Chapter 1
"Mr. Jacobs?"
It was a lazy Sunday afternoon in late June and I'd been napping in the hammock in my backyard when I heard Natalie call. I opened my eyes to see her standing by the hammock, looking down at me.
"What's up, Natalie?"
"My mom sent me to ask if you wanted to have dinner with us."
"Well if she's asking, I guess I can't refuse, can I?"
Natalie laughed at that, she knew her mom, those "invitations" were more like commands and if I didn't show up I'd catch hell for at least a week.
"Ok, Nat, when should I be there?"
"Mom said now."
"Ok, I'll grab a shirt and be right over." I swung my legs over the edge of the hammock and started to get up. I looked up at Natalie as I did and saw her eyes go wide as I felt my shorts catch on the edge and pull hard to one side. I could feel the breeze as my cock and balls dropped into sight. Her face started turning red and I saw her nipples get hard under the loose shirt she was wearing.
"Sorry Nat, that wasn't supposed to happen," I explained as I reached down and straightened my shorts, making sure things were back out of sight. Natalie was 14, going on 30, according to her mom, and as cute as almost any 14 year old could be.
"Uh, mmm, it's Ok, Mr. Jacobs... uh, it's not like you planned it or anything..." By now the blush she was having was flowing down her neck and out of sight under her shirt.
"Come on, lets grab my shirt and get going, don't want your mom mad at me." I started moving but Natalie stood like she'd grown roots. "Are you coming?"
She was still staring at the hammock, then shook her head a little. "I'm, uh... I'm embarrassed, Mr Jacobs.?
I turned back to her. "Nat, you don't have anything to be embarrassed about, you didn't go peeking, it was an accident was all. You're old enough that I'm sure you at least seen pictures of a cock before if not a real one, so no big deal, I'm a guy and I have one."
She looked over her shoulder at me. "You're not embarrassed?"
"Nope, it's just a body part, nothing no one has never seen before. Everyone has a body you know."
"Yeah, but they're not all the same." As she turned to face me her tight nipples were very well defined under her shirt and it was obvious that even her ears were red now.
"Only in the details Nat, only in the details." I took her hand and pulled her after me and headed for my house to grab a shirt. By the time I had my shirt on and we were out my gate on the way next door her blush had pretty much faded. She had an interesting look on her face but looked fine otherwise.
As soon as we entered her house I heard Hiromi, her mom, call her.
"Nat, would you go out and get the ice cream out of the freezer so it can soften."
"Sure, mom." and she was off.
Hiromi rounded the corner coming out from the kitchen with a platter full of fried chicken, looked over at me and smiled. Hiromi and her girls had been my neighbors for just over eight years now, they, along with Hiromi's husband had bought the place about two years before my wife had died. Hiromi's husband had disappeared less than a year after they had moved in. He had packed his things telling them he was going out for one of his deployment cruises and headed out just like any other time. Three months later when Hiromi checked to make sure the monthly deposit had come they found out that he had turned down his re-enlistment and had just disappeared. Now, a little over seven years later, no one had any idea of where he was.
"Ben, would go help the girls bring the rest in?" She continued on to the dining room as I headed to the kitchen. Kimberly and Jenna were on their way with the mashed potatoes and gravy so I grabbed the corn on the cob and followed them. Kimberly, at 16 was the oldest, she'd be turning 17 in December and Jenna was the youngest, she'd just turned 11 in May.
I heard Natalie come back in from the garage as I left the kitchen and told everyone that she'd probably be right behind me. We all sat down in our usual places and waited for her before starting, except it ended up being several minutes before she got there.
"Sorry Mom, I had to go." She blushed a little and took her seat next to me, her mother was at the end with her sisters opposite her and I.
"Since you're last Nat..." her mom replied.
Nat asked for a blessing on the food and gave thanks, then we dug in. The girls could eat, it always amazed me how well, you'd think they'd be chubby little things the way they could wolf down a meal, but they'd always stayed slim and willowy. Hiromi on the other hand had slowly been gaining weight the last few years, she wasn't fat so much as plump now, when they had moved in she had looked a lot like Kim did now, slim, shapely, and very sexy, but in the years after her husband had left I think she just gave up.
