DISCLAIMER: This is a work of fiction. If you are offended by 
sexually explicit material or are under the age of 18, stop reading 
now. This material cannot be reproduced for commercial purposes 
without the consent of the author.

JC: Ed Biggers
Part 1: Epiphany
Chapter 11
By
Lazlo Zalezac
Copyright (C) Lazlo Zalezac, 2004


Now that the groceries were put away, Ed took a moment to sit on 
one of the folding chairs on the back patio while the tea was 
brewing. Looking out over the desert, he thanked God that John 
was returning home the next day. The day after that, they would 
move Beth into his house and life with Kelly could return to 
normal. He was so horny that he was now jacking off in the 
bathroom daily. It was a safe bet that Kelly was doing the same, 
but they didn't talk about that around Beth. She got upset at any 
and all signs of affection. 

While Ed was very anxious to get Beth out of the house, his 
motives were only partially selfish. He knew that John would stand 
a better chance of getting through to her and healing her. There 
were very few things that he hadn't tried in his efforts to help her. 
Trying to talk to her was a failure. As soon as the topic even 
approached anything that she might be feeling, she would scream 
and curl up into a ball. 

Returning to the kitchen, he removed the tea bags and poured the 
hot tea into a pitcher. Putting the pitcher in the refrigerator, all 
excuses for remaining here were exhausted. All of the windows 
were open to allow the house to air out overnight so that it would 
smell fresh when John arrived. There was fresh food in the 
refrigerator so that he wouldn't have to shop as soon as he returned 
home. The lease and other legal materials were left on the desk for 
him to settle at his convenience. 

Ed left the house and went across the street. The two women were 
at the house. Ed had agreed to watch over Beth while Kelly took a 
break. The weeks of watching over Beth were taking its toll so she 
was going to go down to the bar to talk with Shirley as one sane 
woman to another. It was his hope that Shirley would not provide 
details to Kelly about his episode with Sammy, but he knew the 
chances of that were slim.

He called out as he entered the house, "Girl night out!"

Dressed in a simple pair of jeans, Kelly came out of the bedroom 
with a smile. Quickly kissing Ed, she slipped out the front door 
without a word. He watched her scurry down the street, anxious to 
get around normal people for a change. It would be hours before 
she would return. That left him taking care of Beth and leading her 
through her nighttime activities.

It took him a minute to locate Beth in the bathroom. Kelly had left 
her standing there, knowing that he would find her and take care of 
what needed to be done. She had apparently finished using the 
toilet and was now awaiting orders. He said, "Slave, what was the 
last order that you had?"

"To use the toilet, master."

"Slave, take a warm shower and dry yourself off when you are 
done." Leaving the room when she started to undress, he went into 
her room to look for her nightwear. He would set it inside the 
bathroom and order her to dress once she finished her shower. 
After setting the clothes in the bathroom, he waited outside for the 
shower to be turned off. That was life with Beth, issue a command 
and then wait for her to finish it. Then it was time to issue another 
command. 

The evening passed slowly. Bathing, dressing, brushing teeth, 
setting hair, and taking care of a myriad of details that one 
normally did without thinking occupied the evening. Even simple 
things, such making sure that Beth consumed sufficient water to 
avoid dehydration, had to be watched. With experience, they had 
generated lists of commands to execute through the evening. The 
fact that she had not lost any weight was a testament to their 
efforts. 

After all of the evening list had been executed, Ed ordered her to 
sit in a chair. She sat there staring off into space. He had about half 
an hour to work on his homework from school. He opened his 
calculus book and struggled through a single problem. He had 
spent every spare minute of time reviewing algebra and trig at the 
end of summer and that was really saving him in this course. This 
subject was the hardest of the ones that he was taking and he knew 
from the first week of school that he was going to need help to get 
through it.

Nevada had been very surprised by his request to work part-time. 
He now worked afternoons and evenings on Mondays, 
Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays. That allowed him to take 
three classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays. He took two classes in 
the mornings of the other three days early in the morning. The 
schedule was about to kill him and it had only been a two weeks.  
When John returned, that would give him back some of his time to 
spend on his studies, but he wondered if it would be enough.

A knock on the door interrupted his studies. Standing, he looked 
around to check out the house. Seeing Beth sitting there in her 
nightwear, he ordered, "Slave, get into bed."

