Note: This story was dynamically reformatted for online reading convenience. (C) Copyright 2003. M.C. All Rights Reserved. All Reproduction for fee or profit forbidden. Copies of my stories can be downloaded from: </files/Authors/MikeC/> What do you think of the story? Send comments and suggestions to MikeC@NSpace.net ============= James Part IX. Soaring Visions James 69 "What's next guys?" I leaned back and patted my tummy, "I'm full." "What!" They cried, "REALLY?!" "Yeah, maybe I'm slowing down..." I sighed, eyeing the empty plates in front of me, "Perhaps I can squeeze in another helping.." "NO!" They laughed and pulled me away from the table. Jules turned to us, "Celeste and I have to get back to the Lake, business to take care of." She gave us kisses. Celeste did the same, then turned to Sara and Sherri, "Take good care of our guy, OK, sweets?" Jules shook hands with Peter, "Nice talking to you again, Peter..." "Same here, JulieAnn, but I'd like to get some information about the boating school you proposed..." "Why don't we chat while we give you a ride back to your hotel?" "Sure! I'd appreciate that!" With a wave of their hands they took off. "Do you want to look around the shops?" I asked Erin and her friends and they quickly agreed. We took them out to the Lane and we wandered in the small stores there, letting them stock up on trinkets and souvenirs. "Wait guys!" Cara stopped and pointed. "Remember World's?" "Yeah!" Gushed Ami. They rushed us to a Video Arcade and looked inside. Because of the activities at the cook-off, it was still relatively empty. "Go check it out," Cara urged Erin. Erin took my hand and went inside, shouting over the noise, "We were at Nuremberg in Germany for the World Championships and in the hotel were a dozen Meister Table-Soccer games, what we call 'Foosball' tables. Apparently their factory was just outside town." She nodded at three solidly built contraptions towards the back. There, two players per side used rod-controlled figurines to try to whack a tiny ball into their opponent's goal. "They're just getting popular here in the States, but in Europe they've been the rage for decades. Doctors even prescribe them for therapy!" She turned us back to the outside, "So anyways, the French girls, who claimed France invented the game, decided to give us lessons." She reported to Cara, "Stryker equipment, mostly spinners and no fanners." I watched Cara's face light up, "Amateurs!" She scoffed, then looked at Ami, "The Brazil thing?" At her nod she turned to us, "Come in in 5... Let's not scare anyone yet..." "Explain, please!" I asked Erin as Cara and Ami went jauntily inside. "What I said was that they use tables made by Stryker and most of the players inside spin their men to try to hit the ball. Although it works up a sweat, it's useless for accuracy, plus when the guys are spinning around, they won't be in position to block shots. We were taught to use the wrist snap like the pros but the really top-notch players can fan their shots... We're not THAT good, yet!" She confided. "So you've done this before?" Sherri asked. "Yeah, I was telling James how the French Gymnastics team taught us. Then last year, at Pan-Am's in Rio, we creamed everyone. After a while they'd all avoid us, so we worked out this scam to, well, kick their asses!" Erin laughed. "OK, show time! Watch the Peanut kick ass!" We worked our way inside and Cara and Ami were already in a game. "Close game!" I commented, it was 4-4. "Fishing!" Was Erin's comment. They lost the first game when Ami feigned clumsiness and knocked the ball back into her own goal. "You're such a klutz!" Cara screamed. "No fair!" "Oh, please let us play again?" Ami pleaded to their opponents, "Please!?" She sighed and batted her lashes. "That girl's wasting her talents in gymnastics, she should be in Hollywood!" Sherri laughed. At the urging of the collected spectators, Ami ante'd up her dollar and they were allowed another game. "No more Mr. Nice Guys!" They were warned. "We don't need any favors!" Cara shot back as the ball was dropped for the kick-off. "I thought you said not to spin the men!" I asked. "That's camouflage," Erin whispered, "Whoever's not controlling the ball makes a fuss to hide the other's action." Once I knew what to look for, I could appreciate the girls' skills. They were a sight to behold, totally cool and relaxed. They scored three clean goals using crisp wrist shots. Erin smiled, "Now you know what training hours at a time by swinging by your wrists can do for you!" The next two goals were scored by the other side when their wild shots caromed off the sides and managed to find its goal. "Cara gave them both of those, the last one for sure." Erin amplified. "Wait... This is Cara's favorite shot!" Amidst much shouting and giggling, Cara knocked the ball across her own goalmouth, then, with a screech, she 'accidentally' smacked it backwards. Fortunately she missed scoring on herself but