Follow Focus
43
The Family
WITHOUT REALLY TELLING Xian what I was doing, I led her to the guest room. Oh, I slept with her. We made love. I made sure she had everything she needed in the bathroom. But I felt that the huge double-double bed in the master bedroom would be intimidating with just the two of us. I really wanted our first night in that bed to be with all my wives. I hoped I wasn’t dreaming.
I woke in the morning to the ringing of the phone at four o’clock.
“You’re there! Oh, I’m so glad you are home,” Anna shouted. “Oh, I love you and I miss you and I can’t wait to be in your arms. And that goes for six of us!”
“Six?”
“Didn’t you get the message that Adrienne is with us, too? We’re all just getting ready to board our flight to Detroit. We couldn’t get a non-stop to Toronto. We’ll be arriving at 1:20 Detroit time.”
“Okay, got it. We’ll meet you there. We can fit everyone in the Suburban.”
“We?”
“Yes. I have a dependent I signed for in Saigon. She is with me.”
“So, there will be eight of us? Okay. We can all fit. We shipped most things. Did they arrive?”
“I’m not sure. I just got in last night and didn’t check thoroughly to see if Melinda received anything. I’ll check, but it’s only four in the morning here.”
“Oops! I’ll let you get another couple of hours of sleep before you have to leave for Detroit.”
“I love you, Anna.”
“That goes for all six of us here, Nate. We love you like crazy!”
“I’m so glad. I miss you.”
“They’ve called us to board. Gotta go now, love.”
“See you soon.”
I’d spoken to at least one of my wives. I’d have them all in my arms in a matter of hours. Was I a coward not to have told them I was married? I didn’t think so. I simply thought it would be better to be face to face and not on a rushed international phone call.
Going back to sleep was a non-starter. I made coffee and sat at the kitchen table. Thinking.
I woke Xian at eight. We had a three-hour-plus drive to get to the airport. Of course, I wanted to be there early for their 1:20 flight. But first, I fed her and went to the studio again to check for boxes. In fact, one corner of the studio was stacked with boxes from Oman. That was good. Our things had arrived.
Xian and I returned by the route we had driven the previous evening, and were at the airport by noon. I rented an airport trolley to wait for their luggage and then Xian and I headed for customs.
And waited.
Yes, the plane landed on-time at 1:22, but then it was ten minutes to the gate and longer yet to get the jetway attached. Then people had to go through border control and clear their luggage through customs. It was faster for my family as they all showed black US passports and were waved through.
And then I saw them.
Toni, of course, came running to me and I caught the little girl up in my arms and swung her around before the rest of the family caught up. My family! My family was home. I kissed each of my wives and Adrienne. I had Toni in one arm and Alex in the other. And I was crying so hard I couldn’t see them. I had my family in my arms.
“I never ever want to be parted from you again,” I sobbed. “Never!”
“I’ll drink to that!” Toni exclaimed.
“As we all will, sweetie. Introduce us, Nate,” Ronda said.
“My wives, this is Xian,” I said, pulling Xian forward.
“You can call me China if it is easier,” she quickly said.
Ronda smiled at her and quickly hugged the girl.
“Unless you prefer us to call you China, I assure you we can all learn to pronounce your name. It’s Sh-yen?”
“Yes. Thank you… um… Ronda.”
“You are adorable! We have to hear all the story,” Anna said, hugging Xian.
“Um…” Xian was cut off by Patricia’s hug and then Adrienne’s. They were impressed that she knew everyone’s name.
“Family, let’s move aside so we aren’t blocking the exit,” I said. “There’s something very important I need to tell you.”
We moved aside and other tearful reunions filled the gap we vacated.
“What is it, Nate? You sound really serious,” Anna said.
“I am. Xian is not just my dependent. She’s my wife.”
There was a collective gasp.
“What?” Patricia practically screamed. “Wife?”
“Sweetheart, please listen. We were trying to get as many people as possible out of Vietnam before the collapse. The way we managed it was to create an affidavit of support, indicating that there was a sponsor who would be responsible for their transportation, integration into society, and livelihood. Xian had been my assistant all month and would have been imprisoned or possibly even executed if she’d been left behind. So, I signed an affidavit of support to bring her along.”
