A million things

There were a million things going through Oscar’s head. Was this really his family? Did they really do this? Why? Why did they shoot into his house? Did they know they would hit Esther? Or him? What if they would have killed her? Was it to scare him? To let him know that they were pissed? To scare him back to them? Dear God, WHY?! What if they would have killed her? Would it have mattered to them that it would have broken his heart? This is the first woman he’d ever loved. And he knew that. It would have destroyed him. Did that matter? Did they think he had everything left to them? If this was aimed at him, WHY!? Did they really want to hurt him? But what if someone stole the gun? What then? Was it too big of a coincidence? As far as he knew, he had no enemies that wanted to hurt him or warn him of anything? He laid his head in his hands. He couldn’t think about one thought. He couldn’t line out his emotions.

“Talk to me.” She encouraged. “Chet’s gone.” He didn’t move. “May I offer a suggestion?”

He lifted his head. Big tears were rolling down his face. “Please.” He sobbed.

“This is going to be hard, but please try. Your mind wants to go in a million different directions and come up with a million different ideas. Let Chet finish his investigation before your mind goes to those places.”

“Too late,” he sniffed, wiping desperately at his face. She put her hand over his that was trying to wipe away the tears.

“All of them but one, but possibly all of them will be wrong. Don’t put yourself through the agony.”

He stood up looking from her to the wall. The tubes from the IV machine were behind her coming down her right arm. He laid on the bed with her. She wrapped him up the best she could. In the quiet darkness of the room, they heard a low growl.

She giggled. “Was that your stomach?”

Despite everything he smiled, “perhaps.”

“Let’s get you something to eat.”

He kissed her, “what would I have done if anything would have happened to you?”

She caressed his face, “go on.”

The nurse came into the room and flipped on the light. “Good afternoon.”

Oscar clamored out of the bed.

The nurse checked Esther’s bandages, “I think someone can go home today.” She showed Oscar how to change the dressings and what medicines to put on them.

Around three, they let Esther go home. As they were walking out the door, her four state trooper friends and Chet were waiting for them. They all went out for breakfast. You should have seen the looks on the people’s faces that were in the restaurant. Four state troopers at one time in one place in this town was uncommon; unless it was a drug bust. There was a glass room in the back of the restaurant that they chose.

No one talked about the current event. It was all about old times. They all got to know each other better.

Winter Season

Bang

“Honey, you are doin’ a fine job.”

“You’re the teacher.”

“Yes I am and you’re doin’ a fine job.”

She giggled, “a little modest are we?” she said as she wrapped her arms around his waist squeezing his butt.

He grinned, “I am a good teacher. Why be modest about that?” She had her back to the window. Oscar pulled her close and gave her a gentle kiss. “I love you.”

She ran her fingers through his hair, “Mr. Patterson I can say this with the upmost honesty and without hesitation, I love you.”

They both heard an explosion that sounded like a gun shot. In an instant, his window shattered and Esther slumped in his arms.

“Esther!” He shouted, guiding her to the floor. There were little holes in her shirt with blood seeping thru them.

“I’ve been,” she panted. “Shot.”

He grabbed the phone immediately calling Chet. He knelt beside her in the floor, “Ess, please talk to me.”

“Don’t move. For best.” She hissed. Her back was on fire. It felt like someone threw a handful of hot coals on her. She could hear everything, Oscar frantically talking to her. The sirens in the back ground. When EMS arrived, it was all a blur with distorted voices.  

Oscar was a mess, he couldn’t talk to Chet. It was all Chet could do to pull his friend together. Deputies were crawling all over his house and yard. This was a nightmare. With the climax being, the woman he loved was being hauled off in an ambulance.

Chet stayed with him the entire time. Oscar was glad it was a doctor he knew that was working on Esther. The three of them went to high school together. Though he and Bob were never big buddies, they did know each other.

Bob knelt in front of Oscar. “It’s all good Oscar. The confusing part about this is why anyone would shoot someone with buck shot is beyond me. But that’s also the good part. The shots weren’t deep enough to hurt any major organs. Because of the size of the shots, blood loss was to a minimum. We got them all. She should heel quickly. Unless there is a reaction to the medication, she should be able to go home tomorrow. We’re putting her in a room right now, as soon as she’s there, you can go up.”

Oscar ran his fingers through his hair. His eyes were blood shot and his face was puffy. He shook hands with Bob, “thank you.”

“She’s going to be fine.” He reassured Oscar by patting his shoulder.

Oscar kissed her on the cheek and sat down in the chair beside the bed. Staff had her lying on her belly. He could only guess it was to make it easier to get to the wounds to change the dressing. Chet was still by his side.

Bob came back. “Gentlemen, can we talk for a second? There was something I wanted to know. Oscar, did you know that she has been shot before?”

He stared at her. His voiced cracked when he spoke, “no. I knew she used to be a cop.”

Bob continued, “she has one hell of a guardian angel. There is massive amounts of scar tissue throughout her left shoulder.”

Oscar looked wild eyed, “could those injuries cause you not to lift your arm up?”

“Oh yeah, I’m in shock that she has a shoulder.”

