Decades Ch. 05

Was it true love or lust or the thrill of being safe home in the now that made Doug feel so heavenly in the tender grips of Kelly's vagina? She didn't know, and in that wonderfully intense moment she didn't care. She kept her eyes open as she bobbed joyfully up and down atop him, not begrudging at all that his mesmerized gaze was fixed on her breasts as they bounced about in rhythm, though she did wish he would play with them. Instead, he had fistfuls of the sheets in both hands as he thrust his hips up again and again as best he could from under her.

"So good!" he said as he watched Kelly melt into howls of delight with her second orgasm of the morning. She was magnificent against the dewy morning sunshine pouring in through the faded curtains of the green room, which at last was no longer off limits.

"You can do it too!" Kelly ordered breathlessly, once her climax had subsided. "Come on, come for me"

"I don't know -- OHHHHH!" His doubt came to a swift end as Kelly bore down harder and faster than ever upon him, thrusting as fast as her weight would allow. "AhAhAhhhhhh, Godddd...NGHHH!" Kelly's rapid-fire bobbing paid off as Doug came with a loud and beautiful roar.

She came to rest as he caught his breath, squeezing her pussy as tightly as she could around him and grazing his chest affectionately with her fingers. "Can't come when you're on bottom, huh?" she teased, echoing his confession from ten minutes or so before.

"Accomplishment unlocked!" Doug sighed with a grin, and at last Kelly enjoyed his gentle hands on both of her breasts. "Thank you!"

"Thank you!" Kelly echoed, sliding off him to cuddle up beside him. "I'm going to miss you this weekend, but this was a wonderful sendoff! Such a great idea to do it in a new room, too. I didn't even know this room was here!" she added, gazing once again around the room that was bedecked with green bric-a-brac everywhere.

"It was Grandma's room," Doug explained. "After she died, Aunt Doro paid some professional cleaners to clean it out and set it up as a guest room, but then she never came in here again. Neither did I until now, but now that I know they really slept together downstairs..."

"Didn't you live here a couple of years before she died?" Kelly asked. "Surely you knew where she slept."

"She did keep her clothes in here," Doug remembered. "But I slept in the blue room, you know, way down the hall. I never came down here at bedtime to make sure she was really here! I suspected even then about them, but it was don't ask, don't tell."

"Wow," Kelly mused. "The secrets that we keep, even in our own homes. Anyhow, it was a nice touch, Doug. Our first night together in our own time, definitely called for something special. Especially now with you going home for the weekend." She hugged him tightly. "I sure will miss you!"

"Same here," he said. "But I'm not going home. I'm visiting my mother. This is home!"

"I'm sorry, Doug," Kelly said. "I know you don't like to talk much about her."

"I like to think I learned my lesson back in college about whining about my family," Doug said. "I lost a couple of good friends that way, they got sick of hearing about it. But it sure was a good lesson to learn."

"Just tell me one thing," Kelly said. "If you don't even like her, why bother going to visit her?"

"Two reasons," Doug said. "One, to keep the peace. She really wants to make believe she and my sister and I are a happy family, even if the truth is those two bitches were a lot happier without me and vice versa. At least Heather won't be around this time, she's moved to Florida."

"Heather? That's your sister? I don't think you've ever used her name before."

"Probably not," Doug concurred. "There's a reason for that. The less said, the better. She didn't use my name too often either. Mostly it was 'Dummydumb'."

"Dummydumb," Kelly repeated. "What, was she perpetually eight years old?

"It sure felt that way sometimes," Doug agreed. "Always dummydumb this and dummydumb that, and Mom mostly thought it was hilarious, if she noticed it at all. But hey, I don't want to sound bitter here, I learned a lot about maturity and behaving myself thanks to her bad example! I guess that's one thing where I came out on top," Doug mused sadly.

"I wouldn't say that was the only time!" Kelly said. "You did go to Columbia, didn't you?"

"Thanks to Aunt Doro teaching me to like school for a change, yes," Doug said. "Heather didn't have that, she had Mom always going easy on her no matter how much she goofed off. So yeah, there's that too. Point is, if she were around there's no way Mom would have convinced me to drive down there for the weekend. But without her, Mom's bearable. Mostly."

"Oh, Doug..." Kelly rubbed his chest in an effort to comfort him. "Well, just think what's waiting for you back here on Sunday night!"

