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From: "Gina Marie Wylie" <gmwylie98260@hotmail.com>
Subject: {ASSM} Laura Alban Hunt Ch 19 {Gina Marie Wylie} (Ff, cons)
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Date: Wed,  8 Sep 2004 19:10:02 -0400
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<1st attachment, "Laura Ch 19.doc" begin>

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

	The following is fiction of an adult nature.  If I believed in
setting age limits for things, you'd have to be eighteen to read
this and I'd never have bothered to write it.  IMHO, if you can
read and enjoy, then you're old enough to read and enjoy.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

	All persons here depicted are figments of my imagination and any
resemblance to persons living or dead is strictly a blunder on my
part.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

	Official stuff:  Story codes: Ff, con.

	If stories like this offend you, you will offend ME if you read
further and complain. Copyright 2004, by Gina Marie Wylie.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

	I can be reached at gmwylie98260@hothothotmail.com, at least if
you remove some of the hots.  All comments and reasoned
discussion welcome.

Below is my site on ASSTR:
http://www.asstr-mirror.org/files/Authors/Gina_Marie_Wylie/www/

My stories are also posted on StoriesOnline:
http://Storiesonline.net/

And on Electronic Wilderness Publishing:
http://www.ewpub.org/

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Laura Alban Hunt

Chapter 19 -- The Diving Contest

"Thank you," I told them, opening my eyes.

There were a few last hugs and Susan smiled.  "Actually, I came
in to see what we were going to do for dinner.  Can Jamie eat
with us?"

"Jamie can eat with us," I agreed.

I looked at Carolyn, who was watching the three older girls. 
When was the last time you were hugged by your mom, Carolyn?  Or
vice versa?  How much would that affect a person's worldview? 
And how?

I knew the perfect thing.  "Do you cook, Carolyn?"

"We don't fix much.  TV dinners.  We have a lot of pizza."

Susan walked over and patted Carolyn on the shoulder.  "Oh, you
poor girl!  You have just made Mom's day!  Another person to
teach the Laura Alban Hunt method of cooking to!"

Carolyn looked confused, but I turned to Susan.  "I heard
something about homework."

"Done," she said primly.

"Carolyn, do you have homework?" I asked.

She nodded.  "A work sheet we got in class.  But I did it
already."

"Give it to Susan and Jamie; they will check it.  You and I,
Carolyn, will start work on dinner."

I thought it would be fun to show Carolyn how to cook; I never
dreamed that it would cause the upheaval that it did.  However,
that's getting ahead of myself.

Carolyn listened; she did the things I asked her to do.  Cooking
for some of us is an exercise in multi-tasking.  Some things take
longer to do than others; some are predicated on the completion
of others.  I explained it all to Carolyn who did a lot of
nodding, but she seemed to understand everything.  It's not like
it's very difficult, not really, and as long as you are careful,
the worst that happens is things don't get done at the same time,
which makes for an interesting meal.

After dinner I got out a batch of cake mix and Carolyn and I made
cupcakes for everyone.  I showed her how to mix the icing and how
to get different colors using white icing and food colorings.  By
the time we finished icing the last one, Carolyn was decorating
each cupcake with creditable flowers.

We took them out and they were an instant hit with the others. 
Sherrie looked at hers and sighed.  "It's like taking a bite out
of the Mona Lisa, you just hate to spoil it."

"It was no big deal," Carolyn said, far more confident now than
she'd been to begin with.  "It wasn't hard at all."

I ran Jamie home, Carolyn riding with me.  She and Jamie sat in
the back seat and did a little kissing on the trip there, and
then Carolyn joined me in the front seat for the return trip.

"You have a lot of nice friends," Carolyn told me.

"That's something we all want.  I've been lucky to meet some nice
people since I moved here."

When we got home, Sherrie and Susan were in the pool, just
sitting neck deep in the water, talking about school and life. 
Carolyn wanted to go in as well, so I joined them, not wanting to
be a spoilsport.

It was a pleasant evening, not too warm, a light breeze that
occasionally stirred the top of the water.  We just talked
quietly until ten, when it was time for the younger girls to go
to bed.  I took another shower with Carolyn, but it was a quick
rinse to get rid of the chlorine from the pool.  I went in to
check on Susan and found her asleep already; when I got back to
my room, Carolyn was asleep too.

I decided that she didn't need to be disturbed, so I went and
read for a while.  Sherrie had been doing homework, and she came
and gave me a hug before going off to bed herself.

