Fantasy Friday Revival - The Salvage

It's been a busy week. I'm excited that Searching for Home is out and I hope you'll give it a try. 

Today's Fantasy Friday comes from the very first friend I ever made here, Eva. She is an excellent writer and even though she left blogland many years ago we are still in touch. I hope you enjoy...

The Salvage

Beth and Mike had been friends with Tim and Lana for more years than they could remember. The boys had been best friends in high school. They had gone their separate ways for college where they each met their wives. After college, they served the role of best man at each other’s weddings. The girls genuinely liked one another and the four spent a lot of time together. The boys golfed and played basketball at the gym. The girls shopped and talked.

They helped each other raise five terrific children between them. With the pressures of parenthood behind them and middle age before them, the four had looked forward to the years ahead. They talked of trips, cruises, and grandchildren. Their lives were secure and happy.

None of them could predict what was about to take place. Beth and Mike especially knew that their friends would always be together, happy and strong. Tim and Lana had thought the same about the other couple.

When Mike and Beth arrived at the restaurant first, they thought nothing of it. They got a table and talked about the day as they waited for Tim and Lana.

“So what did Joe say when you told him you’d had enough of his games?”

“How was lunch with the girls?”

“Did you remember to stop at the bank?”

“I need to swing by the mall tomorrow on the way to your moms and pick up Sarah’s birthday gift.”

Mike looked at his watch. Beth realized that it must be past

their meeting time. Sure enough Tim and Lana were already 20 minutes late. It was not like them. Beth reached for her cell phone and called Lana.

“No answer. I hope they’re okay.”

For the next few minutes they looked over the menu and discussed what sounded good, healthy, fattening, and otherwise.

After a few more minutes passed by Mike said, “I’m getting worried. Let me try to reach Tim.”

“Hello?”

“Tim, buddy. Are you and Lana standing us up?”

“I’m sorry. We’re not going to be able to make it.”

“Everything okay?”

At that, Tim broke down. He said that things weren’t okay and that he needed to hang up.

Mike relayed the brief conversation to Beth. They both agreed that it sounded as though their friends needed them. It not only sounded serious. It felt serious.

On the 20 minute drive to Tim and Lana’s place they discussed what might be wrong. They were both pretty certain that someone had died. Maybe it was Lana’s mother. Her heart had given her problems in the past. Maybe it was Tim’s dad. After all, he didn’t take very good care of himself.

“Beth, let’s quit speculating. You’re getting yourself all worked up when it might be nothing.”

“You’re right. Let’s just wait until we get there.”

As they pulled onto Tim and Lana’s road, Beth immediately noticed Lana’s car wasn’t in the drive. When they went to the door, they could see Tim sitting on the couch. They didn’t bother to knock. They walked on in. They stood there. Staring.

While they stared at Tim, he stared at the floor. Finally he looked up; first at Beth then at Mike. When he looked back to the floor he broke into sobs.

Mike and Beth sat on either side of him. Beth put her hand on his shoulder. They let him cry for about a minute when finally Mike asked, “Buddy, are you going to tell us what this is all about or do we have to guess?”

“She’s gone.”

“Gone? Who’s gone?”

“Lana. I came home from work and she was gone.”

Apparently Lana hadn’t gone to work. Tim didn’t know that until he came home from work and found all her things gone. The note she left said:

Dear Tim,

I know this will come as a shock to you but if you really knew me, you would have seen it coming. I haven’t been happy for years. The passion is gone. In fact I don’t think there was ever passion between us to begin with. I don’t know how to tell you what I want because quite honestly, I’m not sure myself. I don’t know what I want. I just know that what we have is not it.

I’ve tried. I’ve tried to feel the passion, to create it between us but honestly I don’t know how. I don’t know how to feel anything anymore. It’s not your fault. I know you’ve always done what you thought was best for us. And you’ve always done what you knew made me happy. The problem is, I’m not happy. I need time to sort through all this. Don’t be sad. It wasn’t all bad.

Tim seemed to pull it together a little as Beth and Mike read Lana’s letter.

Later that night as Mike held Beth, she drifted off to sleep. As she slept in his arms, Mike’s mind went back to the night he came home to the same situation. He never told anyone about it because he didn’t need to.

He remembered being extremely hurt and angry that Beth would consider leaving him. She had said pretty much the same things that Lana said in her letter to Tim: No passion, unhappy. He had done everything he knew to make her happy. When Beth had came home later that night he was ready to fight for her. She had come back because in the end she just couldn’t do it. Oh, she could leave him because she wasn’t happy but she couldn’t leave their children. She had come back because of them and Mike had known he had a second chance to make things work between them.

So when she had returned that night he cornered her. In his frustration he yelled at her. Through the tears and the anger he yelled: “What do you want? What am I not doing? Why won’t you talk to me?”

