A Change of Needs by Nate Allen Page A

feet at the door, he’d symbolically relieved himself of any suggestion of wrongdoing …and would never give it a second thought.
    He had brought a six pack of Blue Moon Ale, having remembered her sipping on one that night at Leon’s. It was a deviation from the domestic fare he was accustomed to, but he didn’t want to show up empty-handed and thought it might be something she’d appreciate, and she did, flattered by his intent, and noticing the man’s attention to detail. That might come in handy, she thought. She had purchased some Samuel Adams on his behalf, and aside from the initial couple they would consume as polite recipients of each other’s gesture, they were both just props to the evening’s entertainment.
    Now we’ve seen how Jake’s life could’ve brought him to this point in time, but how did the woman, a preacher’s daughter, married with three young children arrive at this pivotal moment in her life? There are those ideas we all contemplate, for some they are fantasy, for others imaginary blueprints they have designed or stolen with the intent to use, carefully thought out to provide some escape when the time was right. You’ve heard that word “escape” a few times with respect to Rae Anne, and it needs to be understood that she was not looking to literally escape . She had a very comfortable situation, nice home, environment for the children, Frank’s support and Glen’s substantial income made it possible for her to stay home and be a Mom, she was immensely involved in all of the childrens’ lives. It was all due to that firm foundation of family first that she had learned as a child, and a product of her pragmatism and organization. She had everything running like clockwork, and the escape she sought was obviously of a selfish variety and some would say, unseemly nature. To calculatingly plan to cheat, have another man in their home, and the events she saw happening would have made Jake blush, but she had it in her mind it was necessary to her serving out the rest of her supposed sentence, which she saw as the duration of three childhoods. And she had also arranged it her mind, with the distortion of a moral prism, that she deserved it.
    While Jake had spent most of his adult life single, largely unattached and free to live his life as he wanted, she had been married for most of it. She had lived the childhood that was expected of her, and the typical teenage frolics and exploration most of her friends, most kids in general were experiencing, Rae hadn’t gotten past second base, except for stealing third on a church camp outing. She had a sexual energy about her that would equal Jake’s, and in a parallel, but entirely different way, she had not had the outlet for it either, and much like him, just because it wasn’t tended to didn’t mean it had gone away.
    Quite the opposite, it had continued to grow, the desire, the need, she was literally burning from the inside out, and while she’d had a few dalliances as a young woman in that time prior to meeting Frank, she had never been promiscuous. It was almost unfathomable the self-restraint and discipline she had, and patient as a cicada. Frank for her was that step on the wild side, he was successful, attractive, popular, and an older married man, which presented an element of taboo which undoubtedly added to the lure. It seemed like the worst thing she had ever done was fall asleep during one of her father’s sermons, and Frank was constantly throwing his attention and unmasked intentions towards her, discreetly of course. And she gave in to her desire for the first time in her life, and it probably would have ended with a fling if not for the pregnancy. And it grew from there, out of a natural Baptist necessity into a marriage. She had barely stepped on the proverbial dance floor so to speak, before the music had stopped.
    Her parents were not happy about the way things had worked out, but if they had any disappointment in Rae they