Chapter 18

The next morning June took Bob to see Doctor Adams. This time Bob knew where he was going and nobody noticed them in the building at all. Dr. Adams had already had some tests run on Bob's blood, and on this day he had a long list of various scans and other tests that they went through. Adams accompanied June and Bob to lunch, asking detailed questions about everything Bob could remember about the day he had gone to sleep. When they got back to the hospital Adams did a DNA test on Bob. Some of the test results were back already, but none showed anything of interest, except that Bob appeared to be a perfectly healthy twenty-five year old male. Even the scarring on his leg where a dog had bitten him as a young boy appeared to be scar tissue that was no more than ten or fifteen years old. The x-ray of his teeth showed two small cavities, neither of which could possibly have been there for more than a year and, according to the oral surgeon Adams called in to consult, probably wouldn't even have been noticed by an exam in 1950 due to the technology available at that time.

It was clear to everyone who examined him that Bob had just stopped aging for fifty years. To see if being awake again had changed whatever that amazing phenomenon was they took all kinds of measurements, even down to the length of the hairs on Bob's arms.

Everyone was extremely excited.

Becca went to see her aunt this time, instead of calling her on the phone. She picked a time when Fran would be there, expecting her cousin to bolster her cause. She took Fran outside, as if she had come only to see her, and explained everything to her.

Fran listened, her face neutral. Finally Becca was done.

"So," said Fran. "You want to hook my mom up with that young guy who searched her." She didn't look happy.

"Yes, isn't it cool?" gushed Becca.

Fran didn't think it was cool at all. It wasn't that she was disgusted about her mother going out with a younger man. She couldn't really conceive of her mother on a date of any kind. Living in a house with a straight mother and a gay father had exposed Fran to a large number of things. Seeing her father with another man didn't shock her. Her relationship with him was, oddly, just about like any girl's relationship with her father. He loved her, and set rules for her, helped her with her homework when he could and taught her how to play baseball and ride a bike. He was, in her opinion, just like any other man, except that he got his emotional kicks with men instead of her mother. Her mother, on the other hand, had not exhibited any sort of sexual drive for as long as Becca had known her. The first time she'd seen her mother acting sexual in any way, shape or form was during the search that had brought this whole thing on.

On top of that, like Val, she was jealous of Becca's experience with Grandpa. That Val had been out on a date with an older man too just made it worse. Val hadn't told her anything about what went on, on that date, telling her she was too young to understand.

That was the real problem. Everybody around her thought she was too young to do anything! Yet she was curious too. She got horny just like her older cousins did. She had dreams like they did. And, in the same odd quirk that seemed to affect all the Winkle women, she didn't have much interest in men her own age.

So, at this point in time, when Becca was trying to enlist her to help get her mother to go on a date, Fran was a very frustrated young woman.

"What's wrong?" asked Becca. She knew her cousin intimately, and saw the consternation on Fran's face.

"I'll tell you what's wrong," said Fran heavily. "Everybody else gets to do fun things with men except me."

"But you're just..."

Fran cut her off with a shout. "Don't you tell me I'm only sixteen!" She lowered her voice when Becca shot a look at the front door. "I know how old I am. Did you know my grandmother had Mom when she was only fifteen?" Becca looked confused. "And Aunt Martha had Aunt Sunny when she was fifteen. and... your grandmother had your mother when she was fifteen too! None of them were too young to have fun with men!"

Becca was shocked. "Yes ... okay ... but that was way back then. None of our mothers had us until after they were out of High School."

"I know that too," said Fran. "But it's still not fair! You and Val get to have all the fun. When will it be my turn?"

Becca may have only been two years older than her cousin, but two years ... and the experience Becca had with Bob ... made a pretty big difference in how she looked at things.

"You have plenty of time to catch up." she said, reaching out to touch Fran's arm. "Come on, I know you want to be all grown up, but don't try to grow up too fast. And don't be mad at us. We can't help it if we're older than you."

