Free Birds in the Bayou

Dad grunted. "You can also shoot from a seated position. I'll just get the stool and-"

"Jesus, I'll do it." I sighed. I stepped behind Kelsey, and gently traced my fingers around her hips. With a jerk, I pulled her against me, her ass pillowing around my crotch, the heat of her radiating through the thin fabric of our skirts. She grinded into me as she raised the rifle to her shoulder, her breath a little quicker than usual. I molded my front to her back, my breasts flattening against her dorsal muscles, my chin resting on her other shoulder. I brought my lips to her ear, and slid my eyes to the right, watching Dad as I whispered, "Fire away, cowgirl."

Bam! The shot reverberated up her arm, down her back, through her hips, and into my groin. Bam! I cried out from the sudden transfer of energy, such power running through us, pulsing into my core with each violent shot! Bam! I yelped again, the sound preceding a trailing giggle. Bam! Bam! Bam! The echo of the last shot sounded through the fields, trailing like thunder into the expanse beyond. In its wake, came our duet of rapt breaths, our bodies molded together, teeming with the exhilaration of it. I wrapped my arms around her waist, my pinkies sneaking beneath her waistband.

"Did you hit anything?" I whispered.

"The bottle, the can, and the pinwheel." She said, her voice edging with excitement. She turned to Dad, "Round two, cowboy?"

He stared at us with his mouth agape, his eyes wide behind his sunglasses. His weather-worn face was a tapestry of confusion, the gaunt lines like little shameful messages written at the corners of his eyes and the furrow of his brow. He shook himself from his trance, then cleared his throat, turned on his heel, and stomped to the backdoor. "We're going into town now!" He yelled behind him, "And both of you put on some damn clothes before we go!"

Kelsey looked back at me. "Your turn, Sis."

KELSEY

"I thought I told you two to put some damn clothes on." Dad grumbled.

"These are our most modest summer outfits." I smiled.

Dad rolled his eyes. "I see your mother is doing just a fantastic job."

"How does this place still exist?" Josie asked, staring up at Rick's Video Rental and Arcade.

"Time moves slower out in the bayou." Dad said, "New stuff takes longer to get here, old stuff takes longer to die. I thought you girls loved this place?"

"When we were ten." I laughed.

Dad's face fell, his shoulders slumping in a near comical state of dejectedness. I groaned and put an arm around him.

"So it's a good thing nostalgia is in vogue." I smiled.

"Only nineties kids will get this." Josie said with some snark, pointing out a poster of Halo CE.

"Those damn nineties kids think they have a monopoly on nostalgia." I chuckled.

"For good reason;" Dad grumbled, "this country peaked in the nineties. The USSR collapsed, economy was great, America was numero uno and no one could say a damn thing about it. Clinton was a fucking asshole though."

"I thought you loved Clinton?" I asked.

"He's why we're in this shit!" Dad growled, "I tell ya, if the country's doing good, the president must be shit. That's just how it is. We just cannot let a good thing lie. We always gotta fuck it up. Thank god his wife didn't win, or we'd really be in the shit."

I exchanged a look with Josie. "Are you sure we're talking about America right now?"

"What, you think I peaked in the nineties?"

"You were twenty instead of forty, had a house instead of a shack, a career instead of unemployment, and a wife instead of your hand." Josie giggled.

Dad shot a look at her. "Do you cut yourself with that tongue, missy?"

"I've been known to leave quite the gash with it." Josie said, her eyes cornering at me in a smile.

Dad was oblivious, instead staring at the storefront. "Man's gotta adapt to his surroundings." He muttered, "Fuckin' relic town with relic people, and I ended up just like all of 'em. Behold," he gestured bitterly, "the zombified nineties. It's right where I belong."

"D'aw, are we throwing a pity party for Dad?" I giggled, poking his nipple through his shirt.

"I was once an engineer, but now I drive a tractor. Where did it all go wrong?" Josie giggled, poking Dad's other nipple, "Do these make milk, Dad? Because you're acting like a little bitch."

Dad's face twisted in imminent rage, then burst into laughter. He clapped us heavily on the shoulder, and guided us into the arcade. "You know," he said, still laughing, "there's just enough of your mother in you kids. An ounce more, and I would'a drowned you both in the kiddie pool years ago."

"I wonder how much of you we have inside us?" I mused, watching Dad, but eyeing Josie.

She smirked back. "We could probably use just a bit more."

