Chapter 212: Too Many Mai-Tai’s

Monday, July 12, 1971

“How did you get access to the roof?” Catherine asked.

I just grinned back at her. This was the first time that we had actually been together, almost alone, in some time. And as I stood, holding her hand and looking out on the shores of Waikiki Beach and the blue waters of the Pacific from the roof of the thirty-two-story hotel, I remembered my promise to hold nothing back from Catherine.

“On second thought, I don’t want to know,” she quickly added. She had discovered that sometimes, it was just too much information.

“If your fiancée wasn’t standing right over there, watching my every move, I’d kiss you!” I told her as I hugged her to me.

“Behave, Michael,” she replied with a blush and a smile. “I’m afraid I just wasn’t cut out for polygyny.”

“Oh, well. My loss,” I sighed theatrically.

“Quit that! And tell me what you wanted to talk about,” Catherine said.

“Nothing serious, I just wanted you to explain what happened this morning. You know, the apology and all that. I mean, I thought I was the one who screwed up.”

“Well, given your real age and experience, you certainly didn’t handle it very well,” she chided.

“But what should I have done?” I asked, seriously.

“I don’t know,” Catherine hesitated, “except to stay out of it.”

“Stay out? I don’t understand.”

“Let me ask you something. In your last life, did you referee every disagreement your sisters ever had? Did you get involved in every decision among them? What about your daughters?” Catherine asked.

“Well, no. I usually let them work it out,” I replied. “That is, unless it came to violence.”

“Don’t you see? Plural marriages, especially polygyny, mean that your brides will have sister-like relationships. And that means that you can’t get involved in every decision that they need to make,” Catherine patiently explained. “Yesterday was a good example. The wedding belongs to the bride, as you well know having had daughters, and that includes the honeymoon as well. Those four knew that they should work out the details among themselves, but when they couldn’t reach an agreement, they tried to put it off on you.”

“I see...” was all I said, hoping Catherine would go on.

“What you should have done was to call their bluff and let them know that you knew what they’re doing and then send them back to work it out among themselves.”

“Is Adriana still returning to New York?” I asked, changing the subject.

“It’s probably for the best at this point. However, if I were you, I would encourage her to stay long enough to support her future sister-wives. While she might not be ready to marry you now, she may one day decide she is ready. In that case, she wouldn’t want to burn any bridges. And remember, she’s also the only one here without any family support. Given time, Jeanne may come around.”

“Okay ... that makes sense,” I said.

“By-the-way, I think it was wonderful that you got Sandy’s dad and mom to come,” she told me.

“It just seemed like the right thing to do,” I told her as I shrugged my shoulders. “Any other wisdom for the condemned man?”

“Just go with an open heart with whatever they have planned,” Catherine said. Then standing on her tiptoes, she kissed my cheek before she headed for the door where David was standing.

I turned back to stare out over the ocean as I thought of how much I loved each of them. I was aware that we were in a public hotel and I was trying to keep it focused on just the one I was thinking of, when it hit me...

“FIND the CODEX,” the eerie voice wailed with so much intensity that I immediately crumbled to my knees behind the waist high parapet. Thankfully, my reflexes had grown quicker in the last few weeks and I had my shield in place in no time. Still, it took several moments to clear my head enough to begin tracing the voice back. By then, however, it was over. I stood with my shield raised, waiting to see if it would be repeated. But it never came.

Finally, I scanned for danger around the hotel, and then for each of my family members. I quickly relaxed some as I discovered they were all okay, if somewhat frightened. It appeared that most of them had heard it.

“Michael!” Vickie cried. “What was it?”

“That’s the same voice we heard on the train!” exclaimed Allie.

“Yeah, except it sounded much closer this time,” Sandy shuddered as she said it.

“You’re both right. It was the same voice and it is definitely closer,” I thought to them. “And it appears to be coming almost exactly from the direction we’re headed.”

Thankfully I was able to shield them from the massive shiver that suddenly went down my spine.

“ ... so Catherine told me that I should let them work it out among themselves,” I told her.

Narvenia and I were sitting on a couple of those plush loungers by the hotel’s swimming pool and looking out at the Pacific Ocean while I was trying to explain what had happened with the girls and their wedding plans, and why.

It was a little slow going because earlier, I had attempted to explain what Mai Tai’s were. Finally, I ordered her one to show her. But after she asked me to show her for the third time, I figured it out.

“So those that choose to be with you, they must choose to be with the others too?” she asked.

“Not exactly,” I said. “Think of it as if you and your sister, Spiro, were both mated to me.”

“Not after she discovered how good you make me feel. Then she would try to dispatch me in anger at not being able to feel that good. And she would destroy me if she found out that I had a soul and she does not!” she said with a giggle.

“Note to self: No more Mai Tai’s for Narvenia,” I thought.

Then out loud to Narvenia, “Oh, but that’s where you are wrong, Sweetheart. I’m positive that your sister has a soul as well. You see, when I told your mother about yours, I sensed hers as well. That means that since you and Spiro are twins, you both would have a soul.”

“Oh my!” Narvenia said as she bolted upright in her chair. Her eyes blinked a few times as she inhaled deeply, all signs of her being tipsy suddenly disappearing. Then placing her hand on the large bracelet attached to her other wrist, she closed her eyes as she began her quiet mantra. I waited silently because I knew that she was somehow storing observations and information in her bracelet. I had tried on a couple of occasions to follow her thoughts when she did this, but they were mostly devoid of emotion and simply way too fast for me to comprehend.

