Chapter 21

The next morning I got up and took a three mile run, then after showering I picked up the phone and called Mr. Cummings. After some small talk, he said that he read the adventure and loved it. He had been wanting to get more games with cultural references from other countries. And he was already in talks with a translator to convert it to Japanese. Which then prompted my main reason for calling him.

“Look, I belong to a group there that meets on Thursday at Kadena Air Base. And I started a group where I am stationed at Camp Butler. And I have met quite a few that play throughout the island. Can you give me some support in arranging a small convention there?

“Well, I don’t know. How small are we talking about?”

“Well, probably no larger than the one we met at. Myself and one or two others there can give some small presentations. Mostly open game room, and maybe a few small tournaments and teaching sessions. More to get others interested than for players themselves, but they will be a big part of it also. I figure a few games and modules and the like for prizes. I am going to try and have the Morale and Recreation organization host it, so it has to be free to enter. But they do have a book store there, and while there are a lot of things by TSR, I have not seen any of your stuff there yet.”

“Well, I guess we can put something together. In fact, you should call Ginger Allen, she works in the TSR promotions department now. I will call some other contacts and see if we can get together a package to send over there. About when are you thinking of doing this?”

“Well, maybe around November. That will give us a few months to plan it, and maybe some will be interested enough to get some things for Christmas. And while we can not have a sales area, you can possibly arrange something in the book store in the PX. At best, this might become an annual event. And at worse, a lot of people will have fun and be introduced to your works.”

He said it was a great idea, and asked about shirts. “Well, I will have to check. But I bet if we sold a shirt that commemorate the event with sponsor logos they would allow it, so long as the profits go to the club.”

“Oh, we can do that. Don’t worry, we have a PR budget for that. And I bet I can talk to some others about sponsorship. Any ideas on what to call it?”

“I was thinking ‘Oki Con’. Simple, easy to remember, and it rolls off the tongue well. But I have not talked about it with anybody else yet.”

“Well, we’ll use that then. Will be a month or so for final work so you have time to try and set it up on your end. But that does sound like a good name. Do you have any media there?”

“Well, we do have A-Farts. AFRTS, Armed Forces Radio and Television Services. They run a TV station, and an AM and FM station. We can probably arrange them to promote it a bit, and they will probably have a small crew there so they can do a human interest story on it. In fact, the feed is shared with all of AFRTS stations, so it might be seen around the world.”

“Hmm, that has a possibility. OK, I have some ideas I need to think through. But I guarantee that we will have a nice package for you for this no matter what. Even if you just hold it with your friends and give them all to them. I will hit on Lorraine Williams, she could use the publicity. Things got ugly there, Gary Gygax is out and she runs the company now. I bet she would have no problem with some donations on that end.”

“Great, I will talk to Dee then call Ginger. Thanks, Mr. Cummings, will talk to you in a day or so.”

“Pete, please stop calling me ‘Mr. Cummings’. We have been partners for years now, and I would like to think friends.”

“OK, Brad.” I chuckled and hung up.

Dee was reading the paper and sipping coffee as Georgie ate his cereal, and I told her my idea. She thought it was a great one, and said she would see what she could do on her end. “I’m sure if nothing else we can go through the warehouse and dig up some things we got as a demonstrations and send them over.”

I thanked her, then went to the office and started digging through my desk. Soon I found what I was looking for and made a call. Ginger was happy to hear from me, and I filled her in on what I had been doing the last two years. She again told me she wanted a submission, and I said I would see about sending her my next one, Mr. Cummings had already bought my newest.

When I told her about the convention, she said that would not be a problem. “Oh, I handle things like this all the time. What kind of tournaments were you planning on holding?”

I told her Axis & Allies, Civilization, Diplomacy, Dungeon, and several for D&D including one for absolute beginners. “I hope this will be at a place so many will wander in who know nothing about games, and this might get some into it. I was thinking a simple introductory one, with everybody getting a prize.”

