Chapter 3

“Um, sorry, Mrs. Vandekamp. I thought that you wouldn’t back so soon. In my defense, Martin is of age. This must be your gentleman caller,” Lola did her best at damage control, albeit nervously.

“Yeah, that’s pretty clear! Look, damn, I know that I’m not Miss Popular Mom at home. I’ve done some ... harsh things and even crazy ones. I’m well aware of my failings. I think that I’ve been a bit too hard on Martin, for instance. I’ve been far too quick to blame him and other guys and punish them because I’m ... angry and upset even now that I fell in love with a homosexual. I should have seen the signs, but I never did. Sorry, I guess that I am drunk, if I’m just chatting freely in front of my date with a babysitter who just had a threesome with my son and daughter,” Mom laughed out loud at herself and the whole situation, while Eddie looked at her with genuine concern.

“Just look at this way, Mom ... you know where my boyfriend lives. Right at home with us. You don’t want this getting out, either. It could hurt you with custody, couldn’t it? I’m young, maybe a little sheltered, certainly blonde, but not stupid. I have google. I know the law. You’d be blamed for not nipping the incest in the bud. Technically, Martin and Lola raped me, but we all know better, don’t we? They seduced me and I seduced them, regardless of my being only fourteen.

“I’m no victim, Mom, but I can promise you that if you press charges against my brother, I will ask the courts to place me with Dad. They’ll do it, too, to keep from having to put me in foster care. Oh, and I’ll refuse to testify against him, too. The evidence is gone, anyway,” Tricia surprised us with the strength of her will right then.

“And if you think that either of us will testify against the other, well, that’s a pipe dream. We’ll get married even faster than we already planned. Yes, that’s right. Lola and I are getting hitched. She’s gonna be my wife! How do you like them apples, Mom? I know her and trust her a lot more than you and Dad knew each other, that’s for sure. You didn’t know that he was gay and he didn’t know that you could go full psycho crazy and try to burn his clothes on the fucking lawn!” I warned Mom, making it clear that I wasn’t going to back down.

“Yep, I’m gonna be part of your family soon. Daughter-in-law. How does that sound, mother-in-law, or should I just call you ‘Mom?’ Also, I’m fertile tonight and you can bet your bottom dollar that I let your son knock me up! You’re gonna be a grandma soon. You don’t want to have to raise the little bambino or have your ex do it because your son and daughter-in-law are in jail, do you? On top of losing custody of Trish?” Lola’s threat really hit home, of course, making Mom’s eyes widen like saucers.

“Pr ... rrr ... egnant? You not only took my son’s cherry, but you let him put a bun in your oven? I’ve heard of anchor babies, but damn! I suppose that I could report you to ICE, but if you are carrying my grandchild, I’d want it born here in this part of Long Island, not Mumbai or Delhi. I’d want him or her to have a chance to even be President, if he or she wanted. So ... you go for that, huh, son? You like Desi tail? Hindi twat. Yoni, is that what it’s called? You care for her and want to marry her ... that’s a long way from resenting her for being a cock-tease. I suppose that the teasing gave way to loving,” Mom slurred her words, but she knew what she meant to say and we could understand her.

“So ... we’re on the same page, then. No prosecutions. No interference in my three-way relationship with Lola and Trish. We’re agreed on that. No one wants to get the law and the courts involved, right? It was a nasty business last time around and I still haven’t quite forgiven you for trying to burn Dad’s clothes, nor have you seemingly forgiven me for stopping you. I don’t think that Dad has forgiven you or vice versa, including for kicking him out of the house. You just both agreed to sweep that under the rug and you can do that with this, too. Are we on the same wavelength, Mom, and will you stick to the deal once you sober up in the morning?” I confronted Mom a bit more assertively, much to everyone’s shock.

“Wow ... you’ve been holding onto that anger for a while now, haven’t you? Damn, kiddo, I had no idea that you felt so strongly about things, just thought that you didn’t want me to do something that I’d regret. I do feel bad about trying to burn your father’s clothes, and I’ve wanted to patch things up a bit since then. I forgave you a while back, because you were right. I mean, thinking about it rationally, there was nothing to forgive. I just didn’t know that you resented how things were at the time.

“I felt that you sympathized with your father more than I would have liked, which hurt, but which also concerned me. I also tended to judge you and other guys by what your father did, but I suppose that the only thing wrong about it was how he handled it. Going behind my back and all that jazz. I suppose that I worried that you would develop a worldview that I thought was sexist, immature, and treated women as disposable. Clearly, I got you wrong, didn’t I?

