In school the next day, Meg and Sally stayed to help with the children.  It was fairly clear by now that they weren't really needed, but their friendship with Rachel was an excuse to do that, and they found they liked being in an academic setting with the children.<br><br>


Meg's confusion about what was different about Bobby was added to when Rachel started acting odd too.   She seemed completely normal at first, but when she talked to Bobby she stuttered and couldn't think of the word she was looking for.   She handed Bobby a book to read and her hands were shaking.<br><br>


"Are you all right?" Meg asked, concern in her voice.<br><br>


"What?" asked a distracted Rachel.  "Me?  Yes, of course.  I'm fine."<br><br>


"Your hands are trembling," pointed out Meg.<br><br>


Rachel stared at her hands as if they actually belonged to someone else.  She blinked, and then looked at Meg.   "Cold.  I'm still chilled from warming up the room."  She moved off to work with a child, but she seemed distracted all day.  When noon came she seemed to relax, and was her old self.  She turned to Meg and said "I'm working with Bobby this afternoon."   She was flushed as she said it.<br><br>


"Are you sure you're all right?" asked Meg, worried now that Rachel had something and wasn't paying attention to it.   "Maybe you should have the doctor look at you.   You look flushed to me."<br><br>


"Meg!" said Rachel.  "I'm fine!   Now, get those children home so they can eat."<br><br>


Rachel watched them leave and looked at her hands.  They were still shaking.   And she knew she looked flushed because she felt flushed.  Bobby was still reading as she straightened up the room.<br><br>


"Are you ready to go?" she asked.<br><br>


He looked up and grinned.   He nodded and stood up.   Rachel's knees felt weak.<br><br>


They walked at what seemed like a snail's pace to Rachel, but actually arrived at her door in ten minutes.  It usually took her fifteen to make that walk.  She opened the door and let him in, following him.  Then she closed and bolted the door.  The bolt had magically been there when she'd returned from being recuperated by Eunice and her other friends.   Bobby was already fiddling with the stove, blowing on the embers left from her last stoking of the fire that morning before she left.<br><br>


Rachel, after she gave up her virginity at two in the afternoon the day before, had slept peacefully until two in the morning.  When she woke in the middle of the night, she was warm and cozy in bed.  She'd had to get up to use the toilet, and had winced at the ache between her legs.   Her muscles were sore, like she'd walked too much, or lifted too much.  Except that these muscles were in places she hadn't even been aware she had muscles.   Once back in bed she had tried to regain that warm cozy feeling.   She wished that Bobby was there with her.  She'd be warm then.  <br><br>


She eventually regained that warm feeling, but she wasn't sleepy any more, and her mind began to reflect on ... things.   She realized she was being silly.   She realized she had done something she shouldn't have.  She realized that her fantasies could never come true.  In the dark of night she realized a lot of things.  By morning she had left her drunken hallucinations of happiness with Bobby behind.  She'd felt exhausted, even though she'd slept for twelve hours.  <br><br>


She'd had to make herself go to school.<br><br>


And, when she got there, and Bobby sauntered in, every trace of her resolve not to repeat her mistake vanished like dandelion fluff in a tornado.  As soon as he looked at her she wanted to strip naked and thrust herself against him.   She was actually glad to see Meg and Sally were going to stay simply because that meant she wouldn't do something incredibly stupid in front of the children.<br><br>


She couldn't remember a single thing she'd taught in school, she realized, as she looked at Bobby's buttocks in his too-tight pants.  And now, here she was, with the man of her dreams, including a few nightmares.   One of those nightmares was of her, waddling down the street in town, her bulging belly sticking out in front of her, pulling her forward, as the townspeople pointed and snickered behind the hand in front of each mouth.<br><br>


He stood up and turned around.  He smiled at her.<br><br>


She realized that her dress was already half unbuttoned, and there was an unfamiliar slickness between her legs.<br><br>


