# Car 54

####
© 2005 / revised 2014
K Pelle

### Chapter 30:
Switchback Ahead - Approach With Caution

It took a little time to calm Sandy down and convince her to trust herself, but in the long run, we were all sitting on the bench seat with her between Carissa and me. Each of us had one arm around her, and each of us was holding one of her hands. Once she had calmed down, she began to talk.

"I've been thinking about what I said before, and I think Mom was probably conditioned herself, not only by her mother and her family, but by one of the people in her neighbourhood too. You see toward the end of World War II, one of the neighbours had a relative come to live with them who had escaped from Germany. The neighbours had a little bit of money by then and they hired Mom to help look after the old woman because she needed someone with her all the time. The old woman was quite ill since she'd been forced to work in one of Hitler's youth camps even though she was Jewish, but since she was Jewish she was treated poorly."

"She was Jewish and she worked with the Nazis?" I stared at her.

"Yeah, but I think it was either work with them or get put in a camp and be treated the same way as the other Jews," Sandy sniffled. "I think she was a psychiatrist or something like that, but I don't know for sure. I never met her, in fact she died before I was born. Her job in the camps was to calm down the young women who were brought there and try to make them happy to have babies fathered by the men that the Nazis chose to impregnate them. I think the old lady probably exerted a lot of influence on Mom's thinking, but I also think Mom picked up some tricks from her about influencing people."

"What makes you think that?" Carissa whispered.

"Well for one thing, Mom wasn't going out at all before she started working with the old lady, but after she was there for a few weeks she started dating guys," Sandy frowned. "It wasn't long after the old woman died before Mom met Daddy. I know Daddy had a reputation for being wild at the time and I think Mom going out with him was something of a scandal. The scandal got worse when Mom got pregnant with me, but somehow she talked Daddy into marrying her. I know that nobody in her family expected the marriage to work out, but it did. I think Mom helped to reshape Daddy's character and got him to calm down a lot.

"After that Daddy got a decent job, then his parents helped furnish and set up a home, even if Mom wasn't all that happy that the house was rented. When I was born I like to think that I calmed Daddy down a bunch, but I guess that's just happenstance. I do know he treats me special, but he's just as happy with the twins even if they do make him a little crazy sometimes. Anyway he went from being a wild single bachelor, who couldn't hold down a job, to being a good reliable worker and a decent father. Maybe I'm wrong, but it seems to me that Mom was always talking to him at night when he came home, calming him down and soothing his ego. I think Mom worked as hard or harder to get him to stick out the job as he did. I don't know for certain, but I think Chris's dad helped Daddy get the job he has now and maybe even helped my parents get the mortgage to buy our house when we moved here. I do know that Mom thinks Mr. Crawford is a great guy. I mean she treats Beth and Chris like they can walk on water."

"Oh come on now," I snorted.

"She does though. I can even give you an example of what I mean," Sandy protested. "I've thought back and as long as I can remember, Mom has always sat and talked to us when she tucked us in at night. While we were getting ready for bed and even after we were in bed Mom used to be there, talking to us and helping us relax. When we moved into town I was in grade two and the twins were in kindergarten so they were going to bed before I was and she used to tell us stories until we fell asleep."

"Most mom's do that when their kids are young," Carissa frowned, interrupting Sandy. "Mom used to read to us every night, fairy tales and stuff like that."

"Oh Mom read us stories, but all of them were Cinderella sort of stories. They were always about the poor girl who married the rich prince and about how they lived happily ever after. After we moved here her stories changed and she always managed to mention Chris or Tom."

"But we're not rich!" I protested.

"You are compared to us," Sandy snapped, then she looked shocked. "Sorry, I didn't mean to argue with you, but you are well off and you're a real nice guy too."

"I can't argue with that at all," Carissa laughed softly. "But even with all that, why do you think you've been conditioned?"

"Well you worked at the hospital with me, did you ever remember me 'coming on' to any of the young guys we treated?" Sandy asked.

"No, you were always shy."

"Unh huh, I sure was, but when Chris came into the hospital I lost my shyness," Sandy looked about ready to cry again. "Ask him. He'll tell you I even wanted to help him use the bedpan. Then I peeked in on him every time I had a chance. If he was awake, I went in and talked to him. I even kissed him two or three times when he was asleep and once when he was awake. Then when I went home and told Mom about the screw up with the medicine that made him so sick, I was so upset that she had to hold me in her arms and rock me to sleep."

"Actually I was quite upset about that myself and I wasn't even there," Carissa smiled. "Beth and Corinna were darn upset then too."

"Yeah, but you guys all had a reason. After all Chris is Beth's brother and you were certain that Chris had saved you from being ridiculed by everyone. To all of you guys he was your hero. I was just someone who was supposed to be caring for him. I wasn't supposed to get so involved. Heck, if he would have let me help him with that stupid bedpan, I'd have given him a blowjob," suddenly she was blushing.