"More self-doubt and complacency?" Dad snorted, "Yeah, you two definitely need more of-"

"Laser tag!" Josie squealed, "Oh my god, I forgot they had it! Oh Dad, can-we-can-we-can-we-can-we?!"

"Laser tag?" I laughed, giving her an incredulous brow.

She responded with an expression that said, 'just trust me on this.'

RYAN

I felt like a fucking idiot with the plastic vest on, but at least it covered up all the chest Josie and Kelsey were showing off. There were five other people in the starting atrium, and the game mode we were playing was 'doubles.' A hefty older couple made up one team, and two Asian men in their thirties made up another. That meant Josie was on my team, and Kelsey was on the team of some high school douchebag who I was currently trying to murder with my eyes. It wasn't working though, since his eyes were fixed on my daughter's ass.

"Hey," he said to her, "do you go to Jackson Senior High?"

"Is that where you go?" She smiled up at him.

"Yeah," he smiled easily back, "home of the Rebel Yell. Ya'll from Miami or something?"

"Why would you think I'm from Miami?"

"You look like a Miami girl."

"Cuban?"

"What? No, I mean-"

"Is there something wrong with being Cuban?"

He recovered with a laugh. "You're not Cuban."

Kelsey twisted her lips. "Neither was Al Pacino, but I challenge you to name a more famous Cuban than Tony Montana."

"Fidel Castro. Wait, what are we even talking about right-"

"Hey mang," she snapped in her Scarface accent, "first you get the monay, then you get the powah, then you get the woman."

"What?"

"So, lemme ask you this: you got the monay? You got the powah? No?" She aimed her blaster at him, "Then say 'ello to my little friend!" And she pulled the trigger, but since the game hadn't started, nothing happened. All conversations around the atrium had ceased to watch my daughter stare down the flustered boy, and gently poke him in the belly with the barrel of her blaster. "Bam, you're dead." She giggled, "Bam, you're dead again. C'mon, say something funny! Everyone's watching you! Now's your chance to win me over with your wit and charm!"

Josie piped in with a British accent. "Here we see the male Floridian in his natural state." She narrated, sounding a bit too much like David Attenborough, "He's a young buck testing his luck against a fertile female. His approach was perfect, but the female demands a demonstration of social prowess before she lets him into her nest."

He just stood there, smiling and blushing.

"Magnificent." Josie commentated with hushed gravity, "Truly, a remarkable beast. Despite the pull of a billion years of evolution, this young male has chosen to remain chaste."

There was stifled laughter from all around the atrium, and the boy looked like he wanted to find a hole and die in it. Kelsey softened the blow by giving him a congenial hug, but she'd already neutered him. I felt a measure of relief, and also a swell of pride for my daughters, who a year ago would've run to me for aid in such a situation.

"ARE YOU READY?" Came the voice from the speaker, electronic synths playing in the background. The players shuffled around, each pair turning toward one of four entrances that cornered the atrium. "LASER TAAAAAAAG!" Roared the voice, and the doors opened.

"This way!" Josie shouted gleefully, and pulled me around the corner.

JOSIE

The arena looked like a retro dance club, with blacklights, neon signs, and blue strobes all interrupting the pervading darkness. There was something about the confines of electric blackness that thrilled me. In a club, people's faces were illuminated in high contrasts of chromatic hues, making them seem almost nonhuman, almost demonic with the flashing lights reflecting off their eyes. It awoke those primal instincts of dancing before the flickering bonfire, where languages died, and only the communication of flame-bathed bodies and infernal gazes mattered. It was intimate, and a girl could be carried away with the smell of hot bodies saturating her sinuses, the rub of flesh from all around, the grasping of hands and the seeking of fingers between her thighs. It was the darkness that kept it all secret, and the darkness that let her lose herself so easily. I just needed to get Dad alone, and let the darkness do the rest.

"I'll take point." I whispered to Dad.

"I got your six."

We crept through the chamber, peering around barriers, following the tracks of neon lights that pathed the floor. The scoreboard on the wall read, "6-6-6-6," with our pairing being the last six. The scoring was simple: if your team scored a hit, your team got a point; if your team got hit, your team lost a point. If your score was zero, your team was eliminated. Each gun had five shots before a reload, which was a ten-second downtime of holding a button and cursing to yourself while your vest vibrated with confirmed enemy hits.

