Note: This story was dynamically reformatted for online reading convenience.
 
 Sorcerer: The Inner Circle by BJohn
   Chapters 41 -- end 01/28/07
   ------
   Chapter 41
   LUCIA (Monday morning 12/12)
   Wow!  Those were a couple of exciting days!  When we got to school
Monday morning, everyone seemed to be looking at Bellana and me!  Steven
assured me it was because we were so beautiful and full of joy -- I decided
the way they were admiring us was a *lot* better than getting propositioned
as a whore every five feet.
   I glanced at Janet and Bellana; they were smiling and happy.  My
headlights were on high beam, and my pussy was slick.  What the fuck! 
Enjoy!
   At lunch, Bob invited us to join the Inner Circle!  I made a note to
myself to grill Steven on what Bob and he had talked about over the weekend
before I made any decision.  Bob made it easier by telling us we didn't
have to decide right away.
   Monday night at study, we met Natalie's parents, Don and Ana.  Blake and
Louise knew them from dance lessons, so they chatted with Big Dave,
Elizabeth, Mama and Papa in the living room while we studied in the dining
room.
   Around 8:00, Bob and Henry updated us on what everyone had been
discovering over the weekend.  Steven and I knew about the body switching,
but the traveling and Reference Points were new and tremendously exciting!
   Anyway, Steven stayed with me Monday night.  Mama and Papa didn't make
anything of it, just bid us good night.  We decided we wouldn't press our
luck and make school-night sleepovers a habit, especially since the
holidays were coming up pretty soon.
   We got nekkid, snuggled up on my bed (still a little nice-smelly from
Sunday) and let our bodies drift off to sleep while we spirit-snogged (what
an interesting term from Bob and Natalie) above them.
   In our travels, we found out other spirits we ran into really didn't
know what was going on.  Our report seemed to match up with everyone
else's. Hmm.  Major food for major thought.
   We got back "home" about an hour before it was time to get up; we
decided to have a little fun and nudged our bodies awake.  Bellana woke up
in her room, and we figured she was up to the same thing we were.
   Steven took me in his arms, held me close and we kissed lovingly and
slowly.  We quickly warmed up and soon my nipples were putting bruises on
his chest and my pussy water was running all over!
   I got on top this time and slowly impaled myself on his steel-hard
erection.  I rocked back and forth, rubbing my clitty on his slick hardness
while he used his strong but gentle hands on my aching breasts and nipples.
What a perfect match they were!
   I felt the energy spread throughout our bodies as our tension mounted; I
increased the speed and pumped up and down on him until finally I was
pumping full strokes while leaning forward so my clitty would rub on him
then get squished between us at the bottom of our stroke.
   I went faster and he thrust up to meet me.  Our tension grew and grew
and finally he thrust up hard while he got bigger inside me -- while we
were bottomed out, he stuck the end of his finger in my butt!
   Shit!  I came and he spurted his hot cum on my cervix while he wiggled
his finger inside my butt!  I moaned, he moaned, we shivered and shook then
all our muscles locked up.
   They finally relaxed and he drew me down on his chest.  I think I came a
couple more times -- they were like gentle warm winds across us; so
satisfying and fulfilling.
   We heard Bellana wail and bounce on her bed and figured the Wild Bunch
was "up to something." What a great way to start the day!
   When we came out for breakfast, Steven, Bellana and I all had the
freshly-fucked look we were beginning to recognize in each other and
ourselves -- glowing, happy and slightly nice-smelly!
   School was great.  Even more people were admiring us, so Bellana and I
put out happy-happy thoughts to them and left trails of aroused-female
pheromones and scent behind us.
   Everyone showed up at Elizabeth Reynolds' dance class that night.  She
was thrilled to have us all there and neither Steven nor I _felt_ any
negative thought about us; she just accepted us as friends of her son and
therefore very special.
   She paid a little bit more attention to the Wild Bunch.  Janet and Toro
had been there before, but Bellana was a new addition.  Elizabeth studied
them for a few seconds then said, "Now here we have a special case where
we'll want three to dance as two so we'll have to make some slight
alterations in steps and positioning for them."
   She didn't seem at all surprised the Wild Bunch was so coordinated
together.  Glancing around, I saw all the other couples were coordinated.
Of course!  There should be no surprise, we were _linked_!  As couples (or
as the Wild Bunch, a threesome), we _linked_ probably 50 to 75%, while all
of us _linked_ about 5% just to know what the others were doing.
   It was a great, fun night.  Elizabeth was "one of us," too.  I knew she
was really happy about having us here and _felt_ her admiration for Steven,
Bellana and me.
   Monday night, Steven stayed home while Bellana spent the night with Toro
and Janet.  We figured we shouldn't have any trouble with one or two
sleepovers each a week on a weeknight.
   All was not lost, though.  Steven and I "got together" and had a long,
happy, nipples-boobs-clit-hole-pucker-dick-balls-pucker-phantom-blow-job
encounter which put our bodies right to sleep.  We danced the night away
above the ocean while watching the surf break on the beach.  We watched the
sun rise from atop the Ferris wheel on the Venice Beach pier.
   ------
   JANET (Wednesday 12/14)
   Our blood tests came back.  *Everyone* was perfectly fine; I kept
telling everyone Toro had extra testosterone in his blood -- after all, he
was a bull, was he not?  How else could he keep up with both Bellana and
me?
   Mom and I got our pill prescriptions and started them right away.  The
diaphragms weren't uncomfortable, but the pill will give us even more
protection.  Who knows, if we get along with the diaphragms, we may just
use them both; it won't hurt.
   Toro and I got together with Mama and Papa Sonora and drilled them on
leak-free communication, external operations, Reference Points, travel and
switching bodies.  They took to it like spirits to freedom and we left them
grinning up a storm!
   ------
   BLAKE
   Such a life!  Loving a sweet lady and her loving you back is a real big
part of life.
   Dancing with Louise was like a dream come true.  We _shared_ ourselves
and our bodies tighter and looser as we needed.  Holding her soft/firm body
against me, smelling her hair, skin and arousal kept me hard most of the
time.  She'd grin, wiggle her breasts against me and snuggle right up!
   Love-making was exquisite, to say the least, especially after the
Fearsome Five taught us how to be free of our bodies and move around.
   Switching bodies was a gas!  The seven of us got together and did a
round-robin.  The "youngsters" got to learn how "old-people" bodies felt,
while we got to experience again the vigor and flexibility of youth.
   I gained a new appreciation of female bodies too.  They're built
differently, with different leverages, angles and balances.  I even felt
"my" butt twitch while "wearing" Janet's finely-tuned torso and realized
while a girl could *make* her hips twitch, most of the time it was simply
the way the hips and legs came together.
   While wearing a lady's body, I got an appreciation for what a joy and
hazard carrying a pair of breasts around could be.  They didn't weigh much
(except for Lucia's, which were divinely dense), but it changed the balance
from a small amount (Janet) to a lot (Lucia); plus sticking out so
delightfully far in front.  After putting several little bruises on
assorted boobs (for which Henry, Steven and I apologized profusely and made
sincere offers to the owners to kiss and massage them out), we discovered
how many motions, postures and positions a woman uses just to protect them.
   On the other hand, standing straight and proud displayed them
beautifully.  For a "secondary sexual characteristic" they do attract
attention.
   The ladies found out how sensitive a guy's balls are, too!  After
running them into a few table corners, they learned the male's protective
postures and motions.
   Louise's breasts feel wonderful whether she's "wearing" them or I am.
   ------
   BOB
   Natalie and I practiced dancing a *lot*.  Every spare moment when I
wasn't working or we weren't at study, Inner Circle meetings, dance lessons
or we weren't making love, she wanted either to exercise or practice.
   Body-switching was so damn much fun!  George, Sherry, Natalie and I did
several rounds among ourselves.  George and I probably switched the
easiest; since our builds were actually pretty similar, our balances were
almost the same.
   We learned rapidly not to micro-manage but to use the built-in and
learned controls.  It was kinda like driving a car; they have steering
wheels, brakes, accelerators, etc., but have different responses to turning
(wheel base), stopping and starting (weight, brakes and engine power) and
other things.  It takes probably a couple thousand miles of driving a
specific vehicle until one is totally used to it -- and you *don't* go
around a corner by getting out and trying to turn the front wheels with
your hands!
   The first time George and I switched, he pulled a doorknob off, just
like I used to do.  However, when he got used to using the controls, he got
along fine.
   I found out one reason why Sherry enjoyed being with George so much. 
While I was "wearing" his body, I found I could easily touch the end of
"my" nose with "my" tongue.  Sherry was in Natalie's body at the time, so I
stuck "my" tongue out and waggled it at her.  She sniffed at me and
grinned.
   Female bodies are similar but different.  Different leverages and
balances to go along with a slightly shorter body.  With breasts to manage
along with everything else, it was a bit ticklish at first.
   Wearing Natalie's body was fun!  She and I switched, and after I got
used to it, I started feeling "myself" up!  She was really buff!  I felt
really hard stomach muscles in a delicious ridge down the middle and her
butt had gotten even tighter!  Her breasts...  well, let's say they gave me
some of the most pleasurable tactile sensations I've encountered.
   We looked at each other.  I (my body) probably could use a haircut
before the dance.  She moved my body around, did a few body-builder poses
and laughed.  Natalie's laugh in my voice was...  interesting.
   She got an evil gleam in my eye!  She spread my legs a bit, put my hands
on my hips, tilted my head back and let out a loud, long, raucous belch!
   Little Miss Manners then bounced my body on one foot and every time my
foot hit the floor, I farted obnoxiously.
   She informed us all (in my voice), "I've always wanted to do that in
public."
   We groaned and they looked at "me." I mused, "Well, let's see now..."
   I shoved "my" boobs out, opened "my" mouth and belched out the first
notes of Beethoven's Fifth, "Blah blah blah BLAH," and gave the orchestra
chord with a loud (eventually smelly) very wet-sounding fart.
   "Yep.  That works," I told them.
   We laughed in each other's voices and couldn't stop for several minutes.
George and Sherry tried to out-belch and out-fart each other while Nat and
I just shook our heads in pity.  *We* were the bad-manners winners!  It
took us fifteen minutes to settle down.
   Nat and I _linked_ lightly.  She came over and lightly stroked one of
"my" nipples which promptly hardened.  "My" nipples were much larger than
mine and seemed ten times as sensitive.
   I felt "my" pussy get wet and the labia swell.  She backed off a little,
gave me a real evil leer, sucked in my stomach, shoved my hand down my
pants and grabbed my dick!  Of course it inflated immediately.
   Not to be outdone, "I" grabbed the bottom of "my" tee shirt and hiked it
up to "my" arm pits along with "my" bra.  "I" tweaked a nipple, shoved "my"
hand down "my" pants and diddled "my" clit!  Shit!  Almost instant orgasm!
   "I" shrieked and "my" knees got weak.  Natalie grabbed me, held me up
and had the nerve to laugh!  "Now you have some idea how you affect me,
Sorcerer!"
   Sherry's body was interesting, too.  She's a bit lusher than Natalie but
overall had the same female leverages.  She wasn't overweight by anyone's
standards, and her breasts were probably a size to a size and a half larger
than Natalie's.
   She was in George's body at the time, so I wiggled "my" boobs at her and
told her, "You are one sexy lady, Sherry Stapley!"
   She gave me a good George leer.  "Come over here and say it again," and
stuck George's long tongue out at me.  I got over there fast and gave "him"
a *deep* French kiss while I wiggled "my" breasts and pelvis against him.
   _"Shit, Bob, you are a dirty guy after all!"_ she laughed at me while
kissing "me" back (tongue to "my" tonsils!) and grinding George's boner
against "my" mound.
   Like the Fearsome Five, we learned to switch in mid-step as we walked or
danced along.  We were pretty nasty to each other though; we'd get someone
else's body aroused almost to release then switch!  Everyone had fun.
   Natalie and I had a switch session with Don and Anna.  While Ana didn't
have Natalie's athletic muscles, she was in wonderful tone.  She was
another couple inches bigger around all over than Natalie and her body
felt...  used to itself.  Probably the maturity.
   Her mature breasts were wonderfully round and firm and topped with
lovely hard nipples and areolae which were larger than Natalie's.  She told
me, "Breast-feeding does that.  Give Natalie another five or ten years and
she'll probably be the same."
   I told her, "And a wonderful way it is to be, my lovely Ana."
   ------
   DON (Wednesday 12/14)
   Yep, new adventures almost every day around these folk.  Ana and I were
totally fascinated by what they (and we) were discovering almost every day.
We reaped the benefits of "remembering" we were spirits while we hopefully
contributed some of our experience to the pool.
   For all the good times they were having, they still studied hard.  We
had semester finals the last three days before Christmas vacation and they
reviewed like mad.
   The Wild Bunch, even as Freshmen, was frequently able to help out the
Juniors and Seniors with something.  Henry, with his mathematical
abilities, could glance over a section of Senior-level calculus and help
out Bob!  Everyone in the study group had specific strengths they
contributed, even if it was asking the right question to point the way.
   I noticed Lucia, Bellana and Ana talked pretty intensely several times,
and I picked up Lucia and Bellana had gone through something similar to
Ana's experience.  I didn't pry, though, if I needed to know about it, they
would tell me.
   Wednesday night after study, Natalie said she'd like to talk with Ana,
Bob and me.  She wanted to work.
   She said, "I'd like money of my own.  Don, you make okay money as a
teacher, but if I had my some of my own, it would make things easier on all
of us, wouldn't it?"
   I told her, "Yes, it wouldn't hurt.  Your mom is looking at going back
to work full-time after the holidays, but any income is generally good
income.  Over the holidays, I'm sure you could get a job in retail, or
maybe at Burger King."
   I shot a tight line to Bob and Ana, who'd kept their mouths shut so far.
_"Let's set her up and see what comes."_
   Ana told her, "I'm sure it would be fun spending four hours a night
folding clothes in Nordstrom's."
   Bob put in, "The Food Court at the Media Center always needs counter
girls.  You could apply at Hot Dog on a Stick and wear one of those cute
little red hats and have the guys stare at your ass."
   Ana: "Or Mickey D's or Burger King, In and Out, any of those.  It does
get chilly out in December and working inside a nice warm kitchen has a lot
to say for it.  Especially the way those nice managers treat the hired
help."
I told her, "Or you could bag groceries at Ralph's.  Think how much fun
you'd have seeing the old guys stare at your tits and watching your butt
twitch while you're pushing a long line of carts in from the parking lot."
   Natalie looked thoughtful and finally said, "Bob, what will you be doing
over the holidays?"
   Yes!  She nibbled at the bait!
   Bob thought a little bit.  "Well, I've got two painting gigs, three
plumbing gigs, some electrical work and at least one roof repair.  That's
just what's scheduled the 22nd and 23d.  During the holidays, people are
out more so the work load is rather light."
   Natalie asked him, "Could I work with you and make anything while you
teach me?"
   Touchdown!
   Bob looked serious.  "I dunno, Nat.  You've already found out just from
what we've done here that reno and construction isn't easy.  Wouldn't you
rather stand around eight hours a day waiting on old ladies than crawling
under a sink to replace a faucet?"
   I think it finally got to her.  "Shit!  I've _inspected_ people in the
stores and fast food places.  They're usually minimum wage, horrible hours
and are treated like slaves.  The managers are usually major assholes, and
half the girls at the fast-food places have had the male *or* female
managers hit on them at least once.
   "Hell, Bob, at least if I'm working with you, I'd be glad to get hit on.
What can you and I work out?"
   Bob grinned.  "How about I hit on you at least three times a day?  Is
that enough?"
   Nat laughed, "Wanker!  You know *exactly* what I mean!  Work.  Money. 
What kind of deal can we work out?"
   Bob got a bit more serious.  "Okay.  This is independent contractor
money.  No W-2, no taxes withheld, no 'benefits.' It's sometimes feast and
sometimes famine.  The plus side is you really are your own boss to a great
degree, and your income is a direct result of how hard and smart you work,
not your 'position'.
   "Here's an offer.  I take you along on a gig.  If it's something you
haven't done before, I'll apprentice you and give you twenty-five percent
of the profit.  If you've done it before, maybe running a pipe or something
like we did here and just need a little coaching or assistance, I'll give
you a third.
   "If it's something you've done before, or we're working directly
together on something that I don't have to coach you much on, you get half.
   "Once you've gotten more experience you can go out on gigs by yourself.
If you use my tools, give me three percent of the job price.  How does that
sound?"
   Natalie yelled, "Yes!" and from the way she plastered herself on him, I
figured he'd get really lucky tonight!
   Later, I talked with Bob.  "Seems to me she's getting the better part of
the deal.  In essence, you're supplying all the tools and expertise while
she's learning then even if she's on a gig alone, I'll bet you'll be
available to help."
   He told me, "In a way, she is getting a good deal.  Why not?  I love her
to pieces, so this is a way to help my mate.
   "She *can* make decent money doing this stuff.  She's intelligent,
physically coordinated and has talents the general public never sees.  For
most of the jobs I do, I charge a flat fee plus materials, or time and
material.
   "Take the plumbing we did here, for example.  I could have done the
entire thing myself in six hours the 'regular' way.  If the client leaves
me alone, I could do it in three to four or less with my extra 'talent.'
Even at the faculty rate, I would have charged at least two hundred plus
materials.
   "Nat and I took four hours together and she'd done *none* of that kind
of work before.  She would have made one third of the two hundred or
sixty-six bucks as an apprentice.  That's sixteen-fifty an hour.  There
isn't a job in town for an eighteen-year-old high-school girl which pays
much more than half that.
   "The only reason I don't do more gigs is I don't have the time.  With
Nat working along with me, we can turn out some of these things in less
than half the time I could alone -- at least conventionally.
   "The most important thing, I think, is she never has to suffer under a
dickhead boss who thinks she's a piece of ass he can hit on or molest. 
She's right when she said half the girls in fast-food had the male managers
hit on them; but she didn't look deep enough.  Something like 75% of them
had been on the receiving end of some serious groping and even with the
sexual-harassment climate we have today, they don't say a thing; it's too
much effort and they just put up with it.
   "I'm afraid if one of them pissed off Natalie too much, they literally
would lose their balls.  I've never seen her angry, but I believe she'd be
a doozy.
   "Anyway, just the jobs I've got scheduled for the last three days before
Christmas, I figure she'd clear twice what she could make in a week
elsewhere and that's for about maybe twenty hours work, not forty. 
Everyone wins this way."
   ------
   ELIZABETH (Wednesday 12/14)
   I offered to have Bellana's birthday party at our house; it was plenty
large enough for the nine Inner Circle students plus eight parents plus
friends -- and we'd had plenty of experience at being hosts.
   The entire Inner Circle descended on us after study Wednesday to help
with setup.  Everyone knew where everything was stored and exactly how it
was to be set up.  God, these people are something.
   ------
   (Thursday 12/15)
   Party time!  By the time friends came, we had around thirty people; the
full Inner Circle plus most of the parents, plus a lot of the Freshmen
girls and boys.  Apparently Bellana has lots of friends.
   While they don't blatantly advertise it, probably everyone at
McCambridge knows the Wild Bunch is really "together." Bellana got some
really nice presents and several of her female classmates had gotten her an
illustrated Kamasutra!
   Bellana blushed for five minutes while everyone cheered and clapped.  I
saw her and Janet's nipples pop up, and even with all the ventilation, I
could smell aroused female and not just from them!
   After the friends left and the Inner Circle plus parents were the only
ones left, things got a bit rowdier.  All the couples (plus the Wild Bunch
threesome) picked a place and started in on some heavy-duty snogging.
   I was looking around at them when Dave sauntered by.  He'd watched
everyone all night with great interest and now snuggled up along side me.
   _"Nice party, Elizabeth.  You've done it again,"_ he told me and grabbed
my ass.
   _"Don't want to be a party-pooper,"_ he laughed while he grabbed me and
laid a major kiss on me.  Oh my God!  My nipples popped up, my pussy
drooled down my leg and I tried to pull his vocal cords out with my tongue.
