Chapter 38: American Woman

Shannon’s House, Arva, Ontario

4:26pm, Monday, December 24, 1979

“How was practice, guys?” Eda asked as Andrew, Wayne, Jon, Andy and I walked in the foyer of Shannon’s large farm house.

“Oh! My! God! You wouldn’t believe the dunks these two guys were throwing down before we actually practiced,” Andy bellowed as he did a three-sixty spin jump with a two-handed pretend throw-down.

“Yeah, Andrew did a nifty, between his legs to a reverse, two-handed jam, which was beyond incredible!” Wayne said as E moved over to give him a hug and kiss.

“He’s been working on that one at his driveway hoop,” Heidi said after releasing Andrew’s neck from their shared greeting.

“But Cuda, here, has his money dunks for the Purple and White down cold, I think,” Andrew modestly said as my five girls were planting a little Christmas sugar on my cheeks or lips.

“What type of dunks you do, Mikhail?” Zupena asked with a monster grin on her face after we shared a little Eskimo nose kiss.

“Well, I’ve got three I’m sure I can do just about any time, and that wild one Wayne and I are still getting the timing down on,” I replied while walking over to the fridge to grab a coke.

“Can I tell them about the one you did with me?” Jon excitedly asked with Andi snuggled up under his arm.

“I still can’t believe you did that, Cuda,” Andrew laughed as he took the offered coke from my hand.

“Is that the one you told me about on the phone, Cuda?” Lynette asked from the navy-colored, crushed velour sofa.

“It is, but Cuda made it even more difficult,” Jon laughed. “When he told me he was gonna do it backwards ... it scared the crap out of me!”

“Woo! Woo! Stop! What did he do backwards?” Cano quickly interrupted Jon’s story.

Jon, Andy and Wayne then spent the next couple of minutes excitedly explaining how Jon held the basketball on his left shoulder about six feet from the hoop. They combined to tell and demonstrated how I took off inside the free-throw line to start a three-sixty spin. Andy regaled our crowd by telling them how I was flying backwards as I straddle-jumped over Jon’s head, snagged the ball from his shoulder, and completed the full rotation before throwing down a two-handed jam into the goal.

“It was wild seeing Jon’s face cringe up when Cuda back straddled over him,” Wayne laughed as he imitated Jon’s facial expression during my first attempt at that spinning dunk.

“What did you expect me to do when Cuda had a gymnastics’ crash mat put down under the goal in case something went wrong with this dunk,” Jon countered as he faked tumbling forward a few steps.

“Well, if one of my legs hit your head or shoulder as I jumped over y’all, I would have had no control over how I landed,” I shrugged as Tempe, Lisa, and Shannon looked at me like I was crazy ... which was probably true.

“Yeah, but you jumped clear over him, so there was no worry about you hitting him,” Wayne quickly added.

“Well, doing that spin, made timing my leg straddle a little more tricky than doing a regular, straight forward leaping straddle,” I added as I pulled Lisa and Tempe into my lap in Shannon’s recliner.

“You better not get yourself killed doing those dunks, Cuda,” Shannon added while giving me a faux evil-eyed look as she joined Lynette, Brad and Liz on the sofa.

“I actually thought your ‘blind-elbow-dunk’ was better than that spinning straddle dunk, Cuda,” Andrew replied as he raised his left arm up to cover his eyes as he pretended to cuff an imaginary ball over the basket.

“I saw you practicing that dunk, Mikhail. I liked that, too,” Zupena said as she also mimicked Andrew’s arm actions to throw down a pretend dunk.

“What did you mean about ‘elbow-dunk’, though?” Kalena asked from her seated position between Jason’s legs as they sat at the edge of the sofa.

“Oh! God! Cuda jumped so high that he was able to wrap his whole forearm over the rim and hang from it at his elbow joint! I have never seen anything like it!” Andy shouted with his right arm above his head, trying to create that picture for the non-team members there.

“Woo! Mikhail! I never see you do that on blind-dunk before,” Zupena cried in surprise.

“I wasn’t planning on it. I just ... when my forearm hit the rim about here on that dunk,” I said as I pointed to a spot about two inches from my elbow, “I just wrapped my arm over the rim and before I could think, I was swinging from it.”

“Gawd! I’ve got to see that,” Lisa exclaimed as both her and Tempe twisted around to give me a kiss on either cheek.

