This is an ongoing narrative that will not make much sense unless you have read the previous chapters in Part 1 and 2.
Warning: the story involves nudity and explicitly described sexual acts.
Chapter Five
I looked again at the paperback I has placed in my bedside table. It was clearly a romance novel, what my mum would have called a salacious bodice ripper. I knew she had a secret stash of these that she sometimes read when dad wasn't around. He wouldn't approve of his wife, the serious-minded doctor, reading this smutty garbage.
Of course, he accepted a long-standing meme that romantic novels were not works of literature, though some well-respected critics were now grudgingly admitting that the even most erotic of the genre did include some outstanding writing. Now that I had just discovered that my uncle watched porn, I wondered if that was also my dad's secret vice. Unlike my aunt, my parents had been the last people to ever let me see them naked. Of course, my aunt and Rob did not have kids to constrain their behaviour.
However, I had occasionally walked in on one or other of them in a state of undress. Once, I had even walked in on them doing the deed. At that age I knew the biology and assumed that they were trying to give me the sibling I craved. But that was only after I processed the startling sight I had walked in on.
Back to the paperback, I opened a page at random and read a few lines. I found myself immersed in a vividly written passage describing a very adventurous copulation in exquisite detail. I could feel myself getting hot. I read a little more and reached for the rabbit but realized I had not yet put live batteries in it. Shit! I closed the page and put the book down.
A thought struck me "Why did my uncle have these books and multiple copies?"
A possible, no probable, answer presented itself. He was the author. This is how he spent some of his time while closeted in his office. What a blast! These were not the five books supposedly on the business of farming he admitted to having written. The author was listed as Richard Ready. "Was that pen name, a lame pun, Dick Ready?" Frankly, I was disappointed.
I was on my way to the sitting room with a return to the studio still very much on my mind, when I almost walked into a woman wearing a mask who was rising from the sectional. I hadn't seen anyone in a mask except on TV. No one, other than health professionals, had been wearing them when we went into lockdown and left Toronto. Of course, I had been seeing all the advisories about physical distancing and wearing masks on my computer, but this was my first encounter with the reality.
"Hello" she said, backing away: "I'm Martina, Tony's wife. You must be Felicity. Oh dear, maybe you don't even know who Tony is. Rob came by on his way to town and I offered to drive over to keep you company. No one answered the bell, so I let myself in. I think you were taking a shower, so I just sat down to wait." All this time she maintained a wry smile as she looked me up and down.
"I know who Tony is" I said. "He taught me to ride, when I was eight." She laughed.
"I'm sorry I don't own a mask." I added.
"No, of course you wouldn't. It's not a problem. We'll just keep a hockey stick's distance between us." It was my turn to laugh. I was beginning to like this woman.
I figured she was in her mid-thirties or maybe a little older. She radiated good health and energy and was by any standards an extremely attractive woman. Lucky Tony!
"That's good then. Look, I can leave if I'm embarrassing you. Seeing you so nonchalantly naked reminded me of Jill, your aunt, right?" I nodded. "You look a lot like her...your features, I mean, not because you're naked, although she was naked more often than not. She'd even go around the whole property naked in the summer. When I came over, I'd usually join her."
Before she could sit down, I asked if she would like some coffee or tea. I felt I would be more comfortable moving around and doing something than just sitting there. She came with me to the kitchen, but I was glad to see she was careful to maintain physical distancing in addition to wearing her mask. When the coffee was ready, I served myself and indicated she should do the same.
Like Rob I take my coffee black. She was clearly quite familiar with where things were kept as she found the sugar and a teaspoon for herself. I kept moving nervously while I drank my coffee, all the time keeping well away from her.
"You are the first person I have seen other than Rob in almost a month. So, forgive my awkwardness."
"Of course, I don't think I have seen anyone but Tony myself until today. That's why I jumped at an excuse to come over." She paused. "Rob said you are another painter. I wish I had that talent. Both Jill and Rob are so good. Well, Jill was, I mean."
Then I realized she was the other woman I had seen in the paintings. I supposed it was natural if she and Jill were regularly naked together that at some point, she would be Jill's model.
"Would it be OK with you if I stripped down now? I mean I know we've just met, but if it's OK with you, I feel we'd both be more comfortable." I did not know quite what my feelings were, but I think I must have nodded because she started removing and tidily folding her clothes in a very matter of fact way.
She was about five-eight in height with fullish breasts and a Mediterranean colouring that meant she did not look horribly whitey-white like the untanned parts of my body did. How I envied her that.
"You must have found coming here all very strange" she said, as she removed and folded the last of her clothes. I could not help looking at her standing there completely naked except for her mask. As she had said, she seemed completely at ease under my scrutiny which she appeared to accept as normal under the circumstances. In fact, she was appraising me with equal frankness.
"I love your pale translucent skin." she said. "If you are wondering about my skin tone, I have an Italian father and a Cree mother. They separated when I was ten."
"I'm sorry."
"Don't be. It was quite amicable. They are both alive and in good health and I still see them both now and again."
Judging by the number of clothes she had just taken off it was still very cold outside. She clearly knew the whole house well for she went over to the linen cupboard outside the bathroom and produced two towels which she spread on the sectional for us to sit on.
"My parents are both doctors." I said, "my father's forth generation Canadian and my mother was born in Belgium...Flemish, not French." I wondered why I was adding so much detail. "She was only three when they came to Canada, " Apparently, I could not stop myself.
We sat in silence for a minute.
"Jill had so many talents. It is a tragedy she was taken from us so soon. She was a good writer. Rob wrote too, four books about farming, which I understand were excellent. He also wrote one about the writers, sculptors, and painters of renaissance Italy. I really enjoyed that."
"What did Jill write?" I asked, although I now had an inkling.
"She wrote erotic romantic fiction. Very explicit, almost pornographic, some of it made me blush. Rob used to be quite embarrassed by it, but it was her books that sold like hot cakes."
I did not say anything.
"You should read one if only to know her better. Her pen name was "Dick Ready. Well, actually Richard Ready, but you did not need to be very bright to figure it out."
So, the rather banal and tasteless pun was my aunt's. Who would have guessed? I need not have blamed my uncle for the awful pen name, and I was certainly learning more about my aunt.
