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Click hereHe paused, judging how much to tell me. "This is going to be huge, Mrs. Henson. It will be on Broadway for decades unless I miss my guess. It's pretty stark, and there are only three actors in the whole production, all past middle age. Enough has leaked out about it that I'm getting calls from every agent in the country, and even England, Australia, France, you name it. Hugh Jackman, Sally Fields, Russell Crowe, not counting the stars here on Broadway, the list keeps growing. I'm glad I'm not handling casting on this one."
So I was allowed to sit in the venue and listen. I sat there every day until they sent me home, for two weeks. It didn't take me long to figure out the play was about Benny, me, and decisions I'd recently made. One scene, where the man begged his wife to just talk to him, could have been lifted from our phone conversations. I just sat and cried. Of course, they were using unknowns, testing dialogue, building and assessing sets, setting stage marks, testing backgrounds, but they were trying their best, hoping to make good impressions for future work.
Someone reached over my shoulder and handed me a box of tissues. I didn't know anyone was behind me. I took a handful, snuffling out a "thank you."
I turned round to hand the box back, to look my husband in the eye. There was dead silence for about fifteen seconds as I looked at his face, the slight smile flitting around the edges of his mouth. My scream brought everything in the theater to a halt, everyone from the stage hands to the business people in the back rushed over to see if I was all right.
I was more than all right! I had the man I loved more than my own life in my arms, and they were going to have to pry me off him. Two of the biggest stage hands picked us up and dropped Benny on a seat, me still clinging, firmly in his lap. Derek came over grinning, and shooed everyone away. He waited patiently until I finally gave him his lips back.
"I see you found each other. Would you like an office for privacy?"
"Only if you intend to build one around us where we sit. I'm wrapped up in the arms of the man I love, and I'm not letting him turn me loose anytime soon."
He just smiled and left us, telling everyone to stay as far away from us as possible.
After the crying came the apologies, from both of us. Benny talked after I was done, and it broke my heart all over again. "It broke my heart, Bon, even before the photo, to think I was losing you. Do you not think I had to face the same demons, while I was out doing press for my books. During the times you couldn't come I would wander around alone. And the hints, the comeons, the outright groping and flashes from the women, it all made me sick. The thought that I'd betray you with any of them made me laugh. But suddenly you weren't talking to me, shutting me out of your life completely. I'd talked to a lot of other people who also would spend long stretches apart form their spouses, and heard the stories of how many had succumbed. I came to the conclusion you were moving on in your life without me. When you refused to answer your phone, refused all avenues of contact while your granddaughter was in danger, it tore my heart out. Then came the picture, and I had to get away.
"I don't know why I picked Nashville, maybe because we had never been there. I moped around for a week before I remembered the Pattersons. I called, and Moira came by in this monster Jeep and took me home with her. I stayed in their guest house for a week before I started coming back to life. Their son wanted to go fishing, and no one had the time. He asked me at breakfast, and by the afternoon Aaron, his next oldest sister and I were on the bank of their pond. We fished long enough to catch enough to feed the family the next night."
"Wiley and I sat the next night by the fire pit they'd put on the end of their patio, talking about life in general and love in particular. You didn't know it, but after the incident I had the family keep an eye on you. I knew you were frantic to find me, but the resentment was still strong, and I just couldn't come home."
"Instead, I thought about it, and read online about some guy who found out his wife of forty years had cheated on him years ago, and the pain it caused, even though it was fifteen years in the past. She blamed the isolation they lived in, saying she was starved for human contact and the mailman was available. Her house was his turnaround point, and he would eat his lunch at the end of her driveway. One day she invited him in, and they lunched together after that. Lunches turned to more and her husband became suspicious. He made it a point to come home at lunch, just in time to almost catch them. It was in Oklahoma, and a tornado came up, forcing them into the root cellar for hours. She realized then how foolish she had been, and rededicated her life to her husband. The funny thing was she had inherited the house from her grandmother, and insisted they move. He had to drive seventy-two miles each way for the only job he could find. After the repairs to the house, they put it up for sale and moved back to the city."
