Exposure
8
War Zone
“Yvonne” by Belovodchenko Anton, ID1039026097 licensed from Shutterstock.com
WHEN I WAS ABLE to focus again, the cop was gone off to assault someone else. They didn’t care if they were attacking protesters, or campaign volunteers, or bystanders just trying to get home, like me.
“Can you get up?”
I looked up to see another cop. He had a club, but it wasn’t raised to hit me. He grabbed hold of my shirt and dragged me to my feet.
“What the hell are you doing here? Your people are in jail.”
“My people?”
“I recognize you. The photographer back during the riots in April.”
“Officer Macalister? Oh, yeah. I was just trying to get home.”
“Where’s home?”
“Around the corner over there.”
“Get to it and get someone to clean you up. There might not be any ambulances available for a while.”
“I was just taking pictures. I wasn’t protesting or anything,” I said. I flinched as he tapped my chest with his club.
“You enter a war zone, you’re going to get shot at. Now get going.”
He gave me a shove and I stumbled around the corner and to the door of our building. I got inside and waited for the elevator. I didn’t think I could climb even one flight, let alone four floors.
I got the outer door of the suite open and just fell on the floor. All the individual room doors were closed. I didn’t know for sure if my roommates had even checked in or not. I hadn’t met any of them. I just couldn’t move any farther to get to my room.
“Nate! Nate! What happened?”
I managed to roll over to see my guardian angel hovering over me. Funny little angel. She was all out of focus.
“Got… caught… in a war zone,” I choked out. There was blood in my mouth.
“How badly are you hurt? I need to get you to a hospital. Your face is cut.”
“Hit in the head.”
She felt around the back of my head and I winced, tears coming into my eyes.
“No ambulances around. All busy. Police went crazy. Beating up everybody.”
“Can you make it to your bed? Come on, honey, I’ll help you.”
I managed to get up, leaning heavily on Beth. She got the key out of my hand and unlocked my bedroom. I fell heavily onto the bed and moaned in pain from my side. When did he hit me there? She ran out of the room and down to the restroom to get a towel wet and brought it to start mopping up the blood on my face.
“Damn pigs!” I moaned. Nobody would vote for a Democrat after they saw that carnage—no matter who was nominated. There were tears in my eyes and I realized it wasn’t just from pain. Something in the air was causing them to tear up. Beth was having the same problem. The police had been pulling on gas masks the last I saw of them. Tear gas. It must be everywhere.
“You really need a doctor. I’m going to call for Deke. He’ll come to get us and take us out to a hospital.”
“Uncle Nate. He’s closer.”
“Uncle? I thought you must be related. What’s his number?”
I rattled off the number and she wrote it down, then dug in my pocket for change. She went to the payphone in the hall and called. I looked at my camera, still around my neck and clutched in one hand. My trusty workhorse 105mm lens was cracked. The roll of film was at the end. I wondered if any of the pictures would be in focus.
“Mr. Mayer will be here in fifteen minutes if he can get through. He said not to leave the room. He’ll come up for us,” Beth said as she came back into the room and sat on the bed next to me. She dabbed at my face with the towel.
“Sorry about dinner,” I said.
“Fuck dinner. Look at your camera!”
“Cracked the lens. The cop seemed to aim for it. Drove it into my face. I doubt the body is harmed. You could drive nails with this Nikon. Damned expensive lens, though.”
My eyes drifted closed. I knew I was cut above one where the camera had hit me. My jaw hurt. I might have lost a tooth. Or maybe it was just twisted out of place. And my head. My elbow. My ribs. Jesus. How many times did he hit me?
Uncle Nate and another guy arrived in my room and supported me between them as Beth followed along with a change of clothes for me. There were two cars parked at the entrance. I recognized Uncle Nate’s Cadillac, but not the other car or the three guys in suits standing next to the two cars. One opened the back door of the Cadillac and Nate got me in. Beth slid in beside me from the other side. Uncle Nate got in the passenger side and the other guy drove. I’m not sure what happened to the others.
They took me up north to Memorial Hospital. It was far enough away from the action downtown that it hadn’t started receiving the overflow from the massacre yet. Jordan Marsh was at the hospital waiting for us and he was evidently well enough known there that I was taken straight into the emergency room and a doctor started ordering x-rays and getting my face stitched.
