Now I have to say ahead of time, I'm not usually one to step outside of any of the normal boundaries of accepted behavior. That being said I have to relate to you the events of a recent family reunion. Like any other, I felt mostly out of place. You see I come from a family, in which most of the relatives are of Native American decent. I on the other hand, come from one of its many mixtures with outside cultures. In other words, I am a mutt, half-breed, or whatever other description you care to use. I am proud of both of my heritages, but to be nice, I stick out like a sore thumb at family reunions! Being only half Indian, I somehow inherited my mothers paler Swedish complexion and features. There are a few of us light skins, but for the most part, darker skin is the norm!
I was making my way through the large selections of foods that were always present at these things, rubbing elbows with long forgotten Uncles, cousins, and other assorted relatives, when I happened to run into someone I had long forgotten, my cousin Roz. Now to say that the woman is stunning would be a big understatement. She had the features most guys' dream of in any woman. She had the long, waist length black hair, dark bedroom eyes that just sucked the life from you, and a figure that was, needless to say, the stuff of many a wet-dream! At least in my youth they had been. Roz and me were about the same age, our mid-forties, and to be honest, neither of us looked it. She looked no different than I remembered her in our youth. With the exception of filling out to an even better figure, and maybe a few streaks of silver, she was still the picture of perfection.
Roz and I had been dumped together as kids when our parents visited Grand moms. As the years went by we went from playing with each other's bottles and rattles, to sharing storybooks and board games. As we got older we would explore the woods out behind my Grandparents house for hours. We were the best of friends as well as cousins. She was the one person I looked forward to seeing every week, when we went over for church and dinner. You could say we were inseparable. As you would expect we shared all our little secrets and swore we'd never split up! Kids of nine or ten have a very dim view of the future!
As we entered puberty, we started to discover other things as well. She began to develop early, at eleven. I guess you could say I was an early bloomer to, because Roz and I got very curious as to the changes that were taking place with each other. We'd sneak off into the woods and play "Lets peek" and eventually, like all curious kids, we wanted to touch. It was about that time that one of our many Uncles caught us, and "explained" that what we were doing was so very wrong. His explanation left me not able to sit for almost two days, and my mother telling me about children with two heads and six eyes. I had no idea why they were so upset, and neither did Roz. We were just curious kids after all. After that little episode, Roz and I were not allowed to take trips to the woods, or be alone again without another older kid keeping an eye on us.
As life so often works, soon after, for unrelated reasons, my Mother and Father split up. My Mother got custody of my brother and me and we moved far to the north of where we had spent our childhood. Like so many others, Roz and I had lost contact. We had sworn to always keep in touch, but time and distance proved to be too much. I hadn't seen or spoken to her since a year after leaving our home in the Carolinas. That had been over thirty years ago! Now there she was right in front of me, still a vision to my eyes. I smiled recalling all the wonderful adventures we had spent together, and all the trouble we used to get into.
Just as I was about to go and re-introduce myself, Roz turned around and saw me. She stood there looking across the yard at me, when a huge grin spread across her face. She very nearly knocked down two small children carrying their lunch plates, as she dashed across the lawn and jumped into my arms; giving me the tightest hug I have felt in a very long time. "I thought that was you!" she yelled at me. "You haven't changed much, well maybe a little!" There was that smile she had, that was for me alone.
Needless to say we moved away from the main throng of our relatives and talked for hours, catching up on our lives. It seemed like we had only seen each other a few days ago. Yet our conversation went back and forth over the many years we had been separated, and we found ourselves lost in the many ups and downs of each other's lives. She had married early, at eighteen, had five children. I on the other hand had married late, in my mid twenties, and had three children in two separate marriages. She had recently divorced her long time husband for abuse, and having too many affairs. While I on the other hand had lost my second wife to Cancer soon after the boys had left for college, leaving me alone for the first time in years. I had never even considered trying to replace her in the two years since.
Roz seemed to take the loss of my wife as hard as I had and we soon found ourselves commiserating over our pathetic lives. Her girls were all grown now, and she was ready to rediscover some of her lost youth. I told her I could probably use some fun times again myself. We made plans to get together again, and promised that it would not just be an empty offer. As the night brought the reunion to an end, we soon found ourselves again saying goodbye. I honestly hoped it would not be thirty years again before we saw each other next. I made my way back to the airport and flew home to my empty house. I really hadn't wanted to be there after Shelly's death, and began to think that maybe it was time to make a change.
After several phone calls with Roz, I finally decided it was time to go home. I liquidated all of my stocks, and bought a few acres of land out in the woods of my hometown, had a modest four-bedroom house built, and a call to my publisher to let her know of the change. I moved what little stuff I wanted to keep, along with a few reminders of Shelly, and began to get my "old" new life back home. Needless to say, I was looking forward to renewing my friendship with Roz as well.
Roz came over early the morning the moving van rolled into my new driveway. My son and a few of his college buddies were helping me with the move. Jeremy, my youngest, wanted to check out the new place, since it was only a few hours from where he attended college. "It would make a convenient place for me to crash on holidays.", he said! I could picture the mountains of beer cans and trash that I would end up having to clean. I rolled my eyes and just smiled, it seemed some things never did change after all.
It was a rather humid day, and as anyone who's ever been in the Carolinas can appreciate, humid days are somewhat unbearable to the unaccustomed. Sweat was literally running down all of our faces. I looked at Jeremy and suggested we call it a day! He and his friends readily agreed, so we flipped open the cooler and cracked a few cold beers. I recently began to allow him to drink as long as he didn't get carried away. His twenty-first birthday was only a few weeks off.
About the time we were all getting relaxed in our chairs, out onto the deck walked Roz, in what I could only call "Daisy Dukes" and a half shirt I could only describe as barely enough material to cover her chest. Roz seemed not to care that all four of the boys, my son included, had all but forgotten the conversation they were just having. They just watched her cross the deck and sit down on a chair next to mine with looks of pure lust!
"Jeremy! Get you Aunt (I drew out this part), a cold beer from the cooler!" I said as they all came back into focus. After a brief second Jeremy focused on my eyes, and jumped up to do what I had told him. He moved surprisingly quickly for a young man his size; Dad still had some respect I noted. He twisted off the cap and handed it to Roz, who by now was well aware the she was the focus of the four young men seated uncomfortably around the deck. The other three were shuffling their feet and trying desperately not to stare at "Aunt Roz"! Roz for her part grasped the situation quickly and readjusted her chair so that she was squarely facing me instead. Now it was my turn to squirm, as the view afforded me an unfettered look up her legs to the material that was barely covering the focus of every man's attention in this situation.
Jeremy and his friends seemed to take that as their cue to make a hasty exit. They got up to leave, and one by one said their goodbyes to Roz. I followed them to the door, and more than once overheard "Fine ass", or "damn hot". I knew they would have a lot to talk about on the way back, when it came to Aunt Roz! Jeremy looked back and smiled, "Take it easy Pops, don't tell Aunt Roz but she's one hot lady!" With that he turned and headed for the SUV Shelly had left him. I watched for a few minutes as it disappeared down the dirt driveway to the road and disappear.
