Chapter 29

   "Where are we going to tell her we found them?" asked Hilda Mae as the
girls moved quietly through the dark.  All their fears about being seen had
come to naught, and they had walked through the night as if they owned it.

   "At the fishing hole?  Under a rock, maybe?" said Johnnie Sue.

   "Who would leave ten of these under a rock at a fishing hole?" snorted
Bernadette.  She had clutched the coin in her hand the whole way, and her
palm was sweaty.

   "Lying in the road?" suggested Hilda Mae.

   "And we found it while we out taking a moonlit stroll?" said Bernadette,
disgust in her voice.

   "We don't HAVE to talk to her about it at all!" said Johnnie Sue.

   "We have to talk to somebody!" said Bernadette.  "If I walked into the
store and plopped this down to order a Nancy Drew book, my father would
know about it in five minutes!"

   "Well, he's a banker, isn't he?" said Johnnie Sue in a grumpy voice. 
"Who better to tell us what they're really worth?"

   Bernadette stopped.  "You DON'T know my father!" she hissed.  "He must
NEVER find out about these ...  NEVER!"

   "OK, OK, don't get upset," said Johnnie Sue.

   They kept trying to think up a story to tell their teacher, but by the
time they saw the dim light in the window at the back of the house that
told them she was still awake, they hadn't come up with anything.

   "Let's look in the window," said Hilda Mae, nervously.  "Just to make
sure she's awake." The thought of pounding on Miss Flossie's door in the
middle of the night didn't appeal to her as much as it had earlier.

   ====================================

   Flossie woke, to feel pain in her chest.  The light was still on.  She
realized she had fallen asleep, and was draped over Nathan, whose firm
chest was pushing into hers.  To her own chagrin, the next thing she did
was flex those newly discovered muscles.  She didn't feel anything.  He had
gone soft, and slipped out of her.  She lifted her head, and looked at his
profile as he slept under her.  He WAS handsome.  She felt her heart beat
faster in her chest, and rolled carefully off of him, trying not to wake
him.  He lay in the light of the dim bulb on the ceiling, relaxed.  She
stared at the thing that had been inside her ...  had spurted on her chest
...  had made her feel so fabulous.  It looked so harmless now that she
wanted to giggle.

   She yawned.  It had to be late.  She had to get him out of here before
his mother, or someone else came looking for him.

   With her weight now off his chest, Nathan gave an unconscious sigh as
his lungs filled completely, and then emptied out.

   Flossie felt that thing she had thought about earlier ...  that
demanding feeling of doing that again with him.  She felt the itch between
her legs and carefully explored there, lifting one leg.  Nothing.  She felt
no different than she ever had.  She brought her fingers up and peered at
them.  They were wet, but with the same wetness that was always there when
she felt like this.

   She couldn't resist touching his penis ...  just with one finger,
pushing its limp form from one side of his abdomen to the other.  She
gripped the tip lightly, and pushed the hood off the tip.  She marveled at
its shape, and how she could feel that shape rubbing inside her.

   She didn't realize she was playing with it as she daydreamed, re-living
the joy, until he made another sound in his throat.  She looked at his face
to see his eyes slowly blink open, and then realized that he was hardening
under her fingers.

   "Hi," he said.

   His simple greeting thrilled her to the bone.  No recriminations ...  no
regrets ...  no objections ...  just ...  "Hi."

   "It's very late," she said softly.  "You must go home."

   "Don't want to," he murmured, rolling to kiss her shoulder.  His lips
moved to her neck, and she moved her head to one side automatically to give
him more room.  Her hand closed around his penis, which was almost hard
again.

   "You have to," she moaned.

   "In a minute," he said, nuzzling her upper chest.  He remembered how
Bernadette had liked it when he sucked at her nipple.  Flossie's unhurt
breast was right there, and he closed his lips around the dark tip and
sucked.

   "Ohhhh Nathan, you shouldn't do thaaaaaat," moaned Flossie.

   He stopped just long enough to ask why, and then suckled at her again.

   "Because if you keep doing that I won't be able to make you leave," she
sighed.

   "Good," he said.  His hand drifted to her loins, and one finger pressed
between her lips as she gasped.

   "It was really in there?" he asked, kissing her neck again, and
inserting just the tip of his finger inside her.

   "Ohhh yesss," she gasped as his finger pressed her clit.

   "Can I do it again?" he asked, sounding much younger than he was.

   She pulled him on top of her and spread her legs.

   ====================================

   Bernadette snuck up to the window that she knew would let her see into
Miss Flossie's bedroom.  She edged her face into the lower pane slowly,
afraid to make any quick movement because that might draw Miss Flossie's
attention if she was reading or something.

   Miss Flossie wasn't reading.

   Bernadette gave a strangled "EEP!" and jerked her head away, only to
thrust it back up into the pane, her eyes wide open.

   "Nathan!" she blurted in a hoarse whisper.

   "What?" asked Hilda Mae.  "Is Nathan in there?"

   Bernadette couldn't speak.  She couldn't move.  She felt like she was
floating.  When someone tried to push her aside, though, her muscles
responded and she shoved back, hard.

   "What's the MATTER with you?" whispered Hilda Mae crossly.

   "Nathan," said Bernadette again, unable to say more.

   Two more faces pushed into the corners of the two lower panes of glass
in the window, peering in to see what had so discombobulated Bernadette. 
Almost as if they had rehearsed it, there were twin explosive whispers:
"NATHAN!"

   ====================================

   Something in Flossie wanted him on top this time, in the 'normal'
position.  She settled into a comfortable posture on her back, pulling a
pillow under her head, and spread her legs, drawing her knees upward to
open herself for her lover.  He crawled between her thighs, his hands on
the bed beside her hips.  He looked down and saw a gleam of pink, as her
vulva swelled and opened for him.  As much as he wanted to explore that
with his eyes, and tongue, he kept going until his prick hung, full and
hard again, over her thatch of curly black hairs, and that flash of pink.
She put her hands on his shoulders automatically and then, took one hand
and gripped the thing that she couldn't wait to feel inside her again.