As we ate the girls talked about what they were doing for the summer while Hiromi and I just listened. Jokes were passed around as well as a couple of playful insults that everyone knew were just for fun. I really liked it that the girls got along as well as they did.
About halfway through the meal I noticed Nat glace at my crotch, when she realized I'd caught her she gave me a sheepish grin and turned back to her food. A few moments later she adjusted herself in her seat, pulling left foot under her, semi-cross legged. The result was that her shorts were now gaped open on my side. And it only took a glance to see she didn't have her panties on.
The rest of the meal went by and I noticed Nat glace at me several more times, but I never let her know that I'd noticed what she'd done.
When dinner was done we all carried the remains to the kitchen and as the dishwasher was loaded Hiromi got bowls of ice cream ready for each of us, then we headed out to the back porch and sat and talked more as we enjoyed desert.
After about half an hour I excused myself and went home.
Thinking about what had happened between Nat and I that day had put me in a pensive mood and I found that I needed some comfort, so I opened the doors to the music room and went through my ritual. The music room had been my wife's, it was her passion, and in her memory I kept it. My hands gently held each of her three cellos in turn, my fingers tracing all the places hers had been. I leaned into each, remembering the warmth of her, and cried. When the moment passed I checked each of the cellos to make sure they were still in tune, then the violin and viola. When I was done with them I moved to the baby grand and just played with the keys, remembering...
The first time I'd seen her was Christmas time my junior year at college. I was shopping for my latest girlfriend and as I had roamed the mall looking for the "right" gift I stopped to listen to the music being played by a string quartet in the center court. There she was, playing her cello, her golden hair almost dancing as she played. It was obvious that the others in the group followed her, she was the one with the passion, and she made her instrument sing in her hands. I think I stood there for an hour or more that day. It was just before Valentines day when I saw hew on campus.
She was majoring in music of course, with minors in philosophy and business. I was an engineering major with my minor being art. It started with coffee, talking and me attending her concerts and somewhere along the way we found ourselves in a motel on the beach. I don't think either of had any doubts after that weekend and it was only three weeks later that I moved in with her. We married that summer and worked and loved through graduation and then grad school.
She ended up going for her MBA while I got my doctorate in Physics. We both got good jobs, bought our house, traveled a lot and then settled into making that house into our home. When it was done we knew what we wanted next and proceeded to enthusiastically work on having our first child. It didn't take long.
Rachel was seven months pregnant when her company sent her on a trip to Canada to go over the books of a company they were interested in taking over. It was going to be her last trip before her maternity leave.
And that was where my life ended.
The facts were simple. The plane crashed. Everyone died.
It was probably close to a year before I woke up. Not that I slept all that time, but I sure wasn't living. My job had let me go but that was ok with me, it just didn't matter any more. Money never became a problem due to the insurance settlements. I had no idea then what they were, and didn't care, I just signed the paperwork the lawyers gave me and let her and my parents handle the rest.
One morning I woke up and realized that I needed to do something and started wandering the house trying to figure out what it was. Everywhere I went it was clean, tidy and well cared for but I couldn't for the life of me figure out how. I knew I hadn't done any of it. It was when I looked through the French doors into her music room that I knew. It was the one room that time had forgotten, dust covered everything, dead flowers hung over the sides of the vases they'd been placed in. When I tried the door I found it locked. I remember sitting there, just looking through the glass until I felt a hand touch my shoulder.
It was Hiromi. She didn't say a word when she placed a key in my hand, then turned and left.
That was when my ritual was born.
Finally my fingers tired and I let the sound die, the sun had set, how long ago, I didn't know. I closed the doors and went up the stairs.
I woke at my usual time the next morning and headed out on my morning ride. I coasted down to the river walk then as I warmed up started putting the miles behind me. The complete circuit was just over 22 miles and I'd been doing that for a couple years now, almost every day. Even in the winter snow.
