Felicity Ch. 34

On our way home we stopped in Vegas to drop off Alice and Nikki, see Erato perform, and allow the ladies to visit Elma.

Ruthie, Edie, Allen and I stayed three nights at the Bellagio and rarely left their buffet. We did see another Cirque show and a titti show.

One day we did leave town. Ruthie and I went on a picnic and fucked along the banks of Lake Meade. Edie and Allen where fucking next to us. They claimed they had intended to just watch but they in fact started to fuck first.

They later claimed we were a bad influence on them.

"You're welcome," we said.

Our Felicity Air plane came to get us on the Wednesday and we were exhausted when we got home but had only ten days before having to return to Vegas. Ruthie and I spent the first seven days eating, fucking and sleeping. Carly, Petra, Sally, Helen, and Leigh each had a turn five of those days. We had them one at a time for an entire day. It was two on one.

I had been leery of having married women as fuck buddies but their husbands worked long and hard hours and knew they were not sexually satisfying their wives. The guys had decided that since they would not have to fear losing their wives to a guy married to Ruthie they were OK with our trysts. "It takes pressure off us," Roger had said to me.

Roger was seven years older than Helen. Corey was younger than Leigh but he at times worked past midnight. Jimmy worked long hours which often included trips into the city. He was six years older than Carly.

We were soon on our way back to Vegas with a full plane that had to return to Felicity for a second load of passengers, we again had many friends attending the shows. Rob and Vicky, Roger and Helen, Corey and Leigh, Adrian and Martina, and Petra and Sally each attended the Saturday night performance on dates.

Ruthie again had a running dialogue with an audience member but it was someone different each night. All the exchanges were hilarious.

Nancy did six songs, one of her hits and five from her CD with the ladies. Helen, Leigh, and Sis joined her on stage for that segment on Friday and Saturday nights but like Nancy were never introduced.

The entire audience sang the defiant chorus of two of the songs; Nancy was again a big star.

Carmen worried about that but she did not need to, Nancy credited her and Ruthie for her resurgence to the press after the show.

Her act was very much a highlight of the show but Nancy never toured on her own.

After the last show Ruthie and I allowed others to take our seats on the plane home and we drove to Yosemite National Park to sightsee and fuck. We got back on Southwest a week later from Oakland after another night at the club in San Francisco. Ruthie and I shared a waitress.

One of the few things I brought from my house in Los Angeles was a viola. I used it mostly as a stress reliever and would go to my back patio and play at times.

Violas are background noise for violins and cellos but I would try to play the more complicated melodies of each.

I had played the thing in studios for bands and singers and was considered a good session musician but there was simply not much calling for violas.

Allen would often come over with his cello and we would just jam for a while on some summer afternoons.

Ruthie and Edie would join us often and we played everything from Bach to Pink Floyd.

Leigh and her French horn and Paloma and her classic guitar joined us at times.

One afternoon a violin began to play with me and I followed its lead.

Ruthie came out and gasped, "That's Helen" and immediately sent a text message.

Helen and Leigh walked into our yard and sat on a bench.

Each wore only an ill-fitting t-shirt and neither was careful to make sure they were decently covered which allowed their bright red pubic hair to shine in the sunlight.

Ruthie and I loved red pubic hair.

Edie and Allen came in right after Helen did and sat on the patio with me.

Paloma joined us and sat on another garden bench and was soon joined by Wendy and her oboe. Mom and her flute, Sis and her clarinet, joined us on the patio. Maddy came over with her violin, she had been first chair of the second violins in Montreal.

Naomi joined us with her trumpet and sat on the bench with Paloma and Wendy.

We played some Schubert. We played some Debussy. We each had a star turn and all where impressed with Paloma's guitar play on Asturias.

Jana and Inga joined us wearing ill fitting t-shirts and were no more concerned about their decency than Helen and Leigh were, their blonde pubic hair was glistening in the sun as they shared one of our double loungers.

Ruthie and I loved blonde pubic hair.

Carly, Maggie, and Shirley added more red pubic hair to our view.

Carmen and Nancy showed their clean shaven pussies, we loved naked pussies.

We were having fun and our audience was enthusiastic in its applause but I sensed that everyone was waiting for something.

