Loosening Up Bk. 08 Ch. 26-30

Dave froze, choked up, and tears flooded his cheeks as he then stumbled to the beautiful machine. Alice and Heather were at his side. He was almost ready to keel over. He looked at the others in disbelief. This was beyond the pale and almost heart-stopping it was so fabulous. He'd never dared dream of having a motorcycle, let alone one like this one -- the machine of all machines. The one Jim Mellon, his fictional hero, had ridden across America.

Scarlett quietly explained from behind the bike, "This is the motorcycle they used in the movie and it's exactly as described in the booksRoad Trip andCrystal Clear. One of us heard it was going to be auctioned off by the studio, so we quickly talked about it, headed off the auction, and bought it for you. Everyone of us put in an equal share."

Dave sobbed, "Oh, God. This is so beautiful ... so wonderful. Thank you all so much. This is the best present ever! You all know how much I loved that movie and the themes running through it. Jim Mellon and Crystal. You're all my Crystals. I'll be reminded everyday with this. God, I love all of you."

Everyone was cheering and watching as Dave started to caress the machine, feeling the touch of the throttle, the spring in the seat, and the feel of the leather.

Several yelled, "Get on." "Try the key!" "Make it rumble."

Dave mounted the machine. He realized this was beyond him. "I've never ridden a motorcycle before. I don't know what to do."

Dev stepped forward from the crowd. Many others from the Circle had shown up to watch Dave get his new toy.

Dev said, "I'll talk you through it." He gave a few instructions ending with, "The shifting pattern is similar to a car. The gear pattern is laid out with first gear at the very bottom, followed by neutral, first, second, third, fourth, fifth, and sometimes sixth gear. By sliding your left foot under the gearshift lever and lifting it upward, you shift to a higher gear. Each click equals one gear. The clutch is your left hand, brake in your right hand and right foot. You start in neutral or with the clutch in."

Dave pulled the clutch in and put the key in the ignition and turned. The Harley rumbled to life with a great throaty roar that Harley Davidson supposedly trademarked and patented. He goosed the throttle slightly.

Dev said, "Put your left foot down on the shift lever and you'll feel it shift into first gear. Once your rolling you'll learn how you just fly past neutral into the higher gears. This one has six gears. It's also a creampuff of a bike. You'll get stopped a lot and asked about it. This must have been their top of the line model that year."

Dev urged, "Try it slowly, but don't come out of first gear. Don't shift. If you get in trouble squeeze both hand levers. You'll declutch and brake." Dev waved and the crowd in front of the bike parted and made way. Dave slowly let the clutch out feeling for the friction point. He had both feet out for balance. The bike moved forward about twenty feet on its own steam, and then Dave stopped it.

Dev said, "I've ridden all sorts of bikes. I'll give you lessons. Everybody has to learn sometime. You need to get an endorsement on your driver's license for a two-wheeler. There are a few special rules of the road."

"This is soooooo cool," Dave crooned. He shut off the bike and dismounted, barely taking his eyes off every detail in the finely-honed machine.

Dave went from wife to wife, kissing each one and thanking them for their part in his present. He then set a time to practice with Dev.

* * * * *

Dev spent a few hours over the next five days teaching Dave about riding a two-wheeler and handling something as powerful as the Harley. They got Dave a learner's permit so he could ride alone and practice on city streets, but for the most part he kept to the roads on the Circle property and even the runway.

Dev also had a Harley -- a 2004 Harley Road King. He was pleased to have the potential of a riding partner. "I like to take rides with at least one other road buddy. You'll see how much fun it can be. On weekends I know all these neat places to go for a beer or lunch. This'll be a blast."

Dev laughed during one lesson and presented a t-shirt to Dave for him to wear whenever one of his wives was riding on the machine. The words on the back of the black t-shirt said, 'If you can read this, the bitch fell off'. He laughed. Wendy won't go with me if I wear it. Touchy touchy."

Dave quickly picked up the basics that Dev put him through. He already had a good sense of balance, but there were some finer points. Dave got a lesson in stopping the bike: straight-line normal, straight line emergency, curve, curved stop in emergency. The next day the lesson addressed all kinds of turns -- gentle, sharp, from a rolling platform or stopped. The day after that Dev got him swerving and weaving around obstacles and marks in the road at increasing speeds.

