Chapter 174: Poor Donna's Lesson

Monday, May 2, 2005 (Continued)

At home, Carol pulled Ava's vibrator out of her bag to show me. Carol plugged it in and turned it on. It was an impressive machine, with a little 'thumb' that stuck out and ... Well, if you're a female you know what it did (besides boggle my mind). If you're a male you've got no need to know, and it's kind of disquieting to see, so I'll not describe it.

I was tempted to ask for a real demonstration, in our bedroom rather than the kitchen, but Carol was starting to stress out about making dinner for me. Getting a demo from Donna was also totally off the cards for a while, especially this evening.

I helped Carol a little, did a little schoolwork, read a bit more about day trading, and generally killed time until Mom and Dad were both home.

Mom was the last one home. She gave me the documents I needed (bank stuff mostly), and checked on dinner, which she pronounced as good as she would've made, which pleased Carol and me.

Important dinner stuff having been finished, I called a family meeting. When everyone was gathered, with Mom, Dad and Carol all pretending to be curious, and Donna not pretending, I said, "I've got a serious issue I need to talk with the whole family about. Donna's saying too much in front of Ava is causing us a major problem." Donna's face fell. "Last night Carol and I both talked to Ava on the phone, and she interrogated both of us about our getting together sexually. Of course we both said we wouldn't ever do anything like that, but it's obvious that Ava isn't going to leave it alone.

^-- "At school today, Ava raised the subject again, with Carol and later with me. Talking about it at school is VERY scary, but Ava is so convinced it's a good idea that she's too excited to be careful. We've been trying VERY hard to put her off, but it's obvious that she's going to keep trying to get us together, because she believes that Carol and I love each other so much that we should be together.

^-- "Not only that, but she's watching us like a hawk whenever she sees us together. Ava's looking for the slightest sign of any interest between us, so she can pounce on it and claim it proves we should be together. With her watching us so closely, it's not going to take her long to catch us.

^-- "There's also a VERY serious danger that she'll start talking to other people about how good Carol and I would be together, and how great it is that Carol desires me, and stuff like that. She'll try to recruit other people to help push us together. Obviously that's going to cause the word to start spreading, and as soon as that happens we're in BIG trouble. Mom, Dad and I could very easily end up in jail.

^-- "At the time I thought Julia's saving of Donna's terrible give away was superb, but it's proving impossible to repair the damage Donna did."

Donna tried to apologize, which I shut down. "It's FAR too late for apologies, Donna. We've got a serious problem, and we need to discuss it so we can work out what to do. Apologies don't help us decide anything.

^-- "We HAVE to do something, and we have to do it almost immediately, before Ava either discovers that we're lovers already, or she accidentally spreads the word to someone who starts repeating it. Ava doesn't have any siblings, so she obviously doesn't understand how bad the situation is, and how seriously the authorities would react.

^-- "I think there are only three possible choices. The first is we tell Ava that Carol and I are already lovers. If we tell her, then we're all taking a HUGE risk. If she EVER got angry with us she could call the cops in a fit of bad temper. Or if - like Donna - she isn't any good at keeping her mouth shut, she could blab in front of someone else. The more people who know a secret, the greater the chance of it getting out, so telling Ava is certainly the most dangerous choice. Mom, Dad and I would go to jail, with Carol and Donna probably being sent to live with grandma and grandpa in Seattle.

^-- "The second choice is we totally break up with Ava. All of us never see her again. That means that when her parents start dying in few months, Julia and I break our promises to help her. We'd have to completely ignore her even though she'll be in agony over her parents dying and our rejection of her.

^-- "Or the third choice is that Carol and I totally stop loving each other. We'd have to put the original beds back, go back to our original bedrooms, stop hanging around together, never go out in groups together, etc.

^-- "Those are the only three choices I can think of. Because Donna opened her mouth so thoughtlessly, we have to choose between risking half of us going to jail, putting Ava through agony when her parents die, or Carol and I have to stop loving each other. Can anyone think of any other possibilities?"

Poor Donna was a wreck! She'd felt guilty the moment she understood what the topic was, and by the end of my list, she was sobbing.

Dad said, "DONNA! Stop crying! You caused a problem and we have to solve it. Your crying is making it harder for us to hear each other, so please stop."

[I've often wondered how females' screaming and crying could possibly have evolved. A saber-tooth tiger runs into the cave where Mr. and Mrs. Ug are living, and Mrs. Ug starts carrying on the way women do. If I was the saber-tooth, the VERY first thing I would do would be to put a stop to that horrible noise. Mrs. Ug wouldn't survive being quieted by a saber-tooth, which would piss off her genes. In other words, Donna's crying had no beneficial effect at all. All it did was waste time, annoy people, and let us know that she was feeling sorry for herself; none of which enhance problem solving or survival of her genes. On the other hand, if I was Miss Ug, and facing the prospect of being sent to live in Seattle with her grandparents, I think I'd cry too and hopefully the saber-tooth would eat me.]

