At work that day, I didn't have a lot to do. It was still too early to start winterizing the site, and the tourists were almost non-existent. I did cut a little grass and painted a few small items that needed touching up. My partner had been called to another site to cover for someone who called in sick. I was alone most of the day, and had quite a lot of time to reflect on all the new developments and re-developments happening or about to happen in my life.
Shortly after noon, the phone rang. I answered my usual 'Good Afternoon, Parks Canada, Bon Jour." An unfamiliar, but pleasant baritone voice asked. "May I speak with Dave Lloyd, please?"
"Speaking. How may I be of service?"
"You've been of enormous service already, David. I called to thank you personally."
Huh? Who was this? I'd been away from the Park since Thursday, and I didn't recall helping anybody that much in the previous week that would warrant this kind of call. "Excuse me? I don't recall..."
"Oh! I'm sorry, David, it's Ben, Carol Anne's husband, or should I say, second husband?"
Ben laughed at his own private joke. Now that I knew who it was, I detected a deep tiredness in his voice, and a -- warmth, as he explained why he called so early in the day. It would still be morning out there. "Carol Anne went into the office today to get some paperwork caught up, so I took the opportunity to call you when we could speak privately. In one of her letters Diane mentioned the name of the Park where you work, so it wasn't hard to find you and talk to you there, rather than at home."
"Ben? We've never met, but from what little Carol Anne told me, I'd like to meet you and shake your hand."
"No, David, it's I who should be shaking yours. What you did for Carol Anne this past weekend has value beyond measure! She's so happy! That alone was worth sending her off to see you. But you freed her soul, David! You freed her soul! You did in three short days what I've not been able to do in six years with her."
As I listened to Ben speak, there was some inflection or tone of warmth I couldn't quite define, and I just knew that I could tell this man anything. I'd never met him, but I knew instantly, that this man was a friend, capital F-R-I-E-N-D. I let him know Carol wasn't the only one affected. "Thank you, Ben, but she wasn't the only one healed. I was too, and so was my wife, Diane. There's something big afoot, Ben, something really big."
"I sensed that from what was said last night. I did listen in, after all, but felt I had nothing to contribute beyond what Carol Anne told you about me helping plan how to get you to give her a baby, so I kept quiet. Man! That is some love story! I cried with you when you told of your breakup. I don't think she knew I was listening. Carol Anne told me before something about you sensing a Power at work. Someday we must talk about it. Right now, I just want to talk about Carol Anne and the wonderful changes you've wrought in her <I LIKED this guy! He talked like me!>. Do you know what she did this morning when she woke up?"
I just KNEW what Carol did. It seemed fitting and would satisfy her sense of humour, too. I laughed when I said, "Don't tell me — she howled like a wolf, scaring half the neighbours' cats, and waking up every dog for three city blocks, right?"
He laughed heartily. "Yeah, not counting the chill that went down my poor old spine. How'd you know?"
"Ha! Ha! Get used to it, Benjamin, you could be hearing it a lot. That's her cry of fulfillment. She's so ecstatic over her pregnancy and her return to the world, she's gotta let it out. She's always been very vocal in her joy. I suspect she did it as something of a lark or joke, too. She can be pretty outrageous when she wants to be. We didn't tell in our story last night what she did to the little old blue haired lady at Dolly's wake, did we?"
"No, please do."
I told Ben about us taking a quickie, which Carol had announced to the room that we were going to feed the 'pets', the mess we made (as usual) and how Carol jerked that lady's chain but good.
Ben laughed and laughed then he asked me to explain more about the howling.
Suddenly I was drawn back twenty years to one of the happiest times in my life, and I wanted to share it with this man. "It was a little unnerving the first time I heard Carol howl twenty years ago. She got our old black Lab, Clyde, singing. It was the funniest thing we ever heard!!"
Ben and I broke up laughing with the mental image of Clyde singing along with Carol's howl. I hadn't enjoyed talking to a man like this, except for Dad, in many years. Ben struggled to get himself under control. "W-we?"
