Chapter 14

The digital video and photo antics continued. Tylea, along with Lee, moved around and found a guy with a tattoo on his chest covered by his shirt. Lee got him to remove his shirt, with some encouragement from the guy's date, and to let Tylea kiss the tattoo while Lee got the video and some stills.

The guy's date surprised him and everybody else when she raised her blouse slightly in back and turned around to let Lee kiss the tattoo she had on her lower back right above her shapely ass. Tylea was laughing hard while trying to get that shot; it was a good thing that the camera had built-in shot-stabilizing features.

Andi--taking a quick break from serving duty--and Jay both returned from the ladies' and men's rooms, respectively, with a whoop from Andi. She was waving a pair of men's boxers, while Jay waved a lady's thong. The couple who had provided the souvenirs were blushing and laughing as they returned to their group's table to the jeers and laughter of their friends. Jay had slipped the guy a twenty that he had pulled from his backpack to offset to cost of the souvenir underwear items.

One of the male firefighters, a guy named Malcolm, looked around and asked no one in particular why there were no takers for the Karaoke. Several others told him that if he wanted to hear Karaoke, then he should get up and do it himself. Malcolm started singing, "Now, the moon shines tonight on pretty Red Wing," for about ten seconds there at the table. The others at the table shouted for him to stop and threw bar peanuts at him while he laughed along with everyone else. He obviously could not carry a tune in a bucket.

Several others were cajoling folks within the group. No one took up the challenge, until Dee finally said, "Okay. I'll give it a shot." The others at the table started to applaud, and Kyle beamed, as Dee stood up and approached the Karaoke system. She picked up the wireless microphone on the stand, but turned to ask Buck for help in picking a song and getting the machine up and running for her debut as a Karaoke star in downtown Middlebury.

Buck grinned broadly when Dee whispered the song selection that she wanted in his ear. He had not heard a good country-western selection in this Vermont town lately and he was pleased with her choice.

Dee cleared her throat with the microphone on, endured a loud squeal along with the rest of the patrons--until Buck adjusted a knob--and awaited the start of the song, along with everyone else in the bar.

Kyle felt his pulse rate picking up as he beheld the lovely young woman on the Karaoke stage and realized that she was quickly capturing his heart. She was simply gorgeous anyway, in his opinion; but the way she looked, framed in the spotlight of the Karaoke stage, and wearing that sinfully delicious micro-bikini, she had his full attention on so many levels.

Kyle made the decision at that very moment that this was a woman with whom he wanted to pursue a serious relationship. He did not care about the unusual sexual activities tied to her membership in this strange society with which she was associated, along with her friends here.

Kyle knew that a normal guy could NEVER feel that way about the strange sexual lifestyle these folks evidently lived; not with someone with whom he was pursuing a relationship. But, in this case, in this situation--with this girl--he was feeling anything BUT normal.

While Kyle recognized that he was still sorting things out in his mind, he just knew that Dee was special. He could feel it in his heart more than in his brain--or his groin. She really was a very special person who would take some special consideration on his part if he were going to be able to convince her to reciprocate and try a relationship with him.

Kyle nodded to himself with a final resolve to talk seriously to Dee about their getting to know each other more deeply as the bass thump of 'Redneck Woman', a song made famous by country music star, Gretchen Wilson, began its opening beat, along with the twang of a guitar. The screen behind Dee flashed the words for all in the bar to see, beginning with a text stream for the YouTube internet site location for the song, <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=82dDnv9zeLs&ob=av2e>.

Dee's face lit up with determination and an expression of lively fire in her eyes, as she belted out the lyrics to the song, and swayed her body with the rhythm.

Well I ain't never--been the Barbie doll type; no,
I can't swig that sweet champagne; I'd
Rather drink beer all night--in a
Tavern--or in a honky-tonk--or on a
Four-wheel drive tailgate.
I've got posters on my wall of Skynard, Kid, and Strait. Some
People look down on me--but I don't give a rip; I'll
Stand barefooted in my own front yard with a baby on my hip

'Cause I'm a
Red--neck--woman, I ain't no
High--class--broad; I'm just a
Product of my raisin'; and I say
"Hey, y'all" and "Yee Haw"--and I
Keep my Christmas lights on, on my
Front porch all year long--and
I know all the words to every Charlie Daniels song--So
Here's to all my sisters, out there keepin' it cun-tree
Let me get a big "Hell, Yeah" from the redneck girls like me
HELL, YEAH!

The lady firefighters, along with Tylea, and a couple of other female patrons jumped up and shouted the response to the song's rhythm:

"HELL, YEAH!"

Dee stepped down from the stage and began to pace in step to the music's almost march-step rhythm among the other patrons as the second stanza began.

Victoria's Secret--well their stuff's reeeeeal nice--Oh, but
I can buy the same damn thing on a
Wal-Mart shelf half price. And still look
Sexy--just as sexy--as those models on TV--No
I don't need no designer tag--to make my man want me--Now
You might think I'm trashy--a little too hard core; but
In my neck--of the woods--I'm just the girl next door

Hey, I'm a
Red--neck--woman, I ain't no
High--class--broad--I'm just a
Product of my raisin'; and I say
"Hey, y'all" and "Yee Haw"--and I
Keep my Christmas lights on, on my
Front porch all year long--and
I know all the words to every Tanya Tucker song--So
Here's to all my sisters, out there keepin' it cun-tree
Let me get a big "Hell, Yeah" from the redneck girls like me
HELL, YEAH!