It was a bit after seven when I rode up to the garage and put the bike away. I looked over at the Harker house but didn't see any lights or movement. It was summer and it seemed like the girls were already sleeping in. I knew Hiromi would be at work by now so I striped off my riding gear as I went through the laundry room and stopped in the kitchen for a glass of juice. It wasn't until I turned to head for the bathroom that I saw Nat standing in the archway between the kitchen and stairwell.
"Morning Nat." I took the last pull from my glass, set it on the counter and walked past her and up the stairs. I wasn't sure, but I don't think she blinked even once as I went by.
After getting in the shower I wondered why she was here this early, but only a little bit. I figured she was wondering about yesterday and what had happened, and what she thought should have happened. When I finished up I put on my normal warm weather attire, shorts and a light t-shirt, and went back down to make my breakfast. Nat was still there, but she was sitting at the counter.
She wasn't saying anything so I just ignored her and started fixing eggs and bacon.
"Mr. Jacobs, doesn't it bother you that I saw you naked?" Her voice was firm, but I could sense a sharpness to it that hinted at how fragile her resolve was. I decided to push things a bit.
"Nope, this is my house, you weren't invited and weren't expected, so anything you saw was because you didn't have the courtesy to make sure you were welcome."
"But... but Mr. Jac..."
"But nothing young lady, you intruded upon my privacy without a single thought to what the consequences might be, for either of us. Frankly, I couldn't care less that you saw me naked, but the law says that because you did I can be arrested and thrown in jail. For some stupid reason they think that I'm supposed to know that kids like you do stupid things and should never give you the chance to figure things out for yourselves."
The sound of sobs, punctuated by mumbled phrases that sounded like "I'm so sorry" and "I didn't know" started flowing behind me. I let them be the background as I flipped the first two eggs and three slices of bacon on a plate. Then I turned and placed it in front of her.
"Nat, shut up and eat. Next time, make sure you think before you do something, OK?"
I turned back to the stove and started my breakfast, again.
"But.."
"Nat, a butt is what you sit on, not the excuse for all your mistakes."
"But..."
"Nat, eat."
I heard her get up and get utensils for both of us and then refill my glass and get one of her own. When I turned and put my plate on the counter she was eating, slowly, alternately trying to wipe her nose, so I reached over and pulled a paper towel off the roll and handed it to her.
"Eggs taste better without the snot you know."
The paper towel had just reached her nose, fortunately, as she snorted a laugh and blew all that snot out. She wiped her face clean then gave me what I'm sure she though was a "very" stern look.
"That wasn't very funny."
"Oh, it got your nose blown, didn't it?"
"Yeah, it did."
"Seriously, Nat, you're old enough now that you have to start thinking things through more. Not every situation is going to be simple anymore, or straight forward. What do you think your mother would have said, or thought, if she had seen what you did at dinner last night?"
"You did see..."
"Yes, I did, but if I had "noticed" do you think your mother wouldn't have?"
"I didn't..."
"That's right, you didn't..." I left that hanging for a while and started eating.
She finished before me and just sat there, watching me. When I finished I took her plate and mine to the sink and washed them and the utensils quickly and put them in the drainer to dry. She got up and refilled her glass.
I leaned back against the sink and looked at her.
"Nat, I meant what I said yesterday, everyone is pretty much the same, our bodies all have the same basic things and they don't vary all that much."
"But all the girls at school look so different, big boobs, little ones, some so flat the girls cry when they get teased, hair between legs that look like a mop and some look like silk even..."
"And..."
"... and mine so bare it still looks like Jenna's."
"Maybe, but you are only 14 Nat, and won't turn 15 until February. You still have time to finish growing up. I seem to remember that it wasn't that long ago the you were pretty flat chested yourself, and that changed in how long?" Less than a year ago Nat had probably been no more than a "AA" cup but now, she was definitely pushing a solid "B."
"uh... three months."
"Yup, that seems about right. So, don't think that just because things are what they are now, that they aren't going to change."
"Ok."
With our breakfast done, and I guess most of her questions answered, for the moment, Nat excused herself and went back home. I watched her as she walked away and couldn't help but enjoy the way her butt moved.