Chapter 27: Can the Beat Go On?

Glacier National Park, Montana

August 14, 1998

There was no need for an alarm clock or a wakeup call when one had a Caydee. She routinely slept through the night now, generally going down around 8:30 PM and staying down, but she was still an early riser. This morning was no exception. Jake woke up to the sound of her enthusiastic chants coming from her room in the two-room suite they were staying in at the Many Glacier Lodge on the east side of the sprawling, mountainous Glacier Park.

“Do!” Caydee shouted out loudly, pronouncing it “doe”, as in a deer, a female deer. “Do, do, do, do, doooooooo!”

It was not really a word, as she was still a few months away from even being able to say mama or dada, but one of the notes in the major musical scale, the first one, in fact, which represented C. Jake was in the habit of singing her the lyrics to Do-Re-Mi, from the Sound of Music, as that song, aside from being quite catchy and easy to learn, was the easiest way to memorize that particular scale and commit it to memory for all time. Caydee loved hearing him sing it (he always did it A capella and separate from the guitar sing sessions), but so far she had only picked up on the first note. And she had adapted that as her note of all notes, sound of all sounds, word of all words. She used “do” for all manner of communication now. She shouted “DO!” when she was upset. She asked “do?” when she was curious. She cooed “do” when she was happy. And she shouted out do, do, do, do, doooooooo!” when she was awake and ready to leave her crib in the morning.

“It sounds like Princess Caydee is awake,” grunted Laura, who was curled up on Jake’s left, her nude body snuggled into him.

“Yep,” Jake said, looking at the clock on the wall. It was 6:37 AM. Right on schedule. “I’ll get her.”

“Thanks, sweetie,” she said, giving him a little kiss on the cheek.

He turned a little to his right, where Celia’s nude body was snuggled into him from that side. Her face was resting on his chest and there was a little puddle of her drool there. She was still sleeping quite soundly. He touched her back and shook her gently until her eyes fluttered open. She looked at him.

“Caydee’s up,” he told her. “I need to get out of bed.”

“Oh ... okay,” she said softly, rolling away from him. She then noticed the drool. “Ewww. I slobbered on you. That’s gross. I’m so sorry, Jake.”

Jake laughed. “Think nothing of it,” he said, sitting up. “I’m pretty much covered in your bodily fluids anyway. What’s a little saliva on the pectoral?”

“I suppose,” Celia said, though she was still visibly embarrassed by the unintentional faux pas.

Jake pulled himself out from under the covers and then shimmied forward, so he could put his feet on the floor. He, like the ladies, was completely naked. He rather reeked of their combined sexual musk. It was not exactly an unpleasant smell to his nose, however. He picked up a pair of sweatpants that was sitting on the dresser and pulled them on. He then went into the bathroom and washed his hands, his face (he did not want to kiss his daughter with the mouth that had been doing what his mouth had been doing last night), the drool off of his chest, and brushed his teeth really quick. Caydee’s “do, do, do’s” continued from the second bedroom, becoming a little louder and more insistent. Experience had taught her parents that they had about five minutes before she would start getting seriously pissed off and screaming for them.

Shirtless, but with his face and breath no longer smelling of vaginal secretions, he walked into the main room of the suite and then the smaller second room where Caydee’s travel crib had been set up. She was standing up in it, holding onto the rail to support herself. She still could not stand unassisted, let alone take a step that way, but she was getting closer to that particular milestone. She saw him come into the room and her eyes locked onto him.

“Do!” she barked. “Do, Do!”

Jake understood Caydee-speak quite well by this point in the relationship. The translation: “My diaper is dirty, Dad, so get it changed! On the fuckin’ double, please!”

“I hear you, little girl,” he told her, holding out his arms and picking her up. Even if he had not been able to understand her vocal communication, there was a distinct olfactory subtitle to help him along. “Whew. You are not smelling like a rose this morning, Caydee-girl.”

“Do!” she agreed, judiciously not mentioning that he was not smelling so great himself.

