Girlfriends' Reunion

"No, thanks." I declined. "You guys go ahead. I'll keep watch."

They mumbled something about my prudishness and added what a thrill it could be to be seen by some 'cute' villager.

They moved to the foot of a tall tree and stepped around it among the shrubs and I saw Jackie bring down her shorts and panties and squat and then the unmistakable sound of the flow of piss. She certainly had a prize-winning butt; full, rounded, wide and deep clefted. Ana joined her on the other side and as she was wearing a skirt. It was much easier for her. Both finished with a look of achievement on their faces. "What a woman. You can't let yourself go." Jackie chided me.

"Yes, liberate your self." Ana joined in. "The guys have an advantage. They just pull their dicks out and do it anywhere. We should fight for equality."

"Yeah. We should fight for their things to be much smaller or some way for us to shoot accurately through an open fly without soiling our clothes." I suggested.

All laughed.

We walked back with dusk approaching and the zing of mosquitoes in the air. A wash, change and dinner were followed by a session of Scrabble, shortened to enable us to sleep early. I got back to my room and prepared for bed and got into my nightie when there was a knock. Ana again?

I went to the door and it was Simon.

"Sorry, Yashoda," An apologetic smile appeared together with the formal addressing with my unabbreviated name. "There is a leak downstairs in the storage space and I can approach the valve to close the flow from your bathroom bulkhead. I know it's your bed time but can I just run in there and take care of it. I won't be a minute."

"Sure. Please come in." I opened the door for him and he went straight to the bathroom. It was funny that he was in his pyjamas with a flashlight. I was incredibly conscious of my state of dress and kicked myself for not wearing more. My nightie was not revealing and very modest but my nakedness underneath was killing me. I already had my arms crossed across my breasts. I slipped on a T shirt I couldn't wear anything else below with this guy in my bathroom. It was not that he looked at me in any way or his behaviour was unusual. This was just me!

It seemed like hours before he came out saying: "OK, done." He was walking towards the door. "You are leaving tomorrow, right? So, you go straight home? How was your stay here?"

"It was really good, thank you. Also meeting up with my friends was very special. Enjoyed every minute. Thanks for driving us around and all the other help."

"You are most welcome." He beamed. He stopped at the door and turned around. "Please tell your other friends about the Livera and do come again." We discussed a bit about the location, the resort and the facilities. Simon spoke more than me describing various other guests especially honeymooning couples and other youngsters and how they all enjoyed the place. He thought a bit gazing at the floor. "You like to go without your husbands? For a bit of girlie fun, huh?"

"Oh, they are busy, you know. Like all men." I shrugged.

"Your husband is a doctor, no?" He was leaning on the door.

"He's a skin specialist."

"Oh, OK." He looked at me a bit awkwardly and the first time I felt a flutter in my chest. "Did you miss him here?" He took a couple of steps forward. "I mean this is a very romantic place for couples."

"We are going back tomorrow, aren't we? No, it's a bit of a change for us and them, I guess. "I chuckled to normalize the conversation, taking a few tiny steps back. Then I noticed the look in his eyes. The softness was gone even though his sharp features were prominently attractive. There was that look that I could read on the face of men that meant only one thing. With a chill down my spine I realized it was lust.

In a split second he reached out and held my elbow. I shook him away and backed off further. "Please leave, Simon. You finished what you came to do. Now go."

A wicked smile emerged. His even white teeth now looked cruel. His well-groomed facial hair seemed evil. "I know about you! I know you go around screwing; you and your hubby! Why can't we have some fun?"

"That's not..." I realized I may have begun giving away Ana as he was obviously mixing up our stories. Even before I finished he lunged at me and I stepped back hurriedly and fell over backwards on my bed. It was so sudden my nightie lifted and my legs parted momentarily. He looked between my legs.

"Beautiful!" He sneered. Oh god, I thought two in two days! My heart was racing while my body trembled.

"I'll call somebody! I'll yell for Jackie." I thought she being the owner's niece will scare him. Instead while looking at me with that evil grin he pulled down his pyjamas exposing himself. I didn't have to look directly to note that he had an erection. "Get out!" I yelled.

