A Girlfriend or Two

Of course I knew that, but then again it was inside her body so I figured she should have noticed a thing like that.

"It doesn't matter much," the nurse continued "the journal says everything has been fine all the time except for the one time you passed out, it only means that you have to plop two out and they will be slightly smaller. And the double amount of work afterwards of course."

It was harder for Mel than it had been for Karen, but after Samuel was out it was only a minute or two before Samantha followed. I was glad when it was over but not half as glad as Mel.

What came next was the 'father's' (Daniel that is) visit, and in that respect the twins helped a lot with his acting: he was as surprised as us and had to sit down to collect himself, unable to speak.

Therefor it was I who held Samantha in my arms while Mel held Samuel during the family visit: the way it should be of course, but it was supposed to be Daniel holding 'their' child (singular) in his arms to reinforce the idea that he was the dad, not I holding one of a pair.

The few days they stayed at the hospital demanded a lot of acting still, since Daniel had to play his role as proud father and loving boyfriend, Mel had to show affection for a guy she had known for a week, I had to be somewhat cool around her and the kids, and everyone had to remember what name to associate with them.

Confusing? Perhaps more than it sounds even, but it worked. Daniel was registered as the father of Samuel and Samantha, I as the father of Felicity and no one debated it for a second.

Daniel did a very good job and spent more time with 'his' new family than I did since I had another to be with also.

When mothers and children were released and came home the need for acting was over in most parts but Daniel kept up 'his' job, changing diapers and everything.

After another week it was time for our parents and Daniel to return home, but the evening before they left he and I had another conversation and it was he who took the initiative for it:

"Do you think it is possible for me to transfer to this university Anders?"

"I guess so. Maybe not until next semester, and the fees has to be payed, but yeah, it shouldn't be a problem. Why?"

"Why? I have a family here now, and you ask why!?"

I just stared at him for a moment.

"Daniel, you are aware that it isn't your real family, aren't you? You helped with the paperwork and all and we are grateful for that, but that is just a facade. It is my family and my responsibility."

"Yeah yeah, whatever, but they feel... special to me somehow. I love Felicity too, of course I do, but somehow it is different anyway and I want to be close to them if possible, and Mel is a wonderful girl also. I was just wondering, you know. It wouldn't hurt to have your brother close by to help if there were any problems, would it?"

I was beginning to see where this was going: 'Almost a copy of Karen', 'share with your brother', 'a wonderful girl'.

"Have you talked it over with her?"

"With who?"

"Melanie, of course!"

He began to protest but I stopped him.

"Don't even try, Daniel. I know you and I know you fell in love with Karen last summer. Mel is her sister and you want her now instead. I have nothing to say against that as long as you behave and she agrees, but you need to talk to her before we go any further with this. Tonight or tomorrow, you decide, but you have to do it or I won't help you."

"Alright, but what should I say: 'can I have you if I move here' doesn't sound right. You know I'm not good at talking with girls!"

"No, you're not if that is your best suggestion." Mel's voice came from the kitchen door "You could try 'I think I might be falling in love with you. If I move here, do you think there is a chance that you will fall in love with me too?' or something like that. It is more subtle and romantic somehow."

Daniel had jumped up from the couch as soon as she spoke and was blushing furiously. I sat facing her and was aware that she heard us, but the sight of Daniel made me laugh so hard that I fell on the floor, gasping for air.

Mel, dressed in panties and a t-shirt and nothing else, walked over to Daniel, put her arms around his neck and looked him straight in the eyes.

"So, let's hear it, whatever you have to say, but be warned that I take no bull from you or anyone."

Daniel surprised me with what he did then, and Mel was too I'm sure. He put his arms around her and kissed her softly on the lips, over and over, and between the kisses he said:

"Melanie, I love you and I want to be near you and the babies all the time if possible. Is it okay if I move here next semester to continue my studies, and do you think we have a future together?"

