Chapter 34

Stoney's turn:

It actually WAS in Cindy's words, 'a riot'. I never did 'band camp' or anything like that when I was in high school. They didn't have 'science camp' and 'math camp' in my school district and I wasn't in band. Jo told me about her own experiences.

"Wasn't anything like this," she said.

Our trip home was as wondrous as the trip there. I can definitely see why Dan and Cindy (and everyone else in the bunch, apparently) would cling to personal aviation as a transportation mode.

"Wanna take the scenic route on the way home?" Dan asked.

"Scenic route?" I questioned.

"Yeah, we talked," Cindy chirped. "If you want, we fly south, hit the coast, then turn west. Different scenery than four hundred miles of pine trees."

I looked at Jo. She was smiling.

"It'll add an hour and a half. I know a good airport to do a pit stop. Your call, though."

I glanced at Jo again. That's her 'I'm ready for an adventure' face. "Let's do it, then." I noted Cindy's expression. Why did I interpret that as the look of a successful recruiter?

We left Auburn heading due south, hit the coast, Dan explaining to me about the military traffic areas that we avoided and navigated, and we did indeed turn right at the coast. We didn't follow the coast entirely. Louisiana has that long appendage where the Mississippi River delta goes way out into the Gulf of Mexico. And once in Louisiana, Cindy pointed out the heavy helicopter traffic shuttling people between onshore bases and offshore platforms out in the Gulf.

"Used to be that there was almost nothing further out that twenty or thirty miles. Now there's deep water drilling and some of those are waaay out there," Dan said.

"You've been out there?" I asked.

"Oh, yeah ... And may have to go again. Lots of interesting and lucrative consulting work out there."

"And I can't go with him," Cindy pouted.

Dan laughed. "Not yet. You have to be eighteen. And they have enough distractions out there without the idea of you bouncing around in a tight pair of flame-retardant coveralls."

Cindy smiled. So did I, when I imagined Jo in a similar uniform. With a single looooong zipper. Okay, Stoney. Now make that erection go away.

We flew along the Louisiana coast for a while then turned inland. "Home field," Dan said.

"Hanna and Greg are going to both be there," Cindy chirped. She was texting on her iPhone as we flew.

When we landed, we did indeed meet another couple, the airport operator and his delightful wife, her German accent adding to an already surreal trip. We enjoyed surprisingly good coffee and donuts and conversation before departing for the final leg of the trip.

When we watched Cindy and Dan leave (with Cindy back in the pilot's seat because 'I miss it!') I turned to Jo. "Do you get the feeling that we've just emerged from the Twilight Zone?"

She slumped back into my arms. "Something like that."

We took a ride in the airfield operator's golfcart to shuttle our baggage to the car.

"Ask him," Jo elbowed me. "You KNOW you want to."

"Ask me what?" the guy said.

"How does one go about learning to fly?" I caught him looking at my leg. I'd straightened it to relieve a little pain. "After I finish healing this leg, of course."

"Let's go back to the office," he said.

In the car going home, Jo told me, "Stoney, you know you MUST go for it."

"What about YOU, my redheaded princess?"

Giggle. "You think I should?"

"Look at the group we just left. His and hers pilots all, except for the Weismanns."

"I'd be charmed, but are you sure it's something you want to do?"

"Cindy does. Did you see the look on her face when she climbed into the pilot's seat while ago?"

"Yeah, but that's Cindy. I never saw her NOT smiling." I thought about what I just said. It was true. But then my Johanna was much the same. Even her pensive moods had a hint of that smile that drew me to her the first time I saw her.

"Let's think about it," she said. "You brought YOUR stuff into this marriage. I brought MY stuff. This would be something that we start off sharing together."

"That's a very 'Johanna' way of looking at it," I said, "and therefore perfect. Is that all you come away with from this weekend? Flying lessons?"

"You really want to get me started, guy?" she laughed.

"So tell me."

"Nuts! Never in my fevered dreams did I expect what we just experienced." She sighed. "I ... you ... we had a blast, didn't we?"

"Yes, it's a weekend that pegged my fun meter out."

She smiled. "And just so you know, the ONLY downer all weekend was having to keep quiet with you licking me senseless."

"You're not the only one, dearest," I said. "You know what you do to me. And slow down. You're driving too fast."

"Wanna get home and abuse you before we go to practice," she said.

"I've already had my quota of car wrecks this year."

"I'm being careful," she chuckled, "but I am definitely hurrying."

We got to the apartment in due time. We each grabbed a load of the weekend's luggage. I fumbled the key into the lock and let us in.

"You just set that stuff there. I'll get the rest of it in," she said. "Ease your leg up for a bit."

