At the graveside they stood in a line holding hands, newly widowed Winona in the middle, her next-door neighbor, Dorothy, on her left, and Dorothy's 14 year old son, Gerald, on her right. It was a sunny September day, the kind of day that some would say was too nice a day for a funeral. But funerals do not necessarily wait for gloomy days and neither do the events that make them necessary.
Arthur Bulle, the Arona County sheriff, made a speech praising Deputy Harold Richards for his years of dedication to law enforcement and for his bravery in his final and fatal call to duty. City of Evanston Police Chief Rory Schnellschluss made a speech praising Harold for his bravery and fast action in preventing the Crown Cinema Shooting from becoming an even worst disaster.
The color guard, consisting of 5 sheriff's deputies in dress uniform, fired a 3-volley salute and then the coffin was let down. The pastor said another prayer and it was time to leave the gravediggers to fill the grave. Followed by the other mourners, the three neighbors walked back to the parking lot where they stopped to looked back towards the grave.
There, standing next to Dorothy's Mazda, Winona, teary eyed, turned toward Dorothy. "We've come a long way together since you moved in next door. I can't begin to say how much you've meant to me. Always willing to listen. Like I could tell you anything." And indeed, Winona did unload a lot on Dorothy. More than any high school girlfriend had ever unloaded on her.
"Yes Winona, it's the same for me. When I think of how much you and Harold helped me when I moved in and over the years since then. So often, I've wondered how I could have gotten on without you. And you know, I was always so thankful over the way I could go to you with my problems."
Dorothy had indeed gone to Winona when problems arose, but she hadn't been quite so free unloading intimate stuff on Winona as Winona had been towards Dorothy. In fact, told Winona everything, their friendship would have come to a very abrupt end.
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When Dorothy and 3-year-old Gerald had moved into her newly purchased house in the tiny village of Dansford, Harold and Winona had come over immediately and offered their help. With Winona watching over Gerald and Harold placing the heavier stuff, the move-in had ended up being about as painless as a move-in can be.
Afterwards, Winona had proven to be a reliable pinch-hit babysitter while Harold was the one who did the heavy stuff that Dorothy's husband would have done. Dorothy was no weakling woman, however, around her house, which was on a big lot, there always seemed to be something that she couldn't quite handle: lawnmower wouldn't start, downspout clogged, broken tree limbs, etc., etc. Harold was always more than happy to help.
Early on it had occurred to Dorothy that Harold's enthusiastic helpfulness might have an ulterior motive, but on the other hand, he and Winona seemed happy together; they laughed together, held hands, kissed openly, never seemed to exchange harsh words, and quite significantly, she never observed signs of contempt between them.
Still, Dorothy never completely shook off the suspicion that Harold might be secretly lusting after her. There were the times when out of the corner of an eye, she would notice him looking her way, just a little too long. And indeed, Dorothy had something for a man to stare at - namely full round breasts that required a D cup bra for support. Winona wasn't flat chested, but the difference between the two women's breasts was something that no healthy male could help but notice; and Harold, who trained regularly, measured over six feet and weighed in a shade under 190 pounds, was indeed a healthy male.
Hook-up opportunities for Dorothy, a divorced single mother with a 3-year-old son and working full time, were few and far between. Occasionally it did cross her mind that it had been years since the last time a man had mounted her. That man had been her husband Brian and that last mounting had been a half a year before the divorce. It wasn't that she had no sexual emotions; she did, it was simply a problem of opportunity and time. In any case, when the drive became too strong to ignore, her hand was always available, in bed or in the bathtub.
When her long draught finally broke, it seemed more a matter of chance than of intent. Dorothy had several boxes containing momentos and clothing that were standing on her garage floor and making driving the car in awkward. She had asked Winona for help in getting them up to the garage loft and Winona had said she would tell Harold. Some weeks had gone by and she had nearly forgotten the request when one hot Tuesday afternoon, she returned home from shopping to see Harold, clad only in running shoes and workout gym shorts, mowing their lawn. Seeing her arrive, he waved and shut off the mower. "Hey Dorothy, Winona said you had some stuff to put up in your garage."
"Oh great. Be nice to have that those boxes out of the way."
Seeing her stepladder, which was a little on the wiggly side, he asked her to steady it while he carried the boxes up.
Already when he was going up with the first box, she, looking up as she braced the stepladder, was able to see his ass cheeks and realized that he was wearing nothing under the loose-fitting workout shorts. When he took up the next box, she kept her eyes looking straight ahead. But then he asked how far back to shove the boxes.
As she answered, "All the way to the back, as far as they'll go," her natural reflex was to look up. He was bent forward and thanks to his lack of undershorts, she got an eyeful of the end of his circumcised penis hanging down against a very masculine set of testicles.
It was as if she were transfixed by the sight and instead of quickly averting her eyes, she stared - stared until she heard his voice. "Like what you see Dorothy?"
Her face seemed to catch fire as she blushed with embarrassment. When he got back down, she managed a mumbling apology. "I, I uh didn't mean to look. I'm so sorry."
"Come on Dorothy, I bet you're not really sorry. Looked to me like you liked what you saw. Nothing to be ashamed of." Then before she had time to think of what to say next, she felt one of his hands behind her waist and the other on the back of her head. Then his lips crushed hers. She knew she should break away, but Harold was strong and besides, it had been years since her lips had been in contact with a man's lips. The result was that her natural instincts took over and she opened her lips. Just that quick, his tongue was between them and teasing her tongue. She teased back and then felt his hardness against her abdomen.
Her moral codex pleaded with her to stop what was going on, but Dorothy was a sexual being and it had been long, too long. She pushed back. Immediately Harold knew where this was going. He took her right hand and guided it to the waist band of his shorts. "You're gonna like feeling it just as much as you liked lookin' at it."
She knew she should have at least made a pro forma protest. Trouble was, the divorce was several years behind her and his kiss, uninvited as it was, stirred emotions that had been simmering for too long. She slid her hand down past the elastic and took him by his shaft. He was rock hard and big. She uttered a cry of pleasant surprise.
"See what I mean Dorothy?"
Her answer was short strokes, light and slow. Their lips met again. To Harold, the taste of her kisses left him no doubt that this would go to where he had dreamed of things going. He broke off the kiss to utter in a low voice, "Let's put what's in your hand where it really wants to go."
Dorothy was in a passionate trance but not so deep that she completely forgot that she was not on the pill. "Harold, we need to use something!"
"I ain't been fuckin' anybody but Winona."