All through the lessons Dev coached Dave on balance, clutch control, brake control, and throttle control. He also did several 'chalk talks' about the bike's turning radius at different speeds and how to plan a 'line' through a curve so that one was in control at all times.

Dave got so he could drive the bike safely at a crawl. Slow speed driving was harder to do than maneuvers at regular road speeds. Last, he got grilled daily on situational awareness. Dev even found a road that had been ground down to resurface and took Dave over the grooved road so he could feel the shaky stability as the grooves forced the tires from side to side.

Dave and his wives all got the accountrements for safe motorcycling. The mudroom of the house got a quick redesign to hold two shelves of helmets, and hang all sorts of padded clothing of various sizes.

Dave took and passed the motor vehicle department's road test with flying colors a week later. The day was warm and sunny. Alice was his first rider on the back. They rode the bike out to Anna Maria Island for lunch.

Chapter 28 -- Self-Defense

Dave suddenly found himself eager to make any light shopping trip for anybody in the Circle. Despite the usual possibility of rainy weather when the workday ended, he rode his Harley to work unless the forecast was certain and pessimistic. He had Millie text him a shopping list of things she'd need the next day to make small repairs. The only constraint was that the total purchases had to fit in the motorcycle's saddlebag.

Also, each day, he had a different rider going into work and coming home, often via Ace Hardware. With each mile on the bike, Dave's confidence in managing the bike increased. Thus, JR, Jenny, Nikky, Deb, Olive, Elin, Paris, and Lucy formed a rotation. The men politely deferred to the women, but Lars and Larry stated they were always available if there was a 'no show'.

A racy contest developed among the women regarding how to dress sexy for their ride. JR opted out of the competition and just wore her skinny jeans and blouse, but the other women decided to play. Thus, revealing cutoffs that hugged their butts and crop tops became de rigor the first full week rides were given. The second week some of the crop tops gave way to bikini bras and brief halter tops, some so thin it took imagination to believe something was being worn. About half the women bought ankle boots with a modest heel that looked really sexy on their long, lithe legs.

Of course, there were also the hairstyles, mostly braids, and then the helmets that some shared with each other instead of getting their own private protection. Over the next week or so, some very racy painting and decals got applied to the sides of the helmets, mostly nude women in some really salacious and compromising act of lovemaking.

The following week some racy t-shirts then arrived by mail along with the slightly cooler weather; most with creative slogans and such.

Deb's t-shirt said across the back, 'Motorcycles give me orgasms. Do not disturb.' Some of the others said, 'Can you guess how I reward my biker man.' The art with that shirt displayed a man and woman in the missionary position. Another shirt had a picture of a very worried mouse with the words, 'Pussy? Where?' in large letters. The t-shirts came out when the girls discovered that they could also get away with wearing a thong instead of a monokini for the rides, thus all one saw from the right angle was dental floss and a whale tail.

All the trips home with one of the women on the Harley generated weaving cars next to Dave and his passenger as the mostly male drivers gawked at all the skin and bare leg being shown.

For all the work and humor the girls put into being 'hot' passengers, Dave usually wore loafers, black jeans, and a black t-shirt.

After a month, he insisted that the girls put on more clothing. "I'm afraid somebody is going to swerve into us trying to see a tit or pussy. Go back to cutoffs and crop tops, but nothing racier or salacious. Don't taunt the other drivers -- too badly, anyway.

Alice laughed, "We weren't teasing. We were advertising." Everybody laughed, but the dress code did change and things got incrementally safer.

Sarasota usually hosted a motorcycle rally called Thunder by the Bay in late January or early February. About twenty thousand bikers rode into town from across the country on anything that qualified as a motorbike. Dev and Dave rode out to the fairgrounds where the core of the festivities was planned. They were looking exceptionally clean cut, well-healed, and approachable as they walked among the booths and various displays.

Alice and some the other Circle women joined them, but arrived by car. They followed the guys around. Scarlett Jo was one of the women, but had taken advantage of one of Alice's wigs, some heavy makeup, and oversize sunglasses. Alice had dressed like Alice Angel, even wearing some of the prosthetic mouth inserts to change the shape of her cheeks, as well.

