Chapter 26

I was watching the pair of them out of the corner of my eye -- and Vera suddenly perked up and got convivial. I smelled something, but couldn't imagine what. The good news was that they apparently put away the Vera problem and moved on to other things.

Meanwhile, I got a distraction. Abe cornered his mother and said, "Mama! Why did you do that? That's nasty!"

"What, Baby?" Tara blinked.

"You showed that man your panties! That's ina..." Abe stopped, stymied by five syllable words.

"Inappropriate?" Tara supplied the missing concept. "Well, Baby, that depends." She frowned and gave me a look.

"I don't know if he's ready for this yet..." I muttered, but turned to young Abe. "Abe, can we talk, man to man?"

He didn't trust me, but despite -- or maybe because of -- his age, he wanted to be treated like an adult. "Okay."

"Have a seat." I waved him at another chair. I sat forward in mine and he did his best to mirror the pose in his. "Situations change, Abe. And sometimes the rules change with them. Your situation changed sometime back, when your daddy left you and your sisters and your mama -- and your mama had to take on the burdens of raising you by herself."

"He'll be back," Abe replied stubbornly.

"No, he won't, Baby. I can show you the letter, if you like, but I'd have to read it to you. He's GONE..." Tara looked sad, primarily for Abe, I think.

I took the reins again, before an argument could start. "Things changed again last night. That's why you're here. Your mother and I came to an agreement -- and I agreed to take on just about all of your daddy's duties and responsibilities -- especially where you are concerned. That doesn't make me your daddy -- but it means that someone is going to be around doing 'daddy things' -- something that hasn't happened in a while. Are you with me so far?"

Abe frowned. "Uh huh." I figured the real answer was 'Maybe a little,' but with some work, he would get the pieces in context.

"The rules have changed, Abe -- quite a bit. For your mama, the benefit is that she doesn't have to go out at night and work at Ray's any more..."

"I don't like Jock!" Abe interjected.

"Then this should be good news," I plowed on, "because Mama won't be seeing Jock any more." Abe looked mildly pleased at this, despite his underlying belligerence.

"Good! He did ina... that word... stuff to Mama!" Abe announced.

It looked like I was going to have to drop back ten and punt. "Let's talk about what is and is not inappropriate, Abe. What is inappropriate to you?"

Abe thought about it. "Touching."

"Anywhere, or specific places?"

"Well... Places. Anywhere, I think, without permission," Abe frowned and I knew he was going through something his kindergarten teacher had worked to deliver, but he wasn't clear on.

"Okay, good. Those rules, well, they're pretty close to right, but they differ some for you because you aren't a grown-up yet. We don't want anybody big to touch you in those places at any time because you don't know yet when to give permission. An exception to this would be if you're hurt there and someone like a doctor is trying to help, but the general rule is that grown-ups shouldn't touch you in those places." I gathered myself. "The rules are a little different for grown-ups. We can give each other permission."

"Jock didn't have permission," Abe declared.

I threw to first; Tara tagged the runner out. "Baby, Jock had permission. We were playing a game -- PRETENDING that he didn't. If he REALLY didn't have permission, Mama would have called the police."

"Like that time Daddy gave you the black eye?"

"Just like that, Baby. Daddy didn't have permission," Tara grinned at me ruefully.

"I thought daddies..." Abe flicked his eyes from Tara to me.

"Abe, sometimes daddies have special permission, and sometimes they don't," I fielded the ball. "In this place, daddies don't have permission to hit mommies -- but some do it anyway. Sometimes mommies give daddies special permission -- but she didn't that time, I guess." Abe shifted his attention to Tara, who nodded confirmation. "Sometimes," I went on, "it's all about what the rules of the place you are living are." I gathered my thought processes. "So, for grown-ups, it's about the rules of the place where you live, and permission -- and sometimes, special permission. Are you with me so far?"

"Uh huh."

Given the examples, I figured we were on firmer ground, so I continued, "When your Mama and I made our agreement last night, she agreed to the rules of the place we're going. Frankly, those rules are a little looser than they are here; if Mama deserved it, I could give her a black eye and the police wouldn't come."

"Oh."

