Chapter 26

Jack:

I was watching the pair of them out of the corner of my eye -- and Vera suddenly perked up and got convivial. I smelled something, but couldn't imagine what. The good news was that they apparently put away the Vera problem and moved on to other things.

Meanwhile, I got a distraction. Abe cornered his mother and said, "Mama! Why did you do that? That's nasty!"

"What, Baby?" Tara blinked.

"You showed that man your panties! That's ina..." Abe stopped, stymied by five syllable words.

"Inappropriate?" Tara supplied the missing concept. "Well, Baby, that depends." She frowned and gave me a look.

"I don't know if he's ready for this yet..." I muttered, but turned to young Abe. "Abe, can we talk, man to man?"

He didn't trust me, but despite -- or maybe because of -- his age, he wanted to be treated like an adult. "Okay."

"Have a seat." I waved him at another chair. I sat forward in mine and he did his best to mirror the pose in his. "Situations change, Abe. And sometimes the rules change with them. Your situation changed sometime back, when your daddy left you and your sisters and your mama -- and your mama had to take on the burdens of raising you by herself."

"He'll be back," Abe replied stubbornly.

"No, he won't, Baby. I can show you the letter, if you like, but I'd have to read it to you. He's GONE..." Tara looked sad, primarily for Abe, I think.

I took the reins again, before an argument could start. "Things changed again last night. That's why you're here. Your mother and I came to an agreement -- and I agreed to take on just about all of your daddy's duties and responsibilities -- especially where you are concerned. That doesn't make me your daddy -- but it means that someone is going to be around doing 'daddy things' -- something that hasn't happened in a while. Are you with me so far?"

Abe frowned. "Uh huh." I figured the real answer was 'Maybe a little, ' but with some work, he would get the pieces in context.

"The rules have changed, Abe -- quite a bit. For your mama, the benefit is that she doesn't have to go out at night and work at Ray's any more..."

"I don't like Jock!" Abe interjected.

"Then this should be good news," I plowed on, "because Mama won't be seeing Jock any more." Abe looked mildly pleased at this, despite his underlying belligerence.

"Good! He did ina ... that word ... stuff to Mama!" Abe announced.

It looked like I was going to have to drop back ten and punt. "Let's talk about what is and is not inappropriate, Abe. What is inappropriate to you?"

Abe thought about it. "Touching."

"Anywhere, or specific places?"

"Well ... Places. Anywhere, I think, without permission," Abe frowned and I knew he was going through something his kindergarten teacher had worked to deliver, but he wasn't clear on.

"Okay, good. Those rules, well, they're pretty close to right, but they differ some for you because you aren't a grown-up yet. We don't want anybody big to touch you in those places at any time because you don't know yet when to give permission. An exception to this would be if you're hurt there and someone like a doctor is trying to help, but the general rule is that grown-ups shouldn't touch you in those places." I gathered myself. "The rules are a little different for grown-ups. We can give each other permission."

"Jock didn't have permission," Abe declared.

I threw to first; Tara tagged the runner out. "Baby, Jock had permission. We were playing a game -- PRETENDING that he didn't. If he REALLY didn't have permission, Mama would have called the police."

"Like that time Daddy gave you the black eye?"

"Just like that, Baby. Daddy didn't have permission," Tara grinned at me ruefully.

"I thought daddies..." Abe flicked his eyes from Tara to me.

"Abe, sometimes daddies have special permission, and sometimes they don't," I fielded the ball. "In this place, daddies don't have permission to hit mommies -- but some do it anyway. Sometimes mommies give daddies special permission -- but she didn't that time, I guess." Abe shifted his attention to Tara, who nodded confirmation. "Sometimes," I went on, "it's all about what the rules of the place you are living are." I gathered my thought processes. "So, for grown-ups, it's about the rules of the place where you live, and permission -- and sometimes, special permission. Are you with me so far?"

"Uh huh."

Given the examples, I figured we were on firmer ground, so I continued, "When your Mama and I made our agreement last night, she agreed to the rules of the place we're going. Frankly, those rules are a little looser than they are here; if Mama deserved it, I could give her a black eye and the police wouldn't come."

"Oh."

