Chapter 22: Duets

Making Music with Megan

Late January 1975

I woke up, feeling bad about what I had done yesterday, and how I had treated Lori. I lay for a while in bed, thinking of how I should have handled things better; not jumping to conclusions and accusing her of trying to deceive me. Still, what was done was done, and no amount of wishing otherwise would change it. As I got up, I saw the two notes from Lori on my desk, and as I read them again, I felt even worse.

I was about to screw the notes up and toss them away, when I changed my mind and put them in the drawer of my desk with other cards and letters that I kept. I wasn’t sure why I wanted to keep them, but I just felt it would be wrong to toss them away.

After I had a quick shower and breakfast, I went outside to the pool and started to get the leaves out of the water. The day would warm up by lunchtime, and the pool would be a great way to cool off. I was almost tempted to have a quick swim once I had finished, but Megan was due soon, and I wanted to move the Rhodes into the family room next to the piano. I had just finished putting away my breakfast things when Megan arrived; a few minutes early, and I hadn’t had a chance to move the Rhodes.

“So, how was the romantic cruise?” she asked. “Lots of passionate bonking?”

“Well, it didn’t end well at all,” I said, rather tersely.

“Oh, I’m sorry, you broke up?” she asked, and I nodded silently. “I’m really sorry about that, I shouldn’t have been so nosy.”

“Well, you weren’t to know, but I just don’t feel like talking about it at the moment,” I said. “Now, I was going to move my Rhodes out here, next to the other piano, where there’s more room.”

“No need to worry, don’t you have a tape deck in your bedroom too?” she asked. “I’ve got some tapes we can play and work with.”

We went into my bedroom, and Megan hung her dress for the evening up on the back of my door, and pulled out a pile of music and tapes from her bag. We spent the next few minutes going through those, discussing how we could arrange various pieces, and listening to the first track on the tape.

We decided to work through the songs that Megan would sing by herself, and by eleven felt that we had several of them in a good enough state to polish off with the others tomorrow afternoon. Once we started practicing, the troubles of the previous day quickly passed from my mind. Megan quickly picked up the style and sound of our playing, and her voice was very good.

“Should we take a break, maybe have a swim, and then lunch?” I asked.

“That sound’s good,” Megan replied. “My voice needs a rest, anyway. We can try the duets after lunch, if you want.”

Megan peeled her tee shirt and shorts off; she was wearing her bikini underneath her clothes. I took my swimmers into the bathroom to get changed, and grabbed some towels for the two of us.

We spend a lazy hour in and around the pool, and then went inside for lunch. Megan was excited to see I had got things for her, and she even convinced me to have some yoghurt as well.

“Well, shall we get back to it?” I asked, once we had finished eating.

“Yes, let’s try some of those duets, we can’t keep putting that off,” she replied.

We decided to start with “Unforgettable”, with us singing each line alternately, combining for the final lines. After a few goes, we had the timing and pitches right, but it still lacked something. Technically, we had it down pat, but it somehow didn’t convey the emotions that it should.

“What if we double the instrumental break, get Paul and Phil to do a solo each, and we dance on the stage?” she suggested. “We have to work out how to get the emotions over.”

“That’s an idea,” I replied. “I don’t know what’s missing, though, how about we try another one, see how that sounds?”

We spend another hour working on several other duets, “Baby Its Cold Outside”, “These Foolish Things”, “Hey There”, and all of them eventually sounded okay, but there was still that something missing – there wasn’t any ‘magic’ to our performance.

“I don’t know, Megan, what are we missing?” I eventually said in desperation. “The music’s right, we are in key, the timing’s good, but it doesn’t sound right.”

“Let’s take a break, have another swim, and then get ready for tonight’s show,” she suggested. “No sense in pushing ourselves, today’s the first day we have tried working together.”

“Yeah, that’s a good idea,” I said. “We won’t have to leave here for two hours, but let’s have a rest.”

The pool was very refreshing, and we swam around for a bit, before getting out and lying in the sun against the back wall.

“This is lovely here,” Megan said. “So private, and with the views out over the trees. I bet I could even take my top off, and no one would see. Well, no one but you, I mean. Have you, or any of the others sunbathed topless or nude out here?”

