"The Antiquarian" --- A short story by Cully-boy Castleberry.

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"Happy birthday darlin', I've no present, no fancy cake.

But I hope I'll make you happy with everything I take.

Happy birthday, darlin'..."

"The Antiquarian"

by Cully-boy Castleberry

Bicentennial weekend, Omaha, Nebraska.

It was terribly humid as we made our way back to Bellevue from our jobs in north Omaha. A 4-day weekend presented before us. Fireworks, she'd cook and bake and we'd stay up late every night, till dawn launched.

"Can we stop at Auntie's, Girl?"

My favorite bookstore in Omaha, the Antiquarian in the Old Market District.

"Sure, Cully. Whatever you say, boy."

I liked when Girl was pliable like this. I could tell when I picked her up at her work that afternoon she was in good spirits. That blue summer dress was my favorite. She'd taken to nylons and a garter belt the past few months.

"The doctor, boy, he says my vagina needs to breath free, Cully."

"Can I watch?"

"Sure. But look, don't touch. I don't want these nylons ruined with runs."

"I promise, youngster."

I kept that promise.

"Are you still going to wear panties? I can get you a nice pair." I'd help her dress in the mornings when she'd let me.

"I'm torn, between going without and using a tampon to play it safe and wearing white cotton panties. Doctor Dowdell recommended the tampon route though so we'll go with that for a while, at least till my cycle hits in a couple weeks. Can you fetch one, C, please?"

I did, then watched in rapt attention as she inserted it nice and deep, drew out the cavity and smoothed the thin, white string.

"You like when Girl does this don't you, Cul?"

"You let Dowdell look at it, don't you?"

"Sure, he has to, boy."

"Does he get excited?"

"Cully!"

---------

Clint X.

He showed up about a month, perhaps more before our 200th Birthday.

"Who is that guy, Mick?" Mick was the owner of the Antiquarian. A genuine fellow and one I'd spent a lot money on for choice books thru the years I'd patronized his business. I never ered. Just paid the list price. It was an investment.

"He just got paroled out of the state pen. I put him on so he'd have a job. Clint, Clint X is his name. He's okay though."

"Why?"

Mick knew without being prodded further.

"Bank robbery. He drove the get-a-way car."

A decade later I'd be reminded of Clint, not only thru our time with him, but thru the au es of the motion picture -Something Wild-. He was the spittin' image of the character Ray Liotta portrayed therein, right down to the meticulous white t-shirt and tight jeans.

I could tell when Girl liked another guy. She'd flit just a measure, the giggle just a smidge more pronounced, the golden flecks in her hazel eyes would sparkle just so.
She liked Clint right off and that did not change when I breathlessly informed her of his criminal past, grateful I could assure her nobody was harmed in the commission of his crimes, as far as I knew.

"Yeah, he drove the get-a-way car on a bank job."

"Wow."

"You like him, don't you, Girl?"

"Boy." With a bit of the lament I so disliked.

For once I just shut my mouth as we drove on in silence.

A few miles further on:

"He likes me too."

---------

The 2nd floor.

There was an upstairs to the Antiquarian. A long staircase, twisted at the top leading to an unknown. [NO ADMITTANCE] read the sign on a red chain across the foot of the stairs.

"Go ahead, Culburn, it's just storage and a lot of antiques, though no books."

"Maybe some other time, Mick." I didn't care for antiques and just wanted to roam the shelves.

---------

The ascension.

We'd been in there about a half-hour, me perusing the shelves for a nice find, her by my side, an angel softly humming/singing different melodies of the circa; "Turn the Beat Around," "Let Your Love Flow," and my favorite "Shannon."

I'd about made a firm choice on a volume concerning Masons and the craft when I heard that laughter, her laughter in the near distance. I looked and sure as shootin' she was by my side no longer. I bent my ear to the faint cacophony. A muted baritone countered her. "Clint!" I hissed. I held tight to my choice as I went in search. Three aisles over, far end as I marched on by.

She was ready.

"Hey, boy!" She hailed me. "We're down here, sweetheart." Adorably waved me to the tight quarters at aisle's end.

"Hey!" I hustled to them. "Hey, Clint." He nodded kindly in return.

