Cast Adrift

"Mm, Ms. Vixen? I, I think I would like a drink now," Lowell said.

"Oh good," Vixen said. "What's your pleasure?"

"Jack and coke, please," Lowell said.

"That's my man," Passion beamed.

"Anyway," Vixen said, handing Lowell his drink. "Your father graduated from Coronation High School, did not have a clue what to do. There wasn't a whole bunch of places in Coronation and colleges don't offer scholarships to under-achievers."

"My dad? Was an under-achiever?" Lowell snorted.

"He wasn't a bad student," Vixen stated, kicking her feet up on her own ottoman. "He just wasn't a good student. Nothing really excited him."

"My dad? Mr. Perfect," Lowell said and took a sip of his drink.

The liquor burned his throat and seemed to cling to his esophagus. Wallowing again seemed to break the alcohol free of its mooring and it burned its way down to Lowell's stomach. He took another cautious sip of his drink.

"Mm hmm, you need to remember, this was about twenty years before they discovered oil in North Dakota," Vixen said. "Reverend Richards? Pastor of Redeemer Christian Church in Ten Bear Lake; your dad was always real involved in the church, mainly because Reverend Richards had these twin daughters. Both blondes with big boobs and tiny brains, Valerie and Veronica."

"Oh yeah! We lived in Ten Bear Lake, I think until I was about four. Then my mom just up and left and we moved to Stepping Stone."

"Up and left?" Vixen snapped. "Up and left! That, that's what your dad told you?"

"I uh, yes ma'am," Lowell said, taking a large gulp of his drink.

"Lowell, you have to know, your mother, your mother didn't leave you," Vixen said quietly, wiping at a tear.

"Momma, you knew Lowell's mom?" Passion asked.

"Passion! Don't tell me you don't remember your Aunt Trudy," Vixen said.

"Aunt Trudy? That, that was Lowell's mom?" Passion asked, brown eyes wide.

"Mm hmm," Vixen said and drained her second drink. "God, if I have another, I'm going to be pretty drunk."

"My Aunt Trudy, guess I was about four or five, she came and stayed with us," Passion said quietly to Lowell as Vixen fixed herself a third drink.

"Anyway," Vixen said, sitting down again.

Lowell noticed that Vixen often began her sentences with 'anyway.'

"Reverend Richards suggested that your dad go to Atwell School of Divinity," Vixen said.

"He wanted me to go there too," Lowell disclosed.

"You? A preacher?" Passion snorted.

"I'm pretty sure it was mostly just to get into Valerie's pants; that was the daughter your dad liked," Vixen said, waving her hand at Passion to still her daughter's tongue. "They got married and moved to Idaho."

"Martinelli," Lowell supplied.

"The day they left? Trudy and me; we were just so broken-hearted. We both had major crushes on Roland; God! He was so handsome!" Vixen said, taking a big gulp of her drink. "Truthfully? I think Elizabeth had a bit of a crush on him as well. Anyway, four years later, Roland had his degree and they came back, Valerie's got R.J. just about walking and she's pushing this double stroller; they had two of the cutest fat little babies, oh! All curly brown hair and fat little faces and fat little bodies and these dimples. I just wanted to squeeze them up they were so cute."

"Kyle and Kylie," Lowell said. "They still look just like their baby pictures."

"I bet," Vixen smiled. "And how's R.J. doing?"

"He uh, he was killed in Iraq," Lowell said.

"Oh! Oh my God, no!" Vixen gasped, hand on her heart.

"I'm so sorry," Passion murmured to Lowell, putting her hand on his thigh. "You want another drink?"

"Still drinking this one," Lowell said, showing her that his glass was more than half full.

"Anyway, where was I?" Vixen asked herself as Passion made herself another drink. "Oh yeah, anyway, Roland and Valerie came back and Reverend Richards hired your dad to be the assistant pastor of Redeemer and he and Valerie moved into the trailer behind the church. Trudy and me? We were there almost every day and it was plain to see, there was trouble in paradise."

"I remember that trailer," Lowell agreed, shifting to give Passion room when she returned.

"I mean, Valerie was just bitching and bitching; of course, that's nothing new," Vixen continued. "I will never understand why your dad didn't go after Veronica; she was a whole lot nicer than Valerie. But your dad was bending over backward to kiss Valerie's ass and the Reverend Richards's ass and was running himself ragged."

The alcohol burned as Lowell sipped it. He could feel a certain fuzziness at the corners of his mind as he sipped his drink. He smiled when Passion again put her hand onto his thigh and her head on his shoulder.

