Odalisque
Fifty-seven
NOTHING IS EVER AS EASY as it should be.
We had five straight days of rain and wind so strong that we couldn’t lift the awning for fear of having it torn off the building. I met with Doc once and spent some time on the courts, but I was really worried about getting the wall done if the weather didn’t break soon.
And when I worry, I paint.
I went to the studio which had not been used that much for painting since I’d been spending most of my time outside with a four-inch brush. I’d discovered that to do a large-scale painting, you have to scale up your tools too. Our initial problems had been around using brushes that were too small, so the shading and gradations we’d been doing were too fine to be seen from fifty yards away.
But in the studio, I had a new canvas and sketched in the image of Wendy. I brightened the colors and highlighted her hair, adding to the short strands she currently had. Her sleeping bag became silk sheets and I was lost in a world of drapery. Instead of a stuffed toy, she held a tiger kitten, its pink tongue stretched out to touch her cheek. The drapery dropped and showed her breast, painted from memory.
After three days in the studio, Kate showed up to see what I was working on. Melody and Lissa were packing stock. I scarcely noticed any of them as I had my headset on and was lost in Borodin. My player said “Prince Igor,” but I’d heard most of this music in a Broadway soundtrack that my dad has. It just made me think harem and paradise.
“Odalisque,” Kate said. I only saw her lips move and removed my headset. “Odalisque,” she repeated.
“Yeah,” I said. “The harem slave. Puts a whole new spin on it.”
“Are you going to exhibit it?” Melody asked.
“No,” I said. “This is a family piece.”
“Good,” Lissa agreed.
They went back to work and I continued puttering with the nearly finished painting without benefit of music. I stepped back and realized that Kate was still there at my shoulder. I turned to her and saw a tear leak from her left eye onto her cheek.
“What is it, Kitten?” I asked softly. She worked her mouth open and closed a few times before she got her voice behind it.
“I’ve tried not to be a burden, Tony,” she started.
“How could you even imagine such a thing?” I asked. “You are about as low maintenance as they come. Don’t ever think of yourself as a burden to me or any of us, Kitten.”
“But I want to ask something from you and I’ve never done it and I don’t know how,” Kate spluttered.
I took Kate over to the studio recliner. She cuddled in my lap as I lifted the footrest. Melody and Lissa kissed, smiling at us.
“Now, just relax and tell me what you want, lover. Anything I can give you I will. Anything.”
“I want… It’s so beautiful… and I love her… and… will you give me that painting? I know that we’ll have it in the house where we can all enjoy it, but… please, Tony?”
“Your wish is my command, damsel,” I said. “I’ve a feeling that I will have commissions of at least two other women to add to our collection this summer, and I know they are going to be claimed as well.”
“We do like our toys, don’t we?” Kate sniffed.
“I think this is a little more than a toy, darling. I know how close you are. You know, Wendy does talk to me, too,” I said.
“You mean you don’t just tell her what to do?” Kate asked.
“You know better than that. If you hear that in my voice, warn me. I’m trying hard to be what she needs without being domineering.”
“I’m so glad you could do it,” Kate said. “I just couldn’t. It’s so contrary to everything I think and believe. But Mama says I need to understand that people are different and those we love might not conform to our image of them. If it weren’t for you, Tony, I’d have lost her.”
“Now we are all together,” I said.
“Diamonds,” Kate said softly.
“What?”
“She’s the Queen of Diamonds, isn’t she?” Kate asked.
“That’s what Mama Gypsy said.”
“She made me study the cards, but I never really believed in them. But she used them to talk about different personalities as well as mystical things,” Kate said. “She’s different, but she has the same rank as all the other queens. It isn’t like she’s queen of the slaves or the servants, but she is a queen who serves.” Kate looked into my eyes and I saw her slowly break into her beautiful wide smile. “Thank you for making her your queen,” Kate said. “Thank you for making all of us your queens.”
By Sunday, I was panicked. I’d spent all day Saturday in the gym and on the courts, absolutely pounding the ball. I’d taken on Allison, preparing her for her first National Singles championship. I’d taken on both Brent and Franklin as a team and pounded them. Lissa came on the court and we’d played for an hour-and-a-half never a point apart. I was so emotionally and physically frustrated that I couldn’t contain myself. When Sunday dawned clear and fifty-four, I was off to the jobsite. I was on a lift and painting at seven in the morning.