When I finally crawled into bed, Carolyn smiled at me.  "When I
grow up, I'm going to stay awake all night too!"  But her eyes
were closed almost at once again.  I reached out and put my hand
on her shoulder, just letting it rest there.

When I woke up, I could sense that Carolyn had rolled over and
now had a hand laying on one of my breasts.  I cracked an eyelid
and saw that it was just starting to get light outside; before
six, I thought.  Carolyn's was gently exploring my breast; her
index finger tracing lines around the curve of the fullness,
coming back to touch the erect tip in the middle of the areola.

"I woke you up," Carolyn said, apologetic.  I looked up and met
her eyes.

"You don't have to apologize for a wake up as nice as this one,"
I told her.

"It's been a week, now," Carolyn told me.  "I want to do sex
things with you.  I want you to do them with me.  I want to make
you come."

And I had decided that I was crazy to even think about making
love to a twelve-year-old who was having problems at home with
her mother.

That's what I'd decided in the hot light of day, but here in bed
with Carolyn, with the hot surge of hormones there wasn't much
left of my self-control.  I wished Jamie or Susan were there,
Gail maybe.  Maybe not, someone like Carolyn didn't need to start
out with someone like Gail.

On the other hand, I didn't think I could ask her to excuse me
and then go fetch Susan to make love to Carolyn.

My young lover had been studying my breast closely, now she
leaned close and kissed it, running her tongue over the nipple
tip, then in a long lick, that crossed over and roused my other
nipple to tautness.  She wanted to make me come, I thought.  And
gosh, how I wanted to listen to her moan and watch her writhe
with pleasure as I brought her to her first big orgasm with
another woman!

Could it be as simple as I was a frustrated teenager who'd never
gotten a chance to sexually play with my peers and was reliving
those long-lost days?

Then the alarm clock went off.

Carolyn froze, and I smiled at her and rolled over to turn it
off.

"I wanted to make you come," she said, a little frustrated.

I smiled at her.  "You woke me up very much nicer than the alarm
would have.  And surprise!  Today is Saturday; we don't have to
get up right away!

"Come, Carolyn, scoot over here."  I let her lie on top of me,
and then I wrapped my arms around her and kissed her.  I quickly
learned that she really had been taking lessons!

I ran my hands down her back and cupped her bottom, pressing her
down against my pubes.  I lifted my hips and rubbed, and she
realized what I wanted, and pressed down on her own and moved
too.

Suddenly, Carolyn stopped, lifted up and looked down at my
midsection.  "You're bare down there!"

I nodded.  Somehow, neither of us had remarked on it yesterday,
but now she noticed.

"It makes what we were just doing feel so much better," I told
her.

"Oh, that is so cool!"  She slithered down my body, and looked at
the results of Sherrie's handiwork from up close.  After a
minute, she lifted her head.  "I'm still not sure if I want to
kiss someone... there."

"Come back where you were and you won't have to," I told her. 
She came back, and we kissed again and began to move against each
other.  When Susan and I were like this, her breasts rubbed
against mine, her clit met mine, and there were fireworks for
both of us.  With Carolyn, her mons pressed on my clit, which was
good, but nothing else fit right.

It didn't take much, though, to bring me to a mild orgasm. 
Carolyn looked positively pleased with herself.  We got up and
showered, this time much more business-like.  Susan and Sherrie
had breakfast ready and we thanked them and complimented them on
how yummy the sausage and eggs were.

Then the conversation turned to the pool party.  I made a store
run, early in the morning, to get drinks and munchies.  Carolyn
went with me, even if Susan begged off.  That didn't do Susan
much good though, because instead, she got to do the
straightening and cleaning.  Jamie showed up before I got going,
and didn't seem to mind pitching in.

I made as quick a stop as you can make at Costco for juice and
soda, then we went to the supermarket.  Carolyn was happy and
cheerful, chattering away about everything under the sun.  About
half the time she was asking questions, the rest of the time she
was making comments about things she liked and didn't like.

I was patient; Susan had gone through a similar phase not just
once, but at least three separate times.  Roger had been good
about answering questions, but now and then Susan had gotten on
his nerves; it just never bothered me that much.

At the store, we passed the shelf with cake mixes and she asked
which ones were as simple to make as the one we'd fixed the other
night.  I showed her the ones, and she picked one and put it in
the basket, telling me she'd pay for it herself.  I suggested she
get some icing fixings too and some food coloring.