"Oh yeah, it was New Years, 1966. Carol Anne, Riekie, and I were having our first real-sleep-together night since we got married the previous summer. We were having a LOT of fun, if you catch my drift, and Carol Anne had this absolutely massive orgasm. She felt so good from coming so hard, she actually howled. Clyde heard her and howled back, then he started 'singing', and it broke us up completely. Riekie laughed so hard, I thought she'd piss herself! Later that night, Riekie howled too, only deliberately, when she came a big one, except Old Clyde had moved upstairs, unbeknownst to us, and when he answered Riekie, he was right outside our door! He scared the bejeezus out of us! Carol Anne giggled herself silly."
I almost fell out of my chair, laughing at those happy old memories. I could hear Ben laughing until he started to choke. It felt so good to have a real deep-down bust-a-gut belly laugh after all these years. I finally regained a little composure, although tears still ran down my cheeks. "So get used to it, Ben! You're gonna hear more of that! So am I, I think. Diane let a howl out of her last night that set off a local coyote!"
We broke up again at the images created. Still laughing, Ben managed to ask.
"What it is with you and these girls that you can make them so happy and fulfilled they howl? <CHUCKLE> Are you that good in bed?"
"Ben, I could brag, but I can't. No, it's not so much me — it's them — they bring out the best in me. They're totally innocent, completely uninhibited, virtually insatiable and are extremely exuberant in their joy and love of life. When they're in love, it's total, and at the risk of bragging, it's lucky me they're in love with. Some people, Carol Anne's family included, used to think I was Superman or something. I let them think it, but I knew, it wasn't me, it was those Super GIRLS pushing all the right buttons because they love me, and I love them. They still push those buttons.
"Carol Anne is especially innocent and naive. Because of her 'illness' for lack of a better word, over the last twenty years, she has actually been frozen in time. She's no more a sexual sophisticate now than when she was at seventeen, and that's what I love about her. When she's well, as she is now, she's as disingenuous as a child, and if we'd stayed together even as we'd planned, I think she'd still have been like that. Diane's the same. She's a terror in bed, but she's totally innocent and unprepossessing about her sexuality. I haven't seen Riekie in eighteen years, but I have a notion, despite her sophisticated education, and unless her husband has changed her, she's just like the other two."
"David, I don't know how to thank you enough for what you did this weekend. You gave Carol Anne back to herself, and you gave us all two new babies. I've NEVER seen her actually happy before, and then to see this joy, almost rapture! Oh, and what that's done for me! I'm an old eunuch, as you know, but the vision that walked into my home yesterday made even me sit up and take notice. I always knew Carol Anne was attractive, but I never realized just how truly beautiful she is, until she walked in here yesterday! I hardly recognized her. When I first saw her get out of the cab, I thought one of my sons' girlfriends was coming to visit.
"I sent a matron East, and you sent a luscious coed back! That hair! It's simply gorgeous! I never knew! I may be a eunuch now, but I still remember what it felt like to be with someone that beautiful and sensuous! And those legs! When I was younger and was still a man, I fancied myself a leg man. My kate had gorgeous gams, but Carol Anne's are the standard, I think. She always wore baggy slacks or long skirts, so I never saw much of them before. To show you just how attractive she is, I watched the cabby that drove her home as she walked into the house — he never pulled away until she was out of sight! My! My! David! What miracles you can accomplish!"
"No miracle, Benjamin. Yes, Carol Anne's legs are magnificent. I agree; they are the standard by which I gauge all other women, although Diane Marie is a close second. The real Carol Anne was there all along, all she needed was to be released from the prison of her own conscience where that man put her, and refused to release her. Did she tell you about him? I think he's going to jail for what he did to me, and we have some other goods on him as well."