Pristine white t-short, tight jeans, those black boots of the day with the dull silver buckle on the side. Impressive. Me? I had on shoes of the day, sure, absolutely; white. One of us smelled of British Sterling. One of us smelled of Hai Karate. Not me. Girl? Estee Lauder.

And then just like that it ramped, on-the-spot.

"Boy, Clint wants to show us the 2nd floor."

I've thought about that day in the intervening decades thousands of times and have fantasized what it would've meant if she hadn't included me in that ascension, at all. Oh, my God, have I.

Me: "Is it air conditioned up there?" It was downstairs.

Her: A slight giggle.

Him: "Sure." He lied, but I located a fan. I always locate a fan. That's what I do. It's my religion.

She wedged in twixt me and him. Those hazel eyes, the golden flex were all afire. She was ready. "It'll be fun." Followed instantly by her pursing her lips not once, but twice.

I don't remember much of the climb. One minute we were downstairs, the next upstairs and I was watching myself, pure out of body had taken full possession of me.

She never had that problem then, nor the 5 decades on. Never. Must be her religion.

"You take it too seriously, pumpkinpuss."

There was no pretense of perusing the antiquities that were in abundance.

I do remember a crass statement early on. I can swear to it. "I haven't had nookie since they sent me up."

"I'm your girl, Clint."

They took root by Mick's old desk, a good distance from the stair case. He leaned back against it as I halted close to an antique brown clothed davenport, circa '40's caddy corner 10 yards off, maybe 15, yes, closer to 15. I did not want to get closer even though there were hard back chairs readily available close to them. You couldn't a dragged me there with a 20-mule team. I reached and switched on the floor fan like I knew what I was doing. It activated, thank Christ. At default low speed. I goosed it, but once.

She nudged in close, their lips met, parted and it began.

---------

The ing.

She likes to kiss, just not me. "Boy, we've known each other since we were little." I get it-I suppose.

He kissed my wife, he loitered her tresses and neck area, as their splayed fingers intertwined.

"He said he liked my scent."

The blue cotton dress disappeared. She wore no bra, it was the '70's. He whispered something, but it was into her far ear away from my juxtaposition.

"Yes." Her near lyrical response.

He'd asked and received permission to remove the garter belt and nylons. I was never permitted that honor after work. "You'll run 'em, Cully. I'll do it. You fetch fresh panties." I love to fetch for her, to-this-day.

"I wanted to be naked, boy, and you wanted that too, correct?" It was during the extensive Q&A session on the slow drive back down 73-75. But, that drive, that Q&A will be later.

"Let me see it." - Her

He obeyed. Off came the spotless white t-shirt. Right over his head like in the movies. He'd been working out in Lincoln, at that state pen.

"Let me." He had some kind of western buckle that was popular in the circa. She figured it out in short order and the zipper followed.

Again, this time with a sternness..."Let me see it."

Christ-a-mighty, it was impressive.

"But did you see his sack, boy?" The coming Q&A.

me, his scrotum was like when you see one of those ball sacks attached to the hitch of a present day pick-up truck.

He was fully engorged, it was precisely perpendicular to his flat stomach. I'd veered an inch, maybe two to get a better angle at said sack.

"Be still, boy."

I froze, then took a seat on the davenport before I fell on the damn thing. When I get hard, my balls disappear up by my belly button. I have, I mean I had a comparable to him, even bested him, but his sack was just stupefying.

"My goodness, Cully, it was so bulbous and warm, like a cauldron. It was actually heavy, C. Didn't you see it?" Q&A.

Just the genuine imitation pearl necklace I'd bought her at the Woolworth's remained. We don't wear our rings, ever. He was butt naked, had a Swastika tattooed on his right shoulder. Nah, I'm just joshing, fellows. He was clean as a whistle from the Kresge's, white as a Bishop on the chess board.

Clint picked her up, she giggled, he set her back upon the desk, got her situated to his liking, she parted those long legs, flexed her knees, tilted it at the angle of his need, he lodged it at the portal without touching himself and held fast.

"C'mon, me."

I felt the bile rise, throat and scrotum, consecutively---balls receded like the ens.

The copulation was incredible. The genuine antique General Electric clock on the far wall attested, he ed her a good 20 minutes, longer. No screaming, nor epitaphs like in the movies, just a steady pounding of their bodies. She crossed her ankles on the small of his back as he bent to their task, spread her hands out to the expansion of Mick's old desk and did it to her. I might as well have been back at the trailer home. I was granted nary quarter. The lone time she turned her face toward me was as he made his move to inseminate her, as the end was nigh. The lights were on, sure, but there was the proverbial nobody home. Eyes glazed, vision tunneled she was somewhere else.