"Right there?" Carissa giggled. "Even if there was a chance for you to get caught?"

"Unh huh," Sandy giggled, then she sobered. "The strange thing is that I told Mom how I felt and what I wanted to do, she wasn't even shocked about it. She asked me if Chris got hard when I told her about the bed pan, then said that I might have had to give him a hand job or a blow job before he could use the bedpan."

"She did?" Carissa just stared at her and so did I, but I was feeling shocked and embarrassed.

"She did more than that too," Sandy giggled again. "She told me how to do it, even showed me."

"She didn't!" Carissa sounded shocked.

"Oh yes she did," Sandy hid her head in her hands so her voice was muffled, but she went on speaking. "She took one of my fingers and told me what to do, then she showed me, actually using my finger so I could feel what she was doing with her lips and tongue. When I asked her where she learned all that, she told me that the old Jewish woman had shown her and that she was passing on knowledge that I could use to get a man."

"Oh migawd!" Carissa squawked, then giggled. "She didn't, did she?"

"Oh yeah. She did," Sandy lifted her head and licked her lips, then both of them were giggling and looking at me strangely.

"What?" I wondered, completely embarrassed by the whole thing.

The two of them ignored my question. Instead, they turned to face each other. I think there was a silent question in Carissa's eyes, but although I could see that Sandy was grinning, her face turned toward Carissa so I couldn't tell much about her expression. Neither of them spoke, but suddenly they both got to their feet then turned toward me.

"We're going for a walk," Carissa said, obviously wanting their converstion to be private.

"Go ahead, but I'm not," I answered firmly. "I'm still feeling too tired after last night. In fact I might just go lay down, then you two can sit here and talk without me overhearing anything."

"Oh, I know you're tired," Carissa leaned over and kissed me lightly. "You really didn't get much sleep last night, did you?"

"No, not really. Actually, I think I might have slept about two hours, then I had that nap today, but even with that, I'm bushed. I was trying to be polite because we have a visitor, but ..."

"So! Go to bed. You certainly don't have to be polite and stay up because I'm here," Sandy interrupted. "Carissa can keep me company. I certainly don't want you to stay up just be polite, not since you're exhausted."

I looked at her, then at Carissa and made up my mind to take their advice. I hugged them both, kissing Carissa on the lips and Sandy on the cheek, wished them both goodnight, then went inside. Ten minutes later I was sacked out.

When I awoke in the morning, I was on the very edge of the bed. I could feel Carissa spooned tightly against my back as her arm draped over my body, gently caressing my morning erection. At least, I thought it was Carissa, until I turned my head and saw Sandy's tousled red hair and sleeping face lying next to me. That's when I flung off the covers and leapt out of bed. A second glance proved to me that Carissa was in the bed as well, but she was snuggled on the other side of Sandy and not against me as I'd first assumed.

I suppose by diving out of the bed and rather violently throwing the covers off, I shocked them enough to awaken them. At least they were both sleepily looking up at me in a second or two.

"Hi," Sandy said very tentatively as she blushed.

"G'morning," Carissa slurred. "Don't blame Sandy. It was my idea for her to sleep next to you."

"Holy humping hell, what is going on?" I barked, trying to cover my morning wood from Sandy's gaze with both hands.

"Sandy was feeling lonely and wanted to sleep with us," Carissa sat up and stretched. "And there's no sense in trying to hide that thing, I made certain that Sandy saw what it looked like last night. The only problem was, you were uncooperative. You just rolled over and went to sleep, so we were left frustrated and had to sleep with a big snoring lump."

"Why did you do something like that?" I stared at her in astonishment.

"Because Sandy had never seen a guy's cock before and she'd never slept in the same bed with a guy either," Carissa shrugged. "It's not like she was going to do anything, not with me right here. What are you so worried about? Nothing happened and you weren't hurt in any way?"

I just stared at her, unable to express the feeling that somehow I'd been taken advantage of as I slept. I knew that if I stayed there and discussed it with the two of them right then we'd end up arguing. I didn't want to start my day like that. Instead I just shook my head and grabbed my clothes, then I walked out of the bedroom and closed the door behind me.

I threw on my clothes out in the kitchen, then put the kettle on to make coffee. Leaving it to perk, I walked outside for my habitual short walk, then returned to the front porch, but didn't go back inside right away. I was still trying to get a handle on what had happened to us in the last twenty-four hours and especially what had happened the night before.

I really didn't understand Carissa's actions. Right at the moment it seemed to me that Carissa was playing around with Sandy's dreams of romance. On top of that it seemed to me that they were both using me as a pawn, which was really upsetting.

