Introduction:

Karen Markley is an orphan. Her parents were killed by a drunk driver when she was an undergraduate student at the University of California at San Louis Obispo. For years she has been haunted by an inferiority complex that is really unwarranted. She is short, a bit broad in the beam, and not too well endowed; however, she is very intelligent and really quite attractive in a cute sort of way. She has the misfortune (good fortune actually) to fall in love with Patrick Esterházy, the youngest son of Sylvia and Phillip Esterházy, prominent professors at Humboldt State University in northern California. He falls in love with her, but he is a bit slow in the romance department, and is lured away by an avaricious, would be actress. Karen is deeply hurt and retreats into her shell.

Fortunately love comes to he surface and gives Karen a figurative kick in the pants. She decides to give it one more chance and in the process meets the Esterhazy and O’Donnell clan. She meets Pat’s older brother and sisters and their beloveds and children. She learns much about a remarkable family and how love has pulled them together. The love and acceptance she receives gives her the courage to go after Pat and convince him of her love for him.

To tell the stories of each of the brothers and sisters requires a number of flashbacks. I will try to identify each change in time so that you don’t get hopelessly lost.

There are references to characters in previous novels, and I would strongly recommend that you read them if you haven’t already done so. Musetta Gigliotti O’Donnell is mentioned and referred to several times. Although she has been deceased for many years before this story begins, her influence is very strong. ‘Musetta’s Waltz’ is not very long and will give some important background. Musetta is a wonderful transgendered woman who overcomes extreme adversity.

This story is the fifth in the series and to date, the entire series covers nearly 100 years and five generations. The first story is “The Heart of the Beholder” and deals with the early life of Mike and Jo O’Donnell. “The Narragansett Fork” is about Fanny, the O’Donnell’s adopted daughter and a rather remarkable individual. It is in this book that we first meet Musetta. “Musetta’s Waltz” is her autobiography and the third book in the series. “Who Is Sylvia” is the story about Sylvia O’Donnell and how Phil Esterházy wins her. That brings us to the current story, which takes place 37 years or so after the end of the previous story.

Being transgendered or intersexed is not the main theme of this story. This is a story about a rather large family where two people happened to be intersexed and another, now deceased, was transgendered. This is a story about how people find love, over and above everything else.

There is a little mystery that shouldn’t be too hard to figure out. The clues are there. There are 34 chapters plus a prologue and epilogue. The story is complete. I am not sure how it will be posted. Regardless of the voting and comments, or lack there of, I will post it until completion. I’ll try not to let hurt feelings get in the way.

My thanks must go to Holly H. Hart for taking time from her harried life to correct the multitude of errors made while creating this story.

This work is copyrighted by the author and any publication or distribution without the written consent of the author is strictly prohibited. This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance of the characters to persons living or dead is coincidental.

Prologue

Minsk, Belarus, 2054 AD

The fog was heavy at times and the below freezing temperatures didn’t help. They had almost lost it once when they hit some black ice on a bridge just north of the Ukraine border. It had been necessary to stay off the main roads as much as possible because of what they were carrying.

Boris had told them where to cross and what to say; however, the guards at the border didn’t seem to be interested and just waved them through: so far so good. They were going to be paid a lot of money for their cargo, and as soon as they were paid, they could move to Libya and never have to be bothered with this shitty weather again.

The non-descript van entered the south side of Minsk on the R-23 highway. It passed under the M-9 loop and continued north along the west side of the Minsk-1 Airport. At the west end of the Airport the van turned south into a mixed industrial area just east of the main railroad yard, pulled into a yard filled with containers, and stopped at a prescribed location near a large loading dock. The driver turned off the lights, and they waited.

Dmitri Lysenko lit a cigarette and passed it to his companion. He lit another for himself.

“Where are those bastards? They should have been waiting for us.”

“Dmitri, you know how they do things,” his companion chided. “They are probably watching to make sure we are not being followed.”

A few minutes later they noted a vehicle starting up at the far end of the yard. It had been there all along. It approached with the headlights off and pulled up beside them. There were three passengers plus the driver. Dmitri recognized the driver, but he wasn’t sure about the other three.

“Dmitri, you and your friend need to get out so we can check the merchandise. There are ten packages, right?”

They did as ordered. “Yes, there are ten as we told you. It was easy and we had no problems at the border.”

“Boris,” said the one inspecting the van, “All is in order. We need to get moving.”

“Shall we follow you Boris?”

