Introduction:

Some fun things have long term consequences.

THAT NIGHT:

Arnold (Arnie) grew up as part of the typical kind of family that was seen on T.V back in the nineteen sixties. Dad had a good paying job, and mom stayed home and made a little extra on the side by sewing and cooking on order.

Arnie had two sisters and his own room. They had to share one, because of the boy and girl thing, you know. He was very polite among his family, and his sisters thought of him as being a little dorky because he was a serious student with good grades. They just strived to get C’s with a B once in a while. Arnie regularly got A’s with a few B’s, too. The sisters were two and four years ahead of him, and at school, when they were at the same school, they barely admitted that he was their brother.

Besides being a very good student, he didn’t seem to have any special abilities. He couldn’t carry a tune, failed at the study of guitar, and was rather bland in most sports. However, he was a bowling phenomenon, a nationally ranked junior player and often placed high in junior competitions. This didn’t usually impress the other students, because except for the participants and their families, almost no one knew of it and him.

When he got to the age of sixteen, he noticed that other guys his age were getting dates, especially if they played a high profile sport at school. So he thought this out and decided to turn out for basketball, because he had no desire to be flattened on the ground by some goon of a linebacker.

He didn’t know how to dribble, pass or shoot to start. But, the very fine hand to eye coordination that he had learned as a bowler, actually got him a head start in his new sport, and halfway thru his sophomore season, he was actually getting some time on the floor as a shooting guard, because of his excellent aim.

With this he was starting to get some attention from the girls of the school and even his sisters were being nicer to him.

The coaches told him that he should go to the basketball camp that summer to help him to catch up with other players of his age in knowledge and ability, especially to dribble. They said that he already knew how to shoot. And they would teach him how they wanted him to play defense in their system.

So, up to the camp, thru it and afterwards, he practiced dribbling every minute that his parents didn’t have something for him to do for the family. Even when he went walking, he would dribble his way along. He got so that he was quite proficient in it and didn’t need to see the ball to keep in under control.

When fall practice started, he was designated as the first off the bench as both the shooting and point guards. And during practice got a lot of practice time. It took a while, but his fellow teammates finally got tuned into his particularities of moving and dribbling, so that they could connect well on the court. By the time that the season started, he was going into a three way rotation with the other two top guards.

The cheerleaders often practiced at the time of the varsity team practices, and so he was getting notice by them, as someone that they might want to date for the prestige of being seen with a key basketball player. To reinforce this desire of theirs, they would do flips and such that would expose their panties to open view. His open view. At this time, he wanted to date one of them, but was oblivious to what was going on with the panties’ displays.

First his father, then his sisters and finally his mother began to attend the games, since he was being so successful in them. He was already the top scorer, because the others would feed him the ball and shrug or some other cue to indicate him to shoot, because he was so deadly accurate, and they wanted to win. And they did, eight out of their first ten games. A much higher rate than what the team had enjoyed for years. It also had them in range of getting a playoff berth.

After the tenth game, that they won with him scoring twenty-four points, a couple ‘spirit’ girls, girls who voluntarily joined a school sponsored association to take care of boy athletes social and sometimes other needs; started to turn their attentions to him seriously. One of them was a girl that he had known for years, all the way from Kindergarten. She was one of those girls that a guy knows, but feels is unattainable, because she is so popular and pretty.

Well, she wasn’t acting unattainable that night. She asked him if he would like to come with her to an after the game party at her parent’s house. His father over heard this and felt that that was fine. He could call home, when he was ready, and besides, Artie needed to learn to socially spread his wings, Dad thought.

When they got to the party, it wasn’t at her parent’s house after all, but at an abandoned mill just outside of town. She had driven him there with the car that her daddy had gifted her on her sixteenth birthday. And evidently one of the attenders had access to alcoholic drinks, and the kids were mixing the alcohol with their sodas of various flavors. Artie didn’t know this and so fell victim to being intoxicated without his choice or knowledge.

One of the other girls at the party, one that he had heard some bad things about, took him by the hand and led him to a semi-private spot out behind the building. She began kissing him like he had never experienced before and he began responding in an aggressive way to that. She welcomed that and lifted her dress and doffed her panties for him to play a lot more intimately with her. His hands found her full breasts as hers opened his zipper to play with his dick. With that, any restraint by him went out the window. He quickly had her on the ground with her legs splayed and his dick firmly planted up into her pussy.

