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The Alumni of Edgewood High
(Coming to America)
As the year 1800 approached, Edgar Woodward left England, and brought his young family to America to seek his fortune. It's not that his family wasn't wealthy. They were quite wealthy, and Edgar had plenty of money to begin his adventure. He believed that it was a good omen that a new century was about to begin, along with a new life. Edgar had a cousin, who had moved to Boston five years earlier. He decided to seek him out, and ask him for help in getting settled in the New World.
Edgar, his wife, Elizabeth, and his two year old son, Percy, disembarked their ship of passage in the Port of New York. His wife had suffered from seasickness the entire trip, so they were happy to be on dry land again. The young immigrant bought a wagon and a horse, and started his trek to Boston along the Lower Old Boston Post Road (now US 1). The road hugged the shoreline of Long Island Sound until it reached Providence, Rhode Island. There it turned north, running through Connecticut and onward to Boston.
Not too long before reaching Providence, The Woodwards came across a small village. Besides a half dozen houses, it consisted of an inn, a general store and a land office. Edgar was entranced by the beauty of the seascape. The view of Long Island Sound was breathtaking. He thought this might be a wonderful area to settle his family. He decided to stay at the inn overnight. He and his family had dinner there and retired for some much needed rest. After breakfast the next morning, before resuming their journey, Edgar decided to visit the land office. He wondered if there was any arable farm land nearby, which might be available for sale.
Before Edgar allowed himself to have second thoughts, he purchased a fifty-five acre tract of land about seven miles east of the village. He named his property Edgewood, a combination of his first and last names. Using his own labor, he built a small farmhouse on the property, and began to farm corn, apples and potatoes. Within five years, he had a home, and a smoothly running farm. For some reason, he and his wife could not conceive another child. Percy grew up without any brothers or sisters.
When Percy was old enough, Elizabeth hitched up the horse and buggy every morning, and took Percy to a school in a town about four miles away. Elizabeth was very well educated. Back in England her father was a solicitor. Eventually the schoolmarm retired, and Elizabeth became the school's only teacher.
(The Growth of a City)
About the time that Percy started school, a family named Higgins built a a small clothing store between Edgar's property and the village where Percy went to school and Elizabeth taught. Shortly after that, Michael Warner opened a blacksmith shop in the village. Almost imperceptibly, the area around Edgewood began to grow into a village, then a small town, and eventually a small city. Of course, that took several generations.
Percy was educated at Yale University. Like his grandfather in England, he became a lawyer. In fact, he was the only lawyer for miles around. It was he who arranged to amalgamate his farm with the growing village to the east. If he could incorporate a small city, Edgewood would be entitled to a myriad of state grants. Once he accomplished the feat of incorporating Edgewood, the growth of the small city accelerated.
(Two Little Boys)
Mark Woodward was the last living descendant of Edgar Woodward. Mark's father died when he was five, and his mother, Edie, eked out a living waiting tables in a downtown restaurant.
Neither he nor his mother had a clue that his forefathers had founded Edgewood. Even if they did, his boyhood would still have been a disaster. It was loaded with abuse and angst. Poor Mark. He stammered badly, and his classmates constantly made fun of him, especially when he entered Edgewood High School. He badly needed speech therapy, but his mother could barely afford to feed him, much less pay for therapy.
Fortunately, there was an old spinet piano in his house. It was several generations old. One day, shortly after his father died, Mark was feeling particularly sad. For some reason, a strange urge gravitated him toward the piano. He felt that if he could manage to create some music, his soul would be appeased. The little five year old boy sat himself comfortably on the piano bench. There was no way he could reach the pedals. Much to his shock, and his mother's, Mark began to play his favorite boyhood song, Frere Jacques. He played it flawlessly. In addition, he added chords to embellish the music. The boy had perfect pitch, and uncanny musical talent. The piano became his go to place when he was feeling sad, which was most of the time.
Jeremy Warner and his family, were descendants of Michael Warner, the blacksmith. He and his family were well aware of their family roots. Jeremy and Mark were the same age, but unlike Mark, Jeremy was loaded. His father, Philip, was a Broadway producer with a Midas touch. Every play and musical he produced was a standing room only hit. The family lived in Manhattan, but they maintained a country home in the suburbs of Edgewood, on the shore of Long Island Sound.
