Chapter 127: The Best Laid Plans of Mice, Mark and Julia

Tuesday, April 26, 2005 (Continued)

Prof, Vanessa and I were waiting where Julia had left us, in Prof and Vanessa's study. We did a LOT of catching up while waiting so long for Julia to return. Our first topic was of particular interest to me: the roulette scheme, including how they were intending to do their research. Their plan - actually it was Vanessa's plan, Prof happily giving her the credit for being more imaginative than him - was:

• To research the industry enough so they could talk sensibly about it (done).

• Research a particularly widely known, high-selling, spy-story author (done).

• Identify some knowledgeable Vegas people (done).

• Cheat! (due to start tomorrow.) Phone the people identified in the step immediately above, pretending to be the widely known author from two steps above, or his research assistant. They would say they were researching his next book (making it a TRULY "fictional" book). It would have a section in which someone wants to place some extremely large bets in Vegas, far over the normal betting limits. They hoped at least a few of the local experts would give their expert advice on how it could be done, in return for - if their idea was used - their name in the credits of the book and being sent an autographed copy when it was finally released. I hoped the 'advisors' don't hold their breaths waiting for it to arrive! The advice would only take a few minutes and shouldn't involve anything considered secret, so no greater payment should be expected, nor any contact beyond a phone call.

Prof and Vanessa had created a fictional situation well enough removed from our own that when their 'advisors' heard about our real Vegas trip, it wouldn't sound familiar. Prof and Vanessa were going to use the prepaid disposable cellphones to avoid any phone records tying the calls back to them. Not that being discovered would be bad, as researching in this way was hardly a serious crime. And - if confronted after we'd come back from Vegas with a huge haul - they'd simply say, "That's how we found out how to be allowed to place large, legal, honest wagers. So what?" Even if our target casino afterward connected our haul to the research deception, it didn't tell them anything bad; they'd already have Prof's name in order to pay him. Prof wasn't going to use a false name in case the casino checked him out MUCH more carefully after the win but before the payment, and used his fake name as an excuse not to pay him. Even if we won in court, it'd be years after I'd left Corvallis and we would have missed out on living in a mansion in the interim.

Having exhausted that topic, and Julia not having arrived back after finishing her preliminary briefing of Ava, we discussed a succession of other topics: Carol, my parents, my sex-life - as distinct from my love-life, which we also discussed - my school and college studies, and even Aikido, which wasn't something they'd had much to do with. I was tempted to drop into conversation that, "Carol and Donna hadn't shown any sign of my ability yet," but I thought I should check with Julia about this first, as we hadn't actually discussed how to deal with this with her parents.

Prof and Vanessa are great talkers and very interested in me, but I was almost ready to show them light blobs ahead of schedule as a way of passing the time. So much time had passed that we were starting to get concerned, both about how Julia was getting on, and about our maybe not finishing with Ava before Katelin arrived. As more time passed, it became certain that we'd have to park Katelin in the hot tub or on a sofa to watch a DVD until we'd finished with Ava.

Eventually Julia returned. She explained her long absence, "It didn't go as I expected; it went FAR better! Ava's is far more determined to commit to Mark than any of us thought, and she's willing to do anything to make it happen. The phrase, 'I'd give my right arm for... ' would almost be literally true right now. She doesn't care about the ceremony, the thrashing, or anything else. She just wants to see Mark so she can commit to him and he can agree to look after her."

^-- We all reacted to the last phrase, and before any of us could speak, Julia continued, "Yeah, I realize we never agreed on that last part. I'll tell you what happened. She arrived expecting the least possible significance from tonight. She'd be thrashed, in part as punishment for past errors, in part to show Mark she was serious. Then she'd promise Mark she could do better if he'd let her try again. I started talking, and as soon as she understood there was going to be a ceremony, she was thrilled. She LOVED the idea of the ceremony, and that we were taking her so seriously.

