Grandma's Christmas Secret

Sure enough, there were more surprised and funny looks from the others that afternoon at Teddy's. But just as Cap had predicted, no one was surprised anymore at how he could dance. The other boys' jeering at him lasted only as long as it took them to notice how enamored the girls were, and by the time Cap and Lindy sat down to enjoy their malt, there were boys asking about how they could sign up for classes at Madame Pelletier's.

"Could've told you, Cap, everyone would love you once they saw you were good at something besides math," Lindy said, taking his free hand in hers and rubbing it.

"And to think I kept it hidden all this time!" Cap said. "Guess I won't be hiding anything from you from now on, Lindy."

Lindy thought of what she'd gotten up to the other night, and she burst out laughing. "I sure hope not!" she said.

"What's so funny about that?"

"Sorry, Cap, nothing. Nothing I can tell you in public anyway. But I will later, I promise."

"Does that mean you want to spend more time together?" Cap looked equal parts hopeful and terrified.

"That's exactly what it means." Lindy dropped her voice to a whisper. "Hopefully someplace we can be alone."

"How about a movie Friday night, then?" Cap asked. "I've been wanting to see The River's Edge."

"I didn't have you pegged as a Western fan," Lindy said. "I am too, you know."

"No kidding? I didn't think you'd be either."

"I'm used to boys thinking that," Lindy said. "I'm used to them thinking a lot of things about me that really aren't true."

When they were finished, Cap offered to drive Lindy home. His mother's 1946 Chevy, black with primer stains, was a modest ride compared to Jimmy's two-tone red '51 Mercury coupe, but like everything else about Cap, Lindy welcomed the change. Just as Cap was unlocking the passenger-side door for her in the parking lot, though, Lindy was treated to a most unwelcome comparison as the Mercury roared in to the next spot over. Her heart raced, but she pretended not to have noticed.

"Lindy!" She didn't look up, but she heard him slam the coupe door just after he called her name. "Lindy, we've got to talk about this!" Jimmy grabbed her arm and turned her to face him. "It's one thing if you're mad at me, doll, but going out with him? And just a few days later?"

"Don't touch me!" Lindy snapped at him. She was unsurprised to see Katie McPherson in the front seat of the Mercury. "I see you're not wasting any time either!"

"Katie's a pal! She's just one of the boys, she knows that!" Jimmy whined.

"What did you just say?!" Katie got out of the Mercury and slammed the passenger door. "See you around, Jimmy!"

"Now look what you did!" Jimmy leaned in menacingly. Lindy leaned back as far as she could and turned to Cap for help, only to see he was nowhere to be seen. What kind of a new true love was he?!

The best kind, she realized a moment later, as Cap appeared on her other side with a police officer in tow. "There a problem here, kid?" the cop asked Lindy.

"Just ironing out a little misunderstanding with my woman," Jimmy said, not backing down at all.

"It doesn't look that way to me, pal." The cop pulled Jimmy back. "You all right, ma'am?"

"I will be when he's gone!" Lindy said.

"He is," the cop said. "Come on, kid." He dragged Jimmy protesting and whining all the way to his waiting police car.

Lindy hugged Cap, tears of joy in her eyes. "Thank you! I knew Jimmy was sore, but I never thought..."

"Why not, if you don't mind my asking?" Cap asked. "Everybody knows the kind of guy he is."

"Guess I wanted to believe it was just an act," Lindy said. "Like I could gentle him down a little, you know?" She opened the door and settled herself in the car.

"I think I know what you mean," Cap said a moment later, once he was behind the wheel. "I've seen those movies too. But I don't think it works that way in real life, Lindy."

"I guess you're right," Lindy said.

On the way home, an idea occurred to her. "Why don't you come to my place for dinner on Friday? Before the movie? My parents already really like you, you know, but I'm sure they're going to want to meet you before we go out again anyway."

"Uh...sure, Lindy!" He sounded awfully unsure about it, but Lindy didn't think anything of it. Poor Cap just seemed like a nervous guy in general. Surely he'd get over that when he saw her feelings for him were real, and just how intense they were.

And so began a whirlwind springtime romance. Lindy's parents welcomed Cap with open arms and he spent many an afternoon watching television at their house (his own parents were the last on their block who hadn't bought a set), dancing up a storm at Teddy's, studying together over the dining room table (as much as Lindy's mother loved Cap, the bedroom was off limits) and parking anywhere they could scare up a bit of privacy.

