Tongue on Fire
by Darla Whitefeather


Lalo watches Jenifer from a distance. Full hips swaying from side to side. The bounce of her red hair as she walks down the cobblestone path that leads to her office. The distinctive "clickety-slide-click, clickety-slide-click" sound her high heels make telegraphing her arrival to attentive ears. "Puta!" he mutters under his breath and spews a a bit of tobacco spittle onto the ground. Guerro, his son, tips his hat to her when she passes by him. "Estupido!" Lalo thinks to himself, "she is a whore not a lady!"

She has everyone fooled. Everyone except him and Blanca. It is Blanca who first alerts him to Jenifer's true nature. The afternoon she moves into the casita, he and Blanca are sitting under the shade tree in the patio waiting for Guerro and Linda, his daughter-in-law, to return from the doctor's office. Linda is pregnant with his first grandchild. A blessing that fills his eyes with tears whenever he thinks about it. He is scratching Blanca's head and whistling a tune to a ranchero song when she pulls up in a U-haul loaded with office furniture. A barrel chested young man hops out of the cab, on the passenger side, and proceeds to unload the U-haul. A youngish looking woman with red-hair, stays in the cab to apply lipstick to her lips and brush her hair using the rearview mirror. By the time she exits the cab, on the driver's side, the young man has unloaded several pieces of furniture. The woman is dressed in cut-off shorts and a midriff shirt that shows off her trim, athletic figure. The man picks up a couple of the heaviest pieces and follows the woman to the casita. His eyes are fixated on her wriggling romp. The woman, for her part, seems oblivious to her affect on him. She ispreoccupied with unloading the U-haul and moving her things into the office. To the delight of her male companion, her shorts ride over her cheeks revealing two shapely, tanned crescents. A few minutes into the effort, the woman looks over at Lalo, smiles and waves. Blanca, growls and barks at her. Something she doesn't do unless the person is threatening. Lalo looks at the woman more closely. She is an attractive little thing. Not the type of woman he likes, she is too skinny for him. There is a confidence in her bearing that suggests she is older than she appears to be. Blanca barks at her again. Her breasts are high and pointy like a young woman's but, even at a distance, he can see she has old eyes and a mouth weighed down by heavy frown lines."A typical Americana," Lalo thinks to himself, "Thin, tanned and well preserved." A smirk etches its way across his face. There is nothing to fear from a woman like her. She is a pale imitation of a real woman. She has no spirit, no warm heart like his daughter-in-law. The next time Blanca growls at her, he kicks the dog in the mouth. She whimpers and licks his boot submissively. He strokes her head reassuredly and says, "good girl.".

Jenifer is a popular tenant. She is always kissing and hugging people. Pressing her pointy breasts into the chests of the mostly conservative businessmen who lease office space in the complex . She claims to be a counselor. A grief counselor who helps people to work through life losses like divorce, poor health, betrayal and death. Most of her clients visit her in the evenings which makes it hard for Lalo to clean her office. He has to wait until after the 10:00 evening news to make the short walk from his trailer to her casita to do his cleaning.

It is on just such a evening that Lalo discovers the double life Jenifer is leading.Ordinarily he brings Blanca along with him for company and protection when he walks on the grounds at night. Although they are surrounded by miles of open desert, a major highway runs along the east property line. It is not uncommon to find transients and other weirdos camped out on the grounds. Most of them are decent, friendly sorts but every now and then he runs across a brawler. On those occasions he feels safer with Blanca by his side. Between the two of them, he manages to run off troublemakers without having to call the police. He decides to leave Blanca at the trailer to keep Linda company that evening. She is upset that Guerro has chosen to spend another evening out with his friends drinking and carousing. His son is a weak, selfish man. He complains bitterly about her weight and seems repulsed by the sight of her large belly. The sounds of passionate lovemaking that used to travel through the thin walls of the trailer and keep him awake at night are replaced by Linda's lonely, muffled sobs. Lalo cannot comprehend his son's callousness. He threatens to put him out, to withdraw his financial support but Guerro knows these are empty threats. The only person who would be hurt by his actions is Linda and Lalo could not bear to inflict greater suffering on her.
Without Blanca's barking to announce his arrival, Lalo approaches Jenifer's casita in relative silence. The lights are out and the shades are drawn, the place looks empty. He is about to remove the master key from his pocket to unlock the door when he hears the unmistakable sounds of passion. A deep, throaty groan vibrates through the door. Lalo steps back and stares dumbfoundedly at the doorknob. He raises his hand to knock on the door but decides against it. Instead he quietly moves around the corner of the building to the side window. A tall hedge blocks his view but by slouching low, he can peer through the small space between the bottom of the partially drawnwindow shade and the top of the hedge. He is aware of movement in the room but it is difficult to make out shapes. His eyes finally adjust to the darkness of the room and he sees them, the nude forms of a man and woman. The man is sitting in a chair and the woman is croached between his legs. Her head is bobbing up and down. The man is groaning and pushing the woman's head downward into his Croat. He hears sucking, smacking noises coming from the woman's mouth. She suddenly pulls away from the man and strings of saliva extending from her mouth to his erect cock catch the outside light, glistening like silver threads. The woman stands up and bends over, her red hair cascading down, until her head touches her knees. The man stands behind her and slips his cock into her. Lalo hears the rhythmic slapping of flesh against flesh until the man's and woman's moans seem to synchronize into one harmonious orgasmic scream. When the man releases the woman, she falls to the floor onto her knees laughing. Then they both collapse into an exhausted heap.

