Young Man and Older Lady Ch. 02

Pieter Strauss III was the son of Pieter Strauss Jnr and the grandson of Pieter Strauss Snr. Strauss Jnr was a university professor and a brilliant mathematician who taught a 4 year course on Calculus and the Universe. Strauss III, known to all as Trey, was finishing his second year in his Dad's course when his father was killed. Having lost his mother many years before, at 23 Trey found himself to be a rich orphan.

Having gone to the family cabin that was now his for a few days, he met a lady in a nearby cabin. She was in her mid to late fifties, an age Trey found very attractive. They had three days and nights together, culminating in 36 hours of incredible sex, then she left to prepare for a new job at the University Trey himself attended.

This story picks up on Trey's return journey home from his time at the cabin.

On the way home, Trey was making a mental list of supplies he needed for University, even though he knew after all these years exactly what he needed. It was just that thinking about stationery supplies stopped him thinking about Sarah. He stopped at Staples to buy printer paper, note pads, pens, pencils, Scotch tape, and printer ink. He gassed his car, put it through the car wash to rid it of the dust from the road to the cabin, and headed for what was now His House.

He was still not used to the quietness as he entered. If Dad was home, there was always music blaring, unless he was watching football or basketball, his two great passions after mathematics. There were times when the music was soft and romantic, which was the clue to Trey to be careful, as his Dad was entertaining a lady friend.

He loaded up the washing machine with the bed linen he and Sarah had used, and could still smell her subtle perfume on it, as well as their sweat from some incredibly active and strenuous love making. The way he felt about her now, it was love making. It wasn't just sex. When he went to bed, he lay there, resisting the temptation to masturbate, because he wanted to just relive their time together calmly. And as he did, he realized that he had to find her. He knew a new Staff List would be published the next week, and he still had last year's in his draw, so it would be a simple job to compare the list to locate the new people, and there couldn't be that many called Sarah. He just had to be patient until next week.

The next day, Tuesday, was his last day before classes started. He finished the laundry, put away his summer clothes, and made sure his clothes for Uni were all respectable. He did some housework, and resolved that once he had worked out if there were any changes in the organization of the house, he would hire a cleaning lady to come in once a week. He did do some reorganizing, moving himself into what had been his father's room, and setting up his old room as his study/work room. Although it was now his room, he kept a couple of his Dad's photos, one of Strauss Snr., one of his Mother, and one of the three of them together when he was really young. The rest he stashed away in the attic.

When his father was working, teaching a 4 year course meant teaching it 4 days a week. In his father's logical mind, therefore, if you got your first year course on a Wednesday, you stayed on Wednesday for four years. Likewise, those whose first year fell on a Monday would stay on Mondays right through. Fridays he saved for marking and research, and the afternoons for marking and tutorials. So as Trey's course last year was Wednesdays, he was due to start year 3 on a Wednesday, so tomorrow, he would find out who the University had hired to replace his father. He had, in his own mind, narrowed it down to two of his father's former pupils. He knew both as in their student days they were frequently around the house. So on Wednesday, after a light breakfast, he set off to Uni, parking his car in the spot he had always used, leaving himself a short walk to Lecture Room 3 in the Science Building.

Lecture Room 3 was an old-style lecture room, with rows of benches tiered down to the front of the room, entrance at the back, and a door at the front through which the lecturer would materialize. A writing ledge was attached to the back of the row in front. There were 12 rows of benches, and Trey always sat in the back but 1 row, in the middle. He was almost one of the last to arrive, and had to squeeze himself past several fellow students to take his usual place. It was exactly the same crowd as last year. They all acknowledged each other, and some exchanged quick comments on their summer. The girl he sat next to was busy showing everybody her engagement ring, and it was, in a sense, almost as if they were carrying straight on from last year without a break.

