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By Air Mail Ch.02

By: TaLtos6



While Craig is dying to get off Iron Mountain and get back home to the girl that he's always loved, that girl wants him just as much and more, because she's finally figured it out.

Not only that, but she's figuring out the best way to do that, too.

She knows Craig because she always has - even right down to what she knows he holds in his heart, and that means not only for her.

There are a pair of interesting characters in this, who are a lot of fun to write, and this chapter shows what they'd do for someone that they love who is in a bad way as well as to show how one of them is somewhat gifted in possessing a pretty solid ability for foresight.

All characters in this are over 18. Not one is even under 21. 

0_o

************

Cascade, Idaho - 19 September, 1946

She drove up Main Street in the old 1937 Chevrolet that her father had given her, idling along as she looked for a parking space. Main Street was only two lanes and there was an allowance made to angle-park forward so long as you eased in until you felt your front wheels against the concrete curb.

She saw one spot open on the other side and she checked her mirrors and looked around quickly. Main Street was deathly still, since it was a little cold for this time of year and the only reason that there were so many cars out there in the first place was because of the movie theater on her side of the street.

She'd already seen the picture that they were showing. These days, Amelia had lots of time to go to the movies alone. 

She'd worked late over at the sawmill in the offices the last three days running to get their month-ends all wrapped up in exchange for a day off before she started her week of vacation and one day after. She didn't mind the hour because it would get her out of there well after the men who hung around for an hour after their shifts ended, trying to pick her up when she left, even though it never worked.

She wasn't about to do that again.

That was how she'd gotten fooled into falling for a really good actor, only to find out that he was a prick once they were married. That was long over with now, but Amelia was only now coming out of the shell that he'd kicked her into.

Getting out at 9PM also got her away from the place long before the next batch of hoons got off at midnight, though she wouldn't have wanted to do it every day. 

In her heart, she held on tightly to her reason to want the next day off. For the first time in so long, Amelia felt as though she almost knew what she was doing, and she'd dreamt of it for a long time.

She looked over once more quickly. She could get in there as easy as pie if she pulled a U-turn, but that was illegal here and she'd just gotten her driver's license. Out this far from the big places, all you needed to do to get one was to go to the post office and buy it, since it was almost a hundred miles to the nearest place where there just might be a driving school. And since Marjorie ran the post office ... 

One more quick look and she was about to hit the turn signal when she saw the state trooper sitting parked a little farther up the street where there were no buildings. She sighed and drove on, making a flawless three-point turn about half a block past the cop. Then she sidled down Main in the opposite direction and nosed in three spaces up from the café.

As she got out and locked the car, she looked up and saw the trooper roll past, looking at her. She nodded and he nodded back and then he was gone while Amelia stepped onto the sidewalk and up to the door of the café. Cascade was a good long haul out from Boise and there was nothing between here and there but Horseshoe Bend - over forty miles, she guessed. You hardly ever saw the law out this far. She pulled out her key and opened the door.

She was here because the café had always been one of the touchstones of her life - since Marjorie owned it and because she worked there often to help out. Tonight, she'd thought about it and it had come down to flipping a coin. 

Her father was away with her uncle Deke on a cattle drive down south. So that meant either going home to a likely empty house or just coming here, since dollars to donuts, her mother was here anyway with Marjorie and if she had the choice, Amelia found that tonight, she wanted a little of their company and wisdom. 

If she was really lucky, she thought, Rosa might be there as well, but she hadn't seen Rosa for days due to the hours that she'd been keeping and besides, it was no good trying to call her on the phone, though she'd missed the fun that they always shared. 

Once inside and after locking the door again, she turned to look across the empty café by the light of the only bulb left on so that a cop walking by could look in - whenever that happened. Putting the key back into her pocket, she walked slowly, trying to be silent on her way to the kitchen. With any luck, it wouldn't be too hard to heat herself a cup of old leftover coffee, if there was any left.

As she tip-toed around behind the counter and walked back, she saw the bulk of someone there in the dark and her heart was in her throat in an instant.

Just as she about to let out the dumbest thing that anyone could say as she almost asked who was there, she caught the sounds of the sighs and the wet kisses in the darkness.

"Mom," she exhaled, and both women answered yes.

Amelia rolled her eyes, "Honestly, you two scared the heck out of me just now, but ..."

"I thought that you might be coming here," Marjorie smiled, "and Rebecca said that she knew that you would. I still don't know how she does all that 'wise knowing stuff' after all this time, but I wanted to make sure that you'd have hot water for coffee or maybe a tea, or hot chocolate for when you got here."

"And I came down because she took too long," Rebecca smiled.

"I was only gone for a minute," Marjorie said.

Rebecca nodded with a shrug, "Too long."

Amelia smiled. This was one of the family's secrets. The two women had been lovers since before Tad had been born in the snowy sunshine out at Big Southern Butte. They were now married to a pair of brothers who loved them so and they shared the same last name, but they still loved each other to death and whenever they had the chance of it - like now - they made no bones about making a few nights of it since they always had. The only thing which was different these days was that Amelia was a grown woman so they didn't feel the need to hide much of anything anymore.

This - this tie that bound was one of the reasons why all three of the kids had grown up with two mothers and were treated as what they were by the two men - the children of an extended family between them.

It was one of the main reasons why all three, Tad, Craig, and Amelia had grown up close. The two couples didn't live in the same house, but the kids came and went wherever they pleased to either household at any time.

Exactly two seconds later, Amelia was in the arms of her two mothers and feeling their soft kisses as they welcomed her.

"You're naked," Amelia said, rolling her eyes, though she was smiling a little.

"So?" her mother smiled, "The door's locked and the blinds are down out there and nobody can see in here anyway. We're not too old and bad-looking yet and we like to see each other like this. Have you eaten? Are you hungry?"

Amelia had to think about it for a moment. She wasn't particularly hungry right then, but she hadn't eaten anything all day. Mostly, she was feeling unsettled. 

In taking the time to think about it, she found that she'd used up the time that her mothers would wait for her to decide. But before they could set to warming anything up for her, Rosa wandered downstairs in her nightgown and came around the corner into the café's dark kitchen.

"What are you doing here?" she asked in her too-loud voice because she'd been startled and mostly because she was deaf. 

The fact that Marjorie and Rebecca were naked meant little to her. She's been here with them long enough to know about them anyway and she liked them even more for it.

---

Rosa had made her memorable entrance into their lives the year that Amelia was learning that being married to a young psychopath was not exactly a bed of roses. It was closer to living in a thistle patch, the truth be told. With Amelia married and not knowing anything about Amelia's hell, Marjorie found that she needed a bit of help, since Rebecca couldn't be there every day, though Rebecca had been there the day that Rosa parked her old Harley-Davidson Servi-Car out front and almost stumbled in.

When they asked her what she wanted, Rosa looked for a moment as though she was about to cry. 

"Ma'am," she said, speaking a little slowly in a fairly loud whisper, "My name's Rosa De la Hoya and I can't go no further. 

I know I look like a killed armadillo by the side of a Texas road, but I'd work for something to eat and I'd like a glass of water, if I could have one, please. The sign out front says you need help. 

I'd do about anything for the job."

Rebecca and Marjorie looked at her and then at each other before looking at the girl again. She was very thin, though she was just a little taller than Amelia. In fact, it was an incorrect estimation, since at the time; Rosa had been wearing jeans and cowboy boots and she was a little shorter. 

She had long black hair that needed a date with a brush very badly from how windblown it appeared and she looked as though she spent a lot of time in the sunshine. Which she did until that day - if it wasn't raining.

"Why are you whispering?" Marjorie asked.

The ready to cry look came back for a second before it was fought down again rather obviously. Rosa looked down for a moment as though to gather strength or maybe curse her life and then she looked back up. 

"I had the mumps real bad when I was a little kid and now I can't hear much in one ear and even less in the other one. When I talk, it sounds too loud, but I can't tell. I just see people take a step back. Then I know, but it's too late then."

She forced herself to go on, "A lot of folks think I'm crazy or stupid.

Please Ma'am, I need the work, but if you don't want me, then ... could I please have that glass of water? I'm flat broke and I've only got a little gas left. I'm outta bullets too, so I can't even hunt for something to eat.

Please?"

They were stunned but Rebecca was quicker to recover as she walked around the counter. Rosa jumped back a little and said hurriedly that she was leaving and didn't need to be thrown out. As she'd said it, her natural speaking voice came out of her and they understood what she'd said about her voice, but it only made them more determined.

Rebecca smiled and reached for Rosa's hand as she spoke slowly, not being loud or anything, just trying to see if Rosa could read her lips as well as it appeared that she could.

