Backseat Fun & Games

Ellen moved up to Mt. Charleston with Frank, her soon to be ex-husband, and Jimmie, their only child at the beginning of the summer. She thought the change of scenery from Las Vegas, and its myriad of vices, might save her marriage. Simply put-- it was only wishful thinking. Her marriage was still a train wreck despite the change of scenery.

It was a cold September evening and Frank was sitting at home drunk and in ill spirits and, as usual, heaping abuse upon Jimmie about nothing in particular, when she arrived home from a long day at work.

Not in a mood to take his shit on this particular night, maybe thanks to the two glasses of wine she slurped down with her friend Marcy after work, things quickly escalated to the point where Frank slapped her across the face. She told him to leave or she would call the police.

His retort was direct. "Why don't you leave for the evening with your worthless son and I will be gone within a few hours. I just need some time to make some arrangements."

Frank was an asshole, but he did not want blood on his hands. He knew if one of them didn't leave the police probably would become involved in some sort of domestic abuse case and that was one headache he didn't need.

Ellen quickly accepted and headed off to grab her son. Jimmie was not in good spirits either as just that afternoon he had been dumped by his girlfriend, Katie. Now at the tender young age of eighteen his heart was broken into a million pieces for the first time. Foolishly, he thought they were going to get married and live happily ever after.

He quickly washed up, unhappy about the ill way his father treated his mother, as usual, but happy he would not be sitting in his room alone grousing over Katie.

It was beginning to rain lightly as he backed the car out of the driveway and they roared off into the night.

"Honey you came to my rescue. My knight in shining armor, spirting the queen out of the castle and away from the evil king," she told him with a giggle indicating she had been drinking.

"Yeah, well, you needed rescuing, Mom. I don't trust he is going to be out of there in a few hours so I am going to take you to the hotel. You can spend the night there."

The mist turned into a quiet rain as he slowly negotiated the winding road to the Mount Charleston Lodge about a fifteen minute trip roughly down the mountain.

Upon reaching the hotel Ellen decided she was not yet ready to retire for the evening, especially by herself when Jimmie told her, now that he was out and about, he was going to head into Las Vegas to track down some old friends of his.

"Honey can we drive around a bit before I check in and you head off to find your friends. I'm just not ready to sit alone in a hotel room as of yet."

"Really are you serious. I mean it's starting to rain harder and it's getting cold and you don't even have a jacket on."

"So the car has a heater so what's the big deal. Please can you just like take the scenic loop on Hwy. 157? It's so beautiful up there and it will give me time to think and clear my head."

He agreed, as he always did when his mom wanted something. Before heading out for their drive, they stopped at a small convenience store next to the hotel so she could get a Coke from the fountain machine to mix with the small bottle of Jack Daniels she discreetly grabbed on her way out of the house.

She took the bottle, not so much because she liked whiskey, but out of spite, knowing Frank would be pissed because she took it from his not so secret stash he thought was secret. But now, getting a bit tipsier seemed like not such a bad idea.

Armed each with a large Coke from the station's soda dispenser, they headed back out into the night. As he headed back up the mountain towards the scenic drive, feeling playful, she started to tease him.

"You could have at least let me change before we rushed out of there. You know how I hate wearing my work clothes."

"Why are you still dressed in them? It's about nine and you get out of work at what six?" She was a receptionist at a local animal hospital and today she was wearing a pretty crème colored blouse with a rather short navy blue skirt.

"I came in this morning a bit late so I stayed late and then after work I stopped and had a drink with Mandy after we finished up. Then your dad started in on me and we got to fighting so I never bothered to change. He was on me to get his damn dinner started as soon as I walked through the door . . . besides bitching about you, of course."

"No surprise there."

"I know," she sighed.

"I thought about suggesting you take the time to change but I sensed he was ready to blow. You know how he gets when he starts to turn red. I just thought it was best to follow his suggestion that you leave before things got messy."

