Chapter 50

I awoke to the sound of a toilet flushing and didn’t feel Sue on her side. Di was in place along with Ann and Mary. I lay in place wondering why Consuelo and Hoberto were in my dreams. Sex was sex with my slaves and property. I had a very active time when I was here previously, but that was kindled by the reality of now. Add in that I had come back to the city that held my past and that most of it was still here. My bladder let me know that if I was awake, it needed attention. I worked myself free and then took care of that and brushed. It was still early, meaning dark, so I headed out as I no longer felt tired. I walked into the kitchen and found coffee going. Looked around to find Sue in the big chair holding a cup in her hands.

“Couldn’t sleep?” I asked.

“Something like that.” She replied.

“Mind if I join you?”

She got up and I sat, and she was in my lap. She put her head on my shoulder then. I took another drink of my coffee and waited. I learned that waiting was a wonderful thing when you were going to talk. It’s obvious she needed that and the old rule of two ears and one mouth use them in that ratio applied.

“I told you my mom died when I was fifteen.”

“Yes, I remember.”

“My dad remarried when I was seventeen. He knew I was going to college and that he needed someone. What I didn’t think is she would only be eight years older than me.”

I just sat there and put an arm around her and waited.

“Tammy is nice enough. She didn’t come in and try to be all mom. Then at twenty-five what did she know about being a mom anyways.” There was a small laugh. “Still it was creepy. I went away, I pulled back, and let them be newlyweds. I was out on my own in school. Back for that first Thanksgiving and we’re using all of my Mom’s dishes and things. It’s all the same food as Dad always cooked. We finished dinner and they dropped it on me. I was going to have a sibling. I smiled and acted happy for them. I got it; they were married. I was away and they deserved to have all the happiness they could have.” She took a drink of her coffee and then stared out into the dark room for a few.

“Worried this is some type of parallel?”

“Not really, I mean it’s completely different. It’s me choosing this. Then it is having this happen so fast and the pandemic, teaching like we are, shortages, the hysteria I see out there all that uncertainty.” She stopped and took another drink.

“And in less than three months we going to add to this by working to make you mommy too.”

“Yeah, I’m going to be a mom and unmarried woman having children with an older man and my sister wives having his children also.”

“Too bad that reality television already has that show.” I chuckled.

She stopped and looked at me almost nose to nose. “That’s all fake, scripted for drama and effect. We’re not doing that. I am not playing. I am certain that I want this and at the same time scared, excited, frightened, happy, curious and so many other emotions I lose count.”

“You know exactly what I felt when our, Lilly, and my first child was born.”

“Is that it?”

“It’s not all of it. It’s a lot of it though.”

“A baby at twenty-seven” She put her head back on my shoulder.

“Want a scarier thought?”

“Do I?”

“All I have at my age now.”

“How can you not want to be a part of all of their lives?”

“What did they say Clinton could do?” I stopped to think for a minute to remember that far back. “Compartmentalize things. He would deal with what was before him and put the rest away.”

“So, you put it in a box in your mind?”

“In a way, yes. Remember that when I started this with Lilly she and I opened our marriage to include others. More for her than me. Men were encouraged then to have experience and wives to be virgins. Later after we were married and had the girls, we talked it over for a long time and then agreed that as long as family always was first in our lives then we would try this together.” I stopped and finished my cup. “It grew beyond anything either of us expected. Each new opening was exciting for her and me. Adding children for others was a natural progression. There was the mom’s and that led to Tiffany and her husband Craig. I didn’t know that he shot blanks and that led to him asking me to help them out. That led to each of the next steps.”

“Are we a step?”

“Never, You’re a new beginning. The past is the past.”

“What about the children?”

“I do not see anyone outing me as the Sire of them. Craig and Tiff and happy with theirs. Carol and Penny are married and happy with their two. Clayton and Elizabeth are happy with their five. Sasha has her parents plus Unc and Auntie living near them to help her with her two. Bringing me into any of those relationships hurts the children more than helps them.”

She sat there and lifted her head off my shoulder and then kissed me. That was how Mary, Ann, and Di found us when the bedroom door opened, and they walked out.

“Hey, no early mornings you know it makes the rest of the day too difficult,” Ann called out.

We broke from our kiss, and Sue gave them the raspberry and turned and kissed me again.

“I want that for breakfast too.” Di giggled.

