Chapter 11

When Darla and her mother arrived home, Darla went searching for David and found him in his bedroom. "Mother wants to talk with us."

David nodded. "Come here, first."

"What?"

David pulled her into his arms and gazed at her with all the love he felt inside him. "I broke a promise this afternoon. I connected with you and didn't touch you. I apologize."

"When?"

"While you were talking with Mother in the car."

Immediately furious, she tried to twist out of his arms, but he held her tight.

"I'm in love with you, too, Darla."

His words dashed her hot anger like a tub of iced water, but immediately took her love for him to new heights. "You are?"

"Yes, but why act surprised? You told Mother I loved you but didn't know it yet."

"Oh, David, I hoped you loved me like I love you, but I didn't know for sure."

"Well, now you know. The second I heard you tell Mother you were in love with me, I suddenly realized all the strange emotions I've been feeling existed because I had fallen deeply in love with you."

He kissed her softly, and she melted against him. "Let's go face Mother," he said when they backed from the kiss.

When they walked into the kitchen, they were holding hands.

Carol shook her head and pursed her lips as her children settled on chairs at the kitchen table with her.

"I just apologized to Darla for not touching her on a visit," David said. "I connected with her while she was in the car with you. Like you the other night, I eavesdropped. Although, the connection was with Darla, I should have touched you, too, so I owe you an apology, Mom. I'm sorry."

"For once, I'm not. I assume you heard most of our conversation, if not all of it, so I won't need to repeat it."

With a nod, David said, "Yes, I heard everything, and for what it's worth, I'm as deeply in love with Darla as she is with me."

Carol groaned and laid her head on her arms on the table. Damn you, George! Why did you go and get yourself killed? I need your help here.

She didn't have a clue about how to handle the situation and decided to discuss it with her children before selecting a course of action. As Darla pointed out today, she prided herself on the two-way, in this case, three-way communication she'd developed with her son and daughter.

She straightened up and looked directly at both of them in turn. "Love is difficult to define. I want each of you to define how you feel about the other, and tell me, not each other. David, you first."

With a little luck, one or both of them just think they're in love, she thought. She also reminded herself that teenagers fall in and out of love at the drop of a hat. She'd gauge their responses before she decided what to do to fix the problem, if it was fixable.

David took a deep breath and gave his sister's hand an affectionate squeeze. "To me, all other girls pale in comparison to Darla, Mom. None are as beautiful to my eyes, none are as sexy or desirable, none are as interesting or engaging, and none are as clever. I suppose a few girls are smarter than she, but not many, and none come close to the overall package I see when I look at her or when I think about her. I asked Ellen for a date, but I didn't want a date with Ellen. I wanted to go out with Darla. Darla mentioned Barbara had a crush on me, but Barbara doesn't interest me. A few days ago, Darla asked me if she could join me for lunch, and I told her I couldn't think of anyone I'd rather break bread with, and I realized my offhand comment was nothing if not the truth. I'd rather be with Darla than anyone else. I also admitted to myself that I didn't want to be intimate with anyone but Darla. Surprisingly, with the admission I still didn't attach the word love to my feelings for her. I didn't realize how deeply I loved her until she told you she was in love with me. For me, love is easy to define. I can define love with only one word. Darla."

David watched the tears in his mother's eyes overflow and roll down her face. Turning to Darla, he was surprised to see tear streaks on her pretty cheeks, too, and their tears brought tears to his eyes.

"My one word for love, Mom, is David," Darla said and smiled at him. "I've been in love with David for a long time. That's why we fought so much. I was in love him, and he didn't feel the same way about me, so I made cutting, unreasonable remarks. I wanted him to notice me, not ignore me, and he certainly didn't ignore me when I pushed his buttons. Not long ago, for some reason he started to treat me differently. He started to treat me with respect and affection, and all my loving feelings for him intensified. Then he asked me to give him a kissing lesson. Oh, Mom, I melted in his arms! I just melted! I wanted him to kiss and hold me all the time. David and I talked about the 'I' word, Mom. We knew how we felt about each other, what we were doing with each other, was wrong, but my feelings for him didn't lessen. They grew stronger and stronger until I didn't care about any laws of man, or nature, or God. I just cared about David. I was overjoyed because the love of my life wanted me! Wanted me as much as I wanted him." She turned and looked at David. "And today I found out the man I love loves me right back." Looking back at her mother, she added, "And, I couldn't be happier."

