Chapter 13

Dan wondered about what he could do to fully understand what Don had done with Donna, Cindy, and perhaps even Susie. He kept on trying to think of questions that he could ask of the girls.

The assembly came to an end and he walked out of the gym along with the three girls. He heard a couple of kids muttering about the 'damned program'. Whatever that was about he was glad he wasn't a part of it. It sounded like participants in it were annoyed and even pissed off about being in it. But, that wasn't his problem. His problem was Don's stepsister and their two friends. He really needed to talk to them and come to an understanding of what might have happened. That's when he saw Jan and realized a solution. His few fleeting thoughts about and any awareness of the 'damned program' evaporated and he completely forgot the matter. He first spoke to Susie. "Let's walk home instead of riding with Jan. I'd like to talk about things."

Susie looked at him like he was speaking a foreign language. He smiled. "We really need to talk. We can't do that around the twins or Jan - right?" Susie nodded in agreement. He turned to Cindy and Donna. "We need to talk - let me speak with Jan for a moment." Those two also nodded in response to his request. With that he walked over to Jan.

She was talking with a couple of the girls who'd been at their pool party of several weeks past. He rested his hand on Jan's shoulder and leaned in close to her. "Susie and I don't need a ride home. We're walking home with Donna and Cindy." She glanced at him with an eyebrow raised up in question. He shrugged. "We've got some things to talk about."

Jan nodded. "OK, I'll see y'all later."

He walked back over to the three waiting girls and asked. "Who lives closest to school?"

Donna answered. "I do. Are we walking there, first?"

"Yeah, I think that'd be best. We really need to talk about things. I don't remember any of what you've told me today and I want to be told everything. And I really do mean everything!"

And so they walked. And they talked as they walked. They got to Donna's home and sat down and ate some snacks and drank cokes while Dan learned about Don's tortured relationship with both Cindy and Donna. He couldn't hardly believe what had happened.

I seemed that Cindy and Donna had always been the closest of friends. They'd always shared everything they'd had and experienced. And they didn't mind sharing their interest in Don. For two lust and love-driven twelve year old girls they had some aspects to their behavior that was simply amazing. Who would have thought that two such young and inexperienced girls could agree to share their affections for one boy? But, that's what had happened.

Don had had sex with the two girls while drunk at the age of twelve. The two girls had loved it. Don had appeared to enjoy himself. And then on the next day - immediately afterwards - he'd refused to speak to them. He'd avoided them. They'd been horrified. Susie had browbeaten him into telling her why he wouldn't see or even speak to their friends. It had turned out that he'd been ashamed of what he'd done with the girls. They were his friends and he'd thought that he'd taken advantage of them while they were drunk.

The girls had been furious with him when he refused to be with them or even talk to them. Then Susie had finally gotten the truth out of a young and confused Don. She'd told Donna and Cindy about why Don was acting so weird and they'd been stunned. The two girls had thought that day had been the best thing that'd ever happened in their lives and the boy they both wanted was ashamed of what he'd done! Flabbergasted didn't come close to describing how they felt when Susie told them about Don's feelings.

In the end Susie had managed to get them all together for a talk. It had been their Thanksgiving holiday weekend when she'd gotten the four seated around a picnic table in the deserted park near Cindy's house. Don had come right out and apologized to Cindy and Donna for having taken advantage of them when they'd been drunk. Donna had told him off for being a stupid boy! She'd been the one who'd given them the drinks and it was her who'd seduced him! Just what did he think had happened!?

Don had said that that didn't matter and that he was sorry and ashamed for having done what he'd done to them. He'd asked them that he hoped that they could still be friends, but he was promising them that he'd never touch them again. Donna and Cindy had been dumbfounded by this. Here they'd discovered the joys of sex with a guy they'd known since daycare & kindergarten and that they both liked, maybe loved, and lusted after - and he was promising them he'd never touch them again!

Donna blew up and screamed a string of obscenities at Don! Cindy simply howled out in frustration and started crying. Susie hissed and commented about whether she'd missed the day that Don had been dropped on his head! And that too young twelve year old Don had apparently looked on in confused helplessness.

