Chapter 33: Slow - Playground Zone

After doing the chores, I was standing in the doorway of the barn, looking out at the mist, and feeling glad I’d told Carissa I’d stay near the phone, simply because of the weather. That’s when I thought about the fact that I was literally setting myself up to spend the day in extremely close contact with Sandy for an indefinite period. I knew where that was going to lead and I also knew that since we’d both slept well, I wasn’t going to be able to plead exhaustion again. I’d also made a promise to her that I would have sex.

I sighed at that, wondering if my fear of being sexually involved with another woman was rational or not. My main problem was that this was the first time that I’d ever asked my parents for advice when it hadn’t been forthcoming. I felt slightly insecure, probably more insecure than I’d felt about any decision I’d been forced to make in several years and I certainly wasn’t enjoying the feeling.

So I took a moment to lean back against the barn door and think about what effect my almost certain dalliance with Sandy would have, not only on me, but on the people I cared about.

I decided that since Carissa was literally forcing me into the situation, she’d be happy for now, but I couldn’t predict what her future feelings would be. I knew without a doubt that having another person involved in our relationship was going to change our attitudes toward each other in some way and at some point of time. However, I couldn’t predict exactly how our relationship was going to change. I really didn’t want to lose the closeness we had developed between each other. Probably my greatest fear was that having Sandy involved in our relationship would cause a split between us. I really didn’t want that to happen, at least not now.

From the way she was acting, Sandy was completely happy with the situation and wanted to be involved in a three-way love affair. I had absolutely no frame of reference to use in order to understand her feelings about multiple spouses and polygamous marriages. Her idea of being a ‘second’ wife had astounded me when she mentioned it, and it still did. I could not fathom why a gorgeous woman would take second place to any other woman, not when she could easily find a man of her own. She’d made it plain that she didn’t know if a three-way love affair would last, but she still wanted to try. For some reason, I was less worried about Sandy, and it wasn’t just because of the relative closeness of either of them. Somehow Sandy just seemed more resilient than Carissa did.

I suppose in order of importance, I placed my family next on my list of worries. Mom and Dad had literally let me know that the decision was mine, so I knew they’d back me no matter what I did. Surprisingly, that didn’t lessen my worries one iota. I also knew that Wil and Beth wouldn’t turn away from me, but I felt that each of them would simply decide I was being crazier than normal. The only other family member I worried about was Tom. I knew he really liked Sandy, but since he was now involved with her younger sisters, I felt that was a non-issue.

From what Carissa had said before, then confirmed on the phone this morning, her parents might not have been in favour of the situation, but they hadn’t really been surprised. It seemed almost as if they were standing back and shaking their heads over the issue, but right now they were more concerned over Corinna and Wil. I decided that both issues were something that concerned Carissa more than me. Wil was family, but both his age and the fact that he was really only my half-brother set us apart, and somehow I had managed to isolate my feelings from any hurt caused by Corinna’s actions. I knew it wasn’t ‘nice’ on my part, but her mental instability made me feel uncomfortable, and since I didn’t know how to expect her to act I held back from being involved with her in any way. Considering all the factors, the only person in Carissa’s family who concerned me was her uncle, Frank Dolens, since he was my sponsor and friend. After a moment’s thought I wasn’t really worried about him either, because I felt he was a ‘live and let live’ sort of person.

Sandy’s parents simply didn’t concern me at all. I felt that Sam McAdam was a manipulative misogynist and bully. I really didn’t care what he thought. At the same time I felt her mother was a manipulator, but on top of that, she was a social climber, so I wasn’t impressed with her either. Actually, I felt that Mom and Beth had done more to improve Sandy’s life than her own family had, and had done the same thing for Sandy’s younger sisters at the same time.

After all that thought, I was left with the same conundrum. To be honest, I couldn’t see any way not to become involved with Sandy without hurting her feelings and annoying Carissa. That was especially true since Carissa had engineered the present situation.

Shaking my head and laughing somewhat uncomfortably at my own reluctance, I faced the inevitable and set out to walk across the yard to the cabin. Talk about mixed feelings, wow, did I ever have them! On one hand I was fearful of the end results, but on the other hand I was actually looking forward the idea of being involved with Sandy. At the same time I was anxious, perhaps even a bit worried about dealing with her virginity, the idea of causing anyone any sort of pain really bothered me.

