Chapter 32: Defense of the Clan

I read the charter for their ‘club’. All the parents did and several of us met together.

“I’m not happy,” Ken Harris said. “I wanted my daughter to have the same kind of happy marriage Claudia and I have. Husband, wife, children.”

“This isn’t a marriage charter,” Rex said.

“A sex club,” Ken continued. “I should have put my foot down when they were freshmen. I thought we were making them safe.”

“So instead of having the same kind of happy marriage we have, she can have a different kind of happy marriage,” Claudia responded. “We knew they’d become sexually active before the year was over. It’s the way of the world.”

“Our daughters aren’t obligated in any way,” Lily said. I looked at her. I’d never heard her speak positively about this. “Neither are your sons.”

“I’m worried,” Tina Kelly said. “Your daughters are two years older. Theresa just turned sixteen and I’m afraid she’s already gone a little wild.”

“Believe me, I had the same worries about Samantha. And Lexi, who will be sixteen next week. But I truly believe the agreement reined them in and helped them control their hormones. I had a very low opinion of my eldest because I was still carrying around judgmentalism from my upbringing. The slightest sign of sexuality meant she was a whore. But I got a real wake-up call last month.”

“Did she really marry that Frost boy?” Ruth McCall asked.

“They call it a handfasting. It has no legally binding meaning. But ... Oh, Ruth! When I saw my little girl put her hand in Brian’s and have Rose wrap a thread around it ... It was just so beautiful. I could see the love they had. And not just between the two. The others in red—and even to some extent the ones in white with red belts they call their casa—I could see the love and commitment they all had to each other. I wish ... It was a different age and we were married in the church, but I wish Sly and I had been surrounded by such love and support when we got married. I guess that I’d have preferred she wait a little longer before she launched into her lifelong relationship, but I was only nineteen when Sly and I were married. What difference did eighteen months really make?”

“We need to talk some more,” Tina said.

“I think we need to be more involved with the younger kids,” I blurted out. I don’t know where that came from, but Sam’s handfasting had affected me, too. “I mean ... what do we call them, the first generation clan and the second generation clan? I know that for most of them it’s only a year or two difference, but I’m seeing a big difference between the maturity levels of the two generations. I don’t know if it’s something we were feeding them or if it’s just the kind of kids that were attracted to the second agreement. In some ways Lexi is far more social and advanced than Samantha was at that age, but she seems less driven by her hormones. She just enjoys the company of her friends. They’ve kind of adopted our house as a central gathering point the same way the first generation adopted the Frosts’. So, I get to see a lot of their interactions from my open office door.”

“Are you saying they aren’t as sexual?” Bonnie Owens asked. “Your daughters are almost a year older than Pam. She is in a constant state of self-discovery, if you know what I mean. She is not anywhere at all ready for the kind of exploration I hear about the older kids.”

“That’s kind of what I mean,” I said. “I won’t say no one gets a kiss or a hug, but I don’t find any of the kids making out when they think they can’t be seen. And according to my sister in Chicago that can be dangerous. When they get hit with the first flood, they just lose control. The first agreement caught us all by surprise. I think we all had misgivings, Ken. But our older kids were more advanced in their thinking. I don’t think the younger kids would have created a group without the example of their siblings. And they are the ones who put more severe restrictions on their behavior from the outset because that sex stuff was all yucky, as I heard Pam say once.”

Ultimately, we all agreed that there was nothing wrong with our kids ‘joining the club’ that was being formed. But I also agreed to look at ways I could help the younger kids along in their thinking so they didn’t suddenly get faced with situations they hadn’t prepared for. It was almost like training in the army again.

The very night the kids gathered to sign their charter, they got a dose of what reality could be like. If I had known Brian was jumping in his red Suburban and driving to Evansville that night, I’d have been right behind him. I had a kind of experience he lacked. When I heard Sam sobbing on the phone the next day, I knew that Hannah had been injured by a bastard who was a predator. I knew how to track predators like that and went to see Hayden.

“I think we have it under control,” he said. “Rex has been drawing up papers and had them faxed to Saul. Saul has finally agreed that Hannah needs to be here with us. The poor guy is brokenhearted. You just can’t imagine what these two years have done to him. It’s not just Hannah. The whole environment down there has crushed him.”