"Oh, I will!" Doug agreed, and he rolled over to kiss her.

After a long and pleasant kiss that once again got Kelly's juices flowing, she paused. "Hey, wait a minute. You said there were two reasons."

"Oh, right!" Doug said. "Remember your first time over here, I told you about that picture of Grandma and Aunt Doro?"

"Yes!" Kelly recalled. "Your first clue that they were lovers."

"Right," Doug said. "I always kept it on my desk at Columbia. Kind of an oasis in the storm of Morningside Heights, I guess. Anyway, I want it back. Both for me to have at work, and for you to see. So, yeah, that's the real reason, I suppose."

"I can't wait to see this photo, Doug," Kelly said, reluctantly sitting up to get out of bed; there was no sense in getting herself all hot and bothered again when there was no time for more sex just now.

"Now that we're in this whole thing together, neither can I," Doug said. "If there's one key to understanding me..."

"Oh, but there isn't, Doug!" Kelly said. "I know you well enough now to see that!"

"You've certainly changed!" Doug couldn't believe they were just a couple of weeks removed from her habit of generalizations about men and put-downs of Doug in particular.

"I should hope so!" Kelly peered out into the hallway to make sure Aunt Doro wasn't around -- though she fully suspected the old dear wouldn't bat an eye at seeing her and Doug naked -- and once she saw the coast was clear, she pranced down the hall to the bathroom. "Come on to the shower," she commanded. "I need you to wash my back."

Kelly was excruciatingly aware that Aunt Doro must have heard them making love. But as usual, she was nothing but diplomacy and welcome as the three enjoyed a sendoff breakfast twenty minutes later. "Remember not to let Donna hassle you about taking advantage of me, Doug," she said. "We both know she'll try. Just ignore her comments about the car, too."

"What would she have against a plain old Chevy?" Doug asked. "No offense."

"For one thing, she won't be happy that I even still own a car, never mind that I can still drive just fine," Aunt Doro reminded him. "But you know to ignore her passive aggressive nonsense, don't you?"

"I've had a lifetime to learn," Doug admitted. Noticing that Kelly was looking a bit nervous, he added, "Sorry!" and patted her back. "I know you don't want to hear about our family politics."

"It's not that," Kelly said, "I just don't want to say the wrong thing. It's none of my business."

"And you're lucky to be able to say that," Aunt Doro reassured her. "I trust Doug has told you about his relationship with his mother."

"A bit," Kelly said. "I haven't wanted to pry, you know." She also gave Aunt Doro a knowing look, as if daring her to acknowledge that Kelly had seen the defining meltdown of their family on her last trip through the jukebox; but as always Aunt Doro didn't take the bait.

"There's not a whole lot worth prying into anyway, dear," Aunt Doro said. "Doug's mother was the child of a failed marriage, and she carried a lot of anger at men in general, and Doug was in the line of fire for that." On that note she leaned over and kissed Doug's cheek. "And look at how well he's overcome that!"

"We know who to thank for that, don't we?" Doug stood up and drew Aunt Doro to her feet as well for a hug goodbye.

"Whom to thank, Doug," Aunt Doro said. "But thank you." As Kelly also took her turn embracing Doug, Aunt Doro went on, "Kelly, are you free for dinner and girl talk tonight?"

"I'm off duty at four, but I wouldn't want to impose, Aunt Doro."

"It's no imposition, dear! How about six o'clock?"

"I'll be here! Thank you!"

After watching Doug's taillights disappear down Lighthouse Avenue, Kelly had no time to linger over his absence. She was grateful for the early shift for once, and a busy day on the beach led to a busy day at the tables and no time to feel lonely. But she did wonder about Aunt Doro's comment about Doug's grandparents and their "failed marriage". She'd never even heard Doug mention his grandfather, much less learned any details about him. And hadn't they settled that Aunt Doro was his grandmother's real-life partner? Did she feel any guilt about her role in the failed marriage, Kelly wondered? Not that it was any of her business, and she resolved to keep her mouth shut about it at dinner that night. But more than ever, she wanted to know just what had really happened.

Which, in turn, brought to mind a plan for her and Doug's next adventure in the jukebox room. But after last time, that seemed a bit too close to home. And yet irresistible all the same.

"I've never seen it this busy before!" Kelly vented to Aurora, the restaurant manager by her and Doug's doing, on her long-overdue lunchbreak.

