Chapter 47: Wedding Tales

After Kwool and I cleaned up in the shower we went to the next room. Kwool was due at the aircraft hanger to look a closer at the two aircraft we got from the Five, but before that she had a little more time to spend with me and the girls. I owed my future wives some time before my grandfathers started filling my day.

Plus, I had some presents, news and pictures that I really wanted to share with all of them.

When Kwool and I came in Mer and Per were in their sleeveless nightgowns, sitting on the bed enjoying more donuts.

“This food is amazing! But we can’t figure out how it is made. It is like the bread you make here, but different,” Mer said.

“And it is so sweet, such a perfect morning food,” Per added.

Tribal bread did not include any yeast and the flour is coarsely ground. In the Colony early on they had a grain mill wheel powered by a water wheel, and the two waves of settlers from Spain brought yeast with them, it was an early priority. Yeast has important uses: bread and liquid bread (A.K.A. beer).

The girls knew yeast existed, but they never had experience with it beyond the baked bread in the Colony.

(The Colony, in general, did not drink strong beverages. When they started there were not enough hours in the day for such things, so drinking never got established as a custom. The original purpose of wine and beer was to preserve the food value of the seasonal crops, but that was never an issue in the tropics.)

The concept of cooking in hot oil was not practical for the Tribe, they never had enough oil from local sources.

I explained how, after rising, the dough was cooked in hot oil, using precision in temperature and time that was practical only on a large scale with electricity. I told of the wonder that was “Krispy Kreme” where customers could actually watch the donuts float past a window in a continuous river of bubbling hot oil. Each customer was given a hot donut free to try. They thought I was teasing them, such a wonder was not possible, but Kwool had seen pictures and heard stories from those who had seen and tasted.

She talked about what she heard from people who spent time in the US. “It seems like every major city has many donut shops that have been around for decades. Traditional shops made the donuts at night because people bought them on the way to work or coming home from church. Krispy Kreme needed to establish themselves in high traffic areas to be profitable. Showing the donuts being freshly made, plus giving one away, quickly got people hooked on their donuts - you had to have more - which led to the habit of visiting at different times, all day every day.”

I said that understanding business and ideas like profit were important. “Drug dealers often use the same marketing concepts as Krispy Kreme, they operate near high traffic areas and give away or discount the product to get new customers hooked.”

Per asked, “does the Patron sell drugs that way?”

“He used to, that was how my father did it. But not today,” I answered. “Well, I should clarify. In LA we sell by going to the customers, wholesale. They place an order, we deliver. It is a business. In other places we have a monopoly, we only work in smaller places where there are no other dealers. Then our local people can deal directly. High-traffic areas are not really an issue.”

Mer asked, “Do you sell drugs yourself?”

“Yes and no. I used to, when Toad ran the area. These days I am the contact for large orders. But once a big customer has struck a deal with me, I pass everything off to others. In LA I do not sell cocaine for the Patron, I mostly sell what are called ‘party drugs’ to big companies that hold parties for rich people. But I really spend very little time at that. Mostly I am a lawyer.”

“Aren’t drugs ... I guess they are called street drugs ... aren’t they bad?” Per asked. She was becoming bolder.

“Many street drugs are. Cocaine is poison if you take too much. But consider, people can and will do what they want, people want freedom. In a city like LA, if people want to feel good and poison themselves, there is somebody who will sell them poison. Probably somebody without my sense of values. I can’t force either the buyer or seller to stop, so I won’t play the violent cocaine market in LA. In other places, where I do sell cocaine, I sell it without the violence of unchecked competition. I do that by checking any competition with the Patron’s soldiers. The party drugs and grass I sell in LA can cause issues for those who abuse them, but that can be said of anything, even water. They want drugs, so I provide a safe supply of party drugs to those who want them and can pay. In fact, I have just finished a brief on the laws for water, because some people use water to hurt other people.”