Our basketball conversation ended shortly thereafter with Andrew, Jon and I modestly complaining that our man-to-man defensive team had to work much harder at practice and in games than Andy’s and Wayne’s zone defensive unit. We weren’t surprised when Andi and Lynette chimed in and said that playing an attacking zone defense was pretty darn taxing, too.

We all loved how Eda and Lisa were semi-trash talking to Zupena, Lynette and Andi about how Montcalm was going to hand Medway’s volleyball team their first loss in the finals of the Saunders Sabers Holiday Tournament. Both teams found out at their morning volleyball practices that they were in different four team round-robin groups, and were making claims of meeting in the winners’ half of the tournament. Even though I liked the Masciotro girls’ bravado, I highly doubted their Cougar teammates were in the same league as the taller and more athletic Cowboys volleyball team, led by Zupena, Lynette, Andi, and the two Hurt sisters.

When Tempe got up to go to the bathroom, I whispered in Brick’s ear, “You know there’ll be hell to pay for yours and E’s trashing the Cowgirls, don’t ya?”

“I have no doubt they’d cream us if we get to play your girls’ team. Heck, I expect them to win their pool and we’ll be good to win a game. Soooo, I’d be amazed if we got the chance to play them in this Holiday tournament,” Lisa softly replied with her head snuggled into my shoulder.

“No whispering over there, you two,” Cano chided us with a grin on her face.

“Cuda was just giving me a little coaching advice on how to whip your butts in the championship game,” Lisa laughed as she dug her right hand into my side, causing me to almost toss her out of my lap.

“Mikhail, you no betray your Cowboy team, do you?” Zupena playfully quizzed me.

“Never!” I exclaimed as Lisa settled back down on my lap.

“You better not, as there are four Medway girls versus just one Montcalm girl in your bevy of beauties,” Heidi laughed.

“Yeah, but I’m the only one with boobs bigger than yours, Heidi,” Brick laughed as she used her right forearm to give her double-Ds a gentle lift.

“But Zupi’s small boobies are the only ones Cuda said are perfect,” Tempe countered as she shook the recliner, startling Lisa and me from behind.

Gary couldn’t help but laugh at the antics of the younger folks in Shannon’s living room. He smartly added, “While all of us are big fans of all types of boobs, do you think we might be able to change the subject to something like, say, opening our Christmas presents?”

“Excellent idea, Sweetie,” Sammy said as she turned in Gary’s lap and gave him a kiss on his cheek. “I knew there was a reason or two why I love you so much.”

“Yeah, I’m all for opening presents,” Tracy quickly added from her seated position between Ian’s legs.

In the corner of Shannon’s large living room, a small, four foot tall, artificial tree was decorated. We all had placed our friends’ presents around it when we arrived. With twenty-three high schoolers, plus T-Sully, there must have been close to one hundred wrapped up presents. Heck, I had eleven there, myself, although a couple were just gift cards for Anthony and Tina, Wayne, and Jennifer.

I made sure that my five girls, plus Eda and Sammy all opened their presents at the same time. All of them loved their personalized jewelry sets, although Sammy and E both gave me a little grief at not receiving matching earrings like Lisa, Tempe, Zupena, Shannon and Lynette did.

When I handed my time-travelling daughter, Kalena, her present, along with a gift card, I whispered to her, “If we don’t want to open up a can of worms, here, I’d wait ‘till you get home to open this. Your mom will probably want to see it, too.”

Kalena looked at me with inquisitive eyes for a couple of seconds, and then softly asked, “Can I open this card, at least?”

I simply nodded and then said, “Yeah, what’s in there won’t cause a scene like the wrapped present would.” Within my Christmas card to Kalena and her mom, Viktoriya, I had placed two separate documents, one for each of them, for three Berkshire-Hathaway stock certificates. Because each of my girlfriends, as well as E and Sammy had been given something similar earlier in the year, this gift to Kalena didn’t cause much of a stir within our group of friends.

“Why aren’t you opening your present from Cuda, Tox?” Cano asked after Kalena set the wrapped gift off to the side. Lynette winked at me because she had previously given me cryptic grief over my initial choice of gifts to Kalena, our band’s guest violinist and backup singer.

“Mike said it was for both me and my mom, so I figured I’d wait ‘till we both can see it when it’s opened,” Kalena smartly replied.

On Sunday after their first visit to my Uncle Eddie and Canella, Lynette out of the blue had asked me what, if anything, I had gotten for Kalena. When I told her about the stock certificates, she nonchalantly replied, “That’s nice.” I knew full well what that meant. So, on the drive home after dropping Lisa and E off, I called upon my Energist friends, Pink-Alpha and Hawking-Gamma and asked them to generate a picture of young Viktoriya and I walking in the Dnister River tributary just prior to our initial lovemaking session.

