Chapter 1

The following characters appear at the beginning of the story:

Michael Sean O'Connell (Mike)

Gus and Annie's son, 5'-10", 135 pounds, 16 years old, auburn hair, hazel eyes

Michael Patrick O'Connell (Pat)

Sean and Sara's son, 5'-10" tall. 137 pounds, 16 years old, auburn hair, gray eyes

Laura and Katie O'Connell

Gus and Annie's twin daughters, 5'-2" tall, 98 pounds, 32C-21-30, 14 years old, long flaming red hair, green eyes, some freckles, very cute

Gail and Margie

Sean and Sara's twin daughters, 5'-2" tall 99 pounds, 32C-21-30, 14 years old, long flaming red hair, gray eyes, some freckles, very cute

Amber (Am)

Edana and Ed's daughter, 5'-4" tall, 108 pounds, 34C-22-32, 16 years old, long red hair, green eyes, some freckles, very cute

Brigid (Bee)

Gale and Ed's daughter, 5'-4" tall, 107 pounds, 34C-22-32, 16 years old, long red hair, green eyes, some freckles, very cute

Meegan

Tara and Bill's daughter, 5'-4" tall, 110 pounds, 34D-22-32, 16 years old, long red hair, gray eyes, a few freckles, very cute

Myrna

Muriel and Bill's daughter, 5'-4" tall, 110 pounds, 34D-22-32, 16 years old, long red hair, gray eyes, a few freckles, very cute

Brian

Edana and Ed's son, 5'-9" tall, 129 pounds, 14 years old, auburn hair, blue eyes

Connor

Gale and Ed's son, 5'-8" tall, 129 pounds, 14 years old, brown hair, blue eyes

Donal

Tara and Bill's son, 5'-9" tall, 131 pounds, 14 years old, brown hair, gray eyes

Evan

Muriel and Bill's son, 5'-9" tall, 131 pounds, 14 years old, auburn hair, gray eyes

Gaelan

Grandmother Margie's last son, 5'-9" tall, 130 pounds, 14 years old, auburn hair, blue eyes

Grace

Grandmother Katie's last daughter, 5'-3" tall, 105 pounds, 32C-20-32, 14 years old, long flaming red hair, gray eyes, some freckles, very cute

31 January 2051

My name is Michael O'Connell. I'm sixteen and come from a large close-knit family of Irish descent. At the top of the pyramid are my Grandfather, Mark Kent O'Connell, and my two Grandmothers, his wives, Mary Kathleen O'Connell (Katie) and Mary Margaret O'Connell (Margie). Grandfather changed his last name from Kent to O'Connell after they were married.

They are followed by my four older Aunts. Edana and Gale are Grandmother Margie's twin daughters, and both are married to Ed Fitzgibbon. Next are my Aunts Tara and Muriel. They are Grandmother Katie's twin daughters, and they are both married to Bill Fitzgibbon, Ed's twin brother. All four of my older aunts retained the O'Connell last name.

Finally, the last of the older generation are my Father, and my Uncle. My Uncle is Sean Michael O'Connell and he is married to Sara Elizabeth O'Neill O'Connell. My Father is Aengus Patrick O'Connell, and my Mother is Anna Catherine O'Neill O'Connell. Everyone calls her Annie, but us children. She and Aunt Sara are twin Sisters. Dad is Grandmother Katie's Son, and Uncle Sean is Grandmother Margie's Son.

Those, of course, are just the grownups. Then there are all of my Sisters and Cousins.

My full name, since you must know it, is Michael Sean O'Connell, but I am called Mike, as my Uncle is always called Sean. I have two Sisters who are twins, Laura and Katie. They are two years younger than I am. Next is my best friend, and almost Brother, Michael Patrick O'Connell, who is called Patrick or Pat, as I have the claim on Michael. He is the Son of Uncle Sean and Aunt Sara, and is actually my Cousin, although I consider him more of a Brother, as we are that close just as our Fathers are. Pat also has twin Sisters, Gale and Margie. They are also two years younger than Pat is.

Finally there are all of our female Cousins: Amber, Brigid, Meegan, and Myrna. They are the daughters of our four older Aunts, and all have the last name of O'Connell. They are all about a month older than Pat and me, but from the way that they lord it over us, you would think the difference was one of years instead of just four weeks or so.

They are followed by our male Cousins who are the Sons of our four older Aunts: Brian, Connor, Donal, and Evan, who are two months or so older than our sisters are.

Lastly there are our younger Aunt and Uncle. It seems that when our Mothers and Aunts all got pregnant in 2036, our Grandmothers couldn't resist the urge, and also got pregnant, much to out Grandfather's surprise; I have been led to believe. Grandmother Katie had a Daughter, Grace, while Grandmother Margie had a Son, Gaelan. Those two are two months younger than our Sisters are.

As you can see, there are a lot of us O'Connells. Of course, there are also the Stuarts and all of the other people who work for our parents and grandparents, and who also reside here in the O'Connell Realm. They aren't blood relatives, or part of our immediate family, but we are close to them and their children.

I see that I haven't made it clear that we ALL live in the O'Connell Realm. It was prepared for us by the Eternal Flame, and is separate from the United States, although it is located adjacent to Statesboro, Georgia, just as the Otherworld is to Ireland, or the Black Magic and Voodoo Realm which is located in New Orleans.

Growing up here had been different, too. With all of the Magic practitioners in our family and the Realm, and all of the spells that are used here daily, we were constantly warned from a very young age that Magic WAS NOT a toy, and that we were not to cast spells, any spells, on people or other things.

Usually, we would listen, but sometimes the devil would get in Pat and me, and we would get into trouble. Not anything serious, or that our Dads, or Moms couldn't fix and apologize for though. When you are three years old, mischievousness just seems to be a part of your life. Our female Cousins would invariably tell on us when they found out, as often the spells had been cast on one or more of them.

