Chapter 2: Wisconsin

In late morning, I crossed the Mackinaw Bridge and hugged the shore of Lake Michigan for the rest of the day. With the late start after my midnight escapades on Mackinac Island with Julia, a stop for lunch, and my resolution to take it slow and enjoy the scenery; I got only part way across the Upper Peninsula.

I camped overnight at a state forest. The temperature dropped to around fifty degrees. My sleeping bag did its magic in keeping me at just the right temperature; but getting up in the morning proved to be an onerous chore. I didn’t bounce out of bed the way I did on warmer days. I’d become soft in the middle.

Just after dawn, I took a long slow run for an hour along trails through the forest; that warmed me up. I got in a meditative trance while running. Due to my gunshot, this was my first long run in many weeks. Back at the campsite, I built a fire, and did some other exercises, trying not stress my left side. I prepared some breakfast from my collection of freeze-dried food, and dressed warmly when the time came to start riding on the motorcycle.

I started to sing my widening repertoire of country songs for which I knew all the words. I sang into the facemask of my helmet, so I could actually hear myself over the rush of the wind and the rumbling sound of the Harley Davidson. I liked the whole idea of being a country music singer. The entertainment industry had always fascinated me, and now I had an open door. I wondered if I’d been led to this door by some unusual force in the universe, and maybe by an angel named Karen.

I tested how important finishing my ride across the forty-eight lower states was to me, and decided I still needed to complete the trip. This trip would give me closure about Karen’s death and allow me to have accomplished something ‘big’ in my life, not that the sudden stardom wasn’t also big. Here was this country music career that I could ride for a while. Maybe I would try to do more music or concerts during my trip; despite my fear of singing in front of a large audience, I did have fun singing with Crystal.

I got to Green Bay about four o’clock in the afternoon, just as the sun broke out and the temperature started to rise again. The most obvious attribute of the city was their unrivaled support of their NFL football team. Green and yellow banners were everywhere along my route with the ‘G’ logo of the team. I rode by Lambeau Field stadium, just so I could say I’d seen it. Later in my stop in Green Bay, I learned that the stadium held about 60,000 people – this in a city with a population of about 100,000. I guessed they had a lot of visitors for home games. The number of motels around suggested that as well.

After a stop to get directions on my iPhone, I found Lloyd’s Guitars where I splurged and became the owner of a used Blackbird Rider steel string travel guitar, case, extras, and a ‘how to’ book. The travel guitar was a fraction of the size of a regular acoustic guitar with a shortened neck and a much smaller body – a carefully crafted sound box to render close to normal guitar sounds but with a fraction of the size. I had big plans for the next phase of my country music career. I wanted to be able to play the guitar the way Crystal did.

I chose an early dinner at a restaurant that had Wi-Fi. After ordering, I used my laptop to check my emails. One email from Kim Hume stood out above all the rest and made my heart soar.

I couldn’t get my cell phone out of my pocket fast enough. My call to Kim went into voicemail, but I left an enthusiastic message for her to fly to Milwaukee, and that I’d meet her there if she gave me details about her arrival.

Just before I got on my bike, my cell phone vibrated indicating I had another email. I read the screen and my heart started to beat a lot faster.

Now, that’s the kind of email that makes a guy feel all warm and mushy inside, and that’s exactly how I felt. I broke into a big smile. I wanted to tell someone how happy I felt, but there was no one around.

After my early dinner, I rode southwest out of Green Bay for an hour to the shore of Lake Winnebago. In the camping area, I avoided the RV sites and hunted for a remote spot that was picturesque and quiet. The campsite I settled on after riding around in the dusk appeared to be near a snowmobile trail and away from the roads and parking areas. The wooded site had a small clearing with a picnic table and sat about two hundred feet from the lake. A half-dozen ice fishing huts also had been stowed nearby for when they could be towed out on the frozen lake. This time of year, the place was not on the normal trail system for the park; I expected no one would find me there.

