Two meetings and a wife
This is the 5
th
story in my series concerning Jane, David, and Victoria and they are best read in order. This story describes Jane's actions after learning of the effect of her caning of David fifteen years before.
I had not thought of David in years but was now intrigued to learn what had happened to him since I had last seen him. My daughter had left home, and I was between lovers. And I was, not for the first time in my life, bored. Several times over, I read his account of his caning at my hands all those years ago and kept wondering where he was and what he was doing. After a few weeks of obsessing, I decided to try to find him although I do not think I was clear on what I would do if I succeeded. Ultimately I decided to cross that bridge when and if I ever came to it.
In any case I could see no way to start to look for him, since we had lost touch with his parents several years previously. By then each one of us had moved home for the umpteenth time, and apathy towards keeping social contacts up to date had kicked in.
And then I had a thought. We and David's parents had sent each other Christmas cards over the years, and I had not thrown them away. I was able to find them in a box in the storage room, and one of them dated December 1979 proudly mentioned that David had qualified for his doctorate in Medical Biophysics and published his first paper, and his mother had proudly written "of which I don't understand a word". More importantly she had written that "it has something to do with medical imaging."
The following day I visited The British Library and scoured the Index Medicus for the name David L. as the author of any recently published scientific paper in the field of imaging. It was a long shot. There were several David L.'s publishing in many different areas of research and many of these were working in the States, and in any case his area of interest might have changed. Alternatively, he may have left academia. I spent several hours going through the bulky tomes, carrying them one by one from the shelves to the table where I was sitting and then back again. And then I found him. The paper described research into medical resonance imaging and the authors were L. David G. et al. and the institute they were working at was no more than a few mile away from where I was sitting.
I was elated. I went straight home, poured myself a large double malt, and later went to bed alone with my toys. And afterwards as I lay alone I knew I wanted to meet him again.
The following day I rose early. I had breakfast, showered, washed and blow dried my hair, applied my cosmetics, and put on a below the knee flared skirt, blouse, and boots. I hailed a cab in the street outside our front door, gave the cabbie the address of the institute and off we went. About half an hour later we pulled up outside my destination. It was a large six storey building of aluminium and glass with steps leading up to rotating doors at the entrance.
I passed through the doors expecting to find a reception desk but there was nobody in sight. There was however a list of names with their office numbers inscribed on metal plaques screwed to a board on the wall. And there was his name: David L. 5.17.
It was now 11 am in the morning and I rationalised that if he was at work it might be suitable time to catch him in his office. And then I started to have my doubts. Would he remember me and if he did would he want to talk to me particularly since he was almost certainly still married to Victoria. And what did I expect from this meeting? Was this just curiosity or something more? I vacillated for a moment and the took a deep breath and entered the lift.
His office was at the end of the corridor. I paused and knocked and heard a voice.
"Come in."
I entered the room and there sitting at his desk sat David. I recognised him immediately. He was still fit and lean, and he had matured into an extremely handsome man. He looked quizzically at me for a second or so.
"David?" I said.
Maybe it was my voice that he recognised first but almost straight away his eyes widened in recognition and he looked me up and down.
After a moment he spoke.
"Jane?"
"Yes."
"It's been a long time."
And then very inanely, I said something about popping in to see him as I was just passing, and immediately regretted what I had said. I need not have worried.
He crossed from behind the desk, hesitated and gave me a perfunctory hug and said "it's wonderful to see you. Now that you are here we would be better of talking in the pub over the road. That's if you have time."
Ten minutes we sat opposite other with our drinks and talked about what we had each been doing since we had met last. He was more shy and withdrawn than I remembered. No mention was made of the night he baby-sat for me. At around 12.30 David offered to buy lunch at and at 3 o'clock we were still talking. The years between us now made little difference as we talked, and I became increasingly aware of my physical attraction towards him.
Just then I indicated it was time for me to start he journey home. And then, David coyly asked if I would like to see him again. I was suddenly ambivalent and hesitated and it showed.
"Then why did you come?"
"I was curious."
"And now?"
"I want to see you again, but I know what might happen if I do. And I do not want you to be unfair to your wife. I was selfish that night ago and I will not be again. I should never have come."