Life is more dramatic than drama
6.30 AM
It was early morning; I heard loud noises from the corridor of our Hostel. I came out of the room and learnt to my shock and surprise our classmate Gandhi, was found dead in his room, obviously committed suicide. An arsenic bottle was found besides the bed.
Gandhi married six months earlier to Madhusmita, studying M.A in English literature. No one could understand or imagine the reasons for his suicide. The Chief Warden informed Police and the body was sent for postmortem.
His parents arrived by car the following morning by car from their hometown. His father was taken to the Hospital to complete the formalities and take his son's body to their native village.
I stayed back to take care of grieving mother, took her to the University Guesthouse. She sat on the bed crying. I cajoled her, to take bath and she went to the bathroom. I brought breakfast and coffee in a flask. She refused to have breakfast, but on my repeated requests and insistence had half a cup of coffee.
She was continuously crying, tears dropping down her cheeks. I was at loss, not knowing how to console her. I placed my hand on her shoulders and wiped her tears. She instantly leaned on to my chest burying her face. I hugged her to comfort and console. I put my hand on her head stroking to console her and thought," let her cry out".
My fingers ran into her thick silky soft hair, one hand around her, and with other hand I was stroking her hair. My fingers dipped into her big hair bun. Hair bun got loosened and her beautiful soft thick wavy, curly soft smooth hair spread onto her back, cascading down beyond her thunderous thighs.
Her crying, gradually reduced to sobs, but she was holding me tightly. Her large voluptuous breasts were pressing against my chest, and her whole body touching mine. I was wearing a lungi, and was ashamed that despite the circumstances, my body chemistry was beyond my control; my fully erect throbbing cock was pressing at her mound. I pressed more moving my phallus forward.
To my pleasant surprise, she was also pressing herself, against my hard cock. I looked at her back, there was no doubt in my mind, that she was thrusting herself against my hard cock feeling my hard maleness.
I cupped her soft big arse cheeks with my hands. Her fingers were digging into my back. The softness of her silky hair touching my hands further aroused my carnal desire. My hands traveled upwards, took her face into my hands. I could see in her eyes the desire to be taken, to be owned, to unite, to be filled; an unmistakable urgent need. Her expressive eyes full of desire pleading me silently.
I kissed and licked slowly all over her face, neck, and cheeks lovingly and finally ran my tongue over her wet juicy thick lips. She opened her mouth as my tongue slipped into hers. She took my lower lip into her mouth and started sucking, all the time pressing her against me. Our tongues entwined, exploring and sucking each other alternatively, drinking nectar. It was an exhaustive and exhausting lip locked nectar sucking kiss.
There was no need for words, I lifted in her my arms, carried, and laid her on the bed, her breasts heaving, and hair spread. I sat next to her, stroking and feeling her big breasts, removed her blouse and bra as she lifted her hands up to ease out.
She thrust one of breast into my mouth. I sucked on her big, brown, engorged, hard, and jutting nipple, while stroking the other and squeezing it. I kept on sucking while her hand was on my head holding it like a mother breastfeeding her son. I could feel juices coming out of her breasts. I sucked on more intensely, and could taste her breast milk. I sucked on the other breast, and her breast milk drop by drop coming into my mouth. I was surprised that milky juices coming from her breasts. I could feel and understand the her love and desire to breastfeed her son, her immense desire triggered hormones to produce milk. I continued sucking her breast milk from both the breasts.
Her hand reached between my thighs and took my long, thick, hard, and turgid cock into her hands, feeling its hardness. She was stroking my cock, her hand running along the shaft, and she took hold of scrotum, feeling the balls and then her fingers reached the knob of my cock.
"Oh! I can't wait, Do it. Come into me. I want you in me," She said, holding my cock
.
I got up, took off her sari and petticoat. She was fully naked, her thighs spread, her wide cunt flower inviting, her glittering stiff clit engorged, She raised her bottom, as my cock entered her juice drenched inviting cunt with all my energy.
My cock entered, opening up her cunt walls, as if a knife slicing soft butter slab, smoothly reached her bottom, filling her cunt. Her cunt muscles were gripping my cock tightly like a fist. I looked into her eyes. Her hands on my hips were pressing me into her. I took her breasts into my hands fondling them.
