The Parker's

This story includes some of the themes found in a previous story of mine, which I posted here recently. I'm exploring and exorcising this narrative and the associated imagery from my mind. There are so many narratives and so much imagery, and there is so little time - they are constantly there beneath the surface, waiting to find expression. They are difficult to let go of.

Dear reader, here are some gentle suggestions: artist Robert Rauschenberg insisted that his audience bring their own frame of reference to the objects he made. I am hoping you will do likewise with this story. This is another story featuring older women and young men. It is truly provocative in its design and the characters are constructed to amuse, to infuriate, and to excite, etc.

Please be aware that this story will be an uncomfortable one for some of you - I like dredging up and engaging with the so called darker psychological aspects of my stories. In my opinion those elements give a story a real edge. If you don't wish to be uncomfortable, then please just skip this story.

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PART ONE: THE DANCE OF LIFE

The Dance of Life by Edvard Munch, 1899 to 1900, oil on canvas, 124 X 190.5cms.

Before a dreamy violet sea and sky; before a pale sun, its light like a solid form upon the surface of the waters; and before a narrow beach, stand three large female characters. The large female character, dressed in white, on the far left, in the foreground is young and virginal - idealistic rather than experienced, seeking a pure love, and waiting hopefully. The large female character, dressed in black, on the far right, in the foreground is older, she only sees a hardened reality as a result of her extensive experience - she no longer harbours any illusions or idealism and hence appears to be sad. The large female character, dressed in red, in the centre, in the foreground, dances with her man. Her hair is wild and richly coloured like her dress. Her face is bold and flushed and the bottom of her dress appears to entrap her man, dare I say deliciously - she is at her sexual peak, she seems to revel in her time. She is glorious and lustful.

Behind the three main foreground characters are a number of other dancers, male and female partnered too each other, except a woman - in white -standing alone and apart from the action, waiting for a man. The dancers seem to be moving from foreground into middle ground and then into background, only to emerge into the foreground again. They seem to be moving in a vast circle, representing the slow inexorable movement of time, the endless flowing passage of the temporal.

On and on it goes: the dance of life - that endless mystery which takes place between women and men.

******

The large room glowed golden from the soft lighting - long fine strands of lights stood out in relief against the gleaming walls and shone across the polished floors, drowning the dancers in its unearthly blush. The sound of distant laughter and the subdued drone of private conversations, the cool sophisticated jazz and the clear ring of glasses colliding in toasts, formed the soundtrack to the theatre taking place on the dance floor.

David lifted his glass of champagne to his lips and sipped it. He lowered his glass and tried to turn his attention back to the elegant wide-eyed young woman who was trying to seduce him. He managed to bring her back into focus for a moment and realised she was talking about her college prospects and her charitable work. He nodded and said yes softly, as if he were attentive and present, but his mind and his eyes had already wandered on and the young woman had disappeared again. Soon enough David apologised to the young woman and much to her annoyance left her standing there at the edge of the dance floor all alone.

He observed the room once again, after having left the elegant young woman behind him. The long open bar at the left of the room was populated by a variety of well dressed creatures, all lifting and draining their flashing glasses, all clustered together in their tight social knots. The band were in the far right hand corner - a five piece of young intense players, wringing their silky music from shining horns, spreading their sound across the space, out through the open doors behind the small intimate dining tables, across the balcony, and into the warm night beyond.

David had walked out there to get away from the scene out on the dance floor. He stepped past the last of the diners, still sitting at their tables. He nodded at a few acquaintances without stopping and walked out onto the wide long balcony, with his drink in hand and stepped up to the edge of the railing. He peered out at the black sea and the dark shoreline, the soft warm breeze ruffling his hair. A few people had tried to engage David in conversation, but he really wasn't in the mood to talk. He finally managed to exchange a few words with an attractive older woman who wanted to sleep with him - an old family friend and her husband.

