Decades Ch. 01

"I know," Kelly said. "What an awful shock, even if the guy was a pig."

"No," Doug said. "This is great. Holy shit, this is great!"

"Doug!" Kelly punched him on the arm. "How can you say that about a car wreck? The guy's a jerk, but he's still a human being!"

"No, you don't understand!" Doug turned and grabbed Kelly gently by both arms, looking her in the eye and forgetting all about the chance to sneak a look beneath the surface. "I just figured out who Jennifer was. Laura's mother."

"Yeah, she said that," Kelly said. "What do you mean you figured it out?"

"I know Laura! Laura Warren, I went to high school with her. We were friends because she was also being raised by her grandparents like I was. Because her parents were killed in a car accident when she was a baby!"

"You mean...?" Kelly looked up in the direction of the sirens and flashing lights beyond the rocks.

"Yes!" Doug said. "It was a drunk-driving accident. I remember Aunt Doro telling me all about it. Laura's father was a...well, he was Rick! Her mother was at the bar and he got pissed off at her about something and made a big scene, so he got thrown out. Then he came back with his car and as soon as Jennifer came out of the bar he grabbed her and they think he was going to take her home and do who knows what to her, only they never got home."

"But now Jennifer was with us," Kelly said, her face breaking into a relieved smile.

"So Rick didn't kill anybody except his worthless self," Doug exulted. "Wow!"

"We saved her life!" Kelly leapt at Doug and threw her arms around him. Only then, when he felt her breasts up against him, did he realize she wasn't wearing a bra. In the heat of that realization, he felt further downward on her body and found she wasn't wearing panties either. Now more tempted than ever to look at her body, he instead looked in her eyes and they shared a salacious laugh.

"I told you you didn't need to take everything off," he reminded her.

"I know," she said. "But I wanted to. It's not every day you time-travel. Might as well make it as memorable as you can."

They stayed in the water for a while longer, Doug telling Kelly all he could recall about Laura and the stories he'd heard of her parents. Though he longed to see Kelly's body in all its natural beauty, he resisted stubbornly the temptation to look down under the water, as if just to prove he could resist. I'll show you I'm no sex-freak with a one track mind! With the ice broken, Kelly let him hold her as they talked, impressed with his self-control in never looking at her body; but after a while she began to wish he would admire her. Finally she'd had enough of his resistance, and set off for the beach. "Feel free to come join me if you want," she said over her shoulder as her bare back emerged from the water, her now-long hair streaking down it. "Haven't worn my hair this long since high school," she said, gathering it up to wring it out. "This could take some getting used to."

"So could this," Doug said, following her out of the water.

"So could what?"

"This," Doug said, gesturing at Kelly as she turned around and stood nude on the sand. Her body was much as he had imagined – luscious breasts that sagged a bit against her curvy abdomen, and a full bush that reminded him of old porn magazines he'd seen. He was tempted to ask Kelly if that was a surprise to her like her long hair had been, but Kelly looked down first and Doug could see from the look on her face that the answer was yes. "I take it you shave that normally?"

"Of course," Kelly said. "I'd, um, forgotten how bushy it gets when I don't, too."

"When in Rome," Doug reminded her. Whatever year it was, they were definitely well before the shaving trend.

"It doesn't look like you mind," Kelly teased, pointing at Doug's sopping boxers, which were bulging. "But you think it could take some getting used to?" She didn't show any sign of wanting Doug to look away, so he didn't. Her body was magnificent against the cold gray rocks and the world just beyond, and for once her smile was welcoming.

"Well, of course. Friends don't usually see each other dressed like this, do they? Nice view, though. Very nice. Nothing is half as beautiful as a woman's body, really."

"Why thank you," Kelly said. Doug hoped she would return the compliment, but she didn't. He reasoned that he wasn't quite naked whereas she was, and put the matter from his mind. "So is there a place we can stay the night?" she asked. "I don't think my building has even been built yet!"

"I know a way to sneak into Grandma and Aunt Doro's place," Doug said, "Whatever they're up to, they'll never know we were there. But let's wait a while until we can be sure they're asleep." He pulled off his boxers and stood as naked as she was in the warm night air. "Meantime, we'll be perfectly safe here. We can just nap here if you want."

Kelly gasped in mock horror. "Oh, Doug, I did not need to see that!"

"But it's okay for you to get naked, is it?"

"Of course it is! You just said yourself, women are beautiful! Men aren't."

"Gee, thanks," Doug said, now reconsidering his invitation to nap together – but they had no place else to go, at least not until their clothes were dry.

"Okay, okay, sorry. Joke. In any case, are you sure we can stay here and sleep, especially with nothing on?" Kelly was skeptical, though she did sit down on the sand beside him.