I set up my tent, built a fire in a fire pit and enjoyed the warmth as the temperatures dropped. As the sunset, I took an envelope of Karen’s ashes down to the lakeshore. A breeze from behind me carried the ashes into the lake where they became lost in the sparkling ripples. I sat and meditated by the lake, looking at the pink clouds reflected in the lake. The ripples soon hypnotized me and carried me to a place of thoughtless peace. The inner stillness remained until the color in the clouds disappeared and night really began to fall.

Sunset came early by the clock in Wisconsin – seven thirty; the state is on the eastern edge of the central time zone. The night before when I’d been only a short distance to the east in another time zone, I had an eight-thirty sunset. I tinkered with my new guitar a little to get used to the feel and how it tuned. Later, I stoked the fire and then lay abed listening to the wind in the trees and watching the clouds slide across a sky lit by a rising gibbous moon.

I lay in a state of half-sleep in a new state I’d never been in before. Until I’d heard from Kim, I thought the likelihood of my having sex in Wisconsin approached zero. Now, I was horny again – horny for her – and filled with feelings of love for her. I had all these questions and confusions I wanted to talk to her about. Kim would know how to think about these things.

My mind flitted to June – Kim’s sister, and that line of thinking led me to my sister. Maybe because I was having sexual thoughts about Kim, when Anna came to mind, it was in an erotic way.

I recalled a summer trip when I’d been home from college and Anna had just finished high school. Anna pleaded with me to drive her to the beach. The day was one of those sparkling summer days, warm and without a cloud in the sky. I caved in to my reluctance about spending the day with my sister. She made us a picnic lunch, and made sure we had drinks, a blanket, and even a portable radio. I borrowed mom’s car, and we headed off to Plum Island Beach.

To my surprise, Anna behaved as though she were on a date with me. We held hands, and she even cuddled up to me on our beach blanket. I felt puzzled by what was going on, but she seemed certain of her actions so I let things ride and enjoyed her closeness.

Anna wore a two-piece bathing suit that I’m sure mom wouldn’t have approved of if she’d seen her in it. Anna had a nice body – very nice; so nice that a few times during the day I had to roll over on my stomach to hide my arousal. I’m sure Anna saw my lump a few times, but I only caught her smiling at the bulge in my swimsuit once.

In close and intimate conversation with our heads close together, Anna got me talking about the future, and how I thought about a thousand different things: dating, love, sex, family, God, hobbies, my career, what we’d be like as adults, what our relationship as brother and sister would be like in the future, and life in general. The conversation wasn’t one sided. I asked questions of Anna too, and she gave me frank and honest answers. In hindsight, I realized that in that one afternoon we got closer to each other than we’d ever been in our lives. Except for a few brief visits, we’d been physically apart for years from the time I left for college up to Karen’s final illness and death, but we’d never been far apart in our understanding and love for each other. Looking back, I couldn’t imagine what our lives would have been like without that day together on the beach.

At the end of the afternoon, Anna cuddled even closer and put her head on my shoulder for a long time. I wrapped my arm around her and held her close, very conscious of her breasts pushing against me. She looked up at me, gave me a tender kiss, and whispered, “Jim, I will always love you – will always be in love with you. Never forget that. I know we’re not supposed to have these feelings and talk about it like this, but I mean it – forever and ever, I love you.” She gave me a hug, and then we separated, packed up our beach gear, and went home.

I wanted to make love to my sister that afternoon on the crowded beach. I could tell by her looks she wanted me. We repressed those feelings, those looks, and our touches after that, particularly when our parents were around.

I fell asleep with erotic dreams divided between Crystal, Ellen, Kim, and Anna.

