The Kids Grow Up by Trish Hanan (novel24 .TXT) 📖

what kind of store they were in and just played around with the merchandise and laughed at some of the stuff. Jake did keep them out of the bondage area because he didn’t want them to see that stuff and Harry laughed at that.
“They’re not going to know what that stuff is, silly goose,” he told him. Jake rolled his eyes.
“My children are not seeing that stuff and that’s final,” he said firmly and Harry giggled.
They found an interesting game titled ‘What’s your Passion?’ and got copies for all of their friends and one for themselves and then picked out costumes for everyone and little gifts and made up gift bags with scented lotions, candles and toys. On their way home they stopped by everyone’s house and dropped them off. Everyone was surprised to get them and laughed when they opened them.
“Oh, wow, sex stuff, did I complain that much, buddy?” Steve asked when he saw the bag. Harry giggled.
“Let’s just say that poor Jake felt guilty that he’s gotten laid sixteen times to your one,” he explained and Steve whistled.
“Oh, man, sixteen to one, I need to find a way to turn gay,” he declared and Kathleen smacked him. They all laughed.
“You need to be romantic, you lazy bastard. I know Kathleen would feel more sexy if you were romantic. Women need romance, men just need a hard dick,” Harry informed him and Kathleen nodded.
“He’s right, you get hard and then expect me to do something about it, I need more than that,” she told him. Steve nodded and hugged her.
“Okay, darling, I promise, I’ll try to be more romantic,” he gushed and they kissed. Harry winked at her and she grinned.
A few days later he heard from all the girls who said his game and costumes worked like a charm. All of the men were getting more romantic and they were getting laid.
“Harry, you’re a life saver, Charlie actually went down on me for the first time in ages,” April gushed and giggled. Harry laughed and put the four cake pans in the oven.
“See, all you needed was a little spice to pick up your sex life,” he said and they both laughed.
“He still complains about my blow job, how do you manage to get all of it in your mouth, I don’t get it?” she whined. Harry shook his head.
“It’s all in the gag reflex, darling, you have to get a fake one and practice. I guess women have a stronger gag reflex than men because I’ve never had any problems and Jake is way bigger than me,” he bragged and she giggled.
“I heard he’s way bigger than anyone on the planet,” she said and he laughed.
“Well, I haven’t seen everyone on the planet but I wouldn’t be surprised,” he told her and they both laughed.
Once the newness wore off on the games and costumes though the couples went back to their old sex lives and Harry and Jake threw in the towels. If they weren’t going to get with the program, they weren’t going to push and shove them.
“Four kids is no excuse to ignore your mate, that’s just pure laziness,” Harry informed Fran who nodded.
“I agree with you, that’s why Roger, Zach and Wendy have the best marriage, besides you two boys,” she added. Harry grinned. “They have three people so if one of them is tired, then the other two always have someone to make love with and no one gets jealous if the other two are doing it and most of the time that’s how it is.” Harry nodded.
“And if that works for them then that’s how they should do it,” he said.
Harvest came and school was off for the two weeks it took everyone to harvest their vegetables and fruit and process them. All the kids loved picking and rushed to the fields to help and even the little ones were taught the proper way to pick squash. It was fun and they all had a great time. And of course Farm One laughed and teased each other about the three hundred pounds of flour their first year when their twelve hundred pounds came out of the Mill every time. Harry rolled his eyes and wondered how long they were going to keep that tired old joke going.

The following week Lily Thomas called an emergency town meeting and informed everyone that she and Doug had to use an energy crystal from one of their stores for their house and they were out. Everyone was shocked and looked at one another, they just realized that they too were going to be out of energy crystals soon because the standard crystals for the house only lasted five years and every house had come with enough to last ten years and they had been on the planet for a bit longer than ten years. Soon every house was going to be out of energy, where were they going to get more? Max stood up.
“There’s no need to panic, we’ll simply take the ones from the stores and use them for our houses,” he told everyone. Harry wasn’t in the meeting; it was his turn to baby sit but Jake put his hand over his mouth to hide his grin. He looked over at DJ who winked at him. Kate stood up.
“But what will we do in five years when those run out, that’s not a good solution, we need more energy crystals,” she stated the obvious fact. Everyone rolled their eyes.
“Great thinking, Kate; why didn’t we think of that?” Charles asked sarcastically and a few people laughed. She flushed and sat down.
