Frank Markser - The Next Door Couple

“Sara… Sara… here I am,” she called and saw her aunt wave, then come toward her.

“Darling… Joan, darling… you look great,” Sara glowed, posing dramatically as she caught the eyes of another admiring young man staring at her from behind the ticket counter.

“Aunt Sara, what have you done to yourself? You look like a blossoming twenty-five year old.” Joan said as she hugged the older woman.

“You’re a sweetheart to say so, but you’re just flattering me, aren’t you?” With her arms still around Joan, they started walking toward the baggage section. “It’s good to see you. It’s been over two years.”

“Yes, a long time. I’m older… you’re younger. How do you do it?”

“Well, I’ll tell you,” Sara whispered, looking around in mock concern. “There’s a place in Hawaii called the ‘Youth Farm.’ You stay there for a month and they guarantee you the body of a twenty year old.”

“Oh?”

“Yeh…” the older woman dimpled. “My twenty year old body was named Charlie Tanaka.” Sara threw back her head and laughed throatily as Joan giggled in delight.

“Well, whatever it was,” the young blonde wife said, “You’ve got a better body than I do.”

Sara shrugged, not denying the compliment. “Also, a plastic surgeon can do wonders for wrinkles. Face lifts are salvation for us old folk.” She flashed a big smile at an American Airlines pilot who turned and looked as if he wanted to follow them.

“Aunt Sara, you’re wonderful!” Joan tightened her arms around the slim youthful waist of her thirty seven year old aunt. “John is really going to be surprised.

He always thought you were a sensual woman, but now…”

“How is John?” Sara asked, cagily. “He’s one of the most exciting men I’ve ever met. Not counting your wonderful uncle, of course, may his soul rest in peace.” She paused, then arched an eyebrow questioningly, “He’s… ah… good to you?” There was no mistaking what the real question was.

“He’s great,” Joan smiled softly, remembering the long hours of love-making the night before. “He’s just fine. As healthy as a young bull.”

“Does that mean he’s still a virile young man?”

“Yes, and more than that.”

“Then, you’re a very lucky girl, Joan, and don’t you ever forget that.”

“Do you have much luggage?” the young blonde niece abruptly asked in an effort to change the subject. She was becoming excited just thinking about her husband and was embarrassed. After all, she’d been married to John for five years.

“Oh, darling, not much,” Sara said lightly, as she pulled five baggage stubs from her purse and handed them to a porter.

“My God, not much… how can you afford to drag all those clothes around with you?”

“Very easily. I must have them, darling. I have to look my best, you know.”

Joan shook her head when she saw the huge color-matched blue suitcases the porter put on a cart and started to push across the room toward them.

“The car’s in the parking lot. You can wait out front while I go get it.”

“All right,” Sara turned immediately and struck up an animated conversation with the blond-haired young man who was following with her bags.

Joan was back with the car in five minutes, and she handed the key to the porter when he opened the door for Sara to get into the car beside her. When the young man brought the key back to Sara’s window, he said. “See you when you go back to Frisco, ma’am.”

“Thank you, lover. And you remember what I said,” she patted him familiarly on the cheek as he turned away from the open window.

“Well, what was that all about?” Joan asked, curious.

“Oh, we just had a little talk about his girl friend,” Sara said, then added, “He’s such a nice boy.”

“They all are, aren’t they?” Joan grinned as she swung the car into the traffic lane and onto the freeway heading toward Newport Beach.

The dark-haired older woman had more energy than anyone Joan had ever known. She chatted unceasingly until they saw the off-ramp for Newport Beach.

“I love Newport,” she suddenly whispered, in an awe-struck voice. “Your uncle and I used to come here just to get away from it all. Many times we never even saw you.”

“Do you still miss him, Aunt Sara?”

“Yes, darling, I do, very much,” she sighed. “He was such a good man, and sexually virile until about six months before he died. I only found out after his heart attack that he’d been in pain during that time, suffering the damned.”

Sara rode silently for several blocks, and then sighed deeply again. “But you can’t let things get you down. I have to live without him, and there’s only one way I can live… that’s with a man.”

“Then why don’t you get married again?” Momentarily, Joan felt sad for her aunt, but then she smiled as she heard the vivacious older woman continue.

“Hah! I’ll never get married again. I prefer several men now, instead of just one.” She laughed. “You should try it sometime. It deepens your sensitivity.”

“Aunt Sara,” Joan giggled, a little shocked, “you’re really something! You know John is more than I can take care of, and, besides, he’s all I want.”

“I don’t understand how you could be satisfied with a common ordinary sexual life,” the older aunt sighed, “Don’t you want to be sexually liberated?”

“But, John and I are ‘sexually liberated.’

We believe in the modern philosophy… and always have.”

“Oh no!” Sara exclaimed, “You don’t call what you two have together ‘liberation?’ You’re so tied together, you remind me of the dark ages.”

Joan frowned and thought. But we’re happy together and we don ‘t have any hangups about sex with each other, at all. I thought that was all we needed to be sexually well adjusted . Aloud, she simply said, “Then, what are we doing wrong?”

“Wrong? I didn’t say you were doing anything wrong, darling. That’s not being sexually free. Liberation is when nothing is wrong… anything really, anything goes.

I’m sure you’re liberated in your own little way, but haven’t you ever wondered about ‘husband swapping?’…”

“Of course not,” Joan said defensively, “that’s only for people who are unhappy.”

“No, darling. Now that’s where you’re wrong,” Sara said to her niece, just as they arrived in front of the house and stopped in the driveway.

“Then, what do you mean?” Joan whispered curiously, feeling something that could have been anger or excitement pounding in her brain. She wanted to be “liberated” and thought she always had been, but maybe the experienced older woman- knew something she didn’t. After all, Sara was right in one respect. Even though she and John had a completely happy marriage, there were times when she wondered what it would be like to go to bed with another man, and she’d heard John’s comments about other women – even Laurie next door – when he’d wondered what they’d be like in bed. Still, though, what did she really know? John was her first and only male; he claimed she was his first and only female. What would sex with someone else be like?

“All I’m saying, Joan,” Sara was continuing in all seriousness, “is that it wouldn’t be a sin to share John with another woman. Providing it was done for altruistic reasons and not out of emotional involvement.”

“But, that’s what makes sex so wonderful… being in love with someone.” Joan was confused, and, as she continued to sit in the car, not wanting the conversation to end without understanding what her aunt was trying to say, she added, “Sex with a stranger would be no different. than using a dildo. Why take the chance on diseases, and, besides, you never know when someone might get emotionally involved with you… and then he’d be hurt.!”