There was no pain this time, other than a faint residual ache in those newly discovered muscles.  Those muscles rose to the occasion, though, and that incredible body filling explosion came so quickly that Rachel moaned that it should be there and fade so quickly.   Her uncomprehending mind saw something in the distance that rushed toward her as he continued to slide in and out of her and she sobbed with joy as she realized that it could happen again so quickly.  Her hips thrust up so violently with her second orgasm that she lifted Bobby, her back straining to make her buttocks clear the mattress by two or three inches.<br><br>


During her third orgasm, as she felt him tense and freeze, she felt his prick move and jump inside her and that fabulous heat flooded into her.  Her sobs were gone now.   Her joy was accepted unconditionally, along with the seed she knew would make part of her dreams come true.  But now she laughed, because in her dream she was proud, and strong, her swollen belly on display for the people she passed as she carried her lover's baby down the street.<br><br>


It occurred to her that, if she could reach a pinnacle more than once in a short while ... he might be able to as well.   She didn't let him get up this time, holding him close, side by side, trading kisses and touches.  And to her delight her logic was proved as he rolled on top of her again and took her to the mountain top with him again.

</p>
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It was bath night.   Mavis sat, mending a shirt, listening to Meg's description of people who had the bodies of playing cards, and a bloodthirsty queen who would probably give the children bad dreams.  She glanced up at Bobby, with his lap full of girls, who might as well have been sitting on toad stools, for as much attention as they actually paid him.  Their mouths were open, their eyes staring as Meg fed their imaginations with images that took all their concentration to deal with.<br><br>


Naked children came running into the room, digging silently into the pile of clean clothes, already listening to Meg's hypnotic voice.  Others were dragged to the bathroom, dragging their feet, wanting to hear one more line, to see one more fantastic image before their literary drug was withdrawn.  Meg seemed not to notice, as if she too was caught up in the story.<br><br>


When the second batch of naked children appeared, Mavis put her sewing aside and stood up, leaning over backward to ease her back.<br><br>


"I filled the tub already for you Meg," said Donna, herding children toward the pile of clothes.<br><br>


"I'm taking care of Bobby tonight," Mavis announced.<br><br>


Meg looked up and Mavis would have sworn there was a touch of panic in her face, or disappointment ... or something.<br><br>


"It doesn't seem fair to put it all on one or two people," she said.   She didn't even believe her own statement, and knew it sounded flat.<br><br>


She had decided to get to the bottom of the "Bobby phenomenon" as she thought of it.   Every woman who went in there came out looking different, even though Bobby always looked like ... Bobby.  She saw Meg and Sally trade looks, and her determination firmed.<br><br>


Yes, she was going to find out what went on in there, and whether she was going to have to do something radical or not.

</p>
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Bobby's world had undergone a lot of changes since he had come to Milleson House.  His wary attitude - his will to survive - had abated to some degree as survival became much easier.  The attitudes of the people he'd encountered, primarily the women who were suddenly thrust into his life, had exposed him to something that no other place he'd ever live had.   He'd been exposed to love, and caring, and unselfishness.  He was keenly aware of all this, though he knew nothing of the theory that Mr. Maslow would put forth, and that he was firmly ensconced on level three of Mr. Maslow's pyramid of needs.  He was also keenly aware that he had the capacity to make the women feel just as wonderful as they made him feel.   There were things he still didn't understand.  Perhaps those would come in time.  His grasp of morality was tenuous, at best, though he knew that stealing was wrong, and killing, though only under certain circumstances.  He was, however, beginning to understand the concept of love.   It was still a strange thing ... this love thing ... but he had received it from a number of women, and had found inside himself, the ability to return that love to those women.<br><br>


It never occurred to him that in the society in which he lived, a man was expected to return the love of only one woman.   Had someone sat him down and told him that, he would have laughed.   Why in the world would someone want to limit that incredibly wonderful feeling?  He had reflected on the fact that each of the women he had come to know was different in some ways, and alike in others.   It seemed logical to him that they would show their love in ways that were also different, and the same.    He didn't think it was odd that Meg and Sally loved him with their mouths, while Prudence and Rachel loved him between their legs.   If he'd been asked, he would have said that he imagined he'd love all those women in all those ways sooner or later.<br><br>


