A Swiftly Changing World

"Yes."

"You recognized her instantly, yes?"

"Of course. We grew up together."

I took a deep, calming breath and continued. "When you realized that your cousin, whom you know almost like a sister because she's the closest in the family to your own age, is now a porn star, what went through your mind?"

Emily thought it over for a brief moment and then it all came pouring out of her, like a dam had broken, and the words came out in a wild rush, "Well, at first I was kinda freaked out. But then I realized that she's allowed to have her own life just as much as anyone else and if she wants to make her living in porn, it's her business as long as she enjoys it. But I didn't know if she actually does enjoy it and I wanted to be sure, so I asked Rick to go halfsies with me, to buy the video. He doesn't know that she's my cousin, by the way, I just told him that I liked what I saw in the pictures and wanted to see more. So we brought the video back here and I watched it on your DVD player because the other one's broken. Anyway, I know her pretty well and if she wasn't enjoying it, then she'd have a better career in other kinds of films because she sure fooled me- it looks like she loves it. And seeing the scene got me excited, so I watched it again. And I got more excited, so I watched it again and before I knew it, I was kinda hooked... and horny. I didn't want to admit it out loud, but I liked watching my cousin have sex like that. It was kinky and hot and nasty and... and... taboo. I wanted to enjoy it, too, and Rick was there and there was that thing his ex-girlfriend had told me and he would have to be an alien if he didn't have a hard-on, so I asked him to show me what it looked like and then..."

"...one thing led to another," I finished for her. Fuckity-fuck-fuck-fuck, squared.

"Yeah," my daughter answered meekly.

"Well, I hate to break it to you, honey, but if watching your cousin have sex got you hot and horny, that's borderline incestuous. Next time you see her, you'll see her as a porn star, a sex object, and not just your cousin." At that point I didn't want to break it to her that Rick was probably now aware that "Miss Begotten" might be related to us. "And then there's the matter of the scene itself," I added.

Emily blinked owlishly at me. "What about it?"

"The symbology alone speaks volumes, Emily. In MY office, watching a porno scene where a girl fucks her father. It was set on continuous playback. You said yourself that it turned you on."

Emily gave me a wolfish smile. "Well, at least I'm not the only one. Not anymore." With a slight gesture my daughter pointed out that a very obvious erection had formed behind the confines of my pants- you couldn't have missed it from orbit.

I had absolutely no ready response for that, so I turned to leave again and, just before I closed the door behind me, I looked back at her. "You're still grounded." Yep, that's me. The dad with the snappy come-backs.

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I went back to my office and picked up the cordless phone that sat on my desk. It was relatively early in the evening and I knew that Sam would probably be at home by then. I was not disappointed when he answered on the second ring. The second he picked up, I said, "Thank God you're home, bro. We need to talk."

"Duncan? What's wrong? Who's in trouble? Are Em and Jess okay?"

"They're fine, Sam. Well... Jess is, but Em's in some hot water right now."

"Oh? What'd she do this time?" he asked. "And how much is it going to cost you?" I could hear the humor in his voice on the other end. He thoroughly enjoyed the stories I told him about my daughter's latest escapades. He also thoroughly enjoyed reminding me that I was just as much a pain in the ass when I was her age- maybe not as overtly troublesome, but there had been times when I'm sure Mom and Dad were ready to give me up for adoption.

I steeled myself for what I was about to tell my brother and then let fly with the entire story. I didn't leave out a single detail and when I came up to the part where it was his daughter on the DVD, I waited for his response. For several long seconds there was nothing but silence, so I prompted him. "Sam? Did you hear me? It was Polly, for chrissakes! You there?"

"I'm here, Duncan."

"Well?"

"I want you to do something for me, Duncan. Bring both your daughter and that video here. Tonight. I'll tell Beth that you're coming." I was astonished at how amazingly calm he sounded. I would have expected him to flip completely the fuck out, but he was cooler than a fan.

"Sam, man, I'm not sure that this is... well... I don't think Beth should see this, bro. It's just... well... I've seen some of it and I'm not sure that she'd like seeing her daughter like this."

"She won't be watching it," my brother told me. "She'll be out of the house and won't argue the matter. Be here at eight. And don't forget to bring Em. I've got to go now, Dunk. I'll see you soon." And without another word on the matter, he hung up the phone. I glanced at the wall clock and saw that he'd given me just over an hour to get there.

