Mona and Me Ch. 02

"Well, we could," replied Miss Mona, "but today is New Year's Day and everything is closed! Let's enjoy the day and we can start thinking about a date for the wedding."

* * *

In the following months, Miss Mona and I selected a date and a place for the wedding and reception and everything else was planned by Miss Mona and Miss Macy. They were both very excited and nothing gets the estrogen flowing like planning a wedding! I understood that my role was to simply provide a credit card and check book and show up at the chosen place and time.

Miss Mona decided to have Miss Macy serve as her maid of honor. If she had not done that, I probably would have had Miss Macy be my best man! Instead, I chose my best friend from college. Ken lived about 5 hours away so Miss Mona and I found a long weekend, took an extra day off of the work week, and we visited Ken and his wife. Ken and I caught up on old times while Miss Mona and Ken's wife got acquainted.

Miss Macy actually volunteered to be the wedding photographer and I thought she would probably do a decent job but I did not want to put any pressure on her. I wanted her to be able to participate in the wedding and enjoy it so I explained all of that to her and she was fine with my decision, perhaps because I also emphasized that I was very proud of how well she had progressed with her photography.

I continued to sleep over at Miss Mona's on weekend nights but stayed in my own apartment during the week. Miss Mona and I continued to have a great time together and we included Miss Macy in many of our activities. Miss Macy had an active social life and there were boys who took her on dates but they never lasted very long. Despite the lack of a long term boyfriend, Miss Macy seemed to be very happy.

The wedding was scheduled for July. Miss Mona and I would be able to enjoy a honeymoon before she needed to return to work in August. Miss Macy would stay with her grandmother while we were away. When we returned, we would start looking for a house to buy. Everything was discussed and planned and life seemed rather perfect.

You may be thinking that this all sounds too perfect and that, certainly, something ominous must be lurking behind the pages of the calendar. No, everything was happy, we were becoming a stronger family unit - even before the wedding - and all was well with us.

When the school year ended, Miss Macy got a job working in a boutique at the mall. She spent all of her money on clothes and became ever more of a girly girl. I could see that the transformation from little girl to young woman had begun and I was proud to claim her as my future step-daughter. We continued working on our photography hobby and I could easily imagine her becoming a professional photographer.

We found a house that was big enough for the three of us, big enough for some serious entertaining, and it had a large, landscaped pool with a stucco privacy fence. I know Miss Macy was happy about the pool and her large bedroom. Miss Mona was happy that the house had enough rooms to dedicate one to being a home office and she also loved the kitchen. What I loved the most was that my girls were happy! We closed on the house about a month before the wedding and we all moved in immediately.

The wedding was a blowout affair. Miss Mona had excellent taste and she had put much time and energy into planning the day. We had a church wedding and a reception at the Ribault Club, an elegant but not pretentious facility on Ft. George Island. Miss Mona was absolutely beautiful and Miss Macy looked like a fashion model! We had a great live band, a wonderful caterer, a bartender who really knew her stuff, and even the old dinosaurs in attendance got down and boogied!

I had a father-daughter dance with Miss Macy and she went overboard telling me how happy she was and that she knew her mom was happy and then she said that the absolute best part was that she had introduced the two of us . . . and she was right! I kissed her on the forehead and told her that the day I met her was the second best day of my life. She smiled and then she kissed me on the cheek and whispered, "Me, too!"

Miss Mona's mom came and stayed at our house with Miss Macy while we were on our honeymoon, so we didn't need to worry about wild parties and adolescent debauchery while we were away. Instead, we simply enjoyed our Caribbean cruise and we had more sex than a Hindu whore house! We had passionate sex, we had hot sex, we had wild sex, and we had kinky sex. I was sad to see the week come to an end, but it did. Our ship returned to home port and we were ready to get in our car and drive home. We both missed Miss Macy!

Miss Macy was glad to see us and grandma was glad to be able to return to her home. We all went out to dinner that night to celebrate the first night that we were together as an "official" family. Then we went home and Miss Mona and I slept quite soundly.

