Magnus and His Family (Chapter 12)
Kathryn M. Burke
Kristen was giving a lot of thought to the situation of Jenna in the household.
As she had told her brother, she was worried that Jenna was feeling like the "odd woman out" in the whole scenario. Their parents' ecstatic reunion, followed by the unexpected enrapturement of Adele and Curt, and the natural affection of Kristen and Paul did seem to leave Jenna out in the cold—even though the three males of the household had made it abundantly clear, in their sessions with her, how much they appreciated her mature sensuality and seductiveness. She was clearly grateful for this attention, but—at least in Kristen's mind—she still didn't seem quite at ease.
So she decided to take matters into her own hands.
She didn't even tell Adele about her plans, although she did drop a hint to Paul at one point. He was gravely dubious about the wisdom of Kristen's proposal.
"Gee, sis, you'd better watch what you do!" he cried. "You can't just butt your nose into other people's affairs."
"It's a little too late for that, guy," Kristen said tartly. "Jenna's already well ensconced here, and so she's
become
part of our extended 'family.' It's only right that we make some effort to ensure that she's happy."
"Okay, but this could blow up in your face!"
"I don't think so," she said, with a confidence that she really didn't feel.
But she carried on regardless. It wasn't hard to find out where one David Whitman worked. Adele had told her that he was an insurance agent, and Kristen saw that he had a small office not more than five miles from their house. So late afternoon one crisp November day she found herself opening the door to that office.
She encountered an older but quite attractive secretary or receptionist gazing suspiciously at her. It was only after their eyes had locked for some moments that the woman said, "May I help you?"
"Um, yeah," Kristen said, suddenly losing her nerve. "I—I wanted to see David Whitman."
"Do you have an appointment?"
"Well, no. I—um, this is a personal matter."
The secretary—who, as her nametag indicated, was named Juliet—gave Kristen a long, searching look before saying, "I see."
She rose heavily from her desk and, hardly letting her eyes roam far from Kristen, approached a door at the back of the little office. It had David Whitman's name on it.
Juliet stuck her head in the door, spoke a few inaudible words to the man inside, then closed the door.
She returned to her desk and gave an almost derisive nod in the direction of David's door. "Go right in," she said, then pretended that Kristen didn't exist.
Kristen strode toward the door—but just as she was about to open it, she experienced a sudden spasm of uncertainty.
Oh, God, what am I doing? Maybe this
will
blow up in my face? Am I really up to this?
"Come on, girl," she said almost aloud as she opened the door.
The man facing her, seated behind a desk, struck her favorably at first—far more favorably than she had been led (by Jenna) to believe. So far as she could tell, he was not a tall man, and not notably muscular; but he had the most
honest
face she had ever seen, a kind of perpetually youthful expression aided by the mop of untidy sandy hair that fell partially over his forehead and framed a face that had ingenuous brown eyes, a somewhat swelling nose, and a surprisingly feminine Cupid's-bow mouth.
At this moment, however, he was looking more frightened than Kristen was.
Both of them stared at each other in stony silence for many moments, until David finally said, "Is there something I can do for you?"
Kristen licked her lips nervously. "Yeah, well, um, my name is Kristen. I know your daughter, Adele, and your ex-wife."
David exhibited surprise, even shock. "You do? You go to school at Manhattan?"
"Yeah, that's right." Then, in a rush: "I really like Adele—she's fabulous! We've gotten to be, um, really really close. And I like Jenna too."
David gave a broken smile. Kristen almost thought he was going to burst into tears. "That's great. Adele's a fabulous girl."
Kristen noted that David said nothing about Jenna.
The two lapsed into silence again. Kristen was coming to realize that this whole business was going to be a bit more difficult than she had expected.
"She's living with us now," Kristen blurted out.
David again betrayed surprise. "Who is? Adele?"
"Yeah. And Jenna too."
"Jenna?"
David exclaimed. "How on earth did that happen?"
"Well, it's kind of a long story. But both of them are there now in our house, with my parents and my brother and—"
And this guy named Curt who's gotten real fond of your daughter.
David was having trouble taking it all in. "You're—all together in one house?"
"Yeah," Kristen said with a sheepish grin. "It's getting a bit crowded, but we all get along real well."
"I suppose that's fine," David said, shaking his head in disbelief. It seemed as if David was on the verge of saying something—maybe something like
Jenna's kind of a hard person to live with
—but he remained quiet.
"I don't really know why you're here, though," he went on. "I mean, I think it's wonderful that you and Adele are such good friends, and it's also nice that Jenna is in a household where she seems to fit in. But—"
He didn't need to say the rest.
What does this have to do with me?
Kristen suddenly sat down in the chair facing David's desk.
"You see," she said with incredible intensity, staring right at the man across from her, "we've all gotten really close.
Really
close, if you know what I mean."
David just gazed back at her. At first his look was blank; then a kind of wide-eyed astonishment came over his features. "You—you're not really saying what I think you're saying, are you?"
"I am, sir," Kristen said primly.
"Meaning what, exactly?" David said, now glaring at her like a prosecuting attorney cross-examining a hostile witness. "Are you saying Jenna and your father—?"
"Yup," she said with sudden cheerfulness.
"And—and your mother doesn't mind?"
"Nope."
"And"—David became even more aghast—"your brother and Jenna?"
"You bet."
"Jesus Christ."
"And I may as well tell you, Adele's fallen for this guy named Curt. He's a football player at Lorimer, like my brother."
"Is that right?"
"Yes."
"Curt and Adele?"
"Uh-huh."
"And . . . what about him and Jenna?"
"Um, yes, sometimes."
"And your mom?"
"Yeah."
She cuddles up with each of the guys also.
"And—and you?"
"Yes."
"Holy mother of God," David breathed.
Then he did something Kristen didn't expect. She could have imagined him, at this point, shouting his outrage to the high heavens, berating her for living in some "den of iniquity," or even threatening to call the police, since he had presumably figured out—or at least suspected—that relations between Kristen and her father and Paul and his mother were a bit more intimate than in most cases.
But instead, he started to laugh.
It was a peal of infectious, overwhelming hilarity that caused him to stand up and give a little dance behind his desk. Kristen could see actual tears of laughter falling from his eyes, just as she herself began to chuckle and then guffaw almost as loudly as he.
"That's some family you've got!" he cried, wiping away the tears.
"Yeah, I guess it is," she said between chortles.
Then she suddenly got serious.
"But she misses you," she said heavily.
David stopped short, and his laughter came to an abrupt halt.
"Who misses me?" he said sharply. "Adele?"
"Well, sure, she does. But I meant Jenna."
There was a huge and deafening silence.