   Five pairs of eyes, three outside, and two inside, watched intently as
she brought the tip to where she knew it should go and he leaned forward
slightly to nose it in.  Then five pairs of eyes watched as it slowly sank
into her until his pale hanging balls bumped against her dark, satiny
buttocks.

   The girls outside heard Flossie's moan of pure joy.  It was as clear as
ice water thrown in their faces that that moan was, in fact, the product of
pure joy, and that everything going on in front of their astonished eyes
was completely consensual.

   Nathan didn't know what to do at first.  Nature helped him, along with
the remembrance of seeing two dogs humping, though this position was
completely different from that one.  Until this night, had he been asked,
he would have said that the man approached the woman from behind.  That was
his only frame of reference.  In fact, as he had imagined his parents in
their bedroom, he had imagined his mother on her hands and knees, and his
father behind her.  He had imagined viewing his sisters from behind like
that too, in his fantasies, as he kneed his way toward them, his penis
aching to sink into them.

   But now, that all fled, as his hips made the first instinctive movements
that would draw him out slightly, just to plunge back in.

   It was pure luck that Flossie was already almost insane with desire when
he first slid into her.  Her orgasm was there, waiting for her as she was
filled again.  It was just as well, because Nathan, looking down on the
beautiful woman beneath him, did what nature intended him to do.  He didn't
think about it.  He just acted.  Within ten strokes, he went in and stayed.
His balls bunched, and he fertilized her.  The sweet agony of spurting, was
even better than when he did it with his prick buried in his sister's
throat.  His biology knew that this was the real deal, and it gave
everything it had in him to complete that deal.  Strong and pure, his issue
blasted into her.

   Flossie knew instantly that this was different.  She felt the flood of
warmth deep inside her, and realized immediately that she could never
mistake that feeling for anything but what it was.  Wanton Flossie exulted
at the feel of his seed flooding her, flowing into every nook and cranny of
her belly as she strained up to meet him.  Her worries were still there,
but now they were like thinking about a tornado on a clear summer's day. 
There were tornadoes, but they were not to be worried about now.

   Nathan grunted with the force of giving her everything in him.  As his
semen flowed through his penis he wished he could follow it, to be
completely inside her.

   "I love you so much," he gasped, his head drooping as his body relaxed,
its duty done.

   "Ohhh sweet Nathan," panted Flossie as he sank down on top of her.  She
welcomed his weight, feeling him press her into the mattress, and her hands
fluttered over his back, finally falling to his buttocks to pull ...  to
keep him in her forever.

   But she couldn't keep him here.  It was too dangerous.

   "You have to go home," she said, pushing at him, and wishing she didn't
have to.

   "I know," he said, getting to his hands and knees.  His penis pulled
out, and a vivid string of white connected him to her ...  connecting light
to dark.  Both of them stared at it, realizing on some level that it was
not a good thing to see, but also thinking that it looked right somehow.

   ====================================

   It was that string of connecting white that thawed the frozen muscles of
the girls outside.  Hilda Mae and Johnnie Sue pushed away from the wall
almost explosively, taking three steps backward.  Bernadette more or less
slumped, her shoulders drooping as tense muscles just couldn't clench any
longer.  She stepped back and stared at the window.  It wasn't ANYTHING
like she had imagined it would look like.  It was so fluid ...  so smooth
...  it looked so effortless, not at all violent or painful.  It had been
...  she thought ...  beautiful.

   But there were negative feelings too.  Lately, she had wondered what
that might feel like.  Her imagination had involved Nathan.  She felt
jealousy that Nathan had done this with someone else, and not her.  At the
same time, she knew her imagination had also involved Curtis Lee sometimes,
and she felt an eagerness now that made her suddenly have to rub.

   She put the coin, still gripped in her right hand, into a pocket, and
then sent that hand went her pants as she sucked in her stomach to give it
room.  She leaned against the house with the other hand, and squatted. 
THERE!  Yes, she could reach it.  She couldn't get her finger up inside
her, but she could torture her bump.  She lifted her head just enough to
peek through the bottom of the pane as Nathan got off the bed and
stretched. His penis was soft now.  Her eyes went to Flossie, who lay there
as if dead, her legs spread, the gleam of white just below her coal black
pubic hair.

   "Unnngg," grunted Bernadette as her orgasm gave her relief.  Her hand
jerked and she squatted more as her knees gave out.  She leaned her head
against the house as it peaked, and whispered "Nathan."

   "What are you DOING?!" came Hilda Mae's urgent whisper.  Her own hand
was pressed against her pussy, but outside her clothing.

   "She's doing what I feel like doing," husked Johnnie Sue, one hand on a
breast, and the other pressing between her legs, like Hilda Mae.

   "We have to GO!" whispered Hilda Mae, almost in panic.  "He's leaving!
We can't knock on her door now!"

   "I guess not," sighed Johnnie Sue.  "I can't believe they did that!" she
said, suddenly animated and excited.

   "Me either!" said Hilda Mae, almost too loudly.  "Wow!"

   The reality of what they had seen descended on them all, and the mix of
exhilaration of seeing something so secret, and the hormones rushing
through their nubile bodies energized them almost like a drug.

   "What are we going to do?" asked Johnnie Sue.

   "We have to go home!" said Hilda Mae automatically.

   "We CAN'T!" whispered Johnnie Sue.  "Your mother thinks we're at my
house, and my mother thinks we're at YOURS!"

   "Shit!" Bernadette gave an explosive grunt.

   "Bernie!" said Hilda Mae, shocked.

   "He did that with HER!" huffed Bernadette, "Instead of ME!"

   Johnnie Sue gasped.  "You'd let him do THAT?!"

   The thought that she had just let a whopping secret out wasn't enough to
quell the jealous rage that was eating at Bernadette.  She turned on her
friend.

   "Wouldn't YOU?" she hissed.  "After what we just saw?  Wouldn't YOU want
him to do that to you too?"

   "Bernie, shut up." Hilda Mae's voice was above a whisper, and urgent.

   "He SQUIRTED in her!" said Bernadette.  "She might even have his BABY
now!"

