Dan looked at me. I didn’t know why. What did I have to do with any of this?
I laughed and said, “She really doesn’t like me, does she? Wow!”
Dotty said softly, “No Dave, she does. That’s the point. If she didn’t, she would have acted like you didn’t exist. A ghost that no one could see or hear. No, Jett saw you. And she reacted to what she saw. Strongly. You could say that she was aroused by you. She was confused by you. She actually likes you.”
Courtney smiled and said, “I couldn’t believe it when she said those things about Dave’s penis. Amazing!”
I said, “Why?”
Dotty said, “Because she looked. She noticed. You weren’t invisible to her.”
Courtney said, “So Sweetie, I want you to do something for me. I want you to be nice to my dorky sister.”
I said, “Of course, but she doesn’t like me at all.”
Courtney said, “Don’t worry about that. Just be nice. And by nice, I mean tell her she’s pretty. Tell her you see her. Really see her. You have to tell her the truth. She’s living a form of lie, just like I was. I want you to tell her the truth. And, that’s probably going to mean fighting back some. Be kind, but be yourself. Don’t lie to her about who you are or who she is. Tell the truth.”
I said, “I don’t know what you mean, but I’ll figure it out. I kind of don’t want to sleep in the shed though. Should we dispense with the clothing-optional stuff while she’s here?”
All three of them almost shouted, “No!”
Dotty said, “No, Dave.”
Courtney said, “It wouldn’t be honest.”
Chapter 20 - Family Recall
I said, “I’ll try to get to know her. I hope you’re right and that she doesn’t hate me. It doesn’t matter. I think that I probably can find a way to reach her and become friends. We’ll see. And of course, I’ll do anything for the three of you. What is real her name?”
Dotty said, “It’s Jeannie. With two N’s.”
Dan said, “She was adopted when she was little. She knows about it.”
Dotty said, “Her abandonment issues are part of who she is and how she acts. We love her so much. And so does Kitty. So much. Dave, we worry a lot. She hasn’t been really self-destructive yet, but I’m always afraid.”
I said, “So, the Von Hellstorm thing?”
Courtney said, “It’s her character, Dave, like with me and Amber. It’s how she copes.”
I said, “And you’re sure that the nudity is OK?”
Dotty and Courtney exchanged glances and Dotty said, “I think it’s essential. Kitty, come help me get lunch. Let’s let your Dad and Dave talk for a bit.”
Courtney and her mom both stood up and I watched them walk away, into the house. Courtney’s butt was amazingly beautiful, but her mother was an attractive woman too.
Dan moved into the lounge chair next to me and said, wistfully, “She’s a beautiful woman. Son, I love her more than you can imagine. Kitty is very beautiful, too. You chose well. Look, I want you to know that I’m fully behind this now. We’ll work it all out. Please, for all of our sakes, but mostly for Bug, win her over. Her mom is right. If she didn’t find you intriguing, she wouldn’t have even noticed you. The fact that she claims to hate you gives me hope. Complete apathy is harder to overcome than strong emotions. It’s the ones who don’t give a damn anymore that so often take their own lives. Bug is bored. But you brought something interesting for her to play with. Play with her. Son, I’d give anything to see her happy and healthy. You just get her to smile and call you by your name and I’ll buy you a boat.”
I laughed and said, “I couldn’t let you do that!”
Dan said seriously, “There’d be no way that you could stop me. Son, I think that you and I can be a good team. What do you do for a living?”
I explained that I was a mechanical engineer with a little background in electronics and software. I worked for a robotic development company that did defense contracting.
He said, “Are you interested in leaving?”
I told him that I was. That I was bored at work, despite what people thought building robots was like, and that I’d be happy to do something else.
Dan said, “I have some ideas. Maybe you can work for me. You may have just the skills I need. And I like you. I think we’d work well together. I’m so glad that you married Kitty. Belinda was married before too. I know her folks. They never liked the guy. I think he was kind of a shit.”
