Chapter 37

"Harry ... Harry, it's time to wake up," Karen said as she reached into the jumble of arms and legs to gently shake her business partner awake.

"Mmflegmph..."

"Harry ... this is not a bad dream ... if you're not up soon, I'm going to go get Eddie and have him give you a proctological exam."

"You wouldn't ... he's not here ... go away."

"Harry, he's in the kitchen, and unlike me, he hasn't had coffee yet."

Harry's eyes shot open like window shades that had been pulled down too far and then released.

"We gave y'all keys to the house ... what the fuck were we thinking?"

"I don't know, but you did it and now it's time to start paying. You got your brace on? Good. Let's get you out of there," she carefully disentangled Harry from the arms and legs that lay across him and helped him to slide off the end of the bed. "Now, here's your robe ... smells like you bathed last night before bed ... good thing ... do you need to go to the bathroom?"

"God yes."

"Alright, come on, you're still unsteady. I'll help you."

As Harry sat on the toilet having a morning piss, his business partner standing by him, her back to him, he said, "I love you, Sappho."

"Harry, that that thought occurred to you while you were takin' a piss worries me ... want I should sit down, take a pee and return the sentiment?"

"If you wanna, Sappho ... won't bother me."

"Think I'll pass ... and I love you too ... now if you're through-"

"Must ... have ... mouthwash."

"Okay." Karen waited not-so-patiently while Harry gargled. "Now then, let's get you in there and making coffee. Once that's started I'll be in here getting your wives up. Eddie's got something he wants to talk to the family about."

The family sat around the table and looked at Eddie once he'd finished. He'd started with the news about the Karg, and 'Karggark' knowing his last name, saving the really bad news, the Angie news, for last.

"Margo ... if you wanna beat the shit outta me, I won't raise a hand to stop ya ... neither will Tamara," he said, looking at her pointedly. "Hell," he continued, looking miserable, "I'd feel fuckin' better if ya did."

"Eddie ... if it turns out that this bites us in the ass, I'll hold you to that," Margo said, rubbing her face wearily, "but not until then. You've done more to protect this family than anyone has a right to ask, and we love you for it."

"How long do we have before we have to be ready to leave for the picnic?" Carol asked, yawning as she leaned on Kelly's shoulder.

"About two hours till we need to leave," Harry said, blearily looking at the kitchen clock. "Baby Girl, start breakfast, let's get people fed, our guests taken care of, our subs taken care of and some house rules laid down before we have to go. I'll get another couple of pots of coffee going."

"Thank God we're having everything catered," Karen said. "Remember when we used to do all of it ourselves?"

"Yeah," Harry said, "and if that were the case today, the shit wouldn't happen."

"Yes it would ... remember our third picnic?"

"Sappho, fuck you! I can't handle that much psychic scarring this early in the day."

As everyone sat around the table, and along the counters, eating, the story of the third G & P Picnic unfolded.

"So we'd finished a job for Parson's Pest Control and all they had to do was pay us in something approaching a timely manner, and we'd have the money to put on a good picnic for the troops," Karen said. "So we'd promised the staff a good picnic."

"Now remember," Harry said, picking up the tale, "this was a staff of five, seven if you include us ... to make it a good picnic, we aren't talkin' more than three hundred and fifty, four hundred dollars, and that includes what were nice company bonuses for us at the time. But come the Friday before, it's 10 AM, we've been expecting the check for three weeks, it's been 'in the mail' for three weeks, and we got nothin'. Sappho and I are lookin' at another month of Ramen so we can make payroll and we might have enough Ramen to let everyone have some at the picnic, but that's fuckin' it.

"We're sittin' in the office, getting' madder and madder, and Karen says 'Fuck it, let's go get our motherfucking money!' and off she charges. Well, I knew better than to let her go by herself, no tellin' what lawsuits we'd end up with, so I hop in the car with her and away we go down to Parson's Pest Control, making a fifteen minute drive in about five. She storms through the office doin' her best 'Fist of Righteous Fury' move, I'm runnin' to catch up with her. She bulls her way into old man Parson's office and bellows 'Give us our money' so loud they heard her three states away.