"Yeah, she told me the whole thing after she got off the phone with you and your family last night. I didn't tell her I listened to the whole thing and already knew what happened to him. He deserved everything he got and then some. I just hope your friend can really pin something on him. Carol Anne had told me most of your story, but what you told together, with your parents was amazing. From what Carol Anne had told me before, and what I heard last night, I'm afraid I was like your dad and wanted to go hunting that serpent myself. <Chuckle> And Diane and Carol have fallen for each other, eh? Interesting!"
"I guess they have! Diane held that picture I gave her as if it was the real person, and would hardly put it down even at bedtime. But... that's not the half of it Benjamin, now Diane is falling for Riekie, too, sight unseen and word unspoken, except for her prom pictures. Now that's interesting!"
"My! My! Oh! You know something else Carol Anne did when she got home? She took all that stuffy old underwear she used to wear, and threw it in the trash! She said she wouldn't be needing it anymore. Seems she wants to be ready for you any time, all the time! Hey! Hey! You're one lucky S.O. B.! And she sent most of her clothes to the Goodwill, too. I think my credit card is gonna take a beating while she gets her wardrobe back in order. She's like a damn teenager, almost giddy! I don't know if my heart can take having such a young person around now.
"Which brings me to why I really called, David. If there's any way at all, I intend to see you two fully re-united as soon as possible. The serpent said he'd move Heaven and Earth to separate you. I'll move them to get you back together. There's no way so much love should ever be parted, and I'm including Riekie in that, too. I had a love something like yours once, and lost her to illness. I sometimes think my cancer is my own body's way of saying I'd remain true to her. But I mustn't let myself get maudlin and sentimental just yet. You know, don't you, that although I married Carol Anne, we're really just extremely good friends?"
"Yes, Carol Anne told me that. Why did you marry her then, if it wasn't romance?"
"There was some quality about her that made me want to protect her and help her, and because I'm a eunuch, I was non-threatening to her. She was also good for me, drawing me out of a well of self pity I'd thrown myself into after the death of my wife and then my illness. She helped me, but I was never able to fully help her. Oh, she was a little better, and more able to function, but there was no spark. Now, there's spark! Boy oh boy! There's spark!"
"Carol Anne told me you would probably help her pack her bags and happily drive her to the airport if she decided to come home, but she won't leave you, Benjamin. You're her legal husband and most importantly, her friend, and as long as you need her, she'll stay with you, regardless of how much she wants to be home. That's what friends do. You were there for her, now she needs to be there for you. I think she's told you enough about me, that I would do no less myself. Carol Anne couldn't abandon a friend to come to me, especially me. I'd think less of her if she did, and she knows that. So, until such time as you either pass over or actually divorce her, you're stuck with her and the twins. I only hope you'll let them come East from time to time and let the rest of the family come to visit them."
"David, visiting is not an issue, you're welcome anytime. I know you can't give up your life back there and move out here to be with her. She wouldn't want that anyway. Her home is with you and the others. She has never considered the west her home, as I think you know.
"But David, I called when she's not here because I don't want to upset her so soon after her miraculous rebirth. She'll know soon enough, but I want to spare her for a little while. Did she tell you anything about my prognosis?"
"Yeah, she said the doctor thought you were no longer in remission, and gave you two more years. That's an awful short time from my perspective, but it's literally a lifetime for you."
"Carol Anne doesn't know it yet, but two years was the upper limit. I could have considerably less. I had hoped to live long enough to hear the twins' first words and see them walk, but it isn't going to happen. I can feel the cancer eating away at me every day. I try not to let it get me down, for Carol Anne's sake, but I know she senses something, and she's worried. She knows something's up, because the paperwork she went into the office for today is to basically wrap up the company's books before the new owners take over."
"Huh? Carol Anne never mentioned you'd sold out."
"I haven't actually, yet, but it is for sale, and I have a couple really good offers. Carol Anne has been after me to sell out and retire while I still had some health ever since we got the business back on its feet. I always found an excuse not to, and now that I have decided to sell, it's scaring her, because she's afraid the end is near.
