Author's note:
This is the final continuation of a very long story. It won't make sense to you if you haven't read all the rest. I'm sorry, but the numbering of the epilogues is a little confusing. The part labeled "Epilogue 1" contained two sections of epilogue, and this last part (labeled "Epilogue 4") does as well.
Parts 19 and 20 were written for my own enjoyment only, with no thought of releasing them to others. After it all grew and I thought about it some more, I changed my mind.
If you didn't like the previous parts, you're almost certain not to like this. In particular, if what you want from a story is detailed descriptions of sexual acts, you may as well just go on to something else. You won't find them here.
Thank you to those few who bothered to read the earlier parts, especially those who sent me feedback encouraging me.
Epilogue 4: A quick summary, and Hannah and Nancy at age twelve
Brian and Lynda were quicker to start having children than Scott and Martha, and theirs were also spaced a little more closely together. Their firstborn was named Nancy because both their mothers were named Nancy. She was not quite a year younger than Hannah. The next three were Traci, Rob, and Kelli. (Scott told Lynda he was afraid she was developing an "i" problem.)
It seemed good to all four to raise their children to consider the others as aunts and uncles. In fact, after a while, Hannah and Nancy spent so much of their time together that strangers tended to assume that they were sisters, and still later they confused many people by introducing each other as "my cousin". While they were growing up, because Hannah was so much taller, people also often assumed that Nancy was a lot younger and Hannah older than they actually were.
And one side benefit of the girls' inseparability was something of a surprise to them all. Brian was the fourth of seven children, and most of his older siblings had settled in the area. When Nancy went to see them, Hannah often went along, and after a little while they accepted her calling them "aunt" or "uncle", and mostly treated her as though she really were their niece as well. This carried over to the younger Davidsons as they came along, though not quite as strongly.
As much as Martha longed for a large family, she had trouble becoming pregnant. Scott made sure she understood that he thought the problem was likely with him, and that he wouldn't love her less however few or many children they had. It still hurt her a lot when she found herself undergoing menopause when they only had three. But she soon realized that Brian's and Lynda's kids might call her Aunt Martha, but they treated her like a second mother. Nancy brought some of the younger ones along, most any time she came over—which was constantly.
The other two Davidson children were named Brian and Lynda. This caused less confusion than it might have, but of course there was some. Scott had some trouble keeping the younger Bruce kids straight, sometimes, because so often he wasn't home when they came over, and they were close in age and showed a marked family resemblance. He knew names and sequence, all right, but faced with a particular child he often had to guess. As for Martha, when they were there they were treated as if they were hers, and most of the time she found it a joy. She didn't get them mixed up any more often than Lynda did.
In fact, all four of the adults found that they needed some big discussions about discipline, as Hannah and Nancy began showing a real talent for figuring out what adult was most likely to say yes to any given proposed activity. The solution to that was simply to make clear that such behavior would always lead to loss of future privileges. Going to Martha and saying, "We want to do this but we're afraid Dad will say no," however, might just lead to Martha's checking with Scott—and also Lynda if her kids were involved—and even interceding on the kids' behalf. Or if they went to Scott and asked him, he would often—if asked—be amenable to checking with Martha and Lynda instead of just saying no.
Scott and Lynda were clearly the worriers of the four. Brian and his brothers had sometimes run pretty wild when they were little, and he was normally willing to allow anything that wasn't obviously insanely dangerous or expensive. In fact, early on he said flatly that if he was at work, not to interrupt him. If Scott and Lynda would agree, he said, that was good enough for him. And if they didn't agree, and Martha couldn't convince them, he was willing to stick with them, even if he might have done otherwise were he there. He was at least as quick as any of them to discipline over things that were morally shady, though, and the kids learned to think that through in advance.
Scott knew that his own impulse was to be overcautious to the point of squelching initiative, but left to himself that's what he would probably have done. Martha was apt to worry a little, but much less so than Scott, and they both wanted to encourage the kids to be brave and adventurous. When Scott was inclined to keep the kids on a tight leash, she often would quote to him, "Better drowned than duffers, if not duffers won't drown." He had always admired the character of Captain Ted Walker, RN. This came to be a standard reminder, just like "Discuss, don't dictate."
Lynda always worried, but if the others were willing she would usually go along. She would smile, pretty unconvincingly, and tell Scott, "Well, it's against my better judgment, but . . . " And then she would agree to whatever it was—and then worry.
She was the one who, when her children were teenagers and out to late events, would sit up waiting for them to come home safely. When the boys were in sports, she was always there to watch the games, and if people around her wondered why she wasn't cheering enthusiastically, she didn't enlighten them. There were a number of reasons for this.
First and foremost, she recognized that she was usually worrying unnecessarily. This didn't help her feelings, but she did realize that she was a poor judge of the actual risk. She trusted the others, absolutely. She had promised, wholeheartedly, to obey Brian, understanding that this didn't mean a passive anything-you-say-dear attitude but an active partnership. But she had been able to do this because she saw she could trust him to listen to her concerns and consider them. She also felt herself to be somewhat under Scott's authority, though she was careful not to tell either of them, or even Martha, about that. She trusted Scott, just as much as she trusted Brian, she thought, and maybe he still understood her a little better than Brian did. So if Scott didn't say something was too dangerous or stupid to allow, once all the issues had been discussed, she agreed to it, however much she might agonize later.
But as the kids got older, they started going to Scott first if they wanted to do something and thought it was iffy. It looked as though they figured out that he would ask what-happens-if questions rather than just say no, if they gave him a chance. He might say, "That seems like a really bad idea, because . . . ," but if they started trying to improve the idea, he would help them brainstorm. If they got it to where he would agree, he would insist on running it by the other parents, but once he was on board there wouldn't be any problem.
At any rate, all the kids survived. There were plenty of bloody elbows and knees, a reasonable number of sprains, and a couple of broken arms or so, but even Scott agreed that this wasn't unreasonable. Kids were kids, after all. Lynda learned to restrain herself from running out in terror every time she saw someone fall off a bike, and even to be pretty matter of fact in applying the needed bandages.
Brian and Lynda's solution to permanent housing came when one of the houses on Scott and Martha's "street"—actually a private road, more like a common driveway—went up for sale. They bought it, but didn't immediately move in. They wanted a lot of remodeling done, and while they were at it they had a contractor put on an addition, four more bedrooms and two bathrooms. They were planning for a large family.
This got Scott thinking, and consulting Martha, and so when they were expecting their second (Brian), they took a vacation not too far from home, and had an addition put on their house as well. Architectural purists would have been wringing their hands, but it almost doubled the available space. Besides two more bedrooms and two bathrooms, they put on a large room to house most of their book collection, even if it continued growing, and off of that two small office/study rooms, one for Scott and one for Martha. In principle, this also freed up the bedroom that had been a study before. As things worked out, that became a playroom and workroom. This still left them oversupplied with bedrooms, as things turned out, but over the years they provided hospitality to many visitors, enough that almost every year there was some time that all the bedrooms were full, often with some sleeping bags on the floors. Being able to do this made Martha very happy, every time. It wasn't often that they took someone in as she had done with Lynda—it did happen from time to time, though never so long-term—but their children grew up viewing easy hospitality as natural, and habitually opened their own homes to others when they were grown up.
