Chapter 10: My Baby Just Cares For Me

Recordings Start

August 21-22, 1976

We managed to get all of our stuff into the back of the car; but it meant all four of us had to squeeze into the front seat. We worked it out; Megan sat in the centre next to me, then Lori was on the outside, with Jillian on her lap. At least it didn’t take all that long to drive back to Mona Vale, where we dropped Megan and Jillian off with their bags, before heading to Lori’s place. On the drive back to Mona Vale Megan told us about her experiences with the publicity photo shoot yesterday afternoon. The photographer’s studio was on an upper floor of an old building in the City, on Pitt Street near Park Street.

“She was this middle aged woman; Austrian or Swiss, I think. Maria Klitspringer, strange name. Anyway, Fifa was there, along with a stylist; the first thing was hair and makeup; I couldn’t believe how I looked after she was finished with me; I looked like a cover girl for some beauty magazine. Meanwhile, Maria had set up all her equipment; there was this huge mottled grey backdrop, big flashlights on stands everywhere; she had me sit on this stool, looked at me through this little scope sort of thing.

“She wasn’t happy with the job the stylist had done; she wanted more emphasis on my cleavage. ‘The world needs to see more of those magnificent bazoombas’, she said. Bazoombas – I’ve never heard that word before. Anyway, the stylist put some coloured powder on the sides of my breasts; they seemed to provide more shadow and contrast, as if my boobs were bigger than they actually are. They adjusted the top, too; I was worried that I was going to fall out, or my nipples would show. She actually put some double sided tape on the inside of the bust of the dress, and had the edge where the cleavage line was cut right running along my nipples!

“It felt strange having this other woman touching and adjusting my boobs; of course my nipples got all erect, but that seemed to be what they wanted. Anyway, Maria was finally happy with how my bazoombas looked; she took a bunch of photos. The camera she had was impressive, it wasn’t a single lens reflex like the one Cathy or you have, Will. It was this fancy European one, Hassleback or something like that. She would look down at a viewing screen on the top of it, and there was a crank on the side to wind the film on after each shot. The first few she took were Polaroids; she could take the whole back of the camera off, and replace it with another one; probably with normal film in it. I’ve got some of the samples to show you.”

She passed some of the prints around; her ‘bazoombas’ did look larger than normal. The photos were very good; they seemed to capture some essence of her personality. She looked pensive, wistful, as if she was waiting for something or someone.

“I need to learn that trick with the cleavage,” Jillian said. “You look an inch or two bigger in those photos!”

“I like the blonde highlights they put in your hair,” Lori said.

“You should keep those in permanently,” I said. “Do you know what the stylist used to do it to you?”

“I guess I could get them done every time I get my hair cut,” she said. “A lot of farting around though, and would probably cost a bit. After every few photos, they would change the lighting around a bit, get me to change my position slightly, pose with a different expression. Next week will see how they all turned out.”

At Lori’s place, we started our laundry; had some lunch, and then I went to pick up Jillian and Megan to go to Paul’s place for rehearsal. George and Garry were there; they set up their big tape deck and connecting it to the mixer to check the cables and signal levels. During a break; George spoke with Megan and me.

“The missing track for the second side of your album; I had an idea the other day,” he said. “Do you know ‘My Baby Just Cares for Me’, the big Nina Simone hit?”

I nodded; I liked the piano part of it.

“Do you think you could play the piano part, Will, and Megan can sing? Here’s the music, I’ll let you practice it during the week, and we could try a run through next week sometime.”

Before we finished the break; I played through the piece; Megan sang along with me. It was okay, at least for our first run-through. Bruce joined in on drums part way through; but using brushes rather than the normal sticks to add a jazz feel to the piece.

“A bit of work; we can play around with the timing, and I think that’s a goer,” George said. “Andrew, can you have a stand-up bass? That’s what we need for this track, and maybe some of the others. The other thing Will; I’m still not a hundred percent happy with the track line-up that we’ve got; I would like to have a very recent piece in there as well. Perhaps one that you can sing by yourself; if you come around this Wednesday afternoon, I hope to have something for you to try. I’ve got one or two ideas; I just want to talk it over with Fifa and Ted Albert.”