"Oh, the piteous mewling bullshit began to get slung! 'Check is in the mail'..."

"Accountant's out of town with the company checkbook..." Karen added.

"No funds in the account until the following week'..." Harry continued, "you name it, the old man was slinging it. Karen's not buying any of it. Tells him about the picnic, tells him what we're already down to eating to make payroll, and tells him that he either writes a check or..."

The silence was painful.

"Go ahead Sappho, tell 'em."

Karen sat at the table, looking at her plate, her lips tight. Harry came up behind her, hugged her and kissed her on the cheek. "Come on ... tell 'em what you did..."

She muttered something completely unintelligible.

"Do you want me to tell them?"

"NO ... no ... I reached down, grabbed his dick through his pants and told him I would rip it off and skull fuck him with it."

"Well, there went one of G & P's clients," Galena said amidst the laughter.

"No ... actually no," Harry replied. "Once you got it straight with the old man that you couldn't be fucked with, he was pretty easy to work with. But we were a small company, and he thought he could delay payment till he saw just how much more business he got over the life of the campaign. Karen let it be known that shit wasn't going to fly.

"So he writes us a personal check for the full amount, adds a little bonus, a hundred, if I remember correctly, we go deposit it, and head back to work. Then that night, while Sappho and I are grocery shopping for things that were not Ramen for the picnic and our own larder, she has a brilliant idea. 'Let's get some tequila' she says."

"Yeah, brilliant fuckin' me ... next morning, it's 4 AM, we're sittin' on the patio, each of us with a damn near empty bottle of tequila ... we'd propped our feet up on each other's chairs, playin' footsie with each other's crotches ... I think that's the closest I ever came to forgettin' Harry was a guy and draggin' him off to bed."

"Why the fuck didn't you?" asked Patricia.

Her lover looked at Patricia sadly and said, "Harry's a guy ... I don't do guys."

Harry looked at his longtime partner and smiled. "Next day, the Terminatrix there has her sunglasses and bein' a drinker not a stoner, she's a lot more used to the hangover than I am, she's organizing games and such, having a grand ol' time."

"He neglects to mention I had hair of the dog in me ... I finished what was left of both bottles when we got up," Karen interjected.

"The malevolent bitch leaves me with grill duty. I'm standin' there, no sunglasses, bleedin' into my brain cavity, havin' to grill food," Harry continued.

"Every time the wind shifted, Harry'd go run into the bushes and hurl," Karen cackled. "I don't think he had anything left but his toenails by the end of it."

"Nope, didn't even have them. And you're right Sappho; this ain't nowhere near as bad as that day ... I'm not hung-over, I'm just tired."

"Well, you get to sit on your ass today, beloved," Margo said. "If you're up on that leg too much I'm gonna slip something in your drink that'll put you out for the rest of the day and most of the night ... got me?"

"Yes ma'am ... I'll be good."

The House members sat out on the deck, enjoying the morning and sipping coffee.

"Alright Dommi," Margo said as she lay back, resting against the deck chair Harry occupied. "I gather that from your earlier comments that you'd like it if we 'held court' at your place every Friday night."

"You bet I would. And don't get me wrong, I'm not talking performing every week ... of course, the 'three-ring' would only be yours those nights you did, but there's a section right next to it where I can put together a very nice lounge area for you and our Houses, lots of room for guests, plenty of space to have fun and almost as visible, when we get done rearranging, as the 'three-ring'."

"I don't know ... the thought of having to watch Laney and company's performances is enough to make me strongly consider throwing our own show every week," Carol said, caressing Dommi's leg.

"Oh, something tells me, and I'm very psychic this way, that it'll be a cold day in hell before Laney or his friends get a reservation for any table-stage at my club again," Dommi replied.

"Darlin', are you sure you wanna draw that big a line in the sand?" Harry asked. "I mean, so far all you've done is ally yourself with us and, justifiably, ban Shiloh for six months. You make a move like that ... you're declaring war."

