Out of the Burlap Ch. 04 & Conclusion

"They're probably glad I'm not there, embarrassing them with my puffy eyes and wet cheeks and sniffles."

"No they're not." Maya and Consuela chuckled at their simultaneous words.

"So you liked it," said Phillipa, the more emotional of the twins, a tear creeping down her cheek.

"It moved me," said Joe with a sniffle.

"I could tell," the more stoic Samantha grinned.

Joe scanned the group surrounding them.

Celeste, her quiet, pale face, pixieish and pretty like her mother, with her mother's deep blue eyes but with more length to her face and with softly wavy light brunette hair from her father, stood by her long time boyfriend, both brilliant scientific minds readying their PhD theses, both introspective yet surprisingly social, especially Celeste.

Shakti, taller by a couple of inches than his father, with broader shoulders and an extraordinarily handsome face, naturally tan, somewhere between his mother's rich maple coloring and Joe's light skin, but with sun having deepened the color to near his mom's, his dark hair lightened by that sun, stood grinning warmly, his mischievous hazel eyes glinting, his strong arm slung over a petite, perfectly and tightly curved blonde beauty's shoulder, the blonde's sky blue eyes looking up at him in a near worshipful gaze that her boyfriend never quite returned in kind, never so loving, but appreciative of her presence nevertheless.

Compared to his scientifically brilliant older half sister and his two musical prodigy twin younger sisters, Shakti had a far broader range of talents. Just his looks and his swimmer's physique had graced advertisements in glossy magazines. The physique came from his near Olympic caliber swimming that had given him his scholarship to UCLA. He danced as well as his father, having worked with Randy while still in high school. And he studied acting and shone on the stage. He didn't achieve triple threat in that though since he inherited a less than stellar singing voice from both parents.

But in the end, it was his Auntie Carol that inspired Shakti the most. He wanted that peripatetic lifestyle and the chance to schmooze with international money men and women. Like her, the creative sides of him he studied as minors while he majored in business. It didn't hurt that she had a bit of a crush on him when he spent time with her learning her trade for a few weeks a year available between studying and swimming and acting. He actually found the much older woman attractive as well, and the attraction between them did not go unrequited. She may have been cheating on her third husband, but that relationship was on its last legs anyway.

Which was why the worshipful girl under his arm stood little chance of capturing his heart. He had had many lovers and would probably have many more. Settling down would not be something he'd be interested in anytime soon. However, much like his father, he never took his lovers for granted. With such many-fold experiences, especially with Carol as loving instructor, any woman he made love to got his full attention both sexually and conversationally. Thus the look of worship on the young beauty's face.

"She'll just have to shrug off her loss and hopefully cherish the brief relationship," his father thought, noticing the blonde's expression.

Joe and Shakti discussed Shakti's trail of broken hearts a couple times in the past.

"I didn't mean to hurt her," Shakti told his father while a senior in high school. The girl hadn't been his first lover, but had been the longest when the clinginess and Shakti's ever wandering eye and thirst for experience had made him move on. "I told her I wasn't going to stay with her, but I guess she didn't listen."

"Being loved and appreciated has its bad side too," his father told him. "I'm afraid, if you get them fawning over you and you continually move on, you're going to be faced with it." Not really comforting words, but it seemed to help the empathetic regret his son had gotten from the pained look of his former lover.

A couple years later after a girl attempted suicide, Joe actually came to Los Angeles to comfort his son. They talked near the girl's hospital room. "I can't help loving them when they're with me," Shakti sniffled.

"You tell them that?"

"I do. But I always qualify it from the very beginning. I tell them we can have fun, get close, enjoy each other's bodies and minds, but it will end. From the beginning I tell them I'm not interested in a long term relationship or in an exclusive one. I guess I'll just have to be wary of the fragile ones."

"Did she seem fragile?"

"She was intense. I actually really enjoyed that, but like a great big bonfire, getting too close gets to burning. It wasn't long before she got to be too much. I guess I should go talk to her."

"Can I join you?" asked Joe.

"Really? Would you? I'm freaking scared."

"Come on," said Joe.

They looked down at the Goth beauty with the wrapped left wrist. "Sorry," she said shyly.

"This is my father," Shakti told her.

"Call me Joe," Joe told her, kneeling beside her bed. "My son's a motherfucker, isn't he?"

The girl nodded and sniffled and chuckled.

"I'll tell you all about him if you tell me about you, okay?"

She nodded again. They talked. Shakti watched her relax. Amazed by his father, he snuck out the door.

At the backstage area of the twins' performance space, father and son shrugged seeming to remember those moments.

"I'm Joe," Joe lifted his hand for the blonde to shake. "I'm the father of these amazing young ladies and of this dumb oaf hanging on to you."

"I'm Beth," said the young lady with a grin.

"You're beautiful."

"Thanks."

"A California girl?"

"LA, born and raised."

"A little cold here for you?"

"A little," she chuckled prettily. "Luckily I got a big man keeping me warm."

"She's an actress," Shakti told his dad. "I met her in acting class. She's good."

"We had a love scene and it kept going," Beth giggled. "He really gets into his roles."

Everyone laughed.

"I know it's competitive, but with your beauty, and I'm sure you have great talent, you'll go far," Joe predicted.

"I hope so," she said. "There are a lot of pretty blondes."

"Not as talented as you," said Shakti. "We're working on finding her niche," he told his family. "Something that she can do better than anyone else."

Joe nodded and returned his gaze to his two prodigies. Their beauty which matched his son's handsomeness shone with the warmth of their mother. He could see her sweetness in their faces and eyes. Like their mother, despite their extraordinary talent and beauty they were grounded, never flaunting their exceptionalness. He swallowed, awed by them, and sniffled. "You blew me away out there on the stage. I'm so proud of you. I just wish I hadn't embarrassed you."

"You're our dad," said Sam with a cute, mischievous grin. "You're supposed to embarrass us." Everyone shared a chuckle until Sam became more serious. "But you never embarrass us, Daddy. We're proud to be your daughters. The only thing about your display of emotion was I could tell Phil was on the edge of joining you."

Phil nodded and sniffled causing laughter. "Sam barely whispered to me, 'the music,' and I got right back inside it. Thanks, Sis."

"Of course," Sam replied with mock pride that got everyone chuckling.

"But the thing is Daddy," Phil continued, "we're just as proud and amazed by you as you seem to be of us."

Joe could only shake his head with his daughter's comment echoing his two lovers.

"You have always been a remarkable father to us," Celeste added in her careful, intellectual speech pattern.

"I've met a few dads," said Shakti, "and none seem as caring or unselfish as you."

"That might not have been them at their best," Joe countered causing a surprising blush on his son's face.

"Maybe not," Shakti responded, "but just their attitude and the attitude of any of my friends to their parents, it's just different. Face it Dad, you've got some remarkable children, maybe even me I guess, but out of all of us, even our moms who are so incredible and beautiful, you're the most amazing of all."

"That's..."

"I told you," said Maya.

"You think I'm amazing?"

"Definitely," his children and his lovers all said together.

When they surrounded him in a group hug, he had never felt so loved. Nor so comfortable.