"I have to do a bit of shopping." I told my son Craig, "Want to come along for the ride?"
"Nah, Mom, it looks like rain, so I think I'll just hang around here."
I was a little disappointed because I liked his company, but after all he was home to have a break from his university studies, so he was entitled to spend his time as he saw fit. I should be pleased that he had chosen to spend part of his break at home, unlike his sister Cheryl who had told us was staying with a couple of girlfriends. At least I hoped she was with girlfriends. Grabbing the keys to Henry T, I headed for the door. "OK, Baby, I'll only be about an hour."
"That's OK Mom, take your time. I'm a big boy now, I can look after myself."
There was certainly no arguing on that score. At six feet two inches and nineteen years old he towered over my own five feet five, but I still got a kick out of teasing him by calling him my little boy.
As I settled behind the wheel of the old Ford, I sniffed and grinned. It didn't take an Einstein to figure out what my son had been up to last night. Not that I blamed him, but I could only hope that he had been more careful than his dad Ben and I had been in the same back seat twenty years earlier. It hadn't been an old Ford then of course, nor had it yet been christened Henry T, after the founder of the manufacturer. In fact it had been brand new, and Ben had just picked it up from the showroom. It hadn't taken much persuasion for me to slide into the passenger seat, and we had gone for a long drive. Miles from anywhere, he had pulled over and I had moved willingly into the circle of his arms, just as I had many times when he had borrowed his dad's car. I had only intended it to be the usual make out session, with a lot of kissing and a little harmless teenage petting, and I don't know if it was the new car smell or the excitement of a new car, but things got out of hand and almost without realising it we were in the back seat and Ben was popping my cherry.
We had intended to wait until our wedding night, which was only three months away, but now that we had taken the first step we couldn't get enough of each other. When my father proudly walked me down the aisle, he had no idea that he was also escorting his first grandchild. Over the ensuing months and years, Henry T had become an integral part of our lives, and had been instrumental in maintaining the magic in our marriage. In fact I was certain that both Craig, and two years later Cheryl, had both been conceived on the same back seat.
Of course time and the escalating costs of fuel had taken their toll, and the old Ford had been relegated to the status of standby car, in preference to a more modern model that was more reliable and cheaper to maintain. That is not to say that the old bus was neglected. Far from it, because in addition to me using it for shopping trips, Craig and Cheryl both shared its use whenever they were home. Not to mention that Ben and I weren't averse to taking the odd spin for old times' sake. In fact I was pretty sure our son would be shocked if he knew that, only three nights ago, his staid old parents had pulled over in a quiet spot and fucked their brains out in Henry T's back seat.
The memory set up a pleasant warm tingling in my crotch, but my mood was shattered when the old bus sputtered to a stop. I looked at the fuel gauge and cursed. There had been half a tank before Craig had taken the car last night, so the least he could have done was top it up before he came home. I locked the doors, and with an apprehensive glance at the sky I started on the quarter mile trudge home. It was definitely turning out not to be my day, because not only did it look like I wouldn't get any shopping done, but halfway home the heavens opened, and by the time I arrived I was soaked to the skin.
Letting myself in I headed for the living room to give Craig a piece of my mind, and stopped dead in the doorway. My son had grown more than I had realised, because he was slumped in the armchair, staring at a pornographic DVD, with his hand wrapped around a very impressive piece of meat. I watched for a moment then tiptoed back to the front door, opened it silently and slammed it before returning to the living room. The DVD player went silent and he was sitting upright in the chair with a guilty look on his face.
He stared at me. "Mom! What are you doing back so soon? I thought you'd be gone for ages yet." He continued to look me up and down, and I tossed the keys at him.
"I'm back because someone didn't fill the car up last night, and I ran out of fuel." I snapped. "And thanks to that someone I got soaked through." His eyes were still fixed on me and he hunched forward as I added "Now someone can just go retrieve the car and fill the tank. I'm going to shower and put some dry clothes on."