"Come on, Yash. Don't make a scene. Let's enjoy this." He put one knee on the bed and reached out for my ankles. I managed to keep my knees together while I picked up the empty bottle of Maria Christina on the nightstand and flung it as hard as I could at his head. I struck his defensive fingers that deflected the bottle, clunked the side of his head and crashed into the wall and shattered. Larger pieces splintered on the concrete floor.

I might have missed hurting him. He did flex sideways and seemed to be stunned for a moment.

"Fucking bitch!" He snarled when he recovered, pulling his pyjamas back up. "You can fuck around but can't do it with a decent man that helped you have a good holiday? And after talking to me so seductively in the van and giving me those looks, opened some buttons to show me your cleavage and swayed your arse inviting me and pressing your boobs against my shoulder this morning. You can even piss in the open field and now you behave like you are some holy angel!"

"I asked you to get out, Simon. Just go. Right now!" I was almost screaming, not caring if I was heard outside. In fact, I wanted to be heard if the bottle smashing was inaudible.

He picked up his flashlight that was on my bed and walked briskly to the door and I observed him snap open the lock. The wretched pervert had even locked the door when he was leaning against it! What a creep! I heaved a sigh of relief when he left. I ran and swiftly secured the door again and the first thing I did was to grab a pair of panties from the bathroom and put them on. Then I cleaned up the mess of the broken bottle.

I sat on the bed, and for the second day on the same spot, I wept. I was about to be sexually violated and I was forty-one. I had never had that experience before. Hit upon, yes; vulgarity yes, molested, oh yes; suffered exhibitionism, yes; but never been this close to rape! Imperceptibly, anger replaced shame. How dare he think I was available. He was mixing me up with Ana. How did he know her story? He said I was giving him signals. How was I misunderstood so much? And he saw these two pissing in the shrubs more than a hundred yards away from the building. Was he stealthily following us around or did he use binoculars? Again, why did he implicate me? I keep away exactly for these reasons.

I wiped my face and thought of calling Jagath. Wait a minute, I thought. He'd panic. What good would that do except share and help unload my burden. Then I thought I'll tell Jackie or Ana or both. What's the benefit now at night? They should know sometime; at least Jackie. They can't have someone work here that's a threat to the guests. I'll give it some thought while the immediate menace had waned.

As is wont to happen I had a flash of guilt on two fronts. Jackie and Ana had warned me that this guy was horny in his single status separated from an apparently stunningly beautiful wife. I had mentally argued against it. My fault. Second, he definitely implied that I was signalling positive vibes. That, even beside his confusion of who was having an open marriage. I stupidly sat beside him in the van the whole day. Damn!

No! I was fine and only being nice and polite. This is bloody depravity. The guy was a carnally frustrated wreck. I had a sudden nauseating thought. He was in that bathroom for about five minutes; maybe more. The panties I was wearing was hanging there on a hanger just next to the bulkhead! I sprang to my feet and pulled my panties off and inspected. I was looking for semen. Would this pervert have masturbated on it? There was no sign of it and I had definitely seen his penis erect. He couldn't have managed that arousal in a short refractory period. Maybe he rubbed himself on it. I was gagging and I had to wear another piece of underwear.

I turned the lights off and tucked in. My breathing was easier now and my introspection was therapeutic as it always is. I tossed around a bit but the emotional toll was enough to bring in some restless slumber. It was to be the last day here and I thought, good riddance.

I woke up a little after seven and wondered if I should do my customary walk. The events of the night stubbornly sat front and centre in my head. As I reran the thoughts I had before I slept, I goaded my inner self to move on with the new day. Yes, I would walk. There was no rain predicted and there was the pleasantness of the morning sun. I got ready and changed and went down the stairs.

I noticed unusual activity on the main floor. There were many staff and some others near the main entrance. Through the glass doors I saw an ambulance parked on the large porch. I started walking towards the front just to inquire if everything was OK. I saw Jackie coming out of the office with a seriously worried look. She waved to me and hurried towards me.

She reached me with Mary by her side and looked like the latter had been crying. She broke the news with a shaky voice.

"Simon was found dead this morning!"

I froze. Then disbelief gripped me. "What?!" I picked myself up. "I was..." my god, what was I beginning to say? "We were with him the whole day yesterday."