^-- "When I got to the part about her offering her commitment to Mark, she was shocked when I told her that she'd be kneeling naked in front of Mark with Mom and me as witnesses. I gave the 'witnesses as for a marriage' excuse for Mom being there, as we agreed before. Of course I explained it wasn't a real marriage because the commitment was only one way. Mom and Dad have told me countless times that 'with power comes responsibility, ' so because she was giving Mark power over her, I said that, 'she'd be committing herself to Mark, and Mark would be accepting responsibility for her.' Ava suddenly got even more excited when she heard that Mark was going to 'look after her' - those were her words. Alarm bells went off in my head, so I created an escape clause by telling her that she'd be offering her commitment to Mark, but it was up to Mark how much of her commitment he accepted. I said there might be some back-and-forth discussion about that, especially after she'd talked to Mom, so we do have room to negotiate if we need to. That worried her, but she had to accept it, and it seemed to calm her down.

^-- "Then I started going through all the points we'd agreed on. I had to flesh them out, which took a while, but she couldn't have responded better. She never looked like she'd ever say no to anything we wanted. The further through I got with her, the more and more excited and eager she was at being Mark's. The only hiccup was her feelings of worthlessness, so a couple of times I had to stop to reassure her that she'd be useful. Otherwise there was absolutely no doubt of her increasing eagerness to throw herself at Mark. Toward the end I was talking about her not being jealous of other girls, and saying it was good to have more girls in the relationship because we could each do different types of tasks to help Mark. I added a bit that we hadn't planned, but it's been vaguely in my mind for a while, for her role in Mark's wing of the mansion. For about thirty seconds I played up all the stuff I do for Mark, making it sound very complicated and difficult, then I said that I was very worried about what would happen when Mark finally moved out of home, and there wasn't a mother to do all the housework stuff for him: cooking, cleaning, fetching and carrying, etc. She leaped on that and was BEGGING me to be allowed to do Mark's housework. I was hoping to sort of trick her into it, but she leaped at it. She would've cried if I'd refused her!

^-- "I agreed she'd be the housekeeper at the time, and then she wanted to set up house immediately with Mark. She's not trying to grab Mark for herself; she made that amply clear. She just can't wait to housekeep for him. She wants us to rent a house so she can be the housekeeper. She said it was important to her that we did it before the end of 2005, which didn't make sense to me. I would've thought after she graduated in mid-2006 would be the far more natural choice. I was already well behind schedule, so didn't want to get into a never-ending house planning discussion, especially because our financial situation is so uncertain. I put her off, and got back to the other points I wanted to cover.

^-- "All through our talk she repeatedly said things like, 'I will do whatever Mark and you tell me.' In her mind Mark and I are both her bosses, and she looks up to, respects and wants to obey us. Especially Mark, of course. If she looked up to Mark any further, she'd fall over backward, haha. She never volunteered Carol's name as a boss though, not once. It's clear she doesn't think of Carol that way. So I was quite worried about telling her that we wanted Carol to be in charge of her too. I was mentally prepared to have to fight my way through a list of reasons why Carol had to be in charge, but as soon as I mentioned Carol's name, and before I gave any reason at all, Ava immediately agreed. She didn't care about reasons anymore. I tried to get through the rest of the points, but she wouldn't let me. She cut me off, and said she doesn't want to hear any more. She just wanted to commit to Mark, so he can look after her.

^-- "I was worried about money, in case she wanted Mark looking after her financially. I mentioned it, and she immediately dismissed it in a convincing way, so I don't believe that's motivating her. I did say Mark would probably be rich one day, but well after she'd already shown me that she was eager to commit to him. As far as I can tell, she's incredibly motivated to have someone help her make life decisions. I think she must have a terribly low opinion of her ability to get through life. That's what it seems like. She said she'd like us to give her advice for several years at least, until she's older and smarter.