She urged, "Fuck me" I started fucking. Oh, my son, fuck me, fuck your mother, fuck me, my son, fuck me hard. She was repeating the words again and again, while moving herself up to meet each of my strokes. I lifted both her legs placed on both sides my shoulders and fucked her slowly and steadily. An then fucked fast with all my energy digging into her deep deeper opening her cunt with each stroke, more and more .
She came, crying out loud finally as if a volcano erupted, as if an earth quake occurred, her whole body in frenzied uncontrollable spasms, as she dug her nails into my back scratching, drawing blood. Her cunt muscles gripping my cock like a fist and releasing, over and over. I said "amma, amma, ammaaaaaaaa, as I ejaculated my hot loads of sperm into her cunt, pouring my thick hot sperm into her filling her cunt.
We lay still, her face buried on my chest, till our bodies gradually slowly returned to normality. I saw her blushing. She kissed me all over my face, her eyes glowing with contentment and satisfaction. She went to the bathroom and came back hugged me kissing me all over my face.
"Shiva, You filled me, filled the void in me, and fulfilled me. You gave me such a wonderful life time experience, made me forget everything, experiencing the ultimate bliss, and unbelievable, abandoned uncontrollable, pleasure of submission. I sat on the bed and she put her head in my lap and lay down on the bed, my hands caressing and fondling her big breasts.
"Do you know, what could be the plausible reason for my son to end his life?"
I said, "I don't know."
Padma said, "He couldn't fuck his wife, the first night and after. She is still virgin"
"Is that so? Amma" I said
"It is, He is not like you. I wish he was a man like you with vigor and virility and had a cock like yours, so big and beautiful. I wish you are my son."
"Yes, I am your son, Amma If I were your son really, I would not have married any other girl," I said.
"Why, Shiva, "she asked taking my already erect and hard cock in her hands.
"Because, if you were my mother, I would have married you, amma"
You would have married me, even if I am your amma?, Shiva, you like me so much, I am happy, excited and thrilled to know that you would have married me, even if I were your mother. "You, Stud, you can't marry me, if I were your mother, you know that, but you would have been my lover forever, you could have had me from the time you could get your cock up. I would have been the happiest and luckiest mother to be fucked by you. I would have been your kept woman, and lifelong mistress. You could have even impregnated me.
Padma was forty years. old, tall, slightly dark woman with oily smooth unblemished, radiant glowing skin, beautiful oval face, high cheekbones, and full juicy thick lips. Her beautiful huge breasts were firm, conical, extending out of her frame. Her narrow waist spread onto a wide and big spherical hips bottom. Her thick long, oily, curly, soft, silky, jet-black, shining, hair was reaching her thunderous smooth banana trunk like thighs.
She said "You saw me first time during the marriage of my son, I remember you looking at me with desire and flirting with me"
Yes. Padma, I saw you first time, in your house in a kanjeevaram silk saree, your hair dressed in long braid, jasmine flowers adorning your hair. You were like Rathi Devi descended on earth. It was love at first sight.
"You are beautiful and sexy and exciting amma," I said stroking her hard jutting brown nipples with my tongue and fingers. Her breasts became hard and her nipples grew bigger and harder.
"But, Shiva, do you think I am crazy immoral incestuous slut moaning instead of mourning, cooing instead of crying, and groaning instead of grieving offering and giving herself to a man, young enough to be her son on a day, when her son is dead. I am surprised at myself, thoroughly enjoying being fucked by you.
No, Padma, You are not crazy or immoral. I understand your need to have your son in you, you want your son in you, you wanted him into you and you see your son in me. Since you could not take him into you, you have opened yourself to me and desired me to enter you, taken me into you, allowed me to enter you, to explore your depths, your body and soul, receiving me into you. Your abundant love and desire as a woman prompted you to have a man to fill you and fulfill you.
You understand me so well, Shiva you have put my feelings into words better than I could have expressed. I need a man like you; I have been waiting for a man like you to satisfy my desires. It so happened on peculiar and unbelievable way. I would have invited you to have me if had I met you earlier. Today, the loss of my son triggered both my motherly instinct and long awaited desire, flared up with you showering love.
Shiva, I should have helped him, my son, with love, I could have taught him to fuck. It's so simple; because he couldn't fuck his wife during first three nights, he thought he was impotent.
Was he impotent? How do you know amma?
