Mom and I XXXmastime Ch. 02

Bridget continued, "I wasn't expecting that. Anyway, if I had named you as my baby's father, your dad would immediately know it was incest and Amelia and Ken could have wound up in trouble for the swap, too. Mom said Uncle John knew about the affair, but wasn't sure whether he knew I was Simon's daughter. Since I didn't want anyone charged with incest, I went to stay with my aunt in Richmond to keep the pregnancy a secret, too. I delivered a son on March 10th of 1969 and gave him up for adoption. I just found out from Angie today that her father has been identified as your son and his birthday matches. So, unless Amelia's birth control failed and Ken's condom failed and she gave birth to a son on the exact same date, I'm Jake's mother. Angie also says that Jake's DNA indicates he is his Debra's second cousin and that he matches to you at 59%. The first indicates that Jake's mother is a cousin to one of Debra's parents, the extra 9% indicates that you share enough DNA to be a half-brother, nephew or uncle to his mother. I fit both of those and Amelia doesn't."

As Oscar sat there absorbing that, Hannah said, "Bridget, I think I would have done the same thing, in that position. It just took me 30 years to know I was already in it."

"What do you mean?"

Hannah responded, "Your mother wasn't the only affair Simon wrote about. He cheated with my mother, at a time that made it possible that I was his daughter, too. In the journal, he actually hoped I was, because it would mean he'd gotten one over on my father. He clearly got a perverse thrill in going after the wives of his friends and getting away with it. Here's my dad, blaming your mother for seducing Simon and Simon is boasting that Dad had no idea that my mom was cheating on him, too. Even as Oscar and I were getting married, Simon was still speculating that we were committing incest and not saying a word to us. You can imagine reading that threw us for a loop. We had already been married for 30 years by then."

"So, are you? Simon's daughter, I mean?" Bridget asked. "Are you my half-sister?"

Tommy leaned over to Angie and whispered, "Would that be five links or six?" She shushed him.

Hannah said, "We honestly don't know. Before we found a doctor we could trust to test us and keep it configential, we came to terms with the possible incest and decided it simply no longer mattered to us, so we never got the DNA test done. I was in menopause by then, so I wasn't worried about additional children. The three we had were healthy, although Sam had died in the line of duty. So, we told our daughters Angela and Melanie so they could be aware of potential health issues and they agreed to keep it a secret."

Angie said, "I'm pretty sure you're not Oscar's sister, Hannah. Angela did get tested after Tommy matched some of your sister's kids, but before Oscar was tested. She matched to Tommy as an aunt and to my mom as a full cousin, as we expected for one of Sam's siblings. Where that's important is that by being my mom's full cousin, the test indicates that Rose is your full sister, not your half-sister, so you and Rose must have the same father. When Oscar's test came back saying that he didn't match my mother, that also indicates that Oscar and Rose can't have the same father. So, you can't have the same father as Oscar. Besides, Angela matches Oscar at exactly 50%, which also indicates that you can't be related to Oscar in any way or that match would be over 50."

Hannah said, "I think I followed that. Thanks for resolving it, but like I said, we stopped caring years ago."

Oscar shook his head, "I had kind of grown used to thinking we were kinky, for being brother and sister."

Hannah squeezed his arm and said, "We can always roleplay, big brother."

I leaned towards Angie and whispered, "Wanna be my sister?"

She suppressed a laugh and shushed me. It wasn't a no.

Oscar asked, "Does Jake have any other brothers and sisters? Besides my kids, that is?"

Bridget frowned. "From me? No. My uterus ruptured giving birth to him and I needed an emergency hysterectomy. Jason preferred not having children and then I married Hank and became Nana to his grandkids. I've known Tommy his whole life as my step-grandson, not knowing we're biologically related a couple ways, until today."

Oscar said, "I honestly don't know which is harder to wrap my mind around. That you're Jake's mother or that you're my sister. Is that why you didn't stay close to the Campbell side of the family?"

Bridget answered, "Oscar, you were a reminder of what I had lost and I was still worried about the secret coming out. I blamed myself for my losses, not you, but it still hurt to remember. So I kept my distance from you and when you married Hannah, I kept my distance from her and the other Campbell relatives. My mom's funeral was the last time I saw most of them and definitely the last time I saw you and Hannah, until today. My first husband didn't question it, not being family oriented himself. Then, marrying Hank gave me a new family that didn't know that part of my past. I didn't even tell Sam I was related, when I met him through Marcy."

