Summer Camp ][

I.

I've often heard it said that life is what you make of it. Few if any people in this world know for certain what their future holds, and I've begun to think that the true test of character is how you handle the curves that get tossed your way. It's not how far you get that really matters, but how well you do with what you have.

I stood on the balcony of our apartment in Pasadena, staring up at the San Gabriel Mountains. The smog wasn't too bad today, so I could see our destination, or at least in that direction. Big Bear was behind this range, up in the San Bernardinos.

I felt Beth embracing me from behind and resting her chin on my shoulder.

"Nervous?"

"A little."

"Me too. But I'm sure we'll be all right."

"I've been thinking for years that this day was a long way off. Then, wham, here it is."

"Yep. But it's something to look forward to, too. We're finally going to be in charge."

I looked down at Beth's hands, and played with the diamond on her left hand. I turned around in her arms and linked my hands behind her back. She leaned in and kissed me a few times.

"When are they going to be here?" I asked when she released me.

"Karin and Brittany should be here around six. But Amy called and said she and Jennifer might be a bit late."

"Okay."

I kissed her again, slipping my hands under the back of her T- shirt, but she pushed me away, grinning.

"Later. I have to finish dinner."

I followed her back into the apartment, and sat in the living room to look over the camp paperwork. I had just earned my MBA that spring, but I was learning that classroom models and real business were two very different things. I thought I had a handle on what we had to do, but I wouldn't know for sure until it was show time. And that was just for the camp as a whole--not the subject of our little meeting tonight.

I set the paperwork aside and picked up the copy of "Seventeen" Beth had brought home the day before. As much as I thought she deserved it, I still couldn't quite believe that was Karin's face on the cover. She was even prettier now than when I had first met her, having matured and filled out over the last three years. I flipped to her bio a few pages inside: "Eighteen-year-old Karin Clifford has been modeling for two years. This year she celebrates two milestones: graduating from high school and earning her black belt in Shotokan Karate. She's set to enroll at UCLA this fall, where she plans to major in Child Development."

I had to grin at that. Karin had been involved in a lot more "child development" than the editors of "Seventeen" realized.

I helped Beth with the last of the dinner before the doorbell finally rang.

"That should be Karin and Brittany," she said.

I buzzed them in and they showed up at the door a minute later.

"Hey."

"Hi!"

They both hugged me, then Beth. Brittany had not changed much beyond getting slightly older, but Karin, as I said, had. Her hair was much longer than the last time I'd seen her, down to the middle of her back. She was a few inches taller and quite a bit curvier, though hardly anything to give Brittany much competition in that department.

"How have you guys been?" Beth asked.

"Fine," Brittany said.

"I'm worn out," Karin said. "I was working all this week."

"What for?" I asked.

"A shoot for 'Jump.' Do you know that magazine?"

"I've seen it."

"We were modeling a bunch of workout gear down at Venice."

I got them both glasses of iced tea, and we sat down in the living room.

"I like your apartment," Brittany said. "It's nicer than the last one."

"Thanks," Beth said.

"You guys are getting married in October, right?" Karin asked.

"Right. You're both invited, don't worry. The invitations go out in a couple of months."

"That's so cool," Brittany said. "I can't wait."

That led to ten minutes of feminine chatter about dresses and flowers before the doorbell rang again. I got up and let Amy and Jennifer in. They were the senior counselors for the "sorority" cabins, both about twenty-two. Amy was short, blonde-haired, with a gymnast's body; Jennifer was a tall, thin brunette. They had taken over the cabins after Monica and Lisa had gone on to other things.

We set up in the living room, and I passed out the packets Beth and I had prepared.

"You should recognize all of these names from the girls we picked at the end of last summer. Some of them ended up not returning, but we have enough to fill out the two cabins. As you know, Amy and Karin get the younger girls in Cabin Nine, and Jennifer and Brittany get Cabin Twelve. I want you to look over your lists and tell me if you see any potential problems."

The four of them reviewed the lists for a few moments.

"They look fine to me," Jennifer said.

"Yep," Brittany said.

"Leslie Mahaffey is coming back?" Karin asked.

"Yes."

"I'm still a little concerned about her."

The name was familiar, but I couldn't quite remember what she meant.

"Refresh my memory as to why."

"She was the one who claimed to have already lost her virginity."

"At twelve," Amy said.

"Right."

Now I remembered. Leslie Mahaffey was thirteen, a redhead from the Valley who had entertained her cabin with a lot of wild stories last summer.

"I thought that was why we picked her. Because she needed some guidance."

"I'm just concerned about her effect on the other girls. I'm still not sure how she'll react to the sorority."

"Karin, helping girls like Leslie is what this is all about," Beth said. "You know that. She may be more work, but she needs this, whether she's a virgin or not."

"Okay. Just so I know you understand what's going to be involved."

"I do. You'll have all the support on this you need."

Karin nodded.

"The rest of them look fine."

"Anyone else?" I asked. No one said anything. "Next item. Since, as you know, I have been promoted, we have to pick someone to replace me. Beth and I have found three guys who we think might work. Karin and Brittany, since you two will be interacting the most with this guy, the final decision is going to be up to you."

"Okay."

I handed out the three photos and bios we had prepared. I let the two girls look over them for a few moments.

"Rich Harris is going to be teaching one of the swim classes. He's twenty-one and a junior at Cal State Fullerton."

"He's cute," Karin said.

"Carter McHenry is doing the horseback riding. He's twenty and works at a ranch in Ontario."

"Down here, right?" Brittany asked. "Not Canada?"

"Right. Not Canada."

"Hmm."

"The last guy is Justin Prescott. He's going to be one of the tennis instructors."

They flipped through them for a minute, before Brittany looked up at Beth.

"What do you think?"

"Rich would be my preference. He seemed like the nicest one of the three."

"You met them?" Karin asked.

"We interviewed all three of them. Not that they knew the real reason."

"I like Rich," Karin said.

"Me too," Brittany said.

I couldn't help but reflect on what we were doing, with this poor guy having no idea what his future held. After that first summer, Beth had explained how I had been picked at a meeting much like this one. It made me feel weird for a while, but I knew now it was necessary.

"Do you like him enough to sleep with him?" I asked.

Brittany squirmed for a moment.

"It's hard to tell from just a picture."

"You don't need to make the decision tonight, you know that. We'll wait until we get up there."

"Okay."

"Karin, since you've become something of a minor celebrity," Beth said, "we thought it would be best if Brittany went first. We don't want to intimidate him."

Karin nodded.

"That's fine," Brittany said. "I kind of expected it."

"Give it some more thought. The two of you can talk it out."

"We have been," Karin said. "We've been talking about how we wanted to handle it."

"We'll be okay," Brittany said.

I nodded.

"Let's eat, then."

Beth and I served dinner, and we talked more about how things would be going with the sorority. This was Brittany and Karin's first summer as full-fledged counselors, and Amy and Jennifer spent some time giving them pointers. Then we reviewed the camper lists again, and the women spent a while speculating about who would be doing what this summer. Leslie Mahaffey's name came up again, and we debated how much of her stories were for real. The consensus was that she had made most of it up, but I supposed we would have to wait to find out.

II.

Amy and Jennifer left around ten. Karin and Brittany were spending the night and would ride up to the camp with us the next morning. Beth set up the futon in the living room, and the two girls changed into nightshirts. I stripped down to my boxers and brushed my teeth in the bathroom. But when I returned to the bedroom, I found the door locked. I knocked twice.

Beth opened the door a crack, grinning.

"Sorry. You're sleeping in the living room tonight."

"Uh."

"Since you're retiring, you know? They asked if I would mind, I told them no. So good night."

She leaned out and kissed me once, then shut the door. Trying to get a grip on my surprise, I returned to the living room. I found Karin and Brittany lying on the futon, apparently naked but under the covers. Brittany was on her back, sheet up to her shoulders. Karin was lying on her side next to her, head up on her on hand. Both of them had big grins on their faces.

"Consider this a farewell tour," Karin said.

"Sheesh," I muttered.

I crawled onto the bed between them, and they pulled the sheet up over me. Giggling, they kissed and groped at me for a few moments, dragging off my boxers.

"What's going to happen after you guys get married?" Brittany asked.

"With stuff like this, you mean?"

"Yeah."

"It's not going to change much."

"Really?" Karin asked.

"Really. We've talked a lot about this. Beth is bisexual. That's not going to change just because we get married. It's silly to pretend that it will, and I'm not sure I can ask her to ignore that side of her for the rest of her life. I don't want her waking up in ten years feeling like she's living a lie. We agreed that an occasional fling won't hurt, as long as we're up front about it."

"Huh," Brittany said.

"When she gets an itch, we scratch it. Sometimes she likes to share me with someone else; sometimes she just wants to be alone with another woman. So she doesn't object to something like this."

"When she's with someone else, she lets you do this?" Karin asked.

"No, not quite. We've tried very hard not to make a tit-for-tat kind of thing. That feels too much like getting even. Just whatever happens, happens."

"Like tonight."

"Yeah."

"Huh," Karin said, "because when I asked her about this, I wasn't completely serious. I was half joking because I didn't think she would go for it. But she just said, 'Sure, go ahead.'"

"That's how we're trying to handle it."

"Wow," Brittany said. "You're lucky. So is she. I don't know if I'll ever find a guy who can deal with it that well."

"It's maybe not as easy as I make it sound. But I love her, and I'm willing to take her for who she is."

"Well, that's what I meant."

I brushed her hair back from her face, and reached out for Karin as well. The three of us came together in a big kiss, tongues and lips squishing around as I fondled them both at once. This was hardly the first time I'd been with them--even both together--since that first summer, but it had been a while. I lay on my back as they lay on either side of me, kissing one, then the other. Both of them had soon reached down to fondle my rapidly stiffening penis.

I pulled Karin up further to suckle her breasts, and Brittany slid down my chest, kissing me as she went. I felt her mouth enveloping me as I pulled Karin's nipples between my lips. As Brittany bobbed slowly on me, I sucked and nibbled on Karin's breasts. I reached out between her legs, gently stroking her. Since she'd begun modeling, she had kept her pubic hair closely trimmed, and I soon had her rather hot and bothered.

She swung her thighs over my head, settling herself down on my mouth. Brittany continued suckling me, playing softly with my balls as I licked up at Karin. I caressed Karin's smooth little butt as I did, drinking up her wetness.

A minute or so later, I felt Brittany straddling me, expecting her to lower herself onto my erection. Instead, she climbed up behind Karin, embracing her and taking her breasts in her hands. Karin moaned, arching her back and twisting around to kiss Brittany. I slid my hands off Karin's butt and reached between Brittany's legs. She had stopped shaving a year or so back, but still kept it quite short.

Using two fingers, I began masturbating her as I continued working on Karin. Brittany leaned against Karin's back and played with her breasts. Karin was soon whimpering under our combined attentions and thrashed in orgasm over my tongue a minute or two later.

Karin slipped out from between us, and I pulled Brittany up to take her place. She was already quite wet, and I dug my tongue into her the way I knew she liked and reached up to play with her big breasts.

Karin rested against me for perhaps a minute before sliding down to take me into her mouth. She sucked me for only a few seconds before rising up and straddling me. I momentarily lost my rhythm with Brittany as I felt myself sinking into her. When she bottomed out, she squeezed me tightly, rubbing herself against me.

I took Brittany's butt in my hands, pulling her down closer to me as she approached orgasm. She whimpered, then began to twitch, finally peaking in release as she thrashed back and forth over my tongue. She finally cried out softly and threw herself to the side.

Karin lowered herself down, kissing me and working her tongue around my mouth, trying to taste Brittany. I pulled her closer, kissing her back. She thrust herself down at me, then squeezed me as tightly as she could, so hard it almost hurt. As she had reached the upper levels of her karate training, her interest in Asian culture had begun to spread to other talents. She had in the last year begun researching and practicing a variety of sexual techniques, one of which involved dramatically strengthening her internal muscles.

I groaned, trying to maintain control, which wasn't easy since she was working hard to get me off.

"What are you up to now?" I gasped.

She grinned down at me.

"Two hundred reps a day. More if I feel like it. Do you like that?"

"Yes. But don't finish this too soon."

She giggled, expertly massaging me as she rose up and down.

"When . . . when you sleep with Rich the first time . . . I'd wait to try this on him."

"Okay. I don't want to scare him."

Brittany stirred next to us, crawling up to rest her head on my chest. I put my arm around her, and she began kissing my nipples. Karin relented with the massage, and began riding me rapidly. Brittany turned around, laying her head down to watch her. I reached around to play with Brittany's breasts, and she took my hand, squeezing it softly.

Karin brought herself off a minute or so later, and slid off of me. Brittany rolled on her back, and I climbed onto her, slipping into her gently. She wrapped herself around me, moaning in my ear. Karin lay on her side next to us and watched.

I lifted myself off of her, bending down to suck at Brittany's nipples as I thrust into her. She held my head, whimpering softly. Karin reached between us to tweak the nipple I wasn't servicing, and Brittany reached out for her. As I thrust into Brittany more rapidly, she pulled me down to her.

"Come in me . . . please come in me . . ."

I groaned, letting myself loose from my control. I felt Karin reaching between my legs behind my balls, massaging my prostate from the outside. Where she was learning this stuff, I had no idea, but I let her do it. I came with a grunt, just as Brittany lifted off the futon in orgasm under me. Karin's prostate massage made something explode inside me, and I gasped, squirting off uncontrollably inside Brittany. When it finally ended, I collapsed onto her, gasping for breath.

Karin giggled quietly, squeezing in to kiss both of us.

"Did you like that?"

"Yes," I gasped.

"I read about that somewhere."

I rolled off Brittany, pulling them both close to me. They snuggled under my arms, and Karin pulled the sheets up over us.

"Mmm," she said. "You're the best."

"Thanks."

We had an early start the next morning, but that didn't deter the two of them from another round. Karin soon slipped under the covers to summon another erection out of me, and they had me do each of them in turn as they rolled back and forth over the futon in a tight sixty-nine position. I after I came into Karin an hour later, I left them there and slipped back into the bedroom.

I tried to be quiet, but Beth woke up as I slid under the covers. She moaned, reaching for me.

"You smell like sex . . ." she mumbled.

"Sorry."

"Anything left for me?"

"In the morning."

"Promise?"

"Promise. I love you."

"I love you, too."

She snuggled against me, and we were soon asleep.

III.

Beth and I tended to sleep in the nude, so when I awoke to her cuddling with me and fondling me under the covers, I wasn't too surprised. She squeezed my early-morning erection tightly, pulling on it.

I rolled closer to her, kissing her and groping at her full breasts. I buried myself in her long red hair, sniffing her scent, feeling her nipples hard against my palms. She pushed me on my back, straddling me, and lowered herself onto my erection. She was already quite wet, and my eyebrows went up in surprise.

She grinned.

"I was lying there watching you sleep for a long time. I couldn't wait any longer."

I reached up to fondle her breasts and let her work. I knew what she liked, knew just how to move myself under her when she rode me like this. She liked me to tweak her nipples this way, so I rolled them between my fingers as I watched her getting flushed and aroused. I just looked up at her and marveled at what I had gotten out of life. I'm to going to get to marry this woman, I thought to myself. What did I do to deserve this?

She shook in orgasm a few minutes later and settled herself down on me to catch her breath. I caressed her back as she moved her hips up and down slowly.

"We have to get ready," she said softly, "so you'd better finish quick."

"I love you."

"Mmm. You too. Especially when you do that to me."

She rolled on her back, pulling me with her. I thrust into her when I was on top, and she pulled me close, moaning and groaning. I knew she was exaggerating her reactions, and she knew I knew it--it was one of our little games when she wanted to get me off, because she knew I liked her to make noise. But it made no difference, because the thought of her going out of her way to arouse me was what mattered. About a minute of deep thrusts were enough to do it, despite my activity the night before--Beth just turned me on too much, even after three years together. She squeezed me tightly when she felt me coming, and worked out the last of my orgasm. Then I rolled off to catch my breath.

