Chapter 76

October 19, 2017

Dear Ms. Diary,

We did not wake to Meka in our bed, about which I had mixed feelings. On one hand, who wouldn’t be attracted to such a sexy young woman? On the other, I am not at all sure that I want to add anyone to the Sisterhood, nor to the large web of sexual relationships in the house. I am certain, at least as far as I can be without confirmation, that Meka is on Sandy’s list. I know that Dad will put his foot down, but Meka is an attractive and very sexy young woman. I also still feel a little jealousy about Heather’s time with her. I am fully supportive of her doing it, but if that were going to be a one-off, then I would have liked to have been the lucky girl. Lucky Heather!

Dad and the Moms again put on a big morning feed, huevos rancheros this time.

“Charlie, Sandy, Carol, thank you for another wonderful breakfast. I could get used to this. However, I’d have to play soccer year-round if what was on offer the past two mornings were the standard for breakfast fare.”

Meka grinned around the table.

“You’re very welcome. We have been going all out the past two mornings. Before the girls got to high school, we generally did things like this only on game mornings or lazy Saturdays. We do go through lots of cold cereal.”

“In that case, I’m flattered.”

“Before you leave, please put out your dirty clothes, particularly any dirty uniforms,” Carol told her. “We’ve all been a bit ... side-tracked the past two evenings. I’ll be doing a load of uniforms and I could certainly start a load for your school clothes.”

Meka shook her head briefly, saying, “Thanks, Carol. I had forgotten the necessity concerning uniforms, myself. I hate having to put others out, but I greatly appreciate your taking care of that. I suspect that this evening will be another emotionally draining one, and I probably would not have gotten to that.”

I was just a bit surprised when it was Dad that responded, rather than Sandy.

“You have enough worries on your plate, so don’t worry about things like that. As my wives have told you, we like you and can help in most any way that you need. Please, don’t feel ashamed to ask for help. We know, we can see that you have been strong and have managed quite well without our help. Although I hate to say it, things will get worse before they have a chance to get better. The whole family is more than willing to provide whatever help you need. We will not look down on you for needing that help. You’re a strong person, but you will need to focus that strength on fewer aspects of your life for the foreseeable future. Let us help you not drop any balls.”

Meka looked at Dad for 15 seconds or so, then stood and walked up to the head of the table.

“Please stand, Charlie. I need to hug you.”

When he stood and pushed out his chair, Meka wrapped her arms around him. He put his around her and held her as her body was wracked by sobs. Sandy retrieved the tissue box, while she and the rest of us bused the table.

In the kitchen, I began quietly to lose it, whispering a burbly “Mommm.” Sandy wrapped me up, pulling my head to her shoulder. She held me without words until I wrested control, picked my head off her shoulder, and inhaled deeply.

She said, “We’ll get through this. I know that you know it, but even though we’ll have not known Meka’s father long, you ... and we ... will be changed a bit by this. Grief leaves an indelible mark and the process of getting through or past it is not short and not easy. This is true even for second-hand grief, the empathic grief you feel for Meka. You ... and your sisters ... are strong. You will have to figure out how to save some strength for yourself when you find yourself using much of your strength to support her. You five ... er ... you six should probably take it in turns, and probably more than one of you at a time, to support her. Gracey and Liya should keep spending time with their moms this month. I’ll talk to Kalina about occasionally borrowing Civia to help, at least for October.”

The Go5; Brittany and Cera, a couple of the girls that occasionally “dined” with us; and Brett were at “our” lunch table when Meka joined us, putting a tray on the table in front of her.

“Hey, teammates; Cuz.” She turned to the other girl and said, “I’m sorry. I don’t remember your name.”

Brittany reminded her, after which Meka said, “So, Brett. How did you like hanging out with all the girls in the locker room?”

She grinned at him while his face went scarlet.

“In the girls’ locker room,” asked Brittany as she looked between Meka and Brett.

“Well, of course! What would be the fun in hanging out in the boys’ locker room?”

I did a double take and joined with all my girl tablemates in staring at Brett. Meka was the first to recover.

“Sizzle! I do believe you’re gonna work out just fine as the team’s towel boy. You’ll need that wit and fortitude to deal with all those scantily clad soccer players.”

His face was, if anything, even redder, but he came right back.

“Don’t worry, Shameka. You’ll always be my favorite.”

She recoiled slightly, eyebrows raised, then grinned even more widely.

“Damn, Boy! Good on you! Your girlfriends said you had a good sense of humor, and I’m glad to see it finally.” She reached over, patted his hand, and then said to Brittany and Cera, “He’s now an assistant for our coach. There’s nothing salacious about his job, which is not really as the towel boy, at least, not in the locker room. The team meets there before games and occasionally on practice days, and Coach has laid down the law to us about always being fully dressed in the portion of the locker room in which he is permitted.”

“I’ll have to take up soccer.”

We all looked at Brittany, whose face had gone a little pinker than usual.

She smiled around, then said, “Brett, I’m just kidding. I’m definitely not an athlete.” She went a bit pinker, but added, “I was just playing along with your humor. I hope that’s all right.”