“And married her?” Patricia insisted.
“No. That was not the intent. When we got to the ship, we continued to work as fast as we could to get more people out. We got over a hundred thousand people evacuated.”
“Not by marrying them,” Patricia insisted.
“No. Honey, please. We had to appear before the ambassador. He said the affidavit of support was only for immediate relatives and we couldn’t use it for an assistant. Then he asked if I’d support her and asked her if she agreed, then said he pronounced us man and wife and had us sign the certificate.”
“And you just signed it?” Patricia demanded.
“Yes. He told us there was no other way he would approve her immigration. What was I supposed to do? Leave her?” I asked.
I was addressing everything to Patricia because it was obvious, she was the most struck by what I’d done. We’d had a child together. I adopted her first child. I was pleading with her. She shook her head a little and Anna stepped in.
“So, is this like a marriage of convenience and once she’s settled, you get a divorce?”
“It could have been, I suppose.”
“Have you slept with…?” Ronda started, then snorted. “Why am I asking? Of course you have. How could you not? I’d have slept with her.”
“Please, Mrs. Wives. Please, Miss Mistress,” Xian said. “Nate could have left me in Saigon. He could have refused the marriage forced on us by the ambassador. He could have rejected me from his bed. He could have left me in Chicago. It would have broken my heart, but I would have understood. I knew about all of you and I promised I would never allow our relationship to come between you and him. If it has, you can leave me here in Detroit and… and…”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” Anna said. “This is a shock to us, but we aren’t throwing anyone away. Right, Patricia?”
Patricia nodded and cast her eyes down.
“We all need to get our crap in the car and go home,” Ronda said. “We have emotions boiling to the surface that none of us are prepared to deal with. We simply need to breathe and rejoice in being back together.”
“I agree,” Adrienne said, surprising us all. She hadn’t said anything since she arrived. “I think everyone should remember that if anyone needs to be punished for what has happened, it is not the innocent. It is me.”
“Oh, my sweet Fifi. In this you are innocent. I will bear my own punishment.”
“Daddy,” Toni said, with her fingers in my hair, as we turned to roll the trolley toward the parking lot. “Why your hair a different color?”
“What, honey? What do you mean?”
“It’s all white.”
“Oh, my God!” Patricia exclaimed. “Oh, Nate, I’m so sorry I snapped. It must have been terrible! Your temples are all gray! I was so wrapped up in my own feelings that I didn’t even notice.”
“I guess I haven’t really looked in a mirror,” I said. “Does Daddy look old, honey?”
“Pretty, Daddy. Dance?”
With my two daughters in my arms, I spun and jogged and two-stepped all the way to the car. Toni and Alex kept petting the tears away from my face. My arms ached with holding the two girls, but I wouldn’t let them go.
I don’t know how we figured out how to divide things up. I know the luggage got stowed in the back, I rode in the last seat with the little girls. Ronda took charge of Xian and rode with her in the second seat. Fifi drove with Patricia and Anna beside her.
I guess it was a way to keep my wives from pummeling me with questions while we were in the confines of the car for four hours. We stopped for dinner in London. Anna and Patricia wrapped arms around me as Ronda held Xian’s hand. Our dear pet, Aunt Addi, took care of the children.
“I can feel your ribs. You’ve lost weight, too,” Patricia said. “Nate, it’s like you’ve been gone years. Are you the same husband we know and love?”
“I hope so, precious. You still mean more to me than the world. I’ve been so lost without you. I’m never going back on the road again. I quit the State Department. Turned in my passport, camera, badge, and everything.”
“Will you be okay, love?” Anna asked.
“I don’t know, Anna. Being okay means having and loving my family. Being with you. Have I destroyed what we had? If so, I’ll never be okay. I couldn’t find you. I called the embassy. I sent a telex to the office. No one knew where you were. Robert and Joanne went to the house and found it empty. I was desperate. And they were bombing the airport. We could feel each impact, even when we were in the air and all huddled together, praying we’d make it out alive. People were falling. I tried to help people. I just wanted to get everyone out. I just wanted to come home.”