With everyone back from a break, George went through the plans for the evening’s sets; making sure we were going to play ones that he wanted to record. After a bit more rehearsing, we loaded all the equipment up, and headed to the Mirage. Not long after we arrived and were setting up, Ros arrived, with Wendy and Murph; with her camera equipment. She had a few big flash light stands and the power supplies for them, which we temporarily set up along the sides of the stage.

“George, I was thinking about the title of the album,” she said to him. “How does this sound; ‘Where’s Brian? – The Roberttones Live at the Newport Mirage’; we can play on the single mike stand and the opening joke.”

“I like it; let’s go with that,” he said. “Can you guys make sure you include the bit about Brian in your opening tonight?”

“We do every night,” I said. “If we didn’t come up with a new excuse for Brian not being here, people would expect their money back!”

Everyone worked at getting the equipment set up; George and Garry checked the sound levels to the tape deck; Murph lugged the big flood stands around until Ros was happy with their positions. Just before Megan and I were due to start our duet sets; we positioned the mike stand in the centre of the stage; Ros took some measurements with her light meter, and then took a bunch of photos. I was interested in the camera she had, it was a Bronica medium format model.

“The poor man’s Hasselblad,” she explained. “Where in this case, ‘poor’ is all relative.”

“Hasselblad, that’s what Maria had yesterday,” Megan said. “Are they expensive?”

“Too bloody right,” Ros said. “I hate to think what I would have had to pay to get the equivalent to this in that brand. Thousands, at least; but their stuff is pretty good, if you can afford it. This will do the job though.”

When she was happy she had got what she wanted for the cover photo, she and Murph removed her lighting equipment, and Megan and I started our set. When we started the main band set, on cue, the audience shouted out “Where’s Brian?” and Phil came up with some excuse about him being too shy to want to appear on record. We played through all of the sets that we had planned beforehand; by the time the evening had finished, George was pretty pleased with everything that he had got on tape.

“We can do the same next week, and we can work in the studio, see what ones are the best, and mix them down for the master,” he said. “Great evening, everyone; you all did really well.”

We packed things up, and I drove Jillian and Megan back to their place. Both of them gave me deep, passionate kisses as I dropped them off, it was some time before I eventually left to head back to Lori’s place. She was sound asleep when I got to bed; I was exhausted, and immediately fell asleep.

By the time I woke up on the Sunday morning, Lori was already up. She must have heard me getting out of bed, and came into the bedroom.

“Good morning, sleepyhead, how did it go last night?” she asked.

I filled her in on the details; meanwhile she was pulling her clothes off. She pushed me back on the bed, sucked my prick until I was hard, and then straddled my waist, mounting me. She rode up and down, supporting her weight on her hands as she leant forward onto my chest.

“It feels strange with just the two of us doing this, and not having another girl participating,” she said. “Although from this afternoon, Janelle will be with us. I’m sure she will want her share of having sex with you.”

She moved up and down faster, riding me frantically as if she needed to make us come urgently. Lori moaned softly, mumbling how she loved having my prick inside her, how much nicer a real prick was compared to a dildo, and how she wanted me to spurt inside her.

“I’ll need to make sure you are in top condition for Janelle,” she said. “I want to watch you and her having sex; will you let me watch you? Maybe we can find a position where I can be looking closely at her pussy while I watch as your prick slides in and out of her cunt... OH GOD, YES!“

She stopped moving, and sat straight up. I felt her muscles clench and spasm, her body shook slightly. When she had finished, she resumed the up and down motion.

“That felt good, but now I want you to come inside me.”

She moved her body to just the right angle on my prick; as she moved up and down, I thrust my hips up to match her movements. I could feel myself close to coming; I grabbed her hips, and pushed hard into her as I started spurting. I grunted as I pumped into her; Lori was moaning, too.

“Nice to see neither of the Winters girls have spoiled your skills,” she said, smiling. “And I’m sure Janelle will work you over pretty hard, too. Now we should have a shower, and start to get things organized for the coming week. Janelle’s train gets into Central a few minutes after five; so we probably want to pick Megan up by one or one-thirty, so we have plenty of time to make sure things are right at home.”