He looked over at her liking the way the short skirt revealed a rather generous portion of her well-toned legs and added, "Besides I like your- ahh work uniform. You look real nice. Sexy even maybe."

"Oh just maybe. What a charmer you are, Son," she commented wryly even as she blushed from his observation.

Even though it was only a bit past nine, this was late by Mt. Charleston's standards so there was little traffic on the roads. The late hour, plus it being Tuesday, only added to the sense of isolation as they reached the scenic loop.

Adding to the feeling of isolation, Jimmie glumly noted how the rain was not stopping.

"Maybe we should turn back, Mom. The rain is really starting to pick up."

"I don't wanna go back and sit in my stupid hotel room. And beside I saw the forecast for tonight and it said the rain shouldn't last long."

"Fine," he said as he made a right turn onto the scenic loop.

Normally, he would have been thrilled at this alone time with his mother who he secretly adored. Secretly because Frank had been insanely jealous of his pretty Filipino wife even with his own son so he had been careful to hide his love for his mother.

She was all of 5" 1"and might have weighed roughly a hundred and seven pounds. She was both pretty and petite. Short and sweet. Despite her rough life with Frank she aged well. Her pretty face hardly showed barely any lines or wrinkles to mar its distinctive beauty and was framed by a lovely spill of coral black hair falling just to her shoulders with nary a hint of gray, despite being in her mid-forties.

But maybe most of all it was his mom's warm smile- one that she could turn on like a thousand watt bulb-- that charmed him the most. His mom's smile was inviting, magnetic, and alluring all at once while seeming to possess a beguiling bit of mischievous naughtiness to it when the mood struck her.

All in all, Jimmie thought his mother was a stunning beauty who was only growing finer with age. In the dark of night, alone in bed, he often wondered what she looked like - naked. Such thoughts brought him shame, along with a powerful erection.

Stealing a quick glance over at her, he spied the top three buttons of her pretty crème colored blouse were casually undone, allowing a generous portion of her rich olive dark skin to be revealed. Trying to keep his eyes focused on the road was growing difficult as between her unbuttoned blouse, and her short skirt there was plenty of alluring bare skin to look at sitting right next to him.

As they drove on in the dark rain they were a good ways into the scenic loop by now, maybe roughly three miles, Jimmie started to get a sense this night was somehow special. Maybe it was because they were both sharing the pain of a relationship gone badly or maybe it was because he just felt emotionally raw and in need of serious comfort, much as he suspected she was feeling.

A sudden unbidden thought popped into his head making him grip the steering wheel tighter. I wonder if she finds me attractive, in a manly sense, like I find her to be?

Scoffing at such a silly thought, his inner voice spoke up. No way does she find you attractive dude. He tended to agree with that inner voice as they seemed mismatched in every way: she was pretty, outgoing, easily smiled and was well liked by lots of people while he, on the other hand, was none of the above.

Instead, he thought of himself as plain in nearly every way. At 5' 10" and a hundred and sixty five pounds soaking wet, he was of average height and weight. He had a light smattering of freckles still on his wholly baby face which made him appear much younger than his actual age. This youngish looking pale baby face of his was accented by light brown hair, a non-descript nose and chin, average ears, average hazel eyes, average this, average that etc. etc. etc.

She was beautiful and I am plain and such is life he thought darkly to himself before she interrupted his thoughts.

It was almost as she had been reading his mind when she spoke. "Jimmie, just so you know, you are handsome and Katie is a fool for breaking up with you."

Jimmie was taken by surprise by his mom's comment. He knew he should not engage in any real conversation with her now, but instead should be giving his full attention to the road. But what she said piqued his interest to the point where he had to respond. "What do you mean by that?"

"It's so obvious honey, the hurt on your face tonight, she dumped you huh. I seen it coming months ago but I just didn't say anything."

"Really, how did you know? I mean really . . . how did you know I was dumped? I haven't told anyone."

"A mother bear always knows when her cub is in pain sweetie."