Mostly though I was remembering that Carissa had done something similar before, only that time it had been with her twin sister. That whole episode had turned out very badly. Carissa had told me then that she wasn't the jealous sort, but after something had happened she'd shown feelings that were at odds to her words. At the same time, I felt that our actions might have been the final straw that triggered Corinna's suicide attempt. Since I felt that a similar thing could happen in this case, I certainly didn't want to be involved in a another attempted suicide. The other situation had been too damn painful for everyone involved.

I was still thinking about the situation when Carissa came outside with two mugs of coffee.

"Sorry about last night," she apologised as she handed me one of the mugs. "I guess you're pretty annoyed aren't you?"

I just shrugged my shoulders, then sighed deeply. I really didn't know what else to do.

"I did come into the bedroom alone and ask you if Sandy could sleep with us, you know. You said uh huh, so I took that to mean it was okay. I sure didn't want you to wake up and be pissed off like this," she insisted. "I guess I should have made sure that you were awake, huh?"

"Yeah, you should have," I growled, not feeling at all mollified.

"I'm sorry," she grabbed my hand. "I don't want to lose what we have, but I guess last night might have been a mistake."

"Yeah," I muttered softly. "We've been through this same sort of thing before. I didn't like it then and I don't like it now."

"You mean with Corinna?"

"Yeah," I snapped. "That's exactly what I mean."

"But this was totally different," she frowned as she looked at me.

"I don't see that much difference."

"Well, Corinna expected sex and I was willing to help her get it. I was very explicit with Sandy and told her that sex was your choice, not mine," Carissa sighed. "Last night she just needed to feel what it was like to have someone sleeping at her side all night long."

"Carissa, I woke up this morning with her hand feeling me up."

"Well I can't say I blame her," she giggled slightly. "I mean a guy has this fascinating piece of flesh down there that seems to do the strangest things. It has a mind of its own too. Last night it wouldn't cooperate when I tried to make it grow just to show her what it looked like."

"But that's just it, in some ways you treat me like a toy or a possession, something that you can share around with others. I'm not! I'm a person. I need to share in the decisions that we make about each other, especially decisions that involve our bodies and feelings."

"But I did ask," she protested.

"I was asleep," I growled. "To make a decision like that I need to be wide awake so my brain is functioning. After that mess with Corinna, I'm surprised that you even asked."

"Why do you keep comparing the two happenings? They aren't alike at all. Corinna is my sister and I knew she wanted sex, but we've always shared. Sandy is a friend and she didn't want sex, she only wanted a cuddle."

"Maybe they aren't alike to you, but they are to me," I shook my head. "Heck, even last night sex was involved. You did say that you showed Sandy my dick and tried to get me aroused, didn't you?"

"Umm, yeah, I sorta did do that," she admitted. "But, it's still not the same thing."

"No, it isn't exactly the same thing, but it's close," I sighed. "I think what it boils down to is that I was raised to be a one woman guy and you seem to be more like those hippies and the wierd cults in the States who believe in free love."

"Well not really, but just what do you see wrong about the idea of free love?" she asked.

"To start with, people like Corinna and Sandy would get hurt."

"I think you're misjudging both of them. Corinna was ill and I think Sandy is a lot more resilient than you're giving her credit for."

"Look Carissa, right now all this is doing is confusing me. I really don't understand why you're so much in favour of bringing extra people into our bed."

"I'm doing it because it's natural, dammit. Just look at your fucking horses. How many mares can one stallion service? Look at your cattle, or your chickens, or your pig, or even the damn dogs; the males dominate the females and one male dominates the rest. Most of all look at wild animals. In almost all cases, there's one dominant male who dominates and breeds the whole female herd, or pack, or whatever a group is called. The animals that don't act that way are exceptions!" she snapped. "Of all the animals I can think of, you're most like a lead wolf of the pack. You're a natural leader and you're going to collect followers. So I'm doing it because I want to be the next in line to the leader of the pack. If you're the dominant male, then I want to be the dominant female."

"Huh," I grunted, not liking the way her argument was going.

"Face the facts, Chris. Whether you like it or not, you're a dominant male. I know it and so does every woman who meets you," she stood up and faced me then. "I'm a strong woman and it's natural for me to want what's best for my man. I've picked you as my man and damn it, I plan to make sure you get what's best for you."

"Whoa there, back up. What do you mean when you say I'm dominant?"

"Oh for cripes sake, Chris. Look at what happens in your family. The only one you aren't dominant toward is Grampa Bender and sometimes I'm not sure about him. For any of the others all you have to do is suggest something and the whole damn family scrambles to make it happen."

"Wait a minute, what about Mom and Dad?"

"You're still dominant, even for them. Oh you respect them as your parents and relinquish part of your dominance, because of your age and experience, but you still remain the center of the active family decisions," she paused and took a deep breath. "However like I said, I'm a strong person, even dominant. That means that I want to be partially in control in our relationship, but I don't mind being subservient to you."

