My mom was the pastor of her local church. That all came about by accident I guess. You see dad passed away when I was still in middle school and she leaned heavily on the church to see her through the initial rough part. About the time I finished high school she had become the pastor, I am not sure how all that came about, I was more interested in being a rebellious teen back then.
I went to college, met a girl, fell in love, and got married. It seemed like life was great, and it was for a year or two......then the wheels fell off. My wife Shelly, (ex wife now) had found another man, kept it all hidden at first but I knew. She hired some big wheel divorce attorney that was one of her dad's frat brothers back in college. That asshole really cleaned me out. She got everything, the car, the house, not to mention she drained my bank account too.
But of course mom was there to help me pick up the pieces and she offered me a place to live until I got "back on my feet." That was almost three years ago, and I am still living with her. Living there was not so bad, just different. I had to hide any beer or wine even though mom drank too. There were just too many busy bodies out there that loved a good scandal, and if there was none to be had, they would take the smallest thing they could find and fabricate one.
Suffice to say mom's social life was pretty much consumed by her church and congregation. So anything I did had to be on the down low as well or it might reflect back on her. So when mom was not attending her flock, we would find time here and there to hang out, do simple stuff. You know like binge watching TV shows or the occasional movie. Sometimes we would even go out to dinner together.
We had a lot of soul searching conversations too. We confided in one another more and more. In fact some nights we would just sit on the sofa and bare our souls to one another. No topic was off limits. I had told her how Shelly had really fucked me over and that I had a hard time trusting anyone. Between the trust issues and the constant scrutiny we were under, my social and dating life was non-existent. So was mom's. She had not been in any relationship with a man in years, all for fear of scandal.
So one winter evening as we were sitting on the sofa I got the bright idea of us going to the beach in the coming summer. Mom did not seem too keen on the idea at first, but over time she warmed up to the idea, and by spring she was ready to go. Neither of us had any idea that our vacation was going to change our lives forever.
When we arrived at the beach, I was the first one into our room. As soon as I walked through the door all I could see was the ocean out past our balcony doors. Our room was on the 4th floor, not too low and not too high, perfect for viewing and we could still hear the waves rolling in. I opened the sliding door and stepped out onto the balcony.
"Oh wow mom....you have to come see this.....it's even better than we imagined." My eyes scanning the beach for as far as I could see.
"As advertised.....wow." Mom said as she walked up behind me resting a hand on my shoulder. "This is exactly what I needed.....I am so glad you talked me into this."
We both stood there for a moment, taking in the sea air, each of us lost in our own thoughts. After a moment I turned to take a look at our room for the week. It was really nothing special, a pair of queen beds, small table with a couple of chairs, mini fridge, microwave, coffee pot. There was however one thing I did not expect to see, and that was a large jacuzzi tub. We took a few minutes to get settled in when mom looked at me.
"Oh honey, I have to go down to the water, do you want to come with me?"
I nodded "Sure, surf, sun and sand is what it's all about right?"
Mom looked at me and smiled as we went out the door. Neither one of us had changed yet, with the exception we both slipped on a pair of flip-flops. Mom was wearing a pair of white jean shorts that came down to her mid thigh and a tank top with an oversized sheer white blouse over it, but unbuttoned.
We must have walked for the better part of a mile until we decided to turn back towards our hotel. The beach was not very crowded but I suppose that was to be expected. Early May is still a little before the season really picks up and it was nice to have so much of the beach to ourselves.
