The Project

“Darrel, if we go forward with this, I have to be super cautious. While I have these crazy fantasies, I would never do anything to hurt our marriage. I can’t tell you how much I love Carol. Without her, life wouldn’t be worth living.”

“Man, you haven’t told me anything that I didn’t already know. If Carol is as hot as you say, and I’m sure she is, my guess is that the project would make her love you even more. Hell, you would be giving her a present that most women couldn’t even dream about.”

“You’re rationalizing, Darrel. Everything you just said may be true but there is a risk to this and you know it.” His protests seemed feeble even to him. He knew yesterday that if there was ever any chance to make something like this happen, well he would just take the risk. He also knew that as hot as Carol got when she watched the video and recalling what she said, that there was a chance Darrel was right. The only question was how could he talk her into doing it in just a few months when he hadn’t had any success in two years?

“So it sounds like you think the project may be a good idea, right?” Asked Darrel.

“Sure it’s a good idea, I just don’t know what more I can do to get her to agree. I’ve told you that she won’t even think about fucking one white guy.”

“Look, I can try to find more videos like the one all three of us like so much. We can feed her a steady diet of them.” He thought for a second or two and then said, “I’ll be willing to bet you that when you get home tonight she will have watched the video again.”

He remembered that he left the piece of paper on the stand next to the computer with the URL and the directions that Darrel had jotted down yesterday. He too wondered if she would be tempted to take another look at the video with the insatiable woman.

Just fifteen minutes away from Brad’s office, in the big old house on Trammel Lane, Carol couldn’t get the fabulous night she had enjoyed with her husband out of her head. She knew that the video had added a new dimension to their love making. It turned Brad on but it shocked her when she asked him why it made him so hot and he said, “I can’t help but think that you are the woman in the video. Sorry, but that’s the truth. I would love it if you could enjoy yourself as much as she did.”

“She did have fun, no doubt about that but Brad, I’m not her.”

“No, you’re not her. You’re much more beautiful than she is and much sexier.”

“Oh, you . . .”

“I’m not kidding Carol and you know it.”

“Well if you want to fantasize about it that’s okay, just don’t get your hopes up, buster.” she said playfully as she poked him in the ribs. “I don’t think I could ever do what she did,” she added thoughtfully, seeming to open the door, just a smidgen, which shocked him nonetheless.

Well, Carol reminded herself, that was last night. This morning, she was restless. The big old house was empty but for her. She had no plans for the day which seemed to be more and more typical for her. She was drawn to the corner of their bedroom like a moth to a flaming candle. She seemed to be on autopilot as she sat down in the chair facing the computer. In no time she was on the site whose address was written on the slip of paper on the stand. This time she didn’t go directly to the video but experimented and found that she could navigate to thousands of other free videos. This site was so much better than the ones that she and Brad had visited in the past. Not only did the variety seem endless, but they came up lightning fast. It seemed to her as if everyday, dozens of new clips were posted. Some were women with women, most were women with one or more men. There were white and black men and women. She saw that many were from Europe and some from South America but most were from the US.

That day Carol spent more than three hours at the computer and ended by viewing the video that she and Brad had seen the night before. She felt very guilty about wasting so much time and even more guilty because of the feelings that watching the salacious videos had brought out in her. Brad wasn’t there and it was his idea that they watch the porn together to heat up their love lives. Here she had been watching alone for the first time in her life and getting very turned on. She had mixed feelings. Part of her hated the women in the videos and what they were doing. Another part, that she tried her very best to suppress, envied them.

Twice during the time she watched the videos she used her fingers to bring herself off. That was something she seldom did because there was no need for her to do that. Brad’s fingers, his tongue, and especially his cock were always there to take care of her sexual needs. But, just maybe, her sexual needs were greater than she had realized, she thought for the first time as she rationalized her behavior.

October raced by with a Football game scheduled every Friday night. Before they knew it the holidays were upon them. Thanksgiving, when all the family gathered at their home including Brad’s parents and two of his siblings. Darrel and Ruthie came over after dinner and had dessert with them. Then it was back to college for the two oldest kids, even if just for a few weeks before the Christmas break.

To Brad, it seemed as if the project had placed on hold. Little did he know that Darrel had been very busy during the same period that he had been consumed with shopping, decorating the house and a freshly cut tree, picking kids up at the airport, addressing and mailing cards and a thousand other things that were always a part of his holiday season.