"Anyway. Valerie called me and told me, didn't ask me, just told me to get over to the trailer and watch R.J. and Kyle and Kylie; she needed to get some stuff to do for the church," Vixen said, draining her third drink. "Trudy and me, we went over there; hell, we would have done just about anything to be with Roland."

"Your uh, your mom didn't mind? You being over at my dad's trailer?" Lowell asked.

"What? Why would she mind?" Vixen asked. "After all..."

"Well, I uh, I mean, yeah he's a minister and all, but ministers are people too," Lowell stammered. "You know. They uh, they get tempted just as much as the next guy."

"Anyway," Vixen said, taking a sip of her drink. "We went on over there; Trudy would do just about anything to be with Roland. Me too. Valerie took off and six hours later, Roland came in, his butt dragging. He looked around, then asked us where Valerie was. Of course, we didn't know; we told him she'd gone to get some copies for the church or something."

"Your mom didn't check up on you?" Passion asked.

"She knew right where I and Trudy were," Vixen said. "Anyway, Trudy called her mom, told her mom she's going to fix Roland some supper and then she'll be right home after that."

"She was a great cook," Lowell said sadly. "Lilah? Can burn water, I swear."

"And I called my mom, let her know I was staying the night, you know, to help take care of Kyle and Kylie and R.J. until whenever Valerie decided to show up," Vixen said.

"Momma! How old were you?" Passion asked.

"Me? Just made eighteen, five, no, no, six days before all this took place," Vixen admitted.

"And your mom was just fine with you..." Passion asked.

"Well, yeah, why wouldn't she be? I mean, Roland was my big brother," Vixen said and finished her drink.

"Wait, what?" Lowell asked, sure he had not heard Ms. Vixen's words right.

"Hold up, hold up, you mean, Lowell, we're cousins?" Passion asked, brown eyes wide with shock.

"We're cousins?" Lowell asked, staring at Passion.

"Oh, no, no," Vixen laughed, a giggling laugh.

"Oh!" Passion let out a breath.

"Man! Had me, had us going there for a minute," Lowell agreed.

"Anyway, Trudy fixed dinner, I helped feed R.J. and Kylie and Kyle and Roland had a plate in front of him, but he'd started drinking his Evan Williams pretty much from when we told him we didn't know where Valerie was," Vixen continued her narrative.

"My dad don't drink," Lowell claimed.

"And you just keep believing that," Vixen snorted. "He bought Evan Williams by the half gallon."

Lowell pondered that for a moment. He could vaguely make out a bottle, a large bottle of amber colored liquid underneath the sink in the trailer. He remembered hearing his mother threatening to pour out that bottle.

"Anyway, we got R.J. and Kylie and Kyle fed, got them bathed and got them in bed," Vixen said. "Roland was sitting on the couch and Trudy got on one side of him so I got on the other side of him and we both hugged him and told him it would be all right. Then Trudy kissed him. The little bitch. She kissed him and even put a little tongue into it. Well! She's not going to get away with that! So, I kissed him too, and of course, I gave him some tongue."

"Your own brother?" Passion whispered, all teasing gone.

"Anyway, Trudy started to rub Roland's um, manhood," Vixen continued. "And her mother called, told her to get her butt home; it was late. Kylie had spit up on my blouse so I told Roland to get me a tee shirt or something to sleep in; I was going to take a shower. I still remember that tee shirt; it was one of his Atwell Divinity tee shirts."

Lowell finished his drink, feeling the ball of whiskey in his belly. Passion tried to take the glass from his hand but he shook his head 'no.' Vixen lifted her own glass, then realized it was empty, save for a few cubes of ice.

"You have to remember, I'd been in love with him my whole life," Vixen said, more to herself than to Lowell and Passion. "He handed me that tee shirt and when I slid open the door of the bathroom, Roland offered to scrub my back. We'd been kissing, and hugging and I was pretty turned on."

"I uh, my dad?" Lowell asked.

"Anyway, Valerie? She had pretty big boobs, but because I'm so small? My thirty D boobs looked gigantic. Roland rubbed them and slobbered all over them," Vixen continued, not looking at anything in the room. "That's when I found out I have no gag reflex."

"Mother! TMI there," Passion chided her mother.

"Anyway, I'm pretty sure that's when I got knocked up with you," Vixen said, now focusing on Passion. "Losing my virginity, I'd always heard such horror stories about it, but losing it didn't hurt one bit. And I found out that I really, really like to fuck."

Lowell did not consider himself to be a prude. But to hear a woman using such crude words, especially about herself was pretty shocking. And it was especially shocking because Vixen Trueblue looked so elegant, so refined with her expensive clothing, flattering hairstyle, and perfectly applied makeup.

"Mother!" Passion said.

"Oh, shush," Vixen smirked at her hotly blushing daughter. "Don't try to act like you haven't seen my tapes a thousand times, hmm?"

