Chapter 173

March 31, 2018 (Saturday)

Dear Ms. Diary,

Carol texted all of us that they were postponing Sandy’s birthday party to some undetermined post-crisis date.

Meka set up a lunch date with Jim last night. Since the restaurant they were planning on visiting was nearby, they planned to stop in at Armoire d’Amour. Meka took Sandy’s car since Mom had left the satchel there that she had taken to the bank earlier in the morning.

Garamai called me. I let it ring a couple of times while I thought about what to do and how to do it.

“Good morning.”

“It seems both good and ... not-so-good to me. One of the ... guys is still missing, but Junior says that recent developments are good, although that info is apparently not being spread widely. Junior is ... certain enough about various co-workers to leave them with their work while she goes shopping for an upcoming wedding she’s attending. She asked me if I’d ever been to that ... interesting clothing store, as she was wondering if it would have anything suitable. I told her that I was sure it would. However, I didn’t know if that floor manager that’s so good at her job would be there. I know she makes visits there much more time efficient.”

I let silence drag out on the phone as I didn’t know whether to let on, because four of our friends would be there. However, the Johnsons’ presence might also allow for further maskirovka.

I replied, “I’ve heard that she might be there before noon for a bit.”

“Really? Uh, I think ... Junior didn’t anticipate that. She was ... willing to plead with her to help her come up with something for the wedding.”

“No pleading necessary, so long as she gets there soon.”

“Thanks. I’ll call her and tell her. Later.”

I hung up my phone, closed my eyes, rolled my head back to face upward, then breathed deeply. Heather wrapped me up and just held me while I tried to get my racing heartbeat under control.

After a couple of minutes, I said quietly, “I’ve got to text Meka.”

“Already done,” Rhee said. I leveled my head and opened my eyes to Rhee’s face showing concern, as she said, “I thought that the timing could be critical, so let her know. You ... or one of us will have to text her if you think she and Jim should ... or should not be there when Raleigh arrives.”

“That’s what I’m stressing over. I’d like as few of our friends as possible to be subject to ... whatever there. However, I guess Meka could add a layer of ... cover, of ... sleight-of-hand. My biggest worry is due to not knowing if Brit will be there. I know she’s nearly desperate for ... some ... normal aspect of her life, so she’ll want to go, to see ... and be held by Meka if nothing else. I’d prefer she stay at Katherine’s, but I fully understand that she’d really like to see at least one of us.” I breathed deeply again, then added, “Lemme text Meka. This might take a while.”

Heather released me and ordered, “Sit in the bed with your back to the headboard. We’re sitting with you.”

I looked at her, gave her a tremulous smile, leaned in, planted a peck on her lips, and followed her orders.

Meka and I texted back and forth for nearly five minutes. I did not have to suggest maskirovka; she suggested something I thought would work without any hints from me ... which is what I expected. That girl is bright!

I looked up and said to my first two lovers, “She even managed to let me know about Brit. Check this out.”

She had texted, “We waited only a few minutes before Katherit arrived.”

“Damn, that woman has got a brain,” exclaimed Rhee.

“Of course, she does,” said Celeste as she walked into the room. “But why do you say that, now?”

Rhee handed her my phone, and Celeste’s eyes rounded as she said, “Was she letting us know that Brit was at Armoire with them?”

“That was my take,” I responded. “I’d really prefer her to have stayed at Katherine’s, but I understand why she’s not.”

“Yeah. She’s scared and misses her ... wives and husband. Even one of us is better than none of us.”

I nodded at Celeste, then said, “And Jim probably got a big, ol’ hug, too.”

“We’ve put together a ... large and ... atypically fancy lunch. Come on up.”

We were lounging in the hot tub, although it wasn’t doing its usual calming job on me. I understood that I was fretting about something I could not affect, but I could not get my brain to stop it. Thank you, Char!

“Could we go to the pitch and do ... something rigorous. I can’t get my mind off poor Brit.”

Lana wrapped Char up and kissed her, then responded, “I’m all for that. The hot tub isn’t doing it for me.”

In ten minutes, we were walking out the front door of the J with a few balls.

“I’m texting Civia,” said Heather.

We had kept her updated, not that there were a lot of aspects to update, but she crashed into Heather at the pitch and asked, “Any news?”

Heather replied, “Not really. Brit’s probably climbing the walls. He-eck. We were climbing the walls in the hot tub. It was not relaxing, so we thought we’d run ourselves into exhaustion.”

“Maren and I have been here for 20 minutes. Victor was here and said he’d be back. He didn’t say anything else, though. Can we do those laps with sprints?”

I couldn’t help but grin at her, as it seemed she said those four sentences in about 1.5 seconds. It reminded me of earlier in our friendship when she wasn’t so sure of herself or her place with us.

