Chapter 4
It was a Tuesday when I had my talk with Cindi and she and Amy
had their big hug fest. Victoria came home very late Wednesday
night, actually in the wee hours of Thursday morning, so I did
not have a chance to talk to her until Thursday night. I made
some excuse to send Amy over to Rebecca's house Thursday night;
as far as I knew, she knew nothing about all of this and I was
trying to shield her from it all. I was hoping she bought the
excuse - yeah, right. The girl is a certifiable genius. I knew it
was likely I was the only one that was fooled.

I told Victoria what had happened, omitting the information about
the movie. We called Cindi into the room, and Victoria talked to
her about what had happened. Although Victoria has always been
very calm and laid back at all times, I was a little surprised at
how calmly she took all of this. Then she turned to look at me
during the conversation, and I saw her eyes, and I got goose
bumps all over - I was scared. Before I started my career in the
medical profession, I had been trained and worked as a law
enforcement officer in a very specialized branch of work that
received some very specialized training. I do not scare easily.
Victoria normally has very expressive eyes. When she smiles, she
lights up the whole room, and when she is just acting normal,
without smiling, her eyes only light up half the room. When she
looked at me, her eyes were flat and devoid of all expression. I
had seen that look in her eyes once before, a year earlier, when
three men had tried to hurt Amy. I will never forget that look,
nor what she did to those men while I removed Amy to safety and
before I could get back to help. The thought suddenly popped into
my head that I was sure glad I was not one of those boys.

I had figured we would go to the police on Friday, but Victoria
announced that she had to be out of town Friday and the weekend.
I am ashamed to say that was one of the few times I have ever
been really irritated with her. I asked her couldn't someone else
do it and was even crass enough to imply that her family ought to
be more important than anything else is. She looked like I had
slapped her in the face, and then looked at me with big sad eyes.

"Don't you think I want to be there for Cindi"? She looked like
she was going to cry and Victoria never cries. My heart melted; I
loved this woman so much, how could I even think of implying what
I did?

"I'm sorry, honey, I didn't mean that, I don't know why I said
it. Please forgive me; I know you love the girls as much as I do.
I'm sorry - it has just been a very trying last couple of days".
The smile she gave me was forgiveness enough.

The other reason I had been so short with her was that I had to
be out of town for my job for the weekend. I really did not want
Cindi to be alone over the weekend. She seemed the sanest of all
of us, though, and just announced that she and Amy would stay at
their grandparents for the weekend. She insisted it was ok -
after all, she had been alone for two weeks anyway because she
was avoiding or fighting with everyone. It would not hurt her to
be with her grandparents for two days.

When Amy came home a little while later from Rebecca's house, she
walked in, and as she walked by me, she asked in a quiet voice
that no one else could hear "Did you get it all straightened
out"? Damn! Like I said, certifiable genius. I do not know why I
even try to fool her. She never did ask what it was all about,
though.

Victoria was not getting back into town until very late Monday
night. Since I was getting back Sunday, I told her parents to
drop the kids off at the house about two hours before I got back,
as they had a scheduling conflict for those two hours. When I
walked into the house Sunday afternoon, I knew immediately that
something was wrong. Cindi was locked in her room, crying, and
Amy was almost beside herself, as close to panic as I had ever
seen her. When I asked her what was wrong, she had trouble
speaking coherently, but finally managed to say that Cindi had
read something in the paper, ran into her room crying, and
refused to open the door. I told Amy to go to her room and wait
there for me until I called her. She rolled her eyes at me as if
I was just the biggest dork in the world, stamped her foot in
frustration and stomped into her room. Amy does not get upset
often, but when she does, she makes sure you know all about it.
And when she gives you that eye roll, you feel about 2 inches
tall...

I finally got Cindi to open the door, and sat down next to her on
the bed. She immediately hugged me tightly.

"Cindi, honey, what's wrong? Amy is almost out of her mind with
worry".

"It's them, Daddy". And she handed me the paper. The front-page
story was of a SUV with three teenage boys in it traveling at a
high rate of speed that ran off the road late Saturday night on a
deserted stretch of highway. All three boys were killed
instantly. I recognized the pictures of all three from the movie
I had seen, although I did not let on that I knew who they were.
The paper mentioned that the investigation was still ongoing, as
there was some suspicion that their car might have been forced
off the road. I felt chills go up and down my body. After that
look in Victoria's eyes on Thursday night, and the sudden
unscheduled trip out of town, I sincerely hoped that the sudden
thought I had was not true.

Things seemed to return pretty much to normal over the next two
weeks. Cindi and Amy were best friends again, Cindi seemed much
happier, although she had occasional moody periods, and Victoria
was back to out of town much of the time. Like I said, back to
normal. I have never been able to figure out how all of us can
love her so much, and the whole family gets along so well and
functions so well, when she is seldom around. Just shows how
truly special she is.

