Chapter 24

Bill’s turn:

Well, THAT was fun. Food poisoning. I have isolated a likely error in a roadside stand – one of those food trucks – that I was told had THE definitive taco. Or not. Doesn’t matter. It hit me hard. Hundred and three temperature, my body’s still achy overall.

First time I spent away from my girls that wasn’t job-related. I don’t like it.

I spent the night drifting, achy, in the hospital. I was released Monday morning, transported home, Haley driving, Deena updating the network with my status.

‘He’s still kinda weak. He’ll be at home today. Emergencies involving severed limbs and statewide power outages are the magnitude acceptable to disturb him.’

They brought me home, shoved me in the shower.

“Defunkify,” Haley giggled.

It felt good.

“Sit here,” Deena said, laying a towel on a stool so my butt wouldn’t adhere to it.

“Why ... what?”

“We’re gonna shave you.”

“No, you’re not.”

“Yes we are,” Haley said. “I’ve watched you a thousand times. You’re still shaky, and we can do this...”

“I don’t need to shave.”

“Yes, you do. We’ve had experience, okay?”

“Okay. But I can...”

“Sit!” Deena commanded.

I can tell you that I am MUCH more efficient in shaving my face, but I can also tell you how much more enjoyable it is to have a pair of nubile teens figure out how to do it for you.

I guess that’s why I didn’t protest when they pushed me into the bedroom, the three of us naked.

“Haley and I talked,” Deena said. “Those people abused your weenie. So if it’s painful, we’ll just snuggle with you a bit and then let you rest. But if you think...”

Haley squealed. “Dunno what HE thinks, but IT thinks...”

“Gentle,” Haley said as Deena’s head moved downward.

“Hungry,” Deena muttered, then...

“Ahhhhhh...”

Deena popped up. “Did I hurt you?”

“Oh god, NO...”

“‘Kay.” Slurp.

And Haley kissing me.

Then Deena whispering in my ear. “Baby, it’s not about sex. It’s about us. You are part of US. We’d never be the same if we didn’t have you.”

“And us together, like this,” Haley said, “it’s just one sign of how completely we fit together.”

“Yeah,” Deena sighed. “Now, you rest, okay? We have campus stuff, but if you need us, we’ll be here.”

“Thank you, princess,” I said.

Haley kissed me, her hand taking a little squeeze. When our lips parted, she giggled. “I felt it surge. Deena, if we don’t leave now I’m gonna gobble that thing...”

“C’mon. We’re responsible people,” Deena tittered. “We can take turns gobbling ‘im later.”

So okay, that ‘drifting off to sleep’ was hampered by the anticipation of sexual activities I once only dreamed of, and when my teenaged mind conceived of them, they didn’t involve the girl I’d raised as a daughter, but this is a case where reality is better than anything my imagination could generate.

I took the nap. Woke up when the door opened.

Three giggling voices came in, my two and Sandy.

Haley’s voice. “Lemme check ‘im. He might still be resting.”

She came in. “You’re awake.”

“Just kinda drifting. Still kinda wrung out. Sandy’s here?”

“Yeah. We were thinkin’ we could drive ‘er home after dinner. Are you hungry?”

“I could eat. You got a plan?”

“I’m your wife. I always have a plan. Involves you getting dressed, though. Are you up to it?”

“I can do that. Where’re we going?”

She named the place. “You can get a little steak or something.”

“Works for me.”

“Need some help getting dressed?”

“Nah ... I can do that.”

I got up, dressed myself, went into the living room. Sandy had a notebook open.

“Hi, Sandy,” I said.

“Hi, Mister Bill. I’m getting help.”

“I thought you were a junior...”

“Having trouble with the math. Carlita said that these two whizzed through it.”

“And we talked to Cindy and Nikki for backup,” Deena said.

“I could’ve asked Dad and Nina,” Sandy said, “but I’m trying to do things on my own.”

“Like asking these two?” I said.

“Oh, I still get help, but I’m trying NOT to automatically assume that Dad and Nina are the only path.”

“Very good,” I said. “Better to understand that it’s okay to seek help...”

“I know,” she said. “I’d’ve gotten it but it might’ve been painful, and by the time I got this hurdle, I’d’ve missed others.”

I retired to my recliner – actually, it’s a double recliner and has proven itself just right for me, Haley and Deena at once if we’re in that kind of mood. Today, I pop open my laptop and catch up on email.

Out ONE day. Let’s see, the good wishes from EVERYBODY. That’s nice. And Maddie’s list of incomes and outgoes and open projects. I scan. Nothing earth-shattering.

One from Jason apprising me of the junior technician he’s sending me to work with Carl. Sings HER praises. I’m a tiny bit apprehensive. Carl’s a great tech, but a bit conservative in his thinking. I wonder if techs can be female in his world. Still, Jason says...