"Please come with me, Rosa. I want to talk to you and you can have anything that we have to eat on the menu with water, coffee, tea, or hot chocolate. Please come and sit down. I'm paying."

Rosa was shocked, but she was starving - literally, since it had been days since she'd eaten. As she ate slowly a little later, closing her eyes often just out of the feeling of having a meal such as this, they learned a little of her astounding story.

"They used to call me by many names in Mexico, mostly puta," she said a little uncomfortably, "but my name is really Rosa De la Hoya. That's what it said on the ripped little paper that I found the afternoon before I left. I always knew that, but I hadn't heard it in a long time by then.

The man I was with because I'd been sold to him was passed out drunk and I was tired of getting kicked around. I found that card and I knew that I could go back home - not that there was anything or anybody waiting for me there. 

My mother was a whore living on the Arizona border to Mexico and she was killed when I was maybe eleven. I went to get help, but a man grabbed me and took me to Mexico and it was years before I got free."

She looked down for a moment and then lifted her face, "I ain't gonna tell how I did that, but I took his money and I started to walk. I walked all the way from the Gulf of California to the Arizona border. From looking at that old card, I was twenty when I crossed into the United States and the first thing that I did was go find me a government office, but it took me a while. 

I had to get a ways north of the border because every time I found a cop, he threw me back across. I ended up going across at night and then a day later, I found a burro who liked me enough to walk beside me for a couple of days before she let me get on to ride. I called her Jacinta. I don't know if she even had a name, but she seemed to listen to me when I said it."

She shrugged, "Then again, I talk loud.

It's not hard to cross over there because there are no roads if you're in the right place and only Tohono O'odham people like me can travel there without dying. Finally, I got to a place with a tribal office and agency and I got me a new card, since Indians are American citizens by law. That's what they told me in every little place I went through on my way across the reservation.

They asked me if I could drive and I lied and told them yes, to they typed me out a driver's license while I was there and they gave me some food because they looked up my last name and they found my mother's death record and it said that she had a daughter, so they recognized me as belonging there."

"What are you also?" Rebecca asked, "Your mother was Indian. What is the rest?"

Rosa shrugged, "Damned if I know. I just remember that I'm lighter than she was so maybe he was white. My mother never talked about him - whoever he was. But I know O'odham from my mother, English from the school where I was before I got stolen, and I learned Spanish by picking it up."

"Go on," Marjorie nodded, her chin on her hand as she listened closely and looked at the girl, "How did you get here? That's not a burro out front."

"When I got out of the office place, Jacinta was gone," Rosa said, "I looked all over for her, but nobody that I asked had seen her. I hope she made out alright. She was the first friend that I had in a long time.

I walked and walked but along a road this time until I came to a store in another little pace and I bought something to eat and I saw that motorcycle three-wheeler outside. I'd never seen one like that, so I looked at it some and a man came out and told me that it was for sale. Well I had enough, so I bought it, but I made sure that he gave me the papers for it and taught me to work it some. 

Then I bought me an old pistol and ammunition. From there, I rode to Casa Grande and I asked around until I got to the place where they sell license plates and I had it put in my name. 

Mostly, ever since then and it's been two years, I've just been traveling, working where I could and hunting when I had to, and I can tell you that it ain't exactly easy to hunt with a pistol, but I've got no place to put a bow even if I knew enough to use one. My grandfather taught me a little when I was a kid, but I think that mostly I just amused him. There's no room for a rifle either. Everything that I own's gotta fit into a couple of feet square.

I'd been through a few states before I figured out that I can't just ride forever. I gotta get parts for my machine and tires too, and ..."

She sighed, "And now I want to BE someplace and not just pass right on through."

"Well when you get done with eating that, Rosa," Marjorie smiled as she held out her hand, "I've got a sink full of dishes for you to start in on because you've got a job now. I can't pay you much, but I'll do what I can. The first week, you'll be doing that whenever I start to run low on plates and cups, and I'll teach you how to cook the way that folks'll want to pay to eat. You'll be bussing tables and we can try you out on waitressing if you think you'd want to.

Have you got a place to live? I kind of have my doubts the way that you showed up."

Rosa didn't know what to say and so she did something very uncharacteristic for her. 

She finally burst into tears.

As she tried to force herself to stop, Marjorie finished her when she smiled, "I've got two sons. One is up on fire lookout and won't be back til the fall, and the other one has been gone for years, flying for the army, though I expect he'll be coming home one day. Until at least September, you can stay in their room."

Rosa nodded and tried so hard to say thank you that Marjorie waved her hand and told her that it was alright, "If you really need to say it, I can wait for another time, Rosa. In case you're wondering, Rebecca and I know what it feels like to go hungry and not have much of anything."

"We had plenty of snow," Rebecca smiled hopefully, "so it wasn't like we had absolutely nothing."

Rosa stayed and in a little time, she met the husbands of Rebecca and Marjorie and after a few more days, she met Amelia. 

Amelia had her own troubles, but they became friends and liked to talk when they could. Amelia would wait patiently as Rosa spoke and she tried to teach her how not to blow anybody over when she said hello, though it was a long and difficult thing for Rosa to manage. 

Before the summer was out, Deke arranged for a tutor for Rosa and she began to learn the now-difficult art of sign language at an age when it was a hard thing to do, as they all struggled with it, to that they had a more practical way to communicate with her than only reading lips. It was a struggle, but Rosa proved herself to be quick on the uptake at it - well, at anything, really.

When Craig came home at the end of the summer, he met Rosa and they found that they shared an interest in motorcycles while he helped her move to a spare room in Harry's house where she stayed and helped Rebecca and Harry in anything that she could.

When Amelia finally couldn't take any more of her husband's abuse, it had been Rosa who was there for her along with her mothers as she cried and cried, since at first, Craig wasn't there, being back on the mountain again.

Now, all of that was in the past was Amelia was finally getting better.

---- 

Rosa looked past Rebecca and Marjorie and she saw Amelia. "Where've you been the last three days? I haven't seen you once."

"I've been working late so that I could have tomorrow off. Craig comes home tomorrow," Amelia smiled.

Rosa nodded with a smile, knowing how those two had been kids together. She found that she envied her friend a little bit. Rosa knew what was in Amelia's mind and she liked Craig. But she still had baggage of her own and even if she could ever find a man to ever trust again, she knew that she wasn't a beauty like Amelia.

Besides, she told herself, she had a place here in Cascade and to her, it was enough - at least for the moment.

----

Fifteen minutes later, Amelia was eating some warmed-up roast beef on a platter and sipping hot tea as she sat at the small table in the large kitchen talking quietly to Rebecca and Marjorie. 

Rosa said goodnight and went to bed, telling Amelia that she'd leave the nightlight on for her. Rosa knew that she liked to sleep in Craig's bed sometimes. She didn't understand it much, but it made a little sense to her if she thought that maybe Amelia did that to try to give herself some courage or something.

"A long time ago, I - I waited too long," Amelia said as a beginning, "and I missed my chance, and instead, I made my big mistake and married Bobby."

Amelia paused as she remembered not being able to go on and going to the café one day instead of to her job while Bobby was at work, and once they got her alone, she told them of how bad it was being Bobby's wife and she showed them the bruises that she hid from everyone. 


By Air Mail Ch.02



"You're not going back there but one time," Marjorie told her that day, "and that's now so that you and I can pack a suitcase. You're leaving him today."

Amelia remembered bursting into tears, "But he told me that if I left him, he'd kill me."

"He'll be too busy hiding and shitting himself," Marjorie said, "scared to death because Harry and Deke will be looking for him. Don't you worry yourself, Baby."

As Amelia thought back, wondering why she'd tried so hard to be a better wife to someone worthless and not going for the help of her two mothers long before, Marjorie and Rebecca were having their own flashbacks.

---

When Bobby got home that night, the flat was dark and he began to curse, railing about what he was going to do to that pissy little bitch wife of his. He stopped in mid-sentence then, thinking that he might have seen something and he turned to feel for the light switch.

He was doubled over the next second after catching a fist in his gut out of the darkness. While he stood bent over, someone grabbed a whole hank of his hair and lifted his head up at a painful angle.

Before he could figure out what was even happening, there was a flash of pain and he was doubling over again in spite of losing some of his hair to that iron grip. His balls felt like they'd been hit by a train and he began to retch. 

Just as he was beginning to think that he could ride through the heavy ache, it happened again and he felt himself struggling to breathe and beginning to pass out. Whoever had done it had kneed him in the pills from close up and he smelled a little perfume.

