Authors: Carol Swan
*
The shop phone rang as we were having lunch the next day.
"Hello," I answered it.
("Sam, it's your sister.")
"Sally! How are ya?"
("I'm great. Don't worry nothing's wrong.")
"Where are you?"
(I'm at the airport. My connecting flight to Chicago has been delayed so I'm jumping in a cab to go see mum and dad. Can you meet me there? It would be really nice to see you too. I can only spend an hour there before I'll have to get back to the airport.")
"Okay, I'll meet you there."
("Great, I really miss you.")
"I miss you too. Love you. See you in about forty minutes."
I pulled my shop coat off, grabbed my keys and said "Emma, I'll be back in about two or three hours. I've got my cell phone." I jumped in the pick-up truck and took off to see my sister.
From the airport she'd be at mum and dad's before I would.
She is married with three kids, my nephews and niece. Naturally, I'm always feeling guilty because I don't see my mum and dad often enough. But at sixty six and sixty seven, they're still doing okay. God bless them. Sadly I only rarely see my sister and her family.
We had a pleasant visit. It was very strange for just the four of us to be together, without her husband and her kids, although I love them all very dearly. I couldn't remember that last time it was just the four of us. We all hugged and kissed before my sister and I had to return to the real world.
I got back to the shop just before three. The black Yaris wasn't there. Emma wasn't there. I called her cell. She didn't pick up.
Just after four, the shop phone rang.
"Hello," I answered it.
("Sam Rockwell?")
"Yes?"
("My name is Dennis Progue, I'm Emma's dad.)
"Is she okay, where is she?"
("She's in the hospital. She's been in an accident.")
"What?!...Is she okay?" My knees started to shake.
("She'll be okay, she's been banged up. Her car's a write off.)
"Oh my God." I needed to sit down. I was going to faint.
("What happened?")
"What do you mean? I have no idea." I was breathing heavy. How could he be asking
me
what happened?
("She's completely distraught, she ran through a red light and got t-boned, luckily on the passenger side. The mini-van that hit her is a write-off too, but it appears the woman who hit her is fine. Her air bags went off.")
"How bad is she banged up?" My world was going grey.
("A couple of broken ribs, some minor cuts, a bunch of bruising. Her head is fine, spine's fine. She's very shaken up. Why wasn't she at work and why did she run a red light?")
"I don't know. What hospital is she at?" With a bunch of deep breaths I knew I was going to be okay.
He told me.
"All I can tell you is that I went out and I was back three hours later and she was gone. That was completely unlike her. And she wouldn't pick up her cell phone when I called. I thought maybe she went for groceries or something. I was getting a little worried."
("I'm calling you from her cell phone right now. I think they might be discharging her tonight.")
"That's fine, I'm going to see her right now." I was panting.
Back down the highway I went shaking the whole way. I met Dennis and her mom Jenny standing outside the little room Emma was in. They were obviously worried and upset.
Emma had bandages on her face with traces of dry blood below. Her bottom lip was blue and swollen. The nose ring was gone. Clearly she'd had a nose bleed. She had a shiner in both eyes. Her right arm was in a sling. She had a neck brace pad around the back of her neck. There was something wrapped around her ribs below her sweater, which was bloody. Her pants were off and she had a big bandage on both knees and her right ankle.
Tears welled in my eyes. I thought I might faint.
"Emma you poor thing." I leaned over and kissed her forehead.
"Do you still love her?" she mumbled through swollen lips.
"What?"
"Sally. Do you still love her?"
Oh fuck.
"Emma. My sister's name is Sally. I went to see my sister, not my ex-fiancé."
"What?!...Fuck off! Fuck right off! You fucking bastard!" She was shaking in the bed.
"Hey, don't be blaming me."
She started crying.
Dennis interjected, "What's going on?" Her mom looked like she was in shock.
I turned to face them both. "I had a fiancé named Sally. My sister's name is Sally too. My sister's connecting flight was delayed and she and I met for an hour at my parent's house this afternoon. Emma overheard the phone call from my sister and thought I was talking to my ex-fiancé. None of that would matter, if your daughter wasn't desperately in love with me." I turned to look down to Emma, "Isn't that true Emma?"
Tears were streaming from her face as she nodded.
"Do you love her too?" Jenny asked, her face even more in shock.
I brushed Emma's forehead, there was dry blood in the hairline. "I do, but not when she's stupid like this." I smiled at her.
She tried to smile back through her blue swollen lip. Tears were still flowing.
"Are they going to discharge her tonight?" I asked Dennis.
"That's what they said," he answered, "the Doctor's going to come by one more time."
"Should we let Emma decide where she wants to go home to?" I asked.
"I think so Sam."
The three of us turned to look at Emma. Through blackened, teary eyes she slowly raised her slinged right arm and pointed a crooked finger at me.
Thank you lord.
I looked around the little room. I could see her shop coat in a plastic bag next to the bed. "What happened to her pants?" I asked.
"They cut them off." Jenny answered.
"We'll need to buy her some sweatpants or something," Dennis suggested.
"No," I said, "I'm going to buy her a skirt. A flowery one."
"Fuck off!...fuuuuck offfff!" came the response.
Dennis said in a low voice to me, "I'm glad she's going home with you."
As we drove home Emma asked, "Is it true?"
"It what true?"
"That you love me?" Her voice was a little hesitant.
"Yes, it's true. I love you Emma."
"I love you too Sam." Tears were streaming down her face.
"Try not to move Emma."
"I'm sorry Sam."
"I'm sorry too. Thank god you're not seriously hurt."
