Author: MrJenkins Title: Babysit_Jenny-addendum Universe: Clayton, Babysit-Jenny Summary: An alternate sequel to 'Babysitter-Jenny' By Clayton. The fundamental theme is that Greg and Jenny wished to make the relationship permanent and her extended family was willing. Keywords: Mg+ Mg pedo rom cons slow ************************************************* Babysit_Jenny-addendum By MrJenkins (Mg+ Mg pedo rom cons slow) ************************************************* This, as are my other works, is a work in progress. It is mostly done, but will be added to and tweaked on occasion and the old version replaced with the newer one. This writing is an alternate ending to 'Clayton's Babysitter-Jenny. It begins as Greg's tutoring job with Jenny ends. From there the story went off in some rather odd directions that I hadn't anticipated when I started writing. I had no intention of having either the extended ancient family structure nor marry Vanessa off to Morrie when I started Clayton, should you by some happy chance read this, I would be grateful for comments, even if it amounts to "Get the hell out of my story". I would, of course, prefer more a more positive response. Any comments or advice about how to make the language and customs more Aussie would be most gratefully accepted. I'm from North America, so almost certainly didn't get that quite right. I have been able to find chapters 1--8 on the ASSTR site under /files/Collections/SirSnuffHorrid/Clayton/. In addition I found 'Claytons Children - The Babysitter' some years ago. I strongly suggest that you read them first, this is in effect a greatly extended chapter ten for that story -- chapter nine as hinted at in 'Clayton's children--Babysitter' is assumed to have happened. It't isn't necessary to read that story to read this one -- this is really an alternate to that story. If anyone reading this knows of chapter 9 or more of the Jenny story, I would be most grateful for a copy or link. This writing attempts to be consistent with 'Babysitter-Jenny' and assumes that the next chapter after 8 wherein Greg and Jenny become lovers happened. It is not intended to fit with 'Claytons Children - Babysitter' except for some of the bits that refer to Jenny. That Greg seems much shallower -- a drifter with no goals or commitments. Jenny is referred to as a lover, but not as a life companion. The Greg in the Jenny story seems more focused and interested in a long term relationship with Jenny. This tale is what might have happened on that branch of the trousers of time. It does not attempt to be consistent with the late '90s regarding computer tech and literary allusions. I used both Lois Bujould's Vorkisgan series and references to Harry Potter in a number of places. It would be quite consistent for Greg and Jenny to have read the corpus of both if they were in the now. I'm probably using gps and radar detector tech that wasn't current at the time either. I never have done anything with marijuana, so sort of glossed over that part. I don't know the methods or customs well enough to write convincingly about the use of marijuana, so didn't even try. Sorry about that. I do micro brew beer, so kept that part. Duplicate contract bridge -- A card game, played as pairs. You and your partner will play approximately 27 deals against approximately 9 other pairs in a session. Typically three deals against each other pair. Cards are dealt in advance and placed in a carrier called a board which has a pocket for each hand of 13 cards. The players and boards move around the room in a manner that you play each other pair only once and play each deal only once. You are scored against the other pairs that played the same cards you did, making the luck of the deal much less important. It is played world wide. Percentage numbers of bridge players are much less than they were 50 years ago, although absolute numbers seem to be up. Average age of players is way up from years ago. It is about as close to a blood sport as you can get siting down and being polite. One is expected to act in the spirit of chivalry, only striking fair blows and acknowledging hits by the opponents. Within that constraint, you are expected to play to win -- no quarter asked nor given. Almost all duplicate players are very nice people who will do their utmost to beat you, but will only do so within the rules and spirit of the game. Unfortunatly there are exceptions. As a group they would be delighted to have Jenny in their game with Greg and Sarah as her partners. They would be even more delighted when she started beating them. In North America, acbl.org. ************************************************** ************************************************** Chapter 1, Tutoring ends. I walked up to the front door of the Gormley residence and pushed the bell for what was probably the last time. This was the final visit as a tutor and my relationship with Jenny seemed to be coming to an end. Dianne came to the door and welcomed me in, "Good evening Greg. Thank you for coming." She led me to the front room where Tony and two older couples waited. "Greg, this is my mother and father, Bill and Sarah Williams. And Tony's parents, Fred and Alma Gormley. Greg Parry. He, as you know, has been tutoring Jenny to get her caught up from the fiasco with spring term last year. They wanted to meet you and hear your evaluation of their granddaughter." "Good evening Professor Williams. Nice to see and your lovely lady again. We shook hands briefly." "In this house, tonight, we're granddad and grandma. Just Bill and Sarah will do fine." I turned to Mrs. Williams. She reached out her hand, and we shook. She continued to hold my hand for a moment while studying me. Good to see you too, Greg. She released me and I turned to the elder Gormleys. "Glad to meet you Mr, Mrs. Gormley. Tutoring your granddaughter has been a joy." Again, a brief shake and instructions, that I was to drop the titles. "Good evening, Tony. It seems as if I've worked my way out of a job.", I said, turning to him and Dianne. "As advertised. Jenny seems to be caught up and doing very well. She and an aunt that you haven't met are up in the nursery babysitting Jeremy for the moment. Dianne and I wanted to talk with you for a bit without her, to give you the chance to be frank with us without having to worry about hurting her feelings if what you have to say is a bit negative. And after all that they have heard about the 'Great Greg' for the last four months, her grandparents requested to be present as well.", Tony replied. We sat down and I went over a review of my evaluation of Jenny's skills. "It was really quite easy. She's a very bright kid who really wanted to learn the material. With a student like that, it hardly counted as work." "Well,", Dianne put in, "I think you had just the slightest bit of influence in encouraging her to put out that kind of effort. The last four months have been the greatest sustained effort I have ever seen out of her" "So --", said Tony, "That brings us to the real purpose for this meeting. What to do about the affair you and Jenny are having, from this point forward." I froze in place. Of all the things I had expected, that was off towards the nightmare category. I had at least hoped that Tony hadn't twigged to the full extent of our extracurricular activities. My poker face must not have been nearly as good as I might have hoped for because he raised his hand in a 'Wait a moment' gesture. "I think I need to lay a bit of background first, then I have a few questions for you -- No, No -- I think it would be better if you waited till I have my say, then answer the questions -- then you may speak if you wish." I nodded -- still in shock. He continued, "First, just to get your heart rate back down a bit, Neither Dianne nor I are angry with you. At least for anything we know or have reason to suspect you to have done with Jenny since you took the tutor position. This specifically includes that we believe you and Jenny have been lovers for the last month. Also that we suspect that Vanessa managed to kick your feet out from under you (Like as not with Jenny giving a push to get you off balance while Vanessa tripped you) a couple of weeks ago. This amnesty also includes the grandparents. I suppose that there are things you might have done, or might do in the future that we would find intolerable, but at the moment we have no reason to suspect that you have or will. Our full expectation is that you would risk and take damage to protect Jenny -- quite possibly to a greater extent than we would." I nodded, and did relax back into my chair a bit. Alma Gormley leaned forward in her chair and said, "Greg, in this place and time, we are not your foes. I'm not yet sure that I can claim approval of your relationship with my granddaughter, but we all accept that she chose you and at worst, you didn't run as fast as you might have." "So,", Tony resumed, "First, we", he made a gesture that clearly included all six of them, "will not pursue, nor take any other adverse action against you for your conduct as we believe it to date. In addition, if you choose to flee into the night, screaming, we will delay Jenny for a time to give you a head start." He cocked his head. "So, First question, Greg. Do you choose to flee now? Your final check, with a bonus, is in this envelope." He picked it up and handed it to me. I thought for a moment "No, I'll wait and hear the rest of what you have to say. Reserving the right to flee and/or scream at a later time, with an option on the delay if it seems warranted." He gave a small grin, and Dianne chuckled quietly. He leaned forward a bit. "OK, then -- next question. For this set we really, really want honest, responsive answers. And even more for you to answer them with complete honesty to yourself. In the long run, what you tell us won't really matter. It'll be what you do and what you say to Jenny. For this question, I don't want to hear any sort of an answer that you might think we would want to hear, nor what you think you ought to do -- or even what you think might be possible or have an acceptable risk level. What I want is to hear what you want to do -- from your heart, not your left brain. We really really need honest real Greg here. Will you at least try?" He paused and waited. "Boy, with a build up like that, I shudder to think what the question might be.", I said after a moment. "I'll give it a try, but without the question it's hard to promise." "Do you wish to continue your relationship with Jenny. Or is it your desire that the end of the tutoring ends things in a way that doesn't make it your fault nor Jenny's." The stunned look on my face must have been even more obvious this time because Dianne laughed out loud. "Sorry Greg, but I don't think I have seen you that far behind the curve before." I didn't really need to think about it. "Yes, I want to. But the age difference and risks..." Again, Tony held up his hand. "For the moment, that 'Yes' and your face is enough. Next question. It's pretty obvious that you are attracted to little girls. Are you going to back away when she starts growing pubic hair and breasts? It's hard to predict the exact schedule, but I can pretty well guarantee boobs and hair in 3 years. And for several years puberty will be a real challenge for you two to deal with. Almost by definition, she won't be in control all the time." This one I didn't need to think about at all. "No, subject to a plan that excludes prison time, I am hers for as long as I live if she will have me." A pause. "We will *probably* both survive puberty. Most do." "OK, then one last question. Why did you turn Dianne down that weekend you were over on Saturday night. She said that you were obviously attracted to her, especially by the time you finished the massage. And, yes -- Dianne told me about the weekend, including propositioning you. And the smooth way you turned her down without being rough or crude or offended." He leaned back and waited. I glanced at the grandparents. They were listening quite closely, but showed no obvious signs of offense. This one I had to think through a bit. I had responded mostly by gut feeling at the time. It had seemed like the correct choice, and nothing since had made me go back and re-think it. "Well, the obvious point that we were both a bit high, and sex under the influence often does not age well. A secondary point is that I needed to work with Dianne (and you) for a number of weeks to finish with Jenny's catch up. Sleeping with Dianne that night would have, at the very best, made that a bit more awkward. From there the possibilities are all down hill. But, and I didn't really see it till now, the most important point is that it wouldn't have been fair to Jenny. She had made it very clear that she considered me her boyfriend and there was no real hope that I could have slept with Dianne without her figuring it out. All I would have to do was to let Jenny know that I wouldn't kick her out when she showed up, and she would have been in my bed by the time Dianne's head hit her pillow." "And", I said, nodding to Dianne, "If I had chosen to do so, I certainly could have gotten that message across to Jenny without making it obvious to you at the time." I thought for another moment. "A question back for all six of you. Why are we having this interview? Why aren't you off on the typical parental indignation about a pervert molesting your baby?" At that, Tony laughed out loud. "Greg, Greg. You should be old enough to be very aware that of the things kids try to keep from their parents, in few cases are they successful if it is more than a one shot deal. It's been very clear to us that after the first couple of weeks of tutoring, that all you would have had to do to get Jenny into bed was to use a slightly smaller stick to defend your virtue, or even just get off balance and fail to land a solid blow with the one you were using. So, other than the legal aspects, there are serious issues with your last statement regarding molester and molestee. We discussed what would probably happen when we turned her loose on you we went to Japan and decided to let things develop as they would. We didn't really expect your virtue to survive the week. To an educated eye that was looking for it, the change in the interaction between you and Jenny was quite marked after the Japan trip. If we had really wanted to keep her out of your bed, we could have arranged other care for her for that time. And let you know that we were aware of where things were headed and that we would have been real unhappy if you let things go too far." I nodded. "I see, somewhat." Tony made a small bow towards Dianne. "Well, m'lady. It appears that once more, you are correct. We had best grab him before the rats get to him." Tony looked at the other four, clearly polling them. "We concur." Said Bill, with an attending nod from Sarah. "As do we.", put in Alma, with another nod from Fred. "So, Greg -- one last time. Do you wish to flee, or should we let Jenny know she can come down? If we are to continue, she has the right and the need to participate. After all, it is her life we are arranging, along with yours. And, just to make it explicit instead of implied, what we are doing here is interviewing you for the position of son-in-law. And membership in an extended family." I stroked my beard in thought for a moment. "For now, fleeing is not an option. If nothing else, I would likely die of the curiosity to not learn what you have in mind with that last statement. Understand -- I do not at this time agree without reservation to those plans. Before I agree I need to be convinced that Jenny, and I, and for that matter, the two of you, stand a good chance of pulling it off without serious jail time. I will probably be the most at risk, but the risk to Jenny is not trivial. The risk to the rest of you is your problem -- you are adults and fully capable of choosing your own hand-basket." I looked at the grandparents. Alma was frowning a bit and looking a bit puzzled at the last statement?. "It is one of the major tenants of my life that others should be allowed to go to hell in the hand-basket of their choice, subject only to the restriction that they not take unwilling passengers." An unvoiced "Ah -- I see", more body language than anything else. A bit of twinkle from her husband. I turned back to Tony, "So, bring her on. I will gird my loins for the ordeal" Dianne slipped out and went up the stairs. Anticipating what would happen next, I stood up. A few seconds later there came a screech from above and the sound of feet running down the stairs. Jenny came through the door at a hard run and leaped at me from about 2 meters with a cry of "Greg". I was braced and caught her in flight. She wrapped her arms around my neck and buried her face in my shoulder. I bent to kiss the top of her head. She was about half crying. "What's the matter, love?", I asked her. Muffled in my shirt, "You stayed. I can keep you." "Well, a highly qualified 'Probably'. It would be really desirable to have a plan that involves a minimum of hard time in prison. Even better, one that also gives Mrs. Grundy a minimum to work with." All this with my arms wrapped around her, one arm supporting her bottom and the other rubbing her back a little. I looked up and saw Tony and Dianne watching us. Dianne glanced at Tony, "Well, m'lord. Would it appear to you as if they like each other." "It seems possible, m'lady. Just, possible. However, not certain. I think I could get a piece of paper between them down by Jenny's left ankle. And she can still breathe, so he isn't holding her as tightly as he might." He shook his head sadly, "Not certain at all. We better check again in two or three years." I moved to a wide overstuffed chair that would hold two. We sat for another few minutes and Jenny was starting to relax. Hell, as tightly as she was holding me, even with her gymnastics training, her muscles had to be tiring. I tipped her head up a bit and kissed her on the forehead. "Turn around a bit love, we still have business to conduct. Right off the top, there is a real issue of age. You are 10-1/2 and I'm 28. It will be 7-1/2 years till you can openly be my fiance. And that will be pushing it with Mrs. Grundy. By then I will be over 35. By the time you are 35, perhaps with a kid your current age, I will be 53. You will, like as not, be a widow by 60 or so." Tony broke in, "Not entirely true Greg, She could marry at 16 with our permission. However, you are quite correct, that would have many undesirable side effects. Mostly with the Grundys of the world." Jenny, with my gentle urging turned around to face her parents, remaining, however, tucked under my right arm and plastered to my side. "How many couples stay together for 50 years anyway. I'll probably get tired of you before then and trade you in on a new model", she said with somewhat teary grin. "On the other hand, are you really saying that I should give up 50 years with you because I probably won't get 70?" I looked down at her and raised a brow. She looked right back at me, "Well, if you're going to throw statistical bullshit at me, I can throw it right back. I don't have numbers, but an awful lot of my classmates parents have split up." "Ungrateful wench. I work and work to teach you, and here you go, using the knowledge against me.", I grumble. "However, you do have a point about the 50 vs 70 years. It sounds a bit short sighted to give up the chance when you put it that way." I look at her again. Looks like a hint of a smirk on her face. Dianne added, with her own smirk. "That's hardly the worst of what she did to you. You recall that lecture you gave her on the seduction of children a couple of months ago." I nodded. "Consider her campaign to get to this point, with the content of that lecture in mind. It minds me that she took a cautionary tale and turned it into a tutorial. It took me a while to catch on, but once the thought occurred to me, it has been quite fascinating watching her work you, step by step. With you, at least giving the appearance of an oblivious victim, being led into the abyss a step at a time. Your reaction when Tony brought the subject up a while ago was classic. A pure 'Oh, shit!! Busted'." I looked down at Jenny. Yes, that was definitely a smug smirk. She hugged me a bit tighter and wiggled a fraction of a millimeter closer. "Well", I sigh. "I was not, nor am I, an unwilling victim. And, at this point I suppose that the lecture on the effects of this relationship on her social life with the other kids at school for the next 7-8 years will fall on deaf ears." Then, holding Jenny a little ways away so I could look directly into her face. "To make it a formal statement -- I love you and want to keep you, and you can keep me for as long as you want me. We just need to figure out how do do it without getting in trouble with the muggles." That got me a long serious kiss. After a moment I reluctantly pried her off and arranged her back plastered to my side. "OK, you seven conspirators. You must have given some thought about how to pull this off." Tony cleared his throat. "Yes, we've discussed some possibilities, Dianne and I. Then brought the older and wiser heads in to refine the plans. Dianne found Jenny crying in her room after a tutoring session a couple of weeks ago. A bit of cuddling and gentle questioning determined that she really wanted to keep you and couldn't see how. She figured, as did you, that as soon as the tutoring finished, she wouldn't be able to keep seeing you regularly. Even if she managed to stay in your D&D group, that regular time alone with you would be gone." Tony stopped and leaned back, nodding at his mother. She took the floor. "I admit that when first approached, I was rather in favor of that outcome. But after some discussion with Dianne and a fair amount of wheedling by Jenny I came to see it differently. As I'm sure you have observed, Jenny is in the very top bracket for intelligence. I haven't run her through the Mensa tests, but I would guess that she is up near the super Mensa level -- in the top half of one percent. You aren't quite at that level. Merely well into the top two percent as are the rest of us here. For the purposes of breeding top line great-grandchildren, potential fathers at that level aren't common. Ones that exhibit your levels of ethics, tolerance and people skills are scarcer yet. If we put the kibosh on your relationship, the odds of her choosing another with your qualifications are not good. One must always consider the bird in hand vs. the those in the bush. Yes, the age difference is a big negative. As is her youth, But that's about the only negatives that I can see. And, in 25 years when you have a kid her size, those issues will be of much less importance." I considered a moment. "That sounds a bit cold and calculating. Doesn't the happiness of your granddaughter come into the equation?" "Calculating, absolutely", she replied. "Cold I would take issue with. And," with a gesture at Jenny, still glued to my side, "that one doesn't look unhappy to me." "And, it is the duty of the elders of the clan to look to the future and do what they can to see that the tribe prospers over generations. From that angle, your potential children are of more importance than you are. Although, you and Jenny will be evaluated for full membership in the clan, and in the fullness of time may sit in this seat in your turn." I raised a brow. "Clan? Full membership? And it sounds like you know much more about me than I would have supposed." She considered for a moment. "We are being much more open with you than is typical for a potential spouse for one of our children. Your age is a bit on the high end, although not extreme for adoption into the families. Jenny's, of course is quite low, although not unprecedented." At my questioning look, she continued. "What I speak of as the families have a history going back for centuries. We are pretty low key -- wealthy without being conspicuous. Few major historical figures. Know as what we are in select circles. In the normal course of events, Jenny would have learned about the families a bit at a time. When she got to 18 or so, she would have been gently let to know that there would be significant advantages to choosing a partner that the elders approved of. Up to now, she has known us as grandparents and other branches of the families as friends. She had no need to know that there was more. We are having this discussion because it seemed to us that you have the potential to be worth the trouble, and the chance of negative side effects is acceptably low. To answer the third part of your question, Fred and I came to the conclusion that Jenny was serious about the long term a month or so ago. We checked around a bit, and during the last couple of weeks have done some serious snooping into your life. If we wished to give you trouble, we are loaded for bear. Your lifestyle has been atypical, to put it gently." She held up a hand as I started to speak, her son had obviously learned the gesture from her. "We stand by the pledge that Tony gave you at the beginning. We will not use that information to your disadvantage at this time. In fact, all but the public parts will be shredded tomorrow, regardless of the outcome of this evening. And, at the very worst, the penalties for our disfavor will be passive rather than active. We won't assist you and Jenny to associate as a couple. We won't use connections to get you chances at opportunities for career advancement -- either one of you. And many other things that we might have done but wouldn't. Not that we are currently contemplating such a scenario. For now you and your relationship with Jenny have our provisional approval. As I said earlier, you appear to have potential, and are worth cultivating in the foreseeable future. Incidentally, that dining room set is quite the impressive piece of furniture. The way you acquired it and restored it is a part of why I choose to vote for you." She sat back, and looked at Tony, clearly yielding the floor. He laughed gently. "Boy oh boy, mom, you seem to have your matriarch hat on tight this evening." She leaned across the gap between them and cuffed him gently on the back of the head. "You should address your matriarch as 'Madam', not 'mom'. The dignity of the office you know. At any rate, I don't often get to do it for this kind of task. Usually when I don the mantle, the duty is unpleasant or worse." Jenny was still pressed to my side, but her full attention was focused on her grandmother. Apparently she hadn't seen Alma in full matriarch mode before. "So, Dad -- or should I say 'Patriarch, Sir' since I just got told off in the matter of respect, would you care to to address the matter of membership in the families.", Tony said with a twinkle in his eyes. "I'll 'Sir' you, you young whipper-snapper." his father growled, but without any force behind it. Then addressing me, "As of this moment, you are offered the status of provisional junior member of the families. There is no public name for this group, and among ourselves, 'The families' is the term generally used. As you might surmise, we", gesturing at Bill and Sarah, and including Alma,"are the nominal heads of two of the branches. Most, but not all of our children and siblings are also members. If you maintain your status, over time you will meet others. We encourage out breeding, thence you. This necessitates methods of disciplining and/or removing unsuitable members in ways that avoid open conflict, and methods of dealing with those conflicts when they arise. We have become quite adept at both." I took this as the information and mild threat that it clearly was. He continued, "For the near future, what this means is that you will be included in our 'Old boy's club' as a very junior member. If you participate, you will gain bits of info and have opportunities pointed out to you that you might not have had otherwise. If you work out well, and our definition of well is pretty loose, over time you will be encouraged to more active and challenging roles. Unlike that secret set of families in the last Spider Robinson/Heinlein novel, we have no interest in pushing you to be anything but the best you can become. We may point out opportunities, and suggest alternative career paths, but you and Jenny will be the ones to decide. At any rate, nothing very spectacular for a while. Just little opportunities that can add up over time. For instance, expect a meeting with your doctoral advisers sometime in the next few weeks. You have been letting your thesis slide a bit and need to get back on track. What you get here is a nudge and a bit of encouragement, whereas previously, they might have let it, and you slide. This would not have been to your advantage." I winced a bit and nodded. "Your only 'required' duty for the time being is to do your part in keeping the families low profile. In other words, it would be greatly appreciated if this discussion was not mentioned outside of this group. And to your benefit as well." "The first test. And another mild threat.", I mused. He nodded. "How do you know about Greg's thesis, grandpa?", Jenny asked. He addressed her directly. "I know people who know people. And after your application to gain him entry to the families, I took an interest. Not too surprisingly your other grandfather was the main source of info on this subject.", he replied. Then to us, clearly including Jenny, "Any questions?" "I made an application?", Jenny asked. He looked at her, "Well, what would you call your talk with your mother two weeks ago? We had become aware of Greg from your bubbling before that, enough to give it a bit of thought. When your mother spoke up for you, we elected to treat it as a formal application, much the same as if you were 20 and had a guy in University you were considering." She slid off the chair and went across and hugged him. "Thanks, grandpa". Then going to each of the other grandparents, she hugged and thanked them as well, obviously understanding that the decision was across the board. Alma slipped her matriarch mantle back on and held Jenny at arms length for a moment. "You do us proud lass. Your campaign to acquire Greg was well planned and executed. And, it appears, successful. Some time in the next few weeks, Sarah and I want