Stardust Miracle (3 page)

Earl grinned, his face pasty in the dusk, almost skeletal – though there was nothing skeletal about his belly. “‘Screw the government. They’re screwing us.’”

Derek and Gloria laughed, and Becky even chuckled. She could think about her mother later.

Or not.

“That one was from you, right?” she asked.

He nodded, and his grin turned sober. “Might be a good one for you to remember.”

Then he opened the door and got in.

Becky looked at Gloria, who shrugged then mimed someone gulping down a beer and pointed at Earl’s car as the motor of his old Ford revved up. Becky smiled. Earl liked his beer, though she’d never seen him drunk.

Derek’s car door shut, then Gloria got into her car and Becky got into hers.

As she started home, she thought of Jim’s surprise when she came home early from the board meeting. Probably the first time in two years.

She smiled slowly. Thinking of an even better surprise.

Chapter Three

Becky stepped out of the garage and looked up at the stars that had popped out during the drive home, reminding her of last Sunday in the parking lot. Tonight it felt as if the stars were putting on a light show for her. A sign from heaven, telling her life was good and she needed to laugh more, dance more, love more.

Maybe that was the miracle – for her to enjoy life. 

Even the wind had died down during the short drive home. A sure message from Mother Nature.

She laughed softly. She wasn’t delusional. But tonight anything seemed possible. Even miracles.

She turned to the house, feeling as if a tiny star had slipped inside her chest. Blinking off and on. She felt hot. Hot all over but mostly down there. 

Okay, she could think it. She could even say it. In her vagina.

“Vagina,” she murmured low so no one else could hear. Not that there was anyone around, but it was amazing to her the things that people in Miracle knew about each other. She wouldn’t put it past them to hear about what she’d said, somehow.

And tonight she felt like she might finally have something besides her thoughts to hide. Now even her skin was hot... Hard to believe that just seven minutes ago she’d been shivering in the village hall parking lot.

She shivered again. Maybe this was early perimenopause... Or it could be her hormones jumping, saying
this
would be the time for her to get pregnant.

The thought made her heart thump like a manic rabbit’s.

Inside the house, the lights were on, but it felt silent. As if it were waiting for something.

The parsonage with the four bedrooms, three bathrooms and one office was too big for the two of them. Their cat had been devoured by a coyote three weeks ago, and since then it felt even emptier. Lucy the cat had tolerated Becky and adored Jim, but at least Lucy had been company for Becky when Jim was at church. Becky had wanted a dog but Jim said he was allergic to dogs. 

Becky always nodded when he said that, not letting him know his mother let slip that the truth was Jim had been bitten by a Cocker Spaniel when he was five, and had never gotten over his fear of dogs.

She opened the office door but there was no light inside, just shimmers coming through the windows from the stars and the moon.

“Jim!” she called, walking through the house. She ran upstairs but there was no Jim anywhere. Finally she went downstairs again, to the kitchen, where she looked for a note.

Nothing on the counter. She dug her phone out of the purse she’d left on the table and checked her messages. Nothing from Jim. Just a voice mail from her father, saying he had a craving for meatloaf and the next time she made some for Jim, he’d appreciate it if she made an extra loaf for him and dropped it off at his place. She translated that to mean he wanted it tomorrow.

She’d planned on making a Mediterranean dish with leftover chicken from tonight, but she could make meatloaf. It wasn’t her favorite meal, but that didn’t matter. After all that her father had done for her and Jim, making him a meal every once in a while was no big deal.

She just wished her father would do as much for Sarah. With Sarah’s son and another child on the way, and her husband not making much at his business, Sarah was the one who needed Carl’s help.

A
picker
, her father liked to spit out, as if Marshall’s occupation left a bad taste. Marsh bought old junk that he hoped to sell for more than he paid. He drove all over the state, and even neighboring states, hunting for bargains and steals. Sometimes leaving Sarah and Cody for days.

