Mentor

"Ahhh...I think it's a teenage girl."

"Yay! I've always wanted a sister...but I'm not sharing my room," laughed Kelly, scooping up another piece of veggie pizza.

Crystal looked at him for a moment, concern in her eyes, before asking, "Bill, do we need to discuss this privately?"

"No, not necessary. A young female author has discovered my stories on the website and now she's reviewing them and asking me questions on how to improve her own."

Crys breathed a sigh of relief, since drugs, alcohol, and abuse weren't the reason, but Kelly asked, "Are they any good?"

"Well, she seems to like them so far," he deadpanned before Kelly groaned.

"Dad!"

"Hey, Mom just reminded us that words mean things."

"Bill, are your young friend's stories any good?" asked Crys. "We already know all about yours." She rolled her eyes at Bill before winking at Kelly.

"Actually, I've read one of her stories and found it to be pretty good. I'm going to read her second one tonight to give her some feedback."

"If you think you can help her improve, do it. Just don't let her fall for you," said Crys with a playful smile.

"Don't worry about that, Sweetheart. She's probably 13 or 14 and just needs a little advice. If she realizes she's talking to a decrepit old fogey, she'll head for them thar hills," he said with a funny western accent, using the title to one of his western romances that Crys had read.

Crys poked him before giving him a kiss and Bill went to read Alley's story. He read it, found it to be better than her first, and he again offered a few suggestions. He showed Crystal that evening, and Crys gave a female's perspective after reading the story while that sat in bed. Bill passed along her observation, too.

Thus, over the next few months, Bill and AlleyKat became online friends, with Bill serving as a mentor to the young lady and Crys giving input from time to time. It was just about writing for a while, but eventually, Alley asked about a school-related issue. She was, he discovered, a year behind Kelly. Another slip up told him she was in the New York City area. It was then that he felt they were close enough he could chastise her a bit without having her run away.

Alley,

Please be careful giving away information like this to people you meet online. Anyone you meet online can be some creep wanting to find and potentially do unspeakable things to you. Mrs.WRG and I care about you and don't want you to slip up and get hurt, and since it could even be possible that Mrs.WRG is a figment of my imagination and that I'm some creepy pervert, too, you shouldn't tell me these things either. Of course, Mrs.WRG is real and I'm not a pervert, but you can't know that for sure so you shouldn't even ever trust me with any identifying info. I'll answer any questions I can but you need to be really careful and to go to your parents if you have any doubts about anything you see or read online, even if it's from me.

Your friend,

WRG

Before he pressed send, he had Crys read his note and she took the laptop and added a bit more:

P.S. Alley, this is WRG's wife. He's really not a pervert (he's goofy sometimes, but I still love him), but if you find out that someone is bad with bad intentions, it might be too late to do anything about it. That's why you have to be careful with your information just like he said. Also your friend, Mrs. WRG

AlleyKat didn't respond for a week or so after Bill's message, but then she was back.

Thanks, WRG. I'll try to be more careful. And please thank Mrs. WRG, too. I appreciate the two of you looking out for me.

Over the next year, the discussions continued, often about her writing, but sometimes about career opportunities, hobbies, movies, travel, and, eventually, boys. The last was where Bill drew the line.

Alley, you really need to talk to your parents about that.

Alley responded. But they're so strict they won't talk to me. Dad anyway, and I think Mom's afraid to say much (I'm deleting this as soon as we finish!). They won't let me date, though that's not an issue since nobody would ever ask me, but they won't help me quit being nervous about being around them and talking to them either. There aren't any boys at school.

"Ah, she must go to an all girl school," said Crys, confirming Bill's thoughts. "That can be a good thing, but if her parents are too strict and try to keep her isolated from guys, she may not learn to deal with them as she should, which can be a problem down the road. Bill, you can be a good, outside role model for her."

"Crys, I don't want to get between her and her parents, though," he said, really concerned about the situation for the first time since he and AlleyKat had met. "What if her parents don't like it and call the police on me? I hate to say it, but I think I need to end this and walk away before she gets hurt or I get arrested."