"Her husband only found out when the mailman died, and left her some things in his will, including a letter he'd written but never sent, detailing the love he felt for her and asking her to leave her husband. When they moved, he put the letter in the box until he passed."
I was curious. "Did the couple stay together?"
"I don't know. The article never said."
"Well, I hope he forgave her."
"We'll never know. One thing that stood out in the article was her analogy between their relationship and the house."
"She said their life was like the house. It had stood the test of the storm, coming out intact, just weathered."
He sighed. "I worked on the rough draft sixteen hours a day for four weeks. Then I stopped and helped Wiley with his little book. He had already written the story, I just tweaked it into something readable. Somehow I'd picked up an acoustic bass he had lying around, and he taught me the basics."
"Then I went on the show, knowing someone in the family would be watching. I didn't know exactly where I stood with you, so I set it up. If you still wanted me, you needed to come looking. And here we are."
I sat, open mouthed. Then I grabbed him, pressing our faces together until our noses touched. "Now you listen to me, Benny Henson! I may have lost my way for a little, but I never, not once, stopped loving you! You have no idea of the hell I was in, wondering if I'd ever see you again, wondering if I could even still exist without you. I will make you some promises now, this minute, and you better take them to heart. I will never let go of you again. You hear me, NEVER. I'm done with writing. I'm done with being apart. From now on, if your head is on a pillow, mine will be on the one beside it, unless, of course, I'm sleeping in your arms."
I let go and pulled back, panting with emotion. Did he still want me? He just grinned.
"Well then. Whenever you're ready, I'll show the apartment I leased for us while we get this thing off the ground."
We set a land speed record for two people in their late fifties navigating the streets of New York. We showered together, for some reason making both of us cry. You would think that having been without sex for over four months we'd be on each other like animals, but we mated slowly, softly, at least at first, trying to pour love into every movement. The next two were a lot firmer, but still sensual. We didn't wake up until after noon the next day.
I'd like to say everything went back to the way it was, but it was almost a year before we were back to normal. We went through some pretty intense therapy for a couple of months, and the trials of Bob, Tom, and Miriam were pretty upsetting.
They all got convicted of second degree sexual assault, despite Miriam claiming she had no part in it. The video plainly showed her lifting Bonnie's legs, and the judge ruled she was just as involved as the rest. They all got three years, and did about six months. Bob was, of course, disbarred, and Miriam and Tom lost their jobs, because they were registered sex offenders now, and there was an elementary school on the block behind the bank, close enough that it violated proximity laws.
Bob left town, to work for his uncle two states over as a paralegal, lucky to get the job.
Tom's father helped them sell their house, and gave them some money, while they found new jobs. It got a little sticky in our blended family, because they were under a permanent restraining order to stay a thousand feet away from me, Benny, our home, and the studio. Four times a year they took the family and tried to spend a week with them. The kids footed the bills wherever they stayed, the loving couple were barely making even. They one day Tom disappeared.
The boys felt bad for their mother, even though they hated what she'd done and turned into, but they were all pretty well off by now, so they leased a nice apartment for her, bought her a car every few years, and gave her money regularly.
I secretly enjoyed it, knowing as she did the money came indirectly from Benny.
A Weathered House won four Tony's the first year it was in production. The book was a monster, and the movie did almost as well as Union Of Souls.
We took a trip up to New York six months after it was in print, and had a small meeting with Beth and Saul, announcing Benny's retirement. Saul smiled, and retired himself. Beth was shocked and begged him to reconsider, but he hugged her and told her if he ever decided to write something else, she would the first person he would call.
Will still handled our money, having expanded to a full office firm, with us and the studio as his major client. Grace remained our lawyer of record, just in case.
...
We brought in all our kids, even the ones who didn't work for us, for a meeting. We turned the studio over to four of them, and kept the two who did our charity work on their jobs. The rest kept the jobs they loved, but we made damn sure they were taken care of also.