Jeremy was very close to his mother, he adored her. When he was ten years old, he locked himself in his room, and wrote a beautiful poem for her for Mother's Day. He called it An Ode to Sarah (his mother's name). His parents were amazed.
"Elizabeth Browning could very well have written this," his mother exclaimed proudly. "It's that good, and that beautiful." Obviously, Jeremy's sensitive soul had a way with words.
(The Consequence of Hatred)
Jeremy began high school in New York City, his primary residence. Shortly into his first semester, his father got a call, directing him to come right down to Columbia Presbyterian Hospital where Jeremy had just been admitted.
Jeremy had not told his family that he was gay, but apparently high school bullies have a sixth sense about these matters. They attacked Jeremy in the boys' room and slashed his face, leaving him scarred for life. It took twenty-three stitches to close the wounds.
Jeremy's father couldn't stop crying. "Why didn't you tell me?" he wailed. "I don't give a shit that you're gay. Half the theater people I work with are gay, and I love them too." He kept hugging his son.
The plastic surgeons informed the family that they could get Jeremy's beautiful face restored to a point where he wouldn't look too bad, but he would always have some scarring. He would need several operations. They would graft healthy skin on him in layers, but he had to be perfectly healed between procedures. Each operation would be a year apart, and it would take approximately four or five operations.
Jeremy had his first operation shortly after the stitches were removed and his skin was healed. Philip did not want him to return to his high school where he had been bashed, and Jeremy balked at being home schooled, so his father made a decision. He would remain in New York because of his work, but he would move his wife and son to their home in Edgewood, Rhode Island. He would join them every weekend. Jeremy could recuperate there between his surgeries, and he could attend Edgewood High. He would be safe there, Philip reckoned.
Edgewood High was safe from bashing and physical abuse, for sure, but Jeremy began to be made fun of because of his scarred appearance. He was accused of resembling The Phantom of the Opera, and he was urged to wear a mask. The cruelty of some of the tormentors knew no bounds. His chief tormentor was a fat slob named Charles Donohue.
Mark Woodward's abuse was also generally at the hands of Charles, who appointed himself the chief bully. The two boys shared a common bond of harassment. Mark and Jeremy would have felt better if they knew that behind his back, everyone called Charles, Fats Domino. They would never know that, because neither of them had any friends.
Jeremy had lost his freshman year because of the attack and subsequent hospitalizations. He entered Edgewood High as a freshman, and Mark was now a sophomore.
Edgewood was a small high school. Because of the constant hazing both boys received, it didn't take long for the two of them to find each other. They became close friends, and their bromance began. It may have been a bromance as far as Mark was concerned, but Jeremy was madly in love with Mark. He swore never to do anything inappropriate, for fear of losing Mark's friendship. After all, nobody else wanted to be his friend. Everyone acted like he was hard to look at, and unfortunately, he was. It didn't seem to matter to Mark at all.
(A Collaboration Begins)
Jeremy begged Mark to spend Thanksgiving, winter, and spring breaks, with him in New York. Mark's mother was a waitress, and she was happy to allow her son to get away. She had to work anyhow.
The Warners had Thanksgiving dinner at Philip's City Club. During dinner, Sarah removed a sheet of paper from her purse. She gave it to Mark to read.
"Jeremy wrote this for me," she said proudly. "Isn't it beautiful?"
Mark read the poem. His eyes grew wide.
"I noticed that you have a piano at home," he stammered. "When we get home, I'll set this poem to music. It begs to be a love song."
Philip had no idea about the brilliant musical talent his son's friend possessed, so he dismissed Mark's statement from serious consideration. He was to change his mind quickly. When they got home, Mark ran to the piano. He sat still for a moment, obviously thinking. Then he began to play a few tentative notes. After a very short time, he smiled and stammered out, "I've got it."
He began to play, and then he began to sing. He sang Jeremy's poem to the music he had just composed. Mark didn't notice, but his host family noticed immediately. When he sang, Mark had not even the slightest hint of a stammer. When he finished, all three Warner's embraced him, but Jeremy pulled away quickly. He had started to get a boner.
"I've got some blank music paper," Philip said. "Please write it down."
Mark looked shy. "I can't," he apologized. "I never took music lessons. I can't read or write music."