"It's too late for that, Bill. She's already attached to you, like her favorite teacher, an uncle, or maybe even a way-way-way older big brother. You've become a mentor to her, whether you like it or not, and if you run out on her, you could really hurt her and all the good things you've done helping her would be destroyed. Protect your identity like you were telling her, don't do anything dumb including offering any specific advice that might get you in trouble or us sued, and help her as much as you can, okay? I'm in your corner and we can even pull in Kelly if we need a modern teenage perspective."

"You're right, Crys. The last thing I want to do is hurt her. Well, the last thing other than going to jail...or getting sued."

Most of her questions were pretty simple, but one day Alley sent a tough one.

WRG, how does a girl deal with a crush?

He passed it along to Crys without even trying. They were sitting on the couch together watching a movie on the widescreen when he showed it to her and said, "Crys, help! She asked about a girl, but from a teenage boy's perspective, my personal reply would have been 'Not well.'"

"Bill, I don't know. I know I waited nearly forever before you finally got a crush on me, but that seemed to go okay." Crys nibbled his ear.

"Sweetie, I think she meant getting over one. I never had to get over crushing on you. All the million and one before you, though..."

She punched him lightly, giving him a little frown. "We're not here to talk about that and there weren't that many girls in the tri-county area, anyway, so I sense a slight exaggeration in your number. Unless you had them on a loop, that repeated, what, twenty times a day? Hmm?"

Bill laughed. "I don't know, but it sure seemed like that many, with all of them ending badly until I finally got lucky with you."

"Dad! Yuck!" cried Kelly, raising up part way from where she was lying on the love seat to the side. She was giving him a very displeased look.

"I didn't mean like that. I meant—"

"I know. Just giving you a hard time," she giggled, grinning, before turning back toward the movie on the big TV and flopping back down on her pile of pillows and eating another bite of popcorn.

Crys put her head against his chest. "It's been a long time since I was a teenager, but I had a few crushes myself. You, of course. And Ronnie Winestaff. Woah!"

"Ronnie Winestaff? Now wait a minute," he said, shocked that he was just hearing his old classmates' name after twenty-four years of marriage.

Crys burst out laughing. "Got you! Seriously, tell her that crushes don't last forever, and often don't even last long. Tell her that it's not the end of the world if the nothing comes of it—in most cases, it doesn't, and that's probably for the best—"

"Ronnie Winestaff," he grumbled, leading her to laugh.

"I was teasing! Crushes eventually fade away or they become something more, like us. Anyway, to answer her question, maybe she should start a diary or a journal; by writing down how she feels today, she'll be able to look back on it in a month or maybe two when she gets her next crush and then she can see that life goes on, and that crushes come and go."

Kelly piped up from the love seat. "Yeah, crushes come and go. I had two last week and now I've got it on him." She pointed to the sexy star of the movie, at least fifteen years her senior. Bill threw a pillow at her, being careful to hit her legs instead of her bag of popcorn.

They had a good laugh, and Kelly became their occasional sounding board for some of AlleyKat's periodic teen-related questions.

***

When Kelly started her senior year of high school, Bill and AlleyKat99 were maintaining their relationship as mentor and mentee, with Alley asking numerous college and career-related questions as she considered colleges. As the year passed, she revealed that she'd done extremely well on the national tests and that she'd probably be considered a good catch by most universities since her extracurricular activities were also good.

Despite their warnings, over time, Alley made a few more comments that revealed what Alan and Crys felt was too much about herself. He knew her birthday was the first week of September, that she lived in Queens, and that she attended an all-girls school. He suspected that her real name was Allison or something similar since she mixed Alley and Ally interchangeably at times, though, he knew, that could have been intentional as a red herring since she was too good at spelling to be making such a mistake. They joked about that at times; she said she disliked the spelling of her middle name so much she refused to learn how to spell it and had to look at her school ID or new learner's permit to be sure when she was filling out applications.

