Thunder and Lightening
Chapter 43
By
Lazlo Zalezac
Copyright (C) Lazlo Zalezac, 2004

Jerry woke in the morning with his arms around Jenny. His 
morning erection pressed against her, snuggled happily in the crack 
of her ass. His hand cupped her breast. He loved the fact that she 
insisted they sleep nude together in bed. It was a minor thing, but 
illustrated the huge difference between this and his first marriage. 
A sigh of happiness escaped from him. Six months of marriage had 
not diminished the passion he felt for her.

"You're awake," whispered Jenny making it sound more like a 
question than a statement.

"Yeah."

"Good. Now put that hard cock to use," she said with a giggle. 
She'd been lying there for five minutes fantasizing about him 
waking. After placing his hand on her breast, her hand had been 
busy between her legs.

"Your wish is my command," Jerry quipped with delight as he ran 
his hand over her body. Her enjoyment of sex was a constant 
source of amazement to him. Every morning since getting married, 
they woke and enjoyed each other.

Jenny rolled onto her back and spread her legs in an obvious 
invitation for him to mount her. Instead of accepting her invitation, 
Jerry turned his attention to her breasts. He loved her breasts and 
she never denied him a chance to appreciate them. She held his 
head to one breast and then gently guided him to the other. His 
hand came up to fondle the nipple of the abandoned breast.

He kissed his way down her body until he reached her pussy. His 
tongue went to work exploring the hidden folds of her lower lips. 
His ex-wife had never allowed this, deeming it disgusting. Jenny 
had taught him how to perform oral sex and he had paid close 
attention to her instructions. He enjoyed everything about going 
down on her. The taste was heavenly, but that was icing on the 
cake compared to her reaction to his attentions. Watching for the 
subtle clues as to when she was ready for him to move to her 
clitoris, he reveled in her body as it twisted and thrashed beneath 
him. 

When she was ready, he moved to her clitoris and began tracing 
out the alphabet with his tongue. She came before he reached the 
letter 'k.' Her legs snapped tight around his head holding him in 
place between them. Jerry put his lips against her sex and hummed 
knowing the prolonging effect that had on her orgasm. 

Jenny relaxed and he went back to work tracing out the rest of the 
alphabet with his tongue. His efforts were interrupted again when 
he reached the letter 'u.' Two orgasms in the course of going 
through the alphabet demonstrated how excited she had been even 
before he even began. By the time he finished tracing out, z, she 
was crying, "Fuck me. Fuck me now."

Always happy to obey such a command, Jerry moved up and 
covered her body. She helped guide his cock into her. Her 
impatience overwhelmed Jerry and he began the slow entry into 
her. She grabbed his hips to pull him into her faster. He slowly 
worked up to a hard fast pace, enjoying the feel of her hot moist 
passage around his hard cock.

"Oh God, that's heavenly," moaned Jenny. Her moans were soon 
replaced by little screams of pleasure. She loved the feeling of 
being covered and taken by her big man. It made her feel protected 
and loved. 

Jerry came with a low roar a few seconds before Jenny emitted her 
scream of pleasure. Rather than rolling off her, he stayed covering 
her with his large body. She enjoyed it and would have protested in 
an attempt to keep him in place. With her arms and legs wrapped 
around his body, she cooed, "This is so good. I wish I could keep 
you like this all day."

"And why shouldn't we?" asked Jerry knowing the answer. Every 
morning they had the same conversation.

"Because we got kids to feed and businesses to open," replied 
Jenny sadly. She really wanted to stay like that for another few 
minutes.

"I declare this a cold breakfast day," said Jerry, "and that means we 
can stay here a little longer."

"Goody," she squealed and hugged him harder.

Jerry was in heaven. He didn't want to leave her arms, much less 
her presence. Any fears that he might have had about her turning 
into his ex-wife upon getting married had disappeared. She loved 
him, she wanted him, and she did everything in her power to take 
care of him. Although it seemed impossible, it only made him love 
her even more.