"My car is a write off."
"So I heard."
We drove in silence for a minute or two. "Do you want another Yaris or would you prefer a pick-up truck? A pick-up truck would make more sense, business-wise."
"Can it be black?"
"No. Pink. Girly pink." I said.
"Fuck off."
I smiled. At least her spirit wasn't broken.
*
The next day we drove to her parent's house. She pointed to what she wanted packed up. It included synthesizers, keyboards, amps, speakers, a laptop and a whole lot of cable. All of that was going to go into the third bedroom. Her wardrobe was predictably almost all black. Most of her jewelry was that kooky silver stuff with skulls and crossbones. She hesitated before asking me to pack it up. Her clothes and stuff would go into the second bedroom. There was a box in the back of her closet she asked me to retrieve. I noticed there was something pink and rubbery inside, definitely destined for our bedroom.
She was only off work for two days. Hurting and banged up she carried on in the shop. The same rules applied. The shop swan remained professional with a good work ethic. The house swan a brilliant, but demented whacko. And a good cook.
Unfortunately for the next week or so, there was no sex. The broken ribs just hurt too much.
*
I was able to confirm that it was the alcohol that helped trigger her carnal cravings. I made sure that there was always plenty of beer, wine and liquor, including gin for martinis, in the house.
Sex continued to be fabulous. Sometimes I would tie her down. It didn't matter if I fucked her pussy, her throat or her ass, or all three. She loved it no matter where. She never tired of eating my cum, as long as it didn't come out of her ass. I could never get enough Emma juice. I never did let her tie me down again.
Like everything else about Emma, her early Christian synth music was brilliant. She needed it to get away from me and the shop sometimes. The third bedroom became her private space.
Not only was Emma my employee and my lover, she became my best friend too.
The face metal never came back. Her hair grew out brown. The Goth look was gone forever, but was never really replaced with flowery dresses. I got used to the tattoos. After awhile, I didn't even see them.
Business improved and expanded. I made her my equal partner.
Then my wife.
Emma came off the pill. It was no big deal really, with her cum fixation not much sperm was ever exposed to her uterus anyway. We made the conscious decision to have a baby.
When she thought the time was just right she asked, "Can we do it like we did the first time? I want to feel you come inside me."
There is something fundamentally different about making love to someone and making love to someone you are actually in love with. There is equally something different about making love to someone you are madly in love with, with the intent of creating a baby. Somehow foreplay seems superfluous. The psyche is already tuned in before the first article of clothing is shed. Every nerve is on fire. The entire experience is carnal, organic, built into our DNA. Genes are expressing themselves, we are just their instrument.
No orgasm could possibly be stronger.
That night we fucked in missionary position. Emma came hard and long. I lay still, ready to explode. When her contractions subsided, I let go.
Tears flowed from Emma's eyes as I did. We lay kissing for the longest time. Eventually my spent and shriveled cock slipped out. Emma pinched her pussy shut and fell asleep smiling.
We decided to name the child Maxwell if a boy, Maxine if a girl. Either way, Max.
When we noticed the swell in her belly, the belly button piercing disappeared. A week later the nipple and pussy rings disappeared.
The transformation was complete.
I had hoped to change her into a self-confident ordinary woman.
I didn't.
She became a self-confident,
extraordinary
woman.
Emma turned out to be nothing like what I'd expected.
Emma had lost interest in the movie and was instead watching the light from the TV flicker across her boyfriend’s face. It was ten-thirty on Friday night and their third time watching the same shitty comedy. Emma sat with her legs draped over the arm of the couch, head in her boyfriend’s lap. She gazed up at him with a slight pout, but he was too enthralled to notice, staring bug-eyed at the screen.
“Jesus,” he muttered, flinching as the main character received an accidental knee to the groin. Emma thought it was rather cute, the way he cringed away from the story, but always kept one eye on the screen. He couldn’t stand to miss a thing.
“Babe,” she said.
“Mmm.”
“
Babe
.”
It took a minute, but eventually Noah looked down at her, trying to be attentive but clearly conflicted. The effort he was putting into focusing on her instead of the film made the corner of Emma’s mouth twist up. “Yeah, Em?”
“It’s Friday night again. We’re watching Netflix again. We’re watching
this same crummy movie
again.”
“Yes, we are,” he admitted, still not quite sure what he’d done wrong, “Do you… want to watch a different movie?”
Emma barked out a laugh, then shook her head. “I want to have an
adventure.
”
Noah found the remote and pushed pause. “I’d like an adventure.”
“What kind of adventure?”
“We could go camping.”
Emma sighed, then immediately regretted it as Noah’s face fell. He looked away and she bit her lip. “No, I mean, sure, let’s go camping. I love camping. But I just mean…”
“It’s okay.” He jostled her with his shoulder and she playfully shoved him back to his side of the couch. “I’m making you feel like an old lady, huh?”
“Yup. Other couples are out tripping on cocaine and having orgies and selling all their possessions to live on love and exhaust fumes.”
Noah raised an eyebrow. “I think you need to introduce me to your friends.”
“Okay, okay, so probably not cocaine. We could totally do the orgy thing though.”
“We could.”
They were silent for a moment, each staring at the wall and sneaking glances at each other. It was Emma who sheepishly broke the silence. “Maybe not full on orgy,” she hedged, “But maybe, you know…”
Noah scratched the back of his head, a nervous habit. “I know a guy who swings. I’d say that’s pretty adventurous.”
“Want to invite some people over?” Emma blurted out, “What a silly thing for me to say. Wow.”