He thought so. Perhaps he was. He wrote a letter to his wife, a week back and she showed it to me. I was planning to talk to him, help him fuck me with love and he would have learnt how to fuck a woman. "He should have told me, come to me, I would have made his cock big and hard, she took my cock into her hands stroking it. He could have fucked me. I would have helped him enter my cunt and fuck. I would have taught him how to fuck a woman." she said.
Padma, Now I understand, he wanted you. He saw you in his wife and wanted her to love him, and wanted her to show love and affection and take him, his cock into her. but he could not tell her and he could not fuck her unless she makes him big and hard.
Shiva, your monstrous cock is already erect, ready to enter and open me up. Kneeling down, She took my cock into her hands kissed the beautiful big pink knob ran her tongue along the shaft, licked my scrotum and balls, then took the cock into her mouth sucked, "Shiva, Your cock is so big, enormous, magnificent, long, thick and beautiful"
I pulled her up by holding her hair, and asked her to bend. She obeyed, bent, her ass high up, her legs spread wide, resting her hands on the bed, and her hair fell down on both sides of her shoulders touching the floor. Her cunt spread wide and inviting. I entered her juicy cunt, doggy style. Oh! Shiva, you filled me up to my belly button. Fuck me hard. Fuck me, my son.
Holding her hair, I fucked her leisurely enjoying each and every stroke slowly at first, gradually increasing speed, and finally ramming her cunt with all my strength and force. She experienced orgasm violently, her whole body in ecstatic spasms, her cunt muscles all of a sudden gripping my cock, squeezing my cock. I stood still, allowing her to enjoy the long drawn multiple orgasms and then allowed myself to ejaculate hot loads of thick hot juice into her cunt.
We lay on the bed, I took her into my arms, and her head buried on to my chest, the she looked into my eyes, her eyes expressing shyness, satisfaction and softness. She said, I want to have a son like you. I wish today you have already done it. Somehow I feel it, because it is the right time for me.
I said, "Amma, I don't know, but I promise you I try my best to impregnate you to give you my son or daughter."
She smiled, Shiva, you are a man; any woman could feel safe, protected, satisfied and forever happy. You know how to make a woman happy and live for the moment.
It was the lunchtime; I went out brought lunch for both of us, had a light lunch and she relaxed in my arms. After some time, she got up, washed her face, changed her saree and started combing her hair. I took the comb and combed her hair and she arranged her hair into beautiful bun. She was lying on my lap While we were talking, her husband knocked the door. He requested me to accompany Padma to their hometown by train. He took Gandhi's body by taxi, to their village.
We were alone again in the room. Padma said, she wanted to take bath shampoo her hair. I helped her shampoo hair, and cleaned her every corner of her body with soap, dry and comb her hair.
I went to the station to arrange train tickets for me and Padma in 1st class coupe and came back to the guest house. Padma opened the door, looking fresh after taking rest, her hair left loose. I took her into my arms, kissed her and said, you look beautiful and sexy. I smelled her hair and said, 'arrange your hair into a braid.'
She smiled, and said, 'Not now. What everyone will think of me? I am not a wife travelling with husband; I am supposed to be a grieving mother.
We boarded the train, got into the reserved 1st class coupe. After TTE checked the tickets, I locked the door. Padma arranged her hair into a long braid. I encircled her from back, her long braid onto her front. We were in front of the mirror.
Padma, you look younger in long braid, people may think that you are my wife.
'Do I look young enough to be your wife? I feel like a young girl with you. You are my real man, and lover. You made me a complete woman, mistress, lover and slave, she said.
Padma, you are an ageless beauty. Women like you become more beautiful and glamorous, attractive, sexier and desirable with maturity and advancing age, I said, fondling her earlobes and kissing behind her ears, licking them.
I could have been more sexier and desirable, had I been satisfied, psychologically, emotionally, sexually by a lover like you, all these years, thoroughly enjoying my beauty and satisfying my abundant sex hunger. My precious youth have been wasted with my unromantic inept husband.
Amma, you mean that you have not been fucked thoroughly enough to satisfy your sexual desire, so far except by me.
Yes, I confess. I have not been fucked thoroughly to satisfy my desires, and I have been waiting for a man like you all these years Shiva, who can appreciate, admire, enjoy, excite, enlighten, experience, feel, fondle, fill and fuck me thoroughly.