She liked this very much, after all it was what she had in mind when she led him out back for them to be alone together. She showed this by very aggressively kissing him and using her hands to guide his efforts in her body and his hands on her small titties. Very soon, she climaxed and so did he right up into her pussy shaft, with all of the risks that that entailed.

After that, he caught a ride home leaving the original date behind, so that he could go home to sneak in. And he was in bed before anyone of the family knew about it. They never did know at what time that was, and he did nothing to clarify the issue.

The next morning, when he awoke, he had only very vague memories of what had happened. He did sort of remember putting his dick where it had never been before, but that was about all.

The season finished out, they made the playoffs, won their first playoff game and then lost a very close on in the next round. Artie made all state, third team, and expectations were high for the next year, his Junior year.

Also, a rumor was being passed around school, that a sophomore girl had gotten pregnant at a party, and no one including her had any idea of who the father might be. Artie took very little notice of this and made no connection of it to him.

For the rest of the year, Arnie concentrated on his studies. He had very good grades and wanted to maintain them to get scholarships and to be welcomed at a top college. He was very sparing of dating, only for very special events, and then only with the ‘spirit girl’ who had taken him to the party. She had never made an issue about him leaving her and going home. She had been busy elsewhere. And when he encountered the pregnant girl in the hallways, he often felt that he knew something about her, but couldn’t quite make out in his mind what it was. And she didn’t show any special recognition of him either, just as she had always known him.

Fortunately, Muriel wasn’t getting very much hassling over the pregnancy. Actually, she was being treated better out of sympathy for her situation than at any time since grade school. Much of this was because she wasn’t out for their boyfriends for the present with a baby on the way. But, she was still being carried as one of the ‘spirit girls, in an unofficial capacity. So, she still sat with them and attended their parties. She often got a lot of attention from the girls over her growing belly and a lot from the boys over her growing bosom. Arnie wasn’t rude about her, but just not interested at this point. Shelly, the ‘spirit girl’ who took him to the party, was his steady date at this time.

Shelly had to be away for the Sophomore Ball, and asked him if he wouldn’t take Muriel as a favor to her, since Muriel was feeling very left out in things, with no dates and being confined mostly at home because of her condition, but not as a punishment. Actually, her parents were being very cool about the whole thing, very much enjoying the hope of a grandchild. And besides that her grades were much improving, also.

So, Arnie’s mom called Muriel’s mom and ran it by her about Arnie taking her to the dance, because his regular girlfriend was out of town. Her mother said that she would discuss it with her husband and get back to her. When he heard of it, since he knew of Arnie as a ‘good boy,’ he okayed it and the two mother’s arranged everything else. Arnie only had to show up and take her hand. And he would be a real hero to the other students for him stepping forward like this for the sake of a girl in a difficult situation.

The night of the dance, Arnie’s dad let him drive, so that he could show off his maturity by escorting her into the car and driving them there, with dad in the back seat.

It was a casual wear dance, and Arnie had his brand new letterman’s jacket on. Muriel had a spring dress, with a light covering, and a mega-smile. Arnie made it his project to have her enjoy this outing as much as he was able to arrange it. He danced with her on every dance, and found it not that difficult to maneuver around her growing belly. In fact, the other girls, would stop them every once in a while to pat her tummy and talk about the progress of the pregnancy. The guys would have liked to patted her well above that area, but good sense and very attentive teacher monitors forestalled that. In this regard, Arnie was a perfect gentleman.

She was very wowed by all of the attentions and especially as to how Arnie was treating her. Some very direct thoughts about that were entering her mind, and no guilt with it either. Because, she had it on very good authority; that Shelly, despite them dating for most of their sophomore year had done little in the intimacy area with him, certainly had not offered up her pussy to him. ‘Shame on her,’ she thought as she rummaged over all of this in her mind. “He sure wouldn’t have had to go wanting if he had been her boyfriend,’ she couldn’t help thinking.

When it was time to leave, the girls surrounded her and told her how much they enjoyed having her with them, and the teachers saw very few dry eyes over that, including their own. Then Arnie took her hand and led her to the car with the thought that he would be driving home, but his father directed them instead to the backseat and offered that he wanted to drive around a bit to enjoy the city lights at night. So, the kids took the back seat.

They had hardly started, when she took his hand and planted it under her dress on her rounded pregnant tummy. She then leaned over and lightly kissed him on the cheek. Dad caught sight of this and knew what he was doing. He liked this little pregnant high school girl, and wanted her to have the full post dance experience. After the shock of feeling a real live pregnant girl’s tummy, he began to lightly rub and stroke it. With that she took his other hand and moved it up to her swollen breasts to favor them with some attentions, too. And as he turned to do so, she caught his face and planted her lips right on to his mouth. Her tongue followed in shortly after that.

