48: Sisters

"Want to talk?" I asked. I hadn't spent any time with Joanne since the blowup at the table. Adam planned to drive the bus back to Indianapolis and take Joanne and Amy to the airport in the afternoon. When Amy said it was time to take Heaven her coffee in the morning, I volunteered to take it up to her.

"Nothing really to talk about," she said after she'd thanked me for the coffee. "I was wrong. I owe everyone in your household an apology and I'll give it to them as soon as I'm dressed. There wasn't time yesterday with all the activities." I noticed she didn't say she owed me an apology. Oh, well. If you don't get an apology, then offer one.

"I'm sorry we had a misunderstanding. You know I still love you, right?" She set her cup down and held out her arms to me. I sat on the edge of the bed and entered her embrace. We kissed and I tasted the bitterness of the coffee on her tongue.

"I know that here and here," she touched my head and my heart, "you have a definition of love that allows you to say that. You can love me and love every one of those other women just as much. And the mother of your child. She's not just Betts' friend. You love her. I..." She paused and took a deep shuddering breath. "I just wanted to make sure you'd be safe in school. I wanted girls who would do things with you that I knew we wouldn't be able to do. I wanted you to be happy. I never stopped to consider that when the time came for us to be happy that you would choose your harem over me."

"Joanne..."

"I understand. I really do. I waited too long. Or not long enough. You aren't ready for me. Or maybe I'm not ready for you. We each had our fantasies. What it would mean for us to make love. What the promise would be. I don't think reality lived up to either of our fantasies," she sighed.

"I think you are much more than a fantasy, Joanne. You are still my Heaven."

"That's sweet, Brian. I love you." I leaned in to kiss her again but she turned her cheek. "I think ... I think that for now we should keep our relationship professional. We're business partners. We can be friends. I hope ... Maybe one day we can be lovers." She started sobbing and I held her to me. Tears were streaking down my cheeks.

"Please go now so I can shower and make myself presentable for the rest of the casa and my boyfriend." She pushed at me and I left.

It was a relief to get back to life as normal, whatever that was. For Rhonda and Elaine, it was creating a second season set for her show and starting to tape again. This time, they were taping just monologues and doing it without a live audience. I saw subtle differences in the techniques Rhonda was using with the cameras. April, of course, was her principal camera person. She'd hired Joyce for editing, and Jason on a second camera. That was part of the difference. She'd used three and sometimes four cameras when we did the shows for a live audience this summer. But now they were focused on just capturing the monologues and did a lot more cutting and repeating than in the summer. The results were tighter and even sharper. Nicki had been busy and Elaine had a pile of scripts.

Angela decided the dry beans were ready to harvest. I talked it over with Lauren and we decided to do an outdoor shoot for the afternoon session Saturday, provided it was a decent day. She called to warn the guest and audience to dress appropriately. But Monday, with temperatures in the seventies and afternoon sun, Angela recruited everyone she could to pull bean plants. They had to be kept separate by type of bean and hung roots-up from makeshift clotheslines. We went to Menard's and got a dozen five-gallon plastic paint cans for threshing. We picked up a newspaper as well and after she saw the weather forecast we went to work erecting a plastic lean-to over the hung beans. We were going to get rain tomorrow.

Of course, we still had to study, so as soon as we got things fixed up, we hit the books. It was plenty cool enough in the evening to have a fire, so most of the casa studied in front of the fireplace. Naked, or almost so. One thing about the house, it was generally cozier than the big barn had been. I needed to remind George, Addison, Dawn, Warren, and Adam that they were welcome to use the fireplace. We'd even help get pillows and furniture. We just needed to make sure it could all be cleared for filming.

"I forgot!" I yelled at everyone. "We have guests for dinner and will be cooking in the studio. House gis are the dress for the evening. Angela, is there anything in the garden we can't harvest if needed?"

"We're not taking any more to the farmers' market this year. Most of the winter squash and pumpkins aren't ready yet. We should really get the rest of the cucumbers in. Can we have a pickling day on Sunday?" she replied.

"Sounds good to me. I don't know what we'll need yet. Are there still peppers?" I asked.

"Lots of them! Watch out for the chilies, though. They're drying and are really hot."

