Kirk remembered meeting Gretchen for the first time. Her mother introduced her to the group. His girlfriend at the time was renting a room in a four bedroom townhome. Had you told him the woman he just met would become his wife, he wouldn’t have believed it. He didn’t believe in fate at the time.
She was pretty, but skinny and wiry. His girlfriend, Carrie, was tall, blonde, and had great breasts. They both worked together in a grocery store. It wasn’t until later that he discovered Carrie had slept with just about everyone in the store while she was dating him.
He pretty much stayed in the townhome. Gretchen didn’t seem to have a problem with it. She was getting her post-graduate degree. He was finishing his undergraduate degree. Carrie…well, she could actually fix a car.
Gretchen didn’t seem to have much luck with men. She dated Carrie’s brother for a brief time. She also dated one of their friends that worked at the store. He gave her some pretty rude treatment when he dumped her.
Kirk had a big heart. He asked if she wanted to go have a beer and talk. Carrie was working, but he knew she wouldn’t mind. They never made it out of the parking lot. Once inside the car, she broke down in tears and unloaded on him.
She had come from a rich family living in Winter Park, Florida. Her father worked for a large software firm. Her mother was a nurse. She had lived at home her entire time as an undergraduate. Kirk began to understand. This was her first time being on her own.
She also was incredibly talented. She ran mid distance and sprints in track, and still held many state records. That explained why she was so thin and wiry. She also played the flute very well. For her PhD she was working on the social changes in the gay community resulting from the newly discovered AIDS.
They talked for hours. Carrie had already come home and had briefly joined them, but left for bed. When they finally decided to call it a night, she reached up and gave him a quick peck on the lips. “Thank you for being so kind.” They looked at each other. Kirk couldn’t stop looking at her. He almost gave her a much more meaningful kiss. They were slowly coming closer. At the last minute he pulled away. They said goodnight.
Carrie moved out a few months later and found a place with Kirk and her brother. It was while living there that Kirk discovered she was seeing someone else at the same time as him. He moved out a few days later.
The place he moved into was unusual. Boulder was a college town. Many houses had been broken up into rooms for rent. The room he rented, however, was partially in a turret. It wasn’t a castle, it was a house. With a turret. He loved the place.
He also went through what he called, “The Summer of Women.” He was 25 and in the best shape of his life. He barely needed to ask, the woman just ended up in bed with him. At the end of the year, it was Gretchen who ended up there.
Carrie had a New Year’s Eve party at a place she was renting in the mountains. She invited both Gretchen and him. He was surprised to see Gretchen. She had filled out some. She still was muscular, but wasn’t as thin. She really looked good. They ended up tipsy and she proceeded to trounce him at darts. He asked her to his Turret.
She got a kick out of the place. They did some kissing and groping, but she was clear: that was it. This was the first time that year he was with someone who wanted to take it slow. He wasn’t sure how to react. Should he call her the next day? This was before cell phones. A phone call took effort. He never made the effort. She reminds him of that to this day.
A few months later Carrie called and wanted to talk. She was pregnant and wanted to keep the baby. The father wanted nothing to do with her or the baby. He also worked at their store.
He agreed to help. Once again he was the nice guy. They found a two bedroom place and stayed there. Nothing ever happened between them. She had a cute baby girl. Everyone assumed he was the father, including Gretchen. She was the only one he bothered to clarify it to.
After the girl was a year old, he knew he had to move out. He was falling in love. Not with Carrie, but her little baby. He was honest with Carrie. He had to leave before the bond became so strong he couldn’t. She understood completely. They were better as friends. When Gretchen and he were married a few years later, the baby girl carried the flowers. They always laughed about their “love triangle.”
The turret house just happened to have the same room for rent. Something wasn’t right about it, however. The magic was gone, It was just a brick basement that had been made into an apartment. He had no luck with women this time.
Except Gretchen. He always liked to look back on their early time, although what finally brought them together was troubling. It was over 30 years ago, but still gave him the chills.
He was sound asleep when he suddenly awoke to the sensation that someone was in the room. It wasn’t a generalized feeling, it was right there, at the foot of the bed. He couldn’t see or hear anything, but there was no question in his mind that someone was there. It wasn’t a nice entity, either.
He had been in the military and even made marksman, but at that moment it didn’t mean jack. He was terrified. If whatever it was would have moved, he would have died of fright on the spot. He slowly slid to the side of the bed and slipped on his clothes. Then he ran. Straight at it. Nothing happened. He ran straight out the door and jumped in his car. He immediately headed towards Gretchen’s. Why her, he didn’t know. He hadn’t seen her for some time. The whole time driving he was terrified. He kept imagining some skeletal spectre was going to appear in the rear view mirror.
Thank God Gretchen answered the door. It was 3 am. “Kirk, what is wrong?”
He kept looking back at his car. Was it in there? Was it laughing at him? He looked pleadingly at Gretchen. “I didn’t know where else to go. Please, may I just come in?”
At first she resisted. Then she saw how bad he was shaking. She let him in and they sat on the couch. “What has happened,” she asked. “You look terrified.”
He told her. Every detail, including him running like a frightened child. That’s when he looked at her, and realized she was the one. He could be himself with her. He could tell her anything. She was who he wanted to always feel that way about.
“Come with me,” she said. “Don’t wake anyone.” She told him he could stay. He fell asleep in her arms. The next night she let him stay again. That night was awkward. He couldn’t think about her, he was still too frightened at the prospect of having to return to the turret.
The next morning she had an idea. She would stay with him at his place. His ego did not get in the way. He knew with her by his side, he could do it. Perhaps it wasn’t the greatest way to start a relationship, but it worked. She still was being treated badly by men. Now she was like a nurturing mother to this terrified little boy. He had helped her when she was in need. Now she would help him.
