In the morning, Ruth needed to get home to her family, so I drove her back to school to get her things, then to her home, about three hours away. Her parents insisted I spend the night, although they clearly expected me to spend the night alone.
Dinner was interesting, but not what I would call fun.
It started out pleasantly enough, although it was a bit uncomfortable. Ruth's father managed a men's retail clothing store for a national chain. Her mother was a school science teacher. They seemed like nice people, although they were astounded at the changes in Ruth, and correctly decided I had something to do with it.
It was clear that they were uncertain whether to be overjoyed that their daughter was so healthy looking and so happy, or to be upset that she apparently got there through association with a boy.
I was able to talk with them about the things they did, although we did not, apparently, have a whole lot in common, other than Ruth. When they asked what we did together, I told them that we had taken a poetry writing class together, at which their daughter did far better than I, and that we worked out together, ran together, and went to the gun range together.
I caught Ruth's warning glance just a little too late.
Her parents were horrified. Her father had escaped the holocaust as a small child, and they both had lost most of their families in Germany. They had grown up believing that guns were responsible. The rest of dinner was spent in a lecture about the evils of guns.
I was polite for as long as I could stand it. When he finally said, "young man, are you able to understand my meaning?"
I had to say, "no, sir, I don't understand you at all. You and your wife came from a terrible place, in which men with machine guns could come into your home to kill you, and it seems a miracle that you escaped alive at all. It seems a further miracle that you made it to this country, where the people are -- by law -- able to be strong enough to stand up against tyranny, so what happened to you can - supposedly - never happen again.
"I understand all of that, sir. What I do not understand is why you would want your daughter to be unprotected, when men with guns come to kill her, as they came to kill you. I do not understand that at all."
His mouth opened and shut for a moment, but then he said, "this land is very different. Such things could never happen here."
"They DID happen here, sir, to me."
"What?"
"Ruth was not there, but she knows of it. You may have read of it in the newspaper. I was eating dinner with three friends, when twenty-two men with machine guns -- a paramilitary unit not too different from the SS -- stormed the house we were in. The first news we had that anything was amiss, was the explosion that killed the four guards without warning. About five seconds later, they drove their vehicles right through the front door of the house, planning to leap out with their machine guns to kill us all."
He shuddered and blanched, and it was obvious that his horror was not from my experiences, but from his. He was being brought back to some very old memories. I knew just how horrible those memories could be, now.
After a moment, he appeared to wrench himself away from whatever was in his head, and snapped, "You're making this up!"
"No, Daddy, he isn't," said Ruth. "I've been listening to his nightmares about it for six months now. As he said, you can also look it up in the newspaper. He wasn't exaggerating; there were twenty-two soldiers, all with machine guns. They had already killed four men, just getting to the house, and this wasn't even their first attempt." She looked over at me. "Tell them what you did, Danny."
"Only what I had to do. I'd like to know, sir, what you think would be the appropriate response to something like that. If someone came crashing through that door right now with a machine gun, to kill your family, what would be the right thing to do?"
He looked over at his daughter. "You are serious, Ruth? This really happened?"
"Yes, Daddy."
He looked back at me, and drummed his fingers. "Young man, I consider myself a very open-minded man, but you are pushing my limits. What did you do?"
"The first thing I did was get the women to safety. I yelled for the two at the table to run for the basement stairs, and went into the kitchen to grab the cook. I think I batted a pot of something hot out of her hands, and dragged her out of the kitchen, and got her running toward the stairs with the others.
"I had JUST learned how to shoot, and gotten a permit for my hand gun only the week before. It wasn't much, one hand gun against a whole lot of machine guns, but I didn't have a choice. I knew they were not going to be reasoned with, they were not going to listen to an argument, and if I so much as hesitated an instant, we were all dead.
"There was really nothing else to think about. The instant I had a chance to kill the driver of the van crashing through the door, he was dead. I managed to kill a few more, before one of them got loose to let the others in through the kitchen. Then I ran back to the stairs, so they wouldn't get to the women without killing me first. It also gave me a better chance of killing some more.
"I managed to kill three more, before the cavalry arrived to save the day."
There was ten seconds of silence, before he visibly shuddered again. He was still pale, and I could see him sweating. He said, quietly, "you have dreams about this?"
"Every night, sir. For months, I would wake up screaming, every night, because they were coming in, and aiming their guns at the women and at me, and I couldn't protect us. I would not have made it at all, were it not for your daughter."
He blinked at that, and looked over at his daughter. She had tears all down her face, but she said, "it's true, Daddy. They have been horrible."
He looked back at me, and said, in a strange voice, "I was seven, when they came for us. I remember the nightmare. My grandmother ran out the back door with me in her arms, just as the front door was crashing in. My grandfather stayed behind with my father and mother, to give us a chance to get away. I never saw any of them again." I was not surprised to see tears on his cheeks. I understood. My tears matched his, and he knew my understanding for what it was.
He looked at me a few moments more, his fingers still drumming. Then he said, "how many of the bastards did you kill?"
"Eight."
He nodded abruptly. "Good. Very good." He looked over at his wife, who had not spoken a word in several minutes, but was as much awash as he. She nodded, gravely.
He looked dreamily off into a distance none of us could see. "Perhaps," he said softly, then, "but no. I was too young."
Suddenly, he glared at his daughter. "And how would you know what kind of nightmares he has?"
She just looked him in the eye, and said, "because I've been sleeping with him for more than six months, Daddy."
