Chapter 9

Both girls were waiting outside the door to Deliah's recovery room. Both looked anxious. Bob's deer-in-the-headlights look didn't make them feel much better.

"There sure was a lot of yelling going on in there," whispered Daphne.

"Did she find out?" asked Gabriella. "About us?" Her tone made it perfectly clear that "us" meant them and Bob, and the things they had done.

"Yes," said Bob.

"How!?" moaned Gabby.

"I told her," said Bob, his voice limp.

"You WHAT?!" gasped Daffy.

"I don't understand," whined Bob.

"Understand what?" asked Daphne. "What do you mean you told her?"

"She said I had to go with you on another tour," said Bob weakly.

Both girls perked up. "Really?" asked Gabby. She looked very happy.

"So I had to tell her what happened," moaned Bob, "so she'd understand why I couldn't do that."

"What do you mean you couldn't do that?" asked Daphne, a dangerous edge in her voice. "Why couldn't you do that?"

Bob turned on her like a wolf and put his face inches from hers.

"Because I'd FUCK YOU!" he whispered harshly. He looked around for the nurse, and then back at Daphne, who had backed up, more from the tone of his voice, than because of what he'd said. In a low tone he went on. "I knew that if I took you out again, I'd fuck you BOTH!" he hissed. "And I'd fuck you as often as I could crawl between your sweet little LEGS!" he ended, sounding mad.

"Wow," said Daphne, her eyes unfocused. "How often is that?"

"Daphne!" he said, his voice normal, and holding scorn.

"I can't help it," she whined. "I like to think about it."

"Me too," said Gabby, unconsciously jutting her breasts out. "I loved what we did on the tour."

"That was obvious," said Bob, less harshly. "Your mother noticed that too ... in your playing. She knew something had happened, and she made me tell her what it was."

Both girls eyes went round as saucers, and they held their breath.

"Is she mad?" whispered Daffy.

"Of course she's mad," said Gabby, pushing her sister. "We just have to explain it to her. Then she'll understand."

"She already understands," said Bob. "She's not mad."

Gabby blinked. "Not mad?"

"She said I have to go with you ... no matter what that means," said Bob.

It took a few seconds, but both girls were intelligent, and they figured out exactly what that meant. Gabby reacted first. She started to smile.

"You mean we can... ?" She stopped, but her eyes took on an intense look, and she stared breathing more heavily. "You mean she said you could ... do that?" she finished.

"She's going to put you both on the pill," said Bob weakly.

"Get OUT!" squealed Daphne. Her face took on a guarded look. "You'd better not be teasing us, Uncle Bob," she warned. "Because if you are, I know what happens when a girl kicks a boy hard between the legs, and I know how big yours are, and I can't possibly miss them if I try!"

"Go talk to your mother," said Bob. "Right now."

"Why?" asked Gabby, her face guarded now.

"If you think I'm going to just jump in bed with you two, on the say-so of a woman confined to a bed, with who knows HOW many pain killers in her, you're sadly mistaken," said Bob firmly. "You two go talk to her. I'll be out here." He slumped. "Things may change when you talk to her. This is something that can never be undone, once it's started. And it's crazy too. She's acting crazy. I think this house makes every woman IN it crazy!" he ended.

They didn't want to go ... didn't want to confront the situation, but Bob made them. He pushed them through the door and Deliah looked over, surprise on her face.

"You talk to them," ordered Bob.

"What? They don't believe you?" Deliah smiled for some reason.

"I don't believe you," said Bob. "I don't believe any of this!"

"All right," said Deliah. "You wait in the living room, Bob. I'll just have a little chat with my daughters."

Bob sat down gratefully on the couch. He felt like he was in some bizarre dream that he couldn't wake up from. He knew what she'd said ... knew why she'd said it ... but mothers just didn't react that way. He'd heard of pageant mothers, who practically prostituted their little girls, just to help them win pageants, but this was something completely different. These girls were already professionals, with a bright career ahead of them. True, they played with more intensity when they were horny. He knew that. But what Deliah had said she'd allow was just going overboard. He was sure that, when faced with her darling little girls, she'd see the insanity on that. He yawned.

Nancy tried to engage him in conversation, but he was nodding off so she left him alone. He was asleep when the girls left their mother's room ... didn't see them come in and stand, just looking at him.

"He fell asleep," said Nancy, coming into the room. "I just let him. Do we need to get him up for something?"

The girls looked at each other. "Not yet," said Gabriella. "Let him sleep. He's going to need his strength."

Nancy was puzzled by the giggling that followed that comment, but she was used to seeing strange families, so she didn't worry about it. It was almost time for lunch and meds. After that she only had to stay until four. The girls had been trained on night time meds, and said they could handle supper. They knew who to call if there was a problem. Nancy liked being able to turn the care of a loved one over to other loved ones. They usually did an even better job of taking care of the patient.