Dad was biding his time, to let things percolate in the back seat. And when he could smell her pussy juice, he knew it was time to pull over somewhere to let nature take its course, since the possibility of that had already been accomplished. He had worked them up to a high hill overlooking the town, where he had sparked his now wife many years ago and pulled up and parked. He then left the vehicle with the doors locked and moved over to a picnic table, with his smokes and a beer to let his boy have his fun.

By this time, she had her dress well up on her body, with her panties lowered and his hands massaging her pussy slit. She had his dick out, too. And was elevating it with her attentions. Since she couldn’t get down on the floor with her belly, he rose up and she took him into her mouth to give him his well-deserved pleasure. As this was his first time with that, he came very quickly and he was surprised that she swallowed all of it, including what she scraped off of her face. And then favored him with a gigantic smile, that split the night about them.

They then opened to door opposite of the father and she opened her thighs while in doggie to take him up her vagina. At this time two boys came out of the surrounding shrubs and were making their way to the involved couple in the car. Dad saw that and intercepted them before they could do any damage and informed them that they would be better off to leave the area and the kids alone.

One of them, the less brighter one, asked, “Why should we do that? We are two and each of us is bigger than you!”

Pop answered, “Because my two friends Smith and Wesson insist that there is more fun awaiting you somewhere else.”

They looked at the gun and into Pop’s eyes and replied, “Yes, Sir.”

“Have a good time, boys,’ was dad’s last words to them.

They waved back at him over their shoulders and there was no single finger involved, either.

At this time, Muriel was pouring out her girl cum with a climax and Arnie had his mouth down to accept it. Then with it slowing he reinstalled his dick and finished again up into her. With that done, they rushed to get back into the car to await his father to drive them home. On the way, Arnie had his hands on her belly continuously, to her happiness. And Arnie couldn’t help thinking, that despite the problems that it would include, that he wished that the baby in this vibrant young woman was his.

When he walked her up to her door, she gave him a hot kiss and whispered to him, “You really know how to give a girl a good time, don’t you, Arnie?”

“Only because it was you,” he answered.

She smiled as she turned to enter her home.

Dad was silent on the way home and smiled a lot as Arnie noticed.

The boys and girls approached him the next day to tell him how proud they were of him in giving her such a fine time last night. They said that she was simply beaming all over the school and enthusiastic in saying how fine he had been to her. Everyone was very happy about this, but wondering what would happen when Shelly got back and found out about it.

Shelly got back on Tuesday, just in time to hear about the exciting date that Muriel got with her boyfriend. Shelly was not happy about this. And when she saw Arnie, she let him know about it. “If you are going to treat me this way, it is over between us,“ she shrieked at him in the hallway with ,many of their friends standing around. She then stormed off, leaving Arnie standing there with his mouth wide open in shock.

“But,……….. But, ……….. She asked me to do this!” And with that he just turned and went on to his next class.

Muriel heard about it and called her mother to ask permission to ride home with Arnie, she explained why, and then after seeing him to his door, she could walk the three blocks to her aunt’s place to spend the night. Muriel’s mom asked if anyone would be home at Arnie’s place and Muriel noted that Arnie’s mom would be there. So, her mom said that it was okay.

Arnie made it through the rest of the day, he didn’t worry any about Shelly’s attitude and actions, since they had only been loosely associated anyway. But, Shelly was making a lot about it among the fellow girl students and even some of the guys, making up very vicious rumors to try to hurt Arnie over her assumed insulting treatment.

On the bus that afternoon, Arnie found himself sitting next to Muriel and was happy about it. She chastely held his hand all the way to his place and then got off with him. The kids on the bus could see her walking him up to his door, but the bus was around the block before they could have seen her give him a brief kiss and then walk away to her aunt’s home. So, even more rumors started over that. And this was despite the fact that actually the students were in sympathy with Muriel and Arnie. But, Shelly was stirring the pot to make everything look very badly for the young friends.

It was only a few weeks later, that school summer break started. Arnie would be busy for the first few weeks picking strawberries for some summer fun money, and then attending the three week summer basketball camp to raise the level of his play for the coming season. He only saw Muriel twice, when both of them happened to be at the Burger Burp, which is what the teenage crown dubbed the Burger Plus, which was actually a very good place to eat. They sat together each time, once despite his parents having brought him.

