Chapter 3: Bad Moon Rising

NIS Day 1 – After School - Medway High School

2:57pm, Monday, October, 29, 1979

“I’ve got to run and tell Mrs. S that Sammy and I are going to have her spray paint our bodies Wednesday morning,” Tempe said as the two naked girls walked with me and a few others down the side hallway. I was heading to the varsity locker room with my gym bag, while the girls were taking their gym bags up to their lockers.

“I’m going to have her do a sexy police woman’s costume on my naked bod,” Sammy excitedly exclaimed as we stopped at the stairwell doors.

“That should be pretty cool looking,” Brad said as he and Elizabeth shared a hug.

“I’m just going to tell Mrs. S to use her imagination with me,” Tempe said as she swung our joined hands freely between us.

“Ask her if she thinks she can do something like a tuxedo jacket, shirt and tie ... with maybe some black shorts on me,” I asked Tempe.

“Ohhh! That would be super sharp, Cuda!” Elizabeth said. I could see the wheels turning in her pretty little head and after a few moments, she added, “I think I’ll wear a ‘Flappers’ style outfit’, and we’ll look great together in our costumes teaching PE on Wednesday.”

“Will the paint last that long or look good all day, Tempe?” I asked the most artist person in our little crowd.

“I think it may. I bet Mrs. S would do a little touch up work on you in art class if your birthday tuxedo suit starts to look a little tattered or frayed,” Tempe laughed at her play of words.

“Good one, Tempe,” I replied and then smacked my left hand against my head. “I, we, gotta run to the main office to get our clothes. I’ll see you in the locker room, Brad. Later, Ladies!” I said as I jogged my bare ass towards the main office.

“Hey, Cuda!” Lynette said fully clothed as she was coming to the main office from the opposite direction. As a naked volunteer, she was allowed to keep her clothes in her locker and must have put them on before coming to the main office.

“Whatcha doing at the office?” I asked.

“Returning this safety whistle. TR asked me to bring it back at the end of the day. I’ll come and get it in the morning ... if I decide to doff my duds, again,” she laughed as we walked into the main office.

“You kids survived day one of the NIS experience, did you?” Mr. Pierce asked as he walked from his guidance office in his track-suit for our football practice.

“Survived, yes,” I replied with a smile. I then added, “There were a few hiccups and scary moments, but I can live with your ‘survived’ term, Mr. Pierce.”

“It was fun, although I had to tell most everybody that I was a volunteer ... not a real ‘naked student,’” Lynette added.

“That will become a bigger issue for you tomorrow and beyond, Lynette, if you keep volunteering. The NIS students will start getting requests, so be prepared to really inform any students that you don’t have to do those requests,” Mr. P said.

“If, uh, you could get Mr. Williamson to make an announcement to that effect in the morning, that would be a huge help because a few other students told me they might do the volunteer thing in support of our friends or as preparation for their possible NIS week,” Lynette said with a smile.

“I think I can do that for you, Lynette,” Mr. Pierce replied with a smile.

“Got my things,” I said to Lynette, Mr. P and the school’s administrative people.

“No sense putting your clothes on when you’ve got football practice,” Mr. Pierce offered.

I nodded at his statement and then said, “I’ll see you after practice or for sure at Sammy’s, Cano.”

“Most definitely! Have a good practice, Cuda.”

“Same!” I replied and watched my ex bound off down the center-main hallway towards the gym and girls’ change room.

As Mr. Pierce and I were walking to the varsity locker room, we saw Mr. Williamson coming in the opposite direction. “Hey, Mike,” our VP said with a smile. He then blew my socks off when he quietly asked, “So, what’s this I heard about you giving Mrs. Bumstead’s breast a light squeeze in the shower?”

“Oh, shit,” I softly muttered and then looked down at the tiled floor.

“You’re not in any trouble, Mike,” Mr. Williamson said, and he then slapped his hand on my left shoulder. “Mrs. Bumstead felt it was in yours, and her best interest if she told me what happened before I heard about it through the school’s gossip channels. She explained that you were pretty out of it after getting relief, and then you basically reached out and touched her and Tammy Gower’s breasts. Mrs. Bumstead also told me that she and Tammy were okay with it, and understood you didn’t purposefully set out to touch them. All’s good with them, so all’s good with me and the NIS program.”

“You couldn’t believe how badly I wanted to crawl down that shower drain pipe when I realized what I had just done, Sir!” I said as Mr. Pierce did his best not to break out laughing at me.

