Chapter 6

Chuck

Sailing in the north-flowing Gulf Stream, angling east toward the UK is really nice. The weather settled down to a breezy 50 to 70 degrees with a constant 15 to 25 knot wind. When the sky was clear, we manned the outdoor helm and the sun deck was busy during the afternoon.

We would be picking up the North Atlantic current for a while before we split off toward the southern United Kingdom. As it was still winter, we would be getting into some cold weather soon. When we left the North Atlantic current, we could be subjected to some of the winter storms that exist off the coast of Ireland...

The kids enjoyed the time running and playing out on deck. Lisa and I worked out and sparred on the area behind the rear observation deck. The kids began imitating Lisa and me, so we held classes for those that wanted to learn a form of martial arts.

To my surprise, Taiying and Sing became our helpers as both of the sisters had extensive training in Wushu, a form of Kung Fu. As the sisters taught the kids the beginning forms, they taught Lisa and me forms suited to our more advanced abilities. The sisters were excellent partners to spar with, as they were quick and agile. It is exciting and a pleasure to be able to defend yourself against two attackers. One time, Lisa joined them and I tried to defend against three attackers. The activity was so intense, that real blows were landed by all four of us, until Taiying called a halt to our pretend match. All four of us suffered some deep bruises.

That was the bad thing. The good part was that Taiying and Sing were outstanding masseuses. Their training in China encompassed how to relax the body and its muscles. Their ability to soothe aches and pains was wonderful. Their caressing often degenerated into a four person free for all that Lisa encouraged, as she would be overwhelmed with the attentions of the sisters. It was during one of these massages that the Fab Five wandered into the cabin to see what we were up to.

As soon as Brandy saw the nude sisters giving us massages, clothes flew everywhere and soon there was intense activity between eight ladies. They all seemed to enjoy spreading oil over each other using their hands, and often their breasts, to mop across another's front or back. Watching their activity was very stimulating.

That day, Nancy migrated to me and was soon joined with me until she was satisfied and smiling. As she wormed her way back into the female mix, Brandy separated herself and became my lover for a while. Over time, Judy, Tiani, and Frieda took a turn enjoying some time with me, until the five decided to shower and go help prepare supper.

Taiying, Sing, and Lisa were lying back grinning and cuddling each other. I took the opportunity to orally worship the three with lots of kisses and tongue caresses. Very shortly, my maleness was required to satisfy their need for that kind of pleasure.

When Lisa and I were totally satisfied, the two sisters snuggled behind Lisa and me, holding us. We enjoyed a short nap while holding each other, with Lisa and me face to face.

When I opened my eyes, Lisa was smiling at me. My mind was flooded with loving thoughts. I kept hearing Lisa tell me, "I love you, Chuck." I smiled back, trying to convey to her that I loved her in return. When I mentally moved our relationship toward a lifetime commitment, Lisa smiled and flooded my mind with pictures of many pregnant women and lots of babies and children running around.

When my face showed how startled I was, Lisa giggled softly and continued assaulting my mind with these huge family gatherings. I closed my eyes to better see the images, and could see Lisa in the center of the activity holding two babies, one to each breast.

That's when I realized all of the women and children in the images were nude. The infants wore diapers, but many children, and all of the ladies, were nude. There were more women than I could grasp. I recognized most of them, but who were all these others? That's when Lisa whispered to my brain, "You will be my man, but you will also be the leader of many."

I didn't know what that meant, but right then, the grinning faces of Mercy and Missy came into focus as they observed the gathering. Lisa hugged me to her, kissing my lips as all of the images faded.

As I opened my eyes, Lisa asked, "Did you like our future? We're going to be busy, aren't we?"

While Lisa and I kissed, I was being kissed on the back of my neck by Sing, who was now behind me. She was rubbing herself against my butt, while kissing and nibbling on my neck and shoulders.

Lisa and I turned to our backs, pulling a sister on top of each of us. Lisa said, "You two have been a joy to have with us. You are teaching us new forms and have wonderful hands to cure us of our aches."

Taiying said, "We enjoy all that we do with you and with the others. This vacation has become very naughty, as we have intimacies with some of the women almost every day, and almost every night we get to enjoy you, Chuck. Sing and I want to give you pleasure in return. We love to pleasure Lisa as well, because she is so attentive to us."

Sing backed up what Taiying said with, "Oh yes, we love to be loved by both of you. You make us feel so special."

Lisa said, "We need to get cleaned up since it will soon be time for supper. Chuck and I need to practice a little also. Come on, let's shower."

