Chapter 52

Sheila stripped off her clothes by the tub, all of them. Candice eyed her body while she was doing it.

Cindy watched Candice, watching Sheila. The look in her eyes was a hungry one.

“No leaning there ... she’s flat horizontal.” Cindy thought.

Candice’s gaze didn’t waver as Sheila stepped into the tub. Sheila’s eyes met hers and she frankly held her gaze. Promising nothing, just refusing to be dominated. Her nipples hard and firm on her breasts from the temperature shifts. She moved in and sat on a bench seat. Close to the first girl.

Sheila was pleased to see she looked much better. Her color was improving steadily. Her breathing regular and deep.

“Mighty pretty women to be out here ... with just one man.” Candice said.

“I might say the same about you ... with nobody that is.” Sheila replied.

“Oh, we had a man ... if’n you could call him that. That’s why we was out there; to get away from him.” Candice said.

“You must have wanted to get away pretty badly, to be traveling in a storm like that ... without any coats.” Sheila said.

“Didn’t even notice the cold till we was a long ways away.” Candice said.

“How far did you travel?” Sheila asked.

“Not far enough ... maybe half a day. The storm wasn’t on us yet.” Candice said.

“All of you on one snowmobile?” Cindy asked.

“And the sled. Amy here rode with me. Andrea, that’s the one in Cindy’s lap, and Alice, that’s the one by Sheila, rode on the sled. Alice kept falling off. I guess she got pretty wet.” Candice said.

“You are all very lucky to be alive. If John hadn’t been curious about ... If he hadn’t happened across you, I don’t think you would have made it.” Sheila said.

“I know we’re lucky to be alive ... You don’t know how lucky. We’re grateful to you folks for taking us in.” Candice said.

“All John’s doing. It’s his place.” Sheila said.

“You don’t live here?” Candice asked.

“Not yet. Just visiting for now. I intend to move in next month.” Sheila replied.

“And what about you?” Candice asked Cindy.

“Yes, I live here.” she replied simply.

“John your dad?” she asked.

“No ... my mate.” Cindy replied.

“And you don’t mind her moving in?” Candice asked.

“Well, not that it’s anybody’s business but mine. No. I don’t mind a bit. In fact I’m quite looking forward to it.” Cindy replied levelly.

“Give you a break, huh?” Candice chuckled.

“No ... I don’t need a break. And you sure ask a lot of questions for someone who doesn’t say much about herself.” Cindy replied.

“I don’t mean no harm. Just want to know how the wind blows.” Candice said.

“And how does it blow with you?” Sheila asked, eyeing Amy snuggled to Candice.

“I should think that fairly obvious. But maybe not. She’s... they, are my co-wives.” Candice said, looking for shock value ... and to her puzzlement finding none.

“They seem kind of young to be wives.” Cindy said.

“One might say the same about you having a mate.” Candice said.

“Touché... “ Cindy said.

“Look, we don’t mean to spar with you.” Sheila said, “Mostly we’re just concerned.

“One; you were out in a blizzard wearing inadequate clothing. That could have easily have cost you your lives.

“Two; You said you were running from someone, what’s the chance of them following you and showing up here?

“Third; You state that you are co-wives. That would seem to indicate that there was a husband somewhere. Now I get the impression that you were running from him. That being the case, you’re looking to change your lives.

“Now if it was serious enough to go out improperly dressed, into a blizzard, then I would presume that you felt your lives to be more threatened by staying put. That would indicate that he was a violent person. Now, based on the stated facts and assumptions, what is the possibility of someone following you here?” Sheila asked.

Candice dropped her eyes for a moment then said: “I don’t know. I honestly don’t know.”

“Fair enough, that’s all we were asking.” Sheila said.

“If he was to follow you, would he have started right after you, and would he have been alone?” Cindy asked.

“I don’t think he could have followed right after us. He was passed out drunk when we left. He was alone, but he has friends ... such as they are.” Candice said.

“Approximately how far did you travel?” Sheila asked.