“No, that won’t be necessary.”

Iryna, Dmitri’s companion gave a short gasp; however, that was all she had time for. The silenced weapons spit their pellets of death.

Boris’s henchmen dragged the bodies to a conveyor and placed them on the belt. One of them operated a couple switches and the conveyor came to life. It took less than a minute to dump the bodies in a waiting gondola car and cover them with a few feet of sugar beets.

Two of the men took the van and followed the car into the night.

Chapter 1 – Karen

Humboldt County, California – 2076 AD

She stopped her car and sat there a moment taking in the sight in front of her. It had to be the house. Everything was the way he had described it: the shake roof, the solar panels, batten and board siding, the extended wing. Several vehicles were parked in the beautifully landscaped parking area, and as she listened out her open window she could hear the joyful sounds of children playing. It sounded like some were in the small ravine to the east and others were obviously in the yard area behind the house.

“Well, nothing ventured, nothing gained,” she said to herself as she slid off the seat and stepped onto the open block, paved area. It was warmer back in the valley away from the cold Pacific Ocean and there was an oscillating sprinkler making its rapid chuh-chuh-chuh chant as it sprayed water over a beautiful native plant garden. She dodged the spray, stepped up the rock steps, then up the heavy plank steps to the screened-in porch. The wide front door had a huge iron knocker, and as she lifted it she almost panicked and turned to flee. She could hear many voices over the beautiful music playing in the background. The happiness of the crowd inside and out gave her courage and she let the heavy ring drop – once, twice, three times.

After a brief pause in the conversation she could hear someone stepping to the door. Karen looked up as the door swung open. It was something she did almost habitually as her five-foot-three inch frame was a bit below average. The image she was presented with still made her crane her neck a bit. The woman who opened the door towered over Karen. She was carrying a small child, and she was absolutely beautiful.

“May we help you?” Her voice was also beautiful.

“Hi, I’m Karen Markley and I’m looking for Patrick Esterházy. I hope I’m at the right place.”

“Well, you are at the right place, sort of; however, Pat isn’t here. He took off about a week ago on one of his crazy adventures. Come on in. I’m Demeter, his big sister. This little curtain climber is Andres.” She took Karen’s hand and led her indoors. “Mom, Dad we have a visitor.”

Karen looked around the spacious room. She had met Patrick’s parents at Cal Poly the year before and again at graduation, and could see them working on some culinary project in the kitchen that was in an elevated area beyond the large family room. She gave a little wave and was pleased to see Patrick’s mother’s smile of recognition and wave back.

“Okay everyone, this is Karen Markley. I’ll start with that big handsome Italian. He’s Arturo and he’s mine, so keep your hands away. Next to him is my sister Persephone and that’s her daughter Penny. She and Clara also have a son Michael and Clara’s outside watching him and a bunch of the other kids. You’ll meet all of them soon enough. There won’t be a test: at least not yet. That other handsome hunk is my oldest brother, Joseph and that cute little thing with the boobs is Amelia.”

“Demi!” said the cute little brunet who definitely had boobs.

“Oh cut it out, Amy. You know that’s why Joe married you. You shoved those things at him and he was a lost cause.”

“That’s ridiculous. I loved him and he loved me before I ever had these things. I can’t help having them. I inherited them from my mother.”

“Karen, some of those noise makers outside belong to them. I imagine their daughters will be spectacularly endowed, too.”

“Demi, your boobs are just as big as mine.”

“True, but I’m almost a foot taller than you.”

Karen did feel dwarfed as she looked around. With the exception of Amy and the children, everyone there towered over her. Every one of them, including the women, were well over six feet tall.

Pat’s parents came down from the elevated kitchen area and greeted Karen as if she were a long lost relative. They seemed rather pleased to see her. She realized then that Pat’s father was the shortest male member of the family and was probably about two inches shorter than six feet. She didn’t consciously think about it, but being shorter than average bothered her. She felt it put her at a social disadvantage.

“I’m sorry, Pat’s not here. He took off last week to do some field work on Lupine distribution in the upper Kern River basin. Actually, I think it’s just an excuse to go fishing,” said his mother. “So what brings you to this isolated place?”

“I don’t know.” That wasn’t true at all. “I was going to meet some friends up in Olympic National Park and take a back pack trip. I remembered Pat said he wanted to go there and I thought I would check and see if he wanted to come along. It just hit me as I was passing Humboldt, and I thought what the heck. So I turned off 101, and here I am.” This was mostly a fabrication but she didn’t want anyone to know her true motive.