I was nervous meeting the Wood sisters. In all the excitement of having Heaven with us last week, I'd forgotten all about them. But they were standing by the car where I told them I'd meet them when I got out of class. I unlocked the car and one of them got in the front. I looked at her.

"Uh, which one are you?" I asked.

"The smart one. I got the front seat."

"That's because you get car sick going to church," said the one behind me.

"Come on, ladies. We're going to be working together in a kitchen. Give me a little help here."

"Dolly!" said the one behind the passenger seat, raising her hand.

"Thank you, Dolly," I said. "Are we going by the Woods' names or your real names?"

"Well, for me it's the same," she answered. "Beside me is Danielle. You can figure out the 'smart one' for yourself."

"Hi, Danielle," I said. I turned to Bolly. "Do you really get carsick going to church, Debbie?"

"No. I get church-sick going in the car."

"Well, can we get what you need at Marsh's?" I asked.

"Mostly, but let's go to Obo's Oriental Market first. They've got some things that a regular grocery store won't have," Debbie said. They were surprised when I told them we had fresh red chilies and fresh tomatoes and bell peppers. We had some of the other things in the freezer, like chicken breasts, but since I didn't get them out to thaw, we got fresh.

In the Oriental Market, the little guy who owned it recognized the girls immediately.

"I have for you, Miss Bolly!" he said. He hustled back behind the cooler and brought out a plastic bag of shells.

"What the heck is that?" I asked.

"Clams," Debbie said. She kept going down the list, sauces, tofu, mushrooms of different sorts. After we had everything on her list, we still hadn't gone over $100, so I was pretty pleased. We were feeding twenty people!

And we had a blast preparing the food. I've never seen three girls so proficient with a butcher knife since that 4H girl demonstrated when I was in eighth grade. I harvested tomatoes, chilies, and bell peppers in three colors. Danielle went out to the garden with me and was amazed at our layout.

"You have herbs! I'd like some of everything. No. I won't be greedy. We can use some fennel and some borage. Fresh ginger and fresh garlic! You have everything!" She was so happy she about crushed me in a hug. Then I realize she was kind of rubbing my face between her boobs. The girls were tall, but they were nowhere near as flat as Whitney.

"Okay," I said, pulling myself away. "What do you need?" I clipped, pinched, and dug for half an hour as Danielle directed me.

"Are those edamame?" she asked.

"Yes, but they're all dry now and need to be soaked or steamed." I picked a bunch of beans for her.

I found myself in the unusual position of sitting on the audience side of the counter while I watched the three girls prepare food. I had one large wok and they'd brought three slightly smaller ones with them. They squealed over the oven and the huge stovetop. I think they opened every single cabinet, the refrigerator, and the freezer. When Dolly started to wash vegetables in the sink, I directed her around back to the prep kitchen. When she squealed, Debbie stuck her head around the corner.

"Did you kiss him?"

"No!" Dolly said, bouncing up and down and pointing to the three-well sink and colanders. Then Debbie screamed. Danielle came running and screamed, too. I've never seen three girls so happy about a kitchen prep area.

I went back to my position on the other side of the breakfast bar.

"Oh my god! It's the three sisters of the apocalypse!" Whitney said when she came into the studio.

"Whitney!" the three girls screamed. They ran around the counter to get to her and then all three sank to their knees. "We bow to the goddess of the nets!"

"I'm still not interested in sucking your clits!" Whitney laughed. "Don't tell me we're eating your food tonight. What is it? Stir fried cat?" Dolly went to Whitney and hugged her.

"That nice man over there bought the food for us," she said pointing at me. "We have to cook it for him."

"You wouldn't introduce us so we had to stalk him," Danielle said. "Who'd have thought that he would walk right by where we were waiting?"

"Whitney?" I said. "What have I gotten myself into?"

"Oh, don't worry, Brian. I'm willing to bet you haven't gotten into them. Yet," she added.

"What is going on?" Rose asked.

"Brian brought home half the women's volleyball team for dinner," Whitney said. "Rumor has it that not only are they great cooks, but they taste good, too."

"Whitney, don't spread lies about us," Debbie said. She turned to Rose. "Hi. I'm Debbie Wood. These are my sisters Danielle and Dorothy."

