Where the Climate's Sultry Pt. 14

He had seen enough for the moment. He needed release of his own. Taking the second photograph he had looked at, he headed upstairs, stripped off, lay on his front and, propping the photo up against the headboard, began to rub his distended penis against the mattress. He hadn't even brought a towel or some tissues. He would have to catch the ejaculate in his palm. He started to groan and utter obscenities. After a while, he closed his eyes and imagined the lead-up to the scenario that had found its fruition on the bed.

Mia had been out shopping. She entered a boutique and had taken a skirt to try on in the changing room. Without warning, the dyke had joined her. Mia had asked her to leave but the dyke's only response was to take the skirt from her and pull her panties down. Mia had cried out for help, but by the time it came in the form of the shop assistant (the girl sixty-nining her in the photo) the dyke had dropped to her knees and was tonguing Mia out. The only sounds emanating from her mouth now were expressions of desire - the desire for the woman to finish her off.

The shop assistant had opened a door in the changing room, which led to a room with no windows which was dominated by a large double bed. At a word from her, the dyke had bundled Mia into that room, had pushed her onto the bed and removed her remaining articles of clothing. After licking her out, she had told her to crouch on the bed and had started tonguing her asshole. The shop assistant had slipped under Mia and it was when she started to lick her pussy that Mia - and Hunter - had come. In Hunter's case, the jism could not be contained in his cupped hand and ended up on his belly as well as on the duvet. He thought about washing the cover but decided instead to get a damp flannel and rub it. He wanted a reminder of this moment when he went to bed this evening and on succeeding evenings.

He felt, unsurprisingly, rather awkward about talking to Hayley about her mother's sex life, but if there was one thing about this younger generation it was the way they could talk without embarrassment about things which his own generation considered taboo. Maybe these things went in cycles, Hunter thought, thinking about the 1920s and 30s, which he had read a bit about, when anything seemed to go. Certainly, the Hollywood movies from that period were a lot more relaxed about sex and contained a sensuality that disappeared when the heavy hand of censorship was introduced.

Shortly after her eighteenth birthday, Hayley had had her first intimate moment with a girl and which person was it more natural to turn to for advice than her mum? It was then that she learned about Mia's double life. Three years later, just weeks before Mia's illness was diagnosed, Hayley was in her first serious relationship of any kind, and this was with a woman - someone who was nearly ten years older than her. Following her mother's advice, she had kept this relationship a secret from her father, which proved to be a smart move, as very soon he was absorbed with caring for Mia and desperately seeking remedies for her condition.

After her death, there had been the funeral preparations and the period of mourning (with the unanswered questions, the numbness and the anger). Hayley was on the point of telling her father about her girlfriend when the woman suddenly told Hayley she was emigrating to the States and sorry but you're history. At least, that's how it had seemed to Hayley. Since then, she had largely dated boys again, since she had developed a deep and seemingly abiding distrust of women. She knew it was unfair and irrational to generalise from one bad experience but the way she had been tossed aside so casually had left a deep scar on her.

The best part of all the recent revelations for her was that she could now tell her father of her own bisexuality, and that he could take it on board without any dramas. After all, after what he had learned about his wife (who he thought he had known through and through) anything his daughter (who they had always encouraged to be independent) told him was likely to come as something of an anti-climax. What is more, he obviously had a thing going with Jade, and if he was willing to take her on, he would be embracing a lifestyle that would leave her mother and her trysts in the shade!

36

Six months have passed and Hunter is standing next to Jade in the Registry Office. Hayley and Jade's friend Siu Yee are there to witness the nuptials. The reception will not be held until the weekend, which will allow the newlyweds time to prepare things as well as to sneak off to a hotel for a one-night midweek break.

On the eve of the marriage, Hunter, without having told either Jade or Hayley about his find, went into the garden with the holdall he had found in the attic, lit the incinerator and threw all the manila envelopes into the flames. Besides the two he had opened, all of the other packages remained unopened. Having thought about things, he had come to the decision that the past was the past and nothing good could come from knowing the identity of Mia's former lovers. He may have known some of them (he probably would have) but now he would never know. As the last photo went up in flames, he felt a great sense of relief, as of a man who has been diagnosed with a chronic illness being told that the diagnosis had been made in error.

His final act was to take the holdall and throw it into the builders' skip which had been parked in his street for the past couple of months while some renovations were being undertaken on one of the old Victorian houses that had long since been converted into flats.

The first 46 years of his life had proven to be quite adventurous, Hunter thought. Just what would the next 46 months throw up, he wondered.

'Heavens!' he thought. 'I might even become a father again.'

THE END