First thing in the morning, I took a long, hard run shortly after sunrise. I pushed myself harder than I had since I’d been shot, testing the entry and exit wounds to see whether they could take the stress of an hour’s worth of eight-minute miles. I could feel how out of shape I’d gotten aerobically. I did some exercises near my tent, and this time I really tested the wounds since I did about a hundred sit-ups that used many of the muscles the bullet had ripped through. As I cooled down, I did a careful analysis of what I felt near the wounds, even probing the wound sites with my fingers. I didn’t have a single twinge.

The sunny morning was a complete change from a few days earlier; the temperature had already reached the mid-seventies and promised to go into the eighties in the afternoon. I went down to the lake for a quick bath before I suited up for the next leg of my trip. The lake water was chilly, so my ablutions were short and to the point – get wet, soap up, and rinse fast. I also washed out my running shorts, ankle socks, and singlet. Since no one was around this part of the park, I bathed in the nude, only wrapping a towel around me to head back to camp carrying my damp exercise clothes so I could dry them by my morning campfire.

As I walked up the wooded bank and neared my camp, I heard voices and a laugh – a man and a woman. I stopped and listened; however, they didn’t seem to be moving. They were in the clearing where my tent was pitched, and where my motorcycle stood.

In another fifty feet, I could see the couple through the brush. I paused. They stood face to face near the clearing’s picnic table, oblivious to my active camp fifty feet from them. The couple was in their thirties; they were trim and tanned, but dressed in what I’d come to call business casual attire. As I watched to see what they would do, the couple started to make out. There was a lot of pent-up passion each of them showed for the other – raw, sexual lust and energy.

I froze, wondering whether to announce my arrival someway. In the few seconds while I pondered what to do, the man lifted the girl’s summer dress from her body in one smooth move. She cooperated fully, raising her arms over her head with a smile. Her beautiful full breasts emerged into view; she hadn’t been wearing a bra. Even from my distance, I could see the ripeness of her globes, the dark areolas, and the pointed and excited nipples. The man instantly leaned in and suckled her nearest tit. She held his head and spoke words of encouragement, as her head looked skyward in enjoyment of his attentions.

Making normal walking sounds – twigs snapping and leaves rustling, I continued on the path another twenty feet or so taking small steps to give warning, until I could be clearly seen at the edge of the clearing with no intervening foliage. I stood still again, but shuffled my feet. I really couldn’t get to my tent – and my dry clothes – without walking within ten feet of the amorous couple.

The man sucked and lapped at both breasts like a starving man finding food. I could hear the sucking noises he made, and her moans of delight. Although it appeared awkward, the girl started to unbutton the man’s shirt. At one point, he broke lock on her breasts and rapidly pulled the shirt off, tossing it on the bench seat of the picnic table next to them. She fumbled with his belt, and in seconds, after kicking off his loafers, his pants, and boxers had joined the pile of clothes. His erect cock bounced proudly in front of him.

I silently chuckled to myself. I had come so close to them I was sure that when I got spotted one of them would shriek in surprise, and there’d be a frantic scramble to cover improperly displayed body parts. I hoped neither of them opted for violence or called the police.

That thought had no sooner left my mind than the naked man slowly pulled the girl’s white thong down her long and shapely legs with her obvious willingness, leaving her nude except for three-inch spike heels – incongruous here in the woods. He lapped at her cunt for a few seconds before he stood. He then fingered her cleft as they kissed again – lips and tongues rapidly moving in and around each other’s mouths. She moaned so loud; I could hear clearly.

The pretty brunette dropped to her knees – even spreading her legs apart in her kneeling position so her pussy was in full view. She pulled his inflating cock to her. Holding him with one hand, she inhaled his swollen member, and her head started bobbing back and forth as she fellated him – using her hand to masturbate him when he was mostly out of her mouth. The man instantly closed his eyes and looked to heaven as he savored the experience.

Now, I stood transfixed by the scene in front of me. My towel had tented from my own erection at the eroticism of the lusty couple. I reached through the fold in the towel at my front and touched myself, not to masturbate but to protect my penis from a roughness on an edge of my towel. I remember thinking I’d have to jack off after the couple left.

