Over Exposure
36
Into the World
“Nate” by Corepics VOF, ID46507297 licensed from Shutterstock.com.
WE HAD A LONG hard drive on Saturday. Patricia, Toni, Adrienne, all our gear, and I were packed into the Rambler American. We drove straight through to Chicago and had a hurried goodbye with Adrienne at an airport hotel. She’d be flying back to LA in the morning. Of course, we’d had a considerably more leisurely goodbye in bed the night before. It was truly loving and I think Toni showed the most emotion, crying when we left Aunt Addi at the hotel.
Then we didn’t even go to the apartment. We just hit the freeway west to Rockford and then on to Tenbrook. Ronda and Anna were already in Tenbrook, having left earlier in the day and bringing Patricia’s, Toni’s, and my Easter Sunday clothes with us.
There was a lot of chattering and loving Saturday night, but we were pretty exhausted from the 500-mile drive and went to sleep early. Sunday morning, we all loaded into the bus and drove down to Sage for Mom’s Easter sermon and Easter dinner with my family. Dad was feeling a lot better and had made a big ham with all the fixings for dinner. It was good to see him fussing over the various dishes in the kitchen.
Uncle Nate and Aunt Grace arrived in time for church and sat at dinner with us. Even though we were a week late, we celebrated Mom’s birthday. Of course, everyone wanted to see the pictures for my exhibition. I was just as excited to show them and explain the assignment of designing a themed set of photos. Kat was ready to go back to Chicago with me so she could paint a couple of my models and said it gave her an idea for what she should do for an exhibition, if she ever had one.
“What’s the blank matte for?” Uncle Nate asked.
“I have one picture yet to take and I haven’t resolved how to take it. The last photo is supposed to be a self-portrait that reveals the real me. I’m so good at bringing that out in my models, but for the life of me I can’t figure out what to do for my own self-portrait that isn’t already done or a cliché. I’d guess every photographer will have a picture of himself or herself with a camera. It’s like an automatic extension of us.”
“Too bad you can’t take a picture in the dark,” Kat said. “You could take your self-portrait in the darkroom.”
I stopped and looked at her. A picture in the dark. I wondered if the infrared film I still had some of would work for that.
“That’s a great idea,” I said, laughing. “Maybe I’ll put up a completely black frame and have that be it.”
Still, it was a good idea. I’d done some experiments shooting in the darkroom, but hadn’t had any luck with them yet. Maybe there was a way, though. Fortunately, all my other projects were pretty much over and I could focus on that. That and the clients Cassie had scheduled for me. It seemed there were a lot of graduating seniors who wanted special photos before they left town. It would still be a busy month and a half.
We took Kat up to Tenbrook with us on the way home. Her spring break was this week and she was planning to spend a lot of it with Julie. It looked like the two girls were getting along well and both were planning their fall move to Minneapolis. I hoped things stayed stable for them. I couldn’t help but see Christine in Julie when I looked at her.
I was working in the studio almost as soon as I got back to Chicago. Cassie was doing a good job of not overloading my schedule with portraits and Attic Allure sittings all at once, but I still had work to do for my exhibition. I went to work on Kat’s suggestion Monday after my last class. I shot a roll of infrared film and processed it. I didn’t like it. The image was just too ghostly and I didn’t feel like it represented me at all. The same was true of shooting under red light with panchromatic black and white film. Just looked like a poorly exposed picture.
Next, I tried loading Kodachrome in the Nikon and took a roll with that. I was finally getting somewhere. When I got it back from Pro Color, I could see the right look. But all my other photos for the exhibition had been shot on the Linhof 4x5 and I couldn’t get Kodachrome for that. I loaded a roll of Ektachrome and sent that off to Pro Color for processing.
Then I was in production mode for what we’d decided to call the year-end portraits. Of course, most of them were for girls and I recognized a lot of my classmates who were coming in to have me take their photo. I figured this would be a lot tamer than taking the photos of my high school classmates had been. These were young women heading out into the world as professionals, wives, mothers, and career women. They wouldn’t be wanting one last fling of nudies.
I was wrong.
