How to Eat an Elephant

I called Karen the next day. "Karen, it's Victoria, how have you been?"

"Oh, you know, Vic. Same old, same old. How are you doing? What's going on?"

Karen lost her husband, Andrew, to cancer about five years ago. Since then, she had continued a gradual downslide, if that's a word. She never dated and, since the kids moved on with their own lives, she was alone a lot. We tried to keep her active, but most times she would decline invitations and just sit at home. She did stay busy, I guess, with her painting, but there's only so much painting a person can do. Karen was older, by several years, than the rest of us and might kindly be called "plump," or less kindly might be called "dumpy." She still had that beautiful face for which she had always been known, though. Karen was a pretty woman.

"Nothing much. Say, Sarah, Lisa, and Bonnie are coming to my place tomorrow for lunch. You know Bonnie, don't you? She lives on Sherwood Place. Anyway, we'd love for you to come. We haven't seen you in awhile, you know."

"Oh, I don't know, Victoria. I may just stay here. I've got an interesting piece working, and I'd like to finish it."

"No, no, Karen. You have to eat. Come at noon, okay?"

She didn't want to come, but I persisted. Finally she agreed. "Oh, alright. Thanks for thinking of me. I'll see you at noon."

I prepared Greek salads for everyone, and when they arrived we wasted no time in tucking in.

"Karen, you remember Bonnie, don't you? I think you two met at the bridge tournament last year. We saw Bonnie at a camping trip earlier, and she's now a stalwart of our luncheon group."

"Sure, Bonnie. I remember you. You came close to getting a Grand Slam, didn't you? That pesky king of diamonds got you, as I remember."

Bonnie laughed. "Best laid plans of mice and men, or something like that. Yeah, I overbidded that one."

Sarah said, "So, Karen. How are you doing? What do you hear from the kids?"

"They're fine. Kendra has a new job as a pharmaceutical sales rep, so I guess she's part of the problem now. Andy passed his CPA exam, so he's settling into his new firm."

"How's married life treating him? What's it been, a year now, almost?"

"Yes, just over. They had their first anniversary a couple of weeks ago. Time just flies, doesn't it? He seems very happy. Patty is good for him, I think."

"But you know you'll always be his number one girl, don't you?," I added.

"I don't know about that. He hasn't been home a handful of times since he got married." She sighed.

Lisa reached over and poked Karen's arm. "You've got to give him some incentive to come home, girlfriend. Meet him at the door in a negligee."

That got Karen laughing. There was a time when Karen was the life of the party, always cutting off-color jokes, but after Andrew died she seemed to have lost some of her spark. Her laugh was a welcome sound. "That might have worked when he was in high school, but it sure wouldn't work now."

This was going pretty well. Karen had given us a good starting point, and I took the ball. "Oh, I remember those days. All I had to do was bend over and let Billy look at my butt, and he'd follow me to the moon."

Sarah jumped in. "Oh, God, yes. Jimmy couldn't keep his hands off me."

Lisa seductively shook her breasts. "Chris was like a little puppy following these things around. I could get him to do anything if I just bent over in front of him. If I really wanted something done, I'd come down in the morning without a bra. Men are so easy to manipulate."

Karen continued laughing, clearly enjoying the banter. "Hell, Lisa. If I had boobs like that I'd rule the universe."

"I'm sure Andy thinks yours are perfect, Karen. You know men always have a thing for their Mothers. It never goes away."

Karen blushed. "He used to have a thing for me. I'm not sure he still does. Being married changes things, doesn't it?"

"I don't think so," I said. "My husband still tries to grab his Mom's butt when he thinks I can't see him."

That brought the house down, with every one of us laughing uproariously.

Lisa said, "It still works on my Christopher. He's not married, but all I have to do is flirt with him and he'll do anything I want."

Karen had a wistful look on her face. "I remember those days."

"Would you like to have them back?," I asked her.

"Oh, you can't go back. You know that. Times marches forward."

As I said, Karen was always the life of the party before Andrew died, so I knew she had a spark in her. After all, it was Karen who was always joking about "Swap Parties" and even though I don't think she would ever have gone through with it, Karen had something of the wild child in her in those days. We were in a quandary, though. We had messed up before when we didn't give Susan enough information to work with. On the other hand, revealing too much to someone before we knew we could trust her...well...that could have bad consequences.