Lalo returns to his trailer in deep thought. Linda is already asleep but Blanca greets him enthusiastically. He climbs into his bed, his mind whirling with the images from Jenifer's casita. Before he can stop himself, he is stroking his own penis. When the hot, sticky comes finally erupts into his hands, he lets Blanca lick it off his fingers.

Over the next several weeks, Lalo makes numerous trips to Jenifer's casita in the still of the night. Sometimes there is nothing to see but at other times he is rewarded with live action sexual theater. At these time, he slinks back to his room to find ecstasy in his own hands. It isn't long before a gnawing loneliness sets in. He starts to crave the physical touch of a woman. "Not a woman like that puta, Jenifer," he says to himself, " but a woman with a warm heart and moist, full lips like Linda." His mind frequentlyturns to his daughter-in-law in the next room. The sad beauty keeping a lonely vigil for a husband who rarely returns home before dawn. The more he longs for Linda, the more he hates Jenifer for the shameful feelings she unlooses inside of him.

Lalo stops cleaning Jenifer's casita. He refuses to speak to her and goes out of his way to avoid having contact with her. He leaves it to his son to take care of her. Although initially unhappy about the arrangement, Guerro begins spending inordinate amounts of time with her. Lalo disapproves of their budding friendship and lets him know about it. He wants to tell him about the things he has seen in Jenifer's casita but he is too ashamed. What would his son think of him? Would he become a dirty old man in his eyes. A pathetic "peeping tom". It was enough that he knows the truth about himself. He decides to bite his tongue and say nothing.

It isn't long before Guerro is bringing Linda around Jenifer. He warns his son to keep her away from the "puta" but he ignores him. He claims she is helping them work through the problems in their marriage. Lalo knows better. You can't bring a pure thing around something rotten without the good being spoiled by the bad. He watches for the signs of contamination.

Around the trailer, Guerro and Linda are more openly affectionate. She starts to smile and laugh again. He spends more time at home and even seems to take pleasure in rubbing her swollen belly. Lalo knows what he sees but he doesn't trust his eyes. His common sense tells him this is a charade; it's a lie. Their togetherness is isolating. It's the two of them and him. He is starting to feel like an outsider in his own house. If his grandson wasn't still in Linda"s belly , he would have put them both out.

Lalo is sitting under the shade tree with Blanca by his side when Linda emerges from the trailer one morning. She struggles to walk now because her belly is so heavy. She smiles at him and says, "Buenos dias, poppy!" He grunts a reply and pulls his hat over his eyes. She waddles past him toward Jenifer's casita carrying a plate of breakfast tortillas. He used to think she was beautiful woman but now she looks like a fat sow. She and Guerro have rekindled their passion and the sounds of their lovemaking are again keeping him awake at night.

He drifts off into a crazy daydream. He is sitting in a chair inside of Jenifer's casita with his pants around his knees . She is sucking his cock but her tongue is on fire. He is surprised that his flesh is not burning. He realizes it is because the flames are not hot. They are cool and soothing. When he comes his semen is like gasoline because it sends the red/orange flames on her tongue shooting toward the stars.

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