This time almost all the women in the bar stood up and shouted:

"HELL, YEAH!"

During the instrumental bridge, Dee had grabbed Earl and started a country swing dance move with him. Earl grinned and moved quite well with her, showing that he was quite the competent dancer, even if he was a little drunk. Earl got a bit carried away and moved his right hand down to one of Dee's ass cheeks during the dance. Dee backed away and, grinning, wagged a finger at him. As the bridge was finishing, Earl moved Dee over next to Kyle and moved back over to his own table. Dee slid easily into Kyle's lap as she continued to sing, while looking Kyle directly in the eye.

I'm a
Red--neck--woman, I ain't no
High--class--broad; I'm just a
Product of my raisin'; and I say
"Hey, y'all" and "Yee Haaaaw"; and I
Keep my Christmas lights on, on my
Front porch all year long; and
I know all the words to every Old Bocephus song; so
Here's to all my sisters, out there keepin' it cun-tree
Let me get a big "Hell, Yeah" from the redneck giiirrrrrrls--like me

Tylea led the responses from almost all the women in the bar this time with a rousing, "HELL, YEAH!"

Dee prompted again:

"HELL, YEAH!"

The ladies all jumped and shouted, "HELL, YEAH!"

Another prompt by Dee:

"HELL, YEAH!"

Another more enthusiastic response from more of the ladies in the bar: "HELL, YEAH!"

And Dee's finale:

"I Said, HELL, YEAH!"

The whole place erupted as Dee stood, bowed, turned off the microphone switch, placed it back on the Karaoke table, and returned to stand near her seat. Kyle stood and leaned over to take her face in his hands with a huge smile. Dee knew what was coming and smiled right back at him and began to part her lips as he leaned in toward her. Kyle planted a huge, loving kiss right on her lips and then wrapped his arms around her as she reciprocated. Everyone shouted and applauded again at the intensity of Dee's obvious response to Kyle's efforts.

As they broke their kiss, they were oblivious to the noise and actions going on around them. They were simply locked in on each other's eyes. Thus, they missed Brooke's comment of "Damn, Girl! Are you just going to eat him up right here? Get a room, for goodness sake!"

During the song that Dee had rendered so well, another group of four patrons, two couples really, had arrived and were seated near the firefighters and Pledges. This group was a little more upscale in their wardrobe. They were dressed in college preppy fashion and reeked of the 'Skip and Buffy' crowd, from their walk, facial expressions, and the arrogant way that one of the guys waved Molly, the barmaid, over to the table.

The two girls who had arrived with the new male patrons fired looks of absolute disdain and hatred toward the micro-bikini-clad Pledge ladies. The unspoken words in those looks were "Slut! Whore! Tramp!"

Andi just looked at them and grinned. She knew the girls were trying to cover their own insecurities to some degree and were trying to hold the attention of their dates with all this female flesh hanging out in the open around them. She'd seen it whenever guys would bring wives, girlfriends, and dates to the old strip club where she had worked. Nevertheless, Andi resolved that she was not about to take any shit from these obviously snobby bitches if they got uppity with her or her friends.

"Tylea," began Catherine during a break in conversation at the table, "I saw you really getting into that country song that Dee was singing. I don't mean to stereotype, but isn't that sort of strange for an African-American lady to be into CW?"

"You might think so, Catherine. But, you see, from the time I was seven till I was fourteen, I used to spend my summers with my Grandpa Mercer on his ranch in Oklahoma. I really got a heavy dose of Country-Western music during those years, and it just never went away completely," Tylea answered with a smile.

"Oklahoma?" asked Brooke with a surprised look.

"Sure, Honey. Grandpa Mercer had been a Deputy U.S. Marshall all of his adult life until he retired and started managing his ranch in Oklahoma full-time," answered Tylea proudly. "In fact, he was a fourth-generation Deputy U.S. Marshall. His great-grandfather had been the first Marshall in the family after the war."

"The war? The Civil War? Then, was he a slave before that?" asked Brooke, really curious and intrigued by Tylea's story now.

"Honey, it really should be more correctly called the War Between the States. Yes; he was born a slave in the eighteen-twenties and sold to the Cherokees as a young child before they were evicted from North Carolina and Georgia on the Trail of Tears to what is now Oklahoma--it was called Indian Territory back then. That's where he grew up.

"He was freed before the war, married a Cherokee woman, and fought as a free man, becoming a Corporal in the Confederate Army under Cherokee Chief and Confederate Army Major General Stand Watie," said Tylea, enjoying the shocked looks on the faces of her friends.

"You mean a Black man fought for the Confederacy? Didn't he feel like a traitor to his people?" asked one of the firefighters across the table from Tylea.

"Sugar, hundreds of Black men fought for the Confederacy after they were freed. I don't know about how my ancestor personally felt about the Confederate cause. Grandpa said that he had told his sons and grandsons that he was just glad to be a free man at last and to be able to fight with his Cherokee friends and family and protect their backs.