I leaned forward. "Karen, when's the last time you got laid?"

Karen giggled. "What year is it?"

"That long?"

She sighed. "I don't have the desire that much after the change of life, and I sure don't have the opportunity. Maybe I'll be a nun. At least they get credit for it."

Lisa piped up. "Karen, there's always opportunity, if you look in the right place. There's someone right now who has wanted you his entire life."

Karen looked around at us, wondering if this was a joke. "Yeah, who? Name this mystery man. I'll pay for him to go to the eye doctor."

We all laughed, but no one said anything.

"Well. Who?"

I lowered my voice. "You know who, Karen. You know who spent his high school and college years following you around with his tongue hanging out."

She looked confused, then we could see the dawning of understanding in her face. "You mean...?"

"Yep. Exactly. Andy."

Karen gave a belly laugh. "You girls are too much. First, he's through that phase and, second, he has a hot young wife. Why would he want this?" She gestured to her body.

I stepped in. "They never get over wanting it, Karen. It doesn't matter what they're getting where, they still want the one they've always wanted. I guarantee you, Andy still looks at you with that look in his eye."

"I don't think so. He's not said or done anything for years. Oh, when he was younger, he sure did. It was a constant battle. But now? I don't think so. They pass through that."

Sarah leaned forward and said in a soft voice, "None of ours passed through it, Karen. They still want it. They want it now more than ever. Giving it to them is the greatest gift you can imagine."

Karen hesitated, then stiffened. "Wait! What are you saying?"

We all nodded.

"You mean you're...I can't even say it. Are you?"

"Yep. Every one of us, and we can all say it's the best thing that ever happened to us."

Karen was speechless. "I can't imagine that." She looked down at the table.

This was the moment of truth. If Karen stormed out, we'd be sunk. I don't know who she'd report us to, but all she had to do to ruin each one of us was to whisper a word to anyone.

I said, "Karen, every one of us was having problems with our boys. They were distant. They wouldn't talk to us. They hugged from two feet away. We were losing them. Then we came up with his solution, and it's been heaven. Right, girls?"

"Beyond heaven," agreed Sarah. "It's the best thing I've ever done. The sex is great, but the love is better."

Karen seemed to be at a loss for words. "But, Andy. He wouldn't want me. Why would he?"

This we could deal with. She wasn't calling us sluts or otherwise condemning us, she was wondering if her own son would want her.

Lisa said, "Honey, he wants you because you have always been the most beautiful woman in his life. You were the first woman he ever wanted. You know that. I'll tell you, all it takes is a little encouragement, and they're 18 again."

"So, what do I do? Meet him at the door in that negligee?" Karen giggled. "Or maybe nothing at all? Jeez, that would scare him away. How did you get started? Who made the first move?"

"I don't know if there was a common factor," I replied. "It seems like each one of us recognized the mutual desire, and let it bloom."

Bonnie disagreed. "There was a common factor, kind of, wasn't there? We showed the new girl and her son that something beyond platonic Mother/Son love could exist. I mean, hell, you girls were fucking like little bunnies in your tents. How could we not want to have the same thing?"

It was a laughable image because it was true. Sarah and I had been fucking like little bunnies so Bonnie could hear us. We had made no secret of the fact that we were sharing our son's tents and more.

Karen said, "I'm going to have to hear that story."

"Yeah," I said. "I promise you'll get all the details. That might not work in this case. We're dealing with a married man here. Let's be honest. Maybe there is a point at which they lose the desire for Mom."

Karen looked a little downhearted. "It's like I said. Why would he want me? Look at me."

Lisa snapped at her a little. "Karen, stop it. No pity parties here. You are a lush woman, and I know Andy still wants you. I think my husband still wants his Mom, and she's in her 70s now, for goodness' sake."

"Really?," I said. "That makes two of them now. It raises some possibilities, doesn't it? We've been concentrating on our sons. Maybe we should look at hooking our husbands and their Moms up. Good Lord, that makes me tingle to think about it."

Sarah looked at me. "Focus, Vic, focus. We're working on Karen here. I'll swear, you girls have turned into the horniest things. I thought menopause was supposed to diminish sexual desire."