“When do you have to be at Olympic National Park?”

“Well, it wasn’t real definite, probably next Thursday.”

“Why don’t you spend the night here? We have plenty of room. Joseph and Amy live in Eureka, and Helen and Jimmy won’t be here until tomorrow, and you need to meet them, anyway. Ever since Mom and Dad died we have been trying to get together for extended visits. We realized we’re spread out all over the world, and my generation and the next generation just don’t get to see each other often enough. My oldest sister and her husband will be coming the day after tomorrow. Her children and grandchildren are long grown so I don’t imagine we’ll be seeing them or the great-grandchildren. But, we never know.”

“I don’t think I should do that, Dr. Esterházy. You have so much going on and I’ll just be in the way.”

“Ridiculous! We always over-plan for these things. Besides, if you want to run Pat down, you have to know where he is.”

“What,” protested Karen, “I don’t…?”

“Poppycock, I saw how you looked at him that day we met and at graduation. I also saw how he looked at you. Pat can be a bit reclusive at times and he probably needs some encouragement. I had that problem for a while. Ask Phil.”

“Phil, how long did it take you to run me down?”

“Too damn long: I guess it was about six years. Although once you realized you were in love with me, you were putty in my hands. Did I ever tell you I loved you?”

“Yeah, and the first time you did almost destroyed me. I was so-o-o stupid.”

“Karen, come back to the office with me. I want to show you something. You’ll have plenty of time to talk with everyone later.”
Somewhat mystified, Karen followed the tall woman back through the kitchen to an office that was to one side. There was hardly room for the two desks amid the books and filing cabinets. After a second or two she realized the room was much bigger than she first thought. It was just full of nearly forty years of accumulated literature and memorabilia. Sylvia sat at a desk and motioned for Karen to sit next to her on what appeared to be a polished stump of some variety of wood.

“We need to get a few things straight. First of all, I am Sylvia and Phil is Phil. That might change later. There will be none of this ‘Doctor’ stuff. I told you about that before. So, are you going to go on with your education or have you had enough?”

“I’m burned out and I accepted a teaching job in Sacramento. I’m going to be teaching some science courses in high school.”

“Does Sacramento have anything to do with the fact that Patrick is going to be doing his doctoral studies at Davis?”

“I’m sorry. Does it look like I’m stalking him?” She paused for a couple of seconds before starting again. “I guess I wanted to give it one more chance. I thought we might have had something going. We went on a few dates, really innocuous affairs and just when I thought we were ready to take the next step, something happened. It was about the time I met you and Phil that he suddenly started backing off. I knew there was somebody else. He never seemed to be wanting as far as female admirers were. There was a Miss California contestant who was after him. She wasn’t any bimbo to be sure and she seemed to be around him a lot, especially when he started pulling away. I think he was interested in her for a while. But after a few weeks they didn’t seem to be around each other much: at least not during the day.

“I’ll be honest. I didn’t like her at all. I knew her years before Pat met her and I didn’t think she was a very nice person. Still, something must have happened. Pat was friendly when I saw him, but he stopped asking me out. After Brenda moved on, he didn’t seem to be going with anyone and I thought he might have had a girlfriend from somewhere else.

“After a while I began to think it was me and after seeing this crowd, I’m beginning to see why. No wonder he isn’t interested. I’m short, don’t have blond hair or blue eyes and I certainly got shortchanged a bit in the boob department. I’m just not enough of a woman for him.”

“I don’t think Pat is that shallow and if you do, then he is probably not the man for you.” There was a darker tone to Sylvia’s voice.

“I don’t think Pat is shallow at all. That’s why I like him so much. It’s just that I’ve always had to physically look up to people. I’m not very attractive. I’ve got a big ass and no tits. Pat’s the first guy who ever asked me out more than once and I thought maybe he was looking beyond all that. We did some projects together, and he was a lot of fun to be with. I really thought he was interested in me, and then it all went away.”

By now Karen was starting to cry, and Sylvia slipped out of her chair to her knees and enfolded Karen in her soft breasts.

“Believe me when I say that being more than six feet tall and a blue eyed blonde is not what it’s cut up to be. Being like I am caused nothing but problems for me. Fortunately, Phil saw past all that. I learned a lot about life and love, and found out that unless love goes past the surface it isn’t worth shit. My children, especially my girls, benefited from my experiences, and their lives have been a lot easier than mine was in the relationship department.