We had a shower together, got dressed, and then sorted out the laundry that we had done yesterday. By the time we had put everything into the car, and spoken to Megan, it was time for lunch. We made some toasted ham and cheese sandwiches and took them out on the deck to eat. The day was pleasantly warm for a late winter’s day; Lori unbuttoned her top, and leant back in the seat, letting the sun onto her breasts.

“Jillian said she would like to come to the beach with us when summer comes,” I said. “I mentioned how we take the boat over to Maitland Bay, and swim and lie on the sand naked. She has never sunbathed topless before, at least that’s what she told me.”

“We are really opening her mind to some new experiences,” Lori said. “That would be good going there with her.”

“I wonder if the others; Ros, Wendy, Murph would be interested as well?”

“I know if Janelle is on holidays, she would want to be with us, too,” Lori said. “We will end up with a huge group!”

“The more the merrier,” I said.

We finished our meal, cleaned up a bit, then headed back to the city, picking up Megan on the way. Jillian was waiting there to say goodbye to her sister, and to see Lori and me, too.

“I wanted to thank you both for a lovely week, and being so helpful and understanding,” she said. “I can’t wait until I can move in with you two and the others, which will be so much fun.”

She gave both of us very passionate kisses before we got into the car to drive back into the city.

“The week with you seems to have been good for Jillian,” Megan said, once we were on the main road. “Something has changed about her; I can’t really put my finger on it, but it’s almost like she’s really found her place. She comes across as really bubbly, outgoing, and full of fun, but I know her better than that. She’s never been truly happy, it’s like she’s looking for some meaning to her life. I know she’s only been home for a day, but she seems to be a different person after the week with the two of you. I don’t know what you did or said to her, but it’s like she’s a different person now; and so excited about sharing a house with you. Our parents seem to think that would be good for her, too.”

“She told us stuff about her in confidence,” Lori said, “which I don’t want to betray, if you understand. If she wants you to know, then she can tell you herself. What I can tell you is that she’s in love with both Will and me; and we love her, too. Exactly how we both love you, too.”

“Well, whatever you did with her, she’s changed; changed for the better,” Megan said. “I guess I will have to share the time I have with you between her; I really don’t mind you both loving her, as well as loving me.”

“I think Jillian would probably want to spend most of the time with Lori rather than me,” I said. “So I would be at your disposal; for want of a better term.”

“I’m sure we can work everything out,” Lori said. “All four of us can be in love with each other; of course it would be different between you and Jillian.”

We continued talking about how we could all spend time together, until we reached Megan’s place. We helped her take her things inside, kissed her goodbye, and continued on to our place. Once we had unloaded the car, Lori and I put fresh sheets on the bed and I ran the vacuum cleaner over the floors while Lori cleaned the bathroom. We quickly checked to see if any food was required; but we had enough for the next few days.

We started preparations for dinner; we had a chicken that would do for dinner, roasted in the oven. Lori prepared the bird; putting it on the baking tray, while I peeled some potatoes, cut them up, and did the same with a piece of pumpkin. We put it in the oven; by the time we returned with Janelle, it would be well on the way towards being ready.

Janelle Comes to Visit

August 22-23, 1976

With everything in the house ready for Janelle’s arrival, we walked up to the station and caught a train to Central, arriving with a few minutes to spare. I always enjoyed walking around the main concourse at the station, looking at the huge arrivals and departures board. There were all the departures shown; trains with romantic names like ‘The Riverina Express’, ‘North Coast Mail’, ‘Brisbane Express’, ‘Southern Aurora’, and many more. The board had interesting information on it, like ‘Change at Wagga Wagga for Tarcutta and Tumbarumba’ or ‘Last Two Carriages Detach at Blayney for Cowra’. When I saw things like that; I wondered what happened if you were in the wrong carriage; might you wake up at Cowra, instead of Parkes.

