passion grew.

I found a rhythm she liked and continued as her nails dug into my back. She stiffened locking me into her embrace with her arms and legs.

"I'm coming, puppy," she whispered into my ear then bucked under me.

I held on as best I could impressed by her strength. When she was done, I began stroking into her slowly.

"You didn't come?" she whispered into my ear.

"Not yet."

"We have to do something about that."

She raked her nails along my back and nibbled my earlobe.

She came to orgasm quicker the second time. Every muscle in her body clamped down on me as her second more powerful orgasm surged through her. It triggered me and we orgasmed together. I emptied all my desire into her.

"That was amazing," she said gasping for breath, "I love the feel of you pulsing inside of me. You did it for a long time."

"It's been a while, and I've imagined making love to you since we met."

Panting and exhausted, I lay on the bed beside her savoring my post coital bliss. I had never had an orgasm so strong. I loved his woman with all my heart and soul.

"Wow! You know how to get a girl going."

I rolled up on my side and stroked her breasts lolling in the afterglow.

"Do you like them?" she asked.

"I do."

"Is that why you're attracted to me?"

Somehow I realized that there was a trap in that question. I loved her breasts, but they weren't what attracted me to her.

I shook my head watching her carefully.

"I'm more of a butt man, and yours is very attractive by the way. It was your smile that attracted me at first. When you talk, your mouth verges on a smile like you thought of a joke that you want to share. I was attracted by that smile, but I stayed because the whole package made me all tingly. I was in your thrall by the time we went to dinner that first night in Miami. After that, the more I knew about you, the more I fell in love with you."

She fanned her hand in front of her face.

"You sure know how to talk to a woman."

"Do you like your breasts being stroked?" I asked as I cupped a breast happy that I had passed the test.

"I do, but there are guys who are only attracted to my breasts."

I kissed her in reply. "I love every inch of your body. I want to cover your ass with little bites making it jump each time I do it. And then when I'm done, I'll start on your sexy elbows."

"Elbows? That sounds a little kinky."

She gave a nervous giggle.

"Not really," I shook my head, "every part of you is sexy as far as I'm concerned. Elbows are as good a breasts."

The weekend became clothing optional. Saturday morning flowed into Saturday evening, and that flowed into Sunday morning. We ordered in food when we got hungry. I learned why you should never fry bacon while naked when we made breakfast. We showered together. We made love in every conceivable position except from behind. I learned that when you're busty like Rita, having your breasts swinging freely underneath you can be uncomfortable. And Sunday evening, I pouted as she dressed to go home. My bed, my apartment, and my world were empty without her as Sunday evening morphed into Monday morning.

We changed each other as lovers do. She hung pictures on the bare walls of my apartment, she threw out my white sheets and replaced them with bazillion thread count Egyptian cotton sheets which I have to admit felt really good, and she began cooking stuff like fish, casseroles, and actual dinners for me. I made the world a less scary place for her. She enjoyed going out at night with me on her arm. I also made her ham and cheese omelets. I'm very good at making them.

One night when she slept over I got antsy. There are times when I have trouble sleeping because ghosts are watching me. They have no idea what privacy is. When I can't turn off my mind for that reason, I often get up. I was searching a web site of adopted kids looking for their birth parents.

"Who are you talking to?" Rita said as she came out of the bedroom wearing a fetching shortie robe and nothing else. I loved her legs.

I considered lying, but she needed to know what she was getting into. I looked up from the computer screen.

"I'm talking to Mabel Sims. She was a hundred and one year old woman when she passed a few days ago. She wants to see the daughter she gave up for adoption during the depression before she moves on to whatever is next."

"You talk to dead people?"

The anxiety in her voice matched the doubt on her face.

I nodded.

"And I can assure you that they know that they're dead."

I looked for a smile, but it never flickered across her face.

"You're pranking me."

I shook my head.

Mabel looked Rita over.

"She can't see me or hear me?"

"She can't."

Rita looked uncomfortable as I spoke to something that wasn't there from her point of view.

I thought for a moment.

"Mabel, would you be willing to step into her body?"

I looked over at Rita who was frowning at me.

"Rita, in a moment Mabel is going to step into your body. It will feel strange, but do not fight it. If you do, it will make you sick to your stomach."

I watched Mabel step into Rita's body, the sudden look of alarm faded from Rita's face, then disbelief and finally amazement. Mabel had taken over.

She stroked the skin on her arms.

"I always wondered what it would feel like to be a white woman. It's the same as being as black. It's a wonder folks make so much fuss about skin color."

Her hands came up and weighed her breasts.