He glared much more fiercely. "You have the effrontery to sit at my table, and tell me you have been having sex with this man for six MONTHS?" he roared.
"No, Daddy," she glared right back, "I've been sleeping with him every night for six months, but I only gave my virginity to him the day before yesterday."
Oh, shit.
There was ten seconds of silence, before her father looked over at me, and said, "for the second time in one meal, you make me wish I had a gun."
"Sir, I--"
"LEAVE THIS HOUSE AT ONCE!"
"Very well, sir." I stood, thanked them for the meal I had not finished, and turned toward the door.
"Sit DOWN, young lady!"
I looked back from the kitchen door, to see that Ruth was on her feet. "No, father," she said unevenly, and smiled, although I could see she was about to cry. "Have you forgotten the name you gave me? Where he goes, I go."
She came over to me, and said, "I'll be out in a minute." I kissed her, and went to the door, and she headed to her room.
By the time I got to the door, her mother was there. "Please, Daniel," she said, "don't go just yet."
She pulled me into the living room and had me sit down, then said, "I'd really like to know more about why Ruth would be sleeping with you all that time, if you weren't having sex."
I thought about all the things that were part of our sleeping arrangements. I liked both her parents, despite her father's reaction to finding out I had taken his daughter's virginity. Still, telling her the whole truth would take far more time than we had, and would violate Ruth's privacy. "I guess the main reason is because of my nightmares. She wasn't exaggerating about them. I had been wounded to the core of my being by some of the things I had recently been through, and never would have made it out of the darkness without her help. She would not let me sleep alone, until I was able to heal. When she could not be there, herself, she arranged for friends to sleep with me, so I would not be alone when I woke up in the dark."
"And ARE you healed?" she asked, quietly.
"Yes," I said, "I think so, although it will be a while before the scars are gone completely -- maybe forever. There is do doubt in my mind, though, that I owe her my life."
"You know," she said, "I'm not happy about her losing her virginity to you, although you seem a nice enough young man. What concerns me more, though, is what she said just now, about going where you go. I don't know if you understood what she meant, but that's an awful lot of trust she is placing in you."
"Yes, it is," I said, softly. "I just hope I'm worthy of it."
"I hope so, too," she said, "but I like what I see so far." She got up, patted my cheek, and said, "stay. I will speak to my husband." She walked off to the kitchen, as Ruth appeared, a bag in her hand.
Ruth looked curiously after her mother, then came over to me. "What's up with Mom? She looks happy and sad at the same time,"
I smiled, and took her in my arms. "I think she is reconciling herself to the idea that her baby is a grown woman."
We could not hear the quiet conversation in the kitchen, but simply stood out in the darkened living room, with our arms around each other, holding each other, and holding back the loneliness in the world with our love.
I had become estranged from my parents. I had been numb for so long, that I had not even thought about them in months, but standing there, with Ruth, I realized that I did not want Ruth to become estranged from hers, nor did I want to stay detached from mine. I was not about to return to the unhealthy relationship we had, but I did not want to die without at least trying to reconcile. All too soon, there would never be another opportunity.
Right now, though, I did not want to split Ruth away from her parents. It didn't feel the same as with mine, at all. I liked them both. Ruth had told me her father was only in his early forties, but he seemed much older, and I was pretty sure the grief he had lived with was the reason. Her mother was in her mid thirties, at most.
After a few minutes, Ruth's mother came out, and said that we would be staying in the guest room tonight -- both of us. Ruth launched herself at her mother. After they had a good cry together, she went into the kitchen to thank her father, and her mother gave me a very warm hug, still a bit tearful. As I held her, she began to cry on me, too, so I stroked her back, and held her with love, just as I held Ruth, when she needed comfort.
When she calmed down, I looked around for a tissue box, and found one, then took care of her face, and kissed her forehead.
She blinked a few more times, and somewhat shakily asked if I would mind finishing dinner, and I said I wouldn't, so as soon as she was all together, I escorted her back to the table, and we all sat back down with Ruth's father, as if nothing had happened.
He was looking grumpy and emotional, but spoke courteously, although it was with an effort. Towards the end of the meal, he looked over at me, and said, "I imagine, to have killed that many storm troopers with a pistol, that you must be very good."
"I think I was more lucky than good, sir, in that I had some idea that they might be coming, so I could spend almost two solid weeks learning how to shoot. By the time they came in, I wasn't great, but I was good enough when it counted."
He teared up again, and said, "I've talked to others. My family knew they were coming, too. All of us did. No one did anything, even when it was clear what was happening. All anyone ever did was try to get away."
Then he gathered himself all at once, and said, "would you teach me how to shoot? Do you think I could learn it at my age?"
I said I would be deeply honored to do so. I could see both what it cost him to ask me that, and how important the question was for him. Having looked down the barrels of guns coming to kill ones I loved, I understood.
"I don't think you are that old, sir," I said. "You have many decades ahead of you, and knowing how to keep your loved ones safe, should what happened to both of us happen again, is worth a little effort."
He wasn't done, and I thought I understood the reason for his next question. "I wonder -- please excuse me if this is not proper, or would be too hard -- would it be possible for you to show me what you did, and how you did it?"
Looking into his eyes, a bit more than twice my age, but with ten times the pain I had ever known, I could not refuse. In his eyes, I could see the seven year old boy, punishing himself forever, for not being there to save the day, when grown men with machine guns kicked in the door. I didn't know if I could do anything for his pain, but I thought, just possibly, I might understand it better than anyone else, because I had not only been there, I had done what he had been wishing he could have done.