"Didn't you see me there, honey-bun?" Q&A again.

Alert! "Girl!" Like he knew her, like the SOB ex con had known her. Big time Q&A. It's comin', you'll see.

"So easy, baby, give it to your girl. Sooooooooo easy." He twisted thru his release like a boa constrictor, in tortured silence, as she stayed at his far ear imploring him with whispered salutations I know not of their content multiple decades on. "No, Cully, no. I promised."

Bull , she just won't tell.

Pragmatic me I immediately thought of it getting thru the pill and the backup IUD buried deep and how I would explain that back home.

She held him tenderly, cradled him as he at once took to gently licking her breasts in turn. I thought I'd heard Clint cooing, but I may be wrong.

"Cully, darling, could you give us a few minutes?.........Downstairs, please?" Like God, if He was a woman. I genuflected at the tenor and I at once obeyed the thinly veiled command.

---------

Descension.

I don't remember the walk across to, nor making it back down that staircase. Not on the drive home, not nigh on 50 years later. No. Uh, uh.

It was past closing time, Mick had locked up and was in the back room, counting the day's take.

"Hey, Castleberry." Like he didn't know. He was all about the business, bless his heart.

"Hey, Mick."

"That's a great book you got there, Cully."

I'd never let go of that damn book on the Mason's.

"Here let me pay for this, Mick, I nearly forgot with everything going..." I trailed off.

"It's on the house."

"Wouldn't hear of it. It's my pleasure, Mick." Dished out the fifty dollars.

"Okay if I poke around in the stacks, Mick?"

"Sure, go ahead, you got your key right? Just lock up when you leave and I'll set the alarm later. I'll be here late."

"Thanks man."

"Night, boy."

He'd let me have a key to the joint two years prior. I'd never used it though. On the day we left town I stopped by and returned it to him. She waited in the U-Haul.

It wasn't an hour, but past it when I finally heard them descending that stair case. The kicker? The livin' end? I was disappointed it wasn't longer! It's just the way it was. And the way it has sustained.

I had taken up a position that would avail me of their imminent return. I wanted to watch it if they didn't know I was watching. Christ, it never ends. Ever. It's my religion.

Unfortunately there was no hand-holding, no last kiss, no ribald salutations...just a return to the status quo, to the fore.

"Now where did that boy go?"

I scuffled my white shoes a bit in the eerie silence of the Antiquarian at rest to give myself away then stepped out of the shadows like Duke in the alley -The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance- I tried to speak, but, croaked a bit, cleared it and high pitched an "Over here."

"There he is! Cully, they're closed. We better get goin', darlin'." She reached back, but didn't catch him.

I met 'em halfway, almost.

Clint looked heartbroken. I found nary comfort in it. She looked like Girl, nothing had changed. They embraced slightly. We shook hands; his was slackened-I didn't take advantage-just matched it.

"I got the key, Clint. I'll lock it." So we wouldn't all get to that damn door in a lump. I wanted to get to that car, back to normalcy; the house, the A/C, our birthday, my TV, my turn, my reward, my nut, my Girl.

"Goodnight, Girl." I swear to God I heard his baritone break. I just kept walking. I did not want to see it. It was bad enough hearing it. I can still hear it 50 years on.

"Goodnight, Clint." Breakage too. She felt bad leaving him like that...without the Q&A, first words out of her mouth as the ignition hit: "Damn, Cully, I feel bad leaving him like this. Drive away slowly just in case he's watching, please, boy."

"No problem."

She did not look back. I ed my eyes to the rear view just in case he came out onto the street.

(Continued)

[Thread]

The Q&A.

"My goodness, boy, what the heck did we just do?"

I was a bit nonplussed at the emotional ending, but, I repaired quickly and started right on in:

"Why did you make me go back downstairs, youngster?" Then two more before she could get a word in edgewise:
"Did you do it again with him?"
"Did you talk about me?"

And one more query that I didn't ask, yet. "Do you think we should have him out to the house this weekend?"

I finally ran out of energy and just fell silent like a wind up toy expiring. Now my voice, last in the line of succession had broke an octave.