"Honey, if I had a body like yours, I would have had a lot more fun when I was young."

"Mabel, step out of her body now, please."

Her non material form oozed out of Rita's body leaving Rita breathless.

"That was amazing, I could feel her in me. It felt so weird, and I wanted to push her out, but I remembered what you said. Is she still here?"

I pointed to Mabel standing beside me.

"She's here."

"Mabel, I'm sorry I doubted you."

Mabel, for her part, smiled.

Rita turned to me.

"How are you trying to find her daughter?"

"I'm going through court records in her county down in Mississippi and a Mississippi web site for adopted children looking for their birth parents."

She thought for a moment.

"Let me try it through medical records. There's a national database I have access to. If Mabel was alive, I wouldn't be able to do this, but since she's dead, there are no ethical concerns."

I stood and let her work her magic at the computer terminal.

Rita looked up at me.

"Can Mabel hear me talk?"

"Yes, child," Mabel replied.

I related her answer to Rita.

"Good, Mabel what was your name when you delivered your child, and give me the name of the doctor or midwife that delivered your child, and the orphanage you surrendered your child to."

I relayed the answers, and let Rita do her work. In ten minutes she had it narrowed down to Esther Mae Johnson nee Strong who had died five years ago of ovarian cancer.

I turned to Mabel.

"I'm betting your daughter is waiting for you in the light."

Mabel kissed me on the cheek and walked across the room disappearing as she went.

"Is she gone?" Rita asked.

I nodded.

"Was she happy?"

"She was."

"Wow," she pushed her chair back from the computer, "that was intense."

Rita became a part of my spirit assistance enterprise. Christmas eve of 2019, I asked her to marry me, and we planned a wedding for July. The meeting with her family was interesting. Her mother loved me and welcomed me, but her father was not happy. I wasn't Italian, and worse, I wasn't Catholic, but he tolerated me because he loved his daughter.

**********

Amy muttered something unintelligible in her sleep. I pulled her close and kissed her shoulder. She muttered something else in a more satisfied tone, smiled, and settled back into her slumber. My love for her welled within me. That this accomplished, intelligent woman loved me still amazed me. She had chosen me from a pool of hundreds of men that had wandered through her life. She could have had any one of them.

**********

Things went sideways in June when we both came down with covid. There was no telling who infected whom and I'm happy not knowing. My case was slight. I lost my sense of taste and smell for a few days, felt achy all over, and fourteen days later I was over it.

When Rita began to fight for every breath, I took her to the hospital. She lingered for four desperate weeks, and died alone when her heart could stand no more. There were no visitors allowed. I gowned up and sneaked down there one time near the end when a sympathetic nurse was on duty, but I didn't do it any more after that since it would have cost me my job and hers if I had gotten caught.

Rita lay pale and exhausted gasping for each labored breath on her ventilator, her fingers and toes had turned black and her once perfect face was lined in fatigue and misery. She was out if it and she had no idea I was there. I would have gladly traded places with her, and had prayed that it be so even though I never prayed. She was the wonderful one who deserved to live. I was a frog she had transformed into a human with her magical kiss. It should have been me. Guilt riddled me that I was the one who survived.

I cringed at the darkness about her. Part of my 'gift' is that I can see a bit of color around people especially if I study them when they aren't moving. I've heard it called an aura. I see no rhyme nor reason to what color they are, but black portends death. I broke down and wept ugly, bitter tears that night for what was about to happen and for our children that might have been.

Her hurried cremation happened two weeks before we were to marry. Only her parents attended. I wasn't invited because they feared I was still contagious and I think that her father was pretty sure that I had given the infection to his daughter. In any case, I got the impression that I simply was not Catholic enough. The family shunned me after that. If there was a memorial service, I wasn't invited.

The world of light and color that Rita had opened for me faded to sepia toned memories with dark gray days and coal black nights that stretched into my pitiful future. My existence became as tasteless and boring as chewing on a rubber band. I continued feeding myself, bathing, and plodding off to work, but that wasn't the same as living. She had filled my apartment with mementos of our life together, when I went outside, the world was filled with places we had gone together. I wasn't a suicidal mess, but I did contemplate how nice it would be to feel no pain.

I was staring at the wall in my apartment remembering the day Rita had bought that autumn painting for me. We were at an art fair, and she was wearing her favorite sun dress. It showed lots of cleavage and l could tell she saw herself as especially attractive in it. That had been nearly a year ago. Then Rita appeared wearing that same dress.

"Why the sad face, puppy?" she asked as she stroked my face. I couldn't feel her spectral hand on my face, but I appreciated the gesture and her presence.