Sarah & Allison Life
Foreword:
The series of 5 stories that begins with 'Life' is a departure. In addition to introducing new characters, the parents are much more involved. I would appreciate any comments you have. My thanks to Lady Shay. She is the creator of Rikki Laveque.
-Donal
Sarah and Allison had made it a habit to devote at least a half-hour to each other when they got home after school, usually starting with a shower. After some time in the shower and a short soak in the Jacuzzi, with some gentle lovemaking, they finished doing each other's hair, dressed, and headed for the kitchen.
What started as a way to show both sets of parents that they were growing up and taking on more responsibility, they now did as a matter of pride. The girls had always helped out as much as they could in getting dinner ready. It may have been something as simple as setting the table. If they didn't know how to cook something, they would watch, learn, and help. They started doing the cooking if they knew how to prepare what was on the menu. When they could, they would shoo the parents out of the kitchen, and cook, set, serve, and wash.
Just after they started, the doorbell rang. Sarah opened the door to find Rikki Laveque standing there. She turned and waved to a car pulling away; Sarah assumed it was her mother. "Hey, Rikki. Glad you could come. Allison is in the kitchen. Follow me."
Rikki was a recent transfer to West Catholic, Allison's school. In just a short time, she had shown herself to be a ferocious defender for the soccer team and it was rumored that she was an outstanding shooting guard in basketball too. "My mom told me to be sure to thank you for inviting me to dinner and she would be back about 9 pm to pick me up."
"Don't think anything about it. Our parents think there's something wrong if we don't invite someone to dinner at least once a week."
Rikki set her bookbag down on the table, "Hello, Allison. Fierce practice today, hunh."
"Hey, yourself. You'd think we were playing for the State Championship tomorrow. Hungry?"
"You bet. How can I help?"
They set Rikki to work on the salad. All three girls worked on their homework as dinner came together; salad, main course, drinks. Sarah and Allison both realized that they needed to learn how to cook well. If they went away to college, a home-cooked meal would be a welcome change from the cafeteria or fast food. And it turned out that they enjoyed the creative process. Involving Rikki let her feel a part of things.
They heard Sarah's mom drive up. Sarah took Rikki with her and met her mom at the door with a hug and a kiss. "Evening, momster. How was your day?"
"Busy, darling. We had appointments all day at the office and I got called to the hospital for an emergency."
"I hope the emergency turned out OK?" Sarah knew that her mom wouldn't discuss the details of her patients and she knew better than to ask.
"For now. Hopefully longer."
"I want you to meet a new friend of Allison's, Rikki Laveque. She's a recent transfer and on the soccer team."
"Welcome, Rikki. I'm glad you could join us."
"Thanks for having me, Dr. Black."
"Go sit down in the living room, Mom. I'll bring the mail and something to drink. Do you want coffee or tea?"
"Coffee, please. Thanks, darling," and turned towards the living room.
Sarah checked with Allison while she poured the coffee, "How long till we eat, sunshine?"
"About a half-hour." Rikki stayed to help Allison while Sarah returned to the living room, set the cup on the table beside her mom, and handed her the mail. She sat on the footstool in front of her mom, drew her feet up, took her shoes off, and started massaging them.
Sarah's dad drove up a few minutes later. Allison, with Rikki, met him at the door with a hug and a kiss on the cheek, "Good evening, Mr. Black. How was your day?"
"Evening, punkin," hugging her back. "Long. I was at the courthouse all day."
"I want to introduce you to Rikki Laveque. She's a recent transfer and on the soccer team with me."
"Welcome, Rikki. How do you like our idyllic slice of the world?"
"Thank you, sir. I like it fine so far. Allison has kind of taken me under her wing."
"That's our Ally."
"Sarah and your wife are in the living room. Dinner will be in about 20 minutes. Would you like tea or coffee to drink?"
"Coffee, please. Thanks, Ally."
"My pleasure." Allison poured a cup and set it down beside Sarah's dad. She sat on the footstool in front of him, pulled up his feet, took off his shoes, and started massaging his feet like Sarah was doing to her mom. Rikki sat on the couch. Sarah's mom passed her dad a few pieces of mail that were addressed to him. After 15 minutes of massage and companionable conversation that included Rikki, she put his shoes back on, "Let's go, sunshine." To Sarah's parents, "Dinner will be in about five minutes, if you want to wash up." Sarah and Allison gathered up Rikki and walked out hand-in-hand.
"We'll be right there, darling."
Dinner was done amidst a continuation of the conversation started in the living room. Sarah and Allison served and accepted the compliments about their improved cooking skills. Rikki was suitably appreciative over the quality of everything. They went over everyone's schedule for the rest of the week and worked out any conflicts, who was cooking, who was shopping, etc. Afterwards, the girls cleaned up and hit the books. Rikki's mom arrived about 9 pm. Allison walked her out and went home herself with a kiss and hug from everyone.
A few days later Sarah and Allison were at Allison's house. After showering and a short make-out session, they started on their homework. Allison's mom was out grocery shopping and was going to cook tonight. When she got back, Sarah and Allison put the groceries away while she started cooking. When Allison was in the other room, Sarah whispered to Allison's mom, "Join us in the living room when you get a moment?"