“That, Mike, was the very essence of the ‘accidental’ or unintentional touching that we talked about in the conference room ... just to a different body location,” Mr. W replied with a smile.

“God, I hope it doesn’t get around that I copped a feel of Mrs. B-Stead’s breast,” I said as I shook my head at the two adults. “I’d never hear the end of it ... with every Tom, Dick and Hillary student wanting to know how our ‘Blessed’ teacher’s breast felt.”

“Be prepared to answer those T’s-D’s and H’s questions, Mike,” Mr. Pierce replied in a serious tone. “I’m pretty sure I overhead one of the girls from that shower scene mentioning just that to her boyfriend as I walked up the main hallway at the end of the day.”

“Oh, fudge! I am so screwed,” I softly said and then realized what I just said to these adults. “I’m sa-sorry for talking like that, Mr. Williamson, Mr. P. I know bet...”

“Again, Mike! Relax! We know today has been unusual and stressful for you. We’re not holding you to the same standards, which we normally would, okay? Now, run and get prepared to kill Strathroy this Friday!” Mr. Williamson said.

“Gladly!” I exclaimed and jogged the forty feet to the varsity locker room entrance.

I stepped into the restroom area to take care of some business and started to whistle the intro music to Creedence Clearwater Revival’s Bad Moon Rising. Somehow or another, that song popped into my head and seemed totally appropriate for my current situation. I was already dreading tomorrow morning, after Mr. Pierce said there was more than likely going to be a ‘bad-moon-situation‘ arising from my shower episode.

(Note: Bad Moon Rising was written by John Fogerty of CCR, and was the lead single from their 1969, Green River album. This classic swamp rock song was CCR’s second Gold Hit and reached number two on the Billboard Hot 100 charts and stayed number one in the UK for three weeks in April of ‘69.)

I never made it through the varsity locker room door before I was greeted with, “Cuda, what does the Blonde-Bomber’s big boobs feel like?” and “Cuda, I can’t believe you not only saw Mrs. B naked, but you pinched her nipple!” type statements from multiple football teammates.

I immediately turned back into the hallway connecting the bathroom and the locker room, and softly sang the first two lines of Bad Moon Rising ‘s third verse:

“Hope you got your things together.
Hope you ... are quite prepared to die.”

“Why aren’t you in there getting dressed, Mike?” Mr. St. Georges asked as he, Mr. Pierce and Mr. Loft entered the short hallway to the locker room.

“What song was that you were singing, Mike?” Mr. Loft asked with a smile on his bearded face.

“I was singing a couple of lines from CCR’s Bad Moon Rising, Coach Loft,” I replied to their second question.

“Oh, Lord!” Mr. Pierce replied as he dropped and shook his head with a grin.

“Oh, Lord, what?” Coach St. Georges asked with a stern look on his face.

“It’s already in the locker room, isn’t it, Mike?” Mr. Pierce softly asked.

“Oh! Yeah! I didn’t even get through the door before I was grilled by Gary, Chris and a whole bunch of other guys,” I replied with my head staring down at the floor.

“What the ‘F’ is going on here?” Coach St. Georges asked in the sternest tone and with that ‘salty letter’, which I couldn’t recall him ever using before.

“We better talk about this in the locker room, Paul,” Mr. Pierce said as he put his around our obviously peeved head coach’s shoulder.

“Let’s get in there, Mike,” Coach Loft said as he waved his hand in the locker’s direction.

The locker room was buzzing when I led the three coaches into the room.

However, the dead could have made more noise than my teammates after Coach loudly proclaimed, “Not another damn word comes from anyone’s mouth ‘till I find out what the hell is going on in here! Nevins, speak! Now!“

“Tell us! Cuda!” Gary Dander yelled which caused a few guys to whoop it up.

There amused joy was short-lived when Coach said, “Some of you obviously have a hearing problem or an excess energy problem. Maybe if you, Gary, and you, you, you and you, Chris do a couple of forty-gassers, you’re hearing will improve! ... When I said not another damn word, I MEANT IT!“

When he turned his attention back to me, I knew it was my turn to tell what occurred to cause this cluster-fuck. I sighed deeply and then said, “After our dance class, I had a girl help me with relief in the showers, Coach. Well ... my legs gave out on me and when I was recovering, Mrs. Bumstead, who was taking a shower with us, was like leaning over me to see if I was okay. Somehow or another, I just ... reached up to her and to the girl, Tammy ... I just reached and felt Mrs. Bumstead’s and Tammy’s breast and nipples in a state of confusion.”