First, you filled my cunt with your monstrous cock so completely and then filled my soul and heart with love, opening up inner depths, touching me deep to the core, to the bottom, made me pour out all my juices, making me melt, opening flood gates, and flow out all stored juices and thoughts, feelings, and desires. You opened my body, heart and soul widely; and I submitted myself uninhibitedly, shamelessly and completely to you.
It may be surprising to you, Shiva, first time in my life I experienced orgasm while fucking. I had never experienced orgasm so far with my inept and useless husband all these years. I experienced such an intense ecstatic uncontrollable multiple orgasms, every inch of my body, head to toe experienced orgasm, opened all my pores, opening the flood gates, my kama melted, and pouring out like flood gates of dam opened.
I realized how a woman can experience and enjoy the bliss, eternal bliss reaching nirvana while being fucked thoroughly. I have been doing meditation, yoga and puja worshipping the God to control and channelize my sexual energies and I knew what bliss is. But you made achieve and reach much higher levels of nirvana unknown to me so far. And I know why a woman surrenders and submits herself completely to a man who fucks her thoroughly, every time taking her to nirvana.
Even now, with you surrounding me, my whole body is reacting with enthusiasm and expectation. You have the sensuous touch to ignite me, put me on fire and capacity to make me explode like a simmering volcano.
Padma, now that you have me, I will enjoy and explore every part of your sensuous and sensational beautiful body, enter, open and fill all your holes dear.
Her sari pallu dropped to the floor, I removed her blouse and bra, releasing her huge voluminous heavy firm hanging conical breasts. Her firm jutting brown nipples was hard in my fingers as I stroked them, and then lifting her breasts up stroking from bottom and said, Padma, I wish I can suck milk from your breasts.
"You can, Shiva, my Lover Son, you made me lactate milk in the afternoon. I was surprised that I could lactate without being delivering baby. Your love ignited fire and motherly instinct, made my stored milk juices flow out of my breasts. I have experienced such ecstatic orgasms; I never knew such intense orgasm can occur.
Impregnate me, and once I give birth to your son, I can feed my breast milk to both of you forever. I want a son from you, our love child from you, Shiva." She said.
I kissed her breasts, sucking her engorged hard nipples, and removed her saree, untied her petticoat and took off my pants, asked her to sit down on the berth, her thighs spread wide, placed her legs on both sides of my shoulders. I started licking her engorged big protruding pink wet clitoris, slurping and lapping up her cunt juice with my tongue, inserted my tongue into her cunt deep and licking all over.
"I want to eat you, devour you, Amma"
Eat me, son, Eat my cunt.
I started devouring her cunt, sucking her juices, slurping, licking her all over cunt lips, stretching her labia, and sucking her juices, pressing my mouth at her cunt, sucking, making slurping noise. Oh. Shiva, you are sucking all my stored juices, you are emptying all my kama juices stored all these years, like a vacuum machine.
I got up; she offered her wet juicy cunt, her hands holding onto the berth. I entered her juice drenched cunt, opening her up, penetrating slowly and steadily going into her like a knife in slab of soft butter mound, filling her deep cunt to the bottom.
The train was moving with a rhythmic sound and my cock was moving in her cunt like piston, forward and backward at a steady pace enjoying each stroke opening up her cunt, and her cunt receiving my cock with equal enthusiasm. Every time like a boring machine boring into a soft rain drenched earth.
Oh Shiva, Shiva, my god, fuck me my son, fuck my cunt, deep, yes yes. She was making loud noises with abandoned carelessness. Amma, you have beautiful big ass. Padma was thrusting her ass to meet my cock, every time making thapach thapach noise. Finally I increased the momentum matching the increasing speed of the train, her cunt was gripping my cock and releasing it, again and again, her orgasmic response was gradually increasing and then reached its peak as her cunt gripped my cock tightly for a long time and slowly releasing, her body was on a fire.
It was Tsunami waves one after another; her body was shivering, crying out loud, her finger nails dig deep and scratching my back violently, drawing blood. Gradually her orgasm slowly subsided, as I still was fucking at a high speed and with all my energy, pounding into her cunt.
