Chapter 6
Back in their tiny apartment that night, Ralph and Barbara each lost themselves in private activities, grateful for anything that allowed them to avoid conversation with each other. Meeting after the "class", they had avoided each other's eyes, each absorbed in their own impressions of the afternoon.
Every muscle of Ralph's body seemed to be raw and aching, yet strangely relaxed, too, after his prolonged session with the four "Amazons." He felt as though he had gone through a rite of manhood, and although it had been difficult, he had proved himself to his own satisfaction and certainly to that of the girls, who finished the afternoon in an exhausted heap around him. The memory of the extended orgy was confused, but certain images stood out in his mind vividly Jeannie bouncing and bobbing up and down on his rigid cock, a lewd glint in her hazel eyes, almost as though she were telepathing to him that this was what she'd wanted all along in their verbal sparring matches ... Mara, her head thrown back, her mouth open in ecstasy, massaging her full, ripe breasts as his tongue darted in and out of her steaming cuntal cleft, sending uncontrollable spasms of pleasure through her body ... and the other two, the sensual, fleshy brunette and the young one, licking and kissing each other, their legs spread wide, inviting him to take them, yet taunting him, too.
At first, it had seemed like a game to him, but by the end of the afternoon, he was in deadly earnest, fighting off his own orgasm until he had proved to the voracious beauties that he was man enough to take them all, any way they wanted it.
The stinging sensations in his red and swollen penis were a vivid reminder of his ordeal, and Ralph massaged himself gently under the table, savoring the heat that seemed to emanate from his softly pulsing testicles. He was bathed in a sense of contentment and a new sexual self-awareness. He'd always been pretty sure of himself, just as Mara said, but now he felt totally self-assured, as though he could satisfy any woman, any time, anywhere.
Indeed, his latent promiscuity seemed to have surged to the surface of his consciousness with tremendous force, and all women, he realized, now appeared in a new light. On the bus on the way home, he'd found himself observing the female passengers, noticing the way they looked at men, furtively, averting their eyes as soon as they knew they were being watched, but definitely, he thought, evaluating him sexually in a way he'd never noticed before.
Even ... even Barbara, he realized with a start. He felt as though she'd changed in some intangible way, or maybe it was he that had changed. For a moment he felt a wave of guilt as he watched her going through the usual motions of preparing his dinner. But he brushed the feeling aside brusquely. Nothing, nothing was going to prevent him from pursuing the new primitive satisfactions he had found through Mara and her voluptuous female cohorts. If he had to lie to his wife, well that was too bad, he thought, his jaw tightening unconsciously. Besides, Coretti had offered him a tremendous opportunity, a chance to get practical experience in his field even before he graduated from law school, the kind of change he'd dreamed of. He smiled as he realized that he could even pretend to drop the classes and still see Mara on the side, since he'd be spending a lot of time at the Life Unlimited House from now on. And then there was Jeannie, and all the others.
Ralph, my boy, he thought to himself with satisfaction, you are in the catbird seat! You are finally there, and there's nowhere to go but up!
Barbara glanced at him periodically as she moved back and forth from the refrigerator to the counter by the sink. She was pervaded with a strange sense of calm, partially a result of her encounter with Coretti, which left her physically satisfied and serene. Even more important, perhaps, was the aftermath of her view of Ralph, indulging in the previously unimaginably lewd activities that were vividly projected on Coretti's closed-circuit television screen. Something inside her brain seemed to have snapped, the mechanism that kept her morally controlled and reserved. She experienced no sense of shame at her own depraved eroticism any more. Why should she?
When she had caught glimpses of herself in the bus window, and in the mirror of the sleeping alcove, she was intrigued by the face that looked back at her. Her eyes peered out with a new look of worldly wisdom. There seemed to be a spark of depraved sensuality in their blue depths that had never been there before.
Why not? she mused, touching her cheek lightly with her fingertips. I've watched my husband ... fucking ... the word came more easily than it ever had before ... not with just one woman, but several, and while I was watching another man was taking me from behind and looking at the whole thing in the mirror. Why shouldn 't I look as though I've been around a little? I have!
Despite her own calm, she was astounded at Ralph's casual air. How can he just sit there and pretend nothing has happened? she wondered in amazement. Maybe my father was right! Maybe he is just an animal without a trustworthy bone in his body. Of course, she realized, there's one thing Daddy didn't know ... he didn't know that his daughter could be just as wild as Ralph!
