Chapter 172

“People who go around advertising their birthday are douchebags.”{br}—Katja Millay, The Sea of Tranquility

Cindy and I went with Joan and Beca to Joan’s mother’s house Saturday morning so we could rehearse. This wasn’t a live stream, so we didn’t have to worry about what time of day we were recording. Everyone was coming over at one for our session and we wanted to make sure we were ready. One of the things that eased the pressure on us a little was that the program included fifteen short dances by Schubert and the program was less than eleven minutes long. If we messed up a piece, we could restart and just switch camera angles for the new take. None of the pieces was a full minute long.

Joan and Beca were busy helping Sharon get snacks ready for the afternoon. Our whole pod would be present as well as my parents, Cindy’s parents and brothers, Rachel’s parents and brother, Livy’s parents, Sharon and her boyfriend. We wanted to make sure the parents of our service members got to be at the session with their daughters. A total of twenty-six people with two camera operators.

I was once again in a position where I was mostly an accompanist for Cindy. She was the featured artist. I got to use my guitar, though, and that made the recording more important to me. It seemed that I was spending all my time on the viola da gamba or the mandolin lately and I loved this old guitar. It just came to life in my hands.

The camera operators got there at noon and we ran through the whole program twice with them. Then the rest of our pod and parents showed up. Donna once again did the honors of introducing us and telling everyone how it would work. None of that would make it on the tape. There would be a little silence at the beginning while titles ran. Cindy and I would enter and take our places. There would be an obligatory round of applause and we’d start playing.

We didn’t start and stop on the first take. We played straight through the eleven minutes of music, there was applause, we bowed, and left. Then we did a working run through. We played each piece separately as the cameras picked up different angles, including pictures of our families and pod mates. The whole recording took about an hour and we were finished by two.

I expected that after we were finished, there would be a few minutes of parents hugging us and their children followed by a general exodus, leaving our pod in the familiar setting of Joan’s TV room for the afternoon. But no one seemed to be moving toward the doors. I put away my guitar and turned to Mom and Dad just in time for them to start singing Happy Birthday. Sharon walked into the room with a cake lit with candles. Joan and Beca followed with dishes, serving implements, and drinks. They had arranged a hard top and table cloth for the pool table and served everything there. I was ushered to the flaming cake and did my best to blow out the candles, wishing that my pod would always be together. They finally all went out.

“But my birthday isn’t until tomorrow!” I said. “I’m still a juvenile today.”

“We figured that since the government chose today, we could, too,” Mom said.

“What?”

She held out an envelope with the readily identifiable symbol of the National Service. Well, now we know what happens if your eighteenth birthday falls on a no mail delivery day. They get the letter to you the day before. By this time, we all knew what was in the letter so I just stuck it in my pocket. I wasn’t going to make a show of burning it like Joan did. I had to reflect on how much less stress I was under about the service than Joan or Emily had been. Or, for that matter, Livy and Rachel. Which reminded me…

“Livy,” I said when people had settled down with their cake and ice cream, “you haven’t told us yet where you are being stationed. Did you get good news?”

“Oh, yeah,” Livy said. “There’s a little town in southwestern Virginia called Blacksburg. I’ll be joining an elite cadre of runners. It’s one of three bases in the US that are devoted to track and cross country. I’ll have to compete with the top athletes in service for a spot on the international team, but it’s possible that by June, I’ll have qualified for the IAAF international track and field championships in Oregon.”

“That’s great!” I said.

“Wait!” Rachel jumped in. “Where is this?”

“Blacksburg, Virginia.”

“But Washington, DC. I’m likely to stay in Arlington. I’ll be in Virginia, too. Maybe all of us!”

“It’s 270 miles, but it’s not like we won’t be able to get weekends or breaks together. It’s only five hours,” Livy laughed, hugging Rachel to her.

“That’s only an hour farther than Chicago to here,” Joan said. “Um… does it strike anyone as odd that two active service members will be stationed within range of DC? I don’t count because my service ends before any of the rest of you start. It seems like someone is pulling strings to make sure you all get to the National School.”

“Remas?” I said. “Do you know anything about this?”