But the hand didn't let him go and he was dragged forward so that he toppled onto his face. Before he could curl onto his side, he cried out when he felt a knee land in the small of his back very cruelly and his head was lifted up again. A different hand was pulling back on his forehead.

He heard his own vertebrae grinding for a moment.

Something cold was pressed against the side of his throat, ready to be pulled across. After a second, it began to feel more like a very thin line of fire as his nerve endings told him that it was being pressed there just a touch more so that he could feel the edge.

There was no tremor to what he felt. Whatever held that thing had absolute, calm control, so there was no shake to what he felt.

None.

"She's not coming back," Marjorie said in a low, menacing tone from somewhere in front of him, "and that's a skinning knife at your throat, by the way."

She bent down a little to look into his eyes, "Also, that's your VERY unhappy mother who's holding it, so you ought to try hard not to move." 

She chuckled in a soft yet threatening way, "You oughta see how fast she can gut a deer with that thing." 

He felt something cold being pressed up against his head down low behind his left ear when Marjorie gripped his hair tightly again as he heard her move around to that side on her knees. The pressure increased until his jaw began to ache. 

"And this is a Derringer," her voice said quietly in a pleasant tone.

He wanted to cry.

He heard and felt the hammer being drawn back, "Only a .22, and this close up with only a short cartridge in it, well it's really quiet, Bobby - and there won't even be any blood - just one little hole and your scrambled brains since the bullet won't leave your poor little skull."

She leaned on it a little and he thought that she'd tear the cartilage in his ear. He began to whimper. 

"You'd better hope that it kills you, because if it doesn't," she chuckled, "you're right back to wearing diapers, aren't you? 

But that wouldn't happen. Who would come looking for you before the landlord came about the smell - or the rent - in what, two weeks?"

She jammed the small pistol up against his head even more and the bottom molars in his jaw on that side began to throb. 

"Don't you dare piss your pants, little boy," she growled at him, "I'm not exactly known for my patience and understanding when I'm feeling this crampy. I've shot bears because they were in my way when I've been less achy than this."

The first sound that he heard out of Amelia's mother from behind him was when he heard her chuckle then, "I remember."

He felt her ease up on the blade's pressure as she dragged the edge up until it was just about under lower barrel of the Derringer. 

"I'm not crampy," Rebecca whispered as she dug it in a little, "I just hate you."

"I got him," Marjorie said, "Do it, Rebecca." 

It was a bit of struggling, mostly his, but they pulled his arms back one at a time and tied his hands. The one time that he fought them a little, Rebecca bounced up and drove her knee into his back again. He didn't try to move his feet, though they tied them too - with just enough slack to be able to hobble. Marjorie yanked his hair again to be sure that she had his attention. 

It was working, because Marjorie saw that he had tears in his eyes as she leaned in again.

"Now, you're going on a little trip. You're going to meet some people in Boise who want you back very much. Your bag is already packed and it's over there by the wall. It's pretty empty but for a razor and a pair of socks.

You might have fooled Amelia with that shit talk like you believed that they don't take married men in the army. I know that you never went and reported and they told you that down in Boise like you told her. You never went at all because you don't dare show your face in a place like that draft office. They might just figure out who you are."

He tried desperately to get free, but they were ready for it. Rebecca punched him below the ribs and he was still - except for his struggles to catch his breath.

"I don't doubt that the very first word out of your mouth in your life was a lie," Marjorie said, "I was here with Amelia while you were at work. I read the notification myself. It says all men between eighteen and sixty-four have to register and they'll take them up to forty-five.

ALL men. It didn't say shit about married or not or not wanting you if you're just a cold little prick who kicks the shit out of Rebecca's daughter to make himself feel big and tall. 

Deke called down there and they don't want to see you at all anymore. The induction center people, I mean. 

Because you're already in the army, aren't you? They gave Deke another number to call and he learned that you jumped the fence and ran all the way from Georgia. You're not from there, and you're not from here like you told all of us. You're from Ohio and the army wants you for desertion.

Now you're going back, and if you think you've just gotta make big fuss over it, well I've got a couple of words for you.

One father, one uncle. 

You remember them, don't you? I've seen each one wrestle a full-grown steer down just for fun. They're some mad at you, boy. I wouldn't give either one of them a reason to get any madder."

The hammer on the pistol was eased back down and Marjorie slipped it into her pocket. She and Rebecca pulled Bobby upright fairly easily. He looked around, weighing is chances to get free and run, but even that lasted only a moment before Rebecca punched him over his solar plexus and he was on his way back down gulping air like a fish on a beach.

Harry walked in and picked him up, throwing him over his shoulder like a sack of grain. Deke slipped a burlap bag over his head and they walked out to throw him in the back of a car.

By the time that Bobby really had much of a clue about anything, there was a loud droning roar all around him which went on and on. He had it pretty much figured out by the time that they landed in Boise. Harry walked him out in the darkness of the airfield by the hair and told him to piss if he had to because they had to wait a little while. Two hours later, he was handed over to three men, all of them in uniform.

"He was fixin' to run again, huh?" one of them said, "We've found out all about his record. 

You wouldn't want to hear much of it." he sighed in a slightly bored tone, "We see a few energetic cowards like him sometimes. We're just glad that you found him for us, that's all. It's saved Uncle Sam from having to put out wanted posters for a professional liar, thief ... well, there's no need to mention any more than that. We'll take him from here."

They untied him, but not before letting his see that they were all armed and one man's pistol was right there in his hand. His ropes were exchanged for handcuffs.

"Where's he going?" Deke asked.

The head man shrugged, "This is the first time that he's been AWOL for long, though it's been well over a year. They'll offer him a chance and he'll either wise up and go with the flow or he'll go to Leavenworth and they're not handing out less than five years if that's his plan. 

Since he's been AWOL this long, they'll dangle ten years over his head - fifteen if he runs again, though if he decides to fly right, he might get a month in lock-up and then he'll get posted to a training camp that's made just for ones like him with real high fences where they beat you with rubber hoses if you take too long to think about anything. For today, he'll be in a cell and one way or the other; he'll be far away by this time tomorrow."

Harry stepped up and growled into Bobby's face from an inch away, "Don't you ever show up near my daughter again, boy."

In a little time, Amelia began to get letters from Bobby, saying how sorry he was and that he was turning his life around. She never looked at them once. He told of his training and that he was learning to drive a tank. The letters kept coming and Amelia kept refusing to read them. Only Rebecca did, and only once each one, wanting to feel him in his words for a different reason.

The letters stopped for a time and one day, Rebecca looked up from her dinner and said only, "He's dead. It took a long time." 

"What took a long time? Harry asked.

"He was in a tank, I think they are called," she said tonelessly. "His commander fell for a trick and they drove after some .. cars or something. But it was a trap and they used big guns to punch through all of the tanks. What came in was hot and the tank burned inside. He was not dead. No one heard him inside." 

She looked up, "Two hours, maybe longer."

Amelia and Marjorie looked at her for a few seconds and then it was as forgotten as Bobby.

----

Marjorie smiled as her own memories of it passed, "That's ancient history, Baby. What is it that's on your mind now? I'm not as gifted as your mother, but even I can see that you've been carrying a weight on you this last while."

Amelia hesitated, using the necessary delay of eating carefully as a cover for it. "When I was a kid, I was always so much in awe of Tad. He was always so ... good-looking and ..." 

She shook her head, "Well, you know how he is. At the time, I never thought of it being a little strange, since he's like one of my brothers to me and he always has been. Somehow, after a little time - well, a couple of years, I found ..."

She wrinkled her brows for a second as she thought, "You know how you can get to thinking when you're a girl about who you'll end up marrying - even though it's pretty much all a daydream?"

Marjorie nodded carefully, but Rebecca just chuckled, "Not such a daydream sometimes. My people say that a girl often knows the one long before he takes the first step on the path which will lead him to her arms. So, that was the time that you knew that you wanted Craig?"

They both looked at Rebecca and Marjorie shook her head, "There you go again, speaking profound things as though they were the same thing as knowing it's going to rain by looking up and sniffing a little. Where did that come from? I mean, I've always held it as a pleasant little thought, but only in my heart. I didn't ever think that I'd hear -"

She stopped there, because she saw that Amelia was nodding a little. She leaned back on the big pillow behind her in some wonder. "Tell me how that came to be."

Amelia felt a little stuck for a moment, but then she reminded herself who she was sitting with. Marjorie was both wise and shrewd and her mother was plugged into the doings of the planet in some way.

