Chapter 97

True to his word, on the third, Jim Brown had the girls' car ready and surprised us by personally delivering it. His wife, Julie, followed as his ride home, thus allowing the couple to take us up on our invitation to visit with us. Over coffee and left over Holiday goodies, we told Jim and Julie our whole incredible saga. Needless to say, they were touched, as everyone who heard it seemed to be. They left firmer friends than ever, and became regulars in our home.

The sixth of January was a red letter day for the kids. K.P. and D.J. registered for school. Riekie and I could have done it ourselves, but the whole family presented itself to the principal and staff of the school well before the nine o'clock class start time. THIS was our first public appearance not just with me and my wives, but also with ALL of the children. We created quite a stir in the school. It was quite crowded in the principal's office, and consequently the meeting moved to the staff conference room.

We had little trouble enrolling the twins. Riekie, ever the organized professional, had their immunization records plus all their records from the school in Winnipeg. The principal had some standard tests for the kids to evaluate where they should be placed, and thanks to Riekie's efforts at home schooling, and the excellent school they'd attended in Winnipeg, it was determined they were advanced enough to be placed in grade one with Rhiannon. The three of them were ecstatic they were in the same class. Once he determined which class to place them in, the principal summoned their teacher to take them to class and introduce them to their classmates. The three became inseparable and model students.

The rest of the registration process proceeded without the children. The principal was very interested in our group marriage, and during the meeting asked many questions on the dynamics of such a relationship. I think he may have had more than a professional interest, when we left, he had a faraway look in his eye... Because of this, we had no trouble establishing that all four of us were parents to all the children with full decision-making capabilities in the event of medical or other emergencies, and any one of us could sign permission slips for school activities.

He did recommend we make it formal through legal documentation at our earliest convenience, something we planned doing regardless, as then any one of us could register our kids for school without the others having to be present, simply by producing the appropriate documents. As it would be another two or three years before we had to do it again for Jenny, there wasn't a great deal of urgency, but we wanted our legal arrangements out of the way as soon as possible anyway.

We made an appointment with a lawyer as soon as we got home. This gentleman had been my family's lawyer for several years and we — Mom and Dad and I — viewed him as a friend. He was intrigued by what we proposed, and got very enthusiastic, saying we presented him quite a legal and intellectual challenge. After fifteen minutes with him, we were eminently satisfied and put him on permanent retainer. He specialized in estate law, and brought in a friend who specialized in family law to attend the same meeting. When he heard there were considerable sums of money involved, with more on the way from Riekie's divorce settlement and Ben's will, he also included a lawyer specializing in business contracts and a financial advisor/accountant.

These four formed our legal team, and continue to this day. We have never needed the services of a criminal lawyer, but if we ever do, we will accept their recommendation. Despite all the gags about lawyers, they have been honest and forthright with us from the beginning. It costs a considerable amount to keep them on retainer, but is worth every penny. We became friends with all, and often have them to the house for social events, as they do us.

One side bar to this — these people worked so well together for us they decided to form a partnership offering the full range of services to the public they did us, and the firm is doing extremely well. They refer to us as 'The Alpha Project', because we were their first assignment. Once, when visiting their office I was amused to find their staff do too, to the point where that is the name on our file. With all this professional help, and some research by all parties, by the end of January we had our legal arrangements pretty well sorted out and assumed our role in the community as a family.

Essentially, we made a four-way equal partnership agreement we all signed onto, bringing in whatever we had in money, property, investments, debts — whatever. We didn't want to consider it, but the lawyers insisted for our own protection we include a clause, that in the highly unlikely event, given all the trouble to get back together, one of us wanted to leave the other three, they would get one-fourth of the partnership's assets and liabilities. If three out of the four wanted to 'divorce' the fourth, the same formula would apply.

We caused some consternation to the legal team at first because some of us apparently brought more actual assets to the agreement than others, and were willing to instantly forfeit seventy-five percent ownership. Carol and Riekie both explained they considered us at least a three-way partnership back to those halcyon days of August 1965. With our separation, those community assets just never got utilized and were able to grow, but were still community property.

We put a clause in each contract so it could be re-opened and reworded as unanticipated situations that might otherwise void or weaken the document occurred. We didn't anticipate any difficulty from the original signatories, but we didn't want 'busybodies' to be able to destroy or take from us if they took it upon themselves to try to break our family up. Call us paranoid, but there are those out there that like to meddle in other people's affairs, and are not above trying to use the law to do it and even profit from it.

