Friday, April 5, 2002

Elizabeth woke me up, her hand on my erection, a firm stroking grip that reminded me of Jenny's abilities in that arena. Thinking that led me to places I didn't want to go; however Elizabeth was a lot more determined than I was dissuaded.

"Are you getting close?" she whispered in my ear.

"Getting there!" I was too, in spite of distractions.

Elizabeth giggled. "Then it's my turn." She rolled away, sat up, shedding a pair of panties quickly.

"Where's Jenny?" I inquired, a little curious. I'd gone to sleep with Jenny, and had dreamed of Elizabeth. Now I was awake again and Jenny was gone, and Elizabeth was here.

"Taking a shower," Elizabeth said, as she moved to straddle my chest.

I reached out and pushed her closer, my hands running over her bottom, then up Elizabeth's back. Returning towards her waist, my thumbs took a few seconds to rub two small, pale rose nipples to hardness. My tongue was lapping at her clit, moving it back and forth, causing Elizabeth's hips to start moving. Elizabeth steadily grew more excited and I shifted my focus to Elizabeth's lovely pussy, forgetting the world, dreams, everything except what was in front of me.

Finally it was Elizabeth who shifted, moving down over my body, bringing her lips to lightly caress mine. "I need something more," she said, moving my erection so it slid neatly inside her. I pushed deep, then held my position, while using my hands on her bottom to pull her more tightly against me. Elizabeth gasped, and I felt her muscles tighten around me.

"Oh you!" she said with exasperation. "No fair! Too short!"

I pulled almost out, pushed back. "Short is it?"

She sighed with pleasure, "No, I guess not." Elizabeth was lying across my body; a position that was okay, but not in my top ten list. I felt her muscles contract again, and then she moved up a bit, and then pushed down herself.

"Before you came into my life." Elizabeth kissed me on the nose, while pushing me deeply into her. I realized it was a pun, and laughed. Another, odd, nice feeling. Usually, it was the woman I was with who laughed; this was a nice feeling too. "I didn't like what I saw around me. Girls who were too young, too immature, making love to boys who were significantly too immature.

"I couldn't understand why they did it. I didn't understand my own sister. I'd masturbated a couple of times, and it was... ho hum. Eventually, I decided that I was frigid, or something like that. I didn't understand my dreams, Tom. I was like the high priestess of mathematics; I didn't know what to make of them. I thought I was going to be a nun, when I grew up."

She kissed me lightly. "And yet, always, there was someone there, just on the edge of my awareness. Someone whose presence made me feel good, someone who could, just by being there, make me feel warm and loved. I never could reconcile the cold analytical me with the part of me who loved the presence there, just slightly out of reach.

"And then one day, it wasn't a presence, it was you in my dreams. You and I were doing this." She wiggled to make sure I was following the story, to make sure I knew what she meant. "I laughed at myself; I'd figured it out. I just hadn't met the right person, yet. And it was that person I was going to feel warm and loved by, the way I felt in some of my dreams. And when we were apart, I'd be all cold and analytical, like in the rest of the dreams."

Elizabeth smiled and kissed me. "Imagine my surprise when I saw you the first time, and learned you weren't a figment of my imagination."

Elizabeth and I made love, beautiful love; it was like our first time together. We joined, spirits and bodies; I don't know how to describe how it works. If you've felt it, you'll know what I mean; if you haven't, you won't. All I can say is that I lay there afterwards, spent, as happy as a person can be, my arms wrapped around someone who I could not love more.

Elizabeth leaned close, kissed my cheek, put her arm around me. "You and me, Tom; we're like the Yin and Yang symbol from Asia. We fit together."

"Yes!" I said with pleasure. "Yes!"

"You are hot passion, deep love, mixed with compassionate concern. I'm cold calculation, careful thought and planning. Mixed with hot passion and deep love, too."

I grinned, pleased that someone like Elizabeth loved me the way I loved her. "Tonight, Tom. We're going out."

I nodded and added my thoughts. "With all my friends. To celebrate good fortune, to put the bad behind us. Mine, Jenny's, your family's."

She nodded. "Your friends, to celebrate all of our good fortune. And tonight you'll be with Mom. Jenny and I will be together, Shannon and Joanna. Your parents."

That sounded pretty good to me, so I smiled. Elizabeth smiled enigmatically in return. "You have to remember, Tom, that I love you. Mom loves you. We both understand that we have to share you with others, and we accept that. Don't worry about us, Tom."

"Worry about what?" I asked, but I was fairly sure I knew what she meant.

"We'll always be here, we will always love you. Shannon doesn't understand how to do that, but Mom and I do."

I shook my head. "I'm learning things, Elizabeth. Sure, I've made love to a lot of girls in the last couple of weeks. I promise, I understand myself better now. It's not going to happen again. I've been too casual, letting my hormones do my thinking." I kissed her. "Trust me."

"You never have to ask, Tom. And you never have to worry. Or apologize."

As if on cue, Jenny opened the door and stuck her head in the room. "Shower's free."

