"Jack?"

"Hi, Mom, how you doing?"

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing, Mom, I just wanted to say hello."

"So hello. You sure nothing's wrong?"

"Yeah, I just wanted to say hello."

"I don't believe you, you don't sound good. Are you sick?"

Jack was in a panic. "I'm great, Mom, really."

"So why are you calling me?"

"What do you want for dinner? I'm gonna go shopping now."

"Jackie, what's wrong?"

"Nothing." His voice was cracking. "Can't I call you up to say hello?"

"Jackie, something's wrong, I'm coming home."

"No! I'm fine. I'm fine. Don't come home."

"You sure?"

"Yeah, Mom, really. I love you."

There was silence on both ends.

"I'm going shopping now. Mom. I'll be gone about an hour."

"Get some fish."

"Sure, Mom, see you at five." He hung up. Goddamn motherfucking bastard. She was coming home. He knew it. Maybe not. He shouldn't go up to Marie's apartment. She'd know. After five minutes of sitting on the couch he jumped up again, fumbled with all the locks, flung open the door and ran up the stairs to Marie's apartment. Maybe just a quick one.

***

Jack rang the front doorbell a second time.

"Who is it!" Marie saw Jack through the peephole.

"Jack Cutler," he whispered into the peephole.

Marie unlocked the door but kept the chain on, opening it a few inches. "What do you want!"

"You told me to come up here!" Jack was starting to get hysterical.

Marie closed the door, took off the chain and let him in. He stared at her figure in the nightgown.

"I asked you up here to give you back your two quarters."

Jack didn't hear her. He could see her nipples standing out against the acetate. Her legs were veined and potholed but real woman's legs. Marie got scared. He wasn't listening.

"I have my period, so just take your money and leave," she said.

He grasped her arm and immediately let go.

She gasped, stepping back. Suddenly she imagined Tommy looking in on this scene and laughing his ass off. Pathetic. She was a grown woman of forty-five years. Mother of two children. A nonvirgin of twenty years.

"I'm sorry." Jack cringed.

"In the bedroom." She nodded in that direction, leading the way.

Jack started to undress tentatively.

Marie sat on the edge of the bed, some of her momentary bravado fading. He had a decent body. Paunchy a little, not very muscular, certainly not like Tommy's, but he was o.k. He hesitated at his underwear, embarrassed to go on. She tried a flirtatious smile to encourage him. She pulled her nightgown over her head. Instantly he got a hard-on, its tip peeping up through the elastic of his briefs. Marie started getting excited. She walked over to him, her breasts gently swaying back and forth, and tugged down his underwear. He had a bigger dick than Tommy. She touched it. Jack caught her, throwing her back on the bed. She started kicking and screaming, he was panting like he was brain-damaged. With his dick in his hand he fumbled for a hole. Any hole. Unwittingly he started giving it to Marie up the ass. Marie reached between his legs for his balls, squeezing for all she was worth. He yelled and jumped up, red-faced, gasping for breath.