Meryl Lee - The younger the better

"I agree." Denise Pritchard sounded subdued. "And I'm really glad to hear you say that. That's why I called, to be sure it all had your permission. You know, watching those two pretend making it all the way at the end, is truly beautiful."

"Did you tell them that?"

"Mmmhhh, no. I kept thinking of your reaction. Bryan gets quite excited. And tonight they run through the really big scene where Carmen seduces Don Jose and runs him up the yardarm, tortures him and makes her escape."

"I'm familiar with the scene." Jennifer knew Celeste wanted that as her second behind-the-scrim eroticism. The private audiences for the weekend Carmen shows were the Chowder and Marching Societies of Boston and Hartford. Known for their earthiness and for their uninhibited frolics. Jenny quailed when Celeste broached the dance idea, but she agreed. One way to bring a lot of relationships to a head.

"Well, you're invited to come watch from our barnyard balcony," said Denise, fascinated by her neighbor's willingness to allow her son's libido free rein. "I'll be coaching those two through their dance and you can slip in to the upper deck through the south entry of the barn."

"I have an idea." Jennifer felt goosebumps of daring. "You know they'll be behind the scrim and Celeste will be singing center stage. Why not let them dance in the nude?"

"Jennifer!" Shocked seconds of silence followed. "Oh, you're thinking the magazine coverage might really get turned on by that, aren't you?"

"Partly. But I think it's a different age, too. We know our kids have it big for each other. Although Bryan isn't sure Pammy's mother approves of him."

"Whaaatt? Why, I love that boy!"

"Good. We love Pamela, too… and Sandy. If you don't object, I think it would be quite a wholesome step to treat the male/female relationship very naturally. And your Pammy has a stunning body. Just perfect for a nude dance sequence."

"One problem. There's that capture scene where she hoists Don Jose on the rope and whips him before she skips the prison of Seville. It'll seem a little anti-climactic, if they're clad for that."

"Has Bryan been told about Scene Two?" Jennifer felt her pulse quicken just to imagine her young Adonis dangling by his wrists before a whip-bearing nude. It would be quite the scene to see.

"Not yet. We're going to spring it on him when Celeste drops by and play it by ear. You really think in the buff is wise?"

"Of course. They can heighten the footlight power out front and that'll turn the action back of the scrim into a kind of mirage effect. Audience will see, but not be sure."

"Okay. We'll play it by ear. Jennifer, be a dear. Come watch from behind the scenes and give me the sign, if it goes too far. I'll break it up." Denise was the sweetest when she was most dangerous, thought the listener.

"I'm sure it may go too far," murmured Jennifer, stirring the drink at her elbow on the breakfast counter. "But I'd rather let the kids find their level, if you're willing."

"So be it, neighbor. Ta-ta."

Jenny replaced the phone carefully on the wall hook and nursed the before-noon Seagrams and Seven thoughtfully. A drinker she wasn't, but the week since her intimacy with her son had made it a fabulous comfort.

Picking Pammy Pritchard had been Jennifer's idea. So had been the proposed seduction dance and simulated torture scene. There was little doubt in her mind that it could trigger a lot more than simulated sex and she shivered at the thought. She knew she hoped it would. Ever since her incest with Bryan, she had lectured herself against the lust that continued needling her.

He belonged to some one else someday. He was a different generation. She was his mother. Everything added up to disaster, if she didn't stop the relation he never knew they'd had. The tremble became a shudder at the thought he might one day learn she had copulated with him while he was unconscious.

"Good!" she exclaimed half-aloud, thinking of Denise Pritchard's warning that it might go too far. Something dramatic like that was about the only way to shatter Jennifer's private lust for her son. But she didn't want to see it happen.

She had seen enough already around this house. Bryan was hardly believable in his heat for Celeste. For three successive nights he had made his stealthy way up the stairs and Jennifer had known it by the creak at the landing. She felt a mingling of jealousy and pity for Celeste, but there never was a hint in conversation at brunch that her house guest had had a nocturnal visitor.

An odd sort of uneasiness had crept into Jennifer's thoughts at the way her best friend kept the play between herself and Bryan out of their conversation. Not a hint of clandestine or of sneakiness or shame. That was what had Jennifer uptight and why she welcomed shifting the action over to Pamela Pritchard. She, at least, was one of Bryan's generation. And she lived next door.

A little more fire like last night's frolic and Jennifer could see her son leaving home to pursue Celeste wherever she went. That tragedy she was determined to prevent at any cost.

"Gracious, what next?" she moaned softly under her breath as she thought of the potentials of the upcoming play. It was both frightening and fun to anticipate.

At times she thought maybe it had been the worst thing in the world that Celeste had come to visit. But she knew it was overwhelmingly good. Good for her wife role with Frank. He'd become a wild love animal with her, unable to get enough. Sometimes two and three times a night. And for all the slightly uncomfortable worries about what happened with Bryan's frenzy for Celeste, Jennifer knew that was a good thing, too.

Her son had exploded into manhood and he was being taught by the one woman Jennifer knew she could trust. A female made for love. A girl with no inhibitions leading Bryan into the world of adult manhood without hangups.

It was a good thing, this dance and dungeon scene. It was Celeste's way of cutting Bryan loose on his own, breaking the closeness between them before she moved out to her next concert stop. And turning Jennifer's son into an accomplished lover was a very special gift from Celeste.

Jennifer knew she would have to be a hidden witness to the practice session in the barn. What it would be like to be that sexy thing next door and have the chance Pammy was going to have!

Unknown to Jennifer Quinby or Pammy Pritchard or Celeste, the choreography practice in the barn was perfect, as Denise Pritchard saw it. The chance to score a once-for-all wipe out of Bryan Quinby in daughter Pammy's eyes.

If there was one thing Pammy was, it was Now Generation. Denise knew she had hypersexed tendencies, but exclusively for her own generation. From Pammy's taunting of Sandy's sexual interests for older plus-thirty males, Denise was sure she would be vicious toward any male showing an attraction to females older than thirty.

That, suspected Denise, was just one more of Bryan's sexual problems. A nearly out-in-the-open incestuous heat for Jennifer by Bryan already had beep spotted by Denise. She knew from watching that Celeste had him turned on and Denise herself could turn the boy on at a glance. It would finish Bryan with Pammy if Celeste and Denise both got him on fire. Meanwhile her tacky nipples made no secret to Denise that Celeste was a turn-on for the lesby in herself.

The stage was set, thought a delighted Denise, showing an admiring Celeste from the first floor to the stairs of the second floor on a leisurely tour of inspection.

"I just love your home," praised Celeste.

"Oh, thank you." Denise's pat was casually open on the curve of Celeste's sleekly cushioned tail as she steered her guest toward the stairwell. "We're sorta functional, but we like it living here, too. Kind of an old farmhouse converted."