An Indian Solution

They'd been having a stop-go argument for the last couple of weeks, each frosty or angry by turns. So seeing her girlfriend in such a happy mood was a relief.

Their problems had started with a phone call from Rukya's father who was flying in from Bombay next month. She hadn't been told all the details, and it seemed that Rukya was embarrassed at having to admit that her family still followed such old fashioned traditions, but marriage was on the cards. Now Julie knew all about arranged marriages, and many other aspects of Indian culture, but she'd never thought it would really effect them. They'd been living together for the past two years, ever since they'd started working together, and now everything was at risk.

It was nearly lunch time in the office and today with Rukya's improved mood she was looking forward to it. So when she saw Rukya clock of she did the same and followed her. Rukya seemed distracted but happy so Julie found she had a spring in her step, hoping that matters were going to be resolved.

Rukya surprised her by turning away from their normal meeting place and heading down the back of the cinema. This was an alley full of rubbish bins and torn sacks that she'd never have dreamed of entering at night. But with the sounds of other workers still audible from the street she followed her Rukya.

Rukya had turned the corner ahead of her and as the sound of her heels clicking on the cobbles stopped she assumed that Rukya was waiting for her. But when she reached the corner she say that Rukya was not alone and that an old bag lady was sat on the back step of one of the shops. She'd seen this woman before as she normally sat with her trolley full of clothes outside where they both worked.

The contrast between Rukya and the old woman was dramatic. The old woman's vast bulk was covered in layers of filthy rags and even sat down she was taller than Rukya in her business suit. The old woman's complexion was almost as dark, but whether that was dirt or skin tone it was hard to tell.

Julie stayed back at the corner, unsure of what was going on, but fascinated by the obvious rapport that existed between these two. She had to admit to herself that she could have stood there all day observing her lover, the line of her legs as revealed by her short skirt, but she realised there was something very strange going on here. Her suspicions were confirmed when Rukya undid her jacket and folded it carefully before handing it to the old woman. Now Julie wasn't callous or anything, indeed she often gave coins to the beggars around here, but giving her clothes away was definitely odd.

Rukya stood before the old woman as she hid it among the pile of rags that filled her trolley. She seemed somehow so vulnerable, her thin frame clearly visible through her blouse. In other circumstances Julie would have intervened, but this was just too strange.

This silent tableau held for a minute, then Rukya bent one beautiful leg back and without taking her eyes of the fat woman took a shoe off. She handed the empty shoe to the woman who cradled it between her fat fingers and sniffed it. The woman then tucked the shoe into her trolley Rukya had been waiting, the leg that still had a shoe bent to enable her to stand upright. With the bag lady apparently satisfied with the first shoe Rukya repeated the exercise until she stood barefoot.

Julie didn't know what to think now, here was her lover, in an alley, giving her clothes to a filthy beggar. Whatever was happening she couldn't leave now, she needed to know what else was going to happen. She wasn't disappointed as Rukya slowly unzipped her skirt, and stepped out of it. She now stood in nothing but her blouse, her knickers clearly visible The old woman didn't react, but Julie felt a tightening in her loins. With a sick anticipation she observed her near naked lover standing before the fat and filthy old woman.

This time Rukya moved closer to the fat woman, and reaching past her laid her skirt in the trolley. Then she waited, so close to the fat woman that her hair was ruffled by the beggars breath. The woman finally reacted, and with a slow gesture from her chubby hand motioned Rukya towards the space on the step besides her.

Rukya did not sit on the step, instead she lay back, her knees brought up and towards the fat woman. Rukya now lay on the dirty concrete slab, her dark ponytail hanging over the edge as she tilted her head to watch the fat woman. Julie was anticipating some sordid sexual act when the fat woman reached towards her lover, but the beggar leaned down as if to kiss Rukya's smooth knees. Julie felt her stomach start to churn at the sight of those flabby jowls against those beloved legs that she had so often caressed, but then the kiss changed. The fat woman's mouth seemed to expand until both of Rukya's knees were in her mouth. The sight brought other emotions to the fore and Julie was not aware of her own hands pressing her breasts through her suits fabric.

The weird scene continued as the fat woman swallowed more of Rukya's legs. Her smooth shins swallowed in parallel to her thighs until that all consuming mouth reached the combined width of her buttocks and feet, but still it continued. Rukya's knickers slipped from sight, and the fat woman's face was briefly covered by Rukya's blouse as it rode up and over that fatal orifice. By now Julie was unconcerned about appearances and had slipped one delicate hand under her own waistband to reach some satisfaction.

With the fat woman's mouth pushing up Rukya's breasts the woman turned and stood, and as she turned Julie caught a glimpse of Rukya's ecstatic smile. Julie was convinced that Rukya had intended this encounter, and that maybe this was her way of resolving the conflict between her family obligations and her own desires. As her lover's breasts slipped from sight she found her own breath coming in rapid pants. She should have been horrified by these events, but her cool western logic had succumbed to more primitive desires.

Soon those delicate shoulders slipped from sight, until all that was visible were those thin cotton covered arms and the end of Rukya's dark ponytail. Then they too were gone, and she watched the fat woman's throat return to its normal size.

