Chapter 10

Wednesday, June 8^th, 2011

I awoke this morning dreaming of what transpired last night. My love for my mother seems to be building more and more each and every day. My sisters now defer to me, much as they did to my father, before we found out what a bastard he was. All I needed now was a growth spurt to complete the image of me being the man of the house, my mother's lover, and in most eyes her husband. But that was too much to ask for, however it would be nice and could dispel some questions that could be asked.

I got up, dressed, and made my bed and then it was time to get organized. First things first. I checked on my mother, and she was gone. She had arisen with her alarm, and would be on her way to work by now. Then I checked on my sisters, finding them both still lying in bed, but awake. I told each of them that it was time to get up for breakfast. I said we needed to get a plan put together, for what attraction we wanted to go to first. If we got some kind of plan together, we could run it by our mother.

I went downstairs to start a breakfast for us. I thought that scrambled eggs, sausage links, toast and jelly, with large glasses of cold orange juice and milk, would make for a good meal for us; so that is what I fixed. The toast had just popped up from the toaster when Bea and Brie came into the kitchen. I had Bea pour the OJ and Brie poured the milk. I sat the plate with the eggs and links on the table and I said grace.

"Time to dig in and partake of this lovely meal, and then we get to make plans. I will get on the internet and we can make a list of all the places we want to see, and see if we can come up with a plan for how we can do that. Okay?"

I got nods in return, as both of the girls had their mouth's full of either sausage or eggs. We had a relatively quiet breakfast, as the girls wanted to finish up so we could map out our schedule. After I made sure the kitchen was clean, and dishes were put in the dishwasher, it was pretty full. I started it, and it was quick to begin its wash cycle.

We went to my room to sit down and go over what was available, and where we wanted to go first. I knew Mom wanted to go through the Epcot Center and the World Showcase. We worked for close to two hours setting down on paper (well, on my computer, really) all the attractions they wanted to see. Once we had determined what we wanted to see, we went through the list, to see what we wanted to see first. I looked at all the maps of where things were. We tried to plan an itinerary, and roughly how long we would need to spend in one theme park or attraction, to be able to see most of what we wanted. It worked out that after all was said and done; we had overshot our three weeks by a month! Well, back to square one.

It was about time for the other kids to begin showing up, so we put this on hold, and changed. I made us some lunch from the leftovers from last night. Then it was time for the other children in the neighborhood to start showing up for a swim. It was mid June, already, and I noticed that it was really starting to get hot, outside. I made sure all the umbrellas were opened up, and I even looked over the outside fans we had set up on the underside of the roof of the pool house.

This part of southwest Arkansas didn't usually get that hot, but my dad had them installed before he became 'persona non grata' in our household. The pool house had a porch roof for about five feet out from the actual building. Tucked up under the eaves were three fans that had a water line pumped to them so they could be misting cooling fans.

The actual fans hung down below the eaves about a foot or so. There was a good chance that we might need them today, depending on the wind. There wasn't much sense in turning them on if the wind would blow the mist back onto the pool house. Anyway I checked the wind direction, and made sure we had towels laid out on the tables.

You know, it was funny. Before my mother became my only lover, I really wanted to see and touch most of the girls that come over here to swim. Now, it just didn't seem so important. Sure I could control them all into having a nude swim and grope party, but it just didn't seem important to me anymore. I wondered if that was due to my growing into the father figure of this family, or had I really matured that much in such a short time. I really didn't know. Maybe it was the ring was making me feel older. Maybe there was something about accepting the fate that was mine, that I somehow made the conscious decision to be a good and moral ... well, almost moral ... man about all this. Well, a semi-moral person, if I was not a man, yet.

Suddenly, I heard that voice again, the voice from the ring.

'Young one, you have used your gift well. You have had many opportunities to use your power to take advantage of others, yet you only went a small way towards that end. You saw a wrong that needed to be righted. You could have allowed the authorities to handle it, but you did not. You took it upon yourself to cure the problem, which you did quite well, I might add.'

"You are the voice of the ring, yes? Are you a genie, like in Aladdin's lamp?"

'Yes, young one, I am the entity behind the power of the ring. But I am not djinn. I am much older than they. The ring is much more powerful than any of my previous owners ever thought it to be. However, young one, you have opened new avenues of power, which have not been used in centuries. You have within you the seed of bringing forth the full power of the ring. But be warned! This power can be used for good, or for evil. If it is used for evil, the power may come back to take its revenge, upon both you and your family! So, beware!

'Over the next few weeks, you will find that you will mature about four to five years. In those weeks, you will grow in stature, as well as in mind. Power will become available to you. It will tempt you. Be strong of mind, and brave of heart, and you can conquer the power and make it yours. But I can see doubt in your mind, young one.'

"Yes. I was wondering if I have taken unfair advantage of my mother, in making her my lover. I was tempted by my sisters, but I have tempered that with love and respect. I haven't been further been tempted to go beyond a very close relationship with my sisters. But my mother is another matter. Did I do her wrong?"

'Your mother has, for some time, been thinking of you as a possible mate. However she, like you, thought it was wrong, even to think about it. But her dreams and fantasies were of you, or someone very much like you. I found this out after the first time you woke me from my long sleep. I am the one who warned you, 'not yet young one'. Once awakened from my long sleep, I was able to hear the voices in the minds of your family. Your mother was at first mastered by your call to her, through the power of the ring. But, once you made love to her, she was yours. This was not by the ring's power, but by your own power ... that power being your love for one another.'

