Chapter 11: Changing of the Guard

Oceano, California

August 1, 2003

It was Friday night. Grandma and Grandpa Kingsley had gone home two weeks before. Grandma and Grandpa Valdez would be leaving for home in the morning, Jake flying them to Whiteman at 5:00 AM so Elsa, who would be driving Jake’s truck to Orange County for her weekend, could drop them off at LAX to catch their 8:15 flight to Houston. They still had not looked at a single house to live in but still planned to move to the United States in September, house or no house. They would live in Kingsley Manor until they had something they could move into. Jake and Celia vowed to buy them a house without their input and just move them into it. That was the only way they were going to get them shelter of their own. The next day they had free they planned to go on a major expedition to tour potential in-law quarters and have something at least in escrow by the time they made the move.

Elsa had just finished up cleaning the house and was saying her goodnights before heading over to her quarters so she could get up at 4:15 and be ready to travel. Jake was enjoying a glass of Scotch out on the deck with Roberto. It would be his last of the night because he would be flying in a little more than eight hours. Celia was nursing Cap in the bedroom before putting him down. He was still not sleeping through the night but was at least more predictable at this point. Once down at night, he could be counted on to sleep for three or four hours before waking up for feeding and changing. This made it much easier for all the parents to keep their minds and sanity intact.

Caydee was put to bed after her story. Laura and Mama Valdez chatted on the couch. Laura’s and Jake’s Spanish had gotten much better during her visit, as had Caydee’s. Mama Valdez’s English had gotten much better as well. They could all now achieve communication in some form without need of a translator, although sometimes it was a bit slow and clumsy.

“I look forward to moving to America,” Maria told her semi-daughter-in-law.

“It will be so fun having you close by,” Laura said honestly. She had come to really like Mama Valdez during her stay. She had even started calling her ‘Mama’ and Roberto ‘Papa’, both with their blessing.

“Are you flying tomorrow?” Mama asked her.

“The day after tomorrow,” Laura told her. Jake had arranged for her to rent a Cessna 172 from a flight club based at SLO Regional so she could complete her solo training. She had to schedule it in advance but it was generally available when she wanted to fly. So far, she had eight hours of solo time in her log book, with cross country trips to Paso Robles, Monterey, Santa Barbara, and, her most adventurous, Bakersfield, as that one involved crossing fairly high mountains and dealing with turbulence. Fortunately, this was the perfect time of the year for such training as VFR conditions were present almost every day.

“Where are you going?” Maria asked.

“A little longer of a hop to build up some hours,” Laura said. “I’m going to take it to a little airport outside Los Gatos near San Jose. It will be a scenic flight along the coast but will keep me out of San Jose’s heavy traffic area.”

“I envy you,” she said. “You are having so much fun doing this.”

“It is fun,” Laura said. “And I’m starting to feel like I’m good at it.”

“Do you think that lawyer that Celia hired will be able to get us able to live here in September?” Maria asked. Celia had hired a high-priced immigration lawyer who was working on expediting the Valdez elders’ paperwork.

“Money talks,” Laura said. “And we have a lot of it. We also have the ability to name drop. You’re Celia Valdez-Kingsley’s parents, for God’s sake. Even though Jake is not well loved in the media because ... well ... he’s Jake, Celia is quite revered. I think it will go through smooth as silk and you’ll be able to move in shortly before escrow closes on whatever they come up with for you.”

“That is good to know,” Mama said.

“What are you going to do with your house? All of your stuff?”

“We will arrange to have most of our furniture and personal belongings shipped here,” Maria said. “It will take a bit, but Celia said she would pay for it. As for the house ... we’ll keep it for now. Maybe things will turn around in our country. Eduardo can look after it for us. Maybe even rent it out for extra money.”

“Makes sense,” Laura said.

Everyone was in bed by nine o’clock that night. Of course, not everyone stayed in bed. Not when there was a Cap in the house. He woke up at 11:45 for a feeding, at 2:00 for a diaper change, and at 3:30 apparently just to be rocked for a bit. Understanding that Jake had to get up early for travel, the two wives let him sleep through all of this, though he did briefly wake up every time Cap started to cry.

