28

Chapter 25 -- Harbingers of Things to Come

On the first Tuesday in May when Dave got home from work, a beaming Bobbie met him at the door from his home into the core. He was coming for drinks and dinner. Alice was right behind him.

"I'm so glad to see you both," she said in a bright voice. "Maddy had her baby this afternoon. Thank you daddy. You are now the father of Logan Anthony Wyatt. Everyone is doing well."

Dave bowed to her with a grin a wild wide. "Thank you for the privilege of helping you expand your family. I am assuming that you and Maddy will have all things child under your aegis, unless you ask for aid or counsel?"

Bobbie hugged the man, "I love you, David. Yes, Maddy and I have this under control -- well, as much as a four-hour old infant will allow."

"Go and be with your wife. Why aren't you there?"

"They kicked the visitors out because it was feeding time for babies and new mothers. I could have stayed, but I want to come up and tell people and put up a sign about dinner. I'm sorry, I got totally diverted when Maddy's water broke and every since. Everyone is on their own for dinner tonight. There are a few leftovers from the past two nights in the refrigerator."

Dave said, "I think I'll get a group together and we'll head out to somewhere for dinner or order pizzas in."

Bobbie headed over to Mike and Clarisse's home to tell them the news and alert them to dinner plans.

Dave joined Sharon and Jake in tending bar for the Circle and friends as they gathered. Everyone was abuzz about Maddy's birth. Fortunately, everything had gone well in the birthing process. Eventually, several teams of people formed up to head to different restaurants. The Circle members had discovered, even several years earlier when their numbers were smaller, that if they ALL showed up at a restaurant expecting to sit together and get served, that the restaurant would go into panic mode with little in the way of good results. There were so many available restaurants around the city that splitting up into groups of four or six created better results."

Dave ended with Alice, Pam, Sean, Kat, and Sheri. Three one-year-olds also made the trip: Johnny, Bobby, and James. The group took two cars and ended up going to the Longhorn Steakhouse on Fruitville Road near the Interstate. Since the tourist season with a million snowbirds had ended, so they got seated immediately, and had their meals twenty minutes later; a far cry from what would usually happen in February.

After ordering, Sheri told the group how her flying lessons were progressing. She had been taking lessons from Pete and Doug and using the Cessna 152 that Owen had bought for the Circle Flying Club a few years earlier. Sheri was really enthusiastic about her new hobby, and she had some places to fly since her parents lived a comfortable flight away in eastern North Carolina. Sheri had just soloed and had been talking to her instructors about getting signed off after her cross-country trips to actually fly the trainer up to see her relatives.

Sheri stood in awe of Pam, Alice, and Dave, as well as their instructors, who all had their commercial-instrument ratings. To her, those were like the Ph.D. in aviation certificates. Pam had again taken to using the Cessna 182 for a lot of her consulting trips around the southern and eastern parts of the country.

Alice raised an interesting issue that had been a suggestion from Ross Buchman, the university theology professor who had married a group of Circle members not too long ago. He'd also started to hang out around the Circle with the intent of eventually becoming a member.

Ross had volunteered to do a Sunday 'Contemplation, Meditation, and Spiritual Conversation' service for the Circle if anybody was interested. Alice noted that he had been affiliated with a group called the Center for Positive Living a few years earlier that had folded for lack of funds. Ross had said he wouldn't have participated if it had the word 'Church' in the title. He had become quite anti-religious since his ordination, but chose to retain the fun parts of the qualification such as being able to marry or counsel people.

Dave said, "Explain more about what it'd be like."

Alice shrugged, "He said he'd teach us how to meditate and lead us in calming meditations. He'd also have us contemplate specific spiritually related topics. The examples he gave were words like compassion, love, intention, gratitude, and personal renewal. There were others but I forget what he said. He'd get us started and help lead or facilitate the discussion depending on how many of us there were in the group.

"The spiritual conversation part of the discussion might be a little more like a sermon or talk. He'd get us really into a topic that he'd done some thinking on and then hope that we had discussions about it with each other over the coming week. He'd always be available to keep things going or answer questions."