"Yeah," Doug said. "Anybody else coming back here will just be here to swim, also with hardly anything on. They're not going to give us a hard time. It could be them next time."

Kelly didn't believe him. But she was tired and the salty air felt lovely on her bare skin, as did Doug's bare skin against hers, and now that the ice was broken she was delighted with the intimacy, though she wasn't about to give Doug the satisfaction of saying so. Doug set aside his irritation with her comments in favor of the longed-for chance to hold her. She willed herself to relax in his waiting embrace on the sand, and in a matter of minutes they were asleep.

They both awoke fully clothed on the bed in Aunt Doro's old room, the empty wine glasses and full ashtray still on the floor beside them. Doug raised his head and gently removed Kelly's arm from around him. "Whoa..." he moaned.

"Mmm?" Kelly mumbled. "What? Good morning! What time is it?"

Doug looked at the clock on the bedside table. "Couple of hours yet until work, it's okay. I guess you need to go get a change of clothes though."

"Yeah, I do," Kelly said, sitting up. "Wow. Looks like I wore out my welcome after dinner. Sorry about that."

"It's fine," Doug said. "Did you sleep well?"

"I think so."

"You think so?" Doug repeated.

"I had very vivid dreams," Kelly said, running her hands through her hair to confirm it was once again only down to the nape of her neck. She also tried to sense if she was once again groomed down below, but could only guess without touching.

"Me too," Doug said. "Could have sworn we had some adventures last night."

"Well, that must be a dream, mustn't it?" Kelly said with her usual teasing grin. "You know that's the only way I'd let you near, dear. Well, I'll see you at the club?"

"Of course."

"Where's the back door?"

"Can't get there from this floor," Doug said. "Just take the front door. Aunt Doro won't mind."

"That's what I'm afraid of," Kelly admitted. "Who knows what she thinks we were up to last night."

"She wouldn't be the only one wondering," Doug said, rubbing his head. "And she wouldn't care."

Kelly gaped at him. "What – Oh, I get it, joke, right?"

"Oh, of course," Doug said, forcing a smile. "Yeah, a joke." No need to tell Kelly how Aunt Doro had been perfectly aware that he'd lost his virginity in that very bed on prom night, among other things. Kelly would never understand, and she'd probably get another insult or two in to boot.

"Good, then," Kelly said in the most formal tone she could muster. "I'll see you at work."

On her way downstairs, though, Kelly could feel her face blushing. She cared little if Aunt Doro saw her and what she might think of the matter, really, and far more about whether she really had lost her mind and given Doug a full look at her body and then snuggled naked with him on the beach last night, or 20-odd years ago, or both. Was it real? And just why had the moment called out to her to do that, if it was? Doug was a nice boy, but not the type she would deign to get involved with like that, to be sure!

Couldn't be, Doug told himself as he undressed for the shower. Just a really intense dream thanks to the pot, and a trip to the cellar would prove it – no secret room with a jukebox, if he could get that door unlocked at all. No heroics on the beach, no changing the history of Pascatawa, and certainly no way snobby Kelly had taken all her clothes off for him – not in any decade!

But he couldn't resist confirming the matter with Aunt Doro before he left for work later that morning. "Aunt Doro, do you remember Laura Warren?" he asked as they enjoyed their coffee a bit later.

"Jennifer Warren's little girl?" Aunt Doro asked him. "Of course I do! You had her over here for lunch once, didn't you? I think she went to college somewhere up in Maine."

"Maine?" Doug probed, knowing full well Laura had gone to state school – her grandparents couldn't afford private tuition.

"Yes, Doug, don't you remember? Her mother wanted her to go out of state for school because of the memories of what happened to her father. Of course you're too young to remember the accident."

"Yeah, I've heard of the accident," Doug said.

"I think Jennifer is still secretly glad Rick killed himself," Aunt Doro said. "I still see her now and again, and of course she's too polite to say that, but who wouldn't be? Rick was a rotten excuse for a man. Class of '81, if he'd ever bothered to come to class."

"Wow, that's a shame." Doug's head was swimming. "Well, I have to get to work."

So it had happened. How long before Kelly realized the same, he wondered, as he walked down to the beach. Would she be uncomfortable with him now? He knew perfectly well she would, at least at first. But he also knew he had to have more of the past. If they had already saved one life, just imagine what else they could fix! And, Doug admitted to himself at long last as he reached the resort, maybe he'd be able to learn whatever he needed to learn about the harsh realities of the past.

Maybe he could even brush that chip off Kelly's shoulder. That moment had seemed so tender, surely there was more of that available under her standoffish exterior. All he had to do was wait for her to let him in again. But in what decade, he wondered, might that happen?