   He drifted his hands over my butt and caressed it so intently I damn
near came.  Then he cupped my breasts and stroked my nipples with his
thumbs!
   I glanced around but noticed lots of hands inside clothes and lots of
squirming going on.  _"You're not the only one contributing to the
pheromone fog tonight, my Fiery Princess.  Go with the flow."_
   After about half an hour of very hard petting and lots of juice running
down my legs through my panties, he picked me up and carried me off.  We
had a distinct advantage; our own bedroom was down the hall!
   _"They're big people and can manage on their own,"_ he told me as he
stripped my blouse off while we spirit-hugged and _kissed_ above.
   ------
   BOB (Friday 12/16)
   Yeh!  Christmas Dance!  Everyone had been looking forward to it.  The
girls, I guess, because it gave them a chance to dress up really nice and
have a romantic evening, and for the guys (at least in the Inner Circle) it
was a perfect night to show how much they loved their sweeties.
   Natalie and I got to the dance early and slipped into a back hallway to
warm up with stretches, bends and all the stuff we normally did before
dance practice.  A few people glanced at us, but no one seemed more than
just a little curious.  The rest of Mother's dance class students came out
and warmed up too.
   Henry had gotten a haircut several days before and looked great in a
neat suit; he was doting over Janet and Bellana.  Steven looked like a
blonde James Bond; he was totally self-confident, had no attention on
himself and was totally devoted to ensuring Lucia had the most romantic
evening he could provide.
   Even George outdid himself.  He'd dined Sherry really good and would
have wined her if they'd been legal.  He too was the epitome of
self-confidence.  His grace at dancing...  well, most of us have to live
with something.
   The ladies looked radiant.  Janet and Bellana were fourteen; one would
expect them to look their age, but they looked more like they were in their
twenties!  Yeh, they weren't tall, but they were extremely well-packaged,
well-dressed and gave out auras of self-confidence and happiness no one
could miss.
   Sherry and Lucia were gorgeous; they glowed so brightly it almost hurt
to look at them.  Lucia especially was radiating her pleasure with Steven
out so hard everyone within thirty feet of them was smiling at her.
   Natalie.  What can I say about Sunshine except she more than lived up to
her name?  She wore an exquisite dress which complemented her complexion
and eyes perfectly; something light blue with a fairly full skirt.  She
wore the sunshine medallion I'd gotten her and her smile blazed out across
everyone.  My love, my lady.
   Sherry told me she'd set me up with plenty of duty dances, so I was to
keep myself "available." Yes, ma'am.
   So far, going great!  Natalie and I were sitting at our table resting
from our last dances, when I _felt_ Sherry, _"Rest the next dance -- you
two have something coming up."_
   Okay, I didn't recall anything special, but Sherry hadn't steered me
wrong yet.  I suggested to Natalie she sit the next one out with me.
   Natalie politely told a couple guys who came up to check back later; she
needed to rest.  They admired her (she was getting a *lot* of looks and not
just because she was with me) and left.
   We heard Leone Zadok's distinctive rich voice over the sound system,
"All right, ladies and gentlemen, let's clear the dance floor.  We've got a
special dance for you."
   I could see her and Mark on stage, with Mark seated at the piano.  Leone
looked great, dressed like a princess and acted like a total professional.
When the floor was clear, she said, "This is a special dance for a very
special couple.  Let's hear it for Bob Reynolds and his Sunshine Lady,
Natalie Shanahan!"
   ------
   NATALIE
   Huh?  I looked at Bob and he didn't seem to know anything either.  He
grinned and told me, _"Show time, Sunshine.  Suck it up and twinkletoe to
the center."_
   Mark played "You Are My Sunshine" with a "vamp until ready." We stood
up, popped out of our bodies, _linked_ about 50%, and Bob swept me into the
twinkletoe traveling steps we'd made up -- side-by-side steps, a few spins,
back-to-back but all going in one direction -- towards the middle of the
dance floor.  Leone _told_ us, _"Whenever you're ready."_
   Three soft spotlights hit us.  Ready?  I guess we're going to dance in
front of all these people -- Bob told me, _"Keep a line into Leone and Mark
so we know what they're doing, and let's let the whole world know how we
feel about each other."_
   Well, there's a time to think, ask questions and such then there's a
time just to act.  This was action time.  Bob and I _linked_ with Leone and
Mark (I'd never _linked_ with them before -- they were smooth and
comforting).
   We did a few simple steps of East Coast Swing to "Sunshine" for a couple
seconds then Bob _told_ them, _"Go."_
   Mark played an intro and from the tempo and rhythm we agreed: waltz. 
_"It's all us now, Sunshine.  Trust yourself, trust me and trust *us*. 
You're the best I've *ever* hoped I could find."_ We danced.
   ------
   ANA
   Don didn't seem to have any idea what was going on, either.  "Just
enjoy," he whispered, "Knowing them, it will be great."
   Bob and Natalie did a complex set of steps to the middle of the dance
floor then started a beautifully graceful waltz when the music changed.  A
deep, rich man's voice sang the "Welcome to My World" song I'd heard
Natalie play so much in her room; the female voice joined in with a close
harmony on each "welcome to my world."
   Waltzing glides and turns, extensions, dips and lifts, laybacks; all
perfectly done exactly to the music, not mechanical but exquisitely
passionate as they floated across the floor.  At a very low volume, I
_felt_ their happiness flowing back and forth between them, tinged with
desire.  I looked at people around me and could tell they were getting the
same _feelings_.
   Elizabeth whispered in my ear, "They've been practicing *hours* for the
last three weeks, but I've never seen them do this well before."
   The rest of the band came in, giving more richness and depth to the
music.  I _felt_ Natalie's heart pounding with the stress and excitement of
being in the spotlight.
   ------
   DON
   I sure didn't know Natalie could do this, even though we'd seen her at
the birthday party and had been at dancing classes with her!  I felt so
proud of her I could barely stand it.  I _felt_ them sending out their
happiness.
   If Ana and I hadn't been practicing our own _snuggling_ and _sharing_ so
much, I would have missed identifying it, it was so light -- as they
danced, I _felt_ the warmth and firmness of Natalie's breasts and pelvis
against me when they were close; the touch of her hands, the feel of her
back, the smell of her hair and the color of her eyes.
   I asked Ana, _"Do you feel sensations, very light?"_ She answered, _"I
can feel Bob -- me against his chest, his hand on my back, his strength,
his hardness against me, his eyes.  He's sending it very lightly -- it's so
sensuous without being lustful.  It's beautiful.  I think every girl in
here is feeling it, too.  And the female singer, I can feel her desire for
*her* man."_
   ------
   ELIZABETH
   I'd never before seen or felt anything like it, and I've not seen it
from anyone else from then on -- even from the top professionals.  The
sheer intensity of their presentation was almost too much to bear.
   I _felt_ their exhilaration at being able to do this and them thanking
me for helping them.
   They were totally superb and delicate, totally in love and underneath it
all I _felt_ their desire for each other.  They danced routines which
seemed to have been subtly and exquisitely choreographed, yet it was all
their own improvisation.  Every move they made was within their
amateur-level reach, but their combination and presentation of them made
their performance outstanding.
   I saw them do every variation and sequence I could ever have imagined
them doing at their level -- as if they had a direct line to my mind and my
heart.  Neither was leading, they were eagerly doing it *together* as if
they'd done it thousands of times before.
   The male voice finished, "Welcome to my world," then the band shifted
into another key and meter.  Bob and Natalie went into the Nightclub
Foxtrot; the singers on stage started a rich duet of Debbie Boone's "You
Light Up My Life." The female lead had a large hint of Janice Joplin...
   Each song had become more romantic and more intensely emotional.
   ------
   So many nights I'd sit by my window Waiting for someone to sing me their
song So many dreams I kept deep inside me Alone in the dark but now You've
come along
   And you light up my life You give me hope To carry on You light up my
days and fill my nights with song
   ------
   They swept along the dance floor, combining improvisations with the
traditional steps then back to another unexpected but totally fulfilling
sequence.  A sub-set per song line, a major sequence to a verse then
another new sequence and set.  I'd never taught them anything so advanced.
   Every move they made seemed to be the only one to express the emotion of
the words and every finish gave us a feeling of completeness, as if there
were no other way it *could* end.  Each time they moved apart a little, we
_felt_ their longing; then, as they came back together, their joy at
finding each another again washed over us.
   The male and female singers switched the lead.  We _felt_ *their* love
for each other, added to Bob's and Natalie's emotion.  It became a joint
performance of the singers and the dancers.
   ------
   Rollin' at sea, adrift on the water Could it be finally I'm turn'n for
home?  Finally, a chance to say hey, I love you Never again to be all alone
   ------
   ------
   ANA
   I _felt_ the emotion change gradually from "just" happiness to
admiration and love.  They were two people entwined with each other for a
single purpose.
   The male and female singers switched the lead on each verse so it had
meaning for both.
   ------
   You light up my life You give me hope To carry on You light up my days
and fill my nights with song
   'Cause you, you light up my life You give me hope To carry on You light
up my days and fill my nights with song
   ------
   Bob and Natalie held each other close for longer periods of time but
still moved gracefully around.  The steps became simpler, as if their
attention was less and less on what they were doing and more and more on
what they were being and feeling.  The emotional "volume" increased
significantly.
   The singers sang more to each other than the audience; we were listening
in, but they were telling each other their feelings.
   Bob and Natalie looked only into each other's eyes then we _felt_ them
look at each other's mouths.  Their heads gradually tilted slightly in
opposite directions and their lips started towards the other's.
   The singers shared the lead in tight harmony and shared their
_feelings_.
   ------
   It can't be wrong When it feels so right 'Cause You You light up my
life.
   ------
   By the end of the last word, both couples were still, clasped in each
other's arms kissing each other.  Everyone in the room plainly _felt_ the
mutual _"I love you"_ from each of them.
   It had been a performance surpassing the top TV specials or Los Vegas
two-hundred-dollar-per-seat shows.
   ------
   DON
   When the music stopped there wasn't a sound.  Bob and Natalie broke
apart and made a gracious gesture towards the singers on stage then bowed
to the crowd, turned around and bowed again; all perfectly synchronized as
if they'd been practicing it for years.
   They started another complex series of steps like they'd done when
they'd come out and went back towards their table where George and Sherry
were holding their chairs.  With a final twirl, they sat at the same time
with their left legs straight out (toes pointed, of course) then crossed
them at the same time at the same angle and relaxed.  I _felt_ the complex
emotional connection fade away.
   After a second or so, the crowd clapped and cheered, starting quietly
then increasing to a roar so high it hurt -- and it went on and on.
   Bob and Natalie stood up again, held hands and bowed.  We _felt_ a final
_"thank you"_ from them and _felt_ him tell Natalie, _"It's all for *you*,
my Sunshine"_.
   Chapter 42
   DON (Friday 12/16)
   When the roar finally quieted down, I saw Michelle Bonds beside us with
a young man, obviously her date; Michelle's in one of my Junior Chemistry
classes and I'd gotten to know her fairly well.  I heard her say, "Oh my
God -- that's the Ultimate Seal of Approval."
   I turned to them and said, "Hello, Michelle.  You know I'm new here. 
I've heard of this Seal of Approval a few times but don't really know what
it is.  If you don't mind, would you tell my wife and me what it is?"
   "Sure, Mr.  Matthews...  By the way, this is my special friend Michael."
We shook hands and Michelle continued.
   "Well you know Bob Reynolds..."
   "I know *of* him, at least, he's not in any of my classes."
   "He's highly respected around here..."
   Michael put in, "Totally respected."
   Michelle told us, "He doesn't really date but he brings dates to our
social events like these dances and such.  You know about the coming-out
dances and so on they have in the South where the girl is presented as
being available and ready?  And the Spanish quinceanera?  Well, the girl
Bob brings has Bob's Seal of Approval.  She has the full force of him
saying she is good and is to be respected.
   "She has at least the first and last dance with Bob, but every nice
unattached guy lines up to dance with her.  After the dance, she's on her
own socially but has the full approval and support of the Inner Circle.
   "If Bob kisses her cheek or forehead, the approval gets notched up.  The
tradition is Bob asks them, they don't ask him.  It's one-way and he isn't
open to 'favors'."
   Michael put in, "Michelle came with Bob to the last Spring Dance and she
got six bonus points.  These girls *earn* the Seal of Approval.  It's for
something good they've done, how well they've improved themselves or
something positive.  A girl can never *expect* to get the Seal but they
sure hope they can earn it."
   Michelle's eyes glistened and we could see tears on her cheeks.  "Even
if you had the reputation as the school slut -- it was like all my sins
were forgiven.  Then the nice guys..." She pulled on Michael's arm, "the
good guys..." another pull, "the decent guys..." a final pull and a hug,
"they talk with you.  They admire you, want to get to know *you*, not just
get in your pants.  It all changes.
   "I've seen Natalie with Bob since the beginning of the year and in the
last couple weeks I've seen her come so much alive it was like a miracle.
So her coming with him seems so right, so natural.
   "Never before have we had a special dance for a couple -- it's never
happened.  And besides how beautifully they danced, Bob's never kissed a
girl on the mouth before.  He's saying, 'Respect her as you respect me.'
They're together, they're committed.  She's got the Ultimate Approval, and
I don't think anyone can ever top *how* she received it.  Natalie's got to
be some special girl for all that to happen."
   I said quietly, "We think so."
   "Is she in one of your classes?"
   "No, actually she's my step-daughter.  My wife Ana here is her mother
and the couple to the other side of you is Bob's parents."
   Michelle and Michael looked at us then Michelle said, "You have every
right to be so totally proud of both of them.  If it wasn't for Bob, I
wouldn't have met Michael, and I probably wouldn't even be in school
anymore.  And all Bob's ever asked in return is a simple 'thank you' and
that I continue to do well."
   ------
   BELLANA
   Bob and Natalie danced so romantically I cried.  I saw Janet, Henry,
Lucia and Steven were plenty wet too.  They were so beautiful and loving
together!
   Henry, Janet and I had plenty of threesome dances.  Elizabeth had
"teached us real good." I noticed only one catty remark about us, some
fifty feet away, but ten other girls had immediately turned and *glared* at
her.  We were accepted.
   We had plenty of twosome dances with Henry, too.  Janet and I didn't do
anything together; we didn't have time.  As soon as a dance started,
several guys would come over and ask Janet or me to dance.  God, what a
difference from Unpleasantville!
   These guys admired us!  They thought we were beautiful, desirable and
really nice!  Yowsah!
   At the start of a slow dance, Bob suddenly appeared in front of me.  He
held out his hand, looked directly in my eyes and said, "Ms.  Bellana
Sonora, may I have the extreme honor of this dance with you?"
   Holy shit!  My heart pounded and I knew I went white even under my
Spanish/Italian skin.  Bob?  Asking me?
   He smiled, _"Relax, Bellana.  The world isn't ending.  Just you and me.
Just like in dance class."_
   It helped.  We _linked_ lightly and swept away.  Nice.  So nice.  We
were able to do all the steps Elizabeth had taught us, plus Bob invented a
few more.
   Bob was a good ten inches taller than me, so I was able to snuggle my
head under his chin.  I cheated a little and unbuttoned his coat so I could
get my breasts closer to him.  He grinned and told me, _"Careful with the
merchandise, Starlight, I bruise easily."_
   We were up in front of the stage when he told me, _"Look up at me,
Bellana."_
   I looked up at him.  He picked me up slightly, bent down and kissed me
on the mouth!  Hot damn!  I felt the spotlights on us as we did turns for
at least ten seconds.
   He kissed me with love, warmth and above all, respect.  He said, _"You
are a wonderful lady, Bellana.  You truly are Starlight and Nova, and you
deserve every good thing that can ever happen to you.  Live long, love hard
and be happy."_
   We broke the kiss and he spun me out for a standard bow/curtsey.  He
indicated me with his off-hand and announced loudly, "Ladies and gentlemen.
Miss Bellana Sonora, a true Nova among us."
   God, I almost passed out as dozens of people stopped dancing and
applauded us.  Bob said to me, _"They're not applauding *us*, Bellana, it's
all for *you*."_
   ------
   JANET
   Big Brother looked like he owned the world when he and Lucia were close
together, even when they weren't dancing.  He was happy and I loved it so
much.
   Henry was a perfect gentleman.  Yeh, we teased each other underneath,
but he held our chairs, escorted us, stood when any lady came by; you know
the drill.  My Toro!
   I saw Bob swing Bellana away and kiss her so wonderfully!  I thought she
deserved every moment of it!  Damn if she isn't a wonderful lady (even if I
was biased).
   A couple dances later, I almost peed my panties in surprise when Bob
appeared in front of me; I sure hadn't seen him come up.
   I grinned at him.  _"Hi Bob!  You're looking good enough to eat."_
   He grinned back at me, _"Janet, you *are* good enough to eat, and I'm
gonna find out one of these days."_
   Fuck!  I hadn't thought I could get wetter, but I did!  Bob become more
serious, held out his hand and said, "Ms.  Janet Adams, may I have the
extreme honor of this dance with you?"
   I didn't have a chance to say aye, yay or nay before he swept me away
into the dancing crowd.  Damn!  My heart pounded so hard I thought I'd pass
out.
   I asked him, _"Why me, Bob?  I'm just a tag-along for Henry."_
   He told me, _"Janet, a lady gets my seal of approval either for making a
dramatic change for the good in her life, or for what she is; her
character, personality, whatever is good and honest about her._
   _"You, Janet, have both.  You've changed from a somewhat-sad little girl
into a vivacious, ecstatic young lady who makes people happy just to be
around you._
   _"You are deep and rich.  You don't give your love freely, but when you
do it is without reservation.  You have power for good as yet untapped and
you are a shining example for us all."_
   He picked me up a little, tilted my head and kissed my mouth firmly as
the spotlights hit us.  So nice, so sweet.  I _felt_ his love, his warmth
and his approval fill me and the area around us for yards.
   He spun me into the bow/curtsey, indicated me and loudly announced,
"Miss Janet Adams, the Moonlight who illuminates the joy we have within
us."
   At least fifty people around us applauded loudly and cheered.  Bob told
me, _"Ask not for whom they applaud, Moonlight, they applaud for *you*."_
   ------
   LUCIA
   My Caballero was so good!  We wore our hearts on our sleeves for all to
see; we danced, we adored each other with our eyes and bodies and showed
everyone how much we loved each other -- all in perfect taste of course! 
We did sneak in a nice smooch when the dance would let us!  (giggle)
   We saw Bob honor Bellana and Janet and I could only dimly hope he might
at least dance with me.  When he suddenly appeared in front of me though, I
almost couldn't take it.
   I _felt_ Steven's support and approval when Bob held out his hand to me
and asked, "Ms.  Lucia Sonora, may I have the extreme honor of this dance
with you?"
   I went blank for a moment but felt Steven _push_ me a little while Bob
took my hand and swept me away into the dance.
   He immediately snuggled me into him and I felt his calmness cover me. 
He told me, _"Lady Lucia, you really are the desert sun shining on us. 
Your radiance inspires each man here to honorable deeds he never thought he
could ever approach, and every lady here hopes they will find your courage
and prays one day they too, will find a love such as yours."_
   I tried not to cry but failed; the tears trickled down and wet his
jacket.  _"I'm sorry, Bob.  I'll get you dried out."_
   He laughed, _"Not to worry, my Lady.  Steven told me your tears of joy
are sweet as honey drops and stain a person's soul forever with the memory
of your courage and beauty."_
   He tilted my head up and kissed my mouth gently, yet with great warmth,
encouragement and respect.  I saw and felt the spotlights hit us as he
slowly spun me around.  He must have kissed me for fifteen seconds at least
before he spun me out for the bow/curtsey.
   He announced loudly, "Ladies and gentlemen.  Miss Lucia Sonora, whose
courage in life brought her from darkness so now her radiance shines on us
all."