The time in each other's arms passed and it was time for them to 
face the rest of the world. Jerry said, "I guess I should get up now."

"Yeah," she replied with a sigh.

Jerry entered the dining room, showered, shaved, and dressed, to 
find the rest of the family seated around the table with bowls of 
cereal in front of them. Smiling, he said, "Good morning."

Smirking, Bill said, "Ever since we moved back here, Dad's gotten 
lazy. It seems to me that he sleeps in an extra half hour every 
morning."

The comment caused Jerry to blush when he recalled what he was 
doing during that extra half-hour. Without missing a beat, Jenny 
replied, "Oh, he was plenty energetic this morning."

Melissa tittered at her father's embarrassed reaction knowing that 
Bill had been trying to get exactly that reaction. It amazed her how 
the newlyweds acted with each other. Her dad seemed to be twenty 
years younger and a whole lot happier. Jenny came out this 
morning glowing. Giving her father a break, she asked, "So what 
are the plans today?"

As Jerry sat down, he answered, "Today's Friday. Work for us and 
school for you two."

Jenny said, "I was thinking that I'd come here after work and 
prepare something to eat. When Bill gets out of school, we'll drive 
over to the slum house and wait for you. Melissa could spend some 
time with her friends and then come over to the house. We'll have 
a nice little dinner before you go over to Henry's."

"Sounds good to me," said Bill. 

Earlier that week, Melissa had written the largest check of her life 
getting her swimming pool set up for the season and the heater 
serviced. The pool was ready for use and she hadn't had a chance 
to try it out. She suggested, "Why don't you come over to my 
house and cook there? You wait for Bill here and then come over. 
I'll meet you there. We can swim while things are cooking."

"Sounds even better to me," commented Bill looking forward to an 
after-school swim.

"That does sound like fun," said Jenny. She tried to remember 
where she had put her old bathing suit. 

"Great," said Jerry while adding the milk to his super sugared 
cereal, "sounds like a plan to me."

Jenny turned to Melissa and asked, "What are you going to do after 
dinner?"

"I've got a date tonight," answered Melissa.

The announcement brought a sudden silence to the table. It was the 
first time she had ever mentioned having a date. Bill was the first 
to recover and asked, "Who?"

"Ben Sanders," answered Melissa with a smile. She knew the guy 
was considered a geek, but he had been very understanding when 
she had dinged his car in the parking lot at school. One thing had 
led to another and before she had been aware of what was 
happening, she had agreed to going to a movie with him.

"Ben? He's shy. How did he ever work up the nerve to ask you 
out?" asked Bill surprised at the identity of her date. Ben was 
terminally shy. As far as he knew, Bill was one of the few people 
at school that Ben even talked with on a regular basis.

"I have no idea. We were talking in the parking lot and the next 
thing I knew I was agreeing to a movie," answered Melissa with a 
shrug.

"I'm impressed. He's really a nice guy," commented Bill. He found 
it even more impressive that his sister was going out with someone 
who wasn't in the elite clique on campus. He would have bet 
money, and hence lost it, that she wouldn't date outside that group.

"How do you know him? He's a senior," queried Melissa amazed at 
her brother's knowledge of people on campus. It seemed to her that 
everyone on campus knew him.

"He helped me on my history paper. He's really into old 
photographs and located those civil war pictures I included in my 
paper," answered Bill. 

"Huh?"

"You didn't know that he wants to be a photographer?" asked Bill.

"No, I didn't," she replied. The information was good to know. At 
least she had a topic of conversation that might hold her through 
any rough patches in the date. She said, "I'll ask him about that."

Jerry and Jenny watched the exchange between the two kids with 
interest. Jerry asked, "So what time will you be coming home?"

"I'm not really sure. Probably around eleven or so," answered 
Melissa. She wasn't about to announce that it was her first date and 
she was nervous about it. 

