The Old Man and the Sea

She said lightly, "Are you going to stand there gawking, or are we leaving?"

I said, "We're leaving but you are absolutely stunning."

She dimpled - God! She even had cute dimples - snatched her little clutch purse and we left.

What can you say about the evening when you meet "The One"?

We talked all the way to the restaurant. It turns out that she was the daughter of two LA lawyers and she was at the University to do the full Law School route.

She also turned out to be very smart, intellectually curious and she had a fabulous sense of humor.

She said that she dated slugs like Brad because they were the only guys who asked her out.

Unfortunately I could see what she was talking about. I'm a normal guy. And I wouldn't even consider approaching a woman like her, let alone dating her.

She said that any guy who she DID go out with got one date. And if they were not interesting or sufficiently clever then that was it.

Which explained her one time with Brad.

She said that the kind of date that she had with Brad didn't happen often. But it DID happen. Which was why she had run up the score with all of the local studs.

I wasn't buying any of that. It sounded like a rationalization.

So I said, "Do you always fuck them on the first date?" I was being an asshole but I was certain that I would never see her again.

She looked a little hurt and said, "I know it seems that way. But I could go out with a different guy every day of the week and twice on Sundays.

"Brad is yummy and he was very insistent. Plus I was drunk. I would never have fucked him otherwise. He just doesn't cut it in the grey-matter department. I didn't even consider a second date with him."

I kind of understood all of that. Kari was just THAT attractive. And she was white-hot. You could tell that in every move she made.

Her sensuality was obvious. Even in the simple things that she did from getting into the car to the way she held the menu at dinner.

A lot of women are either neutral about sex, or they don't like it. Kari radiated total mastery of the bedroom arts. And there was nothing about the act of sex that frightened her. She was supremely self-confident.

I could see where lesser women would want to burn her at the stake

It was obvious to both of us that we were connecting on a lot of levels. She was such a delightful companion that her extreme beauty and sexuality quickly faded into the background.

We were both dedicated students. We both had a long term perspective on life. We cared about serious matters. And most important of all Kari loved to laugh. She was openly passionate in the way she enjoyed every aspect of life.

I couldn't have asked to spend the evening with a better friend, or more interesting companion. And for a short time I believed that she felt the same way.

That was until Rayford Johnson dropped by our table. He was frat-boy extraordinaire. Alpha dog in the pack of self-important over-entitled douchebags who inhabited that school.

And he made it obvious that he had a long and very sweaty history with Kari.

He came smirking up to the table and without even looking at me said, "Hi, Kari, we're having a party at the house tonight and there are a lot of guys who would LOVE to see you there."

I didn't have to be a savant to read between THOSE lines. The top off my head almost blew off like one of those cartoon thermometers.

She gave me a quick secret glance and then looked up at him bewildered, like she couldn't place him.

Finally, she got one of those head-smacking d'oh looks on her face and said, "Oh yes, your name is Ray isn't it?

"What would make you think that I would want to waste my time with the boys in your silly little fraternity Ray?

"When I can be out with a REAL man?

"Ray meet Danny."

I rose to shake his hand. The one advantage that I have over most guys is my height. And I was well over a half foot taller and maybe 30 pounds heavier than he was, just big enough to be intimidating.

I stuck out my paw in a friendly fashion and said, "Pleased to meet you Ray. I'm sorry but I'm planning to take up Kari's time from now on."

Where in the heck did THAT come from?!!

He looked me up and down and sneered, "All you're going to do is join a long line of guys who have fucked her."

Then without shaking my hand he spun and walked away. He was pissed. How delightful.

I sat back down and said as sarcastically as I could, "Nice fellow."

If Ray was pissed, Kari was absolutely foaming at the mouth.

She said, "He's a total asshole. I don't know what I was thinking. Like I said, I have kissed a lot of frogs looking for a prince. That one was more like a horny toad."

Then her face softened. She reached across the table and took my hand.