She cleaned herself up with some kleenexes we kept by the bed and got up, putting on her robe. I got up a few minutes later and pulled on some jeans. I walked out into the hall to hear the shower going. I found Beth in the kitchen making coffee, alone.

"Brittany and Karin?"

"The shower."

I grinned.

"You think?"

"Who knows? You shouldn't be thinking stuff like that right after getting out of bed with me anyway."

I laughed and hugged her.

"Never."

The two girls emerged from the bathroom a little later, whatever they had been up to in there, and we were soon on the road. I drove while the women chattered about the wedding. We got to Big Bear by about ten, and pulled into the camp just after ten-thirty.

The camp was on an isolated arm of the lake, which I had come to be quite thankful for given the activities that went on there. It took up a good twenty-five or thirty acres, though it was hard to get a full sense of the size because of the dense forest. Gerald and Barbara had inherited the land years ago, and after college had borrowed some money to start the camp together. They had run the place for about twenty- five years; this was the first summer they would not be up here supervising. The last time I talked to them, they were about to set out on a week-long hike up the Tolumne River in Yosemite.

The property was a long strip along the lake, and sloped gently downhill from the road toward the water. The athletic fields and horse stables were at the top of the hill, with the main buildings about halfway down. The cabins, about twenty-five of them, sat along the lakefront. Most of them were occupied by the campers, about ten kids and two counselors apiece, with the rest occupied by the staff.

The main building, where Beth and I would be staying, was in the center of the camp next to the cafeteria. Beth and I had a suite to ourselves on the second floor. The four staff cabins were divided up into four individual rooms with two counselors each. The four rooms were laid out end to end, each room opening directly to the long porch out front.

Since there were only four male staff members (other than me) at the girls' camp, they got their own cabin and a separate room to themselves. Though it appeared innocent, the arrangement was actually quite deliberate, so that the male staffer who was working with the sorority would have the privacy he needed.

The other counselors wouldn't begin arriving for a couple of hours, so I walked the camp with Beth, inspecting things, while Karin and Brittany moved into their cabins. Amy and Jennifer showed up soon after we did, and the four of them were soon off by themselves strategizing.

We checked out the horse stables, where the caretaker was preparing to take off for the summer. Beth and I had asked Gerald about discontinuing the horseback riding, since the expense no longer really seemed justified. He told us to talk to Don and Mario, the two guys who ran the boy's camp, and just make a decision. He was apparently serious about retiring.

The two Latina cooks who would be working in the cafeteria showed up about half an hour later, and we spent some time checking out the kitchen with them. After that, we went down to the docks to inspect the swimming and boating gear.

While I was inventorying the life vests, Beth nudged me.

"Is that new? That wasn't here last year, was it?"

I looked to where she was pointing, a small house in the trees across the cove that our beach was on. It was about two hundred yards away, so I couldn't make out much detail.

"It doesn't look familiar."

I squinted, trying to get a better look. When I shaded my eyes from the sun, I thought I could see bare dirt around the house, probably from grading the pad. The back of the house was up on stilts, and a deck stuck out from it, looking over the lake. Down at the water, I saw a small speedboat floating next to a short dock. I didn't see anyone in or around the house, though.

"It looks new," I said. "I wonder who owns it. Gerald told me once that land belonged to some foundation."

"They might have sold it."

"Hmm. No big deal."

Near noon, the other counselors began arriving, and we moved up to the main building to greet them. Most of them I knew from years past. The new ones Beth and I had interviewed that spring, and we introduced them around when they arrived.

When Rich Harris pulled up in his car, I went to meet him. He was an athletic guy with very short blond hair, long and lean like most competitive swimmers. He shook my hand, looking around and grinning in embarrassment at the crowd of attractive women around us.

"How are you doing? Find us okay?"

"Yeah. No trouble. I used to come up to Big Bear for camp myself when I was a kid, like I said."

"Well, let me introduce you to some people. This will take some getting used to, as you can probably guess."

He laughed.

"Oh, man, you aren't kidding. This is going to be pretty weird."

Then he glanced at me, momentarily worried.

"But, hey, you know, I'll be okay. I know the rules and everything."

I thumped him on the back.

"Don't worry about it. I trust you."

I led him over to where Beth, Karin, and Brittany were talking. I watched them carefully as we approached, and I could see his eyes going immediately to Karin.

Beth shook his hand.

"Hey, Rich, good to see you again."

"You, too."

Karin stuck out her hand.

"Hi. I'm Karin. This is Brittany. You're doing the swimming, right?"

"Uh, yeah. The older kids, right?"

He glanced at me.

"Yeah," I said, as if the rest of them knew none of this, "he's doing the thirteen- to fifteen-year-olds. But he'll be helping Kelly with the younger kids too."

"Oh. Cool," Karin said. "You've probably got some of our girls."

I glanced at Brittany, who seemed much more apprehensive about this than Karin did, as I had feared. I caught Beth looking at me and saw that she had seen the same thing. Karin continued to chatter away with Rich, apparently oblivious to their previous agreement. I cocked my head at Beth and began to withdraw, patting Rich on the shoulder.

"I've got to go talk to some other people. Meeting starts in ten minutes."

"Yeah. Got it."

Beth moved away as I did, closing with me.

"You saw that?" she asked.

"Yeah. I was afraid of this. At least Karin seems to like him."

"I'll have a talk with them when I get a chance."

IV.

Beth and I spent a few minutes talking to some of the other counselors before we moved into the main building. Beth got up and gave the general orientation speech as I passed out the paperwork. When she was done, I said a few words about the activities I was going to be supervising. At one o'clock, we broke up to eat lunch and let the counselors move into their rooms.

I was still doing the martial arts classes, which had proved so popular that Beth and I had decided to have Karin help me out this summer, now that she had earned her black belt. Amy had agreed to shoulder the extra load it would create, and Karin was excited at the opportunity. I grabbed her after lunch so we could go over what I wanted to do.

The dojo was just down the hill from the main building, doing double duty as the gymnastics hall. It was a simple, one-room building with exercise pads all over the floor and mirrors on most of the walls.

"We're still doing it like you said? I get the young kids?"

"Right," I said. "Not a problem?"

"No, it's cool."

"We'll be doing class together; we'll just break up for the individual instruction. That way I can keep an eye on you too."

She grinned.

"Oh, really? You don't trust me?"

"I just want to supervise in the beginning. If this works, you get your own class next camp."

"Okay."

"Just remember what I said. Earning your black belt is not the end of your career, it's the beginning. You're moving from the ranks of the students into the ranks of the masters. That means a lot more responsibility. The students see that belt and expect certain things from you, even though you're still pretty young. Don't let them down. I know you're up to it as long as you keep your mind on what you're doing."

"I'll try."

"I know you will. I'm proud of you."

She beamed.

"Thanks. That means a lot to me. You've been my instructor in more ways than one."

She grinned.

"While we're on that subject."

"What?"

"You and Rich certainly hit it off."

"I like him. He's really sweet."

"I know. But we agreed Brittany was going to go first. If you want to change that, we can, but let's be clear about what we're doing."

"Okay. I haven't talked to her about it."

"I got the feeling she's getting cold feet about this."

Karin nodded.

"I've had that feeling from the beginning. I'm not really sure her heart is in this. I don't mean the sorority; she's totally into that. What I mean is, she just can't seem to get to the point where she could just go and sleep with this guy. Not the way we're doing it."

"Are you okay with this?"

"Sure. He's cute. I think something would have happened with us regardless."

"But not Brittany."

"No. But I mean you . . ."

"What?"

"Never mind. It was something she sort of told me in confidence. I probably shouldn't tell you."

"All right. But you two need to work this out ASAP, okay?"

"Got it."

When the campers began arriving at five, I was far too occupied with meeting and greeting the parents to worry about Karin and Brittany. Beth and I directed traffic and assisted the counselors to make sure all the girls ended up where they were supposed to be.

Dinner began at six-thirty. Beth sat with Cabin Nine, and I sat with Cabin Twelve, Jennifer and Brittany's group. Of the ten girls they had, I had known (in all senses of the word) several of them already. Two others, though returning campers, had not yet slept with anyone; they would probably do it this summer. Three of the others were lesbians. The remaining two were new.

The two new girls were Chandler, a pretty brunette who sort of reminded me of Brittany at that age, and Jill, a slim blonde. According to Amy, Chandler was probably a lesbian, and I saw the two of them talking at the far end of the table. Jill was several seats down, so I felt comfortable talking to Brittany, who was sitting next to me, about Rich.

"I'm trying to work up the guts for this," she said. "I just don't know if I can do it. I thought I could, but now that it's time, I just don't know."

"Okay. Look. No one is going to force you to do this if you don't want to. But you realize it will make things more difficult for you as a counselor. If your girls are seeing him and you haven't."

"I know."

"I know we've talked a lot about what the sorority means, I just can't turn my emotions on and off like that. Especially since he and Karin are getting along so well."

I glanced over to the Cabin Nine table, where Karin and Rich were lost in conversation, oblivious to everything else.

"Okay. Forget tonight. Obviously, Karin is going to handle the initial meeting. And it's not vital that you sleep with him. But it's going to complicate things if you don't."

"Why don't you like Rich?" the girl on the other side of me asked. Her name was Elizabeth, and she was a tall brunette who looked quite a bit older than her fifteen years. I had "instructed" her the summer before, so she knew what we were talking about.

"It's not that I don't like him. It's just too soon to know what I want to do with him."

"Oh. Well, I think he's cute. But I don't see why you have to do it with him. If Karin says he's okay."

"Which I expect she will," I said. I put my hand on Brittany's shoulder. "Let's just put this on hold for now. See what Karin has to say tomorrow."

She nodded.

"Okay."

After dinner was the general camp meeting, where Beth and I welcomed all the campers to the camp and explained what we would be doing over the next three weeks, along with the basic ground rules. I finally told them to just concentrate on having fun, and let them loose.

Beth and I went back to our rooms to go over the schedule for the next few days. We had a sitting room out in front with a meeting table, a couch, and a TV set, and behind that was a big bedroom with a king-sized bed. I tried not to think about everything that must have gone on in here over the last twenty years.

"Did you ever come up here when you were a camper?"

Beth looked up at me, smiling.

"With Barbara? Once or twice. I told you that."

"Where was Gerald?"

"I don't remember. We had the room to ourselves."

"I've been wondering what's likely to happen this summer. This is new ground for me."

She smiled slyly.

"I don't know. See anything you liked today?"

"Of the new girls? Not really. How about you?"

"Did you meet Chandler?"

"I saw her."

"She's cute. Sort of looks like Brittany."

"A thinner Brittany. Amy thinks she's a lesbian."

"So do I. I might have to help her out."

I grinned.

"Whatever you think is necessary."

She pulled her hair around her hair, massaging her neck. I stood up and walked around behind her, and began giving her a neck rub.

"Mmm. You know, I got the feeling today that some of the girls may not go along with this change in management."

"Rich, you mean?"

"Right. I was talking to Elizabeth and Rachel before dinner. They didn't even know you were retiring. They were all excited to see you again."

Rachel was fifteen, from Newport Beach, with bleached blonde hair and an athletic little body.

"What did you tell them?"

"That it was up to them, but to think about giving Rich a try. They said they'd think about it."

I worked my thumbs lower, digging into her back.

"I talked to Brittany about Rich. I guess we're letting Karin take care of this for now."

"Yeah. But she really seems to like him." She grunted, stretching her shoulders. "Keep doing that."

"She's probably over there right now."

Beth glanced at the clock. It was just after ten.

"Probably."

She rolled her head back, sighing.

"If you keep that up, I'm going to fall asleep."

"We should go to bed anyway."

"Mmm. Then take me to bed, sir."

I helped her up from the chair and we went back to the bedroom. She stopped at the end of the bed, reaching out to kiss me. I held her, fondling her, as we undressed each other. I cupped her breasts in my hands, the big firm breasts that never failed to turn me on.

I heard a knock on our door. Beth withdrew.

"You'd better get it. They wouldn't be coming up here this late unless it was important."

I pulled on my shorts and went out to the door. I opened it to find Rachel standing there.

"Hey."

"Hey. What's up?"

She glanced behind her, seeming to double-check that we were alone.

"Um, I know this is kind of soon, but with Rich taking over, I was just thinking . . ."

Beth appeared at my side, dressed in a robe, before I could answer Rachel.

"Hi, honey. What's going on?"

Rachel's face dropped slightly.

"Did I interrupt something?"

Beth smiled.

"Yes. But it's okay. Do you want to come in?"

She glanced at me.

"Is it okay?"

I looked at Beth.

"I don't know, is it?"

"Is what--oh." She smiled again. "Yes. Come on in, honey."

Rachel stepped into the room, and I shut the door behind her. I followed the two of them into the bedroom.

Beth helped Rachel out of her T-shirt, and Rachel quickly stripped off her bra and shorts as Beth let her robe fall to the floor. Rachel was about five-seven, shorter by several inches than either of us. She was a little slim-hipped but still curvy, with perky little breasts outlined by a dark tan. She was not quite bisexual, but she didn't seem to mind sharing me with another girl, as we had done once last summer.

The three of us climbed into bed together, and I spent some time kissing and fondling both of them before Beth pushed me toward Rachel.

Getting the message, I rolled over Rachel to lie on the opposite side. Beth lay there and watched as I played with Rachel's breasts. Rachel lay on her back, holding me but not moving very much. I kissed my way down her body, pausing to suckle her nipples into erection. She held my head as I did it, sighing softly. I continued further down, running my tongue around her firm little abdomen, before settling between her thighs.

Over the past few years (ever since Brittany had shown up shaved that same summer I had started at the camp), it had become something of an identifying mark amongst the sorority girls to trim their pubic hair. They were apparently oblivious to the traditional fetishistic aspects of it--to them, it was just a rite of initiation--but almost all of them did. Some settled for a basic bikini line trim; others shaved it off completely, but most, like Rachel, trimmed it back to a short, thin stripe.

In any case, it meant I had little trouble getting Rachel hot and bothered very quickly. She wasn't very active in bed--"dead fish" would be uncharitable if not far off the mark--but I could tell she was getting off anyway. She just lay there breathing hard and squeezing her hands. Beth reached out and softly brushed Rachel's hair away from her face, but otherwise stayed out of it. Finally, with a quiet squeak and a little shake, Rachel came.

When I withdrew, I crawled over to Beth and kissed her. She returned the kiss, but pushed me down, grinning.

"My turn."

I kissed her breasts once each, then commenced working on her as I had Rachel. Rachel came to and rolled on her side, watching us. I saw her eyes moving over Beth's body, watching her reactions. Beth was far more responsive than Rachel--though, to be fair, she was also ten years older--and Rachel seemed amazed at everything she was doing. When she began to climax, Beth reached out for Rachel, who rolled closer to her, putting her head on Beth's arm. Beth held her as she shook in orgasm.

I crawled up the bed, lying beside them. Beth let go of Rachel, and sat up, brushing back her hair and reaching out to caress Rachel's stomach.

"He's pretty good at that, huh?"

Rachel grinned in embarrassment.

"Yeah. You really move around a lot."

"I can't help it."

"Is he as good as the girls you've done it with?"

She looked up at me, and I laughed.

"I'll plug my ears if you want."

She squawked in mock outrage.

"As if."

She looked down at Rachel.

"It's better with him because I love him. But it is different with another woman. Not better, just different."

"Oh. I've thought about it. I don't know."

"Think about it all you want. That's what camp is for."

"I know. Would--" She glanced at me nervously, then back at Beth. "--would you do it to me? Just so I can see?"

"Sure. If it's what you want."

Rachel looked back to me.

"Do you mind?"

"No. Go for it."

