Heaven’s Gate
70 An On-Purpose
Sly, Lily, and Melanie went to Chicago Friday afternoon. Saturday afternoon, they returned with Melanie’s sister, Stephanie, and a letter of consent from their mother to grant guardianship to Sly and Lily. They already had temporary guardianship of Melanie based on her work and temporary residence at the ranch. On Monday, they would go to the court in Bloomington and file for permanent legal guardianship. I say permanent, but it means until the child turns eighteen. I remembered what Mom and Dad had to do to get permission for Hannah to live with us. There was a lot more that went on than I understood at the time.
There was a schedule for visitation and Sly and Lily were actually paying for Ms. Dennis to come to the ranch for a visit every three months. She was welcome at any other time, but had to pay her own transportation if she chose to visit more frequently. Personally, I thought that was pretty generous since other than visitation rights, Sly and Lily had pretty much all parental control and responsibility. The girls’ mom paid no support, the Cortales family bore all responsibilities. I had to really admire Lily and Sly all over again. Sly could still be pretty scary, but he was a great father figure for the two girls.
Hannah, Sam, and I had dinner with them Saturday night. I cooked in their kitchen and had it ready when they got home. I thought it was all going well until Lily opened the subject of school.
“Patrón,” she began. That was never a good sign. Both younger girls wore quizzical expressions. I’m not sure they’d heard that term before. “We need to take care of school enrollment for the girls and would like your input. School starts in the district on the twenty-third. We need to get registration complete and handled if either Melanie or Stephanie will be enrolled in public school. We’ve already made arrangement for Melanie to be enrolled in Corazón Academy, even though it will primarily be the same as home schooling. Mrs. Whitaker has agreed to see that Melanie’s lesson plans are complete and on schedule. Dr. Price will be her progress monitor.”
“Dr. Price?” Melanie interjected.
“You met her briefly at a production meeting,” I said. “Courtney is the woman who wrote the computer software that we use for editing video. She also handles our Internet presence.”
“She’s, like, so young!” Melanie said.
“Well, she’s just a little older than I am,” I laughed. “However, Dr. Lenox has also agreed to assist Cassie, that’s Mrs. Whitaker, in establishing your curriculum. Cassie specialized in elementary education with a focus on language arts. Brenda focused on mathematics. Courtney majored in computer science. Your three teachers are probably more qualified than most of the teaching staff at the high school.”
“And having that arrangement is necessary for you to work on the show,” Hannah said. “We promised we would get you through high school while you are working for us. We plan to keep that promise.”
“The question is whether Stephanie should also go to Corazón Academy or if she should be enrolled in fifth grade at the township elementary,” Lily said. “I wanted to bring this up while you are here, Patrón, so we are all in agreement and it doesn’t appear that we are forcing our preference on Stephanie.”
“What’s a Patrón?” Stephanie asked.
“He’s the leader of our clan,” Samantha leaned over to talk to the small girl. “Technically, Mom and Dad aren’t in the clan. They are our parents and are part of the tribe. But Mom is being very respectful to Brian because she’s asking for his opinion on behalf of the clan.”
“Am I part of the clan? Or the tribe? Are we Indians?” We all got a little laugh out of that.
“We’ll let you get an idea of how all that works over the next few months,” I said. “Then you can decide whether you want to be part of the tribe or the clan or neither. We don’t just make people a part of something if they don’t want to be.”
“Cool.”
“School?” Lily reminded me.
“Well, we’d need to talk to our educators at the Academy,” I said. “We were planning to grow the classes as we had kids growing up. Matthew and Ellie are officially in second grade this fall and we have enrolled three more kids in first and second grade from the community. Cassie is willing to teach Stephanie at her level, but I’m worried about Stephanie not having friends her own age here on the ranch. What do you think, Stephanie? Do you want to go to a regular school where you’d meet some new friends? We’d all still be here for you, too.”
“I don’t know. I’m just glad to be here. I don’t have to go to school.”
“Oh, yes you do,” Melanie said. “I’m going to get my diploma and so are you. You don’t have to make the decision tonight. We can talk more about it, but Mama Lil and Brian are trying to give you information you need to make a good decision. You want to make good decisions, honey. That’s one thing you’ll do different from me.”
We all agreed that she had time to make a choice and that we’d take her to meet Cassie and Courtney this week and Lil would take her to the elementary school to meet the principal and tour the school. Stephanie was a little in awe that she’d meet the actual principal. The size of her school in Chicago was such that no mere student ever met the principal and if your parents did, it was very bad.
Hannah and Samantha spent the night but I left and went to Casa del Agua. Sunday morning was Raven’s first birthday. I wanted to be there when she woke up, even though she was only one and wouldn’t remember this longer than the next week. Once I was there, I slipped into bed in the guest room with Doreen. She cuddled up next to me and held me fiercely. I could feel the tears on her cheeks. Doug’s illness was taking its toll on everyone.
“Brian,” she whispered, “would you be upset if we… could we… are… I’m… I can’t! I can’t lie to you. Brian, I’m pregnant.” She sobbed against my chest. Doreen and I hadn’t planned on another baby, but it wasn’t necessarily a bad thing.
