Chapter 76: Elyse Natalie Clarke

November, 1985, Chicago, Illinois

Kara and I arrived in Chicago on Friday morning, just in time for her to get to IIT for her first class. I was completely exhausted, but when I arrived at the house, I made a cup of coffee and grabbed a bagel from the counter and went to the office.

"You look like shit," Dany said.

"Gee, thanks," I said deadpan.

"Cindi's just about to give her report," Julia said.

"Don't let me interrupt!"

Cindi gave a positive report. The advertising that we'd been doing was helping, and she had been sending letters to law firms and construction firms in the greater Chicagoland area — south to Gary, west to Aurora, and north to Milwaukee. Business development was, as she had reported before, more difficult, but she was making progress. Mario was handling support calls and working to get referrals from existing customers.

When Cindi finished her report, I went with Dave, Dany, Tom, and Julia to the dining room table. I'd missed 3-and-a-half days of work, and needed to catch up. After they filled me in, I let Dave know that I'd be putting in at least eight hours on Saturday and six on Sunday, and would do my best to catch up. He asked about Jessica and I explained that Kara and I weren't going to Indianapolis because of the mid-week visit that we'd made.

I worked until dinner, stopping only briefly for lunch, and after dinner, went to sit in the sauna. All of my housemates joined me except Dave and Julia, who were at a Sig Ep alumni dinner, and George and Charlie, who were out studying with friends.

"How are you holding up?" Bethany asked.

"Fine," I replied. "I actually was more contemplative than sad. I'm not quite sure why."

"We all react differently, and often it depends on the person who dies. You experienced absolute anguish when Birgit died, but your reaction to Kara's dad's death was quite different."

"He almost decked Kent van der Meer!" Kara said. "Part of me wishes that he would have!"

"And he would have gone to jail," Bethany said. "But that wasn't a reaction to your dad's death, but rather to that un-Christian minister's words. There, Steve was worried about you and your mom. Now, he's contemplating his own mortality. That usually happens when you get older, but sometimes people in their early 20s come face-to-face with it and it's like a light turns on. Probably it has to do with me very nearly dying, and now Don Joseph dying. It kind of drove things home for Steve."

I nodded, "I think so. The strangest part was wondering where Don Joseph is now, if in fact there is a place to go."

Bethany smiled, "There is. Remember, I was there. And I saw Birgit."

I nodded, "I know you believe that, Sweetheart, but personal experiences are just that, personal. I don't even know how to process what you've told me."

"Life is more complex than we think it is," Josie said. "Whether you believe what the Christians teach, the Hindus, the pagans, or whomever, all faiths offer some kind of hope beyond this world."

"But is it just that?" Elyse asked. "A hope? Something to believe in that's larger than ourselves?"

"Religion is ubiquitous in human existence," Bethany observed. "But look at all of us. Except for Dave and Julia, none of us are religious. Maybe we're all too focused on science and technology and that kills the mysteries of the universe for us, or blinds us to them. Or maybe we're the ones seeing clearly through the fog. To me, Steve's position — that he doesn't know — seems the most reasonable approach. None of us here say affirmatively that there are no gods of any kind, we're just not sure that any exist, or are even necessary, for the universe to function."

I nodded, "Something that two of Don Joseph's friends said to me kind of resonated — that as young men, they didn't go to church, but as they got older, they did. They faced their mortality and decided that perhaps, indeed, there was a need for something beyond themselves and beyond this world. I'm still not sure."

"What about your investigations into the Orthodox Church?" my sister asked.

"There's a lot of wisdom in their world view, much as there is in the Eastern wisdom literature. And there's a very interesting overlap in some areas. Obviously, I've chosen a path that more or less precludes nearly any organized religion in the US, except perhaps the fundamentalist Mormons."

"Our situation might be difficult to explain to Dave's or Andrei's priests," Kara said.

I nodded again, "Exactly. So for now, the most we could do is attend occasionally, like on Pascha."

"What happens to Don Joseph's shares in NIKA?" Elyse asked.

"I'm positive that when they read the will on Monday, we'll find out that they went to Joyce," I answered.

"Good. I'd hate for them to end up with someone we didn't know or trust," she replied.

"Actually, the agreement I signed with him, and the one with my dad, would give us the right to buy the shares for the same amount he invested if we didn't like who they were going to."

"We don't have that kind of money," Elyse said. "At least not without creating a dangerous situation."

"True, but I'm sure that they're going to Joyce. Besides, I still have 90% of the shares. You, Dave, Julia, and Cindi have all been promised some shares, but those won't be distributed until after the company has been going for two years and you're all still working for NIKA. If you leave, they revert to me and you get paid their current book value."

"Sounds like handcuffs!" Jennifer said.