He had forgotten about his cat.
The poor thing was starving. He often was out all night, like he was when Kirk took off running. Tonight he was happy to cuddle between them, like a furry chaperone. Kirk had HBO and they watched Cocoon. Neither had seen it. It calmed Kirk down.
They ended up kissing and petting. She even gave him a Caddyshack licking of his hand. It really turned him on. Gretchen ended up with her shirt and bra off. She had small breasts, but great nipples. He was getting hard as she started to undo his shirt.
The cat started growling.
Then hissing. His hair was completely on end. He was staring at the foot of the bed and arched his back. Then those low growling sounds mixed with high pitched howls that only cats can make started coming out.
“Well fuck that!” yelled Gretchen. She grabbed everything and ran for the door, followed closely by Kirk and the cat. When they opened the door the cat was the first one out. They never saw him again.
The next day he moved everything out and into storage. The landlord wasn’t about to buy his ghost excuse and made him pay dearly for breaking the lease. He didn’t care. He did care about his cat. Despite signs posted on boards and searching the neighborhood, they never found him.
Gretchen was so kind. She let him stay with her for free. They had to be discrete when her parents called, but otherwise had a lot of fun. He found that they were complete opposites. She loved classical music. He was a Zeppelin and Black Sabbath die hard. She ate healthy. He ate fast food. She loved tearjerkers. He loved all the Star Trek movies being made.
She loved rum. He never really tried it. He decided he liked it.
It took them both a while to get over what was in the turret house. Eventually they started to become more interested in each other. That is how it began. He showed up at her door at 3 am terrified out of his wits. Had she not experienced the same fear a few nights later, they would be able to laugh at it now.
The rum was warming him up again. She gave him a stern look. He sat the glass down.
The townhome had a small clubhouse with a hot tub in it. No one used it. The same night he tried rum for the first time, she tried him. He failed spectacularly. He kept losing it. The Dead Kennedy’s released a song called “Too Drunk to Fuck” four years later. He was already living it.
They kept trying. He kept losing it. He was getting frustrated. There wasn’t an internet back then, but a friend at his work suggested it might be the heat of the hot tub. It made sense. She had a waterbed and, being from the South, had the temperature cranked up for the cold Colorado winter. He was sweating all night and couldn’t even get it up in that bed.
He talked about it with her, and she agreed to turn the temperature down in the bed so long as he agreed to always be there to provide warmth. That was when they got serious. And wonderful.
A few nights later it had finally cooled down. They both had the day off and had slept in. They usually spent those mornings sharing the newspaper, talking and laughing. This morning she handed him the entire paper.
“What’s up?” Kirk asked.
“You,” she said and slid off his shorts. He was up! Not the half-hearted, heat depleted sausage he had before, he had a real hard-on.
She did a nifty trick of pulling down on his balls to make his dick point toward the ceiling. Then she engulfed it in her mouth. She paused just long enough to look at his cock and say, “Wow, where have you been?”
Kirk realized two things that day. One, he was falling in love with Gretchen and two, she could make him harder than any woman ever had.
She just felt so good. Smelled so good. While she worked on his cock, He reached between her legs. Rather than go straight for her pussy, he started lightly tickling her inner thighs. He had this great ability to be almost touching the skin, but not quite. It drove her nuts.
She lay down beside him and pulled him onto her. He lifted up, but she pulled him down on her. She wasn’t a very big person. He felt like he was smothering her. “I want you right there,” she said. She adjusted his hips and then put his cock on her lips.
“Slowly,” she said. She was wet, but very tight. He used his hips to rock back and forth a bit, working his cock in. By holding him in this position, she felt him working all the way from her knees to her chest. That was what she liked.
No one else had done it. They always wanted to lift up, ram it in, and then cum. This was a much more gentle and yet fulfilling position. Kirk was patient. He also was bringing her further than anyone ever had. She wasn’t a virgin, but no one had done this to her.
“Oh Kirk, I don’t think I can hold off.”
“I can’t either.”
They both started to cum. He was harder than he had ever been and drove deep into her. She still held him tight against her. He could see her mouth as a low, pleasurable moan started to come out. Her mouth was her best feature. She had beautiful eyes, but if he could freeze time and see her mouth let out that moan for all eternity, he would be in heaven.
The lower temperature did the trick. He felt the warmth spread from his spine to his balls and exploded inside her. Her thighs were powerful. They locked him in and he felt her contracting around his cock. She was calling out to God and started rocking her hips in unison with his. They became one motion. He filled her with cum. He kept watching her mouth. Her lips. Her teeth. He was making love to the most beautiful woman he had ever been with.
She locked him in and said, “don’t move.” He wasn’t going anywhere. He was rock hard and stayed deep inside her. They stayed that way for a long time.
—————-
To this day they don’t know what kind of entity it was in that turret room. They had driven by the house many times. It had occupants. They could see them enter it’s private door. They never stopped.
A year later they were married. They had the wedding at the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park. They took their vows before a picture window looking out over the jagged peaks of the Continental Divide.
The only thing more beautiful than the view was Gretchen. When she entered the room with her father, it was as if he was seeing her for the first time. She was beautiful. Her eyes opened up and he could see their future inside. They were a new unit. A bonded pair. They had been through the most frightening thing imaginable together. They could do anything.
—————–
Stephen King based The Shining on the Stanley Hotel. It was a beautiful resort when they were married. Now it is a tourist trap.
He did let her wake up to a sign that said “REDRUM” on the door. That was the closest they came to any more supernatural experiences.
Whatever was in that turret could stay there. He did thank it, every now and then, for driving him out and to the woman he loved.