Chapter 4: Godfather

“WILL EVERYTHING WORK okay with the girls?” Beth asked as we drove out of town Friday morning.

“I think so. I think they even managed to figure out some mutual support for each other when no one else is around. I’ll be interested to find out if it goes anywhere. Theresa is really trying to figure out where she fits on the spectrum, you know. She’s not sure if she’s lesbian or straight or AC/DC. I think Leora is more of a sexual opportunist. She’d like a guy but will settle for a girl in the meantime.”

“How do you manage to attract such strange girls to Attic Allure? I really regret missing Farrah Logan’s shoot yesterday. What you described sounds phenomenal. And I’ll bet Theresa was just wetting her panties,” Beth said.

“Um ... I’m pretty sure she wasn’t wearing any.”

“You checked?”

“It was kind of part of the negotiation between Theresa and Leora.”

“Both?”

“Really turned on—mostly by each other.”

“Why doesn’t that make me mad? Instead, I can feel my panties—which I am wearing—getting damp. It excites me to think of you fingering two girls who are kissing and fondling each other. I keep thinking I must be missing something. It’s just ... You know, Anna and I could sleep in the same bed—in fact we will be sleeping in the same bed this week—and we’ll giggle and talk half the night. But other than squeeze each other’s hand a little before we go to sleep, we wouldn’t even think of contact in bed. We’ll wear our little pajamas and talk about girl stuff, including how much we love you, and then go to sleep.”

“Honestly, I think Patricia is the same way. She was best friends with Janice and Judy and has become really close to Anna and Chris, but she wouldn’t think of having sex with any of them—much to Christine’s disappointment.”

“And Ronda?”

“You know, Ronda didn’t have any sexual contact with anyone before Christine and me. The summer she was gone, she experimented a little with another girl, but it was really just an experiment. It seems that all she wants is Christine and me. If we were out of the picture, I think it would be a long time before she found someone else.”

“I hope neither of you get out of the picture with her,” Beth said. “Of all your girlfriends, Ronda is both the strongest and the most fragile. Losing either of you would break her heart.”

“I don’t want to lose either of them. Not any of the five of you. I’m a glutton. I can’t stand the thought of not being with you. All. And yet, I just know that everything will fall apart this fall. Five girlfriends will be living in five different parts of the country and only you will be with me in Chicago,” I said. “I am so thankful that I met you.”

Beth held up her hand and wiggled her thumb back and forth.

“I’m the thumb of your fistful of girlfriends. If you were in a fight, I would make the other four stronger. But by myself, I need to be protected or I’ll be no good at all,” she said.

“Do you believe that, honey? For as much time as I spend surrounded by girls—including my three sisters and mother—I really don’t understand women. You are all a mystery to me.”

“Which is why we are so attracted to you. We like being mysterious.”

I got Beth to Anna’s house and Anna came out to greet her and to give me a loving kiss.

“I missed you so much,” she said. “I’d ask you to come in for dinner, but I know you want to stop at home before you go spend the evening with Chris. I love you so much!”

“I love you, too, honey,” I said. “I’m so glad you invited Beth to stay in town this week. I’m sure we’ll manage some time together this week one way or another.”

“I hope so. I just want to spend time with you. Go ahead now and run home so your parents know you’re back in town.”

“I didn’t get any printing done this week,” I said. “I managed to get proof sheets done so my clients would all get a chance to look at their session and order copies. I would guess that I’ll be printing a lot of pictures in the next week or so.”

“It’s good to know you are so busy right now, but what are you going to do when you start classes this fall?” Mom asked. “I hope you won’t let your education slip.”

“I don’t dare,” I said. “First of all, the class descriptions sound like I have a lot to learn and I want to learn everything I can. Second, I need to maintain a C average or expect to get drafted. I just need to limit the amount that I’m working. Levi at Camera Warehouse hired a couple of women part time to help organize the studio in Chicago. They’ll also help during photoshoots like Chris and Anna have been doing here. They were a big help this week.”

“Are you going to keep using your studio here in Tenbrook?” Kat asked.

“Yes,” I said. “I will probably have at least one client a week here for the next three weeks. And even though I expect to be taking pictures mostly in Chicago, I plan to be back here on some weekends for local work this fall. I got a call from Miss Sullivan before I left for Chicago asking if I would be interested in doing the senior portraits again this year. My winter break starts a week before the winter break here in Tenbrook. I could shoot all the senior portraits that week, and possibly line up Attic Allure sittings for some of this year’s seniors during the rest of break.”

“Can I use the studio while you’re gone?” Kat asked. That stopped the conversation and focused it on Kat.

