Double Twist
Chapter 188
“Odd how the daily imperatives persist even in the face of collective disaster.”
—Dan Simmons, Hyperion
THERE WAS A SUBTLE CHANGE in school Tuesday. Things seemed to be off a little. Physics was still boring. Ms. Pixler was still cool and handed back my monologue without a comment. I memorized more Latin words. I sat in the back of the orchestra room with my viola da gamba between my knees and played my part. I met my girlfriends for lunch. Brittany and Cindy cuddled next to me at the table as we ate and Beca told them of our time in DC. I learned how to compute a fixed declining depreciated balance versus a double declining depreciated balance in Excel and when to use each. Might be useful sometime. And I listened to Mr. Richards lecture about the role of the Supreme Court in recasting constitutional interpretation of law in the light of a changing society.
Cindy and I worked on the program we’d record in a week for our patrons after school and spent a little time kissing instead of practicing. She ran out to meet her brother after basketball practice to get a lift home. I sat in the practice room and continued to play my guitar trying to figure out what was different. I couldn’t put my finger on it.
“Hey, love,” I said when Em answered her phone. “I’m not going to be home right away, so don’t wait dinner for me if you guys are ready to sit down and eat.”
“What’s up, J?”
“I think I’m going to go visit Mom and Dad for a while. You know, just get a nice parental hug and try to ground myself,” I said.
“I had dinner with them last night,” Em said. “You know, they miss having us at home.”
“Yeah. I miss seeing them every day. Things have been a little crazy with the travel and everything. I’ll see you all in a little while. ’K?”
“Be a good son, little brother. I love you.”
I fired up the truck and drove the familiar route to our neighborhood. The new house was progressing. It looked almost like a normal house in the neighborhood. The siding had been installed before snow came and the crews could work inside on all the finishing things. When they worked. It still seemed like they were taking their sweet time. It had been nine months and my parents were still renting Nan’s house. No one seemed in a hurry to get the new house finished and moved into.
Mom’s car was in Nan’s garage and Dad’s van was parked in the drive. I parked on the street and approached the house, a little uncertain if I should knock or just open the door and call out to them. I finally chose the latter and went in through the open garage.
“Mom? Dad? I thought I’d stop by for a bit. You here?”
“Jakey! Come into the kitchen. We’re just getting dinner ready.” We?
I went into the kitchen and found Mom and Dad both working at dinner prep. Onions were frying on the stove. That always made the house smell comfortable—like there would be good food on the table soon. Dad had his sleeves up and was washing lettuce in the sink. And Pey was sitting at the kitchen table doing her home… I shook my head. It was a little girl, but definitely not Peyton. Stupid ass. Do you think your sister rose from the dead to have dinner with Mom and Dad?
“Hello, son,” Dad said, turning to give me a one-armed hug. “Uh… This is Minh Than. Minh this is our son, Jacob.” The little girl stood next to the table and bowed to me.
“Ja-cob,” she said carefully.
“It’s nice to meet you, Minh,” I answered. Disorientation was sweeping around me. I steadied myself with my hand on the back of a chair. “Dad?”
“Son, the school called and asked if we could help out a little. Minh’s parents were in an accident and can’t take care of their children. There are four of them and CPS couldn’t find a single family to take them all. Since it is temporary, we agreed to shelter Minh for a while. She got here yesterday,” Dad said.
“You didn’t just adopt her?”
“No, but how could we let a child suffer when we have room and could help?” Mom said. “We get together with her siblings after school every day so they don’t feel isolated from each other. I’m sure when the Thans recover from their accident, the family will all be reunited.”
“It was a shock but I’m glad you are helping out,” I said.
“We’re not trying to replace your sister, son,” Dad whispered. “We could never.”
“I know, Dad. I’m sorry.” I gave him another hug and then went to sit opposite Minh and glanced at her homework. “I just got back from DC last night. I needed to come home for a while and get my head on straight.”
“What’s bothering you, son?” Dad asked. He slid into the seat next to Minh and she pointed her homework paper toward him. “What’s this number, Minh?” he asked.
“Seven?”
“You need to make sure the teacher can read the number clearly.” He took her pencil and drew the number on a scrap of paper. Minh bit her lip and copied the number. Dad nodded. It was sweet.
“Um… Things seemed off today. I don’t know how to explain it. It’s like, all of a sudden, I don’t belong there. You know? The classes are the same as they were last week but I’m thinking they’re really pointless.”
“What did you do in DC?”
“Well… I proposed to Rachel, Livy, and Desi, I guess. But we’ve been talking about that for weeks. We’d have done it while we were all together on tour but we just weren’t able to get the rings together. You’ve got the first weekend of April on your calendar, don’t you?”
“Yes, of course we do!” Mom said. “I’m not going to miss both my son’s and my daughter’s wedding. We have our plane reservations already.”
“That’s wonderful, Mom.” I hesitated for a minute. “Beca and I spent some time meeting with the new Director of the OCS and with their deputation team management. They want us to up the number of programs we’re doing before we join the service. It’s almost like we’re already part of the service and school and everything else is secondary now.”