The beautifully framed, sixteen by twenty-four inch painting they created for me could have been painted by any of the world’s top artists. The scenery in the painting truly captured the exquisite beauty of Viktoriya’s and Kalena’s homeland. Within this pristine setting, twenty-one-year-old Viktoriya and my sixteen-year-old, time-travelling self were laughing about something in the mid-thigh level water. Viktoriya’s head rested on my right shoulder with her white demi-cut sport jacket partially opened, almost revealing her braless, black fishnet covered left breast. Her white skirt was also near transparent from being soaked from our relatively long walk in the small tributary.

Because of the impossible uniqueness of this interaction between Viktoriya and myself, I knew it couldn’t be shared within our group of friends without some major ‘forgetfulness’ actions from the Energists. Both Pink and Hawking suggested that it would be easier for all involved if they didn’t have to waste their resources on such an outcome. Therefore, I was more than pleased to have Kalena keep that painting of her ‘parents’ wrapped until she got with her mother later on this evening or on Christmas morning.

Everyone had a great time with opening all of their friends’ presents. Eda loved the set of gold-plated drumsticks, which Wayne had gotten for her. The tip, shoulder and shaft of the sticks were made of oak, which is rarely used for drumsticks. The butt of the sticks were oak, too, but gold-plated. Each stick was inscribed with a stylized ‘E’ about an inch from the ends.

“If you use those in a concert, E, make sure they aren’t the ones you toss out into the crowd,” Lisa jokingly said to her older sister.

“Oh, no!” E quickly replied, “These sticks aren’t gonna be used during our shows. I think I’ll see about getting them framed somehow as they’re too beautiful to be dinged up striking my cymbals”

“Smart choice, E,” Sammy added with a nod to both her and Wayne.

Jon and Andy both were playfully razzed by our crowd for getting both Andi and Jennifer some nice Victoria’s Secret lingerie. While the two girls were semi-mortified at showing their intimate presents to their friends, both girls quickly turned the tables on their guys by threatening to model their new presents before the assembled crowd. It was fun to watch the Lunby twins grovel to keep their girlfriends from displaying their presents in a live lingerie show.

While I was happy to have gotten a collection Crimson Tide gear, a polo-shirt from Lynette, a baseball cap from Lisa, a sweatshirt from Zupena, and a beautiful tracksuit from Tempe and Shannon, I was a little bummed at the lack of originality of their gifts. I was honestly a little miffed with my girls, who fawned all over me about their jewelry sets. It just didn’t make sense to me that their ten to thirty dollar gifts were somewhat comparable to the ones I gave them. Heck, the other guys here all got much more personalized presents from their girlfriend than what I got my five beauties.

When things had settled down after ‘all the presents’ were opened and viewed by everyone, Lynette, who was now sitting in my lap, cocked her head and pointed to something mostly hidden behind the Pike’s upright Baldwin piano. “What’s that hidden over there?” she asked towards Shannon and Sammy.

“Oh! I set that down beside the piano and it must have fallen behind it,” Sammy easily replied. She then pushed herself off Gary’s lap and walked towards the barely visible black case. As she was doing that, all my five girlfriends, plus E, Jennifer and Kalena walked over as Sammy pulled the now obvious guitar case out from behind the piano.

“When, ah, when we, well, all of us except Kalena and Jenn, were visiting Canella that first time,” Lynette haltingly said, “we figured out what we wanted to get you for Christmas, Mike.”

“Yeah, so, we, ah, had Sammy and her parents arrange to have this guitar custom made for you, Mike,” Lisa stammered as Zupena and Shannon carried the case over to me. They set it down in front of me at the recliner as Tempe knelt down beside my legs.

“We all chipped in on getting for you, Cuda, cause you’ve done so much for us this past year,” E added with a gleam in her eyes.

“Here, I’ll open it for you, Mike,” Tempe softly said as she reached to unlatch the three catches.

To say this Christmas present took my breath away would be a gross understatement. The girls, along with Sammy’s parents, had gotten me a custom Fender Stratocaster using the same hardware and materials as my favorite guitarist, David Gilmour’s classic ‘Black Strat’ guitar. The guitar’s body was designed like my ‘67 Cuda muscle car, with its metallic purple body, silver windows and door handles, and a black hardtop to mimic the look of my machine. The two silver ‘toning’ knobs were at the car’s wheel locations, with the volume knob at the car body’s trunk location. Swimming out from the guitar’s natural maple wood neck, was a menacing looking, silver barracuda fish with its razor sharp teeth ready to take a bite out of the car’s front tire or toning knob.