The thought of how far she had come in just a few short weeks from the gentle, refined ways she had grown up with was difficult for her to comprehend clearly. Yet it gave her a thrilling sense of freedom and elation to know that at last she had broken through some of the bonds of propriety that she'd struggled against all her life. She'd wanted to rebel, yes, but had always been afraid, shackled by the memory of her mother and father's harsh warnings about the evils of men and the disastrous fate of girls who didn't remain "ladies." Ruefully, she remembered that whenever she came home late from a date she could be sure that the next morning she would receive a stern lecture from the austere man who had raised her.
"No decent man will ever want to marry you, Barbara," he would say, his voice tinged with contempt, "if you don't respect yourself!"
Well, I respected myself, Daddy, she thought bitterly as she put the meatloaf into the oven, and look where it got me!
"Do I have time for a shower before dinner?" her husband asked suddenly, breaking her reverie.
"Sure. The meatloaf won't be done for an hour and a half."
As soon as Ralph left the room, Barbara eased herself down into the chair he had vacated and lit a cigarette. Up until now she had rarely smoked, but tonight she liked the feeling of a cigarette between her fingers. She watched herself light it in the mirror, and practiced holding it just so, tilting her head and arching her eyebrows in what she imagined to be a cool, sophisticated manner. In her mind's eye she saw herself in a dimly lit, intimate supper club, making a risque, witty conversation with a maturely handsome man who paid her elaborate compliments. As she mused wickedly, the mental image of the man changed from Coretti to Frank Bogart ... and even to Ralph.
Through the half open door of the bedroom she could see her husband undressing for his shower. It had always disturbed the young wife before-was it only a week ago?-that he never closed the door when he undressed, but now the thought barely occurred to her at all. Instead, she found herself compelled to watch him, wantonly comparing him to the two other men she had now known intimately.
He's not as tall as Frank, she decided, but he certainly has a better build than Brother Coretti. The thought of the two debauched male inhabitants of the Life Unlimited House distracted her attention. She was utterly fascinated with Brother Coretti, even though he had exposed the sham of her marriage in such a brutal way ... perhaps she liked him because of that very thing! Although it was cruel, it had freed her of all her guilt, hadn't it? Frank Bogart, on the other hand, she didn't like at all; he had been unnecessarily rough with her, the young bride thought, and yet there was no doubt that he was exciting. Indeed, just the memory of his lean, slender frame towering over her in his bizarre "class" was enough to renew stirrings of sexual arousal in her.
Ralph was now completely naked she observed, as her attention returned again to her husband. His long powerful penis, so frenetically active only a few hours before, dangled limply out of the thick tangle of dark brown pubic hair at the base of his muscular abdomen. Suddenly the young wife found herself growing angry with him.
Making me feel like a fool for wanting to get help with our problems, acting like such a saint and then the first chance you get ... oh! To her surprise, Barbara found herself now shaking with long suppressed anger at her husband's deception. Now that she had been awakened to the depths of her own erotic feelings, she resented him for not letting them take steps earlier. And now he's pretending that nothing's happened! He's probably going to go on just like before!
At that moment, a darkly wicked idea occurred to her, an immediate way of taking revenge on her renegade spouse for all he had put her through; it was so simple and intriguing that it made her laugh. Quickly snuffing out her cigarette, she went to the cabinet over the sink where they kept a bottle of Scotch.
Ralph always used to ply me with Scotch to loosen me up, she remembered, a strange glint in her eye, now let's see what it does for him! She poured two stiff drinks over ice and took them into the bedroom, placing them on the night tables on either side of the bed. Then she lowered the lights and turned on the radio, searching for some low, sexy music, the kind she knew he liked. Finally she settled on a sultry blues, with a throbbing, sensual beat.
Moving quickly, almost dancing with excitement, she searched through her bureau drawer for the sheer black nightie Ralph had bought her for her birthday. The flimsy garment had always embarrassed her before, because it wouldn't close in the front, except at the top, where a narrow ribbon kept it from falling off her body. Whenever he had insisted she put it on she would clutch it around herself like a bathrobe, unwilling to expose the naked lower portion of her torso to his gaze. Now, however, she put it on eagerly, even pausing to admire the effect in the mirror. Then, hearing the shower stop, she loosened her long hair and settled herself languidly on the bed.
