Coming of Age, Part One, 
by Juno


It was a Saturday afternoon and Margo was restless again.  Nothing that she did 
seem to relieve these feelings when she was not busy at work.  It had been three 
years since her husband had died and Margo had taken over the business.  She 
had always worked at the insurance business that she and her late husband had 
founded.  Since his death, Margo had not hired a replacement, she simply 
became President of the company and maintained her position as CFO.  Margo 
worked harder and longer to do the work of two people.

It was this time-consuming work that kept Margo from these restless feelings she 
had when she was away from work.  Margo heard the voices and basketball 
being dribbled from the driveway on the side of the house.  She walked over to 
the window to watch the two people playing a game of one-on-one.

The taller player of the two was slowly advancing toward the basket, forcing the 
other player to give ground, even with the smaller player trying to stop the 
advancement by hand checking.  Once the taller player got close to the basket, 
she turned and shot over the outstretched hand of the smaller player.

Margo smiled as her daughter scored the basket.  Margo's daughter, Nada, had 
played and starred for both her high school and college basketball teams.  Margo 
was not surprised at Nada's ability, but at her ease of dominating the other 
player.  The other player was Ken, Nada's husband.  Ken had also played both 
high school and college basketball.  Ken was never the best player on his teams, 
but he was a starter at both levels.  The big difference was size between Nada 
and Ken, Nada was 6'2" and Ken was 5'10", plus Nada probably outweighed 
Ken by 10 or 15 pounds.

As Margo continued to watch Nada dominate Ken on the basketball court, she 
felt as if she had never realized their respective size differences.  The feeling of 
being restless that Margo had earlier felt was now being replaced by a tingling 
sensation.  Margo could not stop watching the contest and felt disappointed when 
Nada made a basket and yelled "game" at Ken.  Margo continued watching as 
Nada and Ken walked off the court, with Nada's arm draped over Ken's shoulder 
as she consoled him on his loss.  Ken looked even smaller as Nada guided him 
off the court.

As Nada and Ken disappeared from Margo's view, she continued to feel the 
tingling sensation as she replayed parts of the game over in her mind.  The size 
difference and how easily Nada had physically pushed Ken around the court 
would not leave Margo's mind.  Margo then began to think about Paul, her late 
husband.  Margo and Paul had been married almost 25 years before his death and 
had worked together in their business for almost the same period of time.  Paul 
was a big man, 6'4", and was an assertive and action-oriented person.  Even 
thought they normally as a couple made decisions together, it was Paul that ran 
both the house and business affairs.  They had been happy together and the 
business was successful.

As Paul was considered a big man, Margo would also be considered a big 
woman.  Margo was almost 6'1" and while not fat, she was solid in an athletic 
way.  But, until Margo watched the basketball game between her daughter and 
son-in-law, she had never paid any attention to her size.  Now what was running 
through her mind was not only the size difference between her daughter and son-
in-law, but the size difference between her and her son-in-law.

As Margo entered the kitchen, Ken was at the sink washing his hands.  For some 
reason that Margo could not understand, she had a desire to stand next to Ken 
and compare their respective sizes.  Margo grabbed a towel and walked over to 
Ken.

"Here Ken, dry your hands and stop dripping water over my kitchen floor," said 
Margo.  As Ken turned from the sink he took the towel from Margo.  Margo then 
stood in front of Ken, giving him only enough room between them to dry his 
hands.  Margo was literally blocking Ken from leaving from the sink area.  
Margo could not understand why she stood so close to Ken, but she again started 
to tingle, as she stood in front of Ken, looking down at him.

"Thanks for the towel Margo," said Ken, as he laid the towel on the kitchen 
counter and tried to ease pass Margo.  "Not so fast Ken," said Margo, as she put 
her arm in front of Ken and placed her hand on the edge of the counter, stopping 
Ken from leaving.  Margo could not fathom her behavior, all she knew was that 
she wanted to was block Ken from leaving.

"Let me see if your hands are dry," said Margo, as she took both of Ken's hands 
into her hands.  Margo held his hands in hers and turning them over a couple of 
times.  Margo could not stop staring at his hands in hers, Ken's hands were 
dwarfed by Margo's.  His hands were petit in comparison.  Margo then closed 
her hands around Ken's hands and they literally disappeared.   As if in a spell, 
Margo squeezed down hard on Ken's hands while they were still enclosed in 
hers.

"Ouch, ouch, damn Margo that hurts, let go, please let go now," yelled Ken.

"Hey, what is going on in here," said Nada, as she walked into the kitchen.  Nada 
saw her husband being pushed up against the sink counter by her Mother.  And it 
appeared that her Mother had hold of both her husband's hands and he was 
unsuccessfully trying to pull away from her grip.

"Mother, let go of Ken, you are hurting him," urged Nada.

Suddenly, Margo let go of Ken's hands and staggered back a couple of steps.  
Margo could not believe what she had just done to Ken.  Normally, Margo was 
not a touch and feel type of person.  
She and Ken had a good relationship, but were not particularly close, in fact 
Nada and Ken did not visit that often,
  
"Ken, I'm sorry," said Margo, "I must be losing my mind".  Margo watched at 
Nada was trying to comfort Ken, Nada was rubbing his hands with hers.  Margo 
noticed once again how Ken's smaller hands disappeared into Nada's larger 
hands.

As Margo watched Nada and Ken, she once again started to feel the tingling 
sensation throughout her body.  Margo excused herself and went upstairs to her 
bedroom.

"Mother, can I come in" asked Nada.

"Please, please, Nada, come in," answered Margo.

"What is going on, you almost broke both of Ken's hands," said Nada as she sat 
next to her Mother on the bed.

"I am so sorry," said Margo, "but since your Father's death, I have been feeling 
either restless or listless, I just can't describe it".  "But today, after watching you 
and Ken play basketball, I got another type of feeling, a tingling feeling, and all I 
wanted to do was to touch, feel, squeeze, control, or whatever to Ken".  

"I don't know, I must be going crazy, only at work do I feel in control and sane," 
said Margo.

"Mother, you are not crazy," said Nada, "maybe you should see my friend at the 
college, Janet".

"Janet, isn't she the assistant athletic director" said Margo.

"Yes, but she has done a lot in the field of women cultural studies," said Nada, "I 
think you would like her and maybe she can help you with these feelings".

"We need to do something before you either maim or kill my little husband," 
laughed Nada, "he has enough trouble with his larger than life wife, he doesn't 
need to watch out for his larger than life Mother-in-law".

They both laughed and hugged each other.

"You are right Nada, until today, I didn't realize how small and fragile your 
husband was," laughed Margo.

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