"Tapes?" Lowell asked before his alcohol slowed brain could tell his alcohol fueled mouth to shut up.

"That's where my name comes from," Vixen smiled a sassy little smile at Lowell. "My real name before I had it legally changed to Vixen Trueblue was Victoria Truesdale. When I went to my mother and told her I was pregnant, she kicked me out of her good, God fearing Christian home. To make matters worse, not that they could get much worse, but to make matters worse, I refused to tell anyone who the father was. You have to remember, I loved your father with all my heart. There was no way I could tell anyone."

"I uh, wait, wait a minute," Lowell said, his alcohol slowed brain beginning to fill in the blank spots.

"Wait a minute, all these years? I been asking you who my daddy is and you been saying..." Passion said.

"We're brother and sister?" Lowell made the connection.

"We're..." Passion asked, eyes and mouth wide in shock.

"So, I told myself, I like to fuck. I'm pretty good at fucking. Where can I go and get paid to fuck?" Vixen said. "Lowell, you about ready for another drink?"

"Think I need one," Lowell admitted, holding out his glass.

"We're, we can't be," Passion whispered, shaking her head in denial.

"I did some research; Falgout Film Studios, right here in Polanski does adult movies," Vixen said, returning with her glass and Lowell's glass.

"Porn," Passion filled in.

"And Brian Sheridan, he's their lawyer, he told me they'll pay me five hundred a shoot. I told him, I'm three months along with that one there. In a couple of weeks, we won't be able to hide the fact that I'm pregnant," Vixen said.

"That one there, huh?" Passion smirked.

"Yes, Miss leave my food wherever I feel like it," Vixen continued. I told him, I'm three months along. In about a month or two, I'll really be showing and there's a buttload of guys like seeing fresh faced, innocent little pregnant teeny-boppers getting fucked. I'm a 'Diamond Member Only' girl; I should get at least two thousand per shoot."

"And you did what? At least twenty, huh?" Passion asked.

"Twenty? Maybe in the first month," Vixen snorted. "The minute their members saw my picture up next to the 'Diamond Members Only' link with my Belly all big, and my boobs, I've always had big boobs, but when they were filled with milk? Their Diamond membership shot up nearly four hundred percent."

Lowell could not help his reaction. He and Passion had been having sex regularly, and had not been using any method of birth control, other than the morning after pill. The thought of Passion's belly becoming swollen with his, their baby, the thought of her already quite substantial breasts becoming even larger, becoming filled with milk caused his cock to swell to full erection.

"They still have my picture up, next to the Diamond Members link," Vixen smiled. "Of course, now instead of being a pregnant teeny-slut, now I'm a MLF slut."

"You mean, you still do it?" Lowell asked, shocked.

"Why not? The money's good, and yes, I still like to fuck," Vixen admitted. "And, what better way can you think of for me to get some dick, without the chance of them becoming all clingy and demanding? Passion, I'm sure you remember that Paul Eckles guy, hmm?"

"Oh yeah," Passion said, rolling her eyes. "But what about Aunt Penny?"

"Oh! Really? You just had to bring her up?" Vixen squealed.

"Aunt Penny?" Lowell asked Passion.

"Mom's um...girlfriend," Passion confided.

"Mom's lawyer," Vixen corrected.

"Don't know a whole bunch of lawyers willing to..." Passion began, but Vixen waved her to silence.

"Anyway. I made a pretty decent chunk of change; certainly made enough to go to Myndee University," Vixen said. "Go Blue Jays! In the meantime, I found out Trudy, she and Roland got married before the ink was even dry on his divorce from Valerie. I wasn't invited to the wedding; after all, I'm the evil whore got herself knocked up out of wedlock. Your Aunt Elizabeth wasn't invited either, so I really didn't feel that left out."

"Aunt Elizabeth?" Passion asked.

"Lowell, you should ask your father if he remembers Elizabeth," Vixen said. "Our big sister?"

"I, he never said anything about..." Lowell admitted.

"Oh, I was pretty sure he wouldn't," Vixen agreed. "She ran off with Daniel Postino when he went off to Hollywood to be an actor."

"Dan...I'm racking my brain but I don't remember any actor named Daniel Postino," Lowell admitted.

"Me neither," Passion said.

"Really? Oh, oh, that's right, that's because Daniel Postino was a terrible actor," Vixen said. "He was very good looking, that's for sure. But dumb as a post. Oh, hey, maybe that's what 'Postino' means in Italian."

"Not on google," Passion announced, looking at her phone.

"Okay, Grandma L. had that wall," Lowell said, having a vague memory of his grandmother's trailer. "And there were all these pictures. But I don't remember there being no pictures of any girls, other than Kylie."