I had a reputation at the school, having taken a lot of ID photos and Attic Allure photos for quite a few women who had modeled for me in the past four years. The Whore Corps alone was testimony to getting nude photos that would drive traffic to the studio. When my exhibition hit next week, it would show several other naked women with their instruments. I guessed the reputation was earned.
It still managed to surprise me, though, when the first model on Friday ‘put herself in my hands.’ I had Cassie working with me and thought it was nice that she’d prepared tea and little sweets for the model. It turned out she’d been promoting the package as a mini-spa day for women who would have me massage them, photograph them, and satisfy them. Anna had set a premium price on the package. I wouldn’t get a model release from most of these, but I’d definitely have my hands full of beautiful women.
I did their makeup, massaged them, photographed them, and generally pampered them, usually getting them to a happy ending. They’d all been told there was no intercourse in the studio. I actually had one client who offered me $100 if I’d fuck her right there and then. It was much harder to resist the offer of that beautiful body than the offer of $100. I still managed to send her away happy.
Leanne worked with me on Saturday and Rita on Sunday, both with similar setups. By the end of the weekend, I’d had my fingers on six more sets of boobs and a finger in six more pussies.
“I think I’m being promoted as some kind of male prostitute,” I complained to Anna Sunday evening. “They all expect me to get them naked and get them off.”
“Are you getting good photos?”
“Yeah. Great photos. All the girls are more than willing to um… get in any position I want them. They’ll take a tin trumpet and make it look like their long lost lover. They’re great photos.”
“Then let them think whatever they want. It doesn’t affect who you really are,” Anna said. “Now are your fingers too worn and wrinkly? Or could you possibly put them to work in my pussy?”
I got busy. I’d had my fingers in six pussies over the weekend, but my cock had been in zero.
What’s more, I was going to be working in the studio processing and printing photos after classes all week.
First thing, though, was to set up the darkroom for the photo I wanted. The space was cramped and I was trying to get my 4x5 camera, an extra light, myself, and a line for drying photos like I hadn’t used since high school.
The standard red light for the dark room just wasn’t quite powerful enough for the photo. I set a light at the angle I wanted and put a red gel over it. I’d do the photos with both the naked lens and with a red filter on the lens. It took me most of the afternoon to get set up and then set the timed exposures before I got back into position.
By six o’clock, I felt that I’d taken all the variations I needed. I packed up the dozen 4x5 sheets of Ektachrome I’d exposed and headed to Pro Color. Before I dropped them off, I wrote in big letter across the envelope, “Do Not Color Correct. These are supposed to be red.”
I grabbed a sandwich at the deli and returned to the darkroom to remove all my props and camera, then set up to start printing Attic Allure photos.
One of the great things about working with assistants was that when I finished exposing a roll, they took it and immediately processed it. All three girls were efficient at printing proof sheets. All I had to do was choose the frames I’d print and make them look great.
I got the transparencies back on Tuesday evening and went straight to the light table to see if I’d succeeded. I almost whooped when I saw the results. Yes! This is how I saw myself. Not with my fingers in a girl’s love box, but with my fingers wet from rinsing a new photo and hanging it to dry. I went straight to work printing my self-portrait.
I managed to get a Cibachrome printed that I was happy with and set it to dry. Thursday, I got it mounted on the spare sheet of matting I’d brought from Stratford to match the others.
I had only one photo client on Friday. I had to spend the morning at the college, hanging my pictures in the photography gallery. The senior exhibition would open Saturday evening.
I got home Saturday afternoon in time to shower and get dressed up. The girls were all in party dresses, including Toni. I danced with her a little and when I set her down so I could get ready, she just kept dancing. So cute.
I dressed in my good charcoal pinstripe suit that Adrienne had selected for me on my last trip out to California. I tucked my camera under my arm and ushered the girls to the microbus for the trip downtown. The Saturday night opening was for senior exhibitors and their families and for faculty and staff. I imbibed of the offered champagne, as did Ronda. Anna and Patricia both promised they would drink only non-alcoholic beverages.
That made good sense, but there was a second reason that Patricia was off all alcoholic beverages. I should say a third reason since Toni was running to point to pictures she thought were pretty. Patricia had gone off the pill after her period a week ago. We were going to start a baby right after graduation. Dr. May had told her she should be off the pill for a month before we started trying.