"Yes I'm sure, silly man. Now then, as far as your bar tab, yours will be at employee discount, which means at cost, so don't worry about me losing money on you. And feel free to pick up as many guests' tabs as you like. I may not make quite as much money, but we've got very little time to get you known and visible before the Fetish Ball."

"Dommi," Margo said, "why are you asking for Friday instead of Saturday? Saturday night would seem to be a much busier night, better for our visibility and your business."

"It would, but you've got a lot of other people to meet with, and to deal with, and Saturday night's a very good night to do it. I certainly won't object if you're able to schedule any get-togethers you can for Saturday night at my place, but you need the busiest social night of the week free."

"We would give it to you if you asked," Kelly said.

"I know ... and that means a lot. But for you to pull this off in just barely over two months is going to require a lot of schmoozing, and you're going to need that open Saturday night. Besides, you make some unannounced pop-ins during the week, life will be even better."

"So it's settled," Harry said, "we're at your club on Friday nights. Any particular time you want us to show up?"

"Nah, keep it random, sometime between 8 and 10 PM, give me about thirty minutes warning so I can prep a few things.

"And of course, any night you do want the 'three-ring', just let me know. People are going to be talking about last night for quite some time."

Carol patted her leg somewhat absent-mindedly as ideas were already forming in her head.

After seeing Dommi and Angela off in a cab, the family sat the new housemates down for a talk.

"We put up a twelve-foot fence for a reason ... but if you're using the pool during the daylight hours, don't get so loud as to give people a reason to try to see over it," Harry told them. "As far as the house itself, our bedroom is off-limits unless you're invited. That's our marriage space. I hope you can all respect that. If the bedroom door is closed, do not disturb, except in case of emergency ... and remember, we'll be deciding if it was really an emergency after all is said and done. I wish we had clothes for you ladies so you could come along, if you wanted to, like Billy is, but we don't have time to shop ... and really nothing for you to wear while we did."

"Oh you can get around that, Harry, trust me," Eddie said.

"It's okay, Master, we have a beautiful house and a pool and a hot tub all to ourselves," Jackie said. "I think we can find some way to entertain ourselves."

"One question, I was just wondering," Lisa said, "Carol, what room are you thinking of switching the office downstairs with, our room or Billy's? Just if it's ours I don't want to get too settled."

"I was going to switch it with Billy's, that'll leave the two of you the bigger of the two available rooms."

"Well then, I guess our boy Billy shouldn't get too settled," Jackie said, smiling at him.

Hal Stallings woke up, his eyes surveying the devastation of their bedroom. He and Tori had a good sex life. Objectively, they both agreed, it was good. They tried something new every once in awhile, got a little kinky from time to time, and things were great.

They had never had a night that even came close to the night before.

Hal figured Margo knew why he was so relaxed about her dope-smoking ... he and Tori smoked recreationally at least twice or more a week. So when they had all gotten home the night before, clothes were left on the way from the front door to the bedroom, they had all gotten very stoned and things went beyond ... just beyond.

With their inhibitions so low, they had slipped into their fantasy deeply, more deeply than Hal would've imagined.

He remembered Jessie crying as he made love to her, recalling how hurt she'd been when he banished her from his lap because she was 'getting too old for that' ... and how he'd cried with her, explaining why. The two of them laughing together, so happy that it would never be a problem again. Of course she'd give Daddy an erection when she sat in his lap ... what was wrong with that?

The psychodrama had gotten deeper as Jessie and his wife had talked about their feelings of competition with one another for Hal's affections, while they made love with one another. He had been watching the two of them exploring their mutual feelings of jealousy; Tori for Jessie being Hal's little girl, Jessie for Tori being the woman who had the part of Hal she could never have, even when she was too young to know what it was.