   Hilda Mae recognized the voice her sister was using.  When she was mad
like that, there wasn't anything you could do.  She just had to work
through it.  She usually did that pretty quickly.  She had a short fuse,
but it didn't burn all that long ...  usually.  She grabbed her sister's
shirt and pulled forcefully, to at least get her far enough away from the
house that they wouldn't be heard.  Bernadette pulled away and started
stomping around the house, her arms swinging.  It was obvious she intended
to confront her brother.

   Hilda Mae and Johnnie Sue both teamed up to tackle her.  Hilda Mae knew
to put a hand over her mouth, and she held on with all her strength as
Bernadette struggled wildly, trying to scream.  Johnnie Sue held onto her
legs, so she couldn't kick or get back up.  Suddenly, they felt her go
limp. Hilda Mae took her hand away slowly, ready to clamp back down.

   "You can let go now," said Bernadette, her voice sounding completely
normal.

   "Are you in control again?" asked her sister carefully.

   "Yes.  I'm still mad, but I'm OK now."

   They let her go in stages, and she shook off their grip in irritation.
She stood, and bent to dust off her clothing.  The other two relaxed, until
Bernadette looked at them and said: "You're so stupid!"

   Then, like a deer, she was off and running, her arms pumping as she
headed for the front of the house.

   ====================================

   Nathan left Flossie's feeling unbelievably light on his feet.  Whether
what he felt was "love" in the deepest sense of the concept, or simply
"puppy love" as Flossie had naturally thought, doesn't really matter.  For
the person under its spell, there is no difference.  He felt like a man for
the first time in his life.  Even when he drove the truck during harvest,
and defied his father ...  despite being accepted by the farmers as an
equal ...  he had always felt like a boy, trying to be a man.  Now, though,
he knew he understood the first glimmer of what it felt like to be a real
man.  Like the other, it didn't really matter if he was right or not.  His
frame of reference, concerning the world in general, and sex and Flossie in
particular, had irrevocably changed.  Her kiss goodbye had told him
everything he could have hoped for.

   He was welcome to return.

   It was in that fog of ecstasy that he heard the pounding footsteps in
the night.  He was in the act of crouching and turning when a light,
obviously female body crashed into him.  He went down, his hands full of
breasts, and his olfactory sense told him it was Bernadette long before he
would have figured it out any other way.  She was panting, but otherwise
silent for a second, and then he had to shift his hands from her breasts to
fend off her fists as she pounded them at his head and shoulders.

   "How COULD YOU?" she yelled.

   He grabbed her wrists more by instinct than vision, and his grip was
like iron.  She pulled, but could do nothing.C She scrambled up to sit on
him.  He heard more panting breaths and footfalls, and heard Hildy and what
sounded like Johnnie Sue arrive.

   "What are you doing out here in the dark?" he asked, his big brother
(and now adult persona) taking charge.

   Bernadette was spluttering with anger, so much in turmoil that, after
her first question, she couldn't phrase either a curse or more
interrogative response.

   Bernadette's mind decided on a comment.

   "I HATE YOU!" she almost screamed.

   Suddenly, her weight was gone from his stomach, and her wrists pulled
him to a sitting position.  He could just make out a hand over her mouth,
and arms around her, pinning his older sister's arms to her sides.  She
struggled and then went limp.

   "What's going ON?" he gasped.

   "We saw you through the window," panted Hilda Mae.  "She's real mad
about that."

   "What window?" he asked, confused.

   "Miss Flossie's window you dope!" snapped Hilda Mae.

   "Oh," said Nathan, his newfound adult feeling fleeing from him as if it
had never been there.  "Oh SHIT!" he gasped.

   "Will the children in this family PLEASE stop cursing like that?!"
moaned Hilda Mae.

   "She attacked me!" Nathan said, dusting off his shirt.

   "She's jealous, you turd," growled Johnnie Sue.  She couldn't say why,
but she felt some of the same thing in her own body now that she'd had a
chance to think about it for more than two seconds.  She'd never really
felt jealousy before, but she recognized it.  It was ugly, and she didn't
like the feeling at all.  She sympathized with Bernadette.  "We saw you in
there with Miss Flossie, making a baby in her!"

   There is an unwritten rule that all teens magically know.  Basically,
when you think you're in trouble: Deny ...  obfuscate ...  prevaricate! 
Nathan had two problems, having broken two major taboos.  They all knew
about one of them, but maybe Johnnie Sue didn't know about the other.

   "But why would she be jealous of Flossie?" he tried.  "We were just
kissing."

   It showed up the obvious problems with denial, obfuscation and
prevarication.  At least two of the females present knew exactly why she
would be jealous.  And, of course, he didn't know just how much they'd
seen. Johnnie Sue's comment about making a baby in Miss Flossie hadn't
quite penetrated.

   "She knows about us, Nathan," panted Hilda Mae, still struggling with
her sister.

   "Yeah, and if you ever try to kiss ME like that, just be ready to start
singing soprano," panted Johnnie Sue.  It seemed like the right thing to
say, even though what she wanted to do right now was see how many of her
fingers she could get inside her.

   "Ohhh shit," said Nathan, slumping.

   Bernadette kicked at him with one foot, and his mind adjusted.  He could
understand how she felt.  He felt the same way when she had told him what
she'd done with Curtis Lee.  He grabbed her foot when she tried to kick him
again, and leaned forward.

   "Stop it!" he said.  The wrestling didn't stop, but it slowed down a
little.  "Remember what you did when we were spooning for catfish!"

   Now Bernadette went limp.  Her shoulders started to shake, and she made
sniffling noises through her nose.  Hilda Mae slowly took her hand away, to
let her breathe.

   "It's not the same thing!" she moaned.  "All I did was suck him." She
stiffened.  "All I did was suck him, like I suck you.  And now that you've
gone and done that with Miss Flossie, you have to do it to me too!"

   Johnnie Sue moaned and let go of Bernadette's arms.  "Rich people are
just plum CRAZY!" she moaned.

   "We're not rich!" snapped Bernadette.  She turned back to her brother.
"You have to do that to me too." she said firmly.

   "I most certainly do not." he said just as firmly.  "You KNOW that what
we've been doing isn't right.  And that would be even worse!"