Becky liked Marsh, but she doubted he made enough to afford good health insurance for his family. She felt sorry for Sarah and ignored Jim’s stricture not to mention her sister’s name to their father. But as usual, Jim had turned out to be right. Trying to get her dad to help Sarah was harder than trying to lose ten pounds.

But tonight she felt…different. The extra padding she was usually so self-conscious about didn’t feel so awful. Tonight she felt voluptuous. Sexy even.

The shimmers coming in from the window like dust motes danced around her. She spun around, dancing with them. They seemed to shine brighter for an instant. The next instant they vanished.

She stood still for a moment. “What are you?” she whispered. “And why me?”

No one answered her question. Her hands curled at her sides. Her silly questions. There was no message from God in the parsonage. No mischievous angel, no Disney character on the loose. Just a moonbeam, and now a cloud had drifted over its source of light.

She stepped out the back door and into the backyard. Jim’s car was in the garage. Since he’d left no message, she could only think of one other place he would be.

He’d planned to work tonight on next week’s sermon. He’d probably gone to his office at the church to look up something, and that led to something else he needed to look up, which usually led to another thing.

Sure enough, his office light was on. The shades were down, but light seeped around the edges. She took a step on the grass...and then stopped. An idea bubbled up inside her.

With a giggle, she hurried inside and up to their bedroom. Crouching in front of her dresser, she pulled out the bottom drawer closest to the wall. The one she only opened every month to change the sachet. And as she took out the top negligee, she smelled the lavender. 

Lavender was supposed to be the smell that made men...well, horny. 

She brought it to her nose and inhaled deeply. The shimmers still inside her danced wildly, as if something were waking up. As if something good were going to happen.

“Oh,” she whispered. “Oh, oh, oh.”

She set it on the bed and started to undress. Jim was going to be in for a surprise tonight.

*****

Becky ran across the grass and laughed at her brashness. She wore her tan trench coat – her church coat – over her red negligee. Tonight she felt free. With a sexual appetite and playfulness she hadn’t felt for a long time.

She couldn’t swear that what she planned had never happened in the church, people being what they were. But it had never happened in the church before with her and Jim.

Laughter spilled out of her mouth, and she only stopped because she was breathless from an overload of excitement. The need to experience something more with her husband had been building inside her for a long time. Now it was finally boiling over – leaving her lightheaded and unlike her usual self.

She liked these feelings. Liked this side of her a lot.

When she’d stepped out of the car tonight and looked up at the stars, something happened. Something changed. For so long, she’d been carrying a dark weight around with her. Going through the days and nights trying to say and do all the right things, when inside something had felt all wrong.

She’d lost the joy in her life. Hadn’t been fully living...just going through the motions. At only thirty-six, she’d felt old and dried up.

Now she felt young again. Free.

Jim wouldn’t know what happened to his proper wife.

She reached the church’s back door, using it instead of the front entrance because she didn’t want anyone passing by to see her. Not that there was anything wrong with going to see her husband. But if anyone mentioned her late night visit, her face would probably turn the color of a ripe tomato and give away what they’d done.

She slipped the key into the lock but it turned easily. She stepped inside. Jim must’ve come in this way and forgotten to lock the door behind him. He was always preoccupied with his work and his parishioners.

She admired that. She did. But once in a while, she wanted his mind, plus a few body parts, to be on her.

And not just when her body temperature was right for conception.

She started toward Jim’s office, and her heels clicked on the laminate floor that looked like wood. Laughing under her breath, she stopped and took them off. She wanted to give Jim a surprise he’d never forget. A good surprise. No. A
wonderful
surprise.

His door was closed. Habit, she supposed, since no one was here except him. She heard him speaking. Couldn’t make out the words. Just his voice. Probably saying lines from the sermon he was preparing. Then his voice stopped, and she imagined him frowning at his computer screen while he wrote the next line.

She started to undo the buttons of her coat, then decided it would be sexier to do it inside with him watching. Kind of like a stripper.

Stifling a giggle, she turned the handle and flung open the door.

“Surprise!”

Chapter Four

Sitting on his couch, wearing only his white shirt, Jim stared at her as if she were his worst nightmare. So did Diana Kellman, who wore nothing, her brunette head lifting from his lap. Her fingers wrapped around his erect penis.

