5: Hope

Certain rituals had to be observed during the week of Independence Day. This year it was on Wednesday. I wanted to go back down to Bloomington over the weekend and talk to Rachel. $100,000. I had to ask Ron how much we could cut off the price by doing work ourselves.

In the meantime, Whitney needed fireworks on July Fourth and Rhonda's eighteenth birthday was on the fifth. Everyone wanted a party to celebrate Rhonda's birthday but she asked to keep it simple. She didn't know her parents would be there to celebrate.

We decided to all go out to the lake on the Fourth and called all the local members of our clan. We didn't want to forget all about our younger clan members and those who had never been adopted into a casa. The first surprise I got was when I called Geoff's house. I talked to his brother, John.

"Man, didn't Geoff tell you he was taking off?" John asked. "What a dope. I expect he'll be back by fall, but he and that Kevin dude decided to do a buddy trip and drive Route 66 from Chicago to LA. Then they're going up to San Francisco and on to Seattle. Kevin is going to attend Washington State and Geoff's dropping him in Pullman. Geoff said he'd be back in time for fall classes at ITT, or if he didn't make it in time, he'd start classes in the winter. I've never seen him acting so free and easy. He's been uptight for the past couple years and ... well, especially after Prom."

"Thanks, John. If he calls, tell him to get in touch with us."

"Yeah, right. I'll let him know." John always hung out with Geoff and me when we were younger, but he'd developed his own circle of friends in high school and would probably be on varsity basketball next year. His baseball season had finished just last week and he was doing well in that, too.

The news about Geoff really threw me. I decided to call Robyn and see if she knew about it and let her know we were going to the lake.

"Hello." No name. No greeting. No asking who this was. The voice on the other end of the line sounded like a zombie.

"Hello. This is Brian Frost. I'm calling for Robyn, please."

"You!" The voice hissed. "What did you do to my daughter? You want to ruin her like he ruined me. I won't let you do it. I'll find her. They'll tell me where she is." This could only be Robyn's crazy mother. Wow! What a whack case.

"I don't want to ruin Robyn," I said calmly. "I'm just a friend and was calling to see how she's doing since school got out."

"A friend! Like the ones who took her Saturday. They said they were friends. She went with them. They didn't bring her back. I've called the police. They'll find her. All I have to do is puzzle out the clues in the newspaper. She's sending me messages."

"Okay. Well, have a nice day, Mrs. Koontz. Bye now." I didn't wait for her response. Maybe it was rude to hang up, but I did say goodbye.

Friends picked her up on Saturday and didn't bring her back? Oh man! Geoff, did you do something stupid? I needed to talk to Mr. Koontz. I knew he'd be home by five o'clock. I drove over to her house and waited until I saw him pull into his driveway. I jumped out of the Suburban and called to him.

"Mr. Koontz!" He stopped and looked at me. He looked really, really tired. "Excuse me, sir. I'm Brian Frost. I'm a friend of Robyn's. Um ... I called today to ask her to a picnic tomorrow and sort of talked to your wife. She said Robyn disappeared."

"I know who you are, Brian. Thank you for being a friend to my daughter. I wish she had called you. It was pretty inevitable. She certainly couldn't stay here any longer. She and her boyfriend, Geoff, took off Saturday for a road trip. I understand another boy was traveling with them."

"Oh wow," I said. "You know Geoff won't hurt her, don't you, Mr. Koontz?"

"Oh yes. Robyn and I actually talk. I know about her boyfriend. If her mother would settle down she'd realize that Robyn is safer with those two boys than with anyone else. Robyn and I have really been all the sane conversation each other has had at home. I give Eloise her pills at night and she goes to sleep. Then Robyn and I talk. It's been so hard on her. I'm glad she has friends," he sighed.

"Well, I'm sorry they just took off. They didn't even tell me they were going."

"They kept it all very hush-hush. I gave Robyn a thousand dollars for traveling money. I hope they all find what they are looking for."

"Yeah. Me, too, Mr. Koontz. I'm sorry she left you ... alone."

"I want what is best for my daughter, Brian. Living here was definitely not the best. Good luck to you down at IU this fall." He turned to go to the house.

"Thank you, sir. Good luck to you."

The lake was fun. It was mostly Casa del Fuego and the younger clan members. Lionel and Sugar had already moved to his brother's apartment in Bloomington with Renee and Lamar. That left us with George, Judy, Lexi, Ross, Monte, Theresa, Rich, Susan, Nancy, Leonard, and Pam. We splashed and played our games in the lake. It gave me a great opportunity to connect with our younger clan mates.

"Brian, what are we going to do?" Judy said as she climbed on my back and proceeded to give me kisses all over my neck.