   As the applause rolled over us, he told me, _"It is all for *you*, my
Lady.  Let everything negative pass away from your thoughts.  These people
love you and now they honor you."_
   ------
   BOB
   I snagged a dance with Leone.  I told her, "Leone, you get better and
sexier every time you sing.  You and Mark were simply stupendous tonight."
   "And what about you and Natalie?  I called your mom a week ago, and she
told me you two had been practicing ballroom dancing, so I took a chance
you wouldn't mind an extra couple of songs.  You two were inspiring!  Every
time I looked and _felt_ what you two were doing tonight, my panties got
wetter."
   "As if it were possible," I grinned at her.  She giggled a little and
rubbed her breasts against me a couple times.
   Of course I couldn't let it pass, so I dropped my head and looked down
her (*very* nice) cleavage for a couple of seconds.  I pulled my head up,
looked her in the eye and asked, "New belly-button ring?"
   "What?" she said and looked down.  She pouted, "You shit!  You got me
again," and snuggled up.  "You, the Inner Circle guys and Mark are about
the only guys around who don't seem just to stare at my boobs.  You don't
seem to undress me, just ...  admire -- and it feels good."
   She snuggled up even more and rubbed her pelvis against me, probably not
intentionally.  I'm a guy and Little Bob got very interested in a hurry.
   She laughed and whispered, "Bob, I figured you and Natalie..."
   I cut her off.  "Sexy Lady, any guy this close to you who *didn't* pop a
boner is literally 'dead meat.' Hmm, I've got an idea."
   "Yeess?"
   "What say in a little bit you freshen up your lipstick and give
Natalie's dad a good working over -- and perhaps my father, too?"
   "Now *that's* a great idea!  I bet I can get them to pop one within ten
seconds."
   "The terms for you, my dear, are 'sexpot' and 'incorrigible." Just do
it. Seriously, you and Mark were simply great tonight.  I do hope you two
can do something with your talent."
   "We've discussed it.  We're just not quite sure how."
   "You two just keep on working together.  Let's get together over the
holidays and discuss how to make something happen -- besides you getting
every guy in Burbank panting over you.
   "Leone, you've never needed anyone's approval to show you're really
special.  You've just shown it tonight -- again.  And I want to show
everyone how much *I* appreciate it if you don't think Mark would mind."
   "I think Mark would appreciate it as much as I would."
   We shared a warm friendly kiss -- Mark is sure one lucky guy!
   ------
   NATALIE
   God I was giddy!  Music, romantic dancing, Bob kissing me, Bob kissing
Bellana, Janet and Lucia so sweetly!  I _felt_ from over a hundred feet
away how much he *approved* of them.
   Hmm.  Idea!  When Bob, George and Sherry got a free second, I called
them into a little _huddle_ and discussed my idea.  They agreed
whole-heartedly.
   Yes!  My plan unfolded.  A few unsubtle nudges got Henry close by and I
asked him, "Mr.  Henry Adams, would you give me the extreme honor of this
dance with you?"
   He looked a little startled then grinned.  I told him, _"You'll get your
chance, but for now, keep your nose out of my cleavage!"_
   Yeh, so what if I'm eight inches taller?  Elizabeth had shown us how to
handle it.  We danced away and I maneuvered us towards the stage.
   I felt the three spotlights hit us and kissed Henry on the mouth with
everything I had and held it for a good ten seconds!
   He is good!  He kissed me back immediately and we spun around so all
could see.  We spun out for the bow/curtsey as people around us applauded.
I indicated Henry and announced to everyone, "Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. 
Henry Merrill, the Toro.  The Warrior whose eternal vigilance guards us
from harm."
   Everyone knew Toro; they applauded and cheered him loudly.  He did "real
good," and bowed and smiled with exactly the right amount of pride and
humility.  I _felt_ Janet's and Bellana's excitement flood over us as they
too, welcomed him.
   Steven was harder to track down.  Girls hoping to dance with him
continuously surrounded him, not to mention Lucia getting a lot of
attention from guys.  However, I finally did it with a combination of
intention and a few quick dance moves which slid me in between some sweet
young thangs.  I snatched him up and we were out of there before anyone
could do more than blink.
   He looked a little nervous though, so I got a chance to tease him. 
_"Don't you want to kiss me, Steven?  Do I have bad breath?  Should I rub
my hot, hard, white, freckled breasts on your chest?"_
   He groaned and rolled his eyes.  _"Natalie, I'd like to do a *lot* more
than kiss you someday, but that's a damn good start."_
   Whoa!  Got my stud-sensors maxed out in a hurry!  Never mind, the show
must go on.  I cued the spotlights, and Steven found himself with a hungry
girl wrapped around him kissing him really hard.
   He was good, though.  It only took a heartbeat for him to kiss me back.
He was *good*!
   After ten seconds at least (I figured it was the minimum time for a good
Seal of Female Approval kiss) of spinning slowly around, we broke for the
bow/curtsey and I announced to the applauding crowd, "Ladies and gentlemen.
Mr.  Steven Adams, the Caballero, the true gentleman in the face of
crisis."
   I managed to get a dance with Don too and showed everyone what we
thought of him with a good fifteen-second lip-lock under the spotlights.
   ------
   ANA
   I let myself cry a bit.  They were so beautiful and so romantic
together. And when Bob kissed her at the end in front of everybody, I just
sobbed into my handkerchief.
   I noticed Don's eyes weren't the Sahara Desert, either.  He grinned at
me, slipped his head alongside mine, and we got in a quick kiss with the
corners of our mouths.  He grinned at me, "Must set a good example for the
students, otherwise I'd be ravishing you on the table over there."
   I smiled back at him, "Promises, promises...  Who knows what the night
will bring."
   Apparently in California, it's "proper" for the chaperones to dance too,
so Don and I got in some foreplay on the dance floor.  After all, we were
only thirty-something!
   George cut in on Don and flirted with me, "You must be new here; someone
as beautiful as you *couldn't* have been here all along.  How about you and
me ditch this stumble-crowd and go have some real fun." Good Groucho Marx,
too.
   I laughed and told him, "Even being the stud you are, George, I'd wear
you out in no time.  We 'older women' have the experience to do just that."
   He managed to mock up being disappointed, "Well, I suppose you're
right." Then he brightened up and said, "Maybe Sherry would like to show me
some of that experience!  After all, she's a week older than me."
   And speak of the devil; there she was dancing with a big guy right next
to us.  She mock-glared at George.  "I heard that!  For shame!  Hitting on
a married lady like that; now get over here and hit on me instead -- you've
got a much better chance."
   "Yes, ma'am.  Right away, ma'am," as we switched partners.  As they
danced away, I heard George tell her, "Hey, lady, what say we ditch
this..." Oh my, the exuberance of youth.
   And my new partner poured on the corn with a broad, knowingly fake
Southern accent, "Shucks, ma'am..." I'd had several young men come up to
Don and me while we were watching, flirting with me and asking me to dance.
The girls were ganging up on Don too, getting him to dance with them.
   I saw Don and Bob grinning at each other.  Betcha they set this all up
just to help an old lady feel good.  Well, it worked all right.  All those
confident young studs smiling at me and telling me how gorgeous and sexy I
was!  And their strong gentle hands roaming onto my ass every once in a
while...
   I asked Bob outright when we were dancing, "Bob, did you and Don set up
all these guys for me?"
   He laughed, "Now would we do a thing like that?"
   I shot back at him, "Yep, you would."
   He replied a little more seriously, "We just spread the word among the
guys Mr.  Matthews' wife was a *very* special lady, and they might want to
welcome her to California after all the deep snow in Ohio.  Anything they
did afterwards was entirely on their own.  Of course, it didn't hurt I or
one of the Brain Trust have been tutoring most of them for several years
now." He grinned smugly at me.
   "Well, they did 'right well.' You must have tutored them 'good.'"
   He leaned in and gave me a long approving kiss on the mouth, and I
kissed him right back.  "Ana, at least fifty students just saw me kiss you.
Now every girl here now wants to be as happy, alive and sexy as you are now
when they get to be in their thirties -- and they're vowing to do it. 
Every guy wants to be as masculine, dignified and sexy as Don is now when
they're his age.  And everyone wants to find a partner to match.
   "For the rest of the years you and Don are at this school you'll be role
models -- not like the Hollywood super-stars and models but *real* people
they know.  And you, Ana Matthews, are going to be the Lead MILF for these
guys for years.
   "By the way, I asked Leone -- you know, the lady who sang for us -- I
asked her to freshen up her lipstick and give Don a working over.  Knowing
Sherry, she's probably asked a lot of the girls to make him feel special
and welcome here, too.
   "When you get home tonight, you might ask him about the torch singer and
see how he reacts.  And check his neck for lip marks; knowing the girls
Sherry picks, he'll probably get plenty of them -- and won't know it."
   I grabbed Don for the last few dances.  I bruised his chest with my
nipples, and he returned the favor with his hardness pressed up against me.
Yes, he had several lip prints on his neck so I added mine too.  We ended
the last dance with a nice sensual kiss (and _kiss_) of our own -- and got
appreciative applause from several of the couples around us.
   After the dance, we got Bob and Natalie off and helped supervise the
cleanup along with David and Elizabeth.  After things got settled down and
we'd pushed out the last few students, we got to go home.
   On the way home, I snuggled up to Don and whispered in his ear, "You
expect to get lucky tonight, stud?"
   He grinned back and brushed the back of his hand across a nipple.  God,
I almost came right then.  He whispered back, "I don't expect, I can only
hope."
   We ended up making slow, sweet love with some warm, quiet orgasms.  But
I did rattle the mirrors on a couple others!
   ------
   VALERIE
   The Middle School had their Christmas Dance on Friday.  Pat and I went
together.  Yeh, we're not "dating" even though we're boyfriend/girlfriend,
and it felt really *right* to be with him.
   We even practiced dancing a little before hand.  He rented a couple DVDs
on dancing, and we learned from them.
   We liked the slow dances best.  We snuggled up and just let go.  We're
really suited body-wise, since we're both so tall -- I was at least six
inches taller than 90% of the guys there.
   My nipples perked up against Pat's chest.  He grinned in my ear. 
"That's nice, Val." He kissed my neck lightly; I shivered and they got
harder.
   I felt him come up hard against me.  We got our hips arranged right and
snuggled it in between us.  I whispered to him, "The feeling is mutual."
   Chapter 43
   ANA (Saturday 12/17)
   The Saturday evening after the Christmas Dance, we had George, Sherry
and Bob over for dinner.  We had a great time discussing the dance, who got
honored and why.
   George and Sherry looked a little tired.  Bob told me, "Mother loaned
them Bill's old bedroom for the weekend.  I think *maybe* they got out of
the house at one o'clock.  Of course, *I* don't know anyone who'd go at it
for that long!" His fake-innocent look was pretty good.
   After George got the DVD player fired up and working (he didn't have a
lick of trouble with it), he offered to show us something he'd brought with
him.
   "You might be interested.  Some parts hover on the edge of porn but it's
up to you to decide."
   We unanimously gave him the vote to go ahead.  He shoved in a DVD,
started it up and sat back with the remote.
   He told us, "This is almost totally raw footage.  We tapped into the
stage microphone feeds ahead of the amplifiers and shot our own digital
video.  You probably didn't notice the three cameras very much; we're
pretty good at being discreet."
   The first thirty seconds of the DVD looked very familiar.  "Yes, you win
the prize -- it's last night's dance."
   He consulted a list he had and fast-forwarded.  "I think you can guess
who these people are."
   It was Bob and Natalie in their first dance of the evening.  While they
weren't showy, they moved perfectly together, looking at each other and
loving every second.
   George fast-forwarded to a couple more scenes of Bob and Natalie dancing
then Bob dancing with Sherry and snuggling her up really close.  Bob
groaned out, "Oh, shit!  I didn't think anyone saw me hitting on her!" We
laughed and made (in-)appropriate comments.
   At the next queue, we heard Leone's voice asking everyone to clear the
dance floor.  We settled back and hoped the electronic version of their
dancing was anywhere near as good as the real one.
   George paused the DVD and told us, "I talked with Elizabeth Reynolds
this morning after I'd seen this.  She told me she'd taught them very
little of what they actually did last night -- they'd improvised almost
every bit of it.  She did say she'd _felt_ them _link_ to her, and she'd
thought of everything they could do at their level of expertise.
   "My opinion is Bob and Nat took what she was thinking, put their own
twists to it and came up with this."
   He started the DVD and we watched the magic again.  The sound was
superb; Leone's and Mark's voices came through with awesome clarity, and
the camera showed Bob and Natalie to perfection -- even if it was raw
footage.
   We got caught up in the magic again -- we even faintly _felt_ the
sensations and feelings -- I think Bob and Natalie were going over what
they'd felt and done and were broadcasting it to us.
   George paused it after the last kiss.  We sat in silence for a few
moments until Natalie said, "Awesome.  Was that really us?"
   Bob immediately told her, "Yes, Sunshine, that was us.  Actually, it was
mostly you.  You were the one with the sunshine which helped me love you.
You were the one who was so willing to learn to dance.  You were the one
who exercised for hours and hours when we were apart.  You were the one who
wanted to practice and practice and practice.  Without you, Leone and Mark
would have sung wonderfully, but with you, they were inspired to pour their
hearts out to show their love and our love.  It was you, Sunshine and it
will always be you who puts the magic into our relationship."
   God bless the boy!  He knows he's good, but he pushes the credit onto
those who also deserve it.  God I'd like to kiss him for that!  On the
other hand, why not?  Why can't I kiss him in appreciation?
   So I did.  I gave him a good hard hug and kiss then told him, "Don is
God's gift to older women, but you are God's gift to young women
everywhere."
   He was surprised, but he kissed me back and gave my butt a little
squeeze.  The flirt!
   I _felt_ George and Bob exchange a little something back and forth then
George looked at his notes and fast-forwarded.
   It was the back view of a girl dancing with a very handsome guy.  It
looked like he was totally enthralled with her, as he kept nuzzling her ear
and whispering to her.  We watched his right hand drift down to her ass and
caress it softly -- and she wiggled her ass against it and snuggled in
more. Damn, she's got great legs and a beautiful ass.
   George hit pause and told us, "Philip Daniels.  He's one of the pickiest
guys in school about girls -- if there's even a *hint* she's unethical or
snobby, he won't go near her.  Don, you're the most experienced guy here.
What do you think of *her* so far?"
   Don immediately said, "She's got one of the greatest sets of legs I've
ever seen and her ass is to die for.  If I were 15 years younger and
unattached, I'd be falling all over my feet getting to her."
   George let the DVD run on -- Philip kept caressing the girl's ass and
she kept wiggling against his hand.  They finally turned until we could see
the girl's face -- which had a great, big silly smile!
   George hit pause and everyone yelled, "YES!  YES!  YES!" and pumping
their fists.  God, I was so busted.  The girl was me.
   George and Bob chanted, "MILF, MILF, MILF" and Don joined in, "MIDF,
MIDF, MIDF." Shit, they got me as bad as I'd gotten Bob at times -- and as
unexpectedly.
   After things calmed down, Sherry asked Don, "I know what a MILF is --
I'd like to be that someday -- but what is a MIDF?"
   Don just said with a *huge* smile, "Mother I *Do* Fuck!" and leered at
me.
   Well, I couldn't let the young folks get the better of me, so I shoved
my tits out and told him, "You betcher ass you do!  And you'd better be
well-rested, because you're gonna *prove* it tonight!"
   What is it with guys?  They always seem to talk about getting laid, but
as soon as anyone points out they actually are going to get it, they get
all embarrassed.  Even in the dim light we had, we saw Don get darker as he
blushed.
   Bob's been the only guy I've ever seen or talked to who seemed calm
about it.  I remember when I'd told him to stay with Natalie after their
birthday party, it seemed more of a privilege to him than an embarrassment.
   When the ribald comments finally died down, George fast-forwarded to the
next segment.  It was Don and Leone dancing.
   Natalie spoke up, "I _heard_ what she was saying..."
   We started, "Go!  Go!  Go!" Don was in the spotlight now.  George rolled
the DVD, and Natalie started lip-synching.
   "Oh, Mr.  Matthews!  You're *so* strong and handsome.  I bet all the
girls hit on you day after day, but you're *so* strong you manage to stand
it.  With a wife like yours, though, I know you can handle it -- she's
*all* any man could ever want."
   Natalie said, "I didn't catch what Don said back, but I bet it was very
complimentary to Mom."
   She continued lip-synching, "Oh, Mr.  Matthews, I'm sure you could teach
*me* to be a wonderful lady like your wife.  Can we slip away somewhere so
you could *tutor* me on how to do that?"
   Natalie even got the Princess whine down pat.  She said, "Again, I don't
know what Don said, but it feels like he's singing and dancing, trying not
to turn her down but not really being sure what she's asking."
   We saw Don's eyes suddenly get real big.  Natalie told us, "He's finally
realized what she's *really* asking."
   George paused it and Bob put in, "I think about then, Little Don got to
be Real Big Don -- you see how his hips jumped back?"
   George rolled it again.  Natalie continued with Leone's dialog, "Oh, Mr.
Matthews, you sure know how to make your female students feel welcome."
   Sherry asked, "Don, did Geeser get a new scratching post?"
   Bob cut in, "I bet it was so hard even Geeser couldn't scratch it."
   We had a laugh at Don's expense.  I saw him slumping down in his chair,
trying to hide himself.
   George rolled it.  Leone ground her pelvis against Don -- we could see
her hips moving...  and laid a big kiss on his neck.
   The guys shouted, "Branded!"
   On the DVD, Don got this totally panicked look on his face -- can you
imagine a guy dancing with a girl and trying to get away from her while
she's determined to plaster herself all over him?  That was Don and Leone.
   Finally, we saw Leone dance away with another fellow while Don stood
there panting for a minute.  *That* ordeal was over for him, but I'd gotten
ammunition for years of turn-ons.
   The DVD rolled on.  We saw Sherry float up, grab Don and sweep him away.
   We saw her snuggle up to him and wiggle.  Of course, Sherry picked up
the dialog.
   "Oh, Don," she cooed, "*All* the girls in your classes keep telling me
how *good* you are.  Are you giving private lessons on the side we don't
know about?" She rubbed her tits several times across Don's chest.
   George paused it at exactly the time Don's eye's got real big again.  We
started a long belly laugh.
   "That's why he's late from school sometimes -- private lessons."
   "Teachers' meeting my ass..."
   "It probably wasn't a *less*on, it was a *big*on."
   "Yeh, Mr.  Matthews, teach me about *chemistry*."
   "Oh, Mr.  Matthews, let's get *physics*-acle."
   I finally ended it with, "Don, don't worry about a thing.  Your toes'll
stick up for you when you're down."
   He was shrunk down in his chair as if he'd like to disappear -- but he
was laughing at himself despite it.
   George finally took mercy on him and rolled on to another couple
segments.  There were more shots of some girl's ass getting grabbed by
different hands -- she had on a very familiar dress...
   George finally paused it.  Sherry piped up, "You know, if guys kept
grabbing *my* butt like that all night, I'd be pretty turned on by the time
the dance was over."
   I tried to keep it as straight as I could, "I was.  He was.  We did."
   And Natalie just had to say, "Yes, and Bob and I heard it."
   Shit!  Keeping anything private around telempaths is really impossible.
I guess I've learned to live with it -- after all, Bob had taught us, so
it's a two-way street.
   George maneuvered the time-strip to a new segment - it showed the end of
Bob and Natalie's dance when they kissed.
   He said quietly, "This is something different.  Ana, Don, please fill in
the dialog." He rolled it.
   We saw Michelle Bonds and her date Michael talking after Bob and
Natalie's dance.  Ana took Michelle's part and Don took Michael's part.
   "Oh my God -- that's the Ultimate Seal of Approval."
   "Totally respected."
   "Even if you had the reputation as the school slut -- it was like all my
sins were forgiven.  Then the nice guys ..." She pulled on Michael's arm,
"the good guys ..." another pull, "the decent guys ..." a final pull and a
hug, "they talk with you.  They admire you, want to get to know *you*, not
just get in your pants.  It all changes.