There was a gathering of staff and faculty down by the door, including the Dean. He couldn't see either of the people he thought were the likely candidates, but there was clearly a big cluster of people, about a dozen. The Dean broke away from the the group, and went behind the long row of worktop-height cupboards, on which were spaced out two small podiums. He stood by one and waited for the room to quieten.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, returning Students as you are, I am pleased to introduce you to the new lecturer who will replace Professor Pieter Strauss, Jnr, who we so tragically lost last year. His replacement worked very closely with Pieter in the early years of his career, helping him develop the theories and the examples that became the foundation of his course on "Calculus and the Universe". She has herself been teaching related topics for many years, almost as many as Pieter Strauss Jnr. Ladies and Gentlemen, I present Professor Pieter's younger sister, Professor Sarah Strauss."

There was applause from the whole room, but Trey stopped suddenly after a couple of claps. Sarah Strauss, dad's younger sister?....

And then, from the group of people gathered by the door stepped a woman in her 50s wearing a white polo neck sweater and white tailored trousers, carrying a black folder, and heading straight for the podium, where she placed her folder.

Sarah! It was Sarah! Trey's Sarah, Trey's passionate sex partner of those treasured days! And if she was his dad's sister, that made her his, Trey's, Aunt!

Trey went quiet, and slumped in his seat, wanting the world to swallow him into some dark abyss. As she looked around the room at the applauding students, Sarah noticed the one student who was not clapping, and immediately recognized him! Trey is a student here! A piece of paper had been circulated for each student to sign and indicate their seat placing in the room, common enough at the start of a year with a new lecturer. The paper was taken back to her, and in Trey's spot was the name Pieter Strauss III! She had been cavorting naked, and having incredible sex with, her nephew, and didn't know it. And poor Pieter looked totally lost.

Determined to not lose the other students, Sarah pulled herself together and made a joke about the money the University would save.

"There is no need to put a new name on the door - it can remain as simply 'Prof. Strauss'. I know he well deserved to have his name there, and I hope that I live up to his reputation, and the respect he has earned over the years. But maybe with the money the university will save by not having to paint a new name, they can at least clean the glass in the door!"

Students laughed, and Sarah started into her presentation of what this year would cover, and referred back to various sections covered in prior lectures under the former professor Strauss that would now be developed further. Trey immediately recognized that she was working from his dad's course notes - he recognized much of the phrasing - but there were some differences, enough to show she had properly worked on updating his notes and not just taking advantage of them. But beyond hearing echoes of his father, Trey didn't hear much.

At long last, the lecture was over. Faculty and students gathered around Sarah to voice their welcomes and their congratulations, but Trey slid out of the room through the main door at the back, the top, of the room and ran to his car. He sat in it for ages, wondering how he could not have somehow known who she was, what clues had he missed? And did she deliberately mislead him in some way? But the more he thought about it, neither of them had pursued a course of finding out much about the other. He had consciously suppressed, himself, any reference to the death of his father, which might have clued her in. She never said she was a professor, only that she had a new job. She never mentioned anything about teaching. It was a holiday romance, as Sarah termed it. They had both wanted strings-free, uninvolved sex, at least, initially. He was the one who had started to fall in love, not her. After half an hour trying to control his very mixed emotions, he drove slowly home.

Being, like his father, logical, he appreciated how his father's name would remain associated with his course for a few more years yet. He was proud that his own family was able to produce an able successor to his father's work. But could he watch her in the lecture room, giving a lecture, without seeing her naked, and those big nipples he had sucked and fondled with such pleasure? She was his Aunt. What they had done was incest. She was a direct blood relative. And yet, despite all of this, he still felt in love with her. He still wanted to hug her, naked, to his naked body and make love to her.

He went into what had been his father's study, just to the right off the main entrance hall, and picked up a bottle of Scotch, pouring himself a good sized slug, even though it was only lunch time. He sat and stared at the portrait of his father - a gift from the university when he completed twenty years as a Professor - and wondered why his father had never once mentioned his sister. What was her crime that she did not exist? A couple of hours or more passed, but he didn't notice the time. He was in a state of confusion and shock, made worse by still having the feeling of falling in love with a woman he couldn't, shouldn't, have.