Finally, David turned his back on the hordes of well-ordered well-attired people out on the balcony and walked back inside the room, through the fluttering curtains. He looked out at the dance-floor before him, which was where he had encountered the elegant young woman. David had tried to listen to her, but his attention was drawn irresistibly to the two figures out on the dance-floor, who were drawing so much attention to themselves from so many people. He had left the young woman there at the edge of the floor and circled the dancers.

Those two moving figures: the woman, his mother Susan was dancing with David's closest friend Michael - they were in each other's arms and, as usual with Susan, it was causing a stir among the guests there - she was 44 and he just 24. David could see that his friend was smiling, flattered by the attention and compliment Susan was paying him by dancing with him in the way she was. But then she had been flirting with her son's friend all night, singling Michael out right from the start of the party, inviting him to sit next to her at dinner, engaging him in conversation and ignoring everybody else and then finally luring him out onto the dance floor.

"She's a stirrer, isn't she," someone said from behind David's right shoulder.

David turned his head and watched as his aunty Sarah moved into place on David's right. She was an older woman, much older than Susan and much more bitter and disappointed as well. She was dressed in black - a silent witness, looking at the dancers.

"Yes she is," David said and then emptied his glass.

"You shouldn't let Susan bait you like this David; you know what she's like."

"Yes, yes I know, but she continues to do it anyway" David said, solemnly.

"It is your party, remember that David," his aunty Sarah reminded him as David nodded and then walked off, instantly regretting that he had brushed his aunty off so rudely.

David sat down at a table and raised his empty glass at a passing waiter and got a refill.

Susan looked stunning out on the dance floor in her tight glittering red dress and her glittering red heels. Her chestnut coloured hair was down, falling about her shoulders, shining brilliantly and her beautiful dark eyes sparkled as she gazed up at Michael and regarded him, her face lit up as she smiled invitingly at the young man, seemingly oblivious to everyone and everything else around her. David ran his eyes over his mother's beautiful little body as she turned slowly on the floor, and then he grew envious and then angry at his friend. David did not like the way Michael was holding his mother, he did not like the way he was pressed up against Susan, nor did he like the way Michael was looking down at her.

His mother was in one of her moods, David believed. He had recently been caught sleeping with a woman and word had gotten back to Susan and now she was giving him the cold shoulder treatment, barely speaking to him. She had chosen Michael deliberately and then completely ignored David all through dinner and then afterwards

David's older half sister Kate joined him, having broken away from her husband Sam and crossing the room to where David was sitting by himself.

"You really shouldn't let her do this to you David," Kate said, placing her hand on his shoulder and then reaching up to stroke his face. He closed his eyes for a moment and she smiled.

"Yes I know Kate; I'm a sucker."

"No, not a sucker David, just easily caught up in Susan's games and dramas. But you're both as bad as the other, I suppose. You have this weird strange thing going on between you and neither of you will ever let it go."

David grinned at his sister; she laid her head on his shoulder.

"You know she's going to end up sleeping with him, don't you," Kate said, looking up at her brother. "You really need to let this go; you need to let her go David. You're 23 now."

David nodded.

"You need to find a girlfriend and maybe get married David - then she won't have as much influence over you."

"Yes, but she wouldn't be happy Kate."

"Well, you have to do something."

"Yes I know Kate, I'm trying."

"Well how about you start trying right now and come and talk with Sam and I. He's very boring tonight and I need you to lighten him up and add a few jokes."

"I can't help you Kate, your husband's completely and utterly boring all the time."

"Asshole," Kate exclaimed, slapping David playfully on the shoulder. "Oh and by the way, I'm not sure if you realise, but I arranged for someone special for you tonight, someone you haven't seen in a while."

"Right," David asked wearily, his sister was trying to set him up again. "Who is it Kate?"

"It's Karen."

"Karen," he asked excited, turning in his seat and seeing her sitting with Sam and the children. "Wow, why didn't I see her earlier?"

"That's because she only got here an hour ago and you've been staring at Susan all night - you're so hopeless."

"Does that mean dad's here as well," David asked, suddenly feeling unhappy again. "You know I don't get on with him at all."

