Double Twist
Chapter 151
“If you’re going to kick authority in the teeth, you might as well use two feet.”
—Keith Richards, Keith Richards: In His Own Words
“YOU CAN’T DO THAT!” Em screamed at her dispatcher. “I have my discharge papers. As of ten minutes ago I am no longer in the National Service.”
“We can reactivate you in an emergency,” the dispatcher growled.
“In a declared National Emergency,” I interjected. “I’ve read the manual. All thousand pages. You can’t just reactivate someone because you need an extra body. You should check the regs.”
“I don’t know who you are but you are dangerously close to being arrested for trespassing on government property. Emily Hopkins, you are reactivated for duty on Monday, July 12 under stop loss rules. Report to your vehicle at seven o’clock for instructions. Violation of this order is a federal offense and may result in up to five years in prison. Now get out of here.”
We were stunned and backed out of the office. Em had tears in her eyes but they were tears of fury.
I took the driver’s seat in Em’s Prius and headed us back to her dorm. As soon as we got there, I got Em into a shower and went to work. I called Ray Long in Chicago. He was the person best positioned to help us as far as I could tell.
“Do you have any evidence we can use?” Ray asked. “I don’t recall any stop loss clause in the National Service. That’s a military thing and is normally only used during a time of active service in a military conflict.”
“I taped it,” I said. I’d planned to record Em’s farewell to the service and clicked on the cell phone when we entered the office. Before we left the Ren Faire, Donna had impressed upon me the importance of taping anything that we might be able to use in our special. Prior to this, it had mostly been me and Em singing in the cab of her truck. I’d expected her to receive congratulations from her dispatcher.
“Send it to me.”
The file was big enough that it took a couple of minutes before Ray had it on his computer and started watching.
“That’s absurd,” he said. “Someone is stepping way over the bounds of his authority. Here’s what I want you to do: Pack. Get Emily ready to leave tomorrow. Don’t take anything to the car. In fact, don’t leave the apartment or unlock the door for any reason. I’ll make calls and get back to you. I expect to have an escort for you by noon tomorrow and you’ll be able to leave.”
“Yes, sir,” I said. “I need to go take care of Em now.”
“You might want to keep an eye on the news. I’m going to release this recording.”
I grinned at his suggestion. Between what Ray could do and what Joan could do, I was pretty confident we’d be out of there in no time.
We didn’t get out over the weekend. Ray had to find lawyers and people in authority who could make a decision. It was the weekend and people in authority in government are hard to find on a weekend. If someone wanted to invade the US, all they’d have to do is wait until the weekend baseball games and no one would be around to stop them. If the dispatcher had pulled this stunt on Thursday, we’d have had an injunction by the time Em was out of service on Friday night.
An injunction was what we finally got and two deputy US Marshals showed up at our door at six o’clock Monday morning. They helped us transport the boxes and clothing Em had packed down to her car. It’s amazing how much stuff you can put in the back of a Prius—or maybe it’s amazing how little Em had to pack after two years in the service.
A state trooper approached us as we were putting the first box in the car and declared he was there to escort us to the shipping yard. One look at the deputy US Marshal’s identity and a quiet explanation later, the trooper got in his car and left. We locked the door, dropped the key off in the dormitory office, and made it to the yard at exactly seven o’clock.
I had the record button pushed on my cell phone when we walked into the office. The original recording had gone viral on all the social media and was often attached to renditions of our ‘The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly’ video. I had no idea if the dispatcher paid any attention to the media. One look at him when we walked in said he did.
“Turn that off!” he shouted at me. “You can’t record in a federal facility.”
“Somebody had too much ego for breakfast,” I said.
“Security!” the guy barked into his phone. “Get in here.” He wasn’t expecting the two Deputy US Marshals who walked into the room.
“Ellis Smith, you are under arrest for subverting the authority of the United States National Service Corps with illegal orders,” the first deputy said.
“You can’t arrest a member of the corps!” he shouted back.
“The corps is a civilian organization and all members and managers are subject to civilian authority,” the Marshal said. “You have confused your role with a military one.”
“The corps is managed by the military,” Smith declared. “It operates under military rules.”
“That is an issue you will need to take up with the judge at your hearing,” the deputy said. “Ms. Hopkins, we’ve examined your discharge papers and find everything in order. You’re free to go. Mr. Smith, if you would accompany us, please.” Em and I beat a hasty retreat but I paused long enough at the car to record Smith being led from the office in cuffs. I got in the car and before we were out of range of Salina, I’d uploaded the video to Ray. Em and I relaxed as we headed east toward home.
We made it halfway across Illinois before we had to stop for the night. Em and I fell into bed at a Quality Inn in Effingham and didn’t bother with dinner. We stripped, showered, and made love for several hours, letting all our tension and frustration out before we got down to seriously expressing our love for each other.
It was another 350 miles home on Tuesday and the drive was completely relaxed. We’d burned off the stress from the weekend and didn’t have room to add the stress of reunions and homecoming. We cruised into Fort Wayne at three o’clock, which gave us plenty of time to visit at Donna’s house before we went to have dinner with my parents.