I remembered then, that last night, I'd dropped Elizabeth off at her house. Elizabeth must have read my mind because she said, "I felt like a walk." She kissed my cheek again. "Now, run along, get a shower. You need one."

I stuck my tongue out at her, and Elizabeth simply waved at the door. On the way down the hall to the bathroom, I was trying to remember the last time I'd been told I needed a shower; I'd been six, I thought. Fresh from a rare Arizona cloudburst and playing in the mud.

I'd hardly got the water running, when the shower enclosure door slid open and JR was there, grinning at me. "I heard a rumor this morning that there was a naked horny boy in the bathroom."

I glanced at her as she got in and laughed when I saw her erect nipples. "Well, maybe the rumor was wrong. Maybe there was a naked horny girl on the way to the bathroom."

JR grinned. "Funny you should mention that, big brother. The problem about having five people in the household is that now and then, someone sleeps alone. You have no idea how horny I am."

I stared at JR's erect nipples, capping her small, lovely breasts. Here you go, Tom. Last night you made love to Jenny, this morning Elizabeth. Time to say no. You told Elizabeth you were going to say no...

JR wrapped her arms around my neck, kissed me really hard, rubbing her breasts against my chest and her pussy against my erection.

My arms went around her, and I kissed back. Our tongues came together, and her hand moved around and tugged me so that I could slide into her. Like Elizabeth not so very long before, I had no trouble entering her, and even less trouble moving inside her. Her pussy wrapped around me like a tight velvet glove, and I could feel every muscle movement she made.

The water started to turn cold, and she laughed. "Hurry up, big brother! You've got me more than ready!"

I put my hands on her bottom, pulled her tightly to me, and came. She squirmed, rubbing me hard enough to be a little painful, before she came too. We had gravitated to the dry end of the shower, however the cascade of cold water a few feet away was more than enough to send a chill into the shower stall.

I shriveled up pretty fast, down to a pale shadow of my usual self. JR, in turn, was looking at the shower and laughing.

"What?" I asked.

"Oh, I heard Mom and Dad's shower go on as I started over here." She nodded at the now freezing water coming out of the showerhead. "What do you want to bet we don't get talked to about running out of hot water this morning?"

We had done that, regularly the last few years. Finally Dad had started taking showers at night, and that had relieved the pressure on the hot water heater in the morning.

I sighed, stepped under the water and rinsed off, trying to ignore the chill. Trying to work out why I could be telling myself one second that no, I wasn't going to make love to a girl, then a second later, be doing it.

"You look, big brother, like that didn't quite hit the spot," JR said after a minute.

I shrugged, decided that if I couldn't tell JR the truth, who could I ever tell the truth to?

"I told Elizabeth I wasn't going to be sleeping with so many girls any more."

I wasn't prepared with the look of concern that came across JR's face.

"Me too?" she asked softly. She took a step closer to me, ignoring the cold water. "Does that include me?"

I looked her in the eye. Making love to your sister isn't right; how many times had I heard that in my life? I'd learned my mom had been with her brother since she was JR's age. The two things didn't add up.

Elizabeth said she and Mary would understand. Shannon said she never could. Here I was with JR, who's understanding was more like Elizabeth's and Mary's. What in the name of heaven was right?

My voice cracked. "I don't think you need to worry, JR," I told her.

I couldn't help it. I turned and leaned my head against the wall, my mind unwilling to deal with what was around me. What was staring me in the face. It was talk, nothing but talk. I was a bundle of hormones, going where they led me.

"Tom," JR's hand was on my shoulder. She cuddled up close; I could feel her breasts against my back. "Tom."

"JR, I don't know what to do." It wasn't very hard, but I lightly slammed my head against the wall. "So many..." My mind traveled along the time line, since Marsha. "I don't know, JR, I just don't know..."

JR, being JR, was more direct. "Fuck this!" I heard her crank the valve, turning off the water.

"Look at me, Tom," JR's voice was hard, demanding.

I pulled myself off the wall, away from my self-pity.

"What exactly do you mean?" JR asked, standing now, hands on her hips, glaring at me.

"I mean, JR, that the other day, coming home from Penny's you were thinking you were a slut because you'd made love to two boys in a day. And I told you I'd been with three girls in two days."

JR nodded, remembering.

"JR, last weekend in two days, I was in the double digits. More than ten. Three times a slut, maybe five times."

She reached out, put her finger on my chest and pushed me lightly. "Listen to me, Tom." She pushed me again.

"You were the one who told me to pay attention. You said that the number wasn't important; it was who they were that mattered. Tell me true, Tom. How many of the double-digit lovers you were with, how many would you kick out of bed? How many do you have second thoughts about being with?"

"None." I wanted cry, but tears had been in short supply, ever since I'd found myself upside down.

"How many of those girls have told you they regretted it?" JR went on.

"None," I said, but, reached out and touched her. "But JR, half of them I've never seen again. Maybe more than half."

