Claudia Near The End Of The Road

Claudia panted like she was climbing a long flight of stairs. I bent over her until I was propped up on my arms, and we were face to face, the tip of my penis still barely inside her tight butthole.

"OK, Sam, a little more now," she whispered. Sweat beaded on her upper lip.

My penis felt like it was trapped in a tight fist. But I pushed a little harder, and I slipped a little further in.

Trapped in her tightest embrace, I began to pump. Gently. Barely moving.

Claudia shimmied a little and moaned. "Oh yeah, Sam, fuck my ass."

I moved slow and shallow. Somewhere along the way, Neil and Bea had finished fucking, and they were now lying beside us, watching. Neil's jaw hung open like a pelican's.

I couldn't believe how close I felt, or how tender I felt towards her. With my penis in her ass, I felt like I was as responsible for her as a parent to a child. Claudia was my girl. My baby. I leaned down and kissed the end of her nose.

"Oh Sam!" Claudia yelled, and she slapped her fingers against her pussy, pat-a-pat-a-pat, "Oh God, Sam!"

And I could feel her orgasm in the tightness of her anus, the sudden vise-like grip that stopped all possible movement, yet the massage on my cock, the grip and release, the milking motion, I yelled, and I released my seed.

Our twin frozen bodies shuddered with our shared pleasure. And when the joy finally abated, and all my strength seemed to flee my muscles, our bodies collapsed. My penis was momentarily trapped in her anus, but with an easy pull, it popped out. I fell down on top of Claudia. She pressed her hands against my sides and breathed heavily next to my ear.

"Man oh man, I've never seen anything like that!" Neil said.

I wished Neil and Bea were gone. I wanted to be alone with my baby. Claudia's eyes welled with tears.

"Oh, Claudia, you've got to let me be with you again," Neil begged.

"Neil," Claudia replied without taking her eyes off mine, "if you know what's good for you, just drop it."

"Just look at you! You're so beautiful!"

Claudia sighed. We separated and I lay beside her. I was not looking forward to what Neil was about to say.

"But don't you remember when you told me you loved me, Claudia? Doesn't that mean anything?"

Claudia's face deepened red. Neil had stepped over the line. "I'm over you, Neil!" she screamed.

"Not even one of your kick-ass blowjobs? Just for old times sake?"

Claudia pressed her fists against her temples. "No! No! No!"

"I think about you all the time, honey. I want you so bad."

"You didn't even recognize me, Neil! There is no way you can tell me you've been thinking about me all these years."

Neil sighed and frowned. "You're right, you're right. I wasn't paying attention. It's just your friend here ..." and he gave Bea a dazzling white smile, "it's just she grabbed my fancy.

"But it's not true that I haven't been thinking about you, honey. I think about you all the time."

Claudia thumped her forehead on her palm. "No, Neil, no. I can't do this. You have to give it up."

"Don't worry about Bea. She doesn't mind, do you, honey? You like old Sam, don't you?"

In fact, Bea had the look of a bull, her nostrils flaring, ready to charge. I was worried Claudia would relent, and I was afraid Bea would fuck me to death.

Claudia gave out a little sob and she buried her face in her hands. I stroked the back of her neck. "I'm alright," she whispered, and lifted her head. The hollows under her eyes were damp.

And Neil was beginning to grow erect. He gave a little nod down in that direction, just in case no one had noticed. "Come on, honey, Neil Jr. misses you."

Claudia snuffled and chuckled. Her face, still dewy from a few spilled tears, broke into a momentary smile.

"There you go, Claudia. You see, I'm not so bad. I could always make you laugh. Isn't that worth something? A quickie. I promise you, Claudia, the way you turn my crank, it probably won't last a minute or two."

Claudia's face contorted again. "No, Neil, No! How many times do I have to say it?"

Neil jumped out of bed, cussed, and stomped his foot. "Goddamn it, Claudia!" he said, wiping the back of his neck with his thick hand.

And Claudia ran away sobbing.

I suppose I thought I could rescue the damsel in distress, and I followed Claudia into Earl's backyard.

