Big Love Samoa Ch. 02

As we snuggled together afterwards, Helen whispered in my ear. "Just remember that I'm your number one wife."

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The following morning Helen and I were woken by a knocking on our bedroom door. The door opened and Kat stuck her head inside. "Come on you two. Breakfast is in ten minutes."

Breakfast is normally a very low-key affair at home. Helen and I often have breakfast at different times, just grabbing our own cereal or toast when it suits us. But here, breakfast was an event. There were packages of cereal and bowls of fruit on the table. John was cooking eggs, sausages and bacon on the stove while Hilda was manning a large toaster with four slots.

After breakfast had finished, my offer to do the dishes was eventually accepted by our hosts, with Annie helping me. Since the plan was for Hilda to take Helen and Kat around the point in the boat to see the bird colony, I walked down to the beach with John to help get the boat ready. Their boat was a small inflatable that they launched from a small trailer on the beach. John attached a small outboard and got everything else ready. Eventually Hilda, Helen and Kat emerged from the house with a sexy show of legs. All three women were wearing lifejackets over the top of t-shirts, but none of them had decided to wear shorts. Only Helen's t-shirt was small enough that we could see her bikini bottoms. We all waded into the sea, the three women climbed into the boat, Hilda got the motor started and they were away.

The boat seemed quite low in the water with three people on board, so I didn't take it personally that I hadn't been invited to join them. I was worried that it would seem awkward with John and his wives now it was just me without Helen or Kat. I felt like I was intruding. However, my worries proved to be unfounded. As John and I were walking up to the house he said "Ted wants us to have a game of volleyball in the pool. We're hoping that you will be willing to make up the numbers." I happily agreed.

Both women were lounging on the deck, and when John confirmed that the game was all on everyone went inside to change. Ted organised the teams into Oldies vs Youngsters. This pitted John (34) and Annie (31) against me (29) and Ted (28). I was initially intimidated by playing on Ted's team. She was athletic, boisterous and competitive. However, I soon learned that she hadn't expected me to be able to play at all, and she had purposefully paired us together to keep the teams as even as possible. As a result, whenever I did something useful, she was very encouraging.

On the other side of the net, John was a master of the game, using a mix of power and trickery to suit any situation. Beside him, Annie was a willing participant and showed some good skills, but she lacked the determination. Her gentler personality shone through, and she was happy to laugh at her own mistakes rather than get upset about anything. She was the least athletic of the four of us. While Ted was all toned arms, legs and ass with a flat stomach, Annie's body had a softness to it. While Ted's large breasts seemed to barely move, Annie's bounced around distractingly.

Eventually we stopped playing and got out of the pool. Annie made a pot of coffee which we had on the deck with some homemade baking. I took the opportunity to ask Annie about her job. She explained that she was "just a helper" at the school. John interjected to say that Annie's job was quite important to the teachers, and was quite skilled for a job that could be done with just a high school diploma.

"We're trying to explore options for getting Annie a teaching qualification," said John, "but most of the more recognised qualification would require her to study in Hawaii for three years. That would be quite a challenge for us. It might be easier for her to do a correspondence course in adult learning. She wouldn't be a qualified teacher, but she would be able to get a better job at the girls' high school."

"Girls' high school? Surely this island isn't big enough for two separate high schools," I said.

"There aren't really any high schools," replied Annie. "The girls all do high school by correspondence, but there is a school building for them to go to. The correspondence school would be happy to pay for a teaching assistant to staff it if they could find someone qualified. I think that looks like my best option."

"What happens to the boys?" I asked.

"Us boys all go to boarding school overseas," said John. "Some go to the mainland United States, and the rest go to Hawaii. Once they finish school, they're encouraged to either go to university or do a trade."

"That doesn't seem fair," I said.

