The Hidden Journal, Copyright � 1998, Kellis

Daisy�s Sister

File D9104130.TXT

Sunday, January 16, 1972

Late yesterday morning the telephone rang.� An almost familiar woman�s voice asked, �Is this Harry Stone?�

I admitted it.

�This is Rose August � Rose Wheeler August, Daisy�s sister.�

I laid my book down on the telephone stand.� �Well, hi, Rose.� I�ve certainly heard about you.�

�I�ll bet,� she said dryly.

�All good!� I hastened to assure her.

�Was it?� How about my boobs being as big as hers?�

I chuckled, slightly embarrassed.� I�d never met this woman.� What if it was a prank?

She didn�t wait for my answer.� �I suppose you�d think that was good!�

�Yes.� Wouldn�t it reduce the sisters� natural competition?�

�If you had to hold them up all the time and find clothes that fit them along with standard-sized hips, you wouldn�t be so �� Hmm.� You may have a point there.� We shared outfits and sympathized with each other � after both reached full size.�

�When was that?�

�Hasn�t Daisy told you?�

�Hadn�t thought to ask her.�

�Want to know something a bit strange?� We were both more noticeable at fourteen than we are today.� That is, they�re fuller now but then they stuck straight out.�� She laughed, a husky contralto exactly like Daisy�s.� �I can�t believe I�m telling this to a strange man.�

�Yes, I gathered your husband wasn�t listening.�

For a moment she was silent.� �Didn�t Daisy tell you I�m separated?�

�She may have, Rose.� Excuse me.� I�m never sure how to respond to that.� Should I offer sympathy or congratulations?�

�It�s a defeat, Harry.� It means you�re talking to a stupid bimbo.�

�Hardly that!� It takes two to separate.�

She snorted.� �Thank you.�� I heard her take a breath.� �Listen, the reason I called is, I believe you have a key to Daisy�s apartment.�

�So do you.� Daisy told me.�

�Yes, I do, somewhere!� That�s what it�s about.� I�m supposed to water her oxalis today but I can�t find that key.�

�Her flowers?�

�Yes.�

�Want me to do it?�

�Could you?�

�Well �� Sure.� In principle.� I know flowers are the plant�s sex organs.� Beyond that my ignorance takes over.�

�Beyond that you probably don�t give a damn.�

�Now, Rose.� All flowers aren�t the same.�

�What you mean is that all men aren�t the same.� But they are when you�ve been without them long enough.�

Whoo! �I said, �How much water?� Where�s her pitcher?�

�You never noticed?�

�I noticed a lot of pink flowers but I never saw them watered.�

�Then you don�t have any idea how much water to use, do you?�

�I said I was ignorant.� I�m sorry.�

�Men always give too much.�

�Maybe so.� I always figured when you�re thirsty, too much is better than too little.�

�When you�re thirsty � it�s because you haven�t been getting enough.�

I couldn�t resist.� �Or because your expectations are high.�

�What do flowers expect?�

�Everyone expects what they get accustomed to.�

�Oh?� And what are you accustomed to?�

�Me?� I�m getting thirsty, too.�

She paused just as the game was becoming pleasant.� When she spoke her voice was lower in her throat.� �I know you mean well, Harry, but you�d drown the plants and make a mess.� How about just letting me in?�

�Well, ��

�That�s right, you don�t know me.� You come in, too.�

My turn to pause.� �Is that wise, Rose?�

�Hmm�� Daisy�s been in Europe for two weeks, hasn�t she?�

�Yes.�

�Is it getting hard for you?�

Actually there is another way to interpret that question!� My dick was about half erect, resonating to the tones of her voice, so like Daisy�s.� I noted, �She�s due back next Saturday.�

�Do you hear from her?�

�Yes.� She�s called and written.� Once, each.�

�She never was a great correspondent.�

�While you lived in Tampa?�

�Right off the air force base.� She did tell you I was separated!�

�I think so.� Last fall.�

�Last summer.� It�s been awhile.� Will you let me in, Harry?�

A while since what, exactly?