All of that dropped out of my mind when I opened the door and stepped into the cabin. Sandy was standing at the stove, frying eggs and bacon. All she was wearing was an apron with a high bib to protect herself from grease spatters, leaving her back and butt completely bare. She had the radio on loud and was swaying in time to the music; I think it was the Monkees, singing ‘Daydream Believer, ‘ but that doesn’t matter. Since she was concentrating on the music and the breakfast, she wasn’t paying attention to the sounds I made as I was coming inside.

For a moment I just stood there and stared at her, mostly watching that soft round butt as it wriggled so enticingly, then I think I may have groaned. Whatever happened, she realized I was there and she turned her head to look over her shoulder.

“Easy over, right?” she looked at me and grinned. “And I mean your eggs, not me.”

“Unh yeah,” I managed a weak grin.

“Just so you know, I’m a sunny side up woman, at least for now,” she giggled, then she waggled her head toward the sink. “Wash up first, then before you get too wound up we need to talk, but we can do that while we’re eating.”

“I think talking is a good idea,” I finally found my tongue. “I’m still not convinced that we should all live together when we go to Calgary.”

“Hold that for the table, would you? I want this breakfast to be perfect and I’m not that great a cook.”

“You look good to me,” I laughed as I washed up.

“That’s just hormones talking,” she giggled, then shivered slightly.

“Are you cold?”

“No, excited,” she giggled again. “Now shut up and sit down at the table. I don’t want to bust the yolks of these eggs when I’m putting them on the plate.”

So, I towelled off and sat down. In only a moment she was setting the plates of bacon and eggs on the table along with lightly browned toast, and fresh coffee. She waited until I’d taken a couple of bites and had given her a thumbs up sign while chowing down on the food. Then she sat down opposite me, but only after taking off the apron. The sight of her body, and the food in front of me, practically guaranteed I wasn’t going to say much for a moment. I’m not sure what the difference was, because I’d seen her nude before, but that morning she wasn’t just nude, she was somehow both naked and available.

“Carissa and I had a nice chat on the phone while you were doing the chores,” she grinned at me. “She suggested how I should dress and thought you’d like it.”

“Umm hmm!” I nodded my head and took a deep breath to calm myself. “Is it alright if I talk now?”

“Oh yes, that’s the idea of sitting here and having breakfast together.”

“Good, because I’ve been thinking about the three of us for several days and probably seemed to you to be waffling and indecisive, but I didn’t want to make a huge mistake.”

“We noticed that you weren’t acting like you normally would,” she nodded.

“That’s not completely true, I do become preoccupied at times, particularly if I have a personal problem to solve. This could very well be a huge problem and a big mistake, so I’ve just been thinking about it a lot. I’ve even let Carissa pressure me much more than normal, but that’s not surprising. After all my mind has been occupied, so I let her get away with more shenanigans than normal,” I sighed. “To put it plainly, I believe the three of us will be causing problems for ourselves if we all live together. Society accepts couples and rejects anything else. Even bachelors get given a rough time, but that’s nothing to what polygamists can expect to have happen.”

“We realize that and we think we’re prepared, but we have each other for support. Think of it this way, any couple can support each other, but by adding one more person the support doubles.”

“That only works if the three people agree on everything. Even Carissa and I don’t agree on everything, so why would the three of us all agree?” I shook my head slowly. “My biggest worry is the possibility that all of us will get into a huge fight, which will cause problems for everyone. In other words, we could all end up getting hurt out of this.”

“Actually, that’s one of the first things that Carissa and I discussed. Both of us think it’s worth the risk,” she sighed softly. “She also said that I was to make sure that you understood that neither one of us is trying to get you to marry us, at least not right now. We need to get to know each other much better before we even consider that sort of thing. Don’t you agree?”

“I suppose so,” I finally managed to say, after thinking for a few seconds. “But, my biggest worry is still that one or more of us will get badly hurt.”

“Hey, I was talking to your Grampa in the hospital one day and he told me told me that ‘Life doesn’t come with a guarantee.’ I liked that idea, but I’ve added to that saying.”

“Oh?”