"A good analogy," Elyse smiled. "It's meant to. If Dave, Julia, Cindi, and I stay, we have a chance to become rich. If we leave before two years are up, we only get the salaries we've been paid. After that, we also get any value those shares might have."

"Interesting," Josie said.

When we left the sauna, everyone took their individual showers, and I poured myself some bourbon and filed my pipe. I went to the back yard and sat in the cool fall air. It was threatening to rain, but the rain hadn't started yet. A few minutes after I went outside, Elyse and Kara came to sit with me.

"Kara and I were talking, and I wondered if we could have our night tomorrow night?" Elyse asked.

"Sure," I said. "I'm sorry about last Wednesday."

"There's nothing you could have done differently! Things happen. I just think tomorrow is better so that Kara can have you on the 14th without you being all worn out."

"How are things going to work after the 14th?" Kara asked.

"Jess will use a guest room when she's here, and I'll sleep on the couch when we're at her place."

"Wow! You guys are taking this that seriously!" Elyse said.

"We're trying to. It'll be the longest stretch that I've slept alone since, well, at least since I've come to Chicago. And probably the longest stretch I'll have gone without sex since before I lost my virginity!"

"You are crazy!" Elyse laughed.

"Yeah, I am," I nodded, and puffed my pipe. "Changing the subject a bit — I need to know who's going to be here for Thanksgiving."

"I will," Kara said. "And I'm sure Stephanie and Sofia will be. I think Josie and Jennifer are planning to be here. I know Sofia asked Alejandra and Leila again."

"Dave and Julia are going to Ohio," Elyse said. "I'm still not sure what I'm doing."

"Do you know if George is staying here or going with Charlie?"

"No idea," Elyse said. "Oh, I meant to tell you, Bethany has a date with that Navy lieutenant tomorrow night."

"Good!" I said. "He seems like a nice enough guy, and if he's a friend of Pete's, he has to be OK. And I can't imagine she has anything to worry about with a Navy lawyer."

"Andrew came by on Wednesday night to try to talk to her, but she sent him packing. She was quite harsh."

I sighed, "I think she had to be. If he didn't take the hint when she returned his ring, he probably needed to be told in no uncertain terms to get lost."

"He's a bit scary," Elyse said. "But Dave was with her."

"Shit," I said. "We need to watch out for that guy, then."

"We do. Did you hear from Stephie yet?" Elyse asked.

"No. Her biopsy was today. They were doing it laparoscopically, so just a small incision. But she said it would take a week for the results. She said that her doctor is pretty confident that it's nothing bad."

"Are you sure about that?" Elyse asked. "They wouldn't have done a biopsy if they weren't worried."

"All I can tell you is what she said," I replied. "I sure hope it's true. Joyce had a scare kind of like this and her doctor gave her the same kind of prognosis, and we saw how that turned out."

When I finished my bourbon and the tobacco in my pipe had burned down, I tapped out the pipe and Kara and I went up to my room. It was still early, but Kara and I were both tired, so we called Jessica, and then got into bed and fell asleep right away.

On Saturday when I woke up, I ate a quick breakfast and went right to work. Penny arrived at 8:00am and I gave her the list of things Dave had for her to work on, and she got to work. I stopped for karate class, and when we arrived home, after a shower and a quick lunch, I went back to my office and Penny and I sat side by side at our keyboards until 5:00pm.

"Is it OK if I wear my blue sari to your wedding?" she asked as she was getting up to leave.

"Sure. That would be awesome!" I said.

She smiled broadly, gave me a kiss on the cheek, and then left the office. I finished what I was working on and then went to the kitchen to help Dave and Julia with dinner. Bethany stopped in the kitchen on her way out and gave me a hug. I wished her luck and kissed her forehead. She smiled and went on her way.

"A date?" Julia asked after Bethany had left.

"The Navy lieutenant who was here. He had a bad breakup when his fiancée turned up to visit pregnant. With someone else's kid."

"Ouch!" Dave said.

"No kidding," I said. "That's one of those situations that explains the whole 'crime of passion' thing. It doesn't excuse it, but can you even imagine?"

"Something like that would just have killed me," Dave said.

"And me," Julia said, "if the roles were reversed and some girl had turned up pregnant with Dave's baby."

"Apparently, he mostly stayed in his quarters doing nothing, so Pete more or less dragged him here. He and Bethany are both hurting badly, so maybe they can find some way to help each other. I just hope she's careful."

We finished making dinner and got it on the table. A good number of the study group stayed, which explained the massive amounts of spaghetti and meatballs that Dave had said we needed. I sat with Andrei and Natalya and chatted with them about school and church. Natalya got up to get some more food and Andrei leaned over.

"She was very disappointed to hear that you got engaged," he said quietly. "And she was extremely confused when she found out it was to two girls!"