And then, the girl saw me. I could tell the instant she became aware of my presence; her eyes enlarged and they looked straight at me – studied me: Threat? Voyeur? Participant? She paused in the blowjob she administered, but continued to hold his cock in her mouth. Instead of yelling or taking some action to cover her nakedness, she repositioned so we could see each other better, and she spread her legs wider to me. She continued her ministrations on the young man as she watched me – no doubt continuing her evaluation. I tried to look harmless and horny.

She obviously wanted to please her partner – plus now I realized she had started performing for me as well. Her actions became more contrived, more pornographic and X-rated. She slurped and made an event out of finding some pre-cum on his cock. She started to use both hands to milk his cock. The man moaned often, but remained oblivious to my presence.

Several minutes after she became aware of my presence, I heard the girl say to him, “We’re being watched. I don’t care. In fact, I like it. Now, fuck me. Show him what you do to me.”

The man spun and saw me. I held my fully erect cock in one hand, my tactic having shifted from the thought I’d had a few minutes earlier. Between the live sex show the couple had presented me with so far and my dreams the night before, I wanted ... no needed relief soon.

The man smiled at me, and turned back to his girlfriend as she sat on the picnic table, lay back slightly, and pulled her legs up so he could penetrate her pussy with his now engorged cock. From my angle, I could see him slowly slide into her hairy pussy. The table was at the perfect height for him to deeply penetrate her. He reached forward and pawed at her breasts, kneading and twisting her tits. First, he pumped slowly into her body, but then his pace increased. He glanced back at me several times; one time even holding her leg down and making sure I could see his cock entering and leaving her body.

The pretext of having the towel around me had passed. I dropped the towel and my wet clothes to focus on the couple. As the couple continued to fuck, the man looked over his shoulder at me and said, “Come closer. Take a better look. She’d love to suck on you,” he looked at her and continued, “Wouldn’t you?”

The girl gestured with one hand for me to come closer, and she said to me, “Yes. Come closer, watch us while you jerk off next to me – hell, let me help.” I walked closer, and she reached out to fondle my exposed rod. She shifted on the table so I could stand beside her as she got fucked. She smiled at me to indicate what she would do was fine with her; she said, “I like this. I’ve wanted a threesome – so you’re fulfilling a fantasy. You look like a nice person.” She grasped me and masturbated me for thirty seconds before pulling my shaft to her open mouth.

To my surprise, her first inhalation of my cock resulted in her taking the entire shaft down her throat in one erotic gesture. Without gagging, she started to pull me to and fro into her mouth; often urging me to fully engage with her so her nose hit my pubes. She had a talented approach to a blowjob using lips, hands, teeth, and tongue.

As we did this, the man continued to fuck her, even increasing the pace and intensity of his thrusts into her cunt. He watched her fellating me, and nodded his approval through his physical strain. He was giving her all he had to bring this woman off.

I watched every nuance of the dogging act from my vantage point, drawing further stimulation to my own sexual act. He nodded to me more positively than before, a sign I took that he not only approved, but also was about to cum. Seconds later, I heard him start to pant, grunt, and moan as his orgasm approached. He moaned at his moment of ecstasy. My own climax arrived only a few seconds after his, triggered by the combined actions of the couple in their orgasms. My God, I thought, what an unexpected experience.

I erupted into her mouth, having warned her of my imminent orgasm. She chose to catch and swallow most of my cum, allowing a portion to drip over her chin and cheek from the way she had her head tilted. She looked so hardcore. I knew the display of my juice around her mouth was an attempt to turn on the man and me even more.

I pulled away as my orgasm ended, and the jets of cum stopped. She lapped at me for a few seconds, cleaning my shaft. I moved to the side, giving the couple room, and the man stepped into the position I’d had and presented his cock for her to clean, and clean she did with great enthusiasm. Meanwhile, I looked at her exposed pussy and found further stimulation in the rivulet of milky white sperm that oozed from her vagina.