“Well, um, I...” I stammered.

“So you have then?” she replied. “With Cathy and Lori? Probably more than just lying in the sun, I bet.” I nodded sheepishly.

“But don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone. Or take my top off yet, not today,” she added. “But you are topless, so I could...”

“No, there’s no need for you to remove your top,” I said. “You will get me all distracted, and I won’t be able to concentrate on the music tonight, I’ll be thinking about you topless instead!”

“Maybe that might do something good,” Megan said, laughing. “But you will sing ‘these boobish things’, not ‘these foolish things’, and keep staring at my boobs!”

“And you would slap my face for doing that, too,” I said. “One way to amuse the audience, I guess.”

“Oh, don’t worry, I wouldn’t slap your face for that,” she replied. “But I guess we don’t want any additional distractions, do we?”

I closed my eyes, and leant back against the wall, enjoying the feeling of the sun on my body. I tried not to imagine Megan topless – or even naked – but it didn’t work, in my mind I could see her, standing in front of me, stark naked, her hands cupping her round breasts. I shook my head, and opened my eyes, trying not to look at Megan.

“Besides, I think you are distracted enough, without me taking my top off,” she continued, looking down at my groin.

Shit! My thoughts had betrayed me; my prick was erect, making a large and very obvious bulge in my swimmers. I shifted position, and tried to cover it up.

“Don’t be so bashful,” she laughed at my distress. “I take that as a compliment, now if all I have to do is suggest taking my top off, that’s pretty good!”

“What makes you think I was thinking about you?” I said, still embarrassed.

“Just intuition, that’s all,” she replied. “And you were thinking about me, weren’t you?”

I just nodded, and then stood up, and dove into the pool. Hopefully the cool water would make my prick shrink.

I swam to the far end, and stood up, looking back at Megan. She poked her tongue out at me, calling out “spoilsport”. She then stood up, and in a flash, whipped her bikini top off, and dove into the pool, coming up just in front of me. As she surfaced, the water streamed from her lovely breasts, and I noticed her nipples were quite erect. Her breasts were large; well, larger than Cathy or Lori, perhaps the same size as Janelle’s. The skin around her nipples was dark and wrinkled, and each nipple was hard and erect.

“You can’t get away that easily, Will Morris,” she said, moving close. “Just don’t make any slips of the tongue tonight, thinking about them!”

I tried to think of a way to get out of this, without offending Megan. She was attractive, and seeing her breasts was keeping my prick hard, but I didn’t want to start anything, not now. Just as I was about to say something, she turned around, and swam back to the other end of the pool.

She sat on the edge of the pool, cupping her breasts in her hands, smiling at me.

“You had your chance then,” she said. “I don’t show my boobs to just everyone, you know.”

While I slowly swam back to her end, Megan put her bikini top back on; making sure each breast was covered properly. She then winked at me, and rubbed her hands over her breasts, emphasising how erect her nipples were.

“I guess some other day,” she said. “By the way, I haven’t shown my boobs to anyone at all, until now. Not even topless on the beach.”

“Well, thank you,” I said. “Um, they are pretty good, not that I’m a real expert, I guess. But I don’t want to, well, you know, not at the moment...”

She reached down, and squeezed my hand.

“I know, I’m just teasing you,” she said. “I’m glad you like them, anyway – they’re not too big? I guess you prefer smaller ones, like Cathy and Lori.”

“Um, well, they’re not too big, they’re pretty nice actually,” I replied, feeling my face burning. “I mean, big is like Gina, and she shows those melons off to everyone, that’s a turn off for me. It makes me feel nice, you saying no one else has seen your boobs.”

“It was just a spur of the moment thing,” she replied. “Taking my top off, and showing you. I didn’t mean to put you on the spot, or try to come on to you, well, you know...”

I nodded my head, not sure what to say.

“I didn’t want to ... I mean, you’ve just broken up with Lori, haven’t you?” she continued, and I nodded again. “Well, you probably don’t want another serious relationship, and I don’t want one either, I mean, not like, well, you know.”

We both looked down, slightly embarrassed about what we had done and said. After a brief pause, I got out of the pool.

