Henry and Lisa Jenkins looked up upon hearing the front door. He was sitting on the couch reading while his wife was sitting next to him crocheting. The concern upon the faces of their son Harry and his new bride Jenny was more than obvious.
"Where's Janice?" Jenny asked, since she didn't want her younger sister to hear any of their conversation.
"Upstairs at the moment. Is everything all right?" Lisa asked, as the younger couple took seats in the living room.
"Not as bad as I feared, but not as good as I hoped for," was Jenny's cryptic reply as she gathered her thoughts. "First off, Doctor Twist says there's no gender confusion. John knows he's a male and has no problems with that."
The older couple didn't know what to make of that so said nothing as their new daughter-in-law continued.
"The main problems are the number our parents did on all of us kids, coupled with John not knowing who he should be with romantically and sexually," added Jenny.
"I know the boy is uncertain right now whether he's straight, gay, or bi," began Henry. "Then again, what teenager growing up doesn't have questions he or she can't immediately answer when they arise?" to which his son just nodded in agreement. "But how do the two issues together make things worse for John?"
"All the years of our father drumming into us what is morally and religiously right and wrong, whether he was actually correct or not," Jenny answered, while slumping back in the easy chair.
Although nearby, Harry wished he could be physically closer to hold his wife and comfort her.
"So, even though you're all here now and free of them, a part of John is still afraid to go against that even if that's the direction his heart leads him in," realized Henry.
"Yeah. I didn't know this until today, but apparently there was a boy back in Alabama that expressed an interest in John. The most they ever did was talk and share a kiss, but that versus our parents' beliefs..."
"My word. Hasn't that man done enough damage to you kids?" Lisa asked.
"Well..." began Jenny. "I know growing up, I kept hoping to find someone who would sweep me off my feet. A guy who would take me away from my parents and love me like a man should love a woman," she added, while smiling at Harry. "Once we were all old enough to start thinking for ourselves and form our own opinions, we had to hide them from our folks. I know James Junior hid his now fiance from our parents ever since they first met in college because dad wouldn't approve of him even having a passing fancy towards an African American woman."
"Unfortunately, your father isn't the only narrow minded bigot in the world, but go on," urged Henry.
"That in part could explain Janice's until now unknown fixation with mermaids. If dad even knew she watched something he didn't approve of..."
Then Jenny's voice trailed off for a moment as Harry said, "From what I see, she just wanted to get away from the oppression, even if that meant swimming out to sea to some mythical, magical realm and never returning. As long as that didn't mean attempting suicide, I can't blame her," to which his parents nodded in agreement.
"That's why I not only studied my butt off to get a full scholarship, I chose an eligible school as far away from them as I could, and I still had to deal with that Dieter creep," added Jenny. "But I think, or at least hope, Janice meant having a magical means of escape, no matter how impractical that might have been before coming to Moon Lake and discovering her dreams could become reality once she's old enough."*
"And if Moon Lake never entered her life?" asked Henry.
"I don't want to think about that," admitted Jenny, doing her best to suppress a shutter.
"Which raises another question. Does John even want to join were society? Let alone as what?" wondered Lisa.
"Doctor Twist's general belief is weretiger. John is wise enough not to rush into anything unprepared, although the question remains whether it would eventually be at Ginger O'Toole's paw or someone else's," answered Jenny. "Yet some of the nightmares the poor kid's had since he moved here."
"I take it John's outside waiting for Ginger to get home from school for the day?" asked Lisa.
"Yeah. At the very least they're friends, which is good because none of us really had any back in Alabama. Or at least, none we could keep for long while dealing with our parents," admitted Jenny.
Then, before anyone else could speak, the sound of a toilet flushing upstairs was heard.
The quartet waited for a moment and their caution proved wise, for soon even the normal human beings in the room could hear footsteps approaching and coming down the staircase.
"Hey. You're home," said Janice, smiling at her older sister and brother-in-law. "Where's John?"
"Outside," replied Harry.
"Cool. Can I go join him?" she asked.
"For now, but don't forget it's your turn to set the table for supper tonight," advised Lisa.
"Okay. See you later," said Janice, walking out the door (and into her appearance at the tail end of "Can We Talk?").
"So, where do we go from here?" Henry asked, once it was safe to resume talking openly.
"John has another appointment with Doctor Twist next week. If he asks us anything, we answer as openly and as honestly as possible, but in the end John has to make his own decisions," advised Jenny.
"Guess that's all any of us can really do in the long run," realized Lisa, "but from what I've seen, he and Ginger do make a cute couple."
"Mom," cautioned Harry.
"Okay. It was just an observation," replied his mother.
"Now then. There's one more announcement I'd like to make since everyone's here," said Jenny.
Lisa and Henry looked at each other. With their other son Huck recently marrying his long time friend Betty Timid, the couple were privately wondering which pair of newlyweds might make them grandparents first.
Unfortunately Jenny's news was not what they were expecting about expecting.
"I've already done the research into this and starting with the next semester, I'm switching my career aspirations from wanting to be a veterinarian to becoming a therapist like Doctor Twist."
_______________________________________________________________
*Janice Harper is currently 13, with 14 being the minimum age for a naturally born human to join were society.—tmw.