"Sure, Honey. What's up?"
"I want to finish my hypnosis project with Allison and I promised my mom that I would have one of you in the room with us whenever I did. I want to check her trigger and then I would appreciate it if you would check mine."
"I think I can handle that. I'll be there in a few minutes."
Sarah joined Allison in the living room. She sat astride Allison's lap and began gently kissing her. Sarah heard Allison's mom enter the room. Finishing the kiss, she reached up and caressed the back of Allison's neck, "Quiet beach, darling." Allison closed her eyes and slumped back against the couch cushion. Sarah took a moment to reinforce the trigger before caressing Allison's neck again, "Sleep now, darling."
Sarah felt, rather than heard Allison's mom come up behind her. She felt a hand caress the back of her neck and Allison's mom whisper in her ear, "Forest glade, darling." Sarah ended up with her arms around Allison's neck and her chin nestled against Allison's shoulder. Sarah's mom and she had talked about what Sarah was doing, so Allison's mom knew how to reinforce her trigger. Then she caressed Sarah's neck again, "Sleep now, darling." She left the girls where they were and went back to finish dinner. She woke them when it was time to set the table.
Allison piped up during dinner, "You hypnotized me again, didn't you?"
Sarah looked a little sheepish, "What makes you think that?"
"Well, one moment I was kissing you and the next, Mom was waking us up to set the table. It reminded me of the first time at your house. You did hypnotize me, didn't you?"
"No. Actually you did it to yourself. I just activated your trigger. I wanted to finish my Biology project and had to check it again."
"Did I pass?"
"Both of us did. Now I write up the report and turn it in."
"You promised to let me read the report before you turned it in."
"I remember."
"What's this about hypnosis?" wondered Allison's dad.
"You remember, dear," Allison's mom answered. "I told you about the relaxation exercise Sarah did with Allison."
"I remember that. But Sarah said something about a school project?"
"It started out as a Biology lesson on bio-feedback and the techniques involved. One of the topics we covered was hypnosis. I experimented on myself, for which I was roundly yelled at by my mom," when Sarah saw the look of concern on Allison's dad's face. "I understand that I was very lucky. When Allison had trouble sleeping, I talked to both moms. They agreed that I could try the relaxation exercise. They watched while I worked with Allison."
Allison's mom continued, "Sarah was very good. She put Allison under quickly and tried to resolve things. She implanted a trigger that would allow Allison to sleep. Allison herself, Sarah, her mom, or I could activate it. It seemed to work. Allison started sleeping better, but Sarah didn't know how long the trigger would last."
Sarah took up from there: "I had already talked to my Biology teacher about doing an extra credit report on the initial work I did. I got permission to include Allison if I wanted to. No names would be used and the report would not be for general distribution. I waited to see how long the trigger would last before finishing up. Would you like a demonstration, Mr. White?"
"Yes, I believe I would." When dinner was done and the dishes had been put in to soak, everyone adjourned to the living room.
"Would you like Allison or me to be the subject?"
"Sarah, would you do the honors?"
"No problem. Would you work with me, Mrs. White?"
"It would be my pleasure, honey." Sarah sat on the couch. Allison's mom sat beside her. Allison and her dad pulled up chairs. Reaching up to caress the back of Sarah's neck, Allison's mom whispered, "Forest glade, darling." Sarah appeared to fall bonelessly against the couch cushion. "Sarah, can you hear me?"
Quietly, "Yes."
"Can you describe where you are?"
"I found an opening in a grove of trees while on a walk. The trees were close together and the only way in or out was by the one trail. I can hear the wind rustling through the branches, the birds are singing, and the sun is shining. It was so restful that I remembered it. Sometimes I dreamed about when I was having a bad day." It was obvious from her toneless voice that there was something different about Sarah.
"Sarah, I want you to come back to us now. At the count of three, you will open your eyes, feeling refreshed. You're getting up, one. You're moving towards the opening in the trees, two. You're back on the trail, three."
Sarah's eyes fluttered open. Allison asked, "How're you feeling, munchkin?"
"Fine, sunshine. Let me answer some of your questions, Mr. White. Each of us has a different trigger. If you tried to use Allison's or my trigger, we would ignore you, since you're not one of the people 'authorized' to activate it. If we didn't feel safe, we would ignore even one of the 'authorized' people. If one of the 'authorized' people put us under and instructed us to do something we wouldn't normally do, we would ignore it. Do you have any other questions, Mr. White?"
"Just one. How easy is it to modify the trigger?"
"I can change who is 'authorized' to activate the trigger. I can remove the trigger altogether. I can change the trigger phrase, but it may not work. The decision is up to the three of you."
Allison's mom spoke up, "Alice and I have talked about this and we think it's safe, otherwise we would've had taken the triggers out already. What Sarah did has a safe history. We have an understanding with them that they won't do anything without one of us in the same room. Besides, as Alice said, it gives us a way to get the girls out of our hair if they're being particularly bratty about something."
"Moooooom."
Allison's dad laughed so hard that he was gasping. "I guess we'll leave things as they are for now."
"Thank you for your confidence, Mr. White."
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Copyright 2004 Donal