Tree of Life

It was six in the morning after Thanksgiving in Herb and Marcia Slocomb's comfortable but unpretentious home in Litchfield County, Connecticut. The couple had awakened early and were having a quiet cup of coffee and nursing monstrous turkey hangovers. They'd had a late holiday dinner the previous day, and it had been an unqualified disaster. Burdened by an entirely different kind of hangover, the legacy of a bloody-Mary breakfast that went into extra innings, they'd burned some courses, under-cooked others, and omitted a few. Still, they were together, and very thankful for that, Herb having recently come back from a tour in the Persian Gulf with the Naval Reserve in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Since Herb's return, they'd reinstated their custom of having him cook breakfast on week-end mornings – but neither was quite in the mood for food. Herb had guzzled a glass of ice-water with three Alka-Seltzers in it and closed his eyes against his gastric rumblings, while Marcia had repaired to the bathroom and, quietly, surreptitiously and in a very lady-like manner, "been ill".

When Marcia returned to their den, they both looked at each other, thought "Thither but for the grace of God" and chuckled, good-humored through their travails.

In the three weeks Herb had been back from the Persian Gulf, they'd nearly had to get to know each other all over again, the thirteen months' separation having made them almost strangers – but strangers who were deeply committed. It was like a second honeymoon, or more likely a third or fourth, given Herb's previous reserve assignments. And, it had all been so – well, surreal....

When Herb's ship, the USS Abraham Lincoln ("Honest Abe" or "The Old Rail-splitter"), CVN-72, had completed its deployment to the gulf, The Air Group Commander (CAG) had visited LCdr. Slocomb's stateroom and inquired if he'd mind flying him back to the States the day before the ship steamed for home. It was a request unthinkable to decline, and they'd come back in Slocomb's S-3B Viking, alone but for the Flight Engineer, refueling several times, on land and in the air, along the way. It was on this long flight that the CAG had broached the subject of a plum assignment in the Regular Navy. Captain Barnes, the CAG, was coming home to a star and the Deputy's billet at ComFairLant in Norfolk, and had selected LCdr. Slocomb for an assignment in Fleet Aircraft Engineering, specializing in landing and arresting gear. This was based on his long experience with brakes, struts and shock-absorbers at the plant on the Connecticut shore where he'd worked for fourteen years. Herb had quickly considered the offer, and declared, "Well, Sir, you know I'm a reserve, and this would be a whole new direction for me. I'll have to discuss it with my wife, and of course the company, who've continued my pay for the last year and a half, will be far from thrilled."

"Well, Commander – and by the way there's a grade promotion involved – you clear your decks the best way you know how, but I NEED you in that job!" said the CAG.

Capt. Barnes, a dour Vermonter, had arranged their flight into Westover Air Force Base in Chicopee Falls, Massachusetts; Herb had mulled over the offer on the long flight home. Finally, they touched down and rolled out on Westover's nearly endless main runway, accepted the salutes of the two Lieutenants (one a j.g.) who'd been dispatched from Oceana Naval Air Station to return the Viking, and greeted their wives, who'd driven down and up to meet them.

Marcia Slocomb, coming nearly out of her skin with excitement, winked through a warm smile and said, "Hi, sailor – going my way?" Herb held her tightly through a long welcome-home kiss and assured her he'd go any way she wanted. Thus, they stopped at the first motel the saw outside the base gate to renew their sexual acquaintance.

She thrummed her fingers on the car seat-back impatiently as Herb went into the motel office to register. The clerk surreptitiously eyed his flight-suit, Naval Aviation Green piss-cutter and nearby address and, smiling, hummed a nonsense tune as he entered the data. After he'd programmed the key-card and handed it to Herb, he winked and said, "Happy landings, Commander!"

When the couple arrived at their room, thankfully around the back of the motel, Marcia was already unzipping Herb's flight-suit as he slipped the key-card into the receiver on the latch-plate. Swinging her into the room, he kicked the door shut. To his surprise, she was already on one knee, reaching into his skivvie-drawers and withdrawing his lengthening cock. She instantly enveloped it with her mouth and began to slather the thickening head with her tongue, noting approvingly how much longer his member had become in just the last few seconds, and knowing it would feel SO good inside her – but, all things in their time; Marcia knew it hadn't had much exercise recently, and she didn't want him going off like a Roman candle on about the third stroke.

