The Erotic Mind-Control Story Archive

Title: Dream State

Version: $Revision: 1.20 $ $Date: 2004/07/31 03:06:02 $

Copyright

This work is copyright © 2000-2004 with all rights reserved by its author. The author specifically states that this work may be redistributed, without charge, as long as it is published with the same the story name (“Dream State”), author (“JimC”), and that the story is distributed in its entirety, including the disclaimer and all chapters. You may also modify this story by partitioning this into multiple parts, as long as this disclaimer is included on each part. I specifically do NOT permit this story to be published on any site that charges any mandatory membership fees.

The web sites StoriesOnline (http://storiesonline.net) and ASSTR (http://asstr.org) have explicit permission to archive this story.

The following is a work of fiction (actually, “FANTASY”). Any resemblance to any person, living or dead, is purely coincidental and rather far fetched, if you ask me.

This is a story that describes some sexually explicit situations in a fictional (remember fiction?) setting. The target audience is adults (people over the age of eighteen) with broad minds. This audience is getting harder and harder to find each year.

Final disclaimer—I doubt that any of the people would act in the way described herein, or even if things described herein are even possible. This is just fantasy, and should be treated as such. This fantasy takes place in the mid 1970s to late 1980s, without any fear from AIDS or any other sexually transmitted diseases, so don’t try this at home.

Chapter 21—“Consider yourself, one of the family!”

It was a few days before New Year, and I was in the exercise room, watching Mary and Debbie sparring together. Debbie had wonderful form and looked graceful, but I could tell from the amount of sweat she was generating that she was getting tired out by the workout. Mary, on the other hand, hadn’t yet broken a sweat, and wasn’t even breathing heavily.

June passed by on her way out toward the pool. “Mary’s quite talented,” she remarked.

“She won’t tell anybody how good she is,” I said.

“Want me to find out?” June asked.

“Huh?”

“You know I work out constantly. I also fight when I get a chance. I even put a punching bag into the cottage so I stay in shape.”

I looked at June’s pleasant topless body. “You have an excellent shape, June.”

June reddened a bit in embarrassment, but she smiled at me without answering.

Debbie called a time out, and went over to the wall where she had a water bottle filled with Gatorade, sipping about half the bottle at once.

Mary turned to see June and me at the entrance of the room. “Hi, guys. What’s up?”

“Would you mind sparring with me after you finish beating up Debbie?” June asked.

“Do you practice?” Mary asked.

“Yes. I have a bag in the cottage, and when I’m on the big island, there’s a dojo that I visit a few times a week.”

“Sport or self-defense?”

“Sport.”

Mary’s eyes twinkled. “That’s Debbie’s problem. She’s self-defense. She knows enough to avoid getting hurt, but has difficulty grasping the concept of offense. Do you compete?”

“Only with my instructor, and occasionally with fellow students. I never attended an actual competition, though.”

“I think you should at least put on a top,” Mary said.

June was only wearing bikini bottoms, as she had been considering using the pool. “I’ll need to find one.”

Debbie spoke up. “I’d offer you mine, but my top is soaked.” I figured that Debbie’s offer was in jest, since June’s breasts weren’t very large.

“You still need to work on your assertiveness, Debbie,” Mary said.

“You need to be a little less willing to hurt your own sister,” Debbie retorted.

Mary grinned wickedly at Debbie’s comment. June had already run out of the room, and came back a few moments later with a bikini top on.

“What level do you compete?” June asked.

“I don’t compete,” Mary answered.

“Oh.”

The two girls squared off. They bowed, and then moved back. I knew that June had been assessing Mary’s technique as she had watched Mary wipe the floor with Debbie, so June made a tentative jab at Mary, who easily deflected it, adding a jab behind June as June followed through. June easily avoided Mary’s jab, and the two were once again facing each other.

The initial probes were all similar, June making some sort of move, and Mary reacting. It was like the workouts that I had done with Mary when Debbie had been away, only June’s speed was about twice mine.

Debbie was watching the pair with me, and we were both in awe. This was nothing like the typical scene with Mary and a partner. June would not allow Mary to dominate her, and Mary seemed to be merely assessing June, not actually attacking. June landed a kick on Mary, who simply shrugged it off, and then rotated her body, forcing June to the ground for a half-second before June propelled herself back up, facing Mary.

