Follow Focus
7
The First Day of the Rest
“Yvonne” by Aleksie Lazukov, ID771886564 licensed from Shutterstock.com.
“FIFI, MY DEAR, I didn’t know you’d arrived.”
“You were rather busy, master,” she smiled. She stood to meet my embrace. “No one wanted to interrupt you when you were so focused.”
“It was my sister’s model and girlfriend today,” I said. “I’m so overwhelmed, I scarcely know what I’m doing.”
“Come to the hotel and let your pet take care of you for the evening.”
“Ah, that sounds fun. I need to check in with the family first, though.”
“I will still be here.”
I ran upstairs and found Ronda and Anna at the kitchen table, giggling.
“What’s up?” I asked.
“Oh! They… uh… weren’t too sneaky about it all this afternoon. Patricia was due to pick up Toni, but didn’t want to bring her back here while they were…”
Anna was interrupted by a high squeal from the guest room and my sister’s voice chanting, “Fuck, fuck, fuck! What are you doing to me?”
“Uh… Perhaps I shouldn’t be here, either. You know Adrienne is in the studio?”
“Yes. We didn’t want to interrupt you with Anita, so we left her waiting in the studio. We packed a bag for you, so you can just go. Don’t forget to take a camera with you, just in case,” Ronda said.
“I love you,” I said, giving each of the girls a kiss. I grabbed my duffle and went down to meet Adrienne. Anita was gone.
In the morning, I took Adrienne out for breakfast and saw several familiar faces, even at the little diner we went to. That Scottish Café was really a weekend and Monday gathering place.
“Hi, Nate! I’m… uh… oh… excuse me. I’m… wow!” Lorraine had spotted me and came charging across the diner, only to be arrested by noticing Adrienne. “I didn’t mean to interrupt you. Excuse me, Miss. Wow! You are beautiful!”
“Thank you,” Adrienne said softly. “You’re very attractive, too. Are you one of Nate’s models?”
“Um… models. Yes. I was just going to ask when I could stop by and see my proofs, but I really didn’t mean to just barge in like that,” Lorraine said. Something told me she had experience in interrupting men in a compromising situation.
“It’s no problem,” I said. “Adrienne, this is Lorraine. We did a session last week. She understudies Goneril in King Lear. Lorraine, my mistress, Adrienne.”
“M… mistress? Just like that? You publicly proclaim you have a mistress? What about your… um… girlfriends?” Lorraine was figuratively dumbstruck. Unfortunately, her mouth hadn’t figured that out yet.
“Adrienne is our family’s mistress. We all love our pet,” I said, stroking Adrienne’s hair. She’d often told me she would do anything I asked, even in public. This was the first time I’d really tested that. She raised her head to make sure Lorraine could see her rhinestone collar that said ‘Fifi’ on it. “We’ll be back in the studio in a couple of hours. I don’t believe I have any sittings scheduled today, so stop by any time. We’ll select the best pictures and I’ll print a set for you and a set for Adrienne to take back to LA with her. Be sure to bring your resume. She’ll pass it on to our producer.”
“Are you an actress?” Lorraine asked, sitting on the edge of a chair at the table to gaze at Adrienne.
“No, Miss. I consult on the film and represent Nate’s interests when he can’t be there,” Adrienne said. “How soon could you be available for a screen test in Los Angeles?”
“How soon? Um… I don’t think they’d miss me if I left tomorrow since I’m just filler for some of the shows. But it wouldn’t be very professional to just up and leave. My contract release date is September 24th. I have nothing planned for after that.”
“Excellent. I’ll take your resume and photos to Reg and Frank. I’m sure they’ll want you to come to LA the last week of September. We’ll be almost ready to start filming the studio shots then. The crew is currently hard at work on location shooting.”
“I’m… I… Wow! Thank you. Um… I’ll see you this afternoon, Nate.”
Lorraine didn’t find a table or order anything. She just ran from the diner.
“She knows she’s beautiful, but says she isn’t really suited for stage work. I think she might somewhat regret having had her boobs done,” I laughed.
“Bert and Brent have written in several spot roles for women that won’t be filled until the production heads for the studio,” Adrienne said. “I think they just can’t entirely give up the concept of having a lot of bare breasts in the movie and in Lyle’s hands.”
“I don’t think they’d have any difficulty getting her to bare hers,” I said. “I certainly didn’t.”