^-- "The ceremony idea, and my talking her through all the pros and cons, convinced her that we really care about her, and that we're trustworthy, and that's all she needed. On top of the strong feelings she already had for Mark, she's now convinced she can totally trust us. She's throwing herself at us, and promising us everything we wanted with a great deal more enthusiasm and less judgment than I was hoping for. I've overachieved every single objective I had. I'd congratulate myself, except I don't understand why she's so incredibly willing and eager. She was SO eager that I'm worried. The only guess I've got, is that her parents have told her she has to move out soon. Maybe not a specific date, but soon. By the end of 2005, it seems. I think they might've put very hard expectations on her to shape up and start living life properly. Maybe she's been sleeping with some real losers so far, or something like that. She certainly loves her parents, so there's no ill will there.

^-- "I left her in the bedroom, waiting for our return. She's crying in happiness because, 'All her dreams have come true.' She's extremely happy at the idea of living with Mark and me. She's even looking forward to introducing 'the wonderful people she's with' to her parents. And she said it in a way which meant they'd know she was committed to both of us. She worried about how to tell her parents, and was very reassured when I said Mark would sort that out for her. I'd help with that, of course.

^-- "Quite frankly, Mark, you could move Carol into that house and sleep with her as husband and wife, and Ava wouldn't bat an eyelid, such is her devotion to your wishes. You can do ANYTHING. You can ESPECIALLY do anything if it's in return for looking after her. I'm just concerned that I don't understand exactly what that means and why. That's about it, I think. What do you think we should do?"

Vanessa said, "You told Ava that she and I would be having a private chat as part of the ceremony?"

"Yes. The whole thrashing and ceremony plan we had before is mostly irrelevant now, especially the thrashing part, I'm happy to say. She's just begging to be allowed to offer herself to Mark, and for him to accept her. Oh, while I remember it. I did emphasize that the relationship could be ended at any time by her or Mark. She was adamant that she'd never leave him, and that she'd try her absolute hardest to make him not get rid of her, but she totally accepted that he had the right to stop the relationship whenever he wanted. She thought I was silly trying to explain that, because it was so obvious that he could. So she's not under the misapprehension that she's getting something permanent. That also means that if we do this, it's not like Mark will be making a lifelong commitment. So we can try it, then back out later if it doesn't work out for any reason, which is a huge relief."

"Okay. Thanks Julia. I think I'll go have a talk with her. It'd probably be best if it's just the two of us. In the state she's in, I'm sure it won't take long. Unless anyone has a better idea?"

No one did, Prof being particularly emphatic, "This one's right up your alley, honey. I'll go put the kettle on." They walked out together, each to perform their self-appointed task.

Julia told me some more details after her parents had left, small things of no great significance:

• "Ava was fun to talk with. We joked around, laughed. It was enjoyable until she got so eager that she only had one thing on her mind. When she feels confident she's good company. I can imagine her being nice to live with, especially if she feels that she's valued. What's with girls being so insecure about their value? Chloe's the same, and Linda seems to think it's not even worth trying."

• "There's no problem with her cooperating with the sexy lunch with Donna's friends. I described it early on as an example of her usefulness and she was perfectly fine with it, and that was early, even before she got excited."

• "I went on at length about her annoying need to have everything explained. We hadn't planned that, but it bugs me and she did it again. She promised to try her hardest not to do it again, but she's worried about accidentally asking 'Why?'. I told her we'll say 'I'm not going to tell you why.' When she hears us say those words, she'll know we're serious, and that if she doesn't leap into action she's being disobedient. I can't imagine that she'll disobey us, not with the amount of eagerness she's showing now."

^-- Julia gave me several other excerpts, as they occurred to her, then summarized, "I can't think of a single way Ava's attitude could be any better. In some ways it's a pity she's not smarter, but then she wouldn't want to do all the housekeeping jobs. She even called them 'dumb jobs'. She wants to do the dumb jobs for us. We'll need someone to do those, especially when Carol's a mother. Plus Ava will be very useful when you're both seniors, and she's obviously going to be useful immediately on things like Donna's lunch, being a Liaison, Carol's tit flash for Chloe, and many other of our plans."

