Bernice
By Legs
A man spots an old lover on the street.


Spellbound, I stared at the woman across the street. Bernice! I hadn't seen
her since high school. She still had the same walk, the fearless plunging
through space oblivious of any thing or any body. A slender young man, half
her age, walked at her side straining to keep up. They laughed and Bernice
poked and shoved him intermittently, squeezed the back of his neck, and
generally womanhandled him to his apparent delight.

Her aura drew me behind as I followed them into a bookstore. They stopped and
enjoyed some of the magazines on display. Every now and then, the young man
said something in a teasing manner drawing her physical retribution.

Suddenly, Bernice's piercing blue green eyes found mine. I knew in that
instant she recognized me. Keeping eye contact, she smiled and shook the young
man by the neck again, as if displaying him as her trophy.

I gulped as they walked past where I stood with an open book in my hand. Her
eyes continued to lock on mine as she smirked. I trembled with a mixture of
fear and excitement. All she had to do was indicate, and I would have followed
helplessly. But she walked past me and out the door without speaking.

Bernice knelt beside me in the dirt. "Why are you crying, Jason?"

"Pug Sleper beat me up," I said between sobs, ashamed to have her find me like
this, but my face and body hurt and I couldn't help myself.

"Why?"

"I wouldn't give him my lunch money."

"Oh, Jason." She took me in her arms, consoled me with pats to my back and
caressed my head. I cried into her shoulder, tears dripped on her white
blouse.

From that day, she looked for me and took me as her charge. She protected me
before, during, and after high school from Pug and any of the other rougher
boys.

While she shielded me from harm, her dazzling beauty and vibrant personality
consumed me. She instilled spark and energy into my bleak and miserable life.
I lived frail and afraid until she became my protectress.

Our play turned to wrestling. Her strength amazed me. She put me to the ground
with ease. The first time I suffered her abuse terrified me. Her absolute
power crushed my fragility in a wink, as she held me powerless to resist her
whims.

She never hurt me, not really. I mean it hurt, but not bad. She used her
strength as a symbolic gesture to demonstrate her physical superiority. I
first learned to accept it, and then to relish it, as her strength devoured my
weakness and made me unafraid.

She told me I would have no exclusivity with her. If I wanted to bask in her
light, others would have to come before me. As much as this hurt, I had no
choice but to accept her terms, for having a little part of her was better
than being left out in the cold.

With her guiding light, day after day, I saw and felt things never before
imagined. From the day she blessed me with her brand, I felt sheltered with
the relief of not having to worry over making any decisions, or taking any
action that might compromise me. I took everything to her for her sublime
direction.

We ran naked in the woods. She tackled me to the ground, putting her knee in
the middle of my back and pulling back both my arms until I groaned. Her body
radiated the thrill of the physically supreme. I delighted in being the object
of her pleasure. She turned me over and smothered me with her womanhood
demanding cunnilingus. In time, she mounted me and rode me into sweet
oblivion.

Before today, the last time I saw Bernice was the day I left for college.

My parents arranged for me to attend a college a couple hundred miles south.
The agony of leaving Bernice tormented me for weeks. I couldn't leave. I found
paradise with her and didn't think I could live without her. I didn't want to
go, but to challenge my parents? Unthinkable.

When I told her, I expected her to oppose it. But she didn't. She said "Good,
I'm tired of you anyway." Her eyes looked amused as they often did and I hoped
she kidded.

The day I left, after hot and heavy sex, I told her, "I can't leave you,
Bernice. You know that I love you. I worship you. You're the greatest thing to
ever come into my life."

She slapped me so hard I saw stars. "God damn it, Jason, didn't I tell you I'm
tired of you. You'll get down to that college or I'll beat you up so bad,
it'll make your sessions with Pug Sleper look like paddy cake. You've never
felt my fist, and believe me, I hit hard." She hit me on my head and it hurt.
"And the next time I see you, little boy, I'll do it again and again until
you're out of my life."

I'm married now and have two children. I certainly wouldn't want any of them
to find out about my somewhat kinky past. I love them dearly and wouldn't
trade them for the world, but I've always thought longingly of Bernice. I've
always wondered what my life would have been like if she'd let me stay. She
owns a part of my heart, even to this day.

I really envy the shit out of that young man.