If it hadn't been for the miracle of the Internet and social media, Harper and Keith would never have known each other. They only met in real life a couple of years ago, but over a decade or more before that, they met online regularly. Over time, their relationship became as real and vivid to them as it would be between two people who live in the same place and time.
They first came across each other about twelve years ago at a time when they were both still working. They were not in the first flush of youth but still thought of themselves as young at heart with all the passions of youth. Now that they are entering what some describe as their twilight years, they refuse to accept any declining of the light and look forward to many years of good health. Both got married in their early twenties and had enjoyed a few years of fulfilled married life, blessed by children and now grandchildren. Sadly, both lost their spouses to cancer several years ago, and neither had remarried.
Harper lived in the state of Virginia in a rural area well away from any large conurbation. Although she once had an active social life, a combination of her husband's illness and early death and the consequences of the recession following the global financial meltdown of 2008 meant that she led a rather isolated existence, especially as she had never learned to drive. Any social intercourse was mainly through a local network of friends, who would regularly drop in for a cup of coffee and a chat.
Harper had a very lively social conscience and was considered by many of her fellow Americans to be politically very radical. She was always deeply concerned about humanitarian issues and discovered that social media sites were an ideal forum for sharing information and ideas about the many good causes which she supported as actively as her financial circumstances allowed.
Keith lived in a major city in the United Kingdom and, until his recent retirement at the age of sixty, worked in the public sector as an epidemiologist and public health expert. In his thirties and forties, he was very active in local politics on the left of the political spectrum and always had a strong commitment to issues of social justice and equality of opportunity. By the time of our story, although he was no longer a political activist, he continued to volunteer with several humanitarian organisations and in the local community.
Unlike Harper, he had travelled widely, both for pleasure and as a member of teams on humanitarian missions to the Indian subcontinent. But like her, he also discovered that social media were an ideal means of extending his humanitarian and campaigning activities.
It was Harper who first realised the similarity of their outlook on the world. She noticed that Keith often left approving comments on the items she posted on the most popular of the online social media sites she frequented and would sometimes add his signature to the online petitions about social justice issues that she supported. Although she was basically rather shy and cautious, she was so intrigued that one day she sent him a request to become a ‘friend’ on a popular social media platform — up till that point, all her friends were either family members or close friends from her local community, so this was rather a brave thing to do. Keith accepted, and over the next few months, they would occasionally communicate using the messaging service of the site. As the more outwardly extroverted and self-confident of the two, it was Keith who took the next step when he sent Harper his email address and suggested that they might correspond by email, but only if she was happy to do so.
Gradually their letters became more intimate in nature, and before long they were sharing details about their private lives and started to send each other pictures of their homes and families. One day they became aware that the email provider that they both used also had a function that allowed them to hold real-time text conversations and even to talk as if they were on the telephone. When Harper first spoke to Keith on her mobile, there was an immediate "connection", not on a superficial level, but a true meeting of minds and hearts. As Keith put it to Harper after a while, it was as if they were two separate parts of the same mind, and it was amazing how often they would say the same things at the same time or complete each other's sentences. They soon realised that their feelings went beyond friendship and that, without meaning to, they were falling in love.
ooOOoo
These days Harper and Keith believe that in some way their relationship was no mere accident, but something that was fated, and that it was inevitable that it would happen. Although this might sound far-fetched, the following story might explain why this was so.
One day Harper sent Keith a picture of a poster for an exhibition at the Smithsonian Museum in Washington of paintings by American artists in the early years of the 20th Century before the Great War. The poster was a reproduction of a painting from the exhibition and was of a young couple standing in front of a building in an architectural style commonly seen in France, but which had become popular in some cities in America. The woman, who was very pretty with long red hair, was apparently in her early twenties and dressed smartly in a cream jacket with a red bonnet in the style of the late 1890s. She was leaning on the shoulder of an attractive young man, probably a few years older than her. He was clean-shaven with short black hair and was wearing a rather battered hat and bow tie, in a style adopted by artists of the period.
Harper was particularly excited, and said, "Look, it's us, it's you and me in the painting."