“We can do that. Do you want to lead practice?”

“I ... I don’t want to ... hog stuff. I know I tend to do that, so...”

“No, Civia,” Liya interrupted. “If you have ideas about what you want to do, then please lead us. We’re ... frazzled, and we’d greatly appreciate you taking over and telling us what to do.”

Civia looked a question or statement at Maren, then the two of them wrapped Liya up, then worked around the group double-teaming hugs for everyone, even Brett.

When they got to me, I told them, “Thanks, Maren, Civia. I think we all needed that, and Brett no less than any of us.”

Maren responded, “He’s our friend, too. It wouldn’t be right to treat him differently just because he’s a boy. Besides, he hugs us at times.”

I looked at Liya and asked, “Is it time? We’ve talked about this.”

“I think so. It ... feels right.”

Although we were missing Meka and Brit, everyone else was at the pitch, even Celeste. Since we had talked as a group about it, when everyone agreed, I nodded.

“I call this business meeting of the Las Amadas to order.” Civia gave me a confused look until I added, “Civia, would you like to propose a new member of Las Amadas?”

The confusion was quickly replaced by ... what looked like joy. She nearly broke my spine with the hug she laid on me, then very much surprised me by putting a quick kiss on my left cheek. I do not recall her giving any of us a kiss before.

She stepped back with a huge grin on her face and said, “I propose adding Maren Randle to the Las Amadas membership. She has spent a lot of time with us, particularly with me, and I feel she is worthy of membership.”

Civia went on to back her argument a bit more. After Civia wound down, Heather quietly, but emphatically said, “Second.” The vote was unanimous. Heather had even gotten Meka’s and Brit’s votes by text via Meka. Maren was ... gobsmacked.

After some hemming and hawing and a bit of stuttering, she asked, “You mean I’m ... really part of Las Amadas, now? That I’m a ... f-full member?”

I answered her by throwing my arms around her, hugging her tightly, and saying, “Welcome to the LA, Maren.”

Civia was quite the taskmaster. She had us do four laps, each with a sprint, although Celeste did only four slow jogging laps. We did a bunch of drills, all of which involved some amount of running. Celeste took part in those that did not require any serious ball-handling skills. Victor showed up about halfway through our session and asked to join us; we agreed. He was surprised that Civia was running the show but had no qualms about taking part fully. As we all cooled down after finishing, I think we were all glad he did not ask about Brit. Of course, he would have had no cause to connect the recent news story about someone who did not share a last name with Brit. We J residents said our goodbyes and got hugs from Civia and Maren.

When Maren hugged me, she whispered, “Thanks, Beth. I really like ... all of you girls, so I’m glad that you ... like me enough to vote me into your ... gang. You made my day.”

I kept her in my arms and whispered back, “From Civia’s response to my request of her, it seems you two have gotten to be very good friends.”

“She’s the best friend I’ve ever had. I’m so glad you invited Mom and me to dinner.”

“We don’t know when this thing with Brit will end, but we probably won’t do anything of interest until it does. When we do, we’ll invite both of you ... if you’d be up to a sleepover with us.”

“Oh, yes. Please. I’d love that. Mom says I’m allowed at your ... compound anytime I’m invited. I don’t need to ask. I need only to tell her where I am.”

“Do you think your mom would appreciate a whole weekend without parental duties?”

She leaned back and looked at me with wide eyes, then said, “I’m sure she would but I know I would love that. Civia goes on and on about weekends with you guys. Besides, Mom would probably spend the weekend with ... Jeff and Kalina. They’re getting to be great friends, too. I’m so glad my mom’s happy again. It’s been a while. She really likes the two of them. We have dinner there every Friday and we’ve stayed over there a couple of times to make it easier to leave early to go to that park Civia likes, Taylor Park.”

I grinned at her, pulled her in tightly again, then released her, and we all headed home.

Meka was at the house when we returned, and she held up her hands at the hullaballoo of us all trying to ask her the same things at the same time.

“She misses us and wants the whole thing over. She really wants to come home. There is no doubt that she thinks of this as home.”

“Of course, she does,” Lana jumped in. “It’s now my home, too. Not only do I want to go all the way through high school in Elkton, but I also want to live here ... with my wives and husband and lovers! We’re all living here if we can manage it.”

Katie tentatively said, “Umm ... may I ... live here, too? Permanently, I mean.”

Liya put her arms around Katie and answered, “Of course, you may. It seems like your mom is fine with it.”

“She is. As you know, she’s been pushing me ... particularly after ... we found out that ... I get turned on here ... when I’m with you guys.”

“We might need to figure out how to get more space for clothes, but as far as we’re concerned, you’re already here with the intent to make it permanent.”