When she had left the room, he answered the door. Much to his 
surprise, Shirley stood at the door with a very large smile on her 
face. Ed said, "Oh, hello. I thought you were talking to Kelly."

Smiling, Shirley replied, "Oh, she's watching the bar for a few 
minutes. I have a back to school present for you."

Very surprised at being given a present from anyone, much less 
Shirley, Ed stood there in shock. Emotions tightening his throat 
and hardly able to talk, he said, "Thank you."

"Can you help Manuel bring it in?"

Glancing out to the street, he could see Manuel standing beside his 
pickup truck. There was a huge desk standing in the back. He 
walked over to Manuel who greeted him with an indifferent nod. 
Manuel made his living helping people haul things in the back of 
his truck and usually worked with his son. Ed wondered where his 
son was today. The two men wrestled the desk out of the truck and 
into the house. The desk was incredibly heavy and the men were 
tired by the time they set the desk down. Manuel made a second 
trip to bring in the desk drawers. 

With the desk sitting in the middle of the living room, Ed stood 
back and admired it. In a quiet voice, he said, "It's beautiful."

Shirley ran a hand over the surface of the desk. She said, "It's an 
old teacher's desk from the forties."

The solid oak desk had been refinished and who ever had done it, 
had done excellent work. The surface glowed with the kind of 
shine that only a master craftsman could evoke, bringing out the 
rich wood grain. He looked at Shirley and said, "I'm afraid to use 
it."

She laughed and said, "I have to get back before one of the drunks 
tries to pick up Kelly."

With a real tear in his eye, Ed turned to Shirley and said, "Thank 
you very much. I really love it."

To see such an emotional response from Ed was all of the thanks 
that Shirley needed. Looking around the house, she realized that 
there wasn't much room for the desk. She asked, "Where are you 
going to put it?"

Smiling, Ed gave a little follow me gesture and led her to the third 
bedroom of the house. Opening the door, he pointed inside the 
room. Shirley glanced in and did a double take as a very slight 
smell of earth tickled her nose. The entire room was lined with 
shelves, each shelf crammed with rock samples. There must have 
been over a thousand rocks, each neatly labeled. There were 
additional boxes of rock samples on the floor. Shirley entered the 
room and slowly turned around taking in all of the rocks on 
display. She had never imagined that Ed had such a collection. 
There were depths to him that she had never seen before and she 
felt honored that he had chosen to show this to her.

As though it was a temple, Ed whispered, "I collected all of these 
rocks while pushing cattle on the range. I'll remove a couple of 
shelves and put the desk in here. It will be a good place to study."

Shirley nodded as she bent down to look at an example of copper, 
the little crystalline needles of copper so intricate in shape and 
placement capturing her attention. Next to it was a sample of a 
rock that had similar crystalline needles, but was so much plainer 
that it was overwhelmed by the example of copper. She 
straightened up and said, "This is amazing. I've never seen 
anything like this."

The compliment meant more to Ed than he could express in words. 
He merely said, "I'm glad that you like it. Studying in here will 
remind me why I'm going through school."

Shirley backed out of the room and said, "Thanks for sharing this 
with me. I never knew that you had such an interest."

Smiling, Ed said, "Thank you for the desk."

Shirley left shortly after that with Manuel. Ed walked around the 
desk admiring it. Mentally, he went through a check list of things 
that he would have to buy to use it. He would need a chair, a desk 
lamp, and protector to save the surface of the desk. 

His thoughts were interrupted by another knock on the door. 
Surprised at two visitors in the same day, he opened the door. 
Sammy and his mother stood at the door. A very large gift 
wrapped box was on the ground at Sammy's feet. Sammy, with a 
grunt, picked it up and extended it to Ed. "I want to thank you for 
what you did for me."

Accepting the heavy box with a shake of his head, he had to set it 
down. Ed said, "You didn't need to do anything. I was happy that 
things ended up as well as they did."

Mrs. Burton replied, "You did a really wonderful thing for Sammy. 
He could have gotten the electric chair if you hadn't been so calm. 
You kept him out of jail. We can't thank you enough."

Wanting to change the subject, Ed said, "Please come in. I can't 
wait to open the present."

