Sidney Sheldon - Nothing lasts forever

From the earliest time Honey could remember, her greatest desire was to please her parents and sisters and make them love her. It was a futile effort. Her parents were busy with their careers, and her sisters were busy winning beauty contests and scholarships. To add to Honey's misery, she was inordinately shy. Consciously or unconsciously, her family had implanted in her a feeling of deep inferiority.

In high school, Honey was known as the Wallflower. She attended school dances and parties by herself, and smiled and tried not to show how miserable she was, because she did not want to spoil anyone's fun. She would watch her sisters picked up at the house by the most popular boys at school, and then she would go up to her lonely room to struggle with her homework.

And try not to cry.

On weekends and during the summer holidays, Honey made pocket money by baby-sitting. She loved taking care of children, and the children adored her.

When Honey was not working, she would go off and explore Memphis by herself. She visited Graceland, where Elvis Presley had lived, and walked down Beale Street, where the blues started. She wandered through the Pink Palace Museum, and the Planetarium, with its roaring, stomping dinosaur. She went to the aquarium.

And Honey was always alone.

She was unaware that her life was about to change drastically.

Honey knew that many of her classmates were having love affairs. They discussed it constantly at school.

“Have you gone to bed with Ricky yet? He's the best… !”

“Joe is really into orgasms …”

“I was out with Tony last night. I'm exhausted. What an animal! I'm seeing him again tonight …”

Honey stood there listening to their conversations, and she was filled with a bittersweet envy, and a feeling that she would never know what sex was like. Who would want me? Honey wondered.

One Friday night, there was a school prom. Honey had no intention of going, but her father said, “You know, I'm concerned. Your sisters tell me that you're a wallflower, and that you're not going to the prom because you can't get a date.”

Honey blushed. “That's not true,” she said. “I do have a date, and I am going.” Don't let him ask who my date is, Honey prayed.

He didn't.

Now Honey found herself at the prom, seated in her usual corner, watching the others dancing and having a wonderful time.

And that was when the miracle occurred.

Roger Merton, the captain of the football team and the most popular boy at school, was on the dance floor, having a fight with his girlfriend. He had been drinking. “You're a no-good, selfish bastard!” she said. “And you're a dumb bitch!” “You can go screw yourself.” “I don't have to screw myself, Sally. I can screw somebody else. Anyone I want to.”

“Go ahead!” She stormed off the dance floor. Honey could not help but overhear. Merton saw her looking at him. “What the hell are you staring at?” He was slurring his words. “Nothing,” Honey said.

“I'll show the bitch! You think I won't show her?” “I … yes.”

“Damn right. Let's have a li'l drink.” Honey hesitated. Merton was obviously drunk. “Well, I don't …”

“Great. I have a bottle in the car.” “I really don't think I …” And he had Honey's arm and was steering her out of the room. She went along because she did not want to make a scene and embarrass him.

Outside, Honey tried to pull away. “Roger, I don't think this is a good idea. I …” “What the hell are you—chicken?” “No, I …” “Okay, then. Come on.”

He led her to his car and opened the door. Honey stood there a moment. “Get in.”

“I can only stay a moment,” Honey said.

She got in the car because she did not want to upset Roger. He climbed in beside her.

“We're going to show that dumb broad, aren't we?” He held out a bottle of bourbon. “Here.”

Honey had had only one drink of alcohol before and she had hated it. But she did not want to hurt Roger's feelings. She looked at him and reluctantly took a small sip.

“You're okay,” he said. “You're new at school, huh?”

Honey was in three of his classes. “No,” Honey said. “I …”

He leaned over and began to play with her breasts.

Startled, Honey pulled away.

“Hey! Come on. Don't you want to please me?” he said.

And that was the magic phrase. Honey wanted to please everybody, and if this was the way to do it …

In the uncomfortable backseat of Merton's car, Honey had sex for the first time, and it opened an incredible new world to her. She did not particularly enjoy the sex, but that was not important. The important thing was that Merton enjoyed it. In fact, Honey was amazed by how much he enjoyed it. It seemed to make him ecstatic. She had never seen anyone enjoy anything so much. So this is how to please a man, Honey thought.

It was an epiphany.

Honey was unable to get the miracle of what had occurred out of her mind. She lay in bed, remembering Merton's hard maleness inside her, thrusting faster and

faster, and then his moans, “Oh, yes, yes, you're fantastic, Sally …”

And Honey had not even minded that. She had pleased the captain of the football team! The most popular boy in school! And I really didn't even know what I was doing, Honey thought. I'll truly learned how to please a man …

And that was when Honey had her second epiphany.

The following morning, Honey went to the Pleasure Chest, a porno bookstore on Poplar Street, and bought half a dozen books on eroticism. She smuggled them home and read them in the privacy of her room. She was astounded by what she was reading.

She raced through the pages of The Perfumed Garden and the Kama Sutra, the Tibetan Arts of Love, the Alchemy of Ecstasy, and then went back for more. She read the words of Gedun Chopel and the arcane accounts by Kanchinatha.

She studied the exciting photographs of the thirty-seven positions of lovemaking, and she learned the meaning of the Half Moon and the Circle, the Lotus Petal, and the Pieces of Cloud, and the way of churning.

Honey became an expert on the eight types of oral sex, and the paths of the sixteen pleasures, and the ecstasy of the string of marbles. She knew how to teach a man to perform karuna, to intensify his pleasure. In theory, at least.

Honey felt she was now ready to put her knowledge into practice.

The Kama Sutra had several chapters on aphrodisiacs to arouse a man, but since Honey had no idea where she could obtain Hedysarum gangeticum, the kshirika plant, or the Xanthochymus pictorius, she figured out her own substitutes.

When Honey saw Roger Merton in class the following week, she walked up to him and said, “I really enjoyed the other night. Can we do it again?”

It took him a moment to remember who Honey was. “Oh. Sure. Why not? My folks are out tonight. Why don't you come by about eight o'clock?”

When Honey arrived at Merton's house that night, she had a small jar of maple syrup with her.

“What's that for?” Merton asked.

“I'm going to show you,” Honey said.

She showed him.

The next day, Merton was telling his buddies at school about Honey.

“She's incredible,” he said. “You wouldn't believe what she can do with a little warm syrup!”

That afternoon, half a dozen boys were asking Honey for dates. From that time on, she started going out every night. The boys were very happy, and that made Honey very happy.

Honey's parents were delighted by their daughter's sudden popularity.

“It took our girl a little while to bloom,” her father said proudly, “but now she's turned into a real Taft!”

Honey had always had poor grades in mathematics, and she knew she had failed badly on her final test. Her mathematics teacher, Mr. Janson, was a bachelor and lived near the school. Honey paid him a visit one evening. He opened the door and looked at her in surprise.