Ellen moved up to Mt. Charleston with Frank, her soon to be ex-husband, and Jimmie, their only child at the beginning of the summer. She thought the change of scenery from Las Vegas, and its myriad of vices, might save her marriage. Simply put-- it was only wishful thinking. Her marriage was still a train wreck despite the change of scenery.
It was a cold September evening and Frank was sitting at home drunk and in ill spirits and, as usual, heaping abuse upon Jimmie about nothing in particular, when she arrived home from a long day at work.
Not in a mood to take his shit on this particular night, maybe thanks to the two glasses of wine she slurped down with her friend Marcy after work, things quickly escalated to the point where Frank slapped her across the face. She told him to leave or she would call the police.
His retort was direct. "Why don't you leave for the evening with your worthless son and I will be gone within a few hours. I just need some time to make some arrangements."
Frank was an asshole, but he did not want blood on his hands. He knew if one of them didn't leave the police probably would become involved in some sort of domestic abuse case and that was one headache he didn't need.
Ellen quickly accepted and headed off to grab her son. Jimmie was not in good spirits either as just that afternoon he had been dumped by his girlfriend, Katie. Now at the tender young age of eighteen his heart was broken into a million pieces for the first time. Foolishly, he thought they were going to get married and live happily ever after.
He quickly washed up, unhappy about the ill way his father treated his mother, as usual, but happy he would not be sitting in his room alone grousing over Katie.
It was beginning to rain lightly as he backed the car out of the driveway and they roared off into the night.
"Honey you came to my rescue. My knight in shining armor, spirting the queen out of the castle and away from the evil king," she told him with a giggle indicating she had been drinking.
"Yeah, well, you needed rescuing, Mom. I don't trust he is going to be out of there in a few hours so I am going to take you to the hotel. You can spend the night there."
The mist turned into a quiet rain as he slowly negotiated the winding road to the Mount Charleston Lodge about a fifteen minute trip roughly down the mountain.
Upon reaching the hotel Ellen decided she was not yet ready to retire for the evening, especially by herself when Jimmie told her, now that he was out and about, he was going to head into Las Vegas to track down some old friends of his.
"Honey can we drive around a bit before I check in and you head off to find your friends. I'm just not ready to sit alone in a hotel room as of yet."
"Really are you serious. I mean it's starting to rain harder and it's getting cold and you don't even have a jacket on."
"So the car has a heater so what's the big deal. Please can you just like take the scenic loop on Hwy. 157? It's so beautiful up there and it will give me time to think and clear my head."
He agreed, as he always did when his mom wanted something. Before heading out for their drive, they stopped at a small convenience store next to the hotel so she could get a Coke from the fountain machine to mix with the small bottle of Jack Daniels she discreetly grabbed on her way out of the house.
She took the bottle, not so much because she liked whiskey, but out of spite, knowing Frank would be pissed because she took it from his not so secret stash he thought was secret. But now, getting a bit tipsier seemed like not such a bad idea.
Armed each with a large Coke from the station's soda dispenser, they headed back out into the night. As he headed back up the mountain towards the scenic drive, feeling playful, she started to tease him.
"You could have at least let me change before we rushed out of there. You know how I hate wearing my work clothes."
"Why are you still dressed in them? It's about nine and you get out of work at what six?" She was a receptionist at a local animal hospital and today she was wearing a pretty crème colored blouse with a rather short navy blue skirt.
"I came in this morning a bit late so I stayed late and then after work I stopped and had a drink with Mandy after we finished up. Then your dad started in on me and we got to fighting so I never bothered to change. He was on me to get his damn dinner started as soon as I walked through the door . . . besides bitching about you, of course."
"No surprise there."
"I know," she sighed.
"I thought about suggesting you take the time to change but I sensed he was ready to blow. You know how he gets when he starts to turn red. I just thought it was best to follow his suggestion that you leave before things got messy."
He looked over at her liking the way the short skirt revealed a rather generous portion of her well-toned legs and added, "Besides I like your- ahh work uniform. You look real nice. Sexy even maybe."