"But what of these other powers that I will be given? What are they, and how can I control them?"

'You will know them when they become apparent. Think long and hard before you use them. Think of the consequences of any action you might take, before you take it. That is my best advice to you. We shall talk, later. You have awoken me. I, in turn, have awoken the seed within you. It is one that has been carried in your family for generations. Your ancestors were once great leaders and builders of industry. With your new powers, you too can be as they were ... or, you can be the most evil person this planet has ever seen. The choice is entirely yours.'

"But how will I know what path to take?"

'I cannot give you much help in that matter. Remember what I said earlier, about thinking before you act. A wise philosopher, a long time ago, once said: "do no harm." That is the very best advice for you, too, young one: "Do no harm," neither to yourself, nor to others. Abide within that thought, and you will not have problems with how to act regarding your new powers.'

Just like that, the voice was gone. It was as if I could sense that he was no longer in my head, much like hanging up a phone. I would really have to think about all this, and maybe discuss it with my mother. But, for now, we had kids showing up to swim.

For most of the rest of the afternoon, I pondered what the ring's voice had told me. I was somewhat aware of things going on around me, and I even went so far as to have a couple of conversations with some of the people. But for the most part, my mind was occupied with the warnings I had received. The big question was: what additional powers would be forthcoming? And what was this nonsense about me maturing in both mind and stature? How could I age four to five years, in just a few short weeks?

At about four, I gave up. I had ended up with more questions than answers. As I was rounding up all the used towels, I noticed something strange. My baggy swim trunks seemed a little tight in the crotch, and a little tight in the waist, too. I thought at first this was because they were wet, but I didn't even get into the pool this afternoon, so that was not it.

'Oh, My, God! It's started! I'm growing, ' I thought. 'I'll have to check this out as soon as I can get back to my room. I may even have Bea help me, as I have helped her.

'How could this be happening to me? I haven't increased my eating habits, have I? Let me think, this morning when I made scrambled eggs, I cracked six eggs, just like normal ... Wait, I cracked two more because it didn't look like enough in the pan. Okay, how many sausage links, did I cook? Let me check the kitchen garbage can!'

I went back inside while the towels were washing, and looked in the can. Sure enough the whole package was in the can, and I'd only opened it this morning. I remember that well, because the package was hard to open, this morning.

'Well, I guess I have been eating more, lately. I'll check with the girls, to see if they noticed.'

I called for Bea and she was just coming out of her room after showering and changing her clothes.

"Bea, can you do me a favor? I need you to help me measure myself. I seem to be growing, some."

By this time we were at my bedroom door and we went in and I sat down at my computer table. I use the roll top for all writing and math homework and I have a large side table that I use for my computer. It has ornate legs and two drawers in the middle side by side. I reached into one drawer and got out the cloth tape I had used to measure Bea. I then sat down and opened a spreadsheet and set up a table for my measurements and weights.

Bea was watching me and asked, "Bennie? Is there something wrong? You seem to be kinda worried about this."

"Bea, I won't lie to you. I think something strange is happening to me. I'm not sure what is going on, but when I was picking up the towels today, it seemed that my trunks were a little tight. They have been loose for some time now, so I want to make sure it is not just that they are shrinking with all the washings. I'm sure that you can see why I want to find out now so I can have the right size clothes when we go on vacation."

"Gee, Bennie, you think you'd grow that fast?"

"Well, I don't know. That's why I want you to help measure me, kinda like I did for you. And I think you have grown too, not where we are measuring, but you do seem taller by a little. Maybe we need to measure you for that, too.

"Okay, let's start with the easy stuff. Let me stand up, and you can measure my height. I'll go stand at my closet door over there, and you can mark where the top of my head is. Then we can measure it."

I grabbed a side chair and put it next to the closet door. The door was a light cream color so a pencil mark would show up nicely. I opened the door and stood with my back to the side of the door. Bea stood on the chair and marked my height on the door. Then we measured it with the tape. Okay, I was 5' 7-1/2" tall. When I was measured at school towards the end of school I was just barely 5'-7".

I had Bea write it down on a pad I had given her. I then went into my bathroom and got on my scales. When I weighed myself about two weeks ago, I was at 135. Today I was almost 137. Hey, not bad! A couple of pounds in a couple of weeks? Not bad ... but, was it a couple of pounds in two weeks, or was it two pounds in a couple of days?

Anyway, we finished measuring me with neck, chest, waist, hips and thigh measurements. I added all the information onto my spreadsheet.

"Now, Bea, I want to do this every other day until we leave for vacation. If I don't grow any more, then I am just imagining things. But if I do grow, then I don't know what to think. I may be having a growth spurt. Thank you for helping me with this. For right now, though, we need to keep this a secret just between us two. I don't want to worry Mom and Brie about this, okay?"

"Oh, Bennie, do you really think something might be wrong with you? I mean, you are really worried if you want to keep this a secret from Mom. Has this got something to do with that new ring that you wear? Is that what let's you talk to us in our heads? If this is bad, just take the ring off, and throw it away. I don't want my brother to be hurt by this thing."