Chapter 61: Mansion Plan

Friday, April 15, 2005 (Continued)

I'd taken the sobbing Carol up to 'our' room. She needed lots of reassurance and I had plenty for her. As much as she wanted.

She blamed herself because she'd started it by letting slip the "lots more girls" comment and had then twisted Mom's tail about it.

"Mom and Dad would've known all about it in a couple of weeks anyway. We were intending to get lots of girls into my life, so they'd be calling home, coming to it, and I might even be boinking them there..."

#4: <Hopefully! Our single bed would be a problem, not that it'd stop me!>

" ... It was better to get it out in the open sooner rather than later. Mom would have been even worse if she'd found out after we'd started, so you've actually done a good thing by bringing it up now."

Carol had lots of other concerns, but they were even easier to counter. Having Vanessa, Prof and Julia on our side gave us a great deal of confidence. I insisted to Carol that they'd talk Mom around. Only Mom had been upset, and what chance did she have against everyone else? Vanessa was already taking charge when we left, so I didn't think it'd take long [I got that estimate wrong].

I reminded Carol that Mom was okay with our marriage, having babies, and possibly even adding Donna, so Mom wasn't too bad. She'd accepted such a huge amount already, and a few extra ordinary girls was no big deal [I got that wrong too.]

I said things like, "No one can break up the three of us", "We all love you", "You're safe", "How soon do you want to start having babies?" The last one worked so well I didn't need to employ the big gun that I was holding in reserve: "There, there."

We discussed the "Babies When" question for a while, as it distracted Carol wonderfully and I quite liked thinking about it myself. Her opinions, expressed at various times during the conversation, included: "Whenever you want my, Lord", "Now!" and, "I'm too young to be a good mother yet, but I'm going to learn as fast as I can."

I knew she was feeling better when she suggested, "Maybe I should only ever tease you, darling."

I wasn't feeling very charitable toward Mom, not after thirty minutes of her arguing so much that she'd upset Carol so badly, so I answered Carol's suggestion with, "I think we should share it around, honey. I'm not selfish. I'm even tempted to suggest we give Mom more than her fair share because I don't like how upset she made you, so some payback would be good."

Mostly there was a great deal of cuddling, whispering of sweet nothings, and more than a few kisses. We kept them affectionate rather than allow them to become passionate. We weren't in the mood for quite a while, and even then the expectation of a knock on the door at any second was discouraging, especially as we were past the 3pm no-more-sex deadline.

When Carol was nicely quieted down, I asked her, "You know how much I love you, don't you? That you're number one for me?"

She smiled happily and said, "Yes, I know. I'm so lucky."

I disagreed, "NO, I'm so lucky. That's why I love you so much. But my point is, who would I rather have with me: You, my number one love, or a whole bunch of strange girls I don't even know the names of?"

Carol knew the answer - how could she not the way I'd loaded the question - but she had fun cautiously asking, "Me?"

"Of course you! As you well know. For that reason, and for many other reasons, I am going to give you a serious order now. Are you paying attention? This is serious, not a joke."

"I'm listening."

"I order you to never even THINK about killing yourself again. And certainly to never, ever try to do it. I love you too much to ever lose you."

Carol gave me a loving smile, "Mom got me very upset."

"Yes, she did. Me too. But you will NEVER do that again. Will you obey my order?"

"Of course, my Lord." After a small pause, "Unless I have to die to save your life. That's one of my vows so you can't take that away." Carol finished that sentence with a very firm look on her face.

I wasn't going to take the vows to a lawyer to get a legal opinion, so I decided to let it slide. "Okay, I agree. But only if I am truly and seriously in immediate danger of being killed. Not just because you are worried that I won't learn enough for some problem that might come along in five or ten years."

We cuddled for a while, to let the serious mood dissipate. After a minute or so, Carol said, "I'm not going to keep that promise if you're already dead. You're not my Lord if you've gone."

It took me a second or two to pull the wording of the promise out of my memory, and then I realized what she was saying. "I don't want you to commit suicide if I'm gone, Carol."

"That's too bad! If you've gone I don't want to live, and you won't be here to stop me."

I didn't like the sound of that, but I found a loophole, "What if we have children? You can't leave them without a father or mother."