"Abe, I've never given a woman a black eye. Probably the worst thing Mama would ever see from me would be a spanking -- if she was REAL bad!"

"Oh." Abe processed this. "Okay."

"As a result of our agreement, I have special permissions from Mama, Abe."

"Like a daddy?" Abe flicked his eyes to his mother.

"Yeah, just like a daddy," I said quietly, waiting.

I guessed right; Abe's attention rotated to his mother, "Why?"

"Because Jack promised to take care of us, Baby," Tara told him. "All of us. You and me and Shawna and Elise."

Abe's gaze swept to me. "He could lie..."

I pursed my lips. "I could. People do." Clearly, he knew that. "But I made some special promises. I promised to take you all far, far away..."

Abe's head snapped up. "To a colony?"

I blinked, surprised. "Yes. How do you know about colonies?"

"Teacher told us. Winnie didn't come to school one day and Teacher told us that a man took Winnie and her brother and her mother to a colony."

"What else did Teacher say?" I asked.

"Teacher said that Winnie's mama was a con... con..."

"Concubine?" I supplied.

"Uh huh. She said that things were different with con-cu-bines, and that if a man ever came to pick up our mamas, scary things might happen -- but that going to the colonies was a good thing and everybody is nice to kids there," Abe related.

I sat back, amazed at early childhood education. "This actually makes things easier, Abe. The nature of the agreement between your mother and me is that she is to be my concubine. And I agreed to take you all to a colony to live with me."

"Oh. WOW!" Abe's eyes popped. He looked to his mother, who nodded, smiling. Then he scowled. "I haven't seen any scary things."

There was a significant pause while I tried to figure out where Abe's teacher might have been coming from. Then a thought occurred to me. "Abe, tell me what Jock did."

Abe eyed his mother and said, "He made Mama take off all of her clothes and get down on her knees, then he... stuck his..."

"Okay, you can stop there, Abe," I told him. "I get the picture. How did you see this?"

"I heard Mama come in and I got up to go pee-pee."

Tara covered her face; I had the ball. "Okay, there are a couple of things going here. First, that was kinda scary for you, wasn't it?"

"Yeah. He was hurting Mama -- and I couldn't stop it."

"Okay. That's what Teacher meant when she said things might get scary at a pickup," I explained. "She figured you might see something like that."

"Oh."

"Now, the second thing is kind of about what is scary and what isn't. Sometimes -- usually, actually -- things are scary because you don't know what is going on, Abe. Believe it or not, Mama wasn't scared." Abe flicked a glance at Tara, who nodded agreement, somewhat embarrassed. "What Jock did with your mother happens a lot at pickups, when men come to pick up mamas. It happens other places, too, but you don't generally see it. That is because it's a grownup thing. Teacher was trying to warn you that you might see things you'd never seen before."

"Why?"

"Why do they do it? Because the mamas are making promises, too. They're promising to do grownup things with the men. They're proving they know how to do grownup things and that they're willing to do them with the men." I paused. "At a pickup, there is no time -- so the mamas have to do things right in front of you that only usually happen between mamas and daddies at night after you go to bed. These are grownup things -- things that lead to babies, for instance. It's pretty scary when you see it and you don't know what's going on -- but your mama and your daddy did that kind of thing -- many times, I bet."

Abe's eyes shifted to his mother again, and she nodded. "Jack is right. Many times."

"How does Jack know?" Abe asked.

I took the ball. "Because you're here, Abe. The grownup things we're talking about produce two things -- pleasure for the mama and daddy doing it, and babies."

Abe looked dubious. "Mama didn't look happy with Jock..."

"Baby, like Jack said -- we were playing a game. I was pretending it was inappropriate -- that I hadn't given Jock permission to touch me. But I had." She rubbed her face. "It's a little complicated. Trust me -- Mama enjoyed it."

I picked up the ball. "So we get back to inappropriate. Touching you in places is inappropriate because you are not a grownup and you're too young to enjoy grownup things and they might actually hurt you. People who want to do grownup things to a kid tend to be bad, one way or another. On the other hand, when Mama agreed to be my concubine, she agreed to live under the rules of the colony we are going to and she gave me permissions -- and special permissions. What that boils down to is that NOTHING is inappropriate between Mama and me."