Deciding that he still had other classes tomorrow and onwards, and he was drinking on an empty stomach, he pulled a frozen lasagna out of the freezer and prepared it for himself, with a little tossed salad from what he had brought back from the cabin. He took it into the dining room with a glass of red wine and ate it in silence. It was too early for Jeopardy! which was his normal dinnertime television, so he didn't bother with the small tv in there.

He finished his meal and his wine, and walked into the sitting room where the bigger television was. Not quite time for Jeopardy! so he lay back in the chair and mulled over what had happened at the university. In one way, he was so proud to be related to his father's successor, a successor who was clearly a great mathematician to be selected by the Dean. On the other hand, the lady he was in love with - he was still certain about that - had turned out to be his father's sister, his aunt.

The door bell rang. He was tempted to ignore it, as it was probably only someone collecting for some good cause or another, but answering the door would shake him out of his mood, perhaps. Instead, it just shook him...

He opened the door to find Sarah, still dressed in the white sweater and trousers of this morning. She was bearing a bottle of Scotch - his father's brand. "May I come in?"

Trey didn't say anything, just stepped back to make room for her to enter. She could hear the television. "Did I disturb anything?"

Trey smiled "Not yet, was waiting for Jeopardy! I will put it on record and watch it later." She followed him through to the sitting room, where he offered her a seat, and then set up the PVR.

"I like Jeopardy!" she said, "Watch it sometimes."

"Must run in the family...."

After a pause, Sarah decided to make the first move in the conversation.

"You didn't know that Pieter had a sister, did you?"

"No. I was wondering what crime you committed that I knew nothing about you."

"Are you sure you want to know about me?"

"Yes"

"Then pour us each a drink, and I will begin," she said, and then smiled. "Makes it sound like I am going to tell you a children's story doesn't it?"

Trey went to the drinks cabinet, where there was already an open bottle of the same scotch, so poured two from that. He gave her the one, and sat on the opposite arm chair with the other to hear her out.

"I am two years younger than your father. We were very close growing up, and without wishing to brag, I was the smarter one, so when we left high school we actually left at the same time. We went through university together, sharing a flat. We each had our share of romances and life was very good. Despite me being in the same year as him although younger, we got on very well, perhaps too well. We both left university with our undergrad degrees - both with first class honors. we decided to go to England to do a PhD. - together."

"When we arrived in England, two people with the same name, everyone just assumed we were married. Our crime, if there was one, is that we did nothing to correct that impression, and indeed, we lived as husband and wife. Your father was the first man I ever had sex with, and for many years was the only one. However, when your father had just turned 30, he felt he wanted a child. He didn't care boy or girl, but he wanted his own child. Our father had been quite strict, and Pieter wanted a son or daughter he could befriend, love, coach, encourage - all the things our father did not do. But as brother and sister, having a child was not only illegal, it was biologically risky. And our family would have been horrified. He started dating your mother, and I got left out. When your parents decided to marry, our father was furious. He had grown up in the war, and part of the National Socialism thing was still in him, so when he found out that your mother was Jewish, he forbade them from getting married."

Trey looked up in surprise. To him, his parents had never expressed any interest in any religion, so finding out his mother was Jewish was a complete surprise. "Your dad was in love with your mother, and they agreed to marry and live together without any religion. She was orphaned so there was no pressure from her family. My father ordered me to return home and leave Pieter - of course, he never knew about our real relationship and how intimate it was. So for the first time in our lives, Pieter and I were separated. I really felt like he left me for another woman, as if we had been married and I was cheated on. Father ordering me home gave me an escape route. I lived with my father until I completed my PhD, which took a bit longer because of moving around, and so Pieter's was completed first. Eventually both of our parents died, but Pieter did not come home to the funerals. It was during doing our PhDs that we did all the research and experiments that led to "Calculus and the Universe", so you see the course is as much mine as your father's. Independently, we both pursued that early joint work."