"Oh my god David, do you ever speak to dad on the phone, hmmm? Ever exchange emails?"

"I can't talk to him; I'll never be able to forgive him for what he did to mom."

"Well I think you need to know: dad did the same thing to Karen and she found out and now they're getting a divorce."

"What another affair? He's hurt Karen as well?"

"Yep, that's what I heard," Kate said, grinning, her eyes sparkling mischievously. "She's perfect for you David - she's old, maternal and you even called her mommy for a while. I know you have this weird thing for her as well as dear old mom. I know you want her David, just like you want Susan."

"Kate, don't tease," David said, laughing for the first time that night.

"I know you David - you want her and guess what she knows it as well."

"What? Have you said something to her?"

"Of course you idiot," Kate said smiling, slapping him lightly across the back of his head. "Why do you think she came here tonight and risked running into Susan? So come on - I'm determined to get you laid tonight dear brother."

Out on the dance floor Susan watched as her son David followed his sister from one side of the room to the other and sat down at the table where Sam and the children were. There was also an older woman there at the table, who Susan knew well, but hadn't seen in a long time and was instantly wary of. She regarded Karen with narrow eyes, feeling suddenly angry and upset that Karen was here and David was talking to her. Susan had heard rumours that her ex-husband and Karen had finally broken up, but she had not bothered learning more or informing David.

"What an act of justice," Susan had whispered when she first heard the news a month ago. It was an act of divine vengeance. It still caused her to burst into tears though, before she adopted a veneer of toughness and indifference again.

Susan thought: that bitch Karen had taken Susan's man, her husband, and then in an act of divine vengeance she had lost her man to some other floozy, just like Susan had. Now that bitch Karen was here at the party, no doubt invited by Kate and she was talking to David and getting close to him. It was one of the most outrageous things Kate could have done to anger Susan and undermine David's love and attachment to his mother. Susan felt like crying and charging over there and demanding that Karen leave, but then she grew deadly and calm - she decided to punish David in a way designed to hurt him the most. Her son should have taken Susan's side in this - Karen stole David's father, wrecked all their plans and broke up their happy home and David was talking to that bitch and sitting next to her.

Susan held Michael close to her, silently encouraging him to run his hands up and down her body like he had always wanted to, allowing him to rub his erection against her, while she assessed her son and fumed. David now looked a lot happier and that displeased Susan. But David did direct glances in Susan's direction, which did satisfy his mother - David was surely still infatuated with her and he looked plainly jealous of Michael's good fortune. Susan smiled up at Michael, pleased, and stroked his face. She rubbed more salt into David's wound by laying her head against Michael's chest, closing her eyes and pulling the young man even closer.

Michael couldn't quite believe his good fortune. He knew he was David's closest dearest friend and he had surely lost David's friendship and he felt bad about that. But he finally had a chance with Susan and she was worth sacrificing a friendship for. Michael had known David and Susan for years and he and David had been good school friends. Susan was his first big crush and she had realised that - she had been every guy's first big crush, including David's, so it wasn't a big deal for her. For Michael, however, it was a big deal. He quite normally met girls and had relationships with them, but Susan was one of those older women he couldn't quite get out of his mind - his first obsession. She had cooed over him and mothered him, like she did all of David's male friends, smiling and laughing at the effect she had on Michael, on David, on all of them.

Susan was petite; a short garrulous beauty with a sexy little body; her facial features, hands and feet delicately wrought. Michael and his adult male friends just got lost in her large dark eyes, gazed at her glossy lips, distracted while she kept up a steady stream of words in her soft caressing voice, completely comfortable with them looking at her body if they wanted to. Everybody knew Susan loved to get attention from males and she would get irritable and rude if she didn't get it.

