FIVE YEARS AGO

Palm fronds hung in the wind, waving with that carefree motion of the tropics. I pulled my old Caddy at a slow creep along the tree-lined boulevard. What a day to be alive under that big Florida sun - sunglasses on, windows rolled down, and a cooler filled with cold Dixie beer on the passenger's side floor.

A few more blocks and I'd be in the driveway of ol' Lindy Lu. Lawd, I can't wait to see Lindy. She was once the most darling darling of my darlings - and she loved me too! Yes, we had some wild and wonderful times, and, with any luck, we'd have a good ol' time this weekend.

It must have been five years since I last saw her - it seemed more like a thousand! She was a good woman, and I was a fool for ever leaving her. But that was then. Maybe we can make up for lost time - maybe, if she has half a mind to. Chances are she's seeing some other chump and won't have time for her old flame. After all, it was five years ago.

There's her street - Floral Lane - I even love the name of her street. Lindy Lu on Floral Lane - too much! Why did I ever leave Miss Lindy? I guess that old saying is right: Men screw up their lives in a thousand ways.

Well, it all looks about the same. Yep, there's those neat little grey and pink bungalows with their carports and nicely kept gardens. Oh...that's why they call it Floral Lane...I guess maybe you're supposed to be a gardener to live here. That's right! Lindy always was messing with some little garden all the time - I forgot.

She was a mere 26 when I first met her, and what a beauty! Slender and petite, Lindy had a fresh, pure fragrance about her. How her hair shined - I remember that shine the most - shoulder-length auburn hair with that languid, sexy bounce. And those eyes! When Lindy looked at me with those cool green eyes I could never tell a lie...except for that one time anyway. She was fine. So warm...so full of life. Daggone! Maybe I still love her!

There's the house - 4504. My Gawd - it looks exactly the same! I'm sure glad I called. I wonder what she's wearing. Hope she hasn't turned into some kind of pig-sucking hagfish! No, not Lindy - it's not like her to let herself go. Besides, as soon as she got over the initial shock of my call, she didn't hesitate a bit when I said I was in town and wanted to come out to the house to visit - a sure sign she's no porker!

I stopped at the curb, right out front. The Caddy sure looked good, all shined chrome and gleaming red paint. I couldn't help admiring it as I got out and headed across the lawn to her door. Here I was, small bouquet of hyacinths in hand, standing at the door again after all these years. I felt like I was in a video or something - the door seemed to kind of jump at my face, this way and that, that yellow door with the blue trim was gonna open any second now, and there she would be - framed like a picture in the doorway.

I knocked. Not a sound. I gave it another knock. Still nothing. What is this? We said 3:00 PM Thursday, and hey, it's Thursday and it's 10 minutes after 3:00. I looked in the front window. It looked dead. Maybe she's around back. I pushed my way around her shrubbery, a kind of tumbling mess of thick-leaved jungle plants, and as I approached the back corner of the house I thought I heard something - a giggle?

"I hope I'm not interrupting anything," I joked - but a dread shot through me as I saw Lindy in her pool with her arms around some broad.

She shrieked, "Johnny, Johnny, is it really you? Look at you." "Oh. You brought me flowers. Johnny," she bleated, pulling herself out of the pool and running at me smiling. Damn, she looked even better than I remembered.

"Give me a hug, you nutty chick!" I said, as we groped for each other.

"Five years, Johnny, it's been five years - and you're still a hunk. Come here lover boy," she teased, messing up my hair.

Yeah, I know, five years - it feels kind of funny, doesn't it?" I said, still feeling my initial dread.

"Come over here, ya big galoot, I want you to meet Virginia," she gloated. Virginia looked my way and gave me a half-sexy nod. "Virginia's my girlfriend," said Lindy, matter-of-factly. Actually, I thought, she could have dome worse. Virginia was a knock-out. "Come on, join us in the pool," pouted Lindy, as Virginia chimed in, "Yeah, Johnny, join us in the pool!" What could I do?...I joined them in the pool.

Ol' Lindy Lu, a lesbian? Heart sinking, I stripped and climbed down the ladder in my black jockey briefs. The cool water broke over my face. I paddled over to them. "So, what happened, Lindy, did you lose your fondness for men?" I ventured.

"Why no, hon," she laughed, "whatever makes you say a silly thing like that?" Virginia was looking askance, palming the water, being invisible.

"Aw shucks - tie me to an ant hill and stuff my ears fulla jam - what's a guy supposed to think when a gal introduces him to her 'girlfriend.'? Now tell me."