“God, I don’t know. We left about noon. Just before the storm. We didn’t stop for at least an hour, when Alice fell off. We stopped a while to huddle a bit to warm her up. Then we kind of had to stop every fifteen to twenty minutes.” Candice said.

“Let me make it easier. How close to the mountains did you live?” Cindy asked.

“Oh, right at the foot of them. We was trying to sort of travel straight towards town.” Candice replied.

“Okay, let’s see ... take a line from town to where you were on our road ... makes it about a forty-five degree angle. About twenty five miles to the mountains from here ... so figure another twenty five on the base of a triangle. That’s twenty five squared plus twenty five squared, take the square root of twelve fifty ... about thirty-five miles.

“Now check that against a heavily laden snowmobile traveling for ... figure four hours with stops. Figure about ten miles per hour average. That works out close.” Cindy said.

“If you say so. How the hell do you do that in your head?” Candice asked.

“It’s not hard. Look, the mountains are about twenty five miles straight west of here. If you were heading straight to town, figuring you might have wandered a bit in the storm. That figures you were traveling at about a forty five degree angle relative to the mountains. If that was so, you would have traveled the same distance out as across. So the same number of miles. After that, it’s just simple algebra. Pythagorean theorem to figure the length of the hypotenuse.” Cindy explained.

Sheila nodded. Candice looked even more baffled.

Cindy took a wet finger and drew on the concrete. She drew a line representing the mountains. She made a spot representing the silo. Then drew a forty five degree line from the silo to the mountains, indicating their starting point. She explained as she drew.

A light seemed to go on in Candice’s head.

“I get it. It’s the same distance from here to the mountains as from that point to our place. But how did you figure this line?” she asked.

“Take that number of miles times itself. Now add it to this number times itself. Now what number times itself equals the sum. They call that Pythagorean theorem. The whole trick is to break the problem down into parts.” Cindy explained.

“Makes sense, now you explain it. But I never heard of any pythagoree theum.” Candice said.

“Pythagorean Theorem. Just a fancy title named after the guy who first figured it out. He didn’t have any calculators. He lived around 580 years BC.” Cindy said.

“Where did you learn all this?” Candice asked.

“Right here. I didn’t know it myself a year ago. I’ve been studying for my GED.” Cindy said.

“What’s a GED?” Candice asked.

“I think it stands for General Education or something. What it is, is a certificate that says you understand what a high school graduate does.” Cindy explained.

Candice looked thoughtful.

“You say you learned all this in a year?” she asked.

“That part. I knew some math. But just what I learned in grade school and Junior high.” Cindy said.

Sheila had let the exchange go on. The main point was to get Candice talking.

“So, anyway. It figures out that you traveled at least thirty miles and maybe as much as forty. That would make it a safe bet that we won’t be seeing your husband for a day or two anyway. Probably not for as much as a week. If the wind keeps up it will likely cover your tracks. But if he started to follow the same line he might figure which way you were headed and stay on that line even if he lost the trail. “ Sheila said.

Cindy had a sudden thought: “Listen, is there someone you want to call, to tell them you’re alright?”

Candice thought for a moment, then shook her head.

“No, we don’t have anybody. Nobody knows or cares that we were outside ... except Nick ... that’s my ... our husband.” Candice said.

“No parents? No relatives?” Sheila asked.

“No ... I got a brother someplace, don’t know where. My parents died when I was young. I just sort of took up with Nick cause I was young and stupid. The triplets mom died when they were born. Their old man lit out not long after that. They been staying in foster homes, most not very nice ones. When they was twelve, Nick traded a tractor for them.” Candice explained, her eyes filing with tears.

“Traded a tractor for them?!” Cindy gasped.

“They was pretty wild hellions. The neighbor and his wife had had enough of them. The tractor didn’t run so good. It seemed like a fair trade. I think Nick got the better end of the deal. Then they got older... “ Candice stalled, crying.

“Yeah, it’s okay, we get the picture.” Sheila said, softly.

