Phillip Milner: Her mother_s lover

"Well, sleepy head," her mother greeted her as they were having their coffee. "I was just coming in to wake you up," Minna said. "We're going to have to have a long talk about what comes next for you… but have your coffee first, darling," she laughed. "Time enough later for the serious things."

As Charisse saw her parents, dressed and talking like parents and not like a couple of sex-crazed hippies, she wondered if they could be the same two people she saw disporting themselves so flagrantly last night. Well, if they could be so nonchalant about everything, why then so could she.

"How many people were at the party last night, Mother?" she asked.

Minna, a bit taken aback by Charisse's question, answered, "Oh, there were only around seven or eight, but I guess they really must have sounded like seventy with all the noise they were making…"

"You're right, and they all seemed to be parked right outside my door," Charisse commented.

"They must have kept you up then…?" Charles Mantell half-questioned his daughter.

"As a matter of fact, I was all excited about being home and just couldn't fall asleep all night. I think I just dozed off for a few hours at dawn," Charisse told her father.

She noticed that her mother and father exchanged quick glances and then looked away. They still thought of her as a child, and if she was up, she could see the question in their eyes, "Had Charisse seen or noticed anything of their hi-jinx in the bedrooms?"

"Was that Jack Lennard at the party?" Charisse asked sweetly. "I hate that phony!"

"What makes you come out with a crack like that about one of your father's business associates?" her mother said. "Why, Uncle Jack has always thought the world of you! What brings this on?"

"Well, to tell you the truth, that old goat is always trying to feel me up whenever he's around here… I just hope he doesn't find me alone in the house sometimes," Charisse answered.

"Now really, Charisse," her father chimed in, "I think we can trust Uncle Jack with anything…"

"Anything? Really?" Charisse questioned with a hint of mocking in her voice. She only wished her father had once seen "Uncle Jack" feeling her asscheeks and then starting for her titties…

Minna looked at her wonderingly. This way of talking was unusual for Charisse. She generally acted like a good, docile child – but noting her swelling breasts and curved hips, Minna Mantell suddenly realized that her daughter had matured. She was a lovely, sexually desirable young woman now, completely mature physically, even though she was still a schoolgirl.

Minna kept looking at her daughter's lush body and then blushed, embarrassed by the thought of "Mr. Dildo" and how he would look moving between Charisse's white thighs… She would really have to keep Mr. Dildo out of her mind, even though that was a wonderful session last night with Cora.

"Well, was Mr. Lennard at the party?" Charisse persisted in questioning her parents.

"He was one of our guests," her father replied.

"I did hear some people last night," Charisse said, "and I thought that braying laugh of his woke me up. I didn't get back to sleep again for quite awhile…"

Charisse knew that the thought that she was floating around during the revels of the previous evening were making both her parents quite uncomfortable, and took a sadistic pleasure in baiting them. After all, they were both guilty of immoral acts in their own way – and what she had seen them do had gotten her so stirred up that she had to masturbate twice!

"Little pitchers shouldn't have big ears," her mother said trying to gloss over last night.

"Don't talk to me as if I were a twelve-year-old, Mother! I'm a grown-up girl and maybe I understand a lot more than you think I do," Charisse hinted. "I think your 'Uncle Jack' and that blonde would-be TV actress, Sheila, are having an affair!"

"Why, whatever makes you think such thoughts?" her mother asked, trying to keep her poise.

"Well, some of the noises I heard last night sure sounded as if certain people were balling it up!"

"Are you sure you know the meaning of that phrase, Charisse?" her father asked uncomfortably.

"I certainly do, Dad," she said pointedly. "Even the comic books these days are really very outspoken. You should take some time out from producing your TV shows and look them over. They might give you some good ideas for a new show."

"Now, I think that's quite enough on that subject," her father said uncertainly.

But Charisse, sensing she was pricking their weak spots, kept right on. "That Sheila, the one who wants to be a TV star, she really is a big mouth. I think she made more noise than anyone else at the party. If she ever gets on a TV show, she won't need a microphone!"

"Well, just what did you hear?" her mother asked.

"Oh, it really just adds up to a lot of interesting background noises in the bedrooms. Maybe it's just a little schoolgirl's imagination," Charisse said sarcastically, "but Dad would sure have a hit show if he could put them on the air!"

Charisse looked at both her parents and could see that this last remark of hers had really rattled them. She was glad. They both deserved to be blasted out of their smugness in believing her just a simple little girl.

"Well, lots of things happen at parties that people regret the morning after. Not everybody can hold their liquor – and grown-ups letting their hair down is a subject you have lots of time to learn about," her father said, trying to close the matter of what had been going on at the party.

Charisse now felt that both her parents were quite uncomfortable. They both looked uneasily at each other and at their daughter, wondering if she had seen any of their guilty behavior.

"Even though she's kind of loud, I think this girl, Sheila, has got something on the ball. Like a very good figure – why don't you audition her, Dad. Her body would certainly register, even if her acting didn't!"

"Let your father make his own business decisions!" Minna said sharply to her daughter. "He's got enough trouble making up his mind about anything as it is."

"Now that you mention it, Sheila is a most attractive girl and I might give her a break at that!" her father said.

Charisse couldn't resist saying, "Oh, I thought you already gave Sheila an audition, Dad."

She knew that what she was saying was bothering her parents. She had thought things out about her mother and Cora, and knew there probably was a good reason for their affair. Emotionally, she felt her wonderful, wise, strong mother could do no wrong. But her weakling father was another story. What right did he have to lay this girl Sheila right in his own apartment, with his wife and daughter present? It was in line with what she had always thought of his wishy-washy character – now she knew he was thoroughly immoral as well.

"You're talking a little too much about things that really don't matter, Charisse," her mother said. "I think you're still over-excited by having left school, so why don't you lie down and listen to some records in your room, and just rest? You're father's going to the station and I have a rehearsal, so we'll both be gone most of the day. Relax, dear," she concluded.

Charisse took her mother's advise, went to her bedroom which overlooked the park and lay on the bed listening to her record-player. Naturally, she played a Minna Mantell album.

She must have dozed off for a few minutes when she was startled by the bedroom door opening abruptly. There was a hissing noise as the well-knit, compact body of their Japanese butler, Taka Hachiburo, bowed in apology for having disturbed her.

"I beg Miss Charisse's pardon," Taka said in his excellent English, "but I did not know you were at home and your mother told me to clean all windows in every room today."