Carol laid her head back down on her arms. Fuck! George, you son of a bitch, where are you when I need you so badly. Why aren't you here? Our children are in love, deeply, madly in love, the first-love kind of love, teenager love, the worst kind of love, which would be all right, but they're in love with each other. Any suggestions, George? No? I thought not.

She sat up. "Okay, you've convinced me. You don't merely think you're in love; you are truly in love. Now we need to decide what to do about it. I'm your mother. I have a responsibility to do something about this. Ah, hell, I'll leave the choice to the two of you. Which of you should I send to live with a relative? George's sister might take one of you. Put your heads together and give me a name."

"Ah, come on, Mom, get real," David said.

"I am being real, Son, very real. As a parent, I can't allow an open incestuous relationship to flourish under my nose. If you weren't in love with each other, I could probably put a stop to your sexual shenanigans and return our family to a reasonable degree of normalcy, but as it is, I see no other choice but to separate you. I am open to suggestions, though. Darla, what do you think I should do?"

If Carol had taken her daughter's hateful glare seriously, she'd have had no recourse but to slap her silly, which would certainly shock both of them, considering Carol had never struck either of her children.

"Darla doesn't have any suggestions. David, what about you?" Carol asked.

"You asked what I thought YOU should do about this," Darla said. "Don't David and I have a say in the matter."

"I did ask for suggestions, which I'll consider, Darla, but ultimately the buck stops here. I am after all the parent and the head of this household. Do you have a reasonable suggestion?"

"Separating us won't work," David said. "If you send one of us to live with Aunt Kate, we'll still find a way to be with each other. Don't fool yourself, Mother. I'll find a way. I can visit Darla every day, wherever she is, and we can talk with each other. It may take a while, but somehow, we'll develop a plan to make it happen, and in the process, you'll only succeed in alienating us without achieving your purpose."

"And if you think separating us will cause us to fall out of love, you're mistaken about that, too," Darla added.

Carol rolled her eyes back in her head and groaned. "Okay, assuming I don't separate you, which still remains the best option, what do you think WE should do? Doing nothing is not an option."

"Why?" Darla asked.

It was Carol's turn to glare.

"Yes, why?" David parroted.

"Because what you're doing is wrong. It's a parent's obligation to..."

"To raise her children to become happy, productive members of society," David said, interrupting her. "It seems to me doing nothing achieves this goal, whereas separating us insures its failure."

"David, you can reason with me, take me on circular routes of logic, and provide arguments worthy of a debate team from Harvard, but when you're finished, doing nothing will still not be an option."

"Why? Are you afraid others will discover how Darla and I feel about each other?"

"That's one reason."

"With a studied approach, considering all possibilities and ramifications, that possibility can be minimized."

"But not eliminated."

"No, not eliminated, but I feel the problem can be minimized enough to make the effort worthwhile."

"Perhaps you're the problem, Mother," Darla said. "Are you so opposed to incest, you can't handle David and I together under the same roof with you?"

Should Carol tell her daughter about the incestuous, psychic sex games she'd been playing with her son to demonstrate how wrong Darla was? Carol had not planned to ever inform anyone about what she'd done with her son, especially Darla. Then again, if Darla knew everything, perhaps her daughter would reconsider the destructive course she'd chosen. The risk was great, though. She could lose her daughter, and if she lost her daughter, she'd also lose her son. No, the risk was too great.

"Frankly, incest doesn't bother me all that much," Carol said. "If it was up to me, and not the rest of the world, as much in love as the two of you appear to be, I'd say have at it. No, I'm concerned about your well-being, Darla, yours and your brother's. I see a multitude of problems. If you become lovers..."

"When we become lovers," Darla said.

"Okay, when you become lovers, you must somehow hide your feelings for each other from everyone you know, which won't be easy. David, you're at an age you should be dating, and you can't date your sister. Darla, in less than six months, under more normal conditions, you'd start dating, too, and you can't date your brother. But both of you say you have no interest in anyone but each other. If you don't date others, how long do you think it would take for someone to figure out there's something rotten going on in the Stanley household? Not very long would be my guess."

"Then we'll date others," David said simply.

Carol looked at Darla, and her daughter didn't look happy. "How would you feel about David out on a date with another girl?"

"Crappy, but I'd handle it if that's what it would take for us to stay together."

"Fair enough. As of right now, Darla, you have my permission to date." She turned to her son. "David, how would you feel if Darla went out with another boy?"

