Becoming the Storm
2 Unhappy Birthday
IT WAS A TIGHT FIT to get all of us in Stall One. Rhiannon, sadly, had moved her architectural office to the guest room in their duplex. I knew they were crowded over there. With four adults and a baby in their little three-bedroom, taking up the guest room meant no one had a place to escape.
Offices.
We needed more offices. Where were we going to put Designed by Leonard? We’d already maximized what we could do with the old stalls. Laundry and utilities in Stall Six. The expanded kitchen pantry and what storage we had was in Stall Five. Stall Four was the production and editing room. We’d put a huge window into that room that looked out on the studio. It was soundproof and there were computers all over. I was going to have to move the three fireproof file cabinets that contained Heaven’s photos and Nikki’s poetry and writing. We needed the space.
Stall Three was no longer a guest room. It was a dressing room. We couldn’t keep using the upstairs as a dressing room because we needed the space for people to sleep. There were fifty-six of us resident on the ranch. It was insane! We’d even cut a door from the new dressing room into the bathroom in Stall Two so stars didn’t need to walk into the studio to get from the dressing room to the bathroom.
And then there was Stall One, where it all started. It was crammed with four desks, computers, phones, and extra chairs. Hannah’s desk was in the corner. Samantha and Louise shared a desk for administration and accounting. Jennifer had a desk and whiteboard as she charted sales and marketing data non-stop. The fourth desk was shared by all the student producers for the shows and Lonnie.
Oh. My desk. I did most of my work from Jingo’s back. If I needed a phone, I borrowed Hannah’s.
So with Hannah, Samantha, Jackie, Patti, my four kitchen helpers, Angela, and me in the room, it got uncomfortable quickly.
“There’s good news and there’s bad news,” Hannah said. Shit! What a way to start. “The good news is that Brian’s voice will sound almost normal by tomorrow. And everyone is happy to see you back on set. The bad news is that we are now eight episodes behind our scheduled shoot and will fall back another four before this week is over. That is a lot better than trying to catch up and having our star with no voice by the end of the week. Next week we need to start catching up. That will be three Young Cooking shows a day for the week. Hard, but not undoable.”
“Whew. I think I can do that,” I said. “I don’t want to let any of you down.”
“That was all the good news,” Hannah said. “When we finish next week, the summer production camp will be over. We’ll still be seven episodes behind. We need to catch those up on Monday and Tuesday the following week.”
“Shit! We’ve got to get on the phone to our guests and audiences,” Jackie said.
“I’m going to be out a cameraman,” Patti added. “I know he already has a ticket to Europe and is supposed to leave after we finish filming Friday. How are we going to schedule all those shoots on Monday and Tuesday?” I just sat there, sort of stunned. Mary reached over and took my hand from one side and Dani from the other.
“Sam and Jennifer will help you with scheduling,” Hannah said. “April and Jason will fill in for missing cameramen. And we’ll pay a $100 per day bonus for all the students who are here and working the extra two days.”
“Two hundred bucks?” Patti said. “I could use that. Thank you.”
“What about our kitchen staff?” Jackie asked. “They aren’t enrolled in the summer program.”
“Each of them receives a per-episode stipend,” Hannah said. “They’ll just earn more of them in a shorter period of time.”
Well, that was the end of the business news. Hannah left. The rest of us had to coordinate what shows with what menus we’d plan for the rest of the week and the next two. Angela was fairly flexible, but complained that we had vegetables ready to rot in the field. If we weren’t saving them for a show, we needed to get out and pick them and serve them. It seemed we really had a bumper crop of tomatoes this year. They liked the alternating days of sunshine and rain.
I made formal invitations to Debbie, Dorothy, and Danielle to be our guests of honor at dinner Tuesday night in the big house. After dinner, dessert would be served from the studio kitchen.
After we’d finished the show Tuesday afternoon, we went together to the big house. The triplets were twenty-one today. As soon as we walked in, the casa yelled ‘Happy Birthday’ and began singing to them. Everyone was naked and it took only a few minutes for the five of us from the show to join them. In celebration of the event, Tim made cocktails for those over twenty-one. He served the girls a vodka-cranberry martini. It was pretty much just a martini with a bit of cranberry juice in it to turn it pink. We all grabbed whatever we had to drink—mostly Cokes and Sprite—and toasted our newest adults. It was a one-drink night and as soon as Tim had all the ‘adults’ served, he closed the bar.
Cassie, Sarah, and Sora had put together the evening meal. We ate antipasto with our cocktails. When we were seated, we had a huge salad, insisted on by Angela, followed by Vichyssoise—a cold potato soup. The main course was Fettucine Florentine with chicken tenderloins. It was a very good meal.
