Chapter 4: Psychotherapy

The first Saturday in August was a warm day – even hot, but most of the Circle had congregated around the pool for the afternoon. The umbrellas, however, were open to provide a lot of needed shade from direct sunlight.

Alice returned outside carrying the baby monitor. She’d just put John Forrest down for his afternoon nap. He should be good for ninety minutes, and then she’d hear him cooing and making talking noises in his crib as he played with some of his soft toys.

Alice strolled between some of the tables, again greeting her Circle lovers until she came to Ken and Patti. Sitting with them was a man she didn’t know. Ken and the new man stood, and gestured for her to join them.

The new man put his hand out as she sat, “I’m Bill Lewis.” The rest of the greeting continued as one might expect with one or two salient points worth mentioning. First, there had been no expectation of out-of-Circle guests that afternoon, so there was considerable nudity and partial nudity around the pool area. That said, the area looked no different that a warm European beach or pool setting on that same basis, except the cross-section of people in the Circle were in considerably better shape than a similar segment of the rest of the population.

Second, Alice and Patti were both only wearing monokinis – exceptionally tiny colored pieces of clothing that fundamentally covered their vaginal openings and little else. Considering that little in terms of a sexual nature had been left to the imagination, one might ask ‘Why bother with the small concession to modesty?’ but no one ever answered that seemingly rhetorical question. Even Matthew or Rose’s presence around the pool didn’t discourage some from complete nudity and both Heather and Scarlett had deemed that acceptable providing there was no open sex. At the kids’ ages they were singularly unimpressed about the subject in either way.

Bill Lewis appeared to be in his mid-forties, handsome with a rich forest of salt-and-pepper hair and a small goatee on his square jaw. He had a slight paunch that Alice figured resulted from a sedentary profession and a slight lack of restraint at the dinner table. Dave was always saying the best way to lose weight were ‘push backs’ – more precisely, pushing back from the lunch or dinner table.

Patti explained about Bill, “Alice, we’ve known Bill for almost a year now. He’s actually Dr. William Lewis, licensed psychologist and marriage counselor. He’s the man we ended up going to for twelve sessions before Ken and I got married.”

Ken said, “By necessity in our counseling sessions we talked a lot about the Circle and how we fit into this polyamorous atmosphere. When traditional subjects about fidelity, vows, exclusiveness, monogamy, cheating, expectations for the future, relationships with friends, past lovers and how we’d perceive them, and such came up, as they frequently did, the Circle figured quite prominently because of its unique nature.”

Bill turned to Alice, “I became fascinated with what you and your friends have put together by listening to Ken and Patti talk about their relationships with all of you. I wanted to see this place for myself, but since the Valentine’s Day wedding my life has been in turmoil, so today is the first opportunity I’ve had to visit. I thank all of you for welcoming me to your little enclave.”

Alice said, “I assume Ken or Patti gave you a tour?”

Bill smiled, “Yes, and this place is gorgeous and so conducive to the kind of physical and spiritual interactions they’d told me about at the turn of the year. The physical plant is nice, but what fascinates me more is all your inter-relationships and how you hold them all together without divisive frictions developing. I’d love to hear your comments on that point. I just heard from Ken and Patti, but I’d love an outside opinion, so to speak.”

Alice laughed, “First, you need a good sense of humor to live with all of us, especially about yourself. We all have our up and down days, but enough of us are ‘up’ when others are ‘down’ to help pull things back to what passes for normal here.

“Two things that cement us together is our willingness to compromise or yield on something, and the service for the common good that we each do.”

Bill said, “I understand the first, but what do you mean by the second point?”

“Everybody has a job or two that they do to support the Circle in some way. Some people have staked out rather permanent jobs, and others happen on monthly rotational basis so no one gets stuck with a really crappy task forever. This month on Monday nights, I have trash duty. Around nine p.m. I walk around the Circle and pull everyone’s trashcans and recycling to curbside. My friend Dori goes with me. It takes about forty-five minutes because we also do the townhouses. The trash truck comes by early on Tuesday morning, so Tuesday evening I put any containers still at the curbside back where they belong next to the homes or in carports. That’s just an example.”

Bill said, “So, you and Dori get closer to one another because of the shared duties?”

“Exactly. There’s a team that helps prepare meals, another does meal cleanup, another keeps the public rooms neat and clean, helps in the nursery, worries about the landscaping, another picks up litter, another polices the patio and pool, a couple of people administer our routine health checks, one more maintains our generators and emergency equipment, and on and on.”

Bill chuckled, “Yes, Patti explained about your monthly testing program. I guess you have a couple of nurses on staff.”

“We do. It was a good thing, too, because we were marooned her with two birthing mothers in the midst of Hurricane Marco. Everything went well and the two babies will be tottering around here in a short time coming up on their first birthday.”

“Are the teams always the same, but they rotate through the jobs together?”