Jake’s own alarm went off at 4:15. He dragged himself out of bed, yawning, unhappy to be up and having to actually stay up this freaking early, but knowing it was necessary. He had showered the night before so all he needed to do was brush his teeth and get dressed. He combed out his hair a little bit—he was wearing it shorter these days to help keep the pap from instantly recognizing him—and then went to go grab a cup of coffee. It was still dark outside, without even a hint of dawn approaching. He grunted in displeasure. He really hated being up before the sun (or even anytime near sunrise, truth be told).

Elsa and the Valdez elders appeared, all dressed for a long day of traveling (the Valdez trip would be the considerably longer one). They greeted one another and then all grabbed cups of coffee as well. Celia then came staggering in. She was still dressed in her blue pajamas. She had a nursing bra in place beneath the top to avoid milk leakage into the silk.

“Is the baby up?” asked Mama Valdez.

“He’s down at the moment,” she returned. “I just wanted to come out and tell you goodbye before you left.”

“We enjoyed our visit here very much, my daughter,” Mama said with a smile. “You have made us very happy in many ways.”

“I am very happy in many ways as well,” she said. “I have my baby, I have the love of Jake and Teach, and my parents will soon be moving here to share in my life after all the time we’ve spent apart.”

“That is sweet,” Mama said.

“Thank you for everything you are doing for us, my daughter,” Roberto told her in Spanish.

“You are welcome, Papa,” she answered in English.

They finished their coffee. Jake and Elsa both ate toasted bagels with cream cheese. Celia gave everyone hugs and kisses and then went back to bed. The travelers all made one last check to make sure they had everything and then they loaded up into the Navigator. They were at the airport by 5:00 AM, just as the very faintest hints of dawn were starting to appear off to the east. Jake weighed and loaded everyone and everything and then went through engine start. They roared into the sky at 5:22.

“This flight is going to piss off a lot of people down below,” he told Elsa, who had called shotgun for the flight.

“Undoubtedly,” she said. “It will probably lead to another editorial in the paper about restricting flight hours at the facility.”

“Probably,” he agreed. The local residents in the flight paths of the approach and departure corridors really wanted the county to restrict aircraft operations at the airport so that no takeoffs or landings could occur between 10:00 PM and 6:00 AM unless it was an emergency. They specifically cited Jake’s plane as one of the reasons for the ban, even though Jake rarely arrived or departed during the shutdown hours they were suggesting (it was actually cargo aircraft that made up pretty much all of the late night traffic, and there were usually only two or three per night). So far, the county was not ready to play ball on this proposal—the cargo carriers were quite opposed to it, obviously—but the pressure was mounting.

Jake could not see Morro Rock as he made the turn left after takeoff, but he knew it was there. He let the autopilot have the plane and take them to cruising altitude. To the left, the sky was brightening but the sun was not quite in view yet. To the right, the Pacific Ocean was a dark, featureless mass. Below and ahead, the city lights of Santa Maria were just coming into view.

Commercial air traffic was its normal self when they got into LA airspace, but private aviation was almost non-existent. He went straight in to Whiteman without even having to circle in the pattern and touched down four minutes ahead of schedule. He taxied to the GA terminal and shut down. He helped everyone unload their baggage and then trotted over to the hangar to retrieve the faithful F-150 that he had a bad habit of neglecting routine maintenance on because it was a pain in his ass to take a day in LA to get it done. It was currently nearly three thousand miles past it’s scheduled oil change and the brakes and tires had never been changed. Maybe next time he was in town for a day or two? There was still tread on the tires and the brakes did still make the thing stop (though there was a bit of a squeak every time). Laura’s Lexus was in a similar condition. He mentally added that to the long list of things to do in his head.

He warmly hugged Roberto and Maria just before they climbed into the truck for their trip to LAX. He gave Elsa a hug as well. He watched as they drove off and disappeared and then started preparing for the trip home. By this point, the sun had cleared the horizon and he needed to don his aviator shades.

It was a bit of a bummer to have lost the help of the grandmothers in caring for Cap, but at the same time it was nice to have the house to themselves again. Laura was scheduled for her solo flight to Los Gatos the next day but, other than that, nothing was going on. Jake found both women awake on the couch when he got home, Cap suckling on Celia’s right boob, both dressed in their sleepwear still. He stripped out of his jeans and shirt and put on a pair of sweats and a ratty t-shirt. He had no plans to leave the house at any point the rest of the day.

