A
Flight to Hell & Heaven
by Starlight ©
The aircraft came in from the west, banked, and lined up on the flight
path for landing. As it dropped lower and lower, he saw the roofs of suburban
houses. There was the whine and thump of the wheels being lowered. They
skimmed over the city centre, and then briefly he saw more suburban roofs.
The aircraft bumped as it struck the runway and they taxied towards the
terminal building.
Bernard
The flight had been hell. Not that
the aircraft or pilot were at fault. From that point of view, it had been
a perfect trip. It was the hell in his mind that tormented Bernard. He
was returning to that which he had fled from four years ago. The torment
was made worse by the schism that tore him apart.
In my country, our native animal,
the kangaroo, is mostly not seen by day. At night, it is said, vehicle
headlights fascinate them. They venture out in to the road, there to be
captured by the oncoming beam of light, and are held motionless by their
own fascination. In the morning, there is another mangled carcass at the
side of the road to be disposed of.
Bernard had his particular fascination,
but in his case, unlike the kangaroo, he knew the doom that it held for
him. He had run from it, but found no peace.
There are many of us who, imprisoned
by fears, bereavements or desires, flee to other geographical locations
to escape. It is useless. The things we wish to flee from, to leave behind,
run with us, for they are the contents of our own minds.
What is the cure? Well, as Hamlet
questions, why should a man bear the burdens of life "When he himself
might his quietus make with a bare bodkin?"
The other alternative is to turn
and face the demon that haunts us, and force it to a culminating final
judgement.
Bernard could claim no special
virtue for his return to the place of his anguish. It was the death of
his father that forced him to make this journey to hell, and he knew that
the epicentre of his torture was awaiting him in the terminal building.
He entered the building through
the glass doors, passed along the walkway, and at the end there she stood.
"Oh God," he thought,
"why even in grief does she have to look so lovely? Why can she not
look ugly and faded? What has to happen to mar her beauty?"
Others passing the same way as
Bernard paid no particular attention to the woman standing waiting. If
they had given her a glance they would most likely have seen a woman somewhere
in her mid forties, a little on the plump side with well cared for dark
hair and nice skin. They might have thought, "Not bad," and
walked on. As the bard said, "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder."
Bernard approached the woman and
said, "Hello, mother," and kissed her on the cheek. She put
her hand to the side his face, kissed him on the lips and said, "Hello,
darling."
In an instant, a sword piercing
pain ran through him. Her touch, her kiss, her soft contralto voice, brought
back all he had dreaded to face.
It had begun when he had entered
puberty. Before that he had always had a special bond with his mother,
but that bond had been concerned with food and home and security.
With his change from childhood
to manhood, something new entered into that bond. At first, not quite
knowing why, he found his developing penis stiffening when he happened
to catch a glimpse of her bending in tight shorts, or as she leaned towards
him and he could see her unbridled breasts down the top of her garment.
He found himself watching her as she moved, to see the sensuous movements
of those same breasts.
Thus began his agony of desire.
Living in the same house as his mother was like being a prisoner who is
dying of thirst, while outside the bars of his prison is a glass of water
just out of reach. He heard the orgasmic cries of his mother and the groans
of his father as they made love, and he wept from frustration and jealousy.
He came to hate his father for possessing the prize he longed for.
On holidays by the sea, his misery
was added to when his mother went about in the scantiest of bikinis, and
in front of him, his father made suggestive comments to her as his hands
caressed her body. He was roused to fury when mother and father went for
their "afternoon rest," in their bedroom in the holiday shack.
He was driven to masturbate repeatedly
to try to relieve himself of the lustful burden he carried. When he began
dating and having sex with girls, as he climaxed, it was always his mother's
face he saw. When it was over, it was no longer his mother's face, and
he felt a wave of self-loathing sweep over him.
He had even thought of raping his
mother so great was his need for her, but hurled the thought away almost
as soon as it was born in his mind. He wanted her lovingly and tenderly,
not forcibly and violently.
