Palouse - 23. Chapter 23

Chapter 23

With Amelia – August 1992

Two Weeks Later

Over breakfast a couple of weeks after returning from the trek, Micah’s thoughts kept returning to the night before. He and Amelia had driven to Colfax and rented a motel room. They hadn’t even stopped for dinner. Their clothes were off the minute they closed the door to Room 14. Micah threw the bedspread and blankets onto the only chair in the room. Amelia lay down on her back almost immediately, with her legs spread. Micah lay between them and sucked softly at her nipples while his finger felt the moisture in her vagina. Soon, his mouth was adding to the moisture, and he was ready to enter her, which he did with a single, soft but urgent thrust. Amelia lifted her legs around Micah’s waist, pulling him into her, accentuating his thrusts against her clitoris. In only a few minutes, she heard Micah moan his release, and she felt the moisture rise around him.

She didn’t reach a climax the first time, but the next three times she did, hugging Micah to her tightly as the keening of his sounds heralded his releases.

The evening was entirely about sex. There was no conversation that didn’t complement their lovemaking. There was no movement of hand or body that didn’t have as its goal the enhancement of physical pleasure.

It was after four before they got on the road, freshly showered with the white cake of soap and dried with the small, stiff white bath towels. Micah dropped Amelia off at her house, seeing her to the door, and drove home; he was in bed by five a.m. without Greg noticing his late arrival.

Betty noticed it, though, and her expression was angry expression and her lips pursed she silently made Micah breakfast later that morning. Micah realized that he wasn’t scot-free with his behavior. Micah knew his mother wanted him to change – to settle down, to respect her and the Kingman family – but his hormones were swirling, his rebellion unabated.

“Micah, I don’t know what you’re doing,” Greg said as he rubbed Micah’s back in their pre-bedtime ritual the next night, “but you’re freaking out Mom, Dad is barely able to hold his cool, and I’m trying to keep the peace. I don’t know how much longer I can do so.”

“That’s okay, Greg. It’s not you. I… I just can’t seem to control what I’m doing. I like Amelia a lot, and the sex is a drug, but I don’t know where I’m going with my life – is it music, is it Endicott, is it something else? I guess until I figure it out, I can’t help but be a pain in the ass. Sorry. And thanks for sticking by me.”

* * * * *

“Stan, it’s not working. Micah is letting his future slip away.” Betty and Stan were having coffee in the morning while all the kids were away from the house. “Actually, he’s letting his present get away.”

“He’s still young, and he’ll adjust, I’m sure of it.”

“But if he knocks up this girl, his music career is over.”

“Like yours was?” Stan said with a trace of bitterness in his voice.

“I didn’t mean it like that.”

“Yes, you did.”

“Stan, I’m happy with what I…we chose, believe me. Sure, every once in a while I think about what might have happened otherwise, but there was no guarantee that my piano career would go anywhere. The field is very competitive. I probably would have ended up teaching piano – which I do now.

“Stan, I love you; I love our family. I’ve had a wonderful life here.” Betty kissed her husband, pulling him to her.

“But Micah…” Betty sighed and took a sip of coffee. “He really can go farther than I ever could, and I will not let him undermine his future irretrievably – he needs time to come to his senses.” A look of determination ­– a look that Stan knew very well – was on her face.

“So what are we going to do, Betty, if he takes up with the same crowd that he did?”

“Let’s figure out some alternatives.”

A week later Betty was determined that the backup plan that she and Stan had worked out for Micah couldn’t come soon enough. Micah’s behavior around home hadn’t changed; in fact, he was rarely around home.

For only a few days after his wilderness trek, had he been more respectful, but his behavior began to drift back to what it had been pre-trek as he resumed associating with his old friends. She feared they were trouble.

Stan spoke with Micah about the drift in his behavior. Betty and Stan had made a two-week deadline to allow things to settle down. The next two weeks were trying for her. Micah’s behavior didn’t change, and something had to be done – a second time. She knew Micah would resist. She was aware that the family was at a crossroads.