Book 1 of “The Catalyst” Series
Chapter 16: Returning Home
I woke up to a new experience. I was lying on my back with two children cuddling up on either side of me and two beautiful women lying against them. Suddenly I’d gone from a naïve kid to being surrounded by multiple women and now I was a father figure. Man, this was rough for me to comprehend. But the kids were cute and I just couldn’t help but love them; and I certainly loved the women. It might be weird but life was pretty good right then. Well, aside from my problems with my sister at least.
I managed to wiggle my arm free and check my watch; it was nearly time to get up. Today was the day we were leaving New Orleans and heading home. Hopefully that would be the end of all this craziness, but I didn’t really believe that. I gently shook Josh until he started to rouse.
“Time to get up, Josh. You’ve got school today,” I told the sleepy little ragamuffin.
“Yeah, you’d better get going,” Brooke instructed her child, waking up pretty quickly on her own. “Take you sister back to her room and both of you start getting ready.” I hadn’t realized she was awake. I’d been hoping to let her sleep in a little longer.
I felt someone hugging my side. “Thank you for letting us stay here,” Suzy said. I was glad she was finally starting to speak to me. I hate that whole ‘too nervous to talk’ phase all these women seemed to go through. I gently kissed her forehead and returned her hug.
“Thanks for being you, it was lovely having you here,” I told them both. Josh started to climb out of bed.
“Josh, were you really scared last night?” I asked. “You seem a little old to be climbing into bed with your mother.”
He laughed, “Nah, I just wanted to spend more time with you. Mom said you were leaving so I figured this was the only chance I’d get.” I would have tousled his hair but he was already too far away. Plus I couldn’t get up because I was still naked.
“And what about you, young lady?” I asked a bleary eyed Suzy.
“I’d been wanting to watch you the whole time but I was afraid to come in. When I saw Josh get up, I figured I could come too,” she sleepily explained.
“But you’re not scared of me now, are you?” She quickly shook her head but still looked unsure.
“I know, he can really make you nervous, can’t he?” Rebecca asked, to which she nodded. “He’s kind of like sticking your finger into an electric outlet. You know it’s a good energy that helps people, but it’s still a lot of power.” Once again, she nodded quickly at the truth of Rebecca’s words.
“Well hurry up kids, you need to get ready in a hurry,” Brooke instructed. “We’ll be out shortly. Oh, and wake the other girls too, will you?” she called to their retreating forms.
The two women shifted over and both gave me a nice good morning kiss.
“We’d better hurry,” Brooke informed us. “We might be able to finish off what we started last night, but only if we rush. I’m not about to see you leave today before I get my share of you.”
“You know—” I began.
“That we aren’t allowed to have intercourse?” she asked. “Yeah, Shani laid down the law to all of us, and I’ve got to say, it actually sounds like a good idea. I’d love to have you pound me to oblivion right now, but I’ll settle for some gentle, non-invasive loving.”
So we quickly scrambled out of bed and rushed into the shower. While not quite as nice as the hotel’s shower, it was big enough for the three of us as long as you didn’t mind being close, and I didn’t hear any complaints. I wasted no time and backed Brooke against the wall, where I fell to my knees and proceeded to eat her out while Rebecca kissed her and played with her breasts for me. I proceeded to give her a couple of quick cums but we were under the gun here. They both pulled me up to my feet, then changed places with me and both proceeded to give me a mutual blowjob. For never having done this together before, they worked together pretty smoothly.
“Sorry it can’t be any more romantic,” Brooke gasped out between turns swallowing my rod, “but if we’re too long the kids will come … looking for us again.” Heeding her advice I proceeded to loosen my load shortly thereafter. I’d kind of wanted to paint their faces a little but they treated it like it was a precious commodity, not to be wasted. After that they helped me as we all stumbled out, still a little weak kneed.
Figuring they deserved at least part of what the other women got, I proceeded to pat them dry with the towel like I had done a few days earlier. I couldn’t spend long at it, but it gave me a nice chance to examine them up close and personal as I familiarized myself with their natural scents and looks.