He held and burped Cap after he finished feeding, getting a load of breastmilk vomit down the back of his neck, which necessitated changing his shirt and giving himself a bit of a sponge bath. He then announced that he was going to take a nap. It was not a request, but a demand, and neither of the women argued with him. He went back to bed and was able to sleep for almost three hours, putting him in a much better mood in both body and soul.

He helped care for Cap and Caydee for the rest of the day and then made Thai chicken for dinner. He made it moderately spicy as Caydee had developed a taste for that. They ate together as a family, Jake, Laura, and Celia alternating holding and rocking Cap as they did so. Caydee and Laura then cleaned up the kitchen while Celia gave Cap his dinner.

That night, after Caydee was in bed for the night and while Cap was asleep in his crib, the three adults climbed into bed together, Celia in the middle. Laura gave a smile to Celia.

“All right,” she said. “Are you going to let me try it now?”

Jake looked over at her. “Try what now?” he asked.

“Are you sure you want to do this?” Celia asked her.

“You did it with me,” Laura said. “I just want to see what it’s like while it’s available.”

“What are we talking about here?” Jake demanded.

“She wants to suck milk from my boob,” Celia said. It was clear she was not opposed to the idea.

“Interesting,” Jake said. He knew Celia had done that to Laura when she had been lactating but had not witnessed the encounter. For whatever reason, it was an erotic thought and Little Jake began to stir around.

“Does that make me depraved?” Laura asked.

“That depends on your definition of depravity,” Celia said. “All right. Let’s do this.”

She unbuttoned her pajama top and pulled it open. She then pulled down the flap on her nursing bra, baring her left breast. The nipple was already hard and there was a single drop of milk emerging from it. Jake watched as Laura leaned down and licked that drop into her mouth. She raised her head back up, smiling as she analyzed the taste.

“Sweeter than I thought it would be,” she said.

“That’s what I thought too,” said Celia.

“I think I’ll have some more.”

With that, she leaned back down and took the nipple in her mouth. She began to suckle, swallowing the milk that was expressed as it entered her mouth. Celia had a contented expression on her face as Laura did this.

“You know,” she said, “it feels good when Cap feeds from me—the oxytocin release and all—but it’s not sexual. This is sexual. It’s making me wet.”

Jake understood. Watching Caydee and Cap breastfeed had never aroused him before, but watching one wife feed off of the other was incredibly arousing. His member was now stiff as a board.

“My other boob is leaking,” Celia panted, her hand now caressing the back of Laura’s neck. “Do you want to try some, Rev?”

He thought this over for a moment. “Okay,” he said, curious about it. He had never tried it with Laura when she was lactating.

She pulled down the right flap of the nursing bra. The nipple was indeed leaking. Jake hesitated for a brief moment and then lowered his head. He ran his tongue around the nipple, gathering up the spilled milk. He saw what the ladies were talking about. Cow milk was not sweet in any way, but Celia’s milk had a distinct, though not overwhelming sweetness to it. It was also thinner than regular milk. And it was warm, body temperature. He decided to have some more.

He suckled and drank for several minutes while Celia caressed the back of his neck and moaned a few times. Laura finished drinking and went up to tongue kiss Celia and lick on her neck. The two of them had not been sexually intimate in any way since Celia had lost her mucus plug a few days before Cap’s birth. Neither had Jake and Celia. It felt good to have hands and mouths on her body once again. Very good.

“Rev,” she panted.

“Yeah?” he asked after swallowing another mouthful of her milk.

“I want you to fuck me.”

He and Laura both stopped what they were doing and looked up at her. “But it hasn’t even been four weeks yet,” Laura said.

“I’m ready,” Celia insisted. “I’m not having pain down there anymore, nothing is oozing out of there anymore, and I am so fucking wet and horny at this moment that I can’t stand it. Just put it in slowly at first. If something hurts, I’ll let you know.”

“Okay,” he said. “If you’re sure.”

“I’m very fucking sure,” she hissed.