“We’ll adjust,” Patricia said. She was crying on one side of me and Anna on the other side. “We just need a little time to get back together.”
“I love you so much. I love you,” I repeated.
Somehow, we managed to pull ourselves together enough to eat and not make a spectacle of ourselves. Positions changed when we left for the last leg home. Fifi sat with the girls playing a French word game. Anna drove. I sat in the middle with Ronda next to me. Patricia sat in the second seat with Xian.
“All we managed to take on the helicopter with us was what we were wearing and the stupid embassy passport camera,” I said just loudly enough for Anna and Ronda to hear me. “A woman… the ambassador’s secretary… fell a few feet from the helicopter. I gave Xian the trolley with the equipment so I could pick up the secretary. The poor girl couldn’t handle everything and she ditched our suitcase so she could pull the trolley on. Then Bruce almost didn’t make it and I had to pull him into the helicopter before the ramp was closed on him.”
“It sounds heroic,” Ronda said.
“It was desperate,” I answered. “It was all we could do.”
“I panicked,” Anna said. “When we found out Ronda was sick, I grabbed her crew and ordered them to take us to London. I didn’t trust anyone in Muscat. All we could get was a nurse who said she thought it was meningitis and gave her aspirin. I should have at least coordinated things better. Not having a phone in the house… I just carried her to the airplane and sat with her head in my lap the whole way. I kept thinking that at least in London, I could speak the same language and understand what the doctors were telling me. I was so afraid I’d lost her.”
“You took care of me, sweetheart. You got me the help I needed. I can’t thank you enough,” Ronda said. “Poor Patricia. We abandoned her. Left her with the kids in a foreign country with no phone and no transportation. It was brilliant that she thought of Adrienne. I’m not sure Adrienne even used an airplane getting to Oman. She might have beamed across. She was there so fast and brought Patricia and the girls to us in London.”
“By the time they got there, I managed to reach Jane and Peter. As soon as Ronda was out of the hospital and the rest of the family was there, they took us all to Plympford and just babied all of us until Ronda regained her strength. Of course, with Peter and Derek and James all there, the girls were in heaven.”
“I couldn’t figure out why no one from the office had contacted me,” Ronda picked up. “The news from Vietnam was totally disastrous. The pictures. I finally got through to Josie and she said she’d received a telex that you were safe on board a ship. So, we told her we’d head for Stratford and she should have you go there as soon as you could arrange a flight.”
“I didn’t get any of those messages until I walked into the office Thursday morning. By then, I was so frantic I wasn’t thinking straight. Mr. Martin didn’t come in until three, so Josie told me to go get a haircut and we bought some clothes. Funny I never noticed the gray.”
“You’re very distinguished-looking,” Anna said, lifting a hand from the steering wheel to pet the side of my head.
“But way too thin. Did you eat at all while you were there?”
“I confess, I don’t remember a single meal. The cantina was really just a glorified snack bar. They served some kind of egg with rice and hot dog chunks for breakfast, I remember. Xian would bring me a sandwich for lunch or dinner. It wasn’t bad at first. We had time to sit by the pool at night and drink a beer. But after the first weekend, the pace picked up because the ambassador was sick, so I started going into the office in the middle of the night to validate passports and get them back to the agents.”
“How’d you manage to validate passports?” Ronda asked. “Steal the embassy seal?”
“The last thing Mr. Martin did before we left Manila was give me a State Department seal and tell me the Secretary of State wanted to get as many people as possible out of Vietnam. I didn’t tell anyone I had it and probably misused it grossly, but it came in handy. We printed around a hundred thousand Affidavits of Support and I applied the seal to every one of them. My hand and arm are still so weak I was worried about picking up the girls. I’ll probably have Popeye forearms.”
“A hundred thousand?” Anna asked. “How many people evacuated? All we saw or heard about was people being picked up off the roof of some hotel.”
