DISCLAIMER: This is a work of fiction. If you are offended by 
sexually explicit material or are under the age of 18, stop reading 
now. This material cannot be reproduced for commercial purposes 
without the consent of the author.

Glen Wiseman
By
Lazlo Zalezac
Copyright (C) Lazlo Zalezac, 2003

Chapter 18

The new house was finished three weeks late. It was supposed to 
have been completed near the end of August and it was completed 
in the middle of September. Today was moving day, but it was 
rather a subdued event. The majority of their possessions had been 
destroyed in the June fire. 

They had replaced most of their clothes and their weapons. In fact, 
they had purchased replacement weapons before they had shopped 
for clothes. The general consensus among the Metchettes was that 
they would rather fight in the nude with guns, than stand 
defenseless while fully clothed. This was a sentiment that Glen 
fully supported.

Cliff was upset that the gun rack that Glen had made for him had 
been destroyed in the fire. Their stay at the cabin was short, but 
Glen had spent most of the time working in his woodshop. It kept 
him out of their way while they worked on the magazine and them 
out of his way while he worked on furniture. 

He helped them carry the last box of their stuff to the new house 
from their truck. He walked into the house and looked around. It 
was a beautiful house that was basically divided into two halves. 
The front half contained a huge living room which had a high 
cathedral ceiling. The rest of the rooms were on the back half of 
the house. The four bedrooms were upstairs and opened onto a 
hallway that over looked the living room with stairs coming down 
on each end. One of the bedrooms had been converted into a study. 
The kitchen and dining room were off the living room under the 
bedrooms. There were two bathrooms, one upstairs and one 
downstairs. The one downstairs was next to a spa room that held a 
giant Jacuzzi made for six. 

The trio showed him around the house, proud of its design and 
size. It was basically bare of any furniture except for the two queen 
size beds in the bedrooms. Those were the beds that had been 
brought to the cabin when they had first arrived. Glen had taken 
his small twin bed into his bedroom. 

After the tour, Glen went to the front door as though he was going 
to leave. Wanda and Sandra watched him with puzzlement. Cliff 
asked, "What's up?"

Glen answered, "I have to go to the house and pick up something."

Wanda asked, "Will you be back before the party?"

Glen answered, "Of course, I just need to pick up something."

With definite relief in her voice, Sandra said, "Oh, that's good. We 
wanted to break in the house in the proper manner."

Laughing, Glen said, "We have to do everything in the proper 
manner."

"I wonder what's keeping CJ? She's supposed to be here by now."

Glen shrugged his shoulders and said, "Maybe she stopped by the 
cabin before coming here."

Cliff nodded and said, "Well, we'll start to get things ready for 
when you and her get here."

Glen smiled and left the house. He got in his truck and drove over 
to his cabin. It wasn't a long drive. In fact, it wasn't even a long 
walk since their house was very close to the border of his property. 
He pulled up next to the U-Haul truck and parked. Smiling at the 
attractive woman standing by the U-Haul, he got out and greeted 
CJ. "Hi, CJ. He's wondering where you are."

She laughed and said, "I guess I'll have to go over there now."

"Not until you help me load this truck," replied Glen as he opened 
the door to his workshop. She followed him into the shop and 
looked around in surprise. Glen pulled the sheets off the table and 
chairs revealing the quality craftsmanship that distinguished them 
from store bought goods.

"Wow, that is beautiful. Look at the color of the wood. They are 
going to love this. Where did you buy it?"

Glen, proud of his work,  polished his fingernails on his shirt and 
answered, "I made it."

CJ was very impressed and could hardly believe her eyes. She 
stated, "Oh, my. You really do care about them to put so much 
love into these housewarming presents."

Together they carried the furniture to the moving truck where it 
joined the desk that CJ had bought as a present. He had made a 
dinner table and chairs for the dining room. There was a beautiful 
gun case that he had built for the living room. In addition, there 
were several other chairs that could be used in the living room and 
moved to the bedrooms when they got real living room furniture. 
He made one last trip to the woodshop to pick up the pillows for 
the living room chairs. A lady in town made them for him since his 
skills at sewing were pretty poor.