Now, he was being taken to bathe by Mavis.  He knew she was "in charge" of his world.   He knew that whatever she said was law.  But he knew she was a woman also, and that she loved him.  Her status as an authority figure didn't make him wary, since his teacher was also an authority figure who had loved him and loved him well.   He knew what all the other women who loved him had done when they took him to bathe.   It didn't occur to him that she would do anything different in the bathroom.  <br><br>


He liked to look at her.   Her body was different than that of the others, with a little more flesh on it.  Her face was a little more lined.  She stood up a little more slowly than the others, and stretched a little more often.  But she was soft and warm when she hugged him.  He looked forward to what he assumed would happen in the bathroom.<br><br>


It was for all those reasons that, when he dropped his pants in front of Mavis Milleson, that he was fully erect, and ready to please, and be pleased by the woman.<br><br>


To give Mavis credit, her intentions were more those of a detective, trying to gather evidence to support a hypothesis, than those of a woman trying to get a glimpse of something she knew, on some level, had to exist.   <br><br>


But knowing something exists, or would exist under certain circumstances, is different than being confronted with that object.<br><br>


Mavis was a strong woman ... a resolute woman in most situations.  She cannot be blamed for having been, not so many years earlier, a hot-blooded woman who desired to fill a whole house with children from her loins.  Her husband had been a caring man, who made sure that his wife experienced the same bliss he did as he rode her to earth-shattering orgasms.   She cannot be blamed for storing memories of those earth-shattering orgasms in a tiny corner of her mind.   Like a safety deposit box in a bank some distance away, those memories were not often visited, but were treasured, none-the-less.   And while Mavis controlled her conscious mind, there was an unconscious Mavis who knew from the look on Meg's face, that time her dress was buttoned wrongly, and from the change in Sally's attitude, and from the bounciness in Prudence's step, that being in that bathroom with Bobby was something that could make a woman's life better than it had been.<br><br>


Mavis had clamped down on her own emotions when her husband had died.   She had forged on ahead, and done what needed to be done.  She had pushed her own emotions and passions into a tiny box, like a traveler sits on a too-full suitcase to get it closed.   She tried to be proud of how she had survived.  But the unconscious Mavis ... the passionate Mavis ... the hot-blooded Mavis inside her ... that Mavis was tired of being cramped and unused and hidden away.<br><br>


Had the conscious Mavis known what her unhappy inner self wanted, she might have been able to beat it back into submission.   But when she saw that strong, young, virile penis pointing at her like an accusing finger, the latch on her over-full emotional suitcase stretched to the snapping point like it was made of cheap plastic.   She wouldn't have been more surprised if an alligator had stuck its head up out of the tub and said "Hello, I'm Chuck, your new boarder."<br><br>


She was, in fact, speechless.<br><br>


Bobby knew that Mavis used the tub on bath nights, after all the others were done and all the children were in bed.   He'd heard her complain before that it caused her to go to bed too late sometimes.   In Bobby's simple world, it seemed that the rational thing to do was for him and Mavis to bathe at the same time, like he and Meg had done, since they were both in the bathroom.   <br><br>


To that end, he began helping Mavis prepare for their bath by helping her undress.<br><br>


Mavis watched as Bobby's nimble fingers made short work of the buttons of her dress.  Mavis, having had no children, still had youthful breasts.   She thought of them as not too large, and not too small, but a bother, because they weren't good for anything, particularly with those long sensitive nipples perched on top of them that kept trying to remind her that she was a woman and that they needed attention.   As Bobby pushed the dress off her shoulders and it began to slide down her arms, the conscious Mavis took a breath to demand to know just what in tarnation Bobby thought he was doing.   About then Bobby saw a fat, distended nipple and leaned in to see what it tasted like.<br><br>