“You haven’t met Clara, yet, have you?” Sylvia said as she dabbed Karen’s eyes with a tissue.

“Uh, no I haven’t. She’s with Persephone, right?”

“Actually, they are married to each other, and have been for a long time. I’m so glad this state finally had enough sense to fix that problem. They are so happy together. I know they will tell you their story.

“I didn’t intend for this conversation to get this deep, at least not at this time. I wanted to show you something on the computer.” Sylvia pressed a few keys on the virtual keyboard, and a map of Sequoia-Kings Canyon National Park sprang into view. A few more key touches and some red dots appeared.

“Pat’s very good about letting us know where he is. It’s not that we’re that worried about him. It’s just that he’s off the beaten path, and if something does happen to him we’ll know where he is. He uses a GPS to plot the positions of the Lupine populations he’s studying and sends the data to our server. He can also make notes of his observations and take pictures. It goes through the satellite phone system. He has a solar charging system that weighs only a few ounces so he doesn’t have to worry about batteries.

“Here’s where he started out in Mineral King. Here’s his first batch of data from the headwaters of the Little Kern on the other side of Farewell Gap. You can see what he’s doing. He’s going up the Great Western Divide. I can see his pattern. You should be able to meet him Saturday in the Kern-Kaweah basin. He’ll probably overnight above this lake. It’s a favorite spot of his, and it’s very isolated.”

“I guess I’m pretty transparent aren’t I?”

“A mother knows these things. I don’t think he would be too upset if you showed up. You were planning on taking a back pack trip weren’t you? Are you familiar with that area?”

“I’ve never been there. Most of my hiking has been north of Yosemite.”

“Not a problem: I’ll print a map for you. Do you have GPS on your phone? We can probably install your route in that, too.

“Now, let’s fix our makeup and take a deep breath. You didn’t come up here to cry, and I’m sorry I did that to you. Don’t dwell on how you look. You can’t do a whole lot about it, and I’ll bet no one really cares. Besides, you’re very pretty. We’ll send the kids out for your things, and you can have Pat’s room.”

They could hear a commotion coming from the front of the house. A number of the sources of the noise from the outside had descended on the adults in the family room. It was getting late in the afternoon, and some of the children were clamoring for a snack. A boy of about three was with a woman who Karen had not yet met. Karen looked at her closely as there was something very familiar about her. She was sure she had met her somewhere before. She was about Karen’s stature and coloring, and was maybe seven to ten years older. She was also pregnant.

“Clara, this is Karen. She’s a friend of Patrick. She came up here to invite him on a pack trip, and I have invited her to stay a few days until she can go meet him in the Sierras.”

Clara embraced Karen very warmly and looked at her closely. There was a little question in her furrowed brow, and then she seemed to put it aside.

There were too many children; it wasn’t that Karen didn’t like children; the problem was she couldn’t remember their names. Karen had been an only child, and her parents had been very protective of her. There weren’t many children her age in the neighborhood where she lived during her grade school years, and those she did come in contact with at school could tend to be cruel and exclusionary.

Karen’s Early Years

Throughout her early years, right up through puberty, she was short, plump and, in her mind, rather plain looking. Her shyness didn’t help, and she fell back into academics. She didn’t have to study very hard, and when the homework was done, she read. She read everything she could get her hands on. She read many of the stories and novels pointed at young teens, and soon found them to be unfulfilling and rather trite. She started looking for nonfiction works, and found many accounts of the early explorers of the west. She found the account of William Manley and his party’s misadventures in what became known as Death Valley. She absorbed the volumes written by John Muir about his explorations of the Sierra Nevada. She thought the accounts of General John C. Fremont and his atrocities committed in early California were fascinating.

She grew tired of her isolation, and after considerable urging on her part, her parents allowed her to join the Girl Scouts. The Girl Scout summer camps gave her access to the Sierra. The altitude and her less than optimum physique made the hikes and other physical activities difficult at first. Many of the campmates made fun of her lack of physical ability and short stature. She inherited a nickname that stayed with her through high school –“Stumpy.” She hated it; however it gave her motivation. Maybe she couldn’t do anything about her stature but she could do something about her physical condition. She insisted on walking to school, much to her parents’ consternation. Their paranoia about her safety started rising to the surface. She did prevail.
By the time she reached high school she was at her maximum height; however, she was 25 pounds lighter. She could never claim to be much of an athlete as far as competitive sports were concerned. She wasn’t very fast nor did she have the size to give her the leverage to play many sports. Her improved endurance helped her become an acceptable soccer player. She would never be a star but she was a good team player.