Eventually, they put me in a room. Elizabeth kissed me carefully on the right side of my face and said she was going home with her father and would see me in the morning. Uncle Nate said he wasn’t going to bother my parents since I would be okay. He thought maybe I should save the story for them until Christmas or so.
I went to sleep.
We didn’t get back downtown until Monday, Labor Day. Jordan and Nadia were solicitous, but didn’t overdo the care and concern. I mostly stayed out of sight in Elizabeth’s room or on her little patio. I watched a lot of news on the television and found out a little more about what was going on.
Daley came off like a little Mussolini ordering the police to disperse the rioting protesters wherever they appeared in the city. He renewed his order from April that police were to shoot to kill any rioter setting a fire or holding a Molotov cocktail. From what I saw, it was the police who were the rioters. The protest had been peaceful up until the police attacked them.
Hubert Humphrey had been nominated with Edmund Muskie as his VP candidate. Everyone who cared about what was happening in Vietnam was in despair. Police even broke in on McCarthy’s campaign staff in the Hilton and beat them, arresting them for supposedly throwing things out the windows.
Now there were no alternative candidates opposed to the war. Humphrey was Johnson’s little puppet. Nixon had already announced he would keep McNamara on as Secretary of Defense. Nobody was going to vote for the racist Wallace except all of the racist South. And at least one member of the draft board in Huntertown.
I was pretty depressed when I got back to my room and met my roommates. It was a pretty brief meeting. Two of them had come in on Sunday and were headed out to see the sights and see if there were any protests going on. Couple of days late. Nothing was going on downtown now. Street sweepers were trying to clean up any evidence that Chicago was ever anything but a peaceful welcoming city. Run by a fucking dictator and the gestapo.
They looked at my face and wanted to know all about the Battle on Michigan Avenue. It had already acquired the name and capital letters thanks to the live broadcast on network news. The third guy arrived early in the afternoon and took one look at me before closing himself into his room. Elizabeth and I went to Camera Warehouse and Levi shook his head when he saw me. He handed me a new Nikkor 105mm lens and took the cracked one to see if he could repair it. I headed up to the darkroom to see if there was anything usable on the roll of film I’d shot.
The riot in front of the Hilton lasted seventeen minutes, according to newscasters, who said that was thanks to the fast work of police in dispersing the unruly crowd. I had twelve seconds of action as a policeman rained blows down on my head and camera. I’d taken half a dozen photos of what was happening in front of the Hilton before the first blow hit me. When I rolled over to show I was a journalist with a camera and not a protester, I pressed the shutter release and just held it down as the camera fired off thirty exposures, including six with the cracked lens.
I set up to print them in a series, like I’d done with Patricia’s pregnancy photos. These were full frame photos, so I couldn’t get as many on a single sheet as I’d done with the cropped photos of the pregnancy. Nonetheless, I got three across and four down on the 16x20 sheets, so I displayed all the exposures on three sheets.
Levi looked at them and shook his head, then immediately asked for a set. I handed him that set and went up to print another for myself. When I was done, I found Levi had changed his window display. He’d attached my cracked lens to an old Nikon body and set it on a red cloth in the window. Surrounding it were the three panels that showed what a first-hand view of the riot looked like.
I sent a couple of photos over to the Trib, but the riot was old news. They suggested that I include a picture of the victim and that I submit my photos in a more timely fashion because the newspaper had deadlines to meet.
I’d changed the film in the camera and switched to the 50mm, while I was at Beth’s house. I’d taken a couple of timed photos and then Beth took a couple of photos of me, showing the bandages and the black eye. I hadn’t lost any teeth, but they’d been knocked loose and my mouth was swollen. I needed to see a dentist as soon as the holiday was over. I processed the film, even though I hadn’t exposed the whole roll. I printed an 8x10 of my self image and took it to Levi. He immediately put it in the window with the rest of the display. He didn’t put any captions or a display title in the window. Just the images and the broken lens. I thought it was pretty gutsy to identify the store with the images of that night.
Tuesday, we started classes. Elizabeth assured me that she’d be okay walking over to State Street and up a couple of blocks to the DePaul campus. She’d met several other students who would be making the trip and they’d walk together. My classes were right on Michigan Avenue about a block and a half away.