He glanced at her with awe. He had given her no hints . . . at least, not as far as he could tell but still she knew.

Jimmie looked at her, greedily sucking down her potent Jack and Coke and now understood something: she must be in real pain if she was drinking like this.

His simple sideways glance at his mother ended up sealing their fate though when his eyes lingered, first on her open blouse, and then on her bare thighs showed off so nicely by her semi- short skirt.

He tore his eyes off her body just in time to look back at the road where he saw a fairly sizable woodland creature, it might have been a kit fox or badger maybe, darting across the road in front of the car. Ellen screamed, "Look Out", as Jimmie instinctively swerved to avoid hitting the poor critter.

The car skidded out of control on the wet, slick pavement before it veered off the road. Jimmie fought to regain control but it was too late—the car plunged down a decent sized incline just barely squeezing between a large stand of evergreen trees and a large boulder.

As the car plowed its way through the underbrush while small tree branches lashed at the front windshield, Jimmie fought to slow the car down and get it back under control. The car finally thudded to a halt about forty feet off the road after smacking into a large stump. Thankfully, by the time the Cadillac hit the stump it had slowed down enough where both Jimmie and Ellen, although badly shaken, were not seriously hurt.

"Are you all right, Mom?" he asked shooting a worried look her way as he took a deep breath and turned off the engine.

"Yeah, but I am now wearing the majority of my rum and coke." She looked down, first at her blouse, where an obvious dark stain was already spreading, and then down at her dress skirt where another large stain was well underway.

"Important thing here is that we are both fine. Really, it could have been much worse," he said thankful she was not hurt.

He took a deep breath and twisted the key in the ignition after assuring her he was OK. The engine fired up right away.

"At least it still starts. Now let's see if maybe I can back it up slowly out of here."

"Doubtful," she told him as she dabbed at the wet stain on her blouse with some Kleenex she had stashed in the glove box.

"Well, I will at least try."

He tentatively eased the car into reverse while gradually depressing the gas pedal. The car started to creep backwards slowly before grinding to a halt as one of the rear tires slipped into a rut of some sorts.

"Shit," he exclaimed loudly before banging his hand on the steering wheel.

"Told you," she snapped at him before softening her voice. "Don't worry about it hon. In the best of conditions it would be hard to get us out of here but at night, in the rain, where you can't see where or what you are doing, forget it."

He opened the car door glancing back at the rear of the car. It had sunk lower into a large muddy trough of sorts.

"Yeah, we are not going back up that hill," he lamented with a grimace.

"Shoot, my phone is dead. I forgot to charge it today." Ellen told him only adding to the growing pile of bad news. "What about yours."

"I didn't bring it."

"Really, a teen without their phone?" Ellen asked.

"I just would have been checking it like every thirty seconds hoping for a message from . . . you know who . . . and it would have been just a distraction and pissed me off so I left it at home."

"Hmm . . . So what do we do? Walk." Ellen asked. She was starting to get nervous and maybe a little scared, especially as the rain, instead of slackening like the forecast had called for only seemed to be picking up in intensity.

"Mom we drove a good two or three miles after turning onto the scenic loop and then even when we get back to the regular highway it's pretty much deserted this time of night, especially midweek, and its gotta be a good, I don't know five, six mile hike back to the hotel. Do you really think you could manage that?"

"No, probably not but maybe someone would stop and help us."

"At night, in the pouring rain. Sounds like wishful thinking to me."

"Fine your right. But what then?"

"How about this. I will go back up to the road and maybe by a miracle someone saw us crash or saw evidence of the crash and stopped or maybe I will get lucky and another car will pass by and stop."

"Jimmie, no. It's dark here and I don't want to be left alone."

"Once I get to the road I will only stay long enough to find out if anyway saw us by some chance. Then I will be right back. Be gone twenty minutes at the most."

"Fine, I guess, but hurry please." She looked at him with big pleading eyes. His mother just looked so beautiful, so vulnerable at that very moment causing his arms ache to hold her.