"So what else are you going to tell me?" I snapped, still uncertain about the dominance thing.

"Well, while I'm explaining, there is one other thing that involves me personally and will affect our relationship, but it might shock you," she sighed heavily and frowned deeply.

"Yeah what's that? I might as well hear all of your opinions."

"Well until I met you, I thought I was a lesbian. In general terms I like women much more than I do men. Since you're so dominant, you turned out to be the exception," she flushed bright red as she spoke. "Even so I want at least one woman involved in any permanent relationship we have."

With that she grabbed the two empty coffee mugs, turned, and went inside the cabin. I was left staring after her, my whole world turned upside down and set spinning by her words. Talk about a double whammy! First she tells me that I dominate everyone around me. Then she goes on to mention that she likes women as much or more than she does men.

I was stunned. No, to say I was stunned doesn't express how completely flustered and utterly astonished I felt. I was virtually disconcerted. I literally couldn't believe what I'd just heard. I must have sat in complete disbelief for several minutes before Carissa came back out of the house with the two coffee mugs in her hands.

"I brought you a refill because I thought you'd need it," she said quietly. "I think perhaps we should talk some more. Sandy went out the back door for a walk and will leave us alone for a while."

"Unh, yeah. Thanks for the coffee," I looked at her quizzically.

"I'm still the same person, you know," she said flatly, perhaps she wondered if I was seeing her as changed in some way. "I haven't changed, just your knowledge about me has changed."

"No, actually I wasn't thinking about that," I shook my head in negation. "I almost expected you to come out with something else to shock me."

"Oh I don't think I could do that. I think you're going to have a hard enough time accepting one revelation like that a day."

"Hah, then why did you throw two major slam dunks at me so early in the day?"

"Two?"

"Yeah, first you said I had a dominant personality, then you hit me with the second item about you and other women."

"Well I thought you knew about being dominant," she leaned back against the porch rail and sipped her coffee.

"But I don't feel that I am dominant, not really," I frowned at her. "I've always felt that I try to think problems through, then present solutions. I don't try to be overly forceful or anything."

"Oh you aren't. You just have the ability to convince people to see things your way. The only time I see you giving way on anything is if you aren't personally committed to an idea," she frowned then. "I didn't mean to give you the impression that I thought you were physically forceful in a domineering way, because you aren't. Instead you out-think anyone around you and convince them that your approach to a problem is better than theirs."

"Oh, you gave me a completely different impression when you talked about domination. In fact I think the word domination carries a different meaning to me than it does to you. To me domination is forcing people to do things against their will, while I convince people to do things my way."

"Well whatever way you manage to do it, you still get your way. For instance right now you're almost managing to convince me that you're right and I'm wrong," she smiled wryly and shook her head. "It's not that I'm saying that you're a bad person in any way either. I don't think that at all. I suppose that dominant isn't a good description, I guess very intelligent and extremely charismatic would describe you in a better way."

"Well thank you. To me those descriptive words have a positive connotation, not a negative one."

"Is that so damn important to you?"

"Yeah in a way it is. I'm not just sure why, but I suppose it's because I like to think of myself as a nice guy, not a mean pushy bastard."

"But you don't have to be a mean pushy S.O.B. to be dominant. The terms dominant and domineering aren't synonyms, you know," she protested. "Someone who is domineering is usually mean, severe and heavy handed. Someone who is dominant is often intelligent as well as smooth and masterful. A dominant person doesn't have to be pushy or anything like that. You dominate by being thoughful and persuasive."

"Okay whatever you say," I sighed, letting her think what she wanted since I didn't want to argue any more. "Now I'm done my coffee and I need to look after the animals. Can we talk as I'm doing that?"

"I guess so," she sounded unenthusiastic, but she got to her feet and walked with me.

"Okay, now about that other subject..."

"You mean about me and my sexual desires, don't you?"

"Yeah, I think that's the only other shocker you threw at me, or was I so stunned by that topic that I missed something else you told me?" I snorted as we stopped at the chicken coop to open it for the day. "I must admit that after thinking about your reputation as one of the 'Ice Cubes,' you completely floored with that one. Hell, I thought you and your sister blew through every guy your age within fifty miles, so you liking women was a total shock to me."

"Didn't you ever wonder if there wasn't a reason or two for why we 'blew through' so many guys, as you so inelegantly described our dating practices?"

"You mean that both you and Corinna like gals?"

