Part 14 -- Opening Night & the End of an Era

 

It was hard not seeing (and fucking) Lisa as much as I wanted to, but her single-mindedness where preparing for her role in Fiddler on the Roof did not surprise me. This was her first professional role and she was determined to be the best she could be. The word had gone out to all our friends to be there for opening night and I knew Cornelius had put the word out to his contacts in the theater world that they should make the drive south to see this amazing young woman perform. I kept myself busy by working as much as I could, I wanted to move up to journeyman as soon as I was able to, so I appreciated Allison keeping me employed, even on jobs she could have done herself.

 

I tried to check on Ellie and Carrie as much as I could. Both them were still scarred from the drama with Charlotte but now that she was off in California and they didn't see her everyday things weren't as stressful. As much as I wanted to fuck Carrie (and fuck her a lot) I knew that I couldn't let her see me as just a replacement for Charlotte. I would go watch TV at her house some, since she was alone most of the time, and we would kiss a lot, even rub boobs some, but I tried to be brave and resist her delicious pussy, sometimes I failed but at least I tried. I did bring her to the coffee shop as often as I could so that she could be with other people, I kept hoping a new girl would enter our circle but that hadn't happened yet. Ellie had gotten a second job at the mall bookstore to earn more money for college. I would go see her as often as I could; Ellie would save what they called "strips," books where the front cover was torn off to be sent back to the publisher for credit. The book was supposed to be destroyed but as long as it didn't get re-sold no one seemed to care. Ellie introduced me to Anne Rice's Interview with the Vampire and The Vampire Lestat and I was totally hooked from then on.

 

Almost my entire family came to opening night for Fiddler, the only ones missing were my two aunts who lived far away and of course Mom's family (they never came to anything). Janet brought Anthony along and I was happy to see Ellie and her family came too; Carrie came too and sat between me and Janet. Lisa's uncle and grandmother made the trip from Arizona and I am sure almost the entire church choir was there too, as well as a group of Lisa's dance students who were excited beyond words to see Miss Lisa perform. I got some hugs down around my waist accompanied by happy "Hi Miss Cindy!" That made me feel good. I only wished I could somehow be backstage to be hugging my sweetie but that didn't work out this time.

 

I was ecstatic to see Lee come in holding a very tall girl's hand. She had short, bright blue hair and so I guessed this was the mysterious Chase. I introduced myself, shaking her hand (not to hugging yet, although Lee received a boob-smashing hug).

 

"Chase, this is one of my oldest friends, Cindy."

 

Chase smiled a very thin, kind of uncertain smile. "Does she know?"

 

"She does, and so does her girlfriend Lisa. No one else here in town knows." Last year Lee had told me about Chase, she was (this was a new term for me) transgender and this was a Manhattan Project level secret, not even Lee parents knew.

 

Now I got a hug, "I hope to meet this beautiful girlfriend of yours too."

 

"She's playing Hodel, you should be able to meet her after the show."

 

My heart leapt for joy when I saw a girl come in and sit down next to Carrie. She was a tiny little thing, barely five feet tall, but she had amazing long blonde hair, big glasses, and impressive boobs for such a little girl.

 

"Cindy, this is Willa; Alecia introduced us. Willa works at the mall too (Carrie had a job at the pretzel place, Willa worked in a flower shop) and I asked her if she wanted to come.

 

I gave Willa a hug, probably coming close to smothering her with my boobs, "Hi Willa, it's good to meet you."

 

She smiled, she had a very nice smile, "Alecia's told me how you and Lisa helped her out. I want you to know I think both of you very brave."

 

I blushed, hugged her and Carrie, and then sat down.

 

Fiddler on the Roof had been playing in regional and dinner theaters since the 1970's and there was also the movie (which I had rented and watch with Lisa when she got the part) which came out in 1971. Lisa had two songs, a duet with the guy playing Perchik and a solo entitled "Far From the Home I Love." There were a lot of tears as she sang that song, it's a really emotionally moving song, even Rob was wiping his eyes. Something about it really affected Chase because she just kept her pretty face in Lee's shoulder, tears flowing freely. After the show she told me that it could be about her, leaving her small town in Missouri when she began her transition and knowing that she could probably never go back home again. Weepy Lesbian Girl made her re-appearance as I was reminded once again how lucky Lisa and I were to have the love and support of our family and friends.

