The Telling of Our Lifetime

It was as we left we both found that those same opinions weren't the same in school. The in-breeds now fueled with 'non-alcoholic' bravery took it upon themselves to right a wrong and teach us both a lesson in the process. My dad being a man of the world always seemed to plan for contingencies and the rest of his team stepped out of the Hummer parked in the shadows of a tree and met the in-breeds half way between the school doors and the base commander's car.

Jacqui truly understood the meaning that evening of looking after your own, she was one of theirs now. She had signed on the line. The in-breeds told dad's team they had got it all wrong, they had come outside to take a leak; we were pleasant and wished them well with their future careers as our chauffeur drove us to our late dinner.

It was strange, this was officially end of school and our break before heading off to college, yet we sat on base helping my folks pack. In between mom dragged Jacqui away for 'girl' talks and dad and I walked and talked more now than we ever had before. He was my best friend and father all rolled into one, we both knew my career was never going to be the military, it didn't stop me knowing what it had done for me all my young life and what it was about to do for Jacqui.

Jacqui also had a fan in the base commander's wife. Over our dinner they talked very frankly about many things and had even been invited back a couple of times for coffee mornings. It seems a plan was formed and the base commander got on board, ROTC got a recommendation from the base commander and ROTC took notice. When Jacqui turned up at college three weeks later they were waiting for her.

We were five hundred miles apart and my folks had moved a thousand. We all felt the loneliness for different reasons. I made sure my studies kept me busy and I had little time for college life, being placed in dorms for the first year wasn't my idea of fun and the stampede to get into fraternity houses the second year left me laughing at the stupidity of some and their need to be accepted.

The first year I found enough ex brats to hang out with and come the second year we pooled together and rented a house off college. We made sure the girls got the top floor and us guys got the rooms on the second even away from base we seemed to be looking out for our own. As a new piece of communication technology came into use I put Jacqui onto it. She was faring even worse, between studies and ROTC her time to herself was minimal at best but she said the days go faster so she took it in her stride.

ROTC also got a chunk of her holidays but we always made sure we headed home together and to us both my folks were our home regardless of where they were. By the end of year two we had every holiday down pat, the folks left us alone for the first day so we could play catch up on each others lives and when Mom shouted us to dinner, it was a reminder that there was more than us two in our lives.

*******

The law takes time. Since my course finished two years before Jacqui's we decided with my folks help to go for my masters, it also meant we would finish two months from each other. My folks and Jacqui were there when I got that piece of paper and we all turned up to see Jacqui in robes and looking hot. That same day I got down on one knee and asked her to be mine.

She reminded me that the army got most of her but I was guaranteed the fun bits. My folks booked two rooms, it seems my mom gave Jacqui the nod ahead of time as to what I was planning and she change room reservation.

"You asked me once and I told you I wasn't giving it up until you put a ring on my finger. You had better have had your vitamins white boy."

Although the first sign of condoms sent Jacqui into orbit.

"You wasted your money. I'm not having you in one of those, not now not ever. This is your body and nothing is going to be between us."

Even as I looked at her, her eyes rolled.

"It's called the pill Martin. I've been on it to regulate my periods since high school. When we have children it will be when we want them."

So the condoms found room in the waste basket and both of us smiled like we had won the state lottery when I slid into her for the first time. We fumbled around, we connected and I was way too quick. Something changed in us after that. We explored and found out what being tender with each other can do to a body, we did again what made us enjoy it and added to it as the evening went along.

"I can't believe you packed a vibrator in my suitcase when I left. Boy was I pissed at you when the girls saw me unpack it, mind you by the end of the first month we all had them the electronic interference was sure fierce around our dorm that was for sure."

Her pelvic gave a little wiggle.

"And don't think I didn't notice the specific size of mine. I've seen you hard before, hell I even had my hands wrapped around your dick a couple of times when I was serving penance. That damn thing was identical to your size."

"Where is it now?"

The smile got even bigger, her eyes softened as I gently moved inside her.

"Never made it, it put up a valiant effort for the first year but died from exhaustion. I've had four since then and all have been the same size and shape. Whose idea was that anyway?"

This time I flushed and it wasn't missed on Jacqui, I think she figured it out quickly enough; she was just waiting for me to admit it.

"Both of my folks."

The giggle caused me to erupt inside her, her legs locked around me and she wasn't letting me go until I had gone soft. I'm glad I had to be honest since it was actually mom who suggested it. Dad took me to one side and thought the same size thing would be a good idea.

