Chapter 378: Aftermath to the President's Capitulation

Early Summer Vacation, 2007 (Continued)

The latest FBI fiasco meant that attendance at our End Of Exams party took a hit. We assured everyone who called that it was still on and that we obviously thought it was safe because we were here, but many of them - or their parents - decided playing safe was a better idea. As did the live band we'd hired. It was understandable, and in the grand scheme of things didn't matter at all, so we just had a quieter party than expected. A VERY over-catered one too.

Most of the girls that I think of as my second-tier girlfriends turned up. Alexis I expected as she'd probably ride her motorcycle around invading tanks to get to a party, but so many of the others coming was a pleasant surprise. They'd watched the news avidly, decided the Government couldn't possibly risk doing anything, and decided they trusted our word that we thought it was safe. [I'll mention here that my déjà vu's with other Marks revealed that in some dimensions Alexis rides a motorcycle, and in others drives a car. Dimensional differences like that do get discovered from time to time and usually aren't worth commenting on, but Alexis' form of transportation does get a small mention later and I wouldn't want you to think that my autobiography isn't word accurate.]

Our party was a low-key event, but enjoyable anyway.

Sophia was having kittens about her wedding next weekend. She wasn't even married yet, so she shouldn't be having anything, or perhaps only butterflies. Andrew was a multimillionaire in his own right, so Sophia got busy spending his money arranging a Plan B. Or, as she thought of it, a Plan A. [As it happened, by the next weekend there'd been nothing but good news, so the wedding went ahead on our property as originally planned, to my regret.]

The Norris girls hadn't been allowed to come to the party, "For your safety" insisted their parents. Their physical and moral safeties were both cited as reasons.

Back in Mark1's days, I'd gotten Diana to repeatedly tell her flirt-encouraging parents things like, "I'm SURE Mark likes me because he's more attentive to me than the other girls that are visiting Carol and Donna, but Mark won't do ANYTHING about it! He treats me properly all the time. He won't even flirt back when I try to flirt with him. I know I'm not very good at it, but he has to notice that I'm trying..." Bullshit like that back then meant the Norris parents now believed their daughters' assurances that nothing "bad" had ever happened between me and them, so the parents weren't nearly as suspicious and controlling as they needed to be to keep their girls from visiting my home.

The Monday after exams, when both Norris parents were busy at their places of work, the girls jumped onto their bikes, rode to my home, then jumped onto my bones, their initial reluctance to resume having sex with me having been swept away by their parents' refusal to permit the girls to see me. Teenage rebelliousness is the best thing since sliced bread, or maybe even better. I patted myself on my back for training the girls to quietly disrespect their parents' stupid attitude to sex.

Diana was nearly seventeen now, Claire a year younger - so the terms "Cutie" and "Duckling" were becoming inappropriate - and they both had enough freedom to do what they wanted during the day, even though their parents wouldn't let either of them buy a car. Plenty of other Cuties and Ducklings were eager to come to visit our place, or go to the Aquatic Center, movies, beach, etc. [we met at all these places over this summer], so the Norris girls could easily tell their parents they were going to visit friends. They'd truly be with their friends all day, just also with me.

The Norris parents' attitude meant no one from our family could call the Norris' home, but that didn't affect things much. Either we prearranged the next visit during the current one, or we called an intermediary like Zoe - she was an excellent choice since she enjoyed multi-way sex - and got her to call the Norris girls. It was a slight nuisance, but no worse than that.

In our Monday morning reunion, I had a great time convincing them that I really was Mark. I joked, "I haven't had sex with you for sixteen months so I'm VERY horny!" I was amused by the situation. They'd had sex with Ron's body not long ago, but according to Mark's memory it'd only been a couple of months since Mark had bedded them, but according to their memories it was sixteen months since they'd had sex with Mark. What was the 'right' answer for how long it'd been between us? However long it'd been, I didn't waste time discussing the interesting philosophical point; we charged straight into making up for lost time, not caring how much had been lost. Or maybe our going at it like bunnies might've been because of teenage rebelliousness. I can't say I cared what the reason was.

After a few hours, the girls begged for a pause.

"But your bodies are SO much sexier now! I feel inspired..."

"{Groan}." They were truly convinced that I was Mark because Ron had never worked them so hard.

During their rest, Diana asked me, "Do you have Ron's memories of having sex with Carol and Donna?"

I'd already discussed this with my girls, including Donna, and we'd decided what line to take. I answered, "Better than having sex, I have many memories of his making LOVE to Carol. He was totally in love with her, and his memories are fantastic to recall. It blows me away to remember those memories and to feel how strong his emotions were. It makes me want to cry to think that he loved Carol so much that he gave up his life to make her happy by letting me come back."

Having set a useful moral tone, the rest of the conversation was at a very nice level. I denied having any memories of playing around with Donna (the Norris girls had participated in sex with Donna and Ron a few times), saying, "If Ron just played around with her, God probably didn't think it was an important memory to keep. I'm very thankful that God let Ron's memories of making love to Carol stay because they mean a very great deal to me. They also mean that God must be a pretty cool dude, and not negatively hung up on sex like your stupid parents believe."