It was a pleasant drive to work that morning. Jerry had taken the 
old truck. He enjoyed the reactions of the other drivers as they 
passed or drove beside the truck. Even after two years, it still had 
an impact when someone saw it for the first time.  Pulling into the 
parking lot, he parked the truck where it could be seen from the 
street. It wasn't that he enjoyed showing it off, but that he was 
really proud of it and enjoyed showing people that an old car or 
truck was a work of art. 

He went to the front door and unlocked it, finding that Martin was 
already at the front desk booting the computer. The young man 
looked up at the noise of the door opening and said, "Good 
morning."

"Morning. You're here early," said Jerry.

"Woke up early and had nothing to do," replied Martin as he 
stepped around the counter to the coffeepot. A fresh pot of coffee 
had just finished brewing. He poured a cup and handed it to Jerry 
with a smile.

"Thanks," said Jerry. He looked around and saw that the store was 
basically ready to open. It was fifteen minutes before opening time. 
He commented, "Good job on getting the store ready to open."

"Thanks, boss," replied Martin with a smile. He returned to the 
counter and watched the computer go through the startup screens. 
He commented, "Looks like Mike and Karen are going to be busy 
installing the computer systems for the next few months."

"Yeah, I'm proud of them," said Jerry. He sat down in the chair 
next to Martin and took a sip of his hot coffee. He put the cup on 
the counter and said, "They are really changing the way the 
company operates."

"They are? How about you?"

"I'm just an old fashioned manager of a small business," replied 
Jerry with a smile. He winked at the younger man.

"Right."

"How are your classes going?" asked Jerry. Martin had gone to 
three-fifths time this semester. He worked six half days a week and 
attended classes in the afternoons and evenings. 

"They're going well. I'm enjoying working half days instead of 
working full time. I'm taking a full course load, so that doesn't give 
me much free time. Still, my grades are good, the money is good, 
and I'm dating occasionally," answered Martin. His social life had 
taken a minor hit, but it didn't disturb him nearly as much as he 
thought it would. 

"Three and a half years to go?" asked Jerry.

"Three. I've already signed up for summer school," replied Martin. 
He had investigated exactly how many courses he had to take to 
get a degree in business and plotted out how he could graduate in 
the least amount of time possible.

"Ah, that's good," replied Jerry. He was pleased with how hard 
Martin was working on his education. Part of the agreement for the 
special part-time employment was to maintain a 3.0 or better. 
Martin was definitely doing better than required, as was Carlos. 

"Carlos is doing well," said Martin. The young Hispanic man was 
graduating the community college that semester. He only had two 
years left and would spend them at the local state university. It was 
a change that made Carlos nervous, but Martin was sure his friend 
would handle it without a problem. 

"I'm glad to hear that," said Jerry. He wondered what he was going 
to do when both of them graduated college. It was about time for 
Mike to move up in the company and he'd need a new assistant 
manager. Of course, that would mean Mike and Karen would have 
to move to another store for Mike to get a manager position. He 
didn't want to choose between the two young men as to which 
would get the job.

"Looking forward to having a Saturday off?" asked Martin.

"Yeah," said Jerry. He had asked Mike to adjust the schedule this 
week so that he could spend the day with his family. Mike had 
gone one further and said that he would start swapping Saturdays 
off. He hadn't thought about starting to take Saturdays off. 

"What are you going to do?"

"Jenny is closing on the sale of her house tomorrow," answered 
Jerry. The sale of the house had taken longer than Jerry had 
anticipated, but Jenny was unwilling to compromise very much on 
the asking price. For a short period of time, he had assumed that 
she hadn't wanted to sell it. That idea was quickly squashed when 
she nearly exploded after he suggested she keep it. She had 
remarked that it was the time of year and that in the spring the 
housing market would pick up again. Based on what happened, it 
appeared that she was right.

Martin recalled Jenny mentioning something about that. He joked, 
"After that, I bet you go out and blow all that money on a shopping 
spree."