Lorraine was ecstatic over her proofs and Adrienne made suggestions on which ones would sell the best in Hollywood. When we were finished, I spotted my sister at her easel in the studio.
“Kat, you remember Adrienne from last summer?” I said. “Adrienne, this is my little sister, Kat. Her girlfriend Julie is over there with some of her clothes still on.” I pointed to the fainting couch where Julie was reclining with a bouquet of flowers and a sheet partially obscuring her.
“Oh, hi, Adrienne. Anna said you’d be in today. It’s nice to see you again.”
“And you, Miss Kat. Miss Julie, you are even more beautiful than you were a year ago.”
I could attest to that, having carefully inspected the eighteen-year-old just the day before.
“I’m going to get Julie’s photos developed this afternoon,” I said. “You aren’t leaving yet, are you, Kat?”
“Oh, no. I mean… not unless you need the room.”
“Great. We can go over the photos this afternoon and I’ll make prints for you to take to Minneapolis with you.”
“Could you take a couple more? Like right now?” Kat asked. “We set this scene on purpose.”
“Sure, I can do that.”
I got the camera loaded and set on the tripod as Kat moved her easel around behind where Julie was lying. There was a pretty complete sketch on the easel and a few splashes of color. I could see where Kat was going with her pose, seeing her with both the drawing and her girlfriend/model.
I moved the camera a bit and then adjusted both Kat and Julie. I also grabbed the 4x5 camera and transparency film. This was a beautiful portrait of the two of them, but would also make a beautiful portrait of my sister.
We worked together for about half an hour, as I shifted and posed and shot.
“Wait! One more,” Kat screamed when I said I thought we had enough. My sister knelt behind Julie and whipped her T-shirt off. Then she leaned forward to embrace her girlfriend. It was lovely, and none of my sister’s bits were really showing. You could tell she was topless but couldn’t really see her breasts. I took the last two pictures and deliberately turned my back on the girls as I removed the film from the camera and got the transparencies ready to go to Dave.
“May I walk with you, Master?” Adrienne whispered.
I had a feeling she, too, wanted to give the girls a little time to pull themselves together. I took her hand and we headed for Pro Photo Source for an overnight run to London.
Adrienne spent most of the afternoon in the darkroom with me. The door was locked and we were naked. That involved a lot of messing around, but no intercourse. We just enjoyed being together, rubbing together, and working together.
She got me all caught up on the news from the production company. The filming of the chase and crash in Tenbrook had gone extremely well. They used the same stunt company as they had for the flaming truck crash in the first movie. They’d had to build an entire sign for the restaurant and fabricate a derelict building. But the crash had been spectacular and they’d actually rigged bleachers just out of the camera’s sightline so the people in town could watch the chase and crash.
There were several other outdoor scenes in town, including a re-enactment of Avery’s dance at the edge of the water and falling in. Once again, stunt doubles had been called in for the water scenes so that neither Lyle nor Renée, who played his model in that scene, actually got in the river. But instead of rushing her to the car to get warm, the movie included a pretty hot love scene between the two on the bank of the river.
There was also a scene of Fran having made her way to the river and spying on the two from the bushes. She had her own little camera she used to capture the scene.
It was a fun afternoon. When we emerged from the darkroom, Toni was there to claim Aunt Addi for the night with Patricia. I took Anna, Ronda, Kat, and Julie out to dinner at the pub and showed the girls their pictures.
“I’m enlarging that one for our family gallery,” I said pointing to the transparency of the two of them at the couch.
“I think we each want one of them, too,” Kat said. Julie nodded. “And how can I possibly choose among these wonderful photos of Julie. Honey, you are just so delish!”
Eventually, we arrived at a solution and I set to work printing them that night.
Wednesday, we reserved the day just to get Kat and Julie ready for their road trip. It was fun and we all had little things for them to take with them, including a special lunch box we picked up from the café first thing Thursday before they pulled out.
Then Ronda and I had a play date with our pet.
The next week was a blur with moments of clarity, mostly revolving around Adrienne with one or more of us, taking our minds off all manner of responsibility. I had five clients in the next ten days, and I wanted new photos of Adrienne while she was here. And that was something the entire family wanted in on. Patricia, Ronda, and Anna all wanted bedroom photos of themselves with Adrienne. Putting the four sexiest women I’d ever met together in different combinations in bed was an experience I would treasure forever.