Hilda, Sarah, and their husbands were brought in as full partners in the real estate business, and seven years later they were done, and the county voted unanimously to let them incorporate as a village, named Hensonville. We made the trip up for the ceremonies. Benny was given a brass plaque naming him founder. He tried to get them to change the name, but to a voter, they refused.
Benny had one ironclad rule imposed on our family. Once a year, in the summer, every business we owned shut down for a month. All the workers received full salary for their vacations. Turnover was the lowest of any company in the state. The extended Henson family, including Beth and her current girlfriend, Etta and her second husband (the first finally succumbed to his illness) Will, Grace, Hilda, Sarah, their husbands and extended family were all required to spend the month on their private compound on the Pacific island so long ago. If Wiley, Moira and their brood could make it, they came too. Mike Hogue was a constant visitor, with his three wives, including the tiny transsexual who had broken his heart all those years ago, and all their children.
We had one big party there every year. Benny hired some natives and taught them how to make Southern style cookers out of oil drums, and how to cook his way. There would be upwards of five hundred people attending, including the King and his court.
Our grandkids, especially the ones in their teens, got a lot of mileage out of pictures of them hanging out and dancing with royalty. One of the princes, the third by the King's second wife, and one of my grandchildren hit it off to the point she begged to attend the recently incorporated national university. Looks like she would be a real princess if things went right.
When we're at home, we often take the small motor home we bought, hook the little SUV behind it, and take off. If it's summer or a holiday, there's usually three or four kids with us. I think we've seen every natural wonder and been to every amusement park in the country. I'll sit in a chair, and listen to Benny playing with the kids in the pool, and sometimes I cry from happiness. In the nine years since we've retired, Benny only had the urge to write three times, each after hearing some wild tale while sitting with adults at a campground, sharing alcohol.
He writes it up as a steamy short story, and publishes it online, under a new name. I won't tell you which one. He gets four or five stars every time.
...
When we were sixty we had a death in the family. I stood, naked, in front of our bathroom mirror, looking at the sags and wrinkles. I heard a faint whisper. Listening closer, I knew it was Plum.
"We had a pretty good run, didn't we, old girl?"
I found the thought of losing her disturbing. "Nonsense. We just conserve our energy better now."
My alter ego sighed in my head. "No Bonnie, I'm done. You guys don't need me anymore, and nothing is more irritating than an old slut that doesn't know when to leave. Think of me when you're farther along, and remember the good times. We had plenty of those. I just wished we'd found Benny earlier. Think of the fun we could have had."
I could see her in my eyes, laughing through the mirror. "Despite starting late, we did all right, don't you think?"
She never answered, the light in my eyes fading. It upset me a great deal. I sobbed on his shoulder later, explaining what I felt. Benny, bless his heart, knew what to do. He lit the fire pit, piling the logs high. He went into the closet, pulling out the trunk we'd almost forgotten about. It contained all the toys we'd accumulated for Plum. Slowly, one by one, we tossed them into the fire, a memory triggered by every one. I stopped him just before he threw the last vibrator in.
"Keep it, honey. Let's take it with us to bed tonight, and send her off in style."
After an interesting and exhausting session, we drifted off to sleep, the ghost of Plum smiling over us. The next morning, I cleaned the fire pit, and inspiration struck. I had started collecting pottery, and had just acquired a very old bean pot. I ran and got it, and carefully brushed some ashes into it.
That weekend, I took it to a man who restored pottery, and had him refire it with fresh clay, fusing the lid and putting an image of a large purple plum on both sides. It sits on our mantle now, and all the kids know it is never to be touched.
*****
Well, there it is. I hope it met your expectations. Look for a couple of Brother Love's next. As always, thank you for your time. Comment or vote if you like.