And so his life went on in her
presence beset every moment with the agonising pangs of his loving and
carnal longings for her. All the while he sought to hide these feelings
from her. If he had an erection in her presence, he would leave the room.
She must never know what he felt for her.
He even tried to hate her, to emotionally
reject her. He ceased any kissing or touching, and tried to keep physical
distance between them. Yet no matter what he did, nothing would assuage
his passion.
It was when he was in his early
twenties, and about to start out on his career, that he decided that there
was only one way he could be rid of his demon. He must leave home and
remove himself to another city. Accordingly, he had applied for, and gained,
a position far away.
When he announced his impending
departure to his mother, she had wept. He had longed to embrace and comfort
her, but he dared not. The feel of her body against his would either torture
him with raging desire, or lead him to make moves she would loathe and
hate him for.
And so he went to his new city,
but it brought him no relief or comfort. Just as when he was at home,
his sexual relations with girls had been a miserable failure. There was
one woman, and only one woman, who could meet his needs, and she was forbidden
to him.
When the call had come to say his
father was dead, his first reaction was to try to make excuses for not
attending the funeral, but a sense of duty prevailed. And now he stood
in the physical presence of his loveliest dreams and worst nightmares.
Janet
She had driven to the airport to
meet him with a feeling of apprehension churning inside her. She knew
that her all pervading feeling should be one of grief at the loss of her
husband, Tom, but she was not a woman to lie to herself, and whatever
she felt about Tom's death, those feelings had been overwhelmed by the
thought of seeing Bernard.
Bernard had not returned even for
a brief visit since the day he left to take up his job in the distant
city. She had asked him to visit many times, especially at Christmas or
family festive occasions, but he always had an excuse for not coming.
Janet was not a naive fool. She
was fairly sure she knew why Bernard had left home, and why he had not
returned for a visit. When she contacted him to tell him of his father's
death, and he had agreed to come for the funeral, and perhaps stay for
a few days, she had been filled with joy. "Now," she had thought,
"we might have the chance to straighten things out between us."
That had been her first thought,
but as time for his arrival drew near, the prospect was not so pleasing.
It was rather like one of those views that delight the eye at a distance,
but when you have toiled your way to it, it proves no more pleasing than
the one you have just left.
She had allowed her mind to wander
down memory lane. When she had first found out she was pregnant with Bernard,
she had been beside herself with happiness. It happened early in her marriage
to Tom, and she felt she could look forward to more pregnancies. It was
not to be. After Bernard's birth, try as they might, no further offspring
resulted.
As time passed and she remained
barren, she began to lose interest in her sex life. She focused on Bernard
and his baby and childhood needs. Her love for the boy was as absolute
as a mother's love can get.
He was the apex of her life, and
she often had to deal with a disgruntled Tom, who complained of her lack
of interest in their relationship. At such times she made an effort, and
to placate him they engaged in sexual intercourse, with her playing a
hidden game of "pretend."
It was as Bernard entered puberty
that a change, at first subtle, took place in the relationship between
Janet and her son. She had observed it first in Bernard's covert glances
at her that were not unlike those of young men trying to glimpse a girl's
more intimate body parts. "Just curiosity," she thought.
Later she could not fail to notice
what was really happening when she saw his erections in her presence,
and his hasty departures. Even later she was distressed by his withdrawal
from her, his rejection of hugs and kisses, and in addition, she was disturbed
by her own reactions.
The sight of his erections and
the occasional glimpses she had got of his naked body when he changed
at the beach, brought on a throbbing in her clitoris and erection of her
nipples. She often had to cope with a delicious but uncomfortable wetness
in her groin, and had to behave as if it was not happening in Bernard
or Tom's presence.
At first she tried to fight against
these feelings. She was a religious woman, and understood what religion
and the law had to say about incest and incestuous feelings, but it did
not help. Still they tormented her.
