Thank You Ch. 1

Lydia Benson's head pounded, stomach groaned and feet throbbed as she
eased her 1999 Beamer into her brand new 3 car garage. Switching the
engine off as she clicked the garage door closed behind her, Lydia
slowly accepted the dreams of grandeur she had fixated over in her
20's of marrying a rich doctor and leading a life of nonstop
traveling, shopping and 3pm dates for tea with her friends were now
just naive delusions of youth.

She had married a doctor, a damn good one in fact. Her husband,
Jefferey, was one of the most respected Vascular surgeons in the state
of Maryland, but with that came a lot of other headaches.
Unfortunately, Lydia loved her husband and the fact that she could
count the number of weekends they had actually spent together over 18
years of marriage on her two hands, caused her a great deal of
frustration and detachment.

Jefferey Benson had succeeded at everything he had every tried in
life. Marrying the homecoming queen, becoming a well respected surgeon
and providing enough security that his family would never have
problems sleeping tight at night.

For Lydia however, the daughter of working class parents, she could
never quite get use to the sedentary life expected of most rich
housewives. She had gotten her degree in Public Administration while
Jefferey was immersed in Medical School and had worked with countless
dozens of charities while her husband ascended the heights of his
chosen profession.

No matter how good a life of endless shopping sprees and afternoon gab
sessions sounded, the reality was that Lydia Benson felt more vital
and important helping others. Even though she didn't need to do it,
she wanted to. While her husband was busy saving lives, she took great
pride in making the lives of those who were alive, just a little
better.

On days like today however, Lydia thought to herself that she would
much rather be at the beauty salon trading gossip with the girls than
dying to get in the house to soak her throbbing feet.

An 8am church breakfast followed by an 11am progress speech to the
Baltimore Chapter of the United Way, then an appearance at a local
charity golf tournament and finally a 2 hour session for her husband
doing fundraising for the American Heart Association had left Lydia
Benson longing, at least temporarily, for the life of a spoiled
doctor's wife.

Slumping into the house with her purse around her shoulder, a heavy
bag of groceries in one arm and her two briefcases in the other, Lydia
dropped everything with a thud on the kitchen counter, kicked off her
painful heels, grabbed the mail the maid had left on the end table and
headed upstairs for a long, hot bath.

* * * * *

Comfortably dipped deep down in the antique gold-rimmed tub full of
bubbles, Lydia lazily thumbed through some of the accumulated mail.
The first thing to catch her eye was a travel brochure with several
pictures of glorious Hawaiian sunsets and images of newlyweds having
breakfast in Paris.

"God, I could use a vacation," Lydia moaned dejectedly, enjoying the
feeling of the hot oily water soaking her tired bones.

Lost in the myriad of junk mail and bills, a postcard sized letter
caught the bathing woman's attention. Flipping it over, Lydia's
eyebrows arched when she saw the handwritten University of
Maryland-Baltimore County return address in the corner.

"What's this," Lydia whispered, trying to think of anyone the family
knew who was going to UMBC.

Curious, even a little nervous about its content, Lydia dropped the
other pieces of mail on the floor beside the tub and opened the small
letter addressed to the Benson family...

Dear Mr. and Mrs. Benson,

You don't know me, but your family has had a profound effect on my
life. Several years ago, while I was a child growing up in Kenya, my
family was supported by donations given to us by our church.

After some research, I found that my church back home and yours here
in Maryland are connected. I wanted to pay your family a special
'thank you' for donating the money, food and clothing that literally
helped save my family's life. Your donations also enabled me to keep
attending school and by the grace of God, helped me secure a
scholarship to an American university.

I am currently enrolled at UMBC and I felt it neccessary to share my
gratitude for playing no small role in my opportunity to have a better
life for myself and for my family.

God Bless You,

Kwame Noel

A warm feeling of accomplishment filled Lydia Benson as she read and
re-read the lovely show of appreciation. The stresses and frustrations
of her busy day quickly drifted away as the realization that the
charity work she and her husband did actually made a difference in
real peoples' lives. The long hours of pressing the flesh and enduring
rubber chicken dinners wasn't what it was all about, it was about the
people that the money they raised helped. And in the letter in her
hands, at that moment, Lydia held the currency of that success.