After Philip recovered from his shock, he said, "I've got a million musician friends. If you remember the notes, I can get one of them to transcribe it for us. I'm producing a new show right now, and I told the composers that I needed one more love song. This is perfect. We'll copywrite it, and you two guys will get paid royalties. "You'll be rich, Mark. Your mother can quit her job."
It would be an understatement to say that Mark was very excited. He was ecstatic.
"Hey, Dad," Jeremy said. "I'll bet Mark and I could compose a whole musical show."
"I'll bet you could," Philip agreed, "and I'll produce it."
"Not so fast, buddy," Jeremy joked. "You'll have to outbid your competition."
Philip laughed so hard, he had to hold his side.
During Mark's stay in New York, he and Jeremy slept together in a queen-sized bed. Neither Jeremy's parents, nor Mark, gave it a second thought, but Jeremy had to frantically control his desires.
When Jeremy and Mark came to New York for winter break, Philip arranged for a pianist friend of his to transcribe the love song Mark had composed. He also arranged for the musician to give Jeremy music lessons. The boy was a very fast learner, at least where music was concerned. By the time he returned to Rhode Island, he could read and write music.
In addition to a musical education, Philip also arranged for a speech therapist to work on helping Mark erase his stammer. She worked with him two hours a day. She explained to Mark, that most stutters and stammers were psychological, and they would work on finding out what his brain problem was, in addition to his speech problem.
How right she was. When Mark's father died, and he and his mother were destitute, he lost all sense of security, and the stammering began. Now, he felt as if the Warners had adopted him. In fact, they did, if not legally, then emotionally.
Edie's restaurant was closed on Christmas Day, and Philip even invited her to spend the holiday with all of them. Mark finally had a loving family, and he felt secure in the knowledge that Philip would always make sure that he would lack for nothing. As a result, he stammered less and less.
When Philip's latest musical opened on Broadway, it included a song by Warner and Woodward. Warner came first as a result of a toss of a coin. They received credit in The Playbill, as well. The boy's began to receive royalties, which Philip invested in trust funds for them.
As their high school years flew by, Mark's stammer slowly disappeared, and Jeremy's scars became less obvious. The only thing that anyone was able to notice was that he had a scar on his left cheek about one inch long. It gave him a very macho appearance. That was a good thing, because before his bashing, Jeremy had been a pretty boy. The boys were healing, but the hazing continued. Presumably, the bullies were in the habit of harassing them, and they couldn't break that nasty habit. The indignities continued right up to their graduation days.
Charles Donahue even taunted them immediately after his and Jeremy's graduation ceremony. "I hope you two nerds can find jobs," he laughed. "You're such losers."
Mark was tempted to say, "I've been working all year, FYI, and receiving substantial royalties for my music," but he decided to say nothing. Charles wasn't worth the effort.
(Bromance Turns to Romance)
When the boys returned to Edgewood after their first Christmas and New Year Holidays in New York, they began to seriously consider the notion of writing a Broadway musical. With the success of Kiss Me Kate and West Side Story in mind, they decided to adapt another Shakespeare play. They agreed that it had to be a comedy, even a farce. Appropriately enough the first play they thought of was "A Comedy of Errors." They would call it "Who's Who?"
It would be great if they could get two sets of twins to play the major roles, as called for in the play, but that didn't stop them. Shakespeare left the identity crisis to the imagination of the audience, and they could do the same. They agreed on setting the action in a high rise, and on the streets, in present day Manhattan.
There was no piano in Jeremy's Rhode Island home, and the spinet in Mark's wasn't much of an instrument. Before you could say Jack Robinson, a Baby Grand Yamaha piano sat in Philip's den.
The boys rushed home every day after school, and started to compose the words and music. They figured to write the book last, and to use some of Shakespeare's own words, modernized of course. While they were composing, they sat on the piano bench side by side. Often, their butts touched. This was not a problem for Mark, but Jeremy would start to erect. He would excuse himself, run to the bathroom, and jack off. That would suppress his desires until the next time.
One day, seated side by side, Mark began to cry. Jeremy grabbed his hand. "What's wrong?" he asked.
Mark got hold of himself. "Last weekend, when your dad was here, he and I had a long conversation."
"What about?"
"About us, Jeremy. He told me that you got your face slashed in a gay bashing. He inadvertently outed you to me, but, in his defense, he thought I knew. Then he told me that there was to be no arguing. He wants to finance my college education, so that we don't have to be separated. I think he believes that we're a couple."