“That would explain why things felt off in school,” Dad said. “You’ve already checked out. Are you sure you don’t want to enlist now and not wait?”
“You mean drop out?” I stopped to think about it. No, that didn’t make sense. “No. They don’t want me until Cindy can join and she can’t do that until she’s seventeen.”
“Are Betty and Mark going to agree?”
“They agreed to let her join the partnership,” I said. I didn’t explain that a person given permission to join a plural domestic partnership was automatically granted emancipation. If she wanted to join the service after that, it was her decision. I was sure Mark knew and probably Betty, too, but they might not have put all the pieces together.
“So, what is really different now?” Dad asked.
“I don’t know. I guess that even the teachers know I’m only there because I can’t start with the National School yet, like Desi did. You should see her, Mom. She’s really blossoming there already.”
“Desiree would thrive in that environment. I think she made the right decision. You know Riko and Riley have one of the Than children, too?”
“I had no idea,” I said.
“Mmmhmm. When the emergency came up this weekend, the school called the parents of your pod. There’s a little girl living in Rachel’s room and a boy is rooming with Donnie Dayton.”
“You mean, the school just called our parents? How insane is that?”
“You might not be famous, yet, but the school administration knows all about you. And they know we’ve all been supportive and are helping. I guess they figured we were the kind of people who would pitch in.”
“We really changed everyone, didn’t we?” I breathed.
“Oh, I wouldn’t say you changed who we are,” Dad said. “You just got us to a place where we could be who we are.”
27 January 2022
I’ve sort of figured out my problem. I mean, it’s not really that much of a problem, just this uncomfortable feeling I have at school. Thanks again to my girlfriends’ coaching. What would I do without them? They were all over for Wednesday night study group, so there were eight of us. We Skyped the others. And when we quit studying and talking, no one went home. Everybody stayed the night. I don’t think Beca plans to go home except to visit now. Brittany and Sophie have started to move things over. Cindy packs a bigger bag now and leaves everything in the closet. I think we’re moving in together.
And that’s part of what the school deal is. We’ve all been close since we were freshmen, but I glance down at the simple ring I’m wearing and realize I’ve committed my life to these girls. And they are wearing their rings with the same pride I am. We’re getting married. People can see the difference.
The other part is that we all have careers planned. A lot of our classmates are drifting. They haven’t selected a college for pre-enrollment. They haven’t really thought about a career or anything else. They see the next two years as relieving them of responsibility so they don’t need to make any decisions. ‘Senioritis’ as the teachers refer to it has already kicked in and we have four more months of school to go. There are a lot of parties and it looks like they last all weekend.
And here we are, planning our service, moving in together, dividing the workload, rehearsing our parts, and already having an impact on our world. I wonder how things would have been different if I’d just chosen to phone it all in and be a party hound. I’ve a feeling I wouldn’t have the girlfriends I have. Or probably any.
Sitting through classes on conjugation of Latin verbs while I’m planning a local tour of high schools with Cindy to play in assemblies, or mentally looking through house listings in DC, just puts a different perspective on life and the routine of school. Our whole world is about to change and we’ve started the process already.
How are we going to last four months of paying attention to mundane things when we have such extraordinary things on the horizon?
I ran a shuttle service on Saturday. Beca cleaned out her room and we loaded everything she owned into the back of the truck to take to the farm. Jamie wasn’t overjoyed to have Beca move out but she ran to the truck when we were getting ready to leave and hugged Beca, giving her a little package of keepsakes she’d put together. We asked her to come to the farm for lunch tomorrow.
“I could have taken more time and moved out slowly,” Beca sighed. “I just want to be with my family. I’ll visit Mom regularly, but I belong at the farm.”
“Beca, we’re moving in together,” I sighed. It was a dream.
“Yeah. Mom never expected me to run off to live with my boyfriend while I was still in high school. Or ever. Emily and I are setting up to share a bedroom as our base. God knows when we’ll both be in it at the same time.”
When we got to the house, Donna and Nanette were directing traffic. Em started carting Beca’s boxes up to their room. I stopped for a long kiss with my girlfriends before I went to get another box. Donna melted into my arms and I petted her like I hadn’t held her in a month. I found my hand up under her shirt, caressing her bare breast and rubbing her nipple as we let our tongues play together.
“You don’t have to stick to your assigned room,” Donna said. “You can crawl into bed with me any time. If we don’t want Sophie with us, we’ll send her to your room.”
“When I’m making love to you, it doesn’t make a difference who else is in the room. They can leave, watch, or join in. Just knowing I’ll be joined with you occupies all my mind.”
“If you don’t go bring another box in, we’ll be joined now. Right here on the kitchen counter.”
Oh, yeah!
