Chapter 4

Cassandra and Andrea chatted as we wended our way out of the airport, and into traffic, freeing me to go back to contemplating my circumstances.

I knew who I was ... Carl Fleming, fourteen years old ... again. I was still an orphan, but things were looking up.

It was ... It was nineteen-eighty-one, the year I became an orphan ... the last – first - time. When I was, was apparently 'adopted' by a wealthy socialite in Dallas, because my magic essence might save her life, along with her two daughters and both granddaughters.

The universe, brutal as it was, used me as its errand boy, but generously allowed me to retain my memories ... at least those from before I was orphaned the first time, and after I was moved into Brian's body. Those in between were nebulous at best. Memories of my marriage to Judith and life between the times were drifting away like a morning mist. One second I had a picture of some person, event, or thing, the next second it was a vague shadow in my mind, tempting me to believe it never happened.

In the here and now, Andrea was staring at me as if she was waiting for my reply to something. I shifted, blushed, and said, "I'm sorry. Did you ask me something?"

Andrea gave me a look that was somewhere between exasperation and hope. She was sick and knew it. Somehow the universe sent me back here because of these five women. Andrea knew deep down in her soul that I was her last chance. I don't know why I knew that. I just did. We both knew it.

"I said, 'Have you ever been to Dallas before?" Her smile was not quite patient, but more indulgent than anything else. This was a woman I would have to work to keep up with.

"I've never been anywhere. My father was a police officer, and when he was killed in the line of duty, it was all my mother could do to keep a roof over our heads. The farthest I've ever been was that awful, ugly, stinking orphanage, about fifty miles from home." It wasn't my intention to sound petulant, but I knew that was how it came out. "Forgive me for sounding so childish. I didn't mean that as edgy as it sounded."

Andrea was prepared to forgive me much more than that, and her look proved it. She gave me her version of the megawatt smile, and laughed. Cassandra looked hurt and leaped to my defense. "Mother! Carl is here to help us the least you could do is not make fun of him."

She looked serious, but was having a very tough time keeping the smile off of her face.

Something in her tone must have given Andrea some ammunition to work with, because she jumped at the opportunity to take it up with her daughter. "Cassandra, you spend one day with Carl - well, one day with him conscious – and you threaten to turn him into a mama's boy. Let him speak for himself." Her smile was just a tad bit wicked, and my wicked thoughts about what was under her panties must have matched hers, because she winked just so subtly, to let me know she caught me thinking evil thoughts about her body.

They went back to sparring, as only a mother and daughter who get along can do, and I was left to contemplate my new life, the surroundings of wealth thrust upon me, and the undercurrent of sexual tension that connected the three of us. That got me thinking about the other three women in my new life.

Thinking was all I was doing until I bolted up in my seat and shouted, "Driver Stop The Car! Stop the Car!!!"

Before Cassandra, or Andrea could respond, I was out the door, running full speed across the many lanes of the LBJ Expressway. Cars horns were honking, tires were screeching, and imprecations that would make a sailor blush were hurled at me as I hopped the railing separating the northbound lanes from the southbound ones.

Out in traffic, clearly injured and scared out of his mind, was a collie that looked remarkably like Benjamin. He had Ben's size, color, and shape, and I wondered if I was being reunited with my buddy. This one had been left to fend for himself, judging by the evidence of malnutrition, and lack of bathing, He was terrified, and somehow caught trying to safely reach the thicket on the far side, where he no doubt had a safe bed amongst the thorns and trash.

I caught up to him and fearing he'd bolt back into traffic, I spoke as softly and gently as possible. He hesitated but allowed me to wrap my arms around him, pick him up, and carry him to the far side, where we sat to wait for Andrea's car to turn around and catch up. Her bodyguard was able to navigate the lanes and joined me while I waited. He refrained from asking what I was doing, but just stood beside us, letting me have my space with the new puppy.

I rehearsed a speech for Andrea, giving her my ultimatum. 'Both of us, or neither, take your pick, ' but never got a chance to deliver it. The Mercedes limo glided to a stop beside us and Cassandra was out in a flash, brushing aside the driver, and hugging me like I had just escaped certain death.

This guy was going to be my dog. He was scared, hurting, starving, and homeless. His fur was matted with everything from dirt to brambles, and his left ear was tangled in a mass of what looked like barbed wire. Very carefully I untied the wire, removed the barbs, and rubbed his ears, all the time talking to him in gentle tones. He seemed to accept my help without complaint, but I was careful lest he decided to bite or scratch, especially if I inadvertently touched him somewhere painful.