We capped it all off with a photo of all five of us in bed together, and then when Toni got home we restaged it with all six in our family.
“This seems to be a good time for an announcement,” Patricia said as we all cuddled together. “I found a doctor here in Stratford. You know, I haven’t really had a doctor since we moved to Chicago, though we have a pediatrician for Toni. I saw Dr. Marquette on Tuesday and she confirmed that I am pregnant. Toni, honey, in a few months, Mommy and Daddy are going to bring home a new baby sister for you.”
“Baby sister?” Toni exclaimed. “No shit!”
We were all stunned to silence by Toni’s exclamation, and then she slapped a hand across her mouth. What could we do but all start laughing?
A baby sister. No shit.
Adrienne left to fly back to LA on Sunday and we all kissed her goodbye. It was hard to say when we’d see her again. We had no idea what our schedules would look like in the coming months. Adrienne reminded us that she could travel to anywhere we went and would absolutely come to Chicago to comfort those who weren’t traveling. She was almost as excited about Patricia’s news that she was pregnant as the rest of us were.
She’d spent a lot of time the night before, holding Patricia and kissing her tummy. She kissed several other parts of Patricia as well. So did the rest of us.
Sunday afternoon, I answered the phone to the voice of my little sister.
“We made it!” she said brightly. “We’re in Minneapolis and Mr. and Mrs. Hannity have shown us to our rooms. Tomorrow, I have to go to MCAD to register and Julie has to go to the University to start freshman orientation. This is it! We’re really doing it!”
“Well, do it quietly so you don’t wake up the Hannitys,” I laughed. “That’s really wonderful, Kat. I’m so proud of you.”
“I’m so scared! What if they find out I’m not good enough? Am I going to have to go back to high school? Find a job painting signs? What if the professors just don’t like me?”
“Easy, Kat. You know, every question you just asked is one I asked right before I started at Columbia. Every single one.”
“But you are so talented!”
“So are you, little sister. They accepted you into MCAD over a year ago! And think of all you’ve learned and accomplished since then. You are a much better artist now, even though you were great then. But I’ll tell you the secret,” I said.
“A secret? What secret?”
“No matter how I progress and how much I improve, I still have more to learn. There are still people who know more than I do about photography. There are still photographers who capture better images than I. Every single one of them has something to teach me. And the same is true of you. You aren’t in college to show how good you are. You are there to soak up every bit of skill, technique, and process that you can. Drain your professors and instructors of everything they can teach you. You are there to absolutely absorb everything you can learn. In three or four years, when you graduate from MCAD, you will be ten times the artist you are now. I’ll be bragging to everyone who will listen that my sister is a master.”
“Oh, Nate! You are such a good big brother. I promise I will learn everything they can teach me. I promise!”
“Okay, everything is set. Leanne has the design and supplies. Kathleen and Damien have approved use of the Black Swan for the performance Friday night. And Miss Sullivan—excuse me—Yvonne Renninger will be here on Wednesday afternoon. We have a rehearsal on Thursday and performance Friday night,” Anna said.
“Is that enough time to get it right?” I asked. I hadn’t seen Leanne’s concept for this one.
“Leanne said that even if you mess something up, it won’t matter. It’s kind of cubist inspired,” Anna said.
“And if you falter, there are three or four women who are ready to step in and torture her,” Ronda said. “I can’t believe you kept it a secret for nearly four years before you let us know you were taking photos of her. Anna, Patricia, Judy, and I would all love to remove all the clothes from our one-time business teacher, Miss Sullivan.”
“And she’s going to be so convenient to us since she will be staying with us,” Patricia laughed.
“Are you sure that’s a good idea?” I asked.
“Oh, yes,” Anna said. “She’s excited about it. Don’t forget that the performance on Friday will also be the end of your five-year moratorium on releasing her photos. You’ll be making prints this week to display pictures no one has ever seen before.”
“You know I wouldn’t show any pictures of her that she doesn’t want released,” I said.
“Believe me, she wants the pictures to be shown,” Anna said. “Her new yoga studio is opening Labor Day weekend in Chicago. She has already asked for large photos to display there. Mostly, she wants pictures of her yoga poses.”
“Well, I guess I’d better make some of the prints she wants, then,” I laughed.
“And she’ll want some new photos besides just the one from Friday night. I think you’ll be busy all weekend,” Ronda said.
