Over twenty years have passed since Chapter 01, when Derek and his cousin Mimi first began their incestuous affair.
I managed to survive Vietnam, and collect a bushel of letters and pictures from my cousin, Mimi, who wrote me at least once a week. While I was in the Army she'd responded to the call of matrimony, a rather dispassionate choice according to her. By the time I spoke with her on the phone three years later she'd had two baby daughters, and had moved to the Midwest to the rural home of her husband's family. I was about to be married as well – a usual practice for ex-GIs – so I assumed that our pre-Vietnam practice of engaging in sneaky incestuous sex was over. Little was heard from my cousin after that except for a few love letters. In the pictures that she sent, though, she only seemed to get more beautiful as she got older.
A generation of years passed and Mimi's daughters grew up and married. My own marriage had ended disastrously and, though I was close to my daughter, I'd grown estranged from my extended family except for talking with a couple of cousins. I'd sold my business, started another one from what was left over from my rapacious former wife, and bought my parents' home from my mother. My father had died years before and she'd moved to California's north country, closer to her aging sisters, Mimi's mom being one of them.
In the early nineties Mimi and her husband moved back to California from the Midwest, settling in a small town twenty miles away from me. She'd landed a job as a human resources person for a government-funded project and he was an engineering contractor. She called out of the blue one day and sounded rather stilted and reserved on the phone.
"I need to get a passport and don't know my way around the city. Would you mind helping me out?" she asked.
"Sure. I know where the passport office is. Maybe we could have lunch and catch up on family news. When do you want to do it?" I was secretly hoping that it would be soon.
She hesitated, then suggested, "Uuh…how 'bout tomorrow?"
"Wow, you're in a
hurry
," I laughed. "Okay. You remember where my mom's old place is? That's where I live now. I'll meet you here tomorrow morning."
"I know where you live, Derek," she muttered nervously under her breath. "Seven-thirty tomorrow morning, okay?" An awkward silence followed. "I, uuh…I can hardly wait to see you!" she said, and signed off.
Seven-thirty is awfully early to go for a passport
, I thought to myself. Yet the next day I was up by 5:30, unable to sleep any longer, and ready to go by seven on a blustery sunny morning. Old sexual memories returned, and I felt pangs of nervous tension as I waited for Mimi.
I stood at a second-floor vantage point overlooking my long driveway as she drove up in a dusty blue Volvo and parked. She got out and, for some reason, leaned over to lock the car door. As she did, a strong gust of wind suddenly whipped her thin wraparound skirt open and up, showing one shapely leg to its upper thigh. Though her limb wasn't as deeply-tanned as it had been when she was a teen, it was far more muscular now and – for a brief instant – the sight of her more mature physique brought back exciting sexual memories.
While on my way to the front door, I reflected on her new image. She'd cut her hair so that it was short and curled naturally. Her posture was good, as always, and her shoulders athletically square. I hadn't been able to see the outline of her breasts, though, under the smart, sheepskin, peasant's jacket she wore. In those few seconds, I began to fantasize about what she looked like nude – now that she was over forty – and my pulse rate quickened.
When the door opened we both stood there, awkwardly, looking at each other, unsure of what to do or say. Then I enveloped her in a crushing bear hug, causing her to moan. "Ooohh, Gawd, you feel so gooood!" she whispered with her mouth close to my ear, then she kissed my neck, sucking at it as if she wanted to leave a hickey. "And smell…an' taste…just the same, but Jeezus, you've gotten even better looking!"
"C'mon, Mimi, I'm middle-aged! Guys only looks
distinguished
in their forties!" I was pleased that she approved of my appearance, yet I still felt as awkward as a schoolboy.
"And still modest to a fault," she murmured as she put her arm around my waist and we walked into the living room, once again to embrace and give one another a stiff though tender kiss, causing an electric thrill to run to my groin.
She pulled back to scan my face with concern, brushing a loving finger against my cheek. "Are you all right, honey?" she asked. "Did that bitch hurt you?" she continued, speaking of my former wife. "I wanted to kill her when I heard about your divorce. I always hated her…with her nose in the air. You know that, dontcha?"
"I'm doing great!" I expressed with bravado, and changed the subject. "How 'bout some coffee, out on the patio? It's a little early to drive into the city," I said breathlessly.
"Okay," she shrugged, following me into the kitchen. "Mmmmnn, you've put on some weight, huh," she said.
"Yeah, I'm up to 220, now," I said, somewhat apologetically.
"I mean, it looks good! You look…mmm, powerful! I've never seen you in a designer suit before, or with a mustache," she exclaimed, fanning herself in an exaggerated, comical way.
"Well thanks. Looks like you've added some curves!"
"You like?" she asked, putting down her canvas carryall bag, throwing off her jacket, and doing a pirouette on her high heels for my benefit. She was still slim, but had added fullness to her breasts, I noticed, under her long-sleeved, tailored, burgundy top. Her bottom had also gotten more round, though she'd kept her flat tummy. My eyes ate up the muscles of her calves as her diaphanous, burgundy-flowered skirt fanned out when she spun. Mimi had matured beautifully, and I let her know it.
"Yum-yummmmm," was my reaction. "Speaking of yum-yum, you want a Danish with your coffee?"
"I'll pass, thanks. Just the coffee," she demurred, with eyes shining at my compliment, and picked up her carryall bag as we walked out onto the hedge-shrouded patio where she reclined on a chaise lounge in the morning sun. I pulled a patio chair up to sit facing her as she kicked off her heels, lifted her legs, and placed her dainty feet on the canvas cushion. Though she tried, she didn't succeed in covering the soft flesh on the under part of her thighs with her knee-length skirt. She caught me looking yet did nothing except rivet me with an unblinking stare as an embarrassing silence ensued.
I've got to behave myself
, I thought, struggling in my mind for something to say.
"I…uuh…okay…in a hundred words or less, tell me the important things that've happened to you in the last twenty years," I said, jokingly, as I got up and removed my suit jacket. I continued to stand over her so she could see me without staring into the morning sun.