"Geez, Mark. I swear, I never gave him cause to believe that."
"I told him that I wanted to take a year off so we could enter college together. Do you know what he said?"
"What?"
"He said I could come to work with him during that time, and learn all about theater production."
"That's all good stuff. So, why are you crying?" Jeremy asked. He was perplexed, and didn't realize that he was still holding Jeremy's hand.
"Because your dad raised doubts in me. I'm straight. I know I am, but still, I love you, Jeremy. I can't conceive of us not being together until we die, but I don't think I could make physical love to you. And what would happen when I got married and you found a partner?"
Jeremy raised Mark's hand and brought it to his lips.
"How do you know you can't make love to me?" Jeremy asked. "Please, Mark, you're my soulmate. Give it a try. I promise I would never hurt you, and my goal would be to give you the most pleasure you ever had in your life."
"I can't imagine that you could do anything which would gross me out, but would you hate me if I begged you to stop in the middle of things?"
"Never." Jeremy said adamantly. "I would still want us to live together as brothers. When one of us gets into a physical relationship, we'll cross that bridge, and decide what to do when we reach it. I can't wait another minute, Mark. Make love with me right now, please. I'm begging you."
"Your mother is in the next room. Come to my house. My mother won't be home from the restaurant until 10:30."
As they ran out of the house, Jeremy yelled at his mother, "I'm going over to Mark's house to do our homework together. Mark's going to help me with math."
"Fine," she answered, "but be home for dinner, and you're invited also Mark."
On the way to Mark's house, Jeremy could see how nervous Mark was. "Please relax, Mark," he urged. "You know how much I love you. I'm going to make you so happy, you'll beg me not to stop."
Once they entered Mark's house, they ran to his bedroom. Even though nobody was home they closed the door. Jeremy started to strip immediately, but Mark remained reticent.
"Please do it," Jeremy said. "I want to show you how much I love you."
Suddenly, Mark started to laugh hysterically. "You big, naïve jerk," he shouted. "I love you to pieces. Did you really believe I didn't want to make love with you? I've been teasing you.
That having been said, he stripped rapidly, grabbed hold of Jeremy, and held him tightly. Their cocks rubbed together. Strange as it seems, this was the first time that each learned that Jeremy was cut and Mark wasn't. They were about the same size and girth. To demonstrate how clear his intention was, Mark pulled Jeremy onto his bed and gobbled Jeremy's cock into his mouth. It was so unexpected that the poor boy came down Mark's throat after about six strokes of Mark's tongue.
When they were both able to breathe again, Jeremy gave Mark the best blow job he was capable of. It wasn't the greatest, but both would improve their skills as time went by. They decided to hold off anal sex for another time, because Mark didn't have any lubricant in the house.
They made plenty of love together after that, but not until they were both satisfied that they had worked enough on their musical play for that day. Their motto was; work first, pleasure later. The first time they finally tried anal sex, they felt so connected to each other that they both actually cried with joy.
Mark graduated from Edgewood High in June of 1995, and immediately went to work for Jeremy's dad. He lived with Philip during the week, when he was in the city. Philip interacted with Mark, as if they were a real father and his son. He paid for both their tuitions at Yale.
Jeremy graduated from Edgewood High on June 3, 1996. They began their studies at Yale University on September 10, 1996. Their first musical play opened on Broadway on November 1, 1996. It got rave reviews, and every performance sold out.
As the years passed, the two former misfits wrote one successful musical after another. They were gladly welcomed into the upper echelons of New York City society. More importantly, they were extremely wealthy. They were also making Jeremy's father, Philip, richer and richer. The two boys wanted so much to rub their success in Charles Donohue's face, but they had no idea where he was, or what he was doing.
Best of all, on one of her visits to Phil and Sarah in New York, Phil introduced Edie to a business associate. Just before "Who's Who?" opened on Broadway, Edie and Jim Harte were married, and Edie moved to New York. Mark and Jeremy moved to New York, as well, and the Warner's vacation home in Rhode Island became a weekend retreat for all of them.
(The High School Reunion)
Jeremy and Mark did their work in a studio outside their home. The temperature and the lighting were carefully controlled. It was important that the temperature suited the piano, and that the lighting maximized and soothed their vision for the hours spent pouring over the music they were creating. When they felt that they needed a break, they stopped for a while and made love.