Mavis' unconscious mind, loose now inside her body, was doing an inventory of all the unused sexual parts of her body.   It was alerted to the fact that a nipple was being stimulated and shouted "YES!   IT'S ABOUT DAMN TIME!"  It then hurriedly went about making sure that all the other unused sexual parts of her were oiled, primed or otherwise ready to experience the same fabulous stimulation.<br><br>


"Bobbeeeeeeee" squealed Mavis.   Her conscious mind got a word in edgewise.  "What are you doooooooing?"<br><br>


Bobby kissed up her chest to her lips and suddenly Mavis couldn't breathe any more.<br><br>


Before she could catch her breath, she was standing naked in the bathroom with a Bobby who was equally and gloriously naked.  He pulled her to the tub and, she reacted instinctively by stepping into it.  He joined her, behind her, and sat down in the warm water, spreading his legs in an obvious invitation for her to sit between them.   She stood, eyes wide, ankles and calves warm and stared at what would press against her lower back if she accepted that invitation.  It looked larger through the clear water and the slickness between her legs began to run down her inner thighs.   He reached up with one hand to get the soap, and the other to take her hand and pull.<br><br>


"T-t-this is how you take a bath?" she whispered.<br><br>


He smiled  and nodded, looking at her with eyes she could just drown in and she felt her knees bend as her unconscious mind told her to sit.<br><br>


Then his soapy hands were all over her shoulders and back and sliding around to cup and massage her breasts and, again, she couldn't breathe.   He pulled her back against his chest as his hands slid over her distended nipples and dipped down to rub her belly.   She fully expected those slippery hands to dip lower and, while her conscious mind screamed at her to stop this immediately, her knees smacked into the sides of the tub loud enough to make a dull thunking noise.   She registered the pain of her knees hitting the porcelain-covered metal, and that pain might have supported her conscious mind, had not his hands come back up to twiddle and play with her straining nipples again.  She groaned and her hands, which had been gripping the edge of the tub at the insistence of her conscious mind, which was telling her to stand up this very minute and get OUT of that tub, fell away as they betrayed her.   Those hands went to cover his, HELPING him rub and squeeze her breasts.   To her conscious mind's horror, her hands pushed his lower until they went where she had earlier thought they were going to go.<br><br>


She leaned hard against him as one of his fingers split her labia and now no longer soapy, slid across her clit like a knife on a sharpening stone.  Her buttocks came up off the bottom of the tub as his finger dipped into her.   As she rose, his finger helped, pulling at her and she squealed an inarticulate whine of pleasure.<br><br>


Her self control ... that tenuous stretched plastic latch on her emotional suitcase shattered, and her passionate nature surged out like a starving wolf that has been caged and sees fresh meat lying on the ground.<br><br>


Her body surged, her hands gripping the edges of the tub again and pulling her up.   But her conscious mind was no longer telling her to do this.   Her unconscious mind had screamed "SHUT UP!" and she got out of the tub, pulling Bobby up with her and then down onto the slim pile of padding that was her crumpled dress.   She landed hard, bruising her buttocks, but she didn't care as she pulled Bobby down on top of her between her spread thighs.   He knew what to do, and before she could grasp his manhood he had it in his fist, poking it where his finger had just been.   Her hands made claws and she leaned upward, her belly muscles straining so she could reach his buttocks.  <br><br>


As she felt the nose of his prick enter her she dug her fingers in and pulled hard.   Bobby let go and, reacting to her nails in his flesh, slammed forward, skewering her to her core.

</p>
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It was fortunate that Donna was still upstairs, putting children to bed.  She was by herself, which meant she had more children to get tucked in than usual.  That was because the other three women were huddled, not exactly outside the bathroom door, but not far from it.   Meg and Sally knew, of course, why each other were there.   They were in a panic as to what Mavis would find out about what they had done with Bobby.   No one had told them that Prudence had given Bobby an 'extra' bath, and they didn't know that she too was concerned about what Mavis was going to find out in that room.   That was why all three of them were there, instead of doing what they normally would have done.<br><br>