Jerry laughed at the idea and was about to follow up with another 
suggestion when the telephone rang. Martin picked up the phone 
before it had even finished ringing. Jerry glanced at the clock and 
saw that it was five minutes after opening. It looked like it was 
going to be a busy morning. He stood and waited for the order to 
get printed. 

For the hour before Karen and Mike showed up, Jerry pulled 
orders while Martin took them. It was a busy morning. When Mike 
came in, he went to Jerry and said, "I'll pull orders for a while."

"Thanks. I'll take care of some of the office work for a change," 
said Jerry with a grimace at the idea of the work that waited for 
him in the office. Al Sinclair had requested that he design new 
reports for the stores that utilized the information in the computer. 
Jerry had been sweating over that job for the past month. 

Karen looked up when he entered the office and handed him a 
sheet of paper. She asked, "Is this what you wanted?"

Looking over the sheet, Jerry was very impressed with what she 
had done with his idea. Sitting back, he examined the graph and 
smiled. "That's perfect. It's easy to see how much it cost to operate, 
how much we sold, and how much we made."

Karen said, "I noticed that the operating costs are seasonal."

"That's right. Differences in costs to heat and cool this old 
building," replied Jerry looking over the sheet of paper. Nodding 
his head, he said, "This is a treasure trove of information."

"What next?" asked Karen.

Jerry picked up the stack of four reports they had designed. 
Looking them over, he couldn't imagine what else his boss would 
want to know about the store. Shaking his head, he asked, "What 
do you think is missing?"

"I'm clueless," she replied shrugging her shoulders. 

"I guess the only thing I can come up with is the accounts report I 
use to direct my sales calls. You know which one I mean. The one 
that shows each customer account with the amount they ordered 
that month, the month before, and for that month a year before," 
said Jerry. After a moment of reflection, he said, "No. That's a little 
too detailed for the head office.

"You're probably right," answered Karen with a smile. She 
watched the big man wrestle with his doubts. She'd come to 
appreciate the side of Jerry that worried so much about little 
details. The other day she had caught him faxing the other three 
reports to see in what condition they had arrived. He wanted to 
make sure that all of the lines on the graphs were visible after 
faxing. After seeing the results, she stopped arguing that the lines 
were fine and doubled their widths as he had requested.

"I guess I should call him now," said Jerry waving the sheets of 
paper around. 

"I'd say so," said Karen watching him examine the sheets a final 
time.

Sighing, Jerry picked up the phone and dialed his boss. On the 
third ring, Al answered, "Hello?"

"Hello, Al. This is Jerry Smith."

"What can I do for you?" 

"I've finished designing the monthly and quarterly reports for you," 
said Jerry. 

"Good, fax them to me," said Al.

Jerry held out the reports in Karen's direction and then waved at 
the fax machine. She picked up the hint. She grabbed the papers 
out of his hand and went over to the fax machine. In the meantime, 
Jerry said, "Karen is faxing them even as we speak."

Knowing how Jerry ran his office, Al said, "Speaking of Karen. 
When she's done faxing the reports, could you ask her to leave the 
room?"

Surprised by the request, Jerry answered, "Sure. I think you'll be 
pleased with the reports we've designed. I've got to say that Karen 
has put a lot of work into making sure that everything is perfect."

"I'm sure she has," replied an amused Al Sinclair. It seemed to him 
that every time Jerry did something, he was the first to point out 
who on his staff had helped him. A more important realization 
dawned on him at that moment -- Jerry's store was the only one in 
his district where he knew the name of every employee in the 
store, what job they did, and what contributions to the chain they 
had made. 

Karen gestured to Jerry that the pages had been faxed. Jerry 
relayed the message, "Al, Karen just let me know that the faxes 
have been sent."

Al covered the phone and called for his secretary to bring in the 
faxes. Jerry covered the phone and said, "Karen, can you excuse us 
for a minute? I'm sure that Mike and Martin could use a little 
company."

Knowing that she was being sent out of the room, Karen smiled. It 
was usually a good thing when Jerry and Mr. Sinclair needed 
privacy. She said, "Sure thing."

