Paid to Seduce His Mother V. 02 Ch. 09

He quickly went through the stolen wallet, taking the cash (close to $200), two credit cards, leaving two others, and the drivers license. He then threw the wallet back into the stall, hoping it would look like a simple grab for cash.

Once back in the mall, he approached a security guard and asked if there was a car rental agency in the area, saying he was new in town, and needed to get to Boston that afternoon. The guard was helpful, and directed him to a firm which had an office in the mall. It was at the opposite end of the mall, but compared to the walks he's been having since Osborne, it was a short one. About the time he was driving away in a small Korean sedan, an ambulance was pulling in to take a mugging victim and his wife to the hospital.

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As soon as Harry took off to get his car, Maggie called Mike to let him know Ellie was on the ground and they would be at the lawyer's office in a half hour or so. Mike called Sara and alerted her that he was on the way to the lawyer and would call her when everyone was on their way to the restaurant so she and Belle could meet them there.

Joe and Bella, of course, were already there, working. Knowing the topic of the meeting at the end of the day at work, Rita had skipped it and gone home to pick up Miguela. Maggie had suggested they both come to dinner at Waverly's. She was extremely surprised to see her neighbor and good friend, Geordie Williams, waiting at the bar when she arrived.

"Geordie, how nice to see you? Are you waiting for your date?" she teased him. As comfortable as the big man was talking with people at work, it was well known he was shy to the point of being tongue tied in social situations, even in the neighborhood where they both lived.

"Hey, Rita. Hi, Miguela; how you doin? Miz Rita, yo knows better'n dat. I'm startin' a new job come Labor Day, 'n' my new boss axed me to come meet my new co-workers. Nex' week, I gotta move to New York 'n fin' me a place to live up near Sertoga."

"Geordie, don't tell me you're going to be working for Maggie and Mike at their new Inn! Me, too. I'm going to be Maggie's secretary."

"I don' know any Maggie, but I'm gonna work with Mis'r Mike, 'n' be their gofer and driver. You be workin' at the Inn in the Woods, too, huh. Tha's good. Be nice to see a friendly, familiar face. You, gonna be workin' there, too, Miguela?" he asked the little girl, who was wrapping herself in her mother' skirts, peeping out at the big black man with an infectious smile.

She shook her head at his silly question. "No, sir, I'm too little to work. I have to go to kindergarten first."

Anna knew Geordie from accepting deliveries in the morning. When she saw him talking to a middle-aged woman with a small girl, she guessed who they were. With a wide smile she approached them. "Hi, Geordie. Are you here for the get together? Hi," she went on, looking at Rita.

"You must be Rita, Maggie's secretary, and this little beauty must be Miguela. Hello, young lady. I'm Anna, one of Maggie's partners," she said, extending her hand to Rita. "Let me see if I can find you a place to sit until Mike and Maggie get here." A few minutes later, they were seated in the rear booth where Evie, Mike and Maggie had had their meeting.

In the second booth, near the cashier, enjoying the best meal he'd had in nearly ten years, Jake Woolsey was watching the small gathering, wondering what a life with such friends must be like. From the moment of his arrest so many years ago, he'd had to constantly be on the alert. He had learned to get along, with the guards, with the bosses, and with the rats, the prisoners who bought their existence by telling others what they knew. He had kept to himself except when it was necessary to seek help, or give it, unasked.

He'd used up just about all the booth time he could justify. He'd hit the john and wait out a drink at the bar to see if he could get to talk to Mike, the cook, that's what the girl had called him. He knew enough that a restaurant like this had more than one cook. When he'd asked for Mike when he got there, he'd been told he had gone out and wouldn't be back for an hour or so. Well, he could nurse a drink or two for a half hour or more. He pushed himself out of the booth and made his way to the gents.

Out in the parking lot, introductions were being made. As fate would have it, Harry and Maggie, in one car, Mike and Ellie, in another, and Sara and Belle, in her SUV, had all arrived at Waverly's in the space of a few seconds of time. Jake, on his way to the back of the restaurant, did not see his sister and niece enter, surrounded, as they were, by the Nelson family.

Upon exiting the men's room, he heard a familiar giggle, one he'd know anywhere, under any circumstance; one he'd grown up listening to, hating and loving at the same time. He checked his pocket for the small pistol he carried there. If he had clear shots, his sister and her bitchy niece would be toast when he left the building.