It was fortunate that Donna was still upstairs, because Mavis' shriek as her pussy was filled with hard cock would have caused Donna to break down the door.   These three, however, heard in that shriek, echoes of their own shrieks, though, of course, theirs had been silent ones, more or less.   Meg and Sally stared at each other, their mouths open.  Then, as one, they turned to Prudence, whose hands were cupping her breasts, her fingers pinching her nipples through the cloth that covered them.   She jerked her hands away instantly, and her face flamed red.<br><br>


Meg was astounded.<br><br>


"You know?" she asked, unbelieving.<br><br>


Prudence's suspicions about the others gelled.   She assumed they had done with Bobby what she had done with Bobby.  And what MAVIS was now doing with Bobby!<br><br>


"I gave him a bath the other day when he got coal dust all over him," she said, her voice meek.<br><br>


Sally spoke, her voice tight.  "You mean you ..."<br><br>


"He showed me how you give him a bath," said Prudence.   "I couldn't help myself," she whined.<br><br>


Sally's world had changed radically when she had experienced new things with Bobby.  Even though she hadn't been able to repeat the experience, just the fact that it had happened made her feel like a real woman.  She wasn't sorry at all that she had done something most people would shun her for.  Her primary concern was that the only man she'd ever 'known' would be sent away if anyone besides Meg ever found out about it.   That came out now.<br><br>


"Well, I feel better," she stated flatly.<br><br>


"What?" asked Meg and Prudence in concert.<br><br>


"I don't think Mavis will be sending Bobby anywhere after this," she explained.<br><br>


Another joyous wail came through the door, along with a slapping sound that Prudence recognized, and Meg and Sally did not.   That was the sound of Bobby's abdomen smacking Mavis' abdomen repeatedly.<br><br>


"What's THAT?" asked Meg, suddenly looking unsure.<br><br>


"That's the sound of a woman who likes it hard and fast," said Prudence.   She covered her mouth with her hand and blushed at her randy statement.<br><br>


Meg's eyes got rounder.  "You mean they're ....?"<br><br>


Prudence was confused.  "Of course they're .... Oh my goodness.  You mean you didn't ...?"<br><br>

"Didn't what?" asked Sally, also confused.<br><br>


"Didn't you two make love with him?" asked Prudence, her face going ashen as she thought she might have made a horrible mistake in admitting what she'd done.<br><br>


Meg's mouth dropped open.   "No!   I mean I played with him" she looked over at Sally   "We played with him and  he played with us and it was wonderful ... but we didn't do THAT!"   She turned to Sally  "Did you?"<br><br>


Now Sally had finally gotten to where everyone else was.  Her reaction wasn't quite as virginal as Meg's, and her eyes had a far away look in them.  "No, but from the sounds Mavis is making I wish I had."<br><br>


Her eyes cleared as she realized what she'd said and she blushed too.<br><br>


"Oh my word," said Prudence.<br><br>


"What about Donna?" asked Meg suddenly.<br><br>


All three women looked at each other.<br><br>


"She's never been alone with him," said Prudence.<br><br>


"No" said Sally.  "I mean I know that, but what if she comes back down and hears that?" pointed out Sally.<br><br>


Prudence blanched.  "Oh my." <br><br>


"Maybe she's done something with him too," said Meg.<br><br>


"I don't think Donna's had a chance to do anything," said Prudence.<br><br>


"We didn't think you'd done anything," pointed out Sally maddeningly.<br><br>


"Well, if she comes down here and hears Mavis ... and she HASN'T done anything ... she'll call for the constable!" said Meg.<br><br>


Sally, the calmest of the three at the moment, said "I'll go up and stall her.  You two see if you can do anything to quiet things down in there."<br><br>


"What, exactly are we supposed to do?" asked Prudence, frowning.<br><br>


"I don't know," said Sally.  "Bang on the door or something."   She ran for the stairs, as if she were afraid that Donna might be on her way down at that very moment.<br><br>


The two remaining co-conspirators, who were distinctly uncomfortable BEING co-conspirators, looked at each other helplessly.<br><br>