“Unh huh. I changed it a bit too. I think the saying should be: ‘The only way that you can guarantee any happiness in your life is if you’re willing to take the risk of being unhappy.’ That covers a lot more area and makes more sense to me, especially in our situation.”

“So you’re saying that you’re willing to risk being unhappy later for a good time now?”

“Absolutely,” she grinned. “It’s raining enough today to make work a pain, so I think it’s an ideal time for us to get to know each other ... in bed.”

“Well, what about the phone? I did promise Carissa I’d answer it when she called.”

“Oh, after you ran off to look after the animals, she said to tell you that she probably wouldn’t call until after they’d driven up to Ponoka, then talked to the people at the hospital. She thought that would be about noon, so we have almost two hours before we need to worry about her calling and disturbing us. Now, is there anything else that you want to talk about?”

“Well, I think we should develop a smoke screen of sorts, to keep the snoops and rumour mongers out of our hair,” I shrugged my shoulders. “Other than that, I think we’re going to have to play it by ear.”

“Oh, well the other day, when we went into town, Carissa and I sort of set up an excuse for me to stay here. Mom was upset with me, because she felt nothing had happened by then. I don’t know, I guess she thought I’d manage to magically seduce you the instant the three of us were alone or something. That led into a fight about a family matter that she and I have argued about for years. So when I walked out of the house to meet Carissa, she and I were still screaming at each other. Carissa got us apart and told me that I could stay with you two for a while. One of the neighbourhood gossips saw the whole fight, at least the part while we were outside.”

“Well, that probably won’t stop the rumours, but it might slow them down somewhat, or at least misdirect them.”

“That’s what we thought. In fact we sort of set up a plan like that on the drive back from town,” she grinned. “The idea was that when we’re in the public eye, you and I would appear to barely tolerate each other, but both of us would still be friendly toward Carissa. Maybe you didn’t notice, but we tried to set that idea up with your folks last night too, at least a little bit.”

“You did?”

“Yes, didn’t you notice the tone I used when I was talking to you or how Carissa was always close to you, while I backed away a bit? I didn’t sit next to you when we drove away, in fact I didn’t even snuggle against you in the car, not until we were leaving town and no one could really see me.”

“Sorry, but no, I didn’t notice. Besides by then I’d probably shot your idea down by that time, considering what I told Dad,” I rolled my hands out flat and palms up, to show that I was nonplussed. “Of course at the time, I was concentrating on the problems we could run into. Even more than that though, I was worried about what Mom and Dad would think, so I suppose I wasn’t paying as much attention to you and Carissa as I should have.”

“Oh no, it worked out perfectly. It was your Mom that we were concentrating on, trying to give the impression that everything wasn’t as peaceful as it should be between us,” she shrugged her shoulders and smiled slightly. “I’m not sure, but I think she saw what we wanted her to see. In fact, I think she might even be under the impression that Carissa is leading you by the nose.”

“That’ll be the day,” I snorted. “She has a habit of deferring to me, or haven’t you noticed.”

“Yeah, I have, she does it even more than I do,” Sandy laughed. “Actually, it’s funny as hell. You two look like you’re consulting with each other, but you almost always get your way. The only things I’ve seen her really get her back up about are things concerning me. It’s so strange, because she was always the boss of anything she was involved in at school, but here she’s totally different.”

“Well, she claims that I’m dominant and that she’s only here because of that, but she told me something different when we first got together.”

“That’s not a surprise,” Sandy shrugged her shoulders. “She was probably worried about exposing her weakness to you until she felt she could trust you more. I think she got forced into admitting the truth when I showed up. But to get back to you and me, do you have anything else that’s bothering you right now?”

“No, I think you’ve pretty well covered the worries I had,” I grinned.

“Then to hell with washing the breakfast dishes right now,” she giggled. “Come on, I want to get into that bed and see what I’ve been missing.”

With that she leapt to her feet and reached out her hand to me. In a second she was dragging me toward the bedroom.

I’m not going to say too much about the next two hours, but I must say that Sandy was a surprise in bed. What little experience she had was multiplied a hundred times by her sheer enthusiasm and pure energy. In a way, I was relieved when the telephone rang shortly after noon. Sandy had been almost insatiable. I suppose I was panting for breath when I answered the phone.

