Week 5 / Saturday

The next day, Sal and Lem came around for breakfast. After breakfast, they all went through the apartment deciding where to put their magnificent artwork. Tough because there just wasn’t much space. They agreed to hang it around the stairs, where everyone would see it going up and down. Julian and Lem went off to buy what they needed to put it up, and Sal and Larissa went for a swim and then sat on the deck and chatted.

“How’s Michael and Jael going?” Larissa got around to asking her.

“Great,” Sal said, “I should tell you. Let’s start with Michael first. It’s interesting ... he’s still playing those two girls against each other. I mean, not in a nasty way – they’re just finding it really hard to get him alone. I had a long talk to him about it – is he trying to set up a threesome with them? Because they’re both good friends and they like doing everything together. Or is he just using them to stop from getting in a relationship? A beard for some reason? But no, it’s nothing like that. He just likes them both, and doesn’t want to upset either of them, and they feel the same, so he’s kind of friend-zoned them. But they like their little friendship group, and the girls feel safe with him. And he says that he’s not in any hurry anyway. So we’ve got no idea what’ll change that.”

“As for Jael, you met her guy at our wedding – that’s going super well, and she’s very happy. And we’re happy too. Lem likes him, and their current plan is that when Michael finishes school at the end of this year, he will do an apprenticeship and work with Lem. Well, inasmuch as Lem is still building. Anyway, Jael and I had a long heart to heart about it last week, and she gave him her v-card last weekend. She said I could tell you, and that it really moved her, and she feels that you contributed to that, and she asked me to thank you, though she will herself when she gets a chance.”

“Thanks. That’s great. Her v-card was that big of a deal?”

“Yes, because Lem and I asked her to make it meaningful. We had a little party as a family, which she really liked. So different to Toni.”

“Right. Toni.” Larissa made a face.

“Yes. You have an opinion?”

“Well, she came to our party. Just wearing those jeans, a very tasty little piece.” Larissa shook her head. “And then she just upped and went home with a pair of couples, all proud of herself for being a cute little sex kitten. I didn’t say anything, but I wondered what Dave and Kat would think about that. I’ve played with them a bit, so I knew them, and I know she was safe with them, but ... it was too much like what I used to be for comfort. Though there was no alcohol involved, I was sure about that given the couples.”

“Right. Dave and Kat weren’t happy in general with what Toni has been up to. The house rules aren’t a set of rules to trick your way around, they’re a set of guidelines for what it means to be part of their unusual home.” Larissa nodded. “But Toni broke the rules. She still has to talk to Dave or Kat before having sex with someone, and she ‘forgot’ and spent the night with them and came home all pleased with herself for doing all sorts of combinations of threesomes and so forth. And we thought she might’ve come home drunk, just from watching her, and we wondered whether they gave her something.”

Larissa frowned. That bit was much more serious than she thought.

“So Dave and Kat decided the time had come. She didn’t ‘forget’, she’d stopped valuing the house rules and the whole way of life her family stands for. So they had a family meeting, and told her what they thought, got into her. They said that if she wants to live like that, she can. When she’s 18, and she’s paying for her own life. But as long as she’s under 18, or she’s living at home, she’s going to respect the home rules and family culture. She was pretty shaken, and then they told her that they were turning her over to Michelle and Zara to decide on her discipline.”

“Wow,” Larissa said, “that’s pretty big.”

“Yes. The rules are there to allow her freedom, but she abused that. Dave and Kat decided that they had to pull her back. And turning her over to her sisters really shook her, because they gave her their own opinions. Which were much stronger than Dave and Kat’s opinions.”

“What about Jael? And what did Michelle and Zara do with her?”

“Dave and Kat said Jael is her friend, and the one who was going to hold her when she cried and share her pain, so she wasn’t allowed to be part of disciplining her.”

“Good idea!”

