As Tai Anne Roper motored closer and closer to Santa Cruz on her little red Japanese road rocket, she kept hoping for something to tie her up. A CHiPie roadblock, a multi-vehicle pileup or even a minor earthquake.
No such luck. She was able to cruise the 101 at a steady 90 mph thru mid-morning. Giving her no excuse what-so-ever for not visiting her mother.
The commune of New Lesbos was located on the northern edge of Santa Cruz County, away from the various tourist traps and the UC campus. It was just off the Pacific Coast Highway with a long, rocky beachfront view that led into foothills still lush with California redwoods.
The main house was a lovely old mansion built by a robber baron back in the 1880's. It had somehow fallen into the hands of the notorious Glenna Jane Roper more than twenty years ago and become a commune and safe haven for women of all ages, races and sexual preference.
Tai Anne Roper felt wistful despite herself as she cruised up the gravel driveway. She had grown up here, and despite the problems one faced as the only daughter of 'the' Glenna Jane Roper, this was still home sweet home.
She cut the engine on her Honda and flicked down the kickstand. She got off her bike, stretching and rubbing her sore, leathered butt. She left her helmet on the handlebars and took her gloves off, brushing at the road dust before tucking them under an epaulet of her jacket.
Walking through the lush gardens leading to the front porch, she was still flipping through some childhood memories, which is probably why she never saw the attack until it was too late.
The came at her from three sides at once. One from the rose bushes to the left, another from the shrubbery to the right and the third from the redwood tree behind her. Three busty, beefy looking women wearing cammie colored short shorts and tank tops, with green and black greasepaint dabbled over their legs, arms and faces.
Tai Anne Roper didn't even have time to make a move. Before she could even think she was belly down with her face in the dirt and someone's knee at the back of her neck while someone else sat on her legs and another someone twisted her arms behind her back.
She grunted as she felt the cold steel of a pair of handcuffs ratchet tight once more around her wrists. Shit! Not again! She was then hauled up to her feet to confront her attackers.
"Alright, babe, who are you and who do you work for?" One of the cupcake commandos snarled at her.
"I am Tai Anne Roper," she snarled back. "Daughter of Glenna Jane Roper..."
"Yeah ... right!" another one laughed.
"Goddammit, ask her yourself, bitch!"
"Alright, girls, that's quite enough."
The voice was soft yet strong. A gentle power to be reckoned with. Everybody turned as Glenna Jane Roper approached from the path leading from the forest.
Glenna Jane was tall and a bit broad of beam. An Earth Mother slightly gone to seed. Long curls of salt and pepper hair cascaded past her shoulders to frame a kind and gentle face with piercing grey eyes. She wore one of her usual hand-knitted robes and a pair of Birkenstocks.
"We found her trying to sneak into the main house, Mama Jane!" One of the women said. "She claims to be your daughter."
"Fer chrissakes, Mom, tell your Rambettes who I am," Tai said.
Glenna Jane smiled as she approached Tai.
"I've never seen this girl before in my life," Glenna Jane said.
"MOM!!!" Tai shouted as the women grabbed ahold of her again.
"Better take her down to the infirmary and get her settled in... maximum restraints." Glenna Jane said. "After a few days perhaps she'll be a bit more... forthcoming."
"I think not."
Another voice, this one from the direction of the house. Everyone turned as a beautiful and serene Japanese woman in her forties or so descended the stairs carefully in a blue and white kimono and wooden sandals.
Yoshiko Katushara Roper. Glenna Jane's better half and Tai Anne Roper's other mother.
"Mama-san!" Tai cried.
"Let her go," Yoshiko commanded the women. "She is indeed our daughter."
"Sorry," one of the women muttered to Tai as she dug in her cleavage for the handcuff key.
"I'll take care of that," Glenna Jane said snatching away the handcuff key. Tai ran to Yoshiko with her hands still cuffed behind her and received a hug and kiss.
"Tai-chan! It is soooooo good to see you!" Yoshiko said to her. "Ikaga des ka?"