Carol shuddered, then said, "No, you're right, I couldn't. I can't imagine how my life could be livable, but you're right." A few seconds later, "But I'll decide that at the time. If you've gone I can make my own decision." She wasn't asking my opinion. "Maybe Julia would look after the children."

Oh dear! "Please stop being so macabre, darling. I was trying to cheer you up before, but now I'm depressed."

"Would it help if I took my clothes off? I'd do that for you, you know? If you made me, 'specially if you showed me your winkle."

"Haha. Very good. Yes, that would cheer me up a great deal. And then the trouble I'd have is stopping myself from getting even happier. So, you like my winkle, do you?"

"Oh yes, Mr. Mark. I was telling my bestest friend Julia Williams about how warm and big and handsome it is, and she told me she wants to see it too. Would you let her see it? Pretty please, Mr. Mark? If we both promised to be bad little girls? You could even spank me if you like. I wouldn't mind, honest. Sometimes my friend Julia pulls my panties down and spanks me, but she keeps stopping to put her fingers up my, um, up my little places. You wouldn't do that, would you? Your fingers are so big I don't know if you could get even one in there. They're very small places, you know."

"Damn you! Now I'm hard and horny."

"Oh no. I'm a very bad little girl for doing that to poor, hard Mr. Mark. Do you think, maybe, that I should be spanked on my bare botty?"

"You CERTAINLY should be! Just not now, unfortunately."

"Maybe I should be a good little girl then?"

"I think that you probably should. Before poor Mr. Mark has an accident."

"Aren't good little girls given something to suck? A lollipop, or something. Do you have anything like that, Mr. Mark? I'm very good at sucking; really I am. My bestest friend Julia says that I am very good at sucking AND LICKING. You wouldn't believe what she makes me lick! She makes me do it for SO long. I'm only a little girl and sometimes I get very tired, so maybe you could help me? We could lick her together. Wouldn't that be super?"

"Argh! I think I should kiss you, if only to shut you up."

"That works for me! Yippee!"

LOTS of kisses, many "I love yous" and other sweet whisperings, and about half an hour longer than I thought it'd take, there was finally a knock on the door.

"Oh no," from a suddenly worried Carol, obviously not as reassured as I thought.

I sat up in the bed, pulled her onto my lap, and loudly called out, "Enter."

Mom and Dad came in, Mom leading. No anger and no yelling, so we were off to a good start.

I gave Carol a squeeze. I looked at Carol, and she had a very frosty glare going in Mom's direction. I kissed her cheek but that didn't help at all. Carol's cheek was hard, unyielding, and I'd swear even cold.

By the time I'd done that, Mom and Dad had arrived at the side of the bed nearest us. They remained standing, and Mom said, "I've come to apologize to you Mark..."

"WE'VE come to apologize," from Dad, interrupting Mom.

Mom resumed, "Yes, sorry. Mark, we've come to apologize for my sticking my nose into your matrimonial business, and trying to impose my values onto your relationship. I had no right to do that so forcefully and rigidly. I now realize that what you wanted to do is a good idea, Mark, and you should carry on with it. With our blessings and support. If you need any help, don't hesitate to ask for it, Mark."

From Dad, "Mark, I wish to apologize to you for not supporting you during your argument with Fely. It was ridiculous that it went on so long and got so emotional. I will try to stick up for your rights better in the future, Mark, should you need my support. Even from Felicity, although I don't think she'll be giving you too much of a hard time in the future. Not over things that are your business anyway, Mark."

#2: <There's something weird going on here. Neither of them are looking at Carol. Even the one not talking is still pointedly looking at me. Why don't they look at Carol?>

Carol had also noticed the same thing. I could see her look from Mom, to Dad, to me, back to Mom, etc. But no one was looking at her, let alone talking to her.

#1: <How many times do they need to say "Mark"? We know our name.>

Mom said, "We approve of the direction you're taking your marriage, Mark, and how well you are managing it." Carol sat up straighter as a result of that. "Will you accept our apologies, Mark?"

I felt like saying, "Mark will", but that seemed silly. Make that, "sillier". So I said, "Sure. Yes, I mean. Thanks very much."