* * *

Miss Mona was just as wonderful after our marriage as she had been before our marriage. She was an honest, faithful, and dedicated partner, a beautiful woman, and as horny as a woman can be. She kept me happy in every way that a man can expect. She wanted sex 3 or 4 times every week and I was very happy to respond to her needs.

Miss Macy became like a daughter to me. She asked my permission to do things, she occasionally sought my advice, and she and I occasionally went out to dinner when Miss Mona had an obligation in the evening. She didn't call me "Daddy" when she was talking to me but when I overheard her talking to her friends, she referred to me as "her Daddy." Every time I heard that, I smiled.

Things got even more relaxed around our house. There was never any nudity but seeing Miss Macy in her bra and panties became quite the norm and Miss Mona also frequently walked around the house in her underwear, sometimes topless. I was a bit more reserved only because I did not want anyone to learn what was happening in the privacy of our home and twist it into a story about me exposing myself to a teen girl and especially a teen girl who was not my daughter. I know that it is silly that guys must worry about such things but it is a sometimes silly society in which we live.

Yes, Miss Macy knew that she had me wrapped around her little finger and I really didn't care. She had lived most of her life without a father and she deserved some pampering and extra attention. A week after we returned from the honeymoon, we celebrated Miss Macy's seventeenth birthday. I took her on a shopping spree and she spent some major bucks on clothes but I'm sure that, within the following weeks, she began to get lots of mileage out of being the best dressed girl in the senior class.

In October, it appeared that Miss Macy was getting a serious boyfriend and Miss Mona got her daughter started on birth control. His name was Jason and he seemed like a good kid. He was one of the academic kids, well mannered and very sociable. Despite his pleasant appearance and good manners, I was convinced that he was very interested in pulling down Miss Macy's panties. I guess the overprotective father in me reacted with a bit of anger and resentment. I tried to keep those feelings to myself because nothing good would come from revealing them to Miss Macy and . . . up until now, she had been a really good kid. As far as I knew, Miss Macy was still a virgin, and the resident Mama Bear had the same impression about Miss Baby Bear.

Miss Macy was rarely home on Friday and Saturday nights and Miss Mona and I had the house to ourselves. We had a heater on the pool so we could use it into late November. Quite often, on a Friday night, we would come home and grill steaks, have a few Margaritas, and then go skinny dipping in the pool. Of course, that always led to sex but not in the pool.

If you have ever seen movies that showed a couple having sex in the pool, it looks like it would be a great place for sex. The reality is that water washes away a woman's natural lubrication so penetration is much more difficult when you are in the water. We usually went from the pool to the shower - together - where we played rub-a-dub-dub with our naked bodies and then we got in bed and went wild. On a few occasions, we had sex in the shower (I would temporarily turn off the water) and once or twice, we just got out of the pool and had sex on the pool deck.

By the time that Christmas arrived, Miss Macy had broken up with Jason. She didn't seem very upset by the breakup and she started dating a few other guys but nothing that was very serious. Miss Mona and I decided to take Miss Macy with us to Charleston for the week after Christmas and the three of us had a great time. If you have never been there, it is a charming city, a very welcoming place for visitors, and a fun destination.

* * *

On March 14, around 10:30 am, my secretary - Miss Darcy - told me that there was some breaking news alert about Miss Mona's school. I turned on the local news and heard that Miss Mona's school - Englewood Middle School - was on lockdown and there were reports of gunshots being heard at the school. The immediate suspicion was that a student had brought a gun to school and was running loose, shooting at whoever came into view.

I immediately got in my car and rushed to the school. Of course, the police had a perimeter barricade established and I was not allowed to enter. Still, I was close enough to hear what was happening and to watch the little bit of first responder traffic that was entering and leaving the school. At one point, I saw an ambulance entering the perimeter and then rushing away with sirens blaring just a few minutes later.

Shortly afterwards, I received a call from a number that caller ID said was the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office. I answered it before the second ring, afraid to hear whatever news the caller had for me. "Hello, this is Jack Landis," I answered.

