The Three Signs Book 1 CathyChapter 33 Performances Part 2
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The Three Signs - Book 1 - CathyChapter 32: Performances (Part 1) free porn video
As I drove down The Crescent towards Newport I turned on the radio. The first song that started to play was Bread’s “The Guitar Man”. What a coincidence, I thought as I sang along with David Gates.
Who draws the crowd and plays so loud, baby, it’s the guitar manWho’s gonna steal the show, you know, baby, it’s the guitar man
He can make you love, he can make you cry
He will bring you down and he’ll get you high
Somethin’ keeps him goin’ miles and miles a day
To find another place to play
I considered that a good omen and I was on a high as I backed my car to the loading bay at the Mirage. By the time the others had arrived I had set my equipment up on the stage; I had my seat with the microphone stand in front of me, the tape player with the backing tape cued up next to me on the piano bench, and both guitars on their stands next to the amp. I had prepared a list of songs for the set; most of the songs I knew by heart.
I started with the acoustic guitar; I really needed to work on how to best use the Strat at home before I tried it in public. I started out with some of the older folk songs; ‘Black Velvet Band’, ‘All Among the Wool’, and the mix I had of ‘Waltzing Matilda’ and ‘The Road to Gundagi’. Most people seemed to be listening; some looked as if they were even softly singing along to themselves. After a few more songs, I took a brief break.
I was having a brief chat with the others when guy in his early twenties came up and indicated that he wanted to speak with me.
“G’day, I really love the stuff you are playing,” he said. “I was wondering, could I ask a favour, a request?”
“Sure, is there something specific you would like me to play?” I replied.
“Well, I’m about to ask my girlfriend to marry me, to pop the question,” he said. “I was hoping that right after that, when you resume playing, you could play something appropriate for us?”
“Sure, not a problem,” I replied. “I think I know just the right one. What’s her name, and yours? You will have to let me know if she says ‘yes’, too.”
“My name’s Pete,” he said, “and her name is Donna.”
“No worries, Pete, we’ll do something special for you,” I said, shaking his hand.
“What are you going to play?” Megan asked me. “You’re not thinking of that Ritchie Valen’s song, called ‘Donna’, are you?”
I played the opening bars to ‘Donna’, and sang the first few lines.
I had a girlDonna was her name
Since she left me
I’ve never been the same
“Probably not that one, that has her breaking up with him. Not really the message he wants when he is proposing to her. I was thinking of ‘Today’, you know that New Christie Minstrel’s one,” I replied.
“Do you want me to sing along with you,” she said. “If you want, I’ll set up my mike, too.”
We agreed that would make it sound even better, so we got a second microphone stand set up. Megan would stand just behind me, to my left. A minute or two later, we heard a bit of a commotion, it was Donna accepting Pete’s proposal. Megan smiled at me, held a hand and squeezed it.
“This will be so romantic,” she said. “Are you ready?”
We resumed our places on the stage, and I leant forward to the microphone.
“Just before I start the next set there is an announcement I want to make,” I said. “We want to congratulate Pete and Donna – where are they?” Pete stood up and waved. “Tonight is a special night for them, Donna has just accepted Pete’s proposal of marriage. So this next song is a special one, just for the two of them. Here’s wishing you all the best, congratulations and all the happiness for the future.”
The audience looked towards the couple, and applauded. Megan looked at me, smiled, and whispered in my ear.
“Remember, imagine what the song is about,” she said softly. “I’m about to imagine that I am singing this just after you have proposed to me, maybe you can try thinking the same thing. Get yourself in the right mood.”
I smiled at her, and kissed her cheek. I tried to picture what she had suggested, and started singing. I had to admit, with that image in my mind, and having her right beside me, singing with me; it was the best that I had ever sung that song. By the time we had finished, I could feel my eyes damp with the start of tears. I looked at Megan; she was wiping tears from her eyes, too.
“We can still make that magic, Will,” she said softly. “Do you want me to keep singing with you through the rest of your set?”
“Sure, I would like that,” I whispered back. “Here’s the list of songs,” I said, pointing to the sheet taped to my mike stand.