"I would be honored to show you, sir, and to walk you through the entire event, if you like. Elise, the woman who owns the house, would, I'm sure, be happy to allow me to do that.
"Sir, you should know that if I had been seven years old, we would all have been killed, and none of us would even have made it down the stairs, no matter how well prepared I was. There was nothing you could have done, then."
"And NOW?"
I nodded. "Now, you can say, 'never again,' and know that those are words you are willing to guard with your life. I have not your wisdom or experience, sir, but I can help you with this." I turned to his wife. "You too, ma'am."
"Please," she said, "call me Maya."
I smiled, and on impulse, picked up her hand, on my left, and kissed it. "I'm very pleased to meet you, Maya." She actually blushed, which was nice to see, and did not retrieve her hand quickly.
"And I am Elias, but I'll thank you not to kiss my hand. Dear, wipe your chin, please, and stop drooling; he's Ruth's.
After a laugh, I went on. "I would also be happy to teach you how to shoot, Maya, although Ruth could probably teach you as well as I could, at this point. Neither of us compete, but she could probably have picked up a string of trophies by now, if she had wanted them."
The conversation continued on amiably at that point, and ended up getting quite friendly by the end of the evening. They were very good people; it just took them time to adjust to the changes in their daughter's life. Once they did, they were friendly, relaxed, and flirtatious with us, as if we were old friends, instead of a daughter and her . . . I suddenly realized I did not know WHAT I was, in relation to Ruth. I would have to think about that.
A couple of hours and a couple of glasses of wine after dinner, Maya was telling us all the guest bed arrangements, and was clearly skirting around trying to tell us that she didn't mind if we slept together, but she would rather we did not have sex under her roof. When she had circled that runway two or three times, Elias finally stopped her very effectively. His method of doing so was to pull her to her feet, and kiss her passionately, pinning her to the wall, while stroking her body.
She was making all kinds of signs and motions of protest, and he was completely ignoring them, with his crotch pressed against hers. She kept trying to say something, and to pull away from her, but he was stroking her face with one hand, and her bottom with the other. Her leg was rising up to curl around in back of him, and her smothered squawks were starting to sound more like moans.
Finally, she managed to break away enough to gasp, "dear, the children!" She was breathing so hard that she could hardly get the words out. She had one leg all the way around his hips, despite her protests.
"There are no children here!" he declared, as he pulled her skirt up, and continued caressing her very nicely rounded ass, while pressing his crotch very insistently against hers. "I'm going to offer you a choice, woman."
"I . . . have . . . a choice?" she panted, and she actually included a giggle, which startled me.
"No! I'm going to offer one to you, anyway, though, just as though you did. These young people are going to go off to the guest room, and do what young people do with all those hormones. Since you have gotten yourself all fired up drooling over Ruth's young man all evening, I'm going to take advantage of that, and get it while it's hot. And I'd say, madam, that you are EXTREMELY hot right now."
Maya was trying to say something, but nothing coherent was coming out. I had moved around behind Ruth, and had my arms around her, cupping her breasts, so we could both watch the show.
"My love, I'm going to strip off all your clothes, and make love to you until your eyes roll back in your head and you collapse."
"Ooooh! So, what's . . . my . . . choice?" she managed to gasp.
"Whether I do that in the bedroom, or here in front of your daughter," he said, and lifted her sweater up over her head. She only had on a bra under it, and squealed and ran, giggling, toward the bedroom.
Elias grinned at us and waved, before striding off to the bedroom, ten feet tall.
Ruth and I put out the lights, and retired to the bedroom. I still had to be very gentle with her, but she was getting used to my size. It still made her completely lose control of herself, but she was only a little bit uncomfortable and sore, instead of in real pain.
After she had recovered, and was snuggled to my side, Ruth giggled.
"What?"
"I've NEVER seen my Dad act like that. I think he must have been feeling really good." She kissed my chest. "I've never seen my Mom act like that, either. They were like a couple of teenagers." She half sat up, and looked at me, and there were tears in her eyes. "I think Dad found a piece of himself, tonight, that has been missing almost all his life." She hugged me fiercely, but didn't say anything more.
She snuggled back up, and soon we were both asleep.
In the morning, we went running, then made love again in the shower. Ruth was almost entirely over the pain of her hymen, and only had left the little bit of discomfort from my size, which was much more than compensated for by the pleasure.
At breakfast, her parents both seemed especially happy. I offered again to teach them both how to shoot, if they wanted. Her mother said, no, but her father said, "I'd like to learn that, but I don't know how to begin, honestly."
I suggested the place to start would be a local gun store, and offered to go there with him that morning. He didn't have to be at work until ten, so we found one that was open early, and went down there.
The old man running the store was friendly, but cautious, until he heard why we were there. He talked with Elias about what was needed, and the laws that applied in their state. He noticed the piece I was wearing, of course, but didn't say anything. When Elias talked about why he wanted to get a handgun for defense, and mentioned what I had done, the owner's eyes flew open wide.
"THAT's where I've heard your name," he said, and shook my hand. "How many of the bastards did you get?" he said, excitedly.
"Eight."
"Eight! Was that what you used?" I nodded.
"What were the bad guys carrying, again?"
"I don't know," I said, "but it was some kind of machine gun."
He frowned. "What do you mean, you don't know?"
"I don't know that much about guns, mister. They were long, and they sprayed a lot of bullets, so I guess that made them machine guns. I'd only been shooting any kind of gun for about two weeks, when they attacked."