"Well not really. I think Corinna does, but she won't admit it to herself, let alone to me. Although we are identical twins and our tastes are very much alike, that's one way we seem to differ. Then you came along and admittedly you were the first guy who was really a turn on for both of us, which made life really rough between us for a few days," she sighed. "Then you came out to the farm with Sandy in tow and threw the two of us for a loop. However you brought Wil along at the same time and he was quite a bit like you, but even more than that Corinna had always had a crush on him. So we were trying our best to compensate for the loss of the attention we were hoping to get from you by getting drunk and playing with him. That's when you came back from your one and only date with Sandy, looking like someone had kicked you in the balls. After which life got really complicated."

"Yeah it did, for all of us," I frowned. "Just what did happen between Wil and Corinna anyway, or am I asking a question I shouldn't? I mean I thought they were going to get married and all that, then they had a minor scrap over a picture and suddenly they broke up."

"I'm not certain myself," Carissa sighed heavily. "I'm hoping that the whole thing was related to that damn growth in Corinna's head, but I don't know. I do know that Wil still cares deeply for her. He still goes to see her quite often, even though she's under treatment for suicidal depression now and not always able to have visitors."

"Yeah, I know he's been visiting her. She doesn't seem to reciprocate his feelings though."

"Oh I'm not sure of that," she snorted. "I think she's afraid to admit her feelings right now, and on top of that I think her psychiatrist is one of the old school who is pushing her toward Wil, so she might be fighting the idea out of perversity."

"Why would she do that?"

"Because she told the doctor that she was enamoured by his nurse, just to shock the doc when he pissed her off one time," Carissa frowned. "I think it backfired though. I'm certain the psychiatrist is an old fuddy-duddy who thinks anyone who's sexual preferences differ from the norm is sick and needs to be cured."

"Well, according to the Bible ..."

"Oh to hell with the bible!" Carissa said flatly, almost angrily. "Why should either Corinna or I live our lives according to the dictates of a two-thousand-year-old fictional account of life at that time? As far as I'm concerned, that's the first real science fiction book ever written. If it isn't science fiction, it's fantasy. It's got burning bushes, pillars of salt, walking on water, guys 'rising from the dead' and all that. And all of this is really supposed to have happened? Get real!"

"Whoa there. The Bible has a lot of decent teachings and ..."

"Oh sure. The basic tenets about life are all common sense, so in that context it's a decent guide. But let's face it, those laws were meant as guides for the lives of a group of people that lived in a desert, thousands of years ago, in a completely nontechnical society and half way around the world at that," she interrupted again. "But if you really read that chronicle of supposed facts and revered beliefs closely, it contradicts itself seven ways from Sunday. Hell, in one section it promotes Solomon as a 'wise man' for having a huge number of wives and in another it speaks of 'cleaving onto' only one. Then there's the bit about worship, in one place it talks about worshipping by yourself, hidden away in a closet, and in another it literally propounds evangelicalism. It's like that in so many places. There are a million ways to interpret what it says, because there's no consistency, and I know that because I've read the damn book from end to end several times. In my opinion, if it were written today, a lot of what's in it would be branded as hate literature, and without the backing of rich, religious fanatics no publisher would set it in print. Between the Bible and the Koran, I don't know which is the more dangerous. If you consider the two of them, they've been used as bolsters for more wars, more death and more destruction than anything else published in the world."

"Now just a minute," I held up a hand to stop her tirade. "You know I wasn't raised to go to church every Sunday, but we live in a part of the world where most of the people around us do. This is 'Bible Belt' Alberta after all. The morals of the community establish our laws and since the majority of people around here believe in the Bible; we have to honour their standards to some extent."

"I know, but even while I'm being a hypocrite and pretending in public to give credence to society's standards, I still live my life my way as best I can while still being realistic," she sighed. "I try to live by most of the ten commandments myself, because they make sense, but even then I reserve the right to use my own judgement."

"Okay, let's leave that argument and get back to our original discussion about you and female lovers," I changed the subject. "Just how much experience do you have? Or is it your attitude more than actual action?"

"It's not so much what I've done as what I want to do," Carissa sighed deeply. "You know I was a virgin when we first made love, so that tells you a lot right there. However Corinna and I first tongue kissed when we were about nine or ten years old, but we never went much further than that. At summer camp one year, I played around a bit with one of the girls, but not that much. We were scared of getting caught and getting into trouble. The desire is there, but if a girl makes a mistake, there are some pretty darn heavy consequences, so I've been really careful about anything I say or do."

"So what you're telling me is that you think you like girls, but you have no real experience in doing anything physical?"

"Well – yeah, but ... I do know that some girls turn me on," she blushed. "Sandy does, almost as much as you do."

"Sandy?"

"Unh huh," she giggled then, still blushing brightly. "When she and I were talking last night before coming to bed, she was really upset and I hugged her. When I did, she turned to look at me and teary cheeks, runny nose and all, I kissed her. It wasn't a French kiss or even a very long kiss, but she did kiss me back. I really liked that."