It was when her grandfather died, though, that she gave away too much. She mentioned the date and the location, and it took Bill only minutes to find the obituary with her name listed as Allison Brady. She said she wasn't close to her grandfather because he and her mother didn't get along, but she was sad. Bill gave his condolences but didn't scold her on her slip-up because of that.

More stories followed but one spring day, Alley didn't appear. Bill's response to her question went unanswered, and her new story that she'd been discussing with him was never posted. He started to worry about her, telling Crystal about his fears. Days became a week, and the weeks became a month with no sign of her; the only very welcomed relief came when his search for another obituary, hers, turned up nothing.

Bill wondered if she'd gotten hurt or if she might possibly have dropped the website in favor of boys. He started to post a new story of his own but found himself a bit sad that his young mentee and friend apparently no longer had any need of him.

"She was a kid, and kids grow up," said Crys one evening when he mentioned it. "Look at Kelly; she was going to be a soccer star, a volleyball star, and all the other things in between, but then one day she decided to be a cheerleader. Girls are little women, Bill, and you know what they say about women changing their minds."

"Yeah."

"Kelly graduates in a few weeks, will be heading off to Bickford in the fall, and before too long, she'll graduate from there, be married with kids, and we'll wonder where our little Hurry-cane Kelly went."

"God, woman, making me a grandpa before my time. Now you've really got me depressed," he said with a chuckle. "Even with this sexy new nightie."

"Oh, I think I know how we can fix that. Kelly's spending the night at Amber's, and I thought I might try to reenact that bronc busting scene from your latest story." She pushed down his shorts and threw her leg across. Sitting atop him, she pushed her tiny panty to the side.

"Oh! I feel a bump in the saddle! Let me fix that. Ahhhh...unhhhh..."

Bill was grinning as she sank down on him.

"Crys, you're so beautiful and you feel so—"

"Shhh! You're playing the horse in this scene, remember? And I'm pretty sure the horse's name wasn't Ed."

Bill chuckled, enjoying her hot pussy encasing him. Though she wasn't trying yet, she was moving around a bit, making it feel so good.

"Okay, Mr. Horsey. One more thing. This horse has a very special saddle with a big, two-part saddlehorn in addition to its wondrous, center LEGO stud. One part goes here—"

She placed his right hand on her left breast, cupping her over the lacey babydoll.

"—and the other here," she continued, placing his left over her right breast. "Now this special saddlehorn can squeeze a bit, but not too hard, and can pinch a cowgirl's nipples a bit harder."

Crystal was grinning as the bifurcated saddlehorn began operating as instructed, but she looked around as if something was wrong.

"What's wrong, Crys?" he asked, growing concerned.

"I forgot my damn hat. Well, fuck it! Now, giddy-up, horsey!"

It was all Bill could do to keep from laughing at her look of displeasure—he was almost certain the hat would have clashed with the pretty pink nightie, anyway—but his beautiful wife's sudden bout of bronc-busting drew his full attention, with her slamming up and down on him while holding his ribcage and Bill bucking up and down in her, keeping his hands connected to keep her breasts from flying. He continued giving her the squeezes and pinches she'd requested and rocked his hips and pelvis to compliment her movements.

Crys, an accomplished horsewoman in her youth, was using her thighs and knees to ride up and down on him, squeezing him as she did. However, with Bill and Crystal now approaching their late-forties, she soon found her legs and hips tiring from the vigorous exercise, so she rested on him as she leaned forward into his hands, rocking herself forward and back for some strokes, before straightening and riding some more.

Bill was smiling at her efforts, as her usually gentle moans became full grunts. When he couldn't last much longer and saw that she was getting close, he planted his feet on the mattress and lifted, allowing him to increase the force of his thrusts into her. Crystal's face contorted as she tried to prolong her orgasm but it was too much and she suddenly groaned as it hit, collapsing onto her "saddle" as she pushed his hands to the side so she could fall atop him. Bill slid his arms around her as he made one last stroke and buried himself deep within her as he came.

She lay atop him as they held each other. "Bill, I love you, Sweetie, you were a fine stallion, and that was a great ride," she said softly in his ear, "but I still can't believe I forgot my damn hat."

