Den of Iniquity Page 15

  Judith says, “Oh, pooh! I haven’t since I left my parents house in Connecticut in 1814. The only reason I went to Synagogue here is I was schtupping the Rabbi.” We all laugh at that. As we sober, she decides to add a thought to that.

  “Practicing according to the strictures of an organized religion is not so important, Rebecca. The important part of synagogue and the law is to build, support, and protect a community. The important part of the religion is faith. My craft taught me the world is not as the orthodox doctrine would have us believe. Not going to synagogue doesn’t mean I gave up my belief or my relationship with God. I hold my faith dear. I still believe, and I work hard to build and support my community. Faith, charitable works, family, community are all aspects of religion that we can hold onto whether we go to synagogue or not.” She looks at me. “Or ‘church’ if you’re a goyim.”

  I smirk. “Yes, ma’am.”

  Judith pulls Rebecca to her and kisses her cheek. “Thank you for finding me, Liebchen. I am so blessed to once again have my family.” She releases Rebecca and adds, “It’s about time for lunch. The staff will fuss if I’m not there, and old Mr. Jackson likes to sit in my seat to chat up Hattie Steinfelder. He causes a terrible scene when I drag him out of my chair. The food here is not as good as your Mama’s cooking, but it does feed the body. What time for dinner tomorrow?”

  “Six o’clock,” Rebecca answers. “We have the meal patterns of farmers in general.”

  Judith nods, “Nothing wrong with that.”

  I step in to hug Judith. Her surprise quickly fades, and she squeezes me tightly. “Take care of my beloved niece, William. She is precious to me beyond words.”

  “She is to me too, Judith. Until tomorrow,” I tell her. I kiss her dry, papery cheek. As I pull back she comes in and kisses my lips chastely.

  “Until tomorrow,” she says. There is a lover’s promise in her eyes, which strikes me as a little creepy considering her apparent age and her relationship with Rebecca. She lets me go and waves us back inside.

  Judith escorts us back to the receptionist and tells the matron at the desk, “I will be joining my niece and her boyfriend for dinner tomorrow night. Mr. James will call for me at five fifty to take me to their apartment at…” she looks at me.

  “918 South Cortez,” I respond. “We should have her back by...ten p.m.?”

  Judith laughs, “That is well past my bedtime, but yes!” She stage whispers into the receptionist's ear. “Out partying with this virile young man into the wee hours of the morning! Scandalous, don’t you think?” We all laugh as Rebecca and I kiss Judith’s cheek again, wave, and walk back toward my car.

  Rebecca says, “We could have walked.”

  “Yes, but I wasn’t sure about the streets. I’m still not sure if there is a direct path through. Next time we come to visit, we can give it a try. Maybe bring Marissa and Josie along,” I tell her.

  “That would be lovely,” Rebecca says with a bright smile.

  I finish working that afternoon at four-thirty. I pack a small workout bag, and by the time I’m ready Rebecca has a small overnight bag, her favorite stewpot with the bread dough in it, and her favorite kitchen knife. Josie has a small duffle. We get to Dan and Maria’s house with just enough time left for me to pull on some work-out clothes. Josie runs over to Marissa’s guesthouse while Rebecca pops the bread in the oven and leaves it under Maria’s watchful eye. Rebecca grabs my hand, and we walk out to Dan’s dojo.

  Inside the dojo we see Marissa, Josie, and a handful of Dan’s senior students warming up on the mat. Rebecca and I bow in and join the our ladies on the mat. Marissa leaves to join the all-male group of senior students, and I review the last set of lessons that I gave to Josie and Rebecca. At this point, they have the ‘five basics’ of Kenpo down, so I start to introduce them to some basics of Krav Maga. I give them a couple of drills, but unlike Platoon Sergeant Hadad, I talk them through the idea first before I cut them loose to play with it for a bit. I watch them work for a bit before I join Dan’s group. He asks if I need to jump back out, and I confirm that I do.

  One of the group gives me shit about playing with the girls. He’s about my height and twice my weight - most of it looks to be muscle. He’s got teeth worthy of an Englishman, and a full black beard that reaches to mid-chest. I just tilt my head and look at him. I tell him, “Don’t worry, Cupcake. I’ll save you some love.” He growls in response.

