Although I have lived in the U. S. for about 20 years, I am German. My name is Marlene, as in Marlene Dietrich. I grew up on a farm, went to college, attended nursing school, and became a nurse in Germany. When I was 23, however, I joined the German version of America's Peace Corps and went to West Africa.
I loved Africa: its land, its people and its incredible wildlife.
During my first year, I met an American Peace Corps volunteer named Marlon, who was 25. He was tall, dark and seemed to get better-looking as time went on. He was a leader, travelling about the land to organize projects, such as setting up a clinic and a school and equipping them. By end of that first year, I had fallen in love with Marlan. We were both Catholic, but we found a priest to marry us.
Our first daughter was born in Africa in our local clinic, because we wanted to set an example for the natives to have confidence in western medicine. Toward the end of my second year in Africa, being pregnant again, I knew it would be a breech birth, so I flew back to Germany, to my family and for German health care.
Marlan joined me a week later. We wound up our assignments, and he took me with our daughters back to his home in Nebraska.
A chance to work with a nonprofit and the University of Wisconsin moved us to that state and a small town in the north. Marlan travelled a lot, leaving most of the care for our home and children to me. I became friends with a next-door neighbor, Janice, with whom I had an alarming conversation one day.
"Hey, your man is away a lot, doing God knows what besides his 'work"! You must get lonely."
"Yes, I do."
"Can you keep a secret?"
"Yes, if it's not breaking the law."
Janice laughed.
"By now, you know there's not much to do in this one-horse town, especially in the winter. That's an American expression you, by the quizzical look on your face, as a German wouldn't know. I belong to a key club for swingers. You know what swingers are, don't you? We meet every Saturday night. We wives dress to look sexy. After a few drinks and some flirting, wives put the keys to our homes into a hat. The husbands pick a key out of the hat. If he picks his wife's key, he keeps trying until he gets another woman. They then go to her home. Don't look so horrified! If you want an adventure, we could find a man to even out the pairs. Odds are your husband, men being as sex crazy as most are, is catching as catch can! That's another Americanism."
I was 27; Janice was at least ten years older. I'd been married for only two years. Surely, my husband wasn't bored with me already!
We moved to a larger town, the county seat, for better schools and a branch of the UW system. I loved our one and one-half story cottage on two lots. My farm upbringing made me an avid gardener. When the girls were old enough to attend school, I took a job in school food service, instead of getting a license to be a nurse in the U. S.. Marlan was traveling about the state and ranging out-of-state. Our sex life had slackened when I was pregnant, revived until I was pregnant again, and since had dwindled.
After about 20 years of marriage, with the girls away in college, I discovered that my husband was a homosexual. During his many trips, he met and had sex with other men. Angry and hurt that he had used me to maintain a façade, and, as a "good" Catholic, to produce children, I divorced him. The man I loved had betrayed me as a wife and a woman. I cried and brooded for a year. I quit the Catholic Church. My daughters had graduated and taken jobs a thousand or miles away. I was now 45 years old and feeling a failure as a woman.
An image haunted my mind of Marlan "making love" to me while he fantasized that he had his cock up some guy's ass! I had seen my doctor to make sure that Marlan hadn't given me AIDs. He had not, but I still felt disgusted that his cock had been up other men's shitty assholes when he put it into my vagina!
I wondered how it would feel to know I was having sex with a man who desired me as a woman. Maybe I had no attraction left. I was 5'6", with 36D breasts, legs a proportionate length and nicely curved, and blonde hair rather short in permanent waves. My waist was 30", but my belly had some stretch marks from bearing two large girls. Should I just abandon having a sex life? I wanted nothing to do with romance or commitment after having been so thoroughly deceived by a man. Maybe I could test my sex appeal with strangers.
It was in mid-October, when the ogling season for men ends, a role in which show I had never played, that I saw in the local paper the ad for a Halloween Party for Adults, with prizes for the best costumes. I asked some of my women friends. One mentioned rumors that the women, mostly wives, vied for attention and prizes by wearing sexy, revealing costumes. Masks concealed their identities. Then, I found a friend, Ann, who had attended previous parties. Although we were good friends, she had never mentioned this sexy adventure.
"Knowing you, Marlene, I thought you might be shocked. That "key club" you learned about when you lived up north seemed to have shocked you."
"My perspective has changed, after what Marlan did to me."
"Yah, what a bastard! He must have devastated your self-confidence as a woman! So are you curious what it would be like to be with a real man?"
"Yes, but having lost that confidence, I don't want to risk rejection."
"I think you had, and still have what it takes. I can't remember the last time you wore shorts, but I remember you had long, beautiful legs. You don't dress to show any cleavage either, but you can't quite hide those big boobs, which most man love. A masquerade ball would be ideal for you. The party we attended last Halloween was a very sexy affair. Wine and liquor are available to reduce our female inhibitions. I wore a cat woman leotard with windows to show some bare flesh, like the top halves of my boobs, just above my pussy, and on each butt cheek."
Ann is a slim but curvaceous brunette, aged 42, with a pretty face, and sassy with a wicked sense of humor.
"I might have guessed from the way you talk that you were not all talk and no action! What happened when you got there?"
"We went to the bar for a drink. I always need some bottle courage at these affairs! We danced with each other, until a man asked if he could dance with me. Ed wandered off to ogle the other women, who were definitely competing for attention!"
"Was there any touching besides dancing?"
"Oh, yes! Showing our bodies was only part of showing how sexy we could be! The guy dancing with me had 'roaming hands and rushing fingers'! That's half the fun!! If you dared, you'd find out pretty fast about your sex appeal, because the guys are fast and seeking fast women!"
"Dare I ask how 'fast' you were?"
"Ask me no questions and I'll tell you no lies! Ed and I give each other permission for a night's vacation from marriage. Whatever we do remains our secret, but Ed wants to know how naughty I've been, so I confess. That excites him, and he takes me right to bed! However, if you attend, and observe a svelte babe in a cat woman suit, you might get a hint. Fair's fair, though: you should tell me what your costume will be."
"I haven't decided to go at all. I don't know if I dare to wear something so sexy or dare to compete with other women who are being very sexy."
"I bet you're chicken! I double-dare you! I double-dog dare you!"
"I know what 'dare' means, but not the other."
"I keep forgetting that you're German and probably never watched A Christmas Story. Anyway, if you don't want to show off your bod and get kissed and felt up by strange men, you can watch a Halloween movie at home alone. You don't even have a pet, do you?"
The following Saturday, after some research, I drove to a big shopping mall in the city, where there was a Victoria's Secret store. They had some seasonal clothes that suited Halloween. I found a long, black skirt that was slit up the outsides for both legs and would bare my thighs all of the way up, in certain positions. To top it off, I found a black bustier with silver sequins that would bare the top halves of my breasts while pushing them up and out, like those slanted shelves that display fruit in grocery stores.
I took the items into a dressing room, half wishing I'd brought Ann with me. Then I looked for a saleswoman.
"I'll need an opinion when I try these on."
"Sure!"
Both items seemed to fit, as far as I could feel or see turning around in front of the full-length mirrors. I opened the door, but the clerk was not standing by, so I stepped out, blushing and looked up and down the corridor. A man, waiting for his wife to try on something, saw me. His eyes widened, he smiled, and he waved!
"I'm sorry, but I expected the saleslady to help me."
"I'll help you... get her! You look sensational, by the way!"
I granted him an embarrassed smile, "Thank you!"
