“Many thanks to Literotica author ‘englander1961′ for her help, editorial services, encouragement and a title much better than my original, which has elevated her to the status of House Goddess of Sexy Story Titles. Thanks to Sammi Scott, aka Titsy McYarn, the Cute at the Heart of the Abyss for her help and valuable critique. Thanks to Literotica author ‘KY ridgerunner’ for the stories that planted the idea in my head months ago. A belated and much overdue thanks to John Hasty for his peerless editing. Bounteous thanks to Kevin for his incredibly thorough critiquing and voluminous notes.
After you’ve read this, if you have any inclination at all to comment, please do so, either by email or on the comment board… The best way for me to grow and improve as an author is to hear from the people who read my work.
I welcome constructive critiques and non-abusive comments. I will answer, in at least a semi-prompt manner, any email that comes with an email address.
If you feel you must respond in a hateful or angry fashion, you may put your head down upon your desk and do so, quietly to yourself, for as long as you feel it necessary. This story may not be copied to other sites without my permission.
If you have not read the earlier installment(s) of this tale, it would probably help you to make sense of this one if you did so.”
* * * * *
Disarmed and bound the prisoner was led into the Captain’s Cabin.
“Y’know, me lovelies, I been thinkin’ here we got this bunk, all rigged out for restrain’ and makin’ fast prisoners and we ain’t never used it.”
Mounds forced the captive to her knees and then, grasping her by her hair, drove her face into Twat’s twat. “There ye go, sweetie, some pie for ye.” She returned her attention to the Captain. “Well now, Sir, you’d be havin’ a point there. How d’ye want to have her tied?”
“Somethin’ allowin’ us to get to her easy, I’m thinkin’… only question be left is face up or face down?”
In the end the crew took a vote and the brown wench was hung suspended from padded straps, blindfolded, face down a foot above the bed. Her beautiful nipples were sucked into the mouths of the Captain and Second Mate Mounds who slid themselves under her, side by side. First Mate Twat had been eying the captive’s ass since they’d brought her on board and after seeing the pleasure the Captain had taken in tonguing her there, she thought it was time she gave it a try.
“Do you thieving scoundrels intend to leave me… oh… unfulfilled?” the wench cried as the crew took their pleasure of her. “What kind of foul sea scum teases… ummm… a poor woman so and leaves her nest empty?”
The Second Mate paused from her suckling on a breast. “The kind that likes hearin’ ye beg, bitch. Now, if you’re not gonna be doin’ that, quit your whinin’, we’ve torturin’ to do.”
The prisoner moaned and twitched in her straps, wondering if there was any way these vile brigands could make her captivity more frustrating? The First Mate had a serpent for a tongue, the Captain and the Second Mate were attached to her bosom like lampreys and she would have killed the rest of the crew and used their bodies to weight the Captain down if it was the only way she could get the hard tool she felt poking into her thigh in where it would do her the most good. But she’d tested her restraints and these sea-going perverts had secured her too well. If she didn’t find release soon she’d be begging them.
In her frustration she lashed out once more. “In the name of God Almighty… OH… do not use me so foully! Umm hmmm… do not, in the name of Mercy… oh, oh, ohhh… leave me so in need of relief!”
“That’s it!” roared the Captain, releasing his hold on her tit. “Gag the bitch before we have to take a strap to her!”
Twat pulled her tongue out of the wench’s ass. “Right away, Cap’n Sir!” Before the poor woman knew it, she was firmly gagged.
And then they made it worse. Her head was pulled back and strapped into the new position. Her blindfold was removed. Shifting in the bunk the Captain reclined on his back and Mounds climbed on his stiff spar, facing the helpless captive, and began to slowly and with great pleasure ride him, their bodies sliding about on one another just a foot in front of her gagged mouth. The First Mate had resumed the tongue assault on her ass and had added new fiendishness to her evil. She had slipped a finger inside the prisoner’s achingly empty, wet cunny, curling it in and towards her front, finding inside some spot that was setting her on fire as she’d rarely imagined possible. The foul bitch was taking her close to the edge of release, so close her body was trembling with the nearness of it and then backing away.