I'd forgotten about Carol being a mother. Not "forgotten" per se, as it wasn't the sort of thing I could ever forget, but I hadn't included it in any of my thinking. I said, "Carol's being a mom is YEARS away, Julia. Sure it'll be great for her to have Ava's help, but Carol's not even fourteen yet. Legally in Oregon, motherhood is over four years away. Maybe we could go somewhere more permissive, but we've got no idea whether Ava would want to move with us. And even if we did, the limit is still likely to be sixteen, so still more than two years away. Not to mention that I can't imagine Mom and Dad allowing Carol to get pregnant before she's eighteen. They'll have a MAJOR problem with it happening before Carol graduates."

Julia said, "We're only talking hypothetically, so it's not worth an argument, but I'll mention a few things for you to think about: Carol wants it sooner rather than later, things around you happen a LOT faster than with normal people, the law also said you couldn't get your driver license and looked what happened with that, and I'm fairly sure Ava would follow you wherever you went." [Actually, the law does permit underage licenses in extenuating circumstances, but the authorities keep it very quiet and Julia had no interest in finding out about it.]

^-- "That last point makes me think. Ava was talking about your looking after her for 'at least several years', and she seemed to want longer, so if she's thought that through at all then she'll expect to move away from Corvallis. I'll ask her about that, as it'll be good to know. Most of the other girls I'd leave behind without regret, but Ava could be different.

^-- "In case you're worried about it, I'm also aware that getting Ava to do the housework for you is usurping the role we planned for Carol, as that was meant to be her area of serving you. I've thought about that, and I'm not worried. Carol has become more secure in her relationship with us, and knows we value her, so she's less needy about having to prove her worth. I'm sure that by the time the mansion is ready, Carol won't care about Ava's doing the housework. When I talked to Ava about it, all I was hoping to do was plant the seed, or maybe to get her general acceptance. I was then going to drop the issue and not mention it again until it was time to move into the mansion. Instead Ava's busting a gut to start the job, and she's certain to mention it to Carol. I'll need to be a little careful when I talk with Carol later, but I'm sure she's secure enough already. It's obvious that our marriage is more based on love than anything else, and certainly not on housework! Haha."

I hadn't been worried, because I hadn't thought of the issue. I don't think of Carol as my housekeeper, so hadn't been concerned about Julia pushing Ava into toe-treading territory. Housekeeping is such a small issue anyway, as there's not that much that needs to be done: dinner and the dishes, obviously, plus washing some clothes from time-to-time, but that's about it. What there is to do, Mom does, with the new exception of my Monday dinners. It was good that Carol was cooking those, as it gave me ample opportunity to praise her and build her self-confidence. Carol's concern about her ability to cook for me when we had our own house, especially when we moved away from Corvallis, was mostly a self-confidence issue. I'd seen that Mom could always make the dinners quickly and easily, so they were obviously no big deal. I'd even been left with instructions a few times, about what to do and when, and there wasn't much to it.

Rather than worry about Carol's toes, Julia's comment about my getting my driver license early had caused me to daydream. I'd been amusing myself thinking about the "getting Carol pregnant" version of Roy Smith and the DMV exam. What sort of exam would I have to take to be allowed to impregnate my sister before she was eighteen? And how could the examiner make the practical test even more difficult for me? (By making me put my watch under her rear? By testing my knowledge of stopping distances? Telling me to go the wrong way up a one-way passage?). Would I get another card that I could pass around to impress a room full of girls? Would I be able to get an unrestricted license so I could operate during the hours of darkness and carry non-family passengers?

I was thinking of sharing these profound thoughts with Julia, when Julia said, "Oh damn! I just realized that if Ava works out well - if we accept her commitment - then it'd be highly appropriate to sleep with her tonight, and it'd be poor of us not to. I booked Katelin tonight because I assumed Ava would be too sore to move. I've got all the lunchtime girls primed to talk about Katelin tomorrow too. Let's wait until we hear what Mom says, and then try to think of something."