Kat said, "I like the sound of that. I've kind of missing doing something spiritual on the weekends."

Sean said, "We are always doing spiritual things, we just don't talk about them. Our loving lifestyle is based on spiritual underpinnings."

Pam said, "I think we ought to have a couple of sessions a month to test out what Ross is talking about. If we like them we can step up the frequency. If we don't, they'll peter out due to lack of attendance."

The others nodded in agreement. Alice said, "I'll tell Ross that we like the idea and encourage him to start. I can help him get the word out to all the Circle members. Maybe we'll do the first Sunday of each month over the summer."

Dave asked Alice, "Hey, what's up with Bridget? I never heard anything further about her plans for university or the summer."

"My bad. Karen told me a week or two ago, but so much has been going on I forgot to mention it. Bridget is definitely going to the university here in Sarasota. She's accepted, and even has a scholarship. She wants to study civil engineering and environmental sciences. She's ambitious and might even try for a double degree."

"So, is she moving here in August?" Pam asked.

"No, the second week in June. She got a summer job at Mote Marine working on the amelioration of Red Tide and being a gofer. She has no real background on it, but she'll be a lab assistant to some of the biochemists they have on staff. She works there until school starts in mid-August. She'll be living with us, so get ready to have yet another woman around the house."

Kat teased, "A horny woman. Bridget emailed me about wanting to do a video with Mike and his adult video crew. She said she needs the money to help with college expenses. I think we'll have a new steady actress in our midst."

Dave asked, "Do we need to do anything to our guest room to get it ready for her?"

Pam nodded, "I think we need a better desk. We'll also have time over the summer to add furniture and even redecorate if she wants. I'd leave it for now until she gets here. Let her put her own stamp on the room."

Alice said, "Karen said that Bridget redid her room at home, getting rid of the teen girl kind of posters and making the place look 'more adult', as she put it. She's also become a neatnik -- her room is spotless, clothes put away or in a hamper, bed always made unless she's in it, and so on. Karen can't believe the transformation. I guess she really did flip into being a responsible adult."

"What about Circle membership?" Sean asked.

Alice said, "Well, she's been with several of the men and women in the Circle, and in that regard took to the Circle's sexual behavior like a duck to water. She's one of the most orgasmic people I know except maybe for Cricket. She still needs to develop relationships with everybody else and I think everyone cut her some slack because of age and distance to elect her into membership. I have no doubts about her performing her membership duties. She's so eager to fit in. She'll do fine. We just have to be sure she keeps her grades up."

Dave smiled, "Somehow I think having Bridget living with us is going to be like having six wives. I just have a feeling about her."

Alice rolled her eyes, "I know what you're saying. I agree. We may have to have a talk with her. I do think she's young enough to take whatever we say as a good lesson about how she should live her life. Karen told me that her daughter is embracing a sexual lifestyle. She and Candy have had several interludes together at Bridget's instigation, and somewhat to Daryl's embarrassment, Bridget has watched them make love on the bed as she's jilled off, even on the same bed. Karen even said she sucked her father clean after he came inside Karen just two nights ago."

Dave chuckled, "I like the idea of all this incest. Paul and Megan both had sexual relationships with Erin and Ashley before they came to the Circle, and they've continued. Rachel and Jack hadn't done anything for years, but Grace and Rachel had. Rachel told me in some pillow talk a few months ago that she finally seduced her father. I don't think they have sex very often, but they make it a special occasion. She loves the transformed relationship."

Pam teased, "You should get Rachel and Ashley to both do Paul and Jack together. They could swap back and forth and really make a night of it."

Dave laughed, "What makes you think that hasn't already happened?"

Pam gawked but was faking it with a funny face, "They did. Why wasn't I told? Why wasn't everyone in the Circle told? We could have all watched and refereed."

Dave continued to laugh; "They've also involved Cindy, Meggie, Sharon, and Cricket in some of their forays on the older dads, but no more than two at a time. Neither Paul nor Jack is as resilient as they'd like to be. They have long refractory timeframes."

Kat said, "Speaking of sexy young women, did all you guys meet Taylor?"