 

After the curtain call the cast came down to see their friends and family. This wouldn't happen for every performance but tonight was special. I held back, letting Lisa get smothered in hugs by her family; then I moved in, kissing her properly, make-up be damned. Granddad was fighting back tears; he and Lisa has really bonded with her love of the theater; my grandmother had loved the theater too. I made it a point to introduce her to Carrie and Willa, she gave them a supernova-level smile; and I also introduced her to Chase. Lisa gave a quick look of "Is this her?" and I nodded, that got Chase a massive hug with Lisa's face right in her little boobs. After Fiddler finished its run Lisa would have a few weeks off around the 4^th of July so we could see the fireworks and the Grateful Dead. The next show would be Gilbert and Sullivan's The Pirates of Penzance and Lisa would be playing Edith.

 

That night I stayed at Lisa's house. We went nice and slow, at least after we got our clothes off. Even now we felt the need to get naked as fast as we could. I was Mean Girl tonight, taking charge and showing Lisa how proud I was of her. I spent a fair amount of time sucking on her wonderful nipples with her in my lap, her legs wrapped around me. We went quite slowly, rubbing our wet pussys together and orgasming at almost the same time.

 

I was excited to be playing softball again; there had been talk of organizing an intermural team for my dorm floor, but nothing ever came of it. Gena had a job in Carbondale, so Lee took over the pitching duties for our team; Lee didn't throw as devastatingly hard as Gena did but she was still good. Since school had ended I was getting lots of phone calls from Carrie; she had gotten used to daily (and sometimes multiple times per day) sex with Charlotte and she was wildly horny all the time now. She had me buy her a Magic Wand at the adult bookstore so she could, as she put it, "Take things into her own hands." I asked her about how things were with her and Willa and she got quiet.

 

"We've held hands a little, but I've never kissed her. How did you start things with Lisa?"

 

I told Carrie the whole story, onion breath and mustard included, "Some time when you are holding hands just ask her. Even if she says `No' keep being her friend, you're going to need friends now that Charlotte is out of your life."

 

It didn't help that Carrie was home alone almost all the time. I didn't know if she was interested in sports, but I asked her if she would like to join our team. We weren't in a super-competitive league and almost every woman on the team was queer, so I thought meeting some other people wouldn't hurt. Carrie said she had enjoyed playing softball in gym class and that she would give it a try, if we would let her be in the outfield to start out.

 

Lots of my friends came to the first game; Steph and Michelle were there, so was Alecia and to my happy surprise Gil had come back home for the summer. I also saw Chase there, it's hard to miss someone that tall with blue hair, and she sat next to Lisa. I saw Carrie excitedly pointed at the small bleachers and I smiled broadly to see Willa there; Lisa motioned her over to sit with our friends and I had a (hopefully) good feeling about this.

 

It was not a high scoring game, both teams had good pitching and, being charitable, mediocre hitting. The woman playing 3^rd for the other team did hid a hard one and I was sure it was going to drop deep in the outfield, but Carrie took off for it (damn but that girl was fast!) and she made an amazing diving catch, excitedly holding the ball up, her entire front streaked with dirt and grass (she looked adorable). She was cheered wildly by our fans and I made note that Willa had her hands over her mouth just like Lisa does when she's excited; it was so damn cute. I did get nailed right in the tit by a foul tip which hurt like hell and gave me a nice bruise; I had to go over and assure Lisa I was OK. We finally scored one run and, I am proud to say, I ended the game catching a high pop foul. That earned me a nice tongue-swirling kiss from my sweetie and a pat on the butt from Lee.

 

We went to Ground Round after the game, us "kids" got soda while the rest of the team emptied many pitchers of beer. Carrie was radiant as several team members complimented her on her catch with lots of variations on "Damn girl, you got wheels!" I pointed out to Lisa that Willa was not letting go of Carrie's hand and that she had playfully wiped some dirt off of Carrie's nose, Lisa was holding on tightly enough to my arm that I was worried she might dislocate my shoulder in her excitement. Carrie told me she planned on staying with the team for the summer and that this was the most fun she had had (that didn't involve sex with her sister) in a long time. I felt like such a Matchmaker.

 

On July the 1^st I went in to the record store and there was a definite somber vibe to the place, especially from Ray, the manager.

