Cleaning House

By nine, he was finished. A fine sheen of sweat covered his body, but the coolness of outdoors stymied any real profuse sweating. He entered the house and made his way to the kitchen for a glass of orange juice. "Oh, I thought you were still asleep," James said from the table. "If I had known you were outside working, I'd have lent a helping hand."

"It's alright, Dad. I was just ... working through some issues."

"If you'd care to talk about it ...?"

"You couldn't even begin to fathom what's on my mind," Jim retorted.

"All I'm asking for is a chance, son."

Jim guzzled down his OJ, said, "Maybe next time," and made his way upstairs to get a shower. When he emerged and re-entered his room, he found his mother sitting on his bed. "What brings you in here on a Saturday?" he asked with a smile.

"Not that," she said with a coy smile of her own as she watched her son's penis quickly gain in mass and length. "Although ... No. We can't chance it, Jim." He didn't pay her words any heed. He pushed the door to and then lay on his bed and cocked his legs out, his perfectly erect cock a beacon for her mouth. "Damn it," she whispered, and her mouth was around him. She went at a moderate speed, and in five minutes he was emptying himself into her mouth. As always, she dutifully swallowed his semen. "Thank you for not making a lot of noise at orgasm."

Jim sat up and kissed his mother on the lips. "Thank you for loving me so much." He then began dressing as his mother said,

"Your father wanted me to speak with you. Something about him reaching out to you this morning and you declining?"

Jim looked at her. "I was pissed about last night, Mom. I couldn't very well tell him that."

"You're right," she said. "You're right. Why were you pissed, though?"

"You two came home sounding like you had the time of your lives."

"I had a good time, Jim, yes," she told him. "He took me to the mall. We went to the arcade and played video games for an hour, then we went to the food court and had Corn Dog Heaven, of all things. After that, we went to see that remake of The Breakfast Club. God-awful."

"Sounds like you had a really good time."

"It was reminiscent of the dates we had before we were married." She saw the scowl on her son's face. "Come sit next to me, Jim." She didn't think he would, but he finally acquiesced. She took his hands in hers and said, "I know a lot of what I am feeling right now is nostalgia, but I have not forgotten my pledge to you. I told you that you have my heart now, and that hasn't changed. I love you, Jim, and I need you to be understanding of what's going on with your father."

Jim looked up at her, a mock pout on his face. "I love you, too."

Sharon kissed him. "Good. If you can be a good lover the remainder of the day, we'll have a quickie tonight after your father goes to bed."

This returned the smile to Jim's face.

Date night continued every Friday night. In between, though, Sharon had taken to accompanying James to one AA meeting a week. "I'm trying to be there for you, James, but all those people telling all those stories? It's just so damned depressing."

"It can be," James said as he moved a chunk of pot roast to his mouth, "but we draw strength from each other through the stories we tell." He looked at Jim. "Think you might like to come with us next week?"

"I think I'm scheduled to have my anal hair bleached on that night."

"Jim!!" Sharon shouted. "You can be a lot of things, but you will not be blatantly disrespectful to your father like that. He is merely trying to include you in something that is important to him."

"It's okay, Sharon," James said before Jim could offer a response. "I did this to him for fourteen years. He has every right to do it back to me."

That actually stung Jim. "I'm sorry, Dad. I know you're trying, and I'm trying, too. I'm trying to put this behind me." He looked at his mother. "I apologize to you as well. That's not something someone says in the presence of a lady." The remainder of the meal was eaten in relative silence. Jim finished quickly and left the table. "I'm going for a drive," he shouted, and he was gone.

He drove around for the better part of an hour before coming to The Rockin' Cock, a fifties-style burger joint that just so happened to serve the best milk shakes in the state. He went in and ordered a vanilla. As he waited, he heard, "May I join you?"

He looked up to see Marcie Brown. "Uh, yeah. Sure."

She sat across from him and ordered a strawberry shake for herself. "So, I've never seen you here. Jonesing for a shake tonight?"

Jim laughed. "You know, I haven't been here since—well, since high school."

"Did I really fuck you up that badly, Jim?"

"You knew how much I liked you, Marcie. I thought prom would solidify our relationship."

"You seem to be in a solid relationship now with that older red head," Marcie said. "But ..."

"'But' what?"

"I don't know if I should say anything. You and she seem so happy."

"What, Marcie?" Jim demanded.