"I'm not you, Tom. I was with Penny, you, Roger, Kim, Mom, Dad, Uncle Craig, Jennifer, Sue Ellen and Shannon. Oh wait, double digits too!" JR waved at the shower enclosure door. "Tom, we're both all wet! I think if we both dry off, these things will pass."

"How can I love that many people?" I asked her.

"I have no idea," JR told me. "I do know that you will try your best to love us as much as you can and as much as we need. That, Tom, is the bottom line as far as I'm concerned."

JR paused, and then simply bent double, laughing wildly.

"What?"

"I forgot something," she told me, a new, enigmatic look on her face, one I'd never seen from my sister before.

She had gotten a grip on herself, now she looked at me. Now that is the true grin of a Cheshire cat, I thought. Mona Lisa's enigmatic smile, eyes dancing with laughter.

"What?" I repeated, mystified.

"Tom, let's just say that I'd forgotten for a second what sex with you is like. Believe me, brother, believe me. That alone is worth it."

She slid the shower door open, grabbed a towel. "Come and get dried off, Tom."

Later I had breakfast. It was an odd breakfast. Jenny hugged me, Mom hugged me, JR did and Elizabeth hugged and kissed me. I didn't know if they'd talked or not, but each and every one of them was saying that they loved me, loved being made love to by me, and please, please don't stop loving them.

I had barely finished loading the dishwasher when Tony called. "Say Tom, what are you doing this afternoon?"

"I didn't have any real plans." Thinking about things; there was one hell of a lot to think about.

"Sue Ellen says come over. Time she says, for you and me to work on our tan lines."

I blinked, stared into the distance. Connecting dots; the way to work on tan lines, would be to not let anything get in the way, as it were.

"A couple of people are coming over. Mindy and her friend, Michelle," he paused, "Fleur."

"Cool. I thought Sue Ellen said Fleur was leaving, though."

"This evening. I don't know what she did, but she twisted her old man around her finger."

I remembered Fleur's father from the police station, and then contemplated Fleur. That was pretty impressive, if she could do it!

"Should I bring a friend? Can I?" I corrected myself in mid-sentence.

Tony chuckled. "Tom, there's not enough room in the pool if you bring all your friends. Juniors only party."

Tony and Fleur. Mindy and her friend. Sue Ellen and me. Sue Ellen had said she wanted to make love again before she and Tony were going steady again. Today was supposed to be the day. How many predictions lately had I heard that went wrong?

Like so many of late, Tony was reading my mind. "Skinny-dipping, Tom. Sue Ellen's mom and mine are going to be chaperones."

I had to laugh myself. "A parent chaperoned skinny-dipping party?"

"Sue Ellen's mom is letting my mom come over to chill for a while. Mom told Dad he has until this evening to make up his mind whether he's going to move out, because I'm moving back." He chuckled again, "They're going to ask Dad over about eight or so; they're going to be watching a Sun's game on the big screen in the family room, the surround sound, the whole nine yards."

"Oh, dirty pool!" I told him, laughing myself.

"No, we have to leave the pool clean!" Tony kidded, and I smiled. Things really were coming back together. Again.

"What do you want to do about cars, tonight, Tom?" he said, changing the subject. "I'm not able to drive mine."

"Funny you should mention it," I replied. "You haven't seen my new wheels. Let's just say, I have room for you and Sue Ellen, JR and Shannon, Jenny and Katrina. Mary's going to bring Elizabeth."

"What are we going to see?" Tony asked.

I'd looked at the morning paper, so I some suggestions. "How about Clockstoppers?" I asked.

"That the one about the time traveler?"

"Ah, time stopper, anyway. We could see the Time Machine, it's showing."

There was a moment's pause, and then Tony laughed. "Saw it a couple of weeks ago with Sue Ellen. The girl in it has nice breasts. I was just remembering something Sue Ellen said then. At the time I thought she was yanking my chain. I said something about how much better Sue Ellen's were, and Sue Ellen said the girl wasn't too shabby; that she wouldn't kick her out of bed." In my mind's eye I could see Tony shaking his head. "I never imagined..."

I was fairly sure that at some point in time, Sue Ellen and Tony had had a discussion about Sue Ellen and girls. Well, we'd both had an education in the last couple of weeks.

I got to Sue Ellen's a little after lunch. Tony and Sue Ellen really were skinny-dipping in the pool, so were Fleur, Mindy and Michelle.

"When in Rome," Tony said with a laugh, "do as Sue Ellen says, or get beat up." He pointed to a chair. "Drop your pants."

I did, dove in the pool, swimming the length underwater. Well, maybe two-thirds of the length.

We splashed and had fun. Everyone was relaxed; no one seemed embarrassed by being nude. We listened to music; in a word, it was nice.

Oh yeah, I went the entire time without an erection.

Around three-thirty in the afternoon, Fleur had to get dressed, as her mother was due to pick her up, so we all got dressed as well. While we were in the living room, I pulled out the picture I'd gotten from Johnnie Dugan and passed it around.

"Merde!" Fleur exclaimed.

French isn't my thing, so I promptly mistranslated the word as something to do with death. "I wasn't hurt."

