A Burning Secret

My inspiration is my family who always encourages and
inspires me. I wouldn’t be where I am today without your
support!

It is the year 1970 and Montclair City is full of
excitement!
Located outside of New York City, it
is a beautiful and progressive city and people from
all parts of the world come here to have a great
time!

Downtown Montclair is
saturated
with a
variety of cafes’ and restaurants, jazz and blues
clubs, and shopping boutiques.

There is something for everyone to do and
especially tourists but the city has its share of crime
so one does have to be careful.

All across the country, there is a section of
society living in communes and they are referred to
as hipsters.
They are great advocates of free love
and their motto is, “
Make Love and Peace.
”

They have an overwhelming opposition to the
status quo and are committed to challenging it.
It is simply a different time and in many ways a
very exciting time to be alive!
When shopping in Downtown Montclair, it is
not unusual to see women dressed elegantly while
lingering on the streets, window shopping and
patronizing
sidewalk cafés. The
aroma
of
hot
croissants and coffee consume the air.
Many tourists frequent playhouses to enjoy the
latest and greatest stage plays and are awed and
captivated
with performances by
their favorite
actors and actresses of the day.
But in lower Montclair, on Bermuda Street,
lives Callie Broadway, a single mother and her
daughter Sasha.
Callie is a very beautiful woman and it is clear
that her daughter Sasha has gotten her great looks
from her.
Callie was once heavily involved and caught up
in the
Love and Peace Movement
.
At the time, she was dating Sasha’s father
Gregory Callahan whom she
met when she
attended Bismarck College in New York.
Gregory and Callie were very much in love
with being in love and caught up in the times and
all that it enveloped.
They were majoring in Political Science when
they met Melanie Spencer, a young woman with
strong political and social beliefs. Melanie even
participated in several war protests.
It was Melanie who persuaded Gregory and
Callie to go with her to visit Belleview Village, a
large commune on the outskirts of New York City.
There they saw large groups of people with
different lifestyles
and cultures vocalizing their
disdain for the war and other political and social
issues.
Gregory and Callie
were
intrigued by
the
people residing in the commune and decided to
take a year off from college to join them.
But their decision was fraught with a number
of problems that they hadn’t counted on.
The
most pressing
issue was
their
lack
of
money for food and other necessities.
At college, they didn’t have to worry about
room and board and they had access to food
because the students in their dorms often shared
food and whatever else could be shared among
them.
Gregory found a way to support himself and
Callie by making a variety of wooden artifacts
which he sold on the streets in Belleview Village.
And they both participated in the cultivation of
a variety of fruits and vegetables that they sold at
the local Farmer’s Market.
But there was an unexpected problem arising
between the men in the commune
because
Gregory had a bad roving eye and the women in
the commune were enchanted with his good looks.
His mistake was getting it on with one of the
leaders’
old lady and he
threatened to throw
Gregory out on his butt if he dared to even look at
his old lady again.
Callie didn’t care what Gregory did because she
was too busy doing her own thing.
Then to make matters
worse,
Callie
got
pregnant and Gregory wanted little to do with her.
But when the baby was born, Gregory felt
sorry for her and agreed to sign as the father, on
the baby’s birth certificate.
Callie was very disappointed with Gregory
though and decided that she didn’t want to raise
her daughter in the commune because she and
Gregory had fallen out of love with one another.
The birth of Sasha gave Callie a new awareness
and perspective on life. And too, she wanted more
than the lifestyle and the rhetoric of the
Make Love
and Peace Movement.
So Callie made the decision to move from the
commune but she needed to ask her parents for
financial assistance until she could get on her feet.
They reluctantly agreed because they were still
angry with her for dropping out of college.
But Callie’s parents loaned her $5,000 and told
her to make good use of the money.
That’s when she found the
apartment
on
Bermuda
Street
and
quickly
formed
a
few
relationships
with
several
men
who
became
frequent visitors to her apartment.
The people in the complex were very curious
and suspicious about what was going on with Callie
and all those men.
One neighbor Grandma Swanson was known
as the snoop in the neighborhood because she was
always leaning out the window and watching to see
what she could see going on in the lives of others.
She even had the nerve to prop a chair near her
window so when she gets tired of standing, she sits
and watches neighbors for as long as she wishes.
People in the complex are always saying, “Nosy
Old
Grandma
Swanson
must
be
bored
or
something but she really needs to stop all that
gossips about people and get a life!”
Her husband, Gary, died a few years ago and
some neighbors believe it was her constant nagging
and gossiping that sent him over the edge and
drove him to Alzheimer’s.
He had to be taken to Lawrence Senior Home
because Grandma Swanson was unable to care for
him.
However,
once
Gary moved to the Senior
Home, he got better and lived another five years
playing dominoes and cards with other residents.
Over the years, Callie had become painfully
aware
of
the gossip about her but she
was
unaffected by what the neighbors were saying
because she was doing what she felt she needed to
do to make a
good life for
herself
and her
daughter.
Mostly, she had become accustomed to and
enjoyed the free love and sharing that occurred
when she
lived in
the
commune
in Belleview
Village
and
she
enjoyed being
intimate with
different men.
Yet, Callie did everything she could to protect
Sasha from knowing what she was doing with her
men friends.
Callie would often say, “Sasha, my friends are
coming over to see me today because they want to
make sure I’m doing okay so stay in your room.”
But Sasha has some suspicion about what’s
really going on with her mother but she knows it is
better to pretend to be in the dark about it.
Anyway, pretending not to know what’s going
on has always been a great coping mechanism for
Sasha.
Callie caters to Sasha every whim by spending
excessive
amounts of money
on new
clothing,
shoes and whatever Sasha desires. Yet, Sasha has
the nerve to get angry with her mother when she
doesn’t get her way.
Sometimes, Callie
wonders
whether having
Sasha as an only child was a mistake but it is too
late to think about that now because Callie is way
beyond her baby making years.