�If you wish, Rose.� We can tell her about it together.�

She chuckled throatily.� �I don�t think she�d be interested in hearing how we watered the flowers.�

�Don�t you?� I think she would.� When?�

�It�s almost lunch time.� Let me buy you lunch at that sandwich shop across the street from her place.�

�I�ll meet you there at noon.� Then we can argue about who pays.�

�It�s a date!�

I put down the phone and dropped into the chair.� This was a chance I�d been dreaming about repeatedly as the nights passed without Daisy.� But with her own sister!� Clearly this woman had the same idea.� Or was that my dick thinking?� Easy enough to find out.� But what if dick-brain was precisely correct?� Would I mortgage my future to Rose for a few minutes in her twat?� Probably, if she was enough like the one I yearned for on sleepless nights while whipping my dick into submission.

Or was it truly so serious?� Daisy had intimated more than once that her sister would be welcome in our bed, though I had understood her always to mean a threesome.� How would she feel about a twosome absent herself?

No, I decided.� I�d not cheat on Daisy � at least not with her own sister!

That decided, I shaved, showered, splashed the aftershave (I know) and appeared in the sandwich shop at 12:05.� A woman the same size as Daisy, also brunette but with a more heart-shaped face and a smaller mouth, appeared at 12:10.� I stood up beside my postage-stamp table that supported a single coke and waved to her.

�You�re Harry,� she cried, looking me up and down as she drew near.� �Little sister is doing all right!�

�Thank you, Rose.� You and she are both lovely.� Please join me.�

She came to my table and folded a surprisingly luxurious mink coat into an unused chair.� I saw that her superstructure, even behind a heavy sweater, was of Daisyish proportions.� When she was seated I beckoned to the waitress.� Rose smiled.� �We�re much alike, aren�t we?�

I nodded agreement.� �You�re the older?�

�By a year less one day.� Mom claims Dad got impatient but I believe she was the anxious one.�

I laughed.� �You�re Daisy�s sister, all right.� I�ve seldom known women so frankly spoken.�

�Does it bother you, Harry?�

�I think it�s charming.�

��Charming.��� Her eyebrows rose.� �That�s an old-fashioned word.�

�In many ways I�m an old fashioned man.�

She nodded.� �So Daisy says.� She told me about your macho infidelity theory.�

I shook my head.� �I never claimed it.�

�I thought you did!� I�m interested in the part about the man�s infidelity being of no importance.�

�You didn�t find it so?� I suggested, pretending to misunderstand her.

She frowned and looked away.� �He wasn�t the one.� At least, I didn�t catch him.�

�Sorry.�� The waitress had finally noticed us.� I said, �I�ll have a ham and cheese sandwich with lots of mustard.� The tuna melt is pretty good if you want to go light.�

She ordered the tuna melt, but not very lightly.� She added bacon and cucumber slices.� Exactly like her sister.

During lunch we exchanged backgrounds.� Her life was what I knew of Daisy�s in nearly every detail up to the sophomore year at State, when Rose�s steady got her pregnant.� They decided to have it and both dropped out of school.� He joined the air force and they got married on his leave from basic training � or whatever they call it in the air force.� Serious kids!

The proximate cause of all that disruption was spontaneously aborted when Rose�s new husband fell asleep and drove into a parked ten-wheeler at 60 m.p.h.

�I wish I had a real drink,� she declared, staring at her watery coke.� A tear trembled on her eyelash.

�What happened to him?�

He was decapitated by the truck undercarriage.� Rose survived it.� All the lasting bruises were internal:� to her soul and her uterus.� No more children.

�Good god, Rose!� I exclaimed, laying my hand upon hers.� �I�m sorry!�

�Thank you.�� She turned her hand over and clasped mine.