   "I don't CARE about that," she moaned.

   "Yes you do," he said soothingly.  He held out his arms to her and she
crawled into his embrace.  It was a surprisingly platonic embrace, for all
they were talking about.  He stroked her hair.  "You know we can't do that.
I shouldn't have done it with Flossie either.  I can't even tell you how it
happened.  One minute we were getting paint off of each other and the next
thing I knew we were ..." He stopped, then started again.  "What if I DID
get Flossie pregnant?  It will ruin everything!  And if YOU got pregnant
too ...  they'd probably put us all in jail or something."

   He was actually on a roll, though he didn't know it.  Everything he had
said had either mitigated his involvement with Flossie, at least in
Bernadette's mind, or made plain sense.  Had he stopped there, she might
have calmed down.  But he didn't know, and he went on.  Like most men, he
kept talking when he should have shut up.

   "Besides, you're much too young for that kind of thing."

   She stiffened, pulled away, and then shoved him, scrambling to her feet.

   "We'll just see about THAT!" she snarled.  She started stalking off
toward home.

   "Ooooo shit," whispered Hilda Mae.

   "Well, I guess that makes it unanimous," sighed Johnnie Sue.

   ====================================

   They caught up with her before she got home, and reminded her that she
couldn't go there.  She huffed, and stomped, but had to admit they were
right.  Then she turned on her heel and said "Follow me!" When Nathan
started to follow too, she stopped and pointed at him.

   "Not you!" she said.  "If you aren't in your bed in the morning, Mamma
will have a hissy fit and lock you up.  And then I'll never find out what
it's like." What she was talking about was clear to them all.

   "Where are you going?" he asked, more or less meekly.  He knew he'd
stepped on it by now.

   "WE are going to the fire barn, where we will have a slumber party," she
said, her nose in the air.  "In the morning Hildy and I will come home and
get ready to go back to the Mansion." She stopped, her eyes going wide in
the dark and showing white.  Her hand went to her right pocket and she let
out a sigh of relief.  It was still there.  They had forgotten all about
the coins.

   "Hey!" said Johnnie Sue.  "We completely forgot about ..."

   "Never mind!" Bernadette cut her off.  "We can discuss that later."

   "Aren't you going to tell him about the ..." tried Johnnie Sue.

   "I SAID never mind!"

   "Tell me about what?" asked Nathan.

   Bernadette smiled at him.  "We have a secret.  A BIG secret.  An
IMPORTANT secret, that we are NOT going to tell YOU!  Let's just see how
YOU feel when you want something and somebody tells you you can't have it.
HAH!" she crowed, acting like the little girl Nathan had just accused her
of being.

   "You won't tell anybody ...  please?" he asked.  "About Flossie and me?
Please?" he begged.

   Bernadette looked at him.  He was so earnest, so vulnerable.  She loved
him so much she almost couldn't stand it.  She felt her heart breaking, and
the beautiful memory of what he and Miss Flossie had been sharing came back
to her.  It had looked so ...  special.

   "No, we won't tell," she said softly.  "Now, go on home, and try not to
wake them up when you go inside.  We'll talk about ...  all this other ...
tomorrow."

   "Thanks Bernie," he smiled, stepping toward her, his arms outstretched.
She wasn't completely over her funk, though, and she held up a hand.

   "If you try to kiss me right now I swear I'll scream bloody murder."

   He stopped, and his face fell.  Hilda Mae darted forward, put her hands
on his shoulders and kissed him quickly on the lips.

   "I still love you," she said, giggling.

   Johnnie Sue also darted forward and kissed him before he could react.

   "I do to," she simpered.  Then she started laughing.

   Nathan fled, and the girls walked to the fire barn, being as quiet as
they could.  If they messed up getting inside there, they had no place to
go and would have to stay outside all night.  They had to make one detour,
to get their suitcase and Johnnie Sue's other bag, that they had left
behind a tree when they went on their treasure hunt.

   ====================================

   The girls decided they'd break the news the next day when they got to
the mansion.  Events had drained them, and they pulled the single blanket
over their tired bodies.  Barely able to fit on the cot together, they fell
asleep.

   Nathan managed to enter the house and make it to his bedroom without
making any noise.  He sank into oblivion as soon as his head hit the
pillow. He didn't even get undressed.

   For once, he didn't dream.

   ====================================

   Chapter 30

   Nathan woke early, his alarm clock going off because he'd inadvertently
left it set.  He went out to the kitchen to find his mother puttering
around in the kitchen, and his father already gone.  His father left for
work early these days.  He had no way of knowing that, in during the day
before, his mother had had ample time to reflect on the things she had seen
and heard recently.

   "You got in late," said his mother, casually, her back still facing him.

   "I checked in on Miss Flossie," he said, stretching.  "She's doing much
better."

   She finally turned and glanced at him.  "You slept in your clothes?" she
observed.

   He looked down at his rumpled clothing.

   "I guess I did," he said helplessly.

   "Your sisters are at a slumber party," she said.

   He almost said "I know" but cut it off, changing it to "I ...  'm
hungry. Anything to eat?"

   "Of course," she said.  "It's a good thing your sister's weren't here to
hear you come in at one in the morning," she said calmly.

   "Oh," he said, trying not to flush.  "Sorry if I woke you up.  I fell
asleep over there.  Her ...  um ...  chair is real comfortable."

   "Are you going to take that job in Kansas City?" she asked, standing at
the stove, her back to him.

   "I don't know," he said, concerned that she'd go off on another tantrum.

   "It might be best if you did," said his mother.  She turned around, and
her eyes were shining.

   Nathan got up and went to her.  She hugged him tightly and sniffed.

   "I don't have to go," he said, not comprehending that radar that mothers
have, and the keen hearing that goes with it.

   "I smell her on you," she said into his chest.  She looked up at him. 
"I love you, Nathan.  I love you more than life itself, but you're turning
into a man.  I don't understand all this," she cried.

   "Don't cry, Mamma ...  it's all right," said Nathan haltingly.

   "No, it's not," she said, pushing him away, but holding on to his
elbows. "I know what a woman can feel for a man.  Your father has his
problems, but I love him, so I know how she can love you.  I don't
understand how you can love her, but I know you do, and you're my baby, and
I will find a way to understand, but your father will never accept it."