“Uh ... What do you want to use it for?” I asked. Mom was about to object, but paused to listen first.

“Well, I have a problem,” Kat said. “I’m having a limited variation in my scenes that I paint. I think I’ve painted my horse a hundred times, sometimes with someone on it and sometimes by itself. I’m progressing with oil paint this summer, but I need to practice on more stuff. I thought I could find things among your props and backdrops that I could practice on.”

“I see,” I said. “I don’t think I could just give you a key and let you use the studio any time, because Mr. Barkley would probably not approve. Maybe you could work something out with Patricia. It all depends on how she feels after the baby is born, but she will have the key to the studio while I’m gone. Mr. Barkley has been patient with us getting the gallery cleared out, but we need to get it cleared and Patricia said she’d take care of it.”

“I guess it would work to set up scenes to paint in the studio,” Mom said. “As long as Patricia is there, too. I don’t think you should be alone in the studio, simply for safety’s sake.”

“I’ll talk to Patricia!” Kat said. “Maybe she’ll model for me with the baby. I want to paint a picture of her.”

“Just be patient with her,” Mom said. “Becoming a mother will mean a whole lot of adjustment for Patricia. We all want to help her.”

“I’m kind of looking forward to having another grandbaby nearby,” Dad said. “Deborah is so far away.”

“You came back to hold me!” Christine said when I got to her house that evening.

“I’ll always try to be where you need me,” I said.

“It’s so nice.” She led me to the living room and we sat on the sofa with the rest of the family. “It’s not so much that I need to be held during my period anymore, but I like knowing that you care for me enough to sit with me when I feel bloated and crampy.”

“I might need to have Danny start coming over to hold my heating pad,” Julie said. Chris’s sister was sitting at the other end of the sofa with a heating pad on her stomach. “I don’t like this.”

“I don’t think you should consider that until you are at least sixteen,” Mrs. Evans said. “I know you and Danny are fond of each other, but I believe your sister will tell you that there is something quite intimate about having your boyfriend comfort you during your period.”

“Do you think Kat will want me to hold her?” Brian asked.

“That is definitely too young,” Mr. Evans said. “Sixteen. I think that is too young, as well, but at least sixteen before either of you begin dating, and holding the heating pad is considered a date.”

“Remember, I didn’t have my very first date until four days before my seventeenth birthday,” Chris admonished. “You can wait a little longer.”

By ten o’clock, everyone had quit watching TV and gone off to bed except Christine and me. As soon as we were alone, we started kissing and whispering with each other.

“You can move your hand from my tummy to my breasts if you want,” she whispered. “But be gentle with them. They really get tender during my period. I just like you to touch them.”

“You know I love to,” I said as I caressed her and kissed some more. “I love to touch you no matter where. I’ll rub your tummy, your breasts, your back, your legs, your clit. Anything you want.”

“Would you rub my clit even though my pussy is a mess?” she giggled.

“Yes, I would. Christine, I think we make too big a deal out of a girl’s period in general. It’s like there’s a whole disgust built up around having a little blood in your pussy. You aren’t injured. It’s just messy. I would put my fingers in your pussy. I would make love to you. It doesn’t make a difference to me as long as you are turned on.”

“Oh, wow! I don’t know if I can adapt to that. We’ve always been taught that no one would want to be around a girl during her period. I mean, you’re right. It’s not like I’ve been injured. Blood just comes out. And when it comes down to it, it’s only two or three tablespoons a month. If you came in me during my period, I would have more come in my pussy than blood. You’d deposit about a teaspoon and a half of semen all at once. The two tablespoons of blood I produce takes four or five days to drip out of my uterus,” Chris said.

“Wow! You have all kinds of data I didn’t know.”

“Girls’ health class covered some basic information. I found some of the other information when I was researching sex in the library. Miss Ludwig was quite helpful.”

“My opinion is that no matter if it is during your period or at any other time of the month, you should be able to have whatever sexual pleasure you want to have.”

“I need to run upstairs,” Chris said. “I’ll be right back. Don’t go away.”

I sat on the sofa patiently watching the show and trying to figure out what was it was about, since I’d missed most of it while we were talking. Chris was back in a flash, dressed in a long bathrobe. She lay down on the couch with her head in my arms so I could kiss her some more. When my hand found its way into her bathrobe to caress her breasts, I discovered she had nothing else on under her robe.

“You might need these,” she said, pulling a wad of tissues out of her pocket. “And probably this.” She reached in the other pocket and pulled out a small jar of Vaseline. “The tampon dries up everything, but you can make my clit slick with the Vaseline. Touch me, honey. I want to see if I can come during my period.”

