Chapter 12

He found the twins had calmed down considerably. They did not have to move to either Chicago or New Zealand. Their Grandaunt Faith was a mess but would recover. They had a home. And they had their jewelry back on.

Pete wanted all of them down in the conference room. He had Cam help Mary bring out the munchies: cold cuts, rolls and condiments for sandwiches, hot tomato soup and hot chocolate. "You done good, Mary, this is just the thing." She beamed.

"Alea iacta est." He said, "Now we need to exorcize the devil from the details. Cam and Kim, you have been here just over two days. We have to know that you're committed for the long run."

'We would rather be here than anywhere else. We know that every day won't be like this weekend." Kim said. 'The pace will slow."

"And you will go to school and you will excel in all things." Pete informed them. "You can and will do gymnastics, play volleyball or any other sports your school offers for young girls."

"And this includes all of you. There will be no tattoos, no piercing nor any other currently fashionable body modification. There will be no deviation from this rule. I would not trust a doctor who disrespected his own body or needed group approval. I would not hire a lawyer with a nose ring. I don't think you would want to be examined by a gynecologist with fading full sleeve tattoos." He grinned, "And besides, you're too beautiful to look at without sunglasses. I will not allow you to mutilate that beauty."

The girls agreed, partly because it made sense and partly because Pete said that was the way it would be.

"Lisa, may I tell them your story?" she sobbed a little but nodded 'OK'. Pete explained, "Lisa's dad disappeared some years ago. Now, her mom is in an advanced stage of early onset Alzheimer's. The other girls gasped and leapt to embrace Lisa, who was openly bawling her eyes out.

"Why didn't you tell us, Lisa?" Mary asked. Kim and Cam echoed.

"It wouldn't change a thing. So why make you worry, too? One weekend a month and several times a week a visiting nurse comes and gives me a break. I got lucky and could stay for the sleepover. But tomorrow the real world returns."

"And when her mom has to go into a fulltime care facility, Lisa will loose the income support from her mother's insurance plan, which she needs to keep the apartment. She will lose her mom and probably be homeless in one stroke. Living on the streets or getting into a bad situation is not a choice." Pete stated firmly. "That will not happen on my watch."

"I plan to have the papers prepared in advance so when Mrs. Giacomo is lucid, she can designate Allison as guardian. I will send Allison with Lisa and rush a notary over as soon as the caregivers say the word. Her mom will be comforted knowing her daughter is as safe as we can make her and Lisa moves in here." Pete recited.

Lisa added, "There's more, Mr. O'Neal suggested and I agree that I should get Mom moved into the facility immediately. The move might delay the inevitable a little, and I can start closing out Mom's apartment. Unpleasant tasks are best done quickly."

Pete said, "OK. Tomorrow morning Allison will call the school and explain Lisa's situation to the administration. She and Lisa will go to Lisa's home and check on her mom. Lisa will call the agency to get ready to move her mom as quickly as possible. Rather than me sending a notary, ask that they send theirs with the nurse. They always have someone on staff to deal with such things. Their notary does not have to know who Allison is. They just have to certify that Mrs. Giacomo signed the form. We'll get the guardianship issue solved immediately. If the agency gets curious, ask them to call your school and speak to whoever Allison spoke to when she explained your absence."

"This brings us to the most important thing, Kim and Cam are here, Mary is here and soon Lisa will be here because Allison is, for the moment, legally defined as Mary's natural mother. No one outside of this house except for their mom, and she isn't telling for reasons of her own, knows that Allison and Mary are sisters."

'No one ever can have reason for looking too deeply into Allison and Mary. She is thirty-one and is Mary's mom. OK? In fact don't mention it either way outside these walls."

Total agreement, again. In addition, they agreed to a near total ban on phone cams and computer cams. None of the girls wanted to be the naked girl walking in the background and wind up on the Internet. "Not cool to be accused of trafficking in child porn, either," Kim said, "if the shot comes from your computer."