Sasha is now 21 years old and a freshman at
the Claremont City College where she is studying
Psychology.
She also loves acting so she enrolled
in a performance and arts class as well. She has
been selected for the lead part in several plays and
she has a very promising career if she decides to
pursue it.

She chose Psychology as her major because she
has a great sense of awareness about people and
she possesses an uncanny ability to quickly analyze
people by observing and interacting with them.

She believes that more often than not, people
will always put their best foot forward for those
who they wish to impress.
Yet, she has never had a steady boyfriend in her
life because she hasn’t met anyone that she feels is
deserving of her love so she tends to date lots of
boys.

She mostly believes that many of the boys are
really immature and though she is intimate with
some of them, she feels that many of them are
unable to really satisfy her needs.

But all of that changed one Saturday afternoon
when Sasha
was
shopping
with her mother.
Standing
across
from
her
was
a
tall
and
distinguished looking man who kept gazing at her.

Sasha flirted shamelessly with him by smiling
and tossing her beautiful mane of hair and she
knew just what she needed to do to hold his
attention.

He was very tall with a muscular build and his
salt and pepper hair complemented his
nicely
tanned skin.
Standing about 6 feet tall, he looked
very sexy in his white woven knit shirt and blue
slacks.

Sasha kept gazing and smiling at him and he
nearly dropped a package that he was holding
because he was too busy looking at her.

It was clear that the man was much older than
Sasha who could easily pass for a woman much
older than 21.

Wondering how she would find a way to talk
with him without her mother being suspicious, she
told her mother that the man was a counselor at
her school and she wanted to discuss her course
plans for next semester.

Sasha introduced herself to John Belvedere.
They made a little small talk and then John asked
Sasha if she would be interested in going out
sometimes.