“We started with three or four thousand babies,” I said. “They called it Operation Babylift and we got out all the orphans and mixed-race babies we could find. But then we got word that American citizens could bring their spouses and immediate families. I think Immigration and Customs was thinking children. But the immediate family in Vietnam includes in-laws and even cousins. The downside was that we couldn’t get all of them visas. We couldn’t even process the applications that fast. So, they got affidavits that basically said their sponsor would support them, provide for them, and furnish their transportation.”
“And that’s what you signed for Xian?” Ronda said.
“Yeah. If I had put down that she was my daughter rather than that she was my assistant, I doubt there would have been any questions asked. A nun claimed a thousand children as hers and they all got out.”
“The number, Nate. How many people got out?”
“By the twenty-fourth, we shipped out 27,000, give or take. In the next six days, another 30,000. 7,500 were lifted out in Operation Frequent Winds during the last eighteen hours. When we got out to the ships, we took on 60,000 more refugees who came in every kind of boat they could find.”
“A hundred… a hundred and twenty thousand?” Ronda exclaimed loudly enough that everyone in the car looked up. “That’s insane! I can’t imagine even seeing that many applications in a month.”
“Once we were on ship, we continued to produce visas until we ran out of materials. And the shipboard printshop printed another fifty thousand or so affidavits. When we reached Manila, our supplies were replenished and we were joined by the crews we trained at the embassy there. I turned over my equipment and functioned solely in validating the visas. Xian helped by being able to cross check what was written in Vietnamese. We didn’t get to leave Manila until Wednesday night, then flew home via Tokyo. Got in Thursday morning and went straight to the office.”
“It’s a miracle we all managed to find each other again,” Anna said. “We should count each relationship in this car as a part of God’s gift to us.”
I’m surprised we managed to get to bed that night at all. It was awkward. Adrienne called the hotel and I took her over there. I kissed that girl long and hard when we got to her room, but it didn’t go any further than that. She gave me a gentle push toward the door.
“You need to be with your family. I will be here when you’ve worked things out.”
“You can’t even imagine what you mean to me,” I said. “To all of us. Thank you for coming to Patricia’s rescue.”
“We’ll talk about it later,” she said. She kissed me again and I went back home.
I wasn’t sure what I’d find when I got back home, but the four wives were sitting at the kitchen table, drinking tea. The girls were fast asleep in their room and I popped in to give them a little kiss on the head. There were times the past couple of weeks when I didn’t know if I’d ever see them again and I wiped tears out of my eyes again.
I felt arms wrap around my waist and Patricia hugged me tightly.
“I was mad at you long before you brought Xian home,” she whispered. “I’m sorry. I couldn’t believe that you’d gone off to Vietnam where Tony… I was so afraid I would lose you, too.”
“I had to, Patricia. I just didn’t have any choice. If I thought I could have saved people and refused… I wouldn’t have been able to live with myself.”
“You wouldn’t have been you. The you we love so much and prayed for every single day. Toni taught Alex to pray for Daddy before they went to bed at night. They prayed for you again tonight. And thanked God for bringing you home. I thanked God, too.”
“Mr. Martin once said that he didn’t think I was afraid to die. That part didn’t bother me. But the thought that I might never see you and the girls again haunted me the entire time I was gone.”
“When you told us you brought a dependent, we all thought you’d adopted another child. Seeing a beautiful young woman beside you at the airport was such a shock. And then you said she was your wife.” Tears were streaming from Patricia’s eyes as she hugged herself to my chest. “I always thought… It was silly… But I always imagined that one day we’d find a way that I could be your wife. That it wouldn’t just be shared custody of our children, but that we would be a regular family.”
“But…”
“Don’t ask me how. I always thought Ronda and Anna would still be with us and we’d all be married together. I didn’t think it would be such a shock to see another woman—any other woman—married to you. I didn’t think that slip of paper meant that much to me, but I still cherish the certificate your mom signed when she married Tony and me. I should have known.”
“Patricia, do you doubt that I love you as much as I always have?” I asked.
“Oh, Nate, I don’t doubt that you love me far more than you always have. I just have so much to understand. To put my head around. Come, my love. I’m not the only one who needs to have you near.”
Xian had started to go to the guest room, but Anna and Ronda stopped her.