to have you for a day. I think going over your campaign in detail and critiquing it would be worth the time and trouble. However, for a first try, very well done." Jenny backed up a step and curtsied to her grandmother. "Thank you for your kind words, Madam matriarch. I will hold them in my heart." Alma snorted and cuffed her on the side of the head. The blow might well have damaged a mosquito if it were in a bad position. "Smart alec kid." Jenny straightened up and grinned at her, gave and got another quick hug, then came back to me and snuggled into place at my side Alma looked at me with a bit of a wink. I suspected that Jenny had just become matriarch-in-training. Training would probably last 40-50 years, but you have to start somewhere. Tony took the floor again. "A possible plan for the next few years. Jenny -- You have just graduated, about 6 years early, to the status of being able to kill someone by being careless. Most kids don't reach that status till they start to drive. A careless word or action, perhaps in anger, could get Greg arrested and convicted. If convicted as a child molester, it is not at all unlikely that he would die in prison. Actually, you have been in this position for the last couple of months. So, as a further condition for you, within a week you will bring me a report on the living conditions and projected life expectancy of an upper-middle class man that is convicted of molesting a child. Greg should be a participant/resource in the project, but you will write it. Do you understand this and accept the responsibility for Greg's freedom and life?" Jenny gulped a bit and nodded. "I think I need a verbal response.", her father prodded. "Yes sir, I understand and will comply.", she said. He continued, "From this this time forward, your public face with Greg will be modeled after a favorite Uncle and beloved niece relationship. Gentle hugs and the occasional kiss on the cheek. For the next year or so, you can hold his hand in public. But as you get older, holding hands with your uncle will be a bit embarrassing and you will stop doing it. Clothing should be modeled after the mid range of your peers. Nice, but not noteworthy. If this brands you as a bit of a prude among your peers, so be it. Time you are twelve, you will sit across from him a restaurant instead of beside in a booth unless we are with you, in which case you will sit in your spot, not touching on him. Your public face will be well within the role of a good little girl that has no sexual thoughts whatsoever towards him. Failure to follow this model in letter and in spirit will be grounds for revocation of visiting rights for Greg. On the positive side. In private, you will be considered a couple. We will cede Greg most parental rights -- he will be able to take you with him as opportunity presents, and will be able to sign for hospital care or other needed permissions." "Do you agree to these conditions, Jenny?", her father asked. "Yes sir, I understand and agree.", she answered. "Greg, in this matter, we will require communication if you and Jenny are going to go out. Email and answering machine will do. Discussion in advance or a direct phone call when possible will be greatly appreciated. Keep in mind that the public face applies to you even more than Jenny, although I don't anticipate much problem with your public behavior. There is a room on the same floor as Jenny's that is now yours. Far away enough from hers to maintain appearances with guests. We will give you a set of keys to the house tonight. From this point forward, you have a place at our table. Again, communication on meal plans will reduce friction with the cook. She may spend D&D evenings at your place. Although bringing her home most nights would probably be good for appearances. Jenny, you will receive an increase of allowance of $200 per month. The intent is for it to be a small household budget, to be spent as a couple." He paused for a moment, "Greg, is this acceptable to you. Little of it is cast in stone, mostly it's a suggested plan that is open to discussion." I thought for a couple of minutes. "Let's say that I agree provisionally. This is quite a hunk to digest. I would like to let it set and soak for at least a couple of days. I'm sure that questions will come to the surface that I don't see at the moment. Also, there are facets of my life that I haven't shared with Jenny. That she needs to know if we are going to be a long term couple. I will agree without reservation to the public face policy with Jenny, and to the confidentiality of the existence of information about your extended family." I paused for another minute or so. The six of them waited with no indication of impatience. "Would it be possible to reconvene this meeting in a few days? That will let me think things through, format questions, and have some discussion with Jenny. And let things soak for her as well." Tony looked at the others. "How about a week from today, same time? Anyone have a serious conflict?" A bit of checking and he had a general consensus that the meeting date would be fine. "Ok then, one last bit just to add to the load of whelm on you, Greg, Jenny. Here are copies of the marriage agreement that the families use. You will note that there is no limit on the number, nor gender of spouses in a family unit, and that there are provisions for any individual to opt out of the agreement on written notice. Although this agreement will not be legally binding in civil courts, by family custom, enforced by the elders, conformance to the agreement, once signed, is a condition for membership in the families. It is our suggestion that the two of you enter into a formal period of engagement, and then, if you both still wish it, a formal signing if the contract in about a year and a half, when Jenny turns 12, in view of a subset of family members. To all intents and purposes, a marriage, although not one that will be recognized by the mundanes. For you Greg, for all practical purposes, marriage in this form to an existing family member is a condition for advancement beyond the provisional status of your family membership." He handed us two envelopes. I took them on our behalf. Then to the group as a whole, "Any further business for this evening?" Pause -- "Hearing none, I declare this meeting adjourned." ************************************************* Chapter 2 -- Becoming a couple. Diane came over to Jenny and me. "Stay for a bit please, Greg. I would have a word with the two of you. You will probably be more comfortable on the subject with a more limited audience." In ten minutes, the grandparents and aunt had gone and Tony had gone upstairs to check on Jeremy. Diane sat down and looked at us. "Ok, you two. What have you been doing about birth control?" I had seen this one coming, and didn't react too much. Jenny blushed and ducked her head for a moment. Then, still blushing, looked her mother in the eye. "Condoms and foam, mummy.", she said. "Good", said Dianne. I was somewhat afraid that you had been working on the assumption that since you hadn't reached menarche, that you were safe. This is probably true for a few more months, perhaps more than a year -- but not something I would want to bet on, given the stakes. Ten year olds do show up pregnant on occasion. You should note the the first menses announces that you were fertile a couple of weeks ago. The first egg will show up without warning. If sperm is waiting for it, you will never have a period before pregnancy." She paused a moment. "I'll make an appointment with your doctor for you to get an implant sometime next week. Probably should get one of the home pregnancy test kits and check this weekend just in case. You had better practice abstinence for a couple of days before the appointment. The lady is pretty cool, but if the evidence is too blatant, she might feel forced to report it. Best to avoid putting that pressure on her." Another pause. "She will certainly insist on a pelvic exam. The fact that you have been sexually active will be fairly obvious at that time. I think I will loan you a few of my toys, then if pressed, you can admit to the Dr. to having found and tried them. That should give her a story she can officialy accept." "Anything else on this subject from you two?", she asked. Jenny shook her head. "Not for now", I said. "I think that going to my house for a bit, and getting some clothes and things would be worthwhile. I don't expect to be able to escape my captor for a few days, given that she now has official permission to associate with me. That will give an opportunity to tell Jenny some more of my background as well. Perhaps two hours? That will put us back here around 9:00." "Sounds fine. Let's go up and check out your room and I'll get you a set of keys." *************************************************** As we drove towards my house I looked over at Jenny. She was sitting as prescribed, in her seat with the belt on. She was, however looking at me with a quite posessive look. "You had better tone that down a bit when we get out of the car. Angie and Danny may be watching. And while they are cool, and will most likely twig to our relationship pretty soon, you just as well start practicing your public face at all times." She grinned and made a show of looking out the windows as I drove. We arrived and she bounced out, grabbing the house key from me and ran up to the door and opened it. I followed her inside and closed the door. I was immedialty attacked by a very aggressively lustful girl. I held her and kissed her for a minute or two. The, rather reluctantly, I put her down and said, "Well love, I think I had better insist on a little while of further business. There are things about me that you need to know before we get in any deeper. I don't expect you to run and scream, but you should be given the opportunity." "Is there anything worse than your sister and niece?", she asked. At my look, "Vanessa told me some of what you said about them." "Not really, and if you have been speculating on my relationship with them, just getting it out in the open will probably be sufficient." "Let's sit down in the lounge for a bit and I'll lay it out for you" We went into the front room and I insisted that she sit facing me instead of in my lap. "As you know, I have a sister, Susan, she of the fearsome right hook, and niece, Christine. What I haven't mentioned is that Sue and I have been lovers off and on for about 22 years." Jenny started calculating on that one and her eyes widened. "You were six years old?" "Yep, and Sue was twelve. She taught me to lick her and she sucked me. She had been nursing me occasionally for a year or more before. We worked at fucking some, but I was small enough that it didn't do a whole lot for either one of us for a few years. The kissing, licking, snuggling and petting was pretty good for both of us though." "When whas the last time -- are you still doing it?", she asked. "A couple of weeks ago.", I answered. "Are you going to keep doing it with her.", her eyes narrowed a bit. "That is the main purpose of this discussion. we can quit. Sue will be cool with it and, while sex with her is very good, I'm not in love with her in the same way that I am with you. I will miss it, but not pine for it." I took a deep breath, "However, there is one more bit to deal with here. About three years ago, Chris came into the bedroom while Sue and I were busy. Sue was pretty cool about it, and Chris wanted to play too. Somewhat like with you, we didn't use a real big stick to try to drive her off and one thing led to another. She and I have been fucking for over a year now." Jenny's eyes definitly widened at that statement. "Yes, she was six. She had been planning on it for her birthday for months. Sue got her a set of dildos that started real small and allowed her to work up and stretch her vagina over several weeks so she would be ready." "You shouldn't try to answer now. In a few days I will take you to meet Sue and Chris, then we will re-open this discussion. Whatever we decide on this issue, they can be on the inside about our relationship. In fact, it would be futile to try to keep it from Sue unless we move far away and don't associate with them at all. And I really don't want to do that." "What about your parents?", Jenny asked. "Well, fortunatly, they live in a different city, and we won't need to admit to our lifestyle for a while. I don't see dad accepting you with any joy at all until you're of legal age. Not so sure about mom. It seems as if she must have been aware of Sue and I, and choose to not see it so long as we kept it pretty quiet. I may be maligning her, perhaps dad too -- but I don't plan to openly present you as my fiance to them till you are 16 at least. On the other hand, mom has been pressuring me more than a bit to find a wife and make grandkids. She may be to the point that anything of the correct gender, sort of human and fertile will do. At any rate, we definitly want to consult with Sue on that one and have her on our side." Jenny was quiet for a couple of minutes. "Ok, I'll wait till we visit your sister." A bit longer, then -- "What about Vanessa. Do you want to keep seeing her too?" "That one is mostly your call. I like Vanessa, had somewhat promised to be her first when I took her home after the pre-teen slut show you two put on the first day, but never thought of her as a long term lover. We pretty well delivered on the 'first time' bit when she was here last month, so that promise is fulfilled. My first thought is that she would add much to the risks, and not enough to our lives to make it a good bet. Certainly this one isn't something to be decided tonight. Unless you dump her as a friend, she too will figure out what we are doing. Just telling her that I am your boyfriend and you don't want to share will probably be good enough for her. I don't think she ever expected to have me long term. On the other hand, if you want to contemplate her as a co-wife, I wouldn't immediately say no." Another several minute pause while Jenny thought. "Well, I suppose that you have done a lot of things in your life that you haven't told me about." "Quite true. Some of them I will tell you about over time. Some of them I won't. Some of the stories could hurt others, and therefore won't be shared. The ones like the girl guides and the hairy bum, I will tell you about as they occure to me. A bit embarrassing at the time, but telling tales like that one won't do anything worse than making one of the girls blush if they hear about it. To make a small start, I lied to you a bit when I told you about the tooth brush incident with Christine. Her real words were 'Oh, pooh. It was almost happening. You'll have to finish it with your mouth, Uncle Greg.' So, I did. We had a fine time." Jenny giggled at the thought. "Are we done now, Greg", she asked. "We are, for now, love.", I replied. "There are other things you need to know about me, but Sue and Chris are the big ones that might have been a show stopper. Things in the past can mostly be left there, but they are family, and we will need to deal with them for years. You needed to know what the situation is and what you were buying into." "In that case," she said with a sultry look of lust. "You have to do me with your mouth. It's been more than a week." "I can do that.", I said with a grin, and held my arms out. "We better make it a quickie though, we told your mom that we would be back by around 9." Later that night, snuggled in bed with a well fucked naked girl wrapped around me asleep, I marveled an how my life had changed in a few hours. It had never occured to me that the present situation was even a faint possiblity. The thought of making application to Tony and Dianne to continue seeing Jenny had popped up and been immediatly rejected as suicidal. Now here we were with not only parental, but grandparental approval. Incredible!! ===================================================== Chapter 3 -- Meeting with Susan and Christine. Jenny and I were both on school breaks, so we had more time together. As a graduate assistant, I had duties, but during the break more flexibility in my schedule. The Saturday after the meeting with Jenny's ancestors, I invited Susan and Christine to my house for dinner. I told Sue that I had news, but didn't hint at what it was. Jenny and I had cleaned house and had dinner preparations started when they arrived at around 3. As was usual, the moment the car stopped in the driveway, Christine jumped out and ran up, opened the door and came charging into the house. She leaped into my arms and gave me a kiss. "Hi, Uncle Greg. I've missed you", she said. Then looking at Jenny, "Who's she?" Susan came through the door, closing it behind her. She took in the scene. Jenny came over to me and put an arm around my waist. I shifted Chris to the opposite hip and wrapped my free arm around Jenny's shoulder. Sue's eyes widened a bit and she grinned. "This, I surmise, is the news.", gesturing at Jenny. "May I present Jennifer Gormley, my probable fiance, Jenny, Susan and Christine Parry. Sue reverted to her maiden name when she divorced." Sue frankly gawked. "*Probable* fiance?", after a moment. "Well, meeting you and Chris, and coming to some sort of accommodation is one of the requirements for removal of the provisional status. I told her a bit about our relationship. Since I didn't figure that it would remain secret in the long run, it seemed to me that bringing it out up front was the least bad method of dealing with the subject." A moment more, "*Fiance?*" "It was at least as much of a shock to me as it is to you. Probably more. I was invited to a most unexpected meeting with her parents and grandparents earlier this week. The upshot was that I was judged to be of good breeding stock and the position of son-in-law was offered. Turns out that Jenny, although she didn't quite realize it at the time was the initiator of the offer." Sue looked at us for a moment, then like the top flight lawyer that she is, visibly chose to accept the situation as it was, rather than what she had expected. She took in Jenny's arm around me and somewhat challenging look, and made a deep bow. "Well met, Jennifer Gormley. I hereby cede to you all rights to Greg as boyfriend and husband. In addition, I pledge to you that, for so long as you are an active significant other in Greg's life, that I will not engage in any sexual activity with him without your express permission. With your permission, I would like to retain status as big sister." The with a wry smile, "You don't have to pee on his leg to mark him, Jenny. I acknowledge your claim and do not challenge your status with Greg. You are unexpected, but very welcome none the less." Another small bow, "Congratulations. His mother and I had nearly given up hope that some girl would manage to tie him down." Jenny studied her for a long moment. Then took her arm from my waist and stepped forward a step. She curtsied to Susan. "Welcome to our household, Susan Parry. I welcome you as future sister-in-law and friend." Susan looked at her, then at me. I shrugged, "You started it." Sue stuck out her tongue at me. I continued, "She learned to read from Shakespeare's Macbeth. At three. So far as I know, she only reads books with words in them, mostly just English words, but that includes the complete works of Shakespeare and Heinlein. She also took to the D&D game like a pig to mud. She's up to a 10th level thief already." The "pig to mud" comment gained me an elbow in the ribs. I made a show of it being a much harder blow that she delivered." I looked at them for a moment. "Well, since the two of you have decided not to be immediate enemies, would you care to sit down? -- anything to drink?" "I'll take a Fosters, if you have one handy.", Sue replied. "Do you want a soda, Honey.", she asked Chris. As I went thru the door into the kitchen, I asked, "You want something too Jen?" "Can I have a Foster's with you and Sue?", she asked. An instant of thought, "OK." I put Chris down and got four bottles from the fridge. I opened them and handed Chris hers. Carrying the other three I returned and handed them out. Jenny took a sip of hers and paused with a small grimace. "It is an accquired taste.", I said, suppressing a smile. "I take it that your beer drinking experience is a bit limited?" "Yeah, this is the first except for a few sips of Dad's." "Go get a stick of pepperoni from the kitchen. A small bite of that, and a sip of Foster's go together pretty well." She stood and asked, "You guys want one too?" Sue and I both declined. While Jenny was getting her pepperoni antidote to the bitterness of the hops, I went to our bedroom and got one of the marrage contracts and a dollar. When I came back in, Chris was studying Jenny. She asked, "What's a fancy?" "That's a Fiance", I corrected her pronunciation. "It means that we are planning to get married someday." She looked at me for a moment. "You're my Uncle. Is she my Aunt now?" I glanced at Jenny. From the look on her face, it was pretty obvious that *that* angle hadn't occured to her." Sue was watching with a hint of a smile on her face, clearly waiting to see how I was going to handle this one. I couldn't resist. "Well, Aunt Jenny, what do you think of your new title." Jenny's expression was starting to move from surprise to a bit appalled. Sue rescued her. "It would seem to me that it shouldn't be a public title for a few years yet. So, Chris -- like our games with Uncle Greg, Jenny will only be your aunt when there are no muggles about. And for today, you will have to keep your muggle face on. Jenny and Greg are still learning how to be married, and I don't think Jenny is ready to share him with you yet. He's still your Uncle Greg, just for now, public behavior only." Christine looked at Sue. "OK, mamma." She held up her arms to be picked up again, kissed me on the cheek and snuggled onto my shoulder. Sue addressed Jenny, "Will that plan be acceptable to you. That will give you and Greg a few weeks to shake down, then we can re-open the subject. We will need to formulate a policy for Greg's, and your, future relationship with Chris, but that will do, I think, for today." Jenny thought for a moment. "The 'Aunt' is a bit of a shock. I hadn't thought about that. Aunts are old ladies." Another somewhat wry smile from Sue. "Like me, I suppose." Jenny, realizing her faux pas, started to apologize. Sue stopped her. "That's quite alright Jenny. You will find as you grow older that at any time, middle age is 15-25 years older than your current age, old is more than 25. This will go on till you reach middle age at 75 or so and look up to notice that there aren't a whole lot of old folks left standing." Jenny considered that one, and giggled. "I suppose something like that. I never really thought about it and tried to quantize it before." I reached out and handed the dollar to Sue. She raised an eyebrow. "A retainer to establish privilege.", I answered. "On behalf of Jenny and myself, I ask you to put your lawyer hat on for a bit and read this document and examine it for gotcha's and loopholes. If nothing else, I expect you to find it quite interesting. I did." "Sue turned to the first page and started reading. I sat down next to Jenny and Chris climbed into my lap on the other side. She told us about her week and about the kids in her gymnastics group while Sue read. Sue looked up at us. The document was only four pages. "This is a rather interesting, as you said. Three things stand out to me. First, it is written very clearly. It appears as if it was drafted and polished to be as clear as possible to laymen, and with no ambiguities that I can see. Second, did the two of you notice the similarity with the family contracts that Heinlein wrote about?" Jenny and I agreed. "I rather suspect that similarity is not coincidental. I don't know if Robert was able to examine a copy, or if the agreement has been updated reciently to incorporate some of his ideas. Not that it really matters, but I will ask.", I said. Sue continued, "Third is the content. Again, this document gives structure to what should be a practical and long term relationship. Along with explicit conditions for disolving the marrage without conflict. Admittedly, humans are very good at creating conflict, but the older and wiser heads should be able to hold this agreement up, and force a resolution with minimal destruction. I'll meditate on it for a while and re-read it later, but my first opinion is that you can enter into this contract with Jenny and her family with my blessing as a lawyer." "How about as a big sister?", I asked. "On that one, I need to let it set for a while. You definitly managed to blindside me on this, and I don't feel at all ready to answer yet." Mostly addressing Jenny, "I'm not feeling negative about it at the moment, in fact, my inner child is jumping up and down with glee. But, still, I've learned, upon occasion quite painfully, to let things like this settle for a few days, then re-examine them." I sat up. "So, on that note, is anyone getting hungry. Keep in mind that it will take a bit to get the barby going and the steaks to cook." General agreement and I dumped Chris on the floor and got up. Steaks all around, a dozen sliced apples, a big bowl of buttered popcorn and two more Foster's each for Sue and I, and we were back in the lounge. Jenny had finished her first bottle, gotten a fair buzz from it given her much smaller body mass, and with a gentle hint from me, had declined more. She and I, and Sue and Chris had shared the last bottles for the evening which refreshed Jenny's buzz a bit without pushing either of them towards drunk. I was sitting with Jenny snuggled against one side and Chris on the other with an arm around each. Sue looked at us and smiled. "Thank you very much, Jenny.", she said. Jenny looked at her, clearly not understanding the reason for the remark. She looked at me and I shrugged, not following Sue's thoughts either. Jenny looked back at Sue with a questioning look. Sue gestured at us, "That's the happiest and most contented I've seen my little brother in a very long time. I knew that he has been a bit stressed the last month or so. Today has pretty well explained why, but even before he met you he seemed a bit discontent most of the time. Not tonight though." I shrugged, "How could I not be content in the company of the three women that I love most?" "Well,", she said with a hint of snark, "Two weeks ago, two out of three didn't seem quite enough." "Truth.", I admitted. With a extra squeeze for Jenny, "This one is just about the most wonderful thing that has happened to me in, as you put it, a very long time. I think I'll just keep her." That got me a hard hug and a few tears on my shirt. "What if I mess up? I never had a real boyfriend before.", Jenny said, somewhat mulffled in my shirt. I hugged her tigher. "You'll do fine. You managed to drag me this far." Sue frowned a bit. "May I offer a bit of unsolicited big sisterly advice?" she asked Jenny. Jenny nodded, still with her cheek on my side. "Speaking as an elder of 34 years -- as an ex wife who was at least partially at fault for the breakup of my marrage, and as a divorce lawyer who gets to watch a vast multitude of ways that people can manage to destroy relationships. First off, you *will* mess up. No way around it. You're a human, a girl, and 10 years old -- therefor lacking in experience. You will have problems." A bit of a cloud crossed Jenny's features, Sue held up a hand to forstall objections, "I'm not trying to call you a little kid. You are taking an adult role, and doing quite well in it." Jenny relaxed a bit. "Secondly, so long as you appear to be trying to make it work, Greg will forgive much -- which means, that to keep him thinking that way, you really will need to be trying to make the relationship work. On the flip side, you will need to be prepared to forgive Greg his trespasses on the same basis. Believe me, he will mess up on occasion. If you want, you can ask me later for examples." I put an appehensive look on my face. Sue laughed at me, Jenny joining her. Sue continued, "Thirdly, I have found five steps, if done with sincerity and alacricy can repair almost all hicups in a relationship. This lecture applies to you too, Greg. Among other things, I will be holding you to a higher standard than Jenny. 1) Admit to yourself that you made an error. 2) Confess to your partner that you made the error. This should be done as soon as reasonably possible. Delay will not improve things. 3) Take active steps to mitigate the harm done by the error. 4) If you feel that your partner has made an error, say something. They may not have realized that you have a problem. This can be done in a way that communicates your concerns, but does not attack the partner. Especially on this last step, I will volunteer to be a coach and moderator if you feel the need. If nothing else, as a big sister, I am used to having Greg mad at me because of telling him things that he didn't want to hear. (He returns the favor upon occasion, our relationship is pretty symmetrical that way.) Then one more step -- as the partner of the one who erred, be prepared to forgive the trespass and especially to leave sleeping hatchets buried. Put the problem behind you and go forward. An addendum. Don't sweat the small stuff. Most of it is small stuff, looked at later. Although, later may be a few years." Jenny thought about this for a bit, then nodded. "I'll try. It sounds hard." "It can be very hard. Sometimes you will be quite angry at Greg. Sometimes when you are, you will be justified in that anger. But speaking from somewhat bitter personal experience, letting that anger rule your actions will hurt you far more than it will hurt him. For so long as you want to try to fix things instead of throwing it all away, when you get angry, just step back. Let things settle for a while. Go to your grandmothers. Come to me. It can probably be fixed if you want it to be. If not, it can probably be ended without hate." Sue paused a moment for thought, "A real marrage requires work every day. It requires commitment to fixing problems as they arise. Most important, for both of you. Let the other know, frequently, that you like them and that your life is made better by the other's presence in it. 