Q
- COMMENTS
Hi qhml1
Iv been reading all of your stories that you've posted so far in alphabetical order and iv some that have got to me but this is the best up to now, keep up the good work you do an avid reader thank you for all the stories so far.
russell11
I'll give this chapter a 4.5 rounded up to a 5. I was sorry to see "Plum's" death, but understand she'll be there in spirit, being in the jar on the shelf. I did like the plot twist of Benny becoming a song writer and a bass player, although someone should have warned him bass players are the most likely to cheat in the band. ;-)
I loved it and gave it 5 big stars. A lot of this reminded me of The Unicorn, and quite a bit reminded me of From Boston to Birmingham. Both of those were very good, and this one is right up there with them...very good. I was originally looking for a similar story, about a wife who was helping a crazed writer (who was trying to take the wife (she was an editor) for himself) to finish his story (a novel), and the husband bought a home out in the country after they separated and started writing his own story/stories. I found it about 4 years ago after I finished "When we were married". I thought it was a good story (author unknown), but I haven't found it again. I was hoping this was it, but it wasn't, not that I'm complaining as this was very good. I'll just keep looking for the other story though, as I'd like to find it again. Thanks for sharing it, as I enjoyed it.
As I have read most of your stories I am finally going to comment on one. I know that this is an erotic story site, but you give us something more. I like the way that there are people who win and have happy endings. There are also some who lose and you convince us that they deserve their misery. It is not fair to authors to compare them to each other and yet here I go. There are a few writers here that rise above on a very regular basis. Fellow North Carolinian writter FinalStand is one, Lien_Gellar is another. You all have the ability to take us along and introduce us to people we have never met and become great friends with in the space of seven to thirteen thousand words. It is my hope that you will continue to give us new friends for many years to come. Thank you for allowing us to enjoy your stories. Yes I know that I have vacillated between first and third person , however I am not a writer.
So awesomely creative! The Plum memorial sex toy urn! Genius!! I'll be reading this again sometime. 5 stars
Thanks for the entertainment, the tale was a change, a good one! 5 stars
somewhere east of Omaha
It was very fun to read.a little far out there at times, but ai.guess thats what fiction is for. I enjoyed from start to finish. Thanks!
Ended kind of weird. The BDSM aspects were also strange, and unnecessary really. As one anonymous commenter wrote: no one thought to call him after the first two weeks just in case? Just odd.
Cool story over all
Grant
They had deeper issues than the sexual assault and Tom send the photo. Benny should have been smart enough to not overreact to the text. It was obviously a setup and even a cursory check would have confirmed it was staged. Bonnie despises Tom with a vengeance. Now her getting so drunk she was passed out and never woke up until Hilda et al arrived. That is a problem. Her being a famous but neglectful wife with a tinge of disrespect and thinking Benny is jealous. That is a big problem. Of course neither knew about her assistant just stonewalling all of Benny's calls. Hilarious that after 2 weeks no one thinks to give him a phone call, check if phone is online and where (PIs hello? Anyone?) or to send him an email. Even in NYC, when she arrives, she still doesn't call him? Wtf?
I've really enjoyed this series. The first two parts were outstanding so much so that I was beginning to think that this one rivalled, for me, the Boston to Birmingham series. Unfortunately the final part didn't have the same impact, what could have been an intensely emotional climax fell flat. Really sorry to be a bit critical but it just didn't work for me as an ending. It's almost as if a different person wrote it. However I really enjoyed 85% of this and am looking forward to the next submission you have written as I'm working through your stories alphabetically. Still rating you 5 stars because I think that this is worth it overall. Thanks again BardnotBard
Much as I love these stories they would have been much better if someone had simply put a gun to Plum's head before she even appeared.
Human nature at its best and worst. We're complex creatures. It's good to have some tolerance for other's failings as they may be similarly inclined to be tolerant of ours. As Jesus is reputed to have said "Let he who is without sin cast the first stone". It's useful to remember that sin meant error or missing the mark. Unfortunately, it's taken on a more limited and darker meaning.
LMJ
His wife is a victim of sexual assault and is going crazy with worry and Benny decides to play hide-and-seek? She should have ghosted him and wait for him to crawl back in shame,
Very enjoyable read! Guarantee thar I'll be back for additional reads. Thank you!