   "She's got the Ultimate Approval and I don't think anyone can ever top
*how* she received it.  Natalie's got to be some special girl for all that
to happen."
   "You have every right to be so totally proud of both of them.  If it
wasn't for Bob, I wouldn't have met Michael and I probably wouldn't even be
in school anymore.  And all Bob's ever asked in return is a simple 'thank
you' and that I continue to do well."
   We were all quiet for a few moments.  I know Don and I shed a few tears
while remembering.
   George finally said, "That's my buddy Bob.  I'm so happy I can be part
of his life, I'd almost give up Sherry for him.  Almost but not really."
   Bob obviously had to say it, "Well, she's probably a lot better lover
for you than I would be...  But thank you for saying it; it *does* mean a
lot to me from someone like you."
   George slipped to another segment.  Yes!  Bob putting a major lip-lock
on Bellana!  She looked so lovely when she curtsied!
   We saw Janet then Lucia get their Major Seals of Approval.  So nice.  So
sweet.
   Oops!  Bob had a lip-lock on me!  George paused the DVD and everyone had
a critique, both good and bad.
   "She has one eye closed more than the other."
   "Yow!  That girl's butt is FINE!"
   "*Nice* cleavage!"
   "Oooo!"
   We saw a nice segment where Natalie showed how much we approved of Don.
This time, he didn't pull away at all.
   George rolled a couple more shots, mainly of Bob dancing with young
ladies I didn't know, with an occasional kiss on the forehead or cheek.
   The last scene he showed us was Don and me kissing at the end of the
dance.  George said, "Ana, you and Don get the best blow-up I can of it."
   ------
   BOB (Sunday 12/18)
   Mother and Father invited George and Sherry for dinner at our place
Sunday afternoon -- and Natalie, of course.
   George brought the dance DVD with him and suggested we watch it.  We
didn't mention to my folks we'd seen it the other night, so he and I
exchanged a few quick plottings, and he rolled it.
   He consulted his list and showed us what we thought my parents would
enjoy -- or what would get to Father.
   He showed Natalie and me dancing at the beginning, a few shots of Mother
and Father standing around looking great and our dancing.  God, Natalie
looked good!  She was so sensuous, so graceful and so loving at the end we
could see Mother leaking tears -- and Father wasn't dry either.
   Despite my objections, George showed them the Michelle Bonds clip, and
they both wept a little more.  I hadn't seen Father so emotional for years!
   George remarked they'd had three cameras rolling, so they'd caught quite
a few things.  He showed us several clips of Mother and Father dancing
together then paused it for just a moment.
   "Dave and Elizabeth, I'm sure you remember Leone."
   He rolled the DVD and there was Leone latching onto Father with her
(should-be) patented love-hug.  Natalie synched in what Leone had said.
   "Oh, Mr.  Reynolds!  I can see how Bob got to be *so* strong and *so*
handsome!  With a father like you, it's plain to see how he got to be so...
popular with all the ladies."
   She rubbed her magnificent bosom up against him -- and he squirmed.
   "Now Bob's still young -- I'll bet you taught him all he knows about how
to please a woman, but not all *you* know!  Now since he's off the market,
I don't know *how* I'll ever learn how to be a real woman.  I'm sure *you*
could teach me.  Maybe we can slip away from here for a few hours to start
the lessons; no one will miss us, I'm sure."
   We could almost see him get hard -- his eyes sure got big in a hurry. 
Natalie continued with Leone's dialog -- it might not have been very
accurate but, if not she sure was doing great at making it up on the fly.
   "OOH!  You construction guys are *so* hunky!  I bet you *really* know
how to use your tool to get the job done right." Leone rubbed up against
him -- top and bottom.
   George paused it.  There was dead silence for a few seconds then Sherry
piped up in a perfect Princess whine, "Please, Mr.  Reynolds, show us your
wonderful *power tool.*"
   We laughed so hard, I'll bet there wasn't a dry set of underwear in the
house.  I saw Father getting *dark* -- there wasn't quite enough light to
see clearly, but he was probably blushing for the first time in years.
   He really got pounded.  All four of our very sexy ladies whined,
"Please! Please!" and Don, George and I started in, too.
   "Make sure the batteries are charged."
   "It would be *boring."*
   "Same old saw."
   "Quite an *extension* cord you've got there, Dave."
   "It's plane to see."
   "That's concrete evidence."
   "Talk about *erecting* a house."
   "You've got to *drill* the hole."
   We finally settled down enough to pop the DVD and end the party.
   ------
   SHERRY (Monday 12/19)
   Bob and Natalie showed up Monday morning looking as if they'd made love
all night.  She was glowing!
   Several students who happened to be around applauded quietly with big
smiles of appreciation.  Bob and Natalie smiled and nodded in
acknowledgment and did some of those twinkletoe or traveling steps where
they twirl, dance back to back, face to face, doing all sorts of stuff but
still always ending up traveling the same direction at a fast walking
speed.
   I guess if George and I worked on it for several days, we could do
something like it too.  *They* did it as casually as waving a hand -- while
Bob carried both their backpacks in one hand.
   When they got to us, they made a final spin and Natalie ended up hugging
me while Bob had his hand on George's shoulder.  Damn, they're good.
   George and I, along with several others, made an Honor Guard and
escorted them to our first class.  Almost everyone was seated, but they
(including the teacher) stood and applauded as Bob and Natalie came in.
   They bowed and Bob flicked their backpacks aside.  They did a couple
dance steps, a flying lift and ended up embracing each other looking as if
they were going into the world's hottest kiss.  I started a quiet "Oooo"
which everyone joined in on and got louder and higher as their lips got
closer.
   At the very last moment, they moved their heads to the others ear and
yelled, "Num num num num," broke, smiled and bowed.  Applause and laughter!
   ------
   NATALIE
   Bob was right; we had a fan club.  We did several more quick dance
routines at the start of various classes.
   At lunch, the entire Inner Circle got up and did a fast and ferocious
Irish Jig to great applause.
   ------
   BOB (Wednesday 12/21)
   YESS!  I got my General Contractor's License!  The tests were always
during the weekdays, and I hadn't been able honestly to sleaze off a day to
go take it before.  Yes!  Now I'm all sorts of legal and can do everything
under my own name.
   It only took a couple of hours in the morning.  Natalie congratulated me
profusely while we had lunch out to celebrate.  We would have celebrated a
different way (maybe some torrid, wild sex in the back yard!), but we had
some gigs starting at 1:00.
   First one was a couple leaky faucets.  The gentleman was one of the
McCambridge teacher's fathers and was semi-disabled.  He'd caught a bullet
in the leg in Vietnam and was pretty lame.  So far as we were concerned, he
got half the lowest rate we had.
   It took me about thirty seconds to teach Natalie how to check out a
faucet for bad washers and or a bad seat.  I helped her with the first one
in the bathroom then turned her loose in the kitchen where Mr.  Duane was
sitting nursing his leg.
   Duck to water!  Nat knew exactly how to bend and stretch to give him the
best look at her sweet ass!  When she got on her hands and knees under the
sink to turn the water off, Mr.  Duane got a long look at her crotch
snugged up against her thin boiler suit.
   We could _hear_ what he was thinking, _"God is she beautiful.  An ass to
*die* for.  Damn, if I were even twenty years younger...  Lovely bosom..."_
   He might not be fast on the walk, but he sure wasn't out for the count!
We decided (justly) we needed to replace the cutout valves in the kitchen.
   After I turned off the house main and tended to the other faucets in the
house, Natalie did another trip under the sink, this time on her back.  Mr.
Duane got some good looks at the sweetest ass and pussy around!
   It didn't hurt, either, that Nat had to replace both washers in the
faucet and grind down the seats a little; it required her to bend over the
sink for another five minutes.
   We did a quick spirit-look around the neighborhood and came up with a
plan.  After we turned on the water again, and Mr.  Duane gave her twenty
dollars (a lot on a fixed disability income), Natalie pretended to look
through her address book.
   She scribbled a name, address and phone number on a piece of paper and
handed it to him.  With a firm kiss on the cheek, she told him, "Why don't
you look up Thelma here.  She's a widow and told me she's had her eye on
you for a while.  Give it a shot!"
   Well, part of it wasn't true.  Thelma was a widow, she was around
fifty-five (and still very good-looking) and had her eye on him.  She just
hadn't told Natalie directly.
   Anyway, it got Nat a solid kiss in the truck.  I told her, "You did
*good*, Sunshine.  I run into quite a few people who think their life is
over.  Now you've given him a shot at being happy again.  I *know* you made
him happy with a few shots of your gorgeous butt."
   For what it's worth, Nat checked back a week later.  They were going out
together!  Yes!  Another successful match, at least to start.  We put their
profiles in George's database; they were good people, and who knows what
might turn up.
   We had two other gigs: a crack patch and a light fixture replacement. 
Natalie handled the first on her own while I schmoozed with the couple (I
gave her full pop on it -- we'd come back in a couple days and touch up the
paint).
   I coached Nat on changing out the light fixture; she climbed up the
ladder and futzed around.  Not a whole lot to it, just some juggling while
you put the screws in and try to hold everything up.  I distracted the
lady's attention a little so Nat could use four hands to hold things
together.  Ten dollars for it, fifteen minutes work.  Nat got two-fifty. 
It's still ten bucks an hour!
   Anyway, she made twenty-five dollars in an afternoon for an actual time
on the job of two hours.  She'd gotten two people off to a new start in
life and helped make a couple others quite happy.
   I dragged her back home about 5:00.  We'd scheduled an informal study
session to make plots and plans for the holidays.
   Shower but no messing around (well, not much).  A quick bite then over
to her house for Inner Circle.
   Everyone planned on being around most of the holidays, so we tentatively
planned another trip to Universal Studios after Christmas and perhaps a run
to Magic Mountain depending on finances and time.
   Towards the end of our meeting, I brought up something I'd been tossing
around in my head for several days now.
   I told them, "Guys, I've been thinking..."
   That got a reaction from everyone.
   "Uh, oh!  When Bob starts 'thinking,' the wood starts burning.  Pull the
fire alarm!  Prepare to evacuate!"
   "Yeh.  Well, every time he's started out with that, it means he's
thought of something for *us* to do."
   "On the other hand, the last time he started 'thinking' we ended up with
a couple major breakthroughs.  Maybe, just maybe, this time he might have
something."
   I finally got to get my bit out.  "Yep.  Heavy-duty thinking.  You guys
might try it some time.
   "Anyway, you've all _inspected_ people before, mostly the students at
McCambridge, right?"
   They agreed.
   I continued, "Looking at it, we do it for two reasons.  First, we want
to get some handle on what the person is like and second, it often pushes
them into remembering at least some of their abilities.  Right so far?"
   Yes.  General agreement.
   "What I'm looking at is sometime soon we're going to be out in the real
world, so to speak.  We're going out into Blake's world, Louise's world,
the Sonora's world, my father's world.  Real people, real life.
   "At McCambridge, we aren't risking much by doing our _inspections_ that
way.  How many actual criminals do we know of we haven't had run off
already?  None.
   "Now out in the real world, we'll run into people we'll want to inspect
without them having the slightest clue we're doing it.  We want to be able
to find out about them without raising an iota of suspicion.  And who
knows, maybe that mysterious sex bomb a while ago jolted some remembering
loose.
   "So, I've got two requests due on December 26.  One, develop a way of
_inspecting_ someone which has the best success of data gathering with the
least possibility of detection.
   "Next, if we can _inspect_ someone, so can others _inspect_ us if they
have the ability.  We've only run into a few free spirits so far, but with
the rate the remembering is spreading, there'll be others out there who
have many of the same abilities as we do.
   "There's no guarantee some of these beings won't be evil and wish to
destroy us.  Evil is a point of view and someone might well think all our
bodies deserve to be killed and we as spirits put in some trap we don't
know about to spend the next several million, billion or trillion years.
   "So the second assignment is to develop something like a firewall
against outsiders.  To me, the best firewall would be one the outsider
didn't know existed.  If they were able to _inspect_ one of us, what they
would get is a pretty ordinary human being with no spiritual abilities at
all.
   "The upshot is we want to be able to see and find out everything about
someone else without them knowing about it and at the same time, be proofed
up ourselves against that very ability.
   "You guys are the best in the business so far as I'm concerned.  Go for
it!"
   They had lots to work on in their spare time.
   After we broke up, I massaged out Natalie's aches and pains.  Yeh, we
were still running and exercising, but with our gigs, she'd still been
using muscles she'd used very little before.
   We got in some sweet loving before we went to sleep.  We loved each
other and we shared and showed our love every time we were together and
often spiritually when we were apart.  Each time was special to us both,
because we were sharing both pleasure and love at the same time.
   ------
   NATALIE (Thursday, 12/22)
   More gigs.  I plastered, painted, did a bit of concrete patching
(half-pop on all of them!) then Bob sent me out on my own for a couple
faucets and light fixtures for full-pop.  Yes!
   Okay, I was tired at the end of the, day and sometimes I really didn't
know what I was doing.  Bob would give me a five-second hatting on what to
do and I'd be on my way again.
   Nice.  These were all full-retail, so I made $200 free and clear (before
those nasty taxes).  Most of the girls I'd talked with or inspected took a
week at forty hours to bring in as much.
   Every place I went, I gave the people a thorough _inspection_.  They
went into George's database with an evaluation for further follow-up, if
needed.  Invasion of privacy?  Tough shit.  We were looking for good people
for later networking.
   I did run into some scum along the way; one of them tried to hit on me
fairly crudely.  A few judicious _touches_ on his digestive system had him
sitting on the toilet shitting his brains out in a few minutes.  Hah!  He
went into the database too, as "not to be trusted without further in-depth
evaluation." Maybe he was just having a bad-hair day, but when he hit on me
like I was a piece of meat, it pretty much sealed his fate so far as I was
concerned.
   Friday and Saturday, Bob and I worked our butts off all day.  I was able
to do half the gigs alone (borrowed Mom's car) and got a lotta learnin' on
carpentry, woodworking, laying linoleum, ceramic tile repair and just about
everything you can think of.
   I cleared $600 each of those two days.  Yes!  Not
get-rich-and-retire-at-thirty income but God-damned nice.  I added ten
people to our database and matched up another adult couple who looked
promising.
   ------
   VALERIE
   Christmas Vacation!  Party time!  Well, Pat and I partied at least; we
spent Wednesday night pigging out on pizza.  Thursday morning we slept in
until 10:00!  So decadent!
   Pat and I ran around Thursday.  We strolled around the Media Center, had
take-out lunch at the park and just chatted away.  It's nice to be
together.
   In the late afternoon, during one of those rare times when Pat and I
weren't together, Janet and Bellana dragged me into Janet's place for
girl-talk.
   Pat and I'd been seeing Janet with Henry (he lived just beyond Pat's
place) and Bellana for a couple weeks.  We'd seen Steven with a gorgeous
Italian-looking girl who turned out to be Bellana's sister.  Of course,
we'd speculated on the relationships.
   When Janet and Bellana got me set down with a soda, they both looked at
me for a few seconds.  It felt as if they'd looked at my life back to the
first time I'd found out what a pussy was *really* good for -- it gave me a
few tingles in just the right places.
   After chatting with them and watching them for a couple minutes, I
asked, "You two and Henry are together, right?  A troika?"
   They both laughed and high-fived each other.  Bellana handed Janet a
couple of dollars.  Janet grinned at me, "I bet you'd figure it out in less
than five minutes.  She didn't know you as well as I do, so she said it
would take at least fifteen minutes.
   "Yep.  We're all three together just like you said.  Big Brother and
Lucia are together and our Mom and Henry's dad are together.  We've got
quite a family thing going."
   I applauded them.  I said, "It's really nice to see someone who isn't
hung up on sex.  Most everyone at my school either thinks it's all entirely
nasty or thinks male-female sex is the best thing since sliced bread and
tampons.  If someone even whispers the idea that two guys or two girls
might be getting it on, it's 'Ewww!' Fuck 'em."
   They laughed again and gave me a nice hug.  Bellana focused in on me and
asked, "Now, how about you and Patrick?"
   They had me cold.  All could tell them was the truth.  "Yes, we're in
love with each other.  Right now, it's simply the fact we'd rather spend
time with each other than anyone else."
   I nudged a boob and patted a hip.  "We're both on the downside,
hopefully, of the puberty blues.  We've had hormones running wild for six
months now and I've gone from flat to a B+.
   "We've talked about sex, we've teased each other a little -- hell, I
make sure he gets a good look at my bare chest at *least* every couple of
weeks.  We're waiting.  It's not the 'save ourselves for marriage' stuff;
we know for right now the hormones are ruling.  We want a loving
relationship, we're letting it build and we think the time isn't quite
right yet.  Something's still not quite right.
   "At least a third of the time we're around each other, I'm horny.  We
usually ease further apart and let it cool down; we've never really shared
a real romantic kiss.
   "Our beds share a common wall -- wonder how that happened?  -- and we've
got a tapping code worked out, including Morse Code.  *Very* often, we tell
each other it's 'play time' and we masturbate together.  Shit, that's fun.
Again, though, something isn't quite ready.  We know the hormones are
running and we want to control them, not the other way around."
   "Remember the sex bomb a couple weeks ago?"
   Janet and Bellana cracked up so hard I thought they'd pass out from
laughing.  With a very red face, Janet said, "Yeh, we remember it.  What
happened with you?"
   I told them, "Pat and I were sitting next to each other and I came so
hard I knocked my desk over.  He managed to catch me before I hit my head
on the floor and held me the rest of the time."
   I blushed a little.  "I rammed his fingers up my snatch and fucked
myself on them.  My hymen split and I had blood all over.
   "He carried me all the way home here, got me washed off and put me to
bed.  The thing I remember best is him holding me -- he was so strong, yet
he touched me as if I were a fragile glass vase.  Ever since then, if I
think about it too long, I start wetting myself again."
   Janet and Bellana didn't laugh quite so hard this time but almost. 
Janet said, "Let me tell you what happened to me."
   She told me about what happened to her and Henry after they'd passed out
in the bathroom; how Steven had come along and how he and Natalie had taken
care of her.
   "Steven Stud is a real gentleman.  Even so, it sounds as if he could get
a few lessons from Pat.  He didn't do *any* touchy?"
   "No," I told them.  "He used a little soap around my crotch at my
instigation, but his whole attitude, now that I think about it, was he was
concerned about me and wanted me to be in good condition.  I don't think he
had a lecherous thought the whole time, even though it was the first time
he'd seen me in the bare pelt.  He seemed to be admiring me more than
looking at me."
   I felt a little something go between them, but it was so faint, I
couldn't really make anything out.
   "Well, Val," Bellana told me.  "I'd say you two are doing things just
right.  When I first met Henry and Janet, it was love first.  Admittedly,
maybe ten minutes later, there was a *lot* of hot and horny, but the love
and admiration came first.  You're doing just fine.  On the other hand,
maybe we can teach you a couple tricks which might be interesting."
   She and Janet worked with me on reaching out and _touching_ someone and
flowing admiration at them.  We practiced with each other and I _felt_ them
_touching_ and _kissing_ me.
   Janet said, "The _kiss_ feeling is a flow of admiration.  Love has a
*lot* of admiration.  Now you try it with Pat a few times and see what
happens."
   They gave me a final hug and _kiss_ and threw me out into the hall.
   Ten seconds later, I saw Pat coming from the other way.  Yes!  Let's try
this out.  I gave him the best _kiss_ I could and at the same time, I felt
him _kiss_ me!
   This wasn't like Janet or Bellana.  They were friendly kisses, a kiss
you'd get from your uncle or grandmother.  Pat's _kiss_ spread through me
all at once like the warmth you get from drinking hot chocolate on a cold
night.  I shook.  It got more intense until I felt caught up, embraced,
cared for and totally desired.
   Pat caught me in his arms and snuggled me in.  "Let's not do it too hard
or too often," he whispered.  "Henry said it tends to be overwhelming.  I
almost passed out from the beauty I felt from within you."