“Maybe we should think about getting ready,” I suggested. You can have a shower first, if you want, while I pack the stuff in my car.”

We wandered back inside, leaving our towels over the clothesline to dry. Megan went into the bathroom, and I heard her turn on the shower. I unplugged the Rhodes and amp, and started to pack things up, ready to load them into the car. Just as I was about to take the first load out, I heard Megan call out to me.

“Will, is my small bag there?” she said. “It’s got my clothes and underwear, and other stuff in it, can you bring it here, I forgot to grab it, and I’m all wet.”

I found her bag, and took it to the bathroom door. As she opened it, I got another look at her breasts, and just the top of her pubic hair. She smiled as she took it from me, and closed the door. I tried to put the image of her naked body from my mind as I finished packing the car, but it was difficult.

Once I had my equipment loaded in the back of my car, I pulled my clothes out of the closet. I decided I may as well get changed here, rather than wait until I got to the Mirage. Megan came back to the room, wearing a long black dress, low cut and tight around her waist and backside, and when she saw me, twirled around.

“Will this keep your mind on my boobs?” she said, laughing.

I groaned, and rolled my eyes.

“Are you wanting me to come out with lines like ‘these boobish things’? I said.

“No, but I would like it if I felt you were thinking things like that about me,” she replied. “I had some ideas in the shower – about the duets, not those ideas,” she added. “I need to think more about it, get things clearer, but it is all about what we are thinking about as we are singing. We can work on it more on Monday, once I’ve sorted it all out.”

“Ok, maybe tomorrow at the rehearsal we can work through some of the other songs, and give ourselves a break on the duets,” I replied. “But we’ve got to do something to get them right; we suck badly at the moment.”

I went to the bathroom, and had a shave and shower, washing my hair. I had forgotten to take my clothes in to the bathroom with me, so I wrapped my towel around myself, and went back to my bedroom. Megan was sitting at my desk, looking through some music, and stood up as I entered.

“I guess I had better let you alone to get dressed,” she said, and slipped out of the door.

Once I was dressed, we drove up to the Mirage, and started to set my equipment up. The others arrived a few minutes later, and we made some minor rearrangements to the stage layout and the microphones to include one for Megan, since she would be playing with us tonight. When she wasn’t singing, she would play either the sax or trumpet, next to Paul.

The evening went particularly well, Megan fitted in perfectly with our playing, and I managed not to get distracted by thoughts of her breasts while I was singing. As we were packing up at the end of the night, Megan asked me if I could drive her home.

“Of course, I assumed I would be, since you’re on the way home,” I replied. “Do you want me to pick you up tomorrow for rehearsal?”

“If you don’t mind,” she replied. “I don’t want you to think I expect you to pick me up and drive me everywhere.”

“Why not?” I replied. “I mean, your place isn’t out of my way, and we can talk about things on the way.”

As we drove back to Megan’s place, she asked me how I thought it sounded with her playing with us.

“I think we sound much better with you with us,” I said. “With both you and Paul on horns, it gives more depth, just a better backing sound, if you get what I mean.”

“I’m glad, I was worried that I wouldn’t fit in properly,” she replied. “But I loved playing; I’m still all worked up from it. Is that how you feel afterwards?”

“Yes, sometimes when I get home, I can’t get to sleep for a while,” I said. “Probably the rush of adrenaline or whatever.”

“Yeah, well, it feels more than that to me,” she replied. “It’s almost like ... well, just very exciting, I guess. I wonder if I will feel the same after tomorrow night?”

I dropped her off at her place, and she squeezed my hand, as she was about to get out of the car.

“Thanks for everything today Will, it was great playing with you, even if we didn’t get the duets right,” she said. “We’ve got all next week to get those working properly, anyway, and I think I have some ideas that will help.”

“Yeah, remember last year, with that thing we did for the school concert, that took us ages to get working,” I replied. “I guess once we got into costume, that made it start to work properly, we really got into the feel of the song, and you did look cute in that old fashioned wenches’ outfit.”

“And you looked cute, too,” she replied. “But that’s along the idea of what I’ve been thinking, how to get into the feel of things.”

