We'll Go No More a Roving

In theory a person gets elected because a majority of voters in the district like their ideas. But the herd votes for the party not the candidate. In fact, depending on the district the voters would elect a bag of hammers if it had "Republican", or "Democrat" written on it.

Still, no elected official believes that they are in office simply because of their party affiliation. They think they're there because of their sparkling personality and great ideas. Hence, for most of them, "the will of the people," is the twenty-first century equivalent of the "divine right of kings."

THAT unrealistic level of entitlement fosters a huge helping of delusional behavior, which usually centers on the thing that elected officials are most dedicated to; feathering their own nest. That would include eliminating any inconvenient rivals for the affections of your fair lady.

The end always justifies the means in DC. And because the minions in the bureaucracy serve at the pleasure of the guy in office, they will enable anything that doesn't actually involve jail time.

Ralphie-boy must have heard that they'd dug me out of the Republican Palace, and he'd connected the dots. He probably didn't know the details of my subsequent disappearance. But it was clear that all of the things that happened after I got back were designed to keep me as far away from Jane as possible, even if that was a totally morally bankrupt thing to do.

I had to agree with Ralphie on one thing though. Jane was worth whatever backstabbing he had to do to retain his husbandly rights. Still, even though Ralphie could disappear me, he couldn't make Jane love me less, or him more. The heart knows what it wants.

It was that collection of monkeys fucking in Ralphie's attic that caused the self-destructive behavior. Which of course, eventually led Jane to divorce him. It was an appropriately Sophoclean resolution.

Jane was sitting across from me looking apprehensive. That was an understatement. Imagine if you will, that you've spent a third of your life longing for something that you thought was an impossibility. Then out of the blue, it simply falls into your lap. That was our current situation.

As usual, Jane had taken the initiative. I had given up hope, as hard as that was. But my picture told her that I was still alive, and she had acted without hesitation.

I thanked my lucky stars that my wife was bold and decisive. Three hours ago, I had been a nautical vagabond, whose only friend was a canine soldier-of fortune. Now I was with the only woman I'd ever loved; and I had a daughter who any man would be proud of.

I am not exactly the most sensitive guy. But I DID realize that the worst thing I could do was just assume that things were like they had always been. It takes time to adjust to radical change. Jane and I had a great marriage, full of love and happiness. Still, we were kids back then, I was in my thirties and Jane was in her late twenties. We hadn't had any real experience with the facts of life.

Then life came along and taught both of us a few harsh lessons. There was no doubt that we loved each other. But we needed time and space to adjust to the people we'd become. We had almost twenty years of separation and a lot of water had flowed over that dam.

The fact was, nothing was the same. We had all of our old feelings and memories. But our budding new relationship was like a trip to Ikea. We had the pieces. But there was still "some assembly required."

Still, life had tempered me, and any hesitation I might have felt was over. I was going to take the steps to ensure Jane's presence in my life forever. I said simply, "I love you Jane. I have always loved you. Thoughts of you were the only thing keeping me alive in the dark despair of that Iraqi prison and you were never far from my mind in all of the ensuing years."

She got tears in her eyes. I added, "I'm a boat bum now. My only attachment is this dog and he's not very demanding, as long as he's well-fed. You are the one with the complications. So, tell me what you want me to do and I'll do it. Just as long as it ensures the presence of you and Hilley in my life."

Jane got the same look of sheer relief and utter joy that she had gotten the night we agreed to our lifelong love. She said gently, "All you have to do is promise to never leave me again."

Really??!! Like THAT was ever going to happen. I'd already lost Jane once to death. It was going to take the real thing to separate us this time.

*****

The three of us made our way back up the mole as the blood red disk of the sun came up over the hazy top of the old City. La Legion was behind us, dug-in on the boat. I'd issued rations for a couple of days and he knew how to use the neighboring shrubs for his other needs.

He called out, "Bon chance," as we left. Or maybe it was just a bark. I was getting back to normal.

The sun had begun to heat up the streets and the merchants were bustling as we walked the few minutes from the Mandraki docks up to the hotel. Jane and Hilley were at the Ellique, which is in Old Town. We could have gone back there but I had suite with a little private terrace, and they didn't.