Jerry watched her leave and turned his attention back to the phone. 
He could hear Al shuffling a few pages, but couldn't judge the 
reaction. He was startled when Al exclaimed, "These are great! I 
can see everything I want to know about the store on four pages. 
These are monthly reports. Where are the quarterly reports?"

"The quarterly reports are the same except that the data is over a 
three month period rather than a month."

"Outstanding. I knew you could do this," said Al pleased at the 
result. 

"I'm relieved to hear that you like them," said Jerry. The relief in 
his voice carried over the phone. 

"Were you worried?"

"A little," answered Jerry. 

"Karen out of the office?"

Even knowing the answer, Jerry looked around the office before he 
answered, "Yes, she is."

"Good. I've talked with management here about what has been 
going on in your store," said Al.

"What's going on here? Is something going on here that I don't 
know about?" Jerry asked worried that he had missed something 
important. 

Al laughed and replied, "I hope you know about it. You've had the 
greatest improvement in sales in the chain. You've modernized 
your operation and helped transition that to half of the stores in my 
district. You've had zero turnovers for two years and no reports of 
on-the-job accidents."

"Oh, that. I've got a good crew," replied Jerry. He waved his hand 
to include everyone and then realized that Al couldn't see the 
gesture over the phone.

"Yes, well. I talked with our management team and we'd like to 
promote you up here to the main office. We'd like to put you in 
charge of modernization for the entire chain," said Mr. Sinclair.

The news stunned Jerry speechless. He'd given up on the chance of 
ever getting promoted. In fact, he'd never given it a thought after 
that night when he walked out on his ex-wife. 

"Are you still there, Jerry?" asked an amused Al.

"Yes, sir. Just a little surprised," said Jerry.

"You'd be moving into an executive position," said Al. 

Barely able to process the news, Jerry numbly echoed, "Executive 
position."

"Yes, my secretary will be faxing the information you'll need to 
know when we get off the phone. We'll start negotiating the salary 
after you've had a chance to look at it. You'll want to come here 
with a lawyer so that your interests are protected."

'Negotiating the salary?' wondered Jerry. The idea that he would 
have to negotiate for his salary was totally foreign to him. Not 
knowing what to say, he said, "Okay."

"Congratulations are in order. You'll want to think about 
promoting someone to take your position and then help select who 
will be the assistant manager," said Al.

"Sure, that makes sense," said Jerry. 

"I look forward to having an office down the hall from you," said 
Al, "I'll talk to you Monday, okay?"

"Sure, that makes sense," replied Jerry struggling to come to grips 
with the news. 

Al chuckled realizing that Jerry was probably in a state of shock. 
He said his good-byes and hung up the phone. Jerry sat in place for 
five minutes still holding the phone to his ear. Realizing that Al 
had hung up a long time ago, he set the phone down and stared off 
into space. 

It was an hour later that Karen knocked on the door. He looked up 
and answered, "Come in."

"Everything all right in here, Jerry?" asked Karen. She had 
expected him to call her back to the office when he got off the 
phone. There was still work to do regarding the inventory. 

"Oh, sure. Sorry. I'm just a little distracted," said Jerry. He looked 
around the office for a moment trying to decide what to do. Carlos 
was working that afternoon. He was scheduled to come in about 
the time that Martin left for school. He made up his mind and 
turned to Karen. He asked, "Could you ask Mike to call Sue and 
see if she can come in today? I need to step out of the office for a 
while."

"Is everything okay?" asked Karen concerned about him.

"Oh, yeah. Everything is fine. I just need a little time alone," said 
Jerry. 

"Okay."

It was an hour later when Jerry left the store. He sat in his truck 
considering what to do. It was past lunchtime and he decided the 
first thing he should do was to eat. Starting the truck, he pulled out 
of the parking lot and headed in the direction of the Crimson Rose. 
Before he reached the Crimson Rose, he changed his mind and 
drove past it to the burger place. He didn't want to tell the news to 
Jenny until he knew what he thought about it.