There were still two full focal points to complete and detail work all over the wall that I needed to work on. And now there was only Kate and me with an occasional hand from Doc. I wasn’t going to make it. The dedication was just a week away. Kate joined me at nine and complained that she didn’t know I’d come early and she would have joined me. We didn’t work together, but chose to split the two focal points between us. Neither of us came close to finishing, even though I worked until seven when the light started going wonky.
I went home filled with dread. I knew what was going to happen and I desperately wanted it not to happen. There was no way around it.
“So, unlike last year when you got there too late to get practice court time, Tony, we’re leaving tomorrow afternoon and will have all day Tuesday to get settled and get our practice in,” Lissa said. I was at the dining table, but Lissa didn’t notice that I wasn’t really there.
“We’ll have our full booth set up on the practice day,” Melody said. “I have more outfits than we could possibly need and we’re set to take pre-orders on our warm-ups. Raquethon is really making a big deal out of Ice Queen Knights presented by Raquethon and plans to sell an outfit to every male player registered. They’re really excited about the reception we’re getting.”
“So, there are only going to be three entries from the school, but it isn’t technically a college competition. Brent and Franklin are going to meet elite level competitors and we can only hope that they can win a couple of matches before they’re eliminated. You two are our stars as far as the product goes.”
“Lissa?”
“And with Bree and me working the booth, we can positively sell out all our stock if you win,” Melody almost screamed. Kate sat across from me and could see what was coming. She took hold of Melody’s and Lissa’s hands.
“Liss,” I repeated. She looked at me.
“I can’t go.” That was all it took. Getting those words out was the forerunner to having me curled up in a ball on the floor bawling like a baby. “I can’t go. I can’t go,” I repeated.
My lovers and my friends surrounded and lifted me. We stumbled to the sofa and plopped down with the seven girls surrounding me.
“Shh. Shh. Tell us about it, lover,” Melody soothed. I was still curled up in a ball on the sofa.
“If it hadn’t rained this week, I’d be done. But the dedication is a week from tomorrow and I can’t finish tomorrow morning and then take the rest of the week to go to Nationals. I have to stay and finish. I can’t go,” I squalled. I was on the U.S. National Team, set to travel this summer to the World’s in the Dominican Republic. But I wasn’t going to make the top singles competition in the sport. I could see that the only ones who truly understood were Lissa and Whitney. Whitney was a month away from the National Track Meet and was trying to make the U.S. Olympic team. I just wanted to play Brian Summers.
It was too bad. I’d play again next year, but I wasn’t going to the National Singles competition tomorrow.
I slipped out of bed Monday morning before anyone else woke up. I didn’t shower but just put my paint clothes on and went to the kitchen.
Wendy handed me a cup of coffee. It was only five-thirty Monday morning.
“How did you know?” I asked, giving her a hug.
“I knew last night that you’d try to sneak out this morning. I’ve been up since four waiting,” she said softly. “I wanted to make sure you went to work with coffee and breakfast, master.”
“Wendy, thank you for taking care of me. I’m the one that’s supposed to take care of you,” I said.
“You are, Tony. You are painting a beautiful big picture for me. Thank you.”
Kate was pissed that I didn’t wake her to come with me again this morning, but we both took a break at noon to give a send-off to Melody, Lissa, Bree, Allison, Brent, and Franklin. It was all I could do to watch them leave without me. They understood, or said they did, but they were all as disappointed as I was. At least, since this wasn’t an intercollegiate event, I couldn’t lose my scholarship by not participating.
Kate and I worked together on one focal point for the afternoon and it was nearly completed by the time we collapsed Monday evening. There was just one more focal point to complete and then all the tidying up of the whole thing to finish this week. Hopefully, we’d be able to drop the awning by Saturday afternoon and keep it hidden until the dedication on Monday, but we still had a lot to do before then.
Tuesday, we finished laying in the final focal point. Wednesday, we started doing touch-up and detail. That might have been the hardest part. We’d walk out into the field, about half-way down and survey the wall, marking sections on our sketchbooks that needed work. Then we had to locate the rendering for that section, compare it to the big rendering, and scramble up our lifts to paint frantically for an hour. After that, we’d head back out into the field to look at what we’d done, mark the next section and repeat the process. That went on for three days. Fortunately, they were dry.
There was a little light mist on Saturday, but we examined the wall one final time and dropped the awning at about three o’clock in the afternoon. Maintenance had already been out to erect a platform for the dedication and risers for the chorus that was going to sing on Monday. There was a big dispute because the orchestra and chorus wanted a portable bandshell erected that would have blocked the painting from a significant part of the audience. They were finally put on the side of the field, which didn’t please anyone, but got them out of the way.