Jackie replied: "I know." Before I asked what had happened something hit me in the chest like a loaded truck. I had killed him with that wine bottle! I had hit him on the head and cerebral bleeds can be latent and fatal! Oh my god! "Mary had gone to his room to wake him up for Sunday mass at 5:00 AM. There was no response to her knocking and then she noticed the door open and she found him on his bed absolutely lifeless and cold. We called the ambulance and the paramedics declared him dead and the doctor just came in to certify. He says we have to call the police."

My knees were buckling and I had to sit down. Jackie put her arm around me. I heard Mary sob beside her. I said I wanted to go back to my room.

"Are you OK?" asked Jackie.

"Juts a bit shaken. I'll be OK." I replied and slowly walked up the stairs with my head spinning and my heart racing. Even though it was quite cool, I started sweating. As I entered my room and shut the door, fear like some sharp clawed, bird-monster, settled on my shoulder.

The Fivesome and a Flick

I simply lay down to gather my thoughts. I hit him on the head in the temple area but was it forceful enough to cause internal bleeding and thereby, death? I was in self-defence. He did not loose consciousness. He was quite coherent, in fact. It was an empty bottle after all. He could have died of a heart attack. Or something else. The police are coming. Will there be a mark on his head? Did he bleed? Should I get a lawyer? Disconnected, random and rapid, the thoughts flooded my fear sodden brain.

Through the haze I was convinced of one thing. I needed to talk to someone; confess and come clean. Why is that even a confession. He attacked me and I repelled him. Was there a water leak or was that a clever fake? Nevertheless, he has died and the events of his last few hours alive needed to be known.

I called Jagath. He didn't pick up. I called again. No answer. I didn't leave a message simply because I didn't know what to say. It was Sunday and, where was he? It would be so nice to get his advice on how I should proceed. I needed to tell him everything.

I decided the police and the folks at Livera needed to know, at least something, first. I sat down and took a notepad and drew two columns; one with a plus sign and another with a negative. I decided what I was going to disclose and what I needn't. On the left side I wrote a number to denote the order in which the events occurred. I thought hard as to not forget anything. I should recollect every minute detail and then sieve what was relevant and required. The rest I can keep to myself to reveal only if interrogated. Whether I was going to reveal something or not, the facts should be chronologically and otherwise coherent.

I thought for a long time on my life and what this moment meant for my future. Was this going to be watershed in my family? What a mess!

Yet, I was innocent. I was sure of that and I had to reinforce that in my head so that I don't waver in my stance to give rise to doubts.

There was a knock on the door. Jackie said: "Yash, open the door. Are you OK?"

I shoved the notepad under my pillow and went to the door. Ana was there with Jackie.

"It was suicide!" Jackie revealed. I almost swooned with relief. "The cops were here and the sub inspector guy was smart. He found the bottle of sleeping pills and found a note next to it. He refused to show it to us but asked one of the office guys to confirm his handwriting."

"Oh!" I tried hard to suppress my reprieve. "Why did he do it, though? He looked quite OK yesterday."

"He had issues. Major issues. He may have been taking mood elevators. That's why I gave him a long rope. He married that beautiful woman and she had an affair with this army guy. He caught them in bed. Then he had some cash worries that are settled now, I think. His ancestral property is in dispute. So, heaps of troubles."

Ana added: "When Mary went there in the morning, his door was left unlocked. He may have done that intentionally to make it easy for all."

"OK. Here's what I needed to do. I called uncle Ollie and he asked me to stay back till Tuesday to take care of stuff here. So, I called Krish and asked him to come over to keep me company. He'll be driving and I am sending someone to cancel my ticket."

"Hey, I can stay back too. That's if Yash can. Don't want her to ride back alone." Ana offered.

"Yeah! Why not? Let me talk to Jagath. The idiot is not picking up his phone. Oh, he can come too, isn't it? Can we all hitch a ride back with Krish?"

"Yeah. Krish will bring the SUV."

