Reunion

Note: This is my first solo story published on Lit. I previously collaborated with the very talented ElizaLoo on our series, Eliza and Jeb's Erotic Journey (more installments to come).

June 1955

"Come play with me!"

He dropped the ball and jacks he was playing with on the porch. Springing to his feet, he heard the little voice calling from across the brushy lot that separated his parents' new house from the neighbors.

"Come play!" she shouted again. He saw his new little neighbor on a swingset, happily sailing through an arc, back and forth, giggling in glee, her golden curls rippling in the early summer breeze.

"I'm Doris, what's your name?"

"Mikey!"

"Come play with me!" she repeated.

"I'm coming! Wait for me!" He hiked up his short pants and ran across the yard as fast as his little legs would move.

Straight into the thorny weeds.

"Ow! Owwww!" he cried out in pain, as the thorns scratching his bare legs brought him to an abrupt halt.

His mother shouted in panic from the porch. "What are you doing? Get back here!" she scolded. She ran to lift him from the entangling brush.

As she carried him through the door he could see Doris looking back, sitting quietly in her swing.

April 1959

The classroom at school was only two blocks away in the little town where Mikey and Doris were growing up. Farmville was a typical crossroads rural community where everyone knew everyone else. Mikey and Doris always walked to school together, usually with his sister Janey. They had become fast friends and playmates since Mikey's family had moved in from the country almost four years ago. Doris's mother and father were teachers.

On this warm Spring morning as they approached the school, Janey teased her brother. "Look! There's Janice waving to you again. She likes you. She's always looking at you. She's been telling me and the other girls you're her boyfriend."

"She's a liar!" Mikey stamped his foot. "I don't like Janice and I'm not her boyfriend! And you can tell her I said so!"

"Mikey already has a girlfriend," said Doris, sternly.

"What..." Mikey's retort was cut short as Doris suddenly dropped her books and hugged him tightly. His face turned bright red. Janey stood open-mouthed, speechless.

It was then that a shout came from the schoolroom door. "Stop that! Get in here," came the scolding voice of Doris's mother, their teacher. "Go to class, now!"

In a few seconds Doris released Mikey and retrieved her books. Mikey and Janey entered the school obediently as Doris's mother pulled her aside. He couldn't hear what they were saying, and he sensed Doris was somehow in trouble, but the revelation that he now had a girlfriend made him smile.

June 1962

Grade school graduation was done, the sendoff party was now a bittersweet memory, and the moving truck in Mikey's driveway was loaded and ready to go. His father had found a better job and was relocating the family. Mikey, Janey and Doris hugged and cried in the driveway as they said their goodbyes. Though they would be just over three hours apart, they were old enough to realize their days together were ending.

They had reached a milestone in their lives. Doris would soon be riding a bus to the high school thirty miles away near Rivertown, where older kids from around the county would mingle and learn together. Mikey and his sister would shortly face the culture shock of a college town across the state. New friends, sports, young romances and their coming of age would be a tidal wave remaking the three of them.

Mikey watched from the back seat of the family's loaded car as it left the driveway for the last time. Doris and her parents waved from the yard. Her mother wept. Tears streamed down Doris's face as her golden curls rippled in the early summer breeze.

He could suddenly feel the sting of the thorns on his legs again, remembering the first time he had been taken from Doris.

October 1971

The cacophony of the nighttime county fair immersed Mike and his current main squeeze Sally in a near-psychedelic kaleidoscope of moving lights, loud country music, thick rural accents and shuffling groups of denim-clad fairgoers.

The air smelled of sugary cotton candy, pungent livestock barns and acrid cigarette smoke. Crew-cut weathered farmers in bib overalls and ball caps spat slimy brown tobacco juice on the sawdust ground, while scruffy young children shrieked in delight, their harried gingham-dressed mothers struggling to keep them within arm's length. The noisy Tilt-a-Whirl careened with shrieking riders and the tall brightly lit Ferris wheel paused only to discharge and reload young puppy-love couples.

Mike realized he was now hopelessly out of his element. This, his childhood home county, had remained the same, a rural island in a world swept by cultural changes. He had been swept up too, changed radically. He was sorry his parents hadn't wanted to take him back to visit when he was younger.