Sasha replied, “Sure, how about tomorrow?”
John didn’t know what to think. He had just
met this young woman and yes, he had asked her
out but he didn’t expect such a ready, set, go
response.
She wasn’t even trying to play hard to get and
that bothered John somewhat, yet, he wanted her
in the worst way.
Sasha kept standing there looking at John and
waiting for his response. He finally said, “Okay, I
can manage that.” “Where should I pick you up?”
“Oh, pick me up near the corner of Landau
and Main Street around 8:00 a.m.,” Sasha replied.
She felt this would be better because her mother
would be very upset if John were to show up at her
door!
John agreed but he was somewhat nervous
because he didn’t really know Sasha’s age but he
reasoned that if she was in college, then she had to
at least be over 18.
He was mesmerized with Sasha’s good looks
and he couldn’t wait to see her again and for Sasha,
tomorrow seemed like a lifetime.
She was so
excited she could hardly contain her excitement.
Sasha walked back over to the shoe department
and her mother asked, “What were you talking to
that man so long about?”
“Oh, that’s John,” Sasha replied. “We were just
talking school stuff like I told you.”
“John works in our school office.”
Callie cocked her head to the side and placed
her hand on her big wide hips and glared at Sasha
as though she really didn’t believe what she was
telling her.
Callie told Sasha that she had observed her
body language when she was talking to John and
she said, “You didn’t look like a student having a
conversation about classes to me.”
Sasha didn’t respond and just kept looking for
shoes and Callie let it go for now because she was
too focused on finding the right shoes to go with
the pretty blue dress she had just purchased.
The next day,
John was parked in his car
waiting at the corner of Landau Street near Sasha’s
school.
It was early so there weren’t many students
hanging out on the campus and that was good
news for Sasha, who had lied to her mother by
telling her that she had an early class that day.
Actually, that was one of the problems with
Callie. She just took Sasha’s word for everything
and never really bothered to check her story even
when she felt that something wasn’t quite right
about what she was telling her.
When Sasha neared the corner, John emerged
from his shiny black sports car and he flashed his
big broad smile and pearly white teeth.
As she walked closer, Sasha began to swing
her hips from side to side and held her head up
high as though she were performing in a fashion
show or something.
John obviously impressed by
what he was seeing, winked at Sasha and then gave
Sasha one Sterling rose and a peck on the cheek.
She smiled and looked John up and down
while licking her lips and saying, “Damn, you look
good!”
John kissed her once more on the cheek as she
slid in on the buttery soft leather car seats.
John was
dressed in a
black
pullover knit
sweater that showed off every muscle in his arms
and chest and his pants were nicely hung over his
slim hips and nicely shaped behind.
As he smiled at her, she noticed that he had a
large dimple in his chin and she was in love with
his good looks.
Right away without hesitation, John took Sasha
hands and with his deep sexy voice he said,
“I guess you know I want to make love to you.”
He was like a school boy with his first big
crush. Sasha knew that’s what John wanted and so
did she.
She could see by the way that he was
undressing her with his eyes that he was interested
in more than talking with her.
But instead, John said, “Let’s go for a ride and
then we can see where things go.”
“I don’t want to push you into doing
something that you don’t really want to do.”
Sasha touched his arm and said. “No, I want
to.”
As they drove aimlessly down a back road,
John said, “So you introduced yourself to me as
Sasha B so what is the B for?”
“Oh, the B is for Broadway which is my last
name but I have always been called Sasha B by my
mother and others who are close to me.”
“Oh, I see,” said John. “Well, your name is
very pretty and so are you!”
They both felt somewhat awkward because
their obvious age difference gave them very little to
talk about but talking was the last thing on their
mind.
One thing was for certain; they were very hot
for one another so any awkwardness they felt was
overpowered by their mutual attraction to one
another and their desire to make love.
John suggested they go somewhere where they
wouldn’t be disturbed and they could talk and have
the privacy they both desired.
Sasha didn’t ask questions but she assumed
that John would be taking her to his home.
However, when they reached the Montclair
Hotel rather than John’s residence, Sasha knew
right away that John was either married or he had a
significant other.
She hadn’t even thought to ask him if he was
married or not and John certainly didn’t offer up
that bit of information. But for the moment, it was
unimportant to her.
John took Sasha by the hand and helped her
from the car. They walked arm in arm into the
hotel where they registered as husband and wife.
John was so anxious to get Sasha to their room
to make love to her that he pushed the wrong
elevator button and then they got off on the wrong
floor. They both chuckled at their situation and
then took the exit to a flight of stairs leading to the
floor of their room.
When they reached their room, John quickly
picked Sasha up and laid her on the bed and began
undressing her and she allowed it.