"Oh!" I looked at her suspiciously. "So getting her into bed with the two of us last night accomplished two things for you, huh?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well, it gave Sandy a chance to sleep at my side and maybe a chance to seduce me, but it also gave you a chance to see her nude and perhaps play around with her body a bit too."

"Umm – yeah, and I know it's not nice, because you weren't warned about it, but I was hoping for even more than that. In a way I was hoping a three way would evolve," she sighed. "If we had convinced you to play I'd have enthusiastically gone along with it, but you didn't seem to want to get involved."

"Well, I think you know, that isn't really something I've even thought about, let alone really wanted," I frowned, then decided to be honest. "I guess in a way it does turn me on, but at the same time it scares hell out of me."

"Oh I can see it turns you on, but then you're a teenaged guy and almost any gal in a tight pair of jeans can turn you on," she grinned, looking pointedly at my lap. "I just don't understand why in the world it would scare you? I thought having two women in bed with him at one time was a dream situation for almost any guy."

"Nope not really," I shrugged my shoulders and rolled my eyes. "Like I said it isn't something I've spent a lot of time thinking about and after seeing what happened after Corinna was in bed with us, I can see all sorts of possibilities for problems stemming from that sort of thing."

"Corinna's problem wasn't because she had sex with you. She still doesn't realize that the two of you even had sex. Her problem was caused by that damn growth in her head, and you know it. You're just trying to shift the blame because you feel guilty, and I don't understand that because you said you thought you were dreaming. If I felt guilty about every guy or gal that I had a sexy dream about, I'd go nuts," she snorted loudly. "Besides, Corinna is my sister. I might have been slightly jealous, but mostly I think I was upset because I couldn't be involved."

I had to laugh at that, and she frowned at me in surprise.

"What's so damn funny?" she demanded.

"Well, a while ago you compared us to animals and I was thinking that incest is a lot more common amongst animals than any other form of sexual abnormality," I couldn't help grinning. "There are fewer gay and lesbian animals than there are incestuous ones."

"Oh for cripes sake," she snorted, then had to grin. "I guess you'd know though, since you spend so much time around animals."

"Yep, you have to keep a close eye on bloodlines when you're breeding animals, that way you don't encourage recessive genes. In a way, I suppose humans should do something the same, but it will never happen," We were at the stallion's corral and I gestured toward the pair of horses. "Look at those two, yesterday they didn't care one bit that both of them had blood lines that were well suited to produce a decent foal. All they knew was that she was ready for him to breed her and he was willing."

"Do you know what that really means to me?"

"Not much, I guess, but maybe you should tell me," I laughed.

"Well if you were governed by instinct and pheromones like those horses are, both Sandy and I would have gotten bred last night, so that was a darn poor comparison," she laughed then. "Now what else do we need to do this morning? We've done all the chores."

"First, we'd best eat breakfast. Then I think Sandy might want to go to town to get some clothes. That is if she's going to stick around for a few days," I smiled at her. "If you took the car you could talk while driving without being drowned out by wind noise in the Jeep, it might be the perfect time to talk to her about how you feel about women. Then when you get back we can all talk."

"Well, we did talk a bit last night, just not much."

"Oh, I was under the impression that you were hoping for things to develop after you got into bed."

"Hey after I kissed her and she kissed me back, don't you think I had enough on the ball to say something?"

"No, because I thought you'd have told me about her reaction."

"Actually, there wasn't much of a reaction. She wasn't shocked, but she wasn't enthusiastic either. It was almost as if she expected me to react that way," Carissa frowned then. "That meant I was the one who was surprised."

"Well I'm not really surprised by her reaction," I smiled as we walked toward the cabin. "As you said there had to be a reason why you and Corinna dated so much and gave out so little satisfaction. Perhaps she guessed from that?"

Carissa looked at me in surprise, but we were coming to the front porch and just then, Sandy stepped out the front door.

"Oh I was just about to call you to breakfast," Sandy smiled weakly.

"Good morning. Sorry I awakened you so rudely," I grinned up at her from the foot of the stairs.

"Oh. Hi. Are you talking to me again?" she asked quietly.

"Huh? Oh sure, why not?"

"Well, I thought you might still be angry. You sure seemed angry this morning."

"Oh I wasn't angry, annoyed maybe, as well as surprised and shocked," I sighed, having a hard time concentrating because I was still thinking back over Carissa's earlier statements. "By the way Carissa said you'd never seen a guy's dick before. Didn't you look at me when we were skinny dipping yesterday?"

"Oh, I told her that I'd never seen one up close and engorged."

"Engorged?" I said in surprise, then chuckled. "Now that's one term I've never heard used in a conversation."

"I guess that's almost like I was using medical terminology and rather formal, isn't it?" she giggled. "What would you call it then?"

