Chapter 9

I glanced back in forth between my sister and Tom and the other four. Then I had another thought, following what Kyle had just discovered. I stepped back up to the picture and had another look at it. I looked at each of the adults shown and then the children. Besides Tom, Kyle, and myself there were three other boys of similar age standing in front of parents. There were several young girls, also - besides Lori. One couple had a boy similar in apparent size to me and a girl much like Katrin. The young adults looked familiar. I turned back to Katrin and Tom. "Katrin, come take another look at the picture."

Four sets of eyes narrowed and another two opened up wider. Katrin left Tom's side and came up beside me. I pointed to the couple pictured with the two children similar in age to us. "Do they look familiar to you?" I had an answer already formed in my own mind. I was waiting for confirmation from my sister, since she knew them also.

Katrin stared for maybe five seconds. "Noooo! Not them, too!" She turned to me with her eyes growing wide with even more shock. I took my little sister into my arms and hugged her. I heard someone mutter 'shit!'.

The girl had been her friend since they were in kindergarten together. Just as the boy had been my friend since early elementary school. And while my friend attended our high school, Katrin's friend attended St. Bonaventure just as did Vicky and Wendy.

I turned to the others. "You're just gonna love this one. Lori, remember my pal Matt who you hugged yesterday?"

"No, not him too!"

Lori's quick, no doubt about it!

"Yeah, these are his parents. I'm sure that's Matt and his sister standing there. Katrin and Gillian are friends. Uh, you probably don't know her, since she's goes to St. Bonaventure." I looked to Vicky and Wendy and saw possible recognition in their eyes. "Do either of you know Gillian Henderson?"

Wendy's jaw practically dropped flat down onto her upper chest. Vicky looked nearly as surprised. "Gillian!? We eat lunch together! We've got two classes together! She's related to Kyle?" That had been Wendy, when her jaw had snapped back up.

Lori really surprised me! "God-Damned Mother Fuck Shit! What else is there!? Where does all of this lead to!?" Well, I'd known Lori was quite intelligent. She was tracking right along with what I was beginning to wonder. Also, it seemed she had acquired an interesting vocabulary at some point during her sixteen years. She could curse like nothing else when she got upset!

I turned back to Wendy and Vicky. "Why don't you two sit down and let the cousins here look over this picture some more." I turned back to Lori. "I'm calling Matt, again. Oh. Try and calm down. We'll figure this out."

Lori grinned at me and shook her head as she went back to the picture and joined Katrin, Kyle, and Tom in studying it.

I got her cellphone and called Matt on his home phone. "Matt, you and Gillian need to come over to Lori's house."

"What's up, Mark? Why do you need both Gillian and me?"

"You'll understand when you get over here. Just do it. Trust me." I gave him Lori's address. "Just look for my pickup truck and Kyle's red Mustang convertible."

Matt finally agreed that he'd get Gillian to join him. She'd be happy to see Katrin, he knew. Gillian had basically been forced to attend the parochial school. That got me to wondering about that. Why send her there, if Matt, Kyle, Lori, Tom, Katrin, and myself went to the public high school? Well, that is - if there is some sort of real connection beyond what we'd already discovered. More and more questions kept on coming to mind. This was getting to be really and truly fucking weird.

I sat down on the bed beside Vicky and she wrapped an arm around me. We exchanged what can only be described as uneasy smiles. "Mark, are you OK?"

"I think so, Vicky. I'm confused and worried, but mostly perplexed over all of this weird stuff that we've been finding. I'd love to discover that all of this is meaningless, but that's not about to happen - I'm afraid. We're just going to have keep on looking into this mess and try to figure it out. It just can't be that our various parents have failed to introduce us or make us aware that we're cousins. This seems like a plan to conceal things from us. It's like there's some overarching something driving this. There's something important that we're all missing. When we discover that, then we'll understand what's happening."

I was looking over at Lori as she leaned in against Kyle. They had their arms wrapped around each other's waists as they discussed their memories of who was who in the picture. This did not bother me. But it sure did get me to thinking about something new. Here I was sharing a hug with Vicky, who was Kyle's girlfriend. Lori and Kyle were very obviously quite comfortable with each other. Kyle was in a relationship with Vicky. I was now in a relationship with Lori. Something was up. Something else probably had been up.

I turned to Vicky. "When did you and Kyle get together?" I smiled to make it seem like a normal sort of question. It wasn't - not at all.

"Oh, let's see. That would have been after we bumped into one another at Halloween. He and Lori were at a party that me and some friends went to. I figured they were a couple, but he seemed really interested in me. I couldn't figure it out at first, and I asked him how his girlfriend felt about him getting so friendly with me. He'd laughed. He said he didn't have a girlfriend. I pointed to Lori. He explained that he and 'Lors' had grown up together playing baseball and touch football. He said they were just 'pals' and they'd both been invited to the party and just come along together."

I smiled. "OK, so you didn't steal Kyle away from Lori. But, you certainly kept anything from developing between them, didn't you."