"It's just ... I saw her with a man at the Four Seasons the other night and they were kissing."

"What!?"

"I'm sorry to be the one to tell you, Jim. Knowing how badly I hurt you in the past, I don't want you getting hurt again."

The milkshakes were brought and set before them, then the waitress skated away. Jim fumbled with his straw. He picked up the glass and moved it toward his mouth, then set it down. After five minutes of silence, he lay ten dollars on the table and stormed out. Marcie quickly followed behind him. She caught up to Jim and lightly placed a hand upon his shoulder. He stopped in his tracks and slowly shook his head. "I knew this was going to happen."

"Come here," Marcie said, and pulled him to her car. She pushed him in, then crawled in next to him. She was practically sitting on his lap. She grabbed his head and brought him to her bosom. "I know it hurts, Jim. You can unburden yourself to me." Jim looked up at her. She moved in and kissed him even as she took one of his hands and placed it upon a breast. Jim made to move it away, but then he lightly squeezed it.

One a.m., and Jim was lying in his bed, fully awake. He thought long and hard over Marcie's revelation concerning his mother and father, and he thought about his interaction with Marcie afterwards. His mind was a jumbled mess. His brain was so active that he just couldn't shut it down that he may find peace in rest. He closed his eyes for the umpteenth time and took a deep breath, hoping this one would be the one to get him on the la-la land express, then he heard a whispered, "Jim?"

He looked toward his door to see his mother shut it before making her way to him. Before she had even reached his bed, she was fully nude. She sat on the bed next to his hips and removed his underwear before latching onto his flaccid cock and slowly pumping it. "I was so worried about you when you left." She bent down and kissed him. He did not return it. Not only did he not return it, but she felt an iciness about him that chilled her to the bone. "Jim? What's wrong?"

"Nothing."

She kissed him again and was met with the same response. Not only that, but his cock was still soft. "What's wrong, honey?"

He sighed deeply, then said, "I'm just not in the mood for anything."

She was genuinely hurt by this. Never, since they first began seeing one another in this capacity, had one denied the other simply because of the deep desire they held for one another. She drew her hand back. "I ... I'm sorry. I'll go."

Before Sharon had even completely stood, Jim reached out and placed a hand over hers. She turned and looked at him. He gently pulled her down onto him and looked into her eyes. He began to weep as he said, "Tell me you love me."

"Oh, baby. I love you with all my heart. You know that."

"I need you to tell me, Mom," he said even as the tears flowed freely from his eyes. "Tell me over and over."

Sharon crawled atop her son and said, "Absolutely no one in this world means as much to me as you do, baby." She began to cry as well. "I'll love you till my dying breath, Jim. Please believe that." She pressed her hips down and found his fully erect cock. She pushed herself onto it and the two began to make love, bathing one another in tears and wet, sloppy kisses as they did so.

The following day at school as Jim and Sharon were enjoying lunch together, Marcie made her way across the dining area. She spotted Jim and Sharon, and even though they were seated the opposite way she was walking, she detoured and stopped by their table. "Hi, Jim."

"Hey, Marcie."

"And I never caught your name," Marcie said to Sharon. Sharon told her. "Anyway," Marcie said as she turned back to Jim, "I enjoyed last night. Maybe we can do it again sometime." She awaited a response, but none was given. "Okay, then. Let me know if you change your mind. Bye. Oh, and you too, Sherrie."

"Last night?" Sharon questioned her son and lover when Marcie walked off.

"It's nothing," he said, and left the matter alone.

Jim did not see Sharon again until after their last classe for the day. As they made their way home, he said, "Since Dad has one of his meetings tonight, how about we go out to eat?"

"What did you have in mind?"

"Something casual," Jim said. "How about Pizza Hut?"

"It's been a while," Sharon answered. "Sure, why not?"

They arrived home, each going to his and her own bathrooms to shower. It was going on six when they left, and it was just about dark when Jim pulled the Navigator into the parking lot. They made their way inside, and Jim told Sharon to go ahead and get a table as he fed two dollars into the jukebox. The selection was shit for the most part, but he found some eighties stuff he thought his mom might enjoy along with a few, more contemporary hits.

He took his place at the booth just as the waitress approached. He ordered sweet tea while his mother ordered half sweet, half unsweet with lemon. "We'll go ahead and place our order now, Stacy," Sharon said to the waitress as she read her name tag. "One medium pan with Canadian bacon, pineapple, and banana peppers."