Chapter 4

It was the first day back at work after new years when Darrel said, “well I think it should get to work on the project as our number one priority, don’t you?”

“Three months have elapsed,” answered Brad, “just three more to go if we’re going to make this happen on schedule.”

“It’s all up to you pal,” said Darrel. “Actually, I’m much farther than I’ve reported to you on my part of the deal. I’ve found this place in Columbus. It’s a swinger’s club called club B&W that caters to interracial couples. A pal of mine, guy named William, goes there and he talked with the couple that own the place. They can get thirty hung black guys on short notice and offered to make their place available as the scene of the crime,” he said with a chuckle..

“So tell me about this club B&W.”

“Like I said, it’s in Columbus, an hour and a half drive up I-71, as if you didn’t know how to get to Columbus. This couple is building a big house but now the parties are held every month in their apartment. I think they actually started in Cleveland. Anyway, they have a party scheduled for this Friday, I thought you should talk with Carol about going. What do you say?”

“Wow! This Friday, that’s kind of short notice. I don’t know if she’s ready.”

“Nothing has to happen. I just thought this would be an important step. Like I said, she wouldn’t have to do anything. Just being there and watching others in person would be a hell of a lot better than watching the videos. At least that’s what I think.”

“Darrel, there’s no doubt you’re right about that. Just remember, Carol’s never even seen another guy fucking in the flesh. She might freak out or, more likely, refuse to go anyway.”

“Can’t hurt to ask her.”

“I will. Tonight in bed, probably when I’m between her legs I’ll tell her I would like to go.”

That was exactly the way it turned out. That night they started fooling around which seemed to be a daily occurrence, not just two or three times a week as it had been before the project had been implemented. The fooling around, the kissing touching and exploring led to what they both loved the best, Carol on her back with her legs spread as wide as possible with Brad between them. They were connected by his penis which penetrated her juicy pussy. The friction of their opposing movements stimulated them more than anything else. Both had been talking more during intercourse than they had before that day when they watched the video for the first time together. Now, three months later, they had watched the video together dozens of times but never got tired of it. Carol, however, had watched it more than Brad because she watched it many times when he was at work and then again when he returned and they watched it together.

“Oh baby you feel so good. Like warm butter on velvet wrapped around and massaging my dick.”

“Brad, honey I . . . I can’t tell you how much I love to fuck you . . . how much I love to fuck.”

“Darrel told me today that a friend of his goes to this place in Columbus, I guess it’s a swinger’s club or something like that. They apparently . . . oh shit, baby, don’t squeeze me or I’ll come too soon.” He caught his breath and continued, “Lay still for a second okay. I’ll just soak in your cunt while I tell about this place.”

“Okay, I’ll be a good girl,” Carol said, though she could barely talk because she was panting so heavily.

“Anyway, they hold these parties once a month and they’re having one this Friday, Darrel thought we might be interested in going. What do you think?

This wasn’t the first time that Brad had talked with her about going to a swing club. He would always tell her that they didn’t have to do anything, just check it out. He would remind her, even more often since they started watching the video – and she had unknowingly become the project of her husband and his friend – that if they enjoyed watching videos so much, “just imagine how great it would be to see the real thing.”

“Brad, I’ve told you over and over that I’m not interested in that.”

“I know you have but until now it has all been theoretical. I didn’t know of a place or a time when a party would be held, now I do. I really would like to go. It’s far enough away that we wouldn’t know anyone. Well,” he corrected himself, “we wouldn’t know anyone but Darrel.”

“Darrel? He plans on coming too?”

“Why not?”

“Surely, Ruthie’s not coming,” she said, as more of a statement than a question.

“Hell no. You know Darrel has a private life.”

“I’d be uncomfortable with Darrel there.”

“Does that mean you’ll go if he doesn’t go with us?”

She paused before answering. There was no pretense at love making for the moment, and she felt his cock going soft inside her as the discussion took over their thoughts. “Like you’ve said before, we wouldn’t have to do anything and I can promise you that I won’t do anything if we do go,” she answered.

