Chapter 29

The weekend didn't start or end anything at all like Joyce and I had expected it to. In fact, the only thing that did go as we had expected, was the trip up to Ridgeline. This was because Dale and Eddie's mother had suffered a convulsive seizure back home in Chickasaw, Oklahoma, early that Friday afternoon. She had later lapsed into a near comatose state before being discovered by a neighbor, and rushed, by ambulance, to the community hospital.

Dale had called over to her mother's home from Ridgeline, right after we arrived, because she needed to let her mother know the address for her and Eddie's new apartment. A neighbor lady answered the phone, and she told Dale what had happened. An hour later, Eddie, Dale, Shirley, and I were flying to Oklahoma in my plane. Joyce, Emily, and Brenda stayed at home with the children.

As soon as we arrived at the hospital, Mrs. Pipkin's physician told us that she had suffered a bad reaction to her new blood pressure medication. The convulsive seizure, as well as her subsequent lethargic condition, were enough to concern her doctor, and he wanted to order up a whole series of tests intended to help him get a better understanding about what had taken place.

The problem that troubled him was justifying all the expense of conducting those tests, given his patient's lack of insurance coverage, and limited financial means. Fortunately, being in a position to help with the expenses was something I could do to help Dale and Eddie.

I told the doctor to go ahead and order up any tests he thought might help him illuminate Mrs. Pipkin's medical condition. When he asked me if there was a spending limit he needed to observe, indicating that some of the tests might be extremely expensive, I just repeated my earlier statement about him doing anything he thought might help to provide better care for his patient.

At some point, and this was relatively early in their testing procedures, they discovered a repairable aneurysm, and a blood clot that had formed high up in the neck area. Mrs. Pipkin was in surgery twenty minutes after the aneurysm was found, and in a post operative recovery room two hours later. The procedure went well, and I was able to meet Mrs. Pipkin, for the first time, early on Saturday afternoon.

She was a lot younger looking than I had pictured her being, and even with the energy drain of all she'd just been through, a lively and good humored woman. She thanked me for helping to get the tests performed on her. The doctor had told all of us that those tests had led to his timely discovery of that potentially life threatening problem.

She began by asking me questions about just who I was, who Shirley was to me, and then wanted to know what relationship I had, or hoped to have, with either of her two daughters.

I tried my best to turn the topic of conversation away from me, to get back to discussing her current state of health and future physical well being. She wasn't having any of that though.

"You may as well just come out and tell me, Kenny. Won't help you any to try to turn my head away from talking about this. It would be better if you were to tell me what it is you're planning on doing with my two babies." Like most people, her early reactions were turned into disquieting fears as soon as she sensed I was trying to avoid answering her question. I didn't want to risk upsetting her, and my sidestepping her question was causing that to happen.

I started in with answering her by first telling her about my whole brain trust concept. I described the role that I hoped Dale and Eddie would play. After starting to explain about our company, I ended up admitting to not wanting to spend my whole waking life tied down with the responsibility for operating the family business, like my Dad. She stopped me before I could get into any of the nuts and bolts of my idea.

"You keep talking around my question, Kenny, are you sleeping with or trying to sleep with either of these girls?" She was pointing at her daughters, as she was sitting up in her hospital bed, with the bed cranked up in the back. She had her head propped up with several pillows. I was sitting in a chair by the side of the bed, so she was elevated above me, and looking down, with a definite frown forming on her face.

"Mama, you can't go asking him those kinds of questions. It isn't any business of yours anyhow. Eddie and I don't need any help protecting ourselves that way." Dale had leaned in from the foot of the bed, placing a hand on her mother's foot, and shaking it to get her mother's attention as she spoke.

"You don't tell me what questions I get to ask, girl. I'm your mother, I can ask any damn question I feel like asking. This boy is already cheating on his wife, with this here other girl, cause she's sure enough pregnant, and I'm guessing that he's going to be the daddy. Man like that, he don't stop at just one other girl. He'll be sniffing after you two soon enough, I don't miss my guess."

"Mrs. Pipkin, I don't cheat on my wife, or on any of my wives. The truth of it is, Shirley is my wife too, and, yes, she is pregnant with my child. I have four wives, and all of them are pregnant, but I don't see what any of that has to do with Eddie and Dale, or with you, for that matter."

"Me? Boy, it don't have nothing to do with me. You might can talk Dee and Dee Dee into giving up the leg, but I've got way too much sense to fall for any of your sweet talking. I'm only afraid you might be taking advantage of these young, impressionable girls, what with all that money waving you've been doing to try to impress them."

Dee and Dee Dee? Were those their nicknames? "If you call them Dee and Double Dee, you must be Triple Dee." I was staring at her large breasts, barely contained under the robe she was wearing. For some reason, it struck me as a funny set of nicknames to give to Dale and Eddie.