As soon as I said this, I knew it was inadequate, and I wondered if I would get a strong reaction. Naturally my focus was on the fact that the men were given every opportunity while the women were given only the minimum education and little opportunity to go on to have a career. As a consequence, I was very surprised by John's response. "Well, obviously it's not fair, but it does cut both ways." I could see both Annie and Ted nodding thoughtfully

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"The fact that the boys get given more of an education is just a slightly kinder way of running them out of town," said John. "Apart from short trips to visit their families, most boys are never allowed to return here. If they stay too long, things get very tense. Every now and then a man will return to start a business, and if that business meets a genuine need, they can stay. Otherwise, the only boys who return to live here as men are the ones like me who inherit land. For all the church teaches about love and the importance of family, at the end of the day it's a numbers game. This whole community was founded on the original teachings of the church that a man should have many wives. That only works if you reduce the number of available men. Back in the states, in communities like ours, teenage boys are driven into some city and dumped on the side of the road. At least here we send them away to get an education."

I didn't know how to respond. While my eyes had been opened to the sad reality of the boys, I still couldn't shake off my thoughts about the women on the island, such as the women in their awful dresses at the airport. I thought about Helen and her career, and Kat doing her PhD, and tried to imagine them living in a society where all they could hope for was to finish high school before being married to some man and becoming just another housewife. It was appalling.

"I know what you're thinking," said Annie, "and it does you credit. Few of the women here have much of a life, although thankfully few seem truly miserable. While the men in the church are very traditional and very dogmatic, few seem to be abusive or violent. But still, we know that the three of us are extremely lucky here with John."

"I say that you make your own luck," said Ted. She turned to face me. "Annie and John were a real love match. They were friends at school before he went away, and when he came back it was obvious to everyone that they were made for each other. Annie's father had the easiest job in the world arranging her marriage. As for me, though, I'm here through sheer willpower. My father was keen to marry me off to the guy he plays chess with, but I was determined that this was where I wanted to be. I knew that John wasn't brainwashed by the church, and I knew that he made Annie very happy. First I had to convince my father, and then I had to convince John."

"It's true," said John with a self-deprecating laugh. "I hadn't really given any thought to taking a second wife, and I certainly hadn't started looking. I guess Annie and I knew that it would happen someday. Men with only one wife eventually find themselves ostracised here. Annie and I had talked a bit about moving away, but we would have had to start again with nothing. We love our home too much, and we can largely live in peace here as long as we avoid antagonising anyone. When Ted's father asked if I would consider courting her, I thought that refusing to even consider it would be rude. Ted knows that I was sceptical of her at first, but after a while I came to trust that she truly had the capacity to love me, and to love Annie as well, so we allowed ourselves to fall in love." I could see Ted and John looking deeply into each other's eyes. Annie was looking on with a contented smile on her face.

"What about Hilda?" I asked.

"I take back what I said before about luck," grinned Ted. "If anyone got lucky, it's that girl."

"Now, Ted, that's not really fair," said John.

"Hilda turned up here three years ago at the age of eighteen to ask permission to look at the birds," explained Annie. "She was so young and sweet and naive, and I think she was in complete denial of her likely future. We all really liked her, and we couldn't bear the thought of her being pushed into marriage with some man who would never appreciate her like we did. I think she was stunned when John asked her father for permission to court her. The rest, as they say, is history."

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We could see the boat approaching the beach, so John and I both went down to help get it back on the trailer. By the time we all got back to the house we found that Annie and Ted had thrown together some lunch. As we sat around the table, I wasn't surprised to hear John suggest that I tell him the story of me and Helen and Kat. In the circumstances, it was probably the best setting for telling the story we had created that night in the restaurant. Helen and Kat would be able to listen to what I said and take note of any details I had to make up on the spot, and this would enable us to remain consistent.

I naturally started with the story of how I started dating Helen, our wedding, and the start of our married life. There was no need for me to invent anything, as this part of the story was totally true. I also gave the true story of how Helen and Kat met at the university. After that, I moved on to our invented story of Kat moving in to our spare room, the boyfriend who broke up with her, and Helen's decision to lend me to Kat for the night on her birthday. Thankfully, nobody pressed me for any details, so I was allowed to remain suitably vague.

