Authors Note:
My thanks to Dr Mark for his help and advice.
Also thanks to TheSwiss for his help and work on the discord.
PM
Caleb 58 - Siblings and Neighbors.
I woke the next morning with Marcia snuggled into my side. The twins were snuggled with Melanie, while Jules and Ness were on my other side. The bed was starting to feel a little full.
After our 'talk' yesterday afternoon, Marcia had stayed to eat dinner with us and ended up staying the night, although we didn't get up to anything more than had already happened.
For the first part of the evening, she couldn't look me in the eye. Every time I looked in her direction, she dropped her gaze. After I'd cleared away the dishes from dinner, and was sitting out on the deck, she came and sat beside me.
"I'm sorry," she said.
"I thought we already dealt with that," I remarked. She smiled.
"I guess," she answered, "but I wanted to tell you again. Amanda and I had a long talk. Like you, I was brought up in a house where the rules were very different than they appear to be for people with powers. I judged you against those rules, even though I knew that I'd been lied to."
"It's something I can't criticize," I said. "I was brought up a norm and am having to really re-evaluate everything I was taught. Sharing was a big problem for me. Not me sharing, although that was an issue at first, but the thought of any of my girls with someone else, especially another man, really tied me up in knots. It's taken me some time, but I've learned what's important in a relationship and what is not.
"But as an example, and this is not meant as a criticism at all, why did you get upset when you saw me with Melanie?"
"Because you introduced her as your sister," she said instantly, "and I was brought up to believe that it was wrong."
"But," I said, "you were happy enough to take the twins to bed?"
She opened her mouth, and then closed it again.
"So, I'm a hypocrite as well," she said sighing. "Great!"
I laughed. "Like I said," I said, "I'm not criticizing. I had exactly the same conversation with myself. When I first realized Melanie was interested, my thought was 'she's my sister'. But then I thought about the twins, and Jules and Ness, and realized that her being my sibling wasn't the most important factor."
"What was?" asked Marcia.
"Whether I had that kind of love for her," I said, "and if she did for me."
Marcia sat and thought about that for a minute.
"So, do you have to love everyone you sleep with?" she asked.
I shook my head, "You know that's not the case," I said. "We've already talked about sharing. I wouldn't sleep with someone I had no feelings toward at all or actively didn't like. But love - no."
"And what about me?" she asked.
"Are you asking if I love you?" I asked, smiling.
She chuckled. "I guess not," she said. "But you confused me. You made me feel so... so wanted, so safe, even when you were dominating me. There was no fear, just the knowledge that I was bound to do as you instructed. And yet I could have stopped at any time, I just didn't want to."
"A lot of people don't understand what it is to be truly submissive," I said. "In many ways, you are the one in control of the whole relationship. You are placing a huge amount of trust and faith in the person you are submitting to, forcing them to understand your need and how to give you pleasure while controlling you.
"You tried that once with a guy and he let you down badly. Perhaps you should be looking for a submissive male?"
She wrinkled her nose. "I don't know if it's my upbringing, or what," she said, "but my father was a very domineering person and, before you get any ideas, no, we never 'shared.' My grandfather was also a very strong personality. I guess that's where I get it from, but I could never accept a submissive male. I just, I don't know, wouldn't respect them. I can and do like submissive girls, in fact Amanda is the first girl strong enough to flip me."
I smiled at her.
"You know all about sharing now," I said, "and Mary and Amanda, and I would be happy to share with you again, if you wish. I don't know about Jules and Ness, you'd have to ask them. Your sharing with Mary and Amanda doesn't necessarily need to include me."
Marcia smiled. "I've got about another week's work here," she said, "then I'll be moving out of your lives, probably to never meet again, unless you want some more work doing."
"Well, that depends," I said. She looked at me, an eyebrow raised.
"On whether you do a good job this time. If not...."
She laughed, punching me gently in the shoulder.
I reminisced about our conversations as I did push-ups on the deck. I could comfortably do seventy to eighty push-ups before having to pause even once, and now wasn't pushing for more reps, but was making sure my technique was perfect - that I was in perfect alignment, and I was going to the required depth. I figured I could push harder on the test day. I knew that as long as I could get them right, I could do enough to easily pass that portion of the fitness test.
The same thing with sit-ups. I could again comfortably do fifty to fifty-five in the minute, but I was slowing down again now to ensure that my technique was perfect. My hands on my shoulders, my elbows hitting mid-thigh exactly as it showed on the video. Once more I resolved to ask Marcia about fitting a pull-up bar on the deck somewhere.