We checked the Arrivals board; the afternoon ‘Newcastle Flyer’ was due to arrive on platform three at three minutes past five. We wandered out to the platform to wait for the train, and right on time, it pulled into the station. We saw Janelle as she stepped onto the platform from one of the carriages; she had a large suitcase with her. When she saw us waving at her, she dropped her case on the platform, and ran up to embrace us; first hugging and kissing me, and then Lori.

“Oh, it’s so good to see the two of you,” she said. “The train trip was much faster than driving, but I was still sitting there getting impatient! How far is it to your house?”

“We just have to walk to the suburban train section, it’s just two stations away,” Lori said. “We are only a couple of minutes’ walk from station.”

“I’ll carry that case for you,” I offered.

We walked the short distance to the suburban platforms; we made sure we got on at the northern-most end of the train, so there was less distance to walk once we reached Erskineville. Janelle seemed strangely quiet and subdued; when we sat down in the train, Lori asked her how things were going.

“I’ve just had probably the toughest weeks of the course so far,” she said. “I’ve just finished a rotation through the Oncology Department – that’s for cancer patients – the worst part was the paediatric ward, little kids, some no older than five or six. It broke my heart; here are kids who have spent most of their lives in a hospital, undergoing major operations, having to deal with chemotherapy, radiation treatment. They lose all their hair; are constantly sick from the drugs ... the saddest part is that you know that most of them aren’t going to survive more than a few years at best.

“At the start of the rotation, I was warned by the instructors that this is where quite a few trainees give up; they can’t handle the emotional shit of cancer patients. I mean, in most areas, the patients you are helping get better, and go home. But for cancer patients, you know that the chances that they will get better are not good. I can handle that for someone who is seventy or eighty; you know they’ve had a long life. But for a little kid, who’s barely six ... knowing they will not live much longer is really hard to handle.

“The kids themselves rarely complain; most of them have known nothing other than hospitals, chemo, and all that stuff. It breaks your heart when you see them so cheerful, so full of life, but so close to death. I mean, as a nurse, you are meant to be caring, meant to show compassion, but not get emotionally attached to your patients; either they get better and go home to their family and get on with their life; or they die ... That’s a big part of the challenge of the job; being caring, but still keeping that emotional separation.

“Anyway, when I started there was this sweet six year old girl; Ashley. She had lymphoma; a particularly nasty and aggressive variety. The oncologist said that this hospital stay would most likely be her last; he couldn’t see her surviving this one. I would spend time with her; reading stories, keeping her company when her parents took a break to have their meals. Even after my shift, I would go up to her room, read stories to her, all that sort of thing. Anyway, this morning, I was told that she died overnight. Her parents came to see me, to thank me for everything I did; how having me sitting with Ashley and reading her favourite stories really cheered her up. I felt so empty, so useless; I wasn’t able to do anything for her.”

“That’s not true,” I said. “Remember, there are some problems in the world that we aren’t capable of fixing; but maybe it’s not our job to fix them. The fact that you made her last few weeks pleasurable by taking the time to read to her and just be with her; maybe that’s what your job was meant to be.”

“I try to tell myself that,” Janelle said. “It still doesn’t make it any easier though. She had such a tough, short life.”

“But you made the last month so much easier for her,” Lori said. “She knew someone was there, caring for her, taking an interest and making her last few weeks bearable, even fun. Sometimes, that’s the best that we can do, and you really made a difference in that little girl’s life.”

“I know, and that’s what her parents told me. It will just take a little while for me to get over it; I’m afraid I’m not going be much fun for the next few days; I’m just not really in the mood for all that much. I’m a big disappointment, I’m sure.”

“You should know that there aren’t any expectations about what you may or may not do,” Lori said. “We don’t have rules, except that we respect each other’s feelings, and we all enjoy ourselves. Just do what you feel like doing, that’s all.”

“Well, there is one new rule,” I said.

“You can explain that to her when we get close to home,” Lori said, smiling at me.

By now we had arrived at our station; I carried her suitcase as we exited the train, up the stairs, and along the main road to our place. As we walked, Lori pointed out all the local attractions; the pubs, shops and restaurants; telling Janelle about all the great places to get food from and how they were all so close and convenient. Lori explained how we generally would walk or catch the train when we needed to go anywhere.