the ball bounced off the back wall and flashed into her opponent's goal at the other end. "Oops!" She laughed, "Sorry! Does that count?" Grudgingly, she was allowed her point. "It's not an impossible shot to stop, but who'd expect it?" Erin grinned, "We won two games against the German boys with that!" If there was anyone still unsure that they'd been taken by a couple of ringers, there was absolutely no doubt after the next set of opponents was also soundly defeated. "Can I play?" Erin walked up and asked Cara, "Looks like fun!" "Oh, you can take my place." Cara smiled, "I'm getting tired anyways." She walked back to join us as a new team took an interest. They bought into the game and offered a side bet of $10.00. "Sure!" Ami accepted and promptly blasted a goal. The new players were much better than the others and even knew how to pass and block. After allowing two unanswered goals as she 'learned' the game, Erin managed to stop everything that came her way, then unerringly sent it to Ami's front lines. It was just a matter of time before another 2 of Ami's shots got through. Playing a lot more cautiously, the men placed their men directly in front of Ami whenever she was in a scoring position, effectively blocking her chances. Erin was getting impatient, "Shake a leg guys, you can't win by playing defensive all the time!" "But you can't score on us either, little girl!" "OK - how 'bout you put some money where your mouth is!" Erin glared at them, "Twenty bucks and the game says I'll sink the next shot!" "You're gonna stay on defense?" "Yep!" "Against the two of us?" "Yep!" "You're on! Thirty bucks says you cannot sink the next shot against us two!" "Hah!" As the boys watched intently Erin worked the ball between the rightmost two men on her 2 ranks of players, then she scooped the ball up with front one, so that it lodged in a crease on its 'knee'. With a deft flip of her wrist Erin lobbed it across the field into the open goal mouth. "Yes!" Cara cried, "The Mitchell Aerial kicks ass again!" To cheers and clapping, the girls collected their winnings and took a bow, leaving the group of boys mumbling and shaking their heads. "THAT, was an amazing shot!" Sara congratulated Erin. "Thanks! But the setup inside has the 3-men goalie row, which lets me align the ball much easier than the traditional European tables with a single goalie." "There are differences?" Sara asked. "Oh yeah - on the single goalie tables, they have to have returns in the corners to prevent dead zones, and that allows for finesse playing - where the player can find ways to move the ball around without letting their opponents a chance at it." "Yeah," Ami joined in, "You can be finessed to death! As it is you can bank pass from the three to the five without much interference, but on the Meisters, good players can roll the ball off the returns to the front without a chance at interception. Depressing as hell when you're still learning the game." She stopped , then grinned, "I like the US games, where you can really blast your shots!" "Yeah, that's why we call her 'Boom-Boom'!" Cara laughed. "And it's not the sound she makes while crashing to the mat!" Erin whispered. We passed by a storefront with pictures of people in periodic costumes posted on the front, along with a sign stating "Closed for Renovations". "Remember the one in Germany?" Erin laughed, then explained, "Every touristy place has these photo shops, and we went to get a picture. They had a background of a beautiful castle - on the Rhine, I guess, and we got to dress up in these frilly dresses." "But they put Cara in a Lederhosen." Ami said, "A man's outfit." She added. "So I could protect my little frauleins!" Cara said in a croaking growl. "And you were SO hot!" Erin giggled. "Yeah," Ami sighed, "Even the owner called you 'Fleischkuchen!'" "I'll show you beefcake!" Cara laughed and draped an arm across Ami's shoulders. She let her fingers graze a breast. "Eeek!" Ami ran behind Erin. "Oh! You pervert!" "Oh I'll show you pervert!" Cara advanced on them. "Is this practical training from Josh...?" Ami grinned and let her sentence hang. "I TOLD you not to...!" Cara closed the gap in a well executed leap and had Ami in a headlock, "But I'll be glad to teach you... My little liebling!" Ami was writhing and laughing uncontrollably as Cara held her and tickled her. "They do this often?" Sherri asked. "No - only every time they're together!" Erin laughed as she separated them, "Behave guys! Everyone's watching!" "Yeah, including Security!" Celeste's 'friend', the security guard had just come out of the closed store and was locking it. "Hi Officer!" I greeted him. "Hello Sir!" He looked at present company, then, "Where is your girlfriend, the blond?" "Ah, she had to go home - she has to work tomorrow." "So you found yourself five new girlfriends?" He grinned. "Hey, you never told me you had a girlfriend already!" Sherri crossed her arms and glared at me. "Just