After an invigorating shower, Lisa and I went up to the main salon and opened our guitar cases to practice a few pieces of music written by Pop and Rags. The two had listened to our recordings of their work and that inspired them to create even more for us. While we were working through one of the pieces, Lizzy was slouched back on a couch, giving her harmonica expression of the piece of music's theme.

Liz's contribution to the music was so good, that Lisa kicked me gently to make sure it had gotten my attention. I just nodded at her as I let the bass I was playing accent the Gibson that Lisa really had wailing.

Bonita came up to the salon and sat down at the keyboard. She was standing so she could look over Lisa's shoulder to read the music, but Bonita was also playing. She was playing the keyboard using the Hammond B3 voice. We really sounded good.

Lisa called a halt and said, "Chuck, take this downstairs and run off several copies. I want to set up the controller real quick and we'll do this over again. Pop has lyrics, but the theme is too good for words at first. We'll try it as background to some vocals later, but I want a recording of what we just sounded like."

I ran down two decks and used the copier to make six copies of the music. Back upstairs, I could see that Lisa had positioned some mikes for us. Since Lisa, Bonita, and I were connected to the controller directly from the amps, I didn't understand the mikes.

Liz had her acoustic guitar out and her harmonica brace around her neck. I passed out copies of the music and Lisa said, "Play now, one, two, three, four."

We went right into the theme together, with Liz picking up in the second frame. When we came back to the beginning, Lisa began singing. We then did the whole piece, and as we came around again, Lisa was nodding at me. I sang, as that's what I thought she wanted. The whole time Lisa was really wailing with some far out muted blues riffs.

As we came to the end, Lisa motioned at me and pointed at herself too. This time through, we played and sang together. The piece was not tear jerking blues, but did have a good blues feel. When we came through the last reframe this time, Lisa was smiling and nodding, and brought us to a close.

"Now that's what I'm talkin' about," Lisa gushed. "Wow! That is so good. I need to work on configuring this controller to get some brass. Maybe if I send this to Pop and Rags, they can dub some brass in for us. It needs some percussion too."

I had put my bass down and was picking at my electric. Lisa whipped out a piece of music and said, "This is exactly for you. Play this through once to see what I'm thinking. You might even want to use a slide on it."

After picking through the piece the first run through, followed by playing chords the second time, I began to get the feel, sliding to the next sustained note while picking the next bar, pulling and tugging strings. By the fourth time through, I was lost. The piece had some neat catches in it that made you keep reading the music to get the nuances of the tricky rhythm. As I played, I heard the keyboard playing that beautiful mellow Rhodes tone. Lisa was sitting at the keyboard as Bonita was strumming her guitar for a rhythm background. Liz was cool as there was only a sixteen bar area that really begged for harmonica, but she heard it and filled right in. That section was filled with areas that demanded I use a slide to move from key to key while still sustaining. Combined with the harmonica and the keyboard, this was a good sounding piece.

When we finished, Bonita stood up and put her hands on her hips. "You have to teach me to play your bass. That music needs bass and drums. We're going to have to do something about that. If Lisa won't play the bass, then I'll do it. That just means you have to teach me and help me practice."

"Bonita? When are you going to have time to practice bass along with piano, guitar, and violin? Don't you think you're doing enough?" I asked this while squinting at the little girl.

Bonita replied, "I'll just make time. I practice my violin first thing in the morning, because all the kids are upstairs and I can use the crew galley then. I practice and teach piano after I play outside some, and practice my guitar before lunch. I try to save the afternoons so I can come play with you and Lisa when you're doing something. You can teach me bass right after lunch. I know you have your good bass, but you also have that other bass Lisa bought you."

Lisa commented, "You also have the spare five string fretted bass in the cabinet here and that double-neck bass that has frets. That might be easier for Bonita to learn on. Just use the four string neck and ignore the six string."

"Okay," I said to Bonita, "I'll try to separate some music for a bass with some progressions. I'll make up a scale chart. The fingering isn't the same as a guitar, Bonita, but if you do practice both instruments everyday, you'll begin to not even think about what instrument you're playing, you'll just play."

Bonita said, "I'll bet it's like learning to play the piano with both hands. You practice and practice, then one day your hands are working by themselves without you even thinking about it. If you teach me, Chuck, I'll learn."

Lisa said, "Okay, Twerp." Lisa had directed that to Bonita. "If you're going to get some lessons from Chuck, I guess I better learn too. You and me, Bonita, we'll learn together."