I said, “Dad, I have to get used to calling you that sometime, right? Anyway, Dad, what’s the deal with you saying that I should shower with Jett and Courtney? No, um, not Jett, I’m sorry. With Courtney and her friend from the restaurant. You aren’t serious, are you?”
He looked at me and said, “I am.”
I said, “But not naked? Just out here by the pool?”
He said, “No, I mean upstairs in the big shower with handfuls of soap, fondling her tits while she and Kitty soap your dick and one of them sucks on it.”
I said nervously, “Um, which one?”
Dan looked off into space and said, “Both of them. Or now, all three of them. Or maybe it’s just Kitty and Jett now. But Son, maybe all three. I don’t even know. Listen, I mentioned Dotty’s sister, right? And that I’d showered with the two of them one time? It didn’t go that far, but it was good, believe me. In fact, Dotty did jack me off until I came, and her sister watched the whole thing and even ended up playing with herself. It happened again a few years later. To this day, I wish she come for a visit. But this time, if she’s single and willing, I’d ask her to move in with us and I’d love both of them.”
I said, “Really?”
He said, “Yeah. Courtney said she had been talking to you about the same thing, didn’t she? I didn’t know that Kitty would be like that, but her mom has mentioned several times that if there were someone she loved enough, that she’d want them to have the kind of love that she has with me, even if that meant that they were with me too. Dave, I’ve never had sex outside my marriage, and I never will, but sometimes, Dotty sounds like she’s thinking about me having sex inside our marriage with another woman. It’s not purely sexual though. She wants them to be loved, not fucked. She worries about her sister and Jett, and even Belinda.
Dotty’s the one who initiated the thing where we showered with her sister. Dotty was so flirtatious. And when we showered together, it was supposed to be all innocent and no big deal, but how could it be? Dotty kept telling her sister to go ahead and stroke me, just to help me wash, supposedly. But she absolutely wanted me to have sex with her sister. But not just have sex with her. She wanted me to consummate a bond by having sex with her. She wanted me to basically marry her and have her live with us and sleep with us, just like Kitty said about Bug.”
I said, “About Jett? What do you mean? Courtney never even mentioned having a sister. I didn’t know she existed until a few minutes ago.”
He said, “Dave, we’re going to get real. I’m going to talk to you as your father. A good father. Dave, Son, didn’t Kitty tell you that she was going to bring some black-haired beauty to your bed to have her sleep beside you and have you love her? Son, she was obviously talking about Jett. You heard what we were talking about after Jett went in the house, didn’t you? Didn’t you understand any of it? Yeah, I could let you go along clueless for a while longer, assuming that you knew what was going on but knowing that you really didn’t, but that wouldn’t be honest. Your Courtney is planning for you to marry Jett, and probably Belinda too!”
I sucked in a breath and said, “Oh. But…”
Dan said, “If you are going to run, tell me now. Right now. I’ll have your marriage annulled tonight. But I think you have some thinking to do. There’s no guarantee that either Jett or Lin will feel that way about you, but I know that they will. I see it in their eyes. But more than that, I see it in Courtney’s. She knows it. You don’t have to know it, but you better be damn settled about what you are goi
ng to do when it comes around. Tell yourself it’s not happening all you want, but you better prepare yourself and don’t hurt any of them. You told me that I don’t have to threaten you, and I’m not doing that. It might be Dotty that you have to worry about, anyway. But what I’m saying is, open your eyes, Son. Courtney loves these girls and she wants you to love them too, and that means fucking them as good as you fuck her.
She wouldn’t be thinking this way if you hadn’t turned her concept of the world upside down. She’s doing this because of you. Because you fucked her brains out and left room for a bigger life in her mind. And that life apparently includes these other two. She has always been a very generous person. This is her ultimate charity work. Getting true love and happiness and sexual ecstasy for the two girls she loves most. Damn it, this is the women’s shelter she really wants to build. She isn’t using you. She’s flowing with who you are and who she is and what the universe is supposed to be.”
We were quiet for a minute as Dan seemed to think about something else as I tried to come to grips with what he was telling me.
Suddenly, he sat up straighter and yelled, “Dotty, come out here!”