As he undressed, Sasha kept her eyes glued to
his beautiful body.
She was pleased to see that
John was very well endowed.
John began kissing her passionately and Sasha
loved everything he was doing to her.
Then he turned her over to massage her back
with a bottle of oil that he had removed from the
pockets of his pants.
Sasha was totally caught up in the moment as
John pulled her gently on top of him. It was like a
thunderbolt
had hit her
and she
could barely
contain herself. She rubbed his muscular arms and
kissed him passionately as they made love over and
over again.
John had been with a lot of women and none
had been so freely and without inhibitions as Sasha
was with him.
Nothing was off limits because Sasha was quite
comfortable with her body and she
was
not
concerned with what John or
any
other man
thought of her.
It was not as though she was going to bed with
every man. She just wanted this man, at least on
this day.
Sasha was very skilled in her lovemaking so
John knew that she had been with other men but
he was not concerned about it because he had been
with many women.
John simply wanted to savor the moment and
the taste of Sasha.
They lay quietly on the bed for a while before
speaking and John finally said, “That was nice,
really nice, indeed.”
Sasha being somewhat upset exclaimed, “Is
that all you have to say?”
“Well, you were great!” John said, somewhat
apologetically
and feeling like
he
had done
something wrong.
Sasha got up in haste, grabbed her clothing and
ran towards the bathroom.
John jumped up behind her grabbing her from
behind as she walked towards the bathroom door.
“Let me go!” Sasha screamed.
“Oh, now you want me to let you go!”
John
exclaimed loudly.
“You sure weren’t saying that a few minutes
ago when you were all over me like an acrobat
artist,” John scoffed.
“Well, that was then and this is now!” Sasha
shouted. “I’m going to take a shower and I would
like for you to drop me off at school.”
“Wasn’t I good to you?”
John questioned,
“You were great but it’s time for me to go!” Sasha
snapped.
Sasha was not in the mood for a question and
answer session with John. They both knew what
they were getting into when they agreed to meet.
Sasha got what she wanted from John and he got
what he wanted from her so she didn’t understand
why he needed so much reassurance. She told John
that she wanted to go ahead and take her shower
so she can get to her class on time.
John sat at the end of the bed with his head in
his hands. He couldn’t believe that he had allowed
this young woman to get next to him.
He wanted Sasha in the worst way but in
reality, he knew that this was a one way street and
he knew full well that Sasha was a big tease!
Too, he wondered how often she had trapped
some foolish man into believing that she really
wanted more than a one day fling.
Sasha
emerged from
her shower, looking
refreshed and beautiful in her tight jeans that were
rolled up at the ankles.
She wore black open toed platform shoes and
a black and white polka dot blouse that was so
tight her breasts look
as
though they
would
explode out of her blouse any minute.
She knew that one look at her and John would
get turned on again.
Sasha enjoys teasing men
especially when she is aware that they want to be
with her.
Sasha
sat
quietly
while
John
completed
showering and then he drove her back to school
barely saying two words.
John let her out at the corner of Landau Street
but not before asking to see her again.
She told
him, “No, this was a one-time thing.” She then ran
off across the campus
as though nothing had
happened between them.
Sasha had gotten John hooked on her and she
had no concern about it. John knew it was due to
the fact that she was so young.
And he couldn’t afford to cause any trouble by
trying to push a relationship with Sasha because
he’s married with two small children.
John and his wife, Ciara, have been married for
ten years and they are very unhappy with one
another but neither one wants to be the first to
leave
so there they
sat,
year after year in
an
environment of discontentment.
John’s wife knows what’s going on behind her
back and although she is not cheating on him, it’s
not because she doesn’t desire to do so. It’s simply
that she hasn’t found anyone worthy of her love.
She
and
John have
often discussed the
differences between men and women and their
views about love.
Ciara has confided to John on many occasions
that she believes that most men don’t care as much
about loving a woman as they do about going to
bed with them.
John always vehemently disagrees with her but
in many ways he is the primary reason that Ciara
holds such beliefs.
John was thinking about these conversations
with his wife as he watched Sasha run across the
campus for class.
He was thinking about how he had lusted after
Sasha and she had gotten what she wanted from
him and she didn’t care that she had hurt his
feelings.
But now he was wondering and thinking about
Ciara and feeling pretty bad about how foolish he
had been about Sasha.
Sasha made it just in time for her last class of
the day. Her friend Drew wanted to know why she
wasn’t in an earlier class. Sasha just replied, “I had
a doctor’s appointment this morning.”
Sasha wasn’t worried about what anyone was
thinking because she had already told her teacher
that she would not be in her performance and arts
class that morning so as far as she was concerned,
she had covered herself and it was nobody’s
business where she had been that morning.
CHAPTER THREE
Ten Years Later