He stood back, and stared at me with his mouth open, then said, "Two WEEKS?" I nodded. He shook his head, and said, "hang on a moment. There was an article here about that." A couple of minutes later, he had found it, in some gun magazine. "It says here that the bad guys mostly had AK-47s, but three of them had M16s, one of them had a Thompson, and one of them had an Uzi."
He just frowned a moment more, then said, "You went up against all that with a handgun, and killed EIGHT? Would you mind shooting a couple of clips?"
I checked with Elias, and he was eager to see me shoot, so I said okay.
The old man locked the door, putting up a sign that he would be in the range next door, and we went over. He had a fifty foot range, and assured me it was okay for .45 rounds. He put a large target up at twenty five feet, and waited. I just frowned at him, and he sent it on down to fifty feet.
I had been shooting a box per day, every day, for six months. It was a few days since my last time, but I was still feeling pretty good about my shooting. The large target had four small three inch targets in the corners. In about two seconds, I put one round in the big target, then one round in each of the four small targets, then I put the gun down.
He brought the target back up, and just looked at it in silence. All five targets were missing at least part of the little x in the center.
He cleared his throat. "All right, I'm convinced. Who the hell taught you to shoot like that?"
"Is that good?" said Elias, and the old man gave a start.
"Hell, yes, that's good," he said. "Who taught you, kid?"
"I can't really say," I said, "but I'm not even in their ball park, shooting-wise."
He looked again at the paper, and shook his head. "Somehow, I find that very hard to believe."
"You wouldn't, if you had seen them shoot."
I could tell he really wanted to talk all day, but I explained that Elias needed to get to work soon. After getting me to sign my target, he went through what we wanted, then tried Elias out on several guns, before settling him on a nine millimeter. I was happy with that, as it would mean he and Ruth could share ammo.
Elias would still have to wait seven days before he could pick up his gun, but I paid for the whole thing, including a cleaning kit, ten boxes of ammo, and two spare clips. I also paid for a year's membership at the range, and the owner agreed to coach him until he was confident.
When Elias protested, I said, "Elias, I'd REALLY like to do this. You and I have both been through something most people on earth would never understand, and I know what being able to stand your ground means to you. Besides, tomorrow is Christmas Eve, and I know it isn't your tradition, but it is mine."
As I was paying the carefully deaf owner, I turned back to Elias, and said, "there is one more thing. I owe Ruth my life. There is no way I could ever repay her for that, but if there is any way at all I can help the one man on earth she loves as much as me, I'm not going to miss the opportunity."
He then insisted I stay one more evening. I agreed to, although I told him I would have to leave first thing in the morning. I was happy to stay, because I really did not want to be apart from Ruth.
I had also thought of one thing I'd been meaning to do. When Elias headed off to work, I went in the same direction, to find another specialty store. It was a large one, and the manager was very helpful. It took some time, but they had exactly what I wanted.
When I got back to the house, Ruth and Maya were sitting together in the living room, having tea and chatting away. I heard a mutual giggle as I came in.
I said hello, and asked if it would be all right if I spent another night, at Elias' request. They were both delighted at that, and Maya walked over to me, but Ruth launched herself at me, kissing me passionately in front of her mother, and caressing my ass as she did. I did not want to embarrass her mother, and I was already getting a hard-on, so I broke off and said, "dear, the mothers," in a light-hearted play off of what Maya had said the night before.
Ruth just grinned wickedly, and said, "no mothers here, dear, just sisters," and moved her hand around to the front, and started stroking the bulge that was quickly getting out of control. Now I had to run out of the room, hearing laughter behind me, because I could no longer just keep an erection down. It quickly became too painful, unless I could get it vertical.
I ducked around the corner into the kitchen, to Ruth's guffaws and Maya's more polite laughter, and tried to get him under control. I had not yet adjusted to the change in size yet, and occasionally found, when he started to grow, that if he was pointed down a trouser leg, I would have to unzip and open my trousers, just to have enough room to get him around to vertical. If it was bad enough, I'd actually have to pull my trousers down a ways, before I could get him free enough to get him to safety. With effort, I managed to get him to where it wouldn't be painful. He was standing up past my belt, but at least he wasn't bent.
As I was finishing getting him adjusted, I was startled to see both Ruth AND Maya coming into the kitchen. I spun around, but not before I saw Maya's eyes widen. Damn. I got my trousers fastened a few seconds later, hearing both ladies laughing behind me.
Just as I finished, Ruth's arms came around me, and proceeded to stroke him, making the problem worse.
"Ruth, what are you doing?" I gasped. This felt really wrong.
She just laughed harder. "Sauce for the goose," she said. "A mother wants to know her daughter is being well taken care of. After getting over the shock of realizing we were sleeping together, she was concerned that it took six months of sleeping together before you deflowered me, and she was actually wondering if you were man enough for me."
She was laughing hysterically, now, and went on, her hands still over my member. "So, I told her," she choked, "that you had really small equipment, but you've been doing some growing lately, and I offered to show her."
With that, she yanked her hands down, and I realized, too late, that she had been unfastening my trousers. Just as my trousers and boxers cleared them, she bit one of my ass cheeks. My startle reaction, of course, was to turn around, fully exposing my erection to her mother, standing all of two feet behind me.
I spun back around, and retrieved my trousers, but not before catching sight of Maya's stunned expression. My member, of course, was even happier to have yet another female giving him attention, and was getting harder than ever.
