Free Birds in the Bayou

They rested into the crooks of my arms, their heads on my chest, their exhausted little bodies nestling comfortably.

"You need to get some sleep, Dad." Josie said, "We have to drive to Jacksonville tomorrow."

"What?"

"To go to the airport." Kelsey groaned, "We've got an eleven-thirty flight to O'Hare, then a two-hour layover before we get to SeaTac."

"What?!"

Josie sighed, ruffled through her backpack with one hand, then slapped the boarding pass on my chest. "Eleven-thirty to O'Hare, four-thirty to SeaTac." She said.

"We need to prove permanent residence within thirty days of welcome week, or the University will make us live in the dorms."

"And you can't live in the dorms, Dad." Josie giggled.

I gawked at them. "You want me to move to Washington?"

"Someone needs to pay rent." Kelsey grinned up at me, "We already put two-thousand down for the security deposit."

"And we have enough squirreled away to pay for six months." Josie reassured me.

"How?"

Kelsey pouted her lips guiltily. "I might've sucked my step-dad's dick."

"And I might've taken a picture of it happening." Josie confessed.

"And we might've blackmailed him for ten-thousand dollars."

"WHAT?!"

Josie tittered. "It sure as shit was a lot less than he'd have to pay in alimony if Mom's lawyer got ahold of the pictures."

"I mean what the hell is going on?!"

"Well, Dad." Kelsey said, drawing a circle around the place she'd burned me, "We couldn't move all the way across the country and leave you here in butt-fuck nowhere with no one but Fabulous Freddy to keep your bed warm."

"It was a bit of a gamble putting everything on one night." Josie said.

"But we figured you'd come around with the right kind of encouragement." Kelsey smiled.

"It's all that confidence you instilled in us."

"After everything you've done for us..."

"...did you really think we were just going to spend one last summer with you and leave you here forever?" Josie giggled.

"Yes." I muttered. There were tears in my eyes, but my arms were trapped beneath the bodies of my daughters, and so I was resigned to letting them fall.

Kelsey wiped one away with her thumb, and drew her fingers through my hair. "You're the only man in our lives worth a damn, Dad, and the only one we could possibly share in this love with."

"How could we ever have boyfriends or husbands?" Josie said, stroking my belly with the back of her hand, "What Kelsey and I have is far too deep and far too old to break. We were with each other since before we were born."

"But you were with us for even longer." Kelsey whispered.

"We used to live in your balls." Josie giggled, and lightly grasped my nuts, rolling them in her cool palm. "Hello, brothers and sisters," she said through fits of mirth, "sorry for eating so many of you!"

"It's their fault for being so delicious." Kelsey giggled back.

"We're cannibals!"

"But the protein, Sister! Think of the protein! Gains for days."

"Then at least their sacrifice was not in vain." Josie sighed, "They will live in my biceps forever."

"You two are so fucking warped." I laughed, blinking my tears away.

"Pot, meet kettle; kettle, pot." Josie smirked, "You sir, are every-bit as fucked up as we are."

"Where do you think we got it from?" Kelsey snickered.

The record finally died after the closing bars of 'Mississippi Kid,' leaving only the crackle of the needle running through the dead grooves before the center.

"I guess you really did go full redneck, huh?" Josie chuckled at me.

"When in Rome, do as the Romans do." Kelsey said.

"And when in the panhandle, fuck your dad." Josie finished.

"So, Dad?" Kelsey asked, "Are you coming with us?"

"Of course I am!" I exclaimed.

Kelsey and Josie gave an exhausted display of celebration, but I could tell by the radiance of their expressions that they were more than delighted. They snuggled into me, their fingers interlocked across my belly, and they spoke to me of all the wonderful things we'd do in Washington. Their words slurred by the minute, and soon there were only snores and whistles coming from them, joining the nighttime symphony of the clock ticking away, the record needle running the grooves, the crickets chirping their lonely song, and the free birds calling in the bayou.

Epilogue

DAVE

I cleaned the whisky glass for the third time, and sighed. I didn't know why I opened the joint so early. Drunks didn't wake up at nine in the morning on a Sunday, and football wasn't for another month. But I was a creature of habit, and if I didn't keep a rigid schedule, it would feel like my life was thrown into chaos. Free time was an enemy of mine. I didn't know how Ryan fucking did it; being unemployed for months sounded like hell to me. No wonder he came in here every day to drink away his severance package.

"But not today." I said to my reflection in the glass, and sighed again. "You did a good thing, Dave. Fuck if I miss the company, but you did a good thing."

As if God was mocking me, the door rang, and in walked Ryan Brees.

"I told you, you're money's no good here until after-" and my voice caught when I saw the two beautiful blondes strolling behind him, wearing fishnet stockings, jeans cut into panties, and tops that would better be described as 'nipple covers.'

"I just need one for the road, Dave." He smiled, looking ten years younger, "I got a flight to catch, and I get terrible flight anxiety."

"Rye on the rocks, if you don't mind." Said one identical twin on Ryan's right side.

"Bourbon for me, if you please." Said the one on the left, a mole beside her eye the only thing distinguishing her from her sister.

I cleared my throat. "Er... Ryan, are these your daughters?"

"Josie and Kelsey," Ryan gestured to one, then the other, "this is Dave, the owner of this fine establishment."

"A pleasure to meet you." Josie smiled with her brows up.

"A pleasure indeed." Kelsey grinned with her brows down.

I swallowed. "Ryan, you know they can't drink here until they're twenty-one."

"Who says we're not?" Josie tittered.

"My eyes," I replied, "and your dad told me yesterday how old you are."

I felt delicate fingers sliding over the back of my hand, and up my arm. "I'm twenty-one, Dave, I swear. I just left my driver's license in the car. Are you going to make me go get it?"

I snorted. "Do you think I was born yesterday? Do I look like a goddamn waiter to you?"

Ryan laughed. "I told you, Kelsey. Your tricks won't work on Dave."

"Who said anything about tricks?" Kelsey smirked, and in a feat of athleticism, she was over the bar. A second later, her mouth was sucking my lips, her tongue was slithering through, her tight body molding to mine as her hands dove into my pants and grasped what was becoming very, very hard. I was only human. The state liquor licensure of Calhoun County could fuck himself with a goddamn brick. I grabbed a handful of teenage ass, propped a bottle of rye and bourbon onto the counter, and carried the woman sucking my face into the back room. Before I shut the door behind me, I caught the sight of Josie propped on the bar, her head thrown extravagantly back as she poured rye down her breasts so that Ryan could drink it from her navel.

"Your family's kind of fucked up, huh Kelsey?" I grunted, undoing my belt.

She whipped my belt out of the loops, wrapped it around my neck, and pressed me against the wall. "You have no idea," she grinned, her sapphire eyes wild, "and from now on, you're going to call me, 'Domina.'"

AUTHOR'S NOTE

Thank you for reading Free Birds in the Bayou. I haven't written a standalone piece in a long time, and it's been even longer since I've written outside the fantasy genre. This story was inspired by a pair of twins I met at a hostel. They were delightful women, bubbly and impish, and talking with them was like being a conversational tennis ball between their rackets. I'm sorry to say that they were both very married, (and not to each other) but their relationship, if not sexual, was still so emotionally intimate that it struck a chord with me. Five years later, I decided to horrifically corrupt that beautiful relationship and turn it into filthy smut that I hope you all enjoyed very much. Abbey and Eleanor, if for whatever reason you're reading this, I am so, so sorry. But not really.

E.L. Whitewall