Chapter 1

Year Two: Day One: Monday

I woke up in our newly expanded quarters in what I called my cmsix bed because of its size. All of my wives except Kari had given me a puzzled look when I named the bed during the tour of our new quarters. Kari's wink let me know that I wasn't the only family member who had once read the tales of that lost Texas bard. Hell, I wouldn't even bet he was lost. If there were little green men responsible for the collapse he was probably aboard one of their ships arguing with them about the legality of the endeavor.

I lay there just looking around our new quarters. To say they were sumptuous would almost be an understatement. Tom and Jim had led a group of town's people and friends in the remodeling of a whole wing of the former enlisted quarters into an overlarge bedroom with a large master bath and a formal sitting room. I hadn't even known that anyone knew the date of my birthday until the whole damn town, and representatives of our other three towns, turned out for the celebration. The furnishings except for the bed came from Hurlburt Town. The citizens of our second town had stripped them out of some former general's quarters on that station. The bed had been hand crafted by the citizens of Rucker Town from some teak planks found in the former base's woodworking shop. From the looks of the bed with its ornately carved head and footboard the mayor of Rucker Town was one hell of a master craftsman. The walk in shower with multiple shower heads was the contribution of a pair of plumbers from Mississippi that happened to be citizens of Keeslerville.

I still felt conflicted about accepting the gift. On the one hand the gift seemed to set me and my family apart and above the others which was something I didn't want. On the other hand it's hard to argue with the love and affection of the people who had worked so hard to give us this special gift. In the end I allowed myself to be convinced that it was the beginning of new quarters for all of the multiple spouse families. At last count there were ten families at Whiting alone that had three or more spouses. One of these families even had two men that were married to one highly sexed female. Before the wedding Lana had related to me that the men were bisexual and had been lovers before meeting the young woman. I was seated with my own spouses on the front row at their wedding.

Even with the overlarge bed my wives and I still somehow always ended up in a pile in the middle. Irene was still clinging closely to me, almost as if I was a lifeline. This was a holdover from the crazy weeks after Julie's death. I gradually worked my way free on this chilly morning without waking my sleeping wives, or so I thought. The air was chilly as everyone had stopped using air conditioning and heating unless it was absolutely needed. This conserved energy at the cost of opening a window or adding a few extra blankets. As I stumbled to the bathroom I noticed the floor was carpeted with our discarded clothing from the past evening. One great thing about having a multiple partner marriage was that someone was always enthusiastic about sex and that enthusiasm was usually contagious. My wives were extremely supportive and yet competitive as hell with one another in the bedroom.

I liked this bathroom. The crew that had completed the plumbing had combined many of the accoutrements from the large dormitory style bathroom into our private bath. I could just imagine Lana, Laura, Irene and Kari lined up at four of the seven sinks in their boudoir uniforms, i.e. nothing. I must have zoned out thinking about that because it seemed that in a blink of an eye they were lined up there winking at me. I grinned and headed to the massive shower.

Kari let out a giggle and said, "I don't think that's morning wood unless he's going to pee in the shower."

Lana solemnly said, "I'll find out," as she moved past Kari to follow me into the shower.

Laura piped up and said, "That's my sister-wife, always willing to sacrifice herself for the team. I don't think we should send her in there alone."

Irene finally spoke up and said, "Hey, you two soaked up most of the love juice last night. Steve belongs to me and Kari this morning."

Upon reaching the shower Lana turned and said, "If you're going to get the worm you have to be an early bird."

While she was speaking Laura stepped past her and possessively wrapped her hand around my cock. I would have said something about grab-assing in the shower except that Laura also had her hand around my neck and her tongue deep inside my mouth. I did hear Kari say, "Leggo my Eggo," where upon all of the girls except Laura doubled over in laughter. I was trying to laugh, not that what she said was funny but laughter is contagious, except that I can't laugh and suck face at the same time.

We were all smiling as I disengaged myself. Lana said, "That was not funny."

Irene answered and said, "It must have been funny 'cause we all laughed."

Laura who was bent over holding on to a towel rack trying to get my attention said, "I didn't laugh."

Her sister quipped, "You couldn't laugh with your tongue pushed that far down hubby's throat."

Lana looked at me seriously and said, "It's a wonder you'd let her do that at all considering all the places her tongue was last night."

Laura grabbed my cock and pulled me over towards her as she responded, "He didn't mind where I had my tongue last night. You should be glad I put it there, it got him hard enough for that marathon cowgirl fucking you gave him before he went to sleep."

I reluctantly pulled away from greedy Laura as Kari began to wipe me down with a soapy washrag. I pulled her too me and gave her a deep soul searching kiss. I knew that even though sex with my wives was too wild for even a Desperate Housewives episode the sex wasn't what I craved most from these women. I had long ago decided that their friendly back and forth bickering hid no jealous agendas. My wives used this role play to feel each other out, to make sure that there were no hard feelings and find the one that was down and needing attention so that they could focus their love. I also knew this because of the times that it had been focused on me.

