ATTENTION
: To avoid disappointment, please note the following statistics:
- Story is 35,460 words / ~10 1/2 Literotica pages
- There are three sex scenes in the story
Hello all! A slightly different story than my first. I wasn't sure which category to place this in since it could fall into two or three quite neatly. In the end, I've decided to put this into the Romance category instead of Loving Wives, Novellas, or Interracial, only because this story really is about the three different love stories that the protagonist experiences throughout his lifetime. As love stories go, not all of them end well, while others aren't necessarily romantic in nature, but the love prevails.
This again is a longer tale and may be slow going for some. However, I do enjoy savouring time spent immersed in a story, so I hope if you continue on, that you do, too.
WARNING: *NOT* a lawyer. Between research, renewing my mortgage, and the experience of friends who have gone through divorces, I've been able to cobble together the broad strokes of what happens when you get divorced in Canada. Also, not sure if he's still active, but Rehnquist's "A Crash Course in Family Law" was very helpful. I'm sure I've taken broad dramatic license here but, hey, this is fiction.
SPOILER: Despite the title, there is *NO* incest, or step-incest, in the story. However, there is a passage early on that describes sex that has dubious consensuality. Please be forewarned.
There is some sexual content, but that's not the main thrust (pun not intended) of the story.
Also, yes, there is some emotional infidelity, but this is not a BTB or a RAAC story, just one where people move on with their lives and are redeemed by their relationships with the people around them. That being said, maybe there's a *little* karma...
* * * * *
"I've filed for a divorce Ken," Karen Fischer-Suzumura told her husband as they sat across from each other at their dining room table.
Kenji "Ken" Suzumura's shoulder's slumped as he felt the blood drain from his face. His heart sank down to his stomach and he felt the tingle of pins and needles begin around his mouth. He struggled with getting the words out through his pursed lips as he felt them tremble.
"What about the kids?"
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ACT 1 - KAREN
-- Twelve Years Ago - Waterloo, Ontario --
"BYE MOM! I'LL be home late tonight!" eighteen-year-old Karen Fischer reminded her mother Margaret, Marge to her friends, as she kissed her on the cheek. "Thanks for the party last night. It was great to see Katie," mentioning her older sister Katherine, who worked in Toronto, an hour and a half away. The five foot two, honey blonde, blue eyed bundle of energy grabbed her knapsack and bound out of the house on her way to the local theatre in Kitchener where she volunteered.
"I swear Karl, that girl can't slow down," Margaret said to her husband as he fried some bacon on the stove. "It's gonna be quiet here when she goes off to university."
"Well, Toronto isn't that far and it's still a month before she graduates. Katie'll be there to look out for her," he acknowledged, proud of his daughters. Katherine had graduated a year ago and was a bookkeeper at a business services and logistics company, and Karen was off to university for a degree in theatre.
He and his wife didn't have the chance to go to university and were glad that his daughters would have that opportunity. They both came from German Mennonite farming families in the area and were able to provide a solid, middle-class lifestyle with their jobs, Margaret as an administrative assistant at the local insurance company headquarters and Karl as a foreman at the local meat processing plant. "Now, how about a cup of coffee?" he asked his wife, taking the percolator off the stove for a cup.
~ ~ ~
KAREN CAUGHT A ride to the theatre with another one of the volunteers and hurried backstage. She had volunteered at the theatre since she was sixteen, ever since she had seen a local girl make big in Hollywood. She was hell-bent on making it big herself, and had gotten herself accepted to the same Theatre program at the same university her hero had. As usual, she enthusiastically threw herself into the tasks at hand as a stage hand and all-around gofer for the troupe, hoping to have the opportunity to get up and act on stage one day.
However, her mind was elsewhere today. Yesterday was her eighteenth birthday and she had celebrated with her family. Tonight, a group of her friends were taking her out to a club near the theatre for a party. What was more exciting was that Bill was going to be there! Among the younger set at the theatre, 27-year-old Bill Davis was the "big man on campus".
Bill wasn't one of the leads but, he occasionally played the best friend, and he even spent a season at Stratford as an understudy to a secondary character at one of the smaller plays! What's more, his old Film Studies professor from university was able to get him a few lines on a TV show being filmed in Toronto, so he was a real, live, card-carrying actor.
Oddly, no one at the theatre really questioned an almost 30-year-old man hanging around with the teenagers and young twenties. That's just how it was in the theatre community. Outsiders looking in would find it a bit creepy, but hey, didn't actors have a bit of a Peter Pan complex anyway? And he was cute, at least to Karen and her friends. Blonde and blue eyed, like Karen, with the square-jawed good looks from Hollywood's golden era.
"Hey Karen! Happy birthday! We all still on for tonight?" Ralph, one of the other volunteers had asked as she was hanging her jacket in her locker and stowing her backpack with a change of clothes for tonight.
"Sure Ralph! Have you got the thing? You know, the thing?" she asked him under her breath. Ralph fished around his pockets and pulled a card with a magnetic strip and her photo.
"You mean your fake license?" he chuckled. "That should pass muster. Anyway, the bouncers don't really care at the club. They see these all the time," Ralph reassured her. The two universities and the college nearby meant that there were thousands of eighteen-year-olds trying to get into the clubs to get a drink instead of waiting to turn nineteen. The club they were going to was a little lax since it would take way too long to really scrutinize every single ID closely.
"Thanks Ralph! Have a good one!"
Karen, Ralph, and the rest of the crew were setting up for a matinee showing of some kids' play for the summer holiday camp programs. Karen walked around that day on a cloud of air as she thought of the party that Bill would be attending, all for her!
The performance went off without a hitch, the children laughing and singing along at all the right places. When Karen wasn't occupied, she mooned after Bill on the wings as he played the Forest Ranger. It wasn't the lead, but it was a very important role, she thought. As the performance closed, the volunteers rushed around setting things right, and making sure that all the costumes and props were put away and that the stage was ready for tomorrow's performance.
~ ~ ~
BILL GOT OUT of his costume and wiped off the thick stage makeup after the performance. He frowned at his reflection in the mirror as he ran a cotton pad across his eyes and then he sighed. He thought he was one of the best-looking actors in the company and wondered why he didn't get the leads in the performances for the main audiences. As it was, he was pretty tapped out in Toronto for roles. He begged for a favour from his professor and all he got was one line on a TV cop show. "I saw him drive off in a grey four-door, officer!" That was it.
Hell, he still had to work a part-time job at the university bookstore just to afford rent on a room in a student house near campus. At twenty-seven-years-old Bill thought he would be further along in his career instead of bit parts in regional theatre. A buddy of his had suggested moving to Vancouver. Hollywood was producing there in a big way and there were lots of roles to audition for.
"Hi Bill! That was a great performance!" he heard someone gushing behind him. He looked into the mirror over his shoulder and saw this petite farmer's daughter corn fed type standing by the door of the shared dressing room. She was really cute in a girl-next-door, cheerleader kind of way. Her eyes sparkled, naively star-struck. That was one of the benefits at least, he thought: ready and willing young pussy.
Bill turned and gave her his thousand-watt, toothpaste ad smile. "Thanks...," he tried to recall her name "...Karen?"
Karen flushed as he called her by name, thrilled that he knew it. "So, are you coming with us tonight? It was my eighteenth birthday yesterday, so we're celebrating."
So, she just turned eighteen? The smile grew broader and brighter, and he really turned on the charm. Eighteen was legal, and she really looked like she'd be a good time. "Of course, Karen! I wouldn't miss it for the world! Happy birthday!"