   Chapter 44
   BOB (Friday 12/23)
   Natalie, George, Sherry and I got together with Leone and Mark.  We told
them an idea (Don's idea actually) about sending DVDs out to various
publishers with their music.
   Sherry asked, "Have you done any original writing?  That would be very
interesting to send out."
   Mark told us, "We've done several in draft form; music and lyrics. 
We've tried them out with just the piano and we're pretty satisfied with
them."
   Leone put in, "Our next step, we think, is to practice with a small
band, maybe with some backup singers and do a recording of some sort."
   George said, "I've got the mikes and mixers I used at the dance.  We can
run ten channels direct to hard disk at maximum quality.  What we need is a
recording studio."
   I told them, "Maybe my dining room?  It's designed for gatherings and
with the right combination of curtains and rugs, it should be pretty fair
acoustically.  We'd still get some outside noise once in a while, but at
least we're not on the airport flight path.  I'll ask my folks; I'm sure
they'd be happy to help."
   Leone said, "I'll ask our band from the dance.  I think I can be
persuasive enough."
   The rest of us laughed.  George said, "Leone, you could persuade Dracula
to give up blood sucking if you wave your chest at him."
   Anyway, we discussed it some more.  We decided to try different styles
in different genres, ranging from a country-western, "I traded my love for
a dog and the dog got bitted by a rattlesnake and died," to New Era, "When
my love and I are together we help the whole world sing."
   As for distribution, we didn't have a clue right now.  Sherry said she'd
investigate Internet download sites which offered free legal downloads. 
We'd heard new artists often put some of their music there to get exposure.
   ------
   NATALIE (Christmas Morning Sunday 12/25)
   Bob and I were asleep together when Toro told us loudly, _"*ALERT!*_
_Earthquake coming -- pretty good sized one!"_
   Bob and I'd been spooned together, but the next thing I knew I was face
down on the floor right beside the bed with my knees drawn up, my hands on
my head and my elbows tucked in while Bob was on all fours on top of me.
   "Protection, Sunshine."
   A distant roar got louder and louder until it sounded like the freight
trains I'd heard in Ohio -- only this one was running right through our
bedroom.  The mattress shook then everything jolted up in the air a couple
inches.  It jolted several more times then shook hard for a minute.
   When everything had calmed down, I was still really scared.  "Bob, it
wasn't a little one, was it?" I _felt_ Don and Mom _listening_ in.
   "Fairly decent one.  Probably low to mid five.  I can't see much in the
house which had any problem; one glass in the kitchen fell over and broke
and that's about it."
   Don told us, _"I've got this monkey on my back, and it's trying to fuck
me in the ass.  Good thing it's stuffed cotton or I'd be in a heap of
hurt."_
   Mom: _"Bob, thanks for getting us to move those books over the bed.  It
would have been *very* unpleasant to have them come down on us."_
   Bob, to the Inner Circle plus parents: _"Any problems out there?"_
All: _"No.  Just a few nerves."_
I left my connection up to everyone else.  _"Were we in real danger? 
Could we have been hurt or killed?"_
   Bob and Dave: _"Yes and no.  One that big in an unprepared dwelling has
been known to kill people when something fell on them.  Fortunately,
everything in all our places is either tied down or out of the way."_
   Me: _"Then it *was* a brush with death.  It means we're supposed to fuck
like minks to prove we're still alive, right?  'Cause I'm horny!"_
   Short pause.
   Lucia: _"Sounds like a good enough excuse to me, since we're awake
anyway.  Steven, I'm horny!"_
   Bellana and Janet: _"Toro, we're horny!"_
Louise: _"Blake, I'm horny!"_
Elizabeth: _"Dave, I'm horny!"_
Ana: _"Don, I'm horny!"_
   Mama Sonora: _"Papa, I'm *always* horny!"_
Sherry: _"ALL *RIGHT*!  GROUP SEX!  PARTY!  George, get to work!"_
I raised my hips up against Bob's pelvis and wiggled them.  Little Bob
perked right up and Bob's hands crept around my front, milked my boobs and
pulled my nipples out really hard (perfect pressure!).
   He nuzzled and kissed my neck and shoulders and told me, "Sounds like a
plan to me!"
   He milked me and pulled my nipples, sending hot jolts of energy right
down to my pussy!  Pussy-juice production immediately went into full-shift
overtime, and I dribbled down my leg.  My pussy swelled up in anticipation,
the inner lips stuck out, waved and pulsed as they begged for attention,
and Miss Clitty packed her bags for an extended stay outside her bedroom.
   We girls _linked_ just enough to share some sensations and emotions;
maybe about 5%.  Our main attention was on the guy (and girl, in the Wild
Bunch's case) who was doing his best to make us forget all about any fear
we had from that nasty old earthquake.
   Wow!  It was like getting attention from eight very interested men at
the same time!  All different but all trying their best to pleasure me. 
The best one was right behind me with his Sorcerer's Wand nestled between
my butt cheeks ready to produce some magic.
   Bob lifted me onto the bed then pulled me up until I was on my hands and
knees underneath him.  He closed my legs together until my knees were only
a couple inches apart, put his knees outside mine, ("I'll hold you up,
Sunshine.") and stroked both his hands from my hips up my stomach.
   We popped outside leaving lots of connections with our bodies and
spirit-hugged and _kissed_ while we created wonderful sensations and
pleasure with our bodies below.
   _"I love you, Sunshine."_ He milked and stroked my boobs and kissed my
back and shoulders.  _"Your sweet butt fits into me perfectly and these
wonderful breasts are exactly right in my hands."_ He slipped the Wand
between my legs so it lay right across my lips and poked Miss Clitty.
   The orgasm boiler had gone into double-superheat and the pressure was
rising like an express elevator.  All those orgasm bubbles swirled around,
ready for action.
   "How about a little Journey, Sunshine?  A little stroll on the beach and
maybe surf a few waves?"
   Nice come!  The boiler pressure climbed like the Space Shuttle at
liftoff!  Pussy juice flooded over the Wand!  _"YES!  I've been *very* bad,
Sorcerer!  Discipline me with the Rod of Chastisement!  Please!"_
   Bob pulled back so the head was right at my entrance.  We got the angles
just right and he entered slowly.  In a half-inch, pause for orgasm and
sweet shrieking.  Out a half-inch then in an inch, with another pause while
my pussy clenched down on him, our muscles locked up briefly and the boiler
released a wave of orgasmic energy through us which we could barely stand.
   Finally he was all the way in with his hips pressed tight against my
ass. We were shaking, panting and either moaning or shrieking with each
breath, while my pussy rippled down on him with joy or fluttered on the
edge of another sweet release.
   He said, "Let's build the first wave." I dropped my head and shoulders
down to the bed, grabbed both my tits and did my best to milk all the blood
into my nipples.
   Bob slowly pulled almost all the way out then with a rush, plunged into
my depths and pounded my cervix while he pinched Miss Clitty firmly. 
Wonderful climax!  Bubbles burst all over, flooding us with energy and
pleasure -- the boiler pressure kept building higher anyway.
   We expanded ourselves to cover our bodies entirely, weaving in, out,
throughout both ourselves and our bodies, marveling at the delight we were
creating.
   Each stroke was a marvel, emptying and filling in sweet longing then
fulfillment!  We explored our joining, frolicking in the heat, pressure and
wonderful wetness inside my vagina.  We anticipated and welcomed each
bounce on my cervix with spirit-shrieks and _hugs_ while the orgasmic heat
flooded us.  The boiler pressure kept rising.
   _"Behold the Big Wave!  *Surf's up!*"_
   We stroked hard and fast several times, Bob reached around, vibrated his
fingers on Miss Clitty then spurted inside me!  We locked up entirely while
I screamed out what breath I had left.
   The wave lifted us up and held us at the top for a few moments.  We had
time to take a few breaths then screamed again while another contraction
locked us up.  We writhed throughout our bodies, directly experiencing the
energy and pressure from our locked muscles and from my pussy clamping down
*hard* on the Rod of Chastisement.
   We slid down the face of the wave forever, it seemed, while we screamed
out our joy for the world to hear and for all our friends to _experience._
We paused briefly and slid along the face of the wave while we pulled some
oxygen into our bodies and danced our spirit-dances throughout them.  Bob
stroked again a few times (still hard!), reached around and rubbed Miss
Clitty with long, smooth, wet strokes.
   More releases flooded us; we shrieked out our pleasure and did what we
needed to keep them going for a long time.  Our bodies toppled on their
sides; we kept moving and stroking together.  Probably a half-hour went by
as we gradually changed from hot scorching climaxes to smooth warm loving
releases as we murmured words of love to each other.
   Finally, the wave ran out on the sands and our bodies lay still, too
tired to move.  We left them to recover and soared together into the sky to
see the future dawn before the sun rose.  We glided along the radiation
belts, played with streams of high-energy particles from the sun, created
some Northern Lights for fun and dove deep into the oceans to chase the
fish.
   All of us had released, both our bodies and from our bodies.  All
seventeen of us joined together in an impromptu celebration of life which
spanned every continent and went from the moon down through the earth and
out the other side.
   Merry Christmas!
   ------
   BOB
   Nice Christmas!  Don, Ana and Natalie came over to our place for a fun
present-unwrapping.  Nat had been able to buy a lot of nice stuff for her
friends with the money she'd made literally through the sweat of her brow.
   Mother, Father Don, Ana, Natalie and I went over to Nat's grandparents'
house for Christmas dinner.  I was able to help Nana [Grandmother] in the
kitchen a lot while we chatted away in Irish Gaelic like old friends.
   I _inspected_ her casually; I figured if Ana and Natalie had the
abilities, she might, too.
   _"Is it yerself, Bob?"_ she gave me as she laughed at me.  _"I figured
'twas getting time someone came to say hello.  'Tis been ages since we've
talked with someone -- 'twas back in Ireland."_
   _"Guess I just got *my* comeuppance,"_ I admitted.  _"Sorry we took so
long, we just found out about this only a few months ago ourselves."_
   _"But from the feel of ya, yer doing fine.  Anyone else around here can
do it?"_
   _"At least 17, Nana.  It seems to creep from one person to the next --
when they're ready for it."_
   _"Ain't that the truth.  Then there's some people yer *glad* can't do
it."_
   _"We'll probably run into some of those,"_ I told her.  _"But Don and
Ana will kick some serious butt on them if they need it.  Your Ana is one
fine fearsome lady!"_
   Turns out a long line of their family had been able to _talk_ a bit with
each other, but that was all the further it had gone.  The ability seemed
to appear gradually when they reached the mid-thirties.
   I told her, _"Nana, you and himself make a little talk with Ana and Don
tonight.  We've found some other things that'll make you dance the jig
again because they're so fun."_
   _"We will.  We've got no problem learnin' from our children."_
   Father got on great with Seanathair [Gaelic: Grandfather].  They drank
Irish whiskey (Father's treat), told dirty jokes to each other in Gaelic
which the ladies pretended to ignore but giggled or laughed at anyway, and
we put on the Irish.
   Anyway, we were pretty much partied out by Christmas Day evening.  Nat
and I went to sleep early and only snuggled and snogged a little bit.  No
sex; maybe the "new" on our sexual relationship was wearing off a little? I
doubt it.  I was still finding depths to her every day which made me love
her more and more.
   ------
   (Monday 12/26)
   Monday, we had a full day of gigs, with a couple of "emergencies." One
had their Christmas puppy locked in the bathroom and didn't know how to get
it out.  Nat handled it with a tiny screwdriver and two seconds of work. 
Her fee?  A sweet kiss from the sixteen-year-old son who blushed all the
way down to his shirt!  Another fine young man for our database!
   Standard reno/repair stuff most of the day.  Nat handled half of them on
her own and got full pop.  I took the ones which were more physically
strenuous, but most of them would be in Natalie's range in a few more
weeks. She was doing great!
   She dragged her butt home about 4:00 and I had to hold her up in the
shower; she'd put all her energy into it the entire day.  After I dried her
off, I made her sleep (alone!) until 6:30.
   Don and Ana went back to see Nana and Seanathair.  They gave them a
solid coach-and-drill session and left them flying around outside
exploring. Good on both of 'em!
   At 7:00 we had an Inner Circle meeting which turned out to be extremely
interesting.
   Papa Sonora, Father and Henry had worked together on a detectionless
_inspection_.  They'd consulted and worked with the others but theirs was
the final presentation.
   It was the difference between having a hot, very wet, very fragrant
pussy drop down on your face and getting a blast of odorless female
pheromones.  Most of us by now could smell or detect pheromones, but the
net result would be the guy would get extremely turned on.  One way was
very overt, the other almost impossible to spot unless you knew exactly
what you were looking for and were constantly alert for it.
   It was a technique of using a tiny, tiny tendril to drill in.  Kind of
like arthroscopic or non-invasive surgery.  Once the "probe" was in, you
could look around pretty much to your heart's content.
   As a demonstration, Papa Sonora probed me and reported to the entire
assembly my first puppy's name was Sparky, and the first girl I'd ever
kissed was Selena when I was eight years old.  He gave the exact date, time
and place.  Very good!  I hadn't felt or detected a thing.
   On the other side, Ana, Don and George had developed what they called a
firewall.  It was very similar to the computer system firewalls which let
only certain types of communication in or out.
   When Ana showed us the firewall, we _inspected_ her and found out she
was African-American, sixty-five years old, lived in Tucson, Arizona and
had five sons, three daughters and ten grandchildren.  Yeh, right!
   Yes!  Lots of promise.  Now, put the probe against the firewall.  Father
probed Don's firewall; he immediately detected it and said, "Probe!" It was
like having a built-in alarm system.
   Now Henry worked at probing him.  After fifteen minutes, Don hadn't
detected anything and Henry reported he'd made only a little progress.
   "It would have to be real slow, like a root growing in the ground.  The
change or penetration would need a very slow change so the alarm wouldn't
trip.  I could probably do it eventually, but I would say it would take
many hours to do it, if not days.
   "Now if you didn't give a shit about the person, with Janet's help I
could probably *push* a probe through the firewall.  They would definitely
know someone was there, but they wouldn't necessarily know what to do about
it.
   "So you've got the old adage of irresistible force meeting the immovable
object.  If our firewalls are not solid enough, an enemy could penetrate.
If our probes were not subtle enough, they would know we were there.
   "So I'd say it comes down to several factors.  A) Having the correct
firewall.  B) Knowing when the firewall has been probed or compromised as
against C) Finding out a person has a firewall in the first place without
them finding out we're aware of it and D) Getting in an undetectable probe.
   "Our usual mode of operation should probably be a solid firewall with
very sensitive alarms which would tell us someone was inspecting and
probing without them even knowing we had a firewall up in the first place.
We'd have a cover story or persona set up like Ana demonstrated.
   "So if we're interested in _inspecting_ or learning about someone, we do
a very quiet look for a firewall.  If they don't have one, a quiet probe.
If they're still not aware of us, we can do what we want, either a covert
probe or an overt _inspection_, depending on the circumstances.
   "Okay, Bob, since we've got what you asked for, when are we going to
Unpleasantville to kick some ass?"
   We got some murmurs from Father, Mother and Don.  I told them, "Suffice
it to say for the moment the Sonoras had some extremely unpleasant
experiences in what we call Unpleasantville, and the perpetrators have
gotten off scot-free.  I figure if they got away with it once, they will or
have done it again.  Several of us don't think that's quite right and wish
to set things right."
   Lucia told Father, Mother and Don, "I'll talk with you later about it.
You will *not* be amused."
   Our sweet, gentle Bellana had something to say, "Yah!  I know of at
least a half-dozen would-be rapists whose balls I'd love to see nailed to
the side of the barn.
   "But before we get into that, I've got another question.  If we have
these high-class, solid firewalls with alternate personae, how do *we*
communicate?  I mean us chickens here.  Do we knock, knock and go through a
password ritual?  Do we have to let down our firewalls to communicate?"
   George had his hand in the air, waving wildly.  "Teacher!  Teacher! 
Call on me!"
   "Okay, George, you've got the floor -- or room or whatever we call it."
   George told us, "We've used the analogy of a computer firewall as a
blocking and detection device.  For our internal communications, we use a
similar analogy, called a Virtual Private Network, or VPN.
   "It's a highly-encrypted tunnel going through the firewall and passes
traffic only between two authorized points.  Someone may be able to detect
there's a VPN, but it's so highly encrypted the probability of them getting
any content is nil, nada.
   "We do the same.  With a little practice, we can have a full firewall
with all its sensitive alarms and fancy personae but at the same time be
able to have our own VPNs.  Yeh, it will be kind of a knock, knock and
passwords like Bellana mentioned, but setting one up between any two -- or
more -- of us shouldn't take more than a flicker.  With a little work, we
can probably make its very existence pretty much undetectable.
   "Even now with our current _inspections_ and modes of communication
between us, we've learned to exchange information without leakage and
usually someone else doesn't even know it's occurring.  Give us an hour or
so and we'll have something for you."
   I said, "Sounds great.  We've got offense and defense.  What else do we
need?"
   Mama Sonora said, "I'm not all technical like you guys, so if I want to
remember something I usually write it down.  If the fuckheads in
Unpleasantville are anything like other people, I bet they have written or
computer records.  We need a way to get at those records without being
detected, just as we would use a probe on a person.
   "We also need a way to make notes; to capture the intelligence we
uncover.  We need to be able to send it out to anyone we want, like the
FBI."
   Sherry, Lucia and George volunteered to work on it.
   I said, "Okay, sounds workable so far.  Now, how do we go about this? 
Do we drive up with sub-machine guns and line everyone against the wall? 
Hate-mail campaign?  Assassination?  What?  Open for discussion."
   We discussed plans and options for another hour then decided we'd meet
again the next evening.
   ------
   That night while Sunshine and I were outside exploring, we ran into the
rest of the Circle doing the same thing.
   We called out, _"Hey, guys!"_
   The seven of them gathered around, and we exchanged a few notes on some
of the stuff everyone had been doing.  Steven asked us, _"I've been
noticing something when you two are together like this.  Every once in a
while when you two are sliding through each other, there seems to be a
flash or a glow of some sort.  Any idea what it is?"_
   Hmm.  News to us.  We tried to re-create it.  Spirit-kiss, no.  Hug? 
Steven said there was a tiny flash but not as much as he'd seen before.
   _Snuggle?_ Yeh, it was pretty close, getting some action there.
   Going at it spirit-doggy style?  That wasn't it, but they applauded our
graphic efforts.
   The last thing we tried was a full _merge_, when we try to get in as
close contact as we could, all over.
   Steven said, _"That's it!  You other guys see it?"_
   Bellana told us, _"Most everything glows like it's luminescent.  Other
parts are white and maybe there's one tiny fleck of gray in there."_
   Henry said, _"Yes.  It's pretty obvious once you see it.  Okay, you two
love-birds, get as close as you can and work things around a little bit."_
   We did our best, working parts of us up against the other until we felt
the best.
   Lucia said, _"It's even better than before.  Almost everything glows
now."_
   Steven said, _"Great.  You two don't do anything else while we're
investigating."_ Everyone stuck their probe into various areas, checking
out what was going on.  It was a little bit "ticklish" almost, having so
many spirits doing that.
   Sherry said, _"The areas glow the brightest where you two harmonize and
*reinforce* each other; the final 'merge', shall we say, is better and more
powerful than the two of you apart -- the classic 'whole is greater than
the sum of the parts.'"_
   Janet gave us a big laugh.  _"The little gray speck is still there. 
Know what it is?  Sunshine *likes* shopping and Bob tolerates it.  I'd say
gray is a conflict."_
   George laughed.  _"Must be spirit-gender or something.  Okay.  Sunshine,
you mock up *adoring* shopping.  You live to shop.  You'd pass up getting
deflowered to go to a sale.  Bob, you hate and *loathe* shopping; you won't
even drive by the Media Center."_
   We tried it.  The little gray speck got really big, turned a horrendous
black and seemed to suck up everything around it.  The original glow and
luminescent died down to a medium.  Yech.  It even felt bad emotionally.