After giving each of my wives a kiss I stepped out of the shower to dry off. I finished drying and moved into the bedroom to dress. From the laughter in the shower I knew that the playing didn't stop because daddy left the sandbox. I looked over my speech on my desk in the corner and saw where Kari had made some corrections and additions. Kari had become more than my operations officer and wife. She had also accepted the unenviable task of ensuring my public face was not smeared with egg.

I loved all of my wives equally, and each brought a unique flavor to our marriage but Kari was special. I know that sounds contradictory but it was true nonetheless. Long ago I realized that the reason I was held in such high regard was primarily because of those around me. The loyalty and selfless actions of Jim, Tom, Sheila and others, especially my wives, enabled and ennobled me. My wives were all women behind the man as well as being tireless workers in their own right but Kari, well Kari jealously guarded my image as well as pulling her own weight as the leader of the Aviation Brigade. I really felt like most any man could do my job with help like that.

I waited this morning for my wives to finish dressing and we walked over to the reception hall together. We were actually closer to the annex, as the second dining hall was called, but I preferred eating at the reception hall. I always knew that unless she was sick I would see Sheila's smiling face at the end of the breakfast bar, greeting everyone and making us all feel at home. Families were assigned to the reception hall and the annex on a regular rotation but somehow, I was always welcomed at both.

A few people tried to step aside and let me bypass the line, but I think most knew that I would never do that unless there was some type of an emergency. Each of those in line had a job that I thought of as equally important to mine. Hell, over half of them were farmers, as Whiting still grew more food than the other towns, and most of what I would be eating this morning was food they grew or raised. I never knew that raising chickens for egg production was so technically exacting until I spent a morning in line talking with one of our poultry men.

That was the other reason not to bypass the line. I learned as much of what was going on in line as I did in formal meetings or walking around the base. Something about waiting for food loosens the tongue. It also let people see that I was human and approachable. As I stood there listening to a conversation about the corn harvest I was suddenly jostled forward as someone wrapped her arms around my thighs. Almost immediately I heard, "Uncle Steve!" in stereo from first Jenn and then Jerry. Next thing I heard was Jenn say, "I got here first."

I turned around and pulled the young girl up into my arms and said, "You're getting too old to slam into people like that. I was hoping to use my legs for a few more years." I smiled at her as she giggled and called me silly. I saw Jerry trying to get my attention and so I knelt down to him and lifted him up along with Jenn. That was no easy burden as these children were getting heavy.

About the time Jerry gave me a hug I heard Jim running up breathing hard. With his hands on his knees he said, "I'm getting too old to baby sit the kids. I can't keep up with them any more."

With a twinkle in her eye Jenn said, "You never could, Grampa!"

Jim was still huffing his words as he replied, "Everything's a race or game for them."

I sympathized and thought to myself that if Irene and my other wives had their way I would be chasing around my own child in a year or so. Jenn spoke up and said, "Sides, I had to get to Uncle Steve first. I needed to tell him something 'portant."

I smiled again and asked, "What do you need to tell me pumpkin?"

Jenn put her hand on her chin and thought a moment and said, "Oh yeah. I made a hundred on my 'rithmetic test yesterday. Teacher said if I kept that up I could be a great flyer just like you one day."

At that point Jerry was pulling on my collar and put his mouth right next to my ear. He said, "I made a hundred too."

Jenn heard Jerry and said, "Yeah, but I finished first."

Jerry said, "That's 'cause you didn't double check your work like teacher said."

Jenn said, "Did too! I'm just faster than you."

Jerry said, "No you're not."

"Yes I am."

"Are not!"

"Am so!"

At that point Jim was standing up straight. He was laughing at me in the middle of all of that and said, "I've never seen two more competitive kids." Then talking to the kids he said, "You need to get down now so Uncle Steve can hold a plate. You can talk to him later."

As I went to sit them down Jerry pulled on my collar again and asked, "Can I sit on your lap this morning, please?"

I kissed him on the cheek and said, "Sure you can."

Jenn put her hands on her hips and said, "Where's my kiss? I got here first."

I bent down and gave her a wet smacky kiss on her cheek that was more raspberry than kiss. Jenn giggled again and made a big production of wiping her cheek with the back of her hand. She said, "Silly!" and laughed.

Laura and Lana who had been watching all of this from the other side of the buffet table laughed. Lana said, "He needs to be a daddy." To which all of my nearby wives nodded their heads and looked expectantly at Irene who blushed.

Jim and a couple of the men laughed. I shrugged my shoulders as if to say, 'What can you do.'

A breakfast like this morning would have been unusual before the collapse but it was one that I really enjoyed. Cornbread had replaced biscuits at most of our meals. We could grow buckwheat but not regular wheat in our area and so sometimes we had buckwheat pancakes or waffles. I hoped one day to find some farmers in the wheat belt who could supplement our scarce supplies of flour. Cornbread and locally produced sausage and fried green tomatoes were actually pretty good when mixed together. I got a lot of strange looks when I first started mixing everything together but noticed that some of the others had begun to do the same thing. Of course we had plenty of cereals still for the kids and most had adapted well to raw milk rather than the homogenized stuff that they used to drink. We still had coffee after we discovered several boxcars full two months ago. Still, I knew that Tom and others were working on blending locally grown chicory with the coffee to stretch the supply.