There was another wail of ecstacy through the door, and more smacking sounds.<br><br>


"You bang on the door," suggested Prudence.<br><br>


"I'm not banging on any doors.  I've never done what they're doing in there!" stated Meg, backing away as she said it.<br><br>


Prudence looked haunted for a few seconds, then straightened her shoulders and turned to face the door.   Unformed thoughts flitted around in her head as she raised her hand daintily, as if to knock politely to report for an engagement somewhere.<br><br>


Mavis let loose with another wail of unabashed pleasure inside and it wavered through the door and hit Prudence like a wave of force.  She looked toward the stairs and felt unaccountably relieved that Sally and Donna weren't standing there, horrified.   <br><br>


Then, too rattled to think clearly, she opened the door instead of knocking on it.<br><br>


She blinked as Mavis' was exposed, lying on the floor of the bathroom, her legs thrown wide, while Bobby repeatedly slammed what Prudence knew was a fabulously long and hard penis into the woman violently.<br><br>


"Stop making so much noise!" ordered Prudence in a loud hissing voice.  "The children will think the house is HAUNTED!"   Then she pulled the door closed firmly and turned around to face an astonished Meg.<br><br>


"You ... you ... you" stuttered Meg, who had also seen what was going on inside the room, and whose knees were so weak that she knew she was going to have to sit down on the floor any second.<br><br>


"Oh be quiet," said Prudence, her own knees not all that sturdy at the moment.   "Go do something that will make some noise."   She looked around and, for lack of any other idea, began moving chairs away from the dining table.

</p>
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Mavis was experiencing many of the same feelings that Rachel had felt that very afternoon.   She had, indeed, liked hard pounding sex in those short months that she was able to have it, and her husband had been a lusty lover too.  Truth be told, hard pounding sex was the only kind of lovemaking that Mavis had any experience with.   It is quite possible that that was why, when she suspected some kind of hanky panky was going on in the bathroom, that she did not suspect that full marital sex was taking place.   It had always been quiet in the bathroom when one of the women was in there with Bobby, and in Mavis' experience, a woman just wasn't quiet when she was stuffed full with a hard penis.<br><br>


She was also multi-orgasmic, something else she assumed all women were like.   She was on her third mind-blowing orgasm when the bathroom door opened and Prudence's pale visage appeared, looking upside down to Mavis, as she had said what she had said.  The words had registered with Mavis, along with something in her mind that suggested she should be horribly embarrassed, but she was at the very breaking point of that third orgasm, and when the door closed, it was as if she had permission to finish it, so she did.<br><br>


She fell limply back to the floor just in time to feel Bobby tense, and to hear his soft sigh, as she was suddenly filled with his warm essence.<br><br>


As that feeling of hot sperm filled her belly, Mavis' conscious mind came back, hat in hand, begging to be let back into control.  It was slightly battered ... a little disheveled ... and nowhere near as cocky as it had been half an hour before.  Mavis, like Rachel, felt whole again.  Her conscious mind began whispering that she knew better, and that she shouldn't have done this ... shouldn't have let this happen.  It told her that this would ruin everything she had built up.  She looked up at Bobby's face, his eyes tightly closed, a grimace of ecstasy stretching his lips tight across his teeth as his prick gave a final spurt of lovely hot sperm.   His eyes opened and his head dipped, his big, liquid eyes locking with hers as his prick gave that final spurt.   He let his head droop to give her a kiss that, after the violent pounding he had given her, was so tender that it brought tears to her eyes.<br><br>


In that split second, she knew that she had to find a way to prevent this from ruining everything.  Again, her conscious mind was told to "Be quiet, and let me think".  Instead of thinking, though, she kissed him back.<br><br>


Of two minds now, Mavis had a silent conversation with herself as they finally separated.   She groaned as she sat up.  The floor had been hard and unyielding, and she felt like her bones had been required, as they met Bobby's ardent thrusts, to take a lot of the force of his magnificent thrusts.   As he got to his knees, her eyes went to his penis, which now looked much more like it did when the women led him out of this room.   Her eyes went to her own sex, which was drooling his spend out onto her dress.<br><br>