"Oh, just wait for late August!" replied Aurora. "The last weekend before Labor Day, you won't even be able to see any sand for all the people out there. Bumper to bumper traffic all the way up the hill from Corey Square, too. It's a good thing someone finally opened some shops there, at least that gets some attention away from the beach when there just isn't room there."

"Are those shops new?" Kelly had only been to Corey Square -- at the far end of the beach road, near the town line -- once, and she hadn't cared for the yuppified style of the shops. "All this time I didn't like it there because it looked like gentrified rowhouses."

"Oh, no, they were just built a few years ago and they were designed to look old fashioned like that," Aurora said. "Before that, well, years ago there was a malt shop there, but it burned down. In fact..." Aurora's voice dropped to a whisper. "I know who burned it down. Remember when I told you about Jimmy Sanborn? The guy who went to prison in California?"

"He did it?" Kelly feigned surprise, a bit nervous that Aurora would recognize her as half of the mysterious couple who'd been there when she learned what Jimmy had done. She was genuinely surprised to learn that was where the malt shop had been. Doug had been there without her on one of his previous trips, and she was a bit jealous over having never seen it herself.

"He did," Aurora confirmed. "The owner's son was a good friend of his, too. Was, until he learned what Jimmy had done. Anyway, after the place burned down, it was just vacant lots for years, and the statue of Robert Corey of course. It was really kind of disrespectful to Bobby's memory, I think. But I guess most of the locals thought anything too touristy on that corner would be disrespectful. I don't agree, I think it's great that now you can go shopping and have a beer or a coffee and enjoy life in that spot."

"Bobby?" Kelly asked. "You knew Robert Corey? I always figured he was just the developer and named the place after himself."

"Heavens, no, Kelly!" Aurora smiled, but it was a sad smile. "Robert Corey -- Bobby to his friends, and yes, I was one of them -- he was...we grew up together. He and Jimmy's ex-wife, Meg, and I, we were the best of friends in high school. I had a crush on him, but I don't think he ever knew it. Bobby wanted to join the Peace Corps, this was when it was new, mind you, we graduated in 1962. I mean, when you think of the idealism of those years, you're thinking of Bobby. He wanted so much to make a difference!" Aurora paused for a long drink of water and, Kelly suspected, to compose herself. "But he was home from college for Thanksgiving, he got off a week early for some stupid reason, and he was in the wrong place at the wrong time. I'm sure you've heard about the Kennedy riot, the day President Kennedy was shot?"

"That was him?" Kelly exclaimed. "Yes, I mean, I know there was a riot, right after JFK was killed, but --"

"No, Kelly," Aurora interrupted. "It was a few hours before he was killed. They call it the Kennedy riot because there's some silly rumor that it started with someone saying he'd been assassinated and sounding happy about it. But that can't be true, because it happened about two hours before he was shot. No one knows the real reason, or at least you'll never convince me anyone does. In any event, Bobby was home from college and he just had to go to the malt shop for old time's sake, and when he saw the first fight break out in the parking lot across the street, he just had to run over and try to break it up. One of the guys he tried to calm down had a knife, and..." Aurora's voice trailed away and she had to grab up her napkin and hold it to her eyes.

"I'm sorry, Aurora!" Kelly said.

"No, no it's fine," Aurora said, though it clearly wasn't. "I want your generation to know who Bobby was, and that he died trying to do the right thing." A deep breath and she continued. "Otherwise, one day everyone will think he was just the guy who built those shops!"

For the rest of her shift, Kelly couldn't get Aurora's comment about the cause of the riots out of her head. But that can't be true, because it happened about two hours before he was shot. Kelly knew, of course, that in this town it could be true, and she knew how. But who would do such a thing? She could imagine Doug making a clumsy mistake like that -- he never did his homework on details like that -- but surely he'd have told her about it and at least tried to undo the damage. Who else could it be?

Aunt Doro, she concluded, would surely know something that would help her answer that.

But when Kelly asked about Bobby Corey that night at dinner, Aunt Doro claimed to know nothing. "Bobby who?" she asked, smooth as ever in her delivery.

"Bobby Corey," Kelly repeated. "The one who was killed in the Kennedy riots. You know, Corey Square? Aurora told me all about him."