Keith replied that that couldn't be possible since they had never met in real life, although he did accept that the couple did look a bit like they had in pictures taken when they were in their twenties. However, Harper was insistent that it really was a picture of them.
When Keith asked her for more information, she replied that it was a self-portrait of a young artist and his fiancé. She had been so intrigued by the painting that she had made further enquiries and was told that the artist was probably a man called William Chesters. It wasn’t signed but had a small blue bird in the bottom left-hand corner, which was typical of the few later paintings of known provenance that had survived. She was excited to learn that his fiancée was a lady called Sarah O’Donnell, which was the name of her grandmother.
William had been born in Pittsburgh in the early 1880s and was the son of an Englishman called George Chesters and an American woman. His mother had died when he was an infant, and he had been brought up by his maternal aunts, his father having returned to England in the late 1880s, promising to send for his son when he could. He failed to keep his promise, probably because by then he had a wife in England.
Keith was amazed by this information, as his maternal great-grandfather was a man called George Chesters, a potter from Stoke-on-Trent in England who had gone to Pittsburgh in 1881 to pass on his skills to the fledgling pottery industry there. He had returned to England towards the end of the decade, where he had married Kevin’s great-grandmother and fathered several children, of whom Kevin’s grandmother was the second eldest. However, it was never mentioned that he had formed a relationship with a woman while he was in America and that they had had a son together.
William died in the Great War during the first Battle of the Somme in July 1916, having gone to Canada in 1915 to volunteer for the Dominion forces. Harper said that there had been a story in her family that her grandmother had been previously engaged to an American before she married her actual grandfather and that the man had died in France. Since her grandmother had married in 1917 before the Americans joined in the conflict, she had thought that the story was purely apocryphal, but now it made complete sense.
ooOOoo
Just over three years ago, an article in the newspaper caught Keith’s eye. A London gallery had arranged an exchange of British and American artists from the three decades before the Great War. He wondered if the painting by William Chesters was one of them, so he ordered the catalogue. To his joy, it was listed as a work by a promising young artist who had died young before he could establish a reputation. Even more incredibly, some of the paintings would be offered for sale, and he was determined to buy it whatever the cost, which he did, although it took a chunk of his savings.
Keith and Harper had started to talk about the possibility of meeting in real life. Because of her limited financial means, it was assumed that Keith would visit her in America. However, Keith thought that this was the ideal opportunity, so he wrote a letter to her enclosing an air ticket. He did not tell her about the painting because he wanted it to be a lovely surprise.
Keith had only seen Harper in photographs, but when she exited the doors from Customs at the airport, he was bowled over by her beauty. In real life, she glowed with an inner light, and her long, wavy red hair seemed like a coronet to him. His heart skipped a beat as he stepped up to her, wondering what her response would be to his rather ordinary appearance. To his surprise and joy, she threw her arms around him and gave him a long, passionate kiss on the lips.
“Thank you, thank you so much for your generosity in paying for my flight. Although my ancestors emigrated from Ireland, I have always wanted to visit England, but most of all I wanted to meet you,” she said, and promptly burst into tears.
“I have made a reservation in a hotel, if that is what you would prefer, but you are very welcome to stay with me,” Keith replied.
“Oh, I want to stay with you and get to know all the things about you that were not possible by writing or on the telephone,” she said, brushing the tears from her eyes. “I have the feeling that it is going to be wonderful. I am so happy.”
ooOOoo
When we arrived at my home, I just took her case and put it in the spare bedroom. I had made the bed up earlier, hoping that Harper would decide to stay with me rather than in a hotel.
“I thought we would go out for a meal tonight,” I said. “I’m not much of a cook, and there are so many restaurants close by that we can walk and enjoy the evening air. So, what would you prefer, English, Italian, Chinese or Indian – Manchester is famed for having some of the best Chinese restaurants in the country, and the Indian restaurants are nearly as good. Another day I will take you into town, and we’ll go to Chinatown.”
“I think I might enjoy something Italian this evening,” she replied. “Another night I will cook for you a speciality my grandmother taught me.”