Sally, a slim sophomore brunette with long straight hair, was the latest in a succession of sexually free-spirited girlfriends from campus. Like most of them, she had an urban upbringing, and it had taken more than a bit of persuasion to get her to come here. Tightening her grip on his arm, she shouted in his ear over the din: "You said this is where you grew up, but I bet you're glad you got the hell out! Look at these rubes!"

It pained him to hear that. No! They weren't rubes, that was a cruel comment. But he clearly didn't fit in here; his coming of age with professors' kids in high school plus over two years of college had made him different. His long hair and bell bottom jeans were out of place here. He honestly hadn't expected to feel this conflicted. This first time back was only supposed to be a quick getaway from class work, to reignite childhood memories and maybe, by chance, renew an old friendship or two.

"You gonna win a stuffed bear for me, har, har," Sally snorted. "How much longer we gonna be here?" She leaned in close to his ear again. "Let's bail, I'm getting horny for some weed."

"So what else is new," Mike mumbled. His mind had strayed as he scanned the crowd for familiar faces. So far, none.

"Come on, I need to pee, the restroom building is over there by that horse barn," she pleaded, pulling his arm sharply. He yielded and Sally led him away from the stream of chattering people, toward the darkened lane between the two buildings.

In an instant she pulled him into the darkness and shoved him against the wall of the barn. "I thought you had to..." her mouth on his silenced him in mid sentence. She grabbed his head and groped his cock through his jeans.

"What the fuck are you doing?" he gasped. "There are people everywhere!"

"Exactly," Sally whispered, "that makes it hot." She unbucked his belt and unzipped his fly. In a flash his cock was in her slim encircling fingers, his increasing girth betraying his weak protest. She dropped to her knees and took him in her mouth. Fuck, he had to admit she gave the best head he had ever experienced. This really was worth the risk of being caught in this place. Her tongue swirled, her warm lips caressed and her head bobbed slowly.

His pulse pounding now, Mike nervously scanned the passing crowd from the darkness between the buildings, praying no one would see him. He watched several women enter the ladies' side of the restroom building; thankfully no one noticed. As he leaned his head back against the rough wall, losing himself in Sally's spirited talents, from the corner of his eye he noticed a couple pause at the restroom entrance. The young man was tall and muscled, with military buzz-cut hair; his shorter large-breasted companion was noticeably pregnant. Her flowing golden curls spilled down her colorful flowered maternity dress. Through a haze of pleasure Mike caught a fleeting glimpse of her smiling face as she disappeared into the restroom.

It was Doris!

She was older, but without a doubt it was Doris. He would never forget that face.

In that instant he closed his eyes, groaned and erupted in Sally's warm mouth.

Mike's legs trembled and went weak as he pumped himself into her. He felt himself growing faint from the explosion. The vision of Doris's face that had ignited him now pulled him back. He gripped Sally's slim shoulders to keep from falling over as he haltingly regained his senses.

She slowly withdrew, licked her lips and looked up at him lasciviously in the dim light. "Mmm, far out," she purred.

In a daze, Mike frantically pulled up his jeans, tucked himself in and fumbled with his zipper and button. "Slow down, let me help you with that," she offered, "What's the rush?" He lurched away from the wall, his hand competing with hers at his fly, and anxiously glanced toward the restroom again. No one in sight!

"Stop, wait here, I need to check something," he panted, at last pulling up the zipper and awkwardly buckling his belt. Sally knelt in puzzlement as Mike sprinted away to the restroom door. He was still standing there as she emerged from between the buildings, wiping her face with a tissue from her fringed leather bag.

"Did you see someone you know, or does hanging around the ladies room turn you on?"

"I did see someone, an old friend. My first girlfriend, when we were kids. She went in here, please go in and see if she's still here, she's blonde and pregnant."

Sally looked annoyed but complied. She emerged a few seconds later: "Sorry, not in there."

"Come on then, let's walk around and find her."

"Fuck Mike, this redneck scene is a drag. Let's get out of here and have some real fun." She pinched his ass and smirked.

"Give me five minutes Sally, we can find her and I promise I won't keep you long. I'd really like to say hello to her."

A half hour later, and after many inquiries to passers-by, Mike learned Doris's Army husband was leaving the next morning to be stationed in Europe. Lucky bastard wouldn't be going to Vietnam, they said. Doris was going with him.