If all four agreed to add a new partner the contract could be extended to fifths, and so on — unlikely, but we had to keep the option open. After all, Carol and Riekie and I had never originally envisioned going beyond the three of us, and now we had Diane, the disturbing memory of the possibility of Kit, and my own observations of how my wives reacted to and treated Sandra over the Holidays. Not usually one to concern herself with legal details, and showing just how open she'd become, it was Diane's idea to keep our contract open for 'future growth' as she laughingly put it. The legal team heartily agreed.

Originally we weren't sure of Diane's status. As the 'legal wife', could she be party to our formal partnership, or would she have to divorce me and sign back on as an equal partner? Despite Carol and Riekie's qualms about Diane divorcing me, it was something we did have to consider. Our lawyer reminded the girls that our marriage was basically just another form of civil contract, and that Diane would still remain married to us under the Old Ways.

It took time and money, but all deeds and documents of ownership were converted to the four of us, and Diane simply signed a waiver indicating she was in a four-way partnership and relinquished all prior claims to anything of mine. In effect, she 'divorced' me financially, but still retained her legal status as wife. As it turned out, one fourth of what we now had was considerably more than what we had originally, so if Diane ever did decide to leave us, she would be better off than ever.

As for the children, I had joint custody with the mother, with me named on the birth registration as the father, and all the requirements of support that entailed. We drew up an agreement of formal guardianship of the children as well for the 'non-parent' mothers that allowed one of the other mothers to adopt minor children if something were to happen to their birth mother. There were powers of attorney, living wills, wills, and all sorts of other things also included, forming the legal framework for our relationship that supported and protected each and all of us.

Ben's estate settlement and Riekie's divorce settlement both arrived during this process, making weaving these assets into our joint holdings that much easier. We were amazed at how quickly they were settled. Our financial man soon had educational trust funds set up for the four children based on the formula we discussed on our long trip home. The balance was invested in 'safe' vehicles that, while not offering the highest returns, provided a solid income with minimal risk. Riekie's special investment account became the seed for this investment portfolio. This was the high-inflation, high interest rate eighties, so we got a sizable return, at least in the first few years. As an aside, now, years later, we realize our financial adviser was a true wizard. He was able to get us into the very lucrative high tech stocks of the eighties and nineties where he made us a killing. He was so astute, he read the times correctly and got us out with maximum returns just before the dot-com bubble burst. He and his partners did very well too.

Our three and a half million dollars plus from Ben was augmented by another three and a half million dollars when all of Riekie's assets, less her — (Slap!) our chequing account — were tabulated. Riekie was very pleasantly surprised at how much she netted from the divorce, especially when she discovered her lawyer had managed to stiff Rick with the costs. Consequently she sent her lawyer in Winnipeg a very nice thank you card. We weren't out to get richer, just maintain what we had, and grow it against inflation. We arranged it so the income went into a current account we could use, with whatever was left at the end of the taxation year being ploughed back into the principle.

Riekie and Carol's savings were placed in our everyday joint account, such that we had a seven figure working account that paid interest on the minimum balance. My pay from work was deposited automatically to the same account. We rarely used funds from the current account for the interest on our investments, except for major purchases. All this financial endeavor might have meant needing an accountant, but with the services of our legal firm and Carol's skills, we had all the financial and legal help we needed — we didn't need an additional pocket to line.

Carol was a great help — her knowledge of the legal system became invaluable. Ontario law was a little different from Alberta, but not much, and as much of what we discussed came under federal statute, she had a good foundation. She made it much easier for us to deal with the legal team because she knew the questions to ask. She was so good, as a matter of fact, the firm offered her a job. She gracefully turned down full-time employment, but accepted a part-time position on a call-in-as-needed basis. She ended up working an average of 3 or 4 days per month filling in for absentees.

Another side bar — Paul and the aunts hired the same legal team to draw up their contracts. They didn't have some of the issues we did, so their contracts were somewhat simpler. Because of their age, they categorically refused to consider adding to their group, and even hesitated on the opt-out clause until it was pointed out it was for their own protection. Because they were siblings, there was never any question of one of the girls marrying Paul, so the whole marriage was handled by legal contracts and their Wiccan vows. Their paperwork was delayed while the aunts disposed of their home to simplify matters. Paul kept his house, but they decided to stay with Mom and Dad (at their insistence) at least until Jo's baby was born. They handled the issue of children similarly to us, but included us as guardians with adoptive rights because of their age.

The question of Pie and Jo formally adopting Diane and Judy was raised for succession and estate issues, but as they were both consenting adults that was a non-issue, and was simply resolved with carefully worded wills. If the girls chose to voluntarily distance themselves from Shirley, denouncing her as their mother, and refer to Pie and Jo as their mothers, who was to argue?

