Introduction
I met Beulah at the first family reunion I attended after coming home from my four-year stint of doing my trick for my country of which three years were spent in northern Japan. It was while I was there that I had fallen in love with plus-size women. Kimiko, the Japanese mama-san with whom I shared my off-base house for my last year and a half was 147 cm (about four feet ten inches for you Luddites who stick with the old-fashioned measurements) and 104 kg (call it 230 pounds) of unapologetic horniness. I was young, dumb, and in love but she refused my proposal, giggling and bouncing on my cock in that way she had that would keep me hard until she was completely satisfied.
So there I was, getting re-acquainted with people I hadn't seen in years.
"Do you feel as awkward as I do?" she asked by way of greeting and introduction.
I knew her in that vague way you know the people in your extended family but only see once every three or four years when someone organizes a reunion. It turned out we were what my Grammi would have called "elbow kinfolk." I'm sure Grammi could have sorted it out but what do you call the woman who is your second cousin's (my father's cousin) step-father's ex-wife's step-daughter?
I was smitten from her first words, spoken in a whisky and cigarette-coarsened voice that made me think of June Allyson from those old movies I like.
It was the combination of her face and her size that got to me at first. She was cute in that round-faced way of big women the world over. The extra fat under her skin kept it taut. Her curly blonde hair formed a frame around her face. That she was a natural blonde was obvious from her pale eyebrows. Her skin was pink and smooth, and I thought of that first meeting years later when I saw the scene from
Big Bang Theory
when Amy asked Penny - "Do you even have pores?" Her eyes were a true blue. Her nose was a little button. Her mouth was full and "pouty," framed nicely with full round apple cheeks.
And I liked, very much, that she wasn't trying to hide her size. Oh, she wasn't "flaunting" it, but she wasn't ashamed of it either. On this warm June day, she wore a T-shirt advertising
Darrell's Diner
from a place called Bad Axe, Michigan. The shirt was tight enough that it showed the way her bra cut, as it held very small breasts. Her cut-off jeans weren't exactly "Daisy Dukes," but they did leave plenty of pale, lightly cellulite-dimpled thigh on display. Her calves were oddly slender, the perfect canvas for the Roman sandals she wore.
I won't bore you with the conversation that followed. Take any mature woman coming on pretty obviously to a younger man, cut a few yards of that first meeting, and you have it.
It turned out that my cousin Marji had insisted that Beulah come to the get-together and if you know Marji you know she's a force of nature and almost impossible to refuse.
So here we were, two fish out of water.
Things might have turned out differently in my life if she hadn't been so damn good at that two-hands-on-the-arm thing that some women do that signals both their claim on a man and her willingness to consummate that claim. But she WAS that good and when she suggested we "find a place to talk" I didn't hesitate.
We split up, making our manners, as my Grammi would have put it.
I promised a couple of dozen aunts, uncles, cousins, and old friends that I'd keep in touch. I collected a dozen addresses and phone numbers, a couple given by cousins of the female persuasion who made it clear they would like to share some pillow talk, and one of the male persuasion who made it just as clear.
The reunion was held in a public park and I spotted Beulah standing, surprising me not at all, by a big red Ram pickup.
I said, "Your town, I'll follow you," and then watched as she mounted into the cab of the truck offering an interesting view of an oversized ass as she did so.
I found my
Gremlin
, the silly little car purchased used for five hundred dollars cash, and the total price ballooning to almost eight hundred after I put new tires on it. It was slow, funny looking, and the perfect car for a recently separated veteran living on the GI bill.
I followed her, working the little car hard to keep her in sight as we worked our way through the city traffic to the outskirts where she pulled into one of those old-fashioned motor hotels. You know the ones. A series of duplex buildings formed a semi-circle around the swimming pool/playground that was the centerpiece of the place. I couldn't help but notice there was a bar adjoining the motor court.
She pulled into a slot in front of number 8 and I pulled in next to her.
"I think I could use a drink," she said, smiling that smile that brightened her face.
"I understand," I said, taking her hand and heading to the bar.
We shared a pitcher of beer, an absolutely excellent
Blooming Onion
wannabe, and our mutual stories. She knew the rough outlines of my backstory, my alcoholic mother, and being taken away by my father after Mom died. I, on the other hand, knew pretty much nothing of hers.
She told me of getting pregnant in her junior year of high school, of how abusive her husband had been before he left her with a year-old son, of how she had struggled as a single mom but how proud she was that he had graduated with honors and was now an engineer with a pretty wife who had just delivered her first granddaughter. Of her friendship with Marji.
"Okay," I said, smiling, holding up my hand, "Hold on there, Gramma, how old are you?"
She smiled and said, "Do the arithmetic, David."
So I counted it out.
"Knocked up at seventeen then," I said.
"Sixteen," she interrupted.
I smiled and said, "To continue. Knocked up at sixteen, making you thirty-four when he graduates high school, thirty-eight when he graduates college."
I paused.
"Graduate degree?" I asked.
"Masters," she replied.
"Soooooooooo, forty when he finishes his Masters degree, and now a Gramma at," I paused dramatically, "Forty-two?"
"Close," she said, "I'm Forty-four."
I couldn't help but laugh.
"You cougar, you," I said laughing, "you are exactly twice my age."
She smiled.
"Have I scared you off then?" she asked.
"Ohhhhhhhhh, no," I said, "I've always had mommy issues."
She giggled at that, finished her beer with a flourish, put the mug back on the table with a loud clatter, and said, "Come on youngster, let's see what you got."
We played a couple of games of darts at which she was very good, and shot a game of pool at which I am very good.
"That buffet was pretty sketchy," she said, so we ordered bar food. In this case, the house specialty was something called a
Slopper
, two quarter-pound patties served open-faced on a bun, swimming in an absolutely delicious green chili sauce. The onion rings were the best I ever ate and a meal in themselves. We washed it all down with a second beer.
I was surprised and liked that she paid. I had been prepared to blow my entertainment budget for the month.