"Honey, I really, really want to go this time," my wife Sarah said with a bit of an annoying whine in her voice.
"OK, why this time and not one of the last fifteen years of our high school reunions?" I responded.
"Well, there are several very good reasons to go this year. First, they are combining the class of '85, my class, with the class of '80, your class. So, for the first time we can both see our old friends. Secondly, I don't have any classes to teach this summer, (my wife was a substitute grade school teacher) and you said your boss is after you to take some of your accrued vacation time."
I had to think a bit to come up with a cogent and believable counter-argument. The longer I delayed, the more I was about to give in. We didn't have any kids, not for lack of trying, but the various doctors we have been to have given us several reasons. My sperm was low mobility, and Sarah has had several bouts with infections of the fallopian tubes that left them badly scarred. Neither condition insured 100% barrenness, but all the doctors gave us less than 1 in 100 odds of having children.
My decision was really made for me. "Come over here sweet lips, and promise me that we are going to have wild monkey sex every night in the motel room, and I will take you."
"Yessssss," she squealed. "I wouldn't have it any other way."
I had said no to her for the last fifteen years or so, I really owed it to her now.
Let me give you some info on the Madisons. Sarah is more cute than gorgeous; she is a red-head with the requisite sprinkle of freckles on her nose and across her ample breasts. She watches her weight and exercises frequently to keep her head-turning figure. She is 32 now, and we were married two years after she graduated from high school. Do the math and you can figure that we've been married 13 years. I'm 37 which puts me at 24 when we married. My name is Don Madison, and I joined the Navy a year out of high school in '81 when Sarah was only a freshman in HS. I didn't even know her then. After the Navy, I wasted a year at the Kaskaskia Junior College before I started my own business in construction. It failed after a year, but I was hired by a large construction company in St. Louis where I've prospered enough to give us a comfortable life.
I met Sarah while I was in the Navy, home on leave, and dated her while I was in Junior College.
I fell head over heels in love with my cute little red-head and was pleasantly surprised to find out that, when I finally got in her pants about a month before the wedding that, she was a virgin. That wasn't to say that she was naΓ―ve about sex. She confessed that she was a "technical" virgin and told me she kept her hymen intact by being an accomplished jack-off and cock-sucker.
Oh well, in the eighties I guess that was as good as I was going to get.
Our home town was in southern Illinois about 70 miles from our present home in west St, Louis. Since neither of us had living parents, we really never had a good reason to go back to the unsophisticated, small town whose only claim to fame is it is 30 miles from Scott AFB and home to Payday candy bars. Being close to the Air Force base is why all the young men joined the Navy. Too many airmen had knocked up our girlfriends, sisters, and more than a few wives. The males in our little town really hated the Air Force.
I know that Sarah has a few aunts or uncles and maybe some cousins still living there, but hardly enough family to merit driving 70 miles on the dangerous, two-lane state highway 161 to visit.
The reunion was four or five months off, and I had pushed it out of my mind, until one day Sarah asked me if I had told my boss I need a week off in June. That started her babbling how much she is looking forward to seeing old friends and dancing at the reunion ball.
I really had but fuzzy memories of those four high school years. I guess it was because I was five years older than Sarah and had some pretty exciting experiences, sexual and otherwise, after high school. After a bit of memory jogging, I did recall a guy that would probably qualify as my best friend Mario Castilari. We were on the varsity football team together and had had a bunch of double-dates.
Mario and I were good friends. Mario's father owned a bar just over the county line, and because of a freak of geography, the county to the south of Marion County was mostly corn fields with but one very tiny village. As a result, there was little or no law enforcement to be concerned about, like niggling little under-age drinking laws. Mama Castilari kept a sharp eye on all "her boys" and was vigilant that nobody left the bar with car keys and a snoot full.
The more I thought about it the more I was looking forward to a few cold Stag beers at Mama Castilari's. As is often the case, when you start reminiscing about a part of your past life, more and more interconnected memories surface. I had a vague memory that Mario had a little brother in grade school when we were seniors. I made myself a note to ask Sarah if there was a Castilari in her class.
At dinner that night I off-handedly asked Sarah "Hey honey, did you have a guy in your class with the last name "Castilari?"
Whoa! I was glad I was setting across the table from her, so I had a good look at her face. She never could mask her emotions. I saw surprise, fear, and a hard effort to clear all those reactions from her face in the space of 10 seconds.
"OK Sarah, I didn't mean to shake you up. I guess you answered my question. Now how