"Cully, don't get mad, darling. Everything is okay, calm down. You really need to release. I know it's ridiculous but perhaps we should stop at that Texaco station at the cutoff, you go in and beat off real quick. I'll stay in the car."

It wasn't a half bad idea. I was near out of mind, but I threw it back in her face. I had the con and I knew it.

"I'm not jacking off in a strange service station bathroom!"

Though I had beat off in there from time-to-time when I was waiting on her to get off her job. She got off an hour after I got off. Sometimes I'd loiter the dirty movie and book store, with attendant XXX arcade, and invariably would end up at that Texaco. But that was different. Not tonight, no way, Jose'. Uh, uh. Once I blew my nut that'd be it. I'd lose the con, no longer would I be "Charlie Potata's" like Tony Curtis -The Defiant Ones- "I'd be Mashed Potata's like the aforementioned Curtis, same movie.

I went anew.

"Did you do it again, Girl. Tell me, now."

"Of course we did it again, Cul. Yes."

"Oh-my-God." Like somebody had died, or, worse, lost money.

I was defeated. "Did you suck on it?"

"A little, yes."

"Oh-my-God."

"Cully, the light...it's turning reeeeeeeeeed! Stop!"

I screeched to a halt.

"Cully, let's just wait till we get home and we can sit down and calmly discuss this. I don't want to get into an car accident."

"My ass. I want to know what went on up there for over an hour."

"Cully, he needed me, he needed us. Without you there'd a been no me. Cully, try and understand, please."

"But why did I have to be thrown out like that? Just answer that I'll be quiet the rest of the way." Ha!

"Cully, you wanted to be thrown out. You've stated that on many occasions when we fantasize together. You wanted to be banned from the action. Tell the truth. Cully, I'm calling your name: Cully."

I was completely undone.

I brazened it out in the finest traditions: "That's no excuse, and not tonight, perhaps the next time there is a such an occasion, but not tonight. I didn't know what to do. I felt forsaken."

I sloughed forward. "Did you make arrangements with him for another time without me?"

"Cully, no. This was a one time event, honey-bun. We both felt it, at least I did when you picked me up. You were lit up by the long weekend, you were excited I could tell. I caught your spark and it got me going. When I wandered away from you in the aisles I wanted to see him, pursue him, for us, at least see if it was even possible. I felt confident that everything was really going to work out. I could feel the heat. But I didn't see him anywhere, so, I just started looking at the books. He showed up a few minutes later, said "Hi, Girl." from behind me and it developed from there."

"How, in the name of God did you approach him about, well you know? I need to hear the whole rigmarole."

"Fine, slow down, be careful and I'll tell it. Agreed?"

"Yes."

"I wasted no time. I didn't want you to wander over and flub our collective dub. I asked what the second floor was like."

"Oh-my-God."

"He said it was a lot of antiques that I might like to see and that he could show me."

I groaned.

"I couldn't go without him, Clint. He would like to see too."

"He wouldn't mind, seriously, Girl? I don't want to cause trouble, I can't afford any trouble. It'd be okay?"

"Yeah, definitely. He'd just like to see. Would that be okay with you, Clint? No trouble, he'll be quiet and so still. I promise."

I moaned.

"We were face to face, Cully, a foot apart. I could feel his power, I know that sounds melodramatic, but I was ready. I knew you were and now he was. I wanted him, and I wanted you to watch and see it."

"Keep going. I'm going to cut over to 24th Street, we'll stop at the stockyards, hey?"

"Sure, Cul."

I made the turn, passed the aforementioned Texaco and kept going.

"Sure, that'd be fine." He said. "I'm off anyhow. I was on my way out when I spotted you here, Girl, you and him. My God, you're beautiful. Is that okay, I don't..."

"He just trailed off, Cully. He was so adorable and so nervous."

"Weren't you?"

"No, for some reason I was totally fine. And you were too when you walked up on us. I could tell you were ready. Right?"

"You know something, you're right. Isn't that strange? We didn't talk about it on the drive over. And I wasn't even thinking about it. I just wanted to start our weekend, Girl. Look what happened." I quickly veered off: "Did he try to kiss you before I came over?"

"No, nothing untoward. I thanked him for the compliment, you showed up shortly thereafter and you know the rest."

