No Future Ch 40

XL

A Well-Rounded Education

Karen

2063

It was with genuine affection that Karen gazed across the kitchen table at the hairs on Kevin's chest. She leaned forward and placed an open palm over them, entangling the tips of her fingers in its grey wiry forest. He was still damp from the shower they'd shared after making love together on the living room sofa. She rose up from the kitchen stool where she'd been sitting and pressed her lips on his while letting her other hand fall limply onto his penis which almost immediately sprung to life.

"We must meet again some time," Karen said. "That was good."

Kevin smiled and ran his fingers over the bald pate that he'd made more presentable by shaving his head. Clearly he used to have more hair when he was younger, but Kevin wasn't the only one whose body betrayed signs of the passing years. Karen's hair was dyed a reddish orange, but was grey at the roots and her pubes sprouted a coarse mix of brown and white hairs.

"I've seen you so often in the staff room," Kevin said. "I'd always fancied you, but I never thought you'd be

so

good."

"Are you up for more?" asked Karen as she affectionately squeezed his testicles. His penis stirred in response.

"I haven't finished my coffee yet."

"We've got all afternoon for that," said Karen seductively.

And then, just at the least convenient of moments, the intercom to the front door buzzed.

Karen gestured Kevin to hush with a finger. She picked up the intercom phone.

"Who is it?" she sang.

"It's me," said the crackly voice from the ground floor. "I'm here with Primrose. Won't you let us in?"

"Of course, dear," said Karen who pressed the entrance button and then sat back on her stool.

"We're out of luck," she said to Kevin. "It's my daughter. You've got

plenty

of time to drink your coffee."

"Your daughter?" said Kevin with alarm. "Shouldn't I be...?"

"Your clothes?" said Karen. "My daughter won't mind. Anyway, here she is..."

The door to Karen's apartment opened and Kitty let herself in while she supported little Primrose who was strapped to her bosom. She was a tall thin woman in her early thirties wearing jeans and a college sweat-shirt.

"Hi, Mum!" she said as she entered the kitchen. She kissed her mother on both cheeks in turn and paid no attention as her mother's splendid bosom brushed against Primrose's face. The baby girl gurgled and extended a hand towards her grandmother's aureate nipples.

Kitty looked over at Kevin who was nervously hiding an erection beneath the kitchen table. "You must be Mum's friend," she said extending a hand. "I'm Kitty. Kate really, but everyone calls me Kitty."

"I'm Kevin. I teach Maths at your mother's school."

"Oh, another teacher," said Kitty with a smile. "So, there are now

three

teachers in the room. I teach at a Primary School. I don't specialise in anything. Not Maths and not English either. Have you known Mum for long?"

Kevin relaxed, but he was obviously uncomfortable being seen naked in a room by a woman who was so much younger than him. He kept his legs crossed. "We've been colleagues for several years," he answered.

"Do you want a coffee, dear?" asked Karen who was standing by the kettle. From behind, her pendulous buttocks were just as mature and full as her bosom. "Or would you like something a bit stronger?"

"I'm not driving," said Kitty. "I came here by bus. I was in the area and I thought I'd pop by. See how're you doing."

"I'm doing fine, dear. What did you say you wanted? Would you like sherry?"

"That would be lovely, Mum."

"Kevin?"

"Coffee's plenty for me."

"Are you sure? I'll be having a glass of sherry as well."

"All right. OK. Just the one glass."

Karen brought over a tray with a bottle of Bristol Cream and placed it on the kitchen table. She then poured generous measures into three sherry glasses and replaced the cork.

"Should we be making a toast?" asked Kevin.

"I'm not sure," said Karen. "I don't know what for. I'm still celebrating the fall of the English National Unity government. Perhaps we should drink to its continued demise."

"I haven't known any other government the whole time I've been a teacher," said Kitty. "How do we know this interim government's going to be any better?"

"It can't be any worse, believe you me," said her mother. "It's a wonder there are still

any

schools standing after the savage spending cuts they authorised. And lowering the school leaving age to fourteen... Can you believe that?"

"It makes sense if all you want to do is cut spending," said Kevin. "The state schools are languishing and the kids whose parents can afford it are all in private schools."

"I'm tempted to work in a private school myself," said Kitty. "The pay's much better. Perhaps when I come off maternity leave that's what I'll do."

"What about Primrose, dear?" wondered Karen. "Do private schools have crèches too?"

"I think so," said Kitty. "Anyway, that toast. Any suggestions, Mum?"

"Best of luck to Prime Minister Keith Monbiot," Karen suggested. "Let's hope he can rescue the country from the shithole it's dug for itself."

