Becoming the Storm
49 Volunteers
MONDAY, LIFE QUIETED DOWN a little. Sort of. The truth was that we were all so tired from the frantic week and weekend past that no one wanted to get out of bed. We’d seen something beautiful take place over the weekend, but it was exhausting and emotionally draining.
“We can’t do that every weekend,” I sighed as I cuddled Rose and Dani to me. “It’s not fair to the clan to expect everyone to work that hard just because we all loved Lexi. Or for any other reason. We have to continue to live our lives. The River of Life has to flow back into us.”
“Yes,” Rose said. “This time, I have to agree with you.”
“You make it sound like you don’t often agree with me,” I chuckled.
“Oh, I do, lover. But sometimes you cut to the chase faster than the rest of us. We’ve always tried to get you to take it easy and share the pain—that you don’t have to do everything alone. But now that we are all sharing it, we realize that this is really too much for our little clan. We could exhaust ourselves before school starts this fall. We don’t want that to happen. I’m afraid it could derail production and that is our livelihood.”
“What do you suggest?” I asked. “Close it? Open just once a month?”
“I think… mmm… um… If that is your cock in my pussy and Danielle holding us, and I can see Hannah just waking up, who is downstairs cooking breakfast?” Rose asked. I really couldn’t focus on that question with the cock and pussy in question requiring all my attention.
“Everyone is tired this morning, but we knew you guys would be especially exhausted,” Dawn said as she ladled out sausage gravy on our fresh biscuits. Cathy was putting a patty of sausage on each pile. When we stepped past the two girls, Dolly and Debbie were ready with an egg to top it off.
“This is so nice of you,” Angela said. “I didn’t even wake up until I smelled the sausage cooking.” We settled at the table and the four girls joined us.
“I didn’t know you two cooked,” I laughed, looking at Dawn and Cathy. “This is delicious. Thank you.”
“Theresa’s been giving me lessons,” Dawn blushed. “And Debbie and Dolly coached us through things this morning.”
“Well, thank you,” Rose said. “It means a lot to us.”
“We have ulterior motives,” Debbie said. Uh-oh. Dani scowled at her sister. “Don’t worry, honey. It’s nothing like that,” Debbie laughed.
“This weekend, several sorority sisters from Gamma House and Theta House came out to walk the path. They were really moved, especially to see us all standing along the path and greeting people. Rose, you really made an impression,” Dawn said.
“Several sisters stopped to talk to us,” Cathy added. “They want to help.”
“Help? How?” I asked.
“Everybody realizes that opening our home—the ranch and village—to visitors on Saturday and Sunday must put a terrible strain on those of us who live here,” Dolly said. “They really appreciate what the clan did and would like to act as the honor guard sometimes. Both Gamma and Theta have volunteered and so did Lambda fraternity. I think that others in the Greek society would want to help as well. We thought we could reduce the strain on the clan and tribe by having them stand along the path and give the introductions.”
“That’s very nice of them to volunteer,” I said. I mulled the concept over as I chewed the sausage. I could tell everyone else at the table was thinking about what it would mean to have virtual strangers taking over the role of guardians, even occasionally.
“I think we should have a meeting of the casa representatives with the sorority and fraternity representatives,” Rose said. “This affects everyone.” I nodded in agreement.
One of the things we had all missed as we were responding to the vandalism, running across the country, and building the pathway was the delivery of another house in the village. This was a larger one and belonged to Casa del Agua. Actually, Doug and Doreen’s parents had funded the construction, but the casa was moving into it. With four adults and a child, plus Rhiannon’s design office, the original little duplex was just too crowded. The new home was spacious. Each of the adults had private space plus a communal bedroom. There were three children’s rooms and an additional bedroom with en suite bath for the parents to have when they visited. It had a full finished basement that included a playroom and Rhiannon’s office. I could tell Matthew, Eleanor, and Leon would have some fun there. And…
I was about to become a father again. Danielle had assured me frequently that it was our daughter.
I went to dinner at the new house Monday evening. It seemed like forever since I sat with my other family and held Matthew in my lap while we ate and joked together. My son was nineteen months old. I was wondering at what point we would start to talk about his age in years instead of months. I wasn’t sure what mystical age or event occurred that marked that point. It wasn’t walking, because he was off my lap and on the run as soon as he had enough food to hold him. Sandy laughed.
“He’ll be back at the table wanting more in a couple of hours,” she said.
“Well, at least he isn’t getting it from Mommy’s tits any longer,” Doreen said. “After he got teeth, breast-feeding wasn’t nearly as fun.”
“I take it you don’t want me to bite your nipples tonight,” I laughed.
“I didn’t say that. Just keep it little nibbles and don’t chew on them.”
We relaxed and just talked about life for a while. I could hardly believe that at twenty-one, Doug’s hairline was receding.
“Doug, is family life being hard on you? Your hair is thinning. Ladies, you should take it easy on him.”
“Not a chance,” Rhiannon growled. “We like it hard.”