Me, a father. It didn’t scare me anywhere near as much now as it would have few years ago. But my little four-and-a-half-year-old girl, Toni, had taught me well. If everything else fell through and all I had was the studio, I felt I was still capable of supporting my family. And I would love any child we produced.
There were seven general programs in the Creative Expression Division of the college. Only twelve of us were graduating in the Photography program and we had four different emphases. Mine was Fine Art Photography, with a minor emphasis in Journalism. Leslie had her emphasis in Fashion Photography and I was definitely impressed with her exhibition. She’d collaborated with Rita to photograph Rita’s fashion creations. Instead of making her photos look like a runway show, she’d photographed each of the eight designs Rita created in a real-world setting. The models, of course, were all beautiful, but were shown against a background of the city street, a rooftop, a restaurant, etc. The fifth area of focus was product photography.
As I mentioned, Fashion was one of the general programs in Creative Expression. That’s where Rita’s creations were exhibited on mannequins. The largest group exhibiting was the Fine Arts group, which included painting, drawing, sculpture, and mixed media. Graphics was the fourth area. Theatre, Dance, and Music rounded out the seven programs. Leanne was exhibiting in Theatre. Dora was dressed to kill and was also in the theatre program. Carrie, for all that she hung around us, was in a completely separate division. Adjunct to Creative Expression, there was a liberal arts program and a business program. They didn’t exhibit, though some of them may have been exhibitionists.
“Another beautiful batch of photos,” Professor Hyatt said. “You’ve done an outstanding job throughout your college career.”
“I’ve had outstanding instruction,” I laughed, shaking his hand. Toni had wanted to dance when she heard one of the musicians playing and I’d picked her up to take a spin around the exhibit. It was soon obvious that the little girl was tuckered out and was asleep on my shoulder.
“Tell me, how do you plan to make a living?” he asked. I thought it was obvious, but Hyatt was serious.
“I’m hoping to continue to make art photos,” I said. “I suppose you’re asking about whether there will continue to be a market after I’ve left the college. I really don’t know.”
“No word from that fellow over at the State Department?”
“Mr. Martin said it would be three to six weeks after the civil service exam before I’d hear from him,” I said. “We took the exam… I guess it was five weeks ago.”
“The fellows at Polaroid were pretty impressed. You should contact them. And don’t limit yourself to the State Department. The Department of Natural Resources and the Interior have always hired photographers. Gordon Parks and Dorothea Lange worked for the Agriculture Department. You have experience with infrared photography. Maybe the Forest Department. They have a photography team that is doing aerial photography of forest fires to identify hot spots.”
“Those are all good ideas. I’ll follow through on them. I’ve been so booked up with portraits and Attic Allure photos this spring, I haven’t been actively searching.”
“I hope the Attic Allure photos are all you ever need, but I’m also conscious of changing values and styles. I’m pretty sure you’ll have a market through the mid-seventies, but beyond that, I don’t know. The mid-seventies are remarkably near. I’m sure you’ll do fine, but keep a lookout.”
“Thank you, Professor. And thank you for making sure I’m prepared as well as I can be.”
“Now tell me about how you set up your self-portrait. If you’ve looked around, I’m sure you’ve noticed it is out of the ordinary for most of the photographers. Although Leslie…”
“I never thought she’d do a nude self-portrait,” I laughed. “It is pretty spectacular. I haven’t seen her here yet tonight.”
“I suspect she is still blushing and doesn’t want to be seen,” he nodded.
“What were your settings for this?”
We talked about my self-portrait for a while and then I collected Ronda, Anna, and Patricia to go home.
Sunday morning, I was back in the studio for two more clients, working with Leanne.
Nixon made a big deal about withdrawing another 45,000 troops from Vietnam in November and not really needing to talk about troop withdrawals any longer. Sunday, he resumed bombing of Hanoi. You couldn’t believe anything that bastard said. At least the Equal Rights Amendment had been passed and sent to the states for ratification. We could hope that got action as quickly as the 18-year-old vote did.
I wouldn’t have thought about that, but the first client in the morning was Eve Bennet, and she was steamed over the news of the resumed bombings. It took me a while to get her settled down so we could actually start taking pictures.