When we got home, I suggested she might like to unpack. “There is plenty of room in the wardrobe to hang your dresses, and the chest of drawers has been empty since my wife died.”
“Oh, the bathroom and toilet – we call it the loo – are opposite your bedroom. You will find that the bathroom has a walk-in shower as well as a bath. Showers are more convenient and also use less water, but I kept the bath when I had the room converted to a wet room. My wife was in a wheelchair for the last few months, but it meant that she still had some independence until near the end.”
“That was thoughtful of you,” she said. “I think I’ll have a quick bath if that is okay. And then I’ll join you in the sitting room I think you call it, and we can catch up before bedtime.”
When Harper came down three quarters of an hour later – obviously her idea of a quick bath was different from mine – she was wearing a pretty silk dressing gown. She’d done something to her beautiful red hair, and I thought she looked wonderful.
“Close your eyes. I have a surprise for you,” I said, and took her by the hand and led her into the dining room where I had set the painting on an easel. “You may open them now.”
“Oh,” she gasped when she opened her eyes, “how did you . . . ?”
“I found out that there was going to be an exchange of paintings between the USA and the UK, organised by a gallery in London, and our painting was among them. I then discovered that they were offering some of the less important works for sale, so I bought it.”
“That is wonderful,” she said, “but surely it must have cost a lot of money, even if it was a lesser work.”
“It wasn’t out of my league, and my savings have been doing nothing except gain interest for years. It was worth every penny – or cent – just to see your delight.”
“I didn’t believe I could be any happier,” she said, “but this is a truly magical gift, and really, I’m lost for words. But I now have a surprise for you.” She paused for a moment, and I wondered what she was going to say.
She continued, “I’ve wanted to hold you in my arms and make love to you for so long, but I never thought it would happen. But by a miracle, I am here, and tonight and every night of my visit, I am going to devote the nights to your pleasure, so I have moved my things into your bedroom.”
“My darling, it’s my turn to be speechless. I am overjoyed, but the only way I can show you how I feel will be with my body. I’m rather out of practice, but I think our voyage of discovery as we explore the things that give us the greatest delight is going to be truly wonderful.”
“Come on then,” she said, laughing, “what are we waiting for? Let’s begin right away and go on until we are so exhausted that we just fall asleep in each other’s arms.”
Harper led him by the hand into his bedroom, soon to be their bedroom, and as soon as they were in the room, she undid her dressing gown, shrugged it off her shoulders and let it fall to the floor. She was naked, with a body that a much younger woman would have been proud of. The sight of her full breasts and womanly figure took Keith’s breath away. Unsurprisingly, his body responded, and his cock swelled until it was fully erect and straining against his trousers.
“Let me undress you,” she said, “I want to enjoy my first sight of your beautiful, and from what I can see, rather large penis. I have wanted to feel it inside me for so long. Every night after our wonderful phone calls, I would undress and lie on my bed, playing with my pussy and fucking myself with a dildo, imagining that you were lying on top of me and carrying me to paradise.”
When he was naked, Harper pushed him back onto the bed and knelt at his feet. “You have done so much for me, my darling, far more than you can imagine. The death of my husband affected me terribly, and I really let myself go. But you came along, and as we got to know each other, your love and faith in me helped me to get my confidence back. This, though, has been the crown: your generosity and thoughtfulness have confirmed to me that I really want to spend the rest of my life with you. Now I want to give you pleasure to show how much you mean to me. My husband used to enjoy it when I gave him a blow job, so I may be a bit rusty, but I will soon work out what you enjoy most, so lie back and let me make you very happy. Oh, and I do like to swallow.”
Harper was as good as her word. She spread Keith’s legs so she could kneel between them, her breasts pressing against his thighs. Leaning forward, she sucked his balls into her mouth, gently rolling them round with her tongue, before licking the length of his shaft until she could take the engorged head into her mouth. Although she gagged a bit at first, she eventually managed to swallow his entirety. The combination of her lips caressing his shaft as she fucked his tool while fondling his balls very soon took him to the edge of an orgasm, and when she inserted two fingers in his rectum to caress his prostate, he exploded in ecstasy, his cock pulsing as he pumped rope after rope of creamy semen into her mouth.