As Dan learned of this he had to wonder about exactly why Don had gotten so weirdly off track in his relationship with the girls. After he'd entered the reserves he'd gone back to school and gotten his Ph.D. His previous degrees had been earned while he'd been on active duty. He'd studied various social science topics while finishing his Ph.D. in History. His advisers had decided that someone with his background should be allowed to follow some of his own interests while fulfilling the requirements of his degree program.

And so he put together what he'd learned about the long relationship between Don and the girls and came up with a possible explanation for what had happened.

It was weird. Don had first been introduced to Susie when they were both just two to three years of age - when their parents had married. Then, within a short time Don had gotten to know Cindy and Donna. They'd all attended the same preschool. Then, afterwards - they'd all gone to the same kindergarten, followed by the same elementary school, and then the same middle school.

Dan had studied about what had happened with the children of the original Israeli Kibbutzniks. Those children had been raised together and it had turned out that they almost never married children from within the same Kibbutzes. It had finally been recognized that the children so raised had treated each other more like siblings rather than as classmates. And reviewing how Don had reacted to what he'd experienced with Cindy and Donna made Dan wonder if that had been Don's problem. Maybe he'd been too close to the girls. He'd practically been introduced to them at nearly the same time he'd gotten to know his two new sisters. What if he'd overgeneralized and come to treat his new lovers as if he'd just had sex with sisters?

Dan couldn't quite convince himself that this was the case with what had happened to Don. It just seemed to be a bit too farfetched. Still, as he listened to what the girls had to say about Don's behavior he just had to wonder about it.

He'd listened to what the three girls knew about Don's adventures with either two or three girlfriends they thought he'd had before he'd met up with "Cheryl-the-EX-Girlfriend" during the latter part of the eighth grade. After the appearance of Cheryl both Cindy and Donna had given up on Don. They'd sworn off on him as a bad experience with someone they'd thought had been a friend. Soon, this had affected their friendship with Susie.

Then, last Spring Cheryl had moved and the two girls had thought that they might have a chance with Don. He'd basically ignored them. They'd been furious, all over again. Susie had thought she'd permanently lost her two best friends. Except, they'd listened to her as she'd complained that her stepbrother was some sort of weird, total, complete idiot. The three girls had commiserated together on the idiocy of certain males.

As he learned of these things Dan came to realize that he'd have to tell the girls about the medical state of Don. He was quite sure that Susie already knew about it. He'd turned to her. "I need to tell them about my medication and what it's done to me. You know the whole story, don't you?"

Susie had nodded. "Yeah, unfortunately." She'd sighed with that admission in front of her friends.

He realized that Cindy looked really alarmed at hearing that. Donna just looked pissed at the whole situation.

"OK, here's how things stand..." And with that he'd explained about how his medications left him hors d' combat, so to speak. He explained that even though if he was interested in them he'd be unable to do anything about his interest...

Cindy had been horrified. Donna had been left looking aghast. He explained that it wasn't supposed to be permanent. Just, don't believe all those stories that Cheryl had spread about him. He'd glanced at Susie and saw her flinch at that mild rebuke.

In the end they'd agreed to let things develop as friends. If and whenever Don got off his medications then he promised to try and let them have a first shot at him. In truth, Dan was curious to know what it'd be like to be a fifteen year old lover.

Their get-together had come to an end when Donna's older brother Jim had come home. Don and Jim had known one another from football practice during the prior Spring and with the start of practice before the Fall season. Jim had asked Don about how he was feeling and Dan had admitted that things were a little bit overwhelming with his first day at school. Jim had admitted he'd probably curled up in a ball if he'd been in Don's place - no memories of people and trying to learn who everyone was. Everyone had laughed at Jim's joke. Jim then asked Don if he would need a ride to practice that afternoon and Dan had told him that he'd gotten his bike fixed up and would ride it to practice. Jim had grinned at that and recalled how Don had often biked that past Spring - and had out-run most of his new teammates with the muscles he'd built up from his biking.

Susie and Dan as Don had then walked Cindy home before they crossed the park and arrived at their own house. They'd then eaten a light meal of sandwiches and some salad that Jan and the twins had fixed up for all of them.

Dan had been surprised when he'd finally gotten around to realize that Donna and Jim's last name was Rhodrick. That was very similar to Dan's own surname of Rhoderick. And his Rhoderick ancestors had moved to Georgia and Florida from old Bertie County, which was adjacent to Morgan County. Dan had to wonder if he was some sort of relative to Donna and Jim. Well, whether his old body had been related to them...

