Firstly, a short introduction.
My name is pippa I'm 46 and live with my hubby john in the north of england.
This is a true story that I'm about to tell and happened roughly 12 years ago. I've changed some names and the names of locations to protect anonymity and also dramatised what happened a little. Up untill now I've only ever told John about this as it's very personal to me. For the past several years I've been exploring myself, having new experiences some of which I have decided to write about. You see, i used to be very shy and somewhat a prude. In a way i still am.
But I've come a long way.....
Chapter 1.
As i say, this happened 12 years ago. It was spring, april had just turned into may. Myself and John lived in a mid terrace house opposite a wonderful old church in a small village.
There wasn't much in our village, the church, a pub, post office and a school. The church also doubled as a community centre.
My hubby john was and still is a taxi driver, he works long hours so I'm on my own a lot.
We have 2 children both boys who at the time attended the nearby primary school.
My week days were spent routinely getting the kids up for school, making sure they had everything they needed for the day. Then when they and john had left i would get on with some house work or go for a walk.
Back in those days i was a bit on the heavy side so i was kind of obsessive about excercise, often going for long walks out in the fields and woodland that surrounded our village.
I wanted to lose a couple of stone, which I have long since achieved.
John was bringing in plenty of money so what with me being the quiet shy retiring type i saw no reason to work. I was happy to be a stay at home mum.
Our house in the centre of a small row of 8 was a council property that we were renting. In fact, when all this began we were in the process of trying to move. We had recently bidded on a larger 3 bedroom house in the next village and were hopeful we'd get it.
We had lived in that small 2 bedroom terrace for nearly 5 years. It had it's good points, one of which was location. The village is very pretty, picture postcard stuff. Quiet, with lovely views across fields and rolling hills. Cheap too as rent goes. We had a small yard at the front but out back was a large garden where the boys could play.
When i look back now, it was idyllic. The perfect place to raise a family.
However it did have it's bad points.
The main bad point was the house had incredibly thin walls.
You could hear everything the neighbours did. When anyone had an argument you didn't need a glass pushed against the wall to hear what it was about. You see, the houses are quite old. We were reliably informed by a charming old man called george who lived at number one on the end of our row, that they were built in the 1860's. Long before the modern age of stereos and big screen led televisions.
When a tractor or big lorry went past on the main road the house shook a little, you could feel the vibrations.
Fortunately for the most part the neighbours behaved and were fairly quiet.
Our 2 immediate neighbors were couples with grown up children. We got on well with both of the couples but one side kept themselves pretty much to themselves, just a hello here and a good morning there.
On the opposite side were mary and rob. Rob was in his early sixties and worked in a d.i.y store in our nearest town.
Mary was younger, early fifties. She was a bit plump like me at the time and was fairly plain looking. With brown eyes and collar length dark brown hair.
She never wore make up. And always gave me the impression that she'd given up on her appearance. Like she didn't care anymore.
A strange woman prone to mood swings, one day she would be very approachable and friendly the next you would be lucky to get acknowledged.
Despite this i liked her and we got on well.
We would often chat over the back garden fence for an hour or so.
Her hubby rob was a miserable old git and rarely spoke to me. I normally like older guys and had noticed old george eyeing me up many times, he was well into his 70's a good 40 years older than me but i got a strong impression if I'd given him half a chance.....
George often featured in my fantasies during 'alone time'.
It was this old man fantasy that led to something very interesting later in my life, but that's another story for another time.
With rob i got nothing. I mean you can tell straight away can't you? When a guys interested.
But with him there was nothing. I got the impression that he too had given up on that part of life.
It was true that they often argued. From what i gathered it appeared rob had played away when they were younger and she, although deciding to stay with him, had never forgiven him.
Anyway, as i say it was spring, early may.
I recall that first time it happened was a tuesday. Bright sunny mild morning. The kids had been at school an hour, john had left long ago to do one of his school runs.
I was alone again, sweeping the front yard when i jumped a little at Mary's front door opening. Looking up i saw mary coming out to water her window boxes. The difference in her appearance was noticed immediately.
For the first time in nearly five years she had make up on. Smartly dressed too. Normally she wore old jeans and a sweater or maybe a long skirt in summer but this day.....
Mary was wearing a mid length black skirt that to be honest was way too small for her, i don't know how she'd got into it. Black tights or stockings, a red blouse again too small, her large breasts testing the buttons. And a thin black cardigan.
A smile spread across my face as my eyes came all the way back down to her feet to see a pair of old worn out pink slippers.
Although looking a good deal younger she was clearly out of practice at the make up job and looked for all the world like a cheap tart.
With the urge to laugh passing i greeted her with a cheery smile and good morning.
Mary looked surprised to see me and a little nervous but replied with her own smile and greeting.
We quickly fell into small talk and that impression that I'd surprised her grew stronger as she began to act quite furtive, especially when i complimented her appearance and asked if she was going somewhere nice?
Mary fumbled her words and said she was going out later, to where was not mentioned. I didn't pursue the subject as i could see she was uncomfortable talking about it.
Quickly changing the subject she asked how the kids were doing at school and brought up an incident which had happened recently.
The police had been called about a man that had been seen hanging around outside the school playground. He'd approached one of my boys classmates and asked her to help him find his cat. Fortunately she'd the presence of mind to tell the teacher.
They'd got him a couple days later trying it on again.
I did notice that all the time we spoke she kept glancing at her watch and looking back down main street. Mary appeared to be expecting someone.
It got so obvious i ended up asking her if rob was coming home early, giving her a knowing cheeky grin and wink but this went unnoticed and shortly after that she asked me something strange. She told me she would have to be going back in and then asked if i was still going for my usual walk?
Replying that i would shortly and half expecting her to ask if she could come along. The next thing i know she's saying bye and closing the door on me.
Strange woman.....nice but strange.
I didn't think much else about Mary's strange behaviour until i was on my way out the back 5 minutes later. After finishing the yard i brushed my hair and got ready for the walk.
Then, while leaving our house the back way i bumped into this stranger.
I'll just explain here that our back garden wasn't joined on to the house, there's a communal pathway that separates garden from house but connects all the houses at the back and i had just turned onto this when i almost bumped into him.