Beth had sat on the edge of the bed and hung her head. She couldn’t, wouldn’t tell him. How does a grown woman who’s been married for years tell this man who adores her that what she really wants, what she really needs is for him to put her over his knee, bend her over a chair, have her lean against a tree? How?

It wasn’t easy but finally she managed to get past her embarrassment and tell him. After all she really didn’t have much to lose at that point. At first he wasn’t buying it but like so many others they’ve come to know over the years he got on the internet and typed in that wonderfully exciting word: SPANKING. Just like the rest he was amazed at what he found. And then he wondered.

After two weeks had passed, Beth was sure he hadn’t heard her really and probably thought she was nuts so imagine her surprise when he came home from work on a Friday night, told her that his parents were keeping the kids, and they were going to spend the night “talking.”

The conversation started off slow and awkward but by the end of the night they were laughing and playing with different kitchen utensils, belts, and brushes. It had been the night of Mike’s life and it turned their marriage in a whole new direction filled with fun, passion, love, and lust. From that day forward spanking became the idea that they both claim saved their marriage.

They’d never told anyone although they did suspect that a few close friends might know or might even be spankos themselves, but now as Mike drifted off to sleep he knew the time had come. He would call Tim tomorrow and tell him everything. He knew what it had done for him and Beth. Now with Tim and Lana in a marital mess, how could he not tell him? How could he not make this attempt to save his best friend’s marriage?

And Mike did just that. He went to Tim and told him the whole story of how Beth had written a similar letter years ago and how it all unfolded from there. At times Tim appeared shocked and appalled but at the same time his curiosity came through. He asked questions. He asked lots of questions. Later when he was alone, he got onto the internet and checked out some of the sites Mike had suggested. Over the next few days he read everything he could find and realized what he’d been very possibly overlooking in his own marriage and he wondered. Could this be the missing key to the passion that Lana’s longing for?

He now knew what he wanted to do…needed to do, but how would Lana receive it? If he was wrong, she’d view it as abuse. If he was right though…oh, if he was right it could change everything.

He called Lana at work and told her he had some things to discuss with her about this end to their marriage. She agreed to meet him for a drink after work.

He arranged for them to have a private table in a dark corner of the bar. When she arrived, his heart skipped a beat. After all these years he still loved her deeply. He was nervous but knew… he knew he had to follow through with this plan in a way that didn’t leave her feeling threatened.

He started off slow by asking how she was doing and other small talk questions. She answered with short answers. She didn’t want to get into anything too deep. She wanted to find out what he needed to discuss and get on with her evening.

Finally he couldn’t stand it. He looked at her with tears in his eyes and said “I love you. I miss you.” She said she knew that but she couldn’t continue on in the marriage. When he asked why not she mumbled something about passion.

“Passion! You want passion? I always gave you passion! I thought our sex life was wonderful.”

“It was, but it was never enough.”

That hurt Tim and he said, “Never enough? What in the hell do you want?”

“I want a MAN. I wanted you to be a man and take control like a MAN does.”

Tim’s confidence grew as he began to realize that Mike was probably right. He looked her straight in the eye and said “I always thought I was being a man.”

She assured him that while he thought that, she longed for more at times. She then let her guard down a smidge as she said “There are times, I wish you’d just take control of us, of

me. I get so tired of being strong.”

“You mean in bed?”

“In bed, out of bed! It doesn’t matter!!!”

Tim was starting to see that Lana needed a man she could lean on for strength, for support and yes, even for being told what to do. She explained to Tim that she knows it sounds weird and that’s why she could never tell him that she longs for a man who knows when to tell her what to do, how to do it, when to do it and at the same time she longs for a man who knows when NOT to do those things.

He looked deep into her eyes. His jaw clenched. She couldn’t stand the intensity of the moment so she looked down at the table. It was then that he said “I want you to get up right now, go into the restroom, take off your panties and bring them back to me.” At that her heart was the one to skip a beat when she looked at him.

“Go. Now.”

She got up not believing that she was about to do what he was demanding but enjoying the excitement of the thoughts entering her mind.

When she returned to the table he leaned across holding out his hand. She placed the wadded up bunch of material into his hand. He put her panties into his jacket pocket telling her she’d get them back when he decided to return them. Then he did something that surprised both of them.

He leaned across the table, looked into her eyes and said “You are coming home with me. You are going to end this nonsense right now. We’ll go get your things tomorrow but for tonight we’ve got some business to take care of.”

He wasn’t sure of himself at this point but could only hope he was headed in the right direction. He knew it would be an evening to either make or completely break their relationship.

“Furthermore, when we do get home the first thing you’re going to do is lift that skirt so that I can punish you for leaving in the first place and after that you will beg me to make love to you. Is that understood, Lana?”

“Lana? I’m talking to you.”

As a lone tear rolled down her cheek she stood, held out her hand to Tim and said, “Take me home now. Please?”

~o~

Thank you, Eva! I sure wish you were still writing. Actually I wish everyone was writing more. If you're willing to share a story please send it to elisspeaks@yahoo.com