'I like you.' is far more important than 'I love you.' if you are planning for decades." I gazed down at Jenny and freed my arm from Chris. I reached down and tipped Jenny's face up a bit. "What she just said. I've been happier the last few days than I have been in years. I didn't realize how much 'till she pointed it out." I leaned down and kissed her gently on the lips. A couple of days later Sue called and gave her official sisterly blessing on the relationship. *************************************************** Chapter 4 -- The Betrothal. The next week, Jenny and I met with the elders as scheduled. At her firm request, I did her hair up an 12 strand round braid that started well up on the sides and top of her head, then merged into a tapering rope that went down her back. She had gone through my wardrobe, insisted we go shopping for a few additions, then chosen her clothing to fit with mine. I suspected a bit of collaboration with her mother, but all in all she achieved a look of pre-teen business garb. She was wearing makeup, this time done properly -- I was certain of her mothers and perhaps grandmothers hand in it's application. We came in together, Jenny by my side, head up and confident. We greeted the others, then sat in the same chair as before, except this time Jenny was sitting upright, touching me along the length of her body, but clearly not clinging like last week. Her grandmothers took this in with a twinkle of approval, and managed to include Dianne in the compliment with a side glance. The grandfathers and Tony were openly grinning at our show. Tony formally opened the meeting, then asked us, "Do you have any questions or discussion from last weeks meeting?" "We do." I answered. "First, you suggested entering into the family marriage contract when Jenny turns 12. Is there some significance to this date?" Professor Williams answered, "There is. By family custom going back at least 500 years, 12 is the minimum age to make binding commitments between members of the families. That would be the soonest that Jenny could commit herself in this matter, the marrage could happen at that time, or at some later date mutualy agreed upon." I paused for a moment. "You suggested that we enter into a formal betrothal in the interem. I would assume therefore that Jenny is permitted to do so, even though she is less than twelve?" Professor Williams nodded. "Again, in the past there have been betrothals with much younger principals than her. Your case is only unusual in that we are accepting co-habitation during the betrothal." With a mild wry grimace, "Mostly acknowedging an existing situation rather than forcing the two of you to attempt to sneak around behind our backs." "What then, are the terms and customs for a betrothal between the two of us.", I asked. "First requirement is for the approval of the parents. You not a current member of the families and are old enough to do that in your own right, and", gesturing at Tony and Dianne, "you may assume their approval for Jenny." Second, the approval of a quorum of the elders of the families. For this purpose, the four of us will suffice. Third, a statement by each of you, stating your commitment to enter into this betrothal to the parents and the elders. For a very young family member, a parent would make this statment. Jenny is well beyound the threshold for making that statement in her own person. Your", he gestured at Jenny and me, "obligations will be to live by the terms of the familiy marriage contract for the duration of the betrothal. In addition, to continue co-habitation, you must abide by the conditions set fourth by her father last week or as re-negotiated at some future time. The betrothal may be ended at any time by either of you, acting alone, or by any two of the six of us. It is not required that those choosing to end the betrothal give a reason. If we end it, we may be required to justify our actions to our peers. We will not have to justify them to you. If one of you wishes to end the betrothal, a statement to that effect to any two of us is sufficient. If we choose to end it, two or more of the six of us, acting together, will so state to each of you." He paused a moment. "Any further questions in this matter?" I looked at Jenny with a raised brow. She shook her head. I looked back at him. "No sir, not at this time." "Are the two of you prepared to become betrothed at this time?", he asked. "We are", we answered. "Then, do you, Jennifer Lynn Gormley, willingly betroth yourself to Greg, to be married sometime after your twelveth birthday?" "It is my sincere wish to do so, Grandfather.", she replied. I wondered if she had been coached a bit by her parents. Even for her, that phrasing seemed a bit pat. A definite twinkle at his granddaughter by Professor Williams, and he turned to me. "Do you, Gregory Stephen Parry, willingly betroth yourself to Jenny, to be married sometime after her twelfth birthday?" Following her lead, "It is my sincere wish to do so, Grandfather Williams." "Then, as a quorum of the elders of the families and her parents, we recognize this betrothal and welcome the two of you as a couple." "Welcome to our family, Greg-n-Jenny." Jenny looked at me. I shrugged. "Not a formal title, but in many circles, that will become our name. It sort of is already with the D&D bunch." She thought a moment and grinned. "It is, isn't it. Cool.", then reaching up to grab my lapels, she pulled my head down to where she could reach and gave me a very serious, if brief, kiss. Sarah Williams came over to us and exchanged hugs with her granddaughter, then me. "You treat him right, you hear now, Jenny." "Yes, Grandmother, as you instruct", a small curtsy from Jenny. "Impudent child.", from her grandparent. The to the both of us. "I assume you would like to be able to be together in public some of the time?" Agreement and a questioning look from both of us. "I suggest then, Jenny, that you learn bridge. Greg is a fair, if intermittent duplicate player. The local duplicate clubs have games more times a week than you could possibly attend. It's a venue where you could do something together and have the little old ladies coo over how cute of a couple you make instead of viewing Greg as a possible pervert. Some of the faculty groups play as well. A more active participation there by you would not harm your status at the university, Greg. Just coincidentally, I happen to know someone who would be willing to coach the pair of you." A modest smile, and a hand to her breast. I had played against, and once with Sarah in local games. She was one of the local experts. The only reason she wasn't better known outside of the local area was that she didn't travel to play very often. Going along with the gag, I put a look of fear on my face. "Flee Jenny!! The little old bridge ladies are attempting to lure you into their clutches. Save yourself, I will hold the pass for as long as I may." That got me, as expected, a brief round of laughter by the group and a token cuff on the ear. Then, more seriously, "That is a good idea. What do you think, Jenny?" Jenny looked at her grandmother with a bit of a frown and a sigh, "I fear you are correct beloved. She has been attempting to seduce me into her addiction for several years. And now, she has discovered my weakness -- I fear I must succum to her wiles." Then a hug for Sarah, "Thank you grandma. I'll give it a try." Alma then caught our attention. At my look, she smiled. "Relax Greg, I have my grandmother hat on for the moment, not the matriarch mantle." Then, to put a bit of a lie to the statement, she caught Tony's eye. "Grab your wife and attend us for a moment please." Tony and Dianne came over. "To stick my oar into your lives a bit, since Sarah had her turn.", she said. "What do you think of Jenny leaving the public school system and going into an accelerated program. About half home school, and half working in small classes sponsored mostly by the families. If she works at it, she should be at the university level by 14 or 15. To dangle the carrot, that would make a public marrage at 16 or 17 less controversial. The two down sides I see for you, Jenny are that you will be moving away from your current set of classmates and friends, and the amount of school work you will need to accomplish will be much greater. On the flip side, you will be with other kids that are closer to as bright as you, and you will still be seeing the some of the current group with your gymnastics, football and Brownies. And, while you will be expected to put more effort into your learning, in the current setup, your time is not well spent. You just managed a full year's math and science in the last four months -- I don't get the impression that you found that too onerous." Jenny looked thoughtful. Dianne put in, "We had been considering the possibility. That last school was pretty bad for a smart kid. Greg pretty well repaired the worst of the damage and has her coming along, but even this school isn't what we had hoped for. That's one reason we kept Greg on for the full four months, to see how Jenny would do for a longer period at that pace." Alma looke at me. "For another wave of the carrot, as head of what passes as the school board for the system, I plan to offer you an instructor position. It's part time, they all are. We have found that getting a working stiff to teach what they know and work with is much better than an 'accredited professional teacher'. We do try to get top line working stiffs." Jenny looked more interested by the moment. "Would Greg be one of my teachers?" "Like as not.", her grandmother replied. "Since in this system, the adults in your life are expected to participate, he definitly will be involved. Quite likely, you would attend some of the classes he would formally teach as well." "What kind of classes did you have in mind for me?", I asked. "That's negotiable. First thought is what you were doing with Jenny. Math, science and deportment. Might as well throw computer science in with that, I hear you have skills in that area as well. As much as anything, how to learn and how to think. We try to keep the classes closely grouped for skill levels. Kids might range from eight to full teen. Grade levels from a bit below where you found Jenny thru mid undergrad college." "And what would be the format and working environment?" "Again, varies and negotiable. Typical class size is 3 to 8. Below three, it gets too expensive. By the time you have 8, it's hard to get a group at close enough to the same level for the class to work well. Hours would be roughly what you were doing with Jenny, 3-5 hours per week per class of session time. Split into two or three sessions per week. Schedule would be arranged around your other responsibilities. Location depends on the class type. For classes that don't need any special equipment, a convenient log where there is space and lack of distraction. For those that need equipment, where we can make it available. Pay is about what you were getting for Jenny, per student. A bit higher for the very small classes." "You seemed to imply that the classes would consist of pretty bright kids. What do you do with the ones that aren't?", I asked. "Good catch." she answered. "First off, the active members of the families tend strongly towards the upper half of the overall population for IQ. The kids considered 'special kids' by mainstream are roughly the same percentage, but the ones considered 'slow' are noticeably fewer. The 'special kids' are reasonably well served by the usual resources. For the few that are 'slow', there are a different set of special teachers. For the 3/4 or more that fit in the body of the curve, the public schools and homeschooling don't do a bad job. With a bit of extra involvement by parents, they do fine. Some of them will be included in some of your classes. And, as I'm sure you are well aware, inteligence is not a single factor. A kid that takes an interest and is willing to work will go farther than a much smarter kid that doesn't care. IQ is only one of many characteristics we watch for, and probably not the most important. Mostly what we do is watch for that top 15% or so, and nurture them. From that group will come most of the leaders of their generation." "Well," I replied. "That does give me something to think about. What's the time frame for an answer." "A couple of weeks at least. You and Jenny are on break. While the accelerated program doesn't keep conventional schedules, most of the classes are out till mid next month. Give it some thought, and talk it over with Jenny, Dianne and Tony." She turned away, clearly ending the conversation. **************************************************** The week after our betrothal, Grandma Sarah started us on bridge lessons. For a while, she had Jenny two hours per week and both of us for another one. I was a fair player when we started, while not up to her standard, I wouldn't disgrace myself when I played in a session. After a couple of weeks of lessons, Jenny and I started playing in one of the local duplicate games one eveninig each week. Sarah also played with her in an afternoon game. Since she wanted to please her grandmother and spend time with me, Jenny put some serious effort into learning. She did well. After a few sessions, we moved off last place and in six weeks hit average. As predicted, the other players were delighted that Sarah had talked her ten year old granddaughter into learning to play and were quite amused at the way the two of them bossed me around. ********************************************* I'm not sure just how they managed it, and like laws and sausage, I'm pretty sure I don't want to know. Somehow Jenny and Vanessa had managed to convince their parents that it would be OK to join the D&D game on a regular basis a couple of months ago. They were limited to every other week at the start but their school work stayed up and after a while they were there most sessions. Jenny had managed to get her mother to agree to "Just this one time, mum -- please, please" a couple of weeks after Jemmy broke his arm. Then a week later. After the trip to Japan, Jenny was a regular participant, games ending at eleven with her sleeping over most weeks. The guys were at first grudgingly tolerant, but after a bit when it settled into higher quality gaming with a couple of very focused very bright additions vs a drunker, much less couth bunch on the weeks she wasn't there, most of the resentment faded away and Jenny and Van just became part of the gang, to be hassled and hassle in their turn. =================================================== Chapter 5 -- Reorganizing our lives. As I went through my schedule two weeks after the betrothal ceremony, again it struck me, how much my life had changed. I'd been drifting along with 30-35 hours scheduled plus the D&D game. Add the occasional babysitting session for Sandy, and of late the 6 hours or so with Jenny's tutoring. Now-- Graduate assistant -- varies, average 20 hours/week + some for grading papers and tests. No change, if anything I was going to need to tighten this one up a bit. Couldn't drop it, I needed the money and the school status and perks. Doctoral Thesis -- at least 20-25 hours per week. Fred was quite correct, I had been letting it slide. Probably 9-15 months remaining to finish up at that rate. Teaching for the Williams School advanced class. 4 hours. Yeah, right. At least 10, between prep time and grading. This one wasn't going to be a canned class with a purchased book and syllabus. The money was going to be very nice, and the teaching sounded like a real joy, but, it would have been nice to put it off till I finished the Doc. Jenny, Tony and Dianne had decided to give the accelerated program a try, and Alma had acquessed to their requests that I teach the next level of math and science for Jenny. Class location, membership and schedule were up in the air as yet. I would need to meet with the rest of the students to choose the curriculum. So, as a corollary, as S.O. and partial parent, I was going to need to give Jenny at least 7 hours per week of attention to her school work. Tony and Dianne would do their part as well, but that merely lessend the amount I would need to schedule, not replace it. Add 6 hours or so for the D&D game (certainly wasn't going to give up that time with Jenny) and another 6+ for bridge (Lessons and one club session per week, ditto for the time with Jenny) and that had my scheduled time up to around 80 hours per week. Add in some for housework, laundry, eating and personal grooming. I would need to be careful to keep Jenny from slipping in priority. Looks like sleep will be low on the list for a while. Jenny's projected schedule wasn't that bad. 8 x 6 for school. Plus Gymnastics, swimming and football. Even so, it promised to be much more intense than she was accustomed to. It turned out that Vanessa and her parents are qualified for the private program, so she would probably be one of my students as well. This, of course, solves one problem (Jenny losing touch with her best friend) and adds another (What to do about the relationship with Vanessa). In part it will be up to Jenny and Vanessa. It only becomes a problem to me if they choose to make it a regular threesome. Of course, if they try that and it works poorly, it could go real bad. There would have been advantages to having us drift apart and see her occasionally at social functions and such. Oh, well, wait and see looks like the plan for this problem for the moment. I nudged Jenny where she was snuggled up to my side, reading. She looked up. "Well, it was nice being with you. See you again in a couple of years." "What!!!". I showed her the spreadsheet with my schedule on it. She hit me with her book, not real hard. "It isn't that bad. You have me down for an hour a day for school work, and I get to sleep with you four nights a week." A few moments thought. "I'll bet I can get Daddy to upgrade his computer. If so, you can use the old one here. We can set things up in the class room with a desk for me and one for you. You can work on your thesis and class work and I can do school work." "That might work.", I said after a few moments more. "You *will* have to learn to block up your questions. Much of the work on my thesis won't do well if I'm interuppted too often. Perhaps a timer to have you wait an hour since we finished the last set of questions. A few big interruptions will work much better than many small ones." *************************************************** The Williams School for Acellerated Learning. Endowed by one of Jenny's maternal great great grandfathers. One of the conditions of the endowment was that any lineal decendents would have presidence on vacancies if they were otherwise qualified and tuition would be halved. The school is focused on the top 5% of the kids. Tuition is fairly high, but alumni have supported the school to a degree that almost no kids are turned away for financial reasons. Kids with parents paying full tuition have a small advantage in qualifying for entrance, but no advantage in remaining in the program. The typical student has an IQ of in excess of 140, and demonstrated willingness to work. Either failure of ability to keep up or lack of drive to do the work and keep up will cause the student to be dropped from the program. On the other hand, since we are dealing with genius level kids here, there is a bit more tolerance for eccentric behavior. Not disruptive behavior though although the definition of disruptive behavior is mostly limited to malice. Asking for more detail than the current class level on the current subject, or going off on tangential subjects is punished/rewarded by special assignments with some tutoring on the subject of interest. This makes it a self correcting problem since the kid either learns to back off on questions after a bit or takes the subject and runs with it. In the eyes of this school staff, either one counts as a win. Not infrequently the same kid will do both at different times. Taking on an independent study and succeeding is given significant rewards, although initiating such studies is not overtly encouraged. Unlike the current public school system, building on other's work is encouraged. Class projects are kept on file, and a project that adds to an existing work gets equal credit or better credit than work that duplicates existing papers. *************************************************** Van managed start going to the D&D nights not too long after Jenny did. The first time, she just watched. Morrie helped her choose a book from his stuff and mine to get her started. Next week she wanted to play. We helped her build a character and she got started. By week four, she was in full play, often as not sitting next to Morrie, occasionally snuggling up to him. Morrie was bantering with her and trading awful puns, and returning an occasional, then more frequent hug. *************************************************** About a month after the betrothal ceremony, my first class met. I had had a one on one (Plus parents) for a couple of hours with each student so we were acquainted and I had a good notion of each students current level of knowledge. The stated goal was to have them through 8th grade level math and science, with a fair amount of computer programming on the side, in four months. Class was scheduled for two hours per session, two days per week. Jenny and Van had two other classes with similar schedules plus another two classes worth of home school work. Vanessa's parents had now met "Jenny's Fabulous Greg" (Greg-n-Jenny seemed to be spreading even faster than I feared.), but if they dissaproved, it certainly wasn't evident. Amused, yes. Her father had commented. "Gee, I thought you would be taller. At least 230 cm." Better than I feared. I'll take it with gratitude. Each of the students, and now the teacher, had a laptop. The classroom had a wireless network and an internet connection. It was shared with several other classes during the week, so the networking stuff could remain in place. I had 5 kids this time, a blond boy, Sam, almost nine (three more weeks and counting, nearly by the millisecond) a brown headed boy, Freddy, a late twelve, and a near twelve year old brunette girl, Willy (Wilmaa, but I hate it). And, of course, Jenny and Vanessa. They had been warned that in class, I was Mr. Parry and that because of our relationship outside of the class, in it I would need to be a bit more strict with them than the others. Each of the kids had gotten the syllabus, reading list and first assignment at the individual interviews. The computers had been configured for the class in advance as well. It was asssumed that these kids would be quite familiar with basic computer skills, in fact three of them were using laptops they already owned, not ones purchased for the class. The other two I had spend a bit more time with before the first class session, so all were ready to go. So, like an accounting teacher I had years ago, when it was time to start, I just said "Ok, class. Turn to page 47 in the reading assignment I gave you. Freddy, what do you think about ..." We had a fair lab space, with the assistance of some of the parents, I was able to set up both demonstrations of some of the laws of science, and experiments where they could repeat some of the work done, and see what it took to deduce the underlying basics from the experimental data. The logic behind the mix of subjects in the class was that first we would do a simple version of an experiment. Then work on the math appropriate to describe it. Then write a computer program to simulate the experiment. Then, as a final step, go back and do a more sophisticated version of the experiment and see how the experimental data matched with the simulations. As their skill in math developed, this cycle could be repeated several times. For the time being, I planned to stick to physics for most of the lab work. Chemistry and biology we would read about, talk about and do a few simple experiments. Math to describe biology gets pretty deep pretty quick. Also, few of the real experiments could be done in the time available. ************************************************** The duplicate bridge lessons continued. After a few weeks of play, Sarah scheduled the joint lesson for the day after the evening session. She was able to bring the boards we played and we would go over the results, look at the hands of interest and discuss how we should have bid and played. With this kind of effort, Jenny learned quickly. In less than two months, she and her Grandmother managed a club first place. She received a standing ovation. A couple of sessions later Jenny and I were playing against one of the better pairs in the evening club. Jenny managed her first planned end-play against them, they were aware of what she was doing, but she managed it correctly and they were helpless. As I was scoring the board, they stood and announced it to the room, then insisted that Jenny stand and take a bow. They were as pleased or more than I was with her success, and they were the ones that lost on the board. ************************************************ By then Van was a regular at D&D, there almost every week. She started helping Morrie set the game up, then straighten things up and carry them out after. Presently I observed that Morrie had started to come an hour or two early to plan out the next parts of the story. He would work away, and Vanessa would sit snuggled up beside him. Sometimes working on her homework, sometimes participating in the process and sometimes just sitting there leaning against his side and watching him work. She would fetch drinks and snacks, mostly without him asking, and was surprising accurate at getting him stuff he actually wanted at the time. The girls and I went to visit Morrie at a SCA fair one weekend. Between him and sister Sue, also an active member, I had acceptable although fairly plain garb. Sue found period garb for the girls from some of her friends that had daughters that had outgrown some of their clothes. We took Christine along as well, she, of course had costumes proper for the occasion. Sir Morrie, a belted knight of high rank was to fight three bouts starting at 10AM, we were there to cheer him on. Watching him fight, it soon became obvious that, while he was carrying a bit of fat, there was a lot of muscle under it. He won the first bout easily and wasn't breathing hard. His opponent on the other hand was blowing hard and sweating. Between bouts, he accepted a kiss from all three girls and a kerchief from Vanessa to wear as a favor for the next two bouts. Van held back till last, and it looked like pretty serious kiss. Morrie sort of floated back into the arena, and proceeded to slaughter (Well, soundly defeat) his last two opponents. He went back to his tent to leave his weapons and armor, and take a quick shower. (The SCA bunch attempts to recreate the fun parts of medieval history. Lice, filth, starvation and disease are considered optional.) I took my three ladies on a tour of the booths, then we met him for lunch. After lunch he took us to the blacksmith shop that he and his colleagues shared at the fair and proceeded to make three unique bits of wrought iron artwork, one for each of the girls while they watched, explaining what he was doing at each step. Van's was small enough to wear as a necklace and Morrie took her to an nearby booth and got her a chain to wear it on. This got him another kiss -- I threatened to get a balloon string to tie to her so she wouldn't float off. It was a near thing. *************************************************** Things went along pretty well in the class for about six weeks. Jenny and Vanessa were maintaining decorum when around their classmates, and while a lot of time was spent giggling, made no overt moves as a team in the fairly scarce time when we had privacy. I was getting into the groove on the thesis work and the kids class was going very well. It took most of three weeks to catch my stride with them. I found that the pace I had set for Jenny was a bit slow for this group. Vanessa was the only one having any trouble keeping up, and that was largely because she was too accusomed to being the smartest kid in her class except for Jenny . Being below average was a new and uncomfortable experience. I consoled her that I was in much the same position, and fortunatly she mostly reacted by squaring her shoulders and leaning into the work. A bit of extra coaching on my part and in the same three weeks, she too was hitting the pace and doing fine. Still needing to struggle a bit, but becoming accustomed to that as well. Jenny too was having to learn to push -- she had a head start on getting accustomed to the faster pace from the tutoring, but this class was another step up yet. She was naturally compeditive and wanted to please me, and like Van leaned into the task and soon was doing well. *************************************************** Chapter 6 -- A diversion to motorcycle riding Once again, thinking back in time. A few weeks after the Japan trip, I was at the Gormley residence on a Saturday afternoon. Jenny and I happend to go through the garage and I noticed a couple of motorcycles at one end. I went over and looked, a Honda ST1100 and a BMW GS650 sat there, a bit dusty but in excellent condition. Both had custom seats and a fair selection of gadgets used by folk that rode for serious as opposed to those that rode to look cool. Both bikes were fairly high mileage but not extreme. I was admiring the bikes and didn't really notice Jenny as she slipped away. She returned in a few minutes with her dad. "You ride?", he asked. "I did till a little over a year ago. Mine blew the tranny, and I didn't have the money to fix it and keep the car as well. Winter weather being what it is, the car won.", I answered. "What kind of bike did you have?", he asked. "That one was a 900cc Suzuki sport bike.", I replied. "I got a good deal from a kid that scared himself. Rode it for several years. Tranny died at about 130k. I do miss it." "Can we go for a ride Daddy?", asked Jenny, bouncing up and down a bit. "Please, Please." "Would you like to, Greg?", he asked. "Since you twisted my arm so hard, yes, thank you. I didn't want to ask, but I've always wanted to