I did that over breakfast.
"A pull-up bar?" she asked puzzled for a moment, but her eyes cleared when I explained.
"Mounting the bar wouldn't be too difficult," she said. "I've put up a few in my time. You can buy specific ones on fitness websites, and I'll fix it to the exterior wall on the deck. It'll take me an hour at the most. If you order one and can get it delivered this week, then I can do it while I'm here.
"Perfect," I said. "I'll take a look today and get one ordered up." She smiled at me.
"What's your plan for today?" Melanie asked me.
"I have to go to school," I said. "I have Ethics, and then a couple of hypnotherapy sessions after lunch. I'll be back around four."
Melanie pulled her face.
"What am I going to do?" she asked.
"You could help Marcia," I said, "or you could do some reading?"
She looked at Marcia. "Do you need help?" she asked.
"I'm going to be laying the floor in the middle bedroom," said Marcia. "I'll never turn down an extra pair of hands."
Melanie grinned. "Okay then," she said.
We all went our separate ways, and Dana and I arrived at ethics class together.
Our normal professor was back, but he looked terrible. He looked like he'd lost about thirty pounds, his skin and clothes hung from him, he had a sallow complexion, and his eyes were sunken.
I 'looked' at him and saw he had stomach cancer. The main tumour was quite large and he had metastases in his lymph nodes.
As we sat down, Dana looked at me. She raised her eyebrows.
"Good morning," said the professor. "First, allow me to apologise for not being here for the last couple of weeks. I have, as you might have noticed, been unwell. I hope that you know me well enough to know that I'm not someone who adopts platitudes or sugar coats things. I believe that as adults, you should be told the truth about matters and that is the reason that I am back this week.
"I was recently diagnosed with cancer of the stomach. Sadly, it was caught too late for any of the treatments to be effective. I'd had some discomfort but, as one tends to do, I put off going to see my doctor until it was too late. So if there is one lesson I can teach you, something you can take away from my class, is to not do what I did. If you feel there is something wrong, go and get checked.
"My doctors tell me that I have about three months left, and so it is my intention to spend the rest of this week and next catching up with all my current students and preparing them so the next professor will be able to pick up where I left off. I apologise that I will not be able to see you through to graduation as I'd hoped, but sometimes life throws us curveballs and we just have to accept them and do the best we can."
Dana put her hand up.
"Miss Reid?"
"This may seem like really bad taste," she said "but I just had a question from an earlier debate we had. I thought given your current situation, you'd be uniquely placed to answer the question we posed back then, or rather something I thought about afterward."
"Go ahead," he said looking intrigued.
"We were talking about the ethics of being a superhero," she said. "After the lesson Caleb and I were discussing it further and he gave me a scenario which I answered, but from my perspective at that time. I wondered if, given your circumstances now, you support his argument rather than mine."
There was a murmur around the class. I could feel tension building. People were unhappy with this line of questioning, but the professor was actually smiling.
"Wait," he said, quieting the class. "Might I come back to that in a second Dana?" That was the first time I'd ever heard him use anyone's first name in the group setting.
"Most of you won't understand why I'm so happy right now," he said. "All my life I've been a teacher. It's what I love to do. To nurture and mold young minds to make them think, make them reason, and give them the tools necessary to go and find the answers for themselves. Today, I came to class to say goodbye. I never dreamed that I'd have the opportunity once more to answer a question, to use my condition to teach, for perhaps the last time. So please don't be uncomfortable with the discussion or hold Miss Reid's question, whatever it is, against her. Just know that I'm grateful to her for one last opportunity to do what it is that I've loved to do my entire life."
He looked at Dana, whose eyes were wet with tears, but she soldiered on.
"Caleb gave the scenario - that someone had the power to heal but they couldn't reveal that power as they had to keep their identity secret. He asked 'would it be right for that person to heal someone, without their consent, to maintain their own anonymity? Or would that be an abuse of power?' So, I guess my question, Professor, is if there were someone who had the power to heal you, now, would you want them to, even without asking for your consent?"
"You realize," he responded, "that I can only answer for myself. I can't tell you how someone else, even someone in exactly the same position, would respond to that question. But, for myself, I would have to say 'yes, I would want to be healed', even if they couldn't ask for my consent. I would consider it a gift rather than a violation of my rights."
I went to work.
"Does that answer your question?" he said smiling at her.
She nodded, unable to speak.
