Chapter 19

On the way back to their house, Robby told Sgt Green that their parents didn’t actually know where they were.

“We left this morning and met Ronnie down the street.”

When he escorted them up to Julie and Bob’s front door, he had to introduce himself. Julie, who had answered the door with Richard on her hip, was instantly concerned.

“They’re not in any trouble,” he said. “I’d like to talk to you, though, if I may.”

Bob joined them to find out who was at the door on Christmas Eve. When he saw the boys, who had mirror chagrined looks on their faces, and found out a policeman had brought them home, he perked up.

“It seems your sons are dating my daughter, Veronica,” Terry said.

“Both of them?” asked Bob, his eyebrows rising. He figured playing dumb was the right choice.

“It seems so,” said Terry. “One of my patrolmen found them parked in the parking lot of a closed business and called me.”

“I see,” said Julie.

“My question is, would it be all right for Veronica to visit them here, instead of sitting in a car with them?”

Bob knew what kind of relationship the twins had with this girl. He had a pretty good idea what they were doing in that car when the cops found them. Her father’s reaction to that was quite restrained, in Bob’s opinion.

“Of course she can visit here,” said Julie. “She’s welcome any time. She’s like family.”

Terry wondered if this woman knew how prescient her words were. He decided not to talk about that. They either knew the boys had both proposed to the same girl, or they didn’t. He didn’t really care, as long as his wife didn’t find out about it. Not yet. Not for another year or two. If she could meet with them here, then maybe things wouldn’t blow up.

“Thank you,” said Terry. “I’ll be blunt. Her mother thinks she’s dated one of them a few times. She wouldn’t be that happy with how far along the ... um ... relationship seems to have progressed. It will save a lot of fireworks if she could visit them here.”

“Both of them?” Julie was finally coming to an understanding of what this all looked like.

“She says she’s trying to figure out which one she likes better,” said Terry, dryly.

“I see,” said Julie.

“Thank you.”

“No problem,” said Bob. “Please, feel free to stay in contact with us. If there’s anything we can do to help things go smoothly we’re eager to do that. We like Veronica very much, too.”

“That’s heartening,” said Terry. “Merry Christmas.”

As they watched the man walk through six inches of snow to his car, Bob quipped, “You got some ‘splaining to do, boys!” in his attempt to sound like Ricky Ricardo.

It fell flat. Julie turned on her twin boys. She wasn’t the only mother to keep treating children like children after they were in college.

“What the hell is going on with you two?!” she yelled.

Nobody mentioned the swear jar.

Erica had ignored the doorbell when it rang in the distance. She was in her room and was taking full advantage of the fact that she had no homework to do, no reading assignments to finish, and no papers to write. All that would return soon enough. For now she was just lying on her bed, trying to decide whether to go pester Uncle Bob, or not. The twins were out somewhere. Uncle Bob had slept with her mother the night before. It could be her turn to lie under him, or maybe sit on top of him, and achieve sweet release. Or she could take a nap.

She was thinking about that when she heard a strange, deep voice coming from down the hall. She also heard Robby’s voice. She got up to tiptoe down the hallway and eavesdrop on the conversation. When she figured out who the strange voice belonged to, she felt panic for Veronica. Quickly she ran back to her room and called her friend.

“Are you okay?” she gasped when Ronnie picked up.

“I think so,” said Veronica. “The cops busted us while we were parking. My dad showed up and things kind of came out while he talked to us.”

“Things came out? You mean he knows you’ve been fucking them both?!”

“Shhhh!” whispered Veronica. “It wasn’t quite that open. But he knows. I told him they both proposed to me.”

“What?! You didn’t tell me that!” squealed Erica.

“They didn’t propose, propose,” whispered Ronnie. “We’ve just talked about it a little bit. I told him that to try to appease things.”

“You told your father that two white boys proposed to you, which is why you were parking with them, and you thought that would appease him?”

“I was able to get dressed before he got there,” said Ronnie. “I had to tell him something that would get his attention.”

“I bet that did get his attention. He’s here, at our house, right this instant!”

“He wanted to take the boys home, to see if I could come see them at your house until I go back to the academy and they go back to college.”

“He’s going to let you keep seeing them?”

“I told him he couldn’t stop me.”

“Wow, girl,” sighed Erica. “You rock.”

“We’ll see. I have a feeling this might be the last time I come home for a holiday.”

“Don’t be that way. They’re your family. They have to love you.”

“I actually think my dad’s doing okay with it. But my mother will never understand.”

“We’ll see. You never know.”

“So he’s still there? What do the twins look like?”

“I didn’t go down there. I just listened until I figured out who he was and why he was here. I knew I had to make sure you were okay.”

“I’m fine, for now. He already told me I’m grounded to the house tomorrow.”

“He can’t ground you!”

“Bad choice of word,” said Ronnie. “He asked me to spend Christmas day at home.”

“Oh. Sure. I get that.”

“I may see you on the 26th,” said Ronnie. “I don’t know, yet.”

“I’ll tell the twins they’re grounded until you can come see them.”

“Okay. Thanks for calling.”

“No problem. Now I’m going to go see what my mom does to the twins.”

“They didn’t do anything wrong,” objected Veronica.

“A cop brought them home,” said Erica, not trying to hide the delight in her voice. “They’re guilty until proven innocent.”

Erica arrived in the living room in time to hear Robby say, “Mom, I don’t know why you’re so upset. This isn’t any different than what you and Erica do with Uncle Bob.”

“What?!” gasped Julie. To this point in time she was unaware that the twins knew about their sister and Bob.

“Come on,” groaned Robby. “We live here. We know you, and Erica, and Uncle Bob. Did you really think you could hide it?”

“You ... know?” she said, her voice weak.

“For a couple of years, now,” said Randy. “So you can see why we didn’t think this would be a big deal.”

Julie looked at Bob. He shrugged, but she saw what might have been guilt on his face.

“Did you know that they knew?” she asked.

“I did,” said Erica. Four faces turned to look at her.

“I told them it was none of their business,” she said.

“And did you know they were dating Veronica?”

“Of course,” said Erica. “She’s my best friend.”

“And you never thought to mention this to me?”

“What would you have done? They didn’t start dating her until they were in college.”

“Well, gee,” said Julie, who didn’t feel so weak anymore. The shock was leaving her system. “Maybe I would have suggested she visit them here, instead of parking on Christmas Eve like they were still in high school!”

“So it’s okay if she comes here to see us after Christmas?” said Randy. He sounded very hopeful.

“I am so embarrassed!” yipped their mother. “The police brought you home! And not just any police. Her father brought you home!”

“That was to ask you to let her come here instead of taking us out in her car,” said Robby.

“And why does he want you to see her here, instead of at his home?” asked Julie.

“Her mother ... um ... doesn’t like white people very much,” said Randy.

“Wait!” said Julie. “I remember now. You did take her out one time,” said Julie, looking at Robby.

“Yeah. That’s when I realized I liked her a lot,” he said.

“But that was years ago!” She frowned. “Have you been seeing her all this time?”

“Just during the summers, and holidays,” said Robby. “We were at school and she was in the academy. But soon she’ll have her own place and we can visit her there.”

“Both of you will visit her,” said Julie, her voice flat.

“Like I said, it’s no different than what you guys do,” said Robby.

“Well it sure as hell feels different!” snapped Julie.

“Okay, but it really isn’t different,” argued Randy.

“Yeah,” Robby agreed. “And at least we didn’t get her pregnant, like Uncle Bob did you.”