“Xian, I understand if being with us makes you uncomfortable because you still hardly know us,” Anna said. “But we are all wives and we all want to be with our husband. If it is too hard to see any one of us with the man you married, one of us will come with you. But we would like you to come to our family bed. Be one of us.”
Anna gave her a hug and Xian returned it willingly.
“Anna and Ronda and Patricia, I knew about you before we were married. I knew how much Nate loved you—you were all he talked about—and I knew that no matter what kind of relationship Nate and I might have, you are his wives,” Xian said. “The ambassador gave us very poor vows. It was all about whether Nate would provide transportation and support for me and if I’d live within his means. But before we went to bed that night, I recited words I’d always imagined saying at my wedding. I said, ‘Entreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee: for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God: and thy wives shall be my wives.’ I added that last part, but I meant every word.”
“That’s beautiful. Nate, do you think Reverend Mother Superior would do a wedding for all of us with those vows?” Anna asked.
“I’ll ask, but please understand if she says she can’t do it. It’s a church thing, you know.”
“You captured the most important thing, though, Xian. We are committed. Not just to Nate, but to each other. Please forgive me for sounding bitchy when we were introduced. It will take us all a little time to get used to each other and become a real family again. But we’ll do it. I promise before God and my husband and wives, we will do it,” Patricia said.
“Amen,” Ronda, Anna, and I all chimed in.
“Now, let’s all go get in bed and cuddle with each other. I need the contact with my husband and wives,” Ronda said.
“Um… Tell us if you are uncomfortable with our nudity,” Anna said. “We kind of just forget about clothes when we’re together.”
“I’m going to get used to it,” Xian laughed. “Until a few days ago, no one had ever seen me naked. I found, though, that I kind of liked it. I am just going to be embarrassed to bits. Just like I was the first time.”
We headed for bed and the girls made a game of each one choosing another to take an article of clothing from. Once we all had one thing off, then it was easier to take the next item off.
“This is so cute!” Ronda said, looking at Xian’s yem.
“It is traditional underwear for Vietnamese women. Bras are not all that popular, though I wore them all the time in the embassy compound. It was considered proper.”
“It’s like having a camisole,” Patricia said. “I think it would be much easier for a boy to get under than a bra. Nate, did you slide your hands under her little yem?”
“We just got those Thursday in Chicago. Found them at Marshall Field.”
“The… um… first time Nate um… touched me with his hands, I was only wearing a big T-shirt. It surprised me. I didn’t know couples undressed and touched each other all over when they made love,” Xian stammered.
“You were a virgin?” Anna asked.
“Yes. I had never kissed anyone or ever been undressed with anyone. And then when we got to the ship, they just put us in the same cabin. We’d been wearing the same clothes for three days straight. Or was it four? I couldn’t stand my bra any longer and just took it off. Then I was so frightened I ran and got in bed, but I got in bed beside him instead of in the upper bunk.”
“This was before you were married?” Anna asked.
“Yes. But Nate was so considerate. He held me, but he did not attempt to touch me or make me have sex with him. We didn’t do that until we were married,” Xian said. By this time, we were all naked and trying to figure out positions on the bed.
“Superhuman strength,” Ronda said. “I would not have been able to resist. You are so beautiful. What kind of makeup routine do you use?”
“I have never used makeup,” Xian said.
“You’ve got to be kidding! Even Patricia uses makeup and she’s perfect,” Anna said. “I hate to say you’re a living doll because that sounds so racist, but how can you be this beautiful?”
“Please. I am just me,” Xian said.
“Honey, please forgive your sister wives,” I said. “They get enthused about something and just can’t help themselves. You should ask about their first time meeting Adrienne.”
“Now, she’s beautiful!” Xian said.
By this time, we were all naked in bed, but I wasn’t sure there would be much sex going on. In fact, it almost felt like we were having a slumber party. Stories began to circulate, among which were stories of the studio and how the models and staff had all begun to feel nudity in the studio was safe and accepted. From there they started talking about the reputation that I could make a model come without touching her.
“Does it happen to everyone like that?” Xian asked. “I didn’t know.”
