Double Twist
Chapter 165
“I want to be justice, love and the wrath of God all in one.”
—Marjane Satrapi, Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood
16 SEPTEMBER 2021
I’m more nervous about today’s performance than any Cindy and I have given. I haven’t really had time to let all the implications of our performance sink in. It almost feels like Cindy and I have already begun our service. We planned the performance for our patrons and that’s how we’re approaching it, but the National School did all the audience development, provided the space, is paying us to be here and covering our expenses, and is providing the camera crew. Aside from the screw-up with letting us know what was expected—which is still gnawing at me—everything has gone smoothly.
Last night, I found out a little of the dynamics of the commission. It’s got a noble purpose, but like all things that smack of politics, each member of the commission has his or her own little fiefdom at stake. So, they are each trying to bring in a definitive resource to tell the commission what is wrong with the service. We are—I am—Dr. Donahue’s dog in this fight. I think she believes I will toss off another one-liner in the performance tonight that will become a new meme or hashtag or rallying cry. I’m planning to keep my mouth shut as much as possible.
And then there’s Remas. It’s clear she wants to become part of our pod, but even having had sex with her—something I’d repeat anytime and look forward to the next—I’m not sure we know her well enough to marry the girl. And that’s how I look at my pod. Em, Beca, Rachel, Joan, Desi, Brittany, Sophie, Nanette, Livy, Donna, Cindy. I consider myself married to each of them. That is such a contradiction of character for me that I have to shut off all the logical arguments in my head and wall them away so they don’t interfere with the strength of our bonds. Where does Remas fit and how do we deal with yet another girl who is a thousand miles away from us? Did I get the strength of our relationship across to the commission yesterday?
I need to run. Things are always clearer after a run.
I ran a fast 10k with Nanette Thursday morning. If we didn’t get delayed here, I planned to run the race at West Noble Saturday. I’d begun to look at the performance and our relationship with the National School as disruptive to our lives. Donna, Nanette, and Sophie were taking a week off from their jobs. The rest of us were a week away from school. And our employers, teachers, administration… they all seemed just fine with the disruption because the request came from the National Service.
We had a final run-through at ten. As a test, the video crew would stream the first performance at one o’clock to an auditorium at the National School for an invited audience of students. The eight o’clock evening performance would be streamed to our patrons. We already had a couple thousand reservations in for the evening performance and I was thankful we were routing the stream through the school. They had a much wider bandwidth for a live audience than we had streaming from our usual servers. If our audience kept growing, we’d need something with the streaming capability of ESPN.
What a problem to have.
We didn’t plan to release the entire hour-long video on YouTube. The production crew had promised a solidly tight edit of just the Glory piece for release on YouTube. They’d be able to edit from the recording of both performances to pick the best shots and interpretation.
Our ‘costumes’ arrived at noon as we were all gathered in the dressing room. For Cindy, Desi, Remas, and me, it just meant our regular performance clothes—all black—were clean and pressed. Sophie and Brittany, of course, examined their costumes to be sure everything was perfect. Sophie would dance both Mozart’s Symphony No. 40, first movement, Molto Allegro, what we called I read the manual, and the Glory pieces. Brittany would join her in the Glory dance.
At one o’clock, Cindy and I walked onto the stage to a round of applause from the audience of around 300 people.
Since we had no printed program, Donna welcomed the audience and told them the order of music. Then she introduced Cindy and me and we took over. Between numbers, I gave the name of the next piece we would play. When Remas and Desi joined us for GBU, I introduced them. And, of course, I introduced Sophie and Brittany.
The performance wasn’t flawless, but it was pretty damned good. I saw Dr. D, Governor Adamson, and a couple other of the commission people I recognized slip out as soon as the applause died. Then I was blindsided by a hot redhead.
“I love you! That was awesome,” Rachel said. She planted a kiss on me that had me ready to rush her to bed. She turned and did the same to Cindy who blushed hot pink but returned the kiss with vigor. All our pod mates got greetings once we got Rachel back to the dressing room.
“My entire cadre of forty trainees got assigned to the show. We have to be back in class at three o’clock, but that gives me a few minutes to spend with you,” Rachel said.
“Where are your classes?”