try a ST.", I answered. Jenny was almost beside herself with excitement. "We used to ride quite a bit, Diane and I, then Jenny. Since Jeremy was born, it's kind of died out. Diane can't go unless Jeremy is at her mothers and mostly we use those opportunities for other things. Previous to that, Jenny would ride with me on the ST, I rigged arm rests on the passenger seat so that when she went to sleep she couldn't fall off." Tony pointed to the folding arm rests. I had noticed and wondered, few STs are rigged with them. "You have time this afternoon?", he asked. "For a ride on a ST in this kind of weather, I certainly have time. I need to be in class at 10:00 monday morning", was my answer. "I hadn't thought to go that far", he laughed. "Ok, Jenny -- drag out a hose and we'll spiff them up a bit. What size helmet do you wear Greg?" I told him. He went to a cabinet. "Here, try this one. It has the communicator hookup in it." I tried it on, it fit OK. We gave the bikes a quick wash, checked tire pressure and started them up. Tony checked Jenny's helmet and arranged the necessary cables to hook all three to the bike communicators. Jenny wanted to ride with me, I suggested, and her dad concured that it would be better if she rode with him for the first leg and let me get used to the different bike. I took the ST and headed for home to get the rest of my riding gear, Tony and Jenny would gear up and meet me there in a few minutes. They arrived as I was walking out the door. I had riding jacket and gloves, jeans and boots and was carrying rain gear. I put the rain gear in the luggage and we headed north out of town. Tony lead us along a twisting secondary road with light traffic. I had told him to lead, I would follow, and if I wasn't comfortable with the pace, I would just drop back. With the communicators, we could keep in touch. This didn't turn out to be necessary, he didn't push hard and it didn't take long for me to smooth up and get comfortable on the ST. He stopped at a rest area about 30 minutes out. Jenny got off and came running over to me. "Can I ride with you now?", she asked, bouncing up and down. I took off my helmet and raised a brow at Tony. He shrugged. "OK, I think I'm fine with the bike. You can go with me next leg", I replied. "Better hit the restroom, it may be a while till the next one." We all did, then loaded up and headed down the road. Tony lead us off to the west, inland, up through some hills on a road that alternated some serious twisties with long sweepers and the occasional long straight stretch with little traffic. Tony was a good rider and fairly agressive about passing so we had a lot of fun. The communicator system allowed rider passenger intercom with a separate circuit for rider to rider. Jenny kept up a running commentary on what she was seeing and really enjoyed carving the corners, leaned over till the peg was just touching the pavement then straightening up and heading for the next corner. Jenny had obviously ridden quite a bit, she waited to get on till I was braced and ready, leaned with me in the corners and whooped as we went through the tight S curves. Tony went a little over an hour before he stopped again. Jenny quite properly waited to get off till I was braced and ready, then stood on the pegs, swung her right leg over the back and stepped straight down not pulling on me. She was light enough that it wouldn't have been a problem, but it was nice anyway. We were at an overlook this time, we went to the edge and admired the scenery for a bit, Jenny was standing between us, and had her arm around my waist. I noticed Tony watching us, with an odd, slightly wistful look on his face. A few minutes later, Jenny went off to find a bush to offload her last drink. "I'm losing her, you know." he murmured. "How so?", I asked quietly. "Well, not really losing, I suppose, but I'm no longer the most important guy in her life", He replied. "Four months ago, I had no rivals. Now, she looks to you for most things --not that this is entirely bad, mind you. Mostly noting a milestone in my little girl growing up." As Jenny came back from the bush visit, I noted that her riding gear, while good quality and a pretty good fit, was well used and somewhat mismatched. I asked and learned that Dianne was a member of an rather informal group called Motorcycle mothers. Mothers with kids that rode, either on dirt bikes or with adults on road bikes. The group had a web site, and as kids would outgrow gear, they would post it on the site as being available, then search for suitable gear of the next size for their kid. Since few of the kids would use the gear often and hard enough to wear it out, this kept a pool of gear available. There were always bits and pieces that needed to be purchased new, but recycling the used kept the cost way down and the gear quality for the kids way up. At Jenny's insistence, Dianne had kept her riding gear pretty current even if she seldom got to use it. We got home well after dark. Tony had called in and Dianne had dinner waiting for us. She met me in the door with a hug, "Thankyou Greg." "For stealing away your husband and daughter and riding through beautiful country on a marvelous motorcycle? I should thank you.", I replied. "Both Tony and Jenny have missed those rides. They've gone out without me occasionally, but Tony feels guilty. This gave him an excuse, and he certainly looked happy and relaxed when he came in", she answered. After the betrothal, Tony informed us that the ST was ours to use. I was to feed it and keep tires on it. Everything else was a sunk cost anyway and it would last better if it was used instead of sitting around. I questioned his logic and financial calculations, but after a bit gave up and accepted the largess. It became default transportation for Jenny and me. In return, Jenny and I arranged to take Jeremy on a weekend every month or so, so that Tony and Dianne could go riding as well. ================================================= Chapter 7 -- Sex Education. One day I got to class about ten minutes early. I opened the door and walked in to a rather unexpected sight. Freddy and Willy were there before me. Which would have been alright, they frequently were. I found out why. Freddy's pants were around his ankles and Willy's knickers on the floor beside them. He was thrusting into her -- no possiblity that it was rape because she was wrapped around him, arms and legs and was humping back at him with at least equal enthusiasm. I watched in a moment of surprise, then cleared my throat. They froze for a moment, then Freddy jerked back and whirled around. This gave me a nice view of a bald, fairly impressive cock (for a twelve year old), wilting rapidly, and an equally bald pussy all shiny with their juices. Their faces turned white for a few seconds then very red. They started to grab their clothes and flee with predictiable results for Freddy since his pants were around his ankles. "Stop!!", I bellowed. They froze, Freddy by now sprawled on the floor. I let it hang for about three beats, then, "Ok, into the bathroom with the two of you. Wash up, dress and come back in here. I will expect you in three minutes or less. In a little less than the designated three minutes a couple of very scared looking kids slunk back into the room. I pointed at a couple of chairs I had placed side by side in front of my desk. They sat down, and as I had kind of hoped, they grabbed each others hand in the middle. "Ok, first off. I'm not mad at you. More than a bit dissapointed, but not mad. I'm going to chew on you for a bit, but probably not for the reasons you are expecting. I'm not going to bother to ask you what the hell you thought you were doing, that was real obvious. I am going to point out that your choice of location and time lacked foresight and planning. At the very best, quite tacky. And, hope against hope, are you using any birth control?" Subdued, very red head shakes. "This pretty obviously wasn't your first time. What makes you believe that you aren't pregnant Willy?" "I don't have periods yet. You can't get pregnant till you have periods", she muttered. "Not true, girls younger than you get pregnant. Not often, but it happens." They shriveled beneath my look. "How were you planning to raise the baby, Freddy?", I asked, putting the heat on him. I didn't get an answer, not that I really expected one, the look I got became even more terrified. I decided that I had gone as far as was useful at this point, so with one last turn of the screw I said, "Well, I need to think on this one for a bit. Probably talk to your parents, then decide what to do." Surprisingly, while the faces heated up again, the terror eased off a bit. Interesting. "Go sit over there, I gestured to a couch in the corner of the room, and get your public faces back on. Cuddle is ok, no more for now." The went to the couch, looking back somewhat warily. I managed with difficulty to keep a stern look on my face and not burst into laughter. They sat holding hands and whispering, with quick glances at me while I prepared for the class. Jenny and Vanessa came in a couple of minutes before start time. I watched while Vanessa took in the setup, and caught a bit of a grin in her eyes. I'm sure that for Freddy and Willy, the two hour class lasted at least a century. Even Sam caught on to their discomfort. At the end, as the others left, Freddy and Willy held back. They came over to me and asked, "How come you weren't mad at us, Greg? We thought you were going to kick us out of the class." "Well, as I said -- Disappointed. Not mad. In my eyes, you committed two crimes. Getting caught -- Dumb and Tacky, no class at all. As sins go, pretty minor. The much greater crime was not using some kind of protection. Making a baby you can't take care of *is* sinful in my eyes. Being mad at a couple of pubescent kids that got caught fooling around would be like getting mad at water for being wet or a kitten for being fuzzy." I held out my arms and gave them a hug. "It'll be ok, but it is going to cost you. There will be penalties. And I will be talking with your folks." Again, embarrassment, but not fear. Interesting. A good interesting though. Jenny and I went to her house; I caught Dianne and asked for a conference. Jenny was by my side and you could almost see the suction as she tried to pull information out of what I was and wasn't saying and doing. We went into the lounge to sit down and she followed, obviously trying to not get sent away. I looked at her. "If you stay, we will be talking about stuff that is confidental. As in, stuff that could hurt others badly if you say anything out of line. The only two reasons to let you stay is, One, some day you will have to deal with situations similar to this. You need to know how. The other is that if you know what is going on, if you choose to, you can help a bit. If you stay, you will have promised to do that. You mess this one up, it may be a long time before I let you in again. You can go play with Jeremy, you will learn most of it over the next few months anyway." A few beats of pause, then a quick hug. "I'll stay, Greg. Freddy and Willy looked pretty scared today. They're my friends, I want to help if I can." I looked at her for a long moment, she met my gaze. "Ok, love. You're in. I hope neither one of us regrets it." Dianne was watching us in facination. "After a build up like that, this must be a doozey. What's up?" "Well", I said slowly. "Class today had an interesting start. I arrived ten minutes early and walked in on Freddy and Willy. In a compromising position. His pants and her knickers were on the floor and they were going at it with much enthusiasm." "Oh, my." was Diannes response, but there was a hint of a grin in her eyes, not anger. "Oh, yeah", I replied. "I told them off on their location and timing, and rather more so about the lack of birth control. My question for you is 'How to Deal With the Parents'. Do I tell them, or will that make it even a worse wreck? In my position as 'Responsible Adult', seems like I must do something. At the least, 'do nothing' is a binding call with possible side effects." Jenny's eyes were pretty big, and she seemed to be stifling a laugh. "Laugh not, little girl.", I said with a bit of a growl and glare. "This could get bad if we do it wrong and the 'rents go balistic. Or Willy turns up pregnant." She crumpled a bit. I hugged her. "Sorry I snarled at you, but I'm a bit tense too." She hugged back and leaned against me. "So, Dianne, I have a cunning plan" That got me a snort from both of them. Dianne beckoned to me, OK Baldrick (Blackadder's sidekick), tell me of your cunning plan. I did. Dianne was definitly stifling laughter. "You are evil Greg. Truly evil. I like it. Most appropriate." She thought for a few moments. "Let me make a few phone calls. You might want to do some refinement on your plans. I can probably get a meeting with the principals tonight or tomorrow night. Do you have a preference?" "Tomorrow night is D&D. By preference we would rather it be tonight or day after tomorrow.", I replied. Tomorrow afternoon would be ok, I can do 3 to 6 tomorrow. Jenny and I went upstairs to our office and the various work that needed to be done. Two evenings later, Freddy's parents, Joe and Sam (Samantha), and Willy's, George and Susan were in the lounge at the Gormley's. Alma was there with her matriarch mantle snugly around her shoulders and school board cap firmly on her head -- Jenny as understudy. The sacrificial victims were huddled together on a love seat, front and center. I opened proceedings by briefly describing the encounter. The parents had been clued in a bit in advance, so they were able to merely look grim rather than shocked. In the pre meeting with Willy's parents, her mother had quoted the gunslingers tombstone, "I had been expecting this, just not quite so soon". Freddy and Willy had been best buddies since they were four and the sexual activity came as no real surprise to either set of parents. The red faces of the guilty pair time I got done describing the events looked like we should check the chair for scorch marks after "So", I asked Freddy and Willy, "Do you have anything to add or refute about this tale?" "No sir", "No sir" from them. "Ok then, as your teacher and the one trespassed against, I have been asked to set your punishment. Is this acceptable to you two?" Two very small "Yes, sir"s from the love seat. I took a deep breath. "There are three parts to this. First off, Willy will be seeing a Dr. next week. She will be checked for pregnancy and if that passes, birth control measures will be started. Until some method of birth control is set up and working, the two of you will not engage in vaginal intercourse. Freddy will not put his penis in Willy's vagina, nor will he squirt on her pussy. Is that clear enough?" 'Uh, oh', I thought. I hope the smoke alarm doesn't go off from the heat from their faces." Two even smaller "Yes, sir"s "Second, the two of you have demonstrated that while you understand the mechanics of intercourse, you are more than somewhat lacking in knowledge about fertility and human reproduction. So, the two of you are assigned three research papers. First, The human reproductive system, with emphasis on fertility in pre-teens, before and after menses for girls, puberty for boys. Second, pregnancy and birth in very young girls with focus on possible complications and long term side effects. Third, infant health and care for births from very young mothers, once more with focus on problems vs births by adult mothers. There is no specific time limit, but passing this course will be contingent on acceptable performance." "How long do the papers need to be, sir?" from Willy. "There is no fixed size. You must cover the subjects acceptably. I would estimate 20 to 30 pages each, including footnotes and bibliography.", I answered. "I will work with you on them. I expect it will take several iterations to get them to an acceptable level. As an addendum, I have been in touch with your English and Writing teacher. She has agreed to include these papers as a part of your work for her class, so you will get some slack there. On the other hand, spelling, grammar and composition will be judged by English paper standards." A bit of interest and less embarrasment from the love seat. "Third, you will present these papers to the assembled student body when they are done and answer questions." Red faces, right back to max. Really better check the smoke alarms later, certainly they should be sounding off by now. "You should note, that while the subject is quite personal to the two of you, that the 'punishment' is mostly insisting that you have a good understanding of the fires you two are playing with. And then sharing that knowledge with your peers. And that the research paper skills are just accelerated by a few months. I or someone else will be assigning similar papers every few months from here on out in your education. Do the two of you agree to this penalty?" Two rather firmer "Yes, sir"s from the culprits. I looked at the parents, "As I feel the parents to be partially at fault as well, real sex education seems to have been missing from their curriculum, I request and require active particpation in their research project. Do you agree that this punishment is appropriate and adequate for the circumstances?" "We do", twice. Then to Alma. "Madam president, is this plan acceptable to the elders and the school board?" "It is, although", to Freddy and Willy, "I feel that Mr. Parry is being quite lenient with you. Expulsion from his class would not have been at all unreasonable nor unexpected." "I disagree, Madam", I replied to her. "While, perhaps not unexpected, I feel that expulsion would have been quite unreasonable. My real goal here is not punishment per se, but to get across to them that they are playing with dynamite and a good understanding of the risks and precautions is very important. As I told them, yelling at pubescent children for sexual exploration is about as useful as yelling at a kitten for being fuzzy. Futile at best, destructive seems more likely." With a wry shrug, she replied, "I stand corrected. Well done, Greg." She then looked at the kids, "Do you feel that we have beat up on you enough for the time being?" Somewhat wary nods. "Lets all go out for pizza then. I'll buy." Grins from the pair. Freddy and Willy got out of their seat and came over to me. I knelt down and gave them a hug. "You guys ok with this?" "Yes Greg, some what in chorus. Mr. Parry hadn't lasted long in class, Vanessa and Jenny were mostly the only ones that still used it, and they mostly did it when they felt I needed punished for something. ================================================== Chapter 8 -- In Which We Freak Out The Doctor. Next week, Willy had her appointment for an exam and birth control. It was apparently quite interesting for the Dr. I put the story together over the next couple of weeks, both from what the kids told me and from her mother, and some from Dianne. Willy showed up at the appointment, accompanied by her mother (expected) and Freddy (not expected, by the Dr at least). The nurse called Willy in, she bounced up, grabbed Freddy's hand and they started after the nurse, her mother following in their wake. The nurse, not at all surprisingly demurred at the thought of Freddy being present for a GYN exam on Willy. Willy had apparently given this possibility some thought in advance and informed her that if Freddy didn't go, she wasn't going either. Nurse tried again, looked at Susan for support and got none. She decided that it wasn't her problem. The Dr could cope, that's why he got the big bucks. Willy went through the routine of blood pressure, temperature and pulse. The nurse watched in some bemusement as Willy turned her back, took off her blouse and bra, then put on the gown, then turned back and took off shorts and knickers. She sat on the table to wait for the Dr. In a few minutes Dr Frank came in, was greeted by all and again attempted to evict Freddy. Failed. "Mrs. Fredrics, do you really feel this is appropriate? I will need to expose her body and perform some rather intimate actions." "Well, Dr. Frank, let me give you a bit of background. First off, as you probably kind of know, these two have been best buds since they were about four. They live more or less interchangably at our home and Freddy's. It's only been a few years since they last bathed together. Then, last week, their maths and science teacher got to class a bit early and found them in full fledged 'flagrante delicto'. Greg Parry handled things very well. Almost certainly better than I would have given the starting conditions. He sent them off to wash up and re-dress and chided them a bit on their judgment and planning for choice of time and place. Then he questioned them regarding birth control measures used -- none except pious hope -- and asked a few retorical questions about the probable state of pregnancy, and plans for child rearing. This got their attention much more effectivly that parental ranting and screaming ever would have. Then, he enlisted some help and got the four parents to talking and proposed a plan. When we got over our anger at the kids, and quit laughing at his plan, we approved it. There are other details which I could share but you don't need to concern yourself about, but the core of it, where you come in, is that their main punishment is 3 full fledged term papers. One on human fertility with a focus on pubescent children. One on pregnancy and birth with a mother in that age group and one on infants of very young mothers. These are to be real papers, on towards college level, they will get credit for them for both science and English/Writing. They seem to be taking today as an opportunity for research." Dr. Frank was reported to be a bit goggled. "You approve of this -- 'relationship'?" She grimaced a bit, "I don't think 'approve' is the correct term. Accept, perhaps. We, the four parents have agreed that -- a) Doing the 'King Canute' thing seemed futile at best. b) Playing ostrich seems much worse. c) Neither family was willing to move 2000k away. (Not seriously considered, but it was mentioned as a joke.) d) Chaining them to their separate beds except when handcuffed to a parent for the next seven years was also suggested and rejected. In the end, it was agreed to go with Greg Parry's plan. Essentially, since they were playing with fire, give them a good education on matches, the flash point and other properties of gasoline, fire extinguishers and burn treatment." She looked at the kids, they were watching very closely. "And you want *me* to participate in this madness", Dr. Frank asked. "Not if you are truly distressed by the prospect. When they put it to me I hoped you would be willing to be a teacher. If it will help, I have a note from Freddy's parents -- Sam is somewhat on standby and can be here in 15-20 minutes if you request." She sighed, "I know it's way outside your usual box. If you really can't handle it, you could do a quick preg check and exam on Wilma, and we will find another Dr for the birth control and hopefully, education. You've been Dr. to both of them for years, and they really hope you will do it." "Please, Dr. Frank. We need a start on this stuff. The books we've found show so little detail that it's hard to figure out what they are really talking about.", from Willy. "It sure would be a big help, please?", from Freddy. Dr Frank looked at Susan. "How would you want me to handle it? You're quite correct, this is *way* outside of my usual box." "Just do the Dr stuff but explain what you are looking at and looking for.", from Freddy. From Susan, "Just combine what you need to do for Willy with treating them like a couple of beginning pre-med students. That isn't too far from reality anyway. If we've cut too far into the appointment window, we can make another appointment. I'm willing to sponsor the project to that extent. Just to warn you, Willy and Freddy had me bring a camera. They want pictures to refer back to as they do the papers." Dr. Frank stared at her, "You do realize that is going to look an awful lot like child porn." Another wry smile from Susan, "Believe me, I will review any public use of those photos. Anything that even might link them to this office will be cropped or the photo not used." Dr. Frank thought for a moment. He looked at the eager students. "If I agree to this, I will want to review the papers before you present them." "Of course, Dr. Frank. We were planning to ask you to anyway.", from Freddy To Susan, "Call Mrs. Wilson. I'll check with scheduling. If you can stand a split session, we may be able to do it all today." Dr. Frank was hugged from both sides by the kids. He looked down at Willy and her state of backless (un)dress. "Young lady, given your apparel, this is most improper.", but gave her a quick hug with one arm anyway and tousled Freddy's hair. "Now, back on the table for a moment please Willy. He took blood and urine samples for the pregnancy test and left the room. In a bit a nurse poked her head into the room and told them that it would be about 45 minutes, then Dr. Frank would have an hour free to finish up. Only about 10 minutes after the estimated time, he was back in with a nurse. Aparently some of the time had been spent briefing her, because although she eyed Freddy a bit, she made no comments about his presence. Dr. Frank first did a quick exam of Willy's budding breasts. True to his word, he explained what he was seeing and looking for. He had both Willy and Freddy palpate a breast, noting the depression in her chest muscles beneath the breast, and comparing Freddy's chest with a much smaller soft spot beneath his nipples. He then dilated Willy with a very small speculum, Willy mostly complaining that she couldn't see and insisting that Freddy take pictures of the process for later. Dr. Frank took quite a bit longer than usual with the explanations and questions. Her exam was quite normal. Willy was visibly relieved when he collapsed the speculum and removed it. As expected, the preg test came up negative. An implant was suggested, approved and installed. It would be six weeks before Willy could be considered safe, so a diaphragm and foam were procured and they were instructed on it's care and use in the interim. She bounced down, dropped the gown and pulled on knickers, shorts, bra and shirt in about 30 seconds. She turned and took the camera from Freddy. "Ok, now it's your turn." The nurse looked at Freddy, then at Dr. Frank. "We're done with the medical need for you, Florence. You may go if you wish, or subject to their assent, stay and learn.", he said. The nurse looked at the kids and raised a brow. "May I?" Willy shrugged, "Ok with me." Freddy reddened a bit but didn't protest. Willy grabbed his arm and moved him to the examining table, Dr. Frank had apparently burned out his goggle circuits and watched with sympathetic amusement as she chiveyed his pants off and him onto the table. Freddy went along without protest but was staring at the ceiling with a more substancial blush going. Dr. Frank started showing Willy the parts, how they worked and with descriptions of how things connected up inside, the differences and similarity's between his sexual organs and hers. In two minutes, Freddy was sitting up so he could see and participaiting in the discussion. This exam didn't take nearly as long as Willy's. Dr Frank pointed out that boys, in this matter were much simpler than girls, with many fewer problems. A fair chance that Freddy would have prostate problems in 50+ years, but other than that, quite likely that medical attention to his bits would be optional. Prospects for Willy were not as good. Better than 50/50 that she will require medical attention for female problems of some sort, not counting pregnancy, before 60. "How am I different from a grown up woman?" asked Willy as Freddy slid off the table and got back into his pants. "Any volunteers?", he said to the mothers with an amused look. They looked at each other, then without any verbal communication, Mrs. Wilson said with a wry grumble, "The things I do for you kids." Then to Dr. Frank, "This counts as part of the penalty that Mr. Parry laid on the parents for not doing a better job of sex ed for these two." "She stepped over to the examining table, taking off her shirt as she went. The nurse held up a gown, with a shake of her head she turned it down. "If I'm going to do this, they need to see most all the bits anyway," She quickly stripped and laid back on the table, putting her feet into the stirrups. The nurse moved to adjust them to fit her build. Dr. Frank moved to one side of the table, and the two kids on the other. "Note that in addition to the obvious size difference, that her nipples are much more developed. Willy's breasts have very little nipple yet, mostly flat with the areola. The pigmentation is much darker, and although we won't demonstrate today, her nippls will become more obviously erect with sexual stimulation. The nipple has many passages from the mammary tissue below for milk to come out to feed a baby." "On palpation, the mammary tissue is much more obvious and different than Willy's. As you get older, I will teach you how to check for lumps. Breast cancer is a significant healh risk for women, and early detection is vital for good treatment." "Willy and Freddy spent a few minutes comparing Willy's breasts to Freddy's mother's." "Then moving down to the gentillia, pubic hair is the most obvious difference. Willy is just starting to grow the coarser hair on her genitals. Given that bit of information, mensus is probably not very many months away. It could start at any time. You will note that her hips are much wider than Willy's. This is so that her pubic arch will have sufficent room for a baby to come out. Even then, Freddy, you were a pretty tight fit, and it's a good thing that babies are pretty squishy. If you were to get pregnant and carry the baby to term, Willy, you would almost certainly have to deliver by cesarean. I would make an incision from about here", he touched her belly with the tip of a finger, "To here.", moving the finger about 8 inches across her lower abdomen. And about this deep, holding up thumb and finger about an inch apart. "Chances are very