Hal had gotten up to grab another bottle of wine and when he returned he had curled up with Sam, watching mother and daughter love each other. Sometime in all of it, he and his son had begun to do the same ... at first tentatively, each of them ready to pull back and run at the slightest provocation, but after awhile it had been mother and daughter watching the two of them, Hal and Sam, exploring each other's bodies and ever so slowly becoming more comfortable with each other as lovers. When Sam's internal dam broke and his rage over the thousand little unthinking and unnoticed injuries and neglects Hal inflicted on Tori flowed over the two of them, Hal had held him as he tried to break free to hurt Hal, held him as he cried, kissed him tenderly and told him that some day Sam would do better than Hal ever had as a husband.

Then he and Tori had made love while watching their children do the same and in the moment, each of them remembering their time with each of their children, it seemed as though there was no more perfect beauty than the products of their love for each other loving each other.

Finally, Jessie had asked her mother if Tori would mind sharing Hal with her, and Sam had asked him the same about Tori. As Tori kissed Jessie and told her she was happy to share, Hal had kissed Sam and told him the same. Then they'd all curled up together in the bed and fallen asleep.

And now it was morning ... time to come back from fantasy-land.

"I see your eyelids are open Dad," Sam said. He looked over to see the young man from the club lying on one arm, looking at him. "Whoa, never slipped so deep into character as I did last night. How about you?"

"Last night was ... I've been in psych wards where we would have all felt at home last night."

"Dad, don't do that, don't make it something crazy or something bad. Nobody last night went anywhere they didn't want to go. Having had a bit of experience with this kind of thing let me tell you, being comfortable enough, feeling safe enough, to sink that deeply, play with someone that intently ... that's rare. Don't cheapen it, don't demean it. If you decide you don't want that in your life, that possibility, then simply refuse it, but don't make it less wondrous than it was. I've been paired with Jessie for three years now and we've never been that raw, that open with each other. The four of us together are something special.

"And I'm not just saying that because I want to be adopted. This kind of fantasy before has always been naughty and kinky and lots of fun and dirty laughter and ... last night was ... something else. I have to fight to not think of the two of you as my parents and that's more than a little freaky."

"He's right Daddy," Jessie said from behind Hal on the bed. "If you don't want to adopt us as a permanent part of your lives ... well, that'll suck, because that's what we're looking for, but that's your choice to make. But if you don't, please ... please let us come play with you on occasion ... I want to go back to that depth ... that place. Not all the time ... come on, it'd kill us all ... but I do want to go back there again."

"So honey," Tori said from the far side of Jessie, "what's it going to be?"

Hal Stallings was lost. And he wasn't too hypocritical to admit he loved being lost.

"After so long, how could we refuse to let our own children move back home if they want to?"

The site that had been chosen for the G & P Picnic was a privately-owned ranch by the river with various small historic buildings the owner had relocated from different spots and remodeled, creating a semblance of a small western town. It had all the facilities the party would need, and in addition there was swimming in a pool created in a large, natural-looking hollow, fed by a spring. The place was perfect, except for its distance from the city and after the committee had taken their recommendations to the employees, that proved to be not nearly as much of a drawback as they'd feared.

The two carloads pulled up; Harry, Carol, Margo, Kelly and Billy, followed by Karen, Patricia, Galena, Nicki, Eddie and Tamara. A lot of the employees and their families had already arrived and the parking lot was full enough that they had to park further back than Margo would've liked.

"Okay Harry, Billy, the two of you take it easy. I'm already hauling your asses in on Tuesday; don't make me have to do so sooner."

As they made their way from the parking lot to the 'town square', Rhonda, the G & P receptionist, fluttered by in a hurry and tried to give them door prize tickets.

"Rhonda, honey ... we don't get these," Harry said. "Is it time to put you back into the hospital?"

"Oh, I'm sorry Boss ... no, although..." she crept closer to them and whispered, "I've been looking at home electro-shock kits." Her playful sobs sounded most convincing. "I miss it so."

"Well, maybe if you're a good girl, Santa will put one under the company Christmas tree for you," Harry said as they all laughed and continued on into the site.

Harry was in his element, he liked his entire staff, they were people he loved working with, and people whose loyalty and respect he'd earned the old-fashioned way ... by treating them like the valuable members of the team that they were. Margo set him up under a shade tree where he could see the games so he sat and visited with people for a good part of the early afternoon, watching the contests and silly sports they had arranged.