"Don't you go and try to change the subject. Are you planning on sleeping with either of my girls?" Mrs. Pipkin adjusted her robe, checking to be sure she wasn't giving me more of a eyeful than she thought she was doing.

I could see by then that she was enjoying herself at my expense. At first, she had me fooled, and then she had me going around in circles, as I tried to skirt away from giving a direct answer to her question. Like her daughters though, she had a twinkle in her dark brown eyes that gave it away that she was only playing with me.

"You're the one trying to change the subject, Mrs. P. Maybe I was hoping to have a little something with Dee and Dee Dee, but that was before I met their mama. Now, I'm thinking I might just hold off for awhile, at least until they unhook you from all those wires and I.V.'s. Could be I want to find out if the water is sweeter if I drink it directly from the well, rather than having to be satisfied with drinking it only from the buckets."

That did it for her, she knew then that I had caught on to her. Soon after that, all of us were laughing and kidding around together, able to relax and speak in a friendly way with each other.

It turned out that Mrs. Pipkin needed to stay in the hospital for a few more days before she could be released, but she was moved over to a regular hospital room soon after we left Oklahoma the next morning.

We got back to Ridgeline just in time to pack up our things and make the journey, by car, back to Lawrence. I rode back with Joyce and our children, and Dee and Dee Dee rode back with Shirley, Derek and Leah.

Joyce and I talked about what had happened, and both of us thought that it might have been a good thing for Dale and Eddie to first understand that we would be there for them, and that our commitment was far more than simply a business, financial, or sexual commitment alone. Neither of us thought there was any hurry about us having sex with them.

Tuesday afternoon, after classes, Eddie and Dale came over to the house to give us an update on their mother's progress, (she was ready to leave the hospital, and would return to her home the following morning) and to join us for dinner.

A large part of our dinner conversation was given over to thinly disguised sexual innuendo, with some rampant flirting, for the most part initiated by Eddie, Joyce, and Emily.

"I can't stand being around Dale when she gets like this, Kenny. You've got her walking around in full heat now." Eddie laughed, and avoided yet another under the table kick aimed at her legs, by an embarrassed Dale. "Why you going and kicking me, Dee? I'm only telling the God's honest truth. You know you've been just pining away, dying to find out if Kenny can deliver the goods or not."

"Didn't Kenny tell you girls what we all decided, Eddie?" Joyce spoke up before Dale had an opportunity to rebut her sister's accusations.

"Tell me what?" Eddie looked over at me. I just shrugged, unsure as to what Joyce meant, and willing to allow her to explain it herself.

"Kenny's our resource, Eddie. We don't just loan him out without getting something back in return." Emily was laughing when she said that, but Shirley and Brenda were nodding their agreement too.

"Like what? Are we supposed to pay you for him, or something?" Eddie was asking in a serious way, confused over what Joyce and Emily were saying.

"A while ago, we needed some help with a big problem we had at the company, and Kenny told this girl that he'd sleep with her, if she could learn how to take care of things after we all left and came here to school. We girls all decided that she'd have to do things with all of us if she was going to do things with Kenny and Joyce. We made her lick all of us."

Eddie and Dale were both looking at me. Dale seemed upset, but Eddie was still smiling. I figured I better not waste any time before explaining things to the sisters.

"That wasn't something they bothered to discuss in advance with Joyce and me. I didn't have any idea about it happening, not before they came into our bedroom. We both would have stopped it, if Ellen had shown even the slightest reluctance. It wasn't part of the deal we had with her, but she didn't seem to mind at all, when the girls came into our room and started playing with her."

All seven of us were silent at the table, waiting for someone else to speak up. Time seemed to slow as the silence lengthened. It was becoming uncomfortable in the room.

"Kenny has to do us both first, and he has to make Dee have at least two good tingles. If he can't do that, then we don't have to do anything with all the rest of you all." Eddie was looking right at Joyce, intent on negotiating with what she perceived as the higher authority.

"She's not speaking for me. I'm not going to do that with all four of these girls. If Kenny makes me cum, I'll do it to Joyce, but that's all I'll agree to do." Dale looked over at me when she spoke, negotiating directly with me.

"If you only cum once, you don't have to do anything with the X's, but if you cum more than once, you have to do all of us. That goes for each of you." Emily was speaking right to Dale. It was Eddie who responded though.

"I've got no problem doing all of you all, Emily, but first Kenny has to prove he can make Dee cum. If he can make her get off, I'm not even going to worry about whether he can satisfy me."

Eddie stood up and walked behind where her sister was sitting. She leaned in and whispered something I couldn't hear. Dale shook her head from side to side, and then Eddie whispered something else to her. I couldn't hear this either.

None of this was going anything like I'd pictured it. I'm not sure what I had thought was going to happen, but I know it didn't start with both sides sitting around a table, negotiating terms.

"Look guys, I'll be in my bedroom. You all need to decide what it is you can all agree to, then Joyce can let me know what you've decided."