   Janet observed, _"Looks like a compatibility test to me!  Okay, guys,
relax back to your 'normal' selves."_ We did, the black hole shrunk back to
its original size and went to light gray again.  We glowed again and it
felt wonderful!
   Bellana told us, _"One other thing.  Throughout the area which glows so
much is your love and admiration for each other.  It seems to be the thing
which ties all the rest together and is the actual source of the
luminescence.  I think we've got a couple winners here!"_
   All right!  We split up and everyone tried all the _merging_
permutations we could think of.  Any two of us were at least white with
only a couple gray specs; couples like Sunshine and me, George and Sherry,
Steven and Lucia were almost blinding in their glory.
   The Wild Bunch was interesting.  Any two had a really nice glow with a
couple of little gray specs, but the three together flared like the noonday
sun on the desert.  *That's* compatibility!
   Great!  Now we had another tool in our arsenal of spirit-tricks.
   Chapter 45
   NATALIE (Tuesday 12/27)
   More gigs!  Dayum Bob's good.  We had work running out our ears.
   We talked with Elizabeth for forty minutes on scheduling, job
estimations, promotion and other business ideas.  A lot of our stuff came
through Dave's company -- jobs too small for a big contractor with all
their overhead to handle economically.  The rest of it came through
word-of-mouth from the faculty and other satisfied clients.  Bob and I had
a very viable operation going.
   We had ten gigs Tuesday.  We handled four together then each of us
handled three on our own.  I wouldn't say I was getting cocky or
complacent, but every one I went on by myself, within a couple minutes I
either knew exactly what to do or with a couple-second _consultation_ with
the Sorcerer, I found out fast.
   Bob talked me into charging exactly what he would have charged if he'd
done the job.  "Sweetheart, our clients are interested in quality work done
rapidly at a reasonable price.  You can do the same things I do to the same
standards I've taught you.  My experience may enable me to do many things
faster than you, but within a couple weeks, it won't be an issue any more.
   "The product we exchange for money is quality renovations or repairs at
an agreeable price with fully-satisfied customers.  You can deliver it or I
can.  The fact you've done some of this stuff only once before has no
bearing on the quality -- you may take a few minutes longer than me, but
you're *still* at least twice as fast as a conventional contractor and the
speed will pick up.  You do quality work and should be paid for it.
   "If you're worried about picking my brain or gouging me to your own
advantage, just take me to dinner sometime or jump my bones.  I'll take
both or either!"
   I'll jump his bones, all right!
   Anyway, I cleared $550 that day and Bob didn't have to hold me up in the
shower.  I had enough pep left over to offer to jump his bones before our
meeting!  He counter-offered with a long slow screw after the meeting. 
Accepted!
   We still did our stretches, exercises and running in the morning.  We'd
gotten up to forty-five minutes at a very brisk jog, so we were doing okay.
   We skipped dance practice and opted for a special Inner Circle meeting.
We hammered out the Unpleasantville plan some more.  We decided to call it
Operation Cold, as in cold revenge.
   George had come up with a really slick VPN methodology and had improved
the firewall to make it even easier to use and to detect intrusion.
   Sherry, Lucia and George came up with some workable methods for remote
reading.  We could actually "read" books, ledgers and other written
material directly.  With a little practice, Sherry and Steven could read
the Oxford English Unabridged Dictionary with it closed while Henry waved
it around in the air.  Any page, any line.  Take a look at the print
sometime; they supply a magnifying glass for the "mere mortals."
   Computer data was different.  George said he could probably tap network
communications, but the best bet would be to bring it up and simply read it
off the screen.  It was a little riskier but viable.
   As for recording information, the best we could come up with was a
"remote operation." One or more of us could bring up a system, open a
document and type in information -- all remotely, using spirit-touches on
the keyboard and mouse.
   We tried it on one of the school computers.  Interesting.  After a few
moments, any of us who could touch-type could do transcriptions with the
keyboard and mouse.
   Efficient?  Dunno.  In the meantime, it worked.
   Okay.  We decided to launch Operation Cold on Wednesday evening at 5:00.
We wouldn't meet physically; for what we were going to do it was neither
necessary nor desirable.  We decided being paranoid was better than being
cocky, so having our bodies spread out among various households made sense.
   After the meeting, Bob and I had a very long, very slow screw -- only it
was some of the tenderest love-making we'd ever done.  We were going into
the unknown tomorrow, and it was possible we could die.
   ------
   (Wednesday 12/28)
   Bob and I spent the day with one of Papa Sonora's crews.  They knew Bob,
so they tentatively accepted me.
   All were guys, mostly Hispanic with a couple Caucasians,
African-Americans and one Filipino.  Of course they tested me right away.
   Two of the Hispanic guys commented about my boobs, in Spanish.  I told
them (in Spanish) their wives would be very interested in what they'd been
saying, and that their extra-curricular liaisons with their little sweeties
(with named names and times) wouldn't go unnoticed.
   It didn't hurt either that I could curse more colorfully than both of
them put together.  I think I called one of them the "aborted offspring of
a leprous ape and a diseased baboon." Yep, Don had "learned me good."
   The Filipino tried too but when I told him what I thought about his
diseased member (in Tagalog and his own dialect), he backed off.
   Okay, they couldn't intimidate me that way, so they tried to gross me
out with body functions.  No way.  I could out-belch and out-fart any of
them, all with a wide smile.  The only thing we didn't try was a
distance-pissing contest, but I'd probably have beaten them at that, too.
   Out-work me?  Well, after I tossed ten eighty-pound sacks of ready-mix
over my head to Bob, they cooled way down!  Yep, I cheated.  Bob and I
could out-cut, out-hammer, out-mud, out-anything any four of them.  Damn it
was fun.
   Papa Sonora kept his mouth shut and grinned.  He did warn one guy who
got a little rowdy with me to remember what I'd already done.  "Do you
really want her hand in your crotch?  You just saw her pick up a hundred
pounds of nails in each hand.  You're asking for a hand-job; just think how
pulpy your dick would be after she gave it a little squeeze." The guy saw
the picture real fast.
   All in all, they accepted me as one of them.  By the end of the day,
they were talking as easily to me as they were to each other.  They even
toned down the macho-talk of how many girls they'd fucked too, after I
out-lied them by telling them how I'd worn out six men *and* five women in
one night!  Plus, I was willing to tell them exactly how I'd done it.  Bob
and Papa were grinning up a storm inside.
   After the gig, Bob and I spent a few minutes talking with Papa Sonora.
Bob told him, "Papa, I think you should work on getting your contractor's
license and starting your own business."
   Papa looked thoughtful.  "Yah, Mama and I've talked about it a bit -- we
just don't know anything about running a business."
   I told him, "Elizabeth can teach Mama enough to get started in about an
hour.  We can set up an inexpensive computer to keep the books, do
promotional material and that sort of stuff."
   Papa had only one other concern.  "Big Dave wouldn't be too happy about
me leaving, I think."
   Bob snorted.  "Father will *always* want someone to do better and he
will *always* support and help them.  With you being independent, he could
sub-contract you and your guys and be able to drop ten people off direct
W-2 payroll.  He'll save direct money and make more in the long run.  Have
a chat with him; he'll probably be more than willing to help you out.
   "Besides, the way it's looking, Natalie and I will already be overloaded
by the time school starts again, and we'd be delighted to work with you on
getting things done.  I'll even bet Lucia and Bellana would be interested
in learning the trade.  Nat does great at it and we'll help everyone
learn."
   Papa agreed to have a talk with Dave, Mama and the girls.  Yes!  Someone
else wanting to do better in life!
   ------
   NATALIE (Wednesday 12/28)
   All righty then.  Home, shower, dinner then Bob and I took off our shoes
and outer clothes and lay down on our bed.
   Time for Operation Cold.  At 5:00 sharp, we spirit-met in Don's dining
room, re-agreed on our plans then popped up to Unpleasantville with
fully-running firewalls and VPNs.
   To start with, we looked for the guy who'd drugged Lucia; let's call him
Johnny Fargo.  Janet spread herself over the entire county and Lucia
spotted him in two seconds.
   Toro slipped a probe into him; no firewall, no abilities.  With our VPNs
going, we could _inspect_ him through Toro's probe.
   Be Jaysus!  He planned to drug and sell a girl that night!  He had four
buyers waiting.  Full battle stations!
   He went into a family restaurant; she was to meet him in fifteen
minutes. Bob spotted a hidden security camera Johnny didn't know about. 
Henry "guided" the receptionist and him to a table right in front of it --
perfect view.
   Bellana probed the girl when she came in.  No firewall, no abilities. 
She was sweet-sixteen, almost-a-virgin and was a great example of the girl
next door or a sweet young thang.  Let's call her Linda; the receptionist
led her over to Johnny's table.
   Linda was excited about being naughty.  Johnny had quite a reputation as
a stud, and she was both a bit scared and interested.
   They chatted for a few minutes about nothing and ordered a couple soft
drinks.  Lucia told us, _"That's exactly how it went down with me so far."_
   Henry noticed a tiny chip in the rim of Linda's glass, while Johnny's
glass rim was smooth and unblemished.  Bellana _urged_ Linda to notice it
then look over at Johnny's glass.  Great!  Now Linda had a clear memory
only *her* glass had a chip in the rim.
   From a light _touch_ on her bladder, Linda excused herself to the
restroom with Bellana tagging along.  Johnny got to work.
   He pulled a small vial from his pocket and held it under the table.  It
had six tiny pills inside; he rolled one into his hand, recapped the vial
and put it back in his pocket.
   Acting elaborately unconcerned, he glanced around then reached over and
dropped the pill into Linda's soda.  The camera got a perfect shot of the
drop with the chipped rim and him stirring her soda with her straw.
   Bellana reported Linda had done a standard pee call with a few extra
strokes on her clit -- she was getting herself "up" for a hot date.  As she
slid back in the booth with Johnny she briefly hid the soda glasses from
the camera so Steven switched them.  It took about a micro-second and
neither of them had any idea.
   Janet spotted a police patrol a couple blocks away and slipped in the
idea they should take a stroll through that particular restaurant.  They
pulled the cruiser into the parking lot and chatted a few moments.
   Toro slipped Johnny the sensation he was really thirsty, so Johnny
sucked down his soda while he gloated over Linda drinking some of hers. 
Lucia told us, _"It takes about three minutes to start cutting in."_
   At two and a half minutes, Bellana slipped Linda a good sensation of the
impending nervous runs so she high-tailed it to the bathroom again.  Janet
steered the police in at just the right time; there was one male and one
female deputy.
   At three minutes, Johnny began to sweat.  He got what he considered the
hardest boner he'd ever had along with the overwhelming urge to use it as
soon as possible as often as possible.
   He unbuckled his pants, slid out of the booth and dropped his pants and
underwear in front of the camera.  He had a "great" skinny, three-inch
hard-on which he waved around as he shouted, "I'm gonna fuck every slitty
here in the cunt and the ass, so line up, bitches!"
   As soon as his pants hit the floor, the two police officers spotted him
and started towards him.  The male asked him quietly to pull up his pants
and come with them.  Johnny swore at them, telling them they were spoiling
all his fun.
   The officers immediately rattled off his rights and again requested he
come with them quietly.
   Toro was having a great time!  He put another _urge_ into Johnny, who
immediately spouted yet another line.
   "Yeh.  You guys are trying to cheat me.  I've got four buyers waiting
for the cunt I'm with and you're trying to horn in!  No way, fuckers!" All
perfectly caught on video and audio.
   Johnny lunged at the female officer and actually managed to get a hand
on her before they swung him around face down on the table and cuffed him.
Perfect arrest!  Not a hint of "police brutality" or any of that crap and
all on tape with an additional charge now of assaulting an officer in the
performance of her duties.  Sweet.
   Steven and Bob slipped probes into the officers; no firewall, no
abilities, and they were clean cops.  Steven didn't even have to hint; both
officers thought the same thing at the same time -- drugs!
   The female officer took a sniff around Johnny's mouth and got a hard
look on her face.  Lucia told us, _"The drug he used has a distinctive
smell, and she knows what it is."_
   The female officer pulled up Johnny's pants.  Johnny was shouting about
how he was supposed to sell Linda to these four guys; he yelled about how
Phil and Ringo and so on were gonna be awfully mad when he didn't show up
with a fresh girl to fuck.  All nicely caught on tape.
   The male officer fished in Johnny's pants pocket and pulled out the
vial, holding it by the cap.  It still had five pills in it.
   Bellana urged Linda back in just in time to catch Johnny's last shouts
about how the guys were waiting for some fresh cunt.  Linda saw everything
and heard the female officer say, "Date-rape drug!"
   Linda gasped and cried out, "Remember Lucia Sonora!" Perfect.  She
started crying and walked up to the officers.  She told them, "I was with
him.  He was going to sell me, just like Lucia!"
   The male officer started talking real fast on his radio.  Linda leaned
forward and looked at the glasses.  She pointed a very shaky finger at the
glass which Johnny had drunk from.  "That's my glass!  That's the one I was
drinking from before I went to the bathroom -- it's got a chip on the rim!
He tried to drug me!"
   Yowsah!  Yes!  Johnny humped the table and had an orgasm.  Yeh, a great
big one, according to him.  It spat out three cum drops and was done.  No
wonder he drugged girls and sold them.  Despite his reputation he'd never
satisfied *any* girl with his performance.
   Janet reported two more patrol cars on the way.  The officers inside the
restaurant pulled Johnny off the table and put him face down on the floor.
He was still shouting and humping, but now he bragged about how many girls
he'd sold.  On tape!  Yes!
   Bob said, _"Okay, Warrior-Heart, drain him dry."_
   Toro did a deep scan, starting with tonight's arrangements.  Mom was
spirit-sitting at one of the Unpleasantville high-school computers and
transcribed the information as Henry fed it to her through their VPN.
   In four seconds, she had the four guy's names, where they would be and
how much they were paying for Linda.  Tip time!
   She used the new Yahoo account we'd set up yesterday named
"ramontheeye@yahoo.com." She cut and pasted the data about the buyers and
where they would be into an email to the police sergeant in charge of drug
investigations who "just happened" to be at his desk right then.  Let's
call him Sergeant James.  She made the email subject, "!Johnny Fargo! 
!Johnny Fargo!  !Johnny Fargo!" and sent it off.
   Don had a probe into Sergeant James who got a sudden urge to look at his
email.  The subject line got his attention real quick since he'd just
learned of Johnny's arrest and the grounds for it!
   We could all _feel_ his glee when he read the email.  He muttered, "It
might be fake, but oh, what a chance!" Don _pushed_ him just a little bit
to take the chance.
   Sergeant James rapped out orders: "Get a small female officer.  Get a
wire on her.  Get me the file on Lucia Sonora!  Get the keys to Fargo's
car! We've got one hell of a sting to do!"
   In a few minutes, Lucia's file was on her desk with her interviews on
what had happened to her.  Sergeant James ordered the second patrol car to
find Johnny's car (by golly, the email even had the make, model, year,
license number and where it was parked.  Now where did that come from?).
   The officers pulled Johnny's car keys from his pocket and spotted it in
a minute.  A black blindfold was under the passenger's seat, just where the
email said it would be.  There was a small female officer on the scene in
five minutes still putting on civilian clothes, stuffing a wire inside them
and getting briefed on what to say.
   A male officer who was about Johnny's height used Johnny's coat, and
they were off!  Yes, they were efficient.  Five patrol cars with four
officers in each took off to surround the area before the fake Johnny got
there.
   Of course, the fake Johnny got all the dialog which was to take place;
passwords, money amount, all that stuff.  The other officers got quietly
into position and the fake Johnny and Linda drove up to the meeting place.
   Both their car windows were down and the fake Linda was screaming, "Fuck
me!  Somebody *fuck* me, please!  My tits are so *hot*!  Fuck my ass! 
*Fuck me!*" She went on and on.
   Lucia said, _"Yep.  That's exactly the way I was saying it."_
   The fake Johnny was really good too.  He got the four guys to say they
were waiting for him with a "fresh cunt to fuck," and they had the $400. 
He asked them, "You know how to dump her after you're done?  I don't want
any fuck ups!"
   They told him the meat-packing plant was nearby -- no problem!
   All on tape with a long-distance mike, through each of the officer's
wires and witnessed by professional observers.
   The fake Johnny told them to put the money on the hood of the car and
back off -- just like Johnny had planned to do and had done before.  Fake
Johnny examined the cash but didn't touch it.  Instead he whispered, "Now!"
and twenty cops popped up with shotguns at the ready.
   Hell, one of the guys even fainted!  The others literally peed their
pants.  Too bad.  One of them started to run, but three shotgun blasts in
the earth in front of him changed his mind in a hurry.  Lovely!
   Henry had been sucking stuff out of Johnny Fargo all this time.  Mom
sent another ramontheeye email off to Sergeant James with a similar subject
line; this one had a complete list of Johnny's stashes around his house,
the combination to his safe and its contents as well as a list of what
drugs and the approximate amounts.  Just in case Sergeant James doubted the
veracity of the contents, Mom stuck in the name of his girl friend's cat.
   A side-fact we got from Johnny was Lucia had been his first
drug-and-sell.  Apparently she was "lucky" because after all the publicity
and spotlight on him when they'd dumped her at City Hall, he'd arranged for
future girls to disappear entirely -- into the meat-packing plant.
   Don, Papa, Bob and Henry probed the four fuckers who'd been planning on
buying Linda.  Sucked them dry!  Mom transcribed it all.  Names, addresses,
Driver's License Numbers, drug stashes, lists of crimes (including Lucia's
rape) and even where the rape room was.  The God-damned fuckers had used
the same room on three other girls after Lucia!  Mom sent another email off
to Sergeant James.
   Lucia identified three of them as the ones.  _"Yep.  The Caucasian had a
scar on his back.  The other two had the same short hair -- and wimpy dicks
with funny twists in them."_
   We knew where to locate them again; we let them be for a while.
   Dave, Elizabeth, Blake and Louise were all "manning" computers in the
high school, transcribing data and emailing it to Sergeant James.  Yahoo
didn't seem to mind multiple simultaneous logons to an email account. 
Sure, some computer whiz could possibly trace the source from the email
headers or logons, but it would lead back to the high school.
   Okay, a bit more on Johnny Fargo.  Name of the drug supplier and all
contact data.  The cipher key to the ledger in his safe labeled "Pussy."
Three guesses what was in it.  Sherry read it inside the safe -- it had
dates, girls' names, what drug he'd used, who he'd sold them to and the
amounts.  With the cipher key, they read off plain as day.  Yep, we sent
the key and other data off to Sergeant James.
   We left Johnny spending a pleasant night in jail humping the mattress
while we went after some others.
   Janet spread out and we looked for the six guys who'd tried to rape
Bellana.  That was a bit harder, since she knew only one name.
   Pay dirt!  Henry slipped a probe into him and pulled data.  He'd been in
the first set that'd tried to rape Bellana and knew all the rest, including
those in the second set.  Janet located each of them in the next several
seconds, and we stuck probes in them all.
   I ended up with a turd-brain I'll call Ralph.  Well, seems Ralph likes
to play these games; he and his buddies had raped five girls over the last
year and had kept them quiet by threatening more rapes and physical
violence.
   Oh my!  Our angelic Bellana stuck a probe into each one of the fuckers
(or would-be fuckers in her case) and did a bit of physical diddling. 
After she was done, their balls would literally rot off -- she'd sealed off
the blood supply and all the ducts to and from them.  She'd also jimmied
the blood vessels and nerves in their dicks so it would take surgery before
they'd be able to get erections, plus sealed off the seminal vesicles and
cooked the sperm inside them.  They were *not* going to have any more "fun"
or reproduce, either.  Crud out of the future genetic pool!  YES!  SWEET!
   Okay.  We transcribed all the data except Bellana's diddling.  Hmm. 
Seems there was a whole drug and crime gang in the school.  I pulled names,
addresses, code words, dates, times, places and even when the next deals
were going down.  Sergeant James got another email.