"I think that I've always loved him. I mean, I know that we grew up together and sure, in our way as a family, we were always like a girl and her brothers anyway. But one day, I just knew that he was the one. I think it happened - or it started that day when Craig and I accidentally locked ourselves into the shed outside when you sent us out to get the bag of onions. 

By the time that we figured out that we were stuck in there, Craig began to look like he was gonna have trouble breathing in a minute. I couldn't think of a thing to do so I kissed him to keep his breathing smooth, since I was worried that he'd take one of those fits that he used to get back then.

But even though we only kissed a little and it was just two kids kissing, after you came to get us out of there, I felt different and then I just knew. I've known ever since."

She thought about things and then she looked up, "But then I got tired of waiting for him. He's so shy - he always has been. I ..."

She looked down, "I didn't know that it was me that he was waiting for. I just had to let him know and I never did. I never saw the signs in him that I can see as clear as day now when I look back.

I guess that when I met Bobby, I thought about it and decided that Craig would probably think of me as his sister and he'd never ..."

She looked down at her plate and began to torture the last piece of beef as though it was her dead husband, pushing it around in the gravy slowly, as though she wanted it to know it's fate, but she wanted to prolong things for another minute.

"I did about the worst thing that I could have done to Craig. Bobby made me think that he thought that being a husband would get him a pass at the draft board - though he only told me that lie after we were married. I didn't know anything about it then, and he pushed so hard to get married and I ..."

"You married him while Tad - who would have sent Bobby on his way - was gone and while Craig was up on Iron Mountain for the summer," Marjorie said with an understanding and slightly sad expression. "He never said a word about it to anyone but me - I guess because that was just his way anyway and also it was the way that Tad had taught him to be.

But I knew that he was hurt."

She reached out and touched Amelia's knee, "He wasn't hurt by your actions, Amelia. He understood in his way. The one time that he said anything to me about it, he was cursing himself for being the way that he was and for not saying how he felt to you. But I know that he carried it around for a long time. He only got the cold front put together properly when he came back down from the mountain after the next summer."

She smiled a little weakly at Amelia, "He's always loved you. He's just always lived in Tad's shadow whenever Tad was around and before he left, though he's loved Tad forever too."

Rebecca looked over in that very piercing way that she sometimes had, "I saw something in him as you three began to come together. He saw you much differently than he must have seen his own sister where he came from - or even any other girls that he knew here. 

Say it, Amelia. Say what you carry now."

"I know the one," Amelia said, as a statement to them both which she knew would mean more to her mother for the way that it was spoken.

"Good," Rebecca nodded, taking up the seriousness of it, "At twenty-two, it is time. Who is the man - or woman who will kiss your flower to bring you joy?"

It was then that Amelia smiled a little mischievously at her mother, pleased that she held the means to surprise the all-knowing-one just a little bit.

But she shook her head then, "I was just about to try to surprise you, but even so, it still makes you right. Bobby never, ever did that for me. He thought that part of a woman was dirty.

Actually, nobody has ever done what you're talking about, Mom. 

They say that you can never go back," Amelia said, almost as a whisper. "I think that's the way that it is most of the time and for most people. 

But I have to go back. It might be too late, but I want more than anything to try.

Tomorrow is the day that Craig is supposed to come back from his job on the mountain."

She nodded once just as her mother often did, "Tomorrow is the day that - if I only get one chance - I'll fix this for him and for me."

"Good," Rebecca said.

"We're hoping for you," Marjorie nodded, "you probably won't get much arguing out of him. Craig just needs to see that you're being heartfelt. That boy had always been yours, really."

Amelia looked from one to the other with a small smile, "So that's it? That's all you're gonna say? I just told you that I want Craig - and he's been like a brother to me. Isn't that maybe a little too close?"

"What do you want to hear?" Marjorie smiled, "I don't much feel like arguing - especially since I agree with you."

"You do?" Amelia asked and Marjorie nodded, "You've finally figured out that you want Craig. I've known that forever. You've just never seen it the way that you are now. I was also afraid that I never would hear it."

"He is not even related to you by blood," Rebecca nodded, "Why look for problems? You have always lived together in this family and I can't think of one argument or fight that you ever had with each other. Few people get that chance. 

Now stop trying to pick a fight and go have a hot bath Amelia. I can see the tightness in your shoulders from here. You need to relax more than you need to try to fight with us. Go."

In the bath a little later, Amelia still thought about things because she couldn't help it.

She remembered so much of their times, the three of them. She didn't know why she'd never thought of it, but she guessed that everything has to end one day.

After supper, the evening before Tad left, she'd been getting ready for bed, since she was going to sleep over at Marjorie's house that night. She remembered pulling on a flannel nightgown and walking to the boy's room. She knocked softly and walked in when Tad said to come in, and she heard Craig's soft sniffling as they sat on the bed.

"It's just me," Amelia said, looking about as sad as a lost kitten over Tad's upcoming departure. There was a moment where they just sat and looked at her.

They sat on the bed together and Amelia did her best not to cry and she knew that Craig faced the same struggle. Tad was straining manfully to put a more mature face on it, saying that they'd see each other again.

But Craig and Amelia had only shaken their heads. "No matter what," Craig whispered, "We won't ever be the same again."

It was the breaking of the trio, the last day for three kids who'd have done anything for each other. At that time, Amelia had been fourteen, Craig was fifteen, and Tad was eighteen.

They looked at her and she smiled through her tears, "I've always felt so lucky that I've had you two and I've always known how much we all care about each other. Nobody could have better brothers."

They reached for her and the three of them just tried to hold on, though all of them would have wanted to cry.

After that, things just fell still between them and Amelia got off the bed and after a tearful goodnight kiss from them both, she went to bed in her room.

The next day was awful down at the train station with them all saying goodbye to Tad. Deke had offered to fly him but he said that he wanted the time on the train alone. Amelia held it together, though barely. She did fairly well, considering, just as Craig managed to do.

But after the train pulled out and the end of the caboose on that mixed freight with one coach faded from sight, it signalled the end of an era. Marjorie held up, but you could see the cracks in her dam. Rebecca wasn't much better and even Deke and Harry looked rough.




By Air Mail Ch.02



Amelia bawled like a baby all the short way home and she spent the rest of the day in Craig's arms as they sat together and wept.

She sat up in the tub and prepared to stand up as she thought about where they were now. The war had ended, and after a time when all that they knew was that Tad was alive, they'd heard nothing for a time, though Marjorie had said that as far as she knew, Tad was on his way home the long way and had something in mind for a business. She wouldn't say much more, not wanting to curse whatever that meant.

Craig was grown now and so was she. The difference was that she knew what she wanted and it was the same now as it had been long ago. She just didn't know if she was too late.

She wrapped a towel around herself and as she got to the door, it opened and a hand held out a huge T-shirt through the opening. 

"Here," her mother said, "It's one of your uncle's. If you've got a brain in your head, you'll come to sit with us. We need to talk. Women always need to talk and now; you're one of the women in the family."

Amelia took the article, "What's this for? I was going to put on a nightgown."

"Whatever you want," Rebecca smiled as she walked away, "We figured that you might not want to sit up and talk to a couple of naked crazy ladies anymore."

"Where are you?" she asked and was told they'd be in the huge bed that Marjorie shared with Deke.

Amelia couldn't say why, she just knew that she felt better and as always, all that it took was to be just a little near to those crazy ladies. She hung up the towel, carried the shirt into the room and laid it over the back of a chair.

"Fine, but I get to sit in the middle," Amelia said with the same smug expression that she'd worn all of the times before since she could say the words.

Since that time and even before, when she'd been a newborn, she'd lain in bed sometimes with these two women, who were both mothers to her. That way, she'd always felt safe and warm and she'd always been able to talk about anything. All of her life, Amelia had been in her jammies or later, her nightgowns. Sometimes, she was the only one clothed, though that hadn't necessarily always held true. A lot of the time, it depended on who was home and the time of year, so often it was all of them wearing nightgowns as they spoke to her.

The only times when she'd stopped had been ... while she was married to Bobby and ... and recently, now that she thought of it and she didn't know why that was.

"She's getting brave, getting in here without anything on like us," Marjorie smiled as she held open the covers.

"You said that I'm one of the women now," Amelia shrugged, "I figured that it was in the rules or something."

She got in next to Rebecca and Marjorie was next to her after that.

"You know, there are only two people in this whole town who make a big deal about the way that you live - and that's you," Amelia said with a grin, "Everybody else either hasn't figured it out or they have and they don't give a damn."

"That reminds me," Marjorie said, as though she was ignoring what had just been said, "Is there any chance you might go hunt up a few rabbits tomorrow or Saturday? It's my mother's birthday Sunday and you know that old Bonny Tait will be coming over to the cafe for her lunch that day. Any time between now and then is fine, so long as I've got the time to prepare them for her."