"Nothing?"

"Well, there are always exceptions, I guess," I admitted. "But showing me her panties isn't inappropriate. Actually, she didn't show me her panties, she showed me her places."

Abe's eyes widened and his mouth made an 'O'. He looked to his mother and I gestured -- and Tara diffidently lifted her skirt. "Mama!"

"Abe, look at me." Abe shifted his eyes to me. "How bad is that, really? I know, you were taught that it was naughty, weren't you?" Abe nodded. "Well, it is, here. But remember how I told you that the rules were different depending on the where you are?"

"Yeah..." Abe cocked his head.

"Where we are going, the rules are different. What are clothes for?"

"To cover you up?"

"Why?"

"I dunno. To keep you from being cold?"

"What if it isn't cold? Do you need clothes?"

"Yes."

"Why?"

"To cover you up."

"Why?" I was starting to enjoy this role reversal.

"Because..." Abe stopped there; he didn't have the concepts.

"Because it's a rule for this place, Abe. Really, there is no other reason. Some people decided that they wanted people covered up to keep them from thinking so much about doing grownup things so they made rules that said you have to be covered up all the time. That's the rule in this place -- and it's a BAD rule, because it actually encourages inappropriate things!"

Abe's eyes bugged. "It does?"

"Do you ever want to do something just because you can't?" I challenged.

"Well, yeah..."

"That's what happens sometimes because of the rules about clothes. That's sort of what was going on between Jock and your mama that time, for instance. She was pretending that Jock was doing something he wasn't supposed to -- and Jock was enjoying pretending that he was doing something inappropriate." I settled back in my chair. "Where we are going, if Mama is somewhere that she doesn't need to stay warm or protect her body from something, she doesn't need clothes -- especially if she is with me. The rules actually say -- specifically -- that Mama wears what I tell her to wear -- and that includes nothing."

"Naked?" Abe's eyes popped. "Mama can go naked? Isn't that..."

"Dangerous?" I finished. "In our house? Who is going to bother her -- except me -- and I have special permissions, remember?" I leaned up. "This is a different place, remember, with different rules. There are plenty of mamas to go around and no one has to go without doing grownup things with someone else. Besides, part of the problem is that you've been taught that it is naughty; once you get used to it, it's just Mama..." I shrugged and settled back again. "Similarly, Mama and the men in her life have hidden doing grownup things from you -- so they're scary and you don't understand them. If you saw it every day, it would be just another thing -- 'Oh, look, Daddy's making babies with Mama...' It wouldn't be scary." I eyed him. "Your Mama and I have done grownup things -- we did them last night, after you went to sleep. And we did it like that because you haven't been exposed to it and we didn't want to scare you. But you're GOING to see it, because it's natural and you shouldn't be scared of it. By the time you're grown up and can DO those things, you'll know all about them and they won't be scary at all."

Abe cocked his head. "So why isn't Mama...?"

"Naked?" I finished for him. "Because we're not in a place where the rules are there to support it yet. Because we didn't want to scare you. And because some other people are coming here and we didn't want to scare THEM." I paused. "We've been bending the old rules because we're still here and the new rules don't apply yet -- but people need to get used to them. Remember what Mama was wearing last night when she came home?"

"Yeah." Abe's eyes shifted to Tara. "A fancy black nightie."

"And did you notice that her parts were showing?"

"Well... On top, some."

"On the bottom, too," I told him. "You just didn't notice. Actually, I could take her out naked -- even here -- and I would have to explain it to people and show that I'm from a colony, but it would be legal. Here in the house, I could ask Mama right now to take off all of her clothes and come do grownup things -- but I won't, because we're getting ready for a party and it would hold things up."

"Can I be naked?" Abe asked.

"Sure, when it makes sense," I agreed. "I'll be wearing clothes a lot because I don't stay home -- but I WILL be naked at home sometimes. You can go naked if you want at home, but you'll probably want to put on clothes to go out. Clothes have a purpose -- to protect you and keep you comfortable. I NEVER wear clothes in the swimming pool!"

"You've got a pool?"

I nodded. "There is a small one at my house, and a bigger one a little ways away."