When I finally got my trousers re-fastened, and my shirt was loosely hanging down to hide him, I turned back around. I'm sure my face was crimson.
Looking at Ruth's laughing face, and Maya's still-stunned expression, I finally realized that there was no way to keep my dignity in the situation, so I just bowed, and took her hand. "Mrs Abrams, I am pleased to make your acquaintance." I kissed her hand, which brought her even closer.
"I just wanted her to see that her daughter was being well taken care of," said Ruth. "So, what do you think, Mom?"
Maya didn't answer. She was just staring down in the direction of my member, which I hoped was finally hidden, and not staring back at her.
I think Maya and I were equally stunned by the circumstances, albeit for very different reasons. Ruth said, "I guess we'd better have mercy on my mother, before she decides to jump you, Danny."
"Thank you," I said, nervously. Despite the actions of my irrepressible penis, I did not want to get into ANY kind of sexual encounter with Ruth's mother. I still was not entirely sure what had happened with her father, but it looked to me as if he was beginning to overcome a lifetime insecurity, stemming from something terrible that had happened when he was very small. I was thrilled at what I had seen, but I didn't know if it was a real change, or if he was always that way.
I was even more thrilled to think that I just might have had a chance to bring some healing into Ruth's family that way. Whether that was true or not, though, I did not want to undercut Elias' masculinity by doing ANYTHING with his wife. Maya was an attractive woman, but she was absolutely in the "off limits" column in my mind.
I finally managed to get out of there to get cleaned up, as Ruth and her mother went back to their chatting. I wondered how much information they had been sharing, for Ruth to have become so bold.
Finally having some emotional distance from my actions of the previous summer, I knew how childishly I had reacted to the women going ga-ga over George. Still, the emotional impact on me of how they were reacting to his size was huge. I had no idea what would happen to Elias and Maya if she were to start acting that way towards me; I wasn't about to find out. I realized I was annoyed with Ruth for doing that - the first time she had ever given rise to that feeling in me.
Lunch was normal, chatty, and pleasant. I think they had, perhaps, figured out how uncomfortable I had been, so they were not pushing things in intimate directions.
I told them about the morning at the gun shop, and that we had gotten Elias all set up with a gun, including all the accouterments. I told Maya I'd be happy to set her up the same way, and Ruth chimed in enthusiastically that she could help, but Maya wasn't ready to go down that road. She had been telling herself that guns were evil for so long, that she wasn't about to change her mind.
She was actually upset that I had done that for Elias, and let a bit of how strongly she was bothered by it come out. I reached over and touched Maya's hand. "I can see this is a very emotional issue for you," I said, "and for Elias." I hesitated. "Maya, do you mind if I ask you a very personal question?"
She blushed, and said, "you can ask." The sexual tension which had been there earlier was entirely gone. I had to remind myself that I had said that was a good thing.
"Okay, Maya. I hope it is not TOO personal for you, because I think it is a very important question." I took a deep breath, and said, "last night, when Elias interrupted you like that, and carried you off to the bedroom -- was that something that has happened very often?"
She turned beet red, and started to retort, then bit back her reply. She started to answer twice more, reconsidering both times, before she said, her face very red, "not often, no. In fact," she glanced over at Ruth, still red, "the last time was before Ruth was born."
"Thank you. It was very nice, wasn't it, to be desired that much, and taken that way."
She looked sharply at me, then said, a bit primly, "I hope you aren't just winding me up, young man. Yes, it was the nicest since . . . well, since that last time." Then she glared at me. "Just what are you driving at?"
"Please bear with me," I said. "This summer, I went through two events very much like what Elias went through as a small boy. Through luck, a country that allows its citizens to defend themselves, and the help of some very good people, I came through both intact, and managed, in the second one, to stand up and fight back."
I took another breath, shuddering as I remembered that night. "I still have nightmares about both events. I may have them forever; I don't know. When I heard Elias talk about it, I realized that he has had the same nightmares, his have been worse than mine, and he has had them for decades.
"Worse, for him, was that he does not have the comfort of remembering that he made a good showing against the bad guys. He was only seven, so there was no reason to expect that he should have been able to do anything at all, but I can tell you, Maya, that the subconscious does not care beans about logic. I have gone over everything I did a thousand times or more, and I cannot think of anything I could have done better than I did, but I still punish myself, every night, that I left the judge behind to get killed when I ran out of the room to save Elise. My mind knows that trying to save both would most likely have gotten Elise and myself killed, but I still go through it, over and over, as if on the thousand-and-first time, I'd come up with a way to save them both.
"Without the second experience, which was really much more like what Elias had happen, I would probably spend the rest of my life, punished by what I had not done, even though I knew it was impossible.
"That second experience, though, was the one in which I stood up with a gun, and stopped the evil men with guns from killing people I love.
"I still have nightmares about that one, too, Maya. I don't know if they will ever go away. Ruth has held me together for six months. Were it not for Ruth, I think I would be ready for a mental institution right now." I didn't mention that the greatest wounds had come from the broken relationships, but it was still true that I was tormented severely, day to day and night to night, by the two most violent events of the summer.
"The main thing is, Maya, that when those men -- and I don't think it matters one bit whether they were Nazis or mafia -- came in to kill myself and the people I loved, my being able to kill a bunch of them and keep my loved ones safe means that while I am still tormented by the event, I can stand tall, and look myself in the eye in the mirror, and know that I have the courage to stand up against evil, when it comes after my family.
