Dream a little dream of me Part 2a
Author's note: Parts 2 are each direct endings of Part 1. Each Part 2 is independent of all other Parts 2.
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A dog barked somewhere in the distance.
The doorbell rang. Followed by a knock.
My sleep-deprived brain was agitated by this nonsense. Who the hell comes by the house at this hour--
I opened the door.
My mind balked.
Chills spread across my body.
In the dim porch light stood a figure in a black hoodie.
**********
The figure stared at me. I could not see his face, but then he turned his head to the light to look at the house number and--
She had shaggy black hair, a long pale face, and two eyebrow piercings. Tall and thin, she stepped back and said, "Sorry."
Then she walked quickly back down the path, climbed into a dark blue Rav4 and pulled away. There was enough light to see that the plates came from two states over.
**********
I drove around aimlessly. It was too early on a Sunday morning to wake up my buddy with the empty room. I thought about all the things that had happened since that first night. I needed to tell someone. I needed a fresh and probably saner person to tell me what the hell to do. I really didn't have any friends I considered close enough--
Then the nickel dropped. It was more like a quarter these days. Maybe a Venmo transaction. Whatever the metaphor, good old brain came up with an answer.
**********
I grew up a half hour drive out of the city. By the time I arrived, the sun was full up on a beautiful morning. My mom and dad were sitting in the breakfast nook finishing their coffee. Mom poked at her iPhone and my dad was reading a golfing magazine.
I sat down. "I need some advice."
Dad removed his glasses, closed the magazine, laid it on the table, and gave me his best wise patriarch face.
Mom kept swiping.
"It's kind of personal," I said to her. "Maybe I should talk to Dad? Alone?"
"It's about sex then?"
I nodded as she finally looked up.
"You think I don't know about sex?" she asked.
There being no correct answer to that, I did not answer.
"If you had gotten here an hour ago, I would have still had my legs in the air."
I stared at her. I was actually blushing, a skill I never knew I had.
"And after you leave, we might have another go. Viagra seems to last your father about twelve hours."
I glanced helplessly at my Dad. He had a fist to his mouth trying to suppress his laughter.
"Jesus H. Christ," I protested. "Too much information."
My mother smiled at me. "My problem is dryness, and we fix that with a nice water-based lubricant. Now, what's your problem?"
I sputtered for a bit, then both my parents burst into peals of laughter. I thought for an instant that they were having me on. But my mother's tone had been-- fuck, she was serious.
I sighed the sigh of an indulgent child, then told them the whole story. Changing - even though Mom had laid her claim to being down with illustrative vulgarity - fucking to making love, cumming to orgasm, etc.
They were still my parents, after all.
After the telling, they looked at one another, all joking forgotten.
"I am so sorry, son," my mother said.
"You having any dreams yourself?" Dad asked.
"No," I said. "That is, nothing out of the ordinary."
Mom tapped her coffee cup. "Christine doesn't know anyone named Justin?"
"That's what she says. And she does not know anybody who looks like the guy in her dream."
"And we believe her?" Dad asked.
Mom gave him the hairy eyeball. "What a thing to say. Of course we believe her. Christine is a wonderful woman. We are lucky to have her in our family."
"Plus," Dad said, "why give you a name at all? You'd never know. You aren't in the dream."
Thanks for reminding me.
They thought for a while as I went and fixed a fresh pot of coffee. When I returned with a cup and refilled theirs, Mom made that hand motion to my Dad that said: go ahead - I will jump in when you screw up.
Dad shrugged his fuck if I know shrug. "You need to go back to Christine. Right now. And tell her that you love her. Everything else can be fixed, but you need to make sure that she knows that you are one hundred percent."
Mom nodded. "Then you two need to get a therapist."
"If your transmission went, you'd take it to a pro," Dad said. "Same with relationships. Don't fuck around trying to fix it yourself."
**********
Hurray for my brain, my brain thought as I drove back to my house. Mom and Dad were geniuses. This was fixable, and running away was not the right answer. What the right answer might be I had no idea. I was going to pay some professional to overhaul the transmission of our marriage. Or something like that.
I pulled into my driveway about noon. Parked on the other side of the street was a dark blue Rav4. I got out and went over to it. Plates from two states away.
Probably someone just moving in and came over before to ask a question.
Why hadn't she asked any question then? She had looked at me like expecting someone else before running off.
I went into the house. I had parked next to Chris's car, so she hadn't gone out. Could she be having a lie in? I checked the clock. It seemed unlikely.
Then I heard faint noises from upstairs. She was probably doing her yoga.
I tiptoed up the stairs. I was going to surprise her, grab her out of downward dog or cat-cow or whatever contortion she was in, smother her with kisses, maybe fuck her, and tell her how much I absolutely loved her.
Her grunts got louder as I approached our bedroom door. She must really be yogaing hard--
I froze. My body started to throb in time with my heartbeat.
There were two voices.
I rammed the door open, splintering the jam. I stumbled into the room, almost losing my balance.
Chris had been riding him. On our bed. She turned as I approached, blood in my eyes and thunder in my ears.
She fell off to the far side of him. I balled my fists and raised them, ready to go to war on the bastard--
There was no cock. There should have been a hard cock still pointing into the empty space where my wife's cunt had just been.