FIVE YEARS EARLIER
There are amazing moments in a man's life, marked by significant events. There is magic in the day he marries the woman of his dreams. There is incomparable wonder as he carries his first born to be cleaned and weighed as her mother recovers from such an overwhelming accomplishment. There is absolute pride as he watches his daughter graduate from college with honors. There is sorrow and pain touching his soul as he lives through each of his parents departing this mortal coil. There is shame and remorse as he is confronted with the demise and farewell to his marriage of more than thirty years.
There are seemingly insignificant events in a man's life as well, and it is possible for even a moment such as that to have so profound effect on him as to change his life. There is the magic of looking into the eyes of a person he has known for most of a lifetime and seeing a person he has never met before who would own his soul.
February snows had come and gone, and March was entering like a lamb for a change. Jonathon and Lucy Thomas had managed to get along well enough to finish pruning each of the dozen dwarf fruit trees in their small orchard, and were busy trying to keep the fire stoked enough that only a pile of ash would remain. It was no small feat that they had not argued at all during the two hour project. It helped that they kept the attempts to communicate at all to a minimum.
The last of the branches had been piled high on the smoldering blaze, and they stood with rakes in hand to tend and manage the fire to its last. After a few moments of watching, without notice or comment, Jon turned to stroll across the sweeping driveway to retrieve a pair of white plastic chairs which had been stacked and left on an outside patio for the winter. He returned and separated the chairs, setting one near his wife, then carrying the one for himself to the far side of the fire.
"This chair is wet and dirty," Lucy commented as he began to sit down.
"Sorry," he said, standing back up and glancing down at his own chair. "You can have this one."
"No...I want this one," she replied.
He sighed. "I'll go get a towel and wipe it off for you."
"No...I want you to sit in my chair and clean it off with your pants."
"But that will get my pants wet and dirty."
"Of course it will."
She stared at him with a frown that was firm and determined. She had stared at him before, but this expression was somehow new. She almost looked like another person. She was not angry, but neither was she teasing, and he could tell that she was not going to change her mind. She pointed to her chair.
"Now get over here and sit down."
Jon stared back at her. What was he supposed to do? Was this another of her halfhearted attempts to placate him with some pathetic effort at being dominant? He had asked her a hundred times, but it had always been some feeble game before. He was not going to get his hopes up over this gesture. That dog had never been willing to really hunt before.
"I...said...sit...down Jonsey," she said through clenched teeth as she pointed to her chair. Her eyes squinted and her lips puckered.
The look on her face, and the way she addressed him, sparked a faint submissive notion deep within him that touched his groin. This was almost what he had been longing for. It couldn't hurt to acquiesce a little for the sake of his deep desires. He had asked for this for a long time, after all. Without looking at her he stomped over to her chair and sat down. He scooted around a bit, making a weak effort to dry the chair off with his butt, then stood back up.
"Good enough?" he asked
She reached up and slapped him so hard that it sent a painful sting on his cheek that stretched from his left eye to an ache in his ear and jaw. Fury consumed him in an instant, a rage that nearly boiled over so far that he was ready to hit her back. He just managed to control himself.
"Sit back down," she commanded.
He sighed deeply. There was that notion inside him again that felt so calming. He sat back down and she quickly stepped around in front of him as though to block him from standing back up. He looked up at her leaning over him and she cradled his jaw with her left hand and stared deeply into his eyes.
That was the seemingly insignificant magic moment. That was the first time he met Lucinda.
"I'm really not very happy with how long it took you to follow my instructions," she said quietly.
"I'm sorry," he said
"You will be," she replied in a tone that was both calm and without quarter.