I think she saw in my eyes, what I was thinking.

"Merde is French for shit," Fleur told me, looking at the picture.

I was a little surprised by Mindy's reaction. She started crying, and then she turned and walked away. Michelle went to her; while I was left feeling like an idiot.

Right then Fleur's mother arrived, and we all exchanged pleasant greetings. Even me, who was tongue-tied. Fleur's mother was tall and elegant, like Fleur's father. She smiled at me when Fleur introduced us, then surprised me by leaning close, kissing me on each cheek.

The smell of her perfume, the warmth of her body close to mine, the fact that I could look down the top of her dress and see her unfettered breasts, all hit me like a blacksmith's hammer against an anvil. I had an erection; it was a total sensory experience quite unlike any I'd had before.

She pulled back, regarding me. "Fleur is a swan, you know." She nodded at her daughter, "She doesn't believe it, but I see it in your eyes. You know."

I could only nod. I wished I'd been paying more attention when Fleur had told us her name.

Before she left, she hugged Sue Ellen. "Thank you for being so kind to my daughter."

"No problem," Sue Ellen told her. "My pleasure."

Sue Ellen's mother made an appearance, the two women hugged as well. "It isn't to Jean's liking," Fleur's mother told Mrs. Wells, "but we will be back in the summer. He doesn't know it yet, but he is in line to be made Consul-General here."

Sue Ellen's mom smiled. "Ah, dear Jehanna! Together again, at last!"

The two laughed. It was like I was there again, watching my mother and Melinda, the TV reporter. Oh! No wonder Sue Ellen liked girls too! The two women exchanged smiles, and then Fleur and her mother were gone. Sue Ellen's mother vanished as well.

Mindy had pulled herself together when Fleur's mother had appeared, now she came to me. "I'm sorry, Tom."

"It's not a nice picture; I wouldn't show it to anyone again. It just..." Words failed me again.

She smiled at me, leaned close and kissed me on the cheek, a lot like Fleur's mother had... although just on one cheek, no perfume and no unfettered breasts. "A few years ago, we lived in a town called Mohave, in California. My father worked for an aerospace company that had a lab near there.

"One day there was an accident at the lab." Her eyes bored into mine. "He was killed, so were a lot of others. They took Mom and some of the others who'd lost family members to see it. Afterwards, Mom cried for days and days; more than when she first heard Dad was dead."

I decided that mentioning someone had died at the accident was never going to cross my lips, at least in Mindy's hearing. I hugged her, and she smiled at me. Pale and sad. I looked over her head, caught Michelle's eye.

"Please take care of her," I pleaded wordlessly.

Michelle came and hugged Mindy. Mindy wrapped her arms around Michelle and held on for dear life.

I mentally consigned the picture of the accident to a place in the bottom of the bottom drawer in my room. I'd survived; others hadn't. Who needed reminding about friends and relatives who hadn't been as fortunate as me?

The picture was a reminder to me about how lucky I'd been. It was something I never intended to forget, but at the same time, it would mean something else to others. A lot of people are killed and injured in accidents; more people had family or loved ones killed or injured. Who needed that kind of reminder?

There was another knock on the door, and this time it was Michelle's uncle, a man of about thirty or so, looking even more Hispanic than Michelle. Mindy perked up when she saw him. "Please, Uncle Marty. Please! Ice cream! A ride in your car!"

He grinned at her, then at me. "You have to be Tom."

"Yes, sir."

"Please, it's Marty." He held out his hand, and I shook it, mystified.

"Mindy tells me you play a mean game of poker."

I almost fainted, remembering the poker game. I was pretty sure he knew what kind of a poker game it had been, too. Would I tell Uncle Craig about the poker game? I sniffed in mental derision. Not!

"One of these days, when we don't have something else to do on Friday night, like going to a movie, we should get up a poker game."

All I could do was nod, not having a clue. I'd been lucky, not clever, to win the poker game at the party. In fact, if there was a best player in the game, it had to be Anna, who had had the best strategy of anyone.

Then they were gone; it was getting to be like a parade. Sue Ellen's and Tony's moms appeared, announced they were off to get some beer and chips for 'our party'. Again, I was flabbergasted. I'm not sure why; it would have been flat impossible for it not to have gotten out to them what kind of a party Sue Ellen's and Janey's had been. Saying they were having 'a party' had to be irony, right? Or maybe teasing?

How about them sitting in the house talking in the kitchen while a half dozen nude teenagers splashed around the pool, working on their tan lines?

I'd lost track of Sue Ellen, but when I saw her again she was wearing a very short pleated white skirt and t-shirt without a bra, something that was very easy to tell on Sue Ellen, particularly when she had erect nipples.

Tony grinned at her, and Sue Ellen gave a little twirl, going around twice. Pale blue panties. Who was being teased now? Me? Tony? Both of us? I shook my head. You'd think with everything that had happened to me, I'd have learned to handle anything. Instead, my mind kept flashing back to Sue Ellen's blue panties and Fleur's mother's breasts.