"I wish you could have told me," Oscar said.

Bridget shook her head. "You think I didn't want to? What would we have done differently, though? Try to get married, when your dad and maybe my uncle knew we were siblings, even though our birth certificates said otherwise? Run away and marry in another state and have you skip college? Plus, you were Amelia's boyfriend, not mine. We certainly weren't in love. You think I haven't played out every 'what if?' scenario you can think of? Based on the situation and the era, I did what I thought was best for all of us and I've tried hard to make peace with it by believing that our son had a good life. Then, by a miraculous circumstance, Derek winds up engaged to my own granddaughter, who relates this morning that you're her recently discovered grandfather and that Amelia was your son's mother, when his birthday matched my son's? I think today is when all this was meant to finally come out, don't you?"

"So, now we just need to tell Jake," Oscar said, just as the doorbell rang. "Let me help smooth the way."

Dad got up and answered the door and I moved to set up some more folding chairs. Jake, Pat and a brown-haired woman I assumed was Wendy entered.

While Pat and Wendy were both brunettes, that's where any resemblance ended. Pat was Angie's 5'5" height, bigger at the bust but narrower at the hips. Wendy was six inches taller and model thin, with tattoos visible at the sleeves of her dress and no bra underneath, as her nipples and the piercings in them were apparent through the fabric after coming in from colder air.

As soon as he spotted the looks on everyone's faces watching them, Jake said, "Okay, what is going on? This isn't looking very festive."

Angie said, "Sit down, Dad. There have been some, ummm, developments, today."

"Nothing ominous about that," he said. As he and Wendy sat on the love seat, he said, "Someone want to fill me in?" As his eyes scanned the room, they landed on Bridget and lingered. He said, "I don't think we've met, but you look very familiar. I'm Jake McDougall, Angie's dad. This is Wendy Sanders, my girlfriend, and Pat, my other daughter."

Nervously, Bridget said, "Hi, I'm Bridget Swanson, Marcy's step-mother. This is her father, Hank. It's nice to meet you, Jake."

Oscar said, "It's interesting that you used the word familiar, son. Because it has been revealed today that Bridget is literally our family. She's my half-sister... and your mother."

That was supposed to be smooth?

Pat gasped but Jake only blinked, several times over, before he could ask, "Not Amelia?"

Oscar said, "No, not Amelia." He proceeded to retell the story of Ken and Bridget double dating with Oscar and Amelia and how the swap had led to Jake's conception. Bridget managed to fill in a few details of her own, although she was nervous and Jake wasn't displaying much emotion to reassure her, one way or the other. They both related pieces of Simon's infidelities and how Oscar and Bridget didn't know they were siblings at the time they had sex. The idea that Oscar and Hannah thought they might also be half-siblings came out as well, along with the DNA tests showing why they weren't. By the time the story was told, Pat and Wendy had tears on their cheeks, but Jake simply looked overwhelmed.

Jake said, "So, let me see if I understand it all, Dad. Bridget is Hannah and Rose's cousin, your half-sister because Simon is her father and both my mother and my half-aunt at the same time and you're also my half-uncle? Those are the reasons why our DNA tests matched over 50% and why I match as Debra's second cousin? Out of fear that she and Amelia would both be accused of incest by your father, she gave me up for adoption without telling you?"

Bridget answered, instead, "That's basically it. Are you mad at me, Jake?"

Sighing, he said, "I've got so many emotions swirling right now, I really can't identify them all. I'm sure anger or resentment is in there somewhere, more at Simon's role in all this than at either of you, but I think it's so buried under amazement at the coincidences involved, joy at finding each other, sorrow at you not being able to have other children. But, most of all the word incest keeps running through my thoughts. How much of a role it played in all this and continues to."

"Continues to?" Oscar asked. "It was one time between Bridget and me. Hannah being my sister has been disproved."

Jake said, "Yes, but you accepted it as possible. So, I think you can accept the news that Pat and I are lovers, too."

"Daddy! What the hell?" Pat yelled.