She stood nude in the backyard, her body sagging. But she had already composed herself, more or less.

She heard me coming and backed off. "Go away, Sam," she said.

"I had nothing to do with that, Claudia."

"I know it, Sam. I'm not an idiot. I know how Neil works. God knows, I know how Neil works. And it's as much Darlene's fault as anyone else's."

"Are you going to be OK?"

"Sam, I really don't want you around right now. Why don't you just drive off into the sunset with your friend? That's what you two do, isn't it? You find girls, screw them, and then take off for some distant city where no one knows who you are. That's it, isn't it?"

"That's not fair," I protested.

"Grow up, Sam. No one gives a fuck if it's fair or not." The tears began to dribble down her cheeks again.

"Claudia ..."

"You think you can waltz into town and score with your old girlfriends ..."

"Claudia, we didn't know! You lied to us! You lied to me!"

She buried her face in her hands and groaned. "Sam, Sam, Sam," she mumbled. I moved a little closer. She choked on her words and tears. "What was I supposed to do?" she sobbed. "I thought he would recognize me right away. I certainly recognized him. And when he didn't, I was so relieved. But Darlene had heard all the stories, she wanted to find out for herself. I told her if she talked to you two, I'd kill her. But I couldn't stop her. She made up the fake names all by herself. All I could do was follow along."

Hearing the sad vibrato of her voice, I couldn't be angry, even though I felt I had every right to be. I put my arms around her, trying to surround her like a cocoon, hoping that she would emerge from my embrace like a new butterfly.

The flow of briny tears almost immediately stopped, but I knew I had nothing to do with it. It felt odd, holding a naked woman in my arms, trying to comfort her, and having her seem comforted, but knowing deep down that it was not I who had reined in her tears. She had drawn on something inside herself, some inner strength. I was just a naked man who happened to be standing close.

But she was content to simply stand and hold me, and so we stood, our arms around one another. We stood for a long time. I noticed the sky lightening in the east.

I stepped back and looked at her. "Let's go back inside," I said. She smiled weakly and agreed. We made our way back to the den. Neil and Darlene were nowhere to be found. I suspected the booze had finally got the better of them.

We sat down together on the hide-a-bed. My penis was amazingly hard again. "Sam, you must really like me," Claudia smiled over a little sniffle. "I never would have put you down for a go-all-night type of guy."

And I wondered about this pretty, dark-haired woman. About the things she'd seen, the men she'd known. I thought about what she'd said earlier, about the man who had broken her heart. I thought about Neil and couldn't bring myself to believe he was the one. The two of them didn't fit together. It didn't make sense.

Not that she and I made any sense, either. But it seemed right that we should join again, join intimately. I knew this erection was more than just a simple physical reaction.

We lay side by side on the bed. The dampness under her eyes made her eyes look even bigger. We kissed.

She climbed on top of me, straddling my hips. She lowered herself, and my penis slid easily inside her. She ground downwards until I felt heat surrounding every inch of my penis.

And there, with my cock buried deeply inside my Claudia, we stared at one another.

Our eyes never left one another. It was a slow, sad fuck. When she came, her mouth twisted in what looked like pain. Tears squeezed from my eyes as I came inside her.

Claudia got out of bed. Naked, she browsed through the books in Earl's study. I watched her silently flip through one random book after another.

The door cracked open. "Sam?" Neil said, a questioning tone in his voice.

"It's OK, Neil," Claudia said.

He poked his head in the door. "Um, Sam, Earl's back. We need to book out of here. And I called my Georgie in Seattle. He's ready for us." Neil smiled like a devious child. "Or at least he thinks he is. No one is truly ready for the likes of us!"

"OK, Neil," I said.

"Hey, Claudia," Neil said. "It was good to see you again."

"Yeah, Neil," Claudia said. "I guess I'm sort of glad we hooked up. At least it wasn't boring."

"That's true! No one will ever accuse me of being boring!" Neil smiled. "Good bye, Claudia."