"I'm not mad at you," said Fran dejectedly. "I'm just jealous. And now you want my mom to go out and have fun too. It just doesn't seem fair at all, that's all."

"So? Go on some dates, silly." chided Becca. "You're a good looking girl. I know boys are trying to chase you."

"Are you going out with a boy your age?" asked Fran acidly. "Did Val go out with a man her age? Are you trying to get my mother to go out with a man her age?"

Becca blinked. "Oh." was all she said.

"Yeah ... Oh!" said Fran meaningfully. "Okay, here's the deal. You help me and I'll help you."

"What do you mean?" asked Becca hesitantly. "Who do you want to go out with?"

"I want to have some fun with Grandpa ... like you did," said Fran.

"No way!" squeaked Becca. "He tried not to do anything with me. He'd never agree to do anything with you."

"But if he would ... you'd help me?" asked Fran.

Becca didn't see any likelihood of that happening, so it didn't seem at all dangerous to say "okay."

Little could she know how momentous that simple "okay" would turn out.

Inside, Polly had no idea that she was about to be blindsided. Her niece's attempt to get her to chaperone while double dating had been something so far out that it had stuck in her mind. Polly's life with men hadn't been quite so tumultuous as her sisters' lives had been. She loved Roger when she married him, and still loved him, though probably in a different way. She was ... comfortable with him. She'd had several experiences with men before Roger, and he seemed no different from them. If anything, Roger had spent more time - back when they still made love - paying attention to her needs during intercourse than the others had.

It had been complicated.

He had actually been trying to "go straight" by marrying her. What she found out later was that whenever he was fucking her, he was thinking about a man he liked. When he'd finally confessed everything out of shame that he was mistreating her, he hadn't even been able to get an erection with her after that. She'd been mad as hell initially, but because of Frannie, both of them thought better of breaking up. Since then she hadn't thought much about men. The men Roger hung out with, of course, weren't attractive to her because she assumed (incorrectly) they were all gay too. She had looked at other men occasionally, and had spent many a night with her hands between her legs for a while as she dreamed of being with some of them. But she never had the courage to make an overture, partly because it would look like she was cheating, and partly because she was sure in the back of her mind that the man she picked would probably turn out to be gay too. Eventually she left "men" behind in a way, convincing herself that sex was way overrated anyway. Instead, she poured her energy into her career and her daughter.

But that young policeman, sliding his hands all over her body at the hospital, and his attention to her as a woman had reawakened something deep inside Polly ... a tiny little itch that kept wanting to be touched or scratched.

Now Becca's suggestion to double date had dangled hope like a carrot in front of a donkey. It had made something in Polly want to say "Yes!", if only the part of her that was bored to tears with work and the world in general. The idea of going out and having some fun in the company of a man was attractive. A bigger part of her was afraid to take the risk. It had made her moody, and she was still moody when Becca showed up to see Fran. She was baking cookies. She always did that when she was moody. It cheered her up. She was thankful that Becca hadn't come in trying to revive the idea. It would have been much harder to say no again, for some strange reason.

She was therefore unprepared when Becca and her daughter came in from outside and plunked themselves down at the kitchen table.

"Uh oh," said Fran suddenly.

"What?" asked Becca.

"She's making cookies. That means she's in a funk."

"You shouldn't talk about people behind their back," said Polly smiling a little.

"I have to," said Fran airily. "Your back is turned to us. What's wrong?"

"Nothing," said Polly. She didn't want to bring anything up with Becca sitting right there.

"You yell at me when I say that," said Fran.

Polly turned to frown at her daughter. Raising a teenager was frightening sometimes.

"This is different." she said stubbornly.

"Oh, okay," said Fran. "Can we have a cookie?"

"No," said Polly shortly. "It will ruin your dinner."

"Dinner's not for hours." moaned Fran theatrically.

Polly ignored her, putting another tray of cookies in the oven.

Becca wasn't so sure things were going well enough to put her plan into action. Still, like most young women, she was too impatient to wait.

"I called Denny." she said into the silence.