"Taylor who?" Dave asked. Sean had almost the same question in unison.

Kat explained, "About two weeks ago the moms and Maddy hired a temporary nanny to care for tots. Her name turned out to be Taylor Volker. She's just your type guys -- cute and fuckable. I'm surprised you don't know you've had this luscious cutie in your midst for the past two weeks. She'll be a lot more visible for the next few months now that Maddy is on maternity leave."

Dave asked, "Is she a truly a temp?"

Pam grinned, "She's a maybe full-timer. She was a K through 6 teacher, and is off for the summer. She didn't like all the restrictions, rules, and management styles of the principal at her school, and then learned that the Sarasota County School Board imposed a lot of that. She is thinking about seeking some other line of work, but she loves children."

"We were thinking of home schooling the kids. For the most part they're only a year old, but they'll start learning stuff really fast now. Would she be interested in setting up some of that?"

The three mothers shrugged. "We'll talk to her about it."

"What about our lifestyle? Does that give her fits and conniptions?"

The three moms grimaced. "We didn't tell her. Until today and Maddy's delivery she's come in weekdays at nine and left at five o'clock. Starting today, she'll be here from eight in the morning until five-thirty at night, and not on weekends. As usual one of us will relieve her here and there during the days. She hasn't seen much in the way of our free and open lifestyle, except for some of the partial nudity on the patio during the afternoons when some of the women are sun tanning."

"And to prevent her from running screaming for the front gate, you plan to address this problem how?" Sean teased. Dave nodded.

"I guess we're going to have to have the discussion with her really soon, huh?"

Dave chuckled, "Oh, yeah. I think real soon, like tomorrow. If she hangs around here until Friday and helps with the kids the way Maddy did until everyone is home, she'll get a heavy dose of our sexual behavior."

Wednesday morning, Alice, Kat, Joan, and Nancy sat down with Taylor in the nursery. They carried folding chairs in from the living room so they could be near all the cribs and playpens that were normally set up for the brood of Circle children. Taylor seemed nervous about the visitors but they assured her that it was nothing she had done, but they did want to make sure she understood some of the things she'd now start to see going on in the Circle as she worked the longer days associated with the job.

The four women had decided just to layout the lurid details about the Circle and then see where the chips happened to fall. They were even prepared to put the ad back in the weekend newspaper should Taylor actually run for the gate.

Joan seemed the calmest of all, plus she was the most mature of the group and had a senior mom's persona. She started, "Taylor, we're just some of the moms whose children you care for. We're representing the whole group and we think we're all pretty sane and rational people. That said we live in a very unique community here called the Circle -- that includes everything and everybody inside the gates of our community that you come through each morning."

Kat smiled, "We have a significantly different value set and moral code from what is typically found outside the gates. We are, however, not alone in the country. Our research suggests that several million other people live much the way we do."

Alice said, "And whether you are aware of it or not, we have a great cross-section of people living in the Circle from bank vice presidents, to billionaires, a movie star, a country music star, senior managers in various businesses, entrepreneurs, and computer scientists. We have people from age eighteen up to sixty-two as members, plus a few of their adult children, and of course the babies and toddlers."

Taylor looked puzzled about where this was all leading, but she kept nodding as she fed two toddlers sitting in high chairs some mushy food.

Nancy said, "For starters, several families in our Circle are comprised of a man and more than one wife. It's not a religious thing at all, and the 'extra' wives are not 'legal' wives as a government entity might define it. Those families live together in a polyamorous group."

Taylor nodded in understanding.

Alice volunteered, "Dave Prentiss is my husband, Pam's husband, and he has three other wives. He is also most likely the father of Joan and Nancy's babies, and we were happy and ecstatic about that."

Kat explained, "We are non-monogamous or nonexclusive, if you will, in our Circle. We are a loving group of people, and practice that love openly and willingly with each other."

Taylor asked, "How many of you are there?"

"There are about eighty Circle members now, but about a eight live away from Sarasota and are only here periodically during the year. Of those, about fifty are women and the rest men."

