Chapter 72

By unspoken agreement we all slept late on New Year's Eve. Because of the change in our circumstances, we would all be moving out before evening. Mr. and Mrs. Bell, along with the Thorsons, would be flown to an undisclosed airfield and transferred by helicopter to the boat. Colleen, Rebecca, and I would be taking a US Government G-5 to Gothenburg, Sweden, where Doctor Abrams and a large staff did his cutting edge research.

It was four thousand six hundred and fifty four nautical miles from Branson to Gothenburg. At roughly five hundred and thirty miles per hour, non-stop, it was going to be almost a nine hour flight. If we left Branson at around six PM and added seven hours for the time change, we would arrive in Gothenburg at roughly ten-thirty AM, Sweden time. No matter how you cut it, the jet lag was going to be a killer.

Rebecca was up tight all day. She packed, unpacked, and repacked for at least two hours. When I suggested we leave the bulk of our things here and shop for whatever we needed in Sweden, Rebecca sighed loudly, and then she and Colleen threw their things together in about fifteen minutes,

Rebecca finally decided she was willing to let me buy her a new wardrobe and had the hotel put our bags in her trunk, and deliver the car to her house. The bags would be there when we got back, provided the mob didn't firebomb it out of spite.

The hotel catered lunch for all of us. Mille and Sandra arrived well before Mr. Bell and the Judge. They seemed as nervous as Rebecca, so to break the tension, I played a game of tag with them.

We were sitting in the living room, awaiting our two missing men, and I looked at Sandra and said, "TAG! You're it."

She gave me a very puzzled look, and I said, "Sandra, the game is Tag. You're it, which means we each get to ask you a question and you have to answer it. When you've satisfactorily answered, you get to pick someone and Tag them.

So TAG. You're it! When and how did you meet your husband?"

She warmed to our game almost instantly, as did Rebecca, Millie, and Colleen. Nothing like getting the dirt on your girlfriends to lighten the mood. "Thomas was a rich boy in our neighborhood. He had a new car, money in his pocket, and was leaving Branson to go to pre-law at Michigan, then on to law school at Yale after graduation. His life was all planned and settled by his father. Thomas, Senior was an iron-fisted son of a bitch. He treated Thomas like a slave. Thomas was controlled in every way, except his love life.

"We met at a high school sock hop. In those days, Brian, we would go to the high school gym, on Friday night, take off our shoes, and dance in our sock feet until eleven o'clock, which is when the band quit and went home.

"My idiot of a sister dragged me to the dance so she could meet boys. Charlene never met a pair of pants she didn't fall in love with. One week she was in love with Jeffrey Shaddock, a piece of trash from way on the wrong side of the tracks. Daddy wanted to kill that boy from the first time he came by the house asking for a date. Charlene just wanted to thumb her nose at Daddy.

"That Friday night Charlene and Jeffrey got so busy kissing, they got thrown out and left me with no way home. My best friends were Millie, and Carolyn Anderson. Carolyn was dating a boy from Springfield, and he came down for the dance. When I asked if they could give me a ride home, they wanted to know if it was Ok to go with them for burgers and ice cream first.

"I thought that was a wonderful idea, and THEN discovered Carolyn's cousin, Thomas Clyde Thorson was coming with us. He was actually Thomas the Fourth, but for some reason, his father, who LOVED to refer himself as Thomas, Senior, always referred to him as Junior. It was probably another way to keep his boy under his thumb. Why Carolyn got stuck transporting Thomas, I never knew, but before we finished that milk shake, we were in love.

"Thomas' father like to split a gut when he found out that Thomas, Junior had a girlfriend that daddy hadn't picked out personally. He tried everything imaginable to break us up, which made us all the more determined to make it work.

"Thomas proposed to me in the back seat of Cousin Carolyn's Buick, on a Friday night, after a home football game. I got so excited about that little diamond sliding onto my finger, that I let Thomas slide my panties off my hips and make me pregnant, right there. I was seventeen, dumb as a stone, and so damned in love, I never considered anything but welcoming my husband-to-be between my thighs.