Rebecca was cleanly and recently shaven, something I thought odd for a busy nurse. Brooke still bore a full bush but it was nice and soft and fun to play with as I blew on the little curly hairs, but that was about all that I had time for.
When we arrived in the kitchen we saw the other women had everything firmly in hand with both kids busily eating breakfast. “We kinda thought you might want some extra time with him,” Shani told us with a smile.
“You have no idea,” Brooke told her. “We spent the night with the kids.”
“Yeah, they told us all about it,” Patricia acknowledged.
We hurried getting ourselves and the kids ready. Brooke asked Josh to run outside and get the paper for me when I stopped her.
“Really, I think I’ve had enough of the local paper for now. There really isn’t much more that Mr. Rodriguez can do to me, and I’d really rather not spoil this beautiful morning.” So the paper remained in the box outside. The other cars pulled up about the time we were walking the kids out to their bus stop. We quickly introduced everyone, with Brooke instructing the kids they’d get a chance to get to know everyone very well in the near future, and then sent them on their way.
Leaving early accomplished several things. First, and the most obvious, was that it got us out from under outside observation. Mom also said that she and Anh could spend the extra days adjusting the house for more people. Shaniqua and the rest would have to begin looking for a new apartment as well as a new job. We knew that whatever they found, they’d be spending all their time at my house. Mom argued “Not if you want to bring someone from school over,” winking at me, leading me to think she’d been talking with Shani about her ‘no sex before you have a girlfriend’ rule.
It had been a busy and very unusual week. I was thinking it would be nice to get away from our vacation and finally relax, but I knew the craziness wasn’t likely to end with me taking a bunch of women home with me. I was also nervous about the long drive ahead of us due to the recent incident between Cate and myself. She’d hardly acknowledged me since then, other than answering questions I’d pose through an intermediary, and I knew that it would be difficult being in a confined space for a long time.
Nearly everyone called into work to take the morning off so they could see us off—everyone but Peter and his crew that is. All the women were there and they proceeded to give me very emotional and tear-filled goodbyes. Their goodbye kisses left little to the imagination. I was glad the kids had already taken off. Shani said she was going to work over the weekend to get much of her work finished early. She’d arranged with her boss to leave early if she managed to finish some ongoing projects. Natalie had a similar agreement with the hotel, so she thought she could join us in a few days. I just hoped neither was giving themselves a black mark in their careers because of me.
Anh and Allison were coming with us, of course, but Allison was driving her own car. Cate had wanted to drive in her nice convertible on the way back but Mom had put her foot down, telling us to work our problems out like ‘a normal couple’. I wasn’t sure what the hell she meant by that, but I didn’t dwell on it too much.
Everyone was hugging. Shani told me she’d miss me and reminded me to keep a look out for a new girlfriend at school. After that we got underway, still relatively early in the morning. Cate seemed almost back to her old self. We had three people in the backseat. I sat in the middle, which is easier with my long legs, but it’s still hard on the buns to sit there for a long stretch, with Cate on my left and Anh on my right. At least Cate didn’t seem to be afraid of me, although she flinched a couple of times when I moved or shifted in her direction. I tried not to take it personally and chalked it up to Shani’s theory. I simply assumed she’d eventually get over it, but then she took a deep breath, glanced at Anh—who nodded her head in response—and then gave me a big hug.
I was at a loss for a response, but gave her a quick hug back, as I usually do. But, instead of breaking away after only a few moments, she continued to hold me for quite a while. Although I thought it was odd, I didn’t interfere, figuring she was trying to make amends and demonstrate that she was no longer angry with me. Of course, after a bit it becomes like the young man in the back of the theater, her arm must have fallen asleep by then, but when I asked her about it she told me it was the least she could do so I just accepted it and put it out of my mind as I already had enough women doing things I didn’t understand.
Speaking of relaxing more, I noticed that Cate seemed to be ‘packing light’. Her T-shirt seemed to fit extra nice, though it was hard to tell. Actually, given that she was so small up top, I doubted she’d normally wear much in the way of bras, as I’d never really noticed it in the past, but after the last couple of days I’d begun paying more attention to my sister’s relative charms (no pun intended). I tried to subtly check for clues while we were driving, thinking I was being cool, but she suddenly covered her chest with both arms.