One from Dave. He and Dan 3.0 did the final walkthrough of the new office. We’ve got a month left on the lease on this one. We WERE going to renew, but when the airfield fell into our laps, well, plans change.

The civil engineer that Dan 2.0 recommended has consulted with the architect and we have ‘issued for approval’ drawings for the new house out at the airfield. Dave Johnson’s privy to the same email, and Dan 3.0 has them as well. The houses won’t be ‘cookie-cutter’ but the structural details will be common. That’s Dan 2.0.

“I SAT in my house, built with these details, and took a side-swipe from a Category 3 hurricane. Did not lose a thing.”

He’s twenty miles closer to the coast than we will be, but those twenty miles are essentially flat with the exception of a series of parallel ridges rising to twenty feet above sea level. Not much to temper the winds, and I’ve seen too many homes built with current practices just about explode in hurricane-force winds. Bill ain’t putting HIS family in trash like that.

And since there’s THREE homes going in there, a community back-up power system is in order.

When I sign my set of plans, they get started building on the mound of dirt already in place so we could meet the Federal flood plain requirements. That was something I’d asked Mister Dukes about.

“Has it ever flooded here, Mister Dukes?”

“Nope. Not as long as I’ve had the place. Them damn Feds’re gonna fix us though...”

“Costing a fortune to raise those house pads.”

He shook his head. “Coming and going. They get it in taxes, then when you try to do something, they fix it so you have to pay YOUR money to do it THEIR way.”

I’m liking the old man. I hope when I reach his age I’m like that.

I’m liking life in general right now. My two lovelies and a delightful third are arranged around the coffee table, a growing stack of discarded paper piling up as they go over some chunk of advanced math for Sandy’s benefit.

“I SEE it now,” Sandy said. “Sitting in class, that instructor just rolls right over these principles. I think you guys SHOWED me what’s behind it.”

Haley grinned. “That dude over there with ‘is feet in the air...”

I had my recliner kicked back to a comfortable angle of repose.

“ ... He did that for me on word problems when I was starting the seventh grade. I think that’s the first time I heard ‘learn the principle, not the problem.”

“Dan or Nina would’ve probably been able to do this for you,” I said.

“Prob’ly,” Sandy replied. “But part of being a student is the social aspects. Learning with your peers.”

Deena laughed. “I like this part, too. Life’s better with friends. ‘Course, we need to invade Carlita’s. Find out what’s she’s cooking...”

“Yeah,” Sandy said. “Her sweet tamales. That’s just different...” She put on a little sly smile. “Lots of things are different at the Johnson household.”

My ear perked up at that statement, but I said nothing. After all, nobody thinks that Brindy’s Dave’s daughter.

Deena dove in. “Yeah, there’s not a bit of ‘normal’ in what they admit they are. But look at ‘em. Nobody looks exploited.”

“You got that right,” Sandy admitted. “They do look normal. Well, Carlita’s an exotic little thing, but not ... Nobody looks slutty or strung out or ... Dave’s a nice guy, Dad says.”

“Carlita WALKED a thousand miles from Guatemala to get here. Doesn’t sound like the type that’d get trapped here in a crappy marriage,” Haley continued, “and it’s not like somebody wouldn’t kill himself to get THAT. Or Brindy either, for that matter.”

“So you’re basically saying that they’re where they are because that’s where they WANT to be.”

“Yep,” Deena said. “All you gotta do is watch ‘em.”

“So it doesn’t bother you?” Sandy asked.

“No,” Deena said. “Does it bother you?”

“Some people act like it should bother me, but I just can’t get there. I’m trying to understand.”

“Then you’re in the right place. I’ve ... we’ve gone to lunch or hung out with one or the other, and they’re just happy people,” Haley added. “I like ‘em.”

“Me too,” Sandy said. She sounded sincere. “I just kinda try to understand how MY feelings, my view, stacks up with others. You know they think I’m weird on campus.”

“They think we’re ALL weird on campus,” Deena snipped. “Which means that ‘they’ are wrong on so many levels.”

“Got that right,” Haley affirmed. “What’s your family say?”

“Uh, Nina’s conservative. Dad’s conservative. But one of Nina’s closest friends while she was in college was an ‘out’ lesbian, so, well, alternative lifestyles and all that. Dad’s just Dad. ‘Mind YOUR business and let others mind theirs.’ He knows. Says it doesn’t matter. Tamales cover a multitude of sins.”

“Way I see it,” Haley said, “is if you wanna hate, you don’t have to have a lot of reasons. Brindy ‘n’ Carlita and Dave’s marriage is a plenty convenient hook. Or her non-native...”

“Who generally speaks better English than her detractors,” Sandy said.

“Yeah,” Haley continued. “And I think she’s a darlin’. Her ‘n’ Brindy both.”

“Me too,” Sandy stated.

“Dad, you listening?” Deena asked.

“Halfway, babe,” I said. “Why?”

“You didn’t say anything.”