“No. We mix it up intentionally so we get to work with a wider group of Circle members, both men and women. If you’d been here this morning, you would have seen my husband Dave marshaling breakfasts for everyone with his cadre of weekend morning cohorts. He likes that job and so it’s been his for almost as long as we’ve lived here, but his teammates change. He also likes to tend bar in the evenings, although now some of the younger guys are also involved so he’s let that go a little.” She laughed.

“But surely, you’re all not from the same church or religious affiliation. I would think there’d be friction there about which version of God and truth you subscribed to.”

Alice, Ken, and Patti laughed. “We have our own itinerant minister now, and he’s about as nonsectarian as you can get. We would be heretics in most churches, mosques, or synagogues in town. We are too outlandish in our viewpoints about love, marriage, and relationships for any organized group to put up with except for ourselves.”

Alice looked around the pool area, “Ah. The man in the red bathing trunks with the cute little blonde curled up against him is our pseudo-minister and keeper of our spiritual soul food. He did Ken and Patti’s wedding and others here, as well. He does something on the first and third Sunday mornings of each month. It’s more of a discussion group, and you’d certainly be welcome to attend. You could also talk to him later.”

Ken commented, “His name is Ross Buchman, by the way. He teaches theology and philosophy at the university. The small blonde in his arms is Cricket, another of Dave and Alice’s wives.”

Bill’s eyebrows rose. “Oh, yes. You are in a plural marriage. I remember now.”

Alice chuckled, “It gets more plural everyday.”

“Can you tell me about it?”

“The short version is that Dave, my actual legal husband, and I loosened up about six or seven years ago. In the process we added Pam to our family, and then Heather, and then my sister Julie. In the same ceremony that Ken and Patti wed, we brought Cricket into our family, and now we have Scarlett about to join very soon whenever we get around to have the ceremony. She’s wearing our engagement ring.”

Bill pointed to Alice’s finger, “That also looks like an engagement ring. It’s quite a rock and a beautiful setting.”

“It is and it better be for what it cost. I’m engaged to Owen Bennett, and so is my sister. Owen wanted to make a statement with the rings. As soon as we go out in public with them I’m sure we’ll be front-page news, especially my sister Julie. Her ring is even more expensive. We’ll probably marry him in the same ceremony when Scarlett joins us. Owen has no family except for the whole Circle, so he’s suddenly going to have some serious family, including a stepson who’s a year old.”

Bill chuckled, “Owen Bennett is the same name as the billionaire that supposedly lives in Sarasota somewhere.”

Alice, Ken, and Patti pointed simultaneously at Owen’s home. “Yes. That’s his home right there. One and the same.”

Bill gawked and sat up straight, “HE lives HERE?”

“Yes. He’ll be my second husband and brother-in-law as I said,” Alice said, “plus I’ll still have five sister-wives, one of whom is my sister. She’s going to become his legal wife.”

“But...”

“Yes, we keep it legal as far as the state and feds are concerned. We only do a commitment ceremony for our ‘surplus’ brides and husbands.”

Patti said, “Just to keep it straight, Ken and I are legally married, but we’re committed to everyone else in the Circle. Their plural family adds a deeper level of commitment within their own group.”

Ken said to Alice, “You should tell him who Scarlett is.”

Alice hemmed and hawed slightly. “All right. Scarlett is Scarlett Johansson, the movie star. Please don’t mention that around. She should be here soon. She went off with one of our friends to his video studio to watch a short film being made.” She didn’t want to admit that Scarlett might be having the stuffing fucked out of her on one of Mike’s adult video stage sets at his warehouse studio on the edge of town. Ken and Patti nodded at Alice that they understood the need for discretion on this point.

“How’d she ever hookup with all of you?” Bill asked leaning forward into the discussion.

“We’ve had some huge parties here with lots of VIPs. Owen is well-connected so he arranged for some movie stars as eye candy, so to speak. Scarlett was working nearby and came to a party and became intrigued with the Circle, what it represented, and then with our family. We fell in love, and the rest is history.

“Cricket, over there, is an author. She’s written a book that will be launched very soon entitled Road Trip. Scarlett is playing the lead character in the movie version along with an actor named Chris Hemsworth, and then some other notable Hollywood types. She’s been working on the screenplay with a man named Don Abrams. He’s around here somewhere because they decided to work from here rather than in La-La Land.”

“Well, she’s one of my favorite actresses. I hope to meet her if she shows up while I’m here.”

Ken said, “Just stay for dinner. Friday and Saturday dinner are the times when everybody in the Circle tries to be here.” He stood and turned to Patti and Alice, “I’ll let Bobbie know we’ll have a guest.”

Alice said, “We do have some Circle members that live out of town, but they try to join us as often as possible. My sister’s family in Ohio is one group of them. Her daughter lives with us while she’s going to university. She’s working at Mote Marine Labs right now for a summer job. And, by the way, she’s our going to be our youngest Circle member.”

“Eighteen?”

“Precisely. She fell in love with the Circle and its philosophy.”