Ray's Ring Ch. 09

"The dreadfulness occurred at the end of an October day. I had been harvesting some potatoes for dinner when a pair of hunters walked up behind me. I didn't have the ring on and before I realized they were there, one of them had used his shotgun to raise the hem of my skirt up to the back of my waist. When I tried to get up and run away, the other one grabbed me and held me down.

"That morning I had felt my mittelsmertz, my ovulation pain. When they were done with me, I knew I was pregnant.

"Fifteen or twenty minutes after they left, Tom found me in the field. He took me to his cabin for the night, and in the morning we went to our Grandmother, our matriarch, who had to approve all marriages. We told her what had happened, and Tom said he would accept responsibility for the child. Jacob was not totally of the family, and because of the manner of his begetting, did not receive Grandmama's total blessing.

"I'm sure he knew love and acceptance, that much I could read in him, but not much more. Not nearly as much as I read in you, and Ray," she laughed,"he broadcasts like a TV station." She paused briefly, turning serious.

"Do you know what kind of perfume Ellen uses?"

"Fantasy's Pleasures or Chanel; why?" replied Amy.

"Oh, Jacob. Sometimes he would come in smelling like sex and cheap perfume, and other times he would be sitting here, sneaking glances at his watch, like he had an appointment."

"Yeah, Ellen knew, or at least suspected. Before Ray did his magic on her, she said she was often too sick, or too tired, to be a wife, so she just accepted his ....visits to who he was seeing here. I didn't think you were his only stop. Ellen said she hadn't been able to be with him, as a wife, for nearly two years, not even for...uh..a hand job."

Diane laughed at Amy's apparent embarrassment, charmed by it. "That's alright, dear, we did it for our boyfriends when I was your age, too. I thought it was something like that."

She paused for several seconds. "Yes, Ray, I think I would like to go home with you and meet my future in-laws. I know your mother, Amy. She and I grew up together, as cousins. But then so did your two fathers and I. All on the same farm. Did you know, Amy, your biological father was Ginny's first boyfriend? She paused a moment to reflect.

"After we all get reacquainted, we will see how much healing is possible."

On their way home, Amy noticed Ray laughing to himself. "What?'

"I was just thinking about something Priest said, about the odds of finding two unrelated individuals with our mental abilities in the same family. With you and Beth, and my Mom and me, all together in the same family... I can just see him sitting at his console, calculating the odds on some Great Intergalactic Lotto." He paused a moment. "I wonder about our Mom and Dad."

"With some limits, and interesting variations, Ray. Amy," came the thought from Diane. "Tell me about your family surrogate plan. It sounds interesting