I slowly leaned over and pulled this masterpiece of music from its case with tears forming at the corners of my eyes. I rested the guitar across my thighs and took a moment to collect my thoughts and wipe the moisture from my eyes. When I looked up from this guitar, everyone was huddled around the recliner to get a better look at this Christmas present. The tears really started to flow from my eyes and all I could say to the gift givers was a mumbled, “Thanks ... the-this is ja-just aw-awesome.”

Tempe and Lisa both wrapped their arms around my chest and pressed their heads into my shoulders as I softly cried tears of happiness. Zupena pressed her chest over the top of my slumped head and softly whispered, “We are really glad you like present, Mikhail. You dry eyes and then maybe play us something. Yes?”

“Jesus! That is one beautiful guitar, guys!” Wayne stated as I slowly wiped my eyes with the sleeves of my UWO sweatshirt.

That broke the dam of silence and everyone got into the multi-streamed question and answer session about how this guitar came into being, as well as how the girls were able to keep such a project a secret from me. Sammy obviously knew more about the guitar’s construction and how her dad connected with the Fender Guitar Company to get this put together in two short weeks.

As I listened to all this chaotic chatter, I fully examined the construction of, and the hardware of this incredible guitar. I really loved the smaller, shortened tremolo bar, as I could snag it easily with my right pinkie while using a pic or my fingers on the strings. I knew I’d have some work to do to get use to this guitar’s five-way pickup system.

I was oblivious to my surroundings and didn’t notice that Sammy and Cano had set out a new Fender ‘80 Proof Blues Junior’ amplifier beside the recliner. When Cano reached down to plug in the wireless power supply and transmitter, I turned and gave her a small kiss on her cheek. She smiled at me and simply said, “Merry Christmas, Cuda.”

With this axe powered up and ready to sing, a quick run of the pic across its six strings let everyone know that their harried discussions were over for the time being. Everyone moved back to their prior seating locations with Tempe and Lisa sitting on the recliner’s arms instead of in my lap. I didn’t have anything planned for playing, so I just basically jammed and tested out the sound on this awesome guitar.

As I was missing around with the various pickup settings, Eda started to gently rap the hardwood floor and various present boxes with her new drumsticks. I smiled over at her as she did her best to add a solid beat to the various sounds I was putting out with my new present. After a few minutes of trying to recreate Eddie Van Halen’s Eruption solo finger-tapping sounds, I stopped playing and asked E to toss me one of her drumsticks. With a confused look on her face, our drummer did as I asked.

“What ‘cha gonna do with the lumber, Cuda?” Brad asked as I flipped the drumstick around in my right hand. As I did this, I inwardly debated which end of the drumstick to use at the moment.

Without answering my friend’s question, I gently rapped the oaken tip of the stick against the bottom E, then the A and D strings. The sound generated was definitely unique with a tangy-wow quality. Sammy’s eyes were nearly bugging out of their sockets as I continued tapping the strings with Eda’s drumstick. My new ‘Cuda Fender growled when I used the rounded shaft of the stick to rub across the six-strings.

“Work it, Mike!” Andrew hollered as most of my friends were mesmerized at the sounds I was able to generate with this guitar and Eda’s drumstick.

I restarted the stick-tapping sequence and interspersed a few strums and flat-stick rubs to create a knurly sounding two minute sequence. My friends were clapping out a beat as I worked to increase the high-pitch sounds of the tapping. With the tapping and my left-fingering almost on top of each other to create a high growl, I tossed the drumstick back to E and broke into a bluesy guitar riff to The Guess Who’s American Woman song.

(Author’s note: The inspiration for this drumstick guitar tapping came to me when I saw Randy Bachman do his drum-stick guitar solo, while opening up for Lynyrd Skynyrd in March, 2019 at London’s Bud Gardens or the former John Labatt Center from this story. Similar to this story line, Bachman’s amazing performance lead into his band playing The Guess Who’s American Woman to end their fifty minute opening act. American Woman, written by Burton Cummings, Randy Bachman, Jim Kale and Garry Peterson was the first number one hit song on the US’s Hot100 Billboard chart by any Canadian band.)