*******

It was a year into our married life that Jacqui started to get distracted, at first she passed it off as being busy, finally I couldn't take anymore and we ended up having a stand up drag out fight. Jacqui lasted a good ten minutes before she broke down and admitted that she liked her job. She wanted to be like dad and become a career officer in JAG.

"You have got to be shitting me. You have had this in your head for weeks now and it came to me standing over you and shouting at you to admit to this."

Jacqui just nodded her head, her shoulders slumped slightly and she looked at the carpet.

"Just what the hell am I going to do with you girl?"

I heard her whisper. "Love me."

Kneeling down on the floor in front of her made her part her knees so I could get closer. I had assumed too much, perhaps it was now I needed to explain something to her.

"This is something you have had thrust at you. Law was something you wanted to do; dad saw to it that you got your chance albeit with the services backing. The services have never been for me, my folks knew that from a very early age. That doesn't mean I despise the service, my job means I can stay here and if you transfer then I'm perfectly well qualified to get a teaching job if we have to move."

I almost got loved to death that evening, when I said I needed oxygen. Jacqui straddled my face and told me to 'breath from this' and with as much effort as I could and two orgasms later she needed oxygen.

Eighteen months later she was posted back to our old base, we even asked if our old house was available and got told it was being refurbished at the moment. She stalled on the posting until it was finished and asked again if our old house was available. Subtlety was never her strong point and the base commander told her to stop pissing with his family's officer. She said 'yes sir' and we moved into our old house within the week. We both felt like we had never left.

A year later she walked out of the infirmary with the biggest smile she has ever had, it was also the day a familiar face walked into my classroom. Mabel took steps into the room like each one held a land mine beneath it, to me the past was just that but since Jacqui had never spoken of her family since being disowned I wasn't sure how she would feel about me looking directly at her sister at this moment.

"C... Can... Please Martin, can we talk?"

"How did you know I was here?"

"My son told me about a teacher who started here some months back called Mr. Anderson. He said his wife came and picked him up a week ago in an officer's uniform and she was black."

"What do you want Mabel?"

"I want... We want our sister back. With dad dead the tyrant in the family has gone, we can all breathe now. Mom knows you're here, she won't come here so it's left to me, she knows she let Jacqui down Martin, we all did."

She tried so hard to hold my stare, it wasn't a competition. I simply didn't know what to do, neither of us have thought of contacting her family, for years now Jacqui looked on mine as hers, she went to mom for female advice and dad when it was military or a male perspective that she didn't want me to know about.

"Mabel, I will talk to her and tell her I've seen you. I can't talk for her, she's her own woman Mabel, if she refuses then I have no choice but to honor her request, Jacqui's my wife and I don't want the shit she went through with your family to happen again. I can't promise more than that."

I got a nod of her head, for a moment she paused and looked towards the classroom door once again before facing me. Mabel was biting her bottom lip in clear indecision over what to do next; finally she put her hand into her bag and came out with an envelope. Holding her arm out towards me as far as it would go, almost as though she was ready to run for it as soon as I took the envelope.

The envelope sat on the edge of my desk for the next ten minutes. I don't even remember Mabel leaving. School had let out about the same time Mabel must have left.

"I've been waiting by the entrance for the last ten minutes. Are you ever going to get off your ass and come home, I have some news I have just got to share with you before I bust trying to hold it in."

I loved that summer dress, she knew I did. Jacqui's sandals making that slapping noise as she walked towards me. As I looked up she slowed and then stopped.

"You look like someone's just shot your favorite dog and bought you a cat to make up for it."

As I eased myself up off the chair my hand scooped up the letter. Walking around my desk was easy handing her the letter was way harder. Jacqui leaned her ass onto the desk behind her and opened the envelope; the two page letter took almost five minutes to read the first time. It took twice as long when she read it the second time.

I knew everything there was to know about my wife, the level of communication between us was uncanny. Yet as I stood in front of her that day, it was as though I didn't know her at all. When she put the letter away she started walking out the classroom.

"Don't forget to lock up behind you, your driving. I guess my news can wait until we sort this mess out."

Jacqui said nothing to me on the way home; she acted as though nothing had happened in my classroom. The silence between us was not of my making yet I felt I was being punished for something I hadn't done. When I asked her to talk about it, all she said was that it wasn't time yet, even when I asked her what the news was she was bursting to tell me she just shrugged and told me she would tell me later.

The swiftness with which she stood and took her plate into the kitchen shocked even me, Jacqui managed to get halfway to the sink before she tossed the plate into it, shattering the plate. Her knees buckled and my wife let out a pain wracked sob, burying her head into her hands, her shoulders sagged and she just knelt on the floor crying.

