All characters engaged in sex acts are eighteen or older.
The little pull down ladder creaked as I climbed it up into the attic. "Mom?" I called.
"Up here, Nick," she called back. I turned to look and she was bent over with her back turned to the ladder. Her big butt shook and strained against her jeans as she rummaged through the box in front of her. Even then, before all the mad shit started, I knew my mom was an attractive woman. Plenty of guys have hot moms, and the thought crosses all their minds. Any guy who has a hot mom and tells you that he never noticed is lying, and they make a fuss when their friends say anything about it. I was lucky enough to have inherited some of her looks. My hair wasn't quite as light as hers was, and I tended toward athletic like Dad, so I got the best of both worlds.
"What are you looking for?" I gingerly stepped onto the flimsy attic floor. The air conditioning didn't reach up here and the June heat was oppressive. It smelled like dust. It was an old house, and there was a lot of attic space. Mom didn't answer and I moved up next to her. It was a box I had never seen open before, full of dad's stuff. A couple of baseball gloves, a Rattlers hat, the team he played on, an old pocket knife.
We lost Dad a long time ago. I remembered coming home from school and seeing mom crying in the kitchen while she got dinner ready. I was so young. Just like her to try to play through the pain and keep going for her son. Who could play through this kind of pain, though?
I placed my hand on Mom's shoulder. Her back was wet with sweat and her blonde hair was disheveled. Her eyes had a far off look. "You ok Mom?"
"Yeah I'm fine," she smiled at me. "It's been such a long time." Her blue eyes shined.
"Seventeen years," I said. "I just didn't think this was a wound you wanted to open back up."
"Your old mom is tougher than you think, Nick." She stood up and stretched. "Has it been that long? Jesus." Lots of other women her age had a similar body type. She hated the term "mom bad," but she carried herself with more grace than anyone I had seen, even women half her age. Everything curved, courtesy of my sister and I. Of course she had put on some weight, but I'll be damned if it didn't suit her. Her shirt had ridden up a bit on her and it showed her belly sticking out over her restricting shorts. My friends would always stare at her tits when they came over. I guess I couldn't blame them. They were huge, there was no mincing words about it. "My God, these things are killing my back. My bra is digging into my shoulders." She bent and stretched, her hands on her hips. "Be glad you're a man, Nick."
"When you come downstairs you can get out of it and I'll rub your shoulders."
There was quiet for a few seconds as Mom stretched some more. She grinned at me, the crow's feet at the corners of her eyes. "You're probably wondering why I'm up here. Why now?"
"Well, yeah," I shrugged, "I miss Dad too, but I didn't think you were ready for... this." I was always careful what I said about Dad around Mom. She acted tougher than she was, and it would break my heart to make her upset.
"I was at Tina's today and she showed me some old videos of her and her son. He's off at college now, you know. It just reminded me of how your dad and I used to make them. I think there's even one of your birthdays here. There are a lot of boxes of his old stuff to move around." Her smile was forced now. A bead of sweat fell down her red chest between her heaving tits.
"Let me help you, then. It's too hot for you to be dragging boxes around. You have a young son, you have no reason to do it yourself."
Mom shoved me in the shoulder, "You shut your mouth! I may be fifty, but I've still got it." She leaned to the side, sticking her hips out.
She certainly did. Mom put a lot of girls my age to shame. I walked over to one of the unmarked boxes. "It's going to take a while."
"I never could get rid of this stuff," she said, remembering.
I almost missed Dad more for Mom's sake than for my own. Mom didn't make good decisions when it came to men. It had been a tired, old argument with us. I had run a few of the dirtbags that she dated off and a couple times it got physical. It's like when she lost him, she never believed again that she deserved someone as good.
We idly chatted as I moved the boxes around. Mom kept working, even though I told her not to. Most of the boxes were Dad's stuff. Old clothes, more baseball stuff, books, old models of World War II ships. There was no point to keeping all this, but as far as I knew this was the first Mom had gone through it since dad passed away.
I dragged the boxes to get at some other boxes behind them. Silverfish and spiders skittered across the floor. I found a large one that rattled when I slid it out. Opening it, I knew I had found what I needed. There were dozens of VHS tapes with titles written on the ends in Dad's neat, technical printing or Mom's sloppy cursive. "I got em, Mom!" It always gave me a thrill when I did something for Mom. That day I told her not to worry, that I was the man of the house now and I would protect her and do whatever she needed. I had been only seven.
"The tapes?"
"Yeah. Shit, there's a ton of them." I grinned.
Mom's footsteps moved across the rickety floor. She was almost right behind me when I heard a crunch and a yelp. Mom's right foot had busted through the floor, and she was down on her side, her hand rubbing her ankle and her face red and anguished. She gritted her teeth.
I kneeled down next to her, "Crap, Mom! What happened?"
"What does it look like happened? The God damn floor broke! I twisted my ankle or something when I fell. Hurts like a son of a bitch." She sucked air through her clenched teeth.
I grabbed her shoulders, as if it would steady her, or at least comfort her. "Can you get up?" I put my hands under her arms, feeling her sweaty, soft body.
Mom squirmed, and gingerly pulled her foot out of the hole. It hung, limp and inert. Still, she put it to the floor and tried to get up. The second she put any pressure on the foot, she cried out and fell back to the floor. "Mom, stop! Let me pick you up."
"Just get off me and let me walk it off, dumbass." She tried again, pushing more forcefully. This time she cried out and tears ran down her face.
"You ankle is fucked, Mom. Stop it!" I held onto her shoulders.
She looked up at me, sad defeat on her face. "Yeah, I guess it is. Fuck."
I pulled her up, then helped her down the ladder. She had pulled her foot up, instinctively keeping it away from the ground. She got out of my grasp and leaned against the wall. "Come on, Mom," I said, "Let's get you sitting down. I'll get you some ice."
Mom gave me a glare, but draped her arm over my shoulders and let me guide her downstairs and plop her down on the couch. She was muttering to herself and wouldn't meet my eyes. I took off her shoe and sock with care to reveal her black and blue swollen foot. She tried not to look scared. I got the ice pack from the freezer and wrapped her foot in it with a towel.
"I'm gonna call the doctor." I picked the phone up.
"Nick, I just need some time to rest. I'll be fine in a day or two. I'm not some damsel in distress, you know." I didn't answer and dialed the doctor.
—
After x-raying her foot, they told her she had sprained her ankle, and badly. They gave her a boot, crutches, and a prescription. She wouldn't let me help her to the car, clumsily using the crutches. She had cursed and complained on the way to the doctor, calling me a worry wart and insisting that nothing was wrong.