“Hey, quit it, buddy! I didn’t want to spend the next several hours tied up in a damn bra but this ain’t no damn peep show.”
I blushed clear down to my toes, leading to everyone laughing at me—which I thought was strange since no one commented on my behavior, simply taking it as a humorous moment instead. There was something clearly odd going on, and it wasn’t just the fact that women kept approaching me. I wasn’t completely convinced she didn’t put it on specifically to embarrass me—the act that is, not the T-shirt. Anyway, I tried to keep my eyes forward after that. I tried at least. However, I saw a look pass between Anh and Cate while they thought I wasn’t looking
“Hey, Alex,” Cate said sincerely, “I’m sorry for teasing you. I really didn’t mean it and the fault was all mine.”
My head jerked back in surprise and I looked at her, trying to figure out which pod person replaced my sister. But she linked her arm through mine.
“You’re allowed to look all you want,” she assured me. “Since I know how damn good I look,” she said with a smirk, showing she wasn’t done teasing after all. “I mean, how could you resist?”
She laughed, which showed she was finally relaxing around me, but still, I was cautious. I figured it was one of those little traps like ‘Do I look fat in this?’ or ‘Does that girl look pretty?’ The kinds of questions designed to get you into trouble no matter what you say. So I tried not to look, once burned you know. But I was beginning to feel like Alice in Wonderland, things were just getting even stranger than they’d been this entire past week, which is pretty damn strange!
That’s the thing with telepathy, when you get publicly humiliated like that, even people nowhere near you get a chance to laugh at you over it! Allison seemed to think Cate calling me on looking at her was just the funniest thing. But then, after a couple of minutes, she asked me what had happened since, making me think they all knew something I didn’t. When I told her about Cate’s apology she simply said, ‘Ah,’ as if she had been expecting it. I thought I’d have to speak to someone about it, but I wanted to do it face to face when I could watch their reactions, since I had a feeling they’d try to doge the question, and most of all I wanted to do it when we were alone.
My parents started talking about the places we’d visited, trying to draw Cate and I into the conversation, but of course the discussion eventually drifted back to my new abilities. Our new abilities I corrected myself.
“You know,” my father explained, “I’m not convinced you don’t have a little mind control thing going as well.” We all looked at him as if he’d suddenly sprouted horns.
“Hey, it’s awfully quiet back there. Linda, look quick, are they all staring at the back of my head.”
“Yep,” she good naturedly humored him.
“What I mean is have you stopped to think how a bunch of women are suddenly all over you without jealousy, without concern about child abuse charges or their own futures? Are you sure you’re not unwittingly exerting some sort of control over them?” he said, explaining his logic to us.
“I don’t feel like I am,” I replied, considering the possibility before suddenly shaking my head. Nah, it couldn’t be.
“Anh says she doesn’t feel controlled in any way,” I told him, conveying her opinion on the subject, “and Shani specifically said the same thing a few days ago. And the girls don’t go along with everything I say anyway,” I stated, trying to defend myself against this newest theory.
“Have they ever told you ‘No’?” Again I stopped to consider it.
“Well…, Shani…, uh….”
“Yes, Shani said she’s not going to have sex with you until you lose your virginity the ‘traditional way’, right?” I felt myself blushing again at the fact that both my parents seemed to know all the details of my fumbling sex life so far.
“Still, they’re both having sex with you with absolutely no qualms about it,” he continued, pushing the issue. “When you got scared about things moving too fast, Shani backed right down and didn’t pressure you about it anymore. Your sister went along with all your playing around in the room, even though it must have been uncomfortable for her. Don’t you think that’s a bit odd? And even your mother and I, we can rationalize that we like all the girls, but that might just be it. Rationalization. Maybe we can’t help ourselves in accepting what’s going on?”
“I don’t know…,” I said hesitantly.