He put her down on a blanket on the bed. The hotel staff knew that Celia was staying in the suite with the Kingsleys but they were under the impression that this was Celia’s bed. She had not slept in it a single time, though they went to great effort to mess up the covers every morning and then rumple up the sheets so the maids would think she had been. In truth, the whole room was for Caydee and the bed was her changing table. When they left the room each day to go on their adventures, they always moved the crib back into the main bedroom.

He stripped her out of her onesie pajamas and then opened up her diaper. By this point, he was a veteran diaper changer and nothing that he saw in there crossed his eyes even a little. He expertly wiped most of the poop away with the front part of the diaper itself and then, holding her by her left thigh and elevating her little butt above the diaper, he wiped everything else away with a handful of disposable baby wipes, which he then tucked into the dirty diaper and folded up with it. He did a quick visual inspection for any signs of diaper rash—there were none, and there had been none for a few weeks now, thankfully—and then tucked a clean diaper up under her and plopped her butt back down on it. He folded the front up, adjusted it a bit, and then secured the diaper using the little plastic sticky tabs. He then wiped his hands using another of the wipes and tossed it and the dirty diaper in the garbage can. He kept one hand on her chest as he looked in her clothing suitcase for something to wear (she was a crawler now and could take off like a shot when the mood struck her). He pulled out a little pair of denim jeans with an elastic waistband and a pullover short-sleeved shirt that had a picture of an electric guitar on it and had the motto: I LOVE TO ROCK!. He put her legs in the jeans and then stood her up, her arms around his neck, so he could pull them around her waist. He then sat her back on her butt and told her “arms up.” She lifted her arms in the air. He pulled the shirt on her and then laid her back down and put a pair of socks on her. She fought this a little bit—she did not really like wearing socks—but finally gave in.

“All right, little girl,” he said. “You ready to face the day here?”

“Do!” she told him happily. “Do, do, doooo, do do!”

“Understood,” Jake said. “You’re hungry. So am I. I worked up an appetite last night, truth be told. Breakfast will be served shortly. And today’s a travel day, so you’ll get lots of sleep.”

“Do!” she said agreeably.

He carried her back into the living room and set her on one of the couches. He then opened her bag that was sitting on the table and quickly mixed up a bottle of powdered formula and bottled water. He shook the concoction until all the powder was dissolved and then handed it over to Caydee. She no longer cared if her formula was room temperature or not. She grabbed it eagerly and stuck the nipple in her mouth and starting sucking on it, making little coos of contentment.

Jake walked over to the blinds (keeping a close eye on Caydee and ready to dive toward her if she looked like she was going to start mobilizing and possibly fall off the couch) so he could open them. The view out their window was nothing short of spectacular. Their suite looked out over Swiftcurrent Lake and several peaks of the Rocky Mountains rose just on the other side of it. The alpine lake was sparkling blue and the rising sun was shining brightly off the glaciers and granite rock of the mountains. Jake believed Glacier Park to be one of the most beautiful places he had ever gazed upon, even better than Yosemite.

He walked back to the couch and sat next to his daughter, stroking and playing with her foot while she drank her first bottle of the day. She took the bottle away every now and then to smile at him and to gaze at him with that look of love and contentment that always made his heart feel warm. And then she went back to drinking and kicking his thigh with her other foot.

He sat there with her for the better part of thirty minutes. She drank down the entire bottle in about fifteen minutes. She then gave him a resounding burp while he patted her back. He then put her on the floor, where her play blanket and toys were located. She played a little bit and then assumed the crawling position and headed off to explore. Jake watched her carefully as she went from place to place, making sure she did not get into any trouble like playing with electric outlets or pulling over end tables or tugging on cords.

Celia emerged from the room. She was freshly showered and dressed in a pair of khaki shorts and a spaghetti strap top. Her hair was damp and loose. She was barefoot. She looked at Caydee playing on the floor near the television counter and she smiled down at her. Caydee looked up at her, gave her a little “Do” of greeting, and then went back to her exploration.

“Good morning,” Celia greeted, walking over and sitting on the couch next to him.

“Good morning,” he returned.

She leaned over and gave him a kiss on the mouth. It was not a kiss of passion, but one of affection and love. He returned it without even pondering the fact that most of society would think the gesture quite strange.

