Three hikers climbed the trail that switched back and forth up the side of the Prospector, the smallest of three foothills that overlook Green Valley, Colorado. Calvin Taylor, in the lead, took what was to him a leisurely pace, occasionally looking back to check on his companions' progress. Bringing up the rear, his older brother Edgar kept a watchful eye on him and their mother between them.
She was keeping up pretty well for a woman her age. Eddy had to grant her that. He watched her struggling up the pebble-strewn trail under the weight of the day pack she insisted on carrying. Her foot would slip from time to time, causing her to pitch forward and catch herself with her trekking pole. She would quickly recover and tenaciously resume the climb. In her fifties, she was more active and full of life than he remembered her in her forties, toward the end of her unhappy marriage to his father.
She was wearing the kind of shorts that are supposed to fit loosely but Eddy couldn't help notice that hers were nearly tight on her thick thighs. When he was young it embarrassed him how much heavier she was than the other moms, picking them up at school or cheering them on from the sports field sidelines. He lived in a small world then and didn't realize that the stick-thin women he was comparing her to, models and trophy wives, were not real life.
As Eddy matured, he came to appreciate the natural beauty of a full-figured woman. And today, even though she was his mother he allowed himself to admire her tan legs, shapely calves tapering down into her dainty leather boots. Her plaid flannel shirt hung unbuttoned and untucked over a yellow moisture-wicking t-shirt. A floppy hat covered her striking bronze hair that she was letting grow long this year. She was an attractive woman and he was sorry that he ever doubted it.
Two hours of steady climbing brought them to their goal, the flat top of the peak, a broad meadow of flowers surrounded by aspen and a pond of crystal clear water that glittered in the midday sun. The three of them sat down heavily in the grass and congratulated each other on the ascent. Eddy opened his canteen and passed it around several times. Rita got in the day pack and produced a modest picnic lunch.
"Let me guess," said Cal in a mocking but friendly tone. "Peanut butter and honey on whole wheat. Apple, cheese stick, hard boiled egg..."
Rita produced three of each item as he recited them, dealing them like cards around the circle. "This is the good stuff. This is how you got big and strong."
"Oh, and you paid up for the individual packages of trail mix." Cal ripped his open and turned up the package to let some fall in his mouth. "With chocolate chips. You spoil us."
"Nothing's too good for my boys."
They ate in silence, appreciating the idealness of the setting for their rustic meal. Eddy finished his last morsel and rolled onto his back. "It is so nice out here. Too bad we couldn't get Alice to come."
"She's kissing Dad's ass this week. Her loss." Cal rolled onto his side, propped up on his elbow. "It was good timing of Grandpa to die in the summer."
"Calvin, mind your manners." Rita warned him.
"Oh, he's beyond caring now. And the three of us aren't offended, are we? It's not like he was your dad."
"Your father's parents were very kind to me, before and after the divorce. And they doted on the two of you. So please, be civil."
"Okay, Mama. I'm sorry." Cal got up and stretched. "Hey, it's so warm. Why don't we go for a swim?"
Rita knitted her eyebrows at him. "That water is ice cold. Besides, we don't have bathing suits."
Cal leered at her comically. "We can go skinny dipping. How about that?"
"I think you're crazy. How about that?"
Cal went off to skip rocks on the surface of the pond while Eddy and Rita strolled around the perimeter of the meadow. Eddy was annoyed with his younger brother but he kept it to himself. He didn't want to cast a shadow on the beautiful day they were having. But Cal and his teasing... sometimes he went too far. It was hard to stay mad at him though. Later on he would have a friendly talk with his brother and that would be that. Or so he thought.
*****
"Have you noticed how hot Mom is lately?"
For a moment Edgar thought his brother had discerned his private thoughts. He glanced around the room, the private room at Green Valley's second-best Italian restaurant, to see if they might be overheard. He took a sip of his burgundy and decided Cal was only asking his opinion. "She's handsome, yes."
"Oh, 'handsome' is the word, is it?" Calvin chuckled. "No, I mean hot, as in 'she's hot to trot'."
They were with their father and his wife this evening. Alice was there, too, with her husband and children. The two boys were like mirror images of him and his brother when they were that age. "Please, Cal. You're talking about our mother."
"Yeah, yeah. She's our mother. She's also a woman, Eddy." He kept his voice to a murmur but managed a tone of earnestness. "And she's a hot one, too. You see it, don't you?"
No one noticed the two of them conferring at the end of the table littered with glasses and half-eaten dishes. Dad was holding court and, as usual, had made himself the center of attention. "I haven't noticed."