Julia ran out of things to say. She jumped onto my lap and snuggled in, saying, "Mom will sort everything out. Mom's very clever and good with people." I wasn't going to argue with that, both because it was true, and also because I wouldn't want to annoy a woman who presumably knew even more about psychological torture techniques than Julia did. Not to mention that she cooked a very nice roast chicken.

^-- Julia must be psychic, because she added, "Oh. I forgot to ask Ava how good she was at cooking. Food's important to you, so we definitely need to get you an extremely good cook."

"That's VERY nice of you, but we don't really, not in the way you mean. Frequency and quantity is important to me, but not how fancy it is. I don't need an 'extremely good cook', just an extremely generous one. My mom's cooking is fine. Your mom's cooking is even better. I'm sure Carol's cooking will be just as good once she's gotten a bit more self-confidence. Even if Ava's got no clue, she can still help by peeling things and cutting stuff up. Carol will easily be able to do the rest."

Julia gave me a funny look, in the sense of "funny" that means "you haven't got a clue what you're talking about."

I changed the subject to something that'd been vaguely puzzling me, "How come you're so much more excited about having an obedient Ava than you are about having an obedient Lily? Granted that Ava's more fun in bed, but Lily's more useful, like with the website. There's got to be something I'm missing, because I don't think you consider being good in bed is so important?"

"No, my valuing Ava so far above Lily has got almost nothing to do with how good she is in bed. It's because Ava's a pig, and Lily's a chicken. I bet you don't understand that, do you?"

"Ahh. I understand what calling someone a pig or chicken means, but it doesn't make sense here. Ava's slim, not fat; and Lily's not cowardly, she's quite forward."

"I used pig and chicken with different meanings. It's an expression Mom and Dad have used about their colleagues for years. In a breakfast of bacon and eggs, the pig is COMMITTED because it gave its life to feed you, while the chicken is just INVOLVED because it only contributed an egg. The chicken can walk away whenever it wants, the pig can't. Ava is closing her eyes and leaping, trusting us to catch her and keep her. She's fully committed. She assures me she'll never choose to leave. Whereas it seems to me that Lily is making choices about whether to cooperate with us or not. I get the feeling that Lily could simply decide to walk away one day. I prefer Ava over Lily so much, because I trust Ava a lot more than I trust Lily, even though I know both girls about the same.

^-- "I don't recommend showing your TK, blobs or incest to Ava yet, but I can imagine that you will one day, especially if we want Ava to move in with us, but I can't imagine your ever showing any of them to Lily, not unless something dramatic happened to increase our trust of her. By the way, I planted a seed with Ava about incest. I called her my 'little sister' and then made a joke about family members having sex together. She didn't throw up her hands in horror or make any other negative reaction. I wouldn't expect her to, as it was only a joke and we're not real sisters, but it was a small indication. I'll keep mentioning sisters and sex. It'll give me a better read on her attitude to it, and one day it'll cause a conversation on the topic. I'd better remember to tell Carol why she'll hear me call Ava 'sister' a lot, so she won't get jealous. If all goes well with the money, our moving into the mansion might only be a few months away and it'd probably be cruel not to let Ava come with us right from the beginning."

We paused to hug. Vanessa was taking longer than I expected. I have a high opinion of Vanessa's ability in this sort of stuff (and cooking), and she'd said it wouldn't take long, so I'd expected her back already. My mind wandered, mostly into daydreams about the mansion. That led to me regret that we hadn't gotten the money YET! How long was it going to drag on! I remembered a comment of Julia's, so I said, "You said just before that 'things happen fast around me.' I want the roulette money a LOT. I'm really desperate for it, but it's taking AGES!"

"I feel the same way, but it's only been a couple of weeks so far. Mom and Dad think they'll find a solution by the end of the week, presuming one exists. There's a good chance the solution will be quick to put into action, so you might have the money in about a week and a half. That's what I think is most likely. So, in total, less than four weeks. Isn't that considerably faster than most people can earn five million? Things DO happen rapidly around you, haha."

"REALLY? In a week and a half! Is that what you really think will happen?"