"Actually, I've been quietly liquidating all my assets so Carol and the kids will be looked after when I'm gone, but she doesn't know that. When we got married, we drew up a prenuptial agreement that specified what was mine before remained mine, and the same for her. Carol Anne isn't a co-owner of the business, she's a paid employee. Well paid, and with signing authority on the current and payroll accounts, but an employee nonetheless. She has unlimited use of a company car, and we've never had to get anything jointly. Carol Anne's needs have always been amazingly basic. As long as she has a roof over her head and food on the table, she's relatively content. It's like she's been marking time.
"Jamie and Robbie have been looking after all the details for me. Carol Anne thinks I gave it all to them, but it's hers and her co-heirs when the time comes. All that's left now is the business and the house. The boys will get the house; they're already well looked after from their mother's estate. I'm liquidating everything so it will be readily available when the time comes. Everything but the house goes to Carol Anne and her co-heirs."
"So why are you telling me all this, Benjamin? You know I want my children and Carol Anne home, and they'll be looked after. I can guarantee you that. You might say I'm only 'loaning' them to you."
Ben chuckled at that, but I could hear he was tiring fast. All the laughing earlier had sapped his strength.
"David, the way I feel right now, I could die any time. It's all I can do to function most days. I just want you to be aware of the situation, and if something does happen quickly, I want to hear it from you, that you and Diane will drop everything and come to be with Carol Anne. She'll need both of you near the end. Will you come?"
"Whenever I get the call, Benjamin, we'll be on the next available flight. Count on it. But it won't just be because of Carol Anne, my friend, it'll be for you."
"Thanks, David. I'll keep in touch and let you know how things are going on the QT. I don't like keeping things from Carol Anne — we've never had any secrets — but I want to spare her as long as possible if I can. What do you think?"
"Benjamin, you're asking the wrong guy. I was raised to believe that no matter how painful, the truth, and nothing but the truth, was the only way to go. Carol Anne believes that too. I understand your concern for Carol Anne, and sympathize. I've kept a little back from her myself to spare her needless pain, but nothing on the scale you are. In the end, if you keep it from her too long, her pain will be that much worse. So, yeah, let her have a couple days to get over the euphoria of this past weekend, then tell her. She has the right to know, and is a LOT stronger than you give her credit for, especially now, because now she knows she has other people who love, support, and especially trust her. Am I making any sense?"
"Just the good sense I'd expect from you. You're absolutely right. I'll bring her up to speed later this week. Is that soon enough?"
"Let her be the judge of that. You're right, she's worried, and a lot more than you think. The not knowing is really getting to her. She'll still be worried, but at least she'll know what she's worried about. OK?"
"Now I'm really glad I talked to you, David. That's about all I wanted to discuss for now, except for one small item. Carol Anne tells me your mother is a Priestess of, what did she say, the Old Ways? Does her religion have any affiliates out here? I'd like to learn a little more about it. Maybe you mother has a contact list or directory or something like that, that I could find someone here who could, ahem, 'enlighten me'."
"The religion itself is called 'Wicca', Benjamin. I'll check with her, and maybe she can get you a name."
"Wicca? OK, David. Let me know soon. I'm getting very tired now, so I better go lie down for a while so I'm alert when Carol Anne gets home from work. She was only going in until noon. I'll call again next week. When does the Park close for the season?"
"We close at Thanksgiving. You'll have to call me at home after that, OK? I look forward to hearing from you next week, Benjamin. We've never actually met, but already I think of you as a very dear friend, and I will always be glad to hear from you."
"Thanks, David. You're my friend, too. Talk to ya next week, good bye."
"Good bye, Benjamin."
After I talked to Ben, some actual tourists showed up and I spent the rest of the day giving them the tour and doing my 'Tourism Professional' thing. The rest of the week went quickly. I was supposed to go moose hunting with my friend Bob, but with all the new developments in my life, I felt I should take a pass this year. I called him and begged off, forfeiting my deposit, but after I explained things to him, Bob understood. Even though he didn't know any of the people involved, coming on the scene several years after the main event, I had, over time, filled him in on my past. He was genuinely happy for me and my reconciliation with Carol, and understood my reluctance to leave in case I was away if Riekie decided to advance her 'schedule'.