Beth lay back down beside her and kissed her softly. Rachel just lay there and let her do it. She climbed over Rachel, kissing her way down, before reaching the end of the bed. Then she began licking her gently. Rachel closed her eyes, again not responding very much, but I could see goose bumps rising on her arms.

Camp seemed to be like this--a lot of girls who had shown up thinking they were straight experimenting with other things when they had the opportunity to. Rachel was hardly the first, nor likely the last. I doubted she would have shown up at our door like this had she not considered--subconsciously if nothing else--experimenting with Beth.

I lay beside her and played with her breasts as Beth worked. She put her arm over mine, squeezing it, and I kissed her a few times. When she grew closer to orgasm, I could see her tensing up slightly. Then her hand squeezed my arm tightly, and I felt her vibrating next to me a she came.

Beth finished her off and kissed her way back up Rachel's body. Rachel kissed her weakly, but lay there catching her breath. Beth stroked her cheek gently.

"You see what I mean? Not quite the same."

Rachel nodded.

"It was good. But different, like you said."

Beth looked at me.

"Getting a little tense?"

"You could say that."

She rolled off Rachel and slid down to take my erection in her mouth. I lay back, feeling her moving up and down on me, playing gently with my balls. She was so good at this, and I loved making love with her so much that I suddenly found myself wishing--with some surprise--that we were alone.

Beth kept it up for a few minutes, during which Rachel came back to earth and sat up next to us. Then Beth leaned back, looking over at Rachel.

"I just realized that I don't think we have any condoms up here."

"Oh. It's okay. I'm on the pill now."

Beth's eyebrows went up, as did mine.

"You are?"

"Yeah. It was kind of funny. One of my friends at school got pregnant, and my mom had a panic attack. She took me to her doctor, and she set me up. Mom said she wants to be 'realistic,' whatever that's supposed to mean. My dad doesn't know about it."

"You know you have to be very careful with them," Beth said. "You can get pregnant missing even one pill."

"I know. I've been really good about it."

"Okay. You want to go first?"

"Sure."

Rachel looked at me expectantly, and I took her in my arms. She lay on her back, and I positioned myself over her, entering her slowly. I was remembering now from last year the sorts of things she liked. She seemed to come easily, even if she didn't show it much, and straight sex was generally enough to get her off.

That was fortunate, because my mind wasn't really on the task. Although, physically, I was making love to Rachel and enjoying it, emotionally, I was somewhere else. I had a sudden loss of perspective when I looked over at Beth, lying on her stomach next to us, pillow bunched up under her shoulders, watching. She smiled at me and stroked my butt. She seemed to be enjoying this, and though I had thought about this a thousand times before, I suddenly didn't know why. God knew I would never tolerate her having sex with some other guy, and I could certainly never lie next her happily watching it the way she was doing now. I had though for a long time that I should be grateful about this, but all of a sudden, I wasn't.

Rachel's silent, clenching climax drew me out of my reverie, and when she seemed to be done, I kissed her and rolled off. Beth guided me over, and I slipped into her, trying to lose myself in the familiarity of it. I closed my eyes and pretended we were alone, and that was enough to sooth my disquiet. Beth soon shuddered in orgasm herself, and I joined her a moment later.

Beth followed Rachel out and came back to bed.

"What's wrong?"

"What do you mean?"

"Come on. I know you. You were not here tonight. Something is bothering you."

I sighed.

"I don't know if I enjoy this anymore."

Her face dropped.

"You mean--what we were just doing?"

"Essentially."

"Please don't tell me you're getting jealous."

"No. It's not that. It's that I don't seem to get much out of this now. You're all I want. I love you. I don't need this to spice up my life anymore."

She smiled and hugged me tightly.

"You're sweet," she said a moment later. "And I love you, too. But you know we have responsibilities here. It's a little late for you to having an attack of conscience."

"I know that."

"So what do you want to do? Nothing says you have to keep sleeping with the campers. You're retired now."

"Except that's not the only reason we do this."

She let go of me, forehead creasing.

"What are you saying?"

"I don't know. Just that I looked at you while I was making love to Rachel, and I just thought, 'Why does she enjoy this so much?' I'd never want to watch you with another man."

She rolled on her back, sighing.

"I don't want to have this discussion now."

"We're getting married in less than five months. We need to resolve this somehow."

"What is there to resolve? Either I give up sleeping with women the rest of my life, which you know I don't know if I can do, or we have to work this into our sex life somehow. And part of me just does not enjoy going off alone with someone else. Even though I do physically enjoy being alone with another woman, I can't help feeling like I'm cheating on you. I don't feel that way when we do things like this."

"Okay. I'm sorry. I don't want to fight about this."

She rolled back against me, cuddling with me.

"I do love you. And if you absolutely cannot do this anymore, I will try my best to give it up. I'm just worried that I can't do it."

I hugged her.

"That isn't what I meant. Just that I'm still working this out in my head."

"Okay. Take all the time you need."

We held each other for a long time, finally falling asleep together.

V.

We split up after breakfast the next morning and went off to our respective responsibilities. I met Karin at the dojo at ten o'clock as we prepared for class. She had a big grin on her face that told me what I needed to know--or so I initially thought.

"I think I'm in love."

I laughed.

"Do you? Well this should be an interesting three weeks."

"Yeah. More than you realize."

"It was that good?"

"No. We didn't do anything."

That brought me up short.

"You didn't."

"No, and it wasn't for lack of trying. I mean, I practically threw myself at him. But once he realized I wanted to do more than just make out, he turned me down flat. He said he cared about me and didn't want to go that fast. I mean, I was left with the choice of giving up or just tearing my clothes off and raping him. Which I know wouldn't have worked, and I didn't want to alienate him like that. I really like him, but I'm not sure if he's going to work for the sorority. I get the feeling that he's not like that. It sounds awful, but I think he's just too sweet for something like this."

"Uh-oh."

"Right."

"Great. Now what?"

"I don't know. I mean, we could try with Justin and Carter, it's just that . . ."

"Rich isn't going to like you chasing them."

"No. And I don't want to do that to him. I'm sorry. I'd didn't expect something like this to happen."

"Which leaves us with Brittany, who can't seem to do it either."

"I'm sorry."

I groaned.

"Okay. Don't worry about it now. This isn't exactly unprecedented, not having anyone for the girls. I'll talk to Beth about it, and see what we can come up with."

"Couldn't you just keep doing it? I mean, the girls all love you already."

"I may have to. But there's a lot going on here."

"I'm sorry."

"It's not your fault. Let's just worry about class for now."

The campers began showing up shortly after that, and we lined them up for class. We had opened the martial arts classes to the entire camp the year before, so we now had kids as young as seven to work with. As I had discussed with Karin, I was giving her the younger ones while I continued working with the teens. This was the novice class, all girls with no experience at all.

"Good morning."

"Good morning," they all said.

"You all know me. This is Karin Clifford, who is one of the counselors in Cabin Nine. She and I will be your instructors for beginning karate the next three weeks. We will be working together for the group lessons, and then break up for individual instruction the last half-hour. Everyone twelve and under will work with Karin; the rest of you will work with me."

I gave them my usual introductory speech about behavior in the dojo and the basics of martial arts before beginning class. Leslie Mahaffey, the "bad seed" we had discussed before, was in this class, as was Chandler Dawson.

We did stretches for a few minutes, then ten minutes of calisthenics. I noticed Leslie doing her push-ups bent-knee, even though I instructed them otherwise.

I walked over to her.

"On your toes. Don't bend your knees."

She dropped to the mat, grunting in frustration.

"I can't do them that way."

"Try. Saying you can't do something is the quickest way to ensure you can't."

"Can't I just do them the normal way?"

"No. You'll do them like everyone else."

She glared up at me. She was cute, but she had a definite attitude problem. I squatted down, giving her my best "disappointed instructor" look.

"Leslie, no one is forcing you to do this. If you'd like, we can transfer you to Horseback Riding for this period. But if you're going to take this class, you're going to comply with my instructions. No exceptions."

Her glare broke in a split-second, and she struggled to do a straight push-up. I watched her for a few moments, then went back to the front.

After that, Karin and I started the basic instruction. We went through about twenty minutes of it before splitting up into our groups. I worked my girls through the basic punches, checking closely on their positioning and movements. All of them seemed to be trying hard, except Leslie. She went through the motions, but didn't seem to be enjoying it. I took her arm and pulled her away from the others.

"The rest of you keep going. Front punches, and remember what I said about keeping your wrists straight."

I led Leslie over to the doorway, seeing the other girls all watching us out of the corners of their eyes.

"Leslie, what is the problem? Do you not want to take this class? Did your parents push you into doing this?"

"No," she mumbled. She wouldn't look at me.

"What is it, then? If you want to do this, I can't tell from your attitude."

She kicked at the floor.

"I don't know."

"You don't like being told what to do, is that it?"

She shrugged.

"Look. I don't do this because I get my jollies ordering people around. I do this because I enjoy teaching. But to learn, you have to listen and follow instructions. You don't pick this up by pretending you know everything already."

She looked up at me now, but didn't say anything.

"Why do you want to learn karate?"

"I don't know."

"Come on. You must have a reason."

She squirmed again.

"Okay. We don't need to get into this now. But if you want to learn, you have to follow the rules like everyone else."

"Okay."

"Good. Let's get back to work."

She followed me back in, and seemed to put more effort into it after that. We got done at ten to eleven and I let them go.

Karin came up to me afterwards.

"Problems with Leslie?"

"Not really. She's just a typical thirteen-year-old with a lot of attitude."

"Yeah."

I didn't know it then, but I couldn't have been more wrong.

VI.

We did the beginner's class after that and then broke for lunch. I found Beth down by the docks, helping with the swimming. Rich was there too, finishing up his class, and I shook my head at what we would be missing if Karin was right. He had a real way with the kids, and the girls in his class all seemed to love him.

Beth came up and kissed me on the cheek.

"Hey."

"How's it going?"

"Great. He's a really good instructor."

I quietly filled her in on what Karin had told me.

"Oh, boy."

"Right."

"Damn. What a loss. He seems like he would be great at this."

"He would. But he may not have the mindset for the rest of it."

"Yeah."

Something caught my gaze from across the lake--a flash of light reflecting off something shiny. I shaded my eyes, trying to see what it was. It came again, and I realized it was coming from the direction of that house we had seen. I couldn't quite identify the source of it, though.

"What are you looking at?"

"I don't know. Something was flashing over there."

She followed my gaze, but by then it had stopped. I didn't see it again.

"I guess it was nothing."

After lunch, Karin and I did the advanced class, which was, as usual, the smallest. Rachel was in this class, as were two others from Cabin Twelve, Courtney Hill, a thin, petite blonde, and Monica Hastings, who was about Karin's height and build, but had long dark brown hair. Both them, though members of the sorority, were still virgins. Rich might have been their first this summer, but now I wasn't sure what was going to happen.

The rest of the day was uneventful, and after dinner and the evening activities, I retired to our rooms. Beth appeared a few minutes later.

"Jennifer needs me to help with something tonight. Sorority- wise. Do you mind?"

"Who is it?"

"Katie and Lisette."

They were two of the confirmed lesbians in the cabin, which more or less told me what was going on.

"It's fine."

"You sure?"

"Yes. I didn't mean to throw everything off last night. You know I don't mind you doing this."

"Okay. Thanks."

She kissed me briefly, and left.

About ten minutes later, there was a knock on the door.

"It's open."

The door opened, and Brittany came in.

"Hey."

"Hi."

"I thought you'd be busy tonight."

"Beth is taking care of it. They don't need me."

She sat on the couch, leaning forward with her arms on her knees.

"Karin probably told you what's going on with Rich."

"She did."

"Which more or less means there's no way I could sleep with him."

"Right."

"That leaves Justin and Carter, neither of whom are anything close to my type."

"I think it's just going to be a wash this summer. I may have to help out, but I don't know."

"I'm sorry."

"It happens. It's happened before, from what Beth tells me."

"I know. I should never have agreed to do this. I just knew in the back of my mind it was never going to work. I can't just up and sleep with some guy I've just met. I'm not like Karin."

"Hey. Don't get like that. That part isn't what the sorority is about. We could have found a way around it even if Rich had worked out."

"It's just that . . . God."

She sighed and leaned forward, putting her hands on her forehead.

"What?"

"You're the only guy I've ever slept with. I figured there would be someone else eventually, but I just couldn't have done it like this."

I leaned back in my chair.

"I didn't know that."

"It's no big deal. I just never met anyone I liked as much as you."

I got up and sat on the couch next to her. She leaned against me, and I put my arm around her. She snuggled closer, and I held her for a few minutes.

"Mitch?"

"What?"

"Could we . . . since Beth is busy tonight . . ."

"If you want to."

"I do."

"Okay. Come on."

She sat up, smiling at me shyly, and I led her to the bedroom. We stood together at the end of the bed, kissing and undressing each other. I was always amazed at how much she felt like Beth, though she was a few inches shorter. She had the same full, firm breasts, the same curve to her hips. She was different in bed though, far less assertive though still very responsive.

I lay down with her, kissing and playing with her breasts. I suckled them for a few minutes, then moved downward. I twisted around as I went, leaving myself reversed on the bed. When I lowered myself to her neatly-trimmed mound, I felt her taking my erection in her mouth.

This was really her one perversion, beyond being bisexual, and she liked to do it when we were alone, which wasn't too often. She rarely got me off this way, which was fine with me. Once she got aroused enough, she lost her grip on what she was doing.

She rolled on her side, and I pulled her thigh up over my shoulder. I put my hand on her butt and pulled her closer. I could lick and suck on her more easily this way, and she quickly got very wet and turned on. She held my penis in her mouth, but essentially stopped moving. I heard her whimpering softly, and her fingers dug into my butt. A moment or two later, she dissolved into orgasm.

Unlike Beth, who often pushed me away when she came, Brittany would let me lick her as long as I wanted. She came again about thirty seconds later, and after that, I pulled away and moved back up the bed. She guided me on top of her, and we began making love.

I was enjoying this much more than the night before, and I pretty much knew why. Sex with Brittany was not like with the other campers. I cared about her, and knew that for her this was far more than the fun and games that it was with the other girls. I hadn't been that surprised when she told me she had never been with anyone else but me.

She came again in a few minutes as I rode between her thighs. Then we rolled over, and she sat back on me, gasping. I sat up with her, kissing and sucking her breasts as she rose up and down. She held me tightly, pulling my head up to kiss me, moaning through her nose.

Just as she began to come again, the door opened.

I looked up to see Beth in the doorway, a look of surprise on her face. Brittany froze, her orgasm fizzling painfully.

"Oh--I'm sorry." Beth put her hand on her chest. "Um, don't stop. I'll just wait out here."

Brittany looked at her, then at me, not sure what to say.

"Do you want to--"

"No. No. It's okay. It looks like you guys were almost done anyway."

She withdrew and shut the door.

"Oh, God," Brittany said.

"Don't worry. This isn't about you."

"Is she okay?"

"I think so."

She lay back on the bed.

"Do you want to finish? Or what?"

Part of me--you know which part, I'm sure--did. But I had to go see Beth first.

"Just wait here."

I got up, pulling on my pants. I found Beth on the couch, staring at the wall.

"Um, I'm not sure what to say."

She laughed weakly.

"Don't act like the philandering husband. Not after what I just got done doing. Go back to bed. It's okay."

"Are you sure? I mean, the look on your face just now . . ."

"It's not the sex. You know that. I just don't think anyone enjoys finding their fiance in bed with someone else. I was just surprised, that's all."

I tried to sit down, but she stopped me.

"Don't leave poor Brittany in there. She's probably scared to death now."

"I think the mood is ruined anyway."

"I'll go talk to her."

She got up and went back to the bedroom. I heard the two of them talking quietly, but thought it better if I stayed out here.

"Come on back," Beth called out a minute later.