I played that blues oriented riff for about three minutes, and then sang the opening,

“Say A, Say M, Say E, Say R, Say I, Say C, Say A, Say N, Yeah-yeah! American Woman, she gonna mess your mind. American Woman, yes, she’s gonna mess your mind. Oh! American Woman, is definitely gonna mess with your ... mind.“ I easily went into my falsetto voice on the ending ‘mind’ lyric to spice up that concluding sound.

After that short lyrical intro, I tore into the well-known guitar opening to this superb song. Everyone there yelled out encouragement as I picked out Randy Bachman’s riff on my new Christmas present. When it came to the point where the vocals should have started, I stopped and winked at Sammy.

“What? No! You’re not seriously wantin’ me to sing that, are you, Cuda?” Sammy hotly asked after a couple seconds of silence in the living room.

My only response was to repeat the opening guitar riff with a huge smile on my face. As I was doing this intro, Sammy madly started to recruit the other girls and few guys like Wayne and Andrew to help her sing this song. Eda once more used her new drumsticks to create a smooth ‘Christmas-box-beat’ to go along with my guitar playing. Sammy, with Lynette, Lisa, E, Jennifer, Kalena, Wayne and Andrew as backups, did a masterful vocal job on this Guess Who classic.

“Once more guys, that was just awesome!” Elizabeth said as the singers all high-fived or shared hugs with each other.

“You’re gonna pay for that, Cuda,” Sammy said with her fist raised up in false bravado before she stepped over to me and gave me a hug and kiss on the cheek.

After my girls came to give me a hug and kiss, Shannon said, “I think it’s time we hit the pool and hot-tub, don’t you?”

“Sounds like a plan, Girlfriend,” Andi said as she reached down to pull Jon up from the sofa.

Everyone grabbed another drink from the fridge or cooler, and then went to various rooms to get into their swimsuits. I must admit that seeing my five girlfriends changing into their bikinis in Shannon’s bedroom put a charge into my system. When Tempe saw my expanding manhood as she adjusted her top, she sultrily said, “I’d be happy to help you with that, uh, less than little problem, Cuda.”

“I thought we said that nothing was gonna get started over here, today,” Lynette laughed from the other side of Shannon’s queen-sized bed.

“Yes, is not fair that you are only one of us not with period issues, now,” Zupena moaned towards a grinning Tempe.

“Yeah, we better not get started here or the others will be mad at us for not being at the pool within a reasonable length of time,” Shannon added.

“But that’s just a waste,” Lisa countered as she reached to the front of my blue swimming trunks and gave my tented crouch a squeeze. “Besides you all know that we’re at our horniness when ‘Carrie’ is around.”

“Hey, now! I was told I couldn’t be squeezing on you gals, so no coppin’ feels,” I said as I tried to swat Brick’s sneaky hand.

“You guys are no fun,” Tempe whined. She let out a small, ‘yipped’ sound when Zupena surprised her with a medium force swat to her bikini covered bum. “Zupi!” she cried and faked like she was mortally wounded by collapsing onto Shannon’s bed.

“I kiss bum to make it better, ‘kay?” Zupena laughed. She then leaned down and planted a buzzing kiss on the bare skin of Tempe’s exposed butt cheek, which caused her to squeal in shock.

“C’mon, let’s go before we get further and further into this mess, literally,” Lynette laughed as she moved to the bedroom door.

“We’ll pick up on those butt kisses later, Zupi,” Lisa laughed as she pulled Tempe’s petite body up from Shannon’s bed.

Everyone has having a great time in Shannon’s pool or hot-tub. I spent most of my time in the hot-tub or sitting on the edge of the pool as my friends got into a game of Marco-Polo. Even though everyone agreed to behave in the pool, all it took was a game of ‘chicken’ for things to get a slightly out of hand. With Elizabeth on Brad’s shoulders, she was in a battle with Tracy and Ian. With both Brad and Liz being the bigger, stronger pairing, Tracy soon lost her balance and reached out to grab whatever she could to prevent herself from getting dunked. In a flash, Liz’s royal blue bikini top was yanked from her body and her lovely pierced nipples and firm breasts were out for all to see.

“Ohhhh, Lizzie has got some new jewelry!” Heidi exclaimed from her perch on Andrew’s shoulders.

“Tracy! Give me my top back, you wench!” Liz squealed as she dove after her waterlogged best friend.

“Nah-huh!” Tracy hollered as she tossed Liz’s bikini top across the pool towards the hot-tub.

