Chapter 5
“When did you learn about him?”
“Your father never lied to me.”
“Where is he?” It was supper time.
“Father called him away.”
“You were going to tell me.”
Mother smiled. “I’m glad I didn’t have to.”
“How-?” It was the hardest question.
“You know about stem cells. They can become sperm cells.”
“That’s not legal.”
“Not yet. The country where you were conceived was more like an enclave of mad scientists.”
“You’re getting too comic book on me, Mom.”
She smiled again. I loved her smile. It was all too rare. “You were not an experiment. The procedure was proven safe several years before we paid to conceive you.” Her smile waned. “I used to love comic books.”
“Did father tell you to grow up?” He’d told me that, when I was thirteen.
“I still read them.” She tapped her laptop. “But I don’t love them as much.”
“Do you really let him rule you?”
“Of course, Walter. I promised him.”
“Because you love him?”
She quieted. “I love you. That was our deal.”
“You wanted a child, and you wanted to be able to work.”
“That’s right.” She ran a finger over her touchpad. An app launched, code editor. She was itching for it.
“No, Mother.” I pulled her finger from the pad. “I have a million questions.”
“There’s only one question you need, and you have to answer it. Do you love your father?”
I released Mother’s finger. “Yeah.” All other questions were worthless.
“Wait. I can’t help it. You gotta tell me. Is he really your sex partner?”
“That’s private, Walter. I won’t tell him you asked.” She shook her shoulders and rubbed her neck.” She wanted to get back to work.
“Is Grandfather your sex partner?”
“Walter. I’m not going to be patient with you.”
I’d lost. I’d never know how my mother really felt about how the ‘men’ in her home could treat her. “Um- Am I your sex partner?” I felt like I was about to pee in my pants. I was terrified.
“Make yourself dinner, Walter.” She examined her code.
Father arrived later that night. I was studying for a special exam that might merit a college subsidy. He passed my door.
“Good night, Walter.”
“Good night, -” I started to cry.
I was wiping my eyes when Mother knocked. “Walter, your father is very upset.”
“I’m sorry.” I wanted to cry again.
“We’ll talk in the morning.”
I couldn’t sleep. I went out for a midnight walk around the neighborhood, against Father’s curfew. I didn’t return until four in the morning. I stayed up, reading an online manual for submissives. It was shit. I woke up, head on my desk, at a knocking.
“Come to the breakfast table, Walter.” Father called.
Bleary, weary, heartsick, and scared, I stumbled into the dining area.
“Walter, you’ll leave for college next week. Your mother and I will pay for your housing.”
“Huh?”
“I can’t be anyone but who I am, Walter. You need time and space to figure out how to process my birth sex.”
“I can manage. I-I will manage, F-father.”
He shook his head.
“Sweetheart, your father has decided.”
I slammed my hand on the table. “I haven’t.”
Dad leaped up. “I can order you out of my house this minute, Son.”
“You can. Father.” I couldn’t face him. “But then you’ll lose Mother, too.”
Three individuals struggled with individual thoughts.
“We have an agreement. You don’t understand.” Father began.
“I understand, if you don’t let her love me, you break that agreement.”
“I don’t have to live with you, to love you, Son.” Mother backed him.
“Try it, Mom. I’m not the one with something to lose.” Both of them did.
“Emotional blackmail is the worst, Walter. I didn’t think you capable.”
“I didn’t think I was a freak!” I broke down again. I slumped in my chair and bawled.
Arms quickly hugged me. “You don’t believe that.”
“I’ve thought I was a freak since I first wanted to fuck you.”
Father exploded. “Out of my house! Out! Out! We’ll send your things.”
Mother could have calmed him. “Go, Son. I’ll call your grandfather.”
“I’m not going!” I threw off Mother’s arms. I stood up to my dad. “I would go, if you loved me.”
She shook her head. “I will drag you out.”
“Ed!” Mother shot his name.
