Legacy of Faith Ch. 01

Within this story you will find incest, lesbianism, polyamory, and sexual activities described. You will not encounter all of these in every section of the story. This is chapter one.

I need to tell someone. I can't tell my wife, she had a hand in getting the whole thing started. I certainly can't tell my son. My daughter already knows and may have known what was coming before I did. I don't believe one of my friends from being married to Faith for thirty years could keep the secret or approve, so I can't tell them either. So, I've decided to tell you. You can tell all your friends, your spouse, your adult children and none of us will be harmed in any way.

The story begins with my son bringing home a young woman he was getting serious about. They met at college and dated for a year before he brought her home. Mike was a good looking man and I credit the DNA from his mother's side of the family for that. When he started college he stood six foot tall and weighed about one-eighty. His sport of choice was tennis, even though he wasn't good enough to get a scholarship.

Anyway, he never brought a girl home before and we didn't quite know what to expect or how to act. We needn't have worried. Karen walked through the door and five minutes later she was the daughter we didn't raise. The daughter we did raise, Melissa, became best friends before dinner and by the time Mike had brought her suitcase in Faith, (my wife) had two daughters.

I was a bit Cambriawer to accept her. She spent the first hour in our home in the domain of women: The kitchen. Whenever we had the whole family together for a celebration the kitchen became No-Man's-Land. Not only did they fill the room they were working to make magic and they wanted to talk.

Karen sat next to me at dinner. I discovered that, like me, she had grown up on a farm. Her Dad still had their farm and raised corn, wheat and soybeans. We talked about the difference it makes growing up in the dirt and around animals. Three times during the meal she touched my arm.

She was careful and considerate, making sure to include everyone in the conversation. Mike sat to her right and she touched him and smiled at him often as we shared the meal.

The next day Mike suggested we bar-b-que and swim. I got some ribs, corn and tomatoes for the bar-b-que while Melissa and Karen made potato salad. As I checked on the ribs Mike and the three women of the family came out of the house headed for the pool. Faith looked good in the suit we bought just before our vacation the summer before, a modest two piece in teal that showed off her wonderful breasts. Melissa wore a new suit. She loved to swim and had a new Speedo on. She's my daughter and I knew I wasn't supposed to get turned on by seeing her in a swimsuit, but... she might as well have been spray painted blue for all the suit hid. It was obvious to me that she either never had pubic hair or had shaved it all off. Karen wore a yellow two piece that was half the size of the one Faith wore. She was tanned and surprisingly built.

When we met she wore a football jersey and jeans. I could not have guessed at the size of her breasts if someone offered me money. In the small yellow bikini her breasts were on display. As she walked past me on her way to our pool I turned and saw her suit was a thong! A sliver of yellow dove between her butt cheeks and disappeared.

When I forced my attention away from her butt I noticed Faith checking me out. I was glad I had on baggy shorts.

When dinner was ready I called everyone out of the pool and to the picnic table. I almost dropped the food when I saw Melissa and Karen walking to the table! They both looked naked! Melissa a blue naked and Karen a yellow naked. I didn't think anyone noticed my hard on but I was extra careful about walking around for the next two hours.

In bed that night Faith squeezed me and said, "Someone got really turned on out by the pool. It's Ok to look. It's Ok to get turned on as long as you bring it to me for the action."

I got all the action a man my age could want that night. Just after lunch the next day Mike and Karen needed to leave to get back to school. Melissa helped her mom around the house after they left. I was cleaning up the deck outside when I heard Melissa laughing. I moved closer to the window and heard her say, "I'm the only one who didn't get laid last night!"

She was holding the sheets off our bed and Mike's. Faith said, "If you want that to change, bring someone home." I wondered when she would. I had suspicions that our daughter was, perhaps, a lesbian. Not that I cared one way or the other, I just wanted her to be happy.

Both Melissa and Karen came home often after that weekend.

In 1988 when Mike and Karen graduated and got jobs they got married. They got jobs about an hour from us and rented an apartment near their jobs. We saw them about once a month after they got settled.

