Chapter 16: Lem

Because there’s never a restful day, the next day, Zara’s family fell apart. Her sister called – they needed out, urgently. Her mother and both sisters. At least they didn’t need hospital, just space, and peace. Sal and Kat organised it all, and they were out of their house two hours later. Her father would come home to an empty house. All he had was my phone number, and I wouldn’t be answering for a day or two. We got them a hotel room, and new phones – they left the others behind, so he couldn’t contact them.

They were worried about the cost, but that’s just money. How could we not do this for Zara’s family? I wouldn’t think twice of carrying that cost for a couple of months but eventually they’ll have to figure something out.

Zach and Zara went off in an Uber to check on them, all masked up because of Covid. They had made their own black masks with a stylish Z/Z combination on them. Toni, Jael and Michael still hadn’t worn masks yet, but they were going to have to next week when school goes back. They were pretty glum about it – both school and masks (and clothes), but at least they’d be together.

The nurse visited, and removed my drain, and checked me over, and pronounced me all clear. Michelle watched all of the process, and the nurse went extra slow, explaining what she was doing and why to Michelle.

Then Zach and Zara came back, and reported that her father had got worse and worse, and the psycho-drama had totally gotten out of control. All three of them had a little physical abuse, but much worse psychological abuse. Kat worked her networks from her past jobs, and found someone good to work with them, which we’d pay for, of course.

I was still getting lots of quality time with my family, but I was starting to feel better and move about at bit more. Definitely moving back to the room tonight, and very gently making love to Kat.

Then Eleni arrived, loaded up with cards and flowers. The kids had to help her carry them up. She insisted it was just a social visit. But of course, we did talk about one work subject in particular: Zara. Eleni sat Zara down in front of me and gave her a grilling. Zara didn’t know all the answers, of course, but that’s the point: how do you handle it when you don’t know what you’re doing? Eventually, Eleni turned to me, and said that maybe this would work, and she knew I was worried that she’d think Zara was just doing it because she was family. Well, you know what Zara said to that, and Eleni burst out laughing.

After that, for the first time in months, we declared the house a clothed zone, because we had a number of normals visiting me – my wider family, customers, etc. It felt weird, everyone wearing clothes. Is that what we all look like?

I had many visitors that afternoon, but for me a few visitors were special.

I didn’t even know one of them – a young lady who presented Kat and I with a lovely thank you card each, and a box containing two special purpose phones that would only video call each other. “You really made a huge difference for me, so I wanted to thank you in person,” she told us. That was a real quality move, to do that. When we realised who she was, the kids insisted on playing Jackbox with her, since they’d played it with her on zoom earlier, showing her how it worked. She stayed for an hour, playing and laughing, while her mum talked to Kat, and other visitors came and went. It was lovely – like pre-covid days. Kat and Eleni had made up some complicated justification for us having so many visitors in a day, around some visiting their work place and some visiting home, but they weren’t really fooling anyone with that. How could I complain, though?

Ben and Lisa came to visit, to express their thanks for the way we cared for them, and to wish us well. Their kids were very cute, and a big hit with my family. Lisa looked very good – I could see her confidence and peace shining through. They gave us lovely cards, and Lisa hugged Kat deeply and gave her a present as a small token of her appreciation: a beautiful gratitude pendant that she’d worked with Michelle to choose.

I noticed that, among the staff and families that visited, quite a few partners were very close to Kat, or even spoke privately to her – more of the same, I guessed, but I didn’t know the specific details.

Just as we were getting to a late dinner, Tim’s parents came to visit, which was an unannounced surprise. They’d decided that with the roadblocks around Melbourne now lifted, me being stuck in bed was the perfect opportunity to visit us and see how Tim was going. We insisted that they stay the night with us – it was a long drive for them, and Sal asked Michael if she could sleep out in the tent with him so that they could have the guest room. It was lovely to catch up with them, and of course, their surprise visit turned in a wonderful engagement celebration for all of us for Tim and Michelle – we’re all so happy. Though his parents did talk to Kat and I later when we were in the spa about the age thing, and I told them what Michelle had told me – that helped them feel better.

That night, I lay in bed with Kat, and we made gentle love, side by side. It might’ve been our best yet, and then we lay together and talked and kissed. I love my wife with my whole heart, even if I had to promise to marry her yet again.

Then we talked about Sal and Lem, and we laid our plans. I didn’t know how it was going to go, but I knew that it was going to be interesting.

And when I called him, Lem agreed to my conditions – he was invited to dinner, and everyone would be naked, and then he had to agree that before we’d agree to him being with Sal, he’d talk heart to heart with her, while Kat and I were present. Next Saturday would be most interesting.

Lem arrived late Saturday afternoon. Once he was in the front door, I showed him where to hang his clothes. He took a deep breath, and undressed. Yep, Kat was right. Very ripped. Impressive.

“Man, your workouts have been effective.”