***

Kelly graduated high school and headed off to Bickford University in California that fall, much further from home than Alan and Crystal would have preferred, but she seemed to thrive there on academic and partial cheerleading scholarships and in the sorority where she pledged.

Several years passed, with Bill and Crystal living a mostly empty-nest lifestyle, but with Bill still remembering his young mentee. He continued to check the writing site periodically in case Ally returned, but she never did. Hoping she'd do well and be successful, Bill and Crystal moved on with their life together, loving each other until that fatal day....

***

Chapter 3

Present day...

The house was quiet. It had been that way for almost all of the past three years to the day since Crys was, according to the pastor, "called home to be with the Lord." Bill hated the phrase and what it represented, since her death was stupid and uncalled for and any god who would allow such a good person to go so horribly....

He shuddered at the thought, the anger still deep within him despite the passage of time. He looked at her, touching the glass over her photo, asking himself yet again why it had to be her. She was so fresh and vibrant in the photo, a true picture of how she was, but now...gone.

He'd always been a religious person, a believer, but her death had confused and angered him, and rebelling, he'd left their church and most everything else in his life, including his old job. His job at his new firm was very similar to the old, but there he didn't have to suffer through everyone looking at him week in and week out, feeling sorry for him when it was Crystal that they should have been mourning. She was the one who didn't deserve what happened, Bill knew; he was just an affected participant.

He'd become a loner after the funeral, with video chats with Kelly and her family being practically his only non-work-related conversation each week. She'd divorced her husband a few months ago after finding a strange pair of panties in his pocket while doing the laundry and then reading the report a few weeks later from the private investigator she subsequently hired.

Despite being over 2,500 miles away, Kelly had been his rock through the rough times, the one who'd kept him grounded and away from thoughts that might have ended his troubles but which would have only left worse scars for her and his grandsons. As much as he hurt, he knew he could never do that to them since she needed him and needed him to be a good role model for her boys. Her ex had largely abandoned them following the divorce, paying his child support but offering little in the way of the love they truly needed.

Bill felt for her and tried to do what he could to help her, including making a conscious effort to keep himself in shape despite his pain. He ran most mornings, a gentle jog, but his knees hurt too much to regularly go beyond 10K so he was perpetually training for the half-marathon that he knew he would probably never run. He lifted weights with his resistance gym in the basement to keep up his strength. Having just turned 60, he found that was important to his physical health as well as what remained of his mental side, and he was now in better physical shape than he'd been in his late 40s and early 50s when middle-age-spread set in.

Kelly had been working with him on that, particularly over the past year, when she'd been gently urging him to let Crystal go, to keep the good memories of his wife and her mother, but to move forward, to start living again, trying to find new happiness rather than trying to live off the memories of the past. When he showed no signs of achieving it on his own, she'd urged him to enter counseling, which he'd steadfastly refused.

"Dad, the kids see it. They see you, how dreary you are, and while Arnie doesn't remember Mom and what you were like before, Mikey does, and he wants you to be happy again."

With Kelly living so far away, they weren't able to get together often, but they video chatted frequently and he tried to put on a happy face, even if he was cold and dark inside. She also sent frequent text messages and e-mails, partly to help him but also to help her since she was still hurting from her ex-husband's betrayal and the recent divorce. They would talk today, he knew, remembering Crystal again, and she'd probably be giving him some small nudge, or more, to move forward.

Being a Saturday and the anniversary of Crystal's death, he left the gloomy house, its atmosphere stifling, for his morning run but he couldn't get her out of his mind. Tears pooled in his eyes at the thought and then slipped down his cheeks. He'd accepted that she was gone long before, but certain days like this were too much; he still missed her and refused to move on.

The one time when he could escape the memories and the pain was when he was writing—westerns and romance were still his staple, but he'd done a fantasy series and written a suspense thriller. He'd ventured into self-publishing and succeeded in selling a number of stories over the years, though still not nearly enough to give up his day job and the big novel sale had never materialized despite having four complete novels that he'd tried shopping to real publishers in recent years.