In 1990 Karen announced she was pregnant. Matthew was born in 1991 with a family reception committee waiting for him at the hospital. My wife, daughter and I were there. Karen's parents and two sisters were there as well. Our son, the proud father, was in the delivery room and brought the baby out to introduce us to him shortly after his arrival.

By Christmas '91 our son, Mike, was showing signs of stress we... I hadn't noticed before. Karen was only working part time now that Matt needed her time, attention and focus. Mike talked with me a few times around Christmas about the stress.

Knowing it would mean a lot to them, we withdrew ten thousand from my retirement account and gave it to them as their Christmas present. It helped. My wife had agreed that was a great thing to do for them and we were not hurt to do it.

In '93 Mike was promoted to foreman and got a substantial raise in pay. They bought a house and my wife said she heard Karen mention they were thinking about a brother or sister for Matt.

Trouble arrived in '95. Karen announced to the family at Mike's birthday dinner in January that she was pregnant. Matt and Mike were happy and the celebration was genuine. Two months later we got a call in the night that she was in the hospital and had miscarried. A month later she started bleeding again and they found a tumor. By the time her life had been saved it had been decided that she would not ever be pregnant again. The equipment to get pregnant had been removed.

On Christmas day that year, Karen arrived at our home with Matt. Mike wasn't with her. When Matt was occupied with new toys she told us that Mike wasn't coming over until she and Matt had gone home. They were getting a divorce. She didn't go into details with us at that time because she didn't want Matt to hear everything. When Mike arrived an hour after Karen had taken Matt home he told us his side.

His story was that after the surgeries and coming to grips with not being able to ever have another baby Karen had shut down sexually. He said he had been patient and waited months but she made no progress towards being his wife in the nine months since her operations. He said he didn't have a new woman in his life, but that he had found a small apartment and was moving out by the first of the year.

After he left, his sister, Melissa, said, "He's lying. He has someone else." She wouldn't say anything more about it. In January Mike gave me his new address and a few days after that I found out his "roommate", Amy, was an attractive woman three years younger than Karen. We found out because he brought her to his birthday dinner at our house. It was uncomfortable for everyone.

We saw Karen and Matt every other Saturday or Sunday. We saw Mike and Matt one Saturday a month. Sometimes they brought Amy with them but mostly they didn't.

In April of '96 Mike and Amy got married. She was four months pregnant at the wedding. Matt was the Best Man. Amy's Mom gave her away. Her Dad didn't come to the wedding. According to things I head at the reception, her dad was upset that Mike got her pregnant before he'd marry her. Mike looked stressed and uncomfortable at the ceremony and at the short, small reception.

Karen was struggling financially. Mike wasn't paying her as much as she needed to live on and he made excuses about money all the time. Her part time job didn't pay very well. I added her to our monthly bills and deposited a few hundred to her checking account each month. I did it that way so she wouldn't have to see the check or thank us every month. She thanked us every month anyway.

In June Karen got an increase in her job responsibilities and started looking for someone to pick Matt up from school and watch him until she got home. My wife and I applied for the job. She accepted. So, five days a week we got to spend time with Matt and see Karen for a few minutes.

Karen's parents live over two hundred miles from us and she never explained why she stayed close to us instead of moving closer to them. Rather than look a gift horse in the mouth we were just grateful. Matt was a bright spot in every day and so was Karen.

On July the fifteenth we picked Matt up from summer school and headed for the beach. It was a mostly sunny day, warm and enough clouds we thought two hours of sun would be good for all three of us. Matt had fun in the water. My wife Faith went in with him for a half hour then it was my turn. I loved watching the two of them playing in the waves and laughing. When it was my turn I had just as much fun with Matt as it appeared Faith had been having.

Matt looked back at the beach and said, "Look Grandpa!"

CRISIS

I looked back and thought my heart would stop. A crowd was gathered around Faith. We rushed out of the water and as we approached I heard a siren and saw an emergency vehicle headed across the sand.

Matt and I watched as they worked to save her life. One of the EMT's asked me questions and soon she was in the back of an ambulance and headed for the hospital. We followed in my car. I called Melissa from the car. Her secretary took the message. Matt stopped crying when we got to the hospital. I called Karen and told her Matt was ok and we were at the hospital. She said she'd meet us there. Matt was strong for such a small young boy. He held my hand and said, "We need to be strong now. Grandma needs us to be strong."