I pushed on: "Did it hurt?"

"No, it felt really good...and easy. He wasn't as thick as you, Cully, and he was shorter. I took it all. I could feel our pubes meshing together. I never feel yours, you're too long. You'd hurt your little girl."

I'd bottomed out a couple times. Once I felt the tip of the IUD I knew that was the limit and never hit bottom again.

"Tell me about the second time, please Girl, I need to hear it."

"He was ready almost at once. I asked if we could move to the couch and we did. I asked if I could be on top, and I was."

"Damn, Girl, you never call the action when we're together."

"I know, but I could tell he wanted me to be, you know the dominant one the second time. He softened, Cully, once you went back downstairs. He relaxed and so I figured I could take control and we'd both enjoy it that way."

"He didn't touch your, your you know what, did he?"

"My butt? No, just grazed it just a tad with his fingertips."

"On purpose?"

"I think so." She giggled.

"GD, Girl. That's sacred ground!"

Now, she laughed.

"Cully, don't grudge it, he was so in need of kind people. You and I, Mick were the first people who have accepted him. It was important. Maybe God meant us to be there tonight like that. Sure."

I didn't want a sermon from her, she'd get like that if I didn't put a cork in it.

"Did you kiss him some more?"

"A lot. He was a good kisser, C, don't get mad now."

"Just don't say how we've known each other since we were small."

"Little, since we were little, Cully, not small." Her laughter was welcome. Everything was going to be alright.

"French?"

"Contraire. Deep, soul kisses, Cully. Then I reached back, hefted his sack, squeezed it has hard as I dared, shafted his and sat on it, till I was on his stomach."

"Look, Clinton, look I said to him, you're buried in Girl."

"He liked me, Cully. He said you were the more fortunate man he'd ever known."

I was.

"We quit kissing, I stayed straight up, you know and ground on it for a bit. He suckled my breasts, I held his head gently and told him how much I enjoyed being in his arms. I reached back several time and hefted that sack so I could remember how it felt. I knew you'd ask me about it. It was huge, boy. My goodness and even after his first release there was still a lot of juice in there for the second orgasm. I kind of had a notion that he was having just a bit of a problem getting to the end, so I tightened my snatch and locked eyes with him. And that was the beginning of the end. I twisted it one way, then back the other, clamped down, and told him I needed what he had in that sack, and I wasn't leaving the 2nd floor without it. As he came I covered his mouth with mine and felt his injection."

I didn't know what to say.

"Cully, I thought he was going to cry. He was quiet and kind of hid his face against me. I cuddled him, Cul, and helped him hide and he suckled my breasts for a little while, like you do sometimes, remember?"

When I'd get emotional about her, about us. I remembered. I knew.

"You guys, huh, Cully-boy."

---------

The stockyards.

"Can we stop, Girl?" We were at the stockyards. Sometimes we'd stop and pet the cows. They were right off 24th street in the corrals, readying for the slaughter houses beyond.

"Sure, Cully. I know how you like it."

The smell was not good, but, it was an honest scent and one I shall always remember.

She came for me then, on the street. "Come here, you." We hugged tightly, she smelled of the Karate, Hai style, but I didn't care. She was warm and pliable and so soft. I separated her from the earth just an inch, maybe 3, then set her quietly back upon it.

"I love you, boy."

I hid my face against the soft cotton of the blue dress and squeezed tighter.

-The End-


Afterword:

Neither of us visited the Antiquarian for a over a month. I finally stopped in one afternoon during the hour I wait for Girl to get off work. Mick informed me that Clint had broken parole a couple weeks after we'd last been there, that night.

"His parole officer found him with a loaded .38 Smith & Wesson at the half way house. He's back in Lincoln."

I dreaded having to tell Girl that, but I did so that evening when we arrived home. She was very upset, believing perhaps that we should have not quit going there. It wasn't a conscious decision, for neither of us brought it up, but her appraisal did bring about some guilt feelings for us both. She asked if it would be alright if she wrote him and I heartily agreed. Three private letters were sent, there was no reply to them.

Once the Internet came to be I ran Clint X thru various search programs, but have never drawn a hit. We speak of him still; of our adventure, what could have gone wrong and what went right that night.

~~~

[DMC]

"the ing"

No suspense, just straight to the ing.

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Topside!!!

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Topside!!!

[Mitch]