The girls told me about what they had done since my last visit, mainly studying and reading and household things like mending and cooking. They each made a helicopter trip to a city with Kwool, the Chief granted them some freedoms.

Then they asked about me, what I did since mid-July. I talked briefly about Tony, the former leader of a rival gang who now trained to fight for me and mine. My people in LA would go to war against his old gang, who planned to kill many people. My people would kill our enemy without any risk of injury to themselves, using mortars - military weapons. I also said I had rescued a friend who was being whipped. She was recovering in my house.

“She?” Mer asked. “A female friend? Have you fucked her yet?”

“You know, for anybody else I would say that question was inappropriate. Most guys would get punched for asking. But I am thinking that, for you two, it might not be. So I will give you the short version. The woman is a Hollywood actress, who lived with a guy I work with, sort of a second wife, so he could trade her with other wives, as is the custom at work. Well, she wanted to go to dinner at a place, and her could not take her, so he asked me to take her. We all knew the deal, the place is one where a couple fucks while they are served a wonderful dinner.”

I could see the steam coming out of their ears as the questions mounted. I held up a hand to forestall them. “The couple gets naked and sits in a special chair where they are joined together. The servers see them and serve. The food is excellent and the meal is a pleasure in many ways. Most men do not send their wives to another guy, especially for such an activity, but this is a special case, plus she was a #2 wife for that very purpose, and he had sent her out on dates with other men. Okay?”

That took care of many questions so I continued. “After dinner we wanted a snack so I took the woman home where we shared Cynthia as a sweet treat we both enjoyed. I took her back to her husband and the first wife before dawn as agreed.”

Mer said, “Well, in the tribe, that might fly, but in your culture I don’t see it as typical.”

“It is not. But lawyers are different. We are so used to making the rules that we tend to go outside the normal rules with very little prompting. In LA we assume every lawyer, even married ones, want to do things with other women, including other wives, that is just the way it is. My boss knows that, so he makes it part of the business. Back to the last month, the guy wanted to kick Amy out, and he wanted to make sure she didn’t come back with the upper hand because she was popular and had many friends. So he was going to blackmail her with pictures after she was whipped. I messed that up and he is pissed but he doesn’t know it was me so he is double pissed with nobody to blame. As for me, I have not bedded her since that first night, when she longed for it. It was a bad whipping and she needs to heal, not have sex.”

“Will we...” Mer started to ask.

I cut her off. “This was a #2 wife, but I will not treat any of my love wives that way, giving them to others outside of our family. I will have to trade somebody, so I have made a business arrangement to help a woman free her her father from jail. In exchange she pretends to be married to me.”

“Are you really as nice a guy as you seem?” Per asked. “No offense, but we heard other things ... about taking advantage and overreacting.”

“It is complicated. All true, maybe some dramatic license is taken, but ... well, my people will wipe out over 150 enemy guys while I am at a party, because I can do it in an unfair fight, and they plan to attack me. Still, getting back to the point ... mostly for the last few weeks I have been doing boring lawyer things.” I got out the laptop and brought up the wedding pictures. “Also, since I was near Hollywood, I did a little theater. I played the groom in a marriage play.” The first picture was me and Abril (in a wedding dress) with Cynthia and Li (as Do Wong) together.

They were stunned, they had no idea that outfits could be so beautiful and ... surprising. They also agreed that Abril was beautiful, but maybe in the pictures she was not as attractive as Gracie had been in person. I agreed.

“Are you sure you didn’t get married? It looks real to me,” Mer said. It looked very real to her.

“Yes, I am sure. I had a fake wedding two days ago.”

There were pictures of various law partners. (“They are so OLD” Mer said after seeing Barnes with his wife and daughter. Older men are not common in the Tribe, the Chief was the only current male resident over 50.) They saw some people they knew, like Nia. Then I showed them Chin and Amy, the woman I rescued from the whip. Both were disguised as men.