   "Mamma," Nathan pleaded, off balance.  He had too many secrets to keep,
and he didn't know which one she knew about, or how she knew.  "you're
talking crazy!"

   Her sniffling subsided, and she looked at him with something like pride
in her eyes.  "I've always been able to read you like a book, young man. 
I've heard how you talk about her.  I had a crush on one of my teachers
when I was a girl, and, when I heard that in your voice, I thought it was
just that.  But she called your name the other night.  I heard the need in
her voice.  And I saw how you acted when Harvey hurt her.  I DON'T
understand, but at the same time I DO!  Does that make any sense?"

   She pushed him away, and into a chair, returning to the stove.

   "It's all wrong, you know.  Nothing good can possibly come of it." Now
she was talking like a mother lecturing her child when she knows that
lecture will do no good whatsoever, but feels some impulse to deliver it
anyway.  "She's much too old for you, little slip of a girl that she looks.
And no one will ever let you be happy together.  Certainly not around
here."

   She served him and then sat down and began eating with her fingers, off
his plate.

   "But if you went off to Kansas City, you might have a chance.  A slim
chance, but maybe a chance.  Lord knows the world is changing.  I can't
keep up with it all myself.  Further North would be better."

   "Mamma," Nathan pleaded.  First her knowing ...  somehow just knowing
... was bad enough, but to hear her actually encouraging him was just
incomprehensible.

   "I doubt I'll ever get to see my grandbabies.  Harvey must never know,
of course.  He'd have a stroke if he looked at a little cream colored baby
and found out it was yours."

   "Mamma, I haven't asked her to MARRY me!" he yelped.

   "Well, you'd better.  I'll not have my son living in sin.  Carrying on
with a colored woman is bad enough.  At least make an honest woman out of
her."

   "How do you KNOW all this?" he asked helplessly.

   "I'm your mother!" she said shortly.  "Did you really think you could
keep such a secret from me?"

   She hadn't said anything about his sisters, so maybe he COULD keep a
secret from her.  He stopped thinking about them, just in case, and thought
about Flossie.

   "She'd never accept anyway," said Nathan.  "I don't have a job yet, even
if they said I will.  And she's the teacher here."

   Marian looked at him sadly.  "What your father did ...  it can't die
there.  He won't let it.  He's acting so strangely ...  almost like he's
afraid.  One of them is going to have to go, and he'll fight hard not to be
the one.  This is his last chance, Nathan.  If he can't make it here, he'll
be out of a job.  We didn't tell you, when we came, but that's the long and
short of it.  And don't think that the town won't find out what he did. 
They will.  And with the both of them here ...  it just wouldn't work."

   She took a piece of bacon from his plate, munched on it, and then got up
to get him more before sitting down.

   "Take her away from here, Nathan.  She loves you, and if I don't miss my
mark you have strong feelings for her too.  Get her out of here, up North
somewhere.  She's a good woman.  I never in all my life thought I'd say
that about a colored woman who was in love with my only son, but there it
is.  Take her somewhere where the two of you can be happy."

   "I can't believe this," Nathan said, gaping.

   "You're almost a man, Nathan.  You'd better start learning now to
believe.  Belief ...  and faith ...  those are the things that will get you
through the hard places in life."

   "I don't know what to say," he said.

   "Just tell me you'll try to be happy.  If you do this, it won't be easy
for you.  Your father ...  he's not the only one like that."

   "I know that.  She does too.  She tried to stop ..."

   "Do your sisters know?" she asked, cutting him off.

   He had to be careful now.  This was getting too close to the secret he
KNEW his mother would never accept.  "I think they at least suspect."

   "You'll have to explain it to them," she said.  "Unless you get her out
of here secretly.  That would be best anyway.  The longer no one knows, the
better." She looked at him narrowly.  "You want me to talk to them?"

   "No!" he said quickly.  "They'd never believe you.  I'll do it."

   "My little boy, all grown up," she sighed.  Her eyes got wet again. 
"Now off with you to whatever you all are doing when you're pretending to
be at school."

   He got up, leaving the rest of his food on the plate.  His head was
spinning, and he thought it best to leave before things came undone.  It
was at that moment that the girls stampeded through the front door.

   "HURRY UP, NATHAN," squealed Bernadette, like nothing at all had
happened the night before.  "We have to get to SCHOOL!"

   "What about breakfast?" Marian objected.

   "Mrs.  Thorpe fed us," chimed in Hilda Mae, looking at Nathan's plate.

   "Change your clothes then," said Marian, her hands on her hips.  "At
least give me time to pack you a lunch!  Don't you want me to drive you? 
It's too soon for that woman to be working again.  I should have a word
with her!"

   "Mamma!" said Bernadette.  "Of COURSE she's not working.  We're taking
care of things while she's gone ...  teaching the little ones." She looked
confident, despite her bald-faced lie.  "Besides, it's a BEAUTIFUL day!"
she called out.  "We'll ride our bikes."

   ====================================

   The girls didn't give their mother time to do anything other than pack a
lunch.  They hopped on their bikes,urging Nathan to hurry and follow them.
He waited until they were outside of town, and then asked.

   "What's going on?"

   Bernadette whirled, stopping.  "Why big brother, whatever are you
talking about.  We're going to school ...  aren't we?" She smiled gaily at
him.  Hilda Mae rolled her eyes.

   "What happened last night?" he asked suspiciously.  "Aren't you still
mad at me?"

   "Oh!  That?" She dimpled at him.  "I forgive you," she added brightly.
She got off her bike, came to him and crushed him in an embrace, kissing
him soundly.  She also rubbed her breasts and loins against his side and
hip as he straddled his bike.  She broke the kiss, looking at him through
her long lashes.  "But you're going to do that with me.  That hasn't
changed."

   "Bernie!" he moaned.

   "But that's for later!" she said, pushing him away.  "We have to HURRY!"