Very fortunately they had been legally married.� She took the insurance and her survivor status and moved into military housing near the base to which he had been assigned.� She married again, a fighter pilot of all people!� But he was more than tolerable when he was home.� She was the cause of their separation, though she wouldn�t say exactly what her offense had been.

�He�s still flying?�

�But not for uncle.� Now he�s an airline pilot.�� She chuckled grimly.� �Though I hear he�s on probation.� Has this terrible habit of doing victory rolls when he approaches the base.�

�Are you serious?�

�I�m told he actually did one with 94 passengers aboard.� Of course the airline hushed it up.�

I described my near miss last year at Newark, when the plane rolled up on its side, actually scraping a wing tip, to avoid someone taxiing on a cross-runway.� �Maybe that was a similar problem.�

�Huh!� He turned the plane completely upside down!�

I had to agree, that sounded a bit drastic.

�At Newark?� Do you travel a lot, Harry?�

So we discussed me:� nothing that needs these curlicues.

She insisted on paying.� �I know you make a good salary, Harry, but guess what:� I invested that insurance money!�� She grinned at me.� �I bought Kinsong when it was two dollars a share.�

Good god!� I�d been chastising myself for not doing the same � that I was in school and broke at the time being no consolation.� Kinsong is the great success story of the age.� It closed at 72 on Friday after splitting four times in the last two years.� And everyone knows what a military widow gets.� She�d had ten grand to invest!

I took her right hand, kissed it and grinned at her.� �First time I ever kissed a hand that can write million dollar checks.�

She snatched it back.� �Don�t tell me I�ve just bought Daisy�s boyfriend!�

We both laughed.� Had she?

She added, �Besides, you�re wrong.� I�m left-handed.�

On the stroll across the street I asked brashly, �Do you differ from Daisy anywhere other than the checkbook?�

She snorted.� �What a question!� Aside from being slightly older?� Well, yes.� Daisy has always admitted I�m also slightly prettier.� What do you think?�

I shook my head.� ��What a stupid question,� is what you mean.� It�s just that I noticed how exactly like Daisy you walk.� When you stepped up to the curb there, you even twisted your heel back and forth just as she does.�

�You�ve studied her closely, have you?�

�Make no mistake, Rose.� I love her.�

�So she told me.� There�s another difference, Harry.� She can bear you a child.�

I kept quiet for that one.� She grinned.� �Not that it makes any difference in the short run.�

�But you�re a person who takes the long view,� I noted.� �What made you buy Kinsong when everyone thought it was worthless?�

�My new husband.�

�Really?�

�His uncle was a VP.� I actually got it for a buck sixty.�

Remarkable!� She could�ve bought more than 60 lots, now worth about seven mil after doubling four times.

We passed one of Daisy�s neighbors in the lobby.� She stared at me, at Rose�s coat then Roses�s face, and did a double-take.� Rose chuckled and took my arm.� The stare turned into a glare.

As we waited for the elevator, Rose whispered, �Wonder how soon she tells Daisy.�

�I�m more concerned with what she tells Daisy!�

�Oh, that�s easy.� You took a strange woman into Daisy�s apartment, probably into her bed!�

I choked as Rose laughed gaily.� She leaned closer.� �She�ll probably have us kissing in the lobby.�

She looked up at me roguishly.� I braced but saw motion beyond her.� �The dingle just left,� I announced as the front door clicked shut.

�The dingle?�

�That�s Daisy�s name for her.� She has several sets of wind chimes on her balcony.�

�Has she!� Have you spent much time on the balcony?�

�Last summer.� In the evenings.� It�s above the bugs.�

�Not above much else, I bet!�

The door opened before that went deeper.� We were alone on the elevator.� I leaned close, sniffed ostentatiously and sighed.