After paying his bill, he returned to his booth to leave his waitress a tip. He used the activity to survey the room and located his intended prey among the large group at the back of the room, a bit over thirty feet away. Two men, a small, older, chubby guy and a tall blond moved away from the booth to move a table and chairs so everyone could sit together. That left Sara and Belle exposed, sitting on opposite sides of the booth.

He pulled the small automatic from his jacket pocket and aimed at Sara, calling, "Hey, Sara, your friend Dick Richards said to say hi," and pulled the trigger, moved his aim to Belle and pulled it again.

As soon as the gun had appeared, someone had screamed, "OMG, he's got a gun!" Sara had reacted the way she had been trained. Her hand had reached inside her purse as she quickly scanned the room and identified the source of danger. Without pulling the snub-nose from her purse, she jammed the muzzle into the corner, pointed it at the gunman and fired twice.

Both Harry and Mike, reflexively/instinctively threw themselves in front of the women. Jake's first shot caught Harry between the ribs, just below his armpit. It plowed through the muscles and lungs, into the heart, killing him instantly. His second shot bounced off one of Mike's ribs, ricocheting down through the lung and lodging in one of the muscles supporting the spinal column.

Sara's two shots were dead center in Jake's heart.

Her first words were, "Call 9-1-1!" The next was, "Michael!"

Part CXV

the blackness surrounding Mike's brain slowly gave way. He could hear the birds chirping and feel the soft breeze across his skin. The scent of wildflowers was on the breeze, much as the heat of the sun was on his naked skin. Naked skin? That realization jerked him into consciousness. What was he doing out in a meadow, naked? He had just been sitting down to a great dinner with family and friends at the restaurant...

A soft hand placed itself on his brow. "Shhh, take it easy, sweetheart. It's okay; you're going to be fine." He opened his eyes to find himself lying by a small brook. Evie was kneeling on the other side, reaching across to comfort him.

"Evie! What are you doing here? Where am I? Am I dead? How..."

"Shh. It'll all be clear in a bit. You and Harry were shot by Sara's Uncle Jake when he tried to shoot Sara and her mother. Harry was killed instantly, but your body is in the intensive care unit at the hospital, being maintained in a coma so you can heal. Meantime, you get to stay here with me for a bit while your body decides to heal."

"Bu...But you're..."

"Mmhmm, but being here without someone familiar would be too stressful, so when someone has to be here in Limbo for a limited time, they are given a companion as a sort of guide, to make their time here easier. They were going to send your grandfather, but when I heard you were coming, I volunteered, pointing out you didn't really know either of them."

"Thanks, I think. This is all kind of upsetting. What happened?"

"Like I told you, Sara's uncle shot you while he was trying to shoot Sara and her mom. He also shot your dad, who didn't make it, and then Sara shot her uncle. She'll be okay, though. As a police officer she had the right to carry a weapon, and Jake did fire first.

"The guy she had the altercation with, the one who hit her, though. He's in for a bit of trouble. He's being interviewed now. Want to listen in?"

"C'mon, Richards, you may as well give it up. The perp fingered you with his last statement, 'Dick Richards said to say hi'. And he had her address, in your handwriting, in his pocket. Add to that, Wojo, down in personnel, says you called the day before to ask for her address. You know what that tells me?"

"Okay, I gave the bum a ride. I admit that. But that's all I did. He said he was her uncle and wanted to look her up to apologize for hurting her mother while she watched."

"You saying you didn't make this guy to be a bad ass; you, with twenty years on the streets? I guess that's why you were still on the street."

"Fuck you. Yeah, So I made him as a recent con, that don't mean I could read his friggin' mind."

A third man in the room, who had been sitting quietly, observing the older ex-patrolman, spoke at last. "It may be just as you say, Dick; in fact, I think it probably is. Still, you didn't take any steps to alert the department that an ex-con was searching for one of our officers, or to warn her. We have enough to take to a grand jury, and probably get an indictment. Problem with that is, I think, with a decent lawyer, you could beat it. So, we're not going forward with it. We'll just put out a statement saying there's not enough evidence to convict you of aiding and abetting, and we are not going to pursue the investigation, but the whole story, from you sexually assaulting her to the gunman's last words will be leaked to the press. Hell, you may even make 20/20."