Tony didn't seem to be troubled or confused at all. "I'm going to get a shower, I hate having the chlorine smell hanging around," he announced.

He turned and went towards the back of the house, leaving Sue Ellen and I alone. It had been, maybe fifteen minutes since Fleur's mother had kissed me on the cheeks.

I could see Sue Ellen's lips moving, her eyes intent; I hadn't a clue what was going on in her head.

"I should go," I said, trying to be casual about it.

Sue Ellen smiled slightly. "If I were you, I'd get undressed first."

I blushed; I'd forgotten I was undressed! Then her words and the fact I was dressed hit me together. I was confused.

"Did you know you can set your watch by a Tony Shower?" Sue Ellen said, looking at me with a big grin on her face. She reached out, grabbed my hand and tugged.

I was going to say no. There was no way I should be led around either by the hand or my erection. My brain and heart together had to be in control of my hormones. Had to be!

In a second we were in Sue Ellen's room, where the door to her bathroom was closed. On the other side of the door Tony was singing 'Three Jolly Coachmen' at the top of his lungs. I could hear the water running in the shower.

"Tony's favorite song. Particularly the last verse about the young maid who stays to steal another kiss." She was unbuttoning my shirt, then my jeans as she spoke.

Her t-shirt flew through the air, and she pulled on me. I guess it's something cheerleaders do, maybe, or something she had been practicing all week with Tony. She started falling towards the bed, backwards, pulling me forwards. Next thing I knew, we'd twirled in air, and I hit the mattress first, with Sue Ellen across my thighs.

For a second I was concerned about what Sue Ellen was going to do with her panties and skirt; I'm sure I was taught another cheerleading secret right then, because my erection slid nicely through the edge of one of the leg holes of her panties.

Sue Ellen wasn't wet at all, but she started rubbing the head of my cock over her clit. She must have been really horny, because I don't think it took but a minute before she was really wet. Then I was inside her, and she was laying down, her tongue plunging into my mouth, her breasts cushioned against my chest.

My brain gave a last, mild word of reproof, before hormones were in total command of the situation. It was very much like the first time we'd been together; two people going at sex as hard and as fast as they could go. The bed didn't so much squeak as groan; the sounds of my pelvis hitting hers were like whip cracks that echoed around her room. Her tongue was driving into my mouth like my cock was going into her vagina.

I wrapped my arms around her butt, squeezing and massaging her cheeks. I forgot second thoughts; forgot about anything except Sue Ellen, the moment and myself.

The sound of Tony turning off the faucet in the shower came through all of it. Sue Ellen closed her legs, brushed her teeth lightly against mine and we both pushed hard and as deep as we could. She gave of growl of complete feminine satisfaction; I was speechless, spending and spewing semen into her.

My ears were ringing, my chest was heaving, my vision a little dim. Sue Ellen moved, pulling off and sitting up next to me on her bed. I looked up at her, realizing that once again she'd made love to me, then left.

"You have," she said with a calm and level voice, her breathing effortless and measured, "about three more minutes. Right now Tony is drying off, then he's going to shave, brush his teeth and then slick on some English Leather deodorant. Then he's going to come out here to get dressed."

Or, I was sure, code that it would be a good idea if I was dressed myself and out of here and into another room in less than three minutes. I got up, bent down to pick up my clothes. Sue Ellen's fingers trailed down my back, then she gave me a light slap on the butt. "I'm not a tease."

I shook my head, not wanting to be heard in the bathroom, just a few feet away. "Making love like that can't be called teasing."

She smiled, but shook her head. "You know what I mean."

She leaned close, kissed me on one cheek, just like Mindy. "Don't think badly of me."

"Not ever going to do that!" I said firmly.

"Get going, my turn for the shower."

I got; a few minutes later Tony came out into the living room. "I thought you'd like to see my new wheels," I told him. His eyes lit up, and the two of us went outside.

He was duly impressed, even to the point of sitting in the passenger seat and inhaling deeply. "Ah, the smell of a new car! I figure it's going to be a million years until I get one of my own."

"I wonder if they cover that on the warranty?" The two of us traded laughs.

"See you around six thirty?" he asked and I nodded.

The only person at the house when I got home was Dad. He was sitting in the living room, reading, when I came in. "Everyone else is off getting their hair done." He ran his fingers through his short hair. "I'm not due for a trim for a couple of weeks."

We traded grins, and I excused myself to get my own shower, and to dab this and that smelly stuff under my armpits and on my cheeks; I did shave this time. I couldn't help laughing at myself. Fate didn't seem to be cooperating with my vow to Elizabeth to cut back on partners. Two this morning, one in the afternoon, who knew what on my fourth, ever, date? Then home tonight, where I knew that Mary, Elizabeth and Shannon were going to be staying over. Mary and I were going to spend the night together.

I sighed. Most guys would be wildly happy if they had a girlfriend who would have sex with them, even if it was just now and then. Four different women in the same day? And a date with a fifth? How could I look women in the eye and talk about love and all of that, when I just wanted to hop into bed with them?