She smiled up at me and shook her head.� �I�m sorry, Harry.� I shouldn�t�ve done that.�

�You knew it was the same perfume?�

�I do now.� I gave her the Chanel Number Five Christmas before last.� But I didn�t set out to make it hard for you.�

�Didn�t you?�

She chuckled.� �A separated woman, apparently as you said not getting her customary share:� do you think I mean to seduce you?�

�Ah, no.� Why ever would I think that?� It�s the plant�s sex organs that need watering.� You told me so yourself.� What was the name of them again?�

�Actually, you know, it�s roots that need wetting!� Oxalis.� Red and pink.�

�Yes, like ��

�Something else?�

�I was thinking of orchids.�

�Were you!�

We both laughed.� She explained, �Oxalis comes in all colors except blue.� I have some yellow ones in my window box.�

�I only remember red and pink.�

She nodded.� �Trust a man to obsess on one kind.�

�Isn�t that how women prefer them?�

�Well, it depends.�

�On the man?�

�On the woman.� I�ve known some who�ll have only one color, but as for me, I like a variety.�

I agreed dryly, �I�m beginning to understand that.�

�Do you, Harry?�

When the door opened we marched off the elevator.� Daisy�s door was only a few steps along the hall.� I took out my key chain but Rose�s hand came out of her purse ahead of me, slipped a key in the lock and pushed the door open.� She passed into the apartment and turned around to regard me.

�You found your key.�

�Yes.� Would you believe I called you back?�

�You were late at the restaurant.� Why not?�� I grinned teasingly.� �When you saw how charming I was, you decided not to send me home.�

�You�re partly right.� Come in and close the door.�

I obeyed her.� She threw her coat on the couch.� I stopped just inside.� �Rose, is this wise?�

She regarded me over her shoulder.� �I�m supposed to ask that.�

�You know Daisy better than I do.�

She nodded and proceeded directly to the liquor cabinet, saying, �Yes, that�s true, Harry, more than you can guess.� And you need to learn some of it.�

I came up beside her.� She was spouting jiggers of Pinch into two shot glasses.� �What do I need to know?�

�Here.�� She handed me one.� �Let�s drink to our acquaintance.�

I took it, touched it to hers.� Best to humor her.� �Our acquaintance,� I said, and threw it back concurrently with her.

I observed, �Daisy even told you I like scotch neat.�

�So does she.� And I.� We�ve been drinking it that way for years, Harry.� Did she teach it to you?�

In fact Rose was right.� I�d done little more than taste scotch whisky before I met her sister.� Daisy it was who introduced me to the incredible aromatic effects of the good stuff.� So I admitted it.

�Want another?� she asked.

�No, thanks.�

�Well, come on.� That oxalis truly is getting dry.�

�You still haven�t told me what it is I need to know.�

�Harry, that�s why I asked you to come up here with me.�

�Serious as that, is it?�

�Yes.�

�Darn!� I was hoping you wanted to play.�

Her eyes narrowed.� She had quit smiling.� �You don�t sound serious, Harry.�

�Don�t I?�

�No, you don�t.� If you really wanted that, it would make a big difference.� You might even get it.� But that�s all.�

�Hmm.� Implying that I�d miss something?�

She grunted.� �Instead of me.�

I said admiringly, �Lady, you are the deep one!�

�Am I?� Maybe you haven�t listened as closely to Daisy as you should have.�

I shook my head.� �Ambiguity.�

�What?�

�Women never quite say what they want, even relatively plain-spoken ones such as Daisy and you.�

She flashed a smile.� �We want to keep our options open.�

�Yes, you do,� I agreed, �forever.�

�Well, just now I want to water some flowers.� Come along and see how it�s done.�

�I�m not sure it�s wise to learn this.� Plant�s sex organs are of no interest to me.�

�Well, sit in the den and listen, at least.�

I took a seat on the couch while she filled a pitcher in the kitchen.� In a moment she appeared, one hand catching the drip, and marched to the flower boxes under the line of east-facing windows.� She poured gently, hardly more than a trickle.

�I�m listening,� I said after a while.