Vicky frowned at that. "Well, maybe. Why do you say that?"

I pointed. "Look at them. They're comfortable together. They might have become lovers. And I'm bettin' that was the original plan. That is, until you came along and upset that potentially fruitful cart. That's why they knew one another. It was part of the plan, I think."

Vicky hissed. "That's, that's, I don't know what that is. It's sick, maybe. It's twisted. Why the hell do you think that!?" Vicky was not pleased with what I'd said.

"Why? Because of what Mrs. Hargraves did to bring me and Lori together. I think I may have been part of a backup plan. And you caused that plan to be put into action. Or, maybe Matt was supposed to be the backup - but he wasn't connected with Lori in any way at school. I'm still figuring it out, but I'll bet that's what's happened. Only, I don't quite know what the goal of the plan might be."

Vicky and Wendy were both looking at me like I'd just sprouted wings. And decided to walk on my hands, while my supposed wings kept me in balance (Hey! I've got a lively imagination). Wendy had been listening while Vicky and I had exchanged stories and information. She said the most interesting thing. "Mark, either you're a total wacko paranoid or else you're really, really smart and dead on target!"

I knew which of those I feared was valid. The second one, of course! Still, for their sake - I laughed. My four relatives standing at the family photo looked back at us. "Wendy just complemented me or insulted me - it's up in the air as to which assessment is accurate." I was grinning.

Lori looked a bit concerned. I just shook my head at her while still grinning.

There were sounds of voices from downstairs and I realized that Matt and Gillian had likely arrived. I got up and headed down to greet them into our own little tortuous puzzle-palace.

Louise was about to head up the stairs when I got downstairs and met her. "Hi Louise. Are my friends Matt and Gillian here?"

"Oh. Yes, Mark. I was going to get Lori and ask her about them. I've never seen them here, before. But, if you say they're your friends, then I guess I don't need to ask Lori about them." She shrugged and grinned.

I winked at Louise. "Yeah, Lori wants them here. Gillian's a friend of my sister and Wendy, Vicky's sister."

Louise just went "Oh."

"Hey, we're just planning on taking over the world." I said that with what I hoped was a silly grin.

Louise grinned back at my silliness. "Right, Mark!"

I went on and got Matt and Gillian, who were standing just inside the front door. As I looked at Matt's sister I noticed how she in turn was looking me up and down. In the last week I'd changed, and it must have shown. She was checking me out. Click. Yeah, another potential option on a plan. Double-click. Include Matt and Katrin as another possibility. But still, why send Gillian off to parochial school? I was missing something. And the reason behind it all - the goal, whatever it may have been. That was still eluding me.

I welcomed them to Lori's parents' damned near palatial and almost mansion-like home. I know I must have hinted at it, before. Lori had shown me around the place. There's a big pool out back. And a tennis court. And there's a small house out between those two items. It's got a Jacuzzi whirlpool and complete set of weight machines along with a set of two changing rooms and bathrooms. Oh, there's even half of a standard basketball court beside the tennis courts.

Then there's the garage. It holds six vehicles. Lori's was the only one that wasn't parked in it. She had been using it too much to bother with parking it inside. Inside was an outrageously equipped 4WD F-250 that I'd hate to try and use for transporting anything. Its load box was nearly five feet off the ground. The thing was highly modified for off-road handling. There was a very nice Mercedes sedan and SUV, too. Then, there was a Volvo station wagon and a sporty model of BMW (much newer than Tom's old beemer). The adult Hutchinsons seemed to like their vehicles. Lori's Lexus looked plain in comparison with the rest of what was in the garage.

There's also a garden shed the size of many houses or businesses. It too had a changing room and bathroom. And one humongous mower of the type usually seen at country clubs. There was a smaller, more maneuverable riding mower that was equally professional and surely expensive. And there was also the usual collection of smaller garden and yard equipment. But, the kicker was the other equipment. There was a four-wheel drive tractor - with a boatload of farm implements to go along with it. Plus, there was a front-end loader and backhoe combination. There was even a Bobcat! And there also was a forklift! What for, I had to wonder. I'd worked around my uncle's stable and recognized some of the equipment from his operation. I'd actually operated such equipment. Then, my pals in the shop often worked on stuff like some of what was here. I'd seen a lot of that kind of stuff.

The last big piece of equipment seemed almost reasonable in comparison to the others. It was a six-wheeled ATV with a load box in the rear. Lori had driven me around the estate between our lovemaking sessions the previous afternoon. Lori didn't know exactly how large the place was, but it had a small lake and a nice little forest out behind the house. The area around the house was a mowed, park-like expanse of grass. I came to the conclusion that much of the equipment was probably used to maintain the park-like grounds surrounding the house. In the end I guessed they had 25 to 30 acres of grounds, not counting the lake. That might have added another 15 or 20 acres to the whole package. And, interestingly - Lori's family did have neighbors. There were houses all up and down the street. There were more across the street than along the same side as the Hutchinson's home, though.