“Okay, I’ll follow your lead,” she said. “I know all of those.”
We sang through the rest of the set; Megan had no trouble harmonising with me. Even the final one, ‘Summer Song’, when I played with my backing tape; she fitted in perfectly.
“Thank you everyone, we’ll be back in thirty minutes with the full band,” I said, as everyone applauded us.
“That was so much fun,” Megan said. “I really enjoy singing with you, Will. We need to have another long practice week, work up a bunch of new stuff for the two of us.”
I had my suspicions that it wasn’t just songs that Megan wanted to “work on” with me.
“Yeah, that might be good,” I said. “I don’t know when I will have the time; things are going to be busy for the next couple of weeks. We should see if we can make some time though.”
I told myself that somehow, I wouldn’t be able to make time for a private practice session with Megan; I didn’t want to complicate my life any more than it was. The rest of the evening went well; we played until 1:00 am, and as we were packing up, Pete and his new fiancée Donna came up to thank us for their song.
“That was so lovely, what you sang for us,” Donna said. She was still glowing, flushed with romantic thoughts.
“Do you guys play weddings?” Pete asked. “We haven’t even set a date yet, but we were thinking of having our wedding here, and maybe all of you could play at the reception?”
Phil took their details, and gave him his phone number. After they left, as we were packing up he floated the idea of playing at wedding receptions to the rest of us.
“I guess it’s something we could do,” Paul said. “Particularly if they were going to hold it here, it would probably be a Saturday afternoon, it would be more money, too,”
We finished packing up, and I drove home, dropping Megan off at her place on the way. We talked about my upcoming gig at Terrey Hills, how I would have some jam sessions with Mike’s group on Monday and Tuesday, and she asked if she could rehearse with me before that.
“I don’t want to gate crash your gig, Will,” she said. “But maybe if we did all the stuff together, you might find it easier to get things right with what you want to do. I can always listen, and make suggestions, too.”
We settled on her getting with me for a few days in the week of January 12th. Having someone that could give me constructive criticism would really help.
I was exhausted when I got home; it had been a long, tiring day. Not only was I up early to get the boat and everyone down for the yacht race start, but the conversation with Chris Earle was emotionally draining, plus the long performance that night. Unusually I fell straight to sleep, not needing any time to unwind.
I woke up still feeling rather tired, but a nice shower fixed that. I went out to get some breakfast, and my parents asked me how everything went yesterday.
“All pretty well; the performance at the Mirage went well,” I said. “I had an interesting talk with Chris Earle on the way back from the race start, too.”
I gave my parents a brief summary of what Chris said, at least the part about her and Jack talking to my parents about Lori and I probably have sex.
“How about we talk about this in the lounge room,” my Father suggested. “I’m sure you’ve got questions for your Mother and me about that.”
I put my breakfast stuff in the sink, and we went into the lounge room.
“Okay, fire away,” he said.
“Well, what I don’t understand is I got the impression that you were happy if Lori and I slept together, if we had sex,” I said. “You would always tell me ‘don’t do anything silly’, and I just assumed...”
He laughed at me.
“What I meant by that was not doing things that might get you in hospital, or at the police station,” he explained. “Getting drunk, involved in a fight, getting some girl pregnant, all of that stuff. So far, you’ve avoided all of that, unlike some other kids. Your mother and I both avoided things like that, too.”
“But the having sex?” I asked.
“There’s nothing wrong with having sex at all, that’s all part of becoming an adult, learning about life,” my mother said. “Now, I’m not suggesting you sleep with any girl or woman that you meet, but if the two of you are in love, then provided you take precautions, that’s an important part of any relationship. I guess it’s no great surprise to you that you father and I both had several sexual partners before we met each other?”
That was a surprise, hearing it directly from my mother.
“Well, it is, I don’t know why it is a surprise,” I said. “I guess I never really think about you and Dad having sex, I mean, obviously you had to with each other, because how would I have been born, and my brother and sister, but before that...” I could feel my face turning red.