He was watching the Goofy Pentathlon, popular because of its vacation-to-Bermuda prize for the first place winner's family, when Dot from their video department pulled up a lawn chair and sat down beside him.

"Beer, Boss?" she asked, holding out an icy Corona with a slice of lime in the mouth.

"Sure, thanks ... so how's it going?"

"Pretty good ... y'all're looking good. Thought y'all might be dragging ass after last night."

Harry froze, then slowly turned to look at her. "Excuse me?"

"Hell of a show your House put on ... side of Karen I hadn't seen before ... it was nice. Not my taste, you understand, but incredibly erotic to watch. It all was. And your friend Eddie over there ... he IS my taste. Damn ... we went home and I wore some ... well, my husband and my other two subs were very tired, let's leave it at that.

"Mistress Dorothy Mallon of House O'Shaunessy, pleasure to meet you, Master Grimes of House Chorale."

"I do not fuckin' believe someone from my office was there last night."

"Boss, why are you surprised? Y'all've made G & P a pretty freak-friendly place to work. Don't be shocked that some of us are 'that' kind of freak." She smiled. "You're lucky we were the only ones there."

"You're kidding."

"Nope, Thad from Accounting ... I'll let you form your own opinion."

"You don't sound like you like him much."

"I like him, like his House ... we just have ... philosophical differences. I'll make introductions later this afternoon, maybe we could all meet somewhere a bit more private later on for drinks."

"So Dot ... how long have you and Bob..."

"Oh, since before we got married and we just celebrated our tenth anniversary not too long ago."

Harry studied the tall, slender woman. "Dot, if you don't mind me asking, how do you and Bob keep it ... your marriage ... I mean..."

"I know what you mean. Look, everybody's different. From what I've seen watching the four of you, you're pretty much three Dominants and a submissive. Are you all committed to each other?"

"Oh, more than I ever could have imagined ... but how did you ... I thought the office only knew about Carol."

"Okay, number one, y'all's relationship is the worst-kept secret at G & P. You've undoubtedly noticed by now how much of a problem it's causing among your employees. Two, the mutual commitment clarifies things somewhat. Bob and I are married, the other two are just subs, not part of our marriage ... like I hope, for your sake, the five you took in last night will be. Always remember ... your marriage has the primary demand on your time, and your attention. If a subbie can't understand that, then they're trouble and you need to work with them on it, or get rid of them. I made a..." she looked down at her beer, "I made a mistake, early in our marriage and our time in 'society' ... I got real focused on a sub, and he was a pretty boy, very energetic, very eager to please ... big ol' dick ... and I started taking my husband for granted. He was my sub, he'd put up with it because I said he would ... yeah, I was that stupid ... and all of a sudden one evening I found myself having a conversation where I found out that submissive or not, Bob was not and never would be my bitch. I was facing a divorce and I got told that his and my sexual identities and roles were not involved. That was 'playtime' and our marriage was the real world." She looked down again. "I got told that just because he needed to treat me, and it pleased him to treat me like my twat was made of gold didn't mean I should start thinking it was made of gold.

"We went and got some counseling and I ended up letting that subbie go because the way I'd behaved had caused some hard feelings with Bob. It was just fucking unfair to expect Bob to be able to let go of those feelings easily so we moved on. But it taught me ... taught both of us I think, that our marriage is what's important. The rest, it's fun and I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world ... except my marriage.

"So keep your marriage foremost at all times. If it needs attention, tell your subs and if they're the right people for you to have in your household, they'll understand.

"The next most important thing is your subs. You do owe them time and attention. And if they live with you, like ours do, like I gather some of yours do, then you owe them even more. I can't really advise you how to handle yours, everyone is different, but Bob and I have our nights, our nights alone, and then we have regularly scheduled nights where either Jamie or Saul is in bed with us and it's not 'playtime', it's 'us' time. They're still subs, that's the way they like to view the world, but it's a kinder, gentler, more loving time.