“Yvonne, I’m so glad you could come to visit us in Stratford,” I said when she arrived Wednesday just before dinner time.
“Thank you! Oh, what a pretty place!”
“Pretty chaotic at the moment,” Anna said. “We have a lot of seasonal props being transferred back to the theatre this week.”
“Seasonal props?” Yvonne asked.
“We get a number of things from the theatre each summer that they won’t be using in their shows during the season. They let us borrow set pieces and costumes and props to make photos more interesting. We take photos of all the shows and provide prints for fundraising. It’s a nice arrangement,” I said. “Let me grab your bag and show you to your room upstairs in the apartment. We don’t make guests stay in the studio or the store.”
I grabbed Yvonne’s bag and led her upstairs to the apartment. We hadn’t had a houseguest since Kat and Julie left, so everything was clean and fresh. Yvonne spent some time exclaiming over how nice the place was and when Toni got home from daycare, we all headed out to the pub for dinner.
“Are you sure you’re prepared for the show on Friday?” I asked as we were relaxing.
“Hmm. I’m not sure anyone can truly be prepared be stripped in public and painted by her former students,” Yvonne sighed. “At the same time, the idea really excites me. I am absolutely no longer considering anyone a student and am not avoiding any circumstance because it might reflect poorly on me as a teacher.”
“I’m sure Julie regrets not being here this week,” Ronda teased.
“Julie?”
“Julie Evans. She graduated this spring. She’s Nate’s sister’s girlfriend,” Ronda explained.
Yvonne gulped and took another drink from her beer.
“That is a little close in time,” she said. “But if you intend her to be here, just don’t tell me about it, okay?”
“Julie and Kat moved to Minneapolis last week to begin studies at the University of Minnesota and the Minneapolis College of Art and Design,” I laughed. “They aren’t driving all the way back here for your performance.”
“Besides,” Anna said, “we have plenty of pictures of Julie we could show you.”
“I seem to remember that when your sister showed her paintings at your exhibition, there were several that bore a striking resemblance to Julie,” Yvonne said. “It was quite a shock at school this spring when she brought Kat as her date to the prom.”
“I’m surprised they allowed that,” I said.
“You broke the ice with Ronda and Chris,” Yvonne said. “The school has become quite open since your graduation and that of the next two classes. Once they started filming in Tenbrook, the school board had a huge meeting with the community to make a list of the values they would like portrayed in the school system. They actually brought in a consultant to moderate the meeting and make sure everyone was heard. The number one attribute that was put on the list was ‘tolerance.’ Everyone pretty much accepted that there were four different churches in town and they didn’t always agree with each other. Using that as an example, the principle of tolerance for people with different religious opinions took root. The rest grew out of that.”
“I’m amazed,” Patricia said. “After everything Tony went through, it’s hard to believe the watchword of Tenbrook is now Tolerance.”
“Your mother- and father-in-law spoke up together in the meeting and reminded the community of what happened,” Yvonne said. “They made a moving appeal to their community and reminded them that their son lay in the village cemetery. Patricia, I can’t imagine what you went through the past five years, but your impact on the town was profound. Mr. Reichman stood up in the meeting and told about the lesson he learned from your pregnancy and nearly making the mistake of having you expelled. He announced a new support program for unwed mothers that will allow them to finish school and graduate with their class.”
I reached over to touch Patricia’s hand and could see the tears running down her cheeks as we remembered that very difficult time.
“I’m so sorry,” Yvonne said. “I didn’t mean to upset you.”
“I’m just glad something good has come of all that time beside my beautiful little girl,” Patricia said.
“Mommy thinking of Fadder,” Toni said. “Don’t cry, Mommy. Toni is here.”
“Oh, my sweet baby girl,” Patricia said, hugging her daughter.
“I not the baby now! Baby in Mommy’s tummy,” Toni announced. Yvonne gasped.
“You’re…?”
“Yep. Nate and I are adding to our family,” Patricia said.
That called for a round of toasts and hugs.
“We’re going to have a baby!” Anna squealed. There was no question that the child might be borne by Patricia, but she belonged to the family.
Once things had settled down again, Yvonne continued to explain what had happened.
“You must have noticed the banner in the gym when it was filmed in the movie and again when you made your presentation there last spring. Which, I might add, was extremely well done. It hangs at the end of the gym and spells out TRIBE. Beneath the letters are the words Tolerance, Responsibility, Integrity, Bonding, and Enthusiasm.”