“I suppose you think this whole war thing is fine,” Eve said. “Boys and guns. That’s all they ever think about.”
“I’ve never held a gun and never plan to,” I said, pulling my peace symbol out of my shirt.
“Why do you keep that hidden?” she asked.
“Safety. I’ve been beaten twice for wearing it and since I’m not one to fight, I figured I was safer keeping it to myself.”
Eve surprised me when she smashed her lips against mine and probed with her tongue.
“Bless you. Bless you,” she said as she pulled back to look in my eyes. “You wouldn’t believe how many people I’ve met over the past year who I’ve found out were planning to join the army, or were just sitting on the sidelines cheering for the good old USA as if we were involved in a football game. Idiots! Idiots!”
“Have you noticed the trend lately of people cheering after the National Anthem is played at sporting events as if it’s a fight song?” I asked. “I honor the anthem and I sing it, but I won’t cheer it during or after as if it was the school song for my sports team. It demeans the entire importance of the flag and what it stands for.”
“We’ll get along fine here today,” she said. “How can I pose for you to get a great photo?”
We moved into posing and taking pictures, and I gradually got Eve undressed. I posed her with a scale and offered her a blindfold as justice. She declined the blindfold.
“Justice should not be blind. Or deaf or dumb. If justice is blind it is merely a collection of thou shalt nots. Enforcing the law is not justice.”
“You’re passionate about many things.”
“I’m headed to law school next year and plan to fight for an eyes wide open court system. Love is blind. Not justice.” She paused and smiled at me. “So, if you want to blindfold me in bed, that would be okay.”
“I seldom take this off, but I would loan it to you for this picture,” I said, removing my peace symbol. “Let this be a portrait of justice and peace. Two… uh… sides of the same woman,” I said, stroking her breasts.
“Yesss,” she hissed.
It was a good combination. The one I liked best, though, was with her kneeling holding the two symbols in the air as if she were balancing them.
I shifted her around and she restored my peace symbol. Then Leanne and I moved the bed into the scene. I picked Eve up and laid her on the bed, paying attention to making sure she was comfortable. I draped fabric over her and stimulated her nipples. Then I blindfolded her.
“A girl could think… this was very… kinky,” she whispered. “You could be undressing and preparing to penetrate my womanhood. Or you could be calling that cute assistant of yours over to lick me. You might press your cock into my mouth. You could suck my nipples and set my body on fire.”
Eve was rather poetic. I did do some of those things as I shifted her position and Eve became more and more aroused as I took the pictures I thought she wanted.
“Nate, I’m going to run to the deli and get our lunch,” Leanne said. “I’ll be back in half an hour.” She left me alone with Eve.
I was finished with the photos, but I wasn’t finished touching and petting Eve. I sat on the bed next to her and stroked her, moving my hand between legs that she parted willingly. While I played with her pussy and she rose in her excitement, she blindly fumbled with my belt and zipper, finally fishing my cock out of my pants.
Her lips soon found the head and I stretched out beside her so I could lick at her clit. It wasn’t long before we both reached our completion.
I pulled her up in my arms and kissed her. Then I removed her blindfold.
“It’s too bad I’m moving to Florida to attend law school,” she sighed. “That was the most sensuous experience I’ve ever had. Stay at peace, Nate.”
She dressed and left.
“You go, girl!” I said when I saw Leslie Monday morning. She grabbed me in a bear hug and squeezed until my ribs cried for mercy.
“You gave me the courage,” she said. “The picture you took of me at the lake. The more I thought about how I see myself, the more that picture filled my mind. I didn’t want to duplicate it, but I wanted to capture that image of myself. Did it work?”
“I saw the most incredible woman I’ve met at school,” I said. “It wasn’t just freedom and daring. It was strength and confidence and talent. I have no idea how you even managed to get that shot. It was amazing.”
“The trickiest part was getting them to let me use the rooftop by myself. I didn’t want an audience when I stripped. But I was on top of the world!”
“You’re the best.”
I still had a backlog of printing to do. I had two more studio sessions Friday and I’d stayed late afterward to get proofs printed and a few finals. When I got home, everyone was in bed except Ronda, who was waiting for me naked in the kitchen. I quickly stripped and had my lover in my arms.
