again the following Saturday. All agreed, and Evelyn's father said that he'd be glad to bring them. I assured him that they hadn't been any trouble, and that if they wanted to stay a little longer next time, I'd be delighted to provide supper. He seemed a little uncertain at first, but between Kelly's assurances and the girls pleading, he let himself be talked into it with the proviso that it was still up to the other parents – but that he would let them know of his approval.
When they were gone, Kelly and I sat down again and talked about what we thought of the five of them – and other than the mild whiplash caused by the tag-team speaking pattern of the twins, decided that they were all good kids.
We also decided that sending the kids out to a movie every time the girls came over wasn't something we wanted to do. After a little discussion, we settled on an alternative.
The next day, Jan, Robyn, Sandra, and Susan all agreed that each of them would take the kids at different times. Between how much they loved Daniel and Janet, and wanted to help Kelly and me help the kids, they were more than happy to do it.
The following Saturday saw the girls show up a bit ahead of time again – accompanied not only by Evelyn's father, but Claire's as well. When I met them, I invited both inside – and greeted Mr. Li using a large fraction of the little bit of Chinese that I speak. He replied in kind, and gave me a small smile before asking how much more of that language I spoke. I didn't hesitate to admit that I'd used up a good portion of what I knew, and the two of us got into a brief conversation where I learned that he'd immigrated from Twan a number of years before. It didn't take long for the two of us to discover that we knew many of the same places, and shared a number of opinions. I offered to show the two of them around my home, and both accepted – and judging from the expressions on their faces, were impressed. Both seemed to find comfort in the fact that not only was I married, but had children of my own. By the time I was done, I felt that both of them were considerably more relaxed about having their daughters visiting than when they'd arrived. As they were leaving, I told them that they were more than welcome to stop by any time, or call whenever they wished.
By the time I got back to the den, Kelly had already brought in the drinks for everyone, along with a small selection of snacks. I sat down in 'my' chair, and we picked up pretty much where we'd left off the week before.
It wasn't until after we'd had supper – delivered pizza, at Kelly's suggestion and the girls unanimous approval – that any of them dared to bring up something resembling a boy-girl kind of question.
As it turned out, it was Sheri that asked Kelly 'Kelly, do you think there's anything wrong with girls kissing each other?'
The rest of them got quiet to listen as Kelly answered 'No, I don't think there's anything wrong with it – as long as they're kissing because they want to.'
'Even if its on the lips?', her sister asked.
Kelly just smiled, and said 'Even if its on the lips. Why shouldn't girls kiss each other on the lips if they want to? It's okay for girls to kiss boys like that, isn't it?'
After that, the rest of the questions and conversation were pretty routine – but after the girls went home, Kelly and I decided that that question had been something of a toe dipping into the pool, checking the temperature.
A week later, and the girls were back again – and that time, the conversation ranged far and wide. There still wasn't any overt discussion of anything intimate, but the things that they did ask and want to talk about made it pretty clear to Kelly and me that they were getting comfortable with us.
It was the week after that that they finally felt brave enough to begin asking the kinds of questions that we knew they were really interested in the answers to. It began with Claire asking Kelly if she'd ever had, you know, feelings. Despite Claire's visible embarrassment at my presence, Kelly asked a few questions to make sure of what she was asking – which, not surprisingly, was whether or not Kelly ever felt horny.
At different times, all five girls looked over to see that I was utterly indifferent to the subject matter as Kelly assured them that she most certainly did have 'feelings' – and that if a girl didn't have someone else to help her with those feelings, then taking care of them yourself was perfectly acceptable. That prompted Bonita to ask if Kelly didn't mean that the girl should have a guy to help her. Kelly's response was that no, it didn't have to be a guy – if the girl had a friend that was willing, she didn't see anything wrong with two girls helping each other that way.
That seemed to surprise the hell out of all of them, and it was the twins that brought up the Church's position about such things. I could see from the expression on their faces that Kelly was surprising them when she said that she didn't think that the Church had quite the right attitude: that she didn't think it was right, reasonable, or responsible to punish people for giving in to the very desires that God had given them.
From there, it was Evelyn that questioned whether such a girl was a lesbian; I offered the opinion that as long as the girl was willing to at least consider being with a guy, then she couldn't be lesbian – that she simply didn't know if she was interested only in girls which was what the definition of lesbian required. Besides, I asked them, what's wrong with lesbians? As long as they weren't forcing anyone, who was being hurt?
Crissy and Sheri tried to argue religion with me, and I reminded them of a number of Bible stories that shed a little different light on the idea of a kind and benevolent God. That seemed to give them something to think about for later; it was Evelyn that suggested sex – whether between a girl and a guy, or two people of the same sex – was dirty, anyway. Kelly and I took turns explaining to them that sex, in and of itself, was neither good nor bad – it was the reason why the two people were having sex that mattered.
A bit later, Bonita changed the subject to boy-girl problems, and specifically, problems she'd had with different boyfriends. On that subject, I was able to explain what was likely going on in the kids empty head – with Kelly adding to the conversation by explaining to them about love and values and the like.
By the time the evening ended for us, we'd covered a lot of different subjects and expressed a wide variety of views and opinions. But the girls all seemed to be willing to consider the things that Kelly and I had told them. That both of us had encouraged them to think about what we'd said, and then make up their own minds, appeared to have a lot of impact on them.
When Kelly came back from teaching her class the following week, she came into my office and told me 'I asked Jan to do something on Sunday, and I found out the results of it today.'
'What was that?', I asked.
She gave me a big grin and said 'I asked her to talk to a couple of the girls and see if they would say anything about what we've been talking about. She did, and there wasn't a one of them that would say anything. The most they'd do was admit that they were asking questions, and listening to the answers – but not a single word about what it was they were asking, even in general terms. When she came right out and asked Claire what we were talking about, Claire told her that she probably needed to talk to us – that she didn't think that she was able to answer that.'
I smiled back at her and said 'Sneaky little thing, aren't you? But that gives us a pretty good idea that they're trustworthy, doesn't it?'
'I think it does. From what they were asking last time, I don't think its going to be too long before they get down to the nitty-gritty. When that happens, I want to test them, and see how serious and sincere they are about wanting to learn.'
I raised an eyebrow, and she told me 'No, I'm not going to grab one of them by the tits or anything – but I plan to draw a pretty clear line, and see if they're willing to cross it.'
I just shrugged my shoulders and told her 'You know the chance you're figuring to take. I'll leave it up to you to decide if it's worth it, or not.'
Kelly stood up and came over to give me a kiss on the cheek and tell me 'I think it will be', before leaving to her office.
It was a couple of weeks before the girls were able to come over again – but when they did, they'd barely sat down before Crissy and Sheri were telling us that Jan had been asking them about our talks. Kelly and I looked suitably surprised, then reassured, when all of them informed us that they hadn't admitted to anything. Once that was out of the way, we were back to talking about the kinds of things that were on their minds.
Kelly and the girls had somehow gotten onto the subject of whether or not there was any difference between a girl being seen in her bra and panties, and a bikini, when Kelly told them 'Oh, poo! It doesn't even matter if your naked when you're with other people, never mind whether you're wearing a bra and panties or a bikini! What matters is the kind of people around you – and I can prove it!'
'How?' Crissy (I'd gotten pretty good at telling the twins apart) asked.
