One Prince Summer Daze
The lazy, hazy daze of Summer...
Author's note:
Sorry this is getting in so late...Real Life has a way of interfering with important things, like writing. This is a mostly softcore continuation of the stories "One Prince of Serendip," my submission for the 2018 Nude Day contest, and "One Prince Revisited," my submission for the 2018 Summer Lovin' contest. You may want to read those first. Or not. Like "Revisited," this is ending up to be a long one, since it covers several weeks. As before, regardless of inspiration, this story is fiction, and if you think you recognize yourself in it, don't worry about it...no one else should. Again, I'm putting this in Erotic Couplings, although I often have a hard time deciding between that and Romance. If I've picked the wrong category, please don't let it affect your enjoyment. Thanks for reading, and I particularly appreciate voting and constructive comments, regardless of any contest. That's how I know how well I am pleasing you, the reader. Oh, and any character actually having sex is at least eighteen years old. Cheers!
*~*~*~*~*
She stepped out of a rainbow, golden hair shining like moonglow,
Warm lips, soft as her soul, sitting here by me, now...She's here by me.
All summer long we were dancing in the sand.
And the jukebox kept on playing "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band"
Summer Rain - Johnny Rivers (1968)
* * * * *
[Wednesday 7/7]
Hi. It's me again, again. The guy who still thinks he was the luckiest guy on the planet that summer. As I pointed out in
Serendip
and
Revisited
, I had the incredible good fortune to not only meet Marsha and Kate over the Memorial Day holiday, but to fall in love with them. And it really was
them
. Both of them. You could have put a gun to my head and I wouldn't have been able to choose.
Between their family and assorted friends, we were able to get the beach house ready for the invasion of my mother, two youngest siblings and the day after that, my aunt and three cousins. To say it got crowded would be my usual understatement. Nineteenth-century Prussian military commander Helmuth von Moltke wrote in 1880, "no plan of operations extends with any certainty beyond the first contact with the main hostile force." He was talking about battle, but believe me, it applies just as well to family gatherings, hostile or not.
We had the whole mob out to greet Mom when she got there. Don and his family, me, my brother Matt, his buddy Jim and Sarah, Jim's girlfriend. Teri, Julie and Jeannie - others we'd met prior to this - weren't able to be there. I tried to hide the smile when I saw Mom's look of confusion as she rolled up in the big old Country Squire. Basically, Mom's moving van.
"Um...hello? Mark..." she asked as she came to a stop and rolled down her window. "What's going on?"
"Mom, I've got a whole lot of people to introduce you to," I told her. "They helped me get the house ready for you and Aunt Barbara. We'll take care of all your gear, if you want to come meet them."
"Okay..." she decided. "Just let me park." I got out of her way and she pulled up in front of the garage doors, parking the behemoth. She, Mary and Luke got out and walked around to where the rest of us were standing. I decided a preemptive strike was in order, in the way of introductions.
"Mom, I'd like you to meet Don and Natalie Terney and their kids, Steve, Tom, Marsha and Kate," I jumped in. "They bought the Morrison place up the road. They've been really helpful with the house. Mr. and Mrs. Terney? I'd like you to meet my mom, Janice Engle, my sister Mary and my youngest brother, Luke. My dad, Henry, won't be up until Saturday."
Don and Natalie stepped forward, with Don extending his hand, which my Mom took.
"It's nice to meet you," Don told her. "It hasn't been just one way. Mark, Matt and the others have helped us with chores around our new place as well and we really appreciate their hard work."
"Well, I would hope so," Mom sort of smiled. "I take it you all have been getting well acquainted. Would you care to come inside? Can I get you something to drink?"
"Actually, Mrs. Engle - "
"Janice."
"Actually, Janice, we've already got a late lunch laid out for all of us," Don told her. "Mark thought it would be a good idea. He thought you might be tired and hungry from the drive."