“Just across campus. Even dressed professionally in heels, it’s an easy ten-minute walk. I’m so glad they gave us time to see your performance. Most of the people in the audience were NSO trainees, but we’re at different weeks in our programs.”
“I wondered where they were pulling an audience of 300 people from,” Donna said.
“And you!” Rachel said, turning to Remas. “I’ve heard so much about you and I’m glad I got a chance to meet you with my mates. I’m here for at least eight weeks. I hope we can get together to… chat, you know.”
“Let’s exchange numbers,” Remas said. “I’ve had fun with the rest of the pod but I’ve really missed meeting you, Joan, and Livy. It will feel like we have a connection here in DC if we can get together sometimes.”
“I have to go. They have zero tolerance for tardiness here. I love you, Jacob. I love you, Beca.” She continued down the line of all our mates and then rushed out the door to make it to class.
“Is the evening audience going to be NSO trainees, too?” I asked Remas.
“I don’t know. I didn’t know about the afternoon. We have people who are responsible for audience development and they didn’t keep me informed of things any better than the contract office did,” Remas said.
“Has that blown over?” I asked.
“Well, I haven’t been back at the office since you got here,” Remas said. “I got an email from Dr. Donahue this morning that said the source of the miscommunication had been identified and the school apologized for causing me undue stress. She reaffirmed my position and promotion were secure.”
“That’s a relief,” Donna said.
“You guys were the reason it was resolved so quickly,” Remas said. “Dr. Donahue is a great person and director of the school, but she does jump to conclusions sometimes. Fortunately, when she’s wrong, she admits it. I don’t think you’ll have any difficulty working with her.”
It was going to be a long night. We managed a quiet dinner with only Dr. Donahue plying us with questions. It was a light meal because we needed to perform at eight o’clock. Apparently, that’s about the time people in Washington start thinking about an evening meal. We needed to be at the theater to get ready at seven. After the hour-long performance, Cindy and I would continue to answer questions from both the audience and our patrons for another half-hour or more. That process would be managed by Joan and we’d respond to questions she highlighted on our iPads. Then there was the cocktail party reception. It wouldn’t even get started until ten. At least it would be held in the lobby of the theater and we wouldn’t have to travel anyplace.
I gathered Cindy, Desi, Sophie, Brittany, and Remas into my arms in the dressing room a few minutes before eight and just whispered a few words about how important each of them was, not just to the performance, but to me personally. I kissed each of them. We all checked in a mirror for lipstick smears and then Cindy and I went to the stage.
We started the program with Piazzolla’s Libertango, a lively enough piece to get things rolling and then did the second movement of Pujol’s Suite Buenos Aires. Those were dynamic enough pieces that they got the audience in a good mood and we followed it up joined by Desi and Remas for The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. The sound pickups on our instruments kept the music from losing volume for the video when we split into three different parts of the stage for our final faceoff. In the theater itself, the acoustics were good enough that we didn’t need to worry about a disconnect.
The last half hour of the performance included Sophie’s stunning dance for I read the manual and got a solid round of applause when she finished with the scroll displayed in front of her. Even though the scroll of Jefferson’s quote was superimposed in the video, the lighting crew had managed a display of the text projected on the end wall of the theater so those in the audience could see it, too.
Our final piece in the main program was the Glory requiem. We’d combined it in our—Remas’s—arrangement with the finale in order to get a solid six minutes for the YouTube release. This piece, too, concluded with a type marquee superimposed over our video and projected on the back wall of the theater.
All persons held as slaves are, and henceforward shall be free. —Abraham Lincoln, Proclamation 95
After the applause died down, the four of us launched into our new improvisational piece, Mozart on Fire. When we ended, the audience was standing to applaud and stomp their feet.
Our concert was finished.
That wasn’t the end. Cindy and I were preparing to answer questions from our fans when Dr. Donahue took center stage.
“We are so pleased to have been able to host Marvel and Hopkins in Washington for this performance and live stream to their patrons. We want everyone to know that we have offered admission to the National School of the Arts to Jacob and Cindy next year. We are happy to further extend that offer to vocalist Desiree Whitcomb and dancer Brittany Adams and hope they will all join us in Washington next summer,” she said. Desi and Britt both squealed when they heard that news and danced around in a circle. “I would like to introduce another guest this evening for just a few words. Ladies and gentlemen, Vermont Governor Aaron Adamson, Chairman of the President’s National Service Review Commission.”
