Chapter Ten
When Matt, Etty and John left the ranch, Matt had no idea where he was going. The car was silent with everyone lost in his or her own thoughts. Even Etty, who was usually talkative, was quiet. Matt was glad for the silence. He was used to having solitude and with all he had on his mind he welcomed the time to think. He wondered how Toby was going to take the change. He had had the run of the ranch for most of his life and had never been on a chain. Matt figured that maybe Toby would adapt better than he would.
From the ranch, he drove south toward Roswell. He turned onto SR 70 just north of Roswell and drove northeast toward Farwell. When they got to I-27, he took it north to I-40 then headed east. They drove through the Texas panhandle and into Oklahoma. When they got to Oklahoma City, John found his voice and marveled at the fact that people had oil wells in their front yards right in the city. In Oklahoma City, they turned toward Missouri on I-40. By the time they had reached Missouri they were all taken with how green everything was. Matt, except for his stint in the service, had spent his whole life in the desert and John was just a child when he moved to Cholla.
Matt almost asked Etty where she grew up but thought better of it. He had decided that if she wanted him to know about her past she would bring it up herself.
They skirted the Ozarks and John found them to be amazing. He had certainly seen mountains in New Mexico but never anything that green. He had also seen rivers and streams in New Mexico but nothing like the sparkling clear water that rushed and leapt along the side of the road now.
Matt stopped the car at a roadside park and they all got out and stood looking at a mountain stream. Matt and Etty shared a beer from the cooler in the trunk. Although Matt and John seemed awe struck by the stream, Etty had seen many like it and many that were much more magnificent. She said nothing, but it brought a sadness to her that she wasn’t able to share her memories with the one she loved. She knew, however, that if she mentioned anything of her past it would only fuel Matt’s curiosity.
Matt and John threw a few rocks just to see them splash. Etty thought it must be a man thing, it seemed every time she had ever been near water with a man he’d thrown something in it. After a while, they rounded up Toby and got back on the road.
Just outside of Rolla, they stopped for the night at a nondescript highway motel. Matt rented two rooms. He gave John his key and said he needed to use the rest room and Etty would most likely want to freshen up. He said he would call him on his room phone when they were ready to go to supper.
Matt carried the bags into the room and before he could set them down Etty was all over him. He said, “It looks like John is going to go hungry for awhile.”
Afterward, Etty said, “I don’t know what’s come over me Matt, I’ve never been so horny in my life. Even when I was a teenager I never felt like this.”
“Well whatever it is I hope it never stops. I think I better call John, he’s probably starving.”
They drove up the main drag into Rolla. Although it had no doubt been lined by farmland before the expressway bypassed Rolla, Commerce designed to attract travelers now dotted both sides of this wide road. There was no shortage of restaurants and John voiced a preference for Kentucky fried chicken. On the way back to the motel, Matt stopped at a Wal-Mart and bought a road atlas.
When they got back to the rooms Etty went next door to talk to her son. The first thing John said was are you and Matt going to get married?”
“John you’ve got to start calling him Jim. He told you how important that is.”
“Yeah, what ever.”
“John I don’t like your attitude. You act like we concocted this whole thing just to make your life miserable.”
“Mom what do you expect from me? You and Matt,,, Jim, have each other and you for one act as if you just won the lottery. I’ve lost all my friends, I’ve had to leave my home, I have no idea where we’re going or what we’ll do once we get there. I’m going to have to start over in a new school where I won’t know a soul. With Matt, Jim’s ungodly paranoia over this ball I’ll probably be starting a new school every three weeks. I’m sorry Mom, I mean Etty but you and Jim don’t understand what it’s like for me.”
“I’m sure we don’t, but it’s going to be alright. I promise. However, young man, you could exhibit a little understanding yourself. Once we are settled somewhere it’ll get better. Matt, I’m sorry; Jim said he’s going to try to get you an identity that makes you old enough to drive. I know you’ve been driving since you were twelve, but the rest of the world’s not like Cholla.”
“Well that would be good. Do you think I might be able to get a car?
“I don’t know. That’s something we need to talk over with Jim once we settle down. What kind would you like?”
“A 1965 Mustang convertible.”
Etty looked at him incredulously and said, “You don’t want much do you?”
“You didn’t answer my question.”
“He hasn’t asked me.”
“If he asked, would you?”
“In a heartbeat.”
They talked for over an hour, Etty trying to reassure her son that everything would be all right. In reality, she was likely trying to convince herself as well. Her and her son had always been very close but she could feel him pulling away and it saddened her. She wondered if this altitude change was the result of her relationship with Jim. John had always liked Jim, but on the other hand, he had never had to share her with anyone else since his dad died.
When she got back to the room, Jim was laying face down across the bed with his head over the edge looking at the atlas that was lying on the floor. He looked up and said, “How’s it going with the kid?”
“He’s not too happy Jim.” She smiled and said, “he wants a 65 Mustang convertible.”
“Is that all?”
She smiled again and said, “No, but that would be a start,”
Jim said, “Well, At least the kid has good taste.”
“Of course, he is my son even if he is almost as old as I am.”
“Etty I’ve been looking at the map and I’ve decided on Peoria Illinois. It’s about the right size for what we need. We can get new identities there, get married and move on before it’s time to register John in school.”
“What!”
“What, what?”
“You said married!”
“What’s the problem? You don’t like the idea?”