Sorting out our legal arrangements wasn't all we did during January, although that did occupy a good deal of our time attending meetings and signings, especially when the settlements for Riekie and Ben came through much quicker than anticipated. With the legalities looked after, or being looked after, we had more family meetings and worked out our living arrangements in more detail.

Mid-month, we celebrated Jenny's second birthday with a small party, and like her sisters before her, she made out like a bandit. Jenny had a few small friends, but the majority of her guests were her cousins and sisters. Still, the party was a success and Jenny was a happy little girl.

Amongst other things we got Carol, Riekie, the twins, and the aunts taken on as patients with our family doctor, Dr. (Doc) Hackett, and set up regular prenatal appointments for all the 'preggo's'. Yes, Riekie was a capable physician, but remember the old adage about physicians healing themselves, and there also seems to be some law or something about doctors treating their own family members except in extremis. We also changed them over from the Alberta and Manitoba public health care plans to OHIP. There was no provision in the extended health care plan at work for multiple spouses, so I opted out and we bought a private full-coverage plan that covered us all. Our legal team advised we should probably have it regardless, just to cover potential farm accidents.

Doc Hackett was impressed with Riekie, especially when he learned she had kept up her Ontario accreditation, and asked if she would cover his office whenever he was away. She told him she didn't want to go back into full time practice yet, if ever, but if he needed to be covered on short notice, something could be worked out. As it turned out, she got a couple days a month, enough to cover him, and allow her to 'keep her hand in.'

Every spare minute, I worked on plans for the new house. My hunting partner, Bob, was a pretty fair hand as an amateur architect. He helped me a great deal. When we had our plans roughed out to the best of our abilities, I contacted an actual architect to have proper prints drawn. I paid extra to have the job rushed through, because we wanted to start construction with the first thaw. Thanks to Bob's help, I had enough with the rough plans and the signed architect's commission to hire a contractor and get the appropriate building permits.

Our love life was hugely satisfying. Now that all three were 'up the stump' as Carol put it, and with the knowledge we were together permanently, the urgency, but not the frequency of our sex was greatly reduced. Our lovemaking became just that — love making, and thus, far more emotionally satisfying, especially during our private times.

After Riekie's mid-week one at New Year's, Saturday nights became the girls' individual private times with me. They set up the rotation, and I never interfered with it. Their schedule started around noon Saturday and ended about noon Sunday. The system worked so well we have always considered it one of our 'better ideas'. A very satisfying side benefit was that the two wives thus paired off also got to spend quality time together. At first I thought Diane and Carol would benefit most from this, because of their special bond I've talked about so much, but the other two combinations appeared to benefit even more.

Carol and Diane's love affair was by now well established, and the private time did allow them to get to know each other, but that relationship was already amazingly strong, and didn't need a lot of development, just 'polishing'. What they shared through their letter writing in the beginning turned out to be much more detailed and revealing then even they realized. Still, to have time to just quietly explore their physical relationship was a genuine boon to them.

Diane and Riekie truly needed time together. They had never met prior to Christmas Eve, except through the tenuous connection of their dreams. That they fell in love was never in doubt, and that they felt a strong physical attraction to each other was very apparent from their first meeting, but they still hardly knew each other. They shared a common bond in having been raped by father figures. Diane was able to share her experience with Riekie, and help her with her final bit of adaptation and acceptance it wasn't her fault. The connection these two made through the use of private times was profound, and the bond that developed was every bit as strong as that between Diane and Carol.

Carol and Riekie were able to fully reconnect and return to the way things were 'before'. Neither realized the true strain their relationship as sisters had been under for all those years, even though it was the foundation of what had kept them actually speaking. The private time allowed them to fully evaluate the rift that had separated them and allowed them to come to grips with it. The healing between them was complete, and extremely gratifying to me.

Bottom line — while it proved itself again as an opportunity for me to connect with each of my wives, the true benefit, especially in the first months of that first year, came about in the other room. My Girls (My Girls!) became so fully connected with each other they came to the point of almost true empathy, such that they could sense what the others were feeling, even at a considerable distance. As their relationship budded and bloomed, they became even more like 'one person in three bodies'. Spooky and unnerving at times, when they completed thoughts and sentences, even from separate rooms in the house, it showed just how connected they were. I shit you not.

Many years before, Carol and I had noticed us developing a similar bond we called the 'spooky thing'. Riekie and I also noticed it in our first year together. Carol and I found we still had it in September. At Christmas, we found it extended among all three wives and myself. While my bond with them was not quite as empathic as they had amongst themselves, we still managed to surprise and nonplus friends and relatives with our non verbal communication. What the listeners heard often seemed like incomplete and disjointed fragments of conversations because the rest was communicated at other levels, whether by subtle gesture, or possibly even outright telepathy, even we aren't sure.