Lydia simply couldn't wait to show Jefferey the letter the first
chance she got to show him that her time really wasn't being wasted,
that she really was vital.

Glowing outwardly, Lydia pulled herself out of the tub, feeling as
good about herself as she had in months. Drying her body off with one
of the large thick white towels hanging beside the tub, Lydia couldn't
help but playfully look at the fogged up mirror on the wall.

Wipping the condensation away with her towel, Lydia could see that the
warm water and luxurious bubbles had left her petite body glistening
as if it had been polished from head to toe.

"You look 10 years younger than you did an hour ago," the 41 year old
woman thought to herself as she dried off.

Easing up to the sink, Lydia grabbed a brush and started gently
combing out her sexily matted dark blonde hair until it rested in a
long straight mane down to her bare shoulders.

Gracefully cupping her breasts with the towel to dry them off, Lydia
couldn't help but notice how her nipples had hardened as she watched
herself in the mirror.

Making an internal note to thank Jefferey for the tanning bed he had
bought for the house, Lydia surveyed every inch of her richly golden
body, satisfied that she didn't have a single tan line anywhere on her
five foot two frame.

Lost in her silly fixation over her body and her rare indulgence in
bursting self esteem, Lydia was a little shocked to hear her husband
call to her from downstairs.

"What's he doing home already?" Lydia asked to herself in the mirror,
the countless possibilities of what the night could hold riffling
through her empowered psyche.

Feeling frisky, Lydia reached for her thigh length terrycloth robe and
dabbed on some makeup as she conjured up mentally what special dinner
she could fix for Jefferey and what special dessert she could create
as well.

Checking her appearance one last time, Lydia opened the bathroom door,
allowing the steam trapped inside to billow out seductively behind her
as she descended to spiral staircase to greet her husband.

"Hi Jefferey," Lydia purred slyly as she walked into the living room
where her husband was briskly gathering some paperwork.

Slinking up behind her busy husband, Lydia wrapped her thin arms
around his belly and kissed him on the back of the neck.

"Hi Honey," Lydia sighed. "Glad you're home early..I thought I'd make
us a special dinner... maybe you can go downstairs and pick out a
bottle of wine from the cellar. Just a nice quiet night..just you and
me..how about it?"

"Sounds great Honey..I'd love to," Jefferey replied back to his wife,
loving the way her wet lips and clean body felt against his. "But..the
reason I'm home so early is that I've got to catch a flight to
Cleveland."

"Huh... Cleveland," Lydia moaned, thinking she didn't hear her husband
right.

"Yeah... I'm sorry Baby. A couple of the doctors from John Hopkins are
going to assist with a transplant surgery tomorrow," Jefferey relied,
genuinely sad he was leaving his wife in a lurch but also showing
positive joy in the opportunity to reach a pinnacle in his career.
"This is going to make national news..the hospital said CNN will have
a few of the doctors on tomorrow after the surgery. Isn't that
great!!"

Lydia felt as if someone had punched her in the stomach. While she was
extremely pleased for her husband to be getting this type of national
acclaim, she couldn't help feeling a little selfish in her
disappointment that her perfect night alone with Jefferey was ruined.

The situation now changed, Lydia didn't even feel it was the right
time or place to share the exquisitely touching letter from the
African boy that had wrote to say how much he appreciated the Bensons'
help through the church. It almost seemed anti-climatic to share that
after her husband groundbreaking transplant news and a potential spot
on Larry King.

"Well Honey..that's... fantastic," Lydia added with as much fake vigor
as she could. "Besides..we can have dinner anytime and it will give me
a chance to brag to all my friends that my husband is on national TV.
Let me go upstairs and get a couple of days worth of clothes together
for you... How many days should I pack for?"

"I'll probably be gone at least four days, but here's the cool part
Honey," Jefferey started, "the hospital is paying my whole way and
since it's such a special occasion, they are springing for everyone's
family as well."

Lydia's eyes immediately brightened as the opportunity to get away for
a while was offered to her on a silver platter.

"I'm so backed up right now though, Jefferey," Lydia huffed
disappointedly, pointing to the two large briefcases full of work
waiting on the sofa. "Maybe I can join you there on Friday... but
right now I just have too many commitments to take care of."

