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Dark Side Forum

Story: FOR BETTER OR WORSE
Author: slimv	July 5, 2001 at 14:29:13

	Brenda pushed away her empty plate and pulled the ashtray closer. She bent slightly to her side allowing her husband John to light her Marlboro. She thanked him and blew her smoke toward the ceiling as Keith, her son, lit another cigarette for his wife. Nancy, who was Keith’s wife, batted her eyes dramatically as she accepted her young husband’s light. Brenda was amused by her daughter in-law’s behavior. Just the idea of thinking of Nancy as her daughter in-law was amusing in itself. Brenda and Nancy were life long friends. They had shared every thing while they were growing up; clothes, dates, cigarettes, and now they were sharing her son. Brenda took a deep puff and allowed the thick Marlboro smoke to saturate her lungs. Smoke slowly seeped from her smiling lips. Of course it wasn’t always this comfortable between her and Nancy. She hit the roof when she found out. What mother wouldn’t? She and John left a movie early. It was awful and she couldn’t remember the movie’s name to save her life. All she could remember was that she was having a bad day. She was mad at John for something she couldn’t remember now, and she wanted a cigarette more than she wanted to watch the movie. Keith and Nancy didn’t hear the car pull up. When John opened the front door, the first thing Brenda saw was her best friend humping her son on their leather couch. She screamed. Brenda screamed too and jumped to her feet, tripping and hitting her head on the coffee table. Blood poured from the wound. The thud of skull against wood was sickening. Keith knelt by her side and held his hand to the wound as Brenda hovered over them and John called 911. That was two years ago. Keith was 16 when it happened. Nancy was 44, the same age as Brenda. The police arrived with the fire engine and ambulance. Brenda told the cops what happened, telling them that she wanted to file charges for statutory rape. The cops laughed as they told her that since her son was 16, the state considered the relationship consensual. They went as far as to say Keith could marry Nancy as long as he had parental approval. Keith heard every word the cops said, especially the part about marriage and hounded his parents for their consent for the next three months until she and John gave in. Of course they both tried talking Keith out of it. John was constantly reminding his son of the math. Keith assured them both that he knew the difference between 44 and 16. Brenda focused on Nancy’s smoking. Keith called her a hypocrite. Brenda told him there was a difference between her two-pack a day habit and Nancy’s four-pack a day addiction. When Brenda complained that Nancy got winded climbing stairs, Keith reminded her that Nancy owned a ranch style house that didn’t have stairs. He had an answer for every thing, but the answer that won her over was the knowledge that her son really loved this woman. OK, so her 18-year-old son was married to a 46-year-old chimney. It could be worse, couldn’t it? At least she knew what kind of person Nancy was. Nancy was her best friend and she loved Keith almost as much as Brenda. While the mother’s of Keith’s friends laid awake worrying about their sons on Friday and Saturday nights, Brenda slept soundly. Keith wasn’t courting disaster. He wasn’t drinking and driving. Sure Brenda drank a little, but she never allowed Keith to drink, because he wasn’t 21. She glanced at the Pepsi sitting in front of her son. And smoking? She didn’t have to worry about that either. Her son might die from second hand smoke but she didn’t have to worry about him starting. Nancy hated the fact that she was such a slave to her cigarettes and like Brenda; she cursed the day she started. She’d never stand for Keith smoking. Besides, they had been married for two years. If he hadn’t started by now, he’d never start. This belief was based on statistics as much as experience and emotion. Most smokers start before their 18th birthday. She was 14 when she started and Nancy was 12. Had they really been smoking that long? Brenda dumped her ash as she studied her son. She couldn’t imagine that sweet young face with a cigarette jutting from it. She smiled as she studied Nancy’s cheeks drawn together as she lip locked a Benson & Hedges. She couldn’t imagine her best friend without a cigarette. By all accounts, Nancy was a beautiful older woman, but she didn’t look young for her age. Forty-four years of heavy smoking had taken its toll on her skin and teeth. Her shoulder length jet-black hair had quickly succumbed to gray. Brenda had dropped a lot of hints to her friend about dyeing her hair but Nancy insisted that Keith liked it that way. Brenda shook her head at the thought. As Keith lit another cigarette for his aging wife, Brenda studied the woman’s heaving breasts. They were large, much larger than hers and looked out of place on Nancy’s frail body. She was a short woman standing less than five feet. On the other hand, baby-faced Keith was six foot 2” at last count. When the two of them held hands in a crowd they stood out like a sore thumb. Brenda put her cigarette out and lit another with out her husband’s help. She was worried about her son. She knew he was an adult, but he had never stayed alone by him self. This time tomorrow night, Nancy would be somewhere over the Pacific Ocean. Nancy was an executive at APS, American Package Systems- the official package company of the 2000 Olympics in Sidney. She made good money, but was worth it? She was leaving for Australia tomorrow and wouldn’t be home for 40 days. She had begged Keith to move in with them while Nancy was away but he wouldn’t hear of it.
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