I found her lying on the bed with Brittany, though she was still dressed. I noticed immediately that Brittany was crying.

"Jesus."

I sat next to Brittany, hugging her.

"It's okay."

Beth rubbed her shoulder.

"Don't cry. It's all right."

"I'm sorry," Brittany mumbled.

Beth pulled her down to the bed, and the two of us lay on either side of her, holding her. She continued crying for another few minutes.

"I guess I should go," she said. "It's getting late anyway."

"Are you okay?" Beth asked.

"Yeah."

"You know nothing is wrong. I don't mind you being with Mitch."

She nodded.

"Yeah."

We led her to the door, and both kissed her good bye. Beth took my hand and led me back to bed.

"Something is obviously not working here," I said.

"Just explain something to me. Last night you got all bent out of shape about sleeping with Rachel, then I come back here to find you in bed with Brittany. What gives?"

"It's different somehow."

She stared at me for a moment.

"Do you love Brittany?"

My jaw dropped.

"I love you."

"I know that. It doesn't answer my question."

"I don't know."

She sighed and rolled on her back.

"Sex is one thing. Love is something else."

"Come on. You're the only one I want. You know that."

"I want to believe that."

I couldn't answer her right away.

"Are you serious? You don't know that?"

Her face softened.

"I didn't mean it like that. I don't know. This all just so confusing."

She rolled back over and cuddled with me.

"What are we going to do?"

"I don't know. I just know that I love you and don't want to lose you, whatever happens."

She hugged me, but didn't say anything. We fell asleep a little bit later.

VII.

Karin intercepted me after breakfast the next morning.

"I think Rich and I are officially an item. But I also know there's no way he would do anything with the sorority."

"You're sure?"

"Absolutely. Last night, we had a long talk about a lot of things, and one of things he told me was that he's not into casual sex at all. He's slept with two girls in his whole life, and he went on about how sex can't work without love."

"Okay. I guess we misread this one. And since Brittany says she can't sleep with Justin or Carter, it looks like we're out of action this summer."

"You don't want to do it?"

"I will if I have to. But there are some other things going on that may make it difficult."

"With Beth, you mean?"

"Sort of. I don't want to go into it."

She stared at me a second.

"Is everything okay with you guys? I mean, I've never met two people who I thought were more suited for each other than you and Beth."

"Yes. Everything is okay. We just have some things to work out."

The novice class began at ten, and Karin appeared with Leslie and some other of the younger girls just before class. The rest of them showed up over the next few minutes, and we lined them up and started.

I paid extra attention to Leslie, who if she at least was trying harder today, still didn't seem to be enjoying herself. I didn't say anything, though, not wanting single her out two days in a row.

I broke the beginner's class a few minutes early and went down to the lake. I found Rich just as he was finishing up.

"Hey. Everything going all right?"

"Yeah, no problems."

"You and Karin seem to be getting along pretty well."

He grinned.

"Uh, yeah. I like her."

"She can be a lot to handle at once, but she's a really sweet girl once you get to know her."

He laughed.

"Yeah, you could say that."

He pulled on his T-shirt, and I helped him put away the swim gear.

"You know, um, don't take this the wrong way, but I was surprised to see just you and Beth running this place. You guys are pretty young for something like this."

I nodded.

"Yeah, we are. But Gerald and Barbara, who own this place, are old friends of both our families. I've known them for years. Both of us were campers here when we were kids. They wanted to retire this year, so they basically handed the reigns over to us."

"Wow. That's pretty cool. And this is like your job now?"

"Yeah. Managing it is a year-round responsibility. Even when camp isn't in session, we still have planning and marketing issues to worry about. We also rent the place out during the ski season."

Another flash from across the lake caught my eye.

"Did you see that?"

He turned around and looked across the lake.

"Yeah. I've noticed that. You know what I think it is?"

"What?"

"Somebody over there with a pair of binoculars. Or a telescope."

My mood immediately darkened.

"During swim class."

"Exactly."

"Shit."

"What do you want to do?"

"Let's not panic yet. I'm going to find a pair of binoculars myself and confirm this first. Meanwhile, don't worry about it. It might be nothing."

"Okay."

I didn't say anything to Beth, not wanting to alarm her. After lunch, I pulled Karin aside.

"Can you handle the advanced class by yourself?"

"Sure. What's up?"

"Just something I need to take care of."

"Okay. No problem."

I went back to main building and began digging through some of the gear Gerald and Barbara had left behind. After ten minutes of searching, I found an old pair of Minolta prisms in a disintegrating leather case. They looked in good shape, but were probably older than I was.

I carried them down to the lake, where Kelly and Rich were conducting another class, this one for Cabins One and Two, the youngest girls. Not wanting to alert the pervert across the lake (if indeed there was one), I sneaked down behind one of the cabins until I was behind a bush by the edge of the water. I took out the binoculars and tried to find the house.

It was worse than I thought.

At first I couldn't see anything unusual. The house was definitely new. The wood of the deck was still red, as was the cedar shake roof. A Jeep Cherokee was parked in the driveway on the side, and I didn't see anyone walking around. But as I stared through the binoculars, I realized the man was inside the house, looking out from inside behind an open sliding glass door so he wouldn't be obvious about what he was doing. But rather than a telescope, I saw him aiming a camera with an enormous telephoto lens, the sort of thing I sometimes saw in the Canon advertisements in "National Geographic." It was so big he was probably able to get close-ups even from two hundred yards away. Close-ups of seven- and eight-year-old girls in their bathing suits.

I lowered the binoculars, wondering what to do. I wanted to go straight out to Rich and have him stop the class. But that was hardly a permanent solution--we could not stop the swimming indefinitely, since it was half the reason the girls came to camp.

I thought about calling the police. Except that as I gave it some thought, I remembered that I was hardly on firm moral ground here. What if this guy somehow had pictures of the sorority activities? If he was a sophisticated enough photographer to have equipment like that telephoto lens, he might also have an infrared camera for all I knew. Maybe he came out in his boat at night to get closer shots. I knew the girls in the sorority liked to fool around in the bushes by the lake sometimes when they wanted some privacy, and he might well have gotten pictures of it. Pictures the police would find if they raided this guy's house. That was a bombshell I didn't want dropping on my head. It could very well close down the camp.

I raised the binoculars again and watched him. He was apparently quite busy, because I saw him stop and change the film twice in five minute. He did it with practiced ease, as if this were nothing new to him.

How long had he been doing this? Had he bought this house--maybe even built it--just so he could spy on the camp? He had shot off at least fifty pictures while I was watching him. Granted, there was nothing indecent about the girls in the swim class, but this pointed to a serious undertaking on this guy's part. He wasn't just taking candid landscape photos.

I put the binoculars down and stared at girls. A little ironic to be worried about their being exploited given the other things that went on here, eh? But there was a difference between this and the sorority, wasn't there? It was run by and for the girls, by women whom I knew, more than anything, had their hearts in the right place. And it was voluntary--we were very careful about that. No one was pressured into doing anything. But no one had asked those little girls out there if they minded being photographed by a pedophile.

So what was I supposed to do now? Sue me, but I didn't have a clue.

VIII.

I waited two days before saying anything to Beth. They had the sorority initiation the night before, so I went to bed alone, not that I minded. But I woke up to find myself balled up with her like a pair of spoons.

I stirred, nuzzling her hair. She took my hand in hers, but didn't move.

"How did it go?"

"Pretty well. No real problems."

"How did Leslie take it?"

She sighed.

"Hard to say. She was excited at first, but then when she realized a lot of it had to do with sex, she just clammed up completely. Hardly said another word the rest of the night."

"Upset?"

"Not really. More like she was surprised. Unnerved by it. Karin and I were worried that she would start spouting more of her stories, but she didn't."

"Huh. I get the feeling that kid is hiding something."

"Me too. Like the 'Valley Slut' pose she likes to take is just that. But we're going to work with her and see."

"There's something else I need to talk to you about."

She rolled over, looking at me.

"What?"

I told her about the man across the lake.

"Oh, my God."

"Right. And I have no idea what to do."

Her eyes bulged.

"What do you mean? Let's call the goddamned police."

"Beth, think for a moment. Swimming isn't the only thing that goes on at this camp. What if he has pictures of the sorority activities? He has a boat. What if he's drifting over here at night? You know the girls like to fool around out in the bushes."

Her face paled.

"Oh, no."

"And even forgetting that, what do you think something like this would do to our image? Do you think the parents are going to want to send their daughters up here when there are perverts spying on them?"

She shoved me angrily.

"You're actually worried about the money?"

"I'm worried about the camp as a whole. And don't forget that if the camp dies, the sorority goes with it."

She sat up, rubbing her forehead.

"God. What are we supposed to do? We can't let him keep taking pictures."

"I'm thinking the best way might be for me to pay him a visit. Tell him to knock it off or we'll call the police. I have a hard time thinking he'd call our bluff, what with the way the cops are about child porn these days."

"You maybe shouldn't go over alone. Take Rich, or someone else."

"I think I'd rather take Karin."

"Karin?"

"Rich is just a swimming instructor. Karin has a black belt. Plus having one of our girls with me, a girl who is likely to be very pissed off, may be enough to shake his composure if he tries to cop an attitude about this."

She stared at the wall for a few moments.

"Okay. That sounds like a good idea. When are you going to do it?"

"First thing this morning."

I found Karin outside Cabin Nine.

"Hey, Mitch."

The sour look on my face put her immediately on guard.

"What's up?"

"We have a major problem that I need your help with."

Amy walked up to us.

"What's going on?"

"I need to borrow Karin for about an hour. Can you handle the kids?"

"Sure. What's up?"

"I'll explain later. Come on."

Karin followed me up the hill.

"This sounds serious."

"It is. Wait until we get inside."

I led her into the main building and into my office, and shut the door.

"Have you noticed that new house across the lake?"

"Yeah. What about it?"

I explained about what I had seen. Her face got progressively paler as I went on.

"What an asshole. What are you going to do?"

"I, and you, are going to pay him a visit and politely ask him to knock it off."

"You don't want to call the cops?"

"Not yet. Beth and I are worried he may have more incriminating photos than just swim class."

Understanding spread over her face.

"Oh, jeez. And if the cops found that stuff . . ."

"Right."

She exhaled and looked out the window toward the lake.

"Why do you want me to go with you, though?"

"Back-up, for lack of a better word. He might be expecting threats; I don't think he'd expect me to bring one of the female counselors. Plus you're the only other person in camp who has a black belt."

She looked back at me.

"We're not going to beat him up, are we?"

"That is not my intention. But just in case, you know? This is a sex offender we're dealing with, remember. There's no telling how he's going to react to this."

"Yeah. Okay. You want to go over there now?"

"Yes."

She nodded and followed me out to my car. I drove out of the camp and got onto the main road. I followed it around the lake, watching for a side road where I thought the house might be. Just past a bend in the road, I found a driveway that appeared to have been freshly cut through the woods. I pulled into it, stopping about a hundred feet off the road.

Karin and I got out, walking down the driveway. I saw the house about a minute later. The Cherokee was in front of the garage.

"He's here."

"Yeah."

We approached the house, seeing a short path to the front door. Then something on the truck caught my eye.

It was a D.A.R.E. bumper sticker, the sort of thing you saw on police cars all over Southern California. I stopped and walked closer to the Jeep. In the back window, I saw another sticker that looked like a gold badge. When I got a few feet away, I could see what it said: San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department.

I looked at Karin, who had followed me over. Her face had gone white.

"Oh, shit," I said.

"He's a cop. How can he be a cop?"

"I don't know. But we'd better get out of here for now. Until we can figure out what this means."

She nodded, and we walked rapidly back up the driveway. No one seemed to have seen us.

Neither of us said anything until we got back to camp.

"I'd better find Beth."

"Yeah."

She was eating breakfast with Cabin Twelve. She saw me looking into the cafeteria and got up immediately.

"That didn't take long."

"We never talked to him."

I told her what we had seen.

"No. That's impossible."

"It was there. I don't know why else he would have a sticker like that in his car."

"But . . . how could a cop afford a house like that? And that camera you said you saw?"

"For all we know he's renting it. Or he's a professional child pornographer and that's where he makes his money. And not all cops are middle-class. All we know is what we've seen."

"Just because he's a cop doesn't mean he's untouchable," Karin said. "I mean, no sane police department would protect a child pornographer, no matter who he is."

"I know that," I said. "That isn't what I mean. My concern is that if he is a cop, he's smart enough to know how to protect himself. He knows he's breaking the law, and he knows what happens to people who deal in that stuff. I don't think that just threatening to turn him in will work now. We've got to think of something else."

"But we still can't just call the police," Karin said, "right?"

Beth nodded.

"Right. We can't take the risk that he might have pictures that could put the camp out of business. He might even have something that could put us all in jail."

IX.

With nothing else to do for now, we tried to behave as if nothing were wrong. Karin and I did the karate classes that morning, and we let Rich continue conducting his swim classes. We couldn't have shut them down for more than a day without causing problems anyway. What possible explanation could we have given the kids?

That night, Brittany and Jennifer came up to me after dinner.

"Hey."

"Hi," Brittany said. "Got a minute?"

"Sure."

We found a quiet spot back away from the cafeteria.

"Okay," Jennifer began. "We've explained to the girls that Rich is not going to be an option this summer. It was an issue only for some of them. Jill, the new girl, is unlikely to be interested in anything this year."

"She's really kind of quiet," Brittany said.

"Yeah. And Chandler appears to be only into girls. But Rachel, Elizabeth, Courtney, and Monica are all chomping at the bit about this. They voted unanimously to have us ask you to come out of retirement."

I rolled my eyes.

"Oh, brother."

"We told them it might not happen," Brittany said. "It's totally up to you. But Courtney and Monica both were telling me how they were psyching themselves up to sleep with you this summer. They weren't really ready for Rich anyway."

"Beth was telling me that you're getting sick of it," Jennifer said, "so we'll totally understand if you don't want to. But the girls will be really disappointed."

I wanted to say no. I really was tired of this job. But, as Beth said, we had responsibilities here. These four girls clearly had "ants in their pants." What would they do if I turned them down?

"Okay. Tell them we can do what they want. Just one condition: no threesomes with Beth. We can do whatever else they want, but keep Beth out of it."

They glanced at each other, then back at me.

"Okay," Jennifer said. "Sure. Whatever. No problem."

Brittany rubbed my arm.

"Thanks. I know this isn't the thrilling experience it used to be. But the girls will be really happy."

"Yeah. Are we talking tonight?"

Brittany nodded.

"We didn't quite get that far, but I know once we say the word, they'll be lined up for it."

"Okay. I'll go warn Beth."

I found her helping conduct a sing-a-long for Cabins One through Four. I joined in for a few minutes until the counselors started a new song.

"Hey. What's up?"

I explained about the girls. She smiled.

"You look so pained about this."

"You know what I said. Someone is probably coming up tonight. You might want to make yourself scarce."

"Okay. I'll go talk to Jennifer and Brittany. I might just hang out with them while you're busy."

She leaned in and kissed me.

"Don't think I don't understand. I love you for this."

"You too."

I went back up to our rooms and sat in the front room doing some paperwork. Just before ten, someone knocked on the door.

"It's open."

Elizabeth entered. She was tall and thin, with a sort of exotic European cast to her face that made her look a little like Kate Moss. She was dressed only in shorts and pink spaghetti-strap T-shirt, bra straps exposed.

"Hi."

"Hey. How you doing?"

"I'm good. Thanks for all this. Brittany explained what happened."

"It's no big deal. I enjoy it. I just thought I was getting a little old for it."

She sat down at the table.

"Oh, no way. You're not old. You're only, what, twenty-three?"

"Twenty-five."

"Oh. Well, that's still not old. I don't date guys my age anyway. I like older guys."

I grinned.

"I kind of got that impression. How's school going?"

"Fine. I'm still having trouble in math, but I got A's in everything else."