The story seemed to be accepted by my audience. Now that I had gotten to know John, I felt that he was probably too much of a gentleman to press me for more details later, so if any of his wives asked Helen or Kat for more details, at least we wouldn't have to worry about keeping our stories straight.

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After lunch, everyone got ready for their afternoon plans. Now that the tide was low, Helen, Kat and Hilda were going to walk along the bottom of the cliff below the bird colony. Anne and Ted announced they were going to take the boat to somewhere called Cave Beach, so John helped them launch the boat before he climbed into his truck and departed. He had an electrical job to do in town. He had invited me to ride along with him, but he had warned me that I would need to stay in the truck once he got to his job, so I decided to go walking with Helen and the others.

Before we departed, Hilda went into the kitchen to grab some snacks for our walk. As I stood on the deck with Helen and Kat, we watched the boat heading north. However, about a hundred metres before the point, it rounded some rocks and disappeared from sight. "Where have they gone?" I asked.

"There's a hidden cove there," said Helen. "Cave Beach. It's completely private."

"Hilda says that Annie and Ted like to swim nude there," said Kat. "Since they started leasing out their farmland, it cut down on their privacy. The swimming pool has these privacy screens, but if they want to swim in the sea without anyone watching, they go to Cave Beach."

When Hilda appeared, she drove the three of us to the top of the ridge in their Camry, stopping a couple of hundred metres before the lighthouse. From there a path wound down the hill to our right. Once we got below the high tide mark, it got easier to walk along the water's edge, heading in the direction of the point. As expected, the talk was all about the birds. Kat took a ton of photos, and they made plans for marking out a grid to enable a more systematic photographic record to be made. They also talked about plans for installing some CCTV cameras if they could arrange the funding for this, since Hilda was confident that John would have the expertise to maintain them.

Once we got to the point, we sat on some rocks and had the snacks Hilda had prepared to sustain us on the return journey. As we sat, I noticed that Hilda looked agitated. Suddenly, she stood up and said "You guys stay here. I just want to go and check on something." With that, she walked around the point and disappeared from sight.

After about ten minutes, Hilda returned looking pensive. "Are you alright?" asked Kat. "What was that about?"

Hilda seemed to be struggling to know how to answer. She looked embarrassed. Finally, she said "Ted and Annie don't know it, but they can be seen from just along there. I've looked a few times to see what they get up to."

"So?" said Kat with a laugh. "You already told us they go skinny dipping."

Hilda took a deep breath. "It's not just that."

"What then?" asked Helen.

There was a long pause. "I've also seen them kissing," said Hilda eventually. "And some other stuff."

"What? Like touching?" asked Kat. "Sex stuff?"

Hilda nodded unhappily.

"I can see that makes you upset," said Helen gently. Hilda nodded again.

"You know, homosexuality isn't a big deal where we come from," said Kat. "In fact, we're pretty big on trying to stop discrimination." Kat didn't say this unkindly, but there was a strength to what she was saying that Hilda picked up on.

"I don't have a problem with it in general," she said. "I'm actually pretty open minded. In fact, even the mainstream LDS church teaches that homosexual attraction isn't a sin. They just teach that all sexual behaviour outside of marriage is wrong. However, since their current definition of marriage is one man with one woman, that's not much help. In terms of us here in our lifestyle, I guess we have to figure the rules out ourselves."

"But you're still upset," said Helen. "Are you worried that they're cheating on John?"

"I'm pretty sure John knows," said Hilda.

"So, what is it then?" pressed Helen.

I could see tears in the corners of Hilda's eyes. "You need to understand what it's like for me. I know that they all love me, but I feel like I'm this extra part that's just been bolted on. They've been with John for a lot longer than me, so they already had these special bonds with each other. After I first spotted Annie and Ted on the beach, I started listening out more carefully at night. Then when we invited you guys to stay, they instantly came up with the plan of the three of them sharing a room. I know it's possible that John doesn't know what Annie and Ted do when they're alone, but I can't help imagining the three of them having sex together. I only get to sleep with John every third night. On the other two nights I sleep alone. Now I'm starting to think they both have John together on those two nights, and it wouldn't surprise me if they slept together when it's my turn with John."

