Love Thy Neighbor Ch. 01

A free mind was a perennial fountain of inspiration for any writer and hence having a control freak for a wife had its own uses. Paradoxical? That was one of the weird combinations that life threw up from time to time.

Jim had successfully written two novels which were selling well, not best-sellers his agent had gently reminded him. And for a 28 year-old-man, he was doing quiet well. His wife Lily took care of his appointments, travel plans and everything else, including deciding what he should wear and eat. This left him free to think creatively and so he let her take control of everything, except his mind.

The young couple traveled often and stayed in any place Jim selected, if he thought the atmosphere would stir his muse. Once the writer placed his finger on a locality on the map, the wife took over and arranged a well-furnished house to stay in.

Now, Lily was driving while Jim listened to music and tried to give shape to his characters as the evening sun went down slowly in the summer sky.

Jim and Lily were of the same height, 5.5 feet tall, and had pleasant features. They were a perfect foil as a couple; no stepping on toes or overlapping of roles. To their friends, it looked like Lily was the dominant partner. But it was a symbiotic relationship, they had explained to people who had, as is their wont, tried to drive a wedge between them.

Since Lily was thorough with the topography of the town they were going to, she located the house easily. Even as she parked the car in front of the house, a cheerful neighbor on the left side of their house greeted them loudly. Lily and Jim waved back and smiled. No harm in reciprocating the warmth displayed by friendly neighbors, the couple thought. The man was in white shorts, blue t-shirt, wearing a hat and was watering the plants in his small garden.

Lily and Jim went into their house which had two bedrooms, a living room and a kitchen. It was well-furnished with couches, chairs, a fridge, TV and beds and well-kept. That was exactly what Lily had wanted.

The couple carried into the house their two suitcases, mainly containing dresses, and their laptops. They bought any other essential things as and when they needed, preferring not to carry around too many stuff. Jim always said that if you traveled often, you learnt to pack light.

After they placed their laptops on a table in the bedroom and washed up, Lily went to make some tea and Jim looked out of the window and saw the neighbor still inspecting some plants in his garden.

By the time Lily finished making tea, Jim had put two chairs on the porch and a small teapoy and was waiting for her. She placed the tray on the teapoy and sat down.

"Nice place, Jim my dear," Lily said.

"Don't we always chose the right location," Jim smiled.

As they sipped the tea, the neighbor waved at them again.

"I am Peter. Tell me if you need help or anything. Drop in later and check out my wine," he said and the couple introduced themselves and said they would pay a visit soon. Peter continued inspecting his plants and snipping dead leaves.

Ten minutes later, Jim and Lily changed dress to visit their boisterous neighbor who they felt was too friendly for comfort.

"Do you think we should go to his house immediately," Jim asked.

"Oh! come on Jim. He called us and he looks nice, though he sounds imposing. But it is bad manners to ignore him, don't you know," Lily said and that was the end of the confusion, if there was one.

It turned out the overenthusiastic Peter was 35 and lived with his wife Jane who looked to be around 30. Peter ran a bar which was doing well. Both looked younger than they were, trim and good looking.

Jim noticed from the corner of his eyes that Jane had big round boobs unlike Lily's which were the size of berries. Hot neighbors, he thought.

"So Jim, what is your line,"' Peter asked as the four settled down on couches with the promised wine in their hands.

"He writes novels, has published two so far and he is planning his third," Lily gave a short introduction.

"Oh! Jeez! That's great. I always wanted to meet writers and see from close how their mind works," Peter said raising his glass.

"Yes. He goes off into his imaginary world now and then and I know he is fleshing out some characters and creating situations. I understand, and let him fly free in his own world," Lily said.

"Hmm ... dear, don't you feel bored?" That came from Jane.

"No. not at all. I read his draft and discuss it with him. I also spend a lot of time reading novels, so that I know how his writing compares with others," Lily said, doing most of the talking.

"When did you two meet," Jane asked and Jim thought this was turning out to be quiet an interview.

Not to be left out of the conversation, Jim said: "We met in college, went steady and fell in love. She liked my writing and gave her opinion frankly and since then has helped me write better."

They finished their wine and said goodnight and promised to meet often.

After some time they saw Peter go out, maybe to his bar which closed much later.

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The entire morning next day, Jim spent writing the first paragraphs of his novel while Lily checked her mail. On the move often, that was how she kept track of family, friends, gossip, deaths, births and weddings.

Jim's novel centered around the romance between two guys and two girls and a murder thrown in for good measure. As they always did while working on novels, Lily and Jim had spent time discussing the idea but the characters needed more working on and more scenes to be thought out.

Two days went in a similar manner and by then Jim had turned out four pages for Lily to read. After discussing and re-reading the draft for an hour, they felt tired and went to the porch to relax.

Peter also was out on his porch and waved at them and asked them to come over. The writer and his wife felt they needed a change from writing and reading and it was two days since they had spoken to the neighbors and thought a chat would do them a world of good.

Peter sat in a couch and Jane was at the dining table cutting carrots. Lily joined Jane as Jim sat opposite Peter. From where Jim sat he could see Jane and to her left was Lily. Peter began talking about the local people and the slow pace of life in the town, to which Jim nodded not listening to a thing. He looked beyond Peter's head and saw Jane had spread her thighs, displaying her shaven pussy.