Mary looked impressed at June, and then, without warning, started her own probe into June’s defenses.

Now the action was getting quicker, and it almost looked like a choreographed Kung Fu movie running at double speed. June’s and Mary’s movements were almost impossible for the eye to follow, becoming nearly a blur.

For about ten minutes, the girls traded moves. On one occasion, June knocked Mary down, but Mary used the opportunity to roll through June’s legs, almost toppling her. June jumped high, and rotated around, but as June was about to unleash a wide kick, Mary caught June’s leg and threw her left arm at June’s throat that stopped millimeters away. The two girls were now frozen for a second, June on one leg, Mary on two. Mary started to follow through, despite the fact that she had intentionally stopped her hand. June simply ducked backward, executing a back flip that had her up and facing Mary almost immediately.

“Jesus!” June exclaimed.

Mary just grinned. “You’re quite good.”

June lunged at Mary, and the action got even faster. To a person like me, the moves could only be imagined, as the eye wasn’t able to follow the quick movements of both girls at the same time accurately enough. The two girls were throwing harder punches and harder kicks, but neither one landed anything, and neither girl was being knocked down now.

After a rather remarkable five minutes of near constant movement, Mary found an opportunity and launched another chop towards June’s neck. This one was much faster than the earlier one, and it appeared that Mary was going to kill our chauffeur when Mary suddenly deflected her own arm lower at the last possible millisecond, where she made contact with June’s shoulder, knocking the girl down.

My jaw dropped, and I felt the urge to run and help June, but Mary was quicker than me. She had winced when she connected with June, and immediately moved down to pick up her partner, breathing heavily. “I’m sorry,” Mary said, very upset with herself. “I thought you’d back away from that one.”

June was breathing heavily. “I was thinking of ducking, actually. If I did so, that would have hit my neck.”

“Oh, dear,” Mary said, fretting over the fallen girl. “Your shoulder is going to bruise.”

“Mary, can you tell me something?” June asked, her breathing still ragged.

“What’s that?”

“You were being easy on me, weren’t you?”

Mary simply grinned. “You’re better as a partner than Debbie.” Mary quickly added, “Sparring partner, anyway.” She looked over at Debbie, hoping she hadn’t hurt her sister’s feelings.

“You’d wipe the floor with my instructor in his own dojo,” June said.

Mary simply shrugged. “He’s probably sport as well.”

“Yes. He has competed and won tournaments.”

“I wasn’t trained to compete.”

William Voder’s words came back to me. “Mary was trained in the military as an assassin, June.”

“Fuck me!” June said, her eyes wide in amazement.

Mary looked at me sharply. “That’s not general knowledge, Jim. I doubt it’s even in my military files. I know that I never told anybody about my experience in the military!”

I shook my head. “That’s not a denial, Mary.”

“May I ask that the three of you keep that information to yourselves?”

“We don’t keep secrets from Aimee, Mary,” I said, adding, “Besides, Aimee already knows.”

“Aimee knows?” June asked, quite surprised. “That’s impossible!”

“Why is it impossible?” I asked.

June looked confused. “It was Aimee’s idea for me to spar with Mary. Did she want to kill me?”

From behind me, Aimee answered. “I had no such intention. I merely thought that Mary might be a good instructor for you. I didn’t think you’d try to beat Mary when you saw that she was better than you.”

I turned around, startled by Aimee’s presence. “What?”

“June is extremely competitive,” Aimee said. “I think she has been all her life. I didn’t foresee that, and for that I’m sorry.”

Without another word spoken after her apology, Aimee turned and walked out.

The two sparring girls looked at me and then each other, confused.

Debbie broke the silence, “Isn’t that a big fuck-up?”

Totally confused, I turned and ran after Aimee. “Wait up, Aimee!”

“Let’s go to the beach,” Aimee said, not turning around.

I picked up the beach blanket and followed Aimee.

Aimee picked a secluded spot on the beach, and turned around to face me for the first time since she left the exercise room. “June will be more helpful if Mary trains her.”

“You want Mary to train June to be an assassin?”

“No,” Aimee said. “I want Mary to train June to be your bodyguard.”

“You’re serious about having June enter our family.”

“She’s already a part of our extended family,” Aimee said. “She needs to become more involved. She is one of us, although I only realized it a few weeks ago.”

“Why do I need June as my bodyguard?”