Lindy was prepared to put on the brakes when the time came, for although she wanted to go all the way with Cap, she didn't want to do it in the back of an old Chevy. But to her surprise, he never pushed her far enough to need to do that. Quite the contrary.

"He actually asked me if he could touch my breasts last night!" Lindy told Ruth in disbelief one lunchtime in May.

"Did you let him?"

"Did I let him?! I've been dying for him to do that for weeks! It felt great. But I never imagined a boy would be so timid."

Ruth chuckled. "Didn't you know Cap before? Of course he's timid."

"I know," Lindy said. "It's...a little disappointing."

"Didn't you say you didn't want to do it in his car anyway?"

"Well, yes. But I've been hoping he'd ask! So I could say not here, but I will if we can get someplace more comfortable, you know?"

"Have you considered telling him you want to?"

"No! I'm not...well, I guess I am that kind of girl now, or at least I want to be. But it just isn't...done, you know?"

"Some guys are shy, Ruth! And they grew up thinking we aren't interested at all, too! Have you thought of that?"

"Oh, it's been a long time since I've been able to imagine myself 'not interested'." Lately scarcely a day had gone by when Lindy hadn't made good use of having her own room. Sometimes twice after Cap dropped her off at night. But Ruth didn't need to know that.

"This isn't Victorian England, Lindy," Ruth said. "You've got just as much right to ask him as he has to ask you."

"I guess so," Lindy said. "It just feels so queer, you know? But I kind of like it."

"Welcome to the club! Always had the feeling you might be like me underneath it all."

Lindy laughed. "Say, is Cap still helping you with trig? He hasn't mentioned it since I don't know when."

"Helping me?" Ruth looked and sounded like she didn't want to answer the question. "Well...I mean, I've improved a lot, and decided to try doing it on my own, you know?"

"Oh. Well...good." But Lindy distinctly recalled her friend had barely passed the last test.

It was a foregone conclusion that Cap would be Lindy's date to the senior prom. But he surprised her all the same with a single red rose and a handmade invitation that she found taped to her locker, featuring a poem written in a self-styled calligraphy.

My love for you just makes me want to roar!

You dance with me and all my cares are gone

You can't buy love like ours in any store

In your embrace my heart is just a pawn

I try to find a way to ask you straight

Come skip the light fantastics in the gym

But math's my genius, poetry it ain't

Want Shakespeare for a boyfriend? I'm not him!

So I can only offer you this rose,

And hope and plead that you might take a chance

It's only fair I say it, I suppose:

I want to take you, Lindy, to the dance

Don't burst my heart apart just like a bomb,

But let me take you to the senior prom!

Lindy read the poem, and turned and leaned back against the locker, laughing and pressing the invitation to her heart and choosing to overlook the fact that the prom wasn't going to be in the gym. She didn't see Cap approaching her until he was nearly there.

"Well, Lindy?" he asked.

"Oh, you know I'm going with you!" She threw her arms around him, not caring if Mr. Scott the vice principal might be about. He wasn't, but from two doors down the hall, Jimmy glared at them in silence.

The next day, Lindy made another decision. Cap was a wonderful young man, but he was ever so shy, Lindy knew she would just have to take the next step herself. But she did have her own reputation to think about as well, so she turned to Ruth for help.

But this was one bridge even Ruth wouldn't cross. "You're a big girl, Lindy, you can buy them yourself!"

"But what if the clerk at the drugstore knows my parents?" Lindy asked. "They'll have heard all about it by dinnertime, and they'll probably lock me in my room until I leave for college!"

"So you go to another drugstore!" Ruth said. "Across town! Heck, I'll even drive you there. But you're buying those rubbers yourself, Lindy."

"Deal," Lindy said.

Ruth's car was an Oldsmobile that was older than she was. "My father's rebuilt the carburetor two or three times," she reassured Lindy over the roaring chugs of the engine on the drive up Route 31 to the next suburb. "He bought it used after the war, the first time he could ever afford a car, and he's too sentimental to let go of it."

"What'll you tell him if we get stranded over there?"

"He won't ask if I'm not with a boy."

To Lindy's mild surprise, the car did not let them down. But when they came upon the first drug store sign, Ruth drove past it. "That shop doesn't have them," she said.

Lindy couldn't help laughing.

"What, Lindy, you think I buy them in our neighborhood either?"