The pod was all tense. They’d been watching the videos and doing their best to boost shares all weekend. Our GBU video was back at the top of the downloads list and our new T-shirt with the slogan ‘Somebody had too much ego for breakfast,’ was selling fast. It was a new meme on Twitter and Facebook and was used for any person who remotely seemed to be bragging about something. Of course, it had been in comments to a news briefing at the White House and several statements by congressmen and senators.
I wouldn’t be surprised if the National School called to rescind their offer for an audition. If they were looking for someone to go around putting a positive spin on the National Service, I was probably not the right choice. Not after this weekend.
I’d only said two things on the video I shot and both were becoming popular memes. The other was from the first video and simply said, ‘I’ve read the manual.’ I was amazed again at how many totally unrelated things a meme could be applied to. I saw it attached to an old timey picture of a guy with a car disassembled in front of him and a puzzled look on his face. It was captioned ‘#Ivereadthemanual.’ Another showed the same array of parts leading up to a space shuttle. Cartoons appeared, too. A civilian Sad Sack kind of guy being yelled at by his boss, but shaking his head and holding up a book. It, too, said ‘I’ve read the manual.’
It was inevitable that Sophie, Donna, and Beca were all on our case immediately to come up with another parody music piece that we could use one or the other of the phrases in. It’s too bad we didn’t have the content before we finished filming in Kansas at the Ren Faire.
Em and I spent her first night back at Nanette’s house with Mom and Dad. We were all happy to be together but being in a different house just emphasized to us all that we were missing the little drop of sunshine that had been my baby sister. We all decided it was better for us to both move out to Donna’s, which we were lucky Donna agreed to. Enthusiastically.
Wednesday night was our normal sleepover night, a carryover from our Wednesday night study sessions during the school year. All of us but Joan and Livy were at the house. Still two people in service. Livy got Sunday telephone privileges now and the pod had kept her informed of what was happening with Em and me. I’m sure she was dying to know the next episode since we hadn’t had the last showdown yet when she called Rachel this week.
Em and I took Rachel to bed with us and did our best to show her how much we loved her and to comfort her after the weekend now that the drama with Emily’s service was over. Making love with Rachel has been an intense experience for us since the first time two years ago. Adding Em to our bed and Rachel’s impending induction made it even more intense. We were exhausted in each other’s arms as we finally slept for the night.
I was up early in the morning for a run with Nan. Rachel started to get up with me and Emily pulled her back into bed and kissed her so soundly that the two girls stayed put.
Summer running in the country was different than fall or spring. V1 remembered an adage when he was growing up that corn should be knee-high by the Fourth of July. Corn that was that short in this day and age was way behind or was intentionally planted late for August/September sweet corn harvest. The field corn was already above our shoulders.
That was another difference. Once, corn from Indiana fed beef, poultry, and swine to fatten them for market. Most farmers who grew corn now, did so for the ethanol market. And it paid off. Gas that was 80% ethanol was over a dollar a gallon cheaper than regular in Indiana. I noted that was not true in Missouri and Kansas. The price there was par with regular or just a few cents cheaper. Also, fewer stations carried 80% ethanol though ten and fifteen percent were common.
Nanette and I turned up a row of corn in a neighbor’s field and ran up one row and down another just for the variety of where we were running. We always had a good workout when we ran but many times, like this morning, we ran just for the joy of running and feeling the wind in our faces. We jogged to a standstill in the woodlot and Nanette stripped off her jog bra top.
“Stretch me out,” she said. I grinned at her and started by stretching her mouth with my tongue. Before long, we were both naked, using our running shorts and my T-shirt as a makeshift blanket on the ground as I lifted her legs to my chest and pressed forward to stretch her biceps femoris. As I leaned forward, the tip of my cock just touched the dampness of her pussy. I was prepared when she shifted her leg to the side and I sank into her. And there in the quiet of the woodlot, we made love.
We got back to the house carrying our clothes and stopping every few feet to kiss. We headed straight for the shower and I took all the time necessary to make sure she was very clean.
Once we were dressed, the whole pod gathered downstairs in the kitchen. Donna revealed a frittata with sixteen candles on it. We all sang happy birthday to Cindy. We don’t make a big thing about gifts for special occasions in the pod. Most of us don’t have the kind of money it would take to buy twelve people birthday presents and Christmas presents and Valentine flowers and and and… But the sixteenth birthday of my musical partner seemed to merit something special. Based on Emily, I thought pearls were something fathers gave their sixteen-year-old daughters. That’s what Em got on her sixteenth. But I did some research and discovered Cindy’s birthstone was a ruby.
I took up a collection from the pod and bought Cindy a pear-cut ruby necklace on a twenty-inch gold chain.
“This is to our youngest girlfriend from all your pod mates,” I said as I handed her the box. She opened it and squealed, handing it to me to put on her. It fell right to the cleft between her breasts. I fastened it and turned her to see it. Maybe I spent a little too long looking at where it lay.