"Wow! Will you teach me to swim?" Abe was totally off the subject; I could have done THIS ten minutes ago! Well, we needed the talk...

"Sure. I'm not THAT good, so I might get someone to help, okay?" I asked.

"Okay." Abe sobered. "What's your name?"

"Jack," I replied. "Someday, if you think I've earned it, you can call me Dad. There's no rush, though -- and if I never get there, Jack will do."

Abe turned his attention to Tara. "Mama, do you like Jack?"

I was pretty sure I understood this; he was asking his mother if she was making some kind of sacrifice. Tara smiled at him. "Yes, Baby, I like Jack a lot."

"You didn't like Jock, did you, Mama? Why did you do grownup things with him?"

Tara sighed. "When you grow up, Baby, you'll understand. You get the urge to do grownup things, sometimes -- and you get it so bad that maybe you aren't picky about who you do them with. You're right -- I didn't really LIKE Jock -- but he was safe, you know? I knew him and I was safe with him." She shifted her glance to me. "I really like Jack a lot; doing grownup things with him is a lot more fun."

"Okay." Abe turned his gaze to me. "Okay." It was a blanket approval. He got out of the chair. "If you want to look at Mama's places..."

"Mama's pretty all over, Abe. I'll be wanting to see it all," I told him.

"Yeah, okay." He started off toward the stairs, then stopped. "What about Keisha?"

"Keisha too. She's my concubine, too. Remember when you asked her to come with us?"

Abe nodded and made to turn away, then stopped. "And the other ladies? The ones that left?"

"Them, too. They're gonna help your mama and Keisha."

Abe shifted his glance to Vera and Britney. "They are concubines, but they don't belong to me, Abe," I explained. "They belong to Oliver. This is Oliver's house." I watched him think about it. "That complicates things, doesn't it? I don't have daddy permissions on them -- unless Oliver says I do. But Vera, there, is one of the other ladies' mama, so she'll be around -- probably Britney, too. You have a big family now -- and lots of mamas." Abe nodded, and I knew he was overloaded, poor guy. He started up the stairs, then turned back again.

"When do we go?"

"To the colony?" I asked. "Tomorrow. Tonight, we'll have kind of a farewell party here for Oliver's family, and tomorrow, we leave for the colony. It'll take us a couple of weeks to get there in a spaceship."

Abe nodded and then announced, "I'm tired." Brain-burned was more like it, I figured.

"Go rest a little, then," I told him. "Mama will be up to check on you in a minute." He nodded and headed up the stairs.

Tara looked at me. "I think you did it. I'm amazed that you got through it."

I chuckled. "There are pieces missing -- like why you call me Master. Exceptions to the rules. Probably a whole lot of crap. He'll want to hear some of this from you, without me around. And it was a whole lot to take in. The girls are younger; we should be able to just let them pick things up from experience -- but Abe has to unlearn things."

"Well, he's young..."

"Yeah." I waved her off upstairs.

Vera and Britney were sitting on the couch with drinks in their hands. "That was quite a show you put on, Jack," Vera murmured.

"Did I screw it up?"

"I don't think so," Vera opined, "although you might have mentioned the fact that some people wear clothes to keep others from puking."

I chuckled. "That's not prevalent in the colonies."

Vera looked down at herself. "There are exceptions to every rule."

I shook my head and said nothing.

I changed clothes, getting into some more casual pants and a golf shirt and slippers, wondering idly what really casual was. Collecting the riding crop, I headed back downstairs. I passed young Abe in the hallway; he seemed preoccupied and didn't press himself against the wall to stay out of reach as he had with me once before. I passed Tara on the stair; she gave me a tentative smile.

Vera and Britney were seated on the couch watching Jack play with little Elise. She was sitting on his ankle grinning and making happy exclamations and he was holding her little hands while lifting his foot from the floor and lowering it like a one-sided see-saw. I crossed to the women, "Sooo..."

Vera looked up. "We haven't spoken much, Master, but..." She held up her glass and Britney clinked hers against it.

All right -- they were going to get along; that simplified things. "I'll have a glass of the red," I announced.

"Yes, Master." Vera got up, putting her glass on the coffee table, and moved off.

