The Lottery

On the way back Alisha had several serious questions for John.

"One of the things that you mumbled last night - maybe even in your sleep - if you in fact ever did sleep" (mutual laughter) "made me curious. If I'm too nosy tell me to butt out; however, I'm very discrete and if you open up to me I'll never tell anyone else."

"What?" John asked quizzically.

"What did Louise do seventeen years ago that so disturbed you?"

John sighed and remained silent for a few minutes. In his mind he admitted to himself that he was in love with Alisha like he never had been before and that he hoped for a long-term relationship. Such a relationship probably precluded keeping secrets, so without distracting her from flying the plane he looked forward and opened-up.

"I do appreciate it that you'll keep this confidential. You must. Seventeen years ago Louise had an affair that was so cliché as to be ridiculous - with a travelling salesman. I found out, and went ballistic. About the same time she got pregnant. Despite the enmity that I felt for her at the time, since her condition required her to have a semblance of normalcy and hope I comforted her and acted as the concerned husband. Louise had always wanted children and this was her chance."

John took several deep breaths before continuing. "At about six months she miscarried; in fact it was even more serious than that. It seemed that her reproductive system failed, and the doctors told her that it was almost impossible for her to conceive again. Just to salve my suspicions I had a blood test done on the fetus. Given my blood type, and Louise's, I could have been the father of the fetus only if there was a one-chance-in-a-million mutation. Once Louise recovered physically from the miscarriage I laid that fact on her."

Before he could continue John required several sips of water from a bottle located in the cockpit since his mouth had gone dry. Alisha remained silent, looking through the windshield and checking her instruments.

"In view of Louise's fragile mental health at the time I stayed with her. Also her personality changed dramatically. Before the miscarriage and knowledge of the paternity of the fetus she was too self-centered. After that it seemed that she was more concerned with pleasing me than herself. Then she had her religious conversion. She believed that God had punished her for her affair by making her barren, which is why two of the most important tenants of SBS are fidelity and abstinence." John continued.

"That makes her decision to start The Lottery very perplexing," Alisha mused.

"Doesn't it?" John responded with a nervous chuckle.

"So why did you stay with Louise especially since it is clear that you don't share her piety?"

"I stayed because I had loved her, and she needed me, and sex with her was more than acceptable. One year merged into the next, and I never re-examined my feelings; that is I never re-examined them until I met you. Now - with Louise's foolish, and certainly presently regretted decision - I have fully re-examined my feelings; I love you, not her," John gushed, for the first time since starting his tale looking directly at Alisha.

Alisha looked back with a small smile on her face. "I love you too, John. So where do we go from here?"

"I'm 99% sure that I want to divorce Louise and marry you," he confidently replied. "Where do you see us going from here?"

Alisha laughed, then seriously responded "I'm also 99% sure that we should marry. However, we'll have to move - wherever you want to, but probably at least initially the Chicago area - and you'll have to give up your job with the Post Office and find something else. One advantage that we have is that we won't lack for money - I'm loaded."

"I know you're loaded with charm and sex appeal - are you saying that you're loaded with money too?" John cackled.

"That I am," Alisha cackled back. "Oh - one more question, though. What ever happened to the travelling salesman?"

John got a stern look on his face. "Openness only goes so far. While it is highly likely that the statute of limitations has expired, I can't take the chance - both for your sake and mine." Then he grinned.

At first Alisha was startled; then she grinned too.

***********

After further discussion on the ground, Alisha and John decided to have non-sexual interaction for the next month or two to see if they were as compatible as all things pointed to. They agreed that there would be no more sex, or intimate physical contact aside from kissing, unless and until John filed for divorce.

Louise was nervous during the time that John and Alisha were evaluating their non-sexual compatibility even though John assured her that they would not be having sex in the foreseeable future. Louise ramped up her sexual aggressiveness, which John was happy to be the beneficiary of. However, disturbingly, he rarely thought of anything except Alisha as he was ejaculating into Louise's pussy or mouth.

Within six weeks John and Alisha reached the conclusion that they were as compatible outside of bed as they were in bed. During that time, using her contacts in the Chicago area, Alisha helped John get a job as vice president of operations for a local delivery company in suburban Chicago; despite no financial concerns she knew that John needed to work for his mental health and ego. The only mutual concern that John and Alisha had was except for when John was in the armed forces and going to community college out-of-state, he had always lived in the Batesville area. John was less concerned than Alisha, however. He was looking forward to the challenge of living in a new area, but they agreed that if he didn't take to a suburb or big city that they would find another semi-rural area.

John's announcement of his intention to divorce, followed by his filing for divorce, hit Reverend Louise hard. Though John was asking for few material things, losing her husband of twenty years was emotionally very difficult to take especially since she was sure that it would hurt her standing in the church.

****************

Epilogue 1: While losing her husband did hurt Rev. Louise's standing in The Sanctification of the Brethren and Sistren, what hurt much more was the increasingly overly-reflective, disjointed, and downright depressing sermons she delivered. Within six years the SBS had essentially disintegrated. Louise left for parts unknown with enough material possessions to avoid poverty even if she never worked again. The board of the SBS sold Louise's house to a private individual, and the church to the town of Batesville, purchased by the town with a mortgage from the local bank and turned into a community center. The outreach provided by the homeless shelter, food bank and service, and women and children abuse shelter, was extremely helpful to the community at large, and was taken over by the town and by other churches in the area using the SBS's former facilities.

Epilogue 2: Over the long haul Alisha and John turned out to be as compatible outside the bedroom as they had hoped that they would be, and their sexual intensity lasted well into their seventies. Despite her original pledge to herself not to reveal that she had known John as a child and early teen, Alisha changed her mind when presented with a question by John after she accepted his proposal of marriage.

As they lay in their house in suburban Chicago after a scream-inducing sex session when Alisha said "yes" to John's marriage proposal, John cautiously asked "Will you be taking my surname, or keeping 'Franks' as your last name once we tie the knot?"

Alisha smiled, jumped out of bed and said "Let me show you something." After rummaging through a few old boxes in her closet Alisha pulled out several dozen sheets of wide ruled notebook paper. Written over and over on both sides of the sheets in cursive was "Mrs. John Tilden."

John was completely perplexed when he looked at the old, yellowing, notebook paper. It couldn't be Alisha's work because not only did her handwriting look different, but the sheets were clearly more than twenty years old. "I...I...uh...don't understand," John stuttered.

Alisha kissed him and stroked the side of his face as a tear formed in one of her eyes. "Those sheets were authored by me when I was in sixth grade. I would daydream about how I would sign my name when I fulfilled my dream."

John was even more perplexed.

As more tears formed in her eyes, Alisha said "Then I was known as 'Constance Watson.'"

Instead of being miffed - as she had expected - Alisha saw John break into a big grin. "I knew that I had met you before," he laughed. "We were destined to wed; if, as was the case, I liked you as a shy chubby kid there is no way that I wouldn't love you as a charming sultry woman."

As Alisha came up for air from planting dozens of kisses on John's lips she cried "Hey shy, fat, Constance, I'm going to be Mrs. John Tilden after all," before she impaled herself on John's stiff upright cock.