Susan pounced on David's friends when they turned 18, much to David's jealous displeasure. He had managed to meet a girl he liked and had been seeing her for three months, but then Susan's behaviour attracted his attention and David's relationship suffered and eventually failed. Susan had just filed for divorce again, and with her libido liberated and running wild, she began singling out her son's friends and grooming them one by one. She would just happen to run into a surprised male at the mall, or call one apparently by mistake, or just show up on their doorstep unannounced, apologising profusely, and seeking help with her car which was running fine or wanting sugar when her cupboard was full of it. She flattered fathers and offended overly protective mothers, delivering her sparkling monologue in an endless flow of well chosen sweetly spoken words, her eyes constantly resting on one of David's friends as she talked and talked.

"God, did you see the way she behaved, she was almost licking her lips," Paul's mother had stated, amazed that Susan would just show up at the front door and make a move on her son. "Paul, you should stay away from her and maybe you should break off your friendship with David. You're going to college in a few weeks and you don't want any distractions."

"Yes, look out for her," Paul's father had said, winking and smiling at his son.

"This is serious Dan. Stay away from her Paul - I'm sure she's a man-eater, that's what everybody says."

"Okay mom, I will, I promise."

But then just a day later David arrived home, noticed a familiar looking car in the drive, and shook his head unhappily. He let himself in the house, walked down the hall and mounted the wide staircase and ascended to the second floor. He found pieces of clothing dropped on the stairs and down the second floor corridor, ending outside his mother's bedroom door. David could see Susan's top on the stairs along with her high heels. Then he found his mother's pants and then her underwear strewn along the hallway - the guy's jeans, shirt, shoes and underwear lay all over the place.

Susan's sweet moans caressed David's ears as he climbed the stairs. He picked up on the deeper lower sounds coming from the young male as he reached the top of the staircase. The guy sounded pleased, but then they all did when they were with Susan behind closed doors.

"Oh Paul. Oh Paul. Oh Paul. You're such a man Paul, such a man!"

Paul had promised his mother that he wouldn't be seduced by Susan, but he had accepted yet another phone call from her half an hour after she had been driven away from the front door by Paul's mother. Susan had rattled on, apologising to him over the phone, making amends and hoping he was okay, all in her most seductive tone of voice and Paul caved in.

"I need to see you so much he had said desperately, finally breaking in to talk.

"Yes I know Paul. Come over tomorrow just before David gets home, okay Paul honey."

"But what time Susan?"

"Oh yes, about 4pm honey."

"Okay God Susan, I'm so..."

"I know, I am too - I'll see you tomorrow Paul. And Paul also - don't tell your mother about this. And also you can stay for dinner if you want. Oh and also Paul - make sure you get to sleep early tonight, rest up honey, you're going to need all your strength and energy for tomorrow, I promise you that."

Susan ended up bedding three of her son's friends. At one point she kept them all in a schedule in her phone and was seeing at least one of them most days: she saw Paul on Monday and Thursday mornings, Mark on Tuesday and Anthony on Friday night. On the weekend the guys would call her and Susan would choose. It was just sex, sex, sex for a long time and Susan enjoyed herself - she loved being pampered by all her young guys and it felt good to be so desired by so many men at once.

Inevitably the dramas came though, but Susan enjoyed them like she enjoyed all dramas. Mark and Paul were falling deeply in love with her and Anthony wanted an exclusive relationship with her as well. Then Mark ended up changing his mind, with help from his parents and finding a girlfriend his own age. Susan fought for her guy, but the new girlfriend beat her off. Susan had to let Paul go off to college finally, realising she may have made a mistake taking him to bed in the first place. Anthony remained on the scene - the final man standing, ready to be Susan's only guy, but she grew bored with him and ended it.

All the guys knew what was going on, including Michael and David. Susan had managed to drive a wedge between her son and his friends, which was never really repaired. The three males had a sort of arrangement in place to share Susan between them, but it ended up falling apart - the jealous competitive males fought each other while Susan watched, feeling exhilarated and wanted. Then word got out about the arrangement and the gossip spread like wild-fire among the social circles they frequented - a whole lot of people declined Susan's friendship and company, even more gossiped and young males lined up, ready for Susan's attentions - she just ignored them all.