Author's Note: The following is a work of fiction. All participants in sexual activity are over the age of eighteen. This installment is the last of the series which was originally published in 2022.
The version below was edited in March 2025 to correct some minor errors. I hope you enjoy it!
***
MY SWEET SANDY, CHAPTER FIVE
by Eosphorus
I was barely in the front door when Mom stood and turned towards me glaring. My dad wore a worried expression on his face.
I knew those looks. Something was up. "What?"
"Did you have a pleasant day out?" Mom asked.
"Uh, sure."
"Yeah? How was your dinner with
Sandra
?" Mom said Sandy's name like it was five syllables long.
They know.
Maybe it was at dinner or outside eating ice cream. Instead of just enjoying the pleasure of stumbling onto a secret romance, whoever it was who saw us decided this was their chance to spread scandal.
"Who told you about that?" I said.
"Nevermind!" Mom shouted. "I heard all about it. You and that Greenhouse lady kissing and holding hands! What the fuck? What're you doing, carrying on with a woman like her? She's almost my age, for Christ's sake."
Mom has this weird thing she does when she's angry, and she was doing it. She holds out her hands and slaps her wrists together, like she's clapping except it only produces a thumping sound. She does this in sync with her words, one wrist clap for every word.
I think I was twelve before I figured out it wasn't a thing other people did.
"I'm not having this conversation," I said.
"You are having this conversation!" she yelled, five wrist claps accompanying her words.
"Ma, this is nothing to concern you."
"It is my concern" Four more wrist claps. "This perverted bitch is taking advantage of my son and I won't have it."
"Ma, enough, please. I'm twenty. No one's taking advantage of anyone."
"She's too old for you. It's not right. It's obscene!"
"Wait a minute. Dad's fifteen years older than you."
"That's different."
"How is it different?"
"It's different when it's the man who is older."
"You can't be serious."
"When I met your father I was twenty-one and he was already established in his career. This woman, what can come of it? Why do you even want her? It's disgusting. Please tell me you haven't had
relations
with her."
"Ma!"
"Remember, sex before marriage is a sin."
My older brother was born six months after my parent's wedding. Strangely enough, his birth weight was above average.
"I should call Father McNulty!" Mom said. "I should tell him what you're up to. Imagine what he'd say?"'
As though I care what an octogenarian celibate thinks about my sex life. "Ma, please."
"You should wait until marriage. Like your brother."
I don't know how I didn't burst out laughing. My brother was an even bigger horndog than me, only more successful. "Jake? Waiting until marriage?"
"Danielle," Dad interjected. "It's none of our business. If Jimmy wants to see this woman, he's an adult. It's his choice."
"Is that so?" She turned towards him, fire in her eyes.
"I don't blame him," Dad said, a matter of fact tone in his voice. "You don't remember, but we met this Sandra lady last year at that birthday party for Linda's boy. She was that pretty blonde. You remember her. I know I do. She was the one with the large, you know."
I braced myself for the onslaught about to be hurled at my father. Although she barely cracks five feet and weighs less than a hundred pounds, Mom could be scary as fuck.
"What, you were checking her out?" She shrieked at him. "She made quite the impression on you?"
"Well, she's rather beautiful," Dad said, retreating down the hall as Mom followed him. "You can't blame Jimmy for being interested in her. What man wouldn't be?"
It took a moment to realize what he'd done. He'd managed it so many times over the years, you had to appreciate the mastery with which he pulled it off. Once more, Mom's ire was diverted away from one of his sons towards himself.
She'd rage and scream and threaten but it never came to so much as a slap. All bluster, but still fucked up.
I could hear them in the other room, Mom venting her fury and Dad talking her down.
I should've stayed at Sandy's.
***
I texted back and forth with Sandy. We decided I'd spend the coming week with her until Jessica came home and we'd figure out what to do from there. I packed a bag the next morning and told my parents I'd see them in a week.
"I bet I can guess where you'll be staying." Mom's voice started to rise.
"Danielle," Dad said.
Mom took a deep breath. "Be careful, Jimmy."
"I will."
Twenty minutes later I was sitting at Sandy's kitchen island drinking coffee.
"You know, I'm glad", she said. "I hate secrets."
"Me, too. Hey, at least now we can go out around here. That's nice, right? We can go out for pizza at Ginelli's. Go shopping at Occhiobello."
"James." She paused, composing her thoughts. "We've got the next month. Let's make the most of it, but we both know you have to go back to school."
"I try not to think about it."
"I'm saying this because certain feelings are developing and we can't allow them to lead to a rash decision which would cause you to make a mistake you'd later regret."
"I know."
"It doesn't mean we'll never see each other again, but you've got bigger things in your future than this little farm."
"That makes the time we do have together more special. Something we can't squander."
Sandy kissed me. "That's a good way to look at it. Promise me something."
"Anything."
"I'll always be here for you. If you want to continue what we've got going on when you're home from school, I'm happy to do so. Friendship and fun. But don't hold back if you meet someone at school. Don't let me be the reason you pass up any, um, opportunities."
"Sandy, Iā"
"No, don't say anything. Just file that away."