Dad said, "There's no need to thank us, Mark. We wronged you."

#2: <How come Dad's talking so much? That's not like him.>

#1: <Don't ask me. I'm busy trying to remember what our name is. I know I've heard it somewhere. It'll come to me in a minute.>

Mom said, "Thank YOU, Mark, for accepting our apology. We'll go back downstairs in a second, and you should join us when you're ready, but before we go I'd just like to praise my daughter." Mom turned slightly, facing and looking at Carol for the first time.

Mom continued, "Carol, I am very, very impressed by the depth of your love and commitment to your Lord. You are an exceptional wife, and you've upheld your vows to your Lord very well. I am proud of you."

Dad corrected, "WE are proud of how well you serve your Lord." He was slightly better positioned, so he leaned forward and kissed Carol on the cheek.

When Dad stood back, Mom leaned forward and kissed Carol too. By the time Mom was standing up, Carol had gotten the idea that something pretty fantastic had just happened. She didn't quite believe it, but only because it's her nature not to believe great things can happen to her.

"Lord?" was all she incredulously asked Mom.

"Lord!" confirmed Mom.

Carol stated, "That's the first time you've called him Lord."

Mom said, "It won't be the last."

I was happy. I understood and accepted the BIG concession my parents had just made. Carol hadn't quite accepted it yet, so I sat still and waited. I let my attention wander a little bit, and noticed Julia grinning like an idiot in the doorway. (That's merely the expression; if she helped make this happen, she's a genius.)

Carol asked, "You understand that he's our Lord?" Mom and Dad smiled and nodded.

#3: <She said "our". She thinks in terms of "our". That's impressive. Carol's got a big heart.>

Carol sat up rigid straight, stuck out her chest, and loudly insisted, "I AM HIS WIFE!"

#3: <So much for sharing!>

#1: <Julia isn't Mom and Dad's daughter so she doesn't need their permission to be Mark's wife, but Carol does.>

Mom laughed, and said, "You certainly are! A very good one too. We're proud of you."

Carol further insisted, "I WANT to sleep with Mark EVERY night!"

#3: <Our bed's not big enough.>

Mom gave a small laugh, "You can try if you like, but his bed isn't big enough for comfort, and yours is no better."

Carol stated, "Donna moves into Mark's room. Mark moves into my room, and we get one, big bed. VERY big. I want Julia to choose it."

#1: <Whoa! GOOD IDEA! Why didn't any of you geniuses think of that?>

Dad said, "Smart girl! Yes, we'll do that. We'll replace the two singles in your room as soon as Julia has the new bed delivered. Fely and I totally agree, but we insist that you and Donna share the bed until the trial is over. The very first night it's over Mark can move into your room."

#2: <Dad didn't even look at Mom to check that, and they CAN'T have expected that demand to come up! Wow. There are some changes happening in the Anderson household.>

#3: <I LOVE the idea of sleeping with Carol every night! That's fantastic.>

I'm sure Carol didn't believe her victory yet. She spotted a loophole or two, "And we can make love there whenever WE want! Including with Julia if she's staying over, because she WILL be staying over!" Carol wasn't asking questions; she was stating what she wanted to happen. But she was expecting to hear a "No."

Mom destroyed the last of Carol's doubts, "You, Julia and any other girls your Lord invites. You'd better make sure Julia gets a BIG bed!"

Carol got up to thank her parents. (That sentence is an understatement.)

Julia came screaming in from the doorway. Carol screamed back. I'm sure there were several more people screaming. There had to be with the volume of noise my ears were reporting. It was good that the room was soundproofed and that there was a supply of fresh hankies in my drawer.

We spent a while expressing joy and thankfulness. Mom and Dad sneaked in some apologies to Carol for not 'getting it' earlier, but none of us cared by now.

I was highly, repeatedly and loudly appreciative to Carol for her idea of our sleeping together. That pleased her, which was only fair because she certainly pleased me!