Dave prayed there'd be no trouble, but prayers are not always answered.

About three o'clock in the afternoon, the Circle group stood listening to a rock concert on a makeshift stage. Dave had his arms around Scarlett and Alice as they all swayed and moved to the music. The sound could probably be heard on the moon it was so amped up. There was a lot of drinking going on around the group, but everybody seemed well behaved. They were just talking (screaming) to each other about leaving and heading home.

The group turned and faced off with some scruffy and inebriated motorcycle thugs. The lead guy sized up Alice. "I know you. You fuck on film. You're Allison Angler or sumthin' like that. Right? Wanna fuck? I'm horny."

Alice sized him up and down. "Gee. No thanks. Your bedside manner sucks and I can tell from here you have a small cock. Why don't you fuck one of your buddies? They look eager, too."

Dave rolled his eyes. "Bad choice of responses," he muttered to her. "Cut that out."

Dev hung back and bumped into one of the guys as he moved beside Dave to shield the women.

The group then changed course to move around the four guys that were not well behaved or well mannered.

Guy #1 -- the loud and drunk one -- said, "Well, we'll just have to have our party right here." He reached out and grabbed Alice's arm.

Alice executed a simple escape from his grasp with an arm jerk and screamed at him, "Leave me the fuck alone, Asshole."

Dave immediately shunted Scarlett and Alice behind him and eyed a couple of others signaling that things were not good near them.

Guy #1 said in a sloppy tone, "Oh, good. Lover boy to the rescue." He hauled back to throw a punch at Dave, but several things happened only microseconds apart.

As Guy #1's fist went into forward motion, Dev's giant hand grasped the wrist, twisted, and jerked, until a primal scream rose from an injured man. Dave could hear a bone break. The scream was then lost in the noise from the amplifiers, but the bone break wasn't. Other around them turned to watch and backed away from the fracas.

The sidekicks had started to move forward, but they moved right into the vapor from three aerosol cassettes of pepper spray the women held. Each spray caught the men with their eyes open. They fell to the ground rubbing their faces and screaming.

Dev spoke in a commanding voice. "Please let us leave alone. We don't want any trouble. If you start any more, we'll finish it."

The crowd parted and the Circle group slowly walked back to where their cars and bikes had been parked. Others were leaving the scene as well, so they weren't alone in the decision to forego further ear pain from the high noise level and the intoxication level of some attendees.

Alice opted to ride with Dev, and Scarlett got on Dave's bike. The others went in a different direction to recover their car. As Scarlett got on, she said, "That was the most exciting thing that's ever happened to me. Those men wanted to rape us right there -- Alice especially."

After a while she amended her remarks. "I take back what I said about that confrontation being the most exciting thing that ever happened to me. You giving me The Experience the first time was that. This was second."

Dave said sharply, "She could have been a little more politic in her response to their confrontation. You don't invite trouble with a group of bikers around. Many of these guys carry guns and knives."

Dev downplayed the confrontation back at the Circle. He stated, "Four drunk men and one got a little handsy. We each discouraged them and their threats in the best way we had available. Let's forget it."

Dave said, "I can kind of forget it, but not how inadequate I felt. You knew just what to do and how to block that punch. I thought about this for the past hour. I would like you to train me and anybody else that's interested in self-defense."

Dev reached in his pocket and pulled out two handguns. He grinned, "Two of the schmucks were armed, too. I forgot to tell you I mitigated the threat by disarming them just as they were moving forward towards us. I had to duck the pepper spray; fortunately, I was upwind. If there were more weapons, I didn't get a chance to check."

"Fuck, you mean we could have been shot?"

"That first guy was so hot under the collar he would have shot you and thought about it later. I could see that. When he confronted Alice I just reached into his pockets and found the obvious. A lot of bikers like that carry -- some legally, and some not."

Dave said, "I'd like to fix that, too."

Dev said, "It's a long journey full of pain and striving. Are you sure?"

"Yes."

Several of the others there agreed.

Dev said, "Let me talk to Dale. We have some local resources that are probably better at teaching you than we are. We'll have a program within the week."