   ====================================

   The girls - all three of them, once they were assembled - continued in
the same vein, urging the boys to hurry up and get to the mansion, but not
saying why they were so excited.  They couldn't go together, of course, and
again broke up into small groups to make the trip, meeting up in the woods
before approaching the house.  This, again, was at the insistence of the
girls.  Jesse was the first one to enter the house, and he stopped short.
He leaned over and held up Johnnie Sue's bag, along with the hammer and
chisel they'd completely forgotten about in their excitement the night
before.

   "Somebody's been here!" he gasped.

   "That was us," Johnnie Sue announced, unable to keep it in.

   "Who?" asked Luthor.

   "US!" she shouted, pointing to the other two girls.  "We came here last
night, and Nancy Drew would have been PROUD of us!" she crowed.

   "Why'd you do that?" asked Moses.

   "We ..." Johnnie Sue paused for dramatic effect, "opened the box!"

   There was a babble of male voices, as the girls preened and strutted.

   "Well?" asked Jesse, almost hopping up and down.

   Bernadette reached into her pocket, making a big display of it.  She
brought her hand out, clenched around something.

   "This belongs to all of us," she announced gravely.  "Agreed?"

   The boys leaned forward, nodding mindlessly.

   Bernadette opened her hand, and the Double Eagle in it gleamed in the
morning sun.

   There was silence so complete that they could hear birds chirping. 
Jesse reached out, his hand tentatively hovering over the coin, and he
looked at Bernadette for permission.  She smiled and nodded, and he
snatched the coin to look at it.

   "WHOOOOPEEEEEE!" he yelled, dancing around holding the coin up.  "We're
RICH!"

   Curtis Lee slumped, as did Nathan.  Moses looked confused.

   "That's it?" Nathan's voice was dull.

   Curtis Lee wrestled the coin away from Jesse, who was still grinning and
hopping about.

   "It's a twenty dollar gold piece," he said, examining it.  "It's old,
maybe old enough that it's worth more than that."

   "Wow," said Nathan, his voice disgusted.  "That's almost three dollars
apiece." He looked daggers at his sister.  "This ...  is the big surprise?"

   "Not exactly," said Bernadette.  The cat that ate the canary had nothing
on her this day.  "There are a few more."

   Jesse stopped dancing, his eyes wide.  "Is there enough so that
everybody can have their own?" The hope in his eyes and voice was enough to
make Johnnie Sue laugh out loud.

   "How many more?" asked Curtis Lee cautiously.

   Bernadette looked at Hilda Mae and Johnnie Sue.  When they got up, they
had planned the whole unveiling, and had practiced, knowing that this
question would be asked sooner or later.  They came together and, on
Bernadette's mark, said in unison "Four hundred and thirty-six."

   ====================================

   There was disbelief at first.  That's a natural reaction to unexpected
and very welcome news.  Perhaps because Nathan had so recently run through
all the different reactions at breakfast that morning, he moved out of
disbelief and into cautious acceptance.  That morphed into wild glee, in
some cases, and almost catatonic sit-on-the-ground helplessness in a couple
of cases.  Then, of course, the boys stampeded down the stairs to see for
themselves.  Nathan had, in all the furor of what happened the night
before, forgotten his flashlight, but the girls had left the lantern there
too, and there were still some matches in the bag.  Once that was taken
care of, furniture flew until, full of his own adrenaline, Nathan hefted
the box by the handles and brought it out into the light of day.

   Paranoia set in instantly, just as it had the night before, and the boys
looked around intently, to make sure no one was coming.  That wasn't
enough, and Nathan insisted that Curtis Lee help him carry the chest out
into the woods before they actually opened it.  The girls followed,
grinning.

   Even in the woods, the pile of coins in the chest sparkled in the
dappled sunlight, and the boys stared, unmoving, for a full sixty seconds.
Almost as one, they fell to their knees, and reached into the box to make
sure that what they were seeing was real.

   Bernadette brought them back to earth.

   "Of course, we can't spend any of it.  Not like this."

   Four open mouths stared up at her.

   "If even one of these is shown in town, the grown-ups will go crazy. 
They'll make us tell where we got it, and at least one of us would end up
telling.  Then they'd take it all way from us."

   The logic of her words sank into them like cold steel.

   "Well what good is it then?" asked Luthor, anguish in his voice.

   "That's what we have to decide," said Bernadette.  "I didn't say it was
impossible.  We just have to go about turning this into spending money
carefully."

   "If I ever showed my Mamma more than ten dollars of ANY kind of money at
one time she'd know something was up," said Moses.  There were murmured "Me
too's" from them all.

   "I have an idea," said Nathan, suddenly.  "But you'll have to trust me."

   ====================================

   They didn't like his idea.  That gold was already burning a hole in
their pockets.  Most of them had been poor as dirt all their lives, and
visions of amazing things filled their imaginations.  But they also knew
that, if they didn't do things perfectly, they'd still be poor, and someone
else would have the gold.

   The plan involved two major requirements that nobody liked, but which
everyone agreed to.  The first was delayed gratification.  They couldn't
spend any of it right away.  The second was that only Nathan and one other
he didn't name, would know where the gold was, after it was moved to a new,
more secure hiding place.

   "Who?" asked Luthor.  "Who else will know?"

   "Curtis Lee," said Nathan.

   Curtis Lee looked at him.  "Why me?" he asked.

   "Because you and I will be keeping an eye on each other while we find a
place to turn that gold into money that won't raise so many questions."

   "Keeping an eye on each other." said Curtis Lee.  "Where?"

   Nathan smiled.  "Kansas City, Missouri.  Curtis Lee, my friend, you and
I are going to go to the Police Academy together, and be policemen in
Kansas City, Missouri."

   ====================================

   There was another uproar, of course.  Other than his sisters, none of
them knew about the letter he had received, and this sounded like some
crazy scheme.  But, when Curtis Lee found out that the letter Nathan had
written had not specified his race, and that he had been welcome simply on
the basis of grades, a door opened that Curtis Lee would never have known
about, much less dreamed of going through.

   "And, when we we're through the academy, and we get situated, we'll be
able to sell some coins and bring the money back here," he said.

   "OK," said Jesse sadly.  "But now does that help us?  I mean if you give
me a hundred of my dollars, I still can't explain where I got it."