He turned to her, his face not quite as red, saying, “That’s cool. It was funny. You’ll make me blush, like this, but I’m learning how to deal with that. My... ‘girlfriends’ ... as Shameka calls them are not really my girlfriends, although I’m learning how to be their friend ... and Shameka’s friend. I’m frequently embarrassed, but it’s fun hanging out with you smart girls. I appreciate smart humor, and these girls, Beth’s gang, provide a lot of it. You don’t have to apologize for such.” He leaned in a little and very quietly added, “Boys’ humor at this age is sophomoric, at best.”

Gracey, who was sitting on his right, patted his back and said, “Wow. That was seven or eight sentences in a row, a whole paragraph. You’re getting much better at this. Perhaps Heather was right. Once Liya and I are at Beth’s house in November, you’ll have to go on a group outing with us.”

Brett turned toward Shameka and asked, “You’re actually eating with us? Not that I or anyone here minds, but this would be a first. We might have to alert the newspapers to hold the presses. I can see it now: Breaking News! High-society Senior Eats Lunch With Table of Freshmen!”

Meka stared at him for a second or two, then chuckled and reached over and patted his hand again.

“You’re doing great, Brett. Was it the locker room? Was it the interacting with all 25 members of the soccer team in 15 minutes? It must have been something, as you weren’t this comfortable two days ago. Your sharp brain is becoming obvious. You better be careful, as brainiac boys make me swoon.”

There was much laughing.

Meka grinned hugely at Brett; he returned a smile.

We four girls arrived in the kitchen following odors of the Orient.

“Showers. Now. Chop chop,” Dad said.

We rushed upstairs to find two sets each of our uniforms folded on the BRH bed, as well as some of Meka’s clothes.

Rhee yelled at Gracey’s and Liya’s room, “Your uniforms and clothes are in here.”

After a minute, which gave us enough time to strip, Meka walked naked into our room and picked up her stuff and turned to go.

Rhee said, “You don’t mind looking at our nude bodies and we certainly don’t mind looking at yours. You are crazy sexy.”

Meka turned around and looked at Rhee, then Heather, then me. My eyes were wide while I looked up her legs to her torso to her eyes. I was a bit embarrassed that she had caught me looking at her, but given the conversation, not much embarrassed.

“You’re probably the first white people that I don’t mind ogling me. I’ve had lots of white guys look at me, but it just felt like they were thinking, ‘There’s a black girl I wouldn’t mind nailing.’ Although I’ve not known him that long, I’ve never caught Brett ogling me. Trevor ogled me the first time we met, but I told him off and he’s been on his best behavior since. You look at me just as a girl, right?”

“Yes,’ Heather answered. “What does skin tone matter? It’s shape that counts. Well, as far as ogling. I haven’t talked with my sisters in this regard specifically about you, but we all greatly appreciate good brains. They’re something of a turn-on regardless of other aspects. Brett would be interesting even if he weren’t so pretty, while Bradley’s mental ugliness greatly dulls that façade. We’ve liked you from the beginning. At first because of your friendliness and intelligence, almost despite your attractiveness. But we definitely appreciate that, too.”

“Let’s move this discussion to the shower. And it’s my turn with Meka.”

I followed that by grinning at Meka, then my sisters.

I had a bit of trouble following the initial portion of the continued discussion, as I was washing Meka’s back ... and backside. I had the urge to wash her ass with my hands rather than the loofah. I managed to resist that and was able to contribute a bit when she and I were washing me ... except when the loofah ran over my ass.

As we were toweling dry, Meka said, “That’s enjoyable. How did it start?”

“With Beth and me,” replied Rhee. “We’ve been best friends virtually since the day we met, at our first soccer practice, five-and-a-half years ago. We thought we were smart and originally devised this as a way to save time showering. Although we didn’t discuss it, even after we both realized that it didn’t save all that much time, we kept doing it as, well, we were best friends. That was sufficient reason. Our decision to become lovers added a whole ‘nother reason that we do it. Oh. I hope that doesn’t wig you out.”

“It doesn’t. As I said, I’d like to know more about your relationship. It does include Heather. Right?”

“Yes. That developed from our friendship with her, but much more quickly than Beth and I made that change in our relationship.”

“Let’s get Rhee’s hair dried. Heather, would you go tell the parents that we’ll be down in about ten?”

She answered in the affirmative, so hurried off to dress and head downstairs.

“Would you help me with Rhee’s hair?”

“What do I do?”

“Just run the second hair dryer.”

We got it to the just-damp stage, then dressed.

As we were going downstairs, Meka, trailing Rhee, said, “Your hair is lovely, Rhee. I’ve never had cause to play with a white girl’s hair like that. That was ... enjoyable. It feels so silky.”

“Thanks, Meka. With soccer, it’s a pain, but I still enjoy it enough when it’s like this that I deal with that pain.”

