Be Prepared
Copyright© 2025 by Han Jansz. van Meegeren
Chapter 20
“Isis, please sit down. You are making me nervous with all this pacing,” Joyce said.
Isis turned around and showed her butt. It wasn’t solid red, some spots were dark red; some were pinkish. “I will remind you of this when your butt is as red as mine,” Isis smiled.
“You never told us what happened? It’s not like Drew to lose himself like that.” I said.
“Drew felt guilt. Men are built differently. They need to protect and keep safe what they consider their own. He felt like he had failed to do so. Even if his mind would understand that he couldn’t have prevented any of this, his instincts told him differently. It doesn’t matter. That he failed to save Jenny, and that he should have been dead instead of her, ate him up inside. All that anger and helplessness had to go somewhere. So I finally convinced him to take it out on me. It had a healing effect. Kia and Aislinn looked at her as if she were speaking Gorean. Joyce and I would explain it to them one day soon.
Joyce stood up and looked at all of us. “We do not know how many days we have left until the pickup should take place. I have asked Drew to design and lead a bonding ritual for us. Like Jenny would have wanted. Because she is not here to lead us, I offered Drew the chance to take the first steps in leading us to the future. He jumped at the opportunity, which did not surprise me. You know how Drew loves rituals. He did his Drew thing and found all there is to read about feminine bonding rituals. Drew and I have decided that tomorrow at ten in the evening we will perform the ceremony.”
Of all of us, Joyce was the most spiritual. It seemed right that she would take the lead in this. She and Drew spent a lot of time together, already away from this world it seemed. The police had thrown us out of their Safehouse. They needed it for someone else. We were guests now in my Dad’s house. Well, it’s Lauren’s house, actually. It was cramped, but we were so familiar with each other now that everybody settled in without complaint.
“Lauren, can I have a word with you?” I asked her.
“What is it, Sharon?” Maybe the tension wasn’t coming from our group.
“We are very grateful, Lauren, that you let us stay here. And we realise we are a strange bunch of people, walking around nude in your house, glisskissing each other whenever we pass someone. If that makes you uncomfortable in any way, we will find another place to stay. We could always go to a motel or hotel or something.”
“No, it’s not that. But Drew has asked your Dad to join him with the extraction. I don’t know, you are all so comfortable around each other naked, and I don’t know if I have the guts to go around undressed as well, and I do not know who your father will chose as his second concubine, and...”
She broke down, and I pulled her into a tight hug, caressing her sobbing body.
“Shhh, girl,” I said to this woman who could have been my mother, was my new mother in some ways. “It’s not as bad as it seems. Talk to him. Explain your fears to him. He is not a mind reader, you know? All he sees from the outside is that you are not happy. And he has one simple goal in life, and that is to make you happy. So give him a chance to reach his goal.”
The sobbing stopped as suddenly as it had started. “You are a wise woman, you know?”
“I have heard that before,” I said. “It’s not true.”
“Please sit down on these cushions.” Drew said. We were in a room at the University. I do not know if we have permission to be here at 22:00 hours, but if Drew said it was okay, I would have to trust him about it. The room was empty of furniture, except for the six cushions on the floor in a circle. Only five of us are left. In the middle of that imaginary circle was some kind of altar-ish thing. A circle of sand on the floor with things on it. We were all wearing white sheets with a hole cut at head height. This was either a Roman fancy dress party or a witches’ gathering.
“It was Jenny’s wish to have a formal bonding ritual, and I know she will be pleased to see us sitting here today in a ritual I hope will further strengthen the bonds between all of us. A bonding ritual is not new, far from it. For as long as we can remember, women of all ages have come together and shared thoughts, wisdom and feelings. The ceremony I am calling The Ring of Threads and it comprises three parts: past, present and future.”
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