Chapter 6

Suddenly the sounds of an oboe played by Mimi and a viola played by Nina were heard, along with a clacking board like in Kabuki, played by Yoshi, a Japanese male friend of Carol's from Vancouver. Cameras controlled by Anita and Carl were taken in hand and Bella, a tall Jewish brunette, another friend of Justin's from San Francisco took hold of the portable tape machine and the carefully controlled boom mic. In the middle of the gathering, Jordan and Caleb sang a duet of love, stripping each other naked and touching, but they were bored, though beautifully bored.

"We need to talk," said Joseph to Natty as he petted his daughter.

"I know. Go ahead." She began the narration of the piece in a strong mellifluous voice.

"You can split your focus!" exclaimed Joseph quietly. "You're too sexy!"

"I know. I had to keep Karen and Linda between Andy and me a couple of times, though Karen loved what I was doing to her backside." She returned to the narration of the story.

"I can't help thinking how little we see each other, and how important Karen has become in your life and Devi's. I love you beyond words, Natalia. You and Devi are my soul."

"No you can't," said Natty.

"Can't what?"

Natty finished the narration and the gathering was guided to the large foyer. Natty remained behind.

"Can't leave me."

"But your life is perfect without me. You are in love, you've got your theater group, and you're making good money getting grants. What can I do except be in the way."

"Follow me. SHE's in love now too."

"Really?'

"Guess." Standing at the edge of the gathering behind the action where four young women danced in front of the large tapestry as Justin and Caleb looked on bored, still singing their boredom, Natty narrated.

"Sarah," said Joseph, amused by her subtle well disguised shock. "They've always been in love, just had to stoke the flames."

"Of course," said Natty, running off into the dining room, where soon a thudding bass was heard from speakers, recorded music rattling the floors. The performers, startled, slowly and exquisitely danced their reticent approach, the audience following. Flinging the doors open, Natty stepped out of the way for the performers and audience to enter the dark, menacing space. On the table was a large egg cracking open and Karen emerged, draped in brown gauze but otherwise naked. In the cramped space she danced beautifully, Natty narrating. Karen began singing, her voice rough and seductive, a long solo before Caleb, Jordan and the young women sang at her, slowly transforming their aggression into attraction.

"I need to be something beyond what I've been and less than I've been" said Joseph.

"What are you saying?"

"I want to be something, do something not in my head but practical."

"Did your coma give you any ideas?"

"Just memory images, watching my friends being creative, always watching and never contributing, except as some sort of freak of nature."

"Are you crazy? What about all this?" She began narrating again, then was the guide back through the gathering room into the outdoor garden where the three musicians were separated, playing as if they were talking to each other from a long distance, sparse, waiting for one to finish, pausing and playing solo to the others.

"Yes, but I need to be trained, to be skilled, to learn a craft, to be independent. Even with my success with the Order, it's been raw material edited into clarity by Sarah and Carol"

When the performers entered from various sides of the garden, they performed a ritual of birth, bringing flowers from the earth, bringing insects from the flowers, coming together to copulate, a symbolic copulation between the four maidens and the two men to conceive life on earth.

Because no words were spoken, Natty tugged Joseph into the gathering room to not distract the audience, though she kept the outside door opened to watch the performance.

"But Andy is right. You need to be supported so you can think and expand your mind and create new exercises."

"No he's not. I don't want to live forever beholden to a rich benefactor or even loving friends. I want to be a man, like any man, and have skills, a profession. I can always expand my philosophy. I created it while going to school and working full time."

"So what is it you want to do?"

"That's the problem. I want to do too much. I want to be an electrician but be creative with it like Kevin. I want to be a healer, but not a prescriber of medicine or a cutter of flesh or massage therapist or a chiropractor, and at the same time all of them, but without the dogma or, in terms of becoming a doctor, the years of learning and training to do less than can be done to heal. I want to do research into the mind like Dr. Schneider, but not again spend years learning and writing papers and getting tenure to do it. I want it all, but I want it too fast, or if not too fast, I want it on my terms."

