Chapter 34

SUNDAY MORNING, Dennis agreed to go to church with his mom and Peg. He wasn’t expecting company and had slept late, so when his mother asked him, he thought it would be a nice thing to do for her and his sister. They sat in a row about halfway up the aisle. He saw a couple of others who he knew. Lana and her family filed in and apparently, they had a particular row they always sat in because they just smiled in greeting and then went on forward to the third row. He was surprised to see the new volleyball coach. She sat with a man and two kids that appeared to be around eight or ten years old. He guessed he never considered that any of the coaches were married and had families. The organist played a contemporary piece as a prelude that sounded like it was right off the pop charts. Or maybe pop charts from the 1970s. Then Peg nudged him and whispered.

“Shh. Jesus is coming.” Dennis didn’t have time to question that because the preacher came in from a side door to the chancel, strode to the middle, and raised his hands. Everybody stood up and Dennis had to admit to himself that the preacher standing with his arms outstretched might have looked like Jesus. He wore a black robe and a green stole and had a tightly cropped black beard. After a short prayer, the organ started again and everyone grabbed hymnbooks and found the first song. It was also projected on a screen behind the preacher.

Dennis sort of recognized the music, but didn’t know it well. Peg sang out in her crystal clear voice, never bothering to look at the hymnal, but never missing a word or note. His own voice sounded cracked and he didn’t seem to be able to find a note no matter where he looked. But to listen to Peg singing her heart out made the whole trip to church worthwhile.

There was a whole lot of standing and sitting and reading and singing. The preacher told some funny stories about the significance of wearing a stole and how it related to Jeremiah wearing an ox’s yoke in the Bible. Then he suggested they were all yoked together in serving God.

Peg was fidgety during the sermon. Even though she thought the preacher was Jesus, what she really wanted was to sing. They finally got around to it and she was happy again. Then the service was over and they all left the church shaking hands with the preacher on the way.

“God’s blessing on you, Dennis. You have shown us how to be followers of Jesus, even if you do not profess that. Thank you,” the preacher said. “Dot, it’s always wonderful to have you join us and we are so blessed to have Peg singing during our hymns. This fall, perhaps she would be interested in joining the choir.”

“We’ll see,” Dot said. “She does love to sing.” They continued down the steps and Dennis spotted the new coach. He pulled his mother toward her.

“Excuse me, ma’am,” Dennis said. “Welcome to Bartley. Mom, this is our new volleyball coach, Ms. Fisher. My mother, Mrs. Enders.”

“Oh. Thank you for the kind greeting. I’m afraid we don’t know anyone here yet and came to the church to kind of get an idea of what the town was like,” Coach Fisher said. “It’s nice to meet you, Mrs. Enders. My husband Daniel and children Grace and Zeke.”

“It’s wonderful to have you in our community,” Dot said. “We’ve had some ups and downs with athletics here, but this is the first time the community has really made a dedicated effort to revive the program. What do you teach?”

“History. We’re still working on the schedule and specific courses,” Fisher said. Lana skipped up and slid her hand into Dennis’s.

“Oh, Coach Fisher, this is Lana Brown. Her dad—over there—is the one offering his tractor and my services to mow the cross country track.”

“Your girlfriend?” Fisher asked.

“I’m Number Ten,” Lana said. “We’re going on a picnic this afternoon.”

“We are?” Dennis asked. Lana pointed to where the rest of the girlfriends were approaching.

“Here come the rest,” Lana said happily.

“Number Ten?” Fisher asked, feeling a bit confused.

“I had to give them numbers in order to keep track of them. There are twelve total—at the moment,” Dot said. John and Lily Armor broke away from a gathering near the church steps and came over to join them.

“Ah, Pat, I see you’ve met the Enders family. Welcome to our community,” Lily said.

“Ms. Armor. I’m just trying to put some names and faces together. I think Dennis was about to introduce me to his girlfriends.” She raised an eyebrow at Dennis and he realized he was on the spot.

“Well, the three in the lead are my three, Natalie, Daniella, and Roberta,” Lily said.

“Natalie is Number One,” Lana joined in. The three girls approached and there was a little scramble as they all shuffled around, Dennis and Lana each getting kisses from the other eleven girls as Dennis tried unsuccessfully to introduce them all.

“Are you all athletes?” Fisher asked. Dot stepped away to talk to the Browns as John and Lily shook hands with Daniel Fisher.

“We all play basketball,” Natalie said. “Well, we hope we do. Debbie and Tori didn’t play this year, but we ran track together. Lana’s our assistant team manager. And I guess you know who Dennis is. The twins and I definitely want to play volleyball.”

“Me, too,” Rosie said.

