Chapter 185

April 18, 2018 (Wednesday)

Dear Ms. Diary,

Drama arrived with the alarm.

Before I knew of the drama in my immediate future, there was comfort, happiness, and a warm lover. I was curled into Rhee, and cudgeling my brain resulted in an understanding that the girl curled into my back was Andy. I was thinking that this life I had was so very satisfying and was enjoying the minute or so of comfortable transition from being unaware of my comfort and happiness to awareness of both, but those thoughts vanished with the sound of sobbing. The reaction did not start as pandemonium or reach that level, but it might have been visible from where we were.

I quickly sat up and looked to my left to see Jim’s broad back as he was trying to console whoever was on the other side of him, but I already had a sneaking suspicion of who was there, of who was sobbing. Meka and Kim seemed slow to react, but they both abruptly sat up, then, seeing the problem, threw the sheet off and crawled over to Rachel. The bed became something of a kicked ants’ nest as our wives responded to perceived trouble.

We quickly realized there was nothing to solve in the immediate short term, so most of us drifted to the bathroom to offload processed fluids and then to get the morning’s breakfast of oatmeal started. We had the table strewn with bowls of various oatmeal additives (such as Gracey’s and Meka’s favorites: pumpkin seeds and quartered dates) and I was setting out flatware, when Kim stepped into the dining room.

“Beth, would you join us, please?”

I looked at her, then looked at my table-prep partner. Celeste nodded, so I put the flatware on the table that I had not yet distributed and followed Kim downstairs.

Meka, sitting with her back to the headboard with Rachel curled into her, summarized the situation, “Kim, please quit pacing and sit somewhere preferably not too close. Beth, Rachel wants to tell us something, and refused to do so until you were here.”

I looked into Rachel’s red eyes with a soft look, but told her, “Rachel, except for certain rare-ish situations, we deal with family situations with all of us together. Does what you want to say have to do with ... our J family?” When she nodded, I asked, “Would you mind horribly if the others were here, too?”

She tilted her head back a bit, closed her eyes, and sighed, but answered, “Yes. I mean, no, I guess not.”

I climbed onto the bed from the northwest entrance, went on hands and knees to be right in front of her, and explained, “The various wives and our husband are very bright, and we have quite a few that excel at outside-the-box thinking. This ... here ... seems to be a problem and we’ve solved a lot of perhaps similar things. In addition to our policy being to solve family problems with the whole family, having the variety of us working on whatever you want to tell us could help all of us arrive at an acceptable solution or, at least, a clearer understanding of whatever it is.”

When she nodded, I reversed my course across our bed and thence upstairs, gathered everyone, and sent them to our room, following behind with the three in the kitchen, Heather, Brit, and Char.

Rachel started, “I didn’t want to pull everyone from breakfast duty, but I understand that you do most things as a group. First, I apologize for causing...”

Liya interrupted, softly, but interrupted with, “There’s no need for any apology. We know you’re going through some ... mental gymnastics to figure out something about yourself. All of us have been through various versions of that, and we’ve all arrived here after that effort. Rachel, we do nearly everything together, and if you need anyone’s help in your ... mental traveling, we’re here for you.”

Rachel gazed at Liya for many seconds, then nodded and restarted, “I want to ... No, please hear me out, as I find that I need to tell you this.” With her eyes still on Liya’s, she breathed deeply a few times, held the last breath for a five-count, released it, then stated, “Why I’m here and what I’m doing while here has changed a few times since I arrived last Thursday. I first came here, with the express permission...” She twisted her face in something like distaste and restarted again, this time with, “I arrived here at Seamus’s suggestion that I have a wider sexual experience with guys before we start seriously discussing marriage. Since, at the time, I could remember thinking sexual thoughts about only one guy who isn’t Seamus, I was blithely thinking that Brett would agree to what I wanted. He and his wives quickly returned me to a reality that wasn’t closely related to my ... Fantasy’s too strong a word, but it works for now.

“The second reason for my presence, once I had been ... educated on Brett and the girls, was related to the first in that I wanted to become closer, be better known by Brett and the girls so that I could return to the original focus of my arrival. Katie upset that one, quite innocently, by relating her recent experience with Kim and a certain picture, an action that resulted in Liya asking me a question that I found, at first, difficult to answer. I understand, or think I do, that individual couples ... work differently than others, but it disturbed me that I couldn’t remember a recent time in which I was giddy about my relationship with Seamus like Kim was about her ... relationship with Meka.” When a hullaballoo started, Rachel calmed it and continued, “And then ... Jim followed along with Meka to this room, doffed his clothes, and climbed into your bed.”