Marjorie's father had died while hunting and after that, her mother had been like a rudderless ship for a time, until Rebecca had noticed something about old Bonny and gotten them together. Bonny's husband had been killed in a car wreck and her children were both long grown and they never stopped by to see her, since they lived on opposite coasts.

They were both a couple of old women by that time in their lives, but they'd had a few good years together until Marjorie's mother had passed on two years ago. Bonny liked to come over to remember the day that they'd met and she always shed a few tears remembering.

"I hadn't planned on it," Amelia said, "but sure. Why not? I've always liked Bonny and I know how she loves to have rabbit." She looked up, "Is she one of the women that you're talking about?"

Rebecca laughed and shook her head, "No, what I meant was that you're old enough to be one of the women in this family, not that one. This isn't about what Marjorie and I do in bed. This is about us being adults and talking that way. You're old enough now."

"And I'm naked," Amelia laughed. 

She wriggled a little between them and giggled once, "This is even better than it was when I was a kid. You'd never have let me be here naked. I always thought that it wasn't fair. No wonder you're always like this." 

She sighed loudly, "I'm finally in the club."

It caused them all to laugh, but Amelia was wise enough to let it drop right there. 

To her, all of her life, this had been the best place to feel the love of her mothers as they all talked forever or just brushed each other's hair. And all of that time, Amelia had been given their sage advice in such small constant doses that she'd never even been aware of it until now. 

She'd pretty much always known the way that they were between them, but she had more of a real regular family between all of the parents that she had in it as well as her brothers than anybody and she knew how fortunate she'd always been.

On the rare occasions when they could do this with nobody else home, it had felt like she was allowed among the elders in a way, and then, Amelia felt the depth and the immense strength of their love for her just by being there. 

But even so, she knew when to stop kidding around.

You had to be just stupid to keep doing that in between these two in a bed. Nobody could tickle you into jelly like they could.

"I don't really know how to start," her mother said, "I guess that ... I mean, I think ..."

Amelia wasn't looking at her, but she knew that Marjorie's eyes were already rolling.

"For Pete's sake, Rebecca. Amelia knows how you are and how you can see and feel things. It's not like you're trying to describe it to a stranger. Just tell her what you know. I'll correct you whenever you're about to run off the rails."

"Oh?" Rebecca's eyebrows rose slowly, "So you have the sight too, do you?"

Marjorie blew past her lips, "No but I'm a mother too, and that count's you know."

Amelia was about to express her wish that they had television, but she knew what that would get her, so she said nothing and waited.

"You've said what you plan to do," her mother told her, "My heart is full of hope for you. But if it is to happen, then it must... happen ..."

Amelia looked at Rebecca with her eyebrows rising, since that was where she'd stopped.

"Or? And? What?"

Rebecca looked at her and seemed to come back to herself a little, "Yes. Sorry. I was just thinking. 

Among the letters that Marjorie got from Tad, there are a few that she has not shown anyone but me. He has been coming home, as we all knew. Twice, he has written to his mother and to Deke, giving a bank's mailing address and asking that some of his inheritance from his grandfather in Portland be wired to him there. Only the four of us who he holds as his parents know what he has in his mind."

She looked at Amelia, "But I am - as Marjorie always tells everyone - a wise woman who can see far through the smoke of life and I know something more now."

She put her arm around Amelia, "I do not know where he is, but I know that Tad will be here in only days."

She looked at her daughter searchingly, "Craig loves Tad as much as you do, but he has always hidden himself in the shadows a little bit in Tad's presence. I tell you this now, so that you can think of what you must do - if it is anything different. If it changes how you would approach things, Amelia. For my part, I am one of the mothers of you all, just as Marjorie is. Neither of us would ever take sides and you must know this."

Marjorie only had so much patience and she turned to Amelia and said, "What your mighty, mystical mother is trying to tell you in so many words and in her careful way is that we also know that if you had the chance ..."

Amelia nodded, "I understand. This might complicate things. It's sooner than I planned, though I'm really happy that he's coming home at last."

She thought for a moment and then she looked from one to the other, "I'd only ever say this to you two and never to anyone else, not Dad or Deke for sure, and not to either one, Craig or Tad. But I'll tell you what I've held in my heart, if you promise not to judge me."

"Amelia," Rebecca smiled, "why do you think that you are here with us right now? This is why I asked you to come to us. This is for only us."

The mothers looked at each other around Amelia and chuckled a little. "You were so right to call her one of us," Marjorie smiled at Rebecca and she hugged Amelia, "You really are one of us from now on. You don't have to say another word. We already know. 

Just ... well, be really careful. If you think on it a little, you could be holding two very strong hearts in your hands.

Amelia nodded, "But I want to say it, more to see if I can and to try to see how it feels if I do."

They watched as Amelia took a bit of a breath, not being dramatic or even very visible about it, just because it was important to her and she felt that she needed it.

"I've always loved them just as we were. I hope that I'm given the chance to go on loving them forever no matter what happens. But we're all grown up now - and who knows, after all of this time? The way that I think of it in my mind, I'd want to love Craig if I still even have a chance. When I was a kid, I always wanted to be a Mrs. Fairbairn. I just didn't know which one at first.

I'm not even going to mention my rotten marriage anymore, but now, I find that I want that again - to take that name as mine too. I want that so much. If I can say it without sounding like a fool of a young girl, I want to marry Craig one day, because I think that he needs for it to be that way. I'd let him love Tad if it ever gets to that, but I'd want Tad too - if the world stands on it's ear long enough to ever let that happen."

She looked down for a moment, "It feels sort of alright if I say it that way. But from right here, in a bed with you both, it also sounds a long, long way from ever happening."

They were silent for a few moments as they all thought about it. Marjorie leaned in and kissed Amelia's cheek softly, "Honey, it might sound a little odd, but to my mind, if there's one girl in the world who could pull magic like that off, it just might be you. If that's what you want, fine, as long as there are no broken hearts and one thing.

I love those boys too, because I'm the closest thing that Craig has had for a mother since he was six. I'd love to see you make our grandchildren with him, just like your mother would. But I'm also Tad's mother - so you know what I'd want from that side." 

Amelia looked over, "More grandchildren, right?"

The three of them shared peals of laughter over it for a few moments before Amelia looked over, "Why did you say that I'm the only girl who could do that?"

Rebecca hugged Amelia and kissed her cheek as well, "Who are your mothers? I can't believe that you wouldn't think of it."

Amelia sat in the bed looking down as she thought for a minute.

Then her head snapped up. "Then it's true? Nobody around here even thinks about it, but I've always wondered. I can remember getting out of bed from a bad dream when I was little one time and I went to see Mom, but ..."

She stared at Marjorie a little, "But it was you there. You were in bed with my father."

Marjorie nodded, "Your mother was right here with Deke that night. I got up and took my upset and sleepy little girl back to her bed. I held you close and told you everything was going to be alright and that it was just a bad dream - the same as I've done for the boys - the same as your mother's done for them both at times. 

If we'd had our kids at near the same time, we'd have both nursed whichever one was hungry out of convenience because we were busy with the cafe and the Potter businesses. It just didn't happen, that's all.

When you and Tad were each toddlers at different times, there were times when one of us would nap with you, because we had the luxury of there being two of us."

"The only one who didn't get that was Craig, "Rebecca said, "because he was too old when he came to us. I've always been a little sad about that. That boy probably needed a mother more than you and Tad did and never had that at that time in his life. All that he had was a disinterested governess before he came here. We just did what we could for him and let him know that we loved him too, all of the parents. We all made sure that he knew that he was loved here very much."

Amelia looked back and forth, her mind playing childhood memories at high speed, "So ... so you ..."

Marjorie shrugged, "Uh-huh, every once in a while, we do that."

Amelia smiled, "I can't believe I've never thought of it before. You guys are ... "

"Amazing or just weird?" Marjorie offered.

Amelia shook her head, "Amazing." 

She laughed, "Definitely amazing. Wow."

"I wouldn't go that far," the redhead smiled, "We're just a pair of girls who have gotten what we both always wanted. That we began between us at all is your mother's fault, but really, where we were all alone, it sort of came natural and she fascinated me anyway. We just saw a wonderful chance when we met the Potter boys and after a little time, we told them our fondest wishes.

They're not twins, but what woman wouldn't want the man she loves and then OTHER man she loves once in a while? Nobody does it like those two.