"Last night, Maya, Elias, who has been tormented all his life by something that happened when he was seven years old, realized for maybe the first time that he, too, can stand up against evil when it invades his home. It may not get rid of the nightmares altogether, but I think it will help him stand taller, and be the man you know he is already."
"And last night, . . ." she started, then fell silent.
"Yes," I said. "Last night, you experienced what that meant to him. You should have seen him today, Maya. He was learning to shoot, and I would swear those targets had Nazi uniforms. I hope you are prepared for tonight, Maya, because your man is going to come home taller than he was when he left this morning."
Maya blushed again, and got a faraway look in her eyes, while I returned to my food.
After a moment, she came back to herself, then said, "Wait a minute. You think holding a gun makes you a man?"
"No, Maya," I said. "I think being willing to defend your family makes you a man. Some men are evil, but it is the men who are evil, not the guns. I have a black belt in karate, but that would have meant nothing against machine guns. The only thing that kept the four of us safe was a gun.
"The Nazis aren't gone, Maya. In this country, they don't wear the same uniforms, but they are still out there. They will always be out there. Sometimes they are thugs, and sometimes they work for the government, but they are the same people. The thing is, whether it is a saber-toothed tiger or the Gestapo, it is a man's greatest accomplishment to stand up between his family and the danger, with whatever weapons are available. If it takes a gun to do that, so be it."
I took her hand again. "I know this isn't the way you've thought of things for a long time, Maya, but your husband's well-being may depend on your support right now. Ruth really did save my life, this year. She held me together and believed in me, and put everything she valued at risk to put me back together, when I could not do it myself, even WITH her help. Don't underestimate how much YOU help him know he is a man. Even if this isn't something you ever want to do for yourself, I think you saw last night how much this has to do with HIS wholeness."
Leaking tears, she drew her hand back, but said, quietly, "I think you may be right, but I need to think about this more."
We finished lunch quietly, and Ruth and I went back to the bedroom for some rest. She had yet another surprise for me, then. She asked me to eat her pussy, which I was glad to do. She then lay me back, and positioned herself over my face, facing down my body. She clearly had something in mind, but I had no idea what. I began eating her, teasing her gently, as she laid her body down on mine.
I was really starting to get into it, when she stretched her mouth around my penis. I was expecting the scraping of teeth, but she managed to stay soft and warm around me, as she slid more of me into her mouth. It was the first time I had been in someone's mouth in more than six months, and I had missed being in Ruth more than anyone, even when I was half-dead, and she was holding me together every night.
It felt so good, I groaned, as she scooted herself out of reach of my mouth, so she could go even farther down my shaft. A moment more, and I could feel her lips around my base, and her throat around my head. Ruth was deep-throating me! The thought of what she must have done to be able to do that, and the incredible sensations, combined to bring me off almost instantly.
"Oh, my god, Ruth, I'm going to come right now!" I gasped -- and then I was. I could feel my head stretching out her throat, as I fired my spurts straight down her throat. She had to pull back before I was done, so she could swallow and breathe, but she kept me in her mouth until I softened, when she finally could suck hard, cleaning me out.
She kissed me, and lay her head tiredly down on my leg, but laughed as I pulled her back by her hips, until I could reach her with my mouth again. I returned to teasing her towards orgasm, with my mouth and hands. Once Ruth had finished off, with soft, gasping sighs, I pulled her relaxed body around, and kissed her, as she snuggled up, tiredly, to my side.
"Are we going to sleep now?" she asked.
"As soon as you tell me how you DID that," I said. "I thought that was impossible."
She giggled. "Remember when Barbara pulled me aside at the adult store?"
"Yeah."
"She showed me a couple of books AND several videos on how to deep-throat, including how to do it on really big cocks. I'm just learning it, but I'll get better at it."
"Better? Ruth, that was fanTAStic!"
She sighed happily, and said, as she put her face back down on my chest, "good, because I've been in withdrawal for a really long time, but I'm still addicted."
We both slept for an hour, before going out in search of a local gym. I bought them a family membership, and paid for a year, before Ruth and I got in an intense weight routine, followed by a lot of stretching.
Dinner that night was just plain fun. Elias brought home flowers, and held the chair for Maya when she sat for dinner, and was making politely indecent remarks to her all through the meal. She was beside herself, flushed, embarrassed, but most of all, happy as could be with all the attention. At one point, she looked over at me, and I just winked at her, making her blush even more.
Ruth told them about the gym membership, and they were both excited to check it out, "but not yet," declared Elias. "First, I must ravish my wife!" Maya didn't say anything, but flushed even more, and looked happier.
As soon as the meal was over -- and Maya had outdone herself, obviously working hard to produce a first-rate meal -- Ruth and I both jumped up and volunteered to take care of clean-up.
"Good!" Elias said immediately, jumping up himself. He hauled Maya to her feet, and immediately began unbuttoning her dress.
"Dear," gasped Maya, obviously both terribly embarrassed and delighted, "NO!"
"You say NO to me, woman?" He was still unbuttoning her dress.
"No," she said again, although it was weaker.
He pushed the dress back off of her shoulders, and dropped it to the floor, leaving her in bra and slip. Then he undid the slip, and took that off her as well. He moved her to the side, to step out of her dress, which Ruth picked up to lay over the chair. Then he pulled her to the side, to show her to us.
"My wife, she is beautiful, yes?"
"Yes, yes!" I agreed, and Ruth was nodding, too, although I think Ruth was a bit overwhelmed by it.
