Copyright Oggbashan April 2003 The author asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.
This is a work of fiction. The events described here are imaginary; the settings and characters are fictitious and are not intended to represent specific places or living persons.
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When Hannah was alive she was a real danger to my life. She nearly killed me so many times that I lost count. Now she is dead I thought I was safe. Now I'm not so sure ...
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Hannah was a big girl. I'm not that small but she was nearly a head taller and weighed nearly half as much again as I did. She was big but her weight was muscle.
At first the disparity in our sizes didn't bother me. When we first met I was more attracted by the way she dressed. She wore large flowing skirts that moved even when she was standing still. When we danced her skirts flared around me. I could just see over her shoulder when dancing but the other dancers kept clear. A collision with Hannah might be painful.
When we had met a few times I asked her out. She was fun to be with and had a great sense of humour. Gradually we became a couple and we spent most of our time together. Hannah was sometimes embarrassingly affectionate and clung to me as if I was a lifeline. I thought that this was because she had lost her parents when she was in her teens and had no living relations. Apart from me she was totally alone in the world. With me, she shared my circle of friends and met my relations.
There was one incident shortly after we became lovers that disturbed me. In retrospect I saw it as the first sign that something was wrong with our relationship. At the time it was just a trivial incident that seemed a variation of our love making.
We were out for the evening at a friend's birthday party. We expected it to be crowded and that there would be no dancing. Hannah wore an evening dress that she liked but was very different from her usual party clothes. The dress was a long sheath of nylon lined jersey/lycra mix in a faintly shimmering lilac. The long sleeves were satin in a deeper lilac. The dress had a fairly high neckline and long back zip. It fitted Hannah so closely that I had to zip it up for her. I have described the dress in such detail because of its importance in the later events.
Hannah looked wonderful in that dress. It emphasised her curves without making her look as large as she is. But that evening she damaged it. We were leaving the party and coming down the steps from the front door. Hannah missed her footing and stumbled. I was slightly in front of her. I caught most of her weight but she pushed out her foot to regain her balance. The dress tore along a seam from hem to mid-calf.
"Oh s**t!" Hannah shouted.
She turned her head to look down at the damage.
"How bad is it, Simon?" she asked anxiously.
I peered at the tear.
"I can't really tell in this light, Hannah. It looks as if the seam has split but we really need a closer look where we can see."
"OK, Simon. Let's go."
We went back to her house. I unzipped the dress. I made coffee in the kitchen. Hannah went up to her bedroom and returned wearing a night-dress and carrying the evening dress over her arm.
"I think you are overdressed, Simon. I am only wearing a flimsy night-dress and you are fully dressed. That won't do."
She put the evening dress on the kitchen table and came towards me. We made a game of her stripping me as I tried to protect my modesty. We enjoyed ourselves. I was left with just my boxer shorts.
As we drank the coffee Hannah looked carefully at the tear in her evening dress. She showed it to me. The material had torn beside the seam. The lining was still intact but the repair would not be easy. Hannah started to pin the tear together but stopped.
"Simon, the flare of the lower skirt means I can't see how this should go. Can you help?"
"Yes, Hannah, but how? I'm no good at sewing."
"I want you to be a mannequin."
"What?" I asked.
"I want you to put the dress on so I can see how the material hangs. Then I can tack it together and see if the damage is repairable."
I took several minutes to persuade. After a few kisses and hugs I reluctantly agreed. The first attempt was a failure. I'm so much slighter than Hannah. My shoulders weren't wide enough and the dress slipped to one side or the other. Hannah stood back and looked at me carefully before announcing:
"There is one way it might work ..."
"There is?"
"I think so, Simon. We'll get the dress off first."
She unzipped me and started to lifted the dress. The nylon lining had stuck to me.
"Blast!" she said "I wear a long poly-cotton slip under this. I left it upstairs."
She peeled the dress off and over my head. Then she closed the back zip and neck on the empty dress.
"Please turn with your back to me." Hannah asked.
Then she threw the dress over my head and pulled it down firmly with my arms trapped inside the bodice. The nylon lining and the lycra mix squeezed my arms. I could wriggle my fingers but otherwise I was helpless. Hannah swung me round and kissed me.
"It won't take long, Simon. Just stand still."
She was wrong. The dress was far too long. The hem splayed around my feet. It was ankle length on Hannah when she wore heels.
Hannah pushed a kitchen stool into the centre of the kitchen. She lifted me on to it. The dress fell around the stool.
"Keep still."
I did. There was no way I could save myself if I wobbled. Hannah tacked the tear with thread. She finished by snipping the end with her teeth.
"There. That should do. The tear won't go any further. I'll take it to the cleaners on Monday and ask them to repair it."