Double Twist
Chapter 187
“Fame you’ll be famous, as famous as can be,
with everyone watching you win on TV,
Except when they don’t
because sometimes they won’t.”
—Dr. Seuss, Oh, The Places You'll Go!
REMAS SETTLED DOWN after a few orgasms, as Desi suggested she would. She was still undecided and we didn’t pressure her. We just pleasured her. I was buried deep in her when Livy got to the apartment. Rachel took care of presenting her ring to her. We didn’t stay up screwing all night, but we were all pretty satisfied when we tumbled into two beds and went to sleep.
I was up early Saturday and went for a run. I no longer felt like I needed to pound out miles of frustration over being used by the commission and the president. I should consider it an honor. We believed in what she was doing. She hadn’t tried to tell people we were her support team. She’d just used a few phrases we used. What’s the big deal?
By the time I got back to the apartment, I was feeling pretty good and started making breakfast. Today was Beca’s test. The Capital Testing Center was only half a dozen blocks away and I figured we’d all walk over there together and wait for Beca to finish. We had another appointment after the test.
“Right here on my left cheek,” Beca said, pulling her jeans down and pointing at her butt. Chantelle, the tattoo artist, looked at the drawing Joan had made for Beca and ran a hand over Beca’s butt.
“Nice,” she whispered. I wasn’t sure if she was commenting on the artwork or on Beca’s butt. I had a feeling it was the latter. “Stretch out here with that cute butt in the air.” Beca lay down on the paper-covered table and I knelt in front of her to give her a little kiss.
“Excited?” I asked.
“Yesss!”
“As long as it’s just us girls, why don’t you take down the panties, too,” Chantelle said. “It will make it easier to get this in the right position.” Beca giggled and gave me another smooch as she pushed her panties down below her butt ledge.
“I want to make sure she gets it in the right position,” she whispered. Remas giggled next to me and Beca kissed her, too. I saw Desi, Livy, and Rachel reached out to pet Beca’s backside as Chantelle went to retrieve the transfer from her printer.
“I don’t know if I could ever convince myself to do this,” Remas said. “I’ve looked at the others’ tats and trace them every time we make love, but I just don’t know if I could mark my own skin like that. Needles scare me.”
“We didn’t make a law that said everyone has to have a tattoo,” I said. “Sophie won’t get one because she doesn’t want her body marked for dance. I don’t know if Cindy will ever go that far. I kind of doubt it. We’ll be a year in National Service before she’s even legal to get one.”
“And I know certain cultures feel differently about tattoos,” Beca said. “Oh! That tickles!” Chantelle was rubbing the design onto her butt.
“Right position?” Chantelle asked, handing Beca a mirror. Beca craned her neck around and then pushed me to go check it. I stood with my other girlfriends and took a moment just to stare at Beca’s ass. Chantelle sighed but didn’t rush us.
“It’s good.”
I returned to Beca’s head with Remas. Rachel knelt with us and we continued our conversation.
“Anyway, if your family would be upset, that’s a valid reason not to get a tattoo,” Beca said. We heard the buzz of the needle and Beca caught her breath as it touched her delicate skin. “The shit just got real,” she breathed. She panted through continuing to talk. “My mother isn’t happy about it, but there isn’t much she can say. My sister has a dozen tats and is happiest when she’s showing them all off.”
“My parents don’t have any problem with tattoos. They’re gypsies. You should see the artwork on my mother’s back. It’s an entire dance scene. My dad’s got full sleeves and a chest tattoo. It’s just… I guess I’m too wishy-washy about my level of commitment. I love you guys so much but I still feel so… separate.”
“Livy’s dad talked to me about it a couple of years ago,” I said. “I guess I understand. We grew together through a common environment, school, and set of circumstances. We learned each other through daily contact. Even Nanette saw us most of us every day. Donna was a teacher in our school. Sophie taught us all to dance and, of course, is Britt’s aunt. We gathered at the lunch table together. Em drove some of us on dates. We have a lot of common ground,” I sighed.
“Dirt,” Remas laughed.
“What?”
“You are all Indiana born and raised. You’ve been living on the same soil. I was raised in Georgia. I have a different color dirt under my nails. All the time I’ve ever spent in Indiana was with you guys. You’ve never even met my parents. You don’t know what redneck gypsies are like,” she said.
“It boggles the imagination,” Rachel giggled.
“I haven’t said no,” Remas said, kissing Rachel and lingering there for a minute while I petted Beca’s hair and she kept deep breathing as Chantelle worked on her butt. Livy and Desi were watching intently and massaging Beca’s shoulders. “I might just need a longer engagement, you know?”