“Tomorrow, about twelve thirty then?” she asked, and I nodded.

Just before she slid out of the car, she leant over, and kissed me on the cheek.

When I got home, I didn’t bother unpacking the car; my equipment could stay there until tomorrow, as I would only have to pack it up again before going to the rehearsal. As I had a shower before getting into bed, I wondered what Megan’s idea was about getting our duets working properly. It was going to be fun working with her, I thought, she was a good singer, better that I was, I felt, and she would push me to improve. As long as she didn’t show her breasts to me quite so often...

I enjoyed sleeping in on Saturday morning; I didn’t really have anything to do; while the grass was getting a bit long, I had planned to do the mowing on Sunday. I spent an hour or so practicing for the next piano exam, then swam twenty or so laps of the pool. By the time I had finished lunch, I was feeling very relaxed, and looking forward to practicing with Megan again.

She was ready for me when I got to her place, and she put her dress on the back seat, and slid in next to me.

“Any more clues on what your suggestion is for the duets?” I asked.

“No, wait until Monday,” she said. “It’s something that I want to talk about with just you, not with the others around. Besides, I have to work on my ideas a bit more.”

“Humph,” I snorted. “Trying to tease me, I bet.”

“Well, not this time,” she replied. “You may think what I will suggest is silly, and I want to make sure it comes over in the right way.”

“Ok, I can wait until then,” I said. “It’s probably better we sort all of that out with just the two of us, before we work in with the others.”

At the rehearsal, we worked through all of the songs that Megan would sing, making minor changes to arrangements, and adding some extra instrumental sections in several of them. The main set we spent time on was what Bruce called the “bobby sox box set”, the bunch of songs from the late 50’s and early 60’s. While we couldn’t match the original sound of some of the songs, we modified the arrangements, adding more instrumental breaks. Bruce suggested that while Paul and Phil played solo sections in the middle of “Da Do Run Run”, Megan and I danced across the stage.

We tried some moves, and once we stopped laughing enough to concentrate on what we were doing, it actually looked pretty good, at least from what the others said. For that set, Megan would wear a skirt and top more in keeping with that era, and as I spun her around, she said the skirt would flare out.

“Just remember to wear good knickers,” Bruce called out. “We don’t want to get raided by the vice squad!”

“No chance of that,” Megan said. “Besides, the skirt won’t get that high!”

We spent some time working out some of the revised sets, trying to balance out the singing between Megan and me. For the first few weeks, I would still do the bulk of the singing, until Megan’s voice had become use to the workload. Once we were all happy with the new arrangements, Bruce promised to have the set lists typed up ready for next weekend.

Finally, it was time to head up to the Mirage. Once we had set up, it was time for a shower and to get dressed. One thing we hadn’t worked out was having only one dressing room and shower – it had never worried us guys, but with Megan, we had to let her go first.

The evening went even better than the night before; Megan had got over her nerves, and took a several solos, earning applause from the audience. Of course, we made sure we introduced her properly, and told people that next Saturday night, she would be singing as well.

As we drove home, I asked Megan if she was still as worked up as she was after last night’s performance.

“Oh, even more,” she said. “Getting the applause, having the rest of you get me to play solos, it was such a buzz, I’m still all, you know...”

I looked across at her, and her face seemed to be glowing, her eyes bright. Maybe she found it arousing, a turn on? I felt there was something that she wasn’t telling me, perhaps that was it.

“Well, you were great tonight, imagine how you will be feeling this time next Saturday, after you have been singing,” I replied.

“After we have been singing together,” she said, emphasising the ‘we’. “God, I don’t know how I will be; I’m nervous and excited all at once.”

“Well, we have all week to get that right,” I said. “Should we aim for working all day, Monday to Friday? We can take breaks up around the pool, so it’s not like eight hours solid every day.”

“You don’t mind me coming over every day?” she asked. “But let’s aim for that, anyway, we want to make sure we have everything perfect.”

“I don’t mind you coming over every day, not at all,” I replied. “Even if we don’t practice, it’s good having someone around.”

“Yes, there’s not much else around at the moment, except for the beach,” Megan said. “I like your pool, anyway, it’s much more private, and I don’t get sand up everywhere.”