"How are things in the cabin? I haven't really gotten a camper's-eye-view of it yet."

"Okay, I guess. About like last summer. I like Jill. Have you talked to her at all?"

"No."

"She's from Pasadena. Her folks are like Christian Fundamentalists or something, so they're totally paranoid about her social life. When we explained about the sorority, you'd think we had given her a 'get out of jail free' card or something. She was asking us all these questions about everything that went on."

"Good. I'm glad."

She glanced back at the bedroom, then at me, grinning.

"So, um, are we going to sit out here talking all night?"

"I just wanted to catch up with you first."

"Oh, yeah. That's cool."

I stood up, and she followed me back to the bedroom.

"Anything particular you had in mind?" I asked.

She took a deep breath.

"Um. This will sound perverted."

"No such thing. Not up here. Shoot."

"I was reading this book that Rachel brought with her. A sex book. And there's this scene where the guy ties up his girlfriend, and . . ."

My eyebrows went up slightly.

"And that's what you want?"

She shrunk slightly.

"Is that too much?"

"No. Whatever you want to do."

"Okay. I don't know exactly what's involved, but in the book, he just tied her up and blindfolded her. It wasn't mean or anything, they were in love, but he tied her up and they had sex. It just really turned me on. I don't know why."

"We can do that."

She smiled.

"Thanks. Don't tell anyone, though, okay?"

I laughed.

"Don't worry."

I took her in my arms and kissed her softly. She held her hands against my chest and returned the kiss. I pulled her T-shirt off and then removed her bra. She had very small breasts, hardly more than little mounds topped with puffy pink nipples. I circled them with my fingers, making them erect as she tensed up slightly. Then I unbuttoned her shorts and slid them down, leaving her naked. Like the other girls in the sorority, her pubic hair was trimmed, leaving just a dark shadow between her legs.

"Stay here."

Gerald and Barbara's old bed had a wooden frame with short bedposts, but I wasn't sure what I could use to tie Elizabeth up with. I dug around in the back of the closet for a minute before finding a bag of rags. I figured that would have to do.

Elizabeth was still standing at the end of the bed nervously. I took one of the long strips of cloth and blindfolded her. Her breathing sped up, and a flush began spreading over her body.

"Lie down on the bed."

She sat down, and I guided her into position. Using the rags, I soon had her bound hand and foot to the bedposts.

"Is this what you had in mind?"

She nodded but said nothing. I stripped out of my clothes and lay down beside her.

Despite my recent protestations to Beth, I found that this was actually turning me on. I began caressing her softly, avoiding the sensitive spots for now, watching the effect it had on her. Her nipples swelled and stuck straight up in the air, and her body grew very tense and flushed. When I touched her nipples for the first time, she gasped. I teased them both until they were hard and stiff.

Then I lowed myself to her chest and took one in my mouth. I sucked on her, working the flesh around with my tongue. First one, then the other. I trailed a hand slowly down her body until I reached her pubic mound. She was wet, almost dripping onto the sheets. I moistened my finger and gently circled her clitoris.

Her breath was coming in ragged drafts now, but she didn't move a muscle. I kept up with my massage for several minutes, not touching her otherwise. Her stomach twitched once, then her legs jerked slightly. She twitched again, then her stomach muscles clenched. She squeaked through her nose, and her breathing suddenly accelerated. I sped my movements, and her whole body tensed up, pulling against the restraints. She came in a rush, whimpering and convulsing on the bed.

I slowed as she began to relax, and slid down to the end of the bed. I climbed up between her legs, and bent down to lick at her. She gasped when I touched her, arching her back. She was incredibly wet, salty and thick, and I had to work my tongue into her to get some friction. She twisted slowly under me, pulling at the restraints, moaning through her nose. She came again in about a minute, but I didn't stop. Now she seemed to be fighting me, though she said nothing. I didn't move. Her third climax came in a spasm of convulsions and gasps for breath. It was so intense it seemed to knock the wind out of her, so I relented and leaned back.

I let her catch her breath for a moment while I got a condom out of the nightstand. When I returned, I climbed onto the bed above her. She almost seemed afraid of what was coming next, though she gave no indication of wanting to stop. I positioned myself between her legs, slipping into her effortlessly. I buried myself into her as far as I could go, pulling up against her. She whimpered, arching her back again.

It took little effort to get her off yet again, though this time I silenced her cries of passion by kissing her. When it subsided, she finally spoke.

"Come in me," she gasped. "Fuck me and come in me."

Elizabeth was normally quite the little lady, so that request startled me for a moment. But then I figured that being tied up and blindfolded probably changed the rules. For all I knew, she was acting out the scene in that book she had described.

I thrust faster, letting myself go. As she sensed me getting close, she began moaning and babbling.

"Fuck me. Fuck me. Come in me."

Listening to her go on like that was enough for me. I brought myself off a few moments later, spurting deep inside her. As she felt me coming, she shuddered into orgasm herself.

I caught my breath for a minute or two, then untied her. She rolled against me, burying her head against my arm.

"Are you okay?"

She nodded.

"Don't fall asleep on me."

She rolled on her back, covering her face. I rolled over with her, brushing her hair with my fingers and pulling her hands down.

"Don't be embarrassed. If you enjoyed that, it's enough. Nothing wrong with it."

"Am I a pervert?"

"No. Believe me, this was nothing bizarre."

She sighed.

"I don't know what happened. It was like, once you tied me up, I became this other person. I've never felt like that in my life. I thought was going to faint a couple of times."

"Scary?"

She nodded.

"Don't let it frighten you. It doesn't mean you want to be raped or anything like that. Fantasizing is healthy. It's part of most people's sex lives."

"Do you and Beth do stuff like that?"

"We have."

She was pensive a moment.

"It was fun. I don't know. I don't think I could handle that every time."

"Few people do. Believe me, our sex life is pretty tame, even factoring in this sorority thing. We only do stuff like that on special occasions. Most of the time, we make love just to feel good together and bond."

"Huh. I guess that makes sense."

I kissed her forehead.

"You going to be okay?"

"Yeah. Thanks."

She got up and began getting dressed. I showed her to the door and kissed her good bye.

Beth returned about ten minutes later.

"Have fun?"

I grinned.

"She had me tie her up."

"Seriously?"

"Yeah. Don't tell anyone that, though. She was pretty embarrassed afterward."

"Did she like it?"

"She went crazy. You wouldn't believe the things she was saying."

Beth grinned.

"Sweet little Elizabeth?"

I nodded.

"What did you guys do meanwhile?"

She sat down on the bed.

"Um, Jennifer and I sort of put on an exhibition."

"An exhibition?"

"Do you want the gory details?"

"Not really."

"Some of the girls were asking about one particular technique. That's all."

"Okay."

I pulled her down and kissed her. She lay back on the bed, smiling up at me.

"I didn't enjoy it at all, honest."

"Sure."

"All it did was make me horny for you."

We made love for a little while, then went to sleep.

X.

I called a private meeting with Karin and Beth after breakfast the next morning.

"All right. We're agreed that we can't call the police yet. The reason being that we don't know what exactly what this guy has pictures of. Unless we're certain that he doesn't have anything that can incriminate us, we're stuck. And the only way I can see out of this is to go over there and check ourselves."

Karin's face paled.

"You mean break into his house?"

"Do you see any other solution?"

"That's burglary, Mitch," Beth said. "Burglarizing a cop's house, no less."

"A child pornographer's house. And every day we sit here is a day he could be selling these pictures of our girls, or sending them out on the Internet."

She sighed, closing her eyes.

"There has to be something else we can do."

"I'm open to suggestions. I don't like this any more than you do."

Karin looked up at me.

"What if he has a burglar alarm? There's no guarantee we can even get in there."

"I know. We'll deal with that as it happens."

She glanced at Beth, who was silent.

"Anyone have any other ideas?"

Beth sighed again.

"Just be careful. I can't marry you if you're in jail."

I excused Karin from the rest of her responsibilities for the day, and sent her down to the lake with Gerald's binoculars. She would watch the house until she saw the guy leaving, if indeed he did. I figured he had to go out of his house some time, even if it might take days. Beth and I each had portable phones, so I gave her mine to contact me as soon as anything happened.

With Karin occupied, I had to conduct the martial arts classes myself. Leslie had begun to apply herself more, but her surly demeanor had not subsided. After class, I stopped her on the way out.

"Leslie, is there something bothering you? Anything you want to talk about?"

She shrugged, not looking at me.

"Are you having problems with the other girls in the Cabin?" She knew I was in on the sorority thing, so she knew what I meant.

Another shrug.

"I know this can be hard to adjust to at first, but it's also an opportunity. You know that you're not obligated to do anything. It's as much about talking and sharing as anything else. We know that it's not easy talking with your parents about sex. The sorority is supposed to give you another avenue to talk about your feelings without having to involve your family."

She nodded.

"But unless you're willing to open up, it's hard for anyone to help you. If you need to talk about anything, I'm here. It would be completely confidential. No one else would have to know."

She closed her eyes, and suddenly her face began to screw up in anguish. Tears began leaking out under her clenched eyelids.

Feeling my stomach getting light, I put my hand on her shoulder.

"Honey, what's wrong?"

She choked on a few sobs, then took a deep breath.

"My dad is molesting me," she gasped.

Stunned, I could only stand there and stare for a moment. I put my arms around her, and she leaned against me, sobbing uncontrollably. I just held her and let her cry, rocking her in my arms. She cried for so long that I felt my shoulder getting wet. I tried to figure out what I was supposed to do next. I looked up at the clock and realized that the beginning class would be getting here any moment.

I leaned back slightly.

"Why don't we go back to my office? I'll cancel the next class."

She nodded, sniffing. I wrote a quick note on my clipboard and stuck it on the door to the dojo. Then I led Leslie up the hill.

"How long has this been going on?"

We were sitting on the couch opposite my desk. She was sitting in a ball, knees up to her chest, rocking back and forth slowly.

"Years. Forever. Since I was a kid. I don't even remember when it started."

"No one else knows?"

She shook her head.

"My mom is so fucking busy she doesn't even notice. I hate them both."

"Does he do it a lot?"

"A few times a week. He'll come into my room in the middle of the night and start kissing me. I just lay there and let him do what he wants. He talks to me like I'm Mom or something, like I'm his girlfriend. I close my eyes and ignore him, but it doesn't make any difference."

"Honey . . . I hate to have to ask this, but could you get pregnant? From whatever he's doing?"

She shook her head again.

"He always uses rubbers. I don't know how my mom doesn't notice he has them."

I hugged her again, and she leaned against me, sniffling.

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."

I didn't know what else to say.

She regained some composure a few minutes later.

"So what happens now?"

"What do you want me to do?"

"I don't know," she gasped. "I'm so fucking confused now. I don't know anything. Dad is always telling me how I can't tell anyone, how they won't understand, how he and Mom would have to get a divorce and he could go to jail. I don't know what I want."

"You can't want this to continue."

"I don't want to put my dad in jail. If he went to jail, everyone would know about this. I'd be the kid whose dad was fucking her all the time. I want to kill myself."

She began to sob again, shaking in my arms.

"Honey, don't do this. It is not your fault. What he's doing is wrong. You're the victim here. No one is going to blame you for what happened."

"But they'll know," she sobbed.

"They will. But it won't be the end of the world. I know people who have survived this. I have a friend whose stepfather molested her for years, from when she was seven years old. She's gone on to have a successful life, and no one thinks less of her because of what happened. There is a lot of help out there for you. It will be hard, but at least you will get out of this. He won't be able to do this to you anymore."

She didn't say anything, just lay against me. I held her for a while, then laid her on the couch to let her rest.

I saw Beth approaching through the window and got up. Leslie didn't move.

"I'll be right back."

She nodded.

I left the office and met Beth in the hallway.

"What's going on? Where have you been?"

"We have another crisis, as if we needed more problems to deal with."

"What is it?"

I pulled her backward, away from the door so Leslie wouldn't hear us talking.

"I found out what's bothering Leslie, and believe me, it's a doozie."

"Oh, my God. What's wrong?"

I sighed, trying to compose myself.

"Apparently her father has been molesting her for years. She doesn't even remember when it started."

Beth's jaw dropped, and she put her hand over her mouth.

"Any ideas about what to do?"

"Mitch . . . you do realize we're required to report this? It's the law."

"Oh, shit. I didn't even think of that. And she's scared to death of people finding out."

"Let me talk to her. Can I talk to her?"

"I think so. Let's go back in."

I followed her back to the office. Leslie was still on the couch, staring blankly at the wall. Beth kneeled down next to her, putting her hand on Leslie's shoulder.

"Honey . . . what can we do?"

Leslie closed her eyes, saying nothing, and Beth leaned against her, hugging her.

The ringer of Beth's cell phone startled both of us. I grabbed it and left the office.

"Hello?"

"Mitch! It's me! He's leaving now. He just pulled out of the driveway."

"Oh, fuck me! This cannot be happening now!"

"Why? What's going on?"

"I can't go into it now. Just get up here to my office."

"Okay, I'm on my way."

I hung up and leaned into the office. Beth looked up, panicked. I motioned for her to come out of the office.

"That was Karin."

"Oh, God. Now?"

"When it rains, it pours. I don't want to wait any longer. There is too much at stake here. He might not leave his house again for days. If he's renting the place for the week, he may be gone for good in three days."

"What about Leslie?"

"You're going to have to handle this, at least until we get back."

She exhaled and covered her face.

"Go. I'll do my best. Just please, please, please be careful."

"Okay. We will."

I hugged her quickly and left. Karin was just outside.

"What on earth is going on? Why did you yell at me like that?"

"I'm sorry. It's not your fault. We just happen to have another big crisis on our hands. I can't go into it now, but you'll probably find out soon enough. We have to go."

"Where is Beth? Who's going to watch out for us while we're there?"

"Oh, fuck. I forgot about that. She can't do it. She's stuck in there right now."

"Could Rich do it?"

"Do you want to risk it?"

"What choice do we have?'

I groaned.

"Where is he?"

"I just left him at lunch. He was heading down to the lake."

"Let's go get him."

She followed me, walking rapidly.

"How much do we tell him?"

"He already suspects what's going on. He was the one who tipped me off about it."

"But how do we explain why we have to break into this guy's house?"

I stopped.

"I don't know."

"Mitch. I'm sorry. I have to tell him about the sorority eventually. Sooner or later, he has to know. I can't lie to him forever."

"Jesus Christ. I knew I should have been going to church more often. This is some kind of retribution for all my sins. We haven't even been up here a week yet."

"I think he can handle it. He's not really conservative or uptight. He's just not into casual sex."

"Does he even know you're bi?"

"Yes. I told him a couple nights ago. He seems okay with it, he actually seemed excited by it. I was just trying to work up to this."

I took a deep breath.

"Okay. Let's do it."

We found Rich down by the docks, getting ready for class. I grabbed Kelly, the other swim instructor, on my way up to him.

"I need to borrow Rich. Can you handle his class too?"

"Well, I guess so. Is anything wrong?"

"No. I just need him for a little while."

"Okay. Sure."

Rich came up to us, smiling at Karin.

"Hey."

"Hey, Rich, I need your help with something. Kelly is going to take your class."

He glanced at her, confused.

"It concerns that matter across the lake."

He looked back at me, then over the water to the house, nodding in understanding.

"Gotcha. Okay. Thanks, Kel. I guess I'll be back when I'm back."

"No problem."

He followed us back up the dock to a clump of trees behind to Cabin Nine, where no one was likely to overhear us.

"What's going on?"

"I'm going to tell you something that may well shock you. I want you to know that this is something very serious, but it is something we all believe in very strongly. Karin is involved in it, Beth is, and so are several of the other counselors and campers. You were almost brought into this, but we decided it wasn't a good idea until now. The only reason I'm doing this now is because we need your help. Help that relates to what you thought you saw across the lake."

