Diva
Twenty
MOM’S IDEA of a little Fourth of July barbecue amounted to about thirty people gathered in our backyard gabbing and eating for six hours. Many of the people who were watching the game in the morning were also at the barbecue. In addition to ribs, burgers, and dogs on the grill, Mom had baked apple, cherry, and strawberry/rhubarb pies. Everyone who came brought food, too. It was a Midwestern spread that you can only dream about in Seattle. Baked beans, potato salad, deviled eggs, macaroni and cheese, cobblers, pies, a cake, chips, coleslaw… you name it. There was even the requisite green Jell-O salad with flecks of shredded carrot in it. By four o’clock, the younger kids were all gathered around the ice cream makers, cranking the handle and stealing bits of rock salt to eat like candy. There were plenty of soft drinks and beer for the adults in ice chests, and even a bottle of wine or two. Of course, there was watermelon. You’d think all we had to do all day was eat.
Well… yeah.
My girlfriends were in high demand and Beth stood guard around them so the few classmates who were at the gathering understood that they were strictly off-limits. Of course, we all had to show our jewelry to everyone. It didn’t take long for people to understand what the triple-hearts on their necklaces meant. Folks just kind of nodded their heads and commented about how different things were these days.
We all had dishes of ice cream—I love that kind where Beth’s mom freezes Heath Bars and then shatters them to toss into the cream before it’s frozen—and were sitting in lawn chairs under the shade of the huge elm tree in our backyard. Rev. Larkin came to sit beside us. He also examined the necklaces and then looked at the Celtic heart bracelet that I wore. It has a trefoil woven through the heart.
“I was surprised when you said you’d retired,” I said. “I never think of you as being any older than my folks.”
“Well, Tony, church politics are as divisive as national politics. The church is divided over the same issues and is still fighting battles that were resolved in the sixties. I just had enough of it. I wanted to return to a place out here where people were just people. I got a part-time job with the Chamber of Commerce.”
“From what Deborah told me, it sounds like you were a little controversial,” Lissa said.
“Oh, the fact that I was arrested a couple of times in demonstrations in favor of gay marriage and economic equality might have shaped that opinion,” Rev. Larkin laughed. “If I hadn’t volunteered to retire, I suspect I’d have been encouraged.”
“I think it’s great that you took a stand,” I said. “I’ve never forgotten what you did for me.”
Neither Melody nor Lissa had heard the story, so I told them about the day I disappeared to draw by the creek and how the whole community had been looking for me. Rev. Larkin had been the only one who asked me what I was doing. When I showed him my sketchbook it was like he understood and smoothed everything out with my parents.
“That’s so cool,” Melody said. “You know, he still zones out when he’s drawing.”
“Speaking of which,” Rev. Larkin said, “what do you have to show me? Certainly there are some new drawings you can share.”
We finished up our ice cream and after I checked to make sure it was okay with Melody and Lissa, we took Rev. Larkin up to my room. I showed him my sketch books and then pulled the cover off the painting of Allison. He sat at the foot of my bed and seemed to be lost in the painting for a good five minutes. When he turned away from it, he saw the three of us hugging each other. He stood and came to face us.
“You know, there is no official church or state sponsored unions that include three or more people,” he said. “It’s too bad. I know you don’t have strong faith or a church background, Tony. I don’t know your backgrounds at all,” he said, looking at Lissa and then Melody. They didn’t volunteer any information. He took each of our hands together in his. “Well, just know this. God blesses love and when you love one another, God is there. May God under any guise that you recognize him… or her… bless your love and your lives together.”
He smiled at us and left the room. I looked at my lovers and we joined in a kiss. Our own amen.
Melody and Lissa were learning first-hand about hot Nebraska summers. They hadn’t expected to suffer the heat in heavy blue jeans, but I think they were thankful for them as I led them through the cornfield toward a woodlot nearly half a mile away.
“Knee-high by the Fourth of July” is an old saw, but with fast-growing hybrids, fertilizer, and fair weather, the farmers around here would have been worried if the corn was only up to their knees this week. The sharp bladed leaves of the plants scraped and cut along our jeans and unprotected arms as we made our way through rows of corn that Melody could barely see over. They hadn’t believed me when I told them that at night they could lie in a cornfield and listen to it growing. Not until we did it last night.
Then we let the cornfield listen to us.
“Are we there yet?” Melody whined.
In the four days it took us to drive from Boston to Nebraska, Melody had tried out the role of plaintive child. It always fell apart, though, when she finished the statement with, “I’m horny.”
“Sweetheart, you’ve got to think of it like city blocks,” I answered, trying my best to sound like a patient parent.
“I don’t see any sidewalks out here,” Lissa laughed.
“The corn rows are our streets,” I said. “There are eight city blocks in a mile. The woods are only half a mile from the road, so just four blocks. It’s like walking to Nordstrom’s.”
“Are we going shopping?” Melody asked brightly.
“No. We’re going painting… in one of the most beautiful places in the Midwest,” I answered. “And I have a surprise for you when we get there.”
