(With continued thanks to my editor
"larryinseattle'
for doing what he does best. Make my stories even better.)
*****
"Gifted." "Highly Intelligent." "Prodigy." "Genius." "A shining example." "Beyond his years." Did you ever notice that people have a tendency to label someone who is more skilled at something than others? I did, because I'm one of them.
Starting at a very early age, everyone around me started telling me how smart I was. By the time I was 14, I was getting ready to graduate from high school and was taking pre-college classes. Needless to say, word got out about my abilities and colleges all over the country offered me full scholarships to attend their schools. I decided on one located in the North-East. What I hadn't stopped to think about was how my 'abilities' might affect everyone else in my family. After weeks of talking, discussing, and frequently fighting, it was decided that my mom would come with me while my dad and older brother stayed behind.
Actually, it wasn't that hard a decision. My brother, Kyle, was everything I wasn't; athletic, good looking, and popular. He was the captain of the Lacrosse team, had a girlfriend who he was about to marry, and more friends than I cared to count. He was also great at anything mechanical. It didn't matter if it was a car, or a truck, or even something bigger like a dump truck or a crane, which was great since my dad was the co-owner of a local construction and landscaping company.
The next two years flew by for me and I graduated with my first Bachelor Degree, that one in Mathematics. What I didn't notice was the strain everything was having on mom and dad's marriage. Just after my 16
th
birthday, my mom told me she was going home for awhile to try and work things out with my dad. It didn't work. They divorced soon afterwards.
Now on her own for the first time in her life, mom decided to head for California and see what adventures awaited her. Not that I really cared a whole lot since I'd had declared myself an 'Emancipated Minor" while she was gone. Besides, my school classes kept me more than busy and degrees in chemistry, electronics, and computer science soon followed.
By the time I was 19, I had accumulated 4 Bachelor Degrees, 2 Masters Degrees, and a PhD. The problem was what to do with it all. Not that I had to worry about that for long. Two days before graduating, I was approached by a government agency who said they needed my skills.
They provided a VERY generous salary, a car (not that I even knew how to drive), and an up-scale apartment located only 10 minutes from their headquarters. For the next 6 months, I literally lived at work. The project had to do with breaking a computer code that was embedded within a system without letting those who had implanted it know we were aware of it.
After we succeeded, the project manager threw a big party. At first, I thought about not going but after sitting in my apartment watching re-runs of re-runs, I decided
"What the heck"
. I quickly showered and headed for the club where we were supposed to meet. When I got to the club, the bouncer gave me some trouble about my age until I showed him my state ID, the word EMANCIATED printed in bold, black letters on it, along with my federal ID. The place was packed with not only our group but several others.
I tried to 'blend in' but as the night went on, things got more 'intimate' and pairs started to slowly split off. I tried to get closer to a few women but got shut down really quick. In one case, the woman looked at me and slurred, "Kid, ye're 'bout as dumm as a stump!! But ye're kinda cute so why don' ya go home and come back when yo've learn'd a thi'g er two?" That was it. I left.
For the next two weeks, I stomped around my apartment reliving what she'd said. In the end, I decided what I really needed was a trip back home to get away from the humiliation.
When I got home, I got another shock. I knew that mom was gone and that Kyle had gotten married so I expected the house to be empty. What I didn't know was that things had changed in my dad's life, too.
The house was completely quiet when I entered, not that I would have noticed anything anyway. I had my headset plugged into my tablet and was listening to a seminar on advanced computer technology as I walked down the hallway towards my room. I had just gotten to the bathroom door when it suddenly flew open and the next thing I knew I was sprawled out on the floor.
"Who the fuck are you?" I heard a woman shriek as I started to get up.
"I ... I," I stammered trying to clear my head and figure out what was going on.
"And what are you doing in my house?" she continued, yelling.
I noticed a towel laying on the floor as my head cleared and when I looked upwards I could feel my cheeks blush as I noticed the woman standing above me, one hand covering the junction between her legs while her other arm crossed over her chest. She didn't seem frightened at all by my presence but at 5-foot, 10-inches tall and a mere 185 pounds I guess I wasn't all that imposing a figure.
"I could ask you the same thing and what do you mean 'your house'? This in my dad's house," I yelled back at her as I stood up.
Her face suddenly turned red as she stammered, "That means you must be Erik."
"Yeah ... so how do you know my name?"
"I'm your ... mmmmmm ... let's start over, okay? I'm Danielle but everyone calls me Dani. I'm your dad's ..." she stopped, realizing she still didn't have anything on. "I'm sorry but can you hand me my towel and then turn around?"
I immediately bent over and picked up the towel but rather than handing it to her I held it. "I have a better idea. You tell me who you are and why you're here and THEN I give you the towel."
Her face flared in anger as she reached out, exposing her breasts, and grabbed the towel from my hands. "Okay, young man!! I had hoped this would go differently," she continued as she wrapped the towel around herself. "I'm Danielle and I'm your father's wife ... which means I'm your new step-mother!! Satisfied?"
