Chapter 39

I watched Stephanie take her first Tae Kwon Do lesson from the edge of the mat. The instructor treated her distantly, barely even looking at her while she performed the exercises.

"He knows," Rachel whispered.

She was stretching out beside me. The instructor had welcomed me warmly and asked that I take class even though I did not plan to attend his school.

"I didn't tell him what happened to me when I started coming here my freshman year," Rachel continued. "He did everything right though. I think he knows when he's dealing with a woman who has been through this kind of thing."

"You should talk to Nancy," I said softly.

"I don't need help, David," she insisted. "I'm over it."

"You can't even say you were raped, Rachel," I said with some steel in my voice.

"He was my first male lover after it happened," Rachel said gesturing with her head at the instructor.

"Good way of changing the subject," I said with a smirk. "By the way, I didn't need to know that."

Rachel let out a quick laugh and pushed me.

"Why does he want you to take class?" she asked me.

"Are you going to get on Nancy's couch?" I asked instead of answering.

"Jesus, David!" Rachel sighed shaking her head. "Do you ever let something go?"

"Hmmm," I said tilting my head as if I were thinking about it. "Not this, but I'll answer your question if you answer mine."

"You mean you'll answer my question if I answer yours the way you want me to?"

"You're very good at this," I told her.

"Alright, I'll let Nancy try to fix me," she said looking down.

"She cannot fix you, Rachel," I continued "Accidents sometimes require you to rebuild completely. Nancy's role is to hand you tools while you finish what you've already started."

"So why does he want you to take class?" she asked changing the subject.

"Stephanie trusts me," I said. "Unfortunately, she only trusts the things or people that I show trust in."

"I don't get it."

"Nancy was only part of the problem in establishing a connection with Stephanie," I said. "Stephanie didn't trust our good head-doctor."

"They seem to be doing okay now."

"My view of Nancy recently changed."

"Excuse me?" she said querulously.

"I didn't care for Nancy until Doris Alex put her through the wringer," I said. "My attitude influenced Stephanie's greatly."

"You didn't trust Nancy," she said clarifying the point. "But you don't trust anybody, and I doubt you trust her now."

"I don't have to trust somebody to believe they will get a job done," I pointed out. "After Doris Alex instilled a greater sense of humility in Nancy, I am fairly certain she can manage Stephanie's needs. Nancy was also made aware of the consequences of not giving me her best."

"Melisa had a little something to do with it too, at least from what I heard."

"Doris Alex served my purpose," I said. "Melisa..."

"That little blonde bitch was making sure Nancy never even thought of looking at you crossly again!" Rachel said with a hard laugh.

"Something like that."

"No, David, exactly like that!" Rachel insisted. "In Melisa's world, no one is allowed to say a bad word about you. God help them if they say it to you!"

"Except for her, of course," I replied with a smile.

"Melisa manipulates things, David," Rachel said quietly. "But it's always for you or for her and you."

"So anyway," I said after a minute of silence. "Your instructor, who seems to have an instinctive understanding of what women need, is giving me the opportunity to show Stephanie that some of the rebuilding can be done here."

"How are you going to do that by taking a class?" she asked curiously.

"I'm not just going to take a class," I said with a small smile.

"How did you do it?" Rachel asked me on the drive home.

Melisa was brilliant at getting her way so Rachel was driving her car. As long as Rachel used Melisa's car, my First was free to use my car whenever she wanted. I had to wonder if Rachel knew she was enabling Melisa's manipulation. I considered buying yet another car, but decided since no Sibling complained when I used their car I might as well accept the relatively minor inconvenience of Melisa's preferring to use anything labeled David's. I shrugged thinking that at least Melisa ensured everyone got something in return; I was, after all, sitting next to a sexily sweat-drenched Rachel.

"How did I do what?" I asked innocently.

Rachel yanked the wheel to the right. She slammed the brakes when she was parking distance from the sidewalk. I watched as she almost ripped out the parking brake handle as she set it.

"Don't fuck with me, David!" Rachel said very annoyed.

"I thought that was the whole idea," Stephanie said from the back seat.

Rachel mouth opened wide and she turned around to stare at Stephanie.

"Bitch!" Rachel almost yelled while blushing deeply.

Stephanie laughed at the expression on Rachel's face. It was the first time any of us heard her laugh since she moved in. Rachel shook her head and looked at me. I saw that Stephanie ability to joke in a sexual context and laugh touched her deeply. She reached over and patted my hand.

"Anyway," she said giving Stephanie a joking dirty look. "I was sparring you and it was like I could not attack. Every time I made up my mind to hit you, I just froze."

"He did it to everybody, except Master John," Stephanie said almost proudly. "Master John isn't as good as David, but he did not lock up the way the rest of you did."

"How did you do it?" Rachel asked again.

Master John had introduced me as a practitioner of a different martial art whom he asked to stop by for a session with his students. He explained that it was necessary for martial artists to expose themselves to other styles. We compared katas and the differences in strikes meant to accomplish the same goals. The class ended with me sparring the advanced students. Rachel would be testing for her black belt at the school's next major test so she went first. It was not a successful experience for her, and the fact that no one except Master John did any better did not comfort her.

