Chapter 10: Indiana

Ellen opted to ride the bus to Indianapolis since she had a couple of dozen telephone calls to make to be sure arrangements were ready for the concert Crystal and I were going to give that night. Her primary work for her sister was to coordinate with Terry, Dave, and Dan, and to be sure the public appearances and concerts went smoothly. The more I watched what she did; the more I saw how valuable she was to Crystal ... and now me.

As Crystal and I got ready to ride the motorcycle up to Indianapolis, I said to her, “So, Ellen was your surprise for me this weekend?” I presumed the answer was ‘yes,’ since it’s not every day that your lover orchestrates a threesome involving her sister.

Crystal smiled coyly at me and said, “We’ll see; maybe there are still more surprises to come.” She laughed at her secretiveness, and pulled the motorcycle helmet over her gorgeous light brunette locks, this time allowing much of it to stick out the back in a makeshift ponytail.

I wondered what other surprises she might have in store; I knew there were no more sisters in the Lee family.

I’d also discovered that she liked to create surprise moments for everyone around her, even if it took money. Recently, I learned Crystal had paid for the daughter of one of the backup singers to get orthodontic braces, a significant expense and one that was out of reach for the singer without Crystal’s help. She’d also paid off a major medical bill for one of the regular band members. Her generosity felt good, and made me love her that much more.

We followed my ethos of avoiding the Interstate highways to get up to Indianapolis. Just after we crossed into Indiana, I did my ritual of leaving some of Karen’s ashes in a significant place, in the Ohio River. The site was not serene, even on Sunday morning. People and boats were all about on the river, everyone having gales of fun. Crystal came and hugged me after I’d let Karen’s ashes float away atop the water and finished my short meditation. Karen had been fun loving too.

We pulled into the Indianapolis Fair Grounds at noon. The bus had just arrived, and we connected with Ellen, Terry, and the rest of the entourage. We all had lunch together at one of the concessions.

Eric, our guy from our record label with ‘connections,’ asked me, “Jim, how would you feel if we released the single of ’Texas Dawn’ early, before the rest of the album is ready to come out?”

I put the ball back in his court, “I think that’s your decision. You’re in business and know how to optimize profits with or without an early release. Personally, and just having jumped into this business with both feet; I’d love it – it’d be more like instant gratification. I think it would give Crystal’s current album a boost, generate two boosts to the single – now and when the album is issued, and lastly, it’d pave the way and create some hype for the new album. We’re using the song in these two concerts anyway; at least a few people have heard the song now – it seemed very well received in Louisville.”

Eric nodded. In his eyes, I could see he’d been evaluating my business acumen and that I’d passed some test he’d put out there for me. He smiled and walked away.

A few minutes later, Terry put some pressure on me, “Jim, you wouldn’t consider a break in your travels to do some more concerts? Crystal has some more bookings coming up – Oklahoma and Texas.”

I shook my head; “I need to do this trip I’m on for all sorts of reasons. There are things I have to get through, some things I need to learn about myself and even prove to myself. If I don’t do this now, I’ll never do it, and I’ll never become the whole and integrated person I’m striving for. I’ll work with you then, if you still want me.”

Terry shrugged; he could tell from my emphasis that it’d be a hard sell to get me to change my mind. Neither Crystal nor I were motivated by money. Crystal had watched me and listened to my answer intently over Terry’s shoulder. When I finished, she winked her approval at me. I thought how supportive she was.

I thought a moment and then held the door open slightly, “Terry, if one of your concerts is close to where I am, I’ll be glad to do it.”

We connected with Billy, the bandleader, after lunch, and with a couple of other band members spent a few hours finalizing the details of the evening’s concert and rehearsing. I was amazed at how relaxed I felt relative to how I felt at last night’s concert. We added a couple of ‘Indiana’ songs for color, including ’Indiana Wants Me.’ We listened to several versions of the song on iTunes and YouTube, and then rehearsed it a couple of times in our own style, breaking up the song so Crystal and I had individual parts to sing. Ellen promised the words would be on the teleprompter.