“I will fuck you!” I pointed at him. “I will rape you, until you break.”
Mother cracked my plate over my head. The memory of warm eggs crawling down my face was my last.
My first was a warm lap. “That’s a doozy of a hen’s egg on your noggin, Walter.”
“Grandpa, why do I have a cock?”
“The hell you ask?”
“If mom and dad are females, why do I have a prick?”
“Oh.” Grandfather wasn’t much of a scientist. He’d earned his money the easy way, cheating stupid people.
“Your mother was raped, Walter, by your other grandfather.”
Oh no.
“When your father began dating Lisa, she didn’t know. He was already estranged from his parents. Ed doesn’t like to admit his birth sex. He hates women.”
“But he’s a lesbian.”
“Themz jus’ werds.”
“He didn’t hide his sex. Lisa just assumed. Hell, I would have too.” Grandfather hated to admit imperfection. “Lisa was a big nerd, at the time. A man who treated her like a woman was exciting. The other nerds treated her as if she didn’t have tits or a cunt. They all wanted to fuck her, but she was more goddess than women to them.”
“Mom and Dad dated, but didn’t have sex.”
“At first. When Ed came out to her as transgendered, Lisa freaked out.”
“How did they get back together?”
“Lisa freaked out with curiosity. She took to sex with Ed like a lab rat to cocaine. It was Ed who was fooled. He even bragged to his parents, that he was more of a man than his father, who was then divorced.
“That piece of shit father came after Ed like a vengeful god. He ambushed him and my daughter.” Grandpa paused. His fists clenched knuckles white. “He’s still in prison, double counts of attempted murder.
“Ed wanted Lisa to abort.”
“That’s when Lisa offered her deal?”
“That’s right. I told her she was foolish. She’s no lesbian. I asked her to amend her deal.”
“You wanted her to have sex with men.” I gulped. “With you.”
“I don’t enjoy sex with your mother, Walter. It’s not right. It is her only outlet.”
“Don’t lie.” I smiled. “You love whipping her like your wife.”
“Yes. I love that. She loves it too. So did Ursula. But when she begs me to fuck her, I don’t get off. I might as well be a vibrator. If I haven’t already cum, I go home and jerk off to a porno.” I’d never seen my Grandfather embarrassed.
“How long was I out?”
“Long enough. Look around.”
My things were heaped in Grandfather’s study. He’d moved some of his out, to make room for them and a trundle bed. He was sitting on it. I lay across it with my head on his lap. “How long can I stay?”
“Until I’m sure you don’t have a concussion. Never declare rape, in front of your mother.”
“I was overwrought. How much of an apology do I owe?”
“To me? A big one. To your dad, nothing will pull that hurt out of him.”
“Mom?”
“She moved into my room.”
“Huh?”
“She’s worried sick about you.”
I tried to get up.
“She won’t see you. Not yet.”
Words left me. I hugged Grandfather’s knee.
Eventually, I slept. It had been dark when I came to. It was light when I awoke, alone.
I patted my head and winced. Mom’s stoneware must have been made of granite. Looking around, I made plans. I tackled the heap closest to me. Eventually, I found my cell phone. It was dead. Later, I found the charger. I finished sorting and stowing and left, phone plugged in. “Grandpa?”
“Here.” He was in his apartment’s living room. It was a two bedroom. The second was his study. Now it was a bedroom again, for an unknown time.
“Where’s Mom?”
“She’s at your dads.”
“How are they?”
“Check the internet. How should I know?” He rattled his thin newspaper.
Grandfather lived several miles from home. If I left now, I might walk there by lunch. Maybe there was a bus. Grandfather rarely invited me to his home. We always hung out at my- I stopped for a teary moment.
“How’s your head?”
“Still stupid.”
“Good. I’ll get my leeches out when you’re feeling smart again.”
“That may take a while.”
“Why do I doubt that?”
“What can I make to eat?”
