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
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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.