He pulled off her pajama bottoms and her panties. She still habitually wore a pad in her panties and he glanced at it before dropping the clothing to the floor. It was lily white, without a drop of anything showing. He then looked at her vagina. Her lips were swollen and glistening with moisture. Her clitoris was engorged. She had not shaved in a few days so there was some stubble there, but Jake was not put off by this.

He dropped his underwear and then positioned himself between her spread legs. Laura grabbed his manhood and helped him position himself. The head went in and he slowly pushed forward. She still felt tight even though she had recently squished a baby through the passage.

“Everything okay?” Jake asked after slowly sinking all the way to the hilt inside.

“It’s fucking blissful,” Celia sighed. “Now fuck me.”

He fucked her, starting slow. Laura suckled out a little more breast milk and then went up to tongue kiss Celia some more. She had really missed her girly kisses. Celia soon began to pant and her body flushed. Milk began to leak steadily out of both nipples, running down onto her stomach and onto the bedsheet. Her pelvis began to thrust involuntarily. She then began to yell out in guttural Spanish profanity as she experienced her first postpartum orgasm. During the throes of the orgasm itself, milk actually squirted eight inches into the air from both nipples, splattering her stomach and hitting Jake’s groin.

“Madre de Dios, that was intense,” she panted.

“Dr. Niven would definitely not approve,” Laura said, giving Celia another kiss. “Don’t tell her about it.” Celia had an appointment with the good doctor in two more days.

“Si,” she agreed.

“And now,” Laura said, “you know where I am headed.”

They knew where she was headed. She had missed out on this pleasure for too long. She went down between Celia’s legs and began to lick and suck. Celia settled in, quite enjoying the sensation, already feeling herself heading for orgasm number two. Her breasts continued to leak milk. Jake licked at a little of it but did not suckle. He then went up to do a little tongue kissing with his wife. They had not done much of that since Cap had been born.

Once Little Jake was back in the game, Jake went around behind Laura, pulled up her long t-shirt, removed her panties, and then slid into her from the rear. She was quite wet and juicy and very much enjoyed the sensation. Celia came two more times, both times shooting milk into the air that splattered everyone and everything in its path. The back of Laura’s head became soaked with it. So did Celia’s stomach.

Jake finally unleased his second orgasm of the night into Laura’s body. The three of them collapsed in a sweaty, milk soaked heap on the bed. They quickly realized there wasn’t just a single wet spot in the bed. The entire bed was a wet spot.

“Okay,” Laura said. “I remember now why we didn’t have sex without my nursing bra and pads on back when Caydee was a baby.”

“Yeah,” said Jake, looking at the mess. “Me too.”

“It was still incredible,” Celia sighed, refusing to have the moment ruined.

“We can’t let Elsa deal with this,” Laura said. “We need to strip this bed down, wash and dry all the bedding, and then wash and dry all the replacement bedding before she comes home.”

Jake nodded. “Let’s get it done,” he said.

The three of them went into action. They first toweled themselves off and then stripped down the entire bed. Luckily, the wetness had not made it to the mattress cover so they would not have to worry about that. They threw the sheets, pillow cases, and the primary blanket into the washing machine and started the cycle. The comforter had been thrown aside for the acts of love and looked none the worse for wear, so they let it stay. They replaced the sheets, blankets, and pillow cases with one of the backup sets kept in their closet. They showered one after the other, getting all the body fluids off of their respective bodies. They were able to switch the bedding over to the dryer just as Cap woke up hungry.

“Hopefully there’s some milk left for him,” Celia said with a smile as Jake went to go retrieve him.

It turned out there was.

Jake landed at Whiteman Airport at 7:01 PM, Sunday night, to pick up Elsa and bring her home. She was waiting for him, the truck parked outside the hangar. Jake put it inside and hooked it up to the trickle charger. He was not sure when he would need to be back in LA. He locked up the hangar and then hauled Elsa’s suitcase back to the flightline for her.

“Good visit with the family?” Jake asked as he stowed the suitcase in the cargo compartment after weighing it. It weighed pretty much the same as it had on the first trip, but Jake was methodical about his preflights.

“It was,” Elsa said. “We had very much to talk about.”