“Guess what!” Ronda said as soon as I released her lips.
“Tell me, lover!”
“We got a call from Donald Martin at the State Department. We’ve got an interview Monday afternoon!”
“Fantastic! Did he say anything else of interest?”
“Only that he had the results of our exams and there were no issues. He wants to talk to us about hiring us as a team.”
“That would be the best, wouldn’t it?” I asked.
“Yes, but we need to be really clear about the travel time commitment away from our girls. Especially if Patricia is pregnant. There are going to be times when we absolutely will want to be home with Anna and Patricia. We’re two people and we have two wives.”
“Will Martin understand that?”
“I have to think he will. He wouldn’t consider it for me because I’m just a woman. But he really wants you. They’re committed to this new equipment thing and you’re a huge cost-saving move for them. I hate to say, I’m just an add-on.”
“You’re the one who is trained in all this diplomacy stuff, though,” I said. “I’ve had one class in US Foreign Policy, of which I only understood about half.”
“But you’ve had a good study partner,” Ronda laughed. “You’re doing fine.”
“I have the world’s sexiest study partner,” I said, kissing her again.
“Let’s do it in the beanbag,” she giggled, leading me to the living room.
I settled back in the chair and Ronda crawled on top of me. What an incredible woman. We were twenty-two years old and she’d been my girlfriend for over five years. At first, I’d discounted that, figuring she was really Chris’s girlfriend and just tolerated me. But we’d become lovers and when Chris broke up with us, Ronda and I had become even closer. She was so petite, and still the beautiful girl with the silky blonde hair and perfect figure that I fell in love with, but through our college career, we’d become like husband and wife. With two more wives.
What a crazy world we lived in, but I loved her like I never imagined was possible. When she settled her hot wet pussy down on my dick, I was in heaven.
“Did you get off with your models today?” she whispered as she began clenching on my cock. I moaned.
“No. They got off, but I didn’t.”
“Are you still letting them get away with just using you? We might have to remove the no sex in the studio restriction entirely.”
“Why would I care when I can come home to you and Anna and Patricia? I have more than any man could ask for right here in this apartment.”
“Oh, I love you, Nate. Love me. Fill me. Tell me I’m yours forever.”
“You are mine forever, my precious. I will never leave you. I will never forsake you. You are an inextricable part of my soul.”
Monday afternoon, Ronda and I left class at 2:30 and were at Mr. Martin’s office in the Federal Building by 3:00. I’d drawn a few stares at school, dressed in my three-piece gray flannel suit. At the State Department, I looked like any other worker. Ronda was wearing a nice black wool suit with a white blouse and a skirt that almost touched her knees. She wore sensible two-inch heels.
Dr. Hernandez had stopped us for a moment as class let out to inspect us. He nodded his approval and wished us luck.
“Nate and Ronda, welcome to the Department of State,” Martin greeted us.
“Mr. Martin, thank you for asking us in,” Ronda said.
“Have a seat and let’s talk about your prospects at the State Department,” he said, ushering us to a comfortable seating arrangement of sofa and chairs. We sat together on the sofa, but didn’t make a big show of our relationship. No hand-holding at this time. “This is an exciting time to become a member of our department. We have opportunities all over the world, and they are non-political appointments. That means that no matter what the outcome of the election this fall, you would be secure in your jobs as long as the need for them continues.”
“That’s a relief. It’s one of the things that makes a person think twice about going to work for the government,” I said.
“You’ll find that most positions below the Undersecretary, are nominally bi-partisan. Let me explain our organization a little. The Bureau of Consular Affairs, to which I report, falls beneath the Under Secretary for Management. The Under Secretary reports directly to the Secretary of State. The Bureau of Consular Affairs is charged with protecting the lives and interests of US citizens abroad. The Bureau is headed by Assistant Secretary Johnson. I’m the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Passport Services. That includes issuing close to a million passports a year. You have one?”
“Yes, sir,” I said. “I’ve recently traveled to the UK and to Australia.”
“I’ve got a few stamps in mine,” Ronda said.