In fact, while Mom had the girls occupied for an hour at the barbecue yesterday, I’d stolen away long enough to solidify the plan for this morning. When we passed through the fence-row and into the trees, there was a noticeable change in temperature. We’d all worked up a sweat and the break in the heat was a welcome relief. I knew they were going to want to get naked in the stream soon, and I could hardly wait.
“Just a little way, now,” I said, leading them down the worn trail.
“Please don’t leave us out here,” Lissa said. “I didn’t bring any breadcrumbs.”
“I wouldn’t dream of it, darling,” I promised. “Wait. Do you hear it?”
I held up a hand and we stopped to listen, calming our breathing so we could hear the burble of a stream running through the woods. A bobwhite sang at the edge of the woods and a squirrel chattered for a minute then gave up its scolding at our imagined intrusion. I motioned them forward and moments later we came to the edge of the little stream. Spring had been wet in Nebraska, so there was plenty of water in the shallow pool the stream flowed through. Later in the summer, it would barely be a rivulet as everything dried up.
The girls gasped when they saw it, but their eyes were immediately drawn to the rock out in the middle of the narrow basin. On it was perched a vision of loveliness in a halter top and rolled up jeans, her feet gently kicking at the water.
“You can still find it,” Beth said.
“You are a goddess,” Melody said as she sat on the ground to take her shoes and socks off. Lissa was right beside her. I shed my backpack full of art supplies, but just stood there watching the excited girls roll up their pants legs and wade into the water.
“Try a Grace,” I suggested.
“What?” Lissa asked.
I quoted:
Which of the fairest three
To-day will ride with me?
My steeds are all pawing at the threshold of the morn:
Which of the fairest three
To-day will ride with me?
Across the gold Autumn’s whole Kingdom of corn?
As I knew she would, Beth responded.
I will, I - I - I
young Apollo let me fly
Along with thee,
I will- I, I, I,
The many wonders see
I - I - I - I
And thy lyre shall never have a slacked string
I, I, I, I
Thro’ thy golden day will sing.
“That’s beautiful. What is it?” Lissa asked.
“It’s called ‘A Verse to Apollo and the Three Graces’ by John Keats,” I answered. “We had to memorize it in high school.”
“And you just happened to remember it now?” Lissa chuckled.
“No. We both reviewed it yesterday,” I laughed. “I thought this setting with the three of you would be a great place to do my own painting of The Three Graces.”
“Ooh. Do we get to be naked in the water?” Melody giggled.
“I hope so,” Beth said. “That’s the only reason I agreed to do it.”
“Hey, wait a minute…” I started.
“Okay. I confess. It’s the reason I suggested it. If you two are willing, I mean,” Beth amended.
“Mmm.” Lissa hummed when she’d waded to the rock and given Beth a kiss on the cheek. “My only question is, ‘why did you want Melody and me here with you?’ You know we’re okay with Tony painting you.”
Beth was my best friend all through high school. In fact, we’d been friends since first grade. She was a short, plump girl who just happened to be the smartest kid in school. In her speech as valedictorian of our class, she told everyone that we would surprise each other with what we would become.
Well, she certainly surprised me. She’d changed dramatically from when we left for college. She’d shed uncounted pounds and was a real voluptuous dish. The subject, the setting, and the participants were all her idea.
“After I saw that other painting that Tony did—Allison?—I realized that you two were going to be in any painting he did of me. I think she knew you were there when Tony painted her. I just decided to make it explicit. Besides…”
Beth took a deep breath but didn’t go on. Melody came up on her other side and kissed her cheek like Lissa had.
“Besides what?”
“Oh, you’ll think I’m terrible. Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea.”
“Dumpling,” I said, finally wading into the water myself. I went right up to her and kissed her on the lips so she’d know we were all here and in the open. “You’ve been my friend for as long as I can remember. Why would you ever imagine I’d think you were terrible?”
Beth reached her finger up and touched her lips where I had. Then she leaned over and softly kissed Melody. When they parted she turned and kissed a smiling Lissa.
“I’ve been so selfish,” she finally went on. “You were so nice to me on the phone and then Sunday night when you got here. I felt so comfy with you at the barbecue yesterday. And I…I…” She hesitated again.
“I-I-I-I, Through thy golden day will sing,” I chanted.
“I like seeing naked girls,” she burst out. We were shocked silent for a second then all three burst out laughing.
“That makes four of us, I think,” I said. “What’s wrong with that?”
“But they’re your girls and I wasn’t thinking pure thoughts,” she said, laughter breaking through her own remorse.
Melody and Lissa looked at each other, grinning. In one fluid move, both girls stripped off their T-shirts and stood proudly in front of Beth.
“Happy?” Melody asked. She nudged me and I pulled my shirt off, too.
Now the only one wearing a top, Beth worked her mouth open and closed a couple of times and then unleashed two of the biggest breasts I’d ever seen. She’d lost weight all right, but none of it seemed to come off of her bosom. I was amazed that she could carry around so much weight up top on her tiny five-foot frame and not topple over.
“Wow!” I know I said it, but it sounded like a chorus to me. Melody and Lissa smooshed themselves into Beth in a hug of amazing proportions while I waded out of the stream with the four tops and dropped them on my pack.
“Now that we’ve got that out of the way,” I said, “maybe we can get some posing and sketching done.”
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