“Why wouldn’t we have sex?” my mother said, sounding a little indignant. “And you don’t need to refer to that as if it is all in the past tense, either.”
Woah! That was far more than I really needed to know.
“Will, as I’m sure you and Cathy have discovered,” my Father said, “sex is an important and enjoyable part of any relationship. It’s one important way a couple can express their love for each other, and share a special type of closeness you can’t really get in any other way. The only constraint I would suggest you put on it is to keep it with girls – women – that you really love, otherwise if you sleep around, have casual sex with anyone and everyone, it starts to lose that special nature.”
“As you’ve probably guessed, your father wasn’t the first person I had sex, or made love with,” my mother said, taking over the conversation. “I wasn’t the first for him, either; but that didn’t worry either of us. What we did in the past, before we met each other, is just that; in the past. But since we met, there hasn’t been anyone else for either of us. Not that there hasn’t been temptations, or offers, but we both want sex to be something special between John and me.
“When we talked the other evening, how I said having that relationship with someone special is so important; more important than money, or a well-paying job; this was what I was hinting at. I don’t think it’s possible to have a satisfying, happy marriage if there isn’t a good sex life as part of it. There’s so much more to a good, rewarding relationship than just sex, of course, but if you don’t have that, then things start to fall apart. You can learn just about anything else in life, but nowhere are there classes you can take in how to have good, satisfying sex; it’s something that you have to learn by trial and error as you go along.”
“I know that with the first serious girlfriend I had; Bill’s sister Jeannie; we both had sex for the first time,” my father continued. “This was before I moved to Sydney for University, we both hadn’t turned seventeen, and had no idea just what we were doing. I knew it was very unsatisfying for her, at least the first time, and I was left thinking what’s the big deal about all this. But we did it a few more times, and eventually got the hang of things. I’m sure Mary would have similar things to say about her early experiences. By the time we got together, we both knew what we wanted, and how to satisfy another person.”
“So, that’s what you need to do, Will,” my mother said. “Take the time to learn about sex, be sensitive to what your partner wants, listen to what they say, how they react. It’s not just about you getting your own satisfaction; you are responsible to make sure whoever you are with gets enjoyment and satisfaction too.
“I’m sure by now you’ve worked out how to make sure Cathy gets complete enjoyment when you both have sex,” she said. “Just don’t assume that what she wants and what she enjoys is what all women will want. If you’ve already done things with a number of girls, you have probably worked that out already, but, make sure you don’t assume that just because Cathy liked making love a particular way, or doing certain things, that your next partner will want exactly the same thing.”
“It’s all about being sensitive to your partner’s needs and desires,” my father said. “That also applies in reverse, too; the next partner you are with may not know just what it is that you like and want, and what things you don’t like. So find a tactful way to let her know just what it is that turns you on, and what turns you off. She might assume that things she did with her previous lover were what all men like; so if you don’t say anything, that’s your fault. Just find a sensitive, tactful way to let her know.”
My God, I had really opened Pandora’s Box with this. I had never expected my parents to be so up front, so open about sexual matters. I couldn’t look them in the eye; I kept my face looking down at the floor. Just how much did they know about things I had been doing over the last two years? I really didn’t need to know the details of their sex lives, either. Still, I did ask for it, bringing up the subject of their conversation with the Earle’s. I decided to push a little further.
“Thanks for all that, there’s a lot of good advice there,” I said. “I’ll try to keep all of that in mind. It does answer a lot of questions and help me sort out a lot of stuff that had been puzzling me. You two are pretty cool, for parents I mean.”
“Well, there you go, Mary,” my father said. “We are cool parents!”
“Actually, Jenny DeJong and Hannah said that mum was really cool, the only parent they knew that were supportive of them,” I said. “How did you know that they were... ?”
“That they had a lesbian relationship?” she finished the question for me, and I nodded. “It was easy for me to tell, just how they looked together, the way they treated each other. There were all these little things that made it obvious, at least to me.”
“Hannah told me how much they appreciated what you said to them,” I continued. “In fact, she asked me if I knew if you had ever ... well, if you had ever had a relationship like she and Jenny have. She thought that may have been why you were so understanding, and not being judgemental like so many other people have been.”