 

"What's going on Ray?"

 

Ray was struggling to hold back tears, "The news just came out on the radio, Wolfman Jack died today."

 

Now I knew nothing about Wolfman Jack other than he had been a famous radio DJ, he had been in the movie American Graffiti, and he was mentioned in the song "Ramble on Rose." Lee's dad came in, and from the sadness on his face I could tell he knew. He was putting up new posters for the Movie in the Park for the 4^th of July, instead of The Music Man it was going to be American Graffiti.

 

I patted him on the shoulder, "You wanted to be the Wolfman, didn't you?"

 

"Yes I did Cindy, yes I did."

 

On the 4^th we went to the park to watch the movie; American Graffiti is a long film but it does have an amazing soundtrack. I noticed Lee's dad stood up when it came to the scene where Richard Dreyfuss goes to the radio station to ask the Wolfman to play a request; I got to my feet too, tearing up a little, and pulled Lisa up too and we stood for the scene, arms around each other's waists.

 

After the fireworks we did something we hadn't done in a long time; we fucked in the back of her car, Alcyone. A Subaru, even a wagon, doesn't have a lot of room in the back so it was mostly kissing, boob rubbing, and pussy fingering.

 

Ben and Ron were really enjoying having us girls back in town, Ben had remarked that karaoke night was not as exciting without Lisa and her talent. Lisa announced to me, because she was borderline Mean Girl on karaoke night, the we would do a duet. I was, of course terrified, I had come a long way since singing "Stille Nacht" years ago, but my almost gravely blues voice (think George Thorogood mixed with Joan Jett) was nowhere near Lisa's soaring mezzo-soprano (she had explained to me what that meant). At least it was a song I had heard of; Sonny and Cher's "I Got You Babe," and I will do damn near anything for my sweetie, so it was on. I think I did an adequate job, even trying to harmonize with Lisa in the end. She patted my butt and said I tried hard.

 

We were on the Crying Couch when Chase came over to us. "Would it be OK if I sang a song? I've always been too scared to go to a karaoke night, but I think this is a supportive group."

 

Lisa took her hand, she had very long, delicate fingers and we could see she chewed on her nails from stress, "Of course sweetie, you're part of the crew now."

 

Chase smiled a thin smile, went over and kissed Lee on the forehead (Lee was totally in the dark about what her song would be, same as the rest of us) and she got up on the little stage. The shop went quiet, with her height and blue hair Chase cuts quite a figure. By now Rita, Gil, Alecia, Anthony, Janet, and Steph had joined us too. I gave Chase credit; the girl was brave. We were about to find out how brave.

 

"Hi. One of the few nice memories I have of my mom was watching her favorite movie when I was a kid. She loved the film The Rose; it's a movie loosely based on the life of the late, great Janis Joplin and it starred the incredible Bette Midler, the Divine Miss M." That caught Ben's attention, Bette Midler is legend in the gay community. "I've sung this song in the shower and into the bathroom mirror more times than I can count because, for me, it's the story of the pain and the fear of my transition. This is for Lee and all her friends; thank you for welcoming me in."

 

Gobsmacked is the only term I think that does what we experience justice. Chase had a very rich singing voice, Lisa said she was somewhere between a contralto and a tenor, whatever that meant. But it was the lyrics that left me, any everyone else in the shop absolutely bawling, Ben and Ron most of all.

 

"Some say love, it is a river
And that it drowns the tender reed
And some say love, it's like a razor
And that it leaves your soul to bleed.

Some say love, it is a hunger
An endless aching need
I say love, it is a flower
And you, it's only seed.

(Here she was looking right at Lee, tears streaming down both their faces)

It's a heart afraid of breaking
That never learns to dance
It's a dream afraid of waking
That never takes the chance.

It's the one who won't be taken
Who cannot seem to give
And the soul afraid of dying
That never learns to live.

(Here she had her hands out in front of her, fists balled up, physically shaking with emotion)

When the night has been too lonely
And the road has been too long
And you think that love is only
For the lucky and the strong.