"Well, sure, anything. What's the problem?"

I paused to catch my breath, and continued.

"There is, at this camp, a secret subgroup that we simply call the sorority. It is a group of counselors and campers, basically Cabins Nine and Twelve. It's something like an encounter group, designed to help teenage girls who are struggling with certain personal issues. Specifically, sexual issues. There is a great deal involved in it, but one of the things that goes on is a certain amount of nocturnal activity. All supervised and guided, but activity nonetheless."

His jaw had gradually dropped toward his chest. He looked at Karin, then back at me.

"You mean like . . . lesbian activity? Between the girls?"

"That's some of it. But also heterosexual activity."

"But who--"

He gasped.

"Oh, shit."

"Right. Except that I had planned to retire from that role this year. You were going to be the one who would take my place. Except Karin told us she didn't think you would want to."

He looked at Karin, face pale. She seemed near to tears. She reached out, taking his hand.

"I meant well. I really did. It has nothing to do with us. It was precisely because we made such a connection that I didn't think you would want to do it."

He looked back and forth between us, unable to say anything.

"The reason I'm bringing this up now," I went on, "is because you were right about what you thought you saw. The man who is staying at that house across the lake has been taking photographs of your swim class. A lot of them, if I don't miss my guess. What we're concerned about, and why we can't just call the police, is that we're afraid that he may have gotten pictures of the sorority activities. You can imagine what would happen if something like that came out."

He nodded.

"Yeah."

"The other problem is that, if we're not badly mistaken, this guy is a San Bernardino County Sheriff's deputy."

"Oh, man."

"Right. So the only solution we can think of is to go over there and find out what pictures he has. And destroy them, if necessary."

"Break into his house?"

"Yes. He's not there now. Karin just saw him leaving. What we need you to do is stay here and watch through our binoculars to see if he's coming back. Karin has my cell phone, which she can give to you, and you can call me on Beth's if he shows up. Beth was going to do this, but there is another crisis going on right now that she has to deal with."

He nodded. Karin squeezed his hand, moving closer to him.

"Are you okay? I know this is a lot to take at once."

"I think so."

"Believe me, this is not some wild orgy out in the woods. It's very serious. We try to look at it as a kind of therapy for the girls. I went through it when I was a camper, and it was a very positive experience."

"You did?"

"Yes. It's why I'm a counselor doing it now."

He seemed to try to steel himself for a moment.

"I'll do what you want. I'll help with this right now. The rest of it, I just need some time to deal with, okay?"

"Okay."

Karin ran into the cabin and returned with the binoculars and my phone. He took them, and I showed him which button would dial Beth's phone.

"Good luck. I hope we get this guy."

"Thanks."

Karin gave him a quick, nervous, hug, and followed me up to the car. We climbed in and drove out of the camp.

"Oh, God."

"Just give him time."

"So much for letting him think I was this sweet little girl from Orange County."

"He'll adjust, I'm sure. He wouldn't have agreed to help up if he was totally repulsed by it. When Beth and Kim broke the secret to me, I was as shocked as he was."

She sighed.

"Let's just do this. Worst comes to worst, I've only known him four days. It's not like I was about to marry him."

She laughed at herself, bitterly.

"Not that the thought hasn't crossed my mind."

I reached out and tried to comfort her. She leaned forward, rubbing her forehead.

"God. The things I do for my fellow woman."

I couldn't help laughing.

"You'll live."

XI.

We parked on the main road, about a hundred yards back up from the man's driveway, around the bend so it wouldn't be obvious what we were doing. We walked the rest of the way, during which I checked Beth's phone three times to make sure it was on and charged.

Watching for traffic--there was none--we ducked down the driveway. We reached the house in a few minutes. Karin followed me up to the front door, where we checked around the perimeter.

"I don't see an alarm," she said.

"Me neither. Let's keep looking."

We circled the house. I was looking for motion detectors or floodlights that would indicate some kind of security system. But then I thought that with all the wildlife in the area, motion detectors would probably be more trouble than they were worth.

Karin leaned against a window, looking in.

"Jesus, wait."

She jumped back.

"What?"

"Fingerprints."

I pulled some latex gloves that I had found in the camp first aid kit out of my pocket. We pulled them on, and I used the hem of my shirt to rub at the window where Karin had touched it.

"Sorry."

"It's okay. But keep in mind we're breaking the law here."

She examined the window again.

"I don't see any alarm sensors."

"It locked?"

She tried it.

"Yep."

We walked around onto the deck. The sliding glass door was shut, and the blinds were drawn. It was locked too.

"Now what?"

"Let's keep looking."

We checked around the house again. The place was built on an incline, so that the first floor back by the garage led out to the deck, under which was another level of the house. Down there, under the deck, we found some narrow windows along the top of the stem wall. They were too high to reach.

"Let me boost you up there."

I joined my hands in a cradle, and Karin stepped into it. I lifted her up to the first window.

"No luck. Move me over."

She pushed at the window in the middle, and it tipped open.

"It's unlocked!"

"Can you fit in there?"

"Push me up."

I boosted her up further, and she hoisted herself into the window frame.

"I can get in. It's just big enough."

"Go through and let me in the front door."

She slipped inside.

"Okay. Hold on."

I jogged up around the house to the door. She didn't show up for about a minute, but when she opened it, her face had gone pale.

"Jesus Christ, you've got to see this."

"What is it?"

"I can't even describe it."

The house was laid out fairly simply, one bedroom to the right off the front door, kitchen to the left, living room and deck out in front. Karin led me to a door in the kitchen.

"This was locked, but there's a knob on the basement side. It's a good thing I got in where I did, because I bet we couldn't have gotten in here otherwise."

She led me down the stairs into the basement. There I saw a long table covered with dozens, no, hundreds of photographs of our campers, some of them point-blank close-ups--he must have had quite a camera--of their crotches and budding breasts. Most of them were of the younger girls; I saw almost none of the teenagers. At one end of the table was a computer with a big flatbed scanner, and next to that, on the floor, was a tall file cabinet. It was unlocked, and I pulled it open. Inside the top drawer was a big stack of glossy color magazines. All of them child porn.

"Mitch, look in here."

Karin was at the other end of the room, inside a small closet that apparently served as his darkroom. More pictures of the girls hung on a line drying.

"I don't see anything but bathing suit shots."

She looked around, sick.

"Me neither."

"Let's keep looking."

I flipped through the photos on the table, finding nothing very incriminating. Karin turned on the computer and watched as it booted up. When the Windows screen came up, it prompted her for a password.

"Shit."

"Reset it. When Windows starts up again, hit reset again after a few seconds. You should get a prompt for safe mode. Tell it to start up in MS-DOS mode."

She nodded.

"Okay."

I kept searching while she waited. I pulled out the middle drawer of the file cabinet. In this drawer were dozens of manila folders, all holding photographs. I saw one labeled "Camp-Lesbo." I pulled it out.

"Bingo."

Inside the folder were about two dozen fuzzy black-and-white infrared shots of two girls--I couldn't quite figure out who--having a lot of fun behind Cabin Nine.

"Oh, God," Karin said. "That's Shelly and Brianna."

I flipped through them. The negatives were in an envelope in the bottom of the file. I looked back into the cabinet. More bathing suit shots, but nothing more like that. I bent the folder in half and shoved it into my back pocket.

"Okay, what do I do now?"

I looked up see Karin staring at a C:\ prompt.

"Format the drive."

"Are you sure?"

"We don't have time to search through the whole system. He's probably scanned all this stuff in already."

"How do I do it?"

"Type 'FDISK C:'"

She did, and bypassed all the security warnings. The drive began formatting itself.

"Now what?"

"Let's check upstairs, in his bedroom."

"Oh. For stuff he was using to . . ."

"Right."

She followed me up the stairs. We searched the bedroom but found only more child porn magazines, no camp shots. Karin's face was getting progressively greener as we went.

"What about his camera?"

"Good idea."

We checked the living room. I found several rolls of exposed film on the table next to his camera.

"Jesus, look at this thing," Karin said. "This is the biggest camera I've ever seen."

I opened the film canisters and pulled all the film out, exposing it. Karin opened the back of the camera and removed another roll, exposing it as I had done. I gathered it all up and carried it down to the basement. I tossed it all into a trashcan.

"He's going to know we were here."

"No he isn't."

"Why not?"

"Because I'm about to torch this place."

Karin gasped.

"Mitch, that's--"

"Arson, I know. Not much worse of a felony than breaking and entering."

I looked around the basement for something to use. I was hoping the photographic chemicals would be flammable, but if they were, there were no warnings on the bottles.

"Mitch, there's some stuff over here. I don't know what it is, but maybe it would work."

I followed her voice to under the stairs, where she had found some general household maintenance materials. Amongst them was a large coffee can filled with old rags that smelled strongly of kerosene.

"I love you."

I grabbed her and kissed her head. She laughed quietly.

"What?"

"Fire prevention experts will tell you never to store stuff like this, because rags like these, soaked in old chemicals, can spontaneously combust. It will look like an accident."

"Oh."

I dug around a moment more until I found a rusty old lighter.

"Are you going to do it now?"

"We're running out of time."

"We need to lock up the rest of the house first."

"Okay. Go."

She ran upstairs and I heard her locking up everything we had opened. Then she reentered the basement, locking the door at the top of the stairs.

"Let's not get locked in here," I said.

"Can you get out that window?"

I looked it over.

"Yeah. Let's do it."

I struck the lighter a few times before a flame emerged. I lit the rags and tossed the lighter on the floor.

"Let's get out of here."

I helped Karin up to the window. She slithered out, and I jumped up there myself. I wriggled through, but it was very tight.

"Oh, boy."

Karin looked up at me in terror.

"Are you stuck?"

"Almost. Give me a second."

I strained, pulling myself forward. I dared a look back into the basement, where the rack of chemicals was already beginning to burn.

"Mitch, come on, please."

I forced myself out, but it was no good. I was stuck.

"Shit!"

Karin was beginning to panic, hands tight under her chin.

"God! What can I do?"

"Nothing. Hold on."

I jerked myself forward, but couldn't move. I tried it again, and loud popping sounded accompanied my tumble out of the window. I hit the ground, and the window frame came down on my head. Karin jumped over to me.

"Are you all right?"

I struggled to my feet, rubbing at my scalp where the window had hit me.

"Yes. Let's go."

We practically ran up the driveway. Every passing second, I expected Beth's phone to ring, expected to see a Jeep Cherokee coming down the road toward us. But nothing happened.

I grabbed Karin's arm when we got close to the road.

"Don't run out there. Let's go through the woods to the car."

"Okay. Good idea."

We slipped through the trees for a minute before reaching my car. I saw nothing and no one around it. We jumped in as fast as we could go and drove back to the camp.

XII.

We found Rich waiting in the parking lot for us, staring glumly at the pavement. Karin walked up to him, putting her hand lightly on his shoulder.

"I saw you guys climbing out the window. Based on the smoke that's already coming out of there, I'm guessing that I know what you must have done."

"Yeah," I said. "It was even worse than we thought. Camp pictures and a hell of lot more. Some very, very nasty stuff."

"But we were careful," Karin said. "It will look like an accident. He had all these flammable chemicals piled up under the basement stairs. We just lit that stuff."

He nodded.

"It's okay. If this guy really was a child pornographer, I don't have any sympathy for him."

He took a deep breath.

"See, my sister, a few years ago, she's fifteen now, but she was only ten when this happened, some guy tried to grab her by her school. Tried to drag her into his car. He kind of roughed her up before she got loose. Luckily someone saw them and called the police. When they tracked him down, it turned out he was wanted for molesting a couple of other girls. They found a mountain of child porn in his basement. I was thinking about her when you guys were over there. I'm guessing, even if this guy hasn't done anything yet, he was on his way there. Maybe we prevented him from hurting someone else."

"Yeah."

Karin tried to hug him, and he let her.

"I think we're all right now," I said. "You guys can go. I have go find Beth."

Karin nodded. I left them there, hearing them talking quietly as I walked down the hill.

I saw Beth watching from our room as I approached. She saw me coming up to the building and appeared on the stairs when I came through the door.

"Are you okay? Is everything all right?"

"Yes. We're fine. And I think we've fixed the problem, although the solution proved to be pretty severe."

"What do you mean? What did you find?"

"Sorority pictures and a great deal more. This guy was seriously into this."

I showed the photographs I had taken. She looked them over briefly, then closed her eyes.

"What did you do?"

"Karin and I, um, we set the place on fire."

She gasped, eyes flying open.

"Are you serious?"

"There was no other way. There was too much stuff in there."

She grabbed my arm.

"But that's arson. You could go to prison for that."

"I think we were careful enough about it. He had a fire waiting to happen in the corner of his basement. We just helped it along."

"Oh, my God."

She walked out of the building, looking across the lake. A thin stream of smoke was already rising into the air.

"Oh, Jesus."

I dragged her back inside.

"Should we call the fire department?"

"Wait a few minutes," I said. "Wait until one of the campers comes running in here to tell us about it."

She took a few breaths.

"Okay."

"What's done is done. What about Leslie?"

"She's resting up in our room. We talked for a long time."

"Any ideas about what to do?"

"We have to report it, honey. We have no choice."

"What does Leslie think about that?"

"She wouldn't give me a direct answer for a long time. She finally just said, 'do what you have to do.'"

I sighed.

"Okay. Who do we call first?"

"I think we should call Child Services first. Because if I call her mother, I might lose my nerve afterward."

"Do you want to do it?"

"No. But I will."

I followed her into the office while she dug out the L.A. County phone book. Just before we made the call, I saw Becky, one of the Cabin Five counselors, running up to the building. She burst into the office a second later.

"The house across the lake is on fire! We need to call the fire department!"

I tried to act surprised.

"What? Where?"

"That new place just across from the swimming area."

Beth picked up the phone and dialed 911. She gave them the necessary information and hung up a minute later.

"They're on their way."

"God. It's really burning. I hope they get there in time."

Beth and I exchanged a look, but Becky didn't seem to notice.

"Okay, Becky, thanks. Could you give us a moment? We were in the middle of something."

"Yeah, sure."

She left, going back down the hill with some other campers and staff to watch the fire.

Beth sighed.

"Let's get this over with. This is too much excitement at once for me."

The call lasted a good half-hour, during which more people showed up at the office to tell us about the fire. I explained that we had something more serious going on, and they let us alone, if they didn't quite understand why.

Finally Beth hung up with the social worker she had been talking to.

"They told me not to call her mother. They're going to handle it."

"Are they coming up here?"

"Yes. Tomorrow. They're going to take Leslie back with them."

"God."

"I know. But at least she'll be getting the help she needs."

Beth went upstairs to talk to Leslie. I stayed in the office, not sure what else to do. There was a fireplace in the corner, where I burned the photos we had brought back.

Karin appeared about ten minutes later.

"You watching the fire?" I asked.

"Yeah. It's, um, a complete loss, I think. I doubt anything is going to be left."

"The fire department couldn't do anything?"

"It was burning too hard. It must have spread really quickly."

"Did you see the guy?"

"No. But we weren't really looking for him."

"Is everyone down there watching?"

"Yeah. What were you guys doing up here?"

I sighed.

"Sit down."

She did. I explained about Leslie.

She had leaned forward, putting her face in her hands.

"This cannot have happened all in one day."

"That was what I was yelling at you about earlier."

"God. I guess."

"L.A. County Child Services is coming to get her tomorrow. So you need to say good bye to her tonight."

"Okay."

I sat next to her and hugged her. She leaned against me, sighing.

"One thing you can say about this place, it's certainly never boring."

I laughed, unable to stop myself.

XIII.

Life went slowly back to normal after that. Leslie left with Child Services the next day. The fire department hosed down the blackened remains of the house Karin and I had burned, but no one showed up to interview us about arson or child pornography or anything else. Just to be safe, we issued a new rule to the girls about staying in the cabins at night, and not fooling around in the bushes. They grumbled about it, but complied.

