Chapter 73

October 15, 2017

Dear Ms. Diary,

The day was much warmer than yesterday, thankfully. I’m not ready for winter.

I managed to corner Mom alone and asked her, “Did you intend to tell Nira and Inez that you wanted them involved as full family members?”

She furrowed her brow, then answered, “No-o-o.”

She seemed to be thinking, so I explained.

“Nira has apparently been telling all of us that she and Inez are fine with their girls having sex with Dad. However, she has always done so obliquely, somewhat to very obliquely. We girls have come to expect such discussions being carried out in such manner. We were surprised when you said something like ‘We love having them in the house and I would love having their mothers, too’.”

Mom raised her eyebrows, then closed her eyes and shook her head, then grimaced.

“I’m usually very careful with what I say. I should probably tell the whole family my mistake so that ... Oh, GOD. I’ve got to tell Charlie as soon as he gets back from the gym. That’s probably why he looked at me so oddly. Thanks, Dear. I can fix this in the family, but I cannot imagine how to fix it with Nira and Inez. Charlie would not be happy if the two of them acted on what they thought I said. Not that they would, but...”

“Yes,” I replied, “that would be ... awwwwk-ward.”

“To say the least.”

When Dad got home, he had a general announcement.

“On the way home, Niklos ... Oh, girls, he’s the owner of the company that’s been doing the work here. He called to tell me that they finally got the part in for the hot tub, so we’ll finally be able to use it in a couple days.”

There was much rejoicing.

Sandy followed that with explaining to the family that she had not intended to, essentially, offer an invitation to Nira and Inez to be full members of the family, and thanked me for bringing what she’d said to her attention. There was some discussion, mostly by Dad and Carol, about how to fix things with Nira and Inez, but everyone agreed that there was no fixing it without coming into the open with them about their daughters’ sexual activity.

We were all in the living room when I got a text. I picked up my phone expecting to see the text that had come in, then said, “They’re here.”

Heather reached the door first and opened it wide, stepping onto the stoop.

“Hey, sister mine,” Gracey said as she enveloped Heather.

Liya stepped past them and hugged me in the doorway, whispering, “It’s so good to be here. I love my Mom, but there are six people here that I love.”

There were hugs all around once all ten of us were in the house.

Gracey and Liya led their moms around the house as neither mother had been inside often, all the rest of us trundling behind. Gracey and Liya started the tour at their bedroom.

“This is our room, Mom,” Liya said to Nira. “It used to be the spare bedroom and collected lots of stuff that, other than Sandy’s sewing machine, didn’t see much use. It was also smaller and not so oddly shaped.”

Nira looked at Sandy and said, “You two ... Excuse me. You three really do think of our daughters as your daughters. You must if you went to the expense and disruption of, essentially, providing them a room of their own.”

“Yes, Nira, we do. I know that both Charlie and I have told you and Inez this, but we are very appreciative of having them be the other children that we wanted when we got married. While the house is not all that big, and certainly wasn’t before the remodel, Charlie, Beth, and I did somewhat rattle around in here. When Rhee began spending a lot of time with us, she began filling that hole in the life that Charlie and I had wanted and planned but couldn’t have. While your daughters were here only occasionally, they felt only a little like family. Once they began spending a lot of time here, Charlie and I simply slotted them into most of the rest of the hole. And then Heather came along and just about filled that hole to repletion. I think there’s a bit of space left for Civia, although I don’t know where we’d put her if she should find herself here for long stretches. However, we’d love it, as she’s yet another pea in this wonderful, varied pod of amazing young women.”

Inez came back with, “That suggests that you see our girls, all of the girls as something like adults.”

“We do. You two have noticed that, also, you’ve said.”

“Indeed. They are both helpful, very helpful, around the house and, more importantly, do not cause problems.” She glanced at Liya and continued with, “Liya was something of a problem child when we first met her,” [at which she grinned at Liya] “but she’s never been a real problem, although she might have become such without ... your other daughters. We don’t get to see them as a complete group very much, but we have certainly noticed the impact of that group.”