Jake waved her off and added, "And I have reason to believe that pretty much everyone who woke up in this house this morning is involved in incest of their own."

So much for Jake keeping quiet. Shit.

Oscar looked around the room, before saying, "I don't hear anybody denying it. Is this true, Jilly, Stan, Marcy?"

"Yes," said Jilly, as meek as I had ever heard her. "We've all been lovers since Thanksgiving."

We related most of our story. Grandpa Hank admitted to his past with Mom as well. I took note of the fact that he didn't distance himself and Bridget from current or future involvement and wondered why he didn't.

Oscar and Hannah took it all in, then responded, "As we said, we came to terms with the idea of incest as being moral a dozen years ago, when we thought we might be brother and sister. We will keep your secrets, all of you. What I want to know, Jake, is why you thought it was okay to out them like that, if they were trying to keep it secret and had kept your incest secret."

The fact that we had told Bridget and Grandpa about Jake had not been revealed and no longer needed to be admitted, in my opinion.

Jake replied, "I looked around the room and couldn't see anyone who wasn't either involved in incest now or in the past or likely aware and tolerant of it. Angie caught Pat and I on Friday, so I assumed she had already told Derek's family. So, I took a calculated risk in outing myself to you and airing my suspicions about them. As you said, any one of them could have denied it, but they didn't. I think we're better able to rely on each other, if everything is out in the open."

Angie was trembling next to me, not in fear but rage. "Dad, that's such a load of fucking shit. You started making threats against Derek's family on Friday, when I caught you with Pat and Wendy. This was just you making good on those threats by revealing us to people who didn't know about our incest and didn't need to know. Even if odds were good that they would be accepting, there was no guarantee. Instead of getting everyone on the same page, you chose to blow up the frigging book. How do any of us trust you, now?"

Jake said, "There was no book, honey. Were we trusting each other before this? Really? If I blew anything up, it was the pretense that we didn't already know about each other's incest. Now, with everything exposed, we can start building that trust, for real. I promise, I won't tell another soul. Certainly not your mother."

"What does Debra know?" Hannah asked.

Jake said, "She knows I've been having sex with Wendy, who is my former foster sister, since before we married and I never stopped. She suspects that there's a second woman involved, but has leapt to the conclusion that it's Angie, instead of Pat. After what happened with Rachel, she's about as anti-incest as you can imagine."

Angie asked. "What did happen with Aunt Rachel? I've only gotten hints about her and Bonnie."

Jake answered, "Your mom was a sophomore in college when she came home for a weekend and caught Rachel having sex with their brother Scott. They were both freshmen at a local college and still living at home. Despite being begged to stay quiet, she told their parents everything that night. Grandpa Daniel was threatening to force Scott to enlist in the Army to get him away from Rachel and Scott committed suicide the next day, instead. Rachel blamed Debra. Then, Rachel turned out to be pregnant with Bonnie, who is Scott's child. One of Daniel's sisters took Rachel in and she and Debra haven't talked since. Except, the family rumor mill has indicated that Rachel and Bonnie might now be lovers as well. It's only managed to make Debra more vehement against the evils of incest and bisexuality."

"Is incest just everywhere or does it only run in certain families?" Angie asked.

Mom said, "I don't know that it's either. The group that's here is certainly not a big enough sample of the population to extrapolate. Could it be genes that govern who attracts us, even when it's a family member and can that be passed to the next generation? If so, who did I inherit that from? There was no sign of incest in my family before me. None in Stan's or Jilly's. The attraction that really caused Jake to be conceived was Amelia's attraction for Ken, not attraction between Bridget and Oscar, so thinking that Jake inherited an attraction for Pat from them doesn't quite make sense. And Jake had nothing to do with Debra's brother and sister getting together before he had met Debra."

"Socialization?" Angie asked.

Mom answered, "Again, who would I have learned incest from? Or Jake? Bridget was the only one who knew his past involved incest and they had no contact until today."

Jake said, "My adoptive parents didn't want me to get involved with Wendy and that's not even incest."

Mom said, "You might argue that the existence of reliable birth control lowers the genetic risk of incest, so couples who would have resisted their urges generations ago can give in to them instead, but DNA tests getting accurate enough to detect incest just by comparing one parent to their child, without testing the other parent, could have an opposite discouraging effect. I certainly don't think society as a whole is going to suddenly say it's okay, just because we feel it is."