I swore the Norris Nymphets to secrecy about my having memories of sex with Carol, which they sincerely promised to respect.

Diana asked, "Do you think you might make love to Carol again?"

"I've thought about it, Diana. Obviously Carol and I love each other very much as brother and sister, and having Ron's memories about how wonderful it is to make love to Carol certainly makes that aspect of it appealing, but there are two big issues that make me not sure:

^-- "Ron's memories of his loving Carol are very special to me, and I worry about my sullying or diminishing them by doing the same thing myself. I'd very much like to keep those memories pure so I can appreciate Ron as much as possible.

^-- "The other reason is even more important. Carol obviously has very strong memories about Ron too, and I wouldn't want to diminish her memories of him. I worry that my still looking like Ron but being Mark would mix up her memories if we did anything now. She loves to jump on my lap every chance she can get, and I see her staring at my face trying to memorize what I look like before I change, but I don't think it'd be a good idea to go as far as making love to her.

^-- "I'm really just a spectator, as the relationship was between Carol and Ron, so my thinking is that Carol and I shouldn't do anything until I look like Mark again. But that's just what I feel; what Carol feels is FAR more important. If she decided she'd like to make love to me, then I'd be HONORED to do so."

Diana and Claire thought I was WONDERFUL, so I took advantage of their reaction to prove my Markness to them yet again.

Arranging dates with the Norris girls quickly turned out to be so easy we decided we didn't need to use the $5,000 payments to pressure their parents into letting the girls openly visit my family again. We even decided that it would be best not to remind their parents about the money, in case they did something annoying like making the girls get summer jobs so they wouldn't need my money. The status quo was fine, so I suggested Claire and Diana should keep their mouths shut.

It was only a few days later when the parents suddenly remembered anyway; the penny dropping during the discussion they had with the girls when their exam results came out a week after the last exam. Claire and Diana both laughed when telling me about it the next day, as their parents' expressions were priceless after realizing they'd thrown away $40,000. (They were quite mean-spirited people, including about spending money on their daughters. You may recall that Mackenzie didn't have a cellphone way back when I first mentioned her. Suddenly discovering they were out $40,000 was a blow.)

Mr. Norris had said, "He's probably not giving it away now that he's back."

Diana countered, "He still is, Dad. He told the other girls that went to the party that he'd keep doing it. Some of them have called me and asked me why I wasn't at the party, and they told me about it." [I hadn't needed to make that announcement at the party because I'd made sure to tell them all, once Alexis had reminded me of the issue. Diana was fibbing about how it had happened, but she was telling the basic truth as the payments were continuing. She'd learned that when we'd discussed whether she should mention it to her parents.] She added, "I can call Mark to ask if..."

"You CANNOT!" objected Mrs. Norris. "That's terribly rude. You can't ask people about money like that, Diana."

"But we need to know. Whenever I used to ask Mark a question, he always stopped whatever he was doing and gave me his full attention. He was VERY polite to me so I'm sure if I asked him now he wouldn't be offended."

Her parents refused, appalled that their daughter could be so immoral.

When the girls told me about it the next day, I typed a letter for them, even typing up an envelope and using the postage meter in our Office so the girls could claim it'd been posted a couple of days ago. The letter said:

Dear Diana and Claire,

As you weren't at the party and I am not permitted to phone you, I am writing to let you know that your annual $5,000 college payments will continue exactly as initially described to you, on each of your 18th through 21st birthdays inclusive. The payments were offered to you by my family because they were aware of how much I liked you both and how much I valued the importance of a college education. God's resurrecting me has not changed either of those sentiments, and my sisters tell me that you're still very wonderful girls, so I won't be penalizing you for the sins of your parents: their condemning blameless people, insulting their daughters' virtues, insulting me, being unfairly judgmental, and being bad Christians by being so uncharitable and unforgiving. It's a wonder that you've managed to be such wonderful young ladies with such poor parents, which makes me think even more highly of you.

I'm sure your parents' unchristian prohibition on my phoning you extends to my visiting you, so I will mail your checks to you three days before those birthdays to make sure you get them in time. Keep working hard at school, and I look forward to hearing from my sisters about how well you are doing.

I am honored to have known you.
Mark Anderson

Diana got it and the envelope "it came in" framed later that day and produced it that evening after her parents had gotten home, pretending it had arrived in that day's mail. She asked her parents where in the house she could hang it. They were extremely reluctant to hang it anywhere, given the letter's listing of their faults, so Diana had a crying fit about her parents ruining her chances to be friends with someone as good and wonderful as Mark, including the line I'd told her to use, "Even GOD thinks Mark is wonderful! Who do you think you are to be a better judge of Mark's morals than GOD!"

Diana hung my letter in her room and EVERY visitor to the home was immediately invited, "Come and see the letter Mark Anderson wrote me." Diana was having a great time getting revenge on her parents for years of repression. Apparently my training them to be "quietly disrespectful" had been more successful in one aspect than the other.

