Week 5 / Tuesday

They were waiting for her outside the front gate when she walked out of work on Tuesday. She grabbed her bag and walked up to the van. Not surprising, she had to cross the road to get to the van, it was parked where there was plenty of space around it. She went straight up to the driver, who had got out as soon as she walked through the gates. To her surprise, it was a female. “Hi, I’m Larissa.”

“Nice to meet you, Larissa. I’m Dee.”

“Is that your name, or just the letter you’re known by?” Larissa asked her.

“You can think of it either way, whichever you like. Here, let me take that for you.” Dee took her bag, and opened the door for her. Larissa looked inside, and saw her mum and her grandparents sitting in the first row of seats, and then Mary in the back seat. Thomas was up the front, as she’d suggested. “Hello everyone, Lovely to see you all.” She got a chorus of greetings back. “You’re all lucky today, I often get smelly at the end of the day, but not this time.” She stepped in, and gave her grandparents a hug, and then her mum, and then she slipped into her seat next to Mary and hugged her too. Dee slid the door shut, and then they were off.

“How was your day, Larissa?” her mum asked. “Mum and Dad, Larissa’s job is awesome! The day I spent on the road with her working was one of the most exciting days of my life.”

She told them about her day – mostly straightforward, a few highs and lows. They liked the high – a puppy litter, and didn’t like the low, an old faithful servant passing away, both in houses isolating due to Covid. Then she told them some of the more dramatic stories, things that had already happened. They loved those stories, and she finished by telling them about Harry. Her grandma had played the seeing dog game with her when she was younger, so that was very special for her too.

Then her grandpa said, “Larissa it honestly sounds like a dangerous job to me.”

“Yeah, grandpa, it is a bit.” She told them about the time she nearly got assaulted. “But grandpa, I could probably whip his ass if I really needed to, and as a first-responder, I have the full power of the system to support me.”

“You could whip his ass? You said he was a foot taller than you!”

Larissa shrugged. “I do martial arts with Julian, Grandpa. And what I’ve learnt is that the bigger they are, the harder they hit the ground. All the same to me.” She met Dee’s eyes in the rear vision mirror, and they shared a grin.

“Anyway, we should stop talking about my job, and talk about something interesting, like Thomas’ job.”

They’d already done that, but Grandma said that now that Larissa was here, she wanted to know about Jane. “Oh, great,” Larissa said, “Jane’s my favourite sister!”

Thomas laughed and said, “Except for all the other ones.”

“Well, yes, but still, she is my favourite.”

Thomas was a typical guy, just wanted to say how Jane was great, and leave at that, so Larissa kept drawing him out by prompting him to tell stories about things Jane had done. Thomas was actually a pretty good storyteller, so that worked well.

Then Grandma got Thomas on to talking about school, and he mentioned Isabella. Mary jolted, and turned to Larissa privately, and said, “Thomas was in Isabella’s class at school?”

“Sure. She didn’t tell you?”

“No!”

“Well, it was a bit embarrassing for her. She didn’t even recognise Thomas, couldn’t even remember him, even though they were often in the same class.” Larissa shrugged. “Thomas wasn’t rich, good at the sports, or good at music, so Isabella never noticed him. Actually, he wasn’t bad at sports or music, just very reticent to be recognised. Because we were dirt poor.”

Mary was shaking her head. “So she knows now?”

“Yes. She realised when we were talking about school when they came to the beach with us. Very embarrassing for her.”

“What did she say?”

“Oh, she gave him a very convincing apology and promised to be very different in the future. And she has been pretty good about it. She said something to him about it on Sunday evening.”

“Oh?”

“Yes, it was when I made her go around the room and kiss everyone. She’s naked and tied up. Tied up by me, the poor bastard child, and I’ve made her kiss the kid in the class she doesn’t even remember? She said how big a turnaround it was from school, and she knew she deserved it, ignoring such a nice guy who’s doing so much with his life.”

“Wow. What did Thomas say?”

“Something along the lines he understands why it happened, and he hopes that she remembers to pay attention to everyone around her. Because that’s a lesson he’s learned, partly from watching her and learning that Isabella needs gentle love as much as everyone else, and that it’s amazing she’s found Mason, who matches her heart exactly, which is very special.”

“Ummm.” Mary thought about that. “Thanks for telling me that. I missed that cause I was busy talking to Mason. That’s interesting.”

“How are they anyway? I sent a message to see if I could help any, and Isabella just said she’d get back to me.”

“Yes, she was way too busy screwing with Mason. They didn’t come off the cloud you left them on till yesterday evening. They could hardly hold a conversation, they were so obsessed with making each other come. But they settled yesterday evening and started thinking about the task you’d given them. They spent all day today up in Melbourne looking at houses.”

“And screwing?”