I settled on the center of the couch; Britney scooted over a bit to facilitate it. Britney eyed the riding crop, which I found embarrassing. "It's new." I put it on the table.

"For Vera?"

"Yes."

"Oliver..."

"This isn't the home life I planned to present to you," I interrupted her. "Even yesterday, things were different. I'm embarrassed, and I really wouldn't blame you if..."

"This is a period of change," Britney replied. "What SHOULD I expect?"

"Jack is Beth's -- or vice-versa. Beth is out at her last day of work with Frieda, who is also Jack's. He's going to go get them at seven-thirty, and from what I've been told, they plan to make their grand entrance nude. Between now and then, I'm expecting my other two daughters -- Maureen and Judith. Maureen has a CAP score that will allow her to be a sponsor; I'm certain that she will opt to go with us in the morning. Judith is not sponsor material and has a husband who is also not sponsor material. Given the nature of tomorrow's pickup, they have several options. The husband may not come, anyway; Judith has indicated that the honeymoon is over between them."

"What is the nature of tomorrow's pickup?" Britney asked.

"I'm unable to discuss it," I related, "for security reasons. Jack can, however, if he wishes."

Jack looked up. As Vera returned and placed a glass in my hands, he replied, "We're collecting an entire private school -- teachers and staff, students, and as many family members as we can get. In the process, we'll pick up some others, just because they happen to be in the right place at the right time. It's likely to be messy -- we're going to sort things out in orbit, rather than on the ground -- but it will provide Judith with an opportunity to emigrate and get selected by a sponsor, if she wants."

I patted the couch seat on the side opposite Britney and Vera settled into it. "We're going to try to keep things as normal as possible until Beth and Frieda return, after which we'll reveal the entire situation to Maureen and Judith. Then I plan to eat dinner, have a little family bonding and get everyone to bed so that we're all ready for tomorrow."

"Why this school?" Britney asked.

"It's progressive," Jack replied. "They have been preparing future sponsors and future concubines, not looking the other way. Education has been overlooked in the colonies to a large extent, but we want to fix it. These people are professional educators and they have a leg up on things. We're going to make them the core of the colony's education system."

"That's excellent!" Britney exclaimed. "But just grabbing anyone -- isn't that unusual?"

"Various things have been tried in the past," Jack replied, "but they always used the old formula designed to support early expansion of a brand-new colony. We're using a new type of ship and an experimental process to transplant a large number of people to an existing colony with adequate facilities to support them. The plan is for this to be the first of many large pickups used to accelerate the evacuation of the Earth and facilitate colony growth. The ship we're using should be able to handle a quarter of a million people -- but we're starting small, with maybe twenty thousand."

Britney's eyes popped. "That's HUGE!"

Jack nodded. "We're hoping it works and we can offer a much larger population the hope of extraction. And if we take EVERYONE at a given site, Earth First and groups like them will have the rug pulled from under them to a certain extent."

"So who are the other women here?" Britney asked after absorbing this.

"The older woman is Tara," Jack explained. "She was a waitress at a pretty seedy restaurant/bar that Beth and Frieda tended to frequent. That's a long and fairly sordid story. She has three fatherless kids..."

"Had, I think," Britney murmured.

"Yeah." Jack looked embarrassed. "Keisha is their babysitter. Her family isn't any too impressive, but she's sweet and a natural mother." Jack pursed his lips. "That reminds me... Keisha?"

"Yes, Jack?" Keisha came in from the dining room, carrying little Shawna on her broad hip.

"Did you leave a note for your mother when you went out for wardrobe this morning?"

"Uh, no..." Keisha looked embarrassed.

Jack frowned. "Why not?"

"I dunno. I couldn't think of nuthin' to say..."

Jack sighed and fished out a cell phone -- or maybe a Blackberry -- or on second thought, maybe it was something more... "Call her."

"Okay." Keisha puffed out a sigh. Taking the phone in one hand, she handed Shawna off to Jack with the other, and then Jack pointed out to proper buttons on the phone. Keisha dialed it and waited, then, "Momma?"

I really didn't want to do it; I was afraid one of my brothers would come on and chase us down or something -- but Jack insisted, so I done it.