There was a flurry of phone activity as we contacted people and cancelled tickets and we were all set to stay for a couple of days more. Jagath, who said he received no calls from me (these bloody networks!), would join Krish on his drive here. The men cancelled their professional appointments. All five of us will return on Tuesday. They weren't pleasant circumstances at all but I needed Jagath by my side and we needed to let our emotions settle down. Especially me. I was not sure if I was out of the woods yet. In the current scenario, I decided I won't tell anybody anything unless absolutely necessary. I tore and disposed off the notes I had made.

We decided to meet down for breakfast; a coffee at least. None of us had an appetite. I dragged myself downstairs and settled for a large mug of aromatic South Indian decoction coffee. I drugged myself with the aroma and taste to extract some blunting for my restlessness. We were to make our own breakfast if we chose to, as Mary was struck with grief and the staff were in disarray. None of us wanted to eat.

Then a young staff member came to me.

"Madam, we need to check something in your bathroom. The water supply to the cleaning sink outside seems to be blocked." I almost fainted again. Simon had actually turned off that valve.

"You want the key?"

"No, I have a master key, madam. Just wanted to let you know."

"Oh sure." I said with a smile squeezed onto my face.

He left and I decided there were too many moving parts here and I needed to tell my friends all that happened. We can work it out together. I must tell them. Now!

"Look, I need to talk." Ana and Jackie looked at me awkwardly. My face hid zero. Somehow, they figured it was something to do with the death. "Let's go up to a room. Mine has that guy in there."

We made another cup for ourselves and went upstairs. On the way we saw the youngster and he told us that the valve was shut and asked if I knew about it. I told him that they had the master key and anyone of them could have gone in as we were out a lot. That satisfied him.

With the guy gone we went up to my room and we sat down and I started. I told them everything that happened including some of my inner thoughts. I repeated almost word for word as my memory allowed me, the reasons why he thought I was available to him for sex. I pointed to them the exact spot where things took place and showed them the shattered glass. I told them how I was most distressingly exposed and how he shamelessly exposed himself. I repeated the filthy words he used when he got livid. I did not mention Anna's open marriage part that had him confused, as she had told me much more than Jackie knew.

They sat there in stunned silence. Tears filled my eyes again and Jackie came by my side to hug me. "Take it easy, sweetie. We are in this together." Then she also cried. "Never thought that he would do stuff like that. Rape? Not him."

"Sorry, I made it sound like that, I guess," I corrected. "on introspection later, I realize he thought I was willing."

"You know Yash," Ana jumped in, "you didn't give him any hints. We were there and I think you were pretty normal and friendly but never slutty. Don't beat yourself up. That guy was sick horny."

Jackie agreed but said some men who are lonely lose their marbles when a pretty woman is around and very friendly. I needed to point out my fear: "All that is fine, I am scared there will be some injury in his head that might have caused his death."

"No way!" they both went simultaneously. Jackie added: "There's a suicide note and evidence that he had sleeping pills and frigging problems all around him. It's Sunday and I don't think a post mortem will happen today. But we'll know." She thought for a while. "We'll be there, don't you worry. And uncle Ollie knows people around here. He didn't touch you, did he?"

"He held my elbow and then grabbed at my ankle."

"Oh, good you did well to dissuade him."

I had to live for the moment with that assurance.

The rest of the morning and afternoon dragged on like a decade. I was restless waiting for Jagath and Krish to arrive especially after he texted me when they left. They should arrive by 4:45 PM or so. The drive was shorter than the train and car ride. I wanted my hubby's warm body next to me and wanted to hug him tight and tell him all that happened. I wanted to feel his hair and his face and look into his deep brown eyes for the comfort he always gave me. Why, I could even feel him all over and let him make love to me to heel my soul of this awful nightmare.

I was downstairs at half past four and sat in the comfortably cushioned chair in the foyer. On the walkway above I saw Jackie walking towards my room and called after her. She waved and came trotting down the stairs at the far end.

"They did the autopsy. Declared suicide and the body is ready to be handed over. Relax!" she hugged me. I felt one ton lifted off my chest.

"That's brilliant. How come? It's a holiday."

"Ha! Help comes from the most unlikely of sources. His ex-wife's boyfriend, the army guy got hold of the forensic medical officer who is his buddy, I hear. They are planning a trip sometime and they didn't want that delayed." She hugged me again. "You poor thing. Had a tough few hours. Take it easy now. They should be here anytime." She looked at her watch.