Grandma Muscles: Part 2
By Merz
An older woman turns her family upside down when she comes to visit one summer


I've always gotten along pretty well with my mother in law. It might be
because we live half a continent apart, but I always thought it was kind of
fun marrying into a family where the matriarch was a health nut. There are a
lot less pleasant eccentricities and obsessions that could have lurked in the
family tree. This visit hadn't been anything I dreaded, just an interesting
way to start the summer. I knew Madeline could fend for herself during the day
and at the same time keep an eye on Angie while Paul and I were at work. We
could play tour guides and hosts on the weekends while Madeline looked after
herself and got reacquainted with her granddaughter during the week. Even
though she was coming for four weeks I didn't expect any melodrama or
disruption to our lives. That held up until the second week.

I was sitting out on the patio after work, reading some reports I'd brought
home from the office and generally enjoying the silent sounds of an empty
house. Paul was out of town on business until the next day. Madeline and Angie
were across the street exercising like they did every evening before dinner.
And Madeline had called me at the office that afternoon to check that it would
be all right for Angie to have dinner with Melinda and her family. No problem
there! I love my family and I still love having time to myself. It would be
just me and Madeline tonight and as I said, we got along all right.

She came into the back yard about six looking relaxed as she always does after
her final workout of the day. I'd say that if all I had to do was exercise I
could look as good at 62 as she does. Unfortunately I didn't look that healthy
at 22. She sat on the patio quietly while I finished my reading. She was
dressed in one of her usual afternoon uniforms of walking shorts, t-shirt, and
sneakers, not much different from what I had changed into after work except I
wore sandals. She sat peacefully sort of massaging her arms until I finished
and asked her how her day had been.

"I had a good day," she told me as she drew in a huge lungful of air. "No
point to have any other kind. How did yours go?"

"Pretty typical. Meetings most of the day, presenting my fairytales about the
business and listening to other people's fairy tales. The managers at my level
are trying to get agreement on our version of reality and then hope the execs
will put on the same magic glasses so they see things the same way. It always
gets pretty tense at this time of year, the end of the third quarter. It's
nice to come home and just sit back here and unwind."

She looked at me a couple of moments and then came behind my chair and began
massaging my shoulders and neck. "You are tense," she told me. "Let me work on
these knots for a minute." Her strong hands were kneading my shoulders the way
my mother used to knead bread dough when she baked bread at holiday time. It
felt heavenly.

"You could have a job for life doing that for me and probably everyone I
know," I sighed. "I just get so stressed at work and I carry it home at night.
I can just feel all the tension leaking out. I owe you big time for this."

She hesitated a moment and then answered, "We can trade places and you can pay
me back. I get my stress out through exercise, but I'll want some body lotion
rubbed on if you don't mind. It would do you good to join us for our evening
exercise. Lifting weights and stretching will undo all these knots you carry
around with you. We can adjust our times to fit your schedule for coming home,
and it will give you an excuse to leave your office on time instead of putting
in those extra hours."

I could tell she was on the verge of one of her little sermons on the benefits
of fitness and exercise so I jumped in quickly to cut her off. "I'd be happy
to help with your lotion. Do you want to get it now?"

"That would be lovely, dear. May I borrow a swim suit? I swam laps this
afternoon and mine is still drying. I'd like to get as much coverage as I can.
At my age my skin tends to dry out dreadfully, but I've been a sun worshipper
all my life. Since I'm outdoors so much I really need to get lotion onto as
much of my skin as I can." She stopped her massaging and just stood behind me
holding my shoulders and squeezing them a little with her strong hands.

"Surely. My suits are in the third drawer of my dresser. Help yourself. I
think I'll bring the radio out and we can listen to music. It's so warm I'm in
no hurry for dinner. Maybe we can eat outside." I followed her in where I got
the boom-box radio. I was dialing in some mellow jazz music when Madeline
reappeared and I nearly choked.