Chet spoke, “so you didn’t know?”

Oscar rubbed his face with his hands before shaking his head, no.

“It confuses this small town doctor. She has had an amazing surgeon.” Bob left the room.

One of Chet’s deputies came in with the report. It was the same deputy that was at Oscar’s house when his door was being replaced. “Thank you.” Chet took the report and the deputy left.

“Are you up for talkin’ about this?”

Winter Season

“Are you testing my propriety, sir?”

After Chet left, Oscar stood and extended his hands for Esther. She accepted them and he led her to the bedroom. His bedroom. Even though he was wearing his standard pj’s; a pair of athletic pants with a panther on them (the high school mascot) and a tee shirt; Esther was still dressed in her clothing of the day. He stopped her beside the bed. With one hand he held the delicate chain of the necklace he had bought her and the other was around her waist. “Do you sleep in it?”

“No, I’m afraid I will break it.” She smiled. “I’m not a gentle sleeper.” She blushed, “when I sleep.”

He removed it. Letting his hands linger on her neck before laying it on the night stand. She just watched him. There was a deep secret part of her that was hoping that he was going to do what she thought he was going to do. But she wasn’t going to get her hopes up. It would happen in time.

He guided her to a setting position on the bed, lifted her foot removing her shoes and socks. “How do you feel about feet?”

“I think if you are both comfortable, feet can be very erotic.”

“Would you be offended if I wanted to suck your toes?” He didn’t look at her, he was massaging her feet.

“If they are clean, you can do anything you want.” He smiled, looking up at her. “I don’t want you kissing me after you’ve sucked a toe that has been in a shoe all day.”

He laid her on the bed, his nose touching hers. “Have I told you lately how much I love you?”

She guided her fingers around his neck. He inhaled a sharp breath. “You have told me that you love me. But you’ve never said how much.”

He kissed her. It was THAT KISS that made her want to rip his clothes off. THAT KISS that told her so much about what he was feeling. When words didn’t work, all he had to do was kiss her. He kissed down her neck to the top of her shirt. She was pleasantly surprised when he started licking her cleavage much like he would lick an ice cream cone. With each lick, he rooted his face deeper and deeper inside her shirt.

“Oh my.” She hissed.

He moaned, “you like?”

“Yeah.” She ran her fingers through his hair, wanting so badly to get a fist full of it but didn’t.

He pulled her shirt over her head. There was her big white bra. She had the hardest time buying sexy bras. Most bras nowadays are filled with padding. She felt that if you were already a 40D what did you need extra padding for? At least on her back she wasn’t so self conscious.

She lifted off his shirt, noticing how warm his skin was. It was always so warm.

“Are you testing my propriety, sir?” She smiled.

He was nose to nose with her. Those blue eyes sparkled with a wicked twinkle. He started laughing. “Are you kidding me?” The bed shook lightly as he moved to lay beside of her. Both laughing. “You are something else.”

“I hope that’s a good something.”

Gently, he moved a random hair from her face. Tracing the outline of her features in the soft lamp light.

“Keep doing that and I’ll be asleep.”

“Okay.” He continued.

“Looking back to this time last year, did you ever think you’d be in bed without your shirt on with a woman in just her bra?”

He blushed, “no.”

“Share with me why?”

He continued tracing her face as he spoke,”I’m,” there was a long pause as he looked for the right words. “Oat says I have my standards too high. If I’d lowered them I’d already have a family.”

“Like Doris?”

“I guess.” He trailed his fingers down and around her neck. “What about you?”

“Where do I start?” She took a deep breath. “I’m too,” it was her turn to search. “You have enjoyed things with me no other man would do. The night we made snow angels,” she cuddled into him. “I love my grandparents and I did play. But I feel like I didn’t really play. Because they were older it’s like a part of me was suppressed. I know there’s a time to be serious. I don’t want to be serious all the time. O, tell me about your first time.”

“Really,” he was shocked.

“Why not, especially if it was a good experience?”

“I was 20 and she was my professor.”

“Wooo hooo! An older woman” She teased. “So, is it true older women make better lovers?”

“I wouldn’t know. I’ve never had another experience like that.”

“None?”

“No,”

“How come?”

“I had this movie ideology of what a relationship should be. I thought the world should move when we kissed; that when we touch, volcanoes would erupt. I never experienced that.”

“So were you like her toy?”

“I’m not sure.”

“How can you not be sure? Did she tell you what to do and you did it?”

“I would read to her. Stories of her choosing.”

“You do have a pleasing voice. What did you read.”

“The Millers Tale, anything dealing with Kama Sutra, Lady Chatterley’s Lover.”

“Tell me about me?”

He held her a little tighter, “the first time we shook hands I felt something strange in your touch. Something I couldn’t define. I shrugged it off. After we played in the snow, I invited you over, when I helped you out of the floor my right arm tingled all the way to my shoulder. I told myself that kind of stuff only happens in the movies.” He thought for a moment, “uh.”

With a sleepy voice she spoke, “if you decide you don’t want to be in a relationship with me anymore, please don’t kill me.”

“Is this what you dream about?”

“Worse.”

Winter Season