“I can see that, and both of your houses are a bit small to entertain the thought of housing all of them for any kind of time. If and when you can move closer to us, it would be easier for all four families to do things together. That was my primary interest in getting you two here today. I’d like you two to see, firsthand, the incredible synergy involved whenever the whole group is together.”

I took the opening provided and said, “Speaking of which, the five of us need to get going on making lunch. Sandy, would you lead Inez and Nira on the rest of the tour?” When she nodded, I added, “Don’t forget the new garage.”

We five girls went downstairs and continued the prep for Cobb salad that Rhee, Heather, and I had started earlier in the morning, having gotten the bacon fried and the eggs hard-boiled. As per usual, we divvied the tasks, and the completion of the salad took little time. Also as per usual in this house, we did not follow the recipe strictly, replacing that horrible Iceberg with real lettuce, actually using three different lettuces. We also added strips of Anaheim peppers. When the adults finished the tour in the garage and came up the outside stairs, we had lunch ready and waiting on the extra-long picnic table on the deck.

“Wow! This looks great,” Inez exclaimed. “Did you girls do all the work involved in this?”

“Sure, Mom. We do stuff like this all the time, here. Of course, it helps having a big kitchen and a lot of counter space that five ... or six of us can all work at the same time.” Gracey turned to me and said, “It’s too bad that we didn’t invite Civia. She would have really enjoyed putting the salad together.”

Inez looked at Sandy and asked, “Is that right?”

“Oh, yes. She really enjoys working with these girls on interesting things to eat. Charlie, what did she say that one time...?”

“It was something like, ‘I had a blast helping with dinner. These girls are so fun, even when they’re working’.”

“Yes! That’s it. They all love to learn, and that is one of the parts of this that I enjoy most. Since Beth and Rhee have the most experience in the kitchen here, they’re usually teaching one or more of them how to do something. You should have heard Civia expostulating on Rhee teaching her how to make blackened green beans. These five girls, among the lot of them, know a lot of things, either information or how-to. If one of them knows something, they all want to learn it; that’s the synergy I mentioned earlier. Charlie has said on any number of occasions that teaching would be more fun if all students were like these girls.”

Nira looked a question at Charlie.

“Yes, I have. You ... you and Inez really need to spend some time here when they’re all together doing things. We were on the tour, but had you been in the kitchen, you would have seen the five of them scattered around the room with various cutting boards and bowls and utensils and what-have-you, putting this yummy-looking Cobb salad together, looking something like the staff of a high-end restaurant, all while carrying on a wide-ranging conversation that may have been even more interesting than the lunch prep.

“In fact, why don’t we tentatively plan on you two staying here one night when you’re not overseas, Nira, and when you’re not in some far-flung state, Inez. We ... older adults can sit and gab while the kids do all the work to keep us from starving to death. Of course, we’d have to work out something as far as bed space, but we’ve got lots of extra of that. Perhaps your daughters would be willing to give up their room to their mothers. We could shoehorn another bed in there somewhere or, if you don’t mind a mattress on the floor, that’s even easier.”

“Sure, we would,” Liya responded. “And if our moms wanted separate rooms, we girls could sleep on the Monstrosity.”

“Monstrosity,” Inez asked.

“That’s the ‘extra bed space’ that I pointed out on the tour. Occasionally, the girls have a night when they don’t want to separate into two bedrooms, so we got that made for them.” Dad looked at me and asked, “Have all six of you slept there at once?”

Rhee answered, “No. Civia has slept on the equivalent at ... our other house, but we didn’t have all six of us for that.”

Inez asked, “The five of you occasionally sleep together?”

I said, “Yes. We’ve actually all slept together in ... what used to be my bed.”

Nira looked at me, raising her eyebrows.

“We’re sisters, despite having different mothers. Sometimes, we don’t want the ... togetherness to end just to sleep.”