Diane and I made wild, passionate love every night, sometimes several times each night. We were indeed like newlyweds. Because I work weekends during the season, and the weekend hours are actually longer, I didn't see much of the family at all. Diane saw more of me than anyone, simply because we slept together. I was true to my decision to lose some weight, and started to watch my diet. I walked whenever it was practical, and started doing some calisthenics and isometrics to tone up my gut muscles.
I did tell Diane and my folks about Ben's call, but when we called Carol on Saturday night, we didn't mention it to her, and Ben was on the line with us anyway. Carol introduced us to Ben, and he and I let on it was the first we'd met. I wanted to hear from Ben first that he had talked to her himself about his worsening condition.
I had an inspiration on how to get a picture of Diane for Carol. We wanted to send her one that might be considered too risqué for the normal photo labs to process, and we didn't want to take a chance on any of them making their way onto the Internet. My friend Al was a gifted amateur photographer, and had done a few magazine layouts along with the usual weddings and such. I contacted him. He agreed to do a photo shoot with Diane and process the film himself, returning the negatives and all the prints to us. I was concerned Diane might be uncomfortable posing for him, so he suggested I be present as well as his wife, Karen, to make her more comfortable. We arranged a shoot for the Sunday after I got home from the funeral.
Sunday night, Diane and I drove to Al and Karen's, and Al shot two rolls of film for us. Diane was a little uncomfortable at first, but she knew Al and Karen very well and soon got into it, especially when she thought of why we were taking the pictures and who they were for. Some of those shots were very erotic indeed! Karen was able to get Diane to pose just like a professional model.
The shoot was a roaring success, and Diane got so turned on, she whispered to me, "I can hardly wait to get home and fuck your brains out". Being as I don't have a surplus of grey matter, that was a serious threat, and a risk I thought I would take... I don't think I lost any brain cells that night, but I sure got fucked!
Al had his own small lab, and promised he'd have two complete sets of 8x10 prints and the negatives ready for Monday after work. He was true to his word, and when I wanted to pay, he only charged me for the film and the paper. I picked up the prints, had a quick look through them, and stopped at the Post Office on my way home. I bought a large protective mailer and mailed one complete set to Carol with a short covering note inside. We promised her a picture, and she got two rolls of film of professional quality prints instead. She could pick her favourite to frame. I thought she'd select the one where Diane tried to duplicate Carol's pose in her self portrait.
While I was in the Post Office, I picked up a birth certificate application for Diane. She said she'd lost or misplaced the one she had, and needed a replacement. As she didn't have a driver's licence that was the only proof of identification she had.
September wound down quickly, and we were into October. Ben called me at work on the first of October, exactly a week after his last call. He sounded even more tired, but he said it was just the medication. He told me he'd talked to Carol on Sunday (probably while we were getting Diane's photo shoot done) after we talked to her Saturday, and brought her more up-to-date with his condition. He thanked me for helping him find the courage to talk to her. She was very upset, but had taken it better than he had expected, but just the way I said she would. He said she vowed to stay with him to the end, regardless, but she wanted us and Riekie with her and him at the end. I was really pleased to hear she wanted Riekie with her, but not surprised. Of course, Carol expected Riekie to be home with us by the time Ben passed away anyway. Carol would draw ALL her loved ones to her in her time of need.
Ben said the sale of the business was dragging on, but he hoped to have it liquidated soon. He said his news hadn't driven Carol into the pit of despair he feared, and she was still the vibrant, alive young woman that came back from Ontario. So far the pregnancy was OK, but it was still too early for a proper pregnancy test, and Carol's doctor was relying on her to feel any changes that might need medical attention. I was quite impressed with her doctor and her open mindedness. I told Ben we'd be calling on the weekend, again, unless Diane called Carol before that. He reminded me to ask Mom about a Wicca contact in Calgary. Good thing he did, I'd almost forgotten. I told him I'd try to have a name by the weekend.