Moments later, when Ralph emerged from the bathroom, a towel wrapped around his hips, his eyes widened in astonishment as he caught sight of his wife. Barbara seemed like an apparition, and exotic vision of sensuality: her long legs tapering gently upwards, leading directly to the exposed mound of her honey-colored pubic triangle. Through the thin material of the short nightie, he could see the firm, upthrust mounds of her perfectly shaped breasts, tipped with a delicate pinkish coral, which seemed darker beneath the black lace. Above it all, her pale blonde hair fanned out around her on the pillow in luxuriant, shimmering waves.
"What's all this?" he asked, confused and stunned by the tantalizing sight.
"Oh ... I thought you might like a little hors d oeuvre," his wife replied in a sly, sultry voice.
"You know ... something to work up an appetite before dinner?!"
The young student could hardly believe his ears! That was the kind of thing he'd expect to hear from Mara, but certainly not from his repressed and diffident wife. Her words, combined with her lasciviously inviting appearance, shocked him and threw him momentarily off balance.
"Gee ... I thought I'd finish studying before dinner...." he began lamely, somewhat at a loss for words.
Barbara didn't reply. She just looked at him, smiling mysteriously as her eyes travelled boldly to the spot beneath the towel that she knew covered the heavy bulge of his genitals.
"Isn't there any time in your busy schedule for your wife?" she purred, spreading her legs slightly and let her hand fall casually onto her curly thatch of downy pubic hair. "After all, it's been a long time ... over a week."
"You usually don't complain about that," Ralph replied, as he sat down on his side of the bed, not looking at his wife.
"What's the matter?" she asked softly, turning over seductively onto her side and running her fingertip lightly down his naked back. "Am I losing my appeal?"
Despite his exhaustion, Ralph felt little shivers go down his spine at her sensuous touch, and his balls tightened, flooding with warmth. He could smell the subtle aroma of her perfume mingled with a sweet, feminine odor that emanated from her body. The mixture was uniquely her own, and as it drifted into his nostrils like a powerful aphrodisiac, the young husband began to feel charged with renewed desire.
"I wouldn't say that," he replied with a grin, leaning back on the bed and relaxing.
Barbara pressed herself against him so that he could feel the warm, rhythmic rise and fall of her softly inviting breasts against his bare arm.
"That's good," she said, letting her fingers tiptoe through the thick hair that fringed his chest, down towards the towel knotted around his hips. "I wouldn't like to think I couldn't stand up to the competition!" With an easy flick of her fingers, she loosened the towel and slipped her hand underneath, rubbing her palm over his trim abdomen in a circular motion, something she had never done before.
"What do you mean?" Ralph asked suspiciously, wondering if her words had a double meaning.
"Nothing," his wife replied innocently. "A girl just likes to know how she stands, that's all."
Inwardly she smiled at his uneasiness. She was beginning to enjoy the role of seductress and even wondered why she'd found it so difficult before. Her hand edged teasingly down to his soft thatch of pubic hair, still damp from his shower, and the long, rubbery girth of his semi-erect cock. It stiffened under her palm, and it gave Barbara a curious sense of power to know that she could effect him so quickly.
Brushing aside the encumbering towel, she began playing with the warmly throbbing flesh, pulling back the thick fold of the foreskin and watching in fascination as it grew harder, jerking spasmodically, its dimensions increasing visibly. She experienced a thrill of accomplishment when it was finally fully erect and so thick she could scarcely encircle its entire width with her hand.
Suddenly she understood completely what Jeannie meant when she said that the Life Unlimited House had straightened out her sexual hang-ups, for she too felt suddenly free! Always before she had felt degraded by the act of love, a helpless victim of her own femininity. But now, having been submerged in depths of depravity she had never even imagined at the hands of Coretti and his sadistic cohort, and having watched Ralph writhe ecstatically under the aggressive attention of four strange women, she suddenly had a whole new perspective. She no longer felt frightened and at a disadvantage with men. Rather she was filled with a sense of her own power and consumed with a thrilling desire to know every aspect of her animal nature, even ... yes, even to dominate and enslave like Mara! She was consumed with the thought of herself as some primitive earth goddess, omnipotent and wanton! She saw herself as a lusty creature, even cruel if she wanted it that way, living only for her own lurid pleasure!