There was one thing that occurred during those two weeks,
however, that was a change that ended up being very significant,
although I did not realize its significance until later. Monday
night, we all went to bed as usual. Victoria was not getting into
town until late Monday night. About two hours after I went to
sleep, I suddenly woke up. Something was different. Then I
realized that someone was in bed with me, snuggled up. At first,
I thought Victoria had gotten home early, but I realized that was
probably not it, as she always wakes me up. Usually in a very
delightful way. We usually stay in bed for the first day or two
she is home, making up for lost time. The girls walk around the
house going "EWWWW!" and making gagging noises, but they really
think it's "cute" and usually keep us in food until we rejoin the
living. They do blush a lot, and seem to forget how to talk when
they bring the food into the room, though. They are so pretty
when they blush! I also realized that it was too small to be
Victoria, so I figured it was Amy. She has always been terrified
of thunderstorms, and jumps in bed with us every time we have
one. However, I had not heard any thunder. Then I realized it was
Cindi. I was on my back, and she was snuggled up close, with her
head on my shoulder and her hand on my chest, sound asleep. I
stroked her hair and kissed her forehead and she smiled in her
sleep. Poor little thing. When Victoria got home, she found us
asleep together, in the same position. I started to move Cindi
back into her own bed, but Victoria said let her stay, she feels
safe, and besides, it looked so darned cute. In the morning,
before the alarms went off, I woke her up (quite a feat in itself
- these girls HATE to get up in the morning), kicked her out of
bed, swatted her butt and told her to hit the shower. She looked
at me with this fake hurt look, but she giggled on the way to the
shower.

The same thing happened the next night, too. And every night
during the next two weeks. Cindi would go to bed in her own bed,
and then sneak into my room after I was asleep. On the days when
Victoria was home, she would crawl in between us and cuddle up to
one or the other of us. For some reason, it was important to me
to get her out of my bed before Amy woke up. I do not know if it
was because I was afraid Amy would be jealous, or if I was just
uncomfortable with the situation, knowing my reaction when I saw
the movie. It did not bother me that Cindi was in the bed - it
just bothered me that Amy would know.

The fourth night it happened, Amy got up to go to the bathroom
before the alarms went off and saw me booting Cindi out of bed. I
must have looked embarrassed and must have stumbled around trying
to explain, because Amy gave me one of her famous eye rolls and
said, "Geez, Dad, chill out will you? It's not like I don't know
Cindi's been sleeping with you every night". Then she got an
impish little smile on her face.

"There isn't something going on between the two of you that I
should know about, is there"? She whispered theatrically.

"AMY! That isn't funny!" I said as she practically rolled on the
floor laughing - SHE sure thought it was funny!

"You are just too easy," she choked out between laughs.

"Cindi's just been going through a hard time lately and needs
some extra love and attention", I explained.

"Oh. You mean because of the rape?" She was serious now,
whispering.

I swear, my heart stopped beating. Certifiable genius. God I love
her!

"How did you know about that"? I gasped, panic setting in.

Eye roll. "Geez, Dad, I'm not stupid. I heard about it at
school." Dad. That meant I was being a dork again. Now I was
really panicking.

"Oh, God, Amy, we have to stop that from getting around! We
cannot let Cindi hear about it! She'll just die if she finds out
people know."

Then I got scared again. Amy gave me a cold little smile, and her
eyes had that same flat, expressionless look as Victoria's had
last Thursday when she found out about the rape. Where did my
sweet little baby with the sweet smile and twinkling, expressive
eyes go?

"Don't worry, Daddy, I took care of it. No one will ever mention
it again".

"Amy... what... did you do?"

Her eyes were back to normal, and she had that cute, impish
little grin again.

"Remember Robert, the football player that you think it is so
cute that he has a crush on me? Well, he really has a crush on
Cindi - he just hangs around me because he is too shy to talk to
Cindi and that way he can be around her. I haven't told Cindi yet
just because I think it is so funny to watch the two of them
dance around each other. God, my sister can be such a dork
sometimes. When I heard the rumor about the rape, I told him. I
have never seen somebody so mad before. He only had to break one
nose before he knew that there was only one copy of the movie, it
had disappeared, and only one guy, besides the three involved,
the one whose nose he broke, had seen it. He has assured me that
no one will ever mention it again," she giggled.

"Amy, Cindi must never know there was a movie." I said. Then I
realized what I had said. Oops. No question about what movie, no
surprise. Smart. Damn. Maybe she would miss it.

Certifiable genius. Her eyes widened briefly, and then she looked
at me for a couple of seconds. Then she got a sad look on her
face.

"How was the movie? It was hard for you to watch it, wasn't it?
So, did you run those guys off the road, or was it Mommy?" she
asked quietly. Something in my face must have told her something,
as she reached up, put her arms around me in a big hug and kissed
my cheek. Then she walked away. I was desperately hoping she
would never figure out the other reason I was upset about
watching it. In addition, I knew I had not run those kids off the
road. I wish I could be sure Victoria had nothing to do with it.
I was worried, though. I already knew from experience you do not
mess with her babies.

One night, about two weeks after Cindi had started to sneak in
bed with me, I was sound asleep, having a wonderful dream.
Victoria had come home early, and was in bed with me, playing
with me. She was very passionately kissing me, rubbing my chest
with one hand, and had her other hand inside my underwear,
softly, gently rubbing my cock and balls. As I slowly began to
wake up, I began to realize that this was not a dream. Victoria
really had come home early, and was really playing with me. I was
thrilled! I reached out my hand to rub her breast, and suddenly
felt cold all over. Victoria has small breasts, but not that
small. Her body was not that small either. Trying not to panic
and scar somebody for life about sex, I slowly opened my eyes and
looked into the nervous, tentative smile of my daughter Cindi.