Chapter 93: Going Public

I tried to keep my nose out of the writing and distribution of the article about the Extended Family – and me. I could have been deeply involved, but I decided to maintain some plausible deniability, just in case. In the end, it didn’t make any difference.

The first publication of the lengthy article took place in a bimonthly west coast publication Experiences. They published the story, word for word as submitted by Alice. The magazine focused on healthy life styles, fitness, and quality-of-life topics. Thus, the story, that had the title ‘A Most Unusual Family’ was right up their alley, especially with the focus on healthy sex lives, love, shared experiences, mutual support, and healthy habits.

I was cast as one of the more senior members of the clan, but not the leader, which I was glad to see. The last thing I wanted was to become thought of as a cult leader that gets popular singers pregnant.

Other magazines of a similar ilk also started to publish the story, although many of the others edited down the story to many fewer words. In some of those spin-offs, I either disappeared from the story or became the focus.

We also alerted Maggie Moore as to what we were doing and why. She was ecstatic that I was going to have more children, and I promised her an exclusive when we decided to go public.

I wasn’t surprised when I got a call from Molliana one day. She was at her L.A. home after a concert in Hawaii. She said, “It’s time. I’m starting to show, and I have to start wearing looser clothes. I’m sure a few people are speculating. Sky is in the same condition. I could barely fit in my costumes at my concert, so after this, something has got to change, and not just my waistline.”

“I’ll call Maggie today. Do you want to be there?”

“No. I have to do some PR stuff here and there are some new songs Dan wants me to record at our local studios with our regular band. Do let me know when you’re going to drop the bomb. Tell Sky, too, so that we’re prepared for the next round of fallout.”

“I will. My guess is in three or four days. Let Molly and Alice, Dan and Jane know that I’m taking off with bomb.” I liked the analogy to the flight of the Enola Gay.

We laughed and ended the call.

My announcing the pregnancies had been a group decision about eight weeks earlier when the core group had been in Florida writing the article – Molliana, Sky, Dan, Jan, Alice, and Molly – oh, and me.

I called Maggie and she wanted me two-days later. I made arrangements to fly up to Columbus the next day. I alerted Sarah and Holly, too. Maggie told me that she’d let all the others know except for Paul, since I told her that I was calling him next.

I got straight through to Paul Davies, my publisher, by calling Marge his sexy assistant and mistress, and probably the woman that I impregnated about two years previous. I asked the two of them to put me on speaker phone where no one else could hear me. They did, and I told them about the ‘planned’ pregnancies of Molliana and Sky, the revealing announcement on Thursday on Maggie’s TV show, and the unpredictable fallout we expected.

The two of them were excited about every aspect of my trip, the announcement, the pregnancies, and the Extended Family. I considered them members in abstentia of our Florida group, and told them so. I promised that I’d stay over for at least a full day, heading back home on Saturday morning. I had a standing invitation to stay at Paul and Eleanor’s home, providing I fucked Eleanor until she was nearly comatose.

Maggie had completely rejigged her Thursday and Friday afternoon shows by the time I got to Columbus. She hadn’t given anyone any reason for the changes other than ‘I have my reasons’. I was the featured guest on the Thursday show – the handsome, urbane, suave, older man who lived in an interesting Family, and ... happened to impregnate some important people that everyone in the world knew. For starters on the show, I was the witty author, however. She made me laugh when she saw me before the show. We quickly talked about our Q&A session on the show.

Maggie’s show started right on time. I was back stage waiting for my cue. I’d done this so many times that I wasn’t nervous about appearing, only about the acceptance of the news I had to deliver.

Maggie did her intro and her monologue, getting a lot of laughs and getting the audience psyched up for the rest of the show. I got my sterling introduction that made me sound like a super hero – a combination of Iron Man, Bat Man, and Superman, only better.

From where I sat waiting, I could look out at part of the studio audience – almost all women. Included in the first row were Holly, Sarah, and Chris – the latter had traveled with me to touch base with her boss, Paul Davies. My daughters Jean and Cindy and their husbands Blake and Josh were there, too. Next to Chris sat Paul, and then Eleanor, Gary, and Marge, and then Joel – Marge’s mostly pretend boyfriend. Someone had rallied the troops to come and support me. I drew strength from their presence.

After the commercial break, Maggie went into a lavish introduction of me. I blushed at hearing all she had to say about me. There was no doubt that she, too, was on our side.

I came out on cue to the polite applause of the studio audience. I suspect only about a quarter of them really knew who I was or what books I’d written.

Maggie and I joshed around a bit, and then, as planned, she pulled out the issue of Experiences and waved it under my nose, plus a few of the other magazines that had similar articles in them.

Maggie said, “You and your Extended Family have gotten some press recently. Let me read a couple of passages from near the beginning of one article:

“Jim Rice is one of the focal points of the Extended Family that has accumulated around him and his home. In some ways, he might be best described as primus inter pares, or first among equals. He is loved and revered by around sixty other people that belong to the extended family, and that includes several well-known actors, TV personalities, and popular singing artists. Those closest to him, however, appear to be the women. They all love him and he loves them.