Slightly uncomfortable, Linda Burton and her son entered the 
room. She looked at the desk sitting in the middle of the room and 
said, "Shirley really did find a nice desk for you."

Ed ran his fingers over the wood appreciating the smoothness of 
the wood. He answered, "Yes, she did. It's too nice to use."

Almost dancing in place, Sammy looked impatient for Ed to open 
the present they had brought over. Ed went over to the present and 
slowly removed the wrapping paper to expose a desk chair that 
matched the desk. He would have to assemble it, but the picture of 
the chair on the box showed that it was a perfect match for the 
desk. Smiling he turned to them and said, "Wow, this is 
outstanding. You must have arranged this with Shirley to get such 
a great match."

The pair lit up at the clear appreciation for their gift. Mrs. Burton, 
having learned a little of the story about the death of her husband, 
was thankful for the actions that Ed had taken for her husband. 
Their marriage had been a sham, but she still cared for him in her 
own way. To know that Ed had done what he could to salvage her 
late husband's reputation had touched her more than she could 
express. That he had saved her son from jail was more than she 
could ever repay.  Softly, she said, "I'm glad you like it. We had 
better go now."

As the pair left the house, Ed stood there looking at the desk and 
chair touched very deeply. He wanted to share his happiness with 
someone, but Beth was not in a state to feel emotions. He opened 
the box and started to assemble the chair. It was very easy to put 
together. The chair matched the desk very closely.

Checking the clock, he saw that it was nearing ten and time for 
Beth to be ordered to sleep. He opened the door of the bedroom 
and said, "Slave, get to sleep."

Watching Beth roll over, he was amazed to see that she could sleep 
on command. The sight always amazed him. The woman was 
beautiful, even in this state, but so emotionally detached that it was 
hard to find her sexy. He wondered what she was waiting to have 
happen before she would snap out of it. 

Closing the door, he went to the living room and admired the desk 
and chair. He would treasure these gifts for a long time. 

Two hours later, Kelly came home to find him sitting on the couch 
still admiring the desk and chair. Smiling, she joined him on the 
couch and said, "You like them?"

"I love them. I couldn't believe my eyes when she brought the desk 
over," replied Ed with real emotion making his voice rough. He 
cleared his throat and asked, "You knew?"

Leaning her head on his shoulder, she answered, "Yes, I knew. 
Betsy had suggested that she use the money from the tip you left 
on the night of your famous party to buy you a present. I think that 
she was going to get you a briefcase until she saw what you did for 
Sammy. That touched her much more than you may realize."

Ed replied, "I was so scared that day. Sammy and his mother 
brought over the chair."

Kelly put her head against his chest and relaxed as he put an arm 
around her. She said, "You have no idea what you did for them, do 
you?"

"I did what I thought was right. He's still just a kid and didn't 
deserve to go to jail for the rest of his life. Besides, at his age, I 
would have done the same thing." Ed had tried very hard to put 
that day behind him. Most of the people had believed the story that 
he had known it was a starter pistol, but a few who had been there 
and seen the gun still looked at him funny. He didn't like being the 
center of attention like that and began to understand how John felt.

A weary Ed returned home after a long day at school and at work. 
They had an auction tonight and while he was busy, the work 
wasn't that bad. Tired, he entered the house expecting to see Kelly 
commanding Beth through her evening program. Instead, Kelly 
was sitting naked upon a blanket thrown over the desk. Her hips 
rested on the edge of the desk. Without any real word of greeting, 
she said, "Cowboy, get naked and come over here and fuck me."

Time with Kelly had given him a little more control over his 
fingers when presented by her naked body. He quickly undressed 
and joined her at the desk, walking towards her as if led by his 
erection. He bent over to kiss her, but she had other ideas. 
Grabbing him by his cock, she led him to her foregoing all 
foreplay. She wanted it and she wanted it now.

With his feet on the ground, his cock slipped into her ready and 
waiting passage with ease. Her legs wrapped around his hips, 
pulling him into her even deeper. For both of them, this was a 
moment too long in coming. Nature drove to them to a hard fast 
coupling complete with grunts and groans. Ed thrust into Kelly 
with the kind of need that comes from a month of closeness 
without the ability to express their desires. Lying on her back, her 
breasts moved in counter tempo to his thrusts, jiggling towards him 
when he thrust into her. He found the motion extremely erotic and 
he started to thrust even faster.

