Mothers and Daughters

This story is a continuation of the previously posted first 9 chapters of the series of this name. It will make a good deal more sense to the reader if you have read the previous chapters.

Lisa was sitting on the front porch of the old house enjoying her first cup of coffee. The sun was just barely peaking over the big ridge far to the east of the family's remote Oregon ranch. The Owyhee high country was totally silent at this hour. A Golden Eagle was soring over the low ridge a mile beyond the house. She had been watching the big bird for ten minutes or more as he made turn after turn over the ridge and their pasture land before it. "Looking for your breakfast, aren't you big fella," she said softly to herself. She smiled and took another sip of coffee as she watched the eagle. "And to think," she said, "How close Luke and I came to pissing this all away. If I'd divorced him, we probably would have sold this and I might have done something really stupid like going back to live with my Mother in Virginia. All over that little red headed slut Sally over in Salem." She shook her head and clucked her tongue.

She heard the screen door creak behind her. Looking over her shoulder, she saw her daughter Melissa pushing through the screen door, a coffee cup in hand. Her hair was a sleep tangled mess, and her eyes were blinking at the bright light of the early morning.

"What was that Mom?" she asked.

"Oh nothing really. I was just sitting here watching that big eagle out there looking for his breakfast, and . . ." She took a sip of her coffee and then continued, "thinking out loud about how much I love living here. Even when we were raising kids and it was a working ranch, I loved it. But I love it even more now that I have the time to just sit here and watch that big bird hunt while the sun comes up.

"Set a spell and enjoy it, while I go get the coffee pot," she continued as she rose from her chair. "You'll be back in Eugene in another couple of months where it's rainy and cold all the time. One thing I've learned in life is to enjoy what you got while you got it."

Lisa went through the noisy screen door to get more coffee. Melissa sat in one of the rocking chairs. It creaked a bit as she stretched her long tanned legs out in front of her. She watched the eagle riding the thermals up and then cruising back over the pasture looking for a rabbit or ground squirrel or some other tasty treat for his morning meal. She was silent, not fully awake yet, but the warm sun just coming over the ridge felt delicious on her bare legs. She was still wearing on old shirt of Jamie's that she was in the habit of wearing to bed at night, if she wore anything.

Lisa returned and set a campfire blackened coffee pot between them after refilling her own cup and her daughter's. Melissa looked at the old pot and laughed. "If my boss at the coffee house in Eugene could see that pot he would have a fit."

"Why? You said yourself, it makes good coffee."

"It does, but he thinks everything has to be shiny, bright, gleaming, stainless steel to be any good."

Lisa harrumphed. "Like to see him make coffee out here with all that stainless steel when a lightening storm takes out that rickety old power line your grandfather got strung in here. We lose service on that line at least once a year and then it takes the Electrical Coop a couple of days to get around to fixing it. That line doesn't have much priority now that your grandfather's not still around and serving on their board. It's even worse since your Dad gave up politicking."

"Yeah Mom, but now you've got that fancy new back-up generator Dad put in here."

"That's just to keep that big refrigerator going he bought to replace the root cellar, and the internet setup so he can still run the business from here." There was a pause. "It's not for coffee," she said firmly.

Lisa laughed at her Mother, and then took a sip of her coffee. She had to admit to herself it was good coffee.

They sat in silence until they saw the eagle plummet to the ground and then rise, a struggling rabbit in its talons. "Hot damn," Lisa said. "He's got his breakfast." She took another long sip on her coffee and said, "My god I love it here."

"Mom," Melissa scolded.

"What? You didn't know that eagles eat rabbits? You grew up here. You and your brother used to shoot rabbits with a 22 just for target practice. Your Dad said it was okay because they were eating our alfalfa."

Melissa smiled. "No. You're right. I grew up here, and I know that eagles eat rabbits and farm kids shoot rabbits and most anything else small enough to hunt with a 22. I just never took so much glee in it. I guess I've spent too much time hanging around city kids the last three years."

"Harrumph. You're getting citified."

"Me? You're the one who grew up in Washington D.C."

"It was Alexandria, over on the Virginia side of the river," she responded, knowing it didn't make any difference.