Sophie drove her car, following Brittany and me from the Adams house to the farm. Under the guise of Sophie moving to the farm, we were also moving over half of Brittany’s things. I don’t think we were fooling either John or Lupe. Certainly not Grandma. It was only eleven in the morning and John was already standing at the door with a mojito and a cigar, watching us. He’d probably have given us a lecture before we left, but Lupe screeched in the next room and we could see Luke and Lisa in the dining room jump apart with his hand still tangled under her shirt. Brittany, Sophie, and I called out our ‘goodbye’ as Grandma went to keep the parents from killing their daughter and her boyfriend.
“Well, I’m going to start spending more nights with you, lover,” Brittany said. “I figure that instead of just Saturday night and Wednesday night, I’ll stay at the farm Friday, Saturday, and Sunday nights plus Wednesday. Then it will only be a three-night shock when we get married in April.” We all understood that having a plural domestic partnership wasn’t exactly the same as marriage, but we’d begun referring to our ceremony coming up in Boston as our wedding and all getting married to each other. There was still a debate going on in Indiana as to whether they were required to recognize pods under the marriage equality act. At least they weren’t trying to prosecute for polygamy or anything.
“So, you’re moving in with me,” I said. “I love you, Brittany.”
“Well, I’m moving closer. Let’s say it’s easy access. Nan and I will share a bedroom when we’re not hopping in and out of our lovers’ beds. Sophie’s moving in with Donna, though with that bed, we’re all welcome.”
“Hmm. You and Nan. Beca and Em. Donna and Sophie. I get a room to myself. Hope you make it a regular stop,” I said, stroking her thigh.
“Hah!” she snorted. “A room to yourself? Where do you think Cindy’s going to sleep?”
Oh, yeah.
Cindy’s house was a different matter entirely. No one else was home when I got there.
“What’s up, Piper? Where is everyone,” I asked.
“Basketball. Keith is playing at Tipton and Mom and Dad both went. Luke snuck out to go to his girlfriends’ house. I’m here because they all know we’re recording this afternoon.”
“Wow. I don’t think I’ve ever been in your house when Betty or your brothers or Mark or all of them weren’t here. It should make it easier to pack what you want to bring to the farm,” I said as I followed her to her room. That was a new experience, too. My range in the house had always been limited to the living areas and practice room. I’d never been back to the bedrooms.
“Makes it a lot more convenient for this,” Cindy said as she led me into her room. She turned to me and stripped off her shirt before kissing me. “Get undressed. I want to make love to you in my bedroom in my bed.” She pushed her jeans and panties down her legs before falling to her knees and sucking on my cock. I wasn’t wasting any time, but just wasn’t fast enough for her. She was ramping up fast and I soon found myself flat on my back in her princess bed with a lace canopy.
Cindy was straddling my waist and stroking my cock through her juices as she whined and moaned. I filled my hands with her tender young tiddies and marveled at Miss Marvel. She sank down onto me and immediately started pumping herself up and down on my cock as her moans got louder and louder. Cindy, my little music partner, was so soft-spoken we often had to strain to hear what she said. But in the throes of sexual ecstasy, she opened her mouth and her lungs. Watching her lose herself in the moment was something I’d never get tired of. And this time was even more dramatic. She kept getting louder and louder as she bounced straight up and down on my cock and I stroked her nipples. Then her arms shot up in the air like she was claiming the victory in a footrace and she screamed out an orgasm louder than any of the vociferous climaxes I’d heard from her. Just seeing her cross the finish line brought me with her and I finished a close second.
Oh, yeah!
“We’re home,” Donna said as we sat at dinner. She held out her left hand with its shining ring. We all did the same. “We won’t be married for two more months yet, but we all know that is just a formality. We are a family and we are home.”
“We aren’t all here,” Beca picked up. “But Rachel, Livy, Desi, and Joan know this is their home now. They are here with us in spirit.”
“We aren’t sure about Remas,” I said. “She’s never lived in Indiana. It’s a foreign country to her and as much as she loves us, she isn’t sure this is her home. But we’ll continue to love her and always welcome her.”
“I love you,” we all chorused.
Clearing the dishes from the table was accompanied by us clearing the clothing from our bodies and all ending up in a naked pile on the sofa. Eight out of twelve or thirteen of us petted, kissed, and fucked for an hour. I wasn’t positive if it had been Em or Nanette that I finally came in. I know all of us had experienced our release. We began to untangle ourselves from the sated knot.
“Two of us need to dress so we can appear on camera and record for our patrons,” I moaned.
“We could do it in the morning,” Cindy sighed. She kissed Beca again.
“No,” Sophie said. “I’m sure that after tonight you will be too tired to perform in the morning. You’d better do the recording now and then we can see how many more orgasms we can coax from between your legs.”
“Oh, God! I love my wives!” Cindy exclaimed.
We managed to dress and get our hair brushed smooth. Donna had a nice fire going and we set up our instruments next to it. We were playing Sonatina Op. 205 by Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco from music. I made a few comments about our concert and recording schedule after the tour in December. Then Cindy and I started the twelve-minute performance before our enrapt audience of naked girlfriends.
Once we’d finished recording and verified that we had a take that was usable, we set our instruments aside and rejoined the nude lovefest that went long into the night.
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