“I love the idea, but a girl likes to be asked.”
“Okay. Will you marry me?”
“It’s too late now. You apparently made up your mind without consulting me. I guess I really have no choice anyway, you’ve already taken liberties.”
She went over and jumped up on the bed and stood straddling him.
He rolled over, looked up at her and said; “Did you remember that you’re wearing a skirt?”
“Yes.”
“Did you remember that your panties are almost transparent?”
“Yes.”
He ran his hand up the inside of her leg and felt dampness as he ran his fingers over the crotch of her panties.
The map, Peoria and everything else was forgotten except for the dampness between her legs.
Later that night as they lay in bed, Jim said, “I used to think about what it would be like to be young again, you know, after I started getting older. This is nothing at all what I imagined it would be like. I guess I thought everything would be the same except that I would be young. I thought that I would still think and act the same but I was wrong.”
“I know what you mean. Although it’s hard to put my finger on, I definitely feel different about things than I used to.”
“One thing I noticed is I’m not nearly as mellow as I was a short time ago. I no longer think of issues in shades of gray but more as black and white. I tend to be more positive of right and wrong, much as I was when I was young. I feel much more liberal than I was, not so much in politics but toward life in general. Most people my age would likely think of me as prudish, but I guess that can be attributed to the fact that although I am young now I’m still from a different era.”
“Well I find that I seem be in a hurry all the time”
“I understand that. It seems funny that when you’re young and have all the time in the world you’re always in a hurry, but when you’re old and have very little time left to you, you’re never in a hurry.”
“That seems to be true. I also find that I am interested in things that I have not cared about for years.”
“Like”
“Like cars, clothes. The latest gadgets. That kind of stuff.”
“Well I guess I can’t really relate to that. I never got over wanting things. I never had anything very nice but that didn’t stop me from wanting them.”
“I don’t necessarily mean nice things, just stuff. I have been thinking about getting a cell phone. I have no idea what I would need a cell phone for but I have been thinking of getting one. And by the way Etty this time around you are going to have some very nice things.”
“I wasn’t hinting Jim. I don’t want you to think I’m some kind of gold digger. Just having you would be enough for any girl.”
“I know what you meant Etty, but I really want you to have the best.”
“Etty dropped her eyes and hesitantly murmured “Matt.”
“Yes.”
“Have you thought about having children?”
“I have thought about it, but it seems like it would cause a lot of additional problems.”
“How do you mean?”
“I’ve thought all along that one of the up sides of this situation was that neither of us had any family. Think about it. If we had elderly parents or even brothers or sisters how would we handle it. Could we let them age and die? If not how many people could we involve in this. A secret is not a secret if more than one person knows it, and the more people that know about it the less likely it is to remain a secret.”
“But We would not have to worry about our children dieing of old age.”
“No, but we would have to grow old to raise kids. There is no Point in time when we could revert to youth while we have children without messing up our lives and theirs. Even when they’re adults. What about if either one of us comes down with a serious illness, like cancer? There is no way we can cure ourselves without becoming young again. How do we explain to your fifteen year old how their mom suddenly became twenty years old, and how would we explain it to the neighbors? We would likely wind up constantly on the move. Moreover, we would live in constant fear that our kids would let the cat out of the bag.”
“I don’t know Jim, I don’t have any answers, all I know is we are going to be starting a new life and I would like it include a family.”
“I think we would have to live like nomads. Think about it, even when we are eighty, our kids would be sixty. Rather than die of old age, do we just disappear or do we fill them in on our secret and maybe restore their youth too? By and by we will have a couple dozen offspring, all the same age as us. One day we can start our own town where everyone’s related and all the same age.”
“Jim, you’re trying to be way too rational about this, or your teasing me. Sometimes I can’t tell the difference. You can’t go about having children like a scientific project. If people did that civilization would soon die out.”
“I was kind of kidding with you Etty. Maybe someday we can figure it out and possibly start a family, but for now, I think we best concentrate on getting our new life put together.”
“Okay but you know I’m not going to stop thinking about this.”
To lighten the mood Jim said, I bet you never thought you would be having sex with a seventy eight year old man, did you?”
“Hah, I bet you never thought you’d be in bed with a twenty year old girl again.”
“Touché. I admit I pretty much thought sex of any kind was a thing of the past. I will tell you a secret though, when I used to come into the diner you were the reason I came. I was well aware that I was way to old for you, but I still thought about you a lot.”
“That is so sweet. I’m glad you did, and to be honest there were times when I wished you were younger. I always thought you were one of the nicest men I had known.”
That night Jim laid awake for some time. He started out thinking about what Etty had said about wanting a family but soon segued into thinking of their love life. It seemed that since finding the ball sex had occupied an inordinate amount of his thoughts.
Although he had been married for fifty years, and he and Etty had only been together for a few weeks, they were doing things in bed that he had only dreamed of. He had attempted some of these things with Jeanie but she had reacted as though he was a pervert and he had let it go. The truth, if he admitted to it, was that he had never had a real strong sex drive anyway. It was probably just as well since it would have been just one more matter of contention between him and Jeanie. .
When they got to Peoria, they rented a small apartment in a nice neighborhood. During the day, Jim worked on new identities and at night, he hit the casinos. He took Etty and John with him when he worked on their identities so that they would learn how it was done just in case. When he went to the casinos, he went alone. He was no longer worried about the IRS because he planned on having a different identity before they left Peoria.