Double Take
Chapter 18
“Still, even when false, legends can be most informative.”
—Timothy Zahn, Thrawn
26 NOVEMBER 2018
I’m in love. It’s hopeless, I know, but I have to at least admit to myself that not only does love exist but that I have found it. The worst of it, though, is that I can’t do anything about it. Oh, she greets the news enthusiastically and shares the emotion but to do more would invite a disaster that neither of us could withstand. It would be so much worse to be parted from her by the powers that be than to be frustrated by our inability to consummate our love. Maybe one day we will return to a world where we are safe to show our affection. Until then, we will abide as we are.
Emily surprised the shit out of me Monday morning when she pounded on my door half an hour early and yelled for me to get a move on so we could leave. I checked my clock and it was only six-thirty. I pulled on my clothes and grabbed my crutches.
“What’s up? Why are we going so early?”
“You said you needed to have a spotter on the treadmill. I can do it and maybe get a few minutes in myself. I need to scope things out and see what I can do to get in better shape before I face basic training in six months. Might as well start now,” she laughed. She looked like she’d just rolled out of bed and I raised an eyebrow. “I can shower and get ready once I get to school,” she growled. I laughed.
“I think you’re beautiful no matter what,” I laughed.
Apparently, I wasn’t the only one who thought that. I’d only started to know the guys who used the gym when I did in the afternoon. Now that I was working out in the morning, I had to learn a whole new set of before-school jockasses. Having Em standing beside my treadmill in her little shorts and tank top while I walked at an excruciatingly slow pace attracted the attention of a couple of guys. They already knew her.
“Hey, Em. Nice to see you here in the morning,” one said.
“Nice to see you any time,” the other joined in.
“Hey, Bill. Tony,” she replied.
“What’s up with you standing by the crip here?” Bill asked.
“This is my brother, so watch your mouth if you want to be able to chew your food with it. Got it?” Em barked back at him. I wanted to get in his face myself but it was taking all my concentration to keep my arms locked on the hand rail and keep my feet moving at the same pace as the belt.
“No problem here!” Bill said holding up his hands.
“What the socially incompetent dork was supposed to say was that we understood this dude needed help in the mornings. We were surprised you were with him is all,” Tony said. “Really, no offense, dude. Jock talked to us Wednesday afternoon to see if we could work out a rotation to help you out. We’re not trying to start anything.”
“Thanks,” I said. “I know this looks like nothing to you but it really requires all my concentration. Em’s spotting for me.”
“Damn! You must have tangled with a tank,” Bill said. He got down lower and looked at my pace then stood beside me again. “Can I make an adjustment on your machine? You shouldn’t be doing this at an incline.” I nodded and he flattened the treadmill. I could feel the difference in the pace.
“I didn’t notice it was set for an incline. Jock only covered that I wasn’t to exceed two miles per hour.”
“Some of the guys work out at a pretty steep incline. This button over here will zero everything out. Hit it before you set up your own workout.”
“Thank you, Bill. I thought the machine was all set up,” Em said. “I guess we didn’t know what to look for.”
“I think you should slow up, too,” Tony said. Bill nodded and ticked my pace down from two miles per hour to one. “This isn’t for long. In a few days you’ll be used to it and ready to speed up. What you need to do now is focus on your stride and foot placement. At the slower speed you can concentrate on not limping. You want to train your leg to hit the stride in a natural manner or you’ll end up limping for the rest of your life.”
“Thanks, Tony. Uh… How do you know this stuff?”
“We are both into physiology and kinesiology,” Tony answered. “Bill’s convinced he’s going to be a great coach one day. I’m more interested in sports therapy. That’s why Jock talked to us.”
“Um… will you guys be around to help on a regular basis?” Em asked.
“We want to work out a rotation so no one has to stand by every day. No offense, uh… what’s your name?”
“Jacob.”
“Right. No offense, Jacob, but standing alert beside you for fifteen minutes while you build up your strength isn’t something anyone will want to use his workout time for every day. But we figured that if we could get two or three, we could rotate in and out and no one’s routine will be seriously affected.”
“Well, there are three of us now,” Em said brightly. “If we rotate, I can get some workouts in as well. I want to get in shape before basic training in July.”
“Smart move,” Tony said. “I hear basic is the same as the old standard military basic. Only they don’t wash anyone out. If you are overweight or not strong enough to make it, you get ‘special attention’ and stay in basic until you can make it.”
“My older brother was in the first class. He said there were a couple guys who went in with him who were really fat and out of shape. They went through basic three times and came out strong and fit, if pissed. If you have to repeat basic, they add the time to your service,” Bill said.
“I do not want that,” Em said. “While we get J in shape, I’ll get in shape, too.”
I met Beca for lunch and asked how her Thanksgiving weekend went. She wanted to get right into our project.
“I figured out how we could get baseline video and even the recorded sessions when we’re ready to do our project,” she said excitedly.
“How? I plan to be in better shape than I am now, but I don’t think I’ll be able to stand on a ladder with a video camera for an hour a day,” I laughed.