Grasping his shaft gently but firmly in her left hand, she rolled his balls in her right while she formed her lips into a snug "O" and worked them up and down, up and down, enjoying the sussurrus of little noises coming from his throat, and from hers as well. Soon, Herb's sexual deprivation was bulldozed into oblivion by the sudden sensory over-load and he geysered into her mouth. Marcia was confronted with only two options: swallow or drown. The constriction of her tonsils made him shudder with pleasure as she gulped him down. Licking his remaining come from his softening cock, she gave the head a final smacking kiss and gazed up at him.

Herb rocked on his heels with momentary unsteadiness and looked down at his wife's saucily smiling face. Spreading his feet, he scooped her up and carried her the few feet to the bed, where he laid her down and leisurely undressed her, following her panties to the floor and bending over her blond thatch. Parting her with his tongue, he limned the smooth ring of her entrance, then darted his tongue into her rapidly, probing her deeply. Forming his tongue into a "U", he ran it up and down over her emerging clitoris, feeling her vibrate uncontrollably. Through clenched teeth, she implored him, "Oh, God, Herbie, FUCK ME!"

He crawled up over her, dragging a long, meandering lick up her tummy, running an unhurried figure-eight around her burgeoning breasts. He saw the undisguised need in her eyes as she drew her legs up, surrendering herself to him, gasping as he slipped easily into her, filling her completely with his rampant and rampaging cock. Marcia placed her ankles on his shoulders so he could penetrate her as deeply as possible and bucked up hard against his accelerating thrusts. He was fucking her like a runaway locomotive, all pretense and finesse thrown to the winds, and their passions rode her keening wail as they arrived together in the never-land of their completion. As their ragged breaths evened out, gradually, they held each other as if never to loosen their grasp.

On and on, the explored the shores of an undiscovered country, pausing now and then to nap and re-charge the batteries of their desire.

Both were pleasantly sore the next morning when they'd left on the short trip southwest to their home.

Marcia was snapped from her reminiscing reverie that Friday morning after Thanksgiving by her husband's loud yawn. She looked over at him and asked, "Hey, lover boy, you know what day this is, don't you?"

Herb gave her a who-cares look and said, "Yeah, it's Friday. So what?"

"Well", she exclaimed, "It's the day we do the tree! Christmas is four weeks from today!"

Herb's groan emanated from the depths of his soul, but even so he rose up from his morning-after misery and trudged down the stairs. Minutes later, he struggled, cursing, up from the cellar with their enormous nine-foot Christmas tree, a commercial model rescued years ago from G. Fox' going-out-of-business sale in Hartford. A rich, dark green, it had silvery-white flocking and permanent garlands from bough to bough. It was murder to put up, but at least most of the decorations remained in place from year to year. He plopped it in the usual location in the living room and returned below for the boxes of ornaments. Marcia, a creative-arts teacher in the Torrington school system, made most of them herself. They turned to, Herb placing the baubles on the tree as Marcia handed them to him, assisted to no end by their orange tomcat, Jarhead, the approximate size, shape and weight of a standard construction cinder-block, who repeatedly rocketed up the tree before launching himself out into space. At a certain point, she got down under the tree, ostensibly to connect the wiring, and took out a special one she'd secreted beneath an ottoman in the corner. She looked up at Herb on his little ladder, whistling softly, and wiggled her bottom at him. Herb continued on with his hanging, unseeing. She breathed, softly, "Hey!" and wiggled it again. He looked fixedly at her, then stepped down from the ladder and moved behind her. Lifting the hem of her robe, he let his fall open and rubbed the head of his hardening cock against her nether lips before slipping it into her, socketing it deeply within her, his writhing balls crushing the backs of her lower lips. Slowly, he began to thrust into his wife in a rhythm as old as time, yet as new as the next second. She lay her chest down on the artificial-snow carpet and murmured her content as he shortened and quickened his strokes, his stomach slapping her round, firm cheeks with each. Burying his face in the crook of her neck, he let out a low-pitched growl as he flooded her with his warm, gelid come, then rained kisses on her neck and shoulders. Marcia smiled warmly at him, then said, "That was JUST what I needed!"

"Mmm – HMM!" he replied.

"Oh", she said, "Don't forget this one! He looked, mystified, as she handed him an exquisite mahogany coffin about five inches long, with four brass clips on the sides. Herb looked at it, then opened the lid. There, inside, was the figure of Bugs Bunny in peaceful repose. Having NO idea what this was all about, he gave her a dumb look.

"Remember our little tryst up at Westover a few weeks ago? Well, the rabbit died...."

Suddenly, everything changed. They toasted their impending parenthood and everything else they could think of. Marcia, a Marine Corps brat, was thrilled at Herb's new opportunity. One thing was certain: their Christmases would never be the same thereafter!