“Bonding?” I asked.
“Not everything spells out a nice convenient acronym,” Yvonne sighed. “The original concept was ‘brotherhood,’ but they didn’t want something that restricted the gender. It was meant to represent the idea that friends in school were friends for life. The students finally decided that the concept was best represented by being a bond among them. It’s like the E meaning enthusiasm. The concept was school spirit, but that was the best they could come up with.”
“I guess that works,” Ronda said. “I wish. No, I don’t. I mean, sometimes I do, but like Patricia, I know what a wonderful family I have and I’m happy about it with no regrets.”
We headed home and after I read to Toni and danced with my little girl, I carried her off to bed. We all followed soon after, knowing the next day would be a long one as we rehearsed with Yvonne.
“Am I going to be molested by all my former students today?” Yvonne asked uncertainly.
“Oh, no, Miss Sullivan!” Judy exclaimed. “You were always my favorite teacher. We’ll all leave if you want us to. The only people who are required to touch you at all are Nate and Leanne. And she’s not a former student. We’ll help set lights and run errands and stuff, but my entire responsibility for this was this frame for your costume.”
“You always were creative with your costumes,” Yvonne laughed. “I don’t mind you all being here. All my previous sessions have just been with Nate or one other. Ronda worked with us once last year.”
“And I loved it,” Ronda said. “But this is really performance art, not about your former students. Anna and I are trying to pick music. Judy often helps with lighting and such on these projects. Patricia will get anything you want or need. Or, like we said last night, we’ll all disappear if you want privacy.”
“Please stay, Ronda. This is all part of me growing up into the new role I’ve taken for myself. I know Nate has plans for more photos this weekend, and I’m hoping to get great poses to hang on the walls of my studio as soon as I get back.”
“We can even get them matted and framed for you, if you want,” Anna said. “We’ve got a good deal with a local shop.”
“That would be wonderful. Now let’s see what we have for this body painting.”
When she saw Leanne’s drawings, she became enthused, even though we’d be painting nearly her entire body. Leanne had pots of paint and brushes for us. They were like watercolor in that we dipped our brush in water and then swirled it on the color cake until the brush was full before brushing it on our subject. The brushes were pretty big—about an inch across—so we could cover a good bit of skin with each stroke.
“What’s in this?” Yvonne asked as she looked at the paint. We brushed test patches on her arm to make sure there were no allergic reactions.
“I’m working with a makeup company to devise a good formula for body paint,” Leanne said. “The base is essentially the same as for cake makeup, but the pigments used are much more dramatic. It’s pigment powder, much like watercolor, mixed with what is basically soap, lanolin, and water. So, it’s really a dehydrated powder cream similar to stage and movie makeup. We’re running some experiments with petrolatum, paraffin, and even crushed eggshells, but so far, this combination seems to be the safest when it comes to washing it off. As long as you don’t have to wear it under hot lights all day, like you would on a movie set, it has reasonable durability and washes off cleanly.”
“Believe me, we’ve had experiences with paint that did not come off so easily,” I said as we washed Yvonne’s arm to examine her skin and make sure there was no rash developing. “This looks like it’s coming clean and has no residue or reaction on your skin.”
“The last model we did, a few weeks ago, was all done with black and white greasepaint,” Leanne laughed. “It all came off with enough makeup remover, but Judy and I were assigned to cleaning the showers for a week after.”
“I might assign you to cleaning ours if it becomes that big a problem,” I laughed.
“I think we’re ready,” Leanne said.
“Are you ready, Yvonne?” I asked.
“Give me a kiss, Nate. Then I’m sure I’ll be ready.”
The paint job was spectacular. The brilliant colors were applied in regions defined by heavy black lines. We left Yvonne’s hands and feet unpainted, as well as a portion of her face. We kept her hair up out of the way, as well. Blues, greens, reds, yellows, and an occasional patch of white, covered her body.
I photographed several poses in front of a black backdrop as Judy and Patricia set lights for me. Leanne constantly darted in to touch up spots as she saw them. The girls all applauded Yvonne’s artwork.
“I’m beginning to itch a little. Are we finished?” she asked.
“I believe so. Uh… you might need help getting all this paint off. Would you like one of the girls to join you in the shower?”
“Is a girl the only choice I get?”
“Of course not. I’ll be happy to scrub your back for you,” I smiled.