“Yes. They really thought about it a lot. Anyway, Michelle and Zara said that they love sex as much as Toni, but you can’t let the genie out of the box, or it’ll destroy you. Particularly Toni, and they know her inside out. Sisters. Or Zara, so even closer.” Right. “So they grounded her indefinitely, school only, and they review all her messaging everyday. Also they revoked her age rules. She has to talk to them before kissing anyone, like house rules for a 13 year old. And then, when she’s got herself under control, and a family meeting confirms it, she has to talk to them before oral sex with anyone, house rules for a 15 year old. And only at home. And then, in a month or two, if she’s earned it, she can go back to the rules she was under, and just talk to Dave or Kat. And earning it has very specific meanings around how she interacts with family. She’s taking over from Zara as the hug and love machine, the general purpose family comfort device, for now. That’s something Zara’s always done. She has a serious cuddle with everyone in the family nearly every day and talks to us about how we’re feeling.”

“Oh, is she pregnant yet?”

“Not yet. Not for lack of trying. Zach was joking the other day, blow jobs have dried up, can she just get pregnant?” Larissa laughed. “She’s still blowing him, just now she flips around and he finishes inside her, so he was only joking.”

“Anyway, one more thing they did. They wrote on her with a texta.” That made sense, Larissa recognised the method. “Just words across her bikini line, saying ‘Toni makes her family sad’. They’ll keep putting them there until she isn’t making them sad.”

“Wow, that’s really serious discipline.”

“Yes. She had a totally hysterical meltdown and threatened to run away from home. Michelle and Zara just looked at her and Michelle said, ‘Go on, do it. But it’ll make the discipline last longer’. So she didn’t, she just bawled her eyes out while they wrote on her. Then she spent pretty much two days crying, and hugging Michael and Jael, and looking daggers at Michelle and Zara. And then Dave took her to the beach, a long run and swim and talked to her, and she came back and she’s been great ever since. Everyone’s best friend, cuddles, hugs, and smiles.”

“Wow. I think she’s lucky to have a family that cares so much for her. But she might not think so.”

“It took her nearly a couple of weeks, but yesterday she turned her artistic skills to it and made Zara and Michelle lovely posters thanking them for loving her so much. They’ve both put it on their walls. And she made a photo for Kat’s display wall, just herself, cross-legged, naked and crying her eyes out, holding a card in front of her that says, ‘Toni is sad and sorry she made her family sad.’ And when she sees you next, she’ll also apologise to you; she regrets the mosh-pit thing now. It was funny, but she took it too far.”

At this point, Julian and Lem came back, and started putting their elegant structure in place. While they were doing that, Larissa asked Sal what she meant by ‘inasmuch as Lem is still building’.

“Oh. Bob saw that carving he did for you and wanted one of the three of them for their house and another for his business office.” Larissa nodded, sure. “Real money for us too. So Lem and I went and visited them, watched them interacting for a day, across a range of activities, and then Lem roughed a bunch of possible approaches for them to comment on out of paper mache. Anyway, Bob had them sitting out there for comment from Mary and your mum when that billionaire visited, and he saw them and was gob-smacked, and he had coffee with us on the way to the airport, and he wants some of his own. And that’s way more money than he can earn building.”

“I bet! And I’m really glad. His carvings are awesome! And I want my angel, and everybody’s angel, to have great outcomes in her life!”

After Lem and Sal had left, she sent a message to Brianna and Ana asking to speak to them both at once. A few minutes later, they facetimed her, sitting in a café somewhere. “Hi Larissa! What’s up?”

“Oh, not much. Going to help a friend move shortly, but I wanted to ask you about Toni. Can you talk there?”

“Hang on, we’ll move. We can.” While they were moving to a private spot, they talked about other stuff.

“OK. Toni. What do you want to know?”

Larissa frowned. “Her family wasn’t happy that she went with you. She was supposed to talk to them first. And it got her into pretty significant trouble with them. That’s not your fault, of course.”

“We regretted it,” Brianna said. “Neither of us had done anything like that before. Well, or anything with a girl. But she was just so sexy, and our guy’s tongues were hanging out, and so I kissed her, and...”

“I did too,” Ana said. “So we took her home, and totally enjoyed her for a couple of hours. She was game for anything, like our own little porn star. And such a hot body.”

“But you regretted it?”

Brianna frowned. “The next morning, I woke up and she was screwing the guys on the lounge while we were asleep. And she somehow forgot to do safe sex that time.”

Ana was nodding. “Totally not OK. Brianna lost her nut, and I woke up to that and joined her.”

“Ouch. You guys all OK?”