My cock finally ejaculated loads and loads of hot lava, thick sperm into her cunt. She gripped my cock, squeezed and sucked all my sperm with her cunt muscles into her, draining and emptying me. This is what she wants, she wanted to get fucked, become pregnant that day, and I was not to disappoint her. We disentangled, and she cleaned my cock with towel and lie down on the berth to allow my sperm to enter her womb and couple with her waiting fertile egg.She smiled and said, Shiva, I have never been fucked so intensely and so many times in a day and never had such an intense orgasms and experience in my life. You are a passionate lover. I think you made me pregnant. I said, don't worry, night is still young, we shall have more opportunities to ensure impregnation.
Woman intuitively knows when her hormones are at peak and her egg is ready to receive the sperm. It was on such rare occasion that Padma, wanted and got pregnant. it so happened, as she told me later she was impregnated by me on that day.
Shiva, you treat me as if I am your young lover though I am of your mother's age. You have the confidence in you to make me feel like a young girl. I am sure many a woman might have submitted themselves to you enamored by your charm.
Chapter 2
The following day, after all the religious rituals were completed, and all the relatives and visitors left, Padma came to my room. Her eyes were red due not having slept earlier night. People assumed her eyes were red because of her crying.
She hugged me, I have been waiting for your sensuous touch all the day, Shiva.
I have been waiting to fuck you amma.
Why do you call me amma now?
You said you wanted me as your son, yesterday.
But I feel that I am your wife, now Shiva. You cannot marry me; our relationship has to be Amma and son for the society.
In private what do I call you, Padma?
Call me whatever you want to call me, call me as your wife. I am yours and only yours for life, until death. Don't leave me, my young lover and stud husband.
Am I your husband? Am I your stud, Amma
Yes, you are my family stud. You have to impregnate me and my daughter in law. I want you tie mangalsutra to me and my daughter in law also, so that you become our joint husband.
My daughter in law Madhu should not go out of this house as virgin. I do not want the society to know that my son was impotent and could not fuck his wife. You have to deflower and impregnate her, at the earliest, so that the society thinks that it was my lost son who made her pregnant.
You have become my son and hence you a right to fuck my daughter in law. You have become my husband and it's your duty to protect family prestige and so you as father in law you can fuck daughter in law and make her pregnant. I present our virgin daughter in law to you tonight.
Did you fuck any virgin girl so far, Shiva
No, Amma.
You have had lot of experience in fucking women, so you only fuck mothers and not virgin girls.
Yes. I fuck mothers, who willingly offer themselves to me, wants me to fill and fulfill their insatiable desires. I make them happy and satisfied, with my love and fuck.
You are an expert in seducing mothers and fucking them with love. No wonder, you seduced me instantly without much effort yesterday.
I liked you the moment I saw you. Who seduced whom, yesterday, Amma? Who seduced whom?
It was you. You are a virile, handsome, irresistible and mischievous, man who can make any woman desire you, feel uncontrollable need to have you near them, surround them, hug them, and own them, as if they have been waiting for you to be owned by you and fuck by you all their life.
You seduced me yesterday, a grieving helpless mother, who was crying for the loss of her married son. You made me shamelessly invite your cock to enter me like a bitch in heat. You wanted me from the moment you saw me, as you yourself admitted, and have been waiting for an opportunity ever since. Had I not submitted willingly, you would have raped me, you unscrupulous, immoral, and incestuous stud.
Me? Incestuous, Amma?
The first time, you looked at me, when you came to attend my son's wedding, I felt as if you own me, despite the presence of so many people. You looked into my eyes as if only both of us were in a secluded place. Your eyes revealed compassion, empathy, love and desire as if you suddenly found your valuable lost properly after a long time. Your voice commanded me, ordered me, and your touch made me melt in your hands.
Oh, Ma, I did not know that my looks have such an intense effect.
Shiva, Perhaps, if the circumstances permitted, I would have invited you into me then. I was busy and being a groom's mother I had lot of work, but your looks haunted me all the time. That may be the reason; unconsciously I was ready to be taken by you. You have been in my thoughts.
Yes, you are certainly incestuous, calling me Amma, Amma while fucking. When you hugged me, encircling me, putting your hands on my head and stroking me lovingly, calling me Amma, thrusting your hard cock, pressing against me, I could feel your hard cock, and my mind responded with love thinking it was my son, and my body responded with desire. Thinking you are my son, my body responded, and my dormant desires exploded, as if a simmering volcanic mountain, waiting all these years for you to trigger. You provoked, initiated, instigated and triggered my mind and body, and my unsatisfied desires.