Her implicit agreement was like a shot in his arm. Well, actually, it was more like a shot in his cock, a shot that made it stone hard once again. As he began to deeply thrust into her, she planted her feet on the mattress and pushed up against him. He was reminded of the woman in the video as he looked down at the beautiful face of his wife. She closed her eyes and began to gasp for air. Her moans and groans and familiar sounds were every bit as sincere and enthusiastic as the woman in what they had become to think of as, “their video.” Within a minute they simultaneously reached the point where there was no holding back – not that it mattered if she held back because she was always ready for more – but for Brad when he shot inside her and emptied his sperm in her moist cavity it was over for hours. And that night it was over for Brad, the fucking was over, not the conversation.

For both of them the familiar afterglow was almost as good as the fucking. Carol cradled her head on his broad shoulder and asked, “what made you think I’d be okay if Darrel came with us?”

“He made all the arrangements. Also, it’s an interracial club. Guess what, neither of us is black.”

“Oh, I didn’t know.”

“Does the interracial thing bother you?”

“You know I’m not prejudiced. If we’re just going to watch, the black and white part wouldn’t be a problem for me.”

“So, should I tell him tomorrow that we’re going?”

“If that’s what you really want.” She placed her chin in her hand and said, “and if he really wants to go and that’s the only way we can get in, then tell him we will be happy if he joins us.”

The next morning Brad walked into Darrel’s office, closed the door behind him, placed both hands on Darrel’s metal desk, leaned over and said, “you’re not going to believe it man but Carol has agreed to go to Columbus on Friday.”

Darrel stood up, gave Brad a high-five and said, “that’s great. From everything you’ve been telling me these past months I’ve thought she was much closer to doing this than you thought she was. I’ll call my friend and have him set everything up.”

The morning for both men was fairly typical; though Darrel had been busy on non-company business by making and receiving several cell phone calls to and from his friend William. It was at lunch, seated at a table for two in the corner of the huge cafeteria, that Darrel broke the news to Brad about what he had learned during the several phone calls. “We’ve got a problem with Friday night,” he said in a voice not much above a whisper though with the noise in the cafeteria he probably didn’t need to even lower his voice.

“Did you talk with your buddy.”

“Yeah, I did and that’s the problem.”

“Go on, tell me about it.”

“It’s a fucking shame because I think Carol’s almost there. Anyway, he said that we can’t go as a threesome because they don’t allow single guys on party nights like the one scheduled for Friday . . .”

“Oh shit, I’m sorry man. I know how much you wanted to go with us.”

“Let me finish. Like I said they don’t allow single guys at this couples only party. Also, the couple has to be interracial. Black woman, white man or black man white woman.”

“Fuck! That’s too bad. I thought it would be great to get Carol there. And, who knows, in spite of everything she said about not doing anything there, once things got going maybe she would get going too.”

Both men were somber as they finished the rest of their lunches in near silence. How does it go Brad asked himself, oh yes, “the best laid plans . . . “ He had a hard time concentrating on the company project that he was working on that afternoon. He found himself thinking more and more about the special, private project that had nearly consumed himself and Darrel. Finally, after pondering about every combination he could imagine, he thought that he might have an answer so he walked into Darrel’s office and asked, “got a minute?”

“Sure do. What’s on your mind?”

“I really want Carol to go to the party on Friday. If I can’t go with her, then maybe you should take her.”

Darrel had thought the very same thing but sure wasn’t going to bring it up. “I don’t have a problem with that. And, I’m sure that it would advance our project but what about Carol?”

“Who knows? I could never have imagined that she would consider going under any circumstance. Maybe, just maybe, if I’m careful about how I present this idea, on Friday she might ride with you to Columbus, go to the party and watch lots of people fucking.”

“Brad, you need to think about this. What are my limits? I think Carol is the most beautiful and the hottest woman on the planet. Being with her at a fuck party without you, well man, I need to know what you expect of me.”

“That’s fair enough. As you know very well, I’ve been working on this long before we initiated the project. Now, things are actually moving. Darrel, there aren’t any limits on what you can do. Oh, of course I don’t want her to have to do something she doesn’t want to do. Other than that, take it as far as you can. If she agrees to go, I expect you to tell me everything that happens.”

Brad was surprised when Darrel actually stuck his big hand out and said, “you’ve got a deal. I guess I should say we’ve got a deal,” he said, laughing nervously as the two conspirators shook hands.

That night in the king-size bed, in the master bedroom, in the old house on Trammel Lane, it was Carol who brought up the subject of the party on Friday night. Like the night before and most recent nights before that, she was still sweaty from their half hour session of wild sex when she asked, “so did Darrel make arrangements for the party?”