Pete realized that all five girls had been naked from before he came home from his stroll. It was time to lighten the mood. "Girls, I am pleased to see you all in uniform, can you imagine what the reaction would have been if we had used a video phone?"

"Granny Reynolds might not have been shocked at all. She knows us. She would have loved the jewelry." Kim and Cam giggled.

Mary said, "My mom would have been scandalized to see her daughter naked, but since she's here naked, too, I won't pay any attention to her." Even Mary couldn't keep from laughing. "Or maybe I'll play with her tits."

Allison clutched her breast, moaning, "The kids today, where did they learn such behavior? Where will it all end? Oh my stars and garters!"

"Goody! Garters. I think you would look hot as hell wearing black seamed hose and a garter with nothing else except a ladybug on your nipple. That image is serious pin-up material. I get moist thinking about it." Kim squealed.

"Seriously. I feel a major shopping trip coming on. We'll have a formal dinner and that can be the after six cocktail style." Cam giggled. "Do you have a tuxedo, Mr. O'Neal?"

"Of course." Pete said, "We'll have the formal dinner next weekend at Lake Champlain."

After a chorus of whats, whens and whys, he got the wows, yippees and tell-us-nows. "I booked a cottage on an isolated arm of the lake, fully furnished, private pier, kayaks, the works. No neighbors and a village ten miles away. There is a laundry room and a kitchen. We leave next Friday afternoon and get back nine days later. It's my Spring Break present to you."

He was mobbed instantly. "Girls, lets take this to the rec room. The couch is way more comfortable. We'll split a bottle of white wine and toast our new arrangement." They cleared the table, saving the important notes generated in the hours they planned and plotted. Pete hoped the glass of wine would be the catalyst that sent them to bed.

This had been a long and stressful day. Even he was tired and he was the one with a plan. The girls had been on an emotional yo-yo all day. He suspected them to slip into the arms of Morpheus minutes after they relaxed.

He was right. Allison and the teenagers crowded onto the sofa. In the kitchen, Pete picked a nice Riesling Spatlese and put six wine glasses on a serving tray. The wine was forgotten and went back in the rack after he took one look in the rec room. There had been a Massive Morpheus Massacre. He gently untangled their arms and legs so they could rest in relative comfort and left five little exhausted girls to sleep the day off.

Pete dropped away as soon as his head hit the pillow, too. For the first time in years, he dreamed, dreams that he could remember anyway. Anime/Manga characters raced around what could have been his brownstone, a school, a forest or an odd combination of his old college buildings. Allison/Ladybug, Mary/Butterfly, Lisa/Dragon Fly, Kim/Spider and Cam/Scarab, switching from shy to brazen to submissive to embarrassed to afraid to nonchalant and back again, in random combinations. Live action and animated, innocent to hardcore, this was a strange one.

He woke up at 7:00AM sharp to a quiet house. His bathroom routine was a little slower than usual perhaps because he was still wondering about the cartoon dreams. In any case, by the time he got dressed, his head was in extremely serious business mode. Now he had to get the girls mobile and confident.

In the living room, the girls were barely stirring, "Time to get moving! Why are you still in bed? Get showered, put on your war paint and I will be up in twenty minutes to tell you what to wear today. Now, scoot." He ordered. "We're burning daylight and there is a boat load that must happen. You will not disappoint me." They jumped to the words and fled to the stairs.

Pete threw some French toast together and brewed coffee while they showered. He went to the hallway/dorm and lined the five naked girls up. After removing their nipple jewelry, he walked in a circle around the girls, speaking, "You will dress conservatively. Skirts or dresses to the knee. Proper blouses. No cleavage. Wear school or office appropriate shoes. Be pretty, not overtly sexy."

"Next. You will be going up against people who are used to telling others what to do. Today, you will do the telling. Lisa, do not ask if the agent will notarize the document. Tell them to do it. Allison, back her up. Do not allow them to gain control. This is your best chance to escape the foster care system. Take it."