As soon as I said that I almost felt like collapsing again.

“Okay,” Coach calmly said as he looked from me to the other guys in the room. He then seriously asked, “And why is that such a big deal when I’m sure you’ve seen and/or heard about the NIS students’ oral events or in class masturbation sessions?”

“If I may, Coach?” Ronnie Wood softly asked from his corner seat. After getting a nod, Ronnie smiled at me and said, “Every guy here at school has probably jacked off numerous times to a mental image of a naked Mrs. Bumstead. Plus, nobody ever ... never ever would have thought that one of us would get to see her naked, let alone touch her incredible body. That, Coach ... is what made that shower incident, so ... so bloody unbelievable and I hate to say, worth talking about. Right, guys?”

“Exactly, Ron!” As well as a few, “Damn! Right!” and “That’s it! Coach!” replies were shouted from around the locker room.

“Oh, Lord!” Coach sighed and turned to face me. He then softly said, “Mike my boy,” and walked towards his office. Before Coach Pierce and Loft joined him, he turned and said, “Everybody will do an up and down 40 at the end of practice. I expect you guys to get this crap out of your system ... TODAY! If I hear any of you mentioning this again, you’ll do ‘40s’ until your tongue is dragging in the mud! Have I made myself clear?”

“Yes, Sir, Coach!” was shouted by everyone in the locker room except me. I was just too mentally taxed to think straight or even reply.

During practice, I played like my brain was still in ‘post-orgasmic haze mode’. Physically, my passes were still strong and accurate, but I made a ton of stupid decisions based on the read I saw in our defense. I also turned the wrong way on several simple handoff plays, and got seriously steam-rolled by Matt Connell, our full-back on one such screw-up.

“What the hell, Mike!” Coach finally asked after my fourth major mistake with our bread and butter running plays.

“I’m here in body, Coach, but my mind is nowhere to be found,” I honestly said as I picked my ass up off the grass after being leveled by Matt.

“Ronnie, get in here! Now is as good a time as any for you to get some reps in with the first team offense!” Coach yelled to our starting wide out. “Mike, off to your safety position. Chris, take Ronnie’s ‘90’ spot, please.”

Before we ended our practice with the ‘Up and Down 40 Gassers’, Coach put his arm around me and asked, “This thing with Mrs. Bumstead is really eating you up inside, isn’t it?”

“I’ve already heard a bunch of snide comments and remarks about my ... unusual penis, Coach. And now this, this won’t ever end here at school. You may think you’ve stopped it with these guys, and it may work when you’re around but...”

“Is this naked thing gonna kill you, Mike?” Coach softly asked out of the blue.

“No,” I quizzically replied with a confused look on my face.

“Then that which does not kill us...” he softly said.

“Makes us stronger. Yes, Sir! Friedrich Nietzsche!” I said to complete that famous line.

“Whoa! Sharp Boy! Your brain must be working again,” Coach chuckled in response to my out of nowhere finishing words. He then said, “Okay, Mike, now let these gassers make you stronger, too!”

He then blew his whistle to inform my teammates that some serious practice ending pain was about to begin. I actually liked it when Coach said, “First guys finished from the backs and receivers get to shower, first. Same goes for the linemen, gentlemen. The faster you get done, the sooner you get to the hot showers.”

(Note: Our ‘up and down 40s‘ referred to doing a series of sprints starting at the goal line and running to the 10-yard line and back. Then you immediately run to the 20-yard line and back, the 30-yard line and the 40-yard line. That grouping was the ‘up 40 gasser’. We immediately did the reverse distances for our ‘down 40 gasser’.)

It wasn’t a surprise to anyone that I lead all my teammates in this horrendous fitness, or punishment drill. It was a monumental surprise that I finished these gassers before any other back/receiver started their final ‘20- or 10-yard’ segment of the ‘down 40’ aspect. I was so pumped full of adrenaline and energy that I jogged over to the linemen area, and encouragingly ran with and yelled at them to finish strong.

In the locker room as we got undressed, I walked into the middle of the room and said, “I’m sorry about being the cause for having to do those gassers. Also, my brain wasn’t working too well out there, but that won’t ever happen again, I promise you that.”