She said with genuine emotion playing across those incredible emerald eyes, "And I think I've finally found him. Can we skip the dancing and just go back to my place?"

Which created a major dilemma.

I'm not bad looking and I am tall and well-built if you like them aerodynamic.

You almost wouldn't believe that I was a 22 year old virgin, would you?

But as I said, I was either studying, or swimming and I am not exactly the most self-confident guy in the world. Especially when it comes to women. So I had never shed my amateur status.

I am sure that Kari would expect a performance similar to what she had gotten from the dozen or so guys who had taken advantage of her gorgeous body.

And I didn't even know how to step out on stage, let alone act.

We went back to her place and she got me a beer. We sat on the couch in her living room and talked some more. She kept looking expectantly at me.

I finally decided that it was time to lay my cards on the table.

She had been brutally frank with me. And I needed to give her the same respect by confessing my total LACK of experience with no less ruthless honesty.

I said, "I know what you are thinking. And I have a secret that I have to get off my chest first."

She looked at me in horror. It was like she thought that I was about to confess that I really WAS gay.

I moved closer to her on the couch and took her little hand in both of mine. I hesitated. I didn't want the time with her to end.

In the meantime she was backing away with anxiety written all over her face. I could see that she was thinking that I was going to tell her that I'd like to see her hogtied in a rubber suit, or something like that.

I said," I hate to admit it. But I'm still a virgin."

I could tell by her response that was the last thing she expected me to say.

I probably could have announced that I was really from the planet Hoth and I would have gotten a less surprised reaction.

How could a modern college male make it all the way to his 22nd year and not have had sex at least once? I was mortified.

Then she began to laugh. First the mirth came into her eyes. Then it took over her entire face. And finally her whole body was convulsed in uncontrollable paroxysms of laughter.

Okay, that was roundly insulting!! I didn't come here to be laughed at.

I started to rise in a huff. But she grabbed my hand and pulled me back down.

I was off balance so I fell face first on her big couch.

As I fell, SHE was arranging herself so that I would fall on top of her. Her legs were spread incredibly wide.

I immediately pushed myself up on my arms to take my weight off of her. In the meantime she was frantically scrambling around with her hands in the area of my zipper.

The next thing I knew I felt an extremely hot and wet sensation on a part of my anatomy that had never experienced such an amazing, out-of-this-world feeling before.

She grabbed the back of my head and pulled me down to an open mouthed kiss that duplicated the wonderful phenomenon that I was feeling at the other extreme. It was like she was totally open to me on both ends.

I had watched enough porn that I had the process in concept, if not actual practice. So I began the age old motion stroking in and out of that fiery three centimeters of paradise. She went absolutely nuts.

She threw her head back, mouth wide open making extreme effort noises. It was like she was choking to death.

Then she let out an unearthly cry and threw her legs around my hips and her arms around my neck in a way that she was plastered to me from shoulder to pussy like a spider monkey.

I don't use a word like "abandoned" very often. But that was how she gave herself to me.

I was probably lucky that I had never had sex before because I didn't know what to expect. And the fact that I wasn't distracted by how she was reacting slowed my own release a lot.

Maybe ALL women acted like that?

On the other hand Kari would buck shout, and quiver wordlessly. Then she would go right back to throwing her hips up at me.

That motion is very similar to what you do in the water and I have the endurance that you get from all those years of doing it.

So I just kept on-and-on and she kept bucking, shouting and quivering.

I finally looked at her face. She had the drawn expression of somebody who was s right on the ragged edge of losing it. She was exhausted.

She started saying with urgency in her voice, "Cum Danny, You have to cum in me NOW. I can't take it any longer. Please cum. PLEASE!!"

Those must have been the magic words because what followed was an experience that made all of those lonely nights of self-flagellation seem like a firecracker next to the detonation of a hydrogen bomb.

I pounded on her like I was trying to break her. She took me to the hilt making hoarse grunting noises as I came.

I rolled off her the moment I got some rationality back. I am easily 100 pounds heavier and well over a foot taller and I didn't want to smother her.