“It’s a date, then,” I replied. “Five days of music and relaxing around the pool, it sounds like a real holiday.”

“Done, it is a real holiday,” she said. “I’ll call you tomorrow night if I will need you to pick me up on Monday morning.”

We were now parked outside her place, and she kissed me on the cheek again, before getting out.

“Until Monday, then,” she said softly. “We can work on the duets together.”

“Sure, I will be interested to hear your ideas, I guess no clues until then?” I asked.

“No, no clues, be patient,” she added, and gave my cheek another quick kiss before leaving.

I slept in on Sunday morning, and when I woke up, I lay in bed for a while, listening to the sounds of the birds outside. Finally, I got out of bed, had a shower and breakfast and decided to mow the grass. I started out the front, and had that finished before the day became too warm. I had done part of the back yard, when I decided it was too hot to continue, and dove into the pool to cool off. I was lying in the sun when I heard the phone ring, so I rushed down inside to answer it.

“Will? It’s Lori here,” she said. “How are you?”

“I’m fine, I was just up lying around the pool,” I replied, panting slightly. “Are you feeling better, you know, about the other day?”

“Oh, I’m okay, I guess, it’s probably all for the best that we, you know, didn’t get more involved,” she replied. “Look, I rang to see if you want to come round here for lunch and a swim; Janelle will be over, and maybe all three of us can get back to being friends?”

“Well, if you want to, that would be good,” I said, a bit unsure. “I’m not doing much; I just have to finish mowing the grass, so I could be over in about an hour, if that’s okay?”

“That will be great, Janelle’s going to bring some fish and chips, so I’ll tell her to being some for you,” Lori said. “I’m looking forward to seeing you, and Janelle is too. See you soon, then.”

I decided to finish the mowing, to get it out of the way, and also to think about what the afternoon might hold. I was actually looking forward to seeing both Lori and Janelle again, but apprehensive about what they might say, or do. But I wanted to maintain my friendship with both of them, and vowed to keep things light and friendly with them.

Once the mowing was finished, I swept up around the pool, and dove in to swim a few laps to cool off, and wash the dust and bits of grass from me. Ten minutes later, I was out of the shower, and dressed, with my swimmers wrapped in my towel, ready to head over there.

As I pulled up in the driveway of Lori’s place, just next to Janelle’s car, I was still apprehensive about how things would go. Lori had said they were both looking forward to seeing me, but I wished ... No sense in avoiding the issue, I told myself, and it would be better to get any unresolved problems out of the way now, before were back at school.

Both Lori and Janelle were inside, in the kitchen, just starting to serve the fish and chips Janelle had bought. As soon as they saw me, they jumped up, and rushed over to greet me.

“It’s great to see you again,” Janelle said, hugging me. “Despite what Lori said, I didn’t think you would want to see me.”

“Whatever gave you that idea?” I said. “Both of you are still two of my best friends, at least I hope you are. Now, where’s that food? I’ve been working all morning!”

Janelle disentangled herself from me, and we sat around the breakfast bar in the kitchen, devouring the food. We then moved outside, around the pool, and spent the afternoon talking, swimming and relaxing. Janelle told us about her work at the clinic, fortunately not getting too graphic about helping clean and stitch up cuts, and helping with minor surgery. Lori talked about the racing clinic that she would be doing over the next five days, while I talked about what was happening with the group, and trying to work Megan into the line-up.

It was a very relaxing, enjoyable afternoon; much like the three of us shared earlier in the holidays, before Christmas. There was no mention of what had transpired between us over the last few weeks, no sexual teasing; just three friends relaxing on a summer’s afternoon. It was almost as if the last few weeks had never existed, something that seemed slightly surreal, but I didn’t want to mention anything about what had happened between us, and I guess neither Lori nor Janelle did either; as we probably all felt embarrassed about how we had each acted.

Around five, Janelle said it was time she left to get home, and I decided I would head off, too, after helping Lori clean up.

“Thanks for coming over today, really, it was good for all three of us to be together,” Lori said. “I know we deliberately avoided mentioning anything about what happened, but...”

