Becoming the Storm
55 Another Year Older
“PHYSICIAN, HEAL THYSELF,” John quoted from the front seat. No matter how many times I was up in the Cub, I just couldn’t get used to the idea of driving from the back seat. It sort of freaked me out to see him in front and know he wasn’t touching the controls. Still, it was great to fly with John and we’d been talking about what Mama Ruth had said to me.
“Verily I say unto you, No prophet is accepted in his own country.” I quoted back. “John, I have no idea how to heal myself. If I did, I wouldn’t have nightmares. I wouldn’t be afraid I’d hurt someone. And I’d just plain care more about other people.”
“Bank left thirty degrees to heading 18. And look down below you.”
I looked out the left side of the plane and saw the ranch and village spread out below me. As we continued the sweep to the new heading, I saw the River of Life. The contrast between the two different colors of stones was spectacular.
“It’s beautiful, isn’t it?” I sighed.
“It is. And it is a symbol of the healing you are bringing people. Just dip in and accept a little of it for yourself. I won’t guarantee that it will stop your nightmares, but it will make you feel better even if you have them.”
Well, that was a bizarre notion. It really threw my perspective into a tailspin. I leveled out the plane at the desired heading as we overflew the southeast neighborhood. I was glad to see that Fran and Dave Leidle’s new home was finished. They’d moved back to the neighborhood after the fire on New Year’s. Fran’s horse, Becky, was still boarded at the ranch. I didn’t really think she’d ever move the horse back to their little two-acre plot.
“I want you to circle around and come onto the landing strip from the north,” John said.
“Wait! You mean on the grass?”
“Why do you think we’re up today? I want my plane to be the first to land on our new airstrip.”
“But I’ve never landed on grass!”
“Getting on the grass is the same as getting on the tarmac. Here are the numbers.” John gave me the elevation, bearing, and wind speed numbers. As we flew past to turn for the approach, he pointed out the windsock. “You’ve got a slight crosswind from the west, but it shouldn’t affect our landing. Just be aware of gusts.”
“What about when we’re on the ground? Is there a difference then?”
“A little more drag than the tarmac. Not much difference. You’ll be ready to roll toward the new hangar in two hundred yards.”
I don’t think I breathed much in the next five minutes. I watched the altimeter, missed the trees and powerline on the other side of the road, and came down on the grass landing strip. I’m not going to claim it was smooth, but we didn’t bounce for too long. Even though I landed nearly a hundred yards down the strip, we still had plenty of length on the 500-yard runway to brake. John directed me to the new pole barn hangar. We stopped and refueled the plane at the elevated gas tank next to the hangar, and then pushed the plane around to the open doors. I could tell John was really pleased with the new setup. The barn included a small office on the front corner with a window out onto the field. John already had a desk and some maps in the office. He signed my log book and included the landing on a grass strip. I looked at it proudly.
“You know what makes a really good pilot?” John asked. I shook my head. “Teaching others. Every time I give you an instruction, the entire process plays through my head. I can feel the craft yaw beneath my feet. I know when you should straighten up and fly right, as the saying goes. I can feel if the time is right to let go and give you the controls and when I should step in and make a correction. Every time I go up in the air with you, or with Josh, or Cassie, or Ross, it makes me a better pilot.”
“That’s cool.”
“Every time you help TK, or Amber, or Courtney, or Danielle, or Samantha, it makes you a better physician. It helps you heal yourself. There’s nothing wrong with feeling the guilt or having nightmares. It isn’t a defect in your personality, Brian. But every time you help one of the others who have been affected by it, you become better equipped to help yourself. Don’t hold back your help. Don’t hold back your love.”
“You could get a tattoo,” I suggested. The idea of that inky needle engraving a pattern on the skin of one of my lovers still made the hair on the back of my neck stand up. But at the same time, I knew how much a part of the healing process simple tattoos had been for Nikki and for Hannah. Perhaps it would help Samantha, too. I continued massaging the cream Theresa gave us into the scar on Sam’s shoulder. While I was paying attention to her shoulder, I was also dipping my lips to her nipples and rubbing my thigh between her legs. She sighed.