"Hello?" Thank God, it was Momma and not one of my brothers! "Momma?"

"Keisha? Where you at? Why ain't you home? Did you watch them kids all day, too? Tara better pay you!" Momma erupted.

"Momma, I'm... gone..." was the best I managed to come up with.

"Gone? Gone where? What's goin on?"

"Momma, I got picked up, okay? I'm goin' to the colonies!"

"How in the Hell did you do that?" Momma ranted.

"I got picked up with Tara's kids. Tara got picked up."

"No shit? I'll be damned! You didn't lie about your age, did you Honey?"

"No, Mama, my new master knows how old I am..." I muttered.

"Then I imagine you went eye to eye with a dick..."

"Well, not yet, Momma. The guy knows I never been with a man, so he's holdin' off until things settle down some."

"I'm surprised, Girl. Some a' them pickups sound like some rough shit!"

"He's real nice," I muttered.

"He's a white boy, too, I bet, ain't he? Brother would have stuck it to ya -- an' probly left ya there, afterwards," Momma opined.

"Yeah, you're right, Momma," I agreed. Jack was there listening, so I really didn't want to go into that.

"I'm surprised he let you call. Come to that, I'm surprised he took ya. He like big women?"

"Seems like it, Momma."

"Well, you be good to him. I heard some stories about girls out there that pissed off their men. They send 'em off to places where the boys are out at the front and don't got no pussy and they end up with more dicks stuck in 'em than quills on a porcupine!"

"I'll be good, Momma!" 'Where did she hear that?' I wondered.

"Call your old Momma when you can, Honey. You got some luck, there -- don't fuck it up!"

"I won't, Momma! Bye!" I hung up and handed the phone back to Jack. "Okay, it's all good."

"Good." Jack handed me Shawna and I headed upstairs with her to talk to Tara.

Britney watched this episode, then looked at me. "Jack is... impressive."

"You don't want to be on his bad side," Vera muttered. "He can be fiendish..."

Jack looked over at her and said, "Vera, whatever you might think, I had your best interests at heart. There were some surprises -- that's all." He looked at Britney apologetically. "When I made my pickup, we went through the first night thing on the ship; it seems like every few pickups, some guy brings his wife -- and she doesn't get it. She thinks she's still a wife and still has privileges and doesn't understand that she's one of two, or one of four or whatever and has been demoted. I watched some woman go after her ex-husband's other concubine with a fork over sleeping arrangements. The other woman ended up at medical -- and the wife ended up with a snapped neck. It's policy, kind of, to let a new concubine get out of hand and make an example out of her -- it brings home the point to the other concubines that their lives are in the hands of their sponsors. I did a little study after we arrived at Nuevo Angelino and discovered that an unusually large percentage of these object lessons get triggered by wives -- especially wives who had more or less ruled the roost at home. As a result, I made several suggestions to Oliver designed to rattle Vera -- because, frankly, I know he values her and would prefer that she live." He sighed. "I'm sure she considers me fiendish -- but Oliver isn't, patently, and so he needed help..." Jack shook his head. "Nobody realized what was going on underneath Vera's bluster."

Vera shot me a guilty glance, then objected, "That Major? Those other men?"

"The Major was deliberate," Jack confirmed. "If you had been at a pickup without Oliver and found it necessary to give some strange man a blowjob or a fuck, your position would have been subordinate to him at the outset. You needed a taste of that -- and the realization that Oliver could order you to do it. The other guys..." He pursed his lips. "You were in this state when you finished with the Major. From what we know now that we didn't know then, the Major's -- and maybe Oliver's (I winced) -- treatment must have caused you to flashback to the bad old days, because you clearly weren't done. Unfortunately, Oliver and I were in no position to do anything about your needs -- and those two guys had just volunteered -- so we took the path of least resistance. They got you over the hump so that Oliver could finish you up -- and of course, it avoided what might have been a messy altercation in the bar..."

Vera hung her head. Jack said quietly, "I think I'll go get the girls." It was barely six and Jack didn't have to be at the grocery until seven-thirty; his motives were transparent. But I saw the wisdom of it. Jack went upstairs to give some instruction to his other women and headed off, ostensibly to pick up Beth and Frieda.