I know my brother pretty well. If there's one thing where he and I differ, like night and day, it's our tempers. He can snap easily and overreact like you wouldn't believe. I, on the other hand, tend to take things step by step and save my wrath for those truly special occasions, like today. Most of the time, however, I usually have the world's longest fuse and simply plan my revenge for a cold, cold day in the future. But Sam just goes for the throat and won't let anything get in his way. His calmness on the phone just then had me extremely worried. I only prayed that I could speak with him before he made any irrational decisions.

I went back to Emily's room and knocked on the door to get her attention. "Get dressed," I said through the door. "We're going to visit your uncle."

"To tell him about Polly?" she asked from within her room.

"I already told him," I informed her. "He asked me to bring you and the video over."

There was a thoughtful silence and then, "...Why?"

"Your guess is as good as mine, Emily, but taking into consideration the news that he's just received, I don't think it'd be a good idea to disappoint him. Get dressed. We're leaving in twenty minutes."

"But I haven't even taken a shower yet, Dad!" she complained.

"Then you better hurry up, kiddo. He wants us there by eight o'clock."

I went back to my office once more, got the DVD out of the player and put it back into its case. I spent the remaining fifteen minutes or so straightening up my office. When I dropped my daughter's discarded clothing at her front door, she opened it up and quickly kicked it into her room. When she turned around, she looked up at me with nervous eyes. I was glad to see that my daughter was now dressed and looked like a normal teenaged kid. Her hair was still wet from the quick shower she'd taken and she smelled clean. I deemed this to be a vast improvement from the last time I'd seen her.

"Ready?" I asked.

She slung her knapsack over her shoulder and said, "Yep."

"You're remarkably relaxed for someone in your position," I observed. "What am I missing? What else did you do while we were away?"

Emily just blinked her eyes up at me as innocently as you please and said, "Nothing. With the exception of today, I followed the rules to the letter. I swear it on the graves of grandma and grandpa."

That was good enough for me. Emily loved both my parents, who had died when she was eight, with absolute conviction. When they passed away in the same year, Emily was devastated and didn't eat for almost a full week. She wouldn't invoke her grandparents unless she dearly meant it.

I nodded at her gravely and said, "Okay. I believe you. But that still doesn't change anything. Fact of the matter is, you DID break the rules, even if it was only for today. Now... I'm no idiot, Emily. I've known for some time now that you're sexually active. As a mature parent, I accept that fact and even expected it. I ALSO respect it. You weren't going to stay a virgin for the rest of your days, no matter how much I wanted you to." I sighed deeply as I looked down at my daughter, who remained thoughtfully silent. "You're not a kid anymore, I get that. But... please. In the future, be more careful. And, for Christ's sake, pick a smarter partner. That Rick kid is a bonehead."

A wry grin crossed Emily's lips and it suddenly bloomed into a full smile. "He's not as dumb as you think, Dad. If you give 'im half a chance, he might even surprise you. He's actually one of the smartest guys I know. You just caught him a bit flat-footed, that's all. And thank you for saying that, about me not being a kid anymore. In the future I'll try to be more... uhm..."

I held up a hand to interrupt. "I don't want to know who you'll be screwing or when you'll be screwing them, Emily. That's not what I'm after here. I just want to be assured that you'll be more responsible and respectful of our boundaries."

Emily nodded and said, "All right. I'm sorry, Dad. Really. I am. And not just because I got caught. I'm sorry about the whole mess. And I'll tell you something, Dad: as rough as you think you've had it today, just imagine how weirded out I was at the fact that you saw me not only naked, but also having sex. That's just.... it's..."

"Subject change," I said quickly. "Your uncle's waiting for us." I held up the DVD. "Put this in your knapsack, will you? I feel kind of weird holding it. You bought it, you carry it."

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The trip to my brother's house, which was just on the other side of town, was fairly quiet. Emily and I were still a bit self-conscious about what I'd seen when I came home and I don't think either of us was ready yet to really discuss it. She asked if Jessica knew that I was home early (which caused me to mentally kick myself for not calling my wife) and we talked briefly about some of the places I saw in New York, but that was pretty much it. The rest of the trip was shared in silence. By the time we got to Sam's house, which is a fairly large estate, the silence between my daughter and I was almost palpable. We got to the front entrance of the house and we still hadn't said a word.