The newly initiated young wife's body tingled with sensual excitement. It was as if a blinding light had been turned onto everything in her life that had ever been lost in darkness. What had started out as playful revenge for her husband's wanton infidelity was suddenly transformed into a compelling desire to explore every aspect of her new eroticism! She was no longer fearful of men ... not her father, Frank, Ralph or even Coretti! She realized she could have them all! And she would! FOR SHE HAD POWER NOW! SHE HAD BEEN FREED!
With an ecstatic moan, she seized Ralph's long hard penis in both her hotly trembling hands, sensitive to his desires as never before. She wanted to excite him, make him moan with lust as she had heard him do that afternoon, tease and taunt him until he was totally in her power, panting for her to release him from his irresistible torment!
The young law student winced slightly as she began to massage the length of his fully erect cock, still sore from the afternoon's orgy. His mind reeled with confusing thoughts and images, not the least of which was the sudden transformation of his wife. Something about her new attitude reminded him of ... Christ! It's just like those chicks acted this afternoon, he realized in a flash. Suddenly a new idea thundered into his mind, an idea so farfetched, so unbelievable that he tried to dismiss it immediately. But it wouldn't go away, no matter how firmly he told himself it was impossible!
Finally he could contain himself no longer. He sat bolt upright in bed and seized his wife by the shoulders.
"Why are you doing this?" he demanded, looking penetratingly into her eyes.
"Isn't it obvious?" she replied, meeting his gaze unflinchingly.
"No ... no it isn't," he said. "You've changed somehow, you're different, and I want to know why!"
"Well, I am taking a class in erotic freedom!"
"I know ... and I'm beginning to wonder what goes on in those classes of yours."
Barbara gazed at him steadily for a moment before answering.
"Well," she said finally, "I don't think anything happens that doesn't go on in your class, too."
Ralph opened his mouth to reply, then thought better of it. He couldn't continue to question her without revealing his own debauchery. But he realized that she was definitely implying that ... his mind exploded in rebellion against the inexorable logic of the only conclusion that occurred, to him. Jesus, she's been fucked by somebody else, too! Maybe by lots of people! Just like I have!
He clapped his hand to his forehead and sank back on the bed. God, how could I have been so stupid! I should have known what was happening! His mind was torn with anger at himself and with blind fury at Barbara and the whole Life Unlimited House for what he imagined for the moment was an organized attempt to cuckold him. In his shocked state he completely forgot his own lewd encounters with Mara, his plans for a continuation of his affair, his delight of only an hour before at his new situation. All he could see was a red circle of rage behind his eyes, the rage of a betrayed husband whose wife has been unfaithful.
"Ralph," Barbara said softly, her voice innocent, although she watched his interior struggle like a cat, "have you ever seen the closed-circuit television set at the House?"
"Closed circuit...." Ralph's eyes snapped open. "What the hell are you talking about?"
"I watched it this afternoon, in Coretti's office," she said casually, bending over his lower torso so that her hair fell forward concealing her face. Lightly she snaked out her tongue and licked the long throbbing length of his penis. "It was very interesting. I guess there are hidden cameras in every room...."
Ralph felt a sinking sensation in his stomach, as though someone had suddenly pulled the bed out from under him. Propped up on his elbows, he watched his wife in paralyzed silence as she again took his warm pole of thick flesh in her hands and encircled his purplish cockhead with her lips. His heart began to beat faster.
"What are you saying?" he asked, hardly daring to move.
"I'm saying it doesn't matter, darling!!" she replied, pausing momentarily from licking the sensitive underside of his heatedly surging shaft with her pink tongue. "Nothing matters except feeling good! And right now I'm going to make you feel good by sucking on your big beautiful cock!"
Smoothly she slid her lips around his quivering organ, taking it all the way into her soft warm mouth. Gently, tantalizingly, she moved her head up and down, swirling her tongue around his massive thickness in little circles, while her fingers found his huge, hairy balls and kneaded them softly. She closed her eyes and savored the feeling of his long, curving pillar as it slid downward into the soft arch of her throat.