On Sunday, we decided to pretend we were buying a house for our pod. Well, if all went according to plan, we’d all be moving here this summer and need a place to live, so we wanted to find out where the ‘affordable’ neighborhoods were. We toured Chevy Chase, Silver Spring, Fort Totten, and all the way out to East Corner. Everywhere we went, we had one of us looking on Zillow for property for sale and one looking on Rent.com for rentals.
“A million and a half?” Livy said. “My housing allowance is only $300 a month. How are we supposed to afford that?”
“This rental is $7,000 a month!” Beca said. “And it looks like shit. This doesn’t even look like the same property that’s in the pictures!”
“Um… you guys… what’s the big deal?” Remas said.
“Money,” Rachel answered, deadpan.
“Yeah, but like you could probably pay cash for that house.”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“Well, I don’t sit and examine your books, but you’ve been drawing in $100,000 a month for the past six months. You’ve got another six months before you enter service. That’s $1.2 million,” she said. Crap! Were we making that much? “Of course, you’ve got expenses and all, but surely you’ve got some savings out of all that.”
“Taxes,” Desi said. “But still, we need to have a general pod meeting about our financial condition and what we need in the way of housing. What can we really afford?”
“Well, let’s make a list of the things we think we need to house a dozen or thirteen people, including musicians, athletes, and artists.”
“We’re never going to find a twelve-bedroom house,” Beca said.
“Six-bedroom is doable,” Remas said. “How many bedrooms do you really need?”
“We need more bathrooms than bedrooms,” I said. “Or rooms for putting on makeup and clothes.”
“Closets, speaking of clothes,” Desi said. “Remember, I grew up in a house that was half closet. A girl needs her clothes.”
“Costumes,” Livy snorted. “We don’t need a house; we need a theater.”
“There’s a thought,” Beca said.
“Big kitchen and a stove with at least six burners and two ovens. And counterspace and an industrial quality dishwasher,” Rachel said. “I don’t even cook much and even I know how important the kitchen is at the farm.”
“I think square footage is more important than number of bedrooms,” Remas said, getting into the swing. “I mean, we go to bedrooms to screw and sleep. There’s hardly ever less than three in a bed. Even at the apartment, Rachel and I have two bedrooms but we seldom sleep apart unless one of us isn’t feeling well. I really miss her if we don’t sleep together.”
“Me, too,” I said. “But I think you’re right. We need more common space than we need private space. Nine-tenths of the time at the farm we’re in the sunroom or breakfast room. Has anyone even used the living room? Or the dining room other than at Thanksgiving when we have thirty people?”
“We need to all move in,” Beca said. “Donna said we’re supposed to start considering the farm as home. You four live there now. When we move four more in full-time, it might change how we use the space.”
“We have so much to figure out,” I sighed.
“Jacob and Rebeca, I’d like you to meet Simon Moran and Jo Wilson,” Dr. D said. “Simon and Jo, Jacob is half of the Marvel and Hopkins team we are planning to put in action by September. Jacob, Simon and Jo manage our deputation program. I think you should talk over the goals and how you see things shaping up this year. And Rebeca, if you could focus your part on how to position and message the program through websites and social media, that would be very helpful in your future role.”
“Yes, ma’am,” we answered.
“Oh, I’ll be back for lunch and then Will would like some time with you this afternoon before you leave.” Dr. D left the four of us to face each other.
“I don’t know exactly what we’re supposed to do during this time,” I said. “You want to lead?”
“Sure,” Jo answered. She looked like she was in her thirties, professionally put together like most Washington movers. She was a dark brunette with her hair pulled up in back. With her gray business suit, she reminded me of the typical uptight Washington jerk. Simon looked pretty much the role of a male counterpart. Gray suit, short-cropped hair, glasses. They were the kind you could easily pass by on the street and not know they’d been there. “We actually know quite a bit about you. We were given web addresses, watched several of your performances, and have the transcripts of your testimony before the commission. I wish I’d started at your age. You make me feel like I wasted half my life.”
“But, you’re a successful member of the Office of Civilian Service,” I said. “I’m just shooting from the hip.”
“I suppose that would be a good place for us to start the discussion,” Jo said. “Simon and I started this department last week. It’s a little early to say we’re successful. We’re counting on you for a lot of that. No pressure. Our first objective is to define the scope of our deputation program, its goals, and methods. We have to come up with a budget and way of scheduling things. We’ve got a start, but anything you can add from the perspective of the talent would be greatly appreciated.”
“What kind of background do you guys have?” Beca asked.