The suite was on two levels. It was expensive. But thanks to Uncle Sam, money was never a problem. I figured that Jane and Hilley could use the master to sleep and there was a perfectly good couch downstairs. A couch was an upgrade for me. I'd spent years sleeping on a pallet.

The room-service people dropped off a big plate of feta and olives and some Greek pastries along with their aromatic coffee. We sat in the bright Mediterranean sun and listened to the birds chirp in the nearby rafters, while the city around us began to stir.

So much emotional energy had been expended in the past few hours that we might not have much to say to each other. But I wanted to do a total reset before we grabbed a nap. There had been far too many false assumptions and misunderstandings. That ended now. We would wake to a new life.

I said, "This has been emotionally draining for all of us and we will all be a lot more rational once we've slept on it. But if there's anything that needs to be said, let's say it now."

Jane gave me a look like I was wavering and said, "I thought that any hesitation about our future was behind us. We're together as a family. You and I have each other again. What more do we need?" Jane's a sensible and realistic woman. It is one of her many virtues.

People aren't perfect. We make snap decisions with the best of intentions. Then if they break bad, we live a lifetime of regret. That is, unless we take the logical steps to fix the mistake. It should seem self-evident that an error in judgement ought to be corrected. But one simple human foible prevents that. We try too hard to please other people.

I hadn't exercised my absolute right to contact my wife when I returned. I did that because, weak as the excuse might sound, I was sucked into a false narrative by a bunch of total strangers. And their deceitful and totally self-serving advice had led to six years of unnecessary pain for both of us.

For her part, Jane had married the wrong guy. She did it simply because everybody expected her to. Then, she stayed married to him because she didn't want the people in her life to think badly of her. That's the way things had gone for both of us.

Admittedly, circumstance had created the situation. But it was our eagerness to please that had kept us in that trap. All-in-all that was a fucked-up approach to life. But we were together now, and that union was all that it took. We only needed to please each other now.

*****

Besides being tough and decisive, Hilley is a genius. I opened my eyes an indeterminant period of time later to see an angelic face hovering over me. I hadn't slept in close to twenty-four hours and it took me a moment to remember that the face belonged to my daughter.

My heart flip-flopped with love and pride.

Hilley has Jane's ideally proportioned features; perfect cheekbones, long slim aristocratic nose, wide sensual mouth and pointed chin. But It's her incredible eyes that make her exceptional.

Jane is a blue-blood Mayflower aristocrat. Meaning, she's Anglo-Saxon on both sides. But rather than having the usual fair skinned Brit complexion, my wife has an exotic dusky coloration that she inherited from the Celt-Britons who inhabited the island long before the Romans showed up.

Thus, Janes eyes are amber, like a cats. On the other hand, Hilley's huge eyes are bright china blue, like mine. The contrast between my daughter's gorgeous dusky face and those blue eyes is absolutely mesmerizing.

Right this minute, she was looking at me with amusement and love. She said breezily, "I just wanted to let you know that I was going back to the Ellique for the rest of the day. I'll see you all tomorrow night.

I scrambled to my feet saying, "I don't want you to go Hilley. I want to spend as much time as I can with you. We have almost twenty years of catching up to do."

Hilley laughed and gave me a big daughterly hug as she said, "Now that I've found you, I'll never let you go. We have the rest of our lives to be together. But I want to give mom and you some alone-time to reconnect, just you and her."

She said earnestly, "You have no idea how difficult her life has been. Even when I was a little girl, I could tell how much she loved and missed you. I was nine when she married that loser and I knew from the start that it was for all the wrong reasons."

I looked troubled. My daughter said by way of explanation, "They were bugging mom to couple up every time we visited Nana's house. They didn't want her to "waste her life." That was said with air quotes.

Hilly said, "The family pressure might have been most of her bad decision. But that wasn't really why she did it. The night before she married, she confessed that she still loved you. But you were gone forever, and she wanted to give me a real family to grow up in."