“You’ve met our mom’s dad,” Doug said. “He’s been a cue ball since he was eighteen. They say it skips a generation.”
“Since it passes through the female line, it has to skip or all the women would be bald. I wonder if it will affect Matthew,” Doreen mused.
“I’m not that into genetics,” I said. “I just know that we all have an incredibly wonderful son.”
“And it’s time to get little sister in the hopper,” Doreen said. She tugged at my hand. “There are three other parents to put the boy to bed tonight. Come on, Papa. I’ve been waiting too long.” I followed Doreen to the second master bedroom. She closed the door behind us.
There were no clothes to remove. The entire family had been naked at the table except for Matthew’s diaper. He was beginning to understand that the potty was related to permission to go naked. He was making a lot of progress. It was a unique approach to let him run around naked after he’d used the potty. He’d started to ask for it just so he could take his clothes off. Especially when he was around Eleanor, who had already figured out the system.
“Do you still love me, Brian?” Doreen asked.
“How could you doubt that? Yes, I love you.”
“We were going to start a baby in June. It’s almost August. We haven’t been together much since…”
“Since I got shot up and started acting strange,” I concluded for her. “Since I shut out everyone so I wouldn’t hurt them. Since I was too stupid to realize I was hurting them by shutting them out. Since I went on the warpath to fight a paparazzo. Since…”
“Since you won’t shut up,” Doreen interrupted. “Come here and make love to me. You mean so much to me, Brian.”
I took my time and Doreen took hers, but we ended with me filling her vagina with my sperm until I was too exhausted to produce more.
“You don’t have to be here every night during my fertile period, but I’m coming to Casa del Fuego tomorrow night,” she said. “I’m a little jealous that Danielle got your next baby, but not too much. Still, I’d like her to be with us—to have her baby’s blessing on ours.”
I was thankful to have members of Gamma, Theta, and Lambda standing along the paths Saturday and Sunday. And they looked sharp. The first thing they had asked was if Leonard could make gis for them. He worked all day Tuesday and Wednesday with the representatives of the houses to design their gis with custom colors for their houses. There were subtle style changes that distinguished the Greek pajamas from the clan robes. Our jackets were all high-collared and actually had a clip at the throat to hold them closed. The front panels of the jackets were wide enough to have been a double-breasted suit. The jackets for the fraternity and sororities were collarless and the front panels much narrower. The result was a plunging neckline for both the men and the women. It was particularly attractive on the women. Lambda’s uniforms were midnight blue with gold braiding. Gamma wore dark brown with light brown trim, which I always thought was an unusual color for a sorority. Theta’s uniforms were gold with black trim. Leonard had taken representatives to the warehouse district of Chicago to select the fabric and they were responsible for sewing their own from his patterns. They all looked great and were gracious hosts for the visitors that day.
Of course, if it hadn’t been for the sorority and fraternity, we’d have closed down visitation that day. It was the day of Sora and Tim’s wedding. Unlike Lionel and Sugar, Sora and Tim had chosen to have an evening ceremony with a huge bonfire. The two of them wore beautiful purple robes that Leonard had designed and sewn himself. It was a much smaller affair than the Tranes’, as well. Only clan members and family were present with a single attendant for each. A slightly embarrassed Whitney towered over them as the maid of honor. Adam stood next to Tim as best man. Rose conducted the ceremony. It was lovely, simple, elegant.
The triplets turned 22 on Wednesday and celebrated by moving Dolly and Debbie into the new house the Woods built in the village. I don’t think they anticipated having their mother move in with them.
“Well, it’s not like I’ll always be here,” Sylvia said. “I’ll have to go back to Bardstown at least once a week to have my needs met.”
“Mo-ther!” Debbie squawked. “We’re happy you have an active sex life, but we don’t need to hear about it.”
“I just want to be close enough to help my baby when she has her baby,” Sylvia protested.
“How are we supposed to sneak our boyfriends in here with you living here?” Dorothy added. “You get to go to Bardstown to get laid. We’ll never get laid!”
I couldn’t believe how the triplets were conversing with their mother. Bart was sitting in a recliner in the family room that was even bigger than the one I had. He filled it.
“Little girls, you come here,” he barked. All three girls ran to stand in front of him. “My precious daughters,” he said softly, “you are twenty-two years old. You really aren’t my little girls now. You are adults with lives of your own. This is your home. You don’t have to sneak anyone into or out of it. We’ll just all do our best not to embarrass each other. Even me. Okay?”
Dani was the first to move to her father and sit in his lap to hug him. He rubbed her tummy for a minute. She was really just beginning to show.
“Love you, Pap,” she said. She retreated to my arms and Debbie took her place. The scene was repeated, though the tummy rub was absent. After Debbie, Dolly hugged her father.
“That goes for you, too, young man,” he said, looking at me. “When you and Danielle need a night away, you have a place here. You are the father of my first grandchild. That makes you my son.” I went over and gave the big man a hug.
“Thanks, Pap,” I said. He looked at me and then started laughing.
“Let’s talk about the specific gravity of fine bourbon,” he laughed.
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