Three days later, after dinner, Beth appeared in the office when I was doing some paperwork. She shut the door and sat down on the couch.

"What's up?"

"I know we've had a lot of excitement the last few days, but keep in mind only a few people really know what happened. Most of them just think we had a fire across the lake."

"Okay."

"So they expect life to continue."

"What's your point?"

"My point is that the sorority has not ceased operations. And unless you've forgotten, you agreed to come out of retirement."

I leaned back in my chair.

"Oh."

"Yes. I was talking to Brittany earlier. Courtney and Monica are coming up tonight."

"Courtney . . . and Monica?"

She nodded.

"Yes. They've apparently decided that they want to lose it together."

I closed my eyes.

"I cannot do this. I'm sorry."

"Mitch. You agreed. They're all excited about it now."

"Beth, honey, has nothing that happened earlier this week had any effect on you? Does this not strike you as having just the tiniest bit of irony?"

"Irony how?"

That question lifted me out of my chair.

"My God, what just happened? What is the difference between this and what we just went through? Leslie's father was sleeping with a thirteen-year-old; I sleep with fifteen-year-olds. This guy across the lake is taking pictures of little girls in the bushes; I get to watch them in my bedroom. I'm sorry, but I don't see a lot of distinctions here."

"You don't see any differences at all?"

"All right, there are some differences, but you have to admit that the distinctions are pretty damned fine. And they're largely ones of definition. And legally, they don't exist at all."

"You're nuts. How can you say there's no difference between the sorority and what happened? The difference is consent. Leslie's father was forcing himself on her. You haven't forced yourself on anyone. The girls want you to do what you're doing."

"Have you forgotten that all these girls are below the age of consent? That argument would not carry a whole lot of water in a courtroom."

She leaned forward on the couch, heels of her hands pressed against her temples.

"Mitch, I'm sorry, but three years into this is a little late to be having a crisis of conscience. This is coming way, way too late. You have long since passed by any opportunity to back out of this. Courtney and Monica have spent months working themselves up to this, months anticipating it, and now, at the last minute, you're changing your mind? No. I will not let you do this. You know that whatever we tell them, they're going to think that you're backing out because you don't like them, or because you think they're too fat or not pretty enough. My God, you know how fragile the self-esteem of a fifteen- year-old girl can be."

I sat back down, head spinning. My fiancée was actually demanding that I have sex with two fifteen-year-old virgins.

Beth sighed.

"Honey, I know how stressful things have been this week. Please don't let that make you lose sight of why we're here."

"I just don't know anything anymore. My life has broken free from its moorings."

She came over to me, squatting down and taking my hand.

"What can I do?"

"I'll do this tonight. Afterward . . . we have to figure this out somehow."

"Our arrangement, you mean?"

"Yes."

"I know. We'll work it out. I promise."

"And we have to find someone else to do this. If not Rich, then someone else."

"Who?"

"I don't know."

Beth made herself scarce as I waited for the two girls. I was a little surprised at this two-for-one idea of theirs, because neither of them was bisexual, as far as I knew. They were good friends, but this seemed to me to be taking their friendship a bit far.

The knock came a few minutes later. Courtney was about five- three, slim, with a pale complexion and blonde hair about shoulder- length. Monica was taller, around five-seven, and looked sort of like that brunette on "Dawson's Creek," whatever her name was.

"Hi, Mitch," Courtney said.

"Guys."

They both glanced around the room.

"Where's Beth?" Monica asked.

"She's gone. You've got me to yourself."

"Cool."

"Um," Courtney said. "Now what?"

I stood up.

"Come on."

I led them into the back. I could tell from their nervousness that they wanted me to take the lead, which was par for this particular course. I hugged them both together when we got to the end of the bed. I kissed Courtney, then Monica, in turn. When I lifted off Monica's T- shirt, Courtney pulled hers off as well. Like that, I undressed the two of them. As soon as they were naked, they jumped under the covers, giggling.

I pulled off my clothes, letting them watch me. I crawled onto the bed between them.

"This is your show. Tell me what you had in mind."

"We flipped a coin," Monica said. "Courtney gets to go first."

"Okay."

I pulled her small, lithe form into my arms, feeling all over her. She was rather ticklish, and I soon had her squirming and giggling. Her breasts were tiny, about the size of lemon halves, with nipples scarcely larger than BB's. A bit of tweaking and twisting got them erect, and I slid down to suck on them. I looked over at Monica, who was watching us raptly.

By sucking hard enough, I could almost get all of Courtney's breast into mouth, which she seemed to enjoy. I used my left hand to roam over her body, finding her pubic hair gone (the sorority trademark, as I mentioned). I slipped a finger between her smooth lips. When I found her clitoris, I gave it a gentle tweak. She gasped, arching her back.

I kissed my way down, and Monica pulled back the covers as I went so she could see. I settled between Courtney's thighs, took her small butt in my hands, and pulled her to me. She let out a quiet squeak and put her hands on my head, gripping my hair. I sucked on her, probing with my tongue until I found her virginity. She seemed to like that, so I did it again. I took most of her into my mouth, working it around. Her hips were soon rolling and lifting off the bed as she pulled at my hair.

"Does that feel good?" Monica asked.

Courtney nodded rapidly, but didn't answer her. I noticed that one of Monica's hands had disappeared under the covers, and I had an idea where it had gone. Courtney began to jerk, thrashing in my tight grip, and cried out twice as she came. She held my head tightly against her, so I kept going. Her thighs began moving back and forth, drumming against my ears. Then her whole body almost bounced off the bed, although she kept my locked between her thighs. When she came again a few seconds later, she screeched so loudly that I was afraid someone might hear us.

Monica laughed in embarrassment, and threw a pillow over Courtney's face. Shivering in the aftermath of that huge climax, Courtney came slowly back to earth.

"God," Monica whispered, "I thought she was going into orbit. She never comes like that by herself."

Doesn't she? I thought. There might be more going on here than I had thought.

I crawled up above Courtney, moving the pillow aside to kiss her. I looked over to see Monica handing me a condom from the bedside, and I rolled it on. Courtney let me slide on top of her, putting her arms around my waist.

"Are you ready?"

She nodded.

As wet as she was, I was inside her before I knew it. Her virginity parted with only the slightest resistance, and she dug her fingers into my back as I filled her up. She was very tight, as small as she was, and I tried to take it gently.

I closed my eyes and tried to imagine that it was Beth, which was impossible. Courtney was simply too much slimmer and shorter. But she writhed under me like a cat, moaning and whimpering the way Beth often did. As wound up as she was, it didn't take her long to come again. When she seemed done, I began to withdraw.

She tried to stop me.

"Did you come?"

"No. Don't forget about Monica."

"Please come. It won't be the same if you don't come."

"We'll have to wait a while afterwards."

"That's okay," Monica said.

Relenting, I thrust back into her. I had hoped to get this over with without having to go twice--and felt guilty for wanting it--but apparently it wasn't to be. I let myself go, enjoying her tight little body under me, kissing her again. Within a minute, I got myself off, trying not to thrust too far into her lest I hurt her.

I rolled off, between them, and caught my breath. Courtney rolled over with me, laying her head on my chest.

"That was neat," Monica said. "Was it good?"

Courtney nodded.

Monica nuzzled against me, and we lay together for a few minutes. I got up to clean myself off, then returned to bed.

Monica snuggled against me.

"My turn."

"What did you mean earlier, when you said Courtney doesn't come like that by herself?"

She giggled, biting her lip and looking at Courtney.

"Um, we sometimes get off together. Just for fun."

"Gotcha."

"That's why we wanted to do it like this," Courtney said.

"I thought so."

I kissed her and played with her for about five minutes. She had larger breasts than Courtney did, which wasn't saying much. I got her to kneel above me as I sucked on them, then she climbed up to sit on my face. She didn't like the vigorous probing that Courtney had, and made me just use the tip of my tongue. That established, I was able to bring her off rapidly with a lot of spinning and teasing. When she came, she threw herself back onto the bed, spraying her long hair over me in a swath.

She rested for a minute, then continued south, taking me tentatively into her mouth. Courtney lay next to us, watching but not moving or saying anything. Monica seemed to know what she was doing, so I lay back and let her work. When she got me erect, she grabbed another condom from the nightstand. After she rolled it on for me, she sat up, throwing a leg over my waist.

"Did you like that?"

"Yes."

"Brittany told me what you like."

I put my hands on her thighs.

"Do you want to do it like this?"

"Is that okay?"

"Sure."

She positioned herself over me, then lowered herself down. She was very wet already, and I slipped into her. She sighed as I bottomed out, digging herself against me.

I lay there and let her do what she wanted. She spent a while trying to find an angle she liked, but once she did, she worked herself off in a few minutes. I played with her breasts meanwhile, sometimes pulling her down to kiss her. After her second orgasm, she lay flat on my chest.

She laughed contentedly.

"I'm done."

I caressed her smooth butt for a moment, then, holding tight onto it, rolled her over on her back. That put us right next to Courtney, who looked up at me, grinning.

"Hi."

I bent down to kiss her briefly, then went back to work on Monica. I had to work harder to get myself off, but she hardly seemed to mind. She was soon grabbing my butt and thrashing on the bed under me. When I finally squirted off inside her, she shuddered into orgasm with me.

We lay together for about ten minutes, talking and caressing each other, then they went back to their cabin.

Beth reappeared a few minutes after they left.

"How are you doing?"

"I'm okay. I'm sorry about before."

"No, you had a point. In any normal universe, this would be crazy."

She lay down with me, and rolled over, holding her. She laughed softly to herself.

"What?"

"You'll get mad at me."

"I'm probably too tired to get mad. Go ahead."

"I'm horny."

"Oh, God."

"I know. But you see, it's the smell of the girls on you that does it. It's like I have to reclaim my territory."

I laughed weakly, and rolled on my back.

"Do what you want."

She did. It was worth the effort.

XIV.

After a week of trauma, the Fates gave us a break and didn't throw any more crises at us for a few days. Beth and I were occupied with a series of mundane concerns for another week.

Thursday night was the staff's night out, though a few of us had to stay behind. Those of us who remained set the campers up for Movie Night in the cafeteria. Once things were underway, I went outside to get some air. I ran into Brittany just outside the main doors.

"Hey. I thought you'd be out in town."

She shrugged.

"I wasn't in the mood."

"I haven't seen much of you since camp started. How is everything?"

"I'm okay."

I stared at her for a second.

"Is something wrong?"

She sighed.

"Do you have a few minutes?"

"Sure."

We walked away from the cafeteria, down toward the lake before she said anything else. She stopped at the dock and sat down on a bench.

"What's up?"

"Have you ever had an idea that wouldn't let go of you, no matter how crazy you knew it was?"

"Well, I don't know. What's this idea?"

"I'll get to it. Maybe. How do you decide whether to act on it?"

"That depends on how crazy it is."

"It's pretty crazy. Not as crazy as it might seem to everyone else, but still a long way out in left field."

I looked away from her, not sure what was going on.

"I guess you have to decide what your priorities are. What you value and who you care about. How this idea would effect all of that."

"What if caring about someone is what makes the idea so crazy?"

I looked back at her, trying to find some answers in her eyes.

"Brittany, you're not making a lot of sense."

"I know. Because I can't explain it anymore without giving it all away."

Something clicked in my head.

"This has to do with me?"

She nodded.

"Brittany . . ."

She grabbed my hand, squeezing it.

"It's not what you think."

"Probably because right now I don't know what to think."

"Just don't get mad at me. At least not until I tell you."

"Are you going to tell me?"

She stared at me a second or two, then turned away, closing her eyes.

"That's what I can't decide. If telling you this will just make everything worse. The reason you haven't seen much of me lately is because I've been avoiding you. I was too afraid of what this idea would mean."

I sighed and put my arm on her shoulder.

"Honey, I have a hard time thinking of anything you could say at this point that would change how I feel about you. Not after everything that's happened."

"Wait until you hear this."

"Okay. Just tell me. Because we're going in circles here."

She took a deep breath.

"I want to be your . . . God, I don't even know what to call it. I think 'concubine' is the best word for it."

Well, I was wrong. This totally floored me. She stared at me, terror in her eyes.

"Brittany . . . you know that Beth would not object to our occasionally being together. So what are you asking me?"

"I know that. I want more. I don't want to get in the way of your marriage to Beth. I would die before doing that. She's going to be your wife, and I'm happy about that. But I want to be the number two wife."

My jaw had to be on my chest by now.

"You've lost me."

"I want to live with you. When I start at USC this fall. I would sleep in my own room and have my own life. But would also be there for you and for Beth. However you wanted to do it."

The full parameters of what she was proposing began unfolding in my head.

"Brittany, I don't know what to say to this. Beth and I haven't even decided ourselves what's going to happen after we get married."

"I know. I was hoping this might be a solution."

"Why?"

"Because I love you. I've always loved you. It's the reason I've never slept with another guy. I never wanted anyone but you. I still don't. I know we can't get married, not legally anyway, but since you said you and Beth were going to have some kind of open marriage, I want to be a part of it. As much a part of it as I can be."

Beth, my God. How was she going to react to this? Sex was one thing; love was another. She had said that, said it after I told her I didn't know if I loved Brittany.

"And I'm not saying I just want it for you," she went on. "I also want it for Beth. I love her too, maybe not as much as I love you, but I do love her. You told me yourself that you guys were going to be realistic about her being bisexual. Can't I help with that?"

I closed my eyes, sighing.

"I need to think about this."

"I know. I told you it was a crazy idea."

"It's less crazy than it is just a big surprise."

"And if you don't want to do it, I'll understand. I'll find a way to deal with it."

I didn't tell Beth that night. I couldn't get to sleep thinking about it, though. Was it a solution or would simply proposing it be enough to wreck our engagement? I couldn't decide how I felt about the idea or even if I had an opinion. Part of me wanted to run full speed away from the idea, but that also meant running full speed away from Brittany. Which I wasn't sure I was capable of doing.

XV.

I stewed for a few days. Whether Beth noticed or not, she didn't mention it. It became increasingly clear to me that we were avoiding the issue of our "arrangement," which only made it more difficult for me to decide whether to bring up Brittany's proposal. Brittany, for her part, returned to avoiding me, apparently deciding that there wasn't much else to say after that conversation.

Karin and I had worked out a good routine with the martial arts classes, and I was confident about splitting up for the next girl's camp in July. But if her teaching abilities were developing, her mood was getting progressively dimmer as the days went by. Sunday morning, after the beginner's class was over, I hung around the dojo until the campers were all gone.

"You look like you've got something you need to talk about."

She looked up, trying to force a grin.

"Things have gone kind of sour with Rich."

"Over the sorority?"

"I think so. He won't talk to me much now, but what else could it be?"

"Do you want me to talk to him?"

She perked up slightly.

"Would you? Do you think that would help?"

"Do you think it would hurt?"

She shrugged weakly.

"The way things are going, we're probably history otherwise."

"I'll track him down after lunch."

"Thanks."

I found him down on the dock.

"Hey, Rich."

"Mitch."

"This may be none of my business, and if you want me to butt out, say so. But I'm sensing some problems with you and Karin, and I think I can guess what it's about."

"Yeah."

"Anything you want to talk about?"

He sighed, and turned away, looking out over the lake.

"Man, it's just . . . none of this was what I expected. I thought I would have this cool job teaching swimming with all these girls. I meet this total babe who really seems to like me, and who seems really cool. Then I find out there's this ton of other stuff going on. I just can't get a grip on it."

I found myself laughing softly.

"Let me tell you a little story."

He looked back at me.

"What about?"

"Three years ago, I was where you are now. I was in my third year at USC. I was teaching karate on the side. One day that spring, I get a call from Gerald, the guy who owns the place, asking me if I want to teach martial arts at the girl's camp. Everything seemed normal until the night I got here. Then one of the counselors, this girl named Kim, shows up at my cabin."