“I’m a little embarrassed to ask for it, but you could scrub more than my back. It might take some care to get paint out of some of the places I think Leanne managed to put it,” Yvonne said.
I grabbed the robe she’d worn to the studio and draped it around her as I escorted her up the stairs. Ronda had run ahead to the shower and got the water running. She’d also laid out a number of towels for us. I was amused to see that she’d put out older towels that were all dark colors. No drying a painted body on our good white towels!
Before I got in the shower, I used baby oil to wipe her entire body and remove the top few layers of the makeup. Then we got in the shower and I scrubbed her with Dove and a special sponge the girls had acquired for the showers. I admitted to using one myself, and it felt really good.
Yvonne very much appreciated my attention to detail in cleaning out every crevice on her body. I had to spend a little extra time on one of those crevices to make sure she was extremely well relaxed. When I had her out and dry, I took her to the guest room and massaged her body with almond oil. That led to a bit more intimate touching, but we didn’t actually fuck. This was all about taking care of my model.
“It’s nice to meet you, Yvonne,” Kathleen said backstage at the Black Swan. “How are you holding up?”
“A bit nervous, I suppose,” Yvonne said, huddled in her fluffy robe, sipping a glass of whiskey.
“Nothing to worry about, really,” Damien said. “The most anyone will see is glimpses. Nate and Leanne do a great job of tantalizing the audience with their model, but not fully exposing her until she is painted.”
“That’s comforting. People will only see fleeting glimpses of my nudity. Very comforting.”
“Honey, we’ll pull up stakes and leave right now if you don’t want to go through with it,” I said, putting my arm around Yvonne’s shoulders.
Damien looked alarmed. The coffee house was full.
“Oh, Nate, I know you would do that for me, but you must know that I will also do this for you. I asked for a series of spectacular poster-size photographs for my studio. This performance is for you and your studio. I’m ready when you are.”
I nodded to Kathleen and Damien and they went on stage to announce that we were ready to begin the performance. They reminded people to please not disturb the cameras on tripods as they were a part of the performance.
“The music tonight was selected by staff at Attic Allure in cooperation with the sound department at the Festival Theatre. I am told that this is a rare recording dating from 1948 on a set of four 78rpm records. The set is a compilation of the piano rag and cubist music of Igor Stravinsky. The artists this evening are Nate Hart and Leanne Kim with model Yvonne Renninger. Without further delay, let us begin with the painting.”
Judy and Patricia controlled the lighting, bringing the house lights down and once we were in position on the stage, bringing the stage lights up as Anna started the music on a rather scratchy hi-fi. But the scratches in the music really gave what we were doing a classic flavor. Leanne and I set to work immediately, beginning at Yvonne’s face and neck so she could remain covered until we needed to progress downward. She faced me, mostly toward the backstage area, and Leanne worked on her back.
We worked quickly and covered Yvonne with broad brush strokes, discovering we were moving in a kind of dance with the music. We only had a total of about thirty-some minutes of music on the eight sides of the set. We couldn’t dawdle, which was even better for Yvonne. But people did see the artwork take shape on her. As soon as we were finished with the painting, I started moving to the cameras and taking photos. People applauded and Anna and Ronda ran through two sides of the record set a second time while I was taking pictures.
The entire performance took about an hour from start to finish and we wrapped Yvonne up in her robe and hustled her out of the coffeehouse. Of course, this time, the task of getting Yvonne cleaned up was relegated to Judy and Ronda. Leanne had to clean up all the makeup and I had to pack my cameras and lights. By the time we were finished, Kathleen and Damien offered us a drink. I accepted, but Patricia and Anna rushed to relieve our babysitter, Melinda. Damien took charge of the record player and set of recordings.
“You’ll bring her to the café Sunday, won’t you?” Damien asked.
“Definitely. I think she’ll need to come down a little tonight, though. Based on rehearsal yesterday, it takes longer to get all that paint off her than to put it on. We plan to spend tomorrow in the studio. Yvonne is opening a yoga studio in Chicago and we’re shooting the rest of her publicity photos.”
“Sunday is good,” Kathleen said. “We just want to make sure she knows how much we appreciated her performance. Speaking of which, this is from the tip jar. We didn’t have a fee set up for performances this summer like last summer. Gabriella said she wanted to do it as a volunteer, but we never talked to Yvonne about it. I hope she doesn’t think we were just using her to sell drinks.”