"Mr. Landis, this is Lt. Roberts with the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office. I'm very sorry to have to tell you that your wife has been shot in the shooting at Englewood Middle School. She's in an ambulance en route to University Hospital on Eighth Street. She's alive but she appears to be in very serious condition. Would you like for me to have a patrol car pick you up and take you to the hospital?"

"Yes, I'm not sure I would be very safe behind the wheel right now. I'm at the intersection of Spring Park and Spring Glen Road."

"Stay there and I'll have Sgt. Acosta pick you up in about two minutes. Mr. Landis, your wife is a very brave woman!"

Sgt. Acosta arrived very quickly, put me in his front seat, then turned on the blue lights and siren and started racing to University Hospital. Fortunately, there wasn't much traffic on the interstate. While we were en route, Sgt. Acosta told me that my wife had apparently been shot while trying to protect her students. The police had shot and killed the shooter and were in the process of searching the school just to verify that there was not more than one shooter on the scene.

While he and I were talking, I remembered Miss Macy and asked if she could be picked up and brought to the hospital. He promised that he would go to her high school and get her just as soon as he dropped me off at the emergency room.

I entered the University ER and was told that Miss Mona had immediately been taken into surgery. I was taken to the surgery waiting area, I fixed a cup of coffee, and then I sat and began crying. After the passage of some time - it felt like an eternity - I felt a presence near me and I looked up and saw Miss Macy.

She was standing in front of me and I immediately rose and put my arms around her. Her quiet sobs turned into anguished cries and all I could do was to hold her in my arms. I could think of no words that would possibly comfort her so I said nothing.

About twenty minutes later, a surgeon approached us. "Are you Mr. Landis?" he asked.

"Yes," I responded, "and this is my daughter, Miss Macy."

"Mrs. Landis was barely alive when she got to the hospital. She had two gunshot wounds, one to the chest and one to the abdomen. She had suffered a very heavy loss of blood and we began immediate transfusions. The chest wound involved a rupture of the pulmonary artery and we immediately began procedures to repair that but Mrs. Landis went into hypovolemic shock and, despite our best efforts, we couldn't save her. I'm very sorry but she passed away about 10 minutes ago."

I remained silent for a moment, trying to absorb the enormity of the realization that I would never again see Miss Mona. Finally, I managed to say, "We appreciate your efforts. Thank you," I heard myself saying but it felt tremendously unreal to me. Miss Macy looked at me as if the world had just ended. Within seconds, we were both crying like babies. I was holding her and she was holding me. We cried forever and then we cried some more.

When we stopped crying, the hospital staff again spoke to us. Under state law, all homicides require an autopsy of the victim. The staff estimated that the autopsy could be performed within the next 12 hours. After that, they would be able to transfer the body to a funeral home and they asked for my preference.

Later that day, we learned that the shooter was a student at the school. He had recently expressed a romantic interest in one of the female students and she had rebuffed his attention. The female student was in Miss Mona's third period class and that is when the male retrieved a gun from his locker and proceeded to Miss Mona's classroom. Miss Mona had immediately tried to talk him down from his bitter need for revenge but he was undeterred. She then used her body to shield the girl from her attacker and that is when she got shot. By that time, the school security officer was approaching the classroom and the shooter ran without ever firing at his intended victim so Miss Mona had, in fact, been successful at saving the young girl's life.

Fortunately, a friend of mine had recently retired and he offered to fill in at my office while I dealt with all of the consequences of this horrible, horrible tragedy. The next few days were an absolute nightmare. I had to notify all of her family and my family, make funeral arrangements, and console Miss Macy. And, when I had a moment that was not consumed with some responsibility, I cried.

I had experienced many relationships in my past that were okay but none that compared to what I had with Miss Mona. No one would ever replace Miss Mona.

The night of March 14, after all of the family and friends had left and Miss Macy and I were finally alone, we sat on the sofa in silence. She just leaned towards me and buried her face in my chest and I kept my arms around her.