"Don't your parents already know...about you?" Lindy asked.

"I don't think they want to know," Ruth said. "Let's just leave it at that."

Lindy braved the disapproving look of the older woman behind the counter at the drug store where they did stop. She gave Lindy a cold, hard look, but shook her head and said nothing as she rang up the sale. Lindy said, "Thank you!" with a defiant smile as she took the discreet paper bag and turned to go.

Ruth was waiting on the sidewalk outside. "Sorry," she said. "I probably should've warned you about her, but she's one of the less unpleasant ones, really."

"I believe that," Lindy said. "How old you suppose we'll be before it's okay for us to like sex?"

"I'll be happy if I live that long!" Ruth replied as they got back in the car. "By the way, and no offense intended, Lindy, but..."

"Yes? Go ahead."

"You do realize you're doing exactly what you broke up with Jimmy for doing?"

"I know," Lindy sighed. "But I just can't fight these urges in my..." She dissolved into giggles. "In my tight."

"Welcome to my world," Ruth said, joining in on the laughter. "But maybe you ought to think about how to approach Cap about this."

"I haven't been thinking about anything else since he asked me to prom," Lindy said. "But look, that wasn't the only reason I broke up with Jimmy. It's just that he'd been pushing me for this for so long, and here I was finally ready to say yes, but he jumped the gun like that?"

"You were going to do it with Jimmy?"

"Well, maybe, at least," Lindy said. "But...you know, I don't want to get in trouble when I'm just about to go to college, do I?"

"Cap could get you in just as much trouble."

"But I trust him not to disappear on me. Jimmy, who knows!"

"Just make sure you use those, Lindy, okay?"

"Of course!"

Mother had never asked to look in Lindy's backpack when she got home from school, and there was no reason to think she would this time either. Even so, Lindy was terrified that it would happen this time. She hoped Mother didn't notice how tightly she was gripping the strap with her left hand as she let herself in.

She didn't, but she did want to know, "Where've you been?"

"Out with Ruth." Lindy could have smacked herself as soon as she'd said that -- it may have been the truth, but it was also a great way to further raise suspicions.

"And only Ruth?" Mother asked.

"Yes, only Ruth," Lindy said. "She...needed help with trig again, so we went to the library to work together. I knew you wouldn't want me bringing her over here."

"Thank you, Lindy. You're right, I don't like that girl one bit. By the way, Cap called. He wanted to know the color of your prom dress so he could buy a matching corsage."

"Where's he going to find a blue flower?" Lindy hoped it sounded like that was why she was laughing, rather than the relief she was enjoying.

"They can be dyed, sweetie. In any event, I didn't tell him, I thought you'd want to."

"Thank you, Mother," Lindy said. "I'll call him later. Homework, you know."

"At least you got math out of the way, huh?"

"Right!" And gratefully she made her escape up the stairs.

Thanks to the thrill of completing her mission with Ruth and the ensuing conversation about it, Lindy had been so wet on the ride home that she was afraid there might be a spot on the back of her skirt. The reminder of Cap and the prom had christened her panties anew, and she hurried them off as soon as she'd shut her room door. A look over her shoulder in the mirror revealed her secret was safe. But waiting any longer to satiate her naughty tickle was out of the question.

Lindy gathered her skirt up and out of the way and flopped back on her bed. She ran both hands through her abundant bush, which as usual gave her a bit of pause as to what Cap might think of it. Once again, she reminded herself that he loved her and wouldn't be repulsed, and maybe wouldn't even realize she was unusual. Surely he'd never seen another woman's body before. With that settled, she imagined him looking at it with reverence and running his own fingers through it, while she assured him how she loved being different.

As her fingers went to work, Lindy closed her eyes and made her best guess at how Cap looked naked. She was sure she would love the real thing whatever it was, but for the time being, guessing was half the fun. She'd been getting a lot of practice lately, and had no trouble rubbing just enough to be near orgasm but not quite there when she saw herself helping Cap out of his pants. As she unzipped and unbuttoned them and he gazed back at her in sweet surrender, her rubbing grew faster and her heart seemed to pound so that she could hear it.

Just as Lindy was about to come, she realized it wasn't hear heart that she heard. It was her mother on the stairs. What if...

Lindy pulled her hands away and stood up, and leapt to her desk, where she'd left her backpack. There was just enough time to pull her history book out before Mother opened the door. "Lindy, Cap is on the phone again," she said. "Do you want me to tell him it's blue?"