Silence met her last sentence. During that very pregnant pause, I wracked my brain trying to figure out where she was going and, given how the discussion started, I had an idea of where she might go. If I were right, I had no clue where things went from there.

“I don’t truly remember much of the night after that, just some random dissociated mental images, although I can piece together the gist of what happened. Two of my best friends are taking part in a sexual relationship with Jim, and it ... looked like they are fully enjoying it. It is also obvious to me that many of the others enjoy Jim’s presence in their bed, and that Brett was not only not jealous of him being in their bed, but that he enjoyed coordinating with Jim on ... sexing up various of the girls. The importance of all that is that... [here, she breathed very deeply once] ... I’ve just remembered that Jim was the subject of my first explicit sexual fantasies.”

Okay, I was not expecting that. Although my mind reeled, I was still a bit confused, but I still noticed that Rachel’s face, neck, shoulders, and breasts were all a redder shade than typical for her.

Before anyone could question her about what she had just told us, she stated, “I woke this morning curled into a guy, a naked guy, and I was naked. I’ve done that with Seamus quite a lot, but the guy did not feel like Seamus, and that caused a jolt of fear, so I opened my eyes. What I saw struck me in two very different ways, one of pleasure seeing him in bed with me followed immediately by the understanding that I ... I still harbored a deep desire for him and that scared the hell out of me.”

Rachel did not stop this hullaballoo, instead shifted around in Meka’s arms and sat up putting her back to the headboard. Meka spoke over the cacophony and got everyone quiet.

Very softly Meka asked, “Have you figured out how you want to deal with your ... epiphany?”

She answered slowly, haltingly [with many pauses, some quite long, that I have removed], “No, but I know what I want to do to tackle it. I need quiet and solitude and, I guess, I need to know, Jim, what you’re planning on doing today with the girls all at school.”

“I had no particular plan, but I thought I’d read a couple of recent papers in my field and I’ve got a new book.”

“Could we ... share lunch? With the girls’ hoped-for permission, I’m staying here today. If it’s okay with you, I might like to break my solitude by sharing lunch with you in the kitchen. Is ... is that s-something you could do?”

He looked into her eyes for a while, then replied, “There’s not much else that I can imagine for a quiet lunchtime that I’d enjoy more. Do you want me clothed for that?”

“I don’t see why. We just spent the night together naked in each other’s arms. Granted, I didn’t truly realize that until I opened my eyes this morning, but I’ve seen all of you, Jim, and you’ve certainly seen all of me. Since the girls seem to live on the notion that one cannot unsee things so they might as well be naked all the time and since I’m currently ... living in their house, I figure house rules are good enough for me.”

Liya responded, “Of course, you’re welcome to spend the day here. I’ll let Coach know you won’t make the game.”

I glanced at Meka and noted that she was frowning, so I kept my eyes on her. After a short time, my vigil was rewarded.

“Rachel, I’m ... sorry you’re going through mental ... difficulties, but I have to ask if you’ve just moved my dad into the spot you thought Brett would fill nicely?”

Rachel closed her eyes for a few moments, opened them, then responded, “No. I think I fully understand ... you girls, now. Well, at least as much as I can while living with you for not even a week. However, I do understand that feelings here run deep, that it’s not just a house of girls having fun while the getting is good. Also, I’m no longer looking for more sexual experience with guys ... in the short term. Oddly, with that decision made, I find myself ... perhaps more accepting of the possibility, and that’s part of why I need to spend the day thinking. I think I had gotten to the point of wanting to have sex with your guy just to say I did. Of course, that would have defeated the purpose of the endeavor.”

Her face suddenly went a bit pink and she ducked her head and that action had all eyes on her.

She picked up her head, her face still flushed, and asked, “Umm, what did I do when ... you were ... all having ... sex? I seem to have only the most scattered of memories of last night. Some of them seem obviously ... incorrect and others of them are ... somewhat embarrassing, and I’m mostly unsure of what I was doing.”

Katie softly answered, “You rubbed one hand or the other on Jim, all over Jim. While your hand became intimately familiar with his ... butt, I’m not sure you missed any part of him.”

Her face went redder, but she kept her head up and responded, “I was sort of hoping that was ... my memory playing tricks on me, that it was ... fantasy. And, to complete my embarrassment, Jim, do you remember me curling into you when the girls settled to sleep?”

