Author's note: This story is an independent sequel to "Laura's Fire", published in the romance section.
All comments and ratings are greatly appreciated.
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Wanda was fun. She was like Gladys but younger, she had the same build, she was also short and chubby and even her face looked the same. Her hair was tied in small, tight braids and it was black opposed to Gladys's white, but her skin was the same beautiful, brown hue. She was lively and talkative and laughed a lot in her low, husky voice. She seemed to be aware of everything that happened around her despite being blind. She wore dark glasses, so her disability wasn't immediately obvious.
Tommy sat with Gladys in plastic chairs in her backyard and observed the garden party around them. The chair was a little small and rickety for his larger frame, but Gladys with her birdlike old woman physique seemed comfortable enough. Laura was talking with Wanda at the opposite side of the yard, near the table with refreshments. It was interesting to follow their body language, how they were checking each other out.
Laura was almost a full head taller than Wanda. She had her straight, brown hair in a ponytail like she always did, and her complexion looked almost pale next to Wanda's warm dark skin. She was sideways from where Tommy sat and he couldn't see the birthmark that covered half of her left cheek and her ear. She kept her gray eyes mostly fixed on Wanda even when they couldn't share eye contact. It was a deeply rooted custom to look at the one you're talking to.
Laura had agreed to try, of course. She was so interested in trying it out with a woman she hadn't needed much encouragement. She had always had a fondness of lesbian erotica and getting to try it in person was definitely on her bucket list, whether she had realized it or not. Tommy was glad for her. He genuinely believed she would like it, and opportunities like this seldom presented themselves. She was still nervous, that much was apparent from her demeanor. Wanda seemed wound up as well, maybe not so much nervous but sparkling with anticipation.
"Are you looking at them?" Gladys asked. "Do you think they'll go ahead with it?"
Wanda was Gladys's second cousin and they had the same hereditary condition that manifested in visual imparity. In Gladys's words she was blind as a bat and always had been. Tommy didn't know the specifics about Wanda's condition, he hadn't met her until today's garden party.
"I think they will," Tommy said. "I hope they will."
"You are quite a couple, you know that?" Gladys asked. "I don't think that many men would hope for their woman to get in bed with somebody else."
"Yes, suppose so," Tommy said. "I just really think she'll like it. So the question is why wouldn't I encourage her to try something she might enjoy immensely? I love her, you know."
"And you won't be jealous?" asked Gladys, a smile flickering on her face.
Gladys was the matchmaker in this unlikely reunion, she had proposed to Laura she could introduce her to her cousin for this specific purpose. Wanda was a lesbian with a special fondness for first timers, and being blind and middle aged didn't exactly widen her prospects, so she had been very susceptible. Gladys was eighty four years old and had never in her life imagined she would act as a procuress, but then she had never met anyone like Laura before.
"I don't think so," Tommy said. "I couldn't give her that experience but I'd like her to have it, so what am I to do? And I'm really not a jealous person. I mean, if she wants to be with me then I'm the happiest guy on earth, and if she doesn't she doesn't. I've been in jealous relationships before and I guess I'm still traumatized by all that. I really don't want to own her. Not that it would be even possible, of course."
He'd had a long discussion about exclusivity and jealousy in a relationship with Laura before she had decided to go on with this proposition. They seemed to have a similar approach, but life was never the same in practice as in theory. He didn't feel like going into too much detail with Gladys, though. Laura was on closer terms with her, Tom had a more formal, polite relationship with their old neighbor from across the street.
Laura and Wanda had progressed to small touches, they were standing close to each other and talking with their heads close together. Laura glanced across the yard and flashed him a dazzling smile. Oh, she was definitely turned on by whatever Wanda was saying to her. Tommy returned the smile and blew her a kiss. It was fun in a way to know that Wanda couldn't pick up on it.
"Laura is quite a remarkable person," Gladys said. "She's unlike anyone I've ever met. She's so refreshingly unassuming. Did you know she offered to read me erotic literature, just like that? She didn't assume I was too old or prissy or that it wasn't appropriate or anything, she just asked me if I wanted to hear. And then she did, she even read some of her short stories. I mean, you are nice, but you're really quite ordinary compared to her."
"I guess so," Tommy said and smiled at Gladys even when she couldn't see it. "I know what you mean. I was really surprised the first time we discussed sex with her. She was so open and unashamed, so matter-of-factly about it. She said, how was it again, she said, 'I'm an old maid but I'm not prudish'. Her attitude towards many things is just not what one would expect."
"I agree. It makes her delightful. Why do you think that is?"
"Well I think it's because she's been alone for so much of her life. She was a lonely child, living almost out in the countryside, and all through school she just got teased and shunned for her birthmark. You're the first real friend she's ever had, now that she's thirty five. She told you that, didn't she?
"So she's never belonged to any group tightly enough to absorb their conceptions as her own. There's some preconceptions that stem from society at large but I don't think she's really invested in them either. Because if you're just by yourself, who's gonna know what you do? Who's gonna care? Who are you going to disappoint or disgrace? And spending that much time all alone, I think she really knows herself."
"I think you're right," Gladys said. "I think it makes her free. It's like she's outside of all the petty little games most people play. Her parents have died as well, haven't they? And she doesn't have any siblings?"
"That's right," Tommy said. His family status was exactly the same, so in a way he was just as loose in the world as she was. He had had more of a normal life with numerous friends, acquaintances and girlfriends, though, and knew well enough he was nothing like Laura, despite the superficial similarities. Laura was magnificent, she was like a rough diamond.
Gladys thought about it and they sat in silence. Not that it could really be called a silence with her nieces' and nephews' kids running around the backyard, making a ruckus. Tommy waited, he was a patient man, he was seldom in a hurry.
