The parking lot of a biker bar on the state highway

You pull off the state highway on the edge of town, pulling off into the cracked concrete apron in front of a dilapidated cinderblock building that looks like it once was a service station with repair bays. There's even a glassed-in booth with a folding door labeled TELEPHONE under a round blue sign with a white handset symbol. Miraculously, the glass appears unbroken, but there are spray-painted tags over the sides. Under the shade roof where the gas pumps had been, an older woman in a long cotton dress sits on a folding chair next to a red and white ice chest and a portable A-frame sign labeled TAMALES listing fillings and giving prices by the piece, the dozen, and the half-dozen. She looks up as you approach. You smile and nod your head to acknowledge her, but you keep rolling, following Shasta's directions to go round the back to a graveled parking lot. In the low-angle light of the westering sun, you catch the glitter of broken glass scattered amongst the gravel.

Once you're around the corner, Mary's daughter Shasta is unmistakable. With her long blonde hair, wearing the same college sweatshirt as in the picture on Mary's fridge, it couldn't be anyone else. She stands next to the building, partway down from the entry door labeled BAR, staring down at the screen of her mobile phone. When she hears your wheels crunching on the gravel, she lifts her head, waves, tucks away her phone, and walks out to meet you in the middle of the parking lot.

You wonder if she's wearing a pair of Supergirl panties like the ones from her dirties that she'd brought home from college, that you were helping Mary wash at the laundromat. You remember Shasta's scent on the panties and swallow as your mouth waters.

"You are soooo a lifesaver, Ms. Bates," Shasta says as she opens the front passenger door of your car.

"Gloria is fine," you say. "Unless you want me to call you Ms. Forbes."

Shasta laughs. "Haha, okay, thanks. Gloria, Mom's all about Mrs. this and Miss that, except like with Mandy and Taylor at her work." She slides into the front passenger seat, bringing with her the scents of marijuana and beer. She looks back outside and calls out the door, "Sarah, where ARE you?"

"Wait!" a young woman's voice comes the corner of the graveled parking lot. All you can see is a dumpster. A hand pops out from around the back corner and waves before disappearing again.

Is she...? You frown. "Isn't there a women's restroom in the bar?" you ask Shasta.

"Yeah, but it's a pit," Shasta says. "I kinda perched over the toilet seat. Sarah wouldn't even go in."

Perching over the seat seems hardly calculated to make a bad situation any better. Oh well.

In a couple of minutes, Shasta's sister emerges from behind the metal trash bin. Sarah. Her panties were the pastels. You might not have recognized Sarah from her photograph. She's wearing a bulky barn jacket over a lumberjack plaid flannel shirt, button-fly blue jeans and scuffed boots. Her hair is chopped short up top and buzzed to velvet over her ears. She has a glossy paper shopping bag with loop handles that could have come from a lingerie store or boutique. Sarah scans the parking lot. There's nothing going on but you and Shasta waiting for her, a couple of beat-up cars and a line of chrome-and-studded-black-leather motorcycles parked next to the cinderblock building housing the bar. She pauses at the front of the dumpster, lifts up a corner of the lid and drops in a wadded white sheet. She digs out another sheet from a little travel packet, shakes off a few stray drops, and wipes her hands vigorously, disposing of it the same way.

Sarah pauses to look back at the empty fields behind the parking lot. There are few junked cars in various states of crumpled, smashed, burned, and stripped, but Sarah is looking up into the sky. There's a flock of blackbirds wheeling in a great cloud through the air, gleaming in the amber light of the setting sun, twisting and reforming like a wisp of smoke trapped in a vortex.

"Sarah, c'mon!" Shasta calls.

Sarah stares at the wheeling birds for another breath before she turns and trudges across the parking lot.

The door to the bar bangs open, letting out a woman in a leather jacket over a white T-shirt, jeans and motorcycle boots. She waves to Sarah. "Sweetheart, d'you have to go? Night's just getting started!"

"Sorry Janine!" Sarah says. "This is my ride, my mom's waiting."

"All right, honey, you have a good night then," Janine says. "You've got a good seat, girl, come back and ride behind me again sometime."

"Thanks, I loved the ride!" Sarah says. "Bye!"

"Stay safe, girl!" Janine says.

Sarah slides into the back seat. She smells like lemon hand wipes, sunshine, and road dust.

Janine stands outside the bar, watching you. As Sarah gets settled. Janine takes a little black and silver thing like a pack of gum out of her leather jacket, holds it to her mouth for a long moment, lowers her hand, and breathes out a cloud of vapor. As you roll out of the parking lot, she waves goodbye.

You pause the car out front before getting back onto the highway.

"I should wait a little bit," you tell Shasta and Sarah. "The sun's right in my eyes for turning."

That gives you a little chance to catch up.

"How do you know Mom?" Sarah asks.

"I'm a nurse," you tell her. "I met your mother while I was helping take care of your father in the hospital."