"Don't look so shocked. You have NO idea how many of our classmates got married quickly so the girl wouldn't be showing at the wedding.

"When I realized we'd made a mistake, I told my father, who had a very quiet talk with Thomas' grandfather, who had an even quieter talk with Thomas' father, who got so mad he had a slight heart attack and never fully recovered.

"My Daddy walked me down the aisle, and Thomas met me in front of the altar, where he exchanged my little diamond for a rock."

She sighed, thinking about her girlhood. "Thomas Senior died that winter. Thomas finished pre-law and came home to Missouri for law school, and the rest, as they say, is history." Her eyes glittered as she finished her tale.

There was a short silence, and then Sandra whacked me on the arm and shouted, "TAG. You're it. "When and to whom did you lose your virginity?"

Seriously? I guess she had me by the short hairs, so I had to answer. "Sandra, I lost my memory when we were hit by the vegetable truck. I have no earthly idea where and to whom I lost my virginity, just like I have no idea what my grandparent names were. Now that our cabin was bombed, I have no address book or family photo albums to refer to.

"For all intents and purposes, I was born at fourteen years old, in a Mercury, on Interstate forty-four in Springfield, last May."

Sandra looked stricken and started to apologize, but Colleen cut her off. "Brian is fine with his memory issues. He just feels funny when he gets backed into a corner and has to admit he doesn't know.

"Sandra, that's why he had Daddy get him tested out of high school. Can you imagine how he would have been bullied? He was bald, badly damaged, sick, weak and had no memories. The bullies would have beaten him to death before fourth period."

Colleen looked at Rebecca, "TAG. You're it. Who gave you your first climax?" That was dirty pool. Rebecca was going to burn her when it was her turn.

"OOOhhh. You are so mean. I will get you for that ... Let's see." I could see Rebecca go away in her head, remember something she wasn't going to share, then decide what to tell us. "I was thirteen. My first boyfriend was all hands. He was constantly trying to feel me up, and when I gave him a chance, did a terrible job of it.

"Finally I sent him on his way and had a nice movie date with Bucky Janister. He was also thirteen and had a swimming pool in his backyard. Mom let me go over there for afternoon swims, and one day we ended up alone in the pool. Bucky put his hand inside the bottoms of my swimsuit.

"That was always when I put a stop to things, but that afternoon it felt so good, I let him feel around for a long time. We were sitting on the pool steps, so we were out of the water, except for our feet, and Bucky accidentally hit my magic button. I went off like Fourth of July fireworks. My climax scared poor Bucky so bad; he partially wet himself and jumped back in the water, hoping I hadn't seen.

"I could have cared less, because what I had just experienced was beyond anything I had ever imagined, and I wanted more!

"Eventually, I managed to coax Bucky out of the water and got his hand back where it would do the most good. He was a good student. I taught him to finger a girl that afternoon, and he brought me to climax four times before I got too sore and made him quit.

"It was quite wonderful," she said, wistfully. From the look on their faces, Millie, Sandra, and Colleen were also recalling their first orgasms. I was pretty sure I had four women with very wet panties on my hands, and I couldn't wait to hear what Colleen had to say.

It didn't take long, because Rebecca looked at her best friend and said, "TAG, you're it. Where and with whom did you lose your cherry?"

Colleen took a deep breath and almost refused, so I knew it was going to be good. She shifted around, trying to find a comfortable position from which to bare her soul. Giving up on finding comfort, she decided on forthrightness. "I was desperately in love with my first cousin, James. He was such a hunk, and for months I dreamed of doing it with him. We had all those dirty magazines in those days, and I had read enough Penthouse Forums to know the basics, even if I had no idea what it all could be like.

"James wouldn't give me the time of day, and I got the bright idea that if he saw me making out with his best friend, Matt, he would come to his senses and make a woman out of me.

"Bad idea. Matt was a hit and run specialist. I wanted to kiss. He wanted me kissing his penis. A blowjob was not on the menu, and we ended up fighting. I mean fighting, like hitting each other. James pulled Matt off of me and sent him on his way, then helped me get my blouse back together, and held me while I cried.