I was out of my chair and holding her in my arms before her fork finished spinning on the kitchen floor. I could do nothing but hold her, even though I felt like the instigator of her torment.

*******

Darkness had enveloped the house; neither of us had said a word since the kitchen. I had got Jacqui onto the couch and tossed a blanket over both of us as I held onto my wife.

"You think I should at least talk to them?"

My mind still pictured Mabel as she came into my classroom.

"There scared, all of them. Your father was a bully and you were the only one who stood up to him, they are reaching out. They want you back in there lives, like you they don't know how."

It seemed an age before Jacqui moved. The sigh was a forewarning of the blanket hitting the floor and Jacqui walking across the room and to the phone.

"I need you both. Can you come over this weekend? Thank you, I love you both so much."

Jacqui put the phone down and turned to face me. Even in the dark her posture seemed to improve since the phone call to my folks, she had called in reinforcements and my folks are the only ones who knew everything. I held her for most of the night, sometimes she cried mostly she lay there pretending to sleep in the hope that I would at least get some rest.

My folks arrived the next day. I was still at work so missed the meeting, when I arrived Jacqui was just making a phone call. I stood behind her and listened.

"Your all invited to a barbeque on Saturday. Leave the children with sitters because if any of you give me shit I'm liable to shoot you and go for a temporary insanity plea. If you don't turn up then keep away from me and my family. Your husband is dead and I mourned him the day I came back by squatting over his grave and pissing on it,"

She had the presence of mind to look guilty when she turned and saw me standing behind her.

"They are reaching out to you Jacqui; don't cut them off at the knees before they even get a chance to talk, to explain."

"I lost my family because they never had the backbone to back me up. They can't wipe away the joy I heard in that mans voice when he said he lost my college money in a weekend at Vegas. My mom stood in this very room and told me to my face that she would take care of it, a lot of good her word was then."

Jacqui went upstairs and slammed the bedroom door. Mom and dad came out of the kitchen, it was clear they had heard everything. Mom and Jacqui went shopping most of Friday afternoon; dad and I were sent to retrieve the bags when they got back. We ran out of table space and some ended up on the floor.

Dad cornered mom. "Just how many are coming to this barbeque on Saturday, it's starting to look like were feeding the base."

Mom shrugged and with a smile admitted that they were talking as they shopped and got a little carried away. Dad and I just looked at each other and thought that must have been some talk they had. As Friday evening wore on Jacqui started to get more nervous, in the end I dragged my wife and folks to the PX to dance. It was the first time I had seen her smile since the day she walked into my classroom.

We started the barbeque at ten so it was ready for eleven. The girls made the kitchen a no go zone and just left the cooler boxes by the door ready for us to take when we needed them. At eleven thirty a car pulled up in front of the house, Jacqui made a point of being there when her folks got out. We met them all in the day room.

Jason had aged well. I bet the suit he had on cost a buck or two as well. He was the first to walk up to me holding his hand out as he did. We shook hands, this wasn't the Jason I remembered from school.

"I... We need our sister back man, this isn't going to be easy but help us."

Jacqui rounded on her mother. "You put him up to this?"

"Jason opened the envelope you sent back; he carries those same two parts of the invite with him. He knows first hand now the true feelings your father evoked and swore to do all he could to make life better for us all."

Her mom shook her head as she watched the connection between us.

"The day your dad died your brother locked himself in his room and wouldn't come out. The day we buried him your brother was never a boy again. He's been the man of this family ever since. He purged our house and lives of any connection we had with your father, the one thing we couldn't get back was you."

Her mom moved to hug Jacqui before she once again looked at her daughter. Dad and I made ourselves useful and set about burning meat, mom passed things through the window and we also got the table ready. Tears and tissues were in abundance that day, me and my folks were on standby but we were never needed.

*******

"So you see Haley, your mom had a checkered past, some of which drove her close to despair. We found each other that day in the library, when I looked up and into those eyes I was lost to her. It took a while for us to fit but the wait was worth it. I'm looking at the reason why the wait was worth it right now."

Our daughter blushed, and handed her mom another tissue. Perhaps her emotions were playing catch up, I'm not really sure but it was clear to see she still had a question in her.

"Mom, what was the thing you wanted to tell daddy that day at the school?"

I think the look a mother gives a daughter is often enough; putting it into words can only be the icing on the cake really.

"The doctor at the infirmary had just told me I was carrying you. When we settled down to eat that day of the barbeque it reminded me that I hadn't told your father. That day I got my family back, it was also the day I gave your daddy and my husband a family."

The End