“Salad. It’s already made, and shriveling in the refrigerator.”
Mom’s work, no doubt. Grandpop like hamburgers, buns, and mustard. He distrusted pickles because they were green, not because they weren’t delicious, garlic ones at least.
I ate the whole bowl. “What’s your wifi info?”
“Sorry!” I saved myself from his answer. The internet was worse than pickles, to Grandpa.
His cable had internet, but he’d asked the service tech to switch off the wifi. I searched my room for a data cord. Mother had packed my things, lumped together as they had been. There was a wire for every available standard, going back three generations of data connectors.
I hunkered into the living room, plopped down beside the cable box and plugged my netbook into porn paradise. Actually, I wanted to email work and half of the women I’d dominated successfully and otherwise. I claimed illness. They might not hear from me for the rest of summer. My parents were at odds, and I might have to move to college.
I was reading the same news online that Grandpa had folded an hour before. He was puttering in his bedroom. A key turned in the front door. Mother stepped in.
“Walter.” She looked at me, worried clearly. About what, unclear. She walked past me, “Father?” She closed the bedroom door behind her.
My brain couldn’t help but think they were in need of a hot session, but I knew better. They were talking about me and Father and what was to be done. I wished they had been fucking. That was easier for me to deal with.
An hour later, they emerged, Grandfather leading. “Walter, stand up. Your legs must be asleep.” He was right. I wobbled to my feet. Insects flooded my calves and thighs. Mother stood beside him. It was time for a talk.
“I’ll do whatever you suggest.” I granted.
“Your Grandfather is going to rape you.” Mother spoke.
I bit my lip. “Mom, I have never been more stupid-“
“Don’t ever be that much, ever again!” She cried.
“Hate me. I deserve it.”
“Walter, shut up.” Grandfather calmed. “We’re going to talk about your Father.”
“Ed refuses to let you back home.” Mother said. “I’ve asked him for a divorce.”
“You’re not a minor. So that won’t take long.” Grandpa added. “Money isn’t a problem. Your Mom’s savings will keep her in furs and slave boys until she’s in the grave next to me. Your college fund will be doubled. Don’t think that’ll make it easy. Tuition climbs every year.”
“H-how can this have happend? Why so fast? What’s the hurry?” I felt increasingly frantic!
“Hush.”
“This is serious, Walter. It wasn’t just you. Ed has been too comfortable, too long. Your mother’s deal prevented her from wising him up when it might have helped.”
“You honestly stuck to that deal, for all of my life, like a knight in armor?” Who was the stupid one? “I thought it was a strong rule of thumb.”
“This may come as a shock to you, Walter, but a sexual pact has to be followed to the letter. It’s the ultimate negotiation.”
“The problem with Ed was, he never allowed your mother to discuss adjusting their agreement to cope with the changes in their lives.”
“…because a man doesn’t suffer the conniving of women.” I looked at Grandpa.
“I said it. I’ve spent my time in the stupid room, too.” He exhaled through his snout like a tea kettle.
“Walter. What’s important right now is, what do you want?” Mother implored.
I wanted to get off the merry-go-round. “I want to be with you.” I stared. She had never looked more beautiful, free, powerful. “And Grandpa.”
“Thanks.” He snorted.
“Mom. What do you want?”
Finally, there was calm in Grandfather’s apartment.
“I want to love you and work.” She never relented, after all my years.
“And Grandpa?”
She laughed. “And Father.”
“Idiots! In my house. The one thing you can’t call pest control for.”
That was the lightest moment. For the rest of the day and evening, we hashed out a new deal, not a sexual one. Mother and I would live with Anthony until the end of summer. I would move to the capital, to a dorm, and Mother would get her own apartment there. Grandpa would visit us when he could. Mother offered to buy him a train pass. He refused.