Discussion at dinner (a variety of Thai dishes) was a bit stilted, as all of us knew what would be happening later and it seemed as if none of us were able to keep that completely off our minds. Once everyone was sated, Dad, Sandy, and Meka headed out, while the rest of us put away dinner and cleaned the kitchen. Rhee told Carol that we were going to do homework; the three of us went to our room. I had no pressing homework, so caught up on this diary.

[Added October 21]

The three of us were lounging in bed awaiting Meka’s return when I said, “Sandy said something to me this morning when I lost it that I hadn’t fully realized. Meka’s situation is going to keep getting worse until it gets horrible. I don’t know how families deal with such situations. I’d almost rather it happen suddenly and quickly. This wasting away crap is the worst of all worlds. I guess, as Carol implied, I haven’t gone through the stages of grief. I looked it up, but I still don’t see how anyone gets to Acceptance about someone you really love ... dying.”

“Yes. We’ll need to support her for quite a while. Although I hate the cause, this has brought us closer to Meka and her closer to us,” said Heather. “That might not have happened, or happened so quickly, without Meka’s breakdown the other day.”

The garage door began opening, so we bolted downstairs to be at the kitchen table when they walked in. We made it, although they were longer getting in than I expected. Meka looked rough, but she wasn’t crying, and the ends of her mouth turned up a bit when she saw us. She sat with us. Dad and Mom obviously went to their room.

“Although Charlie offered to keep the results of tonight from you, I asked him to explain to you the tentative agreement between my dad and your family, your parents. I don’t want to go through it again and I didn’t want to be by myself upstairs. Sandy offered the use of your hot tub; I took her up on it.”

My eyebrows raced up my forehead. In all that’s happened in the past few days, I completely forgot that yesterday was supposed to be our first day to use the hot tub. I almost said something but managed to keep that behind my teeth. Sandy entered the kitchen at that moment carrying one of Dad’s terrycloth robes and a large towel. Meka stood and accepted them.

“Thanks, Sandy. I’ll probably be out for a while. I need to clear my mind.”

“Take as long as you need, Dear. Feel free to wear the robe to your bedroom. You can bring it down in the morning. We’ll see you then.”

Mom stepped to Meka and hugged her, a hug that Meka returned, after which she headed down the hall toward the hot tub. Mom hugged each of us, then retreated to their room; shortly thereafter, Dad joined us.

“I’ll give you just the bare bones of the agreement, as at least some of the details are still to be finalized. We’ll be buying their house for something like 5% under the price that they could probably get had they sufficient time to wait for that offer. We were willing to give them 100%, but he was not having it. Meka will stay in the house, at least for the rest of this year. She’ll reconsider once school breaks for the holidays. She said that with the good chance of the team making it to the state tournament, she didn’t want to deal with packing their stuff until at least then, possibly later. We agreed with that, as it makes too much sense, although we had suggested waiting until she’d graduated. She didn’t like that idea, but didn’t explain why.

“As an aside, she did say that before tryouts, she thought that there was no way they could win the league with an offense led by the 10^th-grade girls that had been on the team last year. She said that they didn’t get much playing time, so hadn’t improved all that much during the season. Finally, she said that a few of them have already gotten more game time this year than they got last year.

“We offered to house Meka for as long as she lived in Elkton and was going to school. We talked about her going to the university here. I suggested that unless she was interested in pursuing cosmology/astrophysics or mathematics – two fields in which the university is well known, she could probably do better elsewhere, as she could get into a better soccer program. She suggested that she might wish to spend a year or two here, then transfer to a better program. I suspect that she wants to be here as long as her dad is alive. Any questions?”

After getting the lifted chin from Rhee, I said, “All of that sounds reasonable. Is Nira the reason behind the cosmology fame?”

“She’s part of it. She came in at the behest of the department head, who had initiated the rise in the program here. He’s getting close to retiring and he’s pushing for Nira to succeed him. Since there’s a good chance that she’ll get the position, that should keep Liya and her here at least until your graduation.”

Heather said, “Oh. I never thought of the possibility that Liya wouldn’t be here through graduation. That would really suck if they moved!”

“Don’t worry. Nira has already talked to us about that. She’s willing to leave Liya with us if she does change universities. Both she and Inez have already given us the documents we would require for becoming de facto parents of either of their girls. The documents will remain in force until the girls turn 18, at which point they can choose to live where they want.”

We all breathed sighs of relief.

Dad said, “We’re whipped, as I suspect you are. We’re hitting the sack early. We’ll make breakfast again. Meka will let us know in the morning what she decides to do after tomorrow’s game. We’ve told her that she’s welcome to stay here as long as she wants.”

I got to my feet shortly before he got to his, and I was waiting for him and leaned into him when he was on his feet. Rhee and Heather piled in. I put my face on his and kissed him. While I had intended the kiss as a short, good-night kiss, it felt so good, so just kept going. Not only did Dad not object, he followed me as my ardor rose a bit. It felt good, but I pulled back to allow my sisters chances. Rhee followed my lead, and Dad began breathing a little heavily. When Rhee pulled back, Heather crawled up Dad, forcing him to hold her to his chest with his arms under her butt ... well, he was holding her up by her butt, a hand on each cheek, while they kissed, and his ardor rose higher.