"Uuuuunnnnhhhh," Ralph moaned, as her hands and mouth began to send dizzying ripples of excitement through his naked young body. It was as though it were all happening in a dream! It couldn't be his prim and proper wife, clad in whorish lingerie, slavering over his prick and balls as if she'd been doing it all her life! But it was! He couldn't begin to comprehend the events of the day, it was too overwhelming! But as his wife's newly acquired skill began to affect him he realized that she was right! IT DIDN'T MATTER! NOTHING MATTERED EXCEPT FEELING GOOD!
Elated, he reached down and entwined his fingers in her long, golden hair. Lewdly he forced her head down on his blood-engorged rod which she was manipulating so skillfully. Sensing his response, she began to increase the tempo of her sucking and fondling until his cock was hard as a rock, rapidly reaching the peak of excitement. Then, just as he was nearing a premature explosion from the artfullness of her sudden wanton behavior, she pulled away, breaking the rhythm and allowing his passion to subside.
"Oh, baby," he moaned, as she glanced up at him with her soft blue eyes "you're wonderful! You're fantastic!"
"You, too," she whispered. Then she rose up and sat back on her heels, her eyes blazing with desire; eagerly she untied the ribbon at the neck of her sheer nightie and let it fall slowly from her shoulders. Ralph's breath came faster and she slowly and wantonly stripped herself naked under his gaze and ran her hands sensuously over her own body, cupping her palms under the ripe melon-like orbs of her opulent breasts and lifting them up in silent offering so that the spongy flesh overflowed her fingers.
"Now," she said, "are you going to fuck me? Or do I have to tie you down to the floor?"
With a growl of lust, Ralph seized her in his arms, pulling her down on top of him and burying his head in the deep cleavage between her breasts. She felt like warm ivory against him, and he trembled all over as he grasped first one and then the other succulent globes of warm female flesh in his mouth, sucking and biting the distended nipples until she cried out in little moans of pain and pleasure, digging her nails into his shoulders and pulling him closer.
"Oh, come into me now!" she moaned through clenched teeth, "FUCK ME NOW!!!!!"
Still holding her, Ralph rolled over so that she was beneath him and roughly forced her legs wide apart with his knee. Holding his eagerly throbbing rod in his hands, he looked at her smooth, luscious body. Strangely, the thought of her familiar breasts being kissed and fondled by strangers, her firm milk-white thighs being caressed by other men, excited him. It made her more accessible somehow. No longer did he have to treat her with kid gloves, or worry about frightening or embarrassing her! He could just fuck her, the way he'd always wanted her to be! Just the way he did with Mara!
His mind began to race with lewd fantasies of the two women, his Nordic, cool-looking wife, and the fiery, passionate brunette. He saw himself with both of them, all kissing and fondling each other like ... like the girls had done with each other that afternoon. That was the only thing missing, he realized-Barbara there with all the rest, and him the king of the harem, taking them all, anytime he wanted! Now he was really in paradise! He could have it all: a good job, a ravishing wife, and a bevy of beautiful willing women besides!
With a lustful cry, he plunged his massively pulsating cock deep into her moistly contracting pussy, sighing as he sank into her warm tender flesh.
"Wrap your legs around me," he commanded as, supporting himself on his hands, he arched his body and began fucking slowly, sensuously, in and out.
Barbara entwined her tapering limbs high around his back, then reached around and began kneading the hard mounds of his buttocks with her hands, pulling and stretching them apart as he moved his loins up, down, and around in a lewd screwing motion. She was almost overwhelmed with excitement as his huge, hot cock traveled the length of her wetly quivering cuntal sheath, almost but not quite coming out with each stroke, then fucking forward until it rammed against the sensitive nub of her cervix.
Looking up, she could see her husband's head thrown back, his face contorted with pleasure, and the sight of his naked lust aroused her even more. Accommodating her soft, sensual body to his, the totally aroused young blonde began moving against him, twisting her pelvis obscenely and grinding it down against the bony base of his shuddering organ.
The intensity of his fucking was painful, but not the way it had been with Frank. Now she was in control of the pain, and could temper it until she had exactly the right blend of ecstasy and torment. She knew, too, that despite all that they'd been through in the past few weeks, she still loved him, still desired him more than any other man she'd met. True, Ralph was no longer the only man she desired but that didn't matter now, just as it didn't matter to her that he'd had, and would have again, other women.
Oh God, she thought, flailing her head about on the pillow, on the verge of tears of happiness and desire, I love him! I LOVE HIM!