We all laughed, and then returned to the issue at hand, Karen. I said, "First thing is to get him to come home, Karen. You can't do much from afar, can you? I have a feeling if you can get him here, you can work some magic. It's worth a try, isn't it? Would you like that, Karen?"

She sighed. "Of course it's something to fantasize about. I'm not sure it will ever happen, but even if it doesn't, just thinking about it and trying would be as hot as hell, wouldn't it? I don't really understand, though, how all this started with you girls. Who was first?"

We all looked at Sarah, who blushed. "I guess that would be me."

"Then how did you start? You didn't have anyone to help you, right?"

Sarah looked around at us. "I guess everyone else's cards are all on the table and it's time for me to come clean, huh?"

"Damned right, girlfriend," we chimed.

Sarah told her tale. "With three boys, Mark, Luke, and Jim, there was constant testosterone around my house. With only two years between each of them, they were all into the 'post-puberty high sex drive' years together. I went through every day, it seems like, with hands all over my ass. They'd find any excuse to rub against me. It drove me crazy, I have to tell you. There was always a hard dick when those boys were home."

We laughed. "I can just imagine," I said.

"Mark was the oldest. When he went away to college, it was like there was an empty space in my home and my heart. I missed him so much. He was always the most aggressive of the three, I guess because he was the oldest. I had to sit him down his senior year in high school and explain the facts of life. I told him I knew what he wanted, but that no Mother would corrupt her baby and I wasn't going to corrupt him. That kind of cooled him off a little. He was always perceptive. I can still remember what he said to me. 'I won't always be your baby, Mom. Soon I'll be a man, and I'll still want you.'"

"What did you say to him?"

Sarah laughed. "What do you think? I gave him the age old Mother's answer. 'We'll see.'"

We laughed with her. How many times had we all given our children the same answer? "We'll see." Sometimes it meant, possibly. Sometimes it meant, yes, but later. And sometimes it meant no, but I can't tell you no.

Sarah continued. "It was the summer after his freshman year at college. He came home, and it was like his desire for me was on steroids. I thought that after he got his hands on some of those young coeds that he would forget about me, but it seemed like he wanted me even more. I have to admit, it was flattering and exciting, but there was no way I was going to let it happen. A Mother doing something like that with her son was unthinkable to me."

We all nodded. We had all been there. Jumping the bar of what was socially repugnant and taboo was something we each had done.

"It was different, though. We've all had to fend off clumsy teen-aged advances, but he was different. He was a man. He was, I don't know how to explain it, smoother. There was no doubt he was trying to seduce me, and it was a man seducing a woman. It wasn't just an immature son trying to cop a feel. I admit that I teased him unmercifully. It was exciting, being wanted so much. One morning I went into his room to get the dirty laundry, and I had on nothing but my panties and one of Tim's tee shirts. I thought Mark's eyes would bug out of his head."

"My birthday came, and he got me a special gift. The boys had always relied on Tim to take care of that. I can't remember any of them giving me a special gift after they got older. Mark waited that night until his brothers and father had gone to bed and I was finishing up in the kitchen. He hugged me, kissed me on the lips, said 'Happy Birthday, Mom,' and gave me this beautiful necklace." As she said that, she lifted it for us to see. It was nothing special, just a gold chain and a small gold heart, but clearly it had special meaning for Sarah. "It has not been off me for more than a few hours since then."

We sighed, practically in unison. Such a loving gift from a son to his Mother. Such love.

"I put it on, and the heart nestled between my breasts. He looked at it and said, and I'll remember his words forever, 'That is beautiful. My necklace, and my beautiful breasts.' I practically melted. Then he did the thing that undid me. He bent down and kissed the heart, then gently kissed each breast. I hugged his face to my breasts and the next thing I knew, he was teasing my nipple with his lips. I don't remember how my tit got out of my sweater. I was wearing a cashmere v-neck sweater, I remember that. I don't know if he took it out or I took it out, but there we were in the kitchen with him sucking my nipple. I have never had such a feeling. It was as if every nerve in my body was centered in that nipple. I looked down at his beautiful face. He looked up at me, his mouth on my breast, and then he raised up, took me in his arms, and kissed me."