* * * * *

As Lydia finished packing a few things for her husband, she came
across the slightly wet letter that the young man from Kenya had sent.
Lydia instantly felt the urge to read its contents again, its simple
words again soothing her and making her feel valued. Lydia quickly put
the letter down and covered it with a towel however, when Jefferey
burst into the bathroom to collect a few toiletries for the trip.

"I gotta go..Larry's waiting outside. We are going to take his car to
the airport," Jefferey Benson matter of factly said as he streaked
through the bedroom to grab the last of his things. "I love you
Lydia... I'll call you sometime tomorrow."

Mechanically reaching out to give Jefferey a peck on the cheek as he
rushed by, Lydia waved and wished him luck as he headed out the front
door.

Heading back up to her room, Lydia sat on the edge of her freshly made
bed and allowed the emptiness of the house to surround her. Looking
out the window and seeing that twilight was falling on Baltimore,
after such grand plans minutes earlier, Lydia didn't have a clue what
to do with a whole night just to herself.

* * * * *

Hating the headaches that generally went with it, Lydia had pretty
much given up drinking years earlier until the only hard alcohol she
touched was during the occasional party or dinner outing.

It was clear then that tonight was a special occasion for Lydia when
she found herself sitting in Jefferey's study, with the liquor cabinet
open, searching for just the right 'pick me up'. She finally settled
for a Vodka on the rocks.

"If you're gonna do it..do it right," Lydia said as she toasted
herself, feeling strangely giddy as the sounds of the ice cubes
swirling around the chilled glass clinked and cracked together in the
otherwise silent room.

Lydia contemplated calling up a few of her friends to pass the time or
maybe going through the couple's extensive movie collection to find a
film to lose herself in, but each time Lydia thought about getting up,
she ended up pouring herself another stiff drink.

As the vaguely distant and unfamiliar feelings of a buzz descended
upon Lydia's brain cells, the lonely woman jumped up from her chair
and switched on the CD player, filling the house with the sounds of
Mozart as she floated like a butterfly from room to room.

Lydia finally found herself back upstairs in her room, needing to take
the inevitable bathroom break that always came when she drank. Sitting
on the toilet, Lydia saw the letter from Kwame partially hidden under
a towel on the sink beside her. Reaching for it, Lydia remembered the
boy saying something about being enrolled at UMBC.

As the staggering blonde made her way back down the steps to mix drink
number five, Lydia remembered the UMBC student directory she kept in
the house for several fundraising activities she had helped the school
with in the recent past.

"That's what I'll do," Lydia hummed. "That was such a sweet thing for
that boy to do..the least I can do is thank him for his letter."

Once she found the phone book, Lydia thumbed through the directory
until she came across the name of Kwame Noel, Freshman exchange
student from Kenya.

"That's it," Lydia said between sips of her Smirnoff. "That's the same
address..and there's his number. He is real! Hell..it's too late
though..I'll call him tomorrow."

If Lydia had the presence of a mirror beside her at that moment, she
would have seen the pale skin on her face and neck noticeably blushed
from a combination of alcohol and shy appreciation. She would have
also seen the way her nipples visibly protruded through her loose
fitting tee-shirt, another unsightly effect of booze when she
overindulged.

"Time to go to bed," Lydia said to herself as lethargy overtook her.

* * * * *

Sleep didn't come easily for Lydia Benson that night. Laying at the
cusp of sleep several times, she just couldn't seem to get herself to
fall over the edge and enjoy the pleasures of a good night's rest.

Lydia knew she had lied slightly to her husband about the extent of
how busy she'd be for the next few days. While she did have a ton of
little errands to attend to in the coming days, she didn't have
anything so pressing that she couldn't have delayed it for an
opportunity to join Jefferey in Cleveland.

Perhaps Lydia's failure to fall asleep could be traced to the fact
that she didn't have anything pressing first thing in the morning to
wake her from bed like she usually did. That, and the issues still
burning between her thighs from what he had internally planned on
doing with her husband, kept Lydia's body and mind from succumbing to
sleep. Looking over at the green digital light of the alarm clock on
the nightstand, Lydia saw that it said 11:13pm.