Maya was trying to cover her breasts with one arm, and her crotch with the other, even though those areas were covered by bra and panties. She was as red as I had seen her. She was definitely an attractive woman, though. Her breasts were far larger than Ruth's, and her body had about half the extra weight that Ruth had had when I met her. Her weight was more in the thighs and butt, though, instead of around the middle.
"Stop that trying to cover yourself up, woman!"
"I can't HELP it," she said. She still looked pleased, but she was also terribly embarrassed. This was far outside my comfort zone, but I had no idea what to do.
Elias was still in charge, though. "If you insist on covering up, then, I will GIVE you something to cover up." He reached out, and yanked her panties down to the floor. When she gasped and put both hands down to cover up her bush, he quickly undid her bra and pulled it off.
Caught between trying to keep her bra on and keeping her bush covered, she failed at both, and began to cry, as he pulled her last bit of covering away, and flung it from her.
SMACK! "Stop that crying, woman!"
Maya jumped at the hard spank on her bottom, and looked up at him with fearful eyes. I was surprised to see, though, that she was no longer crying, AND her nipples were FULLY erect. Her body shifted position slightly, and I suddenly realized that Maya, looking at her husband, REALLY wanted to be fucked.
Elias wasn't slow to take the hint, either. With a laugh, he kissed her for half a minute, by the end of which, she was starting to bend her leg around his. Then he hauled her up over his shoulder, and stood up. As he turned to face us, her vulva was clearly displayed to us over his shoulder. It was both swollen and wet.
Just in case we weren't getting it, he lightly smacked her bottom again, and said, "very beautiful, yes? And now, if you will excuse me, I have to give my wife what she needs, so she does not go chasing after her daughter's boyfriend."
As he headed off down the hall to the master bedroom, Maya looked up at us, hanging over his back. She still looked terribly embarrassed, but she looked more aroused, and still more happy.
Before Ruth and I had finished the dishes, we could hear happy sounds coming from down the hall. Elias had apparently neither closed the bedroom door, nor let Maya close it. About the time we were putting the last of the dishes away, we could hear Maya coming, very loudly and noisily, and we could hear a triumphant shout coming from Elias, too.
"Have your parents ever been like this?" I asked an abashed Ruth.
"NO," she said. "They don't even KISS each other around me. This is all new."
"Is it making you hot?"
She looked up at me with lidded eyes. "Is it ever!"
"Good." I scooped her up, and carried her out to the living room couch.
She looked nervously toward the hall, at the end of which was the open door to her parents' bedroom. "Don't you want to go to the guest bedroom?"
I just laughed. "No."
I slowly pulled off all her clothes, until she was as naked as her mother had been, then lovingly began working my way into her. For the first time, I was able to get into her fairly easily. It was still very tight, but it didn't hurt her as it had before. In a couple of minutes, I was pounding her hard, and she was losing control.
When she came, it was very similar to how her mother came, with deep, hoarse grunts and groans. It went on for a while, too, as I had my own climax, and unloaded in her. I continued to stay in her, until we had both calmed down, and I had shrunk down enough to slip out.
Ruth, finally, looked to the side, and said, slurrily, "hello, Daddy. Hello, Mommy."
I looked around, and there they were, standing in the living room. Both were naked, and still obviously damp from their exercise.
"Very impressive, young man," said Elias.
I laughed, and said, "you too, sir. Your wife looks VERY happy, and even more beautiful than before." She did, too. Maya was standing in front of us, completely naked, with some cum visible on her pubic hair, and more on her leg. Her hair was disheveled, and she was sweaty, and instead of looking upset about that, she looked radiant, the way Lita had looked, long ago. She was holding Elias' hand, and was not making even the slightest attempt to cover herself up.
He looked over at Maya, and smiled. "She IS more beautiful this way, isn't she?"
"Yes, she is," I agreed, "much more beautiful."
"I've never seen my daughter looking happier, either," he said. Then he turned to Maya. "Dear, is this the same couch?"
Maya laughed, a more open, joyful laugh than I had heard from her yet. "It is, my love. Not only is it the same couch, but he has placed her in exactly the same spot."
"The same spot?" said Ruth.
Maya laughed again, and went over to the couch, and kissed Ruth full on the mouth. I was surprised to see tears in her eyes. "My dear," she said, "tonight was only the third time my husband absolutely took me, like the man he is. Last night was the second. The first, though, he took me EXACTLY where you are lying right now, on that very couch. My juices and his juices made a huge stain, which is why that couch has always had a cover. I would bet, if we were to take the cover off just now, we'd find a new stain, smack in the middle of the old one."
"I don't understand," I said.
Maya kissed me on the mouth, tenderly, before answering. "The first time he took me that way, Daniel, on that exact spot, was exactly nine months before Ruth was born." Then we were all four laughing hard, and Ruth and Maya were hugging and crying. I got up, so they could do a better job of a happy cry-together.
I went over and shook Elias' hand, and said, quietly, "well done, sir."
"You too, sir." I found myself feeling very warm inside, and wishing I had some of that old Scotch to share with him. We turned to look at the women, both naked, both relaxed, happily crying in each other's arms.
"They are both very beautiful," I said.
"We are very lucky men, Daniel."
"That we are, sir. That we are."
We showered and got dressed, then headed over to check out the gym. We got them set up with exercise routines to go through together, we got them their access cards, and we ended up relaxing in the hot tub together. I could see from their looks how much they liked that.