We sat down on one of the benches on the dock about halfway into it. I left out a lot of the details, but gave him enough to get the idea.

" . . . and that, essentially, is how I wound up running this place."

"Man. What I don't get, though, is why Beth doesn't mind you doing all this."

I laughed.

"Sometimes I don't get it myself. See, in the beginning, I thought that having a bisexual girlfriend was going to be this enormous thrill ride. Though the thrills are there, a tremendous amount of other stuff comes along with it. It's not all fun and games. It requires a lot of hard work and understanding. I do it because I love her, as strange as that may sound. What I've learned is that love and happiness don't always come in familiar packages. They tend to come with strings attached, sometimes strings that lead to very unexpected situations. If you want to make it work, you have to learn to deal with the unexpected. Life has a habit of throwing you curve balls from time to time."

"Yeah."

"Karin really does like you. She is not happy right now thinking that the sorority issue has driven you two apart."

"I know. She's really cool. I guess, if I'm understanding you right, you're saying that you have to learn to recognize opportunities as they come, even if they seem really weird. You have to be willing to take chances for the people you care about."

Something went pop in my head, as if an enormous soap bubble that had been clouding my perspective suddenly collapsed.

"Yeah . . . that is what I'm saying. I'm sorry. I have to go do something. We can talk more after you get done with class."

"Uh, yeah, sure. Thanks, man."

"No problem."

I got up from the dock and walked rapidly up the hill. I found Beth in the office, working. She looked up as I came in.

"What's up?"

"Come upstairs with me."

"Why? What's going on?"

"I have to tell you something, and if I wait much longer, I may lose my nerve."

Her face paled.

"What is it?"

"Upstairs. I don't want anyone overhearing this."

She followed me up to our room.

"Mitch, what's going on?"

"Sit down."

She did, and I sat next to her on the couch.

"I don't know how to go about telling you this, so I'm just going to tell you. I want you to know that I'm not sure what to make of this idea, but I finally decided that you should have a chance to evaluate this yourself."

"Honey, you're scaring me. What is this?"

I took a deep breath.

"It's about Brittany. I don't know if you've noticed, but she's kept a rather low profile these past two weeks. A couple of nights ago, I found out why. She has a rather unusual proposal that might just be what we need to resolve this problem of ours. But I know you're sensitive about how I feel about her, so I want you to know that I'm not wedded to this idea."

"What is it?"

"She wants to be what would amount to being my . . . our . . . concubine. The 'number two wife' is how she put it. She wants to live with us after we get married, to serve as the outlet for this difficulty of ours. I didn't know what to think, and I almost didn't tell you. But I was talking to Rich about his problems with Karin, and I realized you had a right to know."

Her jaw had dropped, and I could see the wheels spinning in her head, the emotions washing over her face. She just stared, slack- jawed, for several seconds. But then, finally, she looked back up to me, and she was actually smiling.

"I love it."

I couldn't answer her right away.

"You do?"

"Yes. I think it's a wonderful idea. Don't you see? This is the solution to this whole problem. No more teenage campers. No more random friends. Just the three of us, together."

"But living with us? You could deal with that?"

She put her hands over mine, leaning forward.

"Mitch, you are the most understanding man I have ever known. It's why I'm marrying you. I don't know how many other men could really deal with this the way you have, could keep being this understanding long after thrill has worn off. I know the novelty of my being bisexual wore off a long time ago for you, that you understand now about the difficulties of it. If you can understand that, I can being understanding about the fact that you love Brittany too."

"Wait--"

She put her hand up, blocking my mouth with her fingers.

"You don't have to deny it. You may not even realize it yourself, but I can see it in how you look at her, how you interact with her. I know I'm number one with you. But I also know that doesn't preclude your having feelings for her. It's okay. I love her, too. She's the sweetest girl I've ever met, besides being beautiful inside and out. And the prospect of sleeping with her and you and no one else for the foreseeable future is very attractive."

"But . . . do you really think she could do this? Be the live-in mistress for any length of time?"

"Who knows? Mitch, we don't know for certain what's going to happen tomorrow, let alone five years from now. My guess is that, eventually, she may get tired of sharing you and want someone for her own. But it might well work. God knows she's nuts about you. And she's grown up with the knowledge that you were with someone else all this time. I'm not worried about her trying to break up our marriage."

She grabbed my chin.

"Look me in the eye and tell me you don't find this idea attractive."

"I do . . . it's just such unexplored territory."

"What hasn't been the three years we've known each other? Our whole relationship has been unorthodox from the beginning. You didn't really expect us to have an 'Ozzie and Harriet' marriage after all this, did you?"

"No."

"So? This is the most stable means of dealing with the complications we both know exist. What are the alternatives? We become completely monogamous, and I end up having an affair with some woman ten years from now because I can't help myself? Or we go on having these random encounters that drive you nuts? Tell me either option is better than this."

Put that way, it began to make sense.

"Yeah."

"It's the monogamy you seem to want, just between three of us instead of two. And I don't know who else would be more appropriate for it than Brittany."

I stared at her, realizing she was right. I would have her,

alone--almost--only sharing her with someone I loved myself. No more uncertainties, or at least a lot fewer than we had now.

"I guess we'd better tell her then."

She smiled, and leaned in to kiss me. I held her, kissing her back for a few seconds.

"I love you."

"I love you, too," she said. "Let's go."

We walked down the hill together to Cabin Twelve. The campers were all off at their afternoon activities, and Brittany was lying on her bunk, reading. She sat up when we came in. I saw a brief look of apprehension flash across her face when she realized who it was. Then she saw the smile on Beth's face, and the excitement began filling her eyes.

Beth said nothing. She just sat down next to her and hugged her. I sat on the other side and hugged them both. Brittany began crying.

"Oh, God."

The two women held each other for a few moments.

"Thank you," Brittany squeaked.

"No, thank you, honey. We should have thought of this ourselves."

Beth kissed her, and Brittany laid her head on Beth's shoulder.

"Do you think it will really work?"

"I know we'll all do our best," I said.

"Just the three of us," Brittany said.

"Just the three of us," Beth responded. "Nobody else."

Brittany wiped at her eyes, starting to laugh.

"I love you. Both of you."

"We love you, too, honey."

Brittany laughed again and turned around to hug me. I held her for a few moments while Beth smiled at us. I could see her thinking about something. Then she stood up.

"Okay. Come on with me."

"Where?" Brittany asked.

"Back to our room. There's something I want to do."

We got up with her, and the three of us walked up the hill to the main building. Beth shut the door when we were all upstairs. She took both of our hands. Brittany's hand and mine came together.

"All right. This may seem a little silly, but I want to have some kind of commitment about this. Between the three of us. Mitch and I are already getting married. We'll consider this a side agreement, but one that's just as important. Okay?"

"Okay," Brittany said.

Beth looked at me.

"Okay," I said.

"We agree that there will be no secrets and no sneaking around because there's no need for it. Brittany will have her own room and her own life like she said, but she'll be as much a part of the household as Mitch and Beth are. We understand that there will be times, many times, that two of us want to be together, alone, and the other one won't get uncomfortable about it because we know its part of the relationship. We'll respect each other's privacy in that regard, but we won't abuse it. We have to be able to trust each other. That's the most important part. It won't work otherwise."

"I understand," Brittany said.

I nodded.

"That's fine."

"If there are any problems with this, we'll talk about them calmly. We won't let things fester. We'll remember that we're doing this because we have legitimate needs that this agreement is designed to satisfy. And also because we love each other. We have to remember that."

Brittany sniffed, wiping at her eyes.

"Because we love each other."

"Right."

I hugged both of them, and they hugged me back. Brittany began giggling.

"What?" Beth asked.

"I was thinking we have to christen this agreement, except that it's only two-thirty in the afternoon."

Beth looked at me, smiling.

"I don't have anywhere to be."

I looked at them both. There was nothing I wanted more right then than go to bed with them. Brittany backed up, grinning, pulling us toward the bedroom.

The two women undressed each other, and me. We crawled into bed together, hugging and fondling and kissing. I lost myself in the two of them, feeling like a weight had been lifted from my back. Everything had fallen together somehow. I didn't care if Beth and Brittany ended up having sex every day for the rest of our lives, because it meant that I had them to myself, and no one else would be involved. If it had been legal, I would have married Brittany too, and I knew Beth would have let me. She would probably have done it herself. I wondered if we should take a trip to Hawaii and have the two of them get married anyway, since it would be legally meaningless in California. Something to think about, maybe.

Brittany ended up between us, and I kissed her and played with her breasts as Beth worked her way downward. I watched her settling between Brittany's thighs, kissing her, and took a breast into my mouth. Brittany held me with one hand and put the other on Beth's head. I stroked Brittany's stomach lightly, feeling her growing arousal. She pulled me up to kiss me, and I held her as Beth worked on her. I followed her reactions, doing the things I knew she liked, playing with her breasts and feeling her nipples get stiff and puffy. She began to whimper, then squirm around, then breath rapidly through her nose. I watched her face as she finally came, realizing how familiar it was to me.

Beth kept going, and I looked down to watch her. The mere sight of a woman making love to another woman no longer did much for me. What aroused me was the sight of the woman I loved, my future wife, making the other woman I loved feel good. Doing it because they loved each other too.

Brittany came again, holding me tightly as she shivered under Beth's expert attentions. Beth let her coast down, and crawled up to kiss us. Brittany kissed her deeply, arms around her, and rolled her on her back next to me. As I lay next to them, the arrangement reversed itself, and Brittany was soon making love to Beth. Beth dug her fingers through Brittany's hair, holding her close. I sucked on Beth's breasts, back and forth, pausing to kiss her when I switched.

I watched Beth growing closer and closer to orgasm, watched Brittany lost in the fog of pleasuring Beth, not even looking up at us. By now, watching anyone else do what she was doing might have turned me off. But not her.

Beth came, shuddering and arching her back, a few moments later. She held Brittany's head tightly to her, and Brittany scarcely slowed down. She came again about fifteen seconds later, then pushed her away, gasping. Brittany finally looked up at me, smiling. I reached for her, and she crawled up to lie on the other side of me.

The two women came together over me, taking me into their mouths in turn. Laughing at each other, they passed my erection back and forth, even trying to kiss each other with me in the middle. After a few minutes of it, I stopped them and pulled them to me.

I rolled onto Brittany, slipping into her. Brittany reached for Beth, pulling her up until she squatted over Brittany's face. I watched Brittany making love to her again as I made love to her. Then Beth turned around to face me, still over Brittany, and we kissed, holding onto each other, laughing.

Working together, we pleasured each other. Beth was the first to come, biting at my shoulder as Brittany licked up at her. She threw herself to the side, letting me lower myself onto Brittany. I kissed her, tasting Beth in her, and drove myself into her. She came a few moments later, and I lost it shortly after that, spurting off helplessly inside her.

We played and cuddled together for a while after that. I watched while Beth went down on Brittany again, until Brittany pulled me up to her mouth. When she had brought me erect again, I slid down to the end of the bed, and standing on the floor, entered Beth from behind. When Brittany came a few minutes later, she pulled us up onto the bed, sliding down under Beth until she could lick up at us from below. Beth soon lost it, having to bury her face in the pillow to keep from attracting attention. Then we disengaged, Beth rolling over, and Brittany lay next to us as Beth and I finished together.

XVI.

As it happened, we didn't reappear until dinnertime. If anyone had noticed our mutual absences, I couldn't tell. I ate dinner with Cabin Nine, and when I sat down, greeting the campers, someone came up behind me and hugged me. I twisted around to see a mass of blonde hair and realized it was Karin.

"Thank you."

"You're welcome. What for?"

"For Rich. What did you say to him?"

"Oh. I just told him what happened to me. How Beth and I met, and how I learned to deal with the sorority. He seemed to understand."

"He did. He came up to me this afternoon and said he was willing to work at it. That he wanted to give us a chance. That he thought he could deal with the other issues."

"I'm happy."

"So am I. I kind of lost it when he told me. We did something we probably shouldn't have given that it was three o'clock in the afternoon, but I don't care."

I grinned. Apparently I wasn't the only one who had been busy that afternoon.

"Did you?"

"Yes. And it was wonderful."

I hugged her.

"I'm happy for you."

"Thanks."

"Where is he?"

She blushed, glancing around.

"Um, asleep. I didn't want to wake him up. He looked too cute lying there."

"Okay. When you see him again, tell him I want to talk to him."

"Sure. What about?"

"I'm going to pitch the sorority idea to him again. Unless you don't want me to."

She stared at me for a few seconds.

"Are you sure?"

"After our talk today, I think so."

"Okay. Go ahead. I think he might be more receptive now."

After dark, when the campers had gone off to the evening sing-a- long down by the water, I saw Rich walking up to me.

"Hey."

"Hey. Karin said you wanted to talk to me?"

"Yeah. Come on."

He followed me down to the dock. We could hear the girls singing around the campfire toward the other end of the camp. The night was clear, and a billion stars filled the sky above us.

"You've had some time to digest what I told you today. I'm sorry I had to run off like that, but our talk actually made me realize something I had to act on this afternoon. And from what Karin told me at dinner, you're beginning to understand what we're all about here."

"Yeah. I think so."

"You remember what I said when I first told you about the sorority? How we wanted to bring you into it, bring you in to take over my responsibilities?"

He nodded.

"We didn't do it the way we planned because Karin thought you would be repulsed by the idea. I'm not so sure now."

"Mitch--"

"Let me finish, then you can tell me what you think."

"Okay."

"We're not looking for someone who gets off on sleeping with teenage girls. We're not looking for someone who treats this lightly. We're looking for someone like you, who takes sex seriously and knows that there are serious issues involved in deciding to make love with someone. I know, from three years of personal experience, that this is difficult work. The excitement wears off pretty quickly. It is a job, a job with certain fringe benefits, but a job nonetheless. But it can also be very rewarding, and by that I don't mean that you get to sleep with all these girls. I mean that you get to work with them, help them, and guide them. To watch them grow from hesitant girls into bright, confident young women like Karin and Brittany."

His eyes widened as he realized what I had said.

"Karin--"

I nodded.

"Was one of my campers. The first one, in fact. Without the sorority, I'm not sure where she would be now. But I can look now at everything she's become, and knowing that I had a hand in it is a pretty good feeling."

"But are you still . . ."

"Sleeping with her? No. Not anymore. That part of our relationship is over, and has been for a while."

"Okay."

"I'm only asking you to think about this. I know what's required, and I know you would do a very job with it. You're very good with kids; you really seem to know how to interact with them. You're a sensitive guy, and I mean that as a compliment. Doing this would require some adjustments in your relationship with Karin, but I know from experience that the extra work is worth it in the long run. If you're serious about her, you have to deal with her bisexuality one way or another. It's not an issue that goes away by ignoring it."

"I know. Does she know you're asking me this?"

"Yes. She was a little nervous about how you would react, but she was okay with it. Remember that she's grown up with all this. The sorority is a big part of her life and has been for six or seven years. It means a lot to her. Talk to her about it. Decide together if you want to do this."

"Okay."

"Thanks. I'd really enjoy having you be a part of it."

I patted him on the shoulder and led him back up to the camp. We walked toward the sing-a-long, listening to the chorus of female voices growing louder and louder. I saw Beth and Brittany together, arms over each other's shoulders. I saw Karin next to them, and she waved as we approached. Rich went to her, hugging her and whispering something to her. She laughed, hugging him back. Beth and Brittany separated, pulling me into the circle, and I began singing with the rest of them, hugging the two people I loved more than anything in the world.

"What were you doing with Rich?" Beth asked.

"One last loose end."

"Is he going to do it?"

"I think so."

Brittany grinned.

"It's funny how things work out."

I looked at her, then at Beth, and kissed them both.

"Yeah. You could say that."

THE END