When things had quieted down - "things" meaning mostly Carol and Julia - Mom said, "Carol, sweetie, there are some practical issues with the new sleeping arrangements, mostly how to keep that you're sleeping with your brother secret. You'd better be very careful who goes back to your rooms. Donna will have to be careful who she takes to her new room too, because anyone who sees her room will be able to see from our doors that there's only one room left for Carol and Mark to sleep in. We'd better make sure that Donna's new room retains its masculine look so Mark can pretend it's his if he suddenly needs to. Likewise your room shouldn't have masculine stuff displayed in case someone needs to believe that two girls sleep there. Sleeping two girls in one bed is strange but acceptable. A brother and sister your ages sleeping together is not. We might have to plant some thick bushes immediately in front of your window, get blinds and look into soundproofing. It's important I give you what you want, but be aware that there are practical problems that we'll do our best to overcome for you."

Carol said, "Yes. Thank you, Mom. I'll think about those things, but not right now. I'm a bit too frazzled to think clearly."

Mom said, "I'll add one more issue. I have no idea how you expect to get away with sharing Mark with other casual girls. Surely if Mark, you and other girls are in bed together, they're going to realize that you and your brother have an unusual relationship. It only takes one of these girls to make one accidental or deliberate slip and we're in trouble. You need to think of all these things before you start doing anything."

Carol said, "You're right again, Mom. I hadn't thought of these things. I just wanted to sleep with my loves every night. If we never had sex with any other girl there, that's fine with me. I just want Mark every night and Julia sometimes too. Julia can think about this stuff, that's her job. My job is simpler and more fun."

Julia laughed, "I've already been thinking about it, sweetie. I think our families are ready for the mansion idea. In a big enough private house, with no close neighbors, we could easily set up the rooms in a practical manner. I haven't done anything about it yet, not even talked to Dad, but after watching your parents just now and seeing how much they get it and how hard they're trying, I think we should get moving on it soon. Do you agree, Mark?"

"I think that could be a good idea."

Mom asked, "Mansion idea?"

Julia deferred to me, so I said, "Julia and I have discussed the idea of both families moving into a mansion. We call it 'mansion', but we just mean a house big enough for all of us, with privacy and plenty of rooms so we could live how we want much easier. We thought it'd be safer and more fun for everyone. A lot less worry. What do you think, Mom and Dad? Do you think we could share one big house with the Williamses?"

Mom said, "I guess we could sell our house. I'm not particularly attached to it. Actually not at all, as it's low quality. It's hard to imagine the Vanessa and Prof will want to sell this house though. It's beautiful and they've got it so well set up for them."

Julia, with her usual lack of respect for anyone who disagreed with one of her plans, said, "{Raspberry}."

^-- When she had everyone's attention, "My family would move to another country if it was good for Mark. Increased safety is good for Mark, so we'd certainly move to a different home in Corvallis.

^-- "The house we'd move into would be better than this one. Mark misled you when he downplayed the description of mansion as just a big house. Not intentionally I'm sure, it's just that he always thinks small. By 'mansion' I almost do mean mansion, or at least a very upmarket private home. It'll be the best quality mansion we can find that meets our needs for number of rooms, privacy, etc. Our need for time too because I want to do this quickly. If we find a mansion we like that's already on the market, we might be able to move in even before the trial is finished, so you guys wouldn't have the hassles of rearranging your house the way Carol wants. We just move into our new home already set up the way we all want, especially a really BIG bed for our Lord. That's the one piece of furniture that it's guaranteed to have!"

Mom said, "I'm sorry Julia, but it isn't going to happen anything like that fast, or that way. It'll take several weeks for us just to get our house cleaned up and ready to put onto the market. Then however many months for it to sell and settle. Your house will probably sell faster than ours, I guess, depending on how well you price it to the market. Then we'll have to find another house big enough for all of us, and, quite frankly, it won't be better than this house. Our home is worth so little that finding a house big enough for all of us will mean that it will have to be a lower quality than this, otherwise we won't be able to afford it. Arranging financing will also be..."

Julia interrupted, "Sorry to interrupt, but I'll save time if I jump in and say that buying a new mansion has nothing to do with selling the existing houses. Mark has an idea that will get us a million or two. Or three. I don't think the actual amount changes anything much. If his idea works - that's a big 'if' that I'll come back in a second - then we'll have cash. So don't worry about money. The question is whether you can happily share a house with my family?"

