Slip Up

ART: "The Dance" By Frank Morrison

Clerow finished painting Mabel's bedroom.. She thanked him. She offered him some lemonaid and he sat at the table.. It had been a long time since they had been alone together.

" So how is Corabeth doing?" said Mabel, making small talk.

"She and the baby are in New Orleans, visiting your father....been down there for a week....she called last night." He said.

"Yeah, I talked to her the day before last." she said uneasily. She spied Clerow looking at her breats, which were fighting with the black bra she was wearing to stay inside of her blouse. She slowly tucked the strap back inside and tried to close her blouse a little.

"I can't thank you enough for painting these three rooms...I can't get "88" to do anything around here." she said.

"Well, the man is on the road half the year,I guess he tired when he comes home." said Clerow.

"Yeah... I suppose...He come home though, all he wants to do is eat and.......well you know." said Mabel, a little embarrassed by what that implied.

"Can't blame the man for wantin to do neither ." said Clerow. He only knew the piano player "88" vaguely. They weren't friends, but they weren't enemies either..he had nothing against the man though...He just hated to see him with Mabel...His Mabel....the reason he was in Philadelphia in the first place...To try and make up for a late night tryst with her sister, Corabeth, now his wife..that resulted in the birth of their daughter....Had that of never happened, He's still be with Mabel..and they would still be in Louisiana...All of them ,perhaps.

"So where is the Piano man?" asked Clerow.

'They're out in San-Francisco....been out there on the West Coast for three months...Goin to Japan next and will be back here around the middle of next month." said Mabel.

"Wow....he's gone for long stretches aint he?" asked Clerow.

"Yeah.."

"I guess you get lonely here sometimes don't you?" said Clerow.

"Yes...I do." said Mabel.

There was a long silence between them...Neither of them wanted to go any farther, finnally Mabel said..

"Clerow..let's go out and get a drink."

"Aww Mabel, I aint dressed to go no where." he said.

"Look, I'll get dressed here and we go over to your house and I'll wait for you to get dressed and we can go get a drink." she said.

'Welllll, I suppose there aint no harm in that." he said.

He sat and waited while she took a shower and dressed. He didn't know why everything Mabel wore was so tight and revealing...The last thing he wanted to do was think of her in a sexual way,
but she wore a Black , sheer dress that was just a knockout and her perfume was soft and exciting in a way that he wished it weren't.

They drove to his home and he took a shower...Unknown to him...Mabel sneaked a peak, while he was in the shower...Through the glass shower door, she got a good look at what she used to know so well...She closed her eyes and thought of their days in Louisiana and their nights in a hotel room together.

Her Father, Willie 'Sweet Dick' Jenkins never cared for Clerow too much and so they had to sneak to motels and hotels to have their trysts. Ironically enough..the one time they could have done it at their home, her fresh younger and equally voluptuous sister, Cora beth lured him into her bedroom. She also thought about the fact that Clerow had beded her older half sister ,Victoria...Who she didn't even know had existed until they got to Philadelphia. How could she now be faantasizing about sleeping with him? The only one of her sisters he hadn't slept with was her youngest half sister ,Anita , who now, also lived here... She stopped and remembered...Whatever else there had been between them... He was now her sister's husband..her brother in law...and it could not go any further than that.

Clerow wore a nice pair of pressed jeans and a white dress shirt and some well polished black shoes.. He looked nice and neat and he smelled great too! He always was a well groomed man she remembered.

They went to Josie's.....and ordered several drinks. Few people noticed them and no heads turned. Everybody knew that Mabel was his sister in law and they both hailed from Louisiana..it
was no big deal that they were here drinking together. They left Josie's around Midnight and headed to a Soul Food joint called "Big Poppa's' There they had Cabbage, Red Beans and Rice, Fried Chicken and sweet tea.. food that they knew and liked.

"It aint as good as down home, but it'll do." laughed Clerow as he and Mabel ate their food. After they finished eating, They drove to Ciro's...The joint that Fathead Newton owned (silently) and hung out in when he wasn't at Josie's. Ciro's was much larger than Josie's and had more people..
The important thing was that in Ciro's..Nobody there knew the two of them and they were free
to do whatever...They laughed, they talked...they danced slow and Mabel didn't move when she felt Clerow's erection....she didn't move his hands as they eased down her back and caressed her
behind...She didn't care tonight...she felt reckless....So did Clerow...he didn't know if it was the liquor in his system feuling his sudden lust that had been dormat until now or if this was really him. He couldn't know it, but Mabel felt the same way.

They drove back to Mabel's house , where they sat on the couch...They talked about anything and everything until close to three in the morning..

"Mabel, it's damn near three in the morning...I'd better get going.." laughed Clerow.

'You're drunk...why don't you stay and sleep on the couch and you can leave in the morning." said Mabel.

"I don't know if that would be a good idea." said Clerow.

Mabel looked Clerow in the eyes and she said silently..-"Why Clerow? Why would it be a bad idea?"

Maybe it was the alcohol that gave him the courage or recklessness or whatever, but he took her into his ams and kissed her passionately...Mabel didn't try to stop him either..She returned his passion...

"Ohhhhhh...Clerow..." she moaned....

"Mabel, how long has it been?" he asked...

"Three months." she said...

"You need me right now..." he said telling a lie that people tell from time to time to justify their sins.

"Yes..I do...I do.." she said as she opened his shirt and lifted off his undershirt...Clerow lifted her
dress off of her and began kissing her along side her neck and caressing her breasts...

"You don't know how long I've dreamed about this.." he moaned....

"Ohhhhhhhh, Clerow, don't say anymore....ohhhhhhhhhh.." she moaned as she took his penis in her hand and stroked it gently....it seemed as if it was growing as she stroked it..He pushed her
down on the couch and mounted her and began to stroke her with wild abandon....She moaned with pleasure as Clerow continuously moved up and down inside her as though it was the end of the world..

3:00 am , became 4:00 am and 4:00am became 4:50 am...

"Ohhhhhhhh baby...I need you sooo badd!!!!" he moaned...

"Ohhhhhh Clerow, I need you too!..ohhhhhhhhh.." she screamed with pleasure as she squeezed his back!

He came with a violent abandon that he had never experienced with Corabeth and likewise, Mabel came several times herself, before the both of them rolled on to the floor...breathing heavy and laughing out loud.

They got up and walked to Mabel's bedroom, where they got in bed and went at it again...this time slower and softer and more intense than the first time...

When they woke up...it was 10:00 am in the morning....Friday Morning.

"Oh my God....it's Morning." said Mabel...

"Well yeah? What did you think it would be , night?" laughed Clerow.

"I'm not self employed like you Clerow...I have a job....I've got to call them and tell them I won't be in.." she said.

"Is that what's really bothering you Mabel?"

"Clerow, we did something wrong....We shouldn't have done what we did last night....oh my God..I feel so terrible.." She said.

Clerow hung his head...he too felt remorse...he couldn't beleive he had slept with his sister in law.. He had dreamed about it..he had thought about, he had fantasized about it...but he never expected to actually do it...He had stepped over his boundary, his moral boundary.

'Mabel, we were wrong, but it didn't feel wrong..." He said.

"No it didn't Clerow, but it was...We can't ever do this again..." she said ,still hanging her head.

"No, we can't...and we can't ever say anything about this...not to anybody." he said.

"Of course not.." she agreed.

Clerow dressed and slipped out of her house silently and got in his car and drove away.. Mabel stood at the door and watched as his car drove out of sight....Tears flowed down her face and she didn't quite realize why.