Cassandra held on while I ministered to my new friend. "I'm going to call you Benjamin," I decided on the spot. "We'll be best friends. I've been left alone, too, so we have that in common. Don't you worry, my little man. I will stick with you through thick and thin, and you'll see it is all going to be fine."

I felt Cassandra squeeze my arm and remembered that I was somewhat at their mercy, here. Rather than debate this, I simply took a stand, my first one back in my 'real' body. "I'm keeping him," I said gently but with some force. "He's me in a furry body. Someone simply tossed him out like yesterday's trash. He's coming with me." My eyes communicated my intention, and Cassandra might have objected right up until she saw the look I was giving her.

She slowly rubbed the back of Benjamin's head and said, "Then let's get him to a veterinarian before he dies of starvation and dehydration." It was decided that fast. Even before Andrea got a chance to put her stamp on things, I found I could assert myself - at least a little - without having to do battle.

I picked up Benjamin very slowly, letting him adjust to what I was doing, and gently carried him to the Mercedes, where I held him on my lap, talking soothingly all the time. Andrea looked stunned, but resigned, and when the car started to move, she tapped on the partition, and said, "Let's take this dog to Doctor Ingersol for a checkup on the way home." The car accelerated and we were on our way.

The little fellow seemed terrified, but willing to accept help. That was a good place to start. Cassandra and Andrea watched me like I was a lab specimen, as I calmed, comforted, and cuddled my new dog. Their confusion seemed to become admiration when Benjamin lifted his head, placed it deliberately in my hand, and pressed in against my chest. "Someone knows a good thing when he sees it," Andrea quipped. She turned to Cassandra and said, "Carl lost everyone he loved and that loved him. It makes perfect sense that he would find and adopt a puppy in the same situation.

"Yep. I believe that dog is just as needful of you as we are, Carl. You've been in Texas a few minutes and already have a family and a best friend. I'd say that was pretty fast work." Cassandra ran her fingers through my hair in a gesture so intimate, Andrea picked up on it immediately and gave me a frank and appraising stare. I wisely chose to remain silent and let them think whatever they chose to think.

Cassandra put any question about our relationship to rest when she announced, "Carl took me to the moon last night, Mother. He is an amazing lover, and even sick, I felt things I didn't know were possible."

What the heck? I felt like a newly acquired prize calf from the farmer's co-op, on display for the whole ranch.

Andrea saw my expression and laughed! "Carl you will have to adjust to our straightforward approach to things, or spend the rest of your life blushing like you are now."

I chose silence to cover my embarrassment, and it worked. Both women left me alone to bond with my puppy. He was so much like Benjamin, but he was not MY Benjamin. In either case he was my current Benjamin now, and that was good enough for me.

The limo took us to a veterinarian office where Andrea was treated like a visiting queen, and as fast as the doctor found out that I had been recently adopted into the family, he lavished praise on everything from my haircut to my shoes. Clearly Andrea spent serious money with this butt kisser.

While Benjamin was fussed over by his staff, we got to know each other a little better. "Carl," Andrea smiled like a cannibal to her dinner. "Who are you? Where do you come from? What do you like to eat, play, do, or read? How did you wind up getting blown up in an orphanage, and how are you feeling now?"

I smiled at her forthright and predatory manner. "Well ... thanks to a robber's bullet eight years ago and breast cancer this spring, I became an orphan. My mother worked night and day after my father got killed, until she was too sick from breast cancer. We lived in a nothing little town in Iowa, and the sadistic bitch at children's services moved me just so I couldn't meet or speak with anyone I ever knew or loved. It was, 'all for my own good, ' she said.

"I love baseball, bicycle riding, airplanes, boats, and all kinds of vehicles, just like almost every boy, and I love to read with a passion. My favorite kinds of food start with pizza, and include almost all Italian food, fried chicken, along with the basic food groups, like chocolate cake, pie, banana pudding, and more pizza. I've eaten plenty of other types of food, but we were really poor after my father was killed, and our diet stayed pretty bland.

"The orphanage was a hell hole, and because I was new and 'sturdy, ' the worthless witch sentenced me to floor scrubbing, garbage collection and removal, and hard labor in the yard and basement. I think that because I was working alone in the kitchen when the gas lines exploded, I was the only one blown out into the yard. I was not conscious at the time, and am relying on gossip and overheard conversations for that information. If you're a penniless orphan no one thinks they need to consult you much, if ever, about anything." Just reciting the bare facts about that stinking orphanage depressed me, and I needed to change the subject.