"Hey! You're going to get in trouble." I tried to smack her butt, but it was underwater and that kind of slowed my hand down and I guess it must have seemed like more of a grope.

"Me? You keep playing with my ass and we'll both get in trouble. I wish I was seventeen!"

"I'm sorry! I didn't mean to ... uh..."

"What did you mean, Brian?"

I couldn't exactly tell her I meant to spank her. That didn't sound right. So I did what any self-respecting teenage boy would do. I dunked us. Much to my surprise, she came up spluttering but still hanging on to me.

"You aren't getting away from me that easily!" she laughed.

"Okay, Shorty. What is it you want?" I teased.

"You," she sighed. "Oh, not all to myself. But when I'm ready, I'd kind of like you to be my first lover."

"Honey, come here," I said. I gave her a little shove so she slid around in front of me, still keeping her legs wrapped around my waist. "Are things not going well for you? Tell me what's happening."

"Um..." She buried her face against my chest. "You know Ross and Monte aren't really like our boyfriends, don't you?"

"No. I didn't know that."

"Well, Lexi and I were fine with the four of us—what Samantha called 'mix and match'—being together. I like both of them, but ... well, they're becoming less bi. Lexi and I get left out a lot. I mean, I like Lexi, too. We've experimented a bit—within the rules. But I'm not going to lose my virginity to a boy who just had his weenie up another boy's ass," she said firmly. Well, I guess that put it in perspective.

"I don't know what to say, Judy."

"Oh, don't worry about it. It's not going to happen for a long time. I don't think our group is as mature as your group was. Well, Lexi is hot to trot. Mary has fallen in love with Josh and Cassie and you and probably one or two others. Theresa is really the most mature of all of us younger ones," she said. "I like you a lot and I like to imagine it's you when I'm playing with myself. Or even if one of the others is playing with me a little. But I'm not going to be ready to have sex when I turn seventeen this winter. Maybe not until after I graduate, even. But when I'm ready, I'd like it to be you. Okay?"

"I can't promise you that any more than you can promise it at this stage, Shorty. Let's just wait and see what happens."

"Could I ... when we're all together ... hang out with your casa sometimes?" she asked. I laughed. Our casa hung out naked most of the time.

"Talk to Rose about it," I laughed. Let the matrón handle this one!

"I'm leaving Casa del Sol," Susan said as she climbed on my back to play Marco Polo. I pushed us out toward deeper water so we could just talk.

"Are you unhappy?" I asked.

"It's not that, exactly," she said. "I'm just not ready to commit to Rich. He's gaga over Lionel and Lamar, but I'm not that committed. Maybe someday. But it's too soon for me to be in a casa."

"I'm beginning to think that we should have kept all the second generation clan members out of casas," I sighed. "We put a lot of pressure on you inadvertently."

"Oh, it was nice having like a designated big brother and big sister," she said. "I think Lionel and Sugar liked having someone else they were responsible for, too. But now they have Lamar and Renee. I just don't want the implication that I'm part of a couple before we even graduate and come to Bloomington."

"You know you don't have to come to Bloomington."

"I know, but ... we really do love you guys. If we were with you from the start instead of Johnny-come-lately, it probably would have worked better. But I've always thought IU was where I'd go."

We skipped the regular fireworks that night. Whitney and I went into the back yard, started a fire in the firepit, and threw a blanket on the ground. We decided we'd just make our own fireworks. We stripped off our clothes and made love after sundown, just when the fireworks were starting downtown. I lay on top of her and kissed her, ignoring our other hearthmates joining us at the fire. Music started from Rose's boombox.

"What's on your mind, lover. How can you get your cock in me from so far away?" Whitney whispered. I hugged her tightly. Everything I'd heard today.

"I think all the kids are leaving the clan. We're losing them."

"It's not that bad, is it? I know some of them aren't happy in their casas but there are exceptions. Mary certainly isn't leaving Casa del Fuego. And not just for Josh and Cassie. She's going to be in your bed before you know it," Whitney laughed.

"Oh, geez!"

"But think about what we were like at the end of our sophomore year. Rhonda was gone. Donna was gone. Elaine was in summer stock. I was at basketball camp. You took a job in fucking Kokomo and shacked up with Courtney and Jennifer. None of us knew if we'd still be dating when we came back to school. You and Carl and Doug, Brenda, Rachel, Liz, Samantha, and me. We were the core and we went through all of our schooling together. Cassie for most of it. We really never dated anyone else seriously from sixth grade on. Each person that was added after that came because they wanted to be a part of us—wanted what we had. Because we had you. You can't expect the younger kids to be ready to fall in love for life the way we were."

"Are we, Whitney? Are we in love for life?" I asked. I was feeling sad about what I'd learned today.