We finished about five, and had two hours before the concert started with ’The Hobo Palace’ band to get the crowd hyped up before we appeared. Crystal, Ellen, and I all looked at each other with knowing glances. I whispered to Crystal in a lascivious tone, “Aren’t you going to do something about my pre-concert anxiety?” She burst out laughing.

The three of us drifted back to Crystal’s tour bus by different paths, and locked ourselves inside. We allotted thirty minutes for ‘wild sexual activity’ before we had to get serious about the concert. We cavorted around the bedroom, and I used my steely shaft to plug one hole after another. By the end of the half-hour, we’d each had at least one orgasm and a real mellow mood settled on the three of us.

Ellen dressed and scurried away to attend to concert details and the teleprompter. After cleaning up, Crystal and I dressed in our onstage western country outfits that Terry and the studio guys wanted us to wear. As she’d done in Louisville, Crystal had me finger her cunt ‘So I had something to remember her by’ if I got nervous during the performance. When we connected with Terry, he proudly announced that the gate had sold about 16,000 tickets to our concert. Unlike the Louisville concert, this would be outdoors, again with large projection screens to show details and close-ups of us onstage to the more distant people in the crowd.

Crystal and I ate a light dinner that Ellen delivered to us. Over dinner Crystal talked about how she was less nervous before a large crowd, because there was no intimacy with the individuals there. “When I’d sing in a club or bar as I was getting started, I was more nervous; the people were right in front of you in an intimate way, and you could see their expressions of like or dislike as you sang. That’s pressure!”

After we’d returned to the green room to wait for things to start, Crystal said in a whisper only I could hear, “I’m am really eagerly awaiting tonight. This’ll be exciting and open some new doorways for you and me.” She gave me a lascivious grin. I looked at her expecting clarification, but all I got was a silly grin. “You’ll see,” she promised. “Not too much longer.”

The opening few minutes of the concert went pretty much as it had the night before in Louisville. The opening band got the audience rocking and in a good mood, and then Crystal opened with ’Flirty, Flirty Cowgirl’ to everyone’s great delight. I definitely felt more confident and relaxed about tonight. I stood at the edge of the stage watching Crystal perform, awaiting my introduction and cue to come on stage seven songs later.

Crystal sang a couple of more songs, and I marveled at how at ease she was, and how she read the crowd. Again, I found myself drawn to her distinctive voice, and I confirmed to myself that she would go far in country music for years to come.

I watched from the side of the stage wondering again what Karen would have thought about all this: my singing, performing in front of thousands of people, Crystal, Ellen, and everything else that had happened on my road trip. Would she have approved, or would it have been beyond anything she could comprehend? Heck, it was almost beyond anything I could believe.

Suddenly, I heard Crystal start introducing me. From my pocket, I double-checked the agenda of songs we’d agreed; had I just spaced out thinking about Karen and missed a few songs? I’d expected four more songs before I got introduced and appeared on stage. My heart jumped in my throat, and I wondered what I’d do – what was wrong? I quickly checked, and sure enough, the teleprompter was up and running on the right as I’d look out at the audience. That device was comforting, if it had the right song set up on it.

Ellen appeared beside me out of breath, and on a cue from Crystal after the last words of my introduction, Ellen pushed me out on stage. I sauntered out beside Crystal as though all was normal and gave my welcoming wave to the audience. I turned to Crystal with a big question mark on my face; I gave a slight shrug. The audience applauded and cheered my arrival despite my having yet to do anything to entertain them. The level of support amazed me.

Crystal jerked her head at me and then had to lead me to the edge of center stage – right by some of the fans in the VIP section. I didn’t understand and checked again to be sure I’d read her signals correctly. She wanted me beside the center VIP section – a sea of mostly young women cheering loudly. Over Crystal’s shoulder, I could see the puzzled look on my face on one of the large screen LED displays. Crystal again nodded to me and even gestured with one hand; so, I scanned the crowd of people clustered along the front edge of the stage in more detail. While all this was going on the crowd kept applauding and chanting, “Jim! Jim! Jim!” Crystal was laughing.