He put the box in the back of the truck and asked, "So which do 
you want to drive, my truck or the U-Haul?"

Pursing her lips, CJ said, "Well, I'll let you drive the U-Haul and 
I'll ride with you."

Glen laughed and bowed in mock servitude. He responded, "Your 
wish is my command."

They got into the U-Haul and Glen drove it the short distance to 
the Metchette's new house. Glen backed it up in the driveway as 
Cliff, Wanda, and Sandra came out to see what was going on. With 
the help of a few hand signals from Cliff, he parked the truck right 
in front of the door to the house. He and CJ got out of the truck and 
walked around to the rear.

Wanda asked, "What's this?"

CJ answered, "Oh, a little housewarming present from Glen and 
me."

Glen opened the back of the truck as the trio stared at the contents. 
Wanda and Sandra moved together and started crying tears of 
happiness as they realized the magnitude of the gift. Cliff stood 
open mouthed as he examined the furniture in the room. While the 
Metchettes were staring in amazement, Glen climbed up into the 
truck and lowered down the box of pillows to CJ. Taking the box 
from him, she carried them into the living room. He then slid one 
of the chairs to edge of the truck. He climbed down and said to 
Cliff, "Give me a hand with this."

Coming out of his trance, Cliff helped lift it out of the truck. They 
carried it into the living room and set it down. Glen opened the box 
and put the pillows on the chair. He tied the strings sewn into the 
pillows to the furniture. He sat down, appreciating the feel. It 
wasn't the same as a full couch, but they could get that later.

Cliff and Glen made several more trips bringing in the rest of the 
furniture that Glen had made. Wanda and Sandra were crying tears 
of happiness, with CJ hugging each in turn. Finally, the two men 
went into the truck and wrestled out the desk that CJ had bought. It 
was solid wood and massive as hell. They managed to bring it into 
the house and set it along a wall where a plug for their Internet 
connection was mounted into the wall.

Cliff stepped back and said, "I'm overwhelmed. This furniture is 
absolutely magnificent. You built all of this."

Glen shook his head and answered, "I built all of it except for the 
desk and the desk chair. CJ got that for you."

Wanda and Sandra came up to Glen. They practically wrapped 
themselves around him. Wanda said, "We were worried that you 
didn't like us anymore with all of the time you spent in the 
workshop. Now we know why you were out there all of the time. 
My God, it is beautiful."

Sandra said, "I'm afraid to use it."

Glen laughed and put his arms around the twins pulling them even 
closer. He said, "I built it to last. You don't have to worry about 
ruining it. Heck, you both could participate in some pretty nasty 
activities on that table and it will stand up to it."

Sandra was tempted to climb up on the table and pose, but she 
heard other cars pull up outside the house. The twins looked at 
each other in horror and ran to the kitchen. With guests arriving, 
they still had a ton of food to get ready. CJ laughed and followed 
them. For CJ, entertaining was always a challenge. To move in and 
to have an open house the same day had seemed like insanity to 
her. The twins had just treated it like an everyday event.

Glen and Cliff went outside so that Glen could move the U-Haul 
and Cliff could greet the guests. Glen got into the truck and moved 
it to the side of the house where it would be out of the way. Since 
he had forgotten to close the back door, it made a horrible clanging 
sound as it closed and then opened again. He parked it and got out. 
Walking around to the back of the truck, he looked inside the truck 
and made sure that it was empty. He climbed up the bumper and 
pulled the door down. He swung the latch and locked it closed. 

Turning around, he was startled to find the Sheriff standing right 
behind him. He screamed, "Shit, you scared me."

The Sheriff laughed and said, "You didn't look around once. I was 
wondering what was on your mind."

"Oh, I was just thinking about how much my life has changed 
since they came into my life."