By sitting on his face and letting him lick my clit until I came. When Mary worked her magic and I had sex with Mary and her husband and then I ate Nurse June until she came on my tongue and suddenly I was a lesbian and the hospital was a sex candy store and I nearly lost my job and I fell in love with Nurse Julie who broke her arm when she was distracted making out with her nursing intern Cara and her car rolled down a hill but Julie helped me save my job with Maggie the Head of Nursing who is Scots and ALSO a lesbian and at least Vincent is all right with me going girl crazy.

"I'm actually on little a break from work," you add. "Your mother helped me change my perspective on being a floor nurse. I wanted to catch up and give her my thanks."

"Haha, Mom," Shasta says. "Always ready to spread the Good News. Are you gonna start coming to her women's prayer group?"

Women's prayer group. Witnessing in the flesh together. Coming. You feel your face and ears flush warm.

"N-no," you stammer. "Actually we were talking about different departments at my work that might be a better match. Your mother has been very busy, so we've been going around town together doing errands. I'm glad I could help out today. With your washer out of commission, it's a long trip into town for the laundromat."

Washing your panties.

"Yeah, that's Mom all right," Shasta says. "Work, chores, errands, and then it's Sunday."

Sarah laughs. "Like that days of the week poem. 'And that is the story of Solomon Grundy.'"

"So your dad couldn't give you a ride?" you ask.

"Nah, he was busy," Shasta says. "We all went to the mall this morning, he was doing the mall walking thing for exercise and Sarah and I did some window shopping and went to the food court. He had his toolbox, he was gonna go fix up some stuff at Mandy's house. Oil some squeaky hinges, screw down some loose cabinet doors, hammer down some siding, hook up the summer window screens. I tried texting to see if he was done and he could pick us up, but I dunno, he didn't get back to me."

"I told you to try a taxi," Sarah says.

"Ha," Shasta scoffs. "Same price, and a longer wait."

"So you were helping Mom out, that's why you were there when Shasta called?" Sarah asks.

"Yes. After the laundromat your Mom and I went back to your house and I helped your mom put away the laundry."

"Gee, thanks," Sarah says. "I was a little worried when the washer threw a bearing. I was thinking Shasta and I would have to go back to college with sacks of dirty clothes."

"Yes. I'm glad that I could help out," you say.

"Providence provides," Shasta says. "So that's why you were there."

"Yes," you say. "After we put away the laundry, your mom took a shower and just dropped off in a nap. I don't blame her, she'd had a long busy day."

Sarah sniffs loudly from the back seat. "Oh, so that's why I'm smelling Mom's shampoo," she says. "You took a shower with her. Nurses do that all the time, right?"

"Yes," you say.

"Sarah, are you hitting on Gloria?" Shasta says. "That's rude." She looks at you. "Don't mind my sister, she thinks she's a lesbian."

Sarah snorts. "And who's being rude now? Maybe if you'd picked better boyfriends here, some of them could actually show up when they say they're gonna see you. You shoulda gone with my vibrator when I offered."

Shasta scoffs. "Sarah, you're just impossible. Like I said, Gloria, don't...." Her voice trails off. "Uh, Gloria, are you all right? Your face is really pink."

You take a deep breath. "I'm actually fine. Really good, actually," you say. "So with your mom napping, I'm thinking maybe we should pick up some take-out to make dinner easier on her."

"She's probably out for the night, " Shasta says. "But yeah. For dad? Unless he eats at Mandy's."

"Or stays over," Sarah says.

Shasta sniffs and rolls her eyes.

"He does sometimes, you know?" Sarah says. "She was his girlfriend before Mom. Maybe they're still doing it."

"Oh," Shasta says, her voice dropping.

"Yeah," Sarah says. "Anyway."

"Yeah," Shasta says. She sounds intrigued by Sarah's notion. "If that's true, Mom's gotta be OK with it. Do you think?"

"I totally think Mom would," Sarah says.

"Huh," Shasta says. "You're right. She would."

The sun's well out of your eyes. You put the car in gear and signal for a turn.

You're down in town with Mary's college-age daughters Shasta and Sarah.

You have 4 XP, +1 Hard, +1 Hot, +0 Cool, -1 Control, Lesbian, and Truth.

Possible next moves:

• Go out for dinner together and order some extra for take-out. Maybe talk about your choices with the Birthing Center, the hospital outreach clinic bus, or the nursing intern program. Maybe use TRUTH on Sarah and/or Shasta to find out who's making them tingly. Roll +COOL(0) for either of them, or +COOL(-1) for both of them at once.
• Sarah suggests that you and Shasta go to The Crater, the lesbian bar near the local college, and have some fun. Sarah might be able to entice Shasta by pointing out Shasta's out of weed and she can likely get more there. Various possibilities, including Sarah or Shasta hooking up with one of the patrons or the bartender. It's early enough that things might be quiet. Or this could follow dinner and dancing would be more likely.
• Drive around a little and contribute to Sarah and Shasta's talk about sex and boyfriends / girlfriends. Roll +HOT(+1) (+1 Hot, +1 Lesbian, -1 two girls) to TELL THEM to have sex with you. Perhaps Sarah encourages you to give her sister a lesbian mercy fuck. Perhaps you stop in the same road shoulder where Julie and Cara were making out, and you tell your own story about the new life their mother opened up for you.