My mother laughed.
“She’s a perceptive one, that girl,” she said. “I did have a relationship like that; I don’t think you ever met Anna, my friend from school? She was maid of honour at my wedding ... Anyway, in the year between finishing high school and starting teacher’s college, we spent a lot of time together, and well, one thing led to another. We had to be very discreet, of course. But that was the only time I’ve done anything like that. I think most teenage girls probably have a relationship like that at some stage in their teen years. Since then, I’ve been one hundred percent straight, though.”
“Now, while we are up in Newcastle, are you going to have Cathy around here?” my Father asked.
“Well, we were thinking of that,” I said. “Her parents are going up to Katoomba for the first week in January, staying with her Aunt, and we were thinking ... it would be an opportunity for her to spend some time around here with me. Unless you would prefer it if we didn’t, then we won’t do that.”
“No, that’s probably a good thing,” he said. “I don’t know what her parent’s view of that is, but if you are going to do things, you know, make love and all that, you might not want to do that outdoors, or any place where you might get caught. The Copley’s may not be as open minded about that as we are. I assume you’re taking precautions? I wouldn’t want to have to explain to her parents how you got her pregnant.”
“She’s on the pill,” I said. “She has been for a while, that was one thing I was adamant about; and, yeah, we’ll be careful.”
“Now why didn’t they have them when you and I were that age?” my mother asked, rhetorically.
“Okay, like I always say, don’t do anything silly,” he said. “Now we understand exactly what I mean by ‘silly’, enjoy yourself while we are away.”
“I will, and thanks,” I said.
“Now, the stuff your mother and I just talked about with you,” he said. “We only told you that now, because we think you are mature enough to handle that knowledge. Just keep all that to yourself, okay?”
“Sure, I will,” I said.
“You have a good time while we are away, wish Cathy and David a happy birthday from us, and we’ll see you in two weeks’ time,” my mother said, as I was heading out to give Cathy her birthday present.
Cathy was excited as she tore the wrapping paper from her present.
“These are fantastic!” she exclaimed, as she flipped through the two books. “This even has a hand-written dedication from Ben Chifley in it! Where did you find these?”
“There’s this little obscure bookshop in Pitt Street, just before Liverpool Street,” I replied. “I told the guy there what I thought you might like, and he rummaged through a pile of books; I was scared they were going to topple over onto him! It’s a fascinating place; you wouldn’t believe all the stuff there.”
“They are perfect,” she said. “You know exactly what to get for me, thank you so much!”
She kissed me hard on the lips, hugging me tightly.
“Do you two want a room?” David said, punching me lightly on the shoulder.
“No, that will come tomorrow,” Cathy said, teasing him. I guess he wasn’t getting all that much from Gina at the moment.
“Yeah, no need to remind me that I will be dragged up to Gina’s grandparents next week,” he said. “No chance of anything beyond a plain kiss up there.”
“Well, mate, you have to take what chances you can get,” I told him. “You should be out with her this afternoon, before you all come up to the Mirage for dinner.”
“What do you think I’m going to be doing?” he said. “I had better go and get ready, I’ll see you later tonight, Will.”
“Don’t forget your frenchies and lube,” Cathy said as he disappeared inside. “He’s so easy to tease, it’s almost unfair!”
“I know, I really shouldn’t tease him about things, but he’s such a tempting target,” I replied. “Now, about time I was heading up to practice; I’ll see you up there at dinner time?”
We kissed goodbye, and I drove up to Paul’s for the weekly rehearsal session. Once we had set up, Bruce handed around a list of songs.
“If we get into playing at wedding receptions, here are some suggestions for what we might want to have read for a bridal waltz,” he said.
I scanned through the list; some we already played, like ‘Unforgettable’, ‘Fascination’, ‘At Last’, ‘Can’t Help Falling in Love’, and ‘When I Fall in Love’. Others on the list included ‘Unchained Melody’, ‘When a Man Loves a Woman’, ‘Moon River’ and ‘Melody of Love’. That last one I know was a favourite of my parents; it was their bridal waltz when they got married. There were a bunch of others that we regularly played that weren’t waltzes, but would be suitable for a wedding reception.