One evening they came home from work, and found the usual assortment of mail lying on the front hall floor. Their brownstone had an old fashioned mail slot, and the amount of mail they found on the floor every day, was substantial. Usually it was a request for money from some charity or other. They had their favorite charities and donated generously. They ignored the others.
One day, they came home and found two identical envelopes. One was addressed to Mark and the other to Jeremy. The addresses were carefully penned by an expert calligrapher.
"Look at this," Mark said. "The return address indicates that the letter came from Edgewood. There's no name. Just an address. I'm not at all familiar with that street."
"Open it up," Jeremy requested.
Mark carefully slit his envelope with a letter opener. It contained an engraved invitation, a computer generated letter, an RSVP card, and a self-addressed stamped envelope for the return of the RSVP. They looked at the letter first. The letterhead indicated that it came from The Twenty-Fifth Anniversary Reunion Committee. Mark read:
Dear Graduate of Edgewood High:
Enclosed you will find an invitation to your twenty-fifth anniversary reunion. Because Edgewood High School is such a small school, we are inviting the graduates of 1995, 1996, and 1997. Those three years are close enough to twenty-five years, and we suspect that most of you will know each other.
Please plan to attend with a plus one. We will be honoring two graduates who have attained high status and fame in our country and around the world, Mark Woodward and Jeremy Warner.
Arrangements have been made with the Edgewood Country Club and Resort to accommodate all attendees. They can be reached at 401-555-1238. Please see the enclosed invitation for the times and dates of all events. Kindly RSVP in the envelope provided. We have to ask you to make your own reservations at the resort.
Reunion Committee
At the bottom of the letter there were five names, indicating who was on the reunion committee. Charles Donohue led the list and he was listed as chairman.
"I'll be god damned if I'll go to that thing," Jeremy literally screeched. "They have no right to honor us without asking us first."
"Uh, uh," Mark answered. "We are going to that damned thing, and we are going to rub our success into their smug faces. Not only are we going, but we aren't staying at your dad's house. We're staying at the resort, and we are going to mingle with old friends,' and when I say old friends,' I am being very facetious. In fact, sweetie, I feel so good about this, I'm taking you to bed before dinner so we can fuck."
Two months to the day, Jeremy and Mark found themselves checking into The Edgewood Country Club and Resort. It was not a problem. If things got too nasty or uncomfortable, they could always go to their country home. The reunion was the following evening, but they were requested to arrive today for a reception and greeting party.
"The cocktail party and reception is at 5 PM in The Colonial Room," the desk clerk informed them, as she handed them the room keys and called for a bell boy.
They over tipped the boy, who could only gawk at the amount he had been given. As soon as he left, Jeremy double locked their door.
"The reception is not for another three hours," he said. "Let's play a little. We have enough time, and even plenty of time to shower afterward."
Seconds later, Jeremy was sucking Mark's cock. Mark unloaded generously into Jeremy's mouth, and they shared his cum with a kiss.
"I don't want you to suck my cock," Jeremy said. "I want to fuck you."
"Be my guest."
While they were getting dressed after their shower, Jeremy got a text message from his father:
Your maid told me that you were in Edgewood, and staying at the country club. How come?
Jeremy texted back briefly:
High School reunion.
Philip was very aware of what his two boys had suffered in high school, and he was very surprised that they went to the reunion.
By the time they got to the Colonial Room, it was filled with Edgewood High alumni. The women were dressed to the nines. They wanted to prove how well they had aged in twenty-five years. It is safe to say that the two honorees didn't recognize a soul. They expected that, but name tags helped a lot. Anyhow, they didn't care about the others, they were trying to spot Fats Domino. They didn't see anyone who even vaguely resembled him.
Former students, who were strangers to them, fawned all over them. They acted like they had been lifelong friends. Jeremy and Mark were used to that wherever they went, and ignored it. It was the price they paid for fame.
Both celebrities spotted an exceptionally handsome man across the room.
He was a hunk, and they were both attracted to him, but he disappointed them. Everyone else came up to meet them, except this Adonis. Finally, he approached them.
"Jeremy, Mark," he said, extending his hand. "It's so nice to see you after all these years. I don't have to ask what you've been up to."