"Oh, hard, I guess. Or if I was being more formal I suppose I'd say aroused. Guys have lots of names for the condition, 'stiffy' is about the mildest and 'boner' would be one of the cruder names. 'Having a hard-on' is probably the commonest term that guys use though."

"All of those are crude, but okay, if you want I'll use a different word. Which term would you prefer I used?"

"That depends on a lot of things," I teased.

"Well she slept with you and woke up with it in her hand, that should tell you a bit about how she feels toward you ... and it," Carissa grinned at both of us, getting into the teasing mood, but trying to tease us both.

"Hey, you encouraged me," Sandy protested, blushing as she shifted her gaze from Carissa to me.

"I heard," I shrugged, then tried to change the subject. "Now did you say breakfast was ready?"

The ploy of changing the subject only worked until we were all sitting at the kitchen table with food on our plates. Carissa was far too interested in sleeping arrangements to let the subject of sex lie untouched for long, but even then she seemed to dance around it a bit, which was somewhat of a surprise to me.

"Chris and I had a long talk about things," she said quietly.

"Oh?" Sandy looked at me with a slight smile and I thought I saw a twinkle in her eye.

"Yeah, I was telling him about last night. In his words, I floored him," Carissa continued.

"Oh! Well now that I think about it, I don't doubt it," Sandy's smile faded.

Silence descended on the table for a moment or two, then Sandy sighed. "Chris, you aren't helping us outby being silent."

Somehow I'd known that was coming, but since I'd just taken a large bite of toast I gestured toward my mouth with a finger and chewed exaggeratedly to give myself time to think. Carissa saw that and giggled.

"Give him a moment, he's thinking," she managed to say, still giggling loudly.

I knew from the way she was acting that she was on edge and I also realized that somehow Sandy seemed to have the upper hand at the moment which surprised me. The whole dynamic in the room had changed from what it had been the evening before. I looked at first Sandy, then at Carissa, then took a sip of coffee before speaking.

"Sandy, from what you've said and done since she spoke to you last night you don't appear to be too upset by Carissa's admission. Would you mind explaining why?"

"Well you know how I feel about you," Sandy blushed. "But, I guess what you're talking about is the idea of one guy with more than one woman aren't you?"

"Yeah, I am," I nodded.

"Well I told you about Mom and Dad living through the dust bowl in a small community earlier, but I didn't mention where it was. They were living near Cardston, down near Waterton Lakes Provincial park and the US border."

"And why is that significant?" I asked, but I could see Carissa was just as curious as I was.

"Well from the looks of your faces, I guess I'd best explain," Sandy sighed. "The town of Cardston was started near the turn of the century by members of the LDS Church, Mormons in other words. Up until 1947 there were still members of the church in Cardston who practised polygamy, so both Mom and Dad were exposed to them. I thought perhaps you two were Mormons and I was being invited into your relationship as second wife."

I'm not sure if I was more surprised than Carissa, but both of us must have looked shocked. Sandy looked from one of us to the other, then broke into laughter.

"I take it that I was mistaken," she managed to say through her laughter.

"Unh, yeah," I managed to grunt, still shocked at the idea.

"Oh," Sandy snickered. "Well, there was a reason for thinking you were, Chris. Mom heard about your dad living with both his first and second wife at the same time, and jumped to the conclusion that he was a Mormon fundamentalist. That's why she was so anxious to set up the apartment in Calgary with all of us in it. She was positive that if I played my cards right I'd end up in the situation I found myself in last night."

"So when I kissed you last night and invited you into bed with Chris and me ..." Carissa's question trailed off.

"Unh huh. I was positive then," Sandy broke into embarrassed giggles. "Sorry if I was mistaken."

"There was nothing that formal involved," Carissa broke into laughter. "I just like you and I think you're sexy."

"But Chris is yours, or at least you're living with him. What gives with that?"

"Well I've never figured that out," I chuckled. "I'm not ready for marriage yet and I don't get it at all. She just decided to move in and ... well, I'm sixteen. I don't know of any sixteen-year-old guy who would throw a beautiful woman out of his bed if she was willing to share it with him."

"Well I'm eighteen, but the same sort of desires run through my head. Having a regular sex partner who happens to be kind and considerate is wonderful," Carissa grinned at that. "Oh yeah. Thanks for saying I'm beautiful, Chris."

"So you two aren't formally engaged or anything?" Sandy asked, looking at Carissa first for some reason.

"Unh uh. I'm not certain that it's completely informal," Carissa answered softly. "I think our folks think we're meant for each other, but we're both quite young. I'm not saying that a long term relationship is out of the question, but neither of us has gone far in that direction. We're still getting to know one another."

"Actually, that sounds like I do have a chance," Sandy grinned and winked at me. "That is if Mr. Teenaged Guy is still willing to bed any pretty woman who is willing to jump into his bed."