Mary laughed. “Well, apparently they did a bit of that, but Matt and Ella went with them to make sure they actually looked at houses. And made reasonable financial decisions. Matt’s pretty good at that, and though you did really well on Sunday evening, you made one slip, when you said about making sure it’s a house to be naked in. Isabella looked at one house, a really good one, and Ella said, what about this one, and Isabella said, no. Why did she say no? Well, you said about being naked outside the front door, and this one was very visible from the road, so can’t possibly be the right house, and she wouldn’t budge.”

Larissa gave Mary a rueful grin. “Hmm. I think they’ve taken what I said on board a bit much? That’s not quite what I meant.”

“Well, I’m not quite sure what you’ve done. You used the word ‘mistress’ in passing, and they’ve both used it a couple of times since then, about you. They really had fantasized about you tying them both up, but you did much more than that, and they really took that to heart.”

“Umm. Did I do the wrong thing? I just wanted to tie them up, get them focused on each other, and avoid that share house. Everyone else goes in one of them because of money, but they were doing because of ... I couldn’t think of any good reason. Kind of like us back in school, talking ourselves into doing stupid things, and no way to talk us out of it.”

“Yes, that’s exactly the dynamic. I usually let Isabella do the stupid thing, but she didn’t really learn, and when I finally started talking to her, the words just flowed over her. I really tried hard to change her mind on this one. It was a bit upsetting, actually, when she said she should listen to you after ignoring me. Just shows how much power they gave you.”

“Yeah, well, don’t undervalue yourself. If you’d told her it was fine, she would’ve said that to me. She might’ve said it was because of what I said, because I was in her face, but I bet I was just the icing on the cake, and you did the real work.”

Mary thought about that. “Maybe you’re right. Still, it does show just how much influence you have over them.”

Larissa screwed her face up. “I just don’t want that, can’t give them the time they deserve, I have lots of other friends, and Mason and Isabella aren’t my passion. But Julian had an interesting idea last night, see what you think. Not next weekend, but the next time we decide they need tying up, I should tie them both and turn them over to my mum. After all, I only kissed them. What do you think?”

Mary was shocked by that idea, but Larissa could see her turning it over in her head, and she ended up grinning. “Well, it’s very funny, actually, but I kind of like it.”

“Well, no hurry, we’ll talk about it some more, but I’m sure you saw my intent, to have them completely focused on each other as the source of their satisfaction from intimacy.”

“That was very nice. You actually did that really well for us, you know. We’ve played a lot less with other couples since we did that threesome with you. We’ve found more satisfaction with each other. I fear it will be a little harder for Isabella.”

“Yes. Jane asked me, what happened to her that’s the reason her heart wanders so much? I said I didn’t know, but you thought it wasn’t anything sexual abuse related. Something else? Or just how she is?”

Mary sighed. “When you’re a parent, you’ll understand that there’s no possible answer to that question. Even really bad trauma, some people don’t bounce back from it, and others do. I can’t tell you what the answer is for Isabella either. It’s at least partly that’s just how she is, and she has to learn to master herself, or her life will be a mess that hurts her. But...”

“This is just between you and me, OK?” Larissa nodded. “I suppose you’ll tell Julian, that’s OK. But no one else.” Yep, no one else. “You know Bob and I have lovers. Usually together.” Sure. “When Isabella was two, Bob had a serious affair. Serious as in, not just fucking her, but thinking about leaving me for her. And I would certainly have left me for her, she had it all. I’ve only seen one more beautiful woman in my life, and that’s Layna. And she was smart, educated, media-savvy, and a well-known sportswoman. Larissa, I didn’t cope very well with that.”

No, indeed, who would? Larissa grabbed Mary’s hard, which got her a smile.

“We worked through that, I told you that much. The one thing I had which she didn’t was I had Bob’s kids. And he decided that counted. But for six months, I was not a good mother. And that’s a really critical time, when the child is first starting to exert their own will against their parents. They call it the terrible twos, but that’s what it is, and it requires really loving creative discipline to get through it well. You can’t just love, and you can’t just discipline, it has to be both glued together as an expression of who you are.”

“That’s a really powerful description,” Larissa said.

“Thanks. Well, I didn’t have it. For six months, I totally lost the plot with Isabella, and she was a fiery little thing. And I never got it back. Maybe I would’ve lost it whatever happened. Or maybe, if I hadn’t lost it, she’d be sweetness and light today. It’s impossible to say. But disciplining her has always been a challenge for me since then. And Bob always says I should let her run free, and my feeling about that is wound up in old pain linked to that affair. So I’m not proud of how Isabella has turned out in that particular regard.”

“Wow. Thank you for telling me that. I’m sure you could tell me more, but it’s been a very painful journey. And probably a very lonely one, given all the money.” Bingo. Yes, Larissa was starting to understand that now, such a mixed blessing, money. “I’ll keep it in mind when I tie Isabella up next time.”

