Chapter 11

Back in David's room, I fired up the laptop and sent each member of my family a message.

To Colleen I sent my love, my joy at being reconnected, and my hopes for a future that included us.

For Rebecca I sent a cheerful note, explaining how much happiness it brought me to hug, kiss, and laugh with her, today.

Mr. Bell needed facts, so I shared the conversation with Carol, about Tim Sanderson's behavior, and told him about Jill's terrible fears. I asked him if he would give it some thought, and maybe he could arrange a prison stay somewhere far, far away.

To Millie I wrote about my heart. How she had replaced Beth Ann as my go to girl, for advice, consultation about life, and how just looking at her makes me smile.

I burned an hour of the night writing to people I would see in a few hours. It was worth it. After sending all the notes off, I closed down the laptop and immediately fell into a troubled sleep.

I had horrible dreams of death, hate, and hell that lasted an eternity. Dreams rarely remain clear in my mind. These stood out, in stark relief, against the background of my world.

When I awoke, I could see from the clock that the girls were gone to school and work. It was time to see my family. I hopped up, showered, and was gone in mere minutes, forgetting about the dreams.

Sanford Suites was just where I left it, and my key worked in the door. The first thing I noticed was breakfast. It was waiting for me, along with two very sexy women, in the living room of the suite. Rebecca in red lingerie, and Colleen in green, bracketed our morning meal like beautiful bookends. I had my own set of Christmas-girl bookends.

It took a very long time to kiss each other good morning. If it took any longer, we would no longer be having breakfast, but lunch. Before I asked, Colleen said, "Mother and Daddy are sleeping in, and Daddy has work to do, in the other suite. We're alone for a couple of hours, if you can think of anything we might do to pass the time..." Her giggle had me instantly thinking of all sorts of other thing we could be doing, other than standing in the vestibule.

... and we did most of them for the next two hours.

"Ahhh ... yep. You're Brian," Colleen said breathlessly. We were drenched with sweat, hot, and sticky, having enjoyed our short, but intense reunion. "I like this new body, baby." Gripping me she measured my new length and said, "You're so much more ... Grown Up! I like it."

Rebecca exhaled and said dreamily, "You haven't lost any of your special abilities, changing bodies. My goodness, I can testify that you are definitely you, because your tongue knows all the things the other one knew. We may be walking gingerly for a while, but I really like the way you made me feel. I especially like not worrying about getting too excited and killing you.

"Colleen, we need to tell Jim and Millie why we are so convinced that this is Brian. They'll be so comforted when we share how thoroughly we've investigated."

Colleen smiled and shot back, "I think my mother might like to hear the details more than Daddy, though," she giggled again. It was a most un-Colleen-like sound.

Getting my breath back I said to my darlings, "You have no idea how much I've missed you.

When I regained consciousness, I swear I heard someone say, 'Brian – if you can hear me, squeeze my hand, ' but as soon as I opened my eyes everyone called me David. "It scared me half to death. Then I was crushed thinking I'd lost you two, forever. As I thought it through, I knew I had to try ... anything – everything – to get back to you - to all of you!

"Thanks for coming and seeing for yourselves. The other thing I was scared of was you dismissing me without a thought, and living the rest of this life without the people I loved."

With Rebecca and Colleen lying on either side of me, we decided to, 'Take a Talk.' Our conversation was all over the place, until Rebecca gave me her version of, 'The Look, ' and asked, "If I ask you a really personal question, will you please, promise to tell the whole, unvarnished, truth?"

"My dear," I said, gently. "I promise to think about you question, and give you an appropriate answer. Let that be our starting place."

She didn't buy it, but continued, anyway. "You have no discernable taste in women, Brian. You look at me as if I am the most beautiful woman you've ever seen, then turn around, and I see you looking at Colleen as if she's the first woman you've ever seen. I know about Beth Ann, and Maggie, Sandra, and Sherrie, and I know there was the woman the trust is helping in Indiana, and quite frankly, none of us look the slightest bit alike.

"What is your type?"

She would have further questioned me but Colleen jumped into the conversation. "So, you're admitting an affair with Beth Ann? We KNEW it. We Knew it."

She never got the chance to gloat. "Rebecca - Colleen. You are two of the sexiest women I have ever met, but you never stop trying to test me. There is no way I will answer that question. It makes no difference how many times you ask, I wouldn't violate that type of privacy, any more than I would tell some guy on the street about the birth mark on Colleen's furry friend.

"But, to answer your question, I find every one of you amazing, and attractive, and sexy, and warm, and so totally unique, I find myself drawn to all of you. But, here's the thing, I LOVE you two. The others are wonderful women, but not the loves of my life. I mean think about it, all three of us are drawn to Maggie, but none of us is in LOVE with her" That seemed to more than satisfy them.

Rebecca and Colleen weren't done with the Q & A. "Since you won't talk about anyone we know, how about this, when did you lose your virginity? What were the circumstances, and how was it?" Rebecca perked up when she heard Colleen's question. I now had two very interested ladies.

I thought back to my life as Carl and laughed. They were going to LOVE this. If they paid attention they were going to discover my memory starting to come back.

"It was last year I was fourteen. She was a much older woman – neighbor lady – who had a strong, self-sufficient air about her that did not invite familiarity.

"It was summer vacation, and school had been out about two weeks. I was working out in the back yard, taking out a couple of dead and dying trees that were becoming an eyesore. I would dig deep around the tree, and uncover as many roots as I could, then take an ax and chop through them. It weakened the trees enough that, eventually, they just fell over, and I could use our small chain saw, and cut them into lengths I could carry.

"It was SOOOO hot. No one was home but me, and I had my shirt off, sweating like a pig. Mrs. Koslowski was working in her own yard, and hollered over to see if I wanted to take a break and share a pitcher of lemonade.

Mrs. Koslowski was older. Her kids were grown and gone, I discovered, later, that she was fifty-two that summer. She was blond and fair skinned. Her posture was erect, and she had fierceness about her that kept people away.

"I was so grateful for a cold drink that I forgot to put on my shirt. We sat in the shade and sipped lemonade for long time, just visiting about nothing. At one point she commented on my sunburned shoulders and face. 'You are going to be bright red tonight, if you don't put some sun screen on before you go back out in the sun, ' she said, and ran into her house, returning with a tub of Coppertone.

"Her hands felt cool and soft, as she rubbed it on my chest and back. I kind of drifted off, enjoying her touch and realized she had stopped rubbing and was staring down my torso. When I glanced to see what she was looking at, I saw my shorts had gapped at my waist, and she could straight down and see my erection.

"I was pretty shy but none of the other kids were, and when we went skinny dipping the guys used to make fun of my for being bigger than them. They told their sisters, and pretty soon all the kids our age in the neighborhood would snicker and say something stupid when I was around.

"Mrs. Koslowski obviously liked what she saw, because she slid her hand right into my shorts and played with me for few seconds, then took her hand away and pulled me to my feet. Never letting go of my hand, she led me inside her home and into the bathroom, where she undressed me, and then stripped right before my eyes.