Jake simply nodded and then started his preflight check. His fuel level was good so he did not need to call for a truck or stop at the pumps. He fired up the engines and they taxied to the head of the runway. A few minutes later, they roared into the sky, heading for home.

Elsa, sitting in the copilot seat, her headset on, kept quiet as she knew it was expected of her. Jake could tell, nevertheless, that there was a lot on her mind. He kept his peace however, adhering to his own sterile cockpit rule about unnecessary conversation, until the autopilot had the plane and they were over ten thousand feet.

“So, what’s up, Elsa?” he asked at that point, his eyes still tracking around the airspace and to his instruments. Everything in the aircraft and in its immediate vicinity was as it should be.

“What do you mean?” she asked.

“I know you,” he said. “We’ve spent a lot of years together. I can tell that something is on your mind.”

She smiled at him. “You do know me well, Jake,” she said.

“As you do me,” he said. “You have actually seen the best and the worst of me, perhaps even more so than my wives.”

She chuckled. “Yes,” she said. “I would agree with that statement. I believe your wives have never seen you fornicating on a pool table in the middle of the afternoon without taking the precaution of putting a towel down to protect the felt.”

Jake actually blushed at this, remembering that long ago incident with Rachel. “They never have,” he replied. “So, what’s the deal? We have about fifteen minutes before I start descent. Is that enough time to talk about it?”

She nodded. “It should be. Gerald and his wife are expecting.”

“Good for them,” Jake said, nodding. Gerald, her only grandson, was now a computer network engineer for Disneyland in Anaheim. He was one of the people that kept all of their computers talking to each other and connected to the internet and secure from cyber-attack. It was an important enough job that Disney paid him eighty thousand a year for it. He had met his now wife, Nadia, on the job. She was a computer systems programmer—a fellow nerd—who also made close to eighty thousand a year. The two of them owned a house in Huntington Beach, about a forty minute commute from their workplaces.

“Indeed,” Elsa said. “She is due in November. They are going to need help when she goes back to work.”

“She’s going to keep working?”

“She is,” Elsa confirmed. “They are well off by standards other than yours, but they need both incomes to keep living in the lifestyle they are now accustomed to.”

“I suppose that makes sense,” Jake said slowly. “Where are we going with this, Elsa?”

“I am almost sixty-five years old now, Jake,” she said. “I have worked for you for sixteen years and have enjoyed it all. You have been a kind and generous employer, though somewhat unusual to say the least. It is, however, time for me to retire and rejoin my family full-time.”

Jake felt a considerable hit of sadness at her words. She had been a member of his family for a long time and had done so much for him. But he could not begrudge her in any way. He knew that. “I understand,” he said softly.

“I will be moving in with Gerald and Nadia,” she said. “They have a spare suite that will be perfect for me. When the baby is born I will help them with childcare and cleaning duties. I have my IRA accounts that I have been putting into ever since I was first able. It is time to call it a career.”

“What are we talking here?” Jake asked. “After the baby is born?”

She shook her head. “I am giving one month’s notice,” she said. “My last day working for you and your family will be Friday, September 5^th.”

Jake’s first though was not a pleasant one. Great, the Friday before Caydee starts kindergarten she abandons us. He did not express it. And he quickly got over it. He had no right to judge her and he knew it.

“We’ll do anything we can to help you, Elsa,” he promised. “We will pay for your moving expenses from here to Huntington Beach.”

“That is not necessary, Jake,” she said.

“It’s not, but we’re going to do it anyway,” he replied.

“Thank you, Jake,” she said. “I want it known that I did not make this decision lightly. You have given me a good and interesting life these last sixteen years. I have never once regretted taking this job.”

“And I have never once regretted giving it to you,” he said.

They flew on in silence for a few minutes. The autopilot turned them to a new heading and Jake watched to make sure it did so correctly. It did. It always did. He looked at a few distant airliners in the sky, none of them even close to being in conflict with him. He looked at the mountains below, the ocean on the left.

“How are we going to replace you, Elsa?” he asked.

“I do not know, Jake,” she said. “Somehow you will. You always find a way.”

“Do you know anyone who has your skills, your dedication, your ... discretion?”

