It was 5:45am in late May, and Emily had just started her daily morning jog.
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Emily had recently turned 29 and, after 4 years of medical school, 4 years of residency and one year of fellowship, she returned to her quiet small hometown in Vermont to joint a local medical clinic. The town was over 90% white, and growing up there Emily was one of the few black kids in the neighborhood and in her high school.
Her parents married while in their late 30's and Emily, or Em as they usually called her, was their only child. Her dad, after a long career in the military, got a job as a police officer in the local sheriff's department and her mom was a librarian. They settled into a reasonably comfortable lower middle class life in Vermont, although most of Emily's classmates were from more well-to-do families.
Emily's dad died from a heart attack while she was in medical school. Her mom was in poor health and shortly after that moved to a retirement home. Their family house stood empty for several years and now Emily moved back in. The house was a sprawling 60-year-old single-story structure, with four bedrooms, a full basement, a study and a large fenced back yard with some apple trees. Emily thought that the house was too big for a single person, but she did want to start a family at some point. Her job at a clinic was as a family medicine doctor with a specialty in sports medicine, and she planned to start a small side business as a massage therapist at her house. She had already converted the study into a tastefully furnished and fully equipped massage room.
Growing up, Emily had been a level-headed, inquisitive and highly intelligent child. She excelled at her school work, particularly, math, physics, chemistry and science. Emily figured early on that a medical career would be a good choice for her, given her academic abilities and even tempered and humorous disposition. Although not overly gregarious, she always enjoyed working with people and, both in high school and college, she found it easy to connect with students of varied backgrounds. After entering the University of Vermont at the age of 17, she got her undergraduate degree in just three years and then went to medical school in neighboring Massachusetts.
Em was also very athletic. She run track, both in high school and in college, and did some martial arts and yoga in her free time as well. From her teen years she treated her body as her temple and became something of a health food nut. Neither alcohol, nor drugs nor smoking ever had any appeal to her. Now at 30 years of age Emily still had a slim, nicely muscled and well toned body of a 20-year old and was in better shape than even while she was in high school. She had big slightly almond shaped brown eyes and long luscious hair, falling all the way to her waist when let loose. She had a slender waist, narrow hips, smooth flat tummy and firm pert breasts with large brown nipples. Standing at 5'5'' and weighing 118 pounds, Em was quite a knockout beauty, and she often turns heads of guys and of some girls as well, while in college and in medical school.
And yet, her personal life had been fairly uneventful. While in high school, although her white peers treated her quite well and she had many (if not particularly close) friends, she always felt that there remained an invisible barrier between her and them that she was never quite able to breach. In college there were quite a few other black students, but most of them came from big cities and she found that she had relatively little in common with them either. Through the last eight years she had several short term boyfriends and even experimented with a couple of same sex flings, but never had a sturdy long term relationship. Still, she was not too worried about the future. "Seek and you shall find," she always told herself. She felt sure that it would happen in due time.
Emily had just moved back into her family home a few weeks ago and was due to start her job at the clinic on June 1, about a week from now. She was enjoying her remaining free days while getting ready for the job and getting reacquainted with her family home and town.
The house stood close to a small picturesque river flowing through town, near a long hiking trail along the riverbank that was also popular with joggers. Em had always been a morning person, and every day at 5:30am she would go for a five mile run along the river.
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This morning Em was really enjoying her daily morning run along the river. The weather was beautiful, nice and cool with a light breeze. Em was wearing a sports bra, her favorite black running capri and white sneakers.
The trail was mostly deserted at this early hour and she only passed a couple other joggers so far, both older guys who were running much slower than her. Then she noticed another figure of a jogger ahead who seemed to have been running at a similar pace to hers. As she was slowly getting closer, she realized that it was a young man, probably even a teenager, in bright yellow sneakers, short black running shorts and a white t-shirt. She noticed that the boy had nice smooth strong calves and thighs and a cute compact butt. His white legs and arms already had a bit of a warm golden suntan, which had always been of one Emily's secret turn-ons. She felt herself blush a little.
"Come on, Em, quit it, you are not a cradle robber!" she reproached herself mentally. She saw that the boy slowed down and stopped to sit down at one of the wooden benches along the trail, taking a break from his run. As she was passing him by, she concentrated on her own running and steady breathing, and only noticed the boy's full head of deep auburn hair with her peripheral vision.
"Miss Emily!! Is that you?" the boy called her in a ringing sonorous voice. Em stopped and looked back at him in surprise.
"It's me, Mattie! 'Ginger Matt', don't you remember me?" he continued.
Emily suddenly realized who the boy was. While in high school, to make some extra pocket money, she occasionally did some babysitting. Matt, or Mattie, was one of the white kids in town whom she babysat from time to time for about two years, when he was 5-6 years old. She remembered him as a rambunctious freckled ginger-haired green-eyed ball of energy, very sweet and affectionate. His parents both worked as engineers for the state transportation department, and often had to travel around the state thus requiring her babysitting services.
"Ah, yes, my god, Matt, I could hardly recognize you! I am very glad to see you, kiddo!" she exclaimed.
"Miss Emily, I am super happy to see you too! And you can still call me Mattie," the boy answered.
"Of course, Mattie, of course! But in that case you shouldn't call me 'Miss Emily', as it makes me feel old," she replied with a laugh. "Call me Emily, or Em, or, at last resort, 'Doctor Em'. Yes, I am a doctor now, starting a job at a clinic in town next week."
"Ok, 'Doctor Em' it will be then," Matt smiled.
"Aww, Mattie, you have always been so polite and I see that hasn't changed," Em laughed again in response. "How old are you now, Mattie? Seventeen?"
