Chapter 1

I knew she was a golddigger; she wasn’t fooling anyone but my Dad. Porsche (yes, apparently that was her real name) had met my Dad about three months prior to their getting married. He had gone to Las Vegas on a business trip – a sales convention for his company. One day after the endless meetings, he had stopped off at a local titty bar called Candi’s for a little something to relax. There he met Porsche and they hit it off. The next thing they knew, Dad was bringing her home to meet me.

At least that’s the story they told me. My name is Alex Anderson and I am a twenty-one-year-old college student in my third year of a four-year Business Management Degree at a college out of state. I was headed home for summer break that year and was excited to see Dad and my hometown again. Dad picked me up at the airport alone the day I arrived because he wanted to “break the news to me gently” he said.

The conversation started out innocently enough. “Hi Son, How was your flight?” he said.

“It was fine, Dad. A little long, but that’s what happens when you fly economy, I guess. It’s really good to be home,” I said.

“It’s good to have you home. And I have a surprise waiting at home for you,” he said. That was the first indication that this wasn’t going to be a regular summer for me. He didn’t say anything more about “the surprise” until we got home, despite my bugging him and trying to pry it out of him.

We drove the hour back home talking about general things; my school, how life at college was, the latest gossip and goings on at home, and so forth. I also asked him about work and the convention and he gave me a cursory explanation of what went on – the endless speeches and the nice hotel and such. No mention of meeting anyone, much less getting married!

We pulled into the driveway and put the car in the garage. Then, before we went on into the house he turned to me. “Son, before we go inside, I want to tell you something,” he said.

“What is it?” I asked. Conversations that start with “Son, I want to tell you something,” are rarely good news, so I was already bracing myself.

“Well, at the convention I met someone. And we got along really great. So great, in fact, that I brought her home with me. Son, your mother has been gone for several years and while I miss her every day, I also miss having someone. With you away at college now, this house gets terribly lonely and when I met Porsche, she just filled the hole in my life,” he explained.

Mom had been gone for almost six years I guess at the time. She had gotten really sick with a rare form of cancer and passed away when I was a sophomore in high school. She never got to see me graduate or even knew I had been accepted into college.

It had always been her dream for me to be the first to graduate and the first in our family to go to college. And going to see her was one of the first things I wanted to do once I got home and got settled in.

“I see. Porsche huh? What’s her last name?” I asked.

“Well actually son, Porsche and I got married so it’s Anderson now,” he said, kind of soft and low.

“Married? You married someone named Porsche?” I said incredulously. “When did this happen? Where did you find this Porsche? That sounds like a stripper name. Oh please, Dad, tell me you didn’t marry a Vegas stripper!”

“Calm down son. Yes, we got married in Vegas, and yes, she used to be a stripper. But she isn’t doing that anymore. We met at the conference and after it was over, she agreed to come home and live here with me.

“We just went back to Vegas to get married because it was where we met and she wanted it like that. We’ve been married about a month now and she is amazing. She makes your old Dad very happy son,” he said.

I couldn’t believe it! My Dad had married a Vegas stripper! Well, what’s done is done, I guess – at least he says she makes him happy! I thought to myself. I thought about how devastated Dad was when Mom got sick and how he cared for her and was there for her every day. Losing Mom really took the wind out of him and seeing him smiling and alive again was a good thing.

“Well, let’s go in and let me meet Porsche,” I said. I wanted to see who was going to try to take Mom’s place, as if anyone could!

The garage is attached to the house and the side door leads into the kitchen. We went on inside and stood there in the kitchen waiting for her. “Porsche, honey! We’re home!” Dad called out. About a minute later, my Dad’s new wife came around the corner!

“Hi, baby! So this is Alex! Hi Alex, I’m Porsche ... I guess I’m your new Mom! It’s nice to finally meet you. Tom has told me so much about you!” Porsche said. I looked at the woman speaking – Porsche was only a year or two older than me if that!

Porsche was an attractive woman, I will give her that. She was of mixed-race descent, her father was black and her mother white, so she had that coffee and cream skin color. She had several tattoos; a design on her forearm, some writing on her left collarbone, and the Catholic Hail Mary prayer written on her left side, amongst others.

She also had a nose ring through her right nostril. At five foot seven inches tall, she had blonde hair and soft brown eyes. She had a good figure – I could see how Dad would be attracted to this woman. However, she was much too young for him to think of in terms of marriage!

I just stood there in the kitchen dumbfounded as Porsche threw her arms around me and hugged me tightly. I was too shocked at this turn of events to even hug her back!

“Why don’t you go put your bags in your old room, son, and I’ll take us all out to dinner,” Dad said. I moved mechanically, still too dazed to really understand what I was doing. I put my suitcases in my bedroom and then we all went out for pizza at our favorite pizza place.

At dinner I watched the two of them talking and laughing and playing around. The sexual innuendos and paraphrases were flying back and forth and I just watched the volley between them. They did seem happy. Maybe this wouldn’t be so bad. However, the idea that my new mother was my age would be a little tough to wrap my head around.

When Dad excused himself to go to the bathroom, it gave me a chance to speak to her alone. “Porsche, would you be terribly hurt if I called you by name instead of Mom? I’d feel a little silly since you and I are very nearly the same age and besides...” I said. I couldn’t finish the sentence but it turned out I didn’t have to.

“Oh, Alex, I understand completely. When your Dad told about what happened to your mother and about you, we already thought that this might come up. Yes, honey, it’s perfectly fine to call me Porsche if it makes you feel more comfortable,” she said.

We finished our dinner and then went back home. It had been a long (and very strange) day and I was tired, so I went straight to my room to get ready for an early bedtime. I lay in bed a short time later staring at the ceiling and trying to put the day’s events in order.

I got up to go to the bathroom and I suddenly heard noises coming from the master bedroom. I wasn’t sure what was going on in there exactly, so I stepped closer and listened for a moment.

Once I realized what was going on inside, I beat a hasty retreat back to my room and went to bed!

The next few days were a little strange, getting used to this new family dynamic. Seeing a woman my own age talking to my father as his wife was more than a little disconcerting – after all, Dad was forty-eight years old! But I was busy going around town re-establishing old friendships and seeing the old familiar sights.

Of course, my first stop was to see Mom’s grave and I spent some time sitting there talking with her. Which made me feel better. I brought her a bouquet of pink roses, her favorite flowers, and put them in the vase in her headstone.

After seeing Mom, I went and looked up some of my old friends and we had a great time talking and hanging out like the old days. They got me back up to speed about what has been going on. I was sad to hear that Mr. Wilkinson, the principal at my high school had gotten in a terrible car accident and was killed. I really liked him a lot. And I heard that a couple friends had gotten married while I was away at school.

After a day of catching up, I thought I should be getting back home. Dad would be home in a couple hours and I didn’t want to hold up dinner. I helped Porsche fix dinner, I still couldn’t bring myself to call her Mom.

After dinner, I went into the den to do some things on the computer. I wanted to update my Facebook page and send out a couple emails. Once I was done with that, I decided to find out a little more about this woman who has married my father. Not being suspicious, mind you, just curious. Come to find out I had every reason to be curious!

Dad had some pictures of Porsche on the computer that he had seemingly taken not too long ago and so I took one that showed her face good and I did a Google reverse image search. What came up was astonishing!