I won’t say a lot about classes. They were as interesting as first day classes could be, but I will mention Mr. Jonas in the photojournalism class. He did some typical introductory things and then asked each of the fifteen of us in the class to introduce ourselves. All I managed to get out was my name.
“What happened to you?” Jonas demanded.
“I got too close to the riots Wednesday night,” I said.
“Did you get pictures?” he asked.
We’d been told to bring a portfolio of work with us to our first day classes, so I opened it up and pulled out the three sequence prints and the afterward print.
“What this shows is that journalists are no longer immune to attack,” Jonas said. “It is something you will all need to learn, hopefully not the hard way, like Nate did. Did you learn anything else, Nate?”
“Develop the prints and get them to the newspaper,” I said. “Then go to the hospital.”
The class sort of laughed at that, but Jonas was off and talking about the role of the photojournalist in today’s society. It would be an interesting class.
The woman who was scheduled for my Thursday shoot when I was still in the hospital had been rescheduled to Saturday the seventh. Molly Pratt would arrive at ten. First, my assistants—all four of them—had to fuss over me. I hadn’t seen Leora, Theresa, or Cassie since the incident and they were all very concerned for my health and that I had an adequate number of boobs to soothe me. Elizabeth assured them that her two boobs had barely been enough, but that she was sure I would heal faster through the application of others.
They were applied, but with my mouth still sore, the enjoyment was limited. I did spend a moment to truly savor Cassie’s dark nipple, though. She seemed pleased that I liked it. But everyone had to get themselves respectable before Molly arrived.
Cassie checked her in downstairs and brought her up to the studio. When she saw me, she stopped short and stared, then rushed to me.
“Are you okay? They told me you were sick on Thursday. They didn’t say you were in an accident! Do you need more time? We don’t have to do this today. My schedule is flexible. We can wait another week,” she said, pretty much all in one breath. I didn’t know who she was but I’d seldom met someone more effusive in her concern for my well-being.
“I assure you, I’m mostly fine,” I said. “I’ve had a week of rest and really need to do some work. I’m glad you were able to come in today.”
That was only a little lie. The week had not been particularly restful as I was plunged into my daily schedule of classes. My schedule was pretty much like high school with classes from eight in the morning until five in the evening. The only big difference was that I didn’t have every class every day. Photo Lab met three times a week for an hour at 11:00. I’d already learned something about different papers in that class. It would be good. My lighting class met for two hours in the afternoon on Tuesday and Thursday. So far, we were in rudiments of the theory of light. Since this was a theatre tech class, I expected a lot of it would be relative to lighting the stage.
Three of my classes met five days a week: English composition, which they called Writing and Rhetoric, at 8:00 in the morning; Photojournalism at 10:00; and World History at 4:00. My day was bracketed by two core classes, so I never had an early out.
“Well, if you need a rest or anything during the day, you just let me know,” Molly continued. “We can take a break whenever you need to.”
That was usually part of my speech, but I got Molly settled with me at the table and we talked about what she was after.
“I’m a senior theatre student at DePaul,” she said. “It’s time to prepare my resume and photo portfolio. I know an actress who came to you and she said to… um… literally… put myself in your hands. Um… Wow! I said it. I don’t need costume shots from my shows like Farrah did—those were just hilarious—but I need some good glamour shots that I can use in different situations, depending on what role I’m up for.”
“Okay, Molly. Let’s start with a couple good portraits so we get used to working together. Then we’ll start putting together scenes for your Attic Allure poses,” I said. It was definitely going to be a long day. I was glad I had all four girls to back me up and help with scenery and props. I was moving around fairly well, but my cracked rib still reminded me it was there whenever I moved wrong or took a deep breath.
Fortunately, Molly was easy to work with. She was about five-five and trim. She had nice full breasts that were well-displayed in the structured bra and blue sweater dress she wore for her portrait. Her mahogany hair hung to her shoulders and had a slight curl to it.
I positioned her in front of the red backdrop and had Cassie look through the lens when I’d put a red filter on it. Got the name right that time. It dropped the tone of Molly’s dress down a few notches, but brightened the backdrop a bit. It did great things for the highlights in her hair.
“Molly, I’d like to get a couple of pictures with your hair up. Beth, can you give Molly a hand with her hair?” Beth and Leora both rushed to help put Molly’s hair up in a loose bun with a few strands hanging down.
