(Author's note: all characters in this story are pretty clearly over 18.)
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A Tale of Ramona
The downside to living in a neighborhood as small as mine is the pressure for everyone to take their turn on the homeowners association board. I'd resisted for three years but had run out of excuses, especially since I was on a contract that didn't require much work travel for a change. So I finally agreed at the annual meeting to take one of the open at-large board positions (at least I wasn't actually an officer).
The HOA president was a young woman named Ramona, who lived just a few doors down from my place. I found her oddly interesting, in the way I found other phenomena that I didn't understand interesting. She seemed like something out of a Fifties sitcom and I could imagine her vacuuming her house wearing heels and pearls, like Beaver Cleaver's mom. She was tall and thin with a pretty face and light brown hair in a sensible cut and I don't think I ever saw a hair out of place.
My friend Joanie used to giggle and call her 'Norma Rockwell' when we gossiped on our walks. Ramona was in her late twenties and had a kid somewhere between baby and toddler. I fully expected to look up "repressed" in the dictionary and see Ramona's picture staring back at me. She seemed nice enough and I'd never heard her say a cross word or anything negative about anyone and I felt a little bad that we were sometimes a little mean behind her back.
It was a cold night in the middle of February, just after Valentine's Day, when I walked over to Ramona's to drop off some HOA paperwork from a new neighbor. I had just stepped up onto the porch and was reaching for the doorbell when I heard a crash from inside and a shout as someone wrenched the front door open.
The door swung open and Ramona's husband Todd went storming out, overnight bag in hand, pushing past me as he headed for the steps down to the front walk. Some instinct must have warned him, as he dodged to his left just in time to keep an expertly-thrown glass vase from crashing into the back of his head.
Ramona appeared in the doorway in a bathrobe, face screwed up and red with rage. "Go fuck your little whore, you piece of shit!" she screamed, throwing a piece of heavy ceramic with enough force that she managed to put a big dent in the hood of Todd's Acura.
"Fuck you, you crazy bitch!" was Todd's reply as he ducked into the driver's seat and backed out without looking, almost hitting one of our neighbors out walking his dog. Ramona stood there glaring as the car sped off, her whole body like one big clenched fist. She turned back to the house and seemed to see me for the first time, standing there with my mouth open, a folder of paperwork forgotten in my hand.
She grabbed me by the arm and spun me towards the door, growling, "Don't just stand there, asshole! Get in there and fuck me!"
I stumbled through the doorway and she followed, slamming the door behind her. I could hear her kid howling in a back bedroom, but Ramona took no notice. She just stood there, breathing heavily, hands clenching and unclenching, her fiery eyes staring into nothing.
"Hey! Ramona!" I said sharply, trying to get her attention. "What the hell!?"
Her eyes finally focused on me and all the fire went out of her, like she'd been unplugged from a wall socket. Her shoulders drooped, her head fell forward and I stepped in front of her to catch her, thinking she might actually fall. I walked her over to the sofa and she sat, bent over with her face in her hands, bawling her eyes out.
I felt a little stuck between two crying humans, but having almost zero experience with the younger kind, I decided to see if I could help Ramona so she could then help her baby. And yes, I was studiously ignoring her earlier demand that I ravish her. I sat next to her on the sofa, awkwardly put my arm around her and held her, not trying to talk to her until she calmed down.
The kid's bawling wound down before Ramona stopped crying, but she did finally come up for air, leaning away from me as if now uncomfortable at being so close to me. I let her go and moved down the sofa a bit, giving her some space.
"Ramona, honey, do you need to check on your kid?" I asked.
"Tina," she replied, glaring at me as if I should have known. "Her name is Tina."
"Ok," I said gently. "Do you need to go check on Tina?"
She got up without looking at me and disappeared into the back of the house for a few minutes. I could hear some muffled words as she comforted her daughter and I was thinking seriously about heading for the door when she came back into the living room, looking a little more together.
"I can't imagine what you must think of me... us..." she said, looking directly at me for the first time. "It's not every day that your husband's admin texts you pictures of the two of them fucking in a hotel room. And hey, it's even better when the picture was obviously taken by somebody else in the room with them, so I guess EVERYbody knows that my husband is a big fat cheating LYING BASTARD!!"
"Then he's a complete idiot," I said calmly. "I think you're pretty damn awesome." I had no idea if she was awesome or not, but I had absolutely no clue what else to say. I didn't know her at all and was completely stunned that she even knew some of the words she was using.
"Good," she said, "because I need you to fuck me. If he gets to fuck around, I get to fuck around. Seems only fair, right?" She took a step towards the sofa where I was still sitting.
"Ramona, I'm not going to have sex with you. One, I don't even know you. Two, you're young enough to be my daughter if I had one. And three, you're in obvious distress and may not be sure what you're doing and I'm not going to take advantage of you. But if you'd like to talk, I'll be happy to listen."
"So, what, I'm not pretty enough for you? Not hot enough?!" she said, now striding towards me like she was ready to give me a good slap across the face.
"Jesus, Ramona! You're beautiful - I just said so! Ask me again in a couple of days and I might be more than happy to sleep with you! But for now... talk to me. Tell me what happened."
She sighed, her shoulders slumping again and she looked away from me, towards the door. "I'm not sure why you would care, but I did everything I could to be what he said he wanted. What my parents said they wanted. But I'm pretty sure that this isn't what *I* wanted - to be stuck in the 'burbs with a kid and an empty house while my loving hubby is humping his fucking secretary! I guess there are the girls that you want to raise your children and the sluts you want to fuck. Guess I know which one I am."
She took a deep breath and looked back at me. "Thanks, I guess. I'll be alright," she sighed. "No, I won't - I won't be alright for a long time. But at least his little whore gave me enough evidence so I can divorce his sorry ass and take him for everything he's got. Wonder if she'll still fuck him when he's broke." She tilted her head back towards the door. "Go home. I'm good."
I stood, zipped my jacket back up and headed towards the door. I didn't really know Ramona and I didn't owe her anything but I try to be a good person and help people in need and I'll admit that I have a soft spot for pretty girls in distress. I turned back to her as I grabbed the front door knob to see that she was standing in the middle of the room still, staring back to where I assumed the master bedroom was. "Ramona, seriously, if you need anything, let me know, OK?" I said.
She half-turned and said over her shoulder, "I told you what I needed." And that was that.
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