As Ruth and I were lying in the guest bed that evening, I asked her what she thought the chances were that her parents would have a hot tub installed before another year went by.
She chuckled. "I'd say pretty good, from the way they looked tonight. Do you think they will keep up with the gym?"
"No way of knowing, but I think they have incentive to do it together, now that Elias is master of his home again."
She shook her head. "Oh, no. I think Mom still rules the roost in most things, but Dad is definitely going to stay in charge in the bedroom." She laughed. "I've never seen anything like it. I mean, I've heard the women tell the stories about what you did on that camping trip, just taking a woman and loving her like that, but here is my FATHER, doing the same thing. Not only that, but my MOTHER wants him to keep doing it. I've NEVER seen her look so happy."
She sighed. "It was wonderful, though, to find out you had taken me, exactly where I had been conceived. I just thought about my cum and my mother's cum, and your cum and my father's cum, all drying together in the same spot. The only way it could have been any better was if WE had conceived a child there."
"Someday, beloved," I said, softly.
She looked up at me with tears in her eyes. "Do you mean that? "
"With all my heart, my love. You know, don't you, that I am never going to stop sharing my love with others, right?"
She nodded. "I wouldn't want you to, Danny. I love them all, too. I'm happy that Elise and Maggie are carrying your babies, and I know most of the girls are hoping to do the same, some day. I look forward to helping to raise them, but oh, my love, to have your child growing inside me," she broke off, and started crying, there against my chest. I just held her, and and promised her that yes, we would start a baby as soon as she was ready.
She cried some more, then looked up at me. "Do you mind if I ask something weird?"
"Come back to borrow the couch?"
"You read my mind. Pretty weird, huh?"
"No, beloved," I said, "just sentimental, like me."
I rolled her over, and she sighed happily, leaking a few more tears, as I got her body ready for the love already in her heart. We made slow, passionate love, looking forward to the day when we could do the same to make a baby.
In the morning, we went running together, and had one more love-making session, before coming up for breakfast. Elias and Maya were both up for breakfast, and both were looking more at peace than they had yet.
I left right after breakfast. As I was leaving, they both thanked me, with great feeling, for coming. They both thanked me for the gifts, but it was Elias who reminded me of the greatest gift I had given him.
"You showed me, Danny, something I have always known, and never let myself see: that being a man is not about winning all the battles, but it is about standing between your family and the danger. I won't ever hide from that responsibility again, and I have taken my place as the man of this house. No one will ever come for my family, unless it is over my dead body, after I have done all I can to ensure that they die first.
"Not only that, I remembered what it is to be a man with a woman, and finally taken the role my Maya has always wanted me to take, that of lord and master of the bedroom. For all of these changes, you have been the catalyst."
Maya just stepped to me, and after an inquisitive look at her husband, who nodded, melted against me in a full-body kiss, pressing against my instant hard-on, and kissing me deeply and intimately. I did not back off, and when she finally did, almost a minute later, she said, "thank you for bring us both back from the dead, Daniel. I will ask my husband's AND my daughter's permission, but if they will allow it, I would love to make love to you when you return."
"We'll talk about that later, my love," said Elias, pulling her away, but I could tell he was not upset. "For now, though, you had better go, Danny. Ruth, you can see him out." As we were leaving the kitchen, I could see that he had flipped up her skirt, and was already thrusting into her from behind. Holding onto a chair, Maya caught my eye, and gave me a happy wink.
Ruth rushed me out the door. "It's going to take me a while to get used to that," she said, giggling.
"They've really never done that before?"
"No, never," she giggled again.
She walked me to the Mercedes, and I kissed her thoroughly. Just before I got in the car, I said, "oh, yes. One more thing I forgot. Ruth, you know about our plan to make a group marriage and live as a commune, right?"
"Oh, yeah," she said, "it sounds heavenly."
"Then I have a small question for you." I knelt down in the street in front of her, and opened a small box, purchased the day before. "Will you marry us?"
I got to see a couple of seconds of the happiest and most surprised expression I'd seen on Ruth's face yet, before a bang caught both our attentions. A car driving past us had driven off the road and hit a tree.
It was only a hundred feet away, so we went rushing down to see that no one was hurt. The woman driving was not hurt, and the car was not badly damaged, nor was the tree. I managed to help her get her car back on the road, and then she stopped the car, got out, and said, "wait, wait! I have to know!"
"What?" I said.
She turned to Ruth. "What was your answer?"
Ruth just laughed, and threw her arms around me, and gave me a huge kiss. "Yes," she said, glowing.
The other woman, who looked not much older than Ruth, was crying happy tears. Ruth took her by the hand. "He's just leaving, and you still look a little shook up. Why don't you come in and have some tea?"
"Ruth?" I said.
Ruth looked at me curiously for a moment, then turned bright red, and said, "Oh! Well, that is, come on in, in a few minutes, when my parents are, that is, when they," She looked at me in exasperation. "I have NO IDEA what to say to her," she laughed.
Through her giggles, she finally managed to tell the other woman that they couldn't go in the house just yet, because the last she saw, her parents were making love in the kitchen. They both broke into a fit of giggles at that, so I kissed Ruth good-bye, then looked at the other and offered her my hand. She just gave me a hug, and said her name was Sophia. She still looked fairly out of it, but Ruth said she would hang out with her until it was safe to go back in the kitchen.
I would have loved to have stayed longer, but it was Christmas Eve, and I had a three-hour drive to make.