"You're in a real pickle now," whispered her conscious mind, knowing what that dress would look like if she put it back on.   Another part of her mind was replaying what had happened when the door opened ... what Prudence had said when she saw ... what she saw.   That part of her mind suggested that Prudence's reaction wasn't quite what the conscious part of her mind would have expected it to be.   She shook her head, unused to arguing with herself like this.   She wondered fleetingly if she was going mad.<br><br>


Bobby stood and reached down to pull her up.   When she stood she just came naturally into his arms.  Half her mind said to push him away, and the other half laughed and suggested that hugging him back was the most sensible thing to do, considering what had just happened.<br><br>


Then there were a few kisses.   Finally she pushed him away.<br><br>


"Is this how every bath you've taken has gone?" she asked.<br><br>


Bobby smiled, but shook his head.<br><br>


"But they went something like this?" she insisted.<br><br>


He nodded, still smiling.<br><br>


Mavis stood there, naked and wet.  For lack of anything better to do she got a towel.  Bobby took it away from her and dried her.   Half her mind told her to make him stop, while the other half loved being pampered.   When he was done she took the towel and dried him in return.<br><br>


She picked up her dress, which was, indeed sodden where she had lain on it.  Her ears registered scraping sounds outside in the dining room, but she ignored them.  She couldn't think.  There was something warm running down her thighs and, without thinking, she wiped at it with her dress, making it even worse.<br><br>


"I don't know what to do," she said to herself.<br><br>


As if by magic, the door opened again, only a few inches this time, and a slim arm appeared holding a fresh dress.  Nothing was said, and the arm just stayed where it was until Bobby reacted and took it from the hand on the end of the disembodied arm.   The door was pulled closed quietly.<br><br>


Mavis was aware that what had just happened was very important somehow, but she couldn't think very clearly just yet.   She took the dress when Bobby handed it to her and mechanically pulled it on.  She suddenly saw her shoes lying a few feet away, and wondered when in the world they'd come off her feet, and who had taken them off.  She shook her head again and then realized that Bobby was standing patiently, still naked.<br><br>


"Aren't you going to get dressed?" she asked.<br><br>


He shook his head and pointed at the door.<br><br>


"Oh yes, they always bring you out naked, don't they?"   She shook her head again.  This was crazy.   She couldn't just walk out the door with him and act like nothing had happened.<br><br>


"On the other hand," said the other half of her mind, "what else are you going to do?"  <br><br>


She opened the door and stepped through it.<br><br>


Prudence was sitting where Mavis usually sat, and was mending the same shirt that Mavis had abandoned to take Bobby to the bathroom.   She didn't look up.  Meg was, mopping the floor where the dining room table had been, but no longer was, for some reason.  It, along with the chairs, had been pushed away to clear the floor she was now mopping.<br><br>


Meg looked at Mavis, and then Bobby, who was walking behind her.  Her eyes went to the open door of the bathroom and she dropped the mop to hurry to the door.   Mavis turned around and watched as Meg scooped up the sodden dress she had abandoned, and came out with it, pushing it into the basket, under the children's dirty clothes.  Then she reclaimed her mop and began mopping the same spot she had been mopping when Mavis and Bobby exited the bathroom.<br><br>


"Get something to wear Bobby," said Prudence, like it was any normal bath night.  "And then off to bed with you."<br><br>


Mavis stared around her as if she were in a foreign place, where nothing she saw made any sense at all.   Footfalls came from the staircase, and Sally and Donna came into view.<br><br>


"What took you so long?" asked Prudence, looking up from her mending.<br><br>


"Oh, June Bug wanted to be told a bedtime story," said Sally, smiling.  "So Donna and I made one up."<br><br>


Donna looked confused.  "I still don't understand how you knew she wanted to be told a story."<br><br>