After a few minutes, I suggested that it was bedtime for both of us. She gave me a tight hug and told me that she was glad that she still had me in her life. I kissed her on the forehead and then sent her upstairs to get ready for bed. I went to my bedroom, got undressed - except for my boxers - brushed my teeth, etc. I then walked down the hallway to check on Miss Macy. She was in her bed but I could hear her crying.

I walked to her bedside and placed my hand on her shoulder.

"Daddy, will you lie down with me and hold me?" she asked. How could anyone refuse that request? I lifted the covers and slid into her bed, snuggled up behind her, and put my arms around her.

"Close your eyes, sweetie," I suggested to her, "I'll stay with you until you fall asleep." Within seconds, we were both asleep.

* * *

When I woke up the following morning, I was still in bed with Miss Macy. The preceding night, I had not noticed, but she was wearing only her panties and a t-shirt. Seeing her like that made me think of how cute she was, both physically and emotionally, and how much this sweet girl did not deserve to lose her one remaining parent at such an early age. I eased out of bed so that I would not wake her, got dressed, and went to the kitchen to fix a cup of coffee.

The day was a blur of activity and, fortunately, it finally came to an end. Just like the previous night, I went to check on Miss Macy, she was crying. Again, she requested that I lie down and comfort her and we spent a second night in bed together.

* * *

The funeral was the most attended funeral I have ever seen. There were hundreds of students, teachers, administrators, friends, elected officials, Miss Mona's family and friends, Miss Macy's friends, my family and friends, professional acquaintances, and others who simply wanted to pay their respects to a brave woman. Miss Mona's death had actually received some attention from the national media and even more attention from the statewide media. Even the Governor attended the funeral!

Throughout the day, Miss Macy was by my side constantly. If I turned away from her for a moment, she soon felt my absence, searched for me, and then resumed her vigil by my side. We held hands at the graveside as we touched the coffin and said goodbye. I thought that Miss Macy was going to collapse and I promised myself that I would be strong for her.

As we turned away from the grave and headed towards our car, Miss Macy's grandmother suggested that Miss Macy could come live at grandma's house. Her sense of timing was absolutely awful but I knew that she meant well. Before I could respond and suggest that we consider that idea at a later time, Miss Macy said that she still had a home with me and she tactfully declined the offer. Grandma understood and I assured Miss Mona's mother that Miss Macy and I would visit her on a regular basis.

* * *

In the coming weeks, Miss Macy and I had several discussions. I told her that, although she was not my daughter in any legal sense, I loved her like a father loves a daughter and I would certainly treat her as I would treat a daughter. She could continue to live with me for as long as she wanted to do that. I assured her that I could easily get a custody order that would satisfy the legal requirements and that, obviously, when she turned 18 in four months, she would legally be an adult and would have the legal right to make decisions for herself.

After a week away from school, Miss Macy resumed attending for her final months of high school. The months that should have been an absolute delight for her had become dreary and burdensome. She did not attend her senior prom or participate in many of the other social events associated with the final months of high school. Fortunately, she did return to her studies and kept her grades up.

She had not yet made a final decision about college. Though she had been accepted to several schools, she decided to postpone going away to college. She decided to spend at least her first year at the local state university. I must admit that, solely from a selfish perspective, I was happy to hear her decision. Having Miss Macy leave in August would have been devastating for me.

High school graduation was a bittersweet event because Miss Mona's absence was painfully obvious. Even though Miss Mona had not taught at Miss Macy's high school, the school took time to recognize Miss Mona's brave sacrifice. Miss Macy received a standing ovation as she walked across the stage and I could tell that she was crying as she received her diploma. Instead of going out to graduation parties and having fun with her friends after the ceremony, she came home and stayed in for the night.

It was obvious that Miss Macy was going to recover very slowly and I wanted to do whatever I could to speed along the process before she started her college classes in late August. I suggested that we take a 7 night Caribbean cruise in July to celebrate her eighteenth birthday and she didn't act thrilled about the idea but she didn't say no, so I had Miss Darcy book a room on one of the nicer cruise ships.