I do think that she thought so, at least she clung to him like an oyster to a rock as she returned the kisses in honest.

After they had all left we slowly adapted to our new lives with lack of sleep, crying babies and irritable adults. I suppose we had it better than the average parents anyway with three of us to take care of the kids, and two being able to breastfeed, but in the end it was still exhausting.

We talked about Daniel and his wish to move there. It was really up to him, and at least partially Mel since she was the obvious reason, but she felt that it concerned us all. I was the biological father of her children, and that could never be changed, so therefor I had to have an opinion she said.

"Mel, It is up to you anyway!" I told her "Yes, it is my kids too, you are right about that, but Daniel is the registered father. I will always love you, I will always love them and I will be there for all of you any way I can, but I can't decide for you. All I want you to consider is that you don't lure Daniel over here and then drop him after a week, that would be cruel. I don't think that you will do that, but there it is."

"If I get together with Daniel you won't be hurt, you won't miss me?"

"Don't be ridiculous! I won't be hurt as long as you don't elope to some far away country and I will never see any of you again, but of course I will miss you. On the other hand it is normal to live with one woman, not two, and I think it is fair to at least say that Karen was the first I met and therefor is the one I know best. If you and Daniel hit it off and get married it also means I can marry Karen without hurting you, doesn't it? I could well imagine to marry any one of you but I can't decide and it would cause trouble for all of us."

"Alright. Yes, I think we will work out well. He is a lot like you and was wondeful to us, so I would like to try."

That settled it pretty much and I began looking into his transfer. The university made no difficulty as long as they were paid and he was well behaved, he could stay with us and the government allowed him a student visa.

That pretty much left to cover the costs, and that part we had an idea about by then. I wasn't too sure he would appreciate it though, but if he didn't want it he could pay for himself, and that was what I told him when I called to deliver the news.

Both Karen and Mel were allowed to finish the spring term and do the final exams, but after that they had to take a sabbatical. I thought about cancelling my studies and be an artist full time, but after another discussion with the others I continued anyway: a completed higher education was good as a safety net if the art failed at some point.

Daniel arrived in early july and mom and dad visited at the same time for four weeks to see their grandchildren. The last two weeks were spent on a trip to Texas, driving down in the van. Daniel had accepted the suggested idea to earn the money for the university fee, although after some hesitation, and he stayed in the guesthouse at the farm with Melanie.

He got the same initiation as I had riding with Mel, and it got the same effect. He wasn't as embarrassed though: after all he had gone all the way with Karen a year before and a wet spot at the front of his shorts was no big deal anymore.

The job, modelling for me, wasn't a big deal either in itself, it was more about what would happen with it later that disturbed him.

It was a continuation of the naked, faceless bodysketches that had been so successful and we were to do several more series's: one 'after-the birth' each with Karen and Mel, one with them together, one with Daniel and one with each of them with the children.

So far it was okay for him, but the last one was him and Mel together, ending up really together, and that made him nervous. Of course we didn't finish all of this during our stay in Texas, the time was much too short for that, but we started and the first one was that with him and Mel.

So while my mom, Clair and Karen was babywatching we rigged the white backdrop in the guesthouse and the two of them undressed. The first day they posed standing side by side, one in front of the other, face to face, back to back. I didn't want an erection from Daniel but got it anyway in the beginning, but after a while he calmed down.

The second day they posed sitting, him on a chair with her sideways in his lap, her stradling him face to face, him on his knees between her legs and the other way around, and several other ways too. Then, the third day, they were laying down on a white sheet on the floor. Now I wanted an erection and got... nothing!

The idea was different sexual positions for this part, her riding, riding reverse, him on top with her legs spread, legs around him, face down with him on her back, side by side and so on.

Mel tried to get him hard by rubbing against him, stroked him and sucked him, but the best result was a semi-hard-on.

"Give us an hour alone and we will see." she told me, so I left them and joined the others.

