First Estate

"Is he damaged?" she asked.

"No, I think his battery is drained. You girls were a mess and it took everything we both had to heal you. Are you both feeling okay, I mean physically? Can you walk well enough to get out of here?"

They both nodded. They were a little wobbly but they held onto Sagan and I picked Raphael up. We walked up the path and I noticed that the lost were following after us like a wake. I quickened the pace and they called after us. I told the girls to ignore them and we hurried to the entrance of the Way with their ghostly hands clutching at us. As soon as we were inside the sounds faded and there was only that creepy whispering of the Ways again.

When we got outside, I put Raphael down in the sun. I sat down myself and leaned back against a tree. Mom came and sat between my legs and leaned back against me. Sagan came and sat on my right side and Mariha sat on my left. I gathered my girls in my arms. I leaned my head back against the tree and soaked up the sun. I think I napped for a while and I know the girls did. When I woke up they were asleep and Raphael was standing in front of us, watching over us.

"That looks nice," he told me. "Remind me to ask them if I might do something similar sometime. With your permission," he added.

"You have my permission," I told him. "Thank you Raphael. You're a pretty good Ninja after all."

He laughed and the girls stirred and woke.

"I'm off," he said. "Should you ever need my assistance again, I'll give you my prayer."

"What is it," Sagan asked, stretching languidly.

"Cowabunga, of course," he laughed and he was gone.

"Mariha, can you take us to Austin?" I asked her. "We're missing someone."

"Boston!" Mom exclaimed. "I never picked her up from school. Oh, my poor baby. What did she do?"

"She called Bronley," I told her. "It's fine. I suspect she'll forgive you. You were being tortured at the time and I think she'll understand. She'll want to know happened at the house and I'm curious about that myself."

"Let's go get her and go home," Mariha said. "We'll tell you about it there."

Before we could move, Haniel dropped in like a thunderbolt out of the blue. "Greetings, sister; little humans. We must speak. There have been developments. You are fulfilling the covenant."

"How, exactly, are we doing that?" I asked.

"You have disposed of the remnants of the rebel faction. You are pleasing in God's sight. You have also begun to perform the task God has given you. He takes this as a sign that you will continue."

"I don't understand," Sagan said. "We've pretty much decided to take that offer, but how have we begun?"

"You have already caused substantial changes in the archangel Raphael. He has requested that he be given an assignment as your temporary Watcher to supplement the Watcher Mariha. This is a great honor. No archangel has been assigned as a Watcher since Moses' time. If you will accept him God has decided to grant you a disposition."

"What sort of disposition?" Mom asked.

"It is not God's will that the Siren Sagan bear children at this time. He has instructed me to tell you his word. This is the word of God: My children, the time has not arrived for the Sirens to bear children. Yet I am aware that the Siren Sagan desires this. If she can remain patient, I will make a covenant with her that her child will become the key upon which the final day turns. I will bless her so that all her ways prosper and I will be her God and she shall be my elect child. This is the word of God."

"Well, I don't know what to think about that," Sagan said. "If that's God's will, who am I to stand against it? I do want a baby though. Parker, is that okay?"

"If that's what you want." I told her.

"The Lord has spoken further. He grants permission for children to be born in your family. The Watcher Mariha is granted permission to bear offspring, or the Nephilim Lilith is permitted to bear offspring, or both. This has been forbidden previously, but the Nephilim Lilith ignored God's good provision for her to her sorrow. God has chosen your son Parker as one of the elect and you are one of the elect. It would be pleasing to him should you decide to procreate."

"Jesus Christ, Haniel. It would please God my mother has a baby, or are you saying I should sleep with my mother? How is that pleasing to God?"

"God has merely said that they may bear children. The father is unimportant. Their mother's will raise them. This is not required. God knows this would please you both, but should you not desire it, this will please God as well."

"It would please me very much," Mariha said. "Parker, do you know what this means to me? Never, in the history of the world has a Watcher been permitted by God to have children. I'm going do this."

"Jesus, Mariha," Sagan said, "Are you planning to just seduce some random gut? I know that it's a great honor but I believe you ought to think this through before you make any leaps."