“Well, no sense in bringing that up,” I replied. “Thanks for asking me over, Lori, it was a great afternoon. I hope you have fun on your course next week, and learn lots.”

“Can I call you at night, once or twice, to talk to you about it?” she asked. “There’s no one else I can talk to about sailing, and it’s lonely here at the moment.”

“Sure, I’d love to hear how it’s going, Lori,” I replied.

As I went to open the car door, she kissed me on the cheek, and then brushed the side of her face, as if she was brushing away a tear. I kissed her cheek, too, and got in the car.

“Thanks again, Lori, for everything,” I said, and waved at her as I backed up the driveway.

After dinner, I sat at the piano, practising my scales and pieces for the grade exam, and thinking about the afternoon. I felt that Lori was still in love with me, but for her own reasons, was fighting her feelings. Maybe she was scared that once Cathy returned, and told me about the thing with the guy in Brisbane was over, she and I would get back together, or else she was scared that we would not have enough time for each other.

Either way, I couldn’t change her mind, there was no point trying to force things with her. And I felt that I shouldn’t rush into anything again, I had learned that lesson in the last few weeks. Maybe, if this afternoon was a guide, things were much better with Lori – and Janelle – keeping our relationship at the “just friends” stage.

I had finished about an hour’s practice when the phone rang, it was my mother; just making sure everything was still going fine. After telling her everything was right, she told me how things were going up there, and how they would be coming back with a cooler full of fish that they had caught. All going well, she said they would be home late on Monday the 27th, ready for the start of school on the Wednesday. I made a note to make sure everything was clean and tidy by then.

I had just hung up, when the phone rang again, this time it was my father, calling to see how things were. We talked for a few minutes, until he had to leave the phone free for other people. At least it sounded like he was getting things back in order in Darwin, they had one main telephone trunk circuit out of the city working, and a second system would be working by the end of the week. He hoped that he would be able to get back home for a few days break around the end of the month, if all went well.

It would be good to have him back home, he sounded rather tired on the phone, and I was sure it was pretty stressful up there, with all the pressure to restore the communications facilities, and without all of the normal aspects of civilization.

I had only sat back at the piano for a few minutes when the phone rang again – this time it was Megan.

“Hi Will, I can get Mum to drop me off in the morning, she’s got to go up to Hornsby in the morning,” she said. “But it will be around seven thirty, is that too early?”

“No, that will be fine, I’ll make sure I don’t sleep in,” I replied. “I can even have some breakfast for you if you want.”

“That will be good,” she said. “Although it may be fun for me to wake you up...”

“No, I’ll be up and ready,” I said. “And I will have breakfast ready, if you want.”

We talked a bit more about what we could have for breakfast, how she liked her eggs cooked (scrambled), and whether she wanted toast or cereal (toast). After a while, we talked about some of the songs we would work on, and before we realised it, the time was approaching eleven.

“Oh, I hadn’t realised it was so late,” she said. “I’ve kept you talking too long, I’m sorry, and you didn’t want to sleep in, either.”

“That’s fine, I’ll set my alarm, that way I’ll be up when you get here,” I replied.

“So I won’t see how cute you look, sleeping in your jammies?” she said. “Do you have cute pyjamas, with pictures on them?”

“Well, for your information, I don’t wear any,” I replied. “That’s why I will make sure I am up and dressed by the time you get here.”

“Oh well, I can hope,” she said. “Now, I’m off to bed, so I’ll see you for breakfast. Sleep well.”

“You too, Megan, tomorrow will be a busy day, I think,” I replied.

I headed off to bed, turning out the lights, and tried to clear my mind from the events of the day. I drifted off to sleep, this time with thoughts of Megan, Lori and Janelle in my head.

The alarm went off at six-thirty, and I forced myself to get out of bed, rather than risking falling back asleep, and still being there when Megan arrived. I had a shower, and made my bed, since we would be in here practising later after breakfast. By the time Megan arrived, both the bedroom and I were presentable, and I had started to prepare breakfast.

“Oh, you are up, so I can’t see if you really sleep in the nude,” Megan said as she burst into the kitchen. “Let me put my stuff in your room, then I can help you with breakfast.”