“What’s this do?” Molly asked.
I approached her and ran a finger down her cheek from her ear to her shoulder. She squeaked just a little.
“I need to have one nice picture that shows this beautiful neck of yours. So elegant. It just makes me want to nibble on it.”
“Oh. Okay,” she whined. I didn’t nibble on her neck. I went back to the camera and she sat up straighter and even more elegantly than before. It was good.
“Now let me see what we have for your seduction scene,” I said.
“Do you want me to undress?” she asked.
“Not yet. I want to pick a costume and set, then I’ll help you,” I said. She caught her breath, but just nodded. “Theresa, I’ll want the light blue drop for this. Leora, I saw a kind of Spanish looking dance dress back there. Would you try to find it and see if we can fit it to Molly? Beth and Cassie, we need something that will give us just a hint of Spain and dancing. I think a guitar and a fan. Something to lean the guitar against, I don’t think we want her to hold it. I’m going to use pools of light, and I’d like something that she can interact with. I suppose we could use a chair or a stool, but it would be nice to have something a little more interesting.”
“That painted pillar we got in from the restaurant that went out of business,” Cassie said to Beth. “I never could understand what they used that for.”
“Good idea,” Beth said. “Get that and I’ll go find a guitar and a fan.”
I headed back to the stage area where Molly was watching Theresa pull out the drop.
“Change of plan, Theresa. Sorry. I’ll be using the black backdrop for this set instead. I’ll need four spotlights from the corners of the performance area, set high up and pointed down.”
“No problem, boss,” Theresa said. Leora brought the dress and it was just what I was hoping for.
“I might need your help in a few minutes to make sure the hair and makeup are right,” I said to her. “Right now, though, Theresa needs your help holding the ladder. We don’t want anyone falling off or tipping over.”
“God, yes. I still won’t get on the ladder, but I’ll hold it for the monkey,” Leora laughed. I took Molly behind the privacy screen.
“Let’s get your dress changed, shall we, dear?” I said. I didn’t wait for her acknowledgment, but went straight to work on unbuttoning the front of the soft sweater dress. She just stood patiently and stepped out of it when I was ready. She stood in her pantyhose and bra. “Do you have high heels with you?”
“Yes. They’re in my case.”
“I’ll have Leora help you into them when we get your dress on. The pantyhose are good because they will look nude all the way to your waist. I’m sure we’ll get this dress to flip up far enough to see your leg.”
I guided her as she stepped into the dress and I pulled it up to her waist.
“This dress is very off the shoulder,” I said. “The sleeves only attach under the arms. We’ll need to remove this before we put your arms in.”
I popped the catch on her bra and swept it off her arms and boobs in a single move. Then I pulled the dress up and held it at her chest with my hands cupping her breasts.
“Go ahead and put your arms in the sleeves and I’ll hold it until we can secure it behind your back. This is very nice.”
“Yes, it is very nice,” she said pulling a sleeve up one arm. “Not many boys have actually done that. I never considered it to be a normal part of dressing. I’ll have to rethink that.”
She got the other sleeve up and I zipped the dress up. It came to about mid-back. I stepped around in front of her and tugged the dress and sleeves up to where they seemed to fit. She had very nice breasts, and this dress showed a depth of cleavage. It left her shoulders bare. I pulled the stool over for her to sit on.
“Leora, we need help with your shoes and makeup. Beth, we need a flower for her hair.”
I stepped out from behind the privacy screen and the girls moved around to do what was needed. Cassie was setting the pillar in place and leaned the guitar against it. I checked the pillar and it was basically just a big cardboard tube that maybe carpet had been rolled on. It had been decorated in a garish blue and yellow pattern that might have been intended to represent tile. There was a wide base plinth and a sizable cap on top. If the food in the restaurant was as carefully prepared as this pillar, it was no wonder they went out of business. It seemed pretty stable, but I wouldn’t have Molly lean against it.
Theresa turned on the lights and I had Cassie stand where I wanted the main action to occur while Theresa and I adjusted the lights.
“Ready when you are, Molly,” I called as soon as I had the camera loaded.
She was a vision. Beth and Leora got just the right touch with the flower, hair, and makeup. Molly carried the fan and twirled around once, causing the skirt to flare out wide.