Oh, if she ever became a member of the crew, what evil and treachery she’d have to put paid to! A time of reckoning for these scoundrels, yes, that was what was called for. She’d extract an elixir of yohimbe root, put it in their food and lock them in a convent for the night at gunpoint. She’d pay small children at every port to follow them around, begging them, as their ‘mother’s and ‘father’, to come home. She’d sell them out to the French!
Or she’d come up with some plan to torture them, so diabolical and devious that Old Scratch himself would come up from the deepest Hell to ask her how she concocted it.
Meanwhile the Captain was lost in his own world, one that barely even noticed the captive that was bound and gagged before him.
The sight of Mounds, arched backwards towards him, filled the Captain with lust. She was a beautiful, wicked and depraved woman, amply suited both in body and spirit to be a member of his crew. The squeezings of her cunt worked on his cock like the talented fingers of the three Haitian masseuses that had given him the best handjob of his life some years before in Port-au-Prince.
For her part, Mounds was very aware of the bound woman scant inches in front of her. The Second Mate’s level of excitement was not only due to the feel of her Captain beneath her and his hands caressing her all over her body, as there was little of her he couldn’t reach in their present position, but the knowledge that she was on intimate display for the woman hanging before her. Mounds’ fingers moved down to expose her nubbin, rubbing the area around it as she reveled in the slight widening of the prisoner’s eyes as she did so. Dipping her fingers lower to gather moisture from around the Captain’s shaft, sliding in and out of her, she spread it around the tiny bump and tenderly rubbed it, feeling her climax approaching like a barque under full sail.
The prisoner wanted to look away from the sight of the Captain and his Second Mate fucking right before her but she couldn’t. Even when she closed her eyes the sounds of them, the smell of them, so close, drove her eyes open again. She strained against her straps and chains to no avail. And still the evil bitch behind her ran that serpent tongue into her innards and teased her on the edge of release!
She did what little she could, pressing back as much as the straps would allow onto the First Mate’s probing finger, but it brought her no relief. Tears flowed down her face unnoticed as she quivered, suspended at the edge for so long that she thought she must go mad but still refusing to break and beg.
And then her mouth betrayed her. “Please… I beg you…” she muttered behind the gag, it coming out as an unintelligible mumble.
“What’s that, wench? Do you want mercy?” Twat asked from behind her.
The prisoner’s nodding of the head, though slight, was unmistakable.
She cursed her weakness as the First Mate massaged her interior and gave her what she so desperately wanted. She cried out as the wave of her climax broke over her and drug her under, her eyes rolling back in her head and her cries blending into one long wail as she lost her grip on who and where she was.
The Second Mate and the Captain were only moments behind her as they both shuddered to their climaxes within seconds of each other, Mounds falling forward to wrap her arms in the prisoner’s straps to hold herself up as she ground her crotch on the Captain’s cock.
* * * * *
Jessica watched her lover and their roommates play from between slit eyelids, feigning sleep. She had enjoyed her time with Carol and Margo and liked playing pirate with them, but if it wasn’t for Kelly’s connection with these people, she wouldn’t choose to be here. Jessica would much prefer to be in bed with Kelly upstairs alone. She’d had a lot of time to think that week while making delivery runs; a lot of time examine her feelings and try to come to terms with the reality of her and Kelly’s relationship.
She and Kelly had discussed the myriad relationships in the household and Kelly had been very upfront with her.
A part of Kelly belonged to Carol and Kelly wanted it that way. Her aggressive and dominant side enjoyed having one relationship it could relax in. Upon hearing the name “Princess” suddenly Kelly could sink into a place of no responsibility, no need to be in control, no worries other than pleasing her Mistress. Jessica could understand that. When she gave herself over to Kelly she felt the same way. All she had to do was what she was told. She wasn’t going to even try and take that kind of freedom away from Kelly.
Kelly and Harry were very close, very good friends. Jessica didn’t quite understand that kind of friendship, she’d never had such with a man, but she couldn’t deny it existed. Kelly had made it clear without belaboring the point that her relationship with Harry was very precious to her. Jessica was afraid of what would happen should she even intimate that she was uncomfortable with it. And she was. Very. It wasn’t that she didn’t like Harry, she did. Harry was a sweet and wonderful man… but the depth of Kelly’s feelings for him made Jessica very nervous. She couldn’t help but wonder who was more important to Kelly? Was it her or Harry, Margo and Carol? She couldn’t help feeling that if she hadn’t come along, Kelly would be happily sharing a bed with the three of them all the time, making herself subservient to Margo and Carol just to share in the sense of family to an even greater degree.