She didn't know what to do now, having just seen her lover swallowed whole, but it seemed right to go up to the old woman. The woman didn't seem surprised at her presence, indeed she might have been aware of the witness all along, and Julie was sure she saw a faint smile on those deceptive lips. Julie instinctively knew that words were not appropriate now, and as she reached towards the woman a great flabby hand grabber the edge of those smelly rags to reveal the woman's engorged belly. Julie could see the bulges and shapes moving under the surface, and splaying her own long fingers against that warm flesh felt her lover within.

Running her hand along one ridge she felt sure was Rukya's thigh she imagined what it must be like, to be inside this woman like a child in its mother's womb. This was what Rukya had been looking for in those weeks of argument, a way to avoid the difficult decisions and upset that would ensue. She wondered if this gross woman had appreciated the spicy flavour of her lovers skin as she had when they'd made love, or whether she had seen Rukya as just food. But then whatever the old bag lady had thought it was clear that Rukya had desired this outcome.

Julie looked up towards that great flabby face and tried to find an edge in that expression, but all she saw was a warm contentment. There was clearly no harm intended in those gentle eyes, and Julie could almost understand Rukya's solution. But she hadn't been brought up on folk tales of people finding salvation through being eaten, she had a keen analytical mind and would have found a different way out of Rukya's problem.

When she felt the woman's fat hand resting on the padded shoulder of her suit she shrugged her off. She didn't need any sympathy from this filthy creature. Yes she had just lost her first and probably best lover she would ever have. She could face the investigations about Rukya's whereabouts, the enquiries from family and friends, the police. Maybe the suspicion would mean her losing her job, of being forever followed by rumours that would scare off any new potential lovers. A lifetime ahead of loneliness and inadequate loves. She was stronger than anyone else she knew, and when the woman gently put her hand back she didn't shrug her off again.

Looking up into that great face with its obvious warmth and sympathy made her feel slightly better. It was as if this stranger was lifting some of the burden off her shoulders. She reached up to place a hand on each of the woman's rag covered shoulders and peered into those seemingly bottomless eyes.

Her actions had knocked the woman's hand off her shoulder, and for a moment she felt her fear of loneliness starting to return, then the woman touched her again. She was on tip toe looking into this gentle woman's face, a woman who held her steady with a hand on either side of her waist.

She let her mouth hang loose and could almost taste the woman's thick odour on her tongue, and when the woman's mouth opened in apparent sympathy to her own she peered in curiously. To think that this was probably Rukya's last sight. The large blunt teeth exerted a disquieting fascination on her, the thought of them, or how Rukya had passed between them.

Julie stretched further, her flat belly touching that great wobbling mass of flesh which now housed her lover. Her face was now inches away from the bag woman now, and as the mouth opened further she could see the broad tongue that must have eased Rukya's passage. A tongue that must have tasted her sweet spicy perspiration. Stretched to the limit she felt the woman's hand move onto her buttocks, and was grateful for the casual strength that lifter her off the ground. Now she could see the back of that great consuming maw, and the gullet down which Rukya had gone.

The woman's mouth was now wide enough that Julie could turn her head to look around, and by pushing down on the woman's shoulder she lifted herself until her cloth covered chest touched those lips. Somewhere deep in her subconscious she probably knew what she was doing, but to her rational mind the feel of saliva soaking through her suit came as a surprise.

The spinning in her ears told her that she was now upside down, her weight spread between her shoulders, where they pressed the sides of the mouth, and her thighs that the woman held. Her ginger hair fell around her face, partially obscuring the view as she started to slide downwards. Her shoulders were now pressed back and she held her hand by her side as if in a dive. The woman's lips briefly squeezed her around her breasts, giving the old woman time for another breath, before she restarted her slide. She felt no fear as she followed where Rukya had gone, just a relief that the complexities of her life were being simplified.

Her thighs had just entered the woman's mouth when her head and shoulders had passed the gullet and she was being battered by the rhythmic contractions of the flesh around her. The stretching and twisting was to much for her suit and it started to split under the strain, but the feel of the tunnel of flesh against bare skin sent her heart racing in anticipation of the womb like state she imagined awaited her. Soon her briefs had been soaked by the woman's saliva and she could feel the air with her bare toes, until they too were engulfed in the woman's warmth. It seemed that only moments later the walls of pulsing flesh retracted and her head and chest entered a larger space, where she found herself embraced by a familiar figure.

They had been lovers long enough that the dark was no obstacle to recognition, and she slid into Rukya's hot reception already anticipating her desires. She wasn't disappointed for as more of her slid into the stomach cavity her lover explored her as if she were virgin territory. Her hands and mouth brushing aside the rags that had once been her best suit Rukya reminded Julie why there could never have been a better lover, and the acidic bath they were now in confirmed that there would never be another. They would be able to keep their vow to each other for the rest of their lives, however long that might be.

The old woman seemed to be in motion once more, rocking them back and forth in their fleshy womb, but they had both decided not to think of such things anymore. They lost were lost in each others physicality and determined to ignore the digestive broth that was filling up the space around them. Julie tried to rejoice at the way more of her lover was revealed to her, once much of her skin was digested. And even when neither had fingers to use on each other they made do with the stumps that their limbs had become. Until finally all they were able to do was lay against each other and listen to their fragile heartbeats, which were almost muffled by the rhythmic pounding of the bag ladies vessels, and be satisfied that they would remain together.