The second time as they chatted and she gently patted his hand, she mentioned that she would be having the baby right about when school started, but her parents were insisting that she get back to school as soon as she was physically able. Their insurance was going to provide a baby sitting neophyte nurse to care for the baby, when she or the parents couldn’t, but with the family adamant that she have the baby; since their attitude was,’ If you make something this precious, you take care of it,’ then Muriel rightly expected their help in taking care of it so that she could go to school as they also insisted. So, the whole extended family made up a schedule with back-ups in case of unforeseen circumstances, so the nurse only had to come for a couple of hours a week to make sure that the baby was well cared for. And he certainly was.

And the school got on board, too. This was a very obvious lesson in sexual responsibility and also in loving child rearing. They figured that no textbook ever written would make the lessons so powerfully as seeing a young girl working hard to carry her responsibilities. And to magnify those lessons, they even had her bring the baby to school on one day a week, during a non-lab day. Shelly fumed over this, because of all of her efforts to poison the atmosphere for Arnie and Muriel was going up in smoke. Her fellow students just couldn’t get enough of the baby. And even the boys were getting a very sobering lesson as to their part in sensible sexual practices and the results on not applying them.

Arnie was pretty much insulated from Shelly’s machinations, too. He was seen as a hero for taking Muriel to the dance the previous spring, and also because he was going to have a prominent part on the basketball team coming up in a couple of months. Football came first, and Arnie enjoyed sitting with Muriel and baby, Jason, during the games, warmed by his letterman jacket with the prominent basketball and one stripe on it for one year on the varsity. Shelly sat with the spirit gals in the front row, they weren’t cheerleaders, just assistants to the players, in matters personal and otherwise. It was interesting, though, that even though she was devastatingly pretty, few of the guys wanted anything to do with her, because of her nastiness towards Muriel and Arnie.

When basketball season started, Arnie of course was on the floor and not available to sit with Muriel. So a couple of the ‘spirit girls,’ took it upon themselves to sit with Muriel and enjoy playing with the baby as Arnie toiled on the floor. This lit Shelly’s fuse even more.

The team had only one loss and it was to Benson High in the state finals. They were a very good team that year with a terrific point guard. But, Arnie along with him were named as the two top point guards in the state, regardless of classification. Arnie admired the other guy very much.

The summer between the junior and senior years for Muriel and Arnie was rather uneventful. Arnie picked strawberries and then raspberries for pocket money and got to take Muriel out with the baby a couple of times to movies. And she was now allowed to come to Arnie’s house to sit in on his family’s Saturday evening fun. Arnie was now old enough to drive her home, which was about five miles away. And was very conscientious about it, to her parent’s very apparent appreciation. It seemed like the two of them were becoming a couple, with no fanfare at all. But, at this point they were just very good friends.

On one of those Saturday nights, Jason was asleep when they got them home, and her parents were out late. So, the young couple gravitated to the sofa and fell into a very sweet intimate encounter which resulted in him cumming in her, since she was now on birth control that wasn’t a worry for now. Her parents came in just as Arnie was obviously emptying into Muriel with her in deep pleasure at getting her ‘cookies,’ too. Not wanting to ruin what was obviously a very sweet moment for them, the parents snuck back out, waited twenty minutes and then made a lot of noise coming back in. The neighbors that awoke at the commotion probably wondered what was going on at the Preston’s that night.

When they arrived in the living room, the kids had already redressed and had a movie on the T.V. When queried about Jason, they said that he was asleep and the baby monitor was on. She then told her parents that Arnie stayed because she was concerned about being alone in the home with Jason. Her parents recognized that there was probably some validity to that statement and then hugged them both, preliminary to Arnie taking his leave to go home.

When school started in the fall of their senior years, they noticed the absence of Shelly, whom they found out was attending another school in another state now. Few of the students who knew her were surprised or sorry to hear it.

Arnie had another stellar year with the team and they again made it to the playoffs, but then lost to a better team, as least not Benson High this year.

When spring came, it came time for the Prom and Arnie expected to take Muriel. But, baby Jason got ill and she spent the days up to and including the Prom with him in the hundred miles away a children’s hospital. With this, Arnie wasn’t going to go to it, but Muriel insisted and asked her cousin a year younger to go with him as his date. She was ecstatic about the opportunity. And things went off without a hitch. But, since there was no plans for the usual closing event to the after Prom time for her, the cousin was taken home to her deep disappointment right after the dance.

