Sunday dawned gray-green. A thin fog enveloped Kelsey's town. Sunrise looked like a blurry, faded picture, but the sun was winning out, clearing away the mist.
"Morning, Sweetheart," Barbara said. She held her coffee mug up to her mouth, hiding behind it as much as she could. "Did you sleep okay?"
"Yeah, I guess," Austin said. He was shirtless and barefoot, wearing the baggy sweatpants he'd slept in. Barbara was naked under her robe.
"Your friends really know how to throw a party," she said.
"Yeah. You...liked it?"
"Mmm hmm." Barbara didn't want to gush about how wonderful it was just yet. "Thanks for letting me. I mean, I know it was difficult for you, having your old mother there."
"No, it was...okay," Austin said.
"Sorry I monopolized Kelsey," Barbra said. "She seemed to want to...sort of be my guide, I guess."
"She likes doin' that," Austin said.
"How can somebody that sweet be that wild?" Barbara asked.
"I don't know," he said, smiling a little. Barbara was glad to see it.
"Did it bother you to see me...tied up like that?"
"No. I sorta...already knew. The hooks in your bedroom. I've seen some stuff."
"My stuff?" Barbara asked, surprised.
"Yeah. So when did you, like, start getting into that?"
Barbara thought about it for a moment, and let the story flow. It felt good to talk, uninterrupted, without the awkwardness of discussing the party at Kelsey's. "My best friend when I was growing up, a girl named Josie, she tied me up the first time. I think it was the first time, I don't remember it happening before that. I did it to her, too. It wasn't sexual or anything, we were fully dressed. We were just kids, maybe eight, or nine. I remember being more excited than frightened. There was an old barn out behind our house. We were in the suburbs, but it was like an old leftover that nobody ever tore down because it was a good building. Us kids weren't supposed to go in it without an adult, but we did of course."
Barbara took a slow sip of her coffee and continued. "There were big posts inside, holding up a loft. They were old gray wood, like tree trunks, but kind of smooth, maybe from the farm animals rubbing against them in the old days. There was lots of old rope in there too, hanging in nice loops on the wall. It was real rough, almost prickly. I can still almost feel it against my skin. I remember giggling with Josie when she tied me around the waist to a post the first time. She did my ankles, too, and then my wrists, up above my head. She left me there while she played, pretending she was an old farm woman and I was an Indian girl that she'd caught. It became our game. It was the privacy of the old barn that made everything different. Nobody knew we were in there. It went on for years, right though middle school. It was like our escape from the world.
"One day she pretended she was the cowboy. There were a lot of old western movies on television in those days. So I was tied to the post, like I always seemed to be, and she kissed me. I was surprised, but she said it was what the cowboy would do in a story like that. I'd never been kissed by a boy. Josie hadn't either. It was like we were practicing on each other, although we never spoke of it like that. We never spoke of it at all. I can remember it like it was yesterday, the feeling of being kissed when I was tied up tight and couldn't move.
"We sort of knew tongues were supposed to be part of kissing boys, because we'd talked about it. So that was part of our practice too. I remember the first time it got sort of intense, because we both moaned. It was like a turning point. We were both developing at that point. You know, not girls anymore. We both kissed boys right around then. The barn became a place to smoke pot and fool around with our boyfriends."
"Mom! You smoked weed?" Austin asked, his eyes big with surprise.
"Yeah, too much. Your father was a big pothead."
"Mom!"
"Oh, don't act so surprised! We were young and trying things, just like you and your friends did."
"Did dad ever...tie you up?"
"Yeah. That's the thing. I was in the barn with him, alone one day. I didn't tell you how nice it was inside, when the light came in. There were cracks in the walls and the sunlight came in through them. Just like in the movies, you know? Like skinny beams of light that made stripes on the dirt floor."
"And?...Dad?"
"Oh. Yeah. I showed him the rope, and told him about the games I used to play with Josie. "You let her
kiss
you?" he said. I could tell it excited him. He wanted me to show him. I backed up against the post and put my arms up above my head. I remember how exciting it was when I felt that prickly rope go around my wrists. The look in his eyes was...it was the most amazing feeling I'd ever had. He did my ankles and then he kissed me. His hands were all over me. He pulled my pants down and...well, we hadn't gone all the way yet. He started with his mouth..."
"Fffuuck!" Austin said quietly.
"I don't know how much you want to hear," Barbara said. "It feels odd telling you this."
"Yeah, that's okay," Austin said. The story had swept him away, but it suddenly got very real when his father was about to make his mother cum. "So, it went on after that? He used to tie you up and stuff?"
"And stuff. Yeah," Barbara said.
"Did he ever hurt you? You don't like that, do you?"
"I like...a little. Just spanking I guess. And, well...I don't mind it when the rest gets...kind of rough."
"Shit!" Austin said. Some of the noises he'd heard the night before on Kelsey's porch were starting to make sense.
"I'm surprised you never heard us, when you were little," Barbara said.
"Yeah. No, I don't think I ever did. I mean I was pretty young when Dad left. Did that have anything to do with..."
"No. He just got stupid and decided to fuck anything that moved," Barbara said, her voice tinged with bitterness. "Maybe it's my turn."
Austin didn't know what to say. His mind flashed back to the night before, seeing her hanging from the medieval looking sex swing with a cock in both ends of her.
"So," he said, "was last night...all right?"
"Oh. Yeah," she said, choosing her words carefully. "It was better than all right."
The look on her face was beautiful — a content, lovely smile, with tinges of lusty mischief. Austin couldn't help but smile a little, too.
"How did we get here?" he said, shaking his head a little.
"You fell for a crazy little porn star," Barbara said, smiling wider as she thought about Kelsey fucking her with the huge double-ended strap-on. After a slow sip of coffee she asked the big question.
"Was last night all right...for you?"
"Yeah," Austin said. "I mean I...I wasn't gonna go, and I sorta freaked a little when I got there, but yeah, it...ended up all right. I want you to be happy. It's kind of cool really, that we can...share all that."
"You're not just saying that for my sake, are you?"
"No," Austin said. "It's cool. I'm gettin' used to it. You're like the coolest mom in town now."
Barbara smiled. "I think that honor goes to Kay, don't you think?"
Austin smiled.
"She told me," Barbara said, "how you were upset, on the porch. And how she and Trinny stayed with you. I hope you don't mind. She doesn't like there to be any secrets between anybody."
"Oh. Yeah. That's...good I guess."
"She said you could hear me. I could hear you, too."
A flush of heat blasted through Austin's bloodstream. His face blushed pink.
"Pretty impressive, taking care of two experienced women," Barbara said, smirking a little as she sipped her coffee.
"Mom!"
