Double Time
Chapter 60
“He'd run like he was on fire.”
—Ilona Andrews, Magic Burns
“I KNOW YOU… um… have a lot of catching up to do,” Desi said. “I’ll crash on this bed so you can have the other one.”
“Nonsense,” Em said. “Why muss up an extra bed on the last night of your stay? You are right that J and I have a lot of catching up to do, but there’s nothing secret about it from the girlfriends. I wouldn’t mind having an extra hand or pair of lips available while I’m ravishing my brother.”
“Really?” Desi said. “Beca said you are the coolest. We’re all still learning, Em. And… I’ve never actually seen a couple make love.”
“Let me help you get this corset unlaced,” Em said. “J, why don’t you start the shower. We all need to run through it.” I watched as Em released Desi’s boobs, caressing them and smoothing the creases where the undergarment had cut into Desi’s flesh. I shook my head and went to the bathroom to start the shower. It took me only a few seconds to get out of my much less restrictive costume and into the shower. At least, I hadn’t needed a wig today, but the styling gel Desi used in my hair took forever to get cleaned out.
“Don’t use all the hot water, brother,” Em admonished. She pulled the curtain back and stepped inside. I hugged her naked body to me and kissed her while I ran my hands up and down her back and butt. She pushed away. “Not in the shower, J. Get out so I can rinse and we can go to bed.” I kissed her again quickly and stepped out of the shower.
Into Desi’s arms. I’d only seen Desi completely naked once and looked forward to many more times. I went straight for her perfect round butt and held it in both hands as we kissed and she stroked my cock against her belly.
“I have to shower, too. Try not to start without me,” she said. Desi disappeared behind the shower curtain with Em and I dried myself off. When the two girls emerged from the bathroom, I was sitting on the bed. They’d both pulled their hair back in a damp ponytail and synchronized their sexy walk across the room to me. When they reached me, first Desi and then Em kissed me and pushed me back on the bed.
Then I felt something very new in my V3 life. Two tongues ran up the length of my cock, pausing frequently to touch each other around my shaft.
“I’m… This… I won’t…” There was no way I was going to last with this treatment. I tried to give them warning before I started spurting, but there was nothing I could do but let it go. Each girl got plenty in her mouth with just a few dribbles running down Em’s chin. Then they kissed and I nearly passed out from watching as they caressed each other’s breasts and sent a hand questing lower.
“Okay,” Em said as she smiled at Desi. They turned to me and Desi darted her tongue out to lick the remains from Em’s chin. “That was to make sure you were interested. Now, it’s time for some sweet loving to welcome your sister/lover home.”
We got ourselves rearranged on the bed and I kissed my lovers before crawling between Em’s legs to welcome her home.
I suppose staying up half the night having sex isn’t the recommended activity just prior to running a 10k. Nor getting up early the next morning for one more for the road. Desi joined Em and me for breakfast and then returned to our room to help her parents get ready for the trip home. I carried my bag to Em’s Prius and climbed in beside her. She touched the screen of her GPS and got directions to the race site.
Since it was a holiday and part of the city’s official festivities, the races started later than some of the weekend races that try to get runners off the road before traffic picks up. We pulled into the parking lot and I texted Nanette to see if she was there. She immediately responded to meet her at the registration table to pick up my number and transponder. When we got to the table, Nanette and Livy had already met and were chatting away. I got registered and got my number. We figured out what we were going to be doing and when.
The half-marathon started at ten o’clock. The 10k started thirty minutes later. The 5k started fifteen minutes after that. I was surprised when Em picked up a packet and fastened on a bib number for the 5k.
“I’ve been running my tail off in basic,” she said. “Figured I might as well see if the training was worth anything. I’m not going to compete at any major distance, but we run 5k nearly every morning. Let me tell you, there are a lot of people who are smaller than when they entered basic. If National Service does nothing else, it should reduce the percentage of obesity in the country.”
“It’s already having an effect,” Nanette agreed. “Our physical therapy journals have had several articles on getting older clients in better condition to reach a comparable health level as those who have completed service.”
At ten o’clock, Nanette lined up with a couple hundred other half-marathoners and took off. You could immediately see the elite runners move away from the pack. Everyone had submitted their pace for the long run and they were lined up at the start in groups. Nanette was trapped in the center of the second wave for as long as we could see her on the road ahead. Once she was out of sight, Livy and I focused on getting ready for our race.
