Chapter 3

I checked the local news website when I got home. Mrs. Hendrick had died, all right, of natural causes but before her time. And it was my fault. The details about her memorial service would be announced tomorrow. I'd let Maggie know when she got home.

I sat on the bed, holding the silver alarm clock in both hands. The old shopkeeper had been right in her prediction: this clock was powerful and dangerous. It changed things, and not always for the better.

I heard footsteps coming up the stairs. I stood and greeted Maggie. It was an awkward kiss, as if she was distracted. "How was your visit with Natalie?" Her sister.

"Fine." Maggie's face didn't match 'fine.' It matched 'one too many chili dogs' or 'My car needs a break job and tires.' "Zoe was there." Natalie's daughter, my niece.

If she didn't want to talk about herself, maybe the latest gossip about our niece. "So what has she been up to?"

Maggie's expression didn't change. "Come over here and sit down. We need to have a serious talk."

About herself? About her sister? About Zoe? What would I tell Maggie if she asked? That Zoe was just as hot as our daughter Felice, maybe even hotter? That I often couldn't stand up when she'd come into a room because I'd be hiding an erection? I'd read too many uncle/niece stories, I guess.

"I've been having conversations with Felice about sex."

Images of our scantily clad daughter danced in my brain. "Really?"

"It's been a topic of conversation with her friends. Some of them are doing more than talking." She hung her head.

I almost asked for names but bit my lip. Did Felice have any idea of how Felice affected me? Why hadn't Maggie intervened? She must have seen Felice in bra and panties or those transparent nightgowns. Once, Felice skipped the undergarments and pranced around all night in a translucent gown practically nude. In defense, I went to bed at 8:00 PM that night, feigning a headache. What really ached was my penis, fully erect and throbbing. My dream that night was about young firm tits with pointy nipples and pussies with fat labia, both of which had been on display under the sheer pink garment.

"Zoe and I had some time alone, when Natalie was cooking in the kitchen. The topic somehow turned to sex. Zoe told me what her best friend's mother did."

"What?" Cheat on her husband?

"The mother hired someone to have sex with her daughter for the first time."

Hang on! A mom picked someone out of the Yellow Pages to take her daughter's virginity?" Immediately the name 'CherryBusters' flashed into my head. 'Who you gonna' call?' with the Ghostbusters music in the background. "You've got to be kidding!" The second thing I remembered was Angie the redhead telling me that her mother had done the same thing, with disastrous results. Results I'd fixed using my silver alarm clock.

"The girl evidently said it was the best gift her mother ever got her."

"Really?"

"According to Zoe, he was kind and tender, acting as if he loved her." Maggie took my hand in hers. "Zoe told Natalie, so now, my sister is thinking about doing the same for Zoe."

"Did Natalie confirm this?"

Maggie's face was flush. Was she embarrassed or turned on? "Not in so many words. But it got me thinking. Zoe and Felice are just about the same age."

I remembered the two of them frolicking in the sprinkler as children in wet bathing suites. That was well before either of them grew tits. "Yes?"

"Well, if we wanted to have some control over Felice's first time-"

"Control?" Was Maggie really going there? Oh God, is she thinking-

"It's out of the question, right?" Her eyes looked onto mine.

"What?" I practically screamed.

"Well, I thought maybe you'd do it. With Felice."

I wasn't sure how to react? I forced myself not to smile and high five my wife. Sex with Felice? God! I played it cool as in cold. "Me? But I'm her father."

"You love her, and she knows it. Listen, I've been weighing the pros and cons all the way back. I'm thinking of it not as incest but as education. That way, there would be no stranger to put our baby in danger. And we'd save the fee."

Felice having sex with a stranger? I hoped not. And the fucker charged Zoe's friend's mother? How crass! But if Felice and I had sex, maybe we could avoid a disaster like the one Angie suffered. I wondered if Angie would let me be her daughter Stephanie's first lover. Not lover, exactly, but more than just her first fuck. Maggie acted intensely motivated. "You seem awfully fixated about this. How come?"

Her head drooped. "I'm just a worried mom-"

"No, there's more to this." I lifted her chin so I could make eye contact. "This is personal, isn't it? You said 'sex with a stranger.' You know, you've never told me about your first time."

Maggie pulled her hand away and folded her arms. "No thank you."

"Well then, I won't consider it unless you fess up." Quite the lie. I would have had sex with Felice in a heartbeat, maybe even with Maggie's objection.

Maggie snorted. "If you insist. I was on a double date. My roommate was dating a tight end, and I was fixed up with quarterback who'd been dumped by his cheerleader girlfriend."

Felice was a cheerleader. When she jumped around in her sweater and short skirt, I'd get motivated to score, but not a touchdown.

Maggie continued. "The four of us made out in their frat house, in their study room. I'm sure the other couple had sex on the futon on the other side of the room, with all of the moaning and body slapping. We didn't. Oh yeah, we petted and groped each other but he was very polite and stopped when I told him I didn't want to go all the way."

"Why didn't you?"

"I'd just met the guy, and besides, I didn't want a reputation as easy. And he didn't say the right things. Like you did." She kissed me, gentle like a butterfly.

"Mmmm. Tell me more about this quarterback."

"He was really handsome. He called me Mags and wore a UCLA baseball cap all the time, even when we were kissing and stuff."

Sounded like a horny jock who'd just been dumped.

"The guys didn't even walk us back to the dorm. We took a shortcut through an alley. She was going to meet another guy - what a slut - so I went on alone.

"So the quarterback wasn't your first? I thought-"

"Shhh. This is hard enough. So I was walking down the alley when some guy wearing a ski mask jumped out from between two garages. He pulled me into the shadows, ripped off my blouse and pulled up my bra."

"That's awful!"

"He said he had a weapon so I went along, like I was taught. Then he reached under my skirt and ripped my panties off. I didn't want to cooperate but I didn't want to die either. He plunged his penis in, all the while muttering how I'd enjoy it, I had to enjoy it. I don't know if he ejaculated but he left me there, slumped against a trash bin. I never felt so humiliated."

"Oh, Maggie, I'm so sorry. I had no idea." Maggie's behavior about sex made a lot more sense. "Did you report the incident? Get a DNA sample?"

"Are you kidding? I was so embarrassed. Back then, they blamed the victim. I stopped dating for a long time after that." She collapsed on my shoulder, tears raining down. "You're the only person I've ever told. I don't want that to be Felice's first experience."

I doubted that Felice would go along in the same situation. Hell, she'd probably kick him in the nuts and gouge his eyes out. I pictured approaching Felice with an erection and getting that treatment. "All right. I get it. But you'll have to set it up, so Felice doesn't freak out."