After a few minutes of discussion about Katie, space for clothing, and other facets of more people living here than we had expected, Meka took the conversation back.

“One thing good about ... this situation is that Brit’s not only showed us that she’s in it for the long haul but has also seemed to convince herself that this is where she belongs. Everyone heard her intent on Wednesday. She was even more obvious about that intent today. She almost made me cry, she was so insistent on how much she missed ... living with us. She told Katherine that she didn’t want her to think that she didn’t like being at her house, but she really misses us. I think she’s been concerned that something will happen, and she won’t be able to get back here. The thing is, that possibility exists. Her mom is ... who knows where. If she’s in custody or in a hospital or ... dead or gone, Brit’s life could change dramatically. The courts could get involved, and we probably could not get her out.

Cera wailed and threw herself into the closest set of arms, Lana’s. While she tried to comfort Cera, Lana’s own eyes were leaking, and mine were trying to follow suit. I was glad for the respite that practice provided, but we were now even deeper in the hole. So deep, that, except for Celeste who had to work, we climbed into our bed, clothes still on, and just commiserated with each other. Meka tried a couple of times to get us out of it, but even she was obviously feeling the loss that might come. Fortunately, a half-hour after we sank into bed, Brit’s burner-phone ringtone shouted on my phone.

Rhee grabbed it and loudly answered, “Where are you? Are you okay?”

Rhee seemed not to understand what Brit was telling her, as she twice asked, “Huh??

When Rhee put the phone on speaker, Brit’s voice said, “ ... so I can tell everyone at the same time.”

Gracey loudly said, “It’s on speaker, now. What’s up? I’ve got to tell you that we could use some good news.”

“Hi, Gracey. I miss you and everyone else. AD ... that friend of Cera’s mom just left after ... nearly three hours here. At the house, that is. She told us that they had, as she put it, ‘rolled up nearly the whole organization.’ Tweedle Dumb is still missing, but they found and captured everyone else on their list, including some as far away as Santa Fe and Amarillo. Actually, I’m just guessing about the cities, as she told us only big cities in various gross compass directions. She thinks that the danger is now greatly reduced, but she asked me to stay hidden until they can run down Tweedle Dumb. And, they’ve got my mom.”

Except for various loud inhalations, exhalations, and grunts, her last words met with silence as we pondered the various possible meanings of those words. However, she let us quit wondering.

“Apparently, she was... [her voice broke] ... essentially captive. AD ... that friend of Cera’s mom told me that she wanted me to understand what she was telling me in that they’ve questioned her, and I quote, ‘many times this week,’ and she says they were not kind to her, but that she stuck with the same responses throughout that she was trying to protect me. I cried through a lot of what she told me. I’m so glad Katherine was there. Her holding me through it all was the only thing that kept me ... lucid. I ... I d-doubt she c-can b-b-be my m-m-mom for a while. She’ll ... p-p-prob-bab...”

She broke down. We could hear Katherine’s voice trying to soothe her.

“Brit, do you want to call them back in a bit?”

We could not understand the burbled answer, but Katherine said, “She’ll call you back once we’ve gotten her control back.”

I said, my own voice a bit broken, “Please take care of her for us. Fuck! This is so hard. Thanks, Katherine.”

The mood in our bed changed. It wasn’t good, but the news we had gotten gave us hope that Brit would not just disappear into the foster-kid black hole, or what scary tales suggest is a foster-kid black hole. We wallowed for a while, perhaps a half-hour, although at least the wallow was shallower. Brit called us back, and we had a less-emotional discussion, mostly about her mom.

We had gotten around to discussing dinner but not being able to make any progress in that direction when Celeste called me, “Have you had or started dinner?”

“No. We haven’t made it out of bed, yet.”

“Okay. Get dressed ... or not, but meet me at the W in 20 minutes. I’m coming home.”

We arrived, still clothed, at the W shortly before Celeste, who walked in with eight large pizzas.

When Dad immediately offered to pay for them, she responded, “No, you will not! Because of various deals you’ve offered me, my monthly expenses have fallen by three-quarters or more.” She moderated her voice and softly added, “In addition, Charlie, I’m happier than I’ve been in ... many years, and that’s worth even more than my reduced expenditures here. Please don’t ... Just don’t.”

He nodded.

As we sat in the living room, Meka explained the situation vis-à-vis Brit, that things were looking up, but that we felt it wasn’t safe to bring Brit home until and unless Tweedle Dumb were apprehended.

She said, “Brit’s concerned that her mother, who’ll probably have to go through a lot of counseling, will probably be unable to fulfill parental duties for a while. You might wish to have your lawyer contact her once Brit broaches with her mother the subject of living here.”