She was lying on her back, legs spread wide and pussy leaking cum like a river.

That sight would have appeared wanton except she was out colder than that proverbial mackerel. I thought, "Great, I've met the girl of my dreams and killed her!!"

I rushed frantically into her bathroom and got a cold wash rag. She was still just lying there.

Her delectable chest was rising and falling with great intensity and her nipples were like little pink acorns. I considered that a good sign.

I pushed her gorgeous legs together, while examining her fertile hips and hard stomach.

I'm a GUY. I notice those things.

And I began to gently bathe her forehead. She came back to me slowly, like she had been someplace long ago and far away.

Those incredible emerald eyes focused and then she gasped. She said with wonder in her voice, "What did you do to me? I have never experienced anything like that in my life."

I shrugged lamely and said, "I don't know. I've never had sex before."

She smiled weakly and said, "Well whatever you did I want you to do it to me over and over again. When you make a woman cum like that, she wants to be yours for life.

"Now lie down here with me and hold me. I obediently turned on my side and she snuggled those big round rock hard buns into me, she wrapped my arms around herself and went right off to sleep."

I lay there for a little while sensing her enticing smells and feeling her little jerks as she slept and I was scared shitless.

There would never be another woman for me. But I had only known her for a day and I had no idea what to do next.

That was answered for me the next morning.

I awoke on a bright sunny fall morning. Her apartment was the ground floor of one of those old mansion-like houses in town. So the windows were 19th century floor to ceiling large, not the dinky little openings you see in modern houses.

And the sun was just streaming into the room.

She was lying in my arms in the same position that I had been holding her when we fell asleep.

But there was a new feature. I was sporting a hard-on that must have been using up 90% of the blood in my body. And it was jammed in the crack of her exquisite round ass.

I was trying to figure out a way to shift her onto the couch without waking her up when she moved. And what had been an embarrassing poking of her butt-crack became an extremely stimulating poking of her nether lips.

I swear she was sound asleep but as soon as I touched the entrance to her hole she moaned loudly and said sleepily, "Ahhhh yesss that's it!! Fuck me!!" and she arched her back, pushed her ass at me and I was suddenly hilted in a very hot and totally wet pussy.

That produced a snort of epic proportions and her head turned back toward me eyes wide open in surprise.

She moaned loudly and threw her top leg over mine and her body back against me so that she was lying mostly on top of me.

Then SHE began to thrust herself back against me in a frantic bucking motion that ended perhaps 30 seconds later in her loudly yelling, "Oh God YESSSSSS!!"

And the high frequency quivering started again. It was like she was being electrocuted. As she worked through her orgasm her butt cheeks were frantically clenching on top of my lower stomach and her passage was fluttering with little nips and ripples.

Finally she just lay limply on top of me panting.

I was still hard as a rock but I had no desire to cum. I just wanted to worship her. I couldn't imagine the kind of inner fire and feminine spirit that could generate that kind of sexuality.

I slowly withdrew. She moaned loudly all the way out.

She rolled off me to lie on her back on the broad couch. I propped myself up on one elbow.

I looked into the perfect face and she was looking back at me with apprehension.

I said, "You are a dream girl, far more wonderful than I deserve. I'll understand if this is the only night. Since I will cherish what we shared for the rest of my life."

She looked at me like I was an idiot and said merrily, "What gave you the idea that you will EVER get away from me? YOU have no choice in this matter.

"I have finally found my prince. You are mine and I will never let you go. We are going to be together forever."

I know it was naïve and impulsive but we were kids. And we absolutely believed that we would die in each other's arms.

I never spent another night in the dorms. She had a lovely spacious place and I just packed my things and moved in that same day.

We married at the end of the semester and we spent the following three and a half years living a blissful married life.

I would occasionally run into Brad on campus and he would give me a look like he couldn't figure it out.

Brad couldn't figure most things out so that was not rare.

I cared not a damn that he and a dozen others had fucked my wife. I knew that I was the last man who was going to fuck her.