"I'll drink to that," said Kitty as she supped on a glass. "He's only human, though. He can't do everything he'd like to do. For instance, I don't think the Scots or the Welsh want there to be a United Kingdom again. It's a wonder the Scots are content to stay with the monarchy. And I can't see the Northern European Union wanting us back after the way we fucked them about when we quit. There are a million things that need repairs and I don't think Monbiot's necessarily going to be able to pull it off."

"Well, surely he'll do something about education," said Karen. "Wasn't he Shadow Education Minister once?"

"That was a long time ago," said Kevin. "Before the government put an end to normal Parliamentary business."

"...During the State of Emergency which the bastards introduced," added Karen. "Do you remember the riots, dear?"

"I was there," said Kitty. "Of course I remember. A friend of mine ended up in hospital for a week."

"Of course," said Karen. "I should've remembered. Shall we go into the living room? The seats are more comfortable."

The three adults walked out of the kitchen and across the corridor that divided Karen's two-bedroom apartment. Kevin was pleased to see that his clothes and Karen's were neatly piled up in a corner and that there was no obvious evidence of their recent lovemaking. While he'd been in the shower, Karen had tidied up the living room and sponged the trail of semen off the plastic sofa. Like most living rooms, the sofas and settees were arranged around a sixty-inch television screen that was hanging on the wall. Although the volume was muted, the television was still broadcasting the EBC 24 Hour News Service which had become required viewing over the past year.

Kitty sat down on a sofa with Primrose supported in her arms. Then without a word she slipped off her sweater to reveal small bare breasts against which she pressed her baby daughter who eagerly grasped at a nipple and on which she enthusiastically suckled. Kevin, meanwhile, kept his hands over his crotch to hide the evidence of a penis that just wouldn't behave itself. He was conflicted between his desire to put his clothes back on and the imperative not to cause embarrassment by doing so.

Kitty looked around her with keenly observant eyes and then quietly smiled. Kevin guessed that she'd detected the odour of sex in the room, not that his current nakedness wasn't evidence enough of that in itself. He sipped on his glass of sherry in the hope that by being so preoccupied this would provide some welcome distraction from his predicament.

"Have you seen Primrose's father recently, dear?" asked Karen.

"Not for a while, Mum," said Kitty. "He's agreed to pay Child Support, though I don't think his wife's that keen."

"I'm not surprised, dear," said Karen. "I guess he probably didn't want you to keep Primrose."

"I wasn't sure about it myself at first if you remember," said Kitty. "But I'm thirty-two next month. I might not have too many more chances in this life."

"Do you think Primrose's father will actually pay?" wondered Kevin, who speculated what he'd do if he was ever in a similar situation.

"Pete might be an adulterer," said Kitty, "but he's not a bastard. Anyway, he and his wife haven't had kids and I don't think they ever will. They're both in their forties. You probably shouldn't have children at that age whatever happens."

"Hmmm," said Kevin who wasn't sure what he ought to say. He looked around for help. He glanced at the television which was showing pictures of a desert and hungry children in evident distress. The tickertape ribbon that was announcing further falls on the Dow Jones index and news of another incident on the Welsh border gave no information about the images that filled the screen.

"It's dreadful, isn't it?" said Karen who noticed the direction of Kevin's gaze. "I just

had

to give some money to the Mexican Drought Appeal."

"It's not just Mexico," said Kitty. "There are problems in Arizona and Texas as well. The government there won't admit it..."

"...or even allow anyone to report it," said Karen. "Every month there seems to be yet another big international appeal. You just can't ignore what's going on."

"Why not, Mum," said Kitty. "The last government managed to. I don't think the country's paid a penny towards foreign aid for years. Enlightened selfishness I think they called it."

"It didn't work very well," said Kevin. "Not for the poor countries in the world, anyway."

The three of them continued to chat for a further half an hour or so until Kitty noticed the time. She swallowed her last few drops of sherry and placed her glass down.

"I've got some shopping to do," she announced. "Children grow so fast you have to constantly refurbish their wardrobe."

"I'm sorry I threw away all the baby clothes I had, dear," said Karen.

"Don't worry, Mum," said Kitty as she pulled her sweat-shirt back over her shoulders. "You've been plenty generous in other ways."

Mother and daughter kissed each other on the cheeks and Karen escorted her daughter to the door. Primrose had fallen asleep and Kitty tucked her baby into the buggy she'd left in the corridor. Kevin sat in the living room watching the television with the sound turned down while mother and daughter chatted in the hallway.

Eventually the front door to the apartment opened and closed and Kitty was gone. Karen returned to the living room where there was a debate on television about the declining values of stocks and shares in the bickering fragments of the United States.

"Do you want the sound up, Kevin?" asked Karen who picked up the remote control and pointed it at the television.

"I think there are better things to do than watch television," said Kevin.

Karen turned her gaze away from the television towards the erection that was now on full display between Kevin's legs.

"You're absolutely right," said Karen as she determinedly turned the television off.