“I mean, hell, you’re naked, I can see your cock, it’s clearly been recently used, you have every straight man’s wet dream of two women on your arm, and yet ... you seem more of a man, not less. I’m not sounding right there, am I? I mean to many men’s ears. But what I meant was ... You don’t seem like a misogynist, despite what many of my friends would consider to be classic sexist behavior. For one thing, you’re wanting to stick with your ladies, keep them around, not ‘kick them to the curb,’ as you resent me supposedly doing to your father, to use your words.

“I guess that I kinda cock-blocked you on some level to keep you a virgin a little longer, so that when you did get into a relationship, you’d appreciate it more and would maybe not be so cocky. That way, I figured, you’d have a healthier relationship with a woman, admittedly just one woman in my mind. I envisioned it being two virgins in my head, maybe having sex on the third or fourth date like normal people, and hopefully, well, lasting a few months before moving onto a few more relationships until you get it right and marry Ms. Right.

“It was silly of me ... and admittedly, I’m still wrestling with the struggle of finding my own Mr. Right, I guess. What Eddie told me tonight ... it was why I went home early. I wasn’t sure what to tell him and still aren’t. I guess that ... as the saying goes, ‘people in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones.’ Here I was so sure that I had it all together, that I finally succeeded by holding my standards, by sticking to my guns, and what I attracted ... was, well, Eddie. ‘Keen Eddie,’ you call him behind his back, right? He’s still very keen and trying to please me, placate me, whatever. I’m just ... not sure what I make of it all. Is that really what I want in a man ... a servant?” Mom trailed off as she thought aloud.

“Yes!” I declared forcefully, making Mom jump a bit.

“That’s what you wanted from Dad, and when he proved to be something else entirely, you couldn’t take it. I’ve thought this about you for a long time, and you’ve resented mankind, labeled men immature out of your frustration with none of them giving you what you really want. It’s why you felt entitled to do whatever you wanted to Dad, as a punishment like you would give a servant or child. It’s not that you want all men to be like that, but that you want to experience having a man do that for you ... and now that you have it, you don’t know what to do with it. It would mean admitting what you want and that’s a hard pill to swallow. It goes against every false belief you have about yourself, Mom,” I explained at length, still standing naked with my hands still firmly placed on my ladies’ bottoms.

“Yeah, that sounds about right,” Eddie spoke his own mind at last, “it’s what drew me to you in the first place, Jessica. Your dominance, your authority, your power ... feminine power. Pussy power, if you will. Your confident, assertive femininity. Aggressive even, at times. You’re a bossy woman. No need to run or hide from it, just find healthy outlets for it, such as dominating a man like me, who is submissive and wants to be ... you know, bossed around.”

“Ah, the gimp speaks, and articulately at that! Sorry, it’s still an adjustment to think of you as a three-dimensional fucking human being, but it’s clear that you are one, with a brain, feelings, and a will of your own. Mom, I’m afraid that Eddie is right here. You shouldn’t run and hide from what you are. You’re a woman seeking a submissive partner to dominate. Here he is. Just remember that the rest of us don’t go for that. Focus those kinds of energies on Eddie here and let him satisfy those urges, okay? Sorry, aside from the whole gay thing, of course, I have a lot of Dad as well as you in me, as you can see,” I reacted to Eddie’s clear message with my own endorsement of said statement.

“Yeah, Mom ... it’s just not what we like to be. Well, I do like to submit, but to Martin, not to you. Though I’ll obey you in the mother-daughter sense ... up to a point. And you need to accept that change of status for Martin in our household. He’s a grown man and he has a real future. You know it. I know it. We all know it. Lola especially knows it ... and wants it to happen for us, for him especially. Right, Lola?” Tricia turned to Lola, who nodded and winked at both of us.

“Indeed. Face it ... Mom ... this is how things will be from now on. Let Martin deal with Trish and me. He can discipline us if we need it. I will move in and so will Eddie ... but I recommend a single qualifier in his case. He has to incriminate himself, get himself a stake, a vested interest in not betraying us. He has to get his hands dirty ... He has to fuck some jailbait. He has to fuck Tricia, too ... and maybe me, if Martin’s cool with it. We’re still and always Martin’s ladies, but we need Eddie to risk legal exposure, so that we know that he won’t tell a soul. He needs to be invested in keeping the family secrets, right, Martin?” Lola suggested, and I had to admit that she made perfect sense.