“Ready to go back to reality today?” he asked her.

She sighed. “I suppose it’s time,” she said. “First show tomorrow night. After that, the grind.”

“The grind,” he said, although, in truth, he wished that he could be the one going out on the road. He was, at heart, a traveling musician, and, except for a few brief travels with Bobby Z and Bigg G here and there, he had not been immersed in a tour since the Intemperance days more than eight years ago now.

God, he thought nostalgically, has it really been that long?

“Is Laura in the shower yet?” he asked Celia.

“She just stepped in when I left the room,” she replied.

“Maybe I’ll go look at her all naked and soapy for a bit,” he said. “Can you keep an eyeball on Caydee?”

“You know it,” she said with a smile.

He got up and went back to the master bedroom. Inside the bathroom Laura was indeed naked and soapy in the shower stall. He took a good, long, appreciative look at her (she could not see him because she was washing her hair currently) and then went back to his suitcase and pulled out a pair of underwear, a pair of shorts, and one of his tank tops. He carried them into the bathroom and then ran some hot water in the sink so he could shave. While the sink filled, he splashed some of it on his face and then picked up the pink can of Skintimate shaving cream. It had a picture of a woman’s leg on it and was designed and marketed for use by women on all of their delicate places that needed hair maintenance. The sexy, naked leg was all the marketing people dared display on the label. They could not really put a picture of a vagina there, which was a pity because it would probably sell a lot more cans if they did. Jake had accidentally discovered a few months before, when he had run out of his own supply and had to use Laura’s, that female shaving cream was actually far superior to shaving cream that was marketed to males. It had oils in it that made it smell good and that made the skin nice and smooth and moist and prevented chafing and rashes. He had been using the stuff exclusively ever since.

He slathered up and then began to scrape the stubble off his neck and cheeks. He was about halfway done when the shower turned off and Laura stepped out and began to dry herself with a fluffy white hotel towel. “You’d better leave some of that stuff for me,” she warned.

“There’s still half a can,” he told her. “Just don’t ever tell anyone I use this shit. That would be almost as damaging to my image as riding in your minivan.”

She giggled. “The Watcher would do an entire twenty-thousand-word article on it,” she said. “Complete with pictures.”

“That’s no fuckin’ joke,” Jake said seriously.

Laura put on her panties and a white bra. She then began to comb out her red hair and hit it with the blow dryer. Jake finished up his shave and then headed for the shower. He adjusted it to moderate warmth and then spent about ten minutes washing all the female scent and sex secretions from his body using a washcloth and body wash supplied by the hotel. He then washed his hair and rinsed. He did not repeat. By the time he was done showering, Laura was dressed in a pair of denim shorts and a green sleeveless blouse. Her hair was mostly dry and she kept it down.

“How do I look?” she asked him.

“Beautiful, as always,” he told her, earning himself a smile and a kiss that had a little bit of tongue in it.

“Did Caydee drink her bottle?” she asked.

“Drank it all gone,” he said. “She was making the rounds of the living room when I left.”

“She does love to motor.”

“Let her motor away. We got a long drive in front of us.”

“Hopefully she’ll sleep most of the way.”

“Hopefully,” Jake agreed.

While Jake put on his deodorant and then his clothes, Laura left the room, gave her daughter a quick hug and kiss, and then went into the secondary room to perform the ritual of mussing up the bed. She then folded up the crib and gathered all the baby supplies. She hauled them into the living room but left them there this time instead of setting everything up in the main bedroom. They were checking out today so there was no point.

Jake emerged and everyone went downstairs to the dining room, Jake carrying Caydee in his arms, Laura carrying the diaper bag. The dining room was moderately busy and a good portion of the guests there stared at the four of them as they were seated at one of the tables near the picture window that looked out over the lake. Most of the looks were simple curiosity at seeing actual celebrities in their midst, but a few were disapproving. There were whispered words, most of which they could not hear. This was fairly typical and all of them, even Caydee, were used to it and ignored it.