My eyes scanned the crowd along the stage. For a few brief seconds, I really thought I’d started hallucinating. Karen was stage side, looking up at me with a look of love and excitement on her face. My heart throbbed with love and all my protective juices hit my blood stream in an instant. One thought screamed inside my head, ‘I’ll save you,’ but immediately I knew I couldn’t – that Karen was gone. My face must have scrunched up in pain. I squeezed my eyes shut and tried to regain some semblance of reality – to move beyond the fantasy or dream state I’d been catapulted into by this woman – this woman that looked just like Karen ... just like her sister.

“LAUREN!” I screamed. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.

For a second, I remained stunned and amazed to see my sister-in-law – shouldn’t she be in Vermont? She locked eyes with me and had a big and very happy smile on her face. Now, I knew the rest of Crystal’s surprise; she’d brought Lauren here for the concert. Tears welled up in my eyes.

I jumped over the edge of the stage into the VIP section and gave Lauren a big hug and kiss on the lips, followed by another hug. She kissed back with the urgency and passion we’d shared about ten weeks earlier as I began my journey. The crowd was going wild, and I could see the close-up of the two of us projected up on one of the huge screens that everyone at the concert could see.

Lauren had to yell to get me to hear her over the crowd’s cheers, “I love you. Go sing for us – sing for me. I’ll see you later.”

The crowd had cheered even more loudly as I kissed Lauren again. The spotlights were on the two of us. Of course, no one knew her; only that one of their new idols had paid attention to someone important to him in the audience. Lots of flash pictures of the two of us were taken.

I hopped back on the stage, moved sideways from Lauren, touched a few of the outstretched hands of screaming fans. Several women yelled, “Kiss me, too!” I couldn’t believe the kind of reception I was getting. I blew kisses to a few more women.

When I went back to Crystal, I gave her a kiss on her cheek and mouthed the words ‘Thank you.’ We hugged, and the crowd cheered again. She said in a voice I could barely hear over the crowd noise, “Change of order – we’re doing ’How Do I Live Without You?’” I looked at the band, and Billy nodded. I guess he was in on my surprise. I gave him an ‘OK’ sign, as the band launched into the first notes of the song. I had the opening couple of lines of the song before Crystal repeated the words, and then we sang together.

I started singing to Crystal, and got that lovely smile from her that lights up my life. She flicked her eyes to Lauren before I got to the end of the first sentence. I moved to the edge of the stage, sang to a couple of teenage girls, and then shifted so I sang the important lyrics to Lauren. Everyone swooned, and Lauren held her hands to her chest and made a gesture as though her heart was palpitating. When I turned back to Crystal, I caught a glimpse of the large screen above the stage, and there was Lauren in full view of the crowd patting her chest and feigning a swoon with the happiest look on her face.

As Crystal started to sing her lines, I again mouthed ‘Thank you’ to her. She winked and smiled broadly. I looked off stage for a second; Ellen stood there, a smile from ear to ear, looking very proud of herself. She’d been in on this too, and probably arranged the whole thing. Here was Crystal doing something special for someone close to her again; this time it was for me.

After the love song, we jazzed up the whole concert with a long version of ’Life Is a Highway.’ This gave the band a chance to join in both as singers and with solos on their various instruments. This is one of most up-tempo songs in country music, and the audience loved it – roaring their approval all through the song. Many people sang along. After that we did a few more numbers.

At intermission, I had one of the security guys pull Lauren out of the VIP pit and bring her to us backstage. Ellen and Crystal hung around as Lauren and I hugged and kissed again. As I hugged Lauren, I turned to the two of them; “How’d you do this?”

Crystal spoke with glee in her voice, “You mentioned her more than a couple of times, and I could tell there was something really special about your relationship besides her just being a sister-in-law. One time you mentioned her last name, and, Ellen tracked her down outside Burlington, Vermont. They talked quite a bit over the past few days about getting her here ... and about a few other things, as it turned out.”