“So what are we going to do?” Cindy asked, her voice rising with panic. Jake stood up.
“Why don’t we ask Harry, I’m sure he’s thought about this,” he suggested and a lot of people nodded. Max rolled his eyes.
“Do we always have to run to Harry when we have a problem,” he sneered. Carl stood up.
“Yes, we do, Harry is our Savior and we need him,” he said firmly. Reverend Milo stood up.
“I agree with you, Carl, Harry saved us aboard the Roosevelt and brought us to this glorious planet and we should all be grateful to him,” he declared and a lot of people nodded. Jan stood up.
“All you people on Farm One have conveniently forgotten that it was Harry who woke up first and saved your ignorant asses and without him we all would have died on the Roosevelt, so, yes, I say we get him in here and ask him if he has a solution to our problem,” she told them. Kate stood up
“Jan, go and get Harry and bring him in here,” she said firmly and Jan walked out. Max stood up.
“Fine, get Harry, but let me say that this is not my idea,” he shouted. Charles stood up.
“Mine either, I thought Max’s idea was a good one,” he stated and Roger laughed.
“Max’s idea sucked like he sucks those big, fat cigars,” he said and everyone laughed.
Jan came back with Harry and when he was told about the problem, he nodded and faced the crowd.
“This is certainly a problem,” he stated. “You know the best time to think about energy would have been when we were back on the Roosevelt and had all those extra house bins. We could have opened them and taken out all we needed for say, the next five hundred years or so until we explored the planet and found a crystal cave. That would have been the smart thing to do. Too bad none of you adults thought about doing that. But then you were all too busy sitting around the Crew’s Lounge pissing and moaning about how you were going to die any minute and you didn’t want to do any hard work.” Kate stood up.
“You know, Henry, we didn’t call you in here for you to give us a lecture, now do you have a solution to the problem or not? You know, you’re going to be in the dark just like the rest of us,” she snapped. Harry shook his head.
“No, I won’t, Mother,” he told her and she and everyone else looked shocked. She stood up again.
“And why is that?” she asked. He grinned.
“Do you remember back on the Roosevelt, it was right after we had gone through the animal chambers and I said I had an important errand and there would be a great reward at the end for everyone who helped?” he asked and a lot of people grinned. Gloria stood up.
“Yeah, I almost helped but you wouldn’t tell me what the reward was,” she said. He grinned.
“Well, the reward was twenty duffel bags of gold and what I did was hire the kids and a few adults who weren’t afraid of a little hard work to take out the crystal boxes in about a thousand bins. I have enough energy crystals to power this community for the next five hundred years,” he informed them and everyone grinned. Max threw up his hands.
“I give up, the little bastard thinks of everything,” he declared and everyone laughed. Harry looked back at Max.
“Now, Max, the question you and your friends on Farm One have to start asking yourselves, will the little fishy fagola freak give us free energy like he gives the rest of the people or is he going to let us live in the dark?” he teased and they all looked embarrassed. Dr. George stood up.
“Now, Harry, Shelley and I don’t call you that,” he said. Harry grinned.
“Don’t worry, Dr. George, I know you two don’t, anyway I was teasing, of course, everyone gets free energy, even if they don’t like me,” he said and everyone laughed. “I’ll run home and bring some crystals for everyone today and whenever someone needs crystals for their houses or their stores they only have to email me and come on over.” Kate stood up.
“You know, Henry, those crystals belong to the whole community, they don’t belong to you, all of the kids helped you get them,” she said and more than a few people nodded. Harry shook his head.
“Nope, I hired them to do a job and I paid them for their work; ask any business man here and he’ll tell you. Ask Charles, he’s a lawyer, those crystals are my personal property and I’m keeping them,” he said firmly. Max sighed.
“He’s right, Kate, even though he paid with other people’s gold, they’re his crystals,” he told her and everyone nodded. She sighed.
“Why are you insisting on keeping them, why can’t you just hand them over to the community and we can store them here. People can just take them when they need them,” she asked and everyone thought that was reasonable. Harry shook his head.
“Because I know how a government works, Mother. Before you know it, Max and Charles and some of you will get together and start charging people for energy like you did back on Memphis saying that the government needs the money for whatever governments need money for. As long as I keep control of the energy the energy will be free and the people will never be charged for it,” he explained and people began to