“Oh, that’s great! I have been pushing for that actually, and have a friend in the publishing department. She thinks a cut down 20 page or so rule booklet could be made, and I bet that would be great for that. I will tell her to do one up, and see if we can send those over. That would make a great souvenir, as well as a gift for all the players.”

I thanked her, and told her to get ahold of Brad, as he was also in on this and going to be arranging to have some shirts made for the event. She thanked me, and soon I was typing furiously, to try and arrange what all I would need.

I decided to go for a drive a bit, and revisit some old haunts. Skip was glad to see me, and we sat around and chatted for a few hours. He said that all of my works had been selling well, and I asked him if we could hold a closed session in the next few days. He said he would be happy to, so after calling Mandy she said she would put out the word.

About 10 minutes later I was hugging an enthusiastic Peggy, who was very glad to see me. She had grown a few inches, and filled out very nicely! She was on break, going to CSUN for her AA in Physical Education, and was then going to USC for Sports Medicine she hoped.

I told her we were going to do a playtest of my newest adventure, and of course she wanted to play. I laughed, and told Skip to figure four or five slots would be taken, but I would need players for three or four others. A few minutes later Mandy showed up, and we hugged before she hugged Peggy. They both said this was a better place then Mike’s, as there was more room to move around in.

“Oh, and Skip. This is a playtest, so everybody needs to sign a confidentiality agreement. That will not be a problem, will it?”

I filled him in on what they could and could not say, and he said it was not a problem at all. Soon we were back at my usual haunt in the area, sitting and eating pizza as four robotic Beagles sang Beatles songs and sharing a pizza. We all caught up, and Peggy actually looked slightly embarrassed when Linda’s name came up.

“Mandy, I did not tell you this, but she tried to hit on me last year. It was kinda creepy, we were just hanging out and she hugged me. Not a big deal, we had done that lots of times before. But it went on, then she tried to lower her hand to my ass. I reached down to grab it to move it away, but as soon as I did she tried to kiss me! It kinda freaked me out, and I threw her out of the house right after that.”

Mandy sighed, and shook her head. “Yeah, I keep hearing things like that. For a while there she was trying to grab onto anybody she could. But now she is getting all the sex and money she wants.”

Peggy was shocked when we told her about Linda’s new “job”, and shook her head. She of course had heard the rumors she was stripping, but not this. We both agreed to let Mandy handle the arrangements for the test night, and pretty much any date they agreed upon would be fine with me.

After hugging Peggy goodbye, I hugged Mandy, and she asked if she could have her first date that night. I smiled, and said it was not a problem. And when I asked if she wanted to do the skating or movie, she said she wanted to see a movie. I said that was fine, and what time I should pick her up.

“What, you don’t want to take my car?” she said, and mock pouted.

“Nope, sorry. You got a cool car, but I don’t think it would be comfortable after four or five hours to be honest. We’ll use this one, we can tilt the front seats forward, and sit in the back. It will be a lot more comfortable.”

She said that sounded good, so after a soft kiss we headed off to our homes. And then once there I started making lists of game tournaments we could hold during the convention. I had Dee help me, and soon we came up with a short list. D&D was a natural, and I added in Tunnels & Trolls, because it was such a simple system a beginner could pick it up easily.

“Oh, and Lost Worlds, you have to include that. It has been huge here the last few years.” I did not remember that one, and she went into her closet and pulled out a bunch of paperback pamphlets about 40 pages each. And each page had a different drawing of the character on the cover in different positions and distances with a small chart on the bottom. Elf, Knight, Skeleton, Warrior, Barbarian, there were a dozen of them. “What you do is pick one, then I pick one. We swap the books, and then describe what we do next. This chart then tells what page in the book we turn to, and repeat. You then see me from the new perspective, and I see you the same way.” We played a few games, and it was actually quite fun.

“Yeah, this would be great! I need to get some of these!”

“And since this is going to be on an Air Force Base, also get ‘Ace of Aces’. I do not have any of those, but it is basically the same thing, but WWI era fighters.”

“Oh yea, those flyboys will love that! Hmm, Nova Game Designs? I wonder if Brad knows them.”