Then Helen began some Vivaldi and all of us had to pick it up.

I was impressed by the talent and ability of everyone there but was floored by Helens. She produced the most assured sound I had ever heard.

We heard the rumble of thunder in the distance and knew we had to quit soon.

Helen looked at Allen and me then began Bach Prelude number 3. Allen and I echoed her playing, that was all we could do. She was a hell of a lot faster than we were and a hell of a lot more gifted than we were.

Everyone shouted and clapped when she was done.

Helen thanked everyone for a fine jam session and we gave her kisses. I was not the only one to say, "I love you," when I kissed her. Wendy just held her as tears fell from her eyes.

The morning after our orchestral jam session I said to Allen, "We need to practice more if we are going to keep up with Helen."

He laughed and said, "That was not constant practice, that is innate genius. She practices madly for three or four days then not at all for three or four months.

She took a job as a contract player with the symphony one summer and by mid summer she was playing all the solos.

The featured player for a Beethoven violin concerto was delayed in New York for the last summer concert so Helen played it. Everyone said she was a lot better than the star and the pressure on her to continue playing became intense but she returned to the classroom.

She played with the orchestra during spring break again doing the solos for four concerts but she refused to sign on with the symphony for the next summer. Her last appearance was before AR was born and that was at least six years ago.

All of my family has musical talent and all are above average in that talent but we all pale next to Aunt Wendy and Helen, they are the cream on top."

Ruthie had recorded our jam sessions and played it back for Rob. The Felicity Chamber Orchestra was born that day.

We only played as an orchestra during summers then again for the winter break. Half of the members were teachers so we had to accommodate their schedule and they had to accommodate ours.

We did have a Wednesday evening podcast at Jana's about once a month. We played in my yard semi-often.

Every one of us except Ruthie, Allen, and Edie thought they had already played their last with an orchestra. All were very happy to play for others again, particularly Wendy, Maddy and Mom. They had been semi-regular members of a symphony orchestra. They were excellent.

The others had been part of high school and college orchestras.

On one session Mo joined us with her bassoon. She had stayed away because she sensed she could not keep up with the rest of us. It turned out Wendy had been taking her to boot camp and had pronounced her ready three weeks before.

The two mesmerized us that morning to a very inventive and fun piece only the MacDuff's knew and played. As it turned out Wendy had composed it.

I was the only one that did not know Edie's Air.

The Felicity Chamber Orchestra survived as an organization in which my neighbors were members for almost four years.

We recorded nine CD's of mostly excerpted music. We arranged composer symphonies that added up to several hours long down to a bit more than thirty minutes of just the good stuff making sure we included one entire melody.

Felicity Chamber Orchestra won a Grammy and was nominated for two more. Our last CD sold more copies than any classical recording had in thirty years. Oddly that was the modern period one featuring Sibelius, Ravel, and MacDuff.

The sales in Europe put the count on three of our recordings to over one hundred thousand,

We had a gold record.

Many critics were scandalized with the liberties I had taken with some pieces but the fans loved our play.

I did most of the arranging and kept them one composer at a time.

We placed three suites on each CD except for Bach, Beethoven and Tchaikovsky; they got an entire CD each. Schubert and Mozart shared one CD and got us the grammy.

We decided we needed to keep them in general time periods, Baroque, Classical, Romantic and Modern.

Oddly I was selected as the orchestra's artistic director for those years.

Ruthie loved Chopin's Piano Concerto number one and began to riff on it during her Melody concerts.

Her Chopin Suite won her a Grammy nomination, as Ruth Coleman.

Our last gig involved just three of us, Helen played for the Big City Orchestra. After the maestro had concluded the program's first half instead of leaving the stage he sat at a chair to the side.

Everyone in the audience looked at their program but saw nothing, we were not listed.

Two guys placed chairs on either side of the podium. Allen and I walked on to small and confused applause and sat. Then Helen came out and stood on the podium.

Some in the audience gasped and stood to clap and some loudly cheered, as did the entire orchestra. She began to play the Bach.

It is supposed to be a solo piece but Helen would not do it alone so we were tasked with keeping up with her.