How did I know that?

She spent our entire time together trying to find better and more creative ways to show me how much she was mine.

For instance, after we were married I still had to travel overnight for away meets.

By all rights Kari should have stayed home and partied with her friends.

But she wanted to show me that she was devoted to me and me alone.

So she spent her parent's money to travel to watch me and stay in the same hotels. The coaches patrolled the halls. Consequently we were chaste the nights that we were on the road. But it was the thought that counted.

We graduated together and celebrated her admission to law school with two weeks in Jamaica.

Because she was still in school I decided to go all the way in my field too. So, I got into a doctoral program.

We attended class all day, studied all evening and fucked all night.

She was my princess and I was her prince.

That was why it was so profoundly tragic when she was killed two days after she graduated.

You never think about the anguish that any given day might bring.

You kiss your beloved wife as she goes out the door for her daily run. And the next time you see her is in the morgue.

All of that beauty, all of that energy, all of that potential and all of that love of life lying broken on an uncaring slab.

That's the way things really work. There are never any guarantees.

One-in-a-million circumstance - perhaps. But that's life. We ping off each other like so many random billiard balls.

Sometimes you win. Sometimes you lose. Sometimes you lose big-time.

He was a drunken package delivery guy who claimed he didn't see her. His blood alcohol level was 0.19. He did three and a half years for vehicular homicide. And I got $1.6 million dollars in blood money from his company.

Thus ended my happiness.

________________________________

March or Die

We buried her in a beautiful little spot on a hill in southern California. It was near where her parents lived. I flew out with her and I went through the whole tear filled ceremony.

Danny Jones was nothing more than a ghost now. I might as well have been buried with her.

Her parents were sympathetic, nay loving. They knew what we meant to each other. But they had their own special grief. Kari was their only child, their hopes, dreams and immortality.

They had the same haunted, despairing, tortured look that I had.

I plodded along after that because life is ruthless. You either march, or you die.

I was afraid of dying so I marched. Albeit VERY unwillingly.

Nonetheless, all of the fairy tale certainties were behind me now.

I had honestly believed that my life would work out. Through fantastic good fortune I had met and married my soul mate. Our children would be beautiful and our lives would be fulfilling.

But the Gods laugh at human pretense.

Instead, I fell through all nine levels of Dante's hell.

Looking back over 50 years I NOW know that you move through a series of distinctly separate rooms in life.

The room you are in is your present reality. And it seems like you have always been there. Even if the room that you were FORMERLY in was poles apart.

It isn't a matter of forgetting your past. It is more a case of the demands of human existence perpetually overwriting your situational memory.

That was the case with me. I had closed the door of paradise. Never to go back in my lifetime.

Because I had nothing to live for I threw myself into my work. Swimming had taken up a lot of time when I was an undergraduate. As a result I did okay academically, but not great.

Now that I had all the time in the world and nobody to share it with I found that I was exceptional.

Kari was never far from my mind. So I dedicated the things that I did in life to her. Thus, after I got the Doctorate I did what all good little PhDs do. I started trolling for faculty jobs.

I didn't need to work. Between insurance and the settlement I could have lived comfortably on the interest. It was just that I was agonizingly alone. I HAD to do something to keep my sanity.

Given the quality of my degree and my research I had my choice of places. But I thought that I could make the most difference inside the Beltway. So I eventually took a position at a university in Fairfax Virginia.

Every good school demands the traditional tenure death march. I did that. And by the time it was granted I was 35 years old.

I recognized that I would be doing the exact same thing, year-after-year, for 40 or 50 years. Contemplating the emptiness in front of me was like looking at a trek through the Gobi Desert without water.

They say that you actually die when the last living person forgets you.

That's why people like Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar have "The Immortal" stuck in front of their names.

My only goal was to keep Kari's memory alive.

She was never far from my thoughts. Although my actual life passed in a blur of mundane.

No matter where I was and what I was doing she was still very much alive in the world I lived in.