"Abe, I've never given a woman a black eye. Probably the worst thing Mama would ever see from me would be a spanking -- if she was REAL bad!"

"Oh." Abe processed this. "Okay."

"As a result of our agreement, I have special permissions from Mama, Abe."

"Like a daddy?" Abe flicked his eyes to his mother.

"Yeah, just like a daddy," I said quietly, waiting.

I guessed right; Abe's attention rotated to his mother, "Why?"

"Because Jack promised to take care of us, Baby," Tara told him. "All of us. You and me and Shawna and Elise."

Abe's gaze swept to me. "He could lie..."

I pursed my lips. "I could. People do." Clearly, he knew that. "But I made some special promises. I promised to take you all far, far away..."

Abe's head snapped up. "To a colony?"

I blinked, surprised. "Yes. How do you know about colonies?"

"Teacher told us. Winnie didn't come to school one day and Teacher told us that a man took Winnie and her brother and her mother to a colony."

"What else did Teacher say?" I asked.

"Teacher said that Winnie's mama was a con ... con..."

"Concubine?" I supplied.

"Uh huh. She said that things were different with con-cu-bines, and that if a man ever came to pick up our mamas, scary things might happen -- but that going to the colonies was a good thing and everybody is nice to kids there," Abe related.

I sat back, amazed at early childhood education. "This actually makes things easier, Abe. The nature of the agreement between your mother and me is that she is to be my concubine. And I agreed to take you all to a colony to live with me."

"Oh. WOW!" Abe's eyes popped. He looked to his mother, who nodded, smiling. Then he scowled. "I haven't seen any scary things."

There was a significant pause while I tried to figure out where Abe's teacher might have been coming from. Then a thought occurred to me. "Abe, tell me what Jock did."

Abe eyed his mother and said, "He made Mama take off all of her clothes and get down on her knees, then he ... stuck his..."

"Okay, you can stop there, Abe," I told him. "I get the picture. How did you see this?"

"I heard Mama come in and I got up to go pee-pee."

Tara covered her face; I had the ball. "Okay, there are a couple of things going here. First, that was kinda scary for you, wasn't it?"

"Yeah. He was hurting Mama -- and I couldn't stop it."

"Okay. That's what Teacher meant when she said things might get scary at a pickup," I explained. "She figured you might see something like that."

"Oh."

"Now, the second thing is kind of about what is scary and what isn't. Sometimes -- usually, actually -- things are scary because you don't know what is going on, Abe. Believe it or not, Mama wasn't scared." Abe flicked a glance at Tara, who nodded agreement, somewhat embarrassed. "What Jock did with your mother happens a lot at pickups, when men come to pick up mamas. It happens other places, too, but you don't generally see it. That is because it's a grownup thing. Teacher was trying to warn you that you might see things you'd never seen before."

"Why?"

"Why do they do it? Because the mamas are making promises, too. They're promising to do grownup things with the men. They're proving they know how to do grownup things and that they're willing to do them with the men." I paused. "At a pickup, there is no time -- so the mamas have to do things right in front of you that only usually happen between mamas and daddies at night after you go to bed. These are grownup things -- things that lead to babies, for instance. It's pretty scary when you see it and you don't know what's going on -- but your mama and your daddy did that kind of thing -- many times, I bet."

Abe's eyes shifted to his mother again, and she nodded. "Jack is right. Many times."

"How does Jack know?" Abe asked.

I took the ball. "Because you're here, Abe. The grownup things we're talking about produce two things -- pleasure for the mama and daddy doing it, and babies."

Abe looked dubious. "Mama didn't look happy with Jock..."

"Baby, like Jack said -- we were playing a game. I was pretending it was inappropriate -- that I hadn't given Jock permission to touch me. But I had." She rubbed her face. "It's a little complicated. Trust me -- Mama enjoyed it."

I picked up the ball. "So we get back to inappropriate. Touching you in places is inappropriate because you are not a grownup and you're too young to enjoy grownup things and they might actually hurt you. People who want to do grownup things to a kid tend to be bad, one way or another. On the other hand, when Mama agreed to be my concubine, she agreed to live under the rules of the colony we are going to and she gave me permissions -- and special permissions. What that boils down to is that NOTHING is inappropriate between Mama and me."