Dale patted Glen on the shoulder and gestured towards the house 
with his head. The two men walked up to the house talking about 
the nature of changes that Glen had experienced. More people 
were arriving, including various owners of  businesses that they 
frequented. The head of the orphanage was going to come later. 
The priest of their church was already there. He had come to bless 
the house at the request of Cliff and the twins.  

Glen went inside the house and was immediately met by Oliver. 
Oliver looked him in the eye in a way that made little alarms go off 
in his head. Oliver, in a very friendly tone of voice, said, "Hey, I 
saw the furniture. It looks great!"

Glen laughed and asked, "Let me guess. You want me to make the 
furniture for your restaurant?"

"Hell, no. There's no way we could afford stuff of this quality." 
Oliver ran a finger across one of the arms of a chair. His eyes were 
closed and there was a small smile on his face. He said, "You did 
very nice work on this. Very nice."

Glen studied Oliver for a moment and then said, "Would you be 
willing to take a short walk with me?"

Oliver looked at Glen surprised at the request, but answered, 
"Okay."

The two men went outside and walked around the property. Glen, 
worried about how it was going to sound, finally asked, "You like 
men and women, don't you?"

Heart beating madly, Oliver stopped in his tracks and looked at 
Glen. He didn't know what Glen was getting at, but he had touched 
upon a very private subject. He asked, "Why do you want to 
know?"

Glen knew by the answer that he had hit upon the truth. He 
answered, "I have a vested interest in your answer."

Oliver frowned and tried to decide what that meant. Finally, he 
said, "Yeah, I do. Do you want to make something out of it?"

Glen smiled and said, "Yes, in a way I do."

Oliver stepped away from Glen. He was getting nervous that Glen 
didn't mean anything good by his line of questioning. He stopped 
and faced Glen ready to fight. He asked, "What are you planning?"

Glen turned to return to the house. He said over his shoulder, "You 
and Cliff. So much alike. Both of you need something that the 
other has and neither one of you realizes it. Tell Cliff about 
yourself."

Glen walked back to the house leaving a very confused Oliver 
behind. Oliver stood there for several minutes thinking about what 
Glen had said. Was he hinting the Cliff shared his particular 
problem? He wasn't sure, but realized that Glen had something in 
mind.

Glen returned to the house and found that it was loud as people 
talked in groups of three and four. Moving through the crowd, he 
found the twins by the food as they were still putting things out for 
people to snack upon. He moved to a corner of the room and 
watched with amusement as they scurried about trying to make a 
good impression. He couldn't believe how much he loved them.

His attention was distracted by a woman that he had never met. 
She had come up and grabbed his arm. She said, "A penny for your 
thoughts."

Glen smiled and said, "I can't believe how much I love them."

She smiled and said, "I though you were Glen. I'm Mary Goodwin, 
the art director for the magazine."

Happy to be able to put a face to the name, Glen turned to face her. 
He said, "Oh, it is so nice to finally meet you. I've really 
appreciated your work on the magazine."

Mary answered, "You have no idea how long I've waited to meet 
you. From the way that Wanda and Sandra talked about you in 
Atlanta, I was sure that you were ten foot tall and strong as five 
men put together."

Glen shook his head and answered, "As you can see, I'm normal 
sized and only as strong as half a man."

She laughed with a reserved mirth. She was one of those women 
that cover their mouth with a hand when they laugh. Distracted by 
the gestured, Glen wondered why some women did that. She said, 
"Well, if they are subject to overstatement, I would have to say that 
you are subject to understatement."

"What ever you say."

"You saved their life three times from a serial killer. From what 
Wanda told me, you saved her twice from the church creeps."

He sighed and said, "Only once from the church creeps. They had 
beat her up once and I was nowhere to be found."

Mary didn't know what to make of him. He didn't act like most 
men that she knew. Most of the guys she knew would have boasted 
about their exploits. She decided to change the topic and said, "Did 
you know that we had a record month last July?

Glen hadn't been paying attention to the business. He just edited 
the papers put in front of him. He had spent most of his time 
creating the furniture. He replied, "No, I didn't know that."