He smiled. “Yes, I’m really enjoying it.”

“OK. So a word of advice. You’re naked, but here, it’s totally normal. My kids won’t think anything of it, nor will their partners. I expect that they’ll be their normal selves, which involves a lot of touching and hugging, but it’s not going to turn into sex at any time, even if you think it might. Your kids are super friendly with mine, and you’ll see plenty of touching and hugging, but that’s all it’s ever been. That’ll be impossible for you to understand, because you haven’t been naked for weeks, it’s not normal for you. Now Jael has worn clothes twice this week, but it was the first time for 12 weeks. Like my youngest daughter Toni, she’s militantly naked. She also looks incredibly good after all the swimming. I have no idea how she’ll react when she sees you. It could be anything from a running jump at you, to total refusal to look at you. Either way, she feels very strongly about this, you’re her dad, but you hurt her and Sal. Those feelings will be in conflict, and you’ll have to let her let them play out. Hug her if you get a chance, and respect it if she doesn’t yet want to.”

“Any questions?”

He took a deep breath. “I’m just so nervous. I so don’t want to stuff this up, either with Sal or the kids.”

I nodded. “You know, you can’t stuff it up with Sal, honestly. It’s all she can do not to jump your bones on the first date. She’s even OK with you knowing that, she’s so hot for you. Though she won’t touch you until we say it’s OK, more on that later tonight. As for your kids ... the thing they’re really scared about is that you’ll take them away from here, which is now their emotional home, with our kids. So you just need to be really careful how you touch that subject.”

“Here, I’ll show you around.” That was a good way to gently introduce him to the family. I showed him the garage and the support rooms, and that turned into its own whole discussion about living off the grid. We have a serious amount of solar power, and our own water collection and management system.

Then we went upstairs, and I showed him our living area, the bedrooms, our back yard – which turned into an exploration of Michael’s tent, which he loved, and Michael is just so very proud of. Then back in the house, and I showed him our work area, and then I ended up in the wet area.

Through that trip, he gradually met more and more of the family. Sal was waiting for him at the top of the stairs wondering what was taking so long. She gave him a long hug, and only let go when Kat pulled her off him. I could see the sparks between them after that: Sal looks very good now – bursting with joy. Sal joined us for the rest of the tour.

Jael and Toni were waiting for him in the wet area. Toni was sitting on the side of the pool, and Jael was in the pool beside her. They invited him in for a game of water polo, and suddenly there was ten people in the pool – I sat on the side, refereeing, since I was still not fully recovered enough for water polo.

At first, Jael ignored Lem, as I said might happen, but pretty soon, the game was getting serious – Lem and Sal vs Kat, with the kids split to even the teams up. Putting Lem and Sal on the same team was deliberate – they had to play with each other, not climb on top of each other. Water polo is a game with a lot of underwater contact, and my kids aren’t afraid to do so (apparently the rules don’t apply to anything that happens underwater when playing water polo).

And suddenly I noticed that Jael was playing on Lem, and playing just as hard as she usually did. Finally, when it was time to stop the game and start on the BBQ, I could see Lem sitting on the side of the pool, with Jael in his lap. The look on his face as he smiled at me ... it was wonderful.

He’s still got a long way to go, though. And he has to make it through tonight. But maybe Jael’s hug will give him strength he’ll need for that.

Then we had dinner. Lem had asked me when would be a good time to get just his family together. I asked what for, and he said he needed to apologise, and set a path forward. I told him that would be a good idea, but we really didn’t have any secrets at our house, and he’d probably just have to say it again if he didn’t tell everyone at once. So I suggested dinner, but it was up to him. So at dinner, once eating was slowing down, Lem spoke up.

“Thank you for letting me come tonight. I know that this is was really challenging for all of you, to let me come. I just want to apologise really deeply for how I behaved earlier this year. Our lives spun out control, and I lost it, and I drank too much, and I hurt all three of you, Sal, Jael and Michael. I hurt you deeply. I cannot tell you how much I regret what happened. It was deeply wrong, and I’ve had a long lonely winter coming to terms with what happened, and learning how to control myself, and why I was so broken down.”

“Now I’m here, and I’m going to try and rebuild our relationships. I know it’s going to go slowly, but you’re the only three people I care about in the world, and I’m going to do whatever it takes to build proper relationships with you. We don’t know what will happen, or where it will take us, but I’ll respect your choices while we build that. I know we have a long way to go.”

I could see that was quite meaningful to Jael and Michael. And Sal ... she was sitting there, looking at him, and shining.

Then we had family time. The kids decided to redo the design ideas for our house, and they’d done more bigger and elaborate designs. The point was obvious, of course: this is our home and we’re staying right here. Lem was sitting with Sal, holding her, and I could see he was getting the point.

Once that was over, I said to the kids, “OK, your mums and dads are going to our bedroom to talk things over. I expect we might be all night, so don’t wait up.”