"Only 12 minutes since the last time you looked," Lydia bitterly
reminded herself.

With the overflowing desires still in her body from what she had
planned on doing with her husband, Lydia frustratingly accepted the
only course of action to relieve her built up sexual angst.

Allowing her right hand to disappear underneath the luxurious down
comforter covering her body, Lydia gently drifted her fingertips down
her warm skin until they brushed up against the familiar wet, rubbery
lips of her steaming vagina.

Shutting her eyes tight, Lydia tried her best to conjure up any hint
of an erotic thought she could, to hasten her guilty act of
wantonness. A multitude of shadowy images flashed through Lydia's mind
like a bad silent movie as she traced the pouting lips of her pussy
with her middle and index finger.

The image of her husband drifted in and out of Lydia's visual field,
but considering the night she had been put through, Jefferey was the
last thing she wanted to think about.

Lydia then tried conjuring the images of several of the men she had
encountered during the past day's travels. The first and most enticing
vision Lydia could come up with was that of Brian Muldavy, the golf
pro at the country club where Lydia had spent a few hours helping out
with a charity round.

Even in the dark reaches of her fantasy life, Lydia still struggled
with her conscience however. Even though Brian Muldavy was the perfect
specimen in every way, Lydia couldn't help but picture Brian's lovely
wife, Katrina, who also helped Lydia frequently with charitable
endeavors. To top it off, Katrina Muldavy was a sweetheart as well and
each time Lydia thought of Brian in a sexual way, the disapproving
image of Katrina reared its ugly head.

"I can't do that..let's see who else I can do," Lydia snipped to
herself, continuing to frig her pussy until just the right idea came
along.

Her sexual self esteem now trolling the depths of her imagination,
Lydia even thought for a fleeting moment about her pastor at the
church. Roland Dudley was such a sweet and kind man. One that put
anyone at ease the moment he walked into the room, and frankly, Lydia
considered the 60 year old pastor a pseudo father figure.

Shaking her head bitterly to the side, disgusted at herself for even
having that brief indecent thought, Lydia immediately removed her
right hand from her crotch and rolled over to go to sleep.

"I can't even do that right," Lydia fumed out loud, not knowing
whether to laugh or cry from her curious dilemma.

"Maybe I'll flip on the TV for a while..maybe it'll help me settle
down," Lydia whispered in the dark as she drunkenly reached for the
remote beside the bed.

Flipping on the TV, Lydia realized she was too late to catch the late
local news and ended up wandering up and down the dial, just the same
way she always scolded her husband for when he couldn't find anything
of interest to watch.

Surfing through the scourge of late night comedy, re-runs and
infomercials, Lydia was dashed with a dose of irony when a commercial
for "Save the Children" came on and she couldn't help sneaking a peek
over at the young Kenyan boy's letter she had got in the mail earlier.

Watching Sally Struther's chubby face fill the screen, Lydia's drunken
tongue lashed the ex TV-star. "If that fat old Struthers woman would
share some of her meal money with those kids, no one in the world
would go hungry tonight!"

Sitting up briskly in bed, Lydia switched the lamp beside the bed on,
the lightbulb illuminating both in reality and symbolically, showing
that she had an idea.

Reaching over and grabbing the UMBC student directory along with her
cordless, Lydia started to dial the exchange student's listed number
before her conscience could step in.

The first ring sounded in Lydia's ear at the same moment she looked
over at the digital clock to see that it was 5 minutes to 12.

"What are you doing calling a complete stranger at midnight?" she
asked herself dazedly.

Feeling her palms instantly become sweaty, Lydia vacillated for a
brief moment over hanging the phone up as the second ring sounded.
Just as she brought her right hand up to click off the connection, a
deep male voice on the other end said, "Hello."

"Ahh..haa..hello," was all Lydia could muster for a few agonizingly
awkward seconds.

She could hear the man on the other end breathing as he patiently
waited for Lydia to continue.

"Is... ahhh... Kw... Kwame there?" Lydia finally spat out softly,
assuming the husky voice on the other end was, in fact, the kind boy
that had mailed her the 'thank you' note.