Chapter 3

Marie and Barbara Dawson went back to the conference room and the girl was astounded by the change in the room's appearance. The paneling on one wall had been folded back revealing a full-scale gourmet kitchen, where the girl who had served them coffee was now preparing food assisted by three others. Meanwhile, two other young women who were naked were setting the big table with a great many places. One of the girls looked exactly like Marie but with longer hair. Marie told her it was her twin sister, Celeste.

The other girl was about five feet three or four with a gamine haircut. Bobbie could almost swear that the girl's abdomen was visibly convex. When she asked about her, Marie replied casually that she was Ali's daughter — and daughter-in-law — Joan Clifford, and indeed she was pregnant. "In fact," Marie said, "I think she will deliver any day now." The girl just shook her head in disbelief.

Then, looking at Bobbie, Marie said, "Please don't mind what you're about to see. I will assure you, though, that I haven't completely lost my mind."

With that she went to the girl who was supervising the kitchen and knelt down in front of her. It was only then that Bobbie noticed that the girl was barefoot. Marie bent low and kissed the woman's feet.

Looking down, Kathy Carlson said, "Marie Conroy, will you kindly knock off that shit!"

Rising to her feet, Marie just said softly but firmly, "Of course not, Lady Kathy. You know I cannot stop worshiping you."

With that she tipped her head up and cocked it slightly. The other woman's face came down and the two sets of lips merged in a kiss that Bobbie thought was beautiful beyond belief. She realized that she was almost literally seeing the purest love flow between the two women.

When they parted, Marie asked softly, "How would you like to punish me today, Lady Kathy?"

"I'll have to think of something," Kathy replied, and then gave one of Marie's cheeks a very hard pinch.

Marie yelped in pain, then slowly rubbed the injured spot and stuck out the tip of her tongue, but her eyes were gleaming. Then she said, "Lady Kathy, I don't believe you have been introduced to Tom's classmate from USC, Bobbie Dawson."

Turning to the girl she said, "I would like you to meet my savior and inspiration, Katherine Carlson. She is also one of my partners. She is the principal secretary at the firm, she's the research department, the firm's expert on contracts and the construction and real estate industries.

"In addition, she's the finest female golfer in the world, the strongest woman alive, and the source of my life and my love, as well as being my inspiration."

Pointing to her left flank she concluded, "The initials branded on my flank stand for Kathy Carlson. The reason for the location is that during their honeymoon I had the great pleasure and good fortune to be able to warm Kathy's right side while she warmed her husband, Ken."

When she asked what was for lunch, all Kathy would do was assure her it would be edible.

Then they went out another door and entered a hitherto unseen area of the office. It was like a very large segmented nursery filled with children ranging in age from about five years old downward to just a few months. Bobbie was amazed to see so many of the young women she had seen earlier in the conference room helping all but the very youngest get dressed.

Marie continued to show the girl around the offices and then they returned to the conference room. There they were greeted by Joan Clifford and Barbara was shown to her seat which was indicated by a place card.

Barbara asked Joan about her pregnancy and was utterly dumbstruck by her reply, "Oh, it's fine. The contractions are coming about every five minutes or so now, so I guess I'll check in at the hospital after lunch." Then with a little grin she added, "I'm afraid Bill will have to get his own dinner tonight."

"You can't be serious!" Bobbie exclaimed.

"I'm afraid I am," Joan said with a wry grin. "The bureaucratic jerks that run those joints never let us go home to cook while we have a baby in their nursery."

When Bobbie explained that she was referring to being in labor, Joan just winked and said she knew that was what she meant the first time. Then she said that the girls, for some reason — maybe instruction from Hank Conroy — averaged about thirty seconds of hard labor: one hard push and it was over.

Then she asked, "Would you like to feel? A woman in labor feels sort of ... strange."

Bobbie stood behind the smaller girl and put her fingertips on her abdomen. She could feel the motion inside as the birth process was well along. As she did she noted that Joan, like Marie, had no pubic hair and asked her about it. Joan told her that she had worked nude as a waitress — only wearing a tiny apron, net stockings and high heels — and the management insisted. She had gotten used to it and her husband, Bill, claimed to love her cunt that way. "Besides," she concluded, "I don't have to worry about those idiots slicing up my groin trying to shave me this afternoon."

Bobbie took her seat and was strangely relieved to find that Harriet was seated diagonally opposite at the long table — about as far away from her as she physically could be. Just then a boy and girl, each about five years old, came up to her.

The little boy had golden blonde hair, vivid blue eyes and was wearing a short-sleeved white shirt and blue short pants with a little belt. He was scrubbed and his hair was neatly combed and brushed.

The boy held out his hand and said, "Good morning, Miss Dawson. My name is Kenneth Clifford. I am Ali Clifford's son, and I'm very glad to meet you." With an incredibly brilliant smile he added, "I am very pleased to be sitting next to you at luncheon today."