“June has a fixation on you, much the same as Mary and Debbie,” Aimee explained. “It’s been building ever since she started staying in the guest house after Mary became pregnant. I saw the fixation and that’s when I looked deeper within her and realized that she has a gift, herself. At the same time, once Dawn was born, Mary’s focus shifted, very slightly, but it now includes her flesh and blood.”

“I don’t see that. Mary doesn’t love me any less.”

“No, Master,” Aimee said, softly. “That’s not the case. The difference is that Mary no longer loves just you. It’s a mother’s instinct, so you shouldn’t take it personally. You felt the same thing once your daughter was born.”

“I love you all, equally,” I stated. I was quite sure of my emotions, having thought about them the previous night while lying awake with Debbie passed out and exhausted at my side.

“Does that include June?” Aimee asked.

I was about to utter a quick denial, but the way Aimee asked that question made me consider my true feelings. I remember the sight of Mary’s palm connecting with June’s shoulder, June landing on the ground, and the way my heart jumped as June fell onto the exercise mat. I was about to run in and take care of the fallen girl when Mary was already down there.

“I guess so,” I finally said.

“Equally?”

“I don’t know,” I admitted.

“It will be difficult for you, because you won’t be able to express your love to June the way you express it with us, especially Debbie.”

“When you say things like this, it makes perfect sense, but when I think about it later, it all seems wrong.”

Aimee and I just sat on the blanket for a few minutes.

Finally, Aimee said, “Consider this. June and Mary are walking with you on this beach. A person aims a gun at you. Both June and Mary will react to the danger to you. I can see that as if it had already happened.”

I didn’t know if I would agree with Aimee, but that woman is rarely wrong about things. I wisely didn’t say anything.

“On the other hand,” Aimee continued, “by the time that same person managed to point a gun at Dawn, Mary would have the attacker dead before June would even realize that there had been any danger.”

“How is that possible?”

“It’s the nature of Mary’s gift. She can spot danger and know exactly what to do almost before that danger exists. It’s a more streamlined version of my gift for seeing trouble in advance. That, combined with her mother’s instinct to protect her flesh and blood, would be a deadly combination.”

“And June?”

“June’s has a gift that is similar to Mary’s, although she doesn’t have the years of experience honing her physical skills as deadly as Mary has. That may actually be a good thing. June also has a gift similar to yours.”

“I don’t understand,” I said. “You mentioned this the other day, but didn’t explain it. What, exactly, is my gift?”

“You know it, but you deny it to yourself. The first time we spoke together, I told you what your special gift was, but you have many gifts. Ask yourself what they are. Some of them are obvious, like the ability to communicate that you share with Mary and me, and to a lesser extent, Debbie. You also have that rare capacity to love people fully and without hesitation, and that is a gift as well. Not one of us has any jealousy about you when you are with one of the others, with the obvious exception of Mary when her hormones were influencing her mood swings when she was pregnant. Those, however, are only two of your gifts.”

I had other gifts? This was news to me.

Aimee, however, wouldn’t tell me any more. She said, “Jim, you need to know your gifts to be able to know how to use them. You cannot tell a fish that it can fly and have it fly. It has to know it can fly before it will launch itself out of the water.”

Sometimes, talking with my sweet Aimee can be so fucking aggravating.

The two of us kissed for a few moments before we went into the surf. The other three girls, including June, found us about ten minutes later and we all swam for about a half hour.

* * *

The girls set up a daily schedule for sparring. June was now Mary’s main partner, and both Mary and June additionally practiced with Debbie as well, usually after a hard workout together to give Debbie a better chance.

Over the next few weeks, I didn’t see much difference in either Mary’s or June’s techniques, but it was quite obvious that June was a much better teacher for Debbie. Debbie was getting more aggressive in her workouts, and she confided in me one night that the reason June was a better teacher was that Debbie didn’t see the deadly intent in June’s eyes that we all saw in Mary’s when she was fighting.

I don’t mean to imply here that Debbie was any less strong or talented in the martial arts than June or Mary. In fact, when I had the occasion to spar with Debbie after she started working out with June, she quite easily handled me, a big change since last year. The difference was that Debbie had originally been taught to defend herself, and hadn’t been taught to be much of an aggressor. June had been taught competitively, and Mary, well, was quite another story. June was teaching Debbie more aggressive moves, and Debbie seemed to take the instructions from June better than from Mary.