"Of course not, little Siren. God is longsuffering and patient. I have no intention of sleeping with some random man. I will select him carefully and conceive artificially. This is not required, it is permitted and I will think it through. I will never sleep with any man other than Parker."

"Mom, are you going to do this? Are you going to have a baby? I thought you didn't like babies."

"Never doubt it, Parker. Babies are exhausting. You nearly killed me, but I'm young," she laughed, "relatively speaking, and it sounds like God approves. I'll do the same thing Mariha is planning."

"I'm going to do this soon. "Do you mind?" Mariha asked.

"Why would I mind? I want you to be happy and this seems like something you really want to do," I said. "I love you both and I'll treat your kids like I would my own."

"I think Parker may be jealous," Sagan told her. "He doesn't have any reason to be. There isn't another man on earth or in heaven I'd allow to make love to me. Mariha, have you ever made love to anyone other than Parker?"

"Yes, I have."

"Who, when?"

"With you, of course; and with Lilith and one other."

"That's what I'm talking about. Lilith, do you sleep around? I know you could if you wanted."

"No, I haven't made love to anyone since Parker was born except Mariha and one other."

"There you have it, Parker," Sagan said. "We're all faithful to each other. We always will be?"

"I'm not jealous," I insisted. "I just have a hard time wrapping my mind around the idea that God is approving children for you girls but not for Sagan. I know I'm very lucky to have women like you in my life."

Haniel wasn't there anymore. I guess he figured he had done his job.

Chapter Nineteen

Boston was quite pleased with us when she discovered what we had done. She was happy with our success with settling the angel score, but immensely less so with the fact that Mariha was permitted to have a baby.

"I can't believe that Parker." She huffed around the bar at River house.

"Why not, kitten? It would make her very happy."

"Yes, but what about Sagan? She should be first and I should be second."

"I'm sorry, Boston, I didn't plan this," Mariha told her. "You know I wouldn't disappoint you for anything. You just have no idea how special this is."

"I guess I don't. Explain it to me."

"In all history, there has never been a permitted union of Watcher and human. A female Watcher has never given birth."

"Oh, well, I didn't know that. I guess it's a huge honor to be the only one in the history of the world. Is this really important to you?"

"Not in the sense that I'm the first one to have a baby. I couldn't care less about that. I don't even want that. I agree that should be Sagan. God, for some reason, doesn't agree. I have no idea why. I'm sorry that isn't his will, but out of millions and millions of Watchers since the beginning of time, I get to be the one to do this. If Parker and the rest of you are willing to help me with this, it's more important to me than anything else other than you. I won't sacrifice my relationship with any of you to do this."

"We'll talk about it tomorrow," Sagan said. "I need to think."

In the morning, one at a time, they all came into our bedroom and gathered to talk to Sagan and me."

We talked for hours until Boston stretched and said, "You and Sagan need a bigger bed, Parker. Mama and Mariha are squishing me."

"No, we do not," Sagan told her. "You have your own bed and this one is ours. I don't mind sharing this one with any of you most of the time. Sometimes I do. This one is mine and you can only come here to sleep if I invite you. Is that perfectly clear?"

"Yes, I understand," Mariha said. "I think you're becoming assertive Sagan. It's a good sign. I've always thought you let Parker and Boston push you around. Lilith, too, for that matter."

"That's preposterous," Mom said. "Let me tell her Sagan. You see, Sagan is so kind and so sweet and so gentle that she doesn't always have to get her way. She's happy to do what everyone else wants to do because she loves us. She likes making people happy. That doesn't mean she's weak or unassertive. She's just nicer than the rest of us."

"Thanks, Mom. That's true, you know. Not about the mushy stuff you said about me, but if I don't have a strong opinion about something, I would just as soon do what everyone else wants to do. I'm not like Boston. She makes a fuss over things like being first to have a baby. Parker just assumes that everyone wants what he wants. Neither of them is selfish, that's just the way they are. Mariha is wiser than all the rest of us put together and she knows she knows best for us. Mostly, that's true. Mom is too lazy to object strenuously. This is something I have a strong opinion about. Parker is mine and I'm his. We love you all and we're willing to share, but keep that in mind, okay?"