I slid into her robe beneath her waist and felt around her pussy, ignoring the string, and just rubbing softly. I found her clit and she was dry, so I scooped out a little Vaseline and applied it gradually to the area. The heat of her body soon melted the lubricant and her clit became very slippery. She moaned and quickly pulled my lips to hers as I continued to manipulate her clit.

It took a little while, partly because of the tentative stroking and partly because of the embarrassment of having my finger touching her pussy during her period, but Chris rose steadily in her excitement and held my head so her mouth was sealed to mine when she came.

“I don’t feel any cramps now at all!” she whispered as we broke the kiss.

“I love making you come,” I said. “I would like to make it my career choice.”

“How about if I make you come?” she asked.

I wiped the Vaseline off my fingers. Christine opened my trousers and began playing with my cock before she sucked it into her mouth. With just her robe on, I had easy access to her breasts while she played with my cock. I’d been hard ever since I started playing with her pussy and it didn’t take long before Chris was drinking down the teaspoon or two of my semen that spurted into her mouth. Her robe had come completely open and I stroked up and down her body, dragging my finger through her pussy and gently squeezing her breasts as we kissed.

At midnight, I headed home so I could get some sleep before Saturday.

I caught Kat with the laundry Saturday morning.

“Hey. What’s up? I’ll do the laundry,” I said.

“You can take me to the laundromat,” she sighed. “It’s my job now. You don’t even have any dirty clothes in this batch because you washed them all before you left Chicago. Since you aren’t here, the job suddenly became mine.”

“Wow! I didn’t know that. Um ... Do you mind if I help?”

“Really?”

“I kind of got used to it as part of my Saturday routine. I’ve been trying to figure out how I’ll handle it in Chicago. I can’t just ask Elizabeth to do my laundry every week.”

“I like Elizabeth. She’s very sophisticated,” Kat said as she piled the laundry on top of the bed in the back of the VW. She hopped up front and we went to the laundromat. I helped sort the clothes and get them started. Kat had the change for all the machines. Then we just sat and talked for a while.

“I’m excited to see some of your new paintings,” I said. “I can’t believe how fast you are progressing.”

“It’s all learning technique right now,” she said. “I want to develop my own style like you developed with Attic Allure, but Dad reminded me that you were taking pictures from the time you were eleven or twelve until you were almost seventeen before the Attic Allure style began to emerge. He said you had to learn all about the camera and the darkroom before you could really establish yourself.”

“Sometimes Dad really surprises me. He’s mellowed since we moved to Tenbrook,” I said.

“Yeah. I guess. I’m going to miss you when you move to Chicago, Nate.” Kat leaned against me and hugged my arm.

“I’ll miss you, too. I’ll try to come home as often as I can, but I don’t know what the schedule will be like for my classes and assignments. It’s really exciting, but it’s kind of scary, too.”

When the laundry was finished, we took it home and sorted out the things that needed to be ironed. Kat started the same way I did, ironing all the handkerchiefs. I told her about Dad’s rule about handkerchiefs and that when she was ready for a boyfriend, she should make sure he knew that he was always supposed to carry a spare clean handkerchief.

I picked up Ronda a little after noon and we went into Huntertown. It was almost ninety out and we decided all we wanted were shakes at DQ. Then we went for a drive out in the country with Ronda curled up on the seat, leaning against my shoulder. We had the windows open and the radio was playing some kind of country music on the only station we could find.

We were quiet and just enjoyed being together and driving through the country. There were all kinds of backroads to explore that we’d never been on, some of which were just dirt tracks, but we didn’t need to actually back up on any of them. On one, though, we saw a nice little woodlot with a stream running through it. Ronda pointed and I slowed down.

“Can we park there? It’s so pretty,” she said.

I jumped out of the van and walked into the little wooded area. There was a track that went back to what had obviously been used as a campsite before, but it showed no sign of recent usage. The ground was firm, so I decided, ‘why not?’ I turned off the road and drove into the lot and parked in the little clearing. It had a fire ring and even a stack of wood, but we decided not to light a fire. We’d use our grill for dinner and just hold each other as we listened to the creek running not far away.

“I have no idea where we are,” I said. “Shall we just camp here for the night?”

“Let’s. I just want to be with you and be held by you,” Ronda sighed.

She was unusually clingy, but even in eighty-five-degree weather, I didn’t mind her nearness. When we got the tent set up, we just stripped and lounged around. We played cards for a while and talked about the future. And we made love. Soft and gentle love.