Now you know why I said it like that," Marjorie smiled, "If you really want - I mean ... if it's what you really, really want with them, then you're the only one who I'd say even has a chance."

She raised her finger, "But it can only be with them. Neither of them would allow it if there was anyone else, I mean, a man."

Amelia smiled with a little laugh, "I've always thought that we're the best family anywhere. Now I know why even more. I still don't really know how I'm gonna make up this little miracle, because that's what it will take if it happens. Holy jumpin' ..."

It took a minute, but Marjorie and Amelia noted that Rebecca was silent and had been for a little while.

Amelia looked over, "You're quiet, Mother. I know you and that means something as sure as anything. Do you think that I won't be able to make it happen? Will I do something wrong to ruin it and maybe have neither of them? I need to know so I can weigh the risks - if you think that you can say it."

Rebecca looked up from the spot on the blanket that she'd been staring at unconsciously, "I have heard stories of something like this where a man keeps two women. It is rare and always has been, for most are not like that. It usually comes from war and a prisoner taken as a second wife, and somehow, it turns into love out of the coldest of hates.

I never knew anyone like that, but I heard it in some stories of the past. Things like that didn't happen after the whites came, since our culture was turned upside down then - as it was with many tribes, I must guess. Remember that many of those stories were more male-sided, if you know what I mean. I don't have a better way to say it.

For a woman to take two men - who know it - that is something that I have never heard of at all. I don't mean to say that it couldn't happen, I just ... have never heard even a scrap of a story like that. I suppose that she would have to be a very strong woman to hold two men to her."

She looked up then, "But that isn't what I saw in my mind just now. Tad is coming home, so I am already happy just for that. Right now, he is far away and he waits for something, though I do not know what it is. I know that it is not a bad thing, only that he waits.

When he has finished waiting, he will come home. He does not know it himself yet and I do not know what it will mean, but ... I know that ..." She looked at them both.

"He will not come alone."

"A man?" Amelia asked.

"A woman?" Marjorie asked in a whisper.

But Rebecca was shaking her head.

"What's left - besides dogs and Christmas trees?" Marjorie asked.

"Guns, dames and money?" Amelia suggested.

Seeing the looks which came her way she just mumbled, "Sorry, I've been reading detective novels again."

"When I see something," Rebecca said with just a trace of mild annoyance, "It's not like a newsreel like they show at the movie theater. Things come to me - or they don't and when they do, it is like little things you might see if you were in a hallway, passing by many doors. 

Sometimes, a door stands open as I move past and I see inside, but it is only for a moment and then I am past the door. I can't stop and go back to look in.

You should just accept what I tell you and when. Sometimes, I don't say anything and if I am lucky, I see more in another doorway another time, enough to tell of then. I only know that Tad will come with someone. He has not met her yet and neither one knows of it at all. Do not forget that I could be wrong. That happens sometimes."

She looked up, as though trying to see through the bedroom wall for a moment. She smiled just a little and looked at the others. "I was right. Neither of them know anything of it - yet. But it will need to happen, for her sake. At that time - and it will happen soon - she will need him."

"A woman," Marjorie nodded, "That's bad."

Amelia held up her hand, "Wait up."

She looked at her mother very searchingly, "Why, Mom? Do you mean that like, she'll need him as in love, or for him to give her food or what? Is she lost?"

Rebecca shook her head a little, "Maybe later. I don't know. But when they meet, she will need his help right then, or ..." 

She shook her head and shrugged, "I don't know enough yet. It might come in a dream to me later. I think that she will need him badly."

Marjorie looked concerned, "Even worse then. Maybe it would have been better if it was a man."

Amelia thought about it and shook her head, "No. It would be bad if it was a man and there was anything between them, even if they were just friends. I'm thinking of Craig. That would be bad. It would make everything impossible." She looked at her mother, "Nothing between them yet, right?"

Rebecca nodded, "They have not met yet. I don't know much more than that."

"What are you thinking, Baby?" Marjorie asked Amelia quietly, "Let us in on what comes to you. I'd do anything to help - you know I would."

Amelia shook her head, saying nothing, since she needed a moment to think. She looked over at her mother and saw Rebecca nod.

"I think it's best that it's a girl," Amelia said softly, "I think that I might still have a chance then."

"You're not thinking of coming between them if something happens, are you?" Rebecca asked, "It is never wise to think like that."

"No," Amelia said in more of a whisper as she thought further, "It means that if I can work this delicate thing at all - assuming that it does turn into something between her and Tad - then just maybe I can have the same thing that you do. I'd have to meet her of course and nothing's definite anyway other than Mom's seen it."

Marjorie snickered, "We don't know anything. The poor girl might look like a horse."

Rebecca shook her head, "Don't be ridiculous. This is your son - our son we're talking about. How many times have you and I laughed as women tripped over the crack in the sidewalk right outside the café when he's stepped out to go somewhere and a girl has almost fallen on her nose in shock?

He walks back to help her up if she's fallen, asks her if she's alright in that way of his and then goes on his way. We end up with a girl on our doorstep who's almost a puddle.




By Air Mail Ch.02



How many times have we looked up in surprise when a woman comes in on her way through town to ask about the young man that she just saw walking out? Do you think that he's grown ugly since he's been gone? Are you crazy, Marjorie?"

"If he just picks her up by chance, then she might be ugly," Marjorie said, "You said you don't know much."

Rebecca shrugged, "I only had a tiny fraction of a glimpse ..."

She looked back, "But she is not ugly and I do not think that she is ..." 

She sighed in a little frustration, "I do not know her kind. In my head, my sight says one thing and my heart says another and neither one tells me enough. I know enough to say that it is not good for me to question further tonight anymore."

"Well that's good," Amelia said quietly and the remark startled both mothers. She looked at their shocked faces and held up her palms, "What?

If I've gotta have another girl in this to get what I've always known was for me with Craig AND Tad, then if it's all the same to you two, I'd rather that she was a little nice to look at, you know."

She sighed, "I just don't think I know how to ... make it work with her yet."

She looked from one to the other, "I mean, at all, really. 

I know that it probably CAN work, but I don't know much about being with another girl. It doesn't put me off, necessarily, but I don't think that the world is exactly full of women like my moms, is it? Chances are that she'll bop me in the nose when I try."

Amelia sighed a little heavily then, "And I don't even know how to try."

She looked up, "Would you ... I know this might sound really stupid, but ... Could you guys teach me a little?"

There was a short silence and Amelia was about to try to get up to leave, since she now felt very foolish indeed.

"Is that want you want?" Rebecca asked, "Marjorie and I just are the way that we are, but it's not something that we've ever thought of ... doing it with anyone else. And you're my daughter, Amelia."

"You're both my mothers," Amelia said, "Maybe it was a stupid idea. I'll just try to figure things out as I go - if I even get that far."

Marjorie looked at Rebecca, "What could it hurt? We've taught her everything else in her life, haven't we? I'll admit that it feels a little strange, but we love her. Why not do something to make her feel good if she learns something from it?" Marjorie was only thinking out loud, really. But Rebecca didn't take it as that.

"To hear you right now, I'm just glad that we didn't use the same thinking to teach her about alcohol so she learns how much her head will hurt the next day."

Marjorie frowned, "Don't get all high and lofty with me, Rebecca. I've seen you look at other women, you know."

"When?" Rebecca turned, her eyes almost blazing.

"Huh!" Marjorie snorted, "Whenever some city cutie gets lost on the road and takes a wrong turn to get out of Boise and ends up in here to ask for directions, that's when. You know the ones I mean. They come in wearing tight, slinky skirts and all you can do is stare holes in their long, nylon stockings as you follow the seam at the back of each long calf up to their tight, swivelling bums."

Rebecca looked out from under her half-lidded eyes, "You do the same thing, Marjorie."

"No I don't," Marjorie chuckled, "How do you think that I know what you're looking at? I see them come in and we all know to look at your eyes as you stare at them when they strut out. That's when we know that she's worth a good look."

"We?" Rebecca asked, and Marjorie nodded with an angelic smile, her finger pointing to both herself and Amelia, who tried like hell to grow a halo on the spot.

"Hey!" she exclaimed as she slid out from between them to leave by the foot of the bed, "I've got stockings like that! They're still where I left them when I took them off to have my bath. How about I go put my garter belt back on and pull on some stockings for you? Would that help you to teach me?"

She put one hand on her hip and shook her backside just a little as she grinned over her shoulder, "I've even got that pair of nice, high pumps I bought for my wedding. I haven't worn them since. How about that?"

"No!" her mother hissed from between her teeth as she swung half-heartedly to catch hold of Amelia, who danced out of reach and turned to run out of the door with a laugh.

