Chapter 73

“We are not even a speck of dust in the cells of the Cosmos.”
—H. Gibson, Taming Encha

THURSDAY MORNING, Nanette was surprised to have Em jump in the front seat of her car as I crawled into the tiny back seat. They’d met at the Labor Day run so getting to know each other wasn’t a problem. We all three set an easy pace and ran together at the golf course while we talked. Mostly, Em and Nanette talked. There was an exchange about what Em would be doing and how she felt about National Service. To say she was ambivalent would be kind.

“So how are you going to handle running when it starts getting really cold and dark out?” Em asked when we got back to the car. “It’s Halloween and we could see our breath the whole distance this morning. I’m worried about you out here running if there’s ice.”

“I think we’ll be okay until Thanksgiving, at least,” Nanette said. “We’ve got the option of running at The Plex but face it, doing five miles on a quarter mile track is nowhere near as interesting as five miles outside. I don’t want either Jacob or me to come into next season and not be fit, so somehow, we’ll move inside during the bad weather times. I’m going to make sure he gets a good workout every day if he’ll let me.”

They talked about the benefits of indoor versus outdoor running and other workouts. The least favorite for a long-distance runner was the treadmill, but we admitted it was better than nothing if push came to shove. We pulled up in front of our house and Em reached across the seat to touch Nanette’s face.

“We all respect your caution over the past six months and all you’ve given to help J fully recover. By ‘all,’ I mean the seven girls who have attached themselves to my brother, including me. We’ll continue to be cautious and keep anyone under sixteen chaperoned when you are around. But we want you to know that if you are interested ... or willing ... or whatever develops ... It’s okay with us. Very okay.” Em leaned forward and put a kiss on Nanette’s lips. There was only a moment’s hesitancy before Nanette met the kiss with her own enthusiasm.

“We’ll see,” she said. “There’s just something. You know?”

“Yeah. Don’t I know, though.”

School rules get bent a little on Halloween. I missed it last year, but it seemed like half the students wore some kind of costume. The only thing we couldn’t do was wear a mask. Makeup, however, was taken to extremes. Desi and her mom had measured everyone in our pod and since she and I were preparing cosplay for Fort Wayne PopCon, all the other girls got custom High School DxD school uniforms. Beca made the cutest Koneko ever. My prosthetic arm for Issei was painted and looked good, but none of the special effects worked yet. Riley wanted to save those for the show.

Even Em had a costume and was beautiful as Rossweisse. She slipped in to school to have lunch with us and for the first time I realized we made a statement. I was at a table with my seven women. And we were dressed in a manner that left no doubt we were part of a single unit.

Thursday night, all eight of us accompanied Pey, Richard, Donnie, Barb, Lisa, and Joyce—the younger siblings of those of us who had them—as we walked through neighborhood after neighborhood so the kids could trick or treat. We didn’t go up to the doors to collect candy but every once in a while, a nice person would invite us up to the door and compliment us on our costumes, thanking us for escorting the younger kids and giving us a treat. The kids made an incredible haul. We didn’t do too badly, either.

I was looking forward to Friday night and kind of dreading it, too. The week with Em home had flown by. Every night she was in my bed and we made love. There was no way to slake my thirst for her. I wanted to be with her, be in her, as much as possible. When she left for San Diego, we knew it would be at least six months before she got another week off. Holidays like Christmas and Thanksgiving were time off for Service people just like everyone else. But the distance would prevent us from getting together. Mom and Dad were talking about possibly going out to San Diego during part of our holiday but we’d have to wait and see what Em’s job and free time were like.

And we’d spent quality time with each of our girlfriends. Intimate time, no matter how advanced our relationship was. We shared each at the level of love and intimacy that was appropriate for us.

Except Rachel.

Friday night was date night with Rachel and we’d go pick her up for a change instead of her coming to get me. And as we were getting into Em’s Prius, Rachel’s parents and brother were stopping at our house for game night. That meant...

“We have the house to ourselves,” Rachel said as she kissed each of us when we came to the door. “Do you really want to go out somewhere?”

“We came here for you, Rachel,” Em said. “Lead us to where you want us.”

That took only a few moments to get to Rachel’s lower level bedroom. I noted that it was a little less ... cluttered than when I had visited in times past and I wondered if Rachel was trying to impress my sister.