They sat in silence sipping their coffee. The eagle was gone now and the sun was high enough so that it's light was on the pasture. "You know Mom, you're right. It's beautiful here, but you know I'm going to have to go where I need to go to make my own life someday."

Lisa gave her a sideways look. "You got something in mind you haven't been telling me about?"

"No no. Not at all. Not beyond going back to Eugene this fall to finish my degree. Dad'd kill me if I didn't do that. After that, well I'll just have to see."

Lisa was silent thinking and watching the sun creep across the pasture. "I understand and I won't stand in your way, like my Mother tried to do when your Dad and I came out here. My god, what I would have missed if I had let her convince me to let him go and stay back there in that stifling city."

Melissa asked, "When I stepped out here I heard you say something about how you and Dad almost lost all this over that little redhaired slut Sally. What was that about?"

Lisa smiled. "Well it's true. You know what happened. If I'd divorced your Dad because he was having an affair with Sally, we would probably have sold this place and I would have packed up and gone back to Virginia to live with my Mother, god forbid. But instead, your brother got us to go to counseling with the Rev. Instead of divorcing your Father over Sally, I just seduced her and now we share her."

"Or she seduced you? Right. That's what you told me."

Lisa laughed. "Yeah, maybe. It's hard to seduce someone as horny as Sally. I mean you think you're great because you talked your way into her bed and then you realize that's what she wanted all along. I'm not sure there was a real seduction there. It's turned out just great though. Just great. Your Dad fucks her. I fuck her. And neither one of us feels cheated on. Actually the Rev taught us not to feel too bad about this cheating thing anyway."

"I've noticed," Melissa said. "Dad never blinks an eye when you and Jamie are down in the Shag Wagon." The Shag wagon was an aging VW bus that Jamie and Melissa had driven out from Eugene. It now sat down near the barn with flat tires and oil leaking from its engine. It was no longer transportation but the members of Melissa's family thought it just dandy for sex.

Lisa smiled like the Cheshire Cat. "That's our deal daughter. He gets his time in the Shag Wagon too, you know. Mostly with your sister-in-law Gina lately. But, but . . . Wait. You're still okay with me and Jamie, right?"

"I told you Mom, we're not exclusive. Neither of us made that commitment to the other or asked for it before we came out here, and nothing has changed."

"Okay, but tell me if it does. He's fun and all, but that's all."

Melissa smiled, "Yeah, he's fun in the sack. Last night . . . and then she let the thought drop off and changed the subject. "Speaking of Dad and Jamie," she asked. "Where are they this morning?"

"Oh. Dad got Jamie up early. He wants to show him the spread we bought down at French Glen. He's got some idea in his head that Jamie needs to see a real working cattle ranch."

"Hmmm. Sounds like he thinks he's grooming a son-in-law. You know Jamie and I aren't there yet."

"Don't worry Daughter. It's totally up to the two of you. I'll keep your father in line. I will not do to you what my Mother tried to do to me. Given what I've been learning about her from her diaries, I'm surprised she didn't try to seduce Luke before I ran off with him. But it turned out okay. Luke and I left Virginia and I didn't speak to my Mother for years after that. I didn't even tell her when your brother was born, which was about six months after we got here." She shook her head and frowned.

"What? You were pregnant before . . . "

"Yup. It happens you know. Marriage is not a physical requirement for pregnancy. It didn't matter that much. Luke and I were so in love not even my Mother could stop us from getting married, and his family was overjoyed to find out they were going to have a grandchild. They took us down to old Father O'Brien in Jordan Valley and got us married quicker than a whistle." Lisa's frown had turned to a broad smile. "Oh how it snowed that day and cold—burrrr! I wasn't sure the family's old International truck was actually going to get us back in here, but those old rigs were tough. We got back, and Luke and I couldn't have been happier."

"Sounds perfect," Melissa said. "The ultimate in the Great White Wedding." Both women laughed.

"But enough of that," Lisa said. The men will be gone all day today. I was up late last night reading more of Grandma Louise's diary. I found some really juicy stuff we can share today and since they're gone, we don't have to ride all the way up to the Headwaters to do it."

"Okay," Melissa said with enthusiasm as she rose from her chair. "The eagle got his breakfast, so let's go inside and have ours. Then we can come back out here and I can hear more about my slutty Grandmother."

