I'm sorry it's taken me four years to post this chapter, but the thing is I was worried I may have inadvertently over exposed myself. I was worried that someone reading this could be able to identify my family. I obviously can't go into detail but it recently came to my attention that the main reason for my concern has been resolved. So it's on with the show as they say.
For the rest of the week whenever we could, my mother and I made plans for the coming weekend. We would have most of Saturday afternoon to scout for locations in London and later we planned to spend the evening relaxing, dinner in the hotel which was more of a restaurant than a regular hotel. (I wanted to visit it again recently but sadly it's no longer there.) After the meal we would see the famous Agatha Christie play, Mousetrap, which is staged in the equally famous St Martins theatre literally just across the road from our hotel.
One other notable event of the week was also in all respects a biggie. My sister Amy asked if I fancied a drink one evening so we popped out to our local which was only a short walk away. As we made our way there we made small talk in the way people do when they are avoiding the main issue. Sure enough no sooner had we settled our selves on the couch in the corner of the deserted lounge, sis came right out and asked if I'd been taking photos of our mom again.
I looked at her for a moment before telling her I had. I know dad had asked me not to divulge the arrangement but that had never actually started. I decided to tell her about Felix but not of our father's involvement.
'So the London trip is primarily a photo taking exercise?' She asked.
'More or less though we both want to see the play and there is a photo exhibition I want to see in a small gallery in Chelsea.'
Now it was sis's turn to look me in the eye as she had a secret too.
'Do you want to know something odd?' she asked. When I nodded she took a deep breath. 'Dad told me how much he liked the photos you'd taken of me.'
'He told you he knew it was you in the photos! Did he know the others were of mom?'
'That's the strange thing he didn't ask which I guess means he already knew it was.'
That it had to be said was a whole new ball game. I thought it only fair I tell her about dad's master plan to kick start moms sex drive by having her pose for me again. I told her to begin with I'd thought it was dad asking for the various poses and paying the exorbitant fees, that he was Felix. Now I knew it wasn't I suddenly had quite a lot of spare cash and what looked like more to come.
'Have you had sex with mom yet? Amy asked with no trace of accusation, anger or recrimination. She asked in the way she'd ask if I was going to go to uni the next day, so to speak.
I said as yet I hadn't.
'I'll ask again when you get back from London.' She teased then said. 'Dad wants to have sex with me.' Which was the second bombshell of the evening.
'How do you know?' I asked unable to believe what she'd told me.
'It was after he'd told me he liked the photos you'd taken of me. Our relationship has altered quite a lot since then, we've been a lot closer, a little like you and mom I suppose. One day last week he took me to lunch in that new wine bar and yesterday after you and mom told us you were heading off to London he asked if he could take some photos of me while the two of you were away.'
'Nude?'
'He didn't say but I guess it's what he meant.' Amy replied.
'What do you feel about it?'
'You know at first it felt a little pervy, I've never been into older guys but the more I thought about it and after seeing how happy you and mom are, plus I still remember the big kick I got out of posing for you. I thought what the hell.'
'One messed up family you could say.'
'Don't knock it, how many of your friends are still living with both their parents? And how many of them seem as happy as we four?' she asked.
'Good point.... I actually can't think of any of my friends whose parents are still together.'
'Two of mine live with both their parents, but neither of them are what you'd call happy.'
'So you enjoyed posing for me?'
'You know I did and I'm glad mom is enjoying herself posing for you. Do you know who this Felix is?'
'It could be any one, well anyone with several thousand quid to spend on photos of mom.'
'Maybe he's a secret admirer, an ex boyfriend even.'
'I like to think it's some one anonymous but I guess it'd makes more sense if it was some one who recognised mom in the photos, which in turn means it's some one close to us.... who do we know with that kind of money burning a hole in their pocket?'
'I'd have to think about that one... so you don't think it'd bring about the end of civilisation as we know it, if I pose for dad and let him have sex with me?'
'No more than me having sex with mom I'm sure. Do you fancy another Bacardi and coke?'
'If you're buying, sure.' Which seemed to bring to an end to our heavyweight discussion, when I returned with our drinks we settled down to chat about her job and my uni course, in other words normal stuff.
On Saturday morning dad dropped us outside Birmingham New street station and told us both to have fun and enjoy ourselves. We had three quarters of an hour to spare so I asked mom if she fancied having a look at the then sparkling new bronze bull in the entrance to the Bullring shopping centre which is actually directly above the station.
'I thought you might say that, let me pop into a loo on the way and I'll loose my skirt and blouse.'
Mom was already wearing her Pink Panther rain coat, as no mention was made of underwear I guessed she must have forgotten to put some on... senility is a terrible thing I thought to myself.
It was a little after nine and still on the quiet side. I moved over to a shop front about sixty feet in front of the bull and focused on mom using a fairly long lens. When I was happy with the focus and exposure I gave mom the nod. As she started to open her coat, I pressed the shutter. The camera was set to shoot continuously so was taking almost three frames a second.
Because of the way an SLR camera works you can't see through the lens as the shutter is actually open so I could only hope I'd caught the moment when the coat was completely open and all her wares were on show.
I released the shutter as her coat closed and was fully expecting someone to be shouting at us. But to my amazement no one seemed to have noticed mom flashing me. She too seemed to be a little surprised she'd not managed to raise anyone's eyebrows.