"Aurora," Aunt Doro repeated. "Class of sixty-two. Wonderful lady then and now, but she always had the biggest imagination! And all I know about Corey Square is that it's a blight on the beach. I've never been to those shops and I never want to go. Isn't it named after the jerk who built those shops?"

"That's what I thought," Kelly said. "But..."

"But nothing, dear. Tell me, have you been shopping there? Is that where you got that dress?"

"This?" Kelly looked down at the sundress she'd changed into after work, in case she felt like a swim at the cove after dinner, which at the moment she didn't. "No, we got it at the thrift shop at the other end of the beach, the one by the movies. It was Doug who spotted it, actually."

"I was thinking it looked like something he'd adore," Aunt Doro said. "Listen, when he gets back, he might not be in the best mood. His mother has that effect on him. And on most people for that matter."

"So I've heard," Kelly said, her lips twitching into a grin as she knew that Aunt Doro knew that she had seen his mother up close once, but that she'd never admit directly to it.

"Yes, I imagine you have," Aunt Doro replied with an even more mysterious look. "Just don't take it personally if he's feeling wound up when he gets back."

The rest of dinner passed agreeably enough, but there wasn't another word about Bobby Corey. By the time Kelly had insisted on helping Aunt Doro load the dishwasher and had kissed her goodbye, she knew just what she had to do: go back to 1963 without letting anyone else -- not even Doug for now -- know about it. Now that she knew where the key to the back door was hidden, it was just a matter of when Aunt Doro went to bed and the coast would be clear.

To kill time until then, and also to learn all she could about Bobby Corey, Kelly strolled down to Corey Square. Arriving at dusk, she found it alive with tourists at the restaurants and cafes overlooking the end of the beach. A few of them were milling about near the statue in the center of the square, but none took any notice of Kelly as she stopped before it to read the plaque at the base.

Nothing she didn't already know, then, Kelly mused as she read the plaque and then looked up at the earnest young man peering intently out at the tourist-filled plaza through his horn-rimmed glasses. What, she wondered, might a guy who wanted to save the world think of having a tourist trap named after him? Then she felt a spark of hope as it occurred to her that she just might be able to find out.

"Bobby Corey!" came the voice of a drunk young man, and Kelly turned to see him walking backwards toward her while mouthing off at his friends. "He predicted the JFK assassination before it happened, and the CIA killed him for it, right before they killed Kennedy. No shit!"

"And no more beer for you, Greg!" teased one of the young women he was addressing. "Haven't you heard of an urban legend?"

"Ask anyone from Pascatawa!" the drunkard replied. Pointing at Kelly, he proclaimed, "Ask her! You're from here, aren't you?"

"No, but I've heard the story," Kelly said. "And I don't believe it either," she told his friends.

"Eh, what does an out-of-towner know?!" he whined. "I'm tellin' you guys, the CIA got him!"

Kelly chuckled to herself as she read the heartbreaking inscription again. It did make as much sense as anything to anyone who didn't know, after all.

The sun was down, but Kelly estimated she had at least two hours before it would be safe to sneak back into the old school. She considered getting a drink at the bar, but just as quickly decided she wanted to be alert for the trip through the jukebox. Besides, with the spark of hope she was feeling from her newfound mission, she was in no mood to just sit around a bar of all things. Remembering with a sly grin why she'd worn the easily removable dress, she set off back up the beach road towards the cove. Or "up the cove," as she had learned to say like a local, if the topic came up. Which it rarely did in polite conversation, since the more conservative townspeople preferred to pretend it wasn't there.

But it was there, and on a night like this it was bound to be rather crowded with locals splashing around in their underwear or, in a few cases, nothing at all. Sure enough, when Kelly walked through the tidepools around the big rock with her sandals tucked underneath her arm, there were at least a dozen people in three different groups in and around the water. Checking discreetly, she saw at least two of the men were naked. None of the women were that she could see. But that only put Kelly in an even more brazen mood, and she fearlessly took all her clothes off and set them in a bundle against the big rock.

"Well, hellllooo!" came a voice that sounded not unlike the drunk she'd seen at the statue. Kelly ignored him as she stepped into the water, but she was aware of a different -- but also surely drunk -- guy in tightie whities rushing towards her. "Come here often?"

"Leave her alone, Gary!" called a woman whom Kelly turned to see was chasing him, also in her underwear. "Who do you think you are?"