By the time she graduated high school she had reached physical maturity. The girls’ locker room didn’t exactly boost her confidence as far as her sexual attractiveness was concerned. Her hips were broad, and proportionally, her thighs were thick. She had lost her baby fat, and she was well muscled. Her waist was trim, and her stomach was flat. What really bothered her were her pointy little breasts. She had prominent nipples and wide areolae; however, she had to pad to reach a full B cup.
Her facial features were very nice. She had large deep brown eyes set over a little upturned nose. Her mouth was middle sized and seemed to form a smile easily. Her chin was neither too weak nor too strong. It complimented the rest of the package. Her hair was nearly black.

College was a quiet time for her. She lived in the dormitory, took a full load, and quietly finished among the top ten graduates in her class. The sad thing was no one knew she was there. There were a few friends, and they would play quiet bridge games on Friday and Saturday nights if there wasn’t much happening academically. She did get involved with some of the engineering students in designing and constructing the Rose Parade floats; something that Cal Poly San Louis Obispo did every year with the students at Cal Poly Pomona.

Her parents accompanied her to Pasadena her senior year so that they could see the award winning float she had proudly helped design and construct. They had come in separate cars, and stayed at the home of a school friend. There was not a hotel available for miles. They spent December 30th and 31st decorating the float with flowers and other natural plant materials. It had been a lot of fun, and after the parade they left town; Karen to return to her last semester of undergraduate work, and her parents to return to their home near San Jose. They parted at the parking lot outside the dormitory. They talked briefly about spring vacation, and then hugged and kissed. As her parents drove off, she returned to her dull life in the dormitory. She never saw her parents alive again.

North of King City a drunk fell asleep at the wheel, crossed the center line in the fog, and hit them head on. They probably had a few tenths of a second of terror before the collision as the computer indicated her father had attempted to brake. Fortunately, the other driver, a habitual drunk without a valid driver’s license, was also killed. Depending on how you look at it, there was some justice. He was conscious at the scene and knew exactly what had happened. His aorta was torn in the impact, and failed completely before they could get him to a hospital.

Karen somehow got through the funeral, and continued through to graduation. She had been accepted into the Master of Science in Botany program, and had decided to stay in San Louis Obispo through the summer. She was going to assist in a project studying Monterey Pine forests to the north along California Highway 1.

The Monterey Pine was not a forest products tree in the US where it grew with somewhat irregular trunks; however it was a beautiful tree and was very appealing in its small forests. There was a serious disease that seemed to be threatening the natural population with extinction, and this would be part of the focus of her graduate program. The trees grew in only three locations on the mainland and on two of the Channel Islands. It was probably the most cultivated of all the pines, and there were literally millions of acres planted around the world. It had been bred to grow much straighter, and was an important lumber tree; but not in California.

She was helping some other graduate students with some mundane things such as counting pollen samples and helping with plant identification when she noted her faculty advisor talking to a tall, lanky fellow. He had to be about six-five, dark blond, blue eyed, and his long hair was in a pony tail. He also had a rather scruffy beard. She tried not to stare at him; however, there was something about him that caused a stirring inside that she had seldom felt.

Karen may not have been one hundred percent heterosexual; however, her inclination was definitely more in that direction. The problem was she had never been touched by the male of the species, not even close. The fact she had basically hidden out in the dormitory for four years hadn’t helped her social life at all. She had had two lingering experiences with roommates, and although very pleasant at the time, they were not that fulfilling, and never resulted in any great feelings of affection toward either of them. They had remained friends but both of them had drifted into more serious relationships.

The professor brought him around and introduced him to everyone as a new graduate student who had graduated from Humboldt State the previous month. His name was Patrick Esterházy, and he was very friendly. He shook everyone’s hand, and Karen felt he had lingered a bit before letting hers go.

So that was how it started.

Author's Note: So ends Chapter 1. Thus begins Karen’s adventure. In the next chapter we will learn about Karen and Pat’s year plus as graduate students at the University of California at San Louis Obispo. We will also meet the evil Brenda Filzen and see the results of something she did. The details are not clear. All we know is that Pat has screwed up. If you think you know what the mystery is, please don't spoil it for everyone else by putting your guess in reader comments. You may PM me if you want to know if your assumptions are correct.