4 Seasons of a Life Ch. 02

Chapter 2 – Summer

Summer is hot, as hot as it gets,
The man is in his prime.
He's fit and he's lean,
More action he's seen,
And he can do it time after time

*

Melbourne, Australia 1964.

Nineteen years to the day and I met Wendy for the second time.

The morning had started with the same madness as they all do in my business. Juggling drivers and loads, the diesels roaring in the yard and the usual stragglers and damaged survivors from the night before.

In the sixties and beyond, trucking in Australia, like most countries, was a game for hard drinking men who were ready to take a few risks. None of the zero alcohol readings required today, nowhere near the enforcement on the roads for maximum hours spent driving, none of the controls on overloading and speeding that there are today. We had a job to do and most of us did not give a shit how we did it, as long as it got done.

There were three calls from irate car drivers who had been "nearly killed" by my drivers and wanted to know what I was going to do about it, there were a heap of cancelled and altered jobs, some new ones that were emergencies and two salesmen wanting me to buy more new trucks. I had just finished assuring some idiot, who thought that towing a caravan down the Hume Highway at forty miles per hour was not obstructing traffic, that the driver who overtook him at some ridiculous speed would be severely disciplined when the phone rang again.

I picked it up and said "David's Transport."

A woman's voice hesitatingly said "Hello David?" She had an American accent.

My god, I thought, it couldn't be. "Wendy?" I asked praying it was.

"David, I'm so glad you remembered me." She sounded more confident now.

"How could I ever forget my special number one girl?" I asked, "And exactly nineteen years to the day too."

"I thought I might have been lost in the sands of time." Wendy said.

"Never, my dear, not while I still breathe." I told her in no uncertain manner.

Just then Barry burst in yelling "David, the cops are here looking for Steve over that smash last week."

"Shit." I said. Steve was a good driver and I didn't want to lose him.

"Sorry?" Wendy sounded more amused than upset.

"Sorry, Wendy," I said and Barry's eyebrows disappeared under his fringe, "I forgot I was talking to a lady and things are bedlam at the moment."

"David, I will meet you at five at the Royal, in the ladies lounge, you'd better get back to it." Still amused, thank goodness.

"No worries the…" I started but Wendy had already rung off.

"Wendy?" Asked Barry desperate for some gossip.

"Yeah, Wendy," I said, "so where's Steve now?"

The topic was dropped while the problem was sorted, Steve was served a summons and it looked like I was going to be without one of my best drivers for at least six months.

I was in turmoil. I knew it was nineteen years since Wendy's promise and as it had got closer and closer I tried to convince myself that she wouldn't show so I could avoid any disappointment on the day but it hadn't quite worked. Now she had rung me and I was going to see her again. In the middle of that very hectic day I found I could not concentrate on work.

She had said she would find me and she had. After our one night together, her first time and mine, I had moved on in the world. The farm was suddenly too small a world to live in and my friends did not seem the same either. I had told Johnno what had happened and then had to convince him I wasn't making it up. I never knew if he really believed me or not, but I eventually realized it did not really matter what he thought anyway.

With my brothers back from the war and wanting to settle down there was not enough work on the farm for all of us so I said my goodbyes and moved to the big city of Melbourne to try my luck at a real job. I drove a delivery truck for a green grocer for a while and within two years I had saved enough to buy a cheap 1942 Chevrolet Lend Lease army truck at one of the surplus sales. I had started small and did a few years local work while building my knowledge of mechanics, essential for a truck driver in those days, and driving in general. Reversing into those tiny Melbourne lanes with the small mirrors of the day is a job for an experienced driver.

After a while work was harder to come by. There were a lot of surplus trucks on the market and there were a lot of war veterans wanting to drive them. Some unscrupulous employers paid less to drivers with disability pensions because the government was already paying them too. As a younger driver, and not having served in the armed forces, I was often the last on the list for jobs, so I looked around. The trade between Melbourne and Sydney was a dangerous job. Six hundred odd miles up a track that eventually became the very nice, usually double lanes, Hume Highway (route 31) we have today. Being game I turned to interstate driving and did a hard apprenticeship on the Hume.