She shook his hand gravely and he continued, "Miss Dawson, it is my pleasure to introduce my niece, Andrea Cartwright. Andy is my sister Connie's daughter, and will be sitting next to you, as well." Then with the warmest smile Bobbie had ever seen he added, "Our family is a little odd with the ages of children."

Andy Cartwright had vivid emerald-green eyes and hair that was so blonde it was almost white. Like everyone else present, the two children were both deeply tanned and Barbara was certain that it was all over their bodies. The little girl made the most beautiful deep curtsy Bobbie had ever seen.

Then with the greatest aplomb, she held out her small hand and said in a beautifully modulated voice, "How do you do, Miss Dawson. I'm very happy to meet you." Then with the most impish grin Bobbie had ever seen, she said, "Thank you for introducing me, Uncle Ken."

Bobbie found she couldn't resist. She scooped the little girl up in her arms and held her tight, then kissed her full on the lips. What followed amazed her. The little girl moved her lips on Bobbie's while the purest love flowed between them. When they separated, the girl just looked deeply into Bobbie's eyes, while Bobbie looked into hers.

She realized that she was looking into the most love-filled eyes she had ever seen, and the girl just exuded goodness. Remembering the line from years before that the eyes are the window of the soul, she noted that there was nothing there but love and sheer goodness. She put her down and repeated it with the little boy and achieved the identical result.

When she put him down again, he said, "Thank you for the kiss, Miss Dawson. It was wonderful. You're a very good person."

Then the little boy escorted the little girl to her chair and seated her, then sat down at his own place. Bobbie realized she had never had such an experience in her life. She was encountering a level of manners she thought had become extinct around the turn of the century. Yet the children were bubbling, vivacious and clearly enjoying themselves and the situation.

She asked the children about it after first asking them to please call her Barbara, or, better yet, Bobbie.

Ken Clifford looked at her skeptically and said, "I would like to, Miss Dawson, but Mommy says it's disrespectful to call an adult by her first name."

When Bobbie asked them about the luncheon they both said that it was a very special treat for them to eat lunch when the firm had professional company. The reason the children were so well-behaved was that if they were not they were barred from the office for thirty days.

"Oh, I see!" Bobbie said. "That means that your mother has to get a babysitter to stay with you while she's at work."

The two children looked at her with puzzled expressions on their faces. Clearly, what she had said was totally foreign to their experience. Then Andy, who, it turned out, was older than Kenny by about three months, shook her head and grinned, explaining, "Oh no, Miss Dawson! If we can't come to the office, our mothers don't come in either. Since they're all happier here together, we all try our very best to be good in order to make them happy."

"You see, Miss Dawson," Ken continued, "all of our families work pretty much the same way. Take my mother, for example: For her, the sun rises and sets in Dad. There is nothing she will not do to make him a little happier or to create a little more pleasure for him — and that's utterly regardless of the cost to herself in doing it, of course. Then there are the children: Did you see Mom nursing my sister this morning? It's the most beautiful sight in the world to see her cradling the baby to her tit and loving her while she drinks Mom's luscious milk."

With a wonderful warm smile he added, "I often get to drain her tit when the baby falls asleep so I know how delicious her milk really is. And you know what else?" he asked. "While I am nursing, she's stroking my head, my face and my body while telling me how much she loves me. And she really does!" he added emphatically with tears coming to his eyes.

"So you see, we have to be good because it's the only way we can possibly show our mothers how much we really love them. That's because we can't give them anything or do anything for them, ever. But when I'm being really good, Mom gives me her sunshine smile and tells me how happy and proud of me she is. If you have ever seen my mother's sunshine smile, you know how wonderful it feels when it's aimed at you!"

It was all Bobbie could do to keep from fleeing the table. Here were these two very young children teaching her what motherhood was all about. She felt so humble and realized her attitudes had been so incredibly wrong before that she wanted to run away.

The meal was served and it turned out to be the most spectacular omelette she had ever seen. Looking towards the cooking area, she realized that Kathy was producing six at once and appeared to be a juggler as she dexterously handled all six pans with omelettes at various degrees of completion. As she flipped them out one after the other, Celeste and Joan added soufléed fried potatoes and a salad and quickly served them.

Bobbie still couldn't believe how quickly Joan was moving in spite of actually being in labor. Ali announced that, in view of the fact that omelettes quickly got cold and they had to be made individually, please eat when served.

When she was served, Harriet Dobbs made a small scene. "But ... but these are... eggs!" she protested. When Ali pointed out calmly that omelettes usually were made with eggs, she said, "But all that cholesterol!"