I wasn’t sure we were going to get to answer any questions for our patrons if this kept up. Joan had highlighted two each for Cindy and me to answer when the Governor joined Dr. D on stage.
“Thank you to Marvel and Hopkins and Company for providing such an inspiring concert this evening,” he said. “And thank you to the audience and their patrons on this live stream for tolerating this interruption. It is a sad thing that the youth of America today have come to consider the National Service as a form of enslavement in which they have no say in how they are assigned or what their duties will be. The intent of the service was to create pride in their country by giving our youth the opportunity to help make a visible and recognized contribution to its infrastructure and operation. Thanks to advisors like Marvel and Hopkins—and their pod—we are gathering the information we need to rewrite the National Service laws, rules, regulations, and procedures. We fully believe the message of their new video as summarized in the words of Abraham Lincoln 158 years ago. Slavery—of any person, class, or other group—has no place in the United States of America. We will end it.” With that, he left the stage. The audience applauded and then left as Cindy and I answered patron questions on our iPads as quickly as we could.
There was more applause when we left the theater and entered the lobby where we were once again questioned about everything from political beliefs to music favorites. My mates were scattered around the room and all began gravitating toward Cindy and me when the applause died. I was thankful to see they’d all at least stayed paired up. Remas was with Beca in a corner, sort of shielding her from the crowd. Beca was talking on her phone.
I saw her hang up and shove the phone in her pocket as the two girls headed our way.
“I just talked to Joan,” Beca said when she reached us. “You won’t believe this. Someone had to have organized a campaign. You got over a thousand new patrons between the end of the one o’clock performance and the beginning of the eight o’clock performance. You had over 3,500 tune in for the stream.”
“Shit!” I said. I covered my mouth. We didn’t need fans making opinions of us based on me swearing. “That’s insane!” I whispered.
“Joan is saying the normal server would never have accommodated the crowd. Before we do another live stream, we need a service that will handle bigger audiences.”
“I’m whelmed over,” I sighed. “Do we have to deal with it tonight?”
“No, love,” Donna said. “Tonight, you merely need to lead your entourage through the throngs of adoring fans here in the lobby.”
That was a big help.
I figured Sophie, Desi, and Brittany deserved some extra loving after the performance, but when I walked into my bedroom, Remas was sitting on the bed.
“I won’t stay all night if you want someone else with you,” she said. “I just thought with it being your last night in town, maybe we could have a little more um… fun.”
“Remas, you are fun. And I want to make love with you again.”
“But…?”
“No buts. I want you.” I pulled her to me and kissed her while I used her butt cheeks to make sure she was held tightly against my growing erection. She wrapped her arms around me and ground against my cock, standing on tiptoe to get the maximum pressure against her pussy. I noted something and couldn’t let it pass.
“You had a little barbering done?” I asked as I reached down to run a finger through her slick folds.
“Um… Yeah. I didn’t think about what any of your preferences might be, but Cindy… You know, she’s a lot more than the shy innocent girl I took her for. She told me Rachel had instructed her on how to shave the way you liked it and then proceeded to demonstrate on me.”
“She demonstrated on you?”
“Oh, God! Did she ever. I like girls, but I’ve never come like I did for Cindy.”
“O-kay,” I said. “Maybe I shouldn’t actually know all the details.”
“You could take a close look, if you’d like,” Remas panted. “We haven’t really done that yet and I’d like to get to know this a little better.” She gave my cock a gentle stroke and we were soon arranged on the bed in a sixty-nine. I admit, having the lower lips shaved sure keeps them open and available for a good tonguing. I hoped Cindy didn’t try to convince everyone of this pattern. Even though it wasn’t my first choice, I liked the completely shaved pubes of Sophie and Desi, and I loved the wild tangle of Nanette. I guess if it was a pussy, I could find a way to enjoy it with my mouth.