The symphonies maestro had been threatening Helen that if she did not play for him on his last contract year he would disown her. Allen and I had two weeks notice. It was the orchestra's season's premiere, its first Saturday evening performance. The place was packed.

Allen and I talked Helen into extending the under four minute piece into nearly six minutes and had added echoes and support for her play. It allowed her to show off a bit longer.

We figured if Leopold could do that we could too. Allen and I were better arrangers; we knew Bach would love it.

Somehow the three of us made it a much more complicated work weaving in and out but staying within the music. Helen was brilliant.

When we were done there was a second of stunned silence then Helen got as big a roar as Melody did during her second concert in Vegas.

She waited out the ovation for a few seconds then the maestro took her hand and led her offstage as Allen and I followed them then the ladies of the orchestra quickly followed us.

The maestro and his wife hugged Helen and the symphony's ladies devoured her. When the VIP's began to walk in the three of us walked out and were at the parking garage before our families could get to us there. Helen was trembling in tears so I hugged and held her to me.

Roger and AR soon found us and took her home.

We had never been introduced and the VIP room was flooded with people asking who she was. The maestro only said, "My prodigal daughter."

Mom, Sis, Maddy, Wendy, Mo, and Helen's Mom Amanda and her sister Charley stayed through intermission and later described the frantic scene in the VIP room and the sales counter.

We had three boxes of CD's for sale as fund raising donations to the Symphony. The picture in the front of the jewel case had Helen playing with the Felicity Chamber Orchestra behind her. All fifteen hundred sold that night at twenty dollars each.

Two thousand sold that weekend on the Felicity music web site. Some were ordering eight CD's, the maximum allowed.

Mom told me it took the crowd a while to settle down and enjoy the second half of the concert.

After Helen left with her husband and son that night Allen and I waited for our wives to pick us up. Ruthie and Edie gave us amazing hugs and kisses when they found us then drove us to the big deli.

For over an hour we talked about everything but the concert.

Our Moms and my sister joined us before we were done and ate with us. All three kissed me often. Allen had to complain before he got kisses from them. None brought up the concert.

Ruthie and I each took two sandwiches to go.

When we got home Ruthie clung to me and with tears in her eyes she said, "That was the best you have ever played and the best Allen has ever played. As soon as people get to the forty seventh time they play that thing they are going to notice how good you are."

Helen won an individual Grammy for her solo Bach Prelude on the Bach CD. They gave Allen and me Grammy's too for our performance as a trio with the City Orchestras CD that was recorded that night, it was the symphony orchestras highest selling CD ever. Of course Beethoven and Schubert had some say in that.

After we ceased to exist as an orchestra about once a month we would meet in my yard and jam but if you wanted to hear us you needed to be on the sidewalk.

Matt recorded those sessions but none of the CD's was ever on sale. Friends could pick up one of the hundred copies for free at the studio.

The maestro was always the first one and took Helen and her family, Edie and Allen, and Ruthie and me to dinner on each of his trips down. He talked us into forming a quintet.

We won another Grammy.

Rob and Carly began to get offers for concerts worldwide. Ruthie and Edie talked Helen into a short tour during summer vacation, Madrid, Vienna, and St. Petersburg. Two concerts in Madrid and three each in Vienna and St. Petersburg.

Our trip lasted just three weeks.

Our Moms, Helen's Mom Amanda, and Wendy came with us for the duration. Roger and AR joined us for Vienna. Sis and Helen's sister Charlie joined us in St. Petersburg. Carmen, Nancy, Martina and Paloma joined us in Madrid.

The concerts were well received, the money was good, and the cities were fascinating.

Summer concerts are fillers for the fine arts off-season. Our venues were small; our audiences were hardliner aficionados and loved us.

Helen agreed she would do it again.

We took a summer trip in June each year for five years and saw Japan and Hong Kong on a three-week tour. We saw London, Amsterdam, and Milan. We saw Prague, Budapest and Oslo. We saw Sydney, Auckland and Lima.

Our Moms and Wendy and Amanda came with us each time. Leigh, Mo, Carly, Petra, Paloma, Carmen, Charlie, Nancy and Martina would join us in select cities.