The two men looked at his name tag and almost passed out. He was Charles Donahue, a not so fat, Fats Domino. But the bastard, who had morphed into a hunk, was acting like they had been best friends in high school.
Jeremy had been rich all his life. He was much more outspoken than Mark. "What the fuck happened to you?" he asked bluntly.
"What do you mean?" Charles asked.
"He means, where did you hide Fats Domino's body?" Mark piped in.
Charles Donohue's family was not as rich as the Warners, but they weren't poor either. Charles's father was a doctor, and he had a thriving practice. He was a pediatrician, and he used to joke that his practice was always growing. It was not a financial burden for him to pay Harvard's exorbitant tuition for his only son.
Dr. Donohue was a big man, but nowhere as near to being as obese as his son. He tried to get Charles to diet and exercise, but Charles was a secret eater. He would gain rather than lose weight.
Charles fell in love with a girl on his very first day, in fact his very first class, at Harvard. He tried to be friendly, but the girl spurned him. She was really cruel. She kept telling him to leave her alone, and when he wouldn't, she called him a fat pig. She was treating him like he had treated Mark and Jeremy, maybe worse. Charles didn't realize that he was getting heavy doses of his own medicine.
It didn't take long for the rest of the student body to join in the fun, and start making fun of his size. They were hurtful, and Charles was mortified. Back in Edgewood, his family was respected, and he did not suffer the abuse he was getting at Harvard.
He came home for Thanksgiving and refused to return to school. His father wanted to know why, and what the trouble was. He pried the reason out of him. Dr. Donohue decided that it was time to take positive action. He hired a personal trainer and a dietician, and they put Charles on the strict regimen they jointly created for him. As Charles began to lose weight, Dr. Donohue's friend, who was a plastic surgeon, removed the excess flab from his body at appropriate intervals.
When he was at the pleasingly plump stage, Charles looked in the mirror one day, and had an epiphany. He was very good looking. This gave him the incentive to work harder and harder. Two years after leaving Harvard, his hard work and plastic surgery had transformed him into a handsome man with a healthy, attractive body. Along with his physical transformation, his soul was also transformed. He was happy for the first time in his life, and he became a beautiful human being.
He returned to Harvard, and enjoyed being very popular. From Harvard he attended Albert Einstein School of Medicine in New York. After he completed his residency and a fellowship in pediatrics, he returned to Edgewood, and took over his father's practice. He was thirty-one years old. Once he was settled back in his home town, he married his plastic surgeon's beautiful daughter. She was nine years his junior.
Charles couldn't bear to remember back to his former self. He blocked out his old life quite successfully, and that included the fact that he had been the school bully. He couldn't remember bullying the two successful composers, so he had no trouble offering Mark and Jeremy his hand in friendship.
When Mark asked Charles where he hid Fats Domino, Charles realized that they had no idea about his transformation. As briefly as he could, Charles summarized what happened to him.
After two minutes it became obvious to Jeremy and Mark that Charles didn't recollect bullying them at all. In fact, he was pleased at their success. It was he, who recommended to the reunion committee that they be honored. He told the committee how proud he was of them, and how proud the city should be. They could show that pride by honoring them at the reunion.
Charles showed them a picture of his two kids. "Amy's still in elementary school, and Timmy's in middle school," he beamed with pride. "Come," he said, "I'll introduce you to my wife, Janet. Be sure to tell her how beautiful our kids are. She eats it up."
Mark and Jeremy didn't get their much anticipated revenge, but they were able to relax and enjoy the reunion. They had even written a song extolling Edgewood High and the myriad of successful alumni it had produced. They performed it after receiving their honoraria. The school adopted it as the official school song almost immediately.
The reunion crowd would not let them quit performing, and they played and sang several songs from their various Broadway shows. Finally, they stopped.
In the end, they got something better than revenge. They and Charles became good friends. Janet invited them to dinner before they returned to New York. On subsequent visits to Edgewood the four of them continued to socialize. When their next musical premiered, Janet and Charles received tickets for the best seats in the house on opening night.
Charles's transformation in body and soul, not only changed his life, but it gave closure to Mark and Jeremy. They were able to erase the agony of their miserable high school years. They began to see the world in a new light, and they began to enjoy their lives even more fully, and that included their sex lives.