"The Way Things End..."
EDITED BY:
Miriam Belle
CREATIVE CONSULTANT:
Simply_Cyn
Author's Note:
"Thank you to everyone who has followed the journey of Sheila, Doug and Elle. Your support, kind words and advice have been instrumental in this series being as well received as it has been. This chapter is a little bit longer than the usual installment, mostly to wrap up the loose ends and give the characters an ending worth the value so many of you have placed on them.
***
Morning had only crested a few hours before Sheila and I drove down the dusty snarl of road that led out to Perkins Grove. The tall oaks held onto the cool blue shadows of morning even as the ten o'clock hour rolled around. We were definitely out in the middle of nowhere, and the funky ruts of the worn road proved it. No one really came out here anymore except for high school kids looking for a party or professional photographers looking for a great shot and the occasional couple looking to get away for a day.
"Easy on the bumps," Sheila smiled at me as I tried to maneuver her car down the road without upsetting her. I looked over at her and marveled. She was in her fourth month now and looking gorgeous. Her belly was poking out in a substantial swell from her midsection and her sundress stretched out as far as it could go. Her skin had taken on a glow all it's own, but when combined with morning sun she looked like an angel. Her bronzed hair seemed to catch fire and smolder in a beautiful display of just how effortless her beauty really was.
"This road is for four-by-fours," I muttered as we hit another rut, "Not a Honda Accord. We should have brought my truck."
Sheila put her hand on my thigh, her touch warm and soothing, "You'll do fine. You always do."
I couldn't help but watch her already swelling breasts bounce as I drove. Sheila had always had the most incredible set of tits I had ever seen. Even when I was I kid, I would gawk at her. One of my goals in life had been to touch them and lick them, and when Sheila had finally decided to make the move herself towards that goal four months ago, my life changed. We figured the first night we were together was when she got pregnant, figuring back for months from the end of August to the beginning of May.
Apparently, the motility of my sperm and our carelessness in protection had been ignorant of our unique relationship.
The age difference didn't matter to me much at all. She was forty-five and I was eighteen, going on nineteen. I suppose I should have been more interested in women my own age, but it just hadn't worked out that way. Even Sheila's daughter Elle, one of the most attractive girls in my graduating class, couldn't turn my head enough to cheat.
Sheila had a unique quality that was beyond anything I had ever considered for myself. It was something I couldn't even really describe. The concept of her seemed to be above me, just out of reach. I couldn't find the words to express it, how I really felt about her. But on the concept of what she was I was perfectly clear.
So I would just say, "I love you."
And I did love her. I loved everything about Sheila Messing (formerly Sheila Crane, but after the divorce was finalized she took her maiden name back), from her perfect body to her tendency to snore to the way she'll snort when she gets rolling on a real belly laugh. I never expected to fall in love with Sheila, and I don't think she expected to fall in love with me. What was supposed to be a steamy May-December romance became something much more.
It's funny how people will try to tell you that love knows no bounds, and that you can't help whom you fall in love with. I'd heard that from almost every one I knew growing up at some time or another. And yet, once our secret had gotten out with the revelation to my parents about or being together, all those cheerful sentiments had gone out the window. We had become social outcasts.
"Are we still going to meet with your dad tonight?" Sheila asked gently, her dark eyes looking to me as she stroked her belly.
"Yep," I said.
"He'll listen," she reassured me, though after their reaction to our great news I figured Sheila would be the last person on Earth to credit either of my parents with open minds.
I laughed, "He'll listen more than Mom will. 'You're living in sin' blah blah..."
"She's just worried, that's all."
Mom had been more than a little worried. She had been furious, very much on the verge of a conniption fit when Sheila and I had sat them down a few weeks ago to talk about our unique situation. After she had finished making threats about statutory rape (which didn't apply to me, since I'm 18) Mom retreated to her bedroom and I had not seen her since. Dad took it all with the usual silent distaste he reserved for most of my life choices. But then what did I really expect?
The fact that I had gotten someone pregnant months before I was to go off to college was an unforgivable mistake in their eyes. What's more, said woman was twenty-seven years older than I and also a close friend of the family. If I had known their response would be as volatile as it had been, I would have told them alone and not have subjected Sheila to their wrath just yet.
Still, they had kicked me out of the house when I refused to live under their rules any longer. Dad had taken the keys to my truck (which was really his truck as I found out) and I became acquainted with a new way of life. Thank God Sheila had let me move in with her that very night. Tom Crane had given up the house in the divorce for her not demanding alimony from him. Elle had little to say about it. She had already moved out and was permanently staying with friends. Though she and her mother had repaired their rift, apparently it was still too raw to be around each other.
"They just need a little time, you know?" I pulled the car over to the side of the road, beside which was an open field with tall grass that came up the waist of a grown man. I disengaged the car and turned to her, "I'm just a little worried myself, I guess."
"You think you're worried?" Sheila sighed, "I went to school with your mother. I mean, I used to baby-sit you for Christ's sake."