“Maybe me,” Judith said. “I know Diane wants to run cross country.” The rest of the girls chimed in with whether they were interested in running or playing volleyball. Brenda squeezed in between Dennis and Lana and took Lana’s hand.

“Hello, Coach Fisher,” she said. “It’s nice to meet you again.”

“You’re also a girlfriend? I thought you graduated,” Pat said.

“Graduating doesn’t mean we have to break up. I mean, look at us. Would you break up with these girls?” Brenda asked. She gave Lana another peck on the cheek.

“Well, this should make for an interesting fall,” Pat said. “I’ll be looking forward to seeing you all.” She turned to look at her husband and the girls crowded around and ushered Dennis away to go for their picnic lunch.

The kids got the last sunshine of the day as they finished their lunch in the park. Then the rain started. They gathered up their things and ran like mad to Dennis’s house. By the time they got there, they were all soaked to the skin.

“Ick! I need to get this wet stuff off,” Leanne said, starting to strip off her T-shirt. “Do you have anything we can wear, Dennis?”

“Oh. The T-shirts you sleep in are all clean. I’ll get towels and get the shirts out. Just go to my room to change. Rule three.” The girls stopped stripping and quickly all crowded into Dennis’s room. He brought towels for them and found them mostly down to their underwear with a couple of bras missing. Amy and Rosie hadn’t been wearing bras to start with. Dennis started to strip, too, and then caught sight of Lana, standing in her bra and panties. He quickly tried to look away, but she caught his eye just as he started to turn. She quickly grabbed a T-shirt and pulled it over her head and Dennis tore his eyes away from the vision of her panties disappearing beneath the shirt.

Just in time to catch Debbie as she released the fastener on her bra and let it fall to the floor. She didn’t notice him watching as she grabbed a T-shirt and pulled it over her head. At least he didn’t think she noticed. He grabbed his own T-shirt and sweatpants. Natalie stepped up in front of him, blocking his view of anything but her. And that was a good view. She’d taken off her bra and was still holding the T-shirt.

“Little overwhelming?” she giggled.

“You think you aren’t?” he asked. “God, you’re beautiful, Nat.”

“Glad you think so. Now kiss the girls goodbye and I’ll put on my shirt.” At first, he thought she meant the girlfriends, then realized she was talking about her breasts. He kissed each of them and she pulled on her T-shirt.

“Bring anything that can go in the dryer to the laundry room. We’ll get things dry soon,” he announced.

Ten minutes later, they were all in the kitchen baking some of the pizzas they kept in the Enders’ freezer. Once they had food, they moved to the living room and all found a place to sit or stretch out.

“Hmm. Maybe we should all bring something over to leave in Dennis’s room for emergencies like this,” Natalie said. “I see an awful lot of underpants. And if I can see them, Dennis isn’t the only Enders person who could also see them.” As it happened, Peg was engaged in her favorite Sunday activity, sitting in her room with her radio, turning from station to station to find hymns she could sing along with.

“Ooh. Dennis, would you prefer if we took them off?” Tori said, spreading her legs wide. The thin fabric of her panties didn’t do much to hide anything as they seemed molded to every bump and contour.

“Tori, we’re talking about something serious,” Leanne said. “If Dennis was the only one in the house, we’d all take our panties off. It’s other people we maintain modesty for.”

“I’m sorry. I was being a smartass,” Tori said.

“Yeah. I could see that, too,” Dennis laughed. “Um ... About Natalie’s suggestion. I could clear out a girlfriend drawer in my dresser. In fact, since we took a bunch of stuff to Goodwill, I’ve got a drawer that’s about empty.”

“I like that idea,” Diane said. “Then anytime Dennis is lonely, he could open the drawer and see a little of all his girlfriends.”

Lana’s phone rang and she shifted away to talk. She stood and went into the kitchen and Dennis noticed her panties showed beneath the hem of the T-shirt as well. He jerked his eyes back into the room and the girls quickly agreed to the scheme of leaving emergency clothes in Dennis’s room.

“Um ... Dennis? And I guess everybody. That was my mom calling. Dad said the rain isn’t going to let up enough for you to do any work on the farm. He suggested you just use the time to study tomorrow since he knows how much you have to do,” Lana said.

“Oh, that’s cool. An extra day off,” Dennis said.

“It’s not really extra since you worked like fourteen hours on Saturday,” Lana laughed. “But I uh ... Well, if everyone happened to be staying the night tonight, I have permission to, too.”

“What a great idea!” Brenda said. “Some of us will have to run out when our clothes are dry and get the week’s groceries and extra food for all of us. Then we could have an overnight just like it was a Saturday.”