"Genki-genki," Tai replied. "I thought you were going to be in Tokyo for another month!"
"I got homesick," Yoshiko said simply. "For my wife... and my daughter."
"Mama-san..." Tai kissed her again and enjoyed another warm hug.
"Yeah yeah yeah," Glenna Jane said. "Doesn't this mama get any sugar?"
"You!" Tai growled. "You were gonna let them strait jacket me and lock me up in a padded cell for a few days!"
"Oh, pooh," Glenna Jane laughed. "That was just a little joke. I would've released you in a few hours."
"Then how about getting these things offa me!" Tai waved her cuffed hands from behind her back.
"Of course dear."
"Well, if everybody is settled down now, I must be getting back to a group therapy session," Yoshiko said. Besides her other talents, she was a fully licensed clinical psychiatrist on the boards of several institutes both in the states and Japan. She kissed Tai again. "I know you can't stay long, but do say goodbye before you leave."
"Hai, Mama-san."
She went back into the house, the Rambettes melted back into the scenery, leaving Tai Anne Roper alone with Glenna Jane.
"Walk with me, daughter," Glenna said simply. "We need to have a little chat."
"Aren't you forgetting something?" Tai again waved her cuffed hands as she fell into step with her.
"All in good time."
"Listen, Mom, I don't wanna play anymore of your silly goddamn games..."
"Don't take that tone with me, Tai Anne," Glenna Jane said softly. "You're about 15 seconds away from leg shackles and a ball gag."
"Yes'm," Tai muttered with a sigh. It was best not to fight it when she was in one of her moods.
"That's a lovely outfit you're wearing," Glenna Jane said as she stopped to brush the dirt off Tai's leathers and to pull down her taut sweater over her midriff. "A bit tight tho..."
"Blame Iwana for that," Tai said. "This was a birthday present and everything she gets for me she buys one size too small!"
"And how is Iwana, dear?"
"Fine and dandy. As is every graduate of Mama Jane's House o' Lezzies." Tai looked at her mom. "So what's the dealio with those cammo-clad GI-Janes? Someone been making threats again?"
"Oh... just the usual," Glenna Jane said. "The right to lifers are pissed cuz were letting the local women get abortions up in San Fran where they can't be harassed. And the Christian Righters are still pissed at me because I made Jerry Falwell look like an idiot when I debated him on 'Larry King'."
"I saw that. Good job."
"Thanks."
"And that's it?" Tai asked. "Doesn't sound like enough to make Mama-san cut short her lectures in Tokyo."
"You are good," Glenna Jane allowed. "OK. Three days ago someone took a shot at me from the foothills with a high-powered rifle. We found a few shell casings... that's it."
"No suspects? No nasty notes?"
"Nope. The Sheriff has increased the drive-bys and I managed to keep it out of the press. I also got a few riotgrrls from San Fran for security."
"They're not packing, tho."
"You know how I feel about guns, dear."
"And why didn't you tell me?"
"Because you've made it plain to me that you have your own life in Los Angeles now," Glenna Jane replied. "I didn't want to interfere with that."
Tai rolled her eyes as she pulled at her cuffed hands. Your guilt trip is now boarding at Gate 13...
"Where are we headed anyway?"
"I wanted to show you the new Goddess shrine. We just finished it last week! We can talk there."
"You gonna unhook these cuffs there?"
"Watch it, dear." Glenna Jane said. "You're still not too old for me take you over my knee and give you a good, hard paddywhacking!"
Tai Anne Roper bit her lip and let it pass. The way she had let a lot of things pass in her life. After all, she was a very special girl...
***
You see... twenty years ago, back in the Roarin' Reagan 80's, it was still relatively unheard of for a gay or lesbian couple to have a child. The roadblocks put up by the Moral Morons had made adoption almost impossible. That left biology. The birds and the bees. And only the advances of medical science could make the impossible suddenly very possible.