“Like what, sweetie?” Ronda asked.
“That you get excited and start to pant and can’t breathe and then you get so overwhelmed that you pass out? I had no idea that would happen and it frightened me at first. I thought I’d done something bad!”
“Thank you, Nate. I’d have been so disappointed if Xian hadn’t had an earthshaking orgasm the first time you made love,” Anna said.
“You know I always try to take care of my lovers,” I said.
“Yes, we do, honey,” Ronda said. “Xian, you might have different degrees of orgasm ranging from ‘Oh, gee. That was nice,’ to feeling like you were just hit by a train and you lost your ability to speak. Sometimes we forget how much variety there is in sex, even among the four of us. We get into a routine of knowing the specific thing that turns our partner on and going straight for it. It will be such fun to be on a journey of discovery again, instead of a freeway to orgasm.”
“I knew nothing about making love to a man and still know very little. We’ve only um… done it a few times,” Xian said. “But I still know nothing about women. I never thought of a woman sexually before. I’m not unwilling. But please be gentle with me. When I first saw Nate, I was certain it would hurt to have him inside me. He was kind and gentle. I didn’t even realize we were connected at first until he moved.”
“We don’t need to rush things,” Patricia said. “I wonder, though, if anyone would mind if I tried to make up my bitchiness to my husband with his penis in my vagina.”
Patricia didn’t really wait for anyone’s approval. She straddled me and it didn’t take long with her rubbing on me for us both to be sufficiently aroused to connect. I started off worried about Xian’s reaction, but Anna and Ronda had her sandwiched between them and just kept talking and giggling. I lost myself in Patricia’s eyes and her body. Before long we were both reaching a peak. She might not have passed out, but she moaned so long and so loud I thought the children would wake up.
* * *
When I woke up in the morning, Patricia and Anna were tight against one side of me and Xian and Ronda were tight against the other side. I predicted that we would need very little in the way of blankets in the future. Just the sheet over the top of us was enough to hold our body heat in, even though the temperature overnight in Stratford was only around fifty degrees.
I pulled myself out of the pile and used the toilet, then went to the kitchen to make coffee. Anna was next out. She came to my arms and we kissed deeply in the kitchen. Having her naked in my arms and kissing got us both kind of charged up, but we needed to get food for little girls going. Alex and Toni ambled out of the bathroom and came to us for hugs.
Toni was getting big, but I still picked her up and spun her around a little before setting her on her chair at the table. At two years old, Alex was a bundle of energy and wanted down after too short a hug and dance. She climbed up the side of the highchair and settled herself in the seat, ready for food.
I saw Xian in the doorway and stepped over to give her a hug and kiss. What a delight!
“Is it okay to be in the kitchen without dressing?” she asked.
“Oh, definitely,” I said. “We’ll dress before we go downstairs to the studio.”
Anna turned from the stove and handed me the spatula for fixing the girls’ eggs. She, in turn, pulled Xian to her for a hug and kissed the girl lightly on the lips.
“Welcome home, Xian,” Anna whispered.
“I have never been where there was so much love, Anna,” she said. “Thank you for welcoming me.”
“We’ll spend some time just walking and talking today. We each want time with you, and I know you must want a little loving time with Nate, like the rest of us do,” Anna said. “There will be time for all of us. Now have a seat. Do you drink coffee?”
“I was raised in the embassy. Tea was available, but coffee was the standard drink of everyone. I’ve had coffee since I was twelve. May I have some milk in it?”
“Of course. Alex, the eggs are hot. Blow on them,” I said, putting her little bowl of scrambled eggs on her highchair tray. I’m not sure if she blew on them or spit on them, but I guess they cooled off okay. “It’s a family special, Xian. Scrambled eggs with rosemary. And I have strips of bacon ready.”
Ronda and Patricia finally emerged from the bedroom with an arm wrapped around each other. They gave us each kisses, and then headed for the bathroom and a shower. Together.