"Make that extra banana peppers, and real bacon on one half," Jim added.

Not to be outdone, Sharon said, "Make that double bacon all over, and make it a large."

"So, we have a large pan with Canadian bacon, pineapple, double banana peppers, and double bacon," Stacy confirmed.

"Yes," Jim and Sharon said with smiles.

"Okay, it'll be about twenty minutes," Stacy said, then she made her way to the back.

"The music selection sucked," Jim said to Sharon, "but hopefully I picked some stuff you like."

The song currently playing was "True" by Spandau Ballet. "Oh, I like this one." Sharon listened to the lyrics, and when "Oh, I want the truth to be said," filled the restaurant, she looked at Jim and said, "I need to tell you something."

"I already know," he told her.

"How could you possibly—?"

"Marcie saw you and Dad at the Four Seasons the other night."

"Oh," Sharon said as she cast her eyes downward. She then looked up quickly. "Well, that would certainly explain your behavior last night."

"I had so many thoughts going through my head last night, Mom. First and foremost, though, was why? Why would you kiss Dad?"

Sharon reached for her purse. She rummaged through it and pulled out a keychain. She held it out for Jim to see as she said, "Because of this."

"What the hell is that?" Jim asked as he beheld the ugliest little charm he had ever seen.

"That is a Trolli, and this is an authentic eighties-era Trolli keychain," Sharon answered. "I had one when your father and I first began dating. Through circumstance, the German Shepherd he owned at the time had gotten ahold of it and crunched the little Trolli to pieces. James told me back then that he would buy me a new one, but he never did. That is, until the other night. He found this one online and paid thirty dollars for it."

"Well. That's ... cool, I suppose."

"It's very cool, Jim. After all these years he remembered, and he cared enough to live up to that promise." Sharon returned the keychain to her purse and her purse to her side. "So, when little Miss Marcie was telling you about that kiss, did she mention it was on the cheek?"

"What?" Jim, chagrined, asked. "Uh, no. I guess she failed to mention that, but let's be honest

here, Mom. Your affection for him is growing every day. I can see it in the way you talk about him and how you interact with him."

"As I have explained before, it's nostalgia and nothing more, Jim. He's making me remember simpler times, times when we were happy together, and while I do admit that it has made him more tolerable, for lack of a better word, it certainly doesn't mean I'm ready to throw away what I have with you and jump back in bed with him again. Besides, how would that look considering I'm carrying your child?"

"What!?!?" Jim near-shouted, and his eyes immediately filled with tears.

"I'm pregnant, Jim," Sharon said softly. "I'm going to have your baby. Our baby."

Jim was immediately at Sharon's side. He knelt before her and placed a nervous hand on her belly. "Our child? Growing inside of you?"

"Yes," she answered. "Our little girl."

Jim stood and took her hand, nearly ripping her from the booth. He pulled Sharon to the counter, then asked Stacy, "How much longer on that pizza?"

"About fifteen minutes."

"We're going to step outside for a bit. Just put it on the table if we're not back yet." Without another word, he guided Sharon to the Navigator. He opened the back door and all but forced her inside, then crawled in himself. He reached up her dress and tore her panties from her, then dropped his pants and underwear.

"Oh, Jim," Sharon whispered breathily. "You're not upset about me being pregnant?"

"I love you so fucking much," Jim responded as he pushed himself into her. He could never remember a time in his life when his cock felt so hard and swollen as it did right now, and perhaps it had gained a little in both length and girth, for Sharon was crying out with each gentle thrust her son delivered.

She pulled him down onto her and gripped his ass even as his lips found hers. Their tongues were like the rapiers of opposing fencers as they sought to gain purchase in one another's mouths. Sharon moved one hand behind Jim's head even as the other helped push him deeper and deeper inside her.

It didn't last long, maybe five minutes, but finally Sharon slung her head to the left and bit down hard on Jim's right shoulder, screaming into him as a most intense orgasm rocked her body. The nerve receptors linking Jim's shoulder to his brain cautioned him that great distress was being visited upon him, but those very same receptors translated that pain into pleasure, pleasure that reached his overripe cock, causing it to explode with a shower of semen that whitewashed his mother's womb.

Out of breath, Jim managed, "I love you."