I moved to a large nearby rock to catch my breath, my cock slowly deflating. I sat. The lust I’d carried into the day from the night before felt partly sated. I recalled a term Pete had used about the sex I’d had only a few miles away in Michigan when I’d played masseur and fucked each of the good-looking women who were my massage clients. A ‘zipless fuck’ he called it. An expressive term, to be sure.

A few feet away, the man helped the girl sit up on the tabletop. Both of them were panting from their energetic efforts to please each other. The girl smiled and spoke with me without a trace of modesty; “I’m Val; this is Kevin.”

I volunteered with a silly grin, “And, I’m Jim. A pleasure to meet you both ... a real pleasure in every sense of the word.” They laughed. I asked, “And, to what do I owe the honor of this occasion?”

Val laughed and said, “Well, we’re having an affair – have been having one for four months. Neither of our spouses is as horny as we are, so we decided to ... to, you know, get together every morning to start each day off on the right foot. We’ve been using this spot a lot this summer. I’m surprised you found it; it’s well hidden.”

Looking around, I raised my eyebrows in neither approval nor disapproval. I asked, “How’d you get here?” I gestured over my shoulder to my motorcycle and tent.

Kevin tossed his head in one direction, “We walked in a couple of hundred yards from where we can run our cars off the road so they won’t be seen.” He added, “When cold weather comes, we’ll have to find some other way ... some other place to ... to get together.” He looked endearingly at Val.

I said, “You surely started my morning off the right way. Do you do this often – I mean with others?”

Val responded, “I did a threesome once a long time ago, but with a guy I knew really well. You’re the first stranger I’ve done. You could fuck me if you want. I’d really like that, and so would Kevin. He’d like to watch me get fucked. You’re nice, and you taste good too.”

“No, I’m fine. You give a superb blowjob. That’ll last me all day ... maybe all week. I’m grateful, but I don’t need to go further.” I thought I might be weird about turning her down. She was a pretty girl, thin in the middle with breasts that equaled a hand full. She had gorgeous hips, and as I studied her leaking pussy, a rather attractive slit. I was sure that most guys would already be humping away at the suggestion of the offer Val had made.

Kevin started to kiss her neck and pinch her breasts; she moaned a little as he hit her hot buttons. She kept looking at me, hoping I’d change my mind and fuck her. Kevin asked her, “Got time to go another round?” He turned and winked at me.

Val looked between the two of us – Kevin with a partial erection as he stood beside her, and me with nearly a full erection again sitting on a rock only a few feet from her. She said, “Yes. Yes, let’s repeat that again ... only this time, let’s go a little slower and savor all the tastes and feelings in our fuck ... and my suck on Jim’s cock.”

I rose, and went to the other side of the table from where Kevin stood. I latched my mouth onto one of Val’s nipples as Kevin did the other. I kneaded the mound of flesh with my hand, deeply massaging her mammary. Val moaned.

I ran a finger from her nipple down to her cunt, circling back and forth with a light touch as I crossed her tummy. When I reached the small tuft of pubic hair, I tousled the hair, and then plunged two fingers into Val’s sopping cunt. I gave her a rapid and rough finger fuck, which got her attention and made her groan in pleasure into a kiss she shared with Kevin.

Kevin brought his fingers down, and the two of us each put two fingers into Val’s sodden pussy. We massaged, and prodded, tested, and fucked with our hands. Val popped off a couple of orgasms as we played for several minutes. I found her G-spot, and focused on that as Kevin moved inside her elsewhere.

Val sat up from her supine position, looked at Kevin, and gasped, “Go to the spot Jim’s touching inside me and memorize that fucking location. From now on when you finger fuck me, I want you on that spot – a lot.” She panted a little and added, “And ... oh shit ... Jim, you’re making me cum again ... ooooooooooooh!”

