Chapter 2

It was late when he got her back home. He walked her to the door, at which point she was nervous again.

“I’m not going to try to kiss you good night,” he said, joking.

“Thank you,” she said, perfectly serious.

“I would like to spend some more time with you, though,” he said.

“You already spent the three hours with me,” she pointed out.

“I decided to donate that time,” he said, grinning. “Rhonda’s time hasn’t started yet.”

She looked at him. “You just want to get in my pants,” she accused.

“That thought has occurred to me,” he teased. Then he got serious. “But if that never happens, then that never happens. I can live with that. I just want to know, at some point, that you’re comfortable being around a man who finds you very attractive, and would get in your pants if he could.”

“You’re a very strange man,” she said.

“Nope,” he said. “I’m normal in every way. That’s what I want you to understand. I want you to understand there are perfectly nice, perfectly harmless, perfectly normal men out there that you don’t have to be afraid of.”

“You make it sound like you’re on a mission,” she said.

“Maybe I am,” he responded.

An hour later, Janet lay in bed, thinking about the evening. She didn’t feel nervous now. But then, he was gone. He had looked so big, standing there. He had such big, strong hands ... hands that could hurt her. Her conscious mind told her he’d never do that, but it was impossible to just abandon the caution she’d built into a wall between her and men in general.

Maybe she could put a door in that wall ... a very small door ... that somehow, only Bobby Dalton could come through ... just to talk, of course. She’d really liked talking, even though she’d told him some very private things. She was pretty sure she could trust him not to blab that around. She could trust him that far, at least. And he had spent all that time with her, without trying anything. She had never had that kind of conversation with a man ... a conversation in which he said he wanted her ... as a woman ... but then didn’t push it ... didn’t force it ... didn’t demand it.

The woman in her loved that honest attention. Men looked at her in the grocery store all the time. She was aware of that. She knew what they were thinking, as they stared at her breasts instead of her face. They weren’t honest about it, though. They made polite conversation, as if they weren’t thinking about her breasts. It was one of the reasons she didn’t trust men.

Her conscious mind made a decision, there in the dark. She’d give Bobby a chance ... let him see her again. She’d be very careful, but she’d explore this different kind of man a little more. Not that she’d do anything with him. Just more talking, maybe. Yes ... that might be nice. She’d trust him ... just a little ... while still being careful.

She was wondering what the next time would be like as she drifted off to sleep.

Janet should have known that Rhonda would be eager to find out how things went. If she’d thought back to when she’d hired Bobby for Rhonda, she might have remembered how curious she was about Rhonda’s experience with Bobby.

What was ironic about it was that she did exactly what Rhonda had done, though not because she was coached by Bobby.

When Rhonda called the next morning, and squealed “Well, how was it?!” Janet lied.

“He’s quite a man,” she said.

“Isn’t he though?” sighed Rhonda. “I always love being with him. Was he gentle with you?”

“Of course,” said Janet.

“What did he do?” asked her friend, wondering if he always treated every woman like he treated her.

“Oh, the usual things,” said Janet, who had almost forgotten what “the usual things” were.

It was that that undid her. She didn’t sound either excited or convincing.

“Such as,” asked Rhonda, her voice different, with less enthusiasm and more suspicion.

“Oh, you know,” said Janet, trying to think about doing something with Bobby and not panic at the same time.

“No, that’s why I’m asking you,” said Rhonda, suspicion heavy in her voice.

“Like he does with you,” said Janet, feeling a different kind of panic.

“You didn’t let him, did you.” said Rhonda. It was a statement, rather than a question.

“Of course I did,” said Janet.

“Don’t you lie to me!” barked Rhonda. “What happened? If he treated you badly, I’ll skin him alive!”

“No!” said Janet. “It just didn’t work out, that’s all. He didn’t do anything wrong.”

“It was your birthday present!” objected Rhonda. “It was supposed to make you happy!”

“We had a good time,” said Janet. “We went and got burgers in Wichita.”

“You went to Wichita?!“ howled Rhonda, “Instead of getting laid by the best lover this side of the Mississippi?!”

“Don’t yell at me!” yelled Janet. “I told you it just didn’t work out. It was just a first date, okay? I’m going to see him again! Calm down!”

“How can I calm down when I got my best friend the best birthday present I could think of, and she didn’t even open it?!”

“Please don’t push me,” moaned Janet. “We talked last night, and it was really nice. I’m going to see him again. Maybe something will happen.”