"No! You can't do that! I want my day in court, to clear my name!"

"Clear it of what?" the interviewer asked. "There won't be any charges, officially."

"Serves the bastard right. Did he really not suspect Jake of planning something bad?"

"Unless he admits it in court, there's no way to prove it. Don't worry, though. I hear he's soon headed in the opposite direction.

"On a more pleasant note, I'm glad to see you hired Geordie for your new place. That was a good thing to do. If he had stayed in the city much longer, it would have been bad for him. This way, he avoids trouble and he gets a new family."

"Family? Why don't I think you mean all the people he's going to be working with?"

"Rita and Miguela. They lived on the same block in Sou'ven. He's admired her for a while, and he thinks the world of Miguela. He'll be a good dad for her, even if they don't get married. He needs to be told that, and that it's okay if he and Rita get together. You'll have to do something for Miggy, too; your dad wanted to set up a trust fund for her schooling."

"You're sure I'm gonna get back to do that?"

Evie laughed. "If you weren't, I wouldn't be here, and neither would you."

"I miss you, babe."

"Sure you do," she scoffed, then her face softened. "I miss you, too, Michael. I'm glad you've been taking care of Momma. She would have had a hard time without you and Maggie.

"I like Sara. She'll be good for you, but you have to work harder to really understand her and what she wants. Sometimes, that's not always clear in her own mind. You're going to have to help her clarify her real desires before you act if you get a sense that she's in a conflict with herself. Like this polyamory family you two have concocted. She never wanted it to get so big.

"Ellie is someone else you're going to have to help. She's going to be a great aunt for you and Sara's children, but she won't ever be a mother. The parasite which damaged Maggie's uterus also damaged Ellie's; the damage just isn't visible. The structures which bind the placenta to the uterine wall are too weak. That's the reason her periods are so heavy and short."

"Oh, here comes Harry; aha, and Jake," she said, pointing. "This should be fun," nodding towards Jake. "It looks like he'll get to cross the river, but they never let them get to it. Watch."

Jake (or his spirit, more correctly), was slogging along, as if he were walking in deep mud. His head was down, watching where he could put his feet to avoid the wet sucking ground. Ahead of him, the ground looked more solid, but with each step, he would sink deeper into the foul smelling mire.

When he first found himself in the meadow, he could see the near shore of the river forming the border between Limbo and Purgatory, seemingly, about fifty yards away. All he had to do was get to the clear water.

He had been brought up believing in a divinity and divine forgiveness and retribution. Therefore, he could hardly believe his luck, that he had a chance at being forgiven for his life. As soon as he began to run toward Purgatory and forgiveness, the ground had started to change character, and it seemed as if he were running in place. No matter how hard or fast he ran, it never got closer; he only sank deeper.

The mire had reached mid-thigh on him, and it was all he could do to move his legs. Incredibly, with each abortive step, it seemed, the river began to inch closer to him, even as he continued to founder. Then, just as he reached the shore, the sulphurous mire engulfed him, closing over his head and cutting off his raging, fear-filled howl of pain and frustration.

There was a great gurgling noise as a froth of malodorous bubbles foamed over the area where Jake had disappeared. Several dark indistinct shapes of various sizes flew up out of the muck, and appeared to leer hungrily at Mike. With screeching laughter, they swooped higher, like a flock of grackles, and then dove, screaming, into the mire pulling it down after them, leaving the meadow, once again, clean and fresh.

Simultaneously, Mike and Evie shuddered and their hands reached for each other.

Part CXVI

Across the river, Mike could see Harry passing them, paying them no heed. He stood to call to him. "Won't do any good, Sweetie. He's on his journey to forgiveness, and can't see us. It's much shorter now than it would have been a few months ago. Several people he has hurt in the past have forgiven him, and his sacrifice to save Sara helped make amends for his actions. When I got here, I wouldn't have bet on his getting across the river."

"Yeah, I have to admit, I'm surprised." He looked around at the wide open space, filled with nothing but grassland and rolling hills as far as the eye cold see. "What do you do here for entertainment?"

"Well, for those who have come here to stay, they work on their redemption, or enjoy just being here and watching over those left behind. For those, like you, who are just visiting, you can do whatever you want. Just think about it and you can do it."