Sue was up and took the hands of Ann and Di as they went back to the bedroom. Mary came over then and sat on my lap. “We better get breakfast going for them,” I said

“Why are you out here with her?’

“She woke up early, troubled with her past, my past, and this future. I found her sitting in the chair and it was quiet, so we talked.”

“Funny way to talk there.”

“Jealous?”

“Never. Just pulling your chain.” She giggled

“Let’s get breakfast going and then we can look at what we want to do today.”

I’m feeling wicked, can we do a washer?”

“The other three have to have their washing first before you get a second turn.”

“Spoilsport.”

“We’re all rested and fit. I am certain we will have a great time tonight.” With that, we got up and worked on breakfast. The three of them came out all dressed for school, and we enjoyed a quick meal together. Everything was put away then they headed off to class and we went to the shower. Mary was indeed feeling wicked and used her body to try and encourage me. I resisted mostly but goosed as good as I got. I was dried, dressed, and drinking the last of the coffee when she came out. Dressed, shiny, and sparkling ready for the day.

We worked on making the morning snack and left a note with it as we grabbed the remote and headed out to where we would build the compound. It was a quiet trip as I remember the neighbors who lived all around us. Many were gone and a few remained according to the county records. We drove past the house, and I directed Mary into the drive of the Stamford’s. Fred and Betty had been neighbors for decades. I don’t ever remember them not living next to my parents.

We got out of the car, and I put my arm around Mary and started up to their home. Fred and Betty were on their porch. It was a warm morning as we walked up to their place. They had a large home with a wraparound porch across the front.

“Hello Uncle Fred, Aunt Betty I called out as we were closer.”

“Hello, Tommy.” They replied together.

“Good to see you again.”

“Glad you stopped by. Who’s that with you.”

“This is Mary. I said stopping at what was the new social distance that we were hearing about on the radio now as we drove over.

“Come and sit down it’s a warm morning.”

Mary and I each had our masks on, and we sat in a pair of chairs across the table from them.

“Hello Mary, I’m Fred and this is Betty for better or worse we’re the Stamford’s.” It was the same way he introduced themselves to others for as long as I could remember.

“I’m Mary Bexus.” She replied and lowered her mask for a moment to smile at them.

“Bexus, Bexus,” Fred said out loud. “Can’t say I remember meeting a family named Bexus.”

“Our daughters went to school with theirs. Ran into the sister and her friends one evening and they invited me to their home right as this all broke out.”

“Hard to know what’s going to happen with all of this. Just know it’s difficult now to do much more than eat. Stuck in the house all the time.”

“They say this is just the beginning,” I replied.

“I heard, that makes it difficult for the older folks around here,” Betty replied.

“Who’s left from the old neighbors?”

“Well, your parents are gone, so sad that fire. There are Fran and Vince lived on the other side there and Margo and Emil back behind your folk’s property. Well, it’s yours now, I reckon with them gone.” Betty added.

“You going to rebuild the house?” Fred asked.

“I’m thinking along those lines. Uncle Fred. With all that is happening don’t know what the process and procedures for it will be.”

“It’s the city, you’ll pay your dues, pay some more, and get your thousand strokes by the end.” He laughed and Betty swatted his arm.

The joke was it was a thousand strokes to get anything accomplished when the city was involved. “I have to look things over and evaluate what fits here in this neighborhood. Find the right architect and jump thru the hoops.”

“Sounds about right. You going to keep it like it was or build one on the new monster houses?”

“Have been working that out with the other three women while we’re quarantined. Used the table as the lot and then cut some shapes out to see what looks right.”

“We’re calling it the compound now,” Mary added.

“Just going to be you living there Tommy,” Betty asked a sparkle in her eye. There was no putting anything past her all the years I knew her.

“It’s going to be the five of us. Mary, her sister Ann, and the other two who own the home with they live in now. Diane and Susan.” I let them chew on that for a moment and then Betty took the lead.

“Where are my manners, we need some lemonade and cookies. Care to come to help me get those Mary?”

“I could almost see Mary smile behind her mask as she got up. “Certainly, let’s go get that.” Betty stood patted Fred’s arm then took Mary’s hand and led her into the house.

Once the door had closed and they were inside I asked. “That pat on the arm means you’re supposed to interrogate me while she does the same with Mary?” I laughed.