“Excellent. When you come to work for the State Department, you will keep your green passports for personal and leisure travel, and you will be issued a black passport for use on State Department trips.”
“How much travel will we be expecting?” I asked.
“The State Department has nearly 200 permanent Diplomatic Missions in the world, commonly referred to as embassies. In addition, there are about 100 Consulates which act on behalf of the embassy in certain situations. One of the duties in assisting US citizens abroad is the replacement or issuance of passports. You would be surprised at the number of lost or stolen passports reported to embassies around the world each year. The embassy is required to research the report, verify the citizenship of the victim, and issue a new passport so they can get home.”
“Wow. Um… When we got our passports, we just had a picture taken and took a form to the office downstairs. A few weeks later, our passports came in the mail.”
“That’s the difference with getting your passport in the United States. Unfortunately, other countries don’t always have photography facilities that a person can use in an emergency. It’s all done at the embassy, using Polaroid photography. That’s what we want to change. Currently, the passport is a printed form. The photo is taken and the information is filled out on the form. The person to whom the passport is issued signs the form, and then the photo and signature pages are sent to a passport processing center where it is laminated, bound into a booklet, and the seal of the United States is stamped on it. The new equipment should eliminate a few of those steps. With a couple of minor modifications to the current design we will be able to fill out the information, insert the passport into what is currently used for the ID badge, take the photo, and have it placed and laminated inside the machine in one step. The only thing left will be to imprint it with the seal.”
“And you’ll do that at all 300 locations around the world?” Ronda asked. “That sounds like an administrative nightmare.”
“That’s where you would come in,” Martin said. “Nate would be brought on to install the equipment and train the local operators. You would be charged with managing the order of installation, arranging travel, scheduling the installations, and training personnel on the non-equipment-based process. Frankly, there are more senior people who would be able to take this role on, but we consider it a great benefit that you are a couple and could travel together.”
“We still haven’t established how much travel would be required,” I said.
“Yes. That. We would expect this job to entail somewhere in the vicinity of 80% travel. I have some options, however, that would make it more palatable. I would see sending you out for a month to circulate to as many as a dozen embassies or consulates, and then having you home for as much as three weeks before you are in the air again. I understand that there are others in your family. Yes, I researched you pretty extensively. Your exhibition is very nice, Nate. And Dr. Hernandez speaks highly of you, Ronda. Once a quarter, I could see sending your family with you on one of the trips if it was to a generally friendly and safe location.”
“They’d love that,” I said. “That’s once every three months?”
“Let’s say every third or fourth trip. You might want to schedule those trips for a slightly longer duration. Just understand that you will be working nearly every day, but you should still have some time for enjoyment.”
I could see an exhausting time ahead for Ronda and me.
We had a lot to talk over with Anna and Patricia when we got home. On Tuesday, instead of meeting with my study group or processing photos, I drove out to Rockford to talk it over with Anna. I spent the night with her and had to drive back early Wednesday morning to make it to class by nine. She was in her last week of classes with a few finals the next week before her graduation. The big question on our mind was what kind of job she might have.
“I don’t see that it makes much difference. I could get a seasonal job someplace like H&R Block. Then I could just take off after tax season and travel with you. Patricia and I would have a working husband and wife to support us. And a new baby to keep us busy,” Anna said. “Yeah. Now put this hard cock where it will do us the most good. That’s what I need to get through the next few days.”
On Friday, Ronda and I called Mr. Martin and accepted the positions. We negotiated a work calendar in which we would have summers off so we could still work in our studio in Canada. We would not start our jobs until September.
The next week was my last week of classes. I’d only really have one final as my other four classes were all project classes, which I had completed. Not so for Anna. It was graduation week for her and she had three final exams. We were all in Rockford on Saturday, joining Anna’s family as our first graduate of the year walked on the stage for her degree.
We ‘partied’ in Rockford for a while after graduation, but then Anna joined us back in Chicago.
“I thought you’d go back to Tenbrook for time with your family,” I said. Anna rounded on me and grabbed me by both shoulders. I swear she grew six inches in height.
“Chicago is my home and this is my family,” she growled at me. “Don’t you ever forget it!”
“Yes, ma’am!” I said. “Anna, I love you like life. I’m so happy you are my wife.”
