The Seehofer Chronicles Vol. 01

Friday, 13^th July 2012.

Mount Pleasant Cottage.

The distant hoot of the owl drifted into the stifling kitchen where Rebecca and Sybil had adjourned during the recounting of the story. Sybil had made no pretence of taking notes whilst the story unfolded. She could not look her grandmother in the eye. Instead, she stared absently through the open stable door into the black void of the garden at Mount Pleasant cottage.

"Are you going to switch that thing off," enquired Rebecca quietly, aware of Sybil's troubled state of mind.

Sybil stirred herself, swivelled in the seat to face Rebecca, and leant forward to switch off the recorder positioned in the centre of the old oak table. Becca took Sybil's hand. It was hot and clammy, reflecting the humid conditions within the kitchen.

"Why did you have to tell me that, Gran? It was...," whispered Sybil.

"It was what?" probed Becca.

"It was too much!"

"What...? Too much sex?"

Sybil looked enquiringly at Becca, attempting to probe beyond the inscrutable mask. "Did you really do all those things?" asked Sybil apologetically.

"Yes..." There was no hint of shame or embarrassment in Becca's voice.

"Didn't it hurt?"

"Depends on your concept of pain," answered Becca evasively.

Sybil's ass was inviolate. Naturally, she knew anal sex took place and had viewed it on porn websites but she had always considered it something that came later in life, something that one succumbed to, like having to wear glasses and arthritis. As for double penetration. Well, that really was IN the realms of porn fantasy. Wasn't it?

"I'm not suggesting you try any of these things, darling," continued Rebecca. "I just wanted you to know."

"Why?"

"Because as you get older, you sometimes wonder if things actually did happen. Those events certainly did, or else you wouldn't be here," said Becca calmly. Sybil stared hard at Becca.

"So my grandfather is Lawson what-ever-his-name-is?" stated Sybil.

"No...," replied Becca firmly.

Sybil turned her head to one side, challenging Becca's reply. "So who was it?"

"Ryan."

"Ryan?"

"Yes, Ryan Winters."

"Explain...," demanded a confused but admittedly intrigued Sybil.

"Lawson asked me to spend the night with Ryan. We didn't do anything. We simply slept together. But you know what? When I awoke next morning Ryan was still there. I can still recall the moment I opened my eyes and saw him peering at me; his hand was playing with my hair. God, I must have looked a sight. But he was simply smiling at me."

It was Becca's turn to look wistfully away from the table. Sybil noticed the restrained smile that played upon Becca's pursed lips.

"But you never fucked Ryan. You only wanked him off." Sybil was initially shocked at her use of the words in front of her grandmother but her unease was short-lived.

"Yes I did," corrected Becca. "Over the next week, whilst Ryan was in town, we met every night. He was lovely, the only man I ever truly loved."

"So what happened?"

"He went back to the States. We kept in touch. They say that distance makes the heart grow fonder. It certainly did in our case. Then Ryan announced he had to go to Vietnam on some special operation. We managed to spend a couple of weeks together before he went. Ryan proposed to me in front of Buckingham Palace. I was so happy. Then, one Sunday morning, he left me at the railway station. It was the last time I ever saw him."

"You were pregnant..."

"And married."

"Married! But we all know you as a single mum, who raised her only daughter alone!" Sybil was shocked and indignant at Becca's proclamation.

"You never batted an eye lid when I told you of my sordid adventures with the three Americans. Yet I tell you I was married to the man I loved and you look shocked. Life is seldom as you expect, Sybil darling."

"So you were Mrs Winters?"

"I still am. No one knew of our marriage, we were married at Gretna Green. Lawson Hackett was best man."

"Jeez, Gran!"

"I don't think the Lord was particularly favourably to us, Sybil. I was widowed after six weeks of marriage. The sad part was, when Lawson and I turned up in the States for the funeral and his family discovered his 'GI Bride', they weren't too happy. But I won them over. Almost..."

"Well, you were his wife," announced Sybil, belatedly defending her grandmother against the Winters clan.

"So you see where my windfall came from. Little did I realise that Ryan was a rich man, from a wealthy family. As his widow, he left me over $200,000. That was a lot in 1970."

"It's a lot now!" declared Sybil. Becca smiled for the first time since she had finished telling her tale.

"And when I'm gone, it will be yours."

"Mine...?" asked Sybil incredulously. "What about Mum?"

"Your mother is comfortable with that husband of hers. Anyway, the ungrateful bitch doesn't like me, so why should I leave it to her."

"But, Gran...?" stammered Sybil.

"If you are to have our money, please call me Becca."

Sybil noted how Rebecca spoke of "our" money. Even after forty years, she still missed Ryan. Sybil suddenly felt a glow of warmth and affection for Rebecca Seehofer. On the other hand, was it the feeling fostered by the realisation that she had met a kindred spirit?

Suddenly everything in Sybil's life made sense. A perceived comprehension and justification for her recent behaviour had been discovered, not that she felt any need for substantiation. Indeed, Sybil perceived with a sense of barely constrained exhilaration that she had only just begun to exploit life to its full potential.

"I recognise that look, Sybil," stated Rebecca Seehofer.

"Do you, Becca?" grinned Sybil, scarcely able to contain her excitement.

"Oh, yes. I discern the Seehofer in you..." Becca smiled ruefully and wondered what fate had in store for her granddaughter. Whatever it might be, she knew the Seehofer gene would play its part.