“Mine’s in marketing,” Simon said. “My main concern is actually getting people to book you and listen to you. In order to find the right audience for you, we need to know what kind of audience we’re looking for. It’s not like we’re sending a new rock band out.”
“Which makes me wonder why you aren’t,” I said. “There has to be groups with broader appeal than Marvel and Hopkins.”
“And Company,” Jo added. “We hope we’ll be able to book all of you together, but there will be times when it looks like just you and Cynthia Marvel on the road together. And maybe one of us or someone to act as your road manager. By the way, my background is event planning. Once Simon identifies a market, I’ll be working on appropriate venues, logistics, and ticketing.”
“Big job,” Beca said. “You know, by the way, that And Company includes a trained logistics person?”
“Yes. We’ve got profiles on all of you and like you with web and social media content, we’re trying to figure out how best to use each of you. Some create a problem because they are non-service or post-service. We can’t just assign them a role and tell them to move. We have to hire them,” Jo laughed. “Just like the old days.”
“So, what do you envision a deputation team doing?” I asked.
“In short, we want you to improve the image of the National Service.”
“Are you sure you want me? It seems like I’ve done my share of dissing the service over the past year.”
“It seems that way, but as long as the administration continues to address the points you bring up, it’s more like you are a champion of the people,” Jo said. “Especially the corps members. #RecoverTheDream was trending before the president made her address on New Year’s Day. Everyone knew you were bringing pressure on the service to mend its ways. I think what we want to see happen is for you to become established in the role of champion for the corps. People should see that you not only bring them your unique style of entertainment, but bring other entertainers to them as well. They should be able to send you suggestions or be able to point out abuses.”
“That could be a full-time job right there,” Beca said. “We could have a flood of email and social media responses.”
“I understand that you do now,” Simon said. “I had an opportunity to meet your web mistress in Chicago on an unrelated matter a few weeks ago. She said that in the hour after one of your concerts, she handles a hundred to a thousand user comments, filters them, and issues responses. And she does that in her spare time, not in her service time.”
“Joan is amazing!” Beca said. “We’re on the phone half the night sometimes.”
“We want her to continue in the role, but her service will be up before you start. If we can’t convince her to reup, she’ll be another one we try to hire.”
“So, what’s first?” I asked.
“We’re impatient to start,” Simon said. “We have about a three-month window to get things all set and started. Then there will still be three months before you are in service that we need to cover. We’ll try not to put any undue stress on you, but we might want to do some more events during that time. The campaign will be in full swing by then and you established the message we want out there: Only people who support service reform get elected.”
“Are there going to be other messages you dictate for us to deliver as your mouthpiece?” I asked. Both managers flinched.
“We hope not,” Simon said. “You’ve not had the experience of working in a large company. Sometimes we get told what the message will be and we present what we’re told.”
“We want to be in a cooperative position, not an antagonistic one. The service was attracted to you because of your messaging and performance. We’d like the program and content to continue to be yours. If we think we can help by providing additional information we think will be useful to you, we’ll do that. We’ll discuss it with you. We’ll make sure you are informed. And then we’ll let you go to it in the way that suits you best.”
“Why? That just doesn’t seem like the United States Government,” Beca said.
“I agree. It’s a huge risk. You could go out there and say something that costs us all our jobs. Or you could say something that changes the world. We’re hoping for the latter.”
“I need to get back to the school,” Dr. D said when she brought us back to the OCS office after lunch. “Believe it or not, I have a school to run. I can’t spend all my time hosting our latest sensation.”
“I… didn’t mean to… I mean thank you but…”
“Relax, Jacob. I’m always happy to have you visit and I’m looking forward to having your crew out here full time. We all have real lives to get back to, too.” She stood beside the car for a moment as we gathered our things. “Will wants to meet with you a while and then they’ll see to it that you get to the airport. You are always welcome out here, Jacob and Rebeca. I know things are a little hectic at the moment, but if not before, we’ll see you the first of April. Let me know if there is anything you need. Remas can always get in touch with me if I’m not available.”
“Thank you, Dr. Donahue,” Beca said. “We love Remas. It’s been a pleasure to visit. We want to hang out with our girlfriends whenever we can.”
“We’ll see you in a couple of months,” I said. “Thank you for everything.”
We went into the office, amazed that our new badges opened doors in a government office. We found Forsythe’s office and his secretary showed us to a conference room.
“I’m ready to go home,” Beca sighed. “I just wish I could take them with us.”
“I agree, Kitten. Five of us in different places is still tough. I’ll be glad when Joan is back home for good.”
“I’ll be glad when you are here in DC with me for good,” Rachel said as she entered the room.