Looking down at her face, Ed could see that her desire for a quick 
release was as strong as his. Guiding his hand down to her cunt, he 
put a thumb just above the clit. His thrusts, pushed her clit enough 
to just touch his thumb. The effect couldn't have been better if he 
had planned it. The slight teasing sensation drove her rapidly to 
orgasm. She let loose with a scream, announcing her pleasure and 
satisfaction to the world.

With a grunt, Ed came pouring his seed into her. Eyes closed he 
rocked his hips into her releasing jet after jet of come. His whole 
body rocked and then froze as the last jet was released. His legs 
shook and threatened to give out on him. He leaned over her, 
covering her body with his. He whispered into her ear, "I love you, 
Kelly. I love you so much."

Wrapping her arms around him, Kelly whispered back, "I love you, 
Ed."

This was the first time she had declared her love for him aloud and 
it touched him deeply. Raising himself off her so that he could 
look her in the eye, he traced her jaw line with finger. The look on 
her face was that of fear; a fear driven by concerns that this man 
could talk her out of her marriage dream. Looking at her 
expression, Ed asked, "What are you afraid of, my love?"

Voice trembling, she answered, "I'm afraid that you won't accept 
me."

"Not accept you? I love you."

Kelly looked at him and said, "What about marriage?"

He thought that marriage proposals were supposed to be made by 
the man, but it didn't matter to him. He was madly in love with this 
woman. Smiling at her, Ed said, "Sure, I'll marry you."

"You will marry me? What about taking a husband and another 
wife?" Lips quivering, this was the moment of truth for her dream. 
What he said next would determine the rest of her life. She held 
her breath waiting for his answer.

Ed had not been thinking of that when he agreed to marry her. The 
question reminded him of his single area of doubt. He could see 
her fear of rejection as it built in Kelly and the sight hurt him.  He 
whispered, "I will do what I can to accommodate a husband and 
wife. I make no promises."

It was not as much as she hoped, but it was more than she 
expected. Releasing her breath, she asked, "Really?"

"Yes, really. We still have to find a husband and wife that we both 
accept."

It didn't matter what Ed said at this point, the relief and love for Ed 
drove all other thoughts and ideas from her mind. She hugged him 
tightly and cried, her body shaking from emotions. She cried out to 
him, "Oh, God. My lovely man. I love you so much."

Her strong grip crushed him against her as her arms pulled on his 
neck. It was the most uncomfortable that he had ever been, but he 
didn't fight it. He knew that he had committed to much more than 
he had intended, but his love for her was so strong that he couldn't 
bear to see her hurting. When his cock finally slipped out of her, he 
noticed but she didn't.

After holding him tightly for a minute, she relaxed her grip. He 
stood and picked her up in his arms. Careful in how he held her, he 
carried her to the bedroom and set her upon the bed. He climbed in 
beside her. As she turned, he moved closer and until his cock was 
pressed against her ass and his chest flat against her back. Holding 
her in a spoon position, he whispered into her ear, "My love, you 
have my heart. Do not worry about your dreams. I will make all of 
them come true that I can. That is love."

As tears of happiness flowed down her cheeks, her breathing 
became deeper as her eyes slowly closed. She knew she was loved 
and didn't have to give up her idea for a perfect marriage. In her 
sleep, she dreamed of Beth, Ed, and herself searching for a 
husband. 

The smell of fresh brewed coffee woke Ed. His body stirred, but 
his mind was still half asleep. Sitting up on the edge of the bed, he 
yawned and stretched. He staggered into the living room, stubbing 
his toe on the leg of the desk. Jumping on one foot and holding the 
toe in his hands, he swore, "Today, I move that out of here."

Kelly came out of the kitchen, naked as the day she was born, 
carrying two cups of coffee. His cock responded to her presence 
although his mind was hardly up to making love. Blinking to clear 
the sleep from his eyes, he looked at her and said, "You're so 
beautiful. Pretty just isn't enough of a word to describe you."

Smiling, Kelly handed him one cup of coffee and took a sip from 
the other. She said, "Drink up, cowboy. I have to go to work soon." 

Ed maneuvered himself around the desk to sit on the couch. Kelly 
leaned against the desk and watched him struggle awake. It was 
about that time that he realized Beth wasn't in the house. He asked, 
"Where's Beth?"