�I�m thinking how to begin,� she responded, suspending her operations momentarily to look at me.

�Some terrible revelation, Rose?�

�Many would think so, Harry.�

�Then hold your peace, if it�s about Daisy.�� I grinned deliberately.� �If it�s about you stealing her boyfriends, go ahead.�

�I�ve never stolen her boyfriend, Harry.� It�s about both her and me.�� She released her breath.� �She thinks a lot of you, says you�re a very nice guy who takes good care of her.� Because of that, and because you�re not comfortable with cheating on her, at least not with her sister ��

�How do you know?� I interrupted.

�Huh!� That�s just two-weeks-without-any talking.� I know because you haven�t touched me despite several veiled invitations.�

�Well veiled!�

�Don�t play dumb.� We�ve been hinting at it and you know it!�

�Go on.�

�Because you�re a nice guy, you deserve to know what you�re getting into � and Daisy deserves to know your reaction to it � before either of you overcommit.�

�Overcommit?�

�I understand you�ve asked her to marry you.�

�That is correct.�� I grinned sardonically.� �Having tried it twice, do you consider marriage an overcommitment?�

She nodded.� �It can be.� What you don�t know can hurt you!� It�s what hurt my second one.�

�What you didn�t know?�

�What he didn�t know!�

�I see.�

�No, you don�t.� Not yet.� But you will, I hope.�

She turned back to the flowers, trickling the water carefully along the inner edge of each planter.� I moved to a chair at one end of the line where I could see her face.

�You�re beginning to make me curious,� I admitted.

She put the pitcher down, came and stood directly before me, staring into my eyes.� �Harry, as the world sees it, Hardy, Daisy and I were terribly abused as children.�

Hardy is the nickname of Daisy�s brother, Agnes�s father.� I still haven�t met him, though I�ve met his daughter too thoroughly.

I retorted, �I took a few licks myself.�

�On your penis?�

I stared back.� �No.�� But I had to add, �Not by those in authority.� That is what you mean, isn�t it?�

�This is hard.�� She backed away.� �I�ve only told this once before.� Even we siblings haven�t discussed it.� Come sit on the couch with me.�

I followed her back to the couch.� We sat apart, turned toward each other so that our knees were almost touching.� She said, �If you repeat any of this I�ll deny it.�� Her eyes narrowed.� �Nothing can be proven.� The prime movers are dead and the others won�t talk.� If you repeat it I�ll charge you with defamation, and I can afford the best lawyers.�

�Don�t threaten me, Rose.� If you doubt me, say nothing further.�

�I�m sorry.� You�re right;� if I doubted you I�d�ve stopped already.�� She took a deep breath.� �It was our parents and grandparents, Harry.�

I waited.� Her eyes scanned mine.� �We were raised in a big house in Plainview.� Has Daisy mentioned it?�

�Not that I recall.�

�Our father�s parents owned it.� We lived with them in that big house.� They were Exxians, Harry.�

�Spell it.�

When she had, I commented, �Odd name.� Then where did �Wheeler� come from?�

�You never heard of the Exxians?�

�I don�t recall ��

�Not surprising.� �Wheeler� was our family name.� Still is, of course, except mine.� The Exxians are a kind of religious organization, a secret one, secret because it has very unusual views about sexual relations.�

I�m sure my eyes widened with interest.� �Like those people in Canada � what�s the name, Shakers? � who never get any?�

�More the opposite,� she answered dryly.� �The Exxians� symbol is a big X, supposed to represent four turned-in penises.� People are connected through their penises.�

�How about the ones who don�t have any?�

�They�re supposed to be the holders, or some such, on Sunday mornings, at least.�

�Hmm.� Sounds interesting.�

�I�m just getting started.� They get together in somebody�s house once a week and have what amounts to an orgy.�

�That�s a little unusual,� I admitted.� �How many?�

�Oh, when we were young, typically about six couples and their kids.� An Exxian house has a room large enough for that many or more.�

�Lot�s of couches?�

�Built-in beds.� Every penis in the house had to be held in a vagina at least ten minutes on Sunday mornings.�

�Even children?�

�If it could straighten, whether child�s or man�s, it had to be put into a woman.� Or a girl.�

�What if the man was sick?�

�That didn�t matter, if he could get it up.�

�Just any vagina?�

�No.� The Exxians prohibited incest after puberty.� Father or mother and child were forbidden if a girl had passed menarche or a boy had once ejaculated, or both if brother and sister.�

�So a boy could inseminate his sister, providing she had never bled.�

�Yes.�

�That�s not rigorous.�

�If you mean that incestuous conception might occur, I�m sure that some slipped through, especially on nearly mature sisters and daughters.�

�What did they do with a pregnant twelve-year old?�

�She�d miss school for a year and return with a doctor�s certificate for scarlet fever, or some such.�

�And the baby?�

�The girl�s mother would raise it as her own.� I knew a girl whose �big sister� was actually her mother.�

�Otherwise any vagina?�

�Yes.� All week a married couple would be faithful but on Sunday at the �meeting� they renewed their faith, as they put it.�

�Sounds complicated.� How�d they arrange it � draw lots?�

She nodded.� �That was done sometimes.� Just about everything was tried.� But rotation was considered most fair.�

�What kind of theology went with it?�

�Nature is the god and vice-versa.� Humans must behave in harmony with nature�s great creation, as interpreted by the flock leader from the writings of Hiram X.�

�Hiram X?� Hmm.� Was Malcolm X an Exxian?�

�Wasn�t he a Moslem?� I remember now;� the Exxians were indignant about it.� Malcolm�s crowd changed their last names to �X� because their existing names had derived from white slave holders.�

�Are all the Exxians white?�

�They were here.� But it�s not a requirement.� Exxians believe blacks and whites are both products of Nature.�

�I heard that capital!� So who was Hiram X?� Presumably the first Exxian.�

�I don�t know about that.� He was the Exxian with the all time largest penis.�

�I might have known!� And your �flock leader� was the local man with the biggest?�

�That�s right.�

I had to grin.� �Who held the scale?�

She shook her head.� �No scale.� The nubile women voted.�

I had to nod.� �That makes sense.�� My nod became a chuckle.� �An interesting way to limit the franchise!� Did they have challenges from upstart erections?�

She grinned.� �No, as I recall it, an ambitious man had to persuade a woman to complain.�

�Marvelous!� The flock leader had to keep the flock relatively satisfied, did he?� God, what a job!�

She shook off my levity.� �Do you understand what this means about Daisy?�

�Hmm.� I don�t know that I do.�

�She had sexual relations with her brother, her father, her grandfather and every male in several Exxian families, often in demand because men can�t outgrow their infantile fixation on boobs, from age four, about, up until she was fifteen.�

�Lucky bastards!�

Her eyes narrowed.� �That�s pretty flippant!�

�Maybe so, but it�s heartfelt!� Age four, did you say?�

�About.� She might have been younger.� A girl�s virginity was taken whenever she was needed to right the male-female balance.� Of course the oldest was always taken first.�

�Sounds terribly cold-blooded!�

�Do you know, it was done very tenderly with a wax instrument the week before she actually had to serve.�

�Such a little girl!� That doesn�t sit well at all.�

�She didn�t either for a day or two.� But, Harry, I understand it�s less painful than what most girls endure.�

�You remember it, do you?�

�Certainly.� I was fascinated.� And very proud.�

I grunted.� �Hard to argue with a woman about it!� What happened at fifteen?�

�When Daisy was fifteen and I sixteen, Grandfather died of a heart attack one Sunday morning and Grandmother killed herself that night.�

�Good god!�

�It caused a stink that the Exxians couldn�t quite hush up.� The cops went to a lot of trouble trying to detect foul play.� They were able to determine that a big crowd had been in the house;� our place had the most comfortable meeting room.� But nobody would talk to them, of course.� So they wanted to interrogate the little kids separately.� Two judges refused to believe that such ordinary middle-class people could be guilty of what the cops suspected.� That�s all that saved them.� The cops leaked it to the newspapers but without corroboration the editors had to sit on it.� It was very close!� The Exxians had to lay low for a while.