As Mike and Sally left the fairgrounds, his thoughts were haunted by the moving-out day long ago. He remembered Doris's face as his family's car drove away. He felt the stinging loss of her all over again.

April 1994

Gazing out his office window at the students walking on the college green, Mike sighed at the thought of working late into the night grading term papers again. The dogwoods, redbuds and cherry trees blooming below in the late afternoon Spring warmth were an invitation to indolence. He cleared his throat, shook his head, and tapped his marker pen sharply on the desk. No, he told himself, I didn't get this far in life by shirking. A history doctorate and a comfortable teaching post had been hard work.

As he reached for the next folder in a seemingly endless stack of student musings, the phone rang jarringly. He reached for the receiver, knocking over the top of the stack. Folders pattered onto the big braided rug on his office floor.

"Fuck!!! Hello?"

"Hey, is that any way to greet your sister?" Jane laughed on the other end of the line.

"Oh shit, I'm sorry Janey, I'm burned out this afternoon and I knocked over a pile of...oh never mind. What's up?"

"You going to your high school 25th reunion there in town this summer? Taking wifey?"

"I would, but Lana would never come with me, that sort of thing bores her, so probably not. I see a lot of those folks occasionally around here anyway."

"Well, out of the blue I got a letter from Janice, we used to know her in grade school, remember? The girl who had a crush on you, ha! She went on in her letter about childhood, high school, her failed marriages, and so on. Said her high school 25th is coming up in July, she's an organizer and she wants us to come. Even though we didn't graduate there, seems a few of them still consider us classmates. I'd like to go, could be a lot of fun. You're off that month, Lana can stay home, Matt would rather stay home here with the kids, so I'll go with you. Want to think about it?"

"Oh, I don't know..."

"She said Doris will be there and would love to see us again."

Mike bolted upright in his chair. Of course, what was he thinking? For a moment he couldn't speak; his pulse quickened. He had tried to put Doris out of his mind over the years, but she was always there in private fantasies.

"Did you drop something again?" Jane asked.

"Uh, yeah...it's a mess...sorry I...um...it's okay now...what did you say again?"

"Doris will be there."

"Yeah Janey, why not...you're right...could be fun, sure, let's do that. Let Janice know we're coming."

"Great! I'll get back to her and find out the date and time. Okay, I'll leave you to pick up your mess. Later! Bye!"

Mike hung up the phone. He rolled his chair back, stood up slowly and kicked the fallen folders across the floor. Opening the office door a crack, he checked that the hallway was empty, and then closed and locked the door. Returning to his chair, he unzipped and slowly freed his throbbing erection, taking its thickness in his fist.

Doris! That fleeting glimpse of her over twenty years ago was still burned into his brain, despite the sexually liberated women he had fucked since then, the risky but intoxicating tryst with a married woman, and his recent marriage to Lana, a smart attorney and no slouch in bed herself. More than once, that glimpse of Doris had inspired fantasies of how being his girlfriend might have been truly realized when they came of age. Of how she came to be pregnant--he had convinced himself she surely must be fiery in bed. Of how seeing her face had intensified his climax that night at the fair...the most intense cum he had ever experienced. Of how so many orgasms since then had triggered a vision of her face. And most of all, how different life would be if he hadn't been taken away from her.

He groaned. In a few strokes he came, powerfully. Every nerve was alive, his entire body shook, and he emptied himself forcefully, splashing over the few remaining folders on his desk.

July 1994

Mike parked the Volvo amid a sea of pickup trucks in the high school parking lot. What he assumed must be one of the greatest country hits of 1969 assaulted his ears as he and Jane entered the reverberating gymnasium.

So this high school near Rivertown was where they would have graduated twenty-five years ago, he thought. But for fate! Below the satin team banners hanging from the rafters there was a sizeable crowd that night, excitedly laughing, shouting, hugging and conversing in groups of reunited old friends. Beer was the obvious drink of choice, judging by the bottles in most hands. No wine glasses to be seen. Scanning the faces in the room, hoping to spot the one face he longed so much to see, Mike realized he didn't recognize anyone at all.

Didn't she come? Damn, had it really been over thirty years since grade school?

Jane tugged on his arm, breaking his deer-in-the-headlights trance. "Here, let me put your name tag on your jacket." It was only then that he noticed the greeting table just inside the door and the smiling ladies in padded-shoulder jackets, long dresses and big hair who nonetheless seemed not to recognize either of them.