I recognized the look in her eye; I'd had the same thing when I
was a girl, I'd seen it in Susan's eyes more than once.  The
I'm-going-to-do-this-and-don't-you-try-to-stop-me look.  It was,
I thought, a good thing.  She was very good about separating her
things from mine at the check register and paid for it all
without hesitation.

A little before one in the afternoon, girls started arriving. 
Susan and Jamie were in their element, enjoying themselves.  When
June and the not-twins appeared, there was a pause in things, but
it didn't last long.

I got hugs from Amy and Fred, who came together, and who then
hurried out to be with the others.

I was in full Mom-mode, with Sherrie helping out.  Linda
appeared, and motioned that she wanted to talk.

"Thank you, Laura," Linda started.

"You don't have to thank me, I know it must have hurt."

She nodded.  "I screwed up.  I've screwed up before, I hope it's
a long time before I screw up this bad again.  The important
thing is that Jamie's happy and that I didn't totally let down
the cheerleaders."

"Linda, I think you've done just fine," I reassured her.  "Come,
let's go sit down, out of sight of the girls and just relax."

She smiled.  "Not that they'll let us rest long!"

"Probably not," I agreed.

We talked about cheerleading and I mentioned the summer camp that
I'd talked to the head counselor about.  Linda had heard of it,
and when she heard I was thinking about Susan and me spending the
summer there, she said she'd ask Jamie if she'd like to do it,
too.  I thought that was a little odd, when she'd been talking
about how much financially withdrawing from the lawsuit had hurt,
but a few minutes later she mentioned that her husband's parents
had said they wanted Jamie to have a nice summer.

"My ex-, Clete, is HIV positive," she told me.  I nodded,
remembering she'd said that.  "Currently it's in remission, but
there's still no long-term prospect of survival.  A year or so
ago, he sold his life insurance policy; there's a market of
ghouls who pay pennies on the dollar for them.  But you get to
spend the money now.  He's practically destitute, but that's what
you have to be to get any financial assistance."

I nodded.  It must be a terrible thing, I thought.

"Anyway, his parents want to buy Jamie things or pay for things
like summer camp, things we'll tell her Clete is paying for.  So
she can have good memories of him, after he's gone."

I wanted to shake the poor, sad, clueless woman.  And if Jamie
ever found out the true source of the "happiness" what would that
do to her memories?  On the other hand I'd been rough enough with
Linda this week for a lifetime.  I made a mental note to discuss
the virtues of honesty with your children with her at some time
in the future.

Susan and Jamie came in, bright-faced and breathless.  "Mom, can
we have a diving contest?"

I saw Linda shake her head, but I nodded mine.  "You have to be
careful, okay?  Everyone will have to be careful."

"Sure, Mom!" Susan said.  "We want you, Linda and Sherrie to be
judges!  Like at the Olympics!  Please?"

I shrugged.  "Sure, I suppose you want to start now?"

She nodded and Linda and I got up.  I filled my tea glass before
going outside; it was going to be another very warm day.  Linda
followed behind me as we went outside.  Sherrie had been sitting
at the table, acting as a lifeguard.  Linda and I pulled up
chairs next to her.

There were, I found, twenty-one girls present, and it turned out
that every last one of them thought she was the best diver of the
group.

"Any suggestions?" I said, asking Linda and Sherrie, "about how
we should do this?"

June Wheeler spoke up.  "We should all dive, one after another. 
You should pick the five worst after the first round and make
them sit."

"I wanted to get a ten point zero," Carolyn interjected.

June smiled at her.  "After the first round, we do two more
dives, each one scored from one to ten.  We cut the half with the
worst scores.  That will leave eight.  Two more rounds of two
dives, that leaves two.  Then three dives for the last two.  The
winner is the one with the best score in the last set of dives."

That sounded fair to me.  More important, I could see on their
faces that they weren't just horsing around.  They were serious.
It was odd, up until that moment, I'd never associated
cheerleading with competition.  I knew about cheerleader
competitions, I'd watched a movie a few years before with Susan
with a cheerleading competition as the main plot point.  And here
was my daughter, her face serious and intent, obviously wanting
to win.

It was one thing, I realized, to watch your daughter try to win
at Parcheesi or Scrabble or any other board game.  Susan was
growing up...

They started diving, and the three of us started marking pieces
of paper with numbers.  Forty-two dives later, I was a little
glazed, but I had, I thought, a fair idea of who should go.  I
also had, with a series of plusses, a fair idea of who the top
competitors were going to be.