“Well, I got her dressed, and kicked her out the door, while Ana screamed at the guys. Then I went back and really let rip. Not safe sex? I was mad at Toni, but the guys ... more guilty than her, and why we really lost our minds. But then they yelled at us back. It was kind of a zoo. But we all calmed down, and apologised to each other, and had a good cry. And we agreed that we’ll never do anything like that again.”

“It was pretty interesting to have that happen as a pair of couples,” Brianna said. “We’re closer now than we were. And we all got tested and we’re OK.”

“Thanks for telling me all that. It sounds very traumatic, and I’m glad you’re OK now.”

“What did you actually want, Larissa?”

“Well, Toni’s family said that she came home a bit drunk, which was a pretty big surprise. So I wanted to ask you if you knew anything about that.”

“Not her, not us. We don’t have any anymore, so we didn’t give her any,” Ana said.

“Wait,” Brianna said. “We found that gin bottle in the garden, right? Maybe that was hers?”

“Yeah, that was weird. We wondered about that because how would it get there from the road? And maybe that’s why you had to help her get dressed?”

“Well, I thought it was because she was being screamed at, and she’d just been getting double-teamed. But maybe, yeah. The jeans were too hard, I kicked her out in her undies. How did she get home?”

“I don’t know. But she said she had no money?”

Well, they didn’t know how she got home. But it was reasonably likely she was drunk, and she got drunk on gin early in the morning. And Larissa would’ve blown her way home in that situation in the past. Fuck. Well, Toni’s disaster wasn’t Ana and Brianna’s problem, and their disaster wasn’t entirely Toni’s problem, but this is what Dave and Kat’s rules were about.

She sent a message to Sal: “I talked to the couples. They have no alcohol. Probable that Toni took her own bottle of gin – she left that behind. Did the guys in the morning while their girls slept, not safe sex, woke the girls up, big explosion. Couples have recovered. Please care for her.” Sal’s reply: “Thank you. We will love her.”

Toni called her later that afternoon, in tears. “Larissa, I’m so sorry. I was really badly out of control. I knew I need to apologise to you, but I have to do it today. Mum’s taking me to the doctor tomorrow to get tested. And they didn’t know about the drinking, and I hadn’t told them, so now they’re much unhappier with me. And so am I.”

“You’ve told them everything now? Or is there anything else they might hear from someone else?”

Toni sighed. “There’s at least one more thing. I’ll make sure I’ve told them everything. It’ll get me more discipline, but whatever it is will be what I need.”

“Did you get more already?”

“I sure did. I have more texta, and I had to write it myself.” Nasty. “And when I’m no longer grounded, then I have to meet Ana and Brianna and apologise to them. And also, I’m to turn myself over to you for your choice of discipline for me for the alcohol. I’m sorry to do that to you, but that’s what Michelle and Zara said, that you more than anyone can teach me not to go there.”

“OK, I’ll think about that. Because all that you did, I did too, and it very nearly killed me. But what I don’t understand is why, Toni? You know what happened to me that made me drink. Did anything happen to you? Or is this all you?”

Toni burst into tears. When she stopped, she said quietly, “I have no excuse, Larissa. I did this to me.”

“At least you’re honest. I’ll think about the discipline, and then we’ll talk some more.”

“Michelle and Zara said that you’re very creative, and that I’m to tell you to be as creative as you can. They really want me to learn the lesson.”

“If they really want you to learn, maybe you should come with me at work, and see all the people whose lives have been torn apart by alcohol. And I’ll get you to kill a puppy that needs to be put down because the owners were too drunk to care for it, and it’s gone too far.”

Toni was silent for a moment. “Fuck, Larissa, you had to do that?

“Yes.”

Toni cried. When she stopped, she said, “That’s the worst thing I can imagine in the world. I cannot imagine what will teach me the lesson more than knowing that.”

“I’ll think about that. And Toni...”

“Yes?”

“I’m impressed at how well you’re taking your discipline.”

“Well, I wasn’t. And then Dad took me aside and asked me, what happened to the girl who said he was my perfect man? What did I want him to write for my obituary?” She paused. “Then he asked how the family could love me more? How could my father love me more? Since then I’ve been doing better. Except today. I’ll go and take a few more licks, and then I’ll be done.”

Larissa went for a long swim with Julian to cool down after that. But she did get some interesting ideas.