Laura and Celia both had the eggs benedict with a bloody Mary accompanying. Jake ordered a southwest scramble and orange juice. He gave a healthy portion of the egg and vegetable parts of his scramble to Caydee, putting it on a little plate on the high chair tray. She picked up pieces and put them in her mouth, usually saying “do” after each bite. She was getting a lot better at putting the food entirely in her mouth instead of wearing half of it, so all she required was a quick wipe-down with a baby wipe when she was done.

After Jake signed for the meal and added a generous tip—the waitress had been polite, efficient, and had not handed Laura a WEAVE card or accused him of Satanism, so she was suitably rewarded—they went back upstairs and packed up all of their things. They stacked them in the middle of the room for easy collection.

“This has been a great vacation, guys,” Celia said with a smile. “Thanks for bringing me along with you.”

“It was our pleasure,” Jake said. He gave a lecherous grin. “Literally.”

Celia chuckled. “That part was fun too,” she said, “but I was talking about the hiking, and the canoeing, and the helicopter ride we took. I can’t wait to see all the pictures I took! This place is so beautiful. I want to see it in the winter sometime. Do you think we can do that?”

“Sure, why not?” Jake asked.

“Sounds fun to me,” Laura said. “We never did get to go snowmobiling.”

“And we have to go to Venezuela again,” Celia said. “After the tour, we need to book a trip. We could visit my family and then fly south to Canaima National Park! That’s where Angel Falls is. The highest waterfall in the world. I’ve heard it is so beautiful there but I never got to visit. The only real way to get there is by air, which we couldn’t afford when I was a kid, but you have your own plane, Jake! Does this sound like something we can do?”

Jake and Laura looked at each other for a moment and then back at Celia. “Uh ... sure, we can do that,” he said. “Make a couple hops to Miami and then bounce over to Caracas and then Barquisimeto.” He smiled. “Yeah. That sounds like a lot of fun.”

“It really does,” said Laura, catching some of the enthusiasm. “I always did want to see more of South America.”

Celia smiled. “Let’s start thinking about it then,” she said. “After the tour, I want us to do this.”

“Then we’ll do it,” Laura said. She walked over to Celia and gave her a big hug. And then she kissed her softly on the mouth. “I love you, C,” she told her.

“I know,” Celia said, smiling back at her. “And I love you too, Teach.”

The Many Glacier Lodge was on the east side of the park and the Avanti was parked in a hangar at Glacier Park International Airport, thirty miles west of the park. The distance between the two places was only about sixty miles by air, but they were not traveling by air, they were traveling in a rented Toyota 4-Runner and, not only did they have to cross several high mountain passes, there really was no direct route from one point to the other. They had to exit out of the park to the east, drive for more than forty miles through the Blackfeet Indian Reservation, and then re-enter the park at the main east-side entrance. From there, they took the Road to the Sun up over the mountains and past the glaciers, seeing spectacular scenery during the trip, before finally coming down to the west entrance of the park and then driving another thirty-five miles to Kalispell. In all, the trip took three and a half hours. None of them minded, not even Caydee. They stopped frequently at the scenic overlooks so she could stretch her legs, crawl around a bit, and get her diapers changed. Celia took lots of pictures.

Jake parked at the rented hangar and they loaded all their baggage and belongings into the Avanti. The portable crib was a particular pain in the ass as it would not fit into the cargo hold and had to be strapped to the rear seat using bungie cords. Once everything was secure, Jake began his preflight of the aircraft while Laura returned the 4-Runner and Celia let Caydee sit on the wing of the plane while she kept her hands on her. Caydee thought this was a particularly cool thing to do, but expressed discontent that she was not allowed to actually crawl around on the wing.

They went wheels-up from Kalispell at 12:45 and headed west for Seattle. Laura and Caydee, who were sitting in the seats behind the cockpit, both fell asleep shortly after they passed ten thousand feet. This was pretty typical for both of them. Jake brought them up to his assigned altitude of thirty-two thousand feet and he and Celia watched some more spectacular scenery as they passed over Lake Pend Oreille and then the Columba River basin of eastern Washington on a nearly cloudless summer day. They saw the Grand Coulee Dam far below, large enough that it could be plainly seen even at this altitude. They then bumped and bounced over the Cascades before entering the landing pattern for Boeing Field one hour and twenty-two minutes after liftoff. When Jake lowered the flaps to slow down for the landing, Laura and Caydee both woke up.