June and I continued to attend flight school. I now had close to forty hours of flight time, and was only a couple of weeks from being able to earn my pilot’s certificate. I would soon be flying solo. June, on the other hand, was about halfway through her flight instructor’s course. It was just something else she could put on her resume if she were ever looking for a job, something that I figured would never happen, since Aimee was insisting that June be considered a member of our family.

One fine January day, I was talking with June on the way to flight school.

“I’ve got just a couple more weeks to go,” I said.

June nodded, and continued driving.

“What’s next?” I asked June. “Should we purchase a Cessna for the family? We could take small trips to Oahu.”

“You should get instrument certified first,” June suggested.

“Yeah, my instructor said that, too,” I agreed. “He said that not having certification is totally stupid. Unexpected things can happen at any time, especially around the islands, and there’s no reason to be ignorant on purpose.”

“I also sort of imagine you as a skydiver,” June said. “You seem to like the thrill of flying, and having the air rush by you as you head toward the earth...”

I shuddered. “I was almost stationed in the 82nd,” I said. “They have paratroopers there. I felt a bit uneasy about it at the time, and then Mary hit me with a jeep, saving me from having to jump out of planes.”

June laughed. “And here I am, suggesting you do just that now!”

I shrugged. “I’m older, I guess. I still feel like I’m in my twenties, but my body tells me that I’m pushing forty. It’s so strange. I can still remember high school like it was yesterday.”

“For you, it was,” June said. “There’s also gliders, Jim.”

“You know, June, you’re perceptive,” I said. “I think I would like the rush of air against my face, but skydiving seems a bit extreme for me. On the other hand, a speed boat or something like that would be fun...”

There was an uneasy silence, and then June said, “Aimee and I had a talk a while back.”

I sighed. I knew that June and I would have this conversation. “I know.”

“She told me that I should sleep with you.”

“She told me the same thing.”

“I’m not like that,” June said. She sounded sad.

“I know, June, and I don’t want you that way,” I assured her.

“Then can you tell her to stop pushing me?”

“Nobody tells Aimee what to do, June.”

“It makes me uncomfortable. She says that I’m in love with you.”

“No she doesn’t,” I corrected. “Aimee says that I’m your focus. It’s not the same thing.”

“Aimee also wants me to get weapons training from Mary.”

I sighed. “Aimee wants you to be with me so you can be my bodyguard.”

“Why do you need a bodyguard?”

“Aimee foresees danger. She sees things before they happen.”

We were getting near the airfield. June said, “Aimee believes in old myths her mother told her.”

“Her aunt,” I again corrected. “And to Aimee, they’re not just myths.”

“It’s like ESP or telekinesis. They don’t exist.”

“Aimee doesn’t call it ESP, June. To her, the old stories are as real as the two of us sitting here.”

June simply shrugged.

I knew it would soon be time for Aimee, June, and I to have a long talk.

* * *

In February, Debbie was once again feeling restless. As much as she loved Dawn and the pace of life in the shack, she had an itch that I could see in her eyes every time I saw her.

The time we spent in bed was getting more and more physical, Debbie’s grip on my body seeming to be a scream for more closeness.

One night, when I fell asleep, my mind wandered. It hadn’t done this in a while, and I wondered what was going on.

It turned out that I shared Debbie’s dream with her. Our bodies were still intertwined, but thankfully, Debbie was no longer pulling herself to me. When I started to dream, it had the “other worldly” sensation like my out of body experiences that I had after I woke up after my coma had. It felt eery when I shared the women’s dreams.

Debbie was a little girl in her dream, about nine or ten years old. She was riding in the back seat of a car. In the front passenger seat were her parents, as I remembered them from a similar dream I shared with Debbie a while back.

I remembered this dream. Debbie had it once before.

This one was a bit different, though. First, Debbie’s age was a bit different than in the previous dream, although I cannot remember if she was older in this one, or younger. Second, the things that happened were different.

Debbie’s attention was out the window of the car, near the entrance to an amusement park that was on a lake. I could feel the excitement bubbling throughout her body; she had loved these outings with her parents. They happened infrequently enough because her father always had to work, but occasionally they took a long weekend during the summer to visit a favorite area in New England, which they only referred to as “camp.” I seemed to get this information from Debbie’s mind.