I looked troubled. So, she hastily added, "Alex and Cassie are sweet kids, you'll love them, and things will be better now that mom has the man she truly belongs with."

Then she gave me one of those worldly looks. They were the sort that a goddess like my daughter had perfected by the time she was fourteen. She said, "But the two of you need to fully connect and that's hard to do with a kid hanging around. Especially one who knows what all the racket means."

She waggled her eyebrows suggestively and added, "So I'm going to hole up at our hotel until tomorrow afternoon."

It was a noble gesture and I knew that Hilley could handle herself in any situation. She's no slip of a girl. She radiates strength and physical confidence.

She has a toned athlete's body, lithe and sleek like a greyhound with fabulous muscled legs, taut hips, a long slim waist and surprisingly big round boobs on a five-seven frame. But a father always worries about a daughter who's as strikingly beautiful as Hilley.

I took both of her hands in mine and said, "Do me a favor and spend the night on my boat instead. It's a lot more interesting down there in the harbor and Buster could use the company." I knew that La Legion would fight to the last man to protect her.

She knew what I was thinking. That was my first really cliched fatherly gesture. She smiled at me lovingly and said, "I can take care of myself. But I'd love to spend a day on your boat."

At that point Jane's voice said, "Not without a little shopping first." Jane and Hilley had been in a rush to get to Rhodes. So, they had traveled light, planning to live off the land. Now the shops in the old town were about to reap a windfall.

I stayed behind in the Niohori while Jane and Hilley pillaged Sokratous street. I still had blog articles to post. So, I wasn't at the actual scene of the carnage. Jane returned by herself with a raft of shopping bags, radiating happiness. She had walked Hilley down to the boat, just to make sure that she was safe.

She said puzzled, "What kind of dog is that anyhow? Is he French? He did everything but kiss her hand"

I laughed and said sincerely, "He IS quite the man-of-the-world. But Hilley will be safe with him. He's 100 pounds of steadfast loyalty, ferocious courage, and a veteran of the French Foreign Legion."

Jane chuckled lovingly and said under her breath, "Still as nutty as ever when it comes to dogs."

As the sun set, we made the ten-minute walk from the hotel to the restaurant. It's called Wonder and it is over near the windmill. It's a wonder indeed. A lovely place for romance, with good food and a beautifully lit patio, which is surrounded by a dense array of fig and olive trees.

My reality was still adjusting to the fact that the woman who I thought I had lost forever was walking beside me in her four-inch heels, holding my arm in order to steady herself on the rough sidewalk.

I looked down and she smiled up at me. I remembered the first instant I saw her in class and how that sight had literally taken my words away. I noted with satisfaction that I still have the exact same awestruck feeling when I looked at her.

She had suffered widowhood and yet she raised the most precocious daughter ever conceived. She had a failed marriage. It was unfortunate. But I didn't blame her for trying. People are programmed by instinct and society to couple up. It's often too easy to fall into marriage and hard to get out.

But she had really only loved one lucky man. Given her pining away for me, her ex-husband's treatment might have even been slightly justified. I don't know how I would react to the discovery that my wife was hopelessly in love with a dead man.

My guess is that he considered the abuse an advance on his payback. Not the noblest, or most manly of attitudes. But understandable considering the insecurities of a certain type of fellow.

We ate a romantic dinner on the lighted terrace, sitting among the groves of fig and olive. I looked across the table at her in the soft Greek twilight. She was wearing a Christian Dior dress that she must have picked up that afternoon.

It was silk and it had a little sleeveless top covered by a short jacket. The low scooped top showed off her full dusky breasts with about four inches of delectable cleavage.

She was gazing at me out of those tawny amber cat eyes. The full weight of her love was behind the look. I took her hand and I said, "I am ready for a new chapter in our life."

That caused an anxious expression, so I quickly added, "As you know, I'm dead and I want to keep it that way. It would take far too much time and money to resurrect me and I want us to be married as soon as possible."

Then I paused and said, "So let's just pledge our love here. There is nothing that says I can't get married under my new identity. Is that alright with you?"