“I’m trying to reduce the scar and make it less noticeable. A tattoo would just call attention to it,” she said. Her hips thrust up against my thigh and I slid over her to get between her legs. “Yes. Make love to me, cónyuge.”
“My cock loves sliding between your moist smooth lips,” I whispered as I moved against her. I wasn’t trying to enter her yet, but just to tease myself between her labia.
“Mmm. My Jill loves to have you play with her. I was so afraid you would think I was too ugly to love now.” I kissed her shoulder. She had enough mobility and strength in her arm to wrap it around me and squeeze now. It would never be as smooth or strong as it had been before the shooting, but Sam was working diligently toward her recovery.
“I still think you are one of the most beautiful women in the world, love. But your beauty isn’t why I love you. I loved you long before you developed some of your more prominent features,” I laughed. I licked her nipples and they stood out hard from her breasts.
“My features are nowhere near as prominent as other girls. I know you love Rose’s features. And Brenda’s. I know you love them.”
“But not just because of their features. If I was blind and had never touched Rose, I still couldn’t help but love her. The same is true of you. Samantha Cortales, I love you even more today than I did the night of our handfasting,” I said. “I lost you on April eighteenth. I wanted to die. But we survived, you and I. Our scars are a visible reminder, not just of what we lost, but that we found each other again. I never want to let you go.” My cock had naturally found its way to her opening and she spread herself further to welcome me.
“Yes. In. In me. Oh, Brian, I love you so much.” We made love quietly. Around us, in the big bedroom, others of our casa lay quietly, some making love and some reaching to touch us. It was a long time, though, before I was conscious of anyone but Samantha.
Tuesday was one of my ‘busy’ days. We were on set and in production from about eight in the morning until noon. Dani had to leave as soon as the kitchen segment was over in order to make it to her class on time. Debbie and Dolly helped me clean up as Elaine’s segment of the show continued. We’d established a pretty good pattern with the show and responses from our syndicate were good. We had definitely captured the three o’clock timeslot in all the markets where we were showing. This was our twenty-second ‘almost live’ broadcast. We taped in the morning, the show was edited by two o’clock, and Hannah and I left for the University to get the tape to WIUB for the three o’clock broadcast. While we had the capability of running the live feed out from the studio, we just weren’t skilled enough to do it on a daily basis. WIUB now had two other syndicated shows that they broadcast and this one was doing their reputation a lot of good. We didn’t actually have to ship tapes now.
As soon as I dropped Hannah off at WIUB, I headed for my first class. Two and a half hours later, she met me with a fresh cup of coffee and a sandwich as we went to our Media Organization class. Sometimes, she was the guest lecturer in Lonnie’s afternoon class, so she was always dressed professionally. She had a new bobbed haircut that Liz had given her over the weekend and looked even more pixie-ish than ever.
“Rose had errands today, so she’s picking us up after class,” Hannah said during our break. She’d pinned me against the wall near the vending machines. “Maybe we can ride in the back and you can scratch a little itch of mine on the way to the ranch,” she whispered. I could feel myself harden against her as she hugged me.
“Hold that thought. I think we’d better get back to class.” Well, that was hopeless. We sat in class, but Hannah had an ankle crossed over mine and kept moving it up and down during class. I was hard as a rock by the time class ended and hadn’t heard anything said for the past half hour. Hannah was not usually aggressive like this. Usually, I had to get her interested. Walking to the car, she pulled my arm across her shoulders and my hand down to her breast while she kept squeezing my buns with her other hand. By the time we were in the back seat, her blouse was unbuttoned and my trousers were being unzipped.
“Did you have good classes?” Rose asked. My mouth was full and I couldn’t answer. “Oh, my!”
Hannah pulled her skirt up around her waist, revealing that she’d already shed her panties. We pulled our shirts off so we could press our bare chests together as she slid down onto my pole. I loved being in her. She straddled me and we kissed passionately. She just wasn’t usually this passionate and I was enjoying every second of our coupling. I wanted it to last as long as possible.
