Better Living Through Chemistry

So that's what we did till lunch. Mom and dad showed up to take us all down to the courthouse where we met everyone else and signed all the appropriate paperwork. A quick visit to the justice of the peace and a lot of hugging and crying and it was all legal like. The dads all went back to work and the girls shooed us away.

While at the courthouse my dad had handed me a fair stack of papers and envelopes and told us to give it a good going over to see if there were any questions we had about what he'd done for us.

About half an hour after getting to our lab and going over those papers for a while we came to really appreciate what dad had done. We were each going to see a regular income of around 100K for any foreseeable future and if the royalties really kicked in then who knew how much it would be. It was clear at any rate that we didn't need to work or get a degree for that matter but in our cases that didn't mean anything of the kind. Quite the opposite in fact.

It meant that we wouldn't have to work while we pursued whatever we wanted to study and with our degrees and some seed money we should be able to work at whatever we wanted.

It was also enough to be sure the girls each had their fair shot at whatever interested them. Wow. We'd always been taught that the Lord would provide but I hadn't expected it all to get dumped on us at once.

Neil and Bob agreed wholeheartedly. Our fathers all showed up just before five and Neil and Bob helped me finish evening chores. They informed us that the girls were still at it whatever it was and that since from their point of view last night had for us boys been better than any so called stag party, not that we did those anyway, that they were taking us out for as much miniature golf as we could stand and a nice long dinner at the steakhouse of their choice.

We all had a fine time, had our fathers all tell us we had all done great and that even if we were starting our own families now they'd always be there for any help we might need that they could give.

We split up after dinner and headed home. Dad and I got there just as mom was pulling into the driveway. I got thoroughly squeezed again and she told us they had got everything planned for Friday afternoon at the church building. It was getting late and tomorrow looked to be a big day indeed so I took my shower and headed off to bed.

One last time at home in my old bedroom before we were more publicly married.

Almost an hour later after I had just pleasantly drifted off to sleep I woke to a loud rhythmic pounding. I could hear it quite clearly from all the way downstairs.

It was accompanied by some really loud squealing that I would not have recognized as my mom's expect I'd heard it a couple of times already the last two days. Goodness me oh my were my folks going at it!

Then it hit me. Now I knew what Estelle had wanted several doses of our potion for. She was taking care of her friends in a very special way for this very special time.

I'm also pretty sure they had no idea how special it was going to turn out to be. I'd never ever heard mom like this before. Now that I really knew what it was about it made me want to be with Estelle so badly it hurt.

They didn't show any signs of slowing down anytime soon downstairs so it wasn't very hard to leave quietly by the front door and walk the mile over to Estelle's.

She answered almost instantly when I tapped at her open bedroom window.

"This is your fault you know. I was just drifting off to some very pleasant dreams when it was made clear it would be a long time before I'd be allowed to get back to sleep," I said.

She just laughed and said innocently, "How? What? Oh, and it's really good to see you. It's nice to know though that I'm not the only one having trouble sleeping alone."

"How much of our potion did you give my mom anyway?" I asked.

"No more than you used on me last night," she told me.

"That explains it," I acknowledged.

"Why don't you climb on in here? I can pretty well promise you won't get to sleep right away though," she said.

I did and as we snuggled up beneath the covers she said, "I've slept alone all my life except for last night. I'm so glad you came. My bed seemed so empty without you in it. I'm sure I'd have gotten to sleep eventually but this is so much better."

"That's exactly what I realized after hearing mom and dad going at it for a while. I'm so glad I came over. This is a whole lot nicer," I replied.

We ended up a few minutes later with her slathered on top of me and both went into blissful, relaxed sleep. We must both have been more tired than we knew. I woke not long before six and after a delicious parting headed back home with plenty of time to shower, and finish chores.

Life was good and DuPont's old slogan drifted through my mind. There really was "Better Living Through Chemistry."