good that to try to have a vaginal birth would kill both you and the baby." He inserted a much larger speculum into Mrs. Wilson's vagina and dialated her. The camera was back in full bore action. "Note that where Willy still has some tatters of her hymen, here we find no trace of one. In addition, to the educated eye, it is quite obvious that she has delivered a child. See the differences here and here, Freddy." More pictures. While Freddy's mother was dressing Willy asked Dr. Frank, "What about the differences between Freddy and a grown man?" He considered her for a moment. "First off, understand that *I* do not volunteer to be the example. If you can convince one of your fathers, I will be glad to schedule another session. However, aside from size. pubic hair and pigmentation, there are few visible differences between what Freddy is now and what he will be in 5 years. There are functional differences, he may or may not be fertile now. The ejaculate will be thicker with sperm and more voluminous. Precum will be more voluminous as well." "How do you tell if Freddy's fertile or not?", Willy asked. "We would need a semen specimen, then examine it under a microscope and do a sperm count", Dr Frank answered. "Could we do that today?" "I suppose, it doesn't take long to check" was the reply. "Where's a specimen cup?" Willy took it, grabbed Freddy and towed him into the bathroom. Freddy went mostly willingly, blushing a bit. The nurse looked at Willy's mother in shock. She shrugged, "We decided to accept that they are lovers. Unless we forcfully separated them, and guarded them moment by moment, we could accept them or make them hide it from us. Accept seemed like the better plan." In a few minutes, Willy was back with the cup and a blushing Freddy in tow. Dr. Frank took the cup and prepared a slide. He spent a few moments examining it, making notes then assisted Willy and Freddy to look themselves. He turned to the mothers, "Well, if they were in their late 20's and trying to start a baby, Freddy's sperm count is pretty low. For the current purpose, he counts as fertile and if there had been an ovum available, Willy might well have caught." Then to Freddy and Willy, "You two got lucky. Don't count on that in the future. Both of you are on the cusp of becoming fertile. Within a year it will be quite easy for you to start a baby." Freddy and Willy gulped a bit and acknowledged the issue. Then after a moment Willy said, "Thank you very much for sharing your knowledge with us. The stuff we have been reading this week makes more sense now." Freddy broke in, "Do you have any suggestions for books or other sources of information? Ones that would be good sources of information, but simple enough for us to understand for now." Dr. Frank thought a moment and made a couple of suggestions. Susan then asked him, "Well, Dr Frank, at this point, what is your estimate of the probability of Wilma showing up accidentally pregnant? The two of them deciding to do it on purpose is a different can of worms for a different day." He rubbed his chin, "Understanding that no birth control method except decapitation is 100% perfect -- I would say, slim to none. In addition", He gave the kids a stern look, "Between supportive parents, a wise, if quite unconventional, teacher and me -- I would certainly hope that if they do have a problem, they will come to one of us while it is still a small problem. You will, won't you." Fred and Willy nodded. "As much as I hate to do abortions, for a mother less than 13 years old the probabilities of complications of pregnancey and childbirth are fairly high, and the probability of a defective baby is high as well. I consider abortion to be the lesser evil, especially if it can be done in the first few weeks." "Yes, Dr Frank", in chorus from a pair of somewhat subdued kids. They parted company with a promise that he would give the matter a bit of thought and email them an expanded reading list in a day or two. He also left with an invitation to the presentation of the papers when they were complete. ************************************************** In part to spread the pain around, but mostly to keep the class somewhat in sync, I assigned a paper each to the other three kids. With the approval of the parents and school, biology and part of chemistry morphed into sex ed with details. Jenny got STDs, Vanessa laws and customs relating to sexual activity by children. I explained to Van and Jenny that Van could build on the work that Jenny had done for her dad, provided that she did sufficient work on her own and gave proper attribution. Sam's paper was on laws and customs regarding reproductive control of young females with an emphasis on property rights as an explanation of current practices. As my contribution to the sex ed papers, I wrote up the seduction scenario I had used demonstrate the dangers to Jenny. I pointed out that there was little black and white in that picture. At one end were the ones like Diannes pastor and worse -- a very dark grey, not quite as bad as the kidnap/rape/torture/murderers, but close. Jenny and I fell near the other extreme. Technically illegal, but a stable loving relationship achieved by mutual seduction with her taking the inititive. In betweed lies a wide range of seduction, persuasion and pressure with a wide range of emotional and physical risks. In it I admonished the parents to learn from Dianne,s experience and try hard to keep their kids believing that if they came to their parents with sex trouble, that there would be help, a minimum of blame and yelling and no long term penalties beyond those created by the situation itself. Dianne had gotten in much deeper than she might have because she feared her fathers reaction more than she hated the situation she was in. Not an optimum method of coping. I suggested to the parents that if their kid got into this kind of trouble, that before they punished them that they consider -- A) The pain and embarrasment that the situation was already inflicting on the participants. B) The penalty to be something constructive to reduce the harm done and be presented as a cost of doing business. C) Remember, participants are probably not evil, no worse than foolish and reckless. ************************************************* Chapter 9 -- General progress in life Vanessa and Jenny were still best friends, Van was at Jenny's house quite often. Our relationship was quite different than I had feared, Van was quite friendly with me, greating me with hugs and an occasional little girl kiss but she made no move to go further. I would catch her watching Jenny and me, and rather than jealousy or loss, I got an impression of propritary satisfaction. The relationship between Jenny and me was pretty much an open secret with her. We didn't talk about it, but didn't try to hide the fact that Jenny and I were a couple and pretty much living together full time. One evening the three of us were in Jenny's and my office/study, sitting on a couch together. The girls were one on each side reading school work and I was grading papers for one of the University classes. I came to a break point, streatched a bit and looked down at Vanessa. "You certaily seem content that Jenny got to claim me. I was afraid there might be problems when I agreed to have you in my class." She looked up at me with a hint of a smile, "Jen's my best friend. She got something she really, really wanted. Why shouldn't I be happy?" A brief pause, "You were afraid that I would be jealous of Jenny and make trouble, weren't you?" I nodded. "That weekend with you and Jenny was fantastic. But unlike Jenny, I never expected, nor I suppose, ever really wanted to keep you. She does. Jenny was really miserable and cranky to be around that last month while you were tutoring her. Now she is happy and cheerful, much more fun. Q.E.D. Besides", Vanessa said with an wry grin, "I like my eyes just where they are." I raised a brow. "If Jenny thought I was really trying to get you away from her, she'd scratch them out, friend or no." "Damn straight, *Mine*!!", growled from the other side, Jenny never looking up from her book, but snuggling tigher into my side. "You're right", I said to Vanessa. "I love you both, but while I would put myself in danger to protect you, I might throw you to the wolves to protect Jenny." "I'll keep away from wolves when I'm around the two of you then.", Vanessa said with a grin, then snuggled against my side as well and went back to reading. ************************************************** The papers were finished, presented and mostly well received. A few of the parents were unhappy at the subject and depth of detail -- they were effectively overruled and I was requested to hold sex ed classes using the papers as the reading material. The reaction when Sam presented his paper was interesting. A quarter of the audience were greatly offended. Most of the other three quarters went 'Ah Ha, I see. That does kind of explain it, doesn't it. A fair chunk of those were offended as well, but for an entirely different reason. Those weren't angry at me nor Sam. We wound up with a plan -- the sex ed class would be four sessions of two hours, one per week, held once per year. All students were required to attend at least every other year. Any students caught practicing unsafe sex would be required to review and update one of the papers or write a new one. Typically they wound up working in pairs. Flagrant violators would be assigned new papers to be added to the pool. Not too surprisingly, over the years, the papers stayed quite current and the corpus of knowledge expanded. About half the expansion was from punishment detail, the other half was to fulfill other course requirements. The kids that attended these classes had a much reduced incidence of unplanned pregnancy compared to the national average, so the project was counted as a considerable success. ==================================================== Chapter 10 -- menage a trois(quatre?). About a week later, Vanessa was back, she and Jenny had arranged for a sleep over. I was in the throes of creativity, had one major part of my thesis just about done, so hadn't been paying close attention to what they were up to. There had been a fair amount of whispering and giggling, with sidelong looks at me, but nothing way out of line. After dinner that evening, getting on towards 9PM, I was working at the computer when I heard a click and the room lights went out. I turned around in annoyance at the interuption only to view the two girls, clothed only in a candle flame apiece. I enjoyed the view for a moment, irritation melting away. "And for what am I graced with your most loveliest of presences?" "Oh, Good Sir. As you have labored long on our behalf, bestowing the wisdom of the ages upon our unworthy selves, your humble houris would beg to have you allow them to give you pleasure." This speach broken into 4 and 5 word blocks alternated between the two of them. Must be why it's after nine, they have been practicing to get it that smooth. "And what are your real reasons?" I asked more seriously. "While you two are *most* lovely in that garb, I thought that Vanessa said she wasn't going to try to do this?" Jenny replied, "Christine has been missing her uncle. It's been most of three months since you were with her last. She's been trying to be good, but she really wishes she could play with you again." "True, but that doesn't seem to explain this.", I waved at them. "Jenny isn't sure she could have Chris over and have the two of you doing sex stuff while she was there without spoiling it for Chris.", Vanessa put in. "She was fretting at me about it and I thought we could give this a try. If she gets unhappy, we can just stop, I can go to Jenny's room and you two can cuddle and make up. I didn't say I didn't want to be with you guys again, just that I didn't expect to. We did real well as a threesome last time. It should work for her this time. And, if it works out, next time we can invite Chris." "So", I mused, "You're volunteering to be the scratch monkey." Blank looks. "Todays, youth.", I tisked. "Don't know the folk lore of their culture." -- Then told them the tale of the scuba diving research chimpanze. Due to a botched upgrade of the computer that controlled the dives, she drowned. As SCBA trained chimps are fairly rare, the scientists were quite miffed. They called the computer service department, and so the story goes the tech that had worked on the computer was given a call that started, "Can you swim?" I pointed them to the full version in the Jargon file for later. "Yep, that's me. The expendable throw-away test subject." quipped Vanessa with a wry grin. "Not at all true.", I said, reaching out and pulling her into a one armed hug. "Anyone who will do something like this for a friend, understanding that it might blow up and mess up the friendship, is not something that I would consider a throw-away." I had them put the candles on the table, and moved to the couch, one girl on either side snuggled against my chest inside an arm. "Are you sure you want to do this?", I asked Jenny. "Not quite, but I'm sure I want to try. If I can watch you do Van, it should be fine for you to do Chris.", she replied. "I'm not sure I want to try.", I said. "I'd really hate it if it messed things up between you and me, or even you and Vanessa." "There's part of you that seems to want to.", Van said, reaching down to the tent in my shorts. "True", I said. "The two of you are a wet dream come true. Now, put that down, you're distracting me from what needs to be a serious discussion." Giggles -- in stereo. "Please Greg", from Jenny. "I really think I can do this and it'll make Chris happy." I looked down at her for a moment, then unwrapping my arm from Van, tipped Jenny's face up and gave her a long kiss. "Have I told you recently just how proud I am of you sometimes? And how much I love you?" "Yes, but you can do it again if you want.", Jenny said, burrowing her face into my shirt. I turned to Van, wrapping my arm back around her. She was back to stroking my rampant member, which was indeed quite distracting. "And, I'm very glad to have you. As a student and friend." "Are you very certain that you want to add 'lover' to the list?" She pulled my hand to her nipple and continued to stroke me. Leaned up and gave me a lingering kiss. "Yes", she said with an impish grin, "I believe I am." "What about birth control?", I asked. "I got an implant about the same time as Jenny, Dr said six weeks and it's been more than two months." "From what you told me that first day we met about your mother's reaction to anything to do with sex, how did you manage that one. I'd of expected she would freak at the suggestion?", I asked. "Jenny's mum hinted about it when Jenny got her implant. We talked a bit, she seemed to know about that first time.", Van replied. "Then I'm pretty sure she talked to my mum. At any rate mum took me to the Dr. without me asking. She wasn't happy and still won't talk to me much about sex. I think daddy may have been the one to insist on the implant." "Interesting", I mused. After a moment I hugged Vanessa to me and gave her a kiss. "In that case", I told Jenny, "You don't get to watch." A look of hurt and betrayal. "You have to help", I told her. An token elbow in the ribs, then a long kiss, that combined with Van's ministrations almost had me cumming in my shorts. I surfaced from the kiss, gently removed Van's hand and thought for a moment. "We have time to do it right, let's torture her for a while." I said to Jenny. "Go get the massage oil and one of the big cushions from the sauna, and a bunch of towels from the bath. Get restraints from the toy box in the sauna as well. I'll start priming her." "Oh, no. What fell circumstances do I find my self in. Help, Help, Help, save me!!", Van started beating on my chest. Screams that might have been heard on the other side of the room and blows that nearly smashed my chest hair to the skin." "Never fear, I shall return and assist him -- oops, I mean, save you.", said Jenny as she went out the door. When Jenny returned, I had Vanessa laying on the couch, kissing her lightly on the face and torso, carefully not touching her aroused nipples nor pubic mound. I had Jenny turn the lights back on low and move the candles out of the way. We put the cushion, a couple of towels and Vanessa on the table, face down. Another towel, folded served as a pillow. Jenny grabbed my shorts and removed them and my underwear, then removed my shirt. I went back to Van and started very very lightly scratching her cheeks, back along the sides and back of her neck then on to her shoulders. I was using fingernails, but only touching skin part of the time. The rest of the time I was brushing the little girl down on her skin. Van wiggled and squeaked, trying to move against my hands to get a bit more pressure. I put Jenny on the opposite side of the table and had her match my movements, coaching her to get just the right amount of non pressure to give the maximum of tickly itch to what we were doing to Van as we moved down her body, pausing for a minute or so at her buttocks then on down her long slim legs. By now, Vanessa was twitching and nearly crying. When we reached her ankles, taking two minutes or so from her buttocks, we went back up the length of her body in about 10 seconds, this time swirling in light scratches. Not quite enough to mark her skin, but providing relief from the itch we had just left behind. Then oil on her shoulders, back and legs and a slow gentle massage down her back, again pausing at the buttocks, working the inside of her thighs but still being carful not to touch her pubic area at all. More squeeks and whimpers. We spent a couple of minutes on her feet this time Another pass back up, the tickley scratch then again quickly back down as before, relieving the itch. I filpped her over onto her back, then took the restraint straps and tied her arms over her head to the corners of the table and legs to the other two corners. I started the tickle down her body one more time, this time starting on her forehead and ears. This time we paused at her chest and spent a couple of minutes just barely touching her breasts. By now we were starting to get mild death threats along with the squeeks and some most blasphemous utterances. Jenny and I ignored this, coped with the wiggling and twitching, and continued across her tummy. We took turns for a few seconds working around her navel, then down her lower belly and onto the legs, again, just barely not touching her very aroused looking nether lips. Somewhat more serious sounding death threats were heard. About this time, Dianne stuck her head thru the door of the study. "What on earth are you two doing to -- Oh." Beat, beat. "Do you want rescue, Vanessa? Help?" "Oh god, no!!", gasped from Van. Beat, beat. "Well, do carry on then.", to Jenny and me. She closed the door. "Well", after a moment, "that did sort of spoil the mood." I undid the restraints, kissed Van gently on the lips and got her a drink of water. ************************************************** With a detour thru the bathroom we wound up in my room in a loveseat recliner, still naked. I had an arm around each girl and was fondling them. They were taking turns kissing me and were jointly stroking me. In just a few minutes Jenny said, "Scoot over a bit Van". She turned, straddled me and slowly impaled herself on me. "I'll do him first, then you'll have a much longer turn in a bit. He'll only last a minute or two the way we've got him going. Keep kissing him and play with his nipples,", she said to Vanessa and started moving up an down on me. Sure enough, less than a minute later I was thrusting deeply into Jenny as I shot my load. We lay there for a few minutes, Jenny on top of me, still impaled. I was rubbing her back and Van was snuggled in the other arm, giving me quick kisses and using one finger to tease the one of my nipples that she could reach. After a bit Jenny got up, went to the bathroom and returned with a basin, washcloth and towel. She washed me up then rolled me over towards Van. "Now do her with your fingers", she ordered. I sat up, cradled Vanessa in my arms and moved her to the bed. I put her on her back and lay down beside her. I started with drawing around her lower abdomen, thighs and pubis with a single finger, touching lightly. I kissed her face, neck and upper chest with light, short kisses, occasionally alternating with a longer deeper kiss on the lips. Jenny lay down on the other side of her and was kissing the other side of her face and playing with the boob on her side. In a couple of minutes Van was thrusting to meet my hand and I shifted to a firm masturbation of her wet slit. She only lasted for another minute after I switched, she arched her back and came, hugging both of us as we continued to kiss and fondle. We lay there in a sweaty cuddle for a couple of minutes. As Van's breathing started to slow, Jenny gave me a shove down. "Now do her with your mouth", she ordered. I moved Vanessa up till her head was near the headboard and moved down betwen her spread legs. I admired her glistening pussy for a moment then started licking the surface, down her legs a bit then back up to her lower abdomen. As her breathing started to quicken and her hips started to thrust I shifted to licking into her slit, teasing her clit at the top of the stroke, then going back down and sticking my tongue into her hole. A short bit of that and Van started to thrust hard. I moved up to her clit, sucking and lightly chewing on it. She grabbed my head pushing my face into her crotch and her hips went wild. I quickly tipped my head back to save my nose and slid a finger into her. She stiffend, came hard than settled back onto the bed. This time I didn't give her a chance to rest, by now I was hard again. I moved up between her legs, slid my cock into her and started deep slow strokes. Van responded by thrusing her hips up to meet me, during the ten minutes that I lasted, she came 4 times that I counted. We collapsed in a sweaty tangle and lay there lightly caressing each other. Jenny was alternating short kisses and light caresses between us as we relaxed. In twenty minutes we crawled out of the bed and into the shower. Jenny washed us both and I returned the favor, even though it was somewhat of a token effort. We went back to my room, changed the sheets and pillowcases and collapsed with an arm around each girl. Jenny snuggled and kissed for a bit, then teased me back to hardness one more time. She sat astride me and gently moved up and down, leaning forward for kisses, alternating kisses with Van who was again gently teasing my nipples. This time it took a while and when I came it was a gentle release instead of a crashing blaze. Afterwords, Jenny and Van washed me one last time and wiggled into my arms, tightly snuggled one on each side. Next morning I was awakened by Vanessa sucking on my cock. She worked at it for a bit with me rubbing her back and neck. After a few moments I had her move around so I could lick her while she sucked me. We went that way for a bit, gentle play rather than urgent attempts to reach or cause orgasm. In a little while Van switched around and impaled herself on my rampant member. We kissed for a bit, only moving a little then she started moving up and down faster. Jenny by then was awake and traded off kisses with me and Van, playing with my nipples as her friend got off one more time and I filled her with another load of spunk. Afterwords we all took a shower together with much giggling and soapy caresses. As Vanessa rode home with her mother that afternoon, this conversation was reported back to Jenny. "Did you have a fun visit, love?" "Oh, yes Mum. It was fantastic." "Seem to be moving a bit carefully." "A little sore. Good sore though, like the first day of football practice." "Must be Jenny decided it was ok to share. You might want to turn that glow down a bit before we get home to where your father can see you. And go take a hot bath to loosen up before he asks about the sore." Rather red faced, "Yes, Mum." ************************************************* Later that day Tony stopped us in the hall as Jenny and I were leaving. "What on earth were you guys doing to Vanessa last night?, he asked, then noting our hesitation, reversed himself. "Never mind, I probably don't really want to know anyway." "On the other hand, you can do it again if you want. Dianne came back down after she went up to check on you guys and dragged me off to the bedroom. It was quite a night.", he waved and left us standing a bit stunned in the hall. ================================================== Chapter 11 -- Back to class and motorcycles. We finished the scheduled class and by agreement just kept going. Goal was to have them thru grade 9 math, physics and programming in another 4 months. I judged that my biology and chemistry skills weren't really up to snuff at this level and that a different instructor would be needed. Two more kids were added, another nine year old boy, George and a nine year old girl, Ann. Both of them had been weaned on the information firehose, they were comfortable coming into the class at this level, and after a few weeks shakedown were right in there with the original bunch. We spent a month on Galileo's gravity experiments using the inclined plane to slow things down, again running a simple version of the experiment, working thru the math necessary to describe what was going on, then a computer simulation using the math. Three loops had them started on beginning calculus. Then off to other experiments that made use of algebra, exponents and quadratic equations. It was amazing watching them soak up the knowledge, then extrapolate and go on. All of them were readers, by now I was used to giving a hundred page reading assignment and having them ask about further reading by the time we met two days later. I did learn that I had to insist on some drill on what they learned to make it stick. After a bit I got into the habit of handing out a half dozen pages of problems at the end of each class, covering not only what we had just been working on but review questions scattered back throughout the class from the beginning. I found a few holes in the new kid's skills that way, which they quickly plugged. ***************************************** One of the more interesting projects during the second term was a Foucault pendulum project done by the class as a group First thing required was an open space at least 5 feet in diameter with a very high ceiling with a rigid structure. One of the kids had grandparents with a three story high library. They were persuaded to buy into the project and arranged construction of a rigid hanging point a full twenty feet above the floor. A different kid had a father with a hobby machine shop. They created the conical support fixture. Another one yet helped cast a 25 kilo spherical lead weight from used car wheel weights with a cast in pipe through the middle for an attachment point. Three of the kids researched and created an electronic microprocessor controlled electro magnet to replace the losses from air friction and keep the pendulum swinging. This included sensors in the conical support to tell if on the last swing if the support cable touched the mouth of the cone. If not, as the pendulum approached the center of its arc, the electromagnet would kick on and give an impulse to the pendulum. This was an excellent project for the class -- it included engineering, weight and density calculations, strength of materials, modulus of elasticity, air friction, earth rotation, electronics, low level programming and cooperation. With the microprocessor control, it was possible to expand on the experiment well beyond the classic version and do some real time experiments to measure the amount of energy lost to friction and flex of the pivot. The pivot point was rebuilt and replace several times to see how different arc lengths on the swing affected energy loss. By designing and building a knife edge pivot support for the cable with more microprocessor control that kept the knife edge perpendicular to the swing of the pendulum we were able to separate the losses due to bending flex in the original cable support from air friction on the bob. This left us with uncertainty about the amount of loss due to flex in the support structure. By this time we had several of the parents and grandparents actively supporting the project -- with their assistance we got a support structure fabricated from steel and supported by the building structure at 6 points. Further guy wires were placed to make the overall structure even more rigid. This left us with more data, existing literature allowed a pretty precise estimate of air friction since the bob shape and diameter were known, air density could be looked up and velocity of the bob easily calculated. This gave a good excuse to spend a while on integral calculus since the velocity of the bob was continually changing as it swung, and air friction vs velocity is not at all linear. From this, a fairly precise estimate of losses due to support flex could be made, as the amount of energy required to maintain the swing on the pendulum could be measured from the logs generated by the controller. One further side effect of this project was that the word got out, and it began to seem as if every science class in the city and surrounding area wanted to make a field trip to Freddy's Grandpa's house and see it run. After a while we did another project and did a video with handouts that showed the pendulum running in fast time as it precessed. We didn't charge a lot, but sold enough copies to recoup all the cost of setting up the experiment plus a significant surplus to be used for the next project. The only somewhat unfortunate part of the visits from the outside classes was that almost none of the teachers understood that for my group, the pendulum experiment itself was almost incidental. Yes, when it was running it demonstrated that the plane of the pendulum swing remained stationary as the earth rotated underneath it. They never saw the value of learning how to make and tune such a structure, tuning it and understanding the secondary effects. Designing, constructing then rebuilding