We were strong. Faith had a stroke while she lay on the beach. Now, in the hospital, she was having trouble with the left side of her body and trouble talking. Matt held her hand and kept telling her he loved her and that she was "gonna get better." I held her other hand and hoped he was right. All the wires and tubes in her arms and things scared me. Every time a machine beeped I jumped.

I called Mike and told him. Karen walked in half an hour later, with food for her self, Matt and me and flowers for next to Faith's bed. Faith rewarded all of us with a smile. Half an hour later Melissa walked in with sandwiches for us. Mike called at eight to ask how his Mom was doing.

Karen took Matt home just after eight. The nurses shooed Melissa and me out and sent me home soon after. I was back the next morning. Faith's verbal ability was back but she was having lots of muscular problems. She couldn't get her left leg or arm to do exactly what she wanted them to do.

The hospital people talked to us about the next few weeks and they let me take her home. She had appointments at physical therapy three times a week and a neuro appointment every Thursday.

It took two weeks but we got things coordinated and Matt got taken care of as well as Faith. Her walking didn't get much better. With a walker she could get to the bathroom, but her days of being the chief cook and bottle washer were over. She became the supervisor in the kitchen and Matt and I became her hands.

He was great. He was a real help with the chores and even better at being right beside his Grandma, holding her hand, reminding her to drink water, changing the channel on the TV and telling her all about his days at school.

Karen began spending more and more of her evenings with us. Two weeks before Thanksgiving she sat with us at dinner and said, "I'd like us all to think about something. It might help all of us."

Matt said, "If it helps, I wanna."

Karen went on, "You watch Matt every day. He loves being here and helping. I love being here too, but I worry about stressing you Faith."

Faith shook her head. She said, "I like having Matt here."

"We spend more time here than at our apartment. Last night I was thinking about it and realized I keep the apartment so Mike can be here whenever he wants, without bumping into us."

I said, "Mike doesn't visit. He calls once a week, on Sunday just before football comes on TV."

Faith said, "Move in."

My mind went speeding through all that would need to happen to make that reality. It was a short list. Clean out the two bedrooms I'd been using for storage and an "office". Buy more groceries. Add a phone line for Karen. Hire someone to move their stuff.

I said, "Good idea! Let's do it!"

"You should think it over. This is a big step. Having the two of us living here will add to the stress."

"And the love." Faith said. Matt and I nodded. We made a list of what needed to happen. I hired the movers and a team to clean up their apartment after they were out. She got new phone service and bought groceries. I changed their address at the school. I got rid of fifteen years of accumulated crap from the two rooms they moved into.

By Sunday after Thanksgiving they were in. Mike had declined the invitation to Thanksgiving Dinner and none of us told him about the move. When he called that Sunday Matt answered the phone. When Mike said "Hello" Matt held the phone out and said, "It's my Dad. Anyone want to talk?"

MIKE

I took the phone. "Hi, Mike."

"What's that attitude all about?" Mike asked.

"What do you think it's about?"

"Someone's been poisoning Matt against me!"

"I don't think so. In fact, I don't think your name has been spoken around here in weeks. We don't even know where you live. When was the last time Matt saw you, face to face?"

"You know I'm really busy."

"Yes. We've been told. Would you like your weekly medical report on Faith?"

"I'd like to know how Mom's doing, yes."

"She walks with a walker. Her speech is as good as it's likely to get. She can and does talk with us every day. Matt takes good care of his grandma. They spend hours together every day. What else do you want to know?"

"What do you, Mom and Matt want for Christmas?"

"You want an honest answer?"

"Yes, of course." He said.

I paused and said, "I'd like you to come home, spend a day making you Mother believe you want to be with her, your son believe you love him and me believe you aren't the self centered ass I think you are right now."

The line was quiet for many seconds, then I heard the click. His answer was loud and clear. I returned the phone to its cradle and turned. Matt, Karen and Faith were standing there.