A few seconds later, Dotty ran outside, wearing a T-shirt and bikini bottom, apparently having put it on while she prepared lunch.
She said, “What is it?”
Dan stood up. He looked at his wife intently. I could see that he was semi-rigid now.
He said, “Call your sister.”
Dotty said, “Why? What’s going on?”
Dan said calmly, but adamantly, “Call your sister and tell her to come stay with us. It’s time.”
Dotty’s eyes went wide and she said, “Come stay with us? Stay with us?”
Dan said, “Yes. You tell her to come, and I’ll tell her to stay. Go call her now. Lunch can wait.”
Dotty said, “Oh, fuck!” and she ran back in the house.
Dan turned to me and said, “You’ve convinced me. I’m going to do it before it’s too late and I miss the chance. To hell with convention! Who says we can’t? We can do pretty much anything we want now. And screw the neighbors if they want to speculate and gossip. In fact, I’m not even going to hide it. I’m going to have her as my wife and that’s all there is to it!”
Remembering something important suddenly, I started to panic and said, “Where’s Courtney!”
Dan pointed at the glass doors to the house and said, “She’s right there. She’s been standing there, watching us the whole time. As soon as she went into the house, she turned around and stood at the glass. She seems to be fine. As long as she can see you. And, I’m not worried about that at all, either.”
I sighed in relief. I hadn’t thought about what would happen when we suggested that Courtney go help her mom with lunch, and I suddenly got very afraid that she wasn’t OK.
I took a few breaths and said, “Dad, it sounds like you and Dotty are going to um, whatever with Dotty’s sister, but it also sounds like you want me to actually seduce Jett. I can’t wrap my head around it.”
Dan said, “Because of the supposed morality of it?”
I said, “Well yeah.”
He said, “So you think I’d have a problem with it? And that you’d be cheating on Courtney?”
I said, “Well, wouldn’t I? I mean, not if she wants it, but you’re their father. I’m just not getting it. I don’t mean to be obtuse and I’m not really even judging it right now, but I’m not understanding.”
Dan said, “Then let me help you. You’re hung up on the question of how can it be morally OK for you to love both Kitty and Jett, and how can it be morally OK for me and Dotty to want that for all three of you. I think I can help you see it my way. Dave, I want Jett to be happy, right?”
I said, “Of course.”
He said, “And I want her to have a good man who will love and provide for her and make her happy and help her heal from whatever makes her the way that she is.”
I said, “Of course! You’re her dad.”
He said, “So, if you weren’t with Kitty, I’d be all over you, trying to convince you to take Jett out and fall in love with her and eventually marry her so that I could be more confident that she was going to have a chance at happiness. If you and Kitty weren’t together, of course.”
I said, “Well, I can see that. I guess. You like me, so you’d want me to date Jett if I wasn’t with Courtney. I can see that.”
Dan said, “So, there’s nothing morally wrong there, is there? No. What could be more caring than that? But there’s a big problem with that scenario. It would never work. Because, Jett is, as Kitty says, a major messed up dork queen. She’d never loosen up enough to get to know you. You wouldn’t have a chance, and I’d be screwed. And that’s the situation I’m in. I have a beautiful daughter who will never find a man like you because she’s messed up. But she likes you. I swear. She is really intrigued and attracted to you. So if Kitty weren’t in the picture, I’d be scheming hard about not only how to get you and Jett together, but how to spiff her up in a nice dress and how to put together a giant dowry that might make you willing to put up with her.”
I smiled a little and said, “Well, if you put it like that, I guess I can see your point. She is intriguing to me too, but she acts like she hates me. It would be fun, but really tough to date a girl like that.”
Dan said, “Exactly! Precisely! But, let’s think about this. Here I am, the King of this little country. And I have this daughter that I want to marry off because she’s driving me and her mother crazy because she’s a bitch to any potential suitors. But this really great prince comes along and I love him and he’s my last and only hope that Princess Von Hellstorm will ever be happy. I can offer him jewels and half my kingdom, but it won’t be enough. No, I need help. I need a sorceress. A magician. I need to get him a helper who will step in at the right moments and help enchant her, for her own good.