Before I rang the doorbell, I held out my hand. "I think I'll take that DVD back, Em. Sam might want to.... uhm. Hell, at this point, I don't know what he'll want to do with it. But he asked me to bring it and I think I should deliver it personally."

Emily simply nodded in agreement and produced the case without a word.

I rang the doorbell and we waited for a few seconds until it opened. I expected my brother to answer the door, but I was suddenly surprised to see Polly framed in the doorway. Her eyes went wide and she flung her arms open.

"Unka-Dunk!" she cried cheerfully. Before I could even respond, she leaped across the threshold and grabbed me in a happy embrace while I stood stiff as a board, not sure what to do or how to respond. When she let go of me, she regarded Emily and scooped her up in a warm embrace, too. "Oh, I'm SO excited to see you two!" she said into Emily's shoulder. "SO much has happened lately! You'll never believe! Oh, it's so good to see you!" She let go of my daughter and stood back. "So what brings you here, anyway? Does Dad know you were coming?"

I cast a quick glance at Emily, who just shrugged at me in bewilderment, and then I looked back at Polly. For a fraction of a second I thought that Polly's clothes had somehow magically disappeared and my mind forced me to see her completely naked in the doorway. I blinked away the mental mirage and, mercifully, she was clothed again. "Uhm, yes," I answered. "Your dad actually asked us to come by."

Polly's eyebrows arched up in surprise. "Really? Funny. He didn't mention it." She shrugged it off, though. "Oh, well. Daddy's always running one scheme or another. Maybe he just wanted to surprise me. Or you. Or all of us. Who knows?" she asked cheerfully. "Anyway, come in!" We followed her inside the house and as she closed the door behind us, she said, "You JUST missed Mom, by the way. I think she went to go out with some friends or something. I don't know, really. But she said she wouldn't be back until late tonight. And the twins are still away at school."

I smiled at Polly congenially, not sure of what I should say to her. Part of me wanted to just blurt out that we knew what she was doing for a living, but the more sensible side of me was certain that such a confession might cause more trouble. So, instead, I said, "It's a pleasant surprise to see you, Polly. When I spoke with Sam, he didn't mention the fact that you were in town. Last I heard, you were going to college in California. What brings you home? Spring Break isn't for a few months."

Polly giggled and said, "Oh, that. I dropped out in the second semester. L.A. is just SO fast-paced. I was working at this place on Santa Monica Boulevard and met some people. Next thing I knew, I was taking acting classes and getting modeling jobs. I blinked twice and suddenly I was getting actual acting jobs and making all kinds of money. I'm actually on hiatus right now, in between movie projects. And," she leaned in conspiratorially, "I'm getting filthy rich!"

My mind was clicking along at a quick clip, certain that I'd be able to get her to admit the fact that she was working in the porn industry without even making it known that we already knew. "Really?" I said with as much sincere interest as I could muster. "Well, what kinds of movies are you acting in? Horror? Drama? Sci-Fi?"

"Porn." I turned around and saw my brother Sam standing in the doorway, holding a small glass of whiskey in one hand and a handful of DVD's in the other, like they were playing cards. I could see that at least two of the DVD's had my niece on the cover. On one of them, she was provocatively dressed in a see-through nightie and, on the other, she was completely nude with her hands seductively shoving her plentiful breasts up at the camera while licking one of her own nipples. "She's a porn star. Aren't you, Birdie?" he asked his daughter with a fatherly smile.

Polly didn't even bat an eyelash as she said with gusto, "Yep! And a damn good one, too!" She took my daughter by the hand and said, "C'mon, Em. I think our dads need to talk for a bit."

Emily speechlessly looked at me like a deer caught in headlights as her cousin dragged her out of the hallway to somewhere deeper inside the house. She was probably as stunned as I was and couldn't yet figure out how she should respond to this sudden turn of events. Neither of us knew what to expect when we got inside the house, but THIS certainly hadn't been conceived of in either of our minds.

I looked back at my brother, who had placed his dealer's hand of DVD's on a table next to the front door, and asked, "Just what the hell is going on here, Sam? You KNEW about this?"

