Prologue
"Willow!" I gasped.
For a moment I went through that sense of unreality you get when you suddenly come upon someone unexpectedly, someone you never expect to see again.
"Ross," she breathed softly, her face draining of blood.
Unable for the moment to speak, we stood staring at each other. It had been four years since I had last seen her and for months after she had gone I had hunted for her without success.
Finally I asked, "How is Ann?"
"She's...she's fine, she goes to school now."
"Yes, yes she would," I replied lamely. I wondered if like me she was remembering how things had been between us, but just then customers walked in and she had to attend to them.
Chapter 1: I am Bitten
I swung along the street in high spirits. I had attended high school for the last time and the world was before me. "Onward...onward," sang in my head. I would be taking the electronics course in the coming year, but before then were six glorious weeks of vacation.
I almost stopped in mid-stride. Standing in the front garden of a newly occupied house was...was what? A girl...a woman?
It was hard to tell. I estimated her to be about five feet one or two in height. Her back was towards me as she looked up at a huge gum tree. Two long dark plaits hung down her back to below shoulder level. She was wearing only tight shorts and a T-shirt, and I could see a slim waist with softly rounded hips, high tight buttocks and slender but shapely legs.
Attracted by the fragile beauty of her figure I was for the moment fascinated. Then deciding that I was looking at a girl of about twelve years of age on the way to mature womanhood, I lost interest, deciding that she must be the daughter of the house.
The people, whoever they were, had only moved in a few days before and no one had so far made their acquaintance. My mother had said she intended to drop in and say hello, but thought it better to wait until they had settled in before making a call.
I was about to go on to our house a few door up the street, when I saw the little dog at the girl's feet. Being fond of dogs I gave a low whistle and made a beckoning motion to the dog. It came towards me wagging its tail and I bent to pat it.
"No don't," a voice cried, but too late. A needle sharp bite was administered to my hand. I stood their ruefully sucking my wound as the owner of the voice, and I presumed the dog, came to me saying, "I'm so sorry."
I was about to say something abusive like, "Why don't you keep your bloody dog under control," but was stopped by the knowledge that I had been partly responsible by calling the dog and trying to pat it. In addition I was startled by the woman that now stood close to me.
I had been wrong about the twelve years old girl. She was one of the most attractive women I had ever seen. She had small but firm breasts their nipples clearly outlined against the cloth of her T-shirt, and set in an elfin face two of the greenest eyes I had ever seen. She was looking at me with an expression of concern.
"Let me look at you're hand," she said.
Still sucking my wound but trying to maintain a macho image I mumbled, "Its okay."
"No," she said, "you must let me look at it."
She took my hand and inspected it. "Yes, the skin is broken, come inside and I'll clean it for you."
She led me into the house and sat me at the kitchen table and set about getting warm water and antiseptic. When she bathed my hand I noticed how her hands matched the rest of her, small and very delicate.
"You should see a doctor," she said, "it might be infected, I'll pay of course. I don't know why Penny does that, I mean, she's normally so gentle; it's only when strangers want to touch her she behaves like that. By the way, I'm Willow Heilbronn, but please, call me Willow"
"Ross Clements," I responded, "I live just up the street. Willow is an unusual name."
She laughed softly and said, "My father, he loved willow trees."
"If you don't mind my saying so, it's rather a lovely name."
A slight flush diffused her cheeks, but she said nothing. I wanted to say, "It suits you," but felt that might be overstepping the mark.
Changing the subject she said, "I've only just moved in and you're the first person I've spoken to in the street."
There now followed one of those "Getting to know you type conversations; "How long have you lived here?"..."Oh, most of my life; how are you settling in?"... "Do you think you'll like it?"..."My mother said she'll call on you soon"..."That will be lovely." And so it went.
After this initial round of sketchy searching each other out Willow asked, "Do you happen to know anything about television sets?"
"A bit," I replied modestly, "why?"
"Mine won't work properly, the picture is all fuzzy."
"Shouldn't be we're quite close to the towers; would you like me to take a look?"
"Would you; that is kind of you, it's in here."
The problem proved to be a simple one, the aerial hadn't been connected properly. The connection made and the picture clear you might have thought I'd performed a miracle she was so grateful.
"I don't know about things like that," she said, and at that moment the voice of a child was heard calling.
"That's Ann waking up," she said, "she's been having her afternoon sleep; I'll have to attend to her, excuse me."
"Aha," I thought, "so there's a husband around...or at least a man." I felt a bit disappointed although it was ridiculous to do so since I'd only just met Willow and she was at least seven or eight years older than me. My usual interest was in buxom girls, but the slim and delicate looking Willow had touched something inside me.
While she was gone I looked around the room; everything gave the impression of being rather expensive and in good taste. I decided that women like Willow don't come cheap and so whatever distant hopes I might have had of developing my relationship with her had better be buried immediately.
She returned with a girl that I took to be about two years of age. The effects of sleep were still with the child and she looked at me through unfocused eyes and clung closer to her mother.
"This is Ann," Willow said by way of introduction, "and Ann, this is Mr. Clements and he's been fixing the television set for us."
I said, "Hello Ann," and Ann muttered something that sounded like "Lo," and snuggled closer to Willow.
As I looked at the two of them a strange thought came to me. As I said, my usual taste in females was the buxom large breasted variety; the sort of women that at one time people said, "She'll be a good breeder." For an instant I wondered how this little woman had looked when she had been pregnant.
"She's usually much livelier," said Willow, looking fondly at the child.
I decided it was time to go, so I rose and said formally, "It's been nice meeting you Willow."
She extended her hand for me to shake; it was small and warm in mine. I felt something of a great oaf towering over the little woman, and for some reason I could not define I didn't like it.
She looked up at me smiling, and her smile was reflected in her eyes. "I'm very sorry about Penny and you've been so helpful."
I muttered something about it being nothing really and began to leave with the apparently reconciled Penny trotting beside me. As I made my way up the path to the street Willow called after me, "I do hope I'll see you again soon." Was she being polite or did she mean it?
When I got home and told mother I'd met Willow and had been inside the house, I was bombarded with questions, most of which I could not answer.
Chapter 2I am Infected
The dog bite healed quickly and no infection set in as a result of the canine assault. It was another infection that set in, and it was called "Willow." Over the next few days I was busy catching up with things that had been neglected during the school year, and this led to a fair bit of my coming and going along the street. At first I hoped I would see her again, but failing to do so I got to thinking.
My mother called on Willow and came back with a glowing account of her visit. "What a lovely woman and such a dear little girl."... "The place is so tastefully furnished; she must be very well off."... "And Ross, she's so grateful to you for fixing her television set, and she asked if your hand is all right." She went on like that for some time and in particular she extolled Willow's attractiveness. One aspect of Willow that gnawed away at mother was the fact that she mentioned no husband. This led to considerable speculation on mother's part.
I was doing some speculating of my own and had come to no conclusion about Willow's marital status. If she was married where was Mr. Heilbronn? I had not seen him, and neither, according to my mother, had any of the other inquisitive neighbours. I recalled that I had seen no wedding ring on Willow's hand so...?
My thoughts ran often on Willow. I had found her attractive – very attractive – even though she was not the usual type of female that appealed to me. The attraction I decided was dangerous and this perhaps needs some explanation.
Some people might feel my attitude is wrong and weak, but I try not to hanker after things that seem to me unattainable. The boys at school often gloated over erotic magazines and would get themselves worked up over the models in the pictures. My idea was that it was okay to get yourself horny over a real girl, especially if you knew there would be a satisfactory outcome; but to get yourself worked up over some pictures of nude women and copulating couples seemed to me to be both frustrating and futile.