"Well, Johnny, it's no secret. Yes, we're lovers," she said. Virginia smiled at the water but then jerked her head to catch me before I could turn away. She grinned demurely at my supposed embarrassment. Lindy put her hand on Virginia's chin and gave her mouth a little squeeze. Both girls giggled. "Johnny, sure, we have lots of fun together. We're very close friends. Of course that doesn't mean we hate men, does it now Gin?" taunted Lindy.

"Is that some kind of lame attempt to tease me?" I countered, "Y'all aren't flirting with me, now are you?"

Virginia had been eyeing me from her prone position on the underwater steps. Now she was wading through the water, seductively inching her way closer. She brushed Lindy, giving her a loving caress. Still looking at me she said, "Our flirting with you wouldn't make you nervous, would it Johnny boy?" My expression must have said everything. "I'd do her," I thought. She was now in front of me, her warm, blond breath on my face.

From the corner of my eye I could see Lindy. Either she was amused or getting turned on. Just then I felt Virginia's hand gently rub my crotch as she smiled, smugly, into my eyes. "Now hold on, hold everything...," I started to say..."Now Johnny, Ginny just wants to be friendly," Lindy put in as she swept over to us, "Don't you like Ginny?"

"Sure," I creaked - as 'Ginny' palmed my beanos and rubbed her now naked breasts on my chest.

"Ooh, I like you, Johnny. I want you," she oozed into my ear. By now Lindy's hot tongue was looking for mine.

The banana trees sheltered us as our little sexscapade gained momentum. Here I was - it was every guy's fantasy - fulfilled - two nasty, hungry mouths - consuming me - two kittens with no inhibitions; gaping love bunnies, spreading, tightening, sighing - quivers and spasms shooting pleasure through us. For an hour we must have nibbled and whomped, kisses flowing, our menage de trois a lust fountain - nothing but raw animalismo. I loved Lindy again like I never gave her up. It seemed even better than before. And Virginia could do tricks - the most erotic tricks this boy had ever seen. Great googley moogley,I was pumped to a frenzy.

Finally...things wound down. Lindy went in and brought us some vodka martinis in a tall shaker. Dusk was slowly coming on.

"Mind if I use the phone?" I asked.

"Sure. It's where it's always been," said Lindy, "Go ahead." I dragged my raggedy behind inside. The place looked just the way I remembered it - Florida seedy, but kinda charming. Now, to call my man.

I dialed the number, still reeling from the wanking those chicks laid on me. "Larry, how ya doin'? Yeah. You gotta check this place out. I need some help here. What? No, not yet. But I will. I'll try to wait until you get here. And oh - be prepared to meet some wild women. The address? - 4504 FloralLane. Yeah, just around the corner. What? Don't worry - you're man enough. Yeah, OK. Goodbye." I hung up feeling a little better Larry was coming. We had agreed I'd tell her. Maybe I was feeling a little queasy about it. After all, I wasn't the type to kiss and tell - I wasn't that type at all. But it sounded like Larry was wimping a little. I hate it when he gets in those moods. Oh well...back to the front lines.

Virginia was coming in the sliding doors as I was coming out. With a picture-perfect smile she touched me all over as we passed. "I wanna fuck you again," she whispered, "So does Lindy." With that, she slid into the house, leaving me with a shit-eating grin on my face. Lindy was sitting in a chaise lounge when I came out and joined her.

"Gee, I thought we'd never be alone, Miss Lindy Lu. I can't wait to talk a little. After five years...you know...lots has happened," I stammered, trying to get going.

"Oh, I invited a friend of mine over," I said clumsily, "I hope you don't mind."

"Johnny," she said,"any friend of yours is fine with me."

"Great," I said. She was a good woman, no doubt about it. "Listen, I got to know...you don't have any hard feelings or anything because of, you know, the way I broke it off with you so long ago, when I told you about that other gal?"

She gave me a stern kind of look. "You idiot," I heard her say,"I'll always be here for you. Oh, it was hard, five years ago. Poor me. My aching heart wouldn't mend for so long it seemed" - her eyes welled up with tears - "but I...wasn't really mad at you or bitter. I was just pissed at myself, I guess." Geez, what a woman!

"You're something, you know?" I brushed back her hair and held my palm against her cheek. Those green eyes, wet with tears, gazed lovingly at mine. "You know, I could never tell a lie to those green eyes of yours," I said,"but just once...toward the end...I lied when..."

"Lindy, there's some other guy here," yelled Virginia.

"Send him out back," she hollered back.

In waltzed Larry. Virginia stood next to him. "Y'all, meet Larry, my old boyfriend, Larry."

Lindy now had the missing piece, the lie from five years ago.

September 2-3, 1993 (Updated 1/22/07)