And then there was Margo. Kelly’s relationship with Margo was probably the weakest link and it was still quite strong. From Jessica’s read on it, on some level Margo was a mother-figure in some bizarre incestuous way for Kelly. Well-off, well-educated, full of poise, beautiful, sensual and soon to be married to Kelly’s best friend… a position that Jessica felt, in some ways, Kelly envied her for. Jessica felt that Margo was pretty much everything Kelly wanted to be when she ‘grew up’.
From what Kelly had told her, although her mother and father loved her and she loved them, Kelly had grown up missing a “us against them” feeling of unity with her parents. They were a family but they weren’t a clan. They weren’t a tribe. That’s what Kelly was looking for, in a lot of ways.
She had found it with these people. They were, in an odd way, her blood brothers and sisters. There were few clearly defined roles in the tribe, although Eddy was clearly a Warrior, Margo a sometimes Matriarch, Harry an occasional Patriarch, Carol the off-again-on-again Wise Woman… but the tribal feel was there for Kelly. It was real to her.
Jessica knew that it had to become real for her as well or she and Kelly weren’t going to make it. She loved Kelly more than she’d ever loved anyone else in her life. She hoped she could find a way to let herself become one of them.
* * * * *
“I’m not at all sure that sweet little piece over there be truly asleep, Cap’n,” Mounds said as they gently lowered their captive to the bed, still insensate.
“Whether she be or not, leave her. We have things to deal with here. Did ye ask her if she wanted to be brought aboard as crew?”
“Aye Cap’n, we did and she declined,” Twat replied. “I wouldn’t be takin’ it personal, she just wants nothin’ to do with the life of a scallywag.”
“Well then, let’s see what this wench says to the proposition.” He took the captive in his arms, shaking her gently until her eyes flickered open. Before he could say anything, she spoke.
“You have a choice, you villainous scrap of beach trash. Either make me a member of this crew or prepare to have me hunting this ship until I send her and your whole crew of perverse degenerates to the bottom of the briny deep.”
“Welcome aboard then, Crewman Bum.”
“Why ‘Bum’?”
“Because ye have such a delightful one, me dark beauty… now, as a ‘welcome aboard’ gift, me and the mates are givin’ ye this wench over here to keep for your own. Take her and go find the two of ye accommodations in the crew quarters. Me and the mates got ship’s business to take care of. And good night to ye both.”
With hugs and kisses all around, the new crew member took her leave, leading her prize by her hair.
After quick trips to the guest bathroom, the three shipmates fell asleep cuddled together on the massive bunk.
* * * * *
Harry stumbled into the kitchen, the bright light pouring in through the window scarring his brain as it ripped through his optic nerves like a knife. He wasn’t hung over, it was just way too early in the morning for so much illumination. Shielding his face, he was able to retreat into the corner where the coffee machine sat, the cool shadows of the corner giving him some relief.
“Have you ever thought that you and Karen might in some ways be psychically linked?” asked Patricia from her seat at the table.
Harry started and then turned around, peering back into the light. “Jesus-Christ-whuppin’-ass-in-the-temple, woman, you startled me!”
“I don’t see how you missed me, Harry, been sitting right here.”
“I was blind, okay, blind. Geez… I’ve got to remember to shut the blinds in here before I go to bed at night.”
“Tell you what, Harry. You let the lady of the house know that you want it done and I bet you dollars to donuts you’ll rarely come in to a bright kitchen again.”
“I imagine you’re right. If I offered you the blood of a virgin, or whatever else you want, could I get you to close them.”
“Sure Harry… I want coffee.” She got up and soon the kitchen was at a bearable level of brightness.
“That I will gladly provide… give me a few minutes. Now, what do you mean, psychically linked?”
“Well, aside from your ability to work together so well, you both seem to have this vampiric allergy to sunshine first thing in the morning.”
“Oh Patricia, you are a goddamn comedienne, that’s what you are.”
A short time later he was sitting at the table with her as they both slurped fresh cups of coffee, she in her panties and he in his robe.