She didn't stop until she reached the boy's room. She stopped then and looked at the door for a moment. Then she reached out and turned the doorknob, she tiptoed in by the light of the dim nightlight to pull back the covers on Craig's bed after a look over at Rosa in the other bed, who was asleep, not being able to hear much of anything.

"And you!" she heard from down the hall as Rebecca turned on Marjorie.

"Oh, shut up," Marjorie chuckled, "I got you both out of an awkward moment without anybody feeling bad. She asked honestly, but none of us is ready for something like that. You should stop wanting to be mad and think a little. What we just saw was Amelia a lot more like her old self; full of laughter and a little sass.

All I did was give her some cover by making you mad."

"Well it's still working, "Amelia heard her mother growl.

"Oh, what are you mad about? You look at girls sometimes, I do too. We all do - because we're women and that's how we are. You just make us all smile because you don't hide it very well when you do."

"Goodnight," Amelia called out cheerily down the hall and they answered her.

She slipped into Craig's bed and allowed herself a few naughty thoughts then all the same. Other than some really well-hidden and soft petting with Rosa - and that had never really been anything but something low-key and nice, Amelia hadn't actually done anything sexual at all since her horrific and traumatic time with Bobby. 

She hadn't ever wanted to. She'd just felt ... disconnected. Probably worse in the long run - she knew now - was that it had been better at the time, out of just wanting to be left alone.

She didn't feel that way anymore. It had taken a long, long time, but she now felt much better about herself and a lot of that, she realized had been because of Craig's quiet, careful presence when she'd needed that and nothing more and afterward, it had been Rosa's careful concern over her when Amelia found that she was still a living human girl after all.

But by the time that she'd pieced it all together, Craig was back on his mountain.

She wasn't all that big on it, but she probably wouldn't have minded a little fun with her mother and Marjorie some time. To Amelia, they were her anchors. She'd had thoughts, and maybe a little hope to learn at least something more, but ...

She smiled to herself. Mostly, she felt a little pleased to have riled them up with her remark and she did love them so much. 

Amelia sighed as she snuggled in a little and pulled the covers up. She was a little startled as something soft fell onto her shoulder from her motion of getting settled. She looked over and gasped, almost bursting into tears to see the old teddy bear that she'd given to Craig that first night when she'd met him so long ago.

She remembered that her mother had told her of the sad little boy who had come to live with Marjorie and was upset and crying because he felt so alone. Giving the bear away was something that had felt suddenly right to her then - even though she hadn't intended to do it at the time.

She pulled it close and hugged it to her chest, not feeling stupid at all. Sixteen years and he still had it, she thought.

Marjorie wasn't one to hang onto things once they'd been outgrown. Amelia knew that about her. So to her, that meant that in order to have survived this long in Craig's room, it must have been out of his desire that it remain, no matter what. She didn't think that Craig was the kind of man who still needed a teddy bear.

Her eyes almost brimmed when she thought of the reason that her old bear was still here.

Amelia wasn't all that much of a scheming kind of girl and she knew that. What she'd gotten was the tacit approval of her two mothers - hers as well as Craig's and Tad's for what she wanted to hope for with all of her heart.

Amelia was a realist for the most part and she sighed again as she closed her eyes for a moment. She knew what she'd have wanted if the moon and stars shone down on her one night to grant her fondest wish.

But she'd be more than happy if she could just manage some vital success with Craig before the last of his love for her was gone. She looked at the old bear for a moment and then she kissed him softly, remembering for a moment.

She pulled the teddy bear to her tightly once more and closed her eyes.

By the dim light of the nightlight, Rosa opened her eyes and looked at Amelia for a little while before she dropped off to sleep.

----

Amelia opened her eyes a little later and saw that the bedroom door was opening so she watched as Marjorie walked softly over to her and knelt by the bed.

"Still up, or did I wake you?" she whispered.

"I don't think that I was very much asleep," Amelia whispered, looking back, "It doesn't really feel like I just woke up. I just opened my eyes as you came in."

Marjorie smiled, "You know, you really got us going with your request. We didn't know what to think, really. I know that sometimes you want to ... surprise your mother, just because she always seems to know so much that other people can't see."

Amelia nodded, her cheek on her forearm, "I know. But I didn't mean to that time. I was just asking because ... well, I thought that if I knew that better, then it might make things ... not easier ... maybe just not so hard."

She stretched a little, "The whole thing's not much more than a fantasy of mine, I guess. 

I'd be in heaven if I could just fix things with Craig and love him like we both need. I was just thinking of him and how he loves Tad. I'm sure that if they could be given the way, it could turn into the same thing too. I don't think that I could ever mind that, as long as I was a part of it and you know that I'd do anything to protect that for them too.

I've never thought that a girl can ask much more than the love of a good man. The value of that kind of love sure became clear to me when I didn't have it, even though I was married."

"We know," the redhead smiled, "but we also know that sometimes - like it happened for us, a girl can have more. We just went about it in a different way - and I can't say that it was actually planned any more than your mother seeing Harry and running to me after thinking about it for a little while.

You know what I told her?"

Amelia shook her head, "To try it and see?"

"No," Marjorie grinned, "I told her she was nuts. 

But damned if she wasn't right."

She reached out and brushed a little of Amelia's hair out of her eyes, "Is it something that you want to try, to learn what you said? I guess that I'm asking to see if it's out of a want in you to have sex with your crazy lady mothers or if it's out of a real want to learn. I'm asking because your mother's afraid of making you uncomfortable. We talked it out after I got her calmed down over our bit of foolishness back there."

Amelia shook her head, "I don't ever want to make either of you feel bad, especially her, if I made her uncomfortable over my asking. If I did that, then I'm really sorry."

Marjorie shook her head, "You didn't. She's afraid of the same thing. She sent me here to ask you, Amelia. You want to know what we really think?

We don't ever want to change what we have. We want to keep thinking of our children - even all grown up - as that. We don't think that it's wrong to try to teach you whatever it is that you want to learn from us, but we don't want the relationship to be harmed.

We're not thinking of screwing our daughter, is what I think I'm trying to say. But we're so close, us three and we do love you so much. It's a nice thought to me to lie in bed with you just expressing that if we could do that in a way that doesn't wreck everything."

She shook her head, "Does any of this make sense?"

Amelia smiled and she nodded, and to Marjorie, it looked just like it had been once when Amelia was a little girl and before her self-confidence had been beaten out of her. The teddy bear against her breasts said a lot to Marjorie about her healing and how she was coming back to the way that she'd been before.

Amelia reached out herself and she touched Marjorie's cheek, "Momma, I think that I've just thought of the way, because I wouldn't want to wreck anything either."

She rose up on one elbow and she pulled herself a little closer to kiss Marjorie's lips as softly as she could. When she drew back a little bit, she smiled, "We don't need to change what we are to each other and we don't need to worry about wrecking anything. 

Nothing has changed - but one thing just might be waiting to in me. I just never thought of it until now.

I was made by my wonderful father and the magical woman who birthed me, but other than that, I've had two mothers for all of my life - that woman and you, Marjorie. Other than that fact, you're the the same in my heart.

I came to ask something of you and from the point of a daughter asking her mothers, it's caused some thought that I didn't mean. But you both said that I'm one of the women of this family now and to me, that's like I've been asked to join the wise ones, the elders who sit - or lie down as the case may be," she smiled, "in an inner circle. The women have their loves. I'm ready to seek and claim what might be mine. I'm still the daughter of those women. I now want to be in that circle.

Make me one of the women."

Marjorie sat back on her heels as she thought about it and then Amelia watched as a slow smile began to cross her beautiful face, "I think now - now that I know, that if I'd had the slightest clue about the wonder of the woman who tried so hard to meet me that winter long ago because she knew that we needed each other to live through it, that I would have stopped trying to run away so hard. 

I think now that I'd have walked up to her with my mouth open in a little bit of awe, and I'd have gotten to my knees in the snow and asked her to take me with her. Never mind that she was trying to save both our lives, but she's made mine so wonderful and she's given me you to share as my daughter. You're every bit as amazing as she is."

Amelia smiled a little more, "She's standing behind you."

"Aw crap," Marjorie groaned.

"I only heard the last sentence," Rebecca fibbed, "What has been decided?"

Amelia sat up, "I want to be one of the women of the family. I don't know what wisdom I might have to add to the circle, but I want to be what you both are."

She got out of the bed to stand up as Marjorie got off her knees.

"I might be able to keep my thoughts about screwing my daughter out of my mind a little more easily if you could leave that bear here," she smirked.