"I live on Kathy's omelettes — whenever I can bludgeon her into making them, of course," Ali Clifford replied. "Ms. Dobbs, I'll bet you $1,000 that my bad serum cholesterol level is lower than yours and my good cholesterol level is higher. Do you want to take me up on it?"

"Well!" Dobbs huffed. "Of course you're so much younger, so what could I expect."

"I'm reasonably certain I'm older than you are." Looking carefully at the woman she said, "Although you look to be about fifty, my guess is that you're about thirty-eight. I'm forty-four. Now how about that bet?"

All eyes were focused on the two women when Sandy told Harriet not to take it. She added with a grin and a wink at Ali that she was just trying to prevent trouble between Ali and her husband, Bill.

When Harriet looked puzzled, Sandy said, "Harriet, Ali is married to Bill Clifford, one of the very richest people in the world. His — or more accurately, their — net worth is now probably in eleven digits. Since you're not an economist, to save time I'll tell you that's a number larger than ten billion!

"The result is that the way to really ruin Bill's day is to tell him how much money you made for him — he claims he can't come close to spending what he already has.

"As far as the bet is concerned, Ali Clifford has a good cholesterol level higher than the average person's bad, and a bad cholesterol level that doesn't even register in the test."

Then with a tone of steel in her voice she added, "Harriet, eat the damned omelette! I guarantee you will never taste one nearly as good in your life. Furthermore, this is in honor of the return of Marie Trang — or more accurately, Marie Conroy — to the firm. You see, being on that island for four months, there were no hen's eggs and she and Tom never really developed a taste for the eggs that they could find."

Bobbie agreed with Sandy's characterization of the meal: It was the finest food she had tasted in her entire life. While she was eating, she noticed that the children flanking her were sitting up straight in their chairs with their hands folded, patiently waiting for their food.

When they were served, she noticed that they were neater eaters and had far better table-manners than her classmates at school. After a magnificent crème caramèl was served for dessert and was then followed by coffee, everyone rose from the table.

Ken Clifford made a little bow and held out his hand. When she took it he said, "Thank you very much, Miss Dawson, for allowing us to join you for luncheon. It has been a real pleasure." Andy Cartwright said essentially the same thing.

As they were turning to go, their mothers came up behind them, scooped them up and held them tightly in their arms. Bobbie noted that both children instantly nuzzled their mothers' necks and then kissed them.

With Kenny in her arms Ali Clifford said, "Thank you, Barbara, for dining with my son. It looks like he and my granddaughter behaved themselves."

The girl slowly shook her head and said, "Mrs. Clifford, you have to be overflowing with pride — or you certainly should be. I was thinking as we were eating that I never see table manners this good at USC — anywhere! And Kenneth Clifford is the most handsome young man I have ever seen."

Then she looked up at the ceiling, counted on her fingers and said with a wonderfully warm smile, "In fifteen years, I'll only be thirty-three. Would that be too old? Could I wait for him?"

She was then dazzled by Ali's sunshine smile that her son had told her about. It virtually melted her to the floor.

Hugging the little boy tightly, she whispered loudly enough for Bobbie to hear clearly, "Kenny, Miss Dawson is wondering if you will marry her if she waits for you. My darling son, you must have been extra good today!"

With that she hugged him tight and Bobbie could see the little boy's ears turn red as he nuzzled Ali's neck. Then he pulled back and she gave him her sunshine smile saying, "Kenny, you have just made me so very proud of you!"

She looked into his eyes and added, "You know, Ken, mothers always have a very special place in their hearts for their firstborn sons. My darling, you're a delight."

As she said it, Bobbie could see in action precisely what the little boy had said to her at lunch: He was almost bursting with joy.

Then Andy's mother put out her hand and said, "We haven't been introduced. I'm Ali's daughter, Connie Cartwright. Thank you for taking care of Andy at lunch today."

Bobbie found herself looking at the most stunning silver blonde she had ever seen. It was clear that Andy was going to be the image of her mother. Bobbie repeated essentially what she had said to Ali.

Then Andy said, "Mommy, I was trying so hard to be good so you would be proud of me. Were you, Mommy?"

"Oh, my darling Andy, how could I not be?" Looking directly into the little girl's eyes Connie said, "You have made me so happy and proud, my darling!" Then she kissed the little girl full on the lips.

Bobbie could see an incredible flow of love between mother and daughter. When they parted the little girl told her mother what she and Ken had said to Miss Dawson. When she did, Connie Cartwright unleashed a sunshine smile so bright that it rivaled Ali's in intensity. It was now so obvious to Bobbie that what the little children had told her was the absolute truth: The pinnacle of their happiness was to be able to do things to make their mothers happy. It was a very humbling thought.

When the mothers put their children down, Bobbie got down on her knees and hugged and kissed both children. Then she looked at them both and said, "Thank you so much for demonstrating to me so vividly the joys of motherhood."