Bruce and Matt then walked out to me and gave me a hug. Matt then said to everyone, “Mike didn’t do anything wrong, other than turning the wrong way a time or to out on the field.” Matt then slapped my shoulder and laughed, “And I sure made you paid for it that one time, didn’t I?”

He then slowly turned around to look at everyone in the room before he calmly but sternly said, “If any of you say one word about what happened in the girls’ shower to him or anyone ... Coach won’t get the chance to run to death. I’ll personally kick the living shit out of you before Froggy gets his crack at your sorry ass.”

“And I’ll help Matt do it, too!” big Dean Smybarth shouted as he stood up from his bench seat.

“So will I!” Paul Smybarth said as he nodded to me. Paul then forcefully added, “This shit that Mike and I have to do ain’t a damn joke! I’ve heard people making fun of his thick cock, as well as the odd ‘pencil dick’ comment about my junk. If we can’t count on you for support, then who the fuck can we count on ... other than the other NIS girls and guys?”

The locker room was once more eerily quiet as Paul walked over to me and gave me a shoulder to shoulder hug.

“Thanks, guys,” I softly said, trying not to cry. I then asked my teammates a favor, “Speaking of those naked girls. I, uh, sure hope Paul and I can count on you to keep an eye out for them ... and not just because they’re naked. With Tempe today, I had a couple of assholes make inappropriate comments to her and me. I can deal with one or two asses if I have to, but other than Sammy Labatt, who can probably handle four or five guys by herself, these girls are figuratively and literally stripped and vulnerable.”

“We’ll watch out for them, as well as watch them, Mike,” Ronnie Wood replied which did cause me to cry.

“Thanks, guys,” I softly said through my tears as I moved back over to my dressing area to get out of my practice gear.

I wasn’t paying much attention to what was going on around me as I slowly undressed. When I was naked once more, I looked up and saw that nearly every guy was undressed with their towel, standing at the entrance to the showers. When I got up, I asked, “Wa-what’s going on?”

“You murdered us out there in those gassers...” Bruce Smythe said with a smile.

“And you came and ran with us big slow pokes, too...” Dean Smybarth added.

“So you’ve earned the first hot shower, tonight, Mike!” Matt said as he whipped his towel around in a ZZ-Top like ‘Get-a-move-on-it’ motion for me.

“Shit, guys! You’re gonna have me crying, again!” I said as I walked to the shower entrance and hung up my towel up on a hook.

As I was shampooing my hair, Bruce asked, “What song did I hear you singing in the hallway before practice, Mike?”

“It was a couple of lines from CCR’s Bad Moon Rising,” I replied before I tilted my head under the stream of water.

“I like that song, Mike. Can we see if your shower voice is as good as your on-stage voice?” my top receiver asked.

“Jeezes, Smythy, I don’t...”

“C’mon, Cuda!” Brad said as he earned an early shower, too with his third place finish in those gassers.

“Okay,” I softly replied and then sang in a soft Cajun voice:

“I see the bad moon arising.
I see trouble on the way.
I see earthquakes and lightnin’.
I see bad times today.“

I really enjoyed hearing the miserable singing voices of my teammates as they joined me in singing the chorus:

“Don’t go around tonight,
Well, it’s bound to take your life,
There’s a bad moon on the rise.”

“It’s... ‘There’s a bad moon on the rise!’ Matt and Dean!” I laughed at my teammates who mistakenly sang the much mistake last line. I then added, “That last line isn’t, ‘There’s a bath room on the right!’ You dumb asses!”

“You’re full of shit,” Dean laughingly replied. “We sang it perfectly!”

“What’s the title of that song, Dean?” Brad chuckled at our teammate.

“Bad Moon ... Ah! Double shit!” Dean laughed even harder, and then turned to lightly bang his head on the shower wall.

“And we have the two first members of the ‘Dumb-ass Music Hall of Shame,’ right here in our shower!” Bruce chuckled as he pointed to Matt and Dean, who both took a bow in honor of their dubious hall induction.

After I got out and dried, it felt real good to put my normal clothes back on for the first time since nine-am-ish. I put my sweaty practice gear in my gym bag, knocked on Coach’s office door and waved bye to him. I wasn’t sure what to make of his exaggerated head toss towards the locker room door, so I slowly took my leave in case he wanted to talk with me.

