Cast Adrift: The Portraits

Sharp pains tore at her belly, suddenly her water broke, drenching her flannel shorts and her worn, stained carpet. There was a horrible, stabbing, searing pain in her hairy pussy.

"I, oh God, oh God help me!" Cindy screamed as she gave birth to a horribly disfigured baby.

The pain was beyond excruciating as she delivered her baby. Staggering, Cindy clutched onto the flimsy bookshelf, now looking into the loving, hopeful eyes of Kitty Truehart.

Staggering to her bedroom, Cindy was first assaulted by the smell. She stunk. She truly stunk. But it wasn't her fault; the shower in her trailer wasn't large enough to accommodate her bulk. When she got into the tub, she couldn't slide the glass door shut.

Stepping closer, Cindy could see the quadruple chin dangling underneath her chin. She could see the stringy, greasy hair, the fleshy lips, the mottled flesh of her distorted face. She could see the folds and rolls of flab hanging from her body.

"Fuck! No, no, I, I don't want..." Cindy Shiles cried out, fighting against being pulled back into her body.

A small child's hands shoved Cindy and she fell onto the bed, fell once again into her body. She sobbed out, seeing that she truly had no one to blame but herself for the horrible state her life was in.

While Cindy was turning in a fitful sleep, Xandra entered her library and looked at the sweet, innocent face of Kitty Truehart scribbling a child's drawing of a loving, happy family. She smiled as the child drew two mommies, a slim blonde and a slightly portly red head.

"She loves you; she's in awe of you," Kitty said, glancing up from the drawing.

"Who?" Xandra asked, having a good idea of whom Kitty was referring to.

"Delilah, but you already knew that," Kitty smiled.

"Yeah, but there's Deanna in..." Xandra said.

"Deanna? Who is married to Terrence? And has a son, TJ?" Kitty scoffed.

"Wait, she what?" Xandra gasped.

"She and her husband; they're scheming to defraud you of your money," Kitty said, now showing Xandra a drawing of Deanna and a handsome, sneering man and a fussy, undisciplined three year old boy.

"Oh my, my goodness," Xandra whispered, clearly seeing the truth.

"But Delilah? She, she's ready to give herself fully and completely to you," Kitty said, showing another drawing.

This drawing was of Xandra, Delilah and a baby girl, a beautiful baby girl with flaming red hair. Xandra and Delilah each held a hand as the girl learned how to walk.

The haughty, elegant dressed woman struggled mightily, but could not tear the drawings. She was unable to rip the art that Kitty had created of the two mommies.

"Your baby is waiting for you," Kitty said, turning her attention again to the stick figurines she was drawing.

Xandra heard a baby crying. She turned toward the nursery.

Mommy's coming, Magnolia, Mommy's coming," Xandra said, leaving the library.

While Xandra found herself entering her bedroom, instead of a nursery that had yet to be created, Delilah found herself in a large room she had never seen before. There were bookshelves and furniture of deep browns, numerous books, even a large wooden globe on an ornate desk. Turning, Delilah gasped happily at seeing the painting Xandra had bought at that art auction.

"Give her time," Kitty said. "Give her time; she's afraid to love."

"Who?" Delilah asked, having a fairly good idea of whom the little girl was speaking of.

"Xandra. Just give her time, give her space; she'll come around quickly enough," Kitty said, drawing a portrait of Delilah with a swollen belly.

"Why are you drawing me like that?" Delilah asked.

"And I know you're afraid to tell your Daddy and Miss Julia that you're gay," Kitty said, not answering Delilah's question. "Delilah, they already know. And they're not mad at you; they're not disgusted with you. They are kind of sad that you don't trust them enough to be honest with them."

"I, I just don't want to disappoint them," Delilah sobbed out.

"Delilah, Delilah, Delilah. They love you. They just want you to be happy," Kitty assured her, showing her a drawing of her and a happy, smiling Daddy and a happy step-mommy.

Delilah suddenly heard a baby softly crying. She turned toward the sound of the baby's cries.

"That's Magnolia. Go on, Mommy, Maggie Kahlick needs her mother's boob," Kitty said and Delilah felt her nipples aching.

Leaving the room, Delilah found herself entering her own bedroom in her parents' home. She looked at herself, sleeping, curled around her body pillow. Her big brother Buddy had given her the huge pillow a few Christmasses ago and she wondered how she'd ever been able to sleep without it.

"Tomorrow. I promise. I will tell them tomorrow," Delilah promised herself as she felt herself being pulled into her body again.

Unable to sleep, William poured himself a cup of coffee. He sat at the kitchen table, facing away from his formal living room, that horrible painting.

"Hadn't spent so God damned much on that painting, I'd..." William muttered bitterly. "I'd burn the damned thing."