Arnie wasn’t expected home, for several hours, so he decided to attend one of the post Prom parties, the one with the school’s sport’s heroes in attendance. He was there only a few minutes, when he saw Shelly across the parking lot and abruptly moved to leave the area. But, she rushed over to him before he could get in to his parent’s car with, “Oh no, you don’t! It was supposed to be me that got pregnant that night, not Muriel. And now, I am going to get what she got that night.”

He resisted her and tried to move to enter his car, but not wanting to hurt a pretty young girl, he underestimated her determination and accidently knocked her to the ground. She came up at him, while he was stunned, and with a knife from her purse stabbed him three times in the chest. Then realizing what she had done, she pulled his pants down, slashed her wrist and began weeping dramatically for the others to see. However, when the police came and saw the whole picture, they quickly figured out what had really happened and they sent Arnie off to the hospital and took Shelly into custody.

When they got him into the ER, they performed a quick triage and then had him on his was to surgery immediately. The doctors found one punctured lung and two stabbed ribs, but no harm to his heart. He was very lucky. Detailed records were made of his vitals and blood tests and he then went to ICU to recover. When his parents found out about this, he was already asleep in the ICU, so they were only allowed enough of a sight of him to verify that he was alive and breathing. His mom stayed the night as the father had to get home for the other kids and to get to work the next day.

It was several days before Muriel was appraised of the situation, since she had enough to worry about with Jason’s health struggles. But, all of a sudden he rallied and was whisked off to home a few days later. There were still some concerns about what this was all about, but he was stable for the time being.

When she could, she went with Jason to see Arnie the day that he was about to leave to go home. She hugged him with Jason wide-eyed in her arms and told him how sorry that she had opened him up to that danger. It was, not her fault at all, but in the sense of not hurting her feelings, she got what wishes she needed anyway, his hugs, kisses and professions of his love for her. His parents heard all of that and were not surprised at all over this. Neither were her parents when they were appraised of it.

By the time that Arnie was ambulatory and ready for school, it was already done for the seniors. The last lessons and tests were sent home to him, with a young teacher as a proctor and he graduated with his class, in the top ten. Muriel also got the same treatment because of her involvement with Jason’s struggles, and she also graduated in the top twenty, which was amazing after the poor start that she had in the first two years of high school.

They both got scholarships to the mid-sized college in town and planned on attending together, with the arrangements still in force for Jason.

A couple of weeks before college started, Jason had a bit of a swoon again, and while in the doctor’s office, his doctor began reviewing data sheets on him, Muriel, her parents and Arnie’s too, since all of them had volunteered to share blood for Jason if it was needed. When the doctor reviewed the data sheets he saw something that puzzled him, so he had DNA analysis done on them, too. And, low and behold he made a startling discovery when he reviewed the results. With this knowledge, he asked Muriel and Arnie to attend a meeting with him, without Jason or their parents present.

With them sitting together on one seat, and with curious and worried eyes, they looked up to him. He then with a solemn face, “Don’t worry, you two. Jason will be fine. We think that we have found the trouble and some dietary counseling and mild medicines should do the trick for him. But, because of the background checks on you two and your two families, I have made a stunning discovery.”

And then the pause, “You Arnie, are the baby’s genetic father.”

The young couple just looked shell-shocked and then asked, “How can that be? Neither of us remember being together at around the time that it would have happened?”

“If you two search your memories and consult with others, perhaps the truth of the matter will come out. But, DNA doesn’t lie, you two are his parents. There is no doubt about it. I suggest that you figure this all out before you share it with others, including your families.”

“Okay, doctor.” And with that they walked out to their parents and newly discovered shared parentage to reconcile all of this. They left their parents in suspense, to be relieved at another time. Arnie took Jason, his newly discovered son into his arms and was very firm in his grip as they moved to leave the medical office.

When the newly recognized shared parents got some time together, they tried to reconcile all of this. Because the baby was full-term, they could estimate the time of conception down to a couple of days. But, nothing that they could pull together got them in the same place at the same time as far as they knew. The only time that they could find was at a party, in which they didn’t even know that they were together there.

They each then discreetly inquired of class mates whom they knew had been at the party. But, none of them remembered the two of them together at the party. They knew that they both had been there, though. But, all they remembered was Arnie arriving with Shelly and Muriel just being there.

So, now they were left with one source of information on that night left, Shelly. And there was no way that Arnie would try to meet with her while she was in jail awaiting her trial of assault on him. That left, Muriel to try to get in to see her. And she didn’t even know if she would agree to talk with her.

