We had a conference as soon as we got home. When I explained my suspicions about Becky it was a done deal as far as the girls were concerned. It wasn't for me though. As far as I was concerned, Amy was not to be included. Not only that, but I was going to have to be sure about Becky before I did anything with her.
Eventually, a plan was formed that might work and the plan was put into motion. I called Becky but not to say I'd be over. Instead, I invited them to come over to our place. I'm sure it ruined their plan but that was our intent.
They agreed to come over and were even a bit excited about it. We told them we were thinking of starting a band and needed someone who was objective to listen. They got the standard tour before we took them to the basement and played a song for them.
We started with "I Can See Clearly Now" and in five bars I knew I was right about Becky. She sang along from the first verse, not realizing that it wouldn't show up on the radio for another month. It hadn't even been released yet.
I was also right about Amy. It looked like she enjoyed the song but hadn't a clue about the lyrics. It looked like she enjoyed Adam more. He was playing bass and she hadn't taken her eyes off of him.
Becky's applause and comment of "Wow, You guys do that better than Johnny Nash! Sealed the deal.
I had Adam distract Amy while I practically dragged Becky into the laundry room and closed the door. I wasted no time and unloaded on her "what is it with you!" I yelled "wasn't once enough? Why in the Hel are you playing with me this time, anyway? I'd think you would know better than this by now!"
She was practically in tears but stammered "so you know? Good! You thought I was messing with you the last time, right?" I admitted that much with a nod. "So why would I be doing it now, huh? Every girl in school wants you, dummy! I do too. I wanted you then just as much! Don't you get it?"
Now I was confused. "Then why are you doing it? Are you saying you actually were attracted to me then? Weren't you just screwing with the fat, outcast nerd for the hell of it?�
She looked at me in shock as she answered �Is that what you thought? Oh, shit I am so sorry! I was just as serious then as I was this time! I had a huge crush on you but you ignored me so I practically threw myself at you. When you ignored me I figured you thought I was ugly or something and gave it up as a lost cause! And you were not fat! I thought you were cute and so did Amy. She was trying to help me then, too. I realize you didn�t know much about me but I�ll tell you now. Meet the ugly, scarred nerd who had only one friend all through school. That was Amy and she moved when I was in the ninth grade. You may have been an outcast but so was I. I couldn�t even get a date for homecoming or either prom. I had sex for the first time when I was a junior in college and it sucked then.�
When I could close my mouth to form a sentence I managed "you've got to be kidding. As pretty as you are you're telling me no guy asked you out?
She gave me a serious look while pointing to her face. �Pretty? With this?� she asked. There was a scar roughly three inches long and a quarter inch wide from the corner of her eye that stretched to within a half inch of her mouth. �Everybody thinks I�m ugly and you�re the only guy that has talked to me all year!�
I ran my finger down the scar before saying �I�m not going to lie and say you wouldn�t be even more attractive without it but you�re a long way from being ugly. With it, you�re pretty. Without it you�d be gorgeous. Either way, you�re very sexy.�
She looked at me and gave me a smile as she blushed. She thanked me before confiding �you might not believe me but I�m really shy. Not only that but I�ve had this damn scar since I our dog bit me when I was eight years old and I guess you�ve noticed I�m a little self-conscious about it. There was always something about you that attracted me though. It's even worse now and I can�t figure it out. It's not 'cause you look cuter now either. With my face looks never counted for much with me. As soon as I saw you I knew I wanted you. Amy�s the outgoing one. She�s the one that came up with this plan but she didn�t have to twist my arm any. It was all to get you to like me. I'm sorry I bothered you. I'll leave you alone from now on, I swear.
I stopped her with a kiss that held much promise but little passion. That isn't to imply that it wasn't enjoyable because it was. The second one got more serious and I could tell she hadn't been kidding about her feelings. We reluctantly returned to the others after several more
The main four were all that were left. Adam and Lin had run off with Amy. One look at Becky's tearful smile and seeing our arms around each other was all it took for the hugging to commence and the hen party to begin
Becky would fit right in. It seems she was a software engineer for NASA before the end and had lived close enough to Pensacola to be vaporized. She was ecstatic to have the opportunity for some payback. When she was told her about Adam and Beth they spent the a few minutes with their heads inches apart until Amy returned to join them. Tina and I exchanged a high five when Amy, Lin, and Adam left again a few minutes afterward.
I looked at the remaining group and suggested we get better acquainted with Becky but my idea was shot down by Connie. "Not this time, lover. Beck has tried to snag you twice now. I think the least you can do is show her a little personal attention. You're going solo on this one." She gave us both a nudge towards the door.