"And ... you're intimate with each other?" Taylor asked.

Alice nodded as she caught Taylor's eyes, "And we're pretty open about it. That's partly what we wanted to alert you to. In moving around the Circle during the afternoons and evenings, or if you're here on a weekend, you are apt to see some signs of some of us slipping away to make love to each other. We are ... hypersexual, and see nothing wrong with that, even when the people coupling are enjoying extramarital or out of wedlock relationships."

"But I shouldn't see that here in the nursery," Taylor suggested.

"True, but you might see it in the core living room, kitchen, on the patio, in the gazebo, in the pool, and certainly in many of the homes."

"OH!" Taylor looked a little shocked. "I get it."

Alice took a good look at the pretty girl. She was about twenty five, a trim figure, modest breasts, very pretty green eyes, and auburn colored hair. She dressed conservatively but in summery clothes appropriate for the Florida environment. Alice realized that it was the conservative clothing that had worried her about Taylor's receptivity to the mores of the Circle. It wasn't even that she wanted her to participate, only to not get upset.

Kat had started to talk about how the people in the Circle had learned that each of them could love more than one person, and so they did. She talked about some of the other tenets of Circle philosophy and how those played out. She emphasized the equality of the sexes and talked about how the Circle had started with four couples and Pam years earlier.

Taylor said, "Maybe that's what I need to do -- 'Loosen Up' you called it."

Joan said carefully, "We all went through that process in some way before we joined the Circle. The idea is to leave your comfort zones behind and find new ones; to establish a new and more open value set; and to move your personal boundaries. We don't expect you to join or feel it's a condition of employment or anything. We just want you to know what goes on around here. If it bothers you, we'll put the word out to people to cool their jets in the public space."

Taylor said, "What did each of you do to 'loosen up'?"

Alice was a little taken back by the question. It surprised her and showed that Taylor was at least not racing to get off of the property. Alice volunteered, "Dori, one of the other women here, gave me sexually-oriented challenges for almost a year as I loosened up. One was to dress more provocatively, another to flash my boobs and pussy at strangers and then my boss, another to go naked in the presence of our friends. Being naked around here is taken for granted now; it's quite normal especially around the patio in the warm weather."

Kat said, "I did what Alice did. We also started to make out with each other's husbands and let them touch us in all our intimate places."

Joan said, "I became a voyeur when I started to loosen up. I'd be around the core and patio and I'd just watch people making love. Increasingly I masturbated as I watched them, and then I just flowed into participating.

Nancy shook her head. "For me loosening up was a mental process. I just had to decide that I liked the Circle and what it stood for. After that I was fully invested."

Alice said, "What we were doing was going outside of our comfort zones -- any activity would do. We forced ourselves and sometimes our husbands to join us and see how much more fun it was to be on this side of the sexual and relationship revolution. We were often uncomfortable with the loosening up process, but we did it anyway. I felt I had to for my ultimate sanity. I had been unbelievably tightly wound. I've never looked back."

Taylor asked, "Do your families know how you live -- all the sharing and stuff?"

Alice said, "For the most part, yes. I don't talk to my parents any more, but that's all right because of who and how they are. Instead I use my mother-in-law as a sounding board."

"And she respects how you live?" Taylor asked.

Alice snickered, "She calls herself the biggest slut here. She's one of the oldest in the Circle."

"Oh, yeah, I guess I understand. She helped bring you all into the fold?"

"No. She visited not too long ago after her husband died, discovered our lifestyle, and joined. She loves this life style. She also just married one of the older men in the Circle, my boss in fact, but they still fully participate in all the sharing and sexual activities."

"You don't see sex as a sacred activity between two people?"

"Actually, we do. The word sacred as you used it implied religious. We are spiritual but not religious, and that may influence our view of sex in that regard. We don't need a church of any kind to sanction what we do or pass judgment on what's right or wrong about it.

"The other part of your statement limited sex to two people, and my question to that would be 'why only two?' I love more than my husband. I love my sister wives. I love the other men in the Circle and all the women. I love whatever combination of people we create, and I consider our unions and activities sacred."