Amy hugged Candice tighter, still not saying anything. Herself, cried out.

Just then Alice stirred. Sheila moved to her and cradled her into her arms. Alice opened her eyes and looked at Sheila for a moment. Then over at Candice holding Amy and Cindy holding Andrea. She sighed a bit, smiling.

“Is this heaven?” Alice asked.

“No dear, but I can see how it would seem so.” Sheila said, hugging her to her. “I’m Sheila, that’s Cindy’s holding Andrea. You’re in a safe place.”

Andrea snuggled to her for a while then said: “I was dreaming that I was all warm and safe, but I knew I wasn’t. Then I woke up and I was ... I thought I was still dreaming ... or that I’d died. I was so cold...”

“We’re in a safe place now. These are good folk. They saved us from the storm. There’s another nice girl and a very nice man here too.” Candice told her.

“We got away then?” Alice asked.

“Yes, baby. We got away.” Candice said.

Alice smiled and snuggled to Sheila.

“You’re nice ... thanks for saving us.” she said.

“You’re very welcome, Alice.” Sheila said, tears forming in her eyes.

Seeing Alice was okay seemed to have a profound effect upon the other triplets. Andrea hugged Cindy and then kissed her on the lips before she uncurled and stood on her own. Amy did much the same to Candice. The two of them came over to Alice.

“You okay, we was so”

“worried about you.” Andrea started and Amy completed.

Alice nodded. “Yeah, I feel fine now. A little tired though ... and hungry.”

“Yeah, we’re sorta”

“hungry too.” the others said.

“I think we can do something about that. Theresa should have a meal waiting for us upstairs.” Sheila said.

Alice seemed to sag a bit.

“Okay ... I’ll get up.” she said, trying to.

Sheila held her to her: “Oh, no. I’ll carry you. You shouldn’t move around too much for a while.”

“Then we can stay here for a while?” Candice asked, coming over to them.

Sheila looked to Cindy.

“I think that would be alright. I don’t think you could go anyplace for a couple of days anyway. After that ... well, we’ll have to talk about it. Okay?” Cindy said.

Candice nodded. The triplets all smiled excitedly.

“Come on, let’s get you dry and dressed.” Sheila said, standing with Alice in her arms.

“I like you, you’re nice.” Alice said.

The other two nodded agreement.

“And pretty”

“too” they said in stereo.

Sheila blushed a bit, but carried Alice to a chaise. She lay her down and then took a towel and started to dry her. She rubbed the water off her arms and then daubed at her breasts. Realizing she was becoming aroused and Alice seemed so innocent and complacent, Sheila stopped and handed her the towel.

“Here, why don’t you dry yourself. Take those wet panties off. I’ll see what John brought us to wear.” she said, standing.

Alice caught her hand and held it.

“It’s okay, I’m not going anywhere.” Sheila told her.

“The man ... uh, John. Won’t be coming in will he?” Alice asked.

“Oh ... I don’t think so. You won’t have to worry about him anyway. He’s a very nice man.” Sheila told her.

“I just didn’t want him to see me naked ... yet.” Alice stammered.

“Well, dear. We all run around here pretty much naked a lot of the time. Only we call it nude. But I think you’re safe for now. I think that’s why John’s not here now.” Sheila told her.

“Asides, he’s already seen us all nake ... uh, nude.” Candice said.

“Not my privates!” Alice said, dropping Sheila’s hand and drying herself.

“No dear, not your privates. He just took off your dress so you would get warm quicker.” Candice told her.

“Oh ... I guess that’s okay then.” Alice said.

The other girls were drying themselves. None had removed their wet panties. Candice was nude. She dried herself and then turned to the triplets.

“You heard her. Get them wet panties off. You’ll like to freeze to death anyway if you don’t. Anyway, there’s just us women folk here now. You can cover up with a towel if John comes in.” Candice snapped.

The triplets acted like she was their mother. They instantly pushed their panties down. Then dried themselves.

Cindy made it a point not to look at them as she dried herself. She wanted to, really badly.

