Love Knows No Color Pt. 25

"We thought you could use a ride home," Shavonda said with tears in her eyes. "Mama will drive the Jeep. You just come with us and relax." I gave her a long tight hug. I was never so glad to see anybody in my life. I was stressed to the max. But things were all right now. My queen said so.

Miracle cooed in her car seat, "Dada, Dada." Brittany and Ethan were also happy to see me. We wound up grabbing pizza on the way home. The kids were ecstatic.

That night, Shavonda ran me a bath, and lovingly washed me down as I sat trying to unwind with a bottle of cherry rum. Later, she climbed on top of me in a wild 69. We fed off each other, sucking mind blowing orgasms from our private parts. The smell and taste of my beautiful ebony goddess stimulated me like never before, and I ate her like a wild man. Shavonda, for her part, enthusiastically returned the favor, her moans vibrating around my shaft as her lips and tongue worked their magic. I don't know how many times she came that night, bathing my face in her juices. All I know was that when she finally let me come, the explosion was magnificent, and exhausting.

Shavonda crawled up beside my spent body, her dark face shimmering in the candlelight. My essence had escaped the corners of her mouth, and trickled down her chin in little rivulets. Her eyes sparkled in the flickering light. "Sorry," she said shyly. "You came so much I couldn't get it all." Taking her finger, she wiped my juice from her face. I watched in awe as she sucked that finger, just the way she had my dick just minutes before.

I pulled Shavonda to me, and we kissed like two teenagers who had yet to make love for the first time. It was raw and passionate. Our tongues intertwined as we reveled in the taste of each other. Her taste. My taste. All intermingled into something we could both enjoy. The taste of us. Together, we were far more than we could ever be apart.

God I wanted to make love to her. Her soft warm body rubbing against me was driving me crazy. Her nipples dragged against my skin tantalizingly as we continued our kiss. But after my exhausting week, Thor wasn't going to cooperate. "It's okay, baby," Shavonda cooed. "Mama understands. Get you some sleep. I'll be here all night."

The next morning, we discovered Shavonda had started her cycle.

We took the kids to Idlewild Park for the day on Saturday. Idlewild was a laidback, old-time amusement park. It's sister park, Kennywood, was a lot closer to where we lived, but it was overcrowded with an emphasis on big roller coasters like most of the bigger theme parks. Idlewild, on the other hand, was set in the Laurel Mountains along both sides of a small river. It was uncrowded, with an emphasis on the tamer rides more suited to small children. Park of the park was a storybook forest, where fairy tales came to life. Another part of the park was a massive tree city, with ramps and swinging bridges connecting the various platforms far above the ground. In one area there was a large net you could climb to get up into the trees. Ethan and I couldn't resist climbing the net, while the others watched from the ground.

Riding the train across the river, we discovered Mr. Rogers trolley set up on the other side. Once onboard, it took us for a tour of the Neighborhood of Make Believe. The late Fred Rogers had grown up not too far away, and had overseen the construction of this ride before his passing. It was a fitting tribute to a local boy who made good.

Riding the train back across the river, Ethan spotted a herd of deer grazing in the forest. I was proud. He hadn't even turned six yet, but already he had woods eyes, able to spot creatures who tended to blend in to their natural habitat. He made me proud.

The food court was awesome. They had fresh cut French fries, and covered in beef gravy they were a delectable feast.

In late afternoon, we left the park. It had been a beautiful Indian summer day. Being early October, the leaves had just started to turn. Shavonda knew the perfect way to end a spectacular day, and at her suggestion, we headed to the top of Laurel Mountain to watch the sun set.

That night after the kids had gone to bed, we sat on the front porch. It was an unseasonably warm night for early October, and I was reminded of the night so long ago when I'd first been on this porch, holding Shavonda as the rain poured down. But tonight was much different. It was clear and warm, but Shavonda herself had an air of sadness she hadn't had earlier.

"He would have been seven today, you know," Shavonda said sadly.

"Who would have been seven?" I asked

"TJ," Shavonda replied. Seeing my confusion, she explained. "The baby. Today was my due date."

"You knew," I said. "You knew what you were having, and you named him."