“Sweet sixteen,” she said. “And never been kissed.” I cocked an eyebrow, remembering Beca kissing her after the Valentine’s Dance. “By a boy. On the lips.” She raised an eyebrow at me and I could feel all our pod mates holding their breath around us.
“May I be the remedy for that condition?” I asked. She blushed and nodded, closing her eyes. I pulled her to me by her shoulders and gave her a long gentle kiss, just letting our lips soften and hold the contact for a while. We didn’t turn all passionate and start Frenching. But the kiss was still as sexy as hell. If she crawled topless to me in bed and then gave me a kiss like this, I wouldn’t guarantee where it would end.
Soon, all our girlfriends wanted their sweet sixteen kiss and Cindy had her work cut out for her. I think it was the first time Nanette had felt free to embrace Cindy and the two shared a sweet kiss.
“Um… Thank you. I love all of you,” she said. We ate our breakfast and all got a chance to talk about how wonderful it was that all of us were over the age of sixteen. When breakfast was finished, Cindy excused herself and said she needed to get ready to go home because her parents were coming to pick her up and go celebrate in their way.
None of us thought a thing about it but we were sitting at the table when we heard the unmistakable sound of a girl having an orgasm upstairs. I looked. All the rest of us were accounted for. It was a solo performance.
I spent the rest of the day… and the night… with Rachel. This was it. Friday, I was headed to Washington DC for the weekend concert and Monday audition. Monday, Rachel was leaving for service. It would be weeks until we saw each other again. Longer than we’d been apart since we started dating.
We went for a long walk in the woods, just holding hands and quietly being with each other. All through the day, we found little treasures that had been left for her by our lovers. A chocolate Promise. A poem. A CD. A cup of tea. A shoulder and back rub. Everyone in the pod flitted into our day and out, acknowledging the special bond Rachel and I had as well as the fondness each of our pod mates had for her.
And we made love. Not all the time, but when we felt it was the right time. We had a long soak in Donna’s big tub. I held her against my body as she leaned back into my embrace. We kissed as I petted her breasts and ran one hand down between her legs to play in her ginger curls.
As romantic as it sounds to just slip together and make love in the tub, it isn’t that easy and rather than struggle with it, we got out of the tub, lovingly dried each other, and tumbled into bed to make love. It still took a while before we coupled. There was a lot of kissing and petting to be done before we finally slid together and Rachel pulled me on top of her, hugging me down so my weight pressed her into the mattress. We held that position as long as possible, just feeling our connection and looking into each other’s eyes. Eventually, I had to lift up so she could breathe. Our skin wanted to stick together and we giggled a little, letting our nipples touch and slide.
“I imagined that I would be out of service and out of college, working in my career, living on my own, when one day I would meet the love of my life. We would marry and soon I would be pregnant. We’d have two-point-five children, a house in the suburbs, two cars, and eventually, grandchildren who would visit us as we rocked on our front porch. One night, we would go to bed, hold hands, and die in our sleep. I never imagined that I might find the love of my life when I was just sixteen years old,” Rachel sighed as we began moving together.
“Nor that we would have ten other lovers to share our lives with,” I added.
“Yes. But even with as special a connection as I have with Livy and as much as I love Emily and all the others, I know I would be incomplete without you and Beca. Never doubt, my love; I am coming home to you.”
“And in all the time you are gone, never doubt that we are anxiously waiting your return.”
“I bear the mark of our pod on my butt,” Rachel giggled, delightfully stimulating my cock in her pussy. “And I’m going to tell everyone who sees it what that tattoo means to me.”
“I’m sure you’ll be looking for opportunities to show it off,” I laughed. “Oh! Look at my butt! Know what this means?”
“Dork. Emily said there will be all too many opportunities to see my cohort naked in basic. Please work with Desi and Beca and Brittany on making sure they are comfortable with communal showers and such. And Cindy. I know that makes you nervous, but she is one of us and will be all alone when she starts service. We need to make sure she’s ready.”
“You’ll be back before she’s eligible. You and Livy will be able to see her through the hard parts, like Joan and Emily will be there for Beca and the rest of us.”
“Mmm. Move some more, lover. I can feel it building. I can feel our climax and our whole pod moving with us. I love you so much, Jacob. I love you.”
Sometime during the night, Emily and Beca slid into bed with us. We turned to our backs and Beca crawled on top of me, much like Em did on top of Rachel. We became the mattress for our smaller lovers and felt the joy each had in being close to us.
Friday morning, Emily and Donna went to the rental agency and got a fifteen-passenger bus for our trip to Washington DC. They ran it like a regular bus and picked up Laura and Leon, Betty and Cindy, Mom, and then arrived at the farmhouse to collect Sophie and me. Nine of us with our luggage, recording equipment, and instruments filled the short bus to capacity.
We had long last kisses with Rachel and left for the unknown of Washington DC.
Comments
Please feel free to send comments to the author at devon@devonlayne.com.