This race was a lot different than our cross country running. No picturesque trails welcomed us. This was a road race, pure and simple. That’s not to say it was all ugly. We did run through the Sagamore Golf Course, but we started in the Town and Country Shopping Center parking lot and ran on streets blocked off for the race. Police were at every intersection to make sure we weren’t run over by cars. And different color arrows marked out the turns for the various races. We passed the turn-off for the 5k and half a mile farther on, we followed the arrow for the 10k as the half-marathon continued. I felt that Livy had been holding back to run with me and even though we were keeping a pretty good pace for my level, I just knew she was aching to stretch out those long legs of hers.
“Hey, sweetheart,” I said, patting her on the butt. “Get the hell out of here and go kick some 10k butt.”
“If I stay back here with you, will you pat me on the butt some more?” she giggled. Yeah, she could giggle. She wasn’t running anywhere near fast enough.
“Get to the finish line and have your butt waiting. I’ll pat it all you want.”
“Yeah! Have a good run, Jacob!” With that, she lengthened her stride and looked like a gazelle as she started passing other runners who were holding nearer to my pace. It was inspiring and I found myself passing a few runners as I lengthened stride, too, though not nearly as much as Livy.
When I finally crossed the finish line, I was almost in step with Nanette. I ran my 10k in a very respectable 1:10. She finished her half-marathon in 1:45. I was surprised that Livy only beat me by seven minutes and, of course, Em had arrived from her 5k long before us. She’d turned it in twenty-three minutes.
Em and Livy were surrounded by my other girlfriends and I just grabbed Nanette’s hand and took her along with me to meet them.
“Oh, yum! Our boyfriend brought us breakfast!” Rachel said. She wrapped Nanette in a hug and gave her a quick kiss on the lips. That started a series of kisses and each of us got one from each of the others. I was surprised to find Desi there.
“I convinced Daddy that I wasn’t needed for the load out and he ran me up here. As soon as I found Rachel, he left and went back to Indy,” she said.
“That was nice of him,” I said. I should have thought to invite her to ride with Em and me. I didn’t think about it long, though, because I’d just pulled Nanette into my arms and kissed her. And kissed her. I guess the girls got her warmed up because the kiss was definitely meant to convey more than friendship.
“You guys will get me thrown in jail,” she whispered as we moved apart. She gave me one more squeeze on my butt, though. “I can’t go messing around with kids who are less than sixteen years old!”
“Okay. We understand,” Beca said. “We won’t invite you to any of our parties until I turn sixteen in January. We’re not going to wait for Brittany in August, though. You’ll just have to control your urge to devour her yummy little body until then.” Nanette was blushing but I pulled her down on the ground and started working with her on stretches. Livy hit the ground next to her and Rachel and Desi started working on her. I got nudged off Nanette and Joan took my place.
“I can work with Nanette on this,” Joan said. “She doesn’t have to worry about the age thing with me.” I stretched out and Beca and Brittany started massaging my legs and mimicking the stretches Nanette was demonstrating. Beca was being all innocent, but Brittany was working her hand up the inside of my thigh and straight to the groin. She kept her hand on my leg, but the jewels got nudged a few times.
We were going to head into Panera Bread—along with a few hundred other runners—but Desi said they passed a Bob Evans a few blocks south, so we divided up into the four cars and headed there. It was still a fifteen-minute wait for a table, but everyone wearing a race bib got a ten percent discount. I’d done my work for the day, so I had my favorite—two eggs over easy, two sausage patties, two biscuits, and the whole thing smothered in sausage gravy.
“Where are we headed, Em?” I asked. We turned off the main highway a block before we got to the interstate in Anderson. She wound around and crossed over it before turning right onto a frontage road.
“Sorry it’s not most elegant place on the map, but it’s all I could afford,” she said, pulling into a Budget Inn. Our other girlfriends had split up between Livy’s and Rachel’s cars and were headed north on county roads. Livy’s Jeep was still open to the elements and she didn’t want to drive it on the freeway.
“You mean we’re staying here? Will they even let us rent a room at our age?” I asked.
“This magic card is pretty incredible,” Em said. She handed the card to the desk clerk and two minutes later we were checked in. “Not only is it my ID, declaring that I am a member of the National Service, but it’s also my bank card. They deposit my pay directly to it.”
We opened the door to a standard cheap interstate motel room. It had a bed, dresser, television and one chair. We could hear the highway about a hundred yards away. Em crossed the room and bounced on the bed. “Not much but it has the important things. Come on, you. We need a shower before we test this bed any further.”