Jamie was one of the first six to go.  June had been right about
Carolyn, she was a very good diver.  Most of the girls did simple
jackknife dives, but June had done a dive where she'd spun around
one and a half times before going headfirst into the water.  Then
she did it again, as perfectly as she'd done the first time.

Both Toni and Sylvia Courdes did very graceful swan dives.  Then
it was Carolyn's turn.  Unlike the rest, she didn't walk out to
the end of the board and stop, psyche herself up and dive.  She
just walked straight out to the end of the board, went up, then
back down to get the bounce and jumped straight up.

I don't know how many times she spun around, going up.  Three or
four.  When she finished, her feet were maybe eight or nine feet
above the water.  She folded in the middle, and went straight
down like an arrow, leaving virtually no splash, just a rising
circle of bubbles.  Two seconds later she came shooting back out
of the water, smack in the center of the bubbles, rising past her
hips, before subsiding back into the pool.

Carolyn's second dive was another leaper, but this time she
didn't twist going up, just went up high.  At the top, she
rotated around the axis of her arms, now facing the diving board,
instead of away from it.  She kept her arms level for several
fractions of a second, and then once again clove the water
cleanly.

Susan did something like a swan dive and just barely managed to
get lined up to enter the water; even so I bet her ankles stung
from the sharp crack of sound they'd made when hitting the water.
 The second time she settled for a jackknife that she did okay.

Amy and Fred both made the first cut, but I didn't think they
were going to be in the top eight.

With spectators, the contest took on a new dynamic.  Some of the
girls rated cheers and shouts of encouragement, others rated only
silence.  Susan was cheered, Amy was cheered, and so were some of
the others.  Not June or the Courdes girls, not Fred.  Carolyn
got quite a few.

One after another dove.  Amy and Fred both went out, Susan went
out, Sylvia Courdes went out and four other girls.

Now the cheering section was larger than the remaining divers and
much noisier.  Everyone got cheers.

The last four were Carolyn and June, Toni and another girl, Sarah
Beach.  They all had six dives by that point.  June had two
different dives she did, Toni had two, Sarah Beach had one and
Carolyn had repeated herself only once.

Two more dives and it was June and Carolyn.

The final three dives were all perfect.  June did her twist and a
half dive twice, Carolyn did that one, her first up-twisting
dive, her last was a swan dive where she seemed to hang suspended
in the air forever, before going down to a clean entry.

I was surprised to see Nancy had arrived with another woman,
pale, blonde and thin.  With a certainty, I knew I was about to
meet Carolyn's mother, Denise.

She walked right up to the water's edge and looked down at
Carolyn.  "What, are you fucking crazy?  Get out of the water!  I
don't want to ever see you do something that fucking stupid
again!"

My jaw dropped.  Sure, I was a little prejudiced, but as far as I
was concerned, Carolyn had won, going away.

Nancy grabbed the woman's hand and pulled her back, but she shook
Nancy off, glaring at her daughter, and continuing a stream of
invective that would have stripped the paint off a battleship.

I got up and moved forward.  "Hi, you must be Denise, Carolyn's
mother.  I'm Laura Alban Hunt, the hostess."

I smiled at her.  She looked at my proffered hand and ignored
it.

"Go fuck yourself!  What do you mean, letting kids do these
dangerous stunts?  What if someone had been hurt?"

I smiled pleasantly again.  "I'm the hostess and one of the rules
I enforce is language.  Please clean yours up."

Carolyn hopped out of the pool and walked past her mother like
she wasn't there and went into the house.

I was at a loss for what to do.  Most girls simply need a little
guidance and a firm hand to get them going the right direction. 
Denise needed a shrink.  She had taken the moment of Carolyn's
triumph and turned it into the bitterest of ashes.  No one should
ever be crushed like that, particularly by someone who purports
to love her.

The woman made a gesture behind me, at the pool.  "Why don't you
just go back to all those tasty tidbits you have in the pool and
let me take care of my own daughter my own way."

"If a six-year old had a temper outburst like you just had, she'd
be standing in the corner taking a very long timeout.  And if it
was my daughter, she'd be standing tall, because her butt would
hurt.  You're not six, but then again, you are no longer welcome.
 Please leave.  If you can ever figure out how to comport
yourself like a civilized person, come back.  Otherwise don't."