“I’ll let her know and give her this. I’ll have a black and white print available tomorrow, but this show really required the color work. I’ll take the transparencies to Dave tomorrow, but it’s Saturday, so we won’t get them back until Tuesday, or maybe Monday evening.”
“Put us down for one,” Damien said. “I need to get over to the theatre before the show is over so my cast doesn’t think I’ve deserted them. Anita is upset that she missed this performance as it is.”
We all left the Black Swan and I headed home.
I spent Saturday with Yvonne, working on more of her yoga poses. She was driving the poses, but I was working the lighting and getting the right shots. We took ten new poses and two that we’d done before but didn’t show enough of the pose to suit her needs. All the photos isolated her in a pool of light against a black background.
I took her into the darkroom with me to process the film and print the proofs. We began the processing and printing dance interspersed with a dance of naked bodies in the dark.
“You have taken such good care of me this weekend,” she whispered between kisses. “I shouldn’t be so greedy to want more today.”
“You know I’m here for you,” I said, caressing her naked flesh. She had my shirt off and was working on my belt.
“It’s okay?”
“Yes. You needn’t worry about the girls. Don’t tell me Ronda and Judy left you hanging last night.”
“They overwhelmed me,” she sighed. “I’m not completely inexperienced in girl-girl sex, but they are obviously experts.”
“Judy hasn’t even bothered me for sex this summer. I’m beginning to think she’s found someone to scratch her itches on a full-time basis.”
“She mentioned a guy named Leo when Ronda asked her about that. I don’t know who or where he is,” Yvonne said as I shifted proof sheets and then went back to kissing and petting her.
“That’s great. Seems like a lot has changed this summer. We’ve been busy, had a lot of company, and I had to make a trip to Huntertown and on to LA in July. Ronda and I have to be back in Chicago Friday to report for work.”
“You did a brave thing to address the crowd that day. I’m told the draft board filled its quota for the year by the end of July and all left town for an extended vacation.”
“Fleeing from justice, if you ask me,” I said. “But according to the FBI, no one is pursuing the board for criminal activity and the civil suit will be dropped. They are still looking for Clyde Warren. I talked to the agents by phone last week and they have a plan to trap him. He burned our apartment in Chicago.”
“That fire was your apartment? Oh, my God! That was terrible. I hope they catch him soon.”
I moved photos from tank to tank again and Yvonne pushed me down in the chair. She crawled onto my lap and did a thorough job of marinating my penis in her juices before I had to do the rinse cycle. When that was finished, she sucked me into her mouth to make sure I was hard, and then applied the condom.
“We can turn the light on and look at the proofs now, you know,” I gasped as she settled herself onto my cock. “Or we can wait till later. That’s okay.”
I got a call Saturday evening from Mom and Dad. They’d just gotten back from their trip to see Naomi and said she was doing well. They were really tired and Mom thought they should have come back a couple of days sooner since she had to preach in the morning. She admitted she was recycling an old sermon from Tenbrook that she hadn’t used yet in Sage.
Sunday morning, the family went to That Scottish Café to show off Yvonne. Damien, Kathleen, and Anita had a table saved for us. Leanne and Judy got there a few minutes later. Basically, it was a Sunday morning equivalent of a cast party. Damien, of course, wanted to know if Yvonne would come up to visit regularly so they could plan on other shows.
“I doubt that I’ll want to do that again,” Yvonne laughed. “It was an experience I’ll never forget, but I’m not sure it was one I’d want to repeat.”
“Just like Min,” Leanne sighed. “Except she repeated several times. But this summer she seems happy to just be around hanging off the arm of her guy.”
“I’ve never seen John so happy,” Kathleen said. “They do make a cute couple.”
“See, Yvonne?” I asked. “Perhaps someone saw your performance Friday night who just wants to take care of you and have you hang off his arm.”
Yvonne spit coffee out her nose. That was kind of the response I expected.
We got all the prints matted and framed for Yvonne on Monday and she headed to Chicago to get her studio ready for the grand opening on Sunday. Then Ronda and I had to get ourselves ready to report for our first day of work.
Jordan called and said he thought he’d found a place for us. We promised to get in early enough on Thursday to see it and approve it. Anna, Patricia, and Toni decided to wait in Stratford cleaning things up for the winter until Saturday. They admonished Ronda and me to be sure to have a place for them to live when they got back. I wasn’t sure how much time we were going to have to get things arranged for the family once we started work, but we’d be calling as soon as we knew anything.