How about this afternoon? Tony and I had swum all afternoon, horsing around with four girls. I hadn't gotten hard, he hadn't either. It could be done. I'd done it before. I just had to be firm with myself; and less rigid with the women in my life. It was a stupid joke, but at least I felt better. I'd not had any trouble yesterday staying away from Miriam the banker. Of course, there had been that other lady banker... one out of two? Still a prescription for failure!

I was sure that had to be a reason for all of this; I just couldn't figure it out.

Later Mom and Mary returned, the four girls in tow. They'd all had haircuts or trims, all preened for me, and I told them how nice they looked; it wasn't hard... they looked really good.

Elizabeth had two thin french braids done, one on either side of her face, perfectly framing it. I remembered the first time I saw her where I thought she looked cute, but serious. Now I just admired how beautiful she'd become in just a few short weeks.

Mary had done the least; but even so, she too was stunning. JR and Jenny had conspired together and now they were laughing that people would think they were sisters. Well, except for maybe their different heights, eye and hair colors. Other than that, well, at least their hairstyle was the same...

I found a lump in my throat, tears... well, maybe only a few. How lucky could a person be, to have family and friends like these? My life had been good before JR had knocked on the door to my room and wanted to know about oral sex; I'd loved my mom whole-heartedly before she had hit on me.

Jenny, my dear sweet Jenny. Only she wasn't mine, she was her own person. A whole, entire, beautiful wonderful person, who day by day blossomed from a defiant, shrouded and scared, very angry young girl into a warm and radiantly beautiful woman.

Shannon eyed me, and then smiled broadly. "Thank you, Tom."

I shrugged, not really understanding.

She lofted her violin case. "From the bottom of my heart, thank you. You don't know how wonderful it was, how much it meant to me, to go to my violin lesson today. And Mrs. Hesse told me that maybe I should skip a lesson now and then, because I'm playing much better."

I had trouble imagining that; Shannon played better than anyone I'd ever heard in my life. But Shannon was smiling; there was another happy person in the universe.

Then it was time to start the grand tour. Shannon and JR opted to go with Mary and Elizabeth, Jenny came along with me, and we went and fetched Katrina. Then I went and picked up Tony and Sue Ellen, and then last I stopped for Gloria.

Gloria was different, she was my date. It was me who walked up to the front of the house, knocked on the door.

A man answered, he was perhaps in his early forties. He wasn't large, but he definitely had a presence about him that told me that he was the master of all he surveyed. His jet-black hair had a few stray white hairs, but other than that he seemed to be in his prime.

"I'm Tom Ferguson, here to pick up Gloria."

He reached out his hand, and we shook. Well, I shook anyway; he crushed. I'd never had a handshake like that, but pain is a swift teacher. My hand soon found a little niche of less pain, and crawled into it. His eyes bored into mine; when he saw that the handshake had stopped being effective, he let up a little on the pressure. Not much.

"So, you're Gloria's new boyfriend?"

I shook my head. "Sir, we're just going on a date. A first date. I'd like to be friends with Gloria, but..."

"At least you're not some punk football player."

"No, sir." He wouldn't let go. I thought about trying to pull my hand away from his, but when I tried to move, he held on.

"So, you wanna stick it to my daughter?"

In a kung fu movie I'd do something really clever, have him on his knees, saying he was sorry. I didn't know jack about kung fu, judo -- any of that martial arts stuff. "Sir, I don't know Gloria well enough to know if I want to be more than friends with her. You don't know me well enough to jump to conclusions."

"You're a guy; that's all I need to know."

"So, since you're a guy, does that mean you're chasing after Gloria too? Is that what this is? You're jealous?" I couldn't believe I'd said such a stupid thing.

Well, that got my hand turned loose; he balled his fist, drew back and uncorked a punch.

With Roger Parker, I'd simply moved out of the way and he missed by a mile. Gloria's father was a whole lot quicker than Roger, and even though I hurried, his fist grazed my cheek.

"So, it's true," I stood still after I spoke, not moving. Please, let my calm tone and sweet reason work!

He seemed to get a grip on himself. "You come to my front door and insult me! I could smash you to a pulp!"

"Sir, I came to your front door and you insulted me. Plus, you have a rather firm grip when you shake hands. Sir, I'm just here to pick up Gloria and take her out to dinner and a movie with a bunch of my friends. This is not a big deal. If you feel like this, why don't you explain to her that she's not allowed to date, and no one else will make the mistake of trying to be her friend again."

"The last boy, he couldn't look me in the eye. He'd honk, and Gloria would go to him!"

"Well, I'm not cockroach like Darryl," I told him. "Tell Gloria I was here, thanks and have a nice evening."

I turned my back and got two steps before a vise clamped on my shoulder.

"So, you are afraid!"

I turned back to him. "Sunday," I told him, "last Sunday, Sam Reese put a pistol to my head. Right here." I reached up and pressed my finger down in the middle of my forehead, remembering.