“Just speculation based on what I hear,” she said. “There are members of the commission located all over the country. Quite a lot of prestige is involved in serving on the commission. Out of over fifty members, only four are currently serving in congress. And there are only four governors. Others on the commission include business executives, religious leaders, civic leaders, and even representatives from the five military service academies. Pretty much all of the commissioners have selected an expert witness to represent issues that commissioner considers important. Jacob got adopted by Dr. D and she got a huge boost to her prestige and importance on the commission when the president quoted your memes. It wouldn’t surprise me to find that she is doing everything in her power to lock you into coming to DC.”

“Well, since she’s supporting the things you see as important, and since you have to do National Service regardless, I’d say you’re getting a good deal from her sponsorship. And DC isn’t so far that we can’t come to visit occasionally. It’s a little over 200 miles closer than Salina, Kansas was,” Dad said. He was standing aside with Mark Marvel. I wondered what else they’d been talking about.

“You should probably be aware that sides are being drawn in congress. A lot of senators and representatives were offended by the president’s characterization that they were too busy arguing about salary increases to deal with the issues facing the country. Several have banded together to oppose any reform movement for the National Service.”

“Hmm. I think I see some possibilities here. Isn’t next year a midterm election year? That would mean 465 seats in congress and 33 seats in the senate will be up for election,” I said. “Doesn’t seem right that anyone who opposes National Service reform should get elected.”

“You could be walking on thin ice if you make a direct attack before you are in service,” Livy’s dad, Randall, said. “You could face retribution if the reform fails.”

“I think we’ll need another consultation with your father, Joan,” I said.

Eventually, the parental units left, including Sharon and her boyfriend. We were down to the thirteen in our pod. Or the twelve plus Remas. She was doing her best to fit in but we hadn’t all agreed to anything other than she was our coordinator with the National School, played cello with us when we needed her, was doing our arranging, and had sex with nearly everyone in the pod, including Cindy. What else was needed? I had a reluctance to include her explicitly in our number because I didn’t really know what it was like to live with her.

I was about to go talk to her about our next steps for selecting music and getting started when Livy paced across the room to stand in front of her. I did say had sex with nearly everyone in the pod. Livy had just gotten in last night and it was her first meeting with Remas. For that matter, it was Joan’s first meeting, as well. Now there was a trio I’d like to watch. It didn’t look like that was going to shape up today, though. Rachel had picked up her car for the weekend and was jingling her keys by the door. Livy and Remas walked hand-in-hand to Rachel and left.

“Hold me and kiss me, love,” Donna said as she settled in my lap. “We haven’t had nearly enough loving together lately. I don’t want to just be your producer.”

“Mmm. I agree completely,” I said. “I wanted you to be in our pod because I wanted to make love to you. Do you still want me now that I’ve reached my majority?”

“Oh, my. I’ll have to consider that. Fortunately, your birthday isn’t until tomorrow, so today I could still have my way with a minor.” She kissed me and I stroked her breast, delighting in the softness and in her response. I’m a little crazy about my lovers’ breasts. I especially like them when they aren’t encased in the armor of a bra. On weekends, my girlfriends tended to go braless unless they really needed a bra for support or decency. And even then, the bra often came off at the first opportunity. I could feel the point of Donna’s nipple through her T-shirt and wondered when she’d lost her bra. I was almost certain she wore one when she did our introduction.

“Why don’t we go to your place and get more comfortable?” I suggested.

“I hope you know by now that it’s our place,” she whispered as she nibbled on my earlobe.

“Then why don’t we go home and make love,” I said.

“Wonderful idea.” We stood and headed toward the door.

“Can I catch a ride with you?” Cindy asked. “I don’t think Beca and Joan are coming home this evening. I’m not sure what Nan, Sophie, Desi, Brittany, or Emily are doing.” We left and when we got to the truck, Cindy automatically started to crawl in before Donna. Donna caught her by the waist of her pants and pulled her back down.

“I get the middle, today,” Donna said. “You can ride shotgun.”

“I didn’t mean to get between you,” Cindy said. “It was just kind of automatic.”

“Oh, Jacob and I would love to have you between us. Sometime.” I started the truck and we headed for the farm. “Today, I need some loving from our man. Now, if you want to join us, you are welcome. You just need to remember that when Jacob’s penis is hard, it is going to be plunging in and out of my vagina. A lot. But I certainly don’t mind munching on a tasty girl’s clit while Jacob is filling my needs.”