Dad asked, "Can we table this conversation until after dinner? The soups are staying warm in crock pots, but we don't want them to overcook."

With 14 for dinner, we divided between kitchen and dining room tables. Bridget, Grandpa, Oscar, Hannah, Jake and Wendy took the smaller table in the kitchen so they could get better acquainted, while Pat joined the rest of us at the dining room table. I served myself some New England clam chowder and a big slice of French bread and wound up sitting between Angie and Pat on one side of the table. Mom took the end next to Pat, while Tommy, Jessica and Jilly were on the other side, with Dad at the other end, next to Angie.

Pat said, "I envy you all, a little bit. Being a triad and two couples, you can hide your incest a lot better. I'm going to pause with Dad and Wendy for a while, until Mom stops accusing Dad of being with Angie. I still don't know what makes her think Dad's with you and not me, but it would be better to be safe and not have her walk in on us like you did on Friday."

Angie said, "Mom believes it's me because she thinks you're straight. She found out I'm bisexual and that makes me a more likely suspect to be Wendy and Dad's lover than you, even with you living in the same building as Wendy. It's irrational, but Mom being stubborn about evidence-free ideas she gets in her head is nothing new. The more you tell her she's wrong, the more she digs in. Did Dad and Wendy going to Jilly's swing club have any effect on her suspicions?"

"If she's heard about it, she hasn't said anything to me. I don't think she's seen Barb Cohen, yet. Barb's Christmas bunco party happened before Dad went to the club, so they might not see each other until January's game. I'm going over to spend Christmas morning with her so she won't be alone, so I'll let you know what she says."

Jilly said, "If you want to keep your Mom from becoming suspicious, you ought to date a bit. Give her a boyfriend to see from time to time, even if the relationships are short. And who knows, you might just find a guy who is willing to be in a foursome with Jake and Wendy."

Pat said, "I wish even dating were that easy. My travel schedule makes dating pretty hard to arrange. A lot of guys act like it's a long-distance relationship if I'm not in town every night."

Jessica said, "The right guy will make the effort. Tommy did."

"Maybe if you've already established the relationship before it turns into long-distance. But, I've actually had guys turn me down for a first date because I wasn't available on the night they wanted to go out or get frustrated because I couldn't schedule a second date for a couple weeks. As if my travel is more inconvenient for them than it is for me. Combined with having to wonder how they might react if they find out about my relationship with Dad and I have to wonder if it isn't easier to pretend to be asexual as my cover."

Jilly said, "That depends on whether you're someone who displays a 'freshly fucked glow' after sex. People will respect your privacy, mostly, if you aren't revealing who your boyfriends are, but claiming to have none isn't as easy to pull off. Unless you're getting sex every day, of course."

~~~~~

When I had finished my bowl of chowder, I headed into the kitchen to get some beef stew. I was brought up short by what I saw. All three women in the kitchen were sitting in the laps of the three men, making out with them. Except, Oscar had Bridget in his lap, Hannah was with Jake and Wendy was with Grandpa Hank.

They ignored me as I went to the sink to rinse my bowl, ladled out some beef stew, grabbed some more bread and went back to the dining room. Angie had moved into my seat and was in the middle of kissing Pat, so I took the open seat between her and Dad.

I asked, "Dad, did you put aphrodisiacs into the soups or something? The kitchen is a total make-out session right now. But, all three couples swapped partners." I listed the pairs.

"Now, isn't that interesting?" Dad replied. "After Hank and Bridget made those declarations about staying monogamous this morning. Could it just be us they weren't interested in joining?"

I said, "Grandpa did say he had an issue with Angie and Jessica being only a third of his age. Maybe Hannah and Wendy are a better match, age-wise?"

Pat asked, "Am I going to be odd girl out, now? I know Dad and I have to cool it for a while, but is there going to be a place left for me, after Mom stops being suspicious? With either them or with you guys?" She squeezed Angie's hand as she said that.

Angie said, "I would take you up to my bed right now, if it weren't for Mom's suspicions. Hopefully soon. We would definitely have to come up with an explanation before you could move in, if that's even what you want."

"Do you think that's possible?"