“We’ll start with some simple poses, and then I want to try a couple of action shots.” I started posing Molly where I wanted her. I had to adjust a couple of lights and then started taking pictures. I moved her around like a doll. I had her hold the fan overhead and pulled the hem of her skirt up to her hand to expose her leg. Those high heels really did wonders to the shape of her legs. I was pleased.
We tried the dance moves I was sure she was capable of. I had to keep the lights up high and shoot a fast shutter speed, but I was sure it worked.
“Work the dress,” I said. “Stay in your light and keep your head held high. Let’s see how high you can kick.”
She kicked and I caught her with both legs fully exposed as she tossed her head toward the camera. When her foot came down, so did her dress and I caught two good and slightly startled poses with her breasts exposed.
We managed to invent three more scenes with sultry glamorous poses, ending with her fully nude on the day bed.
“I can’t believe I managed to do all that,” she said. “You not only made good photos, you managed to stretch my performance ability. I don’t know how much use I’ll have for a nude photo, but I want to have it.” She flung her arms around me on the bed and kissed me as I sat beside her. My fingers automatically found her nipple and rotated it between them. “Oh, god, yes,” she said, kissing me again. “You have me so turned on after all that, I’m about to explode.”
In other circumstances, I might have picked her up and carried her behind the privacy screen, but I couldn’t lift her with my cracked rib. I just let my hand drift down among the short hairs as my assistants all made themselves scarce. In a few seconds, Molly was gasping in orgasm.
“Let me suck you,” she pled. “That’s not sex in the studio, is it?”
“Thank you, but I’m really knocked out and as much as I’d like to try, I don’t think I could enjoy it right now,” I said. “You showed incredible talent today and I think it will come out in your photos. Even that will need to wait until tomorrow before I can process the film and make proof sheets.”
“Oh, poor baby! I’m sorry I was so demanding. Of course, you’re tired. I’m tired, you must be exhausted. But if you want to get together sometime, you know, you have my number. I could take really good care of you. I suppose you should take your fingers out of my vagina and I’ll go get dressed. Thank you for giving me such a great photoshoot.”
I pulled my fingers out of her pussy and let go of her tit so she could go get dressed. Suddenly my assistants appeared as if from nowhere.
“You really do have a magic touch,” Cassie whispered. “Give me that last roll of film and I’ll mark it. All the film will be in the darkroom when you come in tomorrow. Run now before she’s dressed and can chase you!”
I chuckled a little, but Elizabeth was right beside me and guided me down the stairs and out the door. We stopped for some dinner at a little Chinese place on Wabash and then went to our rooms. Unfortunately, I was too tired even to make love to my girlfriend.
Beth and I spent a little quality time together Sunday morning while her roommate was out—by arrangement. Then we went to the studio and I worked on processing the previous day’s film while Beth studied nearby.
Study was something I was keeping up with at the moment, but I was going to need to really pay attention to if I got any busier during the coming weeks. I’d limited my studio time to Saturday and Sunday, but I knew that when Molly saw her proof sheet, I was going to have a lot of printing to get done—probably in the evenings.
My Photo Lab class was proving to be one of the most interesting. Professor Hyatt was giving us a survey of different films that we were to shoot and then process in the lab. There were only six of us in the lab, so we got a lot of personal attention during class. The other five seemed to have just as much experience in the darkroom as I had and we often shared techniques we’d used.
Hyatt had rolls of 35mm film in each of the types he was surveying and would give us one twelve-exposure roll and a list of specific subjects and shooting conditions we were to capture before the next class. Then, during class, he would talk about the processing of that film and we’d mix the chemicals and process the roll during class. Finally, he’d have us select a frame from our negatives and print an enlargement from it. We were getting interesting results. It wasn’t unusual for me to rush over to Camera Warehouse on Tuesday or Thursday evening just to print enlargements of some of my other negatives.
He’d shown the usual black and white films in 100 and 400 ASA the first week. The second week, we moved on to infrared film and were using three different brands during the next two weeks. We were slated to take pictures of a model he was bringing into the college studio in two weeks on a large format camera, shooting three different films, including x-ray film!
I loved the fine-grain texture of the infrared film that was shot at about a 32 ASA in the studio. I could really get into that for portraiture in the studio and asked Levi if he could get me some for the Hasselblad. He smiled and said he’d have it the next weekend.