That night when I got home, I stopped by my parents' place and asked Mom if she knew somebody in Calgary who could answer Ben's questions. She gave me the name and phone number of a lady, Beth Richards, she said she'd met at a conference who impressed her with her sincerity and devotion to the Goddess. She laughed when she said 'networking' as it's called now, is literally as old as the hills.
The rest of the week flew by. We started winterizing the Park that week, so work got busy again. Roy called once to confirm Thanksgiving (Thanksgiving in Canada is celebrated the first Monday in October). Because I had to work right through, he and Patty wouldn't come down until Sunday afternoon. We would celebrate Thanksgiving a day early; they would stay over night, and return to the base on the Holiday Monday. It would be a short visit because I had to work the next day, too. He said he'd have news for me when they came on Sunday.
We called Carol or, rather, Diane called her, on Saturday night. Carol had received her pictures and was ecstatic, gushing over Diane like a sixteen year old over his first girl friend (I know, because that kid was me!). Listening to the two of them mooning on the phone was a real turn on for me, and that night it was me who could hardly wait to get Diane alone and fuck her brains out. Turned out she was as much turned on as me, and maybe more so. She still had her brain the next day, but she did wake up one very contented lady. I could hardly walk...
During our conversation with Carol, she told us Ben was more ill than she'd been told before she went East, and he didn't think he'd make a year, let alone the two they'd given him. She was very worried, but resigned to the inevitable. She made us promise we'd come to her whenever she called. As I'd already made that promise to Ben, for her to ask was a no-brainer. She said her period should have started by now, but hadn't, so she was sure she was definitely pregnant. Ben came on the line briefly to say he could tell she was because she simply glowed with that happiness only pregnant ladies have. We had a chuckle then Ben excused himself, saying he had to take his medication. Before he hung up, I gave him Beth Richards' phone number, and told him Mom thought highly of her.
The rest of the conversation was a chorus of 'I love you' and a lot of just heavy breathing -- and not just between the girls. I missed Carol as much as Diane. I felt like a teenager again, just listening to my light o' love breathing over the phone, and now I had two of them again. I was getting impatient for the third one, though.
Sunday, I played hooky from work, booking off sick in the afternoon to be home when Roy and Patty arrived. We had so much news, I wanted as much time with them as I could get. They arrived early, shortly after lunch, so we had quite a bit of time to catch up. Rhiannon grabbed the kids and they all ran off to play, even the older ones. They just loved he farm, and could spend hours just poking around the fields. Jenny hung around with the adults until Diane put her down for her nap.
Roy brought me up to speed on the developments in the document rigging scandal. The old sergeant had indeed turned over on his old CO, and told everything he knew. Apparently I wasn't the only one over the years he'd helped or hindered with his meddling. It didn't look like they'd need those statements after all. They had a pretty good case without them. I said one witness would be glad to hear that, as she was afraid she'd have to testify when she really didn't want to have to see that man ever again.
The MP's and the Mounties were looking for Scott, but he'd disappeared. On a hunch, I told Roy if they wanted to pursue it, they might look for him in Florida where he once lived while working on Apollo. Roy hadn't heard any more on his enquiry about the Army following up on an old rape case from the War, and apologized for not calling. I told him there was no great rush, as the victim and witness were still deciding what, if anything they wanted to do. Whether they caught him or not, Scott was finished and out of our lives.
That out of the way, I told Roy and Patty why this thing with Scott had been so important to me, aside from his meddling with my documents, and that my rescue of their own relationship had been the beginning of the end for mine. Sparing no detail, for the second time in as many weeks, I laid it all out, including the multiple marriage at age sixteen, everything, right up to the present where we had discredited Scott and reclaimed Carol's soul. Diane helped me by being by my side and supportive. Needless to say, Roy and Patty were astounded at my story, and even more so when Diane spoke up and said she not only accepted the situation, but fully expected it to resume in the near future, and it was she who told them of Carol's 'plot' to have a baby that was actually the catalyst to get us all back together. When I finished my story, and Diane had told her bit, Roy asked, incredulously.