At the burger place, Jerry ordered a burger to go and then drove to 
his house. The family called it the slum house, but to Jerry it was 
his house of healing. He'd found his way to it when he hadn't been 
a whole person and within its walls he had healed his soul. He'd 
healed his relationship with his children in this house. He'd 
recovered from a gunshot in this house. 

He stepped into the house and set the bag with his burger on the 
kitchen table. Thinking about all of the good times, he tore open 
his bag and removed his burger from the wrapper. Using the torn 
bag and the wrapper as a plate, he started to eat his burger. After a 
couple of bites, he set it down and reached over to the refrigerator. 
Stretching, he opened the door and pulled out a soft drink. Evoking 
a satisfying hiss, he opened the can. He took a swallow and set the 
can down with a self-satisfied belch. The meal wasn't much, but it 
was appropriate for the place and his mood.

After finishing his burger, he went out and sat on the front porch to 
think about his problems. The old folks across the street nodded in 
his direction and then ignored him. He was used to it and smiled at 
the consistency of the neighborhood. It only reminded him even 
further why he wouldn't sell this house for all of the money in the 
world. It didn't matter if he only used it once or twice a week, just 
knowing the house was here was important to him.

He was still sitting on the porch when Jenny drove up with Bill in 
her car. Melissa arrived before the two had gotten out of the car. It 
took Jenny a moment to get the crock-pot that held dinner out of 
the car. Bill got out holding a grocery bag. The three of them 
walked up to the porch as a group. Their hair was still wet from the 
time spent in the swimming pool. Jerry stood to greet them.

"Hello, Dad," announced Bill when they had closed the distance.

"Hi. Did you guys have fun swimming?" asked Jerry. 

"The water was warm, but it was freezing when we got out," 
answered Jenny. 

With a concerned look on his face, Jerry said, "Turn around 
Jenny."

Confused, Jenny turned around wondering why he had made that 
request. After she had turned back to face him, Jerry gave a sigh of 
relief and said, "Oh, good. I was worried that you had frozen your 
ass off, but it's still there."

Jenny wanted to hit his arm, but she was carrying the crock-pot 
and had to settle for a playful retort, "You're horrible."

Bill and Melissa laughed at the antics of the adults. They were still 
laughing when followed Jerry and Jenny into the house. As they 
entered, Jerry asked, "What did you cook?"

"Your favorite, beef stew," answered Jenny. After the kids had left 
for school, Jenny had considered her plans for cooking and decided 
make a stew in the crock-pot. She'd be able to enjoy the time with 
the kids in the pool rather than sweat in the kitchen.

"Beef stew? That's great," replied Jerry. It would be a good meal 
that would carry them through a night of hard work. 

The family gathered around the table while Jenny heated some 
rolls in the oven. She moved comfortably around the kitchen. She 
had set it up for her comfort after the family had moved out, since 
eating dinner at the slum house on Friday nights was more the rule 
than the exception. Bill and Jerry still worked on waterfalls every 
Friday at Henry's house. Shauna and Jenny worked on the books 
while the men worked. This Friday was payday. 

As the family sat around the table, Jerry looked at his family happy 
with what he saw. Jenny was smiling, Bill was eyeing his food 
with a hungry look, and Melissa was primly putting a napkin on 
her lap. It was such a comfortable sight, that he hated to make his 
announcement. Taking a deep breath, he said, "I talked with Al 
Sinclair. I've been promoted to an executive position."

Looking over at Jerry, Jenny burst into a large smile and shouted, 
"That's great. I'm so proud of you."

"Way to go, Dad," said Bill giving his father a thumbs-up sign.

"Outstanding," said Melissa. 

"I guess," said Jerry realizing that they didn't get the downside of 
the news.

"You don't look happy," commented Jenny with a frown.

"We'd have to move," said Jerry in a flat emotionless voice.