That was good timing. The model I’d had slated for Sunday of Labor Day weekend when I was unable to leave Beth’s house was rescheduled for Saturday the fourteenth. My former teacher, Yvonne, was making a trip to Chicago for a photo session. Since she was my model, I could experiment with the film.
“Yvonne, it’s great to see you again,” I said when she came up to the studio. “Easy on the hug. My ribs aren’t in the best of shape,” I cautioned her.
“What happened to you?” she asked, looking at my face. I’d just gotten the stitches out the day before and my eye was still a bit discolored.
“I kind of got hit,” I said.
“How many times?”
“I’m not sure. At least four. Maybe six. I don’t think I was conscious for the one that cracked my rib.”
“Come back to Tenbrook. You don’t need to be here,” she said.
“I’m perfectly safe now. You know. It was during the convention.”
“You were rioting?” she asked in disbelief.
“No. The police were rioting. They attacked a peaceful protest. I was just taking pictures. It didn’t make any difference. They started beating everyone they could reach.”
“That’s not the story that we hear,” she said.
“I didn’t think so. I’ve watched the news. They’ve bought into Daley’s line of bull whole hog. He probably has some hold over the news outlets, too.”
“Well… um… you have assistants here.”
“They don’t know you or who you are, but if you’re uncomfortable with them, I can send them away. I’ll just need to depend on you to carry things and lift anything for me,” I said.
“No. It’s fine. I… uh… will get the same experience your other models do. That’s good. I was sort of hoping for… you know…”
“My assistants don’t interfere with anything that goes on between me and my models,” I said. It happened that Theresa and Leora were with me this time. Beth had gone home for the weekend and I was conscious of Cassie already putting in a full time week in the Warehouse.
“Oh, my. This might even be a new experience for me. What are we going to shoot?”
“I’m thinking of reproducing some classical art figure poses,” I said. “Honestly, I’m experimenting with a new film and I want to get the finest image I can get with you. I’ll light you well, but a lot of it will be me bracketing exposures and working with lighting. That’s one reason for having Leora and Theresa here. They understand the lighting and will be moving them for me. Um… Do you need some warm up shots, or can we move directly to the art poses?”
“You mean the nude poses, right?” she laughed.
“Well, yes. Though I’ll give you some scraps of fabric. It adds a different texture to the composition.”
“Why don’t you help me get my skin texture ready and then you can drape me,” she said.
I joined her behind the privacy screen and she immediately kissed me long and hard. I backed off a little because my jaw still hurt. I used the opportunity to start removing her clothes. And as long as she was naked in my arms, I held her butt and caressed her breasts as we continued to kiss.
“We’d better get to work before we lose control here,” I finally said.
“I’m not falling in love with you,” she said. I wondered if she was assuring me or herself. “I’m way too old for that. I just find myself starved for affection and physical contact. I’ll pull myself together and we can get on with the real reason for being here.”
We’d managed to locate a short pillar like I had in Tenbrook and the girls had it set with the lights where I wanted them for the first shot. They’d taken turns posing while we focused the lights and arranged them. Mostly Leora posed while Theresa ran up the ladder to change the focus and adjust the direction. It was a great excuse for them to run around naked for the first hour when we got there.
The first pose was a shot of Yvonne sitting on the pillar with her back toward me and a towel draped across her leg. She had both hands raised to her hair. Her toned and muscular physique was perfect for this pose. I could see every muscle in her back and I bracketed my exposures to see where I could get the best results. Then I ran through shots with the three filters recommended for this kind of work, #8 yellow, #15 orange, and #25 red. I needed to figure out just how the film worked if I was going to try to use it on a regular basis in the studio. It was a little pricier than just using Tri-X, but if the results proved to be what I saw in the Photo Lab, it would be worth it. I was also considering my next major purchase. I planned to get a large format camera, probably a 4x5. Since I just had to buy a new lens for the Nikon, getting a new camera was going to wait a while.
I worked with Yvonne in six different poses, and shot a full roll of film in each. She moved from the seated nude with her back to me, to a reclining nude with her back to me, but her head turned to look at me. I liked the shape of her butt. A lot. Then I had her do a recumbent position, stretching out against a heap of pillows.