We didn’t just strip and start balling. Knowing that we had the house to ourselves for at least the next four hours, we just relaxed. Rachel had added some fluffy pillows to her bed and we just cuddled up against the wall to hold each other and talk. And kiss, a lot.

“I’ve encountered a couple of people who have formed pods,” Em said. “From what I’ve been able to gather, they are still a little way from official recognition. You know, it’s one of those unintended consequences. Instead of preventing unions from occurring by moving us around and shifting groups, the domestic unions comprise more members. However, everything I’ve heard so far is that they are much easier to form before Service than during. It’s way too early to have significant data.”

“I just want us to weather the separations and reunions,” Rachel said. “I’m in the Constitutional Government class with Joan and Livy this year. There seems to be a real movement starting to Repeal 28. The honchos are going to discover that either they need to modify the regulations and procedures or they’ll lose their little brainchild completely.”

“Has there ever been an amendment repealed other than prohibition?” I asked. I’d wracked my brain to remember if this reality had prohibition and it did.

“No. For the most part a new amendment or a repeal depends on a critical event to motivate it,” Em said. “Congress proposes around 200 amendments per legislative class. Somewhere around thirty-five have gone to the states for ratification, of which twenty-eight have made it. The National Service amendment wouldn’t have passed if it weren’t for the terrorist attack on 9/11. Abolition of slavery was spurred by the Civil War. Presidential term limit was spurred by Roosevelt’s election to a fourth term. There has to be a catalyst. I’d guess there won’t be a repeal of 28 unless there is an out-and-out slave revolt.”

“What does it mean for us?” I asked. “Do we need to formalize our pod? What about adding or subtracting members? You as much as invited Nanette to join us yesterday.”

“I wouldn’t count Donna Levy out, either,” Rachel said. “Think of how she is supporting you. Jacob, teachers don’t reach out and touch their student’s cheek like she did yours on Wednesday. And don’t forget others of us have been working on her, too. Joan was one of her students sophomore year and has remained close to her. She suggested that we’d started a pod and Donna seemed interested.”

“That crosses so many lines,” I said. “She’s a teacher and any involvement with us risks both professional repercussions and criminal in some cases. Besides, she’s getting married.”

“Wrong,” Rachel said. “She was engaged but broke it off two weeks ago. I think she’s subconsciously making preparations.”

That boggled my mind. Donna Levy as part of our pod? A lover? I’d been infatuated with her since my first time through high school in the fifties. It was no less now. I felt Em’s hand on my hard-on.

“Someone likes the idea of having her in our pod,” she giggled. Rachel reached out and joined her hand. Both girls leaned in for a kiss and I filled my hands with their soft flesh.

That was the end of our discussion of constitutional government.

Joan had SATs on Saturday morning. Em was committed to doing a shopping trip with Mom and Pey. It was supposed to be to get a few special things for Pey but I knew Mom planned to get Em some new clothes and shoes to start her new job with. I was glad my parents were investing in her since the amount she earned wouldn’t cover any significant expenditure for clothing.

Nanette picked me up for our Saturday run and we drove to Matea Park north of Fort Wayne. It’s a county park and has a ton of trails. The big slowdown is a rather precarious crossing of Willow Creek, a tributary of the St. Joseph River just below Cedarville Reservoir.

“We can run the first three miles together,” Nanette said. “We’ll do it as a hard run—race pace. Then you should walk it off for a mile or so and pick up a gentler run for at least five miles. I’d like to know how far you feel comfortable running and what pace you set, so set your watch to record your route, distance, and time. Don’t feel like you need to knock yourself out. Even walk a while if you want to. You’ll have plenty of time. This is my twenty-two-mile training run. If I feel strong, I’ll tack four more miles onto it. We’re four weeks from the Bloomington Marathon. It’s the last long run I’ll do before then. I’ll be back in about three hours. Let’s go.”

She was off and I was trying to keep up. It surprised me that my race pace was now almost the same as Nanette’s in the 5k. I really wanted to train hard enough to make the varsity cross country squad next year. There was no trouble running all our team in the first few races but when it gets down to the county and sectional races, we can only field seven runners. The State Championships had been twenty-four teams and about sixty independent runners. Teams were limited to seven runners each so there were just 200 runners total. Can you imagine what it would have been if each team ran a dozen? Or more? I wanted to be in that top seven next year and I’d have to be below a six-minute mile in order to do it.