The shower was crappy, too, but I was in it with Em and mostly we just made sure the other was clean, rinsed, and well-kissed. Making love in the bed with Desi last night and this morning was fun but we hadn’t really relaxed together yet. Making love in this cheap-ass fleabag motel was a hundred times better.
“I was afraid,” I said. “Afraid you would come back from basic and not want this any longer. I’m so glad you’ve come home.”
“Oh, my lover brother. It’s only for the weekend but one day I will return to you forever. I’m never going to stop wanting you.”
“Nor I you, Em.”
“It’s been eight weeks. How has it been for you?” she asked.
“Difficult. Until a couple of weeks ago, Rachel was the only girlfriend in town and we had as hard a time getting together for anything but studying as with anyone else.”
“The dreams, J. Have you been okay?”
“I’ve had a couple. I’ve just… Em, since I found out the truth and found out what you did to save me, all I’ve had to do is recognize the dream and reach for your hand. We’ve talked every week. I think of your voice. I think of reaching out my hand and making love to you. The dreams are hard. They don’t want to leave me. Sometimes when I wake up from one, I don’t go back to sleep. I get up and write or play my guitar. Once Pey came in to sit with me. She fell asleep and I carried her back to your bed. She stopped sleeping in her bed because she wanted to be where you’d been.”
“The same as when you were in the hospital. She wanted to sleep in your room,” Em sighed. “I’ve had a couple, too. They’re different for me. My grip on the world dissolves and everything slips away from me. But I can feel your hand in mine and I won’t let go.”
“I’ll never let go, Em.”
We cuddled in the sated aftermath of our lovemaking and just talked softly. Our conversations over the past eight weeks had been brief, and I hadn’t learned as much as about what was going on in her life as I wanted to. She told me about the training—it was divided about fifty-fifty between physical training and classroom work. Discipline was strict and you learned right away not to be late—to anything. In a way, if they’d had that kind of discipline before, they’d all have done better in high school. On the other hand, it was closer to being a slave than a student.
“Some of the older vets warned us before we went in that we should never believe anything we’re told is a promise. Like free room and board. Some of us are going into NSOs that function more like a military unit with barracks. Most of us, though, will have to find our own housing. We’ll be given a housing allowance equivalent to what it costs to house us in barracks. We’ll be given a food allowance equivalent to what it costs to eat in the mess. And as to our salary, this room cost for tonight more than I earn in a day. There have already been reports of people doing National Service who are living in their cars.”
“Shit. I’ll help pay for the room, Em. I didn’t know you weren’t getting more money than that. That’s ridiculous.”
“The US Government is not subject to paying minimum wage. I get a raise this week when I report for my occupational training. So, I’ll be making four dollars an hour instead of three-fifty. I’ll get another fifty-cent boost when I start actually working wherever they send me.”
“Four-fifty an hour when you are working full time? That’s insane.”
“They point to the cost of room, board, training, and education and make up a number that says we really make seven-fifty when benefits are included. Nobody is going to get fat or happy in the National Service.”
“Where to next?”
“I’m headed to St. Louis for occupational training. With luck, I’ll become a logistical engineer in eight weeks.”
“I’ve heard that joke. You’ll be a truck driver?”
“Probably. Since I have a dependable car, I might be assigned to be a courier. I could be sent to a warehouse to drive a forklift. If I show a high aptitude, I might get to operate heavy machinery on a road crew. I guess a low rating when I graduate could land me a job as a flagger.”
“But when you filled out your questionnaire and took the placement test, they said you were qualified for a management position!”
“Never believe anything they tell you is what it sounds like. Truck drivers are self-managed positions. They operate without any immediate supervision.”
We had dinner—if you could call it that—at Pizza Hut. I paid for it, realizing for the first time that on my allowance with my expenses paid, I probably had more pocket money than Em did. That really sucked. I wondered what the disparity in wages earned was later in one’s service. Did everyone earn the same after basic and NSO training? Did a ditch digger earn the same as a truck driver or a flagger?
I wondered if any of my contemporaries understood what they were going into any better than I did. Supposedly, this is what our Senior Constitutional Government class would be about. I needed to talk to Joan and Rachel.
“So, I understand you’re a Hindu now. Mom has a new book she is reading titled Understanding Your Hindu Neighbor. What the fuck?”