I led her to my suite and showed her around. She seemed to be nervous and I tried to calm her by taking my time. I was nervous myself and having serious second thoughts about going through with this. Something just didn't feel right about it but I couldn't figure it out. Becky was certainly desirable and I liked her but that spark just wasn't there. It just felt wrong.
When we got to the shrine she was excited. So was I and asked her what request she had asked of Frigg. That shocked her enough to exclaim "what? How did you know?"
"Easy, I explained. Her statue wasn't here this morning. I assume that means it was placed here for you. I am curious as to why you called to the Goddess of marriage and motherhood though."
She gave me a sad smile and told me more about herself. She had never married or had children but desperately wanted to do both. "The problem was" she said "is that I just never met anyone I loved enough to marry. Sometimes I thought you might have been the one but now I just don't know. It doesn't feel right somehow. I like you and think you're nice but oh crap! I don't know!"
We both about jumped out of our skins when we heard a gentle voice say "you never met him because he was lost from this plane before you had the chance, child."
We spun around and gaped at Frigg. She was every bit as beautiful as Freyja but somehow seemed less frightening. Becky was able to manage asking her to explain and Frigg continued "Matthias is a worthy individual but your destiny lies with another. You have yet to meet but I believe both you and Matthias will be pleased when it occurs. Both of your dreams may be a reality this time Rebecca. You should be happy in your work."
We barely were able to thank her before she faded away. As soon as she was gone Becky burst into tears and hugged me tightly. Finally, she composed herself and looked up at me smiling. "Are you disappointed?" She asked"
Any guy in his right mind knows the answer to that one, so I gave it. "If you mean that I won't be ravishing your luscious body, then yes I am. Some guy is going to be very fortunate and I envy him a bit but I'm almost as anxious to meet him as you are. Frigg seemed to indicate I might know him. I've had very few male friends in my life but I have no idea who it might be."
I kissed her on the forehead before asking if she wanted me to try and make her scar go away. She seemed amazed and excited that it could be done for a few seconds but then looked pensive for a moment before replying "maybe later but not just yet. If I'm really going to meet Mr. wonderful I want him to see me like this first. Does that make sense?"
It did to me and after telling her to let me know when she decided to lose it I suggested we tell the others our news before they got too carried away in their plans for us. On the way back I felt her out about her thoughts on our arrangement and discovered she actually liked it and hoped she could be part of something similar. Some guy was going to be very happy about that, I'd guess.
When we walked in the room the girls were jamming and stopped on a discordant note. Beth blurted "what the heck? You never did anything that quick before, wouldn't that thing fit?"
After the laughs died down we explained and they were as surprised as we were. I noticed the sad looks from Kathy and Paula and pulled them aside while the others grilled Becky. "Look, you two" I said while hugging them "you and I both know there's some lucky guy out there for you and we also know you'll find him. You also know by now that it isn't me but until you discover him I hope you'll continue to let me help keep you warmed up." I gave them my best leer after I finished and it seemed to cheer them up a bit.
Adam met us as we left school the next day and walked home with us. He and Lin really liked Amy, and together they had come up with a revised plan for the computer. "You were right about letting somebody else screw with our ideas" he explained. "I had some doubts about at first but after talking to them I'm convinced You, Beth, Beck, and I could create a system that would blow anything away that existed from before! Besides, we're going to need tons of cash and with a system like that, schools, governments, and consumers will buy them like crazy!" Think of the internet, too! We could jump-start that sooner and go into the server business as well. The possibilities are limitless. Who needs to get in on an IPO when you own the company?"
He had a point, and the rest of us were all for it. We had both contributed to the "open source" project regularly, including the Linux Kernel and it wouldn't take a huge amount of effort to mold it into something Bill Gates could only dream about.
We joked about how large our group was becoming and I sighed �oh well, the election should be easy. Half the population will be in the Retread family by then." We had given up on estimating how large we would grow. Speculation on skills required only went so far. Add to that the fact that this was just one small part of a very large country and it got even more confusing. Surely the Gods wouldn't have concentrated on one small area, would they?
After the football season we all had more cash to work with. Pop and Dee took a little trip to Vegas and placed bets for everyone on the Dolphins. It was quickly invested in stocks that we knew would produce huge profits. We�d have to rely on the Superfecta in the Triple Crown this (Secretariat�s) year for any kind of worthwhile return on our bet.
1973-YEAR 5-8th grade
That summer was great. Rhonda excelled at baseball as did the team. We went the entire season and playoffs undefeated. At her great embarrassment and my equal pride Rhonda was the unanimous MVP. It seemed like time flew by because every moment was filled with something fun to keep us all occupied.