Bob woke to the odor of something delicious wafting into the room from the kitchen. He groaned as his body complained about being in an uncomfortable position for hours. He stood, stretched, and bent this way and that to ease the aches. He looked around, but nobody was in sight.

Memories of that morning flooded back into his mind and he tensed. He looked at his watch. It was after eight in the evening. He'd been sleeping on the couch for ten hours. The place hadn't fallen apart. There hadn't been screaming, at least not enough to wake him up. He thought about the fact that he'd been left alone. They hadn't kicked him out, but they hadn't shown him to a bed either. He wondered if he should stay, or just slip out the front door while nobody was looking.

Gabby came breezing around the corner and jumped, when she saw him.

"Oh!" she said. "You're awake! Good. Supper is almost ready."

She turned and disappeared back into the kitchen before he could respond.

Bob sighed. It had to be faced sometime. He may as well get it over with. He went on dragging feet toward where Gabby had disappeared.

Gabriella was stirring soemthing in a pot on the stove, and was facing away from him. Daphne was finishing setting the table. There were three places set. She looked up and smiled.

"I think we're going to be pretty good cooks," she said. "We made spaghetti, and it wasn't hard at all."

Gabby turned and looked at him, but didn't say anything.

"Go wash your hands," said Daffy, her voice surprisingly mother-like.

"I'm not sure I should stay," said Bob.

Daphne didn't even look up. "Of course you're staying. We went to all this work, and you'd better eat it."

"What about... ?" Bob let it trail off.

"We'll talk about that later," said Daphne, still not looking up, and still sounding like Bob's mother had sounded, so many years ago.

Supper wasn't strained, but it was quiet. Once Bob was seated the girls served the food, and then sat to eat. Bob realized how famished he was. He'd slept through lunch, and hadn't had anything more for breakfast than a cup of coffee. They'd used bottled sauce, but it was still delicious. There were also green beans and slices of sour dough bread that had been buttered and sprinkled with garlic powder. It was simple fare, but Bob wouldn't have asked for anything else.

"It's good," he said, his mouth full.

"Don't talk with your mouth full," said Daphne. "But thank you."

Gabby just ate.

Bob heard a bell tinkle, and Gabby shot out of her seat to go to see what Deliah needed. She came back with a tray. Obviously, they had already fed their mother.

"She said it was delicious," said Gabby, beaming with pride.

"It is," said Bob, through a bite of bread.

"Don't talk with..."

"I know, I know," said Bob, grinning for the first time all day.

There was no way to get them back on the subject that was eating away at Bob, because as soon as he pushed the plate away, they rose and started cleaning up, rinsing the dishes and putting them in the dish washer, and putting things away. Extra food was put in containers and then into the refrigerator. Bob just sat, and watched the girls move around. They didn't seem stiff, or uncomfortable, but their easy familiarity with him was lacking too. It wasn't until he saw them doing little unnecessary things that he realized they WERE nervous, and avoiding the talk Daffy had said they would have after supper. They were delaying that talk, and that made him even more nervous.

Finally, after the counter had been wiped down no less than four times, by some means of unspoken communication the girls turned to face Bob. He was still sitting, and they leaned against the counter.

"Do you love us?" asked Daphne, suddenly.

Bob kept the grimace off his face.

"Of course I do," he said. "You know that."

"You don't act like it," said Gabby, emotion in her voice.

Bob wanted to point out that he'd just given up three weeks of his life to ferry them around Europe, but didn't. They were young, and glossed over "little" things like that.

"Sometimes," he said softly, "when I have your best interests in mind, I make decisions that you may not understand, or appreciate." He kept his face blank. "But I love you both, and I always will, and I'll always do the best for you that I possibly can."

Both girls smiled then.

"Good," said Gabby. "I'm glad that's settled."

Bob blinked. Nothing had been settled at all. The confusion on his face must have been plain, because Gabby held out her hand to him.

"Come with us, please," she said. "You need to hear something."

He took her hand and stood. The girls led him to the studio, where their instruments had been set up on stands. There was a chair sitting in the middle of the room, and they led him to that and sat him down. Daphne went to the bank of electronic equipment and started punching buttons. There was a hissing noise that came from big speakers, located in each of the four corners of the room. Bob realized he had been placed in a position where the surround sound system would be best experienced.

His ears picked up the unmistakable sound of audience noises, and then Daphne's voice.

"This song has been around for a long time, but we didn't have time to prepare for anything. We play this at home a lot, just to keep in practice."

There were a couple of bumps, and Bob remembered that microphones had been adjusted. Then, the opening plucked strings of Dueling Banjos flooded the room. The song went on, and Bob was transported back to Poland, where he had heard this amazing performance. He found himself rocking in his seat.

When the song was over, he looked at the girls.

"That was Krakow," he said.

Gabby nodded. "I missed at least ten notes in that."