"Tuesday, sir, I spent two and a half hours in a wrecked car, smelling the gasoline leaking from the gas tank. That's how long it took them to cut me out. Almost two weeks ago a friend of mine, standing as close to me as you are, dropped dead of a heart attack.

"Afraid?" I took a step towards him, getting well inside his personal space. "You damn well better believe I was afraid! I gave my friend CPR, brought her back. Sam Reese is dead now, he didn't get past me. Now here I am, standing in front of you, I got out of the car wreck okay. Someone died in that wreck; others were injured. I got up and walked away."

"Tom!" Gloria was at the door, having heard a little of what had been going on.

Then someone else elbowed past Gloria, someone short. She looked to be maybe ninety years old, with skin wrinkles on skin wrinkles. But there was nothing old or infirm about the way she walked up to Gloria's father, reached up and grabbed his ear and twisted.

"Esteban! You get in the house! I told you now, just like I told you when you were Gloria's age, mistakes are hers to make. Yours to make. You turned out pretty good, hijo. Now, in the house!"

The little old grandmother person flashed me a smile, whispered something in Gloria's ear, and dragged the man who'd been so hostile away, as though he was a six year old about to get a time out in the corner.

"You see, about my father," Gloria said forlornly. "The only person who can deal with him is my grandmother."

"Next time, I'm going to date your grandmother," I told her, trying to laugh it all off, "so I don't have to worry."

Gloria smiled, and the two of us went out to the van, and she got into the front seat.

We had dinner at the Black Angus; it was nice food, although they were busy and it was crowded and noisy. Still, everyone had a good time. Gloria and I talked a lot; about school and cheerleading, music, books. She was a lot like Anna, I thought. She was determined to go to college, no matter what she had to do. Gloria didn't have quite as much enthusiasm for some of the things she'd had to do along the way, I thought. In that way, I guess she was like Sue Ellen.

Her stories about her grandmother though, they were so funny that everyone at the table was laughing. I looked around, pleased. Twelve of us, sitting at two pushed together tables. I scanned around the restaurant, but everyone seemed to be intent on their own meals, their own affairs; not interested in Tony and I.

What did we look like to someone else? Earlier it had been Tony and I and four girls. It was still just Tony and I, but now there were eight women, ranging in age from junior high to Mary in her early thirties. The only woman at the table I'd not been in bed with was Mindy's friend Michelle. True, Katrina and I had made love to Jenny and not each other, put we'd been in the same bed, making love to the same person at the same time.

I had to hurry us along to get to the theater in time. It was cool to stand in the window and ask for twelve tickets, and hand over five twenties to pay for it. We were nearly late for the movie, but managed to get seats in two rows, right in the middle. There weren't a lot of people there to see it.

I reached over and took Gloria's hand before the lights went down. She smiled at me, and I smiled back. On my other side was Elizabeth, then Mary. Sue Ellen was next to Gloria, then Tony. In front of us were Jenny and Katrina, JR and Shannon then Mindy and Michelle.

We watched trailers for a lot of movies that looked boring. I thought the one I liked the best was for Spiderman. I'd liked the Mummy movies, and Scorpion King looked like it might be interesting too.

Clockstoppers, the movie, was, well, ah, well... it had mad scientists, dumb parents, bad guys and worse guys. Buddies and a pretty girl. The hero won, the dumb parents learned a thing or two, and the bad guys probably did too. The guy and the girl were happy in the end.

As the lights came on afterwards, Elizabeth just sat there shaking her head. "The science was so bogus."

Jenny turned back and grinned, nodding.

Mary on the other hand, simply laughed. "When you go to a movie or a play, or just read a novel, the first thing you have to do is suspend disbelief."

Elizabeth squinched up her face and stuck out her tongue at her mom; there was more laughter. Then we were outside again, and there were hugs for those not going with me. I took Katrina home, then dropped off Tony and Sue Ellen, then a quick stop at the house to let out Jenny.

I walked her to her front door. The light was yellow to keep off bugs, which made her face very much darker. All the other house lights were out. "Thanks, Tom," Gloria said, as we stood, both a little unsure what to say. "I had a lot of fun."

"That was the idea," I told her.

She nodded, quite serious. "I'm sorry about my dad."

I shook my head. "Don't worry about it," I told her. "Your grandmother fixed up things just fine."

"The other day at your house. You were a true gentleman." She giggled, "Well, it wasn't day; it was night. You let me sleep in your bed. You didn't bother me."

I shrugged. Bother a girl like that? I might not be able to say no when the girl was saying 'Yes!' but I had no trouble with the word when it was obvious I wasn't wanted. I met Gloria's eyes, and saw the same faint relief I'd seen the day at school when I'd told Janey Sussman thanks would do.

"Gloria," I paused, not sure if it was a question I should ask, "are you a virgin?"

She blushed but answered. "That part of me is, not my mouth."

I didn't follow all that closely the who-was-dating-who gossip at school, but I was pretty sure Gloria had had several boyfriends. I connected a few dots. What guy was going to admit he was dating a cheerleader and not having sex with her?