"Whatever I want? What if I want to make love to you?"

"To me or anyone else, living or dead. We are all at your disposal, limited only by your desire and imagination. Go ahead, think of someone you never thought it possible, even in your wildest dreams."

"WTF," Mike thought, and closed his eyes. He didn't know her name, but he could picture her, the perfect girl, from the movie, Notting Hill.

He opened his eyes and there Emily was, naked, sitting by him on the grass in the meadow. She smiled and put her arms around his neck and leaned back, pulling him on top of her. "What would you like?" she purred.

The sex was good, better than good. He climaxed multiple times, frequently with the same partner, and the same penetration. They all had multiple orgasms--BK, RiRi, Britney, Miley, Lilo, J-Lo, Meryl, Julia, Halle, Julianne, Sophia, Gina, Marilyn, Demi, Ming, Lucy, Sandra, Meg, Anna, Ellie, Sara, Belle and on and on. At one point, when he was having problems identifying a new celebrity partner, Evie reappeared. "Having a good time?"

"In some ways; it's been a lot of fun, but really, I'd rather be with you, chatting over a cup of tea or a cocktail, or with any of other women in my polyamorous family. Sex with all the celebrities has been interesting, but as sex partners, they aren't really any better than you or Sara. In fact, I enjoyed it with you two more because we cared for each other, wanted to please each other."

Evie's head picked up and she looked like she was a sentry in alert mode. "Your time here is growing short. When you get back, there will be some changes. Come, we just have time for good bye." She took his hand and pulled him to standing. "You have to close your eyes and imagine me in your arms," she told him.

He did, and when he opened his eyes, she was there, naked, in his arms, waiting for his kiss. He carried her to a blanket which seemed to appear out of nowhere and lay her down. As he kissed her, his hands explored her body as if they were memorizing it.

"Now," she said, pulling him over and into her. It was a long unhurried joining, culminating in a slowly building mutual climax which manifested itself like the slow bubbling over of euphoria rather than the passionate volcanic eruption they had usually experienced together.

"I love you, Evie; I'll always love you." Michael whispered to her as he felt her begin to fade away.

"I know, Michael, but now you owe that love to Sara. Keep your love for me in a small part of your heart, and I will know it's there, just as you can know my heart is always full of love for you. I'll be watching over you and Momma, but I know you both have long full lives ahead of you. Be well, Michael, and be happy."

Part CXVII

Somewhere in the near distance he heard a bell dinging, like an alarm going off, but not an emergency alarm... "Doctor, Mr Nelson is waking up!" he heard someone calling. Mr Nelson--that was him. Why would there be an alarm when he woke. Oh, shit! Did his head hurt, and his back, and his...everything, like he'd stayed in bed too long. He struggled to sit up, and found he couldn't move.

"Take it easy, Mr Nelson," a woman's voice said, gently. "Don't try to move yet, we have to unhook you from all the machines, and monitors. That's right, just relax, it won't take long. My, did you have a nice nap?" she laughed. "Oh, oh, I see you need cleaning up again. I guess it was a nice nap."

"Ehrr aa I," he struggled to get out around the breathing tube.

"Where are you?" she repeated, verifying his question. "You're in Memorial Hospital, in Saratoga Springs. You've been here, in a coma for almost four months. I have to say, your timing's pretty good. Next week is Thanksgiving, and you should be home for it."

"Fo mudz? Wha..."

"Hush now. Some one will be right in to take out the respirator tube and then you can ask all your questions and get the answers you need. Okay?"

He tried to nod, but couldn't move his head. "Oops, forgot you were restrained. You were a busy guy, even in your coma. Let me get that. Better?" He tried another nod, and smiled when he could move. "They're calling your family. They should be here soon."

It was close to half an hour before Maggie, Sara, Ellie and Anna showed up. In that time a Doctor Ellis had been in to explain what had happened to him. He vaguely remembered getting shot, but his memory was of someone hitting his chest with a sledge hammer. That was his last clear memory of this world.

An ambulance had arrived in less than ten minutes and stabilized him, sealing the hole in his side and starting fluids to make up for what he was losing. He had been transported to the hospital where the decision was made to keep him sedated while his lung healed, after the bullet was removed from his back.