"A lot of making it work is really just common sense, Boss. They're people. If they live with you, then they're at least roommates, and since you're involved with them on an emotional level, albeit an odd one at times, it's something deeper than that, but still not deep enough to make it as important as your marriage.

"From what I know of you at the office, unless you either turn into a complete moron or a total asshole when you leave work, y'all will be just fine.

Julie and Vashti had woken up at pretty much the same time and run into each other as they both headed to check on Tattie. She was still asleep, thanks in part to the prescription Julie'd brought home with them, and so they left her and had a companionable if somewhat quiet breakfast.

Afterwards Vashti went into the dining room and began to slowly and carefully clean up. Julie joined him not long after and as they worked on finding every shard of porcelain, he rattled off a stream of Russian at her.

Julie was slightly shocked, but remembered her and Tattie's promise to always be truthful with the boys, as well as what this young boy's life had been up to this point.

"One, that ... not question ... you ... ask ... someone. Two, yes I did."

Vashti looked at her and smiled, the happiest she'd seen him in awhile, certainly since she'd shown up at the hospital.

"You are not 'someone', you are teacher and friend. It is good. You have boyfriend now?"

"No."

"Girlfriend now?"

Julie looked at him to see if he was being judgmental but he was brushing up bits of porcelain, just as before. Again, not surprising considering his past.

"No ... nosy boy." She looked at him and smiled as he sat back on his heels and smiled at her in return. "Young man ... and woman ... maybe ... five ... six ... years ... younger ... than me. We not ... together ... we ... just ... friends."

"Friends who fuck."

"Yes ... friends who fuck."

"It is good."

And he went back to cleaning up the dining room. After a moment, so did she.

"Madam?" came Jackie's voice from the phone.

"Yes Jackie," Margo replied.

"The good news, Laney had our things professionally packed and delivered to the house today. The bad news, they won't unload unless we can pay and between the three of us, we don't have enough to cover it. Mine and Lisa's checks don't hit the bank till Tuesday, first working day of the month, we got Sheila on the phone and she came over, she has some, but it's still not enough.

"I am so embarrassed to be coming to you with this."

"Hand the phone to whoever's in charge, I'll handle it."

Five minutes later Margo was back on the phone with Jackie.

"It's been taken care of."

"Madam, thank you so much. We'll be able to pay you back on Tuesday evening when we get in from work ... I figure that might be a good time to discuss things like rent and bills and such."

Margo smiled at the uncertainty in the woman's voice, her worry over finances evident. "It would be, but I think we'll discuss them tomorrow over breakfast instead. So how is your day going?"

"Oh, well, it's about to be a little busy, but other than that, uh, very relaxing, not doing much o' nothin'."

"Well, hug each other for all of us; we'll see you when we get home tonight."

"Shit," Lisa said after Jackie hung up the phone, "this is gonna screw up our plans. I guess we'll just have to work harder. Alright, we can't do much while they're unloading ... let's let them get finished, Jackie and I can get into some appropriate clothes, then we can finish what we originally started, and then tend to our stuff."

"Kissie darling, did it ever occur to you that hauling up stakes and moving in such a short time, at our age, might not be the smartest thing we've ever done?" Earl asked as he finished packing the last of the bags they were taking with them when they flew down.

"Every time you've complained about it, sweetheart," she replied as she read over their hotel reservations information, printed out on her Braille printer.

"We could just tell Kelly and the family we're coming ... they're nice people, I'm sure they'd put us up."

"Earl, you're going to have plenty of time for snooping soon enough. Be patient. For heaven's sake, you'll only be living about a half mile away from them once we close on the house."

"Well, I'm as ready as I'm gonna get. I'll go call a cab. Thank God we're going to have tomorrow and Monday to relax before classes start on Tuesday."

"Amen to that, Earl. Amen to that."

Eddie had a rough afternoon. Tamara had gravitated to the children's activities in a heartbeat and spent her time helping with them, the organizers thrilled to have such a pleasant assistant materialize, seemingly out of nowhere.