You see, I'm taller than Madeline and nearly thirty years younger. I had
expected her to pick one of my old one-piece suits. Instead she had gone for
my skimpy thong bikini, and was more than doing it justice. This was my weight
loss resolution suit: I bought it as another challenge to get back into a
shape where I would be willing to wear the thing. I was aware that my mother
in law stayed in top condition and that her arms always seemed rather
muscular. But stepping out onto my patio was a rippling apparition beyond
anything I had ever seen. I have a nice set of tits, if I do say, but she was
threatening to burst out of the top of my suit. Not because she was stacked at
all, but because her chest and back were so full and developed. I had often
noted the veins on her forearms, and that sometimes after she had exerted I
could see veins on her upper arms disappearing under her shirt sleeves as
well. Now fresh from lifting weights and massaging my shoulders she had veins
as big around as pencils lacing over her rounded biceps, dividing as they
crawled down past her elbows to a dense web on her forearms. Her stomach
looked like a gothic window divided into half a dozen flat, square panes. Her
thighs swelled and bunched as she walked barefoot onto the patio. Her calves
were rolling into diamond shaped bunches, then stretching out with each step.
I swallowed hard and tried to pull my eyeballs back into my head. After more
than a dozen years of marriage I hadn't seen this much of my mother in law
before and had never suspected she was hiding an incredible physique under the
exercise clothes she constantly wore. From the various tan patterns on her
upper body and the golden glow across her stomach she was clearly no stranger
to two piece suits, but this one exposed several patches of taut white skin
she had previously kept under wraps.

Her smile was crinkling up the web of wrinkles around her eyes, lighting up
her face. "I hope you don't mind my picking this one. I wouldn't ordinarily
wear anything this risqu,, but it's just us girls tonight and the evening is
so warm. This afternoon I made a big salad we can have for dinner." She
extended her bottle of skin lotion to me and spread a large towel on the
patio.

For about one half second I tried to act as nonchalant about her body as she
was being, but then my astonishment just flooded out. "Madeline, we've known
each other for almost fifteen years. Why am I just finding out my mother in
law makes Arnold Schwarzennegger look like Woody Allen?" She bent at the waist
to put her hands flat on the top of her towel, then stretched one leg at a
time out behind until she was in the top of a push-up position. Her triceps
were standing out like ropes wrapping around her arms, and the muscles along
her ribcage were straining against her thin skin as she lowered herself onto
her stomach.

She smiled up at me as I stooped down next to her with the bottle of lotion.
"Arnold is at least eight inches taller than I am. Ashley, how many speeches
have you had to sit through while I expounded on the virtue of exercise? Did
you think that was all just hot air and idealism? And since I've been living
in your house for over a week, you know I'm out working up a sweat every
chance I get. I'm a little pumped up from lifting weights with the kids, but
really I don't believe I look any different from how every healthy person
should look."

I shook out some of her flowery smelling skin lotion onto my hands and began
rubbing it into the skin on her back. I could feel shoulder blades and other
bones buried under a layer of firm muscles. I worked along for a while
speechless in the face of this incredible surprise. I took an extra
opportunity to feel her white behind, rising firm and round around the tiny
thong. It felt so solid and strong, and I thought about how self- conscious I
am about my own rear view. It was the same story down her curving legs. When I
got done rubbing her feet she obligingly rolled over with another muscle
display all up and down her body. As I shifted position I could see that her
supine body rested on just a few contact points with the towel: her heels,
about an inch of her calves, a couple inches of her thighs, a little of the
solid round butt, then her lower back made an arch a couple of inches high to
where her upper back met the towel, and her shoulders and head. Along her
length I could see spaces between where the muscle groups held her skeleton
off the flat surface. There was nothing soft enough to spread out where her
body lay on the towel. She looked up and said if I preferred she was able to
do her front, but I insisted that she just relax while I paid her back for my
shoulder rub.

"Really, you're doing much more than my few moments working your shoulders.
How about if I give you this same treatment next? This lotion is wonderful. It
will leave you positively tingling," she said up to me as I prepared to start
on the fronts of her legs.

I tried to keep my mind on my business as I rubbed my way along her legs a
little more quickly than when I had explored the other side. I skipped her
torso and began rubbing the lotion into her arms but I couldn't stop myself
from commenting as I lifted her right arm off the towel. The veins were
beginning to subside but the thick muscles were impossible to disguise or to
ignore. I held her upper arm in my hand and it was like hefting a heavy leg of
lamb in the grocery. I had finished with both arms when I realized I was
breathing faster than normal and flushing, and not from exertion.

Madeline must have guessed something was up because she laid there with a
little grin tugging up her mouth. "Would you mind? This top is a little snug
on me." She arched up and reached around to undo the top of the bikini top and
set it aside as she settled back down. "This really would be no bother for me
to do myself," she said softly as I gazed along the bare trunk spread out
before me.

"No, it's no bother," I choked out. "I'll be through in no time." Her skin
felt smoother than I expected from someone her age, thin and a little less
elastic than my own. I tried not to picture my own mother laid out in this
sort of display. It would not have made a pretty sight.

