I’ve been away for a while. Here’s another story, in my usual vein. I’ll try very hard to finish this one. I hope anyone who reads it likes it.
Uma and Robin Chapter 1
Robin sat quietly in the car as Uma drove them homewards through the rain. He was thinking about reality. How it changed. Why it changed.
Tears began to form in Robin’s brown eyes, and he glanced across at Uma before trying to wipe his eyes without her noticing. Uma looked steadily ahead, piloting her bulky SUV along the dark, wet road. Robin turned away and stared out of the window at the passing houses.
He thought how neat and tidy and prosperous they looked. He thought how happy the husbands and wives in them probably were. The husbands providing for their wives, and… the tears began to rise again, and Robin wiped his shirt sleeve across his brow.
‘Are you OK, Robin?’ asked Uma, looking quickly at him before returning her gaze to the rainswept road.
‘Yep,’ replied Robin, not looking at her.
‘Really?’ asked Uma. ‘I know it’s a big change, but it’s the best option.’
‘I know. Can we have some music?’ Robin said.
‘You don’t have to talk about it, but you can if you want,’ said Uma kindly. ‘If you feel like it. I want to help you as much as I can.’
‘I know,’ said Robin.
He felt his voice quavering, and felt that he was on the verge of crying. He stared out the window even more earnestly. The tears were welling up now, and he didn’t want to face Uma.
His wife put her hand on Robin’s thigh.
‘I’m here,’ she said softly. ‘I’m here, baby.’
Robin thought of the last few days, of the doctors and the rest of them, and all the papers Uma had signed. He hadn’t signed anything. He’d listened while the doctors explained what was happening and why, but it wasn’t until Uma told him, sitting in the park opposite the last doctor’s rooms they visited, that he really understood. He trusted Uma.
They stopped at the last traffic lights before home. Robin watched a shiny BMW pull into the driveway of a neat, prosperous-looking house, and saw a man in a suit get out to be greeted by his wife at the door. The man had a briefcase like Uma’s. The wife had a child in her arms, and put him down before kissing the man before they all went into the house. Robin swallowed and wiped his arm across his face again.
Everyone’s trying to help you, Robin,’ said Uma as the lights turned green and she drove off again. Robin thought the sound of the tyres on the road sounded sad.
This was reality now, thought Robin as Uma pulled into their drive. He got out of the car and waited while Uma went ahead and unlocked the front door. She put her briefcase on the chair by the door and turned to Robin.
‘It’s been a big day, honey,’ she said. ‘Why don’t you go and have a warm shower and get changed. I’ll make a hot drink and we can sit and watch a movie, OK? I don’t have to work tonight. I’m all yours, Robin. OK?’
‘OK,’ Robin replied.
His mind was buzzing, but he didn’t feel like talking. He returned Uma’s kiss and turned to go to the bedroom. He hoped she didn’t taste the tears that he knew had been running down his cheeks.
Standing in the shower, Robin was thinking. There wasn’t much point in going over things yet again, he knew. There wasn’t much he could change now. He wondered what would change from now on, without him even doing anything. He began to breathe hard, as he did when things ‘got to him’. At least the tablets would help. He felt guilty about looking forward to them, but it was better than this, he thought.
The bathroom door opened and Uma walked in with Robin’s tracksuit over her arm. She smiled at her naked husband in the glass shower enclosure and put the tracksuit and a pair of underpants on the chair near the handbasin then took a thick towel off the heated towel rail.
‘I’ve made hot chocolate,’ she said, handing Robin the towel as he emerged from the shower.
Robin was pleased to see her. Maybe things weren’t so bad after all, he thought as he dried himself and pulled on his white underpants. Uma handed him his tracksuit pants and he slid those on too.
Later, snuggled against Uma on the sofa, Robin smiled as Uma stroked his hair. Robin had washed down his tablets with the delicious hot chocolate, and lay quietly against his wife’s body for a few minutes. He loved the feeling of well-being, and knew it wasn’t all due to the tablets.
‘It’s going to be OK, isn’t it, Uma?’ he asked, looking up into her steady blue eyes.
Uma’s response was to lean down and kiss him on the forehead. Robin smiled and closed his eyes.
The movie they were watching had a pleasant soundtrack, and Robin wasn’t really paying much attention to the action, and soon dropped off to sleep. Uma gently extracted herself and left Robin sleeping while she took the empty cups to the kitchen. She picked up her briefcase and took it to the study, where she opened it and carefully filed the various papers inside. She looked at the last one, the important on, and felt oddly excited about the future.
Robin’s overwhelming anxiety had been building for a while, and the events of the last few months had been climactic for them both. At least now his problems had been diagnosed, proper medication provided and a secure arrangement for the future reached. It was all do-able, she thought. More than do-able in fact. It was necessary, and best for both of them.
Order under the Guardianship Act, Uma read. How strange, she thought as she remembered what the lawyer and the psychiatrists had explained to her. She was now legally, as well as practically, Robin’s ‘provider’. The lawyer had summed up the six pages of clauses very succinctly. ‘He’s legally a minor, now,’ she had said, ‘and your responsibility,’ handing Uma the guardianship papers and the required two psychiatric reports. And that was that.