Without beating around the bush Brad said, “we’ve got a problem. I should have told you when I got home from work. Darrel talked to his friend and found out that single men can’t attend.”

“Oh that’s too bad for Darrel. I had actually come to accept the fact that I would have a handsome man on each arm at the party.”

“Not so fast honey. Remember I told you that this was an interracial party?”

“I remember.”

“Well, the couple has to be interracial.”

“I don’t understand. I guess that means no party on Friday then.”

“Not necessarily,” Brad said softly.

Carol propped herself up on her elbow, her brow was furled and then, suddenly, it dawned on her. “You’re thinking of Darrel and me?”

“Why not?”

“Brad, I didn’t even want to go in the first place. And Darrel, well . . . well Darrel’s like a brother.”

“Think about what you just said Carol. You were very specific when you said, ‘you didn’t want to go,’ doesn’t that suggest that after you thought about it you now want to go? And . . . “

“Okay, okay maybe you’re right . . . “

“Let me finish baby. And, if you really don’t want to do anything, then going with someone you think of as a brother is about the safest thing I can think of. I would be willing to bet anything that if I was there we would fuck and maybe even in front of other people.”

Carol was silent and Brad thought it best to let her digest what he had said. Finally she asked, “So you really want me to go to the party in Columbus with Darrel? You really want your wife and your best friend to drive a hundred miles to a swinger’s club and, at the very least, watch what goes on there?”

“Yeah baby, that is what I’m saying.”

“What if Darrel get’s excited?”

“What if he does?”

“Com on Brad, don’t answer a question with a question. You know exactly what I mean. What if your buddy wants to kiss me?”

“There’s no doubt about that. He does want to kiss you. I’ve told you that we’ve talked about the videos. He’s my friend, Carol, we’ve talked about nearly everything but I’ve told you all of that before. I’d be okay with him kissing you.”

“And, if he wanted to do more?”

“I’ve never made it a secret from you, Carol. If he wanted to do more and you wanted to do more, then that would be okay with me too. What should I tell him when I see him at work tomorrow?”

“What do you want to tell him?”

“I want to tell him that we talked it over and that you want to go to the party in Columbus with him on Friday.”

“All right,” she said so softly he could hardly hear her.

Even though it had only been a few minutes earlier when Brad stiffened and emptied his balls in his beautiful wife’s vagina, he found himself getting hard just by hearing two words. But the words meant much more than all right, they meant that for the first time in her life she would go out with another man. She implicitly agreed that she might kiss him and that she might do more than kiss him. She agreed that the place where all of this might happen would be in an apartment in the city where they went to college and that they would be watching other couples of mixed races in the throes of passion. All of this caused him to pull her to him and wedge his body against hers. And then, he was in her for the second time in a very few minutes.

“MMMMM. Looks like someone got turned on. Wonder why?” She murmured. Then they talking stopped.

Brad found himself smiling as he fought the near blizzard on his drive to work the next morning. The trip usually lasted for ten to fifteen minutes. This morning, it took him a half an hour but that didn’t seem to bother Brad at all. Today, nothing was going to bother him.

He was actually whistling when he hung up his top coat and made his way to Darrel’s office. “Guess what Darrel?”

“You got me, what?”

“You’ve got a date Friday night with a gorgeous brunette.”

“I can hardly believe it. Remember, Brad, it was just three months ago when you said there was no chance of Carol doing what the video gal did?”

“I remember all right. But we’re still a long way from making that happen. I’m not sure we’ve really made anything happen. She has agreed to go with you to the party, nothing more than that.”

The days seemed to whiz by for Darrel, Brad and especially for Carol. She kept busy doing the things that girls do as they prepare for a date. For her, this would be the only date with a man, other than her husband, since she was sixteen. Nevertheless, she asked Brad what she should wear. Even though he wouldn’t be there she wanted him to be a part of this, oh this . . . what would one call it, “an adventure,” she finally decided, fit the situation perfectly. She seldom visited the beauty shop but this week she did. They tried to sell her on the idea of cutting her hair short but she resisted and left with a new, looser, sexier style but not so very different than what she did herself for special occasions. They also nearly begged her to have a French manicure but she insisted that the crimson shade Brad loved so much would cover each nail on her fingers and toes and she sure didn’t want the nails to be shaped square, that was just too masculine for her no matter how hip. And, every night she and Brad made frantic love with him whispering in her ear would could happen to her at the party, actually, what he wanted to happen to her at the party.