"Paul had a cute little six-pack of his own when he left for college," she
commented as I began rubbing her flat stomach. "Now he's starting to get a
paunch. None of my kids stuck with the exercise routine I made them follow at
home. It's hell for a mother to see her grown kids are still rebelling against
things we made them do for their own good. All four of my children resented
having to do our regular exercises and were embarrassed to have a mother with
biceps. Now Paul and my daughter Michelle play golf, and Scott plays a poor
game of tennis occasionally. Otherwise they have no use for physical activity.
You have such a nice touch, my dear. Thank you so much." She had her eyes
closed and her hands behind her head as I rubbed lotion onto her breasts,
almost against my will but as if I had no power to stop. "Do you dance?" she
asked, sitting up.

"Why, yes. Paul and I don't get out as often as I'd like because of work and
Angie, but he's a good dancer. I enjoy it quite a lot."

She stood and offered me her hands to help me up. "I've always loved this
tune. It's nearly as old as I am. My husband and I used to dance to it, and I
used it to teach my kids to dance. I'll lead. I had to figure that out when I
was teaching my daughters."

She put her right hand on my hip and took my right hand in her left. Madeline
was quite a good dancer, giving a gentle but definite lead and carrying the
rhythm of the music into her movements. She moved her hand onto my back and
drew me closer against her. We danced cheek to cheek through the tune and she
gave a quick hug at the finish.

"If you'll take off your t-shirt I'll give you the lotion treatment you did
for me, dear. It feels wonderful and cool on a warm evening like this." She
picked up the lotion bottle and watched expectantly. I looked at her a moment,
then pulled my shirt off over my head. I sat on the towel rather than stretch
out as she had. Madeline knelt behind me and rubbed some of the cool lotion
onto my shoulders. My nose was filled with the scent of flowers. I breathed in
deeply as I felt Madeline undo the hook of my bra and slip it off.

As she caressed my breasts with her scented hands I leaned back against her.
"Madeline, why are you seducing me?" I murmured.

Her hands continued their gentle explorations. "We're both healthy people. We
should enjoy our bodies in all the healthy ways we can find," she said softly
into my ear. Her arms reached around and pulled me tightly against her.

The solidness of her strong arms was arousing me in ways I hadn't felt in
years. I squirmed happily against her naked chest and stomach. "How long was
Angela going to be out tonight?" I gasped out hoarsely.

"I told her she had to be home by eight." Madeline shifted her arms until she
had one under my legs and one across my back. She lifted me first to her
knees, then stood smoothly up as if I weighed no more than a child.

I felt her hard rounded biceps against me and looked deeply into eyes. Her
weathered face had the finest fuzzy down of white. I could see my husband's
eyes when I looked in her eyes and his mouth around her firm mouth. I sighed
and asked again, "Why did you pick me?" I stroked her chest and her cheek.

She began carrying me toward the house. "Lots of reasons. Most of the fit men
are too young to have anything interesting to talk about, and I like talking
with people I'm involved with. Maybe that's old-fashioned now. Imagine having
to listen to some beach boy talk about football when you want to talk about
love and sunsets you've seen and flowers you've stopped to smell on the way.
That's one reason." We were inside now and she was moving slowly toward the
guest bedroom. "And I want you to feel what love can be like when you've let
yourself have the strength and health we were meant to have. I want you to
have that lesson so you'll help encourage my granddaughter to learn it too in
a few years. That's number two. And because I expect you and I will visit next
summer again and I want to inspire you to wear this little suit and then do
the carrying when I see you in a year. I want to help make a world filled with
strong healthy people who enjoy sharing their strength."

She had reached her bed and laid me tenderly down on it. I paused for only a
moment before starting to undo my shorts and kicking off my sandals. Madeline
stripped off the bikini bottom and stretched out slowly on top of me, running
her tongue from below my navel to my chin.

We had cleared away the dishes from our dinner on the patio when Angela came
home that evening. She didn't seem to see anything odd in her mom and
grandmother lounging around in our bathrobes. We all watched a little TV and
talked until her bedtime. Madeline and Angela compared notes on exercising and
made plans for a bike ride the next day. I sat basking in the warmth of their
mutual affection. Half an hour after I sent Angie to bed Madeline and I
exchanged looks and headed up ourselves. My bedroom is at the opposite end of
the house from Angie's, so we wouldn't be disturbing her.