Hearthstone Entertainment
2 Adoptions
WE TOOK HANNAH to the clinic Saturday morning and had her bruises checked and verified. The nurse practitioner also took Polaroid photos to put in her file. Hannah explained that she had been pushed violently at her job and might need to file either an assault charge or workers’ compensation. The nurse was very sympathetic and admonished me to do a better job of protecting my girlfriend. Then we helped Casa del Sol move from their apartment to their new home.
Casa del Arco Iris borrowed Doug’s truck to pick up a couple mattresses so they’d have a place to sleep in the lower level. Adam and Warren moved a bed into one of the lower level bedrooms, too. I was just waiting for Monte and Ross to ask, but they seemed to be pretty happy in the dorm and didn’t want to split up their group.
Robyn joined me in the kitchen to make her grandmother’s fried chicken for our clan picnic as I made deviled eggs. Elaine whipped up potato salad. Hannah baked cookies. It was just too early to have fresh corn from our garden, but Angela promised it would only be two more weeks. Instead, she brought in a ton of lettuce, carrots, radishes, and scallions. She even had a few nice bell peppers. Mary took charge of the garden food as it was brought in and cleaned it up in the prep kitchen behind the wall.
“You know I’m going to be your prep assistant for your show this summer,” she told me. “You’d better teach me how to do all the things you need done.” There was a twinkle in her eye when she flirted with me and I nodded.
“I’ll teach you some new things I need done as soon as we finish prepping dinner,” I said. “We’ll start in the shower.” We kissed tenderly. She’d told me yesterday that she wasn’t sore any longer and was ready for another go. Then all hell broke loose on the production and we weren’t able to connect.
“Yum!”
Carl had come in with a few pounds of pork ribs and said he knew a great barbecue sauce recipe. It was fun to watch him prepare his specialty in our kitchen. They’d go on the grill about an hour before we were ready to eat. I got enthused when I found out his secret ingredient was soy sauce and that he used plain tomato paste for his base rather than the popular way of making home barbecue sauce with ketchup. I told him I wanted him on the show with me for a segment on barbecuing.
Ross had brought an ice cream freezer and after Rose made up the cream mix, he and half a dozen others sat outside the side doors and turned the crank. It only made a half gallon of ice cream at a time, so he had to make four batches.
It takes a lot of food to feed forty-six people. But I was amazed at how much we had left over.
“We have another fire tonight,” Rose announced to the group in the twilight. “There is no limit to how many campfires we can have in the summer. They don’t all have to have a special purpose. But we have some things to celebrate tonight. First, Adam and Warren want to make public to us their relationship. Some of you haven’t been with us very much since we adopted Adam last fall. So, I’ll let him introduce himself and Warren.”
“I’m Adam,” he said. “I want to introduce my compañera, Warren. Just so you know, we aren’t out on campus. I don’t think I’d last if word got out to the football team. I’m on varsity, but will probably never be a starter. I’ve been following a guy who is an incredible running back since I got here a couple of years ago. But I get sent in when he gets tired. My compañera, Warren, is a musician. He plays drums and a bunch of other things. But mostly he likes drums.”
“I’ll try not to keep anyone up at night,” Warren laughed.
“And you’ll get to hear him a lot this summer,” Hannah added. “Warren leads the trio we’ve engaged to provide music for Chick Chat.” Everyone applauded.
“How about you, Sora?” Rose asked next.
“I’m Sora, everybody! You know that. But last winter, Adam introduced me to a friend on the football team and I’ve kind of fallen for him. Right off the balance beam,” our gymnast laughed. “I want you to meet my compañera, Tim.” A few of the kids glanced at me to see that I was smiling and applauding.
“I can only thank my teammate, Adam,” Tim said. “We’re going to have a good season this year.”
“Okay, there is something we’ve all been waiting for a long time,” Rose said. “Josh, Cassie, Mary, and Brian.” Josh nudged Cassie and she did the speaking. The four of us held hands.
“I want you all to meet my novia,” Cassie said. She didn’t get any further. Our casa jumped up to hug all of us and were quickly followed by the rest of the clan. “We haven’t set a date because the four of us have a lot of growing and exploring to do before we make that final commitment, but one thing we know is that we love each other.” Cassie and Mary kissed. Then she turned to Josh as Mary kissed me. The two girls switched places and kissed the guys. I pulled Josh into a hug and the three of them sat down. I stayed with Rose.
“Those who have been here on the ranch for the past few months have known all about the stellar effort Brian made to knock up Doreen,” Rose laughed. “Come here with us, Doreen. Some of you don’t know that he was successful. We’re going to have our first clan baby in six months. He’s due on my birthday, right?” I pulled Doreen in front of me and put my hands over her tummy. “Let’s have all of Casa del Agua come up here with Doreen and all of Casa del Fuego come up here with Brian. We’ve all talked about this and how to describe our family relationship. And we finally decided that we can do whatever we want to. So, Doreen is going to become the first of us who is a full member of two different casas. Doreen, welcome to Casa del Fuego!” We all had a hug fest and Rose tied a red belt around Doreen’s waist with her blue belt. Our two casas were nearly half the clan.
