Chapter 75: The City Of New Orleans

June 21, 1981

I awoke with blonde hair in my face. And a face very close to mine, turned up, eyes closed. So adorable.

But I had to pee. So, I disentangled myself with a sigh. Prompting an “isitmorningyet?” from the blond angel.

“It’s morning yet, little sis. But not late enough you have to get up. I did, though. Nature calls.”

“Well, hurry, because she’s calling me, too!”

I hurried. Angie went in the moment I got done.

“I think I need a shower.”

“Yeah, me too, big brother. Is sharing behaving?”

“Um ... if we behave, it’s behaving. I think. It’s not like we’ve never done that at the pool house.”

“True. And we’re very well behaved there.”

“With each other. I’m not sure Mom would count Candice, or Nancy, or Dan, or Gene as behaving.”

“And not Mel and Cammie.”

“Definitely not.”

“She’s a party pooper.”

“In this case, I agree.”

Angie peeled off her bra and panties. “C’mon. Shower.”

We behaved. No washing each other’s more sensitive bits. Nor any excessive show and tell.

My cock was behaving itself, which was a minor surprise. We both knew she could get me ragingly hard in seconds, but since she wasn’t, it’d landed on the side of ‘sister’ more than ‘sexy blonde angel’. Even with the rather blurry lines involved in our understanding of, well, both.

This bode well for my survival against the evil scourge of blue balls.

We got dried off, dressed, and repacked, then unlocked the security locks and waited.

About twenty minutes later, the expected knock came. Mom. “Hey! Are you kids up?”

Angie opened the door. “Hi Mom! Yes, we’re up. And hungry!”

Mom checked out the beds. I’m sure that she knew which one we’d slept in and which one we’d artfully messed up. But she seemed happy. I’m guessing the Mom-radar was showing ‘behaving’. And I didn’t read surprise. Pleasure, yes, but not surprise.

“Sam and I have our eye on another place down the street. Shall we?”

“Sounds great!” “I agree!”

When we got to the restaurant, Angie and I made an announcement.

“Happy Father’s Day, Dad!”

We both hugged him and produced cards we’d brought from home. The waitress loved the sentiment and set about to spoil him. He, of course, flirted with her — harmlessly — as he did with nearly every waitress he came across. Mom seemed to enjoy it, so no harm done.

Breakfast was delicious. The company was even better.

We rounded up the bags, checked out, and took a taxi downtown. Stashing the bags in a locker at the station, we took the streetcar over to the French Quarter.

Angie and Mom wanted to look at absolutely everything, from the outsides of the bars and the menus at the restaurants to the antique stores and a few souvenir shops. Dad and I enjoyed those, too. And enjoyed watching the two ladies being so happy. We didn’t talk a lot; we didn’t have to. We wound up with a t-shirt each. Angie and I got keychains, perhaps for our cars, perhaps just to keep.

We opted for a place with lots of fried seafood for lunch. Closer to Mom and Dad’s regular sensibilities, but we still found a few new things. After lunch, we strolled most of the way back to the station to work off lunch and see more of town. We only used the streetcar for a bit of the journey.

At the station, we retrieved our bags and boarded The City Of New Orleans. The song was running through my mind, of course. Angie and I found our roomette and stashed our bags, then met Mom and Dad in their room.

“We’re going to stay here and watch for a while. How about we meet in the dining car in a couple hours?”

“That sounds good, Dad. We’ll go explore.”

“You kids have fun!”

“Thanks, Mom!”

We walked from end to end of the train, seeing what there was to see. Once we got there, we settled in the empty observation dome. A few others joined us and watched as we left the city. Angie’s hand found mine, and she snuggled in a little.

“This is nice, big brother.”

“Very.”

She looked up at me and grinned a bit. “You know they’re probably ... not behaving.”

“Huh?” I looked at her.

“I’ve been watching. If we were at home, I think I’d be retreating to your room to avoid sounds through my wall.”

“I ... am not sure I needed to know that.”

She laughed. “Don’t think about the details. Just think happy thoughts that they’re in love and enjoying themselves. Mom just loved today. Dad just loved that Mom loved it. I’ve been thinking about what you said last night. I don’t think it’s so much that we stopped, it’s that Dad’s planned this to be leisurely and not just be about getting to the next place.”

“That makes sense. I’ve never had a trip like that. I mean, I don’t remember feeling rushed, but, yeah, we stopped at the big places for us. Not the places in between.”

“So, what’s the next surprise?”

“I dunno. Any guesses?”

She shook her head. “Nah. And I’m OK with that. We’ll just see what happens. I have an idea, though. Well, not a new one.”

“What’s that, sis?”

“I think that, when we meet Mom and Dad for dinner, we propose they enjoy a dinner by themselves, and either sit where they can’t see us or just get something from the club car.”

“I like that,” I said, smiling. “We’re going to be inseparable for meals most of this trip. They should get a few chances to do something special. I was never good at separating from them when I was younger and cost them a lot of those rare private times.”

We put the plan into effect, heading down to the dining car a bit before we expected them. The car was perfect for our needs. Most of the seating was together on one side of the kitchen, but there was a small lounge area on the other side. We asked a waiter who assured us they’d serve us over there. When we told him why, he grinned. “Well, isn’t that thoughtful!”

We saw them coming down the aisle and met them with hugs.

“How’d you kids enjoy your afternoon?” Mom asked. Now that Angie had clued me in, I thought I could see it in Mom’s face. Just a little extra glow. She was right — don’t dwell on the details, just be happy that they’re happy.