“If not, I have a contact there. Tell you what, I’m calling Brad tomorrow to tell him I already got approval to write up your new game. I will ask him then. I am invited, right?”

“Of course you are! We are going to have it at Skip’s shop, Mandy is in charge of arranging it all. I will let her know you have one spot, and I will let you know as soon as we have it set up.”

OK, now that could be a big part of the tournament. I could see several different segments there. Human against human, human against monster, and monster against monster. And Dee told me she knew a guy that did this in tournaments, and she would send me the handicapped sheets they used. In theory they were all equal, but some really good players were able to blow that out so they needed to be balanced a bit more for true tournament play.

And she said it was fine that I borrow the van. “Pete, consider it yours for as long as you are here. If I really need it, I will let you know.”

I thanked her, then after Georgie woke up I took him in the back yard and played with him for about an hour. He really was a great kid, and still seemed to be getting used to the fact I was a real person, and not just a photograph. But he adapted quickly, and we got along great.

At just after 5 I got into the van, and drove to pick up Mandy. She greeted me with a kiss, and she went and finished getting ready as I sat in the living room. I had already decided to wear a tank top and shorts, it was a warm day outside and I wanted to be comfortable. Mandy soon came out dressed similarly, and when I asked her what movie we were seeing, she said it would be a surprise.

The theater was just off Sepulveda near the Galleria, so we decided to just go to the Castle Arcade. We played some games, and I described to her some of the games in the arcades there. “Mostly they are the same, but some here I have not seen there, and the same. They really love the fighting games though. And a tile matching game, they play that a lot also. Strange though, I do not remember seeing any pinball games though.”

We were trying to decide what to do for dinner, and I suggested just getting a pizza and snacks, and she said that sounded good. So first to a local liquor store where I got a 4 pack of wine coolers and a 6 pack of soda, then a Pizza Hut where we got a large pepperoni to go. This time when we drove to the theater I looked at the marquis, and burst out laughing.

“What’s so funny? I heard it’s a funny movie.”

“I’m sure it is, ‘Howard the Duck’? What’s it about, Mandy?”

“Well, a duck from a planet of ducks arrives on Earth. The mom from Back to the Future is in it, and it was produced by George Lucas.”

“OK, I guess it should be pretty good then.”

I had her sit in the back and tell me when the van was at the right angle, then I tilted the seats forward as we sat in the back and ate pizza and talked until the movie started. She said Friday would be a good time for skating, and I said that was fine with me. “We will take the van again, I have those presents to bring, and those will never fit in your car. But for our third date, I will let you drive unless you think the van is a better choice.”

Soon most of the pizza was gone, and we were halfway through the first wine coolers when the movie finally started. I had my arm around her shoulder, then suddenly gasped. “OK, I get it with the Playduck thing, but really? Did that naked duck really have breasts and nipples?”

Mandy was giggling, and told me to just watch. I’m not sure if the next hour and a half were a complete train wreck, but it was not far off. It had a few moments, but the scene where the duck and Lea Thompson were talking about getting it on was uncomfortable, almost cringe worthy.

Thankfully. The second movie was far better. We held hands and watched, and I was amazed that this was yet another movie by Lucas. David Bowie was amazing as the villain, and in a way I almost felt sorry for him, and the girl was absolutely amazing.

“OK Mandy, you are now forgiven. The first movie was a complete dog, but that one was amazing. They should have reversed the order, and played that one first.”

Mandy was giggling, and nodded. “Oh yeah, that is actually the movie I wanted to see here with you. I saw it when it first came out, and knew you would like it Pete. I saw it was playing, so this is why we came here. I actually had absolutely no interest in seeing that duck movie.”

We both laughed and after lightly slapping her arm I pulled her in and we shared a kiss. The kiss went on a bit longer, then she pushed gently on my chest. “Pete, let’s go elsewhere, OK? We still have two hours until I have to be home.”