And so, in the early 80's, Glenna Jane Roper and her wife Yoshiko Katsuhara Roper each donated unfertilized eggs taken from their bodies to a research lab at the University of San Francisco. There, specially chosen sperm donors supplied the necessary building blocks of life and the rest --as they say-- was history.
And nine months later, Tai Anne Roper --who was a woman born of women-- was born.
She made the history books, along with the first test tube baby, the first cloned sheep and that guy who had a monkey's heart transplanted into him.
Now, Tai Anne still didn't know who her real real mother was. By blood, Tai was half Japanese, a quarter Greek and a quarter Italian. Yoshiko was Japanese, and her eggs had been fertilized by donors of Greek/Italian heritage. Glenna Jane was of Greek and Italian ethnicity and her donors had all been Japanese.
Glenna Jane had carried her to term only because she had the pelvic girdle for the job. Tai Anne was raised by both women, and became a living symbol of a loving gay/lesbian family unit.
And like most living symbols, she resented the hell out of it.
***
The shrine was hidden in a stand of redwoods about a half mile from the mansion. Tai pegged the architecture and stonework as East Indian Hindu. They entered a quiet, gentle place, with open windows that allowed gentle breezes. Still, it was dark inside and Tai had to squint to see the Goddess represented by a large statue at the back.
The Goddess had been sculptured from black stone. She was wild-haired and grinning with sharpened teeth as a necklace of human skulls hung around her shoulders. She was naked and had four arms, one holding a sword, another holding a skull and the other two holding out the Hindu symbols for denial of fear and eternal bliss.
"She's so beautiful... and terrible," Tai said.
"Kali... the Mother Goddess," Glenna Jane said. "Not exactly my cup of theology, but a powerful symbol of feminist empowerment to be sure!"
"Consort to Shiva, and Mother of all Destruction." Tai said. "Mirror soul of Durga, the Mother of Creation..."
"Very good, dear."
"The sculpting is exquisite..." Tai squinted at the statue. The black stone was slick with condensation, making it look like sweating skin. It looked too real. "Its not a replica piece, is it?"
"No, it was secretly brought here from Northern India quite recently. The High Priestesses of Kali were worried that Muslim extremists might wish to do harm to their Goddess," Glenna Jane said. "This statue is hundreds of years old, and is the same representation of Kali used by the Thuggie Cults in the 1820's."
"Holy Temple of Doom, Batman!" Tai replied.
Glenna Jane sighed as a cellphone chirped. she pulled one out of her robe and clicked on. "Yes?" She listened. "Very well I'll be right there." She clicked off. "Trouble at the house. You stay put, I'll be right back."
"Hey, what about..." Again Tai waved her cuffed hands.
"Of course." Glenna Jane snatched the cuffs by the chain links and pulled Tai to a sturdy wooden post. A click of a convenient padlock to an even more convenient steel U-joint at waist level and Tai found herself now fastened to the post.
"Mom..."
"Hush, girl. I don't want you running off before we have our little chat." She kissed her. "I shall return."
And then she was gone. Leaving Tai chained to a post in a deserted Temple of Kali.
Well, Tai thought. One just never knows what the day will bring...
She leaned back into the post, thinking how she could really go for a double chili-cheese Fatburger right about now, when she caught a gentle shift of movement out of the corner of her eye.
It had come from the statue of Kali.
Tai Anne Roper felt goosebumps ripple across her arms as her nipples suddenly stood up and saluted the inside of her sweater. She yanked hard at the handcuffs that held her fast to the sturdy wooden post. She took a deep breath to scream her mother's name when a hand suddenly covered her mouth.
"Please... do not fear me." The voice came from behind her. A woman's voice in a gentle whisper. Yet the hand over her mouth was strong. As was the second hand that now slipped under Tai's sweater and cupped her right breast.
Tai's eyes assumed pie-plate dimensions as she tried to look behind the post to see who was there. No luck. She then looked back to the statue of Kali, only to see that it was now gone.
Chapter Four