"Yes, I did," Shavonda replied. "Jason, I was so proud when I found out I was pregnant. There is nothing I will ever do more important than giving birth and raising a child. TJ, Tony Jr. I would have loved him no matter what."

"I know you would have," I said. "I saw how you loved my children even when they didn't know you existed. I watched you in the park, watching them as they played. Nothing you've done since then has ever caused me to doubt that."

"I think about TJ every day. What he'd look like, what he'd sound like. What would he have been interested in? I'll never know. I know it's hard to understand, but once I knew he was in me he became a part of me. Just because he was stillborn doesn't mean I love him any less."

I moved closer and put my arm around her. She shuddered as though a chill had come over her. "Tony was okay until he found out I was pregnant. We'd been engaged for a few months when I found out. It was like he changed instantly. He started calling me names, saying it wasn't his baby. Saying I'd been sleeping around on him..."

"Were you?" I asked. "Sleeping around?"

"No. I was in love. That's why I stayed. I started getting my hair done for him, hoping he'd like it. But when we'd have sex he'd pull out and shoot all over my face and hair. Calling me a nigger slut. Trying to humiliate me any way he could. Toward the end he'd started hitting me. Any little thing would start a fight. I was coming to the realization I needed to leave him." She choked back a sob. "If I had, TJ and the others would be alive."

It was all beginning to fit together. Shavonda blamed herself for all those people who died. Now I understood why. But that still didn't make it her fault. Somehow, I had to get her to understand that. She'd been the victim, as much as any of the others. The only difference was, she was still here despite Tony's attempt to kill her. Somehow she'd survived when he ran her off the road and over a hillside. She'd survived, but had lost the most important thing in her life.

"You couldn't have known, boo," I soothed her. "You were trying to hold it all together when it was falling apart. I did the same thing with Rose, trying to hang on after the relationship was over."

"I wanted us to be a family," Shavonda sobbed. "I prayed it would all work out. But it didn't."

"But it did," I said. "You may have lost it all. But now you have three kids who adore you, and a husband who worships the ground you walk on, and would NEVER treat you like that." Shavonda smiled weakly. I knew I couldn't fix everything for her. But I hoped to give her some small comfort. We'd be there for her, no matter what. We were a family.

In the morning, while Shavonda slept, I did some research online. Googling her name produced nothing of interest. But adding the words "fatal accident" hit pay dirt. Among the hits was a news article titled "Man killed in fatal head on crash involved in hit and run." It was dated May 28, 2007.

I read the article with interest. The article corroborated what Shavonda had already told me about the events surrounding the death of her unborn child. Shavonda had been beaten badly by her fiancé, who then left their apartment. Shavonda had called police, who took a report. She insisted on driving herself to the hospital.

Tony found her and ran her off the road on Nadine Road. I knew it well. It was a shortcut between parts of Penn Hills and Allegheny River Boulevard. It is steep and winding, with a hillside on one side and a deep ravine on the other. According to the article, Tony had come up behind her car and rammed it. Shavonda spun out of control into the ravine, barely missing an oncoming car. She was trapped in the car and had to be cut out, but by some miracle had escaped life threatening injuries. The other driver stopped and stayed with her until emergency crews arrived to free her.

Shavonda was transported to St Margaret's where she was listed in serious but stable condition. But she'd lost the baby.

Meanwhile the police had spotted Tony's car on Sandy Creek Road and gave chase. But he ran the red light in heavy traffic at Frankstown Road, and the police gave up the chase. Several minutes later, he had crashed head on into another car on I-376.

Searching further, I found the newspaper report of the fatal accident itself, dated the previous day. He'd gotten on the Parkway from route 130 in Wilkins, entering the highway in the wrong direction. I knew that interchange as well. It was unusual in that the ramps came up in the middle of the highway, with both exit and entrance ramps parallel. They merged into the fast lanes on I-376. I could see how somebody could accidentally find themselves on the wrong ramp.

The article went on to say State Police estimated his speed at impact at "well over 100 mph" and the other car's speed was undetermined. They probably never knew what hit them. The impact had propelled both cars across three lanes of trackage, through a guard rail, and over an embankment.