I was super surprised to see Mrs. Bumstead leaning against the tall glass window of the inner quad. The bosomy teacher and JV Girls’ basketball coach smiled and said, “Walk with me, Mike.”

I wasn’t sure what to make of this as we walked in silence to the side stairwell, and then she motioned for me to have a seat on the steps. After she sat down beside me, she peered at my face and said, “What happened in the shower has really gotten to you, hasn’t it? I’m sorry you’re feeling bad about it, but you really didn’t do anything wrong.”

“I know that ... now, Mrs. B. I’m not upset that it happened. I am worried about how everyone is going to react to it, though. You have to realize you’re a phreakin’ goddess to all the guys, and...”

“I know that, and I can’t do a damn thing about everyone’s perception of me, or that you touched my breast in the shower. I can and will put an end to this situation for you, first thing in the morning, though” Mrs. Bumstead said as she put her hand on my right knee cap.

“What? How?” I asked.

“Don’t you worry about it, Mike. I’ve already talked with Mr. Williamson and Mr. Matherson, and they’re both on board with how I’m going to put an end to this situation. Just know ... you simply did what comes naturally to all of us.”

“Mrs. Bumstead, I’m alright now. You don’t need to do anything for me,” I replied as I put my right hand over her hands on my knee.

“It’s all good, Mike. Oh, Sammy and Lynette both said they’d see you over at Sammy’s place. I hope your second day in the program goes a lot better than your first day, Mike.”

“Today really wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be when we first left the main office,” I replied and pushed myself up off the second stair step. I turned and gave my teacher a hand up from the stairs.

“That’s good, Mike. Have a good evening, and get lots of rest. This week is going to get a whole lot more interesting for you as the NIS program demands are increased. See you in PE class, if not sooner, Mr. East Coast Swing,” Mrs. Bumstead replied as she headed back towards her office.

I sat in my ‘Cuda for a few minutes in the student parking lot before I fired up the engine and listened to its soothing deep growl. I couldn’t help but run through all the possible scenarios that my mind could create about what Mrs. Bumstead was going to do or say to end the upcoming gossip-fest over my touching the Blonde-Bomber’s large breast.

After about five minutes of making my head hurt, I simply cried out in pure sixteen-year-old fashion, “Just fuck it!“ and drove my muscle car to our band practice location.

I was definitely not expecting to see my mother’s tanned Nova, as well as Lynette’s dad’s Volvo parked by the Labatt’s mansion. I pulled up behind Lynette’s black Nova, and heard a good bit of laughter coming from the guest house as I walked to the front door.

“Oh! My! God! You were naked all day at your school!” Brick cried as she ran and jumped into my arms when I opened the front door.

“How you doing, Mike?” my mom asked as I carried Brick’s one-hundred-and-one pound body into the living room area.

“I’m fine, Mom. Why are you and the Robertson’s here?” I asked. I didn’t include Sammy’s parents in that inquiry because they regularly made appearances at our practices.

“We knew that you ... you and Sammy were going to be naked at school this week, and we just wanted to check on our babies,” my mom replied.

“When Lynette volunteered to go naked, Mr. Williamson called and told us that your mom was coming over here. He asked if we could come here to check on our little baby, too,” Ms. R replied as she clung to her husband, Gary’s arm.

“So what happened to mess with your mind at the end of the day, Cuda?” Sammy asked as she sat on the thick arm-rest of the sofa, next to her dad and step-mom.

“Nothing really,” I replied with a smile.

“Cuda?” Lynette inquisitively called my little white lie.

“I’m fine, really. All this is what is making it not fine, okay?” I softly replied and then elevated my tone slightly at the end to emphasize I didn’t want to talk about this.

“So you made it through your first day being bare-ass naked, did you, Cuda?” Eda asked with a huge grin on her face.

“What was it like?” Brick excitedly asked.

“I’d ahhh, rather not get into all that, right now, if you know what I mean,” and gave a little nod towards my mom and the other parents.

“We already heard what happened with Sammy and your partner, Tempe in the library, and in the art studio, Mike,” Ms. R chuckled as she gave me a subtle smile.

“Lynette and Sammy both told us what happened with them, so what else happened to you?” Brick softly asked from over at the fridge.

“That was their choice to share with y’all what happened at school, today. You all know I don’t talk about what I do or may not have done with other people. And that is doubly true with all y’alls’ parents, and my mom in the room,” I replied.