She bought a little black cocktail dress that she thought was perfect for the party. The hem fell to just above her knees. The bodice showed just a hint of cleavage, not that she had that much to show anyway. She didn’t plan to wear a bra or panties because Brad hated them, but that changed on Thursday.

Darrel had been talking with his friend William everyday about Friday night but somehow the subject of what the people wore at the party didn’t come up until Thursday afternoon. “The guys can wear their skivvies or a towel wrapped around their waist after eleven o’clock, the women usually wear lingerie, some go naked.”

When Darrel told that to Brad, Brad thought that it might be a problem and for a while it was. “Carol, Darrel was talking with his friend William earlier today and learned that the women have to wear lingerie after dinner.”

“How come he just found out? Maybe I shouldn’t go,” she said without a lot of conviction, because for days she found herself actually looking forward to the adventure in Columbus.

“Panties and a bra aren’t that much different than a bikini.”

“Oh you men,” she said mildly exasperated. “One is for swimming at the beach and the other is to make your guy hot and want to fuck us. That’s a big difference I would say. What if we just left right after dinner?”

“I imagine Darrel, and probably all of the other men there too, would be very disappointed.”

Finally, they decided that she would wear a black teddy. She hoped that the lights would be low because her teddy was pretty transparent. However, when she thought of the woman in their video – and she thought about her a lot – she remembered that during half of the film she wore a teddy that was unsnapped at the crotch and pulled down below her breasts. The woman’s teddy that she wore in the video, was white, while her’s would be black.

It was tense at work that Friday. It was Darrel who said at the end of the day, “looks to me like we’re ahead of schedule on our project.”

“You might say that,” Brad replied. “We’ll know a lot more in twenty-four hours than we do now about the project.”

Chapter 5

At five, Carol ran a hot tub. As she stepped into the steaming water, she realized that while she and the video gal had a lot in common, there was one thing that was different, the woman was shaved bare but she had a patch of pubic hair above the cleft of her pussy. As she shaved her legs and underarms she wondered if she should remove the hair on her vulva to be more like the woman in the video. Finally, she decided against it. The little bit of thin, sparse, dark hair made her feel feminine. She knew that Brad loved it just like it was. So, she carefully, shaved the sides and between her legs. She wanted to touch the sensitive little bud that always, these days, wanted to peek out of its hood but she didn’t.

After she stepped into the tissue paper thin black teddy, wiggled and pulled it up over her ass and boobs, she adjusted the tiny shoulder straps and put on the black, cocktail dress. She was reminded that the little frock was more suited for summer evenings rather than bitter cold winter nights as she slipped it on over her squeaky clean and perfumed body that seemed to be glowing. She hadn’t worn pantyhose in several years because Brad hated them. He liked stockings and garter belts but they just wouldn’t work with the teddy she told herself. Then, she stepped into a pair of her highest heel, black patent leather pumps that she knew Brad loved. The only jewelry that adorned her body was the band of gold on the third finger of her left hand that had been there since their wedding day. When Brad came home she was sitting in front of the vanity mirror in their bathroom doing her makeup. Darrel was picking her up at seven, that left her with a half an hour.

As she pursed her lips and applied a coat of red lipstick, Brad walked into the bathroom and said, “Carol, you are a living wet dream.”

“What a thing to say to your wife,” she responded with a smile letting him know that what he had said was exactly the right thing.

“Stand up and give me a twirl.”

“Hang on a sec, let me finish up here. Why don’t you pour us drink. I need something to take the edge off before I jump out of my skin.”

Ten minutes later she walked into the family room where Brad sat on the old, comfortable brown couch with an icy drink in his hand. She didn’t sit by him but stood before him, “is that for me?” she asked as she leaned over and picked up the drink from the coffee table that he had mixed for her.

“Nope, it’s for my girl friend. She’s coming over the second you leave and I want to get her drunk so I can fuck her brains out.”

“Oh, Brad, don’t tease about that. I want to be the only girl for you.”

As he looked up at her with loving eyes he said, “oh, baby, that’s something you will never have to worry about. You will always be the only girl for me.” After he took a sip of his drink he said, “now, I think you owe me a twirl.”

She laughed, set her drink down, stepped back, did a spin, faced him and placed her hands on her hips. “How was that?”

“Beautiful, just beautiful. Now lift up your skirt.”