The deceased were listed as Anthony Grazetti of Penn Hills, Roger Kenjerski, his wife Rita, and two daughters Stacy and Amy, all of Murrysville. Now I had names, and a better understanding of the events of that fateful day. I wrote the names down, then searched a bit further.

Eventually, I found the obituaries for the deceased family. Survivors were listed, including the parents of the couple. I wrote those names down as well. Right about that time I heard Shavonda stir in the bed. "Baby, why you up so early? Come back to bed and keep me warm."

I crawled back under the covers with her, snuggling against her warmth. She had on cotton panties due to her cycle, but nothing else, and I loved the feel of her bare skin against mine. We were soon asleep again.

Since it was Sunday, we went to church with the kids. We hadn't been in a while, due to all the festivals we'd worked. This weekend had been free for the first time in almost two months, and we still had two more weekends to go before the season ended, The Bedford fall festival had been expanded to two weekends this year.

After the service, Reverend Frazier came over to us. "Good to see you back," he said. "I know you've been busy, but I still haven't forgotten about Von being a guest vocalist here."

"We still have a couple more weeks of festivals to work," Shavonda told him. "It will be the end of the month before I'll have time. Maybe we can get together to set it up in about three weeks? Call me two Mondays from now and we'll set it up."

I was looking forward to seeing her sing in church. The reverend had been trying for a long time to get her in the choir, but we were just too busy for her to make the commitment. But an occasional guest spot would work for everybody involved.

We spent the rest of the afternoon in the backyard watching the kids play. Shavonda had come out to the picnic table on the patio with a hair brush and beads. "I'm tired of you calling our baby Dandelion Head," she laughed. "You have a biracial daughter now, so you're going to have to learn how to do her hair." Shavonda had me brush out Miracle's hair, with the baby fighting me the whole way. The she showed me how to braid it and put the beads in. It wasn't something I would have chosen to do, yet it was fun in a way. It gave me some bonding time with the women in my life.

I was dreading going back to work, after the hell I'd gone through the previous week. But I went anyway. Luckily, my normal Monday run was light. Upon coming in off the road, I was called into Nick's office. "Look," he said. "I know you had a rough week, but this week is a reset. Just keep calm and try not to worry about last week. They've reviewed the drive cam, and they've ruled the accident was unavoidable. You're in the clear. Matter of fact, you did a great job of getting that truck stopped, as heavy as you were. Things could have been much worse."

The rest of the week went pretty fast. The loaders were doing their job, and I had no more problems with loads I couldn't secure. But I was now on their shit list, and they started messing with me, hiding loose items in the truck so that when I got to a particular stop I'd have to search for that item. The full pallets themselves were loaded out of order. Where normally I'd be able to work the truck from the back to the front, with the pallets for any particular stop being the rearmost and the load becoming more compact as I unloaded each stop, now they were scattered throughout the truck. As I unloaded, this left empty spaces among the other pallets, so I'd have to be extra careful how things were secured. An unsecured pallet tends to slide. Worse yet, whenever a particular stop had two pallets, they'd be placed one on each side of the truck. Just so I'd have to open the curtains on BOTH sides. It was frustrating, but didn't rise to the level where I had a legitimate complaint.

By Thursday I was beat up, tired as hell. To make matters worse, Shavonda was ovulating. She wanted the baby now more than ever, and had absolutely no shame about taking what she wanted. And Thor agreed with her. Tired as I was, he kept rising to the occasion.

During ovulation, Shavonda's preferred position had evolved from our earlier practice of propping her ass up with pillows so that my sperm would flow deeper into her womb instead of leaking out. Now she found Doggy style much easier on her back. She'd get on all fours, ass in the air and head buried in the pillows.

I found I preferred that position as well. Thor was instantly hard at the sight of her heart shaped booty wiggling at me, while her pussy lips puckered and glistened invitingly. She was so horny at that time of month that I could enter her without either of us using our hands, slipping inside her eager beaver. Once in, I could work my length slowly into her until I was balls deep, where I'd hold myself until we were both used to the sensations.