“And what about your sister? From what I hear she was more than just an unwitting participant, that certainly isn’t a normal response is it?” Looking at Cate I saw she was taking in everything Dad was saying and seriously weighing it in her mind. There may be more to it than you think, I thought to myself, but I certainly didn’t want to have to explain that to my parents.
“You’re going to have to watch the kids in school on Monday and see if they treat you any differently,” Cate suggested.
“Well, what about Bao?” I proposed.
“Yeah, before you got there he thought you were trying to swindle his mother with the promise of sex with a hunky teenager. After you’d been there for a bit the two of you were talking like old friends.” My father had this annoying habit of being perfectly sensible during discussions.
“Hardly, and it was only after he punched me and after his mother chewed him a new one,” I countered, still resisting the idea I was unduly influencing those around me.
“Still, one hardly follows up a punch with a handshake and a hug. Especially when one suspects you of, again, swindling his mother.” My father certainly had some good points.
“The fact that your sister has been following you around like a puppy, secretly lusting after you, is also hardly a secret,” he continued.
“Hey,” I protested, immediately regretting it as I couldn’t really defend my position with any facts. At least not without revealing facts about her that she might not be aware of yet.
“She’s always followed me around like a puppy,” I argued after a moment’s thought.
“Hey,” she protested, “Thanks a LOT.”
“Sorry,” I smiled at her, “but you know it’s true.”
“True,” continued my father, “but she hasn’t always lusted after you.”
“How do you know she’s ‘lusting’ after me?” I tried to argue.
“We have eyes Alex. She practically has to have one of your women carry her tongue around for her,” he responded with a laugh.
I wanted to laugh at that too. Anh couldn’t help but giggle at it. If he only knew about the recent turn of events, that she was actually lusting after the women around me, not actually me; but again I couldn’t say anything about that. But still, my father might have a point. I started to look at Cate’s behavior just a few minutes ago in a new light, not to mention how my parents reacted to Cate’s reacting to my staring at her. Dad was right, something just wasn’t kosher, and Dad’s new theory seemed like the only thing that explained it at the moment, though I was busy trying to find any other alternative.
“So are you telling me I have to watch out for you and Mom now?” I asked, failing to keep the humor out of my voice.
“You never know,” he smiled back at me, “after all, we’ve allowed our teenaged son to fool around with several older women, unsupervised in the next room, corrupting our younger daughter. Would you consider that normal behavior?” He certainly had a way of making a series of excellent points.
“So what do you suggest I do about it?” I asked, wondering what his ultimate point was. “Assuming it’s true, of course.”
“There’s really not much you can do about it if you aren’t doing it consciously. The fact that Cate got pissed at you just says that she’s not as affected by you as your various followers are.”
‘Followers,’ I thought. I’d been idly wondering what they’d call themselves. I’d labeled the others ‘Watchers’ and it seems to have already stuck. I’d actually debated asking them about it but had been avoiding it up till now. It was hard to define their relationship to me. Whether they were merely thankful, appreciative, if they were simply followers, or maybe I was mentally controlling them to do what I wanted was anyone’s guess.
“Could we get a psychiatrist to evaluate them and see?” I asked, growing increasingly concerned.
“And tell him what?” Dad laughed. “That we suspect they’re being controlled by a teenager with mind control powers? And even if we did confide in him, what’s to say he wouldn’t be influenced as well?”
“Cate, any ideas here?” I asked, becoming more conflicted as we went along. “You’re the scientific idea person, how do we find out if any of this is true?”
“I’m at a loss here,” she answered weakly. “It’s not quite the kind of thing you can easily test for. This isn’t the kind of thing you find in a textbook. This is more in the realm of science fiction.”
“So if I say I want a new sports car, you think I could expect one in a few days?” I teased, trying to lighten the serious mood.
“You never know,” he answered. “You’ll find out in a few days I guess. Of course, there’s a matter of not being able to buy you one of course. Physical financial restrictions might be the limit of your abilities,” he laughed.
“Plus, with Allison you already have access to one,” Cate added unnecessarily.