"It looks like the numbers for August may be even better."

Glen stated, "Shouldn't you know that by now? It's the middle of 
September."

"It's not that easy. We have to take out of the statistics the effects 
of the guest accounts and temporary accounts. All of those 
accounts shutdown on the fifth of the month. We have to subtract 
out those accounts and the guest accounts from the previous 
month."

Puzzlement showed on his face as he asked, "It sounds 
complicated. Why is it done that way?"

The hand went over her mouth as she started laughing again. She 
said, "We made a mistake when we set things up. We've never 
been able to recover from it."

"Oh, by the way. Is the photographer here?"

Mary shook her head and answered, "No. He's out on a shoot. He 
likes to find these really nasty ladies and take lots of pictures of 
them."

"Sounds like fun."

She slapped his arm playfully and said, "Oh, you men are all 
alike."

After a little more small talk, she left him standing there. He 
stopped by the table and fixed a small plate of food. The rest of the 
house was crowded, so he headed towards the back door to get a 
little peace and quiet. He found himself on the back porch alone 
with CJ. She was nibbling from a plate filled with vegetables and 
other healthy foods. He looked down at his plate filled with wings, 
egg rolls, and other fried appetizers. He laughed at the comparison. 
CJ looked over at him and asked, "What's so funny?"

"Well, I was just comparing the food on our plates. You might say 
that yours was the feminine version and mine was the masculine."  

She glanced over at his plate and laughed. She said, "I guess you're 
right."

They both ate quietly for a while. Glen looked over at her and then 
said, "You really love Cliff, don't you?"

"Yes, I do."

Cliff was a puzzlement to Glen at times. He stated, "But you are 
afraid that you'll loose him."

Shock spread across CJ's face. She asked, "How did you know?"

"You are concerned about the fact that he's bisexual and will find a 
guy that he likes better than you."

"Yes, I am." The fact was that Cliff had been looking at a lot of 
men lately and she was concerned that he was tired of her. She was 
sure that he was trying to replace her with a man.

"Don't you read his magazine?"

She looked at him like he was crazy and wondered what he was 
getting at. She knew that he and Cliff had sex together on at least 
one occasion. Being around the twins didn't allow for any 
questions about that. They had even tried to set up a night between 
her, Cliff, and Glen. The three of them hadn't done anything that 
night and there had been no further mention of the possibility. "Of 
course I read his magazine."

Glen smiled at the look on her face. It was clear that she didn't 
understand it. He stated, "Don't you realize that he is writing about 
the kind of marriage that he wants? He wants a wife and a 
husband." 

"So?"

"So, he's already found the woman he wants for his wife. Now he's 
looking for a husband."

If Glen had told her that she was eight months pregnant, she 
wouldn't have been more surprised. She stared at him and thought 
about what he had said. She asked, "What is your point?"

Glen answered, "Well, if you want any say in who your second 
husband is, then you'll join him in his search."

The conversation seemed to border on the surreal for CJ. Glen was 
bringing up ideas that she had never thought about. Was it possible 
that Cliff really wanted her to help him find a husband for the two 
of them? She had often entertained the fantasy, but she was scared 
to death of the idea. She ate another carrot while she thought about 
it.

Glen watched her thinking and finally he asked, "What do you like 
about Cliff?"

"He's one of the smartest men that I know. I mean, he may not 
have gone to college, but he's smart as a whip. You know that he 
basically put the whole idea for the magazine together all by 
himself." 

Glen nodded and said, "You like smart men?"

"Well, they have to be kind and gentle, too."

Glen took a bite out of one of the egg rolls and chewed it slowly as 
he thought. He nodded and then said, "There aren't very many men 
that are smart, kind, gentle, and loving. I can only think of a 
handful."

"Are you suggesting yourself?" CJ wondered if Glen was really 
putting the move on her. She didn't appreciate that at all.

Glen burst out laughing and almost spilled his plate. He answered, 
"God, no. I've got more than I can handle with the twins."

"So what are you getting at?"