My queen would let me know when she was ready, and once I was no longer in danger of losing my nut I'd start thrusting into her. Shavonda would rock back into me, impaling herself on my manhood with considerable force. We'd fuck like bunnies until we were both spent, and my seed safely deposited in her womb. I loved the rhythmic slapping sounds we made, and the sight of her curvaceous ass quivering as our bodies collided. Not only would it bounce, it would bounce back into me as I held onto her hips for dear life. I also enjoyed knowing Shavonda was screaming her pleasure into the pillows, trying desperately not to wake the baby. She told me in that position, I was lined up with her G spot, and her pleasure was more intense than any other position.

Once we'd both come, with her clutching walls draining me dry, I'd collapse on top of her. We'd roll onto our sides, still intimately connected, enjoying the aftershocks as we caught our breath. Sometimes I'd drift off the sleep like that, only to be awakened for round two an hour or so later. I hoped we conceived soon, or my goddess was going to kill me. Well, at least I'd die happy. I had my own personal slice of heaven on earth.

Friday, we were able to get an early start for Bedford, thanks to an abnormally light day at work. Kenny and Edie had made the trip with us. Tamika, who normally went to the festivals with us, wasn't feeling well. Shavonda thought she might be pregnant, and told her to take the weekend off to rest up.

Kenny told us that he and Edie were looking for a bigger place, but were having trouble finding one. Landlords would seem eager to show an apartment, but when he showed up with Edie to see the place, suddenly it would have been rented out already. Once again, racism had reared its ugly head. Knowing how much he'd gotten as severance from the commonwealth of Virginia when he took his buyout, I asked him why they didn't just buy a place of their own. "I don't think we can afford it," he said. "I'm not working in my field, and grateful as I am to you guys for the job it doesn't pay anywhere near what I am used to."

"But a mortgage would run you about half what you'd pay in rent," I countered. Deep down, though, I understood. His employment situation was subject to change, and if he got the job he wanted they might place him somewhere outside the city of Pittsburgh.

The festival weekend was fun. We did well. Kenny had proven to be a craftsman who could knock out jewelry pieces quickly without sacrificing quality. In fact, Shavonda told him if she didn't know better she'd swear those were pieces she'd made herself. Because of this, we had enough stock on hand to last us both weekends of the fall festival. Unlike last year, we didn't have to take orders to fill later by mail.

Days were spent manning the booth, Kenny and Edie spelling us so we could walk around the festival and vice versa. One thing we'd discovered the year before was the races at night. The noise had kept us awake. This year, the four of us sat in the stands watching the dust clouds rise as the cars raced around the dirt track at the fairgrounds.

The nights were spent trying like hell to get pregnant. Rough rabbit sex, at least twice a night. We had all night. For me the ability to sleep in until 8 or so in the morning was a treat. And as I'd come to know oh so well in the past few months, Shavonda was insatiable during ovulation. How did I get so lucky? I had a beautiful black woman who absolutely adored me. She was a walking wet dream, the kind of woman you fantasize about. And she lusted after me. I could see it in her eyes, the look she gave me. That fuck me look. The one that said, I want you. Right here. Right now. And I ain't gonna take no for an answer.

Mornings were spent in the shower together, with a quickie as we washed each other. I'd lather her up with soap, washing her front first. Reveling in the feel of her soft, soapy titties in my hands, nipples puckered and ready for me. Then she'd turn around, and I'd soap up her back as Thor came to full attention sliding between her soapy ass cheeks. Shavonda would bend all the way over as I guided my dick inside her wet folds, gasping in pleasure at my entrance. She'd brace herself against the wall with both hands as I bent over her, massaging her milk laden breasts as I stroked inside her. The massive explosion of orgasm arriving as I fingered her clit while buried deep in her creamy center. And all the while, the warm water pouring over us, washing our sweat away.

Afterward, making my way to the toilet on wobbly legs. Sitting down on the lid too weak to even dry myself, as an equally week kneed Shavonda staggered her way over to straddle me, sitting on my lap as she fed me her titties. Me sucking her dry as she rubbed her pussy into my crotch in an attempt to wake Thor from his well-deserved slumber.

After dressing, we'd meet up with Kenny and Edie for breakfast at the Bedford Diner. We'd become addicted to the place, and every time we came here we'd usually have breakfast there. Usually pancakes and eggs, though they had something on the menu called scrapple. One of these days, we'd probably try it to see what is was. In the meantime, the pancakes did the trick.