"Oh she was. She certainly was. Wait until you hear today's installment."

"But can we be naked, like we do up at the Headwaters. I kind of like that."

Lisa looked at her daughter and laughed. "Sure why not. Let's get naked and sit on the front porch reading your slutty Grandmother's pornographic diary. I think you're getting to be as much of a pervert as the rest of this family. I love it. I just hope Jamie can handle it."

"He's holding his own. Don't worry about him."

An hour later, breakfast done and cleaned up, Melissa and Lisa, naked as Melissa had requested, had returned to the front porch, refilled coffee cups in hand along with one of Grandma Louise's notebooks. The sun was fully up now, shining brightly but high enough so that the big tin covered roof of the porch provided shade. The women could tell from the warmth that the day was going to be a hot one.

"I guess I need to move some irrigation pipe today, don't I?" Melissa said as they eased into the rocking chairs.

"Yeah, but let's do this now. The irrigating can wait until this afternoon. It's just the bottom end of the pasture and it don't need water running the whole day."

Lisa said, "Like I told you when we were up at the Headwaters, your Grandpa James had promised his bride's Father that he would provide him with an heir and he felt he had met that requirement with my birth. With her parents both gone all he wanted to was to manage the businesses Grandma Louise had inherited from them. So he told her he wasn't interested in having sex with her and she could screw who she wanted so long as she was discrete about it and didn't create a scandal that would damage the business or embarrass him. Louise took him at his word and for the next twenty-five or thirty years engaged in a long series of relationships with both men and women. She was discrete, but she kept a diary—volume after volume chronicling her affairs in all their lurid detail which I found after she passed."

Lisa held up an old tired looking notebook. "This volume covers 1978 and 1979. I was still at home then, but my care was entrusted to nannies. As with each of Grandma's entries, it is dated and begins, Dear Diary:

"Last night was an exciting new experience for me. It was the first time I ever had sex with a black man, well actually two black men and a black woman. Oh, my god, if my mother had known she would have had a stroke. Mother was raised in Richmond where even in the 1920's sex between black men and white women was abhorrent and I'm sure still a crime. But this is the late 1970's and times are slowly changing. And Diary, I have to tell you that what they say about black men is true, or at least it was with the two gentlemen I was with last night.

"I had dropped by the church to deliver a check Hubby James had asked me to deliver to the church. Hubby is far from religious, but as in all things for my husband, appearance is everything. We need to be a member of the biggest protestant church in town (Catholic won't do), and we need to be a significant contributor, one whose presence and support is important to the pastor. At least that's how he sees it. Normally he drops the monthly check off himself, handing directly to the pastor, but he was going to be out of town so after he wrote out the check he asked me to deliver it.

"The pastor wasn't in, so I left it with his secretary. But before I left I had a long chat with her. Shawna, was a mulatto girl in her early twenties (our church prides itself in being integrated. That works in a DC suburb but it wouldn't in Richmond, even today). Shawna is beautiful, with creamy milk chocolate skin, long dark hair that was done in a knot atop her head, high cheek bones, and a stunning figure that was obvious even under her conservative dress. Even without make-up her round dark eyes were striking. She told me that her work at the church was probably just temporary because she expected to leave town soon with the

jazz group she sang with in a little club over in DC. After a long conversation about jazz and her band, she convinced me I should join her at the club the next night to take in the group's last set.

"I got to the club about 11. Hubby James was out of town and the night time nanny was looking after Lisa, so I could go out whenever I chose with no real commitment on when I was going to return. The club was in a pretty seedy part of D.C. The cabby wasn't sure he wanted to let me out at this time of night by myself, but I convinced him I was meeting a friend at the club. When I walked in Shawna was on stage singing. I noticed I was the only white woman in the place. Her appearance was very different from the young woman I had met at the church. The conservative clothes she wore for work at the church had been replaced by a glittering silvery dress that highlighted the cleavage between her large breasts. The dress came to the floor, but it was slit to mid-thigh, exposing a pair of long sensual legs as she moved about on the little stage. Her long black hair, hung down over her shoulders to the middle of her back. Her voice was dusky and low. There was a base player (yeah, a base fiddle. They still have those in jazz clubs), a guitar player, and a drummer behind her, but she was clearly the group's lead. All three were handsome black men. There was also a piano that I later learned Shawna would play when she wasn't standing at a mike.