In a flash, Liz tore off Tracy’s fire-engine red bikini top and sent it flying towards the deep end of the swimming pool. That was all the incentive it took for the Lunby twins to get involved in some shenanigans. Both Andi’s and Jennifer’s tube-tops were pulled down and off from their boobs before they could splash down in the water from a-top their boyfriend’s shoulders. In short order, all fourteen girls were bare-breasted in the pool or hot-tub. Thankfully, a quick agreement was reached that everyone’s bottoms or trunks were to stay on during our pool time.

“Be gentle with them, Cuda,” Lynette whispered in my ear as she sat in my lap in the hot-tub. “They’re kinda sore at this time of the month.”

“Sorry, Cano,” I replied with my right hand gently caressing her left breast just under the water level.

“It’s okay. That feels good but my girls are just...”

“My boobs are sore, too, but this hot water is helping with that,” Shannon added from her spot just to our right.

“I’ll kiss them to make them feel better,” Tempe chuckled from across the hot-tub.

“My boobs don’t get sore, but they do get a tad bigger during this time of the month,” Brick added as she hefted her double-Ds up above the water line.

“Like your boobs need to get bigger, Bricky!” Cano laughed and gave the youngest girl in the hot-tub a wink.

“Well, I’m sure not asking for them to get any bigger!” Lisa countered as Tempe pulled her back against her chest.

“You can share some of your boobs with me, Brick,” Andi said as she and Jon walked over to the hot-tub from the pool. Andi then looked up in Jon’s face, and when he didn’t say anything in response to her comment, she gave him a soft elbow in the stomach.

“What the hell did I do?” Jon groaned as Andi glared at him.

I just laughed at my friend’s dumbfounded looks and said, “I think your proper response SHOULD have been, ‘Your small boobs are just perfect, Sweetie.’”

“Yes! Thank you, Cuda,” Andi huffed as she quickly lifted her legs over the hot-tub’s edge and sat down in the deep corner seat.

Jon slowly made his way into the hot-tub and pulled Andi up before the two of them sat in the corner spot. With my girls all staring at him and Andi, Jon said, “I’m always telling her that she has a killer little body, don’t I, Andi?”

“But with Bricky’s or Heidi’s large boobs bouncing around for all the world to see, a girl still wants to hear reassuring words from her boyfriend, doesn’t she, Cuda?” Tempe replied with a wink.

Before I could respond, Zupena added, “I love to hear Mikhail say I have perfect little titties. I wish for bigger but I good with what God gave me.” My tallest girlfriend then leaned over and gave me a kiss on my sweaty cheek.

“Jon-Jon often tells me I have a sweet little package,” Andi softly said as she turned and planted a hot kiss on her boyfriend’s lips.

Thankfully, the girl with the biggest boobs changed the topic of discussion as Lisa asked, “Are you guys coming to our midnight mass, tonight? You’re more than welcome to come.”

“If you are, you best think about getting there by eleven-thirty, eleven-forty at the latest,” I added to Lisa’s inquiry.

“We were planning on going to midnight at St. Pat’s, but if Momma doesn’t mind, I’ll see if we can go to St. Andrew’s with you guys,” Elizabeth said as she and Brad dried off between the pool and hot-tub.

“I haven’t been to a Catholic mass, before,” Heidi replied as she towel dried her blonde hair.

“You’ll like it, Heidi ... other than all the stand-up, sit-down, kneeling actions that take place,” Sammy added while doing those modified actions that take place in our mass.

“Are you guys gonna sing, tonight?” Tina asked from the shallow end of Shannon’s pool.

“We’ll probably sing the songs we did at Sammy’s church, yesterday,” Eda replied.

“I know Father LeBeouf wants us to sing a few songs,” Lisa added to her sister’s words.

“Please don’t make us get up there and sing with you, guys,” Tempe asked towards me with her best puppy dog eyes, which was very cute with all the sweat dripping off her nose and chin.

“We won’t. If anyone wants to come up and sing with us, that will be great,” Cano replied and then pushed herself up from my lap to start the mass exodus from the hot-tub.

St. Andrew’s Catholic Church, London, Ontario

1:21am, Tuesday, December 25, 1979

“I want to thank you kids for agreeing to come and sit up in the corner of the stage, tonight. That opened up a good forty seats in the pews,” Father LeBeouf said to me and our large group of friends.

“I can’t believe there were that many people here, tonight,” Eda replied with a smile to our pastor.

“As usual, you guys did an awesome job singing for us. I just loved, Mary Did You Know. I had honestly never heard that song before,” Father LeBeouf said as he gave Lynette and Sammy, the two lead singers on that song, a big hug.