"And..." Natalie smiled, "we can fill you in on his somewhat creative solution to the sleeping situation. Although, according to him, you may still need to do some refereeing." Mom sort of smiled and shook her head. I wasn't sure what was going on in there, but it probably had to do with some combination of apprehension and me being creative.
Matt and I went and started to unload the back end of the wagon and surprisingly, Mary and Luke came to help. So did the rest of the "kids." Luke did his crawl inside and hand everything out routine and the rest of us just toted that barge and lifted that bale. Mom was obviously planning to stay the rest of the summer and had brought along a bunch of stuff I would have considered useless, but I don't question the mysteries of her ways. She'd even brought a suitcase for Dad.
Anyway, she led the way and we carried behind. When we got to the living room, she turned to ask me, "so Mark...what are these creative sleeping arrangement?"
"Okay, so you and Dad in the master bedroom, of course," I told her. "Aunt Barbara and Suzy can take the front room with the twin beds. I've acquired a third roll-away which fits with the other two in the furnace area downstairs, so Mike and Bob and Luke can use those. That leaves the couch for Mary."
"And what about you?"
"Didn't Dad tell you? He said I could put up the squad tent on the beach and use that. So I'm out of everybody's way."
She looked at me for a long moment and I could see the wheels turning; that's when the grumbling started. From my brother. My youngest brother.
"Why does
he
get the tent?" Luke wondered out loud. "That thing's big enough for
eight people!
Why can't me and Mike and Bob have it?" I never said his grammar was perfect.
"Good question..." Mom answered, obviously thinking. "And Mary on the couch doesn't afford much privacy for a teenage girl. What about the boys take the tent, Mary takes a roll-away and
you
sleep on the couch?"
This was not going well. My carefully constructed privacy was going down the shitter in a big hurry.
"Um..." I temporized. "What are they going to do for a latrine?"
"Whatever you were going to do, I suppose," Mom answered. This was
not
good.
"May I make a suggestion?" Natalie spoke up, and I am going to be indebted to that woman for the rest of my natural life, and then some.
"Sure," Mom answered, turning to her.
"I think separating the youthful exuberance to the tent is a good idea," she told Mom and I started to wonder whose side she was on. "And Mary's privacy is important. More so than the boys', I think." This was still ending up with me on the couch.
"However, we have a guest bedroom we aren't using," she told Mom and my heart went into overdrive. "Mark's been incredibly helpful these last couple of weeks and I wouldn't mind having him as a houseguest, if it didn't inconvenience you."
"Mark?" Mom turned to me. I mustered every ounce of cool and sophisticated I could and faced her.
"Well..." I drawled, acting pensive, "All the chores and stuff around here are done except for splitting some more wood. Matt's staying with Jim and I'd be out of the way of you and Aunt Barbara. But if you needed me, I could be here in minutes... actually, Mom, it's probably a pretty good idea."
"I don't want you getting lazy on me," she started and Don spoke up. Another one I'll owe to the grave.
"Oh, he wouldn't, Janice," he smiled at her. "Believe me, I've got
plenty
for him to do around my place! He wouldn't have time to get lazy."
"Well..." and I heard the sound of my Mom caving.
Halle-fucking-lujah!
"I suppose that would be okay. Do we have your phone number?"
"It's written down in the address book by the phone, under Terney, Mom," I told her, willing my outward appearance to not betray the cartwheels I was doing inside. "But they're on the party line, too, so you'd just have to call the operator."
"Well. I guess that's settled," Mom decided. "Which means all that luggage can go to its appropriate destinations. What about you, Mark? What will you need?"
"Give me five minutes, Mom. My duffel's in the tent and I'll have my shit...oh, sorry! stuff...out of your way!" She nodded and I took off while Steve, Tom, Marsha and Kate played it cool, helping Mary and Luke get the baggage sorted away. I had also emptied the refrigerator of any and all contraband prior to her arrival, so it didn't take me long at all.