Highway 31 was tough on trucks and tough on drivers. I went through two Chev trucks in ten years but even that was like your grandfather's axe. I replaced motors, gearboxes, diffs, springs etc but it was still the same truck. The only reason I had to get the second truck was I rolled the first one when I hit a cow in the middle of the night twenty-five miles from Tarcutta.

Being on the interstate run was not good for the social life either. While my old schoolmates were out courting and going to dances and the pictures I was fighting the potholes. I met a few ladies and could have got seriously involved but the sort of girls that I met who were interested in a struggling truck driver, particularly one who was away more than he was home, were not like Wendy. I had been spoiled with my first love and my expectations were high. Couple that with my job and my liaisons of the time were often fleeting and I spent hours holding the gear stick in top so it didn't jump out and I dreamed of Wendy.

And now Wendy had called.

I got through that day half functioning while my mind replayed the events of a night nineteen years earlier that had changed my life. Wendy had taught me so many things. I had learned girls could be attracted to me, I had learned about finding and losing love and together we had learned about sex. I had used what I had learned in that night on those rare occasions when I was making love to other women and I had got a reputation as a bit of a Romeo because the ladies almost usually wanted to come back for more. Many boys in the day thought sex was just a struggle to get her legs open then shove it in. Pump until finished then take her home. I had learned that most women wanted more and discovered some of the ways to provide that.

My business suffered badly that day as I was more interested in what Wendy would look like, what Wendy wanted (she may be happily married and just wanting to catch up), what would Wendy think of me, there were so many questions. I finally decided to leave Barry in charge and went home early for a shower and a clean change of clothes. Home was a two-bedroom farmhouse right near my yard in Doncaster, an outer suburb with orchards etc all around and it wasn't too flash but it did have access for trucks and was comfortable.

I showered and tried to make the best of my appearance and then it was into the car and off to see Wendy.

There have been plenty of times in my life that I have been nervous but that drive to the Royal must be in top three. The questions returned, the worries increased and by the time I got there I was a wreck. There was no way I was going to not show up but it took all of my will power to walk through that door at five to five.

It was darker inside and I stood at the door waiting for my eyes to adjust. I was looking for a woman on her own but there were none so I thought she must not be there yet. Nervous as I was I never thought Wendy would not turn up, she had come half way around the world for this meeting after all. I walked toward the bar and as I approached it I looked at a table with two women at it. The one who was facing me was a dead set image of Wendy. That is of Wendy when she was nineteen.

I must have stared because she looked up and said "David?" It was Wendy's voice too.

I was stunned. This was Wendy nineteen years ago. She had not aged a day. I struggled for words but couldn't find any, and I just stood there staring.

The other woman at the table turned around and said "David, you made it." This was Wendy now. She was still slender. The hair was well done but the face was just the same as the girl opposite her.

I struggled with my mouth and eventually managed "Wendy, what the…"

"David," she said, "meet my daughter, Mary Ann."

"Your daughter," I was really struggling now, "she's you nineteen years ago." Then it struck me. If her daughter was like her at nineteen then the chances were she was conceived in our night of passion. She must be my daughter too.

"Mary Ann," said Wendy, "go and get David a beer please." And then to me she said, "David sit down before you fall over." I managed to pull a chair out and sit down.

"Mary Ann is how old?" I asked, a tremble in my voice.

Wendy looked at me slightly confused, and then the penny dropped. "No David, you are not the father."

"But she is…" I was struggling again.

"Eighteen yesterday." Wendy answered. "I was curious, you remember."

Oh how well I remembered that.

"I enjoyed our night so much that I wanted more, but we were moved out the next day. I wanted to call you but there was just not the opportunity. When we got to back to America dad was sent straight to Washington and I was left with my grandmother who was lovely but not able to control an independent, curious girl. I met Mary Ann's father in the general store and we were going out soon after. Three months later I was pregnant and when he found out he just left."

"I'm so sorry…" I started.

"Don't be, I'm not," said Wendy.

Then Mary Ann arrived at the table with my beer.

I was now totally confused. The girl I had dreaming about for nineteen years had kept her promise to come back, but she had brought her young daughter. Mary Ann gave me a beer.