Sally waved a hand.   "I checked on her and she looked unsettled.  I asked her if a story would help and she nodded, like Bobby.  You know, she's getting almost good enough at her letters that she'll be writing notes like Bobby too pretty soon.   Won't that be nice?"<br><br>


Mavis realized her mouth was open and closed it.<br><br>


Donna looked at Mavis strangely.   "That isn't the same dress you had on earlier ... is it?"<br><br>


Prudence laughed.   "Mavis found out how exuberant he is about his baths.   She had to change.    Now she knows how Meg felt when she got all wet."<br><br>


"Oh," said Donna.  "Well, surely somebody could teach him not to splash so much."  <br><br>


Mavis had the urge to blurt out that Donna could give it a try next time, but she couldn't get it out because Donna went on.<br><br>


"And what in the world happened down here?" she asked gesturing at the furniture and Meg with the mop.<br><br>


"The floor under the table hasn't had a good cleaning in a while," said Meg sensibly.  "I hope the noise didn't disturb the children.  I just had a hankering to do it once I thought about it."<br><br>


Mavis' mind had been going ninety miles an hour as she took in what was going on.  Prudence, obviously, and Meg, probably, knew exactly what had happened in the bathroom.   Now that she looked at Meg, she knew it was Meg's arm that had supplied the new dress.    And the uncharateristic story telling episode suggested that Sally had kept Donna ... the only woman in the house who hadn't yet given Bobby a bath ... upstairs while Mavis did what she had always done when she was being loved ... made noise.   And these two had made noise to cover her own.<br><br>


She looked at Meg, her eyes wide.  "Thank you Meg," she said.  "That was very thoughtful of you."<br><br>


Meg smiled. "You're welcome. It was needed."   She smiled, a little nervously.<br><br>


Mavis tried to keep the flush she felt building from showing, and turned to face away from the rest.  "Well, the whole place needs a good cleaning, but perhaps we could wait on the rest until tomorrow."<br><br>


"Yes, it would be much too noisy to do anything more tonight," said Prudence, her eyes firmly on the shirt.   She giggled.<br><br>


"I don't know about you all," said Donna, getting her coat off the hook, "but I'm going home.  It's been a long, hard day.   I can't wait to get into bed."<br><br>


She looked up, startled as three women started laughing.   Mavis, feeling something loosen inside her, joined them.  If Donna had been listening closer she might have detected a note of hysteria in that laughter.<br><br>


"What in the world is WRONG with you all?" asked a very puzzled Donna.   "What did I say?"<br><br>


Meg waved her hand.  "Nothing.  We're just tired.  You know how you get giddy sometimes when you get tired?  That's all it is, I'm sure."<br><br>


Donna shook her head, unable to help but smile as the women kept giggling.  <br><br>


"Let me get my coat and I'll walk with you," said Prudence, wiping her eyes.  She bustled around and then the two women left, closing the door on sudden silence.<br><br>


Whether it was by unspoken agreement, or just because the women were too embarrassed to talk about it, nothing more was said that night.  At least not among the women.    Meg took Bobby upstairs to his room and, when he was tucked in she stood and looked at him.<br><br>


"Where did you learn to do that, young man?" she asked.   Bobby reached for the paper that was on the table beside his bed, but Meg stopped him.   "I didn't actually mean to find out," she said, sitting on the edge of the bed.   "Was it fun?  What you did with Mavis?"<br><br>


He nodded energetically and she sighed.   "I've never done that," she said, as if confiding to a girlfriend.  "I'd be scared."<br><br>


Bobby took his arm out from under the blanket and reached to stroke Meg's cheek.   It was obvious he was saying he'd be gentle with her.   She giggled.<br><br>


"I just bet you WOULD like to teach me how to do that.  You're horrible."<br><br>


Bobby shook his head.<br><br>


"No, I know you're not horrible.   But I don't know if I want to give you another bath or not now," she teased.   "If you did to me what I saw you doing to Mavis I'd be black and blue for a month."<br><br>


Again he stroked her cheek gently.<br><br>


"Don't count on it buster," she said sternly.   But she kissed him long and hard before she left the room.