“We had fun, Mom.”

“We sat up in the observation dome and watched, most of the time. It’s nice up there.”

“Maybe we’ll get up there. But it’ll be dark soon, and we should get some sleep, too.”

“So, Mom and Dad. Steve and I have a surprise for you.”

“Oh? What’s that, honey?”

“We know how much you like train travel. Especially Dad.”

Mom laughed. “Well, yes, but I like it, too.”

“When’s the last time you had a meal to yourselves on the train?”

They looked at each other. “Um... 1965?”

“We want you to have one tonight.”

“Really? But shouldn’t we eat as a family?”

“Mom, we’re going to be on top of each other for two weeks. Maybe you and Dad will get another meal or two apart from us, but, pretty much, we’re doing everything together. You and Dad should enjoy some time with each other. Steve and I will be fine and right over there.”

“Well ... it would be fun, wouldn’t it, Sam?”

“I think it’s very thoughtful of you, and yes, it would be fun!”

“Let’s go get seated!”

We found the waiter we’d already talked to. He ushered Mom and Dad to their booth and told us to take one on the other side. We settled in to enjoy our dinner. This was almost as special for Angie and me. We ate with each other all the time, of course — but seldom by ourselves in a place with table service.

Mom and Dad found us as we were dawdling over a shared piece of cheesecake. “Hi, kids!”

“Hi!”

“That was so nice!” Mom smiled, holding Dad’s hand. “Thank you for thinking of us.”

“Happy to!” Angie smiled back. “I’m glad you liked it.”

Dad cleared his throat. “So, about those little surprises on the trip...”

“Yes?” “What is it, Dad?”

“Tomorrow we’ll get to St. Louis around 8am. I know you’re used to sleeping late, but not tomorrow.”

“We’re getting off in St. Louis?” It startled me, and I’m sure I looked it.

“Well, I didn’t say that, Son,” Dad chuckled, “but yes. So have your bags ready.”

“We can do that!”

“Helen and I are going to go look around. Maybe watch the night a bit. You kids have fun!”

“You too!” “Love you!”

I turned to Angie. “Um ... well, there’s another new place for them.”

She shook her head. “New to me, too. I’ve never been there, either.”

“I wonder what they have planned.”

She shrugged. “We’ll find out. We should go, big brother. And avoid the observation car. Maybe make an early night of it.”

“I am kinda tired. We can sit in the room a bit and then get some sleep.”

Angie giggled, snuggled in close. “These beds really are tiny.”

“There’s another one,” I laughed, knowing what the reply would be.

“Yes, and if you think I’m going to be in a different bed from you during this trip, well, only kicking me out would make that happen!”

I laughed. “That was pretty clear. I’m not that much of an idiot!”

“So, tell me about St. Louis. You lived there.”

I shook my head. “That was the other me. I’ve never lived there. Visited, though, a bunch of times.”

“OK, so, still. Tell!”

“Not sure what to say. It’s a city, and a lot of suburbs. I doubt we’ll get out into the suburbs all that far, so, downtown. There’s the Arch, of course, and a baseball stadium. The usual city stuff. Good restaurants. I don’t know where the train goes. By the time I visited there much, they’d turned the old train station into a nice mall. But it might still be a station now.”

“Would we see the university? I mean, the one where your other self went?”

“Wash U? Nah. It’s out a ways from downtown. Unless they specifically planned to tour it, that won’t happen. And even with Dad’s focus on looking at colleges, I’ve never mentioned it in this reality. And it’s not really on my list this time, either. Anyway, we didn’t go tour Tulane or U.N.O., so I doubt it’s on the agenda. I’m guessing there’ll be a visit to Northwestern, though.”

“Bummer. It’d be cool to see where you spent a lot of time, even if it’s not you, you.”

“You realize that’s a bit freaky, right?”

She giggled. “The whole thing is a lot freaky. You realize we’re going to drive past a high school I attended for three years? Or, alternately, a couple months. Or, apparently, one year.”

“Yup. Freaky.”

“I remember two of those, too. Which is also freaky!”

“Hey, I remember four years at Memorial with no sister. I’ll always have those memories, I think. They feel almost like a dream, often, though.”

“Yeah. A lot of my memories feel like dreams. Bad dreams.”

I squeezed her a little, and she sighed. “We’re making new and better memories.”

“Yeah.”

“I’m tired.”

“Me, too.”

We rubbed noses. I stroked the bare skin of her back a bit under her t-shirt.

“Steve?”

“Yeah?”

“Not tonight, but, um ... will I be making you ... well, uncomfortable ... if I ditch the bra? Either nothing or maybe a camisole?”

“I think I can manage.”

“Good. I hate the damn things,” she giggled. “Need ‘em but hate ‘em. Sleeping in them sucks.”

“I’ve heard that. Never tried it. You might as well ditch it now.”

“Good!” She wriggled around and pulled her bra out of an armhole.

“Do what makes you comfortable, little sis. It’ll be fine. Yeah, it might produce a... reaction. But I can manage with that if it happens.”

She smirked. “OK. On the list of weird things, I hope it doesn’t. I don’t like you suffering, and I promised to not be too much help, but I also hope it does. I mean, I think they’re pretty good.”

“I think they’re very good. If I don’t react, it’s because I’ve kept my thoughts on the ‘coolest sister in the world’ side and not the ‘sexiest sister in the world’ side.”