Realizing that he only now had recognized that Beth was gone, 
Kelly explained, "Yesterday when John returned home, Beth saw 
him. She ran across the street and fell at his feet begging him to 
take her back. When I went over, he was helping her into the 
house. He told me that he would talk to us today."

Despite that his mind was still somewhat slow to register 
information, he realized that Beth's behavior had undergone 
another change. He asked, "Is she okay?"

Sighing, Kelly said, "I don't know. I'm so afraid that we've lost her. 
I want her for a wife so much, but during the entire time she was 
here she didn't even seem to know that I was even present." 

The coffee was slowly cooling to where Ed could take good sips 
without burning he tongue. Drinking half the cup in a single 
swallow, he sat back and said, "She was in total denial of all 
affection. Maybe with John back, she'll wake up and see how much 
you care for her."

"I hope so," replied Kelly. She looked over at Ed and said, "It must 
have been tough for you to have her here. You never touched her 
the entire time, but it must have been so tempting for you. I was 
tempted. You must love her as well."

The past month had not been easy for Ed. It was hard to say what 
he felt for Beth, he didn't really know her. The woman was pretty, 
but there wasn't enough of her there to care about one way or the 
other. He had only met her twice before the death of Betsy and 
both of those times were in the hospital. He said, "I don't know 
how I feel about her. I don't really know her. The only thing that I 
know is that I love you."

"I love you very much." Kelly took his coffee cup from him and 
left the room. She came back after a minute with the cup filled 
with hot coffee. Handing it back to him, she said, "You have been 
magnificent ever since the death of Betsy. I have to get ready for 
work and get Beth to the hospital today."

Taking a sip from the coffee, Ed watched as Kelly went into the 
bedroom. Glancing at the clock, he was surprised to see that he had 
woken an hour late this morning. Ten minutes later, she emerged 
fully clothed. He felt embarrassed to be sitting there naked while 
she walked around dressed. 

Bending over, Kelly kissed him and said, "Goodbye. I'll be home 
on time tonight. Why don't you get dressed and take John to 
breakfast. It will give you a little time to talk to him before you 
have to leave for school."

As Kelly went out the door, Ed took another sip of his coffee 
realizing that half of the reason for Kelly's mad dash for the door 
was that she wanted to see how Beth was doing now that John was 
back. He went into the bedroom and started to dress.

Kelly rushed into the house, shouting, "She's run away. Come on, 
we've got to find her."

Putting on his boots without socks, Ed dashed out of the bedroom 
trying to button his shirt as he ran. He asked, "What happened?"

Crying, Kelly fell to the ground and said, "When I went in, she 
screamed and ran out of the house."

"Oh God," replied Ed. He helped Kelly off the floor and onto the 
couch. He asked, "Which way did she go?"

"Into the desert."

Ed shook his head and went out to his truck. Pulling out of the 
driveway, he headed up the street where he could drive out onto 
the desert. Once there, he drove back towards the back of John's 
house. He spotted John about a half a mile into the desert. Flooring 
the truck, he drove over to John and stopped. John jumped in the 
back of the truck and shouted, "I'll watch for her tracks and tell you 
what direction to drive."

Rather than race forward, Ed set a pace that would allow him to 
react to anything that might happen. John started shouting, "To the 
right!"

Ed turned the wheel to the right and drove along. He did his best to 
avoid the cactus and other hazards in the desert. 

John shouted, "Straight!"  

A small figure in the distance resolved itself into Beth. She was 
running barefoot through the desert. Ed headed straight for her and 
caught up with her very quickly. It was amazing how far she had 
gone in such a short time. After stopping the truck, both men raced 
out to catch her. It took both of them to wrestle her to the ground. 
Breathing heavily, John said, "Let's get her into the back of the 
truck."

Still struggling to escape, the two men carried her back to the 
truck. While Ed held her, John jumped in the back of the truck. 
The two of them had a struggle to get her in the back with him. 
Once there, John had to wrestle with her to keep her there. Ed 
drove back to John's house as fast as it was safe, fearing to go too 
fast in case she jumped out. 

At the house, they carried her in. John said, "Ed, can you stay out 
in the back at the door in case she tries to run?"