“She held the hem in each hand and lifted it about an inch, teasing him.

“Come on, baby, you know what I want.”

And she did know what he wanted. She lifted until the hem was around her waist revealing the high cut teddy to his gaze. “Is that better?” She asked in a husky voice. “Can you see too much?”

“That is better and I can’t imagine how anyone could ever see too much of you. Don’t worry about it,” he said realizing that her trimmed pubic patch and just a hint of the cleft below it, could easily be seen through the gossamer cloth. He knew that the same cloth covered her perky boobs and small, sensitive nipples, each surrounded by areolas of the same shade. No matter how dim the lighting at the party in Columbus, if she did remove her dress after dinner, everyone would see what only he had seen before. He felt himself becoming aroused just thinking about it.

Darrel was just a few minutes away from the house on Trammel Lane. He was glad that the weather had improved. Though it was very cold outside, inside the candy apple, red Corvette, it was toasty warm. When he turned fifty, the first thing he did was buy the powerful sports car. Ruthie didn’t talk with him for a week after he brought it home. “You’re like a kid going through puberty for the second time,” she hollered, “you know we can’t afford that.” He knew that she was partially right. He found himself thinking about every girl he had ever fucked and longing once again for those feelings residing in his distant past that had been so exciting to him when he was younger. A few years ago, he discovered porn and found that watching it gave him a shot in the arm that was next best to actually doing what he was watching. He was so glad that his best friend and office mate seemed to like the same things he did. Even though Brad was ten years younger than he was, they seemed to be kindred souls. They talked about everything including their sex lives. His had become non-existent at home while Brad’s was every man’s dream. The perfect wife, great kids and an okay but very secure job. The perfect wife is what Darrel envied and he made no secret about that when they had their conversations. And now he was on his way to their house to pick up the perfect wife of his friend. Maybe dreams do come true after all, he thought as he pulled up in the driveway of the big, old house on Trammel Lane.

Carol dropped her skirt and said, “sounds like Darrel’s here. I’ll get my coat.”

Brad didn’t wait for the doorbell, he opened the door about the same time Darrel, with his misty breath warming the chill-night air, stepped on the porch. Brad turned around and helped his wife put on her best winter coat.

It was an awkward moment as the three friends stood in the entry. Finally, it was Brad who said, “well drive carefully, Darrel, and don’t do anything that I wouldn’t do.”

“Carol stepped into her husband’s arms, kissed him on the lips then whispered in his ear, “what does that mean?”

He leaned down, whispered in her ear and said, “exactly what you think. It’s okay if you do nothing and it’s okay if you do everything and everyone.”

She pulled back, looked at him and said, “I love you Brad. Wish you could come with us.”

Darrel was uncomfortable witnessing the goodbye ritual and was looking down at his feet. Finally, Carol turned from her husband, and said to Darrel, “Okay, I’m ready to go.” Both men wondered what, exactly, she meant by that. Did it mean anything more than I’m ready to go outside and get in your car?

As Darrel held the passenger door open to the low, powerful car with its engine still running, he said, “it’s pretty warm in there, might want to take off your coat for the trip.”

She did, tossed it in the back seat next to his coat, quickly got in and buckled the seat belt as Darrel closed her door. She soon realized that the low seats made it almost impossible to keep most of her thighs covered by the skirt of her dress which wanted to slip back. Finally, as the car backed out of the driveway, she knew that she couldn’t ride all the way to Columbus pulling at the bottom of her dress to keep most of her legs covered. Within a few miles most of her gorgeous legs were uncovered, which wasn’t lost on Darrel.

“You look beautiful tonight, Carol.”

“Thanks Darrel,” she said as she smiled at him. Before they had gone very far she was wondering if this wasn’t all a terrible mistake. The wise thing to do, she told herself, would be to have Darrel take her home immediately. But she didn’t tell him to do that. She knew that he and Brad would be very disappointed if she didn’t at least go the party. She also knew, that she was very curious about what happened at parties like the one to which they were driving. It didn’t take long for them to turn onto I-71. She couldn’t count the number of times that she and Brad had driven to Columbus over the years. During their college years it was back and forth almost monthly. After they graduated, a couple of times a year they would attend a football game. With the birth of each child the frequency of their trips north and east diminished. She realized that it had been more than two years since she had been back to the city, almost exactly in the center of the state, where their alma mater was located.