"You know, don't you?" her voice was soft, a little nervous. "That Darryl didn't exactly do like I said?"

"I guessed, just now."

"He gave me something; he said it would make me feel good. We had some beers, and then he gave me a shot of whiskey. By then, I wasn't thinking so good. When I didn't want to drink it, he pushed me down on the bed and forced me to drink it. A water glass. Then, it went like I said, only he just wanted to screw me."

"He wanted to rape you," I replied. I'd thought it was just a boyfriend pushing his girlfriend past where she wanted to go. But drugging someone, getting them drunk? I'd been wrong all along. Darryl was another Sam, Keith or Roger, going where he wasn't wanted, using violence to get there. Rape.

"I told Janey and Sue Ellen," Gloria added, "they said they'd take care of it. Sue Ellen said that there will be a football team meeting Monday after school."

She sighed. "People make life very complicated."

"That's for sure!" I told her. "I'd rather be kissing you."

She smiled, shook her head. "You know I don't want to. Not yet. Maybe the second or third date. Maybe." She leaned close, kissed my cheek, very much like Mindy had done earlier. "I have places to go in my life, things to do. So do you, Tom. You and I both know, we're not going the same places."

"You don't know where I'm going," I told her, speaking seriously.

Gloria replied, "I'm going to college, then I coming back here. I'm going to learn everything I can, then come back and teach it to kids, young kids." She waved around them. "I see the kids here, in the neighborhood. They don't know what to do. Parents say one thing, teachers another, the news says something else different. Grandparents, the few that have them... they are clueless too. Kids need better tools to help them understand."

I contemplated that. "I wish you the best of luck."

She leaned close, kissed me on the cheek again. The other cheek this time. Fleur's mother in stop motion.

"Good night, Tom."

She went inside and I went back to the van and drove home.

Mom, Dad and Mary were sitting in the living room, talking. I waved, went to the bathroom, and then returned.

Only Mary was left.

"It was a very nice evening, Tom," she told me.

"It was."

"You could have spent longer with your friend."

I walked over to Mary, wrapped my arms around her. "Not this time. Gloria has a lot in common with another girl I know, more than I would have thought. She wants to go to college, then come home and help her neighbors. Doesn't want distractions like boys."

Mary hugged me, and I kissed her. Her tongue speared into my mouth, and I ran my hand down over her jeans, pulling her pussy against my erection.

"You are enormously and thoroughly addictive, Tom," she said, grinding her pelvis against mine.

"And you a beautiful, wonderful woman, Mary."

Her mouth closed again on mine, and again I was massaging her bottom.

She pulled back, then, a faint smile on her face. "You're a bottom fetishist, aren't you?"

"What's a fetishist?" I asked.

"Someone devoted to a particular thing."

I smiled and undid the snap of her jeans, unzipped them, and ran both hands, palms against her skin, inside her panties, brushing her bush with the little fingers, going further, pushing her jeans down. On the trip back up her thighs, I let one hand trail the other, so both fingers could trail through the cleft of her sex.

"Oh, I devote myself to the target at hand," I said with a grin.

"Like I said, I'm an addict."

We kissed again, and I slid her jeans down as far as I could; Mary kicked them away.

She looked at them, then at me. "I think we'll finish this in your room."

"I wouldn't mind starting here."

"Oh, I'm well and truly started."

I reached down and scooped up her jeans and panties; then I followed her upstairs, watching her bottom as she climbed. Once again, I felt a strong desire to make love to Mary like I'd made love to others before her, my favorite way. Except she turned to face me in my room, working on my clothes.

It is really, really stupid, I thought, with Mary's head bobbing on my erection, to worry about a particular way of making love, when there are a million other ways, all of them quite enjoyable.

Mary liked zucchini; I had no use for the squishy green things at all. There was, I thought, more than enough room for all of us on the planet, and even more room for different tastes.

I came, giving Mary something to taste, and then she was tasting up my body, licking and kissing everything from my below my navel to, eventually, my tongue. I lay down, pulling her down to my second favorite position, thumbing her small breasts and large nipples. And she reached down and fed me into her, and I sank as deep as I could.

Long, slow strokes for a long, slow time. She rubbed my breasts as I rubbed hers. Mary ran her fingers across my groin, while I worked on her clit. She came with a soft sigh, then leaned down and kissed me hard. With most mothers, I'd found they weren't really tight enough to bring me to climax without additional friction; not so Mary.

I came a second time, with Mary sighing deeply. She laid her head against my chest, put her arms around me and slept.

I smiled into the night, running my hands lightly over her body, enjoying her touch and feel, the warmth and texture of her skin, the tiny play of muscles beneath as she breathed slowly.

I wasn't sure how it happened; I realized her heart was beating at the same rate as mine, the beats occurring, so far as I could tell, simultaneously. Two hearts beating as one.

I slowed my breathing, trying to match hers as well. It wasn't until I let go, relaxed and stopped thinking about it, that it worked. Worked just fine, I slept united with someone at a level I'd never known before.