Teela was wrong! "Poppa!" she yelped in surprise as her father snatched open the door before she could get to it.
"So," Frank Pendergast asked his daughter sardonically, "How was he?"
"Wh-what?" Teela’s eyes grew round.
"You think I’m a fool?" Poppa replied. "You sit sucking face with him two doors down and then come tripping up here in your own little world, and I’m not supposed to figure out you’ve got a boyfriend? If you pull off them shorts, will cum run down your leg — or did you wipe up good, wherever it was you got fucked?"
"I—I…" Teela stammered.
"Your momma was only happy like that just after somebody stuck a dick in her — and you’re a chip off the old block!" Frank growled. He shook his head, remembering. "As time went on, more often than not it wasn’t mine!"
"Poppa, that’s ghastly!" Teela shrieked! "Don’t talk about Momma like that!"
"Time you learned the truth," Frank growled. "Maybe even too late, for that matter! Get in here — the neighbors probably know already, but some of 'em might’ve forgotten…"
"Poppa, these things you’re saying — horrible!" Teela exclaimed, pain evident on her face.
"Nah," Frank grunted. "Just the truth. Your Momma spent more time with her panties around her ankles than with 'em where they belonged — and if I wasn’t around when she got the urge, the little slut would pick men up off the street! She was thrilled to death when you finally went off to school, because if gave her several hours a day of peace and quiet in which to hunt down new dick…"
"Poppa, I never noticed any such thing…"
"How many uncles you think you got, Honey? Two? Six? Fourteen? I ain’t GOT no brothers…" Poppa replied blandly.
Teela froze. There had always been an Uncle So-and-so around the house when she was a little girl — and they’d been all shapes and sizes and every color of the rainbow … She’d spent a lot of time playing in the back yard as a tot, under the eye of one of them or another — or no eyes at all for that matter. Momma didn’t exactly lock her out, but there were places in the house she couldn’t go — ever — and Momma’s room was one of them. There were Aunties, too; sometimes they’d arrive as a couple — Uncle So-and-so and Aunt Such-and-such — and Auntie would watch her while Uncle and Momma went off somewhere … Or (usually) the babysitter would watch her — Momma always seemed to have money for the babysitter… "All those men…"
"Sit down before you fall down, Honey!" Poppa looked rueful, but seemed almost merry. "I got a few things to get off my chest, now that you’ve moved on to the next plane. You HAVE, haven’t you?"
Teela dropped her eyes, "Yes."
"I figured it wouldn’t take long, once you got past this thing you have for throwing rocks at boys. When did that happen?" Frank asked his daughter.
"Well, it didn’t, really, Poppa — this guy just ducks really well…" Teela answered slowly.
Frank snickered. "Unique abilities, huh? I hope wearin' horns is one of 'em…"
"Poppa!"
"Yeah, well, maybe it’ll be different with you — Christ, it took ya forever to get your legs under ya…" Frank mused for a moment. "Your mother was a wonderful woman — but she had her issues. Mood swings, mainly — I dunno if she was bipolar, or just subject to depression. The first year we were together, she damn near killed me — wanted sex three-four times a day! And if she didn’t get it, then she worried about things — or just plain got crabbier and crabbier until she got some. She’d start something and we’d fight like cats and dogs — then have incredible make-up sex…" Frank chuckled. "Then she came up pregnant with you — and that was probably the happiest time of BOTH our lives! She spent the whole nine months sunny…" Frank shook his head at the memory. "When you was born, though, I spent three months bein' your momma while she took pills and went to shrinks — post-partum depression. That’s why you was it — your momma went out and had her tubes tied — and I agreed with it — but it started other shit…"
"Like what?" Teela had heard some of this before — but usually with a different spin, or coming from a different direction. Some of it — the sex-related part — Poppa had never come out with … In fact, sex was a subject that Poppa avoided studiously — his idea of discussing puberty was, "Did they tell ya about periods in health class? You’re gonna need to get some of them plug things…" when she was twelve. When she was thirteen and clearly ovulating, he took her to the doctor for her annual exam — but it was the doctor who broke it to her that her father wanted her on birth control. When she braced him about it later, he said, "Someday you’ll wake up and boys will be important — but you probably don’t wanna have to keep the first one you fuck…" Shocked at the word, she’d exclaimed at his rude language — and that had ended the conversation.
"Well, your momma wasn’t one, by temperament," Frank grunted. "She figured that out pretty quick — and she blamed me for ya, somehow. Oh, she loved ya, and all that — but you was a lot more trouble than she really wanted to put up with. And I had to work, and when I got home, she’d hand you off to me, so I got tired and wasn’t keeping up…" He grimaced. "It started out with her hiring the neighbor lady to watch ya — but that cost money, even though it improved things for everybody — and we didn’t have it. Somewhere in there, they started — lookit, how much about sex DO you know?"
"First hand? Not much," Teela grinned ruefully. "But I’ve probably heard it all at school…"
"Awright. If you don’t understand something, I’ll try to break it down for ya," Frank grunted. "Somewhere in there, they started suckin' each other’s pussies. That eased things for a bit, then the husband got into the act, somewhere — and THAT was okay, until the woman got bitchy about it and all Hell broke loose…" He shook his head. "I found out just as shit was crashin' and burnin' — your momma owned up to her piece and I forgave her, but the neighbors divorced and moved away." Frank sighed. "It was the start of something, though — Janice realized that she could get dick elsewhere, and that all she needed was somebody to keep you out of trouble and she was good to go." He rubbed his face. "Dunno if I oughta go on…"
Teela sighed. "Go ahead, Poppa. Momma isn’t here to defend herself, but I’ll listen."
"Yeah, I know — sounds like bullshit, but … Your momma took to something that was almost hookin' — she hooked up with a couple of women for babysitting, and then she’d go out and hunt down some feller and fuck him as long as he’d pay the babysitter to watch ya. When he got cheap or started gettin' ideas, she’d dump him and move on … She was suckin' pussy with some of your aunties, but not all — and things got slowly wilder and wilder." He sighed. "I put up with it, for two reasons — it worked — she was happy and I never went without, even if she was runnin' two at once, like she was at the end — and it took the load off me; she would have whoever the current babysitter was hang out in the evening and let me rest, which helped OUR sex life…" He rubbed his face. "She loved me — that was never in doubt. When one of your uncles would start gettin' serious, she’d drop him like a rock — it was her way of bein' faithful. But she got jaded — one dick at a time wasn’t enough, and she tried this and that and more and…" He eyed his daughter sadly. "We had a fight, that day, and I told her she was gonna have to chop it all back, or else. We didn’t make up — she went off in that car of hers, mad as a wet hen…"