"Blue? Oh! No, Mother, I'll be right down!"

"Okay." Mother started to draw back, then stopped. "Lindy, are you all right? You sound awfully nervous."

"Oh, I just have a lot on my mind. Lots of homework, and the prom, you know."

"Okay," Mother said. "Coming downstairs?"

"Just let me take a few notes on this paragraph."

Mother nodded and retreated to the stairs, but did not shut the bedroom door. Lindy threw caution to the wind and, as soon as she heard her mother descending the stairs, she reached down between her thighs and finished the job. It was a challenge to keep her eyes open and avoid making any noise as she came, but the long-awaited orgasm was a blessed relief all the same.

The only telephone in the house was on a table by the stairs, halfway between the living room and the kitchen. There was a chair beside it, but Lindy was much too keyed up to sit down. Of course it only took a moment to tell Cap she'd chosen a blue dress, but of course they found a good ten minutes' worth of things to talk about. All the while, Lindy was terribly, wonderfully aware that she wasn't wearing panties. Over the course of the call, her feelings about that progressed from humiliation to defiance to a perverse joy that had her wanting to play with herself again as soon as she got back upstairs. If only she could tell Cap!

But Mother was in the kitchen and could hear everything. So it was strictly business. "My mom talked me into letting her buy me a tuxedo instead of just renting one," Cap told her. "She says there'll be plenty of use for it at college."

"Oh, Cap, I wonder what that means for us?" Lindy said. "I've been trying not to think about it too much." She was going back East for college; he'd gotten into an engineering program at a big Chicago school.

"Me too," Cap said. "But we'll both be home for Christmas anyway."

"God, that sounds so far away! But I guess we'll be too busy to think about romance anyway."

"And we've got the whole summer until then," Cap reminded her. "Believe me, I've been thinking about that too. But, you know, better to enjoy the time we do have. I can't wait to see your dress!"

"Same here, Cap." Lindy was glad her mother was focusing on making dinner and hadn't looked out to see her wiggling and rubbing her legs together and thoroughly enjoying her lack of panties. "Oh, do your parents want to take pictures, too? I was thinking we could go by your house after you come to pick me up."

"They'll be out of town," Cap said.

"Really!" That certainly put an idea or two in Lindy's head, and all at once she knew there would be another round on her bed as soon as she got back upstairs.

"We'll just give them copies of the pictures your dad takes, all right?"

"Wonderful, Cap. Listen, I'd better get back to my homework."

"Me too." He dropped his voice to a whisper. "I love you, Lindy!"

"Same to you," Lindy said out loud. It would have to do with Mother right there in the kitchen.

Fortunately, Mother remained in the kitchen as Lindy raced back upstairs. Keeping a more careful ear out this time, she rubbed herself to two more orgasms in rapid succession. After tidying up the bedspread to avoid suspicion and putting her panties back on and washing her hands, Lindy barely had time to get any homework done before her father got home. She was so far behind on her homework that she had to skip The Lone Ranger at 7:30 for the first time in ages. But her parents were more than happy to not have to watch it for once, and no suspicions were raised.

When she had finally finished her homework, sometime after her parents had gone to bed as far as Lindy knew, she had forgotten all about where she'd been that afternoon and why. It was only after she'd brushed her teeth and was changing into her nightgown that she remembered. Naturally, undressing for the night put her in a playful mood once again, which in turn reminded her. Thanking her lucky stars that she wouldn't accidentally bring the rubbers to school, she pulled the paper bag out of her backpack and put it in her lingerie drawer. Mother wouldn't look there, she always just left Lindy's newly washed clothes folded and on the bed. Nevertheless, Lindy had second thoughts and slipped the paper bag under her dresser. That would take Dad and at least one of his friends to move, after all.

As the big day approached, so did Lindy's anticipation. She didn't dare ask Cap if he had the house to himself while his parents were gone, because she didn't want to have to settle for the back of his car. But if it came to that, Lindy made up her mind, then so be it. Any setting would be magical as she and Cap welcomed each other to adulthood.

Cap, though, remained as bashful as ever about his own plans for after the dance. "Still can't even believe I'm going at all, if you want to know the truth of it," he told her as they walked home from school on Friday. "For years I've been trying to get used to knowing I'd be home studying while everyone else was having the time of their lives."