Each time I had her change positions, I spent a few minutes just stroking and massaging her because she had to hold these poses for twelve shots. We also experimented with changing the angle of the lights and tossing strips of fabric over the backdrop and down onto whatever surface she was posing on. I liked the pose of her standing with a towel over one shoulder and her hands raised to do up her hair as if she was just heading for the bath.
I signaled the girls that we were finished for the day and they got busy moving props and folding fabric. I sat next to Yvonne behind the privacy screen and held her. We kissed.
“I feel like we’ve been making love all day,” she whispered. “You’ve been so careful with me and I could see the pose you were getting in my mind’s eye. Please take me the rest of the way. I know I’m close. I just need a little coaxing from you.”
That wasn’t difficult to do. While I held her and kissed her, my fingers made their way into her pussy. I found the right places to stimulate and soon she was gasping into my mouth as she shook in orgasm. It was good.
“That will definitely hold me until next time,” she said. “I’ll see you in December when you come to Tenbrook to do senior photos. I know a lot of the seniors are excited to have you taking their pictures—even the boys.”
“I hope none of them expect too much,” I laughed. “I’ll see you in a few weeks.”
Of course, I was going to be back in Tenbrook long before the December holidays. My birthday was coming up and I decided it was a good time to see the folks back home. And as much as I wanted to be a big city independent photographer, I was a little homesick.
I talked to the folks on Sundays just before Disney. I kind of missed my bowl of ice cream those nights. Keeping a pint of ice cream in the dorm refrigerator on our floor was just giving it away. And I managed to talk to each of my girlfriends once a week, too. All those calls were easy if we happened to be up at Elizabeth’s house and I could use her phone. I hadn’t been there since Labor Day. Making the calls on the payphone in the hall of our residence was not private and was always rushed because someone else wanted to use the phone, too. And our calls were limited to the amount of change in my pocket.
Nonetheless, Deke picked Beth and me up Thursday after class and her parents had a very nice dinner for us to celebrate my birthday. We cut classes on Friday the twenty-seventh and after we’d made love in the morning, I got the VW started and headed west.
An hour and a half later, I pulled up in front of the College of Commerce in Rockford. Anna was waiting for me and was out the doors and in the van before I even got the engine turned off.
I caught her in my arms and kissed her like I’d never let go.
“Happy birthday, lover,” she said. “Do we have to get straight home or can we camp someplace for a while?”
“Oh, my sweet. You’re talking my kind of language. It’s not even noon yet. Let’s grab a burger on the way out of town and go find a place to make out,” I said.
“By ‘make out’ I hope you mean make love,” she said hugging my arm as I shifted between her legs. “There’s a new McDonald’s two blocks up on the left.”
I might have been happier with a White Castle, but the burgers and fries at McDonald’s weren’t bad and I loved the chocolate shake. We ate as I drove and I cut off the highway on county roads until we found a place that looked deserted. We immediately got in the back where the bed was still set up from my trip a month ago. My van had been behind Elizabeth’s house ever since I moved to Chicago.
We spent an hour back there catching up on a month’s worth of loving. It was so nice to be back between Anna’s legs I almost wept. She did.
“I’ve missed you so much. I just want to kiss you and be with you. I love you!” she said.
“We’ve done well for the first month,” I said. “You’re learning lots and I’m learning lots. The business is slow, but that’s what we hoped for. Theresa and Leora both have school and other jobs, so they aren’t depending on working in the studio every day. Cassie works for Levi, so she’s stable, and Elizabeth is in school. We’re adjusting and now I’ve figured out that you are only a little more than an hour away. If I have the VW someplace more accessible, I could just pop out and see you on a Saturday or Sunday. Except those are the days I’m in the studio. Anyway, we can see each other and I love you.”
“Shut up and make love to me again,” she said.
Okay!
When we got home, I took Anna to her parents’ house. She wouldn’t be forgiven if she came to town and didn’t at least visit there for a while. I went home and found Patricia and Toni waiting for me. I kissed Patricia and was handed Toni.
“Happy birthday! A little girl wants her godfather,” Patricia laughed. I cuddled the baby and started dancing around the room with her.
“The rest of us are also happy to see you home,” Mom said. Kat grabbed hold of me and hugged me and I couldn’t believe the thirteen-year-old was growing. I’d only been gone a month!