�Daisy, the youngest, was well past menarche, of course, so even for her the incest was finished.� Mother and Dad �� I guess they never fully agreed with the faith, though Mother was from another Exxian family.� When the Exxians voted to disband for two years, we moved, and that was the end of that.� Dad called us together and told us we would henceforth cease to defy the rest of the world.� No Exxian would ever be welcome in our house.� End of era.� Don�t even mention it again.� And we haven�t.

�Except for two cases.� In a weak moment I told my husband about it last spring.� I had no idea he was such a prig about things in the past with no bad effects, nor that he had such a temper.� He went to my brother�s house, called him out and kicked the shit out of him.� He was arrested, paid the fine and never came back to me.� In April he plans to sue me for divorce on the grounds of a year�s separation, claiming half my Kinsong holdings as community property.�

�You can probably beat that if you bought it all with your own money.�

�So the lawyers tell me.�

�He didn�t explain himself to you?�

�Yes, he did, if you call it an explanation.�� Her eyes glittered with angry tears.� �He spoke of my body �befouled by my own family� and his �befouled by extension.�� Touching me induced �intolerable images of past lewdness.�� He actually vomited on the floor in our living room.�

�Did your brother sue him?�

�No, of course not.� Jim would love such a bully pulpit.�

I shook my head.� �That�s tough, Rose.� Did he threaten Daisy?�

�He threatened the whole family.�

�Well, if he comes to beat Daisy, he�ll find me waiting � with a .45.�

Her eyes scanned mine.� �You�d fight for her, Harry?�

�At the first insult.�

She sighed.� �You don�t feel she�s been degraded beyond recovery?�

�She�s not degraded at all.� And your Jim � that�s his name?�

�Jim August.� But he�s not my Jim.�

�Jim August is stupid.� The only place a woman can be degraded is in her own mind.� That certainly has not happened to Daisy and it obviously has not happened to you.�

�No, it hasn�t.�� She smiled tremulously.

�What�s the second case?�

�The second � oh.� This is the second case.�

I frowned.� �What do you mean?� Are you worried I�ll assault you or Daisy when she returns?�

�What�s your reaction?�

I shrugged.� �You�ve heard it.�

Her chin came up.� �Harry, I�ll tell you now:� Daisy is fortunate to�ve found you.� I agree with Hardy.� I support your suit for her hand.�

��Suit for her hand!�� Now who�s being old-fashioned!�

She chuckled.� �May I kiss you?�

I got to my feet and pulled her up beside me.� �As brother- and sister-in-law?�

�Hopefully,� she added, coming into my arms and meeting my lips.� It was a fairly long kiss, as chaste kisses go, a �get acquainted� kiss, I think.� We�ll probably never have another like it.

I walked her to her Cadillac, a huge custom-decorated convertible.� Lavender, would you believe!� We parted with another kiss and a commitment to meet, myself with all three Wheelers, shortly after Daisy returns.� An interesting family!� Think I�ve already mentioned some of the puns to be made on their name.� Wonder what�s in their family album.� Nothing interesting, I guess, or the cops would�ve used it.

I�ll have to write this up in the open diary, but I�ll be brief.� All we actually did was water the oxalis.

Now I know who taught Daisy to suck dicks so well � correction:� who served as her experimental subject.� Presumably I�ll be shaking his hand in a few weeks.� Unfortunately there�s no way I can thank him.

But who taught his daughter?� Apparently Daisy�s father didn�t stamp out all the Exxian influence!