I didn’t even notice the car come to a stop. The next thing I knew, Rose was naked next to us and joining us in a kiss. Rose dipped down and alternated licking Hannah’s and my nipples. Hannah moaned.
“I love you. I love you. I love you!” she said as she squeezed my cock and drenched my balls with her increased fluids. “Rose! You have a finger on my bottom hole and I’m going to come again!” That was funny because I had a finger inside Rose and could tell she was getting close, too. She lifted up to give me better access and Hannah took the opportunity to turn her head and latch onto Rose’s nipple hard.
“Oh God! Yes!” Rose screamed as I pushed my thumb against her asshole. The flood of juices on my fingers and clenching of her pussy on them drove me to a sudden lurch inside Hannah. Hannah squealed against Rose’s breast and clamped down on me as I came. “More! More! More!” I sought out Rose’s clit, but Hannah was quickly dismounting me and pushing Rose onto her back. She pulled my cock to Rose’s opening and I pushed in. My cock was in a world of its own and not about to soften with such a willing and welcoming target. Hannah positioned herself over Rose’s face and squealed as Rose’s tongue started lapping at her clit and freshly fucked pussy. Hannah reached down and twisted both of Rose’s nipples, causing our girlfriend to buck up against me.
It was a riotous coupling. Or tripling. Whatever. Hannah continued to ream my mouth with her tongue as she rode Rose to another orgasm. I plunged deep into Rose’s center and pumped out another load. We collapsed together. I moved Hannah slightly so Rose could breathe.
“I think I want to take the class you are taking,” Rose gasped. “What just happened?”
“I think I got horny,” Hannah said. “Where are we?” I looked around, but there were no lights that I could see.
“Behind John’s hangar,” Rose said. “I just wanted to get someplace quickly so I could join you. I think I came once while driving, just from the sounds and smells emanating from the back seat.”
“Wow!” I said.
“Can you drive?” Rose asked. “You can take us the rest of the way home while I pay Hannah’s nipples back for what she did to mine!”
We stumbled in from the deck, still laughing at our disheveled state. My slacks were unfastened and my shirt was wadded up between Rose’s legs. Otherwise, she was naked. Hannah was carrying her blouse and her skirt was still half around her waist.
“Happy birthday!” our casa shouted as we came through the door. The three of us looked up. At least there were no parents there.
“Someone got started on the celebration early,” Elaine said.
“I sure hope they didn’t use him up,” Liz said. “Twenty-two should just about get through all of us twice.”
“Let’s feed him and see if we can revive it,” Courtney suggested.
“Where’s Josh?” I asked as we were settling into the big room.
“Dad needed to pick some things up from Mishawaka and asked Josh to go with him. They took off after Josh’s last class this afternoon and will fly back tomorrow,” Cassie said. “That leaves Mary and me with only one cónyuge tonight. And we have to share him with all his others.”
“Well, the number has gone down a little,” I sighed. I noted that Angela wasn’t there. Nikki wasn’t back from Boston. Sora and Sarah had attached themselves to other households. “Not that I’m complaining. I think I count my twelve cónyuge here.”
“How did you figure that out?” Liz asked as she tried to count people as they moved around.
“Oh, like most guys. I counted the nipples and divided by two.”
“Did you count mine, Brian?” Jennifer asked as she pushed one and then the other into my face.
“Yes, my little Girl Scout. One, two,” I said as I kissed first one and then the other.
“Count both of mine,” Elaine said as she offered me her freckled boobs.
“And mine,” Rose said.
“Wait a minute, I counted these in the car. I don’t think I can count them again,” I laughed. I kissed them anyway.
“I counted them in the car several times,” Hannah grinned. I kissed her breasts while everyone laughed. I counted every nipple that was pressed into my mouth, divided by two, and announced the result of twelve.
“If Brenda were here, she would insist on cross-checking the answer by using a different mathematical formula,” Dani said. “Since her alternate solution would probably have to do with a function of pi, I suggest that the next stage should be a clitoris count.” That was agreed to quickly and Dani’s was the first one that I counted. For several minutes. I also spent some loving time kissing her very pronounced baby bump.
After that, I confess that I lost count pretty quickly.
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