The young woman stepped slowly into the doorway of the jet liner as she boarded the plane. She moved down the aisle sideways to get past a few of the other passengers as she made her way to her seat half way back in the aircraft. Karen was 35 years old and she was her mother's last child of four, and she had come along as a late life surprise for her parents. Her father had long since passed away, and her mother had survived him by a good 20 years already.
The plane lifted off into the cloudy sky and her journey back home had begun... she didn't want to make the trip, but it had come suddenly. Her mom had taken ill and she wanted to be with her to help her. Take care of her.
Karen settled down into her seat and surveyed the other passengers in her immediate vicinity. A few business men travelling with her already had their laptops out and were pounding the keyboards. A younger woman had her child sleeping in her arms, a blanket covering the fact that she was breast feeding, although the child had stopped sucking and was merely lying on his mother's breast.
A young couple were deeply involved and gazing intently into each other's eyes, blissfully unaware of anyone around them... or the effect they were having on one or two of the other passengers. Karen watched them and felt a slight tingle in her tummy and her position changed in her chair as a result, she shifted to get a little more comfortable.
The flight was more or less uneventful otherwise and soon they were landing in Durban. The heat enveloped them all as soon as the doors to the plane were opened, and Karen felt a trickle of moisture run down between her boobs and she wished she had not worn that sports bra. It was so hot and clingy that now all she wanted was to get it off.
As she walked to the arrivals gates she kept looking to see who her mother had sent to collect her. When she had spoken to her mom last night she had said she was sending her someone special and it was a surprise. The doors got closer and then they opened as the faster passengers got to them, and she had more faces to scan.
Suddenly, her legs had a momentary lurch as she saw a face in the crowd. Gary was there. And he was holding a sign up with her name on it. He had an immense smile on his gorgeous rugged face and it was all she could do to withhold herself from flinging herself into his arms. As far back as she could remember she had wished that he would be a man and ask her out! And now he was here fetching her at the airport and he was alone.
She quickened her stride and tried not to look too eager in so doing. Her last few steps took her through the doors and into his warm huge hug of an embrace. She inhaled deeply, remembering the smells form so long ago, when she had been sitting next to him watching videos at her parents' home, too scared to even move. 'Good God was I a teenager with so many hang-ups?' she thought.
Now she hung onto him just that little bit longer, pressing herself into his chest and breathing in his aroma. She was in heaven again.
"Hi, Karen," his deep voice growled into her ear. "I was so glad when your mom told me that you were coming home for a visit and then when she asked me to fetch you, I simply had to say yes! How are you?"
"Hi there, Gary." She stumbled a little over the words, "such a pleasure to see you." She held onto him a little longer then stepped back but not far away, so that he could reach out and take her around her waist and walk with her after had taken her bag and was dragging it on its wheels.
The two of them exited the building and walked to the parking where Gary quickly paid the toll, located his car and stored her bag in the boot. Soon they were on the highway heading to her mom's house.
The house was a pleasant little cottage set in the thick lush bush and tropical forest of the coastal region, some sort of mangrove looking trees hung their fronds down over the road, on the approach to it, and around it were also a few of the tropical palm trees, tall and loaded with its fruit balls that the monkeys loved.
The music on the car stereo, playing on one of the local radio stations, and was a hint of the memories of when she had last lived in the area. Since moving to Cape Town she had lost touch a little with her high powered job taking her away from all that had made up her youth. She loved her job, but there were times that she missed it.
Gary helped her out of the car after they stopped at the garage door of the cottage where she had grown up. She sat in the car a moment letting the memories flood back over her. Her dad, and their car, her bike in the garage, the doll's house her dad had built for her, the tree house he had made in the big indigenous tree in the back yard. All young and innocent.
Then the times when she had sneaked out of the bedroom to meet any number of different boys she had met at the local pubs and clubs of her day. Young and silly, she mused. Still, it was all a part of her growing up. And it had led her to her present job, and position of some influence in the advertising industry.
But right now she was home and she had her mom to herself for a few days. And then there was the matter of Gary. Her mother always knew she had had a soft spot for him. They had discussed it often, as they had always had a very open and frank relationship. She was able to talk to her mother about all manner of things, condoms, the pill, masturbation, sex in general in fact. Always she had had an intense fascination with boys from a very early age, and her mother had been quick to notice it and focus it in the right way.
She had bought her all manner of books to help her get a grip on her own sexuality, and she had even gone so far as to buy her first vibrator for her. That one was no longer functional and had long since been replaced with a few others with varying degree of pleasure.
Gary helped her to the door to the cottage, and as they approached the door burst open and Beatrice, or Bea as she liked her friends to call her, her older looking mother, grey and wrinkled now, much more so than she remembered, bustled out and embraced her in another huge hug of welcome.
"Hello!" her mum said, warmly, as she embraced her daughter. A tear formed in her eye and she brushed it ashamedly away. "It is SO good to see you!"
"Hello, mum, I'm so happy to be home again."
"How was your flight?"
"Uneventful, thanks, just seemed to go on a bit, when all I wanted was to get here to see you."