you, honey!" I smiled. "What about me?" Sara took my arm. "Er, you too!" "And me?" "Yeah what about me?" Ami and Cara sidled up. "Looks like I stirred up a hornet's nest here!" The grinning guard tipped his hat and took off quickly in the opposite direction. "It's a curse that no women can resist me!" I sighed to Erin. "Oops, I thought you were somebody else!" Sherri laughed and turned her back on me. "Yeah, mistaken identity." Ami and Cara went with her. "Hey, what about you?" Sherri looked at Sara. "I'm happy..." She smiled, clinging on my side, "Besides, I promised Celeste to look after him." "Yeah, you're right..." Sherri sighed and latched on my other side, "We DID promise!" "Are you serious?" Erin stared, "Does Jules know?" "Hmmm, of course!" Sara nodded, "She was there!" "Wow!" They looked at us, "This is freaky!" "First Todd, and Laura, and Kelly. Now my brother!" "Does everybody around here do this?" Ami looked intrigued. "Let's go for a boat ride and we'll tell you all about it..." Sherri suggested. For the next twenty minutes, as they climbed all over the boat shouting their delight, we sailed the boat out of the channel and dropped anchor in a sheltered cove. "OK, give!" Erin and the girls pulled me down on the rear cushion with Sherri. "We want to know everything!" Sara followed us but seated herself on the port rail with a fishing rod, "Don't mind me!" She grinned, "I've heard this before, and Sherri's 100% right - it sure sold me!" "Sold you! Hah!" Sherri laughed, "You were the one who TAUGHT me!" She stood and held Sara's face in her hands, turning it towards us, "Behind this gorgeous, innocent face lurks a brilliantly debauched mind!" She sighed, adding a kiss, "And I love her to pieces!" A moment of silence then, "Ohhhh!" as the realization sank in. "You mean, you... and Sara...?" Sherri sat and leaned her head on Sara's shoulder, "The first thing you have to remember is that we are friends, GOOD friends!" Sherri smiled softly, "Not like ones they put in quotes to mean something else. Maybe you know what I mean - friends who share so much that they TRUST each other implicitly; that they become an extensions of each other." She looked tenderly at Sara, "Someone whose happiness, and well-being, become a reason for YOUR happiness." "Yeah," Erin said slowly, looking at her friends, "I guess... Like how I feel about you guys." "Hey, no shit..." They hugged. "What about... the other stuff?" Ami asked. "It's no big deal," Sherri shrugged, "It's like taking a shower with a friend, and you help soap each other..." She giggled, "Kinda... But really, all you are trying to do is make the other person feel good." She looked at them earnestly, "Which means you don't do anything that may make the other person uncomfortable. Take your time - start with finding out about your own selves first, before trying it with others." "Yeah... I only wished I knew that... When..." Cara took a deep breath, and continued, "I met this boy - Josh, last year on my holidays, and I thought he was the coolest! He told me that everybody did it, and so..." She shook her head, "The worst thing is that I could still HEAR the turdball bragging to his friend..." "Hey, forget him!" Ami consoled, "He's gone, and we're here..." "We'll look after you honey..." Erin smiled. "You guys are too much. I love you!" "That's what friends are for!" With the setting sun, we returned to the condo with the 5 mid-sized sea bass and trouts they had caught. "Let's go get cleaned up and come back for a snack." I suggested. "Don't you ever make any plans that don't directly involve food?" Ami asked. We gave Erin and her friends the master bedroom on the main floor, so I took Sara and Sherri upstairs, hustling them into the smaller one. "Oh no!" Sherri whispered to Sara as they backed from me until they sat at the foot of the double bed. "Oh no!" Sara echoed her as I closed the door behind me, "And he's got that look too!" "Which look is that?" "The look that says you'd better do everything he says or he'll whup your skinny ass..." Sara said as she pushed her friend down and started yanking Sherri's shorts off. "What about YOUR skinny ass?" Sherri giggled, trying to stop Sara's hand running over her legs, alternating with tickling her and tugging at her clothing. "*I* don't have a skinny ass!" Sara informed her. "Your saucy ass, then!" Sherri laughed as she trapped Sara's hands between her thighs, grabbed Sara's top and pulled it up to her neck, leaning to bite and kiss her boobs, then following the slope to the bursting nipples at tip. Bonelessly Sara sank down on the bed, "Oh god! Oh, oh!" Sherri eased their heads together and they kissed, her hand still teasing Sara's bubbly flesh. "Mmmm, ahhh...!" Sara grunted as I kissed her belly button and pulled her shorts off, along with her shoes. Her gasping breath grew in intensity as my lips followed her trimmed brown hair down to the soft split of her sex. "U-uhhh... Uhh-aaah!" Sara