Then it was time to head off to Isabella’s new place. On the way, she got a message from Toni.

✉ Toni: [photo of a very sombre Toni who had her hair shorn off]
✉ Toni: My last lick. The only way is up. I’m lucky my family loves me
✉ Larissa: Ouch. Be strong, and love your family. I’m looking forward to hugging you
✉ Toni: Thanks. I’d really love to do that. That’ll be the best bit of my grounding ending

Whatever Toni hadn’t told her was much worse than she’d imagined. Toni had really spun out of control. She sent a message to Sal:

✉ Larissa: How much did the Covid crisis contribute to Toni’s disaster? Are you guys considering that as a factor?
✉ Sal: Thanks. Kat agrees that we mightn’t have considered that enough. You’ve seen others?
✉ Larissa: People went nuts in different ways. Through the church I talked through the wreckage of quite a few lives due to sudden changes in sexual behaviour or emotional resilience
✉ Sal: Thanks. I guess I did too

A few minutes later, she got a message from Michelle:

✉ Michelle: You think we’re being too harsh on her?
✉ Larissa: Don’t know, because I don’t know what she did. But I’m more thinking about her recovery process, how to love her
✉ Michelle: Thanks. Will talk to Zara. We both love you
✉ Larissa: Love you both too
✉ Michelle: Zara and I have been talking. Have you got time to drop in with Julian sometime today?
✉ Larissa: Will check with Julian
✉ Larissa: Before dinner works for us?
✉ Michelle: Great. We just want both of you to hug Toni and for you to talk to her about what emotional failures you saw and heard during covid. She adores you both, and we hope that will give her strength.

They were waiting outside Mason and Isabella’s new place when the rest of them arrived in a convoy. Last she’d heard, they were looking at houses and also choosing an AirBnB, and she’d talked to Isabella about it along with Mary during their trip back from the funeral. Then several of them in the car had gone house hunting on their phones, and they’d found something that really looked ideal, so Mary had sent the link to Isabella. By the end of the day, Mason and Isabella had gone to look at it, fallen in love with the place, gone back with Matt and Ella who’d both agreed this was the right place for both living in and as investment, and they’d put an offer in on it.

Since Mason and Isabella were cash buyers, the offer had been settled the next day, and the current owners had agreed that Mason and Isabella could move in immediately. They’d grabbed the keys from the agent, and gone and christened the new home immediately by having sex on the floor of what would be their bedroom. And on the front step. Larissa had laughed for that one. “Well, we can’t do it tomorrow!” Isabella had texted Larissa.

Then they’d gone home to pack their stuff up. And now here they were – Bob’s Prado with a trailer, the people mover full of stuff, and Mason and Isabella’s cars all loaded up. And all nine of them. Mary had talked to Larissa about this on the way back from the funeral, and they’d agreed that rather than hiring movers, it would be good to do it as a family thing, and everyone had agreed.

Larissa waved to Dee in the people mover with Mary and her mum, but she didn’t know the other guy in the Prado. Then Mason and Isabella jumped out of their cars and headed to Julian and Larissa, and they got a nice group hug. “Oh, Larissa, I’m so thrilled to show you our own home!”

It was also Bob, Mary and her mum’s first look, so Isabella excitedly opened the front door and she bounced through the house showing it to them all. Nice. A lovely kitchen and living area that flowed nicely into a simple backyard with a pool and a hot tub, and three bedrooms, each with an ensuite, and an inside connection to a two-car garage. The garage was full of purchases from the day before, they’d spent lots of money kitting themselves out – which meant fridge, washing machine, dryer, microwave, a whole kitchen kit, two kitset queen size beds, and an office desk and chair.

Well, time to get to work. For the next few hours, they moved things in from the cars – mostly small things; the only really big thing that Mason had bought was all the parts of his music studio. While they were doing that, Julian and the security guy built the beds and the office and installed the whitegoods.

Julian had just got the fridge going when Mary said it was break time, and they all sat on the living area floor and had a drink. The security pair weren’t sure what to do so Larissa pointed to the floor, and they sat down too.