There were serious matters to keep us busy, too. Our proposal to the chip manufacturer was accepted enthusiastically. We set up a dummy corporation to handle it and patents were submitted and approved. We did the same with some peripheral boards. When they were completed we should be able to build what would amount to a Pentium I P.C. and the industry would move ahead by more than two decades. It had taken two months of continuous effort to complete the design on just the chip even with the expertise we had on tap.
Before we knew what hit us it was time for school to start. If we didn�t have our own built-in clique we might have been lonely for a while. We didn�t fit in with the nerds because they didn�t know how to have fun. The jocks avoided us because we were too studious, and the �popular� people didn�t know what to think because we just didn�t care who liked who. Starting around the second semester things began to change.
People were beginning to appreciate our style a little more. At first they were amazed at our differences because we associated with all of the groups equally. There were exceptions of course. We wouldn�t give the snobs the time of day and avoided the hard core �loser� group like the plague.
Before we realized it we were not only the newest clique but the most popular. We could be found playing chess with the nerds, goofing off with the jocks, and in student government with the pretty people. I think the school was better off when the year ended. It sure was a lot less compartmentalized. I think the nerds were a bit put out when none of them were in the top ten of the GPA list though.
I also began to notice a growing physical maturity in everyone over the past few months. Bodies were filling out quite nicely and I could see more clearly the adults we would all become. I was amazed at the differences in myself. At this stage in my life before I was in the middle of my �fat bordering on obese� stage but now I looked like a damn recruiting poster at six foot two and 210 pounds. As far as I could tell none of it was fat.
All of the girls looked more like women now and I continued to be amazed at my good fortune in finding them. We all seemed to be developing at an alarming rate and it looked like before long it might be noticed. We already looked more like seniors than eighth graders.
Tina looked almost exactly as she had the last time I had seen her before. I thought that was strange because she was at least four inches taller than I remembered her being at this age. This caused us to have a little conference and we discovered that everyone who had returned was experiencing the same thing.
We were all four to five inches taller than we had been before and each of us was also much stronger. Even Kathy, who had been tall before, was experiencing the same thing. We just shrugged it off. In fact, we kind of liked it. I was happier with each passing day. For the first time in either life, I was definitely in love. It still felt strange that I was in love with five different girls though. Tina, Beth, Rhonda, Jackie, and Connie were like a part of me now.
Connie was the biggest surprise to me. During a lull in one of our wonderful lovemaking sessions she snuggled up to me and asked "do you really not like women with big boobs?"
I chuckled before I explained "Sweetie, I think that was just leftover feelings from my big-breasted first wife. Those horrible memories have been swept away by you and my other future wives. It may be a clich� but it really is what's on the inside that counts."
She got a huge smile and said "good, because I know you never saw what I looked like later." She cupped her smallish 32B's and chuckled "these puppies are going to explode soon, I think. They did when I was seventeen before and by my eighteenth birthday they were 38DD's."
I just told her that variety was nice and that I appreciated all of them from the largest to the smallest of each and every part of their delicious anatomies. She wore me out again.
1974-YEAR 5-9th grade
The weather in the spring of 1974 was the same as always in the Ohio valley. Storms were nothing unusual and never had been, at least until now. We all knew what was going to happen on April third this time though. Our memories were vivid concerning the worst tornado outbreak in US history because we had already lived through it and seen the devastation it would leave behind. We also knew where the hardest hit areas would be and even though our little community had been largely spared, many had been wiped out in several states.
There was little we could do to warn people and absolutely nothing that could be done to mitigate the damage. In the end, we did what we could by calling every television and radio station possible on April 2nd. We also contacted the national weather service and the mayors of the worst hit towns but of course no one took us seriously until it was almost too late.
It had made a difference though. After emerging from the basement, news reports started coming in and the numbers of dead and injured were less than we remembered from before. We eventually found out that the towns that had no warning whatsoever the first time had sounded the alarm this time around, giving many people time to take cover who hadn�t had the opportunity before.
As usual, most of the fatalities were in mobile home parks or people who had been on the road. In several instances officials credited the �mysterious warning� as the factor which prevented a worse disaster. They might not have taken it seriously but it had made them more vigilant, even if on a subconscious level.
The summer was spent in Karate, archery, and gunnery practice along with vigorous daily workouts and of course, lots and lots of sex. We used a vacant field that belonged to us next to the house for target practice and had quite an arsenal of weapons. I had thought I was a pretty good shot until Kathy got the hang of it.
Before long she had me sweating to match her. None of us were her equal at firing from the hip. I think she was a reincarnated gunslinger.
Toward the end of our vacation Sensei Timmons sadly announced that our training was at an end. �I can�t teach you anymore� he said �you would need a master to get any better than you are now.� He suggested that we study other forms of martial arts to broaden our defenses and we left with a recommendation for a school and a promise to join us at our house occasionally.
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