“Look.” She pointed at the corners of the room. It took me a minute to notice what she was pointing at. Little black domes hanging from the ceiling. There was one in each corner of the cafeteria. “Security cameras. There are two in every hall of the school that scan all day long. The four in the cafeteria run during the two hours of lunch breaks. If we can get the DVD of each day’s recording, we’d have our visual evidence taken care of.”
“That’s great. Do you think they’d let us have them?”
“All we can do is ask. Mr. Richards is probably the person to start with. Can you meet after school tomorrow?” she asked. Tuesday. I thought about Francie.
“Um… I could but Wednesday would be easier. Think that would work?”
“Sure. I just got excited.”
“I understand. You’re cute when you get all excited like that.” She rolled her eyes.
Tuesday afternoon, I was worked up just thinking about Francie. I took her by surprise. I’m sure she had an agenda based on what she’d read in the Kama Sutra but I wasn’t waiting. She’d worn a skirt and I just pushed her back on the bed and pulled her panties down. Then I dove in face first. Francie was still whining her orgasm when I pushed my pants down and drove my hard cock into her. She ramped back up quickly and was screaming her third before I popped my cork.
Not to be outdone, Francie dragged me onto the bed and finished getting my pants off my ankles. Then she sucked me in like a vacuum cleaner until I was fully hard again and mounted up. She chose a reverse cowgirl position and there wasn’t much I could do to help but thrust my hips and give her little slaps on her butt which seemed to make her more excited. Then I got an idea and licked my middle finger until it was slick. I aimed as she rose and met her little butthole with my finger as she came back down. I went in to the first knuckle and Francie went ballistic.
I started spurting first but Francie was already past the tipping point and screamed her lungs out as she flopped back on my chest. I pushed her sweater and bra up so I could get to her breasts and caress her. We lay there catching our breath for a minute and then I felt the strangest sensation ever.
“Oh, my god!” Francie yelled. “Oh, my God.” I was softening and slipping out when I felt a tongue start at my balls and lick up across the head and into Francie’s opening. Alternating between sucking my cock in and getting me stiff again and driving Francie crazy with tongue flicks to her clit, my sister pushed both of us to the edge and over again.
“Emily! What got into you?” Francie cried. “Oh my God! You licked my pussy! You licked Jacob!”
“I couldn’t help it,” she answered. “I practically wore out my vibrator by the third time you screamed an orgasm and that last time was too much for me to take. I had to see. And when I saw, I had to taste.”
“It was wonderful!” Francie said. “Em, really. Any time. Join us. Or just join me.”
Oh, wow!
I was working on walking between classes with my crutches just dragging on the floor but not supporting any of my weight. Three days of treadmill had me enthused about walking. I’d dropped my crutches when I walked into my room yesterday and fucked Francie to oblivion. With a little help from my sister.
“Hey,” a soft voice said beside me. “I hear you’re an incredible lover.”
I jerked around so fast I lost my balance and started to fall. Her hand darted out and caught my arm. She pulled me back to my center of balance as I got my crutches under me. Just what I needed. Fall and break them all again. I was so upset I almost forgot what she’d said. We got into Geometry class and she settled into a seat beside me.
She was pretty cute. Really cute. Maybe a little more mature than most of the girls I’d met at school. Geometry was considered a sophomore class, so most of the kids in it were older than me. There were a few juniors, as well. She had dark reddish curly hair that grew about shoulder length and a little upturned nose with a few freckles.
“So, are you?” she asked.
“Am I what?”
“An incredible lover?”
“Um… uh… who told you that?”
“Oh, a little birdie with a little round belly.”
“Francie told you…?”
“I knew it! It is you.”
“What do you mean? What’s this about?”
I didn’t get an answer. The bell rang and Mrs. Stierwalt gathered up our papers and started class. I kept glancing over at the girl. Rachel, I remembered. She looked a little familiar and I wondered if she’d been sitting next to me since I started the class or if she’d chosen that seat just today. I mostly tried to ignore girls and not stare at them like the teen geek I was. I might feel guilty about looking at them as an eighty-year-old but as a fifteen-year-old, my body’s responses were too often embarrassing. Having to grip a crutch at each side when I was walking made it impossible to hide any involuntary protuberance at my midsection.
Just glancing over at her was enough to start that process in action. She was wearing a straight T-shirt dress that fell to just about mid-thigh, exposing nicely shaped bare legs that ended in a pair of white high-top gym shoes. She had a faded jeans jacket that was way too big for her. It fell off her shoulders and down her back so the whole thing was behind her except the part that still covered her forearms. I thought it was a little cold out for that kind of outfit and her nipples seemed to agree with me. She slipped on a pair of large glasses and paid attention to Mrs. Stierwalt.
I tried to. Every time I felt focused, she’d shift a little bit, scratch her leg, or lean back in her chair, stretching the soft dress over her mouth-watering boobs. I’d lose track of where we were in class and have to get back to my book to catch up. There was something about her. Just something.