“Maybe you can all think of some others, talk to your folks, see what they had when they got hitched,” he said. “Are you going to be playing the guitar and singing before we start again tonight, Will? What stuff did you have in mind for the Terrey Hills gig?”
He and I talked about some stuff I could play, and I pulled out some of the music he had loaned me.
“I’m jamming with Mike Franz’s band, Salamon on Monday and Tuesday,” I said. “I’ll go through most of these with those guys, maybe see if I can lay down some backing tapes. I’ve been practicing some of the blues licks, trying to get them right.”
“What if we run through some of them now?” he suggested. “That ‘Before you Accuse me’, let’s start with that, it’s a pretty basic Chicago electric blues piece. Just remember the secret is that each beat is split into three, so count one-and-a two-and-a three-and-a four.”
We ran through that, Phil gave me some ideas for the blues licks at the end of each line. After a second time through, I was feeling pretty confident about the piece.
“Now let’s try Robert Johnson’s ‘Crossroad Blues’,” Bruce said. “Put Clapton’s version out of your mind, this is raw Mississippi Delta blues.”
After a couple of pretty rough tries, we started to get it right. We ended the session with a few Chuck Berry numbers. Then we took a short break, as my voice was starting to get a bit raw, before running through several of the new songs we were working on. Megan and I were trying to do the ‘Sonny and Cher’ duet ‘I’ve Got You Babe’; it was ok, but not up to our usual standard.
“We’re going to have to find some time to practice together, Will,” Megan said. “When can you squeeze me into your busy schedule?”
“It might not be until early February,” I said. “I’ll try to make time for us, though.”
“We have a while before we have to get these others worked out,” Phil said. “If the two of you get together, work them out between you, they will be good.”
We continued the rehearsal session as usual, and when we took another break, Megan asked me if I would want her to sing along with me before the main part of the gig, like she did the night before. We agreed that it sounded better with both of us singing, and she asked if we could run through ‘A Summer Song’, so she could practice the harmonies needed for her part.
Once we had run through it twice; and it sounded so much better with her adding the harmonies; she asked me about the song.
“Tell me, Will, when you are singing those words, just what are you thinking about?” she asked. “What does that song mean to you?”
“It’s an allegory,” I said. “The words sound like he’s describing a lover, but to me it’s all about summer time as a season, and how when he’s in the middle of a cold, wet winter, he reminisces about how much he enjoyed the summer. I don’t take the words as literal; I don’t think it’s about another actual person.”
“Hmm, interesting,” she said, being mysterious. “Sounds like you’re in the first stages of self-denial to me.”
“So what do you think it’s all about?” I said; knowing exactly what she was referring to.
“It’s about a love affair that starts in the summer, and ends not long afterwards,” she said. “The person singing it realizes just what he’s lost, when the autumn and winter comes, and is sad about his lost love. He transfers his lover to the seasons.”
“So, you are saying it’s describing my situation with Cathy?” I said, trying to provoke a reaction from her. “That in a few months, I will be alone, sad, wishing I was still with her?”
“I’m not saying anything about you,” she said, defensively. “That’s just the emotions I get from the song.”
“Could have fooled me,” I said, but decided to drop the subject.
No sense in getting into an argument with Megan, not just before we were going to perform together. I didn’t know what her problem was, but ever since I had got back with Cathy, she acted if it was her mission in life to remind me how by the end of February, Cathy will have moved to Canberra, and the distance between us would cause us to break up. Actually, come to think of it, right from when Megan and I started our “no strings” relationship, she had always been quick to tell me that Cathy wasn’t the right person for me. For someone that said she all that she wanted was a casual, no strings attached relationship with me; she sure took a lot of interest in my other relationships.