"Three o'clock!" Dad hissed. I turned just in time to see a shadow moving against the far wall. I raised my gun and fired, but he was faster, and I felt two quick buzzes of my vest. He ducked behind an obstacle before Dad could even the score.

"Shit! I missed. Sorry Josie." Dad whispered.

"No surprise there, cowboy." I muttered.

"I'm no longer sorry."

I motioned for Dad to flank the right side of the obstacle while I flanked the left. With eight shots between us, we could eliminate one duo right here and now. But of course, it was a trap. I scanned the periphery, awaiting the inevitable ambusher. I found her, a woman who was hiding behind a threshold of another chamber, her belly giving her away. I motioned to Dad, and he cracked a smile, ducking and sliding into cover to intercept the ambush. I circled around the obstacle, creeping on my socked feet, my barrel leading the way. When I got around the corner, I was a mere two yards away from the man. He was peering around the other side, crouching in a comical display of Call of Duty combat training. I aimed my gun, and squeezed. One, two, three, four; I pulled the trigger until my gun lit up, then dashed away in a fit of giggles, hearing the man shout and fumble out of cover to chase after me. I held down the reload button, and sprinted out to where the woman would be. She came around, her robust face peeled in a wide grimace, and she shouted something between a war cry and a yeehaw before pointing her blaster at me. But the laser muzzle never flashed. Her vest ignited in red LED lights that blinked in triplet rhythms.

"Oh, darn it!" She exclaimed, glaring at her partner. "Ted, you gosh-darn fool! You play all those tactical computer games and you can't even beat a teenager!"

"Well Janet, if your muffin-top wasn't hanging out of cover, we might've-"

"My muffin-top?!"

"Excuse me!" I giggled, barreling through the quarreling Mormons, and into the next chamber. I dashed behind cover the moment I broke the threshold, my vest vibrating. Dad came in hard next to me, his breathing heavy.

"I got hit three times!" He gasped. That brought our score back to six.

"Did you see where they are?" I whispered.

"Two o'clock and ten o'clock." Dad gestured with his head, "It's those Chinese people."

"We're Vietnamese, dumbass."

Dad grinned at me. "Do you hear that, Josie? They're Vietnamese." He leaned his head back, and yelled, "My Dad used to napalm you gooks from a mile up!"

"Dad!" I gasped, mortified.

"Gooks?" Came laughter from the other side of the barrier, "It this guy Clint Eastwood or something? Hey bro, your epiphytes need some updating."

"Your village needs some updating. Because my Dad bombed the shit out of it."

"We're South Vietnamese, genius. Our parents were war refugees. There aren't any North Vietnamese war refugees in America because they, you know, kicked the shit out of you."

"Nah man, they kicked the shit out of you. We had the war won, left you fuckers with a bunch of our weapons, and they came in and steamrolled you anyway. Can't save a country that doesn't want to be saved, I guess."

"Revisionist history, man."

"America has never lost a war."

"You lost to Canada!"

"When?!"

"Eighteen-twelve, you guys tried to invade Canada, and they came in and- oh shit!"

There was a shuffle, the sound of lasers effects, and a barrage of curses. I looked up at the scoreboard. "12-0-0-6," it read.

"Thanks for the assist, Dad." Kelsey's bubbly voice came from the other side of the obstacle.

"Hey, no teaming up!" One of the Vietnamese men yelled.

"You were just the enemy of my enemy.".

"Bullshit! That's your sister over there."

"All's fair in war, brother." Dad jeered, "Your V.C. Daddy sure knew that."

"Fucking racist asshole. I'm telling the manager about this shit."

"You're in the panhandle, man! The manager will just agree with me!" Dad laughed as the two men slinked away.

I gave him an incredulous eye. "So you shoot guns, you hate Clinton, and now you're racist too."

"Oh, I'm not racist." He laughed, peering cautiously over the obstacle, "Anything you say during competition is not a reflection of your character; only your will to win."

"Is that so? You're not even a tiny-bit racist?"

"Well..." he muttered, his eyes scanning, "...maybe when I'm stuck in traffic."

I saw movement out of the corner of my eye. "Three o'clock!" I shouted, and turned to fire. The boy ducked behind the corner, and began blindly shooting from behind it, forcing me back down. Just then, I felt three successive vibrations against my back, and turned to see Kelsey rounding the threshold behind us, her muzzle flashing red. I leapt over the obstacle, half dragging my father along the way. We shot over our shoulders as we sprinted down the chamber, scoring two blind hits, but suffering four more. Dad made to rush into the next room, but I shoved him into the adjacent tunnel. I tripped in the process, sprawling out on the floor, my chest plate exposed, only one hit remaining. Kelsey rounded the corner, a killer's gleam in her eyes. She aimed the blaster, then stopped when she saw my face. She looked over her shoulder to where the pounding footsteps of her partner were sounding, then glanced back at me, and nodded toward the tunnel with a smirk. Showtime.