It was pleassant enough I assure you, to lay on the floor with a sleeping baby on my chest, and I was in no hurry to go back to work.

When I eventually did, I found Mel and Daniel in bed, cuddled up close together. There was no doubt what they had been doing, the room smelled of sex, and they looked very satisfied with their lives. Somehow I doubted that Daniel would be better suited to perform his side of the task after that, though.

They got out of bed anyway, and after washing up, Mel kneeled beside him and sucked him hard in no time, so they took up the first position and we began.

The only other problem was to get Daniel to stay still. He did for awhile but then his hands started to wander, his mouth searched a tit to suck on like a hungry baby, and his hips began to move. I told him to concentrate and he managed for a few minutes before starting over again. Next time I tossed a coal on him and he asked what the hell I was doing. The third time I told Mel to slap him, hard, and she did. After the tenth time I gave up and did the sketch as good as I could anyway.

It was a frustrating day for me, and I guess for them too but for other reasons, but we did the thirty sketches that was decided on and after that I concentrated on the ones with the girls and babies. Daniel was not allowed to watch then, he was way too horny to be trusted on the set.

At the end of august all sketches were finished and the eight series's were given to Patrik Fillmore to be sold. He especially loved the three with the babies and asked if I had anything, sketches or watercolours, with only them? I did, but not for sale.

"Doesn't matter," he said "but could I borrow a few to show at the gallery? For a few weeks only? If they are as good as the others they will create an interest, a demand, and if you are willing to do more, for sale, I promise that they will go for good prices within a day."

I talked it over with Karen and Mel. We weren't all that enthusiastic about it, but at least it wasn't photos, and who can recognize a baby from a sketch anyway? We decided to try it when the kids were asleep not to disturb them and I made a dozen or so altogether, half of them watercolours. I didn't lend out any of my private ones to the gallery, instead I delivered the new ones as soon as each separate one was made, and that satisfied Patrick too.

Daniel had borrowed money from me to pay for his studies until 'his' series had been sold, after all I still had quite a bit left from the previous sales. Or, we borrowed him, we had left: we had split the incomes three ways and we had payed for the house and everything else all three of us too.

This time I didn't hear from Patrick for quite some time and when I brought the 'sleeping baby'-singles over to him and asked about it he said he had several bids but nothing was settled yet. When he finally called me, a week after the last delivery, it was October and he had something on his mind: would I be interested in taking a lower price than the highest bid for the series with Daniel?

A strange thing to ask, I thought, and said so.

"Yes, I can understand that reaction, I should have asked this in a different way. I have a bid from a museum of contemporary art, not one of the major ones but still, and it is a good price but not the highest. It is after all an honour to be represented in a museum and it can also push the prices upwards in the future just from the exposure."

That was unexpected and surely an honour, but I had to talk with the others before deciding.

"I will call you back in a day or two." I told him "What is the offered price and the highest so far?"

"Forty and fifty, respectively. Thousand."

Oh..., I was a bit taken by that, and more or less to say anything I asked how it was that it had taken so long this time.

"Haven't I told you? No, perhaps I haven't since you ask. Well, it is simple really. First of all I have changed the principles a little. I had the feeling I was too fast closing the deal before, so now everyone who has come up with a bid gets the chance to counter when a higher price is offered and that tends to take much more time. Then the news has spread, the museum is one example of that, and therefor there are more bidders with money to spend. Is it a problem for you that it takes time?"

"No, not at all. I was just wondering if the interest to buy what I do was no longer there, you know, if that niche had reached the end of the line."

"Don't you worry! I will tell you if that happens, but so far the demand is bigger than the production by far."

With that we said goodbye and hung up.

The girls and I had a good laugh when I told Daniel and he looked terrified by the prospect that his naked body might be ogled in a museum.

"Aah, a museum-piece!" Mel teased and put a hand on his crotch "Lucky me who get to play with it, in museums it is usually look but don't touch."

He cringed even worse and we laughed even harder.