Yes this IS fiction. What guy (Benny) could act with such smarts and compassion in the real world? A true liberated man. I’m detecting a theme in Q’s work: The male struggle between our nature to build and our ego nature to destroy all we create.
The thought this provoked puts it up there. Another twenty on the five scale Mr Q!
.. and off to your next work..
Loved the first two chapters. This chapter was much weaker with some odd plot elements and strange occurrences.
I realize this is fiction (it is isn't it?) but some of the goings on are hard to swallow or follow. This chapter is kind of a let down compared to the first two. I am glad that plum got the fire pit just should have happened sooner.
good, interesting story. BUT, way too much, too over the top as in becoming super rich, too many people to keep track of.
Its easy to tell who is creative, open minded or simply adventurous! It seems telling that Plum failed on an erotic story site. I gave the series a 5 because of writing and Plum. Thanks Q.
somewhere east of Omaha
This story went to two stars because of the Plum activities. I'm also lowering earlier ratings.
By far the weakest chapter yet. That alone would have dropped it to a 4 but the continued presence of Plum pushes it to a 3.
The weaker of the 3 parts. We are not always sure who is talking and who is doing what. That is a tremendous hole for the reader who has to skip to the next section in order to pick up the story again. That is a lack of respect for the reader and for that, I grant a reluctant 4* to this section.
BJ
The first two parts were wonderful but the ending made no sense. I did not understand the separation. It seems to be very unreal.
Very good story. Sadly this last chapter was really a let down after the first two.
The whole Benny's ex randomly gets excited about a threesome, has sex with both guys in the car just so we can have some extra cum floating around for them to smear on an unconscious Bonnie??? That's really random and week. Then for Benny to believe the text from Don regardless of the struggles they'd been having. The one time Tom had ever touched Bonnie she'd slapped the snot out of him before Benny bitch slapped him. Now all the sudden one random text from Tom and he totally believes Bonnie has cheated on him?
This last chapter seemed very rushed in it's pacing and some of the plot lines just seemed pretty far fetched.
I am still working my way down your list, but this is the best yet! What a pleasure to enjoy erotic stories by someone who can actually write!! Thanks.
Jim
I always hate it when a story makes me cry. Second time reading it yet still cried.
I love how you incorporate other great characters into your work. 5 stars again!!!
Enjoyed the story but found myself completely skipping over the "Plum story line". It really didn't belong and seriously detracted from the whole thing.
OK...lets be real here...The whole thing was very funny...and a great love story until it wasn't... the Plum BDSM thing simply didn't fit...and shoehorning it into the story the way you did was tres awkward.... It was really like you had two separate tales that would have been better handled separately rather than the polygot mess that you transformed the story into towards the end of the first installment. This was my second time reading this which highlighted the plot holes that you filled with way too many Deux ex Machina. This kind of intervention from outside the plot line leads us readers to try to interject our own concepts of common sense rather than trusting the author's logic train. The result is that you failed to persuade me as a reader to properly suspend disbelief...which causes me to get increasingly uninvolved with the tale at the end of the first installment.
I gave it 4 stars....but this is disappointing... next time try to KISS....simplify and try not to run on and combine story elements that really do not fit.
Iliked it alot but I think I'll hold voting for now come back in a couple weeks read it again and than vote for now I'll give three but I know I'll give more next time around thank you
2nd read for us & better the 2nd time!
We did get confused at the end over a few different details?
With so much available money, why the very loooog unnecessary separation of two loves??????
A weekend together with Bennie, Bonnie & Plum every so often - even by chartered plane - was so missed and inexcusable.
Then Bonnie coming home and an incompetent guard allows a 2nd vehicle in without verifying ID, and nothing was ever followed up on??????
That was after a known screwup assistant was never removed from the entry list????? Very poor & totally incompetent.
Then Bonnie is laying out nude with the front door unlocked??? Stupid & overly trusting with sloppy security at the gate???? Sooooo NO household staff of any kind either?