To Trey, that explained how she was able to step in and take the course on with only three months preparation.

"For years, I felt like a divorced wife, and wanted nothing to do with your father.

When your mother died, I wrote him a note of condolences, but received no reply, so I left things as they were. I went back to England, and taught there for several years, St. Andrews and then Cambridge. About 4 years ago, I wrote to your father again, saying we were getting no younger and maybe we should let bygones be bygones. It took him 6 months to reply, but he did agree to keep up a correspondence. Letters were not often, and mine were always addressed to his office at the university as he did not want you to find out about me, for some reason - and now neither of us will ever know what that reason was."

Trey cleared his throat. "I think I know. Dad never remarried, but did have lots of lady friends, and thinking back, they would all have been a match for you age-wise. Right from Mom dying, he had dated, and as he aged so did his lady friends. And many looked like you do....even Mom to a point"

She paused..... "I see."

"The last letter your Dad received from me was full of some new notes I had made following some measurements taken by the space station crew. It was all highly technical, and I guess after the accident, the Dean put two and two together and wrote to offer me the position of taking over Pieter's courses. I was not tenured at Cambridge, so for me it was a good move, and here I am. The Dean knew from the old Dean that Pieter loved going up to the lake, so he loaned me the university cabin so I could 'get in touch with Pieter', as he put it. And we both know what happened then.'

She took a drink to calm herself. "I did not know you were on Pieter's course - no-one told me. So when I saw your full name on the seating plan, I was completely taken aback. I looked up, and you looked totally smashed...."

"I was. I didn't know I had an aunt. I did not know I had a fallen for a sexy lady who was my aunt, and I didn't know my aunt was about to become my tutor."

"Thank you for calling me a sexy lady. So, anyway, now you know all this, would you show me around your house, I would love to see where Pieter lived and worked. Of course, I have seen his old office - it is now mine - but not his personal work space."

"Of course."

They both drained their glasses, and Trey led a tour around the house, from the sitting room into the dining room, and off that, the beautiful modern kitchen he and his dad had built together. "Dad gave me his love of cooking."

They went into what had been Pieter's study at home, which Trey had left completely untouched so far. Sarah stood and looked around. and saw pictures of her brother at several stages of his life, but none of her or their father. There was one large picture of Trey's mother, hanging on the wall. She touched the desk, and Trey thought he saw a tear in her eye. After a few minutes, she turned to Trey and he lead her upstairs.

"Usual stuff," he said, "two bathrooms, a junk room, and this was, until today, my room, but now I have made it my study. I don't feel entitled to use his study yet..."

"And this was his bedroom and is now mine." Trey sat on the bed, and Sarah walked over and picked up and looked at each of the pictures that Trey had left in the room. "That's the house, except for a disorganized guest room that is currently containing my old bed from my old room."

Sarah sat on the armchair in the corner of the room and looked at Trey. "Are you going to stay as Trey now both the older Pieters are dead, or go back to your given name now?"

"Hadn't really thought about it. Probably stay as Trey, at least for now, until I decide what career I want if any. Bluntly put, I have enough money now to never have to work, Dad's insurance, savings, etc., so I don't know what I will do. Maybe go into business. Maybe open a restaurant. Maybe nothing but chase ladies of a certain age."

"Maybe you could become the third Professor Strauss to teach "Calculus and the Universe"?"

Trey laughed. "And maybe not."

"So," said Sarah, looking straight at him, "What happens to us? You tried to tell me you wanted me in your life and in your bed a few evenings ago, and yet this morning you ran away from me. Don't say anything - I understand why. What I want to know is what now? Are you going to keep on running, and if so, in what direction?"

"Stay there, please." Trey stood up and went downstairs. He came back with the bottle of wine he had opened at dinner, and two glasses. He poured them each one. "Let's sit quietly and drink the wine and decide what each of us wants. When the glasses are empty, we can decide."