She tried to tell herself that
her sexual arousal had its source in a general lack of sexual activity
on her part. After years of perfunctory sexual contact with Tom, she made
an effort to revive her former very active sex life with him. It failed
completely to deal with the main problem in fact it made it worse. If
she succeeded in having an orgasm with Tom, it was Bernard's penis she
imagined in her. Once she only just stopped herself from crying out, "Oh,
Bernard, my love," as she came.
Tom was delighted with the revival
of his sex life, and fondled and caressed her, even in Bernard's presence.
She understood what this was doing to Bernard, but was helpless to do
anything about it.
She had thought of coming out into
the open with Bernard but could not face the possibility that he would
be disgusted that his mother should desire him, despite his own desire
for her.
Janet tried to dress so as not
to torture him, but then changed tack. She wore seductive clothing to
try and lure him into making a move. She even thought, "Oh God, please
let him rape me," but realised that she was being cowardly and was
trying to shift the responsibility onto Bernard.
So when Bernard announced that
he would be moving away to a distant city Janet, at war with herself and
her irreconcilable emotions, was both relieved and grieved. For days after
he left Janet wept in secret. Looking back, she realised that she had
grieved far more for Bernard's departure from her presence, than for Tom's
death. Terrible though she knew this to be, it was the unavoidable truth
about her.
As she stood at the head of the
walkway she saw his aircraft taxi to the terminal. She saw him the moment
he left the aircraft. Her heart lurched as she took in his tall, upright
figure striding towards the entrance of the building. Her decision to
meet him coolly fell away from her and on his approach and his peck on
her cheek; she flung aside her resolve and touching his face, and kissed
him full on the lips.
Bernard
At the touch of her hand on his
cheek and the soft pressure of her lips on his, Bernard was overwhelmed
by the feelings he had fervently hoped to avoid. The old stirrings of
his virility were there as if there had never been a distance of time
and space between them.
He tried to steady his voice as
he said, "Just got to pick up my suitcase." As they waited for
the luggage bay of the aircraft to be unloaded and the contents brought
into the terminal, they said little, except those formal things one does
say on those occasions, like, "Good flight?" "Oh yes, fine."
What they in fact were doing, was to weigh each other up physically."
For Bernard his mother seemed to
have changed very little. The beauty he had always perceived in her was
still there. "Perhaps she has put on a little more weight. Her breasts
a little plumper, her hips a fraction fuller," he thought. But his
old desire was there, starting the flare up in his groin even at this
moment. "A little tiredness round the eyes and despite her smile,
a look of uneasiness. Suppose it is not unexpected with the death of a
husband." So his thoughts ran.
They left the terminal building
and headed for the car. On the journey to the house little passed between
them. Barnard remarked on a few changes - buildings that had been torn
down and replaced. Janet mentioned a few other changes that were not visible
on their way.
Bernard's arrival had been in the
late afternoon, so the evening meal, already partially prepared by Janet,
followed soon after they got to the house. Commonplace remarks about the
few alterations in the house, and some explanations about Tom's death
from heart failure, occupied the rest of the evening.
Bernard felt the tension between
them. Whilst he understood the source of his own tension, he could not
really appreciate that which emanated from his mother. They were like
two cats sizing each other up before a fight. Janet seemed to welcome
him home, and at the same time be nervous about his presence. It was all
very bewildering.
He had made no definite arrangements
about the length of his stay, and his mother made no enquiry about it.
Bernard had in fact taken a fortnight's leave, but his initial intention
had been to spend as little time with his mother as he decently could,
then be off to some beach resort before he got too sick with sexual frustration.
Now, looking at her, he was torn within. The old battle - the desire to
feast his eyes on her, and the awful pain of desire for her.
Next day the funeral was held,
and with the service and the crowd of people that came back to the house
to consume food and drink, there was little chance of contact between
Janet and Bernard. When the last of the guests had left, both were too
tired to converse. They both went off to their beds.
Janet.
As soon as she had kissed him she
half wished she had not. She felt instinctively that even this mild contact
had disturbed him, and the throbbing of her clitoris informed her that
nothing had changed in her feelings towards him.