“We’re prepared to do that at virtually a moment’s notice.”

“Good, because she wants to live here ... permanently.”

When we wished Mom a happy birthday, she replied, “It’ll be happy when we get Brit home.”

April 1, 2018 (Sunday)

Our group love was obvious last night in bed, although sex was entirely absent. We may well have utilized the least amount of the bed on a per-person basis than any previous night, as I believe every one of our bodies was in contact with each neighbor for most or all of the night.

Breakfast and lunch were both unexciting, but during the latter, Andy suggested something that brightened the gloom.

“Let’s do a skimpy-clothing visit to The Cold Sweets.”

Katie responded immediately, “Yes! My shift starts at 2:00, so could we go in around 1:30? I could take a change of clothes with me.”

“Or,” replied Lana, “you could just wear your skimpy clothing beneath one of those white coats. You said your ... that Kath was naked beneath hers the night Brett got to hug her naked body.”

“Ummm.”

“You can do it, Katie,” Kim encouraged. “May I challenge you to do it?”

“Umm ... okay.”

Sitting next to Katie, Heather gave her a one-arm hug while saying, “Good for you! Perhaps we could return before closing and walk you home.”

Shortly after starting our post-lunch homework-and-study period, Rhee suggested altering our afternoon plans. Celeste could not join us as she had to work, but the rest of us agreed to put off our studying until later. After I finished a text conversation, we put a few items in the Sprinter and headed out. As we entered the park, I sent a minimal text, shortly after which we arrived at our pavilion, which was, as usual, unoccupied.

We had unloaded the stuff we brought and were in the process of divesting ourselves of clothing when a blonde came running out of the woods behind the pavilion shouting, “Thank you, thank you, thank you!”

We created a Brit-centered scrum, in which Brit was crying happy tears and frantically trying to kiss every one of us. Rhee had offered to be our lookout, so she was watching the road behind us while still clothed, although minimally.

Brit kept up a mantra of, “I love you, I love you,” as each of us hugged her tightly.

Cera hugged her last, and each tried to pull the other bodily into her. After a few minutes, Cera, who was already nude, began stripping Brit of her clothing. Once she had her naked, Cera tugged Brit by the hand to the pad we had laid on one of the tables and encouraged her to climb onto it and lie on her back, after which Cera stretched out on Brit and the two began making out frantically. We added many hands, rubbing, stroking, and fondling various of their parts, and they began producing various groans, moans, and grunts.

Brit stated, “Get your pussy up here. I want to eat you.”

Cera did not hesitate to sit up, rotate horizontally 180 degrees, carefully lowered her crotch onto Brit’s face, then attacked Brit’s pussy with her mouth. Cera went off loudly less than a minute later, arching her back deeply, her face oriented to the pavilion’s ceiling. She panted for a minute or two, then carefully crawled down the pad a bit, reoriented herself in the same direction as Brit, then returned her face to Brit’s crotch to pick up where she had left off. A few minutes later, Brit figuratively howled at the moon. Cera gave her only a brief respite, then began going after Brit’s second orgasm, succeeding less than five minutes later.

“Ohgodohgodohgod,” Brit chanted as she went up and over, with her chant becoming distinct words as the rest of us moderated our hands’ actions on her body, changing to light caresses.

As Brit continued to come down from the heights, Cera quietly said, “Fuck, that was good. I’d really like there to be more of stuff like this.”

Just as quietly, I responded, “We know, but we’ve got to be careful.” I turned to Brit, and when her eyes opened, I asked, “Are you ready for the second round? Or third round?”

“There’s more?”

“Oh, yes,” replied Meka. “You’ve missed out on a few things, and we’d like you to catch up a little.”

Brett recognized his cue and climbed onto the mat with Brit.

“Ohhhh, Brett-t-t. I get ... you?”

“Yes, and I get you.”

Brett stretched along Brit on his left side, then began softly running his hands up and down her body, occasionally leaning in and kissing her lips, her face, her breasts. She moaned loudly a few times in the first two minutes.

In the meantime, Kim dressed and replaced Rhee as the lookout; Rhee remained clothed, although stepped over to us to watch the show.

Brett quietly said, “This was not on the list of firsts, so is something I give you to help balance what you’ve had to miss out on this week.”

He kissed her gently, then got on all fours straddling her, and slowly settled onto her body, carefully keeping his cock no lower on her body than her mons.

“Oh, Goddess,” exclaimed Brit. “Ohh, Brett, you feel so good lying on me. I love you.”

They started kissing softly, and had begun ramping up the intensity, when Kim loudly said, “Alert.”

As Brett calmed Brit by saying, “Wait. We have a plan,” the rest of us quickly donned the clothing items we had kept close to hand.