the control circuits that kept it going and rotated the knife edge pivot far above. Later on we came to the conclusion that a piece of piano wire, just thick enough to support the weight with a 50% margin had a negligible spring force when the arc of the pendulum was about 3 feet, end to end on the swing. It doesn't take a very thick piece of tempered steel wire to have a 45 kilo breaking strength. Building the rotating knife edge pivot was good practice for the class. And discovering that it was unnecessary was even better. *************************************************** Jenny and I went on several long rides, some as transportation to bridge tournaments, and some just to go riding. We both loved it, but I couldn't go very often because of scheduling pressure. =================================================== Chapter 12 -- The menage becomes quatre. A couple of weeks later Jenny invited Christine to sleep over for a weekend. Sue must have coached her because her public behaviour was very typical 7 year old girl. Until we got home that afternoon. When the door closed behind us as we entered the house, she asked, "Is it my time now, Uncle Greg?" I assured her it was. She went for my belt immediatly, had my pants and underwear off in two minutes, would have been one if she had done the shoes first. Then my shirt and she demanded that I undress her. Jenny seemed OK with it, so I did as instructed, then on further instructions, licked her to an orgasm. Chris lay there and cuddled for about three minutes then pushed me onto my back and started sucking my cock. She did it for a minute or so then rose up and slid it into herself. In about three minutes Chris came again which pushed me over the edge. We lay there for a few minutes and Jenny joined us. I (with quite a lot of help from Jenny) undressed her and we lay there for a while, Chris still with me inside her, trading kisses with both girls. After a bit I asked Jenny, "Would you like Chris and me to do you like we did Van the other night?" "Yes, please" was the response. Chris seemed to like the idea, we had teamed up on Sue in the past and the thought of doing Aunt Jenny appealed to her. I got out the massage table stuff and laid Jenny face down on the pad. I put a low table on one side for Chris to stand on and got on the other, Chris watched me lightly tickle/scratch Jenny around the head and shoulders and started mirroring my actions. Her fine motor control wasn't quite up to snuff for this kind of work, but in a way that wasn't bad at all because it made her input less predictiable. We worked our way down Jenny's back, lingering on her buttocks for a bit, then on down her legs. As before we went quickly back up her body this time doing swirling scratches just short of marking the skin. At the end I pushed the pressure point on her lower back that that sent ripples up it. We worked on her back a bit longer, then I flipped her over and we went down her front, very slowly and very light touches. Back up the length of her body with the scratching pass, then oil and starting with her face a slow gentle massage, including arms and hands, nipples and pussy, all the way down to her feet. We both when back up the length of Jenny's body kissing and caressing, I was alternating kisses between her lips and nipples when Jenny gasped and flinched. I looked around and Chris had her face buried in Jenny's crotch. Jenny raised up in surprise, Chris grinned at her, mostly with her eyes and kept lapping at Jenny's slit, alternating with licks up her crack then sucking on her clit. A moments hesitation and Jenny lay back down and started thrusting with her hips. I continued with the kisses and caressed her boobs more firmly. A couple more minutes and Jenny was cumming. When she came back down from that high, I picked her up and put her on the bed. I crawled up between her legs and slid into her, Chris cuddled along side, nursing on one boob and caressing the other. Jenny went wild and in another couple of minutes came again as I filled her with my semen. We lay there in a sweaty tangle for a while, caressing, kissing and cuddling. After a bit we got up and showered, then back to the bed to cuddle some more. In another twenty minutes, Jenny and Chris decided to give me a back rub. The rolled me onto my stomach, got the oil and started working my back, alternating light tickley scratching with deeper massaging. With a bit of coaching, Jenny was able to find the pressure point that triggered the ripple effect in my spine. It's hard to imagine anything much better than having a pair of girls that you love and have just fucked rubbing your back. I nearly melted into the sheets. They worked at it for half an hour or so of bliss, then I rolled onto my back again and snuggled a girl in each arm, trading gentle kisses between them with them occasionally reaching across me to kiss each other. After a while Chris moved down and started sucking me again. I moved her around so I could lick her as she worked me. A few minutes of that and she swapped ends and slid me into her slippery snatch. She lay on my chest as I gently slid in and out with short strokes, rubbing her back and buttocks, giving little kisses on the parts of her face that I could reach. A few minutes of that and she became more aroused and started moving more actively. Three more minutes and we both came one more time. This time we collapsed in a heap on the bed and slept for a couple of hours. Forced out of bed by bathroom needs, we showered and made the bed up with fresh sheets. I called for pizza, got dressed enough to receive it, then we snuggled in the lounge and watched telly for a while. When we finally went to bed, I made love to Jenny, slow and gentle with Chris caressing and petting as we fucked. In the morning, Jenny and I did Chris one more time, then we showered one more time and got dressed for Sue's arrival at 10:00. The sleepover was counted as a great success by all, Chris was over at least every other weekend when Jenny and I weren't committed to something else. A few weeks after, Jenny had her eleventh birthday. The party was pretty typical of a bunch of girls except the sleepover after was limited to Jenny, Van and Chris. We only used one bed. I survived. Three girls doing a backrub is better than two. *************************************************** Chapter 13 -- Morrie flees and is dragged back. Van and Morrie's developing relationship was going along OK till a night, about six months after Jenny and I became a couple in the eyes of her family. Morrie showed up two hours before game time. Van was there and Jenny and I finished up our work a bit early. I ordered pizza and while we were waiting for it to arrive, the girls decided to do up Morrie's and my hair for the evening. I was willing to go along with almost anything Jenny wanted to do, so long as it left no scars and wouldn't have the neighbors calling the police. Morrie was a bit more relucant, but allowed Van to persuade him. By the time the others arrived, my beard was in 5 braids with a blue bow at the end of each. My hair was in a combination french braid and Mongolian topknot with 5 chopsticks as hair sticks. Morrie's beard was too short to braid, and his hair was only about 15cm long. He wound up with at least 30 small braids with a ribbon on the end of each. When the rest of the group arrived it took quite a while for the laughter and comments to die down. Vaughn, unfortunately wouldn't let it go, and started speculating about what other services that the girls might be supplying beyound waitress and hairdresser. Jenny and I just admitted to everything, plus confessed to a quite large number of things that a) were beyond improbable and well into flat out impossible. and b) There wouldn't have been any possible way to do them all in the time available anyway. It got rather drunker out than usual and I didn't keep on top of it as well as I might have. Morrie got quieter and quieter, and Van wasn't happy either. Half way through the evening she undid his braids and combed out his hair, which just gave the others more ammunition. The following week, the remarks started up immediately, and went on just a little bit. It was noted by everyone but Vaughn, that Morrie and Vanessa weren't happy at all, and the joke wasn't funny anymore. By the end of the evening, even Vaughn caught on. Unfortunately by then, Morrie was in full shutdown mode and would barely acknowledge Van's existence and flinched if she touched him. Next week Morrie wouldn't speak to Van beyond the requirements of the game and was fairly rude when he did. Soon she was sitting on the opposite side of me. The game shut down, early and sober. Van tried to talk to Morrie as he was packing up to leave and he yelled at her making her cry, looked like he wanted to cry himself, and no better way to put it, fled in disarray. She came to me after he left, crawled into my lap and cried. "He hates me." I hugged her, kissed her on the forehead and rubbed her back a moment. "No, love. He doesn't hate you. I would judge that at the moment he is absolutly terrified of you -- rather by his feelings for you." I gestured at the cushion Morrie had been sitting on. "If you look real close, you can see the blood stains." Van looked a bit confused. "My take on the situation is that Morrie is hurting at least as bad as you are. Hemmoraging inside, even if the blood stains on the cushion are pretty faint. If this keeps on, he will drop out of the game. We can't have that, he's the best dungeon master I know of." Van slugged me in the ribs, a token blow. "Jenny", I cried. "She hit me." Jenny slugged me from the other side, somewhat harder. I hugged Van and kissed her forehead again. "First and foremost, what is it that you want?", I asked her. Typical early teen response -- "I dunno. Have Morrie like me again?" "Well, do you want him to be a good buddy, mentor, and play D&D with you? Be your boyfriend? Husband and father of your children? Tear off his clothes and ravish him on the playing board. I warn you, if you do that while the other guys are here, they are likly to critique your style, laugh and point, and make uncouth ribald jokes. Especially late in the game after a six-pack or so apiece." A small smile from Van, "I better wait till they go home then." She burrowed her face into my chest for a couple of minutes. Jenny came over and rubbed her shoulders while I cuddled her. In a bit she raised her head, "Boyfriend for now, probably husband someday. Getting the friend back if you can't do any better. I thought we were friends and a bit towards boyfriend/girlfriend." "You were/are." I replied. "Morrie isn't good at all at dealing with girls, I've seen him do this before. That time I didn't have a dog in the race and did the 'man' thing of letting him suffer alone. In retrospect, not a good plan. I'll try to do better this time." "However, let's start with you. You're usually much better at manipulating situations like this. I've watched you handle the other kids in class and at family parties -- you usually do a very good job of heading off trouble before most folks even notice a problem -- for which, incidentally, I thank you." Sniffle, "I know. It's harder when I'm the one messing up." "Well", I said, "truth be known, it's mostly Morrie that's messing up. Fleeing in panic would be more accurate. You could have managed better though. Have a talk with Grandma Alma. She will likely have some thoughts about how you might do better a different time." A small "ok" from against my chest. I thought for a few minutes. "Ok, get down. You guys get ready for bed. I'll go track Morrie down and see if I can talk to him tonight. He too, was pretty upset when he left." Another moment's thought, "Stay pretty well dressed, I'll give it a try to drag him back tonight. Don't want to freak him out again. Be prepared for him to be more than a bit drunk. That may be necessary to get him back here tonight. He may be already started -- he seldom does, but this is somewhat of a special occasion. It may be a few hours, grab some blankets and sleep out here in case I manage to win." I grabbed my keys and wallet and went out the door. ************************************************** It took a while to find Morrie, he wasn't at home and he wasn't at any of the first four pubs I tried. In the fifth one, a fairly rough joint that I seldom patronized I found him. He was sitting in a back corner with a pint in his hand. I picked up another couple of pints from the bar and went over to his table and sat down. "What the hell do you want?", he growled at me. "Just wandered in and thought I'd have a drink with a mate", I replied. "Yeah, right. This is the first time I've seen you out drinking since you and Jenny took up." "Well, I have been the teensiest bit busy of late, what with getting back onto the doc thesis, teaching a full class for Williams, the grad student work and a new girlfriend", I replied, then took a good pull on my beer. "Good, I've missed this a bit." We sat, not speaking while he finished his glass. I pushed the spair over in front of him. He finished that one and I ordered another round. "I did leave a pretty girl crying in my house when I left a while ago.", I ventured, carefully not looking at him. A full minute's silence, then "Do you think I'm supposed to care?", from Morrie. Pause "I think you do care, or you'd be at home in bed instead of getting drunk and snarling at me." "God Damnit Greg, she's a little kid." "If you think that's a good argument, you'll need to find someone else to agree with you.", this time I looked straight at him. "Are you drunk enought to give me a real answer? Never mind what you think Mrs. Grundy thinks you ought to do, does Morrie want Vanessa? Mind you, telling me you don't will have to be real convincing, considering where we are." I waved at the few folk still there. Not the place that Morrie usually went to. Not our kind of crowd at all. "What business is of yours!! Why don't you leave me alone!!, he snarled at me. "Well, let's see", I said, leaning back. "I have two of my best friends very unhappy and one of them looking to do something real foolish. Looks like I may lose the best dungeon master in the state. And, after watching you panic and flee from Judy last year, I vowed that if I had another opportunity, if necessary I would hog tie you so you couldn't run away from a girl that liked you and that you liked." Morrie looked away. I waved at the waitress and paid for another round. Morrie drained about half of his. "Ok", I told him. "Can you look me in the eye and tell me that you don't like to be with Van at the D&D evenings? I was watching you three weeks ago before you had this panic attack." "She's a bloody ten year old kid. How can I have a ten year old kid as a girlfriend.", this time quite a lot quieter. "She turned eleven a couple of months ago, but I agree, it is an issue. She will get over it in time though. And, it may be that things can be worked out in the shorter run if you are willing to pay the price. However, you are still avoiding an answer to my question. Do you love Vanessa?", looking straight at him. "Goddamit you bastard. Yes!! I love her. Why do you think I'm in *here* getting drunk?!!" "In that case", I said standing up. "leave the rest of that beer and come back home with me. Having the rest of this discussion in a less public place would be good. And, your lady is waiting up for you." I feared for a moment that Morrie was going to balk, but I'd mangaged to get the right amount of alchohol into his system. Enough to keep him from running, still able to walk and talk. On the way home Morrie was quiet for a while. About half way home, "You mentioned a price?" "Nothing unexpected if you think about it. Neither money nor blood, just time and emotional risk and commitment. You will have to go to the effort of being a good boyfriend. Meet her parents in a few weeks, yada, yada. And accept that she can't be your girlfriend in public for five years or so. Mostly that nurturing a relationship is an ongoing process and keep working at it. The Morrie I know won't have any real problem so long as you don't panic again." Several minutes went by. "You really think her parents will go for a 24 year old boyfriend?" "I think that Vanessa has 'Chosen You' and that they will go along in the long run. Details probably won't get too grim. You are a pretty nice and honorable guy who is almost to finish a Masters, with a good line on grants to go on to a PhD. And a good friend of her best friend's guy, who has been accepted in their circle." We got home and went into the house. I'd been gone well over two hours, most of the lights were off. The girls had changed to long sleep shirts and were wrapped in a blanket on the cushions in the lounge. When we came in, Vanessa raised up to look. She saw Morrie following me, a flash of hope, then her face closed down to a neutral expression. Morrie had been watching. He flinched a bit at her expression, then visibly girding his loins, went to one knee before her and bowed. "M'Lady Vanessa, your humble servant begs your forgiveness. I did speak to you with harsh and intemperate words, none of which you in any way deserved, then worse yet, did most cravenly flee your presence earlier this evening and was well started on a session of drunkenness when the brave Sir Gregory found me. Lengthy and harsh were his words. In addition, he plied me with strong drink till I was unable to escape. He then dragged me, somewhat kicking and screaming into your presence. However, when my gaze fell upon your fair visage, it came to me that I have been a right fool to cast the chance to have your favor aside as one might spurn garbage in the street. In this matter I am most greviously at fault and a foul coward to boot. I can only hope to be permitted to make amends even though I am quite undeserving of the chance." He held the bow, looking at the floor. He had not looked at Van's face at any time during the speech. Vanessa stood up and slowly walked over to where Morrie still knelt. Jenny was awake by now and came to my side and put an arm around my waist. I hugged her to me as we watched Van and Morrie. Vanessa reached down with both hands and tipped Morrie's head up till he was looking at her. "Do you really mean that?" He replied, "I do my lady. I beg you to allow me to resume my post as dungeon master and friend, hoping to be allowed to aspire to the status of paramore if that is your wish. If that position is not available, dungeon master and friend would be a boon that will be sufficient to sooth my breast." "You *are* drunk", she said with a hint of a giggle. "Verily, to my shame, this is true. Alas, I fear that without the dutch courage gained thereby, I would have been unable to bear to enter your presence this eve." She gazed into his eyes for a long moment, then raised his head up level with hers and gave him a gentle kiss on the lips. "Sir Morrie, your position as dungeon master and friend is hearby restored in full. The position of paramore will be considered. I must warn you, there will be fell trials and arduous labors to be performed before full status of paramore may be reached." She giggled, "Being in my presence again while sober will be the first test." Morrie bowed again, then looking Vanessa in the eye, "I will gladly face any trial that is put to me in the hope of one day gaining your favor. Command me." Vanessa gave him another, longer kiss then looked up at me, "Will you accept the post of mentor and guide to Sir Morrie, and go-between on my behalf in the matter of presenting him to the 'rents?" Going along with the theme, I bowed to her. "I will gladly undertake these tasks Lady Vanessa." I clapped my hands, "Ok folks. It is now 2:30 AM. I have a class at the university in the morning and you girls will need to be up and dressed by 9 to make your schedule. To bed." Then to Morrie, "As was previously noted, you suffer from a touch of enebriation. Move the pads to make yourself a bed here and I'll get sheets and blankets. I have a spair toothbrush you can have and I'll take you back to your car in the morning." ****************************************** Next morning I pried myself out of bed at the usual time. Jenny and I had a quick shower. I put on minimum clothes and went out to wake Morrie, found Vanessa snuggled up to his back with both of them still sound asleep. I watched them for a moment, grinning, then kicked Morrie's foot three times gently. "Rise and shine Sir Morrie. The morning awaits. You have people to do and deeds to see." This was greeted with about the kind of enthusiasm you would expect till Morrie noticed his bed mate. He froze for a moment, then as she opened her eyes a bit. "Good morning, Van." "Morning", she mumbled, then held her arms up to him. Morrie hesitated for a second, then sat up and gathered her into his arms. She snuggled against his chest and looked up with a sleepy smile. I watched them for another 15 seconds, the kicking at Morrie's foot again, "Up, Up, Up!!! Your ride must leave in 30 minutes." He reluctantly lifted Vanessa off his lap and went into the bathroom briefly. "I'll need to go home for clothes, I'll do the rest there." Vanessa and Jenny got dressed and we had a quick breakfast. I dropped the girls off at Jenny's house and headed for where Morrie had left his car. I looked at him, short sleep, hangover and all he looked much happier and relaxed. "Am I forgiven for dragging you away from your debauchery last night?", I asked. "You are. I thank you, Greg -- or should I say 'Sir Gregory'", he replied. Then after a moment, "What's next in this project. Van mentioned mentor and guide." "We need to have a further talk, could you have dinner with me tonight? There are some things you need to know before you go further in this matter.", I replied. "O--K", he answered slowly, "What time?" "How about 7?" Then after a couple more minutes, "How should I deal with Van next week? I don't want to mess things up again." "Treat her like you were a few weeks ago. As someone you like, as a promising apprentice in D&D, and as straight girl for your horrible puns." "She started it with the puns", Morrie defended himself. "Unfortunalty. She's almost as punny as you are.", I shot back. Then continuing, "I'll remind the guys that as Dungeon Master, the Gods work for you. That seriously distressing the God's boss might not be conducive to good health and long lives within the game." Another minute or so. "So far as advancing the level of your relationship with her, let her take the lead. I'll make sure she knows to lead firmly enough. She's sexually active and won't be harmed by any sort of normal sexual intercourse, so you don't need to worry about that. She is on birth control, so surprise additions to the family shouldn't be a worry either. Van's a remarkably adept, constructive manipulator of people and relationships -- the antithesis of a trouble maker. For her, allowing you to get to the point of fleeing her presence was 'unusual'. She usually manages much better than that -- like as not, because she was so emotionally involved this time. If you will allow her to, she'll most likely make things work out." Another short pause. "I think I need to invite you and sister Sue to dinner soon. She gave quite the lecture on relationship management to me and Jenny -- you and Van would benefit from it." Then, as I pulled up along side his car, "If you aren't sure of something or are uncomforatable with something Van seems to want you to do, talk to her. Or Sue, or me -- I seem to have become the Baba. Use it." Morrie got out, then stuck his head back in the door, "Once more, thank you Sir Gregory. See you later." ================================================== Chapter 14 -- More of Morrie and Van Next night Morrie showed up at the appointed time. I managed to get Van back and Jenny was there as usual. I fed him, taking care to keep his wine glass replenished. Morrie noticed, suspected that I had a motive and went along without comment. After dinner, I got two bowls of the good cut into Morrie and handed him another beer. "Must be pretty bad for you to need to get me this high before you bring it up?, He looked at me warily. "I must ask you to swear that this discussion will be held in confidence from all muggles of any stripe." He responded, "I so swear by Bel Shagaroth, God of the number which must not be named, my honor as Dungeon Master, and upon my anvil as master blacksmith." I gave a small bow to him, "On that note Jenny, please tyle the doors. Lodge is in session." Jenny got up from my side and took a crosslegged seat on a cushion in front of the outside door, Van moved a cushion to sit beside her. Morrie eyed them more than a bit askance then focused on me again. After another moment, gesturing at Jenny and Van, "I suppose they have instructions to grab my legs and sob if I get mad and try to storm out of here?" "Instructions, no. However, especially now that you suggested it, I expect that's the plan." Jenny gave him a big cheezy grin, Vanessa a more timid smile. I took a deep breath, "I believe you have suspected that Jenny and I are lovers, have been since last winter." Morrie nodded. "I figured it, even before that statement." I continued, "In addition with Van, we have been menage a trois for quite a bit of that time. "Again, I had wondered. The three of you were pretty tight when Van joined the D&D group. Still are for that matter, she has more dragged me into your clique than moved away from you two.", he replied. "Do you plan to continue", he asked? "Not really my call", I replied. "Vanessa hasn't slept with us for a few weeks. If asked I would advise against it at least until your relationship with her has settled." "Understand, it really isn't my call. I hold a veto, but the two of them have been managing our menage from the start. They haven't done anything I was really uncomfortable with so I haven't felt the need to try to assert any control." I paused to give him time to absorb and think, then took a deep breath. "To drop another couple of shoes while you're still in mello mode, Sister Sue and I have been lovers on and off for 22 years, Christine joined us about 3 years ago. Chris talked Jenny into sharing me a while back, so we are menage a quarte on occasion. Sue gave me to Jenny when we hooked up solid, with a covenant to not have sex with me without Jenny's permission." Morrie, understandably looked stunned. After a few moments he asked, somewhat timidly, "And how do I fit into this -- 'menage'?" I replied slowly and after a few moments, "Understand I'm making this up as I go. My experience with this kind of situation is quite limited. I haven't even read about it much except in Heinlein's books. I can see several possibilities. One of course, is for you and Van to become a couple and do your own thing. Become monogamous and raise your two point three kids. Have us as good friends that share babysitting and dinners. Another would be to invite you to join us in an extended family, along with maybe Chris and perhaps Sue. It need not be any more intimate than we are at the moment. Or, it could become more so. Here's a copy of the marrage agreement that Jenny and I will probably use in a couple of years." I handed him a copy. Morrie spent a couple of minutes reading through it. He noted the similarity to Heinline's families. "Interesting", was his comment. He went read the four pages again, this time much more slowly. "Has Sue seen this?", were his next words. "She has. She approves in concept.", I replied. "This is how you are proposing to form us into a family?", he asked. "It is. One item for your consideration is that a minimum betrothal in this extended family is a year and a day, and you probably have at least 4 months ahead of you before a betrothal would be approved." "No hurry for a decision then. Good. Food for thought though. May we keep this copy?", he asked. "You may", I answered. I continued after a bit, "There are multitudes of variations on the theme. Those two are sort of extremes, no suggestion that they are the only possibilities. For the moment, I would suggest that you and Van stick to each other and explore how you want your relationship to work. After a few months, we consider reopening this discussion." After few more moments, I added, "None of this has to be decided tonight, beyond perhaps you committing to further association with Van. Also note that while we might discuss and plot, Van and Jenny with Chris as junior partner will really decide how we will live. You and I get a limited veto, the right to say, 'I won't do that. I will leave first.'" I looked straight at him. "So, Morrie, to make you the same offer that was made to me a few months ago, are you going to flee, screaming, into the night? If so, I will undertake to delay Vanessa for a time to give you a decent head start." He replied after a few moments thought, "No, I promised Van I would be her friend and dungeon master. And to aspire to Paramour. I will hold to that vow." Vanessa sort of dove across the room and into his arms -- plastering his face with kisses. After a while Van snuggled into his arms and laid her head on his chest. Morrie asked, "What sort of relationship are you envisioning for you and me?" "For the time being, nothing much different than it has been. If we get married per that agreement, much like partners in a small business. Or in another way, to answer the question you seem to be hinting at -- It's a long answer so be patient. When I graduated from high school, I sort of had a list of possible things to do. Some of them I wanted to do and would work hard to achieve, traveling around the world was one. The other end of the list was things that under no circumstances whatsoever would I do them. I would literally die first. Ten years later, I still have that list. Main difference is that there is a lot more gray than there was when I was 18. Very few things that I would die rather than do. Most of that part of the list is now -- 'At this time I have no intention of doing that or allowing it to be done to me nor mine.' Have oral or anal sex with Morrie isn't even that far down on the list. Sort of, 'At this time I have no intention of suggesting it.' On the other hand, if I believed that you really wanted to, I would probably give it a