No one else could think of any other choices. If Donna could, which I doubted, she certainly couldn't articulate them.

Mom said, "In the option where you break up with Carol, you'll have to break up with Donna totally too. If you suddenly stop spending time with Carol, but spend time with Donna, Ava's going to suspect you're having an affair with Donna. You'll have to stop spending any time with both your sisters."

"Waaaa!" (Don't ask me to spell the noise Donna made. It was loud, anguished, and wet.)

"Yeah. Good point, Mom. So we have to choose between telling Ava which risks breaking up our family, betraying Ava in her time of desperate need, or my breaking up with both my sisters, so I avoid them in public and private. Is that how you see it Mom and Dad?"

"Yes," they both agreed.

Carol agreed too, and Donna's considered opinion was more, "Waaaa!"

Mom said, "You know Ava better than any of us, Mark. When do you think we need to decide by?"

"I can't do anything about it until after I get back tomorrow, but I think we'll have to do it almost immediately because Ava's already discussing it at school with Carol and me. It isn't going to take her long to start discussing it with other people. Let's have a family meeting tomorrow night to decide which of the three options we'll pick. I don't know what time I'll be back, but it shouldn't be too late."

Mom said, "Even if it is late, we'll wake everyone up. This is too important." Which sounded impressive. Mom added, "You'd better have your dinner, so you can get to Aikido on time."

Carol and I went to look after my stomach, leaving Mom and Dad to look after poor Donna.

In the kitchen, I mentioned to Carol how nice our lunch had been. She enthusiastically agreed. With mixed feelings, I told Carol I'd leave my lunch leftovers behind, for Mom and Dad to sample, to give them some anticipation for Saturday's dinner.

^

It took a while for Donna to be able to function again, and I'd gone to Aikido by then. Mom and Carol sat Donna down and had a talk with her. A small part of what follows was from ideas I'd given them, but mostly it was their own doing.

Mom said, "We told you it was a big secret, Donna. If you spill the beans on a big secret, it has big results. That's what 'big secret' means. It doesn't mean 'lots of fun'. We told you over and over again that it was extremely serious so you had to keep it secret. You said you understood and you promised to do it. Now you've caused a problem. If we do nothing, Ava will unintentionally cause a disaster, so we have to do something. The only question is which of those three choices do we take."

Donna expressed her opinion that the best choice was that I had to break up with Ava.

Mom gave Donna a VERY dirty look, then asked her, "Mark PROMISED to help Ava when her parents died. Good people do NOT break promises, and I'm APPALLED that you think that's what Mark should do!"

Carol added, "Ava's parents are DYING, Donna. Can you imagine what it must be like for a girl who has no brothers or sisters to have both her parents dying? Mark would NEVER dump Ava and leave her to face that alone! Even if he hadn't promised her, he would never be that cruel. He has to choose one of the other two choices: either break up with you and me, or tell Ava about him and me."

Donna thought, "He should tell Ava then."

Mom explained, "If he stops being a loving brother to the two of you, the only bad thing that happens is that you can't show any love for each other. If he tells Ava, and Ava blabs to someone the way you did, then the authorities won't just break Mark and you up, but they'd break up the entire family. Mark, Steven and I would go to jail, and you two would be sent to your grandparents in Seattle. Telling Ava is WONDERFUL if she keeps the secret, but it's HORRIBLE if she blabs. It's by far the most dangerous choice. I can't see Mark choosing to put the family in so much danger."

"But, but, that means he has to break up with us."

Carol answered, "Mark can easily stop having any sexual fun with you Donna. Which he should do anyway, because you're so bad at keeping secrets. He can easily stop inviting you to all the things he does. No more Liaison meetings or visiting your Ducklings, not taking you to Lily's family dinner, and everything else like that. But he can't break up with me." Carol held up her ring finger, "Mark married me. We have to stay together." (Our ceremony hadn't included the "till death us do part" vow, but that omission made no difference.)

"But that means he can't do anything?" said a confused Donna.

Mom corrected her, "It doesn't mean he can't do anything Donna. It means that every possible choice is a disaster, including if he does nothing. We're fucked." From Mom, that language was a slap in the face for Donna. "The only good situation was if you kept your mouth shut. That's why your father, me, Mark, Carol, Julia and Vanessa told you over and over again that you MUST keep it shut. But you didn't keep it shut, did you?"