“Harry, I noticed the house catty-cornered across the street from you is for sale. Know anything about it?”
“Yeah, it’s a three-bedroom, two-and-a-half bath, nice sized lot. House is in pretty good shape. The woman who lived there, Mrs. Sattler, passed away and her children put it on the market. I’ve been in it a few times over the years, pretty common interior layout for this neighborhood. Why?”
“Because I’m real tired of living in yuppie-fuckin’-condo land. I think Liz is as well. We’re a little weary of a box we can kinda sorta call our own. She and I were discussing it in bed last night. We like this neighborhood; we’re real fond of one of our potential neighbor families already. We were just thinking it might be time to really settle in.”
“Well, speaking for myself, and I feel safe in saying for the rest of the household as well, we’d love to have y’all that close. I haven’t been in much of a head space to go out and get to know my neighbors since I moved back in or I’ve been too busy to… I think I need to remedy that real soon. It’s obvious we’re settling in and I’ve been remiss in my neighborly responsibilities.”
Their conversation was disturbed as Kelly stumbled in clad in nothing but skin. “Harry, y’all are some evil bastards. Between what y’all did to me last night and what Jess did once we were back in our room, I may not be able to consider sex again for at least, oh, I don’t know, another hour or two. Bastards!”
“My heart bleeds for you, sweetie. A night of good loving… damn, your life just sucks, doesn’t it?” Patricia said with a smile.
“Yeah, ’bout as much as yours does… how are you this morning?”
“Radiantly wonderful and tanking up on coffee.”
Kelly leaned in and kissed Patricia on the cheek before kissing Harry fully and deeply.
“You are a rare and wonderful woman, Kelly. Patricia, she used mouthwash before she came down… you are an angel, Kelly, really you are.”
“Yeah, well I didn’t know if your coffee was gonna be strong enough to kill my morning breath… plus Jess is up and should be down in a bit.”
“Ah, so it wasn’t just for us, it was for Jess… no matter, still muchly appreciated. I’ll get a second pot going.”
Tamara wandered in next wearing Eddy’s shirt as a dress. After hugs and pecks on the cheek all around, she took Harry out on the back porch and told him of her encounter with Carol in the kitchen the evening before.
Harry slumped against the porch railing, a look of anguish in his eyes.
“Harry, no, it’s okay, I talked with her, sat with her, reassured her. She’ll be okay now.”
“Tammy… I never, ever wanted to in anyway do even the slightest, smallest thing that reminded her of him. I think it would be like Carol finding out something she did hit an Angie button.” He straightened up and calmed himself. “Thank you so much for what you did. I need to make sure she understands that from now on, if Margo or I ever do anything that hits one of those buttons, she needs to let us know immediately.”
When they got back inside Jessica was on her way in wearing a t-shirt and panties. After hugs she moved a chair right next to Kelly and sat down with her cup of coffee.
Harry started a third pot and went to their bedroom. Margo was starting to stir so he went across the house to the bathroom with her and as she performed her morning toilet, he relayed what Tamara had told him.
Together they went back to the bedroom and curled up on either side of Carol, cuddling up close to her and gently stroking her arms, gently bringing her towards wakefulness. As her eyes flickered open she smiled and stretched lazily.
“Good morning my loves… what’s up?”
“Baby Girl,” Harry said, “Tamara told me about what you went through in the kitchen last night. Sweetie, I am so sorry. I know I had no way of knowing how that would affect you but I’m still so sorry. I never wanted you to be reminded of Rick again, ever.”
“Harry, Margo, it’s alright, really… Tamara and I worked through it and I’m fine.”
“Yes dear, you are, but anytime something hits a bad button like that you need to let Harry or I know, immediately. You may consider that an order from both of us. There is never a reason for you to suffer a moment’s distress from something like that. Now, do you need to go to that bathroom?”
“Yes ma’am, I could stand to.”
“Fine, go to the bathroom and then come straight back here.”
“Yes ma’am.”
While Carol was in the bathroom Harry went and checked the coffee level. Seeing Eddy sitting at the table, resplendent in his black silk boxers he knew he’d be starting another pot if not two.
“Mornin’ Eddy, how ya doin’?”