Jordan met us with a real estate agent at a nice little house in the far north suburbs of Chicago. In fact, it was almost in Wisconsin.
“Can we even get to work from here?”
“There’s a commuter rail station less than a mile from the house,” Jordan said. “It drops you off at Union Station, just six blocks from the Federal Building.”
“This place looks great,” I said. “Can we afford this?”
“I have it on pretty good authority that your credit is good. If you put $5,000 down, I’ll cover the $20,000 mortgage at 7.5% for ten years. That’s $168 a month in payments.”
“You’ll finance another house for us, Jordan?” I asked.
“I consider you a pretty good risk. Your accountant has doubled up on mortgage payments for the property in Canada, so you only have two years left on that note. This will make sure you stick around for a while.”
“You don’t have to worry about that, Jordan. I think you’re stuck with us for as long as you’ll have us.”
“Good. Let’s go back to my place and we’ll work up the papers. I’ve already put the earnest money down on it, so you write me a check for $5,000 and I’ll go down tomorrow and get it closed.”
“We need to call Patricia and Anna,” Ronda whispered.
“Of course. They’ll be spending more time in the place than you will for the first couple of years. You can call from the house,” Jordan said.
“Is this real?” Ronda whispered when we were driving the bus to Jordan’s house. I could barely hear her over the wind and road noise.
“What do you think, honey? Are we being railroaded?”
“I can’t believe there’s a house in the Chicago area that we can afford.”
“Well, loosely in the Chicago area. It’s sixty miles to Union Station. And we can be glad it’s a direct route. It’s literally the same distance to Milwaukee.”
“Is it too far out in the boonies for our family?”
“Where else are we going to find a four-bedroom, two-bath house with a garage on the water? Granted, it’s a channel, but it’s water and if we wanted, we could have a boat.”
“And we’ll need to fence that yard so our precious little ones don’t have free access to that water,” Ronda said. “I think it’s wonderful, Nate. If there is ever anything that makes us feel like we are a family, living together in that little slice of paradise will do it. I can’t wait to get to the hotel and celebrate!”
Getting to the hotel proved to be a non-starter.
“Oh, no! Stay here with us!” Nadia said. “There’s no reason for you to start the holiday weekend in a hotel when you are only going to be there one night. That’s all, isn’t it?”
“We did plan on going to Tenbrook and Sage Saturday,” Ronda said. “Our parents will be very excited to hear that we’ve found a place to live.”
“As soon as we actually have the place ready to move into, Patricia and Anna will bring Toni down and we’ll start furnishing it. I don’t think we’ll be bringing much furnishings from Canada. It’s easier to just buy here,” I said.
“Well, we have plenty of room. Your whole family can stay with us until you get beds and dishes for the new house,” Jordan said. “I love having little Miss Toni around, you know.”
“You’re practically another grandfather,” I laughed.
“Well, I doubt Lisbet will ever give us that privilege. We’ll have to live vicariously through your offspring until Valerie and Derek have settled in their nest. I don’t think that will be too long, though.”
I almost blurted out that we’d be having another one soon, but that was news that really needed to go to the parents first.
“Oh, uh… Maybe we should go on to the hotel. It wouldn’t feel right to be in Elizabeth’s room,” I said.
“No! Of course not!” Nadia said. “We wouldn’t put you in her room or Valerie’s or Adele’s. You probably aren’t aware of it, but there is a third floor with a bedroom suite. We haven’t had anyone in it for years. Our cook and driver no longer live on the premises. So, the upstairs just gets cleaned a couple of times a year and is sitting ready for a guest. Or five.”
We called the family. Anna and Patricia said they would be here on Saturday as soon as possible. Then we’d all head for Tenbrook after they’d seen our new home. They were thrilled that Jordan and Nadia were offering us a place to stay while we got our home ready to move into.
At noon, Deke drove us downtown so we didn’t need to worry about a car or parking. I got out at Jackson and Canal, across from the train station, after kissing Ronda. Deke took her on to the office. I walked back to Jefferson and south to Van Buren. I stood across the street, looking over at the line of young men waiting to get into the non-descript yellow brick building that was the Armed Forces Examining and Induction Center. I had my letter in hand.
This was it. This was the first day of the rest of my life.
Please feel free to send comments to the author at devon@devonlayne.com.