Neil disappeared. Claudia turned to me, smiling. "So this is it, Sam?"

"Me and Neil, we've been together a long time," I said. "We've been everywhere. Denver, San Fransisco, Phoenix, Houston, Boston, Philadelphia. And a hundred other places."

I snapped my fingers with a sudden idea. "Claudia, you could come along with us. This country is changing, you know. There's something in the soul of America that is dying. It won't be long before it won't make sense to travel around like Neil and I do. It's an opportunity you shouldn't miss."

Claudia laughed and sniffled, and a few more tears ran down her pink-streaked cheeks. "I don't think so, Sam. That's not for me."

"You could try it. Just for a few weeks." But I knew I had already lost this case. For the second time in her life, Claudia would stay behind.

She walked with me out to Earl's front door. Darlene sat on the steps, holding her head. Neil was standing next to his car, shuffling back and forth like a thoroughbred horse anxious to start a race.

"Good bye, Bea," I said. "Or is it Darlene?"

Darlene gave me a weak smile. "See you, Sam."

I gave Claudia one last kiss and hug. Claudia pushed her hair back away from her face and wiped her wet cheeks. "Hey, Sam," she smiled. "You ever in Tacoma and you feel like you could use a kick-ass blowjob, give me a call, OK?"

I raised her hand to my lips and kissed her fingers. Claudia shook her head and blinked back more tears. "Get out of here, Sam, before one of us gets in more trouble."

I let go of her hand and took a few steps backward. Claudia turned away and walked back towards Earl's house. Watching her feminine figure recede made my eyes smart. She disappeared inside without looking back. I turned and joined Neil at the curb.

Neil shook his head and smiled. "Well, my friend, I believe you have finally earned your diploma from Neil's Chick University. You got yourself a prime piece of ass there. I can't believe you got to cornhole her!"

One thing about Neil, he never knew when to be quiet. "Shut up, Neil."

"Oh, ho! Have we found a sensitive spot? So maybe you aren't ready for the advanced degree yet, Sam, but you are definitely moving in greater circles."

"This is not a good topic right now, Neil."

"You know what I like about you, Sam? You're a romantic." Neil slapped himself in the forehead. "Ha! Who would've thought I'd be zooming all around America with a honest-to-goodness, flesh-and-blood romantic sitting beside me!"

"Don't think we're so different, Neil. You're just as romantic as I am. You're just romantic about different things."

"Ha! You got a point there, old buddy! You're romantic about the chicks, and I'm romantic about the road! And you know what? I think it's high time we saw a little more of my favorite honey. Let's lay some asphalt!"

I didn't get the chance to tell him that I thought his analysis was just a little bit off. Maybe Neil had part of me pegged, but he didn't know it all. No, Neil didn't understand everything.

It was my turn to drive. I sat down behind the wheel of the old Ford and Neil piled in beside me.

"To Seattle, old friend?" he said.

And while the tug of going to a place I'd never seen before was strong, I thought maybe I was making a huge mistake. I turned the key, the engine clanked and fell silent, and I turned it again. The engine coughed several times and settled into an even grumble.

My eyes stung. I looked over at Neil, who was bouncing in his seat, mouthing the words to some song only he could hear.

"I think maybe you'd better drive," I said.

"Of course, of course," he said. We changed seats and I slumped against the car door. Neil shoved the car in gear and we lurched forward.

We lurched forward, but I think maybe I left my heart behind.

***

Epilogue

Seattle was a bust. The jobs Neil thought we had lined up never came through, and Neil's friend Georgie got sick of us fast.

Neil wanted to take off for Spokane, or maybe back towards Denver. But a weariness had overtaken me, and I couldn't stand the thought of another all-night marathon behind the wheel of Neil's Ford. And it seemed like Spokane had little to offer beyond the disappointment of Seattle.

Neil tried for two days to talk me into going with him, but my mind was set. On a cool September morning with the skies lightening pink in the east, Neil zoomed away on I-90, by himself for the first time in five years.

I took the Greyhound back to Tacoma.