“Trying to come up with sufficient reasons not to kill and eat Kelly. So far the best I’ve come up with is that it would make Jessica sad. She would have a sad expression on her face. That would make Tamara sad and I can’t have that.”
“You backwards-ass redneck throwback to a time when mullets ruled the earth, any day you think you can take me out, bring it on and I will fuck you into submission. Leave you a broken man, sucking your thumb and crying for Tamara.”
“Tamara, you may end up sad today… Jessica, prepare to look forlorn… I’m thinking the woman needs to die.”
“Eddy, Margo and Carol will not be happy if you kill and eat Kelly. I will not be happy,” Harry said. At the counter, Patricia was slicing up fruit. “Patricia, do you have anything Tamara can shove in this maniac’s mouth or is she going to have to risk a tit?”
“Fruit coming up, shortly to be followed by breakfast breads of various kinds. Kelly, how fast can you run?”
“Damn fast, why?”
“Go wake up Karen and then evacuate the area immediately before you get caught in the blast.”
“How do you recommend I wake her up?”
“Well, I usually tickle her tits until she starts to come around, then I thrust my leg between hers and hug her real hard creating a need to go pee… I don’t recommend that method for you. Try shaking her by the shoulder and calling her name real loud until she turns over. Then run.”
Kelly bounded off towards the stairs. “This is going to be so much fun!”
“Harry, see, the girl’s got a gawddamn death wish, you should let me grant it.”
Harry had two pots brewing. “Eddy, mega bad juju if you do.”
From upstairs came Karen’s unmistakable bellow. “THAT HAIRY NEANDERTHAL SAID WHAT?” Then the sound of Kelly, bolting down the stairs, giggling like a lunatic, filled the kitchen.
“Harry, I’m going to go slaughter one of your housemates now,” Eddy said, getting out of his chair and heading towards the living room.
Harry shook his head and went back to the bedroom, deciding that cleanup of the body or bodies could wait until after breakfast. He and Carol met in the living room and walked in to Margo arm in arm. They climbed into bed and Harry and Margo cuddled up to Carol in-between them.
“Baby Girl, I love you and I’m so sorry that you were freaked last night. Please tell me if that happens again, not only because you’ve been told to but so that I can have a chance to make it right immediately,” Harry said, stroking her belly gently.
“As long as we all can talk to each other, everything will be fine, honey,” Margo added, hugging Carol tightly. “And there’s never any reason for any of us to suffer like that alone no matter what the cause. We’re family… we don’t let that happen, not to people we love.”
“EDDY, PUT ME DOWN OR I’M GONNA HAVE JESS GNAW YOUR NUTS OFF WHILE I BEAT YOU TO DEATH WITH YOUR OWN SEVERED DICK!” came the cry of Kelly from the living room.
“I should’ve known better, I did know better… it was just at the time it all hit me so hard, I felt like I had no control over it. I was telling myself it was bullshit and that you wouldn’t do that to me but all the talking I was doing wasn’t changing how I was feeling,” Carol said, kissing Margo’s wrist.
“Could you have blown a whistle?” Margo asked out of nowhere.
“Blown a whistle? Yeah, yeah I suppose I could have. Why?”
“The whistle Eddy has me wearing got me thinking about it. I’ve got an old brass British Police whistle I found in a shop in London last time I was there. I had it put on a chain at a shop.” She got up and went into her closet.
“EDDY, YOU CAN’T USE KELLY AS A SHIELD FOREVER, SOONER OR LATER YOUR ARMS ARE GONNA GET TIRED!” hollered Karen.
Margo rummaged about for a bit and returned. “Here you go, love.”
The whistle was on a beautiful gold chain and Margo put it around Carol’s neck, fastening it.
“There now, if you ever panic like that again, you put the whistle in your mouth and blow. We’ll come running.”
“Listen, this is silly. I shouldn’t have to wear a whistle in case I freak out. It won’t happen again. I’m embarrassed as hell it happened once.”
“No,” Harry said, holding her tightly and stroking her hair, “there’s nothing at all for you to be embarrassed about. In your place I would’ve freaked out as well.”
“Me too, honey,” Margo added, “so don’t even think twice about it. The next time you’re in distress, you blow on that and we’ll come running. With everything that all of us have been through, the occasional panic is to be expected.”