"She's not the only one to be confused by that!" I said. "It's a common reaction. Are you guys coming to the wedding?"

"We wouldn't miss it!" he exclaimed. "It's not every day you see three people get married to each other!"

"I'm guessing your priest wouldn't approve," I said.

"Uh, no. He wouldn't. It will present a unique problem if you wanted to be a member of the church. I have no idea how the bishop would resolve that one!"

"That's quite a ways down the road, if it ever happens," I said. "We'll cross the bridge when we come to it, if we ever come to it."

"Did you hear about the chess tournament?" Andrei asked.

"I did indeed! Kasparov beat Karpov. It's amazing that Kasparov is only 22! Fischer was older when he beat Spassky. It was really weird that Fischer simply surrendered the World Championship to Karpov without playing."

"They couldn't agree on the rules, so Fischer refused to play."

"He was a bit odd," I observed.

"That's putting it mildly!" Andrei laughed. "We should play sometime."

"I'd like that," I said.

When we finished dinner, I checked with Jorge and George about Thanksgiving week. Jorge was grateful that he could stay with us, but George was going home with Charlie. Both of them let me know that they'd booked their flights home for after the wedding, and I told them I was glad that they'd be here. The only one I wasn't sure about now was Bethany. I'd talk to her on Sunday, and invite her lieutenant if she wanted me to.

While we were doing the dishes and cleaning up after dinner, the phone rang. I smiled because I was fairly sure what this call would be about.

"Tiger!" Jessica's shriek pierced my eardrum, but before I could even say hello, she continued. "Doctor Barton told me that he's moving to Chicago in January! I can do my Residency with him in Chicago!"

"Congra..." I'd began saying, but Jessica cut me off.

"I'm annoyed that you knew and didn't tell me!" she harrumphed.

"He swore me to secrecy, Babe; there was nothing I could do. I didn't even tell Kara!"

Jessica's voice softened, "I still have to finish medical school in Indianapolis, so it's a long time before I can actually move to Chicago."

"I know, Babe. But twenty months is WAY better than seven years!"

"I love you, Tiger! I have to run now. Tell Kara I love her, too!"

"I will! Talk to you soon!"

We said 'goodbye' and I hung up.

"Twenty months?" Kara asked. "What is that about?"

"When I went to Indianapolis to be with Jess, Doctor Barton told me that he accepted a job with the hospital at UofC. He'll be here in January. He told Jess today. That means she can do her Residency here in Chicago and still have him as her mentor!"

"That's awesome!" Kara said.

"She said to tell you that she loves you!"

"I'm going to go call her," Kara said.

"OK. I'm going to finish up the dishes. Elyse is helping, so go!"

She went to my study to use the phone and Elyse and I finished the dishes.

"What's the plan?" I asked Elyse once people started moving about the house for our usual Saturday evening gathering.

"Let's start with a warm bubble bath," she said.

I gave Kara a kiss, and she gave me a knowing smile. I took Elyse's hand and led her up to my room. I locked the door, then went into the bathroom to draw a warm bath, and added lavender-scented bubble bath. Elyse and I undressed and climbed into the tub. She leaned back against me, and I wrapped my arms tightly around her.

"So, it's going to be soft, then?" I asked, placing soft kisses on her shoulder and neck.

"Yes," she sighed. "Just start with your fingers here in the tub. Then I'll give you an amazing blowjob, and then we'll just make love, nice and slow, until you can't go anymore."

"Your wish is my command!" I said, pressing a finger softly against her button.

Elyse squirmed a bit as I slowly worked her to the first of five orgasms in the bubble bath. She groaned softly with each one, though each groan, like each orgasm, was more intense than the one before it. For the last one, I pressed my index finger deep into her tunnel and she nearly jumped out of the water as she came.

"Jesus," she whispered when the spasms passed. "You can play me like a piano!"

"It's been six years," I said. "I might have figured out a thing or two!"

"You have," she sighed. "Let's shower. I'll see if I can match that with my lips and tongue!"

After we rinsed off the suds, Elyse kissed me deeply, then slowly kissed down my chest as she went to her knees. She took me into her mouth and sucked gently while she swirled her tongue around my glans. She spent the next twenty minutes doing exactly as she'd promised — giving me a fantastic blowjob. Elyse knew exactly how to pleasure me, just as I did her. I did my best to hold back, but Elyse knew exactly what to do, and soon I was filling her mouth with hot cum.

Elyse stood up and smirked, then kissed me deeply with a mouth full of my cum. I wasn't going to let Elyse get the best of me, so I kissed her enthusiastically and deeply. I waited for her to break the kiss and when she finally did, she laughed.

"Is there ANYTHING I can do that would freak you out?" she said.

"I doubt it," I chuckled.

"Fine," she giggled. "Come to bed and love me!"