What the hell! At first Jim thought it was accidental but when Jane looked at him to check whether he was looking at the junction between her thighs he realized she was doing it on purpose. As if nothing was amiss, Jane went on with her chatter with Lily as Peter continued his monologue, leaving Jim to drool at the exposed slit of his wife. He had sprouted an erection and gently brought his legs together to feel the sensation of his penis rubbing against his thighs.

The thought that Lily would catch him in the act vanished when he saw them busy talking, and Peter thought Jim was looking at him attentively while the writer was looking beyond at Jane. The show of flesh continued for some more minutes with Jane glancing at Jim at frequent intervals inconspicuously.

After Jim had a few more glances at the glorious hole, Peter said it was time for him to go to the bar and invited Jim and Lily to go with him. Lily gently declined, saying she had to catch up on her reading and so the two men were on their own.

"The bar is nearby, let's walk it up," Peter said and they began strolling.

Lily was not the nagging type of wife who kept tabs on her husband. Jim was free to go out with his friends and party whenever he wanted and she seldom asked him what he was up to. She had her own world of chatting and writing blogs on many topics, ranging from world politics to music. So it was easy for Lily to understand that Jim needed space as much as she needed it.

Peter continued his lecture on wine, gardening and fishing, at least that was what Jim thought he was taking about. Jim had this uncanny gift of appearing to listen to others when he was actually wool-gathering. He could convincingly pause, nod and smile at intervals at the right time. Actually he was thinking of Jane's seductive snatch, the way she opened her thighs and smiled at him without Lily suspecting anything shady was happening.

By now they had reached the bar which was crowded. Peter introduced Jim to the guy who minded the bar when he was away. Jim didn't quiet catch his name.

They downed a few drinks even as Peter and the other guy served customers. When the crowd thinned a bit, Peter took Jim to a table and began talking about his personal life, mostly sex.

"Jim man, you being a writer and all, do you write sex stuff. Don't get me wrong, man," Peter drawled.

Jim laughed out, the drink beginning its warm journey through his veins.

"That's ok. Yeah. I do sort of touch upon it. Mostly romantic situations, necking, missionary position max, nothing beyond that," Jim said.

"Oh! that's like child stuff, don't get me wrong, dude," he said.

Peter seemed stuck on that phrase, Jim thought.

"Nah! It's cool man. Do you have anything else in mind?" Jim thought maybe there could be a seed of a plot in what this guy had in mind.

"Hmm. Yeah. Like, do you write or... think of writing of swap... wife swap..." Peter looked askance at Jim.

That hit him below the belt. Of course, he was familiar with the idea, and he had secretly read a few erotic tales for his part. Secretly, because Lily looked down upon reading erotica. Lily seldom went beyond missionary and cowgirl positions, leave alone cunnilingus and fellatio which were not a frequent feature in their sex life. She was a prude if ever there was one.

"Oh no Peter. I have no intention of writing such stuff," Jim said as the neighbor made a face.

"I love swap, you know. You take my wife and I take yours. See. It's great, once you try it. Ask your wife, mine is cool to the idea," he winked and smiled.

" I don't think she would like that," Jim said.

Now he was sure that Jane exposing her cunt was part of a husband-wife ploy to lure him.

"Try the idea on Lily, maybe she will like it. You never know about them. A tigress hiding inside her, maybe man. Don't get me wrong." Peter said.

Peter repeated the swap suggestion again and Jim got tired and thought it would get worse if the bar owner gulped more drinks. Jim tried to change the topic and bid goodnight and began his walk home.

Being the goody two shoes she was, Lily was bound to blow her top if she heard Peter's sleazy suggestion. What about you, Jim asked himself. Are you up for letting Peter have Lily? That was something he had never thought of. If you knew a person well, you could never imagine him or her to do such and such a thing. It was easy to imagine a wife swap situation with an unknown person; but replace that face with that of Lily and the bubble burst.

When he reached home, he found Lily on bed reading something on the net.

"Hi, baby," Jim said.

"Hi, dear. Had fun?" she asked.

"Ya, had a few drinks with Peter.What do you think of wife swap," Jim asked without any preamble.

Since they always discussed matters like that, she readily replied: "I don't like that personally. But I do know of friends who did that... and after the initial fun and energy, it turned bad when the women started saying who lasted longer and who had good talent. You know, comparison... that led to jealousy between the guys and they split. It can't last long."

"Some guys at the bar discussed it and said it happened in big cities, and not here. I wondered whether we could sort of use it in our novel, seeing that already there are two couples in it," Jim managed to say without bringing in Peter.

He was sure any mention of what really transpired would have made her burst a vein, and the puritan Lily would have made arrangements to vacate the house immediately.

Though he never hid any thought from her, Jim felt it would be wise judgment to keep her in the dark about Peter and his wife swap offer. But he did sound her out as it would help him as a writer to know of another perspective.

"Oh Jim, it could happen anywhere," Lily said.

"Do you think the swap will work in our story?" Jim asked.

"Yeah Jim, It will work. All we have to do is introduce a few more characters and a nice twist. It will turn out great," Lily sounded enthusiastic.

Before Jim dozed off, a few thoughts crossed his mind. He and Jane would make a nice pair but Peter and Lily would be an atrocious combination. He had to tell Peter the swap was no go. How would he take it? Would he approach Lily directly? He was that type of brash fellow. Or would Jane woo Lily? Whatever, for the time being that was the end, he thought

But the events that followed proved it was far from over.

To be continued.