“Janet, I paid him to have sex with you!” said Rhonda, her voice harsh. “If he didn’t have sex with you, it was because he prevented it.”

“I know that,” said Janet. “And I appreciate what you did for me, really I do. I just got nervous, that’s all.”

“I was nervous too,” said Rhonda, suddenly remembering that first night with Bobby. She had chickened out too, come to think of it. “Okay, I know how you felt. I’d forgotten that part. It’s okay. You said you’re going to see him again?”

“Yes,” said Janet.

“Okay,” said her best friend. “That’s good enough for me. I have faith in him.”

“What about me?” asked Janet, somewhat perturbed.

“I have faith that Bobby will do whatever it is you need,” said Rhonda. “All you need to work on is letting him do whatever that is.”

“Oh,” said Janet.

“He’s a good man, Janet.”

“I know that,” said Janet.

“He can make you feel wonderful.”

“I know that too,” said Janet.

“You just have to learn to let him,” said Rhonda.

“I know that too,” said Janet again.

“So when is your second date?” asked her friend.

“I don’t know yet,” said Janet. “We didn’t talk about that.”

“If you ever want me to get you another birthday present, you’d better call him pronto!” snapped Rhonda.

“Okay, okay, don’t get your panties in a wad!” snapped Janet back at her friend.

“When it comes to Bobby, I don’t wear them anymore,” said Rhonda, smugly.

Then she hung up.

January of 1975 was a relatively calm month from Bobby’s perspective. Linda was still living at home, but most of her time was spent with four month old Randall. She was a single-minded mother, who was conflicted about her child. She was aware that it was Bobby who had gotten her pregnant, based on Randall’s physical characteristics. For that reason, she wanted Bobby to pay a lot of attention to him, which Bobby was happy to do; being a surrogate father for Paul, who was back at school again.

On the other hand, Linda loved Paul, and wished that she had had his baby. She was determined to get pregnant by Paul as soon as possible. That caused her a problem, because she still got horny, and Bobby was the only man around to solve that problem. At the same time, she didn’t want Bobby to get her pregnant again. She had slipped up last time, letting him spurt in her when it was dangerous to do so, and was intent on not letting that happen again. The problem was that Bobby loved sucking her milk, at least as much as Randall did. both were lusty eaters. And when Bobby sucked her milk, she wanted Bobby’s prick in her pussy.

She therefore bounced from wanting Bobby to not wanting Bobby.

The twins were in their last year of high school, and had begun dating. That in itself was unusual, because, up to that point, they had had no interest in boys as anything other than friends. When their mother had put the rest of the girls on birth control pills, they were actually embarrassed by it. They were quite sure that all the other kids in school would find out their older sisters were on the pill and assume that they were all sluts, and that the twins were probably sluts too.

That, in fact, was one of the reasons that the twins appeared to have no interest in boys.

Being a twin can be a different kind of life than most of us imagine. You’re never really alone, even when you’re alone, because that other half of you is always hovering ... just there, on the edge of consciousness. As a result, twins often spend a lot more time interacting with each other than the rest of us interact with any other person. What that can mean is that they don’t spend as much time as the rest of us thinking about other things ... like sex.

This is not to suggest that twins don’t have sexual thoughts. They just may not have as much time each day to think about that as the rest of us do. It is a small thing, but, as anyone who has thrown a small pebble into a calm pond knows, small things can have much bigger effects.

In this case, the pond was the fact that after Mirriam put the other girls on the pill, and there were no more “incidents”, things seemed to be going along just fine. The twins, and Suzie too for that matter, exhibited no outward indication that boys were anything more than other people they sometimes had to deal with. The pond was, more or less, the fact that the twins did nothing to cause Mirriam to remember they weren’t, in fact, on the pill as they grew older.

They did of course eventually get more interested in boys. That was the pebble.

They were in their senior year when they began paying attention to the sexuality of the opposite sex. That was a little late, compared to most girls. But the twins lived life differently than other girls, and matured a little later than them too. And, because they were twins, when they finally decided to like boys for their more gender specific qualities, that happened a little differently too.

The problem was that they both liked the same boy, a young man named Chuck Cunningham. He liked both of them too, though he didn’t know it, at first. At first, he thought he liked Matilda, because she was the one he asked out on a date. When she went with him, and they had a great time, he asked her out again.