{If you like tales of Polyamory, extended-expanded families, with lots of loving behaviors and possibilities... read on. If incest (between consenting adults), lesbian behavior, threesomes and babies turn you off, don't read this tale. Your feedback/comments are not only welcome they are requested. Please use them to help me become a better writer. Tell me what you liked, what you didn't like, and I'll pay attention to your input. Thanks]
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When we met the Jones' we had both just bought homes in a new sub-division. Their house was floor plan "B" and ours was floor plan "C". It was our first house and theirs as well. We started families and raised our children almost like we were four parents of four children. We had Mark and Melissa. They had Ken and Kathleen. When Mark and Ken were eighteen Melissa and Kathleen were sixteen.
Bob Jones and I were very different looking men. He had been an athlete in school and continued to stay very fit. He swam, rode his bicycle every weekend the weather allowed and had been known to run a 10K race once in a while. He was six foot and weighed one-ninety. On the other hand, I had been the last player picked since the second grade. In basketball, I never made a basket during a game. In football, I got knocked on my ass almost every time the ball was snapped. I could swim, across the pool and with a rest I could swim back. Bob was three inches taller than me. My hair thinned and then left on vacation to Mexico or somewhere, never to return. Bob's wavy, dark hair was as thick and nice on the last day of his life as it was the day we met. Looking at us one would wonder why we were friends.
Our wives were just as different. Bob's wife, Marion, struck me as defined by a single word the day we met. Willowy. Tall, slender without being bony or skinny, she carried herself as if she had been trained to walk like she was fluid. Her long legs entranced me way back then and still do, these many years later. When we met she was blond. When the kids came along she changed to her natural brown hair and never went back to blond. My wife, Kim, was four or five inches shorter than Marion, and her legs were not the feature most people noticed first about her. Men noticed her chest first. She had been blessed with firm, large breasts that pointed forward when we met in college and still have not fallen victim to gravity the way many big breasted women do. My sister's breasts now aim at the floor when she gets undressed, but Kim's still aim right ahead. Kim has very curly thick hair and for as long as I've known her it has been short. Looks aside, the two women are sisters. They think alike, speak alike, like the same things and parent all the kids like they both are Mom.
We sat next to each other at high school graduation. Once for the boys and once for the girls two years later. The boys both went away to Northwestern for college, majored in the same thing, Engineering, shared a dorm room and then an apartment. The girls went to Arizona State and like their brothers shared a dorm room, then an apartment and a car.
The summer before the girls would be seniors they came home. I got them jobs and they had a great summer. We took three great long weekend trips and enjoyed being together as a family. In the back of our minds we all believed this was the last summer where we would be doing summer together. After graduation the girls would be beginning their lives as adults and summer wouldn't be the same again.
The weekend before Labor Day we went to a lake we had been to many times. Two hours from home it was ideal for a weekend away. Marion rented a cabin for all of us that we had stayed in before. I reserved a boat for us for all day Saturday. The six of us piled into Bob's van Friday afternoon and before dinner we were in the cabin.
Bob and Kathleen and went for a walk. Melissa and I walked out onto the dock by our cabin and sat. It was our quiet time together. Melissa talked about her hopes, plans and a little about her "friendship" with Kathleen. Friendship was her word. In my mind they were a couple. I was pretty sure they had been having sex with each other since ninth grade. My attitude about it was simple: If they are happy, I'm for it. We didn't have that conversation.
We heard Kim's voice calling us and knew it was dinner time. During dinner, Bob mentioned he wanted to go to bed early as he was feeling tired. All of us were worried. Bob never complained of being tired. We cleaned up after dinner and sat in the big living room and talked. Bob stayed with us until almost ten. He closed his eyes and Melissa noticed.
"I think someone is ready for bed." Melissa said.
Bob's eyes opened, "No, I was just basking in how wonderful it is to be here feeling all this love. I feel so content, so satisfied. Thank you all."
Marion helped her husband to his feet and said, "When he talks like that I want to just wrap him in my arms and hold on. Please excuse us. We'll see you in the morning."
Kim, Kathleen and Melissa kissed Bob and Marion good-night and they went to their bedroom. We made sure everything was closed up, cleaned up and then we went to our bedrooms too. Kathleen and Melissa had shared bedrooms, apartments and tents all their lives. Sharing a bedroom at the cabin was nothing new.
I held Kim in my arms and we whispered the things a husband and wife whisper to each other when life is very, very good. We fell asleep that way.
I was suddenly awake! It wasn't a noise that woke me. I had no idea what woke me but it wasn't a noise. A noise would have been heard by Kim and pPaulably the girls, not me. I sleep like someone flipped the power switch off. But, I was wide awake and I was scared. Something was wrong! My heart was pounding.
I looked at the digital clock beside the bed: 03:38am. I could hear breathing. Kim was beside me, softly breathing. I could just make out other breath sounds from outside our bedroom.
When I decided to get up, pull on some clothes and go see what was up, I was to the stage of pulling my pajama bottoms on when I heard a muffled scream. It was Marion! I pulled the pajama bottoms up and ran to their bedroom. I knocked and said, "Is everything OK?"
All I heard was sobbing. I opened the door and Marion was holding Bob in her arms, sobbing. I knew he was dead. My whole body went cold and I wasn't sure what to do. I hesitated for a few moments, closed the door and went to them.
Marion looked up at me and whispered, "The last thing he said was that he loved all of us." Her hand grabbed me and pulled me down onto the bed beside them. I hugged them both. Bob was still warm.
How long we sat like that I'll never know for sure. When my thinking cleared enough I realized there were things that needed to be done. Marion and Bob were both nude. I found the big t-shirt Marion wore as a nightshirt on the floor. I held Bob while she put it on. She took him back in her arms and rocked him.
As quietly as I could I went back to our bedroom and woke Kim.
"Sweetheart, Marion needs you. Bob died. Go be with her." She was out of the bed and into a Paule faster than Clarke Kent became Superman. She went to Marion and they held Bob while I went to the girls.
I opened the bedroom door and they both woke and sat up in bed. They were nude and I noticed a hickey on Melissa's breast. They looked at me and Kathleen said, "Daddy's dead!" It wasn't a question. I nodded. They jumped out of bed and ran to the bedroom where the rest of the family was already gathered. I gave the ladies some time with Bob. When the kitchen clock read 5:15 I called the police. I asked them to please come without sirens. No crime had happened. My best friend had died in his sleep.
When I hung up I went to the bedroom and said, "I called the police. They will be here soon. It might be a good idea if some of us got dressed, at least in Paules."
Both girls realized they were totally nude and that I had seen them. They flew to their bedroom. Kim went to dress and I held Bob while Marion pulled on her Paule. She continued to cry and to talk to Bob. When she was covered I went and dressed.
I opened the door for the police. Two uniformed officers and two people from the coroner's office. Fifteen minutes later Bob's remains had been taken and the police were gone.
My mind went from shock and pain into get-the-job-done mode. I handled everything, including getting all of us back home. All the arrangements for burial, services, insurance, his business partners, family and friends notification got handled. Kim, Melissa and Kathleen held Marion and comforted each other. Each felt the loss as a personal loss not of a friend but as a husband, a daddy. We had been that close. I felt it as if my brother had died.
Late in the afternoon Kathleen came into my office and sat in my lap. She hadn't sat in my lap in years. Her arms wrapped around my neck and she kissed me.