My point of view of this dream was dual. Some times, I was watching from a short distance away, where I could see the three of them. At other times, my point of view was from Debbie’s perspective.

The amusement park was crowded and noisy, as those things go. I could smell the odor of popcorn and hot dogs as the family exited their parked car and went in the entrance.

Debbie’s favorite ride was the bumper cars, and she took the first right after you entered the park to get there. Her parents teased her about not wanting to go on the ride, but Debbie knew that they were just having fun with her. The line went extraordinarily fast (well, this was a dream!), and soon the three of them were in separate cars and the operator put the ride into motion.

Once again, I could actually smell the machine oil and ozone from the ride, and was thinking about the senses that were experienced during dreams when I felt Debbie’s car come to an abrupt stop, hitting the side of the car that her father was driving. Debbie’s father looked at her in mock shock, telling her that he has a lawyer and she gave him whiplash!

Debbie’s squeal of laughter and happiness was infectious. Debbie’s mother managed to give Debbie’s temporarily stopped car a glancing blow in the end as she waved at Debbie.

I felt like an intruder in this idyllic setting, and I thought of leaving Debbie to her own dreams.

“No! Don’t go!” little Debbie wailed. The little girl was definitely reacting to my desire to leave, I could tell.

Debbie’s father thought she was talking to him. “I just need to drive away, Gorgeous! You’ll have another chance at me!”

I continued to stay, and watched Debbie have the time of her life with her family.

They went on a couple more rides, and I was wondering why Debbie seemed so keen on my experiencing this with her.

Debbie’s parents led her to a picnic table in some woods, and her father left to purchase some food.

When little Debbie was alone with her mother, she said in a conspiratorial tone to her mother, “I know the man that I am going to marry!”

“Oh?” asked Debbie’s mother, smiling. “And who might that be?”

“His name is Jim... just like Dad’s!” the little girl said.

“Is it, now?” the mother said, still smiling at her daughter.

“He’s here, but I don’t think he wants to come out.”

“Here in the park?” her mother asked, looking around for any suspicious characters.

“No... he’s in here,” Debbie said, pointing to her heart.

This made Debbie’s mother smile again. “Ah. Your dream man. The one that’s in the army?”

“Yes! Yes!” Debbie said, excited. “The one I told you about!”

I watched in awe as the little girl described me pretty accurately. Her mother thought that I was just a figment of Debbie’s imagination and went along with her. Little Debbie took it in stride, though.

Mr. Malen arrived with a tray containing some hot dogs, french fries, and sodas, and carefully placed them on the table.

“Debbie was telling me that the man she will marry is here again. Isn’t that sweet?” said the mother to the father.

Debbie’s father smiled at his daughter and handed her a hot dog. “Well, if he’s in love with you, Gorgeous, then I know he’s a good man. I would truly like to meet this fellow one day.”

And then there was nothing. The dream was over. Unlike the last time, when the dream seemed to just pause, the image becoming static, I was now looking at blackness.

My presence was over the two of our bodies in the Indigo room, with Debbie still holding me. Debbie’s face, just barely visible in the dark room, seemed to have a big smile on it.

This was just fucking weird. What did this dream mean? Was there any significance to it? I thought long and hard about it for a long time.

* * *

The entire family noticed Debbie’s pensiveness.

A few evenings later, I was sitting with June and Debbie playing triple solitaire when Aimee approached us.

“Look,” I said, reacting to Aimee’s presence. “A fourth for hearts!”

Aimee smiled. “Actually, I wanted to talk with the three of you. I just finished talking with Mary.”

“About what?” I asked.

“About the three of you taking a trip.”

“Where?” Debbie asked, her eyes widening.

“The east coast, I think,” Aimee said. “You should start with the brownstone. It still has most of your father’s things in it, and you avoided going there during our last trip. Jim promised you a tour of the Goddess clubs, and most of them are on the east coast, or close to it.”

“How long?” I asked.

“A month.”

Debbie looked like she was just handed a winning lottery ticket.

I winced. I wouldn’t mind doing some traveling, but I didn’t want to leave Dawn and Mary for such a long period.

“No can do,” I finally said, making my decision, hoping that this wouldn’t hurt Debbie.

“Work it out,” Aimee said, looking me directly in my eyes. She had that look that told me that her decision was not debatable.

I looked back at Aimee. “Two weeks,” I said.

Debbie looked hopeful again.