We got the van back together, and it was only a short drive to the Japanese garden. We climbed into the back and were soon making out. I let my hands caress her back and sides, occasionally moving them down to caress her ass as our tongues dueled in each other’s mouth. We rolled so I was on the bottom, and she started to nibble and kiss my neck as I let my hands caress her upper thighs, just under where her shorts ended. And finally I returned to caressing her sides again.

At some time later my shirt was on the floor, along with hers. We were in our shorts and Mandy’s bra, and I was nibbling along her shoulder as my fingers caressed the sides of her breasts. They were unquestionably larger than they had been the last time I had seen her, a nice large C or small D cup. I felt the soft fullness of the side of her breasts, feeling amazing through her bra.

“Peter, you do not have to stop at ‘side boob’ anymore” she softly said, and rotated her chest back and forth a few times, and I let my hands move to her front. I cupped them in each hand, feeling so full and firm under my touch. I saw the clasp and opened it between her breasts and peeled it away. She let it slide down her arms and land next to us as I held them in my hands.

They were perfect. Her areola were huge, a little smaller than an old dollar coin, and only slightly puffy now. And just a shade darker than her lips, I could see them crinkled up and her nipples in the center. Large and fat, almost a quarter of an inch long, and so fat. With a sigh, I moved my right hand away and took her left nipple into my mouth.

Mandy moaned and shuddered, whimpering softly as I took it into my mouth and sucked, her arms around my neck and holding me in place. I made love to her nipple, my tongue, lips and teeth doing all I knew to it. I would open my mouth as wide as I could and try to take all of it inside, then later I would move my lips so they were only around her nipple, sucking it firmly as I licked the tip. And her moans told me it was just as good for her. And her hips barely stopped moving, grinding back and forth on to of me as she ground herself against me, only our shorts and underclothes between us.

I would move back and forth, from one nipple to the other. Not wanting to neglect either of them, I would sometimes break off and kiss all around her breast, licking up the slightly salty taste of her from her skin, moving down to kiss along the underside, feeling the muscles under them with my tongue before moving back up again. After thinking of them so many times over the years, I actually had my mouth on them.

After maybe 30 minutes she ripped my mouth away from her left breast and mashed her lips to mine, whimpering softly as her hips jerked back and forth on me. I squeezed her ass and helped her grind, knowing my sweet Mandy was having an orgasm. Finally her hips stopped bucking, and she relaxed on top of me. Our kiss turned soft and tender, and she almost collapsed on top of me.

“Oh God Pete, that was everything I could have wanted, and more! You just lie there, it’s your turn.” As she said that she slipped off of me and her hand started to lower to my waist. But I grasped it and held it still.

“No Mandy! I’m fine. Trust me, I’m fine. You don’t have to do that.”

She kissed me, long and tender with tongues caressing as she continued to try and lower her hand, and I continued to resist it. “Pete, I want to do this. There is no ‘have to’ about it, I want to.”

I sighed deeply, and shook my head. “Mandy, I believe you, and I do also. But not here, not like this.”

She heard the tone in my voice, and raised up and looked into my eyes. I smiled up at her, but I am sure it looked as strained as it felt. “You did something like this with her, didn’t you?”

I nodded. “Our first, date I guess you would say. In the back of Scout, she came on my lap also, then she, ah, returned the favor with her hand. If we go further, I do not want it to be a replay of that, I want it to be its own happy memory, one that would only be shared with the two of us and nobody else. Not some kind of recreation of what I did with her.”

Mandy bent forward and kissed me, deeply, tenderly, passionately. I held her tight and kissed her back, feeling a few unshed tears leak from the corner of my eyes. Finally she broke away, and held me, her cheek resting against my own. “I understand, and thank you. Yes, we will make our own memories, together. You are right, it should not be like a replay with sis. But you listen to me right now Peter Culver, I will not wait past tomorrow night after skating. Before you take me home, I am going to give you an orgasm. You can cum in my hand, you can cum in my mouth. You can even pull off my blouse and fuck my tits and cum between them. But in some way I am getting your cum tomorrow. I will accept this tonight, I do understand. But tomorrow will be different.

