Becoming the Storm
43 The Forces of Good
I SPENT SATURDAY visiting all the members of the clan on the ranch. They all nodded and agreed. Then I went to the village. Our parents were understandably furious. John and Bea simply grabbed me in a bear hug and held me there while they poured out their strength to me. Sly was cleaning a gun. I looked at him.
“I always clean my guns on Saturday,” he said, noncommittally.
“Sly, don’t do anything drastic. That’s all they would need to rain down terror on us.”
“Don’t worry, Brian. I don’t use them any longer. But it is always comforting to handle them.”
Dinita was adamant.
“I will not wear the gi,” she said. “I will go naked. If they take pictures of me in my home or my garden, I will sue them.” We argued for a while. Eventually, she agreed not to embarrass us. I wasn’t really sure if that meant she would wear her gi. Bart was considerably more enthusiastic.
“Hell, yes. That damned tent you fixed for me is the most comfortable item of clothing I own.” He lowered his voice, glancing over at Sylvia, who rolled her eyes. “I haven’t convinced her that we could just go naked like our neighbor. That Dinita is a fine-looking woman.” Sylvia threw a kitchen towel at him.
It took me the better part of the day to visit with everyone. I had lunch with Marshall and Martha. I rode a horse through the woods to visit Del and Maribelle. I met Larry out in the field where he was baling hay. I sat in the dorms with Monte, Ross, and Rich, and with Amber, Addison, TK, Nancy, and Pam. I visited Susan, Leonard, and his mom.
When I got back to the house, Mom, Dad, and Anna were there.
“Tell us the plan,” Dad said. I filled them in on all the details I could. Some of it, I was just playing by ear. Mom and Anna asked some penetrating questions. Dad sat and nodded. When I finished explaining he looked from Mom to Anna and back. They all nodded. Someday, I need to learn that trick with my cónyuge. How do they know what the question was, let alone the answer? “We need to call the tribe,” Dad said.
“That will take forever,” I objected.
“We have a calling tree. Each of us calls three people. Those nine call two. I’ll head over to John’s. We don’t want to tie up the phones here or in the office.”
“My bra is killing me today,” Anna said. “I’m on my way to Dinita’s.”
“I owe a visit to Marshall and Martha,” Mom said. “Meet you all for dinner.”
Sunday afternoon, people started arriving. Everyone was driving a motorhome or pulling a trailer. Jessica, Amy, Maggie, Jess, Adam, and Warren all arrived in a big motorhome and parked in their usual spot behind the barn/studio. We had empty lots in the village that had power and water. Trailers and motorhomes were pulled in. Ron came out on Sunday to turn on the power and water to each of the lots and help people get hooked up. By the end of Sunday, the big kitchen in the studio was pumping out food like it was going out of style. I warned people that it all had to be clean and sparkling before people started arriving on Monday. I got a lot of ‘mom-looks’ and decided to beat a hasty retreat. Monday morning, over a hundred people were on the ranch and in the village. The only event that had drawn more was Lionel and Sugar’s wedding.
Among the people in the big house was Roslyn Knightly. She was happy to be there, but a little overwhelmed. We’d given her a guest room for the night. She hadn’t brought a cameraman with her this time. Jess was going to be her cameraman and Hannah would direct. Joyce Lakey, our mixer, would handle the editing and feed to CEN.
She was a little shocked when she came to the kitchen early to see if she could get coffee. I was dancing around bare-ass naked making the family’s favorite fried dough. I poured her coffee and turned to look at her.
“Are you ready for some fried dough?” I asked.
“You’re naked,” she said.
“Oh. Yeah. Sorry. Sneak preview, I guess.”
“You’re going to go naked on the air?” she gasped.
“No! Well, I didn’t intend to. I mean… I’m going to talk about it. When we are in our homes or we know the ranch is secure, many of us are nudists. We get so much traffic in and out, though, that our time nude is pretty limited. That’s why there are gates at the entrances to the community. Once we secure them, a bell is rung and clothes go flying.” Right on cue, Angela came into the kitchen. She gave me a quick kiss and grabbed a cup of coffee.
“Dough?”
“Yes. Are you ready for some?”
“Oh, yummy. With powdered sugar, please.” She turned and faced Roslyn. “How do you like your fried dough, Roslyn?” she asked. “I like the white powdered sugar because when it falls on my boobs it makes a real contrast. One of my hearthmates is sure to notice and offer to clean them up. With their tongue.”
“Uh… really. I’ll have powdered sugar, too, please.”
“I’m warning you,” Angela said, “you’d better take your shirt off.” That started a long procession of naked hearthmates coming into the kitchen for a kiss and coffee or chocolate. Hannah went around the counter and kissed Roslyn on the cheek.
“Yum. Powdered sugar,” she said. “Did you get down here in time to hear Brian talking to me? He was tickling my head like crazy this morning. I think he’s really happy today.”
“Don’t mind her,” Nikki said. “She’s crazy. Are you going to join the clan, Roz? You look yummy enough to eat.”
“You’ve all set this up, haven’t you? Why don’t you just tell me what I’m supposed to report. I can’t talk about a dozen naked women and a naked man… oh my God! Two naked men. Running around in the kitchen. It’s not professional.” I turned to face her again and leaned over the counter to catch a couple grains of powdered sugar from the side of her mouth. With my finger.
“Roz, believe it or not, this is the way we live. We’ll mention it in the interviews today, but no one else is going to see us as we are. Is Hannah crazy? No more so than Nikki. Do we run around naked? Yes. Rose is going to take you upstairs to show you our bedroom. That’s right. Room. Singular. You will get a look into parts of our lives today that no one outside our clan has ever seen. You can talk about it, but we aren’t going to show it on camera.”
“And no one else who is in the interview will have seen it, so no one will believe me.”
“We are going to show you a couple of things on camera that no one else will see. We’re not going to show our bedroom or our nudity on camera, but there will be enough to make what you say legitimate.”
“Oh, dear,” she said. “I’m dripping powdered sugar on my blouse.” With that, she unbuttoned and pulled her blouse off. Nice.
Roslyn had gotten in fairly late in the evening Sunday, so she really didn’t get the full impact of the number of people on the ranch. When we went out to do forms, we all just grabbed shorts and T-shirts and headed down to the exercise field. She stared at the number of ‘old folks’ who were out there and the good humor we used to get people stretching. She laughed as we started kidding her about how much she would have to do in order to get in shape. She had a very good shape, but wasn’t as fit as even most of our parents.
I introduced her to John and Bea. That was carefully planned as they were about the most traditional among us, but also accepted us. And John was on the Township Board. I told her to join us in the studio when she was ready. We’d be setting up. She stared after me as I left her. I don’t think she was expecting to be cut loose on the ranch to go wherever she wanted. But that was why we didn’t give her a camera or tape recorder. Until we put her on the air, all she could do was gather background. She was bright. She’d remember enough to make her interview this evening a memorable one.
Of course, the first camera crew arrived by three o’clock ‘to get atmosphere shots.’ We’d dealt with that kind of thing before and designated people led them around the grounds. Everyone was dressed in house gis. That was the only thing they saw that was different than any other little village. Of course, it was only the cameraman and tech. The reporter wouldn’t arrive until later. Over the next hour and a half, the rest of the crews and finally the reporters arrived. Each crew had set up its own location for their reporter to do his or her taped intro. We made sure that clan members walked through their shots. Hannah was connected with her headset and gave instructions as she watched through Jason, Jess, and April’s cameras.
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