Hell, enough with the fantasy story. I’m going to just lay it out. Dave, you’d never win Jett over. Not by yourself. So, I’m screwed. And then she never finds real love. And I die watching her shrivel up and grow colder. You are married to Kitty. You couldn’t win Jett over, even if you weren’t. My only good and moral option, my only hope and prayer, the only good and right thing for me to do, is to combine those two elements into a solution. Dave, the only way that I can see for Jett to be happy is with you. And the only way for her to be with you is to be with Kitty and you. And the only way, and I mean this, the only possible way for that to happen is for Kitty to help you win Jett over and take her in. I seriously do not believe that you and Jett would be happy by yourselves. Even if you did get together, you wouldn’t make it. But! Listen to me. I am convinced that you and Bug and Kitty can make it. You can.
Look, before they legalized pot, I had a niece. A 14-year-old girl who had leukemia. She was in the hospital for months. Dying. But the thing that was killing her fastest was the fact that she couldn’t keep down any food. She was so nauseated that she couldn’t keep down water. She was dying. Now, her folks are against taking drugs. Not medicine, but they were totally against pot. But, the doctors thought that it might help and thought that they could get approval to give it to her in pill form. So, what do we say? She’s dying, but an ‘immoral’ drug might save her. They asked me and Dotty for our opinion. Hey, I wasn’t in favor of illicit drugs either, but I didn't hesitate for an instant in telling them to give her the pills or to let me do it.”
I said, “I can understand that conflict. Now it’s legal, but yeah, a few years ago, I would have been against it too. But yeah, I’d say give her the pills. It wasn’t like murdering one person to save another. You think this is like that?”
Dan said, “Let me add something though. We told them that we thought that they should absolutely give her the pot. But I also told them that we shouldn’t tell anyone who didn’t have an absolute need to know. The girl’s grandparents, other aunts and uncles, and the neighbors don’t know about it to this day.
I believe in situational ethics. Do what’s kind and right, not what’s absolute law that might do harm.
So, tell me. Is it immoral to want what I want for Bug? For her to be happy? For her to be with you? Is it immoral for me to be willing to bend the rules of convention to get that for her? Shouldn’t I, as her father break down the gates of hell itself to win her happiness? If that’s immoral, then screw morality! For Pete’s sake, it’s even Biblical. All I’m doing is what guys in the Bible did, finding a good man for my daughter, even if he already has another wife, who happens to be her sister.”
Dan was really animated now and a bit angry at the situation. But he had a point. I could see that. This was a special circumstance and might call for special dispensations.
He said more calmly now, “Dave, if it wasn’t Jett, my little Bug, if you were pursuing another woman while married to Courtney, I’d be hunting you down and there’d be no place to hide. But this isn’t that.”
I said, “Um, maybe I misunderstood. Oh good. So, I’m supposed to stay away from her friend Belinda. That’s a relief. Don’t be mad, but I was kind of feeling like you guys wanted me to be with her too. I’m so sorry. I wasn’t going to do it, but it was confusing. I don’t remember exactly what you said, now, but I must have gotten it wrong. I’m so sorry.”
Dan patted my arm and said, “What I told you was that you should shower with Kitty and Lin when the opportunity arose and that if Kitty arranged a sleepover that you should go for it with Lin and that you’d have my blessing for that, too. Son, like I said, Belinda is special, too.”
Then jokingly, he said, “But, if it comes down to a choice between Jett and Lin, you pick Jett, or I’ll be somewhat less than pleased. And you wouldn’t like me when I’m displeased.”
I said quickly, “No Sir. I don’t think I would.”
Dan was quiet now. And we sat in silence. I remembered Courtney, standing at the glass door waiting, and I sat up and waved for her to join us.
As soon as I gave the OK, she ran out the door and flew across the patio and jumped into my lap. She was still entirely naked and as she bounced, straddling my hips, I could feel her sex press warmly against my own.
Desert Trading Post Page 22