The view from between Remas’s legs was pretty awesome, too. And it gave me the opportunity to fully pet and explore her bottom while still giving me access to her breasts. I licked up between her cheeks and tickled her asshole with my tongue. She squealed and dove down on my cock. I felt it hit and pass the back of her throat and made my own version of a squeal.
We kept at it until we’d both pushed the other over the cliff of orgasm. Then we moved around until we were face to face and kept touching and petting while we kissed. With our state of exhaustion, it took a little longer to be ready for round two, but we got there. I once again watched in amazement as Remas sank down on my cock with that expression of total bliss on her face. After a couple minutes of slowly enjoying the filling of her vagina, we picked up the pace and rolled so I could slam into her from above. Filling her had just begun.
We got packed in the morning and disposed of any food we couldn’t carry with us. Remas packed a bag of things she could use and we all loaded onto the bus. We still had one meeting to go at the National School.
“First of all, let me repeat how much we enjoyed having you with us here in DC this week and what a great performance you gave us all last night,” Dr. D said when we’d all gathered in the conference room. “And second, let me apologize again for the snafu in the contract and communication. It exposed a weakness in our system here and we have decided none of the parties involved were at fault. In the future, so it is clear, Remas will continue to act as your contact, guide, and coordinator when you are visiting. And since she has shown some talent in arranging for you, we’ll consider sending her to you to help with future arrangements when needed. Performance details regarding all our expectations and requests, like location, audience, length of performance, streaming, crew needs, etc., will be handled by our contract department. I understand Sophie is our point of contact for contracts and Donna for production coordination.”
“Dr. D, you make it sound like this will be a regular occurrence,” I said.
“Jacob, we’d like to sponsor you and Cindy and other members of your pod frequently. Perhaps not all for live streams, but definitely in live performance. You are not members of the National Service yet, so we will always expect to pay you and cover expenses. I don’t think you realize yet what an important mission you have ahead of you as a National Service deputation team. You’ve been instrumental in starting the service reformation. But assuming we succeed in getting reform legislation through congress, it still needs to be sold to the American public, and most of all to the corps itself.”
“As long as we’re free to craft the message we want, I’m okay with that in principle,” I said. “What I’m concerned about is the impact on our pod. Donna, Sophie, and Nanette all had to take a week off work to get here. Emily delayed her new employment a week. Five of us missed a week of school and we still have three others in service we want to visit. Much of that will certainly impact what we are able to do.”
“We’re doing our best to take that into account. We’d like to schedule you to be with us for a week during your winter break, spring break, and early summer. About every three months. We will also do our best to work with your employers to give you time off. Not every performance will require or enable attendance by the entire pod, I’m afraid, but we’ll do our best for you. And Desiree and Brittany, I want to officially extend the offer to join us at the National School next summer. I know I took you by surprise last night.”
“Thank you, Dr. Donahue,” Desi said.
“As a final note of good faith, we will assist all those who are past service age next summer in finding acceptable employment and housing in your area. I believe that includes Donna, Sophie, Nanette, Emily, and Joan. We moved in time to influence Rachel’s assignment but I’m not certain if we will be able to influence where Olivia is stationed. Her talent set is so different than the rest of you. Oh, and Rebeca, please don’t feel left out, dear. We are doing our best to match your skills, interests and aptitude with an assignment in Washington with your pod.”
“Thank you, Dr. D.”
“That reminds me,” I said. “Is there any potential conflict as far as the service is concerned if I excel athletically? I was cautioned not to do too well.”
“Athletics? Hmm. That seemed to escape our notice. What do you do?”
“Like Livy, I run. This year, at the suggestion of the service, high schools have added half marathon races that I’m competing in.”
“And you do well?”
“Reasonably. I love running.”
“Hmm. We haven’t had a good knockdown drag-out battle with an athletic organization in years,” she laughed. “I believe we are getting you firmly enough established with your role in music that we won’t have to worry about it. If, however, you are invited to test or visit one of the training camps, I would suggest you turn the opportunity down. That will show a clear indication of your interest and by the time you do your NSAT test, we should have interest included as a factor in placement.”
“Thank you. I think we need to get to the airport,” I said. “It was an intense week. I think we’ll sleep all the way back to Indiana.”
End Part XIII
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