I imagined he would see more of Corrin. Maybe Cheryl would pick my college and continue our times together. She’d been hinting. For companionship, Mother was a heap of trouble and joy for anyone who met her. Just one dating website would keep her in hot hetrosex for the rest of her vagina’s warrantee. There was a wide world of opportunity for everyone.
Father hired a divorce lawyer.
I ended up selling used cars. Grandfather lives in a convalescent home, strapped into his bed at night to keep him from spanking nurses. There is a court order preventing Mother from using a computer. We shared Grandpop’s old apartment, impoverished by law.
I still love my Father. He raised me to be strong willed and fair minded. I like my job. I don’t screw customers. They come to me after the internet tells them, my word is my bond. I hired Gina to make sure I never sold junk. She’s became a partner, married and a mother of two.
I can’t forgive my Father though. He answers my texts, sometimes, but won’t answer our phone calls. He says no one is to blame. Apparently, he’s already dating. I wondered if Bette knows. I won’t tell her. I do blame, Father. He could have kept his dog leashed but didn’t. His lawyer was certain that Mother had cheated her every penny from Ed, because she hated transexuals. At least that’s how he sold her to the jury.
She’d used Father’s identity to conduct her business, because he was the master of the house. It was a big crime, though. She avoided prison, but was banned from the work she loved.
Grandpa had a stroke, when he was seventy eight, three years after the trial. I worked as hard as I could to pay the bills. Corrin set up a trust for his convalescence. We wouldn’t accept a dime from her, but she did it behind our backs. That was the turning point.
I was able to save enough to buy a small home on the other side of town. I had to move my business and buy out Gina. I struggled to re-establish my car lot, successfully.
I came home one night, tired but smiling. I’d paid off a bill. It was for a repair garage. I still owed more money on my home and business mortgages than I’d paid. That garage would double my revenue. I had my health and my mother’s love.
“Walter?”
“Yes, Mother.” I found her typing on a mock typewriter keyboard. I hugged her shoulders.
“I’ll make you something.”
“Keep working, Mom.” She was beautiful in the blue glow of the widescreen monitor. Fuck court orders. It’s not like cops actually cared. Her parole officer stopped visiting after the first year. They had real shit to deal with. Still she used my identity when online. Unfortunately, that left only the sleaziest of dating sites, ones that didn’t require ID verification, for her to find lovers who could satisfy her particular needs. She dated twice. I doubt she fucked either of them. She described one as a dom who tried to sound like Peter Lorre, and the other a gay man who needed to come the fuck out.
I opened the fridge. Everything was fresh and delicious looking. Our house was in order. Mom worked hard too. I shut the fridge and walked to my lounge chair. Sinking in, I worried I’d fall asleep. I heard Mother shut down her computer.
“Honey, I need your help.”
“No, Mother, You don’t.”
“What can I do for you, to get you to help me?”
“You need to agree.” I reminded her. She never would. The original was her lesson of a lifetime.
“Okay.”
My heart stopped.
“I’ll agree.”
It restarted with a thump that could be heard around the room. I didn’t ask her, why now after seven years. I clawed my way out of the deep chair and stood, head clear. “Okay.”
Mother stood and walked over to me.
“On your knees, Mother. Tell me exactly what you agree to.”
She kneeled slowly, smoothly. “I promise to obey you. I promise to give you everything that is mine.”
“In return for your obedience and possessions, I will punish you physically whenever I desire and love you with all my heart.” I didn’t have to promise the last part. She knew.
“Now?”
I nodded. “Wait there.” I wanted to run, but I marched into the bathroom and looked through her things. I found it, buried under her few cosmetics. I brought it to her.
“Next time, have this with you.”
“Yes.”
“No. I’ve changed my mind.” I withheld the lipstick from her. “Stand and bend over the arm of my chair.”
“Thank you.”
“Son.”
“Thank you, Son.” She leaned cautiously. We had never done this before. She had never begged, and I had never offered. I had wanted her full agreement.
“Mother. First, I’m going to punish you for making me wait.”
THE END