Chapter 10

"No way," my dad said. "Your mom and I can catch up anytime. You moved out of town again. You were gone four years in the Air Force. then two years in that community college thing down east and now you are living in the mountains. So tell us all about the place where you live."

"I live in a fifty year old motel, how exciting can that be?" I asked.

"So have you met anyone interesting?" mom asked.

"If you mean have I met any men, I had a date last night. The first date I have had in a year." I said.

"Eleven months, but whose counting," my mom said.

"So now you are keeping track of my love life? What the fuck is up with that?" I snapped.

"Watch your mouth," my dad said.

"Daddy, where the hell do you think I first heard that word. If you remember I was ten and asked you what it meant," I said.

"Just because I'm an idiot doesn't mean you get to be," he said.

"And you are an idiot," I said. "So how is my step mother anyway?"

"You don't really want to know. You just want to be sure I know that you don't approve," Dad said.

"Daddy, we were both in diapers at the same time. Of course I disapprove." I burst into laughter. I did that because it hit me just how absurd it all was. I climbed out of bed this morning after having my brains screwed out by two brothers and made fun of my dad's younger wife. I knew I had no right to say a word, but I didn't care. He asked for it.

"Well your mother and I are not going to have sex even though someone in this family should," dad said.

"Is that aimed at me. If it is I'm not anywhere near the frigid bitch you think I am. I'll have you know that I was the center of a threesome last night." I said it smugly. Then I laughed out loud. I was struck by a thought. What other twenty six year old woman would have proudly told her parents she had been screwing two guys at the same time. I had to be from the most dysfunctional family in the world.

"So have you learned to enjoy the taste of semen?" my dad asked.

"No, but I haven't thrown up from it in years," I suggested. Then I waited to see what mom would say in response. She never said a word, or showed any reaction at all. She just wanted to change the subject quickly.

"So Sylvia, are you enjoying the work?" she asked.

"It's better than standing guard duty on airport gates in the middle of no where. Now I get to ride around in a car in the middle of nowhere." I replied.

"So you are getting by, which is pretty much what we all do," mom said.

"Yeah mom, life is neither terrible nor great, in other words things are just okay. If life gets too good I worry, too bad and I worry, so right now I'm just flowing with it," I explained.

"You screwing any guys my age?" Dad asked.

"No daddy, I'm only screwing the two guys from last night and they are my age. But I promise you I will keep an open mind about guys your age." I stared hard at him. I was waiting to see if he was going to do any explaining all about that line of conversation to mom. He obviously didn't want to open that particular can of worms.

"Well if you need any help your mother is pretty good at picking men to sleep with," he suggested.

"Oh what does that mean?" I asked.

"Yeah what does that mean?" mom asked.

"It means you have had some pretty important lovers since the divorce. I remarried and you just screwed around," dad said.

Things were about to turn nasty so I said, "Well thanks for dinner, but I can't say much for the conversation. Mom I'm taking your car and going back to my own. You can come with me or have dad drop you off at home later," I said sarcastically.

"I'll drive and Harry, thanks for dinner, but I think I will go home alone. Your new wife deserves better than this," mom said. I was proud of her. It might have been the first time I ever heard her say no to daddy. She definitely was being hit on by the dirty old man.

We were about half way home when she asked, "Sylvia, I need to know. I need to know the truth. How far did you and your father go."

"Mom, nothing ever happened when we were a family. He is an asshole, but he isn't a pedophile. At least not that I know of," I said.

"When did it start?" she asked.

"Mom, you really don't want to know all this," I said.

"No, I don't want to know, but I need to know. When did it start?" she asked.

I thought about it and decided to come clean, It might make it easier for her to turn her back completely on that episode in her life. "You two were divorced and I was home on leave after my first deployment to the Sandpit. He took me to dinner like we used to do when I was a senior in high school. The difference was that he let me drink beer that time. I wasn't quite old enough, but since I was in uniform the waiter didn't ask.

After a pitcher of beer we got to talking about sex. It was mostly about him and my step mother," I was just as sarcastic as ever.

"I began to tell him about my sexual adventures. He asked how old I was the first time. I explained that it was when I was sixteen. It was the same year he and the prom queen started fucking."