This story is truly fiction. It shows coincidences or parallels between two couples and how surviving spouses come together.
It is fantasy! No need to overthink it. It is for entertainment only.
There are five narrators: Jim Clark, Sandy Cline, John Clausen, Betty Clark, and an unseen Narrator.
It is written as two parallel stories
,
so you will see similar plots... plus a mature love story thrown in.
I included a list of main characters at the end. At the end because I did not want any spoilers.
Widowed teachers
Parallel lives until they meet, and love takes over
.
Chapter 1- Jim:
1993
I am James Clark, Jim. My wife Suzanne Clark (nÊe Campbell), Sue, and I were high-school sweethearts. We met freshman year, just before homecoming. We went to
the
homecoming together, and never looked back.
Everyone said we were meant for each other. We were each other's first kiss, first date, our first restaurant date, observing our eighteenth birthdays in March (they were just a week apart), senior prom date, and we lost our virginity to each other on prom night.
1996
At Arizona State University, Sue and I were both education majors. I was on the golf team and Sue played soccer. Neither of us would be called first string, but we played every match and game. Sue and I worked our educational asses off. We kept our estrogen and testosterone in check; we were very careful with any lovemaking we did. Sue used birth-control pills, and I rubbered up, well latexed up, every time we made love. We resolved to conceive our kids on our timeline.
1998
I asked Sue to marry me during our Thanksgiving break during our sophomore year. We married that following summer and moved into an off-campus apartment for our junior and senior years; we continued to practice safe sex every time we made love. We worked hard in our classes and graduated with honors. We made the newspaper as one of
two married couples
, where both partners were graduating with honors. The other couple was named Clime, or something like that.
2001
Sue and I started teaching. We were teaching at Washington Middle School. Sue was teaching science, and I was teaching social studies. We attended many school activities, and were involved in many school functions.
Our intimate time was great. Sue was a tiger in the bedroom. We would both shower, most times together, and would give each other oral in the shower. Sue's breasts were big B-cups, and she loved me pinching her nipples while I licked her clit. After a shower, the love was always hot; sometimes, we had to re-shower!
2002
The real estate in the Arizona market was favorable. Sue and I made a bid on a four-bedroom house, and we got it, and the loan to go with it. We loved the master suite. We set the house up with the smallest bedroom as an office. We set up a boy's and a girl's bedrooms with the other bedrooms.
The way we decorated each room showed how different and how alike we were. Sue decorated the boy's room, and I decorated the girl's room. Sue's idea was a Spartan design-- bins instead of a chest of drawers; posters of baseball, football, hockey, science-fiction heroes, and video games. Sue was designing for a little stud...
My girl's room had pictures of characters from children's books and a Cinderella-type canopy bed, oh, I girl-ed it up royally. I was designing it for a princess, my future princess.
After we saw each other's ideas, we toned it down (just a little).
Three years into our marriage, we decided to start a family. Sue came up pregnant almost right away, with a due date at the end of July.
We left the hospital with Patricia Suzanne Clark, Patty, three days after her birth on July twenty-fifth.
We were the average American family-- a mom, a dad, and a daughter.
2006
My dad, George, was so happy to hold his first grandchild. Unfortunately, my mom, Elizabeth Clark, Betty, became a widow just two months after Patty was born. Dad was killed in a freak accident on the freeway, a car flew off the I-10 ramp at the 202 freeway and landed on his truck one hundred feet below.
We lost Sue's parents five and seven months after Patty's birth; they did get to see and hold Patty. Sue's dad had a heart attack, and her mom died of takotsubo cardiomyopathy, a broken heart, the doctors said it was also known as The Widowhood Effect.
Sue and I started our master's programs. My widowed mom loved to babysit Patty while we were in our grad classes. It was therapy for mom; she was a doting grandmother.
2008
When Patty was about three, we started to try for another child, but nothing was happening. After about thirteen months, Sue was feeling fatigued and went to the doctor to find out why. We found out why we could not conceive again. Sue was diagnosed with stage four pancreatic cancer, and my world came crashing down. Because there is no method of early detection for pancreatic cancer, it was too late by the time Sue felt the symptoms. The cancer did not directly affect conception, but her body knew better, no egg would implant.
In eight months, Sue left us. It was shocking to see Sue's demise from a healthy twenty-eight-year-old loving wife and mother to the shadow of herself at twenty-nine. Patty was five years old. I was then a single parent. Mom sold her house and moved in with Patty and me.
2010
After my bereavement leave, I went back to work, and sanity returned to my world.
I continued to teach at Washington Middle School for the next five years. My students excelled at the District Scholastic Fairs. Parents would request their child be in my class.
During the years since I lost my Sue, I plunged into teaching and being the best dad for my Patty. I read to Patty nightly. I coached her powder-puff softball team (coaching little girls is like herding cats at times). I had to watch out for single moms of players on the team. I'd get some unwanted attention; I was just not ready for a new woman in my life, my Patty was my world.