She started to open her mouth, and I cut her off.  "And only the
lowest pond-scum would take out her anger against me on her own
daughter.  Thank you and good day."  I pointed.  "There's the
door, please leave."

I was proud of myself; I hadn't even raised my voice.

She stared at me, then turned and walked away, into the house.

Nancy looked at me.  "Gosh, I'm so sorry, Laura!  I never
expected this, not at all.  She was much calmer today!  I thought
she was past it."

I nodded.  "I understand, Nancy.  She's your friend, I'd like to
think I'm to some degree a friend too."  She nodded.  "Then you
need to suggest to her she seek professional help.  She is a
ticking bomb, Nancy.  It's only a matter of time before she hurts
herself or someone else."

"I know you don't like to hear the word 'sorry' but I don't know
what else to say."

"You're her friend.  Right now, you need to help her.  I'm a big
girl who just had a party that got rained on, big-time.  I think
you should go deal with your friend, while I go see to some
teenage girls."

She nodded, smiled wanly, turned and left.

Sherrie matter-of-factly announced the results.  Carolyn had won,
June had come in second, Toni third and Sarah fourth.  The girls
returned to the party, but it was a much quieter group in the
last hour of their time together.

In the meantime, I went into the house.  I wasn't sure what
Carolyn had done, or what her mother had done, either.  Carolyn
was sitting on my bed, in the lotus position I'd taught her the
day before.  I assumed Nancy and Denise had left, they weren't
around.

She looked up at me, her face sad.  "I tried to think about the
ocean, but the cries of the birds reminded me of her.  I tried to
think about rain, but the thunder reminded me of her.  So I tried
not to think about anything at all."

I sighed.  There are times when words can help; there are other
times when nothing much helps.

Carolyn's sad eyes met mine.  "Aunt Nancy said that Mom used to
have all these dreams.  About being a writer, maybe writing a
movie.  Or a book of poetry.  Instead, she's a bookkeeper in a
big company.  Mom used to dream about being independent,
'footloose and fancy-free' Aunt Nancy said.  Now she has a
husband, a job, and a daughter.  Bills and boat-anchors, Mom
says.  Aunt Nancy says if I'm patient, she will realize that
while she doesn't have the things she once wanted, she has Dad,
she has me, and she has Aunt Nancy."

She nodded towards the door.  "You should go, you have company."

"Any of whom, if asked, would say she didn't need looking after,"
I told her with a laugh.

She looked at me, shaking her head.  "You should go."

"And leave my friend Carolyn here, moping?  Not!" I said, trying
to sound cheerful.  "You won the diving competition, Carolyn. 
Everyone agreed."

"Because my mom was a..."

I cut her off.  "Because you knew more dives than June and did
them better than she did.  Carolyn, I promise you, I'll tell you
the truth, okay?  I tell you right now, that if you'd have been a
bad diver, I'd have voted you down just like I voted Susan."

"Would you?" Her eyes were large, round and surprised.

"You bet.  Carolyn, when you fib about something like that,
everyone knows.  I might have made you feel good, but I'd have
done it by making twenty other girls feel bad.  That's not
something I'd do, not for you, not for Susan, not for anyone. 
And how would you feel, really, down deep, if you knew you'd won
even though you weren't the best, but because I'd fibbed and
maybe got some others to fib too?  Could you take pride in
winning?  You wouldn't have won.  So it would have been a hollow
victory, one that wouldn't have meant much."

She looked at me, and then nodded.  "Sometimes, you think little
fibs won't hurt, but I guess, sometimes they do."

"Mind you," I told her, "ask me if I've had a nice day, and I'm
going to say yes.  Not because it's true, but because there are
things you don't need to share."

"My mother," Carolyn agreed.

"I know it's hard," I told her, "but sometimes people mess up. 
At your age, if you were to tell your mother she's all wrong, it
would most likely just make her madder.  I tell you true,
Carolyn, when you get older and see people messing up their
lives, whether it is with drugs, alcohol, tobacco, being with the
wrong people or just doing dumb things -- you have to speak up. 
They are fibbing to themselves that they are in charge, that they
are on top of things.  If you fib along with them, you just make
it worse.

"I don't know what you should do about your mom, Carolyn.  Nancy
says to be patient; I guess that's about the best thing.  Even if
it's hard.  Please, promise me that if you can't take it any
more, that you'll talk to Nancy or me, even Susan or Jamie. 
June.  Anyone else.   Talking to a sympathetic ear is sometimes
pretty good medicine!"