Then - the assault with no real friend-medical-legal followup to Bennie?????
Exam would have or did show NO sexual penetration, and the police facts would have confirmed the nonconsensual assault wand further confirmed by the arrested trio.
Soooooo, where was the Bonnie & Bennie support team in getting the truthful info to Bennie and/or released to the media in a limited fashion???
No interrogation of the guard as to why he let in the following car without verifying ID, and no legal action against the guard company? Not the same consistent legal treatment as in their business?
So the whole ending left a lot to be desired, except for the eventual reconciliation!
We suppose that the purpose was to enhance a more suspenseful and mystery ending?
All in all, an excellent well written story with all the attributes forming a can’t put it down story!
Please finish the endings for a few languishing stories! Please!
SW
Q's stories go so well, until somebody screws up royally or gets royally screwed. I hate it.
Love the story. Cried and laughed. DO NOT listen to anyone who says that it is not GREAT!
I love most of your stories but this one brings more tears to my eyes & heart than most! ( FYI I am a primary care physician & former therapist (and also a former Christian multi media evangelist- so perhaps I am a bit “eclectic”- but this story has a gift & genius that I deeply admire & respect!!)
Average at best, became boring and too protracted definitely way below your usual standard.
Thank you for all the hours of reading that you provide. With covid ,copd and cancer I have had much of my time confined to my apartment. Even with a large dvd collection and pool table most of my enjoyment comes from reading. Q, between you, Randi, Hooked, JPB, HDK and so many others I am able to do what I've enjoyed most for 60 years - READ. (personally, I liked the Plum character!) 5 stars for an ambitious and great tale.
somewhere east of Omaha
Love this tale!!! Pride goeth before the fall... She let her job go before her family, and almost paid the price!!!
I rally liked the story except for PLUM. I think it would have been just as good, if not better. without the BDSM.
What an asinine way to fuck up a good story with this idiotic ending.
What a story, thank god for video surveillance systems. Great story and writing.
Truly enjoy the range of your imaginationings.
Love the series. Bonnie turned out to being prone to arrogance after all. Glad her husband was the forgiving type and not the forgetting type!!! A good spanking would be in her future...
Great Story
You are one of the best Storytellers I have run a cross in a very long time! I have read several of your Stories and inten to read them all.
Thank you for sharing your exceptional talent with us.
Needless to say 5*s
SOS
It's not Willy, it's Wiley. He and his wife Moira are characters in another story by Qhml1. They don't live in Texas.
The whole plum thing is just not for me. I guess some people really get off on that bdsm stuff but i just find it demented.
I wanted to like this set but its not my favorite.
You really are the best writer I have ever read. I cant Express in words how I feel it's that good. I found myself laughing at the grandiose nature of it, but it works so well. Absolutely 5 stars
Finally got round to reading this and most say I was surprised with how good it's been. I think it was something about the descriptions that put me off but now I've got to go and read about Wiley again.
Chapter 3.
The only real critiques I would have of your writing is the over crazy success of some of your characters. I was waiting for you to announce in this chapter when they would be riding up to the Space Station. It started getting silly with the wife becoming a best selling writer and after that, the "extra projects" they had success with became simply absurd.
There's an old saying for success......
"Keep it simple, stupid".
This, like a few other of your stories, had an extra chapter or a few more pages than was really needed or extra ridiculous subplots and in the long run, hurt the entire story.
Great story until you ruined it in chapter three. Really pathetic completely different from the theme of the story. You should not have waited a year to write it. Just really pathetic... and so you know, Willy lives in Texas.
I love stories about REAL loving wives (happily married 36 years). I love your stories. Keep ‘me coming, and I’ll read ‘em!
I am regularly amazed by the wide range of talented writers that share on this site. This story was a favorite. I really like the vulnerability of these characters and the evolution of the story was both engaging and thought provoking. I am always looking for more about favorite characters. I would love to see what the next generation discovers and has to survive.