"Sure. I wouldn't mislead you over that. It depends on the two things I said: That Mom and Dad can find a solution - they said they most likely can and I'm certainly not going to disagree with them about something they're working so hard on - and that the solution can be put into use quickly, which I guess it probably will be able to."

"How can you possibly guess that? You don't even know what the solution is!"

"True. But it's all about gambling, which is just moving money around and talking. Both of those are quick. It's not likely the solution is going to require you to do something time-consuming first. The most likely solution will probably just need some paperwork to be done, so it backs up whatever you need backed up, to get the casino to cooperate. Paperwork is normally doable in a few days. Then you just have to win! That's important too, haha. You told me you would, and I'm not going to argue with you about something you say you can do. So that's what I think. I haven't bothered talking about it because we'll know more soon anyway."

Prof had recently returned, bearing a tray containing a teapot and several cups, interjecting at the time to tell us, "You'll probably want to take this upstairs when Vanessa calls you. Crying females appreciate cups of tea." He'd poured a cup for himself, although he didn't fit that category.

I repeated Julia's comments about the roulette timeframe, asking his opinion.

Prof said, "I can't fault Julia's logic. We could have bad luck, but she's probably right. Don't get your hopes up yet, because even if we find a solution and employ it, we could still hit an unforeseen problem. As Julia said, we'll know more soon. Very soon, actually. If enough of the people we talk with tomorrow are helpful, if what they say sounds plausible, and especially if several of them give us the same advice, then that'll be a very significant early result. I'm expecting people will be helpful, because we aren't asking for anything that's secret, and most people would love to have their name in the credits for a famous author's bestseller. I'm sure most of them know the answers we want, so we should learn everything we need quickly. By the end of the week almost certainly, and quite possibly by the end of tomorrow."

"Wow. That'd be fantastic!"

"Don't get too hopeful. For all we know everyone in Vegas is so money-hungry they won't give us the time of day without an up-front payment. A single issue effect like that could apply to everyone we have on our list, and could block us. Tomorrow we MIGHT have good news, or maybe bad news, or maybe none. Isn't that helpful? Haha."

At 8:15, just a quarter hour before Katelin was due, a glum looking Vanessa returned.

Vanessa told us, "This is considerably more serious than you thought, Julia, so listen carefully. It took me much longer than I expected because Ava didn't want to tell me why she was so determined to have you two look after her. She was VERY reluctant, which made it even more important that I find out. She wasn't in a position to refuse me, as I knew she desperately wants Mark to accept her, but I still had to do a lot of arm twisting. When she finally started telling me what was going on, it quickly became clear that the two of you have put yourselves into a situation that requires a serious decision. So I spent longer to make sure I found out everything you need to know. Here's the situation, and it's not good, so prepare yourselves.

^-- "Five months ago her father was diagnosed with cancer. With treatment he's got a 50/50 chance of lasting to Ava's graduation, but not long after that. There is no real hope of his beating it." Vanessa gave us a second, then added, "Two weeks later her mother was diagnosed with another, even more virulent form of cancer. She almost certainly won't last to graduation; with treatment she might last a year from now, but probably not."

Vanessa said nothing for a while, letting us come to grips with it. I did it by saying "Shit!" repeatedly. Julia sobbed. It took a while.

"Her mother was also an only child, her father had one older brother who died several years ago, also from cancer. Her sole aunt - her father's brother's wife - is in her mid-60s and living in a retirement community in Florida. She has two cousins, both in their early-30s. They're both out of state and she's never been close to either of them. Some family friends, of course, but no one she loves. When her parents die, she'll be very alone.

^-- "The news isn't entirely tragic. She's not going to struggle financially. She'll be fairly well off, although that's no consolation. The house will become hers. She says it's a nice one, and almost mortgage free. Her parents have reasonably good life insurance. Nothing spectacular, but reasonable for their having only one child. Plus, they'll leave her what sounds like some moderate investments and money in the bank. They seem to have been reasonably successful accountants who've lived a quiet life, doting most of it on their only child.