I squeezed her around the shoulders.  "Now you sit and rest.  Or
you can come and join the rest of us."

"Everyone will laugh at me or feel sorry for me."

"So?  It's how you feel about yourself, Carolyn, that's
important.  And if anyone laughs at you, I'll stick my tongue out
at them!"

That brought a short-lived smile to her face and I got up and
left her alone.

The party sputtered along for another hour, but there were a lot
of conversations and not nearly as much laughing.  Around four,
people started to go, by six, they were all gone.

A little later, the phone rang.  I picked up, expecting Nancy or
Carolyn's mother; instead it was Marybeth.

"I hear you had a unwanted guest at your party this afternoon."

"She was welcome enough, until she opened her mouth," I told
her.

"I will talk to Sherrie later in the week, but I'd like you to
come over next weekend.  Stay Saturday and Sunday.  We can relax,
let our hair down and you can read up on the good book.  We pride
ourselves on how smart our girls are, but the downside of that is
people like them have dreams and aspirations, and when events
don't lead them that way, they sometimes react badly."

"I admit to being pretty much at a loss for what to do this
afternoon," I told her.  "It's one thing to make your kid take a
timeout, but telling another adult to chill is much harder!

"But, that said, I wouldn't mind a weekend away from this."

"Good!  Now, relax.  Elena says you have some experiments to
try."

I laughed, "You are such terrible gossips!"

"I suppose.  It's just the people we care about though.  You made
quite an impression on Elena, by the way."

"She made one on me, too," I replied.

"You might think, considering what she does to earn a living,
some things about her that aren't true.  Cathy is a dear friend
giving another dear friend a job for the summer.  Next fall,
Elena will be a teacher.  And I'm sure, a very good one."

Or, in other words, don't read anything into Elena's lifestyle
because of where she worked.  That seemed fair to me.  "Thanks,
Marybeth."

I was considering what I wanted to do for dinner, when Karen
Wheeler knocked on the door.

"Hi!" she said brightly.  "We were thinking of going out for
pizza.  I don't suppose anyone here would be interested?"

Even Carolyn was interested; the only one not interested was
Sherrie, who wanted to spend some time studying.  So I loaded
Susan and Carolyn in my car and off we went.

It was a good time for everyone.  The girls sat together, the
adults sat a ways away.  June sat on one side of Carolyn, Susan
on the other; they all seemed happy.

The conversation at my table revolved around the rising
temperatures and the good year the Diamondbacks were having.  Not
being a baseball fan, it was hard to work up much enthusiasm, but
Jay and Gus were diehard fans, while Karen and Frank were just
enthusiastic fans.

Several times I looked over and saw Carolyn, her earlier
depression gone or covered up, talking animatedly with June and
Susan, mostly with June.  I could see from their hand gestures
they were talking about diving.  I sighed.  First, how to get
Carolyn's mother to consider letting Carolyn try out for diving.
Second, Carolyn was having a good time with people a lot closer
to her own age.  They were giving her the kind of peer approval I
couldn't possibly give her and would be wrong to try.

I wasn't twelve and while I could give support and approval,
there was a natural distance between us that wasn't there with
June, Susan and the others.

When we got back, Susan and Carolyn were both exhausted.  Susan
talked for a few seconds with Carolyn and then came to me. 
"Would you mind if Carolyn and I snuggle tonight?"

"No, of course not," I told her.

I gave them motherly hugs and kisses goodnight and off they went
to bed.  Sherrie had left a note saying she was going out and
would be back by midnight.  I smiled at that, wishing her luck. 
Funny, I thought, the Department of Public Safety officer was
maybe twenty-five or so, Sherrie was nineteen.  No one would say
anything about their dating.  But if he was nineteen and she was
thirteen, he'd go to jail.

Once again I shook my head.  There were thirteen-year-olds who
needed help tying their shoes.  There were adults I wouldn't
trust with a sharp object.  There were thirteen-year-olds, even
some twelve-year-olds, who'd grown up too soon.  But the fact
remained that they were significantly more mature than most.

I wished the rules were different.  Let each of us be judged as
we are, not according to some arbitrary division.  Arbitrary
rules might work for judging something like diving or gymnastics
-- but to judge behavior?  You had to have a yardstick for each
person.