“While we’re all here,” Mason said, “we’d really like to thank you all for your help today and this week. Dee, Paul, we only decided on Sunday that we were going to buy a home and the whole family made it a project to make it happen this week. Matt and Ella came and looked at houses with us for two whole days and gave us great advice, and put up with us being us. And Mum and Dad and Rachelle gave us lots of advice, and one of you found this place on the web. And you gave us lots of help packing up. And you’ve all helped us move in, even you Dee and Paul, surely that’s not in your job description?” They just shrugged. “So thanks. But most of all, thanks, Larissa. This really is a much better option for us. We’ve been talking about it, and we think that we’re going to be very happy and settled here.”

“We’re still going to come home for Sunday dinners,” Isabella said, “and we’re really looking forward to it tomorrow.”

The rest of the family laughed, but they didn’t explain to Paul and Dee. When they stood up, Larissa followed Isabella to the front door, and grabbed her and conspicuously looked at the road and the neighbours.

“What?” Isabella asked.

“I heard there was one house you wouldn’t buy because the front door was too close to the road. But this one...”

“Oh, no, Larissa, I knew that my mistress wouldn’t want the front door to be too far from the road either.”

Larissa grinned at her. “I’m sure you’re right. How’s it going this week?”

Isabella grinned. “We’ve had a very, very, very good week. We’ll talk about it more tomorrow. Even yesterday and today, I thought it would be awful, but...” She beckoned Mason over, and when he arrived, she kissed him passionately for a good long while. Then she pushed him to go off and do what he was doing. “I’m really enjoying winding him up. Going to be good tomorrow.”

Yup. Larissa wondered who was going to enjoy it the most.

On the way to Dave and Kat’s home, Larissa told Julian Toni’s story. He thought about that, and said, “Kind of like Isabella, right? We don’t really know how much it contributed?”

Yeah, kind of like Isabella in a way. “No, and we won’t. But if she can say, ‘I’m like this but giving into it was partly covid’, then she can fight it better. I’m just giving her a sense of how people were broken, and we’ll try and build her up too. I don’t know what she did, but she thinks it’s as bad as you can get and not be criminal. Cutting a girl’s hair off? That’s a very powerful statement indeed.”

At the door, Kat met them. When they’d undressed, she hugged them tight. “Thank you for coming. Toni really lost control of herself, and we’ve only really understood how badly today, thanks to you. No one else will see you, and you’re a surprise for her. She’s on board with her discipline, and she really wants to get it right in the future, but she’s very deeply shaken, and not confident she’ll be able to. I don’t really know why she went so wrong so suddenly, and maybe you’re right. Anyway, hopefully you can help.”

“We’ll do our best.”

“OK. We’ve been upgrading our lounges, and one of the old ones is round the corner for you. I’ll send Toni down.”

A minute later Toni came down the stairs slowly. It was dark and she hadn’t seen them. Larissa had a look at her; she was clearly sad and flat, and walking very tentatively. At the bottom, she looked around and saw them. “Larissa!” Toni ran at her and jumped into her arms.

Larissa held her tight as she cried. Larissa shed tears too. When she stopped crying, she said, “Larissa, I thought I was having fun, but I really, really fucked it up very big time. I don’t know what I was thinking.”

“Come and sit with us.” She led Toni around the corner, and arranged them so that Toni was sitting in Julian’s lap with his arms around her holding her tight. She sat next to Julian with Toni’s legs over hers, and she pulled Toni forward so that they were all very close.

“Toni, we love you,” she said. “I know that lots of people do, and you can add us to the list.” She kissed Toni, and then Julian did too. She brushed her hands through Toni’s remaining hair gently. “Can I do this?”

“You might as well, I’ve got nothing else left. They’ve taken everything from me. As they should, I can’t even trust myself.”

“Oh, Toni, that’s not true. What have they taken from you? Your hair? It’ll grow back. The texta? It’ll wear off. You still have a home, a family that loves you a lot, you have your education. You’re healthy, fit, pretty, clever, loved. And you don’t even need clothes.” Toni giggled for that one. “So you can still be whatever you want to be.”

“That’s what they said, because they love me. But they don’t know what happened inside here.” She pointed at her heart and frowned. “I don’t know what happened in there.”

Larissa nodded. “That’s why I’m here. I asked them whether some of what happened was Covid.”

“Covid? But I haven’t had it. Couldn’t even get it when I tried!”