Amelia nodded and she set the bear down carefully so that it sat up before she turned to take their hands and walk with them back to their bed.

----

It wasn't such a profound thing, Amelia thought, but it was very nice as she lay on her side facing Rebecca with one knee raised to rest against hers while they traded soft caresses with their fingers.

After a while she stopped kissing Rebecca and turned her head back so that her shoulders were back on the bed and she began to kiss Marjorie. There was nothing more in those kisses than there was at any other time with them, not for this time, anyway.

They didn't speak, because there was nothing to say, other than 'I love you', and it was understood by them all anyway.

It went slowly, but Rebecca got there gently and she pushed Amelia's hips so that she was lying flat on her back afterward.

Marjorie got to her knees and began to work first one and then both of her middle and third fingers into Amelia, who began to rock her hips in time to the slow rhythm of it. Rebecca held Amelia and guided her to the same breasts which had fed her so long ago and she stroked her daughter's head very softly as she cooed and caressed the breasts and nipples of the youngest of the women.

Amelia's orgasm was more blissful than anything and when it had passed, she asked them to get on, one after the other so that she might feel how one woman can fuck against another, and by the time that it was done, they all fell asleep with Rebecca in between them.

Amelia woke after a little while and she didn't move as she thought about how pleased and honored that she felt to have been allowed this step inside of something very private and special.

Rebecca moved a little in her sleep and Amelia saw the chance to free her arm and so she did it, while thinking that like anything else, magic of any kind was a wonder that was very ... locally-oriented.

She felt so loved and happy over many things, but that still wouldn't help you if there just wasn't quite enough blanket and your ass was getting cold because of it. 

She waited for a time and then got up to go back to where she'd been earlier. This had been so special to her, but right now, she wanted to be back in Craig's bed to wish him a good night in a way that made perfect sense to her somehow as well as to make her promise to him in her heart. 

Back in Craig's bed, she clutched the teddy bear to her breasts once more. "If you love him like I do," she whispered, "then help me all you can, Teddy. Bring him back to me on that old motorcycle, and if you can, make him understand that I want him forever. I wouldn't ask if I didn't think that I'd need it."

The bear said nothing in reply of course, but Amelia closed her eyes and smiled anyway until she felt the bed move a little a minute later as Rosa knelt beside it and leaned in to kiss Amelia.

"I sure don't know what all of this means," she whispered, "I just know that you wasted a lot of time talking about things that I couldn't hear."

She smiled, "But I know that you want tomorrow to be the day for you and Craig, so I'm happy for you and I'll do anything you need to help."

Amelia moved her hand to touch Rosa, "And I'm hoping that you don't need to since it'll work perfectly."

She reached out and kissed Rosa once more, "I often wish that you'd been here growing up with us three. You'd have had more fun and for sure, you'd have fit right in."

"Can I get into bed with you?" Rosa asked and Amelia nodded, reaching to pull back the covers.

Rosa slipped in beside Amelia and she took Amelia's face in her hands gently to look into her eyes.

"I don't know what you just said," she whispered, "I'm deaf, remember? There's not enough light right here for me to read your lips. But I could kiss them, if you want."

Amelia nodded and put her arms around Rosa as they began. In moments, she began to roll them over until she was on top and after a little adjustment; she was humping on Rosa very slowly while she looked at her, smiling.

"I was gonna ask what you did with them," Rosa whispered, "I saw it when you asked to be one of the women and I had the time to think about it until I knew what you meant."

Rosa pulled her hips up and back before Amelia moved forward again, trying her best to dig in a little harder and she lowered her head so that her lips were against Rosa's 'better' ear and whispered a little loudly, hoping that the closed door would keep things in this room, "Not much. Just this, mostly. Just things we've already done."

Rosa smiled up, nodding a little, "You could have saved some time and just gotten into bed with me then."

Amelia grinned a little, "I always want to do this with you. I really wanted to get them to agree that it would be ok to try with Craig, and now ... well they've opened the door, haven't they? They can teach me more later and then I'll show you."




By Air Mail Ch.02



Rosa smiled as she reached up and gently pulled Amelia's head so that they were looking into each other's eyes, and after a moment, she began to kiss her in a different way, more intensely and with a fair measure of passion.

Amelia reacted with surprise and then she gave in to the way that Rosa was taking her mouth in it. Rosa was thrilled to feel Amelia's more forceful breath against her cheek and she knew that what she'd wanted to convey had gotten across.

Amelia pulled back for a moment, almost staring down in surprise, "That was ... oh, Rosa."

"You don't need them to teach you," Rosa smiled, "You've got me for that. I've never been with a girl that made me want to do much of this, but I know what to do - and we just need a place for that where we won't be disturbed. I'll show you then alright? Just tell me that you love me again. 

That's all that I need right now."

They went on for a little while with Rosa being careful not to make a sound. Something which almost anyone could do, yet for her in a place like where they were now, she wanted to be silent, so she had to pay attention more.

"I'm a little nervous about tomorrow," she whispered, "I want it to work for you, but ..."

Amelia kissed Rosa's ear a little as she slowed down while she was speaking, "Don't worry. When Bobby got through with me, I was hurt and empty inside. You made it better, Rosa. You always have. All of my life, Craig was my best friend, but after me marrying Bobby, he was so hurt. He still tried to help me and he did, but ... he's always been shy and I didn't see that he was ready to be more than my friend.

Every time that he's had to go away, we've lost ground a little and it takes so long to get him back to where we were."

She sighed, "But then he has to go away the next time and we're right back where we started. You can only do that so many times and the last time, I thought that I'd lost everything.

That's why I want to really try this time. I won't forget you, though. I never could. Whatever comes with Craig, I won't leave you behind. I know we need each other."

Rosa nodded and she moved her hands to hold onto Amelia's hips and she raised her legs a little more. "You know what I want?" she asked. "This year you said is supposed to be his last time going away. I've never gotten to know him the way that I'd have wanted to because I wanted for you to be in his mind as much as possible. 

I've always liked him, just because he's so ... I dunno, like I'd want a man to be like. I think that's the way that they ought to be to a girl. I've never done a thing with him, but I can tell that he'd care about anyone that he's with. I've never seen that in my life before. I thought they were all just dicks - and not nice ones, either."

She smiled, remembering, "But he is awful shy, like you said. He came in here one time when I was sleeping over when he'd just gotten back and we didn't know each other at all. I was getting dressed after a bath when he walked in. He didn't know that I'd be here, and I didn't hear him coming - 'cause I can't.

He looked like his heart was gonna stop. I covered the tiny tits that I don't have, but even so, he looked like he was stuck looking at my flat chest, though I could see that he didn't even want to, out of feeling rude."

"That reminds me," Amelia whispered just before she pulled back to kiss the cutest tits that she'd ever see for a few moments - each, of course - as Rosa went on, while running her fingers through Amelia's hair, "But if what you want to do works, then I've decided that I'd want to be at least better friends with him. I never had any real friends until I got here.

And that will be a big step for me, since I've never trusted any man since I was grabbed and taken away to Mexico."

"You can trust Craig," Amelia nodded, "I've never known ... I can't think of the word ... purer - I'd guess. Purer hearts than Craig and Tad's - if Tad hasn't changed. He's coming home real soon, Rebecca told me.

Maybe we can ... I dunno, both have Craig. Though if it all works out, and I'm not being an idiot to even hope for it, I think I'd want to marry him."

Rosa turned her head and they looked into each other's eyes, "How could we both ..."

Amelia grinned, "Never mind. I just know that it can happen, so don't think that what we're doing now will stop or anything. I love you too much to leave you in the weeds."

"Well that's something to hope for, anyway," Rosa smiled, "I hate being in the weeds. Too many bugs."

Amelia almost laughed then, but she didn't and settled for kissing Rosa for a little while.

"We can't change the past" Rosa whispered, "and I'm still trying to fit in here, but this is where I want to be, so I'm happy here in the bustling metropolis of Cascade, Idaho where a few people know me and care about me. 

Sometime during the day tomorrow, you should come see me. I bought you whole box of rubbers."

Amelia's mouth fell open, "You did?"

Rosa nodded, "That old dummy in the drugstore, he looked at me like I fell off a truck-full of stupid when I asked for them.

I guess it didn't help that I was talkin' real loud the way that I do. Everybody in the whole place was staring at me. I asked him if he had some or not and that got him moving, though he still looked shocked or something as he handed them over. 

I told him not to worry," she smiled, "I said that I wouldn't be talking while I was using them - I wouldn't want to scare the man off or anything, you know?"

They smiled at each other and slowly, they began to hump faster as their tongues began an ages-old dance.