* * * * *

Dave moaned yet accepted the hand-up off of the exercise mat in a new area of the core not too subtly named Martial Arts. The instructor for the initial sixteen Circle members was a man Dale imported from the Tampa area. He'd worked with many of the family and security forces that worked for Mark Worthington. His name was Wan Suh.

Wan Suh believed in tough love and discipline. He was non-judgmental except in those two areas. The rampant sex practiced by the Worthington Clan and the Circle were non-issues to him. The philosophy was not of interest. He wanted people to be able to defend themselves in 'sticky' situations.

Wan Suh stood about five feet tall, the same as Cricket. He was slight and might have weight a little over a hundred pounds. He was Japanese with jet black hair, but a pleasant and smiling demeanor. He always wore a white gi with a black sash that had multiple gold stripes at the ends. He wore small slippers on his feet.

What interested Wan Suh was each person being ready to respond to an adverse situation with the right response and the right amount of force. He talked about giving up the desire to 'win' a confrontation. "First, one should become hyper-aware of what is going on around you. You do not want to be surprised by a confrontation. If possible, do not put yourself in harms way. In these situations, you are the better person because you leave the threat unmet.

"Dev-san told me about your encounter at some rock and roll concert. Alice, you were foolish to incite the men with your comments. You were right to leave as soon as you could and hope for no reprisals." Alice looked chagrined.

"Second, you in your wisdom must take steps to protect the innocent. Have them leave the scene and perhaps call for appropriate help. Third, avoid. Your goal of an inevitable physical interaction is to survive the threat."

"Fourth, remember the word 'Aggress' -- the base for the word aggression. If you must react, you put your all into the interaction, only holding back to be sure you have applied the optimum level of response. You will be able to be deadly with just your hands at some point in your training, but that may be an extreme response. When the time comes for action and exiting is impossible, change and become offensive. It also throws your opponent off. They were initially in control and expected you to be docile, compliant, and reactive to them. When you go on the attack it throws your opponent off kilter."

"After confrontation is over, you must reflect. Analyze what happened and how it could have been avoided or resulted in different outcomes. Throughout you must remember an old western saying, 'Never bring knife to gunfight'." He laughed.

Wan Suh smiled enigmatically at the class. "We talk more about these steps next time. For the time being, you all need discipline, plus ability to really work together. I come on Wednesday night and we do more."

Everybody in the class bowed to him and he returned the honor. Wan Suh disappeared.

Dev moved to the front of the class. "Don't leave please. We have some other skills to develop. Tonight, I want to start to teach you the nasty art of pickpocketing. I don't think you'll get bruised doing this unless you try it on an unwilling subject and aren't' undetectable about it."

Dev grabbed a magic marker and wrote on the nearby flipchart: Aware, Target Items, Compassion, Distraction, and Exit. He brought Dave up, as planned, and talked about the various items and how they'd play out when needed. Dave had put on shorts with pockets and a shirt that hung over the outside of his belt.

Dev said, "At the fair I expected -- becameaware -- that many of those walking around carried firearms. I'm experienced in spotting them, but you can do that, too. Dave is carrying right now."

Everyone looked surprised. Dave showed the bulge in his left pocket.

"In the case we were in at the rally the weapon became my target. Their weapons were just as obvious if you were looking for them. In other cases, you might want a wallet, an iPhone, or something else they have in a pocket. At the fair, without her even knowing it I had Pam bump into my mark from his side as he was accosting Alice. He was focused on Alice, but that short distraction made him forget about his pocket and the gun. As he turned back, I simply reached in and removed it. I was the one that bumped into the second man with similar results."

Cricket came up to help Dev. She allowed Dev to shift her body into Dave as though Dev was trying to get around her, and then Dev's hand and arm quickly reached low into Dave's pocket and came out with the weapon and palmed it into his own pocket.

Dev went on, "Although I hadn't planned on it, I had a vest with baggy pockets. It was easy to just slip the weapon in one of my pockets. I repeated the ploy on Guy #2 on Guy #1's right side who I'd also seen with a weapon. He was also focused on Alice and the beer in his hand. About then the main protagonist decided to slug Dave, and that's when I broke his forearm. As you know Pam, Cricket, and Heather took care of the other three thugs with pepper spray. Well done, by the way."