They promised not to intrude unless invited. They went away to their own beds and I snuggled Sagan.

"I love it when you're fierce," I told her.

She laughed. "Those three would fuck us to death if we let them."

"I don't think I ever heard you say that word before," I told her.

"I don't say it, but it seemed like the only one that fit," she said. "You remember that, too, big boy. I own you."

"Yes, it's perfect," I told her. "I like having you all to myself. You know, we never did get to finish that honeymoon. I'm going to Tokyo soon. Would you like to meet me there and spend a week?"

"I'd love to. Let's plan on it. There's something else I need to talk to you about, Parker. Well, two things actually. The first is Boston. She's in the sixth grade and she's five six. She's growing like a weed and did you notice her boobs? She's like a C cup. If she wore a bra, she'd have outgrown hers a dozen times this year. We can't keep her in middle school. She's going to feel weird."

"Could we teach her at home? I actually think Mom would love that. They read books to each other all the time now."

"That might work. That's a good idea, Parker. The other thing is a little harder. It's about Mariha. She wants to have a baby and I feel like we should help her with that. It just makes me feel very odd. I love her and I want her to be happy. It seems like she wants this more than anything she's ever wanted in all the millennia she's been alive. I'm inclined to go ahead and support her. She isn't even tempted to do anything she thinks would hurt us and I trust her with my life and my heart. Will you help her do this?"

"I don't see why not. I'll look into it. I know couples that can't have children do this kind of thing . I don't see how this changes things. She won't change. We make love to her all the time anyway. I think you like it even more than I do. What would change?"

"She's an angel, for God's sake. Who wouldn't want to make love to her? Don't tell me that she doesn't make you hot. It's kind of hot thinking about her being pregnant."

"Sagan, you're amazing. You're the only girl for me. You're so powerful that you scare me, but you have the key to my heart. Only you, baby."

She rolled astride me and rubbed those amazing boobs on my chest and I felt her wetness envelope me. "Me, too," she said. "I'm only for you."

Mom wanted to start looking for her own place. She asked Mariha if she wanted to share a place and she decided she did. To tell you the truth, I didn't think they'd ever get around to it. I was wrong. They bought a condominium on the 25th floor of a very nice building. They dolled it up the way they wanted it and I was right because they never stayed there more than a day or two at a time. Occasionally they took Boston away for a night but they were always back the next day. They had parties, to which I invited Bronley and her husband and they invited their friends. They had a lot of them and the parties were jumping affairs.

Bronley was plainly a rising star and I hitched my wagon to her. Sydney was booming and we made a killing in commercial development. She called me in to consult on every real estate purchase we did. Twice, I caught some problems with deals and pulled our chestnuts out of the fire. We were purchasing fifteen hundred acres of lakefront property and the man doing the deal didn't tell us that there was a problem with the zoning. Part of the property was from an estate that was willed to the city on the condition that they not develop it for 100 years. It would have cost us millions but he couldn't hide his sense of victory to be unloading it on us. We were about to sign the deal when she called me in and I took her aside and we pulled the plug. He became abusive and actually laid his hands on her.

She had been training with Mom and the girls and he didn't walk right for a month. After the second near disaster, she started having her first meeting with sellers with me. After I told her pull the plug on the third shady deal, she took me out for a drink.

"Why do you need me, Parker? You could obviously do this better than I can. You could quit your job and do this and retire in ten years."

"I like my job," I told her. "I could retire now, but I don't like just sitting around. I want to do something worthwhile with my life. I also don't want to work this business like you're willing to work it. I'm don't enjoy it as much as you do. Why don't you quit your job and throw in with me?"

"I like my job," she laughed. "I'm thinking about it though. I made more money with you this year than I made selling real estate in the last ten. What kind of an offer will you make me?"

"Write your ticket. You want to be CEO? Put my girls on the board and I'll sign off on it. We split the profits fifty-fifty. The girls get ten percent apiece and I get ten percent. You get the other fifty. Put your husband on the board if you want."

To my surprise, she began to cry. "Take me out of here, Parker," she said.

I paid the shot and we sat on a park bench while she cried on my shoulder. "I don't know what's wrong with you," I told her. "I thought this would make you happy."