"So let me recap to see if I get this straight — when you were sixteen, the year before I met you, you married two sisters, right? <I nodded.> That lasted a year until the old colonel did his damnedest to wreck it, is that right? <I nodded again.> And now, after twenty years, you're getting back together? <I nodded yet again> And Diane, you not only accept this, you want to be part of it? <Diane nodded.> And now one of your former wives is pregnant by you?"
"She's not a 'former' wife at all, Roy. We were never divorced, just a prolonged and painful separation. I never stopped loving her, and she never stopped loving me. The other one is coming home, too. I never stopped loving her, either, and she has never stopped loving me."
"And what about Diane?"
"I love Diane Marie as much as I love the others, and she loves me, don't you, Hon?"
Diane nodded, tears in her eyes, afraid Roy, one of our oldest and dearest friends, was going to turn his back on us.
"It's true, Roy, and I love those other girls, too. Would you like to see them?"
Diane had Mom's photo album clutched to her breast, almost protectively.
"Sure, we want to see them, but first, I think I should say something to ease Diane's obvious fear. Diane -- Patty and I owe Dave our marriage and our kids. We never knew until now how much that cost him. From the way he tells the story, he and those girls obviously loved each other very much, perhaps more than Patty and I love each other, and that's saying something. How could I ever turn my back on a friend who gave up all that for me? Sure, his marriage was unconventional, but at the time, Patty's and my interracial relationship was also considered unconventional and in some circles, taboo. If you're happy with him resuming that marriage after all these years, and want to be a part of it, then who am I to say nay?"
Patty, who hadn't said a word through my whole story, finally entered the conversation. I'd been focused on Roy, and had largely ignored her. I looked at her as she cleared her throat to speak, and saw for the first time huge tears rolling down her cheeks. There was a real catch in her voice as she spoke. "D-Dave? Y-you lost all that for us? And you still call us friends? I think if that had been me or Roy, we'd have turned away, realizing we'd lost so much to help someone we hardly knew. We owe you more than ever, now"
"Patty, I could never turn away from a friend. Yes, my helping you was the beginning of the end for me, but you and Roy are a success, and I take great pleasure from that, because in the midst of my own tragedy, some good did prevail. And whether you know it or not, any debt you think you may have owed has been handsomely repaid, for it was Roy's information last July that led to our reconciliation by giving me the incentive to finally go after the old bastard. I don't want to beat a dead horse here, and I'd like to wrap this up for now. I'm sure you have other questions or will have as this all sinks in. While you're here, if you think of something, feel free to ask or comment. Now, for Diane Marie's sake, I must ask this one question: are we still friends?"
Patty's answer was non-verbal. She flew out of her chair and threw her arms around me in a gigantic hug, and laid a big kiss on my lips, then did the same for Diane. Roy laughed as he rose from his chair and clapped me warmly on the shoulder. Then he went to Diane and gave her a warm hug. "There's your answer! Now, do we get to see these girls all this fuss is about?"
Diane showed them the prom pictures, and assured them that the girls had hardly changed and these twenty year old photos were a fair representation of them now. As they leafed through the album, both Patty and Roy used the same word repeatedly. "Beautiful! Beautiful!" When they were finished with the pictures, Roy grinned and said.
"No fuckin' wonder you want those girls back! They're HOT!"
Diane and Patty headed for the kitchen to work on our thanksgiving feast. Roy and I sat and visited until Mom and Dad came over. The kids all came in from their adventures and made a fuss over Mom and Dad. Shortly, the girls called us to table. Dad asked the Goddess to bless our food and thanked her for good friends, and a re-united family.
My Girls (My Girls!) weren't home yet, but they were coming sooner or later (and we ALL know, with women sooner means NOW. <Grin>), new babies were on the way, old friends accepted our situation, and the future looked a lot brighter. Thanksgiving at the Lloyd's that year was truly a time of joy and thanksgiving.