OCR Text |
Show SS3b Something close to jealousy r o i l e d within me. It seemed so untair that the mothers would have to divide his time still more minutely. They had shared him for so long! And now, with poverty and children behind them, didn't they deserve some years of r e f l e c t i o n and pleasure? Why couldn't my father stop moving, stop incorporating people into his l i f e , his fold? "Does he sleep with them, Mama?" I asked without thinking. She flushed. "Well, no, not that way." And for the first time she explained to me.about the Law of Chastity, how sex i s forbidden except for procreation when one is Gerda living the Principle. "But A perplexes me," my mother commented at the end of her explanation. "Even though it was agreed that they weren't to have . . . r e l a t i o n s . .. she suggested that he sleep with her, the youngest one 'so that she mn't be lonely. Martha needs someone, too,' she said. We were at the ranch and i t was my night with him. I was so shocked and hurt when I saw him crawl into bed with Martha that I cried a l l night long. If he'd only said something to me, explained to me what he was d o i n g . . ." Danny, cynlcm! Dnnnyy had joked about i t . " I ' l l just bet he counsels them," he said. I was i n s t a n t l y sorry that I had said anything to him about my f a t h e r ' s new 'wives.' My mother had warned me not to. And Danny's wife rejoined, "Sure he counsels them, right there on the couch with them l i k e any good cou.nse.hr- J But I couldn't bear to think of him that way, making love to strange women. I couldn't bear to think that of him anymore than I could think that of Brian. No, he would not |