I would at times just sit and look at the stamps on my passport.

Our quintet had four rooms in our hotels but most of the time Helen slept with Ruthie and me. She and I did make love at times, she and Ruthie did often, but mostly we cuddled.

Wendy and Mom became our defacto agents.

Wendy knew people in the arts on nearly every stop in Europe, so we ate many meals at the homes of her friends. Our Moms and Wendy spent some nights at the homes of her friends.

Wendy was a good friend of a redheaded operatic soprano that was a major star and she was coerced to join her in a recital of arias in Vienna. They were amazing.

The soprano already made regular trips to Felicity but several of those new friends visited our town too. Some of those friends were also opera stars and symphony soloists. Most of those added Felicity to the cities they could come to and hide in plain sight.

We stopped touring after a month of visiting our favorite cities for a second time.

It was years later that we noticed we had never played Paris.

Flower the skunk stayed with us eight years and seldom left our yard. Regardless of the time of day she joined Ruthie whenever she was in the yard. She helped me in my yard work by eating any insects I uncovered. Unfortunately she also ate the earthworms.

She died while we were working at Caesar's and she was buried with a great ceremony performed by Helen and AR. There were more than twenty people there. Leigh's twins were crying.

Ruthie cried while we watched the video.

A year later a young raccoon moved into the doghouse. She was apparently hiding from something. It took us nearly a week to keep her from cowering from us. Ruthie sang to her and that did the trick.

Her name became Grace; she was clumsy. The vet told us she had apparently gotten into a fight with a bobcat, a muscle on her back leg was torn which explained her clumsiness, and her initial fear of us.

We had her tubes tied, gave her shots and locked the dog door down.

She became addicted to marshmallows but insisted on dunking them in water first.

She then spent the next hour trying to get the goopy stuff off her hands. Ruthie would wait as long as she could then helped her clean up.

Then I gave Grace another marshmallow and ran.

Ruthie loved her as much as she had loved Flower. Grace adored Ruthie and followed her around. It took a while but Grace, Daisy, and Petunia became friends and were often checking out the three yards together. The gate between Helen and Leigh's yard was always open.

All three became normal pets and learned to stay awake during the day. Everyone trooping through our yards always stopped to say hello to them and they seemed to adore Paloma. They became fixtures in Martina's yard on Saturdays.

After our tenth Vegas tour Wendy and our Mom's hitched a ride on the airplane as it returned to Europe for maintenance and changes in seating. Another ten rows of seats were being added but although the instruments and personal luggage bins were being moved towards the rear they were still in the cabin.

The charter companies had been pleading for more seats. It also allowed everyone that wanted to go to a concert to go without the plane having to make two trips.

We loved being home. We decided it was a good time to work on our marriage but every time we made time to talk we ended up fucking.

Ruthie's biggest worry was putting Grace on a diet, mine was wondering if our gazebo/hot tub would ever be finished.

Time passed.

It was the twentieth Vegas concert tour. The shows had sold out two months before and we were received with enthusiasm.

The performers however were a bit bored. We had added more new songs, we had changed the order, we had arranged songs differently but we needed something else.

I decided they needed more comedy.

I wrote a silly song and gave Ruthie and Edie some lines making fun of their respective husbands. The idea was for Ruthie to speak with amusement about my musical talents and make fun of my classical music tendencies.

The initial problem with the idea was that they did not want to do the song, too silly they said. I gave an impassioned speech about finally having a monster hit that would keep their name alive for decades.

"We all already have monster hits," Nancy said.

That was of course true. Melody, Nancy, Edie, Alice and Marie, and Nikki each had songs that sold millions. Nancy and Melody each had over ten of those.

I said, "Yes but this song will top them all. People will not be able to keep from singing the chorus, they will jump up and down when they hear the first chord.

"

Nikki said, "I like it. It rocks."

"We could at least give it a try," Allen said.

They did and reluctantly agreed to add it to the next Vegas tour line-up.

For the Tuesday concert they simply forgot it. There were problems with some speakers and I almost got myself electrocuted. I was saved by our roady Meat who figured out the problem and stopped me before I took the back of the speaker off. He had suspected a short and that the screws where electrified and they were.