Polly stiffened and then tried to relax. She pushed away at the fluttery feeling in her stomach. "That's nice. So you're going to go in spite of your mother?" she said.

"He won't go out with me," said Becca.

Polly felt her heart lurch with empathy and turned around.

"Oh, sweetheart, I'm so sorry."

"He won't go out with me unless I find a date for Brian too," said Becca, watching Polly closely. "You remember Brian?"

Polly felt her breath catch in her chest and put one hand there. For sure she remembered Brian. His whisper in her ear after his hands had slid all over her body had made her nipples tingle. She had had to manufacture the outrage she tried to display, when what she wanted to do was tell the man he might have missed something and should probably search her again ... more thoroughly.

"Yes." came out of her mouth while she was preparing to say "Who?"

"Denny says that he and Brian are partners, and they like to do things together, even off duty. He said it's kind of like being brothers. And he said he couldn't go off and leave Brian all alone some night while he went out and had fun with me."

Becca darted a look at Fran, who winked and nodded slightly.

"It's too bad you don't want to go with me. Would it be okay if Fran went along? She could be Brian's date. My mother might agree to that."

Polly felt faint and leaned against the stove with one hand. It was hot and she jerked her hand away.

"Absolutely not!" she said. "Frannie's too young to go out with an older man like that. You are too, young lady."

"Mom" moaned Fran. "Come on, Becca would be there to take care of me. Nothing would happen. Didn't you say he wanted to go miniature golfing Becca? What could possibly happen playing miniature golf Mom?"

"You girls are in this way over your heads," said Polly earnestly. "Those are older men. They've been with lots of women. They're adults and they'd want to treat you like adults. But you're not adults. No. I can't allow this."

"Well then," said Becca sadly, "Maybe I can get one of my friends to go with him. Mom won't like it, but that's just too bad. I want to go on a real date with a real man. If mom kicks me out can I at least stay here until school starts?"

If Polly would have had the control to look at Becca closely, she would have seen that Becca's expression just didn't quite match her sad comments. She might also have noticed that her own little girl had a small smile on her face, after being denied the chance to do something she apparently wanted to do.

But Polly wasn't looking at the girls.

What Polly was looking at in her mind's eye was two young girls out with two experienced men. What that looked like in her mind's eye was two sets of naked male buttocks bounding up and down between two sets of slim teenaged legs.

"No!" gasped Polly. Then her mind caught up to the last thing Becca had said. Her motherly instincts kicked in on top of her own desire to do something crazy and she blurted "I'll do it! I'll go with you."

Becca was out of her chair in an instant and she smothered her aunt with hugs and kisses, thanking her profusely. It wasn't until Polly shoved her away laughing that Fran remembered the role she was still supposed to be playing.

"Damn!" she said, not too loudly. "I never get to do anything!"

Polly's eyes flashed as she lit into her daughter for cursing. Fran was so pleased with her acting that she had to put her hands in her face to keep her mother from seeing her grin. Polly, of course, thought she was crying and dropped into the role of consoling mom.

"Don't cry honey ... you'll get your chance. I promise. Tell you what ... if this date with Becca works out, and I go on any more, maybe you and I can double date."

Fran didn't have to act to put horror on her face as she raised it.

"Mom!" she gasped.

Polly looked shocked and then unaccountably she felt giddy. She was going on a date with a handsome man, and her very own niece was going to be there to make sure it was only a date. She wasn't even incensed at her daughters obvious repulsion at the idea of going out to have fun with her mother.

"Never mind. You'll have hundreds of dates soon... thousands of dates!" said Polly. She skipped and did a twirl as she swung the oven open and grabbed a pot holder to pull out the cookies.

"Would you girls like a cookie?" she asked gaily.

As it became clear to the media that they weren't going to get the front page story they were all hoping for, Bob's case faded into the background. Negotiations with Amalgamated were not concluded within the twenty-four hour deadline their CEO had stipulated. That's because, while the paperwork was being reviewed, Gus casually mentioned that this settlement did not include "the other matter" which was going to be filed separately.