Writer's Note: This is the second and final part of this story. I have had it waiting for my adviser but she appears to be gone. So, read on, and yes this is the end of the story. Enjoy.
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The sun streams through the huge windows of the chalet overlooking Buffels Bay and we are gathered around the table drinking coffee and catching up on family stories and just generally enjoying the temporarily reunited family.
"Cape Town Chatter: 22 March Last night saw another of Paul Bezuidenhout's Pop Up Pizza Palace experiences happen in Upper Kloof St. The swinging set was there en masse and partied, scoffed Paul's fabulous Neapolitan Pizzas and drank Beaumont wines out of the usual paper cups. It was a great evening especially as the Cape Doctor was not doing house calls. The Cape Doctor if you don't know is the summer wind that tears roofs off houses, trees out of the ground and the pleasure out of being outside. If you missed the pop up, it's because you haven't subscribed to this blog. Subscribe and don't miss out next time. Oh, and just as a postscript, rumour has it that Paul scored as usual with one of his patrons. Paul of course denies it, but your reporter noticed him following a rumpled and flushed beauty who had just emerged from from a dark corner."
Francis, my elder sister waves her smart phone around after reading this nonsense. She apparently keeps in touch with her "roots" from Nederland, a tiny town Colorado by following this moronic local blogger. Mind you Francis did get us into the pop up last night by being a "strong Patreon supporter" of the blogger. Admittedly it was quite an experience, though one I am reluctant to repeat too soon. Dave, eldest and best brother who now lives in Aussie shakes his head.
"The altitude or the cold is getting to you Frannie. Sapping your wits and forcing you to read society bloggers for intellectual stimulation."
Francis just glares at him but there is no malice in the comment due to Francis' acknowledged brilliance in botany.
"Did anyone notice the "rumpled and flushed beauty" emerging from the rumoured "dark corner" last night?" asks Chris the brother born right before me. He is a digital nomad and lives in a beach cottage near a village with an unpronounceable name somewhere on an island in the Pacific.
"I didn't, but then we had our backs to the action." Alice responds and Jake nods emphatically.
"Nothing from our side, no dark corners."
My brothers and sisters are gathered in town to attend our mother's memorial service. Ma died quietly, peacefully and unexpectedly ten days ago. A mercy in my opinion saving her from a descent into dementia which was terrifying her.
We gathered to mark her passing and, if truth be told to reconnect hence the secluded chalet in a beautiful setting.
"Jem, I think I speak for all us foreigners when I say, thank you for your care of our mother. it cannot have been easy and you seem to have done it at the same time as holding down a full time job." Dave playing at being pater familias which he did when I was still growing up and Pa had left us.
"Yes. Well done!" Francis reaches across the table and squeezing my hand. "It couldn't have been easy, especially packing up our family home. And thank you to Alice and Jake who seem to have helped out a lot."
"Yeah, thanks to you three, but I have a question." Chris looking belligerent. "What did she think of the polyamory arrangement you seem to have going."
"It happened after she went into frail care and I didn't think telling her would be helpful." And I brace myself for a nasty comment from Chris who has always had problems with me arriving 10 years after him and stealing his limelight plus, according to him triggering Ma's obsession with religion and chastity.
"Nice timing! Hide your decadent behaviour away from Ma till she is out of the way."
"Oh, for fuck sake Chris. Grow up. Jem can do as she likes. You ran away and lived in a squat in London as soon as you could. Bet you you didn't tell her that. Or your diversion into LSD and other recreational drugs. Jem here, stayed the course and, what is more looked after her when she needed it." Dave snarls at Chris.
Chris subsides under glares from Francis and Dave.
"Sorry Alice and Jake. An old family wound that need not be inspected in public. Go on Jem." Francis smiles benignly and sits back.
"Chris is to some extent right about me being triggered by Ma's obsession and it is linked to our" I gesture at Jake and Alice "relationship. I think maybe I need to tell you the whole story as a single unit. So lets start with me having had Ma's obsession fed to me over almost my entire life. Jake here was badly affected and said so. Forcibly. It nearly destroyed our marriage. He gave me an ultimatum, fix or we are finished. So with the help of a shrink and Alice's support I sorted out my brain. But it was something I found out about Ma that that really set the wheels in motion. Remember Ma's books? She had a secret stash of erotica. I found them when packing the books. And they were definitely hers. You remember how she annotated books? they were all annotated. The annotations indicated that Ma had a fairly active sex life. Pa gets mentioned in the annotations as taking part, then two other people appear. Mary, whom I assume is Mary Smith who was always around even after Ma became religious."
"What about Mary?" Francis leaning forward. "You know she was a lesbian don't you?"
"No, I didn't but the annotations mentioning Mary are always linked to lesbian images and descriptions so I had to assume the link."
Chris is sunk in his chair looking desperate. "You making this up!"
I fetch the Shunga book and show him some of the images with "Mary" annotations. He looks horrified and passes the book to Francis and Dave.
"Now, the big question is, who is Jimmy?"
Silence. Dave shifts around a bit, looks at Francis, then at me.
"Jimmy? Dad had a friend called Jimmy. Jimmy Howard. He was around quite a bit before Pa scarpered."
"And a bit afterwards too." Francis chimes in "And I suppose he is in the annotations?"
"Yes. In a different book. Fanny Hill. In a section that deals with Fanny cheating on her lover. In that section the name Michael, whom I am assuming is Pa and Jimmy are linked."
"Shit! Why do you think you are involved?" Chris starting to think logically. "If Ma and Jimmy had an affair, how are you linked in?" He thinks for a while. "If Pa had a vasectomy after I arrived... "
"Fuck. I remember him going for the op and what a bad mood it put him in." Dave looking at me hard. "The laatlammetjie! Ten years after Chris here. You were not supposed to happen."
I burst into tears. Francis takes me in her arms. "You are still our sister."
"Half sister!"
"Oh, for fuck sake Chris, just for once in your life behave with compassion. Do you have any idea what this discovery must have cost Jem here. And the courage it took for her to tell us?" Francis glares at Chris who gets up and walks out onto the beach.
Dave looks at Alice and Jake, "And you two have walked beside her all the way? I had my doubts about you both when I realised what your relationship with Jem was, but right now I cannot say more than thank you and welcome to our family."