"Let's see. I'm trying to help find a husband for you and Cliff. So 
the criteria that we have are, smart, kind, gentle, loving, and 
bisexual. Does that about cover it?"

CJ thought about it and realized that was the criteria that she would 
have come up with herself. She hesitantly answered, "Sure."

"How about race?"

CJ laughed and answered, "You sure are getting specific. Race isn't 
a problem."

Cliff stood up and popped the rest of the egg roll in his mouth. He 
chewed for a second wishing that he had thought of getting some 
hot mustard for the egg roll. Finally, he said, "Well, I'm all out of 
ideas. Maybe you might want to talk to Oliver and see if he can 
think of someone."

The suggestion really surprised CJ. Oliver was the one person that 
she felt like she could trust in a matter like this. She wondered why 
Glen picked him and decided to find out. She asked, "Why 
Oliver?"

Glen smiled and said, "Simple. You both know him. He knows 
both of you. He might have an idea as to who would be perfect for 
you both. I think you trust him a lot more than you trust me."

CJ was embarrassed by that assessment of her feelings towards 
Glen. She said, "I don't think that."

Glen took a minute to consume one of the chicken wings on his 
plate. Fingers greasy, he looked up at her and contradicted her. 
"Well, you think that I'm after your body. Plus, I wasn't all that 
nice in the beginning of our relationship. No, you like me well 
enough, but you don't trust me."

She was silent for a while and then said, "You know, I would agree 
with you on your assessment, but that's not the problem."

"Oh?"

"Yes, when it comes to the Metchettes you are totally trustworthy. 
I'll tell you the truth. I fear that if it came to a choice between them 
and me, you'd pick them."

Glen looked at the last appetizer on his plate. It appeared to be a 
chicken liver wrapped in bacon. He took a bite and found that he 
was right. He looked up and said, "In a choice between me and the 
rest of you, I'd choose the rest of you. I would never accept any 
other choice."

She stared at him for a minute and realized that he had told her the 
truth. He included her in the group that he was to protect. "You 
mean that don't you."

Glen nodded as he ate the rest of the liver wrapped in bacon. He 
decided that was the best appetizer that he had taken. He looked up 
at her and said, "Yes, I do. Now run along and talk to Oliver."

He watched CJ go back into the house. He waited a minute and 
started laughing. Sometimes people were so close to their problems 
that they couldn't see the answers. CJ came back out and hugged 
him. She said, "Thank you for talking to me."

"You're quite welcome."

After she went back into the house, Glen waited a moment before 
following her. He was going to get some more of the appetizers. 
He went to the table and started grazing on the various vegetables 
and sliced lunch meats. A pair of hands covered his eyes right after 
he had just stuffed a sweet pickle in his mouth. He didn't recognize 
the voice that said, "guess who?"

"Wanda? Sandra?" guessed Glen.

"No." 

Glen stood there for several seconds trying to figure out who it 
could be. He finally said, "I'm totally clueless."

The elderly woman laughed and released her hands from around 
his eyes. He turned and laughed when he recognized the Sheriff's 
wife. He asked, "Helena, how are you?"

"I'm fine. You are definitely making my life interesting."

Glen was surprised by that. He asked, "What have I done?"

Helena answered, "Oh the past couple of times that he's been over 
to your place, he's come home feeling a little frisky."

Glen laughed and suggested, "It isn't me. It must be the twins. 
They tend to do things that make men feel a little frisky."

She smiled at Glen and stated, "You know, I met them right after 
you rescued them. They weren't in any kind of mental shape to  act 
in a way to make men feel frisky."

"Really, they did everything they could to drive me crazy."

She asked, "Do you know what I do for a living?"

"No."

"I'm a crisis councilor."

"Okay."

She looked at Glen with affection before saying, "The first few 
months with you were exactly what they needed."

"Why? I wasn't very friendly."

She said, "They had all been raped. They were scared to death of 
men. You didn't give any sign that you cared about them sexually. 
They were around you in various states of undress and you just 
grumped. Do you realize how calming that is for someone that 
would view any attention to their body as a threat?"