I looked at her, slightly in shock. “Mandy, that is not needed.”

She slipped off of me and knelt on the floor and kissed me again. “Pete, you have given me several orgasms over the years. The ones on our ‘dates’ have been the best ones of my life with a guy. I have wanted to do the same for years, but I would never do that because of sis. She is gone now, and she is no longer going to stop me. You seem to be making a mistake, that I want to do this for you, I want to do it for me. I have been wanting it for years, and no later than tomorrow night I am going to feel it. So you get used to that idea, got it?”

I nodded, and pulled her down for another kiss. “OK, but not like this. Not in the back of a car, somewhere we can really be comfortable.”

I saw Mandy’s face light up in a smile, and she nodded. Once again looking a bit like the little girl I remembered, but more mature. “I will tell my mom I am spending the night with Peggy. Do you know where we can go?”

“Mandy, I will rent a room at a hotel nearby. After skating, we will drop the van off at home, then we will go somewhere together for the entire night. If that is OK with you, that is. Is it?”

Now she looked a little troubled. “All night?” she whispered, looking like she was both delighted, and terrified.

“All night. And no, we will not actually make love. But we can have a lot of fun, then afterwards we can cuddle up together and go to sleep holding each other. And no, we will not actually have sex, I do not think either of us are ready for that.”

Her face melted into a smile as I said that, and she did look happy, even excited. “Oh yes, that would be wonderful Pete. Yes, I always loved when we fell asleep like that. And this time, I will not even have to pull your hand onto my breast.”

I jerked, and looked at her as she grinned and nodded. “Yes, I did that. I would feel so wonderful as you held me, and I felt your cock pressing into my bottom and your hand on my hip. I would slowly move your hand up until you held my breast, and loved it. Sis probably knew, but never said anything. Yes, that sounds perfect, our own special memory that will only belong to us.” She kissed me again, and after a few moments I caressed her back as she slipped her bra back on, then her top. I got my own top on and after a few more minutes kissing we got back into the front and I drove her home.

We got back right at her curfew time, and shared a soft kiss before she opened the door. And I saw Rosie in a robe on the couch as she closed it.

The next morning after a five mile run I was chatting with Dee. She had gotten a few more commitments for games and things we could use as prizes, and even gotten one from Milton-Bradley. Three complete sets of their entire “Gamemaster Series”. Including Axis & Allies, Fortress America, and Conquest of the Empire!

She helped me write up a more formal charter, that I would propose to the group when I got back. Many of the donations were made not to the convention, but to the group itself. And the best way to handle that seemed to be to set it up more formally, with an actual charter and officers to ensure the future safekeeping of the games.

After all, these were not for me or anybody else, they would belong to the group itself. Hopefully after the con we could show the MWR that we not only needed a larger room to meet in, but a place to secure them.

We had just finished eating lunch when there was a knock on the door. I was doing the dishes, and suddenly I was being hugged from the rear. I was turned around, and Holly was kissing me. I held her tight, getting water on her shirt but she did not seem to care, she was laughing and crying and hugging me tight before kissing me again.

We went into the living room after she hugged Georgie, and Dee went to put him down for a nap as we held hands and talked. After about an hour after Holly got there, she hinted that we should go for a walk, and Dee waved to us as hand in hand we walked out.

We started walking around the neighborhood, just like old times. I told her about what living in Japan was like, and she told me about college. I told her about the game, and she said she was going to be there, there was no way she was going to miss it.

She was still gaming occasionally, I was not surprised to learn D&D was big at Cal State Long Beach. We talked about her classes, and I was not surprised she was a 3.9 student, She had already done a few performances, as she was also a member of the drama club.

“They keep trying to get me to sing, but I know that’s not my thing. We did Grease last year and they wanted me to be Rizzo, but I turned it down. I finally went ahead and did Frenchy, as she only sings backup in a few songs.”