I shot a glance at Lauren. She gave me a lecherous grin. I knew that grin; something sexual was involved. For the present, I ignored all the possibilities. Instead, we talked about how she had arrived at the airport only minutes before the concert started, and that she had to leave the next day on a noon flight so she could get right back to work at her hospital. Ellen had picked her up at the airport and rushed her to the concert, making sure she was at center stage when I came out. Lauren was prolific in her praise for Crystal and her financial help to make the flight – first-class; and for Ellen’s help with logistics ... and her ‘revelations.’ I wondered just how far those revelations had gone.

We opened the second set of songs with ’Runaway Train,’ by John Stewart. We’d turned it into a duet, and the song really sounded great as it floated across the crowd into the night sky. Far in the distance I saw some cloud-to-cloud lightning, nothing to worry about, but the phenomena were beautiful and caught my attention. Lauren and Ellen watched from beside the stage, visible to some of the crowd. Equally beautiful were the women in my life that night: Crystal, Lauren, and Ellen. I said a silent prayer of gratitude to the Universe for my blessings.

We’d saved ’Texas Dawn’ until the end of the second set. Crystal announced the song and talked about how it had become a duet with me doing the lead in. I moved up next to her as the band played the opening refrain, and then started to sing, “Texas dawns comes early when you’ve been awake all night.” I expected Crystal to join in, but she didn’t. She nudged me to continue, and so without breaking stride I moved on through the love poem. Finally, when we got to the chorus, her voice joined mine. She circled back, and we repeated the start with both of us singing. We’d locked eyes, and I let her lead me in her rendition of the song.

We ended to fabulous applause and cheers. Our encore went very well too; she did ’Flirty Cowgirl’ and we both repeated part of ’Texas Dawn’ again.

Terry found us all in the green room starting to kick back. Again, he was jubilant and complimented each of us. He led us in a short post-mortem on the songs, commenting on how we could have made each one better. Crystal liked the suggestions, and after a few minutes she found paper and pencil and took notes so she’d remember.

Terry said that Nashville Records was rushing ’Texas Dawn’ onto the Internet as fast as they could. They wanted to build some buzz about the song and the album building on our two concerts and the excellent press we’d gotten in Louisville. Eventually, he disappeared to find the coordinator for the state fair to see whether they’d sign us up for the coming year. He also started to babble about concerts in Oklahoma and Texas again; I reminded him I’d be ‘on the road.’ He looked disappointed.

Ellen led Lauren, Crystal, and me back to the secure area where the tour bus had parked. As we locked ourselves in the bus, she told us, “The driver won’t come until eleven tomorrow morning; and that’s when I’ve got to take Lauren back to the airport. So, until then, ladies and gentleman ... anything goes. Tah Daaaaah.” We all had lascivious grins at her suggestion.

With that pronouncement, Ellen walked over to Lauren and the two women kissed in a way that made me wonder why the metal roof of the bus didn’t melt. I turned to Crystal and kissed her with the same fervor. I whispered to her, “Thank you for Lauren. This is a great surprise.”

Crystal nudged me to Lauren, and said with a hint of humor, “You don’t mind if we watch, do you? I do have strong voyeurism and exhibitionism tendencies, but you might have already figured that out. And, Ellen and I will be waiting our turns.” I got another sexy grin from her. She sucked her middle finger in a lewd gesture.

“You fox,” I said with élan. “You can’t watch, but you can join in ... the more the merrier.” I ran my fingers across her flat stomach, and then across her breasts, pausing at the deep cleavage her costume provided. I suggested, “Why don’t you slip out of these things?”

When I turned back to Lauren, Ellen had already unbuttoned her top and pushed if off her shoulders. Lauren hadn’t worn a bra, so was naked from the waist up, her large breasts showed excitement at the promise of what the evening held. Ellen used one hand to massage one breast and pinch the nipple to erection. With the other hand, she unbelted Lauren’s jeans and pushed them down her legs.

Crystal said, “Before we go further, let’s go back to the bedroom. Even with the one-way glass and in this dim light someone might see something from outside. We don’t need that kind of tabloid press.” She led us the twenty feet to the bedroom at the rear of the tour bus.