While William sipped his coffee, in a Baylor Lake kitchen, Jessie looked up in surprise when her husband brought her a mug of tea, a stick of cinnamon sitting in it. He gave her a weak smile and prepared himself a cup of powdered decaf coffee.

"Thought you hated that stuff," Jessie asked.

"Yeah, but, know what? You, you're probably right. Probably need to cut back on the caffeine," he admitted, taking a seat at the table.

He attempted to wedge himself underneath the table. Then, giving up with that futile exercise, he sighed.

"Kid three houses down? That girl, what's her name is pretty good with woodworking," he said.

"Montana um, Moore," Jessie suggested. "The one you said looks like an Iranian terrorist?"

"Yeah, I did say that stupid shit, didn't I?" he grinned ruefully. "Anyway, I, why don't we see if she can fix this table? You know, get it to where someone can actually sit and eat at this table."

"Aallll right," Jessie said slowly.

"And I'm going drop that painting off, see if that fruit...see if that Billy Adams will reframe it for us," he said, grimacing at the taste of the decaf coffee.

While Jessie was helping her husband load the painting into the rear of his SUV, Delilah smiled happily as she saw a simple 'Hi!' message pop up from Xandra's phone. She sent a reply and entered her parents' kitchen.

"Just in time," Julia smiled, putting Delilah's plate onto the table.

"Mom? Dad, I, I, I need to tell y'all something," Delilah said.

"Well?" Brian prompted when Delilah lapsed into silence.

"Whatever it is," Julia assured the girl, motherly hand on Delilah's shoulder.

"I, I think, no, no, Mom? Dad? I, I'm gay," Delilah said.

"Okay," Brian said.

"Delilah, Sweetheart, we know that," Julia said. "We've known that for a while now."

"You, you're not mad?" Delilah asked, stunned.

"Would we be mad with you if you had red hair?" Brian asked. "Oh! Oh, wait! You do! You do have red hair."

"Sweetheart, it's kind of obvious," Julia said, taking a seat at the table. "Someone as beautiful as you?"

"I, I'm not beautiful," Delilah argued.

While Delilah was being assured of her parents' love, Heather Aucoin was arguing with David; it was her evening to have her children. She was going to make chili pie; she had all the ingredients already.

"You have no right; those, those are my children, not yours," Heather shrilled into her cell phone.

"The tool box in the linen closet," a voice in his head said. "Tell her to look in the bottom of the tool box in the hall linen closet."

"GO look in the tool box in the linen closet," David snapped. "Look in the bottom compartment of Andre's tool box."

"Fine. But what's that got to do with..." Heather snarled.

David could hear a door squeak. He heard her fumbling with a metal box.

"Oh my God! Oh my God! This, oh God, I I'm going be sick!" Heather screamed as she found Andre's illegal hardcore magazines.

While Heather was on the telephone with the DeGarde Police Department, in a Baylor Lake ranch style home, the wife entered the third bedroom/home office of their comfortable home.

"Don't want to be late for work," the wife said quietly.

"Hmm? No, no, remember? We go in an hour later today because we're staying an hour after for inventory," the husband looked up from his monitor.

"So, this uh, this, why don't you tell me what you're working on?" the wife asked.

"Um, oh, okay," the husband agreed. "See, it's a kid's program. You take um, say a red brick and you pick it up from the red brick stack and put it down over here; you need to you know, do a drag and drop. Then you do another brick and another and you build your house..."

While the husband was explaining how his program worked, Cindy had decided to shower. Knowing she could not fully shut the glass door, she instead angled the showerhead away from the open door and toward the shower wall. After drying herself, she blotted up the water from the bathroom floor.

Sitting on her wobbly bed, Cindy wedged her bulk, her disgustingly bloated body into a pair of somewhat clean shorts and a 5XL tee shirt and her splitting tennis shoes. Stepping out into the slightly chilly morning air, Cindy Shiles set out on her first fifty yard walk in nearly three years. She was severly winded by the time she made it from front door to mailbox kiosk. Groaning, she turned and lumbered back to her trailer.

"After breakfast, you doing that again," Cindy ordered herself as she panted to catch her breath.

While Cindy scrambled five eggs instead of her usual six eggs and decided she'd have eight pieces of toast instead of twelve, William sat at his desk. He smiled softly; he could hear Delilah humming happily in the front room. He then picked up his telephone and called Xandra's cell number.

"Listen, that damned teddy bear painting? You still want it?" William asked. "I saw a Roger Terje that would go there a lot better."