  I work a couple of drills with Dan’s group, rotating my way through his students. Cupcake tries to over-power both on the offense and defense roles. He smacks me solidly in the chest, but I fortunately am able to ride it backwards until I’m out of reach. I smile at him and tell him, “Patience, Cupcake. You’ll get your turn.” Dan calls ‘switch,’ so I step out since I’ve played with everyone else before I got to Cupcake.

  I give Josie and Rebecca a new exercise to work, and supervise for a few minutes. When I’m satisfied they get it, I return to Dan’s group. I ask Marissa to work with the ladies, and step into the circle as Dan calls out two guys to step into the middle. They work back and forth until one of them gets a clear point. By that time, I’m bored. Dan waves them out, and I speak up.

  “Mr. Tomlinson, would you mind terribly if I smacked Cupcake Snaggletooth around for a bit - I mean take a couple of turns in the ring?”

  Cupcakes shouts, “I’m gonna fuck you up, boy. I’m the real deal!” He’s beating his chest and spitting as he yells.

  Dan shouts him down, “Daryl, shut the fuck up. Get in the ring.”

  I skip out to the center like a young kid, grinning at Cupcake the whole time. He growls, “I’m going to fuck you up, BOY!”

  I blow him a kiss, and anchor my weight. Dan calls “Go,” and I’m moving before he’s finished the command, hammering Cupcake’s nose into mush, hammering the point of his jaw, and then shifting forward into a ‘bow stance’ with an upward elbow to the point of his chin.

  I step back as he slowly crawls to all fours, shaking his head to clear it. I quietly tell him, “Come on, Daryl. After all that bluster you must have more than that.” Daryl tries about four more times before he crawls out of the circle.

  Dan calls out, “Bull in the ring! Go!” The rest of the advanced students attack singly, in twos, and in threes. I get popped pretty good a couple of times, and get a great workout while managing not to damage anyone but Daryl. He keeps trying, and he takes his beatings like a man before crawling out of the circle like a baby each time. Fortunately, no one likes him very much, and it never occurs to him to coordinate his attacks with someone else. That dude seriously wants to fuck me up, but he’s apparently not very smart. Dan comes at me hard towards the end to see how I fare against him when I’m already tired. He pops me a couple of times - once catching me out of position and kicking my calf with the blade of his shin. I about fall from that strike but manage to get out of the way of most of his follow-up, which allows me to put an aiki lock on him and throw him backward as his whole body leaves the ground. Dan does a dynamite break fall, kips up, and salutes.

  As he releases the salute, Dan laughs uproariously. “Damn! Now that was a workout!” I laugh along as I bow out of the circle and turn to ladies. All three of them are holding onto foam covered ‘jo’ staffs - about the same size as the twisted, oak walking sticks I bought them a few weeks ago. They are holding the training weapons in a classic ready for the ‘jo’ staff.

  Marissa winks at me, and I see Dan nod off to the side. Marissa quietly orders, “Now, ladies.” Marissa leads them in a wedge among the five large male black belts. Josie and Rebecca guard her flanks as the more advanced students try to circle her. In less than thirty seconds, all five of the men are on the ground. Despite my ladies being less experienced and not as strong, they are attuned to each other. I’ve had them practicing working together as a unit since Labor Day. If these had been homicidal maniacs, they would have taken some injuries. If these guys had a bit more time to think about it, they would have gotten taken
down. This time, the boys were taken by surprise by my ladies. The men were tired and only saw a brown belt and two newbies - they underestimated my ladies. I grin with pleasure at their results.

  We all shake hands with everyone, even Daryl Cupcake. Dan shoos them out the door before he, the ladies, and myself hurry to shower before dinner. The ladies and I split up among the guest bath in the main house and Marissa’s in the guest house. When we get to the table, Maria serves an enchilada casserole, lightly fried eggs on top of each portion, steamed spinach, and sautéed zucchini. Dan shares his observations on the ladies attack, and we all share laughs from the whole session. There’s no dessert - we’re all supporting Marissa’s attempt to keep the sugar out of her diet as we monitor the progress of her tumors. We do each have a couple glasses of wine and a bunch of water.