Each of us girls was was as hot as we could be. Each of us had had such a moment, except for Karen, and each of us was reliving our own.

"I don't remember, ever, being so turned on by a kiss. Maybe when I was young and all we could do was make out. Maybe those kisses were as hot, but I don't remember. But I will remember Mark's first kiss the rest of my life. We stood there, kissing, and his hand was on my breast. He didn't maul me. He was gentle, stroking the nipple with his fingers and squeezing my breast. He could have had me that night, but he didn't. He told me later that he wanted it to be my decision, and not just something we did in a moment of passion. He said he knew I had resistance to making love with him, and he wanted to give me time to be okay with it. I guess I knew at that moment that my little boy was a man."

She paused. I couldn't stand it. "Yeah, then what happened?"

"Nothing happened right away. He was right. I did have a lot of resistance to it. It's kind of in our DNA, isn't it? Everything tells us that is taboo and forbidden. You never hear about it happening, Sons and Mothers, so you assume it isn't happening. I must have read everything available on the internet about the effects of incest. The problem was, everything was about the negative effects of incest when the child is young and immature. That wasn't what this was. This was a man and a woman. You know, I felt like I was on my own. I wanted to talk to someone about it, but who? I was alone."

"But you know what the little scoundrel did? Every time he got me alone, he would bend down and kiss the necklace, then he would kiss my breasts. The first few times he did it I pushed him away and told him to stop. After awhile, I quit protesting and he kept doing it. It was the hottest, most loving, gesture. I don't know when I decided I would let him have what he wanted. It seems like I went from 'This can't happen,' to 'When can this happen,' and I can't explain it. It seems like it was just a natural decision."

"So I started trying to come up with a way we could do it. In a house with a husband and three boys, there was never a time when Mark and I could be alone for long enough. I didn't want it to be rushed, and I didn't want to risk getting caught. We'd kiss when we got a chance alone and I thought no one would see, but that was all we could do. Once I was washing the dishes after dinner and Mark came in to help me. He stood behind me and rubbed his dick against my butt. I knew what he wanted, and he knew I wanted it, too, because I didn't discourage him. I know I was frustrated, and I can only imagine what it was like for him. The summer passed without our getting a chance, and before I knew it he was getting ready to go back to school. I remember standing out in the driveway as he was getting in the car to go. I was crying. I was crying because my baby was leaving me again, and I was crying because we had not had the chance to be together."

You could have stirred the emotion in the room. We knew that somehow she had gotten with Mark, but the way she was telling the story, it had us in suspense.

"He hugged me and whispered in my ear. 'Mom, homecoming is in a month, and it would sure be nice if you'd be my date. You think you could come visit me?' That was it. That was the answer, so I started making comments to Tim about visiting Mark, and that's what happened. Homecoming weekend came, and I drove to school to be with him. I got a hotel room near campus, and called him."

"He must have been in his car waiting for my call, because he was there in about ten minutes. He knocked on the door of the hotel room. I was so nervous. I wanted it to happen, but I knew that I couldn't make the first move. It had to be his decision, and I guess he was thinking it had to be my decision. I wanted to meet him at the door with nothing on but this necklace, but I just couldn't. He hugged me, but we were both so nervous and awkward. We didn't even kiss."

"We went out to dinner, and the tension eased between us. Maybe it was the wine, or maybe it was just a mutual understanding that it was finally going to happen. Anyway, he took me back to the hotel and there was no discussion of it. We had both decided, I guess, that he'd go to my room with me, and he did. We walked through the lobby holding hands. As soon as the elevator door closed, he bent down and kissed the necklace, then my breasts. I had worn a low cut blouse because I hoped he'd do it, and he did."

"As soon as we got in the room, there were clothes flying everywhere. I don't remember who got undressed first, but there we were. Mother and Son, naked before each other. I felt like a goddess. I felt like the most beautiful woman in the world. He was eating me up with his eyes. Then he was eating me up with his mouth. That boy. That man. He had learned a lot. He sucked my breasts, first gently then with more insistence. He made me cum, just by sucking my breasts. I didn't think that could happen, but it did. Then he laid me down, and showed me what else he could do with his mouth. It took my breath away. His mouth, his tongue, his fingers. He was exactly what I had wanted."