I did just that. The recliner beckoned. I sat and kicked the footrest up. A nagging twinge in my thigh eased up. I closed my eyes for a minute, opened them again when I heard the front door open and my Johanna bounce through it. She set the instrument cases down, smiling.

"Are you relaxing in such a manner that I cannot find a spot in your arms?"

My heartbeat quickened. "My arms await you."

She gave her head a sassy shake, knowing that the move gets to me, and she insinuated herself carefully into my lap. It's good. Jo fits into my arms perfectly. She turns her face to mine, presenting me with those clear blue eyes, the outrageous red hair, the freckles and THAT smile. I have to count blessings in groups of ten to cover what this girl brings to my life.

Her kiss brings me from reverie to reality. "I love you, Stoney."

"I love you right back, Johanna Elise."

She wiggled to put her lips at my ear, nipped my earlobe, then worked down my neck. I started shaking.

She giggled. "Does that feel good, baby?"

"God, yes."

"Do you think we could move this into the bedroom?" she punctuated the request with a searing kiss.

I attacked her jawbone just in front of her ear in reply. She squealed, wiggling out of my grasp, and stood up.

"Come on!" She extended her hand, pulling me up.

My leg isn't quite up to skipping, but I tried ... I followed her into the bedroom only because I'm still a bit too restricted to chase her. She turned around to face me, unsnapping her jeans and sliding them down her slender thighs. I resisted the urge to just bowl her over backward because I knew that after that move, we'd still have to get clothing out of the way.

I was struggling with a sock when SHE pushed ME over. "I'll get that!" Giggle. "Or not!" as she wrapped her arms around my thighs, putting her mouth at just the right level to...

I gasped. Sooooo good! All my senses diverted to that one little bit of anatomy. I don't remember my socks coming off. Next thing I know, there's this delightful, happy face in front of mine, demanding to be kissed.

Familiarity. Yes, we're very familiar with one another by now. I know every delicious inch of her body, the freckled shoulders, that dark mole on the left cheek of her beautifully curved ass, where the hairline is on her sparsely carpeted pubic mound, the fact that her areolae draw up in wrinkly little almond shapes after a few nips and licks. She knows me as well. That, folks, is not the beginnings of boredom. It's pulling all the bits of colored glass into a kaleidoscope so you can have a lifetime of happy permutations.

For the next hour were permutated each other into semiconscious bliss. Noisy bliss, but bliss nonetheless.

Soft giggle in my ear, accompanied by little kisses. "I know we can be quiet and restrained, Stoney, but you make me want to howl, you know."

"I know. I find myself wanting to make noise." Right now the noise I'm making is a satisfied sigh with a little quiver as an aftershock swirls up my flaccid shaft. "Come here." I tugged her atop me. She touched the tip of her nose to mine. I always wanted to be in love just like this.

She pulled her face back. "Just a few more minutes then we need to shower and go grab dinner," she sighed. "We have obligations."

"YOU have obligations," I laughed. "I have played in the only concert I will ever play in my life."

"Wrong, you!" she laughed. "Rara Avis is going to have a winter performance season. Besides, you LIKE it, and you KNOW you like it."

Guilty.

Shower. Soup and salad, as in "Let's do that new place that opened."

The Monday night practice session was as expected. The difference this time, of course, was the questioning we got.

Key: "They flew down here and hauled y'all off for the weekend, just like that?"

Jo nodded, red hair bouncing. "Yes yes. What a strange and wonderful way to travel! We stayed in their guest room and it was music for the whole weekend."

I told them about TWO violins, two banjos, a guitar, a bass, a couple of singers, and a happy audience.

The normal bit of serious practice was interspersed with the laughter and when we broke up, Key said, "Next week at your house so Mister Georg and Mizz Betta can be with us."

"Cuz they bring cookies," somebody interjected.

Somebody else suggested that I get the recording equipment out next time we did one of those big jam sessions. That idea had occurred to me while we were still in Alabama. I needed to give Eddie a call. I surmise that I can get a set of gear that will fill our purposes. I know I can set it up. And Eddie probably has a handle on somebody who can do some editing.

"We could record anything we wanted, give the raw files to an editor, and see what comes out," I said.

"That would be amazing. There was so much this weekend that was good enough to save. Cindy and Teresa. You and Dan. Any of a dozen different permutations," Jo replied.

"Kind of like self-publishing," I countered.

"Oh, Cindy told me that they'll e-commerce a site on their server. What's Nikki's friend's name? Maddie? She said she could handle the volume of sales we think we'd get, you know, onesies and twosies. And you could tell people that your fall-back job is a professional music career."

I laughed. "I'll be sure and update my curriculum vitae on the company website."

"That's it, Stoney. Make 'em jealous."

"They're jealous ever since they first saw a picture of you, babe," I said.