But, Muriel got to the county/city jail in Big City at eight-thirty, just about opening time and got in line to fill out her visitation request and then waited in the sitting room to see if it would be accepted.

Muriel was admonished to take the elevator up to the third floor, the women’s one, to meet with Shelly for up to an hour. This was after her dropping all of her valuables at the front desk for holding until she was ready to leave.

When she got off of the elevator, she proceeded down a dimly lit corridor to the numbered alcove for her to talk to Shelly through a window and phone hook-up. She sat there for several minutes and then Shelly showed up. She seemed to be genuinely glad to see her. Probably didn’t get very many visitors, not even her socially prominent parents, Muriel guessed.

“Hello, Shelly. Thank you for seeing me.”

“No problem, it is nice to see a different face than the ones that I am confined with, for a change. And you look well after having had the baby. How is he?”

“He is fine now, we had some medical problems with him for a while, but they seemed to be resolved for now. He is lively and putting on weight. Evidently going to be a big boy someday.”

“That is good to hear, Muriel. I hope to someday have some of my own after all of this is resolved, if anyone would have me then.”

“Shelly, you are a lovely girl, and were very popular before you went off the tracks for a couple of years. I am confident that you will put all of this behind you and find a good fellow to share your life with.”

“Hope that you are right, and thank you for saying so.”

“Shelly, none of us involved have any continuing misgivings about you. Not even Arnie anymore, since he is healing up well and ready to start college. He also sends his wishes for you to accept the help that will come your way with the discipline and move forward positively with your life. He once cared for you very much and is still concerned about you and your future.”

With that, Shelly dissolved into tears, but soon got her calmness back. And then apologized for her brief breakdown.

“It is understandable, Shelly. Don’t worry your pretty little head over it. It will all work out for the best, after all.”

With that Shelly nodded and awaited the main reason for Muriel coming to see her. They still had forty minutes to share.

“Another matter that I need to ask you about Shelly, is the night that Arnie brought you to a party and you two got separated. Evidently, I met him that night, but have no memory of it. Could you enlighten me about that?”

Shelly sat there for a few minutes considering this request, but seeing no harm to herself over it, decided to share what she knew of that night.

“Yes, Muriel, I remember that night very well. And it was the night that I lost Arnie to you, though you didn’t know it for a while. And it was what helped to generate the misgivings that I had towards you and Arnie from that time on, not that I now agree with my feelings and actions of that time till recently.”

“We were all there together, you, me and Arnie. I brought Arnie in my car, but we got separated almost immediately when we arrived, to visit with each of our friends. He with his ‘jock’ buddies and me with my girlfriends. You were there too, but being a bit on the wild side.

Then it became evident that the sodas had been highly spiked and that it was having its effect on everyone that had drank any. You were being very wild and suggestive, and after only a few minutes dragged Arnie out with you to be away from the rest of us. And when you two returned, it was obvious what you two had been doing. I was very angry with him, so he got home some other way. I was very upset with you two for years and now we find ourselves here.”

“Thank you for sharing that with me, Shelly. It explains a lot to me. Arnie and I have no immediate memory of that night. What developed between us came about despite what happened that night, not because of it. And I am very sorry that you got hurt in the process. But, Arnie and I are very hopeful for our futures together and hope for the best for you, too.”

“Thank you for that, Muriel. And I hope that we can at least be civilly friendly acquaintances in the future.”

“Me too, Shelly. Is there anything else that you would like to discuss now?”

“No, I don’t think so. But, if you could come again after the trial to visit again, and bring either Jason or his pictures, I would like that.”

“No promises, but I will see if that will work out. And again, thank you Shelly for clearing that up for Arnie and me.”

With a faint smile, “No problem.”

Later that day, she met with Arnie at his home, where he was still in the final stages of his recuperation. She passed on what she had learned from Shelly and he sat for a bit to think this over.

Finally, he looked up to her with, “Well, that clears up a lot of things, doesn’t it! Look Muriel, our falling in love has little to do with the events of that night. We got a beautiful son out of it. But, I fell in love with you because of what happened afterward, not because of that night. And I will love you forever, because of what we have since then and now, not what we did on a very strange night. But, I think that we should keep this secret for now, and maybe permanently, because others might not understand our status now, with that night overshadowing all of the events since.”

When the parents came in, they found the couple wrapped up in each other’s arms with Jason there, too. And all that his parents knew from then on, with her parents, was the love that they shared and their eventual permanent marriage and children. They showed it every day from then on.

---