^

[To look ahead several more weeks. The Norris parents were shamed into softening their condemnation of me, but they didn't go so far as to permit Diana to restart flirting with me, not even in a Christian way. We didn't care, as the girls had enough freedom. We did take advantage of a couple of opportunities to work on the parents though. The first was when the three Norris girls were going to the Aquatic Center. I arranged to be there with my sisters when they arrived, and we 'accidentally' met each other. Later that evening, Claire privately told her mother, "We ran into Mark, Donna and Carol at the pools today. He was uncomfortable being there with us and he wouldn't even look at Diana. He refused to talk with us, telling Mackenzie it was, 'Because your parents aren't permitting it.' We saw them leave right after that, and he didn't even wave goodbye. Diana spent ages crying in the bathroom about how unfair you've been."

"He's had sex with far too many girls Claire. He's not suitable..."

"WITH girls who wanted to have sex with him AND whose parents agreed! He's a WONDERFUL boy and most of girls at school wanted to be his girlfriend, so it's no wonder he had lots of chances. But he NEVER misbehaved with us! He was always totally well behaved with Diana, and now he won't even talk with her because you won't permit it. If he won't even TALK because you disapprove, you're crazy for thinking he'd ever have pushed her into having sex.

^-- "I know Diana had a very good chance with him because I saw how much attention he used to pay her. He liked her very much and it didn't matter to him that there was no sex. She was safer with Mark than ANY other boy. They're always trying to get their hands on us, but Mark wouldn't dream of doing that. You've made Diana very unhappy for a reason which is totally wrong."

"Maybe we've been a bit hasty..."

"AND you've been everything else Mark said in his letter and very cruel to Diana too!"

After a couple of those types of events, and a few things the girls said on their own initiative, the parents were softened up considerably. Other events intruded though, so that effort didn't bring as much benefit as it should have.]

The Army finished the last of the repairs on Tuesday and we had a small party-ish media event for it. The few Engineers that were still around got to have some drinks and admire the many girls Julia had invited for the event, the girls welcoming the excuse to buy flattering new dresses.

Prof had asked the colonel for the bill days before the party, telling him to make it a BIG one, "Because the FBI will be picking up the tab."

At the appropriate moment during the party, there were a couple of speeches, one from Dad thanking the Army for the very impressive work. Dad is quiet in a family role, but he's a raconteur in public and enjoys making speeches. The colonel responded with some nice platitudes back. Our check was handed over, making sure the media caught how much it was for.

Drinks were refreshed and the Engineers got back to flirting with the girls. Which probably guaranteed the slowest possible service from every Engineering team that comes to our house again, to ensure they're the last group to leave so will be there for the completion party.

In the informal conversation/interview with the TV reporter later, she queried the size of the check.

Dad answered, "I know! Don't blame the size of the bill on the Army; they did a superb job and we're very happy with them. It's all the FBI's fault. They did a terrible amount of damage to our home when they tried to kill us with the spy plane, and even more when they invaded the place to install the bugs and poison gas canisters. We'll be sending them a copy of the Army's bill and it'll be interesting to see whether they pay it promptly or not."

It was really "tranquilizer gas", but we always called it "poisonous gas" and that had even caught on in the media because no one was giving the FBI the benefit of the doubt; there being no doubt that the FBI had being trying to kill us. It's true that the FBI had done some very expensive damage to our home, but that'd been when they were looking for the missing nuclear bombs so you shouldn't really blame them. Dad can, but you shouldn't.

Also worth a quick mention is that in this and one of our earlier interviews, my parents thanked the people of Benton County, "For letting us build our home where it is. As we'd feared after the Government kidnapped and killed Mark, and the CIA-led attack on our Peoria Road home, the Government's ongoing illegal attacks against our family could easily have killed several innocent people if we'd been living close to any neighbors. Without our living in a home equipped with a radar and emergency slides to underground safe rooms, Fely and I would be dead now, and probably everyone else in the house too if we'd still been in Peoria Road because the UAV would have destroyed that home totally." It was only a small point, but it was good to remind Corvallis that they had been right to give us what we'd wanted.

As Dad had said, we sent a copy of the Army's bill to the FBI with a letter seeking reimbursement. The FBI had a check for the full amount and a sincere letter of apology from the Director in our hands even before our bill would've arrived at their headquarters. I'd had no idea that a Government department could be so efficient.

The reason we'd made the bill payment part of the farewell ceremony was to get it done as quickly as possible, otherwise the Army might've waited a month or more before sending it. Our staff were VERY eager for the money aspect of the FBI's actions to be progressed as fast as possible (you might've forgotten about it, but our staff hadn't. There was the prospect of their getting $250,000 each in recompense for their kidnapping and associated mistreatment). It was clearly best to do it while the Government wanted the public to see how contrite it was.

We waited until the Monday after Andrew and Sophia's wedding to avoid increasing the risk of that being upset, then our lawyer let the Government's lawyer know that we were about to file a lawsuit against the FBI for illegally bugging our house and rigging it with the deadly booby traps.