Later, I climbed into my bed, taking along one of the small
electric vibrators I'd bought.  As I rubbed it over my clit,
there was no doubt that the feeling was electric.  I quickly rose
to a peak, and then carefully hung there for a while, before
sliding down the other side.

A good thing, I thought.  A good thing I was spending the night
alone.  No one but myself would understand the giggle fit I had a
few seconds later.  Who would imagine me, a woman in her
mid-thirties, lying by herself in bed, using a vibrator to make
my day?  It wasn't nearly as good, for instance, as Marybeth's
finger, but that wasn't really fair, because no one else had a
finger that good either.

I slid the small pencil under my pillow as I rolled over.  I
smiled to myself and then fell away into sleep myself.

I got up early, even before my alarm clock went off.  This time I
was smart enough to turn it off before that happened.  I got up,
showered and went outside.  The sun was just starting to come up,
it was light enough to see well, but the direct sun was still a
couple of hours away.

It was a little chill, but not that bad.  I'd not bothered to
dress or even put on a bathing suit.  I was, I realized, a lot
more adventurous than I'd ever been, as I slipped into the water
and started to swim.  I'd done about three laps when I heard a
splash behind me, and turned to see June's head pop up and come
after me.

"I figured you wouldn't mind if I didn't ask," she said, catching
up with me.  I could see that she'd shed her clothes too.

I sighed.  "I was just doing some laps."

"Can I, please?  I promise I won't be a nuisance."

I smiled at that, and started swimming.  As before, she was
quicker than I was and able to go quite a bit longer.  I stayed
in the shallow end, lying on my back in the water.  While the
water was pleasant, getting out wasn't.  A light breeze had
sprung up and the morning chill was now an icy blast, relatively
speaking.

June came and stood a few feet away.  "I was thinking that my mom
probably came and talked to you."

"We've talked a few times," I agreed.

"About me."

"You've come up in the conversation a couple of times," I agreed
again.

She looked at me with exasperation and I relented.  "Yes, June,
we talked about you."

"I was thinking I'd never been with someone way older than me.  I
was thinking it might be fun."

"And it might not be, either," I rejoined.

She nodded.  "I thought about that.  I thought about that a lot.
Toni and Sylvia... they've had this thing for each other since
they were little.  They mess around sometimes with me, but I know
that they don't really mean it.

"Someday, I want to be with someone like that.  Where we mean
it."

"You will be, it happens to virtually everyone," I told her.

"Yeah, sometimes I get a little confused, while I wait.  So, I'm
sorry about the other day."

"Nothing happened the other day," I reminded her.

"I was thinking about it," June responded.

"Thinking about things is good for you, at any age."

She laughed.  "You have an answer for everything!"

"I do?" I said that with a straight face, which made her laugh.

"I like my mom, she's the best!  Gus is awesome too!  But, Laura,
when I grow up, I hope I'm like you!"  With a heave she was out
of the pool, heading for her clothes.

I shook my head.  Karen, you were wrong about your daughter. 
She's been there and done that already!  And moved on!

Then it was my turn to get out of the pool.  I dashed for the
house, rinsed off in the warm shower and got dressed.  No one
else was awake, so I fixed myself some toast, poured some orange
juice and went back out and sat at the pool, enjoying the
pleasant morning.

How many times, when we lived on Long Island had I gotten up on a
Sunday morning, rushing to do this or that?  How often had I
spent some time sitting outside?  We didn't have a pool and above
all, we didn't have this weather.  I'd already experienced more
good weather in the last month than you could expect in New York
in a couple of years.  Sure, it was warm in the afternoon, but I
had air-conditioning.  I nodded to myself, patting myself on the
back.  For all sorts of reasons from the mundane to the personal,
moving to Arizona had been a smart thing to do.

Susan and Carolyn didn't get up until nearly ten, Sherrie got up
around eleven.  There didn't seem to be any reason to do
anything, so I didn't.  I sat by the pool until it was too warm,
then I went in the kitchen and read.

No one else seemed to be anxious to do much either, and we spent
a leisurely day; just lying around the house, complete
vegetables.

Late in the afternoon, Nancy called.  She was apologetic, but we
both agreed that Carolyn had to go home.  Nancy said she'd drive
over and pick her up; that was fine with me.

I told Carolyn who simply shrugged and went to get her things
ready.  I watched her carefully; she wasn't quite at the point
where the condemned is resigned to whatever happens next -- but
she was very close to it.

Nancy collected her a little later and left.  I mentally crossed
my fingers.  Marybeth had said this wasn't the first time such
things had happened.  I assumed her good book had a few good
words to say about what to do.