“Maybe I’ll go up to the Captain of the Football team and stomp on his toe,” I teasingly suggested.
“And what’ll you do if, after he’s caught pounding you into the floor, he apologizes to you? Would he have done it because he had to or because you were controlling him?” asked Cate, finally getting caught up in the debate.
“Shit, this is getting tough to figure out,” I complained, yearning for the days when my biggest problems consisted of figuring out complex algebra problems.
“Just something to keep in mind in the future,” concluded my father.
Most of the trip was pretty boring, well, other than discussions of mind control and my sister innocently flashing her nipples at me under her T-shirt. Cate eventually started a game of “Punch Buggy” just to prove she wasn’t being mentally controlled into being nice to me. We all laughed, although I had the advantage being larger so I wasn’t hurt as much. Anh soon caught on after an early delay due to her unfamiliarity with the game. Soon everyone was ganging up on me, even Mom reaching into the back seat to punch me for buggies I never saw. It was nice to relax amid all this serious shit I was going through.
We were traveling on 55 North in Tennessee, crossing the Frisco Bridge bypassing Memphis, in the late afternoon. They were doing construction on the bridge and had closed off the outer lanes, leaving all the traffic to travel a short distance apart down the center of the bridge, separated by a concrete barrier between the lanes.
As we were slowly crossing over the restricted bridge struck behind heavy traffic, I glanced away from the city at the passing traffic across Cate when my eyes locked with a woman looking out the side of a van passing by going the other way. I saw her head jerk back like she’d been shot and I immediately knew what had just happened. We’d never had a chance to test the range of my ability to affect someone, but apparently twelve feet, moving traffic, steel sheets and a concrete barrier between us weren’t much of a limitation.
I was stunned. We’d already crossed this bridge a week ago and nothing had happened. I simply hadn’t thought that anything like this might occur on the return trip. But then again, Memphis is a fairly large city, and there was a lot of traffic, so there were a lot of people passing by me during a brief period. It happened so quickly that I hadn’t even gotten a good look at her. She looked younger than any of the others so far, like she might still be in school, either high school or college I guessed. Beyond that I really couldn’t recall much of how she’d looked.
“Dad, quick, pull over!” I insisted excitedly.
“What’s up?” he asked distractedly. “We’re in the middle of a bridge. There’s no place to pull over here.”
“I’ve just triggered someone else in a passing car,” I told everyone. “I don’t know how it happened. I just glanced out the window, made eye contact and it happened.”
“I didn’t think it could happen like that,” Cate answered, suddenly sitting up and looking at me. “You got plenty of looks on the way down but…,” she said, just letting the comment fade from her lips.
“But it did, there’s a girl behind us somewhere and we’ve got to find her.” This wasn’t like the other times. Each of those the women had sought me out, they’d come up to me and had only been impacted when they were within several feet of me. Now I had no way of knowing where she was, where she was headed, who she was or anything.
My father was signaling to pull over, but there wasn’t anywhere he could until we got off the bridge, and the other car would be a ways off by then since we’d passed just after we’d entered the bridge.
“And just what do you suggest we try?” he asked, getting aggravated. “I’ll turn off once we get off this bridge, but she’s getting farther away the further we drive. Unless they stop and wait for us, we’ll never find them, and even if they do, we’ll never know which exit they took or where they stopped. Where the hell are we supposed to look, Alex?” Once again my father was completely rational even if he sounded exasperated. Clearly no one had any ideas on how to handle the situation.
“Don’t just yell at me,” I cried, “but we’ve GOT to find her. She’s not likely to know what’s happened to her. She won’t know what to do or how to interpret any of it.”
“OK, fine,” my father responded. “But how? Where do I go? What do I look for?”
“Can you communicate with her?” Cate asked, concerned and trying to find a workable alternative. “Can you send her an image of where we could meet her or something?”
“I don’t know, I’m not sure I can use telepathy with someone I’ve never met. I’m not sure who I’d be talking to as I don’t know who she is or even what she looked like,” I complained. “All I know is she’s going to want to find us and I have no idea of how to find her or communicate with her.”