“What do we have to do at our age but ask questions and gossip.” He laughed in reply.

“You remember I lost Lilly and the girls and then folks obviously.”

“Sad day when they died and after you lost the others as you did,” Fred replied.

“Funny how things change. I was minding my own business one night getting a bottle at the liquor store and Ann, Mary’s sister literally walked right into my arms. She was not paying attention as she talked to the others, and I was just protecting my bottle of Marker’s Mark you understand.”

Fred stopped and looked at me and then he just belly laughed. He continued until he stopped because he could not breathe. “I have heard stories from folks all my life. I have never heard a lie told like that.” He held up his hand to stop me before I could reply. “That means it has to be the truth in my book.”

“God’s honest,” I replied.

“Those four took you home then?”

“Was only the three of them. Mary was coming back from her university up north that closed then.”

“Three young women took you home with them after they found you in a liquor store and you hugged one like you said?” He looked at me for any fidget to tell him I might be lying.

I looked right back at him sat up straight then and replied. “Something like that.”

“World spins in mysterious ways.”

“I’m certain Betty is in there verifying my story with Mary. Seem a long time to get the lemonade and cookies.”

“We’ll match our stories up once you’re gone.” He laughed.

“Before you have to ask. It’s going to be the five of us in the compound.”

“That makes it easier for me.” He shook his head a little,

“I’m going to try and set the main house back from the street like now and then build a ranch big enough for us all.”

“Us all.”

“They are young women who want what young women want. I’m an older man with the assets to help us build that. These are uncharted times.”

I must have let my body language tell him something. He sat forward and looked right at me. He was like my dad that way. Gave you the idea he could look into you. “You are talking children with them, Right?”

“The three of them plied me with liquor and had their way with me that night,” I replied with a laugh.

“All of them?”

“By now. Yes”

He stopped to look at me again. “You got any idea what you’re getting into?”

“Not a clue all I know is I have money and not much else. I’d rather have less money and more else.”

“By god, you’re going to too. Four women and you in the compound.”

“Won’t be that way for long.”

“You’re going to?”

“That’s the else part.”

“I got it. Don’t understand it all. Then it’s your life and all that has happened. So, is this a social call only or are you looking to ask something more?” Uncle Fred was always sharp.

“I laid it all out and it’s tight for all we want to have.”

“Need more acreage?”

“Would be easier to make it all fit without changing the look and feel of the neighborhood.”

“What are you thinking?”

“I put mine and the other three together.”

“You got enough to buy us and them all out?”

“Depends on the numbers for the buyout. What have they been going for as the others sold out?”

“Million to a million and a quarter.”

“Doable then at that pricing.”

“Cash on the barrel head, I’m talking”

“Want a check today?”

“Whoa, I was not making an offer here to sell, just asking if you’re serious.”

“We would have to make a land contract and work it out with the attorneys. I’d write you a check once we did.”

“Nice move to not realize the gains for us until we registered the contract and yet give us access to the money.”

“Anything to help my uncles and aunts,” I replied.

“That it would.”

“Between us, Emil says Margo was having some issues nothing like setting the house on fire issues. But forgetfulness all the same.”

“You think my parents had set the house on fire issues?” I was sitting up in my chair again.

“No way to know for certain. Neither said that was the case with the other. The city investigated and said it was a faulty electrical issue. That’s what they found out that’s what it is. No use bringing anything else into it.”

“How are Fran and Vince doing?”

“They have been a good thing now without any place to go or others to see for who knows how long. We’re all going to suffer a bit.”

“Any chance you can all move in together and help one another.”

“That’s a thought you know how close and good friends we all were with your parents?” He left that hang there. And then he sat back and had to be smiling.

“I had no idea.”

“You’re a child, were adults ain’t saying nothing and ain’t denying either. What Clinton come up with about gays in the military. Don’t ask Don’t tell.”

I sat and looked at him, shook my head a little, and smirked behind my mask. “Funny how none of you moved away all these years. All such good friends even after all the kids left.”

“Hard to find good friends like we all were.”

He was mind fucking me and it was working. My parents and the neighbors were swingers. Shit, how did I miss that. Can I ask an inappropriate question?”

“Figured you might ask that question one of these days?”

“I’m so much younger than all of the other kids.”

“Yeah, think your dad said they has a whoops moment. You being the bonus of the whoops.”