"Oh just maybe. What a charmer you are, Son," she commented wryly even as she blushed from his observation.
Even though it was only a bit past nine, this was late by Mt. Charleston's standards so there was little traffic on the roads. The late hour, plus it being Tuesday, only added to the sense of isolation as they reached the scenic loop.
Adding to the feeling of isolation, Jimmie glumly noted how the rain was not stopping.
"Maybe we should turn back, Mom. The rain is really starting to pick up."
"I don't wanna go back and sit in my stupid hotel room. And beside I saw the forecast for tonight and it said the rain shouldn't last long."
"Fine," he said as he made a right turn onto the scenic loop.
Normally, he would have been thrilled at this alone time with his mother who he secretly adored. Secretly because Frank had been insanely jealous of his pretty Filipino wife even with his own son so he had been careful to hide his love for his mother.
She was all of 5" 1"and might have weighed roughly a hundred and seven pounds. She was both pretty and petite. Short and sweet. Despite her rough life with Frank she aged well. Her pretty face hardly showed barely any lines or wrinkles to mar its distinctive beauty and was framed by a lovely spill of coral black hair falling just to her shoulders with nary a hint of gray, despite being in her mid-forties.
But maybe most of all it was his mom's warm smile- one that she could turn on like a thousand watt bulb-- that charmed him the most. His mom's smile was inviting, magnetic, and alluring all at once while seeming to possess a beguiling bit of mischievous naughtiness to it when the mood struck her.
All in all, Jimmie thought his mother was a stunning beauty who was only growing finer with age. In the dark of night, alone in bed, he often wondered what she looked like - naked. Such thoughts brought him shame, along with a powerful erection.
Stealing a quick glance over at her, he spied the top three buttons of her pretty crème colored blouse were casually undone, allowing a generous portion of her rich olive dark skin to be revealed. Trying to keep his eyes focused on the road was growing difficult as between her unbuttoned blouse, and her short skirt there was plenty of alluring bare skin to look at sitting right next to him.
As they drove on in the dark rain they were a good ways into the scenic loop by now, maybe roughly three miles, Jimmie started to get a sense this night was somehow special. Maybe it was because they were both sharing the pain of a relationship gone badly or maybe it was because he just felt emotionally raw and in need of serious comfort, much as he suspected she was feeling.
A sudden unbidden thought popped into his head making him grip the steering wheel tighter. I wonder if she finds me attractive, in a manly sense, like I find her to be?
Scoffing at such a silly thought, his inner voice spoke up. No way does she find you attractive dude. He tended to agree with that inner voice as they seemed mismatched in every way: she was pretty, outgoing, easily smiled and was well liked by lots of people while he, on the other hand, was none of the above.
Instead, he thought of himself as plain in nearly every way. At 5' 10" and a hundred and sixty five pounds soaking wet, he was of average height and weight. He had a light smattering of freckles still on his wholly baby face which made him appear much younger than his actual age. This youngish looking pale baby face of his was accented by light brown hair, a non-descript nose and chin, average ears, average hazel eyes, average this, average that etc. etc. etc.
She was beautiful and I am plain and such is life he thought darkly to himself before she interrupted his thoughts.
It was almost as she had been reading his mind when she spoke. "Jimmie, just so you know, you are handsome and Katie is a fool for breaking up with you."
Jimmie was taken by surprise by his mom's comment. He knew he should not engage in any real conversation with her now, but instead should be giving his full attention to the road. But what she said piqued his interest to the point where he had to respond. "What do you mean by that?"
"It's so obvious honey, the hurt on your face tonight, she dumped you huh. I seen it coming months ago but I just didn't say anything."
"Really, how did you know? I mean really . . . how did you know I was dumped? I haven't told anyone."
"A mother bear always knows when her cub is in pain sweetie."
He glanced at her with awe. He had given her no hints . . . at least, not as far as he could tell but still she knew.
Jimmie looked at her, greedily sucking down her potent Jack and Coke and now understood something: she must be in real pain if she was drinking like this.