"Okay. Have it your way. You can take my word for it. In divorce court I've developed a sixth sense about wives. Like which ones will remain steadfast virgins..." He gestured with his glass toward Jan, Dad's thin, blond wife, "...and which ones will blow a guy in the parking lot."
Eddy felt himself flush, partially in anger and partially in a bit too much to drink. He was smart enough to recognize that and bit his tongue. "Are you suggesting...?"
"I'm not suggesting, I'm telling you." Cal had a snide smile on his lips and quickly raised his hand to ward off Eddy's retort. "Hear me out, brother. She hasn't always been that way. I'm not sure when it started but it's been building up as the years go by. You have to admit, she's changed since her and dad, you know."
That was true. She was different. She dressed better, took care of herself. She was more confident and outgoing. Clearly he had noticed an air of sensuality about her that might not have been there before. "But that doesn't mean she's some kind of a, a slut."
"Oh, Eddy. That is such an ugly word to describe our mother."
Eddy's brow darkened and he hissed, "That's what you're saying though."
"Can't a woman treat herself to a little loving without getting the scarlet letter?" Cal was using his used-car-salesman voice. "You've had sex, haven't you? Illicit sex? Irresponsible sex? Does that make you a, a slut?"
Eddy didn't bother arguing the point. He watched their father across the room, delighting his grandchildren with sleight of hand tricks. Alice gazed adoringly at him like the ass-kisser she was.
"You remember the pictures, right?"
He flushed again, remembering the pictures. It was not too long ago that Cal had sent him a link to a porn site with the words 'WTF?' and 'Delete this'. It was one of those sites where guys post pictures allegedly of their girlfriends. And this particular gallery... "Dude, that wasn't her. It looked like her, I'll grant you that. But it wasn't her."
"Oh, wow. You really think so?" Cal leaned back and wheezed quietly in laughter. He sat up and whispered in Eddy's ear, "It was her, all right. And it wasn't Dad in the pictures with her. It wasn't her current husband either."
Eddy drained his glass and stood up. He was definitely drunk. "I've had about enough of your bullshit. I'm calling a cab."
"I can take you, brother. I'm okay to drive."
Eddy put his hand on Cal's chest and gently pushed him to an arm's length. "No, man. I've had enough of your bullshit."
"You boys alright?" Dad's voice boomed at them from the other end of the table. All eyes in the room were on them now.
Cal smiled and held up his hand. "We're fine. Just going to get Edgar a cab."
"Are you going to be mad at me?" Cal asked him as they waited on the sidewalk in the cool night air.
Eddy appreciated his brother's readiness to bury the hatchet when they quarreled. "You go too far sometimes. It was inappropriate."
"I'm sorry, Eddy. I thought you'd want to hear it and I was wrong. We cool?"
Eddy shook his hand and gave him a half hug. "We cool, bro."
Eddy sat back on the vinyl upholstery of the cab as Cal waved him goodbye. He tried to clear his mind of the smut that his brother had filled it with. But the seeds were planted. Truthfully, though, the seeds were already there. His brother only watered them.
*****
It was a gray day, the kind you would want for your funeral. The brothers dressed in silence, black suits, white shirts, wayfarer sunglasses. Rita was a guest of their grandmother, the newly-minted widow. The two women were close, had remained close even after the split. Seeing them together must chafe Dad most uncomfortably but he didn't have a word to say about it. He talked a lot behind her back but when she was around he was as meek as a lamb. Like Colonel Wickham to Mother's Darcy.
Despite her mourning garb, Rita was a vision. Funny that he used to think of her as plain. Now, even her conservative black dress couldn't mask the femininity of her figure. Her hint of makeup only revealed the natural blush of her cheeks. Her pillbox hat did its best to conceal the blaze of red tucked up underneath it. Eddy felt thoroughly like a bad person for ogling his own mother this way, at a memorial service, no less. Rita turned her head unexpectedly and caught his eye. He started, guiltily. She smiled kindly at him and he bowed his head to her.
The service stretched into the morning. Speeches were made. Songs were sung. Eddy was thinking about how much more enjoyable this would be if he was high. But then he thought about the kindly old man they were honoring and how they would never play cards together or billiards again. Staying straight and being bored for a few hours was the least he could do. He and Calvin rode to the cemetery with their father in his Lincoln Navigator. Jan looked very elegant and thin and blond.
The party formed a phalanx around the graveside, affording Eddy a better view of his mother. She looked even more appealing out here in the gray daylight, her face beautiful in its sadness. He did find her attractive, more and more attractive as the years went by, despite his denials the night before. He wondered how his father could have looked at her and thought, 'I can do better'. Rita had become the definition of beauty to him and he evaluated a woman by how much she did or didn't remind him of her.