While Xandra and William were haggling over the price of the painting, in the east glassed-in parlor of the Paulton Wellness Center, Dr. Hillary Monroe entered and watched as Kitty Truehart stood at an easel, carefuly painting a little girl playing with a jigsaw puzzle that was clearly missing most of the pieces. As the doctor watched, Kitty pricked her right index finger and placed a splotch of her own blood onto the little girl's cheeks, creating a rosy, healthy hue to the child's face.

"Why'd you do that?" Dr. Monroe asked.

"I don't know," Kitty said truthfully, not looking up from her work. "I just, I just always do. I always put a little of myself into each painting."

"You know, I'd really like to see a painting of the grown up Kitty Truehart," Dr. Monroe suggested.

"She doesn't exist," Kitty said, sucking her bleeding finger.

The End

**..**

***Author's Notes: I write these stories for my pleasure; I post them here for your enjoyment. I thank you sincerely for reading my stories.

I especially thank those that take the time to leave comments, good and bad. Likewise, I thank those that take the time to rate my words, those that 'Favorite' my works.

Delilah Roberts is the daughter of Brian and Yvonne Roberts. Delilah, Brian and Yvonne, as well as Julia Roberts were all introduced in 'Kindling & Tears' in the Loving Wives category. Their stories are continued in 'Vodka: Tropical Passion' in the Group Sex category.

Tri-Carter, Delilah's place of employment, as well as William Carter, Delilah's immediate supervisor are introduced in 'Let Myself Believe' in the Loving Wives category.

Candy Durmonte, the executive assistant to Rick Blanchard is a minor character introduced in 'Let Myself Believe' in the Loving Wives category. Rick Blanchard, her employer is the primary character in 'Don't Poke the Sleeping Bear' in the Loving Wives category.

The artist Barron Blouchen who painted the first painting Xandra and Delilah admire is introduced in 'Vodka: Cherry & Chocolate' in the Group Sex category. The model in the painting is Marianne, the primary character of the same story.

Mandy Trahan, the artist of the second painting mentioned is a primary character of the 'XXL' series in the Loving Wives category. Mandy had seen the little girl with the vacant eyes at a homeless shelter in Benhurst, Colorado during a Thanksgiving Day meal and has never been able to exorcize that haunted image from her mind.

The artist Kitty Truehart is a character first introduced in 'Cast Adrift' in the Incest/Taboo category. Many of you made comments, and even sent emails asking about the fate of Kitty Truehart.

The Lopez Center was built by Anita Lopez then donated to St. Elizabeth Parish. Anita Lopez is a primary character first introduced in the 'Wealth' series.

Dr. Melanie Leblanc is a minor character that makes sporadic appearances in stories centered in and around the greater DeGarde, Louisiana area. Her work with Summer and Skye Duhon after the horrific attempted murder by the hands of their own mother in 'On Channel 12' in the Loving Wives category as well as her work with Gracie Taylor in the 'Edge of Breaking' series in Lesbian Sex are noteworthy.

Xandra is the child of Nina Kahlick. Nina is a minor character first introduced in the 'House of Mei' series in Interracial Love. Nina's money, now Xandra's money had been inherited when Curtis Jeffries passed away. Nina had been one of Curtis Jeffries' secretary/playthings and Xandra is one of his children. This information is detailed in the 'Watching TV Rots Your Brains' series.

Billy Adams, the man who does the expert framing of the paintings is a character first introduced in 'Al's One Night' in the Gay Male category.

Everett Fischer, Xandra's attorney is a minor character briefly mentioned in 'Multiple Units @109' in the Loving Wives category.

Likewise, Deanna, Xandra's lesbian lover in Aitchel, Ohio and Deanna's husband Terrence are minor characters introduced in the same story.

David and Honey McMahon are characters introduced in 'Multiple Units #311' in the Loving Wives category. The Heather that Raggedy Andy speaks of is Heather Aucoin, a character also introduced in the same story. Farley and DJ, the two boys are introduced in 'Zinnias' in the Loving Wives category.

Cindy Shiles, the bloated, vindictive woman in the Benhurst, Colorado trailer is introduced in 'Cast Adrift' in the Incest/Taboo category. Kitty had truly believed that Cindy was her friend; why else would she have gifted her first drawing to the former college roommate?

Montana Moore, the young lady that does woodworking is a character introduced in 'Writing It Down' in the Anal category.

Roger Terje, the artist William Carter mentions is a minor character briefly mentioned in 'Cast Adrift' in the Incest/Taboo category. In that story, he suffers a mild breakdown associated with Separation Anxiety. Art would have been a part of his therapy.

Dr. Hillary Monroe is a character first introduced in 'Acquisition' in the Loving Wives category. Her position as trained psychologist is first introduced in 'If He Ever Told Her No' in Loving Wives.

Have a swell day. And some of you, have a swollen day.