I’m sure both Kevin and I could feel the spasms of Val’s vaginal muscles. After she came down a little from her climax, I taught Kevin how to find Val’s G-spot. Val helped too, by arching her back in a near convulsion when he found the place. Val then had another climax.

I turned down a second offer to fuck her, but did accept another fabulous blowjob. Kevin fucked her long and hard a second time, much to Val’s delight. When we were through, Val produced a couple of washcloths and towels from her large purse, and the three of us walked naked down the short trail to the lake. Val had a cute bubble ass to watch. The two of them washed up the smelly parts, I went swimming again, and we walked back to the campsite.

Kevin and Val dressed. I noted that Val produced a brassiere this time from her oversize shoulder bag. They asked whether I judged them presentable, and I told them I did. Kevin explained that the two of them worked in the same office about ten miles away. He pondered the fact that they’d both be late – again, and hoped no one would be too suspicious.

They bid me goodbye with a handshake and from Val a kiss – a really passionate kiss. The pair hiked away as I pulled on my shorts.

What a great way to start the morning. After they left, I realized I didn’t know their last names.

I dressed and fixed myself breakfast, taking advantage of the permanent grill at the campsite. I ate on the picnic table where Val’s lover had twice plowed into her pussy, and where simultaneously I’d gotten two erotic blowjobs. To one side as I ate there lay a small puddle of cum that had leaked from Val’s pussy.

After packing, I reflected back on the surprise sexual encounter earlier in the morning with the couple at my campsite. Val and Kevin seemed so relaxed and accepting of their infidelity with their spouses, as well as their exhibitionist behavior at a public picnic area – and clearly one populated by a camper. I wondered if Kevin’s wife and Val’s husband were secretly carrying on another affair at the other end of the same campground. I actually laughed aloud at that thought, my sound annoying a squirrel high above me.

I was close to Milwaukee, so had plenty of time before Kim arrived. I pulled out my new guitar, the miniature version of a full guitar using a new pitch pipe, and reviewed the few chords I vaguely remembered from some guitar lessons a girlfriend in college had tried to teach me. G, C, D7, Em, Am, and F came back readily.

I opened the ‘how to’ book and started from scratch, learning the strings, the notes, fingering, and a couple of other chords. By the end of an hour, I could play and sing the song ‘500 Miles’ with passable accuracy. The ends of the fingers on my left hand stung where they had fingered the steel strings. I stopped, realizing it would take many sessions and days for me to build up calluses at those points. If I were going to be a country music singer, then I figured I’d better know how to play the guitar. The few times I’d watched Crystal play, her skill seemed so natural for her. I knew the only way I’d reach that same plateau was with many hours of practice.

I pulled out my computer and wrote in my journal too, filling in details from the past couple of weeks and adding to my feelings and reactions to various situations including the ‘zipless fuck blowjob’ Val had given me as Kevin fucked her on the very table my computer rested on. I also composed emails to Lauren, Anna, Ellen, and Crystal. Lauren, Crystal, and Ellen wanted all the lurid and sex-filled details of every liaison I had in my travels, writing to them made me horny. I edited a version of their email for Anna, although I had begun to believe she might like the unexpurgated version as well.

With Crystal, I also mentioned Tina Devoe specifically, the woman executive with Sony that wanted a ‘serious deal’ with the two of us. I asked Crystal to share the information with Terry, our agent, and see what he thought. I didn’t know what ties and obligations she – or I for that matter – had to the Nashville Records that we had just done the recordings for.

I walked around the campground after I’d prepared all the emails, until I found a Wi-Fi spot near the park headquarters. I sent off the emails and picked up a couple of my own, nothing of note. I also checked the weather for the next week along various parts of the routes I thought I’d take.

The longer I thought about Crystal; the more I missed her. I got really down on myself too, wondering just who I was to think I could have a girlfriend who was as pretty as Crystal, and a country music star. My self-confidence plummeted as I thought about all the talent that Crystal had. I questioned whether I had a good enough voice, or musical ability, or the élan to give a good concert performance.