“Second wife,” she laughed. “Or third. I don’t know. It doesn’t make much difference. You know what it means, though? It’s time to start making a baby in your other wife. I wouldn’t miss this for the world!”
A baby. My other wife. Patricia had gone off birth control and we planned to spend the next weekend and as long as it took making her pregnant.
Of course, we couldn’t screw all the time, and Anna and Ronda wanted some attention, too, but I would be unleashing my seed in my beautiful girlfriend to see if I could get her pregnant as easily as Tony had.
Damn it! I loved Patricia and I was thrilled that she wanted me to be both Toni’s daddy and to father another child with her. But I still wished Tony was alive. Five years. What a sucky world.
I still had more photos to develop and print, but I’d called an end to new appointments for the last week before my graduation. Unfortunately, Ronda had another month after my graduation before hers. I still had to be up in Stratford a week after graduation to do the preseason photo shoots. Anna would go up with me this time. Patricia and Toni were staying with Ronda until we all came back for her graduation.
With luck, she’d be pregnant by then.
I had my US Foreign Policy exam on Wednesday. I was officially done with school. We all went out for dinner that night and celebrated two of us being finished. We had a good time and, as usual, Toni was out cold by the time we got her home.
Patricia and I stood by her bed, just looking at our sweet girl. She’d be four years old this summer and would begin a Head Start program in the fall if we could find one. She already knew her numbers and letters. It was hard to tell if she was reading her books or if she’d heard them read so many times that she had them memorized. The only thing I remembered from kindergarten was making clay snakes and then rolling them out thinner to make clay baskets. I was going to need to study up on schooling so I’d know what our little one was going through.
Our oldest little one.
We left her room and met Ronda and Anna.
“We’re going to watch a movie,” Anna said. “Ronda says there’s plenty of room for two of us to cuddle in the beanbag chair together. You guys go ahead to bed. We’ll join you later.”
“What movie?” I asked, stupidly. Ronda gave me a shove toward the bedroom with Patricia.
Oh. I guess it didn’t make a difference what movie. I had other things to think about.
We were both a little shy about getting started. I mean, we were naked and in bed, just like any other night, but this night was special.
“Does it excite you as much as it excites me?” Patricia asked.
“Excited. Terrified. Are you sure you want me?” I asked.
“I’m really sure of that. But excited and terrified just like you. When you put your hard cock in me tonight and fill me full of your sperm, it might be the night I get pregnant. You know, I never even considered that I might get pregnant when I was with Tony. That old myth, you know. You never get pregnant the first time. One time unprotected and I was knocked up.”
“I wish…”
“Don’t say it, Nate. We can wish all we want, but it won’t make a difference. I’m your woman now. I’m with you forever. And when you put your cock in me, I’ll only be thinking of you. You’re my daughter’s daddy and you’ll be my next child’s father as well. I love you, Nate. I love you with my whole heart. With nothing left in reserve. Come to me, lover.”
We kissed and touched. We petted and kissed some more. When I touched her vulva, I found it wet and slippery. She held my cock and guided it into her depths as I looked into her eyes. We began to move together, climbing toward our summit with every stroke.
“I’m ready, Nate. Come in me. Make me a mommy again. Fill me with a little baby that is ours.”
There wasn’t much more to be said. In another stroke or two I was flooding her inner channel and she started coming with me. We smashed our mouths together and kissed as deeply as two people could. Then we kept going. I kept moving in her and she kept thrusting to meet me as we kissed and caressed and whispered secret love thoughts to each other. And when we came again, I found myself weeping. Weeping great tears of joy that I was loving this incredible woman and we were making a baby.
Anna and Ronda wanted us to stay in bed and do it again in the morning after they’d held the two of us all night. They went out and got Miss Toni ready for her daycare and we joined them half an hour later. Smiling.
Of course, I couldn’t leave my other girlfriends unattended. We loved and cuddled all day. I gave them orgasms and they kept me hard, right up until dinner time. When Patricia got home from work with little Toni, the two of us took one look at each other and ran to the bedroom while Anna and Ronda fed Toni.