“Two weeks, twice,” Aimee said, immediately. “Come back for a week before finishing your trip.”

Aimee simply left, having said what she needed to say.

Debbie and June both looked at me, expectation on their faces.

I shrugged. “I don’t make the decisions here. I don’t think I ever have.”

I abandoned the game and went upstairs and saw Mary.

“Aimee told me you will be touring with Debbie and June,” Mary said.

“It’ll only be two weeks. Debbie is getting restless.”

“Aimee said a month.”

“I talked her into two weeks touring, one week or two back here to recharge, and then maybe another two weeks.”

Mary raised her eyebrows. “You managed to haggle with Aimee?”

“I guess you could call it that.”

“I think she’s right,” Mary said, softly. “I’m worried about Debbie.”

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

Mary explained. “Debbie started out on her tour to visit all her father’s properties as a way of trying to understand her father. We interrupted that. This place isn’t really his place. He bought this property on Aimee’s suggestion, and left it only partially developed. I suspect he bought it as an eventual gift for Aimee. Aimee was the real mastermind behind the reconstruction of this place.”

“So?”

“Debbie has a journey to complete,” Mary said. “At least, that’s how Aimee explained it.”

“A journey?”

“Debbie needs you with her, and Aimee won’t let you go anywhere without either me or June with you. I want to keep Dawn here now. This is our home.”

Home. I saw a soft look in Mary’s eyes as she said that. I realized that Mary had found her home, finally. She had left her parents a long while back, and the only family she ever had was a sister that is now living in Nova Scotia. I knew this was important to her, and I realized something that Aimee had never told me: Mary would kill to defend Dawn, as her flesh and blood, but she would do no less to defend this little shack. It was her Home—with a capital “H.”

I smiled at Mary, finally understanding her. “Dawn is the reason I told Aimee ‘no.’”

“You won’t accompany Debbie?” Mary asked, shocked.

“Actually, that’s not true. It was from that ‘no,’ that I managed to haggle Aimee to the two-week idea.”

“Oh,” Mary said. “I never thought to ever say ‘no’ to Aimee.”

“It’s not an easy thing to say to her.”

“I’ll say,” Mary agreed. Then she turned serious. “Aimee explained things to me, and I agree. Debbie needs to bring closure to her situation with her father. Until she does, she will never truly be happy.”

“Why do I need to go?” I asked.

“You are her husband. Next to her father, you are the most important person in her life,” Mary explained. “You need to be there for her.”

I sighed. As I said to Debbie and June, I don’t make the decisions, and I doubted that I ever would.

* * *

Later that same evening, I found Aimee in the atrium with June. They looked up at me as I entered.

“Am I interrupting anything?” I asked.

“Not really, Jim,” Aimee said.

June looked at me guiltily. “I was telling Aimee that I didn’t believe all that ESP stuff.”

“Oh, that,” I said, smiling, remembering our talk in the flight school parking lot.

“June, will you do an experiment for me?” Aimee asked.

“What?”

Aimee just happened to have a dark purple satin scarf in a pocket of her robe. I think she had this entire thing planned, although I didn’t know exactly what she was going to do. “I need you to keep an open mind. Can you put this over your eyes?”

“Tie it behind my head?”

“Yes.”

June looked a bit uncomfortable as she did so. “This sounds like a silly magic trick.”

“Just keep an open mind, June,” Aimee said, softly.

After a few moments, Aimee said, “Think about this atrium. Think about Jim and I sitting here.”

I watched as June did so.

“OK,” June said slowly.

“Can you see us?” Aimee asked.

“Um...”

“Open your eyes. Look at us.”

June shook her head. “Not with the blindfold on.”

“Concentrate. Think about the atrium and the three of us.”

I watched Aimee instruct June for a few minutes, wondering what Aimee had planned.

Suddenly, a strange thought occurred to me. “June,” I said softly. “Pretend you’re on the ceiling looking down on us.”

“Uh, uh,” June said, shaking her head.

Something was now telling me that this was important. “Try... try to float up there...”

It took about ten minutes, and I kept on giving June some suggestions. I could see that June was trying very hard.

“OH!” June suddenly said, startled.

“Do you see us?” Aimee asked, finally talking. She had stopped instructing June once I had started.

“It’s weird!”

“All right, June,” Aimee continued. “Now move from the atrium into the kitchen. Leave us behind.”