Sam turned wordlessly away and I followed him into his study. As he closed the double doors behind us, he said, "Of course I knew, Duncan. I work for the CIA. I'm a spy. Don't you think something like that would come to my attention?"

I just blinked at my brother in astonishment, not sure of what to say or what to do. I was completely turned around at that point, like a man lost at sea. "Well... aren't you a little BOTHERED by this? I mean, Sam, your... YOUR DAUGHTER IS ACTING IN PORN!"

Sam went over to his private bar and poured me a glass of what he was having. Normally, I don't drink alcohol, but this was one of those occasions where I didn't hesitate. Frankly, I needed a stiff drink right about then. As he handed the glass of whiskey over to me, he said, "At first I went ballistic, pretty much as you'd expect. Completely apeshit," he added with a chuckle, like it was a fond memory. "I found out six months ago, after she made her debut. One of the guys in the L.A. office brought it to my attention. I just couldn't believe it. I mean, my first impulse was to go straight out to L.A. and drag her back home, right out of that place."

"And?"

"And, so I went. I got there, full of piss and vinegar, ready to do exactly that. I didn't even tell her I was coming, I just showed up at her apartment. She and I had a long talk about it and, in the end, I realized that I couldn't stop her. She wasn't doing drugs, she wasn't being coerced into it, she wasn't out of control in any way. She was making an extraordinary amount of money doing something that she..." he shrugged with resignation and sighed. "Well, she likes sex. Always has, I guess. I mean, you know. She's had more boyfriends than I can count, going through them at a rate of one per week. So she found a profession where she could satisfy her cravings and make a decent living doing it."

I couldn't believe what I was hearing, to say nothing of who I was hearing it from. "But what about AIDS and STD's?" I asked. "Isn't she at risk in that profession? I mean, Sam, remember John Holmes? He died from AIDS when we were teenagers!"

Sam looked at me with surprise as he made his way to his desk and sat on the corner of it. "Oh, come on, Dunk. You're a writer. SURELY you know that the porn industry is one of the most protected entertainment industries out there- largely BECAUSE of John Holmes' death. They test their stars on a monthly basis. The big studios will share their stars from time to time, so everyone knows everyone and everyone's clean. They don't fuck people outside the business, either. It's all insulated against the outside world. Very strict. There's a system in place within that industry and risks are extremely low. If someone so much as sniffles on the set, they're confined to their house until all kinds of tests are run to ensure that they don't have something serious. While those people fuck around with each other, they DON'T fuck around with their health. Actually, there probably isn't a healthier bunch of people on this planet. Lots of exercise, the best doctors, trainers, dieticians... a porn star is not a person, man, they're a product and those people take CARE of their products. Idiots don't last long in the business. They get strung out on drugs and bullshit. But the people who have serious potential to make an awful lot of money get special attention. No drugs, no late-night parties. They get treated like consummate professionals and," he added with a tip of his glass, "women RULE that industry, top to bottom. Polly is actually at the top of the food chain there." The twinkle of pride in his eyes as he said that almost floored me.

I helped myself to a seat in my brother's study and took a very large swallow of whiskey. The liquid burned my throat, but I was so mind-blown that I barely even felt it. When the liquid finally cleared my gullet, I whispered, "I don't fucking believe it." I looked up at my brother. "And.... you're OKAY with this?"

"Well, what am I gonna do?" he asked with a shrug as he sat in his own chair on the opposite side of his desk. "Stop loving her? She's my daughter, Duncan. Right or wrong, I can't stop being her father or stop loving her. And, to be honest, she's a lot safer than if she was working the streets. At least this way I know she's safe."

I looked my brother in the eye and asked, "Have you... seen...?"

Sam simply nodded. "Of course I have," he told me. "Every single scene, even the ones that were cut. As a director within the CIA, I was able to put some pressure on the studios. I made it clear that I would allow my daughter to work for them if and ONLY if the family was given full ownership and rights to any material not used for public consumption."

"WHAT?" I asked in disbelief. "WHY?!?!"

"Misuse of her likeness," he said matter-of-factly. "I don't want some rogue fuckwad using my daughter without her permission. I also made it clear that if they don't play by my rules then I would see to it that many of their best and brightest would befall some very hard times. They agreed to the terms instantly. Like I said: those people take care of their product."