“I do.”

“Did I ... put my hand ... in your crotch when I curled into you?”

We returned to breakfast in something of a hurry but had something we needed to discuss, so I asked Rachel, “Were you planning on spending tonight here?”

“It’s more like I would like to but wouldn’t have planned on it until I had gotten the okay from the girls.”

“You’re still welcome here, but we do need to know when you’ll be here. Changing gears: Like last night, tonight is one of those nights that require you to keep our secrets. You’re welcome to stay here in the J for dinner and the evening until we return, but you’re also welcome to join us for that dinner and evening. We don’t need your answer until we get back from the game.”

“I give you that promise now. While I was not entirely here last night, I understand why you needed that promise from me and assume that something similar is the cause of you wanting my promise again to cover tonight, whatever that may be. As I said earlier, I understand you girls better after last night than I had. I don’t know what tonight is, but it seems likely that illicit sex is involved again. Somehow, I’ve become somewhat ... inured to the concept of ... sex that is disdained by many. Oh, I know that some people get on with sorts of sex that are ... reprehensible, but I think Meka making love with her dad doesn’t reach that level; not even close. I’ll let you know when you get back whether I want to be present ... wherever whatever it is takes place.”

We started the Argon lineup, staying with the plan of alternation of the lineups as starters. Last year, in what was a very unbalanced league, today’s opponent, Central [the small city 80 miles W of Elkton, not the high school in Elkton], was the only team solidly in the middle of the pack (5^th place of nine teams with a 7-8-1 record; all other teams had fewer than six wins or more than nine wins). It was a young team last year, so we expected them to be better this year with a good chance of making the league tournament. While Argon did not take Central apart, they did manage a 3-1 win of the first half, with Padme tallying two goals (assisted by Tonda and Lissa) and Mia one (assisted by Lissa). Both of Padme’s goals came when Dakota came forward and overlapped, allowing Padme to move to the middle. The play that enabled her second goal was a beauty.

Lissa had the ball 10-15 yards outside the box with Tonda ahead of her at the edge of the box, Mia well wide to the left, with their right half marking her. That allowed their right back to cheat inside and help with D near the box, with the other three of their four-girl back line scattered across the box. With their left back in the box, but just barely, Padme was all alone wide, so Lissa sent it out to her as she saw Dakota heading toward Padme, who controlled the pass with her right thigh dropping it straight to her feet, then began motoring toward the box. When their left back came out to challenge and had gotten close, Padme sent the ball out and slightly downfield to Dakota and also gave her the “center” hand signal. As soon as the ball was away, Padme sprinted past their left back heading toward Tonda. Dakota made a couple of dribbles just to kill some time, and I was so proud of her. She had obviously divined Padme’s intention and was allowing her time to get situated properly.

Dakota surprised the left back by suddenly lofting the ball into the middle of the penalty box, thus inside the stripe. Like Meka, Tonda is tall and generally has an aerial advantage, but had increased that advantage this spring with Meka’s teaching. She didn’t need the latter for this cross, as, with her back to the goal, she chested the ball for control and when it dropped to her feet, she tapped it with her left foot into a slot between defenders and Padme ran onto it and crushed it past the goalie.

At halftime after giving out attagirls for most of the half, Coach stated, “Finally, let’s go over Padme’s second goal. I’m going to ask someone to explain that play, particularly why it worked so well, so I’ll give all of you a few seconds to think about it. I want to know who the critical personnel were, but also why they were critical. There are your few seconds, so have at it ... Smythe.”

Emma Smythe nodded, gathered herself, and responded, “Central sat back all half clogging up the box. Mia and Padme were both way wide trying to stretch their D, but their wing midfielders seemed to be responsible in their system for covering wingers on O, which seems a bit odd to me, as that allows Lissa and next half, Beth a lot of freedom of movement and of choice. I wouldn’t want to be their D next half if they’re gonna give Beth so much room.

“Anyway, the box was clogged with D with Tonda all alone there, so Lissa popped the ball out to Padme who was unguarded. I suppose the league’s teams will begin to understand that they can’t get away with leaving her open, and she made them pay for it. While I was pretty far from her, I was at least on her side of the pitch and I could almost see the wheels turning in her head. As the pass came from Lissa, Padme kept looking to see where everyone was. Then I noticed that Dakota was making a run upfield, and the suddenness of her doing that left their left midfielder in the dust. She obviously aimed to overlap Padme, be outside of her, so Padme controlled the ball and headed toward the goal. When the left back finally came out at her, she passed back to Dakota and gave her a signal. I thought it was ‘C’ and Dakota confirmed that when a few dribbles later she crossed the ball to Tonda, who dropped the ball to her feet and tapped it to Padme as she continued her full-tilt sprint and whacked it right past their keeper.