Women probably don't realize how important an occasional longing glance is in a marriage. Men don't like always being the aggressor and it often seems like women forget that they have to communicate how much they want a guy.

Women feel like it isn't necessary to look obviously enthralled, because in most cases they are always available. Still, it is important for the guy to know that the object of their affection is suffering from the same pangs that they are.

What amounted to my proposal provoked one of Jane's hungry, "come-hither" looks. And it was like no time had passed. It told me that she wanted me as much as I wanted her. Forget dinner!! We rushed back to the Niohori.

*****

She walked into the room turned and faced me. The silvery light of a big Mediterranean moon silhouetted her beautiful curves. Then, she stepped forward threw her arms around my neck, hoisted those huge boobs into my chest and proceeded to try to swallow my tongue.

It was the first time in almost twenty years that I had kissed her. You can imagine the tornado of emotion sweeping through my brain. It was the fulfillment of my hopeless dreams.

I have often remarked on Jane's kissing, which is something that distinguishes her from any other woman I have ever known. She "opens" herself to you in ways that are so intimate that it could easily pass for real intercourse.

When you kiss Jane, it is almost like you are entering her. And she is totally "there", like the kiss is the only thing in her world at that instant. It is a form of giving of herself that is characteristically and uniquely Jane.

But when Jane wants sex, the kissing very quickly turns to other things. She dropped the kiss, took my hand and led me over to the bed. She sat me down and proceeded to slowly and lovingly undress in front of me.

She said teasingly, "I just want to see if you still want this old woman." That was a comically ridiculous statement. Jane was 47 and she looked exactly like she had twenty years before, just with a little more character in her face.

Jane unzipped the dress, and it slid down her curves to puddle on the floor. That revealed a frilly white bra, which held two of the most magnificent mounds that evolution has ever granted to a human female. She then undid her bra and the works of art themselves were revealed. Michelangelo himself couldn't have created a more perfect set.

Her still flat stomach and narrow waist led to the flare of her hips. Almost the first thing I remembered about her from our earliest days was the little gold dangly thing that she has affixed to her belly button.

That little piece of jewelry sitting in her otherwise perfect stomach was the thing that I was fixated on when she was seducing the football player, in order to get my attention. I might add that I am still pea-green jealous about that; even though I technically didn't know her then.

That little ornament was still sitting there after twenty-four years, as it always had. I gazed at it resting in the sexiest belly button I have ever beheld and reached out to touch it. That got my hand slapped.

So, I sat back like a good boy and waited. She hooked her thumbs in her thong and worked it down her fabulous dancer's legs kicking them out of the way. She was standing there gloriously naked. Her body was so perfect that I thought my heart would burst.

She reached out and slowly and lovingly unbuttoned my shirt. I looked into those hungry cat eyes and they were stoned with lust. But she was planning on taking her time. She gracefully pushed the shirt off my shoulders, and I slipped if off and threw it behind her.

Then she went to work on my belt. I raised my butt so she could peel my pants and boxers off but instead of just pulling them she slowly bent over and worked them down my legs. As she did that, I had a good long leer at that muscular back and her spectacularly full round hips and butt, the essence of womanhood.

She then stood up and moved past me on her hands and knees and onto the bed. I was about to jump up and mount her from the back, but I got my arm slapped again. That wasn't romantic enough for the first official time.

The Jane lay down on her back and looked enquiringly at me. I flipped onto my side and began to stroke her beautiful naked body. She closed her eyes and I swear she started to purr.

I wanted to take a second to appreciate her perfection. At age 47 she is still as beautiful as she was 20 years ago. Her tits, which in most women that age are headed south, were still as full, firm and round as they have always been.

They are so big that they lap over the side of her rib cage, but they have not dropped much since she was a young bride. The aureoles and nipples were bigger. Of course, she breast fed her children. She told me she wanted to get the full set of antibodies into them and I believe that since our daughter is a physical specimen.

At present Jane's nipples were standing like a couple of stalwart watch towers on two huge round hills. But the thing I was gloating at was that beautiful face, which has a few lines now but the same symmetry that I have worshipped from the moment I met her.