“You two definitely have the same DNA,” Jake remarked, violating the sterile cockpit rule, but it was a minor violation.

“Just wait until she’s a teenager and we have our periods at the same time every month,” Laura told him.

“That’s something to look forward to,” Celia said with a chuckle.

After landing, Jake parked the Avanti in the general aviation parking area. He did not rent a hangar. He and Laura and Caydee would be leaving for home in the morning. Jake and Celia tied down the plane while Laura and Caydee went into the terminal to score a rental car. She returned with a Ford Explorer. They loaded all of Celia’s belongings, Caydee’s car seat, bags, and portable crib, and Jake and Laura’s suitcase into the back. Everything else, they left in the plane.

Boeing Field was reasonably close to downtown Seattle so the trip only took about fifteen minutes. They arrived at the Sheraton Hotel on the waterfront—the same hotel the rest of Celia’s band would be checking into the next day—and Celia checked into her reserved suite there even though it was well before four o’clock and a day early. The celebrity card did have its uses. After the bell boy brought all of their things up to the room, they headed out on foot, exploring the area around Pike’s Place, Caydee riding in her backpack carrier on Jake’s back. They found a nice café to have lunch in and Jake tried a local microbrew IPA and found it quite tasty.

Caydee started to get a little cranky after lunch, so they went back to the room. Instead of putting her in the crib, Jake cuddled her against his body in the large bed in the main room and the two of them took a two-hour nap together while Celia and Laura drank wine at the dining room table and watched TV. Once Jake and Caydee woke up, the two ladies needed a nap. They climbed into bed together and crashed out atop the covers, their legs in contact with each other, but otherwise not touching. Jake and Caydee, meanwhile, changed into their bathing suits and went downstairs to check out the action at the pool. There was not a lot of action, but they had fun splashing around in the shallow end. It was a very “do” experience, and, while a few people commented on how adorable Caydee was, no one recognized that the long-haired dude with the tattoos on his arms and the cute baby was Jake Kingsley. Or, at least if they did, they didn’t say anything, which was just as good in Jake’s book.

Caydee began to make her tired noises and display her tired mannerisms shortly after they finished eating dinner in the fancy-ass restaurant upstairs. Laura put her in her crib in the living room of the suite and read one of her favorite books to her—The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle—until her eyes slowly closed and her breathing became slow and regular. She then tucked her blanket around her and turned off the lights.

Once they were certain she was comatose, it was time for love. The three adults retired to the bedroom and stripped off their clothes and made each other feel good. They always made a point to enjoy their sexual interludes, but this time they made even more of a point, savoring every wet kiss, every stroke of flesh, every smell, every sensation. This was their last night together, their last night to enjoy their togetherness for who knew how long. Celia was starting the grind the next day and Jake and Laura were going home. Would they ever get together like this again? What effect would months away from Celia have on that aspect of their relationship? Would she meet someone else on her travels? Would she come to her senses and realize how deviant it was to regularly sleep with a married couple? Would Jake and Laura come to their senses and realize how deviant it was to invite another woman into their marital bed? There were a lot of unknowns and unknowables to ponder.

After Jake spent himself for the second time in Laura’s clenching vagina while Celia rubbed her wet and swollen vagina on Laura’s face, they collapsed into their normal heap in their normal positioning: naked Jake in the middle, naked Laura on his left, naked Celia on his right. The sweat slowly dried from their skin and their heartrates slowly returned to normal. The smell of their activities was thick in the air, permeating the entire room. Jake, as usual, was laying in the primary wet spot. It was a small price to pay for getting regular spousal-approved threesomes.

It was Laura who brought up the subject they were all thinking about.

“What are you going to do out on the road, C?” she asked.

“What do you mean?” Celia asked, the smile of one who had just been royally laid on her face.

“I mean for ... you know ... sex,” Laura said. “You don’t have Suzie on this tour. And you don’t have me.”

“Even if I had you, we wouldn’t be able to do it unless Jake was there too,” Celia said.