"No surprise that. So, the two evil daughters? We're not invited to the wedding; we don't even exist. Actually, I don't know if anyone even knows where your Aunt Elizabeth is now," Vixen said.

Vixen shook her head. Then she smirked and looked up at Lowell.

"Of course, there was nothing's said about the fact that Trudy was already about three months gone with you. Oh no, that's forgivable, isn't it? She just gave in to temptation, right?" Vixen smirked.

Vixen shrugged and looked at a spot above Lowell's head. Slowly, her eyes returned and looked at Lowell's face. Then she looked at her hands in her lap.

"After she had you, Trudy had what? Two or three miscarriages?" Vixen asked.

"She what?" Lowell asked, surprised.

"Oh, yeah. Forgot. The Roland Truesdale method of dealing with problems. If we don't speak of it, it never happened," Vixen shook her head. "But, then right after Trudy managed to have Mindy, how's she doing anyway?"

"Mindy? Pain in the ass, that's how she's doing," Lowell shrugged. "When I managed to piss my dad off, all Mindy would do is laugh. Which, of course, got my dad even more pissed off. But he can't do anything to her; she's an angel."

"Got any pictures of her?" Vixen asked.

Lowell thumbed through his phone. The only photo he'd saved from before getting the new phone was his graduation picture. He pulled the picture up and got to unsteady feet.

"Here's my graduation picture," Lowell said.

"Oh my God, oh my God, she is the spitting image of Trudy," Vixen gasped, tears springing to her eyes.

"Let me see," Passion demanded when Lowell sat down again.

Passion looked at the cell phone's screen image for a long moment. Somberly, she nodded her head and handed the phone to Lowell.

"She does look like Aunt Trudy," Passion said softly.

"After Mindy, Trudy had another miscarriage and that's when she went to a doctor in Michigan," Vixen said after taking another sip of her drink. "I honestly don't know what the hell was wrong with Dr. OMnisted; seriously? A healthy young woman keeps having miscarriages and you don't take a look?"

A long moment of silence followed. Lowell took another sip of his drink and shuddered as the alcohol burned down into his stomach.

"Doctor in Michigan said there were a bunch of polyps on her uterine walls, found some more in her fallopian tubes," Vixen murmured quietly. "They did the tests and found out they were malignant. Cancer. Roland couldn't deal with it; said it had to be a judgement from God for her sinful ways, for seducing him when he was still married to Valerie."

Lowell remembered the shouting, the declaration that this was a judgement from God. He remembered the anger, the crying, the stony silences. Then his mother was gone and they moved to Stepping Stone, Louisiana.

The minute I found out about her cancer, I called her; she'd gone back to her momma's house and begged her to come live here," Vixen said. "Passion, you remember that? Every Tuesday? We'd get in the car and go up to Salt Lake? To the hospital?"

"Yeah," Passion smiled softly. "I always got a Happy Meal."

"And told all the nurses your ABCs and how high you could count," Vixen smiled softly.

"So, my Mom..." Lowell tried to ask, but the words got stuck in his throat.

"If that fat ass Omnisted had done his God damned job, you'd still have a Momma, and I'd still have my best friend," Vixen said angrily. "But, no, Sweetheart. Trudy, Jesus, it was just too far gone."

Lowell gently put his half full glass onto the small coaster. The silence hung heavily in the room. With a sigh, Vixen got to her feet. She indicated Lowell's glass.

"You finished?" she asked softly.

"I, yes ma'am," Lowell said, moving to hand her the glass.

Passion deftly intercepted the glass and drained it in one long gulp. Vixen shook her head and smirked at her daughter. Then she carried the three glasses toward the kitchen.

"Show Lowell where the two of you will be sleeping tonight," Vixen ordered.

"I, uh, we're still, we're in the same room?" Lowell asked, surprised.

"Of course," Vixen said. "Why not?"

"Uh, I, uh, because we're brother and sister?" Lowell supplied.

"Lowell, did you already forget where she came from?" Vixen laughed.

Lowell didn't say anything, just grabbed the heaviest pieces of their luggage. He followed Passion down a hallway to a doorway to the right.

The room was in an advanced state of disarray. The bed was unmade, the comforter was more on the floor than on the bed. There were piles of clothing strewn about on the bed and on the floor. Passion's condominium was untidy and cluttered much of the time, but this squalor was surprising. What was not surprising was that red was the primary color, everywhere Lowell looked, there was something red.

"Wow, how'd you manage to find that sandwich in here?" Lowell asked.

"Surprising, isn't it?" Vixen asked from the doorway of the room.

"I was in a hurry," Passion weakly offered.