To correct this, there was a punishment room in our house that both families used, and when one of us misbehaved, he was put in there. It was an empty room. There was nothing to do in there. There was no furniture to climb on, no pictures on the walls, or rugs on the floor. Not even a window to look out. It was totally empty. There is nothing worse at three years of age than to be made to sit still and do nothing, but consider what you had done wrong, especially if you are a boy.

Naturally we couldn't get out - we were there for punishment after all. It wasn't because the door was locked. No, the door was only closed so that we couldn't see what was going on in the house. It was the wards in the walls, floor, and ceiling that kept us from getting out, until our Parents allowed us out.

By the time that we were five, we were allowed to start studying for our First Level Magic Exams. Pat and I took out First level Exams just after our sixth birthday in the Otherworld. Our female Cousins had preceded us by a month. The Masters there were not lenient, and held us to the tightest standards believing that we, like our Cousins, were too young to be testing, but we passed anyway.

The spring and summer that we were six, we got to ride on the tractors for the first time with our Fathers and Grandfather when they worked on the fields. Pat and I had been looking forward to it, and loved it. We also got to help with the maintenance of the tractors and loved getting all greasy and dirty, which our Mothers hated, but they knew the spells to get us and our clothes clean again. Additionally, we learned the various spells for weeding the fields. Our female Cousins were working on their herb gardens and learning simple cooking that same year.

We were allowed to help with the berry picking and jelly making later that summer. Naturally we ate part of what we picked, but we have large berry patches, and there was plenty left for making jellies and jams. After the harvest later in the fall, there was canning and freezing. We have lots of fields here in the O'Connell Realm and are now nearly self-sufficient for food.

Of course, our Parents and our Aunts are Professors at the big college in the Magic Department, and that keeps them busy much of the year. We all picked up a lot of knowledge about Magic just by listening to them when they talked about what they were teaching. Naturally when they were gone, Pat and I were responsible for our sisters just as our female cousins were for their brothers. The eight of them required a lot of attention. Sometimes it also included watching our younger Aunt and Uncle, Grace and Gaelan. Often we could get our female Cousins to do all of it while Pat and I did something more interesting to guys.

We also started home-schooling at six. Believe me, you don't send little Witches and Wizards to school with normal children. Not if you want the normal children to survive, you don't. Things progressed fairly normally after that. We had our school work, and our Magic studies, plus the work around the house and the farm to take care of. Additionally, as I have already mentioned the watching of our younger siblings when our Parents were gone. It kept us out of trouble - well, most of the time anyway.

There were services on the weekends and holidays which were led by the elders. There were parties on a number of holidays, and for birthdays. There were a lot of birthdays with 16 children. Many of them were grouped together because of the pattern in the way our mothers got pregnant. The adults didn't much celebrate birthdays though. There were also dancing and singing lessons mostly held at our Grandparents' house. The singing was mostly for the girls. We guys didn't sing much, but did enjoy the dancing. There were also occasional vacations to various places, and trips to the Otherworld.

After we turned twelve, Pat and I took our Senior Master exams from Masters in the Otherworld and received our rings. We didn't have to wait in line like most of the applicants who were much older than we were, as our Parents had arranged it for us. Our female Cousins didn't get to take their Senior Master's Exams until they were thirteen. We would tease them by twisting our Senior Master's Rings around on our fingers.

"What are you doing?" they would ask, inquisitively.

"Can't you see?" we would demand. "Oh, that's right you're not Senior Masters, and can't see our rings," we would say, and laugh. It was great for about nine months until they finally took their Exams, and had rings of their own. We realize now that we were still children then, but had control of awesome power.

Also at twelve, we had all started working at the printing plant helping out, and learning the printing trade. By the time our female Cousins were thirteen, and we nearly were, Pat and I started looking at them differently. They were no longer the skinny little girls that we used to tease. They had gotten taller and had filled out. Boy!, had they filled out, and in all of the right places too. They were turning into young ladies, just as Pat and I were into young men.

It was after we had all turned fourteen that things really changed. At thirteen, our female Cousins had allowed Pat and me kiss them, and hold and touch them a little. Their skin was so soft and warm, but that was as far as they would allow us to go.

At fourteen they had been Senior Masters for a year, and we had all received our Power Rings from the Eternal Flame, and were learning to use them. The rings weren't all that our cousins wanted to learn to use however. Whether their Mothers had given them permission or not, the four of them wanted to learn about sex first hand. We had all seen it on our PDTs (Personnel Data Tablets), but that wasn't enough for them.

Additionally, they had decided among themselves who they were interested in practicing sex with. By whatever process they used, Amber and Brigid had decided that they wanted me, and Meegan and Myra had taken Pat. Our Sisters, and their Brothers were still too young to do anything yet, as were our younger Aunt and Uncle.

Shortly after receiving our Power Rings, our four female Cousins came to see Pat and me one afternoon with a request.

"We want to go practice with our rings, but we don't want to go alone," their spokesperson, Amber, told me that afternoon.

"Where do you want to go?" I asked.

"To the quarry like our Parents did," Amber told me, and the other three nodded agreement.

"All right," Pat agreed before I could say anything. Megan and Myrna immediately grabbed his hands, and they disappeared. Amber and Brigid took my hands, and we also disappeared. We all knew where the quarry was having all slept with the 'Book of Dreams' to receive instruction on the rings.

It was late in the year, and it was much colder at the quarry in the Rocky Mountains than it had been at our houses in the O'Connell Realm. We all did a little work with our Rings, cutting slabs and exploding some already cut rock, but we soon lost our enthusiasm in the cold.

Chapter 2 »