“It is pretty obvious that Brian and Doreen have entered into a long-term intimate relationship. And therefore, it should be no surprise that they have become cónyuge. In our ritual, we wrap this red thread around their wrists to symbolize their commitment. Like all relationships, it is fragile and will break when your hands part. It is your effort, not the outside bonds of thread, that keeps you together. Blessed be.” That was a new line. I wondered if Rose was picking up more new age pagan stuff to put in her rituals.
“I love you, Doreen,” I said as I leaned to kiss her.
“I love you, Brian.” We broke the thread and she caught it to wrap around her wrist.
“Wow! If this keeps up, I’m going to have to buy a new spool of red thread!” Rose laughed. “Brian?”
“Oh, wow. I just want to take her and go to bed now.” I kissed Doreen again while I rubbed her tummy. She sat back down with Doug and Rhiannon. “Okay. You all witnessed a little of what went on yesterday. I want to thank Hannah for spotting the problem and her diligence in protecting our clan. We’re going to have to be very careful when we have strangers and guests on the ranch. This is going to be a very busy summer. We’ll have the television crew from IU here. We’ll have guests for Chick Chat and Young Cooking, as well as audience members for some of the shows. And we’ll have a construction crew preparing the ground and foundation for the new farmhouse. We can expect people to want pictures. And not all of them will be content to have a nice staged photo with a star and leave. When I talked to Heaven last fall, she told me that a tabloid had put out a $10,000 bounty for a nude photo of her. That is a big temptation for a lot of people following her around. While they are at it, I can’t think of a woman in our clan that people wouldn’t like to see nude pictures of. We are a little lax here because we’ve known each other for years in most cases, and we like the freedom of running around with little or nothing on. And let’s face it, we all like seeing each other in that state. But you need to decide if you want pictures of your bare breasts and pussies, or of your cocks and balls, being passed around campus or posted on the Internet. I want Courtney to say something about that.” Courtney stood up beside me.
“Computers are really amazing, and in the past five years there’s been an explosion in their use,” Courtney said. “Many of you can remember when Brian got his Mac as a freshman and was able to print out copies of the agreement for everyone. I built my first PC that year. Geoff is in school learning how to fix them and we’ve had a good time looking at what we can do to connect all our computers in the clan together. And that is part of what is happening in the world. Computers connected together. There’s a new thing we’re learning about in school. A guy in Switzerland has developed a computer language that allows computers like ours to not just get text files but to have pretty cool graphics on the screen, too. I mean graphics like nude pictures. Pornographers have taken advantage of each technological advance in history for the production and distribution of pornography. They have used lithographs, the printing press, camera obscura, photography, film, and video. It’s been a driving force in the development of those technologies. It will be a driving force in the development of what we’ve been told will be called the World Wide Web. When you think about protecting our privacy, it isn’t just whether a print of your picture is being circulated around campus. Think about it coming up on screen every time a computer is turned on. I’m just saying, be careful and be aware.”
“Shit! Okay. That’s not supposed to scare anybody, but just to keep us all aware that not everyone in the world recognizes the things we’ve so carefully nurtured in the clan, like explicit permission and respect for others. I think that one night soon, we’ll invite everyone in the clan who wants to attend and have a nude party in the barn. We’ll just make sure all the cameras are off and that there are drapes over all the windows.”
“Yeah!” Lexi shouted. “We never get to do anything like that back home.”
“Just remember that all our rules are still in effect, even if we’re all nude,” I reminded her. “We’ve also got a lot of jobs on the ranch, and in the production company, for us all to do. We don’t have a lot of cash, so we aren’t paying everyone in the clan a salary this summer. I know some of you had the possibility of summer jobs where you could have earned some cash. Being here on the ranch isn’t one of them. However, Hannah and Louise have worked out a system whereby everyone in the clan will share in the revenue from the productions. We don’t know exactly how much that will be, but you’ll get something for your summer work. The job board has been added to the wall in the studio. Be sure you check it every day to make sure you are taking care of your responsibilities,” I said.
“In keeping with that, many of you met Theresa and Larry when they came out to ride and take care of their horses this morning. We are discussing with them the possibility of living here on the ranch this fall as our ranch managers. Carl and Doug, you’ve been taking care of managing all the construction and all the grounds care. Jennifer, you’ve managed to keep the horses cared for every day. But when we start school again this fall, it will be really hard to maintain that. It was hard last year and we didn’t have as many people or as much livestock. When you see them out here, get to know Theresa and Larry. They’re cool people and know an incredible amount about ranch management.”
I didn’t have any notes and I stopped to think if I missed anything. “Anything else?” I asked. Rose shook her head. “We need to designate a fireman when we have a campfire. Remember, every fire must be dead out before we go to bed.”
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