“While Lissa may have had some idea that Padme could make something happen out there, by making her run, Dakota obviously gave Padme an idea, and she made the most of it. The critical aspects were Dakota’s run, Padme’s ... deviousness, and Tonda’s control and her almost-a-drop pass.”

Before Coach could respond, Tonda stated loudly, “While not on the pitch, another critical aspect of that was Meka teaching me more how to win more aerial duels, controlling the space around me, and controlling the ball in tight spaces. I’m not at all sure I’d have been able to make that play last year.”

Coach grinned at Tonda, then said, “Brit, please take that into account.”

Brit grinned and announced, “Attagirls to all the critical players that Smythe noted, and to Meka for increasing Tonda’s skill set and making her a much more dangerous striker. Tonda, that control and pass were beautiful. Attagirls also go to Lissa for her two assists, to Padme for her first goal, and to Mia for once again showing off her incredible ghost skill by disappearing and showing up somewhere that Central really didn’t like her being, that is, right on the left side of their goal to redirect Lissa’s pass into the goal with no one near her. Non-goal-associated attagirls go to a few, the first going to Mila for her fancy leaping save in which she managed to redirect the ball over the bar. That was crazy, Girl! Another couple goes to Kanda and Parkinson for coordinating on stopping what would have been a good goal chance. Parkinson gets hers for standing their right wing up and stopping her dead, and Kanda gets hers for coming in behind and taking the ball away. They’d have gotten those attagirls regardless, but that play was also what got the ball to Lissa, then to Padme, Dakota, and Tonda to set up Padme’s second goal. In total, the play from start to finish netted five attagirls for players on the field and one for one of our coaches. It seems unlikely for some future play to top that, but we’ve got a lot of games to go and we’ll just see.”

Midway through the second half, I lost the ball to their center half. She one-touched it deep and their left wing beat everyone to the ball and easily beat Marli for the goal. However, as Smythe predicted, Krypton tore Central’s D apart. With four on our front line, with Rathi and Zala making occasional runs, and with Rhee dropping back when Char was far forward in the box, we tallied eight goals and I got four assists.

In the locker room after Seamus handed out second-half attagirls to nearly the entire lineup, Coach said, “I assume, Beth, that you decided early on in the half that throwing most of our team at that D was the way to beat them.”

“Yes, Coach. I was thinking about what Smythe said about them clogging the box, so had a quick talk with Rathi about using Zala and her and another with Rhee asking her to hang back whenever Char was up front as I thought we could get her rocket into the game.”

“I’ll say Rhee, I’ve never seen you get a hat trick anything like that, with all three coming from outside the box.”

Rhee replied, “It made sense when Beth suggested it. Char’s a little better than I am with sudden, short-range opportunities and she doesn’t have quite the rocket I do. With them filling up the box, having both of us adding to the congestion didn’t seem all that useful.”

“It certainly worked, so let’s keep that in our playbook, Beth. I would not be surprised to see something like that D again.”

“Oh, yeah,” Rhee came back. “Rathi, that drop you made for me. That was freaking perfect. Did you see that slot?”

“I did. It looked like it wasn’t going to close in the next few seconds and I saw you coming from my right, so left it for you and got the hell out of your way. I can’t believe you’ve gotten such a screaming rocket for your left foot.”

Before the conversation could get away, Coach responded, “Yes, once Heather taught Rhee how to be a rocket launcher, she’s been working hard at getting her left foot up to snuff. Obviously, she’s succeeded at least somewhat.”

There was some chuckling, and Coach smiled around the room.

“We’re getting into rarified air here, team. Eight, count ‘em, eight of you got goals from six assisters. I suspect that we’re going to be clogging up the league’s various top tens this year. We’ve already scored more goals than some teams got all last year, and I suspect that Rhee and Char are running one-two in individual goals, and I also suspect that, like the past two years, those two will be running away from the field in that stat, although I also give Civia a reasonable chance of getting into the mix, as she’s quietly scored a goal in each of our games. Also, not surprisingly despite that she’s playing only half-games, Beth has already reached double-digit assists.”