Still trying to make sense out of this new behavior, Ed answered, 
"Sure."

Ed sat down near the door and waited to see what happened. After 
thirty minutes, John came out to the back and motioned to the 
chairs. Accepting the invitation, Ed went over to the chair and sat 
down. After a minute, John returned with a two cups of coffee and 
joined Ed in the other chair. Handing one of the coffees to Ed, 
John said, "I'm sorry about that."

Sighing at the situation, Ed said, "Don't worry about it. What 
happened?"

"She's talking now," replied John. Looking in the direction of the 
house, he said, "I asked her why she ran. She said that there were 
only supposed to be three people in the house. Her, me, and 
Betsy."

Slumping down in his chair, Ed said, "Kelly is very upset."

Glancing sideways at Ed, John said, "Kelly has taken her to work. I 
got her dressed and sent her across the street to get Kelly. I saw 
them leave before I came back here."

Shaking his head, Ed said, "We did the best that we could. I don't 
know what we could have done for her."

"She is talking now," replied John. He said, "Last night she told me 
that you guys took very good care of her. She won't let me touch 
her though. She says she's waiting for Betsy."

"This must be tearing you up inside," said Ed. He didn't know how 
close John and Beth were, but to return home and have to deal with 
a woman that was waiting for your deceased girlfriend to return 
had to be tough.

"I have to apologize to you. When you told me that she was in 
pretty bad shape, I didn't believe that it was as bad as you had 
said." John was quiet for several seconds staring out into the 
desert. He added, "If I had known, I would have come back earlier 
to take care of her."

Ed looked at John and could tell that he was upset. Marshalling his 
thoughts, he said, "John, look at me."

John looked at him. Ed said, "You had things to do there. Kelly 
was more than happy to take care of Beth. As you know, she wants 
to marry Beth and this was a way for her to demonstrate her love 
for her. I didn't mind a minute of it."

Reaching out a hand and resting it on Ed's shoulder, John said, 
"You've been a real friend through all of this."

Glancing up at the sun, Ed said, "I've got to finish getting dressed 
and head to school. I'll be back around two this afternoon. Will you 
be around?"

Smiling at his friend, John said, "You bet."

At school, Ed turned in his Calculus homework. He had done all of 
the problems except for one. It wasn't that he didn't understand the 
problem, it was just that last night he had been distracted and the 
morning was wasted. He struggled to understand the new material 
covered that day and wondered if he was going to have to get a 
tutor. His English class flew by as the class discussed the reading 
assignment. Surprised at himself, Ed found that he had contributed 
to the discussion quite significantly. His favorite class of the day 
was the Geology class. Most of the material felt like a review to 
him and he was quite surprised to see a number of the others in his 
class struggling with it. 

Returning home, he found that John was waiting for him by the 
driveway. After parking the truck, he waved John over to the 
house. John followed him into the house and stopped when he saw 
the desk. He said, "Wow. That's a nice desk."

As he caressed the wood on the desk, with pride evident in his 
voice Ed replied, "Shirley gave that to me as a present."

John had talked to Shirley while Ed was at school. When she had 
started telling him about the incident in the bar, he had stopped her 
and said that he didn't believe it was a starter pistol. She had 
confessed to him the truth about what had happened. It didn't 
surprise John as much as she had expected. John said, "You must 
have done something to impress her."

Looking over at John, Ed could see that he already knew the story. 
He shrugged and said, "There was a little incident in the bar, but I 
don't think that was it. I think she just likes me now that I'm sober."

John asked, "Where are you putting the desk?"

Opening the door to his rock room, Ed showed John in. John 
stopped and looked around the room with a critical eye. Smiling, 
he said, "I think you are studying the right subject at school."

Laughing, Ed replied, "You think so?"

While Ed knelt down to move a couple of boxes out of the way, 
John asked, "What's with the empty shelves?"

Ed replied, " I'm taking down those shelves. I moved the rocks off 
them yesterday morning so that I could move the desk in here."

John moved over to help Ed remove the shelves. It didn't take long 
for them to take them down. Before long, the men had wrestled the 
desk into the room. Sitting down in the desk chair, Ed pushing 
against the floor rolling it into the room and stopping at the desk. 
He looked around the room and asked, "What do you think of my 
study?"

"I think you have found your passion and it is here in this room."