“You taste delicious,” she said, and smiled. “I am so glad that I’m here and can make you happy. My husband and I were faithful to each other, but we were adventurous in bed, and I would always give him a blow job before we fucked. When we first married, he didn’t last long and came before I had climaxed, but if I gave him an orgasm before he entered me, he could last for at least half an hour, and often longer. After my first orgasm, he would make me cum almost continually, and when I felt him filling me with his hot spunk, I would almost pass out with pleasure.”
Keith kissed her and replied, “That was wonderful. I haven’t cum so intensely for a very long time. Solo masturbation is nice, but that was amazing, and I hope that I can do the same for you.”
“Oh, I’m sure you will, but before we make love, would you lick my pussy for a while, please? My vagina hasn’t had a real cock inside it for a long time, and I don’t lubricate as much as I did when I was young. My dildo is much smaller than you, and although you are about the same length as my husband, you are much thicker. However, once I have cum my vagina will be relaxed and very wet and ready to be wonderfully stretched.”
Keith needed no further encouragement to worship Harper’s body. He stood and lifted her from her kneeling position to lay her on the bed with a pillow under her bottom and with her legs parted to allow him total access to her female loveliness. He paused for a moment to look at her in wonder and to drink in her mature beauty, which was fully revealed for his delight.
He lay down beside her and started to fondle and caress her breasts while kissing her face and throat. Harper moaned in pleasure and sought his lips with hers for a long, passionate kiss, tongues licking and exploring and dancing in delicious harmony. Keith bent his head to suckle her breasts and nibble her engorged nipples, which made her sigh, and tracing a path down her abdomen and between her legs, he caressed the beautiful flower of her labia and parted her folds to open her vaginal entrance to his probing fingers.
“Make me cum, please, you wonderful man,” she murmured, “suck my clit and put your tongue in my cunt, and take me to bliss.”
Keith needed no further encouragement, and after a few minutes of oral stimulation, Harper lifted her hips to push harder against his mouth and cried out as wave after wave of rapture swept through her body, anointing his face with her sweet nectar.
“O god, Keithy, I need you inside me now. I want to feel every inch of your beautiful cock filling me as you fuck me to heaven and back.”
Over the next half an hour of rapturous love-making, Keith sent Harper spinning into ecstasy time after time. Some of the time they fucked slowly, Keith pulling his cock out of her velvet tunnel and then thrusting slowly until he was deep inside her with his balls slapping against her arse. At other times they would fuck hard, their hips pushing hard against each other in time with his thrusting cock in an ecstatic crescendo of intense sensation. Finally, with a great shout of euphoria, Keith emptied his balls into Harper’s pulsating cunt, as he pumped rope after rope of hot sticky semen from his throbbing shaft deep inside her, sending her into a paroxysm of indescribable rapture.
After drowsing for a while, their limbs heavy with post coital languor, they made love again, slowly and sensually, until they rose again above the clouds in bliss, before falling asleep in each other’s arms.
They woke in the morning contented and deeply happy, and more deeply in love than they could have ever imagined.
ooOOoo
Over breakfast they talked about the future. They agreed that they wanted to marry and, in some way, complete the story of William and Sarah, which had been so cruelly ended by his death on the battlefield. As they both said, fate had brought them together for this reason and that however they met, it was inevitable that they would fall in love.
Harper telephoned her attorney in Chicago to set in motion the sale of her home, but said that she wanted to tell her children face to face when she was back home for the brief time it would take to sort through her belongings and decide which she wanted to bring to England. There was also the more difficult matter of the legal requirements for her to become a permanent resident of the United Kingdom, and after much thought, she said that although she was proud of her American heritage, she wanted to become a British citizen.
So our story, which began with a painting, ended wonderfully with the marriage of the two descendants of the people in the painting, and as a wedding present to each other, they commissioned an up-and-coming artist to paint their joint portrait to hang alongside its progenitor.