“Hello.”

“Chris? Is that you? Is something wrong?“ Mom asked.

“Unh uh, I just had to run to get the phone. I thought it was Carissa calling,” I was fighting to catch my breath.

“Oh, she might be calling you soon, but everything is okay. Wil and Corinna went for a long drive yesterday and had problems with the truck. They were up in the foothills on a back road and miles from anywhere when his truck broke down on them. He said he broke a tie rod or something? Anyway, he lost his steering, so they ended up in the ditch and had to walk. They managed to find an old trapper who lived out in the bush, but he didn’t have a phone or headlights on his truck and it was getting dark by then, so they spent the night in his cabin. Then early this morning they went back with the trapper’s truck and managed to pull Wil’s pickup back out of the ditch. After they had it on the road, Wil wired the broken part together well enough to drive if they took it easy. They managed to creep along at about ten miles an hour until they got to a service station that had the parts he needed to fix the steering.“

“Oh man, that could only happen to Wil,” I snorted with laughter. “He’s lucky they didn’t have a worse accident and he’s just as lucky that someone had the parts he needed.”

“Oh, he knows that, but the parts he got are used, since he salvaged them off a wreck that was in the service station’s back yard. He said when he gets back here, he’s going to replace the steering, then sell the truck.“ Mom laughed. “We told him when he bought it that it was a bad deal and that we’d help him get a better one, but you know Wil. He’s even more stubborn than you are. Now, to change the subject, how are you and Sandy getting along?“

“Well, we’re not fighting,” I sighed, trying to make it sound like we weren’t getting along quite as well as we had been.

“That doesn’t sound too much like you two are going to make Ann McAdam too happy then.“

“I don’t think that worries Sandy and it sure doesn’t worry me,” I said quietly but emphatically, making Mom break into a chuckle.

“Just don’t kill each other, “ she snickered. “Now I’d better get off the phone in case Carissa is trying to call you. I’ll talk to you tomorrow at the picnic.“

“Okay Mom. Bye for now.”

“So what’s going on?” Sandy demanded, still in the bedroom and on the bed.

So I told her what had happened, explaining that if Wil had broken a tie rod any chance he had of steering the pickup was gone instantly.

“But they’re okay, aren’t they?” she asked.

“Yeah.”

“Then why don’t you come back to bed?”

“You want more?”

“Well, yeah! I’m making up for lost time.”

“If we do much more, you aren’t going to be able to walk very well tomorrow,” I warned.

“That’s tomorrow. I’ll worry about it when it gets here. C’mere, Stud,” she giggled, then grabbed my hand and yanked me back into the bed with her.

Sandy barely had me off balance and falling toward her when the phone rang again.

“I’ll bet that’s Carissa and she’ll kill me if I don’t answer,” I said as I bounced off the bed and pulled away.

Sandy just sighed and nodded, then let me go so I could hurry back to the phone.

“Hello.”

“Hello Chris. It’s Wil. I thought I should call you and let you know what happened myself before anyone else called and blew what happened out of proportion.“

“Too late, Mom already called and she knows,” I kidded him.

“Oh jeez. I was hoping to have you call home for me, but someone else must have called her. What did she say happened?“

“Just that you went out for a drive with Corinna, but broke a tie rod and went in the ditch, then had to spend the night with a trapper. Why, did something else happen?”

“Oh, we were just off the property when we weren’t supposed to be. Then we were almost a whole day late getting Corinna back, that’s all, “ Will grouched. “Dad told me when I bought that damn truck that I shouldn’t touch it and as usual, he was right.“

“You mean you didn’t have permission to take Corinna for a drive?” I was astonished.

“I never even thought of it. Corinna wanted to go out for a drive and I didn’t know any reason she couldn’t. Hell, she’s practically released. Well, she will be today or tomorrow, “ he sighed deeply. “I am in so much shit you must be able to smell it over the phone. Right now I’m in the local cop shop, but at least I haven’t been booked for anything yet.“

“You’re in the police station?”

“That’s what I said, didn’t I?“ Will snapped. “I don’t know why and I really don’t know what to do. I know it’s asking a lot, but you always seem to know how to get out of shit; I thought maybe you could give me some advice.“