“Well, I’m hoping you can help her. That thing about the principles ... they’re thinking about that, and they haven’t done that before. I’m pretty sure they’ll show them to you and ask you to approve them. You’re their mistress, after all. Maybe that will make her think? By the way, I think they’ll be so excited this week that they’ll do what you said about coming, but if you do it again, then Isabella probably won’t. They’ll end up in your chastity device for sure.”

“I don’t want them to wear those things. But obviously that means you bought them.”

“We did. And one for your mum, who gets to try it out on principle.” Mary grinned about that. Then she suddenly said, “Damn. I shouldn’t have told you that, because I’m sure you’re now thinking about how to get it on me as well.”

“I would never think anything like that!” But Mary knew better than to believe that, she could see.

Mum and her grandparents were talking about a holiday that they had gone on to Tasmania when she was ten or so. Before she understood what was wrong between her parents. That was a holiday she had fond memories of, so she joined into that discussion. Thomas and Larissa had slept in a tent and one night it had rained so much that they’d nearly floated away. Thomas had spent two hours holding the tent upright while Larissa slept through it. She never remembered being moved inside during the night, to Thomas’ evident amusement.

From there, discussion moved onto her most recent holiday, and she told her grandpa in detail about Tui’s farm. As an ex-sheep farmer himself, he was very interested in that, and said that if ever Tui came to Australia, he would just love to meet her. What he’d really love, she knew, would be to actually go and visit Huatare. She resolved that if Huatare was OK with it, and if ever covid was all blown over, she’d organise for her grandparents to visit. That would be knock their socks off stuff. Which reminded her, how was the round Australia trip planning?

Talking about that got them all the way to Yea, and they stopped for dinner at a café on the main street. Then they drive onto the little town past Mansfield, and got there a little before sunset. Rather than going to the hotel directly, Mary guided them to a little park beside the river running through the town, and they stretched their legs with a gentle walk along the gorgeous river’s edge. Larissa and Thomas took their shoes off and walked into the river, which was just knee height, and amused themselves by skipping stones across the water. Her grandparents sat on the grass with her mum and Mary, talking. Larissa looked up at them, and Mum and Mary were clearly sitting like lovers, and she saw her grandma was smiling at them. Wow, such a thing for her mum, a lovely happy family group, and she felt really happy that she’d managed to talk her grandma around.

Suddenly Thomas said, “Did we do this before, right here?” Larissa thought about that and said, “Yeah, maybe we did?”

“Mum,” Thomas called out, “did we do this before? You brought us here? Just you?” Her mum was grinning. So obviously they had. But Larissa didn’t remember it. “Mum fell asleep and got sunburnt,” Thomas said. “And then we had fish and chips, and a bird stole Larissa’s fish.”

That was this spot? Larissa remembered that bit clearly!

“Yes. That was right here. The last time we visited Uncle John and Auntie Anne.”

Oh wow. Literally amazing. She remembered that visit now; she had still been crying about the fish when they visited, and Uncle John had taken sympathy on her, and taken her for a ride in his bus. She remembered that bus ride clearly, the sense of comfort that had come from it, though not why. Obviously the comfort came from her Uncle. Yes, her mum confirmed, it had, he was a very lovely man.

“Mum,” Larissa said, “if you do another painting, you should paint this. A happy family group in a lovely spot. This is very special.” Her mum clearly felt the same. “Thomas, you should see the painting she did for us – it was absolutely amazing! Mum, do you have a photo?” She did, so Thomas went and had a look and agreed that was incredible. Then he stood on the edge and splashed her, just like he did last time. At least that’s what he said.

The sun was setting now, so they put their shoes back on, and went and checked into the hotel, a room for her grandparents, and a room for them. What about Dee? They hadn’t been able to get her a room. Dee grinned and showed Larissa – she’d brought a swag, she often did this on this kind of trip, she’d be fine.

Mary and her mum moved her grandparents into their room, and made sure they were settled, while Thomas and Larissa and Dee carried the rest of their bags into their room. When they got there, Dee asked her, could she really have whipped that big guy’s ass?

“Not sure. I’m glad I didn’t have to try. I do Taekwondo, just for a year, so I’m not that good at it. Unlike my husband, who is an expert.”

Yes, Dee knew Julian, had been part of a team when he was on the other team at a competition. “I bet that’s not all you do though, right?” Larissa asked her No, but Dee wouldn’t say what it was, but she agreed that they’d go for a run together in the morning before everyone else was awake.

When her mum and Mary came into the room, Dee said she was out of there, see Larissa in the morning. She’d be down at hotel reception if they wanted her, or they could call her. “Wait,” Larissa said, “you want a shower? Why don’t you use ours first?”

They sat at the little table while Dee had a quick shower, and then she went out to set up her swag in the hotel garden. They talked for a while about that trip to see Uncle John, her mum remembered it fondly.