I did get time with each of my wives Sunday. We weren’t focused on sex, though there was a lot of rubbing and playing. I did slip into Xian before we dressed to go to the studio. The store was closed, so we all pitched in to clean. The new dust filters I’d installed for the darkroom the previous summer certainly helped keep it clean over the winter, but the room still needed a thorough cleaning and scrubbing.
“Did you take any pictures while you were gone?” Anna asked.
“I have a couple of rolls of transparencies I’ll take down to Dave tomorrow morning,” I said. “All the rest of the photos I took were black and white and turned in to the State Department. I only had the one camera with me. Most of the transparencies are pictures of Xian. There’s a little of the ship and the refugee boats. Maybe a few of the embassy courtyard.”
“I won’t mind seeing pictures of Xian. Do you think we’re rushing her?” Anna asked.
“I don’t think so. She has a lot to adapt to. We’re going to need to make trips back to Chicago and to see all the families, you know. I didn’t even take time for her to fill out an application for a Social Security card. She’s trying to fit in. All I can ask of you is to let her.”
“I have something to ask of you, since we’re here in the darkroom and there is no timer set for processing.”
Anna locked the darkroom door and turned out the light. Then we kissed, and kissing led to other stuff. We unlocked the door about fifteen minutes later.
“Nate, we’ve found all your camera equipment now,” Patricia said. She’d been working on unpacking boxes shipped from Oman. “You know, you scarcely touched your bigger cameras the whole time we were in Muscat. Your Nikon is here, too. Ronda had it on the plane when she got back from the Philippines. We packed it as carefully as we could.”
“You did a wonderful job, Patricia. Thank you. I should go over all the equipment a piece at a time and clean it. I’ll check for any wear and tear. I need to do that before we do any studio customers. I’m not ready to work with other people yet anyway.”
“You know, you can take my picture. Do you still want pictures of me?”
“You know I do, love. Why don’t I take a couple right now? I’ll test out the Hasselblad.”
“When I was rushing around trying to leave Oman, the hardest thing I had to do was pack your cameras,” she said. She stripped her clothes off and I spent a minute just appreciating her beautiful shape.
“I think you lost some weight, too,” I said. “The whole family seems a little thinner.”
“When Anna took Ronda to London to the hospital, and I was alone with the girls, I couldn’t even face getting into bed. I just stayed up and packed until Adrienne got there. I was a wreck. When I slept it was just in the rocking chair in the girls’ room. And handling your clothes and your cameras made me think I might never see you again. Tariq and Ayesha were very kind and tried to get me to eat, but mostly I just drank coffee and handled everyone’s clothes and possessions. I wouldn’t have made it without Adrienne’s help.”
“I’m so glad you thought to call her. And I’m so sorry you had to face all that alone. Here, let’s have you hold a nice feather duster since it’s cleaning day.”
I pulled the Hasselblad out of its case and loaded it with black and white film. Then I held it and turned toward Patricia to focus. I couldn’t do it.
“Damn it! I need to put it on a tripod and use the cable release,” I said.
“What is it, Nate? What’s wrong?”
“I… I’ve had bouts of trembling in my hands and arms for the past two or three weeks. It’s usually okay, but my right arm, especially, seems weak.”
“What happened?”
“I think it was all the times I used that State Department seal to crimp all the affidavits and passports. My whole forearm, wrist, and hand still hurt. I tried to switch back and forth between left and right. We tried to crimp multiple pages at a time, but not only did that require even more strength, the seal was almost unreadable if I did more than two pages at a time. On passports and visas, I was supposed to crimp the last page of the booklet. But when we ran out of filler pages and just had the info page in the cover, I had to crimp through the cover and page as well.”
“You said they evacuated 120,000 people. You had to crimp every one of their documents?”
“Not every one, but probably 100,000.”
“Couldn’t someone else have helped? Xian?”
“Paranoia. I had verbal instructions from the Secretary of State by way of Mr. Martin to get as many people out as possible. I don’t know how legal any of it was. I didn’t want to risk anyone else being accused of breaking the law. I thought that was what the ambassador was going to accuse me of when we met on shipboard. Instead, he pulled the trick of marrying Xian and me.”
“Still, 100,000 repetitions of squeezing the stamp handle. No wonder you are still sore and shaky. Adrienne knows all kinds of different massage techniques. She’ll work on your arms and hands.”