It seemed like everyone wanted something this weekend and since it was a holiday weekend, no one wanted to work or to give up anything they thought they should have. The city wanted us to take down the funding meter next to our work shed that showed we’d raised over a quarter million dollars so far. They thought it would give the wrong impression, telling people that we had to raise funds to help the homeless instead of having the city allocate funds. I was hauled into meetings on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday nights to go over everything from where people would sit to who got to speak at what point.
There was a surprise for me there as I looked down the schedule of speakers. After the college presidents, the mayor, and some old guy who heads the Gary Ranson foundation but who isn’t named Gary Ranson, I saw that Wendy was scheduled to give the dedication speech on behalf of Tent City. She hadn’t mentioned it at all. Holy shit!
On top of the general scheduling and logistics, Northwest Folklife was still going on at Seattle Center and the chances that we’d attract any kind of crowd or that anyone would be able to get to our campus were remote. By the time we dropped the awning, I was truly sick of it all and wished I had gone to Nationals.
In spite of my absence there, Allison was dominating the Women’s Singles Division A, Franklin and Brent made it to semi-finals in Men’s Doubles, and Lissa had was playing in the Women’s Singles Open like a demon. Melody gave us nightly reports on sales and it seemed they were not suffering from my absence.
Whitney was also in California competing for a berth at the National Track Meet. It would go for the rest of the weekend. She’d run in the 100-meter hurdles and even though she didn’t win the race, the time was fast enough to qualify her. She wasn’t confident that she’d pull off a qualifier in the 400-meter hurdles, but we were all waiting anxiously to see if she’d added enough to her long-jump to qualify.
Saturday night, I came home to a cold dinner. Wendy was working and Kate took the trio to watch Amy skate—which I should have done, but got hung up with the school maintenance people until eight. Clarice showed up to rescue the big rendering which was back at the shed after the gala. We had to empty all the paint out of the shed so the forklifts could move it, and then restock it.
So I came home alone and scavenged in the refrigerator for some cold roast beef and horseradish. I didn’t even bother to make a salad.
I was at a loss for what to do and actually poured myself a glass of wine. I was painted out and didn’t feel like working anymore. I didn’t have any schoolwork. I hadn’t started a book in months. I sat in my big chair with my wine and just stared into space.
This is stupid.
I grabbed one of the drums from next to the fireplace and started a light rhythm. As I relaxed, I dragged the big drum in front of me and the congas. I discovered that I could make some pretty cool sounds on the big drum with my hands instead of the mallets and added the bongos between my knees.
God knows how long I was at it. When you’re drumming, you can just purge your mind and become one with the rhythm. How Zen.
I don’t know when Kate and Wendy came in. It must be late. I just happened to look up and they were both dancing in the living room, apparently as caught up in the rhythms as I was. Wendy was wearing her collar. Kate had a thin veil wrapped around her head and over her face. The end dangled between her breasts. That was all the two girls wore. My meditation began to take on new forms.
Three naked teenagers danced behind them, lost in the rhythms and their own world. I felt terribly overdressed.
Kate and Wendy were so sensuous together that the distraction of the teens was soon lost. They weren’t overtly sexual, though there were a few caresses and rubs. They were dancing together and lost in each other. Wendy reached in to kiss Kate, but of course the veil was over Kate’s mouth. Wendy’s solution was to catch the dangling end of the veil in her teeth and unwrap Kate. Even this proved a slow and sensual activity ending with the veil wrapped around Wendy’s face. The two started giggling and embraced, pulling the veil away. I took that as my cue to give four strong beats and end.
I set the drums aside and leaned back in my chair to watch the two delicious ladies approach and perch on my lap together. The teens called “Goodnight” as they left the room to go downstairs. Kate and Wendy began undressing me, even as they sat on my lap, sometimes wrapping the veil around two or all three of us to pull us into a kiss.
“You smell,” Kate said. “Ew. So do we. Let’s go take a shower.”
They led me into the master bath and we showered for a long time, teaming up two-on-one to shampoo and condition hair, delighting in the touch and feel of each other as we prepared for bed.
I spent the night making love with Kitten and my Tiger. I loved each of them, loved them together, lay with them while they loved each other, and played as they loved me. It was the first time since our new relationship began that the three of us made love, and we stayed tangled together until noon on Sunday.
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