"Do you see anyone you know?" he shouted to his sister over the cacophony.

"Not yet. Come on, let's mingle." Mike followed behind her as she plunged into the crowd. Jane had always been congenial; he tended to be less gregarious. True to form, in a minute she managed to engage them in hugs and a happy chat with three former grade school classmates. As memories of playground antics were resurrected, Mike managed to steal anxious glances around the room, still searching.

The scenario was repeated again with more childhood friends; hugs, laughs and even a few tears. As he and Jane excused themselves to move to another group, he suddenly was startled to feel himself hugged tightly from behind, knocking him off balance.

"Hey you two, welcome home!" came a raucous shout in his ear. As the grip loosened and he slipped free, Jane shouted excitedly, "Janice! We made it! Oh, look at you!" They hugged, teary-eyed. "And how about you two, so glad you're here!" cried Janice. "And Mikey, my boyfriend!" She threw herself at him with a fierce hug, a blast of beer breath and a cloud of overapplied perfume.

"What the fuck?" He silently mouthed the words to his sister as Jane roared with laughter. The hug grew tighter; Janice's large breasts crushed tight against him. Oh shit, was she trying to rub up against his crotch?

"Hey Janice, long time no see," he managed to blurt out when she finally released her grip. Stunned, he backed up. He vaguely recognized her face, but then again, he had tried hard to ignore her when they were kids. She wasn't bad looking now, he had to admit, too much jewelry perhaps, too much eye shadow, big hair, nice curves, and an unavoidably spectacular cleavage. But damn, she had an annoyingly loud voice, even in a noisy gym.

Jane came to the rescue. "Janice, thanks so much for inviting us. We've met a few people we knew, but most of these folks we don't. By the way, is Doris here tonight?"

THE question at last! Mike leaned in for the reply over the din.

"No, her mother is ill over in Farmville, so she probably won't be coming. Doris and her husband have to go back to Europe tomorrow, where they live."

Thus the hammer fell. Stunned, Mike struggled to keep his composure and hide his profound disappointment.

"Doris's father died a couple years ago, and she lost her daughter back in Europe. Her son lives with his wife on the East Coast." Janice continued. "Her husband will be retiring from the military and they've decided to stay in Europe. She writes me every few years to stay in touch. We stayed friends in high school after you guys left."

Mike recognized the same despair he had felt on moving day as a child. He needed a moment alone or he'd break down right here, right now. "Would you two excuse me, I need to find the restroom," he managed to stammer.

"Too much beer already Mikey?" Janice winked and pointed to the edge of the gym. "Right over there." And with that she reached down slyly and pinched his ass.

"Fuck!" he muttered at the shock of the imposition. She grinned and winked lewdly again. "Enough," he thought, and threaded his way through the crowd of strange faces as Jane and Janice continued their loud chatter.

Reaching the exit, he turned into the hallway. A tall imposing man there shouted past him to a silhouetted woman down the hall, "I'm going on in, see you in a few minutes. Don't fall in!" The man turned, glanced at Mike and nodded a quick hello before entering the gym.

Over the muted music thumping through the walls, the woman's sharp footsteps echoed down the hall in front of Mike as he walked to the restrooms. The door to the ladies room opened in a flood of light and...

Her!

It was like a flash of lightning. He sprinted to the door, breathless, pulse racing now, grabbing it before it closed. She stopped in the doorway, turned, and they both froze.

Sweet heaven, it was her, after all the years of growing up apart, that same beautiful face that was burned into his memory at the fair, the same golden curls. Would she remember him?

"Mikey?" she whispered.

It was then that he threw away all inhibition and gave in to his obsession. This was the moment he had dreamed of. He had to take the chance that she had too.

"Oh my god, Mikey! Janice said you weren't coming, I almost didn't come..."

Her arms flew around his neck and they kissed passionately. She pulled him into the empty restroom, the heavy door banging shut behind them. Overcome with emotion, Mike held her tightly, guiding her as they shuffled against the wall. Though she was slightly shorter than Mike, their bodies pressed together perfectly, her ample breasts pillowing against his chest. Tears of joy flowed with her kisses. The glorious realization that she had needed him too filled him with joy.