“Um... yes. I’m moving...”

I felt a presence pass through me quickly. As it passed, I could hear June’s inner voice go “Whoops!”

“That was weird,” June said. I thought the same thing, but kept my thoughts to myself.

“Ignore the weird feelings,” Aimee said. “Move to the kitchen.”

It took a few moments. “All right. I’m there.”

“What do you see?”

“I see the floor... the refrigerator.”

“Can you see the counter?”

“Yes!”

“What’s on the counter?”

“There’s a coffee maker... a toaster... canisters... the oil jars...”

“What else?”

“Oh! There’s a box on the counter.”

“What kind of box?”

“Small... white... I’ve never seen it before. What is it?”

“You tell me,” Aimee said.

“There’s something white under it... a card... it has... my name on it!”

“What else?”

“There’s a red heart on the card... oh!”

June shook her head, and quickly untied the scarf. “What was that?”

“Your gift,” Aimee said.

“The box?”

“That, too.”

I didn’t know the box had been in the kitchen, but I knew what it was. Aimee and I had gone to Lahaina earlier that week.

“What was that box and envelope?” June asked.

“Go into the kitchen and look.”

June shot out of her chair and ran into the kitchen. “It’s here!” she shouted.

“Bring it to us,” Aimee said.

June came bouncing back into the atrium, carrying a card and a small jewelry box.

“Was that what you saw when you had the blindfold on?” Aimee asked.

“Uh, huh.”

“Have you seen these before?”

“No.”

“The envelope has a red heart on it,” I pointed out.

“My god!” June said, looking at the envelope as if it were magical.

“Open the envelope, June,” Aimee directed.

June opened the envelope, which contained a greeting card with a picture of a purple orchid. She opened the card, and said, “To June, even though you don’t believe.”

“Open the box,” Aimee ordered.

June opened the box and gasped. Inside was a platinum ring that was identical to four other rings that I knew about.

June had gasped in recognition of that ring.

I spoke up. “May I see that?”

Reluctantly, June handed the ring to me.

By this time, Debbie had quietly arrived, as well as Mary, who had Dawn with her. I think that Aimee may have silently summoned them, or had let them know that this would be happening.

I remembered Judge McHenry’s words as if they had been written indelibly on my mind.

“June, you are my beloved, and you are my friend. With this ring, I join my life with Debbie, Mary, Aimee, and now you!”

I placed the ring onto June’s right ring finger. We had it sized already and it fit perfectly.

I handed my ring to June, and she repeated the vow to all of us, softly.

One by one, the three sisters went through a simple ceremony. Each one would give their newest sister a kiss on the lips, then something would be whispered in June’s ear, and then there would be a big hug.

Finally, it was my turn. I moved over to June, kissed her, and said, “June, we all consider you very special. You indeed have an amazing gift.” I hugged June for a long time.

* * *

After that demonstration in the atrium, I found Aimee alone. “That gift of June’s... you intentionally allowed her to discover it in front of me.”

“Yes.”

“I remember how you described me when you first met me. I was a person that sleeps, but doesn’t wake up. I invade other people’s dreams.”

Aimee nodded.

“June shares that gift?” I asked.

“The two of you will have to discover your powers,” Aimee said. “It is a power that I do not share with you, although I have experienced it with you when I was sharing your mind when you were sleeping. It is a very important power, and it can be very powerful. All I can do is show you the door. If the two of you weren’t there, neither June nor you would have figured it out.”

I kissed Aimee tenderly.

Aimee went upstairs into Sunrise, where Debbie and June were waiting for her. The three women slept together that night. Knowing that Aimee was with them, I knew that June’s apprehensions about eventually sleeping with me would be soothed—sleeping with Aimee is almost always the most relaxing thing in the world.

I spent my last night before I left in the Orchid room with Mary and Dawn. We waited until our daughter was asleep before we made passionate love. I could see in Mary’s eyes that she was going to miss us, but I knew that she would be very safe with Aimee around.

Before I fell asleep, I heard Mary’s voice within my head. “Please welcome June officially into the family while you’re gone.”

This was going to be interesting. Aimee, and now Mary, wanted me to sleep with a person that was totally repulsed by the actual idea of sleeping with me.

I didn’t deny Mary her request, nor did I agree to it. I just sighed, and wondered how I get mixed up in these convoluted feminine conspiracies.