RYAN

The tunnel was a dead end. Josie scrambled into it after me, hoisting herself over the padded barricade. There was hardly enough room for the both of us, and we pressed together front-to-back, hot and breathing heavily.

"You're a real genius, you know that?" I panted, "How the hell did you get into Puget Sound?"

"I claimed disability, obviously. They have a quota to fill." She hissed with a mouthful of snark.

"Being blonde isn't a recognized disability."

"Being your daughter should be."

"I wonder if I could hide a body back here?"

"Hey, pussies!" Kelsey's voice called from outside the tunnel, "Are you gonna stay in there until the game's over?"

"You can always come get us!" Josie called back.

Kelsey's blaster turned around the side of the tunnel, and flashed five consecutive blind shots. We crouched behind the barrier, Josie compacting even harder against me, practically sitting on my lap.

"Spread your legs, Dad!" She gasped, "I can't fucking breathe!"

"Maybe we should go out there like Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid."

"Or we can wait five minutes for a draw."

"It's just a stupid game."

"All's fair in war, Dad. What happened to your 'will to win?' Now spread your legs before I die!"

I opened my legs, and Josie molded against me. My breath caught. In the light, my eyes could see that Josie was beautiful, that her curves had filled out, and that she was a woman in every aspect of the word; but they could also see the familiar sparkle in her blue irises, the shape of her chin, the bow of her cheek, and from that, they could identify that she was my daughter, and these features that I knew so well had been hers since I held her to my chest on her first ever day. The darkness took that from me.

In the darkness, I could not see with my eyes, only feel with my body, and my body had not felt the press of a woman for years. Oh, and what a woman she was. Her athletic back contoured with the lithe rises of muscle and the elegant arch of her spine, her hips fit easily into the spread of my thighs, and her... Don't think about it!... her... She's your fucking daughter, Ryan!... her ass molded like clay into my groin, pillowing against my pelvis to fill every void space there, sinking pliantly against my crotch, her cheeks spreading, nestling my cock so perfectly into her soft crevasse.

Between the loose fabric of my shorts and boxers, I could feel her burning into me, the tantalizing radiance of her insides permeating from her two openings. She wasn't wearing panties. She angled her pelvis against me, and the delicate puff of her labia squished around me, her heat like molten lust, beckoning me, inviting me. She was sweaty against me, her scent wafting into my nostrils, her floral perfume, and something else; the sweet essence of her femininity, that hormone-rich precursor that whispered gently into my primal mind, coaxing the beast within. "Take her. She wants it," it whispered so convincingly. My ears caught the soft expirations of her breath, each one accompanying a sigh -no, a whimper- something like a plea, but not a plea for help. I gritted my teeth. I wasn't hard, but that was just because the old engine in my loins hadn't been started in a while. It was getting there. It was only a matter of seconds now.

"Dad?" Josie whispered back at me, her voice riddled with vulnerability, a plea, a desire, a need so great and so forbidden she could barely speak it. She flexed her glutes against me, and I felt the blood begin to rush to my groin, filling me, no way to stop it, no way to get free!

The lights came on. Bright fluorescence illuminated the world in painful whites. I stood up, pushing Josie forward with one hand just as my cock began to tent my shorts. My whole body was teeming, but the revelation of light turned those tingles of desire into prickles of horror, and all the blood drained from me, relinquishing my manhood from its steady rise.

A balding Asian man appeared at the entrance of the tunnel. "Sir?" He said, "I'm Rick Tao, the owner of this place. I just received a complaint that you were racist and antagonistic to two other guests. I'll have you know that we have a zero-tolerance policy regarding bigotry and hate speech here at Rick's Video Rental and Arcade. You and your daughters are banned. For life. Now, get the hell off my property before I call the cops."

KELSEY

"...I swear, I almost had him!" Josie insisted, lathering her pulled pork sandwich with Cubano mustard.

I sighed. "You know we can't force him into it. If he doesn't want it, he doesn't want it."

"Come on, you see the way he's looking at us!"