   Mr.  Pompous Principal was heavily involved.  Steven had a probe in him
in a second.  Fuck, glad it wasn't me -- Mr.  Pompous had a fetish for
young girls just getting their breasts.  He had a place outside town where
he "indulged" himself.  He liked her naked, tied spread-eagle and very much
awake and screaming.
   He'd stick a glucose IV in her arm to keep her going for a while.  After
he'd done her front and back several times over several days -- he
especially liked it after he'd pounded her hips out of their sockets -- he
practiced his second "delight," to-the-bone female circumcision.  He loved
her awake, aware and screaming as he cut her -- everything including her
pubic hair and labia; he called it his "Fu-Manchu cut."
   He especially liked holding up his souvenir in front of her eyes and
rubbing it over her face while she screamed in pain and terror.  He'd slice
off her small breasts -- very slowly.  She either bled to death or died
from shock; if she didn't, he'd tear out her uterus.
   He kept the body around several more days, boinking it front and back
again until the decay stench offended even him.  Then he sent it off to the
meat packing plant.
   He had a neatly-labeled collection of preserved "souvenirs" with the
date and a few comments.  All this went into the dossier which we emailed
to Sergeant James.  By then we were sending copies of everything to the
appropriate contacts in the FBI and DEA.
   He got most of his "special girls" from out of state, and Johnny had
supplied a couple.  In two seconds, Steven passed all the data over to me.
I might not be as sensitive as Janet in locating someone but didn't have
any problem locating his "supplier" in Queens, New York.
   Another total scum-bag.  He had an entire network set up for collecting
and distributing young girls and boys.  Prostitution, snuff films, special
buyers like Pompous -- anything.  Kids off the street, runaways, there was
plenty of raw material in the area.
   Louise sent an email to the FBI detailing his activities, location of
his books, codes, major contacts, computer IDs and passwords.  Oops!  Seems
he contracted the "rotting balls" disease, too!
   Pompous also expedited the drug traffic at the high school.  Steven got
every name available, along with the last several deals.  Another email
went out.
   For a slight fee, he supplied Johnny Fargo with names of potential
sales. Since he had access to school records, he could pick out the
good-looking girls who probably wouldn't be missed.  After all, who'd miss
a "Wop/wetback mongrel cunt?"
   Bob checked Mr.  Pompous' personal computer at his apartment.  It had
the usual user id and password protection, but it didn't make any
difference -- Bob wrote it on a sticky note and put it on the monitor with
*all* the system's encryption passwords.
   Seems Mr.  Pompous liked little-girl porn too, like about 50 megabytes
of graphic pictures.  Try to convince a jury a three-foot-tall girl with no
tits giving a blow job while getting fucked in the ass is over eighteen! 
Grist for the dossier.
   He also had a complete set of accounting books sitting on his system. 
No sweat; Bob emailed it off to Sergeant James and CCs (carbon copies) to
the FBI and DEA along with the user ids and passwords.
   Mr.  Pompous wasn't going anyplace soon; Bob jimmied his doors so they
wouldn't open.  He lived in a third-story apartment, so have fun jumping
out the window!  Just as a precaution, it seems Mr.  Pompous was a bit
clumsy -- he fell and broke his ankles and sprained both wrists.  I'm sure
the FBI or other law enforcement agency would be paying him an intimate
visit *very* shortly.
   Oops!  It must be contagious; Pompous contracted the rotting balls
disease too.  Too bad.
   As an afterthought, we checked back with Johnny Fargo and discovered
*he'd* mysteriously contracted a case of rotting balls.  Jail must not be
too healthy.
   We checked out the security guard at school who'd turned his back while
Lucia was assaulted.  Oh, my, seems he was hand-in-glove with Pompous!  He
did a lot of bird-dog work searching for girls (and boys) who could
disappear easily as well as handling some in-school drug sales.
   Another email dossier went on its way.  Rotting balls sure seems to be
contagious in Unpleasantville tonight.
   Lucia told me later Steven and she threw up five times that night.  We
were lucky; Bob, Don, Mom and I only upchucked three or four times -- that
night.
   On a hunch, we checked Johnny Fargo's parents; if he was so fucked up,
what were they like?  Well, they trafficked in young boys.  They arranged
kidnappings all over the States and had them sent to Unpleasantville.  They
got "trained" as sex slaves and sold in the South, Mexico or other places.
   They had four "in training" right now in an old barn cellar outside
town. Into an email went the full details, including how to find the hidden
entrance to the cellar, the lock combination and security bypasses, user
ids and passwords to their computer systems.
   Their lawyer wasn't any better -- she was crookeder than a dog's hind
leg.  She was into the whole high-school drug and body traffic up above her
head.  We sent off her details to the usual interested parties.
   It turns out if you sever certain nerves around the nipples, clitoris
and vagina, it's gonna be *really* difficult to get an orgasm.  If you
sever the ducts and veins to and from the ovaries then "cook" them with
high-energy vibrations, it's gonna be *really* difficult to become
pregnant. Funny how Ana seemed to volunteer this sort of information.
   Oh, my, it seems the lawyer ended up with a medical condition we'll call
"numb fanny." One more out of the genetic pool.
   The Fargo parents somehow managed to contract rotting balls and a numb
fanny.  How did that happen?
   Janet went after another specific set of people, the one's who'd
kidnapped and raped the girl (let's call her Julie) who'd stood up for
Lucia at school.  Pay dirt in five seconds.  They were five guys plus two
girls.  We had probes in every one of them and had sucked the surface data
out in two minutes.  Another set of dossiers went out, including the
location of Julie's preserved right nipple and right thumb.
   We had to talk Lucia out of doing too much diddling; she was even more
enraged at them than at the guys who'd done her.  She settled for the guys
getting the same treatment Bellana had given hers -- rotting balls.
   The girls in on it weren't immune.  They'd contributed heavily to
Julie's debasement and injuries and had lined up some other rapes, too. 
Well, sweeties, another couple cases of numb fanny.  So sad, too bad, so
frigid.  Oops!  Lucia snuck back in later, and they ended up with a nasty
case of very persistent full-body, very-itchy acne.
   Okay.  We'd been at this now for five hours and had sent out around
three hundred emails.  It should give the police something to work with for
a day or two.
   We backed off and settled down.  We could find any person we'd probed
again in a couple seconds if we needed to; we now knew their "mental
signatures." We didn't care if they managed to get to the Antarctic and
hide among the seals, we could still find them.
   Lucia and Steven went off to see Julie, who was catatonic in a mental
hospital.  Ouch, what a mess.  Suffice it to say she was in physically poor
shape after a year in a coma.  Mentally, she was trapped inside her body,
screaming in spirit-agony and terror.
   Lucia and Steven worked on her the rest of the night, calming her down
and helping her bleed off the agony and emotional pain.  They worked with
her over the next several days until she was able to pop herself out of her
body.  Ho, boy!  Was she ready to testify!  Another email went out,
suggesting the authorities check with her.
   Chapter 46
   ANA (Wednesday 12/28)
   It was painful.  I knew if any of us had been in our bodies, we would
have been vomiting within the first thirty minutes.  As it was, we were
able to keep to our tasks and set aside our feelings and reactions for the
time being.
   From talking with the rest of the gang over the next couple days, each
of us heaved our guts up at least once and most of us many times more.  I
know Don, Bob, Natalie and I sat and wept together several times.  Others
did the same.
   Yeh, some whiz kid in the FBI tracked down several of the emails, which
led directly to the Unpleasantville High School computers.  A couple agents
replied to several emails, asking for some specific information about some
suspects, "If ramontheeye happened to know."
   Well, given a name or description, we had a probe in them in a couple
minutes and drained them.  Off went another email, this time sent from a
computer in a back office of the FBI.  Let 'em trace it if they wish.
   Seems no one was much interested in *really* finding out who ramontheeye
was or in shutting down the Yahoo account.  Guess they knew the story of
the goose that laid the golden egg.
   Yeh, they eventually got around to locating Lucia and Bellana who were
willing to give more depositions.  They weren't suspects in any of the
activities we'd done that night; after all they'd been hundreds of miles
away with iron-clad alibis -- and they were "just high-school students."
   From a casual monitoring of Unpleasantville over the next several days,
over five hundred agents or other law-enforcement officials descended on
the town like women to a sale.  They had a really sweet time, with exact
information, exact names, the whole enchilada.  I think the local and
federal judges sprained their wrists with the number of search and arrest
warrants they signed!
   Toro had been right.  Revenge *was* best served very cold.
   ------
   BOB (Thursday 12/29)
   Yeh, Unpleasantville was sickening.  Both Nat and I bounced up and down
emotionally the next couple days, ranging from total anger at the fuckers
up to joy we were alive.
   We did a lot of screwing on Thursday.  We're spirits, but we sure had
the urge to prove to ourselves we were alive.
   We had six gigs on Thursday.  Nat and I shared the first one then she
went on three on her own (all handled very neatly) and I did the other two.
We'd do a gig, meet back at one of our places, drop our drawers and fuck.
Quick cleanup then off to the next gig.
   We each cleared around $450; not too shabby.  With the first fuck-fest,
we'd managed to bleed off a lot of the turbulent energy we'd picked up, so
we got into screwing (that's sex as fun-and-games, not just for survival)
for the next couple times.
   After our last gigs we showered together pleasantly.  I got to do her
wonderful hair again then massaged down some of her sore or stiff body
parts.  We'd either calmed down enough or come up enough, but this time we
made slow, gentle love for a long time, sharing our joy of life with each
other.
   The gang always had one prober and one transcriber online for the next
couple days handling requests.  Turned out the meat-packing plant produced
animal food, not human food, so it was *some* relief.
   There were fifty agents of one sort or another parked in the plant.  We
sorted out every employee in there and Louise sent off dossiers on the
dirty ones.  The clean ones we simply listed as clean.
   Jaysus, there was even one body in the processing line!  They arrested
one guy, showed him the body and named off exactly who she was, how she'd
died, who'd brought the body to him, when and how much they'd paid him.  He
broke.
   With a little more scouting around and putting together some information
from previous dossiers, we (and the FBI) came up with a relatively-complete
list of bodies and when they'd been run through.  Seems canned animal food
has lot numbers printed on them, so the agents were able to track cans down
in stores and analyze the "meat" for human DNA.  Within a couple days
(however long it took for a DNA analysis) they had a complete
physical-evidence chain from the death site to "final disposition."
   The plant owners themselves were clean, at least of the body-handling.
They'd done some creative accounting on some taxes but nothing really
illegal.  After they found out what had been going on for over a year, the
president and the operations officer each spent time in the toilet vomiting
-- several times.
   The head of the FBI sent around a memo about ramontheeye.  He reminded
everyone about the goose and the golden egg, so they were to keep their
hands off ramon.  He told them the only "wrong" intelligence they'd gotten
was one distance to a safe was off by six inches.  He told them by now, any
request for a warrant or other stuff got a judge's signature within five
seconds of learning the tip came from ramontheeye.
   Okay, enough of the heavy stuff for now.
   ------
   NATALIE (Saturday 12/31)
   Only a couple gigs today, seems like people were getting ready to party!
I still cleared a couple hundred dollars.
   Bob and I bought me a truck!  I'd been accumulating or renting equipment
and material, and it was a pain to use Mom's car.  We found a five-year-old
Ford mini-pickup with a shell and carrying racks for $2,000 -- it was
really worth more, but the owner was moving out of town and knew Bob!
   We spent several hours going over it with the proverbial fine-tooth
comb. It was in great shape so Bob and I loaded it up with my stuff,
including a couple new-to-me fiberglass ladders on top.  Don registered it
in his name so the insurance wouldn't be *quite* so bad.
   Nice!  My first vehicle!  Mom slipped out and got me a cowboy hat; she
and Bob told me, "Now you're a *real* California construction worker!"
   Elizabeth and Dave volunteered to host a New Year's party, so about
6:00, we descended en masse and fixed up the dining room and back yard with
party lights, tables, banners, all that party-type stuff.
   We'd invited all the Inner Circle and parents along with the Reynolds
Construction crews and the school faculty.  We dragged Nana and Seanathair
over to "supervise" and make sure we did it right.  Interesting, it seems
the entire Inner Circle gang and parents now spoke fluent Irish Gaelic,
Italian and Spanish with all the slang.  The Sonoras had a distinct
Spanish/Italian accent while speaking Gaelic, but nobody cared; it wasn't
any worse than Bob, Dave, Elizabeth, Mom and me speaking Spanish or Italian
with an Irish accent!  Of course they could _talk_ with them, but sometimes
Gaelic was lots more fun.
   The Inner Circle gang took an hour off around seven o'clock and did a
bit more investigative reporting in Unpleasantville.  Ramontheeye sent
every agent or officer working the cases an individual email with ramon's
regrets they had to work on New Year's Eve -- each email had a personalized
tidbit of additional data on the case or cases they were working.
   Party time!  David, Don, Blake, Papa Sonora and Seanathair broke out the
Irish whiskey (again) and started quality-control checks.  Seems one has to
do a lot of sampling to get a good statistic!
   The Inner Circle gang traded hugs and kisses.  Since there were
outsiders with us, we kept it low-profile and private.  I traded lots of
saliva with all the guys while I ensured they found out how much my ass had
tightened up over the last week!
   Bob and I sampled the Irish Whisky, looked at each other and shuddered;
I suppose it's an acquired taste.  It's no wonder the Irish had such
reputations for bad tempers.  I'd probably have a very bad temper myself if
I drank much of that stuff.
   By now, it was second nature to slip a quiet probe or quick _inspection_
into everyone new we talked to.  Several of the school-age children were
pretty good!  They got the full _inspection_ treatment to see if they could
remember easily.  By the end of the night, there were three
middle-schoolers mentally chatting away with the rest of us.  Hmm.  Seems
like we'd better look at expanding into the middle school and even into the
elementary school.
   At 8:45 we watched the Times Square countdown.  The ball dropped exactly
on time so we cheered and celebrated the New Year in New York.  Cheers and
celebrations!  More Irish Whisky down the throats.  Goody, another round of
hugs and kisses!  I demanded the guys check out how much my boobs had
perked up from all the exercise and hard work; need lots of samples for a
good statistic, right?
   By 11:00 we were pretty rowdy.  Not physically loud but there was lots
of snogging going on.  The Inner Circle gang was pretty much letting it all
hang out, so to speak, in a purging of our group's emotions from the
Unpleasantville crap.  Hugs and kisses again!  The guys did another check
of the (very good) condition of my T and A, while I forced them to do a
quality check of my pussy -- the decision was always the same; it was
*very* wet.
   At 11:45, Bob and I were nekkid on his bed having a *great* time.  Lots
of laughing, deep kisses, little tickles, cunny lapping with sweet
climaxes, a very mutually-satisfying deep throat and at midnight a
wonderful screaming-level climax as Bob flooded my cervix!
   We did a quick wipe-up and wobbled back to the party.  Yeh, we probably
reeked of wet pussy and semen, but there was already a lot of it floating
around.
   People started trickling off about a quarter after and by 0:45, only the
Reynolds and I were left.  Elizabeth led Dave off to bed -- he was a little
tipsy, but Elizabeth was sure he would be more than willing and able to go
at it for a while.
   Bob and I slipped back in bed and made sweet whoopee for a while longer
before our bodies drifted off to sleep.  We popped outside and soared above
the clouds; we spent the night enjoying being with each other, gently
spirit-snogging and loving each other in the moonlight.
   ------
   PATRICK (Saturday 12/31)
   Val and I had been being pretty cautious when we _kissed_ and _touched._
It was wonderful, totally exciting, all that great stuff, but we were a bit
afraid of it at the same time.
   We were both working to make everything right.  We didn't want a
sex-with-love relationship; we wanted a love-with-sex relationship.
   We necked some, though.  We kept it down as much as we could, even
though both our bodies were raging with arousal.
   At midnight, we gently kissed and _kissed._ Val told me, "I'm not sure I
can hold out much longer.  We need to be *really* careful -- I want to feel
your hands and mouth on my boobs so badly it hurts."
   "I know how it hurts," I whispered.  "I've seen your beautiful breasts
and I ache to touch and kiss them.  But..."
   Not quite yet.  Something wasn't quite right yet.
   ------
   BOB (Sunday 1/1)
   Mother and Father had thrown a really good party -- Natalie's and my
party was better, though!  We let the bodies sleep the whole night through
while we soared and loved each other in the moonlight.
   We had an early-morning situation call from one of the teachers, Mrs. 
Simmons.  She apologized for calling so early, but her hubby apparently had
a bit too much of the bubbly and had passed out in the bathroom in the
middle of the night.  Ordinarily it wasn't a problem, but this time he'd
locked the door for whatever reason and it didn't have one of those outside
latch releases.
   Natalie said she'd do it, so I did the macho thing -- I let her go while
I went back to sleep.  Natalie told me later she'd slipped the door latch
with a piece of thin cardboard (and a little spirit-push).  Hubby was out
to the world; he'd managed to upchuck on himself so he was lying in his
underwear on the bathroom floor with puke on him.
   Nat and Mrs.  Simmons laughed with each other and gave him a quick
sponge bath.  Nat had Mrs.  Simmons get the bed ready; she squatted down,
picked up hubby and used the fireman's carry to take him to the bedroom.
   Apparently Mrs.  Simmons was inured by now to Inner Circle tomfoolery,
because she didn't even blink when slender 130-pound Natalie carried
250-pound hubby in on her shoulders.
   Natalie came back home and slipped back into bed beside me.  We snuggled
up warmly and snoozed for another hour.
   We didn't have anything scheduled for the day, so we went over our
trucks and tools.  We cleaned, rearranged, restocked nails, screws, etc. 
and in general, got things ready for the next influx of gigs.
   People typically put off doing things over the holidays then decide it
needs done right away; maybe something to do with New Year's resolutions?
   We cleaned and arranged for a couple hours then stopped.  We looked at
each other, laughed and dashed off to the bedroom for some happy,
frolicking fun.
   We finished up the trucks.  Nat spent an hour on the probe patrol while
I did laundry at both of our places.  We traded places, and I did probe
patrol while Nat folded and put away the laundry.
   Lots of the agents on Unpleasantville cases had spouses and families
sitting at home while they were working on the various cases, so
ramontheeye sent an email to each of the families.  Ramon told them their
husband/wife/father/mother was doing valuable work and their efforts would
save the lives of many sons and daughters just like theirs (naming their
children or other young relatives and their ages).  Yeh, we made them as
emotional as possible; the agents *were* saving lives.
   ------
   NATALIE (Monday 1/2)
   Back to school!  Old friends got/gave little hugs (watch the PDAs!), and
we gossiped a bit about how we'd spent the holidays.
   I guess you could say we got back into the routine.  Bob and I hadn't
really *had* a routine together with all the stuff going on, so we created
one.
   Get up in the morning, stretch and run.  Quick shower with maybe a
quickie before or after but mostly "only" some sweet caressing and quick
snogging.
   Off to school, lunch with the Inner Circle then finish the afternoon in
school.  Home, change clothes and go out on gigs for several hours.
   Monday and Wednesday was still Inner Circle study and meetings, while
Tuesday and Thursday was dancing classes.  Yep, it was still going strong.
   Bob and I made love at night or we'd simply let the bodies sleep while
we explored the world or helped out with the probe patrol.  We made a
"deal" with the agents.  During the day, ramontheeye would respond as
quickly as possible but no guarantees.  During the evening and night,
however, ramon said he'd do his best to give a response within fifteen
minutes, depending on the traffic.
   A couple agents decided to see if ramon knew anything else besides what
was going on in Unpleasantville.  One asked ramon to check out his
sweet-sixteen daughter in Denver, just as a "joke" as he put it.
   He asked; he got.  Turned out his baby was being blackmailed into
prostitution.  Not what he wanted to hear, but he also got the
blackmailer's and pimp's names, addresses, location and codes of their
books, the names of all the other girls, the whole bottle of wax.  The
local police took him down in a hurry -- seems ramon's tips were very much
valued.