“Has she come to the studio today? I haven’t seen her.”
“You were busy in the darkroom with Anna. Adrienne took the girls to the ranch for riding,” Patricia laughed.
“Is Alex riding?”
“She started at Plympford. Peter and Adrienne worked with Alex and James. Jane worked with Toni. We had to do something to keep the kids entertained while Ronda was regaining her strength.”
“I need to reward our Fifi.”
“You’ll have the opportunity tonight.”
“What’s tonight?”
“Your wives and children are having a slumber party. No boys allowed. You’ll have to stay at the hotel with Fifi.”
“Oh, no. How terrible,” I mocked. Well, a night with my mistress was not an unpleasant thought.
I was not certain how Xian would take to the idea of me having a mistress. The whole family having a mistress. She was being remarkably open to the idea that I had four wives. I credit that all to her age. When we were in our teens, we’d all been far more open to all kinds of sexual liaisons. These three wives of mine had actively participated in getting all our classmates out of their clothes and convincing them that I could talk them into orgasms. But that had been seven years ago. Now, the four of us were all twenty-five years old. Xian was only nineteen. On the other hand, Adrienne was thirty-two now, and I wondered how she dealt with her ‘masters’ being seven years younger than she was.
I let myself in to Adrienne’s hotel room and found her kneeling naked on the floor in front of the door. It almost broke my heart. I just wasn’t prepared to deal with a slave. I’d just tried to save thousands of people from prison, torture, and death. How could I even contemplate dominating my Fifi?
I fell to my knees just inside the door and began crying.
Crying was becoming awfully easy for me. It seemed anything could set me off. It wasn’t weeping and wailing. It’s just that when I saw the love in the eyes of my wives, my children, my mistress, my eyes just started leaking tears. I’d woken up once in the middle of the night, sniffling and feeling the tears running from my eyes. When I’d set up my camera in the afternoon, the pain in my arms and hands started the tears again—as had making love to Anna, to Patricia, and to Xian. Now, seeing Adrienne so submissive in front of me, I couldn’t control them again.
“My master. My sweet and gentle master. Let Fifi take care of you,” she said, rushing to me.
She helped me undress and ran a bath. The suite in the hotel had a large whirlpool tub and Adrienne sank into the hot water with me as I simply lay back against her.
“I’m not a very good master, I’m afraid, my Fifi. I came here to reward you for protecting our family, for caring for our children, and for acting decisively when your calm assurance was needed. And here, I can hardly lift my arms to hold you and my eyes keep leaking tears.”
“You have endured so much,” she said.
“Have I? I was a month in Saigon trying to get passports and visas executed while people were running all over collecting the refugees to leave. I didn’t wade through jungle swamps, getting shot at or bombed. I was there for twenty-seven days, not a year or two years. I had hot food, not rations from a tin. The hardest thing I had to do was operate a government stamp to seal affidavits. And for that effort, I ended up with a wife. What have I endured that should cause me such pain?”
I guess sometimes, no response is the best response. Adrienne simply bathed me. She washed my hair. She rinsed my body. She dried me on one of the hotel’s fluffy towels. And then she led me to the bedroom and massaged my entire body, paying special attention to my arms and hands.
She ordered room service and fed me, then she took me to bed and held me through the night.
Sometime in the middle of the night, she roused me enough to make love to her and treated me like a fragile kitten. I didn’t deserve her. I didn’t deserve four beautiful and wonderful wives. I didn’t deserve my children. My daughter’s father had given his life in the Vietnam I scarcely touched down in. How was I worthy to be her daddy?
On Monday morning, after massaging me again, Adrienne got me dressed and took me to That Scottish Café for brunch, where we met the rest of the family. I greeted each of my wives with a joyful kiss. I hugged and kissed my daughters. I ordered a full Scottish breakfast of which I could eat only a portion, sharing the rest with Xian.
And for the first time since I returned, instead of bemoaning my trials, I looked around this table and counted my blessings.
Please feel free to send comments to the author at devon@devonlayne.com.