As we got close to our place, I told Janelle that we had instituted a new rule at home.

“We call it ‘Naked at Night’, and Lori and I are pretty much naked all the time at home,” I said.

“What about visitors, does the rule apply to them, too?” she asked.

“Yeah, unless they object to it,” Lori said.

“Well, you know I won’t object,” Janelle said. “This should be fun.”

I unlocked the door, pushed it open, and invited Janelle to enter. Lori and I followed; Lori closed the door behind us, and immediately took her clothes off. I did the same, folding them over the arm of the sofa. Janelle looked at both of us, then almost as if she said to herself ‘what the fuck’, pulled her clothes off. She looked exactly as I had remembered; large, full breasts, dark brown nipples that were just starting to get erect, and a big thatch of black pubic hair. It looked as if she hadn’t trimmed there for a month or two. Janelle saw me looking at her body; she raised her hands above her head, and twirled around in a pirouette.

“You like what you see, Will?” she asked, winking and smiling at me.

“I’ve always loved your body, Janelle,” I replied. “I’ll look at you anytime you want to show me.”

“If I’m going to be naked here all week, you will have lots and lots of opportunities to look at my naked body. Except my pubes are a bit wild; I’ve been so busy working, I haven’t had the time to trim them and tidy them up.”

“I’m sure Will would do that for you, if you ask him nicely,” Lori said. “Sometimes he helps me tidy mine up, and makes sure there are no stray hairs anywhere.”

“That would be a good idea,” Janelle said. “Now Lori, I know you’ve never had any stray hairs down there; I wish I wasn’t as hairy there as I am; I would prefer to be more like you are there.”

“Anyway, time for the grand tour; let me show you around the place.”

We led Janelle on a guided tour of the house; first the bedroom showing her where she could unpack her case and put her things, then the dining room / study, kitchen, and finally the bathroom. Lori showed her how the hot water heater worked, but Janelle knew how they operated, saying when she was younger, and living with her grandparents, they had a similar system on the farmhouse.

“A pity you didn’t get a place with a much larger shower, one big enough for all three of us at once,” she said.

“Oh, this one can work with three people,” Lori said. “You just have to keep really close, which shouldn’t be much of a problem. Now, after your journey, do you want a shower, to freshen up? I have to prepare the veggies for dinner, but I’m sure Will would be more than happy to make sure you are nice and clean.”

“That would be nice,” she replied. “Just a shower, though.”

Janelle’s response surprised me a little bit; I would have thought she would have jumped at the chance ... the chance to jump me. Maybe she was still feeling a bit down after the death of the young girl she had been caring for in the cancer ward. Something like that would put anyone in a non-sexual mood, I was sure.

We got the heater going and soon the water warm enough for a shower. I got two towels from the linen cupboard, and we stepped into the bathtub. Once we were all wet, I got some of the liquid body wash gel soap, squirted that on a sponge, and started to wash Janelle’s back.

“That does feel nice,” she said. “I can’t remember the last time someone did that for me; I seem to spend all my time looking after other people.”

“This week can be all about us doing nice things for each other,” I said.

We continued washing each other; when we felt clean enough, we turned the water off; shut down the heater, and got out of the shower. We dried each other; then hugged.

“I’ve missed the physical contact with people,” she said.

Once we were dry, it was back to the kitchen to see how dinner was progressing. Lori was just about ready to serve the food; so Janelle and I set the table. Lori pulled the baking tray from the oven; and I carved the chicken. We chatted about various things we had been doing as we ate; Janelle told us about the next few stages of her course; I talked about the two albums I would be working on, while Lori talked about the next book that we were working on.

After dinner; Janelle and I cleaned up and washed the dishes. We then moved into the study; Lori was working on an assignment, I decided to sit at the piano to practice some of the songs for the album with Megan, while Janelle got out one of her textbooks and started reading.

“I won’t be disturbing you if I play and sing will I?” I asked. “I can put the headphones on if you both want.”

“It doesn’t disturb me,” Lori said.

“I like hearing you play and sing,” Janelle said.