Sharon had begun slowly licking the blood from Jim's shoulder like some primeval wampyr long deprived of the precious fluid. She seemed to lavish at the sight and taste of it, snaking her tongue around the abused site, reveling in its coppery yet savory piquancy. She did so for all of two minutes, then whispered, "I love you too, baby." She thrust her tongue into Jim's mouth, sharing with him his life's blood. It was enough to keep him hard, yet both knew they must return to the restaurant.

As they composed themselves to return to their booth, Jim said, "Sorry about your panties. Heat of the moment."

"Maybe Mommy should punish the bad boy," she said with a laugh.

Once at the table, they each sipped from their drinks. Jim took a deep breath, then said, "I need to confess something to you as well, Mom. Well, two things, actually."

"What?" Sharon asked.

"First, last night when Marcie and I were at The Rockin' Cock—"

"Was this a date?" Sharon, fearing the worst, asked.

"No, Mom. No. I just ended up there after driving around for a while. Marcie saw me sitting alone at a booth and asked if she could join me. I told her sure, and she did. Anyway, when she told me about the kiss, I was hurt and angry. I went outside, and she followed. She tried to calm my nerves," he gave quotation marks in the air when he said that, "by kissing me and placing one of my hands on her breasts. I made to pull back, but then, for the briefest of moments, I gave in to her, Mom. I returned her kiss, and I squeezed her breast. It lasted a second, two at the most, but I pulled away from her because even as angry and hurt as I felt, I still wanted no other woman touching me like that except you."

"Thank you for your honesty," Sharon said after a contemplative moment. "I suppose you were justified, considering what you had just learned, but you're a smart man, Jim. You know not to judge anything until all the facts are known."

"It was an emotional response, not a rational one, I know," Jim replied. "I'm sorry, Mom."

"We both made small trespasses," she pointed out. "It's nothing we can't put behind ourselves."

The pizza arrived, and as good as it looked, it tasted even better. Jim's mouth was currently working on a bite that took half the slice he was holding. He finally managed to swallow, then he washed it down with five gulps of tea. "Oh, I forgot to ask. How far along are you?"

"Two months," Sharon replied. "I've been trying to find the right time to tell you."

"You timed it perfectly," Jim said, and his eyes misted again.

"It makes me so happy that you want this child with me."

"Why wouldn't I?" Jim asked. "You are the love of my life, Mom. That is absolute." He thought a moment, then asked, "What about Dad? You've got to tell him sometime."

"I know, and that worries the hell out of me."

"Hold off on telling him just yet," Jim requested. "This is something that needs to be planned out carefully. We don't want to send him back to drinking."

Sharon concurred. "Now, what is number two?"

"I actually don't know if it is proper for me to mention this," James began, "but your comment about Mommy punishing me is kind of a turn on."

Sharon reached across the table and held his hand. "We can explore that too, baby. Mommy promises to make sure her little man is well taken care of."

Jim shuddered. "Oh, Mom. I'm so turned on right now."

"We can take care of that later tonight after your father goes to sleep," Sharon promised him. "In the meantime, grab some napkins and place them where I bit you. The blood is leaking through your shirt."

"That's a turn on, also," Jim said as he did as Sharon directed.

Thanksgiving Day and Jim was outside chopping wood for the fireplace. There was a light downfall of snow, but not enough to deter him from this duty. James happened upon him, a smile on his face. "Care to trade off?" he asked as he held out a cup of hot chocolate.

Jim accepted the cup and passed the ax to his father. He chopped one log, two, three, then turned to his son and said, "I know the absence of me in your life allowed for you and your mother to grow close, Jim, and that is completely understandable. I want to ask you something, though. If she were doing something wrong, would you lie to protect her, or would you be resolute so that the truth could be known?"

"I guess it would depend upon the circumstance," Jim replied honestly. "If she took a single grape from a display at the grocery store, I wouldn't turn her in, but at the same time, if she murdered someone in cold blood, I'd have no choice but to."

"Mmm-hmmm," James intoned as he nodded his head. "What about—and this is strictly hypothetical—but what if she were having an affair with someone? If you knew, would you tell me, son?"

"Do you realize what you're saying, Dad?" Jim laughed. "Think about it. Mom and I ride to school together. She's at school all day, and I run into her about two or three times each day. We ride home together, you come home ... She doesn't have the time to run around on you. She is always under constant supervision."