Just remember in the winter
Far beneath the bitter snows
Lies the seed that with the sun's love
In spring becomes the rose... "

 

Lee ran up on the stage, tears streaming, and picked Chase up by the waist, spinning her around, before putting her down and pulling her face down to hers (Chase is easily 6 inches taller than Lee) and giving her a Princess Bride quality kiss. It took a while for it to dawn on us how huge Chase's speech before the song had been, she had come out as trans to people she barely knew and that showed a massive amount of trust. We all congratulated her, she seemed taken aback by the praise and hugs. Lisa and I basically squished her between us

 

Lisa spoke for all of us, "Chase you can come back anytime you want, you're as much a pirate wench as any of us now." I think it was then that Chase realized, I can always tell when it sinks in on people, how blue Lisa's eyes are; they matched Chase's hair.

 

Ben and Ron gave a group hug too, both of them barely coming up to her small boobs. Janet's response was a simple "Wow. I wish Ellie and Carrie had been here to hear that, those words would mean a lot to them too." I nodded and patted my little sister on her nice, round butt. "You got that right Brat."

 

Lisa and I got ready for our trip to Chicago to see the Grateful Dead; Lisa had wanted to wear her two stage dresses to the show but the forecast was for it to be pretty hot so we decided on just regular shorts and t-shirts. We were going to stay with Rita while we were there; her parents were on a cruise through the Panama Canal and her dad was beyond excited about that. She said her mom was humoring him and that she was just happy he would have two weeks to relax. Rita brought up, in a really roundabout way, Jan's desire for an orgy, but I was just not ready for that yet. I think Lisa would have been good with it but if I was going to do something that dramatic (fucking a guy) I wanted to be ready for it and I just wasn't. Her parent's condo was not far from an El station so we could just park there at the building and ride the train to Soldier Field and not pay some outrageous amount for parking.

 

We met the rest of the band at the stadium. Now I have lots of bad habits but I'm proud to say smoking isn't one of them. I'd tried weed at a QSA party and I coughed so much I almost barfed. Lisa was not going to try smoking because she did not want to take the chance it would affect her voice. Out there on the field we, along with tens of thousands of Deadheads, were stoned out of our fucking minds. Somewhere in a coherent corner of my brain I realized I would have to wash my clothes before I went back home because Mom and Dad would lose their shit if I came home stinking of what was probably pretty high-end weed. I loved that the band did "Terrapin Station" and the last song, as well as the encore, were songs Lisa had sung with the band; "One More Saturday Night" and "U.S. Blues." My lack of fear, probably from my contact high, coupled with my height, helped prevent guys from getting too handsy with us; that said we were dancing like no one was watching. We went back to Rita's and just collapsed, to tired even for sex (and for us that means we were really tired). We woke up about lunchtime to the smell of pizza that Rita had ordered; we had serious cases of the munchies but Rita (naughty girl that she is) came into the bedroom naked so we had to pull her in with us.

 

Lisa spread Rita's legs wide and began noisily licking our friend's almost hairless pussy. Rita pushed her massive breasts together so that both of her hard nipples were rubbing on my pussy as I rubbed against her. I moved on to sitting on her pretty face, gripping her black hair tight with one hand and slapping her fat tits with the other, moaning as her tongue slide up inside me. My legs clamped tight on Rita's head as I reached a shuddering orgasm; I grabbed Lisa's white hair and pulled her up to me so I could lick some of Rita's juices from her face.

 

Lisa rolled over on her back so that Rita could begin stroking Lisa's pink clit with her stiff nipples. I was under Rita so that could be licking her very wet pussy and her tight butthole. One of the signs of impending orgasm for Rita was her butthole would begin clenching and releasing; I pushed a finger in her butt and my tongue pushed up inside her pussy, leading her to a very satisfying orgasm. Lisa exploded all over Rita's pretty face, soaking her black hair and make it necessary for us to change the bed (again).

 

We sat around watching TV and eating pizza, it was the thin crust "tavern" pizza beloved of Southsider's. We told Rita about Lisa's triumphant professional stage debut, Rita promised to make it for The Pirates of Penzance, and of Carrie's blooming relationship with Willa. We also told her about Chase, leaving out her being trans since that was not our story to tell. Rita really wanted to hear Chase sing, Lisa's assessment was that Chase didn't seem to want to be a professional singer but that karaoke night had given her real joy and, after all she had been through, she deserved.