About seven, I was thinking about dinner again, when Karen
Wheeler arrived.  "We want to steal you for a bit," she told me.
"Do you think Susan and Sherrie can get by for a while without
you?"

Sherrie nodded yes; Susan was more emphatic.

I followed Karen back to her house, where Gus, Jay and Frank were
sitting in the living room.  The three girls were nowhere
visible.

"Evening, Laura," Jay said.  "Sit down, take a load off."

The next thing I knew, I had a glass of tea in my hand, and a
burgeoning curiosity about what this was about.

"We four like to think of ourselves as different faces on one
person," Frank said.  "Not that we don't have our own minds, but
on a great many things, we think very much alike."

I nodded, more curious than ever.

"You have a life, a very nice life," Gus added.

What had Jay said?  That they were really one family?

"It's not that we don't think one person living by herself isn't
fine," Karen continued, "but for someone like you, it's a shame.
You should be with someone you care about."

"I care about my daughter," I told her.  "There are one or two
others I care about as well."

"Yes," it was now Jay's turn to talk, "but you really should have
someone to share with, on a more equal level."

"Are you proposing yourselves?" I asked, trying to sound
neutral.

"Be still, oh my heart!" Karen said with a laugh.  "No, while you
might think of this as a recruiting session, it's not that kind
of a recruiting session.  More of an educational seminar, so to
speak.  We want to talk about our lives, in the hope that the
life style will resonate with you."  She looked me in the eye. 
"Sometimes, it gets a little lonely out here on the cutting edge
of social evolution."

Well, I certainly knew about that!  Although I thought society
was a lot closer to being comfortable with four adults living
together, than it was for adults having young lovers.

"For a while," I said, "I was positive that my husband would be
appalled to see me now," I told them, looking at Karen in
particular.  "Then I realized that I'd have been shocked a year
ago, looking at me now.  That maybe I was being unfair with
him."

Jay sighed.  "Odds are, you're probably right.  This isn't
something people can just jump into and get along well.  There
are all sorts of things society does to acclimate us to living
with someone else; it's maybe sixteen times harder when four
people try it."

"And considering the number of two-person marriages that go
bust," Frank added, "a little scary."

"But," Gus chimed in, "when you love each other a great deal, a
lot of obstacles aren't what they could be.  If you are committed
to each other, to all of the others, then it works as well as
anything does in this world."

For the better part of two hours we talked about life, love and
relationships.  It was a free give-and-take, and I found myself
very comfortable with them and the ideas they were talking
about.

Still, Roger had talked to me often about politics, which wasn't
a subject I much cared about.  Democracy, he'd said, quoting
someone else, is the worst form of government there is, except
for all the others.  I thought the idea of a group marriage was a
wonderful idea, but for the life of me, I didn't see how it could
work.  That they had made it work was pretty obvious.  But would
it work for me?

I told them I was going to think about it, which wasn't even a
social fib.  There was a lot in what they said about living
together that applied just as well to cheerleader friends as
well.  Several times all of them had nodded when I'd explained my
personal feelings.  I stayed away from discussion of my own sex
life and none of them made an issue of it.  What were the odds
that if Karen knew I had a preference for young girls the others
didn't know as well?  Pretty small, I thought.

Karen walked home with me and I was glad of the company. 
"Thanks," I told her.  "It was an interesting evening. 
Unexpected."

She reached out and touched my arm.  "You are a very warm and
loving person, Laura.  Wasted on one daughter and a boarder!"

I sighed, "I wish that was all there were."  I slapped my hand
over my mouth.  "Hush my mouth!"

I laughed and she just smiled at me.

"The cheerleaders are doing something I think is very important,"
I told her.  "Helping with them is going to be very satisfying."

I saw the gleam of mirth in her eyes and I added, "Personally
satisfying, Karen!"  Still, it was hard not to laugh at myself.

"We all have our likes and dislikes," she told me.  "My parents
would have never understood how much I enjoy watching Jay go down
on Gus.  Or vice-versa.  One thing I've learned over the years is
that you can't make snap judgments about people; you have to
watch them, see what they really do, as opposed to the things
they say they are going to do.

"Not, mind you, that if I was single, I wouldn't be pounding on
your door!"  She leaned close, kissed me on the cheek, then
turned and headed back home.

That night, I spent my time thinking and not masturbating.

<1st attachment end>


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