Savagely, she reached up with her hands and grasped his head, pulling his mouth down onto hers. Her wet pink tongue darted hungrily over his full, soft lips and against the hard white wall of his teeth which parted as his own thick tongue snaked forward to meet hers. Greedily their tongues mingled in passion and desire, as though they could never get enough of each other. Her demonically aroused husband pulled her fleshy, moist tongue into his mouth, sucking hard until she felt it would be ripped from its roots.
Slipping his arms beneath her, Ralph gripped her tightly, and their two bodies began rolling all over the bed, moving as one. All the while, his hotly swollen rod battered mercilessly into her convulsively contracting vaginal slit. Barbara spread herself wide to receive his soul searing strokes, clinging to him with all her might so that their tightly locked naked bodies seemed cemented together as they heaved and writhed on the straining, groaning bed.
"Oh ... baby ... you ... feel soooo gooooooddd!" he gasped, driving up between her legs with all his might.
Breaking the vise-like grip in which he held her, he leaned back, relishing the way her pink-tipped breasts danced up and down in lewd rhythm with his impassioned screwing. He'd never seen her like this, totally consumed with passion, driving herself against him in mad frenzy, her lushly voluptuous body bouncing and jiggling uninhibitedly as she strained to take him totally! Not even Mara had been so savagely free!
Shifting his position again, he forced her thighs up and apart as far as they would go, so that she was nearly upended, and his thick, lust-engorged cock sank into her wetly pulsating pussy as though it were soft bread dough.
Barbara reveled in her luridly splayed position, using all her strength to lift her firmly rounded buttocks even higher. It thrilled her to be taken this way, used like a slut, and by her own husband!
"Oh, Ralph," she moaned, "that's it! HARDER! HURT ME! Make me cum! Shove it into me! Farther! FARTHER! OH! OH! MAKE ME CUUUUMMMMMMM! FUCK ME! FUCKMEFUCKME!!"
Her incoherent babbling drove her handsome young husband wild with excitement. He lost consciousness of everything except the burning need to hammer his mindless weapon into her wetly heated pussy until it battered open at last the locked door of her long-repressed sexuality. He wanted to conquer her, make her entirely his, and as the two fevered bodies rocked lustily to and fro, their coupling became like a contest, a battle of titans, equally matched in the violent intensity of their desire.
"AAARRRRGGGHHHHH!" he snarled viciously, tearing into her shuddering cuntal opening with all his strength.
Deep inside his heavily swollen testicles, which slapped lewdly against her upturned rectal crevice, he felt his seed gathering achingly, painfully, churning and boiling in its subterranean shelter, like a volcano about to erupt. His feverishly aroused young bride also sensed the uncontrollable spasms in her steaming cuntal depths which made her legs tremble and her loins quake wildly.
AND SUDDENLY THEY WERE THERE! TOGETHER! Their bodies went out of their conscious control entirely, overwhelming them with a will not their own. The first smooth jet of white-hot cum shot out of Ralph's frantically jerking penis and traveled far up into Barbara's wildly clasping womb as his whole body shook uncontrollably. His thick male essence triggered an explosive response in his blonde wife's warmly clasping inner flesh; she felt as though she were launched suddenly into a dream world beyond the boundaries of her mind. It was all she could do to cling to him with her arms, her legs, her whole body, as they soared together up and out in an ecstatic maelstrom of delight unlike anything they had ever known before.
Their voices mingled in shrieks and gasps of pleasure and delight as their mutual cumming went on and on, seemingly endlessly. Just as it seemed about to subside, new waves seized them, taking them out again and again, letting them float serenely on an ocean of rapture.
Then, gradually, their excitement began to abate, and they drifted gently back to reality, back to the narrow confines of their tiny bedroom. Ralph fell forward on his wife's moistly trembling body and they lay there for a long time, panting with exhaustion, eyes closed and only semi-conscious. Barbara could feel her husband's wonderfully powerful penis begin to soften inside her, and she grasped his torso with her still shaking legs, unwilling to let him go. Finally, after one last stroke that bathed her in a lovely, sensual afterglow, his rapidly dwindling penis slid out, leaving a sticky trail of male and female essences of her cum-streaked inner thighs.
When at last he could speak again, Ralph buried his head in the wild tangle of her long blonde hair.
"You know something?" he said. "I think we've passed the course!"