"He had complete control of you," Stephanie crowed. "You were just getting more and more pissed. I thought you were going to explode. You look really cute when you're mad, Rachel."

"You're a natural striker, Rachel," I said. "Your only thought in sparring is hit the other person. Hit the other person!"

"That's the point!" she said sarcastically.

"Yes, it is," I agreed. "But I threw off your rhythm between the point you decided to attack and when you set to do it."

"I don't understand?"

"You say that a lot with David," Stephanie said thoughtfully. "I noticed he's the only one you do that with. With everyone else, you seem to know everything."

Rachel closed her eyes and made a shushing motion with her hand at Stephanie.

"You rhythm is something like this," I said. "Bounce, bounce, approach to the striking distance, bounce, decide to attack, pause, set, attack."

"I didn't do any attacking!"

"Because I moved when you paused," I said. "I created more distance, or moved to either side so you had to turn, or even stepped closer so that you had to think about defending."

"You did that to everybody. Do we all do the same thing?" Rachel asked.

"It's not just disrupting rhythm, Rachel," I told her. "Before you spar, there's a struggle for dominance and ownership. This is my mat! You are here to learn from me! Each one of you surrendered those two points immediately. There's more involved but at that point it's not a question of skill but of who takes control."

"How was Master John able to avoid it?" she asked.

"First, he ignored the entire dominance and ownership question," I said. "There is no real decision for him to attack, his body does it. He doesn't need to set either. Finally, he can change attack mid-stream; if he did set and I moved towards him, the attack changed to one for up-close fighting."

"I'm supposed to learn all of that?" Rachel asked with a sigh.

"Only if you don't want other people to think you bought your black belt at Sears," I said.

Rachel nodded and pulled out of the parking spot slowly. The drive home was a quiet one.

"I gotta take a shower," Stephanie announced when we pulled into the driveway.

She rushed out of the car and into the house.

"That's a vast improvement," Rachel said jokingly. "I'm so glad you cut the 'look ugly and smell bad' phase short."

There were other improvements after Stephanie hit bottom and bounced instead of sticking. Nancy walked the straight and narrow as if she had Doris Alex and Melisa at each shoulder to keep her in line. She seemed significantly happier because of it too. The other Siblings settled back into their normal relationships with me. Stephanie had bad moments and better moments but for the most part it felt like she was climbing towards something rather than crawling through a sewer.

Anna was a constant visitor and every day her hope grew.

The Thanksgiving break emptied the house of everyone except Stephanie and me. Susan took advantage of the situation and stayed with us for the weekend. As we had not been together since the night before we learned of Stephanie's rape, we reacquainted our bodies with each other only minutes after she unpacked her bag. Stephanie had a bout of frustrated depression after it, but dealt with it by smashing a few things. I decided some physical exertion would take her mind off things that were not her business so I pushed the furniture in the living room out of the way and let her pound on the pads Rachel bought her. It took her over an hour to get too exhausted to think negatively about my renewed sexual relationship with Susan. She asked Susan to bathe with her and did not mention or react badly to Susan wanting sexual time with me for the rest of the weekend.

On Saturday, Stephanie asked to be taken shooting. I did not care for the idea much; Stephanie was a little pushy about it so I let her have her way to see what happened. I drove her to the shooting range I used and let her blast away to her heart's content. Although her concentration was superb, she was not a natural shot. She wanted to buy a gun after we were done. I helped her pick a good starter gun to order and waited while she finished the paperwork. The only stipulation I placed was that her gun stayed in a storage locker until I said otherwise and after she argued a bit she agreed to my terms.

Everyone filtered back in on Sunday afternoon. Even the Siblings that did not live in the house dropped in to say hello and hang. They were in need of some relaxation after a weekend with family and most took naps on any available flat surface.

Rachel walked into the house like someone had jacked her into the nearest power plant. She did not say hello to anybody as she rushed up to her room. Her room door slammed shut a couple of minutes later. A couple of the Siblings winced as she stomped down the steps. I sat in the living room waiting for the explosion. Rachel stood in the middle of the living room with everyone watching her. I got the feeling she was making sure we were all paying attention.

"I hate her!" Rachel grunted loudly. "I hate her! I hate her! I hate her!"

"Who?" Malia asked curiously.

Melisa, Doris Alex, and Stephanie rolled their eyes. Malia did not spend a lot of social time with Rachel, otherwise she would have known not to feed the fire.

"My mother," Rachel replied snippily.

"What's wrong with your mother?" Malia asked producing groans around the room.

Rachel spent the better part of an hour yelling about what was wrong with her mother. I had heard it many times during the previous two years so tuned her out. Rachel's mother had a certain view of a woman's role in the world; Rachel was interested in more very early on during her freshman year. Their relationship strained when Rachel switched to an exercise science major. The direction her change in major took her in and her mother's reaction caused Rachel to become closer to her father, which increased the strain on the relationship with her mother. I noticed that Rachel was being evasive about what had caused the major blowup with her mother during the weekend. I sat forward paying more attention. I erred in thinking this was like every other fight with her mother; it was the angriest I ever saw Rachel.