"It seems to me that your main problem is jealousy," said Kat. Hilda acknowledged that it was. "But do you actually want to get involved with them?"

Hilda looked down as she considered Kat's question. "I don't know," she replied. "I mean, I love Annie and Ted. I really do. And I do wonder sometimes if I'm attracted to them. I would use the word 'impressed' - I'm impressed by their sexuality. I love expressing my own sexuality around them. I love it when we're all flirting with John. I love it when we're in our lingerie or naked together, and I wish it wasn't so rare that I'm included. I just don't know whether or not I could bring myself to lick their vulvas."

We couldn't help laughing at Hilda's choice of words, and Hilda couldn't help laughing at herself too. This seemed to lift some of the tension. Hilda looked around at the three of us. "I seem to have been doing an awful lot of the talking," she said. "How about you three? Have you ever done stuff all together?"

"I think you need to work out what's right for you," said Helen carefully. "You shouldn't be influenced by anything that we may or may not do together."

"I guess you're right," said Hilda.

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Later, back at the house when Helen and I had a moment to ourselves, I said to her "That was quite a vague answer you gave Hilda when she asked about us. Is there anything you haven't told me about you and Kat?"

She gave me a cheeky grin. "Are you sure you aren't letting your imagination run wild?"

I responded with my own cheeky grin, and I added a raised eyebrow. Helen's face suddenly became serious. "Finn, I have never cheated on you with anyone, man or woman. You can trust me." Then her grin reappeared. "If I ever decide to seduce Kat, you will be the first person I tell."

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After dinner, it was obvious that Helen, Kat and Hilda would spend the evening talking about their research, so I was happy to accept John's suggestion that I join him and the other two women in a game of euchre. This time I was partnered with Annie against John and Ted. I hadn't played the game in years, but just like in our earlier volleyball game, the teams seemed to be arranged on the assumption that I would be hopeless. Annie was clearly the best player, and despite my rustiness she almost pulled off an unlikely win, but the others beat us eventually.

"I think you two should get the supper ready," said Ted triumphantly.

Annie explained. "We normally play for some sort of forfeit. Come and help me in the kitchen. You were playing a lot better at the end there. We should still have time to get our revenge."

We did start a second game, and just as Annie predicted we did a lot better, eventually winning by a comfortable margin. "So, what's our penalty?" asked John.

"I think you should both do a lap of the pool in your clothes," said Annie.

We stood up and went outside. John and Ted both dived in without hesitation and raced to far end of the pool before swimming back to the ladder. John climbed out first and he immediately stripped off his shirt and shorts, leaving him in just a pair of black briefs. Annie handed him a towel from the poolside cupboard, and he quickly dried himself before wrapping the towel around his waist. I could see Hilda, Helen and Kat watching with interest through the window.

When Ted climbed out of the pool, I was surprised to see her peel off her shirt to reveal a plain blue bra. She too quickly dried herself before wrapping the towel around her waist. Then she reached up under the towel and pulled down her wet shorts, and I could see that her panties came away with the shorts. She then headed straight inside and returned wearing a fluffy robe. John, meanwhile, decided that he preferred a drink to warm himself up. He pulled a bottle of spiced rum and some glasses out of his drinks cabinet and we sat on the deck to enjoy the warm night air.

About half an hour later, Helen and Kat came out onto the deck to say goodnight. Like the previous night I stood up to kiss them both. This time I decided to change things up by kissing Kat first. Helen gave me a warm smile when I kissed her, and she surprised me by slipping her tongue into my mouth.

After they departed, I sat down again to finish my drink with John, Annie and Ted. Hilda seemed to have disappeared without saying goodnight, but she came outside maybe ten minutes later. In the reduced light it took me a moment to notice what she was wearing. She had on a short pink babydoll nightgown. The fabric was quite see-through, and I could easily make her breasts and a matching pink G-string.