"At least the rain slowed down some." After opening the car door he realized the rain slowing down theory was nothing but wishful thinking as if anything, it was coming down harder than ever.

"Just hurry baby please."

On impulse, he leaned back into the car, giving her a quick kiss fondly on her cheek before, again, acting totally on impulse, he expressed his deepest feelings toward her. "I promise and remember I love you more than anything, Mom."

As he started to pull back, she impetuously wrapped a hand around his neck pulling him back toward her. She gave him a kiss of her own now, firmly on the lips; one that literally set his world on fire.

The kiss, it didn't last long enough or maybe it lasted forever, either could be have been possible as time literally stopped when her warm lips, tasting of Jack and Coke, pressed against his.

They parted, but not before she gently caressed the side of his face. "Thanks for telling me that hon. I really needed to hear it and you know I love you too with all my heart and soul."

"Yeah, OK Mom, be right back," he told her as he slammed the car door shut. He wanted to say more, much more, but he needed to get up the hill to see about his miracle.

It was not an easy climb back to the road, in the dark, in the rain, and with a wild assortment of tree stumps, rocks- some insignificant, some quite significant - small stands of pine trees, and an assorted variety of scrub underbrush blocking his path.

Finally after he reached the road he found it to be utterly silent and deserted. Worse, there was no real evidence anything untold took place. No skid marks, no broken guard rail, there was no guard rail actually to break, no nothing indicating their car left the road and plunged down the slope of the hill.

He waited for about two or three minutes, peering first to the left, and then to the right hoping against hope to see the telltale flash of headlights. But there was nothing but rain and cold to be found here.

Dejectedly, he started back down the hill. He tried to follow best he could the trail of broken bushes and snapped tree branches, but halfway down worry began to set in maybe he lost his way in the dark as he zigged and zagged this way and that way to avoid the large boulders or stands of trees blocking his path.

When he didn't come across the car in enough time where he should have spotted it by now, a bit of panic started to set in, turning his careful plodding downhill into a reckless ill-advised jog.

In the meantime, back at the car, Ellen was busy. Just after Jimmie left, she hurried out of the car and popped the trunk open. She fortunately took some local residents advice when they first moved up on the mountain to always have an emergency kit packed in the car. Just in case.

Her emergency kit consisted of a first aid kit, flashlight, some bottles of water, a box of granola bars, and maybe most important, a pair of heavy blankets. After pulling everything out and arranging it between the front and back seat of the car as needed she started to have some pleasantly naughty thoughts about spending the night with her son, cuddled together in the back seat of the car under the blankets.

Ellen, even though she was not outside for long grabbing the stuff from the trunk, received a good soaking from the cold rain and was now feeling its full effects. Of course, it didn't help her blouse and skirt was already soaked from the ice filled Jack and Coke she had been sipping on so furiously right before the accident.

Feeling she had no choice, she started the car and cranked the heater on high, but much to her dismay she determined she couldn't run the heater as long as she would have liked as they were nearly out of gas. The needle was just hovering above empty.

After a good two or three minutes she turned off the car, and then about another five or so minutes later she started to seriously worry about Jimmie when he had not returned yet.

Spying the bottle of Jack on the floor of front seat she picked it up. "What the hell, it can't hurt," she whispered to herself as she poured a generous amount of Jack Daniels into Jimmie's cup still secured snugly in the cup holder. Fortunately, he too had wanted a coke from the store, and took a large swallow. The whiskey immediately worked its magic allowing her to relax.

Leaning back in the front seat of the car, she sipped on the whiskey filed drink, letting her mind wander. It wandered almost immediately to the impromptu kiss she just gave him on his lips. "Jesus, Ellen, you have not kissed him full on the lips since he was little," she announced out loud to the darkness of the car.

A little voice in her head responded by scolding her for that bold and audacious kiss. "So what!" She fired back at the voice. He deserved a kiss anyways, considering all we are both going through.