Everything around me seemed to spin and turn shades of gray as what she'd said swirled in my head. "My dad's ... my new ...," I mumbled as I leaned against the wall to keep from falling.
"Are you okay? Do you need some help?" her voice now filled with concern.
"Yeah, I ahhh ... I didn't know. I mean, no one ever told me about you and my dad," I faltered.
"It's okay. It all happened pretty quick. In fact, we've only been married about 2 months now."
The world seemed to spin even more as I slowly lowered myself back to the floor. "Only 2 months? How long have you known each other?"
"Why don't we talk about this over a cup of tea?" she asked. "I need to get dressed."
Once again I could feel my face reddening as I looked up at her. She looked like she was in her mid-thirties and almost as tall as I was. Her hair was dark brown with streaks of deep red running through it while her eyes were a bluish-gray that seemed to be a perfect match for her deeply tanned skin. When my gaze slid lower it seemed to become frozen on her chest; it was huge. Talk about an awkward moment! Minutes seems to drift by before I heard her.
"Up here, young man."
"I ... ummmmmm ... I'm sorry. I ... ahhhhhhh."
The sound of her laughter broke through my embarrassment. "It's okay. I've, or rather they've, been known to have that effect on people and just so I don't catch you sneaking around in my underwear drawer they're 34DDD."
My face turned an even darker shade of red as I stood and picked up my stuff, trying to avoid looking at her. "I better put my stuff away."
"And I still need to get dressed," she giggled as we separated and went into our own rooms.
When I came out, half an hour later, dad was sitting in the kitchen along with Danielle.
"Hey Erik. I'm sorry I wasn't here when you got home but I don't remember you saying anything about coming for a visit last time we talked."
"Actually, I hadn't planned on it until ...," I hesitated, trying to decide if now was the time to talk to him about my 'girl problem', "we finished the project at work early. I have a couple of weeks until we start working on the next one so I figured I'd come home for a bit."
"Ahhhhhhh. That explains it. I ... ahhhhh ... guess you've met Danielle?"
"Yeah. We kinda bumped into each other."
"Literally," she laughed.
"I'd meant to tell you about her the last time we talked," my dad continued, "but it just never seemed to be the right time."
"I assume Kyle knows?" I asked.
Dad simply nodded.
"And mom?"
He paused and looked at Danielle before replying. "Actually, your mom kinda introduced Danielle and I to each other."
"She what?" I asked, not believing what I was hearing.
"Yeah, your mom came back for a visit about a year ago. She told me about a friend she'd made in San Francisco and how she thought the two of us would be perfect together. I let it go at that but your mom left me the friend's phone number. After that, she'd ask if I'd called her friend every time we talked together ..."
"I didn't even know you and mom talked," I interrupted.
"At first we didn't. When she came back after being out East with you we realized we'd grown apart and that there were a lot of things that had happened earlier in our lives that had been causing problems for us as we got older."
"Like what?"
He chuckled. "You know, it wasn't anything big just a bunch of little stuff. Maybe that's why we're still friends and talk to each other usually ... what?" he looked at Danielle to confirm his answer, "about once or twice every couple of weeks?"
"Something like that."
"Anyway, one night after a really hectic day at work, I decided to call ... just to stop your mom from asking anymore. The phone rang and Dani answered it. The funny thing is that Dani isn't the friend your mom was trying to hook me up with. Dani used to work at the same store that your mom works at and so they knew each other but not that close. Dani was actually visiting the other woman along with some others, including your mom, for a girl's night. When I told Dani who I was she called the woman to the phone. I could hear the other women in the background teasing her about being so 'hard-up' that she was talking to your mom's ex. As you can imagine, the call didn't last long," he stopped and looked at Dani once again.
"That's where I came in. I liked the sound of your dad's voice and decided
"Why not?"
so I got his number from your mom. This time we didn't let any of the other women at work know what was going on. The first night I called your dad, we spent almost 3 hours on the phone together. The next time was almost as long and the third call was over 4 hours. That was when we decided to meet. We arranged to get together half-way between here and Frisco and spent the weekend together. The funny thing is that even with the way things are today, your dad was a perfect gentleman. I mean, we had separate rooms and not once did he try to convince me that we should stay together. Two weeks later, he came out to Frisco to visit me and the same thing happened. Then two more weeks went by and I came here. That was when we ... mmmmmm ... became an 'official' couple. After that we talked almost every night."
"So how long did that go on before you got ..."
"Married?" she smiled. "About 10 months, the last two of which I was already living here with him."
I was sure that if I was a cartoon character my eyes would have been twirling around in my eye sockets as I took in everything they'd just told me. "So let me get this straight. Mom introduces the two of you, indirectly. You hit it off on the phone and have a couple dates before ... how did you put it ... become 'official'. You talk and date another ... what? ... 8 months before Danielle moves in and two months after that you get married."