My mind drifted into memories. Adolescent erections weren’t invented by the post-millennials. I’d had plenty of them back in the ’50s. I could remember sitting in my freshman Algebra class and feeling my chub start in my slacks. I’d glance at the clock on the wall and it was always at exactly one-thirty-five. Thinking about that classroom brought back memories. A light scent floating on the air. A flash of a girl’s leg and bobby socks. Saddle shoes. Red hair. Rachel.
“Mr. Hopkins would you care to join us or are you so far ahead of the class that you don’t need this lesson?” I was startled back to reality by Mrs. Stierwalt’s imperious demand.
“I’m sorry, Mrs. Stierwalt. I was… uh… going over the triangle inequality theorem in my head and lost track of the class.”
“Oh? And exactly what is the triangle inequality theorem?”
“That… uh… any side of a triangle must be shorter than the sum of the other two sides.”
“Very good. Please move on with us now to constructing the circumcenter of a triangle. Care to try that one?”
“The circumcenter of a triangle is the point at which the perpendicular bisectors of the triangle meet,” I responded.
“There is, of course, a special instance in the case of a right triangle…” Mrs. Stierwalt continued the lecture as she turned to the white board to show the proof, completely ignoring the fact that she’d just embarrassed me in front of the class. Rachel, next to me, glanced over and grinned.
She didn’t look quite the same as the Rachel I’d known in the ’50s. I guess most girls in the V3 timeline looked fresher and more innocent than the girls of the V1 timeline. It was more because of our age relativity, though, than a difference in their bodies. In the fifties, I was the same age and looked at girls with undisguised lust. They were my peers and contemporaries and every one of them was near the cusp of choosing a mate. I wondered who Rachel had chosen back then. As much as I lusted after her, I didn’t remember ever having a conversation with her. She was a popular girl who was out of my league.
On the other hand, the Rachel sitting next to me had made a suggestive remark… flirting. I think I was more comfortable with her because I remembered her as a contemporary from V1. If she wanted to know if I was an incredible lover, there was only one way she was going to find out.
“I didn’t mean to almost knock you down in the hall, or to distract you in class. Were you thinking of last night with Francie or anticipating the next time?” she teased as we walked out of class together. I headed to the library and she walked beside me.
“What makes you think Francie has a great lover, let alone that it might be me?”
“Oh. There are currently three known girls who are pregnant. Two have committed paternity partners. Then there’s Francie. Everyone knows the story of Collin and the summer fling. You know he transferred schools rather than face her here? Still, of the three, the two in committed relationships, as they say, never look that happy about it. Francie leaves school with you and your sister and comes to school the next day looking utterly blissful.”
“Yeah, she and my sister are really good friends, you know?” Sorry, Em. Sort of threw you under the bus there.
“I call bullshit.” Oh well, it was worth a try. “What makes you such a good lover?” I stopped in the hall and turned to her.
“Rachel, there is only one way you are ever going to get the answer to that question. You should consider it carefully. Do you want to be the girl who walks into school with that blissful expression on your face?”
“What makes you think I’d do that?”
“I don’t. You brought the question up. I think you have developed a theorem. And, as Mrs. Stierwalt says, a theorem must be provable.” I leaned in close to Rachel and whispered, “Repeatedly.”
“You are evil,” she giggled. She turned and flounced away from the library, lifting her jeans jacket up above her waist so I had a clear view of her bouncing tush as she walked away.
“Yes, I can see how access to those cameras would help your project,” Mr. Richards said when Rebeca and I met with him after school. “I’m not sure how long the recordings are kept or what kind of access might be available. I don’t think we even know at this point if it is recorded or monitored live. Hmm. We’ve gotten so used to those little bubbles in the hall and cafeteria that we never think of the eye in the sky keeping tabs on us.”
“Big Brother is watching,” I mumbled.
“An Orwell fan?” I nodded. “Try Huxley. I find that many of the things in Huxley’s version are closer to what we are experiencing in our world today. History is being rewritten and erased as we speak. Tomorrow, we might find our textbooks all replaced with a new ‘official’ version.” We looked at him and waited. He snapped out of his reverie. “I’ll see what I can do to find out about the security tapes. You put together a proposal of exactly what you want. We’ll meet again next week to decide how to present the idea and to whom.”
“Thank you, Mr. Richards,” we said. Beca and I left the classroom to find Em and Francie waiting.
“Want a ride home again, Rebeca?”
“Would you mind terribly, Emily?” she said.
“Of course not.”
“Oh. Hey, Jacob. If you wanted, I could come over and we could work on that proposal right now,” Beca said. “I mean, I’m not like just inviting myself over to your house or anything, I just thought…”
“I’ve got an idea, Doodlebug. Why don’t you come over to my house and let’s get started on our proposal now? That way you won’t have to invite yourself over because your friend is too dense to think of it.”
“Hey! That sounds like a great idea. I don’t need to be home until five and I can call my mom for a ride.”
We both started laughing. Em and Francie shook their heads. I thought I caught a slightly pained expression on Francie’s face and wondered if she’d had a different idea about what we’d do after school.
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