“Well, try sending her an image of where we are,” suggested my mother.
“Even if I could, what image do I send? We don’t know the city well enough to know any place we could meet,” I cried.
“I have no idea,” responded my father, taking the first exit after the bridge at Bridgeport Cove. Due to the heavy traffic, it took a while to exit, and even longer to get back on the road and wait for traffic to cross the bridge once again. We exited on West Alston Avenue but didn’t see anyone. We drove past the nearby Super 8 motel, but I didn’t see the van. We got back on Route 55, but the next turn was where route 55 turned off of Route 79 which circled the city. We had no way of knowing which direction they might have taken. We eventually tried the first exit in each direction, but we never saw any clue of her, and after all that time it was getting late and Mom and Dad were worrying about whether we’d be able to make it home in time.
She could also have pulled off at any other exit in any given direction and we’d never know which one. She could also have doubled back and gone after us, heading in the opposite direction. I kept getting the feeling of impending panic, but whether that was mine, hers, or one of my girls I had no idea.
I had Allison check one direction while we checked the other, but she didn’t have any luck either, and didn’t know what the van looked like. We stopped and waited by one exit, hoping she’d pass by while looking for us, but when she didn’t we eventually decided it was helpless, turned around and headed off without having found this mystery woman.
Both Cate and Anh tried to console me, as I was a mess wondering what this girl was going to do without us helping her through the difficult and confusing process. Cate went overboard in demonstrating her concern, constantly patting my back, holding me and stroking my hand. I kept looking out the window, hoping to see some sign of her as we headed out.
“We can’t just leave her out there,” I protested helplessly. I felt about ready to pull my hair out.
“What’s she likely to do if you aren’t there?” Mom asked.
“I don’t know,” I said, turning to look at Anh. She simply shrugged, answering that she didn’t know. No one had any reasonable solutions we could think of and it was getting late. We couldn’t just sit around and fret about it indefinitely. I don’t remember ever feeling quite so lost before, despite knowing right where I was, just not where to go.
I was haunted by the idea that we were just abandoning this unknown girl. Mom offered that she’d probably be just fine without us, but I argued about what she’d do if she suddenly started seeing strange visions and lights with no one who could understand or explain any of them. They all shrugged that they had no idea and I felt no better about leaving her behind.
I spent the rest of the trip looking over my shoulder, glancing at passing cars, looking for young women by the side of the road trying to flag us down. What would someone do who had no idea where we were? I was frantic with worry for this unknown person by now. Both Cate and Anh were holding my hand and trying to comfort me. I think tears might have been running down my face. But, in the end, there was just nothing that I could do. Here I’d just agreed to be responsible for watching over multiple women and I’d just lost one. Completely lost her! How the hell could I ever expect to help the rest when I was helpless in this case? I felt terrible!
When we finally arrived home quite a while later I was frazzled. I morosely helped unload the car then collapsed on my bed. Allison and Anh brought me a drink, something to eat, even a cool damp cloth trying to revive me but I was out of it. I was despairing of some way I could possibly reach out to this person but had no clue how. I wanted to ask my father to drive us back, but knew it wouldn’t help. If I saw her now I wouldn’t recognize her so a search was meaningless. I eventually just let myself drift away into sleep, dinner, discussions, unpacking or entertainment all forgotten.
Thus ends the tale of our founder Alex’s initial experiences in New Orleans. Those experiences form the basis of everything that came after, including our rich culture. Each of us owes our lives, as they are now, to him and those around him in those early days.
My biography of Alex Jennings continues. In the second volume, Alex returns to his quiet little hometown where the likelihood of finding new followers is greatly reduced. This provides him the chance to complete his time as a ‘normal’ young man while also giving him time to consider what he is about to undertake. Much of what he learned there formed who he became years later.
To Be Continued in Book 2
“Trying To Be Normal”
Alex’s adventures will continue, but in a whole new way. Now, instead of dealing with new strangers every day, he’ll be dealing with the typical odd man out situation in high school, except with multiple women following him around.
“The Catalyst” books 1 thru 4 are available at:
smashwords.com.