It has been a while...sorry about that. Sometimes life interferes. Anyway, I had a lot of fun writing this story and I hope you enjoy it. Please let me know what you think.
As always, this is a work of fiction and the characters are imaginary, existing only within the confines of the story and my imagination. Enjoy!
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It felt fairly strange to be back in college after nearly thirty years. Sitting amidst all those young graduate students made me feel a bit old, even though I was only fifty-one years old. Still, I was enjoying myself...feeling my love for history being recharged as I participated in the seminars...feeling renewed myself and why not -- in a sense I was starting over.
I'd been a history teacher in a small eastern Kentucky high school for twenty-nine years and had been married for all but the last two of those years. Lisa, my wife, I'd caught with her boss, the bank manager in our bed one morning when I'd come home early with the flu. It had been an ugly divorce as Lisa had contested everything even as her lover was being taken to the cleaners by his wife. In the end, I walked away with a rental property we'd bought as an investment years before and over one hundred thousand dollars for my share of the house and other property. I also walked away with a serious sense of futility and depression that seemed to carry over into my work.
I love teaching...or at least I had. That last school year had been a god-awful slog and at the end of it, I decided that I needed a change. I decided to pursue a long surrendered dream of getting my doctorate's degree in history and took a sabbatical to pursue it. With the settlement on the house -- I had the cash and decided that a year's change of scenery would do me good. So, I wound up attending the University of Kentucky in hot pursuit of my doctoral degree. I needed a few courses and of course my doctoral thesis which had been half finished when I'd stuck it in a drawer nearly twenty years before.
I began my "adventure" in pursuit of a long abandoned dream, but I had no idea that one of my own former students would redirect my adventure for a new life into an entirely new direction. Her name...Breanna -- one of my unforgettables.
"MISTER HELLER!" I was in a bookstore, perusing the mystery section when I heard my name shrieked into my ear. Before I could react, I found myself being hugged ferociously by a definitely womanly body. Although I hadn't been with a woman in a couple of years, I recognized breasts when they were mashed up against me. A sweet, spicy scent filled my nostrils as I heard, "MISTER HELLER, I CAN'T BELIEVE IT'S YOU!"
I felt someone's aggressive embrace loosen and managed to gracefully disengage myself to find a rather stunning woman standing in front of me. Young...early twenties, dark brown hair streaked with vivid red and cut short ending in points just below her chin. Tall...taller than me by maybe an inch and I stand an even six feet tall. A long, lush body -- not fat by any means, but curvy and full bodied...those aforementioned breasts prominently displayed in a low cut T-shirt. Her dark hair framed a pale-skinned face with brilliant blue eyes, a pert nose and full and luscious lips now parted in a tremendous smile.
I searched through the sizable index of students' faces accumulated in almost thirty years of teaching and quickly came up with a name. "Breanna...how are you?"
Her smile grew even larger as she replied, "Omigod! You remember me, Mister Heller? I can't believe it!" She seemed to almost vibrate with delight, bouncing on the heels of her feet which drew my eyes to her rather bountiful chest which bounced in such a way that betrayed that she wasn't wearing a bra.
I shrugged and said, "It's only been what...three years, Breanna and besides, I never forget my good students!"
She blushed slightly and said, "I wasn't that good a student...a bit of a trouble-maker maybe." I laughed and shook my head in disagreement. Yes, I remembered Breanna. A consistent 'A' student and yes, a bit of a troublemaker in that she loved to argue in class...something I actually encouraged. She had also run with the Goth crowd...or at least as Goth as kids from an eastern mountain community could get...in those days favoring a lot of black leather and lace, running into trouble with the principals for dress code violation. Breanna had in high school, delighted in seeing how much of her breasts she could get on display and how high she could wear the hems of her leather minis before getting violated on dress code.
The Goth look was gone, but it was obvious she was proud of her rather impressive breasts and I wondered if she still wore her dresses short when she wasn't wearing skin tight black jeans. Breanna could still remind an old man how it felt to be young. "Well, I hope you're still giving your teachers fits. Are you attending UK?"
Breanna nodded and said, "Oh yes...third year, studying for physician's assistant." She turned as someone approached and said, "Oh, you remember my boyfriend? Honey, look...its Mister Heller! Can you believe it?"
I turned to see a tall sallow faced young man wearing an army-surplus fatigue jacket, his hair shaggy to his shoulders and still sporting the same scraggly chin beard he'd had in high school. "Jesse, how are you?"
I held out my hand and after a moment's hesitation, he shook it with a weak effort. There was a bit of surprise in his voice and then in an unsure tone, "You remember me, Mister Heller?'
I nodded and replied, "Of course I do. So, you're attending UK too?"
He nodded and said in the same glum tone I recalled him using constantly in high school, "I suppose so." He didn't offer any details and I didn't press him. I imagined that he was doing just enough to plod through and pass, much as he had in the old days.
"What are you doing in Lexington, Mister Heller...on a school night?" asked Breanna, her body still bouncing as if seeing me was the next best thing to meeting Santa Claus.
I laughed and replied, "I'm back in college myself...doctoral program. Taking a year off to work on my PhD."
Jesse managed to smile weakly while Breanna seemed to think that it was the best news she'd heard all year and I got another hug, her arms pulling my neck down so that my face was nearly nuzzling the exposed upper portions of her breasts. "That's fucking awesome, Mister Heller!" she exclaimed. "I'm going to be looking for you on campus!" She laughed and glanced over at her boyfriend whose face appeared glummer than ever. "We can hang out sometime!"
That caught me by surprise and I was momentarily at a loss for words. Finally, I shrugged my shoulders and replied, "Well...you never know. School keeps me pretty busy and I'm sure it does you too!"