“The Extended Family has grown to its size based on love – unconditional love, intimacy, openness about everyone’s sexuality, minimal judgments, trust, mutual support, and the desire to be together in each other’s presence for any occasion, even including that intimacy.”

Maggie asked, “Did the article get it right or are there some things you’d add or edit away?”

I smiled, “I think the article is pretty accurate, but to summarize how I live and the Family in only two paragraphs does an injustice to it. We do love each other. While we’re known as an Extended Family, we are also an Intentional Family. We chose to be together not because we’re related – although a few of us are – but because we love and like each other.”

Marge asked, “Are there children in the Family?”

Here was my bridge line. I grinned to myself and felt as though I was pushing a button that said ‘DETONATE’, or to keep my bombing mission analogy, to release the bomb and let it drift towards its target.

“Yes, I have a son about to turn four by Karen – one of the Family members that lives with me. His name is Logan and I’m very proud of him. He’s in preschool at this point, and is quite precocious. He can also swim like a porpoise. I have two adult daughters, too, although they live far away from my home with their families and my young grandchildren.”

“Any others?” Maggie asked.

I waded into the dangerous waters, “Several of the women in the Family are expecting. Two of them are mine, I’m sure. You’ve had both of them on the show.”

Maggie played it straight. “Oh, who are they?” She played dumb, but of course she knew who I was going to name.

“Well, Molliana and Sky.” At this point, their names were so well known in the public that only mentioning their single word names meant instant recognition by anyone in the country that didn’t live under a rock.

There was a collective gasp from the studio audience that carried out over the airways. Many were heard to make some kind of shocked exclamation: “What? Oh! Wow! Geeze! Really?”

Maggie recoiled theatrically. “You mean to tell me that you’re going to be a father to two children those superstars will birth? When? How did that happen? Details please.” She was emphatic, but I expected nothing less.

I smiled and looked out at the studio audience who were all leaning forward by then. They were more or less in shock but I had the attention from every one of them. Their silence waiting for me to speak told the story.

I teased, “Well, the birds and bees story about ‘How’, I’ll skip over, since this is network television – those were the details and they were a lot of fun. [Laughter] The ‘when’ was apparently an evening when we were being very loving around the beginning of last November. Thus, my two lovely ladies are both due at the same time at the end of July. They’re treating it like a close race to see who will hatch first.”

Maggie acted as though she’d forgotten about her speaking filter and bluntly asked, “Did you guys get pregnant together?” We’d talked about that question on the phone, so I expected it.

“Well, probably. As that article you read implied, the Extended Family likes to do things together, even many of our intimate encounters. This was probably one of those. The concept of a threesome is not foreign to us.”

The audience gasped again, and made sounds of additional acknowledgement and for some, displeasure. Some grumbling. Some excitement in a happy tone.

Maggie stated, “So, Molliana and Sky know that you also love other women, including their counterpart?”

“They do and are close friends with all of them. Moll and Sky stay with me when they visit, so we often share the same bed. Sky also lives at Molliana’s house when she’s staying on the west coast. They’re best friends in many ways, despite the ten-year gap in their ages. Molliana is very supportive of Sky’s new career and has been a fabulous mentor to her.”

Maggie genuflected in my direction and smiled. “Well, congratulations, Jim. You never cease to amaze me. I would have expected this news to be on the front pages of newspapers across the country. What’s that story?”

“Well, Sky and Molliana wanted to wait until they had confirmation from their doctors about their pregnancies and to be sure that all was going well, and then there were many people behind the scenes that had to be informed – you know, agents, publicists, band members, record studios, and so on. I guess I’m the first to really go public with our news. I’m proud as punch, by the way. I love both of those women dearly.”

Maggie followed up, “AND, you love and live with some other women as well, right?” She gave me a sheepish grin because she knew that she one of those women.

I nodded. “I have come to realize that I can love more than one person simultaneously – and I mean that in terms of mind, body, and spiritual dimensions. You mentioned that there are about sixty men and women in the Extended Family. I love all of them, although I’m just buddies with men.”

Maggie filled in the missing line, “Implying that you are a lover of the women.”

Some in the audience made interesting sounds again. I couldn’t tell whether they were approval or disapproval.

I nodded at Maggie, “We love each other, so we’ve followed a natural path in our relationship with each other.”

Maggie took a moment and again stated and summarized my books on Polyamory, Relationships, and Others. She did have a cue card, but I knew that she’d read each of them, probably more than once.

Maggie had a country singer that sang a cute song and then joined us. The singer joined us. Maggie said to her, “Peggy, do you want to ask Jim anything?”

Peggy, the singer, smiled and said, “Yes. How do you all live?”

I told about my house and how many of the others lived in their own quarters nearby. I then said, “A point of interest, under Molliana’s creativity and eagerness we have about doubled the size of my house over the past six months. This includes a much larger master bedroom as well as space for nurseries and nannies. We will be able to accommodate a larger group that might want to stay over when we all get together, too.”

“And how often is that?” Maggie asked.

“Well, we’re better able to focus on each other without the distraction of our various jobs on the weekend. I know we’re not alone in that regard.”