I pulled out the music George had given me yesterday for the additional song he wanted to add to the album. The challenge with ‘My Baby Just Cares for Me’ was that the only time the melody appeared was when Megan was singing; my part was just the piano accompaniment. I played my part, and sang the melody myself, to make sure I got the timing right. It really needed bass and drums to fill it out; but after a few runs through I felt I was getting my part sounding reasonably okay. I decided to take a break from the practicing; I pulled out some physics notes, and sat down at the table next to Janelle.

“What’s that you’re reading?” I asked her.

“It’s the stuff for the next classroom module,” she said. “We are learning all about operating theatre procedures.”

“Scalpel, Nurse Ward,” I said.

She laughed. “It’s more than just that, there’s a hell of a lot of emphasis on managing all the stuff used during an operation; what instruments have been used, and where they are at any particular time, what supplies have been used and so on. All that stuff about doctors wanting a scalpel or retractor or whatever passed to them; it has to be done that way, because one nurse is responsible for all the equipment and utensils used. That way, when the person gets stitched up, she can quickly work out if anything is missing.”

“So, do things often get left inside the patient’s body?”

“More often than you would think,” she said. “Most of the time it gets caught before they completely finish up the operation; and they will open up the patient again, get out whatever they left in there. But that can cause other problems, too; which is why it’s so important that one person knows where every bit of equipment, every supply piece is at all times. Even if it’s just a bit of cotton gauze, or a piece of bandage, it can cause problems if that’s left inside.”

“I hope if I ever need major surgery, whoever is responsible for checking all the stuff makes sure that nothing gets left inside me! Maybe I need to make sure if I end up in hospital I have you nursing me.”

“You do realize there are two meanings to the word ‘nursing’?” Lori said. “You do know that ‘nursing’ is what a mother does when she feeds her new born infant.”

“I could do that to you too, I think this pair are designed for that type of nursing,” Janelle said, pushing her breasts up and together. “I did bring down one of my uniforms with me, if we have time to play dress up this week.”

I smiled at her; and reached up to squeeze a plump breast.

“I think they would be perfect for nursing,” I said.

“Well, except for the fact there’s no milk inside them, you can try later on this week,” she said.

“There’s no milk inside mine, either,” Lori said. “But both of you are welcome to nurse on them.”

“I’m thinking it’s about time I made my way to bed,” Janelle said. “It’s been a long day for me; in fact, every day this week has been a long, exhausting day for me.”

“Probably about time we all hit the sack,” Lori said. “Since Will and I have to be up in time for classes in the morning.”

I put my books away, and we all went into the bedroom. Janelle was given the middle of the bed; with Lori and I on each side of her. I curled up to her back, as she lay on her side facing Lori.

“Do you mind if for tonight we just cuddle?” Janelle said. “Maybe tomorrow, I’ll feel more like doing other things, but at the moment...”

“Whenever you feel ready, that’s not a problem,” I said.

As I drifted off to sleep, I thought about how emotionally draining the time in the oncology department, and having to see what those kids were going through. Janelle wasn’t her usual bubbly self; but that was perfectly understandable. However, at times this evening her old self did come through. I will have to give her time; besides, it wasn’t as if I had been completely starved of sex recently.

We all woke up when the alarm went off; during the night somehow Lori and Janelle had swapped positions. Lori was now next to me, with Janelle on the other side of her.

“Anyone want some pre-breakfast fun?” Lori asked. “You lie down here, Will.”

I moved across to the centre of the bed; lying on my back. I had a good idea of what Lori wanted for some ‘pre-breakfast fun’. As she straddled my waist and reached down to guide my erect prick into her, I realized my guess was correct.

“Now Janelle, why don’t you get there just over his face; and let his lips and tongue pleasure you?” Lori suggested.

Janelle swung her body over my face; her pussy just brushing my lips. She was already slightly damp, and I pushed my tongue upwards, between her fleshy lips. While Lori rose up and down, riding my prick, I licked along Janelle’s pussy. Judging from the sounds the other two made, Lori was sucking on Janelle’s boobs. I wondered to myself just who might come first?