go. Once, years ago I tried sex with a guy. It wasn't horrible. It left no scars, but I never went back either. On the gripping hand, I would offer, even suggest that the girls and I give you a full massage on occasion -- which can be about as sensual as it gets short of actual intercourse. And I would gratefully accept an offer for you and the girls to do me. Does that answer the question you seemed to be hinting at?" After a bit he said, "You do get around Greg -- four lovers and inviting me to join you." "Three. At the moment Sue is in abeyance, and you've stolen one of them, leaving me with only two", I protested. "Yeah, right. I'll give you all the sympathy you deserve", was his rejoinder. "So little? Ah well, I shall have to make do with the two you leave me", I sighed. This got me a thump in the ribs from Jenny, and since Van couldn't reach from her current position and wasn't willing to give up her seat even for a moment, I got a stuck out tongue from her. Morrie looked down at Van, "Do you want me to live here love?" "I want to live with you. I would like to try having us live with them. Here is sort of optional.", was her reply. Morrie looked down at Vanessa snuggling against his chest. He tipped her face up and gave her another kiss. "I will do my best love. Note that I am not attempting to flee your presence at this time and I'm still pretty sober. You may be required to dispatch the Brave Sir Gregory to drag me back at some time in the future. Know that you have my permission to do so, no matter what curses and imprecations I may heap upon his undeserving head at that time." Vanessa hugged him again and burrowed her face into his neck. "Mine", she said giving every indication of not moving further till starvation or bathroom needs drove her out. Morrie showed no dissent. After a while Morrie said, "Ok, I'll buy into the deal for now. If you manage to work your parental magic on Van's folks enough that I don't get rode out of town on a rail with feathers, we can work on the details." This got him a long kiss from Vanessa, and another from Jenny. I contented myself with shaking his hand and getting him a cup of coffee. Then I said to Morrie and the girls, "In three weeks Van's school will have a family party. You should attend. I was thinking of taking you anyway, see if it might work out for you to teach a class for the accelerated group. You can meet Van's parents and she can present you as her dungeon master and friend.", I replied. "Dungeon master -- that sounds kind of kinky.", he said with a wry grin. *************************************************** Chapter 15 -- The trials of the Baba Next thing on my list was to get advice. I talked a bit with Dianne, she arranged things with her mother and mother-in-law for a consultation. "I understand you've been appointed Baba.", Alma said with a broad grin. "Welcome to the old girls club. We grant you status as an honorary old lady for the duration." "Thanks, I think.", I replied. "What I have is a couple of good friends that have a potential parental problem. You know Vanessa. She has 'Chosen' Morrie Alexander. Morrie is quite willing, if more than a bit terrified at the idea. Mostly of the idea of having a girl friend. Their age difference is lost in the noise compared to that. I believe that the relationship is viable, and Morrie is qualified as a father of the children of the next generation for most of the same reasons that you approved of me. What I ask of you is advice and help to manage the initial interaction with her parents. How may this be done in a constructive and positive manner?" They quizzed me on Morrie at some length. Sarah was acquainted with him through her University connections and had done a bit of investigation on her own. At the end, Alma and Diane were to broach the subject with Vanessa's parents. They felt that her father was more likely to be in favor or at least willing to allow Van to have a shot at her choice of guys. I would wait to meet with them until the scouts had reported back. One point that Alma made to them was that, like it or not, Vanessa is a sexually active woman and would continue to be, with or without their co-operation. If they accepted this and her choice of Morrie, they would be in the loop and have a modicum of control. If they rejected Morrie, probably her next efforts would be done in secret and they wouldn't find out what was going on till something went bad -- or she brought home her new husband. Next week I was invited to dinner with Vanessa's parents. After dinner Van and Jenny were sent off to her room while we talked. Van's mother looked grim and sour. Her father opened the discussion with a wry grin. "We've been hearing about the 'Magnificent Morrie' for a couple of months now. Diane and Alma told us of your picking up the gauntlet of Babahood last week. Tell us, why should we permit this relationship?" "Let me tell you of Morris Alexander, a good friend and colleague of mine. Morrie is the prototyical geek. The fat kid in high school, chess club, honor society, school paper, but never the leader. When he was lucky, ignored by the athletes and the rest of the 'in crowd', when not so lucky, ... No girl friends till university, not much there. So far as I know, Van is the first girl where he didn't run from any emotional involvemnt, ever. And then he still ran, but I went out and dragged him back. Vanessa got her hooks in firmly enough that night that he hasn't made another break for it yet. Morrie is going to be terrified of meeting you. I know this doesn't sound too promising, but on the good side, Morrie is at the top of his field in University, he will graduate as a Master of Arts in History and Geography, with honors, the end of the term. I don't know if he's decided to go direct to a PhD or work for a while. I know he's had offers both ways. He may do both. He's active in the SCA, a high rank belted knight, and an accomplished blacksmith. I have one of his blades, It's a work of art and very functional as well. I expect you've seen the wrought iron necklace that he made for Van at the fair. Overall, a very intelligent (likely a bit higher than Van), quite competent, very nice guy with a broad range of interests. If you think of him as potential father of your grandchildren, I doubt very much that you will do better." "Do you think he'll stay the course? I'd hate to see Vanessa get hurt because he lost his nerve again.", from her mother. I answered slowly, "I think he wants to very much. He did very well with Van at the D&D game last week. I know that he will do his best not to hurt her in any way. I really think that with gentle handling and a bit of guidance, he will do well. May, of course, not work out in the long run -- but I would like to see them given the chance to try." I left with wry acceptance from her father, grudging acquiescence from her mother. About as good as I could hope for. ************************************************* Chapter 16 -- Next Week at D&D Next week at D&D Morrie came in early. Van approached him a bit carefully, he hugged and gave her a quick kiss, I watched the tension flow out of her and she gave him a long hug, then stayed leaning on him for another minute. Morrie finally told her that he was going to have to get to work if we were going to have a game that evening. Van let him go and helped him get set up to work. Morrie started to work on planning the evinings campaign, Van sunggled up to his side working on her class work. After a bit I interuppted them. "Three weeks ago, when this all started, you guys remember how Jenny and I handled the remarks?" Somewhat wary agreement from Morrie and Van. "Remember Heinlein's lecture on how to lie in 'Time Enough for Love'?" Nod from Morrie, a somewhat blank look from Van. "I never read that one", she said. "You should read it, especially that chapter. In that case, to recap, he suggested several ways to lie effectivly. Being able to tell woppers with a straight face is assumed. Keep it simple was one of the more important bits. Do a bare minimum of lying to achieve your goals. One method, Tell the truth, just not all of it. Encourage your victim assume things that aren't true but don't actually say so. "Tell the truth, but make your victim believe you are lying. Jenny and I used a variation on that method when we just agreed to all the suggestions that Vaughn was making about our activities. Jenny did a good job of adding to his suggestions, although the scenario with the midget, the four sheep and the turkey was a bit over the top. There is no way we could have the sheep in here without having the neighbours calling animal control. At any rate, the guys knew we were lying to them, no possible way we could have been doing all that Vaughn suggested, much less what Jenny and I added to the mix. So, in the end, they have no more information about our activities than they did at the start. Since Jenny was cool enough about it to not blush or anything, they have no handle on us. Problem is that you, Morrie were guilty of a little bit of what Vaughn came up with and reacted in such a way that he is probably certain that you two have been lovers for weeks rather that four days. Since I doubt you could pull off the 'admit to everything' with a calm demeanor and it's too late anyway, I suggest that you tell Vaughn, quite firmly, that the matter is not an appopriate subject for conversation in front of the kids, and that the gods will smite him if he keeps on. I would suggest that when, not if, Vaughn starts up again during the game that the gods smite him with sufficent wrath that he has to start a new character. The blow should not only kill the active charater, but all his others as well. I'll take him aside and warn him -- it won't stop him but it will help to keep the others from crying foul. They were more than a bit tired of his remarks last week anyway." Van and Morrie agreed. I'm pretty sure that Morrie started working on a scenario to use on Vaughn right then. Around seven the other guys started arriving. Dave and Jack noted Van leaning against Morrie's ribs again, grinned and said nothing. Vaughn arrived and made the expected comments. As planned I followed him into the kitchen. "That subject needs to be closed. You've pushed it way beyond funny and it's time to drop it.", I told him. Vaughn huffed at me, "It's just a joke." "One that got over being funny two weeks ago or more. I had to go run Morrie down after last week and we nearly lost the dungeon master.", I replied, "I managed to get him calmed down, but keep it up and the gods will smite you. Be warned." "Ok, Ok, don't get your kinckers in a twist.", He grabbed a beer and went back into the lounge. We started the evenings session. Things went along ok for an hour or so then Vaughn made some sort of comment about Morrie's taste in girlfriends. Morrie dumped a problem on Vaughn's head that cost him a quarter of his hit points and made some inroads on the rest of us. 20 minutes and two beers later he made a remark to Van that even the other guys flinched at. The ground opened up at Vaughn's character's feet and BelShagaroth wrapped tenacles around his body and started to drag him into hell for a little snack. Vaughn was told he had to roll a 38 on two d20 dice to make the save. He didn't make it. His character was ruled dead with no resurection. He whined a bit about the unfairness of the move, got no sympathy from anyone else in the game and went home. The rest of us went on with the game, having Vaughn gone reduced the tension and the rest of the session ran strong to tricks and jokes. Dave hung back as the others left. "So, do we give him another chance?", he asked Morrie and me. I raised an eyebrow at Vanessa, Dave made a gesture to her, clearly trying to include her in the question. "Probably, one more time", was her answer, "He's not too bad of a guy most of the time, if he gets the message, I'm ok to let him stay." "What she just said", from Morrie. Jenny and I agreed. "I'll get him aside then and give him the message, including that the rest of us are quite unhappy with him as well. He's not really mean nor dumb, so he will probably be good. I think the description about how his eyeballs popped out and his intestines dragged on the ground got his attention about just how mad you were. Oh, well, we'll see next week. See you later." He left with a bit of a grin on his face. ************************************************** Chapter 17 -- Morrie meets the parents and is grudgingly accepted. Came the day of school party, it was on a Saturday afternoon. There were 30 or so kids in the fast classes in this city, most of them were there with the usual assortment of parents and grandparents, averaging a bit over 1.5 adults per kid. The average parent was both pretty involved in educating their kids and in high level careers. The conflict kept the number high but well below two per family, along with the fact that many families had more than one kid here. Add in siblings, cousins and friends not in the school, it made quite a herd of kids running and playing with quite a bit of noise. Quite a lot of money here, the event was catered. On the other hand, no social points to be made so the food was excellent, abundant, healthy, and taylored to kid tastes rather than fancy. Morrie had worried much about what to wear, I assured him that for the people who counted here, good grad student clothes would be quite adequate, tie quite optional. Dianne spotted us as we came in and came over. "You must be Morrie, The Dungeon Master", she said holding out her hand. "Morrie Alexander, Dianne Gormley, Jenny's mother", I introduced them. "I've heard much of you. I was sure you'd be much taller", she twinkled at him. About this time Vanessa and Jenny spotted us. They came flying over and wrapped themselves around Morrie and me. I watched Morrie closely, that was the most demonstrative greeting Van had given him since the night of drunken revelation. He didn't try to dodge and hugged her back. Van held it for a moment, then with "Come on, Morrie", pulled away, grabbed his hand and started dragging him through the crowd towards her parents. Dianne, Jenny and I followed, grinning at his amused discomfort. "Mum, Daddy, This is Morrie.", she cried. "Morris Alexander, James and Joanne Fredricks", I offered in her wake. "Usually known as Morrie, Jim and Joan. I think the three of you may have figured out your relationship in this matter." "Well", offered Jim looking at where his daughter still had Morrie's hand firmly in her grasp. "I believe that is a clue." He shook Morrie's left hand since the right one was occupied, "Pleased to meet you, once again, from the stories I was positive you'd be taller." He grinned a bit at Morrie's embarrasment, then looking down at their hands and speaking to me, "Do you suppose she's establishing ownership, or restraining him so he can't escape." I shrugged, "Probably both, she's got him pretty well figured out." Joan also shook his left hand, Morrie starting to lose some of his embarrasment. "Greg, in his role of Baba primed us a bit for this. We would like to have a less public talk with you after a bit if you could spare the time." Recognizing this as a command, not a request, Morrie gave a slight bow, "At your convenience, Madam. Let me know the time and place." Conversation went from there into social banality for a bit, then Joan, showing some of where her daughters social skills came from got Morrie talking about his work. In abstract I knew that someone who cared about any subject could make it interesting, but hadn't thought about medevial Islamic history as qualifiying before. Van stayed at his side, never relinquishing her hold on his hand and listened, occasionaly adding to the discussion. After a half hour or so, her parents were called off on some other issue and we jointly hit the buffet. I then introduced Morrie to Alma Gormley in her role as schoolboard member. I suggested the possibility of Morrie as a teacher; history, geography and social studies making a good mix for the accellerated program. In reality, they are intertwined and quite interdepenent. She seemed quite interested, and somewhat surprisingly to me, interested in the SCA and blacksmithing skills as well. Van then dragged him off towards a group of kids. In a little bit, Jenny and I were dispatched back to the car to get the D&D equipment, then enlisted to help run a simplified D&D game with about a dozen of the kids. This went on for an hour or so. I noticed Alma and Fred Gormley watching Morrie working with the kids. Van's mother came by, watched for a few minutes then summoned us to the interview with the parents. Jenny, to her great dissapointment was excluded at her grandmothers orders, Vanessa as a principal was not. Alma's, "I'm sure Greg and Van will fill you in later", didn't seem to mollify her much. Morrie, Van, Alma and I arrived in an inner room. Van's parents and a grandfather that I hadn't met were waiting for us. Will (the grandfather) was to chair the meeting. I had been pulled aside by Alma and Will for 15 minutes earlier and the agenda discussed briefly so I wasn't walking into it cold. Morrie as had I, wound up in a large overstuffed chair with Van plastered to his side in the curve of his arm. I made introductions, then Will called the meeting to order. To Morrie, "As you have probably surmised, this is an interview to determine if you are a suitable candidate to court Vanessa Fredricks. First off, at the moment, none of us present have any reason to bear you ill will at this time. This specifically includes your relationship with Vanessa to this point. We may decide that further association between the two of you should be restricted, that you may be permitted to continue the current status or that the two of you are permitted to expand on that relationship. Will you swear by what you hold as holy that this discussion will be held in confidence, regardless of the results?" I had pulled Morrie asside for a couple of minutes after the briefing by Alma, so he was primed for this question. "I do", he replied. I took the floor, "Let me give you a bit of background then. I went through an interview much like this one several months ago, with much less warning and for a similar reason. In my case, Jenny had petitioned that she be allowed to keep me as a fiance. One of the secrets that you are asked to keep is that within the structure of this extended family, we are betrothed with various rights and obligations. You, are religated to boy friend, but then we all have to start somewhere." This got me a wry grin from Morrie which was what I was hoping for. I then addressed the others, "In my role as Baba, I present to you Morris William Alexander. He is 24 years of age. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in history, and will receive his Master of Arts in history and geography at the end of this term. I expect him to graduate with high honors. He has received several job offers and another several offers for entry into doctoral programs with grants. He is an active member of the Society of Creative Anachronism and is an accomplished master blacksmith, known as such across the country. He met Vanessa through Jenny and me in his role as one of the best dungeon masters in Dungeons & Dragons role playing games that I know of. He is a (for an unmarried college student) sober, hard working and honorable gentleman and I am quite proud to sponsor him to you." I stepped down and the others took turns asking Morrie questions for most of an hour. He fielded them well, he was nervous to start with but after a bit when it became evident that while the questions were thorough and they demanded responsive answers, the focus was information with no hostility, he relaxed. Will then asked him to step out for a few minutes and they questioned Vanessa on her feelings. She had been included in a few of the questions earlier but this time they wanted to know just what her goals were. Her response amounted to, "I'm not quite as sure about Morrie as Jenny is about Greg, but I really think he's the one." I was asked if I would take the responsibility of chaperon. I wanted to know what the rules were. a) Safety and comfort for Vanessa. b) Public face and decorum. On that basis I agreed. The consensus was that Van and Morrie would be permitted to court. The relationship was to be reviewed in six weeks. I was dispatched to fetch Morrie. I found him and Jenny sitting in an adjacent room and invited Jenny to return with us. We sat, again with Van snuggled up to Morrie and Jenny against my side. Will stated, "Morris Alexander, we have come to a decision. You are permitted to court Vanessa Fredricks for a period of six weeks. At the end of that time, this group will reconvene and this decision be reviewed. There are two conditions. One, that you not be alone with Vanessa. Greg and Jenny are considered sufficient chaperons. Two, You, and I specifically mean you, Vanessa will maintain all proper decorum while in public." He paused. "Do you, Vanessa Lynn Fredricks agree to these conditions?" "I do, Grandfather", she replied. "Do you Morris William Alexander agree to these terms?" "I do, Sir", he replied. "Then a further piece of advice Morrie. As suggested by Greg, let Vanessa set the pace of expansion of your relationship. You have a veto, but let her initiate things for the most part. And advice for you, Vanessa. Make sure Morrie understands your wishes. Make them clear to him. Do not assume that he is being difficult if it is in any way possible that he doesn't understand what you want. You hear me girl?" "Yes, Grandfather." "Then, Morrie, I welcome you to our family." "One last bit, if you are having any difficulty, you may come to any of us. It's in our interest that your relationship with Van prosper. So long as you are dealing with Van and us with honor we will support you and attempt to assist." He shook Morrie's hand and we were dismissed. *********************************************** Morrie told me later of an 'interesting' conversation with Van's mother. Somehow she managed to quietly separate Vanessa from Morrie and get him alone for 15 minutes w/o the group as a whole noticing. Morrie went with her willingly, but became fairly apprehensive when he figured out that they would be alone. She noticed. "Relax Morrie, I'm not here to eat you. I just wanted to clear the air a bit and make my position clear to you in the hopes that you will be able to stand to be in my presence. Morrie made a noncomittal gesture, that she should go on. Mom took a deep breath. "I can't claim to be happy about how the meeting came out. I guess I'm just too much a woman of the current culture, sick though it is, to really accept my baby girl having a lover of your age at her age and planning to marry him." She looked away from him. "My head agrees with Greg and Alma, that I'm not likely to do better for a son in law by making her wait. Half my heart wants to have you tarred and feathered and run out of town on a rail. The other half wants to get all gushy over the cute guy my little girl dragged home." She was quiet for a few minutes, Morrie waited patiently. "So", she continued at last. "I will do my best to be polite when I'm around you. If you are good to my baby, and she stays happy, over time it'll be less of a strain to stay civil. And", this time looking straight at Morrie, "If you hurt her, then I can kill you with a clear conscience." There was a pause. Morrie cleared his throat, "You have a deal, Madam. If I hurt Vanessa on purpose, I deserve to be killed. I will do my utmost to avoid hurting her by accident, but probably will fail to some degree. I would ask that if you see me making that mistake, that you speak to me as soon as you notice. I would, of course, prefer that such correction be made politly and privatly. However, I would prefer public and harsh to silence while I compound a mistake. She looked at him for a long momnet, "I think you really meant that." Morrie bowed to her, "I do Madam." Another long moment. "Damn you anyway for messing with my pre-conseptions. It would be easier if you were more of a male chauvinist pig." Morrie the Dungeon master and punster couldn't resist. "I could work on that if you wish Madam." She stared at him for a few seconds and started laughing. "No, No. That's quite all right. I will cope. Just be patient with me if I seem a bit cold. It may take a while to get used to the idea." Another few moments, then, "I watch Greg-n-Jenny, and I have hope. Jenny seems to be able to switch from being a kid to acting as though they've been married for years without effort. They don't seem to need to be in each others pockets, but always seem to know where the other is and what they are doing. Then you look around and they are together, perhaps with Jenny leaning against his side for a few seconds and him giving her a little hug. Nothing obvious. They talk with very few words, quite a lot with their eyes and touches, at least in public. I'm jellous, it took me ten years to even come close to that." She looked up at Morrie, "You should emulate them, if you can." Morrie bowed once again, "I will do my humble best Mrs. Fredricks, I too have watched in envy." "I begin to see why Van picked you. Thank you for listening to me. I will do my best to only criticize your behavior for issues of substance." She came over, gave Morrie a firm kiss on the cheek and left the room. **************************************************** Chapter 18 -- Life goes on In the world of duplicate bridge, at eight months, Jenny and I were becoming known as a pair that had to be beat to win and Sarah was dragging us to a tournament about once a month. She would have taken us to more but both our schedules wouldn't stand it. I protested the money she was spending, Sarah informed me in no uncertain terms that -- A) The amount of money she was spending was of no consequence to her and Bill. B) That she was entitled to spoil her granddaughter if she chose. My benefit from her largess was incidental. C) That to the extent that any debt was incurred on my part, I was to pay it forward. That one day Jenny and I would be in a position similar to her current one and if we found a promising youth to nurture she would count her contribution as more than repaid. I surrendered. ******************************************* During the next six months thing settled down some. My class was crusing efortlessly through classical physics, algebra, trig, geometery and beginning calculus. Computer science whas mostly programming in python with emphasis on program structure and algorithms. Most of the user interfaces were quite primitive, in many cases all data was either in data files or hard coded into the programs themselves. if some of the kids wanted to work on user interfaces and graphics I was willing, but that would be a different class. Jenny and I were effectively living together, about 1/4 at my house and 3/4 at hers. My thesis was nearing completion and I was prepaing to present and defend it. Tony's company had made a few overtures, with a job that sounded very interesting and pretty good pay. We were negotiating on schedules as I wanted to keep teaching as well, both in Jenny's school and at the University. Van gradualy worked things so she was living with us 3 and 4 days per week. Many of those days, so did Morrie. They had passed their six weeks checkup for courting, the reports I go suggested that the main focus was on Van's attitude and happiness, along with Morrie's degree of commitment to the long term. Along the same lines as Sue's recommendations, the emphasis was clearly on 'like' each other rather than romantic love. Formal betrothal was tentatively scheduled for four months hence, subject to another review. Morrie was following my advice, allowing the girls to set the sleeping arrangements. Things had pretty well settled into a pattern. If Morrie was in residence, Van slept with him. If I was, Jenny slept with me. Chris took to Morrie, and might sleep in either bed when she was there. If I wasn't there, mostly Jenny would sleep with Morrie and Van, and vice-versa. We had pretty well decided to formalize the arrangement when Jenny turned twelve with Chris to be an informal adjutant for the time being. ************************************************** Chapter 19 -- back on the bike. Jenny discoverd the Iron Butt Association web site. Iron Butt Riders are motorcycle riders that ride long distances. The Iron Butt Rally is the main event, held every other year in the U.S. and involves riding around 10,000 miles in 10 days with many other things to consider besides. This group also has rides that can be one any time, many of them are U.S. centric, but several of them can be done anywhere. One of the least of them is the Saddlesore. 