Sheila divided up the clothing between all the girls.

“I’m afraid these are going to be a little large, but they’re warm ... They should do a fine job of hiding your privates too.” Sheila chuckled.

“Wow!”

“These are nice, what”

“are they made of?” the triplets asked.

“Just some spun synthetic. We call them sweats.” Sheila chuckled.

“What’s”

“Synthetic”

“mean?” they asked.

“It means man made. Artificial. Synthetic fibers are like cotton or wool, only made from chemicals ... from oil.” Cindy explained.

“She’s real”

“smart” Andrea and Amy explained to Alice.

“She figured out”

“how far from home”

“we was.”

“In her head.” they said.

Cindy chuckled: “Do you always finish”

“each others”

“sentences.” they finished for her.

“Yeah,” “always” “have” they answered in rotation, pulling their clothes on.

The panties were too large on the girls, Candice’s not so much. The elastic kept them up. The legs of the sweats ballooned out and bagged to fit. The sweat shirts hung down below their butts. They pulled the sleeves up to their wrists.

“Aren’t you two”

“going to”

“dress?” the trio asked.

“Oh, I’m warm enough, but I thought I’d stop by the master bedroom and grab some shorts and a tube top.” Cindy said.

“Master”

“bed”

“room?!”

“Can”

“we”

“see it?” they asked.

“Sure, I’ve got to get some things for myself, too.” Sheila chuckled.

Sheila bent and swept Alice into her arms. Looking statuesque in her nudity. One breast poking out over the girls abdomen. The other two triplets couldn’t help admiring her trimmed pubic patch open below their sister.

“I can walk!” Alice protested.

“It’s okay. You’re not heavy. You need to conserve your strength to get better.” Sheila said, heading for the elevator.

This involved going down a short flight of stairs.

“I thought you said upstairs.” Alice said.

“It is, this leads down to the elevator.” Sheila said.

“What’s”

“an elev”

“ator?” they asked.

“You’ll find out in a moment.” Sheila said.

“Oh, this should be interesting.” Cindy mused, smirking.

“You’re not helping much ... Why don’t you grab the medical kit, knowing John he’ll want to check Alice out again.” Sheila said.

Cindy held it up.

They both busted out laughing.

Cindy worked the buttons.

The girls stood looking around the gym, trying to figure out what the machines were for. Then the door slid open, much to their delight ... and apprehension when Sheila and Cindy stepped into the tiny room.

“Come on, there’s room for all.” Cindy coaxed.

The girls stayed put. Especially when the door started to close and Cindy stopped it with her hand.

Candice stepped forward.

“Come on girls. It’s a little room that goes up and down, kind of like a hay elevator.” she said.

The girls stayed put, looking apprehensive at their sister in Sheila’s arms.

“It’s okay, girls. You all rode down on it when we brought you in ... remember?” Sheila said.

“I don’t remember much ... I was”

“upside down.” they said.

“I promise, it’s alright. You’ll see. You’ll like it, it’s fun.” Cindy suggested. She didn’t know how much she would regret it later.

The girls slowly edged into the elevator. They spun around when the door closed again. Then Cindy pushed a thing and suddenly they got heavier.

They grasped whomever was nearest. A set of arms grabbing at both Sheila’s and Cindy’s bare asses. A little while later they got suddenly lighter for a moment, then the door opened to another place.

The girls stood in awe for a moment. Candice led them out by the hands. Cindy took the lead and they followed her, looking around.

They walked into the master bedroom and stopped dead in their tracks, their mouths open. All three of them not being carried. Sheila moved around them and set Alice on the bed, which started to buck and wave like it was alive.

She cried out in alarm.

“It’s just a water bed.” Sheila said, rolling her eyes and heading for the wardrobe.

Next thing the other two triplets were prodding and poking at the bed, making it wave and buck some more.

“Hey! Leave that be!” Candice barked.

The girls sat down on the edge mopily, but still testing it a bit with their hands.