“Now wait a minute,” Jake said. “I think there should be a tour exception to that clause. If you two are out on tour together and I’m not, I would have no objection to you two slaking your lust without me there.”

“Are you sure about that, sweetie?” Laura asked.

“Of course,” he said. “Why would it bother me?”

“This is kind a moot point, isn’t it?” Celia asked. “Teach is not going to be out on tour with me, so the exception wouldn’t apply anyway.”

“True,” Jake said slowly, though it was strangely exciting to think of the two of them doing it without him. If only there was a way he could watch such a thing.

“In any case,” Celia said, “I’m going to do the same thing I always did when out on tour before Suzie and I hooked up, before Greg fucked Mindy Snow and destroyed our marriage. I’m going to paddle my pink canoe when the pressure starts to build and suck it up.”

“You could always put in a request,” Laura said shyly. “I mean ... you know ... when you get to the point where doing yourself isn’t quite satisfying any longer.”

Celia shook her head. “That’s just not me,” she said. “As I’ve told you both time and again: I need to have a relationship with someone to have sex with them. It’s just the way I’m wired.”

“Maybe you’ll meet someone on tour and develop such a relationship,” Jake suggested. “The way you did with Suzie.”

Celia looked at him sharply. “What are you trying to say here, Jake?” she asked. “Are you two hoping that I hook up with someone out on the road?”

“No, no,” Jake said. “That’s not what we’re saying at all.”

“Then what are you saying?” she asked.

“We’re just saying,” Laura said gently, “that if you did hook up with someone, or need to put in a request, we would understand.”

“The way I understand that Laura needs a little companionship from the female groupies every once in a while,” Jake said.

“What if it was male groupies?” Celia asked. “Would you understand if she wanted to score some chorizo out on the road.”

“No, that’s different,” Jake said.

“And what if Jake was out on the road, Teach?” Celia asked next. “Would you understand if he had a little nineteen-year-old hottie come up to his room after the show so he could fuck her?”

“No,” she said immediately. “That is not part of the deal.”

“What if he wanted some gay groupie to come up and suck his dick for him?” she asked next. “Is that acceptable?”

“No,” she said. “That is not acceptable either.”

“Then you’re saying that who or what someone gets to do out on the road is situational and individual, right?”

“Well ... yeah, I suppose it is,” Jake said.

“Laura can have female groupies eat her out, but can’t get any chorizo. Jake can’t get anything at all except his five best friends. And what about me? How do I fit into your rules? Do you two really want me to have some male groupie stick his dick in me while I’m out there? Does the thought really not bother you? Because if it doesn’t, we have a totally different relationship with each other than I thought we did.”

“The thought does bother me,” Jake said truthfully. It was, in fact, infuriating.

“Me too,” Laura agreed.

“Then why did you suggest it?” Celia asked.

“Because it’s not fair of us to ask you to abstain from sex while you’re out on the road,” Laura said. “We don’t have that right.”

“Why don’t you have that right?” she shot back. “You have the right to expect that Jake won’t do that. Jake has the right to set his boundaries of what he considers infidelity. We are in what we have all agreed is a loving relationship here. If we’re in a loving relationship, you have the right to expect me to remain faithful to you when I’m away. Exercise that right. If you don’t, what you’re telling me is that you two are just...” She took a deep breath and wiped at a tear. “ ... just using me for sex.”

“No!” Laura said. “That’s not what we’re saying at all!”

“We do love you, C,” Jake said. “This thing is not just about sex!”

“If it’s not just about sex,” Celia said, “then do me the common fucking courtesy of expecting me to be faithful to you when I’m away for a few months.”

They looked at each other and then back at Celia. They nodded. “Okay,” Jake said. “We expect you to remain faithful to us.”

She smiled. “Thank you,” she told them. “And you two do the same. No picking up some slut to slake your urge for having another woman in your bed. That is my right to demand and I’m demanding it.”

“Done,” Laura said, smiling back at her.

“And one more thing,” Celia said.

“What’s that?” asked Jake.

“I want you two to visit me a few times out on the road. Is that too much to ask?”

“No, not at all,” Jake said. “We can do that.”