I said that was great, and I wished I could have seen it. I then caught her up at what I had been doing the last week, and she was impressed. “So you could not go to a convention, so you are making your own. That is so you, Pete! I just wish I could be there for it, I bet it will be great.”

I told her about skating that night, and she said she would be there. And when she asked what time I would pick her up, I kinda laughed. “Well, actually I am going with Mandy. I promised her three dates while I am home, and that is going to be date number two.”

Holly laughed, and squeezed my hand. “Pete, you know she has had a crush on you for years, right?”

“Yeah, I guess I did. I just never really realized it like I have recently.”

“Oh, she has. Still does, if I am not mistaken. Go ahead, have your date. Show her a good time.”

“But it is just a date, like we had done before. And do not forget, we have one also some time before I go.”

“Oh, I know that, and am looking forward to it. But go ahead and have fun with Mandy, I know this is not a competition.”

“But I’m not going to have sex with her. No more than I would have sex with you Holly.”

“Well thank you very much!” she said and gave a mock pout, then laughed. “And yes, I agree, you should not have sex with either of us. That is not saying we can not have some fun. But you are not going to be back for over a year. And a three week fling with either of us would be a very very bad idea. We both love you to death, and at least I know that by the end of the month you are getting ready to go again. Even if we did, it would be rough on both of us and I would not risk our friendship on that. Oh, I still want to fool around a bit, but that is all at this time. And in three years or so when you get out of the Marines, we will see. I am not willing to do long-distance relationships like that, and I think you already learned your lesson about that.”

She stopped and turned and faced me, and held both of my hands as we looked into each other’s eyes. “But do not mistake that as my never having thought of us like that. But until you are home and no longer in danger of being called away for a year or more, I am not willing to commit to a relationship with you other than as friends Pete. You know that, right?”

“Yes, of course. And the same with me. I am not going to risk our friendship for a week or so of fun.”

“And you keep that in mind. Realize this, I love you Pete. I always will, even if we are nothing more than friends. You may not realize this, but Mandy is in love with you. That is very different, so don’t you go and take advantage of her.”

I chuckled, and as we resumed walking I told her a little about the night before, and my turning her down because what was happening was so much like what had happened when I had first met her sister. And that I wanted our time together to be “special.”

“Pete, this is what is so wonderful about you. But remember that, and do not put yourself into that girl. Love her, make her feel loved and special because she is. But do not cross that line. In some ways, she might be even more vulnerable than Linda was.”

I nodded, and could see what she was talking about. And indeed her crush does not appear to have shrunk over the years but maybe even grew stronger.

“Holly, can I ask what happened with you and her sister?”

“Well, I’m sure you can probably guess. Yes Pete, she pretty much drove us all away over sex. After Kimmie it was me, same thing. She came down to spend a weekend with me, and tried to crawl into my bed the first night. I tried to be gentle, then finally I had to push her out and order her to her own bed. She left the next morning and I have barely talked to her since. And I know about her trying it with Peggy. And Julie. And pretty much every other girl she knew.”

She sighed and squeezed my hand. “When Keith told me she was stripping, I did not want to believe it. Then as I told you, I drove by the club he told me about, and on the third night I saw your truck in the back. Then again the next night. Then she was only working there two or three nights a week, mostly on weekends. And I heard from my brother that she went from wearing what everybody else did and only driving to and from school to buying expensive clothes and driving everywhere. And spending $50 a night at the arcade. And always with her new friends, who were years older than she was.” She shook her head sadly. “And I ran across Paco, remember him from History? He is the one that told me that he saw her at the bikini bar a few months before that. That is how I found out she was already dancing, but that was after I knew about the stripping.”

Holly shook her head. “Then Keith told me about her new boyfriend, and I thought he was joking at first. I knew him, or at least of him. She used to date his cousin way before she met you, and he was bad news. Barrio Van Nuys, drug dealer, some rumors claim he is a pimp. Then I heard right before your truck got wrecked that he would drop her off at school and take off in it. I wanted to tell you, but I had no idea how I could do that. Especially since it was mostly just rumor, although I did believe of it.”