"I took a seat at the bar and ordered myself a Scotch which I sipped as I watched the group. When they finished their set, Shawna walked down from the stage and greeted me with a hug that smashed her ample chest into mine. 'Bring your drink,' she said. 'We're done for the night, but we want to watch this next group. We would like to recruit their drummer if we go to New York. Our drummer wants to stay here with his family. This way. We have a booth in the back.'

"As we walked through the tables, I watched Shawna's round hips swing from side to side. The dress hung perfectly on her, outlining her ass beautifully. She didn't swing her hips like that at the church. The booth was in a dark corner that had a good view of the stage, but was well back. As we approached two black men rose from their seats and greeted us. Calvin, the base player, greeted her with a hug, letting his hand slide down over her hips and caress her ass. 'You were great tonight girl,' he said. The guitarist's name was Jim (not James like my husband, but just Jim).

"Shawna introduced me as a friend from her church job. Both men smiled politely and shook my hand. They were both big men, well over six feet tall and muscular without being fat. As they greeted me they each let their eyes roam freely down my body. Jim was a mulatto, like Shawna with creamy milk chocolate skin. Calvin was dark, his skin an inky black. When he smiled his white teeth lit up the room.

This was going to be a new experience for me. Being raised in the 1950's South in a family with money I had never been around colored people (as we called them then), and things hadn't changed in that regard when I married James. I lived in a different world from people like those I had just met.

"The booth was a little small so that when we all slid in Shawna and I were sitting side by side with our hips pressed together and then men were on the outside. I could feel the warmth of Shawna's hip against mine on one side and Jim's hip and leg was against me on the other side. The three of them talked briefly about the drummer and quickly agreed that they should approach him the next day about going to New York with them. Shawna told Jim to make the approach.

"That issue settled, Shawna flagged a waitress and ordered a round of drinks. The three of them chatted generally about their plans for New York, and I listened. When I turned my head to look towards Shawna, I could see almost all of one of her breasts exposed by the deeply slit top of her dress. She noticed me looking but made no effort to cover up.

When the second round of drinks arrived I felt James lay one of his big hands on my thigh. I could have rebuffed him, but that wasn't what I wanted. I had already decided that I wanted to fuck him. I leaned against him and said, 'Hmmm. That feels nice.'

"He responded by beginning to slide his hand higher on my thigh. It felt delicious, but I couldn't help but think how much better it would feel if it was on my bare skin. I looked over at the other couple and saw that Calvin was doing the same for Shawna's thigh except that thanks to the slit in her dress he had his hand on the bare skin of the inside of her thigh. I wanted to encourage Jim so I softly lay my hand in his lap. I couldn't feel an obvious erection, yet I still sensed a major package beneath his slacks.

"That was when Shawna put

one of her hands in my lap, letting her fingers stroke my upper thigh through the fabric of my dress. Oh my, I thought. This could be a very interesting evening. I put my free hand on hers and made it clear that I wasn't looking to her to remove her hand.

"When the group finished the number they had been playing Calvin spoke up, 'You know, if we go back to our place, I have a couple of joints all rolled up. It's the same dope we were hitting on last night. Fine stuff.'

"Shawna looked at me and said softly, 'Will that bother you Louise if we have a hit or two? It's nice for coming down after a show.'

" 'I would love to,' I said. 'And no, it won't bother me. This won't be my first time.'

"We walked a couple of blocks to the shabby looking apartment building they called home. Their room was up three flights of stairs. It was small, but clean and tidy. There was a long couch on which we all managed to sit, again pressing our hips together, while we passed a couple of joints back and forth. It was, as the kids say, 'good shit,' really good shit. Within minutes I was laying back in the sagging old couch feeling totally relaxed. All I could say was, 'Wow.' That made Shawna giggle and the two men look at me with interest, interest that was blatant and obviously sexual. Shawna stood and said she needed to get out of her work clothes. She left the room, her glittering round ass swinging even more seductively than it had in the night club.