Robin’s near mental collapse was not all that rare, and nor was the solution. Robin was very gainfully employed, and her income over the least 12 months had been almost three times Robin’s earnings. If she went full time, she thought, the loss of Robin’s income would make no difference. Not that she could go full time, of course. Working from home as a consultant, and as Robin’s carer, effectively, they would get by very well. They had plenty of money in the bank – or she did, she reminded herself, thinking of the provisions of the guardianship arrangements – and selling Robin’s freehold car had injected a useful lump of cash into that balance. The medical insurance took care of those bills, and the future looked sound, she decided, especially with Robin so much more stable now.
Once Uma had gone through the process of winding up Robin’s employment, she had spent a day in the study, putting all of Robin’s business papers into filing boxes that were now in the loft in the garage. Everything that needed to be done had been done. Robin was now free of the various entanglements of ‘adulthood’, Uma thought before mentally rephrasing her thought. ‘Minor’ was a legal term, not a physical description, thought the lawyer’s words stuck in her head. The woman from the Guardianship Board had talked about ‘dignity’ and the possibility of review in the future. ‘But we’ll cross that bridge when you come to it,’ she had said.
Uma sat at her desk for a while, thinking about reality and changes just as Robin had in the car. At the thought of reality, Uma thought of Robin. She stood up and ran her hand over her breasts for a moment. She thought of Robin’s caress. He was no Lothario in bed, so not a lot would change there. He had other qualities, of kindness, and they had shared interests in so many things. Physical sex just didn’t happen to be high on that list. Robin loved cuddling, but prowess as a stud wasn’t his strongest point. Uma usually initiated proceedings, and robin didn’t exactly have a lot of stamina. He would come quickly, his small penis deflating rapidly but he was an expert cuddler and would snuggle for hours after one of their irregular intimacies. Uma didn’t really mind. She was something of an expert in her own way, and often experienced her orgasm well after Robin, usually while he was suckling her breasts. She wondered if that were normal, but didn’t really care. She knew he masturbated occasionally, and wondered what he thought about. Uma was fond of pleasuring her self too, and even had a full sized – she corrected herself again, out of consideration for Robin – a bought item, a vibrator, that she kept in the back of her underwear drawer. She didn’t like keeping secrets from Robin, but he didn’t have any idea about it. Uma let her fingers wander to the tight crotch of her slacks, then took a breath and stood up to see how Robin was doing.
Uma found him sleeping peacefully on the sofa. She sat on the edge of the cushion and watched him for a while. He wasn’t a large man, and actually weighed less than Uma. She was two inches taller too. Most of the women on her Scandinavian side were tall, and she suspected that she was stronger, too. Certainly when he had been to her gym with her, he had looked as though he were straining when he tried out one of the weight machines set the way she liked it.
Uma kissed her sleeping husband and helped him up. He half woke, and was dozy and biddable as Uma led him to the bedroom. She felt for him, with what had happened over the last few days, and she knew the tablets made him sleepy anyway. She had put him to bed before, and now she helped him undress for bed. His underpants and the crotch of his track pants were damp, but that wasn’t unusual. Robin was a heavy sleeper, and with the medication, he often had that problem. Uma put the damp clothes aside for the wash, and kissed Robin again.
‘Toilet before bed, honey,’ she said as she pulled off his top.
Robin shook his head sleepily, his eyes on the soft bed where Uma had pulled back the sheets.
‘No, bed,’ he mumbled, flailing his arms weakly towards the bed as Uma gently but firmly pulled him towards the ensuite bathroom.
Uma felt Robin relax and let her take him where she wanted him to go. The bathroom was bright when she turned on the light as they entered, and she sat the naked Robin on the toilet and waited.
‘Bed,’ said Robin, and closed his eyes.
‘No, honey, wee please,’ said Uma firmly, placing her hand on Robin’s pale, rounded tummy and pressing gently.
Robin exhaled and after a moment, Uma was rewarded as Robin peed a goodly amount into the bowl.
‘Well done!’ said Uma, and stood Robin up as he closed his eyes and his head lolled forward.
Uma smiled. He probably would have slept on the toilet if she had left him there. She pulled a length of toilet paper from the roll on the wall and wiped Robin’s delicate, dripping penis. She scrunched the soft paper up and patted his sparse pubic hair, then led him back ot the bedroom where she helped him into the bed. Robin slept in the nude, and on his side of the bed under the sheet was a large absorbent pad, just in case. They had been using that for several years. Robin hadn’t been very happy about it at first, but since his problems had surfaced his occasional accidents were now several times a month, up from a couple of times a year, so he they were both glad to have it there. Uma had never made an issue of it, any more than she might have had Robin needed glasses. Robin was accepting of it too. He didn’t know Uma’s other marital secret – that Robin’s older sister had told Uma about Robin’s bedwetting which was almost nightly until Robin was twelve, and which continued sporadically into his teens whenever he was very tired or under pressure. He hadn’t been reliably dry during the day until he was five, and was still having occasional daytime accidents for some years after that. He’d even wet himself a couple of times since their marriage, although he had been able to blame a long drive on the freeway or some other credible cause each time. The love between them overcame any issue Uma had with his occasional problems.
With Robin asleep in bed, Uma spent an hour or so in the study, then joined him. As he so often did, he sleepily snuggled up to her, and she fell asleep with her arm around him. Her final thought before dozing off was that a promise to herself to take the best care of him she could.
To be continued.