“Hayden, I want you to keep my number handy. Even with her up here, the kind of guy who beat her up will come looking for her. Don’t let our kids get hurt trying to handle it alone. Maybe we could get an alarm system put on your house, as well. I’ve got contacts that could handle it.”

“With the number of kids who would have to have the codes and the traffic that uses that kitchen door, I can’t imagine an alarm system that would be effective. But you are right. We need to protect our kids first and foremost. Let’s plan to discuss what’s necessary.”

As it turned out, the discussion was too late.

And I’d underestimated Brian’s ability.

After Brian returned to the Frosts’ with Hannah, Samantha nearly took up residence there. Both kids were badly injured in the assault and Sam wanted to be there as much as possible to help ‘her girlfriend’. With the creep in jail five hundred miles away, I relaxed my vigilance a little on the older crew, understanding that my daughter truly had a protector for her cónyuge.

That left me free to focus my attention on my younger daughter and her friends. It seemed they were always around Papa Sly and Mama Lil. Lil was the happiest I’d ever seen her. She cooked up meals for the whole group and invited big brothers and sisters in as well. Lexi, Judy, Ross, and Monte had been ‘adopted’ by Carl, Brenda, and Louise. I could understand that. Lexi idolized Brenda and Carl was a leader who played varsity basketball and thought of all the kids as his little brothers and sisters. Louise was an exotic beauty who’d had a bad reputation in junior high and early senior high through no fault of her own. Kids could trash each other’s reputations with such ease.

The younger four were a puzzle to me.

“Oh, I’ve heard they are called ‘mix and match’. Any combination works. Sly, we are going to have such an interesting family!” Lily said as she cuddled up to me one night. I had to say that having all that youthful energy around us so frequently had put a charge in our own sex life that had been missing for some time. I had a new understanding of Hayden with his two women, though Lil made sure I didn’t need to look elsewhere.

“Mix and match? Any combination? You mean Lexi and Judy both go with Monte and Ross?”

“Sly, my love, the world has turned and left us on the dark side. Not just Lexi with either Ross or Monte, nor Judy with either Ross or Monte. Also, Lexi with Judy, just like Samantha feels about Hannah. And before you react too severely, I think Monte and Ross are affectionate with each other.”

“With each other. I thought I was the liberal one in our relationship, Liliana. It appears I need to broaden my thinking.”

“Well, you know that Leonard has openly declared himself as homosexual since grade school. Hanging around seven beautiful girls has helped protect him from bullies the same way it helped Judy. And I suspect one or two of those beautiful girls have no interest in boys at all. Being in a dating group, though, has kept them protected.”

“I think I’ll take all four of them to Chicago soon.”

With basketball season in full swing, ‘soon’ ended up not being until April, after the boys had won a State Championship. But the field trip into the City ended up being all twelve of the second generation and a few of the older kids. My car, of course, couldn’t hold them all but Joe sent a small bus to transport us around. We spent the morning at the Museum of Science and Industry. It wasn’t long enough but I’d reserved the afternoon for a special event. Joe had revamped a large warehouse and opened a new game center. He’d been introduced to paintball by one of our employees and fell in love with the sport.

I was a little less excited about it but felt the experience of drawing a bead and actually shooting someone would be good for the kids. It would be an opening for me to talk to them about defense and security. The kids loved it and wanted to start a game center in Mishawaka. I’d have considered it if not for what happened at the school prom. Our kids, of course, were too young for the prom, but all the older generation went. We had a big party before the prom that Rex set up at the Studebaker Center. The older kids went off to have their dance and we kept all the younger generation at the center and let them have a little dance, too. I even danced with Lily for a while.

We were all aware of what had happened after last year’s prom. One of the group had been murdered after the prom. I’d talked to Ken, Hayden, Rex, and Jean. We’d all agreed that we’d keep an eye out tonight, just to see that everyone got home safely. I was a little worried about the number of girls going to the prom either stag or as couples. That, of course, included Samantha, who was even dressed in a tux with Hannah as her date. They came home together after the prom and we heard giggling most of the rest of the night.