"Like the green monster of jealousy was camped on my shoulder, but like Darla, I'd handle it if that's what it takes."

"My, my, my children have such open minds. Let's see how open? You're in love, so I assume you intend to be monogamous. Correct?"

"Yes!" they both said simultaneously.

"Then dating others won't do you much good. Part of dating - the reason I made the age-sixteen rule - includes some necking and petting. Dating allows teenagers to explore their growing sexuality at their own pace. Some, like Ellen, start too soon and aren't mature enough to handle themselves and go off the deep end - your words, Darla. I've been so proud of both of you I could bust. You waited long enough, became mature enough to handle yourselves properly, and if you weren't involved with each other, I would have loved watching you go through the learning curve with sex." She grinned. "Frankly, sex is a lot of fun."

"You're starting to ramble, Mom," David said.

"Sorry. My point is if you date and don't do a little necking, or more, dating will only exacerbate the situation."

"Not necessarily, Mom. I won't care if I'm labeled a tease."

"To acquire the label, you'll have to tease, which means you'll lead boys on, but won't put out. How would you feel about that, David?"

He shrugged. Her son didn't look happy, either.

"How about this scenario, Darla? Some of the girls David dates might not want to tease him. They might want to put out. What happens then? Should he accept their gracious offers or turn them down? Remember, there is no fury like a woman scorned. When a girl is rejected, she'll demand to know why, which will cause her to focus on the two of you. If I were to predict the source of your exposure, I'd say it would come from a rejected female. Also remember, teenaged boys rarely turn down such offers from pretty girls."

"If he accepts any such offer, I'll tear his testicles out by the roots."

Carol laughed and David joined her, but his small laugh sounded understandably nervous.

"That's my daughter, the Terror of Tempe. Okay, to hide your love for each other from others, you've agreed to date others, an admittedly strange but possible workable solution. However, you intend to be monogamous, which means when Darla goes out on a date, she'll neck a little, but can't put out, which will get her labeled a tease. When David goes with a girl, he risks the loss of his balls, which should put some extra stress on any date. If a girl trips David so he falls between her lovely legs, he has to turn to the side and offer her his hip. Hah! Brilliant!" she said sarcastically.

"Okay, let's talk about an acceptable level of necking and petting," Carol continued. "I assume both of you would accept kissing others while dating, correct?"

"I guess," David said.

"Yeah," Darla said reluctantly.

"Marvelous. We're making headway. Kissing is okay. What about touching. Will you allow a boy to feel your breasts over your clothes, Darla? David, will you to the same to a girl? And if the two of you do this, is it all right with each other. If touching covered breasts is okay, what about bare breasts? And I suppose we need to bring vulvas into the discussion. David, you need to decide if Darla should allow a date to fondle her vulva. If this is allowed, then in all fairness, Darla, you should allow David to do the same with his date. How about mutual masturbation? And don't forget oral sex? In other words, you must decide when your vow of monogamy will be breached? And to complicate the matter even further, David is capable of psychic sex." Boy, oh boy, is he capable of psychic sex.

"The two of you will need to make a set of rules you'll both live by and accept, and the rules will need to change as you get older, because older teenagers do more. Are you having fun yet? And we haven't talked about best friends. Best friends tell each other everything. Neither of you can have a best friend again because you won't be able to act like best friends should. In fact, even casual friends will be rare. Then there's the absolutely no-babies rule, which makes me very, very sad. I'd love to spoil some grandchildren. To go on, when you even want to kiss each other, you'll need to find someplace very private. You can't go out to dinner or dancing with each other, or even to the movies. In fact, with the way you look at your brother, Darla, the two of you shouldn't even be seen in public together. My God, Darla, someone only needs to see you look at David to see you're crazy about him. That's how I figured out what was going on. Are you starting to get my point?"

"Yeah," David said.

"Uh-huh," Darla said at the same time.

"Okay, here's what we're going to do. First, Darla, I cancelled your stay with the Gainses. And when this discussion is finished, I'll call my mother and tell her the two of you prefer to take care of yourself. You'll have to handle her hurt feelings, not me. Darla, you told me you weren't ready to go all the way, and wouldn't be ready until after my return. Has this discussion altered that attitude?"

"No. Maybe. Why?"

"Because if the two of you don't promise me you won't have sex until after my return from Albuquerque, I won't go, and my business will fail."

"Define having sex," Darla ordered.