"Wait a minute," I held up both hands. "I'm still not certain that I want anything to happen. Oh and I disagree with you. You aren't just pretty, in your own way you're just as beautiful as Carissa."

"In her own way?" Carissa grinned, trying to tease me.

"Sure, both of you are different," I sighed. "I'm still trying to wrap my head around the idea that you're willing to go along with the idea."

"Well you know why. I told you. I wouldn't kick Sandy out for eating crackers in bed," she laughed, somewhat embarrassedly.

Sandy just blushed, then giggled. "Well that idea is better than the FLDS's 'rule of Chastity' and what that implies."

"Whoa, there you go throwing around initials and some sort of rules that I don't understand again," I sighed. "What does 'FLDS' stand for and what is this 'rule of chastity' thing?"

"Okay, 'FLDS' stands for the 'Fundamentalist Church of the Latter Day Saints,' which is the polygynist branch of the Mormon church. 'The Rule of Chastity' states that a woman may only have sex during the period when she is ovulating or if she's already pregnant, because according to the church, sex is strictly for making babies," Sandy sighed. "Sorry, I keep forgetting you guys don't know anything about the Mormon church."

"Well, I'm not sure I really want to know much about the church, but you used a word there that I haven't heard before. You said polygynist, didn't you mean polygamist?"

"No, actually I didn't. Polygamy implies a multiple marriage, but it doesn't differentiate between sexes. Polygyny is a specific word, meaning one man and several wives," she took a deep breath, then sighed. "Just so I don't lose you guys in my conversation, I'll explain a little more about their rules and stuff. In the FLDS, women are required to serve a man and be submissive to his needs and any woman who disobeys a man will have their souls burn in Hell for eternity. Since polygamy is illegal in Canada, the church has a thing called 'celestial marriage' for all but the first wife. She can legally marry her husband, but her husband isn't a polygamist if the other marriages aren't sanctified. Legally he's an adulterer, but adultery isn't illegal. A celestial marriage ceremony consists of the woman placing her hand in the man's hand in what is called 'the patriarchal grip' and that's it."

"Holy cripes. How do you know so much about them?" Carissa asked.

"Mom told me. She's a lapsed Mormon, but her sister lives in Bountiful."

"Bountiful? Where's that?" I asked.

"Oh, Bountiful, BC. It's down near the US border, near Creston. That's where the FLDS from Cardston moved in 1947 or '48. I think at that time there were only eight men and the rest of the group were women. Now there must be hundreds there though, because they breed like rabbits. I mean the men believe that the more wives they have and the more children they have, the higher level of heaven they attain. I think the leader, or as they call him, the bishop, and if I remember right he has eight wives with ... Oh, who knows how many kids? A lot, I'm sure!"

"You sure know a lot about the place."

"Well yeah, I've got an aunt and several cousins there. I think the place is scary though."

"Oh? Why would you think that?"

"Hey, I'm female, single and my mother was a Mormon. I worry that some old geezer in his seventies might try to grab me in one of those handshakes," she tried to grin, but it was a rather weak attempt, then she shook her shoulders as if shivering. "Could we change the subject?"

Yeah, I'd like that and I think this whole setup needs a lot of thought before we do anything rash," I smiled at her and nodded my head. "Carissa, you may be all for the idea of everyone living together, but I think both Sandy and I need some time to decide, especially since the stakes have changed overnight.

"Okay," Carissa agreed, then turned to Sandy. "Sandy, Chris suggested that you and I take his car and run to town. We can drop around your house to get some of your clothes and while we're there, I can get a few groceries."

"I'll go along with that," Sandy smiled. "Why aren't you coming Chris?"

"Nope not me, not today. I want to go check the artesian well up by the lake today. Some sand gets constantly carried in along with the water and about once a year we have to scoop the well out or the flow is badly reduced. Carissa brought that to mind yesterday when she remarked abut how slow the creek was running, so that's what I thinks needs to be my job of the day."

Of course once they had made up their mind to go to town, they were in a rush to get going. In fact they ran around the cabin like wild women as they got ready. Inside of a half hour they were gone and I was able to relax.

I was very glad to be alone, because I wouldn't be disturbed. I had some thinking to do about the situation that I now found myself in. As I loaded the tools I'd need to clean out the artesian well, I decided to do the work first, then sit down in the shade of a tree and think about the idea of living with more than one woman. I felt that what we seemed to be contemplating was a huge step, and I didn't want to leap into it without considering the consequences.

I'll be the first to admit that the idea of having two women in my life scared the hell out of me, but at the same time it was extremely tempting. Let's be realistic, I was sixteen and the idea of two willing women in my bed seemed like a dream come true, but I had enough common sense to wonder if it might actually be a nightmare in disguise.

### Chapter 31