“Mom,” Liya said, “that’s what I’ve told you. We greatly value our time together. I don’t want you to take this as ... any kind of negative about you ... or Inez. The world is ... it’s ... just ... right when we’re together. We would like to have you two here some night. Or nights.”

Nira looked at Charlie, then at Inez, who nodded and said, “That could work. I’m not one that needs fancy sleeping situations. I’ll have almost ten days in town over the holidays, and I’m sure that Inez and I could get our schedules to mesh for something like that.”

Sandy replied, “It’s a plan, then. Perhaps one of the nights between Christmas and New Year.”

The rest of the afternoon was enjoyable, but the Garcías and Nadhis left before 4. An hour later, the six of us were discussing dinner, but getting nowhere.

“I know we just did this,” Carol said, “but if we don’t know what to do about dinner, either the what or the where, why don’t we order pizza and be done with it?”

I looked at Mom, whose eyes sparkled a bit, so I said, “How much did Mom pay you to suggest that, Carol?”

She looked at me a bit confused, so I said, “Ordering pizza could put in the house on the same day three of the four women – that we know about – that Mom would like to add to Dad’s harem.”

There was much laughing.

I noticed that Dad provided none of it. He just rolled his eyes. I looked around briefly, then decided to take it to him.

“Have you even seen Celeste, Dad? I think you haven’t. Because of that, you should be the one to greet her at the door and pay her. No hiding in the kitchen having your way with one of us on the table!”

There was much laughing.

I noticed that Dad provided none of it. He just rolled his eyes. I grinned at him.

“We could call and get Nira and Inez to come back if you want.”

“That’s enough out of you, young lady, else you’ll be banished to your room ... while I have my way with the rest of my harem that’s here.”

There was much laughing.

Dad did not laugh; just smirked.

“Dear,” asked Mom, “should I fondle you when you greet Celeste at the door? So that she knows that you’re available, of course.”

That wiped the smirk off his face!

“Carol,” stated Sandy, “I think it’s decided. Do you want to call the order in for, say, 6:30?”

It was Celeste who made the delivery and it was Dad who answered the door. Neither said anything for a few seconds.

“I’m sorry. Come in. Are you Celeste?”

She nodded at him silently.

As he stepped back holding the door open, he said, “I’ve heard about you. You want to work with our friend Nira. Somewhat by chance, she was here today.”

“Umm. Yes, that’s ... I’m Celeste. The woman, women...”

She closed her eyes as if in embarrassment, then began again.

“The girls’ mothers have been very helpful to me. They ... She ... that is, Sandy, suggested that I talk to Dr. Nadhi about getting onto projects.”

We three girls were there; I interrupted.

“I’ll take the pizzas, Dad. Don’t forget to give her a good ... tip.”

I heard a quiet snicker behind me, but I calmly took the pizzas from Celeste. Rhee took the opportunity.

“I know it’s been less than a week, but any new word on getting onto a project?”

Celeste seemed almost to appreciate the chance to look somewhere else as she turned to face Rhee and seemed to calm.

“Yes, actually. She asked me to come in on Friday. She said that I can get a bit of time on Olanma’s project. I’m sorry. You don’t know who she is, but she’s one of Dr. Nadhi’s grad students and was a TA for a class I took last year.”

Heather asked, “That’s good, right?”

Celeste, appearing much stronger and calmer, answered, “Yes. It’s mostly grunt work, filling in databases of observations for her, but it’s a foot in the door and I get a little money out of it.”

“That’s great,” Heather continued. “As Sandy would request, please keep us informed. We’re definitely interested in how things go for you. We girls look at you as a chance to learn about the workings of being in a hard program like that. I’d also like to talk to you about math, particularly the sorts of math you use or would use in what you’ll be doing. Dad, here, is a math professor at the university. He got me in to audit Calc Intro this summer and I’m now in Calc II there. I’m very interested in seeing what bits of high-level math get used in which fields.”

“You’re a college student?”

“Not really. I’m in 9^th grade at Central. I’ll simply be taking some math classes at the university over the next few years.”