^-- There was a short pause, then Julia added, "I'll tell you what, why don't Mark and I go and ask Dad whether his idea is feasible. If it's not then the whole idea of buying a mansion is moot unless we can think of another idea. That'll save time. Let's go do that now."

People tend not to disagree with Julia when she's in "Bossy Mode", so we went.

Julia and I left Mom and Dad with Carol. We found everyone else in the Guys' Room. Donna was watching, I presume, one of her new DVDs on the big screen. Prof, Vanessa and The Boys were sitting around the bar, talking quietly.

As we walked in, Vanessa said, "I see things went well."

We agreed that they had. Julia added, "Dad, Mark and I want to check something different with you. Can we borrow you for a few minutes please, and go to your study?"

That was fine with Prof, so I got to see what a nice study looks like.

It looks very, very nice. Vanessa had one and a half walls for her shelves, desk, chair, etc. Prof ditto on the other side of the room. Their study was plush - very, very plush: Rich woods, a lovely rug and two facing sofas in the middle of the room, with a small table between them. Lovely pictures on the walls. Desks that were works of art to look at. It made my new study look bare and pathetic. Oh well.

Julia quickly outlined the mansion idea without allowing the conversation to get detailed. Not much more than, "We buy a mansion for both families, for safety and private lifestyle reasons. So Mark, Carol and I can live together without anyone seeing us do it, or seeing any strange things happening. We all need to discuss whether we can live together happily but before we got into that, the question we want to ask you is whether it's feasible for Mark to make the money to buy the mansion by using his TK ability to win roulette in Vegas?"

Prof's response was, "Hmm. I have nothing against the idea, and it would be useful to have access to large sums of cash, so I'm fine with it. Let's proceed on that assumption and we'll get Vanessa's opinion later."

I said, "Our first problem is that I believe I'm too young to bet, so we need someone else old enough, say you. You bet, and as long as I can see the wheel and ball well enough I can use my TK - that's what I call the flying things around ability - to make the ball fall into the right hole, or slot, or whatever they're called."

We quickly got into a discussion about my TK, and I gave him several demonstrations of the non-flying variety. Pushing a pen along the table, pushing his skin, lifting Julia's skirt briefly - she insisted on that. I think she enjoyed letting her dad know we had some fun with it. I described the fingertip TK-points, and how I could nudge, pinch and pick up with them.

Trying to pick up a moving ball seemed impractical to me because the ball's subsequent movement would look very unnatural and suspicious. I suggested the idea that Prof would place bets on several adjacent numbers, and I'd try to nudge the ball into that area. It would probably be too hard for me to guarantee a particular number, without risking the ball's movement looking unnatural, but I might be able to get it within three or four to either side.

Prof said, "I've never been into a casino but I've seen them often enough on TV or in movies to know how the game works. Let's google it quickly to see if anything leaps out that makes it look impractical."

A few minutes later Prof said, "That looks straightforward enough. Betting on one number pays 35 to 1. Let's do some quick back-of-the-envelope calculations to see how the numbers roughly work out. If I bet on one number, and all Mark did was to make sure the ball landed somewhere in my quarter of the wheel, then I'd have about one chance in nine of winning, assuming all the numbers in my quarter were equally likely. As you'll be aiming for my number, let's say our chance of winning was twice that, or about one in five. We expect to lose most of our bets - 4 times out of 5 in fact - so we don't want to bet all our money at one time, as we'd probably lose it. With an 80% chance of losing, there's about a 10% chance of losing 10 bets in a row, so a 1% chance of losing 20 in a row..."

#2: <How did he work that out so quickly?>

#3: <Does it matter? We can check it ourselves when we get home.>

" ... A 10% chance of losing 10 bets in a row is too much risk. We don't want to go down to Vegas and lose all our money in the first 10 bets just because of bad luck. A 1% risk is probably playing too safe, but let's assume we use that. That means we need enough money to cover 20 bets, or to put it another way, we bet 1/20th of how much money we have. We could probably gather $30,000 or $40,000 fairly quickly. More if we wanted to mortgage the house, but let's avoid that if we can. 1/20th of $40,000 is $2,000. Let's play safe and say $1,000 per bet. That makes the calculations easier too."