Glen shrugged his shoulders. He answered, "Never really thought 
about it."

"When they upped the stakes and started walking around naked, 
explicitly teasing you, and trying to make situations sexual, you 
just turned and told them to stop it. You gave them back control of 
their sexuality. Of course, you took it too far and made them feel 
like you weren't interested at all."

Glen said, "I didn't want to take advantage of them."

"So they took advantage of you. It was good for them. I wouldn't 
recommend that kind of treatment for all victims that went through 
their ordeal, but it was the perfect one for them." Helena looked at 
Glen with a twinkle in her eye. She added, "It must have been 
tough for you, though."

Glen grunted and ignored the final comment. He said, "I wouldn't 
know anything about that. I was dealing with my own problems."

Helena put a hand on his shoulder in a comforting gesture. She 
said, "I know and I wish that you had come to me to talk about 
them. I could have helped you."

Glen said, "Men don't talk, they act."

"Bullshit!"

He had the grace to blush. Helena noticed and said, "Look, you've 
done alright for yourself. You three have a healthy relationship. I'll 
admit that there are things about it that I'm not sure that I'm 
comfortable about, but that is for the twins to decide."

Glen knew that she was talking about the incest component of the 
relationship between the twins. There were times that it bothered 
him as well, but he agreed with Helena that it was for the twins to 
decide. He nodded and said, "I agree with you on that, but it is not 
up to me."

Helena was about to reply when Dale came up to them. He slapped 
Glen on the back in a friendly fashion and asked, "Trying to add 
my wife to your harem?"

Glen laughed and answered, "Nah. She doesn't like studs like 
myself. She prefers portly elderly guys that are half bald."

Helena chuckled and the Sheriff stuttered at that characterization 
of himself. The Sheriff hitched up his pants in his habitual manner 
and replied, "Us old roosters have tricks you young squirts have 
never dreamed of."

Helena glanced at her husband and asked, "so are you going to 
show me some of those tricks tonight?"

Dale grunted, "Damn woman is going to kill me."

Glen laughed at the exchange. He decided to go for the kill and 
said, "We just might have to feature you two as an example of an 
alternative marriage in our magazine. A May-December marriage. 
We've never addressed the issues associated with a young wife like 
Helena married to an old goat like yourself."

Helena laughed and said, "Flatterer."

Dale looked at Glen and said, "I'm not that old. I'd say that it is a 
May-June marriage."

Glen and Helena laughed at that. Helena excused herself and went 
to talk to Cliff. Dale turned to Glen and in a much more serious 
tone of voice said, "I just wanted to give you a warning. The 
fanatics have taken an even more aggressive stance. When they 
missed the Metchettes, they seem to have gotten even more frantic 
at getting them."

Glen's stomach twisted. He had hoped to have a day without worry 
about that. He knew that the fanatics wouldn't make a move with 
so many people here, so he had actually pushed his worries to the 
back of his mind. This reminder was not appreciated to the degree 
that it should have been. He grunted, "Okay, I'll take that into 
advisement. The twins will be going to New York for a conference 
in two weeks. I'll keep an eye on Cliff while they are gone."

The Sheriff nodded and asked, "What about until then?"

Glen smiled and answered, "We have contingency plan on top of 
contingency plan. None of us stay alone"

The Sheriff said, "You sound pretty confident."

Glen replied, "You should see the twins with the rifles. They are 
shooting 450 plus on the target range."

The Sheriff whistled understanding exactly what Glen meant. The 
twins were shooting a nine or better on a ten point target on fifty 
consecutive shots. That was very good shooting. He said, "That's 
pretty damn good."

Glen nodded and added, "We have weapons caches in the woods in 
case they are caught unarmed away from the house."

The Sheriff stated, "Good planning. The only flaw in this house 
that I've spotted is the Sauna. They have a large sliding glass door 
in there."

Glen replied, "I noticed that. I suggested that they board it up for 
now, but all three of them refused that option."