I pulled Lauren to me as we got to the bedroom, “I’ve missed you, big time. I have a lot of love stored up for you.” We kissed, and our tongues went wild on each other, and then mine slowly slid down her chest to her areolas and nipples. I bit and sucked each one with the joy of rediscovering an intimate friend. Lauren moaned.

Then, I heard those magic words that every guy can’t resist: “Fuck me.” They came from Lauren – and then Crystal – and then Ellen. When Lauren and I turned to see what the two of them were doing, we discovered both of them nude and in an intimate embrace. I love sisters.

The four of us got onto the king-size bed. Crystal and I made love to Lauren’s pussy as Ellen made love to her breasts. Lauren just writhed and moaned on the bed, promising to get even when we were done. I know she hatched several orgasms. After one, she pulled Ellen around so her cunt was over her mouth; Lauren went to town, her tongue lashing upwards into Ellen’s quim.

Crystal slid down my body and inhaled my rapidly hardening cock, bringing it to ‘full ready’ status. She used her right hand to guide my dick to Lauren’s gaping pussy. I slowly slid inside my ‘sister-in-law’ and started the back-and-forth motion that is so characteristic of a great fuck. As I loved Lauren, Crystal lay beside her and invited me to finger her cunt while she toyed with Lauren’s other erogenous zones.

Ellen popped off an orgasm, smashing her cunt down on Lauren’s face. I leaned in and kissed Ellen, supporting part of her weight as I did. In another few seconds, Ellen lay where Crystal had, my fingers in her cunt as Crystal slid in the classic sixty-nine position with her sister. Both tongues came into play.

I shifted all my focus to Lauren while the sisters played together. I pulled her legs over my shoulder and drove into her just the way I remembered she had asked for me to do over and over again the weekend we seldom left her bed in the first part of my road trip. Lauren moaned words of sex and love to me; I returned the favor. As Kim, my friend from North Carolina had taught me; I held off my own orgasm as I brought Lauren to a steady stream of heavenly sensations. I stroked into her body from various positions. Lauren started to look at me in awe.

Beside me on the bed, I heard each sister also bring satisfying results to the other. Crystal had produced two large electric dildos with the vibrating rabbits from the bedside cabinet. Each sister had one of these running at high speed, and alternating between buried completely in the other’s cunt or held carefully in just the right position to maximize stimulation to the other’s clit. I heard some foul and sexy language from the two of them.

Lauren panted to me at one point, “How come you haven’t cum yet? I expected you to shoot me full of your juice way before this. Is this one of those tricks you’ve learned along your travels?”

I panted back at her, “Sort of. Kim taught me the techniques – Tantric Sex. We’ll eventually try them all, maybe not on this short trip of yours. I’m starting to improvise too. I can last a long time, give you lots of orgasms, even enjoy a few myself, and then cum.”

Lauren said, “I sure hope I get to meet all the women you’ve fucked along this trip; it’s becoming quite a list. Knowing you, they all fell in love with you.”

I was pumping into Lauren in the doggie position, when Crystal slid beneath us. I felt her tongue lash out at my cock when I pulled almost all the way out of Lauren; I’d then slide back into her cunt. Finally, Crystal grabbed my cock, lapped the fluids from it, and then slid most of my shaft into her mouth and throat. A few seconds later, she’d put me back in Lauren.

Crystal exclaimed from below Lauren, “That is really good tasting pussy and cock. What a great mix you guys put together.” She was silent for a minute except for a huge sigh, and I realized Ellen was pumping a vibrator in and out of Crystal’s cunt.

Ellen eventually said, “Are you guys willing to try something kinda strange?”

We all nodded.

Ellen said, “I saw this in a porn flick not too long ago – it’s a way for all of us to fuck simultaneously ... using Jim’s cock as our centerpiece.”

Some discussion about the need for agility occurred, as we broke apart.

I lay back against the headboard of the bed. Crystal and Ellen maneuvered across me face up from each side until they captured my cock between their pussies. I made a few thrusts, and each of us got good stimulation from our three-way fuck.