"I don't know. What I do know is I love you and need you for my soul to be whole. Even with seeing you less than half of this past year and having Karen and Devi to love and to be loved by, you are my soul, Joseph, you and Devi. I am incomplete without you. You can join me on the tour Sarah organized for my performance group with performances and workshops over the next few months, and you can travel and meet new initiates and spread the word while we're busy performing and teaching. And when it's done, we'll go back home, back to Minneapolis and study the possibilities, enroll you in a trade school so you can fix things and make things and in some kind of physical therapy classes at night and keep in contact with Raul, have him tell you what to study because I know you can do it on your own and he'll be there to answer questions. We can do it together, darling. We can make a man of you yet, but always together, okay?"

Joseph fell to his knees, clasping his arms around her hips, pressing his face against her soft cocoa belly, kissing her fringe of pubic hair, his tears dampening her skin. When his kisses reached her clit, she trembled. "My split focus isn't that good. I have to go. Please ravage me when the play is over."

"It's beautiful," said Joseph standing and hugging her, his cock pushed against her belly where his face had been.

"What?"

"The play."

"Thanks." After a quick kiss and Natty kissing his dick quick, she rushed outside slipping unnoticed to the gazebo where she shouted telling everyone to come quick, the sun was dying, rattling chimes, smashing gongs, making quite a lot of noise by herself. It wasn't quite sunset, but the long shadows of the audience and performers revealed its imminence. As Karen regally approached, the other performers bounced off each other playfully until the play became more violent and warlike. After a brief narration, Karen stood in the gazebo and watched the violence, shouting its end and giving instruction to each performer, some obeying, others returning to the violent playfulness until all the girls collapsed in pain and Karen dragged them to the gazebo where each gave birth to marionettes controlled by Natty and Sarah, figures from the commedia del arte sung to by their mothers and fathers while Karen sang on top of a chaos of voices until she took command and instructed the young women what to do, and when Jordan attempted to incite them against her, Karen made the maidens hate him and banish him. Then when the women tried to talk to each other, they found they couldn't be heard by each other, so they watched their children play, scolding them as instructed, and as the sun set, Jordan returned bearing a large black flowing puppet attached to his head and arms, approaching the gazebo with slow determination until he entered, but when he went to approach Caleb, Caleb was flung outside, unable to be with his friend, struggling, trying, until he passed out. 


"And so was born the world, divided into four seasons and day and night, never to be together, watching their children play was their one delight," recited Natty, ending the performance.

Natty pulled Joseph away from the crowd once the lengthy applause died down and Sarah announced dinner. SHE stopped them and asked where they'd be so she could bring them plates of food, knowing Joseph had not had anything in his stomach since the slice of pizza the night before. Nodding when they pointed a vertical line across the large backyard, she hurried to Sarah, whispering her need and Sarah officiously placed her at the front of the line where each was served two plates of Martha's amazing beef stew, choosing it over her equally amazing and vegetarian eggplant parmesan, Sarah pleased to see both Martha and her daughter despite the hard work involved with cooking and serving the large crowd were smiling, especially the daughter who Sarah had never remembered smiling, while an older man, though several years younger than Martha was chatting her up and a younger man was doing the same for her daughter in a flirtatious manner and Sarah wondered if Andy's servants would be joining them at the orgy. With hands full, the two friends stared down at the tub of sodas wondering if they could miraculously produce a third arm when Candice and Carol walked out of the line to asked if they needed assistance. Explaining the situation, the two Cs happily grabbed armfuls of soda despite the chilly wetness against their t-shirts and shorts and followed the two Ss to their friends. When they found Natty and Joseph, Natty sitting on Joseph's lap facing him, his cock sliding against her pussy not yet embedded, they were kissing passionately. SHE cleared her throat loud enough for the lovers to notice and they broke their kiss and smiled up at their friends, then hopped to their feet to embrace each one, Joseph lingering with Candice and Carol, not having seen Carol in months and Candice in a year. He kissed each one also, lingering longer with Candice who squeezed his hard on. "I missed this," she said. Sarah ran off while the hugging proceeded and grabbed a large blanket from inside the house and flung it to the ground once she returned. There she was joined by SHE and they ate their supper and soon afterward by Natty and Joseph, who inhaled his food and sat Natty in his lap facing away as she finished hers. The two Cs had exited, but Joseph insisted they return as soon as they had gotten food.