You opened me up and entered, I happily invited you into my mind and your monstrous hard long thick cock thrusting and opening my wet hungry cunt. You filled my cunt to the bottom, but still exploring, drilling further deep, widening, touching and caressing every minute corner inside my cunt and caressing my clitoris, simultaneously making me experience and enjoy hitherto unknown pleasure.
I uninhibitedly submitted to you as if you own me. It was as if I was a musical instrument kept in a corner, you found it, dusted, tuned, and started fondling the strings and making beautiful music. You fucked my mind and cunt simultaneously, thoroughly and completely.
Perhaps, had we met in normal circumstances, it would have taken more time for me to allow you enter me. I would have enjoyed and waited for you to woo me, to court me and would have gone through long drawn romantic seduction before I accepted you into me.
You called me Amma, while fucking me. Was it not?
Amma, perhaps you are right. Both of us are incestuous, like every mother and son. I called you amma because you wanted your son to fuck you.
Shiva, honestly, I want a man like you to have me. I wish my son was like you in fucking, and fucked his wife. Since he did not fuck his wife, left her as a virgin, I want you to fuck her.
Yes, I wanted my son fuck like you. Now I want you to own me, use me, abuse me, eat me, beat me, lick me, lap me, kick me, suck me, feel me, fuck me, rip me, knead me, and do everything and anything possible. You are like Lord Shiva. You have a cock always ready, erect, and virile, like Shiva lingam to fuck mothers.
Suck my lingam, your son's cock, Amma.
Yeah, son, see how big it is, like Dhvaja sthabham in front of Temple, erect and straight, like the Cock of Nandishvara. She bent took my cock into her mouth, sucking, licking along the shaft to the know, nibbling my engorged big pink knob, licking the base and scrotum, my nerves electrified, blood flowing at jet speed to the cock.
Amma, if you continue sucking I may ejaculate into your mouth. She got up and was lying on the bed. I positioned myself on my knees, between her open thighs, lifted and place her legs on both sides of my shoulders, entered her juicy cunt all the way in and started fucking with all my energy.
Padma was crying loud with pleasure, enjoying the brute force with which I am pounding her cunt.Amma, Your ass is so tempting get up and bend on your knees. She obeyed, and bent her arse high up. I reentered her cunt, fucked her holding her braid with one hand and inserted my finger in her ass hole. Her ass hole twitched, but as I slowly inserted my finger deep, her ass hole opened up.
Chapter 3
Two days later, Padma brought her widowed daughter-in-law, 20 yr. old Madhusmitha, who was still a virgin, in a traditional way for the first night.
Madhu, 5"6"tall, lean, beautiful face, with large expressive innocent inviting anxious eyes, juicy lips, shy virgin, figure, long smooth hair arranged into a single plait reaching her mid thighs and decorated with jasmine flowers, wearing her wedding silk saree, was brought by Padma to my room with a glass of milk.
It was the tradition that widowed wife is dressed up with kumkum on forehead and flowers in braid till all ceremonies are performed on 13th day.
Padma said, make her happy and make her pregnant. I deflowered Madhu that night. After Madhu slept, I went to Padma, who was waiting for me. We fucked till wee hours. I stayed till 13th day ceremony, fucking both mother-in-law and daughter-in-law, day and night and returned to the college.
I got a phone call from Padma and Madhu informing me that both were pregnant, impregnated by me. Both were happy. People thought it was Gandhi who made his wife pregnant and it was Padma's husband who made her pregnant.
I continued my visits to their home every month. I went to them three days prior to their scheduled delivery date. Both Padma and Madhusmitha became proud mothers delivering boys. Padma and Madhu both delivered male babies. Everyone in the family and relatives said, it was Gandhi born again.
I was breastfed by both the mothers. I visit them often, enjoying them. Parma's husband knew about our secret affair.
Padma and her husband adapted Madhu as their daughter. Madhu later on got married to Padma's younger brother, a widower.
I visit them whenever the occasion arises.
Secretly, I was the son Padma lost, I was the husband Madhu lost, fulfilling the vacuum left by Gandhi, and filling the void left, both physically and psychologically.
Madhu is now an English Professor in a reputed college, living with her in-laws (adapted parents) husband and our children.