"At least I did tell you that we were having guests this time, Matrón," I said. "May I present the sisters Wood? Holly, Dolly, and Bolly. Ladies, this is the Matrón of our clan, Rose. Please let me continue. You obviously know Whitney. We have Courtney and Jennifer, Liz, Samantha, Angela—who is responsible for all the fresh things we harvested from the garden—Josh, Cassie, Mary. Ah yes, here come Elaine and Rhonda. April is toting the camera and trying to get pictures of what you are cooking."

"Elaine!" Debbie yelled. "We love your show! Why isn't it on every day? We have to exercise two days a week to that slave driver—there she is!" Sora and Addison came in from the side door. "Sora! Your workouts are wicked. Coach is making the entire team do them before we practice."

"Well, I'm glad you know Sora," I said. "This is Addison with her. Oh, here come Dawn and George down the stairs. We must have made too much noise for them."

"This is like going to Universal Studios or something," Dolly said. "What is 'Matrón'? You don't look old enough to be a mother. I don't mean any disrespect."

"The leaders of our clan are the Matrón and Patrón," Whitney said. "Rose and Brian."

"You're married?" she asked. She turned to me, but I was otherwise occupied with Mary's lips. "Oh, wow!"

"Since Brian hasn't explained everything to you, we'll tell stories over dinner. He said you were cooking," Rose said. "What smells so good?"

The triplets all ran back to the kitchen and started explaining what dishes they were cooking and how they'd been teaching themselves a new culinary tradition each year since they reached high school. This was the year of the goat and Chinese cookery.

"Our parents about died when we did a year of vegetarian cookery," Danielle said. "They loved the year of Italian, though. They said they were thankful we were up here for the year of Chinese cooking."

"How did you get into cooking?" Samantha asked. Rhonda had pushed her forward and I noticed April had the camera focused on her for the question.

"We saw a television show," Dolly said. She blushed.

"Don't tell me," Samantha said. "You saw Young Cooking with Chef Brian."

"Yes. A few years ago when he was on The Homemakers' Hour. We applied to be on the show when they advertised for girlfriends, but we lived too far away to actually get there. We're from Louisville. We collected all the recipes, though. You haven't been giving out the recipes since you went independent," Danielle said. I looked at Rhonda. She slapped her forehead. We never thought about offering the recipes since we moved to Bloomington. How crazy was that? Rhonda looked around frantically.

"I've got it," Jennifer said. "We must have enough for an entire cookbook now. At least they're all in the database."

"These clam things are scrumptious," Dawn said as she licked the chopped mixture out of a shell.

The girls did a great job of explaining what they were cooking and inviting various hearthmates around to the kitchen to help with different tasks. The three seemed to know exactly what their sisters were doing and where they'd be. Samantha, in her obvious role as interviewer, kept questions going on behalf of the family while they cooked.

"The first year we were down here was really difficult," Dolly said. "We were living in a dorm and the kitchen was almost non-existent. Last year we pledged Theta House and had access to a kitchen once a week. But it's still crowded compared to this. We live in the chapter house now, so we can cook more regularly."

"Why weren't you on the show last year when we were going through the sororities as guests?" I asked. "I know we had a session with Theta House."

"We were just pledges. There were so many girls who wanted to be on the show that the officers decided it would be only seniors. They are hoping to repeat with seniors this year, too," Danielle said. I was pretty sure it was Danielle. I'd been keeping track of who was whom by where they had food stains on their aprons.

When everything was ready, we all sat at the table and passed dishes around. Somehow or another, I had a feeling that we'd just added regular visitors to the ranch. I wondered what they looked like naked.

"You are thinking of expanding the show," I accused Rhonda as she snuggled next to me in bed. "I can't believe how quickly you had a camera running."

"It's handy when your cameraman lives with you," Rhonda giggled. "We can't expand right now. We don't have the technical capacity. And now that I'm in school, too, we have even less time. We need to get five years further into this right away."

"Honey, we're still teenagers. We need to have our lives, too."

"You won't be a teenager for long!" Rhonda said. "Next weekend is your birthday. You'll be twenty."

"Think of that. I won't even be a legal adult yet."

"No, you're an illegal adult," Rose said, nudging my knees apart.

"We need to get busy on your birthday present," Rhonda said. Whitney snuggled up next to me on the other side.