 

Fortunately, we were actually wearing clothes, at least t-shirts and panties, when Jan came over. He blushed a bit as seeing so much leg from Lisa and I, and probably from seeing Rita's tits almost busting out of her t-shirt, but (as always) he was a total gentleman. He was quite excited to show us the content of the box he was carrying. His sister Sara had sent it to him, which explained the large number of colorful stamps. Rob would have known all about them, he had become quite the stamp collector. Inside the box were several large photo albums and we spent several hours going through them. Most of them were of Jan's family; Lisa and I agreed that there was just something about his oldest sister's face that just made her look mean. Sara, who was just a little older than Jan, had been a stereotypical little Dutch girl when she was a kid; she had the short, blonde hair and there was a photo of her in a traditional dress and even wearing wooden shoes. Jan was just a toddler when that photo was taken and he was adorable in blue overalls and his own little wooden shoes, he really did look like the kid on the paint can. Also in the photo were two older women, both looking quite severe. One of them was Jan's grandmother, who was now in her 80's.

 

"Who's the other woman?" Rita asked, pointing at the woman who seemed to be smiling a little.

 

"That's Queen Juliana, she and my grandmother went to school together."

 

My soda almost shot out my nose, "What? Like actual queen with and crown and all that stuff?"

 

"Yes, she stepped down from the throne a few years after that and her daughter Beatrix became queen, it's how we do it in the Netherlands.

 

There was one album that was all photos of Jan when he was in the Navy. There was one with his parents (who didn't look happy) and Sara (who did look happy) when he finished basic training, just before he reported to his ship on the island of Curaçao. Even I had to admit Jan looked very handsome in his uniform.

Lisa patted his hand, "You have to show these to Katherine, I think she will see you in a new light and it might well convince her that you are worthy of Rita."

 

There was a much older photo, it had yellowed noticeably, of a group of navy men on what looked to be a large ship.

 

"What's the story on this one?" I asked.

 

"The man in the middle is Admiral Helfrich. After the massive defeat at the Battle of the Java Sea the Dutch fleet in the Pacific was pretty much destroyed, my grandfather is just to the left of the admiral and he had survived the sinking of his ship by the Japanese. He became the admiral's assistant and spent the war on the island of Ceylon, it's now Sri Lanka, coordinating what was left of the Dutch navy in the Indian Ocean the Pacific as well as the Dutch merchant ships. Admiral Helfrich signed the Japanese surrender in 1945 as a representative of Queen Wilhelmina and the Dutch people and my grandfather was on the deck of the USS Missouri to see it."

 

"You have to tell Katherine this story and when you get to meet my Granddad you have to tell him too; that's an amazing story."

 

Jan told us he had sent several of my photos of him and Rita to Sara; he hoped she would come visit sometime. "I think all of you will like Sara, she's a lot like Lisa; she's a very kind person but woe betide someone who thinks they can get away with abusing someone who is less fortunate."

 

Lisa smiled, "I like her already."

 

The second show was just as great as the first one, and once again just standing there on the field we got so terribly high. Lisa was, in her own words, "A Dancing Fool." It was an amazing night, Weepy Lesbian Girl even made an appearance as we sang along with "Black Muddy River" during the encore, but what none of us knew was this was the end of an era. A short time after the Soldier Field shows Jerry Garcia checked into a drug rehab facility to try, once again, to shake his heroin habit. He died on the 9^th of August 1995; but none of us knew what was to come on that warm July night along the Lake Michigan shoreline.

 

Rita was asleep when we got to the condo, Lisa and kissed and cuddled for a while but it wasn't long before she was snoring in her adorable way and drooling a little on my chest.

 

We woke up about noon and I made French toast, Lisa consumed an unhealthy amount as we did multiple loads of laundry so that we didn't go home reeking of weed. Back at home we settled into our routine of working days and, when Lisa didn't have rehearsal, nights at the coffee shop. Carrie wasn't calling me as much begging for sex and that made me think she was enjoying Willa's pussy. That thought made me happy.

 

The death of Jerry Garcia should not have come as a shock, his battles with his demons were well-known, but it was the end of an era to be sure. For those who are wondering about the enigmatic Chase, as well as Jan's great desire to fuck both girls, don't worry; it will be covered in later installments. I love hearing from you (cattingcindy@yahoo.com) and please consuder a donation to the Nifty Archive (https://donate.nifty.org)