"Cam and Kim. At the bank, if you have to, put yourself in a role playing game. Even though you and Grace are dealing with an account manager, make sure they know that they work for the customer, not the other way around. Tell them what they will do for you. Once the papers are signed, you ask them to walk the documents through the process of activating the account while you wait. Tell them that expediting the process due to the deadlines forced by the near tragedy would alleviate the stress on the family, especially since your parents are halfway around the world. If an extra fee is involved, accept and pay it."

"I don't mean to be cynical, but you actually are in a bad way, but you are telling them to do the right thing. You give them the chance to help a customer in a real way. Even a hard ass should get a good feeling helping two kids out of a jam."

He gave the girls a few seconds to absorb the instructions. "Mary, you have a role to play. Get the missed assignments for your new sisters. Say you've come to get the assignments, don't ask if you can get them. Ask for the time any missed tests will be made up. Not if they may be made up. Sometimes, a ball buster will refuse make up tests. Take out your phone, call me, telling the teacher you have to call Miss Whoever's representative and tell them that she must accept a failing grade despite the tragic nature of the circumstances. Remember Lisa is loosing her mother to late stage Alzheimer's. The twins are facing displacement and the severe injuries to their great aunt."

"You have forced the teacher to publicly admit their ass-holery in the face of tragedy to someone higher in the food chain. They will probably back off and allow the test. Thank them for their sympathetic understanding and how much it will mean to Miss Whoever. They can save face. If you think the teacher might be pissed at being out maneuvered by a sixteen year old girl, mention to your guidance counselor before you come home that the teacher may be putting a target on you. A good counselor will cover your back."

The girls were nodding in understanding. "Sir, you do know how to play the game."

"Allison, reality is seldom a game. We are playing with real stakes, not Monopoly money. We are sending sixteen year old girls up against professionals who are likely to bristle at taking instruction instead of giving it. Egos might try to delay in order only to demonstrate control, if not actually to punish your challenge. That is their illusion. If you hit a stonewall, call me."

"I am playing the role of your 'representative from the O'Neal Group'. They will infer a law firm. You will never say that exactly, though that is precisely what you are implying. Explain to me the situation and put them on the phone. I will come down on them like a load of bricks."

"Damn, boss, you play hardball. I'm glad you're on our team." Kim grinned.

"Like I said yesterday, nobody fucks with my girls but me. No exceptions, ever." He mock glared, "Now, put on the war paint and hit the road!"

To cut to the chase, the day went remarkably well, given the gravity and urgency. At Lisa's house Mrs. Giacomo was aware enough to sign when the home care nurse arrived. The nurse was a notary and was glad to inject a bit of good in what was normally a lot of bad. Lisa's mom would be moved to the facility within hours and Allison was her new legal guardian. They even had time to pack some more school clothes to move to Pete's, today.

Mary, at school, had no trouble at all. The teachers were sympathetic and helpful, without fail. Mary was glad she didn't have to get serious and involve Pete. She decided that he was good to his girls; happy she was one of them. But he could be very bad if you pissed him off.

The banking went as predicted, but a bit smoother. The account manager was a supercilious jerk. He resisted the immediate activation, claiming that a credit check took at least a week. Grace told him that was silly. She was co-signer and that she had banked there for years. The vice president of the bank heard Grace's polite but firm objection and stepped in to ask about the problem. Grace explained the issues before the bozo could speak.

The vice president had been in the foster care system herself. She dismissed the jerk, escorted Grace and the twins into her office and did the whole transaction on her computer, which had pathways through the red tape jungle others didn't. She was thorough but skipped no steps. She even called down the super powers and the girls had real debit cards before lunch. Cam complimented the woman, "That is what I call customer service with an afterburner. Thank you so much. You have made a difficult episode less scary." Kim immediately echoed the gratitude.