"That's not it, Parker. I am happy about that, but the rugby player, as you call him, was a mistake."

"Why; what's he done?"

"He's a cheating bastard," she sobbed. "We weren't married a month before I found out. Pictures of him started showing up on the internet in strip clubs with women hanging all over him. My friends showed them to me but I didn't want to believe it. I hired a detective and every time he goes out of town to play, he's sleeping with a dozen different sluts. I actually had to go to the doctor to check and see if I had caught something from him. When he comes home from England tomorrow I'm serving him with divorce papers."

"Jesus, Bronley, why didn't you say something? I'll do anything I can to help you."

"It wasn't your problem. I didn't want to involve you. Can you believe he's jealous of you? He's a walking poster child for infidelity and he thinks I'm sleeping with you as if you'd look twice at me with a wife that looks like Sagan."

"Hey, was it your problem when a cherub hit your car with a lightning bolt? Was it your problem when Boston calls you out of the blue and asks you to pick her up from school? Besides that, the man is an idiot. You're gorgeous, Bronley. You're beautiful, smart and rich. You're my partner. I want you for a partner because I trust you. What can I do? Do you want me to have an angel give him a STD?"

She laughed through her tears. "No, I made the choice to be with him. I should have known. All the signs were there. I was stupid and I'm paying the price. Will you let me stay at our new place at River House for a few days? It will just be until I can get him moved out."

"You can stay there as long as you want. I'll tell you what; I'll bring a van around tomorrow and we'll pick up your stuff. You arrange to meet him and I'll drop you off. You serve him the papers, come out to the van and I'll drive you to your car and follow you out to River House. He'll move out and you can go home."

"Really, you'd do that?" she looked up at me with her big brown eyes full of tears.

"I really would and I really will. Where do you want to go now?"

"Can I go home with you? I really don't want to be alone. I'll cry on the girl's shoulders and they'll cheer me up."

"Let's go get your overnight bag," I told her.

There was a lot of crying on shoulders at the house that night and Bronley drank a lot of bourbon. Mom put her in bed and she was a little hung over the next morning. I healed her a little and she ate a good breakfast. We drove to her house and packed her stuff she would need into the van.

She was meeting him at a mall restaurant and I dropped her off at the door. I parked and listened to the new AC/DC album. I saw her come out and he was following her. He grabbed her shoulder and spun her around. They argued for a minute and he hit her. I started to get out but she didn't need my help. She had him kneeling on the sidewalk with a broken finger in each hand. He screamed and she turned one hand loose and chopped him in the throat. He went down and vomited on himself and she walked away. She saw me standing by the car and came over. She opened the door and said, "Get in Parker. Drive away. That chapter is over and I'm turning the page. I'll take that partnership, but I want on the board, too."

I got in, drove her to car and followed her to River House. I picked up Boston and Mom and we helped her unpack. She never moved out and she spent almost as much time at River House as Mom and Mariha.

Raphael showed up a week later for his temporary Watcher gig. He had a big argument with Mariha right away, over who was going to do what. She was being very territorial and he backed down. He agreed to Watch Sagan when she went to school and the fireworks died. He was like having the angel version of Boston around. He was very loveable and gentle. He loved to play games but Boston wouldn't play with him. "He cheats," she said, and wouldn't give any details. He loved her and followed her around from room to room and they squabbled like a brother and sister. He was very reserved with Sagan until she told him she was going to fire him if he didn't stop acting like a douche. He melted after that and I never worried about her when he was with her.

He took quite an interest in Bronley. I don't know if they were lovers but he spent a lot of time with her. Mom tolerated him with amusement and Mariha was a little in awe of him. He stayed with us for six months and then he was recalled. He promised he was going to return after doing whatever it is that archangels do.

The day after he left Sagan pulled me aside and told me she needed to talk to me. We walked out on the deck and sat on the lounge with our feet up.

"What's up?" I asked her.

"Mariha is driving me crazy. Every time I see her, she reminds me that God said she could have a baby. She's obsessed, Parker, and she's not going to give us any peace until we help her have a baby. You need to take her away and help her do something."