2012
I let mom, Patty's grandma, handle girl-type stuff. Patty's bed was covered with
a million plush
stuffed animals; there was never a night she did not have at least a dozen in bed with her. She added boy-band posters and posters important to her, that was 'Animal Rescue', 'Backstreet Boys', and 'Eat Tofu', which was on the wall above the wastebasket, containing McDonald's hamburger wrappers in it most of the time. Hey, she was ten.
Chapter 2 - Sandy:
1993
My name is Sandra Ann Clausen. My husband, Roger Cline, and I met late our freshman year in high school and became high-school sweethearts within a week. Our summer was historic (well, in my eyes, it was). Everyone said we were a couple made in heaven. We were each other's first everything-- first movie date, first car date, first kiss, we were each other's Homecoming date sophomore year and beyond, we celebrated our eighteenth birthdays together in April (Roger April tenth and me April twenty-ninth), we were each other's senior prom date, and we made love for the first time senior prom night.
1996
When we attended Arizona State, Roger and I were education majors. Our freshman and sophomore years, Roger and I worked diligently, we kept our hormones in check, and we were very careful with any lovemaking. We decided to plan when we would have our children.
1998
Roger asked me to marry him during our Christmas break, our sophomore year. We married that following summer. We moved into a married students' condo (just a fancy name for the university-owned apartments), and for our last two years, we made love regularly. I was on the Pill, and with Durex condoms, we stayed childless. We graduated with honors, and our hard work in our classes assured that. We made the news as one of
two married couples
where both partners were graduating with honors. I think the other couple's name was Clark, or something like that.
2001
Roger and I started teaching. We were teaching at Franklin Middle School. I was teaching science, and Roger was teaching social studies. We were held in high esteem in the school community. We got involved in school activities. My Roger was a thirteen-year-old trapped in a twenty-three-year-old body. He was kind of a clown to my Miss Serious at times, and I loved it.
We would call each other 'Oxy', short for oxymoron because we were so different at times, but we fit together like adjacent jigsaw pieces. And boy, did we fit together often. I am sure I often sang my praises for Roger's loving techniques. Our intimate time was fabulous. Roger was a stud in the bedroom. We would start in the shower and would make each other 'feel' good; Roger had magic hands, and my breasts were B cups. Roger loved sucking my breasts; I almost would cum from just his sucking (along with his expert fondling of my pussy and clit).
2002
We were saving for a house. We started out using the second bedroom as an office. After three years of teaching, we decided to start a family. I became pregnant right away, with a due date in July. We welcomed Michael Roger Cline, Mikey, on July seventeenth. We 'moved' our office to the living room.
We were an average family-- a mom, a dad, and a son.
Roger and I started our master's programs.
2006
Roger had lost his parents during our college years. He was stoic and never showed any grief until my miscarriage.
I miscarried during my next pregnancy, I was stressed because of the sudden and surprising death of my mother, Abigail Clausen, Abby, from heart disease, she never knew she had hypertension; in other words, high blood pressure! X It hit me hard-- Mom was my best friend, my confidante! I went to my mom when I needed help understanding married life. My dad was my strength, he lost his wife and was still unflappable. Dad did do a lot of talking to Mom; he had a bench placed at Mom's grave so he could sit and talk to Mom.
2007
Roger and I handled our grief over the miscarriage 'well', we did go to counseling, and it helped me greatly. Roger didn't 'need' as much counseling as I did, just the way it was with guys, I thought.
My widowed dad, John, loved to babysit Michael, while Roger and I were doing our post-grad work.
2009
My world ended as I knew it, when Mikey was in kindergarten. Mikey was being watched by my dad. Roger and I were at the river, floating on inner tubes; Roger found a rope swing. He swung out over the water, and the branch broke! It was a substantial branch, and it hit Roger on the head. He went under the water, and several people tried to save him...
The medical examiner's report listed it as an accidental drowning, but the medical examiner told me later that the branch hitting his head would have been fatal in itself, if he had been on dry land.
I was a walking zombie; I took care of Mikey and barely took care of myself.
Dad invited Mikey and me to live with him. I was able to get out of the apartment lease. After my time to mourn was over, my return to teaching was a lifesaver.
2010
I continued to teach at Franklin Middle School. My students led the district in science competitions during our Middle School Scholastic Bowls.
In the years since I lost my Roger, I dove into my teaching and being the best mom Mikey could have. When Mikey turned eight, I was his cub scout den mother. I used my teacher's voice many times. Other mothers would tell me how surprised they were that I was able to keep the eight- to ten-year-old boys in line. I deflected a couple of fathers' attempts at flirting; I was not sure if they were married or not.
2012