   "You can if you make something and sell it," said Nathan.

   "Make what?" asked Hilda Mae.

   "Who cares?" said Nathan.  "All you have to do is make something ... 
anything ...  art, sewing, carving, it doesn't matter.  You send it to us,
and we ...  sell it ...  up there in Kansas City, of course, and we send
you the money."

   They looked around at each other.  There were nods.  It could work.

   "I want to help my parents," said Moses.  "They work so hard.  They
could use some of that money."

   They talked about that for a while, and it was Johnnie Sue who said
something that brought the answer.  What she wanted to do was replace an
antiquated tool her father used.  There was a new one that would save a lot
of time, but he couldn't afford it.  He had to use the antique one instead.

   "Antique!" said Bernadette.  "I've seen whole stores that sell just
antiques.  They have to get them from somewhere.  That means they buy
them!"

   "But they won't give us enough for the old one to buy the new one," said
Johnnie Sue.

   "No," said Bernadette, smiling.  "But Nathan and Curtis Lee will."

   "What do we do with the stuff?" asked Nathan.

   "Who cares?" said Johnnie Sue.  "Sell it to some antique dealer
somewhere.  Or just throw it away once you leave town, and you won't have
to mess with it."

   "OK, OK," said Jesse.  "What happens when we get old enough to graduate,
like you?  What happens to the rest of our share?"

   "If you go somewhere else, then take your share with you," said Nathan.
"We're still going to have to be careful, even in a big city like Kansas
City.  We can't sell too much, too often.  People will start asking
questions."

   "What about if we stay here?" asked Jesse.

   "We'll still help you," said Nathan.  "We're going to be friends our
whole lives, aren't we?"

   So it was that the plan to convert the gold into paper money, albeit
slowly, was forged.  It was March, and Nathan and Curtis Lee would graduate
in late May.  No one knew how long they'd have to be in Missouri, before
they could start sending money back home.  They would only take ten Double
Eagles each with them.  The first time they came back, they would bring the
cash, and take more gold, along with the rifles and scopes.  Those could
not be hidden easily, nor was it a good idea to leave them in the root
cellar.  Curtis Lee and Nathan would have to live somewhere, though, and
the rifles could be stored there, until it could be determined what to do
with them.  It was assumed by them all that Nathan and Curtis Lee would
live together as roommates.

   With one, last longing look at the treasure, they closed the lid and
re-hid it, piling it over with junk and boards again, until Curtis Lee and
Nathan could come get it to move to its new hiding place, wherever that
would be.

   ====================================

   It was a festive group that made their way to the treehouse, where
additional platforms were nailed up.  They build five more, at various
levels in the tree.  Two were small single platforms, for solitary reading.
Three others were big enough to hold two, or perhaps three people at a
time. By the time they were done, it was mid afternoon.

   "We got time for swimming?" asked Moses.  Hilda Mae looked at him and
blushed.

   "There's ...  um ...  something I have to do," said Nathan.

   Bernadette looked over at him.  "I just bet there is," she said, in a
droll voice.

   "But before I go, I have to talk to the guys," said Nathan, frowning at
Bernadette.  "Privately," he added.

   "Well, you boys just stay here and talk all you want.  Us girls are
going to go get naked!" Bernadette smiled at Nathan, and stuck her tongue
out at him.

   ====================================

   Nathan waited until the girls walked off toward the creek.  Then he
turned to the others.

   "We're all friends ...  right?  I mean I know I was kind of a jerk when
I first got here ...  but now we're friends, I hope."

   They looked at him expectantly and nodded.

   "Well, I hope so, because I'm going to trust all of you with my life."

   He looked at them, but couldn't tell what they were thinking.

   "There's something I have to tell you about," he said.  "It's important,
or I wouldn't say anything.  But there's trouble ahead if I don't.  I need
you to swear you won't talk about it once I tell you."

   This sounded like serious business.  There had been a lot of serious
business lately.  They nodded, serious looks on their faces.

   There are many things a young man may tell other young men about, with
little uproar.  That you've had sex with their teacher is not one of them.

   He didn't just blurt it all out.  He explained about how he had helped
her paint, and spent time talking to her, and that he liked her.  They
nodded.  They understood that, because they liked Flossie too.  There were
a few comments about how Nathan had reacted to Flossie when he first got
there.  He acknowledged them, but simply said things had changed.

   Then he told them about what his father had done.  They knew she had
been hurt, but not the details.  It shocked them all.  But that didn't hold
a candle to learning that, while taking care of her, things had gotten out
of control.  He approached that carefully too, asking them if they
remembered how things had kind of taken on a life of their own with Johnnie
Sue, or Hilda Mae, or Bernadette.  Again, there were serious nods.

   "Well ..." he said.  "That kind of happened to me too ...  except it was
with Miss Flossie."

   It took almost half an hour to work through that, as he tried to limit
the details about what they had done.  He used a lot of "like what you did
with her" thrown in there, referring to one or the other girls.  But he had
their full attention.  He kept it, telling how the girls had spied on he
and Flossie, and had seen them.  "We were ...  um ...  making love."

   "You mean REAL sex?" gasped Luthor.  "You and Miss Flossie?"

   "Yes," said Nathan, flushing.

   "Why are you telling us this?" asked Curtis Lee suddenly.  "If I had
done that with Miss Flossie I wouldn't tell anybody.  It's not right."

   "I had to tell you all that, because you wouldn't have believed me when
I tell you the next part." He looked around.  "But before I tell you that
part, I want you to know that, when I'm a real policeman, I'm going to ask
Flossie to marry me."

   That only took ten minutes to discuss, including the part where he had
to admit that he had no idea if she would accept a proposal when he made
one.

   Finally he got to the part he had kept them all here for.

   "See, here's the deal.  Johnnie Sue, and my sisters ...  they saw what
that's like, and they told me they want to try that too." He looked around.
"Except they don't have anybody waiting to marry them, and if they get
pregnant, it will ruin their lives."

   "So why are you telling this to us?" asked Jesse.

   "It's going to be you guys they try to get to have sex with them."

   Oddly enough, that wasn't so strange to the boys.