  After dinner, we all hug before I walk the ladies out to Marissa’s guesthouse. We take a while to have a cuddle and kiss session on Marissa’s big bed for about an hour as we share our day and plans for tomorrow. About nine-thirty, we wrap it up with passionate kisses for Marissa and Rebecca from Josie and myself. Josie comes back home with me.

  17

  Dinner with family

  Josie and I arrive back at the apartment. I close the door and we drop our bags in place as we attack each other’s mouths. I push her into the door and devour the flesh of her neck as I lock the door. We make out against the door as I undress her and kick out of my clothes - my mouth leaving hers only long enough to suckle her neck or a breast. I pick her up and fuck her against the door, and she screams out two orgasms.

  I set her back on the ground and push her over the back of the loveseat, before I plunder her swampy depths again. She comes again as I shove my left thumb in her asshole. I reach around her with my right and tickle her clit as I pick up the intensity. I’m about there, and Josie is getting wilder with each thrust. Finally, she clamps down on me again, and I blow my load of cum inside her.

  I lay on her back to catch my breath for a minute with my arms wrapped around my beautiful, big woman. I finally feel like I’m back from wherever you go when you have mind-blowing orgasms. I lift Josie up gently, spin her in place, and pick her up into a bridal carry. I ease her through the bedroom door before I lay her on her back on the bed.

  I order, “Stay, strumpet!”

  She smiles at me dreamily. “Yes, my Lord Husband and Master.”

  I go pick up her clothes up off the floor with a grin. I continue to smile as I carefully fold her clothes before I do the same to mine. I grab my pistol off my belt, stack the clothes in my arms, and carry them into the bedroom. I put the clothes on the floor on the back wall and then tuck the pistol into the nightstand. I hurry to the kitchen for a couple glasses of water. They go on the nightstand, and I crawl into bed next to my lush lover.

  I cuddle her close. “I love you, Josephine Carroll.”

  She looks at my face from inches away. “I love you too, William James. I never knew emotions like this existed in my previous life. In this life you gave me, love is definitely the highlight.”

  We kiss and cuddle until Willy is poking her in the stomach.

  Josie looks down toward my crotch and wiggles an eyebrow. Then she crawls on me and slides onto my hardness. She starts riding me cowgirl style slowly. We lock eyes as Josie moves deliberately up and down on my shaft. I squeeze her generous ass cheeks and her full heavy breasts bounce delightfully as she bottoms out on each stroke. I notice she is getting firmer. The change of diet and workout schedule is making her leaner and fit. She really is going to look like an Amazon in a few months.

  She murmurs, “Mark me as yours, William.” I do. Her breasts. Her collarbones. Her neck. Then I roll her onto her back and lavish hickeys up and down both legs as far as I can reach without withdrawing from her wet heat. The longer I suckle her flesh, the more animated she gets until we both start to move more urgently. I lay on top of her and look in her beautiful blue eyes as I drive into her more forcefully until our bliss arrives. I feel the tingling in my balls and cock just before Josie clamps down on me in her own orgasm. We ride the waves of bliss together

  Later, lying in post-coital glow, I’m stroking Josie’s back as she fiddles with the small patch of hair between my pecs. Josies asks me, “Will, what are some of the biggest problems you’re concerned about?

  Her question catches me off guard. I ask, “Why do you ask, my love?”

  Josie says, “I’m thinking about my thaumaturgy masterwork. If I can complete one, it will make me one of the few if not only the only master thaumaturge alive. It’s supposedly like being a necromancer, once you do one, your ability to do increasingly complex and difficult works increases. My Pa knew a fellow thaumaturge that was headed to California to work the mines out there. This guy said it was silly to worry about masterworks since the work they do to clear mines is harder and more complex than most supposedly ‘master-level work.’ I’ve cleared more than a couple of collapses when my Pa was drunk, so I could probably claim it anyway.”

  She frowns. “I want to do a true master work, Will. I was going to bridge the Royal Gorge, but I died. Plus, it’s been done already. I need a new idea.”