The general rule in the clan was no gifts for birthdays and holidays, but it seemed I routinely broke the rule for my lovers. We put the three girls on the sofa and I gave them each their present. Then I went back to the big chair. It was very funny that the triplets opened their gifts in order of their ages. I don’t think there was a half-hour difference between Dorothy and Danielle, but they still took turns. Dorothy was thrilled with the spice jars and grinders.
“Fresh pepper,” she started saying, then looked at the others. “Oh! There are different kinds. It’s not just grinding. These have blades. Fresh chopping of basil, sage, rosemary. Oh! I want to go put herbs in them!” She was a happy girl and turned to Debbie to see what she got. Debbie was a careful package unwrapper. She slit the tape with her fingernail and slid the paper neatly off the box and folded it. She opened the box and screamed.
“A cleaver!” She immediately removed the instrument from the box and cut her finger testing the edge. It required a Band-Aid. “They don’t usually come from the store sharp enough!” she said by way of explanation. That reminded me to put cutting gloves on my list of things to acquire for the kitchen. It was Danielle’s turn. She opened the long narrow box and squealed as loudly as either of her sisters. She rushed to my lap and started peppering my face with little kisses, narrowly missing clubbing me.
“You gave her a rolling pin?” Elaine said. “Nikki, there has to be a monologue in this one. What man gives his wife or girlfriend a rolling pin for her birthday?”
“No!” Danielle squealed. “Not a rolling pin. A pasta cutter. When we’ve made pasta, the biggest problem has always been getting it the same size and thickness. See how this roller is grooved with sharp ridges? You roll the pasta dough out to a near thickness, then roll it with this. It cuts it to the same width and if anything is a little thick, it just pushes it out and evens up the thickness. It’s wonderful! I’m going to make pasta tomorrow!”
It was a big hit and we sat around talking until it was almost time to go have birthday cake with the rest of the clan. Dani put her pin in the box carefully so it wouldn’t get nicked. Then she cuddled up in my lap and we petted each other and continued to put little kisses on each other’s face.
“Brian?” I looked up to see Debbie and Dorothy standing in front of me. They had their gifts in their hands and were holding them out to me. Both had tears streaming from their eyes.
“What?” I asked. “What’s wrong? Don’t you like them?”
“Yes,” Dorothy answered. “But they aren’t what we want for our birthday. We want our sister back.”
Well, the evening went to hell in a handbasket. Dani hung onto my neck tight enough to strangle me. Debbie and Dorothy dropped their presents and hung onto each other. Rose swept in and picked up everything that could be used as a weapon, including all three gifts. Whitney stepped up and held the two older twins in her arms.
“She’s always here with you and never with us,” Debbie complained.
“We miss her being with us,” Dolly added.
“I’m not holding her here against her will,” I said. “You kept trying to make her do things she didn’t want to do.” Well, not being accusative lasted about five seconds.
“But she kept us from doing things we shouldn’t do,” Debbie responded. “Now no one holds us back. We’ve fucked all the younger guys in the dormitory and none of them even like us. We’ve…”
“What?” I yelled. That was enough. I was going to throw their asses off the ranch. All the younger? Leonard doesn’t even like girls. Of course, that still left five others. Shit!
“Patrón, calmly,” Rose said stepping between us. “We need to take this upstairs to the master bedroom so we all talk. Whitney, would you come with us and our friends?” Rose was so sweet. Whitney turned the older sisters toward the stairs and Rose followed them. Dani was clinging to me so tightly that I finally picked her up in my arms and carried her to the bedroom. I could see Rose’s reasoning. I had a huge bed. Rose sat beside Dolly. Whitney sat between Dolly and Debbie, separating them. I crawled onto the bed and set Dani down between Rose and me so I was next to Debbie. I kind of regretted giving her a cleaver, but at least it was downstairs.
“I don’t know what to say,” I said with a shrug. Dani still held my hand, but she was looking at her sisters now.
“I hear a lot of emotion being vented,” Rose said. “Let’s just take a deep breath and see if I can replay what I’m hearing.” We did as she directed. God! I love this woman! “So, as I understand it, Debbie and Dorothy feel that they have been abandoned by Danielle and they miss her.” The two girls nodded vigorously. “And you blame Brian, or maybe all of us for taking her away from you.” The nods were still there, but a little less emphatic. “I haven’t heard what Dani believes,” Rose continued. “Honey, have you abandoned your sisters?”