   Another agent was sure his son was into something because he was
"dressing funny," and "acting strange." A quick probe got us laughing; he
and several other guys and girls were getting together an
oldies-but-goodies band and were dressing to promote it!
   Ramon sent back a complete list of the girls and guys with names,
addresses and GPAs (grade-point-averages) as well as their parents' names,
phone numbers and email addresses.  Ramon suggested they go for a secret
parent support group for their kids and spring it on them at their first
gig.
   Several of the agents told ramon to read the Unpleasantville and several
other newspapers.  Seems the FBI and DEA made a *lot* of raids in
Unpleasantville on Monday.  Every piece of crud we'd probed and dossiered
(how's that for a word!) had been arrested on various charges.  Most of
them had bail completely refused; a murder charge along with all other
conspiracy charges, etc., seems to make judges pretty eager to keep their
hands on them.
   ------
   (Wednesday 1/4)
   Wednesday night was a bit different.  George and I were scheduled for
some required-to-graduate field trip into Los Angeles on Thursday, so we
wouldn't see our sweeties the whole day (sniffles).
   Bob and I made wonderful sweet love in the evening.  We explored a
little bit then came back and frolicked around for a half hour.
   More exploring then at three o'clock or so, we made love for a long
time. It was really special, full of love, tenderness, sweetness and tears
of joy.
   Chapter 47
   BELLANA (Thursday 1/5)
   Toro, Janet and I had a weeknight sleepover last night.  We'd gotten all
our chores done as fast as we could after Inner Circle study, tormented
Blake and Louise a while then retired to Toro's bedroom with lots of water
and towels.  We then carefully proceeded to screw our brains out!
   We'd done a couple round-robins and a few other things Janet had dreamed
up -- plus some threesome-alterations to several of the Kamasutra
positions! My stomach was still sore from coming so hard, and I _felt_
Janet was a bit sore -- both front and back.  We had the well-fucked look
in the morning.
   Lunch time.  Natalie and George were off in Los Angeles somewhere on
some required-for-graduation field trip which an administrator somewhere
dreamed up, so it was just the seven of us at the table.
   Toro had his head down on his arms, moaning about how tired he was.  Bob
grinned at us.  "Warrior-Heart, you need to get about three more guys in
your group even to *hope* to keep up with those two succubuses -- or is
that suck-you-bi?"
   Janet and I smiled smugly, waved our hard-tipped tits in the air and
pumped out more pheromones for the pleasure of the general cafeteria
population.
   Toro groaned and pretended to collapse.  Janet and I patted his head and
consoled him while each of us tried to push a tit through his arm.
   All of us _linked_ lightly with Natalie and George to see how they were
doing on their "great adventure."
   George: _"We're down in the bowels of the earth somewhere in the middle
of L.A.  Something like the third sub-level of the library archives. 
Remember Verne's 'Journey to the Center of the Earth'?  That's what it's
like."_
Sunshine: _"Moldy books, mainly.  We had to walk about a mile through
three different tunnels, all dripping wet; climb down fifty miles of
staircases and climb up forty miles.  I feel like Ms.  PacMan wandering
around a maze.  We didn't bother keeping track of where we are, so we're
lost -- and my feet are sore."_
Lucia: _"Maybe some kind man will offer to rub them when you get home."_
Bob: _"Wonder where she can find a kind man on such short notice."_
Lucia: _"It was probably a long bus ride down there and will be a long
one back.  Bet your butt will be sore..."_
Sunshine: _"It will be.  Those damn seats are hard!"_
Bob: _"I'm sure some kind man will offer to massage the hurt away. 
Being as I have access to a large network of talent, I'm sure I can find a
man willing to get his hands on your butt...  maybe Mr.  Duane?  However,
everyone's pretty busy right now, so I may have to take an emergency shift
and fill in.  I'm sure I can remember how to massage a beautiful lady's
butt." Big grin._
Sherry: _"Bet her boobs'll be sore, too.  Those buses don't have very
good springs."_
Bob: _"Well I could be persuaded to handle any sore body parts -- and
maybe try to make some other parts sore." Leer._
Sunshine: _"Pervert!  Pant, pant!"_
Toro suddenly sat up without a bit of joking.  In a deadly-calm _voice_
he announced, _"*FOLKS, THIS IS AN ALERT!* There's an earthquake coming in
about a minute and it feels *really* nasty."_
   We scrambled to the floor by the table.  Steven bent over to cover
Lucia, Bob covered Sherry and me while Henry bent over Janet.  We heard the
roar faintly and as it built up we grabbed onto the table and held on.
   It hit us!  We *bounced* at least a foot, and we could see and feel the
cafeteria floor rolling in long waves.  I heard lots of screaming around
us, but we held on.
   I felt stuff falling on us, but Bob bounced it off, whatever it was. 
Things shook and vibrated for at least two minutes while the air vibrated
with a roar so loud it almost deafened us.
   Finally it settled down and we could look around.  The cafeteria floor
had some cracks in it, there was a small hole in one wall and it looked
like most of the acoustic ceiling tile had shaken loose down on us.
George: _"Hey, was the Wild Bunch up to something?"_
Sunshine: _"It must have been them; I definitely felt the earth move."_
Bob: _"You two all right?  We're okay here.  All the parents are okay."_
Sunshine: _"Despite the fact I peed my pants, we seem okay.  Most of the
Californians seem a bit amused, but we furriners have some real issues with
this type of goings-on."_
George: _"We had a few rocks fall from the tunnel roof, and there are
some big cracks.  I didn't pee my pants, but the back side feels very
squishy.  I think we'd better haul ass outta here."_
Don and Rose Baer _joined_ us.  Bob let them know what was going on with
the field trip party.  Don and Rose joined us physically at the table,
looking worried.
Henry: _"Fuck!  *ALERT!  ANOTHER ONE!"*_
This one started with a *big* jolt which knocked several of us off our
seats.  The whole place shook like a pull toy in a dog's mouth.  The lights
went out, and other students screamed again; the darkness didn't bother us
since we were all outside anyway.  The shaking went on for at least two
minutes.
   George: _"Shit!  This whole fucking place just fell down around our
ears. Sunshine and I are holding up what feels like a couple hundred
thousand tons of building."_
Sunshine: _"STAY AWAY from our bodies.  There's MAJOR pain."_
Bob: _"Ana?"_
Ana: _"I'll get my R.N.  hat on.  One second and I'll be there."_ She
told us later she just let her body flop over the kitchen table at home --
fuck comfort.
Five seconds passed while we waited.  Steven asked, _"Should we be
helping?"_
   Bob, grimly: _"Let Ana do her job first.  Sunshine, George, you still
with us?"_
   Sunshine: _"Yeh.  We're both fully outside.  I'm not going *near* my
body."_
George: _"Me neither.  Biggest owie I've *ever* had."_
Ana was back.  With deadly calm, _"Of the twelve, seven are dead.  Of
the living, the least injury is a crushed pelvis and legs with major shock.
She'll be dead in less than two minutes._
   _"George's back and neck are broken, other bones crushed or broken. 
Lots of shock and getting worse._
   Tears through the calm.  _"Natalie's crushed from the waist down.  Major
head trauma -- the skull's cracked and the brain's exposed.  Major shock."_
Bob: _"We could blast them all out of there within three seconds."_
Ana, with more tears but still deadly calm, _"No doubt, but even if you
could get them to a hospital emergency room in ten seconds, I give only a
one in a thousand chance of *any* surviving more than ten minutes.  There's
simply too much trauma."_
   Bob choked out, _"Then we need to terminate it *now*."_
Sunshine: _"I agree.  George, we need to pull the plug."_
George: _"Yes.  There's agonizing pain and an *extremely* poor
prognosis. Let's end it."_
Sunshine: _"Okay.  On three, let it all collapse.  One, two, three."_
We _felt_ the rumble as the building collapsed on them the rest of the
way.
   Ana, with tears and shock, _"Natalie's still alive!"_
   Sunshine, fiercely calm, "_Fuck!  MY RESPONSIBILITY, no one else's."_
She severed Natalie's spinal cord at the base of the brain then crushed the
brain and heart.
   Ana, weeping, _"Natalie's gone now too.  They're all gone."_
   -----
   BOB
   We wept huge sobs of grief.  Natalie was gone!  Her blazing smile, her
blue eyes so full of life, her hard/soft body against mine -- all gone
forever.  George, my oldest friend, my best buddy, was gone.
   Sunshine and George joined us, embracing us all and giving each a fierce
spirit-hug.
   Sunshine wrapped herself around and through me.  _"Bob, I'm still here.
You know I'll always be here for you, my Sorcerer."_
George: _"I'm still here.  Sherry, hang in there."_
Grief and loss.  _"Sunshine, I feel guilty.  I feel I could have done
something or could have foreseen it."_
   _"Whisht!  Even our Warrior-Heart only had a minute's warning.  You're
not God, you know, even if you are a god in bed." Grin._
   _"It feels as if I'd lost a part of me, Sunshine."_
   _"Yeh.  I know *exactly* how you feel.  Something we cherished and
treasured and now it's gone." Grief._
   She and George cursed steadily; Sunshine ended up, _"...  all that hard
work and training down the drain -- and I started getting laid just a
*month* ago.  *Fuck!*_
   _"Okay.  We know this will eventually calm down.  If this quake was as
big as I think it was, the Sorcerer's gonna to have a lot of work to do, so
let's get at it!"_
   Yes.  Others probably needed help.  _"Sunshine, how about you and George
take a scout around the school.  When we've got that under control, we'll
branch out from there.  I'll check with Father and see what he's got going
on."_
   George and Sunshine took off and the rest of us got to work.  We pulled
tables and equipment off people (we didn't bother hiding the spirit-touches
much) and made sure the outside entrances were open.
   We yanked open a couple jammed doors and gave first aid to at least
twenty people.  Funny how Bellana managed to carry the 100-pound emergency
first-aid kit around with her!  It always happened to be there when she
needed it.
   Ana appeared and started a triage.  I ensured the parking lot was clear
for emergency traffic -- I had to _push_ a few cars and people out of the
way and fill in some pretty big cracks but ended up with a serviceable
access lane in about ten minutes.
   I sent Sunshine and George out on a general scan of the county; they
could get the data faster than anyone else, and it would be accurate, too.
They popped back in a few minutes, and we hooked up with Father.
   George: _"Pretty widespread.  The Earthquake Center is placing the
epicenter right under downtown Los Angeles.  The library archives are about
three blocks from there."_
Sunshine: _"That building is a pile of rubble about a story high.  There
are some other buildings with major damage, but it appears there's no
further danger of anything collapsing."_
George: _"First pass seems there are about fifty fatalities, including
us.  Lots of less-critical trauma.  One fire in Pasadena, but it's
surrounded by firemen."_
Sunshine: _"Lots of homes with broken windows.  Downed trees, cracked
roads, driveways, walls and pipes.  Looks like the reno business is gonna
be pretty lively the next couple months."_
Father: _"Yep.  It's not a *major* disaster, but there's gonna be plenty
of work to do.  Let's keep in real good touch on scheduling and logistics
and we'll let Elizabeth set the priorities."_
Sunshine: _"Sounds fair.  I've not handled a torch as a spirit, but I
know I can dig holes!"_
Me: _"We'll work it out."_ To all, _"Okay, let's do what we have to
do."_
   ------
   VALERIE
   One *hell* of an earthquake!  The second the noise started, Pat had me
curled up on the floor and covered with his body.
   It was a really hard shaker.  We got a lot of ceiling tiles on top of us
but nothing major -- after all, we were both California veterans.
   Pat told me to stay down.  "Feels like another shock coming pretty
quick."
   There was and it was a dilly!  One of those big fluorescent light
fixtures came down and hit Pat in the back!  Shit!
   However, it was just a little cut and a big bruise.  As the last quiver
of the quake died away, Pat and I felt a tremendous wave of sorrow and
grief flow through us.  Someone had lost something really special.
   We couldn't figure it out and since nothing else came, we filed it away
for future study.
   There was plenty for us to do.  Being bigger and stronger than most
everyone else had its benefits; we pulled desks off people, opened a couple
stuck doors and did some first aid.  Nice being able to help; we forgot
about being scared.
   That evening, Pat got a real nice massage to ease the bruising on his
back.  Damn, his muscles are nice -- I could barely move them!
   ------
   ELIZABETH (Friday evening 1/6)
   We spread the word around the Inner Circle gang we were having a
semi-Irish Wake for George and Natalie; 7:00, our place.  I was able to get
George's father, Charles, on the phone.  Rose had told me earlier she'd
talked with him and had told him George was gone.  He told me he'd be here.
   The Fearsome Five showed up at 6:00 to help, along with Blake and
Louise. There was plenty to do.
   We didn't have bodies or coffins so we put up a picture each of George
and Natalie on the dining room table.  Lucia volunteered to be the sitter.
At a Wake, the bodies are always attended, mirrors covered or reversed, the
clocks stopped and there is alcohol and tobacco.  Why?  Tradition.
   The Wild Bunch did their synchronized dashing-about as they carefully
covered or reversed mirrors, pulled batteries from clocks and stopped the
grandfather clock in the main entrance hall.  Steven, Lucia, Bob and Louise
helped Dave and me with food preps and setup.
   When Don and Ana showed up with Sherry, I wouldn't let them lift a
finger.  "This is our responsibility."
   Bob came in about 6:45; he'd been working until then.  He grabbed a
shower and got ready, but I wouldn't let him work, either.
   Natalie's Nana and Seanathair showed up about the same time.  They
agreed with what we'd done about the Wake, considering we were Plastic
Paddies and all that.  Grin.
   Charles showed up at 7:00 along with the rest of the Inner Circle
parents.  I'd met him only a couple of times before, even though George and
Bob had been friends for years.  Hello!  I felt him _inspect_ me!
   _"Well, Charles, looks like you're one of us too."_
   _"Yeh.  George made me do it!" Small grin._
   _"Good.  It'll help.  You would have been the only outsider here, but
now we can carry on the way we wish."_
   _"George told me about the way you guys sometimes carry on."_
   _"Well, we won't be doing *that* kind of carrying on tonight." Pretended
frown._
   _"Yes, ma'am." Small, quick grin._
   A little after 7:00 we got together around the dining room table.  As
the last of us sat down, Natalie's picture toppled over.
Sunshine: _"Hey guys, okay if we crash the party?"_
George: _"If this is a BYOB event, you're shit out of luck.  We can't
bring our own bottle *or* bring our own bodies.  Little bit of a mischance,
there was!"_
Spirit-hugs and _kisses_ all around!  Spirit butt-bounces and high
fives!
   George: _"Dad, thanks for coming.  I apologize for not getting you to
meet all my friends before now."_
Charles: _"Don't worry about it.  I've been away so much, it would have
been difficult anyway.  By the way, thanks for telling me 'in person,' so
to speak, about what happened today.  Any idea what's next?"_
George: _"We've got some ideas but it's part of the evening's agenda. 
Anyway, LET'S PARTY!"_
Sunshine: _"As I recall, we tell stories about the deceased at a Wake.
What happens when I catch Ana in a tall tale?  Should I back her up or tell
her straight out she's a liar?"_
Ana: _"I don't think *any* tale about you or George would be too tall.
In fact, we'd be hard put to come up with anything which could top what
*all* of you have been doing."_
We talked, ate, talked, sang, talked, ate...  We all had a couple sips
of well-watered Irish whiskey and sniffed a cigar.  The men smoked the
cigars outside and made deep inroads on the Irish Whiskey.
   ------
   BOB
   Yeh, it was rough.  All of us dripped tears at one time or another or
keened out our grief.  Losing the George and Natalie bodies was like having
your life's work stolen away, never to be recovered nor seen again. 
*Tremendous* loss.  Even Geeser yowled mournfully several times.
   We discussed George's and Sunshine's next steps.  The upshot was they
could hang around and be useful, go explore the galaxy or pretty much
anything they wished -- but they wouldn't really be part of our "human"
society.
   There were few free spirits we'd found who were in good enough condition
to consort with.  George and Sunshine would be like the only adults in a
world of perpetual infants and comatose sleepers.  Our game was still here
with bodies for the foreseeable future.
   We agreed if they were going to do something about another body, "t'was
best it be done quickly," and the rest of us would get on with life.  We
discussed hospitals, maternity wards and other various "sources." It was
well after 10:00 when we were ready for them to say their goodbyes to us.
   Sunshine (tight VPN): _"Bob, George and I want to meet with you, Sherry,
Ana and Don for a little bit before we leave.  No matter how good friends
we are with the others, *you* are our special buddies."_
   We agreed to meet at the Mathews a bit later.
George: _"It's off to another adventure!"_
Sunshine: _"Don't grieve more for us, there's no need.  The path of life
leads on whether or not we are here physically.  While I can't say for
sure, I plan to be around spiritually for a *long* time to come."_
They gave private farewells to each of the Inner Circle and the parents.
Then they were gone.
   We were quiet for a while then Father and Seanathair started singing for
us -- a lively Irish ballad.  We rapidly got back into good spirits (pun
intended) and finished off the night feeling fairly good -- that's one
purpose of a Wake.
   Mother kicked Don, Ana, Sherry and me out.  "I know you've got your own
private farewells to say.  I've got plenty of help to straighten up, so
go!"
   We got over to Ana's place and gathered in the dining room where we'd
spent so many hours together.  George and Sunshine met us there.
   George: _"Don, Ana, thank you for being my friends.  You've helped make
the last five months very exciting._
_"Bob, what can I say?  We've been together so long we seem almost part
of each other.  On the other hand, we've never been afraid to take a deep
breath, dive in and see what happens on a new venture._
   _"Sherry, you know how much I've come to love you these last few
months."_
   Sunshine: _"Ana -- I guess I can't really say, 'Mom,' now, though I'll
remember you that way for a *long* time to come, I hope.  Ana, thank you so
*very* much for raising me and helping me grow so I could find and
appreciate our Sorcerer."_
_"Don, I'll remember you for a long time as 'Dad,' who encouraged me
always to be my best.  I'm sorry I won't be around to show you how
un-daughter-like I would have turned out." Big leer._
   George: _"Sherry, you and Bob both need to start looking for someone
else.  Neither Sunshine nor I will be around for a long time to come, we
think, and we don't want either of you moping around."_
Sunshine: _"We don't want *either* of you to think you're being
'unfaithful' to us in any way.  That would be dumb.  Sherry and Bob, you
might even take a look at a rematch; who knows how it might work out this
time.  At worst, it could be 'friends with benefits,' *lots* of benefits."_
George: _"Yeh.  If nothing else, you've both been getting a steady diet
of lovin' the last month or so and to cut that off..."_
Sunshine: _"Ana, he's fair game now!  Better latch onto him before
Sherry does.  Or maybe you could share!_
_"Sherry, you'd better watch out for Don, too.  He's had a lecherous eye
on you from the first day he saw you.  And according to Ana, he's a great
lover.  You could do worse."_
Don: _Smug little leer._
George: _"We thought about asking one or more of you to tag along and
let the others know what happens to us."_
Sunshine: _"In the end, we thought not.  What would you do with the
knowledge, anyway?  If we remember who we are after we find a body, we'll
find you again.  It may be years, tens of years, hundreds or thousands of
years or more, but I *will* find you again._
_"If we don't remember, what would you do?  Be fairy godfathers or
godmothers?  We *will* be together again.  It may not be in your current
lifetimes, but it *will* happen._
   _"Bob, hold out your hand."_
   I did and something dropped into it.  It was Natalie's gold sunshine
necklace I'd given her for her birthday.  The medallion was battered and
bent and many chain links were crushed.
   Sunshine: _"I went back and got it.  It's pretty gory down there and
starting to get really rank.  I intend to reclaim my necklace someday."
Kiss_ and _hug._
We shared our final fierce spirit-hugs with them then Sunshine and me
aul segotia -- my very old friend -- were gone and we wept out our grief
for our losses.
   End of Sorcerer: The Inner Circle
   
  
Sorcerer Inner Circle Ch 41-end