"What did he say?" Faith asked.

"Nothing. He hung up."

A tear slipped from Faith's eye. Matt saw it and said, "It's Ok, Grandma. We all love you. We're a family." He hugged her. Karen and I joined him and we all hugged. I took them all out to dinner. When we got back to the house Faith was exhausted. I helped her to bed, got her in and kissed her good night. Matt came in and kissed her good night too. The two of them said their nightly prayers together every night since they moved in.

I knew Matt said his prayers with Karen, too. He was a very good boy.

After Faith and Matt were in bed Karen and I watched TV for a while. I muted the commercials and asked, "What would you and Matt like for Christmas?"

She gave me a short list of things for Matt: games, clothes and books. Then she was quiet.

"You haven't said anything about Karen."

"I can't. I don't need anything, really. You take such good care of us, I don't need anything."

"I don't remember asking what you NEED for Christmas. I seem to remember using the word want."

"Please, don't press me on this. There is only one thing I want and I cannot, will not, ask for it."

"Ok. I won't ask. Any ideas about what we can get for Faith?"

"None. Let me ask her when you aren't around, maybe she'll tell me what she'd like."

We finished watching the program and went to our bedrooms. I slid into bed beside Faith and she stirred but didn't wake. I listened to her breathe and fell asleep. I wasn't going to say what I wanted either. I wanted sex.

Faith had invited me inside since her stroke but when we actually attempted it, it created spasms in her legs that scared both of us. Since those three attempts I had resorted to masturbation, sitting in my car in the garage. It was a release, but it wasn't what I wanted. I knew it wasn't what Faith wanted either.

A week before school let out for Christmas break Karen's parents called and asked if she and Matt could or would come for Christmas. She talked it over with us and said, "Yes."

Matt was very excited. Karen's parents live out in the country on a farm and he would be able to ride a horse and see pigs, a cow and their three dogs. Faith convinced Karen that we would be great with a quiet Christmas. She gave Karen our digital camera and begged her to take lots of pictures to share with us when they returned.

Karen got off work for the twenty-first through the twenty-seventh. We watched as they packed suitcases and made phone calls home. On the twentieth I drove Karen to work and took Faith with me. On the way home we stopped and had Karen's car serviced. I had them replace two tires in the process.

The next day we kissed them good-bye and watched Karen and Matt drive away.

Transition

That night I ordered dinner delivered and we spent a quiet evening together. By nine Faith was tired and we completed our evening ritual for bedding down. I got Faith into bed and covered.

She looked at me and said, "Come to bed, please."

I stripped down to my boxers and snuggled in with her.

"Matt usually prays with me. Since he isn't here, would you?"

I clasped my hands together with her inside my arms and I prayed out loud for the first time since Faith's stroke.

"God, Nick here. I don't usually talk out loud to you, but this is an occasion. Matt and Karen are with their other family. Thank you for the blessings in my life. Faith is here with me, warm and loving. Matt is a great kid. His Mom is more like our own daughter than a daughter-in-law. Every day I thank you that they choose to be with us. I thank them, too. I hope your plan is for us to be together for many years. I hope we can all maintain the health we have and the willingness to do what we can to be happy and healthy. Amen."

Faith had watched my face all the time I prayed. She was quiet for a while after I was done.

Then, she spoke. "God, Thank you for Nick. Thank you for Karen and Matt. Thank you for Melissa. I love them all. Thank you for Mike, too. He is a lesson to me, one I would not have chosen, but hope I am learning from. God, I don't often ask for a blessing. My life is full of blessings. I'm asking for one." She paused, took three long breaths and continued. "God, find a way for Nick to fully love Karen and Karen to love Nick..."

My mind raced. Was she saying, asking for, what I thought she was asking for?

"I know my stroke was and is a lesson for me. It has been hard on all of us. Mike's behavior has been a big part of the lessons, too. Karen needs physical affection. I can feel it from her. I know Nick needs it, too, and not just a place to masturbate. They both need to love each other completely. Find a way, God. I trust you. Amen."

She snuggled in closer to me and whispered, "Please don't talk. Just listen. You'll know what to do when the time comes."