“KAREN, LEAVE EDDY ALONE, GET IN HERE AND START BREAKFAST!” yelled Patricia.
“Have I told you guys lately that I love you?” Carol said, cuddled safe and sound between the two of them.
“I love you too and maybe you have but I’d be stupid to get tired of hearing it, wouldn’t you babe?” Harry said.
“Anytime you want to say it, I’m happy to hear it because I love you too. And as much as I want a cup of coffee, I think I want to lay here and cuddle with the two of you until breakfast is ready,” Margo said.
“BUT PATRICIA, EDDY STARTED IT!”
“HE DID NOT, KELLY WAS PULLING YOUR LEG BECAUSE I TOLD HER TO GET YOU OUT OF BED.”
“KEEEELLY…”
“That is, if breakfast ever is ready,” Harry said with a smile.
* * * * *
Some time later there was a gentle knocking at the door and Tamara stuck her head in.
“I’m to ask Carol what she wants in her omelet. We have Mozarella, Monterey Jack, Swiss, Cheddar and American cheese available as well as sausage both hot and mild, ham, onions, fried potatoes, bacon, tomatoes and garlic.”
“Uh, Monterey Jack, hot sausage, ham, onions, garlic and fried potatoes… thank you.”
“You’re welcome honey, might want to get a move on, it won’t take Karen the wonder chef long.”
The three of them wandered in and Harry began another pot of coffee. Karen was at the stove in briefs, sports bra and apron. The room swam in wonderful smells.
“Okay sleepy heads, we got bacon and sausage in the pan here keeping warm, taters in the other pan, breads, juices and fruits on the counter over there. Margo, Carol’s omelet’s about to be done, decide what you want.”
“When the fuck do I get an omelet?” Harry asked, smiling.
“When everybody else besides me has one… sucks being the host, don’t it?” Karen replied with a grin.
In short order everyone had been fed and was sitting around feeling full and happy.
* * * * *
“So after those assholes had pulled their sophomoric stunt with the cadavers, my friends and I decided that to win the bet, and to do so with style, we had to get truly creative,” Margo said, having a sip of juice.
“I still can’t believe that people who wanted to be doctors would dress corpses up and pose them having sex in the Baylor Admin lobby… that’s just sick,” Jessica said.
“Oh honey, some of the sickest, most disgusting perverts you’d ever want to meet are medical students,” Margo said with a smile. “When your business is life and death, I suspect you almost have to develop a dark and macabre sense of humor.
“So one of the women in my study group, ravishing Indian girl named Devapaati, starts letting it be known that not only will we cover any side bets made, but that she would give blowjobs to bettors if we lost. As our opponents were the odds-on favorites at the time, this did stimulate some extra action. Hell, I sold my car and borrowed as much money from my family as I could to put down, above what I’d already bet on us.
“The informal judges’ panel, composed of some of the more relaxed professors, was known to prefer elegance to ‘brute force’ pranks. So we stole almost every display skeleton in the school, got the full ‘cock and balls’ dildos we needed, the sheets of plywood, the other supplies and retired to a rented storage unit. Soon as we’d get one diorama constructed, Ed would take it in his truck to Paul, who had worked in landscaping all through his college years. Paul would load it up in the ‘borrowed’ groundskeeper’s cart, cover it with shade cloth hanging on the posts on the corners and off he’d go, carefully unloading it as a pre-chosen scenic spot, make sure the base was covered by the cloth and stick up the sign reading “Another New Planting Courtesy of Baylor Medical School Groundskeeping Department”. He’d squared it with them, reassuring them it was a prank and that they’d be getting all their equipment back undamaged.
“Still, it took us a lot longer than we’d expected and nobody got much sleep that weekend. But by 4 AM Monday morning, all sixty-four were in place and we then ran around the campus madly removing the shade cloths.
“When students and faculty moved about the grounds that morning they were greeted with the sixty-four positions of the Kama Sutra, lovingly illustrated by skeletons, a white painted anatomically correct dildo designating the male figures, each diorama with a small painted plaque describing the position.”
Laughter filled the kitchen.
“We’d gotten pictures of each of them… come to think of it, I still have my copies somewhere in my things… because we thought, perhaps, our opponents might not be good sports.