“Rachel! What are you doing here?”
“This is where I work, lover. Mr. Forsythe requested me to be here for the meeting with you.”
“I’m glad you could make it, Rachel,” he said, coming in from another door. “Jacob and Rebeca, it’s good to see you again.”
“You’re the boss,” Rachel said.
“Yes. I try not to think about that most of the time. Let’s get started.” We sat at the round table and he leaned in on his elbows. “I hope you’re pleased with Simon and Jo. They are excited to work with you. They think starting with you will be an easy way to prepare for other teams.”
“We didn’t ask how many they expected,” I said.
“We haven’t defined that yet. Identifying potential teams is the big issue now. What I wanted to talk to the three of you about is some of the nitty gritty details of how we’re going to work. These are service related rather than deputation related.”
“Thank you for taking the time to do that,” Beca said. “I’m sure you could have shuffled us off to someone else.”
“Oh, I am, eventually. You have a good relationship with Dr. Donahue’s assistant Remas Hayek. She will continue to be your contact person for all things related to the school, your enrollment, training, and visits. But Remas is a musician and we’ve been taking her away from some of her own duties with the orchestra and her schooling.
“Is it really necessary for Remas to decide if she’ll stay with us or re-up for a career with the orchestra right away?” I asked. Will made a note on his tablet.
“Let me get someone to check on that. It’s a military leftover to try to get members to re-up as early as possible. For now, as far as the OCS is concerned, Rachel here will be taking over as your point of contact. Of course, you’ll be talking to Jo and Simon frequently, but assume Rachel is now your NS Manager. She’ll be the one coordinating your interaction with the service up until the time you join and after you are full members of the corps, she’ll be your onsite manager.”
Rachel grinned at us.
“I knew she’d be in that position eventually,” I said.
“Rebeca, I expect that you and if we are successful in either hiring or recruiting Ms. Joan Long and Ms. Emily Hopkins, that they will also report to Rachel. It is possible she may be given other reports as well. It’s also possible your role might expand beyond just supporting one deputation team to supporting a broader range of National Service websites. I hope you’ll be amenable to that. We’ll see how the department grows. Rachel, you’re doing a good job and we’re pushing a lot of responsibility onto you. I have great confidence in you.”
“Thank you, sir.”
“There are two issues at large that need to be dealt with. You currently have a contract for two additional performances—one in April and one the first of July. We’d like to talk about additional performances. It’s been passed up the chain to us, for example, that perhaps you should be scheduled for a series of weekend performances in Indiana to help cement your home base. I’m going to have Rachel work with your producer and with Jo and Simon to see if something can be arranged. These would be duet performances rather than ensemble as we can’t put together the kind of tour we did in California at this time. But we want your name out there as frequently as possible. You can also assume these performances would not require new material each time. Put together a set and perform it over and over. Are you willing to work on that?”
“Yes, sir. Mrs. Marvel has compiled a list of venues she wanted Cindy and me to perform at and would be delighted to get us out. I’m sure we can make something work,” I said.
“Okay. The other issue regards how to deal with your business and revenue when you enter service and are being paid by us to go out and perform. You’ve built up a pretty good revenue stream from what I’ve been told. If you continue to provide content and accept money from your patrons, you could be considered to be double-dipping and getting additional revenue over what the service pays. Which isn’t a bad thing in my opinion. We have some precedence for people getting paid, for example, royalties for inventions and creative works. What we don’t want to happen is for you to suffer a significant loss of revenue because you are in the service. It’s never a problem for passive income, but active income needs to be monitored and formalized before you are sworn in. Rachel, that’s an issue you need to discuss thoroughly with your pod mates and make sure we have a recommendation that will work.”
“Yes, sir,” Rachel nodded, scratching a note on her tablet.
“I’m guessing you’ll be making a few trips to Indiana in the coming months to help coordinate things,” Forsythe grinned. “You do have a travel budget.”
We all grinned at that.
“I’ve said my spiel and I need to go visit the General to sell the latest round of policy changes. I’ll leave you to get things coordinated and we’ll have a car here to take you to the airport in an hour. Are we clear?” Forsythe asked.
“Thank you, Mr. Forsythe,” I said. “Please correct us if we’re supposed to call you Mr. Director or something.”
“That will do for now.” He stood and shook hands all the way around and then brushed back out to his office.
We did talk about how we’d coordinate things between Indiana and Washington, but the conference room had no windows to the office and we spent the last fifteen minutes kissing our lover and telling her how much we would miss her until she could come to Indiana.
Comments
Please feel free to send comments to the author at devon@devonlayne.com.