"I think we should accept but since you are the model and also will get less money I thought I had to ask." I said when we had calmed down somewhat.

"Are you sure I can't be recognized from the pictures?" he wanted to know, and that caused Mel to tease some more:

"I would recognize you from looking at this fella!"

Her hand returned to his crotch.

"There is no face, remember? I'm sure Mel can do what she say, but she already knows so what does it matter? I will even cover the difference to the highest bid for you, hell, instead of half the money you can have all of it if you agree."

"You will be in good company." Karen added with a smile "Mona-Lisa and many more."

I don't think that helped at all but he agreed anyway and I called Patrick at once before Daniel changed his mind.

In November Patrick closed the deals on all sales for us, even the singles. After that I figured we could have retired if we didn't exagerate our living-expenses, but what would we have done then? No, we still lived our lives the same way as before. We talked about hiring a nanny, but that was voted down by Karen and Mel with an option to discuss it again if they were to return to their studies, which they planned to.

My art was put on a back-burner and I didn't do anything to sell for a long time. Some items were loaned by the gallery for exhibitions and that led to a request from Patrick to do an exhibition with only my work around christmas. I agreed and made a selection together with Karen and Mel.

That took some time since there was a lot to go through and they had veto on every decision. Inevitably the exhibition demanded the artist to be present at the opening, and that in turn led to me demanding that Karen and Mel were there too, which led to...

I guess you get it: in the end all of us, the kids and our parents too, were there, dressed up and smiling.

It was packed with people, the absolute majority older gents with a young lady on his arm and older ladies with a young man to hold on to. It would have been a good place to rob, I assure you: the amount of glitter on fingers and hanging from earlobes and around necks was considearable.

I wasn't particularly amused having to be there, but I knew I had no choice. I mingled, answered stupid questions about this and that: who was the model, wouldn't miss this-or-that be perfect as a model too, why so much nudity, why so much dressed, wasn't that Marilyn in that picture?

Clair and Brad were in their elements though, that much I noticed, and eventually Clair took up a pose beside a picture of a nude Karen minus head and said:

"Of course it is me! Riding every day is great exercise to keep the body young and trim."

I blushed and Karen laughed, the possible interpretation of 'riding' was not lost on us.

I got a bunch of business cards and was told to call if there was something special I had to sell at any time or if I wanted to do a private portrait. I said 'sure, I'll keep it in mind' and instantly decided that hell would freeze over before that happened.

The aftermath of the exhibition was bids on most of the pieces shown, but those were made to Patrick, not me. I guess it shows lack of tact to talk money with an artist at an exhibition. Artists paint only to be creative, not to earn money, and everyone knows they are all starving after all and want it that way to rebel against capitalism.

We turned them all down since we weren't, starving I mean.

Nothing special happened the following year, or the one after that, except that Karen and Mel returned to school and a nanny was hired to care for the kids while we were busy. I delivered a piece to Patrick once in a while for him to sell, I continued to produce pictures for our eyes only and we visited the museum to ogle Daniel.

Then it was less than half-a-year left to my graduation. The same thing went for Karen too, but she had her internship to do after that for a year. This actualized the question of the foreign-aid payback.

I got the letter shortly before christmas my last year at university, requesting a meeting with a Dr Carstairs to discuss where to go and what to do. It was to be in an office in New York and the preliminary date was january 4^th and I was asked to confirm if I could make it.

I could since it was during the christmas break, and going there with Karen (who still wanted to come with me to wherever I would go) we decided to take the 'clan' with us and celebrate New Year's in the Big Apple as well. Maddy, our nanny, wasn't too happy about it since she would be babysitting, but a healthy gratification cheered her up quite a bit.

So we celebrated the new year on Manhattan and played tourists for a couple of days before Karen and I took a cab to the meeting.

Entering the lobby we were told to take the elevator to the 24^th floor, and there a secretary showed us into a conference room and told us to take a seat: Dr Carstairs would be there in a moment.