“We were surprised. Carl Kline, who’s now in line to get the Chief of Neurology position at St. Joseph’s in Houston, and was head of the other study group, came up to us as we sat in the Student Union Building sucking down coffee and admitted defeat. We all made a nice sum off of it. I bought a new car, paid back the family… never told them what I’d really used the money for.”
“Honey,” Harry said, “how good are the photos? If they’re of sufficient quality, we could have them made into prints, get them framed, put up around the house.”
* * * * *
Carol and Tamara gave Karen and Patricia massages in appreciation for the superb breakfast while the rest of the crew cleaned up the remains of the meal. Harry ducked out a little early and when the clean up was finished called everyone into the living room.
“Carol, my darling, please sit down here in the middle of the floor,” he said.
Carol, grinning uncertainly, sat down on a cushion he’d indicated. Harry, Margo and Kelly sat down in a circle around her, close to her and holding hands. In a circle around them sat Eddy, Tamara, Karen, Patricia and Jessica, who all held hands as well.
“Baby Girl,” Margo said, “you’ve been avoiding something you need to do. You need to do it for your sake. We’re all here. We’re all your friends and family. We all love you. We’re all here for you.”
Harry put the envelope from Tony in Carol’s lap.
“Don’t you think it’s time you found out what he wanted you to know?” Harry asked. “You don’t have to share it with us, not now, not ever. But we’re here to support you and love you. If you’d really rather not look at it now, that’s fine too. This isn’t meant to pressure you into something you’re really not ready for. But it felt to me like you didn’t want to face it alone and you didn’t know how to ask us to help. If that’s the case, here we are. Go ahead and read it, surrounded by the love of your friends and family.”
The tears streaming down Carol’s face, past her smile, gave silent testimony to her feelings. Slowly she opened the envelope and in a breaking voice began to read it aloud.
“”My Dearest Baby Girl,
I wish I could leave you something more substantial than the remnants of this foolish hobby of mine.” ”
“That was for the benefit of his family,” she said. “That’s what they thought of his record collecting.”
“”However, we both know my loving family deserves everything of value in my estate as they have had to put up with so much at my hands over the years. I only wish that my recent losses at the race track had not been so big. I feel terrible about that I’ve cost them so much money due to an old man’s foolishness.”"
“Harry, this is bullshit. Tony went to the track, sure. He’d even place bets on the bigger races across the country but it was always relative small change. He never bet enough to be a big bettor by any stretch of the imagination.”
“”But as Vic can attest, in an attempt to increase my estate’s value as a final gesture to them, I almost ruined myself. I suspect that by the time my final debts are settled, they’ll be left with enough for a comfortable life, although in a somewhat leaner lifestyle than they might have wished.”"
“Y’all, this is totally screwy. Tony was sad about his relationship with his family but as much as he was able in his final months, he was spending money right and left. He was playing the bon vivant to the last possible moment, never having water if champagne was available, never settling for chicken if there was quail to be had.”
“”My stupid scribblings on music and such I leave to you as well. They’re filed, whenever possible, in the albums of the appropriate musicians. The uncategorizable entries are in their own envelopes. Hopefully you’ll read a page or two of them, from time to time, and think of me. Although I’m sure you’d find those horrid CDs easier to deal with, I ask that you play every album at least once. I still have hopes that you’ll someday be able to discover what I so treasured about them.”"
“This is crazy talk. He and I loved listening to his records. Of all the times we spent together, the best by far were listening to his music and often times dancing together.”
“Maybe he had gotten a little senile when he wrote this?” Kelly said. “Not meaning any disrespect and I don’t know much more than the basics of the story, but could that maybe explain it?”
“No,” Carol answered, puzzled, “he was sharp as a tack and all there up to… up to the last time I saw him.”
“”If anything I’ve ever done leaves you needing help or advice, go to Niccolo. My godson is a good boy and knows my mind on many things.”
“If my greatest wish, to be granted a second lifetime to find you again, can’t be granted then I pray my second wish comes true- that you find someone who loves you as you deserve to be loved and can give you what you need to be happy.
“Know that if I can crash the Gates, I’ll be watching over you from Above, I love you more than I can say,
“Tony”"
The room was quiet but for Carol’s soft sobs.
Then she got up and carefully stepped between those seated around her.