"Thank you um.. Mary Ann." I said.

"You're welcome David," she replied then going red she said, "oops, may I call you David?"

"Of course." I answered smiling, I was a little happier to know I wasn't the only one out of my depth here.

"I'm sure we will all get to know each other much better." Wendy said in a voice that promised much without saying anything. My mind was totally out of control thinking what was going to happen, where are they staying, I just couldn't concentrate on anything.

"Lost for words, David?" Wendy seemed to be enjoying herself, "Again?"

"I um…" get it together I said to myself, or you will look like an idiot, "when did you get in to Melbourne?" At last, an intelligent question I thought.

"We arrived this morning," said Wendy, "I rang you from the airport."

"And where are you staying?" I asked.

Mary Ann burst out laughing, "I told you Mum." She said.

Wendy gave her a dirty look and then tuned to me.

"David," she said, getting very serious, "I am here because you and I started something nineteen years ago that I thought was not finished." Wow, I thought, that explains half of this, "Mary Ann is here because she has never traveled overseas and she gets married next month and probably won't get the chance again." OK, I was thinking, this makes sense so far. "Tonight," Wendy continued, "we are staying at your place if you will have us."

"Of course." I managed.

"Tomorrow we leave for Ayers Rock." Wendy finished.

"One night," I said, disappointed, "I would have liked longer."

"Sorry David," said Wendy, "It was the only way I could arrange it."

"Another drink?" Asked Mary Ann, trying to break the negative mood. I looked down and my beer was empty. I did not remember drinking any of it.

"Allow me," I replied, what are you having?"

I went to the bar and ordered another round.

"Mother and daughter?" Jenny, the barmaid was always ready to pass on the latest.

"Um, yes actually." I answered looking back to where Wendy and Mary Ann were huddled together in conversation.

"You sly dog." This was not going to do my reputation here a lot of damage, I thought, and then felt guilty for thinking it.

"Thanks Jenny," I said, giving her the money, "let's keep this quiet OK?"

"Yeah, sure." Said Jenny. Yeah sure, I thought, this story will be out before I am back at the table.

I took the drinks back and Wendy and Mary Ann sat back in their chairs.

"Drinks for the two prettiest ladies in the room." I said in my smoothest movie star accent.

"Why thank you kind sir." Said Wendy in a perfect southern belle voice.

"You are just too kind." Said Mary Ann in the same voice.

This is going to be a very enjoyable night, I thought.

We talked for a bit longer. Wendy did not really let me know much about her life in America. She had moved around a bit working as a secretary to support Mary Ann and raising her, I got the impression, as a single mum. In those days it was a lot harder than today to do that and I thought she must have been very determined. She would not talk about any men in her life. She asked a lot of questions about me and how I was going but she seemed to know most of the answers anyway. I am sure Wendy did a lot of research before booking the trip, which must have been very expensive. Mary Ann was engaged to a boy in Austin, Texas, which is where they were living, and he was a bigwig in some company called Standard Oil. She too did not say much about that but it was fairly obvious that she was very nervous.

Then Jenny called time, in those days it was six o'clock closing, and we looked at each other.

"How did you get here and where are your bags?" I asked.

"In a hire car." Said Wendy.

"In the hire car." Said Mary Ann.

These two pretty American ladies were working up quite a routine and the men nearby could not stop staring.

"Then follow me." I said.

We finished our drinks and went out to the car park, on the way Wendy stopped suddenly for no reason and I walked into her. She laughed and said, "I thought so." I think she was commenting on my half erect cock.

Wendy had hired a brand new EH Holden, and luxury of luxuries, it had a radio and a heater. I got into my old FB and they followed me to my house, Wendy was still a bit unsure driving on the left hand side of the road but she got there fine. I carried the bags inside and did the walk around.

"Kitchen."

"Spacious." That was Wendy.

"Lounge room."

"Ooh comfy sofa." That was Mary Ann.

"Spare room."

"My room." Mary Ann again.

"Master bedroom."

"Our room." That was Wendy.

Well, I thought, at least that saves me asking some awkward questions.