“If we weren’t so young, I could imagine this being our life,” she said. “The two of us each engaged in our business and being home with each other, loving and talking and loving. I’m so afraid the future will tear us apart. I’m frightened of it.”

“What are you frightened of, love?”

“Career, family, relationships. And I guess most, I’m afraid I’ll be alone. Love me again, Nate. Tell me you’ll always be with me.”

That was a new twist. My other girlfriends always cautioned me away from talking about forever or always being together. Somehow, being with Ronda was more peaceful than I’d felt in a long time.

In the morning, it took us nearly two hours to find our way back to Tenbrook.

Patricia’s thirty-seven-week photo was Sunday afternoon. She dragged in with the weather already eighty-seven degrees out. She began pulling her clothes off as soon as she walked through the door.

“I’m a whale,” she moaned as she stood in the poses so I could take her photos. She looked a little bedraggled. “Little Tony was kicking all night long and I didn’t get any sleep. I haven’t even shaved my armpits and legs. And I’m sweating like a little pig. Tell me when it’s all over.”

“It won’t be long,” I said. “Come on upstairs and let me massage you and cool you off.”

“It’s five degrees warmer upstairs than down here,” she said.

“But you can lie down and I’ll use a cool damp cloth to wipe you down. It will help.”

I supported her as she made it up to the fourth floor and lay down on the bed. I quickly got a wash cloth and soaked it in the bathroom, then sat beside her to bathe her skin.

“I should have had Tony get me pregnant in the summer and then I’d have had the baby early in the spring when it was still cool. I’d be in a bikini again by now. And he’d have known. He’d have known he was going to be a daddy and he would have been more careful. Tony!” she sobbed.

I wiped her face and her neck. I lifted her arms and bathed her pits, and cooled her breasts and the active little baby in her tummy. I got fresh water and even bathed her pussy and crotch, then on down her legs. I kissed her and then rolled her to her side and began massaging her aching back.

She did not look like a whale. Patricia was a thin and incredibly beautiful eighteen-year-old with a baby bump sticking out in front of her. To hear her moan about it, you would think she had put ten inches on her ass and was walking around on tree trunks. She completely believed that her tits were sagging down to her belly and that she was bloated in the face.

I stroked down her body from her shoulders to her ankles and she suddenly arched her back in pain.

“Oh! Cramp. Cramp. Cramp.” She grabbed hold of my hand and squeezed for a minute until it passed.

“You okay, honey?”

“It must be the heat and exhaustion. I’m fine now. Just keep massaging me, please. My back feels even tighter now.”

I massaged her and told her that I still thought she was incredibly beautiful. I loved stroking her back and shoulders.

“Do you still like stroking my boobs?” she asked.

“Oh, yes. I think you have the most spectacular first pair of boobs I ever saw,” I said.

“Seriously? Up here in the studio?”

“No. When you flashed me in the garage.”

“Oh. Did I do that?”

“I was changing film and looked up. You’d just stripped off your bikini top and were pulling on the blouse you tied below your tits. They were the first pair of human female boobs I’d ever seen. I nearly passed out.”

Patricia started to laugh and then doubled over with another cramp. There was suddenly a wet spot spreading on the bed beneath her.

“That’s ... my ... I’m in labor!” she practically shouted. “Oh, shit. I have to walk down all those stairs!”

“It’s okay, honey. I’ll go get your clothes and then I can take you to your parents. Are they going to take you to the hospital?”

“You take me! You take me, Nate! Please!” She grabbed hold of me hard enough to nearly tear my shirt off.

“I’ll take you,” I said, helping her stand up. We just went down to the next floor and I got her dried off with a fresh towel, I helped her dress. “Where do we need to go?” I asked.

“Huntertown Community Hospital.”

As we exited the back stairway door, I saw Anna and Elizabeth just heading up.

“Anna! Go open the van.” I locked the studio door and tossed her the keys. “I need help. Patricia is in labor.”

“Wait!” Patricia said, almost doubling over. As the pressure passed, she managed to speak again. “My bag. We left it inside by the darkroom.”

“Okay. We’ll come back and get it. Let’s get you downstairs and comfortable.”

I held her and was ready to just carry her if she stumbled, but we got to the foot of the stairs and Anna lit off up them to get the bag. I led Patricia to the back of the van and Elizabeth helped me get her stable on the bed, then crawled in next to her to hold and support her while I drove. Anna tossed me the keys and slid into the passenger seat with the bag in hand.

I had the bus started and in gear as soon as Anna handed me the keys. We were off to Huntertown.