  I kiss her ripe lips and think about it.

  “Josie, there’s really no question of the two biggest worries I have. My primary worry is protecting you all. Getting down to Phoenix quickly to protect Audrey, Viktorija, Bernadette and her people, and Audrey’s parents is a close second.”

  I pause and collect my thoughts. “Honey, I’m happy to discuss the first one, but I think the transportation issue is the thing I think you might be able to help with. It takes two hours to get to anywhere we need to go in Phoenix. It would take nearly as long to get to Audrey’s parents out on the west side.”

  Josie asks, “Are you thinking about a high speed transportation?”

  “Maybe,” I muse. “Josie, thaumaturgy works based on relationships, right?”

  “Yes,” she confirms. “The advanced crafters can use relationships that are pretty nebulous.”

  An idea slowly forms out of the post-coital fog in my brain. “If you have a picture frame with nothing in it, you stick your hand in one side and it comes out the other side, right?”

  Josie looks puzzled. “Yes…”

  “So what happens if you have a frame…” I draw a rectangle with my fingers. “...a construct made as one solid frame - essentially it’s four pieces of wood screwed and glued to make a discrete object.” I have a better idea about how to better communicate my idea. “Stay here for a minute, Punkin.”

  I launch out of bed and hurry to the front door. I take the picture frame down from the door with the apartment rules - fortunately it’s on Command Hook velcro-like hook and loop pads. I open it up and remove the guts before I return to bed.

  “Like this,” I say.

  Josie nods, but she is still frowning.

  I demonstrate my hand passing through the frame. “Now if we slice it like this into two frames half as thick as the original…” I mime cutting it with my hand.

  I see Josie’s mind click. She picks up the narrative excitedly. “...but keep the relationship of ‘one frame’ - you could theoretically put the two halves on opposite sides of the planet, it wouldn’t matter. You could still reach through it to the other side. If you make it big enough you could just step through to the other side.”

  I smile and nod, “Exactly what I was wondering. If you needed to secure it to keep from being overrun, destroy the frame on your side.”

  Josie shrugs. “Or you could just turn it around to face the wall. As long as it was secured flat to the wall no one could get through.”

  “I suppose you could also set it against another frame going someplace else. Would that work?”

  Josie nods excitedly. “This is huge. I don’t think this has ever been done.”

  I tell her, “I remember reading a couple of fantasy books when I was in school where mirrors allowed you to travel through the loo
king glass. I wonder. Is it the looking glass, or the frame?”

  We celebrate Josie’s masterwork idea by making love slowly, tenderly, bathing in our shared joy at our idea and the joy provided by our love for each other.

  The next day starts with Josie and I making love, doing a yoga and taiji workout, before we shower together. Josie makes toast and soft boiled eggs while I log into my computer. I spend most of the day in project meetings while Josie studies and makes plans for her first prototype for her masterwork. I break from work at four o’clock and run out quickly to make my appointment with Delores. We discuss what we think is fair and end up writing an offer for $1.3 million rather than the $1.4 million asking price. Delores does up the paperwork, and I sign it. Afterward, I run back to the apartment quickly.

  As I’m getting out of the car, Maria drops off Rebecca with her pot of beef burgundy, boiled potatoes, bread, a complete salad in a plastic bowl with a lid, and her bag with clothes and books. Maria hands me a couple of folding chairs and kisses my cheek before heading home.

  I help the ladies set the table and finish preparations for dinner. Marissa shows up from a sales call as I’m heading out the door to pick up Judith. We trade kisses as I head out to my car.

  When I get to the Pioneer Home, Judith is waiting for me at reception. There’s a younger woman on duty this time, but Judith points out where everything is documented. I help Judith into the car, and I lead her into the apartment. I introduce her to Josie and Marissa while Rebecca finishes preparations.

  We share small talk about our individual days during the dinner. After dinner we open another bottle of wine, and Judith shares her story of what happened after Rebecca died.

  She says, “Sara and Shimon Leuvenfeld were good friends, and they were in my circle of crafters. I had learned their house caught fire, and no one had heard anything from them since. I went calling to ask your family what happened. Yacob answered the door, and I could smell death in the house.”