“My gosh! You’re as tall as Deborah!” I said.
“Yeah, but she’s a shrimp. I’m going to be taller than Naomi,” she answered. “Wait until you see my latest pictures!”
“I can hardly wait.”
“What happened to your head?” Mom demanded. Trust a mother to zero in on the little scar over my eye. I guess it wasn’t really so little. I’d just gotten used to it.
“Um… I got hit,” I said, loosening Kat’s grip on my sore ribs.
Mom investigated my scalp and jaw then poked me in the side. I winced.
“How many times?”
“I… uh… lost track. I’m okay, though. I didn’t want you to worry.”
“I’ve been worried about you ever since you walked out the door. Seeing that my worries were justified doesn’t help. Don’t explain yet. Wait until your father gets home. And happy birthday, Nate.”
“Thanks, Mom.” I hugged her and she went easy on my ribs. I didn’t relinquish the baby. I knew that when Anna got there, she’d want her turn and I was enjoying just holding and cuddling her. Patricia joined me in the hug and we danced together to music that only we could hear.
“It’s so nice having this extra set of grandparents,” Patricia said. “Rich is so sweet. He made a little mobile for over Toni’s crib. She lies there and watches it for hours. The doctor said she’s doing well and is right on track for weight gain and health.”
“I’m glad you’re comfortable coming over. How are things in town?”
“Well, your sister here thinks she’s in competition with Tony’s sister over who gets to babysit when. So, when I’m over here, Kat gets her and when I’m at Mom and Dad Kowalski’s house, Vanessa gets her. I think both of them are a little eager for her to do other stuff. They’ve forgotten she’s just a baby.”
“And we have pictures?” I asked.
“We have film. Kat’s been very good about taking both Toni’s pictures and my pictures. Now you need to develop them.”
“I’ll get right at that tomorrow,” I laughed.
Anna arrived a few minutes after Dad got home and we sat down to eat shortly thereafter. I was right in my prediction that Anna would want Toni as soon as she got there.
“So that’s it in a nutshell,” I said. “The television has dubbed the whole thing ‘The Battle on Michigan Avenue.’ They were on live for seventeen minutes during which the police sent 150 protesters to the hospital and arrested over 500. It didn’t make a difference whether the people they were beating were protesting or watching or just trying to get home. The police just went crazy.”
“Well, the protesters were illegally assembled and had to be dispersed,” Mom said.
“Daley refused to issue permits for their assembly and march. So, they stayed on the sidewalks and only crossed the street with the lights. There was nothing illegal about them protesting.”
“But rioting?”
“Mom! Do you think I was rioting? I was taking pictures. They were chanting slogans. They were completely across the street from the Hilton. The hotel was surrounded by soldiers and national guard with bayonets on their rifles, ready to wade in and stab people. It was the police who rioted. They just charged the crowd and started beating people. Some of the cowards didn’t even bother with the crowd. They started beating bystanders, journalists, and yours truly. Now everybody believes that strongman Daley was some kind of hero for breaking up the riot. He caused it!”
I was getting pretty heated up and Patricia and Anna both put a hand on my leg. I took their hands in mine and tried to calm myself down.
“How did you manage to get out of there without getting arrested?” Dad asked.
“There’s a policeman who has been working with the gangs to keep peace in the south neighborhoods. I photographed him with Hammer in April and Hammer sent him a copy of the picture. He recognized me laying on the pavement and basically dragged me away. He got me started toward my room and I made it as far as my door before I collapsed. Elizabeth found me there and called Uncle Nate. He and some guys came to get me and take me to the hospital. Elizabeth’s father raised holy hell until they had me under a doctor’s care.”
“I should call him and thank him,” Dad said. “At least we know Anna’s parents, and Patricia’s parents and in-laws, and Chris’s and Ronda’s parents. It seems like we should introduce ourselves to Elizabeth’s parents. She was quite a nice girl when she was visiting here.”
“You wouldn’t believe her house!” Anna said. She’d stayed a week with Elizabeth. “But they’re really nice people, and they love Nate’s photos.”
“Well, you went to Chicago to go to college,” Mom said. “Have you been attending school amidst your busy schedule?”
That got the conversation effectively changed and Anna and I both told stories about our schools and what we were learning.
Please feel free to send comments to the author at devon@devonlayne.com.