1000 miles/1610 km in 24 hours. Any route, any time. The conditions of contest can be found at ironbutt.com. The only real requirement is that you have to make the distance with a single rider and with documentation that proves you did it. Gas station recipts with location, date and time are the main documentation. Passengers are fine. Jenny decided that it sounded like fun and we should do it. She planned out a route, Tony and I reviewed it and made a few suggestions to keep on fast roads with minimum traffic. She printed out the documentation forms and filled out the starting copies. A couple of weeks later we had Tony and Dianne as starting witnesses and rolled out a little before seven. We went a couple of kilometers to a nearby gas station and topped off the tank, getting our starting recipt. The official time and mileage started at that point. Jenny had planned a loop route, this station would be the starting and ending point for the ride. In theory it should be 1672.5 km for the loop, a bit over the minimum to avoid arguments with the people who verified the ride. The secret to making the Saddlesore, or any of he the other more challenging rides is not to ride fast, but to minimize the time off the bike. If you ride with the fast traffic, or at about 12km/hr over the posted limit you will get there in fine time. If you plan the route well you should be able to net around 100km per hour while you are moving. That makes only about 16 hours out of the 24 available on the bike. All stops will be in addition to that 16 hours but it leaves you with a not real difficult day. The ST1100 is an excellent motorcycle for the purpose, fast enough to break the speed limits under any conditions, fuel enough to go nearly 500km between fill-ups. Jenny had fuel stops scheduled for around 400km, we couldn't make the loop on three tanks, so there was no reason to push real hard on the four tanks scheduled. We would stop briefly around half way between gas stops, our three meals were planned at those half points to spread out the stopped time to get the most benefits from them. Part of the plan was to have the last leg on a freeway, that would give easy fast travel when I was tired. We had made a couple of practice runs the previous weekends, only going about 800km, but getting Jenny accustomed to staying on the bike and keeping the stop time to a minimum. We had to work on the stops a bit, for me to use the rest room, I just had to open my jacket and unzip the pants. Jenny pretty well had to take her jacket off to get her riding pants down. We got it down to where when I came to a stop, she would get off, remove gloves and jacket and hand them to me. Leaving the helmet on, she would head for the restroom. I would fill the bike, then hit the restroom myself. Time I was out, so was she, with her jacket back on. We would have a drink and be ready to go. We got it down to where a fuel stop was less than 15 minutes and an intermediate rest stop could be done in about 8. Scheduled overall time was about 21 hours, that would put us home at around 4am the next day. We headed out of town going south-west, first leg on a freeway. First stop was about 300km out, a bit long on the first leg, but we were fresh. We stopped at a McDonald's for a quick breakfast and a timestamped computer receipt, useful for documentation. 20 minutes later we were back on the bike and headed the next 100km to the first gas stop. The weather was good, the morning spring weather was about 15C. We expected some rain later in the day, but should be out of it again by 10pm or so. This leg was on a two lane road, with little traffic on a Saturday morning. We pulled into the station for the first gas stop at about 11:30, within 10 minutes of the scheduled time. Jenny made the log entries while I filled up, then we hit the restrooms to leave the breakfast drinks. The temperature was up to 22 so we took off the jacket liners and put them in the luggage. A good long pull on Gatoraid and we were off again. Next leg took us through some mountains, traffic was moderate and the ST was able to pass safely in places that you wouldn't want to try in a car. This was scheduled to be the slowest leg of the day, we only had 80km/hr budgeted for this leg. We stopped about 2 hours out for a rest and stretch stop. For one of these, you pull into the rest area. Jenny pulls off her gloves and jacket, I hang them on the bike. We both had flip up full face helmets so we didn't take them off, just flipped up the front. She headed for the restroom a bit ahead of me, but I was out a bit before her. I waited for the minute or so, then we walked together, as fast as we could for 100 paces away from the bike, turned around and walked briskly back to the bike. I helped Jenny with her jacket, then put on my gloves and got on the bike and started it. By then Jenny had her Jacket zipped up and was ready to get on behind me. She made the note in the trip log, then put on her gloves as I was leaving the parking lot. 6-1/2 minutes on the clock from the time I shut the bike off to rolling again. We made the second gas stop at 4:30PM. Lunch/supper was scheduled here so we took off helmets and jackets while I filled the bike. Another fast food restaurant was a part of the truck stop so we were able to be out in about 35 minutes, including cleaning bugs off the helmet face shields in the restaurant bathrooms. Jenny again made the necessary log entries for the Saddlesore. Temperature was dropping again, we had crossed a front so we put the insulated jacket liners back on. We rolled out at a little after 5pm and a little less than half way around the loop. Still withing 20 minutes of projected schedule, 10 hours into the project, 11 -- 11-1/2 hours scheduled to home. We departed the midpoint heading north, still on a two lane road. The sky ahead showed rain clouds as expected. Our riding suits were waterproof as were our boots. Tony and Dianne had given me a two piece Aerostitch suit with fleece liner and an electric liner. A bit more than $1000 for the set, I had been flabbergasted at the gift. This and a pair of triple digit rain covers for the gloves left me just about water proof. Jenny's jacket was a 'stitch, ,her riding pants were a different brand, but still pretty good. I hoped we would be past the storms time we made the next stop in 200km, riding in the rain isn't bad but getting gloves and helmet on and off in a hard rain isn't so good. This stretch also had a bad reputation for wildlife. I haven't tried it personally, but my understanding was that hitting a 'roo at 120km/hr would spoil your day, to say nothing of his. We saw several, but had no close encounters of the wild kind. It rained off and on for the whole leg, pretty hard for 70km, but fortunately eased up by the rest stop. Bathroom, quick short walk, log entry and drinks, then back on the bike. Between the wildlife and rain, we were now about 45 minutes behind theoretical. Not too bad, we still had over two hours cushion for further delays. We pulled into the third gas stop at 10:30pm, now a bit over 1200km from home. I had 30 minutes scheduled here. We had been on the bike continuously for 15-1/2 hours, still fairly fat on time and I figured that a few minutes walking and sitting in a different chair would be well spent. We took off the jackets, washed the headlight and windscreen on the bike and the face shields on the helmets. Jenny's wasn't bad, but mine was pretty buggy and had road grunge from the rain. We ate a granola bar apiece and shared a quart of Gatoraid. We walked a couple of hundred yards down the street, came back and geared up for the next leg. We would be climing for a while, temp was below 15 and dropping, so replaced the insulated jacket liners with the electric ones. As planned, we were back on a freeway, late enough in the evening that traffic was pretty light. I was able to roll up to about 12km over the limit, right with the fast end of the traffic, slow enough that for the most part the traffic cops wouldn't bother us. Jenny's comments became more sparse, about an hour out, the ceased and I had a warm still weight against my back with an occasional twitch as she would wake up and straighten back up where she slid sideways. The arm rests would keep her from tipping off, I did have to wake her once when she tipped off to the side and didn't wake herself. With the freeway and light traffic, I was able to average a bit over 110km/hr and pulled into the truck stop for our last meal of the day at about 1:00AM We took a full hour for this meal, washing my face shield one last time. A short brisk walk after we left the restaurant, update the trip log and back on the bike for the last 250km leg. It was all freeway, and by now very sparse traffic. Tony had mounted driving lights on the ST and traffic was light enough I could run them most of the time. Again, I saw several critters, but none of them took a serious run at us. About 30 minutes out, a car passed me, going near 150km/hour. I had the radar/laser detector running, and took the opportunity to use him as a rabbit. I let him get about 3/4 km ahead of me then kept up. We made the next 100km in real good time, at that point the radar detector lit up and I rolled off hard, waking Jenny. Sure enough, a traffic cop came off an on ramp right behind my rabbit, accelerating hard. By now we were down to pretty legal. We passed them a little below the speed limit and went on, picking back up to the 12 over 5km down the road and past the small city where the cop had been lurking. One other advantage to the incident was that we were now both wide awake, at near 3:30AM and less than 100km remaining. We had picked back up on time a bit and were now close to the projected schedule. The last leg, freeway with very light traffic passed without incident. We pulled into the station where we had departed and bought gas for the ending time receipt. The ticket showed 4:45AM, the odometer showed 1713km from the start. I had checked and the odometer ran about 3% over actual so the measured mileage matched very closely with calculated. Jenny made the final log entry and we, somewhat stiffly, got back on the bike and rode the last few km home, put the bike in the garage, went into the house, stripped off gear and clothes, and collapsed into bed. About noon we got up, showered and ate, then rode over to Jenny's official house and had Tony and Dianne fill out the finishing witness form. We filed out the rest of the Iron Butt paperwork next day and sent it off. It would be several months time it went to the U.S., got verified and back to us. It did and in due time Jenny had her Certificate showing that she had ridden on a motorcycle for 1668km in 22:15. Jenny is currently working on a route and schedule for a BunBurner, 2425km in 24 hours. This had been my second Saddlesore, on the sport bike, the notion of a BunBurner didn't appeal. On the ST it won't be a problem so long as we keep to the fast roads for the whole route. ************************************************** Chapter 20 -- One year progress notes. At a year into our betrothal, I presented and successfully defended my doctoral thesis. I was now Dr. Parry and was offered and took an assistant professorship, with the understanding that I would limit it to one class for the foreseeable future. The position with Tony's company was a reality, again somewhat part time, scheduled for three ten hour days per week. Alma had twisted my arm and I now had two classes in the Williams school. I arranged to change the schedule a bit, each class had two, 1-1/2 hour classes scheduled per week with email and chat office hours amounting to another two hours. This left me and Jenny with a substantial improvement in finances, the total from the three jobs was near 6 figures. Because of my grandmothers bequest and help from my parents I wasn't carrying a huge amount of school dept. Ten percent of net income would keep the lenders content and pay the debt off in about 6 years. Morrie wasn't that well off, he was still working on his Doc and his somewhat part time teaching only netted around 35k. Still, where he had moved into my house, this left him and Van quite comfortable. Van had worked things with her parents so that she was sleeping at home three nights per week and with us the other four. Jenny and I followed the same pattern, three nights per week at her parents house, four nights at what had become our home. Chris had worked up to living with us about 1/4 of the time. With our new found financial resources, Morrie and I elected to remodel and add to my house. We entered into the family's marriage contract -- it was well structured for the purpose. Jenny would be added to it in less than a year on her twelfth birthday, Van would be a few months later when the year and a day were up on their betrothal. We put the family connections to work. This smoothed the process of getting a remodeling loan at a good rate, and got us contractors that while not cheap, delivered full measure and more on workmanship and materials. This left us with a house that fit our needs well, and 8 years later when we needed to move to larger quarters after the girls started to pop out babies, it was easy to sell at a very good price. The plan for the house was to add two bedrooms and a bath along with a family room/office for Morrie and Van. This left us with a four bedroom, 2-1/2 bath home that would have us a bedroom for each of the four of us -- the girls would keep their stuff in their rooms and take care to make the rooms look lived in case of muggle inspection. We added air conditioning and replaced the wood kitchen range with a gas range with an exhaust hood. I was sorry to see the wood range go, it was a link to my grandmother, but with the increased family, the ability to cook in summer weather, and to cook on short notice overrode the sentimental value. As predicted by Tony, Jenny had grown noticeably larger boobs, and sprouted her first pubic hair. She had grown a couple of inches and seemed to be starting the pubesecnt growth spurt. In one way, it was well that our income was up because the food bills certainly were. Both she and Vanessa ate more than Morrie or me. Vanessa was also into growing, she now had noticeable boobies on her chest and six pubic hairs. The exact count was not accidental, she made sure that I inventoried them on a regular basis. We had settled into a pattern, Van was living with us three and four days per week, at home with her parents the rest. Morrie ate with them part of the time and slept over one or two days per week. Jenny and I lived at my house four days per week, timed to be the same days as Vanessa, and with her parents the other three. Christine spent an average of around 2 days per week living with us, this varied quite a bit depending on her social schedule and Sue's work schedule. We became the default place for Chris to live when Sue needed to be out of town. This gave a significant effective increase in Sue's disposable income, previously child care was a fairly large expense. Our lives were puncutuated by pubescent girl emotional spikes, but at least so far, no one had done anything irrevocable. I helped coach Morrie on how to handle having Vanessa scream at him, and Dianne, Joan and Sue would tag team the girls when things seemed to be getting out of hand. All in all, a bit stressful for all concerned, but well within normal for 12 year old girls getting close to menarch. Sleeping arrangements were controlled by Jenny and Van. They settled into a pattern where for the most part, if Morrie was available, Van slept with him. If I was available, Jenny slept with me. If one or the other of us was out of town, the spair girl joined the other pair. Christine took to Morrie, and might sleep with either of us if both were avaiable. Occasionally Van and Jenny would swap, no pattern that I could see, it all seemed to work so I just went with the flow. Morrie adjusted to his new life better than I feared. Van seemed to have convinced him that she was a lifetime commitment and after a little acclimation, he seemed to accept the sleeping arrangements with no discomfort. A couple of months after Christine rejoined my bed, Jenny invited Sue for a sleep over. I wasn't in on the joke and didn't realize what she had in mind till bedtime. I had some work issues on my mind that I was mulling over -- my first indication of their plans was when I was getting into bed and the pair of them came into the bedroom, hand in hand and naked. They split up and attacked me from either side of the bed -- after a token protest I surrendered and assisted Jenny in giving Sue the 'Van' treatment with a variation where Jenny sat on Sue's face for a tongue lashing while I was busy with my tongue between Sue's legs. A few weeks later Sue was back, this time Vanessa claimed her and took her in with Morrie. Jenny and I managed to struggle by with Christine. The real shock came three months later. Sue was over for dinner and after desert made a formal request of Vanessa and Jenny. She and Chris had decided that a sibling would be a worthwhile project. She would like to borrow Morrie to be the father. She had a document prepared that made it clear that Vanessa and Morrie would not be required to support the child, while leaving things open for Morrie to acknowldge his relationship if he wished. Artificial insemination would be acceptable, but she would prefer to do it using natural methods. Stunned probably isn't an adequate word for the reaction she got. Christine looked like she was about to cry at the look on Morrie's face. In a short time, Jenny and Van stopped looking surprised and started looking thoughtfull. Morrie somewhat hesitantly asked if he got a vote and was told by all four of them, "No -- that he and I would have a veto but not a vote." Discussion went on for a while, then I suggested that the matter be tabled for tonight. This seemed like a major decision for all six of us, and one that would not benefit from haste. Sue and Chris would return the following week and we would have another session with no promise on either side to finalize it at that time. It took three weeks for everyone to agree. The final agreement was that Sue was welcome to sleep with Morrie at their mutual convenience until she was tested pregnant or six months had passed. Sleeping arrangedments would be renegotiated at that time. If there was issue from the union, our family would adopt the child as a member of our household. This was to be in addition to having Sue as mother and Chris as big sister, not instead of. Chris wanted to know why I couldn't be the father, Morrie admited to wondering as well. Jenny, Van and I explained that while the union of brother and sister wasn't real likely to have obvious birth defects, that the risk was definitly non zero. In addition, while the risk of overt problems was low, the tendency was to push the quality of the child a bit to the left on the bell curve. That statistically where the union of Morrie and Sue might center at a 135 IQ, that the center point might move down towards 125 if she and I were the bio parents. No cinch of bad effects, but again, a definite non zero risk that was quite avoidable. Sue had been going on the herd knowledge that reproduction by incest was bad, and was quite interested in the way that Jenny and Van laid out specific risks and quantized them. I noted that I wouldn't be having unprotected sex with my sister for a time. ================================================== Chapter 21 -- The bridge tournament world. Alma took us to a regional tournament soon after I got the PhD. We did quite well, a section top and a third place overall along with several sectional places. Alma, Jenny and I were waiting to be seated for lunch the day after the third place finish and one of the local pros followed us in. We visited a moment and he asked if he might join use for lunch. When we were seated and the waitress was fetching drinks, he said to Jenny and me, "I would like to apologize to you and your lady for the round yesterday evening." "Why?", I replied. "You were a gentleman. Unfortunately, I can't say the same about your client, but your control over his behavior is limited, and you did make an effort to curb him." "I know, but still feel somewhat responsible and felt that I owed you something", then addressing Jenny directly, "I do want to say that *I* don't consider you to be a little kid at the bridge table. You and Greg have become a pair to be respected and approached with caution. I wasn't at all surprised at the way you dealt with him, nor the score we got against you." Jenny preened. "Must have been an interesting round, what happened?", Alma asked. "Frank was playing with a client yesterday. The round with Jenny and me didn't go well for them.", I then proceeded to tell the tale. "When Jenny and I got to his table, first thing that happened was that his client made a remark about having little kids in the open pairs, telling me that I should have taken her to the side game instead. I glanced at Frank while he was going on about this, Frank rolled his eyes a bit and shrugged. First hand of the round was a part score, from the auction I decided that there were about 17 tricks to be had, I went to the three level, Frank passed and the client bid four hearts, obviously expecting Jenny to be weak on defense. Jenny doubled and you could see his eyes light up. An easy top from the dumb kid. It wound up that I had most of the obvious decisions, although Jenny did her part and we set him two. We might have been down one at three spades. Next hand, again he bid one more, this time down one where again, we might have been down one, although that would have still shown a profit as this time they could make three. The third hand of the round, they got to four spades. Jenny had shown a distributional hand with diamonds, I was void in spades and had four diamonds myself so I bid five. Jenny would play the hand. !!!Double!!!, from the client. Cringe from Frank." "Too true", said Frank, "I've watched the two of you bid and Jenny play before." Well, Alma had taught Jenny to count, and the double pretty well pinpointed the missing trump. She made six. Frank and client got three matchpoints for the round out of a possible 36. This doesn't count the three director calls for alleged hesitations because Jenny took 5 seconds to bid. By the third one the director was getting a bit sharp with the client and Frank was keeping a very neutral expression on his face. I will have to admit that Jenny suckered him in more than a bit. After the little kid remark at the beginning, she very carefully acted like a little kid, having trouble sorting and holding her cards, sticking her tongue out a bit as she choose a bid, and playing cards with a bit of a flourish. To rub it in a bit, on the last hand, during the play she was all concentration and playing like a seasoned player. By then the client realized that he had made a serious mistake, but unfortunately reacted by making some snarky remarks that were enough out of line that Jenny called the director once more. Both Frank and I confirmed the remarks and by then the director was annoyed enough to levy a quarter board penalty on their pair. "Jenny!! You ought to be ashamed of yourself, playing with the poor man that way", Alma said, trying without complete success to be stern. "Well, I feel no sympathy for him. The turkey stuck his neck way out and fairly begged for Jenny to wield the ax", responded Frank. "Even so, that really was skirting the edges of ethical behavior. I would prefer you didn't do it very often.", I put in. "Although, as Frank said, he really was out of line and asking for it." "On the other hand, you kept your cool and made him pay for his behavior. Instead of getting mad or upset, you got even. Very well done", I said to Jenny giving her a hug. She bumped her head against my ribs. Frank watched with a small smile that seemed to say, 'I suspect that there is much more to the partnership than bridge, and I'm going to be very careful to avoid verifying that suspicion'. Instead he said to Jenny, "I add my praise for you. You handled an awkward unpleasant situation very well. You didn't let him upset you and used his transgressions to punish him in a fashion that was in keeping with both the letter and the spirit of the rules. As Greg said, Very well done indeed. Note that those tactics won't work against me." Jenny dimpled at him, "Don't need to do anything like that with you. You play nice. Tough, but nice. Against you I just try to play well." ************************************************ Chapter 22 -- Life goes on some more. In due time Jenny had her twelveth birthday. She had friends over for a traditional birthday party in the afternoon. Both because of scheduling and for appearnces sake with the mothers of girls that weren't part of the Williams School, I didn't attend. Later that evening, in the presence of her parents, grandparents, Vanessa and her parents, and Sue and Chris, She and Morrie and I signed an updated version of the familys marrage contract adding her as a spouse in our household. Vanessa still had about 4 months to go on the year and a day betrothal between her and Morrie. Christine made the announcement that she was making a pre-application for marrage when she turned twelve. Jenny, Van, Morrie and I accepted the application. No one there seemed to be at all skeptical about the likelyhood of her carrying through with the plan. The occasion had a shadow on it, Jeremy had died about three weeks before. His poor little body never had been strong, and a bad case of the flu had turned into pneumonia. The only good thing about it was that it had been quick. Less than a week from the onset he was gone. Three months later, quite possibly taking inspiration from Sue's pregnancy, Tony and Dianne announced that they had decided to try again, and that Dianne was pregnant. Jenny's reaction was somewhat amusing, half embarassment, twelve year old girls aren't supposed to have pregnant mothers. Parents aren't supposed to do things like that. The other half was excited at having a little <sibling>, and the anticipation of having another baby to cuddle and spoil. Jenny's and Van's boobs continued to grow. Van and Morrie reached the end of their year of betrothal and Vanessa was added to the family roster with all due ceremony. Jenny was up to 15 pubic hairs and Van's were getting numerous enough that there was disagreement between Morrie and me as to whether there were 43 or 44. They were quite blond and there was some difficulty deciding which hair was a new pubic hair and which ones were girl fuzz. Counting them was a fun game in and of itself, so they got counted frequently. In good time, Sue delivered a healthy baby girl, Elizibeth Alma. Sue was a bit on the high side for age, and labor was a bit difficult. No real problems, but it was a while before she was back on her feet. Without discussion, we brought her home to live at our house for three weeks. Lizzy was the hit of the party, Sue was allowed to feed her and occasionally hold her -- I'm not sure the kid slept in a bed for the three weeks, at least it seemed as if someone was always holding her, awake or asleep. Morrie was entranced, in a week he was a fully qualified diaper changer and baby bather. Yes, I fought fiercely for my share of baby cuddling time. Sue and Lizzy having moved back home after a little less than a month -- Jenny and Van were limited to only seeing her every two or three days except when Sue was traveling or had evening meetings and we babysat. About six months after Lizzy was born, Jenny once more became a big sister. Diane was delevered of a baby boy, this time without any complications. Tony took her to hospital at around 2:30 AM, she had delviered by 5:00 and she and Joseph Edgar were home by 4:30 that afternoon. Jenny and Van took on assisting her for the first week, the suggestion was made and approved by all that Dianne and Susan share child care. In a couple of months, things settled into a pattern where Joe and Liz mostly lived together, with Sue, Dianne and us depending on who had people home at the time. They seldom wound up in day care, with all parents having a quite a bit of freedom to do things besides baby care. Jenny reached menarch about 3 months from her 13th birthday. We had a family party to celebrate her comming of age. Van was a little older than Jenny, but quite a bit smaller body, she had to wait another three months to her great dismay. Van, then Jenny celebrated their 13th birthdays. That fall Jenny, Vanessa, Freddy and Willie registered for their first official university class. They had achieved status as high school graduates, although they would continue in the Williams school for another year or two. About half of the low level requirements would be covered there, the other half on the university campus. It did cause a bit of a stir in the 200 calculus class when they and I showed up the first day. This was the first notice the teacher had that he had four students quite a bit younger than the norm. I assured him that they would be able to keep up, and would probably consider the pace a bit slow. I hadn't been able to get them into the honors class, the instructor there refused. I pressured him into agreeing that they could switch if they got a high score in the regular class and agreed to giving us the sylabus for his class so we could cover the parts that the regular class wouldn't get to. I managed to get him to allow the kids to take the first test. None of them aced it, but Vanessa got a solid B and Jenny an A-, Freddy and Willy were in the low B range, however this was with no attendance at the lectures and the two of them had less opportunity than my girls for coaching by me.. The instructor apologized to me, then to them and with the cooperation of the other instructor allowd them to switch quarter term, with the first exam used as the grade for all work to that point. They weren't the top students for grades for the rest of the term, Jenny was third and Vanessa, Freddy and Willie were sixth, seventh and ninth out of 35, The instructor was still quite impressed that they managed to handle the class at all -- that they were among the top students he found mind boggling. ****************************************************** Chapter 99 -- the condensed ending. Christine enrolled in the Williams School at nine. On her twelfth birthday, we signed an amendment to our marrage agreement and she joined our family officially. By then it was mostly a formality, she was living with us over 80%, this didn't change much with the signing. Lizzy and Joe became inseperatable -- they lived about 40% with Sue, 40% with Dianne and Tony, and 20% with us. Less than 10% apart. By 17, Jenny and Van had Bachelor degrees, and married Morrie and me in civil ceremonies and immedialty started kids while working on their masters. Chris started a kid about 3 years behind them -- I'm pretty sure she borrowed Joe from Lizzy for that one. The next one was definitly Morrie's. Chris got a Bachelors, but lost interest in formal schooling. She took over household managemnt for the family, and was the stay at home mom for the herd. The kid herd peaked out at 15, Lizzy and Joe joined us when they turned 14, a year into university -- Lizzy joined the kid factory at 18, keeping up the tradition. With eventually seven parents in the family plus all the grandparents, Chris was hardly tied down. She was able to and did many things without the entire herd following her around Lizzy and Joe went the academic route and both wound up with docs, Lizzy with two. Time we got to the point where my old house became uncomfortably crowded, we had resources to build, purchased a 5 acre plot a little ways out of town, and built a house large enough for the entire family.