“C’mon, Mike! Nothing you can say will be more interesting than what my Sammy said about your library activity,” Katie Labatt pled from her seat on the sofa.

“Are you going to regale us with what happened between you and Mr. Labatt during your Paris vacation, last summer?” I replied as Brick handed me a can of Coke and then sat in my lap in the leather recliner.

When Sammy’s mom slouched back into the sofa after my challenge, Mr. Labatt put his hand on his wife’s thigh and said, “Touché, Mike. When you graduate from college, come see me and I’ll make sure you are hired in our business department. I really liked how you turned that awkward question around so skillfully.”

“Just don’t try that Jedi-Mind-Trick stuff with me, Young Man!” my mom chuckled. I couldn’t help but smile at her semi-correct usage of that Star Wars‘ reference.

“If you three are sure you’re first day in the Naked-in-School program was fine, then we’re going to run and eat at Kelsey’s on Oxford,” Katie Labatt said as she smiled and shook her head at me.

“Yes, I’m going to get your father at work,” my mom said as I watched her get out of the winged chair.

As soon as our parents left the guest house, I was immediately swarmed by the Bandettes and peppered with questions about what happened in the girls’ locker room.

“I know something went on it there, Cuda because Mrs. Bumstead was all a flutter and asked us if you’d come out of the varsity locker room,” Sammy said as I tried to ignore their questions and went to the closest to get my guitars.

“I think I heard what happened,” Lynette finally said which caused a new uproar in Sammy, Brick and Eda, who immediately wanted to hear what she thought occurred.

I knelt down to plug my amp connectors into my guitars and softly chuckled, “There’s a bath room on the right.“

What did you just say, Cuda?” Eda asked, stopping their little hen session for the moment.

“I just was foolin’ with a CCR song lyric, E,” I replied with a smile.

“What song, Cuda?” Brick asked.

“Bad Moon Rising, Bricky. Do you know it?”

“I love that song! Can we have a go at it?” Brick replied and gleefully asked.

“It is a bad-ass song ... and we kinda had a small bad moon rising today at school, didn’t we, Cano, Cuda?” Sammy said and then correctly asked.

As soon as I put Silverburst’s strap over my neck, I immediately strummed out the opening chords for this song and sang the first verse as the girls quietly moved to their instruments or got them from the closet. Eda was the first one to join in with my playing. Lynette soon followed with a spritely keyboard sound. Brick and Sammy both had their guitars on and joined in on the chorus after I sang the second verse.

As I played the relatively easy guitar solo, Lynette said, “I really loved how that sounded from the beginning, Cuda. I liked your isolated opening guitar sounds and vocals, then E’s drums, my keyboards and then, when their two guitars joined in on that chorus.”

“I liked that sound of it, too, Cano,” Eda said as she continued with her easy drumming sound.

I simply nodded to the girls as I sang the third verse of this CCR song. When we finished with that short two-minute and twenty second song, Brick intuitively said, “You were singing that song ‘cause of what happened at the end of the day, right?”

Because no one else could see my face as I looked at my young girlfriend, I simply winked at her words and said, “Not really, I heard it on the radio on the way over here, Brick.”

Her soft smile let me know she was aware of my purposeful deception, and possibly why I chose to say that to everyone.

“Question for you,” Cano said which cause me to turn to face her. “At our Halloween party Wednesday, are you guys wantin’ ta play-play a few songs, or simply listen to the radio and/or play some records?”

“I’d rather enjoy our limited party time and not play. We’ll be playing for everybody on Friday,” Sammy replied which was spot-on with my opinion.

“I’m all for not playing,” Eda added her vote to Sammy’s choice.

“We should get to enjoy this party without playing!” Brick said which made it three-zero for not playing.

When I saw Lynette give the others a thumb’s up to Brick’s pronouncement, I lifted my hands up high to make it a unanimous decision to park our instruments in the ‘garage’ for that party.

“Would guys mind if we just jammed a little right now?” I said as I fooled with some finger tapping moves, and pinching of the strings along the fret-board of my Silverburst guitar.

“Do that again, Cuda?” Lynette asked as I saw her working on a few buttons and knobs on her Yamaha keyboards.

“That is a wicked howl, Mike. What are you doing to get that sound?” Sammy asked as she watched my stringing fingers tap, then pinch off the sound as I scrapped my index finger nail along the E and B strings.

“I’m using a combo pickup setting, Sammy and then barely scraping the E and B strings with my fingernails.”