“Oh, Gees. What have I done?” I moaned. My mother now thinks I’ve converted? “It’s not like that.”
“What’s it like, J? I know we have gone to church less as we got into our teens, but what got you thinking you were Hindu?”
“It’s not about being Hindu. That’s only one of many different philosophies that believe in reincarnation. There are even supposed Christian sects, like the Rosicrucians and Unity Church who believe in reincarnation. It’s not about religion at all.”
“Why? What got you started on that line?”
I decided this conversation needed to be in private and not in Pizza Hut. I paid the bill and we went back to our hotel room. We were both naked and in bed before Em pressed for details.
“We’re going to make love again,” she said, stroking my reviving manhood. “But first you are going to tell me about this past life thing. I’m your lover, J. One of your girlfriends. I need to know, too.”
“Okay. When I woke up after the accident, I was disoriented—more so than just waking up after sleep or sickness. Maybe you remember some strange things I said or did.”
“Like asking me what year it was?”
“Yeah. When I woke up, I thought it was 1952. As the days went by, I realized I had more and more memories from an entire life that had been lived before. And every once in a while, something will pop out of my mouth that was okay or at least typical of an old man but was offensive to my young contemporaries. I’d realize that wasn’t something I thought, it was something he thought.”
“Christ! That’s how you offended all your girlfriends back in May. I was so worried but I hadn’t yet bridged into the girlfriend group. And that story! You told Pey about an old man who scarcely knew his sisters and didn’t even go their funerals. It was the memory of this other life?”
“Yes. And it’s because of those memories that I realized I wanted to live and I wanted a different life than that old man had.”
“Wow!” Em was silent for a while, hugging me rubbing her cheek against my shoulder. She had a lot to take in. When I told my girlfriends Thursday, there hadn’t really been enough time for them to ask a lot of questions. I figured with the weekend to forget about it, most would just let it pass and maybe make an occasional joke about the old man horning in on a conversation. Em had time to digest what I’d said and formulate her questions. Here it goes.
“Math? You were never so good at school that you could skip years of math. Yet, as soon as you got back to school, you tested out of Algebra and breezed through Geometry. Then you took Algebra II during the summer and are now in Pre-Calc/Trig. As a sophomore. It was because of those memories?”
“It was almost like I’d already taken the class and all I had to do was refresh my memory,” I sighed. I’d let it ride at that. Math having been a major portion of V1’s entire career had made refreshing those memories pretty easy. Em was quiet for a long time and I thought she’d fallen asleep. I just held her naked body close.
“Sex!” she said, suddenly looking up at me with wide eyes. “What you did to Francie and then to me. You knew where and how to touch us. You had sex before! Oh, my God!”
“Um… Sort of… I guess. In my memories, the old man was never that great a lover. It’s just that over the course of his life he learned things that I guess most teens haven’t figured out yet. I… I think the biggest lesson I learned was to put my lover first,” I said. I just didn’t want her jumping to a conclusion that she was making love to an old man.
“Yeah. From my experience, I’d say most teens—male and female—haven’t figured that out. But you do always put your lovers first. Is that why we are all willing to accept each other and share?”
“No idea on that. There is absolutely nothing in the old man’s memories I can access that would lead me to believe I could attract seven girlfriends. And as far as I’m concerned, it’s hard to imagine having even one as beautiful and wonderful as you.”
“It might surprise you to find more of this kind of thing as you go through National Service. It seems designed to keep us from forming individual ties. There was more than one orgy in the barracks.”
“Really? Did you…?”
“Yeah. We were all pretty horny. I paired up with two guys and a girl. Pretty laid back compared to some of the guys and girls who just went from bunk to bunk and did whoever was there.”
“Without consent?”
“No. With consent. But two days later, barracks assignments were all shifted and we started learning a new cadre all over. They shifted us three times in the course of basic. Some of us got pretty desperate for contact with another person. We learned to depend on whoever was there. I’m sorry. I guess that means I was unfaithful. It never struck me like that at the time.”
“And it shouldn’t. I would never want you to be deprived of comfort and satisfaction just because we are in two different places. And it’s something we… or at least I need to talk about with Joan and Rachel and Livy. They’ll all enter National Service before I do. We should start building the support we need in advance.”
“I think your support is building right here in my hand,” Em said as she stroked me up to fullness. “Make love to me, J. I miss you so much and it will be weeks before I have you again. I love you.”
END PART V
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