As they waited for his luggage
she determined that she would seek no further physical contact with him,
and would keep conversation down to generalities, and information about
Tom's death.
She managed to maintain a distance
between them throughout the evening, and did not even enquire how long
he was staying. She wanted to do nothing that would commit him to a particular
length of time. "He must decide for himself without any pressure
from me," she thought. If she had cut herself loose from all restraint,
she would have cried out to him, "I love you. I want you. Don't ever
leave." She kept this locked away deep inside her.
Despite the fact they were in a
house of mourning, and tomorrow they must attend the funeral, that evening
she was in an agony of sexual desire for him. She had to force herself
to sit still as they talked, so great was her agitation.
The funeral over and the guests
departed, she was relieved to find herself utterly weary and glad to go
to bed, where she fell into a deep sleep.
When she woke in the morning Janet
sensed that today would be crucial for her relationship with her son.
Having dutifully attended the funeral, he could now legitimately depart.
He might, of course, continue to feel a sense of obligation and stay with
her on the grounds of her bereavement.
The thought of bereavement raised
the further thought of Tom's death. In times of great crisis or bereavement,
it is as if the body produces an anaesthetic to defend us from the worst
agonies of loss. During the immediate period after whatever blow has fallen,
we can behave in a perfectly calm and rational manner. It is only as this
anaesthesia wears off that we begin to feel the pain. Janet was now beginning
to feel it.
The pain of bereavement is essentially
a selfish though perfectly natural one. The dead person is now beyond
the joys and sufferings of this life. Whoever they were, whatever their
achievements, whether young or old, their story is now written and the
full stop added. There is nothing we can add or subtract from their story.
It is we who are left behind, whose
story is still in process, who suffer loss. It is we who bear the pangs
of what "might have been." Those words of love that were never
spoken. The kindly deed that will never now be done. "We never did
take that holiday together." Those who have grieved will know what
I mean.
Janet now began to feel these pains.
The business of pre-funeral preparations, and the longed for and dreaded
meeting with her son, the realisation that the feelings of sexual love
for him were still with her, had covered her loss until this morning.
Now it struck home, and found a fragile target.
It came to Janet that she was now
alone. Tom was gone from her life, and whatever may have been his faults
or failings, he had been her companion. Now, when Bernard left, she would
be on her own, with no close relatives living nearby. Desolation swept
over her and she dissolved into floods of tears.
In the next room Bernard heard
her.
Bernard.
He had woken early and heard the
dawn chorus. He lay thinking about the day ahead. Should he stay on and
bear the pain of her nearness so he might be of help in her time of loss?
He confessed to himself that he
had had no great affection for his father in recent years. He had been
too consumed with envy at his father's right to enter his mother's body
almost at will. Yet now he was gone and would enter no more. At this thought
the thoughts I have outlined above rose to the surface. "Perhaps
it could have been different. If only…" But what was the use? Tom
was gone now and nothing could turn back the clock.
He was still weighing up whether
to go or stay when he heard the sounds of his mother's weeping. At first
he hesitated to intervene, but as her sobs grew in volume he got out of
bed, put on his dressing gown, and went to her room.
She was laying partially face down
her arm lying under her face. He went to her and laid his arm across her
shoulders. He said only, "Mother." He voiced no words of false
comfort. He simply was present to her. She turned and curled herself into
his body and continued to weep as he held her as if she were a child.
As her weeping subsided she began to sob out her feelings of loss and
regret in broken words and phrases.
This was the first time in years
he had been in intimate physical contact with his mother. It might be
anticipated that his sexual need of her would surface in all its power,
but not so. He had always loved her as well as lusted for her, and at
such a time as this it was his love that prevailed. He wanted only to
comfort her and offer her his strength.
As she quietened he said, "You
stay here, mother, I shall make breakfast and you can have it in bed.
She gave a weak smile and said, "I hate breakfast in bed. You can
make it while I have a shower, and then I'll join you."
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