“Did we have a little accident?” I asked. “What shall we name our little accident. You know I’ll love him as much as our others. I’ll love him like I love you, Dor.”
“It wasn’t an accident. It was an on-purpose.” It was?
“Dor, why didn’t you just tell me. You know I’d say yes. It’s nothing to be upset about.” She cried harder. When she choked her sobs back I could hardly hear what she was saying.
“He’s dying, Brian. Even the bone marrow transplant isn’t stopping the progression. I couldn’t… I couldn’t let him go without showing him… how much I love him. He didn’t know I wasn’t protected. Brian, Doug’s the father and he might not even be here to see our baby.”
Oh God! Now I was crying with her. I never would have objected to her and Doug making love, but they’d vowed not to cross that line no matter how they felt about each other. It was why Doug and I shared our children, so he and Doreen could have a family.
“Does Doug know?” I whispered.
She shook her head.
“He needs to know,” I said. “It might even be the miracle he needs to beat this. I know that I will be the father as far as the birth certificate is concerned, but sweetie, his daddy needs to know he’s created something precious with the woman he loves.”
“Help me,” she cried.
Doug knew the moment Doreen said she was pregnant. We debated long and hard about who else to tell and decided Rhiannon and Sandy had to know. We’d wait before we said anything to Jim and Jill. The news seemed to give Doug more energy. It was a huge boost to his system. Maybe it would be enough.
For the first time, the five of us occupied the same bed while Doug and his sister made love.
Sunday morning, I was up early to bake a cake for Raven’s birthday. We didn’t go to the studio for cooking on Sunday mornings. I was chatting away with Hannah in my head about Doreen being pregnant and Doug being the father. I wasn’t going to say any of that out loud if my son came out to listen to Papa talk. Just about the time I popped the cake into the oven, a very naked Rhiannon came out with Raven in her arms.
“She wants a Papa-burp,” Rhiannon smiled. I took Raven from her and kissed Rhiannon while I patted Raven’s back. In a few seconds I got a big milky burp from the baby and she settled back down to sleep. I kept kissing Rhiannon and stroked her bare breasts.
“That was romantic,” Rhiannon sighed. “She went back to sleep before she finished this one.” I dipped my head and sucked milk from Rhiannon’s turgid nipple. She held my head against her breast and sighed. “I’m going to miss this feeling when Raven is weaned.”
I guided Rhiannon to the sofa and then positioned Raven safely behind a pillow so she couldn’t suddenly roll off. Then I kissed Rhiannon again. I dipped my head to suck on her breast some more and let my hand drift down to her legs. They parted willingly and I began to play between her lower lips. What an experience to have her sweet milk squirting into my mouth while her liquid center poured over my fingers. Rhiannon moaned loudly as her first orgasm struck. I slipped off the sofa and moved between her knees, then kissed my way down from her breast to her tummy to her pussy. She rocked her hips forward to give me better access with my tongue. What a difference between the taste of her milk and the taste of her honey.
“Oh, Brian. You’re going to make me come again. Eat me, lover. Eat me.” I was all too happy to comply with her wishes and kept at it until Rhiannon had come two more times. She flopped back, letting herself go limp as I pulled my face from between her legs. Raven stirred and I picked her up as I sat next to Rhiannon again. She cuddled up close to me as I held our child.
“How are you doing, Rhee?” I asked. “Are you going to be okay with Doreen having Doug’s baby?”
“Oh, yes. I never understood why they were so adamant about not making love. It just seems they wasted so much time. So many years. And now…” Rhiannon buried her face against my chest and I held her as she cried. She straightened herself up. “I’m going to be brave. I can do it. I just love him so much. I thought we’d have more time.”
“It’s not over. Doug is determined. This is a good thing,” I said. “He’s going to turn it around.”
“I believe that. I’m way too young to be a widow. He can’t die. Not until we’re old and gray and have grandchildren. And great-grandchildren.”
“He’s keeping his sense of humor. That’s a good thing. Even if it’s a little dark sometimes. He told Melanie that he was dating Lexi and was thinking about moving in with her,” I said. Rhiannon snorted. I reached for a tissue and she wiped herself up.
“He’s really changed. I don’t mean just the disease, but mentally. Even if he’s tired, he wants to drink from the bucket. If he makes love to me, he’s exhausted. You saw him last night with Doreen. He was asleep before she finished. But he’ll suddenly open his eyes and call out, ‘Who’s next?’ He insists he’s going back to work. The doctor said absolutely not, but Friday he went to the jobsite. He just sat on the tailgate and watched. Sometimes he’d shout out advice to someone. He just drank soup out of his thermos at lunch and then I brought him home. He was asleep until the kids came in for dinner. He’s made that his byword since you used it on your show. ‘Drink from the bucket.’ Then he sucks on my tit.” We laughed. Doug wasn’t going gentle into that good night, but he wasn’t raving against it, either.
He was living each day to the fullest he could.
Comments
Please feel free to send comments to the author at devon@devonlayne.com.