“Co-wives huh?” Cindy chuckled, opening a drawer and pulling out some white terry shorts.

“They was still young uns when Nick traded for them ... in some ways they still are.” Candice said, her eyes swinging wildly around the wardrobe.

The girls on the bed followed her eyes and jumped up (all three) to see for themselves. Next thing they were all softly stroking dresses and pant suits like they had never seen before.

“Hey, don’t go snooping. Don’t touch anything.” Candice barked.

“It’s okay ... but come to think of it. We may never get to the kitchen if they start looking at these clothes ... especially if they were impressed with sweats!” Cindy said, pulling on her shorts.

Sheila pulled on a matching pair, neither bothered with underwear. They each donned tube tops. The girls fascinated with the fabric tubes, making each of them pull them down and up for them. Pulling at the fabric themselves. Cindy and Sheila smirking at each other.

“Knock it off!” Candice finally barked.

The girls were instantly contrite.

“Come on girls, we’ll give you the whole tour tomorrow. Let’s go eat.” Sheila said, stooping to pick Alice up.

“I tell you, I can walk.” she protested, but laid her head on Sheila’s shoulder.

“You can walk tomorrow. John would skin me if he saw you walking tonight.” Sheila said.

“He’d beat you?” Alice asked in alarm.

“No dear. I was kidding. He’d never hit me. Or anybody else.” Sheila said, hugging the girl closer.

The two remaining triplets tagged along behind Cindy, looking at both hers and Sheila’s asses packaged so tightly in the terry shorts. They whispered and giggled. Candice brought up the rear like a shepherd, doing her own looking.

This time the girls were eager to board the magical room that opened to another place. They still started a bit when it moved, but they tried to act brave. Their bravery wore thin as the ride took longer. Finally the door opened.

At first glance, it was just the same place they had left. An identical cement room with a strange metal door on either side, a big metal door on another room in front of them and an archway around the corner. But then they noticed the numbers on the walls were different.

Through the archway was the most incredible kitchen they had ever seen.

A lovely blonde girl and an older man were seated at a big table, drinking coffee. The blonde was sitting in the mans lap. She got up as they entered.

Candice registered the action, misreading it. She looked to Cindy and Sheila for signs of jealousy, she found none.

“Well, how’s our patent?” John asked smiling broadly. Actually he was very relieved.

He jumped up to take her from Sheila, but Alice clung to her neck.

“It’s okay.” Sheila said, setting her down in a padded swivel seat. She chose one next to it. Holding her hand.

John looked up to tell Cindy to get the med. kit, and she handed it to him, smirking.

He took it without notice. Opening it up on the table by Alice.

“Pull up your sleeve.” he told Alice.

Alice shrunk back.

“It’s okay, dear. He just wants to make sure you’re okay.” Sheila reassured her.

Alice looked to Candice, who nodded. Having witnessed him checking her out before.

Alice slowly pulled her sleeve up. John would have preferred she take it off, but something told him that would be pushing his luck.

He carefully applied the blood pressure cuff to her upper arm.

“Now this is going to squeeze your arm a little bit when I pump this.” he explained, doing it. He put the stethoscope in his ears and placed the pad on her elbow.

He listened intently as he continued to pump, then opened the valve and let the air out slow, listening. Finally he smiled.

“Okay, I need to listen to your heart and lungs. Can I hold this over your heart?” John asked, holding the end of the stethoscope up for her to see.

Instead, she took the end and pulled it under her sweatshirt, holding the cold end on her breast.

“Wrong place, just below your left breast please.” John told her.

“That’s better, now hold still ... okay, just above ... uh ... your nipple ... okay, good. Now can I check your back?” he asked.

Alice nodded, she’d seen a doctor check out a sick person before. But never her. She leaned forward. John lifted the back of her sweatshirt, she held the front down as he moved the cold pad around on her back and had her cough.

He pulled down her shirt and took out a small light.

“Okay, just follow this with your eyes.” he said, waving it slowly before her.

He couldn’t have stopped her, as she watched the magical light in his hands.