Lizzy was grinning at us and said, "Bonita's been teaching me piano, maybe one of you two can teach me some piano too."

Lisa said, "That is what I had planned for all the kids. I guess I better get with the program. We only have two keyboards, so we're going to have to assign practice times."

Bonita said, "You forgot about the good Yamaha keyboard we have in the crew galley and dining area."

"It's good that you will do that," Bonita continued. "I'm trying to teach everyone but they all want to practice at the same time. If we can use this keyboard up here, that will help."

Lisa said, "I think I'll have Rags ship a couple more used keyboards to Ireland so we'll have more to practice with. There's plenty of room in the crew quarters for two keyboards and plenty of room in the big lounge for two. The kids are going to be using headphones most of the time anyway."

I had to smile at the enthusiasm there was for music. When I looked around, most of the other kids were sitting around in the salon waiting to be able to join in playing.

Lisa and I gave all the kids some music and we practiced going through the music a few times before we tried to put it all together. Our version of what Pop and Rags had written took on a whole new flavor with the acoustic harmony that backed up the electric theme. Once again we could feel the need for some brass, sax, and percussion.

When Maria came to the top of the stairs to announce supper, the adults that were listening almost seemed disappointed. As everyone put their instruments into their cases to go below, little Dewey came to me. "I want to learn how to play the bass guitar. I like my Strat that dad got for me, but I think I would really like to learn bass."

Liz, Bonita, and Lisa were still with me in the salon, and Lisa told Dewey, "You'll learn with Bonita and me. I'll make sure Chuck finds you when he's going to teach us." Lisa turned to me, "Looks like you now need to teach someone how to play drums."

I told them, "That's even more time consuming. To play right, you have to learn to play the rudiments. They are like scales for the other instruments. There are the original 26 rudiments that have evolved into the basic 28, and now there are a suggested 40 rudiments to become proficient at. I suppose I could do it, but whoever I teach will really have to want to learn. It's going to take a lot of practice."

Bonita said, "I know who would be good to teach drums to, Tom. He's always playing his "air" drums and tapping his fingers to the music. Just watch him when we're practicing, and you'll see him drumming his fingers on his guitar body while he listens to you guys teaching."

Little Dewey said, "Bill would be good too. He has a play set that he got with a video game. He doesn't know how to play right, but he sure tries. I'll bet if you were to teach him the correct way to play, he would practice."

Lisa laughed, "Okay, Chuck, let's see. You have guitar lessons, piano lessons, bass lessons, and now drum lessons. Along with the martial arts lessons for all of us, you won't have time for anything else."

Maria was standing at the top of steps with her hands on her hips again, "Will you guys come to supper? Martin is waiting for you to say the prayer."

We hustled downstairs, washed our hands, and stood behind our chairs at our tables. Martin said a short prayer, and Dewey said "Amen," followed by "Dig in."

During supper, Lisa told the other grownups about what had transpired with people wanting to learn bass, and how it had also been recommended that I could teach a couple of kids drums too.

Sheena said, "You have to teach Billy. He has a little electronic trap set that came with a video game that he has beat to death. He's frustrated because he doesn't know how to do a lot of the beats that he hears. If you teach him, I'll bet he'll practice."

Mercy was laughing, "That describes Tommy too. His sisters are always bugging him to quit drumming his fingers on anything they touch. He's really good pretending he's playing the drums too. I know he listens to recordings of drummers all the time."

I mentioned, "Those are the two Bonita and Dewey recommended. I suppose some lessons are in order. We'll have to work hard so they can learn and excel. Learning how to play drums correctly isn't very easy and it doesn't come overnight. It takes a lot of practice, even with natural rhythm ability."

Dewey smiled, "Hey, the kids have a lot of extra time right now, so if you can stand having every day filled with music and kids, teach them. We'll make sure to get them professional teachers when we get back home, just like we did with the guitars."

Brandy said, "I always wanted to learn to play an instrument, but never took the time. Perhaps Bonita can spend some time with me to begin teaching me the piano. I know she taught herself a lot when she first began, but most of all, she practiced almost continuously. I hear her playing at home all the time. I know she plays the keyboard in the lounge down here a lot too."

Lisa said, "My daddy used to teach me how to play for hours on end. Afterward, when he would go out to play in the evenings, I would practice until bedtime. Momma never got tired of me trying to learn to play. She would always hug me and say, "Play some more, sweet Lisa child." I think that's why I love to play so much. It makes me closer to both my dad and to momma."