“Come on,” she said, “I think I need to go take a look at those records.”
Leading them to Harry’s old bedroom upstairs where Karen and Patricia had spent the night amidst the boxes and crates. She opened the lid of one of the boxes and carefully pulled out an album.
“Alright, ‘Me And The Blues’, Joe Williams… we listened to this one often.”
She gently pulled the polylined sleeve out, reverently placing the sleeve and the record inside to one side on the desk top. With delicate movements she pried open the cardboard sleeve open and peered inside.
“Well, no notes on Joe, although I know he saw him live, so they must be in another album… what’s this? Anybody got a pair of forceps?”
“I’ve got a pair I use as a roach clip out in the truck, hold on,” Eddy said as he turned to run downstairs.
“Think the neighborhood’s ready for Eddy in his boxers?” Kelly asked.
“Ready or not, they’re about to get him,” Harry replied.
In the meantime Carol took out the next album.
“Joe Williams, ‘A Night At Count Basie’s’… okay, here’s the album itself… here are at least some of the notes… the same thing, it looks like… something fastened to the inside of the sleeve.
“”November 3rd, 1957
“Last night I had to handle something for Carlo. Seemed Joey G. was talking crazy again and since Carlo took over after Albert’s unfortunate demise, Joey and Larry have borne watching. Out of town talent seemed to Carlo a good way to do it,” Carol read.
“But Joey stayed in, spending the evening at Carmen’s, his mistress, so I was able to hand him off to Anthony and head to Harlem. Of course I didn’t tell anyone where I was going as I catch enough flack about how much time I spend with ‘the coloreds’ as it is.
“Harlem, Seventh Avenue and 132nd at night is an eye-opener. The cream of jazz and blues musicians are playing at Count Basie’s Bar and yet most whites stay away. Those that do come walk like they expect to be attacked any moment, every step they take and every move they make announcing that they’re victims, waiting to be taken. The streets are lit with the neon of the clubs and bars, the night is alive with music from a dozen sources and yet these poor fools walk in their own eternal shadows.
“There are the rare few, like myself, though, who come realizing that they are safe, protected by the holy purpose of their visit. This is the Temple where the Muse resides for now and we who come to worship her and those she has touched are sacred pilgrims, journeying to a foreign land.”"
The tears in her voice stopped the reading and she put down the pages of notes. Harry reached to her and pulled her into his arms.
“Harry, I miss him so much… I can hear him in every word and I miss him.”
“If you can hear him, Baby Girl, then he’s here with you,” Harry said. “I’m sure if anyone could crash the Gates he did, so he’s here with you.”
Carol relaxed a bit and then, wiping her face on his robe, returned to her task.
“Here’s the next one, Joe Williams and Harry ‘Sweets’ Edison, ‘Together’… no notes… again, something fastened inside.”
Eddy’s thundering footsteps came up the stairs. “You know, a compassionate group of friends might’ve thought to remind me that I was still dressed in only my gawddamn boxers,” he said, handing Carol the forceps as he pounded into the room, skidding to a stop.
“Jesus Christ, Eddy, you ever clean these?” Carol said, looking about for something to wipe off the tips of the forceps.
“Yeah, about once a month… why?”
“They’re disgusting,” she said, cleaning them on Harry’s proffered robe tail.
“Well excuse the fuck out of me, your highness, you wanna wait till I go buy you a fresh clean pair?” Eddy asked, smiling.
“No, silly man, I’m sorry… I’m just nervous.”
She took the forceps and, holding the cardboard sleeve open as far as she felt she safely could, reached in and grasped the object, pulling slowly.
Suddenly it came free and the forceps came out with a fifty dollar bill in them, a piece of tape on each end of the bill.
Her mouth hanging open, Carol moved to the next sleeve, repeating the procedure.
Another fifty dollar bill appeared.
The third sleeve yielded the same.
Carol froze for a moment then sat down on the floor with a thump.
“What’s wrong baby? What’s wrong with her, Harry?” Kelly asked.
Harry stood, in shock himself.
“She’s done the math, Kelly. Over five thousand albums, ‘play each one at least once’ he said… over five thousand times fifty dollars, Kelly… that’s over a quarter of a million dollars.”
It was silent in the room for quite some time.