She shook her head again. “I do not,” she said. “I communicate with few people in San Luis Obispo outside of your family. We housekeepers do not have a guild. You’re just going to have to put your feelers out to find someone or do without. I am very sorry. I am not doing this to inconvenience you. It is just time.”

They arrived back at Casa Kingsley just before Caydee’s bedtime. Cap was currently awake and being rocked by Laura. Caydee was practicing chords on her guitar. Celia was dozing on the couch. Elsa dropped her luggage off in her quarters and then came over to the main house to say goodnight to everyone. She told them the news of her impending retirement.

“I’m very happy for you, Elsa,” Laura told her, “but very sad for us.”

“What’s retirement?” Caydee asked.

“It means to stop working, Caydee girl,” Jake told her. “Elsa’s not going to be our housekeeper any more. She’s going to move out and go live with her family in Orange County.”

“Fuck that!” Caydee barked.

“Cadence Elizabeth Kingsley!” Laura barked right back at her. “This is a time for polite words only! We’ve had this talk several times!”

“Sorry,” she said, managing to actually sound sincere, “but I don’t want Elsa to go. I love Elsa.”

“And I love you too, Cadence,” Elsa said, “but I’m getting older. I’ve been working my whole life, the biggest piece of it taking care of your Daddy and all those associated with him. It’s time for me to rest now. It doesn’t mean I’ll stop loving you or that you’ll never see me again. It’s just time for me to stop working five days a week, all day, every day, and enjoy not having to do that. That is what retirement is.”

Caydee nodded her understanding but she was clearly not happy with this news. Laura and Celia were not particularly happy with it either, but they both understood. Laura had actually suspected this discussion would be coming soon for some time. Elsa had certainly paid her dues.

Elsa said goodnight to everyone and returned to her quarters. She would be reporting for duty by making breakfast bright and early in the morning. She had not been able to do weekly shopping on Friday because of the trip so she would have to improvise something. She was good at that. There was a brief guitar and sing time without much emotion to it and then Laura took Caydee to bed for story time while Jake got Cap changed into his jammies. Celia tried to feed him but he was not interested. Jake took him into the bedroom and put him down in the crib. All three of the adults met back in the living room to have a drink.

“What are we going to do without Elsa?” Laura asked. “Can we get by without a housekeeper?”

“I think we can,” Celia said. “Most of the world somehow does.”

“Most of the world is not us,” Jake said. “We’re all musicians who are heavily involved in the business. I’m going to be working full time on the V-tach and Brainwash projects. Celia is going to start workups at some point and you, hon, are going to be helping her with that. Caydee is going to be in school. Nobody is going to have time to cook and clean and do laundry and do the shopping and do all the thousand other things Elsa does around here. It’s going to be hard enough just figuring out how Cap fits into all of this. We’re going to have to replace her.”

“But with who?” Laura asked. “Where are we supposed to find someone who can do everything she does and keep her mouth shut about what happens in this house?”

“I don’t know,” Jake said honestly, “but we’re going to have to if we want to keep putting out our music.”

Jake went back to work in earnest the next day. V-tach was ready to hit the studio and start laying down the tracks for their next CD. The Nerdlys joined them there at 9:00 AM. They now had a day by day nanny in their employ. She was a forty-four year old woman who had found her dream job working for rich people with a single child who was absolutely no trouble at all. Kelvin liked nothing better than to simply read or look things up on the internet. Sharon was now six weeks pregnant, but that little addition to the family was more than half a year in the future.

Ted still managed to be ten minutes late somehow, even though he was staying at The Campus and did not have to drive to get to the session (he, in fact, only had to walk downstairs). His excuse was that he had to change his shirt because he had spilled some pizza sauce on it during breakfast.

“Of course,” Jake said with a sigh. He and Lenny both had long since given up trying to get Ted to be on time. At least he was usually no more than fifteen minutes late. “Shall we get started?”

They got started. First were all of the setups and sound checks. This took until lunch was delivered by the catering service. In deference to the Nerdlys, they always brought Kosher food as best they could. They would bring no pork products of any kind. If they brought a sandwich platter, they would keep the meat on a separate platter from the cheese. Today it was the sandwich platter, the meats were turkey and roast beef.