After almost a minute, which was a long time for her, she relaxed her grip on her bracelet as her eyes fluttered open.

“I must find the chemical composition of those wonderful Mai Tai’s. They may have slowed down my transfer rate slightly, but they certainly made the process more fun,” Narvenia said with a giggle. “May I have another?”

“Thank goodness they haven’t asked her age,” I thought as the waiter brought Narvenia another Mai Tai.

“Can we have one, too?” asked Jenny as she and Julie took the two lounge chairs beside Narvenia.

“Me, too! I want pretty um-rella!” Sunny said as she climbed onto my lap.

“That would be up to your mothers,” I told them all.

“Awww, phooey!” Julie said as she and Jenny took off again.

“Here,” Narvenia said to Sunny. “Would you like these?”

Sunny smiled real big as she took the small umbrellas from Narvenia’s previous drinks.

“Look, Mommy!” she cried, holding up the paper umbrellas. “Look what ‘Venia gave me.”

Kathy Lynn just smiled her thanks to Narvenia as she took the lounge chair next to mine. I could sense her amazement at how much Sunny was talking these days.

“So, did you get the weddings all taken care of?” she asked me.

“I hope so,” I told her. “Can I get you a drink?”

“I think I’ll have whatever Narvenia’s having. That looks great.”

“Oh, it is! It’s called a ‘my-tie’ but I do not yet know its composition,” Narvenia told her as I raised my hand to signal the waiter for another Mai-Tai. “And Michael told his future wives to have the sex with their sisters.”

Oh well, I guess some concepts must be harder than others for half-sloshed visitors from another dimension. Kathy Lynn simply looked at me with one eyebrow raised.

“Catherine suggested that the post-wedding details would be best left for the wives to work out,” I explained.

“Okay-y-y, but where did she get the ‘sisters’ part?” Kathy Lynn asked.

“I was trying to explain the concept of sister-wives,” I replied.

“Oh. That’s easy,” Kathy Lynn said. Then to Narvenia, “Just think of it as sharing your sister’s clothes. You don’t own them, but you can wear them whenever you want. You just have to let her wear yours on occasion.”

“I see...” Narvenia said as the light bulb of understanding lit up. “I wouldn’t mind Spiro wearing my white sandals, except when I need them to match what I want to wear. So that means that they must decide who gets to have Michael’s sex after the wedding, at a time when your traditions state that they should all have him. Oh, my ... that is a serious challenge!”

“Yeah, but if I know them, they’ll figure it out,” Kathy Lynn told her with a chuckle. “After all, they love each other like sisters!”

“I’m not sure I could share my mate with MY sister. She would, ... er, what is your word?”

“Hog him. When somebody takes the most of something, or someone, we say they’re ‘hogging’ him,” Kathy Lynn explained.

“Spiro would definitely ‘hog’ him! Especially if he made her feel as wonderful as he makes me feel!”

Narvenia and Kathy Lynn then giggled riotously.

“They’re being yucky again,” Sunny said to me. “C’mon, Daddy. Let’s go swimming!” So we did, leaving her mommy and ‘Venia still giggling and whispering in conspiratorial tones.

I felt a shadow looming over me as I opened my eyes.

“Uh, Michael?” Rachael said. “Can I speak with you?”

“Of course,” I told her, getting up from the lounge chair I had dozed off in. “Why don’t we move to one of the tables with some shade. That way, I won’t have to squint when I rudely stare at your breasts!” I was surprised that she was wearing a bikini that even for 1971, was a very sexy bikini. That’s sexy as in not covering very much.

“I found it in the gift shop. I’m afraid I got rather carried away,” she told me.

It wouldn’t be until later that I figured out what ‘carried away’ meant. In her mid-forties, Rachael claimed that she had long ago become comfortable with the small size of her breasts. However, with my gift, I knew that it secretly thrilled her when I paid extra attention to them.

“Michael, I had another vision,” she announced.

I sat up at her words and immediately scanned the area. Because of the large number of people it took me a little longer than usual, but eventually, I decided it was clear. Then, as was my habit, I scanned for my family. That took a little longer too, as my family had also grown larger. With everyone safe and accounted for, I turned my attention back to Dr. Rachael Dixon.

Widowed and wealthy, Rachael had tracked me down after she first had visions about the codex, visions that I had been able to share in, only because of my gift. It seemed to me that this codex, which acted like it wanted to be found, wanted to be found by someone else, with my assistance.

“May I?” I asked as I touched my fingertips to her forearm. I didn’t really need to touch her for my empathic gift to work. But I found that touching did make the emotions and their associated thoughts clearer. It also made things like visions or dreams, much easier for me to read.

“Was that a cave?” I asked.

“I don’t know. I didn’t want to keep going over it in my mind and affecting my own memory of the dream. So I just came to find you,” Rachael replied.

“Well, wherever it is, it appears to have been well taken care of,” I mused.

“I was thinking ‘worshiped’ might be a more accurate adjective in this case,” Rachael said. “Did you notice the tapestry?”

“Yeah. And the codex appeared to be sitting on ... something. Maybe like one of those pedestals where they lay a bible opened to a certain passage.”