“No, I know. But through our church, I’ve been helping lots of young women over the last few weeks. Some of them, they had Covid. Others, some of their family had Covid. Others, no covid. But quite a few of them, part of their problem is that either they or their lover, they had some kind of explosion inside them, and they lost control over their emotional lives. So maybe that was part of what happened to you?”

“Really? Like what?”

Larissa told her some of what she’d seen through work, church and her social networks. People who suddenly starved their pets. A kid who suddenly started wetting the bed. A father who’d raped his wife in front his daughter. A gentle guy who’d suddenly started demanding his girlfriend be ready for sex all the time. A girl who suddenly was stuck behaving like it was that time of month all the time. A girl who suddenly got anorexia nervosa again after years of stability. A girl sobbing uncontrollably just cause she had to go to work. All the young people who wouldn’t come out of their room anymore. A girl who unaccountably suddenly cheated with her boyfriend’s brother, and who had no idea why. A girl who fell out with her flatmates and they couldn’t even talk about it. A girl who got seriously obsessed with another girl and nearly lost her boyfriend. Larissa, who cried continually. All the suicide ideation she heard; the actual stats for suicide didn’t seem to be up, but the number of people thinking about it was through the roof.

“The last few weeks have been super-stressful, Toni, and it’s showed differently for different people. Things that they were able to manage without thinking about it, they suddenly turned into huge problems. Maybe that was part of what happened to you – you went into this period badly positioned, and pop, you were out of control?”

Toni was thinking about that. “Maybe? Did they want you to tell me this?”

“I asked Sal about it after you sent me the photo of your hair. Whatever you did, that was really bad and unexpected for you. Did they think the covid stress was factor? And then they all talked about it and asked me to talk to you about it. Obviously, what happened, happened inside you, but maybe you can be confident that if you stay on top of it, and keep yourself positioned well, then you can be sure that you’ll be able to steer your heart. You know I like sex, and in the past if you’d asked me, would I ever be able to stop sleeping with the first boy who looked at me, I would’ve laughed. But now there’s no chance I’ll ever cheat on Julian. I’m 100% certain of that. But I think it means, you should always know that what happened is something that happens easily for you, so you must always guard against it. Unless you like what you did?”

Toni looked at her, aghast. “Larissa, I had sex with a man to get alcohol.” Larissa nodded, that’s what she would’ve predicted from them cutting her hair off. “Unsafe sex.” Larissa drew in her breath. Toni nodded shamefacedly. “Never again. Never.”

“Right. Never.”

“But alcohol, Larissa, it’s sooo good.”

“I know, Toni, I know. Why do you think I drank so much?”

“Cause of what happened to you?”

“That was the excuse. Not the reason. But now, I’m 100% certain I’ll never drink again. Have they told you how we manage it?” No. “Sweetie, tell her about our agreement.”

Julian did. Focusing on the wild and crazy, and how their friends reacted. Was Toni that wild and crazy?

“Fuck, Julian, that’s me. I am that wild and crazy.”

“So now you know,” Larissa said. “You can be wild and crazy and safe and sober. Like your mum. You just have to plan for it, make the right relationship, the right guy. I know what you’ve said about it, but I think you need a man.”

“Yes, that’s what Michelle and Zara think too. And Mum and Dad have finally told me that too, though they really didn’t want to.”

Larissa nodded. “You know what I think you should do? Sign up for a martial art. That’s where you’ll get discipline, and find a wild and crazy but reliable and disciplined stud who never stops, like mine.”

“Yes, I want to. Can I come with you?”

“I’ll look into it,” Julian said. “Or find you somewhere else, for when you’re not grounded anymore.”

Toni jumped up out of their arms and ran to the bottom of the stairs. “Mum! Mum!”

Kat came running down the stairs. Obviously she’d been waiting at the top of them.

“Yes, Toni?” Kat said, smiling.

“Larissa says I should take up a martial art. Can I? Please? Can I do it with them? Please, I really really want to do that. She says it will help me.”

Kat smiled at her. “Yes, you can do that. I think it’s a good idea, and we might even let you do that while you’re grounded. I’ll put that to Michelle and Zara.”

“Thank you, Larissa! You’re the best. I know I can be right now. Oh, you’re an angel!”

Back in the car, she asked Julian, “How can she possibly come to Taekwondo with us?”