Sixty-eight years old. 

     Adam returned with Brenda's groceries, put them away, then went into her bedroom to visit with her. 

     In the final stages of cancer, her head was as bald as a billiard ball. 

     She insisted they hold hands while they chatted.                                                         Fifty years before, she'd been Brenda Fargo, Queen of the Campus, and every male eye followed her wherever she went. Adam's certainly did.

     The next time Adam saw her, she was a patient at the cancer clinic where Adam volunteered. 

     They became friends. 

     She'd become a world renowned college professor. 

     She'd never married. 

     Like Adam himself, she'd never had children. 

     Released from the clinic, Brenda went home alone to her apartment. 

     A woman came in once a week to clean, shop, and give Brenda a bath. That was it. 

     Adam himself stopped by once a week, then twice a week, to do the same, except for the bathing part.  

     That evening, though, Brenda said, "Monique doesn't come for two more days, but I stink right now." 

     Adam knew she didn't want to bathe alone for fear of slipping and hurting herself with no one there to come to her aid.

     And she did stink. The stench of sweet chemo filtered through a dying body to emerge as body sweat was enough to make Adam at least think of gagging.  

     Brenda asked about Norah, and Adam replied that Norah was fine, just fine. Then, 

     "I hate stinking like this," Brenda said. 

     Okay, we're going there, Adam said. 

     "Would you like for me to run a bath for you?" he asked. 

     "I don't want to bother you. It can be a lot of work."

     "No bother at all. How hot would you like it?"

     "As hot as you can get it."

     He started the water, then went back to go get her. He felt afraid she might be too heavy to carry. That turned out not to be the case. She'd lost a lot of weight.

     He turned his head as she removed her nightgown to hang from a hook.

     "Give me your hand," she said. "Keep me steady."

     As she went to lower herself into the water, she slipped, her feet went out from under her, and she plopped on her butt into the tub.

     Water went everywhere.

     All over Adam for sure. His jeans and polo shirt got soaked.

     Brenda gasped, "Oh Adam, I'm so sorry. I..."  

     "No no, no problem. I'll be right back." 

     He went to her bedroom to strip off his pants and shirt to lay them out on the floor to dry. Then, wearing only boxer shorts, Adam rejoined Brenda.  

     "This might be better anyway," he said. "It's so damned hot." 

     "Especially in here with all this steam. I'm sorry, Adam." 

     "Don't be. Believe me, there's no place I'd rather be right now." 

     "You're so sweet. Norah's a lucky woman." 

​     Adam sat on the floor next to the bath tub in his underwear.  

     Brenda turned the water off with her toes. She left an arm on the side of the tub. 

     They sat there for the longest time. 

     Then, Adam took Brenda's hand to hold it, and after that they didn't speak for another longest time. Every once in a while, Brenda would turn the hot water on with her toe, then turn it off again. It was, like, time had become so precious that they wanted to preserve each comfortable or pleasant moment for as long as they could. 

     When Adam finally took his hand away, it was to reach for a wash rag on the rack. He soaped it up to clean Brenda's body, starting with her shoulders and arms, then doing her hands and feet, then finishing up with her torso.  

     He was very gentle with her stomach, perhaps too gentle. He tickled her. Then,      "Can I have the rag for a second, please?" she asked. She used it to clean the rest of herself. Every hair on her pale white body was gone, all flesh loose. Adam saw skin folds where breasts had once been. She had a bit of a pot gut, but every other part of her body looked frail and gaunt. 

     And yet she was beautiful. It was more than just Adam's cherished memories of her from the days when she was a ravishing co-ed. It was that Brenda had a charisma the emanated from the very core of her, and, now that her illness had diminished her to her essence, that beauty and charisma only emanated stronger, in spite of the missing hair and breasts and all of that.  

     "I think I'm done," she said, pulling the plug with her toes.  

​     "I'll help you dry off. Do you think you can stand?" 

     "We'll see."

     He helped her to her feet and, as he did, he saw her nakedness sexually for the first time. They noticed it at the same time, Adam's boner pushing against his boxer shorts. It surprised the hell out of him. Although he still thought about sex frequently, it'd been years since he'd had a hard on.  

     It didn't last. By the time Adam finished drying Brenda off, it was gone. He handed her the towel to finish drying where he'd missed. 

     "Could I be alone for a moment, please?" Brenda asked. "I need to use the...the..." 

     "Of course." 

     Afterward, Adam carried her to her bed, flesh against flesh. Once under the covers, he went back to the bathroom to pee and grab her nightgown.  

     "Would you like for me to help you put it on?" Adam asked. 

     Brenda had her blankets pulled up around her shoulders. "I'm fine for the moment, thank you. I always get so sleepy after a bath." 

     "Would it be better if I leave?" 

     "Please don't." 

     She turned off the light on her night stand, pitching the bedroom into near total darkness.

     Adam climbed in bed next to her.

     They rested in each other's arms and stared into darkness until she fell asleep.

     Her body felt warm and clean from the bath.

     Adam fell asleep a little bit himself.  

     And, when he re-awoke, he found he had a boner again.

     Where their bodies touched, there was now a warm dampness from their combined perspiration.

     Brenda's snores were as soft as a kitten's purr.

     Adam half-woke her as he tried to extract his arm. She grabbed his shoulder, like, don't go. 

     They hugged for a long time, Then the kissing began. Her saliva tasted bitter, like medicine and decay. Her lips reminded Adam of a leather purse. The whole encounter wasn't about sexual expression anyway, although, of course, it was about that and nothing else, but it really wasn't. It was about being in a position to love somebody with everything you've got and what a precious gift that was, to be able to do that.  

     Adam's boner came and went, but then it came and stayed. 

     Off came the boxer shorts. 

     Brenda opened her legs so that he could enter her. 

     Adam made sure to keep his weight completely off of her as he stroked. 

     But, even at that, they continued the kissing, and Brenda continued to hug him...

     because that's what they really wanted to do. The love connection was so strong between them right then. Brenda let Adam fuck her to suck every last morsel of love she could out of him, then, when Adam could no longer hold back his climax...

     Like two survivors on a life raft, they held tight to each other for a long time after that. Then, 

     "You'd better get dressed," Brenda said. "Norah's probably wondering what happened to you." 

     "I'm fine." 

     "I'm tired, Adam. Please go." 

     Adam watched as red flames burst through the door and burst through the windows, consuming the walls, consuming the ceiling. Within moments, everywhere Adam looked, he saw nothing but red flame. 

                                                       CONTINUE