sighed as I dipped my tongue and tasted her sweetness, her legs churning and writhing against me. I draped them over my arms as I knelt, further opening her womanhood, slick now and throbbing with need. Lovingly I bent with lips and hands to worship and offer her pleasure. "Ohhh! Yeah!" She grunted as her legs clutched my shoulders in a shivering orgasm. Her fingers loosened their grip on my hair and joined Sherri's in caressing me, "Oh my lover... My lovers..." We only had time for an abbreviated shower before Erin yelled up that they were ready. "That was fast!" Sherri smiled as we met in the kitchen, "Did you all take a shower together?" "Not me!" Erin laughed, pointing, "But these two..." Ami and Cara blushed. There was a pot of soup in the fridge. "Mom's seafood bisque," Sara declared after a look and a sniff, "Only she uses basil and ginger, and a whole tomato in a cream soup." We heated it up as we filleted the fish. As the fish was cooked on the BBQ, we sat at the table in the patio, enjoying the cool evening and watching the stars appear in the sky. "We'll be working on the boat tomorrow, and the testing will be from eleven on," Sara informed the girls, "Then we're going to Treasure Island for a picnic." "Treasure Island?" "It's officially called Drake's Island," I explained, "A tiny island in the ocean about half an hour by boat from here. And it's got a secret bay that Sherri discovered." "Wow, that's so cool! Like a pirate story!" "And next to it there's a tiny island that only appears at low tide for a few hours." "Is there a place I can get a swimsuit?" Ami asked, "I didn't bring one." "I'm sure you can find something at the store." Sherri offered, "I'll show you where tomorrow." We cleaned up and made hot chocolates for everyone. "We'll have to go to bed soon, "I said, "Just come down to the marina tomorrow whenever you get up. We'll be there." "And I've let the trap down so we can have crabmeat omelet tomorrow." Sara said. "Hmmm, is it good?" Sherri asked. "Is it good? YOU made it last time!" Sara cried. "I know, but I wasn't sure how it tasted," Sherri grinned, "If you remember I'd just eaten something far tastier!" She licked her lips suggestively, then ran laughing into the house as a blushing Sara leapt at her. "That's disgusting!" Erin snorted. "Yeah..." Ami stared at their backs with glowing eyes, then at me, "Isn't it?" "Some people think so," I shrugged non-committally, "But then some people feel that way about kissing too." "So you're saying it's OK for them to do it." Cara looked at me, "That it's OK for us to do it too?" "All I'm saying is that YOU have to decide whether it's something you'd want to do!" "How do I know if I don't try it?" "Usually, if you're not sure, it's best to wait..." "Till when?" "Till you're sure." I stopped her answer and continued, "Some things can't be rushed... Cara, you should know that better than any one! Think about Josh!" "Yeah..." She fidgeted, "But it'll be different... I know it!" "Part of growing up is the need to feel that we are masters of our own fate. But part of that process too is to learn to tell if you're doing something in order to 'belong'." I looked at her, "Because 'everybody did it'." "Yeah, but our coaches were always telling us to push ourselves to the next level!" Ami blurted. "And you should! But bear in mind that they're THERE, to guide you, and to make sure you don't bite off any more than you can handle!" I paused, "But have you asked yourself WHY you push yourself so hard?" "To improve... To get better...?" "So that you can 'belong', right?" I prompted. "Huh?" "Think about the Tkatchev - you NEEDED it to qualify for National Elite, right?" "Yeah..." "So the motivation was, again, to 'belong'." "And that's bad?" "No - that's why you have to be able to tell the difference! Is this what I really want? Is the price worth it?" I took Cara's hand, "Was YOUR price worth it?" "Of course, I was National..." She stopped, then, "Ohhh! You mean Josh..." I nodded, "In hindsight, would it have been better to wait a bit first?" "Yeah," She shook her head, "Afterwards he was like a totally different person! What a jerk!" "That IS behind you now," I said soothingly, "Except for the lesson that you can share with your friends: that whatever physical discomfort you went through is nothing compared to the hurt in your soul when such things are treated callously." I squeezed her hand. "...but there is immense joy too when it is shared with love and genuine caring..." Sherri said softly from the doorway where she and Sara had been listening in, nestled in each other's arms. She came forward and took my hand, "And, when the time is right, you WILL find it." ============= (C) Copyright 2003. M.C. All Rights Reserved. All Reproduction for fee or profit forbidden. Copies of my stories can be downloaded from: </files/Authors/MikeC/> What do you think of the story? Send comments and suggestions to MikeC@NSpace.net