It was unexpected and shocking news.
Rebecca had not even thought this a remote possibility. One Monday, out of the blue, a letter arrived from a young man whom she had never met and whom Suzanne had only rarely mentioned. Now Suzanne was days from passing and this young man was asking to come and stay with her. He was asking if he could move in with Suzanne, his mom.
He obviously didn't know.
His mother's condition was terminal. Days to live. The cancer had advanced and the hospice nurses had told Rebecca to expect the end soon. Realizing the letter as having come from Suzanne's estranged son, she had opened it and read it, brought it to the hospice, and then read it to her dying friend.
Suzanne had not seen her son since he was three and his father had taken him away to that religious separatist sect in Idaho fifteen years before.
There had been no argument about custody or support. Mike had caught his wife one too many times in compromising positions with one too many partners and Suzanne realized that she was not cut out to be a good wife and mother.
Suzanne had always been a highly spirited and extremely sexual person. Her long time friend and lover Rebecca had been quite surprised when the two had first come together and then later married.
In truth, they had only married because she had become pregnant with Timmy.
Mike and Suzanne had been about as mismatched a couple as one could ever imagine. She had been from the San Francisco bay area and sexually active from an early age. The son of a neighbor had been her first sex partner and she had probably gone through almost thirty lovers before she had taken Mike's virginity when they were both twenty five.
He had been raised in a small Mormon community in Idaho and was visiting a friend in California when he encountered Suzanne. They had met at a party hosted by a family friend of his parents.
Mike was an extremely good looking man, a real hunk by most objective standards and Suzanne was immediately hot for him. Over a three day weekend she had him every way possible, despite having to overcome his extreme sexual naivete. He was a clumsy lover and a bit of a male chauvinist. Overconfident and underperforming.
If his sperm hadn't been so potent and she hadn't been impregnated up as a result of the three day sex marathon, she wouldn't have agreed to the union, even as short lived as it had been. Mike heard through the grapevine that she was pregnant and had insisted on marrying.
For her part, Suzanne had hoped she could bring him up to speed sexually, and projected that over time he would become less of an ass. Neither had happened.
Rebecca thought her friend's attempt at the married life a major mistake. The two friends fell out of touch from mid pregnancy to just after Mike left for Idaho with his son. When that happened Suzanne had reached out to her for support.
Rebecca had been there for her then and in the years since. Along with their other long time gal pal Tonya, the trio had been partners in the pursuit of wanton hedonism. There were no regrets about the lifestyle they had chosen, at least not on Rebecca's part. Now Suzanne was days away from dying and her estranged son was coming by bus from Idaho to the last address he had for his mother. Suzanne had sent him a few birthday cards over the years and some must have found him so he had been able to look for her from the return address. There was no way now for Rebecca to contact him and wave him off, or to explain what was going on with his mom.
*****
Suzanne was weak and couldn't talk at length. When they first discussed the letter and Timmy's imminent arrival she was hoping she could hang in long enough to see him and let him know that she never stopped loving him. It was agreed that when Rebecca wasn't home at the apartment she would leave a note on the door asking him to knock at the neighbors. Mrs. Johnson, the widow in the adjacent apartment, was usually home and would no doubt agree to be the back up contact.
Tuesday brought no answers. Mrs. Johnson had agreed, as expected, but there was no knock on the door from Suzanne's son Timmy. The letter he had sent his mother stated that his father had recently died of an infection related to a work injury turned septic. Some friends had tried to convince Mike to seek treatment but his odd ideas about faith healing and aversion to modernity had sealed his fate.
Mike had parted from the greater Mormon community they had initially relocated to and he and Timmy joined a break away sect. There was so little contact with the outside world in this smaller community that it was remarkable Timmy could write as good a letter as he did.
Mike's brief experience in the fast moving world of the bay area had scarred him and he wanted to insulate his son from the evils of technology, modernity, and most of all, promiscuous women. He had not exactly poisoned the memory of his son's mother for the boy but had described her as a wayward person in need of their prayers.
They lived in a cabin with electricity and plumbing but Mike made few other concessions in so far as getting up to speed with the modern world. A woman from their sect had home schooled her own children and Mike prevailed upon her to educate Timmy.
She had done a remarkable job. There was no internet access within the sect by choice but there was a reasonable variety of books circulating among the sect members and Timmy had devoured most of them. Some of the members travelled to and from the nearest large town and made use of the library there. The librarian was liberal and understanding about return dates so many community members got a chance to read a book that had been borrowed before it was brought back to town.
Timmy was a very intelligent young man and had availed himself of as much education and contact with modernity as was possible given his circumstances. He was also so very naive and immature in many areas, especially in regard to the opposite sex.
Wednesday brought no news and no appearance by Timmy. Rebecca and Tonya both visited Suzanne that evening. The nurses told them that she had rallied some and they both thought that she was perking up in anticipation of seeing her son for the first time in so long.
Tonya and Rebecca talked a lot about old times. Many fun and wild times that the three had shared. Tonya owned a garden and plant store in Marin county and they chatted about how that was going. Business was booming apparently. Suzanne mostly listened and smiled. She always needed less pain medication when her friends were visiting.
Rebecca had gotten into the habit of sleeping late so it was not unusual for her to be unconscious when the buzzer to the apartment startled her on Thursday around noon. It took a moment to have the sound register in her brain. When she got it together to recognize it as her buzzer she called out towards the front door, "Just a minute. I'll be right there."
Rebecca threw a robe around her naked form and padded to the front door of the apartment she had shared for years with Suzanne. They had often paraded around in the nude when alone together and Rebecca's forty two year old body was holding up quite well. It was probably all the sexual gymnastics over the years that had kept them both in trim. "Better than hot Yoga." Suzanne had once said to her.
She looked through the peephole and couldn't quite make out who was outside. She was very glad she had put the robe on in case it was Timmy outside and she pulled the sash a little tighter before opening the door. The young man outside looked at her with an expression of fear and hopefulness blended together.
"Mom?" He asked tentatively.
"No. I'm not. I'm Rebecca, your mom's friend. You must be Timmy."