   "I kind of thought something like that was going to happen," said Curtis
Lee carefully.  "I was worried about it, some."

   That was the understatement of the century.  Curtis Lee had been almost
in agony.  Bernadette was SO forward, and SO willing to break taboos that
he knew it was only a matter of time before she'd spread her legs and pull
...  somebody ...  on top of her.  And, contrary to how we might think
about it these days, he didn't want it to be HIM she pulled on top of her.
Oh, he dreamed about it, and is biology wanted to breed her in the worst
way, but Curtis Lee was graced with intelligence, and, of them all, he knew
most vividly what messing around with a white girl would bring about.  He
had already done enough to be lynched, and he had no doubt in his mind
whatsoever what the outcome of sexual intercourse with Bernadette Wilson
would be, whether she got pregnant or not.  All it would take was one
little slip of the tongue, or one wrong touch in the view of any of a
myriad of adults, and the whole town would know.  Curtis Lee wouldn't have
a chance.

   He also knew that rebuffing her, after what had already happened, could
lead to a mad rage on her part that would result in the same thing.

   Curtis Lee was between a rock and a very hard place, and he knew it.

   "You worried about what I'd do?" asked Nathan, breaking Curtis Lee's
train of thought.

   "Some," admitted the young man.  "It's only natural that you wouldn't
want me to do that with your sister." Another thunderous understatement.

   "Well, you're right, but not for the reasons you might think," said
Nathan.  They all looked at him curiously.

   "The thing I'm thinking about most is my sisters with their bellies all
swollen up.  Johnnie Sue too.  It would just ruin them all.  And if that
happens, it will ruin you too.  Hell, if anybody else finds out me and
Flossie they'll probably ride me out of town on a rail!"

   "Both of you," said Luthor.  He wasn't smiling.

   "That's why I had to talk to you.  They're going to try to get you to do
that with them, sooner or later, and you HAVE to resist it somehow."

   "That's gonna be hard," said Luthor, thinking of Johnnie Sue, spread out
on the grass naked.

   "You're not telling me something I don't already know," said Nathan.  "I
didn't MEAN to do that with Flossie." He started to tell them how overjoyed
he was that it HAD happened, and then thought better of it.  "Things just
got carried away, like they already have with all of us."

   "So what are we supposed to do?" asked Curtis Lee.

   "We have to talk to them about it," said Nathan.  "You have to set them
down in front of you all and tell them that there's a limit to what you'll
do, and that you won't go past that limit."

   "What if you're wrong?" asked Moses.

   Nathan looked confused.  "What do you mean?"

   "Well ...  um ...  nobody," he said carefully "has asked me to actually
do that.  They might not even WANT to do that, and if I stand up in front
of her and tell her I WON'T do that ...  she might get real mad that I
thought she wanted to."

   Moses, even at the tender age of sixteen, which he now was, had already
figured out that sometimes, when dealing with a woman, a man can be wrong,
no matter WHAT he does.

   "Trust me," said Nathan.  "They're thinking about it." He couldn't tell
them that his own sister had already demanded that he take her virginity.
Telling them about Flossie was one thing.  Telling them about incest was
something else.  He might mention that to Curtis Lee later, privately, but
not to the other three.

   "Nathan?" It was Jesse's voice.  He was only twelve now, and he often
felt the difference in age.  What he had done with Johnnie Sue had dragged
him into a world that seemed strange and wonderful to him, but there was a
lot of it he didn't quite understand.

   "Can we all get to be policemen?  Up there in Missouri?"

   His question took Nathan by surprise.  He had seen getting Curtis Lee to
go with him as the answer to several problems.  It would separate him from
Bernadette, for one thing.  It would get them to go along with the plan for
the gold, for another.  And, if Bernadette was serious about him, which
Nathan now knew was quite possible, it would put him someplace where she
could come when she was old enough that would, like his mother had said,
give them at least a chance for happiness.

   "It seems to be mostly dependent on grades," he said.  "I don't know how
many policemen they need up there, but I'd guess that all of you might have
a chance.  Why?"

   "I was just thinking," said the boy.  "If I could tell Johnnie Sue that
I wouldn't do that until I was a policeman, she might go along with it."

   "Hey, there's an idea," said Luthor, looking interested.  "I could do
that too!"

   "You can't both do that with Johnnie Sue," said Curtis Lee.  "You can't
both marry her." He was surprised at his own comment, not because he'd said
it, but because he had so blithely accepted the idea that Jesse might
eventually get married to a white girl.  That led him to think of
Bernadette, and his eyes got wide as he thought about ...  that.

   "Why not?" asked Jesse.  "We're blood brothers!  We do everything
together."

   "Have you EVER heard of a woman being married to two men at the same
time?" snorted Moses.

   "No," admitted Jesse.  "But I never heard of a white boy having sex with
a colored teacher neither!  If that can happen ...  why can't we be blood
brothers forever?"

   Nathan held up his hand, recognizing that this was an argument that
couldn't be settled, at least not this day.

   "Actually, I think that's a pretty good plan.  I mean if she'd consider
marrying either of you, it might convince her to wait."

   "I could do the same thing," said Curtis Lee.

   Nathan looked at him.  "Even with only a few months left, that's still
going to be hard.  Trust me."

   Curtis Lee felt his prick begin to stiffen.  Bernadette was any man's
dream, and the way she was accepting and soft with him brought on the exact
response that nature had intended.  The ancient mating ritual of the woman
trying to attract the man still worked flawlessly, despite societal
conventions that might try to stop it.  That she might want him, made him
want her.  He swallowed.  Nathan was right.  It WOULD be hard ...  in more
ways than one.

   "How about you, Moses?" asked Nathan.  "You want to be a policeman too?"

   "I'll say so, like the rest," said Moses, "but I'll have to talk to
Curtis Lee after he's done it a while before I make up my mind."

   There wasn't anything else to talk about, except when to have this
"little talk" with the girls.  Nathan suggested they do it now.  The girls
were waiting, naked and horny, and they all knew that.  What better time to
lay down the rules?  And then Nathan wouldn't feel like he had to stay
there to chaperone.  He could go see Flossie.  