"Nothing?"

"Well, there are always exceptions, I guess," I admitted. "But showing me her panties isn't inappropriate. Actually, she didn't show me her panties, she showed me her places."

Abe's eyes widened and his mouth made an 'O'. He looked to his mother and I gestured -- and Tara diffidently lifted her skirt. "Mama!"

"Abe, look at me." Abe shifted his eyes to me. "How bad is that, really? I know, you were taught that it was naughty, weren't you?" Abe nodded. "Well, it is, here. But remember how I told you that the rules were different depending on the where you are?"

"Yeah..." Abe cocked his head.

"Where we are going, the rules are different. What are clothes for?"

"To cover you up?"

"Why?"

"I dunno. To keep you from being cold?"

"What if it isn't cold? Do you need clothes?"

"Yes."

"Why?"

"To cover you up."

"Why?" I was starting to enjoy this role reversal.

"Because..." Abe stopped there; he didn't have the concepts.

"Because it's a rule for this place, Abe. Really, there is no other reason. Some people decided that they wanted people covered up to keep them from thinking so much about doing grownup things so they made rules that said you have to be covered up all the time. That's the rule in this place -- and it's a BAD rule, because it actually encourages inappropriate things!"

Abe's eyes bugged. "It does?"

"Do you ever want to do something just because you can't?" I challenged.

"Well, yeah..."

"That's what happens sometimes because of the rules about clothes. That's sort of what was going on between Jock and your mama that time, for instance. She was pretending that Jock was doing something he wasn't supposed to -- and Jock was enjoying pretending that he was doing something inappropriate." I settled back in my chair. "Where we are going, if Mama is somewhere that she doesn't need to stay warm or protect her body from something, she doesn't need clothes -- especially if she is with me. The rules actually say -- specifically -- that Mama wears what I tell her to wear -- and that includes nothing."

"Naked?" Abe's eyes popped. "Mama can go naked? Isn't that..."

"Dangerous?" I finished. "In our house? Who is going to bother her -- except me -- and I have special permissions, remember?" I leaned up. "This is a different place, remember, with different rules. There are plenty of mamas to go around and no one has to go without doing grownup things with someone else. Besides, part of the problem is that you've been taught that it is naughty; once you get used to it, it's just Mama..." I shrugged and settled back again. "Similarly, Mama and the men in her life have hidden doing grownup things from you -- so they're scary and you don't understand them. If you saw it every day, it would be just another thing -- 'Oh, look, Daddy's making babies with Mama... ' It wouldn't be scary." I eyed him. "Your Mama and I have done grownup things -- we did them last night, after you went to sleep. And we did it like that because you haven't been exposed to it and we didn't want to scare you. But you're GOING to see it, because it's natural and you shouldn't be scared of it. By the time you're grown up and can DO those things, you'll know all about them and they won't be scary at all."

Abe cocked his head. "So why isn't Mama... ?"

"Naked?" I finished for him. "Because we're not in a place where the rules are there to support it yet. Because we didn't want to scare you. And because some other people are coming here and we didn't want to scare THEM." I paused. "We've been bending the old rules because we're still here and the new rules don't apply yet -- but people need to get used to them. Remember what Mama was wearing last night when she came home?"

"Yeah." Abe's eyes shifted to Tara. "A fancy black nightie."

"And did you notice that her parts were showing?"

"Well ... On top, some."

"On the bottom, too," I told him. "You just didn't notice. Actually, I could take her out naked -- even here -- and I would have to explain it to people and show that I'm from a colony, but it would be legal. Here in the house, I could ask Mama right now to take off all of her clothes and come do grownup things -- but I won't, because we're getting ready for a party and it would hold things up."

"Can I be naked?" Abe asked.

"Sure, when it makes sense," I agreed. "I'll be wearing clothes a lot because I don't stay home -- but I WILL be naked at home sometimes. You can go naked if you want at home, but you'll probably want to put on clothes to go out. Clothes have a purpose -- to protect you and keep you comfortable. I NEVER wear clothes in the swimming pool!"

"You've got a pool?"

I nodded. "There is a small one at my house, and a bigger one a little ways away."