“No,” Dani squeaked. “But I’m in love. Why don’t they understand that?”
“With Brian?” Dolly demanded.
“With all of the casa. I’m happy here. I wanted you to join the clan, too,” Dani said. “You wouldn’t.”
“Joining the clan isn’t a prerequisite for being included with us. We’ve tried to make you welcome in everything here,” I said.
“But joining your clan is like this big deal. We’ve lived here for two months with everyone, but we’re still outsiders,” Debbie said.
“Okay,” Rose said. “Let’s get back on track. Danielle did not intend to abandon you, but she is in love. What do you think a sister in love should do and be, Debbie? Dolly? Did you never anticipate that any of you would ever fall in love?”
“I never thought about it,” Debbie said. “We were always together. Until she moved away, I didn’t realize… I didn’t realize how much I love my baby sister.”
“And now she’s off having sex with someone who’s off-limits to us. She doesn’t sleep with us. She scampers off to be with her lover,” Dolly said.
“Um… I don’t like to talk about what I do with anyone else, but Dani and I haven’t had sex,” I said. “We sleep together most of the time, or she sleeps with our group, but I don’t think she’s having sex with any of us.”
“But… That’s impossible!” Debbie burst out.
“Why not, Danielle?” Dolly asked.
“I… Sex hurt when we did it last year. It was awful and meaningless. I hated it. And I hated you for making me do it. But I still love you,” Dani cried. She turned and put her face against my shoulder.
“Oh, no!” Debbie cried. Dolly joined in the bawling and Whitney wrapped an arm around each and held them to her. “I thought you wanted… I didn’t listen. I let him rape my sister. I didn’t mean to! I didn’t mean to.”
“And now you’ll never have sex again?” Dolly said. “That’s terrible!” Dani shook her head.
“I’ll have sex,” Dani said. “Stop being all angsty about it. I love Brian and sometime when it’s right, I’ll welcome him into me. I know I’ll welcome Rose and Hannah and Doreen, too. And you know very well that I’ve had sex with you since I started living here. I just don’t want to fight about it and have to keep saying no. I have never, ever had to stop someone in the casa. I feel safe with everyone in the clan. I don’t feel safe with you.”
It was a blow for them to hear that their sister didn’t feel safe with them. That even shocked me.
“You always calmed us down,” Dorothy said. “You kept us from going too wild, no matter how we tried to convince you. I feel like I don’t have a rudder anymore.”
“Danielle, I’m sorry. I love you like crazy. I love you like I love Dorothy,” Debbie said. “I’ve always known you didn’t love me like that, but you pretended and I let myself believe it. Brian, you asked what was going to happen when we fell in love. I thought we were in love. I was selfish and chose to assume that everyone wanted what I wanted. Now I don’t know. I don’t know if Dolly even wants what I want now.” Dolly crawled over Whitney and grabbed her sister in a hug that let us all know that she wanted what Debbie wanted. Whitney extracted herself and scooted over by Rose. Pretty soon they quit kissing and Dolly rolled back to look at Dani.
“We never meant to gang up on you, Danielle. But I know now that Debbie and I shared something that you didn’t. And now we’re jealous of what you have, too. I don’t want you to be afraid of me. I’m happy for you, because you have love like I have love. I just wanted you to love us like that,” Dolly said. “If you can’t love us like that, can you at least still love us like sisters? Please?”
Dani crawled over me and hugged her sisters as I slid next to Rose.
“We used to do all kinds of things,” Dani said. “We cooked and played volleyball. Sure, we still do that. But when we got to college, everything was suddenly about sex. We had to go find a boy. And when we didn’t find one, then we went home and had sex with each other. And don’t get me wrong. I still like having sex with you and we can do that tonight, right here in this bed. But at the end of the night, I’m not going to go prowl around the boys’ dormitory hunting for a stiffy. The only boy I’m interested in is right here waiting for me to cuddle up with him.”
“Will you share?” Debbie asked. Dani stopped to consider for a second before she answered.
“I don’t think so,” she said at last. “Of course, Brian doesn’t belong to me and he can decide whatever he wants to. But making love to Brian wouldn’t be special to you. And that wouldn’t be right. I’ll make love to Brian one day. Well, we already have gotten each other off. But sometime, we’ll have sex. And even though we probably won’t even realize it’s happening until it’s happening, it will still be special. It will always be special.” Dani kissed each of her sisters and crawled back to sit in my lap.
“How about birthday cake?” Rose asked. “You have an awful lot of friends here who want to give you good wishes. A lot of friends, ladies.”
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