The girls cleaned up while I put the bags in the rooms and made up the bed in the spare room. We looked at the clock and decided it was too late to cook so we drove into Melbourne and went to a restaurant in Chinatown. By now we were just having fun and we may have been a bit of a disruption but with Wendy and Mary Ann at the table no one was going to complain. After dinner we went through town and had a look at the Yarra River. The Yarra is famous for its very brown colour and is known as the upside down river. We went for a walk along the St Kilda foreshore to get a quick look across the bay and I don't know whether the people coming the other way thought anything other than there is a husband and wife going for a walk with their daughter. Wendy took my hand as we walked then Mary Ann held the other. With the moonlight on the beach, the stars reflected on the water and the company I had there was not another thing I could have wished for. We walked for a while and then went back to the car and finally we were homeward bound.

I was driving the EH with Wendy cuddled up next to me, and Mary Ann was in the back. Wendy started stroking my leg and I felt what was by now a very familiar stirring. Wendy's hand moved higher and higher and finally it brushed the end of my dick. By now I was very hard and changing gears was getting quite difficult.

"Is that bigger than I remember?" Wendy asked huskily running her nails up my length, through my now straining pants.

"Don't gloat mum," Mary Ann's voice was a bit choked up, "you know I am going to bed alone."

Wendy moved away briefly. "Don't worry darling, soon you will have one to play with every night."

"I know." Mary Ann sounded more frightened than happy at this thought.

We continued on with the radio playing Sandie Shaw singing "There's always something there to remind me." This was a hit in England and Australia but did not do well in America. Every time I hear that song to this day I remember driving that EH with Wendy snuggled up to me, and Mary Ann sitting lonely in the back seat.

There's always been something left behind to remind me of Wendy so the song really did strike a chord with me.

We got back home and had a port to finish the night. The atmosphere was tense and Mary Ann finally got up and said goodnight. Wendy and I tried halfheartedly to convince her to stay up but off she went, her door closing silently behind her.

"Wendy." I started.

"David." She replied.

"I just cannot believe you are really here." I put my arm around her and kissed her for the first time in nineteen years. We locked together passionately first just kissing and then my hand moved up to her breast. She moaned. We stayed like that for a while, neither of us wanting to be the first to break the kiss. I then started unbuttoning her blouse, slowly exposing her lacy black bra. Still we kissed. I reached behind her to undo the bra and she pulled away.

"Should we go to the bedroom before this gets too out of hand?" She asked.

I got up off the couch and then picked her up. Wendy giggled. I then carried her into the bedroom and put her on the bed.

Wendy looked up at me and asked, "Now you have me in your bedroom just what do you plan on doing?"

"First I am going to take out nineteen years of frustration on you." I said.

"Mmm, and then?" She asked in her sexiest little voice.

"If you are running away in the morning I'd better give you a bit to go on with too."

I went to close the door and Wendy said "Leave the door open a bit please David."

"What?" I was a bit confused with this request.

"I am a mum and this is a strange place, I just need to hear everything is OK."

"Fine," I thought this was carrying things a bit far after all Mary Ann was eighteen, "and the light?" I asked reaching for the switch.

"On," she said firmly, "I last made love to you in the dark, this time I want to see you."

"But what about Mary Ann?" I asked.

"She will be just fine," said Wendy, and then quietly "come and undress me David, we have to make the most of this night."

What the hell, I thought, she is happy with it so I will be too. I went to the bed and pulled my shirt off over my head. She smiled her approval so I kicked off my shoes and then undid and dropped my trousers. My erection was straining at my underwear, yet again.

"It has got bigger." Said Wendy with a touch of nervousness.

"So has the rest of me." I answered. I had filled out since I was nineteen. I was much more muscled after years of tough manual labor loading and unloading trucks and stood an even six foot.

"I can see." She said.

I reached down and undid Wendy's shoes, dropping them to the floor. Her stockings were next and I brushed her thighs as I undid the suspenders and gently rolled them off. Wendy moaned as I did this but I stayed down at her feet rubbing gently and pulling her toes. Wendy's eyes closed and she smiled as my hands worked the soles of her feet gently.