Of course this got their attention. I had to explain about law firms, partners and associates, and how employees had to attend a social meeting every month. “The partners must exchange wives for the night.” That was not unusual to them, except the part about how the men and women were matched up with no choice. That did not sound good to them. I explained about the substitutes - like daughters - that could be used for the wife exchange, which was more confused. That was abhorrent in the tribe. So I started at the beginning. “In LA the unwritten rule is that all married lawyers try to sleep with other women, including their partner’s wives. It just is. This firm just organizes the sex business, which otherwise wastes a lot of time.”

I stressed that because I wanted to be a partner, the lawyers had to think I was married. “So Abril pretended to marry me. But it was all fake, I just needed somebody who would sleep with the partners once a month. In return, she is a con-woman who will take her share of the loot to try to get her father out of jail. In the US the marriage ceremony has no importance, their is paperwork which must be filed or it never happened. We skipped that.”

“Share of the loot? What loot?” Mer asked.

“I am going to steal millions from the other lawyers, they are greedy bastards and I can do it. Recall that I talked about a new home in LA for people last time? Well, the stolen money will go into that building, to aid MY PEOPLE.”

At this point Kwool’s ride to the hanger was ready so she left. We all had to hug and kiss goodbye, then get back to the conversation.

When Kwool had left Mer drew herself up to ask a critical question. “It is typical for a man to sleep with his wife on the wedding night, isn’t it?”

“Yes, that is correct - for a real wedding. It will be true for us. However, on my fake wedding night, I was with a bunch of people flying here to capture the Five.”

“So, you didn’t sleep with her?”

“Not after the wedding, no. Our original deal was that she didn’t have to do sex with me, and for almost two years, she didn’t. She teased me a great deal, that is part of what makes her charming. We even took showers and slept in a bed together naked, but no sex. Then, a few weeks before I met you, she thought I was almost killed, twice. I wasn’t, but ... well that is a complex issue and LA can be dangerous, other people were killed. I didn’t do it but really, it was my bad. She got scared enough so she finally decided to have sex with me because she was emotional. The first time was a surprise to me. She did it on a pad next to my indoor pool, first I had Resha, than Abril, then Cynthia and Li. They all watched me with the others.”

They took a moment to digest that. Obviously I spent nights in bed with other women, including Kwool last night. They accepted that I had sex with others, like any man of the Tribe. But sex with a “wife” took some time to digest, even if that marriage was fake.

Finally Per asked, “Last time you came here you slept with somebody every night. When you came you did not know about us. These days, in LA, now that you know about us, how often do you sleep with somebody?”

“Just about every night, usually. You must know it is my nature. In the Tribe, the women can have sex with every man, picking another every night. That is kind of unique. Here in the Colony, and just about everywhere else in the world, convention allows men more latitude than women, because women have children and most of the world wants to be sure who the father is for every child. Speaking of which, I should mention that even if Abril acted like she married me, the one she loves and the one who loves her, is Cynthia.”

They had met Cynthia and knew that she tricked me to get pregnant. They both shook their heads, it was complicated.

They got to their real question. “How often will you sleep with us?” I could see the concern they both had about that question.

“The Tribe requires that a man and wife be together three nights a month, to make a baby. I want to make babies with each of you. I don’t know how you will want to handle that with my other wives ... including between yourselves ... you know I will have some other real wives...” they nodded at that. “But I would think it will be more than that. When the time comes, after you have both been with me as a wife, we will talk about a routine. Have you thought how you will handle it if you both are fertile on the same days? You know that is likely, right?”

“We know,” Per said. She made a face. “We are close friends, but I don’t know if we will go farther, doing kissy-sex-stuff. In the cave, a woman may see her husband with other women, her cousins, even her sisters. We can accept that, to us it seems normal. We also know that for us, being with other men outside the family is not an option unless you order it, the Chief explained that. We are not sure if we will be with each other like Resha and Kwool were.”

Mer went a bit further on the other tack. “We know the Tribal rule applies to an ordinary marriage. But for a Chief like you that does not apply.”