I didn't get a direct answer. Whitney pulled me on top of her and kissed me. Of all my lovers, Whitney could take my full weight lying on top of her and often wanted me there. She kissed me like her life depended on it.

"Brian," she whispered between our lips, "just try to get rid of me. Just try it."

Whitney could beat my bones into dust. The tone of her voice told me she was willing to do it. Instead I pulled a condom on and slipped into her. I kissed and licked and thrust. I touched her and probed her and stroked her. I did everything I could think of to make her see fireworks and eventually she announced them to the world. There was a lot of giggling from our hearthmates dancing around the fire.

"Um ... cónyuge ... that is not going to get rid of me. You failed miserably."

I woke up in my bed looking into Rhonda's deep green eyes.

"Happy birthday, my novia," I whispered. I heard the words echoed from the other side of her by Samantha.

"Talk to me, Brian," Rhonda whispered as she snuggled up against me. Her hand was wrapped around my shoulder, so I was pretty sure it was Samantha who was stroking my dick up against Rhonda.

"You are eighteen today, my love. You've fulfilled your contract and are completely free to be the adult you want to be. Before you go running off, though, I need to tell you two things. First, I love you. I think you know that. But ... it wasn't always easy, you know? There were times I asked myself why I was waiting for you. And the only answer that ever came back was 'I love you.' In spite of how hard it was at times, I've never regretted loving you. The second thing I need to tell you is how proud I am of you. You did it. You graduated. You became a television producer. You opened your heart to our love. You did it. But there is something I'm even prouder of you for. You overcame. You overcame the sadness and the despair. Yes, we helped. We did what we could. But neither Samantha nor I, nor our whole casa, could do that for you. You had to want it and strive for it. I know—and we've talked about it—that depression can come back at any time for no apparent reason. I'm fighting it a little. But, I know now, that when I feel that chasm opening under me, that you overcame it. There's no reason I can't. You gave me ... gave all of us ... hope for our futures. I'm so proud of you for that."

There were some sniffles, but Rhonda moved her knee up onto my hip as she hugged me. With the improved access, I felt Sam manipulating my cock into position at Rhonda's pussy. Getting it in was a joint effort by all three of us and we actually giggled a little as Rhonda's opening parted and I slid in. Sam wrapped us both in a hug and we sandwiched Rhonda between us. We rocked back and forth as we lay facing each other and I reached past Rhonda to pet Sam's side. I got a hand wedged between her and Rhonda so I could touch her pussy. When any of us moaned, it was reflected and amplified by the moans of the others.

We took a long time. Rhonda and I kissed and I could feel Sam kissing all over Rhonda's back as we rocked together and apart. When we came it was with a huge sigh. I could tell from the way Rhonda shuddered and gasped and from the fluttering in her vagina that she'd found a climax. I could feel Sam's as my fingers were flooded with her juices. And both girls could feel mine as it pulsed inside Rhonda. This was good.

Hope for the future.

Over the past two months, the study portion of my room had been taken over by home planning. Rachel still had a drafting table set up and many of our original sketches and drawings of the property in Bloomington were stacked or rolled up around it. Courtney's computer occupied a long folding table with another half dozen folding chairs set around it for our study sessions. My Mac was on my desk along with its printer. In the corner, my file cabinet was now half filled with Heaven's photos and magazines. I'd been collecting them for two years and got a new package from Joanne at least once a month. My microscope and chemistry set occupied spaces on the bookshelves, while stacks of books sat on the floor.

I opened a spreadsheet on my computer and started entering some of the numbers Ron had given me. Like Rhonda's original lighting bid, these numbers were also depressing. I kept fussing with the numbers and studying the drawings of the barn.

"What are you working on, love?" Elaine asked me Thursday evening. The day had been busy with Rhonda's birthday, her parents visiting, and then Sam, Jen, and Court all insisting on taking Rhonda out for a girl's night. I was a little relieved. I needed time to work on this.

"Um ... Trying to figure out a place for us to live this fall," I muttered. We had a few photographs of the barn that Rachel had taken on our second visit. I pushed them around and circled an area on the plan.

"What's that?"

"I think it's the kitchen. It would be unusual, but would give us great camera angles."

"Would it still function well as a kitchen? That's the problem with so many theater and movie settings. They look pretty, but they don't function well."

"I'm having a little trouble placing the appliances so they don't block anything," I answered. Actually talking about this with someone was helping me visualize it.

"How about if you had two walls, so it was a corner set, rather than just one wall with you in front of it? I know one wall and a bar was the concept using what you had to work with in the house, but as long as you are designing from scratch, you should just make it what you want." I looked up at Elaine. I'd been looking at this as a kitchen where I needed to be filmed. She was looking at it as a theater set with an audience.