Friday, I had to rest up a bit, and go to the graduation rehearsal. Besides, Mom, Dad, and Kat came to town for my graduation. I took them to the exhibition, which would only be open through Sunday. Uncle Nate and Aunt Grace joined us for the tour, then I took the whole family to the club for dinner. I’d been pretty careful about not running up a bill at the club, but this was a special night. The maître ‘d seated us at a table near the center of the restaurant, and offered to give my parents and aunt and uncle a tour of my photos hanging in the bar. I’d had all my girlfriends in the club since the installation of the big photo.
Kat had graciously agreed to stay home with Toni. She wouldn’t have been allowed in the club. I suppose they wouldn’t have questioned it unless she tried to order a drink, but none of us really drank anything that evening. We just had a fantastic meal.
During the meal, Dorn, Guzik, Heintzelman, and Laughlin all came by my table to congratulate me and meet my parents. They all had a word of greeting for Uncle Nate and Aunt Grace, and were extremely complimentary to my three girlfriends. We weren’t really there to party other than for dinner, but when the music started, I managed to take Ronda, Patricia, and Anna each out for a turn on the floor. Mom and Dad and Uncle Nate and Aunt Grace had a dance, too. I’d seen Mom and Dad dance in the living room during The Lawrence Welk Show, but never in public. Well, what would the church think if they knew?
On Saturday, the three hundred students graduating paraded across the stage and were given our degrees. I was, at last, a college graduate.
And I was a husband in demand as I continued my daily quest to impregnate Patricia. The next Sunday, Anna and I would head to Stratford to get the production photos of the first two shows taken. We’d be there for two weeks and then come back to Chicago for Ronda’s graduation. We’d pack up everything after her commencement and all move back to Stratford for the summer.
I felt incredibly free. I spent some time in the studio, just cleaning things up and getting ready for the summer. Or longer. I didn’t know when I’d get to use the studio again once I started working for the State Department. Or where we would officially live. We needed to talk together about things like whether we would continue to live in our little apartment in Chicago, or if we’d move to someplace a little bigger and hopefully less expensive.
Anna suggested that there was no reason she and Patricia and Toni couldn’t continue to live in Stratford if we wanted to. When Ronda and I weren’t traveling, we’d officially be on our days off. I wasn’t sure though that a place as remote as Stratford would be as welcoming during the cold and snowy winter. We decided to keep the current arrangement until we had a better feeling for how our schedule would work and where we should consider living. And when Patricia would be due for her baby.
Of course, we had no idea if she’d caught yet. When Anna and I left on Sunday, it would still be a week before her period would be due. And Dr. May had warned us that once she was off the regulating hormones in the pill, her period might not be even as regular as it had been before she got pregnant with Toni. We’d have to wait at least another month if she missed her next period.
Freedom. Yeah. I guess you could call this freedom. I was no longer in school. I had no obligations outside my family until fall. I was really loving my life and my girls.
I finished packing the bus with everything I thought I could possibly use from the studio in Chicago and kissed Rita and Cassie goodbye. Leanne had left for Stratford the day after graduation to work at the theatre for another season.
I had one more appointment on Saturday with Sandra before Anna and I could take off.
I got back to the apartment about six o’clock, ready to pack up Anna’s and my personal things. When we came back in two weeks, we’d load the van again and the whole family would head north.
The apartment was quiet when I walked in. My girlfriends stood in the kitchen, just staring at the envelope on the table as if they could will it to catch fire.
“What…?” I looked at the envelope addressed to me. It was from the Selective Service. I tore it open.
Nate Hart:
Congratulations on your graduation from college. Your selective service records have been returned to your local board and we have granted your request to be re-assigned to status I-O, a conscientious objector, not eligible for military service of any kind.
As all conscientious objectors are required to serve 24 months of alternative service, you are hereby directed to report to the Induction Center at 615 West Van Buren, Chicago, IL on September 1, 1972 by 3:00 p.m. to take your oath and begin your service. You will be instructed as to where you will serve upon arrival.
Have a good summer,
J. Henry Osgood
Chairman of the Hunter County Selective Service Board
Ah, fuck!
The End
To be continued in Book 6, Follow Focus.
Please feel free to send comments to the author at devon@devonlayne.com.