I thought I knew what Megan really wanted from me; she wanted us to have that “no strings attached” relationship, and now that both of us had lost our virginities, there would be nothing stopping us from going ‘all the way’. She had made her desires obvious to me, and I’m sure that when we got together for some one-on-one rehearsing, sex would be involved; at least if she got her way. I certainly didn’t want to hasten any breakup between Cathy and me by having sex with anyone else, so somehow Megan would just have to put her desires to one side. The hard part was doing that without upsetting our working relationship in the group.
Anyway, I could delay Megan and me getting together for rehearsing with just the two of us for a month, at least, until after Cathy had moved to Canberra. The issue could be safely delayed until then, and I might have had the opportunity to work out a more permanent solution, at least one that left us all still friends.
We packed up our equipment, and drove the short distance to the Mirage. Megan helped me set up on the stage, and I put an extra microphone there for her. We quickly reviewed the list of songs in my two sets, she suggested ones where she could sing the lead, and I agreed with her. At least that would share the main singing workload.
We were almost ready to start when Cathy’s family came in; Gina was with David, she was wearing what I regarded as a typical ‘Gina’ dress, low cut at the front and back, slit up the sides; it really left nothing to the imagination. Just as well the dancing wasn’t going to be all that energetic; otherwise her boobs would be falling out everywhere. Beth and Janelle were with them, too, and I had arranged for them to get a table close to the front, just off to the side of the dance area. It was a table for eight, so there was a chair free for me to sit at during breaks.
I said hello to everyone, and gave Cathy a brief kiss.
“Time for me to start earning my pay,” I said. “I’ll be back during the breaks.”
Megan and I started our first set with ‘The Ashgrove’, the old English folk song that was the first song we had ever sung together, back at the school concert evening in 1974. We sang several more English and Irish folk songs, before moving to some Australian ones, and finished the set with ‘Black Velvet Band’.
Megan and I went over to the table where the others were sitting. Everyone said how great we sounded together, and Beth asked how we were able to sing in harmony so well.
“We’ve been singing together for quite a while,” I said.
“Since April 1974,” Megan added.
“It’s just lots and lots of practice,” I said, “and knowing just how the other person sings, and matching your singing to them.”
“Plus you need to be able to get the emotional feeling and message behind each song,” she said. “You’ll hear that in the next set, I’m sure.”
After we had our break, we started on the second set, ‘Today’ was the first song, then ‘Catch the Wind’. After a few others, we ended up with ‘A Summer Song’. Despite the fact I was pissed off with Megan over her attitude to my relationship with Cathy, I had to admit that singing with her was good; I felt we sounded far better as a duet that I did singing by myself. I noticed that after our final song, Megan had that familiar look on her face that she often had after we had sung together. Her eyes almost seemed to be sparkling, there was a glow to her face, and looking closely I could see where her erect nipples were making impressions on the front of her dress. I’m sure had I been able to feel her pussy, I would have felt her slick wetness there.
I sat down with Cathy, and had a cool drink. I remained with her for a short time until I had to go backstage and have my dinner, and help the others set up. I told her that during the breaks, we would put on some tapes with music that she and I could dance to. She was still finishing her meal during the first break, so I sat next to her, and talked with her, Janelle and Beth about the music and my plans for playing in the future.
When we took our second break, Cathy had finished her meal, so we got on the dance floor. It was nice, holding her against me and moving slowly around the floor.
“You will probably think I’m being silly,” she said. “But when I see you and Megan singing together, like you were earlier with just the two of you, I get jealous of her. I know it’s just you and her performing, but she seems ... the two of you seem to have such a strong emotional connection, there’s a chemistry between you. I saw that at the concert earlier this year, you know, that photo I took of you singing together. I just wish there was something that we could do together like that.”
I wondered just how much Cathy might have guessed about Megan and me. I didn’t want to tell her any of the details, not at the moment, anyway.
“Well, it might appear that way,” I said, choosing my words carefully. “I think it because of the types of songs we sing, there’s so much emotion, so much meaning that has to be conveyed in the words, and we really work hard to present that as a performance. When we started singing together, Megan said we have to present our singing almost as if it was acting in a play, and there are roles that we act out.”
Charlize
- 22.01.2021
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