Soon he'd gotten out his bike and rode to practice. It was basically uneventful, but for a few moments when Todd and Jim had gotten into a conversation that included a lot of looks directed at Don. Dan hoped that he wasn't about to lose two of the few friends he had since he'd awakened as Don. If those two had figured out what was going on between Don and their sisters then they'd have some reason to dislike and even pummel him. But, nothing seemed to have come of it and he'd gotten home to have his late afternoon jog. Again, Jan had joined him for his run. This proved to be an eventful evening run.

While running with Jan that evening he decided that he needed to talk with her about Susie, Donna, and Cindy. He'd suggested that they take a breather and sit down on one of the park benches in the recently revitalized park.

There, he'd described what had happened that prior Friday with Susie. And after that he'd described what had transpired with Cindy and Donna. Jan's eyes had practically bugged out at hearing that. It turned out she'd never known that her 'little big brother' had lost his virginity at age twelve. And she'd been practically flummoxed to learn that her younger sister had entertained notions of becoming Don's lover.

Then, she'd turned the tables. She'd addressed him as Dan. Dan had looked at her coolly. She'd then stated Dan's full name and commissioned rank. He'd slunk down on the park bench.

He looked at her. "Shirley tell you?"

"Yeah. She said someone in the family had to know. I nearly freaked out at first. I didn't want to believe what she'd told me. But then, I've watched you ever since she told me about it and now I believe it. Exactly who are you?"

They'd sat side by side for over half an hour as Dan explained things as best as he understood them. Jan's eyes had gotten large on a couple of occasions as he explained his life and how he'd awakened to find himself in Don's body. He admitted that once in awhile he wondered if there weren't some of Don's memories still residing in his head. But, he told her that he knew who he was. There wasn't any mistaking that. He mentioned the two fights he'd been in since coming home to the Nichols' residence and how he'd proven to be so proficient with several types of weapons. Those skills had been Dan's, not Don's skills.

Jan had recalled how her Uncle Lester had been so surprised at Don's performance on the local tactical course. She asked him about that. Dan finally admitted to his nickname. He'd been known as 'Sneak' to his men. He'd always been the sneakiest, most quiet member of his several teams in the Green Berets and then Delta Force. Even when he'd been a sore-jointed Lt. Colonel approaching his 40^th birthday he'd amazed subordinates with his absolutely noiseless approaches to fellow spec ops troops posing as sentries. And his work with silenced weapons had been used by NCO trainers as a guide to their troops on how to do things.

Dan admitted that now being fifteen years of age and having his experiences he just had to wonder why he was where he was. He seemed to be well situated to do something. But, he didn't know what. He showed to Jan his oh so grim sort of a grin. "Now might be the time to run away from home, you know." Jan had shared a grim sort of laugh with him over his joke.

They spoke for awhile longer before jogging home just as it was getting dark. Gwen asked them where they'd been and they'd admitted to stopping and sitting down on a park bench to just talk for awhile.

Following dinner Jan had pulled Susie aside. Later that evening Dan noticed some glances being directed his way from Susie. He figured some part of what he'd learned was now being extracted from Susie. He was sure that Jan was not just persistent but also skilled at getting Susie to tell her things.

When he'd finally decided to give up and head to bed he caught an expression from Jan. She winked and gave him a small thumbs-up. He hoped that meant that Susie was OK with knowing that Jan knew about what had happened between Donna, Cindy, and Don. He couldn't imagine that it was a signal that Jan was OK with Susie's interest in Don.

He crawled into bed and tried to give it all a rest. His stay in Don's body was turning out to be a near nightmare of social quagmires. He just wanted to forget about it all. He really couldn't do so, but he'd try in an effort to get a good night's sleep. With those thoughts he did manage to fall asleep.

Tuesday started with Jan driving them to school. She kept glancing between Susie and Dan as they rode along. As they pulled into the parking lot she stopped them from exiting the car and asked them a single question. "Are you two OK with things?"

Dan just nodded. Susie smiled slightly. "Yeah, Jan. You know, it's just something weird that we've got to deal with."