As she dragged her suitcase next door to her grandparents' house, Shannon felt the happiest and most optimistic she'd ever felt. After all those agonizingly slow years, she was back in her beloved Montana to stay permanently, she was going to reside with her grandparents and spend much of her time next door with her best friend, she had unlimited access to marijuana, she had a new tattoo with many more on the horizon, and best of all, she had a new boyfriend who she was totally crazy about.
She knocked on her grandparents' front door, and they answered in just a few seconds, looking very happy but not surprised to see her. The three did a group hug and Shannon questioned their lack of surprise. They explained that Sheila called, informing them of Shannon's impending arrival, so that they wouldn't worry if their daughter called and said that Shannon was missing.
Shannon's grandparents were very nice people who were content living a very simple life. They were 58 and in good health, but rarely went anywhere other than church and the grocery store. They had been married for 42 years and were very happy together. Most evenings they watched TV and went to bed about 10 PM. A late night for them was staying up for the 11 O'clock news.
They did have a big generation gap with Shannon, but they adored her nevertheless. They didn't understand her taste in music or fashion, and they wouldn't approve of her marijuana consumption, her bisexuality, her profane vocabulary, or her having sex outside of marriage, but they didn't try to run her life, either.
Shannon accepted that they were good people who were simply very old fashioned. Out of respect for them, whenever she was in their presence, she behaved very properly and didn't discuss any of her activities that they would disapprove of.
Shannon and her grandparents spent the next few hours catching up, and then she said she was going to settle into her new room. The house had only two bedrooms - her grandparents' room and the guest room, which Shannon was now going to take.
But Shannon decided to wait at least a day to fully unpack and arrange her belongings. First, she felt an urgency to write a letter to Butch. She wanted to keep herself fresh in his mind and nurture their new relationship. At that time, long distance phone calls were too expensive to make regularly, so while they were apart, letters were the only communication that she could regularly afford.
Her letter read:
My dearest Butch:
I'm so happy, amazed, and overwhelmed to suddenly have such a sweet, sexy, romantic, and talented man; especially one who likes me for the woman I am.
Yesterday was the absolute best day of my life. All the years that guys showed no interest in me, I felt so unattractive and worthless. Now that I have a real man, I realize how unimportant and empty those guys are.
It's too soon to tell what the future holds for us, but I think there's a very big chance that everything can work out and we can be a happy couple for a long time. I promise I'll give my all to make you happy.
Giving you blow jobs to get tattoos is a super great deal, especially because I love both tattoos and giving you blow jobs! But I like you so much that even after I'm done getting tattoos, I'll still be happy to give you all the blow jobs you want, and any other kind of sex, too.
With all my heart, thank you so much for everything. I cherish all that we've shared and am so excited about everything we'll share together in the future. I hope to see you again very soon!
Hugs, kisses, and blow jobs from your baby girl,
Shannon
Immediately under her name, she wrote her phone number.
Upon finishing the letter just before 9 PM, Shannon placed the letter and one of her senior pictures into an envelope, then mailed it at a box down the street. From there, she went straight to Gina Marie's house. Inside the house, Gina Marie and Beth were sitting side by side on the couch, each dressed in nothing but a long T shirt and each resting her feet on the coffee table. Also on the coffee table were a cigar box containing the joints and a lighter, and some potato chips and snack cakes for the hunger that always accompanied their marijuana consumption. A jazz radio station was playing on the stereo at moderate volume. Upon hearing Shannon's knock, Gina Marie shouted "Come on in!"
Shannon entered the house, took off her shoes, and sat down on the left of Gina Marie, who was in the middle. Gina Marie grabbed a joint and a lighter and handed them to Shannon, saying in the process "Girl, you've been waiting so long for this, you get to go first!"
Shannon lit the joint and inhaled. The THC had never felt so good hitting her brain. Within a few seconds, she experienced the sensory enhancement and overall euphoria that she had missed for the last four months. Right after she finished inhaling, she grinned widely and said in easygoing excitement "Oh fuck, you two grow the best fuckin' shit!"
As Shannon passed the joint to Gina Marie, Beth said "Thanks for telling us that, honey!"
"You're very fuckin' welcome!" Shannon said, sounding almost like she was in ecstasy.
"We hardly ever share our weed with anyone else, so we're glad to hear we do a good job!"
Gina Marie and Beth also became euphoric very quickly, and making the situation even better was that none of them ever became obnoxious when stoned. They were all very pleasant, friendly, coherent, and relaxed.
After just about half an hour, Beth went to bed. She was a cashier at a nearby grocery store and had to be at work at 7 AM the next morning. "If I do too much of this shit tonight, I won't be worth shit at work tomorrow!" she said as she got up to go to bed.
"When's your next day off?" Shannon asked.
"Sunday," Beth replied. "Which means I can get totally stoned out of my fuckin' mind on Saturday!"
"Sounds like we have a date!" Shannon said, in humor but also seriousness.
"Honey, we have a date every fuckin' day! The only question is whether I do a little or a lot!" said Beth, who was just outside the entrance to her room when finishing that comment.
Shannon then asked Gina Marie if it was okay to play a cassette that Shannon had brought along - Romeo Void's "It's a Condition." Having always felt alienated from the mainstream, Shannon listened mostly to underground music, such as punk and new wave; genres that were unfamiliar to Gina Marie, who listened mostly to pop and jazz. Gina Marie put on the tape, which Shannon had wanted to listen to stoned since first hearing it a few weeks earlier. She wasn't disappointed. The marijuana enhanced the listening experience for her. And Gina Marie enjoyed the album more than she expected, finding it to be sexy.
Shannon loved Beth but was glad she went to bed early on this night. Sometimes, such as now, Shannon loved having Gina Marie all to herself. And making it even more exciting for Shannon is that she had come up with a subtle way to gauge whether Gina Marie might be sexually interested in women. And since Gina Marie had lower inhibitions while stoned, now seemed like the perfect time to try.
"Gina Marie?" Shannon asked, her voice dripping with curiosity but also gentleness.
"Yeah?" Gina Marie responded.
"Is it okay if I ask you a couple of questions about the time you were in jail?" Up to that point, Shannon only knew about Gina Marie's jail term from Sheila. Gina Marie had told Sheila about it through letters.
"Oh yeah, I don't mind talking about it at all," Gina Marie said assuringly.
"What was it like?"
"It really wasn't that bad. It was only for 20 days and I made one of my best friends there. None of the guards or the other inmates ever mistreated me or anything like that. I still got food, I still got to shower, I still got a clean bed, I still got to watch TV. Really, the worst part was not being able to get laid or fucked up for 20 days!"
"Did any girls ever try to have sex with you?!" Based on movies, Shannon had an idea that women's prisons were filled with dominating lesbians. Her hope was that a woman had made a sexual advance at Gina Marie and that based on how she described it, Shannon would get an idea of how Gina Marie would feel about sex with a woman.
"No!" Gina Marie said laughing. "There were a couple of girls in there who were kinda dyke acting, but I wasn't around 'em much!"
"What would you have done if they did try to have sex with you?!"
"I don't know, I guess tell 'em I'm straight and not into girls!"
"What if they wanted to go down on you, and you closed your eyes and pretended it was a man doing it?!"
"I've heard that lesbos are good at giving face, but if I knew it was a woman, I think that would just ruin it for me in my mind!"
At that point, Shannon was fully convinced that Gina Marie was totally straight. Shannon was disappointed but accepting, and transitioned away from that subject.
"How'd your mom take it when you went to jail?"
"She was cool about it. She just said 'Hey, girl, you fucked up, but I still love you just as much as I did before. Just don't do it again!'"