Becky put her hand over her mouth. She wanted to puke. She wanted to scream. She wanted to cry. But all she could do was stand there, a long, low moan ripping out of her throat. The sound of an animal in pain.

“Becky.” Jim put his open hand on Diana’s head and shoved her away from him. Diana fell on her butt on the gray and blue striped rug that Becky had found for Jim four years ago at an estate sale in Wausau. Diana squealed as Jim grabbed his pants and stood.

“It’s not what it seems.” Jim held his pants over his penis. As if Becky hadn’t seen it before.

Becky welcomed a hot rush of whirling anger. No, not anger.
Fury
. She took a deep, shuddering breath. The excitement was gone. The moan gone. The feeling that she’d been stabbed in the heart... Gone.

“You mean you weren’t getting a blow job?” she asked, and her voice only shook a little. She glanced at Diana, who was scrambling to her feet. Becky turned her head away and spotted Jim’s cell phone on his walnut desk. Instead of running out of the office, she crossed to the desk.

“Please, Becky,” Jim said. “We can talk.”

She heard the clink of his belt and without even thinking, as if something from above guided her, she picked up the cell phone, clicked on the camera, and whipped around, holding the phone like a weapon.

“Becky, no!” Jim shouted, one foot raised to put inside his pants leg, his penis not erect anymore but not completely flaccid, hanging in a curve like a tired rubber hose. 

Diana was bent over, reaching for her panties, her butt toward Becky, but at Jim’s shout she glanced behind her.

Becky snapped the camera.

“No!” Jim put his leg out to chase after her. Becky clicked the camera again, catching the surprise on his face when he realized his foot was half in the pants and he was falling. Diana twisted around, her clothes clasped over her breasts. Her pants legs hung down, covering her hairless pubic area.

Too bad, Becky thought, snapping a photo of Diana. Her mind was oddly clear, as if this were an unpleasant dream instead of her life falling apart. She’d love to send the picture to the congregation newsletter list. Let everyone know that Diana had her pubic hair waxed off. Maybe last week while she was visiting her sister in Eau Claire.

But at least she’d gotten the ass shot of Diana.

Then Becky aimed down at Jim sprawled on the floor. As she pressed the camera button, his butt was coming up, so she had a good shot of the mole on his left cheek that was shaped like the state of Wisconsin.

Now she had two ass shots. His and hers.

When he raised his face, there was no more offered conciliation. Only fury. “You can’t fucking do this to me.”

One more click and then Becky ran. Ran like she hadn’t since high school track. She left her shoes behind her. She had something much more important in her hands. The cell phone.

She ran across the churchyard to their backyard as if the devil chased her. And she knew any second that would be true – the devil in the shape of her husband.

Her mind was curiously empty. The rational part of her brain, the part that analyzed everything, told her she was still suffering from shock. It was too early to believe it really happened. As if she were in a dream state.

Or maybe she was too filled with emotion to dig into it. An emotional volcano inside her simmering and ready to erupt. Only instead of hot, burning lava, she was stuffed with hot, burning grief. Hot, burning horror. Hot, burning anger. Tons and tons of anger.

How dare they? How the hell dare they?

No, how dare
he
?

A stone dug into her left sole but she kept running, her breaths huffing. The churchyard was longer than she’d thought, or she was more out of shape than she’d thought, and her opinion of her shape was already pretty low. Right now, lower than ever. 

A tear came to her eyes and she blinked it away. Still running. Never stopping.

Another tear tried to come, and fierceness roared through her. She would
not
cry over Jim now. Anger was better. Later she could cry. Much later.

She was amazed that Jim wasn’t chasing after her yet. But unlike her, he was probably pulling on his shoes. Or maybe he was staying to shoo Diana out as quietly as he could. By now he was putting the pieces together in his mind, thinking of a dozen different ways to gull Becky into disbelieving what happened. To convince her that what she’d captured on the phone’s camera wasn’t what it seemed.